Hong Kong: Citizens should abide by law: CS

Chief Secretary John Lee today said it is the duty of law enforcement departments to take action against people who contravene the law and called on citizens to help develop Hong Kong into a law-abiding city.

Responding to media questions about Polices arrest of four University of Hong Kong students on suspicion of advocating terrorism, Mr Lee explained the principle behind the operation.

It is important that we Hong Kong people continue to develop a law-abiding culture, and that is the minimum attitude that a citizen should have in order to ensure that we have a lovely city to live in.

It is a clear policy of the Government that whoever contravenes the law, then law enforcement departments must act and take action accordingly.

He emphasised that in order to develop a law-abiding culture in Hong Kong, it is paramount for everyone to exercise their rights and freedoms within the law.

It is important that we realise that when we do what we want, it has to be within the confines of the law. If we comply with the law, then everybody can go about their duties as freely and as comfortably as they may wish.

But it is important (that) we all build such a society. So it is important that we develop the law-abiding culture which at some stage has been destroyed by the violence since 2019.

At this time, when we have to rectify the incorrectness, we must ensure that this principle of being a law-abiding citizen is a fundamental cornerstone for a city to be stable and (to) prosper.

This story has been published on: 2021-08-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: R340 million funding for SA businesses

Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel has announced the new JP Morgan funding facility to the tune of R342 million for South African businesses, under the Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP) to boost the industrial and green economy sectors.

The boost to manufacturing in particular is timely as one of the key lessons of the COVID-19 period has been the value of having domestic industrial capabilities, Minister Patel said on Tuesday.

Making the announcement, Patel said JP Morgan becomes the first international investment bank to undertake an EEIP programme alongside government through the R340 million commitment. This is in grants and loans that has been projected by JP Morgan to unlock and up to R2 billion in capital or financing for short, medium- and long-term funding over an eight-year period.

Patel explained that the funding is intended to support small and medium-sized businesses in sectors of significant public importance, ranging from transactions in the green economy to funding for firms with manufacturing operations.

South Africa needs more jobs for young people and deeper levels of industrialisation. This transaction will give a boost to the countrys localisation efforts, creating employment and helping to strengthen economic output.

I welcome the commitment to the creation of 1 000 new jobs and the focus on supporting a segment of the market that is not adequately served by the financial system, he said.

The Minister said the funding will facilitate an injection into the South African economy aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who face critical funding challenges or who might not meet the traditional underwriting criteria of the commercial banks.

The terms on which this funding will be extended is concessional and includes limited security requirements and loan repayment holidays that respond to the life stage of the enterprises supported and the operational challenges they might face.

In this regard, it is intended to be responsive funding. Responsive to the demand challenges the OECD flags in its scorecard on SME financing in South Africa, Patel said.

Generating jobs

Patel said the support to more than 500 businesses that the Fund is targeting is intended to generate more than 1000 jobs, the bulk of which will come from the green and industrial sectors of the economy.

The sum committed by JP Morgan is equivalent to the calculated cost of financing an equity holding of 22% by black South Africans in the local operations of JP Morgan, based on a modeling exercise undertaken by the parties, the Minister said.

He said recent unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, is indicative of the challenges that remain.

Many of the affected firms, especially the small and medium sized firms, are the typical candidates who would benefit from the Abadali EEIP.

Grants

J.P. Morgan has already committed and made the funds available to the Abadali EEIP, which will allow for applications to be accepted immediately.

The Abadali Grant will also extend grants of R40 million towards developing black enterprises into sustainable and successful businesses with a focus on supporting entrepreneurship, and advancing jobs and skills for in-demand sectors like the digital and the green economy.

Medium-to long-term finance will be offered at significantly subsidised rates to businesses with revenue starting from R1 million that require funding for two to five years.

The eligible, selected businesses will be majority black owned and managed enterprises with a track record of at least 12 months of trading.

The Ministry, alongside our counterparts in the Department of Small Business Development and our funding agencies, will have more to say in the period ahead about the funding measures in response to the unrest.

We remain committed to ensuring that we support the rebuilding and restoration efforts of firms in these affected areas and will ensure that support is readily available to assist in these reconstruction efforts, Patel said.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: De Lille to assess N3 road upgrade progress

Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) Minister Patricia de Lille will on Thursday conduct an oversight visit to the N3 interchange road upgrade infrastructure project in KwaZulu-Natal.

The project was gazetted as a Strategic Integrated Project (SIP) in terms of the Infrastructure Development Act in July 2020.

She will visit the site in line with her duties as DPWI Minister and Chairperson of the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission (PICC) Secretariat.

The oversight visit forms part of Minister de Lilles duties to monitor progress of the 62 projects which were gazetted as SIPs as part of the Infrastructure Investment Plan approved by Cabinet on 27 May 2020.

Many of the gazetted projects are currently in construction and are being expedited to assist in reviving the struggling construction sector and provide much-needed jobs to people.

The N3 road upgrade project is being implemented by the South African National Roads Agency and the Department of Transport.

The project falls within the uMgungundlovu District Municipality, Mkhambathini Local Municipality and eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

The venture will see much needed road expansion and upgrades to the N3 between Cato Ridge and Dardanelles and the N3 between Dardanelles and Lynnfield.

Over R3 billion allocated toward the upgrades

The department said the upgrades to the two sections of road amounts to over R3.2billion.

Since the start of the construction phase earlier this year, around 485 jobs have been created with hundreds more to be created over the entire construction phase. The project has also brought significant benefit to local SMMEs (Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises) helping to assist in creating economic opportunities for companies and creating much needed jobs, the department said on Wednesday.

The N3 is integral to the economic growth of South Africa. A growing South African population has placed this strategic corridor under severe pressure, requiring substantial upgrading to portions of the corridor.

The corridor, also referred to as the Durban-Free State-Gauteng Corridor, is a key infrastructure development project.

The project entails upgrading the existing four-lane dual carriageway to an eight-lane dual carriageway by widening it to the median and outer shoulders over a distance of 6.4km.

A road-over-rail bridge will also be extended to accommodate the widening of the N3. The upgrade will increase safety and significantly improve the level of service for years to come.

The direct economic benefits of the upgrades are a reduction in travel times, a reduction in vehicle operating costs and a reduction in accidents costs, all of which have great benefit to the economy at large. There are also indirect economic benefits that will accrue to the local areas.

The upgrade to the N3 is expected to alleviate congestion on roads around the port and on the crucial N3 corridor linking the port of Durban to Gauteng. The upgrades will also shorten turnaround times for freight-carrying vehicles.

This project has brought to life the objectives of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in October 2020, which aims to assist industries to recover from the tough economic climate and see all sectors working together to help build South Africa back better.

De Lille and her delegation, which includes Head of Infrastructure Investment in the Presidency, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, will engage the project managers, workers and SMMEs on site to view and listen to the progress on the project, which will have a significant and positive impact for the province, its people and businesses.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: FSCA gets new Deputy Commissioners

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has appointed Farzana Badat and Katherine Gibson as Deputy Commissioners of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).

The appointments, which were done in terms of section 61(2), read with section 63(1) of the Financial Sector Regulation Act No. 9 of 2017 (FSR Act), are for a period of five years and are effective from the dates of assumption of duty.

The Minister has considered and accepted the recommendations of the Shortlisting Panel that was established to select and recommend candidates for appointment as Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners of the FSCA to the Minister, the Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday.

The appointment of Badat and Gibson follows on the appointment of Unathi Kamlana as the Commissioner, and Astrid Ludin as one of the Deputy Commissioners of the FSCA by the former Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, as announced on 22 April 20211.

Both Kamlana and Ludin assumed duty on 1 June 2021.

Badat is currently based in Switzerland, where she is working as a Senior Policy Advisor at the International Association for Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), responsible for conduct risk, financial technology and digital transformation.

She has previously worked as Divisional Executive for Conduct of Business Supervision at the FSCA and its predecessor, the Financial Services Board. Badat holds a Bachelor of Laws degree (summa cum laude) from the then University of Natal-Durban (now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal), and a Master of Laws degree in International Law from the University of Michigan Law School (USA), the Ministry said.

Gibson has been a member of the Transitional Management Committee (TMC) of the FSCA since the establishment of the FSCA on 1 April 2018.

She has previously worked at National Treasury, as part of the team that spearheaded the Twin Peaks reform process, including the FSR Act.

Gibson holds a Master of Commerce Economics degree (cum laude), a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), Economics degree (cum laude) and a Bachelor of Commerce degree, all obtained from the then University of Durban (now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal).

In terms of the tegulations, the Minister is empowered to disestablish the Transitional Management Committee (TMC), which has been performing the role of the FSCA Executive Committee during the transitional period, which disestablishment is required to be done when the Commissioner and at least two Deputy Commissioners have been appointed.

Given that the Commissioner and three Deputy Commissioners have been appointed, the Minister will gazette a notice for the disestablishment of the TMC, to be effective from 30 September 2021, the Ministry said.

The Minister has thanked Badat and Gibson for accepting the appointment.

The Minister wishes the new FSCA Executive Committee, under the leadership of Commissioner Kamlana with Deputy Commissioners Ludin, Badat and Gibson, all the best in ensuring that the FSCA will successfully execute its mandate of protecting financial sector customers through their fair treatment by financial institutions, the Minister said.

The report of the Shortlisting Panel to the Minister can be found on: http://www.treasury.gov.za/comm_media/press/2021/Annexure%20B%20-%20Report%20of%20the%20FSCA%20Shortlisting%20Panel%20to%20the%20Minister%20of%20Finance_Final[1][1].pdf

 SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: At least R170 million paid in Marikana reparations

Since August 2018, government has paid out at least R170 million in damages to families of those who lost loved ones and those who were injured during the 2012 Marikana tragedy.

This is according to Solicitor General Fhedzisani Pandelani who provided an update on the Marikana reparations that government is undertaking.

Pandelani says government has been negotiating with and compensating families through five legal representatives for claims for loss of support, emotional shock and suffering, unlawful arrests and detentions and personal injuries.

At least R72 million was paid over to families through the Wits Law Clinic and the Socio Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) for loss of support.

The matter that we settled with Wits was the R3 995 121 and as I have already indicated, we dont have any outstanding matters that are being handled by the Wits Law Clinic. In relation to matters that SERI dealt withthe quantum of the amount that has been paid to date is R69 083 005, Pandelani said on Wednesday.

The Solicitor General added that as well as these payments, government offered to pay further general and constitutional damages to the families amounting to at least R18 million overall, which SERI rejected.

General and constitutional damages is not something that is easy to quantify but we needed to be reasonable under the circumstances and to the extent necessary, we believe as the state that we needed to approach this matter with some degree of humanity.

Without prejudice, we then said we are prepared as government to pay all the claimants that were represented by the claimants by the Socio Economic Rights Institute, an additional R500 000 (each), he said.

The claims for general and constitutional damages is now expected to go before court.

Pandelani revealed that governments biggest settlement amounts to more than R97 million for 253 claimants represented by Nkome Attorneys for unlawful arrests and detentions and personal injuries as well as malicious prosecution.

He added however, that 22 other claims by Nkome Attorneys are still outstanding.

We are in fact in negotiations in relation to the 11 claimants that remain to constitute the number 275 and in relation to the other 11, there are other outstanding issues that have not been resolved between us but we are willing to engage with them, he said.

Settlements

Some of those who suffered injuries during the tragedy, represented by Maluleke Msimang Attorneys, have been offered a settlement.

We are negotiating with the colleagues because we believe that if we were to wait for the outcome of court processes that may be another lengthy period. So we are invoking a combination of both alternative dispute resolution so that we can bring these matters to settle as soon as possible, he said.

At least 27 others  represented by Tlhatlha Attorneys  who were injured or assaulted during the tragedy have also submitted claims and government is currently negotiating with them for a settlement.

We wait ready to engage all the representatives of the claimants that have lodged claims against us. Those that passed away, all of them, we have in fact settled those matters.

Those that are still alive we are requesting that we need to be ramping us issues of settlement. All these matters are centralised in one office. A directive has been issued to the head office of the State Attorney in Pretoria to make sure that these matters are finalised as soon as possible, he said.

Pandelani has urged those families that may require further information regarding their claims to approach the office of the State Attorney in Pretoria.

[If] any of the claimants, even those that we might have paid, is now alluding to the fact that they are not being taken care of or they have not received anything it might actually be proper for them to approach the office of the state attorney in Pretoria to verify the facts, he said.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: SADC elects new leadership

The 41st Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has elected President of the Republic of Malawi, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, as Chairperson of SADC, and President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo as the incoming Chairperson of SADC.

The Summit also elected President Cyril Ramaphosa as Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, and President of the Republic Namibia Dr Hage G. Geingob, as incoming Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

Held in in Lilongwe, the capital city of the Republic of Malawi, the Summit, which was held on Tuesday and Wednesday, approved the appointment of Elias Mpedi Magosi as the new Executive Secretary of SADC.

The Summit commended the people and the Government of the Republic of Zambia, for conducting successful elections, and congratulated Hakainde Hichilema for winning the elections. The Summit thanked Edgar Chagwa Lungu for his leadership and contribution to SADC development and integration during his tenure as President of Zambia and for nobly accepting the results of the 2021 Presidential elections in the Republic of Zambia, SADC said.

The Summit received a report of the Outgoing Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, President of the Republic of Botswana.

He was commended for his outstanding leadership and continued efforts to address peace and security threats during the year, notwithstanding challenges posed by COVID-19.

The Summit endorsed an Action Plan for the implementation of Security Threats Report, and urged Member States to implement interventions contained in the Plan.

The Summit received a progress report from the SADC Facilitator to the Kingdom of Lesotho, President Ramaphosa on the implementation of SADC decisions in the Kingdom of Lesotho. It also commended the Kingdom of Lesotho for progress made in implementing SADC decisions and ongoing reforms.

The Summit also urged the Kingdom of Lesotho to expedite completion of the ongoing reforms, and to continue with peace, transitional justice and reconciliation process to engender national unity, and bring about national healing and cohesion.

The Summit recommended an extension of the mandate of the National Reform Authority for a period of six months, from 30th October 2021 to 30th April 2022.

The Summit commended the SADC Facilitator to the Kingdom of Lesotho President Ramaphosa, for his dedication and continued facilitation, and extended his mandate as the SADC Facilitator until the 42nd Summit of Heads of State and Government.

"The Summit received updates on the Security Situation in Cabo Delgado Province, in Northern part of the Republic of Mozambique, and commended SADC Member States for pledging personnel and providing financial support towards the deployment of SADC Standby Force to Mozambique. The Summit commended the United Republic of Tanzania for offering to host the Regional Counter Terrorism Centre, which will offer dedicated and strategic advisory services to the Region on terrorism threats.

The Summit reaffirmed SADCs position that the creation of the SADC Central Bank and Monetary Union, as a long-term objective to be premised on fulfilling preconditions that include, the harmonisation of the fiscal and monetary policies of SADC countries, and greater convergence of banking systems. In this regard, the African Monetary Institute and the African Central Bank should, be long-term objectives, SADC said. SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-08-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: All systems go for election of National Assembly Speaker

Its all systems go for the crucial special sitting of the National Assembly (NA) to elect the new Speaker on Thursday.

The incumbent will replace former Speaker Thandi Modise, who held the position since 2019, following the sixth democratic elections.

Parliament's spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo, said the election of the new Speaker will take place at 11am.

As provided for in the Constitution, the Chief Justice or a designated Judge must preside over the election of the NA Speaker. Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has designated Judge President John Hlophe of the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa to preside over this special sitting. The Acting Chief Justice has also approved rules for the election process, Mothapo said on Wednesday.

Mothapo said in light of the required COVID-19 health and safety protocols, the sitting will happen in two venues in the NA building, including the NA Chamber and Committee Room E249. There will be a live link between the two venues.

There will be 166 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Members seats on the floor of the NA Chamber, 127 in the NA Public Gallery, 24 in the Officials' Bay and 92 in the E249 Committee Room. At the start of the proceedings, Judge President John Hlophe will open the sitting and then call for nominations for the position of Speaker from amongst the Members of the NA.

If there is more than one nomination, Judge Hlophe will call for the voting process to be conducted by a way of a secret ballot. Although the sitting is divided into four areas, the floor of the NA Chamber will serve as the voting station. Four voting booths have been arranged to enable four Members at a time to cast their votes, Mothapo explained.

He said the entire voting process is expected to last for about four hours, with at least one hour dedicated to counting the votes.

As soon as the voting is completed, Judge Hlophe will suspend proceedings to allow for counting of the votes. Officials of Parliament, designated as the Returning Officer and Assistant Returning Officers, will remove the ballot boxes and all papers from the NA Chamber to a room to be counted.

The votes will be counted in Judge Hlophes presence, and only he and the designated returning officer and assistants to the returning officer may be present in the room. Once the votes have been counted, the returning officer must report to Judge Hlophe, informing him of the result of the counting of the votes. On receiving this report, the House will reconvene and Judge Hlophe will announce the result of the election, Mothapo said.

He said the Returning Officer must retain the nomination papers, the used ballot papers and their counterfoils in a sealed packet for at least one year.

The sealed packet may not be opened except by order of a court. After Judge Hlophe announces the outcome of the secret ballot in the sitting, the duly elected Speaker will immediately take over the Presiding chair and address the House.

To read the rules for the election in full, please click: https://tinyurl.com/3mf7a6t3

Mothapo said preparations are also in place to ensure the safety of MPs and officials, in compliance with COVID-19 regulations.

Screening points have been arranged at various entrances of Parliament to ensure swift access, he said.

NA Speakers responsibilities

In terms of Rules of the House, the NA Speaker has the responsibility of providing political leadership and strategic direction to the NA and to exercise impartiality in carrying out these duties.

The NA, as the Constitution specifies, is elected to represent the people and to ensure government by the people under the Constitution. The NA does this by choosing the President, by providing a national forum for public consideration of issues, by passing legislation and by scrutinising and overseeing executive action.

The Speaker may also become Acting President, in terms of the Constitution. This may happen if the President is out of the country or is otherwise unable to fulfil the duties of President, or during a vacancy in the office of President.

Then, an office bearer in the following order may be designated to act as President: the Deputy President; a Minister designated by the President; a Minister who other members of the Cabinet designate; the Speaker of the NA  until the NA designates one of its other members.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-08-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: Sugar industry reiterates commitment to transformation

South African Sugar Association (SASA) Vice Chairperson, Joanmariae Fubbs, has commended the organisation for recognising the need to promote diversity by availing more land for black farmers in the industry.

SASA has been able to transform more than 21% of free owned land on the sugarcane from white farmers to black farmers without a shot being fired, Fubbs said.

Fubbs was speaking at the Women in Leadership webinar, hosted by Proudly South African on Wednesday.

As part of its Womens Month celebrations, Proudly South African will hosting a series of four Women in Leadership webinars throughout August, focusing on industries that have Sectoral Master Plans dedicated to them.

The master plans have targeted specific action points relating to the respective industries, but there are also generic objectives, including a change in ownership and production patterns within each sector. The master plans aim to increase localisation, which will lead to re-industrialisation and growth, as well as to reclaim domestic markets lost to imports.

The clothing and textile sector, automotive industry, sugar, and creative arts sectors have been identified by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) as worthy of particular attention for their job creation potential.

Empowering women to take their rightful place

Fubbs said SASA has shifted its focus to women empowerment, compared to more than 20 years ago.

{SASA] has focused on empowering women to take their rightful place alongside their brothers in the sugar industry, from being farm managers, farm owners, to actually being on the financial and administration side of SASA.

SASA has done so much for the milling companies by encouraging the ownership of black people in the industry. SASA also has a training establishment which provides training in the agricultural fields.

People in the sugar industry [largely rural poor areas] are able to get bursaries, where they can go right up to get their doctorates. I was amazed to see how many women were pursuing a career in the agricultural industry and enjoying it, Fubbs said.

She noted that SASA is also contributing to and supporting the energy sector through the production of ethanol.

While people often associate sugar to obesity, Fubbs said the product has benefits when consumed in the right quantity.

The danger is, if industries such as the sugar industry have to close down, you will get ghost villages and towns in South Africa. SASA is determined to transform the profile of the industry from 100% white to assisting black sugarcane farmers, especially sugarcane farmers, Fubbs said.

Consumer education

Nutrition Health and Wellness and Nestle Nutrition Institute Africa (NNIA) Manager, Anne-Marie De Beer, said Nestle works very hard to help consumers make good decisions when it comes nutrition.

What is important is to understand that we all enjoy food and it is very much part of what we do. When it comes to confectionery, our business is to provide guidance on product development, and encourage consumers to look at what they eat, De Beer said.

She said Nestle also has consumer campaigns regarding confectionery.

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) Procurement Transformation Head, Busi Thusi, said the company is committed to true transformation, and that almost 80% of the sugar they use is procured locally.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-08-18. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: UAE says it's hosting Afghan ex-president

The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that it is hosting former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani "on humanitarian grounds", after he fled his country amid a Taliban takeover.

Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday as the Taliban closed in on Kabul, before the insurgents walked into the Afghan capital unopposed.

"The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds," it said in a brief statement.

In a Facebook post, Ghani said the "Taliban have won" and that he fled to avoid a "flood of bloodshed".

His whereabouts were unknown until Wednesday, with speculation that he had fled to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan or Oman.

This would not be the first time that the oil-rich Gulf country opens its arms to former leaders and their relatives, now persona non grata in their country.

In 2017, the emirate of Dubai hosted former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.

Spain's king Juan Carlos went into self-exile in the UAE in August last year as questions mounted over the origins of his fortune, and the UAE was Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's home during her eight years in exile before she was assassinated in her home country in 2007.

The UAE is one of three nations, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which recognised the previous Taliban regime, which ruled from 1996 to 2001. (AFP)

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South Africa: COVID-19 vaccines safe to use: SAHPRA

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and the National Immunisation Safety Expert Committee have reassured the public that both the Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are safe to use.

Both vaccines were subjected to rigorous requirements, where clinical trials were performed to demonstrate their safety before being cleared for usage in the country.

National Immunisation Safety Expert Committee member, Professor Hannelie Meyer, on Wednesday said data currently suggests that less than 10% of those who get vaccinated will experience adverse events like headaches, fever and chills.

[These] dont pose a potential risk to the person and its part of the bodys immune response. Its also important to note that its not the same in all people. These events are mild. They happen within the first couple of hours  and they hardly ever need any management, Meyer said.

She said although certain adverse events are more common, if these symptoms exceed a certain period of time, medical help should be sought.

You should not assume that all reactions are linked to the vaccine. We are now vaccinating millions of people and there are many other diseases. So you could be incubating another disease at the same time that you are vaccinated.

[But] if these minor events dont subside within the first two to three days or if they become more severe, or if there is something out of the ordinary that you are concerned about within the 30 days after vaccination, then you do need to seek medical assistance, Meyer said.

SAHPRAs Vigilance Manager Mafora Matlala said even as vaccines are being administered, the authority continues to monitor any reports on the vaccines.

We continuously review international literature, safety databases and any regulatory decisions made elsewhere. For instance, the FDA [USA Food and Drug Administration agency] in April identified some thrombosis issues and that was communicated in South Africa, and we put the roll-out on hold because of safety concerns. Then we further reviewed the safety of the product and found that the benefit-risk profile was still favourable, Matlala said.

Matlala said there is more to gain from receiving the jab than there is to lose from not doing so.

When we look at the adverse events that we have received so far in the system, they are quite few, with just over 2 000, compared to the doses that have been administered so far, which is about 9.5 million as of [Tuesday] The benefits of these vaccines actually do outweigh the risks that may be out there, she said.

She has encouraged South Africans to download the SAHPRA Med Safety smartphone application to keep up to date with medical safety news.

The authority is expected to launch a microsite on Friday, where more information on adverse events can be accessed. - SAnews.gov.za

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NEWS PROVIDED BY

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Aug. 18, 2021

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue (photo) comments on MSNBC's latest attack on Christians:

Twice in one week, senior pundits at MSNBC have compared Christians to the Taliban.

On August 14, MSNBC host Joy Reid, speaking of the Taliban, tweeted that "our own far religious right" is "dreaming of a theocracy that would impose a particular brand of Christianity" on American society.

On August 18, the lead story on MSNBC's website, written by Dan Obeidallah, picks up on the comparison by criticizing Republicans who cling to "a narrow reading of their religious beliefs," noting that they want to make their "religious beliefs into the law of the land."

In both cases, the MSNBC pundits claimed that Christians are, just like the Taliban, against women's rights. (They couldn't have been thinking about Andrew Cuomo because the "former altar boy" is a Democrat.)

Reid accused Christians of wanting to "drive women from the workforce and solely into childbirth, and control all politics." What a plainly stupid remark. Perhaps she can explain why a record number of Republican women35 of themwere recently elected to the Congress. They are all Christians.

Obeidallah cites three issues to prove that Christians are Taliban-like creatures: their opposition to abortion; their opposition to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act; and their opposition to the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Regarding abortion, Christians are committed to protecting the life of unborn babies. The Taliban are known to kill pregnant women such as Masooma, who was dragged out of her house in 2019, taken to a Taliban court, shot dead, and had her corpse, and that of her baby, thrown into an open field. Her crime? She criticized the Taliban for committing atrocities.

Christian Republicans opposed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because it redefined "domestic violence" to mean wholly non-violent acts such as "verbal" and "emotional" abuse. If that is the standard, then we will have to restock all the prisons recently emptied by Democrats.

Women earn less than men, in general, because they are more likely not to work in dangerous jobs, are more likely to work part-time, are more likely to turn down overtime, and are more likely to turn down promotions, all of which reflect women's choices and have nothing to do with discrimination. Hence, new laws are window-dressing ploys.

Now how about the way the Taliban treat women? Here's a quick sample.

Women are imprisoned in their home

Girls are beaten for wearing white shoes

Girls are not allowed to be educated after the age of eight

Girls are only allowed to read the Qur'an

Women are not allowed to speak loudly in public

Pictures of women are banned from all media outlets

Women are not allowed to appear on the balconies of their apartments

Last month, it was reported that the Taliban were ordering imams and mullahs in the Middle East to provide them with a list of girls above 15, and widows under 45, to be married to Taliban fighters. They are then treated as sex slaves.

Now there are reports that this is already happening in Afghanistan as the Taliban are going "door-to-door" looking for girls as young as 12 to become "sex slaves."

Those who compare conservative Christians to the Taliban evince an extreme anti-Christian bigotry while denigrating the condition of women who are forced to live under Taliban rule. The comparison is obscene. So is MSNBC for giving these bigots a platform.
International community resists politicizing COVID-19 origin tracing and seeks cooperation in pandemic fight

14:05, August 18, 2021 By Qin Chuan ( People's Daily Online

While turning a blind eye to the authoritative and science-based results of the report of the World Health Organization (WHO) on a joint study conducted with China on tracing the origins of COVID-19, the United States and a few other countries have recently continued to hype up the so-called lab leak theory and politicize the virus origin-tracing process.

At a crucial moment in the worlds joint battle against the raging pandemic, the US, however, once again has spread its political virus and has gone about exhausting all the possibilities it can muster to smear China, a move that has severely disrupted global efforts in anti-pandemic cooperation.

The lab leak theory is a conspiracy that has been hatched by the US. On July 7 this year, over 20 experts from various countries published a preliminary report of their findings on Zenodo, a European platform for scientific data sharing, pointing out that there is no evidence that the early cases were connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in any way.

A few days earlier, on July 5, 24 world-renowned experts, including doctors, epidemiologists, virologists, biologists, ecologists and public health experts, published a joint statement in a British peer-reviewed general medical journal, The Lancet, in which they stressed that there has been no scientific evidence to support the so-called lab leak theory. Recent peer-reviewed studies strongly suggest that COVID-19 has a natural origin.

Against such a backdrop, why has the US chosen to hype the theory that the novel coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab while clamoring for a second-phase plan into the origin of the coronavirus in China?

Alexander Semyonov, a leading Russian virologist and head of the Yekaterinburg branch of the State Research Center of the Virology and Biotechnology Vector Institute, recently slammed the hyping of the lab leak theory by the US as an attempt to falsely place blame on China. He said that the continued US accusations that a Chinese lab was the source of the coronavirus was being completely driven by politics; and, that it was pure fantasy to think that a coronavirus could be created using artificial methods.

On the issue of origin tracing, China has always upheld a spirit of openness, transparency, science and cooperation. Earlier this year, a joint expert team comprising leading experts from 10 countries, including the US, the UK, Japan and Australia, conducted a 28-day joint research project in China together with their Chinese counterparts. On March 30, the WHO issued its report on the joint research effort, clarifying that a lab leakage was extremely unlikely. The formulation of this report follows WHO procedures and adopts a scientific approach. The report has been widely recognized and has garnered the respect of the international community. Chinas open and transparent attitude on tracing the origins of the virus has also been fully recognized by international experts.

As a matter of fact, it is the universal consensus of the international community to reject any political manipulation of the issue of origin tracing.

On June 27, the Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement opposing the politicization of COVID-19 origin tracing and supporting Chinas position on the issue. The Syrian side said that certain countries including the US have recently taken provocative acts of politicizing the issue, openly negated the results of the joint WHO-China study report, challenged the authority of international scientists, asked intelligence agencies to investigate the coronavirus origins, and exerted political pressure on the WHO. With these actions, they used virus origin tracing as a tool to launch political attacks against other countries, especially China. These actions have severely disrupted the basic laws and atmosphere for conducting scientific research, hindered global anti-virus efforts, and intensified political confrontation and division.

South Africas ruling party, the African National Congress, recently tweeted that it supported scientific-based enquiries into the origin tracing of the COVID19 pandemic, and called for global cooperation while decrying the politicization of such investigations. It said that high-income countries have resorted to vaccine nationalism and have created a kind of vaccine apartheid, resulting in increased numbers and rates of morbidities and mortalities in the developing world and a degradation of economic development leading to increased poverty and inequality.

On Aug. 2, over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from 100-plus countries and regions around the world submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, calling on the WHO to conduct its study on COVID-19 origin tracing objectively and fairly, and firmly opposed the politicization of origin tracing.

Its obvious to all that treating the origin tracing of the virus as a serious issue of science and getting rid of political interference represents the will of the international community.

The question now is when will the US respond to the international communitys questions about Fort Detrick, clear the suspicions over its 200 plus biological laboratories situated around the world, and invite the WHO to conduct investigations in the country as China has done?

Politicizing the COVID-19 origin-tracing process will neither help to promote scientific research or the discovery of the truth, nor contribute to global efforts towards anti-pandemic cooperation. The international community should join hands to ensure science-based and serious origin-tracing research, oppose politicizing origin tracing, and promote global cooperation in the fight against the virus so as to prevent similar epidemics in the future.

Related:

Chinas open and transparent approach says no to US politicization of virus origin tracing

Unscientific and nonsensical US political manipulation of COVID-19 origin tracing gains no support

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Filipino, Malaysian scholars join intl chorus of urging US open Fort Detrick for virus probe

Global Times) 14:20, August 18, 2021

Filipino scholar to present latest petition to WHO

A month after an online petition in China demanded that the WHO investigate the US' Fort Detrick lab for the origins of the novel coronavirus, which gained over 25 million signatures online and inspired people in the Philippines, Australia, Malaysia and South Korea to call on the US to "open its door" for a thorough probe, Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the US on Tuesday to respond to doubts raised by the international community as soon as possible.

The petition was drafted by a group of netizens and entrusted to the Global Times on July 17 as a response from the Chinese public to US politicization of the COVID-19 origins tracing. It concluded on August 6 after garnering 25 million signatures. The petition was considered the loudest call from the Chinese public on the probe into Fort Detrick, when the US ramped up its information war against China on COVID-19 origins tracing to serve its intelligence-led 90-day investigation on the matter.

The public call has been echoed by more countries and experts as well as groups around the world.

A South Korean civic group has sued the Fort Detrick biological laboratory and the US Forces Korea (USFK) over the smuggled toxic substances to US military bases in South Korea in violation of domestic law, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Kim Hyun-joong, chairman of the Korea Fire Safety Education Culture Association, filed a complaint with a court in the country's southeast city of Busan against the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and the USFK commander Paul LaCamera.

It claimed that the USFK and the Fort Detrick biolab violated South Korean law and imported toxic substances into the country three times between 2017 and 2019.

It came after Filipino political commentator Herman Laurel launched a similar online petition earlier this month to break the silence around the dubious lab, with more ASEAN members expected to join.

"We already have signatures from Malaysia and Australia. We are planning a media forum to announce our visit to the local office of the WHO to follow up our petition," he said, noting that he hopes delivering a letter of request by Friday next week at the latest.

Laurel wrote in his column for the Global Times earlier that he "thought of the thousands of Filipinos who agree that Fort Detrick mysteries must be brought to the light of day."

The columnist of Filipino newspaper Pwersa also mentioned that one of the most intriguing reports concerns the early presence of a "strange flu" in other countries and the mysterious issues such as the "vaping deaths" emanating from the US around the middle of 2019. And those reports emerged from the US revolving around Fort Detrick, which had been ordered by the US CDC to shut down for "national security reasons" in August 2019, putting the lab at the center of questions and doubts.

All those reports showed that the public has a clear mind, and many rational and justified voices emerged from the international community, Hua Chunying, spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a routine press conference on Tuesday.

In a new book unveiled by a former press officer of the Philippine Embassy in the US, titled The Racism Virus Is Incurable, it listed a timeline of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US, which could be traced back to June 2019, Hua said.

The Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 was first discovered in Texas before the virus was transmitted through the US military to Europe. So the US politicizing the COVID-19 outbreak is like the Spanish virus repeating itself, Hua said.

With more and more new clues pointing to the US on COVID-19 origins, a number of media and experts in the US, Russia, South Korea and Japan spoke out to call for an investigation into Fort Detrick. But the US government has yet to respond to these doubts and calls, walking away from its responsibility but focusing on political maneuvers by spreading disinformation and lies, the spokesperson noted.

In a briefing on Friday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu asked why the US has no courage to open its door for the origins tracing investigation but hypes the so-called lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In fact, the US is the place with the most problems in labs, Ma noted.

"Recently, 25 million Chinese people joined the petition to ask for a probe into Fort Detrick, which shows the reasonable concern and justified request. Why not open the lab? If the US has nothing to hide, it should invite the WHO to investigate Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina (UNC)," he said.

China called on the US again to respond to doubts from the international community and release its testing results of the early cases, inviting the WHO experts to investigate Fort Detrick, its more than 200 biolabs around the world, and the UNC, and publish the data of the US soldiers who were sick and attended the Wuhan Military Games, Hua said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Tiny screw products provide a powerful push towards prosperity for villagers in Dinghai, E China's Zhejiang

People's Daily Online) 14:34, August 18, 2021

As screw manufacturing has become a characteristic industry of an island village in east Chinas Zhejiang province, more villagers are returning to their hometown to enter into business or find job opportunities.

Photo shows screw products. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Heping village in Jintang township, located on Jintang Island in Zhoushan city of Zhejiang, previously had a weak industrial economy and poor transportation infrastructure. Due to the villages geographical location, the farms were scattered in separate plots, restricting the largescale development of agriculture.

In 1982, local people discovered business opportunities in the production of screw products. Gradually, screw manufacturing emerged as a pillar industry on the island.

In 2004, Wang Bin, a man in his 20s who had been working in places outside of the town, went on to become an apprentice at a local screw factory. In 2009, Wang opened up his own screw factory, buying a machine tool with his savings. Over the past years, he has purchased another three machine tools for the factory, which now generates an annual income of nearly 400,000 yuan for the man.

Since 2003, nearly 1,000 villagers who used to be migrant workers have returned to Heping village. After they received skills and entrepreneurship training, they were re-employed or managed to start their own businesses. At present, there are more than 60 small-sized screw factories located in the village.

Unlike Wang, who chose to go back to his village, Xu Zhen, a university graduate, had never expected that he would take over the family business of screw manufacturing instead of becoming an architect as he had always wanted to become.

With his father having repeatedly persuaded him to go back to the village to be in charge of the family business, Xu started to pay more and more attention to the industry. After conducting careful research into the industry, Xu believed that it would in fact become quite prosperous. So, in 2008, he decided to go back home.

Photo shows a screw factory in Dinghai district, Zhoushan city, east Chinas Zhejiang province. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Xu has strived to promote the digital transformation of screw manufacturing, suggesting that 20 percent of the factorys output value should be used to purchase numerical control machine tools. About 45 percent of the factorys screw products are manufactured using machine tools, which has significantly boosted the factorys earnings. In addition, half of the employees working at the factory are local villagers.

According to statistics provided by Jintang township, between January and June 2021, the output value of the township reached 4.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.5 percent.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)
Report: Nation's top 3 districts in S China's Guangdong

Chinadaily.com.cn) 14:35, August 18, 2021

A view of Nanshan district in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, on Sept 27, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Nanshan district in South China's Guangdong province ranked first among the top 100 Chinese districts this year, followed by the province's Tianhe district and Futian district, a report from CCID Consulting said Tuesday.

Directly affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the consulting company analyzed the districts in China according to five dimensions  economic power, growth momentum, internal supporting ability, regional function and shared development.

The study, which excluded municipalities as well as the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, assessed 906 districts of prefecture-level cities, requiring a regional GDP exceeding 80 billion yuan ($12.34 billion), and revenue in the general public budget of over 2 billion yuan.

Huangdao district in Qingdao, Shandong province took the fourth position, while Longgang district in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, landed in fifth.

East China's Jiangsu province saw 22 districts listed in the top 100, ranking first nationally, while there were 20 from Guangdong province, 12 from Zhejiang province and 10 from Sichuan province.

The number of districts generating an economic volume of over 200 billion yuan in 2020 hit 27, with total regional GDP of 8.41 trillion yuan, contributing to 8.2 percent of China's gross production.

However, the report noted that a majority of the listed districts were from East and South China, while the number of those in Central and Northeast China declined compared to a year earlier.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Biden's approval rate hits record low after Taliban retakes Kabul

CGTN) 14:44, August 18, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden's approval rating dropped by 7 percentage points, hitting the lowest recorded in weekly Reuters/Ipsos polls that started when Biden took office in January. It happened after the Taliban retook Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, with the collapse of the Afghan government and, two decades after the U.S.-led invasion and occupation that cost over 6,000 American lives and over $2 trillion.

Approval of Biden's handling of Afghanistan  after he ordered a full troop withdrawal back in April, a sign many experts believe sped up the Afghan government collapse  is even lower than that of former President George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion of Afghanistan and entrenched the U.S. in the costly and ultimately futile effort to foster new leadership in the country.

Taliban fighters are seen in Mehtarlam, capital of Laghman province, eastern Afghanistan, August 15, 2021. /Xinhua

"When the U.S. announced a total withdrawal, that sent a signal to Afghan soldiers and police that the end was near, and converted chronically poor motivation into acute collapse as nobody wanted to be the last man standing after the others gave up," Stephen Biddle, professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, told CNBC.

Taliban's quest for an 'inclusive government'

"Afghanistan will have a strong, Islamic government," a Taliban spokesperson said as they held their first official news briefing since their lightning seizure of the Afghan capital.

The Taliban said they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of the Islamic law. Their announcements were short on details but suggested a line softer than the one during their rule 20 years ago.

According to the group, one of their leaders and co-founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had returned to Afghanistan for the first time in more than 10 years. Baradar was arrested in 2010, but released from prison in 2018 at the request of former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration so he could participate in peace talks.

"We don't want any internal or external enemies," the movement's main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Women would be allowed to work and study and "will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam," he added.As they rushed to evacuate, foreign powers assessed how to respond after Afghan government forces melted away in just days, with what many had predicted as the likely fast unraveling of women's rights.

Mujahid said the Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and government officials and were granting an amnesty for former soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for international forces.

"Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors," he said, adding that there was a "huge difference" between the Taliban now and 20 years ago.

A wrenching choice for the West

The U.S. military and diplomats have spoken to the Taliban to ensure evacuations from Kabul but Biden's administration said it will look at Taliban's actions to decide on the long-term relationship.

In Britain, which followed Biden in withdrawing forces, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that "ordinarily" London would not deal with the Taliban due to their human rights standards.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also made it clear that his government had no plans to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

"When they were in government 20 years ago, Canada did not recognize them," said Trudeau on Tuesday, who is currently campaigning for re-election after he launched the election on Sunday. Two aircraft carrying diplomats, troops and Afghans from Kabul landed in Canada Monday night.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell put it bluntly on Tuesday: "The Taliban have won the war, so we will have to talk with them."

As for Russia, where Taliban are designated as members of a terrorist organization, its ambassador to Afghanistan said the takeover had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under the previous authorities.

China said it hopes that the Taliban can make a clean break with all kinds of international terrorist forces.

"For a long time, China has maintained contact with the Afghan Taliban based on full respect for the national sovereignty of Afghanistan and the will of various factions in the country, and played a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Afghan issue," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying in a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Sweet life of a cherry farmer in Xinjiang

People's Daily Online) 14:50, August 18, 2021

Kashgar, home of fruit, is seeing rapid growth in its special fruit industry. By growing fruit, local farmers have enjoyed increasing annual incomes and improved living standards.

Turhun Ahmat works as head of a large cherry farmers' professional cooperative in Misha Town, Yarkan County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

At the beginning, local cherry farmers lacked adequate experience, leading to limited scale effects and inefficient management. The profits reaped were therefore low and the farmers were poorly incentivized. However, the cherry farmers' professional cooperative was later established, which helped the farmers to receive free training.

Now, the cooperative comprises 58 household members and 2,800 mu of cherry trees. The dividends accrued to each member can reach about 20,000 yuan annually, and the farmers' incomes have grown from 10,000 yuan per mu to 30-50,000 yuan per mu. The cherry park has also been developed into a tourist destination.

As for the accusations of "forced labor" and "genocide" by anti-China forces in the US, Ahmat denied this charge with anger: "It's absolutely nonsense. The cherry farmers, for example, were never forced by anyone. They grow cherries because they can lead a better life through their business. Here's what I want to say to those treacherous people: no more lies, for a lie even told a thousand times never becomes the truth."

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liang Jun)
'Blue Beijing,' cleaner air, the new normal for Chinese people: state environment authorities

Global Times) 15:54, August 18, 2021

The sky above our heads is getting bluer, and the air we breathe cleaner, Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu said on Wednesday, announcing a well-rounded success in meeting all anti-pollution goals and binding targets for environment protection outlined in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

The proportion of days with good air quality in cities at prefecture-level and above across the country reached 87 percent in 2020, an increase of 5.8 percent from that in 2015. The figure is 2.5 percent higher than the target of the 13th Five-Year Plan, Huang said at a press conference.

Besides, average concentration of PM2.5 dropped to 37 micrograms per cubic meter in cities at prefecture-level and above, a plunge by 28.8 percent compared with that of 2015, surpassing the goal of the 13th Five-Year Plan by over 10 percent.

In terms of carbon emission goals, 2020's carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP reduced by 18.8 percent compared with that of 2015, and forest coverage rate nationwide reached 23.04 percent in 2020. The area of nature reserves accounts for nearly one fifth of the total land area in China, Huang introduced.

Water quality has also improved. The proportion of good surface water nationwide increased from 66 percent in 2015 to 83.4 percent in 2020, while that of unusable (below Class V) water decreased from almost 10 percent in 2015 to 0.6 percent.

Huang added that China's environment is seeing continued improvements in the first half of the year. Average PM2.5 concentration across the country is 34 micrograms per cubic meter, which has seen a 3 percent decrease from that of last year. Ozone concentration also dropped by 2.1 percent.

"The 'blue Beijing' has gradually become our new normal," Huang said. The number of days with heavy air pollution in the Chinese capital in 2020 was 10, while in 2015 it was 43, dropping by nearly 80 percent.

Among China's 337 cities, 202 met the air quality standard in 2020, accounting for 59.9 percent, 13.3 percent higher than the year before. The cities on average enjoy 87 percent of days with good air quality, which indicates their air quality index was lower than 100, according to the China Environment Report 2020 published by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in May.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Dance show demonstrating aesthetics of Song Dynasty to make debut

People's Daily Online) 16:59, August 18, 2021

A press conference for the dance show is held at People's Daily Online on Aug. 18, 2021. (Photo/People's Daily Online)

A dance show demonstrating the unique aesthetics of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) will be staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, capital of China between Aug. 20 to 22.

The show, entitled Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting, salutes A Panorama of Mountains and Rivers, a masterpiece of traditional Chinese painting from Wang Ximeng (1096-1119), a genius painter from the Song Dynasty.

As a researcher from the Palace Museum in Beijing unfolds the painting inch by inch, the man, who has devoted himself to the study of the masterpiece, travels back in time to watch the process the ancient painter used to painstakingly create the work, decoding the secrets behind the inherent uniqueness of the painting.

The show will guide the audiences to explore the legendary world of traditional Chinese art by drawing an emotional connection between the ancient painting and modern-day people.

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

The show is produced by the Palace Museum in Beijing, the China Oriental Performing Arts Group, and Peoples Daily Online. Usunhome Group, a player in Chinas cultural industries, co-produced the show.

At a press conference held on Aug. 18, a poster and promotional photos of the show were revealed for the first time, lifting the veil on some of its scenes.

The show will go on a nationwide tour, with more than 50 shows in 18 cities across the country, which will kick off starting in September.

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

A promotional photo for the dance show. (Photo/The China Oriental Performing Arts Group)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming)
Cuteness overload! Enjoy this song about the Asian elephant calves in Yunnan

People's Daily Online) 17:00, August 18, 2021

The Asian elephant calves have been enjoying their leisure time after returning to their traditional habitat in southwest China's Yunnan recently. A light-hearted song with a rich ethnic style was released to showcase the cuteness of the elephant calves. Click on the video to enjoy the song!

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liang Jun)
Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) said on August 17 that it has forged an alliance with Del Monte Philippines Inc (DMPI), a subsidiary of Del Monte Pacific Limited.

Total investment capital for the first phase is 6 million USD, in which, Vinamilk and its partners contribute 50 percent each.

The joint venture will import dairy products from Vinamilk, and market and distribute them in the Philippines through DMPI. It will use the co-brand Del Monte-Vinamilk for its products and promote the brand strength of both businesses. The joint venture will take advantage of Vinamilks strength in production and Del Monte in distribution.

Despite facing difficulties due to the application of social distancing, Vinamilk completed production of the first shipment for the joint venture at the end of July.

The joint venture's products are expected to officially reach Filipino consumers in September. Revenue of the joint venture in the first year is estimated at around 8.8 million USD and has the potential for double digit growth of about 50 percent a year in the medium term.





A modern production line at a factory of Vinamilk. (Photo: VNA)

Vinamilk is among the top 40 largest dairy companies in the world. Its products have been exported to 56 countries including the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Vinamilk has three factories in the US, New Zealand, and Cambodia and a dairy farm complex in Laos. Overseas business currently accounts for 15 percent of Vinamilk's total revenue.

DMPI is a producer and distributor of healthy food and beverages including ready-to-drink pineapple juice. It has been operating for more than 95 years in the Philippines

Del Monte Pacific Limited is a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange and the Philippine Stock Exchange. It indirectly owns 87 percent of DMPI./.

VNA
Today, a new chapter in the history of BOVET 1822 and Pininfarina is being written with the announcement of the partnership between BOVET 1822 and Automobili Pininfarina, celebrating the creation of the first automobile designed and completely assembled in Cambiano  the exquisite new Battista pure-electric hyper GT.



The new collaboration was officially launched at an exclusive event at Monterey Car Week in California and will see a unique new timepiece revealed later this year.



Automobili Pininfarina is taking the next step to delivering its pioneering pure-electric hyper GT at Monterey Car Week, where the first production-spec example made its world premiere, alongside the US debut of the exclusive Battista Anniversario.

Battista in California  Bovet 1822

In creating Battista, Automobili Pininfarina established itself as the worlds first pure-electric luxury car company, said Svantesson, Automobili Pininfarina CEO. We have welcomed clients to our family who are excited by our mission to create sustainable yet collectible art forms. We have challenged our own team members to ensure Battista is beautiful by design, combining seamlessly evocative, pure lines which complement perfectly the most advanced electric powertrain technology in the world.



Since the day we first connected with Pascal Raffy and the artisans of BOVET 1822, we felt mutually inspired by the opportunity to create another art form for clients desiring the pinnacle in design and watchmaking. With the unveiling of our first timepiece together later this year, we aim to showcase another step forward in the world of artisanal horology.

Battista in California  Bovet 1822

The 11-year partnership with Pininfarina is a key foundation for BOVET 1822, and the collaboration with Automobili Pininfarina is a continuation of this, said Pascal Raffy, BOVET 1822 owner. Since the start, we have been working together in design, technology, and engineering, while at the same time utilising the artisanal nature of BOVET 1822 manufacturing. We are two houses sharing the same values, and now we are heading into the future.



The world is becoming more sustainable, and the future is definitely in electric cars. This is what is so exciting about the beautiful Battista, which combines engineering excellence with hand-made attention to detail, like the fine timepieces of the House of BOVET. The Battista is a hypercar of stunning design, with almost 1,900 hp, yet it is sustainable and 100 per cent electric. We all need to move in this direction, and Automobili Pininfarina is inspiring us to use new methods and materials and look at our processes with an eye to sustainability as well.



We are working on projects that celebrate the Battista and introduce concepts and forms that we have never used before in our timepieces. The Battista is the car of tomorrow, so we are breaking new ground with everything, which fits this incredible partnership.

Battista in California  Bovet 1822

The partnership with BOVET 1822  started in 2010  is far more than a collaboration, said Paolo Pininfarina, Chairman of the Group. Its a commonality of vision based on our passion for beauty, technology and craftsmanship. The masterpieces born in the last 11 years are the expression of this vision and the blend of our skills matured throughout a long history and the passion for future. Today we are proud to write a new chapter of our story thanks to the contribution of Automobili Pininfarina. The new timepiece embodies the same spirit that led to the conception of the Battista with Automobili Pininfarina: an outstanding piece of design, high performing and created with a sustainable approach.

The rich history of BOVET 1822 and Pininfarina SpA

During an initial meeting with Raffy in 2010, Paolo Pininfarina recognised a kindred spirit with shared values, and the decision was made almost immediately to work together to magnify the legendary past of each House while proposing a shared vision of the future.



In contrast to the notion of a private label, from the very start the concept was based on an active and equal partnership, marrying the specific strengths of the designer and watchmaker, while taking into account the constraints of their respective activities. This was the only way to achieve a perfect symbiosis of technical virtuosity, performance and beauty without compromise, and the partnership continued this way until today.



Throughout this 11-year history, BOVET 1822 and Pininfarina have debuted a number of timepieces, all cutting edge, infused with the spirit of Pininfarina design and underpinning the foundation of BOVET 1822 heritage and tradition. Timepieces realised include the Ottanta, Ottantadue, Ottantatre, Ottantasei, Cambiano, Sergio, and Novanta.

The Future is Now

Moving forward, the Automobili Pininfarina and BOVET 1822 partnership will continue the unique pioneering story between Pininfarina and Bovet, pushing each other to new heights of innovation and design excellence, while at the same time evolving the nature of such a partnership. The new Automobili Pininfarina x BOVET 1822 timepiece will debut later this year.
The Uzbek participants of the "Clear Sky" contest of the International Army Games (IAG) 2021 conduct operation training.

By Cheng Xiaodong and Tao Ran

KORLA, Aug. 18 -- As the International Army Games (IAG) 2021 is around the corner, a total of 18 teams from China, Russia, Belarus, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam to participate in the Suvorov onslaught, Clear Sky and Safe Environment contests to be staged in China are carrying out adaptive training in an all-around manner in Korla, Northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

According to the competition rules and scheduling, the equipment draw and handover of the three events hosted by the Chinese PLA Army have all been completed.

Except for Russia with its own equipment to participate in theSuvorov onslaught and Clear Sky events, all the remaining participating teams from other countries will use the equipment provided by the Chinese side.

In order to help the participating teams adapt to the competition venue as soon as possible and familiarize themselves with the equipment related, the Chinese side has organized a training group composed of experts from military colleges, technical experts and instructors from troop units to offer theoretical guidance and professional assistance to the contestants.

It is learned that the IAG 2021 will kick off in late August as scheduled, under which, the Suvorov onslaught, Clear Sky and Safe Environment with a total of 10 matches will be staged in Korla of Xinjiang, China.


Chinese participants in the "Seaborne Assault" event receive and inspect light weapons provided by the Russian side. (Photo by Xiao Yongli)

By Xiao Yongli, Sun Chenxu and Yu Chunhao

CHABAHAR, Iran, Aug 18  A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force transport aircraft Y-20 carrying members of a Chinese team participating in the "Depth" event of the International Army Games (IAG) 2021 arrived at an airport in Chabahar of Iran at midday of August 17, local time. So far, all four teams sent by the Chinese PLA Navy for IAG 2021 have arrived at their respective contest venues.

The PLA Navy has dispatched four teams to compete in the "Seaborne Assault" and "Sea Cup" in Vladivostok, Russia, the "Depth" in Konarak, Iran, as well as the "Clear Sky" competition in Korla, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The "Depth" event includes tasks of underwater salvage, the rescue of submarines and personnel in distress, underwater flange connection, underwater tug-of-war, and underwater wrestling, which have high requirements for team cooperation, individual tactical skills, and emergency response methods.

The Chinese team members, who are 26 years old in average, have rich experience in underwater operations. They will compete with counterparts from Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Indonesia, India, and Syria this year.

On the morning of August 16, local time, the PLA Navy's guided-missile frigate Guangyuan participating in the "Sea Cup" event arrived at the Peter the Great Gulf and rendezvoused with Russian naval ships. Under the guidance of the Russian naval ships, frigate Guangyuan sailed to anchor in the designated waters. The Chinese naval team will compete in tasks of artillery firing against sea/air targets & floating mines and barrel anchoring.

The "Clear Sky" is a military competition specially designed for air defense forces. This year's competition will be held in Korla, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. The event consists of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) firing, wheeled armored vehicle driving over obstacles, anti-aircraft machine gun shooting, automatic rifle shooting and other tasks.



Chinese participants in the "Seaborne Assault" event make test driving of the BTR-82A wheeled armored transport vehicle provided by the Russian military. (Photo by Yao Guanchen)


President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2021, on April 20, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that China stands ready to work with Iran to push for steady and sustained development of their comprehensive strategic partnership.

He made the remarks in a phone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Xi pointed out that since the establishment of China-Iran diplomatic ties 50 years ago, bilateral relations have stood the test of international changes, with the friendship between the people of the two countries growing ever stronger.

In the face of a complicated situation that combines profound global changes and a pandemic both unseen in a century, China and Iran have stood together and helped each other, Xi noted.

While working together against COVID-19, the two countries have strengthened solidarity and coordination, made positive progress in practical cooperation, effectively cemented strategic mutual trust, and firmly defended international fairness and justice, he said.

China appreciates Iran's active efforts to develop bilateral relations, Xi said, stressing that no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly relations with Iran.

The two sides, he suggested, should continue to support each other on issues related to their core interests and major concerns.

China firmly supports Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty and national dignity, and opposes external interference, he said, adding that China is willing to work with Iran to enhance experience sharing on state governance, strengthen cooperation in pandemic response, advance their respective development, and promote the people's well-being in both countries.

The plan for China-Iran comprehensive cooperation has opened up broader prospects for deepening bilateral win-win cooperation, Xi said, adding that the two sides should tap deeply into their potential, actively promote Belt and Road cooperation, and produce more results in practical cooperation.

China, Xi said, supports Iran's legitimate concerns on the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue, and stands ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Iran on regional affairs, so as to jointly safeguard common interests and promote regional security and stability.

For his part, Raisi expressed warm congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Iran and China.

It is a foreign policy priority and focus of the Iranian government to steadfastly develop a more robust comprehensive strategic partnership with China, he said.

The Iranian side, he said, thanks China for providing Iran with valuable support to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, appreciates China's fair positions on international and regional affairs, including the Iranian nuclear issue.

Iran stands ready to work with China to intensify strategic communication, enhance strategic mutual trust, deepen bilateral cooperation and multilateral coordination, and jointly oppose unilateralism, hegemonism and external interference, Raisi added.

The Iranian side firmly supports China's positions on issues concerning Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and staunchly opposes certain countries using the issue of COVID-19 origins tracing as a pretext to suppress and contain China, he said.

China's Belt and Road Initiative brims with strategic vision, and Iran is willing to actively participate in it, he added.


[Photo/Sipaphoto]

Although the precipitous withdrawal of the United States forces from Afghanistan has raised widespread concerns about developments in the Central Asian country, it seems that it might have produced at least one positive side effect in drawing China and the US closer.

Discussing the situation in Afghanistan in a telephone conversation on Monday, top diplomats of the two countries adopted a much softer tone, which was a marked departure from the bitter accusatory bickering that has come to characterize exchanges between the two sides.

Showing that the two sides' common concerns over the situation in Afghanistan can become an opportunity for Beijing and Washington to conduct constructive and pragmatic cooperation, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China stands ready to have communication and dialogue with the US to realize a "soft landing" of the Afghan issue so that a new civil war and greater humanitarian disaster can be prevented from happening and ensure the country does not again become a breeding ground and safe haven for terrorists.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his part, said the US expects China to play an important role in Afghanistan's orderly transfer of power and the establishment of an inclusive government, while stressing the importance of the two countries maintaining communication over major regional and international issues.

Indeed, as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, China and the US have an obligation to work together to try and enable Afghanistan to pursue national reconstruction on a peaceful path. Yet, given the current relations between the two countries, the US needs to remove the obstacles it has set in the way of China-US cooperation first.

It is unrealistic for Washington to expect Beijing to work with it if it continues to try and contain and suppress China by pressuring it on its core interests and major concerns. The US should also discard its double standard on terrorism if it wishes to cooperate with China on Afghanistan and other issues.

The previous US government under Donald Trump made a big mistake in removing the East Turkestan Islamic Movement from the US' list of terrorist groups. It is the obligation of the current US administration to correct that.

The collapse of the Afghan government and ensuing chaos all point to the failure of the US policy in Afghanistan. Washington should also do some serious soul-searching over its penchant for resolving conflicts through force and military intervention as there has been a high price to pay for it waging its longest war.

With global challenges and hotspot issues continually cropping up, China and the US will be bound to cooperate more, which is also the expectation of the rest of the international community. To this end, Washington needs to pursue a wiser and more pragmatic China policy.
By Wu Liming

On August 15, the Taliban entered Afghanistans capital Kabul and began to negotiate on a peaceful transfer of power with the Afghan government. At the same time, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad. Almost overnight, the situation in Afghanistan changed dramatically. The media of some Western powers had to lament their countries failure in Afghanistan as an end game.

Many still remember that back in the 1970s, when the US withdrew unwillingly from the mire of the Vietnam War that lasted for 20 years, the forces of the Communist Party of Vietnam quickly liberated Saigon, and the South Vietnamese government supported by the US soon collapsed.

What is happening in Afghanistan is reminiscent of the fall of Saigon, except that the fall of Kabul was much faster than many had imagined. In particular, the US, which dominated Afghanistan in the past two decades, used misjudgment of the situation as the pretext for its failure in the Asian country.

The fall of Kabul marked the failure of the US in the lengthy war. Over the past 20 years, more than 2,000 American soldiers have been killed and tens of thousands injured on the battlefield of Afghanistan, and the war cost the US more than US$ 2 trillion. For the US, the Afghanistan war is like a bottomless pit for its investment, so its eager to get rid of this burden.

The fall of Kabul indicates the collapse of the US international image and reputation. After 20 years of fruitless effort, its NATO allies followed the US to join the Afghanistan war, to which they contributed funds, weapons and troops but ended up with a failure. This once again proves that serving as sidekicks of the US wont meet a good end.

The US may withdraw from Afghanistan, but it left infinite pain for the Afghan people. In the past 20 years, more than 30,000 civilians in Afghanistan were killed or bombed by the US troops or died in the war-torn chaos caused by the US, more than 60,000 injured, and about 11 million became refugees. Facts repeatedly show that the US is the biggest factor for unrest globally. Its hegemonic policy that seeks supremacy at the risk of failing the world has resulted in countless human tragedies.

The fall of Kabul marked a turning point of US hegemony towards decline. As we all know, after the end of the Cold War, the US became the worlds only superpower, giving the rise to the theory of the end of history. Tempted by the gains it earned from bombing Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century, the US launched the Afghanistan war and the Iraq war at the turn of the 21st century, in an attempt to expand its hegemony. However, the evolution of history has its own law. It is destined that belligerence and hegemony wouldnt last long.

OnDecember of 2010, the US-based magazine The Nation published an article titled The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, which noted that the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 heralded the decline of America, which turned out to be prescient.

Later, impacted by multiple challenges such as the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, the decline of US hegemony has been an indisputable fact. Its failure in Afghanistan is just another point in the downward spiral of US hegemony.
By Lyu Hui

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Looking back on the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the past 100 years, one can see that the Party always has firm support of the Chinese people, which serves as an inexhaustible source of strength for the world's largest ruling party to overcome all difficulties and forge ahead.

Starting off as a small party of around 50 members, the CPC now has more than 95 million members, becoming the world's largest political party with tremendous international influence.

Under CPC's leadership, China has been transformed from a poor and backward country into a vibrant and dynamic economy, the second largest in the world, and people's lives have seen significant improvement.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, has said that the people are the "supreme and ultimate judge" of the Party's work.

An Edelman Trust Barometer trust and credibility survey in 2020 showed that the Chinese people's trust in their government stood at 95 percent, higher than that of other countries surveyed. Harvard University of the United States has revealed similar findings.

So how has the CPC won overwhelming support from 1.4 billion Chinese people?

Putting people first

The people's support for the CPC comes from its great dedication and governing philosophy of putting people first.

The CPC has in the people its roots, its lifeblood and its source of strength. It works for the people's interests and has no special interests of its own.

Since the first day of its founding, the Party made seeking happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation its original aspiration and mission.

The CPC has always been putting people's well-being in paramount position throughout its history and Chinese Communists are willing to sacrifice everything, including their lives, for the interests of the people.

Data shows that as many as 3.7 million CPC members sacrificed their lives from 1921 to 1949 in striving for the establishment of the people's republic. Many others died anonymously.

China's handling of the COVID-19 epidemic and massive poverty-alleviation campaign fully vindicate the CPC's efforts to put people first.

Facing the ravaging pandemic, the CPC gave top priority to protecting people's life and health even at the cost of short-term economic downturn and a temporary shutdown.

"We are willing to do whatever it takes to protect people's lives!" Xi emphasized.

Members of the CPC have acted as the vanguard in the battle against the epidemic. Nearly 400 of the over 39 million CPC members and cadres who fought against COVID-19 on the front lines died in the process, according to official numbers.

During China's massive poverty-alleviation campaign, the Party put forward the "targeted poverty alleviation" strategy and stressed that no one should be left behind on the path to a moderately prosperous society in all respects, or Xiaokang society.

Xi announced that China has achieved the goal of building Xiaokang society when addressing a ceremony celebrating the CPC centenary at Tian'anmen Square on July 1.

China has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty over the past four decades, meeting the poverty eradication target in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule.

More than 1,800 Party members and cadres died on the front lines of the battle against poverty, which brought home the Party's fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people.

Modernizing governance capacity

The people's support for the CPC also stems from its strong leadership and performance in the field of governance.

In the early 20th century, after multiple political attempts failed to save the nation at a perilous time of domestic upheaval and foreign aggression, the CPC rose from chaos and led the country toward national independence, changing the fate of Chinese people.

Over the past 100 years, the Party has united and led the Chinese people in achieving great success in the new-democratic revolution, socialist revolution and construction, reform, opening up and socialist modernization, as well as for socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

Under the strong leadership of the CPC, China has created a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability rarely seen in the world.

China now is also the largest recipient of foreign direct investment, and boasts one of the world's largest consumer markets. Its GDP has exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan threshold.

The CPC has transformed China from a country where almost half of the population had to worry about where their next meal would come from into the world's second-largest economy, where every life is equally treasured.

From 1949 to 2019, China's per capital disposable income grew at an average annual rate of 6.1 percent in real terms.

Besides income increases, Chinese people enjoy other tangible development benefits, such as access to better education, medical care, improved living conditions and a safe environment.

The country has the largest social security system globally, with basic medical insurance covering over 1.3 billion people and basic old-age insurance covering about 1 billion. The average life expectancy of the Chinese has risen to 77.3 years.

Employment is pivotal to people's wellbeing. The CPC prioritizes employment in economic and social development. It carries out a pro-employment strategy and pursues a more proactive employment policy.

Rather than focusing on short-term results as in the policy fluctuation of election-related cycles in Western countries, the CPC has shown its proficiency in making long-term strategic plans based on the people's interests, breaking them down into phases, and translating a blueprint into reality with force and tenacity.

China has formulated and implemented 13 five-year plans since 1953 and the country has already entered the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

Having met the goal of poverty elimination, the Party continues to work to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, to work for people's well-rounded development and common prosperity and a better life for all.

Over the past 70-plus years, the CPC has led the people in developing socialist democracy, which enables the people to participate in the whole process of political affairs and efficiently solve the problems that concern the people.

China's whole-process democracy involves more than just a matter of voting, rather, it ensures the people's rights to democratic elections, consultations, decision-making, management and oversight, covering all aspects of state affairs and social activities.

Preventing internal rifts and the waste of resources due to "endless discussion without decision, and decision without implementation" seen in western democracy, Chinese democracy ensures that once a major decision is made, the Party is able to pool resources across the country for great undertakings, which is exemplified in everyday governance or emergency responses, to name a few like earthquake rescue, the fight against epidemics, poverty relief.

Continuous self-reform

The people's support for the CPC originates from its self-improvement and self-reform as well.

During the past 100 years, the CPC has continued to adapt the basic tenets of Marxism to the Chinese context, and make theoretical innovations, thus maintaining its full vitality.

The Party practices effective self-supervision. From intraparty political education to criticism and self-criticism, deviations and mistakes in thinking are corrected in time.

"To forge iron, one must be strong." In the long history of leading the Chinese revolution, construction and reform, the CPC has a fine tradition of learning and education among party members to keep pace with the times, strengthen political beliefs and improve governing capacity and better serve the people.

The Party launched various education campaigns to urge members to maintain disciplinary and moral integrity, curb undesirable practices, draw strength from CPC's past, boost morale and advance the country's modernization drive.

Moreover, the Party has combined internal supervision with state and public scrutiny.

The Party sees corruption as the "greatest threat" to its survival and its relationship with the Chinese people.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Party has investigated and punished corrupt officials, including some high-ranking officials, on a scale unseen in decades.

In 2020, around 604,000 people were disciplined by China's top anti-graft body.

The resolute fight against corruption has resulted in surging public support. According to a survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, 97.3 percent of the respondents expressed satisfaction with the improvement of Party conduct, the working practices of government officials, and social morality.

Throughout century-long process of overcoming hardships and securing brilliant achievements, the Chinese people and the CPC have helped each other through thick and thin, forming a closely bonded relationship, which is often described as being inseparable as fish and water, flesh and blood.

However, over the years, western anti-China forces have attempted to sow discord between the CPC and the people and attack China's human rights record by fabricating lies and rumors with the intention to disintegrate China from within and contain its development.

Their ulterior motives, out of ideological bias and geopolitical reasons, reveal the ignorance about the century-old CPC and solidarity between the Party and people, thus being doomed to failure.

Xi said that any attempt to divide the Party from the Chinese people or to set the people against the Party is bound to fail. The more than 95 million Party members and the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people will never allow such a scenario to come to pass.
The government's contract with Moderna was so sloppy that it failed to specify delivery dates for coronavirus vaccines, it was revealed Tuesday, contradicting its claims that the drug maker did not deliver on time.

The government has been suspiciously cagey about the terms and cited alleged confidentiality clauses even while putting the blame for delays squarely on Moderna, but it turns out that Korean negotiators failed to specify when deliveries were to be made.

A Health Ministry official admitted the contract does not hold Moderna to specific delivery dates. "The contract specifies the delivery of 40 million doses a year," the official told reporters. "But it also stipulates that specific monthly or quarterly shipments are subject to negotiations."

In other words, it would be no violation of the contract for Moderna to deliver shipments later than Korea hoped.


Financial giants to further tap A shares

From:ChinaDaily | 2021-08-18 09:33

BEIJINGForeign-invested financial institutions are racing to enter China's securities sector as the country pushes ahead to further open its domestic capital market.

JPMorgan recently announced on its website that the China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved the registration of JPMorgan International Finance Ltd taking a 100 percent stake in JPMorgan Securities (China) Co Ltd, making it the first foreign firm to fully own a securities venture in the country.

Last year, the investment banking giant received approval from the CSRC to increase its current stake in JPMorgan Futures Company Ltd to 100 percent from 49 percent, enabling it to become the first foreign firm to wholly operate a futures venture here.

"China represents one of the largest opportunities in the world for many of our clients and for JPMorgan," said Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. "Our scale and global capabilities give us a unique ability to help Chinese companies grow internationally and also support global investors as they expand into China's maturing capital markets."

A statement from the CSRC said the regulator has also accepted the application of Standard Chartered Hong Kong for a license to set up a brokerage in the Chinese mainland.

The company said thanks to the rapid recovery of the Chinese economy, its operating income in China rose 20 percent year-on-year in the first half, while its pre-tax profit increased significantly.

Last Friday, the CSRC gave the nod to FIL Asia Holdings Pte Ltd to set up a fund management firm wholly owned by overseas investors. Citibank (China) Co Ltd has also obtained a business license to provide securities investment fund custody services for publicly-offered funds and private equity funds in China.

These developments not only highlight the enthusiasm of foreign financial institutions for operating in China's financial market, but also reflect the resolve of regulators to advance financial opening-up.

In recent years, more than 100 foreign-invested banks and insurance, securities, payment and clearing institutions have been approved and set up. They have been actively expanding the scope of financial businesses, particularly after the Chinese government scrapped foreign ownership limits on securities firms and mutual funds in 2020.

The global financial market has gradually entered the stage of recovery and expansion, which will drive international capital to emerging economies, and China is the preferred investment destination for these investors, said Xie Yaxuan, an analyst with China Merchants Securities.

HuaAn Funds attributed the attractiveness of Chinese financial assets to the country's comparative advantages in areas including economic growth momentum, reserve policy space and an appealing A-share market.

In the first half, net inflows of funds through "northbound trading," or money invested from Hong Kong into the Chinese mainland through the stock connect program, surged 89 percent year-on-year to 223.6 billion yuan ($34.51 billion).

During the same period, overseas investors have increased their holdings of yuan-denominated bonds by over 450 billion yuan, up 40 percent year-on-year.

Yet there are also many challenges, according to a State Council executive meeting in July. The meeting said China will continue advancing opening-up in an orderly way, and fully leverage both the domestic and international markets and resources so the country remains a popular destination for foreign investment.

The meeting stressed the market access threshold of foreign-invested financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies will be refined, rules concerning cross-border transactions between parent and subsidiary firms of financial institutions will be improved, and channels and methods for foreign capital to participate in the domestic financial market will be optimized.

Xinhua
People centered smart innovation drives high quality urban lifestyle

From:ChinaDaily | 2021-08-18 13:51

Smart communities offer happiness and security

Yoga enthusiast Ma Yazhou lives in a smart community in the Lijia Area of Yubei District. Before starting her session inside the communal space, she links her phone to the PA system through Bluetooth and easily puts on some music in the pavilion.

Smart elements have become a part of regular everyday life for this wired member of the Lijia community.

'Functions are not just limited to the PA system. We also use smart entrances with swift facial recognition, a reporting system for security issues, intelligent recreational facilities, and a management service app daily.'

In total, there are around a dozen examples of advanced technology put to use in this community, which are accessible through integrated applications that have intertwined modern technology with everyday life.

Elderly residents have not been left behind, either. The Lijia Neighborhood has entered into a trial service with Chongqing Cable, which now offers a special channel providing local news and information on favorable policies.

The channel also provides access to communal services and the local authorities so that residents can inquire about civil affairs, opportunities to join the 'Elderly University,' and learn more about cultural and social benefit activities in the community.

Local communities' government services and education have been integrated into a smart online network in sync with traditional face-to-face contact. The advantages of this new network are that citizens can first make inquiries and appointments 24 hours a day with ease and without setting foot outside their homes.

People will remain at the heart of smart community development while their needs and opinions are given careful attention. This way, residents of all ages will enjoy greater access and convenience to the services they require, making their lives happier as a result.
Lin-gang seeks to reap more in coming years

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-08-18 16:24

31 projects were completed and launched in Lin-gang on August 16, marking the second anniversary of the Lin-gang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

A batch of scientific and technological platforms settled in the innovation hub in Lin-gang Science & Technology City, which in the future will develop more generic technology, provide think-tank services, promote incubation of research achievements and boost industrial development.

While making itself a driver for innovation, Lin-gang has made efforts over the past two years in improving its modern industry, technological innovation, urban construction, education, health, culture, tourism, and ecological environment.

In terms of cutting-edge industries, the New Area has attracted more than 290 contracted projects with a total investment of 350 billion RMB, while land for 68 industrial projects has been sold. At the same time, the industrial ecology of integrated circuits, biomedicine, civil aviation, and new energy vehicles is taking shape here at an increased pace.

In the New Area, the headquarters economy is also booming. August 16 saw the inauguration of several companies setting up their headquarters and functional centers in Lin-gang, such as Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Group, Techstorm, and Marohn Thyssenkrupp.

To better meet the locals demands, 1,972 public rental apartments have been offered to employees and entrepreneurs in the area. A sponge park  an ecological park that filters groundwater to improve the local ecology  was also opened the same day, constituting a workable and livable environment along with the nearby green belt around the Dishui Lake. In five years, there will be more public schools and business institutions to attract even more talent and tourists.
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GREENTOWN - A 5K run/walk has been organized in memory of Aimee Romero, with proceeds going to fund a scholarship in her honor at Eastern High School.

The Aimee Romero Cupcake 5K Run/Walk will take place Saturday, Oct. 2, and will feature a mens and womens 5K run/walk, as well as a kids half-mile fun run. Those who preregister by Sept. 4 will be guaranteed a T-shirt and swag bag.

Romero was lost to domestic violence on March 18, 2021. She was 43 years old.

Aimee as a person was a beautiful soul. She touched many, many lives, said Carrie Gruel, a friend who teamed up with Dana Culp, an Eastern High School teacher and runner, to bring the event to life.

Gruel wanted to include as many aspects of Romeros life as possible in the fundraiser, and since Romero owned a cupcake business in Greentown called Kuppy Kakes, a cupcake run made perfect sense.

She enjoyed doing cupcakes for people and everyone loved them, said Gruel. We thought we would tie that in, so we made this very personable to her.

Eastern High School student Alexa Maurer will bake and decorate cupcakes that will be given to participants.

Eastern was also important to Romero. She graduated from there, would later become vice president of the school board and her three children are Eastern students.

Romero was known as someone who always had a smile for everyone. She loved music and spent time in Nashville after she earned her degree at IU Kokomo. She also taught second grade while in Tennessee. When she returned to Kokomo, she worked for Ruoff Mortgage, attaining the position of vice president and branch manager. She used her musical gift while attending Morning Star Church and was a member of the Kokomo Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Kokomo and BLUSH, a local program dedicated to young women.

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Domestic violence cases have increased across Indiana since the start of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, said Linda Berry, executive director of the Indiana Coalition of Domestic Violence.

Weve seen a significant rise in not only domestic violence incidents and calls to 911, but in some communities we have seen increases in calls up to 87% requesting services and support. And weve seen an increase in domestic violence homicide and lethality at 125%, Berry said.

A lot of the increase in violence can be attributed to the isolation and tension of staying at home caused by the pandemic, the downturn of the economy, an increase in alcohol consumption, and the uncertainty a pandemic carries with it, said Berry.

Survivors each and every day keep themselves and their families safe, she said. They know how to navigate these circumstances. If they want to or need to reach out and leave a violent situation, help is available to them, shelter is available for them, and they can reach those services by calling 1-800-332-1385.

Gruel hopes the run will become an annual event that both honors Romero and raises awareness of domestic violence in Howard County.

If there was one thing Gruel wants the community to take away from her friend, it is that everyone should be treated with respect.

What you give out is what you are going to get back in return, said Gruel. I think [Aimee] was really good at doing that.

Registration for the run can be completed at https://runsignup.com/Race/IN/Greentown/AimeeRomeroMemorialCupcake5KRun. Registration is $20 for the 5K walk/run and $10 for the kids fun run up, until Sept. 4, and then $30 for the 5K and $20 for the kids run after that date. Awards will be given for the top finishers in each age division. A team spirit award will be given to a group of six or less participants who show the most enthusiasm and wear the best costumes. Teams must register as a group.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Aug. 5 that all school-age students, kindergarten-through-12th-grade teachers and support staff wear masks in school. As of last week, no local district in Howard County has acted on that recommendation.

The following are facts gleaned from several sources about the current spread of COVID throughout the country, state and county:

 The highly transmissible delta variant of COVID-19 is driving U.S. daily cases to a six-month high, according to NBC News.

 Indiana State Department of Health officials said Aug. 11 that 43 counties, including Howard, were in the second-riskiest category for the spread of the virus.

 COVID hospitalizations in Indiana have tripled to about 1,200 since late June, when patient counts were below 400, according to the state health department

 Indiana saw four straight days last week with more than 2,000 new COVID cases, the state health department said.

 More than 98% of the U.S. population lives in counties now considered to have substantial or high COVID transmission, CNN reported last week.

 U.S. COVID cases have jumped from around 20,000 daily cases to 100,000 each day in just one month, CNN reported.

 CDC data suggests 99.99% of the 160 million fully vaccinated Americans have not had severe breakthrough infections of COVID, CNN reported.

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 There wont be a central mandate from the federal government for Americans to mask up again, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN last week.

 The delta variant of COVID is as contagious as chickenpox, according to the CDC.

 In just two months, the delta variant jumped from 3% to more than 93% of COVID samples, the CDC said.

 Since about this time last year, more than 45,000 U.S. children have been hospitalized with COVID, the CDC said.

 As of Aug. 7, an average of 203 children with COVID were admitted to U.S. hospitals each day through Aug. 11, the CDC said.

 Between Monday and Wednesday last week, Howard County saw 144 new cases of COVID  44 of those cases were school-age children, Howard County Nursing Director Jennifer Sexton said.

 More than 4,700 lives lost to COVID in Florida and Texas could have been saved if those states had higher vaccination rates, according to a study released last Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund and conducted by an international team of epidemiologists and data.

 Howard County averaged 218.7 new COVID cases daily between Aug. 4 and Aug. 11, according to the state health departments COVID Dashboard.

Dont wind up a statistic. If youre over the age of 12 and havent been vaccinated against COVID, do so.

Jeff Kovaleski is editor of the Kokomo Perspective. Contact him at editor@kokomoperspective.com
WARSAW, Ind., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE and SIX: ZBH), a global medical technology leader, today announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance of the ROSA Hip System for robotically-assisted direct anterior total hip replacement. ROSA Hip is the fourth robotic system introduced by Zimmer Biomet and adds to the Company's comprehensive ROSA Robotics portfolio, which includes the ROSA Knee System for total knee arthroplasty, ROSA Partial Knee System for partial knee arthroplasty and ROSA ONE for neurosurgical and spine procedures. ROSA Hip is the newest addition to ZBEdge, Zimmer Biomet's suite of integrated digital and robotic technologies purposefully engineered to deliver transformative data-powered clinical insights, shared seamlessly across the patient journey, and with the goal of improving patient outcomes.

"We're excited to announce the FDA clearance of ROSA Hip, and to now offer one of the most comprehensive orthopedic robotic solutions through a single, multiple application platform," said Ivan Tornos, Chief Operating Officer at Zimmer Biomet. "As an integrated component of our ZBEdge Connected Intelligence Suite, ROSA Hip advances our vision to translate pre-, intra-and post-operative data into actionable clinical insights to inform personalized care decisions."

Designed to seamlessly adapt to a surgeon's existing workflow, ROSA Hip aims to assist direct anterior surgeons with preparation, positioning and component impaction, while intra-operatively quantifying cup orientation, leg length and offset. Intra-operative data collected by ROSA Hip is combined with pre- and post-operative data collected by mymobility with Apple Watch, a proprietary remote care management platform, and it is seamlessly consolidated and analyzed by OrthoIntel Orthopedic Intelligence Platform, which is designed to uncover new clinical insights throughout the episode of care and help surgeons and care teams make informed decisions and optimize patient care.

ROSA Hip is designed for compatibility with multiple implant systems, including the Avenir Complete Hip System, an evolution of the Avenir Hip Implant that has a clinically-proven heritage of over 10 years.1,2,3,4 The Avenir Complete Hip System together with the G7 Acetabular System, a comprehensive offering of stems, shells and liners, aims to deliver greater operative flexibility and surgical excellence to help surgeons address the distinct needs of each patient.

"ROSA Hip will allow surgeons to retain complete control over case planning and execution, while providing real-time data and visualization tools," said Atul Kamath, M.D., Director, Center for Hip Preservation at the Cleveland Clinic and a ROSA Hip developer surgeon. "Even surgeons who are new to robotic-assisted surgery can easily tailor ROSA Hip to adapt to their own workflow. The robotic platform provides support during component positioning, cup impaction and other critical steps of an anterior approach total hip replacement. By reducing the intra-operative variability and inconsistency, this new technology has the potential to give surgeons and their patients greater confidence in seeking value in contemporary total hip replacement."

ROSA Hip is a fluoroscopy-based tool designed for surgeons who use the direct anterior approach, a minimally invasive approach to performing total hip replacement surgery. In addition to providing robotic assistance to guide accurate acetabular component orientation5, as well as intra-operative assessment of leg length and offset, the application allows surgeons to create a personalized surgical plan through the use of ONE Planner Hip. This pre-operative planner features a spinopelvic mobility assessment tool if both a sitting and standing lateral X-ray are provided with the anteroposterior (AP) X-ray, together with an auto-plan function that allows surgeons to potentially create a pre-operative plan within five minutes. ROSA Hip may also help improve procedural efficiency with a simplified set-up that doesn't require pins or reference arrays and the convenient option to use X-ray imaging instead of CT scans.

To learn more about ROSA Hip, please visit zimmerbiomet.com/ROSAHip.

About the Company

Zimmer Biomet is a global medical technology leader with a comprehensive portfolio designed to maximize mobility and improve health. We seamlessly transform the patient experience through our innovative products and suite of integrated digital and robotic technologies that leverage data, data analytics and artificial intelligence.

With 90+ years of trusted leadership and proven expertise, Zimmer Biomet is positioned to deliver the highest quality solutions to patients and providers. Our legacy continues to come to life today through our progressive culture of evolution and innovation.

For more information about our product portfolio, our operations in 25+ countries and sales in 100+ countries or about joining our team, visit www.zimmerbiomet.com or follow Zimmer Biomet on Twitter at www.twitter.com/zimmerbiomet.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

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This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning Zimmer Biomet's expectations, plans, prospects, and product and service offerings, including new product launches and potential clinical successes. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of management and are subject to significant risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. For a list and description of some of such risks and uncertainties, see Zimmer Biomet's periodic reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in Zimmer Biomet's filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Zimmer Biomet disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers of this news release are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, since there can be no assurance that these forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. This cautionary statement is applicable to all forward-looking statements contained in this news release.

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References

Boisgard S, Brientini J, et al. 7-year Results of Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty with the Uncemented Avenir Stem. Hip International 2018: 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1177/1120700018810211 Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR). 2018 Annual Report. https://aoanjrr.sahmri. com/ (accessed 21 March 2019 ). Endoprothesen Register Deutschland (EPRD). Annual Report, 2017. https://www.eprd.de/de/ (accessed 21 March 2019 ). NZ Joint Registry, New Zealand Orthopaedic Association. NZJR 19 Year Report Jan 1999 to Dec 2017 . https://nzoa.org.nz/nzoa-jointregistry (accessed 21 March 2019 ). Data on File. FER-SM210407-01

Apple Watch is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc.

ZBH-Corp

Contacts:











Media



Meredith Weissman



(703) 346-3127



meredith.weissman@zimmerbiomet.com











Investors



Ezgi Yagci Keri Mattox (617) 549-2443 (203) 399-0856 ezgi.yagci@zimmerbiomet.com keri.mattox@zimmerbiomet.com

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SOURCE Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.
Press Release

August 18, 2021 De Lima seeks probe into DOH's reported unspent funds and deficiencies Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima urged Congress to investigate the "very concerning" findings of the Commission on Audit (COA) on the Department of Health's (DOH) mismanagement of the budget for COVID-19 response, to ensure that those responsible be held accountable. In a Senate Resolution filed last Aug. 17, De Lima underscored the need to look into the COA's findings to address recurrent issues that plagued DOH's services, as well as the persistent lapses that give rise to wastage even amidst times of scarcity and shortage. "The lack of prudence and diligence on the part of the DOH should not be tolerated. Its failure to judiciously and meticulously plan and respond to the health needs of the country is unacceptable and warrants a thorough investigation to determine who are responsible," she said. The 2020 report of the COA on the DOH revealed that of the total appropriation of approximately 205.621 billion, pursuant to Republic Act No. 11465 or the General Appropriations Act for FY 2020, and of the total allotments received amounting to 200.855 billion, the DOH has unreleased appropriation, unobligated allotment, and unpaid obligation amounting to 4.765 billion, 24.641 billion and 34. 496 billion, respectively. De Lima noted that the same report likewise "exposed a very palpable repetition of what has already been previously pointed out by COA's findings in 2019." Notably, the state auditors again divulged that drugs, medicines, and other types of inventories with a total value of 95,675,058.98 were nearly expired or have expired due to "deficient procurement planning, poor distribution and monitoring systems, and identified weaknesses in internal controls." "This is not the first time that the DOH has been flagged by COA for its over-procurement and poor distribution of medicine," she stressed. In July 2019, COA said the DOH had ?18.449 billion worth of medicine purchased from 2015 to 2018 yet to be distributed to government hospitals, health centers and other government treatment facilities. The lady Senator from Bicol said the continued and persistent problems on the part of DOH that COA has reported undeniably shows its systemic failure to comply with relevant laws and rules. "The DOH's deliberate inaction on, and non-compliance with COA's recommendations also reveal lack of concern and gross negligence," she said. "The fact that in the thick of waging a war against COVID-19 there are unused funds from 2020 means the DOH lacks a sense of urgency with the rising deaths and infections," she added. "Namamatay ang ating mga frontliner nang walang nakukuhang sapat na benepisyo, gaya na lamang ni Maria Theresa Cruz, isang nurse sa Cainta na namatay noong nakaraang taon dahil sa COVID-19, na di man lang natanggap ang katiting na P60 kada araw na hazard pay. Tapos mababalitaan natin ang ganitong kapabayaan at kawalang malasakit na bilyon-bilyong pondo ang hindi masinop na ginastos?" De Lima said. De Lima maintained that the over-procurement and poor distribution of medicines and other medical supplies is a systemic problem within the DOH that has long crippled the health system thereby affecting the lives and safety of Filipinos. "The DOH cannot justify these occurrences to lockdowns and other health protocols, to which any responsive government agency should have already adjusted and adapted", she said. In October 2020, De Lima filed Senate Resolution No. 539 directing the appropriate Senate committee to look into the COA report showing 2.2 billion worth of expired or overstocked drugs, medicines, and other supplies in the inventory of the DOH.
Press Release

August 18, 2021 Comelec should reconsider voter registration extension: Pangilinan Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan urges the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reconsider their decision to reject calls to extend the voter registration period beyond September 30, 2021. Taking into account all the lost days because of the community quarantines, Pangilinan reiterates that September 30 was a "pre-pandemic" deadline and appeals for Comelec to adapt and adjust to the pandemic situation to avoid the disenfranchisement of millions of Filipino voters. "We regret that the Commission on Elections did not heed the clamor to extend our voter registration period despite the glaring numbers of lost registration days due to the pandemic. We strongly feel that the pre-pandemic deadline is no longer applicable today," said Pangilinan. Data show that in 2020, approximately 28.3% of days dedicated to voter registration were lost because of suspensions due to Covid. Metro Manila lost 38.6% of the registration period. In 2021, voter's registration has already been suspended twice in NCR Plus and other highly urbanized areas. "4 out of 10 registration days were lost during the five-and-a-half-month voter registration suspension in 2020. We should make up for this lost time by extending the voter registration period. May estimated pa na 13.3 million sa ating mga kababayan ang hindi pa rehistrado. Kung hindi ma-eextend ang deadline baka sila ay magahol sa oras at hindi na talaga makapagrehistro at hindi magamit ang kanilang karapatang makaboto sa 2022," said Pangilinan. The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) placed Metro Manila, Bataan, Laguna, Iloilo City and Cagayan de Oro City under ECQ while Apayao, Ilocos Norte, Cavite, Rizal, Lucena City, Aklan, Iloilo, Lapu-Lapu City, Mandaue City and Cebu City are placed under modified ECQ from August 6 - 20. "Nagpapasalamat kami sa Comelec sa pag apruba ng pag-extend ng oras ng registration, pati ang pagbukas ng tanggapan tuwing Sabado at kahit holiday baka naman pong pwede nating mapagbigyan ang hiling ng ating mga kababayan na i-extend ang deadline kahit dalawang linggo," he added. According to Comelec Commissioner Guanzon, the decision not to extend the voters registration beyond September 30 was because of the pre-election work that has to be done including the assigning of voters' names to precincts by December and the printing of the official ballots by January 2022. Under Republic Act No. 8189 or the Voter's Registration Act of 1996, Comelec has the prerogative to extend the registration period as long as it is conducted in a 120 day-period before a regular election and a 90-day period before a special election. "All of us are trying our best to adjust and adapt to this pandemic. We appeal for the Comelec to do the same and ensure that our people will be able to exercise their right to vote," said Pangilinan. Pangilinan, together with other senators, filed a Senate resolution urging the Commission on Elections to extend the deadline for voter registration to October 30, 2021 to prevent voter disenfranchisement brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. A similar resolution was filed by fifteen Liberal Party legislators in the lower house, while former Chair Christian Monsod and former Commissioner Luie Guia of the Comelec have also written the commission to push for the extension of voter registration.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is in the UAE, state news agency Wam reported on Wednesday.

The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds, WAM said.

Mr Ghani departed Afghanistan on Sunday amid discussions with the Taliban regarding a potential transitional political arrangement.

On August 15, the Taliban surged into Kabul having taken key cities in the preceding days including the vital northern trading centre of Mazar-i-Sharif and the eastern city of Jalalabad.

The UAE had affirmed Tuesday that it was closely following recent developments in brotherly Afghanistan, stressing the need to urgently achieve stability and security in the country, WAM had reported.

The Foreign Ministry had expressed its hope that Afghan parties will exert all efforts to achieve security, stability and development in Afghanistan to meet the hopes and aspirations of its brotherly people.
Detectives have finally arrested a suspect linked to the cold-blooded murder of four men in Kitengela last week.

The four; Fred Mureithi (30), and Victor Mwangi (25), Mike George (29), and Nicholas Musa (28), were on an after-party motor racing between Kitengela and Isinya in Kajiado when one motorcycle broke down.

While trying to repair the motorbike, they were ambushed and beaten to death by local herdsmen who accused them of plotting to steal livestock.

On Monday evening, DCI detectives arrested one Benson Melonyie ole Mungai from his hideout in Kitengela town.

The 40-year-old is said to have masterminded the killings. He was positively linked to the brutal killings after forensic investigations placed him at the scene of the crime.

Police said they established that Ole Mungai led and coordinated the killing of the four.

He remains in custody to assist us with further investigations, said the DCI.

A manhunt is presently underway for more suspects.
City politician Rachel Shebesh opened up about her battle with depression, revealing how it affected both her personal life and political career.

Speaking to Churchill on the Journey Series, Shebesh said she was depressed for a whole year while serving as the women representative.

I disappeared for a year and people were asking where I had gone to. And even when I came back, most people thought I was coming to ask for votes, she said, adding that she could not explain that she had been unwell for months.

It affected my family, broke a lot of my relationships. It caused my political visibility to reduce and also took a toll on my health.

When asked if it was the same time she was assaulted by former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, Shebesh said the incident was one of the triggers for her condition.

When you have bipolar, you can get triggers from anything. I was triggered by so many things and at the time, I had not learnt how to deal with my triggers, she said.

Shebesh told Churchill that the slapping incident also subjected her to cyberbullying and embarrassment.

Cyberbullying is heavy. I was reading on social media, newspapers and everywhere, wondering when all this was coming to an end.

If you dont have a strong support system around you, you might collapse. If I did not have someone around me and they understand what I was going through, I would have collapsed, she said.

Shebesh added: It was a lot of pressure. It was the most difficult depression I have ever gone through, she said, adding that she settled the matter with Kidero out of court.

We are at peace. To me, it is just an incident that happened in my life and I have moved on with it.

In a past interview, the Ministry of Public Service and Gender Cabinet Administrative Secretary (CAS) said Kidero paid her Sh30 million.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has congratulated Zambias President-elect Hakainde Hichilema following his election victory in the just concluded Presidential elections.

President Kenyatta said the election of President-elect Hichilema in a hotly contested presidential poll demonstrated the strong confidence and trust the people of Zambia have in his leadership.

Please accept my warm congratulations on your victory and my best wishes for your success as you take up the responsibilities and duties of your new high office as the incoming President of Zambia.

Excellency, as you embark upon your new responsibilities, I wish to assure you and the people of Zambia of the continued friendship of the Government and people of Kenya, President Kenyatta said in his congratulatory message to President-elect Hichilema.

President-elect Hichilema was declared the winner by Zambias Electoral Commission Chairman Justice Esau Chulu on Monday after garnering 2,810,757 votes against incumbent President Edgar Chagwa Lungus 1,814,201 of the votes counted in 155 out of the countrys 156 constituencies.

President Kenyatta said he looked forward to working closely with President-elect Hichilema to enhance bilateral cooperation between Kenya and Zambia for the benefit of the people of the two countries, as well as to advance the African agenda of a stable, peaceful and progressive continent.

At the same time, President Kenyatta bade farewell to outgoing President Lungu.

In his message to Mr Lungu, the President thanked the outgoing President for the role he played in forging closer ties between Kenya and Zambia during his tenure in office.
Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) displays Close Air Defence System YHSS at IDEF, the International Defense Exhibition that will be held in Istanbul, Turkey from 17 to 20 August 2021. Established in 1950, MKE is a reorganization of government-controlled group of factories in Turkey that supplied the Turkish Armed Forces with military products.

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Close Air Defence System YHSS (Picture source: Navy Recognition)

The design work of the Close Air Defence System was completed and the technology demonstration prototype was produced. A land version of the system for the protection of troops and facilities is also being developed.

The project is expected to be completed in the second half of 2022 to equip ships against missiles, bullets, UAVs, and helicopters. The system includes a 20x102 mm 6-barrel rotary gun with a high firing rate developed by Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) and an ammunition supply unit with a capacity of 1500 pieces.

Each barrel has a rate of fire between 3000 and 4000 rounds per minute. The turret has a traverse of 360 and elevation from -15 to +85.

The Close Air Defence System will provide at least 5 kilometers day/night vision capability and laser range measurement.

The Turkish Naval Forces use the Phalanx Close-in weapon system and Sea Zenith Close-in weapon system in ships currently, but these systems cannot be upgraded.
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Auburn University alumni Kimberly Johnson and Joey Darby recently earned the titles of Alabama 2021-22 Teacher of the Year and 2020 Fire Chief of the Year, respectively.

Johnson, who earned her bachelors in English/Language Arts Teacher Education from Auburns College of Education in 2008, teaches study skills classes at Auburn Junior High School. She has been an educator for more than 20 years and was chosen for the distinction from a group of 17 finalists, also taking Secondary Teacher of the Year honors.

Its just an honor to even be considered, and to actually win, Im just overwhelmed, Johnson told WSFAs Courtney Chandler at the Montgomery-based awards reception. Last year and the school year were coming into has been hard. Lets get in there, lets pull up our boot straps and lets do hard things, because the kids deserve it.

Johnson is a published author and a national board-certified teacher who works to develop more meaningful and authentic classroom approaches to help students. She has been a District Level Strategic Planning Team member, a U.S. Space Academy counselor, presented at the National Council of English Teachers Convention and is a member of the International Honorary Organization for Women Educators.

Alabamas Teacher of the Year serves as a full-time ambassador for education and the teaching profession and conducts workshops. The states teacher of the year becomes a candidate for National Teacher of the Year.

Darby, of the Foley Fire Department, was recognized as Fire Chief of the Year for the state of Alabama by the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs, and the award was presented at its annual meeting in Orange Beach on Aug. 10.

Darby has served as the Fire Chief of the City of Foley since Jan. 5, 2009. Previously, he served the City of Auburn Fire Division from 1994 until coming to Foley, having worked through the ranks to Battalion Chief.

He also served as fire chief of the Stillwater Volunteer Fire and Rescue Fire District from 2005-08. Darby began his fire service career serving as a volunteer firefighter in his home community of Walnut Hill, Florida, in 1992.

Being recognized by my peers as the 2020 Alabama Fire Chief of the Year is a great honor, and I am humbled to have been selected, Darby said. I have been blessed to serve the City of Foley, and I look forward to continuing in that service.

Darby says that his initial plans were to become an electrical engineer, but those changed when he had the opportunity to work for the City of Auburn as a student firefighter while attending Auburn University.

He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineeringnow known as Biosystems Engineeringfrom Auburn in 1999, but at that time had already advanced to a full-time position with the Fire Division and had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Therefore, he made the decision to continue his career in the fire service.

Darby became active in the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs, or AAFC, in 2006 and served on the executive board for many years, including as president from 2013-14. He also served as the AAFC appointment to the Alabama Fire College and Personnel Standards Commission for the past eight years.
SOURCE: RenewAmerica

By Cliff Kincaid

White House

What is lacking from the media coverage is any recognition that the inevitable result, according to congressional testimony, will be the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood and associated terrorist groups in Syria, and the genocide of the remaining Christians there.

In Egypt, right in front of our eyes, Obama facilitated a Muslim Brotherhood takeover, which has been stopped dead in its tracks by a true people's revolution that has brought the military to power. The Muslim Brotherhood has responded by attacking Christians and their churches.

Incredibly, it seems as if the crisis in Egypt will be repeated, except in the case of Syria the explicit purpose of Obama's military intervention, as it seems to be developing under the guidance of McCain and Graham, is the destruction of the regime that has been standing in the way of the complete obliteration of the Christians. There will be no one with authority left to rescue the Christians from the Muslim Brotherhood when it takes control in Damascus.

"The problem," writes terrorism analyst Steven Emerson, "is that anything that hurts [Syrian President] Assad, however inadvertently, benefits those same Islamist radicals we've all been worried about...Equally incredible is the fact that, in taking military action in Syria, America would effectively be standing on the same side as al Qaeda affiliate groups who also support them."

The issue isn't the odious nature of the Assad regime, backed by Russia and Iran, but the nature of the opposition, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the side of the conflict that Obama, McCain and Graham want the U.S. to support.

Graham, up for re-election next year, has been labeled by one of his opponents, South Carolina state Senator Lee Bright, as a "Community Organizer for the Muslim Brotherhood." Fox News host Lou Dobbs seemed surprised by the comment when Bright made it on his show, but noted that Graham and McCain did in fact "try to bring the Muslim Brotherhood back into the government after the military had gotten them out of there." Bright went on to say that McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee against Obama, had become "a tool of the Democrat Party" and that Graham was "following suit."

Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative is equally harsh. "John McCain and Lindsey Graham are carrying water for Obama's pro-jihadist intervention in Syria," she says. "Step and Fetchit McCain and Graham were at the White House today getting their marching orders from the Dear Leader. There were no Democrats at the White House today."

Geller is alluding to the fact that the Sunni branch of Islam, represented by the Muslim Brotherhood, al Qaeda and other jihadist groups, has targeted Syria for takeover. Al Jazeera, now in 40 to 50 million American homes, is their mouthpiece.

Strangely, Fox News figures William Kristol and Karl Rove were among those signing an August 27 letter supporting an Obama military strike on Syria, even without Congressional approval. On Monday night, after his White House meeting, Senator Graham appeared on the Fox News show "Special Report," with guest host Shannon Bream, and was given about six minutes of virtually uninterrupted time to make the case for Obama's war.

If Fox News is in the pocket of McCain and Graham, you know it's going to be difficult for opponents of Obama's war policy to get equal time and attention from the media. Perhaps this is why Kristol predicts the Republicans, who look to Fox News for guidance and direction, will fall in line behind Obama.

However, largely ignored in this debate are Syria's Christians, now facing the prospect of genocide. It is not too late to cover their plight.

On June 25, the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, together with the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, held an important hearing entitled, "Religious Minorities in Syria: Caught in the Middle."

Presiding over the hearing, Rep. Christopher Smith said, "The al-Nusra Front, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization, has been blamed for much of the sectarian rhetoric and violence, but dozens of the opposition groups ascribe to Islamist or Salafist-jihadist ideologies and mingle with the Free Syrian Army  which the U.S. may now be supporting."

Dr. John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International (CSI-USA), went further than Rep. Smith, testifying that the Obama Administration has given a "green light" to Sunni countries in the region "to militarily destabilize Syria," and that the human rights of religious minorities, especially Christians, are at risk.

Eibner said, "Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey may be beloved by America's military and economic interests, but all have grave democracy deficits and cannot serve as models for religious pluralism...Saudi Arabia and Qatar are Sunni absolute monarchies. All religious minorities are banned in the former. Nearly one hundred years ago the Christian minorities were virtually eradicated in Turkey by means of genocide. Successive Turkish governments, including the current government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, have taken patriotic pride in genocide denial."

Christian Solidarity International has issued a "Genocide Alert" for religious minorities in Syria.

It should be noted that Qatar is the financial sponsor of Al Jazeera, a channel serving as a voice for the Muslim Brotherhood that has been praised by McCain for making a "contribution" to world affairs.

Eibner's comments are not just speculation. More than a year ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that "U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats have stepped up their contacts with Syrian rebels" and that the CIA and State Department are working with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and "other allies" on behalf of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Zuhdi Jasser, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, testified that reports indicate that armed rebels affiliated with the FSA raided the Christian-populated al-Duvair village in Syria and massacred all its civilian residents, including women and children.

Rev. Majed El Shafie, founder of One Free World International, testified that the Islamist factions in Syria, which he said include Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist, and al Qaeda-linked groups, "are rapidly overtaking the undisciplined and poorly organized rebels as they have in other countries..." He fears that these Muslim groups will "cleanse Syria of the 'infidels'  Christians and other minorities  and establish an Islamist state."

"In fact," he said, "this process has already begun."

Is President Obama about to become party to the Muslim Brotherhood's genocidal process? If so, how many Republicans besides McCain and Graham will join with Obama?
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Google fined $200,000 by Russian court for refusal to delete prohibited information

 Interpress/ TASS

10:29 18/08/2021

MOSCOW, August 18 (RAPSI)  A magistrate judge of Moscows Tagansky district has fined Google 14 million rubles (about $200,000) for refusal to delete information banned by Russian legislation from a messenger, RAPSI has learnt from the courts press service.

The company has been found guilty of failure to delete information or Internet page when obliged by Russian law.

According to Russias communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, Google was earlier notified of its obligation to remove banned information, however the company failed to restrict access to it within 24 hours and became subject to fines.
The Network of Women in Media

August 17, 2021

The Network of Women in Media, India stands in solidarity with journalists and all other beleaguered civilians in Afghanistan, especially women, as the situation rapidly deteriorates amidst the Taliban take-over of the country. We urge the Indian government to extend all possible support to vulnerable civilians and journalists, particularly women journalists, in Afghanistan.

Women journalists that the NWMI has been in contact with are bearing witness to the utter chaos, terror and uncertainty as the nightmare of a brutal Taliban reign becomes a reality, pushing back decades of hard-won progress for women and girls, upon whom the Taliban has meted out particularly horrific treatment merely on account of their gender.

The period 2020-21 has been one of the deadliest for journalists in Afghanistan. According to the IFJ South Asia Press Freedom Report, from May 2020 to April 2021, eight journalists (four of them women) were killed, 20 were wounded and some imprisoned. aAt least 100 resigned from the industry and 50 were forced to flee beyond its borders. Such violence and a declining security situation represent a serious counter threat to the achievements of the last two decades in the field of freedom of expression and a free press in Afghanistan,a says the report. At least one female journalist has been killed since the report came out.

The voices of women journalists in Afghanistan tell of extreme precarity and risk:

a aThings are horrible and will get worse. If you donat have money, you can do nothing to save your life.a

a aWe are living in a very risky situation and day by day we lose hope. We are concerned about our safety but also the loss of our achievements. I am not afraid of killing and death but afraid of their (the Taliban) cruel behaviour. I am really afraid for the young women journalists live in the provinces. They are under pressure from this trauma and cannot escape.a

a aThe situation is very bad and we are in danger. Our radio station is not working right now because the Taliban attacked and ruined my radio stationa I really love my work and my country but I need to find safety for myself and my family, at least for a few months. I hope the international community will get us to better and safe living.a

a aLast week, I was a news journalist. Today, I canat even write under my own name or say where I am from or where I am. My whole life has been obliterated in just a few days.a

a aI want to come to India by unfortunately the visa became closed. I need financial help. I really love my work and my country but my family and life is also important.a

a aKabul is captured by the Taliban. We are really worried and concerned about the safety of all women journalists. I hope we have Internet connection and access. Pray for us. We fight and give sacrifice for nothing.a

a aThe biggest help is to facilitate visas for journalists to safer countries to keep us alive and hear our voice against injustice and violations.a

The NWMI urges the Government of India to immediately facilitate visas for Afghan journalists, especially women journalists, and their families, especially elderly dependents and minor children. Such evacuation must be without any discrimination whatsoever, especially any based on religion or ethnicity.

We hope that the Government of India, as well as Indian civil society and journalistsa bodies will arrange for the evacueesa accommodation and sustenance in India during this catastrophic crisis.

The Network of Women in Media, India

17 August 2021
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Mostly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 75F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 75F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
Seguin, TX (78155)

Today

Mostly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 75F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 75F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
[August 18, 2021] Textel Welcomes Hans Heltzel as Chief Experience Officer Textel, a rapidly growing texting platform for contact centers, announced the hiring of Hans Heltzel effective immediately. Heltzel comes to Textel with over 16 years of experience in the contact center industry. Before joining Textel, Heltzel served in various roles in the customer experience industry. He recently served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services at Genesys (News - Alert) , a leading contact center as a service solution. While at Genesys, Heltzel ran worldwide support, professional services, and managed services organizations. Heltzel will report to James Diel, CEO & Founder of Textel. His primary responsibilities will include overseeing customer implementations, professional services, and customer support. Hetzel's customer experience team will support the customer experience for over 1000 Textel customers, including a number of Fortune 500 companies. "Texting is revolutionizing the way businesses interact with their customers," says James Diel. "Hans's addition to our team shows that Textel is just as dedicated to delivering an amazing customer experience as our customers are to delivering an exceptional experience through texting." Heltzel joins at an exciting time for Textel. Within the last year, Textel secured $4M in a Series A funding round and announced integrations with Genesys and Five9. Textel has more than doubled its employee headcount as well. "This is a fantastic opportunity to work with a highly talented team who are doing amazing things for the customer experience," says Hans Heltzel. "I am excited for the chance to help Textel customers experience the benefits of what this texting platform has to offer."

About Textel Founded in 2014, Textel provides a texting platform for contact centers that is specifically designed to improve the customer experience, increase customer engagement, improve contact center performance, and drive revenue. With over 1,000 customers across North America, Textel is the texting platform for contact centers that want to communicate faster and more efficiently than traditional channels (email, voice, chat). To learn more, visit www.textel.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005278/en/

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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on August 18, 2021

2021/08/18

RIA Novosti: I'm wondering whether and under what conditions China will participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan?

Zhao Lijian: The Afghan situation has seen major changes recently. The Afghan people aspire for peace and stability after over 40 years of war and chaos. China hopes that all parties in Afghanistan would resolve differences through dialogue and consultation, avert new conflicts and humanitarian disasters, and work toward a smooth transition in the Afghan situation.

As a friendly neighbor to and sincere friend of Afghanistan, China always upholds a friendly policy towards the entire Afghan people. This did not, does not and will not change. China will continue to support peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan, and provide help for socioeconomic development in Afghanistan as our ability permits.

China Review News: The Spokesperson of the Afghan Taliban said at a press conference on August 17 that "We don't want to repeat any conflict... We don't want any internal enemies and any external enemies." He added the rights of women would be respected within the framework of Islamic law, and the Taliban would seek good relations with other countries and intended to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: We noted relevant remarks by the Afghan Taliban. China hopes that the Afghan Taliban and factions in Afghanistan will establish an open and inclusive political structure through dialogue and consultation, implement moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, and earnestly protect the safety of foreign institutions and personnel in Afghanistan. At the same time, we hope it will resolutely crack down on all kinds of terrorist forces, including the ETIM, and earnestly honor the commitment of not allowing any force to use Afghan territory to threaten the security of its neighbors. China will continue to work with the international community to support peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan and help it achieve lasting peace and stability.

Phoenix TV: We also noted that the United Nations Human Rights Council will hold a special session in Geneva next week to discuss the human rights situation in Afghanistan and concerns over it. What is China's position on this issue?

Zhao Lijian: The situation in Afghanistan has undergone major changes. We respect the will and choice of the Afghan people. The top priority is to restore peace, stability and order at an early date and avoid as much as possible unnecessary casualties and prevent causing a large number of refugees. The safety and interests of Afghan citizens, foreign nationals and diplomats in Afghanistan must be respected and guaranteed. We hope that the Afghan Taliban will form solidarity with all factions and ethnic groups in Afghanistan to establish an open and inclusive political structure that suits Afghanistan's national conditions, curb all kinds of terrorism and criminal acts, and rebuild their beautiful homeland.

Facts have once again proved that some countries' military intervention against a sovereign state in the name of democracy and human rights has seriously undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of relevant country, causing serious damage to its economic and social development and leading to massive civilian casualties and displacement. These countries should immediately stop illegal military intervention and make concrete efforts to safeguard world peace and security and promote and protect human rights.

People's Daily: Informed sources have revealed that the US still intends to release the report on origins tracing as scheduled and make up misleading conclusions on virus-leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, although there is not any tangible progress in the "origins tracing investigation" by the US intelligence agencies yet. High-level officials of the US government believe that the investigation is not the purpose and that launching the investigation itself bears its meaning. Continuing to hype the "origins-tracing investigations" can exhaust China's diplomatic resources and increase US leverage toward China. In the meantime, the US has been pressuring the WHO and Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to launch the "second-phase origins tracing" on China as soon as possible and pushing for a third-party independent investigation outside the framework of the WHO with allies as it sees necessary. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: I noted relevant reports. The words of senior US officials, as revealed in the reports, that "the investigation is not the purpose and that launching the investigation itself bears its meaning" is in itself a confession of the US manipulation for presumption of guilt. What the US cares about is not facts and truth, but how to consume and malign China. Isn't the US' malicious intention of political manipulation evident enough?

The world will no long be deceived by the old US ploy of set-up with a vial of washing powder. Instead, the international community is getting more and more suspicious of the US as it is sparing no effort to smear China by all means. Is it trying to deflect people's attention from the questionable points and spotty track records of the bio labs at Fort Detrick? What is the US trying to hide?

In addition to Fort Detrick, which the US is reticent about, the US has set up over 200 biological laboratories around the world to conduct bio-military activities under various names. The sites of US labs often see more outbreaks of diseases such as plague, anthrax and MERS. According to US media reports, the US military carried the novel coronavirus to Europe through a blood program in 2019 and civilian volunteers entering the US base in Italy in August that year became the earliest victims. Does the US side have any explanation?

China has always supported and will continue to participate in science-based origins study. We have twice invited WHO to China for joint research, which produced scientific and authoritative conclusions and laid the foundation for the next-phase global origins tracing work. What we firmly oppose is politicization of origins tracing. No matter how hard the US tries to smear and falsely accuse others, it does not help to dispel the doubts of the international community about the US' bio-labs all over the world. If the US has nothing to hide, it should invite the WHO to the US in an above-board manner to carry out origins tracing, especially at Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina. This is the sincerity and attitude a country who really cares about global origins tracing is supposed to show.

AFP: Does China plan to recognize the Afghan Taliban government? If not now, on what conditions will China recognize it?

Zhao Lijian: It is a customary international practice that the recognition of a government comes after its formation. China's position on the Afghan issue is clear and consistent. We hope that Afghanistan can form an open, inclusive and broadly representative government that echoes the widely shared aspirations of its own people and the international community.

Bloomberg: Republican Senator Marco Rubio said that TikTok should be banned in the US given what he says are clear ties between the Chinese government and the app's parent company ByteDance. Does the foreign ministry have any comment on this?

Zhao Lijian: The US politician you mentioned has been making anti-China remarks tirelessly for his own interests in disregard of facts, and is doomed to end up in the dustbin of history. We suggest that this "elected representative" in the US take concrete measures for the benefit of the people instead of being obsessed with political manipulation and suppression of foreign companies.
Driver James MacDonald, trainer Nick Gallucci and owner-breeder Millar Farms of Stouffville, Ont. swept the third leg of the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series for two-year-old pacing fillies at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Tuesday (Aug. 17) as Silver Label and Prohibition Legal turned in impressive performances.

Silver Label was first out of the gate for the Millar Farms team, starting from Post 5 in the first $103,000 Gold division. When many of his peers opted to float away from the gate, MacDonald shifted Silver Label into gear and the filly led the field of 10 to a :27.1 opening quarter. The fan favourites yielded briefly to Watch Her Dance, but MacDonald had Silver Label back in front by the :55.1 half. Around the final turn Silver Label opened up three lengths on her peers and was on cruise control down the stretch, pacing under the wire in a personal best 1:52. Fade Out and Love That Smile closed well for second and third, three and one-quarter lengths behind Silver Label.

It was nice seeing her pace around the turn, the way she opened up on them. I think that was a really big step forward for her, she kind of proved herself as one of the tops in the division now, said Gallucci. She is really confident right now and shes just really full of herself. We couldnt really ask for much more from her at this point.

Gallucci said the daughter of Bettors Delight and Hidden Gem trained down like a professional all winter, but her full siblings were more successful as older horses so they were hopeful, but not confident that she would fulfill her potential this season.

She always seemed to do everything so easy; all the steps were so easy for her, said the Stouffville resident. It seems like one of her best attributes is you can do whatever you want with her. You can leave, you can take her off the gate, shes just really willing.

Shes just got so many gears; hopefully we havent seen the bottom of her yet.

The win was Silver Labels second in Gold Series action and her fourth in four starts. She was also victorious in the July 6 Grassroots opener at Georgian Downs and in an Aug. 2 overnight at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Four races later Gallucci was overcome with emotion when Prohibition Legal put on a display of raw power, closing from fifth to collar pacesetting favourite Balance and pocket-sitter Flo in a personal best 1:52. Two weeks ago the filly was at the University of Guelphs Equine Clinic with a bout of abdominal pain and the Millar Farms team did not know whether she would race again this summer, let alone recover in time to compete in Tuesdays leg.

Luckily the University was able to do it medically and didnt have to do surgery, said Gallucci, noting that the filly spent five days in Guelph. We really dodged a big bullet there, we were all really nervous, hoping that they wouldnt have to do surgery and lose the year.

This win was just so special. Its one I am not going to forget.

Gallucci kept MacDonald apprised of the fillys health status and was grateful that the driver stuck with the two-time Gold winner. In addition to Prohibition Legal, the Guelph, Ont. resident had the option to drive Balance, who he guided to a commanding 1:53.2 win in the Whenuwishuponastar Final on Aug. 10. The trainer also appreciated the trip MacDonald crafted for Prohibition Legal.

Its just unbelievable how fast this horse can come off a helmet, and that was the first time we really got to see it in a race. The other races she was first over and on the lead, and I think this is her best racing tactics, off the pace and coming off a helmet, said Gallucci of the daughter of Big Jim and Catch A Wish. Its pretty surreal to watch her do it, its amazing. For everything she went through, she made us all really proud and Im really happy for George (Millar). Its just really amazing.

So long as they remain happy and healthy, in the coming weeks Silver Label and Prohibition Legals schedules will diverge. Silver Label has the remaining Gold Series events, Sept. 3 and Oct. 2 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and the Sept. 11 Champlain Stakes. Prohibition Legal has those, along with the Aug. 28 Eternal Camnation and the Shes A Great Lady, with eliminations Sept. 18 and the final Sept. 25, among her options.

Well just kind of take it week to week and hope that theyre ready to go when the money is on the line. Luckily these fillies have been so far, hopefully it carries forward, said Gallucci. It would be really nice to win one of the major Grand Circuit races, but I am just as happy winning a Gold. Its really amazing wining these races.

On Thursday evening (Aug. 19), Woodbine Mohawk Park welcomes back the two-year-old trotting colts for their third Gold Series Leg. The colts will compete in a trio of $69,733 divisions, going postward in Races 2, 6, and 10. Fans can download a program and watch the live stream on the Woodbine Mohawk Park website or register here to attend in person.

To view the results from Tuesday's card of harness racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park, click the following link: Tuesday Results - Woodbine Mohawk Park.

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The United Cooperative Assurance Company (UCA) has signed an agreement with the Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB), under which SRB will facilitate the process for Sharia review, certification and Sharia audit on UCA's products, transactions and activities.



UCA has been serving the Kingdom for over a decade with a range of insurance products such as medical, personal accident, protection, marine cargo and motor insurance.



Mohammed Basrawi, UCA CEO said "Customer focus has always been at the centre of our strategy, and we have built our products around it. The changes brought about by the pandemic, has moved us to optimize our resources in order to continue to deliver on our promise to our customers."



"We wanted a local Shariah advisory firm with a global market presence so that UCA benefits from their experience and provide its customers with a value-added satisfaction of Sharia compliance when they buy our products". I am confident that their wealth of cooperative insurance experience, reach, scale and track record in the Kingdom will help us focus on our core offering as we gradually expand our services to more and more customers in the Kingdom, he added.



Over the years, Saudi based insurance operators have been benefiting by having their Sharia compliance needs outsourced. SRB has strongly established itself as one of the leading Sharia advisory companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.



Leading with a dedicated team of Sharia Consultants and Sharia auditors it currently oversees the Sharia compliance management of almost 52% of the cooperative Insurance firms listed on Tadawul. It empowers organizations by outsourcing their Sharia complaint needs - from setting up Sharia Committees to swift certification, screening, and Sharia Audits without compromising on quality.



Speaking on the engagement announcement, Yasser S Dahlawi, CEO of SRB said Through the Sharia supervisory services we continue to provide measurable business value for our insurance sector clients and United Cooperative Assurance is a new addition to this clientele list in the Kingdom.



The competitive business dynamics and the shift in consumer buying behaviour is compelling organization to seek ways to grow year on year by efficiently using their resources and not compromising on quality or Sharia assurance he added.



We are witnessing an established trend where firms like UCA see opportunities and benefit by focusing on their core product line and outsourcing functions like Sharia compliance to deliver better and profitable customer experiences he concluded.  TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain-based Batelco, a leading telecom group in the region, kicked off its Elevator to Success youth development programme with a virtual induction meeting for the students selected for the programme and their parents.



During the meeting, Batelco outlined the details of the 4-year programme, highlighting the curriculum for the first year that will be carried out in collaboration with Batelcos partners for the programme, INJAZ Bahrain, Brinc and Clever Play.



Elevator to Success is a 4-year training programme announced by Batelco in December 2020 that aims at enhancing students readiness for the workplace by the time they graduate. This will be achieved through early engagement at the beginning of the students university education journey and through focussing on digital skills. Throughout the programme students will be provided with mentorship, professional certification, and guaranteed on-job training.



Following the induction meeting, a Career Guidance Assessment session was arranged with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF), to test and align the students aptitudes, assess their interests, and explore their individual personality traits, using the outcomes as a guiding point to help the students make decisions about their curriculum choices and career paths.



Shaikh Bader bin Rashid Al Khalifa, General Manager of Corporate Communications & CSR at Batelco, said: We were delighted to meet the selected students and their parents during the virtual meeting. It was uplifting to witness their enthusiasm and we look forward to supporting them in collaboration with our partners, providing them with the necessary guidance and practical skills for their future professional success.



The Elevator to Success programme was created as part of Batelcos commitment to support educational efforts in the Kingdom of Bahrain and in line with our CSR programme that has always prioritized education as a key pillar. Our aim is to create a positive impact on society and drive youth-centric initiatives that will support future generations in line with Bahrains Economic Vision 2030,Shaikh Bader concluded.  TradeArabia News Service
Gulf Medical University has become one of the latest international institutions to receive global accreditation from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), the UKs independent quality body.

Global accreditation is awarded to international institutions who have passed QAAs rigorous International Quality Review [IQR], which measures global institutions against international quality assurance standards set out in Part 1 of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG).

The review, which took place in April 2021, was completed by a team of three independent reviewers, including an international expert and a student reviewer appointed by QAA. In making their conclusions, the independent review teams confirmed that Gulf Medical University meets all 10 of the ESG.

The review team also identified a number of features of good practice:

 Effective use of external examiners, and externality more broadly, in assuring assessment standards and external benchmarking;

 Multiple opportunities for students to provide feedback, which has positively impacted on the overall learning experience; and

 GMUs Quality Assurance and Institutional Effectiveness portal, which provides staff at all levels easy access to data and information.

Professor Hossam Hamdy, Chancellor, Gulf Medical University said: The accreditation of Gulf Medical University (GMU) by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) is an important milestone in the history of the University. We were pleased that the report indicated that we have met all the 10 standards of the ESG, the few desirable suggestions for improvement will certainly help us develop further.

Engaging over 1 year in the process for getting the accreditation was a very constructive journey with many positive outcomes to our institute!

Vicki Stott, QAA Executive Director of Operations and Deputy Chief Executive said: This is a fantastic achievement for Gulf Medical University, demonstrating that they meet standards of international best practice. Successful institutions rely on collaboration and benchmarking, and thats exactly what IQR provides: allowing international institutions to measure their own approach to quality assurance against European quality standards. It also allows international institutions to demonstrate and improve their effectiveness, improve public perception and to develop new partnerships with UK and European institutions.

Gulf Medical University has obtained QAA institutional accreditation for a period of five years, subject to a satisfactory mid-cycle review. This allows them to display QAAs IQR Accreditation Badge, demonstrating that their quality assurance procedures are comparable with international best practice.

By securing global accreditation from QAA, international institutions can clearly spotlight their quality standards internationally, and more easily open dialogue with institutions outside their own country.

-- TradeArabia News Service
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, owners and operators of some of the worlds luxurious hotels, resorts and residences, is marking the easing of European travel restrictions to the fully vaccinated with a One More Night offer.

It is an accommodation package available at select properties within Europe as well as the Middle East that extends any holiday with a complimentary additional night (when booking a minimum of two or three nights; varies by property).

Additional benefits, such as room upgrades or a late check-out, are available via Fans of M.O., the groups guest recognition programme.

Brand and Experience Marketing SVP Kristin Ruble said: We are thrilled to welcome guests back to many of our destinations as we watch the restrictions ease for vaccinated travellers."

From the streets of Paris, London and Milan to the shores of Bodrum and Lake Como, Mandarin Orientals hotels and resorts span the European continent.

The following destinations offer quarantine-free travel to fully vaccinated travellers: Barcelona, Bodrum, Geneva, Lake Como, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Prague and Abu Dhabi and an upcoming property in Istanbul later this month.

"While travel restrictions and protocols are easing to vaccinated travellers, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group maintains strict health and cleanliness standards as well as safe distancing throughout the groups public spaces, spas, dining outlets, and more," said a group spokesperson.

Having grown from its Asian roots into a global brand, the group operates 34 hotels and seven residences in 24 countries and territories.-TradeArabia News Service
Marriott International, which encompasses a portfolio of roughly 7,800 properties under 30 leading brands, has announced plans to expand its portfolio in Turkey with the expected opening of 10 properties by the end of 2022.



With the anticipated openings, the companys portfolio in Turkey is expected to encompass 43 properties with over 7,000 rooms across eight markets by the end of 2022. Reinforcing its long-term focus on the market, the company also announced two recent deal signings under the Four Points by Sheraton brand.



Marriott International has a strong history of successful operations in the Turkish market, said Begum Kaya, Director of Development, Turkey at Marriott International. With our captivating portfolio of brands, world-class distribution platform and all-encompassing travel program, Marriott Bonvoy, we appreciate the confidence our owners and franchisees have with us in this exciting market.



Marriott International continues to see growth in its select portfolio across brands such as Four Points by Sheraton and Residence Inn by Marriott. Four Points by Sheraton builds upon its momentum in the Turkish market with the Four Points by Sheraton Istanbul Kagithane expected to open this year and the Four Points by Sheraton Elazig projected to open in 2022.



To meet the demand for longer-stay accommodations in the country, the company is expected to debut its extended stay brand, Residence Inn by Marriott, with the anticipated opening of Residence Inn by Marriott Istanbul Atasehir later this year. The brand is ideal for guests seeking the comforts of home with modern, flexible suites with full kitchens and separate living and sleeping areas, providing the perfect solution for travelers mixing business and leisure travel.



The companys renowned premium brands also remain a strong driver of growth in the Turkish market. Following the recent opening of Orientbank Hotel Istanbul, Autograph Collection, two new Autograph Collection hotels are planned to open in Istanbul  The Burdock, Autograph Collection in 2021 and Orient Occident Hotel, Autograph Collection in 2022.



Providing independent hoteliers the opportunity to leverage the companys powerful distribution, sales and loyalty platform while maintaining their independent spirit, Autograph Collection hotels celebrate individuality while benefiting from the power of Marriott Internationals scale.



Delta Hotels by Marriott, which provides guests with exactly what they need for a seamless travel experience, made its debut in the country in 2019 with the opening of Delta Hotels by Marriott Istanbul Halic. The brand is slated to open Delta Hotels by Marriott Istanbul Levent by the end of 2021.



Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, which is currently undergoing a much-anticipated design transformation, remains a popular brand in Turkey. Following the recent openings of Sheraton Istanbul City Center and Sheraton Istanbul Levent, the brand is anticipated to open Sheraton Istanbul Esenyurt next year.



Drawing on its roots as a community hub for locals and guests, the new Sheraton experience provides services and design that enable socialization, productivity, and personalization. Marriott Hotels, the companys flagship brand, continues to further grow its portfolio in Turkey with the recent opening of Izmir Marriott Hotel.



Growing demand branded residences



In Turkey, the companys branded residential business continues to draw interest , with consumers seeking residential property in communities that offer a convenient lifestyle and an array of on-demand amenities and services, and with developers seeking to differentiate and elevate their products with trusted brands.



Marriott International currently operates three branded residential properties in Turkey, including the recently opened Le Meridien Residences, Bodrum and The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Bodrum, which marked the companys first standalone branded residences in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. In 2022, the company is expected to open The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Istanbul and The Residences at the Sheraton Istanbul Esenyurt.



Growth in conversion opportunities



While much of the companys past growth in Turkey has been through new-build developments, the company has seen an increase in conversion opportunities. In the past two years, the company has signed six conversion deals across the country. The company has since opened five of the conversion deals under a Marriott International brand, including Sheraton Istanbul City Centre and Sheraton Istanbul Levent.



There is also increased interest in the adaptive re-use space where developers are looking to convert existing buildings into hotel accommodations. In the past three years, the company has signed four adaptive re-use conversions in Turkey including JW Marriott Istanbul Bosphorus and The Burdock, Autograph Collection.



Turkey is home to 17 of Marriott Internationals brands, each serving differentiated experiences across traveler segments. The brands currently present in Turkey include:



JW Marriott, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton, W Hotels, The Luxury Collection, and EDITION in the luxury segment; Marriott Hotels, Sheraton, Renaissance Hotels, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Delta Hotels by Marriott, and Design Hotels in the premium segment; Courtyard by Marriott, Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft Hotels and AC Hotels by Marriott, in the select service segment.  TradeArabia News Service
Taliban Controls Afghanistan: The Latest

By The Associated Press

KABUL - The Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly two-decade war.The insurgents stormed across the country, capturing all major cities in a matter of days, as Afghan security forces trained and equipped by the U.S. and its allies melted away.Here's a look at the latest developments:The Taliban vowed Tuesday to respect women's rights, forgive those who resisted them and ensure a secure Afghanistan as part of a publicity blitz aimed at convincing world powers and a fearful population that they have changed.Following a lightning offensive across Afghanistan that saw many cities fall to the insurgents without a fight, the Taliban have sought to portray themselves as more moderate than when they imposed a brutal rule in the late 1990s. But many Afghans remain skeptical  and thousands raced to the airport on Monday, desperate to flee the country.Older generations remember the Talibans ultraconservative Islamic views, which included severe restrictions on women as well as public stonings and amputations before they were ousted by the U.S-led invasion following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.As others have in recent days, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addressed these concerns head on in his first news conference Tuesday.Mujahid, who had been a shadowy figure for years, promised the Taliban would honor womens rights, but within the norms of Islamic law, though he gave few details. He said the group wanted private media to remain independent, but stressed journalists should not work against national values.And he promised the insurgents would secure Afghanistan  but seek no revenge against those who worked with the former government or with foreign governments or forces.We assure you that nobody will go to their doors to ask why they helped, he said.Earlier, Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Talibans cultural commission, made similar promises, saying the Taliban would extend an amnesty without giving details and encouraging women to join the government.The capital of Kabul remained quiet for another day as the Taliban patrolled its streets and many residents stayed home, fearful after the insurgents takeover saw prisons emptied and armories looted. Many women have expressed dread that the two-decade Western experiment to expand their rights and remake Afghanistan would not survive the resurgent Taliban.Germany, meanwhile, halted development aid to Afghanistan over the Taliban takeover. Such aid is a crucial source of funding for the country  and the Taliban's efforts to project a milder version of themselves may be aimed at ensuring that money continues to flow.While the Taliban pledged not to go after their enemies, some in Kabul allege the fighters have lists of people who cooperated with the government and are seeking them out. A broadcaster in Afghanistan said she was hiding at a relatives house, too frightened to return home much less return to work following reports that the insurgents are also looking for journalists. She said she and other women didn't believe the Taliban had changed their ways. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety.Samangani addressed the concerns of women, saying a Taliban were ready to "provide women with environment to work and study, and the presence of women in different (government) structures according to Islamic law and in accordance with our cultural values.That would be a marked departure from the last time the Taliban were in power, when women were largely confined to their homes.In another sign of the Taliban's efforts to portray a new image, a female television anchor on the private broadcaster Tolo interviewed a Taliban official on camera Tuesday in a studio  an interaction that once would have been unthinkable. Meanwhile, women in hijabs demonstrated briefly in Kabul, holding signs demanding the Taliban not eliminate women from public life.Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, noted both the Talibans vows and the fears of everyday Afghans.Such promises will need to be honored, and for the time being  again understandably, given past history  these declarations have been greeted with some skepticism, he said in a statement. There have been many hard-won advances in human rights over the past two decades. The rights of all Afghans must be defended.On Tuesday, the European Union suspended payments of development assistance to the country, but is weighing whether to boost humanitarian aid. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says there can be no payments of development assistance until we clarify the situation with Taliban leaders. The 27-nation bloc has pledged about $1.4 billion for Afghanistan for the period 2021-2024.Germany has also suspended an estimated $294 million in 2021 developmental aid to Afghanistan. Other funding separately goes to security services and humanitarian aid. Sweden indicated it would slow aid to the country, but Britain committed to as much as 10 percent increase in humanitarian aid, but none for security.Meanwhile, Kabul's international airport, the only way out for many, reopened to military evacuation flights under the watch of American troops.All flights were suspended on Monday when thousands of people rushed the airport. In shocking scenes captured on video, some clung to a plane as it took off and then fell to their deaths. At least seven people died in chaos at the airport, U.S. officials said.By late Tuesday, the Taliban entered the civilian half of the airport, firing into the air to drive out around 500 people there, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to brief journalists.Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said U.S. commanders at the airport are communicating with Taliban leaders to keep the airlift going, adding that there have been no hostile actions by the Taliban.Still, there were indications that the situation remained tenuous. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, now operating from the airport, urged Americans to register online for evacuations but not come to the airport before being contacted.Kirby said up to 22,000 Afghans and their families could be housed at the installations. Kirby did not identify more specific locations. On ABCs Good Morning America, Kirby said that the U.S. Defense and State departments are working together to evacuate as many Americans and Afghans as quickly as possible.He added that several thousand U.S. service members now arriving in Afghanistan will there for the next couple of weeks to help with the evacuation.The German Foreign Ministry said a first German military transport plane landed in Kabul, but it took off with only seven people on board due to continued chaos. Another left later with 125 people.Across Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross said thousands had been wounded in fighting as the Taliban swept across the country in recent days, ahead of the planned withdrawal of the last American troops at the end of the month.As U.S. President Joe Biden did, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg blamed the swift collapse of the country on a failure of Afghan leadership. But he added that the alliance must also uncover flaws in its effort to train the Afghan military.Talks continued Tuesday between the Taliban and several Afghan government officials, including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the countrys negotiating council.Discussions focused on how a Taliban-dominated government would operate given the changes in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, rather than just dividing up who controlled what ministries, officials with knowledge of the negotiations said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential details of the talks.A top Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Kandahar on Tuesday night from Qatar. His arrival may signal a deal is close at hand.But in a possible complication, the vice president of the ousted government claimed on Twitter Tuesday that he was the country's legitimate caretaker president. Amrullah Saleh said, under the constitution, he should be in charge because President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country.
We publish information about wines grown from certified organic or Biodynamic vineyards that are generally made with sulfites (which are usually added in small amounts to preserve the wine).





That includes these certification types:





ORGANIC WINE CERTIFICATIONS





 Made with Organic Grapes





Vineyards: certified organic

Vinification : less than 100 ppm of sulfites (i.e. a normal range)

Winery: certified organic facility

Labeling : front or back label





 Ingredients: Organic Grapes





Vineyards : certified organic

Vinification: up to 350 ppm of sulfites (same as for any non organic wine)

Labeling: back label only





BIODYNAMIC CERTIFICATIONS





 Biodynamic Wine





Vineyards : certified biodynamic

Yeasts : native

Vinification : less than 100 ppm of sulfites; no additives of any kind

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back label; Demeter logo may appear





 Made with Biodynamic Grapes





Vineyards : certified biodynamic

Yeasts : native or organic

Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; limited number of additives permitted

Winery: certified biodynamic facility

Labeling: front or back





Note : unlike organically grown wines, for which there is a category called "Ingredients: Organic Grapes," wines sourced from biodynamic grapes may not make any biodynamic claim on the bottle label. Bottle labeling is reserved for Demeter certified wines only.





SULFITES IN CONTEXT





According to U.C. Davis, t he average among all wines in the U.S. (as well as globally) is 80 ppm.





WHAT THE USDA CALLS ORGANIC WINES





Unlike any other nation, the U.S. oddly imposes a no sulfite restriction on wines in order for them to be called Organic Wine. These wines are also called NSA or NAS wines (which stands for "No Sulfites Added" or "No Added Sulfites.")





From the above description, one can see that there are in fact three types of organically grown wines:





1. Organic Wine (less than 15% of all organically grown wine)

2. Made with Organic Grapes

3. Ingredients: Organic Grapes





The vast majority of wines from organic grapes are labeled Made with Organic Grapes, Ingredients: Organic Grapes or are blended with nonorganic grapes and unlabeled.





Fine winemakers do not generally make wine without sulfites and a number of large wine retailers like BevMo do not sell wine in the category of "USDA Organic Wine."





With rare exceptions, this blog does not cover what the USDA calls "Organic Wine."





We are hopeful that the USDA will revise the categorization of organically grown wines and make NSA or NAS wines a category of their own.





This would put the U.S. in accord with the rest of the world, where "Organic Wine" means a wine from certified grapes made within limits on sulfites (generally under 100-150 ppm).




by Vladimir Rozanskij

Notwithstanding the competition between the two great powers, the seizure of Afghanistan by the Taliban imposes united front to curb radical groups in Central Asia. Already in recent days joint Russian-Chinese military maneuvers. Meanwhile, Lukashenko also risks economic repercussions from the new course in Kabul.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The joint Russian-Chinese military maneuvers of the past few days in northwest China, in an effort to present an anti-terrorist maneuvers testify to Beijing and Moscow's shared concern over the spiral of violence that could be unleashed after the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Many observers believe extremist groups could strengthen their positions at the borders of the two great Asian powers and this seems to bring the two countries, which often appear as competitors in the economic sphere of Central Asia, closer together. Although some fear that in reality this tension could exacerbate their antagonism later on.

In the Chinese autonomous region of Ningxia there are currently more than 10 thousand soldiers from both countries, with a large equipment of artillery, aircraft and armored vehicles. Training maneuvers are planned to counter guerrilla acts in territories that are difficult to control.

The Russian Defense Ministry stresses that the exercises aim to be a "the demonstration of the decision and capabilities of Russia and China in the fight against possible ground enemies." Similar maneuvers are held with the cooperation of the Russians in other Central Asian countries, especially in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The conflict between the Russians and the Chinese remains in the economic field, where both try to attract the countries of the region to their area of influence.

At present, both have to worry first of all about the economic stability of the area, as Vasilij Kasin of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences says: "Both Russia and China must now avoid the destabilization of the area, and also the relocation of the US military presence".

In his opinion, if the situation were to worsen, the problem of acting more decisively would arise: "It could come to a Russian-Chinese military coalition, no one could control the situation alone." If a conflict were to put everything back into play, it would, however, be difficult to predict the outcome of this purely tactical alliance.

Russia is also particularly concerned about the possible expansion of the Taliban within the territories of the Federation, across the lines of the former Soviet countries. This is what the well-known journalist Dmitry Gordon points out in Ekho Moskvy: "If the Taliban were to appear on the Russian borders, the problem of how to contain them would arise, knowing their ability in such inaccessible lands, and their indefatigable aptitude for guerrilla warfare, which begins with putting Kalashnikov rifles in the hands of 10-year-old children".

In Russia, Gordon reminds us, almost 30 million Muslims live in territories annexed by Russia in the last two centuries, and many of them could be attracted by the fundamentalism of the "students of Allah".

The same Central Asian countries, led by formally "secular" regimes, are very worried about the formation of an Islamic emirate behind their homes. The Taliban assure that they do not want to meddle in the internal affairs of these countries, but their own ideology seems to contradict them, and it is not at all clear what relations will actually be established both on a bilateral and overall level.

A particular alarm comes from Belarus, one of the strong points of its economy being exports to Afghanistan: in 2020 alone, these amounted to 184 million dollars, and in 2021 they had already reached 113 million. In reality, this would be only 1% of total Belarusian exports, but the country will soon be hit by heavy Western sanctions due to Lukashenko's repressions.

The Afghanistan situation, moreover, occurred at the very crucial time of Belarusian foreign debt payments, to be made in dollars, and Afghan revenue shortfalls could be particularly painful, as Belarusian economist Katerina Bornukova notes on Zerkalo. I: "Belarus currently exports mainly tractors and oil products to Russia, which often act as a camouflage for arms deals... it is not known how much the Taliban will now need them, since they seem to have no shortage of weapons."

As a result of sanctions, Belarus will be forced to look for other ways to make money from its production, and the risk is that the whole thing will spill over to Russian "big brother".
According to the Director General Grossi "a new mode of operation" is underway in the Natanz plant. A second cascade of centrifuges launched to raise the level of enrichment. The goal is the 90% threshold necessary to produce a nuclear device. Stalemate in negotiations in Vienna, the EU aims at a date for September.

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Tehran has launched a new process to boost the pace of production of enriched uranium that now reaches 60%, a level considered increasingly close to the fateful threshold of 90% judged by experts necessary to produce the atomic bomb, according to Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IEA). Grossi's report came amid negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 agreement (Jcpoa), which limits the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities, still remain stalled.

The leader of the UN agency told member states that Iran has "configured a new mode of operation for the production of 60% enriched uranium" at the Natanz plant in the center of the country. For Grossi, a second cascade of centrifuges has been activated - after the first one started in April - to raise the level of enrichment.

Tehran had begun in mid-April to raise the level of enrichment, up from the 20 percent set earlier and well above the 3.67 percent limit enshrined in the 2015 international nuclear agreement. To produce an atomic bomb, enrichment must be pushed to a threshold of 90 percent or higher, although many more steps are required for final fabrication.

Over the past two years, Tehran progressively violated the terms of the pact by easing restrictions on nuclear activities. The first steps in this direction date back to 2019, in response to the May 2018 withdrawal by the then US President Donald Trump from the JCPOA and the reintroduction of the toughest sanctions in history, causing a collapse of the Iranian economy.

The temporary agreement will expire on June 24. However, international diplomats have so far shown cautious optimism that a new nuclear deal is possible even though the new US President Joe Biden has maintained the sanctions of his predecessor. Since April, US, European and Iranian emissaries have been holding talks in Vienna to try to restore the agreement.

The last meeting was held on 20 June, in the aftermath of the presidential elections that saw the victory of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, and since then no new dates have been set, an element that raises fears of a definitive collapse of the talks. In recent days, the EU has suggested a possible resumption in early September, while the Iranian leader has said he is in favor of efforts to lift U.S. sanctions that are strangling the economy.
Shortly after the governor spoke, President Joe Biden announced that vaccines will be required for workers at nursing homes across the country that receive funding from Medicaid and Medicare, the government insurance programs used by virtually all seniors. The federal government will issue new regulations on the vaccine that could be in effect as soon as next month, the Associated Press reported.
Honestly it is just truly sad and heartbreaking. The violence among these kids today is outrageous, Gary said. It is sad that they are so angry that they act off of impulse and make a decision in a split moment that could change not only the person lives that they hurt, but their lives to,
On Jan. 6, 2020, about a month after Stuckey was killed, authorities said that another man was shot and injured as he sat in a car in the 5200 block of Kelway Road, near Chinquapin Run Park in the New Northwood community in North Baltimore. The indictment said the members drove a Nissan Altima that was carjacked two days earlier in that shooting, and a month later in the shooting that killed Henderson.
While the Taliban have insisted they will respect human rights, unlike during their previously draconian rule, the attack in Jalalabad came as many Afghans were hiding at home or trying to flee the country, fearful of abuses by the loosely controlled militant organization. Many people have expressed dread that the two-decade Western experiment to remake Afghanistan will not survive the resurgent Taliban, who took control of the country in a blitz that took just days.
Attractiveness pays off at workbut theres a trick to level the playing field

While good looking people have a greater sense of power and are better nonverbal communicators, their less-attractive peers can level the playing field during the hiring process by adopting a powerful posture. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Beautiful people are more likely to get hired, receive better performance evaluations and get paid morebut its not just because of their good looks, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

The study, forthcoming Personnel Psychology, was recently published online. It found that while a beauty premium exists across professions, its partially because attractive people develop distinct traits as a result of how the world responds to their attractiveness. They build a greater sense of power and have more opportunities to improve nonverbal communication skills throughout their lives.

We wanted to examine whether theres an overall bias toward beauty on the job, or if attractive people excel professionally because theyre more effective communicators, says Min-Hsuan Tu, PhD, assistant professor of organization and human resources in the UB School of Management. What we found was that while good looking people have a greater sense of power and are better nonverbal communicators, their less-attractive peers can level the playing field during the hiring process by adopting a powerful posture.

The researchers conducted two studies that evaluated 300 elevator pitches of participants in a mock job search. In the first study, managers determined the good looking people to be more hirable because of their more effective nonverbal presence.

In the second study, the researchers asked certain participants to strike a power pose by standing with their feet shoulder-width apart, hands on hips, chest out and chin up during their pitch. With this technique, the less attractive people were able to match the level of nonverbal presence that their more attractive counterparts displayed naturally.

By adopting the physical postures associated with feelings of power and confidence, less attractive people can minimize behavioral differences in the job search, says Tu. But power posing is not the only solutionanything that can make you feel more powerful, like doing a confidence self-talk, visualizing yourself succeeding, or reflecting on past accomplishments before a social evaluation situation can also help.

Tu collaborated on the study with Elisabeth Gilbert, PhD, assistant professor of business administration at the Washington and Lee University Williams College of Commerce, Economics and Politics; and Joyce Bono, PhD, professor of management at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business.
Research News

Botta awarded grant to study net-shooting robots that corral space debris

By MELVIN BANKHEAD III

The idea is that, after a piece of space debris is captured, it is tugged to a disposal orbit by the active spacecraft where the tether is deployed from. 

UB engineering researcher Eleonora Botta studies how to prevent space debris from crashing into each other or from falling uncontrollably to Earth.

The assistant professor of aerospace engineering was recently awarded a $175,000 National Science Foundation grant to examine how to best utilize robot tether systems to corral some of the 27,000 pieces of debris that NASA tracks.

Many of these space-cleaning systems call for using nets  imagine a satellite shooting a web, like Spiderman  to capture and control debris.

The idea is that, after a piece of space debris is captured, it is tugged to a disposal orbit by the active spacecraft where the tether is deployed from, says Botta. For objects in low-Earth orbit, the disposal orbit would be such that the captured piece of debris would re-enter and burn up in Earths atmosphere.

The idea is not new. Both Japan and the European Space Agency have launched satellites with similar missions. However, none have proved especially effective. And given the 20-ton Chinese booster rocket that crashed to Earth in May, its easy to see why Bottas work is important.

One of the advantages of actively capturing and de-orbiting large pieces of debris is that their re-entry trajectory is controlled and can be chosen such that, in case some piece of debris survived the re-entry, it would splash down in the ocean with extremely low probability of causing any casualties, she says.

With the grant, Botta will use powerful computers to model all components of the robot tether system. That includes a chaser spacecraft with sensors and actuators, controlled reeling mechanisms, the cable and net, as well as targeting and contact dynamics.

Shell also focus on what happens after the debris is captured. This involves controlling the system, as well as the debris it captures. The latter process  known as de-tumbling  essentially means gaining control of an out-of-control object in space.

Additionally, Botta will work on developing simpler, potentially less-expensive systems than what already exist or have been proposed.
Buffalo, WY (82834)

Today

Mainly clear. Low near 60F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low near 60F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.
She understands the urgency for expanding vaccine use to younger kids, but said officials need to know first if there are any rare but dangerous side effects. There were a small number of cases of heart inflammation in adolescents after their vaccinations, though most were not serious and federal officials determined the benefits outweigh the risks. By expanding the number of subjects included and the timeline, researchers can be more sure to catch any rare occurrences.
Pittman and Buckley see the climate fund as a potential additional revenue stream for infrastructure projects the county and city will have to undertake in the coming years. Chief among them is the redevelopment of City Dock, an estimated $50 million endeavor that includes raising parts of the dock by six feet and installing a sea wall that connects to the nearby Naval Academy.
The announcement comes several weeks after the school system confirmed that it will require all students, staff and visitors in schools to wear face masks for the fall. The Maryland Department of Education is strongly recommending multiple COVID-19 mitigation strategies for schools  but stopped short of mandating vaccinations and mask-wearing before students return to school later this month.
Bartlett said because she serves on the judicial committee, she doesnt talk often to business owners through her work. She is meeting with some owners ahead of the 2022 session so she can understand their concerns as she votes on laws that affect them.
What can be trusted; what can be relied on; what stands firm no matter what? What isnt shaky and shifting below our feet? Psalm 93 gives a response to those questions about instability and
As for why the vaccines appear to be less effective over time at stopping infections, there are indications that the bodys immune response to the shots fades, as it does with other inoculations. But also, the vaccines simply may not protect against the delta variant as well as they do against the original virus. Scientists are still trying to answer the question.
The Home Depot does not tolerate workplace harassment of any kind and takes all reports of discrimination or harassment seriously, as we did in this case, Sara Gorman, a spokesperson for the company, said in an email. We disagree with the characterization of this situation and look forward to sharing the facts during the NLRBs process.
The Purdue reorganization plan does have costs for Sackler family members. They would be required to give up ownership of the company, with future profits going to abate the opioid crisis. They would also have to contribute a total of $4.5 billion in cash and a charitable fund over time. That money is also slated to go to efforts to battle the crisis, with a share of it going to victims and their families.
The drive-by shooting the next morning happened on the same street in Little Village just before 11:30 a.m., about 15 minutes before a news conference held by activist Raul Montes was supposed to take place. A car was damaged by the gunfire but no one was injured, according to police.
Mrs. Huguelets nature with kids was kind, yet firm, to ensure that students were taught the independent skills they needed to be successful in their futures, the districts post said. She cared deeply about the academic needs of students, and the social and emotional well-being of every students needs.
 Flash

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday had a phone conversation with Haji Erywan, special envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to Myanmar and Brunei's second minister of foreign affairs, over ties and the situation in Myanmar.

Wang expressed his appreciation for Brunei's contribution to the development of China-ASEAN relations as the rotating chair of ASEAN, and thanked Brunei for its support in elevating the positioning of China-ASEAN relations.

He said he hoped that Brunei will continue to play a positive role to ensure that a commemorative meeting marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN will be successful and achieve more important results.

Noting that September marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Brunei, Wang expressed his hope that the two sides will take this opportunity to carry forward traditional friendship, deepen the Belt and Road cooperation, and push for new development of China-Brunei strategic cooperative partnership.

Anti-pandemic cooperation remains a top priority currently, Wang said, adding that China attaches great importance to the needs of Brunei, will send a batch of vaccines to Brunei and deliver them as soon as possible, and lend a helping hand to Brunei when the country most needs it.

Both China and ASEAN countries are friends of Myanmar and hope that Myanmar will achieve peace and stability, Wang said after listening to Erywan's views on the current situation in Myanmar.

Noting that China welcomes the appointment of Erywan as ASEAN's special envoy to Myanmar, Wang expressed his belief that Erywan can uphold the ASEAN way and play a unique role in accordance with the five-point consensus reached in April by ASEAN leaders regarding the situation in Myanmar to help different parties in Myanmar find a political solution within the constitutional framework through dialogue.

Wang said that China has the following suggestions: First, deal with all parties in Myanmar in a rational and pragmatic manner and gradually build trust; Second, give top priority to helping Myanmar in its fight against COVID-19, and ensure the accessibility and effectiveness of such assistance; Third, remain patient and determined, stick to the direction of promoting peace talks, return government to the people in an orderly manner and restart the democratic process, which not only serves the interests of Myanmar but also meets the expectations of the international community; Fourth, stay vigilant against and oppose interference in Myanmar's internal affairs by extraterritorial forces, and earnestly respect Myanmar's sovereignty and the choice of its people.

China's friendly policy towards Myanmar has always been oriented towards all the people of Myanmar, and China will provide urgently-needed help to Myanmar through various channels, Wang stressed, adding that China will fully support ASEAN's special envoy in performing his duties and is willing to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the Myanmar issue.

For his part, Erywan thanked China for its continuous assistance of medical supplies and vaccines to Brunei when Brunei is confronting a new wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he hopes that the two countries can mark the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties as a milestone, to give full play to the role of the China-Brunei intergovernmental joint steering committee, and further deepen cooperation in various fields, such as energy, agriculture and fishery.

Myanmar is an important member of the big ASEAN family, Erywan noted, adding that as ASEAN's special envoy to Myanmar, he will be dedicated to pushing forward the implementation of the five-point consensus, advancing dialogue among relevant parties in the ASEAN way, stopping violence, promoting inclusiveness, and helping Myanmar better fulfill its commitments to the international community.

ASEAN appreciates and supports China's continuous crucial role in the Myanmar issue, and is willing to strengthen coordination and carry out cooperation with China, he said.


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I have written long and often about the persecution of Christians around the world. Persecution presents a dire picture and is in fact so far from our own experience that its hard to relate to. You might wonder how, in countries where persecution is rife, Christians can live and hold on to their faith.

But a study described by the Australian Prayer Network indicates that the exact opposite is true: in countries where Christians are strongly persecuted, the church is growing beyond any predictions!

Persecution is still a catalyst for the spread of Christianity

In many ways we should not be surprised  after all, you can read for example in Acts Chapters 8 and 11 how persecution resulted in the growth of the early church.

We can relate to the new peer-reviewed study, published in the academic journal Sociology of Religion, which claims that in countries where Christianity is an acceptable part of society  such as Australia - the church is in decline. By contrast, the countries with the fastest-growing Christian populations are those where the governments are openly antagonistic or repressive towards Christianity.

The study asserts that The faith of those facing persecution for their convictions is often deeper and more profound because the stakes are inherently higher when its not in ones cultural best interest to embrace such beliefs. Iran, China and Afghanistan are three such countries named in the study, where governments continually discriminate and harm Christians, but where the numbers of Christians are growing exponentially.

Christians are also making a difference in other ways:

Protests in Cuba

In February 2019 Cuban Christians overwhelmingly voted against constitutional amendments set to strengthen socialism, restrict religious liberty and pave the way for same-sex marriage. For championing this minority view, the Church was vilified, labelled 'counter-revolutionary' and subjected to increased persecution.

Lack of food and medicine in the midst of the Covid crisis triggered protests on 11 July this year across Cuba against the ruling Communist regime. The country has been called to prayer for the desperate situation.

Hundreds of citizens were arrested on 11 July, among them Berean Baptist pastors Yarian Sierra Madrigal and Yeremi Blanco Ramirez, both tutors at the William Carey Biblical Seminary in Matanzas. They were eventually released on 24 July, having been held incommunicado in appalling conditions. But Pastor Madrigals wife and young son were forcibly evicted from their home and they are currently sheltering in a church.

Meanwhile, another pastor, Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, remains detained, incommunicado, in a State Security facility in Santiago de Cuba. His 17-year-old son arrested with him has since been released unharmed but deeply shaken.

On 7 July 2021 - just four days before the protests erupted - Cuban Christians held a nationwide and interdenominational day of prayer and fasting for Cuba. Today this 'extremely vibrant Church' is standing with the protesters who are all counter-revolutionaries now! May God redeem this crisis to raise the profile of the Church in Cuba and open may hearts to receive the Gospel.

North Korea

On 16 June 2020 the North Korean regime severed communications with the South. Now, however, cross-border communication has been restored. On 27 July 2021, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in spoke by phone. The leaders, who had been exchanging letters since April, are eager to recover trust and improve ties.

The rapprochement comes as North Korea faces its most severe crisis in decades. In January 2020, North Korea sealed its border with China to prevent the entrance of COVID-19.

Today, North Koreans are dying; not of COVID, but of starvation and other diseases as their stores of food and medicines run out. Society is breaking down, prisons are filling up, and officials who criticise regime policy are being purged and executed.

There can be little doubt that time is running out for the North Korean regime. While the West is full of 'hawks' - supposedly fueled with righteous indignation - who would love to bomb Pyongyang flat or somehow accelerate the regime's collapse, we need to remember that North Korea happens to be filled with North Koreans, victims of 'spiritual catastrophe', struggling to survive in a society built on lies.

And while most North Koreans have no memory or even knowledge of the great Pyongyang Revival of 1907 [see: 1907 Revival, a 10-min film with archival footage] which transformed the Korean Peninsula and saw Pyongyang labelled 'the Jerusalem of the East', God remembers!

For 68 years a remnant Church, fortified by martyrs, has endured prayerfully in prisons, labour camps, and underground. For 68 years, Koreans in the South and around the world have prayed with tears for their captive brethren. A furious spiritual battle is underway for North Korea.

Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts (from Zechariah 4:6 ESV)

We bring these countries and situations before the throne of grace, that God would

Protect, sustain and richly bless the long-suffering and severely persecuted Churches in Cuba and North Korea

Send the Holy Spirit to revive and transform North Korea yet again; may desperate North Koreans be drawn into prayer, to seek mercy from a God they do not know, a God whom they will find is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness

Send an awakening and revival among the churches in Cuba, that there would be order instead of chaos and that churches may be allowed to operate freely.
Global Dental Software Market: Information by Type (Practice Management Software, Patient Communication Software, Treatment Planning Software, Patient Education Software and Dental Imaging Software) by Application (Clinical Application and Administrative) by Deployment (On-Premise Model and Web-Based/Cloud-Based Model) by End Users (Hospitals & Clinics and Academics & Research Institutes), Region - Forecast till 2027

Overview

The Global Dental Software Market is expected to register a CAGR of 8.0% to reach USD 4,185.5 million by 2027. Dental software is a computer technology used by dental professionals, dental laboratories, dental academic and research institutes, and forensic laboratories for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, research, and investigation of oral health conditions.

ALSO READ @ https://www.medgadget.com/2020/05/coronavirus-business-impact-dental-software-market-size-share-2020-global-industry-analysis-by-trends-growth-covid-19-analysis-opportunities-challenges-statistics-and-regional-forecast-to-202.html

Dental Software Market - Scenario

The Global Dental Software Market is expected to reach a significant valuation and is eyeing for a CAGR of 8% over the forecast period of 2016-2027, proclaims Market Research Future (MRFR) in a comprehensive research report. The global dental software market has been observing continuous growth due to continuous need to streamline dental procedures and manage workflows in hospitals. Deployment of dental software adds to the productivity and efficiency as it equips dentists with features such as appointment scheduling, reminder service, tooth charting, payment, and others. Need to improve quality, patient satisfaction and speed up diagnosis process also induces demand for dental software which spurs the growth of the market. Rise in global geriatric population and increase in oral healthcare expenditure adds to the growth of the global dental software market. Furthermore, government funding for improvement of oral healthcare facilities also propels the growth of the market. High rate of dental diseases and continuous pressure on dentist have been a plus for the market growth. However, the growth of the global dental software market might be restrained by late adoption, high cost of software and complexities in operating the software.

There are myriad opportunities and factors that is assisting in the growth of the global dental software market as per Market Research Future (MRFR) report. These include improving process quality, speeding up the treatment process offered by dental institutes and organizations, increased globalization, rising urbanization, constant need for streamlining dental procedures as well as managing workflows in hospitals, increased investment in oral healthcare and rise in geriatric population. On the contrary, factors that may restrict the dental software market growth includes the complexity of the software that is not accessible by all coupled with the high price of the software which cannot be afforded by all dental clinics and all dentists.

Competitive Analysis

The global dental software market is fragmented and highly competitive. The leading players in the market are entering into mergers and acquisitions to cement their position in the industry. They are planning to stretch their existence in the dental software market by trying their hands in various innovative technological solutions.

Players  Dental Software Market

The noteworthy players operating in the global dental software market include

Datacon Dental Systems,

Carestream Health, Inc,

Planmeca Oy,

Abeldent Inc.,

Dentimax LLC.,

Medicloud,

Sirona Dental Systems, Inc,

Consult-Pro,

Patterson Dental,

Imageworks Corporation,

Ace Dental Software,

Gendex Dental System,

Henry Schein, Inc,

Open Dental Software Inc, and

Dexis LLC.

Sept 2018- The renowned distributor of dental and medical supplies, Henry Schein has finally launched the much-awaited dental practice management software, Dentrix G7. This software will assimilate the Dentrix patient chart along with various types of images from third-party imaging vendors such as CAD/CAM images, 3D and 2D that will help in automating practice management and imaging related activities. This software will help in enhancing both financial and clinical workflows along with improving efficiencies for billing and diagnosis.

In September 2018, Henry Schein One, announced the release of Dentrix G7, a dental practice management software. Dentrix G7, is the upgraded version of the award-winning dental software and integrates with the industrys leading digital imaging solutions.

In September 2018, Unified Office Inc., a leader in hybrid cloud-based virtual communications, announced the launch of Total Connect Now Dental Management SuiteSM.

Segments - Dental Software Market

Market Research Future report offers an all-inclusive segmental analysis of the dental software market on the basis of type, application, deployment and end-user.

Based on type, it is segmented into dental imaging software, patient education software, treatment planning software, patient communication software and practice management software. Of these, practice management software is projected to have a mammoth market share during the predicted years.

Based on application, the dental software market is segmented into administrative and clinical application. Of these, the clinical application will rule the market with more than 91.9% share.

Based on deployment, it is segmented into cloud-based / web-based model and on-premise model. Of these, the web-based is anticipated to have the largest share in the dental software market over the predicted years.

By end-user, the dental software market is segmented into academics and research institutes and hospitals and clinics. Of these, hospitals and clinics will grab the biggest market share.

To Browse Complete Report visit https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-dental-software-market-675

Regional Analysis - Dental Software Market

Based on region, the dental software market covers growth opportunities and latest trends across North America, Asia Pacific and Europe. Of these, North America will garner a key share of about 48.35% in the dental software market. The factors that have propelled the growth of this market in this region include early adoption of latest technologies and advancement in medical technology. APAC is a key market that is anticipated to expand at an incredible 8.8% CAGR during the predicted years. Europe too has a strong share and is anticipated to have a positive growth over the predicted years.

Intended Audience

Dental software manufacturers

Healthcare providers

Research institutes and academic centers

Government associations

Market research and consulting

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Statistical Report, Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
This was a situation where an individual came in and it was perceived that he cut in line and it turned into a fisticuffs, Thody said. The staff at Frenchs did a good job of trying to break it up and got one of the people out of the liquor store. Unfortunately, they were able to make their way to the car and get a knife and come back into the liquor store and assaulted the victim with a knife.
I think what were doing town by town makes sense, Lamont said. Im finding businesses, restaurants and mayors know their communities really well. Some communities are 90% vaccinated. Some are 50% vaccinated. So Im not sure that we need a statewide mandate regarding masks at this point.
Speaking about the university administration and the unions, he said: I think we both believed how important it was to get something in place. The hard part was finding where we could, I want to say, try to make everyone happy, when I know thats impossible.
Over the last few days resettled Afghans have spoken by phone to relatives in Kabul who described harrowing moments and the anxiety of not knowing what comes next. Relatives told them that the Taliban were roving door-to-door to question people about their connections to Americans. One man described how a former colleague was sleeping in a different home every night to evade interrogation. Relatives have deleted photos and messages from their phones, anticipating that they might be seized.
Dr. Marvin Fultz is one of the physicians at the Southern Piegan Health Center who sees patients from all over Blackfeet Country, whether they are Native or not.
The Marias River Livestock Association hosted presentations on feeding and vaccinating during drought conditions last week, and Dr. Cathy Lockard from Friesen Nutrition emphasized the importance of cattle nutrition during a drought.
Mikayla Engstrom is starting her second year of medical school at University of Washington School of Medicine. She is currently working at Logan Health-Cut Bank Rural Health Clinic.
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Though unusual, situations like these in the data help confirm that confidentiality is being protected, Jarmin wrote. Instead of looking for precision in an individual block, we strongly encourage data users to aggregate, or group, blocks together. As blocks are grouped together, the fuzziness disappears. And when you step back with more blocks in view, the details add together and make a sharp picture.
Some of the church members and board members latched onto the idea that teachers and counselors would be forbidden from telling a transphobic parent if their child came out at school. School administrators say theyre planning to handle things as they have  encouraging students to work with school counselors and social workers to come up with a plan to tell their families.
Lubbock, TX (79409)

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Many moneylenders are frequenting such homes, demanding that the families cleared the debts the soonest. (Representational Image/PTI)

Kakinada: Many of the orphaned and semi-orphan children and their family members are facing psychological problems in the aftermath of the massive Covid-related deaths. These problems are found to be high among semi-orphaned children.

In particular, such mothers, and the students studying in Class IX up to Intermediate level as also others in this age-group are distressed as, apart from the personal loss, they lost the breadwinner of their family. The normal earnings for the family have stopped all of a sudden.

A girl student and her brother lost their parents at Jegurupadu village in East Godavari district. The girl is studying intermediate and she thought of committing suicide three times so far, unable to bear with the grief. But she desisted from it when she thought about the situation her eight-year-old brother would find himself in.

I am unable to forget my parents, said the girl to her counselor at the child protection unit, Abhi Shalom.

The counselor has, by now, visited 305 orphaned and semi-orphaned kids at their homes. Of these, 10 per cent of children were found to be in a state of distress, mentally. Two girls of a family lost their parents at Tuni. They are taken care of by their maternal uncle at Hukumpeta. The elder girl is studying BTech and she is slowly recovering from the disaster. But the younger girl, studying intermediate, is not able to reconcile to the situation. She keeps remembering her parents and sobbing. We have counseled her, said Abhi, a post graduate in Psychology.

In semi-orphaned families, where the father is dead and the mother is alive, such women confined to their home without going to work are deeply distressed. They have problem finding the means for a livelihood. All of a sudden, the family earnings have stopped.

A family in Rangampeta mandal is facing problems from money-lenders. Many moneylenders are frequenting such homes, demanding that the families cleared the debts the soonest. In one such family, the wife of the deceased faints frequently and the minor son is in deep anguish.

Abhi proposed that when such people get frustrated, they should cry loudly to reduce the tension within them and then they would feel free.

Prathyusha of Venkatayapalem village of Ramachandrapuram mandal suggested that the government give a compensation amount to such families on the lines it gave to orphaned children. These families too have difficulty bringing up their children.

Prathyusha lost her disabled husband and she is facing difficulty to care for her two teenage children. It is difficult for her to educate the children and she had no income. The state and central governments should help the semi-orphaned families, the counselor proposed.

District child protection unit officer Venkata Rao said there are 464 semi-orphaned children in the district. They lost father or mother. Each child will be given `500 per month under the sponsorship programme. But this scheme is yet to start.
Puducherry: Telangana Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan's mother Krishna Kumari passed away on Wednesday morning. She was 78.

Taking to Twitter, the Telangana Governor informed that the final rites will be performed in Chennai tomorrow.

"With a very heavy heart, I wish to inform you that I lost my lovable mother early morning today. We are bringing her to Saligramam, Chennai residence by evening flight for final respects," she said in the tweet.

"It was her upbringing that instilled in us the virtues of serving the poor and needy, to be always true to your conscious and have faith in God at all times. Final rites will be performed in Chennai tomorrow," she added.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao condoled the death of Dr Soundararajan's mother. The CM expressed his deepest sympathies to the family members of the Governor.
Washington: The Biden administration on Tuesday froze about USD 9.5 billion of Afghan reserves to keep cash away from the Taliban after it captured Afghanistan.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and personnel at the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control had decided to freeze the accounts, reported Dawn citing The Washington Post.

"Any central bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban," an administration official told the newspaper in a statement.

According to the report, the US State Department was consulted before the action as was the White House, adding that the Biden administration was contemplating other actions as well to pressure the Taliban, reported Dawn.

It pointed out that the Biden administration did not need new authority to freeze the reserves because the Taliban were already under sanctions from an executive order approved after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Ajmal Ahmady, acting head of Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) -- the nation's central bank -- tweeted earlier this week that he learned on Friday that shipments of dollars would stop as Washington would not allow the Taliban to access the funds.

"Any central bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban," an administration official told the newspaper in a statement.
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Emporia, KS (66801)

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A forgotten island full of coffins and bones is about 40 miles from London, with a dark secret. Visitors to the foreboding location say the place is like a nightmarish vision where the criminals and condemned are found near London.

The Deadman's Island lies in River Swale's Mouth, on the other side of Sheppey that is not accessible to the public.

Prisoners who died onboard Hulks buried in Deadman's Island

Records of 200 years back have revealed that the cursed isle housed graves of convicts who died from deadly diseases onboard prison ships that detailed them, which are called Hulks. Many of the prison 'hulk' had many inmates who are on their way to Australia.

But those who cannot leave due to sickness and would be dead on the voyage will be kept in the River Medway and Thames inside the diseased-filled ships. It would be their last resting place, in sickeningly inhuman conditions, reported Express UK.

In recent years, sea levels rising and erosion of the coast have been started to erode the six feet of mud that uncovered unknown coffins under the soil.

When the tide is low, what can be seen are coffins, skulls, bones all over the place on the gruesome-looking island.

The BBC made a story about Deadman's Isle where it discussed its dark past of convicts and disease, a last resting place for the doomed whenever they got sent. This forgotten Island full of coffins and bones has a murky history connect to it.

Read Also: WHO Team in Wuhan Finds New Data, Thinks Coronavirus Might Have Escaped from Lab

Designated as Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), where birds breed and are nesting, the area is not allowed to be visited by the public, cited Heritage Daily.

It developed a reputation started by ghost stories, the dark surroundings, with no living thing except the coffins and bones of the condemned who waited to die.

Deadman's Island is like something from a horror movie and is covered in human remains.  LADbible (@ladbible) August 23, 2020

Media is not allowed to visit unless granted special permission from the island owner, at a time when it was out of the breeding season for birds.

Remains of convicts revealed on low tide

According to director Sam Supple, the island has the looks of a horror film. Saying all the coffins and bones look creepy.

The presenter Natalie Graham said that she would never forget the visit. She added that it was a strange sight to see. Noting the bodies were from the hulks of floating prisons of the 18 and 19th centuries,

late-military historian Professor Eric Grove remarked to the BBC that these criminals would be given the death penalty, who did not deserve what awaited them.

Most would be petty criminals who were sent to these prisons that would-be pickpockets. Many of the crimes in that time would be carrying the death sentence. Many were sent to the colonies instead of executing them, but the weak and unhealthy ones end in these floating prison ships.

If anyone were lucky to leave for the new world, a death sentence would be waiting for them. Staying in these hulks was frightful and terrible or might be worse than death.

Even if some did not have a disease, prison ships are a one-way ticket with diseases and filth that infected everyone onboard.

Deadman's Island is a forgotten island full of coffins and bones where the occupants of these ships died in squalid conditions, and even one can call it the island of death.

Related Article: Lone Foreign Bat Disease Scientist in Wuhan Lab Says COVID-19 Leak is Not Impossible

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One of the questions avoided by Joe Biden is whether the Afghanistan defeat can be compared to Saigon's Fall during the Vietnam War. Kabul's quick capture and overrun by the Taliban forces brought back memories of Saigon again and another defeat caused by the Democrat president.

Months ago, the US set a plan in motion to pull out US troops, who have been fighting for the last 20 years in the country. Circumstances that led to the Jihadi's victory were compared to the cut and run from Saigon all those years in 1975.

Based on the pullout of US forces, a deal was reached that the Taliban followed, but some disruptive attacks led to this embarrassing situation. Joe Biden honored the agreement but was seen unlike ex-President Trump, and the Jihadi did not want to cross him.

Kabul was left in chaos

In April, the current president said that all American troops would be out of Afghanistan by September this year. Instead, the Taliban surged in such a short time despite Biden's declaration that the capital was theirs in a month, reported the Express UK.

Conquering Kabul and securing the palace placed the extremists as rulers after getting kicked out 20 years ago. The US has to bear the stigma of running and trying to save its people from terrorist reprisals.

Two weeks before Saigon fell in April 1975, 32-year-old Joe Biden met with Gerald Ford at the White House. The freshman senator told the president the situation in Vietnam was hopeless & the US should leave as quickly as possible. Via @AnnieLinskey https://t.co/rqN9lbJ6lA  James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) August 16, 2021

Last Monday, images of the Kabul airport in chaos after the Afghanistan defeat spread worldwide, with Afghans trying to flee for dear life on US cargo planes like Saigon's fall. Those who were left behind face an uncertain future like years earlier when the Vietnam war ended, noted Al Jazeera.

Read Also: ISIS Remains a Lurking Danger in Afghanistan as the US Continues To Withdraw Troops

The monumental misstep of the US president at the sudden US force departure getting caught off-guard is seen as the worst failure by any US leader in recent times.

He single-handedly served another 'Fall of Saigon', an earlier failure that haunted America. This failure remains to stare back at him in the face and the country he was supposed to protect.

The trauma of Saigon comes back

The fall of Saigon officially ended the Vietnam War, which the US lost. The US and anti-communist allies had helped South Vietnam in this conflict.

In the end, the People's Army of Vietnam captured Saigon, the capital of the southern side, on April 30, 1975. Referring to Saigon's Fall, Biden said there would be no helicopters from the embassy rooftops this time in Afghanistan. However, the departure to Kabul airport is worse, cited AP News.

No matter how it is explained to absolve the current US administration of blame, Americans' flight to Kabul airport is the same in Saigon.

Confidently, it would be long before the Taliban gets to the capital, according to Intel, but they were wrong. Last Sunday, the Taliban captured the country, and all pride and confidence placed on the US fell to ruin.

Former defense minister Tobias Ellwood called it 'Saigon 2.0' and doing what can be done to get everyone out. He noted that the US should not have pullout too early, which lead to a second failure like the Vietnam war.

On his Monday's message, Biden was adamant the US should leave Afghanistan but refused to accept the blame on how things happened too fast! The message is clear to blame the Afghanistan defeat on the Afghans themselves, citing Ashraf Ghani's flight at the last minute.

Related Article: Taliban Hordes Force the Afghanistan President to Give Up as the Western Powers are Abandoning the Country

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Nothing shows the cruelty of these extremists on an Afghan woman mutilated by the evil Taliban because she was forced to marry one of those butchers. Women suffer most in their occupations, taking pre-teen girls as wives who must obey without a choice.

With the violent Jihadis rolling in and taking the capital city of Kabul, there will be more like Bibi Aisha Mohammadzai, who suffered their horrific and dehumanizing abuse but miraculously got away.

But, she's one in a million where many women killed or lived at the mercy of these extremists' whim day in and day out in a living hell.

Bibi Aisha Mohammadzai's story

At the age of 18, Aisha was severely punished for trying to leave one of the fighters, whom she married as a child. Sadistically the barbarity of severing her nose and ears was done to teach her a lesson, reported the Sun UK.

Aisha had to marry a Jihadi at 14 years old but was promised to be his bride two years before. She was treated so inhumanely that she tried to escape but got caught and was sentenced to be imprisoned by an Islamic judge, cited NPR.

She spent five months suffering in jail then later sent back to her home. At midnight, the Taliban came for her in Uruzgan. It was her husband and his commander who dragged her to the mountain, where they beat her.

A command from the leader ordered them to lop off her nose and ears, kept down by her brother-in-law, and the husband sadistically mutilated her face. She fell unconscious from the pain, and was left to die, noted Eminetra.

She managed to get to her grandfather's home but was refused help. She found her way to the US base and was given medical aid. She left Afghanistan as a refugee to go to the US, where she got adopted and got facial surgery.

It emphasized how this group deals with women. She was featured on the Time magazine cover in 2010, with the savaged parts of her face show as it is.

Read Also: Obama Administration Allotted Money to an Al-Qaeda Affiliate From 2014 to 2015

Afghan women subject to oppression from Taliban

As young as 12, many children are married forcibly to their members, and no one can say no. These girls will have to deal with their vicious whims or face the extreme without any choice.

Worse, a woman can be killed for not following their rule to wear traditional garb, and some women caught with tight outfits are shot. Another is they cannot go outside with no man to accompany them.

They are oppressed and subject to forms of execution, getting tortured. They are also viewed as second class and have no rights. During the 90s, when the Taliban had a hold in Afghanistan, it was a dire time for women.

Even after the terror group had been defeated in 2001 by the US, UK, and the Allied forces, they still exhibited the trademark brutality against helpless women after years of defeat.

Afghan women and girls who were just starting to enjoy their freedoms are again faced with oppression and subjugation by a ruthless Taliban regime. https://t.co/L50qCURUi1  Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) August 17, 2021

The Time magazine cover said what will happen to Afghanistan if the US leaves in August 2021 while the world is watching on a front-row seat, noted CNBC.

Last August 9, the answer became apparent, and the extremists pillaged and murdered Kabul faster than Biden predicted. The evil Taliban might mutilate more Afghan women who are helpless to do anything.

This Afghan woman mutilated by the evil Taliban is only one of many who are tortured and oppressed by these evil Jihadis who won't stop demonstrating their power.

Related Article: Taliban Support for Al Qaeda Terrorists Is Against US Agreement to Sever All Ties

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Johnny Depp's defamation lawsuit against Amber Heard has been permitted to proceed. The actor, 58, is suing his ex-wife over an op-ed she penned in the Washington Post in 2018 on surviving domestic violence.

Although Heard did not name Depp in her op-ed, she did accuse him of domestic abuse during their 2016 breakup, which he rejected. A Virginia judge gave Depp the authority to pursue his lawsuit, according to court documents acquired by PEOPLE on Tuesday, refusing Heard's additional petition to dismiss the case after Depp lost his libel lawsuit in the United Kingdom against British tabloid The Sun.

Depp-Heard defamation battle

The Pirates of the Caribbean star lost his battle against the British newspaper that dubbed him a "wife-beater" in November 2020. The outlet's allegations were found to be "substantially true" by the court.

Amber Heard's motion to dismiss Johnny Depp's lawsuit, which was filed in Virginia in March 2019, came as the actress argued that the UK judgment should apply to the US proceedings because both claims revolve on allegations of the actor abusing women.

Instead, Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarate dismissed the actress's plea, stating that while Heard's op-ed and The Sun's article both dealt with allegations of abuse, the tabloid's and Heard's assertions were "inherently different." Heard was not listed as a party in Depp's case against The Sun because her op-ed was published after he sued the tabloid, according to Azcarate.

Per USA Today, the ruling is a big triumph for the actor in his ongoing battle with his ex, which began during their California divorce in 2016 and has now outlasted their troubled marriage. The lawsuit is set for trial in Fairfax County, Virginia's largest and most populated county, which is located in suburban Washington, D.C., on April 11, 2022. Both sides, including Heard's, will resume discovery proceedings, such as taking depositions.

The Virginia action stems from an opinion piece Heard wrote in December 2018 for the Washington Post, which is published in Virginia, where she claimed she had become a public face of domestic abuse. In the post, she decried how she "felt the full weight of our culture's anger for women who speak out."

Depp filed his claim a few months later, demanding $50 million in damages. According to his lawsuit, he portrayed himself as a victim of "false" charges, part of an elaborate scheme to generate positive publicity for Heard to enhance her career. Depp's lawsuit claims Heard never named the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star by name in her article, but it was apparent who and what she was referring to.

Her article came after the couple's tumultuous 2016 divorce proceedings, during which Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse, requested a restraining order against him, and claimed he threw a cellphone at her face during a fight at their downtown Los Angeles loft. Johnny Depp has categorically rejected all of the charges, and the Los Angeles police officers who arrived at their loft the night of the alleged abuse stated they discovered no evidence of a crime.

By the end of the summer, the two had struck an out-of-court settlement and released a lengthy joint statement declaring their love. Heard's several legal teams have been seeking unsuccessfully for the past two years to have Depp's Virginia lawsuit dismissed. Meanwhile, Depp's libel lawsuit in London, which ended in June 2020 after a three-week circus-like trial, had the two movie stars as star witnesses.

Read Also: Pop Star Kris Wu Formally Arrested in China Following Detention; Chinese Streamers Delete Shows in Which He Appears

Johnny Depp speaks out about Hollywood boycott

Meanwhile, following a court fight with his ex-wife Amber Heard, Johnny Depp has lashed out at Hollywood, claiming that his employer, MGM, had "buried" his latest film, Minamata. Johnny Depp's most recent film, Minamata, is yet to be released.

Eugene Smith, a photographer who documented the consequences of mercury poisoning on the inhabitants of Minamata, Japan, will be the subject of a future biopic. The film was supposed to be released worldwide last year, however, it has been postponed to a "TBA" release date. Depp has spoken out about the incident in a new interview, criticizing his bosses' conduct.

Following a court battle with Amber Heard, the Pirates of the Caribbean star addressed the "boycott" of himself. The "messy" incident Depp is alluding to is his ex-wife, Heard, accusing him of being a "wife-beater." Depp and Heard were involved in a court struggle after being charged by a British tabloid.

The actor has been asked to leave his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts series since the legal suit surfaced. Depp was the main antagonist in the Harry Potter spin-off, which altered the series' trajectory. Meanwhile, he is rumored to have been fired from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean series, as per Express.co.

Related Article: Kelly Clarkson Urges Judge to Restore Surname After Getting Major Win in Divorce Battle Against Brandon Blackstock

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A Utah man was praised for his quick wits and bravery when he jumped in to rescue a zoo handler who was suddenly bitten and dragged by an alligator named "Darth Gator" at a petting zoo during a children's birthday party.

The resident was identified as Donnie Wiseman who was visiting the Scales and Tails petting zoo located in West Valley, Utah on Saturday. The man encountered the eight-foot-long alligator "Darth Gator" during the birthday party for a five-year-old child.

Horrific Alligator Attack

The victim was identified to be Lindsay Bull and was the gator's handler during the event, and was seen on video opening the door to the animal's enclosure to feed it. The reptile was in a small pool and suddenly bit the employee's hand and refused to let go, dragging her to the middle of the cage.

In an interview, Bull said she immediately realized that the animal was about to do its iconic "death roll" that could have snapped off her arm if she did not roll with the creature. Before the gator could do another role, Wiseman immediately jumped into the enclosure and held the creature down, USA Today reported.

Wiseman later revealed he was scared when he approached and held the alligator down, but said that Bull's calm demeanor allowed him to relax. The handler asked the man to talk to her as he was holding the gator down, waiting for it to release Bull's hand.

Read Also: Bootleg Fire Finally Contained Amid Threat of Other Wildfires in the U.S.

Bull said that while she has not watched the video of what happened, she believes her hand slipped away, and the alligator bit it in a feeding response. She said the situation was going as usual before she was pulled in by the gator, CNN reported.

The 150-pound American alligator eventually let go of the handler's hand and another person at the scene, Todd Christopher, was able to pull Bull away from the enclosure. Shortly before Wiseman got off the creature's back, it thrashed around trying to throw him off its back.

Heroic Actions

Bull's wounds were treated by Christopher's wife, who had a nursing background. They performed first aid while waiting for the EMTs to arrive at the scene. Medical experts revealed that the handler suffered tendon damage and that the animal had chipped her wrist and hand bones.

On Saturday, doctors operated on Bull's hand and put her on aggressive antibiotic treatment to prevent potential infection. They said she would have to undergo physical therapy but is expected to regain full use of her hand.

Officials from the Scales and Tails petting zoo called the incident a "sort of event that we hope never happens." They said that they did not want their worst expectations to become reality despite the inherent risks that staff accept in their line of work.

The owner of the establishment, Shane Richins, said the two men had the option to stay completely safe by keeping themselves away from the enclosure and the animal. However, their decision to come in and rescue Bull was considered heroism, the New York Post reported.



Related Article: Parents Become Their Children's Bus Drivers Paid by Schools as Economy Remains in Shambles

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A New York woman was arrested on Wednesday for living with her roommate's corpse, who died of overdose. Stephanie Hillburn was arrested for hiding a corpse after a welfare check at her house on Valentine's Day, according to the Johnstown Police Department.

Stephanie Hillburn, 43, has been charged with concealing a human corpse and faces up to four years in jail if found guilty, according to the Johnstown Police Department. Per News10, another housemate, Deborah Eglin, who is presently in state prison on other charges, is expected to face charges in connection with this event.

Roommates hide a woman's dead body

After receiving an anonymous call for a welfare check, police discovered Patricia Barter, 62, deceased in her home on February 14. According to police documents obtained by the local station, Hillburn and Eglin answered the door and grew nervous when investigators wanted to speak with Barter. The women led the authorities to Barter's body, which was found in a bedroom. Police stated that the woman looked to have been deceased for some time.

Barter likely died of an overdose a week before her body was discovered by authorities, further inquiry determined. Authorities said Hillburn and Eglin allegedly carried Barter's body to the bedroom in an attempt to conceal Barter's death from being discovered by guests.

The women continued to live under the same roof as the corpse and did not inform authorities for fear of being arrested for additional unlawful activities. Authorities believe the two remaining roommates attended multiple parties and get-togethers at the house during the week after their roommate died.

Hillburn was arrested on August 11 during a traffic stop, according to authorities. She was also charged with criminal possession of a hypodermic tool during the traffic stop. At this moment, it's unknown whether Hillburn has filed a plea to any of her accusations. Her lawyer could not be reached for comment on her behalf right away, as per PEOPLE via MSN.

Read Also: Massachusetts Police Shoot Dead in Distress Woman After Allegedly Wielding Knife At Officers; Family, Friends Question Use of Fatal Force

Women continue hosting parties despite roommate's decomposing corpse

Per Daily Mail, the woman led the cops to Barter's room, where they discovered her body decomposing on the bed. According to the cops, she appeared to have been dead for some time. Barter died of a drug overdose during the week of February 6, 2021, according to an inquiry. Hillburn and Eglin then allegedly transported Barter's body to her bedroom in an attempt to keep her body hidden from guests.

Hillburn and Eglin continued to live in the same apartment as Barter's body, even hosting many parties, investigators say. The suspect had left somewhere between February and last week. On August 11, she was detained at a traffic stop near Amsterdam, New York, about 10 miles south of Johnstown in the Capital Region, for an outstanding warrant. She was found to have drug paraphernalia during a search.

According to The Leader-Herald, Eglin is now in state prison on an unrelated felony conviction of unlawful possession of the stolen property and is anticipated to face the corpse concealing allegation.

Related Article: Ohio Mom Pleads Guilty of Abandoning 3 Children, Killing 6-Year-Old Son and Dumping His Body in River



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Tropical storm Grace halts the Haitian government's response to the devastating weekend earthquake on Tuesday, escalating resentment and frustration among the thousands of people who were homeless.

The tropical storm pounded southwestern Haiti, which was severely impacted by the earthquake on Saturday, and officials warned that certain regions may have had 15 inches (38 cm) of rain before the storm passed. The capital, Port-au-Prince, was also drenched. The storm hit late Monday, the same day that Haiti's Civil Protection Agency raised the death toll from the earthquake to 1,419 people killed and 6,000 people injured, many of whom had to wait for medical help outside in the scorching heat.

Tropical storm Grace swept into Haiti

Just days after a strong earthquake damaged a stretch of the island nation's so-called southwestern "claw," a renewed Tropical Storm Grace swept into Haiti on Tuesday, slamming the region with heavy rainfall. Forecasters say up to 15 inches of rain might fall in some locations before the storm passes through on Wednesday, USA Today reported.

After Saturday's earthquake, which destroyed entire villages and left hospitals inundated with the injured, thousands of Haitians crawled through rubble looking for loved ones or sought shelter. According to Bruno Maes, UNICEF's representative in Haiti, security concerns are impeding the humanitarian response.

Gangs control the main road from Port-au-Prince to the hard-hit southern region, he claimed. However, UNICEF was able to reach the impacted areas with medical supplies, bringing medical kits to three hospitals in Les Cayes including gloves, painkillers, antibiotics, and syringes to treat 30,000 earthquake victims for three months, according to Maes.

Many survivors were becoming dissatisfied with the government's lack of response. A crowd of enraged men gathered in front of one of the collapsed structures. The head of Haiti's civil protection office, Jerry Chandler, confirmed that damage assessments had to be halted due to the heavy rain since "people are becoming aggressive."

Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue's public relations officer, John Morrison, said his team was still looking for survivors. On Monday, two US Coast Guard helicopters sent search and rescue teams to six affected areas.

Survivors of Haiti's earthquake, which killed at least 1,941 people, cried out for food, shelter, and medical attention on Tuesday as search and rescue operations started after a tropical storm dumped rain on the Caribbean island, producing severe floods.

Read Also: China Mocks US Troops Afghanistan Withdrawal, Welcomes "Friendly Relations" With Taliban

Survivors seek food, medical care as recovery operations halt

Humanitarian operations were impeded by quake damage to several major hospitals, and medics in temporary tents outdoors fought to save the lives of the many injured, including young children and the elderly. However, they were unable to assist all of them.

Per Global News, political unrest and restricted road access from the capital to the south were already complicating relief efforts due to gang control of critical junctions. Tropical Storm Grace, which had passed through Jamaica by Tuesday afternoon, aggravated the situation with flash flooding and landslides.

The United Nations announced that it has set aside $8 million in emergency assistance to help those affected. Chile, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, all in Latin America, provided food, medication, and supplies. The Us also dispatched supplies and search and rescue crews.

Although gangs had been blocking access roads for months, the UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs reported that "successful negotiations" had allowed a convoy to approach Les Cayes. Patients who had been camping outside ran within to avoid the tropical storm on Tuesday at the hospital in Les Cayes, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince.

The public hospital at L'Asile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in Haiti's southwest, illustrates the country's issues. People are still trickling up from rural communities with shattered limbs and legs four days after a massive earthquake struck this region hardest.

Sonel Fevry, the hospital's director, said five such patients arrived on Tuesday, the same day officials announced the disaster's death toll had risen to more than 500. Poor roads, poverty, and faith in natural treatment all contribute to the problem's escalation, as per ABC News.

The death toll from Saturday's earthquake has risen to 1,941 according to Haiti's Civil Protection Agency. It also brought the total number of injured to 9,900, many of whom have had to wait for medical care while lying outside in the sweltering heat and enduring a storm that brought heavy rains and strong winds on Monday night.

Perhaps the countryside was impacted worse by the quake than the cities, but the news is still coming in slowly. The L'Asile hospital's whole obstetrics, pediatrics, and surgery wing fell, yet everyone survived. Despite the collapse, the hospital was able to treat approximately 170 badly injured quake victims in makeshift tents set up in the facility's yard.

Related Article: Massive Earthquake in Haiti Leaves 1,297 Deaths, 2,800 Injured; Rescuers Race to Find Survivors



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The US prosecutors consider Prince Andrew to be a "person of interest" in the Jeffrey Epstein inquiry. The Duke of York, 61, is being sought as a witness in the investigation into the alleged co-conspirators of the deceased billionaire sex offender.

However, according to a source familiar with the investigation, prosecutors regarded Prince Andrew to be a person of interest. Prince Andrew was seen "at least as a potential witness," but he was not expected to be interviewed. It's the first time the Queen's son has been referred to as a "person of interest" in the Jeffrey Epstein case by anyone involved in the investigation.

Prince Andrew is a "person of interest"

Investigators looking into Ghislaine Maxwell and other Epstein allies are reportedly interested in speaking with the Duke of York about the pedophile financier's acquaintance. The Queen's son is being investigated as a person of interest, and interviewing him would be part of the investigation into probable co-conspirators.

Prince Andrew had sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to help, despite not giving interviews to federal officials and repeatedly declining requests to speak with investigators, prosecutors said last week. According to the source, Andrew remains a person of interest to prosecutors in the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, but they do not expect to be able to interview him in the near future, if at all.

Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was abused by Epstein, filed a legal complaint against Prince Andrew in federal court in Manhattan earlier this month. Andrew allegedly forced Giuffre to have unwanted sexual intercourse in Maxwell's London home, according to Giuffre, who used to go by the name Virginia Roberts.

The accusation has been refuted by Prince Andrew. While awaiting trial on charges of trafficking minors, Jeffrey Epstein died in an apparent suicide in 2019. Between 1994 and 2004, Ghislaine Maxwell pled not guilty to claims that she acquired teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. In November, she is due to go on trial, as per Daily Mail.

Last year, prosecutors submitted a formal request to the British government, known as a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) filing, requesting access to the prince so they could speak with him. The MLAT is a mechanism used in criminal investigations to collect information from foreign countries that is difficult to obtain cooperatively.

Read Also: Queen Elizabeth in COVID-19 Scare as Castle Staff Tests Positive For Virus During Monarch's Summer Holiday

The legal team advises the Duke to keep calm amid accusations

According to a report, Prince Andrew is "cheerful and relaxed" and is being told to stay calm and go on following the bombshell lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. The failure of his attempts to explain his association with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as his denial that he even knew Giuffre - whom he was seen hugging when she was 17 - were important factors in his decision not to speak out further about the claims, according to a pal.

About the case filed last week by longtime accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a friend of the prince stated, "His legal team always expected this and have prepared," Fox News reported. The Duke's legal team told him to be calm and carry on, and he is following their counsel, claiming he "has no intention" of altering course and publicly addressing the allegations again, according to the source.

Meanwhile, a lawyer allegedly said that Prince Andrew's attorneys may try to have the sexual assault claims against him dismissed by claiming diplomatic immunity, which means he cannot be prosecuted. According to Spencer Kuvin, who represents several of Jeffrey Epstein's victims, the prince's legal team is "sure" to explore the move and that they would have a "strong case."

When Virginia Giuffre claims that the Duke of York sexually assaulted her in 2001, Prince Andrew was a trade envoy - a position that grants diplomatic immunity - and hence may be immune from prosecution. Kuvin believes the prince's legal team will make a move to dismiss Giuffre's complaint, and that his former role as a trade envoy would be taken into account, as per The Independent.

Related Article: Prince Andrew Sexual Abuse Claim Prompts Royal Family to Review Titles; Jeffrey Epstein's Employee Plans to Testify Against Him



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Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-NY, has filed retirement papers with the state days before he is scheduled to step down from his position following a barrage of sexual harassment allegations.

The retirement paperwork would allow the disgraced governor to receive annual lifetime pension from the state amounting to $50,000.

"The governor just filed his application for service retirement. The date of retirement is Sept. 1, 2021," a spokesperson for the governor's office said Tuesday, according to the New York Post.

Lifetime Pension

Under the current U.S. law, Cuomo is still entitled to his pension despite resigning because of alleged misconduct. Pension forfeiture only occurs to people who have been convicted of felony.

Cuomo's filing came a week after investigators found that he had sexually harassed nearly a dozen women, which included current and former staff members.

According to an investigative report released by state Attorney General Letita James on Aug. 3, had subjected 11 women to unwanted kisses. He had also touched their breasts or buttocks inappropriately.

The report also accused Cuomo of making insinuating remarks about their looks and sex lives, which led to a work environment that was "rife with fear."

The 165-page report is the culmination of a five-month investigation that included interviews with 179 witnesses and the accumulation of tens of thousands of documents. It also highlights previously unreported sexual harassment allegations, including that from a state trooper who has been assigned to the New York Democrat's security detail.

Read Also: Cuomo's Executive Assistant Speaks Out About the Governor's Alleged Sexual Harassment Crimes

"The independent investigation found that Governor Cuomo harassed multiple women, many of whom were young women, by engaging in unwanted groping, kisses, hugging, and by making inappropriate comments," Attorney General James said during a news conference in Manhattan, according to The New York Times. "I believe these women."

Sexual Harassment Allegations

Cuomo, 63, has since denied accusations thrown against him in a 14-minute pre-recorded statement. During his response, he denied most of the report's findings and reiterated that he had never touched anyone inappropriately.

During his 14-minute soliloquy, the governor slammed the investigative report, claiming the results were "politically motivated" and declared that the truth was far different from what was being portrayed.

Cuomo later filed for resignation as a chorus of calls for him to resign continued to grow, adding to its ranks President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. On Monday, CNN's Chris Cuomo, the governor's brother, revealed that he also urged his brother to step down.

Cuomo, who is scheduled to step down from office on Aug. 24, on Tuesday issued five pardons and commuted five sentences. The list included:

Nehru Gumbs, 36, who was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon and assault when he was still 18 in 2005

Jon-Adrian Velasquez, 45, who was convicted of second-degree murder, attempted murder, and robbery in 1999.

George Martinez, 60, who was convicted of burglary, attempted burglary and criminal possession of stolen property. He has served 15 years of his 17-and-a-half-year-to-life sentence

Dontie Mitchell, 41, who was convicted of first-degree Robbery, Criminal Use of a Firearm, and Attempt to Knowingly Make/Possess Dangerous Contraband in Prison, two counts of first-degree Attempted Robbery, two counts of second-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon, and fourth-degree Grand Larceny.

Richard Chalk, 63, who was convicted of two counts of second-degree Murder, two counts of first-degree Robbery, two counts of first-degree Burglary, and second-degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon in 1988



Related Article: Cuomo Announces Formal Resignation Amid Sexual Harassment Claims; What Will Happen Next to the New York Governor?

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Beijing will not sit by, and China warned the US to be ready for wars to fight in the next 100 years. Developments in world affairs, like the fall of Afghanistan, have encouraged China to issue a grave threat that might have substance.

US military strategists notice it to do better or lose engagement to a near-peer force like the PLA. With the routing of US forces by the Taliban, it will be a serious concern.

Geopolitical expert Matt Gertken mentioned these concerns as China faces the US head-on to be the top super-power.

Can Joe Biden rally US Forces in the Indo-Pacific?

The administration of Biden is doing the steps to get a secure foothold in the South Pacific. But, China is deadly serious with a better nationalist foreign policy that the current US administration lacks. It draws both nations into a strategic showdown in the future, reported Express UK.

Speaking to Kitco News, Gertken stated that it would be several wars, not a single war to fight. Having powerful navies with limited engagements won't balloon to all-out, and no holds war, noted INNS.

Unlike World War II, this will be an extended skirmish, not one decisive conflict caused by historical reasons.

Gertken added that political leaders should try the diplomatic path to avoid armed attrition that would be costly and destructive.

One of these reasons is that the US has not done very well in the Middle East in recent years. China warned the US to be ready for wars for its dismal performance as a self-proclaimed global policeman, cited the Daily Advent.

Read Also: India-UK Cooperation Strengthens As Indian Warship INS Tabar and Royal Navy Conducts Naval Drills in the English Channel

China was ignored during the Obama administration and developed a strong military while the US was looking away. But that mistake will change as a new strategy will attempt to restart a move to regain the Pacific.

If the Americans get their strategic anchor in the Pacific, it will push back Beijing, but the pressure might cause serious tension. China is likely to be a prosperous nation but slowing a bit because it needs to be seen as less belligerent, added Gertken.

China's aggression faced by the Quad

Lessening nationalism and a fierce foreign policy need to be overhauled, so headway to dialogue can be done. China's bullying instead has caused severe tension with Asian neighbors who are US-allied as well. However, Beijing can't allow everyone to hate them.

Members of the Quad like Japan had asked Australia to stand up to the plate and face China squarely on the face. Australia does not like the aggression from mainland China and has been a thorn on its side for months.

The media mentioned that Japan remarked that Australia should turn the screws on the CCP.

According to the defense minister of Japan, China is using for to change the status quo in the Indo-Pacific very dangerously, calling the attention of Australia, the US, India, and the EU nation to stop the Beijing drive to control the region.

Japan is more than concerned about what could happen if nothing was done. Nothing makes it more straightforward as China warned the US to be ready for wars that impact other nations in the region.

Related Article: Brexit UK a Prominent Military Force in the South China Sea Conflict

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Several researchers have warned against space debris. Last March, their cautions proved to be true after the Chinese satellite Yunhai 1-02 came in contact with the remains of the Russian Rocket Zenit-2. Yunhai 1-02 gained severe damages during the collision.

In September 2019, China launched a military satellite for disaster prevention and mitigation, observing atmospheric, marine and space environments and scientific experiments. It was later reported to have suffered a "break-up event" on March 18.

#18SPCS has confirmed the breakup of YUNHAI 1-02 (#44547, 2019-063A), which occurred on March 18, 2021, at 0741 UTC. Tracking 21 associated pieces  analysis is ongoing. #spaceflightsafety #spacedebris @spacetrackorg  18 SPCS (@18SPCS) March 22, 2021

At that time, the details of the collision were unclear. Many theorized it might have experienced problems with its propulsion system.

However, astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell served a different explanation for the damage.

Chinese Satellitle Yunhai 1-02 Encounters Space Junk

On August 15, McDowell spotted an update on the Space-Track.org. This is a website that monitors space activity, with records available to registered users. McDowell said that the update wrote "Object 48078, 1996-051Q: 'Collided with satellite.'"

McDowell further explained that Object 48078 is a small piece of space junk, about 4 inches and 20 inches pieces from the Zenit-2 rocket that launched Russia's Tselina-2 spy satellite back in September 1996. There are eight debris objects registered and tracked from this rocket. However, only Object 48078 was cataloged on March 16.

48078 is a small debris object from the Zenit-2 rocket that launched a Tselina-2 electronic spy sat in Sep 1996. Between 1997 and 2021, 8 debris objects were tracked from the rocket. This one, added to the catalog in Mar 2021, has only a single element set, epoch 2021 Mar 16  Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) August 15, 2021

Adding the collected data together, McDowell concluded that Object 48078 came within a 1km proximity with Yunhai 1-02 by March 18. This led to the satellite break-up report that was announced to the public.

McDowell also reported that 37 new debris got cataloged from the encounter. However, ground control managed to get in contact with the Yunhai 1-02 satellite, so the damage might not be catastrophic. It remains unclear whether or not the Chinese satellite is fit to continue its space duties.

Nevertheless it appears that the Yunhai satellite is still under control and able to make orbit adjustments (blue dots) so the collision was not catastrophic? pic.twitter.com/G0hMwJctyN  Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) August 15, 2021

Read Also: Elon Musk, NASA Hit With Major Problem After Jeff Bezos Lawsuit: Will It Cause Moon Mission Delay?

Space Satellite Tracker - The Space Junk Nightmare Continues

The Yunhai 1-02 incident was not the first orbital collision reported. According to Space.com, the Russian military spacecraft Kosmos-2251 collided with the operational communications satellite Iridium 33 back in February 2009. This generated 1,800 pieces of trackable space debris in Earth's orbit.

For reference, around 900,000 untrackable space debris (about 0.4-4 inches wide) exists in Earth's orbit. These objects move fast, approximately 17,150 mph, and could do serious damage to any satellites encountered.

This recent incident reiterates the earlier warnings of researchers. If space debris is not cleared up from Earth's orbit, the number of space collisions will increase to insane rates.

McDowell told Space.com that "Collisions are proportional to the square of the number of things in orbit. That is to say, if you have 10 times as many satellites, you're going to get 100 times as many collisions."

Contrary to these warnings, more space programs are being scheduled in the coming months. SpaceX, in particular, plans to add up to 1,500 Starlink satellites into orbit by August.

Space collisions might get increasingly frequent in the coming months, depending on the decisions of the space programs active on Earth's orbit.



Related Article: NASA Hubble Images: Space Telescope Captures Birth of Star in Gemini Constellation!
The main entrance of the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank), a state-run firm under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, on Yeouido, Seoul / Korea Times file



By Yi Whan-woo



The state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) is expected to finalize its list of candidates this week to fill one of the vacant positions among its three-member outside board of directors. The seat has been empty since May.



The process is being carried out under the guidelines of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which oversees Eximbank and has the right to choose the successful candidate once the list is submitted.



Who will be selected as the new outside director is drawing attention, as this opportunity may be the last chance during President Moon Jae-in's term to have someone recommended by the financial firm's union serving in the position.



In line with the President's reform pledges, the Moon government had financial companies and relevant public organizations adopt a new management rule that requires management and labor unions separately to recommend candidates for outside director positions.



In the past, only the management side had the right to make such recommendations.



Nevertheless, among Korea's financial companies and finance-related public organizations, no candidates backed by labor unions have been able to become outside directors so far, because the conservative controlling shareholders have turned them all down.



Unsuccessful attempts have been made at Kookmin Bank, the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) and the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO).



Against this backdrop, industry sources believe there is a chance that a union-friendly outside director in the financial sector will be appointed.



Multiple sources say that Eximbank is most likely to come up with two to four candidates, with half of them being recommended by the bank's labor union.



The specific details about the candidates are unknown.



The sources said high-ranking officials at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, many of them conservative in mindset, are also open to upholding the President's pledge, as his term is approaching its next year.



"It is possible that Eximbank may be able to set an example of having an outside director recommended by its labor union," a source in the field said. "If so, other financial companies are expected to follow in its footsteps."



Meanwhile, other sources were concerned of the risk that all of the company's outside director seats could be filled by labor union-backed figures.



They argued that those figures may only be interested in employee issues and no other important issues, such as handling corporate restructuring plans and developing next-generation growth engines.



The outside directors in general have been criticized for their ties to high-ranking executives, who mostly represent their interests and not keen on corporate transparency.


Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung holds an online meeting with employees through a metaverse platform, at the group's headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday. Son pledged to keep expanding communication with employees via various digital channels. Yonhap
Public health workers cool down in front of an air conditioner at a COVID-19 testing station in Seoul, in this June 15 photo. Yonhap



By Bahk Eun-ji



The majority of frontline public health workers are depressed and anxious as a result of overwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are even showing warning signs of suicide, a recent survey showed, Wednesday.



The government has decided to support them with mental health programs and push for ways to increase the number of workers at public health centers.



The Ministry of Health and Welfare surveyed 1,765 employees at 17 public health centers nationwide on their mental health  specifically fear, anxiety and depression caused by COVID-19. The survey was conducted from June 23 to July 9.



In the survey, 33.4 percent of respondents were found to be in the risk group for depression, which is significantly higher than the percentage of ordinary people who fall into the depression risk group, with 18.1 percent, and the percentage of public health doctors who do, with 15.1 percent.



The ratio of respondents who are having suicidal thoughts stood at 19.9 percent, 7.5 percentage points higher than that of the general public, with 12.4 percent.



The risk of anxiety among health workers was 27.6 percent, more than double that of the general public, with 12.2 percent.



More than 91 percent of public health workers surveyed said that their quality of life has deteriorated due to the pandemic, while 81.1 percent said that their physical and mental health have deteriorated.



Compared to the situation before the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of respondents treated for sleep disorders increased to 165 from 134, and the number of people being treated for depression also increased to 118 from 105.



Based on the results of the survey, the ministry plans to provide mental health recovery programs and additional services for public health workers.



First, public health workers who are at high risk of anxiety or depression will be able to undergo in-depth counseling with local mental health professionals.



It will also provide nine buses from the fire department, five operated by the health ministry, and three from the National Police Agency, so that public health workers at COVID-19 screening centers can rest inside in an air-conditioned environment during the hot weather.



Together with the related ministries and local governments, the health ministry will also design a psychological support plan for frontline health workers.



The health ministry made a proposal to prevent excessive workloads for public health workers by supporting an average of nine workers at each of the 258 public health centers nationwide.


An individual receives a coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Dongjak District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap



By Lee Hyo-jin



Many people in their 30s and 40s are snatching up leftover AstraZeneca vaccines, after the government recently revised the age limit for the vaccine, defying earlier expectations that they would shun the product due to concerns over the risk of side effects.



The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) lowered the minimum age of eligibility for the vaccine to 30, Aug. 13, a change from its previous policy that made it available only to people aged over 50, due to concerns it may cause blood clots in a small number of recipients.



It explained the decision as a measure to use leftover doses effectively, as well as to give more opportunities to individuals who wish to be vaccinated ahead of their inoculation schedule.



The health authorities also noted that only three people among 12.69 million administered cases of AstraZeneca here were officially confirmed to have suffered from thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), one of whom died.



Contrary to expectations that younger people would be reluctant to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns over the rare but severe side effect, the leftover doses were fully booked immediately after online reservations were expanded to people in their 30s and 40s.



On Tuesday, a total of 11,651 people were administered with a leftover AstraZeneca dose, of whom 86 percent were aged between 30 and 49, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.



The Korean Medical Association, the largest doctors' group in the country, expressed deep concerns over the government's decision to lower the age ceiling, insisting that the severity of possible side effects should not be downplayed.



"A recent study published in the medical journal Lancet showed that among the people administered with AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, the rate of systemic side effects were higher among those aged under 55, and the ratio of side effects to the inoculation rate was significantly higher in AstraZeneca vaccines," it said, calling for further discussions on the adjustment of the age limit.



"Considering the potential side effects, people who have their appointment fixed for an mRNA vaccine  Pfizer or Moderna  in coming weeks should wait for it, rather than choosing to get a leftover AstraZeneca shot now," said Chon Eun-mi, a professor at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital.



She explained that, as the AstraZeneca vaccine is administered with a longer interval between the two doses than the mRNA vaccines, getting a first dose of AstraZeneca earlier does not necessarily mean the individual will be fully vaccinated ahead of the inoculation schedule.




Rep. Song Young-gil, head of the ruling Democratic Party, speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, wednesday



By Kang Seung-woo



Rep. Song Young-gil, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Wednesday, struck back at tweets by a Washington Post columnist saying that South Korea would be like Afghanistan if the U.S. forces leave the Korean Peninsula.



In addition, he added that Seoul needs to take advantage of the Afghanistan crisis to regain wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces from Washington.



On Monday (local time), Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for former U.S. President George W. Bush, tweeted, "If South Korea were under this kind of sustained assault, they would collapse just as quickly without US support. There's virtually no American ally who could defend themselves without us."



He said in another tweet, "And the North Korean military is more advanced than the Taliban. The point is South Korea could not defend itself without U.S. help. If you disagree then we can save ourselves billions of dollars every year and withdraw our troops."



In response, the five-term lawmaker denounced it as a "slander" of South Korea.



"It is defamation to say South Korea will collapse if the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) leaves after comparing South Korea, which has the world's 10th-largest budget and sixth-strongest military, with Afghanistan," Song said on Facebook.



"South Korea has become a country that nobody can overlook and considering political and social capabilities, we have an upper hand over North Korea extraordinarily. It does not make sense to compare South Korea with Afghanistan with poor leadership and corruption."



Song, the former leader of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, also disparaged Thiessen for his past columns.



"He stood up for the Bush administration's policy on Afghanistan and Iraq and is known for his poor premise and logical leaps. His argument lacks the fact that the USFK presence is also important to U.S. security," he said.



The lawmaker did not waste the opportunity to stress the importance of the nation establishing self-reliant defense readiness.



"Along with the importance of enhancing the South Korea-U.S. alliance, we should be aware of the significance of boosting independent national defense capability rather than depending on the U.S. forces for inational security," he said.



"In that respect, the OPCON transition should be carried out as soon as possible."



The Moon Jae-in administration has been seeking to take over OPCON before his term ends in May 2022, but the U.S. has the final say. The two countries agreed to an assessment after the next full-scale joint exercises.



However, due to protests from North Korea as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, the military exercises are being carried out in a scaled-back manner, dashing President Moon's hopes for OPCON transfer.






Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, left, and Lee Sang-kyun, chairperson of the Shinil Education Foundation, pose for photos during the unveiling ceremony of the bust of Abai Qunanbaiuly on Seoul Cyber University's campus in Gangbuk District, Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Seoul Cyber University





By Lee Hyo-jin







A bust of Abai Qunanbaiuly, a prominent Kazakh poet and philosopher, has been unveiled on Seoul Cyber University's campus, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the relationship between Korea and Kazakhstan next year, according to the university, Tuesday.







The poet, philosopher and composer of the 19th century is a renowned figure revered for his contribution to Kazakh culture, folklore and literature. Praised as the founding father of Kazakh-language literature, Abai's books have been translated into many languages, and his works can be found in many countries.







The statue unveiling ceremony, which came during Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's two-day visit to Seoul, was held on the campus of Seoul Cyber University, based in Gangbuk District, northeastern Seoul.







On hand for the ceremony were Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tleuberdi Mukhtar, Deputy Prime Minister Sklyar Roman Vasilyevich, Minister of Education and Science Askhat Aimagambetov and Kazakhstan Ambassador to Korea Bakyt Dyussenbayev.







Also attending the event were Koo Hong-seok, Korean Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Lee Sang-kyun, chairperson of the Shinil Education Foundation, Kang In, president of Seoul Cyber University, and Jang Yoon-geum, president of Sookymung Women's University.







The statue has been dedicated on the campus at the request of the Kazakhstan government, recognizing the university's leading role in strengthening cultural and arts exchange between the two countries, according to the university.







"Abai is a pioneer, well known for his beautiful and touching works which became hope and light to the lives and souls of 'Koryoin,' (ethnic Koreans in the former Soviet Union) who were forced to migrate to Central Asia in the mid-20th century," said Lee Sang-kyun, chairperson of the Shinil Education Foundation, the foundation that runs the university.







"It is very meaningful that the statue of Abai Qunanbaiuly has been installed at Seoul Cyber University's campus at this point of time, as next year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Kazakhstan," Lee added.







Bilateral ties between the two countries are expected to develop further, with President Moon Jae-in and his counterpart having agreed to expand their strategic partnership during the summit held earlier in the day.







While Moon stressed that Kazakhstan is Korea's largest trading partner and investment destination in Central Asia, Tokayev expressed high hopes for further economic cooperation, calling Korea one of the most important partners for his country.







They have agreed to expand coverage of their economic cooperation program, called "Fresh Wind," which was launched in April 2019 during Moon's visit to Kazakhstan.


Rep. Song Young-gil / Yonhap



The chief of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Wednesday called for speeding up South Korea's envisioned takeover of wartime operational control (OPCON) of its forces from the United States in reflection of the recent crisis in Afghanistan.



"We need OPCON transfer to further strengthen our will and capability of self-defense against the backdrop of the Afghanistan crisis," Rep. Song Young-gil said in his Facebook post.



Song wrote the post as a direct rebuttal to a claim recently made by March A. Thiessen, The Washington Post's foreign policy columnist, that South Korea can suffer similar consequences as Kabul if the U.S. withdraws its military forces from the country, referring to the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.



"The North Korean military is more advanced than the Taliban. The point is South Korea could not defend itself without U.S. help. If you disagree then we can save ourselves billions of dollars every year and withdraw our troops," Thiessen said on his Twitter account earlier this week.



Song slammed the claim, saying it is slander to compare South Korea, a nation with the world's sixth strongest military and 10th largest economy, to Afghanistan, whose government was tainted with "corruption and incompetence."



Arguments like Thiessen's leads to former U.S. President Donald Trump's logic that Seoul should take on a greater share of the defense cost for the stationing of American troops in the country, the DP chief said, pointing out that the American military presence in South Korea is also essential for the national security of the U.S.



Song went on to say that Seoul and Washington's alliance is needed to maintain the balance of power and peace in Northeast Asia and deter North Korea's provocations.



But self-defense is equally as important as the alliance, and that is why South Korea should expedite the OPCON transfer, he added.



Song also refuted the American columnist's comment on the two Koreas' military strength.



Seoul's military power is incomparably stronger than that of North Korea, considering the nation's missile program, F-35A stealth fighter jets and Navy destroyers, among others, he noted.



Pyongyang, however, has an outdated weapons system and cannot even procure the fuel needed to run its tanks and jets due to sanctions from the United Nations and the U.S., he said, adding that the North is more desperate to prolong its regime and survive as a country than have the capacity to attack South Korea. (Yonhap)


Conservative main opposition conservative People Power Party Chairperson Lee Jun-seok speaks during a Supreme Council meeting of the party at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap



Conflicts between party leader and presidential contenders deepen ahead of primary



By Jung Da-min



Conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP) Chairperson Lee Jun-seok is facing a leadership crisis while the party is preparing for its primary to select its candidate for the presidential election, slated for next March. The PPP is planning to select eight among the current 14 presidential contenders on Sept. 15 through a first-stage cut-off, and then four from those eight on Oct. 8. The PPP's presidential candidate will be selected on Nov. 9 at the party convention.



Lee, who was elected the party chairman two months ago, is tasked with running the primary to lead it to a victory in the presidential election, but his leadership is already being questioned, as his conflicts with the party's presidential contenders are deepening over the details of the primary.



With his election, there were high expectations that Lee would bring a wind of change to political circles, as he is the youngest leader ever of a mainstream political party in Korea's modern political history.



Conflicts between Lee and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, the party's leading candidate, who joined the PPP in late July, are especially raising concerns among the party members, who say that internal conflicts among the party members give negative images of the party to the public.





Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, the leading presidential contender of the conservative main opposition People Power Party, speaks to reporters after paying tribute to former President Kim Dae-jung at the National Cemetery in Seoul's Dongjak District, on Wednesday, the 12th anniversary of the late president's death. Yonhap



Lee, a 36-year-old politician who has never been elected as a lawmaker, is in conflict with other party members, including former Jeju Provincial Governor Won Hee-ryong. Won claimed that Lee told him in a recent phone conversation that Yoon will soon be "sorted out." Lee refuted Won's claim by releasing a transcript of that part of the phone conversation on Facebook, early Wednesday, and saying that what Lee had meant was that the conflicts between Yoon and Lee will be settled.





Former Jeju Provincial Governor Won Hee-ryong, a presidential contender of the main opposition People Power Party, speaks during a press conference at the party's headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, Wednesday, calling for Lee to disclose the full content of a phone conversation between the two. Won had claimed earlier that Lee had told him in the conversation that Yoon would soon be "sorted out." In response, Lee released a written transcript of that part of the phone conversation. Yonhap
By Yi Woo-won





I've been living by myself since I lost my wife to cancer three years ago. In my grief and solitude after her death, my health steadily deteriorated and I was a virtual recluse for years. I turned 90, becoming a nonagenarian, in March of this year.







Quite unexpectedly, during that same month, I met a reader of my Thoughts of the Times piece in The Korea Times, via her tender-hearted email to me. She is from Florida, in the United States. Her message was long, courteous, sincere and deeply sympathetic. In brief, she urged me, instead of feeling alone, to go out and meet people, saying, "Reach out and hold hands with everyone else. The comfort you still give will be the comfort you receive." She was truly angelic.







That was what motivated me to get out of the house and walk, meeting people to chat with and listening to their thoughts on worldly affairs. As I've been practicing this daily routine of walking consistently for almost five months, I suddenly realize that I haven't had much time to be alone in the house, immersing myself in endlessly dismal thoughts or melancholia. More significantly, I began to feel recently that my health was improving to a great extent. I was glad I had started this new mode of living  walking and socializing  though a bit late.







Indeed, I feel good about myself these days, for the first time in years, physically and mentally. I strongly believe that this good feeling is a benefit of walking. The insomnia and loss of appetite that I suffered for years are nearly gone, simply by walking. I sleep better and enjoy eating now. And I'm almost freed from the fetters of ugly depression. I think I have found reasons to live, and I will try to make my life worth living each day.







Experts and researchers say that walking is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health. Just 30 minutes of walking every day can help you build stamina, burn excess calories and make your heart healthier. Especially for seniors like me, walking is the only and best exercise because it has a low risk of injury and it's easy on the joints. Besides, walking offers an easy way for seniors to meet up with others, engaging with them on a daily basis. It can help you feel more positive about life, reduce anxiety and boost your mood to improve your mental health.







If you prefer an easier and carefree regimen of walking, you can simply go out and walk around your neighborhood, or go to the shopping mall to look around for a while. I know a kindly, polite old lady who is about my age and lives in the same village. She has never been seriously sick for the last four decades we've known each other, except that she suffered from mild dementia a few years ago. Her secret is that she walks every day, rain or shine, around the neighborhood more than 5 times a day. Whenever I leave my house to go somewhere, I almost certainly find her out in the alley, walking leisurely and thoughtfully with a cane.







I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to walk alongside the majestic Nakdong River these days. I feel great out here: the open sky, cool and fresh air, beautiful scenery in every direction, the well-managed, huge flower-beds in which a variety of pretty flowers bloom all year round, and peaceful serenity. This area is my little corner of paradise on earth.







I get up at 5 a.m. to beat the intolerable heat after sunrise. When I arrive at the riverside, which is only a 15-minute walk from home, I see half a dozen others already out walking on the path between the flower beds or on the bicycle lane. I've made quite a few friends out here, including two disabled people who both suffer from hemiplegia. Young walkers walk fast and briskly, outpacing me easily from behind, but I stay at my usual pace, which might be a bit too slow. I can't do any better because that's the limit of my stamina. But I'm happy and grateful to be one of them, regularly and delightfully walking at my age.









Yi Woo-won(

) lives in Waegwan, North Gyeongsang Province, Korea and is a regular contributor.




By Shim Jae-yun





Unification Minister Lee In-young has expressed hope that Pope Francis' much-envisaged visit to North Korea will happen soon. "We know the pope has been showing consistent interest and affection toward the reconciliation of the South and the North. The pope's visit, if realized, will sow the seeds of blessing and peace in the North while conveying messages of reconciliation in global society," he said Tuesday in a congratulatory remark to observe the inter-Korean Peace Day and the 200th anniversary of the birth of Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon.







President Moon Jae-in is also pressing to hold talks with Pope Francis during the G20 summit to be held in Rome in October to discuss the pope's possible visit to the North. "I believe Moon is unswervingly working for a meeting with the pope," a source familiar with the issue told The Korea Times.







Moon has been making strong efforts to realize the papal visit to the North. As Moon is set to end his term in May next year, time is running out for him to make progress in his much-touted initiative of rekindling a peace process on the Korean Peninsula. During his visit to a monastery in Austria in June, Moon said, "I believe Pope Francis' visit to the North will surely take place someday."







Moon also met with Wilton Cardinal Gregory during his visit to the United States on the sidelines of his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, apparently to boost support for the pope's visit to the North. During the G7 meeting, Moon also met with many Catholic leaders toward that end.







Pope Francis has also been eager to visit Pyongyang. For starters, he appointed Lazarus You Heung-sik as the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy. It was the first time for a Korean to be appointed to a significant ministerial post in the Vatican. Italy's news media interpreted You's naming as the pope's unwavering willingness to visit North Korea. You had a significant role in coordinating the papal visit to Seoul in 2014 and has said his most important role with the new post will be realizing the pope's visit to Pyongyang.







Italy's daily La Republica reported in its July 7 edition that the pope will possibly visit Lebanon and North Korea. Park Jie-won, chief of the National Intelligence Service, said, "We are working on Pope Francis' North Korea visit," at a Mass in Mokpo July 5. Before the Mass, Park met with Vatican Ambassador to Korea Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, who served as a papal secretary, purportedly to discuss the issue.







The possible papal visit has been a topic of significant interest since October 2018 when President Moon conveyed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's wish to invite the pope to Pyongyang. The plan, however, lost steam, affected by the rupture of the Hanoi summit between Kim and then U.S. President Donald Trump in February 2019.







The ongoing joint military drills between South Korea and the United States, though scaled down, and possible repercussions from North Korea are clouding the mood of detente on the Korean Peninsula. Yet, the North's reaction was gentler than expected. "I believe the situation will turn to normal after the drills," said Yang Moo-jin, a renowned North Korea expert. He said Kim may welcome Moon's endeavors to realize the papal visit, recalling Kim already revealed his wishes to invite the pope in 2018.







What seems to put matters into a delicate balance will be the lingering coronavirus pandemic. After the pandemic slows down, there will be proactive efforts toward the papal visit to Pyongyang. Kim may have many advantages to take from the visit. First, the event will steal the global spotlight and enhance the North's image as a normal state. For instance, Cuba managed to re-establish diplomatic ties with the U.S. in 2015, riding on the coattails of its papal visit.







Second, the pope's visit will facilitate Kim's bids to receive international assistance to tackle the food shortage and eased international restrictions. It is Pope Francis who may take flak for his plan to visit due to the allegation North Korea has no religious freedom and suppresses relevant activities. Yet the pope may not worry about such criticism, as seen in his past visits to dangerous and conflict-ridden regions for the sake of promoting peace and reconciliation.







Opposition will likely flare up in the U.S., centering on conservative hawkish figures. Yet, the administration of Joe Biden, himself a Catholic, has been backing inter-Korean cooperation and reconciliation. The U.S. should extend support for the pope's envisaged visit to the North.







It is time for Kim to make a crucial determination. Why not invite the pope?









Shim Jae-yun (

) is an editorial writer of The Korea Times.


Provide voters chances to assess presidential hopefuls



The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has been entangled in severe internal factional disputes. Despite the need to push forward the primary contest for selecting its presidential candidate, disputes are intensifying between presidential aspirants and PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok.



The PPP has decided to scrap the policy debates originally planned by its primary preparatory committee and instead hold a vision presentation event. This is a setback from the committee's previous plan to hold debates on Aug. 18 and 25 over economic and social issues, respectively. Yet, the plan faced opposition from the party's leading presidential hopeful, former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl.



The party's decision is disappointing as it deprives voters of the opportunity to assess policy options of the PPP presidential hopefuls. The committee announced primary schedules to select its own presidential candidate during the party's national convention slated for early November.



The committee planned to hold a maximum 20 debates, but this plan was stalled due to Yoon's side. In the face of his resistance, Lee stepped back from his original stance. Yet the party will likely see more growing conflicts over how to proceed with the primary and launch the party's election management committee. The cancellation of the debates triggered a backlash from other presidential hopefuls like Rep. Hong Joon-pyo and Yoo Seong-min.



The conflict between Yoon and Lee reportedly flared up due to Lee's remark that "Yoon will be sorted out soon." Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong, another presidential aspirant, triggered the controversy by disclosing his telephone conversation with Lee, quoting Lee as saying that Yoon would be removed from contention. If Lee actually made such a remark, it is not proper at all given his status as a party chairman who needs to manage the primary race fairly without taking sides with anyone.



Yoon also deserves criticism for his alleged attempt to skip the policy debates. Controversy has grown that Yoon might have shunned the debates as he might become the primary target of offensives from other aspirants over diverse allegations surrounding his wife and mother-in-law, who has already been imprisoned on charges of illegally opening a geriatric care hospital and receiving benefits from the National Health Insurance Service.



Further, Yoon has frequently aroused controversy over his seemingly inappropriate remarks on pending issues regarding, for instance, "120 hours of work per week" and denying the radioactive contamination of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Against this backdrop, skepticism has grown over Yoon's qualification as a possible presidential candidate.



Yoon should respect the PPP's decision regarding the primary contest and other significant issues so that the party can function as a reliable main opposition party. The PPP is set to launch the election management committee Aug. 26 and begin policy debates. Its move is belated compared with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea which has already hosted a set of debates among its aspirants. It is necessary for PPP presidential hopefuls to provide voters with sufficient chances to properly assess their policies.


HLB Chairman Jin Yang-gon, second from right in the left photo, signs a memorandum of understanding with Nanogen Chairman Ho Nhan, second from left in the right photo, through a video conference between HLB's Seoul office and Nanogen's Ho Chi Minh City office, Wednesday. Courtesy of HLB



By Park Jae-hyuk



Domestic pharmaceutical company HLB signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Nanogen to acquire the rights to supply the Vietnamese biosimilar company's COVID-19 vaccine, Nanocovax, across the globe, except for in Vietnam and India, it said Wednesday.



According to HLB, the two companies agreed to the transfer of technology for the Korean firm to produce and sell the Vietnamese partner's vaccine, as well as to carry out global marketing campaigns. They plan to finish their negotiations once scientists representing each company finish reviewing the clinical data on Nanocovax within the next three months.



Nanocovax is the only Vietnamese COVID-19 vaccine candidate conducting phase 3 clinical trials. At this moment, around 13,000 people in Vietnam are participating in the phase 3 trial, and Nanogen is awaiting the Vietnamese health ministry's emergency use authorization to use Nanocovax.



HLB said Nanocovax is a recombinant protein subunit vaccine that succeeded in increasing the antibodies of volunteers in its phase 2 clinical trials more than 60 times 35 days after the first injection, and by 34 times after three months. The company claimed that the vaccine is effective for the Alpha and Beta variants.



The clinical trial results for Nanocovax have been analyzed by Germany's Siemens Healthineers, which is regarded as a credible company in terms of data analysis.



Once Nanogen finishes its phase 3 clinical trials, it will start the process for getting approval for its COVID-19 vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO), according to HLB. The Vietnamese firm submitted a vaccine sample to the WHO in July.



HLB Chairman Jin Yang-gon is one of the directors of Nanogen, while his company's affiliate, NextScience, also holds a 10.4-percent stake in Nanogen as its third-largest shareholder. HLB Pharmaceutical, one of the subsidiaries of HLB, also signed an MOU with Nanogen last December to work together to expand their presence in the global pharmaceutical market.



"We will open the door to the domestic and overseas vaccine market by securing the global rights of Nanocovax, which has proven its high efficacy and safety amid the growing disruption in the vaccine supply worldwide," Jin said in a press release.



Nanogen Chairman Ho Nhan also said: "Vietnam is the fourth vaccine producer in Asia, with a 126-year history of vaccine development. We highly value HLB's previous experiences in the bio industry."



One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in India, Vekaria Pharmaceutical Group, inked a deal with Nanogen earlier this month to supply Nanocovax to the world's second-most populous country.


A Moderna COVID-19 vaccine / Reuters-Yonhap



Korea aims to receive 24 million vaccine doses from Moderna by October



By Kim Yoo-chul



Korean health ministry officials are teaming up with representatives of Samsung Biologics for advanced discussions with Moderna for speeding up the COVID-19 vaccine supply here, two sources directly involved with the issue told The Korea Times, Wednesday.



Specifically, South Korea aims to receive 24 million vaccine doses from Moderna by the end of October, as the country is hoping to immunize at least 70 percent of its population with two shots each by that time, they said. Despite the continued vaccine shortages, the October goal could be achievable by maximizing the efficiency of available supplies, President Moon Jae-in said.



But the sources noted that the country's target of getting 24 million doses by October didn't include the doses to be manufactured by Samsung Biologics' Songdo production facility in Incheon, which will begin production late this month.



"Moderna confirmed it has entered into a supply agreement with the government to provide 40 million doses of the Moderna vaccine by the end of this year, with its first shipment to be completed in May. But out of the guaranteed volume, just 2.45 million have arrived so far, some 6 percent. Korea aims to get 24 million doses of Moderna vaccines by the end of October, which is an achievable goal as Samsung Biologics will play its part," one source said.



The country's health minister issued a public apology over the delay of Moderna vaccine shipments, as the U.S. company said it was only able to deliver less than half of the 8.5 million doses promised for this month. Because of the continued spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, South Korea has been seeing a record amount of new daily cases in recent weeks. Despite its decision to allow people in their 20s and 30s to take available AstraZeneca vaccine shots, the country-wide inoculation campaign has still been played by vaccine shortages.



Early Wednesday, senior presidential secretary for communication Park Soo-hyun said in a local radio interview that Moderna will notify the government of its final decision regarding South Korea's requests for early vaccine distribution by the end of this week.



"Out of the guaranteed 40 million doses, Moderna verbally vowed to provide 37.6 million doses, 94 percent, by this year. That verbal agreement could be finalized (by this week)," Park said adding that despite his acknowledgement of Moderna's updated vaccine supply plans, the government is being asked to maintain a cautious stance until Moderna releases its final updates on vaccine shipments.



Samsung Biologics' role



Another source said Samsung Biologics is in "advanced discussions" with health ministry officials to explore possible ways to increase and hasten the supply of Moderna vaccines here.





Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong leaves a detention center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, Aug. 13, AP-Yonhap




POSCO's steel plant complex in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province / Courtesy of POSCO





By Kim Hyun-bin







Local steelmakers are on the verge of coming to a consensus with heavy industry companies in setting the steel plate price for the second half of this year.







According to the industry, Wednesday, the steelmakers and local big three heavy industry companies  Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and Samsung Heavy Industries  went through tough negotiations and came to a compromise on the price, which is expected to be a little lower than POSCO's initial offering of 1.15 million won ($977) per ton. The deal is set to be finalized within this week.







"We came to a compromise with the heavy industry companies on a price that will be beneficial for all affected parties," a POSCO representative said.







Local shipbuilders initially wanted to negotiate a price of around 1 million won, claiming that a sudden rise in the steel plate price will affect their profitability. However, steelmakers say the rise in commodity prices, including iron ore, made a price increase inevitable, so they had to lower their initial price slightly in consideration of their long-term relationships with the shipbuilders.







The set price has not been made public but industry watchers say that it is around 1.1 million won per ton.







"The steel plate price is a sensitive issue as it directly affects shipbuilders' profitability. But we were expecting the price to be raised to around 1.1 million won per ton," a heavy industry official said.







Local steelmakers and shipbuilders agreed to cooperate to secure their competitiveness in the shipbuilding sector, including plans to cooperate with each other in constructing eco-friendly vessels.







The increase comes amid rapid rises in commodity and iron ore prices.







According to the Korea Resources Corp., the price of mainland Chinese iron ore came out to $163.20 per on ton last week. The price of iron ore peaked at $219.90 per ton on July 9, and has since been on a gradual decline for five consecutive weeks.







The price negotiations took into consideration the fact that the iron ore price, at over $200 per ton, will result in an increase in the steel plate price. Steel plates are widely used in shipbuilding as well as in construction, heavy equipment manufacturing and plant construction.







The steel plate price soared in the second quarter, with suppliers charging over 1.2 million won per ton, but price negotiations with shipbuilders are held only semiannually, so the steelmakers were unable to reflect that increase in price in their price negotiations.


Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman talks with journalists during a press conference in Kabul, Aug. 17. The new Taliban leadership that swept to power in Afghanistan has said it would not seek revenge against those who had fought against it and would protect the rights of Afghan women within the rules of Sharia law. EPA-Yonhap



The Taliban have pledged not to seek "revenge" against their opponents in Afghanistan in their first press conference since taking power, as the United States said they would hold the insurgents to their promises to respect human rights.



The Taliban announcements came Tuesday after the return to Afghanistan of their co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, crowning the group's astonishing comeback after being ousted in a US-led invasion nearly 20 years ago.



In the capital Kabul, some shops opened and the insurgents told government staff to return to work  though residents reacted cautiously and few women took to the streets.



Tens of thousands of people have tried to flee the country to escape the hardline Islamist rule expected under the Taliban, or fearing direct retribution for siding with the Western-backed government in power for the past two decades.



But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters the new regime would be "positively different" from their 1996-2001 stint at the helm, infamous for deaths by stoning and barring women from working in contact with men.



"If the question is based on ideology, and beliefs, there is no difference... but if we calculate it based on experience, maturity, and insight, no doubt there are many differences," Mujahid told reporters.



"All those in the opposite side are pardoned from A to Z," he said. "We will not seek revenge."



Mujahid said a government would soon be formed but offered few details, only saying the Taliban would "connect with all sides".



He also said they were "committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam", without offering specifics.



A spokesman for the group in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, told Britain's Sky News that women would not be required to wear the all-covering burqa, but did not say what attire would be acceptable.



After the press conference, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said: "If the Taliban says they are going to respect the rights of their citizens, we will be looking for them to uphold that statement and make good on that statement."





In this Feb. 29, 2020 file photo, Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, center, leaves after signing an agreement with the United States during a ceremony in the Qatari capital Doha. The Taliban's deputy leader and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kandahar on Aug. 17, landing in the insurgent group's former capital just days after they took control of the country. AFP-Yonhap



Triumphant return



Baradar, now deputy leader of the Taliban, chose to touch down in Afghanistan's second biggest city Kandahar  the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and capital during their first time in power.



He arrived from Qatar, where he has spent months leading talks with the United States and then Afghan peace negotiators.



Before he landed, evacuation flights from Kabul's airport had resumed following a day of chaos at the facility, when huge crowds mobbed the tarmac.



Some people were so desperate to leave that they clung to the fuselage of a US military plane as it rolled down the runway for take-off.



The US military said it was investigating deaths associated with that flight, including human remains found in a wheel well.



Washington has authorized the deployment of 6,000 troops to ensure the safe evacuation of embassy staff, as well as Afghans who worked as interpreters or in other support roles. A Pentagon official said Tuesday that around 4,000 would soon be in place.



At the White House, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the Taliban had pledged to allow "safe passage of civilians to the airport", adding: "We intend to hold them to that commitment."



Other governments  including France, Germany, India and Australia  have also organized charter flights. But Washington has come under sharp criticism for its handling of the evacuations.



"The images of desperation at Kabul airport are shameful for the political West," German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.



US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the Group of Seven would stage a summit next week on the crisis.





A Taliban fighter raises their flag on a vehicle as they patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Aug. 17. EPA-Yonhap




Facebook said Tuesday it will continue its ban of the Taliban and is taking down any content proactively supporting the Islamic militant group, which has taken over Afghanistan.







The Taliban have been banned under Facebook for years under its Dangerous Individuals and Organization policy, but a Facebook spokesperson told Insider that the company is actively taking down content favoring the extremist group.







TikTok is also banning pro-Taliban content, sharing a view with Facebook of the Taliban as a terrorist organization.







The Taliban recently regained control of Afghanistan after 20 years. It seized Kabul and the Presidential Palace. The Taliban made advances since President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw all United States troops from Afghanistan.







The ban applies to Instagram and WhatsApp, but the Taliban are using WhatsApp  an end-to-end encrypted platform  to communicate.







YouTube and Twitter have not made similar bans. Google-owned YouTube cited the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organizations list, stating that the Taliban is not on it. (UPI)


Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Forces Korea base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province / Yonhap



U.S. President Joe Biden has no intention to reduce the presence of American troops in South Korea or Europe, his top security advisor has said, as the U.S.' pullout from Afghanistan raised doubts over Washington's security commitments to allies.



National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the remarks during a White House press briefing on Tuesday, stressing that "our commitments to our allies and partners are sacrosanct and always have been."



"The president, as he has said repeatedly, has no intention of drawing down our forces from South Korea or from Europe, where we have sustained troop presences for a very long time  not in the middle of a civil war, but to deal with the potential of an external enemy and to protect our ally against that external enemy," he said.



"So, it is a fundamentally different kind of situation from the one we were presented with in Afghanistan," he added.



Since May, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have started to withdraw their forces to conclude nearly 20 years of war under a plan to complete the pullout by the end of this month.



The withdrawal has led to the collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul, the Taliban militant group's return to power and a chaotic exodus of Afghans fleeing to safe places  a scene that has unnerved U.S. countries reliant on Washington for security.



Biden has defended the withdrawal and chided the Afghan military for its unwillingness to fight and Afghan leaders for disunity, while stressing the U.S. goal had been preventing terrorism rather than "nation building." (Yonhap)


A participant studies a leaflet of the presentation of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC, as the report is streamed to a press conference of the Swiss Academy of Sciences in Bern, Aug. 9. EPA-Yonhap



Kudos to the press  major newspapers in the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada have been accurately communicating the facts of climate change for the past 15 years, according to a new survey.



For the study  published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters  researchers analyzed the content of 4,856 newspaper articles on climate change. Scientists determined the coverage accurately represented climate change and the human-related causes 90 percent of the time.



Importantly, researchers found climate change has increasingly been presented as a factual reality and less and less as political controversy.



"Facts now outweigh a debate," lead study author Lucy McAllister said in a press release.



But it wasn't always like that.



"Two decades ago, print media frequently gave equal credence to both legitimate climate experts and outlier climate deniers. But we found in more recent years that the media around the globe actually got it right most of the time," said McAllister, a former postdoctoral student at the University of Colorado, Boulder.



Across the mainstream press, researchers found nine out of ten stories were accurately reported.



Analysis showed, however, that climate coverage from historically conservative newspapers in all five countries  Canada's National Post, Australia's Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and the U.K.'s Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday  was less accurate.



"Accurate reporting in these print outlets vastly outweighed inaccurate reporting, but this is not a cause for complacency," co-author Max Boykoff said in the release.



"The terrain of climate debates has largely shifted in recent years away from mere denial of human contributions to climate change to a more subtle and ongoing undermining of support for specific policies meant to substantially address climate change," said Boykoff, director of the environmental studies program at Boulder.



The researchers note that most people are unlikely to read peer-review scientific studies on climate change, with the majority of readers relying on print media for climate change news.



This, they said, makes journalistic accuracy vital for a healthy and informed public policy debate.



"Achieving consistently accurate media coverage is still not a silver-bullet solution to spark collective action," Boykoff said. "Our work helps provide insights on how the media are portraying human contributions to climate change, yet more clearly must be done." (UPI)


Signs announce the Fulton County Board of Health operates a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Fulton County Government Building in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Aug. 17. EPA-Yonhap



After struggling for months to persuade Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, U.S. health officials could soon face a fresh challenge: talking vaccinated people into getting booster shots to gain longer-lasting protection as the delta variant sends infections soaring again.



As early as Wednesday, U.S. health authorities are expected to recommend an extra dose of the vaccine for all Americans eight months after they get their second shot, according to two people who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.



That means the biggest vaccination drive in U.S. history is about to get even more extensive.



The move is being driven by both the highly contagious variant and preliminary evidence that the vaccine's protective effect starts dropping within months.



Last week, U.S. health officials recommended boosters for some people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients. If the shots are expanded as expected to other Americans, among the first to receive them could be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older people.



Some experts have expressed concern that a new campaign calling for boosters could muddle the public health message and undercut the continuing drive to win over the tens of millions of Americans who are hesitant to get their first COVID-19 shots.



Calling for third doses could discourage people who had been skeptical of the shot's effectiveness in the first place, Lawrence Gostin, a public health specialist at Georgetown University, warned on Tuesday.



''We have to really make sure that while we're spending a lot of time and effort on third doses that we don't undermine our campaign for first vaccinations,'' he said. ''That's truly the existential crisis in the United States.''



The booster campaign could also cause ill will toward the United States: Global health officials, including the World Health Organization, have called on wealthier nations to hold off on booster shots to ensure poor countries have enough vaccine for the initial doses.



Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, a South African expert advising the United Nations, condemned the move toward booster shots in the U.S., saying it will have the effect of ''advancing and deepening the existing inequities'' when ''there are people who are yet to receive a single shot.''



But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the question of whether to distribute boosters or help other nations ''is a false choice. We can do both.''



She said the U.S. is ''far and away'' the biggest contributor to the global fight against COVID-19 and will ''continue to be the arsenal for vaccines'' to the world.



''We also have enough supply, and we have long planned for enough supply, should a booster be needed for the eligible population,'' Psaki said.



Booster shots would only begin to be administered widely once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally approves the vaccines, which are being dispensed for now under what is known as emergency use authorization. Full approval of the Pfizer shot is expected in the coming weeks.



More than 198 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, or 70 percent of those who are eligible, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just under 60 percent of Americans 12 and older are fully vaccinated.



The vaccination drive has been slower than the Biden administration had hoped for. At the same time, the variant is spreading aggressively through unvaccinated communities and also causing an increasing number of ''breakthrough infections'' of fully inoculated people.



Studies show the vaccine remains highly protective against severe COVID-19, but results from Israel released last month suggest its effect wanes. Its effectiveness against symptomatic infection peaked at 96 percent two months after study participants got their second dose. By six months, it was down to about 84 percent.



Israel, which exclusively administered the Pfizer shot, has been offering a booster to people over 50 to control its delta surge. Researchers are still trying to understand to what extent the breakthrough infections are due to waning immunity or vulnerability to the delta variant.



The new urgency from U.S. officials reflects how quickly the variant has knocked the country back on its heels.





Nurses wait for patients at a Fulton County Board of Health COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Fulton County Government Building in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Aug. 17. EPA-Yonhap
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Wednesday. Reuters-Yonhap



The British government said it would take in 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, primarily women and children, as lawmakers packed Parliament Wednesday for a heated emergency debate on the U.K. response to the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan.



Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has come under fire for the chaotic turn of events in Afghanistan, said a new ''generous'' refugee settlement program would allow up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans to seek sanctuary in the U.K. in the coming years. That number is over and above the 5,000 or so Afghan allies the U.K. is trying to evacuate from Kabul's international airport.



Johnson said the U.K. would work to unite the international community behind a ''clear plan for dealing with the Taliban.'' The prime minister, who is the current president of the Group of Seven leading nations, said he was looking to convene a meeting of leaders in coming days.



''We are clear, and we have agreed that it'd be a mistake for any country to recognize any new regime in Kabul prematurely or bilaterally,'' Johnson, who spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders in recent days, said.



''We will judge this regime on the choices it makes and by its actions rather than its words,'' he added.



The refugee plan, which is similar to a similar package for Syria in 2015, came under immediate attack from lawmakers, who said it fell short of what was required, both in terms of speed and numbers.



''The government has said 5,000 will be brought to resettle in the U.K. this year,'' Chris Bryant, a parliament member from the main opposition Labour Party, said. ''What are the other 15,000 meant to do? Hang around and wait to be executed?''





Demonstrators hold placards in Parliament Square, in London, Wednesday, to demand that politicians recognize that the war in Afghanistan was a catastrophe that must not be repeated. AP-Yonhap


Communications Specialist Salary $43,998.00 - $51,540.00 Annually

Location City Hall, 1001 Schroeder Creek Blvd. Wentzville

Job Type Full-time

Department GENERAL GOVERNMENT

Job Number 00622 Summary Adventurers wanted! The City of Wentzville is seeking a Full-Time Communications Specialist.



The Communications Specialist will work, with direction from the Communications and Strategic Engagement Manager, to produce Citywide marketing communications campaigns to educate and inform the public on a variety of issues, events, projects and programs. The Communications Specialist will provide professional advice to the Communications and Strategic Engagement Manager regarding strategies, tactics and steps to enhance internal and external communications.



The City was named to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2019 and 2020 Top Workplaces list. This list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey, which measures several aspects of workplace culture, including how employees feel about pay, benefits, managers and leadership  just to name a few. The City offers excellent benefits including health, vision, dental, employer-paid life insurance, long-term disability, a retirement pension, 12 holidays, 2 floating holidays, vacation time, sick time, tuition reimbursement, employee assistance, a free recreation center membership and much more! Current employees note that working for the City of Wentzville offers great opportunity for growth. The people are truly amazing, the benefits speak for themselves and there's always room for advancement. Are you ready for an adventure? Complete an application for the opportunity to join our team!



Priority consideration will be given to applicants who apply by the first review date of September 10, 2021. This posting will remain open until filled.



Essential & Ancillary Job Duties Essential Job Duties Create and coordinate written content for various public education campaigns

Creatively execute public education campaigns that effectively engage the Citys target audiences using imagination and original designs for fliers, social media posts, the Citys website, ads, billboards and more

Ensure consistent, branded designs for internal and external communication materials

Enhance the Citys video strategy by creating and editing original video content to highlight City programs, events and services

Determine where to share information with the public based on feedback in the Communications Audit and direction from the Communications Plan

Provide the Economic Development Office with creative marketing materials to support ongoing business recruitment and retention strategies

Track social media trends and utilize analytics to provide direction for Citywide social media strategy Ancillary Job Duties Perform other duties as assigned. Job Qualifications & Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Job Qualifications  Education, experience, and training that are required or desirable in order to effectively perform the job at the time of hire. An equivalent combination of education, training, and experience will be considered. Additional requirements and/or substitutions may be requested and require the approval of HR. Minimum of one year of related professional experience required.

Experience with social media marketing is required.

Valid driver's license required.

Must be highly proficient with G-Suite/Microsoft Office Suite, graphic design applications such as Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat Pro, website content management software, etc.

Experience in a public sector/government environment is desired.

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Communications, Public Relations, Graphic Design, Graphic Art, Marketing or a related field desired.

Must have professional presentation skills; experience operating audio/video equipment is desired. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities  May be representative, but not all-inclusive, of those knowledge, skills, and abilities commonly associated with this position. Knowledge of the principles and practices of writing, marketing, photography, graphic,

and web design.

Knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat Pro.

Must be proficient in use of basic business software (word processing, spreadsheets, email, presentations) and basic office equipment.

Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Ability to effectively organize and prioritize work as well as concentrate on multiple tasks simultaneously.

Regular attendance is a necessary and essential job duty.

Ability to work a flexible schedule, which includes occasional evenings, weekends, holidays and special events Work Environment & Physical Abilities Work Environment  Environmental or atmospheric conditions commonly associated with the performance of the duties of this job. Primarily an indoor work environment; may be exposed to outdoor weather conditions.

Exposed to moderate noise levels Physical Abilities  The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential duties of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential duties. Must be able to lift up to 25 pounds.

Must be able to sit for extended periods of time.

Must be able to speak and hear clearly.

Must be able to have repetitive wrist, hand and/or finger movement for computer work.

Must have clarity of vision and the ability to adjust focus.

Must have precise hand-eye coordination. The City of Wentzville is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The City does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected status. The City of Wentzville makes every effort to fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer. The City of Wentzville is a drug and alcohol free work place. A pre-employment drug screen is required for all positions. The City of Wentzville participates in E-Verify. APPLICATIONS MAY BE FILED ONLINE AT:

http://www.wentzvillemo.org

1001 Schroeder Creek Blvd

Wentzville, MO 63385

636-639-2190

636-639-2007

hr@wentzvillemo.org

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Grow your career and develop a team that shares your desire to make a difference.

Sodexo is seeking a strong Food Service Operations Manager 2 for the Dining Facility at the United States Marine Corps located in Bridgeport, CA.

We are seeking a Food Service Operations Manager 2 to oversee food operations . The position manages 20 Sodexo & sub-contract employees in a union environment.

The successful candidate will:

have oversight of day-to-day operations;

deliver high quality food service;

achieve company and client financial targets and goals;

develop and maintain client and customer relationships;

develop strategic plans;

create a positive environment;

ability to mutli task and deliver during stressful situations

be able utilize minimal resources to meet demanding expectations

and/or ensure Sodexo standards are met.

Learn more about Sodexo's Benefits



Not the job for you?

At Sodexo, we offer Culinary positions in a variety of business segments, including Corporate, Schools, Universities, Government and Agencies, Healthcare, Senior Living and Sports and Leisure locations across the United States. Continue your search for Culinary jobs.



Working for Sodexo:

At Sodexo, you will find the ingredients for a great culinary career. With benefits including schedules that encourage work-life balance, reimbursement of association dues and continuing education opportunities.


Health Operations Engineer San Diego , California , United States Hardware Summary

Posted: Aug 16, 2021 Role Number: 200278060 Apple is seeking a Health Studies Operations Engineer to support the design, coordination, execution and monitoring of health studies. This highly dynamic role drives research to inform various health technologies. The ideal candidate can balance big pictures with attention to detail, has clinical expertise, and is comfortable managing projects in fast paced technical environments. Are you passionate about working at the intersection of technology and research? Drive the future health technologies with our team! Key Qualifications Strong human subjects research background and clear understanding of clinical research lifecycle.

Thrives by managing fast paced projects with minimal supervision.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Dedicated to delivering high-quality results while resolving challenges.

Experienced in R&D, with technical skills to troubleshoot hardware and software.

Demonstrated ability to manage vendors to deliver results. Description Responsibilities include: - Develop enrollment and throughput plans. Manage and communicate project status with cross-functional teams and external vendors. - Drive project scoping with research vendors including quotes, contracts, budget management, and invoicing. Deliver high quality, low cost results. - Identify and resolve risks to schedule and data quality. - Juggle multiple projects across geographic regions throughout the globe. - Initiate, execute, and report status with keen focus on data quality and schedule. - Work closely with protocol designers to define study requirements. Must be comfortable designing studies and detailed research protocols, when needed. - Develop study documents like consent forms, statements of work, and SOPs. - Order, organize, and distribute study supplies to researchers. - Train study personnel on data collection protocol and best practices. - Lead pilot studies and train study personnel on data collection procedures. Education & Experience BA/BS or higher in nursing, life sciences, health, or research-related discipline. Advanced degree a plus, but not required. Minimum 3+ years of experience in health research management, health or engineering operations, or relevant medical / clinical experience. Apple's most important resource, our soul, is our people. Apple benefits help further the well-being of our employees and their families in meaningful ways. No matter where you work at Apple, you can take advantage of our health and wellness resources and time-away programmes. We're proud to provide stock grants to employees at all levels of the company, and we also give employees the option to buy Apple stock at a discount - both offer everyone at Apple the chance to share in the company's success. You'll discover many more benefits of working at Apple, such as programmes that match your charitable contributions, reimburse you for continuing your education and give you special employee pricing on Apple products. Apple benefits programmes vary by country and are subject to eligibility requirements. Apple is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, Veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. Apple is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. Apple is a drug-free workplace.


El Dorado Disposal, a Waste Connections company, is looking to hire a safety conscious Gate House Clerk to join our team in Placerville, CA!

The schedule will be Thursday-Sunday, 7:30am-6:00pm (days of the week are subject to change). Starting pay will be $18.50/hour.



Responsibilities Include:

Greeting customers as they enter the transfer station, directing them where to go

Cash handling

Cleaning equipment - sweeping/power washing

General site cleanup as needed

Friendly customer service

Requirements:

At least 2+ years of work experience, preferably in a customer service type position.

The ability to lift up to 75 pounds

Experience operating equipment is a plus

Ability to work in all weather conditions throughout entire shift

To be considered for any of our current openings you must complete an application at www.wasteconnections.com. Application information and additional instructions can be found once you select your position of interest.

We offer excellent benefits including: medical, dental, vision, flexible spending account, long term & short term disability, life insurance, 401K retirement and unlimited opportunities to "Connect with Your Future".

Waste Connections is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer (Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran)
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The Germany Africa Business Forum (GABF), a private sector organization committed to enhancing sustainable economic partnerships between Germany and Africa, will host a German Pavilion at African Energy Week (AEW) 2021 in Cape Town. Driving a strong investment narrative, the pavilion is dedicated to promoting Africas green hydrogen and natural gas potential to accelerate the continents energy transition and address growing regional energy demand.

Hosted by the GABF, the German pavilion will display the various initiatives undertaken by Germany in Africas energy sector, promoting further collaboration across multiple industries. With a keen focus on Africas green hydrogen potential, the pavilion will showcase a range of opportunities for international stakeholders, connecting African stakeholders with German partners. By promoting emerging green hydrogen markets in Namibia, Niger, South Africa and Mali, among others,  which have already garnered significant attention from German players  and emphasizing Germanys role in sourcing competitive funding and boosting investment in the sector, the pavilion will be the driving force of Africas green hydrogen future.

Already, there has been demonstrated interest by German actors in Africas green hydrogen market, with initiatives such as the H2Atlas-Africa project  a joint venture between the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and African partners in the sub-Saharan region including SADC and ECOWAS countries. Africas green hydrogen potential is rather significant. The utilization of wind and solar energy in West Africa could produce up to 165,000 terawatt hours of green hydrogen annually. With the aim of positioning Africa as a major exporter of green hydrogen, establishing a viably clean source of energy for Africas growing population, and accelerating infrastructure development across the continent, both the project and the pavilion will be critical for Africas green hydrogen future.

Whats more, the GABF remains committed to sustainable and green power solutions and will emphasize the role of a diversified energy mix in addressing Africas rising electricity demand at AEW 2021 in Cape Town. Germanys extensive experience in these fields will be shared with African stakeholders at AEW 2021, with specific attention being granted to Liquified Natural Gas and Petrochemicals. By promoting both green hydrogen and natural gas as the ideal transitionary resources to a cleaner energy future, introducing the various opportunities for German stakeholders in Africa, and offering key insights into gas monetization and development practices, the pavilion will drive both sustainable investment and Africas energy transition.

Meanwhile, with a focus on discussing the diverse opportunities for sustainable implementation and investment, as well as promoting Germany-Africa partnerships, the GABF will utilize its pavilion to exchange knowledge and expertise for the local African energy market. By transferring skills, technological solutions, and ideas through to African stakeholders at AEW 2021, Germany will not only foster increased collaboration, but will drive Africas energy future.

Africa is at the forefront of Germanys economic development policy agenda. With our trade mission to the AEW 2021, we want to introduce the high potential of Africas energy sector, and to connect German investors with local companies and important African stakeholders, stated Sebastian Wagner, Executive Chair of the GABF.

Germany has valuable knowledge to share with Africa with regards to green hydrogen, natural gas, and technology. The German pavilion at AEW 2021 in Cape Town will be critical for Africas energy future, enhancing international partnerships, driving sustainable investment in Africas emerging green hydrogen economy, and positioning Africa as a competitive energy market. African stakeholders must take advantage of the opportunities and partnerships presented by Germany at their pavilion, stated NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber.
The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business has announces major growth and an expansion of our operations in support of promoting trade and investment between Canada and Africa, approved at our recent Special Board Meeting. The Board has unanimously decided on a leadership restructuring to further accelerate the mandate to promote Canada-Africa trade and investment.

Mr. Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, the Chair of the Board, is to be deployed to take up the newly constituted position of Special Envoy on Trade and Investment to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat, in Accra, Ghana  given the strong interest of our private sector members. AfCFTA is the largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participating, in excess of a projected US$3.4 trillion annual GDP. Preferential access to this emerging African trade bloc can effectively double the number of people and countries with whom Canadians can trade. Mr Spio-Garbrahs historic mandate is to facilitate support for AfCFTA implementation, and information-sharing for Canadian and African stakeholders  to enable trade with an eventual single African market; respecting both Canadas trade diversification agenda and recognizing its enormous success on existing free trade deals to date.

We are excited to announce that Mr. Spio-Garbrahs vacant director seat is to be graciously filled by Dr. Patricia Makhesha. Dr. Makhesha is an Executive Vice President at Ivanhoe Mines, having served as CEO of Ivanplats. Dr. Makhesha served as keynote speaker at the memorable 2019 Indaba Gala and is a major advocate of Canada-Africa trade and investment, reflected in the extensive work of Ivanhoe as a Canadian firm operating in Africa.

The current Vice Chair, Ms. Gwenaele Montagner, will serve as Interim Chair until the Chambers Annual General Meeting in early 2022. Ms. Montagner has served on the Board for a decade and is a Senior Director of the Toronto Region Board of Trade. The new Chair of the Board will be elected by the members of the Chamber at the next AGM.

Supporting the Chair of the Board from the Chambers offices in Ottawa is the newly elected Vice Chair, Ms. Paula Caldwell St-Onge, the former Director General for Africa in the Government of Canada who also served with distinction as Ambassador to Haiti.

The Board also unanimously extended the mandate of the President of the Chamber, Mr. Garreth Bloor, for a second term of office until February 2025. Mr. Bloor has led the transformation of the Chamber and dramatically helped to firm up the position of the Chamber as the voice of Canada-Africa trade and investment.

Ms. Samantha Mandigora, a passionate volunteer of the Chamber at events for several years, takes on the newly created position, Head of Operations, a part-time role in the Office of the President. Mr Jacques NdoutouMve and Ms Susan Namulindwa remain Vice Presidents of the Chamber.
Additionally, the annual cruise through Emmaus and Macungie kicks off at 6:45 p.m. Friday. Two hundred cars will travel from Allen Organ on Route 100 in Macungie, down Main Street to Buckeye Road to Chestnut Street into Emmaus. The cruise will then head down Main Street, north on State Avenue to Harrison Street, west to North Street past Emmaus High School and then north on Cedar Crest Boulevard to Lower Macungie Road. The trip takes about an hour and a half and spectators always line up and cheer along the route.
Broscius died this week at age 66 following a long battle with cancer, county Judge John Morganelli said. She served many years under Morganelli when Morganelli was Northampton County district attorney and was the first head of the offices child abuse and sexual assault unit before turning to the elected position of district judge nearly six years ago.
As of 2020, there were more than 68,000 people in Allentown who identified themselves as Hispanic, roughly 54% of the citys population, according to census data. This means Allentown has the third-largest percentage of Hispanic residents of any Pennsylvania city with a population greater than 10,000. Reading, which is 69% Hispanic, has the largest percentage and Hazleton, which is 63% Hispanic, is second.
The flash flooding led to several water rescues around the area, including one on Schantz Road near Route 100 in Upper Macungie Township, around 12:30 a.m., according to scanner reports. An earlier water rescue was reported at Lehigh Street and 33rd Street SW in Allentown.
She was accused of billing taxpayers for phony hotel stays in Harrisburg and for hotel rooms that had been paid for by her campaign. She also was accused of collecting other expense reimbursements by submitting receipts for gas, parking and tolls that were paid for by her campaign.
Fort Madison, IA (52627)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph.
Keokuk, IA (52632)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
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Coos County Democrat Local health officials urge vigilance against Delta variant

by Tara Giles

Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter write the author LANCASTER  Local officials have concerns after a recent spike in COVID cases hit the region just about two weeks ago. They say, as fall becomes near, bringing more people indoors, the highly contagious delta variant is a real threat.



To date in New Hampshire, there have been more than 1,600 deaths due to COVID. Over the past week, the seven-day average in New Hampshire was 174-187 new cases per day. The number of active cases when from the upper 80's to just over 1,600, the highest the state has seen since early May.



While numbers in the SAU 36 school district remain low, health officials say the delta variant has arrived in the North Country and numbers have increased in the Berlin area.



According to health officials, the delta variant is affecting children in a much different way. Initially COVID could infect younger children, however they were not likely to become seriously ill. Now, children are being hospitalized at higher rates with severe illnesses across the country, this to include healthy children as well.



According to reports, in the Berlin area, the number of COVID patients are individuals who are middle aged and unvaccinated. Statistics show that 53 percent of those who live in Coos County are vaccinated, with another 59 percent having received at least one dose. Lancaster is shown to have a high vaccination rate.



Lancaster's Health Officer Ted Joubert said, "I think masks are a good idea right now, especially for the kids. Our mode of mass transportation for this virus is the schools. The kids are packed in close quarters. It's our Achilles heel."



Joubert added, "No one likes wearing masks, but we're in the middle of a pandemic and the more we can do to eradicate this thing, the faster it'll be over and done with."



"Right now, we're getting calls from hospitals telling us they're short on beds and we haven't had a major increase up here yet," said Joubert.



"Whatever we can do right now would be preventative," he said.



Of the School Board's policy to require masks for students K-8, Joubert said, "The kids should be wearing masks right now, at least for the first few weeks. We still don't know enough about this delta variant. Until a vaccine is available to the kids, they should do whatever they can to protect themselves from getting sick."



Joubert went on to say, "There are no vaccines available for the kids. This variant is more infectious. Nothing has changed in the past eight months as far as kids are concerned. The adults are vaccinated, or have that option, but the kids are still just as vulnerable as they were eight months ago. The adults are the only ones more protected right now, the kids are not."



Joubert said the first week in October will be telling, "I think what we're all waiting for is the first week in October. In September, people will start school, and it takes a few weeks for the virus to kindle anyway. We're all just holding our breaths at this point."



According to Joubert, the town is collecting more PPP and doubling down just to be safe.



"We're hopeful things stay status quo but we are preparing. To do anything else would be foolish," he said.



"Last year, the kids were remote for a large part of the year, so we have no data, nothing to work off of that shows what close quarters will look like in a school setting, five days a week with unvaccinated kids not wearing masks," explained Joubert.



Lancaster Select Board member and Republican State Rep. Troy Merner sits on the Board for the North Country Charter Academy.



"We had a vote on this recently and I agreed with the reports, and the reports suggested masks for students," said Merner.



"Last year at the Charter Academy, we were open all year, and we required masks. I think it's a good mitigation tool, because we still don't understand everything there is to know in regards to Delta yet," he said. LANCASTER  Local officials have concerns after a recent spike in COVID cases hit the region just about two weeks ago. They say, as fall becomes near, bringing more people indoors, the highly contagious delta variant is a real threat.To date in New Hampshire, there have been more than 1,600 deaths due to COVID. Over the past week, the seven-day average in New Hampshire was 174-187 new cases per day. The number of active cases when from the upper 80's to just over 1,600, the highest the state has seen since early May.While numbers in the SAU 36 school district remain low, health officials say the delta variant has arrived in the North Country and numbers have increased in the Berlin area.According to health officials, the delta variant is affecting children in a much different way. Initially COVID could infect younger children, however they were not likely to become seriously ill. Now, children are being hospitalized at higher rates with severe illnesses across the country, this to include healthy children as well.According to reports, in the Berlin area, the number of COVID patients are individuals who are middle aged and unvaccinated. Statistics show that 53 percent of those who live in Coos County are vaccinated, with another 59 percent having received at least one dose. Lancaster is shown to have a high vaccination rate.Lancaster's Health Officer Ted Joubert said, "I think masks are a good idea right now, especially for the kids. Our mode of mass transportation for this virus is the schools. The kids are packed in close quarters. It's our Achilles heel."Joubert added, "No one likes wearing masks, but we're in the middle of a pandemic and the more we can do to eradicate this thing, the faster it'll be over and done with.""Right now, we're getting calls from hospitals telling us they're short on beds and we haven't had a major increase up here yet," said Joubert."Whatever we can do right now would be preventative," he said.Of the School Board's policy to require masks for students K-8, Joubert said, "The kids should be wearing masks right now, at least for the first few weeks. We still don't know enough about this delta variant. Until a vaccine is available to the kids, they should do whatever they can to protect themselves from getting sick."Joubert went on to say, "There are no vaccines available for the kids. This variant is more infectious. Nothing has changed in the past eight months as far as kids are concerned. The adults are vaccinated, or have that option, but the kids are still just as vulnerable as they were eight months ago. The adults are the only ones more protected right now, the kids are not."Joubert said the first week in October will be telling, "I think what we're all waiting for is the first week in October. In September, people will start school, and it takes a few weeks for the virus to kindle anyway. We're all just holding our breaths at this point."According to Joubert, the town is collecting more PPP and doubling down just to be safe."We're hopeful things stay status quo but we are preparing. To do anything else would be foolish," he said."Last year, the kids were remote for a large part of the year, so we have no data, nothing to work off of that shows what close quarters will look like in a school setting, five days a week with unvaccinated kids not wearing masks," explained Joubert.Lancaster Select Board member and Republican State Rep. Troy Merner sits on the Board for the North Country Charter Academy."We had a vote on this recently and I agreed with the reports, and the reports suggested masks for students," said Merner."Last year at the Charter Academy, we were open all year, and we required masks. I think it's a good mitigation tool, because we still don't understand everything there is to know in regards to Delta yet," he said.

Coos County Democrat Whitefield couple leaves big mark on small town Woodburn appeals sentence Recent Tara Giles Whitefield couple leaves big mark on small town

2021-Aug-25 Woodburn appeals sentence

2021-Aug-25 Lancaster hires new Planning and Zoning Coordinator

2021-Aug-25 City Council discusses National Guard Armory building

2021-Aug-18 Solar Eclipse Day slated for April 8, 2024

2021-Aug-18 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Gilford Steamer Gunstock Mountain Resort to host Bronco Off-Roadeo

Following the debut of Bronco Off-Roadeo Texas earlier this summer, Bronco Off-Roadeo New Hampshire will be held at Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford starting Aug. 16.



"When we were choosing locations for our Bronco Off-Roadeo schools, regional diversity was important, as was varying topography," said Dave Rivers, Bronco brand marketing manager. "But at the heart of our strategy was finding the most epic locations to give Bronco owners the best outdoor experiences possible. The sceneries at all four locations are simply amazing."



The Bronco Off-Roadeo experience at Gunstock will put off-roaders to the test across miles of curated trails during an extended one-day, 10-hour session, while teaching them about the capabilities and performance of their all-new two- and four-door Bronco SUV. Bronco owners can leave their vehicles at home when they visit Gunstock Mountain Resort's Bronco Off-Roadeo experience, instead driving a model provided that's similar to their own.



Bronco Off-Roadeo New Hampshire



"We are excited that Gunstock Mountain Resort is one of four destinations in the US to be hosting the Ford Bronco Off-Roadeo experience," said Gunstock President and General Manager Tom Day. "This will give us the opportunity to showcase, to Bronco owners, all the thrilling, unique mountain activities we offer such as ziplining or riding the mountain coaster Theses activities will continue their unique experience in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire."



With stunning views of Lake Winnipesaukee and the Belknap Mountains, this location at Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire features a purpose-built ORX training course that traverses alpine ridges, dense woodlands, and rocky countryside. The off-road trails are uniquely carved through the gorgeous mountainside, with a combination of higher-speed two tracks and rock-filled, steep climbs surely to get your adrenaline going.



This off-road course was expertly designed and curated with the assistance of legendary names in off-roading, such as Professional Fun-Haver Vaughn Gittin Jr., King of the Hammers champion Loren Healy and renowned off-road experiential manager Bob Burns. The four locations are designed to challenge attendees with hardcore desert running, rock crawling and trail riding.



Geared for off-road novices and experts alike, the program starts with a 90-minute hands-on tutorial designed to educate owners on features such as Trail Control and Terrain Management System with G.O.A.T. Modes (goes over any type of terrain). On properly equipped Bronco two- and four-door models, owners get to try out available off-road technology tools like the, stabilizer bar-disconnect, One-Pedal Drive, Trail Turn Assist, front and rear differential lockers, and 360-degree camera system with spotter view.



Tutorials are led by trail guides who will highlight design and technology features, helping Bronco owners learn to better navigate off-road courses and explore rugged trails. The experience covers trail etiquette and recovery techniques, including how to equip and use gear like recovery straps, winches, and hi-lift jacks. Owners can venture out on two- or four-hour trail drives designed to challenge their off-roading skills while highlighting their vehicle's capability.



Bronco owners can purchase added outdoor activities at Gunstock's Adventure Park. Adventures include Zipline Tours, Aerial Treetop Adventure Course (ATA), Mountain Coaster rides, Off-Road Segway Tours, E-Bike Tours or Scenic Lift Rides to the summit of Gunstock Mountain. At Gunstock's summit the views of Lake Winnipesaukee, the Ossipee and White Mountains will astound visitors.



Attendees are responsible for transportation to and from the experience, as well as overnight accommodations. Friends and family members can join for a fee, as can other non-Bronco owners.



Initial registration is only open to owners and order holders of a Bronco two-door and, Bronco four-door. Order holders awaiting the arrival of their Bronco two- or four-door SUV can get behind the wheel of a Bronco before taking delivery of their vehicle and will also receive a $250 voucher to use toward gear from the Bronco Off-Roadeo, or to apply to the cost of bringing a guest with them or toward optional adventure experiences.



To learn more about Gunstock Mountain Resort, visit: https://www.gunstock.com/



To learn more about Bronco Off-Roadeo, go to



To learn more about Bronco and Bronco Sport, visit Ford.com/Bronco. Following the debut of Bronco Off-Roadeo Texas earlier this summer, Bronco Off-Roadeo New Hampshire will be held at Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford starting Aug. 16."When we were choosing locations for our Bronco Off-Roadeo schools, regional diversity was important, as was varying topography," said Dave Rivers, Bronco brand marketing manager. "But at the heart of our strategy was finding the most epic locations to give Bronco owners the best outdoor experiences possible. The sceneries at all four locations are simply amazing."The Bronco Off-Roadeo experience at Gunstock will put off-roaders to the test across miles of curated trails during an extended one-day, 10-hour session, while teaching them about the capabilities and performance of their all-new two- and four-door Bronco SUV. Bronco owners can leave their vehicles at home when they visit Gunstock Mountain Resort's Bronco Off-Roadeo experience, instead driving a model provided that's similar to their own.Bronco Off-Roadeo New Hampshire"We are excited that Gunstock Mountain Resort is one of four destinations in the US to be hosting the Ford Bronco Off-Roadeo experience," said Gunstock President and General Manager Tom Day. "This will give us the opportunity to showcase, to Bronco owners, all the thrilling, unique mountain activities we offer such as ziplining or riding the mountain coaster Theses activities will continue their unique experience in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire."With stunning views of Lake Winnipesaukee and the Belknap Mountains, this location at Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire features a purpose-built ORX training course that traverses alpine ridges, dense woodlands, and rocky countryside. The off-road trails are uniquely carved through the gorgeous mountainside, with a combination of higher-speed two tracks and rock-filled, steep climbs surely to get your adrenaline going.This off-road course was expertly designed and curated with the assistance of legendary names in off-roading, such as Professional Fun-Haver Vaughn Gittin Jr., King of the Hammers champion Loren Healy and renowned off-road experiential manager Bob Burns. The four locations are designed to challenge attendees with hardcore desert running, rock crawling and trail riding.Geared for off-road novices and experts alike, the program starts with a 90-minute hands-on tutorial designed to educate owners on features such as Trail Control and Terrain Management System with G.O.A.T. Modes (goes over any type of terrain). On properly equipped Bronco two- and four-door models, owners get to try out available off-road technology tools like the, stabilizer bar-disconnect, One-Pedal Drive, Trail Turn Assist, front and rear differential lockers, and 360-degree camera system with spotter view.Tutorials are led by trail guides who will highlight design and technology features, helping Bronco owners learn to better navigate off-road courses and explore rugged trails. The experience covers trail etiquette and recovery techniques, including how to equip and use gear like recovery straps, winches, and hi-lift jacks. Owners can venture out on two- or four-hour trail drives designed to challenge their off-roading skills while highlighting their vehicle's capability.Bronco owners can purchase added outdoor activities at Gunstock's Adventure Park. Adventures include Zipline Tours, Aerial Treetop Adventure Course (ATA), Mountain Coaster rides, Off-Road Segway Tours, E-Bike Tours or Scenic Lift Rides to the summit of Gunstock Mountain. At Gunstock's summit the views of Lake Winnipesaukee, the Ossipee and White Mountains will astound visitors.Attendees are responsible for transportation to and from the experience, as well as overnight accommodations. Friends and family members can join for a fee, as can other non-Bronco owners.Initial registration is only open to owners and order holders of a Bronco two-door and, Bronco four-door. Order holders awaiting the arrival of their Bronco two- or four-door SUV can get behind the wheel of a Bronco before taking delivery of their vehicle and will also receive a $250 voucher to use toward gear from the Bronco Off-Roadeo, or to apply to the cost of bringing a guest with them or toward optional adventure experiences.To learn more about Gunstock Mountain Resort, visit: https://www.gunstock.com/To learn more about Bronco Off-Roadeo, go to www.Broncooffroadeo.com To learn more about Bronco and Bronco Sport, visit Ford.com/Bronco.

Gilford Steamer Old Home Day returns Saturday Selectmen discuss possible broadband improvements at Lockes Island Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Littleton Courier AHEAD Housing celebrates resilience at annual meeting

by Angel Larcom

AHEAD Executive Director Mike Claflin (left) presented the Frederick W. Griffin Award to Mar Lou Krambeer (right) of Bethlehem for her ongoing support at the nonprofit's annual meeting last week. (Photo by Angel Larcom) (click for larger version) LITTLETON  AHEAD's return to in-person annual meetings drew a large crowd as nearly 130 people celebrated the nonprofit at the Mount Washington hotel on Aug. 12. Perseverance and resilience were a common theme for several keynote speakers during the nearly four-hour event.



Executive Director Mike Claflin opened the dinner with a note about COVID and the unique challenges it delivered to the affordable housing leader.



"To say that we're all exhausted would certainly be an understatement. It's been an incredible challenge for us all, but we couldn't do it without all of the other people in this room. There's been an incredible heartwarming outpouring of support during this past moment with COVID," stated Claflin.



Claflin also noted the increased importance of affordable housing in today's climate. While the phrase may have applied to poverty-stricken people in the past, he acknowledged the impacts of limited affordable housing on a much broader demographic in recent years.



Board Chair Martha McLeod echoed Claflin's sentiment, noting that consistent business donations helped the organization stay buoyant.



"We wondered at the beginning if we would make it through the pandemic, how we were going to make it through, what we would look like at the end, and most of all, what would we do for the folks that we support. We've been very fortunate to be able to continue to do our services and provide for folks during this time," stated McLeod.



Founding Executive Director David Wood spoke of the organization's history. Several banks collapsed nationwide in AHEAD's founding year, which led to a deep recession. Wood said the federal government seized approximately 25 percent of the New Hampshire banks in 1991 and the local real estate market collapsed.



"As condominium developments failed and small rental housing speculators lost their properties to foreclosure, it left municipalities and small businesses holding the bag for unpaid taxes and unpaid invoices for goods and services. Many of those small businesses failed as a result. Yet, amidst this chaos, the fledgling community nonprofit affordable housing industry in New Hampshire and the country was grown. AHEAD was founded in October of that year, and by the summer of 1992, had been awarded federal and state funding to acquire foreclosed properties," noted Wood.



As with each annual meeting, AHEAD also honored three award recipients for their charitable contributions. Mascoma Bank CEO Clay Adams accepted the Partner of the Year Award, while Housing Action NH Director Elissa Margolin was this year's recipient of the Olivia Chase Beleau Award. In addition, Bethlehem Town Moderator Mary Lou Krambeer received the 2021 Frederick W. Griffin Award for her assistance with nonprofit strategic development, governance and fundraising support.



Representatives from Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen were also on-hand to read congratulatory letters from both officials as the organization celebrated 30 years of operations. Executive Councilor Joe Kenney and Coos County State Rep. Troy Merner also attended the event.



In 1993, AHEAD acquired Bethlehem's Pine Manor and property in Franconia. Four years later, the nonprofit developed affordable housing in Groveton, Lisbon, Lancaster, Berlin, Whitefield and Woodsville.



Since then, AHEAD added nine additional properties, including a substance abuse treatment facility and the new Lloyd's Hill property in Bethlehem. In addition, a 58-unit housing development called Peeling Village at Gordon Pond is underway in Woodstock, with availability slated for summer 2023. LITTLETON  AHEAD's return to in-person annual meetings drew a large crowd as nearly 130 people celebrated the nonprofit at the Mount Washington hotel on Aug. 12. Perseverance and resilience were a common theme for several keynote speakers during the nearly four-hour event.Executive Director Mike Claflin opened the dinner with a note about COVID and the unique challenges it delivered to the affordable housing leader."To say that we're all exhausted would certainly be an understatement. It's been an incredible challenge for us all, but we couldn't do it without all of the other people in this room. There's been an incredible heartwarming outpouring of support during this past moment with COVID," stated Claflin.Claflin also noted the increased importance of affordable housing in today's climate. While the phrase may have applied to poverty-stricken people in the past, he acknowledged the impacts of limited affordable housing on a much broader demographic in recent years.Board Chair Martha McLeod echoed Claflin's sentiment, noting that consistent business donations helped the organization stay buoyant."We wondered at the beginning if we would make it through the pandemic, how we were going to make it through, what we would look like at the end, and most of all, what would we do for the folks that we support. We've been very fortunate to be able to continue to do our services and provide for folks during this time," stated McLeod.Founding Executive Director David Wood spoke of the organization's history. Several banks collapsed nationwide in AHEAD's founding year, which led to a deep recession. Wood said the federal government seized approximately 25 percent of the New Hampshire banks in 1991 and the local real estate market collapsed."As condominium developments failed and small rental housing speculators lost their properties to foreclosure, it left municipalities and small businesses holding the bag for unpaid taxes and unpaid invoices for goods and services. Many of those small businesses failed as a result. Yet, amidst this chaos, the fledgling community nonprofit affordable housing industry in New Hampshire and the country was grown. AHEAD was founded in October of that year, and by the summer of 1992, had been awarded federal and state funding to acquire foreclosed properties," noted Wood.As with each annual meeting, AHEAD also honored three award recipients for their charitable contributions. Mascoma Bank CEO Clay Adams accepted the Partner of the Year Award, while Housing Action NH Director Elissa Margolin was this year's recipient of the Olivia Chase Beleau Award. In addition, Bethlehem Town Moderator Mary Lou Krambeer received the 2021 Frederick W. Griffin Award for her assistance with nonprofit strategic development, governance and fundraising support.Representatives from Senators Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen were also on-hand to read congratulatory letters from both officials as the organization celebrated 30 years of operations. Executive Councilor Joe Kenney and Coos County State Rep. Troy Merner also attended the event.In 1993, AHEAD acquired Bethlehem's Pine Manor and property in Franconia. Four years later, the nonprofit developed affordable housing in Groveton, Lisbon, Lancaster, Berlin, Whitefield and Woodsville.Since then, AHEAD added nine additional properties, including a substance abuse treatment facility and the new Lloyd's Hill property in Bethlehem. In addition, a 58-unit housing development called Peeling Village at Gordon Pond is underway in Woodstock, with availability slated for summer 2023.

Littleton Courier Kuster's North Country tour includes local stops Bethlehem schools to begin year with mask requirements Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Littleton Courier Broadband Committee selects bid winner for fiber optic backbone

by Angel Larcom REGION  After more than a year of diligent work, the Grafton County Broadband Committee selected eX2 Technology to design, build and manage a regional fiber optic backbone. When completed next year, the network will exceed 350 miles and provide broadband access to several municipalities.



Grafton County Administrator and Committee member Andrew Dorsett said, "Time is of the essence in this project, but it hasn't been rushed. Operating on a slower time frame would require county taxpayer contributions. The committee has designed this project to use no county tax dollars, but rather a combination of grants, ARPA and private investment."



The Grafton County Commissioners first formed the committee in June 2020 to develop a viable and executable solution to the North Country's ongoing connectivity issues. Their decision was in response to outreach by attorney Shawn Tanguay from Drummond Woodsum, who was involved in the successful installation of a 28-mile municipal fiber project in Bristol.



Five town officials were appointed to the committee, including former Littleton Town Manager Dorsett, Bristol Town Administrator Nicholas Coates, Haverhill Town Manager Brigitte Codling, Campton Town Administrator Carina Park and Canaan Town Administrator Michael Samson.



Earlier this year, the quintet contracted eX2 Technology out of Omaha, Nebraska, to develop a route map focused on existing service gaps and population needs. At the same time, committee members began working closely with the Northern Community Investment Corporation (NCIC) to identify and secure grant funding for the project.



Earlier this year, the committee issued a public survey to collect input from Grafton Country businesses and residents. The goal, they said, was to determine the feasibility of installing a backbone network through multiple population centers.



An RFP (Request for Proposals) was released by July, and the committee received two responses. Grafton County Commission Chair Wendy Piper said eX2 Technology stood out immediately as the strongest contender.



"We were seeking a partner that could execute an affordable, reliable and scalable fiber-optic 'middle mile' that would not only connect counties and municipalities but also be available to every town. We also wanted it to connect to the University of NH's fiber-optic system. What really sold me on this project was the elderly population's lack of access to telemedicine services. We also wanted to expand economic development opportunities, which would increase the tax base and ultimately help our taxpayers," stated Piper.



As the Bristol Town Administrator, Committee Chair Nik Coates already had an extensive history with eX2 Technology. When completed, the backbone network would deliver connectivity options to nearly 40 towns, he said.



"When we started this committee last year, none of the members wanted to make this a long-term project. So we set out to get this project done as soon as possible, and we achieved some pretty important milestones within a year," noted Coates.



In total, the project is anticipated to cost between $25 and $30 million. The committee intends to secure ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding from the federal government for some of the costs.



The group has also submitted a funding request to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a federal agency under the US Economic Development Administration. If unsuccessful, the committee intends to continue on their original funding path, said Coates.



"The alternative is that we will continue to look for other grants and then potentially work with the County on their ARPA dollars. Anytime a grant funder evaluates applications, they're going to look at the likeliness of this project to succeed. We're definitely all hands on deck right now, and if we get the grant which I believe will be announced in November, there's a one-year window to build," he added.



eX2 Technology COO Jay Jorgensen said he was confident his team could meet the deadline. He said the backbone not only provided broadband services to municipalities, but it also allowed other ISP providers to offer private services to homeowners and businesses at significantly lower costs.



"COVID opens people's eyes and ears. Everybody was trying to work and learn from home. Some of the issues with the broadband system were more acute than they were before. We see a lot of government entities looking at this problem. I would say the Grafton County Committee is ahead of the curve and doing good things," stated Jorgensen.



"We started eX2 about six and a half years ago, and this was the core of what we wanted to do; to build out backbone broadband networks into under served areas. It's been great to see all the funding that's come into this market in the last few months, and there will be another high level of investment once the federal funding engages," he added. REGION  After more than a year of diligent work, the Grafton County Broadband Committee selected eX2 Technology to design, build and manage a regional fiber optic backbone. When completed next year, the network will exceed 350 miles and provide broadband access to several municipalities.Grafton County Administrator and Committee member Andrew Dorsett said, "Time is of the essence in this project, but it hasn't been rushed. Operating on a slower time frame would require county taxpayer contributions. The committee has designed this project to use no county tax dollars, but rather a combination of grants, ARPA and private investment."The Grafton County Commissioners first formed the committee in June 2020 to develop a viable and executable solution to the North Country's ongoing connectivity issues. Their decision was in response to outreach by attorney Shawn Tanguay from Drummond Woodsum, who was involved in the successful installation of a 28-mile municipal fiber project in Bristol.Five town officials were appointed to the committee, including former Littleton Town Manager Dorsett, Bristol Town Administrator Nicholas Coates, Haverhill Town Manager Brigitte Codling, Campton Town Administrator Carina Park and Canaan Town Administrator Michael Samson.Earlier this year, the quintet contracted eX2 Technology out of Omaha, Nebraska, to develop a route map focused on existing service gaps and population needs. At the same time, committee members began working closely with the Northern Community Investment Corporation (NCIC) to identify and secure grant funding for the project.Earlier this year, the committee issued a public survey to collect input from Grafton Country businesses and residents. The goal, they said, was to determine the feasibility of installing a backbone network through multiple population centers.An RFP (Request for Proposals) was released by July, and the committee received two responses. Grafton County Commission Chair Wendy Piper said eX2 Technology stood out immediately as the strongest contender."We were seeking a partner that could execute an affordable, reliable and scalable fiber-optic 'middle mile' that would not only connect counties and municipalities but also be available to every town. We also wanted it to connect to the University of NH's fiber-optic system. What really sold me on this project was the elderly population's lack of access to telemedicine services. We also wanted to expand economic development opportunities, which would increase the tax base and ultimately help our taxpayers," stated Piper.As the Bristol Town Administrator, Committee Chair Nik Coates already had an extensive history with eX2 Technology. When completed, the backbone network would deliver connectivity options to nearly 40 towns, he said."When we started this committee last year, none of the members wanted to make this a long-term project. So we set out to get this project done as soon as possible, and we achieved some pretty important milestones within a year," noted Coates.In total, the project is anticipated to cost between $25 and $30 million. The committee intends to secure ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding from the federal government for some of the costs.The group has also submitted a funding request to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a federal agency under the US Economic Development Administration. If unsuccessful, the committee intends to continue on their original funding path, said Coates."The alternative is that we will continue to look for other grants and then potentially work with the County on their ARPA dollars. Anytime a grant funder evaluates applications, they're going to look at the likeliness of this project to succeed. We're definitely all hands on deck right now, and if we get the grant which I believe will be announced in November, there's a one-year window to build," he added.eX2 Technology COO Jay Jorgensen said he was confident his team could meet the deadline. He said the backbone not only provided broadband services to municipalities, but it also allowed other ISP providers to offer private services to homeowners and businesses at significantly lower costs."COVID opens people's eyes and ears. Everybody was trying to work and learn from home. Some of the issues with the broadband system were more acute than they were before. We see a lot of government entities looking at this problem. I would say the Grafton County Committee is ahead of the curve and doing good things," stated Jorgensen."We started eX2 about six and a half years ago, and this was the core of what we wanted to do; to build out backbone broadband networks into under served areas. It's been great to see all the funding that's come into this market in the last few months, and there will be another high level of investment once the federal funding engages," he added.

Littleton Courier Kuster's North Country tour includes local stops Bethlehem schools to begin year with mask requirements Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Meredith News Hermit Woods places 4th in USA Today's Top Ten Tasting Rooms in America

MEREDITH  Hermit Woods Winery & Deli places 4th in USA Today's Readers Choice awards for top ten tasting rooms in America. No small feat considering the competition. Nominees included well-established wineries from California's Napa and Sonoma Valley to New York's Fingerlakes Region and elsewhere across the country.



The Top Ten winners are as follows:



1 - Corner 103 - Sonoma, Calif.



2 - Louis M. Martini Winery - St. Helena, Calif.



3 - Long Shadows Vintners - Walla Walla, Wash.



4 - Hermit Woods - Meredith



5 - Stoller Family Estate - Dayton, Ore.



6- Duchman Family Winery - Driftwood, Texas



7 - Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery - Hammondsport, N.Y.



8 - Big Cork Vineyards - Rohrersville, Md.



9 - Boordy Vineyards - Hydes, Md.



10 -Rava Wines - Paso Robles, Calif.



A panel of experts partnered with USA Today's 10Best editors to pick the initial nominees. A popular vote in July determined the top 10 winners. Voting ended on August 2, and the winners were announced on Aug. 13.



Bob Manley, Co-Founder of Hermit Woods, had this to say: "We are truly honored to have made this list. Having visited several of the nominated wineries in the past, I can appreciate the enormity of this honor. We owe our guests and followers a huge thank you for coming out to support us with their votes. We, of course, would never have made the list without them."



You learn more about the poll and find the list of winners and qualified experts at https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-wine-tasting-room/.



About Hermit Woods



Founded in 2011, Hermit Woods is a small boutique winery and Deli crafting fruit wine, meads, and ciders and producing farm-to-table cuisine. Our wines and ciders are local (as much as possible), vegan (except the honey wines), gluten-free, raw, and made from non-certified but mostly organic fruit. We always use the whole fruit and gentle hand processing. We style our wines, meads, and ciders after classic dry European wines and ciders. Hermit Woods sees over 15,000 visitors in its tasting room and Deli every year. These wines are available throughout New Hampshire and direct to consumers in 38 states.



Hermit Woods Winery and Deli is located at 72 Main St. in Meredith, and is open seven days a week year-round. You can visit their tasting room 7 days a week, year-round. Visit their website, MEREDITH  Hermit Woods Winery & Deli places 4th in USA Today's Readers Choice awards for top ten tasting rooms in America. No small feat considering the competition. Nominees included well-established wineries from California's Napa and Sonoma Valley to New York's Fingerlakes Region and elsewhere across the country.The Top Ten winners are as follows:1 - Corner 103 - Sonoma, Calif.2 - Louis M. Martini Winery - St. Helena, Calif.3 - Long Shadows Vintners - Walla Walla, Wash.4 - Hermit Woods - Meredith5 - Stoller Family Estate - Dayton, Ore.6- Duchman Family Winery - Driftwood, Texas7 - Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery - Hammondsport, N.Y.8 - Big Cork Vineyards - Rohrersville, Md.9 - Boordy Vineyards - Hydes, Md.10 -Rava Wines - Paso Robles, Calif.A panel of experts partnered with USA Today's 10Best editors to pick the initial nominees. A popular vote in July determined the top 10 winners. Voting ended on August 2, and the winners were announced on Aug. 13.Bob Manley, Co-Founder of Hermit Woods, had this to say: "We are truly honored to have made this list. Having visited several of the nominated wineries in the past, I can appreciate the enormity of this honor. We owe our guests and followers a huge thank you for coming out to support us with their votes. We, of course, would never have made the list without them."You learn more about the poll and find the list of winners and qualified experts at https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-wine-tasting-room/.About Hermit WoodsFounded in 2011, Hermit Woods is a small boutique winery and Deli crafting fruit wine, meads, and ciders and producing farm-to-table cuisine. Our wines and ciders are local (as much as possible), vegan (except the honey wines), gluten-free, raw, and made from non-certified but mostly organic fruit. We always use the whole fruit and gentle hand processing. We style our wines, meads, and ciders after classic dry European wines and ciders. Hermit Woods sees over 15,000 visitors in its tasting room and Deli every year. These wines are available throughout New Hampshire and direct to consumers in 38 states.Hermit Woods Winery and Deli is located at 72 Main St. in Meredith, and is open seven days a week year-round. You can visit their tasting room 7 days a week, year-round. Visit their website, www.hermitwoods.com , to learn more about their newly created "Loft Tasting Experience."

Meredith News Sculpture Walk celebrates its eighth year New teachers, air improvements proposed for Inter-Lakes with federal funds Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Meredith News Open House planned at Meredith Historical Society

MEREDITH  Visit Meredith Historical Society on Tuesday, Sept. 7 and arrive with an appetite. Board member John Edgar will be expertly grilling free hot dogs outside the building and serving Ice cream donated by Ben & Jerry's. Buy a raffle ticket for a basket of assorted items; the winning ticket will be drawn that evening. Tour the museum, including the "must see" Timeline which showcases Meredith's progression from a British land grant, to mill town, to today's vibrant community. Board members will be on hand to answer questions and explain unique focal points.



Renovation of the museum included upgrades to flooring and lighting as well as refreshing of the exhibits.



John Hopper, board member who spearheaded the project, says, "This has been a labor of love actively undertaken by the entire board of directors and volunteers to portray the progression of our town and the characters instrumental in in its transformations."



Meredith Historical Society is located at 45 Main Street and is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday until mid-October. The Speakers Series takes place on the first Tuesday of each month at the Community Center with free admission. For more information visit our Facebook page, MEREDITH  Visit Meredith Historical Society on Tuesday, Sept. 7 and arrive with an appetite. Board member John Edgar will be expertly grilling free hot dogs outside the building and serving Ice cream donated by Ben & Jerry's. Buy a raffle ticket for a basket of assorted items; the winning ticket will be drawn that evening. Tour the museum, including the "must see" Timeline which showcases Meredith's progression from a British land grant, to mill town, to today's vibrant community. Board members will be on hand to answer questions and explain unique focal points.Renovation of the museum included upgrades to flooring and lighting as well as refreshing of the exhibits.John Hopper, board member who spearheaded the project, says, "This has been a labor of love actively undertaken by the entire board of directors and volunteers to portray the progression of our town and the characters instrumental in in its transformations."Meredith Historical Society is located at 45 Main Street and is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday until mid-October. The Speakers Series takes place on the first Tuesday of each month at the Community Center with free admission. For more information visit our Facebook page, www.meredithhistoricalsocietynh.org , or phone 279-1190.

Meredith News Sculpture Walk celebrates its eighth year New teachers, air improvements proposed for Inter-Lakes with federal funds Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Plymouth Record Enterprise Liz Brochu receives Union Leader's 40 Under 40 Award



(click for larger version) PLYMOUTH  On July 27, the 20th New Hampshire 40 Under 40 celebration was held at Delta Dental Stadium, where an emerging generation of New Hampshire leaders were honored and celebrated by colleagues, friends, and family.



This year, we are thrilled to announce that CADY's Youth Services Director, Liz Brochu, was inducted into the 40 Under 40 Class of 2021. Individuals under 40 are nominated each year for their career achievements, community involvement and contributions to New Hampshire. Since its inception in 2002, the New Hampshire Union Leader has honored 800 outstanding Granite Staters making a difference in their communities and professions.



Brochu has been with CADY for over 14 years. She is an alumna of UNH and holds a graduate degree in education from Plymouth State University. She serves as the Youth Services Director and the Central Region's Substance Misuse Prevention Coordinator and holds NH Certified Prevention Specialist credentials. Her passion for prevention inspires others to make a difference in the health and wellness of children and youth and in their community.



Brochu was instrumental in the development of CADY's Youth Leadership programs, the Junior Action Club and the Youth Advisory and Advocacy Council; both programs give youth the opportunity to become leaders in prevention with self-driven projects and high-impact initiatives they find meaningful. Their outreach is shared with their peers and greater community. She recognizes the power of peer-to-peer education and turns to youth for input on program development. To date, she has mentored over 170 youth prevention leaders.



Research shows that parents are the number one influence on their child's decision to use drugs or alcohol. Armed with this knowledge, in 2017, Brochu convened the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) to bring parents to the prevention table and provide the connection and opportunity to work together to build healthy environments and promising futures for children and youth in our region. With her guidance, this amazing group of parents have sponsored several community and statewide awareness-raising events to make substance misuse prevention a family and community priority.



Throughout the pandemic, as many organizations were forced to pull back on direct services, Liz innovatively crafted a free Parent Webinar Series with more than 10 live-streamed events. This series continued to provide the critical information parents craved to address their children's emotional needs through the confusion and isolation of COVID-19. She recognized immediately that families needed guidance, support, and education to keep their children safe, healthy, and productive in the uncertain times of the pandemic. She jumped at the opportunity to develop the series, which included information about communication, emotional wellness, talking about risky behavior, underage drinking, and more.



Upon receiving the award, Brochu was asked what motivates her to give back to her community, and she replied: "I care deeply about kids and want to help them learn, grow, and thrive by closing gaps and opening new opportunities for them. When we empower youth with new skillswe build self-confidence. With the challenges so many youths face today, we as adults need to be there for them. Watching kids grow into strong, capable, healthy, and happy young adults is the best reward imaginable."



Brochu is a devoted mother, wife, daughter, friend, and community member. We are very fortunate to have Liz Brochu as member of the CADY team and are very grateful for her dedication to the important work we do to protect what we value mostour children. PLYMOUTH  On July 27, the 20th New Hampshire 40 Under 40 celebration was held at Delta Dental Stadium, where an emerging generation of New Hampshire leaders were honored and celebrated by colleagues, friends, and family.This year, we are thrilled to announce that CADY's Youth Services Director, Liz Brochu, was inducted into the 40 Under 40 Class of 2021. Individuals under 40 are nominated each year for their career achievements, community involvement and contributions to New Hampshire. Since its inception in 2002, the New Hampshire Union Leader has honored 800 outstanding Granite Staters making a difference in their communities and professions.Brochu has been with CADY for over 14 years. She is an alumna of UNH and holds a graduate degree in education from Plymouth State University. She serves as the Youth Services Director and the Central Region's Substance Misuse Prevention Coordinator and holds NH Certified Prevention Specialist credentials. Her passion for prevention inspires others to make a difference in the health and wellness of children and youth and in their community.Brochu was instrumental in the development of CADY's Youth Leadership programs, the Junior Action Club and the Youth Advisory and Advocacy Council; both programs give youth the opportunity to become leaders in prevention with self-driven projects and high-impact initiatives they find meaningful. Their outreach is shared with their peers and greater community. She recognizes the power of peer-to-peer education and turns to youth for input on program development. To date, she has mentored over 170 youth prevention leaders.Research shows that parents are the number one influence on their child's decision to use drugs or alcohol. Armed with this knowledge, in 2017, Brochu convened the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) to bring parents to the prevention table and provide the connection and opportunity to work together to build healthy environments and promising futures for children and youth in our region. With her guidance, this amazing group of parents have sponsored several community and statewide awareness-raising events to make substance misuse prevention a family and community priority.Throughout the pandemic, as many organizations were forced to pull back on direct services, Liz innovatively crafted a free Parent Webinar Series with more than 10 live-streamed events. This series continued to provide the critical information parents craved to address their children's emotional needs through the confusion and isolation of COVID-19. She recognized immediately that families needed guidance, support, and education to keep their children safe, healthy, and productive in the uncertain times of the pandemic. She jumped at the opportunity to develop the series, which included information about communication, emotional wellness, talking about risky behavior, underage drinking, and more.Upon receiving the award, Brochu was asked what motivates her to give back to her community, and she replied: "I care deeply about kids and want to help them learn, grow, and thrive by closing gaps and opening new opportunities for them. When we empower youth with new skillswe build self-confidence. With the challenges so many youths face today, we as adults need to be there for them. Watching kids grow into strong, capable, healthy, and happy young adults is the best reward imaginable."Brochu is a devoted mother, wife, daughter, friend, and community member. We are very fortunate to have Liz Brochu as member of the CADY team and are very grateful for her dedication to the important work we do to protect what we value mostour children.

Plymouth Record Enterprise Austin settling in as new Plymouth Athletic Director PES teacher hopes to spread love of reading Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
Winnisquam Echo Music transcends generations at Tilton Senior Center

by Donna Rhodes

Gary Brock was very proud of his grandson Gabriel who spent his vacation at his home in Laconia not only restoring an historic family banjo but learning to play it as well. (Courtesy Photo) (click for larger version) TILTON  Music and history were in perfect harmony this summer, when 12-year-old Gabriel Holt joined his grandfather, Gary Brock, for the Wednesday Night Country Pickin' Party (music night) at Tilton Senior Center to test out their newly restored banjo that dates back to 1890.



Gabriel, who lives in Mont Vernon, is interested in music and when his dad said he had a banjo in the attic, the pair went up to retrieve it. He learned that it was a banjo once belonging to his great-great-great grandfather on his dad's side.



Gabriel already played drums and was working on his guitar skills when the old Boston-made banjo was uncovered. Knowing that it had been in his family for more than 130 years he had an instant interest in the piece but it had aged a bit since the last family member played it. As a musician himself, his mom's dad happened to know a thing or two about banjoes so when Gabriel came to visit his grandfather in Laconia last month, he brought the banjo with him.



"We did some research and restored it; we brought it back to life," Brock said.



During this visit, Gabriel and Brock replaced many parts on the antique instrument, including the head and bridge. Once all the repairs were made, the pair waxed the surface, replaced the strings and it was ready to go.



"Gabriel was very involved in putting it all back together," said Brock.



He then started using his own instrument to teach his grandson a bit about the banjo and it didn't take long before Gabriel was hooked.



"I've played drums and I've had a few guitar lessons but now I like the banjo better," he said.



Brock explained that there are two styles involved in playing a banjo and this particular instrument was constructed for the "Claw and Hammer" style. When it came to Gabriel's fingerpicking on the banjo, his grandfather was impressed.



"He'd only been playing banjo for about seven hours before I saw he was quite adept at it," said Brock.



He is one of many area musicians who gather at the Tilton Senior Center each Wednesday evening for their Country Pickin' Night so he decided to bring his grandson along as a fellow musician that week; Gabriel had the distinction of being one of the youngest musicians to ever join the weekly open-call crew of performers. And while the more experienced musicians generously gave some pointers to the young man before they began to play, Gabriel also credits his grandfather, too.



"If it wasn't for him, the banjo would still be in the attic getting destroyed. I give all the credit to him for helping me restore it and teaching me how to play. I had a great time that night," Gabriel said.



The young man was very proud of not only his participation in the senior center's music night but of the historical significance in playing an instrument that had been in his father's family for several generations.



"Imagine it was made in 1890 and here I was picking it up and doing all this. How many people have had their hands on this instrument?" he wondered. "I had a real sense of history while I was playing it."



When it was time for Gabriel to head home to Mont Vernon, Grandpa Brock recognized the delicate nature of the historic instrument so he sent his grandson home with not only the restored family heirloom, but a newer banjo to hone his skills on.



"The one we restored is something he can hang on the wall and take down once in awhile to play, but the one I gave him is something for every day use," said Brock.



Meanwhile, it's a certainty that Lakes Region residents who attend the weekly music nights at Tilton Senior Center will be looking forward to Gabriel's next visit. TILTON  Music and history were in perfect harmony this summer, when 12-year-old Gabriel Holt joined his grandfather, Gary Brock, for the Wednesday Night Country Pickin' Party (music night) at Tilton Senior Center to test out their newly restored banjo that dates back to 1890.Gabriel, who lives in Mont Vernon, is interested in music and when his dad said he had a banjo in the attic, the pair went up to retrieve it. He learned that it was a banjo once belonging to his great-great-great grandfather on his dad's side.Gabriel already played drums and was working on his guitar skills when the old Boston-made banjo was uncovered. Knowing that it had been in his family for more than 130 years he had an instant interest in the piece but it had aged a bit since the last family member played it. As a musician himself, his mom's dad happened to know a thing or two about banjoes so when Gabriel came to visit his grandfather in Laconia last month, he brought the banjo with him."We did some research and restored it; we brought it back to life," Brock said.During this visit, Gabriel and Brock replaced many parts on the antique instrument, including the head and bridge. Once all the repairs were made, the pair waxed the surface, replaced the strings and it was ready to go."Gabriel was very involved in putting it all back together," said Brock.He then started using his own instrument to teach his grandson a bit about the banjo and it didn't take long before Gabriel was hooked."I've played drums and I've had a few guitar lessons but now I like the banjo better," he said.Brock explained that there are two styles involved in playing a banjo and this particular instrument was constructed for the "Claw and Hammer" style. When it came to Gabriel's fingerpicking on the banjo, his grandfather was impressed."He'd only been playing banjo for about seven hours before I saw he was quite adept at it," said Brock.He is one of many area musicians who gather at the Tilton Senior Center each Wednesday evening for their Country Pickin' Night so he decided to bring his grandson along as a fellow musician that week; Gabriel had the distinction of being one of the youngest musicians to ever join the weekly open-call crew of performers. And while the more experienced musicians generously gave some pointers to the young man before they began to play, Gabriel also credits his grandfather, too."If it wasn't for him, the banjo would still be in the attic getting destroyed. I give all the credit to him for helping me restore it and teaching me how to play. I had a great time that night," Gabriel said.The young man was very proud of not only his participation in the senior center's music night but of the historical significance in playing an instrument that had been in his father's family for several generations."Imagine it was made in 1890 and here I was picking it up and doing all this. How many people have had their hands on this instrument?" he wondered. "I had a real sense of history while I was playing it."When it was time for Gabriel to head home to Mont Vernon, Grandpa Brock recognized the delicate nature of the historic instrument so he sent his grandson home with not only the restored family heirloom, but a newer banjo to hone his skills on."The one we restored is something he can hang on the wall and take down once in awhile to play, but the one I gave him is something for every day use," said Brock.Meanwhile, it's a certainty that Lakes Region residents who attend the weekly music nights at Tilton Senior Center will be looking forward to Gabriel's next visit.

Winnisquam Echo Streetcar brings classic tale of dread to the stage Winnisquam teams kick off the fall sports season next week Recent Donna Rhodes PES teacher hopes to spread love of reading

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2021-Aug-12 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.com
A 22-year-old man committed suicide after his girlfriend decided to end their relationship. Desire Mungoma, a Great Zimbabwe university student was found lying dead with a poisonous liquid in a bush in Ashdown Park, about 2 kilometers away from his home.

The family said they were waiting for post-mortem results which would determine the day of burial with today being a possible date.

Mai Chariga the mans mother told H-Metro that he committed suicide after his girlfriend named Paula told Desire that he wanted out of their relationship.

I called the girlfriend to ask her what had happened but she only told me ndakamuudza handichadi tidanane, Desire akati ndakuzviuraya. I just said saka mwana wangu akoshesa iwewe kudarika inini amai vake, she said.

She is my only child and I separated with his father. I told myself that I would resign after my son attained his degree and he was on attachment. I wanted to sing Nhasi ndezveduwo song on his graduation ndichiti mwana wangu iyeye but its not going to be, she sobbed.

I started looking for him on Saturday from 10am until 6 m thats when I posted on a residents WhatsApp group. He did not take alcohol and was a quite boy. I went to Mabelreign police station and was told to come back after seven days.

I then received a call informing me that someone was found dead in bush, said the mother.The deceaseds mother said she also received calls from the girlfriends mother who wanted to check up on her.

Paulas mother called me asking about the incident and I just thought how the mother would have the guts to call me since my son was not married to her daughter, she said.

H-Metro contacted Paula and her mother who both declined to comment. We cannot speak to you and we have no comment, they said.

The family said they are now waiting for a post-mortem result which will determine the day of burial with Wednesday being a possible date.

The mother also revealed she had treated her son with a big birthday party and told him of the desire to flourish in his career path. I tried but he is gone my only son, she said.

In an interview with H-Metro, a medical expert at Parirenyatwa Hospital said: According to medical point of view, it could be possibly an issue of depression.

He would have had other pressing issues lately then this break up with his girlfriend was the final trigger event. No one would really kill himself over this but this will be a final push.

Without depression he would not have committed suicide over this, he was depressed and this was the final contribution to the suicidal thoughts. H Metro
To the worlds billion-plus Catholics, the Pope is one of the most trusted messengers and holds unparalleled influence. We are extremely grateful to him and the Cardinals and Archbishops for lending their voices and platforms to help people across the globe feel more confident in the vaccines, she added.
He cited ongoing conversations with the teachers union and refused to even give his own opinion about whether teachers should be ordered to get vaccinated, claiming that he does not tend to just opine about such issues.
Everyone tells me their probably most painful loss in their life, and the conversation lasts for hours and hours, and I would go from one family, talk to another person, talk to another person, she continued. And I would cry with them when they cry on the phone, which most of them did. And I would hang up ... and cry myself and then think, Oh my God, just how do I process this and how do I convey this?
How far would any of us go to try to reconnect with someone that weve lost, for one, and how far would we go to try to reconnect and be good and be supportive with our own families after a loss like this?
The shootings included an incident in East New York about 12:30 a.m. Monday where a 16-year-old boy was shot in the head as he sat behind the wheel of a Mercedes Benz SUV idling at a stoplight at Atlantic and Schneck Aves. The teen remained in critical condition at the hospital Wednesday, cops said. Two others in the SUV, an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman, were also hit by gunfire, but are expected to survive, officials said.
The teen came into the shop with friends, looking to pick up a black Mercedes E300, which was involved in a wreck. He was mad that his car hadnt been washed yet, and infuriated about having to pay a $1,000 deductible, said shop manager Armando Lio, 32.
It could have been any ATM vestibule anywhere in the five boroughs, said Sliwa, who, as founder of the Guardian Angels crime protection group, said he encountered many emotionally disturbed people on the subway. We find out time and time again that these are people who have been diagnosed with serious mental issues. They cut loose these men and women. They need to be under psychiatric care.
Police learned Alvarado had an argument with Luis Ortiz, 39, who lives next door to the building where the fight broke out. Ortiz had been stewing about Alvarado after he caught the victim leering at his teen daughter over an extended period of time, a police source said.
The new center will meet a longstanding need for a national focal point to analyze data and forecast the trajectory of pandemics ... to make this a reality that will truly improve our response to future pandemics, and indeed to other infectious diseases, epidemiologist Dr. Marc Lipsitch, who will help develop the center as its Director for Science, said in the release.
Wallace fled the scene and was caught days later outside Atlanta, hiding out in a treehouse on the property of a Black nationalist group dubbed the Not F---ing Around Coalition, or NFAC. He was taken into custody with multiple flash bangs, rifle plates, body armor, two rifles, two handguns and several boxes of ammunition.
The onetime rivals said they discussed getting rental assistance to struggling tenants and how the city and state can work together to jumpstart the economy and boost the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
OK, how many people do you think are on your jet? 800 people on your jet? Holy f---, holy cow! the controller said, according to CNN.
The Balearia ferry was coming from the island of Formentera when it smashed into a small, semi-rigid boat that was at the entrance of the port of Ibiza.
The Taliban, meanwhile, continued their stunning takeover of the war-torn country Wednesday. The group, whose leaders have promised peace and vowed to form an inclusive government, cracked down on protesters who had replaced a Taliban flag in the eastern city of Jalalabad. The crackdown quickly turned violent, with at least three people reportedly killed and many others wounded.
Two: Also according to Sullivan, so hasty and ill-planned was the U.S. exit, that certainly a fair amount of billions of dollars in American weaponry has fallen into the hands of the (now supposedly kinder and gentler) Taliban, although we dont have a complete picture of where various armaments are. Washingtons freezing of billions of Afghan government reserves, while welcome, must be viewed alongside that huge and dangerous gift to a sworn enemy.
The report must not only be detailed in its findings. It should set forth policy recommendations on what laws, regulations and executive branch practices must change to ensure that all abuses identified do not recur. Unlike the document issued by the attorney general, it should include redacted transcripts of interviews with witnesses, so that New Yorkers can see, in full context, the underlying claims on which conclusions are based.
The denizens of the Legislature have no more anti-corruption antibodies than New Yorks statewide officials. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver channeled state money to friends who channeled money to him through his law firm. Before him there was Speaker Mel Miller, who left in similar disgrace. Senate majority leaders have practically made criminality a feature of the job: Dean Skelos, John Sampson, Malcolm Smith, Joe Bruno all resigned under clouds. Backbench Assembly members and senators are no slouches when it comes to abusing their power. Since 2006, at least 30 Albany elected officials have left office accused of one rotten deed or another. Some now have experience with another government institution  the prison system.
Agricultural News

Oklahoma's Troy Marshall is Hunting Feral Swine Numbers

If you have been around a farmer or rancher long enough, you have probably heard them talk (badly) about feral swine. Descendants of escaped or released pigs, first brought to North America in the 1500s by Europeans, these not-so-sweet piggies are a dangerous, destructive, invasive species today.



Oklahoma Statistician for the USDAs National Agricultural Statistics Service Troy Marshall is hunting feral swine with pen and paper, across the state. Two branches of the USDA - NASS and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) - are teaming up to collect feral hog information.



Were specifically focusing on livestock producers, Marshall said. (The survey) will try to measure how much damage there is in Oklahoma, due to feral swine.



Marshall said his office knows feral swine damage to livestock producers in Oklahoma is significant but getting an accurate count of feral swine populations in Oklahoma will enable NASS to better assess the actual impact. The first step in truly identifying the problem is getting agriculture producers onboard.



Were going to be contacting just under 1,700 producers - asking some questions about their losses, Marshall said.



Marshall suggests that producers facing issues with feral swine reach out to APHISs wildlife service department employees, who are working with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF), by clicking or tapping here.



Hit the LISTEN BAR below to hear KC and Troy Marshall's whole conversation.



Photo credit: USDA















Listen to KC talk with Marshall here

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Data released by Visit Florida and Visit Orlando showed that during the second quarter of 2021  which includes April, May and June  hotel occupancy and demand, as well as airport passenger traffic, all soared from the same period in 2020 when COVID-19 nearly shut down the tourism industry.
Were seeing concerning evidence of waning vaccine effectiveness over time and against the delta variant, she said. Were concerned that the current strong protection against severe infection, hospitalizations and death could decrease in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or who were vaccinated early in the vaccine rollout.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Officer Jason Raynor, the Daytona Beach Police Department, and all our brothers and sisters in law enforcement today, Larizza said in a statement Wednesday. ... We will proceed with our solemn mission to hold Officer Jason Raynors murderer accountable. Justice equals accountability and justice demands the death penalty.
The burden of extreme heat disproportionately falls on workers of color. More than 40% of outdoor workers nationwide identify as African American, Black, Hispanic or Latino, according to the study. That group alone risks losing an estimated $23.5 billion in annual earnings by midcentury with no reduction in global warming emissions. Migrant and undocumented workers may also face greater barriers to safety protections due to the possibility of deportation, which may stop them from speaking out against companies or seeking medical help.
This is something that is personal. We know some of these people. We have interacted with them. For me, this is my family, said Christina Romelus, a city commissioner of Haitian descent, whose husband lost three relatives in the earthquake. You are seeing that feeling of theres no where to go now. Home is destroyed. Home is gone.
My employer is not insured against the risk of maternity and it conveniently passes that risk on to me. I cannot budget for a roving employee to replace anyone on my team who happens to become pregnant. So, I pay for it out of dollars that taxpayers have set aside for scientific and medical advances  that NIH delivers through its awards to qualifying grantees.
I give major props to the South Florida prosecutors who have dug deep and made arrests down in South Florida. And Democratic lawmakers have demanded answers. But the political cynic in me cant help but wonder if Democrats down there would have pursued these political crimes as zealously if the players involved were members of the same party.
DeSantis popularity continues to overperform expectations, Jim Lee, president of Susquehanna Polling and Research, said in a statement about the poll results. He said the 52-43 approval isnt great, but in the context of whats been happening in the state in recent weeks with the uptick in COVID cases, its certainly impressive. And its clearly good enough to get reelected in a swing state like Florida if it continues to stay above 50%.
We are very confident we will have the resources and message to win both the primary and the general, said Kevin Cate, a media consultant for the Fried campaign. The current governor clearly thinks this campaign is going to come down to who has the most cash  which is why he continues to abandon our state as people are getting sick and dying to raise money for his campaign. Hes wrong.
Claiming that there is somehow corruption by promoting the baseless political narrative that Governor DeSantis supports Regeneron over COVID vaccines (completely false, but that is another topic) is not even logically consistent when you examine the SEC filing, Pushaw said in an email. Citadel holds far more shares of Pfizer and Moderna than Regeneron.
It seems like once you have this window as a part of your legacy, the responsibility is of continuing to lead the way and to pave the way for those in the future, so the words on this plaque are apropos for us all, Rivers said in a video posted on social media.
Also, the NHC is monitoring a tropical wave several hundred miles to the southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands, which is producing a broad area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms. The wave is forecast to interact with another wave emerging off the African coast over the next day or two, the NHC said.
The above stretch of East First Street is set to undergo a significant transformation. City officials are spending $150,000 for a traffic calming and beautification effort in the area that will reduce the number of traffic lanes and expand parking.
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, center, the commander of U.S. Central Command, meets with U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan-Forward, at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (Capt. William Urban/U.S. Navy via AP)
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan ministries of Foreign Affairs and Labour are discussing the possibility of introducing foreign labour to the country with a view to enhancing the local labour market
PARLAMENTUL REPUBLICII MOLDOVA

 2010

The Moldovan Parliaments website design was supported by the Democracy Support Programme in Moldova"  an initiative financed by the European Union and implemented by the Council of Europe
A look at the major movers on the London market on Wednesday

Oriole Resources PLC is shining after the second positive update in two days on its Senala project in Senegal.

Its partner in the project, IAMGOLD Corporation has the option to spend up to US$8mln to earn a 70% interest .

Following a new reverse circulation drilling programme, Oriole chief executive Tim Livesey, said: "Excellent results from this... programme, targeting previously identified but as yet unquantified gold mineralisation at FareFar South and FareNorth, continue to support our belief that the c.6 km trend at the Fare prospect has ample potential to host a stand-alone resource.

"Not only are these RC drilling results indicative of the typical grades considered mineable in West African orogenic gold systems but the intersection of significant mineralised widths, often close to surface, points to the huge untapped potential at Fare."

The news has seen Oriole's shares climb 6.65% to 0.51p.

2.42pm: Likewise jumps on first day of dealings

Floor coverings group Likewise Group PLC has stepped out smartly in its first day on AIM.

The Yorkshire business, founded just three years ago, has seen its shares jump from the 25p placing price to 30.91p, a 12.6% gain.

It raised 10m, which it will use to hire more staff, make acquisitions and expand its distribution network to the south and south west of the country.

At the placing price the company was valued at 48.1mln. Chief executive Tony Brewer has set a goal of growing that to 200mln and increasing its market share from 3% to 10% (video interview here).

The company's directors took place in the offer, with Brewer himself paying 100,000 for 400,000 shares.

He said: "Likewise is delighted to be listed on AIM in order to create access to capital and accelerate our growth aspirations."

12.05pm: Balfour Beatty drops as UK construction business still struggles

Construction and engineering group Balfour Beatty PLC has lost ground after its latest results.

First half revenues were broadly flat, while it moved from an operating loss of 14mln last year to a 60mln profit.

But its UK construction business was still loss making, and it flagged up a contingent liability on a high-rise development in London (relating to a stone facade) which could cost up to 50mln.

The company has also decided to no longer bid for fixed price residential property projects in central London.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: Losses on London property construction contracts mean Balfours UK construction business has not made any progress year-on-year. Given the group was struggling with the complete closure of the construction industry 12 months ago thats a particularly poor result.

"In future the group will avoid fixed-price residential property contracts in central London altogether. That may avoid repeats of past blunders, but it continues a trend of Balfour restricting where it operates. So long as theres enough work to do in its remaining markets thats no bad thing, but construction is a notoriously fickle business and work quickly dries up when the economy takes a turn for the worse."

Its shares are down 7.21% or 23p to 296p.

10.56am: BrandShield Systems boosted by payment processing contract

Cybersecurity specialist BrandShield Systems PLC has keyed up a share price rise after detailing a new contract win.

It has expanded its presence in financial services by signing a deal with a company in the payment processing sector.

BrandShield will provide protection services against phishing and impersonation attacks, from monitoring threats to taking them down.

It said: "Payment processing customers suffer from large scale impersonation attacks which act as the gateway to further fraudulent activity targeting both online customers and online retailers, the legitimate recipients of the targeted payments. The brand reputation suffered by the legitimate payments platform can be extreme in terms of negative publicity and confidence amongst retailers and customers in the vast eCommerce space."

BrandShield shares are 4.73% or 0.86p better at 19.11p.

10.01am: SDX Energy under pressure after disappointing gas field update

( , , ) has seen a leak in its share price after a disappointing update from the South Disouq gas field in Egypt.

After drilling on the Hanut prospect in South Disouq - where SDX has a 55% interest - it found good quality sands but these were not charged with gas.

It said that Hanut was "a unique subsurface feature in the South Disouq acreage" so it believed the result of this exploration well would have limited impact for the rest of the area.

Chief executive Mark Reid said: "Whilst the result of this well is disappointing, I remain positive about the remaining prospectivity in the area which has not been materially impacted. In particular, I am encouraged by the proof of reservoir quality sands ... in the South Disouq area as this derisks further close by prospectivity. The company will now be working towards moving these prospects to drill-ready status for a 2022 campaign and looks forward updating the market on its campaigns in West Gharib and in Morocco in the remainder of the year."

But the company's shares have fallen 10.35% or 1.5p on the news to 13p.

8.58am: Novacyt climbs on COVID-19 test updates

Diagnostics group ( ) is in demand after a positive update on its COVID-19 tests.

Half year revenues grew by more than 50% to 94.7mln, with 54mln of than coming from a mixture of overseas sales and a growing UK private testing market, lessening the company's reliance on business from the Department of Heath and Social Care. Indeed the DHSC sales are currently in dispute.

Meanwhile it has been awarded a new contract for the supply of its Promate COVID-19 tests to the NHS, worth up to 4.7m .

UK private market sales, which currently includes COVID-19 testing in film, media, travel and corporate industries, increased significantly in the second quarter.

It said: "The company expects continued strong growth in private testing as markets and travel re-open and, as the Northern Hemisphere heads into winter, the potential for higher infection rates will increase the need for COVID-19 testing. Since the start of 2020, the company has launched 16 new CE-IVD products, and expects to launch a further 10 by the end of 2022.

"The company therefore reiterates revenue guidance of 100mln for the full year, excluding DHSC revenues, as announced on 22 June 2021."

Its shares are up 14.9% or 45p at 347p.

Also heading higher is cloud platform specialist ( ).

It has added 5.33% or 2p to 39.5p after recognition from Microsoft.

The US giant has awarded LoopUp its 'Calling for Microsoft Teams Advanced Specialization'.

This goes to Microsoft partners that demonstrate "deep knowledge, extensive experience, and proven success in the deployment and management of Microsoft Teams Calling and Phone System."
Old Mutual said its mortality experience through the Covid crisis has been worse than anticipated

South Africa-based life insurer Old Mutual Ltd ( ) has cautioned about the impact of rising levels of Covid infections on its cash flow and reserves.

COVID-19 provisions were increased by R2bn (100mln) at the end of 30 June 2021 to take into account the emerging expectations of wave 3 and 4 as well as potential future outbreaks, it said in a statement.

Mortality claims paid relating to COVID-19 in the life businesses are driving negative Net Client Cash Flows (NCCF) it added although this is being offset by inflows in Asset Management and Wealth businesses.

Old Mutual added its mortality experience through the Covid crisis has been worse than anticipated though the release of provisions has helped mitigate this.

Business interruption claims paid in the first half of the year were offset by the reserves raised at the end of 2020, added the statement, with a significant turnaround in the profitability in Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation (CGIC) business as large COVID-19 related claims in the prior year did not repeat.

Headline earnings for the six months to end June 2021 are now expected in a range of R2.8bn-R3bn, with basic earning per share of 61.4c-74.3c.
A group of health experts led by Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation has expressed concerns about the takeover

( ). ( ) has bought 22.61% of ( ) ( ) as shareholders have been urged to vote against the 165p per share takeover offer.

In a somewhat aggressive move, the tobacco giant acquired 135mln shares at 165p each and called for institutional investors interested in selling more.

Meanwhile, a group of health experts led by Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation said that the takeover would significantly hamper Vecturas ability to continue operating as a viable, research-oriented business.

Many university and hospital collaborations are likely to be rejected and participation in clinical trials blocked, disrupting crucial drug development  one of Vecturas major business activities, they said in an open letter. A takeover by PMI is therefore likely to cause significant disruption to Vecturas operations and future profitability for its shareholders.

Shareholders were asked to consider both the business risks and the moral conflict of the proposed takeover. Tobacco companies should not profit from treating the illnesses their products cause, The Guardian reported.

The asthma inhalers maker recommended that investors accept the bid by the Marlboro cigarettes owner, rejecting instead a 155p offer backed by private equity group Carlyle, sparking outrage.

Vectura makes asthma inhalers and other treatments for respiratory diseases, including COPD, which is also called smokers cough.

Philip Morris said it is building a portfolio that goes beyond nicotine planned to generate at least US$1bn revenues by 2025, having identified respiratory drug delivery as a key focus.

The cigarette maker said that its move into the pharma space is founded on strong understanding of aerosolisation and respiratory technology and its promising product development pipeline, having invested over US$8bn in nicotine-free products since 2008.

Campaigners are concerned of the ethical and research implications if the acquisition goes ahead, alongside the establishment of a precedent.

Shares were flat at 164.7p on Wednesday morning.

--Adds shares acquisition--
Once the go-ahead has been given by the Tanzanian authorities, acquisition of 3D seismic data will begin

( ) and ( ) have announced that the Ruvuma joint venture has received a two-year extension to its licence from the Ministry of Energy of Tanzania.

Both Aminex and Scirocco each own a 25% share of the JV.

The operator, ARA Petroleum Tanzania Limited (APT) secured the extension until 15 August 2023 to allow the JV to complete the acquisition of 3D seismic data over 200 square kilometres, drill the Chikumbi-1 well and conclude negotiations of the gas terms for the Ruvuma production-sharing agreement (PSA).

With tendering for the 3D seismic completed in June and now approval is being awaited from the Tanzanian authorities before the contract can be awarded, which is expected to lead to the surveying beginning in the current quarter, the companies said.

They added that drilling of the Chikumbi-1 exploration and appraisal well is expected to start in July of 2022.

Based on the latest mapping and internal management estimates from APT, Ruvuma's Ntorya accumulation has mean risked gas in place of 3,024bn cubic feet (Bcf), in multiple lobes to be tested, and a mean risked recoverable gas resource of 1,990 Bcf, which will be appraised by the planned seismic and drilling programme.

Under the farm-out agreement completed with APT last October, Aminex is carried for its share of the associated field development costs up to US$35mln, equivalent to gross development expenditure of US$140mln.

Charlie Santos, executive chairman of Aminex, commented: "We are delighted to receive the extension to the licence and appreciate the Ministry of Energy's steadfast support. We are also thankful for APT's diligent efforts to secure the extension and look forward to updating shareholders on further progress in due course."

Scirocco chief executive officer Tom Reynolds said: "This is a very positive update for the Ruvuma JV partners as the licence extension adds significantly more clarity to the project going forward. It also reflects the quality of the Operator and its status in country which is critical for the future success of the project.

"Most importantly for Scirocco, it provides clarity of licence tenure to potential acquirers within our ongoing discussions regarding the sale of Scirocco's interest in Ruvuma. With a clear licence position, work programme and associated timeline, we are able to present a well-defined pathway to development to prospective purchasers. We look forward to progressing those discussions and providing updates to the market as appropriate."

Aminex shares jumped 31% to 0.69p by midday on Wednesday, while Scirocco's were up 3% at 0.87p.
The shares have risen 110% this year so far and by over 3,000% over the past five years

( ) is set to rise even more according to Berenberg, which adds it is not too late for new investors to join in.

The shares have risen 110% this year so far and by over 3,000% over the past five years, but there is more to come and specifically from this week's Dennis Publishing acquisition, suggests the broker.

Multiple synergies arise from the Dennis acquisition believes the broker, in particular, the scale in wealth vertical added by Denniss MoneyWeek and Kiplinger brands especially in the US.

Dennis also adds significant subscription revenues (c75% of its sales) and a proprietary subscription conversion engine Future can roll out across its existing brands.

Berenbergs price target has risen to 4,890p from 4,180p though its best-case estimate is for a share price of 6,250p and 70% earnings upside on its current forecast by 2023 though this relies on some more M&A deals along the way.

A 'top pick' and a 'buy' concludes Berenberg.

Shares rose 4.9% to 3,880p.
A glance at some of the day's highlights from the Proactive Investors newswire

Sirius Real Estate PLC has made a bold statement of intent after the completion of its 400mln corporate bond issue with the purchase of four German business park assets and a parcel of land for just under 85mln.

( , ) said its partner, the property development giant Peel, has submitted planning permission for a second waste plastics-to-hydrogen facility.

( , , ) said that to meet demand from new and existing investors, Dr Miroslav Reljanovic, executive chairman, and Richard Barfield, chief financial officer, had sold 1.2mln and 50,000 shares respectively at 1,200 pence per share. Following these sales, Reljanovic holds a 19.8% stake and Barfield 0.1%.

( ) said the team of 13 experts assembled for its Crypto Mining research and development project are now fully operational.

( , ) has inked an accord to run its crypto-related operations at net zero emissions before 2030.

Zephyr Energy PLC chief executive Colin Harrington described the State 16-2LN-CC well as an excellent platform from which to assess wider field development options in Utahs Paradox basin.

( , ) said it plans to pay an interim gross dividend of 0.35 pence per share, the first tranche of its previously announced special dividend, by September 26.

( , ) reported further positive results from a drilling programme to test near-surface gold mineralisation at the Fare prospect, part of the Senala joint venture project in Senegal.

( ) has announced it has received the 'Calling for Microsoft Teams Advanced Specialization' award by tech giant Microsoft.

( ) announced it has signed a new Christmas contract with Canterbury Museums and Galleries for the BRICKLIVE Christmas Elf bundle.

( , ) told investors that it will not proceed into the next phase of the Zermatt (P2497) and Glenn (P2499) licences in the North Sea, and accordingly the licences will cease on 29 August.

( , , ) has expanded and extended its credit facility, with the borrowing base increasing by US$200mln to US$625mln.

( , ) announced that it has been issued the fourth tranche of 500,000 common shares in TSX-V listed ( ) Corp in relation to the disposal of the company's previously owned PGM project held by Pedra Branca Brasil Mineracao Ltda.

( ) confirmed that its annual general meeting will be held at its offices in Hemel Hempstead on 1 September 2021 at 11.00 am. The company's current intention is that the AGM will be an open meeting, with shareholders welcome in person if they pre-register their intention to attend by notifying the company secretary at InvestorRelations@eckoh.com by no later than 6pm on 27 August.
Chill Brands Group PLC is rolling out Chill.com-branded CBD tobacco alternative products across the US with the products stocked in more than 2,500 multi-state retail outlets.

Chill.com-branded CBD product line was launched in the UK on 30 June 2021.

The products have attracted significant consumer interest, paving the way towards a promising future as a forerunner of what is expected to be a lucrative UK market.
The launch of the iPhone 13 is expected to benefit from a post-pandemic reopening environment

The demand trajectory for ( )s iPhone 13 is looking strong heading into September, according to broker Wedbush.

The broker believes the iPhone 13 launch is slated for the third week of September.

The broker said it expects the 5G driven product cycle will extend well into 2022 and should also benefit from a post-vaccine consumer reopening environment".

With around 20% of iPhone upgrades anticipated out of China, Wedbush said it continues to see robust demand in this key region.

In a nutshell on the iPhone front, we believe the robust consumer product cycle continues globally," the broker said.

With roughly 250mln of the current 975mln iPhone users not upgrading their smartphones in over 3.5 years, this speaks to massive pent up demand within Apple's installed base, it added.

Our favorite large cap tech name to play the 5G transformational cycle is Apple, the broker said.

Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating and $185 price target.

Apple shares were 0.4% lower at $150 in pre-market trade.
Mydecines chief scientific officer Rob Roscow said the research agreement demonstrates our commitment to advancing psychedelic medicine by exploring multiple molecules and medicines for a variety of indications"

Mydecine will work with the team at Johns Hopkins, led by Dr Matthew Johnson and the Behavioural Pharmacology Research Unit

( , , ) announced a new multi-year research collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to study psychedelic therapies.

The five-year agreement will see Denver-based Mydecine working with the team at Johns Hopkins, led by Dr Matthew Johnson and the Behavioural Pharmacology Research Unit.

In a statement, Mydecine told shareholders that the team has extensive experience working on clinical research related to the therapeutic use of psychedelics.

We are excited to expand on the current work we are conducting with Dr Matt Johnson and his team at JHU in regards to smoking cessation to include numerous other projects over the next five years, Mydecine CEO Josh Bartch said. The researchers at JHU have proven their incredible depth of knowledge in the field.

Mydecines chief scientific officer Rob Roscow hailed the long-term potential of the research agreement, saying it demonstrates our commitment to advancing psychedelic medicine by exploring multiple molecules and medicines for a variety of indications.

Much of Mydecines current research looks into how psychedelics can help people to stop smoking. The companys chief medical officer Dr Rakesh Jetly cited CDC statistics showing that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the US, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year.

Despite all the public education and dire warnings, cigarette smoking remains one of the most difficult addiction to treat and contributes to more deaths than all the other substances combined, making research like this vital, Jetly told investors.

Mydecine is an emerging biotech and life sciences company dedicated to developing and commercializing innovative solutions for treating mental health problems and enhancing vitality. The firm operates out of a state-of-the-art mycology lab in Denver to focus on genetic research for scaling commercial cultivation of rare (non-psychedelic) medicinal mushrooms, and has exclusive access to a full cGMP certified pharmaceutical manufacturing facility with the ability to import and export, cultivate, extract and isolate, and analyze active mushroom compounds with full government approval through Health Canada.

Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas
In late May, MagicMed announced it had entered into a definitive agreement for an all-stock transaction that would see it acquired by Enveric

Enveric is a patient-focused biotechnology company developing novel therapeutic drugs to improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

MagicMed Industries purchaser ( , ) Inc, has released a letter to its shareholders ahead of its annual stockholder meeting and the closing of the MagicMed transaction.

Enveric is a patient-focused biotechnology company developing novel therapeutic drugs to improve the quality of life for cancer patients.

In late May, MagicMed announced it had entered into a definitive agreement for an all-stock transaction that would see it acquired by Enveric.

As the deal nears completion, Enverics chief executive officer, David Johnson, issued an open letter to shareholders; in it the company head outlined 2Q financials and provided an update on the acquisition process.

We expect the pending transaction to complement our existing product development activities, which are focused on physical symptoms, with a platform of novel psychedelics that addresses the large mental health challenges related to CNS indications such as PTSD, anxiety, depression and pain, wrote Johnson in the statement.

We filed our second quarter and first half of 2021 financials last Friday with the SEC, which demonstrates our strong balance sheet of approximately $20 million in cash, no debt and an efficient capital table, affording us the flexibility to be opportunistic about further M&A possibilities and in executing on our current business plan, he added.

Enveric has also increased its research and development spending over the first half of 2021.

The money was used in part to look beyond the companys cannabinoid-based therapeutic drugs for patients who suffer from the side effects of cancer therapy, to the adjascent spaces that could benefit from these treatments.

Johnson cited radiation induced dermatitis and chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy as large market opportunities where the current standard of care has seen minimal clinical innovation.

Our development activities, however, revealed an even larger opportunity related to a side effect in cancer therapy known as 'Cancer Related Distress' (CRD) derived from anxiety, depression and PTSD arising from the diagnosis, treatment protocol or a patient's concerns about the future. While working to address the physical issues associated with cancer therapy, as a patient-centric company, it became evident that patients also had significant struggles with the mental aspect of their diagnosis, explained Johnson.

Scientific evidence published by leading academic institutions such as John Hopkins and Yale show the promise of psychedelic molecules as an effective and exciting approach in treating mental health. The FDA's approval of Janssen's SPRAVATO (eskatamine) and its designation of "Breakthrough Therapy" for a Psilocybin and MDMA, further bolsters this published research, he said.

With this space in mind, Enveric began looking for a partner and found MagicMed.

Their library of Intellectual Property for Generation 3molecules, together with their use of Artificial Intelligence, we believe will allow the combined company to address many of the issues not only within our desired cancer indications, but well beyond in this extensive arena of societal mental health problems, Johnson said.

Once the deal is finalized Dr Joseph Tucker, the current CEO of MagicMed, will become the CEO of the amalgamated entity which will operate under the Enveric name. Johnson will then move to the role of executive chairman.

With a market estimated at more than $250 billion in North America alone, the combined company will be uniquely positioned to bring significant value in the form of efficacious, reliable, life-changing therapies for the patients we seek to serve, Johnson added.

Contact the writer at georgia@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @MissInformd
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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Ex-investigators, lawyer accused of corruption to go on trial in Moscow

 www.votermedia.org

13:00 18/08/2021

MOSCOW, August 18 (RAPSI)  Moscows Zamoskvoretsky District Court will hear a case against three former investigators and an attorney, who stand charged with receiving over 5 million rubles (about $70,000) in bribes, the press service of the Moscow prosecutors office reports.

The defendants conspired to demand the money threatening their victim with bringing to criminal liability and further detention, according to the prosecution.

They received the bribe in parts several times. When they got over 5 million rubles, they were arrested.
Prosecutor seeks 6 years in jail for defendant in case over fight with police at Moscow rally

 The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow

17:27 18/08/2021

MOSCOW, August 18 (RAPSI)  A prosecutor on Wednesday demanded 6 years in penal colony for Mikail Markhiyev (Said-Mukhamad Dzhumayev), an alleged participant of a fight with police during an unauthorized rally held in Moscow on January 23, the Moscow Tverskoy District Courts press service told RAPSI.

Markhiyev stands charged with using force against a representative of authority.

According to investigators, on January 23, 2021, the accused taking part in the rally in central Moscow and beat several law enforcement officers and left the scene. Later, he was arrested in the Pskov Region.




Counter Punch, August 17, 2021

By Micheal Hudson

President Biden put a popular flag-waving wrapping on Americas forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in his 4 PM speech on Monday. It was as if all this was following Bidens own intentions, not a demonstration of the totally incompetent assurances by the CIA and State Department as recently as last Friday that the Taliban was over a month away from being able to enter Kabul. Instead of saying that the massive public support for the Taliban replacing the United States showed the incompetent hubris of U.S. intelligence agencies  which itself would have justified Bidens agreement to complete the withdrawal with all haste  he doubled down on his defense of the Deep State and its mythology.

The effect was to show how drastic his own misconceptions are, and how he will continue to defend neocon adventurism. What seemed for an hour or so as a public relations recovery is turning into a denouement of how U.S. fantasy is still trying to threaten Asia and the Near East.

By throwing all his weight behind the propaganda that has guided U.S. policy since George W. Bush decided to invade after 9/11, Biden blew his greatest chance to burst the myths that led to his own bad decisions to trust U.S. military and state officials (and their campaign contributors).

His first pretense was that we invaded Afghanistan to retaliate against its attack on America on 9/11. This is the founding lie of U.S. presence in the Near East. Afghanistan did not attack us. Saudi Arabia did.

Biden tried to confuse the issue by saying that we went into Afghanistan to deal with (assassinate) Osama Bin Laden  and after this victory, we then then decided to stay on and build democracy, a euphemism for creating a U.S. client state. (Any such state is called a democracy, which means simply pro-American in todays diplomatic vocabulary.)

Hardly anyone asks how the U.S. ever got in. Jimmy Carter was suckered by the Polish Russia-hater Brzezinski and created Al Qaeda to act as Americas foreign legion, subsequently expanded to include ISIS and other terrorist armies against countries where U.S. diplomacy seeks regime change. Carters alternative to Soviet Communism was Wahabi fanaticism, solidifying Americas alliance with Saudi Arabia. Carter memorably said that at least these Muslims believed in God, just like Christians. But the Wahabi fundamentalism army was sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which paid for arming Al Qaeda to fight against Sunni Moslems and, early on, the Russian-backed Afghan government.

After Carter, George W. Bush and Barack Obama funded Al Qaeda (largely with the gold looted from destroying Libya) to fight for U.S. geopolitical aims and oil in Iraq and Syria. The Taliban for its part fought against Al Quaeda. The real U.S. fear therefore is not that they may back Americas Wahabi foreign legion, but that they will make a deal with Russia, China and Syria to serve as a trade link from Iran westward.

Bidens second myth was to blame the victim by claiming that the Afghan army would not fight for their country, despite his assurances by the proxies whom the U.S. installed that they would use U.S. money to build the economy. He also said that the army did not fight, which became obvious over the weekend.

The police force also did not fight. Nobody fought the Taliban to defend their country, because the U.S. occupation regime was not their country. Again and again, Biden repeated that the United States could not save a country that would not defend itself. But the itself was the corrupt regime that was simply pocketing U.S. aid money.

The situation was much like what was expressed in the old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto finding themselves surrounded by Indians. What are we going to do, Tonto, asked the Lone Ranger.

What do you mean, We, white man? Tonto replied. That was the reply of the Afghan army to U.S. demands that they fight for the corrupt occupation force that they had installed. Their aim is to survive in a new country, while in Doha the Taliban leadership negotiates with China, Russia and even the United States to achieve a modus vivendi.

So all that Bidens message meant to most Americans was that we would not waste any more lives and money fighting wars for an ungrateful population that wanted the U.S. to do all the fighting for it.

President Biden could have come out and washed away the blame by saying: Just before the weekend, I was told by my army generals and national security advisors that it would take months for the Taliban to conquer Afghanistan, and certainly to take control of Kabul, which supposedly would be a bloody fight. He could have announced that he is removing the incompetent leadership engrained for many years, and creating a more reality-based group.

But of course, he could not do that, because the group is the unreality-based neocon Deep State. He was not about to explain how Its obvious that I and Congress have been misinformed, and that the intelligence agencies had no clue about the country that they were reporting on for the last two decades.

He could have acknowledged that the Afghans welcomed the Taliban into Kabul without a fight. The army stood aside, and the police stood aside. There seemed to be a party celebrating the American withdrawal. Restaurants and markets were open, and Kabul seemed to be enjoying normal life  except for the turmoil at the airport.

Suppose that Biden had said the following: Given this acquiescence in support for the Taliban, I was obviously correct in withdrawing the American occupation forces. Contrary to what Congress and the Executive Branch was told, there was no support by the Afghans for the Americans. I now realize that to the Afghan population, the government officials that America installed simply took the money we gave them and put it into their own bank accounts instead of paying the army, police and other parts of civic society.

Instead, President Biden spoke about having made four trips to Afghanistan and how much he knew and trusted the proxies that U.S. agencies had installed. That made him seem gullible. Even Donald Trump said publicly that he didnt trust the briefings that he was given, and wanted to spend money at home, into the hands of his own campaign contributors instead of abroad.

Biden could have picked up on this point by saying, At least theres a silver lining: We wont be spending any more than the $3 trillion that weve already sunk over there. We can now afford to use the money to build up domestic U.S. infrastructure instead.

But instead President Biden doubled down on what his neocon advisors had told him, and what they were repeating on the TV news channels all day: The Afghan army had refused to fight for their country, meaning the U.S.-supported occupation force, as if this was really Afghan self-government.

The media are showing pictures of the Afghan palace and one of the warlords office. I did a double-take, because the plush, wretched-excess furnishings looked just like Obamas $12 million McMansion furnishings in Marthas Vineyard.

Obama officials are being trotted out by the news spinners. On MSNBC, John Brennan warned Andrea Mitchell at noon that the Taliban might now back Al Qaeda in new destabilization and even use Afghanistan to mount new attacks on the United States. The message was almost word for word what Americans were told in 1964: If we dont fight the Vietcong in their country, well have to fight them over here. As if any country has an armed force large enough to conquer any industrial nation in todays world.

The whole cast of Americas humanitarian bombing squad was there, including its harridan arm, the Democratic Partys front organizations created to co-opt feminists to urging that Afghanistan be bombed until it treats women better. One can only imagine how the image of Samantha Power, Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, Susan and Condoleezza Rice, not to mention Indira Gandhi and Golda Maier, will make the Taliban want to create its own generation of ambitious educated women like these.

President Biden might have protected himself from Republican criticism by reminding his TV audience that Donald Trump had urged withdrawal from Afghanistan already last spring and now, in retrospect, that the Deep State was wrong to advise against this but that Donald was right. That is what his order for withdrawal was acknowledging, after all. This might have detoothed at least some Trumpian criticism.

Instead, Mr. Brennan and the generals trotted in front of the TV cameras criticized Biden for not prolonging the occupation until the fall, when cold weather would deter the Taliban from fighting. Brennan stated on Andrea Mitchells newscast that Biden should have taken a ploy out of his The Art of Breaking the Deal by breaking the former presidents promise to withdraw last spring.

Delay, delay, delay. That is always the stance of grabitizers refusing to see the resistance building up, hoping to take what they can get for as long as they can  with the they being the military-industrial complex, the suppliers of mercenary forces and other recipients of the money that Mr. Biden curiously says that we spent in Afghanistan.

The reality is that not much of this $3 trillion actually was spent there. It was spent on Raytheon, Boeing and other military hardware suppliers, on the mercenary forces, and placed in the accounts of the Afghan proxies for the U.S. maneuvering to use Afghanistan to destabilize Central Asia on Russias southern flank and western China.

It looks like most of the world will quickly recognize the Afghan government, leaving the U.S., Israel, Britain, India and perhaps Samoa isolated as a recalcitrant block living like the post-World War I royal families still clinging to their titles of dukes, princes and other vestiges of a world that had passed.

Bidens political mistake was to blame the victim and depict the Taliban victory as a defeat of a cowardly army not willing to fight for its paymasters. He seems to imagine that the army actually had been paid, provided with food, clothing and weapons in recent months simply because U.S. officials gave their local proconsuls and supporters cash for this purpose. I understand that there is no real accounting of just what the $3 billion U.S. cost was actually spent on, who got it the shrink-wrapped bundles of hundred-dollar bills passed down through Americas occupation bureaucracy. (I bet the serial numbers were not recorded. Imagine if that were done and the U.S. could announce these C-notes demonetized!)

The reality is that not much of the notorious $3 trillion actually was spent in Afghanistan. It was spent on Raytheon, Boeing and other military hardware suppliers, on the mercenary forces, and placed in the accounts of the Afghan proxies for the U.S. maneuvering to use Afghanistan to destabilize Central Asia on Russias southern flank and western China.

The U.S. is now (20 years after the time it should have begun) trying to formulate a Plan B. Its strategists probably hope to achieve in Afghanistan what occurred after the Americans left Saigon: An economic free-for-all that U.S. companies can co-opt by offering business opportunities.

On the other hand, there are reports that Afghanistan may sue the United States for reparations for the illegal occupation and destruction still going on as the country is being bombed in Bidens flurry of B-52 anger. Such a claim, of course, would open the floodgates for similar suits by Iraq and Syria  and the Hague in Holland has shown itself to be a NATO kangaroo court. But I would expect Afghanistans new friends in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to back such a suit in a new international court, if only to block any hopes by U.S. companies of achieving by financial leverage what the State Department, CIA and Pentagon could not achieve militarily.

In any case, Bidens parting shot of nasty bombing of Taliban centers can only convince the new leadership to solidify its negotiations with its nearest regional neighbors with their promise to help save Afghanistan from any American, British or NATO attempt to try and come back in and restore democracy. The world has seen enough of Secretary of State Antony Blinkens rules based order and President Bidens pretended history on whose mytholgy U.S. policy will continue to be based.
Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal Dr Shafiqur Rahman Barq has been booked for comparing Taliban occupation of Afghanistan with India's freedom struggle.

A case has been registered against the SP MP at the Sadar police station on a complaint lodged by Rajesh Singhal, regional vice president of BJP Western Uttar Pradesh, late on Tuesday night.

The charges against the MP include Sections 124A (Sedition), 153A (Promoting enmity between groups) and 295A (outraging religious feelings).

The Sambhal MP had issued a statement on August 16 hailing Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and comparing their assault on the country with India's freedom struggle.

He had said that the Taliban is fighting for the freedom of their country and it is an internal matter of Afghanistan.

"When India was under British rule, our country fought for freedom. Now Taliban wants to free their country and run it. Taliban is a force that did not allow even strong countries like Russia and the US to settle in their country," Barq had said.

Reacting to Samajwadi Party MP's comment, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya had criticised Barq and said there is no difference between Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and the leaders of the SP.

"The Samajwadi Party can say anything, if such a statement has come from the SP on the Taliban, then what is the difference between Imran Khan and the leaders of the SP?" he had said.

Earlier, Peace Party spokesman Shadab Chauhan had also congratulated the Taliban on the 'peaceful' transfer of power in Afghanistan.

BJP spokesman Manish Shukla had come down heavily on Khan saying, "Chauhan's tweet reflects the posture of his Peace Party. We strongly condemn it."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday reviewed the government's strategy to evacuate Indian citizens in the next few days and ensure safety to the Hindu and Sikh communities in Afghanistan, in a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting.

This is the second meeting of CCS within 24 hours amid the fast changing situation in Afghanistan.

Modi chaired the first CCS meeting on Tuesday evening and directed the officials for speedy evacuation of Indians who are still in the war torn country, in the next few days and also to provide all possible help to "Afghan brothers and sisters who are looking towards India for assistance."

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar attended the meeting.

Though the details of the meeting were not shared, it was learnt that the Prime Minister reviewed the strategies formulated by the government on Tuesday to deal with the situation in Afghanistan.

He has already directed the officials to ensure the safety of Hindus and Sikhs and also asked officials to remain in touch with their leaders in Kabul.

The government also intends to give them some kind of refugee status to these Hindus and Sikhs once they come to India and later they will be given citizenship under the newly formulated Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 in due course, the sources who were privy to these developments said.

They also said that the government has also decided that the visa application under the new emergency visa category of those Hindus and Sikhs will be processed on priority.

The highest decision making body of the government has also deliberated on the issues related to the Indian assets and the several projects being executed by the Indian companies and public sector enterprises in Afghanistan.

The Indian government is also keeping an eye on the political development of the country in terms of foreign policy after the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan and amid the deteriorating conditions; many Afghan nationals have been fleeing from the country and many of them want to come to India.

Apart from these Cabinet Members, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary to the PM P.K. Mishra, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba were also present in the meeting on Wednesday.


Several countries led by the UK have asked the world community not to bilaterally recognise the Taliban in Afghanistan, but China has done everything short of saying that it is a friendly force. China has said the Taliban will establish an "open and inclusive" Islamic government in the war-torn country and will ensure a peaceful transition of power. The Chinese Embassy in Kabul is among those few missions that are running at full steam and without any reason to either vacate the office or evacuate the staff. Its ambassador is stationed there though Chinese nationals living in the country have returned to China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying went to the extent of hoping the Taliban would take full responsibility for the safety of the Afghan people and foreign embassies and missions. The Chinese government has decided to take the word of the Taliban on its face value, saying: "We noticed the statement from Afghan Taliban yesterday (Sunday) saying that the war is over and they will start consultation on establishment of an open and inclusive Islamic government and take the responsibility of the safety of Afghan citizens and foreign diplomatic corps." A Chinese government spokesperson said that Beijing has been maintaining contact and communication with the Taliban and playing a constructive role in promoting a political settlement. China's new-found love for the Taliban stems from the July-end meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the Taliban's political commissioner Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in China. The Taliban's assurance that it will not encourage anti- China elements, like the alleged Uyghur Islamic militants of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, to take roots in Afghanistan. Some reports of the United Nations would have everyone believe that hundreds of fighters of the Movement, which has been linked to the al-Qaeda, are moving towards Afghanistan. The US has removed the Movement from its list of terrorist organisations, it may be mentioned. It may also be added that China's Xinjiang -- home to the Uyghur Muslims -- shares only a 76 km boundary with Afghanistan. The border is heavily fortified by the People's Liberation Army. Some western analysts have speculated that China wants to wield influence in this region and with the Americans on their way out, it would want to play a significant role in how the future of Afghanistan is settled. However, China's interests are much more materialistic than political. At best it may want Afghanistan to stop resisting entry into the Belt and Road Initiative Project. The real reasons are economic in nature. Afghanistan is reportedly sitting on deposits of rare earth elements like lanthanum, cerium and neodymium and other minerals such as copper, iron and zinc and gold worth trillions of dollars. A consortium of Chinese companies is already mining in the Logar province. A Chinese government-owned company is drilling three fields for oil. Its interest in the BRI comes from the fact that it has invested $60 billion in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor that links Xinjiang with Pakistan, and extending the highway further can link it with Kabul. China is also interested in a strategic road it is building in Afghanistan through the Wakhan corridor that would connect Xinjiang with Iran via Pakistan and Afghanistan. An Indian media organisation has reported: " China seems to be approaching Afghanistan from a totally different direction; it is using every means to make the Afghans see the commercial sense in welcoming China into their country. Not war but economy is what the People's Republic of China is betting on to bring Afghanistan into its web of influence; to make that happen, Beijing seems ready to partner with anyone who can deliver the goods, even if it be a regressive religio-political militia like the Taliban." Western defense experts, however, discount the commercial interest of China in Afghanistan. CNN reported: "Such arguments have only intensified following the high-profile meeting between Taliban leaders and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month... But for China, a neighbour of Afghanistan with substantial investment in the region, the security challenges posed by the abrupt return of the Taliban are far more pressing than any strategic interests down the road." It quoted Andrew Small, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, as saying: " China does not tend to perceive Afghanistan through the prism of opportunities; it is almost entirely about managing threats." Small argued that China, wary for long about American military presence in Afghanistan, is now concerned that with the Americans gone, that country may become the hot bed for terrorists of all kinds and that could threaten China's Xinjiang region. "Although Beijing is pragmatic about the power realities in Afghanistan, it has always been uncomfortable with the Taliban's ideological agenda... The Chinese government fears the inspirational effect of their success in Afghanistan for the militancy across the region, including the Pakistani Taliban," Small told CNN.




British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden have spoken over telephone about the current situation in Afghanistan following Taliban takeover, the Downing Street said in a statement.

The two leaders welcomed their countries' cooperation in recent days to help evacuate their nationals, current and former staff, and others from Afghanistan, the statement said, Xinhua news agency reported.

"They resolved to continue working closely together on this in the days and weeks ahead to allow as many people as possible to leave the country," it added.

Johnson and Biden, during the phone call on Tuesday, also agreed on the need for the global community to come together to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Britain's plans include increased humanitarian aid to the region and resettlement of refugees, it said.

Britain's Home Office said on Tuesday night that up to 20,000 Afghan refugees will be offered a route to set up homes in Britain over five years.

In their phone conversation, the two leaders also agreed to hold a virtual Group of Seven (G7) leaders' meeting in the coming days to discuss the Afghanistan situation.

In a televised speech on Monday, Biden stood by his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan while acknowledging Kabul's collapse to the Taliban came much sooner than Washington had anticipated.

Just over a week, the Taliban, which the US overthrew in 2001, went from winning control of its first provincial capital to taking over Kabul, capital of the war-torn Asian country.

Johnson said on Sunday that the US decision to pull out of Afghanistan has "accelerated things".
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his government has no plans to recognise the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

"Canada has no plans to recognise the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. When they were in government 20 years ago, Canada did not recognise them," said Trudeau, Xinhua reported.

"Our focus right now is on getting people out of Afghanistan and the Taliban need to ensure free access to people to get to the airport," he said on Tuesday.

"We're working with our allies on what Canada as part of the international community can do to stabilize the situation, protect civilians, and put an end to the violence. This includes taking leadership by bringing Afghans to safety in Canada," he said.

Kabul fell to the Taliban on Sunday.

Two aircraft carrying diplomats, troops and Afghans from Kabul landed in Canada Monday night.

On Tuesday morning, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that one flight landed in Toronto carrying Afghans who qualified to come to Canada under the government's recently announced special immigration measures for former interpreters and embassy staff who helped Canadians in Afghanistan.

The second flight landed in Ottawa and included returning staff from the Canadian embassy in Kabul.
The Taliban told the US that they would provide safe passage of civilians to Kabul airport, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said.

"The Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport. And we intend to hold them to that commitment," Sullivan told reporters in a White House briefing on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said the US believes the evacuation underway in Kabul could last until the end of this month. "We're talking to them (the Taliban) about what the exact timetable is for how this will all play out."

Sullivan said it is still too early to judge whether the Taliban is the legitimate governing power in the country.

"Right now, there is a chaotic situation in Kabul where we don't even have the establishment of a governing authority," he said.

"Ultimately, it's going to be up to the Taliban to show the rest of the world who they are and how they intend to proceed. The track record has not been good, but it's premature to address that question at this point," he added.

Earlier in the day, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that US commanders on the ground had discussions with the Taliban outside the airport, without providing further details.

Over 4,000 US troops would be on the ground by the end of Tuesday to support the evacuation mission, and US troops had no hostile interactions with the Taliban, according to US Army Major General Hank Taylor.

He said Kabul airport remains secure, and 5,000 to 9,000 people could be evacuated per day.

President Joe Biden, facing mounting criticisms from the public and lawmakers over the chaotic evacuation, said Monday that he stands by his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan while acknowledging Kabul's collapse came much sooner than Washington had anticipated.

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani left the country on Sunday, while the Taliban forces entered the capital of Kabul and took control of the presidential palace.


A Taliban commander and senior leader of the Haqqani Network militant group, Anas Haqqani, met for talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a Taliban official told Reuters on Wednesday. Karzai was accompanied by Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council. The Haqqani Network constitutes an important faction of the Taliban which rose to prominence after capturing capital Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15. The network is primarily based on the border with Pakistan, and has been accused of some of the most horrific militant attacks in Afghanistan over the years.




Kennett Square, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/18/2021 -- The personal injury lawyers at Chester County Law Firm Perna & Abracht, LLC handle all types of car accident cases. When an injured victim is hurt in a crash involving a rental car, it can be confusing to determine who may be responsible for the victim's medical bills and other damages. The firm's car accident attorneys help clients sort it all out and help to ensure that the victim's rights and interests are protected.



"We see many clients who are unsure of what to do after an accident involving a rental car," says Michael R. Perna, Esq. "Regardless of whether they were hurt as a driver, passenger or bystander, our compassionate and competent team fights to help make things right when someone else's negligence causes an injury or fatality."



Depending on the circumstances, multiple insurance companies may be involved when a rental car crash occurs.



Filing multiple insurance claims can be daunting. Insurers often try to minimize a victim's injuries or refuse to take accountability for damages. Without an experienced accident attorney in their corner, an injured victim may not recover the maximum compensation to which they may be entitled. From a motorist's own auto insurance policy to the supplemental insurance a driver may have purchased when they rented a car, Perna & Abracht's lawyers determine and pursue all possible sources of compensation, investigate the accident, aggressively negotiate on an injured victim's behalf, and help hold all responsible parties accountable for their negligence.



About Perna & Abracht, LLC

Established by Frank M. Perna in 1947, Perna & Abracht, LLC is a full-service Chester County, Pennsylvania law firm serving a wide array of new and longstanding individual and corporate clients. Our experienced team understands that no legal solution fits every client. Our team of legal professionals is committed to anticipating our clients' legal needs at all stages and helping them find pragmatic, real-world solutions to complex problems. Attorney Michael R. Perna is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Colorado; attorney Jennifer Abracht is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and Arizona; and attorney Ryan Borchik is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania.
By Erica Apacible

Curious about sustainable energy? Emmanuel Balogun, a PhD chemistry student, may just be the right person to ask.

Balogun is committed to helping others by finding a sustainable substitute for fossil fuels. Ever since taking a science class in his hometown of Lagos, Nigeria, Balogun has been hooked on going green.

"In my science class, I learned about greenhouse gases, their devastating impact on our environment, and how our world is developing itself into extinction, says Balogun. My new-found knowledge sparked my passion for renewable and sustainable energy and has formed the motivation for the choices I have made since then."

It was this motivation that inspired Balogun to make the nearly 12,000-km journey from Lagos to Burnaby, where he joined SFU's Faculty of Science.

"I chose SFU primarily because it offers me the opportunity to work directly with one of the best minds in the fuel cell industry, professor Steven Holdcroft, he says.

Balogun is among three SFU doctoral students awarded the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS) this year. Valued at $50,000 per year for three years, the Vanier CGS program recognizes students for their academic excellence, research potential and leadership skills. Up to 166 scholarships are awarded annually across Canada.

Says Balogun, "These awards have helped significantly in ensuring that I focus squarely on my research and not be distracted by the extra difficulty of balancing teaching responsibilities with research and classes."

Balogun's research focuses on how to enhance fuel cell performance and reduce the cost by using environmentally friendly starting materials. He says the goal is to make them cheap enough that they are not just a green alternative, but a more cost-effective choice than the internal combustion engine.

Balogun is pleased with his experience so far at SFU. "As an international student, I always craved a community where I would be accepted and my difference wouldnt be a divide, he says. I am happy that I found such a community here. I actually go to the lab every day knowing Im going to work with friends and not just co-students or researchers.

"We dont just aim to do cutting-edge research together. We also endeavour to live our best lives while at it."

SFUS 2021 VANIER SCHOLARS

Discover research projects from the rest of SFU's 2021 Vanier scholars:
Today, I learned

TV station WQEX, a PBS station in Pittsburgh, was the last tv station in North America to broadcast only in black-and-white, in 1985. They only converted to color because their transmitter broke and replacement parts were no longer made.



https://www.metv.com/lists/half-a-century-ago-the-tv-networks-finally-went-full-color
Bir-Lehlou (Sahrawi Republic) 18 August 2021 (SPS)- The President of the Sahrawi Republic and the Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr Ibrahim Ghali, called upon the UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres, to intervene to stop all illegal activities carried out by Morocco in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara, including Rabats intention to include the Sahrawi Occupied Territories in its legislative elections scheduled to be held next month.

In a letter addressed today to the UN Secretary-General, a copy of which SPS has received, the President of the Republic underscored that all Moroccan actions in Western Sahara are merely colonial and unlawful practices that have no effect on the legal status of Western Sahara as an occupied country and a Territory subject to a decolonisation process in accordance with international legality.

The full text of the letter is as follows:

------------------------

H.E. Mr Antonio Guterres

United Nations Secretary-General

United Nations, New York

Bir Lehlou, 18 August 2021

Mr Secretary-General,

The occupying state of Morocco intends to include the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara in the Moroccan legislative elections scheduled to take place during the first fortnight of September 2021.

The Frente POLISARIO, the sole and legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, and the Government of the Sahrawi Republic (SADR) firmly condemn and reject this unlawful process because it is in utter violation of the legal status of Western Sahara as a Territory waiting for a decolonisation process under the responsibility of the United Nations.

The Moroccan presence in Western Sahara is an illegal military occupation as affirmed by the UN General Assembly in its resolutions 34/37 of 1979 and 35/19 of 1980, among others. Therefore, all actions undertaken by the occupying state of Morocco, whether they are political or of another character, are essentially colonial practices imposed by force, and hence they have no legitimacy and cannot have any effect on the legal status of Western Sahara.

The Frente POLISARIO recalls that, in line with Security Council resolution 690 (1991) and subsequent resolutions, the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is to conduct a free and fair referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.

Therefore, the only vote that the Sahrawi people must be called to today is through the ballot box in a self-determination referendum organised under the supervision of the United Nations in line with the provisions of the UN-OAU Settlement Plan that was accepted by both parties to the conflict, the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco, and approved by the UN Security Council in its relevant resolutions.

Conducting elections in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara over which Morocco has no sovereignty is an exercise that we vehemently reject because it seeks to involve forcibly the Sahrawi citizens in a process that does not affect them, which is organised by an illegal military occupation whose record is replete with gross violations of the fundamental human rights of the Sahrawi people.

Mr Secretary-General,

For almost three decades, we remained committed to the peaceful solution and exercised the utmost restraint to safeguard the ceasefire despite the continued provocations and destabilising actions of the occupying state of Morocco and its persistent attempts to impose a fait accompli by force in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara.

In this regard, we can cite just a few serious breaches committed by the occupying state of Morocco in the face of which the United Nations and MINURSO have always chosen to turn a blind eye or to look the other way: ongoing repression against Sahrawi civilians and human rights activists; changing the demographic nature of the Territory through intensive settlement policies; plunder of our natural resources; opening of so-called consulates of foreign entities; holding of elections, international conferences and sport events; and imposing Moroccan laws and jurisdiction on the entire Territory including its maritime space.

As we have underscored on several occasions, it is the absence of a strong, unequivocal, and firm position by the UN Secretariat and the Security Council regarding Moroccos disregard for the mandate and decisions of the United Nations in relation to Western Sahara that has emboldened the occupying state to persist, with full impunity, in such unlawful and reckless actions that are putting in jeopardy peace, security, and stability in the entire region.

Consequently, since 13 November 2020, the Territory of Western Sahara is witnessing very serious developments because of Moroccos breach of the 1991 ceasefire and related military agreements and its aggression on the Liberated Territory of Western Sahara, which has led to the collapse of the ceasefire and the outbreak of war again in the region.

Faced with the Moroccan new act of aggression, which continues with complete impunity, we have been left with no option but to exercise our legitimate right to self-defence. In this regard, we reiterate that, while we remain committed to genuine and lasting peace based on the precepts of international legality, we will never give up our inalienable and non-negotiable right to self-determination and independence and we will continue to use all legitimate means to defend our rights and the sovereignty of our country.

The inaction and deafening silence of the United Nations in the face of Moroccos continued illegal military occupation of parts of Western Sahara is what has emboldened the occupying state to persist in its unlawful and reckless actions that could lead to the most serious consequences for peace, security, and stability in the entire region.

We therefore call upon you to intervene immediately and to take all necessary measures in line with the authority conferred upon you by the UN Charter and relevant UN decisions to compel the occupying state of Morocco to cease its unlawful and provocative actions in the Sahrawi Occupied Territories and to preserve the legal status of the Territory as a cardinal component of the responsibility of the United Nations towards Western Sahara and the decolonisation of the last colony in Africa.

I should be grateful if the present letter is brought to the attention of the members of the Security Council.

Please accept, Mr Secretary-General, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Brahim Ghali

President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO." (SPS)

090/500/60 (SPS)
Bir Lehlu (Sahrawi Republic), August 18, 2021 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, appealed to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Gueteres, to intervene in order to put an end to all the illegal activities carried out by Morocco in the occupied areas of Western Sahara, including the elections that Rabat intends to organize in the territory next month.

In a letter sent to the UN Secretary General, a copy of which obtained by SPS , the President of the Republic described all the practices and measures exercised by Morocco in Western Sahara as mere colonial and illegal activities, which do not influence no way in the legal status of Western Sahara as a non-autonomous territory, pending decolonization, as stipulated by international legality .

The holding of elections in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, over which Morocco does not have sovereignty, is a practice that we flatly reject because it seeks to involve Sahrawi citizens by force in a process that does not concern them, a process organized by a Illegal military occupation that has a long history of serious violations of the most basic human rights of the Saharawi people, the letter states.

For more than three decades, we have maintained our commitment to a peaceful solution and we have exercised the utmost restraint to maintain the ceasefire, despite the constant provocations and destabilizing actions of the occupying Moroccan state and its continuous attempts to impose a fait accompli. by force in the occupied areas of Western Sahara , the letter continues. However, due to the absence of a strong, clear and firm position on the part of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, since last November 13, 2020, the territory of Western Sahara has been experiencing serious events due to the Moroccan violation of the 1991 ceasefire and related military agreements, as well as its aggression against the liberated areas of Western Sahara, leading to the collapse of the ceasefire and the outbreak of war again in the region Says President Gali.

This inaction and silence of the United Nations in the face of the continued illegal Moroccan military occupation of parts of Western Sahara, is what encourages the occupying power, Morocco, to persist in its illegal and reckless actions that could have serious consequences for peace, security and stability throughout the region, the letter states.

"We therefore ask that you intervene immediately and take all necessary measures, in accordance with the authority granted to you by the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant UN resolutions, in order to put pressure on the occupying State of Morocco to cease its illegal and provocative actions in the occupied areas of Western Sahara and preserve the legal status of the territory, as an essential part of the responsibility of UN towards Western Sahara and the process of decolonization of the last colony in Africa , Concludes the President in his letter. SPS

125/090/TRA
As much as I dont like to reward people to do things they should be doing, this is different, board member Nora Rupert said. People are quite afraid of getting vaccinated and what it can do in the future. But if they dont get the vaccine, its going to have a lot more side effects if they get COVID-19.
Citizens who called in to speak were given exactly 60 seconds to testify, and were cut off in mid-sentence. One woman, who did not give her name, cut to the heart of the matter, saying of the state board: They think that a kid with COVID-19 who doesnt want to wear a mask has more rights than kids who want to be in the safest environment.
The plan to evacuate Spanish diplomatic personnel and their, estimated, 500 Afghan collaborators and families from Kabul is proceeding steadily. While other countries such as France, Italy and Germany have already managed to repatriate some of their nationals, Spain hopes to pick up speed and overcome some of the delays it suffered during the first phase of its operation.

Two A400M aircraft have been sent to Dubai, where they will wait until the US authorities, in charge of security at the Kabul airport, give the green light to enter Afghan airspace.

At the airport in Kabul, some 25 members of the Spanish diplomatic delegation are waiting for repatriation, including workers and National Police officers from the Special Operations Group (GEO).

But the main challenge of the evacuation plan will be the more than 500 Afghan citizens who have collaborated with the Spanish Army during its mission in Afghanistan. Many of them are becoming impatient as the hours go by and they say they have not yet received information from the government.

Some, like Fawat, who worked as a translator for the Spanish troops for 15 years, are hiding in the homes of family and friends, near the airport. The Taliban consider these collaborators "traitors".

Taliban armed groups were reported to have formed a perimeter around the airport to prevent the escape of their compatriots. But that was flatly denied by US authorities who said, "The Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide safe passage for civilians to the airport, and our intention is to ensure that they honour that commitment."

Meanwhile, Spains Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has said that the Government "will charter all the flights that are necessary" to be able to evacuate the Afghan collaborators who are in Kabul, and reiterated the "unavoidable commitment to guarantee the safety of all those people who collaborated with the Spanish mission.

Spain has also offered to its partners in the European Union to receive Afghan citizens who have worked for the organisation in recent years, with the aim that they are later distributed among the different countries of the bloc that offer them visas.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrel, speaking about the Afghans who have worked for Brussels said, "We cannot abandon them and we will do everything possible to bring them and offer them refuge in the member states of the European Union."
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Weather Alert

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 AM EDT WEDNESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING... The Flash Flood Watch continues for * A portion of central Pennsylvania, including the following areas, Adams, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Clearfield, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Montour, Northern Centre, Northern Clinton, Northern Lycoming, Northumberland, Perry, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Southern Centre, Southern Clinton, Southern Lycoming, Sullivan, Union and York. * From 8 AM EDT Wednesday through Thursday morning. * Heavy rain associated with the remnants of Ida will overspread the region Wednesday, bringing the potential of flash and urban flooding to the watch area. The area of greatest risk is across the Laurel Highlands northeast into the Pocono Mountains. Rainfall totals of 4 to 7 inches are forecast in this area, resulting in significant flooding. Rainfall totals are likely to be slightly less near I-80 and for areas southeast of Harrisburg. The rain should taper off from west to east across central Pennsylvania Wednesday evening. * Some roads and bridges may become impassable and homes may be flooded. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued. &&
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Note: Special one-year subscription at a reduced price for first-time subscribers or for subscriptions that have been expired for at least one year  those living in Jackson County and the Cherokee Indian Reservation (28719) addresses qualify. Offer good through Friday, Aug. 2, 2019.

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The Middle East Oil and Gas Show (MEOS), which was scheduled to be held from November 28 to December 1 at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre, has been postponed to a date after 2021, a statement by the organiser said.

After extensive consultation with our partners such as the National Oil and Gas Authority, the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and Informa Markets, weve decided to postpone MEOS 2021 as several countries and companies have significant travel restrictions in place that are unlikely to be lifted until next year, the statement said.

Early this year, Informa Markets signed an agreement with SPE, a non-profit society that specialises in sharing insights and knowledge with the global oil and gas industry, to co-organise technical conferences for MEOS in Bahrain and the Kuwait Oil & Gas Show and Conference (KOGS).

This years event had added new features, including the Genius Talks, Consultation Clinics, Start Up Village and the Live Labs which were set to deliver a new and enhanced visitor experience. Traderabia News Service
Dubai carrier Emirates has announced the signing of a codeshare agreement with Brazil's Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras (Azul).

Under the codeshare, customers will be able to connect to and from Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont (SDU), Belem (BEL) Belo Horizonte (CNF), Cuiaba (CGB), Curtiba (CWB), Juazeiro Do Norte (JDO), Porto Alegre (POA) and Recife (REC) airports on flights operated by Azul to Emirates flights from Sao Paulo (GRU) to Dubai and beyond with a single ticket.

The codeshare agreement has been approved by the Brazilian Federal Aviation Agency (Agencia Nacional de Aviacao Civil).

Tickets are available both online and at its local sales/travel agents for travel starting from August 25.

Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim said: "Emirates is delighted to be entering into a codeshare partnership with Azul to offer our customers an enhanced, smooth and convenient connectivity between eight cities in Brazil to/ from Dubai and our global network through Sao Paulo."

"Brazil is an important market for Emirates and our cooperation with Azul underscores Emirates commitment to strengthen our reach in the region and open up more options for our customers," he stated.

Azuls Chief Revenue Officer Abhi Shah said: "We are very happy to announce this partnership with Emirates, which will provide seamless benefits to our customers. As the largest airline in Brazil in terms of destinations, this codeshare allows our customers to have unparalleled connectivity in Brazil and around the world."

Emirates currently operates five weekly flights to Sao Paulo on its widebody Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

The Dubai carrier has codeshare cooperation agreements in place with 21 airline partners and two rail companies around the world. Additionally, it has interline cooperation agreements with over 106 airlines and rail companies.-TradeArabia News Service
Federal Grant to Assist Wyoming Entrepreneurs With Research and Development

The Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, based at the University of Wyoming, has received a $125,000 grant to provide specialized training, mentoring and technical assistance for research and development-focused small businesses.

The U.S. Small Business Administrations (SBA) Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program grant seeks to improve outcomes in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for underserved communities by increasing participation from rural, women-owned, and socially or economically disadvantaged small businesses.

Last year alone, the Wyoming SBDC Networks SBIR/STTR Initiative helped entrepreneurs in Wyoming secure more than $3.6 million in government funding. The SBIR/STTR programs provide funding to help entrepreneurs and small-business owners research, develop and commercialize their innovations. Entrepreneurs also can apply for a $5,000 contract -- which UW funds through a grant from the Wyoming Business Council -- to get started with the SBIR/STTR process.

The FAST award allows the Wyoming SBDC Network to provide specialized training, education and guidance that technology development companies otherwise may not have access to, says Jill Kline, state director of the Wyoming SBDC Network. This grant creates an even more robust set of services that support these high-tech innovations.

This is the eighth year in a row that the Wyoming SBDC Network has received this highly competitive grant. Only 32 other FAST grants were awarded this year.

To sign up for no-cost, confidential assistance through the Wyoming SBIR/STTR Initiative, visit www.wyomingsbdc.org.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers no-cost, confidential advising and technical assistance to help Wyoming entrepreneurs think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. In 2020, the Wyoming SBDC Network helped Wyoming entrepreneurs start 95 new businesses, support 6,964 jobs and bring a capital impact of $18 million to the state.

The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by UW with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the SBA.
Halls Sophie Garner-MacKinnon has been named the 2020-21 Gatorade Connecticut Softball Player of the Year, according to a release from Gatorade. Garner-MacKinnon is the first Gatorade Connecticut Softball Player of the Year to be chosen from Hall High School.
Marshall County COVID Cases Continue to Increase

By West Kentucky Star Staff

MARSHALL COUNTY - The Marshall County Health Department is reporting a threefold increase in its COVID-19 incidence rate since July 27.Marshall County Public Health Director Billy Pitts said the rate increased from 31.2 incidents per 100,000 to 106.1, which is the 10th-highest in the commonwealth. Graves County is currently 6th at 116.Marshall County's previous highest peak was 85.9 in January.January was also when the county reported its highest number of cases at 664. Pitts said there are currently 533 cases for August. At the current rate, 970 cases could be reported by the end of the month.On Kentucky's daily COVID report for August 17, Marshall County showed 41 new cases, which was the second-highest total for western Kentucky behind Graves County's 42. On the same day, Calloway County tallied 40 new cases, and McCracken County reported 27.Due to the increase in cases, health department staff have been unable to contact everyone who tests positive as quickly as they would like. In addition, the original contact infrastructure put in place by the state no longer exists, leaving the burden of contacting everyone who tests positive on the local health department.Pitts asks anyone who tests positive to isolate immediately. The health department will contact you as soon as possible to provide you with the necessary documentation.He also asks employers to allow employees who test positive to self-isolate.If you know that you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, you are asked to self-quarantine and get a test after five days to see if you were infected.The Marshall County Health Department was recently approved to administer a third dose of vaccine to those meeting the following criteria: If you are receiving active cancer treatment for tumors or cancers of the blood; If you have received an organ transplant and are taking medicine to suppress the immune system; If you have received a stem cell transplant within the last two years; If you are experiencing moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency; Anyone with advanced or untreated HIV infection; Anyone undergoing treatment with high-dose corticosteroids or other similar drugs.If you meet any of the listed criteria and would like a third dose of vaccine, you can call the health department at 270-527-1496 to schedule an appointment.On the Net:
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-17 01:21:58|Editor: huaxia

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A helicopter tries to extinguish a wildfire in Avila, Spain, Aug. 17, 2021. The largest wildfire of 2021 in Spain has not yet been under control. The fire began between the small towns of Navalacruz and Cepeda in the province of Avila on Saturday morning, after a vehicle on a minor road caught fire. The flames then spread to the surrounding countryside. (Xinhua/Meng Dingbo)

MADRID, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The largest wildfire of 2021 in Spain was still active on Monday, after burning around 10,000 hectares of brush, woodland and pasture, a government delegate has confirmed on Monday.

The fire began between the small towns of Navalacruz and Cepeda in the province of Avila on Saturday morning, after a vehicle on a minor road caught fire. The flames then spread to the surrounding countryside.

Strong winds and temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius helped the fire spread a further 40 km, leading to the evacuation of around 1,000 people from the municipalities of Solosancho, Sobedillo, Riofrio, Sotalbo and Villaviciosa.

Meanwhile, the important N-502 road, which links the cities of Avila (central Spain) and Cordoba (southern Spain) has been closed due to the fire, along with several local roads.

The flames are currently being fought by around 500 firemen, including 150 members of the Military Emergency Unit of the Spanish armed forces. Five aircraft and two helicopters have been deployed.

Ash particles fell in some outlying towns in the neighboring Comunidad de Madrid, while smoke was visible over 120 km away.

The fire began on the same day that a temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius was recorded in the town of Montoro, in Andalusia (southern Spain).

This is the highest temperature ever recorded in Spain, and comes after several days of temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius in much of central and southern Spain. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 00:01:38|Editor: huaxia

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DOHA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Qatar on Tuesday urged the Taliban to protect civilians, intensify efforts to achieve national reconciliation and ensure a peaceful transfer of power, following its takeover of the Afghan capital Kabul.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani made this statement at a meeting held in the Qatari capital Doha with the delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political chief of the Taliban, according to the official Qatar News Agency.

During the meeting, the latest security and political developments in Afghanistan were reviewed.

Qatar will continue its role to achieve peace in Afghanistan "as long as there is a role that it can play," Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani, special envoy of Qatar's foreign minister to mediate disputes, confirmed on Monday in a statement to Qatar TV.

Al-Qahtani expressed that Doha is against any military solution to these conflicts, which must be resolved through peaceful negotiations.

Taliban seized Kabul on Sunday, declaring that the war in Afghanistan had ended after it captured several provincial capitals, following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from the country.

Qatar has for years hosted peace negotiations between the Taliban and the United States, which culminated in the signing of a historic agreement between the two sides in February last year, according to which foreign forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Since last September, Qatar has also hosted rounds of negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, which have not made any significant progress due to the differences between the two parties. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 02:32:07|Editor: huaxia

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Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (R) and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attend a press conference in Amman, Jordan, on Aug. 17, 2021. Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi said Tuesday that Jordan and Turkey approved of an agreement to boost economic cooperation. He made the remarks in Amman following a meeting with his visiting Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

AMMAN, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi said Tuesday that Jordan and Turkey approved of an agreement to boost economic cooperation.

He made the remarks in Amman following a meeting with his visiting Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Safadi said specialists from the two countries' ministries of foreign affairs, as well as relevant ministries, would build up a road map to identify priorities for future economic cooperation as part of the agreement, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He stated that there is economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries, as well as cooperation in the field of education and combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Safadi also affirmed Jordan's solidarity with Turkey in facing the wildfires.

The two sides also discussed regional issues, including developments in Palestine, Syria and Afghanistan.

Cavusoglu emphasized Turkey's appreciation for the role Jordan plays as an important element of stability in the region.

He explained that the meeting with Safadi touched on the steps to be followed regarding bilateral relations, noting that the two countries would work to create a balance in trade. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 05:26:48|Editor: huaxia

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TRIPOLI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Ministry of Health on Tuesday announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Turkey for cooperation on healthcare and medical sciences.

The deal was signed by Libyan Health Minister Ali Zanati, who was visiting Turkey, with his Turkish counterpart Fahrettin Koca, the Libyan health ministry said in a statement.

The MoU includes cooperation on hospital management, short-term training of medical staff, development of medical services, and combating the COVID-19 pandemic, the statement said.

"This memorandum of understanding comes within the framework of the keenness of both sides to deepen their cooperation and partnership, as well as enhancing the friendly relations between the two countries," the statement added.

Due to years of armed conflict and instability in the country, Libyan authorities are struggling to provide proper healthcare services to Libyan citizens. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 15:10:58|Editor: huaxia

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DHAKA, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The origins tracing of COVID-19 should not be politically manipulated, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming has reportedly said.

The process "can only be done by scientists, not by politicians or intelligence personnel of any country," said Li, quoted by United News of Bangladesh as saying in a report published on Monday.

The ambassador also said the conclusions of the Phase I studies into the COVID-19 origins by the World Health Organization have been widely recognized by the international community and scientists from across the world.

It should and must be upheld as a guidance for future work, he added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:27:48|Editor: huaxia

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The White House is finding itself in a new crisis after a botched withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, overwhelmed by withering criticism from home and abroad.

A viral video clip shows a crowd of Afghans running alongside a U.S. military transport aircraft, with some clinging to the fuselage, as it gained speed on the tarmac at an airport in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. Another segment films what appears to be individuals falling in mid-air after the plane took off.

The terrifying scenes reportedly occurred after the Taliban entered Kabul over the past weekend in a swift offensive that brought what many described as an embarrassing end to two decades of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. The Taliban, which ruled the landlocked country at the crossroads of Central and South Asia in the late 1990s, was toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

Pundits recently used the phrase "Saigon moment" to describe what was unfolding in Kabul, where photographers captured images of a Chinook helicopter flying near the U.S. embassy amid a hasty evacuation ahead of the Taliban's complete takeover of the city.

The photos were eerily similar to scenes from the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, when the United States hurried to airlift the last of its personnel and some Vietnamese from the roof of its embassy in late April 1975, a moment widely believed to be a symbol of Washington's failings in the Southeast Asian country.

In a defensive position, senior U.S. officials have sought to reject such a comparison and claimed that the country has achieved its mission in the Afghan war.

Speaking from the White House on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden alleged "our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building," while acknowledging that the situation in the country "did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated."

The Donald Trump administration brokered a deal with the Taliban in 2020 that laid out plans for U.S. forces to fully withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021. Biden announced in April that he would follow through on the agreement and vowed that he would not pass the war onto another president.

Since invading Afghanistan in 2001 in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in the United States, Washington has spent 2.26 trillion U.S. dollars on the war, which includes operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to Brown University's Costs of War Project.

Figures from the project also showed that more than 2,400 U.S. service members, some 3,800 American contractors, more than 1,100 other allied troops, and an estimated 66,000 Afghan national military and police were killed in the conflict, along with more than 47,000 civilians.

Trump has recently directed a series of harshly-worded statements against Biden, saying that "there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously" and that "it will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history." Many Democrats were also critical of how the Biden administration had managed the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

As the drumbeat of criticism from across the political spectrum continued, Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that "there were chaotic scenes yesterday" but argued that "even well-drawn plans don't survive first contact with reality."

Some allies are also lashing out at the United States over the Afghan debacle, as they have been left scrambling to get their nationals out of the country.

The decision was "ultimately made by the Americans" and "domestic political reasons" were partly to blame, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly said on Monday. Peter Ricketts, Britain's former national security adviser, tweeted that the United States' "unilateralism over their withdrawal has done real damage to" the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance.

Richard Haass, president of U.S. think tank Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Twitter that he believes "the grim aftermath of America's strategic and moral failure will reinforce questions about U.S. reliability among friends and foes far and wide."

Pentagon officials said on Tuesday that there are about 4,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Kabul to support the evacuation operation that could be transporting between 5,000 and 9,000 people a day if efforts are ramping up.

U.S. commanders in Kabul are in contact with Taliban commanders outside the Kabul airport, according to Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby. "There is communication between them and us," Kirby noted. "There's been no hostile interactions from the Taliban to our operations at the airport."

At a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, said that they "don't want any internal and external enemies."

"We don't want to repeat any conflict, any war again," Mujahid said. "Animosities have come to an end, and we would like to live peacefully."

Nearly 400,000 Afghans were forced from their homes since the beginning of the year, joining 2.9 million others already internally displaced across the country at the end of 2020, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:35:18|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), proposed by China in 2013, has seen new achievements in the first half of 2021, with major infrastructure projects smoothly progressing and trade booming.

The following are the latest key facts and figures on the development of the BRI.

-- Chinese enterprises have made steady advancements in major overseas BRI projects, said the National Development and Reform Commission.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is in high-quality development, while the China-Laos railway, China-Thailand railway, Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, and Hungary-Serbia railway are making positive headway.

-- In the January-June period, China's goods trade with countries and regions along the Belt and Road surged by 37.9 percent year on year to reach 824.55 billion U.S. dollars.

-- China's non-financial outbound direct investment to the BRI countries amounted to 9.58 billion U.S. dollars during the period, up by 18 percent from a year ago.

-- Regarding contracted projects, contract value worth 39.35 billion dollars was completed in the first six months, up by 10.6 percent, year on year.

-- The China-Europe freight trains, traveling along 73 routes, has reached 168 cities in 23 European countries and become a major artery for trade between China and Europe.

-- The China-Europe freight-train service handled 7,377 trips in the first half of this year, with the cities of Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Zhengzhou, and Urumqi becoming major centers for the freight-train service. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:36:00|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported three new imported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 12,042.

Two of the newly imported cases involved patients arriving in Hong Kong from the United States and Turkey and one involved a patient with pending travel history.

A total of 45 cases have been reported in the past 14 days, including two local cases with unknown origins and an import-related case, with the rest imported.

A spokesperson of the CHP strongly urged the public to avoid all non-essential travel outside Hong Kong, in view of the recent global widespread of the COVID-19 mutant strains and reports of infections in some vaccinated individuals.

Since the launch of the government inoculation program in late February, around 3.8 million people, or 56.4 percent of the eligible population, have taken at least one shot of the vaccine. Around 2.96 million people have been fully vaccinated in Hong Kong. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:47:05|Editor: huaxia

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Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region will hold a series of activities in the capital city of Lhasa this week to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its peaceful liberation.

Tibet's peaceful liberation was marked by the signing of the 17-Article Agreement on the peaceful liberation between the central government and the former local government of Tibet on May 23, 1951.

The region has experienced profound changes over the past decades under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and is now embarking on a new journey of socialist modernization.

Over the past 70 years, the central government has introduced many favorable policies for the region, covering tax and finance, infrastructure, industrial development, education, health, cultural preservation and environmental protection.

Since 1978, the CPC Central Committee has held seven national meetings on Tibet to make major decisions and plans for the region. All undertakings in Tibet have seen unprecedented development and progress.

In 1951, Tibet's regional GDP was approximately 129 million yuan. In 2020, its GDP exceeded 190 billion yuan(about 29.3 billion U.S. dollars), according to a white paper released in May.

Stretching 1,956 km from Xining, capital city of Qinghai Province to Lhasa, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway linking Tibet with the rest of the country started operation in 2006. It is the world's highest and longest plateau railroad.

The Lhasa-Nyingchi railway, the region's first electrified railway, started official operation with advanced Fuxing bullet trains running on it, providing southeast Tibet with access to railway services for the first time in history.

From 1951 to 2020, the central government invested 224 billion yuan in Tibet's education. Now, the region has established a modern educational system which includes preschool, primary and middle schools, higher education institutions, as well as vocational and technical schools.

By the end of 2019, all registered poor residents and counties in Tibet had shaken off poverty, eliminating absolute poverty in the region for the first time in history.

As China has realized a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Tibet is embarking on the great journey toward all-round modernization together with the rest of the country.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 17:00:55|Editor: huaxia

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Farzad Farhad and Julia, two young foreigners doing business in China, chose to continue their businesses in China even during the COVID-19 pandemic. They do not regret their decisions, as Chinese government's measures to contain the pandemic have further boosted their confidence in China's economy.

Farzad Farhad from Afghanistan created an e-commerce platform which introduces the products of small microelectronic enterprises along the eastern coast of China to overseas consumers.

In 2019, Julia, an Italian, set up a company which imports European craft beer to China and also carries out consulting services for companies in China and abroad.#GLOBALink

Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 17:36:25|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Yu Zhigang, former vice president of China University of Political Science and Law, has been indicted for suspectedly accepting bribes.

Yu was accused by the procuratorial authority of taking advantage of his former positions and power to seek benefits for others, and illegally accepting a large amount of money and gifts in return.

The National Supervisory Commission has concluded its probe into Yu's case.

Following the designation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Shenyang Municipal People's Procuratorate of Liaoning Province reviewed the case and filed it in the Shenyang Municipal Intermediate People's Court.

The prosecutors had informed the defendant of his litigation rights, interrogated him and heard the opinions of his defense counsel. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 20:09:11|Editor: huaxia

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Tourists visit Yunshuiyao ancient town in Nanjing County, southeast China's Fujian Province, Aug. 17, 2021. Relying on Tulou, the unique residential architecture of Fujian Province which was inscribed on the UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2008, Nanjing County has found a sustainable way to develop the rural tourism industry and boost the local economy. (Xinhua/Song Weiwei)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 19:30:53|Editor: huaxia

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TAIYUAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, is set to host an international forum on energy and low-carbon development from Sept. 3 to Sept. 4, the provincial government said on Wednesday.

The two-day event to be held online and offline will include an opening ceremony, a roundtable interview, an online exhibition hall, and a summit of the world's top 500 new energy enterprises, said Wang Ligang, deputy director of the provincial development and reform commission.

The aim of the forum is to show achievements in energy, climate and environment, and convey that China is confident in promoting green and low-carbon development, Wang said.

About 300 guests from home and abroad will attend the event. So far, more than 70 people from embassies of 24 countries and over 50 other participants outside the Chinese mainland have confirmed their attendance.

Approved by the State Council in 2016 as a national forum featuring internationality, the forum has been held four times. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 19:41:40|Editor: huaxia

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JERUSALEM, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli imports from China, excluding diamonds, rose by 36.5 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2021, according to a report issued by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

According to the data, Israeli imports from China in January-July totalled 7.07 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 5.18 billion dollars in the same period in 2020.

In July, Israel's imports from China totalled 1.17 billion dollars, a 27 percent rise from 921.4 million dollars in 2020.

Israeli exports to China rose by 6.7 percent, from 2.69 billion dollars in January-July last year to 2.87 billion dollars this year.

Total Israeli imports in the first seven months of 2021 amounted to 50.2 billion dollars, an increase of 30 percent, while Israeli exports amounted to 33.1 billion dollars, an increase of 16.5 percent, the report said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 19:44:14|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday launched a program on promoting coordination between local state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the country's northeast region and central SOEs to ramp up the revitalization of northeast China.

A total of 111 local SOEs in Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will work closely with 100 subsidiaries of 53 central SOEs, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC).

The country will enhance resource sharing and industrial integration between these enterprises to deepen reforms of state-owned assets and firms in the region, and promote high-quality development of local SOEs.

These enterprises will cooperate for optimizing and coordinating industrial and supply chains, transforming and upgrading traditional industries, making breakthroughs in core technologies, improving corporate governance and enhancing the building of talent teams.

Reforms of state-owned assets and firms in the region achieved positive results in the first half-year, with combined operating revenue of local SOEs and locally-based central SOEs and their subsidiaries surging 28 percent year on year, SASAC data showed.

More efforts should be made to improve the market-oriented operation mechanism, weak links in industrial structure and the level of management for the local SOEs, the SASAC noted. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 20:05:56|Editor: huaxia

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-- The Taliban said Tuesday it intends to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan and does not want to have any internal or external enemies.

-- The fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan has aroused deep concerns among the international community, which is calling for restraint and peace in the war-battered country.

-- The manner and implementation of the U.S. withdrawal has left its allies feeling betrayed, said Cathryn Cluver Ashbrook, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations.

-- Experts believe the Biden administration is repeating the mistakes made by previous U.S. governments.





BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban said Tuesday it intends to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan and does not want to have any internal or external enemies.

The group's pledge came after its takeover of most parts of Afghanistan, including the capital city of Kabul, on Sunday, which has stunned the world. While the international community is calling for peace and restraint in the war-torn country, criticism against the White House are mounting.





INCLUSIVE GOV'T

At the first press conference since Sunday's takeover, the Taliban's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said they want to have good relations with everybody to develop the country's economy and achieve prosperity.

"We don't want to repeat any conflict, any war again," he said. "Animosities have come to an end, and we would like to live peacefully. We don't want any internal and external enemies."

The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (C, rear) attends a press conference in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on Aug. 17, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)

Talking about the current discussion of forming a new government, Mujahid said all Afghans would have representation in the future set-up of Afghanistan. "Talks and consultations are continuing very seriously with politicians on the formation of the new government, over its name and its flag."

The spokesman said the Taliban supreme leader had declared a general amnesty, promising to ensure the safety of the contractors and translators who had worked for the United States and allied forces, the government soldiers who had been fighting the Taliban for years, and those whose families were attempting to leave Afghanistan.

"We have pardoned everybody for the benefit of stability or peace in Afghanistan," Mujahid said, who also called on Afghans to stay as they are the nation's assets.

Taliban fighters stand on a military vehicle in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 16, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)

Regarding Afghan women's rights, he said women could work and study in different fields within the framework of sharia or Islamic law, and they would be offered all rights within the Islamic principles, because women are vital parts of society.





CALL FOR PEACE

Since the U.S. troops started to pull out of Afghanistan on May 1, the Taliban has been advancing quickly on the battlefield. During the past two weeks, the group has captured most of Afghanistan's territories.

Taliban fighters are seen on a military vehicle in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 16, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)

The fast-evolving situation in Afghanistan has aroused deep concerns among the international community, which is calling for restraint and peace in the war-battered country.

China hopes the Taliban can work with all parties in setting up an open and inclusive political framework, and pursue a peaceful and friendly foreign policy, particularly developing friendly relations with neighboring countries, to achieve reconstruction and development in Afghanistan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for inclusive dialogue with the participation of all domestic forces in normalizing the situation in Afghanistan.

"We are seeing encouraging signals from the Taliban, who have expressed their willingness to form a government with the inclusion of other political forces," Lavrov said.

Meanwhile, Josep Borrell, the European Union (EU) foreign affairs chief, said the EU will have to talk with the Taliban and that any cooperation by the EU with the new government of Afghanistan "will be conditioned on a peaceful and inclusive settlement and respect for the fundamental rights of all Afghans."

Also on Tuesday, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country is closely following the development of the situation in Afghanistan and hopes a comprehensive peace will be achieved in the framework of the inter-Afghan talks in Doha.

Photo taken on Aug. 15, 2021 shows a road in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua)

Earlier, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the Taliban and all other parties to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and ensure that humanitarian needs can be addressed.

The UN remains determined to contribute to a peaceful settlement, promote the human rights of all Afghans, notably women and girls, and provide life-saving humanitarian assistance and critical support to civilians in need, he said on Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that Iran stands ready to "continue its peacemaking efforts."

Also on Sunday, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the need to ensure the safety of civilians in Afghanistan, calling for a peaceful transfer of power to pave the way for a political settlement which involves all Afghan parties and achieves security and stability in the country, according to a statement on its official website.

CRITICISM AGAINST WHITE HOUSE

"I stand squarely behind my decision (to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan)," said U.S. President Joe Biden in a televised speech from the White House on Monday. "The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated."

However, with the news of Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani leaving the country and the images of the United States scrambling to evacuate staff and officials from its embassy in Kabul broadcast worldwide, U.S. experts said Washington should regret its premature and irresponsible troop withdrawal.

"Today is the culmination of President Biden's strategic error in directing the rapid and complete withdrawal of U.S. -- and thus all international -- forces and the failure to have done the planning necessary to prevent the resulting catastrophic collapse of the Afghan government," James B. Cunningham, non-resident senior fellow at the South Asia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, said in a statement.

Cunningham said Biden had made the wrong choice on troop withdrawal. "Biden could have declared that U.S. withdrawal was conditioned on a genuine peace agreement and ceasefire, and focused on that objective with an extensive diplomatic effort."

Photo taken on July 8, 2021 shows the Bagram Airfield base after all U.S. and NATO forces evacuated in Parwan province, eastern Afghanistan. (Xinhua/Rahmatullah Alizadah)

The Republicans are taking the opportunity to attack Biden's policy. A recent article published by The Washington Post analyzed "How Republicans are slamming Biden on Afghanistan," saying the Republicans' major accusations against Biden on the Afghan issue include "Biden is responsible for this," "Biden didn't see or didn't prepare for what was coming," "the U.S. is less safe because of how poorly the withdrawal is going" and "Biden seems aloof from it all."

Criticism against the White House has also come from the U.S. allies, who are blaming the Biden administration for insufficient consultations with its partners before the withdrawal of troops.

British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace said the U.S. decision to pull its troops out of Afghanistan was a "mistake," adding that the U.S. withdrawal "causes a lot of problems and as an international community, it's very difficult for what we're seeing today."

The manner and implementation of the U.S. withdrawal has left its allies feeling betrayed, said Cathryn Cluver Ashbrook, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Meanwhile, experts believe the Biden administration is repeating the mistakes made by previous U.S. governments.

Taliban fighters are seen in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)

"I strongly recommend to President Biden that he take responsibility ... admit the mistakes that were made," said former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in an interview with CNN.

According to Adam Weinstein, research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an Afghanistan combat veteran, the real failure lies with the mistaken belief that "the United States could shape conditions and foster effective governance through the force of arms."

"The chaos that follows intervention and the chaos that follows withdrawal are rooted in the same fundamental mistake -- that the U.S. thinks it can use its military to affect permanent social and political change in countries that it occupies," Weinstein said in a statement. (Video reporters: Jiang Chao, Shi Xiantao, Jawid Omid, Jiang Zhiqiang; video editors: Wu Yao, Wang Houyuan)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 20:33:27|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that China stands ready to work with Iran to push for steady and sustained development of their comprehensive strategic partnership.

He made the remarks in a phone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 20:46:47|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China attaches great importance to developing relations with Iraq, and stands ready to promote their strategic partnership for greater development, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday.

In a phone conversation with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Xi said China is willing to continue to support Iraq's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, expand bilateral cooperation in such fields as energy, electricity and transportation, and assist Iraq with economic rebuilding and social development. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 21:20:50|Editor: huaxia

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CHANGCHUN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Import and export cargo volumes at the border rail port of Huichun in northeast China's Jilin Province have exceeded 2 million tonnes so far this year, an annual rise of 300 percent, according to the border checkpoint in Huichun.

Located in easternmost Jilin, Huichun borders Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Thanks to China-Europe freight trains and the railway that links China and Russia, the freight volume of Huichun border rail port has risen significantly this year, with goods mainly including automobile glass, tires, bearings and daily necessities. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 21:45:16|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong police arrested four college students for advocating terrorism on Wednesday.

The arrestees, all members of the students' union of the University of Hong Kong, were suspected of breaching Article 27 of the national security law in Hong Kong and remained in custody, senior superintendent Li Kwai-wah of the police force's national security department said.

The suspects, aged from 18 to 20, were involved in a students' union meeting last month that mourned and praised a man who stabbed a police officer before killing himself at Causeway Bay.

According to local media, those under arrest included the students' union's former president Charles Kwok Wing-ho and union council chairman Kinson Cheung King-sang.

Hong Kong is a society under the rule of law and every one needs to take responsibility for their actions, said John Lee, chief secretary for administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

Lee stressed that law enforcement authorities must act in accordance with the law to deal with violations of laws, including the national security law in Hong Kong, by any person or organization. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:13:00|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that China stands ready to work with Iran to push for steady and sustained development of their comprehensive strategic partnership.

He made the remarks in a phone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Xi pointed out that since the establishment of China-Iran diplomatic ties 50 years ago, bilateral relations have stood the test of international changes, with the friendship between the people of the two countries growing ever stronger.

In the face of a complicated situation that combines profound global changes and a pandemic both unseen in a century, China and Iran have stood together and helped each other, Xi noted.

While working together against COVID-19, the two countries have strengthened solidarity and coordination, made positive progress in practical cooperation, effectively cemented strategic mutual trust, and firmly defended international fairness and justice, he said.

China appreciates Iran's active efforts to develop bilateral relations, Xi said, stressing that no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly relations with Iran.

The two sides, he suggested, should continue to support each other on issues related to their core interests and major concerns.

China firmly supports Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty and national dignity, and opposes external interference, he said, adding that China is willing to work with Iran to enhance experience sharing on state governance, strengthen cooperation in pandemic response, advance their respective development, and promote the people's well-being in both countries.

The plan for China-Iran comprehensive cooperation has opened up broader prospects for deepening bilateral win-win cooperation, Xi said, adding that the two sides should tap deeply into their potential, actively promote Belt and Road cooperation, and produce more results in practical cooperation.

China, Xi said, supports Iran's legitimate concerns on the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue, and stands ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Iran on regional affairs, so as to jointly safeguard common interests and promote regional security and stability. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:19:00|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China attaches great importance to developing relations with Iraq, and stands ready to promote their strategic partnership for greater development, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday.

In a phone conversation with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Xi said China is willing to continue to support Iraq's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, expand bilateral cooperation in such fields as energy, electricity and transportation, and assist Iraq with economic rebuilding and social development.

Xi pointed out that Iraq is one of the first Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and also an important partner of China for Belt and Road cooperation in West Asia and North Africa.

As a sincere friend of the Iraqi people, China has actively participated in Iraq's economic reconstruction, with bilateral friendly and practical cooperation making steady progress in various fields, Xi noted, adding that the two countries have been supporting and helping each other since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China, Xi stressed, firmly supports Iraq's efforts to defend its national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, fight against terrorism and safeguard its national security and stability.

Xi added that his country also supports the Iraqi people independently choosing a development path in line with Iraq's national conditions, and opposes any external interference in Iraq's internal affairs.

He expressed his hope that the various factions in Iraq will strengthen unity, push for new progress in the domestic political process, and realize long-term peace and stability as well as prosperity and development.

China, he said, stands ready to work with friendly countries, including Iraq, to promote peace and development and build a community with a shared future for mankind. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:37:07|Editor: huaxia

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BEIRUT, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Two more Lebanese suffering from severe burns in the fuel tank explosion on Aug. 15 were transferred to Turkey on Wednesday, al-Jadeed local TV channel reported.

Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Baris Ulusoy said "his country is ready to receive more injuries if the Lebanese government requests it," adding that three people had already carried to Turkey for medical treatment based on the demand by the Lebanese government.

Lebanon's caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan said that some injured people were sent for treatment to Turkey given the shortage in necessary medicines and materials in Lebanon due to the current financial crisis.

Turkey donated medications worth 300,000 U.S. dollars to support Lebanon in July.

A fuel tank exploded on Sunday in the town of Tleil in the northern district of Akkar, killing at least 28 people and wounding 79 others. The dead and injured included army members and citizens. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:42:16|Editor: huaxia

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GAZA/RAMALLAH, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Despite a significant increase in COVID-19 infections in Gaza, only 10 percent of Gazans who are eligible to be vaccinated have received the jab so far, according to officials at the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

"About 1.5 million people must be vaccinated to protect themselves from the virus," said Rami al-Abadla, director of infection control in Gaza's Health Ministry.

He warned that the proportion of the vaccinated is comparatively small in Gaza's 2 million population, and the number of severe cases has surged from 19 to 64 within three weeks.

To encourage the population to receive the vaccine, the Health Ministry expanded the vaccination eligibility by including all those aged above 16.

He explained that the curve of infections is rising due to the population's failure to adhere to the safety and prevention measures, such as wearing masks, keeping social distancing and maintaining personal hygiene.

The medical staff has taken random samples from people in public places to check whether there was someone infected with the Delta variant, he said, noting that the ministry has not yet recorded any infection with it.

It has been more than a year and a half since the discovery of the first COVID-19 case in Gaza, while the attitude towards vaccination varies among the residents.

Hazem al-Omrani, a 32-year-old resident of Gaza City, received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine a few weeks ago. He told Xinhua that it is essential for each person to get the shots to avoid the spread of the virus.

"Unfortunately, people in Gaza lack the awareness of the damage the disease can bring, so there is a lack of commitment to wearing masks and keeping distance," he said.

The 30-year-old woman Marwa Ezzat from Gaza expressed her distrust in receiving the vaccine, believing that any person who was exposed to the virus would end up getting it, whether being vaccinated or not.

"Scientific studies have proven that people who receive the vaccine would get infected with the virus again but with milder symptoms. Moreover, we know the fact that the vaccine expires between six months and a year," she explained.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry decided to ease the restrictions in early May ahead of Eid al-Fitr. Later, it announced the complete lifting of the night curfew, including the movement of pedestrians, shops and all facilities, allowing daily movement of vehicles, and opening mosques and wedding halls.

Eyad al-Bozzom, a spokesman of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, told Xinhua that there is no decision to impose a new closure on the strip, saying that the ministry's efforts are currently focused on increasing the vaccinated population.

On the other hand, the situation is better in the West Bank in terms of vaccination, though the daily infections are witnessing a significant increase.

Mahdy Rashid, the official in charge of the coronavirus file in Ramallah, told Xinhua that his ministry began recording hundreds of daily cases while only dozens were registered two weeks ago.

He said more than 70 percent of the recorded cases in the West Bank are infected with the mutated coronavirus strain, warning of the deterioration of the epidemiological situation.

At present, partial closure is imposed and any area classified as red is closed, according to Rashid.

Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Health Ministry recorded 753 new COVID-19 cases in the territories including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, bringing the tally of infections to 351,755. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:45:21|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that China stands ready to work with Iran to push for steady and sustained development of their comprehensive strategic partnership.

He made the remarks in a phone conversation with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Xi pointed out that since the establishment of China-Iran diplomatic ties 50 years ago, bilateral relations have stood the test of international changes, with the friendship between the people of the two countries growing ever stronger.

In the face of a complicated situation that combines profound global changes and a pandemic both unseen in a century, China and Iran have stood together and helped each other, Xi noted.

While working together against COVID-19, the two countries have strengthened solidarity and coordination, made positive progress in practical cooperation, effectively cemented strategic mutual trust, and firmly defended international fairness and justice, he said.

China appreciates Iran's active efforts to develop bilateral relations, Xi said, stressing that no matter how the international and regional situation changes, China will unswervingly develop friendly relations with Iran.

The two sides, he suggested, should continue to support each other on issues related to their core interests and major concerns.

China firmly supports Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty and national dignity, and opposes external interference, he said, adding that China is willing to work with Iran to enhance experience sharing on state governance, strengthen cooperation in pandemic response, advance their respective development, and promote the people's well-being in both countries.

The plan for China-Iran comprehensive cooperation has opened up broader prospects for deepening bilateral win-win cooperation, Xi said, adding that the two sides should tap deeply into their potential, actively promote Belt and Road cooperation, and produce more results in practical cooperation.

China, Xi said, supports Iran's legitimate concerns on the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue, and stands ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Iran on regional affairs, so as to jointly safeguard common interests and promote regional security and stability.

For his part, Raisi expressed warm congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Iran and China.

It is a foreign policy priority and focus of the Iranian government to steadfastly develop a more robust comprehensive strategic partnership with China, he said.

The Iranian side, he said, thanks China for providing Iran with valuable support to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, appreciates China's fair positions on international and regional affairs, including the Iranian nuclear issue.

Iran stands ready to work with China to intensify strategic communication, enhance strategic mutual trust, deepen bilateral cooperation and multilateral coordination, and jointly oppose unilateralism, hegemonism and external interference, Raisi added.

The Iranian side firmly supports China's positions on issues concerning Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and staunchly opposes certain countries using the issue of COVID-19 origins tracing as a pretext to suppress and contain China, he said.

China's Belt and Road Initiative brims with strategic vision, and Iran is willing to actively participate in it, he added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:45:53|Editor: huaxia

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YINCHUAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 domestic and overseas enterprises have registered as exhibitors for offline and virtual events at the fifth China-Arab States Expo, scheduled from Aug. 19 to 22 in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Expo organizers said at a press conference on Wednesday that a total of 239 companies will display their latest products and innovations at offline exhibitions covering an area of about 12,000 square meters.

The in-person events will be themed on healthcare, clean energy, new materials, the digital economy and cross-border e-commerce.

The participating enterprises will also hold a slew of online exhibitions based on technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing.

Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, as the guests of honor at the expo, will host online and offline events to showcase their culture and technology, said Zhang Liwei, deputy head of the Ningxia regional exposition bureau.

More than 5,000 enterprises from over 110 countries and regions attended the previous four editions of the China-Arab States Expo in Yinchuan, the regional capital of Ningxia.

On Wednesday, forums on cooperation between China and the Arab countries on tourism and water resources were also held in advance of the expo.

"We are very much interested in China-Arab cooperation and have recently initiated a proposal welcoming the establishment of a comprehensive and long-term cooperative relationship in the field of water-resources management," said Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, chairman of the Arab Water Council, at the Water Resources Forum.

Wei Shanzhong, China's vice minister of water resources, said that China and Arab countries face similar problems and challenges, and have great potential for cooperation.

He added that China is willing to work with other countries and international organizations, including Arab countries, to strengthen exchanges and cooperation on water-resources utilization.

At the China-Arab States Leisure Tourism Forum, plenty of officials from Arab states expressed their confidence in the Chinese market.

"In recent years, tourism in Arab states has developed well by tapping the Chinese market," said Dhia Khaled, Tunisian ambassador to China, stating that the Chinese market has emerged as a key tourism market for Arab countries. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:55:07|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- China attaches great importance to developing relations with Iraq, and stands ready to promote their strategic partnership for greater development, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday.

In a phone conversation with Iraqi President Barham Salih, Xi said China is willing to continue to support Iraq's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, expand bilateral cooperation in such fields as energy, electricity and transportation, and assist Iraq with economic rebuilding and social development.

Xi pointed out that Iraq is one of the first Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and also an important partner of China for Belt and Road cooperation in West Asia and North Africa.

As a sincere friend of the Iraqi people, China has actively participated in Iraq's economic reconstruction, with bilateral friendly and practical cooperation making steady progress in various fields, Xi noted, adding that the two countries have been supporting and helping each other since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China, Xi stressed, firmly supports Iraq's efforts to defend its national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, fight against terrorism and safeguard its national security and stability.

Xi added that his country also supports the Iraqi people independently choosing a development path in line with Iraq's national conditions, and opposes any external interference in Iraq's internal affairs.

He expressed his hope that the various factions in Iraq will strengthen unity, push for new progress in the domestic political process, and realize long-term peace and stability as well as prosperity and development.

China, he said, stands ready to work with friendly countries, including Iraq, to promote peace and development and build a community with a shared future for mankind.

For his part, Salih said that the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China is a milestone event for both China and the world, adding that he wishes China greater achievements in the journey ahead from this new starting point.

Noting that Iraq and China are both great civilizations with a long history, he said the Iraqi side understands the measures taken by China to safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, and firmly adheres to the one-China policy.

The Iraqi side, he added, appreciates China for its help in Iraq's economic reconstruction and fight against COVID-19, and is willing to deepen friendly relations with China.

He said Iraq hopes to make concerted efforts with China to continuously strengthen pandemic response cooperation, expand bilateral cooperation on trade and investment, and expand exchanges and cooperation in such areas as culture, tourism, youth and sports.

Iraq, he added, is also ready to work with China to intensify strategic communication, address the precipitous changes in international and regional circumstances, fight against terrorism, and safeguard regional and global peace and stability. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-06 11:30:50|Editor: huaxia

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Mareledi Segotso (L), UNFPA Botswana Head of Office, Chinese Ambassador to Botswana Wang Xuefeng (C) and Botswana's Minister of Health and Wellness Edwin Dikoloti pose for a group photo at the handover ceremony of personal protective equipment to Botswana donated by China and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Gaborone, Botswana, Aug. 5, 2021. China and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday donated personal protective equipment to Botswana to assist the country in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua)

GABORONE, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday donated personal protective equipment to Botswana to assist the country in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The donation could not have come at a better time than now when the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic is higher, in the process stretching our healthcare facilities and resources to the limit. Our frontliners have never been this strained and overwhelmed," said Edwin Dikoloti, Botswana's minister of health and wellness, after the handover ceremony in Gaborone.

No country can be "immune" from the pandemic, said the minister, adding that COVID-19 vaccines should be available to everyone.

Wang Xuefeng, China's ambassador to Botswana, said during the ceremony that he believes these supplies, a gesture of friendship from China and the UNFPA, will meet Botswana's urgent need and help the bravest frontline health workers protect themselves while fighting against the pandemic.

For the common interest of the international community, the origin-tracing of the virus should not be manipulated by politics, the ambassador said, noting that it is a major and complex scientific issue, and requires the collaboration of scientists around the world.

"We can lose no time in strengthening international vaccine cooperation to save lives rather than political manipulation and finger-pointing," he added.

Botswana has reported 122,574 confirmed cases with 1,704 deaths as of Thursday. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-17 01:24:00|Editor: huaxia

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Students attend an airing lesson in Kampala, Uganda, on Aug. 16, 2021. Uganda on Monday resumed airing lessons on radio for upper primary and secondary school levels as schools in the country remain closed. (Photo by Nicholas Kajoba/Xinhua)

KAMPALA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Uganda on Monday resumed airing lessons on radio for upper primary and secondary school levels as schools in the country remain closed due the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The lessons airing on different stations across the country are expected to run through September, according to a statement from the ministry of education.

"Parents and guardians are, therefore, requested to support the learners with radio sets and to also allow them time to tune in to the various radio stations in order to attend the lessons," the ministry said.

Aisha Namaganda, a parent in the central district of Wakiso, said she had bought a small radio set for her daughter to enable her to attend Senior One lessons.

"She is ready but the problem is that where she has not understood, she will not be able to interact with the teacher," Namaganda told Xinhua in an interview.

She added that some subjects might not be easily understood through radio.

Joseph Tusiime, a primary school teacher from the western district of Kyenjojo, told Xinhua by telephone that learners in urban centers are in a better position to benefit from the radio lessons.

"This is planting time and children have to go with their parents in the farms. So it might not be easy to wait for lessons," Tusiime said.

"Those in trading centers will follow the lessons since they have all the time. Those with educated parents will also benefit from the lessons as they will support the learners," he added.

Schools were closed in May following a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The education ministry has said it is working with the health ministry to ensure that learners who are 18 years old and above as well as teachers are vaccinated.

The country also said it would import vaccines to inoculate children aged between 12 and 18 years old. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 00:56:04|Editor: huaxia

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CAPE TOWN, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Parliament of South Africa on Tuesday said it has been informed by President Cyril Ramaphosa about extending the mission of troops who are authorized to fight against last month's unrest.

The South African government deployed 25,000 army members since July 12 in cooperation with the police after the unrest, which was triggered by former South African president Jacob Zuma's imprisonment, led to loss of lives, road blockades and damage to properties and vehicles.

Ramaphosa in his correspondence told the parliament that 10,000 of the deployed members of the South African National Defence Force will continue to cooperate with the South African Police Service in the prevention and combating of crime and preservation of law and order within the country, at least until Sept. 13, the parliament said in a statement issued here.

The extension is expected to cost nearly 255 million rands (about 17.1 million U.S. dollars), in addition to over 615 million rands planned for the initial deployment.

Zuma was serving a 15-month sentence in prison since July before he was hospitalized outside the prison for medical observation and undergone a surgical procedure. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 01:09:59|Editor: huaxia

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LILONGWE, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera, who is the new chairperson for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), has bemoaned inequalities and disparities in accessing COVID-19 vaccines across the globe.

Chakwera voiced the concern Tuesday when he accepted the Chair of the regional body at the 41st Ordinary Summit of the SADC Heads of State held in Malawi capital, Lilongwe.

The new SADC Chair said the inequalities and disparities must be tackled head on as they are seriously hindering efforts to save the lives of millions in the SADC.

"I want to make a larger point to the rest of the global community: The inequalities and disparities we are seeing in the distribution and production of COVID-19 vaccines are symptomatic of an old geopolitical framework that is no longer working, no longer sustainable, and no longer acceptable," said Chakwera.

"I am referring to a framework that regards the world as an animal farm in which some nations are more equal than others; I am referring to a framework that regards some nationalities as more special than others; I am referring to a framework that regards some human lives as more worthy of saving than others," he continued.

The SADC Chair said African countries are full members of the global community and that, as such, Africans have a moral duty to refuse to be treated as second class citizens, for the sake of the dignity of all human beings everywhere.

He further said time has come for Africans to insist that a vaccine that preserves and sustains a person's basic right to life belongs to all nations, no matter who discovered it.

"I repeat," added Chakwera, "treating African nations and nationals as second-class members of the global community is no longer acceptable. We do not accept it. We will not accept it. We cannot accept it."

"At a regional level like SADC, this means recognizing that our truest friends in this world are not those who are satisfied to see us continue in our poverty so that they can sustain their messianic complex as our benefactors and liberators," said him.

Most African countries, including SADC member states, have been accessing COVID-19 vaccine doses through the AU-COVAX Facility and donations leading to frequent stock-outs amid high demand of the vaccine across the continent.

The 41st Ordinary SADC Summit is being held under the theme Bolstering Productive capacities in the face of COVID-19 Pandemic for Inclusive, Sustainable, Economic and Industrial Transformation. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 04:20:49|Editor: huaxia

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CAIRO, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed on Tuesday that his country supports Somalia and is keen to provide all kinds of assistance to the Somalis.

Shoukry's remarks came during his meeting with visiting Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble in Cairo, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Shoukry and Roble discussed the efforts to boost bilateral cooperation, while highlighting "the historical relations" between the two countries.

They also discussed a number of regional issues of common interest, according to the statement.

Earlier in the day, the Somali prime minister held talks in Cairo with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, who voiced the league's full support for any steps that would promote security and stability in Somalia. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 10:34:25|Editor: huaxia

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LUANDA, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has granted 150 million U.S. dollars to promote family farming in Angola, an Angolan official announced Tuesday.

Over 200,000 families will benefit from the IFAD grant, said Augusto Guimbi, coordinator of projects financed by the IFAD at the country's Ministry of Agriculture.

The project, signed between the Angolan government and the IFAD, was initially launched to serve the southern provinces of Benguela, Namibe and Cunene, which have been affected by climatic changes, according to the official.

"For the southern region, the project will be implemented from a perspective of resilience due to climatic variations, preparing those communities in case of drought or flood, when they happen," emphasized Augusto Guimbi.

As for the north of the country, IFAD intends to act from a value chain perspective "to give the desired support to rural communities in order to increase productivity and address issues related to trade." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:38:03|Editor: huaxia

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LUBANGO, Angola, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Angola will invest 600 million U.S. dollars to increase the electricity capacity in the southern region next year, Angola's Minister of Energy and Water Joao Baptista Borges announced here on Tuesday.

Speaking to the press at the end of his visit to the southern Huila province, the official said that negotiations are underway with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Spain concerning the projects' funding.

One of the projects, to be carried out in three years, includes the construction of a 400-km long high voltage line between Huambo and Lubango, two cities in different provinces in southern Angola.

The minister said that the Huambo-Lubango line would be financed by the AfDB.

Another line connecting Huambo and the Matala district in the southern Huila province, which is expected to bring energy to the Jamba mining region, will be financed by Spain, the minister said.

Borges said a solar energy project would also be installed in the southern province, through a private investment by state oil company Sonangol and Total. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 21:01:50|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Seven members of a family were suspected to be killed by carbon monoxide poisoning on Tuesday in Nigeria's southwest state of Osun, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in Apomu town in Isokan area of the state, Yemisi Opalola, the state police spokesperson told reporters in Osogbo, the state capital.

"Eight persons were found lying on the floor of the house but only one was found breathing," she said at a press briefing, adding poison of carbon monoxide is suspected to be the cause, but the result of the autopsy would confirm the cause of death.

"One person, a 14-year old girl, was found still alive (though unconscious) and she has been taken to the hospital where she is recuperating," she said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 22:59:55|Editor: huaxia

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HARARE, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Africa, currently faced with a low uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, must look up to China for an effective solution to the ravaging pandemic, according to an opinion article published by Zimbabwean newspaper Herald on Wednesday.

The opinion piece urged Africa to reject the politicized "origins tracing" sideshow, noting that if the misdirected war is allowed to continue, the continent will continue to suffer.

"There is little reason to be absorbed with its origins, especially if the aim is just cheap political point-scoring," said the article.

The article pointed out that what Africa needs to fight the pandemic are practical solutions, not propaganda wars.

The continent must shun the current push by the United States to blame China as the originator of the virus and instead focus on strengthening global solidarity to find a lasting solution to the pandemic, the article said.

It said the "origins tracing" sideshow by Washington is a political gimmick that diverts the attention of the world in fighting the real enemy - the virus.

It further adds that "origins tracing" is a ploy to paint China as irresponsible, and further complicates the world's fight against the pandemic.

"Global solidarity is key in fighting the disease. For countries in Africa, there is further cause to actually look towards China for solutions to this pandemic," the article said.

The article said Zimbabwe has done well curbing the pandemic, attributing the positive results to the country's close cooperation with China.

"The close cooperation between the country and China has allowed it to take a leading position in the fight against the disease - and no doubt this will prove a game-changer in Africa," it added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 23:39:47|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) on Wednesday called on Kenyan and Tanzanian investors to take advantage of bilateral engagements between partner states to boost cross-border trade.

Peter Mathuki, secretary-general of EAC said that Kenya's imports from Tanzania between January and June grew by about 70 percent as compared to a similar period last year as a result of regular bilateral engagements that focused on the resolution of trade disputes.

"The trade volumes at the Namanga (Kenya-Tanzania border) increased sixfold last month, compared to a similar period last year," Mathuki said in a statement released on Wednesday.

EAC member states include Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.

According to Kenya government statistics, the value of goods imported by Kenya from Tanzania stood at 18.3 billion shillings (about 167.5 million U.S. dollars) in the first six months of 2021 while Kenya's export to Tanzania stood at 158 million dollars in the same period.

Mathuki also called upon the business community in the East African region to push for public-private partnerships, citing the increased trade flows between Kenya and Tanzania, resulting from public and private bilateral dialogues in the recent months.

He said that the EAC secretariat is at an advanced stage of deploying a 24-hour working system at the border points, among all partner states, and fully integrating the one-stop border post systems to boost trade. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-10 12:30:57|Editor: huaxia

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VIENTIANE, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Lao Ministry of Health plans to obtain additional supplies of COVID-19 vaccine in 2022, so that more free vaccinations can be offered to people if the virus outbreak continues into next year.

The ministry has asked the government to provide a budget for the purchase of more vaccine as the provision of free vaccine through the global COVAX facility will end this year, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Tuesday.

The government is also hoping to receive financial assistance from members of the public and other donors.

The ultimate aim is for the whole population to be vaccinated with 50 percent to be immunized in 2021, Lao Minister of Health Bounfeng Phommalaisith said.

Laos expects to receive 7.5 million doses of vaccine this year, donated by other countries as well as through the COVAX facility.

"This will help to drive the vaccination program forward and bring us closer to our goal of vaccinating 50 percent of the population by the end of this year," Bounfeng said.

It is estimated that it will cost almost 18 U.S. dollars to immunize one person, meaning that almost 100 million U.S. dollars is required to vaccinate everyone, according to the minister, citing an estimation made jointly by the Ministry of Health, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

Vaccinations have already been rolled out in target areas, namely places where cases of the virus have been identified, at-risk areas such as provinces bordering virus outbreak countries, and in provinces with large populations.

So far, some 1,274,476 people have received their first dose of vaccine, while 1,101,696 have been given a second dose, according to the Ministry of Health. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-11 12:03:01|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia received 102,560 international visitors during the first six months of 2021, a decrease of 91.3 percent from 1.18 million over the same period last year, said a tourism ministry's report released on Wednesday.

Thailand, China and Vietnam were the largest sources of foreign travelers to the kingdom during the January-June period this year, the report said.

It added that some 52,290 Thais, 29,751 Chinese and 6,956 Vietnamese came to Cambodia during the first half of this year, down 67.5 percent, 89 percent and 96 percent, respectively over the same period last year.

Currently, there are 18 airlines flying in and out of Cambodia, the report said, adding that 1,089 flights to Cambodia were recorded during the first six months of this year, down 89.5 percent year-on-year.

Tourism ministry's secretary of state and spokesman Top Sopheak said the significant decline in the number of foreign visitors was due to the COVID-19 pandemic that had forced the kingdom to suspend tourist visas to all foreign citizens since March last year.

"We hope that Cambodia will be able to reopen its door to vaccinated tourists by the end of this year after the country has achieved herd immunity," he told Xinhua on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian nation is targeting to vaccinate 12 million people, or 75 percent, of its 16 million population by November.

As of Aug. 10, the country has inoculated 8.39 million people, or 52.48 percent, of the total population, according to the health ministry. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 14:13:11|Editor: huaxia

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VIENTIANE, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Lao health authorities say they are using medicinal plant extracts to treat the early stages of COVID-19 as part of a pilot program.

Speaking at the recent extraordinary session of the National Assembly, Lao Minister of Health Bounfeng Phommalaisith outlined the steps being taken to tackle the virus outbreak.

He said plant extracts were being used in the treatment of COVID-19 as advised by the Institute of Traditional Medicine.

The experimental treatment is part of the government's overarching goal to strengthen health services in Laos in line with the national health policy to promote treatment methods using natural remedies, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Wednesday.

The use of medicinal plants to treat or prevent COVID-19 needs to be managed proactively, Bounfeng said.

The minister said the traditional medicines help to boost the body's immune system, but they should not be used for more than seven days.

The use of plant remedies in the treatment of COVID-19 is recommended in Laos because of the abundance of naturally occurring medicines found in forests and plant compounds. These are commonly used by people living in rural areas and provide them with a cheap source of treatment for various ailments, he added.

The government's policy is to encourage the integration of modern and traditional forms of medicine in primary healthcare facilities for the treatment of COVID-19 in local communities.

The goal is to broaden knowledge and capacity in the treatment of the virus using traditional medicine among local communities, Deputy Director of the Institute of Traditional Medicine, Kosonh Sosoulithanh, said.

Laos has a long history of traditional medicine, with plant and other compounds and extracts being used to treat a variety of diseases and ailments. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 15:23:45|Editor: huaxia

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TOKYO, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Japan's core private-sector machinery orders declined 1.5 percent in June from the earlier month for the first time in four months, while momentum toward rebound from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic continued, government data showed Wednesday.

The orders, excluding those for ships and from electricity utilities due to their volatility, totaled 852.4 billion yen (7.8 billion U.S. dollars), according to the Cabinet Office.

The Cabinet Office kept its evaluation that machinery orders, considered as a leading indicator of corporate capital spending, are reflecting "signs of picking up," which is adopted in the previous month. In May, the office revised upward the assessment for the first time in five months.

"When we look at the breakdown, orders from both manufacturers and nonmanufacturers kept increasing and the three-month moving average was also in the plus column. The recovery trend has not changed," a government official said.

Machinery orders from manufacturers climbed 3.6 percent to 403.9 billion yen (3.7 billion U.S. dollars), up for the third straight month. Sectors such as production machinery as well as information and communication electronics equipment contributed to the increase, as demand for electronic parts and semiconductors is continuing.

Orders from non-manufacturers went up 3.8 percent to 470.5 billion yen (4.3 billion U.S. dollars), rising for the second consecutive month, with strong demand from the construction as well as wholesale and retail sectors, showing expansion on the building of distribution bases for both e-commerce and traditional shops, the official said.

On a quarterly basis, core orders gained 4.6 percent in the April-June period, following a 5.3 percent drop in the earlier three months. The orders are expected to rise 11.0 percent in the July-September period.

Manufacturers are forecast to stimulate capital spending connected to digitalization and green technology, the official said.

In the reporting month, orders from abroad, seen as an indicator of future exports, slipped 10.0 percent to 1.2 trillion yen (11.0 billion U.S. dollars), declining for the first time in three months.

Those from the public sector dropped 2.8 percent to 257.6 billion yen (2.4 billion U.S. dollars) after a 3.1 percent rise. Total orders plunged 6.6 percent to 2.6 trillion yen (23.7 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:05:45|Editor: huaxia

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VIENTIANE, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Laos recorded a trade deficit of 99 million U.S. dollars in July 2021, according to the country's trade portal website.

Laos' exports during July were worth 374 million U.S. dollars, while the value of imports was 473 million U.S. dollars, according to the report.

The country's leading exports included copper ore, bananas, camera parts, mixed gold (gold bars), clothes, raw coffee, rubber, fruit (watermelons, passion fruit and tamarind), and tobacco.

The main imports included electrical devices and equipment, vehicles (other than motorcycles and tractors), diesel, mechanical equipment (other than motor vehicles), steel and steel products, vehicle spare parts (including glass and chains), premium and regular grade fuel, plastic products, fertilizer, and food factory waste.

Most of Laos' exports go to China with 149 million U.S. dollars worth of goods sold in July. Goods sold to Vietnam were valued at 71 million U.S. dollars, goods sold to Thailand were valued at 54 million U.S. dollars.

China remained the top export destination for Laos, followed by Vietnam and Thailand, while the main countries for imports are Thailand, China and Vietnam, according to the report.

These figures do not include earnings from the export of electricity. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:09:10|Editor: huaxia

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KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has urged political parties to work together against a dire situation the country is facing as he weighed on the candidates of the new prime minister.

The National Palace said in a statement on Wednesday that Sultan Abdullah met with the heads of major political parties on Tuesday after the resignation of former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday after losing majority support in the lower house of the parliament.

The King has also asked each member of parliament (MP) to submit one candidate as prime minister by Wednesday afternoon, according to the statement.

During the meeting with political party leaders, Sultan Abdullah has asked any new prime minister being appointed shall seek a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament as soon as possible to prove the support of the majority.

The new prime minister shall also seek cross-party cooperation to ensure a stable government, the statement said.

"Before concluding the audience, His Majesty reminded the heads and representatives of major parties that to ensure harmony, the MPs who win must reach out to those who did not."

"Everyone should be working as a team. In other words, the winner does not win everything while the loser does not lose everything," it said.

According to Malaysia's constitution, the king, as the country's supreme head of state, appoints a parliament member as the prime minister, whom in his view commands the majority of the MPs.

Among the potential replacement candidates for Muhyiddin is his former deputy, Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Ismail Sabri is a vice president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which is part of Muhyiddin's previous ruling coalition.

But UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has been at odds with Muhyiddin, being responsible for the withdrawal of support together with a number of UMNO parliamentarians that saw Muhyiddin lose his slim majority.

Local media reported that Ismail Sabri had secured unanimous support from MPs of UMNO as well as from other component parties in Muhyiddin's previous coalition, which might give him the simple majority to be the new prime minister.

Another prominent candidate is former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who heads the country's opposition bloc. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:26:26|Editor: huaxia

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PHNOM PENH, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian court on Wednesday sentenced union leader Rong Chhun to two years in prison for inciting to cause social chaos with false comments about the country's border issue with Vietnam.

His two co-defendants were also handed 20 months each in jail for the same charges, said a verdict pronounced by Phnom Penh Municipal Court's Judge Le Sokha.

"The court orders them to jointly pay 400 million riels (100,000 U.S. dollars) to the Cambodia Border Committee as a plaintiff in this case," the verdict said.

It added that the trio were charged with "incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest" under Article 495 of the kingdom's Criminal Code.

Sam Sokong, the defense lawyer for the trio, told reporters that his clients would file an appeal against the guilty verdict.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions and a member of civil society group Cambodian Watchdog Council, was brought from the Prey Sar Prison to hear his verdict on Wednesday.

Chhun was arrested on July 31 last year at his home in Phnom Penh for his false comments related to long-simmering border demarcation issue with Vietnam, and his two accomplices were apprehended on Aug. 1 last year. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 18:56:21|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- A total of 7,141 suicides were recorded in Nepal in the 2020-21 fiscal year that ended in mid-July, up 14.2 percent year-on-year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest data released by the Nepal police.

Of the deaths, 3,928 were males, 2,449 were females and the rest were children, showed the data.

Saroj Prasad Ojha, head of the Psychiatry Department at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu, blamed mental health problems amid COVID-19 for more suicides in the country.

"Almost 90 percent of suicides are associated with mental health issues like anxiety and depression, which have increased this year," he told Xinhua.

"Social isolation has triggered mental health problems among people," he said. "People who were asked to stay indoors during COVID-19 are facing mental health problems related to psycho-socio factors, which are the biggest cause of suicides."

Psycho-socio factors like unemployment, prolonged academic schedules, family disputes, financial problems, alcohol abuse and substance abuse have contributed to most suicides, according to Ojha.

Jagannath Lamichhane, who has been working on mental health advocacy for the past 12 years, said, "Instead of viewing suicide as a public health issue, our society sees suicide from a criminal perspective which makes it difficult for people to talk about suicide and mental health. Due to this hesitation, most of the suicide attempts went unreported."

"More than 50 percent of mental health problems start before adolescence which makes the youth vulnerable," he told Xinhua. "So we have to advocate mental health from the grass-root level by introducing the subject of suicide prevention and mental wellbeing in school education." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 19:28:19|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday had a phone conversation with Haji Erywan, special envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to Myanmar and Brunei's second minister of foreign affairs, over ties and the situation in Myanmar.

Wang expressed his appreciation for Brunei's contribution to the development of China-ASEAN relations as the rotating chair of ASEAN, and thanked Brunei for its support in elevating the positioning of China-ASEAN relations.

He said he hoped that Brunei will continue to play a positive role to ensure that a commemorative meeting marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN will be successful and achieve more important results.

Noting that September marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Brunei, Wang expressed his hope that the two sides will take this opportunity to carry forward traditional friendship, deepen the Belt and Road cooperation, and push for new development of China-Brunei strategic cooperative partnership.

Anti-pandemic cooperation remains a top priority currently, Wang said, adding that China attaches great importance to the needs of Brunei, will send a batch of vaccines to Brunei and deliver them as soon as possible, and lend a helping hand to Brunei when the country most needs it.

Both China and ASEAN countries are friends of Myanmar and hope that Myanmar will achieve peace and stability, Wang said after listening to Erywan's views on the current situation in Myanmar.

Noting that China welcomes the appointment of Erywan as ASEAN's special envoy to Myanmar, Wang expressed his belief that Erywan can uphold the ASEAN way and play a unique role in accordance with the five-point consensus reached in April by ASEAN leaders regarding the situation in Myanmar to help different parties in Myanmar find a political solution within the constitutional framework through dialogue.

Wang said that China has the following suggestions: First, deal with all parties in Myanmar in a rational and pragmatic manner and gradually build trust; Second, give top priority to helping Myanmar in its fight against COVID-19, and ensure the accessibility and effectiveness of such assistance; Third, remain patient and determined, stick to the direction of promoting peace talks, return government to the people in an orderly manner and restart the democratic process, which not only serves the interests of Myanmar but also meets the expectations of the international community; Fourth, stay vigilant against and oppose interference in Myanmar's internal affairs by extraterritorial forces, and earnestly respect Myanmar's sovereignty and the choice of its people.

China's friendly policy towards Myanmar has always been oriented towards all the people of Myanmar, and China will provide urgently-needed help to Myanmar through various channels, Wang stressed, adding that China will fully support ASEAN's special envoy in performing his duties and is willing to continue to play a constructive role in promoting a political settlement of the Myanmar issue.

For his part, Erywan thanked China for its continuous assistance of medical supplies and vaccines to Brunei when Brunei is confronting a new wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he hopes that the two countries can mark the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties as a milestone, to give full play to the role of the China-Brunei intergovernmental joint steering committee, and further deepen cooperation in various fields, such as energy, agriculture and fishery.

Myanmar is an important member of the big ASEAN family, Erywan noted, adding that as ASEAN's special envoy to Myanmar, he will be dedicated to pushing forward the implementation of the five-point consensus, advancing dialogue among relevant parties in the ASEAN way, stopping violence, promoting inclusiveness, and helping Myanmar better fulfill its commitments to the international community.

ASEAN appreciates and supports China's continuous crucial role in the Myanmar issue, and is willing to strengthen coordination and carry out cooperation with China, he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 23:45:47|Editor: huaxia

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KATHMANDU, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the largest political party in Nepal, is heading for split on Wednesday as the faction led by senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal applied for the registration of a new party.

As many as 95 leaders from the party, including 58 from the existing Central Committee, applied to the Election Commission for the establishment of Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (Socialist) to be headed by Madhav Kumar Nepal, with former prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal in the second rank.

The disputes between Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli, chair of the CPN (UML), had deepened after the Nepal faction supported the bid for the premiership by Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba against Oli and helped Deuba win a vote of confidence on July 18 by garnering a majority of votes in the House of Representatives.

"We have applied for the registration of a new party," Metmani Chaudhary, a Central Committee member from the Nepal faction and a member of the House of Representatives, told Xinhua. "We had to opt for a split following continuous humiliation by the Oli faction."

He said the new party will join the government once the Election Commission formally registers it. As many as 23 lawmakers from the CPN-UML were siding with the Nepal faction as it opted for a split.

An ordinance to amend Political Parties Act-2017 recommended by the Deuba government on Monday was promulgated by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Wednesday, making it easier for a political party to split as it asks for any group to have control of only 20 percent of members of the Central Committee or the Parliamentary Party to register a new party, instead of the original 40 percent for control of both the Central Committee and the Parliamentary Party.

Raj Kumar Shrestha, a spokesman at the Election Commission, said along with the Nepal faction from the CPN-UML, a faction from the Janata Samajbadi Party has also applied for the formation of a separate party.

"The commission will study both applications and formally register the parties if they comply with the existing legal provisions," Shrestha told Xinhua, adding that "the commission will take a decision in 45 days at most." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 16:58:42|Editor: huaxia

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KIEV, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The official number of unemployed Ukrainians as of Aug. 16 has dropped to 315,000 people, down 36 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economy said in a statement on Tuesday.

Oleksiy Lyubchenko, first deputy prime minister and minister of economy of Ukraine, mentioned in the statement that extra efforts would be made to create additional jobs during the implementation of large national investment and construction programs and projects.

"During the implementation of such programs and projects, a special emphasis is on increasing employment indicators, including the creation of new jobs," he said.

In May, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that one million people had lost their jobs due to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 over the past year. He also announced that the government was working on creating 500,000 jobs for Ukrainians who had become unemployed.

The National Bank of Ukraine predicted that the unemployment rate in Ukraine will drop to 9.1 percent this year, and reach 8.5 percent in 2022. The unemployment rate stood at 9.5 percent in 2020. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 20:08:40|Editor: huaxia

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BERLIN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Daily COVID-19 infections in Germany recorded a sharp increase as 8,324 new cases were registered within one day, 3,328 more than one week ago, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Wednesday.

The last time that new infections within 24 hours exceeded 8,000 was during the third wave in mid-May. After the situation had calmed down for a while, new infections in Germany have been rising since the beginning of July.

The country's vaccination campaign slowed down considerably recently and Germany's virologist Christian Drosten issued a clear warning to unvaccinated people. "Those who do not get vaccinated will get infected, and perhaps as early as this winter," he told German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday.

Due to the particularly contagious nature of the Delta variant and the fact that vaccinated people could pass on the coronavirus too, unvaccinated people could no longer hope for protection through herd immunity. "Everyone, in particular those 45 and older, is strongly advised to take a very serious look at whether they really do not want to be vaccinated," Drosten said.

More than 48.1 million people in Germany were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, bringing the country's vaccination rate to 57.8 percent, according to the RKI, the federal government agency for disease control and prevention. More than 52.8 million Germans received at least one dose.

The incidence rate of reported COVID-19 cases in Germany in the past seven days per 100,000 citizens also continued to rise and reached 40.8 on Wednesday, up from 37.4 the previous day and 25.1 a week ago, according to the RKI.

To date, more than 3.8 million COVID-19 infections have been officially registered in Germany since the outbreak of the pandemic. The death toll climbed to 91,921 on Wednesday, said the RKI. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 21:38:26|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu called on all major political forces in Afghanistan to provide security and ensure law and order in the country during a telephone call on Wednesday.

The foreign ministers discussed the latest developments in Afghanistan and agreed on the need to work towards stabilizing the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Lavrov and Cavusoglu also covered a range of relevant issues on their bilateral and international agendas.

On Tuesday, Lavrov said that Russia is seeing encouraging signals from the Taliban, who have expressed their willingness to form a government with the inclusion of other political forces. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 23:14:58|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Tracing the origins of COVID-19 should be conducted on a global scale, including an investigation of U.S. biological laboratories, Russian biologist Alexei Deykin has said.

The United States is a global leader in biotechnology and there have been media reports of accidents at U.S. biological facilities in recent years, said Deykin, a senior scientist with the Institute of Gene Biology at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

People want to know how biological research is controlled and regulated in the United States, he told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Washington opposes negotiations related to a protocol for the verification regime under the framework of the Biological Weapons Convention, while the United States is actively using sites in "gray zone countries," where monitoring compliance with the international convention is difficult, to conduct biological research, he noted.

Biological weapons are much more dangerous than nuclear ones because they can multiply on their own and even affect the entire planet, warned Deykin, also an expert with the Valdai Discussion Club, a Russian think tank.

All versions should be checked when carrying out COVID-19 origins tracing, he stressed, adding that the possibility can't be ruled out that COVID-19 was brought to the central Chinese city of Wuhan by U.S. soldiers during the Military World Games in October 2019.

Deykin believes that the virus could have spread latently before its outbreak, saying "it is quite possible that there were already COVID-19 cases in some countries of the world at the end of 2019. However, they were not classified as the novel coronavirus."

It is "completely unfounded" to claim that COVID-19 leaked from a Wuhan lab, said the molecular biologist, who has studied recombinant organisms for over 15 years.

Deykin praised China for quickly identifying the genome of the virus and taking necessary health measures at the beginning of the epidemic.

China responded appropriately to the epidemic, strived to protect its people and shared information with the international community, he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-08-18 15:59:25|Editor: huaxia

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LES CAYES, Haiti, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- In a corner of the Immaculate Conception Hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti, Larnette Noel remains in shock, breathing heavily and staring with blank eyes at the body of her 26-year-old daughter Lonia Bernard, who died in the recent devastating earthquake.

Noel was at home when the earthquake struck and managed to get out quickly. But her daughter did not.

Underneath a white sheet, the young woman's body rests on a wooden plank on the floor, her mother waiting desperately for help with the burial.

Noel is among thousands of Haitians left devastated by the earthquake and its fallout.

The 7.2-magnitude quake that struck southwest Haiti on Saturday has so far claimed 1,941 lives, injuring more than 9,900 people, the Caribbean island's Civil Protection Agency reported on Tuesday, adding that rescue operations were underway in the hardest-hit areas.

The earthquake was one of the strongest to ever hit the country, which not only led to numerous deaths and injuries, but also destroyed more than 84,000 homes and buildings, leading to the collapse of the island's hospital network.

About a dozen doctors from the capital city of Port-au-Prince headed towards hospitals in Les Cayes to volunteer, but were soon directed to another hard-hit area, leaving hospitals overwhelmed with desperate patients.

Protective measures such as social distancing, face masks or antiseptic gel for hands at the entrances are in short supply, raising the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

On the streets of downtown Les Cayes, the situation is just as bleak and chaotic.

At a hotel leveled by the quake, dozens of men watched as heavy machinery removed chunks of broken concrete, hoping to find some useful construction material, especially steel rods, to sell or to use for their own houses.

Far from the downtown area, life has become even tougher as drinking water runs scarce. Cistern trucks supplying potable water are encircled by people in a desperate fight to fill their buckets and carry them back home on foot.

The difficulties seem endless as a tropical storm gives little respite to the ongoing search and rescue efforts.

The situation in the region has been further complicated by Tropical Storm Grace, which threatened to dump more than 25 cm of rainfall over the areas hardest hit by the earthquake, potentially triggering flash floods and mudslides.

Each neighborhood is plagued by a different set of problems, but residents all share the urgent need for the world to hear their cries for help.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday pledged the world body's support for Haiti in the aftermath of the massive earthquake.

"I have a message to the people of Haiti: You are not alone. We will stand by your side and support you every step of the way out of this crisis," Guterres said in a statement. Enditem
Tanzania's exports to Kenya have exceeded its imports to the East African Community (EAC) partner state for the first time in decades, signalling improved trade flows under President Samia Suluhu's administration.

Fresh data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that Kenya's imports from Tanzania grew nearly three-quarters in the six months to June 2021 compared with a year earlier--coinciding with the thawing of trade ties between the two nations.

The value of goods that Kenya imports from Tanzania -- including cereals, wood, and edible vegetables -- hit a high of Sh370 billion in the review period, according to data from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) published by the CBK.

The 70.06 percent surge in goods bought from Tanzania outpaced that of exports, which grew at a five-year high, resulting in a rare trade deficit of Sh21.02 billion.

The CBK data shows exports to Tanzania -- including pharmaceutical products, plastics, iron, and steel -- bumped 21.39 percent to Sh340 billion, the highest since the first half of 2016.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Tanzanian counterpart, Ms Suluhu, early May pledged to end persistent strained trade relations between the two largest economies in the six-nation EAC bloc which have, for years, hindered the smooth flow of goods and services.

The Tanzanian president's visit to Nairobi -- which, among others, saw the two countries sign a deal to build a gas pipeline from Dar es Salaam to Mombasa -- touched off a series of joint trade meetings aimed at flattening barriers to the flow of goods.

Trade minister Betty Maina and her Tanzanian counterpart, Kitila Mkumbo, led delegations to a four-day meeting in Arusha -- the headquarters of the EAC -- weeks after the two presidents met in Nairobi.

This was followed by a three-day investment forum of manufacturers from both countries in Dar es Salaam from July 7 where the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) and the Confederation of Tanzania Industries resolved to jointly lobby authorities to end crippling non-tariff barriers.

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"Kenya and Tanzania have the capability and capacity to add value to the wide array of resources that both countries have for export markets," KAM chairperson Mucai Kunyiha told the forum in Dar es Salaam.

ALSO READ: Tanzania overtakes Kenya as Uganda's largest imports source in EAC

"However, achieving this is hindered every time the business community encounters impediments to trade, consequently impacting the benefits of trade to the entire [EAC] region."

Kenyan manufacturers had in recent years protested "discriminative" duties and non-tariff barriers such as double inspection of goods for standards by Tanzania which had made supplies such as meat, milk, and related products to the neighbouring country uncompetitive.

READ: Tanzania exports to Uganda surges by 25 per cent

The protectionist fees, Kenyan manufacturers argued, was against the EAC Common Market Protocol, which requires member states to open up borders to facilitate free movement of goods, labour, services as well as capital.

Less than two months to Ms Suluhu's visit, Kenya had banned maize imports from Tanzania and Uganda, citing a higher level of aflatoxin than the required minimum of 10 parts per billion and sparking protest from Dar es Salaam and Kampala.
The management committee of the Gobabis municipality has approached the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over the promotion of Johannes Endyala from being a manager into an executive position.

He held the position of manager: infrastructure, property and technical services before being elevated to that of infrastructure, property and technical services' executive.

ACC director general Paulus Noa confirmed the developments, as the committee chaired by Sylvester Binga has approached his office over the matter. "Yes, they were in my office on Friday to speak on various issues. Surely that's one of the things they complained about, and I have asked them to file an official submission. I hope that they will to that," Noa said yesterday upon enquiry.

Endyala was promoted to the position in September last year, despite then-CEO Ignatius Thudinyane having refused to sign off on the promotion.

Thudinyane died last month due to Covid-19 complications.

However, the new committee inaugurated in December last year after the local authority elections is of the opinion that the position should have been advertised externally instead of internally as in this case, as per the Local Authorities Act of 1992.

Also, the committee stated that Endyala only holds a national diploma in civil engineering from the University of Namibia (Unam), while such position requires a degree in electrical or civil engineering, or equivalent.

According to the Act, only vacancies for positions on the A to C bands must be advertised internally. However, the Act is not clear as to what should be done if vacancies arise on Patterson E1 on the first notch.

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Documents seen by New Era show that in his new role on Patterson System E1 on the first notch, Endyala's salary stands at N$474 535 per annum, with fringe benefits that include a 20% housing allowance if not owning a house, or 40% if owning a house. Other benefits include N$102 701 per year as car allowance, an N$800 per month cell phone allowance and a 13th cheque equal to one month's salary, amongst others.

Meanwhile, the ACC last week arrested three Swapo councillors at the Oniipa Town Council in a similar case. A former local authority councillor who served as management committee chairperson, Thomas Matsi (72), current mayor David Kambonde (47), and his deputy Hileni Idhogela (43) were all charged with fraud.

The charges relate to a recruitment process allegedly undertaken in 2018, where the trio are accused of having favoured an individual who scored the lowest in interviews.

The accused served in the management committee of the previous council, whose term ended in November last year following the local and regional council elections. Kambonde and Idhogela were re-elected to serve for a second term and got elevated to mayor and deputy, respectively.

The three were charged under section 35 (3) (a) and section 35 (3) (b) of the Anti-Corruption Act for using their office for self-gratification as well as providing a false document to an ACC agent. They are now out on bail. -ktjitemisa@nepc.com.na
The prosecution will no longer rely on a disputed search and seizure warrant to prove their case against two men implicated in a cocaine bust case worth N$206 million.

A State prosecutor told Windhoek High Court Judge Orben Sibeya about this yesterday.

Walvis Bay residents Grant Noble (36) and Dinath Azhar (62) are the main accused in the matter.

The concession by prosecutor Timo Itula came after defence lawyer Sisa Namandje again warned about evidence containing the container in which 412 kilogrammes of cocaine was found hidden between photocopier papers.

Itula was about to lead evidence from Jesaja Shangula, a customs officer who was present when the container was opened. Namandje objected to the testimony and Itula then burst the bomb that they are no longer relying on the search and seizure warrant but will instead rely on certain sections of the Customs and Excise Act to prove their case.

Namandje also objected to such evidence, claiming none of the sections the State relies on finds application regarding the opening, search and seizure of containers in the harbour. Itula on the other hand argued the sections indeed find application as they were designed to stop prohibited goods from entering the country through the harbour. After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge allowed the evidence to be presented. According to Shangula, he received a call from an unknown person that a shipment from Santos in Brazil is suspect.

He proceeded to inform his counterpart at the risk assessment unit of customs. After a risk assessment was done, it was decided to put an embargo on the consignment in order to examine it when it arrives at the port. As such, he said, the owners of the container were contacted and informed about the examination of the consignment and a date and time was agreed upon.

On 15 June 2018, he and three colleagues went to the container where they found Noble and Azhar as well as several police officers. He further said his colleague from the risk assessment unit asked Noble to verify the seal on the container and thereafter to remove the seal.

He further said Noble then broke the seal with a bolt cutter and opened the container himself. The labourers who were brought by Noble then started to off-load the boxes one by one, but as this was time consuming, they requested Azhar to organise a forklift which he did and the pallets were then removed, he narrated.

During the off-loading, Shangula said, he noticed that one of the pallets was different from the rest. According to him, the boxes on the other pallets were wrapped with plastic and secured while the boxes on the suspect pallet were loose and open. He then requested the police to bring a dog to sniff one of the boxes and the dog stood at the box and barked. Upon inspection of the box, they found it was packed with smaller parcels "like that of a lady's handbag" and he then requested one of the officers to inspect the parcel and when the officer cut into the parcel, a white powder was observed.

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The witness further narrated he then asked the police to help them identify the powder. Thereafter, he was informed that it was cocaine powder. Upon counting the parcels, he said, they found 200 of them in the boxes.

He further said the lading bill only mentioned 480 boxes of copy paper, which were the ones wrapped with plastic. Shangula further told the court that they also found 12 bags on top of the suspect pallet with an identical seal as the one they broke to open the container.

Noble and Azhar are accused of dealing in, alternatively possession of 412 kilogrammes of cocaine worth an estimated N$206 million as well as a count of money laundering. They remain in custody and the trial will continue today. Itula took over from Salomon Kanyemba who went into private practice.

-rrouth@nepc.com.na

Defensive... Grant Noble and Dinath Azhar

Photo: Emmency Nuukala
Swakopmund  The Swakopmund municipality says it remains committed to addressing the housing challenges faced by the town.

The municipality on Friday handed over 49 social houses that were constructed under the 40/40 housing scheme to identified owners from the Democratic Resettlement Community (DRC).

The DRC settlement is home to more than 20 000 residents that live in shacks built of highly flammable materials due to the unavailability of affordable houses and serviced land.

This time around, the council spent at least N$5.2 million to construct the 49 houses through a partnership with local contractors in their quest to provide affordable housing to residents.

Speaking at the handover ceremony on Friday, Swakopmund mayor Louisa Kativa said the council's long-term development plan is to transform the entire DRC into a flagship suburb.

She added council awarded Power Oyeno 24 erven and Kashona Construction 39, to construct the houses. "Initially, our land ministry availed funds for the servicing of 1 596 erven in the DRC Proper to construct low-cost houses for our residents. Therefore, we wasted no time and entered into partnerships with local contractors to build 958 social houses for DRC Proper and 638 credit-linked houses in Matutura.

The 49 houses are part of that project," she explained. According to Kativa, the local authority acknowledges housing is at the forefront of the council's agenda, as the right to affordable housing and decent shelter with access to amenities and social services is a basic right.

"Owning a house should not be something associated with pensioners or those who are economically well off, we would do well to demystify homeownership and make it accessible to all, to women, to the youth, to the lower-income families, to the residents of the DRC and every Namibian," Kativa said.

Kativa added their task, as a council is to create a conducive environment for private enterprises as they play a vital part in the provision of housing in the country.
Shuaib assured Nigerians that all vaccines certified by NAFDAC were highly effective against the virus, including the ravaging delta variant.

Some Nigerians, who took the first jab of the Oxford-astraZeneca coronavirus vaccines but are yet to take the mandatory second jab due to unavailability, may now heave a sigh of relief as Nigeria on Monday took delivery of 699,760 doses of the vaccines.

The vaccines, which were delivered through the COVAX facility, an initiative aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines globally, are part of the three million doses of vaccines donated to 11 African nations by the government of the United Kingdom.

The vaccines were on Tuesday unveiled by the Nigerian government at the country's National Strategic Cold Store near the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

The UK government had pledged to share 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with COVAX, as part of a broader pledge to share 100 million doses with the rest of the world.

Vaccines unveiling

Speaking during the unveiling of the vaccines, the head of Nigeria's immunisation agency, Faisal Shuaib, said the doses would be targeted at those due for the 2nd dose of the AstraZeneca vaccines earlier administered.

"I am glad to inform you that last night, we received 699,760 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the UK Government. We are most grateful to the government and people of the UK for this gesture.

"This vaccine will be deployed immediately to the states and would be administered as second doses to those who had earlier received only the first dose of the vaccine during the first phase of the vaccination roll-out," he said.

He urged all persons, 18 years and above, due for the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccines to visit the vaccination centres and encourage friends and families to do the same to ensure full protection from the virus.

Mr Shuaib assured Nigerians that all vaccines certified by NAFDAC were highly effective against the virus, including the ravaging Delta variant.

Nigeria had commenced the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination on March 5, 2021, having received approximately four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from COVAX.

The first phase, however, ended abruptly following the exhaustion of the vaccines.

Only about 3.9 million eligible persons across 36 states and FCT, received their shots from the doses.

"2,534,205 people have been vaccinated for the first dose and 1,404,205 have received their second dose of the vaccine," Mr Shuaib said.

UK official speaks

In her remarks, the Acting British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Gill Atkinson, said the vaccines were donated for the wellbeing of Nigerians.

She said the UK was one of the first countries to back COVAX with 548 million.

"We have consistently pushed for a global effort that helps every country receive the vaccine against COVID-19. I am so pleased to see Nigeria receive 699,760 doses, donated by the UK, in their second batch of the vaccine through COVAX.

"This is the first tranche of the 1,299,760 doses expected to be donated by the UK through COVAX. Only by vaccinating more people around the world can we bring an end to the global coronavirus pandemic," Ms Atkinson said.

She said donating through COVAX helps increase vaccine coverage, ensure that no dose goes to waste and helps to bring an end to the phase of the pandemic.

Welcome development

Also speaking at the event, the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, Walter Molumbo, said the donated vaccines are opening prospects to cover the eligible population towards achieving herd immunity.

He also commended the government for putting efforts in place to make COVID-19 vaccination a reality as the country continues to fight the third wave of the pandemic.

"The contribution today of over 699,000 AstraZeneca vaccines is really a big relief for us, knowing that we had a number of Nigerians, who got their first shot, and were waiting for their second shot," he said.

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"The more we get people vaccinated, the better for us all, the vaccines that have been received by Nigeria so far, were all endorsed by the WHO, as safe and effective."

Nigeria's Vaccination campaign

Nigeria on Monday flagged-off the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination having received 4 million doses of Moderna vaccines from the government of the United States of America.

The country also received another 177,600 doses of Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines from the African Union (AU).

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, at the flag-off, said the arrival of these vaccines prompted the second phase of the vaccination.

"The arrival of the 4,000,080 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Government of the United States and the 177,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines out of the 29,850,000 doses the Federal Government has purchased through the Africa-Import-Export Bank and the African Union, is highly encouraging and motivating for us at the Presidential Steering Committee," he said.
The soldiers from Niger Republic are in Nigerian territory on a rescue mission following bandits' attack at one of the adjoining communities in Niger Republic.

Armed bandits and Nigerien soldiers are currently fighting along the border community of Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State

The gunmen reportedly killed a soldier, injured many others and seized a gun truck belonging to the foreign soldiers in the ongoing gun duel that started on Monday, multiple sources told PREMIUM TIMES.

Mustapha Yusuf, the lawmaker representing Jibia at the State House of Assembly, told this newspaper that gunmen from Nigeria attacked a community in Niger Republic and rustled many livestock into Nigerian territory.

"The soldiers from Niger Republic are in Nigerian territory on a rescue mission following bandits' attack at one of the adjoining communities in Niger Republic. They are allowed to enter for 30 kilometres based on security arrangements," the lawmaker said.

Mr Yusuf said one of the foreign soldiers was killed and another injured following an ambush by the bandits in the Jibia area while a gun truck belonging to the foreign soldiers was seized by the bandits.

He added that many of the foreign soldiers and a popular vigilante leader have been missing since Monday.

Also, locals said about 17 vehicles from Niger Republic loaded with soldiers were seen in the Jibia area heading towards a forest. Subsequently, a heavy sound of explosion was heard from the soldiers believed to be engaging the bandits in the forest.

The police spokesperson in Katsina, Gambo Isah, could not be reached for comments as he did not pick calls to his mobile telephone.

Details later .
The group appealed to political parties to save Nigerians from enslavement by refusing to submit candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission for the 2023 general elections.

The Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) says no election would hold in the country unless the federal government agrees to hold a referendum for all self-determination groups in the country.

Banji Akintoye, the chairman of the group, speaking at a press conference in Lagos Tuesday said if the 2023 election is halted in 2021, the 1999 Constitution would "lose its life and we will immediately get into transitioning and therefore in the way to regional referendums for self-determination."

Mr Akintoye, an emeritus professor of History, was represented by Don-Pedro Obaseki.

"This is a safe route to freedom for all constituents blocs that are fed up with the toxic Nigerian union," he said.

He said the immediate suspension of preparations towards the 2023 general election should be treated as a matter of urgency, adding that it is the "most urgently required first aid to Nigeria that is currently bleeding profusely from all sides.

"And for every single day, this emergency first aid is delayed, the risk of catastrophic implosion of Nigeria is exponentially increased."

1999 Constitution abolition

The activities of self-determination groups have heightened over the past few years, particularly in southern Nigeria. At a rally in Lagos last month organised by agitators for a Yoruba nation, one person was killed as police shot bullets in the air to disperse the crowd.

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At Tuesday's press conference, NINAS described the 1999 Constitution as a destructive instrument used to renew the woes currently battling the country.

It appealed to political parties to save Nigerians from enslavement by refusing to submit candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission for the 2023 general elections.

The group further opined that after the proposed referendum, the people can now decide on the Constitution they want for themselves in their separate nations or within the Nigerian federation.

Similarly, it called on Nigerians in the diaspora to troop out in solidarity to participate in the "One Million March" planned to hold in front of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) from September 14th to 24th in New York.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has asked the federal government to bring repentant Boko Haram terrorists to justice or release the rest of them still in custody.

Chairman of the forum and former minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbe, in a statement on Tuesday titled, "On repentant Boko Haram Terrorists and the principle of equity and justice", said an apology was not enough to bring relief to Nigerians and the thousands of dead and maimed.

Ogbe said, "We are currently witnessing large scale surrender of large numbers of Boko Haram insurgents, among whom are bomb makers, commanders, arsorrists, rapists, and child snatchers.

"Do we have good reason to cheer and hope for an end to this decade-old insanity? Is "I am sorry" enough to bring relief to Nigerians and the thousands of dead and maimed?" he asked.

The statement noted the massive destruction of property by the insurgents who have rendered many people homeless.

The ACF posed further questions: "What of those victims bombed in the churches, mosques, schools, and markets? What of all the men and women in uniform murdered by them?

"Who can count the thousands of widows and orphans they have created? And what is the difference between them and the Ighoho's or ESN of Nigeria? None.

"So what do we do with them? Should we just embrace them and trust them wholesale? Are their moves informed by altruistic repentance? We seriously doubt."

Ogbe, expressed support to similar concerns raised by the Shehu of Borno, the Borno state governor and other concerned Nigerians.

"We join the Governor of Borno, the Shehu of Borno, Senator Ndume and millions of Nigerians in pondering over this development and our simple advice is: Bring them to trial, or free all others presently in custody anywhere, while we Nigerians plead guilty of naivety and gullibility in the extreme, punishable by more insurrection and anarchy", the statement said.
Bandits invaded Zamfara State College of Agriculture and Animal Science on Sunday and kidnapped 15 students, four staff and killed others.

PREMIUM TIMES has obtained the names of 19 people kidnapped by bandits in Zamfara State College of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Bakura, in a Sunday night attack.

This newspaper reported how the bandits went into the school and killed four persons, including a police officer and three gatemen, in the attack.

15 Students and four staff were also kidnapped.

A security official of the College sent the completed list of those kidnapped and those killed.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak, said the college would send the list to some of the parents and the state government.

According to the list seen by this reporter, the students kidnapped are Isma'il Lawali, Salim Salisu, Kabiru Lawali, Yasir Lawali, Awaisu Jabir, Aminu Umar, Abba Aliyu, Aminu Adamu, Usman Umar and Umar Haruna.

Others are Usama Lukman, Abdurahman Lukman, Junaidu Yunusa, Abdullahi Bala and Jamilu Kwatarkwashi.

Staff abducted are Mustapha Abdullahi Mafara, Nusaiba Gambo, Hannatu Gambo and Hibbatu Gambo.

Those who lost their lives include Sani Mohammed Mafara, Lawali Sani Jatau and Police Inspector Hamza. They were gatemen.

The college registrar, Aliyu Bakura, said the attackers invaded the school premises with sophisticated weapons abducted and killed the victims.

The state Commissioner of Police, Ayuba Elkana, visited the school, accompanied by strategic and tactical commanders shortly after the incident.

Governor Bello Matawalle has since vowed to rescue abductees.

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Zamfara is one of the worst hits states in the north west part of the country where activities of bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers have continued unabated.

The attacks have been recorded Bakura, Maru, Maradun, Gusau, Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi, Tsafe and Talata Mafara where almost 300 female students were kidnapped by bandits in March this year.

The attack on the school took place after suspected bandits stormed Yarkofoji community in Bakura Local Government Area and killed eight persons and abducted 17 others on Sunday.

A resident of the area, Abdulnasir Abubakar, said among those killed were Bashiru Dan Alhazai, Atiku Sule Dan-Iya, Isiya kulele, Aliyu Badamasi, Baki Biyu, Kabiru, an unnamed woman, among others'.

On Sunday night, bandits also attacked a community in Dansadau town in Maru Local Government and burnt to death 13 people, including a woman and her child.

A traditional ruler, Mustapha Umar, confirmed 13 deaths and said five others, who sustained injuries from the attack, were receiving treatment at a hospital in Dansadau town.
Tigrayan fighters were welcomed into the regional capital Mekele, with some people calling it a liberation (file photo).

analysis

Since fighting broke out in November 2020, the conflict in Tigray has spread and could destabilize the whole Horn of Africa region. Here's how it unfolded.

Who's fighting who?

Ethiopian government soldiers and Tigrayan fighters are battling for control of the country's northern Tigray region. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) sees Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as a bitter enemy: in the 25 years before he became Ethiopia's leader in 2018, the TPLF dominated national politics and controlled ministerial, government and military appointments. Critics called the TPLF-led coalition authoritarian. Abiy, an ethnic Oromo, shut the TPLF out of his new coalition and promised democratic reforms.

How did it start?

In November 2020, Abiy ordered a military offensive in Tigray. He accused the TPLF of attacking an Ethiopian army base in the region.

Tensions between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF had been rising in the previous months, after Tigray held a regional election in September 2020 without the permission of the central government. The government had postponed general elections earlier in the year, citing coronavirus concerns.

At first it appeared the Ethiopian army had defeated the TPLF. But in June 2021 the TPLF retook the Tigrayan regional capital Mekele. Prime Minister Abiy declared a ceasefire on June 28. But fighting continued and began affecting the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions.

How are civilians affected?

The UN warns of a severe humanitarian crisis, with thousands killed, and over five million in need of humanitarian assistance. UNICEF reports that malnutrition could affect over 100,000 children in the next year.

Non-governmental organizations accuse all sides of human rights violations and atrocities such as rape, looting and summary executions. USAID estimates that up to 900,000 people in Tigray face "man-made" famine conditions while phone, internet and banking services remain cut off.

The UN has complained of bureaucratic obstacles and other problems preventing aid convoys and workers from reaching affected areas.

How have Ethiopia's neighbors reacted?

The Tigray conflict has raised tensions throughout the Horn of Africa. Eritrea sided with Ethiopia's central government. The countries had until recently been embroiled in a bloody border dispute since Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 2000.

At the start of his tenure, Prime Minister Abiy sought to improve relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The TPLF, meanwhile, is a sworn enemy of Eritrea.

Some 50,000 people have fled the conflict in Tigray to western neighbor Sudan. In a separate dispute, Ethiopia and Sudan have accused each other of allowing their troops to cross a contested common border.

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In the background, the conflict has threatened progress on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a massive hydroelectric project that is also a source of tension for Sudan and Egypt, which rely on the downstream Nile.

How has the world reacted?

The UN Security Council and leading politicians have demanded a ceasefire and access for aid workers to the affected regions. The US has demanded that the TPLF pull its troops from the Afar and Amhara regions, while simultaneously sanctioning individual Ethiopian and Eritrean officials.

The European Union has suspended financial support for the Ethiopian state. France has suspended military support for Ethiopia.

The conflict's increasing spillover effect on neighboring Sudan and Eritrea has raised international concern about stability in the Horn of Africa.

What's the outlook?

The conflict is threatening to escalate: the Oromo Liberation Army, an armed group from southern Ethiopia, has announced they are working with the TPLF. Both groups want to fight the central government.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abiy has called on all Ethiopians to fight the TPLF, signaling the end to his call for a ceasefire. Additionally, his government suspended the operations of two major international aid groups, the Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council, accusing them of spreading "misinformation." The move is deterring others from speaking out.
The family of a then-18-year-old University of St. Thomas student who died in a crash has filed a lawsuit against a Rochester bar as well as the driver accused of being intoxicated at the time of the crash.

In February, Erika Cruz died after a vehicle hit her near the intersection of Eighth Avenue Southeast and Southeast 12th Street in Rochester.

Sterling Royce Haukom, 34, was charged in connection with the case. Haukom was charged with criminal vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

Cruz's family filed the lawsuit at the end of last week against Haukom and Image of Rochester, Inc., which operates 63 Club.

The lawsuit claims 63 Club 'unlawfully sold or furnished intoxicating beverages to Defendant Sterling Haukom when he was obviously intoxicated.'

The lawsuit also claims Haukom then 'negligently, carelessly and unlawfully drove his car causing his car to collide with a car driven by Erika Cruz.'

The family is seeking more than $50,000 in damages, though the exact amount is expected to be determined during trial. Pre-trial proceedings are set for the end of August, according to court records.
Ahora | El jefe de Estado, @PedroCastilloTe, junto con el titular del @MindefPeru, preside la ceremonia por el bicentenario de la creacion del @EjercitoPeru republicano.

?? En vivo: https://t.co/1yYsvllbZ2
GYUMRI, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. Governor of Shirak Hovhannes Harutyunyan signed a decree calling Gyumri city council elections on October 17th.

The election will be held under the proportional method.

Political parties running for office are expected to submit lists of candidates to the electoral board in September.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. Since the introduction of higher customs duties for cars imported into Armenia from non-EEU countries 2810 light passenger vehicles were imported in January-July 2021 from non-EEU countries, with over 5,3 billion drams charged in customs duties, the State Revenue Committee told ARMENPRESS.

According to the tax authority, in the same period of last year 5721 cars were imported, with nearly 4,9 billion drams charged in customs duties.

Cars are mostly imported from the United States, Japan, China, Canada, Germany, Georgia and the UAE.

The car import duties were increased in 2020 and aligned with collective customs duties of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. Firefighters in Artsakh came under Azerbaijani gunfire while attempting to contain a grassfire which in turn had started from Azerbaijani shelling.

The Artsakhi military reported that around 20:40, August 17 the Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire and started shooting at the south-western border, which resulted in a fire in an area of over 3 hectares of grassland.

A firefighting unit was dispatched to extinguish the fire, but the Azerbaijani military started shooting at the firefighters, hindering the firefighting mission, the Artsakh Defense Army said. The firefighters didnt suffer injuries.

The Russian peacekeeping contingents command was notified on the Azeri ceasefire violation, the Artsakh military said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. The National Security Service border guards will soon take over border protection from the military in more locations, expanding their zone of responsibility.

The border troops must expand, transform and reform, Pashinyan said during the Cabinet meeting while presenting the 2026 government program.

This also expresses our consideration and goal of advancing the peaceful regional agenda, because as you know usually border guards assume responsibility for areas which are zones of peace, Pashinyan said.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. A closed debate took place at the National Assembly of Armenia on the border situation, attended by the representative of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, ARMENPRESS reports Deputy Chief of the Armed Forces, Major-General Edvard Asryan told the reporters at the National Assembly, adding that a number of issues were discussed at the meeting over the operative situation both in the eastern border and Yeraskh-Sadarak direction.

''I presented the existing situation to the members of the factions. I can assure that the Armed Forces firmly stand in its place, properly respond to various provocations of the adversary, and if the public has the information that we suffer casualties, but the adversary has no casualties, I have to say that it does not correspond to the reality. The adversary also suffers casualties. We keep control of the situation on our borders, and the task set in front of the Armed Forces is being carried out with dignity'', Edvard Asryan said.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. A sitting of the Digitization Council of Armenia chaired by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place today, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Suren Krmoyan, Head of the Digitization Expert Group, presented the work done during the 2 years of the Council's activities: nearly 25 program and strategic documents were discussed. Continuous work is being done in the directions of digital identification, authentication of official documents, e-licenses, introduction of individual and public notifications, introduction of unified e-justice systems, and a number of other issues on the digital agenda. The business processes of 101 services have been reviewed and improved, and the system of providing feedback to the citizens has been piloted in a number of state bodies. According to S. Krmoyan, due to Covid-19, the level of use of electronic services has significantly increased.

An exchange of views was held on the topic, the upcoming activities were discussed. Issues related to the implementation of a unified policy for the provision of public services, the simplification of business processes, the interoperability of electronic systems and platforms, the tangibility of the level of digitalization, and the importance of public awareness were touched upon.

Highlighting the work done, the Prime Minister also stressed the need to analyze the dynamics of the implementation of the digital agenda, assess the intermediate results, and based on that, to outline further steps for the development of the sector. ''We need to evaluate with clear indicators where we have reached in the process of implementation of the digitalization agenda and what level of digitalization we have achieved and in which direction we should continue'', PM Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister instructed the officials in charge to submit a statistical analysis, which will allow assessing the effectiveness of existing digital services.
At around 8:40pm on Tuesday, about 3 hectares of grass near the southwestern border of Artsakh caught fire as a result of shots fired by Azerbaijan, the Artsakh Defense Army reported.

August 18, 2021, 12:23 About 3 hectares of grass in Artsakh catches fire due to Azerbaijan shooting

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 18, ARTSAKHPRESS: A firefighting unit was dispatched to extinguish the fire, but the Azerbaijani military started shooting at the firefighters, hindering the firefighting mission, the Artsakh Defense Army said. The firefighters didnt suffer injuries.

The Russian peacekeeping contingents command was notified on the Azeri ceasefire violation, the Artsakh military said.
The West is leaving behind a new humanitarian and political crisis in Afghanistan as its legacy to the world and to future generations, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, Tass informs.

August 18, 2021, 16:38 West leaves behind new crisis for future generations in Afghanistan, says Russian diplomat

STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 18, ARTSAKHPRESS: "At present, we are seeing once again that the Western community, which is safeguarding some of its own Western values, is again bequeathing yet another crisis to the world and to future generations," the Russian diplomat said in an interview with the Solovyov-Live YouTube channel.

"Before that, it had been Libya and Iraq and also Syria, which weathered the storm thanks to Russias resolute actions and the guidelines issued by the president of our country, and many other regional problems. Yet another problem has now been added to this," Zakharova said.

The humanitarian predicament in Afghanistan and also the scenes of people plunging to their deaths as they fell off of US military transport planes taking off from Kabul Airport demonstrate the Wests actual attitude to human rights, the Russian diplomat pointed out.

"Next time, when we read all these multi-paged reports, which the Western community from the United States and Britain to other EU and NATO countries put together on human rights in the world, we must recall how they implement and respect human rights in a particular situation because there are thousands of people rather than one individual whose rights must be protected. These are citizens of Afghanistan and these are citizens of other countries who have turned out to be there," Zakharova added.
The Taliban's political office chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar meets with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani in Doha in this handout picture provided by the Qatari foreign ministry on August 17, 2021

The sudden fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has thrust the group's presence in the Qatari capital into the spotlight.

But what now for the sometimes controversial outpost which Doha gambled would boost its own diplomatic credentials?

- Why is there a Taliban office in Doha?

Located far from war-ravaged Afghanistan, Qatar nonetheless invited the Taliban to open a political office in Doha in 2013, with Washington's blessing as conflict in Afghanistan raged.

It was intended to be a base for Taliban negotiators, including accused militants, so the international community could engage the group politically.

The Qatar process got off to a rocky start, with controversy erupting soon after when the insurgents raised their flag above the high-walled villa.

Together with the Taliban branding of their mission as the office of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" -- the name they used during their 1996-2001 rule -- it provoked outrage in Kabul.

"The US increasingly pressured the Qataris to host some of the Taliban leaders that were released from Guantanamo," said regional analyst Andreas Krieg.

"The Taliban office then became more and more an integral part of the US strategy to negotiate a withdrawal from the country under the Trump administration."

Qatar maintained contact with the Taliban during its 1996-2001 rule but, unlike Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, never established diplomatic ties.

The Taliban nonetheless saw Qatar, which hosts the largest US airbase in the region, as a neutral host for talks.

- Did the office contribute to diplomatic efforts?

While the situation in Afghanistan was ultimately decided on the battlefield rather than around the negotiating table, analysts said that providing a political space for the Taliban was an important role for Qatar.

"Qatar has been at the centre of this diplomatic engagement for a really long time, and that can only happen because there's been a decent engagement with all sides," said Royal United Services Institute research fellow Tobias Borck.

Story continues

"Conversations were had; the deal the Trump administration made with the Taliban last year... required having this space."

Under the February 2020 deal, the US and its allies agreed to withdraw forces in return for Taliban security guarantees -- as well as an insurgent commitment to negotiate with the now defunct government.

In Doha in the days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Qatari capital's small community of Afghan emigres were disconsolate.

One man, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, teared up while watching a Taliban official speaking on an Afghan news channel.

"They (the Taliban) say a lot of good positive messages until they control everything -- then they will start the crackdowns," he said.

- What did Qatar get out of it?

Qatar was riding high when the Taliban and US signed their deal in February.

But critics have questioned why the Intra-Afghan Dialogue, a key proviso of the withdrawal deal, was erratic and faltering.

There will also be some who question whether Qatar could have done more to broker some sort of deal to avert a Taliban takeover.

"Partly due to Qatar's own capacity issues, they don't understand Afghanistan," said Michael Stephens, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

"(But) it was exactly what they wanted to be -- the centre of intercultural diplomacy.

"It was the image they were trying to cultivate."

- What does the future hold?

Now the head of the Taliban's political office and deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has returned to Afghanistan, aboard a Qatari air force plane, and it is unclear what role the Gulf outpost will play.

Several group members remain in Qatar, as does the former Afghan government negotiating team, who number around 20. They now face an uncertain future in Qatar.

"If the US rallies support to not recognise the Taliban government it will be hard for Qatar to" recognise the Taliban, said Krieg, suggesting the office would be unlikely to transform into a full embassy under those conditions.

"Qatar is likely going to follow the US lead on this while not jeopardising its standing as a mediator in this conflict," he said.

Borck said he was "sure Qatar will remain at the centre of the conversations that happen -- there isn't any viable alternative."

gw/dm/dv
Non-essential travel to Canada is once again open to Americans, as long as they have a COVID-19 vaccine.

They will also need to wait two weeks after receiving the final dose of an approved vaccine.

Vaccines are free and easily accessible for anyone ages 12 and up at local pharmacies and health clinics. But even with a vaccine, Canada is still requiring a negative COVID-19 test.

That test has to be administered within 72 hours of arriving at the border. Many test sites wont guarantee a result that fast and rapid antigen tests are NOT accepted.

But that isnt easy to find in some parts of the North Country.

I probably called around 6 or 7 places, said Lake Clear resident Kinna Ohman-Leone.

She frequently traveled across the border before the pandemic and found a pharmacy in Plattsburgh that offered quick test results.

But they didnt have any openings because you can only book two days in advance and it was too late to get an opening.

Ohman-Leone was eventually able to find another test provider, but had to pay for quicker results. She told NCPR the extra steps at the border were still worth it for a day trip to Montreal.
Honda is not new to the SUV segment in India. It currently offers WR-V, which is a sub-four metre SUV. Besides WR-V, Honda also offers mid-size and sub-compact sedans like City and Amaze in the Indian market. It also offers Jazz premium hatchback.

Despite a WR-V in its product line-up for India, Honda does not have much presence in the SUV segment. However, that was not the case a few years earlier when the carmaker used to offer SUVs like CR-V and BR-V for Indian customers. But Honda was forced to pull out both the SUVs as they failed to meet desired results.

What made Honda shift its strategy is the fast growing SUV segment. While the company believes that the shift towards SUVs is a global phenomenon, in India it was slightly more owing to road and traffic conditions. Nakanishi said that the SUV segment's contribution in the passenger vehicle segment is set to cross 40 per cent in the coming days, according to company estimates. The SUV share in the overall passenger vehicle sales currently stands at around 34 per cent.

(Also read: 2021 Honda Amaze facelift launched, price starts at 6.32 lakh)

Though Nakanishi declined to share further details on the upcoming India-specific SUV or its expected launch time-frame, there are reports that Honda may consider the N7X SUV, which was recently launched in the Indonesian markets.

Honda will however continue to keep its focus on the sedan segment as well. Though the sales have dropped in recent times, Honda feels there is still enough demand for sedans in India. Rajesh Goel, Senior Vice President and Director (Sales and Marketing) at Honda Cars India Limited, said, "We have multiple segments in the Indian market and every segment has a particular space. So there would be customers who would keep preferring sedans. A lot of sedan launches by luxury carmakers in the last one year is proof that demand is there for such models."

Honda recently introduced a new 7-seater SUV concept in the form of the Honda N7X Concept SUV. This concept SUV will be Honda's newest 7-seater SUV for the South Asian markets. According to reports, this may replace BR-V in India.

(With inputs from PTI)
MG Motor India is gearing up to introduce its new product - Astor in the country. To create hype before the car's official debut in the country, the company on Wednesday rolled out details on the connected/smart AI technology background of the car.

The upcoming Astor SUV will feature industry-first personal AI assistant and first-in-segment Autonomous Level 2 technology, the company announced. It will be one of the cheapest offerings in the country to feature Artificial Intelligence (AI). It will be underpinned by the Concept of Car as a Platform (CAAP) software that

is formed on technologies including Machine Learning, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and more. Astor is also the first car to get a personal AI assistant in the companys global portfolio.

Astor is the first car to get a personal AI assistant in the companys global portfolio.

Speaking about Indias first personal AI assistant and the first-in-segment Autonomous Level 2 car Astor, Rajeev Chaba, President and MD, MG Motor India, said, "Astor is a step further and a catalyst for disruption with first-in-the-industry and best-in-class features that customers only get in premium/luxury segments. With a relentless pursuit of innovation and software at the heart of the production, our vehicles will continue to provide a smarter and safer driving experience by leveraging AI."

MG Astor's Autonomous Level 2 technology will use mid-range radars and a multi-purpose camera that can realize a series of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). These include Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keeping Assist, Forward Collision Warning, Automatic Emergency Braking, Lane Departure Warning, Rear Drive Assist (RDA), Lane Departure Prevention, Intelligent Headlamp Control (IHC), and Speed Assist System amongst others. MG says that these functions can significantly improve driving safety and comfort.

Astor's personal AI assistant depicts human-like emotions & voices and can give detailed information on every topic through Wikipedia.

The upcoming Astor will be a traditional ICE counterpart to the pre-existing popular MG ZS EV in India. Essentially, it will pack a petrol powertrain and not an electric motor but will share the same exterior body, design as the battery-powered MG ZS.

At the heart of the MG Astor will sit a 1.5-litre four-cylinder mild-hybrid petrol engine. This powertrain will be responsible for delivering close to 141 bhp of maximum power and 240 Nm of peak torque. The transmission option on the car will likely include a 6-speed manual and a CVT automatic.

Apart from the newly announced smart Drive AI technology, other key features on the Astor SUV will include its LED lamps (front and rear) and DRLs, a roof-mounted spoiler, dual-tone alloy wheels, a digital console with i-Smart connect, an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, sunroof and more.

The upcoming Astor will come out to be a direct rival to the likes of the other compact SUVs in the segment such as the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos. It will be placed as the most affordable car in the company's portfolio and will be placed lower than the Hector SUV in India.
Leapmotor nabs 4.5 billion yuan in new financing round

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese EV startup Leapmotor announced on August 18 it has completed a new funding round with 4.5 billion yuan ($694.723 million) raised.

Leapmotor C11; photo credit: Leapmotor

The newly-closed financing round was led by China Capital Investment Group, and also attracted China Securities, CITIC Dicastal, as well as the State-owned Assets Supervisions and Administrations Commission of Hangzhou Municipal Government. The governmental arm poured up to 3 billion yuan ($463.149 million) in this funding round.

Leapmotor said the collaboration it formed with the aforesaid investors will contribute to a faster product R&D, branding promotion, and sales network expansion.

The startup plans to file for an IPO in the second half of this year, and is expected to go public at the end of 2021 or in early 2022.

As of July 2021, the EV manufacturer delivered a total of 26,148 new vehicles in total. For the first seven months of this year, Leapmotor received 28,055 new vehicle orders, 6,540 of which were generated in July.

The company said last month it expected its annual sales to reach 62,400 units this year and aimed to sell 800,000 vehicles per year by 2025. Supported by the Hangzhou municipal authority, Leapmotor is striving to crack the first-tier ranks of Chinese NEV startups at a faster pace.


Gasgoo Daily: Tesla Shanghai plant expected to produce 450,000 vehicles this year

With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.

Daily PV sales in second week down by 17%



In China, the average daily retail sales of passenger vehicles in the second week of August declined 17% year on year to 36,158 vehicles. The daily sales of the first two weeks decreased 9% from a year ago to 33,311 vehicles.

Geely to launch global power brand

Geely Auto plans to launch global power brand to build its GHS2.0 intelligent hybrid system. The system will be applied to over 10 new models within 3 years.

Chengdu aims to have 3000 battery swapping stations by end of 2025

Chengdu will encourage the building of battery swapping stations. It aims to have a total of 1200 battery swapping stations and 58,000 charging piles by the end of 2021 and 3000 swapping stations and 160,000 charging piles by the end of 2025.

FAW VW Audi suspends production of several models

FAW VW Audi suspended the production of the Audi B9 (the Audi A4L) and the Q5L PA from August 12 and August 13 respectively, citing automotive chip shortage. The production line of the C8 (the Audi A6L) will start production from August 25.

Tesla Shanghai plant expected to produce 450,000 vehicles this year

The vehicle production volume of Lin-gang Special Area, Shanghai is expected to exceed 600,000 vehicles while its export will be over 100,000 vehicles. Teslas Shanghai plant in this area is expected to produce 450,000 vehicles in 2021 while the export of the factory will be 66,100 vehicles. 90% parts of the vehicles made in Tesla Shanghai plant will be supplied by local plants.

Photo credit: Tesla

Baidu unveils first robocar

Baidu unveiled its first robocar today at Baidu World 2021, its annual flagship technology conference. The robocar has no steering wheel as the tech giant envisions that future vehicles will be more like robots.



Geely Auto sees H1 2021 net profit rise 4% YoY

Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (called "Geely Auto" or "the Company") gained 45.032 billion yuan ($6.952 billion) of revenue in the first half of 2021 (H1 2021), representing 22% year-on-year growth. The semi-annual profit attributable to the Company's equity holders climbed 4% to 2.381 billion ($367.607 million).



Neolix closes B round financing led by SoftBank Ventures Asia

Neolix Autonomous Vehicle (called Neolix for short), a driverless delivery vehicle startup in China, has raised hundreds of millions of yuan in the series B fundraising, the company announced on August 18.



XPeng starts construction of Zhaoqing plants 2nd phase

On August 18, XPeng broke ground on the second phase of its new energy vehicle (NEV) plant in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province, as the NEV startup is striving to ramp up its production capacity to meet the fast-growing market demands.



Leapmotor nabs 4.5 billion yuan in new financing round

Chinese EV startup Leapmotor announced on August 18 it has closed a new funding round with 4.5 billion yuan ($694.723 million) raised.
Toyotas China sales rise in July, while Honda, Nissan, Mazda drop at two-digit rate

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- In July, three Japanese automakers, namely Honda Motor, Nissan Motor, Mazda Motor, all met double-digit slide in their China's deliveries. Apart from the longstanding chip lack, the resurgence of the virus and the torrential rain in Central China's Henan province also whittled down their sales. Toyota Motor was the only one achieving year-on-year rise last month.



According to Kyodo, Toyota Motor saw its China sales inch up 2.8% from a year ago to 170,200 units in July, representing a turnaround after the monthly volume fell 2.9% in June due to the chip supply constraint.

Both two joint ventures reported growth in their July retail sales. FAW-Toyota said it delivered roughly 79,000 new vehicles to score a 40% robust year-over-year increase. The sales of the Corolla and the all-new RAV4 reached around 32,200 units and 19,100 units respectively. With 12,900 units delivered, the Avalon recorded a monthly sales volume topping 10,000 units for the third straight month.



Camry; photo credit: GAC Honda



GAC Toyota noted its July deliveries edge up 0.76% year on year to 75,100 units, nearly 30% of which was contributed by the all-new Camry. Meanwhile, the deliveries of the Levin series rose 5.3% to 21,300 units, for the fifth month in a row surpassing 20,000 units.

The premium brand Lexus also served as a sales driver to the overall deliveries, according to Kyodo's report, while the sales detail was not announced yet.

Affected by the chip shortage, the China business of Honda Motor Co., faced a 20.9% year-on-year drop in July with 108,139 new cars delivered. Of those, 18,866 units were armed with the hybrid powertrain system Sport Hybrid, rising 5.9% compared to the same period of 2020.

Both GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda posted two-digit decrease in July deliveries. The joint venture with GAC Group delivered 62,030 new vehicles, representing a 10.3% decline from a year earlier. Meanwhile, 46,109 consumers took delivery of Dongfeng Honda's vehicles, a 31.6% drop year-over-year.

Civic; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda



The downward movement in Dongfeng Honda's monthly sales is likely to appear this month as the joint venture halted the production at its three plants in Wuhan on August 3 due to the resurgence of the coronavirus cases, according to a local media outlet. With a total annual capacity of 720,000 cars, these factories produce many key models including the CR-V, the Civic, and the XR-V.

Nissan Motor's China sales shrank 20.8% from the previous year to 95,783 units in July. The automaker said the decrease was attributable to such external factors as the coronavirus pandemic, shortage of raw material, and natural disaster.

It is noteworthy that in Zhengzhou, which was severely flooded last month, Dongfeng Nissan has assembly lines mainly producing key SUV models like the X-Trail and the Qashqai.



X-Trail; photo credit: Dongfeng Nissan



Last month, Dongfeng Motor Company Limited's passenger vehicle business unit delivered 79,328 new vehicles, which were 20.3% fewer than that of the prior-year period. The deliveries of the Nissan-branded vehicles stood at 73,072 units, including 11,044 seventh-generation Altimas, 40,124 Sylphys, 4,291 Tiidas, and 11,839 Qashqais.

Despite these challenges, Nissan Motor still rolled out the all-new X-Trail for Chinese market on July 30, said DFL's president Shohei Yamazaki.

Mazda Motor Corporation saw its China deliveries dip 24% over a year earlier, suffering two-digit decrease in monthly sales for four consecutive months. The decrease in the year-to-date deliveries widened to 4.1%, versus the 0.5% drop in the first-half volume.

Changan Mazda saw its July deliveries dwindle 8.4% to 10,025 units, while FAW-Mazda encountered a much steeper decline (-49% YoY) with a delivery volume of 3,467 vehicles.



Mazda3 Axela; photo credit: Changan Mazda



With 6,700 units delivered, the Mazda3 Axela was still the best-selling model in July. In the meantime, the deliveries of the Mazda CX-4 and CX-5 stood at 1,909 units and 1,872 units respectively.

Mazda Motor's China unit is going through a major business change. It was reported in late July that FAW Group would acquire 5% stake in Changan Mazda, currently a 50/50 joint venture between Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. and Mazda Motor Corporation. The acquisition is considered by industry insiders as the final solution to the long-rumored business merger of FAW-Mazda and Changan Mazda.
LOS ANGELES  After a flood of entries,  After a flood of entries, OhMiBod.com has selected the winner of its Love Language writing contest  Kaylin Moss, for her contemplative poem, Ruby Red Lullaby.

OhMiBod launched their Love Language Contest to demonstrate how much they value creativity, in all its artistic forms. The contest, which kicked off in July as part of OhMiBods 15th anniversary celebrations, will award the Poughkeepsie, New York college student a $1,000 writing scholarship to assist in her creative endeavors, a Winners Box full of OhMiBod pleasure products, featured placement on the companys website home page and socials and alongside all customer orders in August.

While sifting through the creative submissions, we were struck by the honest and open emotion crafted so beautifully in Kaylins work, not to mention the use of music throughout, which is something our products are well known for, said OhMiBod founder Suki Dunham. We are proud to introduce her poetry to a larger audience through our Love Language contest, as well as help bring her a bit closer to her future writing ambitions.

Ruby Red Lullaby

Dreams which dreamt of dreams could not

Conceive your amorphous matter enveloping mine.

Now all I hear is your ruby red lullaby.

Your lyrics serenade me with a sultry swing beat.

Shuffle pause and repeat but your first song isnt

Finished and Im asking for the album.

I wish you were only a song.

I could get sick of you and you could never get sick of me.

We are more than eardrum vibrations.

We are a shared lucid dream.

Congratulations again to Kaylin for her outstanding work, says Suki, were excited to see what the future holds for this promising young poet!
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Israel is already offering booster shots to people over 50. And European regulators are looking into the idea.

Last week, U.S. health officials recommended a third shot for some people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients. Offering boosters to all Americans would be a major expansion of what is already the biggest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Nearly 200 million Americans have received at least one shot.

Some experts have expressed concern that calling for boosters would undermine the public health message  and reinforce opposition to the vaccine  by raising more doubts in the minds of people already skeptical about the shots effectiveness.

As for why the vaccines appear to be less effective over time at stopping infections, there are indications that the bodys immune response to the shots fades, as it does with other inoculations. But also, the vaccines simply may not protect against the delta variant as well as they do against the original virus. Scientists are still trying to answer the question.

Officials said the eight-month timeframe was a judgment call about when vaccine protection against severe illness might fall, based on the direction of the current data. "Theres nothing magical about this number, the surgeon general said.
In the past, the judge criticized the state for litigating every issue to its maximum extent and said some of the states appeals have been close to baseless.

In ending the settlement, Silver has said the states failure to provide adequate medical care for prisoners has led to suffering and preventable deaths.

In the nine years since it was filed, the lawsuit has cost the state $20 million, including $10 million for attorneys defending prison officials and $8.1 million for lawyers who pressed the case on behalf of inmates, according to records.

The settlement arose out of a lawsuit that alleged the states prisons didnt meet the basic requirements for providing adequate medical and mental health care for prisoners. The lawsuit said some prisoners complained that their cancer went undetected or that they were told to pray to be cured after begging for treatment.

It also said the failure of the medical staff at one prison to diagnose an inmates metastasized cancer resulted in his liver enlarging so much that his stomach swelled to the size of a pregnant woman at full term. Another inmate who had a history of prostate cancer had to wait more than two years for a biopsy.

The state denied allegations that it was providing inadequate care, and the lawsuit was settled without the state acknowledging any wrongdoing.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Karzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction. The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

Amid the uncertainty, thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country in recent days, and the U.S. and its allies have struggled to manage a chaotic withdrawal from the country.

Hundreds of people were outside the airport early Wednesday. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch, dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

In Kabul, groups of Taliban fighters carrying long guns patrolled a well-to-do neighborhood that is home to many embassies as well as mansions of the Afghan elite.

The Taliban have promised to maintain security, but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government. Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militants.
In time, the U.S. will need to study the mistakes of these two decades in Afghanistan to better inform military and foreign policy choices in the future. Given how Congress was unable to assemble a bipartisan commission to review the events of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, we hold out little hope that politicians will produce a meaningful review. It may take some time to get past the current finger-pointing but perhaps the ultimate lesson will be about the limits of military power. Yet wasnt that the lesson of Vietnam? Simply arming, advising and fighting on behalf of an ineffective and corrupt government does not provide sustainable benefit. A dysfunctional government is still a dysfunctional government. After that, the only choice is to, as critics of the Vietnam War so often pointed out, either bomb your enemy to the Stone Age or cut your losses and run. And so unheeded history repeats itself.
Officers contacted the 29-year-old next-door neighbor and learned that he had been "practicing reloads" with an AR-15 rifle. The man said that he thought the magazine was empty when the gun went off.
Signs throughout the area advertising Gage Countys National Park Service site are expected to be changed Thursday by the state.

Road crews with the Nebraska Department of Transportation will be in the area replacing the current signs for Homestead National Monument of America with signs bearing the parks new name, Homestead National Historical Park.

Crews are expected to be out around the NPS site west of Beatrice on Highway 4 to replace the signs.

Changing the name of this National Park Service unit from Homestead National Monument of America to Homestead National Historical Park, better represents the many cultural, natural, and recreational features visitors will find here, said Park Superintendent Mark Engler. We invite you to explore, recreate and learn at Homestead National Historical Park.

The update comes one week after a celebration was held to recognize the name change.

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Legislation renaming the National Park Service site was signed into law in January.
Eighty volunteers from 17 fire departments worked overnight to contain a 6,000-acre fire in western Nebraska on Wednesday morning, according to the Bayard Volunteer Fire Department.

The department was dispatched to the fire near Angora sometime Tuesday night, working to contain it until early Wednesday morning, according to a department Facebook post.

"Our region is a tinderbox due to dried out vegetation and uncooperative winds," Region 21 Emergency Management said in another social media post.

Forty-five fire engines, vehicles and aerial support all responded to the fire in northern Morrill County, according to the Bayard department's post.

It's unclear how the fire started, though the post notes that the fire was contained  not extinguished  and the scene was "turned back to the landowners."

Among the departments dispatched was the Alliance Fire Department, which responded to two fires at the same time Tuesday night, including one at the city's landfill, according to a Facebook post from that department.
There has been despair, and a feeling of abandonment by the Americans, said Sher Jan Ahmadzai, who heads the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. All these situations were predicted. The so-called responsible withdrawal was not responsible at all.

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska's 2nd District, a retired brigadier general who was deployed four times to the Middle East, said that the unfolding disaster was avoidable and that senior officials in the Department of Defense and possibly the Department of State should offer their resignations to Biden.

Yes, the buck stops with Biden, but the president either got terrible advice or he ignored advice, said Bacon, a Republican. This was a strategic blunder.

Sen. Ben Sasse raised the volume of his criticism following the president's speech to the nation on Monday.

"There's an ongoing crisis at the Kabul airport and Americans didn't need to hear his 2020 campaign speech -- we needed to hear strength and clarity from the commander-in-chief," Sasse said in a statement. "We need to clear the Taliban from that airport using overwhelming strength, we need to expand the perimeter around our people, and we need to hold that line until every last one of our people and heroic allies who sacrificed for us are out of harms way."
Rep. Liz Cheney introduced legislation Tuesday that has been lauded for safeguarding landowners rights  a key conservation sticking point in Wyoming  but would actually do much more.

The bill preemptively limits the federal governments ability to assume ownership of privately owned land under the Biden administrations 30 by 30 conservation initiative, which seeks to protect 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

The legislation Ive introduced will protect the private property rights of individuals across our state who need access to these lands to provide for themselves and their families, while also ensuring that the current Administrations political agenda will not undermine the interests of farmers and ranchers in Wyoming, Cheney said in a statement.

President Joe Bidens Jan. 27 executive order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, set 30 by 30 in motion. A 22-page report published in May rebranded it as the America the Beautiful initiative.
The fire nine miles east of Polson above Flathead Lake was mostly smoldering and creeping on Monday, and covers about 2,230 acres. Firefighters reported much of the heavy fuel in the area was wetter than usual, giving them an advantage in containing the fires spread. Management of the fire returned to local firefighting agencies on Sunday.

Hay Creek

Much of this 2,900-acre fire four miles west of Polebridge has moved into mop-up stage as firefighters patrolled for hot spots inside its perimeter. The water-dropping helicopter assigned to it has also been sharing time at a new Big Hawk fire in the Jewel Basin east of Bigfork over the weekend, as well as the Boulder 2700 fire. The area is expected to get up to an inch of rain out of this weeks cold front.

Granite Pass Complex

The four fires burning near Lolo Pass showed little activity in the past several days as crews focused on mop-up action. The BM Hill fire remains the largest at 5,005 acres a half-mile north of the Lolo Pass Visitor Center along Highway 12. Firefighters have been removing structure protection and picking up hoses as the rehabilitation phase of the fire gets underway.
This means the first authorities on the scene must quickly determine the type and location of the crime and the tribal membership of both the victim and suspect. If one of those things is in question, investigations can grind to a halt. Crime scenes can go cold, cases get closed without consequence, and cycles of violence continue.

I suspect thats why theres so many adults that have these histories of child sexual abuse, said Ornelas, who runs a family advocacy center at Tsehootsooi Medical Center in Fort Defiance, Arizona, located within the Navajo Nation. Its been a problem for a long time. And theres a lot of offenders out there who get to re-offend and move on to other children in the family.

Justice Department guidelines require that U.S. attorneys and their teams of prosecutors choose cases that are most likely to obtain and sustain a conviction. But, otherwise, they have wide latitude in deciding what to accept and decline. Federal prosecutors focus mostly on major fraud and counterterrorism and dont typically prosecute violent crimes, the kind of cases handled regularly by local and state prosecutors.
I have been getting more and more inquiries from parents worried about sending their kids back to school while the trend is more cases locally, the more contagious Delta variant is running rampant, and theres no longer a mask requirement. I meet regularly with Yellowstone County school superintendents to provide them with current data on COVID-19 as well as updated guidance from the CDC and AAP. Public health does not have jurisdiction to tell districts and school boards what they must do. Elected school boards have the legal authority to set school policy.

To be clear, current local school policies say that masks are optional  not prohibited. All students are entitled to the opportunity to learn in a safe, healthy environment.

Parents can help foster an atmosphere of acceptance. Talk to your students about being kind to students whose masking decision is different than theirs.

The surest way to reduce the risk of getting sick with COVID-19 is vaccination. But no vaccine is currently available to children younger than 12. Wearing a mask is one strategy that will reduce these youngsters risk of getting infected.

Everyone age 12 and older is eligible to receive vaccines that have been proven safe and effective in clinical trials and eight months of general use with millions of Americans receiving the shots.
In my long experience, Ive found very few people who are intentionally wrong. A majority of anti-vaxxers, I think, are resentful of all COVID-19 related requirements. Their concept of personal liberty is being threatened by the broader consideration of the public interest. To those who see personal freedom as paramount, the public good is something they fear as an inherent threat to their liberty. These folks may see themselves as purely principled. They frequently have deeply held religious beliefs. They also make up the true believers of our body politic. Never giving in is who they are.

Others, usually the majority, are more influenced by what they identify as practical solutions that will result in desirable consequences. They will ultimately prevail. Their rational view of COVID vaccine is simply to get it. The self-preservation instinct will control as it always does, and the public good will be accepted as societys norm as it always has.

Government mandates to require the vaccine in order to hasten immunity are being proposed by some. That can probably work in some sectors, and with those who recognize that refusing vaccine will increasingly lock them out of an economy that they hope is opening up. The heavy hand of more general mandates, however, would likely serve to broaden and harden the ranks of the resisters.

We are all Americans. Among us are purists and consequentialists, and that has worked to the benefit of our system and our people for most of our history. Now though, the plague is returning. We could stop it better if the pure were not the enemy of the public good.

Bob Brown of Whitefish is a former Montana secretary of state and state Senate president.

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Isaak changed Dora Sorensons noon appointment to 4 p.m. that day so he could see a dentist, she said. Isaak called Sorenson on the Saturday before to reschedule, but he had regularly called her the Saturday before appointments -- at her request -- to remind her. He rarely rescheduled, she said, and she added later that the April 1 appointment was pretty much the way it always was.

The prosecution on Wednesday afternoon called two rebuttal witnesses in regard to the purported dentist appointment. North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Matt Hiatt testified that he found a Beulah Dental card in Isaak's home. Beulah Dental Officer Manager Lisa Johansen testified that Isaak did not have an appointment on April 1, 2019, as he had allegedly told some of his chiropractic clients. Hiatt during questioning by the defense said he checked only with Beulah Dental, and not with any other dental offices in the region.
Active cases of COVID-19 in North Dakota have reached the highest point since mid-January, and the rate of virus tests in the state that are positive has surpassed the target range for the first time this year.

Meanwhile, dozens of doctors are urging schools around the state to mandate masks.

Active virus cases statewide on Wednesday hit 1,231 -- a jump of 130 from Tuesday. Active cases have jumped 43% in just the past week. They numbered 268 in Burleigh-Morton counties on Wednesday, according to the Health Department's coronavirus dashboard.

Cases are spiking nationwide due primarily to the highly contagious and fast-spreading delta variant of the coronavirus. North Dakota reported 250 new virus cases from 4,551 tests completed Tuesday, and the state calculated a positivity rate of 5.75%.

The 14-day rolling average test positivity rate increased to 5.09% -- above the state's target range of less than 5% for the first time since Dec. 22. The rate has stayed the same or increased for four consecutive weeks, after hitting a recent pandemic low of 1.05% on July 5.
Beaudreau said the agency hopes to provide a clearer picture in the near future with regard to federal leasing, but he said there was not a deadline for when it would release the results of its review. He said he understood that the pause has created uncertainty for the oil and gas industry.

Other energy leaders in North Dakota spoke to Beaudreau about the need for speedier processes for other types of energy project permits, as well as new technologies they are using to address environmental issues such as methane emissions. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., led the discussion, which also was attended by Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

Carson Hood, the former energy director for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, told Beaudreau that the tribe has reached out to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland about scheduling a visit to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation to learn about oil and gas development there.

Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to lead the Interior Department.

Beaudrea said he expects Haaland will meet with tribes in the Great Plains region, though he was unsure when.

The secretarys commitment to Indian Country is the top priority for the department in so many respects, he said. There are a lot of specific issues with respect to tribes in the Dakotas that warrant a lot of her time. Hopefully in the near future she gets to come out and visit with folks here.

Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com.

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Thats what the U.S. Supreme Court said in the 1905 landmark ruling in which the justices upheld a Massachusetts law that required adult residents of the state to be vaccinated against smallpox. In Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the court reasoned that the Constitution does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly free from all restraints. In a case that remains the law of the land more than a century later, the justices held that the health and safety of the nation took precedence over the objections of Hennings Jacobson, who claimed that the states compulsory vaccination statute was unreasonable, arbitrary and oppressive, and, therefore, hostile to the inherent right of every freeman to care for his own body and health in such a way as to him seems best. Readers will recognize these arguments in the objections of those who, today, resist the COVID-19 vaccination.
The major cities in North Dakota also have seen growth, some benefiting from the oil industry. Bismarck increased by 20% to 73,622; Mandan saw 32% growth to 24,206; Grand Forks is at 56,500; and Fargo remains the largest at 121,889.

Cass, Burleigh, Morton and Stark counties all grew by more than 20%.

One of the major impacts of the census results will be on legislative redistricting. Some districts will be redrawn and there will be winners and losers. Some areas will see an increase in representation because of population growth. Expect the Legislature to become more urban.

The remarkable growth the state has recorded the past 10 years may leave a bigger imprint on the Legislature than past censuses. Thats OK, legislative districts are supposed to represent an approximately equal number of people.

Rural residents worry about losing influence at the Legislature during redistricting. Theres truth in that, but many urban legislators have rural backgrounds and arent inclined to ignore the needs of rural folks.

North Dakotas shift to being more urban is a national trend. Overall, the country has become more urban and diverse. For the first time on record the non-Hispanic white population declined.
AWS Economic Impact Study

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expected to open an infrastructure region, which consists of clusters of data centers (called Availability Zones), in Spain by middle of 2022.

This report provides an overview of existing and planned AWS infrastructure investments in Spain, and the impact on the Spanish economy.

Access the report here.
Kermit Warren shined shoes at a hotel and collects scrap metal for a living. Besides serving in the Army Corps of Engineers, he is a deacon at his church and is a proud grandfather. None of that mattered to the Drug Enforcement Administration which used civil forfeiture laws to swipe his life savings that he was going to use to buy a truck. Now Warren wants his savings back, but the government would like to keep them.

From Institute for Justice:

Kermit Warren is a hardworking grandfather and the head deacon of his church in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. After losing his home to Hurricane Katrina, Kermit managed to rebuild his life. Thanks to a dogged work ethic, frugal lifestyle, diligent saving, and a small inheritance, Kermit managed to build a nest egg of nearly $30,000 in cash over several years. When Kermit lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he tried to use his savings to purchase a tow truck that he could use to support himself. But, on a trip to Ohio, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers took Kermit's much-needed life savings. Now, the federal government is trying to keep his money using the abusive practice of civil forfeiture, which does not require charging Kermit with any crime, let alone securing a conviction.

Kermit and his youngest son, Leo, lost their hotel jobs when the pandemic began. They decided to turn Kermit's longtime side gig of hauling scrap metal into a fulltime, father-son enterprise. But they needed a tow truck for the business to support them. In early November 2020, with Kermit's cash life savings in hand, they flew to Ohio, where they had arranged to look at a truck that they hoped to buy and drive home. But when the truck turned out to be too large for their needs, they had to fly back to New Orleans.

At the Columbus airport, TSA screeners noticed that Kermit had a large amount of cash in his bag. They asked him about it but let him continue to his gate. Later, as Kermit and Leo were waiting to board their flight, DEA agents approached them and asked questions about Kermit's cash. The officers were uninterested in Kermit's and Leo's evidence about the source and purpose of the money; it was clear the officers were simply there to take it. Kermit panicked and did something he greatly regrets: In a last-ditch effort to avoid losing his hard-earned life savings, he told the agents that he was a retired New Orleans police officer and showed them his other son's old badge, which Kermit keeps for sentimental reasons. The officers saw through this right away and Kermit admitted that he was not a former cop.

The DEA agents took all of Kermit's money. But they did not arrest Kermit or Leo or charge them with any crime. Instead, the agents let them board their plane to New Orleans without Kermit's life savings.

About six months later, the government filed a civil forfeiture complaint in federal court, arguing that Kermit's money should be permanently taken because it is somehow connected to drug activity. But the government's allegations do not connect Kermit or his money to any crime. Instead, the government contends that Kermit vaguely fits the profile of a drug courier. But the government should not be able to take property forever with flimsy evidence; it should have to prove someone's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Now, Kermit has teamed up with the Institute for Justice to call the government's bluff and ensure that the judiciary holds the government to its burden of presenting actual evidence of criminality before taking away what he worked so hard to set aside.
It's a familiar trope of kid-friendly superhero stories, specifically those designed to sell action figures: a group of people (usually teenagers) are randomly gifted with super-powered uniforms (usually all-but-matching in an array of colors) which they use to fight big monsters and save the world. These Sentai stories are their own entire sub-genre in Japan, with stock footage exported to the United States and used to create such sensations as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and all their various spinoffs.

This, of course, requires some suspension of disbelief. It's almost always a group of friends, right? Worst case scenario, it's a bunch of strangers who happen to be in the same place at the same time and have to learn to get along  though luckily, they are all good-intentioned, wanting to save the world, even when their personalities clash. And for whatever reason, it almost always happens to a bunch of people who should be in school, studying and learning and planning for their future, instead of punching kaiju in the face.

This is where Radiant Black, a new comic series from Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa, starts to riff on the form. Instead of focusing on a group of teenagers, the story begins with Nathan, a 30-year-old aspiring writer with $40,000 in credit card debt and not much to show for it. His circumstance means he has to move back in with his parents  which might suck for Nathan, but is welcome news to Marshall, his high school bestie, who now works at a video store and seems to have no ambitions beyond the small town where they grew up. The two go out drinking one night, and that's when the super-powered alien Sentai suit that randomly grafts itself to Nathan  a cool opportunity for a teenager, maybe, but one that doesn't really offer any helpful solutions to this low-point in Nathan's adult life.

Of course, that doesn't stop him from using the suit. Which, in turn, gets in the way of his writing, and paying off his credit card debt so he can leave his parents' house again.

That's the real crux of Radiant Black  which just released its first trade paperback collection this week, along with its seventh issue. Writer Kyle Higgins previously worked on the recent comic book reboot of Power Rangers (which is surprisingly delightful), and also contributed some work to Marvel's super-alien-suit-powered teenager Darkhawk, so he's more than a little familiar with the genre. But what he does here is twist those tropes, and throw them into a fascinating new scenario  adulthood, particularly one that's not going so great. Higgins understands how it feels to feel like a failure; all the pain and embarrassment that comes with being an adult child still asking your parents for help, and trying to figure out a new life and career path once things didn't work out the way you'd planned. When your childhood ambitions  whether that's being a writer, or a Super Sentai  don't turn out how you'd expected them to. As the author explained in an interview with ComicsXF:

We're also the last generation that was sold the idea of the "American Dream." Maybe it was more viable to generations prior, but the way it gets talked about to this day has not been viable for quite some time. We don't like to talk about debt in this country, or the failures of our systems. My generation, all my friends, we're all going through the same thing  trying to navigate this world where maybe we're OK at social media and doing video stuff, but not as good as people younger than us. But it also feels like we're too old to start over. The creative industries are all changing so rapidly. If you're older and established, with an audience, then you've certainly got a leg up. Or, if you're just starting out, you're going to be far more nimble and malleable with regards to what avenues you're probably interested in creating for. But for me, in my mid-30s, I've often had a feeling of not knowing what to do, or what my place is or where I can go next.

So yeah: it's Power Rangers for depressed 30-somethings. And that's what makes Radiant Black stand out amongst a sea of other superhero comics and shows, which so often deal with YA-adjacent themes. It's the kind of superhero story where the most moving scenes are the ones drenched in realism  like struggling to write, or confessing to your father how disappointed you are in yourself. It's hard enough when Spider-Man has to lie to his loved ones to protect his identity; but it's heartbreaking when Nathan has to fess up to a lie he told about his career prospects. Oof.

The story also offers some surprising twists, because adulthood's full of tragedies, too  the kind that can be worsened by risk-taking, but can't be undone with Super Sentai-like suits. (Seriously, the end of the fourth issue was quite a surprise.)

In keeping with the genre tropes, there are of course other colored Radiants in Radiant Black. They don't all get their super-powered suits together at the same time, but they are all dealing with their own adult issues. You don't often see superhero stories that deal with mortgage payments, or partners with normal gambling problems. Nor are those the kinds of problems that you would normal expect to solve with an alien super suit. But when the opportunity falls in your lap, well  if you can't save the world, at least you can use your super powers to save your marriage, right?

Radiant Black [Kyle Higgins and Marcelo Costa / Image Comics]
At least two U.S. officials stationed in Germany sought medical care for symptoms of Havana Syndrome, which has been attributed to a concentrated electromagnetic wave attack causing nausea, dizziness, and cognitive impairment. According to The Wall Street Journal, it is the first time the syndrome has been reported in Germany.

Some victims were intelligence officers or diplomats working on Russia-related issues such as gas exports, cybersecurity and political interference, according to U.S. diplomats and people familiar with an investigation into the illness. The set of symptoms first surfaced in 2016 among U.S. diplomats in Cuba and have since been observed in China, Russia and, more recently, in Austria, a neutral nation. There have been unconfirmed cases in Poland, Taiwan, Georgia and even in Washington, D.C. Some U.S. officials have said the complaints could be caused by attacks using radio-frequency energy such as microwave radiation.

The Journal also interviewed a different Havana Syndrome patient who had been stationed in Europe. After complaining of ear pain and tinnitus, the patient was taken to Walter Reed Medical Center and "doctors there had diagnosed a brain injury of the type seen in people exposed to shock waves from explosions."

[image: By Pedro Szekely  0, CC BY-SA 2.0]
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Trail horseback riding is one of my favorite activities. And as we get closer to fall, it's an especially great time to consider this outdoor activity.

Riding through verdant pastures and picturesque streams flanked by towering trees donning their best foliage provides a unique perspective to appreciate falls ephemeral beauty. It truly makes you feel like youre in a Tolkien adventure.

If you're an experienced rider in need of a relaxing afternoon or a beginner looking to give horseback riding a try, youre in luck. There are numerous farms offering guided trail rides within 90 minutes of Buffalo.

Here are my picks, in ascending order of travel time, for trail riding near Buffalo. Ive also included two locations that offer pony rides for children too young to trail ride.

Kelkenberg Farm, 9270 Wolcott Road, Clarence Center
The right hook caught Denzel Fuller of Buffalo in the jaw. Fuller responded with a punch that didnt land, and Rechin kept swinging as the two wrestled to the ground, in front of a Coles bouncer who watched them go at it. A cocktail glass in Rechins left hand shattered, and shards cut him in the forearm, creating what was later called the stab wound.

Fuller did have a knife on him, but he did not display it until Rechin went back in the bar, retrieved some friends, and they confronted Fuller out on the street. They retreated when Fuller pulled the knife. The video shows he never used it on anyone.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Fuller, who had spent six days in jail, and turned Rechin into a defendant. While Fuller had faced a felony charge of assault that could have led to a prison sentence, Rechins second-degree harassment count was a violation, punishable with a fine. Still, Rechin had to challenge it in court and win if he wanted to return to the force.

The trial
As Burns summed up his decision setting aside the guilty verdicts, he acknowledged the difficulty in finding the truth when key records no longer exist. He said he couldn't say for sure if the photo would have made a difference in the trials for Boyd and Walker, and he could not say the Erie County District Attorney's Office of 44 years ago withheld evidence.

The court finds the scales tip ever so slightly in favor of the defendants, the judge wrote. As such, by a preponderance of the evidence presented, the motion is granted, the convictions are vacated and the defendants are granted a new trial.

This is not an exoneration of the defendants, Burns continued. That determination is left for a new trial.

At a news conference later Wednesday, District Attorney John J. Flynn said he had trouble understanding Burns' order. "I'm a little unclear on how he came to the decision he came to," said Flynn, whose office opposed the appeal. He said he could find no sign, other than McLeod's memory, that the pivotal photograph existed, and he has many crime scene photos that show many footprints in the snow.
Under the states various laws, rules and even the constitution, there are many vague aspects about the process of impeaching a governor. One explicit provision in the constitution, though: impeachment proceedings shall be limited to an action to remove someone from office and, if lawmakers choose, to ensure that individual never holds elected office again in New York.

Heastie, in a written statement Friday afternoon, said the purpose of the Assembly Judiciary Committees impeachment investigation was to determine if Cuomo should stay in office. That was rendered moot when Cuomo said he was resigning, Heastie said. Also, he cited the constitutional limitations involving an impeachment move against someone who has already left office.

+3 In one-on-one interview, 'energized' Hochul says she's 'prepared' to take reins "People will see very early on the kind of person I am and the expectations I have of any team that's ever worked with me," Hochul said. "They know that I always have conducted myself with the highest ethical standards. I believe you lead by example."

The Assembly leader did tease out to the public, without any details, that the Judiciary Committee had collected plenty of evidence against Cuomo  on the sexual harassment and other matters  that could likely have resulted in articles of impeachment had he not resigned.

Heastie said he asked Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Long Island Democrat and head of the Judiciary Committee, to turn over evidence collected in the Assembly impeachment probe to other entities already investigating Cuomo.
But over the years, as the county cut funding, Paradise House began selling properties as it tried to navigate what Paris described as a Byzantine process to become state certified as a provider of chemical dependence residential services. But that certification, which would have opened the door to federal funding, never came.

In the meantime, Paris contends, money that should have been set aside each month for her retirement wasnt because there always were more pressing needs  like paying the staff and keeping the lights on.

Now she waits on a dissolution process while having no idea how long that will take or where she stands in line relative to other creditors, like vendors, utility companies, the IRS and the City of Buffalo.

She said she was advised to get her own lawyer to intercede with the AGs office, but that is problematic.

How can I get a lawyer with no money? she asked, explaining that shes getting by on a pension she earned as a Disciples of Christ minister before opening the womens shelter nearly three decades ago, and income from renting the downstairs half of her Buffalo home.
A Lake Hallie man accused of striking and killing a 60-year-old man with his vehicle in Lake Hallie and fleeing the scene in May 2020 has been bound over for trial.

Christopher J. Peterson, 39, is charged in Chippewa County Court with homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle and hit-and-run involving death.

Peterson appeared for a preliminary hearing Wednesday, where Judge James Isaacson determined that a crime was likely committed and Peterson likely committed it, and he bound Peterson over for trial. Peterson will return to court Nov. 3 for an arraignment; no trial dates have been set.

Peterson previously posted a $5,000 cash bond. He cannot possess drugs or alcohol or enter taverns, and he must take a daily preliminary breath test.

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According to a Lake Hallie Police Department press release, officers responded at 5:51 a.m. May 2, 2020, to a report of an unresponsive male lying in a ditch near the intersection of Highway OO and 30th Avenue. The man, Dennis Mohr, 60, was deceased from injuries that appeared to be caused by being struck by a vehicle. Authorities said Mohr was walking in the lane of traffic prior to the crash.
After he had killed and maimed multiple individuals, Kyle Rittenhouse walked up to a dozen Kenosha police officers, assault rifle in hand, with crowds yelling that he had just killed innocent people. What did the police do? They spoke to him and let him walk away, said Huber family attorney Anand Swaminathan.

Rittenhouse maintains he fired in self-defense, but prosecutors have charged him with a litany of counts, including reckless homicide, recklessly endangering safety, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and being a minor in possession of a dangerous weapon.

The federal lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth; Daniel Miskinis, the former City of Kenosha police chief; Eric Larsen, the citys acting police chief; and unnamed officers and deputies.

The plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, that the defendants deputized these armed individuals, conspired with them, and ratified their actions by letting them patrol the streets armed with deadly weapons to mete out justice as they saw fit. 
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Republican state Sen. Andre Jacques, one of the Wisconsin Legislature's most conservative lawmakers and a vocal opponent of mask and vaccine mandates, tested positive for COVID-19 last week and was at the hospital on Monday with pneumonia.

The positive test and hospital care came after Jacque testified on Wednesday in a packed Capitol hearing room without wearing a mask.

The lawmaker from De Pere did not immediately return a text message Tuesday seeking comment on his condition. His spokesman, Matt Tompach, provided a statement from Jacque dated Monday night and said Tuesday afternoon that he had no update on his condition.

Sen. Jacque appreciates respect for his family, and the tremendous expressions of support hes received from others, Tompach said. Hes tired but in good spirits.

Jacque said in the Monday night email that some of his family members also tested positive for the virus. Jacque, 40, has six children, including an infant.
But the Afghans with the most to fear are probably women and girls, who have experienced two decades of comparative freedom and rights. When the Taliban reclaim control, all of that will be lost. Education for females will be prohibited. Taliban enforcement squads will undoubtedly again patrol the streets to beat with canes any women out of compliance with a strict Islamic dress code.

But the Taliban arent merely rigid fundamentalists who intend to enforce a severe, inflexible version of Islam. There are ample reasons for the terror that is spreading before the Talibans rapid return to power, but a single example will serve:

In the summer of 2012 in Helmand province, a group of young Afghans got together for a mixed-gender party that included music and dancing. The Taliban decapitated 17 of them, including two women, and left their bodies alongside a road.

This is pure savagery. But this incident is no aberration. It represents the measure of brutality that the Taliban mean to impose under their rule. Its a brand of evil that deserves to be annihilated with military force, without mercy.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  A Senate leader urged the Commission on Audit to continue its mandate of calling out government agencies that have shown irregularities in their budget, since audit reports will be used by Congress in deliberating if these departments are worthy of their proposed budgets for 2022.

"Dapat ipagpatuloy po nila ang trabaho nila (They should continue doing their job)," Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri told CNN Philippines' The Source Wednesday. "It's a constitutional mandate. You know in the Constitution there are only very few offices that were created which were independent from all of us. The Ombudsman, the COA, (among others)."

The senator expressed hope that state auditors can do their job "without fear or favor."

"These are offices that are independent from the legislature, independent from the executive, and independent from the judiciary so they can do their job without fear or favor...Sana ituloy-tuloy lang ang tungkulin nila bilang pambansang auditor ika nga ng ating bayan (I hope they continue their job as state auditors)," Zubiri added.

The senator noted that there is no need to hold a special hearing on other agencies which were also flagged for their own "budget" deficiencies, since congressional budget deliberations are already scheduled next month.

"Hindi na po kailangan gawan ng special hearing yan. Lalabas at lalabas rin 'yan during the budget hearings which will start in September," he said.

[Translation: There's no need to hold a special hearing for these agencies. The truth will come out in the budget hearings which will start in September.]

The Health Department is currently in the hot seat in the Senate after the COA reported some 67.3-billion "deficiencies" in its pandemic response funds. The House of Representatives already launched its own inquiry on the matteron on Tuesday.

But the COA also reported irregularities in other agencies. For one, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration is being asked to justify its overpriced hygiene products and sanitary napkins worth 822,420 bought from a construction and trading company in Pasay City.

The Philippine Ports Authority was also flagged for spending 10.8 million for the construction of an infinity pool, jacuzzi, guest room, pergola and decorative rock wall in its training center in La Union.

Meanwhile, the Education Department was questioned for its delayed production and deliveries of printed modules for distance learning, with over 8 billion worth of deficiencies in its budget.

State auditors also raised concern on the Department of Information and Communications Technology's purchase of 170M worth of laptops and other devices, including the eligibility of its supplier.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  The Philippine National Police has ordered an investigation into an alleged beach party held in Camotes Island which was attended by some politicians last month.

In a statement on Wednesday, PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar said that upon the directive of Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, he has tasked the Cebu police to look into the affair that supposedly took place on July 10.

He said the mass gathering, held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, could have been a superspreader event.

The PNP did not name the alleged politicians involved.

It said the Department of the Interior and Local Government was first notified of the event through an anonymous complaint. The statement added that videos of the party were uploaded online showing guests seemingly completely disregarding minimum public health safety standards and quarantine protocols."

Eleazar stressed that mass gatherings and other potential superspreader events are prohibited. He also urged the public to continue reporting such violations of protocols to authorities.

The PNP chief assured that politicians will not be exempted from complying with COVID-19 rules.

A number of politicians and other public officials, however, have made headlines since the pandemic started for breaching health protocols.

Among them was Eleazars predecessor, former PNP chief Debold Sinas, who held a birthday party last year despite the strictest quarantine restrictions in place. Sinas was promoted as the country's top cop months after the incident. President Rodrigo Duterte himself said he was as good as pardoned, saying his protocol violations were insignificant compared to corruption.
Editor's note: Frida Ghitis (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

(CNN)  The collapse of the Afghan government and the blindingly fast recapture of the country by the Taliban is a calamity for the Afghan people. This is what needs to remain at the forefront, above any other consideration of what is occurring.

Instead, the laying of blame and the squirming away from responsibility has quickly begun. It has swelled in tandem with the tide of the Taliban's rout of Kabul and the rush of desperate, anguished Afghans trying to flee their darkening future.

There's no question that much of the fault lies with President Joe Biden. He made the final decision to withdraw. He chose to abide by a disastrous agreement crafted under the previous administration; moved the troops out with obviously poor planning for contingencies, and is the president under whose watch the two-decade war ended in a humiliating rush for exits for the US and NATO, as the previous regime took control.

But many of those suggesting it is all Biden's doing would do well to keep quiet, unless they want to also speak out to acknowledge their own responsibility  their own guilt.

No one is surprised that former President Donald Trump was quick with hyperbole designed to deflect from his role here, as he suggested in a statement that Biden should resign. And it was easy to anticipate that Trump's boastful former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who had delusions about the Taliban turning into an anti-al Qaeda force, couldn't resist gloating, claiming things would be different if the former administration were still in office.

In truth, Trump and his team helped set the stage for this disaster. Again, the events of recent days were Biden's show. He cannot shift blame on Trump. But this failure is in no small part the result of Trump and his crew's actions.

Also sharing the blame are the two prior presidents. President George W. Bush launched the Afghan war after the Taliban hosted Osama bin Laden and refused to turn him over after 9/11. But Bush quickly diverted attention to the invasion of Iraq  adding it as another front in the "war on terror." Just as the Afghan campaign shifted from seeking to uproot al Qaeda to trying to remake the country  a much more ambitious goal  Washington's attention waned.

Barack Obama, for his part, tried to have it both ways. He wanted out, but he didn't want to be seen to lose, so he sent more troops, while simultaneously, counterproductively, announcing the deadline (later rescinded) for their withdrawal.

But since Trump is so vocal about Biden's failing, we must look at his role in this tragedy.

And it's a doozy.

Trump came to office promising to end the war. In characteristic fashion, he acted so impulsively and with such lack of discipline, that he single-handedly undercut the so-called "peace" negotiations in Doha, Qatar, between the Taliban and the United States that concluded last year

More on that in a moment. But, first, let's note that the man leading the current Taliban offensive, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar  the jihadi cleric who may become the next president of Afghanistan or, formally, the Emir of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan  was being held in Pakistani and might still be there were it not for Trump.

In 2018, the Trump team asked Pakistan to free Baradar so he could travel to Doha for talks.

In Trump's eyes, Baradar may have looked a bit like North Korea's Kim Jong Un, the leader he could try to sweet talk and coax, showering him with praise while extracting essentially nothing from him, while drawing attention to himself and his theatrical "boldness".

In 2019, Trump wanted to bring the Taliban to Camp David, and he wanted to do it just in time for the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. His advisers persuaded him that bringing the leaders of a group responsible for killing thousands  including thousands of Americans  and still engaged in regular attacks against Afghan civilians, was not the best of ideas.

Trump relentlessly, cluelessly sabotaged peace talks, proclaiming his determination to pull out, and unexpectedly announcing troop reductions. His tweets became a major obstacle to negotiations, as he declared he was withdrawing US forces, the only leverage of US negotiators, without obtaining any real concessions from the Taliban.

In February 2020, Trump unveiled an agreement with the Taliban. The deal was an utter embarrassment, one of the worst ever negotiated by an American president. Under its terms, the United States not only agreed to withdraw by May 2021, it also committed itself to obtaining the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and another thousand in subsequent months, fortifying the Taliban's fighting force. The US also promised to help lift all international sanctions against the Taliban.

In exchange, the Taliban promised not to attack Americans until they left, and agreed to start talks with the Afghan government.

The supposed negotiations with Afghan representatives went nowhere, but the Americans started leaving. Trump kept tweeting he was pulling out the troops, removing any incentive for the Taliban to compromise.

Afghan civilians were not fooled by Trump's so-called peace deal. Watching the signing, 28-year-old activist Zahra Husseini told AFP, "Today is a dark day...I had this bad feeling that it would result in [the Taliban's] return to power rather than in peace."

She was right. But Trump was excited.

In one embarrassing moment, Trump phoned Mullah Baradar. He had a "very good talk," with the Taliban leader, he crowed, "The relationship is very good that I have with the mullah." Later, he said, "They want to cease violence." Observers sighed in despair. Just the day before, the Taliban had launched dozens of attacks. The Taliban was already taking advantage of Trump's terrible deal.

Biden didn't have to stick with Trump's agreement. The Taliban certainly hadn't kept their end.

It's not only Trump who shares blame. Biden made the wrong decision, but he relied on flawed intelligence analysis. Less than two months ago, a US intelligence assessment predicted the Taliban would take over in some six months after a US withdrawal.

And incensed American voters, angry at Biden, should take a look in the mirror. Yes, Biden failed here. But he had strong support from the American public from both parties, eager to get US troops out of Afghanistan, according to polls.

Even women's rights activists, anguished about what the Taliban hold has in store for the women of Afghanistan, should look at the role of progressives, who demand an end to US military involvement overseas, even when that is the only thing protecting women from the nightmare of oppression  the forced marriages, executions, floggings, banned education  that is barely comprehensible to those in the West.

So, we will not, should not, deny that the current President failed. But the blame goes beyond this administration, beyond the White House, and it falls on many of the same people pointing fingers, hoping to escape the judgment of history over the immense suffering that the Afghan people now face.

This moral stain  and its long-term consequences  is on America.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "The buck stops with Biden -- but Trump's role in Afghanistan debacle is a doozy."
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  A production company on Wednesday explained why award-winning actor Arjo Atayde left Baguio City even if he tested positive for COVID-19, as officials launch an investigation into the alleged breach in protocol.

Feelmaking Productions Inc. confirmed that Atayde and nine other crew members filming in a closed-circuit setup in Baguio City have tested positive for COVID-19. It said the actor had to be rushed to a hospital in Metro Manila on Tuesday after he started having difficulty breathing and exhibiting high fever.

"It was the mutual decision of Feelmaking Productions Inc., Arjo's parents, and doctors to rush the actor, who has a preexisting medical condition, straight to a hospital in Manila," head of production Ellen Criste said in a statement.

Baguio City is four to six hours away from Metro Manila.

It added that the nine crew members who also contracted COVID-19 are asymptomatic and currently in quarantine.

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong has ordered an investigation into the incident. In a statement, the city's public information office said the production company was allowed to shoot in the city as long as the 100-man crew stayed in a "bubble," where no one is allowed to go in and out before the shoot wraps up.

Magalong alleged there were instances when crew members would go home and come back to the city without passing the triage and entering Baguio without being tested for the virus.

Feelmaking Productions said it, together with Atayde's family, has reached out to Magalong to coordinate with the city officials regarding the necessary safety protocols.

"We are grateful for the opportunity to shoot in their beautiful city and apologize for whatever inconvenience that this unfortunate incident may have caused," it added.

Atayde won best actor at the 2020 Asian Academy Creative Awards for "Bagman."
(CNN)  Disney's recent run-ins with talent have seemingly complicated life for Marvel, as Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige spent part of the premiere for "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" on Monday cleaning up a "misunderstanding" involving Disney CEO Bob Chapek and the movie's star, Simu Liu.

During an earnings call last week, Chapek referred to the release plan for the film  which will premiere exclusively in theaters on Sept. 3  as an "interesting experiment," addressing the continuing clouds over movie-going from the pandemic and Disney's simultaneous premium releases of the movies "Black Widow," "Jungle Cruise" and "Cruella" on its streaming service, Disney+.

The wording prompted Liu to take issue with the comment on social media, clearly feeling that Chapek's remarks had disrespected the movie.

As the Hollywood Reporter reported, Feige stated at the premiere that there was "no intention" on Chapek's part to downplay or diminish the film, which represents Marvel's first featuring an Asian superhero.

"The proof is in the movie, and we swing for the fences as we always do," Feige said. "With the amount of creative energy we put in and the budget, there's no expense spared to bring this origin story to the screen."

The "Shang-Chi" dust-up comes on the heels of another problem that essentially landed in Marvel's lap, with "Black Widow" star Scarlett Johansson suing Disney over the film's streaming release, contending that it denied her from receiving her fair share of the box-office profits. The situation was further exacerbated when the studio publicly fired back at Johansson in a statement, accusing her of exhibiting "callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic."

"Shang-Chi" is based on the martial-arts hero that Marvel Comics introduced in the 1970s, and in addition to Liu co-stars Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung.

Disney is previewing the movie for select fans in IMAX theaters on Aug. 18, with screenings in 25 cities in the US and Canada.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Marvel's Kevin Feige calls Disney's 'Shang-Chi' flare-up on social media a 'misunderstanding'"
There are 13 films selected for this year's Cinemalaya Main Shorts Competition. And like last year's batch, an entirely online experience awaits everyone wanting to chip in. Brought by the pandemic, this shift in platform is an innovation marketed by the festival as a different approach from the usual routine of moviegoing.

But if you are expecting the festival as a fresh breath away from the pandemic, you may opt to look elsewhere. This year's festival is marked by a lack of direction and purpose not unlike the general malaise that everyone is experiencing at this point. There are two sets of short films, and each set operates under no unifying theme as each film appears to be merely thrown in with each other. If some films center their narratives around the pandemic, others revolve around zany stories that often lead to nowhere. These films may not lack creativity, but it is ingenuity and execution in their visions that need follow-through.

(Note: There are spoilers within reviews)

SET A SHORTS

Maski Papano (dir. Glenn Barit and Che Tagyamon)

A stop-motion animation following used face masks that somehow gain sentience and existential crises (and a wooden body frame) is a novelty everyone can get behind with a laugh. But the trap that Maski Papano fell into is it became a didactic rundown monologue of metaphors of what the pandemic felt like to the face masks themselves, quickly diffusing its playful absurdity with a necessity to relate and remind us of the morbid real world.

Crossing (dir. Marc Misa)

In its five-minute runtime, it is hard to glean what Crossing can offer more after one has already read its logline (or even taken a look at its poster). The film is done the minute its plot starts to take shape with this anticipated development, which some can easily misinterpret as a "twist."

Kawatan sa Salog (A Toy in the River) (dir. Alphie Velasco)

Kawatan sa Salog is one of the few films that has an interesting premise. Drowned people go in isolation on an island fashioned by the afterlife to reminisce over their lives lost. It's a shame that the film never took time to flesh out its concepts. We never really felt for the main character. His drive to go back to his life is overshadowed by ambiguity. Is he really off the island? But why should we care? This year is plagued by unsure endings, and this is another one of such.

An Sadit na Planeta (The Little Planet) (dir. Arjanmar Rebeta)

An Sadit na Planeta sees a man stranded on his own little planet with only him to fend for himself. And that's pretty much the film as a whole. It operates mostly on a gimmickry of visuals that gets old quick, and its voice-over work delivers a non-story. An Sadit na Planeta is best described as a technical exercise of a very particular cinematic technique: 360-degree camerawork. It is not for everybody. And if you find yourself running low on patience, then you might easily slip off its grip altogether.

Looking for Rafflesias and Other Fleeting Things (dir. James Fajardo)

Like Crossing, Looking for Rafflesias and Other Fleeting Things pulled its biggest punch until the minute it was about to end, leaving no room to further develop its most interesting plot point. The first minutes seem inconsequential to the rest of the film  a kind of prelude to what the film really is about. There are a lot of distractions that keep the film from doing what it set out to do  a same-sex retelling of a famous folklore on forbidden love.

Out of Body (dir. Enrico Po)

The strongest suit of Out of Body is its intriguing premise. And not unlike it, Out of Body suffers from a severe case of not knowing how to follow up on this premise. Nothing substantial really comes out of the whole thing. If it feels like a commentary of something  it is only that, a feeling. It is not for the empowerment of its female lead but for the visual fetish of her suffering. A confusing ending only made everything worse. The film leaves only a trail of edginess in its wake, which makes the audience both wanting and frustrated.

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Lola Mayumi (dir. Shiri De Leon)

Filmed as if it was a digital one-act theatrical play, Ang Pagdadalaga ni Lola Mayumi follows the titular character who hires a callboy to lose her virginity at her old age. What happens instead is that Lola Mayumi backtracks on the sex, and with the help of her consort, unpacks the childhood trauma impeding her sexuality. The film is well-intentioned and works for the most part. However, the final exchange of looks undermine what the film has built for its characters. Ambiguity in the ending has sidetracked the film again.

SET B SHORTS

Namnama en Lolang (Grandmother's Hope) (dir. Jonnie Lynn Pasalla)

Namnama en Lolang is the first of two documentaries in the whole main competition program. Both of which directly tackle the effects of the pandemic. This film follows a grandmother longing for her grandchild's parents after both have been casualties to the pandemic. It is a pretty straightforward film that invites your sympathy. But that's all it's got going for itself.

Kids on Fire (dir. Kyle Nieva)

Kids on Fire has the lineup's most playfully devilish premise. A kid on a Christian field trip experiences supernatural powers that may be linked to the devil whenever he plays with himself. Separated into chapters, the film progresses at a steady pace that will tuck you in comfortably in its antics once you've discerned the pattern. But alas, it is also a victim of its own finale ending abruptly and being unsure of what it wanted. Like some of the other films, the build up is reserved in service of a plot twist (or two) that has no payoff.

Beauty Queen (dir. Myra Aquino)

If not too didactic due to its short runtime, Beauty Queen glimpses a possibility of a feature-length film on Remedios Gomez-Paraiso with a fully-fleshed out series of plots and cast of characters. Beauty Queen is competently done. But right now it feels like a single scene ripped from a whole movie.

Ate O.G. (dir. Kevin Mayuga)

It's harsh to say that out of all the films featured this year, Ate OG is the most senseless. But you won't feel bad thinking that way when you realize that it knowingly made its story decisions out of some assumption to be a deconstruction of privilege. A household helper keeps being mistreated by her two teenage employers. Somehow, after finding out she stole some stash of marijuana and lit some for herself, they start to sympathize with her and change their actions towards her because of their newfound bond over the good stuff. Why? Just because? If it's meant to be a comedy, then it's offending the intelligence. If it's meant to be a social commentary, then it's heavily misguided.

The Dust in Your Place (dir. David Olson)

Probably more insufferable than Ate O.G. is the banter between two friends as they reminisce over the future of their eight-year friendship. It's hard to get a grip of the dialogue. Maybe because the dialogue is not that compelling, or because at first glance you'd see the actors and remember how they are in real life. It's easy to see only a few people really getting into the film.

Ang Mga Nawalang Pag-asa at Panlasa (dir. Kevin Ayson)

Ang Mga Nawalang Pag-asa at Panlasa is straightforward in its subject. It is a documentary on Ilocano food and food establishments that have been affected severely by the pandemic. Satiating at the least, its vibe and technical work can often feel like a travel advertisement or a cuisine commercial made for television. It being part of a film shorts competition is very weird indeed.

That said, it's not all doom and gloom for this year's Cinemalaya. Most of the films have the technical competence to be worth your time, if you are the type to prefer it over content. And the films have enough zaniness to distract one from the real doom and gloom in the world. That is, if one already has the time and money to spare watching.

While not perfect, last year's selection feels tighter and more cohesive as a whole. Deeper in the pandemic, this year's films feel separated from each other by their own walls, with each just trying to get by.

At the least, this year's Cinemalaya is a reminder that films can persevere in times like ours. And filmmakers can certainly keep trying to make the spirit of the industry alive.
Metro Manilla (CNN Philippines, August 18)  Health Secretary Francisco Duque III is not the only one losing sleep  health workers responding to the pandemic are also stressed out, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said on Wednesday.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source, Zubiri commented on Duque's reaction while in the hot seat during the hearing of the House of Representatives on Tuesday on the reported "deficiencies" in the agency's management of pandemic response funds.

"With due respect to the Secretary, I'm sure he is under a lot of pressure and alam mo naman maraming humihingi na mag-resign po siya (we all know that a lot of people are asking him to resign)," Zubiri said. "And of course, being defended by the President, he is very lucky that the President loves him very much and is defending him."

"It is his prerogative to be emotional. I'm sure theres a lot of pressure, as he said, hindi daw siya natutulog. Unfortunately, yung mga health workers ilang buwan na ring hindi natutulog, Secretary, with due respect," he added.

[Translation: He says he is unable to sleep. Unfortunately, our health workers have also been losing sleep for months now, Secretary, with due respect.]

Zubiri noted that to be scrutinized about one's performance and to be transparent about one's transactions is "part and parcel" of a public official's job description.

The senator also joined the call of the health sector to fast-track the distribution of their special risk allowance. The Health Department earlier told The Source that there were "miscalculations" in the disbursement and that they are still collating data to determine who have not yet received their SRA.

READ: DOH admits 'miscalculations' in health workers' allowance

An emotional Duque faced the House Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday, claiming that the Commission on Audit has "destroyed" the agency's honor after it pointed out supposed irregularities in the Health Departments handling of 67.3-billion worth of pandemic funds.

READ: 'You have destroyed DOH's honor': Duque laments 'premature' release of COA report on COVID-19 funds

The Health secretary is currently being grilled by the Senate panel in its own probe.

The department was given 60 days from the receipt of the annual audit report to submit a rejoinder and action plan listing the steps it has done to address the COA findings.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  State auditors have asked officials from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration to justify why it purchased overpriced hygiene products from a construction and trading company that cannot be located.

The Commission on Audit 2020 report said OWWA purchased hygiene kits and sanitary napkins worth 822,420 from MRCJP Construction and Trading in Pasay City.

The hygiene kits, which were not itemized, were priced at 160, while a piece of sanitary pad had a price tag of up to 35.

"The procured sanitary napkins per pad is very costly. The napkins can be bought in small sari-sari stores at 5-8 per pad only," the report read.

State auditors added, "It is unlikely that these items were bought from a store which deals with construction supplies or hardware, considering that the Mercury Drugstore is just around the vicinity of OWWA."

The agency also bought 50 pieces of thermal scanners from the same supplier worth 2,950 per unit. But COA flagged that price online only ranged from 400 to 800.

The hygiene products and thermal scanners bought from MRCJP Construction and Trading amounted to 969,920. The COA report said the establishment "cannot be found on the address stated" in the receipt after its audit team checked out the area.

CNN Philippines also visited the area on Wednesday that was indicated in the report. Residents said it is a residential area and there has been no construction firm there. CNN Philippines is trying to contact the construction firm for its comment.

The COA report also raised questions on why OWWA bought bottled waters and local snacks worth 300,000 from a catering business in Quezon City when there are big supermarkets near the agency's central office in Pasay City.

The transactions with the hardware store and catering business, described by the auditors as "doubtful," totaled 1,269,920.

"The propriety and regularity of the expenditure charged to the CA of a Deputy Administrator is doubtful due to the awarding of the procurement transactions not to reputable drugstores and supermarkets," it said. "This is an indication what OWWA's resources were not expended in accordance with rules and regulations."

The Labor Department meanwhile ordered an investigation on the agencys supposed purchase of the overpriced hygiene products.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said he has required the concerned OWWA personnel to answer the audit report immediately.

OWWA responds

OWWA chief Hans Cacdac on Wednesday noted that the COA finding is "by no means final." This comes a day after President Rodrigo Duterte told officials to ignore the annual reports published by the auditors.

Cacdac said Deputy Administrator Faustino Sabarez III, who headed ground operations during ECQ in 2020 when the doubtful purchases were made, is being given a chance to explain and liquidate his cash advance. He added Sabarez will also explain to COA why the company cannot be found in the stated address.

He also cleared the name of OWWA Administrator Mocha Uson even if she was not singled out in the COA report.

CNN Philippines' Tristan Nodalo contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18) The country received a new shipment of more than 300,000 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.

A total of 365,040 government-procured shots arrived Wednesday evening  some of which will be delivered to Cebu and Davao.

The fresh batch of the US-developed doses was welcomed by pandemic task force officials, including Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez.

A total of 27,806,881 doses have so far been administered in the country as of August 15, according to government data.

"Of the above-mentioned doses, a total of 18,697,647 individuals have already been vaccinated. 6,132,630 are partially vaccinated, while 12,565,017 have already gotten the complete protection of the COVID-19 vaccines," the task force said in a statement.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  The Commission on Elections on Wednesday rejected calls to extend the voter registration beyond Sept. 30, but said it will make other modifications to accommodate those who want to cast their vote in the 2022 elections.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body en banc voted to reject appeals to extend the registration period because the extension may result in more delays in the preparations for the upcoming national elections on May 9.

"The commission is concerned that if we delay the end of voter registration, it will also cause corresponding delays in all other preparatory activities especially those that depend on the finalization of the list of voters. That will have the potential to adversely affect the timelines in the preparations for the presidential elections," the official said in a virtual media briefing.

However, the commissioners unanimously agreed to extend voting hours and open the registration even on Saturdays and holidays. The final voting hours will be released in a formal resolution.

Last week, seven senators filed a resolution urging the poll body to extend the deadline for voter registration to Oct. 30 to "prevent voter disenfranchisement brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic." Registration is on hold for areas under enhanced community quarantine and modified ECQ.

Jimenez reiterated that voter registration can only be conducted in areas under general community quarantine and modified GCQ.
(CNN)  The chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan has presented Beijing with a propaganda boost, with Chinese state media capitalizing on the crisis to trumpet the supposed decline of America and taunt Taiwan with threats of invasion.

The jingoistic rhetoric coincided with air and naval drills launched Tuesday by the Chinese military, which sent fighter jets and warships near Taiwan in response to what it called the "repeated collusion in provocation" by Washington and Taipei.

In recent years, China's ruling Communist Party has sought to present the US as a fading global power. And now, the return of the Taliban to the streets of the Afghan capital is being touted by state media as the "death knell of US hegemony."

"The fall of Kabul marks the collapse of the international image and credibility of the US," a commentary from state news agency Xinhua said Monday.

"Following the blows of the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the decay of the American hegemony has become an undisputed reality. Its failure in Afghanistan is another turning point in that spiral fall," it added.

The Global Times, a state-run nationalist tabloid, meanwhile, has repeatedly played up what it described as the "unreliability of US commitment to its allies," suggesting the self-governing island of Taiwan could face the same fate as Afghanistan in the event of conflict with China.

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei. But the Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan  a democratic island of around 24 million people  as an inseparable part of its territory, despite having never controlled it.

"Once a war breaks out in the Taiwan Straits, the island's defense will collapse in hours and the US military won't come to help." the Global Times said in an editorial Monday.

Arthur Ding, an international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei, called Beijing's propaganda messaging on Afghanistan "cheap psychological warfare," noting it was intended to convey the US' alleged unreliability, especially to Taiwan's more receptive opposition supporters who favor closer ties with Beijing.

For decades an uneasy status quo governed cross-strait relations. But under President Xi Jinping, China has increased military activity around the island, in response to what it considers to be growing calls for formal independence.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, discussions have broken out across Taiwanese social media in recent days as to how the government in Taipei would respond in the event of a Chinese invasion, and whether the US would indeed come to the island's defense.

So much so, that on Tuesday, Taiwan's premier publicly stressed the island would not collapse like Afghanistan if invaded. In a press conference, Premier Su Tseng-chang appeared to confront the Chinese threats directly, saying Taiwan's leaders are "not afraid of being killed or imprisoned" by "powerful countries that want to swallow up Taiwan using force."

Politicians in Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) also dismissed attempts to draw parallels between Taiwan and Afghanistan, saying such comparisons are inherently fraught.

"If we're going to make Afghan comparisons, Taiwan survived that moment 40+ years ago. US troops left Taiwan in 1979 after recognizing the PRC," Wen Lii, a local ruling party official, wrote on Twitter, referring to China by abbreviation of its official name the People's Republic of China. "So no, Taiwan is not Afghanistan," he added.

Kolas Yotaka, spokesperson for Taiwan's Presidential Office, said the "lazy comparisons...ignore the realities of both countries, and show little regard for the immense human suffering facing many in Afghanistan today."

Despite formally switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, the US has remained a staunch ally of Taiwan, supplying the island with defensive weaponry under the terms of the decades-old Taiwan Relations Act, including a proposed $750 million arms sale announced earlier this month.

In April, US President Joe Biden dispatched an unofficial delegation to Taiwan in a show of support for the island, according to a senior administration official and a State Department spokesperson.

The State Department also announced in April that the agency had "issued new guidelines for US government interaction with Taiwan counterparts to encourage US government engagement with Taiwan that reflects our deepening unofficial relationship."

On Tuesday, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted "joint fire assault and other drills using actual troops" off the southwest and southeast of Taiwan, according to a statement from the PLA's Eastern Theater Command.

"Recently, the US and Taiwan have repeatedly colluded in provocation and sent serious wrong signals, severely infringing upon China's sovereignty, and severely undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," the statement said. "It is a solemn response to external interference and provocations by Taiwan independence forces."

Though many have speculated the abrupt announcement of the PLA drills was likely timed to accompany Beijing's propaganda messaging on Afghanistan, Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said the scale of the drills suggested some degree of prior planning, rather than being tied to a specific event.

Editor's note: A version of this story appeared in CNN's Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country's rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Chinese state media sets sights on Taiwan as US' Afghan retreat stokes nationalism"
(CNN)  Former US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday that he was concerned that then-US President Donald Trump "undermined" the US' 2020 agreement with the Taliban by pushing for US forces to leave Afghanistan without the Taliban meeting the conditions of the deal.

The Trump administration's "Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan" outlined a series of commitments from the US and the Taliban related to troop levels, counterterrorism and intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at bringing about "a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire."

But, Esper told CNN's Christiane Amanpour, "my concern was that President Trump, by continuing to want to withdraw American forces out of Afghanistan, undermined the agreement, which is why in the fall when he was calling for a return of US forces by Christmas, I objected and formally wrote a letter to him, a memo based on recommendations from the military chain of command and my senior civilian leadership that we not go further -- that we not reduce below 4,500 troops unless and until conditions were met by the Taliban."

"Otherwise," Esper continued, "we would see a number of things play out, which are unfolding right now in many ways."

Trump fired Esper in November 2020 in the wake of the presidential election.

The agreement between the Taliban and the US has come under fresh scrutiny in recent days after Afghanistan's civilian government in Kabul fell to Taliban fighters this weekend, almost two decades after they were driven from the city by US troops.

After years of negotiations, the Taliban and the Trump administration finally signed a peace deal in 2020. The US agreed to withdraw troops and release some 5,000 Taliban prisoners, while the Taliban agreed to take steps to prevent any group or individual, including al Qaeda, from using Afghanistan to threaten the security of the US or its allies.

But the deal didn't bring about peace.

Following the agreement, violence in Afghanistan grew to its highest levels in two decades and the Taliban increased their control of wider swaths of the country. By June of this year, the Taliban contested or controlled an estimated 50% to 70% of Afghan territory outside of urban centers, according to a United Nations Security Council report.

Although Afghan security forces were well funded and well equipped, they put up little resistance as Taliban militants seized much of the country following the withdrawal of US troops beginning in early July. Now factions within the Biden administration are embroiled in a blame game over why the US government didn't act sooner to withdraw American citizens and Afghans who helped the US over two decades of war, leading to a rushed and dangerous evacuation.

In his first public comments since the Taliban solidified control of Kabul, President Joe Biden on Monday laid blame on the Afghan security forces' unwillingness to fight and the decisions of previous administrations  including the Trump administration  while failing to directly address the chaos unfolding on his watch.

Biden conceded that the Taliban takeover happened faster than anticipated, though he said he stands "squarely behind" his decision.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Ex-defense secretary: Trump's push to get US troops out of Afghanistan possibly 'undermined' deal with Taliban"
(CNN) The US is shipping the first of the 500 million COVID-19 doses that President Joe Biden pledged to share with countries around the world at the Group of Seven summit earlier this year.

The US is sending 488,370 doses of Pfizer to Rwanda through the global vaccination program called COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, a White House official told CNN. This batch includes the first 188,370 doses of the 500 million Pfizer doses purchased by the Biden administration, the official said. The remaining 300,000 doses of Pfizer going to Rwanda come from existing US supply.

"Today, we are shipping over 488,000 doses of Pfizer to Rwanda, including the first 100,000 doses from @POTUS' 500 million shots pledged and purchased this summer. This is just the beginning," assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz tweeted on Tuesday morning.

The move is part of the President's effort to have America be an "arsenal of vaccines" in the fight against COVID-19. Biden has repeatedly stressed there are no strings attached with accepting the US-bought vaccines.

Officials have said that 200 million of the 500 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year, and the remaining 300 million doses will be delivered in the first half of 2022. About 75% of these vaccines will be shared with COVAX and about 25% will be shared directly with countries in need.

The administration has also already distributed the 80 million doses the President initially pledged to donate from US supply.

The move to donate hundreds of millions of vaccines around the world will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence. The White House has said it has been monitoring and is concerned by efforts by Russia and China to use vaccines to make geopolitical gains. Many countries -- including in Latin America, which has traditionally been an area of US influence -- have been buying up large numbers of Russian and Chinese vaccines to fill the gaps in their own vaccine roll outs.

Distributing vaccines globally has been a complex undertaking for the Biden administration. White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients and national security adviser Jake Sullivan have worked with multiple federal agencies, including the Defense Department and State Department, to coordinate the process and maintain that the doses are delivered without strings attached.

The President has also said $2 billion in US contributions would go toward a global coronavirus vaccine initiative and would provide support to COVAX. He also pledged an additional $2 billion in funding contingent on contributions from other nations and dose delivery targets being met.

The moves come as the US races to get the rest of the US population vaccinated, particularly as the Delta variant of Covid-19 rips through areas of the country with low vaccination rates. As of Tuesday morning, more than 168,000 Americans had been fully vaccinated and 72.1% of US adults had received at least their first COVID-19 dose.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "US to ship first of the 500 million Pfizer doses Biden pledged to donate globally."
" " Smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and laptops all access the internet with the help of a router (the device pictured with two antennas). pictafolio/Getty Images

If you already have several computers networked in your home, you can create a wireless network with a wireless access point. If you have several computers that are not networked, or if you want to replace your ethernet network, you'll need a wireless router. This is a single unit that contains:

a port to connect to your cable or DSL modem

router

an ethernet hub

firewall

a wireless access point

A wireless router allows you to use wireless signals or ethernet cables to connect your computers and mobile devices to one another, to a printer and to the internet. Most routers provide coverage for about 100 feet (30.5 meters) in all directions, although walls and doors can block the signal. If your home is very large, you can buy inexpensive range extenders or repeaters to increase your router's range.

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As with wireless adapters, many routers can use more than one 802.11 standard. Normally, 802.11n routers are slightly less expensive than others, but because the standard is older, they're also slower than 802.11ac or 802.11ax.

Once you plug in your router, it should start working at its default settings. Most routers let you use a web interface to change your settings. You can select:

The name of the network, known as its service set identifier (SSID). The default setting is usually the manufacturer's name.

The channel that the router uses. Most routers use channel 6 by default. If you live in an apartment and your neighbors are also using channel 6, you may experience interference. Switching to a different channel should eliminate the problem.

Your router's security options. Many routers use a standard, publicly available sign-on, so it's a good idea to set your own username and password.

Security is an important part of a home wireless network, as well as public WiFi hot spots. If you set your router to create an open hot spot, anyone who has a wireless card will be able to use your signal. Most people would rather keep strangers out of their network, though. Doing so requires you to take a few security precautions.

It's also important to make sure your security precautions are current. The Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) security measure was once the standard for WAN security. The idea behind WEP was to create a wireless security platform that would make any wireless network as secure as a traditional wired network. But hackers discovered vulnerabilities in the WEP approach, and today it's easy to find applications and programs that can compromise a WAN running WEP security. It was succeeded by the first version of WiFi Protected Access (WPA), which uses Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) encryption and is a step up from WEP but is also no longer considered secure.

To keep your network private, you can use one or more of the following methods:

WiFi Protected Access version 2 (WPA2) is the successor to WEP and WPA, and is now the recommended security standard for WiFi networks. It uses either TKIP or Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption, depending upon what you choose at setup. AES is considered the most secure. As with WEP and the initial WPA, WPA2 security involves signing on with a password. Public hot spots are either open or use any of the available security protocols, including WEP, so use caution when connecting away from home. WiFi Protected Setup (WPS), a feature that ties a hard-coded PIN to the router and makes setup easier, apparently creates a vulnerability that can be exploited by hackers, so you may want to turn off WPS if possible, or look into routers that do not have the feature.

WPA3 was was released in 2018 and became the security standard as of 2020. It aims to solve some of the vulnerabilities in WPA2 by putting much more complex encryption on both the router side and client side of the connection. This encryption also changes over time, meaning if a hacker had managed to access an unauthorized connection at one point in time, they would be locked out again the next time they try to connect. WPA3-enabled devices can also add some client-side encryption while using open public networks.

It's worth noting that no matter how secure, a wireless network will surely have some method of exploit that can be used by hackers. When it comes to sensitive government or corporate data, a simple wired connection is the more secure alternative. In order to access or spy on a wireless network, a hacker has to be within physical range of the router, so attacks at home are not very likely to occur.

Media Access Control (MAC) addresses filtering is a little different from WEP, WPA or WPA2. It doesn't use a password to authenticate users  it uses a computer's physical hardware. Each computer has its own unique MAC address. MAC address filtering allows only machines with specific MAC addresses to access the network. You must specify which addresses are allowed when you set up your router. If you buy a new computer or if visitors to your home want to use your network, you'll need to add the new machines' MAC addresses to the list of approved addresses. The system isn't foolproof. A clever hacker can spoof a MAC address  that is, copy a known MAC address to fool the network that the computer he or she is using belongs on the network.

You also can change other router settings to improve security. For instance, you can set it to block WAN requests to keep the router from responding to IP requests from remote users, set a limit to the number of devices that can connect to your router and even disable remote administration so that only computers plugged directly into your router can change your network settings. You should also change the Service Set Identifier (SSID), which is your network name, to something other than the default so that hackers can't immediately tell what router you are using. And selecting a strong password never hurts.

Wireless networks are easy and inexpensive to set up, and most routers' web interfaces are virtually self-explanatory. For more information on setting up and using a wireless network, check out the links that follow.

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Originally Published: Apr 30, 2001
Israel is offering a booster to people over 50 who were vaccinated more than five months ago. France and Germany plan to offer boosters to some people in the fall. The European Medicines Agency said it too is reviewing data to see if booster shots are needed.

When would they be given?

It depends on when you got your initial shots. One possibility is that health officials will recommend people get a booster roughly eight months after getting their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

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Officials are continuing to collect information about the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was authorized for use in the U.S. in late February, to determine when to recommend boosters.

Who would get them?

The first people vaccinated in the United States would likely be first in line for boosters too. That means health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, who were the first to be vaccinated once the shots were authorized last December.

Booster? Third shot? Whats the difference?
The YWCA will also provide ongoing resources to support and develop Hope Station staff.

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There will also be an exchange of board members between the two organizations with two members of the Hope Station Advisory Council sitting on the YWCA Governing Board and one representative from the YWCA sitting on the Hope Station council. The exchange is meant to ensure transparent and ongoing communication.

Perry said the road to the alliance started when Hope Stations bookkeeper announced his retirement last year. That started a conversation about staffing, budget and the resources Hope Station needed to keep going. Perry turned to the YWCA as a like-minded agency that would be excited about the Hope Station mission and might be able to offer guidance.

Young said those conversations led initially to a memorandum of understanding that allowed the YWCAs business manager to take over bookkeeping for Hope Station.

From that the conversation just started to grow about how we can potentially leverage our resources together so we could build bigger, stronger services, Young said.
Pennsylvanias largest teachers union on Wednesday urged K-12 schools to require masks in school buildings, a measure that state officials are encouraging but not mandating.

The Pennsylvania State Education Association cited the threat of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, which is spiking infections and hospitalizations across the state and nationally, including among children.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends masks in schools for students, staff and teachers.

Masking up is essential to keeping in-person learning going all year, said Rich Askey, PSEA president.

We are at a crossroads, and what our schools decide now will set the stage for what this school year looks like. If were going to be able to keep our schools open for in-person instruction all year, we need to make the right decisions now, he said.

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Masking has become a highly contentious and politicized issue, with heated discussions taking place at the local level as school boards decide what their policy will be as schools reopen for the fall. Some Pennsylvania districts said they will require masks, while others have decided to make them optional.
Because of how opioids act on the brain, people dependent on them get sick if they stop using. Withdrawal can feel like a bad flu with cramping, sweating, anxiety and sleeplessness. Cravings can be so intense that relapse is common. Methadone eases those symptoms.

The idea behind the Nixon-era rules was to prevent illegal street sales and overdoses.

I understand the concern, but there are ways to address those issues such as urine screening to make sure patients are taking their methadone, said Lyna Chaves, 37, of Pleasantville, New Jersey.

She now gets five days' of take-home methadone from John Brooks Recovery Center under the pandemic rules. Working to become a peer support specialist, she also distributes donated food, toothpaste and other items to people who are homeless.

Rutgers University plans to analyze New Jersey health data for any bump in methadone overdoses. In interviews with researchers, New Jersey methadone providers support the relaxed take-home rules, Rutgers researcher Stephen Crystal said.

People who live far from clinics or hold steady jobs are particularly burdened by daily trips to be watched getting a dose, Crystal said.
Nearly everything we do as farmers and ranchers depends on the weather. Day-in and day-out, it affects the timing of farm work, like planting, harvesting, working livestock or cutting hay. When a storm rolls in, we had better pay attention and be prepared.

Storms are brewing around climate policy in Washington.

The Obama administration pushed hard for mandatory reductions in carbon emissions through strict laws and regulations. Their signature cap-and-trade carbon credit program would have caused energy costs to skyrocket, from home heating bills to gas prices. In the end, Farm Bureau and others were able to stop the most ambitious of the administrations plans.

Now, after four years of the Trump administrations practical, collaborative approach to environmental regulation, the Biden administration is pursuing a more aggressive all-of-government climate policy agenda.

We in farming country are watching these developments carefully. American agriculture is more efficient and uses fewer resources than ever before. While 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, in the U.S. the share is only nine percent, due to conservation efforts, improved technology and better production methods.
FISHERSVILLE  A new public transportation service has been given the green light in the Shenandoah Valley.

After years of planning, the Afton Express bus service is launching Sept. 1.

To celebrate, a special ribbon-cutting event was held at the BRITE Bus Transit Services facility in Fishersville on Monday afternoon.

According to the Afton Express website, the service will connect communities to the west of Afton Mountain, such as Waynesboro, Staunton and Fishersville, to Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

For Bonnie Riedesel, executive director of the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission, the service has been a long time coming.

Throughout the past decade, probably even longer, there has been talk about the need for a bus system between the Shenandoah Valley and Charlottesville, Riedesel said. We are keenly aware of how many people live on this side of the mountain and commute every day to the other side.

Transit planner Nancy Gourley couldnt agree more, and devoted much of her time and services to the project.

To her, it was a project she said really came to life just two years ago.
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Denton County health director addresses third doses for adults, first doses for children amid vaccine confusion

Screenshot Matt Richardson, director of Denton County Public Health, addresses the Denton County Commissioners Court on Tuesday at the Courthouse on the Square

Amid confusion over the next steps in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Denton County Public Health Director Matt Richardson stated its unknown exactly when fully vaccinated residents may be eligible for booster shots, and that the authorization for children under 12 to receive the vaccine could still be more than a month away.

Richardsons weekly presentation at Tuesdays county Commissioners Court meeting came as the surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continues, with DCPH reporting the county had 7,147 active cases by Tuesday afternoon, the highest mark since March. Also Tuesday, the department reported intensive care unit occupancy was at 91%, with 82 of 90 staffed beds filled in Denton County hospitals.

Several vaccine developments have come since Richardson last spoke, including DCPH expanding its eligibility to include third doses for severely immunocompromised people. That eligibility criteria is taken directly from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, and includes a list of specific conditions and medical treatments.

As of Monday morning, two days after DCPH updated its registration service, 815 residents had signed up for the third dose. Richardson said slots are available this week for self-scheduling at two clinic options, and that the department would be able to get all 815 in for their shot, should they sign up.

The CDCs third-dose recommendation has caused discussion, and often confusion, over its availability to the general public. Precinct 3 Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell asked Richardson to address eligibility for a third dose, pointing out the CDCs listed requirement of being fully vaccinated, with the second dose coming at least 28 days prior.

Immunocompromised people are the only group of people were allowing to register, Richardson said. We do require on our website that you attest. You basically promise that youre in this group.

Delving further, Richardson addressed the expansion of third-dose eligibility. Monday, several media outlets reported the Biden administration could soon issue a recommendation of eight months in between a persons second and third shot. That means if the Food and Drug Administration authorizes third doses for the general public, they could start being rolled out as early as mid-September.

Richardson clarified, however, that DCPH takes guidance specifically from the CDC and FDA  neither of which has communicated to local health officials how close a mass third-dose rollout could be.

Many of us saw these national news stories about boosters and kind of a universal coverage from the White House, Richardson said. We do not have FDA guidance and we do not have CDC guidance for that. Were going to tackle that problem and that opportunity when it presents itself officially.  Theres competing stories about eligibility right now  this is what is technically eligible from CDC.

Richardson also spoke about when the vaccine could be available to children under 12, now that the school year has begun in local districts. Research is ongoing for children between ages 5 and 11, he said, but authorization will likely not come until later this fall.

I was told as late as yesterday that the timeline for that emergency-use authorization for 5 to 11 is likely going to be the last week in September or the first week in October, Richardson said. Its hard to know for sure.

Richardson made it clear that the lack of advance communication from higher government agencies has been a source of frustration, saying DCPH often finds out about health decisions at the same time as the public. He cited that issue several times toward the beginning of the vaccine rollout, when the county was often unsure about what its weekly shipment would look like.

If I sound mildly frustrated, thats because youre listening, Richardson said. Its frustrating to see the news of that on my iPhone when everybody else sees it. We find out about the time that the general public finds out about that authorization.

Public comment fireworks

Screenshot Willie Hudspeth walks away after addressing Denton County Commissioners Court on Tuesday.

At the start of Tuesdays meeting was a brief verbal spat between local activist Willie Hudspeth and Denton County Judge Andy Eads. Hudspeth, who speaks during the public comment segment of most county meetings, has recently criticized commissioners for their handling of St. Johns Cemetery, established by emancipated slaves near Pilot Point in the late 1800s.

In 2016, Hudspeth began a push to restore the previously forgotten cemetery, with commissioners formally approving resources for the effort. While progress was made, Hudspeth has taken aim at commissioners in recent weeks, specifically stating that Denton County has not done enough to help locate bodies at the cemetery.

I remember the years when [commissioners] passed [a motion] to take care of finding those bodies out there in Pilot Point, Hudspeth said. But all I get from you is, How many more minutes does he have to speak? Thats what you do.

Though commissioners typically limit their public comment responses to telling residents to reach out to their respective commissioner, Eads spoke his own piece after Hudspeth was finished, calling his comments continued misinformation put on the public record.

Ive been very patient with you over the years, treated you with great respect, and youve publicly acknowledged that, Eads said. But I do believe that misinformation unchallenged is inappropriate.

Eads went on to cover a list of actions the county has approved regarding the cemetery, including maintenance and work days, which combined to total over $100,000 in cost. He added that Hudspeth met with media at the cemetery despite his request not to over vandalism concerns.

You were going to go meet television crews out there and make it very public, and I asked you not to do that so that we could have our archaeological teams out there and do a full assessment of it, Eads said. You sir, put it in jeopardy by those actions.

With his public comment period over, Hudspeth was denied a rebuttal after Eads said hes had his abundance of opportunity to talk.

I will be speaking next time, Hudspeth said as he began to head out. Ill take my time and Im going to address each one of those issues.

In response, Eads said he has purchase orders to verify everything he said, before moving onto the meetings other agenda items.
The multinational conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings announced that it has agreed with the Indonesian telecommunications provider Indosat Ooredoo to extend the period to pursue negotiations on a potential transaction to combine PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia, a subsidiary of the Company, and PT Indosat TBK, a subsidiary of Ooredoo, on an exclusive basis.

This will be the final such extension that will run until midnight, Hong Kong time, on 23 September.

According to a press release from the Hong Kong-based and Cayman Islands-registered CK Hutchison Holdings, the parties continue to progress their discussions, but additional time is needed to finalise definitive documents and, once finalised, seek their respective internal corporate approvals.

"Pending and subject to finalisation of definitive agreements and the required corporate approvals, no decision has been taken to proceed with any transaction," said the release.

CK Hutchison Holdings entered into an MOU with Ooredoo to combine their Indonesian telecommunications businesses end of last year. Both companies have prior to this signed an agreement to extend the exclusive period till 16 August 2021. The parties continue to progress their discussions, but additional time is needed to finalise definitive documents and, once finalised, to seek their respective internal corporate approvals.
Vodacom DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) has commissioned ST Engineering iDirect and Gilat Telecom to help it migrate its VSAT-based 2G network to 3G.

To achieve this, ST Engineering iDirect and Gilat Telecom remotely installed two Newtec Dialog hubs to power cellular backhaul services for Vodacom. These hubs enabled the migration across 150 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) sites, with the Base Station Controller located in Kinshasa. The new deployment replaces traditional SCPC links and increases efficiency in facilitating 3G data traffic.

Dialogs Mx-DMA return technology was a key consideration in Vodacoms selection as it enables the network to automatically adjust in real-time with daily fluctuations in bandwidth demand, saving both bandwidth and cost and offering enhanced optimisation of cellular traffic. Dialog also enables effective management of a variety of different modems all on the same platform, simplifying and streamlining an otherwise complex operation.

The Dialog platform will accommodate Vodacoms future growth, enabling increased satellite network coverage capable of delivering a large amount of capacity. The network is used primarily for cellular backhaul services, for applications such as social media, video sharing platforms, as well as enterprise applications such as video conferencing and data transfer applications with some sites also offering IP services. Access to these applications will have a profound impact on remote communities, enabling them to stay in touch with friends and family, and to market their businesses and connect to important sources of news and information. For many, these services have previously been unavailable.

The initial deployment commenced in April 2020, and was impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that has delayed the progress of satellite network installations across the world. With the teams based in Belgium and Kinshasa, the best way of progressing the project was to install the hubs remotely.

To expedite the project, we were in constant contact with the ST Engineering iDirect team in Belgium. We also installed a camera in the Teleport in Kinshasa so that they were able to see what was happening, and shared detailed images to ensure that every step was completed correctly, said Jordan Dayan, System Engineer at Gilat Telecom. It was this close collaboration and access to each dedicated team member at all hours of the day that enabled us to complete the installation of the first hub in two days and the second in just one day.

Jean-Bedel Nyanga, Transmission Director, Vodacom DRC, said: "Thanks to [the Dialog platforms] Mx-DMA return technology, the reliability of the VSAT links has increased significantly, especially in heavy rain. As a consequence, we have also seen an increase in user traffic on the links migrated to Dialog. Additionally, in comparison with SCPC links, we have also noticed that Dialog enables us to perform network changes much more easily and rapidly, with less human resources and no intervention on remote sites. This has enabled us to operate more efficiently and make substantial cost savings."

Vodacom was able to instantly reap the results of the hub installations with a rapid upgrade of the cellular backhaul network which is now serving customers across the DRC. In the past, an upgrade to 3G would have taken one or two weeks, Jordan continued. The difference with Dialog, in comparison with traditional SCPC networks, is that this can be achieved very rapidly, in one or two hours. This makes a huge difference.
As I pen this, Hurricane Ida is busying herself with the process of reclaiming the Mississippi Delta and marshland without much regard for local inhabitants. If the sun rises in the morning, the capsized infrastructure will be drifting, burning, or sizzling for the bewildered to see, again. 
Coffee County farmer Joey Powell recently directed a $2,500 Bayer Fund Americas Farmers Grow Communities donation to Battens Volunteer Fire Department, and Fire Chief Jeffery Wood said the donation will be used to purchase structural firefighting equipment that will help protect firefighters.

We would like to thank Joey Powell for his generous donation to our department. This will help us provide protective gear to our firefighters as we serve our community, Wood said.

Since 2010, Americas Farmers programs have given more than $59 million to nonprofits, aspiring ag students and public schools across rural America. Farmers are leaders in their communities, which is why Americas Farmers programs rely on them to help identify the most worthy causes.

Dedicated to making a difference in rural farming communities, the Grow Communities program asks farmers across the country to participate by nominating nonprofit organizations with resources to strengthen their local communities. Farmers have directed these donations to food banks, emergency response organizations, schools, youth agriculture programs and many others that reflect the spirit and support the vibrancy of rural America.
ST. PETERSBURG (AP)  A Florida judge refused Tuesday to close pretrial hearings to the media and public in the case of the man accused of killing 17 people in a 2018 high school mass shooting.

Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer rejected a motion by defendant Nikolas Cruzs lawyers claiming that intense media coverage jeopardizes his right to a fair trial.

Scherer did not elaborate on her reasons for denial, saying she would detail them in a written order later. But Dana McElroy, attorney for The Associated Press, said it was the correct decision.

It allows access to all of the hearings and filings in this case of great public concern, which is both contemplated and required by the Constitution, McElroy said after the hearing.

Several media outlets, including the AP, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News and CNN had challenged the closure motion. Cruzs lawyers contended that open hearings might publicly reveal inadmissible evidence that will never be heard at trial and that news coverage could otherwise create bias among jurors.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Florida's largest school district will likely require students to wear face masks when classrooms open next week, following the recommendation of a task force of medical experts and defying Gov. Ron DeSantis' attempt to block mandatory mask rules.

The Miami-Dade County School Board is expected to approve the measure Wednesday. My mind is pretty made up on the way to move forward," Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

Students in neighboring Broward County will also be wearing masks when they return Wednesday, and people in both districts have been keeping an eye on the Tampa area, where classes started last week. The Hillsborough County School Board, which has not required masks in classrooms, scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday to discuss additional protections.

Were at that place. Its unavoidable, board chairperson Lynn Gray said Monday.

Hillsborough's COVID-19 case count stood at 731 at midday Monday, nearly 20 times higher than it was after the first week of fall classes in 2020. On Monday, the district reported 5,599 students and 316 employees either in isolation, having tested positive for COVID-19, or in quarantine  which means they had close contact with a positive case.
I just basically fell in love with this little boy. And based on hearing everything, then we knew we had the means and the motivation to help him, he said.

The childs mother died of cancer, leaving the boy with his adult brothers and elderly father who is unable to care for him. Mujtaba described Noman as a little boy who has big dreams. He loves music, gets top grades in school and wants to become an engineer or a doctor -- a profession Mujtaba said the boy may be drawn to because hes had to meet with so many doctors.

Noman appears to have diabetes and other medical issues, possibly stemming from nutrition problems, but Mujtaba said its not totally clear if the doctors in Afghanistan gave him the right diagnosis or the treatments.

Thats the environment, unfortunately, that youre in, in Afghanistan, he said. Were not really sure exactly what the problems might be, once we get here. Hes fine for a period of time and then, unfortunately, hes not.

Mujtaba is an U.S. citizen who emigrated from Afghanistan 40 years ago. After the Taliban was displaced two decades ago, he returned in 2005 to the country of his birth for the first time in 20 years. Hes visited Noman 10 times over the past years, staying three to five weeks at a time.
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The Apple Inc. logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 16, 2019. Photo by Reuters

Covid-19 resurgence has delayed the shift of Apple, Google and Amazon manufacturing from China to Vietnam due to tightened border control and mobility restrictions.

Google's upcoming Pixel 6 smartphone range will be made in China even though the company had planned to move production of the handsets to northern Vietnam early last year, four people familiar with the matter told Nikkei.

Apple will start producing its latest AirPods earphones in China instead of Vietnam as previously planned, two more experts told the news outlet.

The company plans to move around 20 percent of new AirPod production to Vietnam later, it was added.

Apple's plan to bring some MacBook and iPad production to Vietnam has also been put on hold.

Production of smart doorbells, security cameras and smart speakers for Amazon in northern Vietnam has also faced delays since May, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Nikkei.

In recent years, major tech giants have been shifting or making plans to move production from China to Vietnam to diversify their supply chains.

However, the recent outbreaks of Covid-19 this year in both the northern and southern region have put on hold these transitions.

The country has recorded over 289,200 Covid-19 cases since the end of April.
Poland said it would donate over 501,000 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses and transfer another three million to Vietnam.

It would also aid Vietnam with medical equipment worth $4 million, expected to be delivered to Ho Chi Minh City on Aug. 25.

In a Tuesday meeting between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Polish Ambassador to Vietnam Wojciech Gerwel, Chinh thanked the Polish government for the help and said he shared in Poland's losses and difficulties during the pandemic, the country having recorded over three million Covid-19 cases and lost around 75,000 lives to the disease.

Chinh also requested Poland to continue supporting the Vietnamese community in the country, especially amid the pandemic. Gerwel said Vietnam is the first country outside Europe that Poland has aided with Covid-19 vaccine and medical equipment.

So far, Vietnam has received over 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, either through contracts, global vaccine access mechanism Covax or foreign aid. It has vaccinated around 15.3 million people with at least one shot, with 1.4 million fully vaccinated.

It aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its 96 million population by next year.
The largest current fire in the West, known as the Dixie Fire, is the first to have burned from east to west across the spine of California, where the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains meet, the state's fire chief said.

It was also one of several massive fires that have destroyed areas of the timber belt that serve as a centerpiece of the state's climate reduction plan because trees can store carbon dioxide.

We are seeing generational destruction of forests because of what these fires are doing, Porter said. This is going to take a long time to come back from.

Although the Dixie Fire is only a third contained and remains a threat, dozens of fire engines and crews were transferred Wednesday to fight the Caldor Fire, which exploded in size southwest of Lake Tahoe and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a community of about 1,200. It covered 84 square miles (217 square kilometers).

Dozens of homes burned, according to officials, but tallies were incomplete. Those who viewed the aftermath saw few homes standing. Lone chimneys rose from the ashes, little more than rows of chairs remained of a church and the burned out husks of cars littered the landscape.
Local

Two vie for Elko schools superintendent position

ELKO  Two Nevada residents are vying to fill the Elko County School Districts vacant superintendent position.

Kenneth Demick, an alternative teacher at Spring Creek High School, and Dr. M. Neil Terhune, the current Esmeralda County School District superintendent, will be interviewed by school board trustees at 4 p.m. Wednesday during a special board meeting.

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Bulletin: Spring Creek High School teacher Kenneth Demick announced he withdrew his application from consideration for Elko County superintendent of schools at 7:35 p.m. Tuesday evening.

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Demick has worked as lead manager, instructor and trainer at the Jan Evans Detention Center, a truancy intervention specialist for the Washoe County School District, and helped implement the Beacon Academy of Nevada sponsored by the Nevada Department of Education.

Currently, Demick is the lead teacher for alternative education at SCHS, working with students on credit recovery and administration to identify substance abuse and behavioral concerns. He is also a member of the Northeastern Nevada Officials Association and has previously served as a board member of the Sierra Association of Foster Families.

Terhune, a former candidate for Elko school superintendent in 2020, has served as superintendent at four schools in Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and South Dakota, becoming the superintendent of the Esmeralda County School District in 2017.

Elko schools superintendent search enters last phase ELKO  The search for a new superintendent is nearing its end, with four candidates interviewed remotely by the school board.

In addition to serving as principal at four schools, Terhune also served 20 years active duty in the U.S. Army and four years reserve from 1970 to 1994. After retirement, he implemented a Junior ROTC program in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Candidate interviews will be posted on the Elko County School District website for public comment and questions.

On Monday, the school board will convene in a special board meeting to review the public comments. They will vote to appoint a candidate at Tuesdays regular meeting.

The interviews are six days after Deputy Superintendent Mike Smith stepped back from acting superintendent duties on Aug. 12.

Resignations rock school district Two board members quit, interim superintendent steps back

Smith was appointed to fill in one week after the sudden resignation of Dr. Michele Robinson on June 22, who was appointed in May 2020.

Elko County school board chooses Smith, approves Robinson's resignation "I would entertain assisting as best as I can in solving the problems that face the board and the community together. Hopefully, I can do that in a way in which people come to a consensus on what is best for the staff and students of the Elko County School District."

Robinson and Terhune were among the four candidates out of a nationwide search to replace outgoing Superintendent Todd Pehrson.

The school board also saw two trustees, Jim Cooney and Brian Zeiszler, resign on Aug. 12.

Elko superintendent resigns from school district ELKO  School Superintendent Dr. Michele Robinson has tendered her resignation from the Elko County School District.

According to trustee and board president Teresa Dastrup, the five remaining trustees comprise a quorum to select and appoint the new superintendent next week.

A date has not yet been set to advertise for candidates seeking an appointment for the two vacant board seats. The appointees will serve the remaining five months of the year.

The school district will again seek candidates to serve after Jan. 1 until new board members are elected in the 2022 election.
The prosecutor said Kelly would often record sex acts with minors as he controlled a racketeering enterprise of individuals who were loyal and devoted to him, eager to fulfill each and everyone one of the defendants wishes and demands."

What his success and popularity brought him was access, access to girls, boys and young women, she said.

But Kelly's attorney, Nicole Blank Becker, portrayed her client as a victim of women, some of whom enjoyed the notoriety of being able to tell their friends that they were with a superstar.

He didnt recruit them. They were fans. They came to Mr. Kelly, she said, urging jurors to closely scrutinize the testimony. They knew exactly what they were getting into. It was no secret Mr. Kelly had multiple girlfriends. He was quite transparent.

It would be a stretch to believe he orchestrated an elaborate criminal enterprise, like a mob boss, the lawyer said.

Becker warned jurors they'll have to sort through a mess of lies" from women with an agenda.

Dont assume everybodys telling the truth," she said.
Taliban take control in Afghanistan: live updates

- The world watched as President Biden made his case for why it was time for the US to leave Afghanistan and blamed the Afghans' lack of fight (Full story)

- Taliban hosted its first press conference since taking power in more than twenty years, taking questions from domestic and international media (Full details)

- Taliban deputy leader and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar returned to the country on Tuesday, according to AFP and other news outlets

- Taliban asks for international help to combat the illegal drug trade

- Biden says there was "no chance" of Afghan resistance to the Taliban (What did he say?)

- Biden authorizes up to $500 million to help refugees fleeing Afghanistan

- President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday morning (Where did he go?)

A Guide to understanding the Taliban and the situation in Afghanistan

- What is behind the Taliban's rapid advance in Afghanistan? (Full details)

- What is the Taliban and what is its history in Afghanistan? (Read more)

- What are the Taliban's rules? (Read more)

- What is Afghanistan's situation in the Middle East? (Read more)

- How big is the Taliban army in Afghanistan? (Read more)

- Who are the Taliban and what are their motives? (Read more)

Take a look at some of our related news articles:
The world is fearing a new migrant crisis as people flee the Taliban in Afghanistan. Despite the current evacuation from Kabul airport, many are not expected to have the necessary documentation to escape. The UNHCR estimates that more than 400,000 Afghans have fled their homes this year alone. While many will be going to neighboring countries, such as Iran and Pakistan, other countries have said they will be taking in Afghan refugees to prevent a humanitarian disaster.

More than 2,200 diplomats and civilians have been evacuated from Afghanistan on military flights, a Western security official said on Wednesday

Why are countries doing this?

Many western nations that have invited refugees believe they have "special responsibilities" to Afghans. Back in 2001, it was NATO that invaded in the first place, and the continuing war and displacement was largely instigated by the alliance.

There are fears that the Taliban will enact a revenge on those Afghans who worked with the US and NATO in the 20-year conflict, as well as on ethnic and religious minorities. In their press conference yesterday, spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed he wanted to, "Reassure all our countrymen, whoever has worked in the military, in translation, we have given amnesty to everybody, there is no revenge,"

He continued, "All those young people who have talent and who have got education, we want them to be here and work for Afghanistan, for their own country. No-one will go after them, no one will ask them why they worked with the Americans."

"There is no danger for them."

However, there has already been reports of house-to-house searches for political enemies in cities under Taliban control. People have been telling news and radio that they have been hiding in their homes for days, fearing of retribution. Politicians have warned to judge the Taliban on their actions, not their words.

Which countries have said they will take in refugees?

President Biden has sent aside $500 million to help evacuate those Afghans which worked with the US.

Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia have said they will hold Afghan refugees bound for the US temporarily while it is worked out how best to get them to America. Uganda has said it will host 2,000 under the same plan.

Vjosa Osmani, Kosovos president, said she was contacted by President Joe Biden last month with a request to temporarily house Afghan refugees.

Without any hesitation or single conditioning, I have given my consent to such humanitarian operation, she said in a Facebook post, adding: Nobody better than us knows what it means to be expelled and to leave by force from where you grew up, to separate from your loved ones, to be forced to flee to save your life.

The United Kingdom announced they will accept 20,000 refugees, as will Canada. The UK said their scheme will be aimed at "the most vulnerable," namely women and children. The British parliament was recalled from its summer recess early to debate the UK's role in the collapse of the country and what it can do next. Other countries in Europe are saying they will take refugees, but French President Emmanuel Macron has been heavily criticized for vowing to create an EU initiative to prevent migrant flows from Afghanistan.

As well as these plans, a more pressing problem could be the influx of Afghanistan's direct neighbors. Iran already hosts 3 million Afghans, as that number is expected to jump as people flee through the long and porous border. Pakistan has 1.4 million Afghan refugees, with the UN estimating the number could be as many as 3 million, making it one of the largest refugee populations in the world. While the west deliberates, those countries closest to Afghanistan will have their support stretched the most.

Is it enough?

The UK press has already attacked the government for its lack of ambition in housing its proposed refugees. While 20,000 Afghans may sound a lot, it isn't many for a country of over 30 million people. Add in how it will be parceled over 4 years, making it only 5,000 refugees a year, and it is desperately little.

It will also be difficult for people to get the necessary documentation to leave. As many Afghans fled their homes in the chaos of the last three days, many do not have the necessary documentation to gain visas and leave with the Americans and NATO.
Many organizations across the US are beginning to impose the stick over the carrot, as vaccination makeup in the country has slowed to a crawl. Airline companies are the next to impose mandates, and the move has been criticized by some pilots. However, pilot unions have supported the move and encouraged staff to be vaccinated. Roughly 60% of American Airlines pilots are vaccinated, according to a union note from earlier this month. More than 90% of Uniteds pilots are vaccinated, the carrier said.

What is being proposed?

Different companies are having different rules for their workers.

United Airlines is requiring all US-based employees to get vaccinated, and provide proof of their vaccination, either five weeks after federal approval or by October 25, whichever comes first, the company announced in a note to employees on August 6.

Hawaiian Airlines said their staff must be vaccinated.

Alaska Airlines is considering the move once the FDA fully approves one of the available vaccines.

Other carriers, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways have said they are encouraging, but arent requiring that staff are vaccinated. Delta Air Lines requires new hires to be vaccinated, however.

Why are they doing it?

It's crucial for airline companies to end the pandemic, as they are the most affected by travel bans and restrictions. The US is currently not allowing entry from many countries around the world due to high covid-19 levels. A covid-19-free planet would boost the profit margins of these companies considerably, so it's in their best interest for as many people to be vaccinated as possible.

What have unions said?

The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents Uniteds more than 12,000 aviators, believes the mandate is legal. It said the small number of pilots who dont agree with the policy or plan to remain unvaccinated should contact their chief pilots office.

Flight attendants labor union, the Association of Flight Attendants, urged cabin crew members to get vaccinated after United Airline's announcement.

What risks does the Delta variant pose?

The variant has a high viral load, meaning people can become infected after a shorter contact with someone already infected. It is estimated that the viral load of Delta is 1260 times more than variants from the beginning of the pandemic. Health guidance says there is a risk of infection even with people outdoors for no more than five minutes, and that even people vaccinated should wear masks indoors. The CDC also states that Delta is twice as contagious as the Alpha variant first sequenced in the UK, which was itself twice as infectious as the original covid-19 strain.

What this means in practice is rising hospitalizations and deaths. Data from the week beginning July 28 shows nationwide hospitalizations rose by 40% from the week prior, to a seven-day average of 7,707. Hospitalizations have been rising since late June, and are at their steepest rise since November 2020.
When do students go back to school?

Some school districts, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, have already reopened. Here is a list of all the others:

August 9 - Antelope Valley Union High School District.

August 10 - William S. Hart Union High School District.

August 11 - Alhambra Unified School District, Pomona Unified, Arcadia Unified School District, Downey Unified School District.

August 12 - Pasadena Unified School District, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, Bellflower Unified School District, South Pasadena Unified School District, Baldwin Park Unified School District, Duarte Unified School District.

August 13 - Beverly Hills Unified School District.

August 16 - Montebello Unified School District, Burbank Unified School District, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

August 17 - La Canada Unified School District.

August 18 - Glendale Unified School District, Redondo Beach Unified School District, Las Virgenes Unified School District, Monrovia Unified School District, Paramount Unified School District, Conejo Valley Unified School District.

August 19 - Compton Unified School District, Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, Covina Unified School District.

August 23 - ABC Unified School District, Inglewood School District.

August 25 - El Segundo Unified School District, Manhattan Beach Unified School District, Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.

August 26 - Torrance Unified School District.

August 31 - Long Beach Unified School District.

September 3 - Hermosa Beach City School District.

What covid-19 measures are in place?

To stem the spread of covid-19, teachers in Los Angeles are required to be fully vaccinated against the virus by October 15 and both teachers and students are required to wear masks inside school buildings.

The rules for students are:
Yu Yunquan, President of Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies (ACCWS)

Chinese President Xi Jinping has lately replied to a letter from the overseas young participants of the Global Young Leaders Dialogue (GYLD) program, which has once again brought great encouragement and firm confidence to young people around the world, bringing them together to the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. The world is now undergoing profound changes never seen in a century that have been further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been proved time and again that the interests of all countries influence each other and the cultures of all nations inspire each other. Building a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right way forward. At present, global governance faces such challenges as environmental changes, wealth gaps, epidemic and diseases, regional turmoil, trade protectionism, and populism, the reality that humanity shares weal and woe has further been highlighted, adding to peoples expectation of a better world.

Although history, culture, system, and level of development vary in different countries, by and only by uniting and cooperating in the spirit of shared destiny, as well as adhering to and carrying forward the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and liberty of all mankind, we can solve the century-old problems and global challenges, as we make steady progress towards the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Xi stressed during his speech at the general debate of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, We should embrace the vision of a community with a shared future in which everyone is bound together. We should reject attempts to build blocs to keep others out and oppose a zero-sum approach. We should see each other as members of the same big family, pursue win-win cooperation, and rise above ideological disputes and do not fall into the trap of clash of civilizations. More importantly, we should respect a countrys independent choice of development path and model. The world is diverse in nature, and we should turn this diversity into a constant source of inspiration driving human advancement. This will ensure that human civilizations remain colorful and diversified. In pursuit of building a community with a shared future for mankind, it is particularly necessary to ensure harmony, coexistence and win-win cooperation based on cultural respect and integration of civilizations among countries and nations across the globe.

Youths are born to dream, and the youths who strive for their dreams shine the brightest. The construction of a community with a shared future for mankind cannot be accomplished overnight. The road to ones dream will inevitably be fraught with thorns, which requires determined efforts. Young people are the keenest, most active and energetic people of our time on the way to explore the diversity and possibilities of the world and unleash the greatest potentials to lead the world to a bright future. It is the young generations responsibility and the common aspiration of people worldwide to let the admiration of peace be passed on from generation to generation, to let the driving force of development flow, and to let the brilliance of civilization shine.

Friendship between the peoples holds the key to sound state-to-state relations, and friendship between the youth holds the key to amity between the peoples. The letter exchanged between President Xi and international youth has no doubt encouraged more young people around the globe to walk hand in hand in realizing their dreams. The more dreams, skills and responsibilities young people worldwide have, the more promising and hopeful the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind will be. In the face of difficulties, great accomplishment can only be achieved while integrating the ideal of life into the cause of the country and the shared dream of mankind. Young people around the globe need to take more solid steps to explore the global village, learn more about each others similarities and differences, promote open dialogue and cultural exchanges, and develop mutual communication and trust.

The Global Young Leaders Dialogue (GYLD) program jointly initiated by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies (ACCWS) and the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) aims at building a platform for youth with diverse regional, cultural and disciplinary backgrounds to exchange ideas, learn from each other and enhance friendship, in an effort to gather more globalized, younger and diversified forces for the improvement of global governance, and encourage young people to aim high and work hard in pursuing their shared dreams. Over the past six months, the program has held six GYLD China Tours, as well as activities such as the WiseDemo Campaign and the GYLD 2021 Annual Forum. The program is making its way as an important platform for young people around the world to make friends, share ideas and integrate resources, and is welcomed by overseas young friends.

Relying on the GYLD program, we will continue to innovate activities, enrich dialogue and attract more young people to participate as we embark on the new journey into a broader future. In association with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we will continue to stimulate the intellectual vitality of Chinese and overseas young people, strengthen intellectual exchange and mutual learning, and give full play to the unique role of international youth in innovation, creation and empowerment of the future, injecting youth power into the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Contributed by Yu Yunquan, President of Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies

Translated by Wang Xinyuan

Editor: WXY
BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese capital has banned curriculum subject-tutoring institutions from holding classes on holidays, Beijing municipal education commission said in a press conference Tuesday.

Li Yi, spokesperson of the commission, said that off-campus training institutions shall not teach curriculum subject-tutoring courses on national legal holidays, weekends and winter and summer vacations.

He said the move is expected to ease the pressure on students undergoing compulsory education, reduce family expenditure on education and ease parents' burden.

Li said the municipal authority will no longer approve new curriculum subject-tutoring institutions. It will re-examine the eligibility of all registered training institutions.

During the current summer vacation, the municipal and district educational departments have stepped up inspection of off-campus training institutions and coordinated to tackle related problems such as refund of fees, Li said.

Editor: JYZ
In the course of illegal searches in the houses of Crimean Tatars on Tuesday, three out of five detainees chose custody measures, Verkhovna Rada human rights commissioner Liudmyla Denisova said.

"Raif Fevziev will be in Simferopol pretrial detention facility until October 12, and Dzhebbar Bekirov until October 11. They are charged with 'organizing the Hizb ut-Tahrir activities' Rustam Tairov, for 'being accused of participation in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization' will be in jail until October 11," Denisova said on her Telegram channel.

According to her, illegal searches in the premises of the Crimean Tatars were conducted without the admission of lawyers and the presentation of the relevant procedural documents in the Crimean Tatar language, which is a violation of Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The commissioner demands the immediate release of the detainees, and also called on the international community to increase pressure on Russia.

"The persecution of the Crimean Tatars by the occupation authorities is religiously motivated and I demand the immediate release of our fellow citizens," she said.

Denisova said that on Wednesday, Leninsky District Court of Sevastopol will choose a preventive measure in the form of detention of the illegally detained Rustem Murasov and Zaur Abdullayeva. They are charged with "participation in the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization."

In addition, in the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, a court hearing will be held on the so-called "El Hizb ut-Tahrir" in relation to the participants of the so-called "Bakhchisarai third group," which includes Seytumer Seytumerov, Osman Seytumerov, Amet Suleymanov and Rustem Seytmemetov. During the hearing, it is expected to consider the case on its merits.

"I call on the international community to increase pressure on the aggressor country to stop cynical persecutions for political and religious reasons of the indigenous people of Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars," Denisova said.
More than 150 Ukrainians, members of their families and other foreigners have announced their desire to be evacuated from Afghanistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, together with the involved departments, is working to create conditions for their safe evacuation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko said.

"We are working on two plans: the evacuation of citizens by plane, which is already at the Kabul airport, and the evacuation by the plane of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, which flew from Kyiv today," Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

He said there are three immediate tasks that Ukrainian diplomats are currently solving. "The first is a safe corridor for access to the airport, because the situation there remains partially uncontrollable, part of the airport is closed, another part is controlled by foreign troops, a number of checkpoints are located at the entrances to the airport. The second is the safe boarding of people on the plane and its technical preparation: we have all seen footage in the news, what a crowd gathered at the Kabul airport, how people are trying to catch at least some opportunity to get on the planes; there was also a dysfunction of service companies, primarily for refueling," the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.

According to Nikolenko, the third task is to obtain permission to take off and safely exit the aircraft from the territory of Afghanistan.

"The evacuation will start as soon as these issues are resolved. We hope that this will happen in the near future," the spokesperson said.

He also said that Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke on the phone on Wednesday morning with one of 12 Ukrainians at a former military base near Kabul. "The citizens have assured that there is no immediate threat to their life and health. Their condition is satisfactory. They can move freely around the base. Our embassy maintains regular contact with them, interacts with the involved parties to unblock the base and evacuate. The group also has an alternative option of assistance from the employer," Nikolenko said.
There are no Ukrainian servicemen in Afghanistan, only private individuals, and they will be evacuated from the country in the same way as all citizens of Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"There are no servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the National Guard of Ukraine in Afghanistan. These are private individuals who were hired to work in Afghanistan under private contracts," Kuleba said on the air of the 1+1 television channel on Wednesday.

According to him, they are now concentrated on the military base.

"But these are not servicemen. I ask all media to stop reporting this fake that 12 Ukrainian military personnel have been abandoned to their fate. These are private individuals who went there to work, to earn money," the minister said.

He said they will be evacuated according to the same principle as the rest of the citizens of Ukraine.

"We are in touch with them, we are making every effort to get them from that base. This base is not far from Kabul, but since it is a military facility, the Taliban took control of it. But these are not the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but these are citizens Ukraine, and we will help them anyway," Kuleba said.
The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol has sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) further evidence of the war crimes of the Russian Federation  the illicit transfer of prisoners who are serving their sentences in Crimea.

"This is the 11th information report sent to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. It is another confirmation of the cooperation of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomy and the Prosecutor General's Office with non-governmental organizations  the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and the Regional Center for Human Rights," Head of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol Ihor Ponochovny said at a briefing on Wednesday in Kyiv.

According to him, sending an information report to the ICC is "a logical continuation of two information reports that were sent in 2016 and 2017." "Previous reports concerned 189 prisoners who were transferred from the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation. In this information report, we identified additional 275 new victims of such displacement," the Crimean prosecutor said.

Ponochovny clarified that these data were obtained during the pretrial investigation of criminal proceedings under Article 438 of the Criminal Code  violation of the laws and customs of war. Currently, 464 Ukrainian citizens have been identified who have been illegally displaced from Crimea and are serving sentences on the mainland of the Russian Federation.

The head of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea noted that in the information report the actions of the Russian Federation are qualified under Article 8 of the Rome Statute  illegal deportation, transfer of the population of the occupied territories outside these territories.

Also, according to him, the report deals with the possibility of considering this crime as a crime against humanity in accordance with Article 7 of the Rome Statute. "But in this context, there are warnings, since the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine in practice cannot initiate crimes against humanity, since there is a certain gap in the national legislation," he said.

"We state [in the information report to the ICC] that the Russian government continues to systematically carry out the illegal and forced transfer of Ukrainian prisoners from the occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to the Russian Federation, that is, for the ICC, an important context is the scale and systematic nature of such violations. This report just confirms this context," Ponochovny said.
The Il-76MD military transport aircraft, which flew from the military sector of Boryspil airport (Kyiv region) to Kabul (Afghanistan) to evacuate citizens, is at Muscat airport (Sultanate of Oman), according to the Facebook page of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"Currently, there is no safe corridor for access to the Kabul airport, where the situation remains partially uncontrollable. In addition, a permit has not yet been received for take-off and safe exit from the territory of Afghanistan. Therefore, the Il-76MD aircraft is now at Muscat airport [Sultanate of Oman], where it is waiting for these issues to be resolved and a permit to evacuate," the report says.

Reportedly, more than 150 Ukrainians, their family members and other foreigners expressed a desire to be evacuated from Afghanistan.
Russia-occupation forces in the zone of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) continue to disregard requirements for the deployment of weapons and military equipment. The relevant facts are indicated in the OSCE SMM report dated August 17, 2021, the JFO headquarters reports on Facebook.

"The OSCE SMM recorded a short-range UAV in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region, near the village of Pokrovka, three BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, which were deployed in violation of the withdrawal line, 17 tanks, three 2A65 Msta-B towed howitzers, three 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers and three mortars, located outside the allocated storage areas. In addition, there are 22 armored combat vehicles in the security zone," the report says.

In addition, the OSCE SMM patrol spotted BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system, which was deployed in violation of the withdrawal line at a training area near Myrne, and 9K33 Osa surface-to-air missile system in occupied Velyke Orikhove.

"Systemic violations in the active movement of weapons and military equipment on the territory not controlled by the Ukrainian government testifies to the participation of Russia's armed formations in complex combat training activities at training areas with subsequent rotation along the contact line," the JFO headquarters said.

It is also noted that the OSCE SMM recorded a significant amount of weapons near populated areas, which allows Russia's armed formations to conduct provocative fire, followed by the spread of fake accusations against the Armed Forces of Ukraine of shelling residential areas.

"With these actions, Russia's armed formations continue to demonstrate their unwillingness to fulfill the previously reached agreements," the headquarters said.
According to the National Police of Ukraine, about 50,000 Hasidic pilgrims may arrive in Uman in 2021 to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Head of the National Police Ihor Klymenko said at a meeting with Israeli Ambassador Michael Brodsky.

"And now our main task is to make the guests feel safe. We have full interaction with the Israeli police officers who serve with us in Uman. We will react very quickly and in a timely manner to all events that occur. The National Police and the police of Cherkasy region are now on an enhanced version of the service," Klymenko said, according to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Brodsky, in turn, noted the well-functioning work between the police officers of Ukraine and Israel according to the experience of previous years.

"The Israeli police come here to help, but we understand that you have full responsibility. And thanks to your work and professionalism, we can come to the Rosh Hashanah celebrations every year," the ambassador said.

Klymenko clarified that at the same time the presence of law enforcement officers at airports has been strengthened.

"We are working together with the border and migration service so that people can drop in and celebrate the holiday in safety," he said.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov is convening an extraordinary session on August 24 to consider a bill on the large state emblem of Ukraine, Razumkov's press secretary Olha Tuniy has said.

"Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov, in connection with the demand of the President of Ukraine, signed an order to convene an extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine  on August 24 at 14:20. During the session, a bill on the large state emblem of Ukraine [No. 5712] will be considered," Tuniy said on Facebook on Wednesday.

She also published a scan of Razumkov's order to convene an extraordinary session on August 24.

As reported, on August 24, the Verkhovna Rada at 13:00 will gather for a solemn session on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Act of Independence of Ukraine.

Another extraordinary session of the Ukrainian parliament will be held on 23 August. At it, MPs will consider an appeal of the Verkhovna Rada to the UN, PACE, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), European Parliament, governments and parliaments of foreign states on strengthening international cooperation within the Crimea Platform in order to counter Russia's aggression.
Egypts overpopulation is a decades-old challenge that requires a presidential initiative to be mitigated, Al-Shorouk news website reported Deputy Minister of Health Tarek Tawfik as saying on Tuesday.

At "Media and Overpopulation" seminar, Tawfik said the population will reach 122 million in 2030.

Egypts population at home reached 102 million, with an average increase of 3,636 people per day between October 2020 and July 2021, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in July.

In nine months and five days, the population increased by one million, CAPMAS added.

This challenge "should be followed up on. Without this intervention [a presidential initiative], nothing will change," Tawfik said.

Birth control methods have not efficiently reaped positive results because they must be implemented in parallel with fighting illiteracy and school dropouts.

In its latest statement on illiteracy in September 2020, CAPMAS reported that the number of illiterate people in Egypt stood at 18.4 million in the 2017 census, recording a rate of 25.8 percent, up from 39.4 percent in 1996 and 29.7 percent in 2006.

The issue of population growth is not being handled by a single institution in Egypt. It is rather a problem that is being co-managed by several bodies, Tawfik explained. It is difficult to coordinate the work of 22 institutions responsible for the national population strategy, he added.

Among the reasons behind the failure to control population growth, Tawfik added, is that unfortunately, some religious clerics publicly support controlling overpopulation, rejecting it in close circles.

CAPMAS expects the Egyptian population to reach 192 million people in 2052 with the current growth rates, and 143 million people in the same period in case of intensifying comprehensive state efforts to reduce the fertility rate.

Tawfik said that 48 percent of Egypts women are illiterate, stating that 67 percent of women over the age of 50 are uneducated.

According to a CAPMAS report in March, when Egypt's population had stood at 101 million, females comprised 49 percent of the population, numbering 48.5 million.

Illiteracy is higher among Egyptian females than males. Illiterate women, according to the 2017 census, reached 10.6 million, making up 30.8 percent of Egyptian females. Some 7.8 million males are illiterate, or 21.1 percent of Egypts males, CAPMAS said in September 2020.

Today, there are eight women in Egypts cabinet, representing 24 percent of the number of ministers in the government. There are 162 women under this parliamentary dome, making up 27 percent of parliament members.

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Cairo International Airport's Antiquities Unit and Customs Department seized 34 archaeological coins from different eras before they were smuggled out of the country.

A specialised committee was formed to examine the authenticity of the coins, said Hamdi Hammam, head of the Seized Antiquities Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

The coins, minted of metal, silver, and gold, include a dinar from the Abbasid era, 24 coins from the Ottoman and Sultan Hussein Kamel's reign, and eight coins from the periods of kings Fouad and Farouk.

Following the investigation, the coins will be handed over to the SCA, as per the amended law on the protection of antiquities 117/1983.
An Egyptian consortium has begun installing the first turbine for the Julius Nyerere Hydroelectric Power Project (JNHPP) in Tanzania, Egypts Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Assem El-Gazzar announced on Wednesday.

The JNHPP, which is located in the Morogoro area on the Rufiji River in Tanzania, is being built through a joint venture of two Egyptian companies, the Arab Contractors Company and Elsewedy Electric, and will secure a clean power supply for more than 60 million Tanzanians as well as control water flow during flooding.

El-Gazzar noted that the installation of the first turbine was observed by officials from the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy, the employer of the project.

The installed turbine is the first of nine, each with a capacity of 235 mw, and the total hydropower dams capacity stands at 2,115 mw, a statement by the ministry said.

El-Gazzar, who visited the project site in May, said in Wednesdays statement that Egypts President Abdel-Fattah has continuously followed up on the JNHPP, which is of great importance in highlighting cooperation with African brothers.

Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company Sayyed Farouq said the progress on the project is going well and according to the plan, indicating that all the workers are aware of the importance of this project to realise the dream of the Tanzanian people.

The dam is some 1,025 metres long at the summit and 131 metres high with a storage capacity of about 34 billion cubic metres of water. When complete, the JNHPP will be the largest in Tanzania, and the energy generated will be transmitted through transmission lines at a voltage of 400 Kilovolts to a substation where it will be integrated into the national electricity grid.

The project dates back to August 2017 when Tanzania announced bids for the construction of the dam. In December 2018, the contract was assigned to Arab Contractors and Elsewedy Electric at a budgeted cost of $2.9 billion.

In February 2019, the government of Tanzania handed over the construction site to the Egyptian companies and construction began in the third quarter of 2019, and the project is scheduled to be completed by 2022.

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Head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamel travelled to Ramallah and Tel Aviv on Wednesday as per the directives of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, a statement read.

Kamels visit is meant to advance Egypts efforts in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, which is sponsored by El-Sisi.

Earlier in May, an Egypt-sponsored ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Palestinian factions to end an 11-day military aggression in the Gaza Strip.

The escalation was sparked on 10 May when Israel cracked down on Palestinian demonstrators who were protesting against Israels plan to expel Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah district in East Jerusalem.

The 11-day fighting was deemed the most vicious since 2014 as Israel upped its aggression on Gaza with artillery and air strikes in response to rocket attacks on Israeli towns from the Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.

The Israeli offensive killed more than 250 Palestinians, including 66 children, left more than 1,900 injured, and destroyed hundreds of commercial and residential buildings.

The death toll in Israel stood at 13.

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has ratified amendments to some provisions of the Supreme Constitutional Court law.

Under the amendments, the court will monitor the constitutionality of the decisions of international associations and organisations and foreign court rulings that are required to be put into effect.

The prime minister can ask the Supreme Constitutional Court to issue a verdict on ignoring these decisions or rulings.

The amendments were published in the official gazette on Wednesday.

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Egypts General Intelligence Service (GIS) Chief Abbas Kamel paid a visit on Wednesday to Ramallah and Tel Aviv within the framework of Egypt's efforts to support the Palestinian-Israeli peace process in line with the directives of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received Kamel upon his arrival in Ramallah.

Kamel delivered to Abbas a message from President El-Sisi, who underlined Egypt's support for the Palestinian cause.

In Tel Aviv, Kamel met with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his national security advisor, where they discussed safeguarding the Egyptian-sponsored ceasefire in the Palestinian territories as well as the efforts to push forward the peace process.

Kamel also discussed with Bennett the latest developments concerning Egyptian-Israeli bilateral relations.

Earlier in May, an Egypt-sponsored ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Palestinian factions to end an 11-day Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip.

The 11-day fighting was deemed the most vicious since 2014, as Israel upped its aggression on Gaza with artillery and air strikes in response to rocket attacks on Israeli towns from the Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.

The Israeli offensive killed more than 250 Palestinians, including 66 children, left more than 1,900 injured, and destroyed hundreds of commercial and residential buildings.

The death toll in Israel stood at 13.

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The second day of south Sudan's referendum transpired with little friction as long lines of voters queued patiently in front of polling centres. The atmosphere was calm yet festive with musical bands touring the streets of Juba, chanting and waving flags and banners calling for secession.

Bagan Amom, secretary general of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) and Deng Alor Kuol, minister of regional cooperation, both went to Abyei on Sunday to defuse the situation following news of clashes in the province. The two men were supposed to attend a news conference in Juba last night, but cancelled it at the last minute.

Edward Lino, member of the SPLM Political Bureau and the man in charge of the Abyei dossier, said that a new country is being born -- one determined to offer its people a better life. Lino, who denied that the cause of the Abyei conflict was tribal, blamed the recent clashes on the 31st battalion of the Sudanese army, who mostly belong to the Misseriya tribe. The Khartoum government, he said, ordered members of the battalion to shed their army outfits and gave them arms and ammunition to stir trouble.

Unless the dispute is resolved through dialogue, Abyei could be the next flashpoint, Lino pointed out. He mentioned that the Dinkas living in Abyei have thus far repulsed the attackers and prevented them from seizing their land.

Asked if Abyei could become a hub for economic integration, Lino dismissed the idea. He said that Sudanese tribes are keenly aware of their borders and that trouble begins when these borders are threatened.

According to Lino, the Abyei Protocol offered a solution to the problem, but Al-Bashir rejected it and refused to comply with the international arbitration that followed.

The problem is not confined to Abyei, Lino said. There are more than 13 million nomadic tribesmen herding cattle in the south, and they need the south just as much as the southerners need the north. He advised the Khartoum government to refrain from creating problems for everyone.

The Dinka and the Rozeiqat, Lino said, managed to reach an agreement in western Bahr Al-Ghazal. The same thing could happen in Abyei if Khartoum, which is only interested in oil, ceased its meddling.

Ibrahim Ghandour, political secretary of the National Congress Party (NCP), said that the police forces of the southern government should leave Abyei, claiming the area is affiliated with the presidency and that neither the SPLM nor the NCP should maintain a presence there. He warned that an escalation in Abyei could undermine the referendum. Ghandour said that Amom was making things worse in Abyei and called on the SPLM to keep him in check.

SPLM spokesman Yien Matthew Chol said that the southerners opted for secession only as a last resort. The south has its own cultural identity just as the north does, but the Muslim majority in the north was not in a mood to share. At one point, the entire south had only 200 schools, the same number the north would have in a small-sized town, Chol remarked.

There is hardly a family in the south that hasnt lost one of its members in war, Chol stated. South Sudan has lost 4 million people in war, and thousands have been maimed or emotionally traumatised. Chol added that many of the southerners living in the US, Australia and Canada came back home to cast their votes. Others have come to the south from the north to vote, as they couldnt trust the fairness of the referendum procedures in the north.

The British left Sudan decades ago, Chol stressed, and yet the Sudanese could never manage to sit together and sort out their differences.

Regardless of their differences, however, Chol maintained that the southern Sudanese were eager to have good relations with the rest of the Arab world, insisting that Israel has no presence in the south. He urged the Arab media to stop portraying the south Sudanese as enemies of the Arabs and Muslims.

Chol claimed that unless circumstances were to change in the north, other parts of Sudan would also seek secession.

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Related African Union probes tweet blasting US call for Tigray dialogue Niger on Wednesday declared 48 hours of national mourning after 37 people were killed in a fresh massacre by suspected jihadists.

"Flags will be flown at half-mast across the country" with immediate effect, a government statement said.

It reaffirmed the government's determination to "pursue the fight against terrorism until the final victory", urging greater vigilance among the population.

Gunmen on motorbikes launched an attack on villagers Monday in Darey-Daye as they were tending their fields. Four women and 13 children were among the 37 people killed.

The massacre bore the hallmarks of jihadist attacks that have battered western Niger since 2015, when an armed Islamist campaign spread from Mali.

Darey-Daye, which was hit in an attack in March that claimed 66 lives, lies in the Tillaberi region, which has borne the brunt of the bloodshed.

The village is located in the department of Banibangou, in the so-called "tri-border" area where the frontiers of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali converge.

The area is notorious for attacks by highly mobile jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

According to a toll issued last week by Human Rights Watch, more than 420 civilians have been killed in jihadist attacks in Tillaberi and the neighbouring region of Tahoua this year, and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.

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The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate, on Wednesday welcomed the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, saying it hoped Syria's jihadists would also be victorious.

The armed group that formally broke ties with Al-Qaeda years ago is considered to be the most prominent jihadist group in Syria after a decade of war.

HTS controls nearly half of the Idlib region -- the last remaining opposition bastion in Syria -- alongside other less influential groups.

It said the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan following two decades of US occupation was an example to follow.

"We congratulate our Taliban brothers and our people in Afghanistan for this clear conquest, and ask God to also grant the Syrian revolution victory," it said in a statement released on its social media channels.

HTS formally cut ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016 in a rebranding effort that saw it move closer to Syrian rebel groups in the country's northwest.

But it is still widely seen as a hardline jihadist outfit by activists and Idlib residents who have been subject to arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances and brutal killings at the hands of HTS fighters.

The Syrian government controls two thirds of the country after 10 years of war.

The conflict has killed nearly half a million people and forced half of Syria's pre-war population from their homes.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday held rare talks with a visiting delegation from the United Arab Emirates, extending Ankara's effort to mend fences with Middle Eastern rivals.

The UAE team was headed by the oil-rich Gulf state's national security adviser, Tahnoun bin Zayed, the two sides said in brief statements, adding that trade and economic investments were discussed.

The two sides have suffered from years of difficult relations, backing opposing sides in the conflict in Libya and sparring on other regional issues.

In a televised interview, Erdogan said talks held with Abu Dhabi for the last couple of months and led by the Turkish intelligence had reached a certain stage.

"I believe that there will be some more talks in the coming process," he said.

"We are in favour of the main actors in the region directly negotiating and solving the problems."

The UAE is also supporting Greece's energy claims in disputed eastern Mediterranean waters that Turkey pushed into searching for new natural gas deposits last year.

But Erdogan has made efforts to reach out to a range of regional rivals, including Egypt, as he tries to break out of a growing diplomatic isolation that has cooled foreign investors in Turkey's fragile economy.

Erdogan's offices noted that the two sides discussed "UAE investments in Turkey."

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Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who ended the USSR'S decade-long war in Afghanistan in 1989, on Tuesday warned against repeating the mistakes of the US invasion of the country.

"From the very start (the US invasion) was a bad idea, although Russia initially supported it," Gorbachev told the RIA Novosti news agency.

"Failure should have been admitted earlier," 90-year-old Gorbachev said.

"Now it is important to learn from the situation and at least not repeat such mistakes," he added.

Taliban militants on Sunday completed a military takeover of Afghanistan with little resistance, capitalising on the withdrawal of US-led troops from the country.

The US military had been present in Afghanistan since 2001 when it invaded following the Taliban's refusal to hand over Al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The Soviet Union had also invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support an Afghan communist government that was in conflict with Muslim guerrilla fighters.

Shortly after coming to power in 1985, Gorbachev decided to end the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.

Moscow's decade-long war in Afghanistan killed up to two million Afghans, forced seven million more from their homes and led to the deaths of more than 14,000 Soviet troops.

Fighters from the anti-Soviet Mujahideen helped found the Taliban in the early 1990s.

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The Taliban violently broke up a protest in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person as they quashed a rare public show of dissent. The militant group meanwhile met with former officials from the toppled Western-backed government.

As officials work to shape a future government, the United Arab Emirates acknowledged that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the Taliban advance, and his family were in that country.

The Talibans every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely. They insist they have changed and wont impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating womens rights, carrying out public executions and harboring al-Qaida in the years before the 9/11 attacks.

But many Afghans remain deeply skeptical, and the violent response to Wednesdays protest could only fuel their fears. Thousands are racing to the airport and borders to flee the country. Many others are hiding inside their homes, fearful after prisons and armories were emptied during the insurgents blitz across the country.

Dozens of people gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad to raise the national flag a day before Afghanistans Independence Day, which commemorates the end of British rule in 1919. They lowered the Taliban flag  a white banner with an Islamic inscription  that the militants have raised in the areas they captured.

Video footage later showed the Taliban firing into the air and attacking people with batons to disperse the crowd. Babrak Amirzada, a reporter for a local news agency, said he and a TV cameraman from another agency were beaten by the Taliban as they tried to cover the unrest.

A local health official said at least one person was killed and six wounded. The official was not authorized to speak to media and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the U.S. against the Taliban in 2001, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there. Its in the only province that hasnt yet fallen to the Taliban.

Those figures include members of the deposed government  Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he is the countrys rightful president and Defense Minister Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi  as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Its unclear if they intend to challenge to the Taliban, who seized most of the country in a matter of days last week.

The Taliban, meanwhile, pressed ahead with their efforts to form an inclusive, Islamic government. They have been holding talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government. Mohammad Yusof Saha, a spokesman for Karzai, said preliminary meetings with Taliban officials would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader, who returned to the country this week.

Karzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction. The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

Meanwhile, the UAEs Foreign Ministry acknowledged in a one-sentence statement that Ghani and his family were in the country for humanitarian considerations. The president fled the Taliban advance on Sunday and disappeared amid widespread anger from Afghans over the collapse of the countrys security forces.

The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear if hed received any other assistance. The UAE is a close U.S. ally.

Amid the uncertainty, thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country in recent days, and the U.S. and its allies have struggled to manage a chaotic withdrawal from the country.

Hundreds of people were outside the airport early Wednesday. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch, dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

In Kabul, groups of Taliban fighters carrying long guns patrolled a well-to-do neighborhood that is home to many embassies as well as mansions of the Afghan elite.

The Taliban have promised to maintain security, but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government. Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militants.

Another Taliban promise being closely watched is their vow to prevent Afghanistan from again being used as a base for planning terrorist attacks. That was enshrined in a 2020 peace deal with the Trump administration that paved the way for the drawdown of American troops, the last of whom are supposed to leave at the end of the month.

When the Taliban were last in power they sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida group, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. U.S. officials fear al-Qaida and other groups could reconstitute themselves in Afghanistan now that the Taliban are back in power.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban blew up a statue depicting Abdul Ali Mazari, a militia leader killed by the Taliban in 1996, when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords. Mazari was a champion of Afghanistans ethnic Hazara minority, Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Talibans earlier rule. That further raised concerns about whether they would make good on their promises, including not seeking revenge on those who have opposed them.

In a sign of the difficulties any future Afghan government will face, the head of Afghanistans Central Bank said the countrys supply of physical U.S. dollars is close to zero. Afghanistan has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some $7 billion held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

The next shipment never arrived, he wrote. Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.

He said the lack of U.S. dollars will likely lead to a depreciation of the local currency, the afghani, hurting the countrys poor. Afghans have been lining up outside ATM machines for days, with many pulling out their life savings.

Ahmady said the Taliban will struggle to access the countrys reserves because of international sanctions.

The Taliban won militarily  but now have to govern, he wrote. It is not easy.

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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has discussed the situation in Afghanistan with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.

The Iranian president's website, president.ir, reported on Wednesday that he talked on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him Iran was ready to cooperate with China in establishing security, stability and peace in Afghanistan, as well as on issues regarding the development, progress and prosperity for Afghans.

Raisi said: ``We believe that the departure of foreigners, as well as past experiences in this country, has highlighted the need for the support and participation of all Afghans to ensure the security and development of Afghanistan more than ever.''

Raisi separately spoke with Vladimir Putin and was quoted by the website as saying that stability must be established in Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Raisi was quoted as saying that ``establishing security and peace in Afghanistan has always been emphasized by Iran and we believe that all Afghan active groups should work together to establish stability in the country as soon as possible and make the U.S. withdrawal to a turning point for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.''

Raisi also praised what he described as Iranian-Russian cooperation in Syria, where the two have over the past years boosted Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and turned the tide of war in Assad's favor and called for Iran and Russia to ``increase the interaction between Tehran and Moscow.''

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Despite its swift takeover of the government in Afghanistan, the Taliban will not have access to most of the nation's cash and gold stocks, the central bank chief said Wednesday.

The Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) had around $9 billion in reserves, but most of that is held in banks overseas, out of reach of the Taliban, DAB governor Ajmal Ahmady said on Twitter.

"As per international standards, most assets are held in safe, liquid assets such as Treasuries and gold," said Ahmady, who fled the country on Sunday, fearing for his safety as the Taliban swept into the capital.

A US administration official told AFP on Monday that "any central bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban."

Ahmady said the US Federal Reserve holds $7 billion of the country's reserves, including $1.2 billion in gold, while the rest is held in international accounts including the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements.

Amid reports the Taliban were quizzing central bank staff on the location of the assets, he said, "If this is true -- it is clear they urgently need to add an economist on their team."

He repeated that Washington on Friday cut off cash shipments to the country as the security situation deteriorated, which may have fueled reports the Taliban stole the reserves since the country's banks could not return dollars to account holders.

"Please note that in no way were Afghanistan's international reserves ever compromised," and are held in accounts that are "easily audited," Ahmady said.

No SDRs for Kabul?

In addition to freezing assets, the United States could also block aid to Afghanistan from multilateral lenders like the IMF and World Bank, as it has with other regimes it does not recognize, such as Venezuela.

The IMF is set to distribute 650 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) on August 23 to all eligible members, of which Afghanistan's share was valued at about $340 million, Ahmady said.

"Not sure if that allocation will now proceed with respect to Afghanistan," he tweeted.

The IMF has not responded to AFP's request for comment on the country's status.

However, a person familiar with the process said the management of the Washington-based crisis lender believes aid could be halted if a critical mass of member governments fail to recognize the new regime.

But there is still significant uncertainty about the status.

The IMF in June released the latest installment of a $370 million loan to Afghanistan approved in November to help support the economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The World Bank has more than two dozen development projects ongoing in the country and has provided $5.3 billion since 2002, mostly in grants.

Meanwhile, Western Union announced Wednesday it was temporarily cutting off wire transfers to the country -- another vital source of cash for the people.

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The sectors are technical education, vocational training, innovation in the private sector, migration, labour, administrative reform, urban development, and renewable energy.

The approved facility comes within the framework of the joint economic relations between Egypt and Germany, which aims to support Egypts Vision 2030 and its endeavours to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The announcement was made at the annual negotiations meetings held between Egypt and Germany, headed by Sherihan Bakhit, assistant minister of international cooperation in charge of the Americas and Europe portfolios, and Mario Sander, head of the Development Cooperation with the Middle East at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The meeting was meant to set a general framework for the projects Germany will finance in Egypt. The two sides signed initial accords in preparation for the upcoming annual financial and technical cooperation agreements.

The meeting saw the participation of 45 representatives from the Egyptian and German ministries of foreign affairs, electricity and renewable energy, housing, utilities and urban communities, environment, trade and industry, education, emigration, manpower, and local development, among other attendees.

Egypt's ongoing development cooperation portfolio with Germany amounts to 1.7 billion, through which 30 projects were financed in the form of funds, technical support grants, and financial contributions, benefiting many development sectors, such as technical education, vocational training, sewage, irrigation, water support, solid waste management, migration, labor, administrative reform, urban development, gender equality, youth and social development.

There is also a 240 million debt-swap programme between the two countries.

During the first half of 2021, Egypt signed 12 development financing agreements worth 197 million within the framework of the joint cooperation strategy with Germany across various priority sectors, pushing towards the achievement of local and global development targets, stated the Ministry of International Cooperation.
The UNs World Food Programme (WFP) seeks to focus on cooperation with Egypt within its new 2023-2027 framework in mainly five sectors: food security and nutrition, building community resilience, social protection, private sector participation, and refugee support, according to the WFPs new country director in Egypt Praveen Agrawal.

Agrawal made the comments during a meeting with Egypts Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, where they discussed exploring areas of cooperation and avenues for supporting the countrys development agenda.

During the meeting, Al-Mashat asserted the ministrys aspirations in expanding partnerships with the WFP, particularly in the field of developing both rural and low-income communities in Upper Egypt.

She also expressed the importance of strengthening relations within the scope of the new 2023-2027 WFP Country Strategy in Egypt that falls within the current Partnership Development Framework, which entails supporting the participation of relevant entities from the government, private sector, and civil society in achieving the countrys development vision.

Moreover, the minister discussed the possibility of transforming the Luxor Centre for Innovation and Knowledge Sharing into a centre of excellence, becoming the first of its kind in Africa.

The WFPs centres of excellence are platforms that achieve food security by tackling malnutrition in developing countries through the exchange of knowledge and experiences.

On his part, Agrawal, who began his official responsibilities in August, lauded the development efforts undertaken by the government of Egypt on the economic and social levels.

The WFP began its work in Egypt in 1968.

The current WFP portfolio in Egypt amounts to $586 million, covering a variety of projects addressing agricultural and rural development in Upper Egypt. In the first phase of its projects implementation, 63 villages across 5 governorates have benefited from the WFPs development interventions.

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Over the last few days, the Taliban have swept across Afghanistan and taken control of Kabul, the capital, and the second and third-largest cities in the country, Kandahar and Herat. The rapid advance of the Taliban has taken the international community by surprise and proved that the latter is helpless to stop the Taliban, in the absence of an agreed-upon political agreement on power-sharing with the Afghan government.

On 14 August, Mazar-e-Sharif, the stronghold of the former Northern Alliance with which the CIA liaised in preparations for its Operation Anaconda in 2001, fell to Taliban insurgents.

Taliban conquered Kabul for the second time in the last three decades.

On 13 August, after an international meeting on Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar released a chairmans statement condemning the violence in Afghanistan, urging a ceasefire, and calling for the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan to participate in negotiations for peace. The statement said that the participants at the meeting had taken note of converging statements made by the Afghan government and the Taliban on certain guiding principles for a political solution that included inclusive governance, the respect for human rights, including the rights of women and minorities, a mechanism to deliver a representative government, a commitment not to allow the use of Afghan soil by any individuals or groups threatening the security of other countries, and the respect for international law and international humanitarian law.

Even assuming that the Afghan warring parties will sign a power-sharing agreement, it is difficult to imagine that the Taliban will genuinely respect womens rights and the rights of minorities, however, particularly the followers of the Shia sect. In the meantime, the US and UK deployed troops to secure the evacuation of their nationals as well as most of their diplomatic personnel from Kabul. The Pentagon said that these troops have no combat orders.

US President Joe Biden spoke of his decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan on 10 August, saying that he did not regret his decision and that the Afghans have got to fight for themselves and to fight for their nation. He added that the only way to deliver security and peace was to work out a modus vivendi with the Taliban and insisted that an Islamist takeover was not inevitable.

It would be difficult to expect the Taliban to accept a back seat in any future government in Afghanistan in the case of a political solution. With the Afghan military demoralised and incapable of defeating the Taliban on the battlefield. In fact, one Taliban leader said last week that his movement was advancing towards the Afghan capital like an anaconda.

This reference is not coincidental. Back in 2001, the US war plan in Afghanistan in its initial phase was codenamed Operation Anaconda. Former US president George W. Bush wrote in his memoir Decision Points that Operation Anaconda marked the end of the opening phase of the battle In six months, we removed the Taliban from power, destroyed Al-Qaeda training camps, liberated more than twenty-six million people from unspeakable brutality, allowed Afghan girls to return to school, and laid the foundation for a democratic society to emerge in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are now taking their revenge 20 years later. For the record, the US war plan in Afghanistan was code-named Enduring Freedom.

The international community has warned the Taliban that seizing power by force in Afghanistan will turn the country into a pariah state and deprive it of international legitimacy. The Taliban know better. Regional powers, in addition to Russia and China, have been involved in talks with the Islamist movement over the last couple of weeks. These powers want assurances from the Taliban that they will not allow any terrorist groups to stage attacks against them from Afghan territory.

As things stand, the Taliban have promised the Chinese government that they have no intention of targeting the southeastern Chinese provinces where the majority of Chinas Muslims live, for example. Nor will they encourage any local Chinese terror group to operate from Afghan territory. It goes without saying that China will also want to work with the Taliban in the future if they are in power in the context of its Road and Belt Initiative.

Russia is observing a wait-and-see attitude towards the recent developments in Afghanistan for the time being, and some Russian diplomats have gone as far as to claim that the Taliban do not pose a security threat to Russia in the medium term. India, which historically has viewed the Taliban with suspicion, has entered into exploratory talks with them, with the aim of making sure that the Taliban will not lend support in the future to terrorist groups that have targeted India in the past, especially in Kashmir.

The latest turn of events in Afghanistan has benefited Pakistan. Over the past 20 years, Islamabad has been wary of Indian-Afghan relations and feared the growing Indian presence in Afghanistan. With the Taliban conquer and on the verge of assuming power in Kabul, the Pakistanis will have fewer security worries in this context. However, there will be another concern related to future relations between the Taliban in Kabul and the Pakistani Taliban.

As Taliban seizes absolute power in Kabul, the international community will depend on Pakistan to a certain extent in dealing with the Taliban. The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency enjoyed close relations with the Taliban prior to 1996 before they became the sole rulers of Afghanistan and during their years in power from 1996 until 2001. I suspect that relations between the ISI and the Taliban did not end with Operation Enduring Freedom.

Pakistan was among the three countries that recognised the Taliban government after 1996. The other two were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. How many governments will recognise a Taliban government in Afghanistan today is anybodys guess. To believe that the Taliban have changed could prove to be wishful thinking. The internal cohesion of the movement would be threatened if some leaders within it really want to guarantee womens rights and those of the minorities.

On 12 August, both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, reaffirming the US commitment to maintaining robust diplomatic and security relations with the Afghan government. Blinken also stressed that the US would continue working for a political solution to the conflict. Two days later, he called the Afghan president once again with the same message of support. On the same day, the Afghan president addressed his countrymen, assuring them that his government would defend Kabul and fight the Taliban.

However, less than twenty four hours later, Afghan President Ghani fled Kabul and negotiations were underway with the Taliban for a peaceful surrender of power, in Afghanistan. Many Afghan observers predict the descent of Afghanistan into civil war.

Afghan lives ruined or lost will be part of Bidens legacy was the title of an op-ed article run by the Washington Post on 12 August. Operation Enduring Freedom launched by former US president George W. Bush in 2001 has failed to deliver long-lasting freedom and a thriving free society in Afghanistan.

A new chapter is opening in the turbulent history of Afghanistan and South Asia. In the meantime, history has proved once again that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.

*The writer is former assistant foreign minister.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Fortis fortuna adiuvat is a Latin proverb that means that fortune favours the brave or the bold. This old Roman saying seems to have eluded US President Joe Biden in his rushed decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan. The decision opened the door for the Taliban to take over most of Afghanistans provinces in record time and overtake the capital itself.

The longest war in the history of the US had to end sometime. But pulling out US troops while Taliban forces are sacking one city after another is an act of complete political misjudgement, or, in simpler terms, cowardice, in the face of the sheer brutality and terrorism that the Afghan population will now be subjected to. It is shameful to say the least.

After the announcement of Biden of withdrawing the US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban forces didnt waste any time and initiated a sweeping attack against southern Afghani states including the cities of Kandahar and Herat. By 15 August Taliban controlled most of Afghanistans 34 provinces including the capital.

Instead of intensifying its aerial bombardment or adjusting its tactics to prevent the onslaught of the Taliban taking on the rest of the country as announced a week ago, the US military continues to pull out. This is despite the Talibans blitzkrieg that is sweeping through the country. It feels as if Biden and the US commanders do not want to antagonise the Taliban, hoping to prevent them attacking US troops evacuating the country. But the onslaught has left a humanitarian crisis as Taliban terrorists are exacting vengeance on those who have stood against them.

Reports of kidnappings and the executions of anti-Taliban Afghan citizens are becoming daily news. There are provinces in which Taliban terrorists are going from door to door to kidnap girls as young as 12 to enslave them as sex slaves. There has never been a time when Afghan women were in as much peril as they are now.

But no acts of chivalry came from Bidens White House to try to save the situation. Afghanis were left in the open with a feckless government and president that fled the country as soon as they heard the news of Talibans advance instead of organising a gallant defense.

The victory of the Taliban will mean that the 20 years of the US presence in Afghanistan, the trillions of dollars spent, and the thousands of lives lost were all wasted in vain. The global war on terrorism has been hit by the capitulation of the US to the demands of this terrorist group, which also means capitulation to Al-Qaeda, the group behind the 9/11 attacks.

Ironically, Bidens decision to capitulate comes when the US and the rest of the world will be commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that changed the world next month. No matter how the Biden administration attempts to rationalise it, the US decision to abandon Afghanistan means the opening of a Pandoras box in the entire Central Asian region and eventually also the rest of the world.

Its uncalculated withdrawal from Afghanistan represents a danger to Russia, Pakistan, Iran, China, and the Middle East. While Bidens administration doesnt care much about the safety of these countries, that doesnt mean that the US is safe from the terrorists Afghanistan will harbour in the short and long term. 9/11 stands a testament for that fact.

At the moment, jihadists around the world are celebrating the US failure and feeling invincible. Bidens horrendous decision empowers groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Qaeda in the African Sahel countries to declare their own states in the hope of recognition at some time in the future. After all, the clear message that has been sent is that if a terrorist group holds its ground for long enough, it will be recognised by the worlds superpowers. The Afghan soldiers fleeing their posts or surrendering towns and cities to the Taliban forces is a testament of complete failure of the US policies in Afghanistan which have opened the door for the Taliban to seize over the country and present a clear danger to the rest of the world.

Biden had earlier announced that the Afghan army was capable of defending the country against the Taliban, known to be a fallacy by even the most misinformed observers. That statement didnt age very well as the lie was exposed weeks later after a US intelligence official stated that Kabul would fall into the hands of Taliban within 90 days of the US withdrawal  it didnt take that long as by 15 August the capital was seized by Taliban, meaning that Biden was lying in order to cover up his rushed decision to pull out the US troops without the necessary preparations.

Regardless of the costs of the war, used as an excuse for the rapid US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the consequences of this decision will reach the US and its allies and has a devastating effect on their international policies and security. The Afghan war is one that the US cannot afford to withdraw from without attaining a decisive victory, since the costs of not doing so will be far greater than any expenses thrown at it. Wars are fought by army commanders and politicians and not by accountants.

Terrorists will not yield without attaining victory, which means that if they are given an inch, they will demand a yard, and if they are given a yard, they will demand a mile. Believing in their fabled global caliphate, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban will seek to extend their dominion beyond Afghanistan and will represent a menace to the world for years to come. These are days of shame for the Biden administration that should not be forgotten in the historical record.

The writer is a political analyst and author of Egypts Arab Spring: The Long and Winding Road to Democracy.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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In 2008, the UN General Assembly designated 19 August as World Humanitarian Day to raise awareness about humanitarian aid worldwide and to pay tribute to the personnel risking their lives in order to bring it forth. The first time World Humanitarian Day was commemorated was on 19 August 2009.

This day coincides with the day in which an attack was launched against the UN headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August 2003, killing 22 people including the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Amid the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic, the unprecedented needs and the growing insecurity, aid workers and healthcare responders remain steadfast in serving the worlds most vulnerable. Thus, they became the essence of World Humanitarian Day last year, which witnessed the outbreak of the globally painful pandemic.

On World Humanitarian Day, the world has honoured all humanitarian workers  most of whom work in their local communities  exerting an exceptional effort during extraordinary times in order to help women, men and children whose lives were turned upside down due to crises and the COVID-19 pandemic. In responding to COVID-19 and the enormous increase in humanitarian need it caused, the importance of these real heroes devotion, perseverance, and making the ultimate sacrifice grows. They represent the most sublime humanitarian manifestations.

It is noticeable that in most cases the first responders are those in need themselves; the refugees, civil society organisation members and local health workers. They are the ones bringing food, shelter, healthcare, protection and hope to others during raging conflicts, displacement, catastrophes and diseases.

In our celebration of this years World Humanitarian Day, we find that the climate emergency is causing chaos on a scale that those exerting efforts to address climate change  and the entire human society  cannot control. Time passes by quickly for those most affected by this climatic emergency, who at the same time are the least causing it. Damage has befallen their homes and livelihoods.

With the focus of most of the climate campaigns targeting the slowdown of climate change and securing the planets future, the World Humanitarian Day 2021 sheds light on the direct consequences of the climate emergency on the most vulnerable in the world, and ensuring that their problems are at the top of the agenda of the UN Climate Change Conference to be held next November.

As a matter of fact, the global economy bears the cost of human crises in the millions, and this in turn puts a limit on gains achieved by development and even reverses their course. For every year, needs grow and costs mount up. The volume of UN calls for humanitarian aid increased from $3.4 billion in 2003 to $20 billion in 2016. At the same time, the gap between the volume of needs and the available resources to meet them widens. Hence, it is imperative to reverse this course in humanitarian work on a global scale.

In fact, climate change, economic growth, inequality, food price fluctuations and the scarcity of resources are matters that have implications transcending national borders. For demographic changes, especially the fast ones, and random urban sprawl exposes more people to natural catastrophes. Civil wars, to which 80 percent of humanitarian needs are attributed, are also on the rise. Suffice to mention that, for instance, civil wars increased from four wars in 2007 to 11 wars in 2014. Undoubtedly, humanitarian work is an integral part of the world human rights movement; for the struggle for preserving everybodys rights represents, even during times of conflicts and catastrophes, one of the most difficult missions in the world.

The culture of human rights is an indivisible whole and one does not neglect one of lifes facets no matter how high its risks or the cost of addressing them. Let human rights be a convergence point for humanity in which all efforts are combined after narrow interests scattered them and took them away from humanitys noble spirit.

*The writer is the secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights

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The state-owned Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) Company may be listed on the stock exchange within two years, according to statements by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on Saturday.

We are talking about raising some LE100 billion. The Companys assets are estimated at between LE3 and LE4 trillion, Al-Sisi said during the opening of a number of residential projects in Badr city.

Following Al-Sisis announcement, Ahmed Zaki Abdine, CEO of ACUD, said the companys assets included the land portfolio under development. He said that much of the land had been sold, with ownership moved to real-estate development companies. There were also government facilities not considered under the ownership of ACUD, he said.

ACUD was established by presidential decree in 2016. It is the owner and developer of the land at the New Administrative Capital, the first phase of which is under construction. The company is owned by the New Urban Communities Authority and the National Service Projects Organisation.

Abdine said ACUD had a land portfolio of 174,000 feddans, and the first phase was finalised on an area of 47,000 feddans. The second and third phases will follow. Land left undeveloped will be assessed in order to estimate the real size of the companys assets, he added.

The value of the companys land portfolio is increasing year by year as a result of the development taking place and the high standards of the infrastructure projects, Abdine stated.

Financial inflows from instalments paid to the company for land sold in the first phase and planned to be sold in the second phase guarantee the availability of the liquid funds mentioned, he added.

The New Administrative Capital is a three-phase project covering an area of 700 square km east of Cairo. It will transform the desert into a modern urban hub of government buildings, embassies, and leading companies and will host the tallest tower in Africa.

The government is scheduled to move up to 50,000 employees to the New Administrative Capital by December, and the monorail linking it with Cairo is expected to become operational by mid-2022.

The LE100 billion initial public offering (IPO), Egypts largest ever, is awaiting the appointment of a financial advisor, lead regulator, and bookrunner.

Hani Tawfik, chairman of the Direct Investment Association, said the announcement of the IPO had had a positive impact on stock market indices, which rose during Sundays session by about 1.5 per cent.

He added that more important than the announcement of the offering was its overall significance, meaning that the state was paving the way for the entry of private and foreign investment.

Tawfik said the IPO would attract foreign and Arab investors who often prefer to invest in real-estate stocks that are known for their good performance on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

The introduction of ACUD as an IPO is expected to increase liquidity in the market and attract more local and international investors. Telecom Egypt was previously the largest IPO since 2015, collecting LE5.1 billion.

Toka Al-Waziri, a real estate analyst with Beltone, an investment bank, believes the announcement of the ACUD offering means that the market is witnessing an increase in listed real-estate stocks. It would revitalise the market due to the large amount of liquidity involved, she said.

The preparatory steps preceding the offering will reveal information about Egypts real estate market, the size of the demand for ACUD stocks, and the units for which there is high demand, Al-Waziri said.

It is crucial that the offering be well-publicised at home and abroad, she added.

We are in the planning stage now and can start the procedures for choosing advisers and deciding the size of the offering early next year, Abdine told the US Bloomberg channel. We hope this IPO will be the largest in Egypts history.

The offering will take place on the Egyptian Stock Exchange and very possibly in another international market as well, he added. We are studying this option.

Al-Waziri believes that the IPOs the government had earlier announced, but then postponed, will attract more investors to the ACUD IPO if implemented or partially executed.

Egypts IPO programme surfaced in 2018 with the target of offering 23 public companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. But by March 2019, only 4.5 per cent of Eastern Tobacco shares had been offered. Other IPOs were postponed due to unsuitable circumstances.

It was expected that Banque du Caire and e-finance, a national developer of digital payments infrastructure, would be among the first companies to be offered. It was also anticipated that additional shares would be offered in Alexandria Containers and Cargo Handling, Abu Qir Fertilisers, and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals, but the plans were postponed.

Al-Waziri said that Egypts real estate sector has been revitalised over the past year. The year before, the sector had witnessed a slowdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, she said. According to the performance of companies listed on the bourse, all real-estate sectors have recovered.

Besides promoting the ACUD IPO, it should also be accompanied by exemptions on taxes on investing in the stock exchange and stamp duties on buying or selling whether profits are garnered or not, she added.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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On Sunday, US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns visited Egypt and met with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. It was Burns first working visit since taking office last March. His trip also included Israel and the Occupied Territories, where he met with senior Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials.

During his meeting with the US official, President Al-Sisi stressed Cairos interest in reinforcing cooperation with Washington, particularly over security, said Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi.

Al-Sisi and Burns exchanged views on tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, developments in Afghanistan and Palestine, over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and Libya.

The US has always been keen to continue coordination with Egypt, especially in light of developments in the Middle East, the East Mediterranean, and Africa, Burns was quoted as saying.

Radi said Burns appreciated President Al-Sisis efforts to strengthen regional security and stability, and Egypts role as a balancing axis for regional security.

Burns is the second senior US official to visit Egypt since Joe Biden became US president in January. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Egypt in May to discuss relations between Cairo and Washington and consolidate the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in Gaza which ended 11 days of Israeli hostilities against the Strip. Blinkens visit followed two phone calls from Biden to Egypts president, raising hopes of a thaw in relations between Cairo and Washington.

Burns visit came days after USS Monterey, an American guided-missile cruiser warship, stopped at Egypts Bernice Naval Base.

Jonathan Cohen, the US ambassador to Egypt, said the Montereys visit to Egypts largest military base in the Red Sea was the first for a US warship. The visit reflects the strong maritime cooperation between Egypt and the US, said Cohen. Together we are combating smuggling, trafficking, and piracy, and ensuring safety at sea.

Egyptian commentators view the visits of senior US officials to Cairo as evidence that Egyptian-US relations now stand on solid ground.

When Biden took office, many expected relations to turn frosty given the negative views towards political developments in Egypt since 2013 attributed to the incoming president, says former Egyptian foreign minister Mohamed Al-Orabi. Things began to change following the war in Gaza and the important role Egypt played in brokering a ceasefire between the Israelis and Palestinians, and with the recognition of Egyptian efforts to help Libyan factions reach a political solution.

US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland visited Cairo on 10-11 August. He met with Egyptian officials and the Commander of the Libyan National Army Khalifa Haftar to discuss the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled in Libya in December.

Hazem Al-Guindi, a member of the Egyptian Senates Foreign Relations Committee, said despite the Biden administrations frosty attitude towards Egypt during its first months in office, it now recognises the strategic importance of relations with Cairo. I think the recent visit of the CIA chief has highlighted how Cairo and Washington share mutual interests, not least on vital issues such as terrorism and the situation in Gaza, said Al-Guindi.

Al-Guindi concedes, however, that many in the US administration, Congress and media, continue to view Egypts political leadership in a negative light. They continually raise human rights issues and urge Biden to exert pressure on Egypt by cutting military assistance, said Al-Guindi.

In American political circles US-Egyptian relations have been subject to intensive debate in recent weeks as the US Senate prepares to discuss foreign policy spending, including the $1.3 billion in military aid that Washington provides to Egypt. The Biden administration must soon decide whether or not it will cut $300 million  the amount linked by Congress to Egypts human rights record  from the $1.3 billion in annual military aid designated for Egypt.

While federal law requires that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken certify the Egyptian government is taking sustained and effective steps to strengthen the rule of law, democratic institutions and respect for human rights, before releasing the military aid, Blinken can bypass the certification by issuing a waiver on the grounds that it is in the national security interests of the US to fully fund military assistance. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo issued such a waiver in July 2020,

The US House of Representatives last month passed the annual foreign policy appropriations package, fully funding the $1.3 billion in military and security assistance to Egypt until 2023 despite calls from House members Tom Malinowski and Adam Schiff to withhold $300 million due to Egypts poor human rights record.

Senator Chris Murphy, chairman of the US Senate panel on the Middle East and a member of the Senate Appropriations sub-Committee on State and Foreign Operations, also called on the Biden administration to withhold the $300 million over concerns about human rights.

According to US press reports, Biden administration officials remain opposed to any cuts in aid to Egypt. A report in The Hill newspaper, published on 10 August, cited senior officials from the US Department of Defense and the State Department arguing that continued US security assistance to Egypt should remain unchanged even as the Biden administration raises concerns over Cairos record on human rights.

In a Senate Foreign Relations sub-Committee meeting on the Middle East on 10 August, Dana Stroul, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said the bottom line for President Biden is that he values the relationship with Egypt, and that he believes the Egyptians are an important security partner.

We also believe and support that Egypt has legitimate security concerns and believe that security assistance to Egypt is a critical tool in supporting those needs.

The current view of the administration is that Egypt is playing a constructive role when it comes to border security, Libya, GERD, obviously the conflict in Gaza, et cetera, said Stroul. She went on to praise Cairo for agreeing to use its own funds, rather than annual US security aid, to upgrade its Apache helicopters.

Mira Resnick, US deputy assistant secretary of state for regional security in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, told US senators that while US officials have raised concerns over human rights in Egypt at the highest level of government, Egypt remained a critical security partner.

The president himself has underscored the importance of a constructive dialogue on human rights with the government of Egypt and we will continue to pursue this, even as we pursue shared security goals on maritime security, on border security, and on counter-terrorism, she said.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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When UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace broke down during a media interview on Monday, admitting that the UK may not be able to get all remaining UK nationals and their local allies out of Afghanistan, the scale of the challenges facing the UK and other Western countries as a result of the fast-moving events in Afghanistan became clear.

Wallace did not try to gloss over the situation, saying that the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan was a defeat for the US, the UK, and NATO and could have dreadful consequences.

It is too early to predict all the strategic repercussions of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban 20 years after they were expelled from power by US-led international coalition forces. But some of the results are already clearly visible. There is the humiliation and indignity suffered by coalition forces leaving Afghanistan, defeated, in the absence of a political process, and with a humanitarian crisis looming, even as there is no guarantee that the country will not become a haven for international terrorism.

No wonder Wallace choked up during the interview on the UK channel LBC Radio when explaining why it would be difficult to rescue all British citizens and Afghans with links to Britain and bring them home because of the chaos in Afghanistan.

Our obligation has to be to get as many people through the pipeline as possible, Wallace said. Some people wont get back. And we will have to do our best as third countries to process those people, he added.

Asked why he felt the emergency evacuation so personally, Wallace, a former captain in the British army, said because Im a soldier  because its sad. He added that the West has done what its done. And we have to do our very best to get people out and stand by our obligations and 20 years of sacrifice.

The UKs rescue operation, involving 600 troops, is attempting to evacuate around 4,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans out of Kabul in the coming days. The speed of the Taliban takeover suggests there may be only a short period to get people out.

British Ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow, who is still in Kabul, was said to be helping diplomats process applications by Afghans keen to leave the country.

Wallace acknowledged that the Taliban are now fully in control of Afghanistan and insisted that British forces would not be returning to fight them. I mean, you dont have to be a political scientist to spot thats where were at, he told the UK channel Sky News.

While US President Joe Biden has said he stands squarely behind the US exit from Afghanistan, he faces withering criticism in the US and from European countries. How many more American lives is it worth, Biden asked, referring to the situation in Afghanistan. He said that despite the messy pull out, there was never a good time to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan.

However, European allies of the US say the timing was worse than anticipated scenarios.

This is an absolute blunder, with long-term strategic consequences, said Tobias Ellwood, chair of the UK parliaments defence committee and a former defence minister. We were distracted by Brexit, by Covid-19, and we were too willing to assume the narrative that the Americans were peddling that its time to go home and leave Afghanistan to sort its own problems out, and that wasnt the correct reading of the situation, nor the correct understanding of the consequences of our departure, he said.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it had been impossible to predict the Taliban would retake Afghanistan so swiftly after the withdrawal of international troops, arguing that no one saw this coming.

The truth is that across the world people were caught by surprise, he told Sky News. I havent spoken to an international interlocutor, including countries in the region, over the last week who hasnt been surprised.

After the first UK government emergency meeting in the wake of the fall of Kabul, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was fair to say the US decision to pull out has accelerated things, but this has in many ways been a chronicle of an event foretold.

He urged the West to come together to stop Afghanistan becoming a breeding ground for terrorism after Ellwood warned of terrorist attacks on the West on the scale of 9/11.

Wallace was also blunt in condemning the administration of former US president Donald Trump for its handling of the talks with the Taliban. He said the withdrawal agreement negotiated in Qatar by the Trump administration was a rotten deal that the UK had tried to resist at the time.

Asked how big a mistake it was to withdraw the troops, Wallace said that at the time of the Trump deal with, obviously the Taliban, I felt that it was a mistake to have done it that way. We will all in the international community probably pay the consequences of that.

Ive been pretty blunt about it publicly, and thats quite a rare thing when it comes to United States decisions, but strategically it causes a lot of problems and as an international community, its very difficult for what were seeing today, he added.

For Britain, exiting Afghanistan in such a hasty, scrambled fashion without a plan for what comes next is doubly bitter. In addition to the deaths of British and American soldiers, and the deaths of Afghan soldiers and civilians, the British government has revealed that the war in Afghanistan has cost the British taxpayer about 23 billion since it began.

The final cost is likely to be higher because the bill disclosed by Junior Defence Minister James Heappey only counts cash from the treasury. There is also Ministry of Defence spending on equipment and weapons.

The families of British soldiers who died on previous tours of Afghanistan have had sharp words to say of the UK and US governments handling of the withdrawal.

Graham Knight, whose son, 25-year-old airforce sergeant Ben Knight was killed when his aircraft exploded in Afghanistan in 2006, said that the British government should have started evacuating civilians a week ago.

The 69-year-old told the UKs PA news agency that the Taliban made their intent very clear that as soon as we went out they would move in.

As for whether peoples lives were lost through a war that wasnt winnable, I think they were. I think the problem was we were fighting people that were native to the country. We werent fighting terrorists; we were fighting people who actually lived there and didnt like us being there.

Ian Sadler, whose 21-year-old trooper son Jack died when his vehicle struck a mine in Afghanistan in 2007, told the PA that why did they think the Afghan national army would be able to keep the Taliban back based on just numbers alone? Why did our government and allies have so much confidence in them?

When the NATO forces were pulled out so suddenly, the Afghan national army was left without any direction.

There are now complex calculations facing Europe, as Afghanistan may once again become a haven for terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS). That could open the door to a massive wave of immigration to Europe.

But the main question for the time being is how to deal with the Taliban.

During a phone call between Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron, it appeared that the two countries have not yet taken a final decision regarding their approach towards the Taliban. Most likely, consultations will continue for several months before deciding whether to recognise a Taliban government or not.

This decision will not be taken by western leaders in a vacuum but will be based on the behaviour of the Taliban on the ground, their record on womens and girls rights, and their relations with organisations such as Al-Qaeda and IS.

However, whatever decision is taken will determine a lot regarding European security, the prospects of a new refugee crisis, the legacy of the Afghanistan war, and the Wests ability to intervene in any future international conflict under the slogans of nation-building, human rights, or advancing democracy.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Sponsored by Egypt and other global players, indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have faltered, which threatens a return to another round of escalation.

Experts predict it will be more ferocious this time, as Israel continues to delay reconstruction in Gaza, insisting on linking progress on the issue with the return of Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas. The Palestinian factions do not believe what Israel is offering is enough.

Informed Palestinian sources said that in the last few days factions in Gaza have discussed another round of military confrontations with Israel, deliberating over gradual escalation that would begin with marches on the border, the release fire balloons towards Israeli towns and settlements, and disrupting activities at night. The terms demanded by Hamas and other factions to avoid another round of fighting were turned down, and the truce based on reconstruction and a prisoner exchange has floundered.

This means clashes will probably reignite. One source said mediators are working hard on both sides to avoid military confrontations, but Palestinian factions are not satisfied with what Israel intermittently provides. They told mediators that measures should return to pre-11 May conditions and the Israeli siege of Gaza must stop.

The source continued that Hamas leaders told Egyptian mediators that they reject the offers made by the Israeli government, and that the Qatari donations must be delivered according to existing agreements or a new mechanism agreed on by Hamas.

International mediators urged Hamas and other factions in Gaza to give the political track more time to reach a new understanding with the government of Naftali Bennett, the leader of Yamina Party. Available information revealed that Egypt and other international parties are working on reaching a comprehensive deal between Hamas and Israel that would install a long-term truce and oversee a prisoner exchange. However, Hamas currently rejects this idea especially since Qatari funds are being withheld, and construction and other raw materials are prevented from entering Gaza.

The factions in Gaza issued strongly worded warnings against what they described as Israels attempts to extort Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, asserting they were willing to go to war against Israel if need be.

Osama Hemdan, a leading Hamas figure, told news outlets that Israel understands that the tools of resistance are many when responding to its failure to honour its commitments in previous agreements. Hemdan said his group would not give Israel extra time to implement Palestinian demands, especially those relating to problems in the Gaza Strip. Israel has scaled back measures in the Sheikh Jarrah district, and we demand it exits that neighbourhood completely, he added.

Dawoud Shehab, a leading figure in the Islamic Jihad group, said Israel continues with its aggression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza, and is deliberately delaying lifting the siege on Gaza.

Israel wants to distract Gazans with everyday life problems and divert them from the plot to dismantle the Palestinian cause, he said. Israel wants to cover up its failure in recent military confrontations by tightening the siege on factions in Gaza. The factions in Gaza have strong cards to play and great potential; we are always ready to fight Israel and respond to Israeli aggression. We are ready if they try to violate the sanctity of our Palestinian people.

Israeli sources said that lack of progress in indirect talks between the Palestinian factions and the Israeli government makes it more likely that ferocious fighting will erupt once again between the two sides. The Israeli media reported that the region is on tenterhooks and that despite good-will gestures in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli security apparatus asserts that the likelihood of military action is growing by the day.

Israels Army Radio reported that the probability of military confrontation has risen in recent days, especially since Qatari funds were blocked and talks on these funds failed when banks with branches in Gaza refused to disburse the money to beneficiaries in the Gaza Strip in case they are prosecuted according to US anti-terrorist laws.

Israel stopped transferring Qatari funds of $30 million every month since the 11-day war in May, and asked that they should be transferred via the Palestinian Authority and UN. Israeli media reported a breakthrough on the issue was reached, although no Palestinian sources would concur.

A rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, another sign that Palestinian factions may have started a gradual plan to pressure Israel.

Israels Walla! news website said that recent acts of cooperation on Israels part were a compromise to appease Hamass leadership, but if the groups leader in Gaza Yahyia Al-Sinwar rejects these measures, an eruption is bound to come. Israels Channel 20 news said the governments decision to facilitate the work of salesmen and movement at border crossings into Gaza is in the hope of preventing another round of fighting. The problem is those in the Israeli government refuse to understand that these measures will not prevent the second round of fighting, it reported. The channel added that when Hamas decides to start another round of fighting, that will happen irrespective of such measures.

The measures do not include lifting the ban on raw materials or construction materials which hinders reconstruction plans. Political analysts believe the Israeli government wants to avoid a new military confrontation with the Palestinian factions in Gaza, explaining that recent measures may appease Palestinians to de-escalate on the ground.

Experts counter, however, that Israels unilateral good -ill gestures without international mediators will never be enough to prevent another war in the Gaza Strip. They add that gradual confrontations are very likely.

Writer and political analyst Ahmed Rafiq said that it is clear that attempts to bring Palestinian and Israeli viewpoints together have failed, because each side insists on their demands before agreeing to a truce. Rafiq said that the new Israeli government wants to prove itself to the Israeli electorate and not fall into the trap of accusations previously levelled at Binyamin Netanyahu, especially regarding Qatari funds and understandings with Hamas.

In recent weeks, the two sides held indirect talks in Cairo led by the Egyptian Intelligence Agency, to achieve the longest possible truce between them in return for economic improvements in the Gaza Strip. Blocking progress on these talks however is that both sides are adamant that their demands should be met before agreeing to a long-term truce and reconstruction. While Israel is bargaining with Hamas about the Qatari grant and reconstruction of Gaza, Hamas is taunting Israel about the captured Israeli soldiers.

Informed sources said Hamas is taking a hardline position on the prisoner exchange deal although it has made minor compromises on the matter. This will not lead to a breakthrough any time soon, however, especially since Israel feels that Hamas and other factions in Gaza have only made minor shifts which do not warrant reaching an agreement. Israel insists that reconstruction and development in Gaza will not happen until the prisoner exchange issue is resolved or progress is made there. No significant developments will occur until the Israeli soldiers are released, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

Observers believe that, right now, Hamas and Israel are closer to a confrontation than a truce, especially since Hamas has started giving strong signals of moving towards a new confrontation, albeit gradually.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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The departure of US forces from Afghanistan, and Taliban control of the country, forces difficult questions on states across the region.

Later this month Iraq is due to host a political and security meeting, trailed as a neighbourhood conference, at head-of-state level. A full list of participants in the meeting has yet to be announced.

So far, Gulf countries, Egypt, Jordan and several capitals with interests in the Middle East have indicated they will attend. With the Taliban takeover of Kabul following the abrupt, though long-promised, departure of US forces from Afghanistan, the gathering is quickly gaining significance.



As one Egyptian official put it this week, the meeting offers an opportunity for states to exchange views over the future of the region in light of the new US position.



Diplomatic sources who spoke during the week agreed that the decision of the Joe Biden administration to follow through on its predecessors pledge to pull out of Afghanistan, combined with ending the combat mission of US forces in Iraq by the end of this year, signals determination on the part of Washington to disengage from the region.



We had been anticipating the end of the US presence in Afghanistan under [former US president Donald] Trump for a while, and though Biden delayed the withdrawal by a few weeks, ultimately he followed through, said one diplomat.



According to another, the US had in fact been more or less hands off on most key regional issues for the four years of the Trump administration, and while some might have hoped for Biden to act differently, the fact is that these withdrawals have considerable public support in the US. The diplomat added that the distressing scenes at Kabul airport, as thousands of Afghans desperately attempted to flee, were unlikely to impact on this backing.



The end of any visible American combat presence in the region is but one sign among many of Washingtons desire to disengage which, the same diplomats argue, first became apparent in the closing years of the Barack Obama presidency.



Barring acts of containment engendered by crises  as was the case during the war on Gaza earlier this year  the US has been determinedly hands-off, they argue, citing Washingtons reluctance to use its influence to intervene in Lebanon despite the alarming situation there, and its at best lukewarm engagement with the ongoing political crises in Tunisia or Algeria, as evidence. In Libya, the same diplomats say, the US is applying measured intervention in cooperation with allies.



The larger Middle East, however, remains significant to US interests, meaning that ultimately this is a disengagement with some sort of an arrangement, argued one diplomat. He added that CIA chief Bill Burns was clearly in the region this week to consult on future security and political cooperation.



Burns visited Israel, the Palestinian territories, and had a short stopover in Lebanon before arriving in Egypt. Containing Iran, managing the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, and reducing the Russian presence in Libya were on top of Burns agenda.



A source familiar with the CIA chiefs talks in Cairo said issues of bilateral concern between Egypt and the US, including aid and good governance, were also discussed though these were of less significance to the visiting US official than the security situation in the Palestinian territories and Libya.



Mohamed Fayez, director of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, says the most significant message received while watching this weeks withdrawal from Afghanistan is that the US is giving up on the role it assumed 20 years ago, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, when the [George W] Bush administration decided to use US military and political might to combat terrorism, reform failed states and promote democracy.



While some commentators argue that the Taliban today will be less brutal than it was when it ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, and more loath to allow terrorist groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda to operate on Afghan territory, Fayez, who has followed the Afghan scene closely, is far from optimistic.



I think there might be a few changes in the public posturing of the Taliban, but essentially the Taliban of today is exactly the same as the Taliban of 2001, says Fayez.



What the US has done in Afghanistan, he argues, is to strike a deal with a militant Islamist group that has direct and indirect links with other terrorist groups and which continues to offer them help, implicitly and explicitly. Which, he continues, begs an important question: will the US, using the same version of realpolitik, opt to make deals with similar extremist groups elsewhere in the region?



At the very least, what happened in Afghanistan forces questions about the possible future role of non-state actors, and the types of relationships Washington can tolerate with these actors, he says.



And how, asks Fayez, does Washington intend to rework its existing alliances in the coming months? Clearly, he argues, it will have to decide which capitals it will entrust with the task of keeping a lid on the promulgation of extremist Islamist movements.



Whatever happens, Afghanistan will turn into a venue for battling powers as the region enters a new, post-US disengagement phase.



China, says Fayez, has already established contacts with the Taliban leadership  Afghanistan lies at a crucial juncture of Beijings Belt and Road Initiative  and the Chinese could help the Taliban open channels of communication with Russia. Chinese/Afghan relations could also serve as a conduit for heightened tensions between India and China.



Despite its disengagement, argues Fayez, the US will continue to work for a deal with Iran, attempt to pacify the most explosive situations across the Arab world, and work to frustrate the growth of Chinese and Russian influence. This will, however, still leave Washingtons allies facing a host of uncertainties.



In the wake of the Taliban takeover, Gulf states face serious security questions which will become more urgent as Turkey and Pakistan assume a bigger role in terms of managing US regional interests, either by providing channels of dialogue or bases for security operations. Egypt will also have to maximise its security readiness given the possibility of a surge in militant groups activity.



We will continue to act to deter the rise of militant groups in our zone of strategic interest and we are keeping a close watch on possible deals the US might be planning with other militant groups, said an informed security source. Egypt, he added, is particularly concerned about developments in Somalia, despite the Al-Shabab Movement being labelled a terrorist group by Washington since 2008.



Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Roble arrived in Cairo for a three-day visit on Monday. His talks with Egyptian officials were scheduled to cover security and political cooperation between the two countries.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 19 August, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Will COVID-19 vaccines work if I have a weak immune system?

Probably not as well as they do in healthy people, but the shots should offer some protection.

Its why vaccinations are still recommended for people with immune systems weakened by disease or certain medications. Its also important that your family, friends and caregivers get vaccinated, which will make it far less likely that they pass on the virus.

Weakened immune systems include people with HIV or AIDS, transplant recipients, some cancer patients and people with autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and lupus.

COVID-19 shots werent studied in large numbers of people with weak immune systems. But limited data and experience with flu and pneumonia vaccines suggest they wont work as well as they do in others. That means people with weakened immune systems should keep taking precautions like wearing masks and avoiding large crowds.

Its prudent to use all the precautions you were using before you were vaccinated, said Dr. Ajit Limaye, a transplant expert at University of Washington Medicine in Seattle.

Although most cancer patients should get vaccinated as soon as they can, people getting stem cell transplant or CAR T-cell therapy should wait at least three months after treatment to get vaccinated, according to guidance from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. That delay will make sure the vaccines work as well as they can.

For transplant recipients, researchers are looking at whether an extra dose might make the vaccines more effective.

French guidelines recommend a third COVID-19 dose for the immunocompromised, including organ recipients. Israel recently began giving an extra dose of the Pfizer vaccine to transplant patients and others with weak immune systems.

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Egypts overpopulation is a challenge that requires presidential intervention: Deputy health minister



Ahram Online, Wednesday 18 Aug 2021



CAPMAS expects Egypt's population to reach 192 million in 2052 with the current growth rates



Egypts overpopulation is a decades-old challenge thatrequires a presidential initiative to be mitigated,Al-Shorouk news website reportedDeputy Minister of Health Tarek Tawfik as saying on Tuesday.



At "Media and Overpopulation" seminar, Tawfik said the population will reach 122 million in 2030.



Egypts population at home reached 102 million, with an average increase of 3,636 people per day between October 2020 and July 2021, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in July.



In nine months and five days,the population increased by one million,CAPMAS added.



This challenge "should be followed up on.Without this intervention [a presidential initiative], nothing will change,"Tawfik said.



Birth control methods have not efficiently reaped positive results because they must be implemented in parallel with fighting illiteracy and school dropouts.



In its latest statement on illiteracy in September 2020, CAPMAS reported that the number of illiterate people in Egypt stood at 18.4 million in the 2017 census, recording a rate of 25.8 percent, up from 39.4 percent in 1996 and 29.7 percent in 2006.



The issue of population growth is not being handled by a single institution in Egypt. It is rather a problem that is being co-managed by several bodies, Tawfik explained. It is difficult to coordinate the work of 22 institutions responsible for the national population strategy, he added.



Among the reasons behind the failure to control population growth, Tawfik added, is that unfortunately, some religious clerics publicly support controlling overpopulation, rejecting it in close circles.



CAPMAS expects the Egyptian population to reach 192 million people in 2052 with the current growth rates, and 143 million people in the same period in case of intensifying comprehensive state efforts to reduce the fertility rate.



Tawfik said that 48 percent of Egypts women are illiterate, stating that 67 percent of women over the age of 50 are uneducated.



According to a CAPMAS report in March, when Egypt's population had stood at 101 million, females comprised49 percent of the population, numbering48.5 million.



Illiteracy is higher among Egyptian females than males. Illiterate women, according to the 2017 census, reached 10.6 million, making up 30.8 percent of Egyptian females. Some 7.8 million males are illiterate, or 21.1 percent of Egypts males, CAPMAS said in September 2020.



Today, there are eight women in Egypts cabinet, representing 24 percent of the number of ministers in the government. There are 162 women under this parliamentary dome, making up 27 percent of parliament members.







https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/419343.aspx
Niger declares national mourning after 37 killed



AFP, , Wednesday 18 Aug 2021



The massacre bore the hallmarks of jihadist attacks that have battered western Niger since 2015, when an armed Islamist campaign spread from Mali



Niger on Wednesday declared 48 hours of national mourning after 37 people were killed in a fresh massacre by suspected jihadists.







"Flags will be flown at half-mast across the country" with immediate effect, a government statement said.







It reaffirmed the government's determination to "pursue the fight against terrorism until the final victory", urging greater vigilance among the population.







Gunmen on motorbikes launched an attack on villagers Monday in Darey-Daye as they were tending their fields. Four women and 13 children were among the 37 people killed.







The massacre bore the hallmarks of jihadist attacks that have battered western Niger since 2015, when an armed Islamist campaign spread from Mali.







Darey-Daye, which was hit in an attack in March that claimed 66 lives, lies in the Tillaberi region, which has borne the brunt of the bloodshed.







The village is located in the department of Banibangou, in the so-called "tri-border" area where the frontiers of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali converge.







The area is notorious for attacks by highly mobile jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.







According to a toll issued last week by Human Rights Watch, more than 420 civilians have been killed in jihadist attacks in Tillaberi and the neighbouring region of Tahoua this year, and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.



https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/419346.aspx
Fourth wave of coronavirus expected in Egypt around late-September, early-October: Health ministry



Ahram Online , Wednesday 18 Aug 2021



The states plan in preparation for the expected wave is to finish vaccinating at least 40 percent of all citizens beforehand



The Ministry of Health and Population revealed on Wednesday that the fourth wave of the coronavirus is expected to hit Egypt around the end of September or beginning of October.



It warned citizens against neglecting following precautionary measures such as wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands constantly for a period no less than 20 seconds with soap and water, staying away from crowded areas, and avoiding touching any surfaces.



The ministry also called on citizens to register for a vaccine on the relevant website to reserve their spot in the queue and contribute to limiting the spread of the virus.



The states plan in preparation for the expected wave is to finish vaccinating at least 40 percent of all citizens beforehand.



Egypt seeks to inoculate 800,000 people per day to increase the number of vaccinated citizens against the coronavirus to 35.353 million in an average of 88 days, a cabinet statement cited Health Minister Hala Zayed as saying on Monday.



Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed stated that Egypt has so far received four shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine  which has an efficacy rate of 76 percent in preventing infection  through COVAX.



Megahed explained to Youm7 News website that shipments of vaccines that arrive to Egypt are subjected to analysis in the laboratories of the Egyptian Medicines Authority.



Additionally, Dr. Mostafa Mohammadi, a serology and vaccines expert and director of the Centre for Serums and Vaccination, confirmed that so far there is no mechanism for vaccination outside the registration system on the vaccination website prepared by the Ministry of Health.



He told Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper that there are two scenarios for those wishing to travel outside Egypt and need an approved vaccination certificate.



The first is if travellers have already received the vaccine, in this case, one must go to one of the centres designated for vaccinating travellers, where they will be issued the certificate for 100 pounds.



However, if the traveler has not yet been immunised, then they must register on the website in the travellers section to reserve the vaccine; in which case they will be summoned within 72 hours to one of the aforementioned centres to receive the vaccine and be issued a globally approved certificate with a valid QR Code, Mohammadi added.



According to the Ministry of Health, Egypt reported 112 new coronavirus cases, five deaths, and 199 recoveries on Tuesday, bringing the official tally to 285,577 infections, 16,630 deaths, and 234,449 recoveries since the outbreak began in February 2020.



https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/419371.aspx
KYODO NEWS - Aug 18, 2021 - 21:50 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Half of Japan's population has now received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, the government said Wednesday, marking a milestone as the country grapples with its largest wave of infections yet, with the nationwide tally of new cases topping 23,000 in another record high.

Just under 64 million of the nation's population of 125 million had been partially or fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to data released by the Prime Minister's Office, after the inoculation program was launched in February initially for health care workers and expanded to the elderly in April and later to other members of the public.

Roughly 49 million people, or nearly 40 percent, have received two doses.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of people who received two vaccine shots and still contracted COVID-19 was less than one-15th of the number of unvaccinated people who contracted the virus among cases reported between Aug. 10 and 12.

Nearly half of the population is expected to have received two shots by the end of August and close to 60 percent by the end of September, bringing Japan nearly on a par with the United States and Britain, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a press conference on Tuesday.

Japan has so far exclusively used COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc. or Moderna Inc. It has begun only this week shipments of the AstraZeneca Plc shot for use in people aged 40 or older to prefectures most in need of additional doses such as Tokyo and Osaka.

The government is considering administering a third dose next year amid concerns of the vaccine's efficacy waning over time and the spread of highly contagious variants of the coronavirus.

Some countries, including Israel, have already begun giving the booster shots, while the World Health Organization has called on wealthy nations to wait for developing countries to secure more doses.

Experts advising the ministry over coronavirus measures said steps need to be taken to deal with the current "disaster-level" situation nationwide.

Japan's progress in vaccinating its population comes as the government scrambles to contain a nationwide surge in COVID-19, on Tuesday deciding to expand its state of emergency to more prefectures and extend it to Sept. 12, after the Tokyo Paralympics end.

The capital reported 5,386 new cases on Wednesday, the second most in a single day, with 275 people in severe condition. Osaka saw 2,296 new cases, marking a record high for the second straight day and the first time the figure has topped 2,000.

Shigeru Omi, the nation's top COVID-19 adviser, said at a parliamentary hearing that he believes actual infection numbers are higher than reported due to insufficient testing, warning that the Delta variant and people becoming less cooperative with government-mandated restrictions has caused the surge in cases.

Also Wednesday, Suga asked Japan's largest business lobby to allow employees to work from home a day after calling on firms to reduce the number of commuters by 70 percent.

Meeting Masakazu Tokura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation known as Keidanren, at its office in Tokyo, Suga said, "Telework is an effective countermeasure. It may be difficult for some industries to implement, but I ask for your cooperation."

Tokura responded that he will notify the lobby's members of the request, telling reporters after the meeting that he also urged Suga to make "antibody cocktail" treatment widely available.

The treatment, in which COVID-19 patients are administered casirivimab and imdevimab intravenously, lowers the risk of hospitalization or death by about 70 percent, according to overseas clinical trials.

Related coverage:

Japan extends virus emergency to Sept. 12, adds 7 more prefectures

Japan's daily COVID-19 cases top 20,000 for 2nd straight day

Japan's COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms hit record 1,478
KYODO NEWS - Aug 11, 2021 - 22:10 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

The strain of the coronavirus pandemic on the health care system in Tokyo and other Japanese urban areas is reaching a critical phase, experts warned at a government meeting Wednesday, as the highly contagious Delta variant continued to drive the rise in the country's daily infections to a fresh record.

The number of new COVID-19 cases nationwide totaled 15,812 on Wednesday, topping the previous record of 15,753 reported on Saturday, according to a Kyodo News tally.

Experts at a meeting of the health ministry's pandemic response panel said the situation in Tokyo, currently under a fourth state of emergency, could deteriorate despite progress in getting people vaccinated.

Takaji Wakita, the head of the National Institute of Infectious Disease who chairs the panel, said the Tokyo Paralympics scheduled from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5 should be held without spectators like the Olympics which closed Sunday.

Tokyo's daily COVID-19 cases totaled 4,200 the same day, the Tokyo metropolitan government said, topping the 4,000 line again following a brief dip since late last week.

Its seven-day rolling average of new infections was 3,983.6 per day, up 14.5 percent from a week earlier. The cumulative total of confirmed coronavirus cases in Tokyo reached 258,981, the metropolitan government said.

Hiroshi Nishiura, professor of public health at Kyoto University, told the panel of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare that, even in an optimistic scenario for the near-term pace of the coronavirus spread, all of about 6,000 beds which hospitals in Tokyo are prepared to provide for COVID-19 patients would be filled by the middle of this month.

By late August, nearly half of 400 beds secured for COVID-19 patients suffering severe symptoms would be taken up, Nishiura warned.

The number of patients showing severe symptoms in Tokyo rose to a fresh record of 197 on Wednesday from 176 the previous day, according to the metropolitan government.

The manager of one of the public health centers in Tokyo told the health ministry panel that the number of elderly people testing positive for the coronavirus has been rising recently despite most of them having been vaccinated, suggesting the country's vaccination program "is reaching its limit" in slowing the pandemic.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 18, 2021 - 14:57 | All, Japan

Japan's weather agency warned Wednesday of the risk of further flooding, swollen rivers and mudslides across wide areas of the country as heavy rain from last week could continue unabated, having left at least 8 people dead already.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said more rain is forecast to hit areas from the western to northern parts of the country through Thursday as a stationary front is expected to move north along the Japanese archipelago.

The agency said the front is forecast to reach Hokkaido, the country's northernmost main island, on Wednesday night, after moving over the Sea of Japan. The front is expected to gradually weaken from around Thursday.

Rain-related accidents have already left eight people dead, with several others unaccounted for, as rescue workers continue to search for those still missing.

The Nagasaki prefectural government said Wednesday a woman in her 80s who was found collapsed in a drain the previous day in the southwestern city of Hioki had died as a result of the rain.

Also early Wednesday, an earthquake with magnitude of 4.2 hit the western city of Shobara, Hiroshima Prefecture, and the agency warned that even a small amount of rain or another quake could trigger mudslides in areas where the ground may have been saturated with rain from the past week.

In the 24 hours through Thursday morning, up to 200 millimeters of rainfall was forecast in southern Kyushu, up to 180 mm in the Shikoku region in western Japan, and up to 150 mm in the Tokai region in central Japan.

Related coverage:

Rain continues to lash Japan as public urged to remain on alert

Heavy rain continues in Japan as mudslides kill 4, leave 5 missing

Mother, 2 kids die in central Japan mudslide as heavy rain continues
KYODO NEWS - Aug 18, 2021 - 21:44 | World, All, Japan

Seafood entering Japanese markets potentially includes catches by Chinese fishing vessels that routinely engage in illegal fishing practices and human rights abuses against their workers, according to a recent investigation by a British environmental group and interviews by Kyodo News.

Between 2017 and 2020, the Environmental Justice Foundation interviewed and obtained photos from around 70 Indonesian fishermen who previously worked on board 19 Chinese tuna fishing vessels operating in the western Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.

These vessels appeared to trans-ship with Japan-bound refrigerated cargo vessels, known as reefers, some of which were found to be operated by a subsidiary of major Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp.

Based on analysis of satellite vessel tracking and testimonies from Indonesian crew members, the EJF concluded that tuna and swordfish had been transferred from Chinese fishing vessels to around 10 Japanese reefers bound for Shimizu port in Shizuoka Prefecture among others. Some crew members testified that they had transferred tuna to a reefer flying the Japanese flag.

A spokesperson for Mitsubishi told Kyodo News that it was not aware of any of its reefers conducting illegal fishing or abusing human rights, saying it regularly checks for such violations and would investigate further if any problems are found.

"Our transactions involving tuna are performed in accordance with international rules," the spokesperson said.

Several of the Chinese fishing vessels belonged to a distant water fishing company based in Dalian, northeastern China, embargoed by the U.S. government in May for slave labor.

Mitsubishi said that while it had purchased tuna from the company in the past, it has not done so since April 2020, adding that, "If the reports are true, it is very regrettable."

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, known as IUU fishing, is detrimental to both the marine environment and legitimate fishing companies, but is extremely difficult to eliminate due to the lack of monitoring in the field.

While the United States and European nations have taken steps in recent years to implement import controls on catches from vessels associated with IUU fishing and human rights abuses, Japan's regulations have lagged behind.

In December last year, Japan finally enacted a law requiring fishermen to show proof of catch, but it currently only covers a few species of marine life, with tuna not included. Environmental groups in Japan are calling for the law to be expanded to cover all fish species as soon as possible.

Almost all of the crew members interviewed by the EJF reported that finning, the act of slicing off a shark's fin and discarding the rest of the body, was practiced on a large scale on the Chinese vessels. The practice is prohibited in many countries, as well as by intergovernmental fishery organizations like the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

The Indonesian fishers also told the EJF that they were often subject to physical and verbal abuse by the Chinese crew on board. Many testified that they were made to work excessive hours and in many cases not paid according to their contracts.

A 25-year-old Indonesian fisherman who worked for two years on board a Chinese tuna fishing vessel gave a similar account, telling Kyodo News that at busy times they were often not given sufficient food or water to drink, or even medicine to treat injuries.

"We are grateful that the Japanese are buying our tuna, but we want them to know that behind the tuna there is rampant illegal activity, and poor fishermen like us are being victimized and suffering," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
KYODO NEWS - Aug 17, 2021 - 23:28 | Others

Japan has evacuated all personnel from its embassy in Kabul amid the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country, setting up a temporary office in Istanbul to resume the embassy's operations, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Twelve Japanese embassy staff members arrived in Dubai on Tuesday "aboard a military airplane of a friendly nation" after the embassy in Kabul was shut Sunday, according to the ministry.

"Securing the safety of Japanese citizens is our top priority, and we will closely cooperate with relevant countries including the United States with our national interests in mind," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

On Sunday, the Islamic militant group regained control of the country 20 years after it was ousted from power by U.S.-led forces, with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing Afghanistan following the Taliban's seizure of the capital.

Japan has been actively involved in Afghanistan's reconstruction from a U.S.-led war against al-Qaida, hosting meetings in 2002 and 2012 that gathered donor countries and international organizations together to discuss the development of the conflict-ravaged nation.

Since 2001, Japan has provided to Afghanistan some $6.8 billion in reconstruction assistance as of November 2020. The Japanese government has also pledged additional support of $720 million for the period between 2021 and 2024.

"The rebuilding of Afghanistan continues to be of utmost importance to peace and stability in the region and the international community," Suga said.

The United States launched the war following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks orchestrated by al-Qaida, which was under the protection of the Taliban.

Following the removal of the Taliban, the international community worked to rebuild Afghanistan under a democratically elected government.

"Our 20 years of efforts since the terrorist attacks in September 2001 could go down the drain," a senior Foreign Ministry official said, expressing concern over Afghanistan possibly becoming a base for terrorists again and the negative economic impact on neighboring countries.

The official added that how the Taliban would rule Afghanistan and whether the country will return to how it was before the 2001 terror attacks "must be closely watched."

Related coverage:

China chides U.S. for hasty troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

Britain proposes hosting G-7 virtual meeting on Afghanistan

Biden vows to finish U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan amid chaos
New Delhi:

Amid Congress' desperate attempt to form the government with the support of over 21 legislators in the 40-member assembly in Goa, BJP Chief Amit Shah will meet the party leaders to formulate strategies in order to avoid any untoward incident in the state.

The Opposition Congress staked claim to power in the state, days after Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi with a pancreatic ailment.

Shah's visit to Goa was decided after several BJP allies, in a dramatic twist, rejected a plan to have minister Sudhin Dhavalikar take charge as deputy Chief Minister in the state. In wake of this political tension in the coastal state, the BJP chief contacted Goa Forward's Vijay Sardesai, a minister in the BJP-led government.

Read | Only BJP can double income of farmers by 2022, says Amit Shah

The reason behind putting Dhavalikar out of the order is hidden behind a 2014 incident when the minister had sparked off a controversy with his comment that bikinis should be banned on Goa's beaches.

The political tension in Goa worsens further with Urban Development Minister Francis D'Souza and Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar been unwell for the last few months.

In the 40-member Goa assembly, the Congress is the largest party with 16 seats and the BJP has 14.

"We have the required numbers. I am not going to tell you whom we are in discussions with, but we need the support of 21 MLAs and we have more than that," Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar was quoted by PTI as saying.

Read | Congress leaders meet CAG; submit documents showing irregularities in Rafale deal | LIVE updates

After the 2017 Goa assembly elections, the BJP forged an alliance with the Goa Forward Party, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three independents and formed the government, throwing the Congress out of the power in the state.

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Washington:

NASA has launched an interactive website that allows users to tour through buildings to discover common items that the space agency helped improvesuch as water purifiers and selfie cameras.

The showcased spinoffs are commercial products that apply NASA technology originally developed for studying and exploring space.

NASA Home & City features about 130 spinoff technologies in a virtual space, allowing users to tour through buildings and rooms to discover common items that NASA inspired or helped improve.

Also Read | SBI Clerk Mains exam result date announced

Our space technology continues to improve life on Earth, said Jim Reuter, acting associate administrator of NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate.

NASA Home & City is a place of discovery for people, and especially students, who have ever wondered why space exploration should matter to them, said Reuter.

The website showcases only a small sample of NASA spinoff and dual-purpose technologies, NASA said in a statement.

The spinoffs include water filtration systems originally designed to purify water for the Apollo astronauts.

The silver ion technology purifies and softens water while inhibiting bacteria growth in filtering units.

Read More | Triple Talaq a crime now, Union Cabinet approves ordinance

Today, manufacturers use this combined technology to create home-use water filtering systems that not only purify and soften, but also remove objectionable tastes and odours.

Wind turbines designed for Mars and tested in Antarcticawhere access to solar power is scarcecan be found generating power all over the globe.

NASA spacesuits and firefighter gear use a similar fabric.

The images NASA captures of distant galaxies or newly discovered stars has evolved greatly over the years.

In the 1990s a NASA engineer built a new kind of image sensor which requires very low power and is highly efficient making it ideal for digital and cell phone cameras on Earth.

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New Delhi:

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who was attending the three-day mega outreach conclave by the Hindutva outfit, Wednesday opened up on the controversial Ayodhya dispute, a decades-old socio-religious debate between Hindus and Muslims. Addressing the last day of the RSS's three-day lecture series, Bhagwat strongly pitched for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya at "the earliest", as it will end rising tensions between Hindus and Muslims.

Describing Lord Ram as "Imam-e-Hind", Bhagwat said he may not a god for some people of the country, but he is an idol of Indian values for people from all sections of the society.

"... As a Sangh worker, head of the Sangh and as a part of Ram Janambhoomi Andolan, I want that a grand Ram temple should be constructed at the earliest at the birthplace (Ayodhya) of Lord Ram," he said.

Read | No RSS influence on Modi governments policies, says Mohan Bhagwat

"It should have happened by now. The construction of a grand Ram temple will help in ending a major reason for tension between Hindus and Muslims, and if the temple is built in a harmonious way, then there will be no more pointing of fingers at Muslims," the RSS chief added.

This is a matter to "strengthen unity" and culture of the country, it is an issue of faith for crores of people of the country, Bhagwat underlined.

The Sangh chief also stressed on a dialogue over the construction of Ram temple but said the final decision is with Mandir Samiti which is spearheading the movement for construction of a temple.

The RSS, however, has put the onus on the government to decide whether to bring an ordinance on the construction of Ram temple.

Read | Swami Vivekananda's 125th Chicago speech anniversary: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat urges Hindus to work together

The Supreme Court is expected to pronounce its verdict on the Ram Janambhoomi issue before the current Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra demits office on October 2.

(With inputs from PTI)

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Kolkata:

Ishrat Jahan, a petitioner in the Triple Talaq case, Wednesday welcomed the union cabinets decision to bring an ordinance to make the practice a penal offence.

It is a big step towards empowering Muslim women in the country, she said.

Muslim men and religious leaders should now mend their ways or be ready to face the music, she said.

Also Read | Triple Talaq ordinance historic, says Amit Shah

I welcome the Centres decision to bring an ordinance to make Triple Talaq a penal offence. It is a huge step towards empowering Muslim women in the country, Jahan told PTI.

She is one of the five petitioners in the case against instant Triple Talaq. The practice of instant Triple Talaq was struck down by the Supreme Court on August 22 last year.

Read More | Embarrassment for Sidhu as Pakistan says no formal talks with India yet on Kartarpur corridor

Jahan moved court after she was divorced by her husband over phone from Dubai by uttering Talaq thrice consecutively in 2014. She has a 13-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son.

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New Delhi:

Firing a fresh salvo at Rahul Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday asked the Congress president to clear his stand on the alleged unaccounted money brought to his partys headquarters to Delhi through the Bengaluru-Delhi hawala highway.

Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat attacked the Congress after it had earlier cited alleged confessional statements made to Income Tax department by some accused in a case to claim that money trail in a hawala case went to its Akbar Road office.

Singh also accused the Opposition party of doing politics over the death of a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan, whose body was reportedly brutalised by the Pakistan Army.

Also Read | After Imran Khans letter to PM Modi, MEA says India-Pakistan foreign ministers to meet in New York

Faith should be kept in Indian forces and they would respond at an appropriate time, Shekhawat said.

With Gandhi consistently targeting the Narendra Modi government over a host of issues such as the Rafale deal, Shekhawat accused him of making irrelevant allegations to divert attention from the hawala case.

The Congress president, his partys spokesperson should tell people about the source of the unaccounted money and where it all went, the minister told reporters at a press conference.

The allegations are based on confessions made by accused, including those who are in the government service, on oath, he said in a bid to underline the seriousness of the charges.

Read More | Disha Patani sets internet on fire again with THIS pic

The Income Tax department had raided the premises of Congress leader and Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar and those of some of its associates last year, and claimed to have recovered a large amount of cash.

Saying people should be thanked for forcing the Congress to remember god, Shekhawat attacked the opposition party over chants invoking Lord Shiva in its slogans in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan,

To a question on Indo-Pakistan relations, he said the governments stand is clear that it cannot talk to Pakistan till it supports terrorism.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Colombo:

A top Sri Lankan policeman has been sent on leave following an investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, brother of ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The ministry of law and order said it has asked the National Police Commission to send Deputy Inspector General of Police Nalaka Silva on compulsory leave.

Also Read | Nawaz Sharif, daughter Maryam Nawaz's jail term suspended

Silva was in charge of the polices Terrorist Investigation Division (TID).

He was publicly accused by one Namal Kumara who claimed Silva had told him that both Sirisena and Gotabhaya should be assassinated before the next presidential election in January, 2020.

Parliament saw an uproar yesterday when the Rajapaksa-led Joint Opposition demanded the arrest of Silva.

Law and Order Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara said investigations were underway and action will be taken as appropriate following the investigation.

Silva had been questioned and was transferred to the polices IT division when the latest order came to send him on leave.

Also Read | China threatens to retaliate Trumps $200 billion tariffs

The opposition charged that the police were acting hand in glove with the underworld to assassinate both Sirisena and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

They said that the complainant in the plot Kumara and Gotabhaya should be provided protection.

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New Delhi:

Gauri Lankeshs family and friends have demanded an investigation of the veteran journalists murder case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday.

The veteran journalist's brother Indrajit Lankesh said, The case should be handed over to the CBI. The assailants should be brought to the book.

Unidentified gunmen opened fired at Gauri  an editor of Gauri Lankesh Patrika, a magazine described as an anti-establishment publication  at her residence in Rajarajeshwari Naga on Tuesday late evening. Bengaluru police said that the gunmen pumped in four bullets into her body which caused her death.

Indrajit further added, I dont know how to react. Her body was found lying on the Verandah. She was shot from close range and four bullet cartridges were found near her body.

Here are live updates

#05:10

Gauri Lankesh laid to rest with state honnours



#02:20

Friends and family members gather near mortal remains of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh at Bengaluru's Ravindra Kala Kshethra.

#01:35

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah pays last respect to the Gauri Lankesh's mortal remains at Ravindra Kalakshethra.

#01:16 pm

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has directed Home Secretary seek report on Gauri Lankesh murder from Karnataka Government.

#12:30 pm

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said she met me recently but never spoke about threats.



#12:30 pm

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah instructs police to provide protection to activists propagating progressive thoughts after Gauri Lankesh's murder.

#12:26 pm

A special investigation team (SIT) headed by an inspector general (IG) rank officer formed exclusively to probe Gauri Lankesh murder case.

#12:25

Bangalore University students boycott clasees in protest against Gauri Lankesh murder.

#12:02 pm

Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Anybody who speaks against ideology of BJP-RSS is pressured, beaten, attacked and even killed."

#12:01 pm

Rahul Gandhi said, Spoke to CM (of Karnataka) & mentioned that people who did this must be caught & punished

#12:00 pm

Editor's Guild of India demands Karnataka Govt to act with alacrity to bring culprits to justice apart from instituting judicial probe.

#11:59 am

Editor's Guild of India terms Gauri Lankesh's killing ominous portent for dissent in democracy and assault on freedom of the press.

Also Read: Prominent journalist Gauri Lankeshs murder triggers political blame game in Karnataka

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the media that three special investigation team have been constituted to probe the killing.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar told media that Lankesh did not complain of any threats.

"She didn't complain of anything," Kumar told journalists on Tuesday night. "If she anywhere expressed about threats, it will be thoroughly investigated."

Bengaluru police said the cops have retrieved CCTV footages from Lankesh's residence and from the two cameras near her house.

We have got some good leads from Gaurs phone, a senior official said.

The Karnataka government has directed the state police to get in touch with Maharashtra Police investigating rationalist Narendra Dabholkars case.

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New Delhi:

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday held a 'Kisan Samriddhi Sankalp Rally' in Madhya Pradeshs Mandsaur to mark the first anniversary of the farmers killings a year ago.

The Congress president, who returned from the US on Monday night, met the family members of farmers those killed in the police firing on June 6, 2017.

During the rally at Khokhra (Pipliya Mandi) in Mandsaur district, Gandhi also shared the dais with family members of three of the six farmers killed during the Mandsaur protest last year.

LIVE Updates:

#03:05 PM: People of the country first priority: My first priority is the people of this country, second priority is my Congress karyakartas and third priority is the Congress leaders: Congress President

03:00 PM: Farmers is our priority: The food we eat is all due to the efforts of our farmers and their families, not rich businessmen. Which is why farmers are our priority. Every district of MP will have a food processing unit where farmers will be able to sell their produce directly: Congress President



#02:45 PM: Rahul promises farm loan waiver: PM Modi waived off loan worth 1.5lakh crore of just 15 businessmen, but I requested him to waive off farm loans, his answer was SILENCE. When I asked the same to Amarinder Singh (Punjab CM) and Siddaramaiah (former Karnataka CM), in just 10 days Karnataka and Punjab govts waived off farm loans: Congress President

#02:40 PM: PM Modi cheated farmers: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cheated farmers. He promised better rates for their produce. The truth is PM Modi and BJP are not concerned about farmers. Helping their rich businessmen friends is their only priority: Congress President

#02:35 PM: A year ago, MP Govt shot and killed farmers. Today, all over India, farmers are demanding for their rights: Congress President

A year ago, MP Govt shot and killed farmers. Today, all over India, farmers are demanding for their rights: Congress President @RahulGandhi #JusticeForFarmers pic.twitter.com/4fc5XjSkgF  Congress (@INCIndia) June 6, 2018

#02:30 PM: Congress President Rahul Gandhi addresses the Kisan Samriddhi Sankalp Rally in Mandsaur.

Congress President @RahulGandhi addresses the Kisan Samriddhi Sankalp Rally in Mandsaur #JusticeForFarmers https://t.co/7DByDvxcQm  Congress (@INCIndia) June 6, 2018

#02:15 PM: One year of Mandsaur killings: Congress releases a video clip of the incident and how things unfolded in Mandsaur.

#02:10 PM: June 6 a black day for farmers: Congress has claimed that after one year of the killings, even FIRs have not registered against the culprits. The party said that the firing was ordered at the behest of Shivraj Singh-led BJP government.

It's been a year since the incident at #Mandsaur, even an FIR against the culprits has not been filed : RS MP @VTankha #JusticeForFarmers pic.twitter.com/zcUZlwoS3S  Congress (@INCIndia) June 6, 2018

#02:05 PM: The kins of farmers killed breaks down: Congress President Rahul Gandhi meets the families of the farmers martyred in the police firing in Mandsaur last year.

Congress President @RahulGandhi meets the families of the farmers martyred in the police firing in #Mandsaur last year. #JusticeForFarmers pic.twitter.com/EqLhRimbQr  Congress (@INCIndia) June 6, 2018

#02:00 PM: Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia also present: Top Madhya Pradesh Congress leaders, including PCC chief Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with other state leaders are also attending the mega rally.

#01:55 PM: Mandsaur killings: On June 6, 2017, Six peopleKanhaiya Lal Patidar, Satyanarayan Dhangar, Abhishek Patidar, Bablu, Ghanshyam Dhakad and Chintaman Patidarwere killed in the police firing at Pipliya Mandi during an agitation.

# 01:50 PM: Rahul pays floral tributes to farmers killed in Mandsaur last year: Congress President pays his respects to the 6 farmers martyred in the police firing in Mandsaur last year.

Congress President @RahulGandhi pays his respects to the 6 farmers martyred in the police firing in #Mandsaur last year. #JusticeForFarmers pic.twitter.com/fB9zaAlYeh  Congress (@INCIndia) June 6, 2018

#01:30 PM: Hello and welcome to the News Nation Live Updates on Rahul Gandhi's Kisan rally in Mandsaur. The Congress chief will meet agitating farmers and the family members of those killed in police firing during last year's protest. Stick with us for all the updates of the story.

Madhya Pradesh is slated to go to polls later this year and the Congress is making all-out efforts to make the rally big ahead of the Assembly elections. The Congress, which has been in the political wilderness for the past 15 years, is seeking to wrest power from the BJP in the state.

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New Delhi:

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said that it had not received any formal communication on the extradition order of Christian Michel, the alleged British middleman in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP choppers deal case, from UAE government, according to sources.

Also Read | Christian Michel granted extradition in AgustaWestland chopper scandal

The remark came a day after a Dubai court ordered for the extradition of Michel, who is considered to have allegedly played a key role in mediating the payment of bribes to politicians and bureaucrats in exchange for a contract for VVIP helicopters.

Michel was arrested in February 2017 in the UAE and was out on bail. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been trying to secure extradition of Christian Michel ever since.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that Christian Michel, is missing after his extradition order to India.

His lawyer Amal Alsubei said that Michel is on the run and the agencies are looking for him, adding he would be arrested as soon as he is found, the reports said.

Also Read | Embarrassment for Sidhu as Pakistan says no formal talks with India yet on Kartarpur corridor

The ED, in its charge sheet filed against Michel in June 2016, had alleged that he received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland. Michel is one of the three middlemen being probed in the case, besides Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa, by the ED and the CBI. Both the agencies have notified an Interpol red corner notice (RCN) against him after the court issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

(With inputs from PTI)

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New Delhi:

Days after the united front of Left student groups AISA, SFI, AISF, DSF scored a massive win by bagging all four key posts in JNUSU Election 2018, JNU students' union president N Sai Balaji and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman got engaged into an intense war of words.

Stepping up his attack on the Narendra Modi government, the new JNUSU president said, "The government wants the country to talk about the national versus anti-national debate. They want to divert attention from the real issues - the Rafale deal, the Jio university, unemployment."

Sitharaman, who herself, is a product of the JNU, has not answered questions "why Ambani was helped in the Rafale deal".

"They want to end public-funded education and encourage corporatisation while the common man talks about nationalism and anti-national elements," he added.

Balaji's statement came days after Sitharaman hit out at JNU, alleging that there are forces in the varsity which are "waging a war" against India and said she herself has not answered questions on Rafale deal.

Read | JNUSU Election Results 2018: Left Unity bags four central panel posts, N Sai Balaji new president

"There are forces which are waging a war against India and it is they who are also seen with elected representatives of the students union. That makes me feel uneasy," the Defence Minister was quoted as saying.

"The kind of things which have happened in the last few years (in JNU) are not really encouraging at all. It is very different to have a party whose ideology you may not agree with. But the way in which they were probably got led by forces which are anti-India," she said.

"They are waging a war against India, say pamphlets. Such people leading the JNUSU or JNUSU members openly participating with such forces, you do not need to hesitate to say anti-India, therefore," Sitharaman said.

Read | Umar Khalid attack: Delhi Police detain two suspects in August 13 shooting

Sitharaman's comment came on the heels of Left groups victory on all four key posts in the JNUSU Election 2018, which witnessed a massive clash between members of the RSS-backed Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Left-affiliated All India Students Association (AISA).

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New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Wednesday termed the ordinance making the practice of triple talaq a punishable offence as historic and said it was also a matter of introspection and guilt for those political parties which forced Muslim women to suffer from it due to their vote bank politics.

Also Read | Triple Talaq a crime now, Union Cabinet approves ordinance

"This ordinance is also a matter of guilt and introspection for them as they forced Muslims women to suffer from this bad practice for decades due to their vote bank politics," Shah said targeting the Opposition

The BJP president hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Cabinet's nod to the ordinance saying that the decision will allow Muslim women to live with dignity in society.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the ordinance on the amended Triple Talaq Bill which was deferred to the next session of Parliament as parties in the Rajya Sabha failed to reach an agreement over it in early August.

Also Read | Cong leaders meet CAG to demand audit in Rafale 'scam'; BJP hits back

Under the proposed ordinance, giving instant triple talaq will be illegal and void and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.

The ordinance would have similar provisions as The Muslim Women Protection of Rights in Marriage Act, popularly known as triple talaq bill, which was cleared by the Lok Sabha in December last year.

(With PTI inputs)

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Kochi:

Bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused by a nun of raping and sexually assaulting her, will be arrested on Friday night, Kottayam Superintendent of Police Hari Sankar said.

Kerala nun rape case: Kottayam SP Hari Sankar says, "Franco Mulakkal has not been arrested. Interrogation has been going on. He will be arrested tonight and produced before the court within 24 hours" pic.twitter.com/Fdq4LQBW0d  ANI (@ANI) September 21, 2018

He said the police would record his arrest shortly.

Also Read | India calls off Swaraj-Qureshi meeting, says Imran Khan's 'true face' exposed

The investigating officer in the nun rape case has found that the bishop has committed the crime, Sankar told journalists.

Mulakkal was on Thursday relieved temporarily of his pastoral responsibilities as the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese of Missionaries of Jesus by the Pope.

He has been accused by the nun of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting her between 2014 and 2016.

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Tokyo:

Hackers have stolen 6.7 billion yen ($60 million) worth of cryptocurrencies from a Japanese digital currency exchange, the operators said Thursday.

Tech Bureau Corp. said a server for its Zaif exchange was hacked for two hours last week, and some digital currencies got unlawfully relayed from whats called a hot wallet, or where virtual coins are stored at such exchanges.

The exchange was taken offline until details of the damage could be confirmed, and efforts were underway to get it back working, Tech Bureau said.

Also Read | Imran Khan writes to PM Modi: 'Look forward to working with you'

Japan has been bullish on virtual money and has set up a system requiring exchanges to be licensed to help protect consumers. The system is also meant to make Japan a global leader in the technology. Bitcoin has been a legal form of payment in Japan since April 2017, and a handful of major retailers here already accept bitcoin payments.

But the recurrence of cryptocurrency heists shows problems persist.

Earlier this year, the Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck reported a 58 billion yen ($ 547 million) loss of a cryptocurrency called NEM from suspected criminal hacking.

Coincheck, in operation since 2012, had been applying for a government license but had not yet gotten one. That led to industry-wide soul-searching, led by government financial regulators, to prevent such problems.

Read More | Bigg Boss 12: Sreesanth breaks his silence on spot-fixing allegations

Zaif got registered with the government last year.

The company said Thursday it had accepted a 5 billion yen ($45 million) offer from Fisco, a Tokyo-based investment company, for a majority stake in Tech Bureau, headquartered in Osaka.

The cryptocurrencies stolen in last weeks hack included Bitcoin and Monacoin. Of the stolen money, 2.2 billion yen ($20 million) belonged to the company, and the rest were customers assets, according to Tech Bureau.

Earlier this year, a glitch at Zaif allowed some people to buy cryptocurrencies for zero yen.

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New Delhi:

A Congress delegation on Wednesday reached out to CAG, demanding a thorough probe against the Narendra Modi government over the alleged scam in infamous Rafale fighter aircraft deal with France. Senior party leader Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, AK Antony and Anand Sharma are part of the delegation.

The delegation consisting of top Congress leaders is scheduled to meet the Comptroller and Auditor General Wednesday morning on the Rafale issue, accusing Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of doing flip-flops on secrecy close.

The Rafale deal refers to the Modi government's multi-crore business agreement to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation. It's been quite long time now that Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been alleging a scam in Rafale fighter jet deal, which has reportedly caused a loss of over Rs 41,000 crore to the exchequer.

According to the Congress, the BJP-led NDA government has paid a higher price for the aircraft than what was negotiated by the UPA.

Here are the Highlights on Congress-CAG meet over alleged 'scam' in Rafale deal:

# 13:27 pm: I do not think JPC or CAG inquiry is set up to satisfy the ego of ill-informed leader. What struck me more is that Mr Anthony, who was Defence Minister for 8 yrs during which nothing can be done for modernisation and empowerment of Indian Forces: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Congress-CAG meeting.

I don't think JPC or CAG inquiry is set up to satisfy ego of ill-informed leader.What struck me more is that Mr Anthony,who was Defence Minister for 8 yrs during which nothing can be done for modernisation&empowerment of Indian Forces:RS Prasad on Cong meeting CAG.#RafaleDeal.1/2 pic.twitter.com/2yo8VDlZxo  ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2018

# 13:22 pm: Memorandum by the Congress to the CAG:

Memorandum by the Congress party to the Comptroller Auditor General demanding an audit of the Rafale deal. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/plTZlh1GXt  Congress (@INCIndia) September 19, 2018

Memorandum by the Congress party to the Comptroller Auditor General demanding an audit of the Rafale deal. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/R1nOjXgHW2  Congress (@INCIndia) September 19, 2018

# 13:11 pm: The Congress party delegation today met the CAG and demanded an audit into the Rafale scam, says Randeep Surjewala, Incharge Communications AICC.

The Congress party delegation today met the CAG and demanded an audit into the Rafale scam : @rssurjewala Incharge Communications AICC https://t.co/aJxnCKbplR  Congress (@INCIndia) September 19, 2018

# 12:12 pm: We submitted a detailed memorandum along with enclosures which very clearly establishes irregularities in Rafale purchase. We hope that the matter will be looked into by CAG: Anand Sharm after meeting with CAG.

We submitted a detailed memorandum along with enclosures which very clearly establishes irregularities in Rafale purchase. We hope that the matter will be looked into by CAG: Anand Sharma after meeting of Congress delegation with Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pic.twitter.com/mUGMap4VZc  ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2018

# 11:31 am: The Congress delegation includes senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

# 11:30 am: Congress leaders reach CAG office to demand probe in Rafale fighter jet scam.

On Wednesday, upping the ante against the Modi government, Antony once again raised the Rafale issue and demanded a JPC probe, saying there is a growing perception that the Modi governments Rafale deal has more skeletons in its closet.

Read | Rafale jets will help in filling gap of combat capabilities of IAF: Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa

The veteran leader also claimed that contrary to Sitharamans charge, contract negotiations were almost over before UPA demitted office, and PM Modi, after being elected to office, announced a unilateral purchase of 36 aircraft on April 10, 2015.

Congress demands that the government publish the price of Congress-UPAs deal of 126 aircraft and the price of its 36 jets, including per aircraft price, he said.

The Congress also claimed that if the UPA deal had not been cancelled, HAL would have acquired state-of-the-art technology through transfer-of-technology (ToT) and would have gained experience to manufacture fighter aircraft. India lost this opportunity, Antony stated.

Briefing the media over Wednesday's CAG meet, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala earlier said the CAG and CVC are bounded by their constitutional duty and hence will look at the entire deal and all its papers - whether or not somebody moves them.

"Congress Party at an appropriate time also intends to move an appropriate petition before CVC and CAG to expeditiously and quickly adhere to their constitutional duties," Surjewala was quoted as saying.

Read | PM Modi is lying to nation on Rafale deal, alleges Rahul Gandhi

The Congress wanted the Modi government to set up a joint parliamentary committee to probe the fighter jet deal. Sitharaman, however, has rejected the demand saying all the details on it have already been placed before Parliament.

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Malawian President and new Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Lazarus Chakwera says that inequality in access to Covid-19 vaccines"no longer acceptable." According to him, the vaccine "belongs to all nations, irrespective of who found it." Southern Africa's regional bloc praised Zambia on Tuesday for overseeing a peaceful transition of power after a veteran opposition politician won a landslide victory at the ballot box. Hakainde Hichilema was declared the winner on Monday after roundly defeating Edgar Lungu, who had been in power for six years.

It is the third time that power has changed hands to the opposition in Zambia since 1991, on a continent where incumbent leaders often hold on to power for decades. "The pattern of peaceful transitions of power we have been seeing in our region in recent years, ... (with) Zambia being the latest member to embody that, are worthy of global acclaim and our applause," said Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, launching a summit of southern African leaders.

"To all the leaders and people of Zambia, we say thank you," he said. Chakwera, himself a former opposition politician, came to power last year after the re-election of his predecessor Arthur Mutharika was scrapped for vote rigging and the ballot re-staged. He told the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) that regional peace and security depended on democratic norms being sustained and on the protection of human rights. Lungu had claimed the election was not free or fair, while votes were being counted at the weekend. But on Tuesday, hours after the vote was declared, Lungu conceded defeat and promised to peacefully hand over power.

Man says he shot at, vandalized neighbors' Michigan home over Black Lives Matter sign

Texas school district makes masks part of dress code to get around Gov. Abbott's order

Growing Caldor Fire prompts evacuation orders in California
HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CEMEX USA today announced that as part of the company's growth strategy, it is expanding its business in Alabama, investing more than $6 million in its new Brierfield Plant to produce high-quality aggregates for construction needs across the state.

The Brierfield Plant, which is located approximately one hour from Birmingham, Ala., began operations in June 2021, processing aggregates under the name RM USA Aggregates. The operation is expected to produce close to 600,000 tons of asphalt stone, concrete stone and base annually. The investment ends CEMEX's more than 10-year hiatus on aggregates production in the state, providing a new, local resource for customers and CEMEX's Ready Mix USA concrete operations in Tuscaloosa, Vance and Alabaster.

"CEMEX and Ready Mix USA are proud to expand our services in Alabama to help meet the state's ever-growing need for aggregates," said Marc Tyson, CEMEX USA Regional PresidentMidSouth Region. "The Brierfield Plant gives us a new opportunity to support our existing customers and earn the business of new ones by leveraging the wealth of experience of our team and providing them materials sourced from all parts of CEMEX's supply chain."

The Brierfield Plant is the latest addition to CEMEX USA and Ready Mix USA's strong network in Alabama that consists of one cement plant, three cement terminals and more than 30 ready-mix concrete plants. CEMEX continues to look for strategic growth opportunities across the U.S.

About CEMEX USA

CEMEX is a global building materials company that provides high-quality products and reliable services with a rich history of improving the wellbeing of those it serves through innovative building solutions, efficiency advancements and sustainability efforts. Its U.S. network includes 10 cement plants, close to 50 strategically located cement terminals, nearly 50 aggregate quarries and more than 280 ready-mix concrete plants. CEMEX USA has been repeatedly recognized for its efforts in sustainability and energy management, including earning U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

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SOURCE CEMEX USA
Agreement allowing work on numerous collaborative research initiatives in the coming years

DENVER, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mydecine Innovations Group (NEO: MYCO) (OTC: MYCOF) announces it has signed a five-year research agreement with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, with research to be led by Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Matthew W. Johnson, Ph. D. The Johns Hopkins Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit has extensive experience conducting clinical research related to therapeutic use of psychedelics.



Mydecine CEO Josh Bartch said, We are excited to expand on the current work we are conducting with Dr. Matt Johnson and his team at JHU in regards to smoking cessation to include numerous other projects over the next five years. The researchers at JHU have proven their incredible depth of knowledge in the field.

The long-term potential of this research agreement is captivating for us here at Mydecine, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Mydecine, Rob Roscow, stated. It demonstrates our commitment to advancing psychedelic medicine by exploring multiple molecules and medicines for a variety of indications.

This agreement allows Johns Hopkins University and Mydecine to further collaborate to advance research, on novel psychedelic therapies to treat mental health and addiction disorders.

Despite the recent attention to opiate and dependance on other illicit substances, we sometimes forget about the incredible burden that nicotine dependence has on our societies, said Dr. Rakesh Jetly, Chief Medical Officer, Mydecine. According to the CDC, cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. Despite all the public education and dire warnings, cigarette smoking remains one of the most difficult addiction to treat and contributes to more deaths than all the other substances combined, making research like this vital.

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About Mydecine Innovations Group

Mydecine Innovations Group (NEO:MYCO) (OTC:MYCOF) (FSE:0NFA) is an emerging biotech and life sciences company dedicated to developing and commercializing innovative solutions for treating mental health problems and enhancing vitality. The companys world-renowned medical and scientific advisory board is building out a robust R&D pipeline of nature-sourced psychedelic-assisted therapeutics, novel compounds, therapy protocols, and unique delivery systems. Mydecine has exclusive access to a full cGMP certified pharmaceutical manufacturing facility with the ability to import/export, cultivate, extract/isolate, and analyze active mushroom compounds with full government approval through Health Canada. Mydecine also operates out of a state-of-the-art mycology lab in Denver, CO to focus on genetic research for scaling commercial cultivation of rare (non-psychedelic) medicinal mushrooms.

Learn more at: https://www.mydecine.com/ and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

For more information, please contact:

Media Contact

Courtney Ryan

LS2group

cryan@ls2group.com

515-770-4823

Investor Contacts

Charles Lee, Investor Relations

corp@mydecineinc.com

1-720-277-9879

Allison Soss / Erika Kay

KCSA Strategic Communications

myco@kcsa.com

1-212-896-1267

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Joshua Bartch, Chief Executive Officer contact@mydecineinc.com

For further information about Mydecine Innovations Group, Inc., please visit the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or visit the Companys website at www.mydecine.com .

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws regarding the Company and its business, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect managements current expectations and assumptions. Often but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as expect, intends, anticipated, believes or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements reflect managements current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, without limitation, risks regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability and continuity of financing, the ability of the Company to adequately protect and enforce its intellectual property, the Companys ability to bring its products to commercial production, continued growth of the global adaptive pathway medicine, natural health products and digital health industries, and the risks presented by the highly regulated and competitive market concerning the development, production, sale and use of the Companys products. 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. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation.








TORONTO, Aug. 18, 2021 /CNW/ - Almost three-quarters (72.9 per cent) of physicians surveyed by the Ontario Medical Association said they experienced some level of burnout in 2021, up from 66 per cent the previous year.

Ontario Medical Association (CNW Group/Ontario Medical Association)

Just over one-third (34.6 per cent) reported either persistent symptoms of burnout or feeling completely burned out in 2021, up from 29 per cent in 2020.

A sweeping new report released by the OMA today found many causes of burnout. Topping the list were technology and the fact that many physicians spend more time completing required documentation than caring for patients.

"Burnout and its symptoms have impacted so many physicians, which unfortunately has been exacerbated by COVID-19," said OMA President Dr. Adam Kassam. "Tackling this epidemic is one of the most urgent needs facing the profession. The system-level changes that are needed require bold action by our health-system partners. I am proud of the work done by the OMA and the Burnout Task Force, which continues to demonstrate leadership and provide solutions to support our colleagues."

The OMA created a Burnout Task Force in 2019 to drive system-level changes and provide support to members. Even before the pandemic, nearly one-third of physicians in Canada were reporting high levels of burnout. Many other health-care workers are also experiencing burnout, especially nurses.

The pandemic has reinforced the need to find solutions, not just for the well-being of health-care workers but also to ensure there are sufficient health-care resources in place to address the deficit of care caused by the pandemic.

The OMA report includes five solutions to address burnout, starting with reducing and streamlining documentation. Studies have shown that physicians spend two hours on electronic documentation for every one hour of direct patient interaction. Primary care physicians spend about six hours a day recording patient information electronically, both during and after clinic hours.

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The other top solutions are:

More work-life balance through flexible work arrangements

Making digital health tools a seamless part of physicians' workflow, including by ensuring different systems can speak to each other

Support for physician wellness at their workplaces

Fair and equitable compensation for all work, including administrative work that cannot be reduced

Physician burnout has been associated with increased depression, substance use and even suicidal thoughts. It could also reduce productivity, increase turnover and possibly decrease patient access to care.

Despite being burned out and at risk of contracting COVID-19 and transmitting it to their loved ones, Ontario's doctors have provided the best possible care to their patients throughout the pandemic.

The OMA surveyed its members twice: once just as the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting North America in March 2020, and again in March 2021.

"Physician burnout is a system-level problem that has been worsened by the global pandemic," said OMA CEO Allan O'Dette. "It needs to be addressed both for physician well-being and to ensure the health-care system can address the pandemic backlog of medical procedures. The OMA plan, in development since 2019, has actionable solutions to help solve this problem."

It's time to change Ontario's health care for the better as the post-pandemic recovery begins. Complete our survey at betterhealthcare.ca and help shape the future of health care.

About the OMA

The Ontario Medical Association represents Ontario's 43,000 plus physicians, medical students and retired physicians, advocating for and supporting doctors while strengthening the leadership role of doctors in caring for patients. Our vision is to be the trusted voice in transforming Ontario's health-care system.

SOURCE Ontario Medical Association

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CRANBURY, N.J., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In a joint effort between Pharmacy Times, the leading media resource for pharmacists, and Parata Systems, the leading provider of pharmacy automation, 30 pharmacy professionals have been named finalists of the 2021 Next-Generation Pharmacist awards. Ten category winners will be announced at the Next-Generation Pharmacist of the Year gala, which will be held at 6pm on October 8, 2021, at Founder's Hall in Charlotte, N.C.

Pharmacy Times is the industry-leading multimedia resource for pharmacy professionals. (PRNewsfoto/Pharmacy Times)

This awards program is designed to honor exceptional pharmacists, student pharmacists, technicians, and advocates.

"Now in its 12th year, the Next-Generation Pharmacist awards program is an opportunity to recognize and honor the outstanding finalists that are driving innovation in the pharmacy industry," said Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences, parent company of Pharmacy Times. "In collaboration with Parata, we look forward to celebrating all of the finalists and winners later this fall."

This peer-nominated awards program is designed to honor exceptional pharmacists, student pharmacists, technicians, and industry advocates across 10 specialized categories. A panel of renowned judges selected three finalists in each of the categories that are representative of the many roles within the pharmacy industry. The finalist's pharmacy practice settings range from large chain retailers to independent pharmacies, specialty pharmacies, military bases, health clinics, and educational institutions.

The 2021 Next-Generation Pharmacist finalists are:

Civic Leader

Angela D. Adams , PharmD, MPH, Central Florida Pharmacy Council

Cortney Mospan , PharmD, BCACP, BGCP, CPP, Wingate University Levine College of Health Sciences

Matthew Pruitt, PharmD, Walgreens

Entrepreneur

Mayank A. Parikh , PharmD, Super Health Pharmacy

Casey Villhauer , PharmD, BCGP, Vaxi Taxi

Jason Wang, PharmD, Pevely Rx, Inc. DBA Medicine Shoppe

Future Pharmacist

Courtney Jurgens , PharmD, South College School of Pharmacy

Raneem Pallotta , BHS, Northeast Ohio Medical University

Isabelle Tharp, Drake University

Health System Pharmacist

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Shubha Bhat , PharmD, MS, BCACP, Cleveland Clinic

Erica King , PharmD, West Tennessee Healthcare

Kara Piechowski, PharmD, BCPS, BC-ADM, CTTS, WVU Medicine, Tobacco-Free Me

Lifetime Leadership

Hanna Ariel , PharmD, Licensed Immunizing Pharmacist, Touro College of Pharmacy, Queens College and CUNY Research Foundation

John A. Pieper , PharmD, FCCP, FAPhA, FFIP, University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis

Michael J. Schuh, BS, PharmD, MBA, FAPhA, Mayo Clinic Florida

Patient Care Provider

Alicia B. Forinash , PharmD, FCCP, BCPS, BCACP, University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy

Kristen Hartzell , PharmD, Hartzell's Pharmacy

Ed Hudon, RPh, The Medicine Shoppe  Boyertown

Rising Star

Cody Clifton , PharmD, CPESN USA / Duvall Family Drugs

Captain Stephen J. Sullivan, Jr., Pharm.D., United States Air Force, Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson Element Chief, Inpatient Pharmacy

Mary-Haston Vest, PharmD, MS, BCPS, UNC Health; UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy

Specialty Pharmacist

Mailien Dinh , PharmD, Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy at Children's National Medical Center

Joshua Farrell , PharmD, AAHIVP, Walgreens

Chelsea Hustad, PharmD, CSP, Lumicera Health Services

Technician

Kerri L. Marzolf (Surritt) , CPhT, Ardon Health

Jenny Pena , L-CPhT, Banner Health

Amber Suthers, CPhT, MSAH, Surgoinsville Pharmacy

Technology Innovator

Hugh Heldenbrand , PharmD, M.S., CPESN

Dan Kistner , PharmD, Vizient, Inc.

David Medvedeff, PharmD, MBA, Aspen RxHealth

"Pharmacies are performing exponentially more services than ever before, showcasing an overwhelming display of innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership across what has become an immensely interdisciplinary practice," said Rob Kill, Parata CEO. "We are honored to celebrate our nation's top pharmacists, both current and future - and congratulate all of those nominated in 2021."

Winners will be selected from each of the categories and one finalist will be named the 2021 Next-Generation Pharmacist at the 12th annual awards program. All selected finalists will be featured in the September issue of Pharmacy Times and on https://www.nextgenpharmacist.com/.

For more information on the Next-Generation Pharmacist awards program or to register for the event, click here .

Pharmacy Times and Parata Systems thank the following program sponsors: BD, CeraVe, National Healthcareer Association, Pharmacy Development Services, NCPA, and Americorp Financial LLC.

About Pharmacy Times

Pharmacy Times  is the industry-leading multimedia pharmacy network of community, health-system, oncology and specialty pharmacy platforms, providing practical clinical and professional information pharmacists can use in their everyday practices when counseling patients and interacting with other health care providers. Each issue and the website contain articles and features covering industry trends, medication errors, drug interactions, patient education, disease state management, patient counseling, product news, pharmacy law and more. Additionally, Pharmacy Times Continuing Education  is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education.

About Parata Systems

Parata provides pharmacy technology solutions to reduce costs, improve health outcomes and enhance the patient experience by offering the most comprehensive pharmacy automation portfolio with medication adherence packaging, high-speed robotic dispensing technologies and pharmacy workflow solutions. Discover how Parata powers pharmacies to help people lead healthier lives at parata.com .

Pharmacy Times  Media Contact

Alyssa Scarpaci, 609-716-7777

ascarpaci@mjhlifesciences.com

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SOURCE Pharmacy Times
LONDON, August 18, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) announced today that it has appointed new country heads for three European markets: Andreas Niklaus has been appointed as the head of Germany, Riccardo Lamanna as the head of Luxembourg and Dagmar Kamber Borens as the head of Switzerland. In their respective regions, they will be responsible for developing business, stewarding client engagement, developing talent, and building the companys brand and market network, in addition to maintaining strong and proactive regulatory relationships.

Dagmar Kamber Borens has been appointed as the country head of Switzerland. Dagmar has more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry. Most recently, Dagmar was the designated Chief Executive Officer and country head of Quintet Private Bank Switzerland AG. She spent 18 years at UBS AG, where she held a number of senior management positions, including group Chief Financial Officer for Asia Pacific in Singapore, and Chief Operating Officer for the Swiss Universal Bank at Credit Suisse AG, where she had responsibility for strategy, IT/operations, digitalization, banking products and marketing.

Riccardo Lamanna, head of Alpha Business Development for EMEA and the legal entity head and board member for State Street Global Exchange GmbH, has been appointed as the country head of Luxembourg. He joined State Street in 2010 as part of the Intesa Sanpaolo acquisition, and successfully led its Italian branch and managed Global Services in the Netherlands prior to his most recent role.

Andreas Niklaus has been appointed as the country head of Germany. He joined State Street in 2003 to manage the Depotbank and successfully integrated Deutsche Banks Security Services business into State Street Bank International GmbH. Andreas has served as Chief Operating Officer since 2006, and was most recently responsible for Global Services in Germany, Austria, Netherlands and the Nordics, and served as the European head of Depositary Services.

Story continues

"Our country heads are critical to our vision and path forward to being an essential partner for our clients. Andreas, Riccardo and Dagmar all bring significant, on-the-ground experience to their roles and are highly skilled to lead the creation and execution of an enterprise-wide growth strategy for their respective markets," said Jorg Ambrosius, Executive Vice President and CEO, Europe, Middle East and Africa for State Street . "I am delighted to have such strong leaders in these important countries and markets to continue to drive our European expansion and deepen our relationships with local institutional investors and regulators."

About State Street Corporation

State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) is one of the world's leading providers of financial services to institutional investors including investment servicing, investment management and investment research and trading. With $42.6 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and $3.9 trillion* in assets under management as of June 30, 2021, State Street operates globally in more than 100 geographic markets and employs approximately 39,000 worldwide. For more information, visit State Street's website at www.statestreet.com.

*Assets under management as of June 30, 2021 includes approximately $64 billion of assets with respect to SPDR products for which State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) acts solely as the marketing agent. SSGA FD and State Street Global Advisors are affiliated.

 2021 State Street Corporation - All Rights Reserved

3680955.1.1.GBL.RTL

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Contacts

Media contact:

Ed Patterson

epatterson@statestreet.com

+1-404-213-3106
(Bloomberg) -- The aluminum unit of Brazilian conglomerate Votorantim SA is betting on a shortfall of the metal used in everything from beer cans to plane parts.

Cia. Brasileira de Aluminio plans to invest 4 billion reais ($748 million) in the next five years as it overhauls and expands operations, Chief Executive Officer Ricardo Carvalho said in an interview. The company that made its Brazilian trading debut in July after a 1.4 billion-real offering also wants to do deals along the value chain.

The growth plans align with CBAs view that aluminum is heading into a supply deficit as global de-carbonization efforts boost demand at a time when China is restricting smelting. The metal used to reduce vehicle weight has held up better than most commodities amid growing delta variant concerns, and is up 44% in the past year.

CBA plans to upgrade plants to reduce emissions and bring back some capacity idled during Brazils 2014 energy crisis. The project pipeline also includes renewable energy, dry-waste disposal and additional billet output from scrap.

Read More: Most Miners Are Falling Short of Carbon Cuts Needed for UN Goal

At the same time, the company is seeking a partner to develop a 2 billion-real bauxite project called Rondon in the northern state of Para. The strategy is to export 4.5 million tons to position CBA as an alternative for clients in China and the Middle East currently supplied by Guinea.

Were having conversations with potential partners in Brazil and abroad, Carvalho said. It could be someone who does a long-term supply contract or an investor with its own take.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2021 Bloomberg L.P.
In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included in this Vietnam Crawler Excavator Market Report. Vietnam crawler excavator to grow at a CAGR of 9. 84% during the period 2021-2027.

New York, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Vietnam Crawler Excavator Market - Strategic Assessment & Forecast 2021-2027" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06129722/?utm_source=GNW





The fast recovery of countries such as China, Korea, and Japan from the pandemic situation is the major factor helping Vietnam to recover faster from the pandemic situation and is expected to attract significant investments over the coming years.



The report considers the present scenario of the crawler excavator market in Vietnam and market dynamics for the forecast period 2021?2027. It covers a detailed overview of several growth enablers, restraints, and trends in the market. The study includes the volume and value sales with a segment analysis of the Vietnam crawler excavator market.



VIETNAM CRAWLER EXCAVATOR MARKET INSIGHTS



 Increasing infrastructure investment and construction operations in the country are expected to boost the demand for crawler excavators in the country over the forecast period.

 By 2025, the Government of Vietnam is planning to invest around US$ 120 billion in infrastructure projects. Infrastructure construction projects that are halted or suspended due to the pandemic are expected to resume and increase the demand for excavators over the period.

 Vietnams mini crawler excavator market is expected to reach 605 units by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.82%.

 High foreign investment leads to economic growth in Vietnam, which will help the government to invest more in public infrastructure that will be the driving force for Excavator demand.

 The volume of 102-200HP gross power excavators accounted for the largest share of around 32.1% in 2020.

 In Vietnam, transportation, tunnels, electric power, water supply resource, and real estate are among the five-focus sector. The government has proposed large-scale infrastructure projects and is expected to increase demand for medium excavators.



KEY HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE REPORT

 In terms of end-users, the construction industry is expected to generate the highest demand for excavators and is anticipated to dominate the market in the upcoming years.

 Incorporation of intelligent systems driven by IoT and data analysis for service, networking, and sustainability, the market is transitioning to a more innovative industry.

 Excavators used in various sports tournaments and waste and sewage disposal are expected to contribute to the markets growth.



VIETNAM CRAWLER EXCAVATOR MARKET - SEGMENTAL ANALYSIS

 The rise in fuel prices will increase the demand growth of mini excavators as they are more fuel-efficient and compact than heavy excavators.

 Vietnams Crawler excavator market in the agriculture sector is expected to reach 318 units by 2027.

 Vietnams government is investing in roads and infrastructure that will propel the growth of excavators in the gross power output segment.



Market Segmentation by Excavator Type

 Mini (<6 tons)

 Small (7-25 tons)

 Medium (26-40 tons)

 Large (above 40 tons)



Market Segmentation by Application

 Construction

 Mining

 Agriculture

 Forestry

 Others



Market Segmentation by Gross Power Output

 61-101 HP

 102-200 HP

 >201 HP



VIETNAM CRAWLER EXCAVATOR MARKET - VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Intense competition in technology and design, Excavator manufacturers are vigorously focusing on promoting technologically innovative features and a wide variety of attachments for their equipment. Manufacturers are making operational advances in their excavator motors to manage their competitiveness in the market. For instance, Komatsu collaborated with Honda motor to manufacture micro electric excavator powered by Honda.



Major Vendors

 Caterpillar

 Komatsu

 Hitachi

 Hyundai Construction Equipment

 Sany

 Volvo

 Doosan

 Kobelco



Other Prominent Vendors

 Kubota

 Sumitomo

 Ingersoll Rand

 XCMG



WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS REPORT?

This report is among the few in the market that offers outlook and opportunity analysis forecast in terms of:

 Volume (Unit sales)

o Type

o Excavator Type and Operating Weight

o Application

o Gross Power Output

 Value (USD)

o Type

o Excavator Type and Operating Weight

o Application

o Gross Power Output

 Gain competitive intelligence about the economic scenario, advantages in Vietnam, major projects and investments, market dynamics, and market share

 Examples of latest technologies

 Get presentation-ready format and easy-to-interpret data.

 Enable decision-makers to make informed and profitable choices

 Gain expert quantitative and qualitative analysis on value/volume growth projections of the Vietnam crawler excavator market share

 Complete supply chain analysis

 Get COVID-19 impact analysis of the market

 Company Profile of 8 major vendors



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

1. How big is the Vietnam Crawler Excavator Market?

2. What are the different types of excavators in the Vietnam Crawler Excavator Market?

3. Who are the major vendors in Vietnam Excavator Market?

4. What are the key factors driving the Vietnam Crawler Excavator Market?

5. Which types of excavators accounted for the largest market share?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06129722/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

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CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




BHP will move its main listing to Australia following an announcement on Tuesday, with a secondary listing on UK markets. Photo: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

Mining behemoth BHP (BHP.L) is leaving the FTSE 100 index (^FTSE), as it plans to scrap a dual listing of its shares in Sydney and London.

The move comes after two decades as part of the index. BHP will move its main listing to Australia following an announcement on Tuesday, with a secondary listing on UK markets.

As a result of the move, many UK investors will be forced to sell their holdings.

The industry giant is the world's biggest mining company and is a huge player in the market, regularly topping the charts in terms of market value.

Watch: BHP sees profits jump

The company's chairman Ken MacKenzie said the move would serve to "unify BHP's corporate structure."

The company's stock was 5.2% lower by 1pm on Wednesday in London.

BHP shares had fallen around 5% by 1pm in London. Chart: Yahoo Finance UK

"Our plans announced today will better enable BHP to pursue opportunities in new and existing markets and create value and returns over generations," said MacKenzie.

The delisting proposal comes just days after the company said it would be extracting itself from fossil fuels, merging its oil and gas assets with Australia's Woodside (WPL.AX). The company will shift towards commodities such as copper and nickel. Its thermal coal mine is also up for sale.

Read more: European markets open higher after a day of selling

It is the second corporate giant to look at abandoning a dual structure in London in the past five years  Unilever (UNA.AS) looked at to simplifying its own structure and opting for an Amsterdam listing, prompting speculation about Brexit flight.

Those plans were ultimately scrapped, however, after proposals were rejected by the shareholders.

BHP's move will make dealmaking easier for the company, as well as decarbonising and net-zeroing its output.

Although it will also spark worry in UK investors, at a time when politicians and officials are looking to make London a more attractive place to list.

Story continues

According to the Financial Times, BHP ended Tuesday as the second biggest company on the London Stock Exchange with an equity market value of more than 129bn ($177.5bn), just behind AstraZeneca (AZN.L) at 133bn.

Watch: What are SPACs?
Workrise Establishing Tech Center in Belfast to Create 150+ Jobs

AUSTIN, Texas and BELFAST, Northern Ireland, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Workrise, the leading workforce management platform for the skilled trades, announces new initiatives in Northern Ireland that will create 153 jobs locally and support the company's continued growth. Workrise is establishing a technology engineering center in Belfast. The jobs will be added over the next four years with an initial focus on establishing the engineering team.

Workrise Logo (PRNewsfoto/Workrise)

Xuan Yong, Workrise co-founder and CEO, said, "We are pleased with this meaningful expansion into Northern Ireland and the opportunity to tap into the impressive talent pool there."

Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said, "It is a pleasure to welcome this leading technology company from Austin, Texas to Northern Ireland, which will make an important contribution to our economy. We all want post-COVID Northern Ireland to be stronger and better than before. We want our people to develop the skills of the future and our businesses to be resilient, innovative, sustainable, and competitive."

Invest Northern Ireland has offered Workrise 994,500 of support towards the creation of the new technology jobs.

Invest NI CEO Kevin Holland commented, "Invest Northern Ireland collaborates with partners across Northern Ireland to continue developing the talent that businesses like Workrise look for. New investors with novel technology ideas and solutions offer excellent potential for knowledge transfer, career progression and sector development  enhancing Northern Ireland's world-class reputation in this field."

Yong added, "We selected Northern Ireland as the location for this new centre based on the high-quality software engineers with industry skills, along with a strong pipeline of graduates from your excellent universities."

Founded in Austin, Texas, Workrise provides a full-service workforce solution, matching skilled labor contractors to companies that require staff for time bound projects.

Story continues

About Workrise

Workrise is the leading workforce management solution for the skilled trades. We make it easier for skilled laborers to find work and for companies to find in-demand, trained workers. Workrise operates across the solar, wind, construction, defense, and oil and gas industries. Through people and technology, we provide the staffing, training, and professional services to empower the people who get hard work done. For more information visit workrise.com.

Media Contact

Mitch Goulding

press@workrise.com

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/workrise-makes-significant-investment-in-northern-ireland-to-continue-growing-tech-operations-301358184.html

SOURCE Workrise
Quite honestly, theyre very aggressive and they want to keep our business. At this time I have no qualms about their service. Its been serving us well for several years, I think since 2012. They provided that bandwidth upgrade at no cost in 2018, which they certainly could have asked for more money and they did not.

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England-Biggs said the current contract with American Broadband is $200 a month and confirmed that the company cut its bill in half.

McClain gave kudos to England-Biggs, who noticed that the contract was expiring.

By noting that and going out for bids, we did potentially save $1,200 in these costs because they did want to retain our business, McClain said. That was a good catch, timing wise, so we were able to go out for competitive bids.

England-Biggs said the library will use an American Rescue Plan Act grant for about $7,600 for a years service and purchase of 15 new Verizon Orbic Speed hotspot devices, bringing the librarys total to 30.

These devices are intended for people who need extra digital support for education or work. Borrowers need to be 19 or older and can check out a hotspot to have internet at home. There is a three-week checkout period.
ATLANTA (AP)  Georgias State Election Board inched forward Wednesday in a process set in motion by Republican lawmakers using a controversial provision of the states sweeping new election law that could ultimately lead to a takeover of elections in the states most populous county.

Fulton County, a Democratic bastion that includes most of the city of Atlanta, has long been a target of Republicans who complain of sloppiness and say they want to ensure state laws are being followed. Former President Donald Trump fixated on Fulton after the November general election, claiming without evidence that fraud in the county contributed to his narrow loss in the state.

Democrats and voting rights activists have said the takeover provision in the new law invites political interference in local elections and could suppress turnout.

Well have to wait and see how it plays out, but it does feed the Democrats concerns that Republicans are going to interfere with the actions of the board which is in charge of elections in the county which gave Democrats their biggest total margin of votes, University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said.
The Taliban, seeking to consolidate its grip on power following a blitz offensive that brought most of Afghanistan under its rule and sent the government fleeing, violently broke up a rare protest in eastern Afghanistan as an exodus from the country continues with dozens of evacuation flights leaving Kabul.



As hundreds more people, many of whom helped U.S.-led foreign forces over two decades, boarded planes and left the war-torn country on August 18 from the Kabul airport, President Ashraf Ghani resurfaced in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) after days of uncertainty over his whereabouts, reiterating that he had fled Afghanistan to prevent bloodshed and denying he stole money.



At the airport in Kabul, U.S. and British troops oversaw the massive evacuation after chaos earlier in the week forced the airfield, which is the country's only functioning port of exit for flights out of the country, to temporarily close.

The United States has sent military reinforcements to protect the evacuation of foreigners and Afghan civilians, with troop numbers swelling to 4,000 on August 17 after the airport was temporarily closed because thousands of panicked Afghans flooded the airfield.

After seizing the capital, Kabul, following a blistering offensive that swept up cities and toppled the Western-backed government, the Taliban said on August 17 that it wanted peace and an inclusive government -- within the values of Islam. They vowed no revenge against opponents and to respect women's rights but within the framework of Islamic law.



In the capital, there have been signs of life cautiously resuming, with Kabul-based journalist Ali M. Latifi saying early in the day that he saw stores and restaurants reopening.



Another journalist said that Kabuls "famous ice cream carts started playing their loud music again this morning."

However, video reports showed some militants in the capital whipping people who were trying to make their way through massive crowds to get to the airport, while gunshots could be heard in the background.

A NATO security official told Reuters that 17 people were wounded on August 18 in a stampede at a gate to the airport. Both Taliban and U.S. officials said they had fired warning shots into the air to disperse crowds.

The militants on August 18 also quashed a rare public show of dissent in the eastern city of Jalalabad, where video footage showed militants firing shots and attacking dozens of people who had gathered in support of the black, red, and green Afghan national flag.

A reporter for a local news agency said he and a TV cameraman from another agency were beaten by the Taliban as they tried to cover the unrest.

Reuters quoted witnesses as saying three people were killed in the violence.

Anti-Taliban protests also took place in the cities of Kunar and Khost, with demonstrators waving Afghan flags, the BBC reported.



There's been no armed opposition to the Taliban so far, but the Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan on August 18 rejected the group's rule and said the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, an area which has not yet been conquered by the militants, would serve as a stronghold for resistance led by First Vice-President Amrullah Saleh.



Saleh, a former Afghan spy chief and interior minister, said on August 17 that he was the "legitimate caretaker president" after Ghani fled.



Videos from Panjshir, a former stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that fought the Taliban in the late 1990s, appear to show potential resistance leaders gathering there.

The unverified videos showed a caravan of motorbikes with flags of the Northern Alliance, of which Saleh had been a member.

Ghani, in a message from the U.A.E., said he had left Kabul to prevent bloodshed and denied reports that he took large sums of money with him as he departed the presidential palace.

"If I had stayed, I would be witnessing bloodshed in Kabul," Ghani said in a video streamed on Facebook, his first public comments since it was confirmed he was in the U.A.E.



He left on the advice of government officials, he added.

The U.A.E. said Ghani and his family were welcomed into the country on "humanitarian grounds," but gave no further details on where he had been since fleeing Afghanistan. It also did not say how long he would stay in the Middle Eastern country.

Unconfirmed reports had Ghani flying to a Central Asian country following his hasty departure from the capital on August 15 in the face of the Taliban advance. Ghani and his government came under blistering criticism both from domestic and foreign leaders for their lack of will to lead an organized resistance to the militants' advance.

As Afghanistan adjusts to its new reality, Western powers face the decision whether to deal with the Islamist insurgents they had fought for nearly 20 years.

A member of the Taliban political office in Qatar, Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwah, said that leaders of the group were in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to discuss the formation of an internationally acceptable government for Afghanistan.

The Taliban has said it had been in touch with Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, former President Hamid Karzai, and warlord Gulbudin Hekmatyar, who leads the Hizb-e Islami political and paramilitary group.



A member of the Taliban administration who declined to be identified said on August 18 that a senior leader of the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network militant group, Anas Haqqani, had met with Karzai, who was accompanied by Abdullah. He did not provide further details, but a meeting of senior Taliban leaders with Karzai and Abdullah was confirmed by the SITE monitoring group.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the EU was suspending payments of development assistance to Afghanistan "until we clarify the situation" with Taliban leaders.

That move comes as the United States decided to freeze Afghan central bank reserves in U.S. accounts, depriving the Taliban of billions of dollars.

With reporting by AFP, AP, Reuters, the BBC, and dpa

This story also includes reporting by Radio Azadi correspondents on the ground in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld for their protection.
A U.S. government watchdog has painted a bleak portrait of two decades of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, saying that administrations consistently "underestimated" the time required to rebuild the country and "misunderstood" its context during the United States' longest war.

In a report published late on August 17, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) concluded that the U.S. intervention in the war-torn country had "bright spots," such as lower child-mortality rates, increases in per capita gross domestic product, and increased literacy rates.

But it also questioned whether these gains were "commensurate" with the $145 billion spent over the past 20 years to try to rebuild Afghanistan to be a sustainable democracy after U.S. troops left.

The assessment comes as thousands of civilians desperately try to flee Afghanistan after Taliban militants seized the capital, Kabul, and toppled the Western-backed government on August 15 just days before the final U.S. soldiers were to leave the country.

Critics have called out the administration of President Joe Biden, who defended the U.S. military withdrawal, blaming the Taliban's takeover on the Afghan government and arguing that it was in the U.S. national interest to end the mission.

"If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that can sustain itself and pose little threat to U.S. national security interests, the overall picture is bleak," John Sopko, the special inspector general, wrote in the report.

SIGAR said the document, titled What We Need to Learn: Lessons From Twenty Years Of Afghanistan Reconstruction, was based on 13 years of oversight work, including hundreds of interviews with current and former U.S. and foreign government officials, implementing partners, contractors, and experts.

It identified seven areas of failure of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, including a lack of a coherent strategy for what Washington hoped to achieve.

The U.S. government also "consistently underestimated the amount of time required to rebuild Afghanistan, and created unrealistic timelines and expectations that prioritized spending quickly," which SIGAR said "increased corruption and reduced the effectiveness of programs."

Among other lessons, the report found that the U.S. government "did not understand the Afghan context," including socially, culturally, and politically.

"Rarely did U.S. officials have even a mediocre understanding of the environment, much less how it was responding to U.S. interventions," and that ignorance was often due to a "willful disregard for information that may have been available."

Asked about the report, national-security adviser Jake Sullivan emphasized its findings about the large amounts of resources provided to Afghanistan.

Despite "hundreds of billions of dollars spent, huge number of forces trained, huge amounts of capability provided, huge amount of advising and assisting," the Afghan security force "was not prepared with the will to stand up and fight for itself," he told a press briefing.

"And that is a collection of decisions taken over the course of many years."

As the Western-backed government in Kabul collapsed, Biden's approval rating dropped by 7 percentage points to the lowest level of his seven-month-long presidency, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The national survey, conducted on August 16 after the collapse of the Afghan government, found that 46 percent of American adults approved of Biden's performance in office.

With reporting by Politico and Reuters
Choose from more than 300 tea varieties and participate in a Chinese tea ceremony at Yellow Mountain Tea House in Old Colorado City. While the tea is made in front of you, youll learn the best way to brew and steep tea. yellow-mountain-organic-tea.com  Carlotta Olson
A Jefferson County district court judge handed down 10 years in prison Monday afternoon to an Evergreen woman who pled guilty to conspiring have her husband's girlfriend killed, and to approaching people to harass and retaliate against them and others involved in cases against her.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the crisis in Afghanistan during a speech in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., August 16, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis
The proposals disconnect between government and governed was also evident in another way, above and beyond its crippling costs for employers and limitations on options for commuters. Notably, its supporters in state government actually fumed over having to comply with  get this  the publics will.
Patient volume at Children's Hospital Colorado has spiked in recent weeks, thanks to a combination of COVID-19 and unusually high rates of another respiratory illness typically seen in the winter. Officials with the hospital said they're concerned about the situation, particularly as schools reopen.
Iowa lawmakers and the public will get their first look at the Legislative Services Agencys new redistricting map Sept. 16.

Thats just 35 days from Aug. 12, when the agency received the Census Bureau data it uses to redraw the 50 Senate and 100 House districts to conform to changes in Iowas population over the past 10 years. Ten years ago, it was 49 days before lawmakers received a map, LSA senior legal counsel Ed Cook told the Temporary Redistricting Advisory Commission on Tuesday.

The commission must hold three public hearings and submit recommendations to the Legislature. Lawmakers must wait at least three days before voting on the plan.

Were pretty much at the starting point, Cook told the five commission members. Suffice it to say it's not as simple as pushing the magic redistricting button on the computer.

Not only is there no magic redistricting button, but the timeline Cook described does not comply with the constitutional requirement for the Legislature to approve a plan by Sept. 1 and for the plan to be enacted by Sept. 15.
From 2010 to 2020, Iowas population grew 4.7% from 2010 to 2020, according to Census Bureau data released Thursday, Aug. 12.

80% of that growth is owed to four of the largest counties in the state; Johnson, Linn, Polk and Scott, while 68 counties throughout Iowa showed losses over the past decade. That includes all of the North Iowa area.

Over a 10-year period, not a single county in the North Iowa region saw population growth. In fact, the counties of: Butler, Cerro Gordo, Floyd, Franklin, Hancock, Kossuth, Mitchell, Winnebago, Worth and Wright each had negative percent change of more than 1.5%.

The greatest drop, by percentage, was experienced by Franklin County, which went from 10,680 in 2010 to 10,019 in 2020 for a loss of 661 people and a change of -6.2%. Winnebago and Worth each had negative changes of about 1.7% with the former losing 32 more people (187 to 155).

Cerro Gordo County, the largest by population in North Iowa, went from 44,151 people in 2010 to 43,127 in 2020 for a loss of 1,024 and a percent change of -2.3%.
Parts of western North Carolina, already soaked by rain not directly associated with Fred, braced for more rainfall through early Wednesday. Transylvania County, south of Asheville, declared a state of emergency after 10 inches (25 centimeters) fell Monday, causing landslides, flooding roads and destroying at least one home.

Transylvania County Chairman Jason Chappell, a lifelong resident, said it was the most intense flooding he's seen in at least 20 years, and that he fears more damage to come. Floodwaters swamped a local factory Monday with several inches of water and damaged its parking lot.

"It really caught everyone off guard," Chappell said. "No one was forecasting that amount of rain."

With Fred blowing in Tuesday, National Weather Service meteorologist Ashley Pratt said Haywood, Transylvania and Jackson counties are likely to get the most rain, including another 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) in Transylvania.

One of the region's major attractions, Grandfather Mountain State Park, closed on Monday. The North Carolina state park's website said "trails are flooded and the water at stream crossings (is) dangerously high."
The Republican government now running Iowa seems to regularly find ways to sink even lower in its concern for the residents of the state. The Legislatures and governors recent move to prevent public schools from mandating the wearing of masks by students is just another in a line of moves designed to ... what? Enable a further outbreak of deadly highly infectious disease? Because thats what its done. She claims its because she believes parents should have the right to control their childrens lives. Apparently she includes the right to let their kids get sick in that package.

Now, I cant understand that thinking, but maybe parents should have that right. However, they sure dont have the right to make other kids and teachers sick, and thats what happens when kids are not wearing masks who have not been vaccinated. Look at this way. Should parents have the right to let their 11-year-old drive the family car on a public street? Would Reynolds say yes to that and drop the minimum driving age requirement? Isnt that an application of her beliefs?
The Washington Post reported this week that on June 24, 8,447 new COVID-19 cases among children were reported nationwide. And by Aug. 5, the number had grown to 93,824. In fact, since the start of the pandemic, children have made up a cumulative 14.3 % of all COVID-19 cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association, the Washington Post report cited. Reidsvilles Sid Baker, a former RCS teacher who served on the North Carolina Association of Educators Board of Directors, said he is very disappointed by the boards mask decision. The board has maintained an unyielding position on any and everything that they deem infringes on personal liberty and their rights. Children and teachers will suffer from the boards insensitive decision, Baker said. The delta variant continues to infect people in numbers approaching last summer. Our health care professionals havent recovered from the last 18 months and are now preparing for a deluge of new coronavirus patients. This is so sad and so unnecessary. Virtual learning has its flaws. And I feel that we may have to return to that if there isnt an intervention soon. Madison parent Sonya Newquist agreed that without a mask mandate, infection rates will likely force a return to Zoom classrooms, disrupting her 16-year-old daughter Shelby Parkers school year at McMichael High in Mayodan.Everybody in my household is vaccinated. (Shelbys) vaccinated. And I made sure to get her last shot so she would be protected for the beginning of school. And now theyre going in half cocked, Newquist said of the boards vote. Once enough students test positive for the virus, RCS will be forced to return to virtual instruction like last year, Newquist said. I think parents are going to let (students) go (to school in person) until theres an outbreak, and then its gonna be back to online and theres gonna be mass scrambling to once again try and find sitters, after-school care ... when this is something that we could avoid. Reidsville parent Ashanti Crawford wants board members to reconsider their mask vote. Will there be an option to place my child back in a virtual learning environment for the high school setting? Crawford said. Taking a gamble with my childs life will never be an option for me, and Im sure that stands for a lot of parents in this district. Doctors, including Reidsville obstetrician John Ferguson, told the board on Aug. 9 that if school kids contract COVID-19, they may easily spread it to their elders. Baker said he worries about such transmission, too. He said hes already lost several friends to the virus  friends who were not vaccinated. Older adults who arent vaccinated are at a high risk of getting COVID-19. By making masks optional, there is an increased chance of children and educators exposing unsuspecting adults, i.e. grandparents, and others, to this virus, Baker said. We can do better. Society has turned this pandemic into a political spectacle. It is not a Democrat or Republican issue. It is a health issue and we need to act accordingly.
Barberitos

Barberitos, the fast-casual burrito restaurant, has remodeled and reopened its store at 301 Pisgah Church Road in Greensboro

Updates to the restaurant include replacing the kitchen equipment, salsa bar, light fixtures, countertops, dining room tables and chairs, and restrooms and repainting the interior. The dining room also will feature a personalized mural that includes elements unique to Greensboro, such as the General Greene statue.

Salsa contest

The Fairgrounds Farmers Market is seeking entries for its annual Saucy Salsa contest, which will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 28 during the weekly Saturday market.

The contest will have mild and hot categories, and salsas must be submitted the day of the contest.

The winners of each category will receive $100 in market bucks that can be used to buy produce and other items at the Fairgrounds Farmers Market in Winston-Salem. Second- and third-place winners will receive $50 and $25 in market bucks, respectively.

The contest is open to amateur cooks 18 and older. All entries must be homemade, and each contestant can enter no more than one salsa in each category.
Damascus Government still imposes a severe siege on Shahba canton that houses Afrin IDPs, who are staying in the camps and semi destroyed homes in Shahba canton.

What is being deliberately done in Shahba canton by Damascus Government, particularly, the checkpoints are deployed on the main road between Aleppo city and Shahba canton, which belong to the State Security Forces, Air Force Intelligence, Military Security, in addition to the Fourth Division, prevent the entry of foodstuffs, fuel, medicines and medical supplies to hospitals and medical points.

The ambulance of patients in the province to Aleppo hospitals has also been prevented except through the Syrian Red Crescent Organization, which caused the loss of life of three infants and elderly children in the latter half of last July as a result of the neglect and delay of the organization's ambulance to Aleppo, which is only 15 minutes away.

Member of the Fuel Committee, Farid Youssef, told ANHA agency about the lack of the fuel in the canton that the situation is deteriorating due to the lack of raw materials, noting, "as, winter season approaches, and if fuel is not available to the people, we will face a humanitarian catastrophe in the camps and semi-destroyed homes."

Youssef added that they suffer greatly from securing fuel oil for electricity generators and tanks that distribute water to the people for free, indicating that private transportation and shops need more than a thousand barrels per month.

Agriculture in the province has been severely affected by the lack of fuel oil and climate fluctuations in conjunction with high temperatures and a lack of rain, as farmers are turning to planting varieties that do not need a lot of water.

On this, the co-chair of the Agricultural Affairs Department of Afrin, Nisreen Mohammad, said that "agriculture has declined significantly during the current year as a result of the arbitrary measures imposed by Damascus Government on the al-Shahba canton."

All agricultural projects stopped

She continued, "We are unable to help farmers due to the lack of diesel, fertilizers and agricultural supplies, and we cannot expand the projects belonging to the Agriculture Committee as a result of the blockade."

She pointed out that most of the agricultural machineries stopped working, noting that the Agricultural Affairs Department of Afrin region took the initiative to distribute the land to the people for cultivation, but the people refused; The lack of fuel oil and agricultural supplies.

The co-chair of the Agricultural Affairs Department of Afrin Canton, Nisreen Mohammad, indicated that most farmers have replaced their crops with others, provided that they are not irrigated.

In another aspect of the siege, Avrin Hospital and the medical points in al-Shahba canton are almost completely lacking in the essential medicines required at the present time.

Damascus Government is raising the price of medicine

In this regard, the Administrator of the Favin Central Pharmacy, Akram Arab, spoke to ANHA agency, saying" Most pharmaceutical factories have ceased to operate because of the cost of dollars and the import of raw materials from abroad, and the Government has issued three lists of drug prices, raising prices twice. "

Akram Arab attributed the high price and loss of medicines in Shahba areas to the decisions of the Health Ministry to raise the price of medicines and unjust siege imposed by Damascus Government on Shahba canton, noting that the checkpoints of the Syrian regime had previously imposed huge sums of money to enter the medicines, but had now prevented their entry."

Arab confirmed that they had purchased a quantity of medicines and were ready to bring them into Shahba areas, but that the Damascus Government was blocking their entry.

At the conclusion of his speech, the administrator of the central Favin pharmacy, Akram Arab, said that the Russian forces present in the military base in Shahba canton, promised to open the way for medicines to enter the canton.

T/S

ANHA
"I can not in good conscience move to dismiss those counts and comply with my oath of office," Gallagher wrote. He then requested the Department of Justice assume the case, writing "Please assign this case to PSB."

According to court documents, Smith and his wife were repeatedly warned by employees at the Helena restaurant last November they needed to wear face masks.

In the alleged altercation, Smith knocked over water glasses on a table, according to an affidavit, and then shoved a restaurant employee. When other workers tried to restrain him, Smith is accused of hitting an employee in the genitals several times and then pinning that staff member to a wall.

Smith is accused of then exposing a handgun he had in a black holster on his waistband. He patted it with his hand and made a statement to (an employee) to the effect of 'Im going to get you, according to the affidavit.

The statement caused the employee to fear Smith would use the gun to hurt him or other employees, according to the affidavit.

The court entered a not guilty plea on Smith's behalf Dec. 2, 2020.
As Montana families are preparing to send children back to school, we are confronting the uncomfortable fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, much as all of us dearly wish it were.

Late spring brought big reductions in COVID-19 case rates from the circulating alpha variant. But what were dealing with now, the delta variant, behaves differently. It is two to three times as contagious and may also cause more severe illness in young people. In states with low immunization rates, we are once again seeing overflowing hospitals. This means no one gets good medical care, whether it be for car accidents, cancer or heart attacks. We are also seeing more children hospitalized daily than at any prior point the pandemic.

The Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, representing 146 pediatric providers in our state, prioritizes childrens health. We know that attending school with peers is important to childrens well-being. We know that can be done safely. We urge schools to make that in-person school experience possible: to take part in tried and tested measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, to reduce the need for repeated quarantines and illness that result from uncontrolled spread.
This gets back to river otters, once a species in serious decline and still a species that is classified as Endangered by CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) appendix II. River otters do not mate until their second year of life; they also have a delayed gestation period, often up to a year. They usually have one to three kits at birth. They reproduce every two to three years, so they have slow reproduction rates.

They are often caught in beaver sets, so they are already bycatch and trappers do not have to report such incidents. They give birth from February to April, meaning during a part of the trapping season. Young kits are blind at birth and need more than three months to learn to swim.

So a beautiful and sensitive animal, one that can be impacted by water quality, is allowed to be trapped. Not only that, but we are going to expand the number to provide recreation for a handful of people that do not care about the animal, its life or its social interactions. No, this is about bragging rights, an ability to kill an animal that brings joy and surprise to so many. One that is not territorial or harmful to the waters or lands.
DECATUR  Ashley Tyler worked as a teaching assistant for four years at American Dreamer STEM Academy and fell in love with teaching.

I was looking for a career change, but being a mom and working full time, going back to college for four years (to get a teaching degree) didn't seem possible, Tyler said.

Then American Dreamer Principal Julie Fane told her about Golden Apple.

One thing that drew me, the website says 'agents of change,' Tyler said. That's what it all about, creating educators who want to be agents of change in their districts and classrooms.

She applied and was accepted, and spent a year at Blackburn College getting her teaching certificate and student teaching. This year, she's teaching second and third grade special education at Dennis School's Mosaic campus.

Golden Apple is a teacher residency program for college seniors not currently on a teaching path and career changers who are college graduates interested in becoming teachers in hard-to-staff content or expertise areas. Golden Apple Accelerators commit to teaching at least four years at a school of need in targeted communities in south, central or western Illinois.

Golden Apple launched our Accelerators Program to make a material difference in our states critical teacher shortage and provide Illinois students with the qualified, passionate, and prepared educators that they deserve," said Golden Apple President Alan Mather. "While none of us could have anticipated the challenges the pandemic would bring, our inaugural cohort of Accelerators has shown true resilience and dedication over the past 15 months. We are immensely proud of Ashley, and all of her fellow Accelerators, and cannot wait to see them excel in their first year of teaching.

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In fall 2020, more than 1,900 teaching positions in Illinois were unfilled, and college and university teacher preparation programs in the state have seen a 50% drop in enrollment. As existing teachers retire, there aren't enough new teachers to take their places. More than half of Illinois students are students of color, yet only 18% of Illinois teachers are people of color. With 3,400 schools of need  high-poverty populations  in the state, staffing those schools with people in those communities who will commit to teaching in their own communities has been a hallmark of Golden Apple's mission.

For me, it's really what I felt passionate about, Tyler said. I was a care room teaching assistant, and I really just had a desire to work with students that need extra supports. I love being able to meet one on one with them and be that person for them that they know can come to and rely on. I think it's going to be a perfect fit.

Tyler grew up in Mount Zion and has a bachelor's degree in psychology. She intended to become an addiction counselor and was for a while, but when she began working as a teaching assistant, she said, she realized that teaching was where she belongs.

She moved to Mount Zion as a fourth-grader, and said that was a hard age to start over and make new friends.

I had two teachers in particular who influenced me to become a teacher, she said. "My fourth grade teacher, Carol Eichel, saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. She is my 'why' (become a teacher) and I still talk to her to this day and keep in touch.

Her sixth grade teacher, Pam Buttz, is another influential teacher from her own student days, and both women, now retired, have a passion for education and building relationships with students.

Tyler has a mentor through Golden Apple who will work with her throughout the first several years of teaching, with regular meetings and monthly professional development sessions.

I love this district and this community and these students, Tyler said. I believe they're worth it. I do what I can to show them that and be the agent of change in this district.

Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter

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Richmond has made it nearly impossible for law enforcement to do their jobs or correctional officers to do their jobs, he said.

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The difference between my opponent, Terry McAuliffe, and me on this topic is so wide you could drive an Army truck through it, Youngkin said, adding he doesnt believe McAuliffe respects law enforcement. He has said, over and over again, he will get rid of qualified immunity.

That is a type of immunity that shields police or government officials from being held personally liable for violating the Constitution. It came to light during the trial of Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin, who was ultimately convicted in the death of George Floyd.

Asked for response to Youngkins comments, the McAuliffe campaign provided a statement.

We know Glenn struggles with it, so here's the truth: as governor, Terry McAuliffe made Virginia the fourth safest state in the nation and supported our law enforcement. Glenn Youngkins right-wing agenda would only make Virginia less safe  his economic plan would defund the police and he opposed the American Rescue Plan, which brought millions of dollars in funding for law enforcement in our Commonwealth, according to McAuliffe campaign spokesperson Renzo Olivari.
Mark Rollins, Robertsons attorney, said he was no longer willing to wait and asked Cooper to schedule a trial date. The judge declined, saying he first wants to get another update at the September hearing.

More than 570 people from across the country have been charged with participating in the insurrection.

Members of Congress, who were meeting to certify an election won by President Joe Biden, fled from the mob, which coalesced shortly after Trump encouraged a large crowd of supporters to fight like hell against an election he claimed was rigged against him.

More than 30 defendants have pleaded guilty as of Aug. 6, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington, D.C. With less than a dozen sentences handed down so far, its too early to assess how the rioters have been punished.

But in revoking Robertsons bond last month, Cooper included in his 14-page order language from other federal judges who have found that insurrectionists should not get special treatment and no jail time just because they did not commit a violent act.

The judge also cited Robertsons comments on social media as evidence that he would pose a risk to society if left free.
But a number of states, including Massachusetts and California, have adopted the simple and worker-friendly ABC test for employee status. It essentially says that those who do the work a company is primarily engaged in are employees, entitled to rights and protections.

Under that test, gig drivers, for example, are clearly employees. In fact, the Massachusetts Attorney General sued Uber and Lyft on precisely that basis; the case is pending. Hence, the gig companies launched their Massachusetts ballot initiative, to replicate Prop 22s surgical excision of a slew of gig workers from employee status under the ABC test.

A lot of Californians think they were hoodwinked into voting yes on Prop 22. Uber and the others claimed misleadingly that if their drivers and delivery workers wanted flexibility, they couldnt be employees. They also pointed to the benefits theyd provide their independent contractors under Proposition 22 (and the Massachusetts initiative): a guarantee of 120% of the state minimum wage, some payment toward health care benefits and some reimbursement for mileage.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  North Carolina health officials said Monday that medically vulnerable residents with certain health conditions can get an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine, though some have already had a third Pfizer or Moderna shot after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it last week.

The FDA signed off on the additional dose after emerging data suggested people with moderately to severely compromised immune systems do not necessarily build the same level of immunity as others who are not immunocompromised.

Maura Wozniak, a 43-year-old Charlotte-area resident with cystic fibrosis, said she didn't develop any antibodies after receiving the first two Pfizer doses. After speaking with her pharmacist shortly after the FDA approved the additional shot, she got a third Pfizer dose Saturday in Huntersville.

She hopes the third shot will give her more protection, especially against the more contagious delta variant. If nothing else, she said she'll feel less anxious about the pandemic.

I'm hopeful that I do get some antibodies from it, Wozniak said. Psychologically, it's going to help a lot."
In western North Carolina, from Asheville to Statesville down to Greenville, South Carolina,  there were 37 tornado warnings issued yesterday and numerous flash flood warnings, Powell continued.

Weather conditions can create a tornado very quickly and sometimes before a warning can even be sent out, he said. Normally on tropical days like that, you err on the side of caution because you want that warning to be out so people will know where to go.

Powell said not all of the 37 warnings produced a tornado.

Looking at the remainder of the week, Powell said there could be more rain.

Well probably see (Wednesday) be the clearer day, he said. As we go through the week and into the weekend temperatures are going to get back into the upper 80s and low 90s  with some humidity, so it is possible we could kick off a few additional showers and thunderstorms through the rest of the week."

Powell added that he does not predict severe weather moving into the Catawba County area for the remainder of the week, but there could be heavy rain. When you get that much heat, and humidity and instability one or two could be quite strong.

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Several years ago the pastor of a mega-church in Charlotte resigned, saying, I could not take it anymore. The pressures are just too great for me. Do you think that he might have been feeling that God had abandoned him? To our dismay it may seem that other Christian leaders could be saying America has been completely abandoned by God and that we are outnumbered by the foe. But we can be fully assured that when we have God on our side, we are the majority.

In addition to having God in our presence we find in the Old and New Testaments where Gods Word identifies a remnant, a small group of Gods followers, who continue to be loyal to Him. In the first instance God finds the Prophet Elijah in despair hiding from Queen Jezebel who was attempting to kill him. This great prophet told God that he was the only one left that had not bowed a knee to idols. God responded that he had reserved a remnant of 7000 who had not bowed to Baal (1 Kings 19:18, NKJV). In essence God was telling Elijah, you are not alone I have a great mission ready for you which ended up with God lifting Elijah to heaven on a chariot of fire.

In a similar situation the Apostle Paul identified a small remnant of people in Israel that were genuinely called of God. (Romans 11:1-6). If we paralleled this with our country, we know we would find a trace of people still Gods loyal servants.
CHARLOTTE  Two men have been arrested in connection to the 2019 homicide of the son of a Cabarrus County Sheriffs Deputy, it was announced in a release Tuesday.

Dashawn Gernard Partlow, 26, and Conner Pyle, 23, have been arrested and charged in connection to the murder of Nathaniel Nate Isenhour with Partlow being served an outstanding warrant for murder while Pyle was served a warrant for obstruction of justice, according to the report.

In an incident which occurred Nov. 25, 2019, Isenhour was shot and killed around 10 p.m. at a Charlotte shopping center at 8640 University City Blvd. Charlotte Mecklenburg Police identified a possible vehicle attached to the case following the incident and have been investigating since.

A $5,000 reward was offered initially for information pertaining to the case while eventually a $25,000 reward was also offered.

According to Tuesdays police report, as a result of the investigation, Partlow and Pyle were identified as suspects in the case and warrants were issued for their arrest.
The decision to require masks is not something the district came by lightly and at least one board member felt they were more or less forced into.

The thing that bothers me the most about this, and this is something I feel like as a board we have no control over is that the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has made it impossible for schools to go masks optional, board member Denise Adcock said. Because the operational inefficiencies are going to happen on our school system when we have 100% of our students back in our buildings and we are trying to control contact tracing, we are going to try to control quarantines, were going to have kids out, were going to have parents at work who are going to have to try to figure out how to try to take care of their kids for 10 days.

I am voting for masks in the schools because I want these kids to stay in school five days a week. I want them to get educated and if that means they wear a mask until these numbers come down then I am changing my vote to mask mandate.

Even with the requirements of quarantines and the effect that could potentially have on a student having to be kept out of school, the decision to require masks was still one some were not in favor of.
They were at the conclusion of a two-month battle in which he had considered little else and on which both his immediate future and his place in history depended. But other than via his own tweets and fulminations and his meeting the day before with the vice president, nobody in the White House was much participating or even present in this fight.

What about the Capitol Hill riot on January 6? Didnt Trump send the mob from a rally at the Ellipse across from the White House to the Capitol, even saying, Ill be with you?

What is the good news for Trump in all this?

Wolffs account shows Trump did not organize the riot at the Capitol. Instead, Wolff explains that Trumps incompetence kept him from knowing even what was going on with the rioters. According to Wolff, Trump was not the leader or even a plotter in the attack on the Capitol.

If investigators from the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack agree with Wolffs finding, they will not hold Trump responsible for planning the attack.

That is the good news for Trump. His bad news is there is still much more for which he will have to account.

D.G. Martin hosts North Carolina Bookwatch, Sunday 3:30 p.m. and Tuesday at 5 p.m. on PBS North Carolina (formerly UNC-TV). The program also airs on the North Carolina Channel Tuesday at 8 p.m. and other times. To view prior programs: https://video.pbsnc.org/show/nc-bookwatch/episodes/
AUTHORITY NEWS: The law setting out how businesses must action unsubscribe (or opt-out) messages from consumers receiving commercial SMS and email has recently been further clarified.

Businesses must not require consumers to do either of the following:

 Provide personal information (other than the electronic address to which a marketing message was sent)

 Create or log-in to an account.

The rules are set out in the updated Spam Regulations 2021 that commenced on 1 April 2021 after being reviewed by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

The ACMA is actively monitoring for indications of non-compliance. If breaches of the spam laws are found, those responsible for sending or authorising the messages may face penalties of up to $222,000 per day and/or action in the Federal Court of Australia.

Background

Subject to limited exceptions, Australians have a right not to be sent commercial messages unless the business has their consent. They also have a right to unsubscribe from e-marketing at any time.

Businesses must generally:

 Provide a clear and working unsubscribe message in each marketing SMS or email

 Action unsubscribe requests within 5 business days of receiving them for consumers.

The Spam Regulations and the Spam Act 2003 protect people from unwanted intrusions on their privacy and ensure that they can easily unsubscribe from marketing messages. Unwanted marketing is frustrating and time-consuming for people to deal with, especially when they have taken action to stop it.

Under the Spam Act, some limited exceptions may apply to the obligations to provide a functional unsubscribe facility, including where it may be inconsistent with the terms of a contract or agreement between a business and an e-marketing recipient.

If you believe that someone has broken Australias spam laws, you can complain to the ACMA.

Our website has more information for industry and consumers.
MATTOON  The Lake Land College Foundation and ag division recently received a $75,000 grant from Compeer Financial.

Lake Land College is one of six community colleges in Illinois receiving these grant dollars, and one of 14 community colleges overall.

We are very excited for this opportunity and thankful for the support from Compeer Financial, said Division Chair of Agriculture/Agriculture Instructor Ryan Orrick. We are really looking forward to seeing how this will impact our students, division and the college.

The Agriculture and Rural Initiative, Compeer Financials donor advised fund, has granted $825,000 to community and technical colleges across the cooperatives 144-county territory.

The colleges were selected as partners based on their agricultural education offerings, agriculture workforce development and geographic impact.

The opportunities Lake Land College offers to ag students are priceless, Karen Schieler, senior corporate giving specialist for Compeer Financial Fund for Rural America, said. Getting students and youth interested in agriculture careers and helping to develop that workforce is what we strive to do, and Lake Land provides valuable, hands-on experience in many of those areas.

The Agriculture and Rural Initiative was created by the Compeer Financial Board of Directors in 2019 to make signature investments in programs and projects that directly address the needs of farmers and others who work in agriculture.

Community and Technical colleges provide one-of-a-kind educational opportunities, which are focused on the needs and careers in those communities, said Greg Nelsona, Compeer Financial director. These grants are part of Compeers commitment to champion rural, by supporting our clients and communities, creating sustainable and long-term success in the industry.

Based in the Upper Midwest, Compeer Financial is a member-owned Farm Credit cooperative serving and supporting agriculture and rural communities. The $25.4 billion organization provides loans, leases, risk management and other financial services throughout 144 counties in Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Lake Land College extends gratitude to Compeer Financial for providing this grant and will continue to explore the opportunities it provides to help students succeed.

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CHICAGO  Chicago will require masks in all public indoor settings regardless of vaccination status as the number of COVID-19 cases rise, the city's top doctor announced Tuesday.

The mandate, which takes effect Friday for everyone over age 2, is similar to rules in place for much of last year. It will apply to gyms, stores, common areas of apartment buildings and in restaurants, though people will be allowed to remove face coverings while eating and drinking. Masks are already required in schools under Gov. J.B. Pritzkers statewide order.

Chicago is reporting more than 400 cases of COVID-19, a threshold health officials say signals a higher transmission risk. However, the count is far lower than a winter peak of more than 3,000 daily cases, according to Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady.

She said no further restrictions or closures were planned.

Our goal is to remain open but careful," Arwady said at a news conference. In terms of where weve been, as a city, it is not a cause for alarm. It is a cause for caution."

Currently, Chicago is averaging 18 COVID-19-related hospitalizations a day, which is down from a peak of roughly 200 a day, Arwady said.

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The day before the July 1 IPO, underwriters surprisingly lowered the share price from a projected $21 to $24 a share to $17.

After reaching an opening day high of $21.69, the share price dropped below the $17 IPO share price on July 19.

The closing price has rebounded above $17 just once since July 19. It dropped Wednesday to a post-IPO low of $13.01 before closing at $13.07, down 6.9%.

Part of Krispy Kremes revenue comes from its ownership of the Insomnia Cookies brand that generates the majority of its cookies, cookie cakes, ice cream and brownies sales online.

During the first half of fiscal 2021, Krispy Kreme said it has shifted from a legacy wholesale business to what it calls delivered fresh daily outlets that include grocery, big-box retail and convenience stores.

The company said it had 9,575 U.S. and international points of access as of July 4, compared with 8,275 in the first quarter and 5,635 a year ago.

The delivered fresh daily outlets represent 5,067 of its U.S. and Canadian points of access, along with 237 hot-now doughnut shops, 199 cookie shops and 56 fresh shops that receive product transferred from the hot-now shops in a hub-and-spoke business model.
We took the patient and consoled her and put our arms around her and showed her love, Cromity said.

The police report simply states that the driver of the car failed to reduce speed when turning into a parking space in front of the building. Police said the driver stated that she put on the brakes as she turned in, but that the car accelerated for some reason. Cromity speculated that the driver may have accidentally touched the gas instead of the brakes.

No charges were filed.

Monday afternoon, Mike King and his employees at Creative Design and Construction were at work making temporary repairs. Cromity said that while it could take a week or two to get everything back to the way it was before the wreck, her business will be open as usual on Wednesday.

In a world where people often focus on the negative, Cromity said, she likes to focus on the positive. She said thats one reason she got into her business to provide a safe haven for women to buy products to help with cancer recovery.

Patients would have normally been waiting to be seen when the car came in, she said. The car stopped and no one was hurt. We are thanking the Lord that it is a blessing. It could have been a very different situation.

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By that time, the front and backs of the vaccination cards will need to be submitted to the credit unions human resources department.

As with most employers mandating vaccinations, Allegacy said it will consider exemption requests for medical or religious accommodations.

Pace said in the employee memo, and in a statement to the Winston-Salem Journal, that Allegacy has taken the mandatory action based on most of North Carolina being in the high or substantial risk category for the delta variant.

Tyson Farms Inc. is one of the largest U.S. corporate employers to require workers to make full COVID-19 vaccination a condition of employment. The company has at least 2,244 employees at its production plant in Wilkesboro.

Tyson has set an Oct. 1 deadline for full vaccination for office employees and a Nov. 1 deadline for all other employees. Tyson is discussing those plans with affected unions. Exemptions remain for those with medical and religious objections.

Tyson said it will become the largest U.S. food company to require COVID-19 vaccinations for its entire workforce.

The company is offering a $200 incentive to frontline employees to get vaccinated, though union approval is required at some facilities.
Meanwhile, statewide those ages 50 and older represent 67% of new patients hospitalized with COVID-19 related illnesses.

Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious diseases specialist at Duke Health, has said COVID-19 hospitalizations are likely to continue to increase through at least most of August.

There is a certain delay to people being exposed, to becoming symptomatic, often getting a test to realize they are sick enough to need care, and then being admitted, Wolfe said. With previous variants, that timeline would typically be 10 to 14 days with mitigation efforts.

With the delta variant, Wolfe said the timeline is condensed a little bit because you are more infectious more quickly.

DHHS reported Wednesday that Forsyth had 173 new cases and no additional COVID-19 related deaths.

Since the pandemic began, Forsyth has had 40,400 cases and 437 deaths. The 208 cases listed for Forsyth on Aug. 11 was the highest daily count since 215 on Feb. 11.

DHHS lists COVID-19 cases and deaths on the day they are confirmed by medical providers and public health officials, so people may have been infected or may have died days or weeks before their cases were counted.
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editor's pick topical alert top story

Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive song's success surprises Lincoln creator

Phil Brey has been writing songs for decades. But they went unheard for nearly as long, the lyrics written down and stashed away, the melodies stored in his head or recorded.

Now, however, Roll On Big Boy, a song Brey wrote about the last giant Union Pacific locomotive that just rumbled through Nebraska  which he said showed the power of steam in modern times  is getting international attention on YouTube, Spotify and other streaming platforms.

COURTESY PHOTO Phil Brey

To say Brey could never have anticipated that is an understatement. He never intended his songs to see the light of day.

I wrote songs, and Id stick them in the drawer, Brey said. My wife and son said I should do something with them. I said 'No.' Maybe it was modesty.

Historic Big Boy locomotive is chugging across Nebraska The famous World War II-era steam train will have whistle stops Sunday in Cozad, Kearney, Hastings and Belvidere before arriving in Fairbury to spend the night on its way to Kansas City and other destinations.

But then, Mark, his son, took over. Now Brey write the lyrics and melody, and Mark does the rest.

COURTESY PHOTO Mark Brey

The rest is providing the instrumental arrangements for the song, playing guitar and many of the other instruments in Marks Virginia studio, and, in the case of Roll On Big Boy, finding a Nashville singer to do the vocals.

Writing country songs about trains was nothing new for Phil Brey when he penned Roll On Big Boy. Nor was the appeal of the railroad.

Review: Garth, Memorial Stadium crowd deliver an 'awesome' performance Garth Brooks made the first concert at Memorial Stadium since 1987 a memorable one, delivering a show that engaged the crowd of 90,000-plus and left them asking for more.

I was a hobo for a while, the Raymond native said. That may have got the adrenaline going on the train songs. Since the 70s, Ive had songs coming through my head.

"The first was 'Nine Thousand. That was about a locomotive that came through the small town of Raymond. Everybody would stop and watch it come through. I got to thinking about it and it turned into a song.

L. Kent Wolgamott: Fiery performances highlight first night of ZooFest Nikki Hill and the Hacienda Brothers commanded the stage as ZooFest returned to downtown Lincoln

Brey wrote that song when he was living in Maryland, playing in a bluegrass band The Public Domain and working at the Government Printing Office.

That was just one of the bands that Brey played in  although he never saw music as a career.

Never quit your day job," Brey joked. I started at about 13 years old. I played in one-room schoolhouses and taverns. I played in combos for four or five years, then I got completely away from country music playing jazz.

"I didnt sing any more; I was just playing guitar once we started playing country clubs and Elks clubs.

Fremont Tribune file photo People gather as Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 makes a stop in Fremont on July 12, 2019.

Brey, who returned to Lincoln after he retired from the printing office in 1993, is still writing songs.

The juices are still flowing, he said. I cant believe it myself. I wrote 'Big Boy' last year, and I was 86 then. It just came to me, and I started writing it down. I told the story of the Big Boy and what it was.

The Breys got a firsthand look at the Big Boy as the legendary locomotive rolled through Fairbury last weekend.

Avett Brothers share stage with Willie Avett Brothers, Willie & Family please Pinewood Bowl crowd.

Phil Breys song, Mark Breys production and arrangements are paired with footage of the locomotive, much of it shot with a drone by a Colorado filmmaker, in the video for Roll On Big Boy thats on the duos YouTube channel, where its been watched more than 10,000 times.

Whats special about this, what we love, is people from all over the world are watching the video, Mark Brey said. If you put in the search terms, Big Boy, Union Pacific 4014, the video comes up.

Mike Simon, Tulsa (Okla.) World People surround Union Pacific steam locomotive Big Boy No. 4014 at a stop Aug. 12 in Vinita, Okla. A Lincoln man's song about the giant train engine has attracted attention on streaming services.

"Theres a little boy in the Philippines who loves locomotives whos watched it. We get a lot of people from Calgary. It's doing well in the U.K. and Australia, and weve got a lot of viewers in India. I guess if you have a billion people, a few of them are going to be interested in locomotives.
With classes at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln set to resume on Monday, students are being asked to check their online syllabus to see whether masks will be required for a specific class or lab assignment.

In an email to students, faculty and staff on Wednesday, UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green said face coverings may be required in some settings as a way to safely provide "a robust, in-person educational experience."

Green said masks may be required in settings where students work in close proximity for an extended period of time, including lab courses; performance courses such as dance, music and theater classes; art and design studios; and experiential learning opportunities.

In addition, Green said, face coverings may be required in a class where the instructor or a student has immediate family members who are unable to be vaccinated. Students who wish to make such a request are encouraged to speak with their instructor.

Green said that Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Spiller has worked with college deans and department leaders on processes for requiring masks under these conditions. The guidelines are similar to those outlined at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Other industries along the stream, however, caused it to be derisively known as the bloody creek. In 1883, the Omaha Daily Bee mentioned the stinking refuse that came from a half-dozen slaughter and packing houses, a large soap factory, white lead works, the federal corral and hog pens.

The stench and the sewage added to the misery of immigrants living in shacks and shanties along the creek.

In 1880, newspapers reported the majority (68 of 80) of malaria deaths in Omaha were from the stagnant waters of the North Omaha and South Omaha Creeks. This while the city was finishing the construction of the sewers in those areas.

The sewers eased bridge repair budgets. South Omaha Creek no longer needed the 11 bridges that spanned it from Eighth to 17th streets. About the same number were on North Omaha Creek from 25th and Cuming streets east. A local landmark was the Red Bridge at 16th and Nicholas Street.

Now how did that 1882 storm compare to ours? It was violent, with 60-mph winds and hailstones as large as walnuts piling up several inches. A downtown rain gauge showed 3 inches of rain fell during the 45 minutes  7:45 to 8:30 p.m.  of the cloudburst.
Ultimately, the University of Nebraska Board of Regents did the right thing in voting down, 5-3, a resolution from Regent Jim Pillen opposing "any imposition" of critical race theory in university curriculum.

That it got to a vote harms the reputation of our university system and reveals troubling truths about our ability as a society to listen, learn, understand nuance and context and be willing to confront difficult issues.

First and foremost, the regents should never have been involved. Pillen's candidacy for governor simply can't be ignored as a factor in him bringing this forward. And the politicization of curriculum stands in opposition to the very mission of higher education, which the regents are charged to preserve and protect.

There has never been a shred of evidence produced that critical race theory, which has been around in academic/legal circles for four decades, has been "imposed" on students. In fact, characterizing Nebraska's university students as academic blobs to be acted upon is insulting. Part of a college education is evaluating information, thinking critically and expressing one's views civilly. College students should be trusted to make up their own minds about issues, not protected for fear they will be indoctrinated.
The Journal Star's July 25 editorial (Ricketts wastes taxpayer money for useless stunt along border) sounded more like an editorial from the Washington Post.

While I certainly dont agree with everything the governor says or does (such as medical marijuana), joining two other Midwest states in helping Texas deal with the disaster at the border shows a willingness to help where the federal government has failed.

It was the Biden administrations responsibility to secure the boarder. He assigned Vice President Kamala Harris with this responsibility, and what did she accomplish? Absolutely nothing. It took five months of badgering by her critics for her to even go 800 miles away from where the worst part of the border is located.

The Journal Star talks about the cost of sending troopers to the border to assist. How much money was spent deploying 21,000 National Guardsmen to Washington to protect against the domestic terrorists?
KENOSHA  Summertime brings a whole different set of sounds to the Carthage College campus  from the calm lapping of the Lake Michigan waves to the energizing shouts from youth camps.

What you cant hear from the highway are the insights that our students unlock in their chosen fields each June, July and August.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, known by the acronym SURE, has been a hallmark of the Carthage experience since the mid-1990s. Selected students receive a stipend, on-campus housing, a meal plan and a research budget.

This summer, more than 30 students conducted scientific or scholarly research with faculty mentors. In person, remotely, or some combination of the two, they tackled original projects in subjects from chemistry to Japanese over 10 weeks.

Timely and thought-provoking

Heres a brief look at a few of the 2021 SURE projects:

COVID-19 GEOGRAPHY: Working with geospatial science professor Wenjie Sun, Carthage sophomore Sara Fitzgibbon has used using GIS mapping tools and population statistics to analyze COVID-19 patterns in counties across the United States.
Steven Olikara, a 31-year-old who has worked with young officeholders to reach bipartisan solutions, announced Tuesday he is joining the crowded Democratic field for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin.

Olikara is running his first campaign and is the 11th Democrat to get in the race for the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, who hasnt said yet whether he would seek a third term for the seat that is up in 2022. Johnson is a close ally of former President Donald Trump, who encouraged him to run again.

Wisconsins Senate race is expected to be one of the most hotly contested nationwide, regardless of whether Johnson runs, in part because the state is so evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats and majority control of the Senate will be in play.

The Democratic primary is just under a year away on Aug. 9.

Olikara, a musician and former DJ, said he would bring his guitar on the campaign trail and play Johnny Cash songs while pitching a message emphasizing collaboration and consensus building. He said his message is designed to attract liberal Democrats who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, politically homeless Republicans and disillusioned, disaffected independents.
Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Some passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Some passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some passing clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 76F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
1. Yes. An unvaccinated worker is a potential health liability for the entire workforce.

2. Yes. But it should only be required in some businesses, like health care or food service.

3. No. The requirement shouldnt be forced on employees; its a discriminatory practice.

4. No. Not only should they not require COVID shots , but no proof of vaccination either.

5. Unsure. Its a hard choice between public safety concerns and personal freedoms.

Vote

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Court records, police reports and witnesses detail the history of the suspect's family with Albuquerque Public Schools and the criminal history of the boy's father, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

In November 2015, an elementary school teacher said she was in a classroom with a parent and her daughter when, without warning, the suspect's mother came into the room and attacked the mother.

In 2018, a fight between parents that started with words and a fist escalated to poles, bats and gunfire in the student pickup lane outside Highland High School. The suspects father had shot and wounded another parent, but police never filed any charges after finding that both men had defense claims.

In 2013, the suspect's father was arrested on drug trafficking charges after police found a methamphetamine pipe and several bags of the drug on him. The man told police he was selling meth to get extra money for his daughters 15th birthday, according to a police report. The case was later dismissed.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
She said this new position means a lot to her because it tells her that she has the knowledge and skills necessary to be entrusted to command a battery.

Spc. Katelyn Gallun is a high mobility artillery rocket launch system crew member who has been with Battery A since 2018. She said shes had incredible male leadership throughout her career, but is inspired by the change that Dorsett taking command brings.

As a female specialist in a combat MOS (military occupational specialty), I am greatly looking forward to having Capt. Dorsett be our first female commander in the 121, Gallun said. Our battalion is excited to witness the occupational gender equality that this change of command holds.

Myself, as well as many other lower enlisted females, are eager to show Capt. Dorsett the skills and knowledge we bring to the 121, she added. It will be a positive transition to have a female support system and advocate as a commander. We welcome Capt. Dorsett and look forward to her leadership and guidance through the next years ahead.

Dorsett encouraged fellow female soldiers to follow in her footsteps and wants them to know that its possible for each and every perspective soldier.
Marvin Elsen will always remember March 3, 1969, as the beginning of a major change in his life. That was the day he was drafted into the U.S. Army.

Born and raised in La Crosse, Elsen found himself at age 21 on the other side of the world, having been deployed to Vietnam. Before going to the Southeast Asian country, he received basic training at Fort Campbell, Ky. He underwent further advanced infantry training (AIT) at Fort Polk, La.

He arrived in Vietnam Aug. 1, 1969, where he was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region. Located south of Saigon, the countrys capital, the Mekong Delta consists mostly of rice paddies.

There, the civilians would be working the paddies with their water buffalos, said Elsen.

During his tour, he was a member of a reconnaissance team, taking part in 161 helicopter missions.

Basically we would fly helicopters into a swamp or a very rough terrain to make sure it was safe for fellow GIs and the civilians and that there were no enemies there, said Elsen. If we didnt draw fire, it was considered safe for troops to move in.
Cardinal Raymond Burke is in serious, but stable condition as he is hospitalized with COVID-19, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe announced.

Burke, who is the former bishop to the Diocese of La Crosse, is currently sedated and on a ventilator while he battles the virus, the announcement stated.

His family, who with a team of doctors is responsible for all medical decisions while the Cardinal remains sedated and on a medical ventilator, has great confidence in the care he is receiving, the Shrine said.

A vocal skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, Burke announced in an Aug. 10 tweet that he had contracted the virus. On Aug. 14, another tweet revealed that he was hospitalized and being assisted by a ventilator.

It has not been revealed whether Burke received the vaccine or not.

Burke lives in Rome where he has held high-ranking roles in the Vatican in recent years, but he became ill while visiting Wisconsin. The Shrine stated the family does not plan to disclose where Burke is hospitalized.

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On Tuesday, Baradar landed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement he helped found in the mid-1990s. Ending 20 years of exile, he was thronged by well-wishers as he stepped off a Qatari government aircraft and drove off in a convoy.

Baradar, who is in his early 50s, was born in the southern Uruzgan province. Like others who would eventually become Taliban leaders, he joined the ranks of the CIA- and Pakistan-backed mujahideen to fight against the Soviet Union during its decadelong occupation of the country that ended in 1989.

In the 1990s, the country slid into civil war, with rival mujahideen battling one another and carving out fiefdoms. Warlords set up brutal protection rackets and checkpoints in which their forces shook down travelers to fund their military activities.

In 1994, Mullah Omar, Baradar and others founded the Taliban, which means religious students. The group mainly consisted of clerics and young, pious men, many of whom had been driven from their homes and had known only war. Their unsparing interpretation of Islam unified their ranks and set them apart from the notoriously corrupt warlords.

Baradar fought alongside Mullah Omar as he led the Taliban through its seizure of power in 1996 and its return to an insurgency following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to remove the GOP-appointed head of the Department of Natural Resources after the chair refused to relinquish the position to Evers appointee for months.

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that the Wisconsin DOJ filed a complaint in Dane County Circuit Court to prevent Frederick Prehn, a then-Gov. Scott Walker appointee whose term expired in May, from continuing to unlawfully serve on the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board.

Dr. Prehns term is over. His attempt to remain on the Natural Resources Board indefinitely, in defiance of the will of the voters, is fundamentally undemocratic, Kaul said in a statement. Were asking for a clear ruling that Dr. Prehn is no longer a member of the Natural Resources Board.

Prehn, a Wausau dentist, was appointed to the DNR board by Walker in 2015 and has served as chair since 2019.
The Robins Greeting by Wanda Brunstetter: For the past two years Belinda King, along with her two grown daughters and teenage son, has been struggling to keep the family greenhouse running. Despite disconcerting events that have threatened to put them out of business, they have survived two growing seasons. And now Belinda can focus on the two suitors vying for her attention. Herschel Fisher, a new acquaintance, makes her feel relaxed, and Monroe Esh, an admirer from her past, reminds her of her youth.

But just when Belinda thinks she can choose between her suitors, life throws more trials her way. When can Belinda hope to experience the peace and love her weary heart longs for? (Amazon.com)

An Unlikely Match by Beth Wiseman: Evelyn Schrock has dismissed the attempts of every young man in her small Amish community to court her. Shes willing to wait for a suitor who shares her curiosities about life and faith. The only reason Jayce Clarkson is in Amish country hefting equipment for his famous fathers movie production company is for the paycheck. The homestyle cooking at the Peony Inn is a perk though, as is his friendship with Evelyn Schrock. If Jayce can endure his dads put-downs for a month, hell finally be in a position to make a fresh startsomewhere away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and the shadow of his checkered past.
TOKYO (AP)  Japans exports in July jumped 37% from a year ago, the government said Wednesday, highlighting an overseas recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Imports also grew, rising 28.5%, according to Finance Ministry data, for the second straight month of a trade surplus for the worlds third largest economy.

Japans exports grew to the U.S., Asia and Europe; while imports increased from Brazil, Belgium and Kuwait. By category, exports grew in food, iron and steel products, and electronic parts. Imports rose in food, auto parts and oil. Japan marked a trade surplus with the U.S., but a deficit with China in July.

The strong trade numbers come even as Japan is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases that are causing some hospitals to turn away patients.

The government state of emergency was extended Tuesday through Sept. 12. It had previously been set to end this month.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also expanded the regions under emergency and a less strict quasi-emergency to about two-thirds of the nation. He promised hospital systems will be reorganized to increase wards to care for COVID-19 patients.

Japan has been trying to balance curbing infections while keeping the economy going. Japans economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3% in the April-June quarter.

The emergency is centered around having restaurants and bars close early and not serve alcohol and asking department stores and shopping malls to limit crowd size. Some government advisers have suggested stricter measures may be needed.

Japan has had more than 15,000 COVID-19-related deaths. But worries are growing about the new more contagious delta variant. After the Tokyo Olympics were held without fans, the Paralympics open later this month with similar anti-virus measures in place.

Although the vaccine rollout started slowly, about 40% of the population now is fully vaccinated.

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
TOOELE, Utah (AP)  The sound of the helicopter propeller thundered across the horizon as it dipped down toward mustangs dotting the golden brown plain. The horses burst into a gallop at the machine's approach, their high-pitched whinnies rising into the dry air.

That helicopter roundup in the mountains of western Utah removed hundreds of free-roaming wild horses, shortly before the Biden administration announced it would sharply increase the number of mustangs removed across the region. It's an emergency step land managers say is essential to preserving the ecosystem and the horses as a megadrought worsened by climate change grips the region.

What were seeing here in the West gives some insight into a new norm, Terry Messmer, a professor at Utah State University who studies wild horse management.

The removals are adding fuel to longstanding conflicts with activists for the animals whose beauty and power make them an enduring emblem of the American West. They say the U.S. government is using the drought as an excuse to take out horses in favor of cattle grazing.

Horses that are captured are held in government corrals and pastures mostly in the West and Midwest before they are made available for public adoption. Some also end up being used by law enforcement entities such as the U.S. Border Patrol, or go to prison inmate programs where they are tamed for future use.

Advocates tried unsuccessfully to stop the roundup of Utah's Onaqui herd, one thats captured the imagination of Hollywood celebrities and Girl Scout troops alike. Horses in the picturesque and accessible herd are so well known that many have names, like the patriarch Old Man. He was left behind in the July roundup, but about 300 other horses were taken to be adopted or kept in captivity for the rest of their lives.

Its really unfortunate the Biden administration continues to scapegoat the horses while giving a pass to livestock that have a greater impact on public lands, said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign.

The Bureau of Land Management oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of public land, primarily in the West, and is tasked with managing the wild horse population. It's planning to remove some 6,000 horses, mostly from Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming and Colorado, by October  a 50% increase from last year. Eventually land managers say they need to cut the number of wild horses by two-thirds to keep things in balance.

In many places where wild horses and burros roam, virtually no vegetation was produced in the spring and early summer growing seasons, said Jason Lutterman, spokesman for the National Wild Horse and Burro Program in Reno, Nevada. The Biden administration has announced reforms aimed at ensuring that captured horses put up for adoption do not eventually end up in slaughterhouses, but advocates worry problems could persist as long as the government offers a $1,000 adoption incentive.

Wild-horse advocates acknowledge that lack of forage and water can be an issue in some areas, but they argue removals from the herds like the Onaqui are unnecessary.

The BLM has a drought trump card, and they use it sometimes when they want to take additional horses off the range, Greg Hendricks, director of field operations.

Advocates want to leave the horses on the range and instead administer fertility treatments to limit the size of the herd without roundups that can be costly and tough on the animals. One horse died during the Onaqui roundup. Fertility treatments are used, but require new doses at least annually and can be difficult to administer because they require horses to be tracked down and darted one at a time, Messmer said.

Cattle ranchers, meanwhile, say they've made voluntary changes to reduce grazing on federal lands. By hauling water to drought-stricken areas for their livestock, they've even helped the horses who drink it too, said Hunter Ihrman, a spokesman for the National Cattlemens Beef Association.

The number of sheep and cattle that graze on leased public land is far larger than the number of wild horses, Messmer said. A key difference, though, is that livestock are part of the U.S. economy.

Americans like their McDonalds burgers. They like their Big Macs. They like all of those things, and all of those things have beef as part of it, he said.

Eventually, land managers want to double the number of removals, a step they say is essential across 10 Western states in the coming years. Wild horses are federally protected, so the plan, if approved by Congress, would increase costs to an annual high of about $360 million.

Without those changes, horses could die of thirst or starvation, they say. Dozens of horses were found dead near a dried-up watering hole in northern Arizona in 2018.

The wild horses now on the plains are largely descended from those brought by Europeans hundreds of years ago. Herds can double in size every four to five years, and when populations grow too high they destroy topsoil, disturb water supplies and eat grass essential to native species like the increasingly rare sage grouse, Messmer said.

In recent weeks, federal land managers have conducted the largest helicopter roundup in Colorado in years, near the border with Utah. Meanwhile, volunteers trying to protect another herd nearby are working with the agency to get water to the horses using tanks, wells and water trucks, said Kathy DeGonia, president of Piceance Mustangs.

The rugged range of the Piceance-East Douglas herd is dotted with oil and gas production, so packed dirt roads make it easier to make water deliveries during the drought. Deliveries could run into November.

DeGonia's group also collaborates with federal officials on programs like sterilization and horse auctions.

In a perfect world wed let all of these mustangs stay out there until they die," she said. "But theres just not enough food and water to maintain all the horses on the range.



Follow APs complete drought coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/droughts.
Veterans in Lancaster County, particularly those who served in Afghanistan, reacted to news of the Talibans takeover of the country with a mi
Veterans in Lancaster County, particularly those who served in Afghanistan, reacted to news of the Talibans takeover of the country with a mix of surprise, frustration, anger and even questions about whether 20 years of fighting was worth it.

Joey Lombardo, a Marine Corps veteran living in Brecknock Township, served two combat deployments in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2010 and 2012.

Its a terrible way of doing it. (President Joe Biden) just wants to get us out of there ASAP and its just a mess, he said. The chaotic withdrawal could send the wrong message to Russia and China. It just makes us look weak, Lombardo said.

Still, Lombardo agrees that it is past time for the United States to be out of Afghanistan.

Honestly, I think we completed our mission a long time ago. The problem is, we kept changing the mission and it became this nation-building thing, he said. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that we went there and answered our country's call. No one died in vain for that. I wasnt there to build Afghanistan. I was there fighting to defend our country, fighting with the people on each side of me.

Lombardo said he is worried for the Afghan women, who stand to lose the gains they made over the past 20 years now that the Taliban is back in control.

In his experience, the Afghan soldiers were no match for the Taliban.

As soon as they were pressed by the Taliban, they disappeared. Theyre deathly afraid of the Taliban, he said. (The Taliban) dont just kill you, they kill you and your whole family.

Earnest Jones, 44, of Lancaster Township, served in Afghanistan as an Army mortuary affairs specialist, preparing bodies of soldiers and civilians for burial.

Years of training them, fighting for them and the loss of American life. For the Afghan soldiers to give up so easily, it angers me because well never get back all my brothers and sisters that lost their life in that country, he said.

Adorian Lazar, 45, of Elizabeth Township, an Army veteran, was deployed from April 2008 to January 2009 as an embedded combat adviser to the Afghan National Civil Order Police.

He said he is beyond heartbroken at how events have unfolded.

I have a man and his family that worked extremely closely with my embedded combat team, especially with me. I am praying daily, but I have no doubt his children will be killed alongside him. They are all under 10 years of age, said Lazar. All because the process to get him out of there failed. Every time he posts something on Facebook, it lets me know they are still alive.

He blames Biden.

There seems to have been no plan in place for extracting us out of the quagmire, just another Saigon, he said. The blood of my comrades shed there is also on (Bidens) head.

(Lazar is the older brother of Samuel Lazar, of Ephrata, who is charged in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots.)

Luke Thorsen, 32, of West Lampeter Township, spent nearly all of 2012 in Afghanistans Pech River Valley as an infantryman.

The Afghan soldiers he fought alongside at that time were good fighters. I was hoping their training was good enough, he said. But, he added, the Taliban doesnt fight fair and, echoing Lombardo, said they would have no qualms about killing an Afghan soldiers family.

It's just kind of upsetting in the sense that everything that we worked for over there is gone, he said. The base I worked at is gone. Its a little defeating, thats for sure. Definitely a bummer.

Thorsen, like others, had mixed feelings on the withdrawal.

I feel like we worked so hard so it would have been nice to have a resolution that's a bit more favorable, he said. American troops, however, will be out of harm's way, though not the Afghan people.

Sara Hodgkiss, 36, of Colerain Township, was stationed at Bagram Air Base from July 2008 to May 2009 with the Army doing various jobs, including working with human resources information systems and as liaison to the Red Cross.

As such, she said, she didnt get to see Afghanistan, but she said, I wanted to understand why we were over there to begin with. I did a lot of research and reading. It wasnt just a job for me or a deployment: I did my research, she said.

I felt that what we were doing was needed. I think of Adolph Hitler: We fought to represent the Jews or otherwise, they were coming for us, she said

She said she thinks combat operations ended too soon under former President Barack Obama in 2014.

The best defense is an offense and we can see right now whats happening because we are no longer on the offensive side, she said. I lost a lot of brothers and sisters ... We were building schools, we were getting women back in school. We were building roads. We were making a difference.

Hodgkiss spoke with LNP | LancasterOnline in a video call with her friend veteran Jeff Sanders, 38, a Realtor who works in southern Lancaster County but lives just over the Chester County border in Lower Oxford Township

Sanders served in the Marine Corps from November 2003 to the end of October 2005. He had been stationed in Iraq and his next deployment was supposed to be Afghanistan.

He never got the chance to go. An improvised bomb explosion led to the amputation of his left leg above his knee.

He lost friends in Afghanistan.

He said hed been thinking about whats been unfolding in Afghanistan recently and tried to put it into perspective as a veteran.

With all the conversations Ive had in the past week, it all comes down to one word. And the word is purpose. One of the biggest losses vets feel (when they return to civilian life) is a loss of purpose, he said. While in the military, At least we knew what we were serving for.

Now, with how events have happened in Afghanistan, particularly for veterans who may not feel that same sense of purpose in civilian life, Youre in a pretty dark place right now.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (AP)  Not long after a powerful earthquake struck his Haitian hometown, Osambert Jean started receiving calls from dozens of friends who also emigrated from southwestern Haiti to settle in this South Florida suburb nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades.

Each one of them has bad news: My family is injured or my house collapsed, said Jean, a Haitian-born insurance agent in Boynton Beach whose brother lives in Les Cayes, Haiti. People lost everything  everything.

The suburb south of West Palm Beach holds deep ties to Les Cayes, a town in southwest Haiti hard hit by Saturdays 7.2 magnitude earthquake, which has killed 1,941 people and injured 9,900 others.

Many residents here have been worried about their loved ones. Some are already mourning cousins and uncles who died while officials are trying to assess the needs, rallying the coastal town in the relief effort.

In the past decade, Boynton Beach has grown its Haitian population far from Miamis Little Haiti and established a partnership with Les Cayes by welcoming officials, including a former mayor who was found dead under the rubble of a hotel that collapsed in the earthquake.

This is something that is personal. We know some of these people. We have interacted with them. For me, this is my family, said Christina Romelus, a city commissioner of Haitian descent, whose husband lost three relatives in the earthquake. You are seeing that feeling of theres no where to go now. Home is destroyed. Home is gone.

The city has set up a donation center at the downtown fire station, where people have been dropping off medical supplies, personal protective equipment and tents.

Boynton Beach resident Cosy Joseph is flying to Les Cayes on Thursday to take some supplies to a rural clinic overseen by the nonprofit she runs, the Gaskov Clerge Foundation. But she says she is also checking on her 88-year-old father and inspecting her childhood home.

Joseph said she could not sleep Monday night after seeing images of children and elderly people standing outside in the rain as Tropical Storm Grace battered the region the quake struck.

It was painful to watch, Joseph said. We are devastated and heartbroken. I had zero sleep. I just couldn't."

Joseph has been instrumental in keeping the sister city partnership between the Florida and Haitian coastal towns. Mayors and officials have traveled to Les Cayes at least four times since 2012. Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant said the latest trip in 2018 involved possibly partnering with another diplomatic mission to work on an energy creation project. Joseph has joined two of the four trips.

More than half of the 1.08 million Haitians in the U.S. live in Florida. Palm Beach, home to Boynton Beach, has a sizable 100,000 people of Haitian origin, compared with Miami-Dade's 140,000, according to the American Community Survey. Haitian churches and restaurants are spotted among the palm tree-lined boulevards.

One of these churches is headed by pastor Jean Bilbalo Joint, who is also originally from Les Cayes. Joint said about 400 members of his church attend services in Haitian Creole and the majority are from southwest Haiti.

Its very sad this time, he said. People need a lot of help.

Organizations in Miami's Little Haiti are also raising funds and asking for donations of camping gear. Some have also seen personal losses in the most recent earthquake.

Reginald Jean-Mary, a pastor of Notre Dame dHaiti Catholic Church, said his cousin, who is also a pastor, was officiating a baptism in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the town of Les Anglais when the earthquake hit and helped pull people from the rubble of the church. Since then, he has learned of other members of his church who have lost loved ones.

Jean-Mary said his homeland had not been able to fully recover from the 2010 earthquake and 2016's Hurricane Matthew. This earthquake struck just after a month after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

It has been brutal blows. This is very difficult for the people, for the country," he said. "We are people of faith. We are people of hope. But I have to ask myself this question: Why?
Lancaster County President Judge David Ashworth announced that starting Monday, Aug. 23, all staff and visitors to the courthouse, district courts and other court-related facilities on court business will have to wear masks, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.

Since late May, people who had been fully vaccinated were not required to wear masks in court facilities under the president judges jurisdiction.

Ashworth cited the county as now being in an area of high community transmission based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data as reasoning. The CDC recommends indoor masking, regardless of vaccination status, in areas with high transmission.

Ashworth said the courts will continue to operate at full capacity, with social distancing encouraged. The order is in effect until Sept. 15.

Ashworths order does not apply to individual row offices, such as the district attorney, clerk of courts, prothonotary and sheriff.

District Attorney Heather Adams, Sheriff Christopher Leppler and Prothonotary Andrew Spade said they are not requiring masks at this time.

Christopher Tallarico, the county's chief public defender, said he is strongly encouraging our personnel and clients to wear masks within our office, based on our mission to represent the incarcerated and indigent clients.

Rhonda Allen, chief deputy clerk of court, said masks are required except for employees working at their desks.

The order also exempts people who cannot medically tolerate a face covering and children under 2.
When: Donegal School District board meeting, Aug. 12.

What happened: The board voted 8-0 to implement Donegal School Districts health and safety plan for the 2021-22 school year. Tension hung in the air as parents and community members voiced their varying views on the plan, which does not mandate masks for students or staff in school. Board member Linda Good participated and voted through Zoom. Patrick Mitchell was not in attendance.

At issue: The majority of the audience abstained from wearing face coverings, making their stance on the issue clear. The mask-optional view is in opposition to guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics and U.S. Department of Education, which say students, faculty and staff should wear masks in schools regardless of vaccination status in areas of significant community spread, like Lancaster County.

Public comment: Zachary Hollcraft, a proponent of altering Donegals health and safety plan to include a mask mandate, began by saying he was impressed by the effort of the staff when he sent his daughter to the primary school last year, but he urged the board to use more recent data for this years reopening procedures. We have the opportunity to teach kids they are a part of the community. He criticized the district for failing to follow guidance from the state Department of Education, which recommends wearing a mask in schools. Sporting a FreePA shirt, Colleen Ford, a hospital employee who said she is going to lose her job because of her refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine, linked mask mandates with child abuse. I will not tolerate my children being mandated to wear masks, she spoke in an impassioned tone. We know our child best, and we will advocate for our children! Her comments were met with applause.

Respect: Prior to the vote, Superintendent Dr. J. Michael Lausch appealed to the audience to be respectful of one another, Regardless of the outcome of this, please, can we please get back to the concept of One Tribe? Each family is going to make a decision that is in that familys best interest. And that is perfectly fine. Oliver C. Overlander III and Ron Melleby offered similar sentiments to the crowd in anticipation of any animosity that should arise.

School buses: The districts health and safety plan states masks must be worn on buses. Its a mandate, but we dont have to enforce it. We will not deny transportation to students. I want our drivers eyes forward, not back to see whos wearing a mask, Lausch said.

Virtual alternative: Melleby offered a solution to those dissatisfied with the vote  Donegal Virtual Academy. The academy is a partnership with Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13s Virtual Solutions Program.

Other business: The board voted 8-0 to pass a proposal by Lausch that would merge part-time positions within the district, mainly cafeteria and custodial duties, in order to create full-time occupations. This will be done to ensure the school is appropriately staffed for the beginning of the 2021-22 year.

Whats next: Donegals first day for students is Tuesday, Aug. 24.
When: Aug. 2 Borough Council meeting.

What happened: With only four of nine council members in attendance, there was no quorum present and council could not act on any agenda decision items. The meeting was limited to reports from borough agencies and public input. Council members present were Joshua Deering, William Hall, Bob Ruschke and Brian Youngerman.

Main Street Mount Joy: Executive Director Dave Schell reported that his business support organization is developing a new program, MSMJ Downtown Delivery Service, to help downtown businesses get goods to residents in retirement communities who cannot travel downtown. The service will create and collect paper order forms and deliver orders to downtown businesses. It will then deliver goods to retirement communities. Main Street Mount Joy is also planning two outdoor events, pending borough approval: Downtown Trick or Treat, 5-8 p.m. Oct. 22, and Winterfest, 4-7 p.m. Dec. 4.

Milanof-Schock Library: Executive Director Joseph McIlhenney reported that current library use by the community is within 10% of pre-Covid-19 levels. Library programs are also well attended, he said.

Signs on poles: Main Street resident Emanuel Hoffer inquired about the legality of residents affixing yard sale signs to telephone poles. Police Chief Robert Goshen said, Hanging a sign on a telephone pole is against the law. However, he said, police generally do not enforce this unless the signs are large enough to affect traffic visibility, such as the 3-square-foot signs police recently had to remove from the poles.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  UNITED NATIONS  The head of the U.N. food agency in Afghanistan says a humanitarian crisis is unfolding with 14 million people facing severe hunger following the Taliban takeover of the country.

Mary Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Programs country director, said in a video briefing to U.N. correspondents from Kabul on Wednesday that the conflict in Afghanistan, the nations second severe drought in three years, and the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed an already dire situation into a catastrophe.

McGroarty said over 40% of crops have been lost and livestock devastated by the drought, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced as the Taliban advanced, and winter is fast approaching. Really the race is on to get food where its most needed, she said.

WFP reached 4 million people in May and plans to scale up to reach 9 million over the next couple of months, but there are many, many challenges, she said.

McGroarty called for a halt to the conflict and urged donors to provide the $200 million needed to get food into the country so it can get to communities before winter sets in and roads are blocked.



MORE ON THE CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN:

 Taliban violently disperse rare protest days after takeover

 Mullahs rise charts Talibans long road back to power

 Taliban allowing safe passage from Kabul in US airlift

 In Talibans 7-day march to power, a stunning string of wins

 US agencies scrub websites to protect Afghans left behind

 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan



HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:



UNITED NATIONS  The United Nations says its sending about a third of its 300 international staff in Afghanistan to Kazakhstan to work remotely on a temporary basis in light of the volatile situation in the country.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced on Wednesday that about 100 U.N. personnel were traveling from Kabul to Almaty, Kazakhstans largest city, to work in a temporary satellite office.

He said the majority of the U.N.s humanitarian staff remain in Afghanistan, providing vital assistance to millions most in need.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council on Monday following the Taliban takeover of the country that the U.N. is committed to staying in Afghanistan and helping millions of people, but he also said the 193-member world organization will adapt to the security situation.

This is a temporary measure intended to enable the U.N. to keep delivering assistance to the people of Afghanistan with the minimum of disruption while at the same time reducing risk to U.N. personnel, Dujarric said. Personnel will return to Afghanistan as conditions permit.

In addition to the international staff, the U.N. and its agencies have about 3,000 Afghan employees.

Dujarric said a significant amount of work is being undertaken, as we speak, specifically to safeguard national staff.



WASHINGTON  U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. military doesnt have the capacity at this point to extend security forces beyond the perimeter of the Kabul airport in order to get more civilians safely evacuated out of Afghanistan.

Afghans and aid organizations have said that citizens are having a hard time getting past the Taliban and into the airport, in a mass exodus triggered by the insurgents rapid takeover of the country and its capital on Sunday.

Austin told reporters at a Pentagon press conference on Wednesday that the U.S. is working to get as many people through the evacuation process and out of the country as quickly as possible, but were not close to where we want to be.

The Pentagon says that about 5,000 civilians have been taken out of Afghanistan so far, but officials have said they want to get to a goal of getting a maximum of 5,000 to 9,000 people out a day.

Austin said that securing the airport is the paramount mission right now and he doesnt want to do anything to detract from that. He said the U.S. military doesnt have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of citizens and get them to the airport.



DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani defended his decision to flee Kabul in the face of the Taliban advance, describing it as the only way to prevent bloodshed. He also denied claims by his countrys ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen millions of dollars from state funds.

Ghani posted a video on his Facebok page late on Wednesday, confirming that he was in the United Arab Emirates. He thanked Afghan security forces in his message, but also said that the failure of the peace process led to the Taliban snatching power.

He also indirectly tried to quash an accusation by Afghanistans ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen $169 million from state funds.

He claimed that he was forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing.

Accusations were charged in these days that money was transferred, these accusations are fully baseless. he said.

Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday just as the Taliban approached Kabul.



ANKARA, Turkey  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he welcomes the Talibans recent moderate statements and is willing to meet with Taliban leaders for the good of the Afghan people and Turkeys interests.

Erdogan also told Kanal 7 television on Wednesday that Turkey was determined to stand by Afghanistan, regardless of who is in charge of the country.

Our relevant institutions have been in contact with the Taliban for a while. We have previously stated that we can host the Taliban leaders. We maintain this stance, Erdogan said. We are ready for any kind of cooperation for the peace of the Afghan people, the well-being of our ethnic Turkic brothers in the country and to protect our interests.

The Turkish leader described the Talibans approach toward majority-Muslim Turkey as being careful and very sensitive.

I hope that the same sensitivity will continue from now on, he said.

On Turkeys proposal for Turkish troops in Afghanistan to carry on running and guarding Kabuls airport, Erdogan said Turkeys continued military presence would strengthen" the Taliban's hand internationally and make things easier for them.

Erdogan said a total of 552 Turkish nationals have so far been evacuated from Afghanistan.



ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan  Turkmen diplomats in Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif have met with the Taliban there on Wednesday, Turkmenistans Foreign Ministry said, describing the meetings as friendly, positive and constructive.

The energy-rich Central Asian nation that shares a border with Afghanistan has an embassy in Kabul and consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. All three missions have been operating as usual after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Sunday. Taliban fighters are guarding the outer perimeter of the missions, the ministry said.

Turkmenistans general consuls in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif and the Taliban representatives discuss issues related to the implementation of duties of the Turkmen consular organization in the northern provinces of Afghanistan and organizational and other matters" related to the missions, the ministry said. It added that Turkmen officials have regular contacts with the Taliban regarding security along the Afghan-Turkmenistan border.



MOSCOW  Afghanistans ambassador to Tajikistan has accused Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of stealing $169 million from state funds and has called on international police to arrest him.

Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday, just as the Taliban approached Kabul, and his whereabouts remained unknown until Wednesday, when the United Arab Emirates said it has accepted him and his family on account of humanitarian considerations.

Ambassador Mohammad Zahir Aghbar told a news conference on Wednesday that Ghani stole $169 million from the state coffers and called his flight a betrayal of the state and the nation.

The ambassador did not elaborate or explain his claim further.

Aghbar also promised to file a request to the Interpol to arrest Ghani. Shahriyor Nazriev, director of the Interpols National Central Bureau in Tajikistan, told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti that they havent received such a request yet.



SKOPJE, North Macedonia  North Macedonias prime minister says the country is increasing to more than 450 the number of Afghan refugees to whom it is offering temporary shelter.

Zoran Zaev said on Wednesday that these are people who have closely collaborated with Western forces in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, and include human rights activists, journalists and students.

The first are expected to arrive in North Macedonia by the end of the week. Initially, authorities had said they would accept 186 people.

The center-right main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party complained, noting that North Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe and that richer countries should take Afghans in.

The Afghans will be put up in motels, resorts and hotels, at the expense of international organizations, as well as the United States.



BERLIN  German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by phone on Wednesday with U.S. President Joe Biden about the situation in Afghanistan, her office said.

During the call, Merkel stressed the importance of enabling as many Afghans as possible who supported German military and civilian efforts in the country to leave. The two leaders agreed to fly out as many people in need of protection as possible, her office said.

Germanys foreign minister said his countrys ambassador in Kabul has begun talks in Doha with Taliban representatives to ensure they allow Afghans to reach the airport.

Heiko Maas said Germany has flown more than 500 people out of Afghanistan, including about 200 Afghan citizens, since Sunday and we want to continue doing so in this quantity in the coming days.

Maas said the assumption is that the window for evacuation flights will be limited but all those in positions of responsibility on the ground, in particular the United States, are trying to use this time as best as possible.

He added that according to his information there are currently hundreds, if not thousands of people massed outside the gates of the airport, and sporadic outburst of violence.

Maas said Germany is also trying to bring supplies of food to Kabul to provide for those waiting to be evacuated, and has a Medevac plane in the region.

Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Germany would do everything to get as many local staff out of Kabul as possible.



LJUBLJANA, Slovenia  Slovenias foreign minister says the small Alpine state is ready to accept up to five Afghan staff who had worked for the European Union mission in Afghanistan.

Anze Logar said on Wednesday that for the time being, Slovenia will not offer taking in additional refugees from Afghanistan.

EU foreign ministers have agreed that member states should do their utmost to assist Afghans who have worked with the bloc over the past 20 years and bring them safely to Europe, avoiding possible reprisals by the Taliban.

Slovenias state STA news agency reported that according to Logar, there are between 400 and 500 people who fall into this category.

Slovenia, which is currently heading EUs rotating presidency, is run by a right-wing conservative government that has strongly advocated anti-migration policies and the influx into Europe of refugees from the war-ravaged countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.



ROME  Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini says 1,500 Italian military personnel are working non-stop to provide safe transport out of Afghanistan for Afghans who worked with Italy and their families.

Italy on Wednesday increased the number of its Air Force aircraft involved in the mission from seven to eight. The aircraft are shuttling between Kabul, Kuwait and Rome in the humanitarian airlift.

After 86 passengers arrived late Wednesday afternoon in at Romes Leonardo da Vinci airport, two C130J planes took off from Kuwait for Kabul, where they will embark 103 persons, the defense ministry said. Earlier in the day, an Italian Army official told reporters in Rome that Italys goal is to evacuate as many as possible who are in need  not just those who had worked with Italys forces in Afghanistan  as long as security conditions allow.



TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has discussed the situation in Afghanistan with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.

The Iranian presidents website, president.ir, reported on Wednesday that he talked on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him Iran was ready to cooperate with China in establishing security, stability and peace in Afghanistan, as well as on issues regarding the development, progress and prosperity for Afghans.

Raisi said: We believe that the departure of foreigners, as well as past experiences in this country, has highlighted the need for the support and participation of all Afghans to ensure the security and development of Afghanistan more than ever.

Raisi separately spoke with Vladimir Putin and was quoted by the website as saying that stability must be established in Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Raisi was quoted as saying that establishing security and peace in Afghanistan has always been emphasized by Iran and we believe that all Afghan active groups should work together to establish stability in the country as soon as possible and make the U.S. withdrawal to a turning point for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Raisi also praised what he described as Iranian-Russian cooperation in Syria, where the two have over the past years boosted Syrian President Bashar Assads government and turned the tide of war in Assads favor and called for Iran and Russia to increase the interaction between Tehran and Moscow.



ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys defense ministry says a Turkish Air Force plane has ferried some 200 Turkish citizens from Kabul to Pakistan as nations continue to evacuate their citizens after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

The group was expected to be flown back to Istanbul later on Wednesday on board a Turkish Airlines plane that was being sent to Islamabad to collect the evacuees, an airline official said.

A defense ministry official said all of those being evacuated were Turkish nationals. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make public statements.

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey;



TERMEZ, Uzbekistan  Uzbekistan has taken in several hundred Afghan refugees, a Russian state-funded media outlet reported Wednesday.

The Sputnik Uzbekistan news site said about 150 Afghans, including 17 women and children, have been temporarily placed in a camp near the Uzbek-Afghan border in the southeastern Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan. They have all been tested for coronavirus, and no infections have been registered among them.

In addition, some 650 Afghan servicemen who arrived to Uzbekistan by plane have been temporarily housed in a COVID-19 hospital near a local military training site, the report said.

A diplomat in Uzbekistan confirmed to The Associated Press that the ex-Soviet country has taken in a number of Afghan soldiers and was not sending them back to Afghanistan any time soon. The Afghan soldiers will stay in a tent camp while the weather is good. The diplomat spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

There have been conflicting reports about how many Afghan refugees Uzbekistan has admitted. Uzbekistan has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and hence does not have any asylum procedures.

Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska in Termez, Uzbekistan;



LONDON  Britains ambassador to Kabul says his team has got days, not weeks to speed up the evacuation of British nationals and Afghans who worked with U.K. forces.

Laurie Bristow said his team helped 700 people fly out on military flights on Tuesday, and the goal is to help 1,000 people each day.

We are trying to scale up the speed and pace over the next couple of days, he told Sky News. Were working on the basis of days, not weeks, so we really do have to get those numbers through.

Gen. Nick Carter, head of the British armed forces, said he expected seven aircraft to head to Kabul to enable another 1,000 people to leave on Wednesday.

Bristow said the Taliban are supporting the operation and his team is working with them where we need to, at a tactical, practical level.

My assessment is that they see it as in their interests to help it to happen in an orderly and clear way, he said. Obviously its in our interests for them to see it that way.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier on Wednesday that authorities had so far secured the safe return of 306 British citizens and 2,052 Afghans, with a further 2,000 Afghan applications completed and many more being processed.



WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says that 2,000 people  including 325 American citizens  were evacuated from Afghanistan in 18 flights over the past 24 hours, just days after the Talibans stunningly swift takeover of the country.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. military is still working toward its goal of getting a maximum of 5,000 to 9,000 people out a day.

He said on Wednesday that the U.S. military says its talking regularly with the Taliban to help get Afghans into the airport, and also to improve the paperwork process, including for Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visas.

Kirby also said that U.S. troops have fired warning shots along the airport perimeter as a crowd control measure. He said there are now about 4,500 U.S. troops on the ground to secure the airport and help the airlift, and several hundred more are expected to flow in over the next 24 hours.



BEIRUT  Save the Children is warning that the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan is exacerbating what was already an extremely dire situation in the country.

The aid organization's regional director for Asia, Hassan Noor, says the aid group paused its Afghanistan operations and closed its offices as of Sunday, pending an assessment of the security situation. The group has 1,500 national staff in the country and had been working in 10 of Afghanistans 34 provinces, reaching hundreds of thousands of children.

Speaking to journalists at an online press briefing, Noor said the future of Afghanistans population, particularly women and children, was very concerning, particularly with regards to how their humanitarian needs will be met.

Even before this latest conflict, Afghanistan held the worlds largest internally displaced population, with 2.9 million people displaced across the country at the end of 2020. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes in the past few weeks as the Taliban advanced.

Noor said Save the Children has decided to remain in Afghanistan for now and is committed to resume delivering aid as soon as the security situation allows.



ROME  An Italian Air Force jet has ferried 86 passengers to Romes main airport from Kabul.

The Foreign Ministry said the passengers who arrived on Wednesday afternoon included Italians as well as European Union and NATO personnel plus numerous Afghan citizens who worked with Italy and their family members.

Italian Army Col. Diego Giarrizzo told reporters at the airport that in addition to hundreds of previously designated Afghan citizens, the number of those needing evacuation will grow since the humanitarian air bridge continues as long as security conditions allow.

Wednesdays flight was the second such evacuation mission this week, and Italy said it is deploying a total of seven military jets to fly passengers out of Kabul airport.

Well make every effort to bring out as many as possible, the colonel said.

Among those arriving in the latest flight was a female Italian humanitarian aid worker.

Giarrizzo said Kabul airport security conditions were currently OK but stressed that they are very fluid. U.S., British and Turkish military forces were helping to keep the airport entrance more orderly, he added.

Asked about efforts to help terrified women flee Kabul, Giarrizzo said that of all those who need (to leave) and make a request, we are trying to bring them via this humanitarian air bridge to Italy. We will evaluate them swiftly....do everything possible, considering this is a humanitarian emergency.



BRUSSELS  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he will chair an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 30-nation military alliance on Friday to discuss developments in Afghanistan.

Stoltenberg tweeted on Wednesday that he has convened the videoconference to continue our close coordination and discuss our common approach on Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Stoltenberg blamed a failure of Afghan leadership for the swift collapse of the countrys Western-backed armed forces, but he conceded that NATO must also address flaws in its military training program.

NATO has been leading international security efforts in Afghanistan since 2003 but wound-up combat operations in 2014 to focus on training the national security forces. NATO helped build up an army some 300,000 strong, but that force withered in the face of the Taliban offensive in just days.

Stoltenberg says that around 800 civilian personnel from NATO countries continue to work in Afghanistan, many in Kabul helping with air traffic control, refueling and communications at the airport.



COPENHAGEN, Denmark  Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark had set up an air bridge between Kabul and Copenhagen via Islamabad in Pakistan, and has evacuated 84 people, including local Afghan employees and interpreters.

She said that the Taliban takeover means the rules of the game were changed in a short time and the situation is very chaotic.

Frederiksen also said: This was not the way we wanted to leave Afghanistan.

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said a base had been established in Islamabad for the airlifts. The operation is in full swing. We do everything we can, he added.

The Scandinavian countrys Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said Denmark also has been able to evacuate Danes, Norwegians and Americans



ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys defense minister says at least 62 evacuation flights were made from Kabuls international airport in the past two days, after security was restored at the airfield.

Hulusi Akar told state-run Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that Turkish troops and other NATO soldiers were involved in the effort to restore calm at the airport. Turkish air force planes were meanwhile, evacuating Turkish citizens from Afghanistan, he said.

Turkey last month took over running the airport as U.S. troops were completing their pullout from the country.

Akar also said Turkey was engaged in talks with the United States, other NATO allies as well as other nations over Ankaras proposal for Turkish troops to continue protecting and operating the airfield.

We have stated that we are considering continuing our work if the necessary conditions are met, Akar was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, the first military cargo plane sent by Spain to Kabul has left the airport, but Spains defense ministry is not yet giving any more details on how many people are on board or who they are.

The Dutch defense ministry says that a C-17 military transport plane has flown out of Kabul carrying around 35 people with Dutch, Belgian, German and British passports. The plane is headed for Tbilisi in Georgia.



WASHINGTON  The U.S. State Department has released a joint statement signed by about two dozen nations expressing concern for the rights of Afghan women and girls and urging those in power in Afghanistan to guarantee their protection.

Wednesdays statement was signed by the United States, Britain, the European Union and 18 other countries. It says the statements signatories are deeply worried about the Afghan womens rights to education, work and freedom of movement in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

Afghan women and girls, as all Afghan people, deserve to live in safety, security and dignity, it said. Any form of discrimination and abuse should be prevented. We in the international community stand ready to assist them with humanitarian aid and support, to ensure that their voices can be heard.

It went on to add that the world will monitor closely how any future government ensures rights and freedoms that have become an integral part of the life of women and girls in Afghanistan during the last 20 years.

Since sweeping into Kabul on Sunday and taking over the country, the Taliban insist they have changed and wont impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating womens rights.



PRAGUE  The third Czech evacuation flight in three days has left the Afghan capital of Kabul and is heading for Prague.

Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek says Afghan interpreters with their families, including children, and Afghan nationals with permanent residency in the Czech Republic are onboard the flight Wednesday.

Defense Minister Lubomir Metnar says there are 62 passengers on the flight plus crew.

The previous two flights from Kabul to Prague on Monday and Tuesday carried a total of 133 people, including Czech and Afghan nationals and two Polish women.

Four Afghans are being transported at the request of another European Union member state  Slovakia  that has pledged to grant asylum to 10 Afghans who recently cooperated with EU states. Slovakia's transport plane has yet to receive approval to fly to Kabul.



WARSAW, Poland  The Polish government says it's in the process of evacuating people from Afghanistan, most of them Afghans who have worked with the Polish mission there.

Poland has sent three military planes to Afghanistan to carry out the evacuations.

A government official, Michal Dworczyk, said 250-260 people have expressed a wish to be evacuated, but that not all of them might be able to reach the Kabul airport to leave. Officials said Wednesday that a first group of 50 people was flown from Kabul to Uzbekistan.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a Dreamliner was on its way to Uzbekistan to bring the people to safety in Poland.

Some of those being evacuated are Polish citizens but the majority are Afghans who have worked with Poles in Afghanistan.



TIRANA, Albania  Albania is preparing for the arrival of Afghans who worked with Western peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan and are now threatened by the Taliban.

A students campus in the capital, Tirana, is among places that will temporarily shelter the Afghans while the United States processes their visa requirements. Some hotels at the nearby port city of Durres will also take in Afghans.

Government sources, who spoke anonymously under regulations, said that about 300 Afghans are expected to arrive on a military plane late on Wednesday.

Albania was among the first to offer temporary shelter to the Afghans leaving their country after all Western military left and the Taliban have usurped the power.

But some Albanians were upset. Llesh Perkola, a Tirana resident in the capital Tirana, wondered who had decided so fast to shelter them. Perkola said that Albania is a small country and bringing that many people from Afghanistan is not a good thing.

Others say Albanians were in the same position after the collapse of the communist regime and the anarchy of 1997. Ylli Suberaku, 66, remembers Albanians fleeing the country toward the worlds streets. They were welcomed and integrated in the societies of the host countries.

U.S. Ambassador to Tirana Yuri Kim said Tuesday: Weve been deeply moved by the gesture of the Albanian people, the decision to give temporary refuge to those who are in greatest need.

Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania;



KABUL, Afghanistan  Afghanistans former president has met with a senior leader of a powerful Taliban faction who was once jailed and whose group has been listed by the U.S. as a terrorist network.

Former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government, met with Anas Haqqani as part of preliminary meetings that a spokesman for Karzai said would would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader.

The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

The Taliban have pledged to form an inclusive, Islamic government, although skeptics point to its past record of intolerance for those not adhering to its extreme interpretations of Islam.



BEIJING  China says it is waiting for the establishment of an open, inclusive, and widely representative government in Afghanistan before it decides on the issue of recognition.

If we are going to recognize a government, we will have to wait till the government is formed, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday.

Only after that, will we come to the question of diplomatic recognition, Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing.

Zhao reiterated Beijings hopes for a a smooth transition following the Talibans sweep to power to avoid further violence or a humanitarian disaster.

China will continue to support the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan and provide assistance to Afghanistans economic and social development within its capacity, Zhao said.

The Taliban must make good on its commitment not to give shelter to terrorists or allow foreign elements to operate within its territory, singling out the East Turkestan Islamic Movement that Beijing blames for attacks in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, which shares a narrow, remote border with Afghanistan.

Beijing long called for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, but has condemned what it calls the hasty retreat of American forces for the current instability.

China has sought good relations with both the former Afghan government and the Taliban, hosting the groups top political leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, for talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi late last month.



MADRID  The European Unions top diplomat says that it is necessary to talk with the Taliban to secure the evacuation of foreign nationals and those Afghans who have worked with NATO forces.

I said that we must speak with them and some people found that scandalous, Josep Borrell, the EUs High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told Spanish National Radio on Wednesday. But how are we supposed to open a safe passage to the airport if we are not speaking with those who have taken control of Kabul?

Borrell said his main concern is the immediate situation of those needing help to immediately leave the country for fear of reprisals.

We have seen images of crowds on the landing strips that make the operation of the airport difficult. We hope that the situation can be controlled and that our planes can land and take off, but to be frank, I dont know, Borrell said. Where we need to act is not so much in the airport itself, which the American army has under its control, but in how to get those who need to leave to the airport.

My responsibility is to identify and help move those who have worked with us, Borrell said. (But) that does not exclude the EU from opening its arms to other people.

What has happened in Afghanistan is a defeat for the entire western world and we all must have the courage to accept that, he said.



ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan is issuing visas upon arrival to all diplomats, foreigners and journalists who want to leave Kabul over security concerns.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Wednesday that since Sunday, 900 foreigners including diplomats and staff working for international organizations have arrived in Pakistan from Kabul via air travel.

He said transit visas were also being issued to foreigners upon arrival from Afghanistan at airports and land crossings so that they could travel on to their home countries.

Ahmed said hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans crossed into Pakistan from two key land border crossings in recent days.

He said all Pakistanis who want to leave Afghanistan will be brought back over the coming two days.



BERLIN  Germany will send up to 600 army personnel to Kabul to help evacuate German citizens and former Afghan local embassy staff.

Chancellor Angela Merkels Cabinet on Wednesday okayed the mission which started Monday. Germanys Bundestag Parliament will have to vote on the military mission as well which is likely going to happen next week.

Every armed foreign deployment of the German army has to be approved by parliament in Germany.

Normally this has to happen before the start of the deployment but in this case, because of the imminent danger German citizens were exposed to in Afghanistan, Cabinet and parliament were also allowed to approve the mission in retrospect, German news agency dpa reported.



KABUL, Afghanistan  Afghanistans central bank governor says that the country has some $9 billion in reserves abroad and not in physical cash inside the country.

Ajmal Ahmady, the head of Afghanistans Central Bank, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that the majority of that  some $7 billion  is being held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady says Afghanistans holding of physical U.S. dollars is close to zero as the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive that swept the country last week.

The next shipment never arrived, he wrote. Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.

He noted the lack of U.S. dollars likely will see the afghani depreciate and inflation rise, hurting the poor in the country. Getting access to those reserves likely will be complicated by the U.S. government considering the Taliban a sanctioned terror group.

The Taliban won militarily - but now have to govern, he wrote. It is not easy.



LONDON  The British government says it will welcome up to 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, and a total of 20,000 Afghans will be offered a way to settle in the U.K. in the coming years.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Tuesday: We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years.

The new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme will focus on women, children, and others who have been forced to flee their home or face threats of persecution from the Taliban.

Opposition parties have criticized the plan for not going far enough to make a real difference. Nick Thomas-Symonds, of the Labour Party, said the proposal did not meet the scale of the challenge.

British lawmakers are returning to Parliament Wednesday for an emergency session to discuss Afghanistan. Johnson is set to tell lawmakers there must be an immediate increase in aid to Afghanistan to avert a humanitarian crisis erupting in the country following the Talibans seizure of power.



ANKARA, Turkey  Turkey has has denied reports claiming that it has given up on plans to continue running Kabuls airport, saying it was awaiting the results of ongoing talks between the Taliban and several Afghan politicians.

We hope that they reach an agreement through peaceful means, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Hurriyet newspaper in comments that were printed on Wednesday. After these (talks) take place, we can talk about these things.

Turkey, a NATO member whose some 600 troops provided security at the international airport in Kabul, has proposed to continue running and protecting the airport following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops. The Taliban has said it wants all NATO troops to leave Afghanistan.

Cavusoglu meanwhile, defended the governments decision to engage in talks with the Taliban, following criticism from opposition parties.

This does not mean that we espouse their ideology. Everyone is being pragmatic, he said.

The minister also came under criticism for saying the government welcomes positive messages from the Taliban.

We said, We welcome their messages, but we said that we are cautious, that is, we should see these (messages) applied in practice, Cavusoglu said.



ISLAMABAD  The British prime minister and German chancellor have called their Pakistani counterpart about the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan, the foreign ministry said in an overnight statement.

It was their first contact with Imran Khan since the Taliban took control of the country Sunday.

According to Pakistans foreign ministry, Khan told Germanys Angela Merkel that an inclusive political settlement was the best way forward for resolving the conflict in Afghanistan.

In a separate statement, the ministry said Khan also received a call from the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Khan passed along a similar message.



KABUL, Afghanistan  The Taliban have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who had fought against them during Afghanistans civil war in the 1990s.

The statue depicted a militia leader killed by the Taliban in 1996, when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords.

Abdul Ali Mazari was a champion of Afghanistans ethnic Hazara minority, Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Talibans earlier rule.

The statue stood in the central Bamyan province, where the Taliban infamously blew up two massive 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha carved into a mountain in 2001. The Taliban claimed the Buddhas violated Islams prohibition on idolatry.



CANBERRA, Australia  Australia has evacuated the first 26 people, including Australian and Afghan citizens, from Kabul since the Taliban overran the Afghan capital, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday.

An Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft landed at an Australian military base in the United Arab Emirates with the 26 who included a foreign official working for an international agency, Morrison said. The remainder were Australians and Afghans.

This was the first of what will be many flights, subject to clearance and weather and we do note that over the back end of this week, there is some not too favorable weather forecast, Morrison said.

Two Hercules and two larger C-17A Globemaster transport aircraft will make further evacuation flights.

Australia plans to evacuate 130 Australians and their families plus an undisclosed number Afghans who have worked for Australian soldiers and diplomats in roles such as interpreters.

Australias goal is to evacuate 600 people, according to media reports. Morrison did not provide a number. Our goal is as many as we can, as safely and as quickly as we can, he said.
TERMEZ, Uzbekistan (AP)  When Sami Elbigi heard about the Taliban's advance towards Mazar-e-Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan that has been the main hub of anti-Taliban resistance, he knew it was time to run.

He took his phones, a suit and some clothing and kissed his mother goodbye. A thought crossed his mind that might be the last time he will ever see her.

Elbigi, 30, left his Afghan hometown of Hairatan and rushed to the Uzbek border. He still had a valid business visa due to his profitable cross-border oil company, so entering Uzbekistan wasn't a problem. But he was one of the lucky few who managed to find refuge in the ex-Soviet republic in recent days  those without visas have not been allowed in.

The Taliban takeover happened so fast, we have not expected that. I still cannot believe it, Elbigi told The Associated Press, sitting in a cafe in Termez, an Uzbek city close to the Afghan border, with numb disbelief on his face.

My visa expires in one month, and I dont know what I will do next. I have no plan. I left everything behind, he said.

As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in a swift power grab, thousands of Afghans have been looking for ways to escape what they see as a return of a ruthless fundamentalist rule. But neighboring Uzbekistan appears wary about a flood of Afghan refugees.

Afghan citizens who applied for Uzbek visas in recent months told The Associated Press that Uzbekistan has been refusing visas to Afghans, citing coronavirus concerns.

Experts note that Uzbek authorities have long maintained a tightly closed border with Afghanistan, fearing an influx of extremists, and have only accepted a handful of asylum-seekers from its unstable neighbor.

Since the Taliban controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s, "the Uzbek government has continually refused to sign and ratify the Refugee Convention  one of the most widely observed treaties in the world  which would require it to provide some type of processing and protection to those seeking asylum out of fear of persecution, said Steve Swerdlow, a human rights lawyer and associate professor of human rights at the University of Southern California.

The Taliban's advances in Afghanistan in recent months made several Central Asian nations nervous, prompting authorities in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to ramp up border security. Afghanistan borders Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and a tiny strip along China's Xinjiang region.

Last week, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Russia finished joint military drills in the Tajik region of Khatlon, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Afghan border. On Tuesday, the Russian military started another exercise in Tajikistan. China and Russia held joint military exercises last week in northwest China.

But the slow vibe of the southern Uzbek city of Termez bears few traces of the unfolding crisis across the border. A few Afghans in traditional two-piece garments walk down the streets but city life continues undisturbed.

Termez, a largely Persian-speaking city, has long been a town of choice for many Afghans moving to Uzbekistan.

Together with the U.N. Development Program, the Uzbek government in 2019 opened the Termez Centre for Education in Afghanistan, a place where Afghan girls facing hurdles in education could continue their studies. Men from northern Afghanistan have also set up businesses in the city.

For the past three years, Fayzad Hasanzoda, 20, and his brother successfully ran a restaurant in Termez. They said they invested $1 million in the venture, which makes their stay in Uzbekistan secure. But despite their high social status in Uzbekistan, they were unable to help their family escape from Afghanistan.

I applied for a visa for my parents, my brother and sister two months ago. Normally it takes a week to receive it, but we still haven't gotten any response, Hasanzoda told the AP. We want them to join us in Uzbekistan, but its not easy.

Since the fighting in northern Afghanistan intensified, there are regular reports about Afghan soldiers fleeing across the highly guarded border but they are routinely sent back.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry reported that 84 Afghan servicemen crossed into Uzbekistan on Saturday and asked for assistance. The ministry said it was in touch with Afghan officials regarding their return.

There are exceptions, however. On Aug. 14, Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan army commander, former northern warlord and vice president, crossed into Uzbekistan with a group of followers, which marked his surrender in the fight with the Taliban for control of Afghanistan's northern districts. His current whereabouts are unclear, but the commander, an ethnic Uzbek, has a house in Termez and has maintained close ties with the Uzbek government.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministrys news agency, Dunyo, said on Tuesday that media reports about the alleged presence of Dostum, as well as another former warlord, Ata Mohammad Noor, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Uzbekistan were, according to official information, not true.

On Sunday, an Afghan military plane crashed in Uzbekistan. Two pilots aboard survived and were hospitalized. Official Uzbek reports emerged Monday then were retracted about hundreds of Afghan military troops reaching Uzbekistan in dozens of aircraft that were forced to land in Termez. The AP could not independently verify those reports.

The Friendship Bridge at the Uzbek-Afghan border remains eerily quiet. Local residents say that not even Afghans who live in Uzbekistan are allowed back in these days.

How many Afghan refugees have been taken in by Uzbekistan remains unclear. On Monday, the country's Prosecutor General's office said 158 Afghan civilians and soldiers tried to illegally enter Uzbekistan across a river. In the same statement, officials alleged that 22 Afghan warplanes and 24 military helicopters with 585 Afghan troops illegally entered Uzbekistans airspace and were forced to land at Termez.

Shortly after, the Prosecutor General's office withdrew the statement, claiming it wasn't based on verified data from relevant authorities.

On Tuesday, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry warned that any attempts to violate the border would be harshly suppressed." The ministry said Uzbek authorities maintained close contacts with the Taliban on border issues.

A drive past the Termez Airport showed locals stopping along the road to look at numerous helicopters that were not there the day before  even though it's impossible to tell from the distance whether they were Uzbek or Afghan military aircraft.

Swerdlow, the human rights lawyer, thinks Uzbekistan should open its borders to desperate Afghan refugees.

This unfolding crisis  and Tashkents current seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council -- underlines how important it is for the U.S. government and other international partners to urge Uzbekistan to implement the (refugee) convention, provide proper aid, and refrain from pushing persons who fear persecution or torture back into Afghanistan, he said.



Associated Press writer Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed.



Follow all AP stories on developments in Afghanistan at https://apnews.com/hub/Afghanistan.
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City OKs $2.4 million Lufkin Forward project

JESS HUFF/The Lufkin Daily News Lufkin Economic Development Director Bob Samford stands next to two posters showcasing the Lufkin Forward Project he and a committee have worked on with the Asakura Robinson firm for the last few months. The Lufkin City Council approved $2.4 million in funding for the project Tuesday night. SIMON Watson-Watkins

BURFINE

The Lufkin City Council approved the $2.4 million Lufkin Forward proposal at Tuesdays meeting.

This is a well known project  its been coming for some time, city manager Bruce Green said. Its taken a while to roll out precisely because it was so well done, and the interaction with the public at large has been very good.

The Lufkin Economic Development Corporation 4B Board of Directors unanimously approved this project Aug. 10, and the proposal has received support from multiple boards across Angelina County.

Its been a very rewarding project, Samford said. I can honestly say I feel like this is one of the most important projects Ive worked on in my life.

Before Brianna Frey, Asakura Robinson project manager for Lufkin Forward, gave her presentation, Samford asked several members of the community to speak on the project.

Angelina Arts Alliance director Jennifer Allen expressed her wholehearted support of the project proposed by the LEDC.

The arts alliance began working on the creation of a cultural arts district in Lufkin, which would be a state designation that would set Lufkin on the map in the arts community, around the same time the Lufkin Forward Project was announced.

In that year weve learned a lot about cultural districts and what it takes to get one, and its a state-designated cultural district, she said. So what it takes to get one, what it takes to run and what it takes to be successful.

But in her experience with the cultural district, she learned the importance of a city having open, welcoming community spaces, better signage and way-finding, and walkability and bicycle-riding opportunities. Those are important, in addition to having spaces to present live music.

Angelina College president Michael Simon said the board of trustees unanimously adopted a resolution in support of the project. They believe an active and engaging downtown is good for the college and the students, as well as the faculty and staff.

Arts alliance board chair Pat Aldred, who said he was representing himself as a resident, also spoke highly of the project.

Im here for the second time since December of 1989 and I have to tell you downtown Lufkin wasnt a very enjoyable place to come to back then, he said. And when I look today at the development we had downtown and what weve created, it gets me excited. But then Im also excited about what it can potentially be and what it can grow into.

He works for Georgia-Pacific and said as the business recruits talent, one of the first things they look at is the citys downtown.

Tara Watson-Watkins, Lufkin/Angelina County Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, said it was an honor and privilege to help with cultural districts. She wants her home to flourish, to grow and for people to come to town, whether as a tourist or business.

She believes the project is sending Lufkin in the right direction.

Emily Thornton, executive director of Angelina Beautiful/Clean, came as a representative of her organization but also as someone who was born and raised in Lufkin and who currently lives downtown.

I feel so confident, pun intended, that this work truly is going to propel Lufkin Forward into the future, she said.

Downtown is where Thornton brings guests who come into town, and she values the shared space as a resident. She wants to see the long-term investment and has faith the work will lead the city into the future.

Mark Duran, director of Workforce Solutions Deep East Texas, spoke to the work he and Samford did to analyze the mobile data usage downtown so they could see the kinds of visitors moving through. They learned more than 127,000 unique visitors had come into town from the city and out in the county, even during the pandemic, he said. There were more than 400,000 visits over the course of the year.

As a Jasper resident who visits on the weekends, he knows many see Lufkin from Loop 287 and the attractions that surround the city. But he hopes the city can encourage more migration to its downtown with this project. The Workforce Solutions board also passed a resolution in support of it.

Frey highlighted the proposals goals, which are to: convert First Street into a festival street; design, fund and update the historic Cotton Square Park; improve navigational signage, downtowns gateways and branding; and update Louis Bronaugh Park.

She wanted the city to focus on the areas it can fix right now, and walked the council through each of the proposals.

The first Big Idea would convert First Street from Shepherd Avenue to Frank Avenue and Lufkin Avenue from First Street to Cotton Square into a festival street. The city would eliminate parking along those paths, widen sidewalks and establish seating, tree canopies and way-finding kiosks along the route.

The second Big Idea would update Cotton Square. This particular idea was heavily discussed in the May public meeting. Attendees were given four options but largely wanted options that would encourage gathering and entertainment possibilities.

The third Big Idea improves navigational signage, lets people know where Lufkins downtown is and rebrands the area. The proposal includes a large Lufkin mural at least at the Frank Avenue overpass and the creation of flags with LUFKIN written on them in almost rainbow colors.

The fourth Big Idea updates the mural and shade structures at Louis Bronaugh Park. The park sits close to Lufkin City Hall and has been used for various events, including protests during the summer of 2020 and this years Flag Day Celebration.

Ward 1 Councilman Trent Burfine asked if any of the proposals had considered outlets for the vendors to utilize instead of generators, which he said were exceptionally loud at the Christmas festival last year.

Zakcq Lockrem, principal in charge of the project for Asakura Robinson, said they had considered that option and it is feasible.

The proposal passed unanimously.

The council also:

 Approved a resolution to propose the city adopt the same tax rate as was used last year  50 cents per $100 valuation  for fiscal year 2021-22. It will result in additional revenues, Green said. The council also designated the xity of Lufkin finance director to calculate the citys no-new-revenue-tax-rate and the voter approval tax rate.

 Accepted fiscal year 2020 Bulletproof Vest Partnership funding in the amount of $8,000 for Lufkin Police officers on first reading.

 Approved a resolution of the city authorizing a professional service provider selection for the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund Programs through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

 Adopted a classification plan for the Lufkin Police Department on second reading.

* Approved a zone change at 105 Shirey Lane to commercial on first reading and zone changes at 400 Harmony Hill Drive and 2001 Tulane Drive to local business on second reading.
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According to the new study, Johnsons demand was simple: In exchange for his vote, the bill must sweeten the tax break for a class of companies that are known as pass-throughs, since profits pass through to their owners. Johnson praised such companies as engines of innovation. Behind the scenes, the senator pressed top Treasury Department officials on the issue, emails and the officials calendars show. Within two weeks, Johnsons ultimatum produced results. Trump personally called the senator to beg for his support, and the bills authors fattened the tax cut for these businesses. Johnson flipped to a yes and claimed credit for the change. The bill passed.

Why did Johnson fight so hard against a president for whom he has generally been willing to debase himself as the most willing lapdog in the Senate Republican Caucus? At the time, Wisconsin media speculated that Johnson Wants a Bigger Tax Cut for Himself. That was part of the explanation. But in this particular instance, Johnson was not merely thinking of himself.
We are clear, and we have agreed that itd be a mistake for any country to recognize any new regime in Kabul prematurely or bilaterally, said Johnson, who has spoke recently with Biden and other world leaders on Afghanistan.

We will judge this regime on the choices it makes and by its actions, rather than its words, he added.

The refugee plan, which is similar to a refugee package for Syria in 2015, came under immediate attack from lawmakers, who said it fell short of what was required, both in terms of speed and numbers.

The government has said 5,000 will be brought to resettle in the U.K. this year, said Chris Bryant, a Labour lawmaker. What are the other 15,000 meant to do? Hang around and wait to be executed?

Johnson said British officials were doing all they can to evacuate U.K. and Afghan citizens who helped the British forces based in Afghanistan and that the Taliban has not sought to disrupt that operation.

The situation has stabilized since the weekend, but it remains precarious, and the U.K. officials on the ground are doing everything that they can to expedite the movement of people, he said. At the moment, it would be fair to say that the Taliban are allowing that evacuation to go ahead.
Police have said Davis-Williams was a passenger in a vehicle at the BP gas station at 4501 Verona Road at about 12:40 a.m. when Somersett came up and shot him. The investigation into the killing remains open, and police urged anyone with information about it to contact them at 608-255-2345, or Madison Area Crime Stoppers at 608-266-6014 or P3Tips.com. They declined to say if more arrests are expected.

Somersett was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon in 2015 and 2017, and sentenced to three years in prison on the latter charge and for violating his probation on the earlier conviction. He was released from prison and placed on extended supervision in February 2019 after completing an earned-release program.

Police said that in the 2017 case he was among a group of people involved in a dispute at the East Washington gas station. Gunfire erupted and four people were shot, none fatally. The District Attorneys Office later agreed to let Somersett plead guilty to the gun possession charge because it could not prove Somersett fired a gun in the incident, and the court dismissed a charge of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
In a statement by the man, read in court by Brown, the man said he never expected to be attacked by a man he had helped out with a job, transportation and food. It was a petty argument, he said, that turned into something more.

(Webb) told me and others for a while that he was going to end up killing someone because of his urges and thoughts, the man wrote. At one point he even talked about setting out to kill his biological mother, but never did. But still, that stuff that should worry anybody, I disregarded it because he was my friend. I trusted him.

The man wrote he doesnt begrudge Webb, but wants him to get the help he needs.

Im going to keep living my life that you almost took over a stupid argument, he wrote. I hope you find yourself and can eventually live yours.

Berz noted that while Webb does not have an adult criminal record, his juvenile record included violent acts. He also reported a penchant as a child for torturing and killing animals. Lashing out at people, Berz noted, was Webbs act of making people afraid of him, rather than being afraid of other people.

The key to Webbs future success will be figuring out what triggers his violent outbursts. She noted hes intelligent, and while he was in school he got good grades.
The ADA applies to all spaces that serve the public, as well as most private buildings, including offices, factories, warehouses and manufacturing plants.

People working in buildings that are closed to the public but are still subject to ADA laws will need to wear masks in congregate workspaces, Public Health said, but they will not be required in private offices when alone, with the door closed.

Private homes are essentially the only example of a private building that is not subject to ADA standards, Public Health spokesperson Morgan Finke said.

Signs go back up

Madison businesses were preparing Tuesday to change policies and bring the mask mandate signs back out. While a few already had mask requirements, many had made masks optional for customers.

Skylar Palm, store manager of Art Gecko, a jewelry, clothing and decor shop with locations on Monroe and State streets, said her store had initially required masks but dropped the rule because of a decline in sales.

Unfortunately it does turn away a lot of people from out of state, she said. Its hard as a small business, but its also, like, you cant just not follow the rules.
What they're saying

Members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation react to the fall of Afghanistan.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison

The failure of the Afghan government to stand up for their own country and their people shows that keeping our military there to support theirs with no end in sight would be the wrong decision. Right now, our primary focus should be the safe departure of U.S personal and the Afghan civilians who risked their lives to support our mission. We should also do everything we can to provide humanitarian aid and resettlement assistance for Afghan refugees, women and children. Our military involvement in this 20-year war needs to end and we need to bring our American troops home.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh

In the midst of the disastrous abandonment of our allies in Afghanistan, I am glad that some will be able to reach safety in the U.S. Im confident the military personnel at Fort McCoy will fulfill their role with dedication and professionalism.

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Black Earth

The United States has a duty to honor its commitment to the Afghans who helped our efforts, such as guides and translators. We must ensure these refugees are allowed to reach our shores as safely and as quickly as possible.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville

The mishandled withdrawal from Afghanistan is a tragic disaster. President Biden's absentee leadership, flawed decision-making and lack of a thoughtful plan for withdrawal from the region created this crisis. President Bidens own words show how badly he misjudged the situation. My thoughts are with our troops in Afghanistan and the Americans still in harms way.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah

It does not surprise me that despite 20 years of American intervention, the Afghan government has not been able to hold off the onslaught of the Taliban. The experts that we heard from in the committee hearings would routinely assure us that the current government is popular and that they would be able to hang on for three or four years. Obviously, they were woefully incorrect, and I hope there are consequences for those who got things so wrong."
In order to do this, she began hosting a weekly antique show at the property.

I didnt need water; I didnt need electric, she listed. Theres plenty of light, and it stays cool with the structure of the building.

A percentage of the proceeds from each market are put back into the buildings renovation.

Since the beginning of the antique show, Ellis said she has had several individuals express interest in using the top floor for retail spaces. While the top floor was originally used as a hotel and apartments, Ellis said roughly 2,000 square feet  or about half of the top portion of the building  was never completely finished, opening the space up to endless possibilities.

While Ellis has a list of ideas for the property, she said the deciding factor will be community interest.

Even the dream of listing the property on the National Register of Historic Places has been placed on hold as officials recover from the COVID-19 lockdown and hear proposed adaptations to property requirements.

For now, all Ellis can do is wait: wait for funds, wait for supplies, wait for labor.

I cant do it by myself, she said.
If a dire report from the International Panel on Climate Change does not wake us from our slumber, it is hard to imagine what could.

The recent report finds that the goal of the Paris Climate Accords, to keep global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees, is nearly out of reach. The longer we delay action, the more drastic the action we eventually have to take will be.

That we have failed to address the greatest challenge of our lifetimes so far does not relieve us of responsibility for what we do next. We have already done so much damage that centuries to millennia of sea-level rise, ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation are already baked in. And we are still making the problem worse. In the worst-case scenarios envisioned by the report, where we continue to do little to reduce our carbon emissions while emerging nations continue to add to the worlds carbon footprint at a break-neck pace, there could eventually be sea-level rise of up to 45 feet.

Humans have lived on earth for somewhere around 300,000 years. Carbon levels are higher now than they have been in the last 2 million.

We are now largely in the business of making decisions for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. How hostile will their world be? We have some guesses.
A Richmond woman pleaded guilty in Henry County Circuit Court on Aug. 17 to the involuntary manslaughter of an Axton woman.

Jennifer T. Jefferson, 39, was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving on Dec. 17 when she unlawfully and feloniously, but not intentionally, caused the death of Billie B. Nuckles, 68, by conduct so reckless, gross, wanton, and culpable as to show a callous disregard for human life, the indictment stated.

In exchange for Jeffersons guilty plea on the involuntary manslaughter charge, the reckless driving charge was dropped.

Nuckles died at the scene of a 2-vehicle crash on Chatham Road, 1 mile east of Max Kendall Road, that also injured five other people.

Nuckles was driving a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am west on Chatham Road when she attempted to make a left turn, a Virginia State Police report stated.

While Nuckles was making the turn, Jefferson was attempting to pass her in a 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier and struck the Pontiac on the drivers side of the vehicle.

A 16-year-old male passenger in Nuckles vehicle was injured seriously, and a 16-year-old female passenger had minor injuries. Both were transported from the scene by ambulance.
DETROIT (AP)  The U.S. government has opened a formal investigation into Tesla's Autopilot partially automated driving system after a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles.

The investigation covers 765,000 vehicles, almost everything that Tesla has sold in the U.S. since the start of the 2014 model year. Of the crashes identified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of the probe, 17 people were injured and one was killed.

NHTSA says it has identified 11 crashes since 2018 in which Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control have hit vehicles at scenes where first responders have used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards. The agency announced the action Monday in a posting on its website.

The probe is another sign that NHTSA under President Joe Biden is taking a tougher stance on on automated vehicle safety than under previous administrations. Previously the agency was reluctant to regulate the new technology for fear of hampering adoption of the potentially life-saving systems.

The investigation covers Tesla's entire current model lineup, the Models Y, X, S and 3 from the 2014 through 2021 model years.
(HealthDay)From 1990 to 2020, there were only minimal increases in the proportion of Black U.S. medical school faculty, according to a research letter published in the Aug. 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Christopher L. Bennett, M.D., and Albee Y. Ling, Ph.D., from the Stanford School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, used the Association of American Medical Colleges Faculty Roster to examine trends (1990 to 2020) in the proportion of U.S. medical school faculty who self-identified as Black or African American by sex, academic rank, and clinical specialty.

The researchers found that in 1990, 2.68 percent of U.S. medical school faculty self-identified as Black or African American versus 3.84 percent in 2020. This increase was mostly driven by an increase in self-identified Black or African American female faculty (0.96 versus 2.32 percent; difference, 1.36 percentage points). Assistant professors represented the largest group of self-identified Black or African American faculty by number and had the largest increase (1.38 versus 2.27 percent; difference, 0.89 percentage points). Fourteen specialties had less than 5 percent of faculty who self-identified as Black or African American in 2020, with obstetrics and gynecology having the highest proportion (8.50 percent) and otolaryngology having the lowest (1.96 percent). Nine specialties had less than a 1 percent change in the past 30 years. No specialty had proportions comparable with current U.S. population estimates of 13.4 percent.

"Study limitations include that self-reporting of multiple races by faculty increased over time," the authors write. "Even if this contributed to the increase in Black or African American faculty, the inadequacy of representation to date is still evident."

Explore further Stressors of integrating work, life higher for female faculty

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Just days after Beijing rejected calls for a renewed probe into the origins of COVID-19, the World Health Organization said Wednesday it remained confident China would cooperate in the investigation.

Pressure has again been mounting on Beijing to consider a fresh probe into the origins of a pandemic which has killed more than four million people and paralysed economies worldwide since it first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

"I'm confident... that our colleagues in China are very much willing to cooperate on the scientific studies that are needed to further explore the origins," WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan told reporters.

His comment came after Beijing last Friday rejected as political a call from the UN health agency for raw data from the earliest COVID-19 cases to help revive the origins probe.

The WHO, and Ryan in particular, has repeatedly appealed for a depoliticisation of the origins investigationseen as vital to helping prevent future pandemics.

"I think what's happened in all of this is that the politics have really contaminated the environment and changed the atmosphere," he said Wednesday.

"We're working very hard behind the scenes to increase the level of confidence and to get people to recommit to the scientific process," he said.

"I believe we're making headway in that," he said, acknowledging though that the task was "not that easy given some of the rhetoric that we've all experienced over the last number of weeks and months."

The rhetoric and finger-pointing contributed to delaying the first phase of the investigation, with the WHO only able to send a team of international experts to Wuhan in January 2021, more than a year after the pandemic erupted.

The team's report, written in conjunction with their Chinese counterparts, drew no firm conclusions, instead ranking four hypotheses.

It said the virus jumping from bats to humans via an intermediate animal was the most probable scenario, while a leak from the Wuhan virology labs was "extremely unlikely".

However, the investigation faced criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not evaluating the lab-leak theory more thoroughlywith the United States upping the pressure ever since.

In the face of China's reluctance to open up to outside investigators, experts are increasingly open to considering the theory that the virus might have leaked out of a lab, once dismissed as a conspiracy propagated by the US far-right.

Even WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that the initial probe into Wuhan's virology labs had not gone far enough, while President Joe Biden in May ordered a separate investigation into the virus origins from the US intelligence community.

A WHO call last month for the investigation's second stage to include audits of the Wuhan labs infuriated Beijing, with vice health minister Zeng Yixin saying the plan showed "disrespect for common sense and arrogance towards science".

Explore further WHO urges China to share raw data on early COVID cases

 2021 AFP
(HealthDay)Preliminary data from seven U.S. states show that the arrival of the Delta variant in July may be fueling a rise in breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated.

At least 1 in every 5 new COVID-19 cases in six of these states have involved vaccinated people, with higher percentages of hospitalizations and deaths among these folks than had previously been seen in all seven states, The New York Times reported.

Still, the absolute numbers of vaccinated people made sick by COVID-19 remains very low, experts said, and the vaccines are still very potent weapons against severe disease.

If breakthrough infections are becoming more common, "it's also going to demonstrate how well these vaccines are working and that they're preventing hospitalization and death, which is really what we asked our vaccines to do," said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Times.

Importantly, a vast majority of vaccinated people who are hospitalized for COVID-19 are likely to be older adults or those who have weakened immune systems. CDC data show that 74% of breakthrough cases are among adults aged 65 or older.

The numbers suggest that people who are at higher risk for complications from COVID-19, and anyone who lives with a high-risk person, "really needs to seriously consider the risks that they're taking now," Dr. Dean Sidelinger, a state epidemiologist and state health officer for Oregon, told the Times.

"Remember when the early vaccine studies came out, it was like nobody gets hospitalized, nobody dies," Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Times. "That clearly is not true."

"If the chances of a breakthrough infection have gone up considerably, and I think the evidence is clear that they have, and the level of protection against severe illness is no longer as robust as it was, I think the case for boosters goes up pretty quickly," Wachter added.

The seven states analyzed by the TimesCalifornia, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Virginiawere chosen because they are keeping the most detailed data, the Times said. It is not certain whether the trends in these states would hold across the country.

The increases seen are largely due on the mathematics of mass vaccination: Scientists have always expected that as the number of vaccinated people exponentially grows, vaccinated people will show up more frequently than before in tallies of the severely ill and dead.

"We don't want to dilute the message that the vaccine is tremendously successful and protective, more so than we ever hoped initially," said Dr. Scott Dryden-Peterson, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. "The fact that we're seeing breakthrough cases and breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths doesn't diminish that it still saves many people's lives."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had no comment on the states' numbers, but the agency is expected to discuss breakthrough infections, hospitalizations and vaccine efficacy during a news briefing on Wednesday, the Times reported.

The states' data do confirm that vaccinated people are still far less likely to become severely ill or to die from COVID-19. In California, the 1,615 hospitalizations of people with breakthrough infections as of Aug. 8 represents just 0.007% of nearly 22 million fully immunized residents, and breakthrough deaths constitute an even smaller portion, the Times reported.

But in six of the states, breakthrough infections accounted for 18% to 28% of recorded cases in recent weeks, the newspaper said. These numbers are likely to be low, because most fully immunized people may not feel ill enough to seek a test.

Breakthrough infections accounted for 12% to 24% of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the states, the Times found. The number of deaths was too small to arrive at a solid number, although it does appear to be higher than the CDC estimate of 0.5%.

The latest numbers make a good case for booster shots, and a recent survey showed that seniors can't wait to get one: Among vaccinated Americans, 72 percent of those who are 65 or older already say they want a booster shot.

Explore further New data shows the power of COVID vaccines

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Objective differences in cognitive performance outcome measurements. Credit: DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2021.06.047

New research from the School of Medicine at Trinity investigating the effect of sleep deprivation on surgical performance has found that surgeons were already sleep deprived before their on-call shifts and were even more sleep-deprived afterwards, and crucially, that sleep deprivation impacted surgical performance The study is the first to focus on Irish surgeons and is published in the Journal of Surgical Research.

The research focused on the effects of being "on-call"; a frequent state for surgeons. The Trinity study recruited surgical trainees and consultants in the Dublin region and explored subjective and objective metrics around sleep and performance using "on-call" as a particular influencer for increased fatigue.

Surgery is a high-stake industry, and highly skilled professionals frequently work 24 straight hours (or more) resulting in unavoidable sleep disturbance. The reasons for this include historical associations of the Halstedian Era of Surgery to "reside" in the hospital in order to properly learn, but also closely relate to current staffing levels which mandate surgeons to complete regular on-call work.

Participants were wired up using electroencephalogram (EEG) and a validated modified Multiple Sleep Latency Test testing was used to objectively measure sleep on the morning of their on-call shift. Several other validated tests for subjective sleep and fatigue measurement were also recorded. "Sleep latency" refers to the time it takes to go from being fully awake to sleeping and is often an indicator of sleepiness. The surgeons in the study had early onset sleep latency before on-call, which was exacerbated further in post-call settings

Several aspects of performance were measured using standardized and validated tools. The technical performance of surgeons was assessed using the validated Simendo surgical simulator. Cognitive performance was measured using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) to assess objective alertness and reaction time, a known aspect of cognitive performance.

The study, led by Dale Whelehan, Ph.D. researcher in behavior science at the School of Medicine is unique as it is the first to attempt to control for a series of confounding variables such as experience, quality and quantity of sleep, the influence of caffeine and circadian rhythm influences.

Key findings

Surgeons had poor baseline sleep quality and were objectively sleep-deprived, even pre-call, when they should be in a "rested state."

Early onset sleep latency was found in all study participants in pre-call settings and worsened in post-call settings.

Early onset sleep latency was worse in trainees compared to consultants, but both groups experienced early onset sleep latency post-call.

As sleep-deprivation increased, diminished performance was identified in cognitive tasks and surgical tasks with greater cognitive components.

Higher levels of self-reported fatigue and daytime sleepiness were observed post-call.

Technical skill performance was relatively preserved in acutely sleep deprived states but may be influenced by learning curve effects and experience in surgical tasks.

The research found that the current models of surgical on-call were not conducive to optimizing sleep for surgeons. However, there are challenges associated with making changes to ensure better sleep. For example, there may be loss of continuity of patient care, loss of trainee exposure, and reduced service delivery. Nevertheless, patient safety is of utmost importance to healthcare workers.

Speaking on the impact of the study's findings and future recommendations, Dale Whelehan, Ph.D. researcher in Behavior Science at the School of Medicine and lead researcher said: "The findings of this study tell us that current provision of on-call models preclude the opportunity for surgeons to get enough rest. Similarly, surgeons are sleep deprived before going on-call which further perpetuates the issue. The implications for performance suggest aspects of surgeons performance is diminished, particularly tasks which might be more cognitively demanding. We need meaningful engagement from all stakeholders in the process, working towards the common goal of optimizing performance in surgeons. This involves looking at the multifactorial causes and effects of fatigue. Part of that discussion involves consideration around how current models of on-call influence sleep levels in healthcare staff, and how it creates barriers to fatigue management in staff. The current situation needs urgent attention. Policy makers must ensure appropriate work-life balance legislation is in place with appropriate resourcing, institutions must enforce this legislation and healthcare staff must professionally and personally internalize and adhere to recommended guidelines. Finally, regulation and resourcing must go hand-in-hand. One must support the other in order to ensure current staff can sufficiently rest. Ultimately, this is about building a system that better supports healthcare workers to work to their best ability by getting sufficient recovery and rest."

Professor Paul Ridgway, Department of Surgery at Trinity, who supervised the study, said: "Our study is further evidence that the way we deliver emergency work alongside normal work in Ireland has to change. We need to learn from our colleagues in aviation who have mandatory rest periods before flights."

Explore further Study shows short naps don't relieve sleep deprivation

More information: Dale F. Whelehan et al, Sleepy Surgeons: A Multi-Method Assessment of Sleep Deprivation and Performance in Surgery, Journal of Surgical Research (2021). Journal information: Journal of Surgical Research Dale F. Whelehan et al, Sleepy Surgeons: A Multi-Method Assessment of Sleep Deprivation and Performance in Surgery,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2021.06.047
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The pandemic has urged some city dwellers to leave urbanity in favor of locales with more space, including rural areas.

But a new University of Chicago study may have folks rethinking making moves. Marc Berman, associate professor in the department of psychology, co-authored the work that cites cities predict lower depression rates among people, due to the social, socioeconomic and infrastructure networks that one finds in metropolises. Those same networks can lead to rapid increases in social interaction and higher rates of innovation and wealth production.

"With a lot of earlier works, there was this kind of romantic notion that more rural and less populated areas were happier and mentally healthy. And this study really counters that. Actually, when we look at the data, we don't see that," Berman said.

Berman and his research team used pre-pandemic data sets derived from the U.S. Census and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in approximately 80 U.S. cities that range in population from 40,000 to 10 million to come up with the study's results. The largest data set was a Twitter one from 2019 that used 80 tweets per user as a depression inventory, to quantify how depressed a Twitter user was.

"We analyzed four independent data sets, which allow for consistent assessments of cases of depression across different urban areas in the United States," Berman said. "Everybody thinks that bigger cities have more crime, more stress, maybe people are more cold or callous and that would seem to suggest that you get more mental illness or more depression as cities get bigger and we found just the opposite."

Much has been written about the environment and one's health, be it mental or physical. A 2019 NYU School of Medicine analysis found the average life expectancy is as wide as 30 years from one Chicago neighborhood to anotherthe largest gap in the country. And other studies show the correlation of green spaces with mental health, in urban areas. Berman, an expert on the intersection of psychology and environmental factors, says the U. of C. research is one more pebble in his ongoing work that looks at the impact the physical and social environment has on brains and behavior.

"In the U.S., people are so individualistic," Berman said. "If you work hard, you can be successful. People look at people who are successful and think they're just not working hard enough, instead of recognizing that so much of it is out of our control based on environment. That's what we're really pushing in our labthat it's not all about the individual."

With the pandemic highlighting lots of warts in society, Berman is hoping public policymakers are working on making cities more resilientwhile keeping people's mental health in mind. For him, that translates to making more green spaces in cities and making them necessities instead of amenities. It also means altering and improving existing environments to make them safer and easier to move around. He's hopeful about the Biden infrastructure plan making that happen.

"If there are more trees in the neighborhood, there's less crime," Berman said. "If people visit parks outside their neighborhood, there's also less crime in their neighborhood, and that's about mobility and access. It's about making it easy. And if you can make it easily accessible, then you're going to see the benefits. If you can get people to interact with each other more, you're gonna get more innovation and you're gonna get less depression."

Next up for Berman's team, looking at different characteristics that may lead to more or less cases of depression in different Chicago neighborhoods. More transportation infrastructure, less depression since it's easier to capitalize on the good opportunities the city has.

"It's not about the person. It's about the environment," Berman said. "You can't expect people living in a really stressful environment to be able to be their best selves, and the flip side is people who live in good environments, saying 'oh I worked hard and blah blah blah.' But you had a lot of opportunities, it's much easier to be successful in certain environments. Chicago has great opportunities but if in some neighborhoods you can't get hooked into that, it's depressing and those neighborhoods won't be able to reap the benefits.

That's why we put a huge emphasis on trying to do things to the environment that will allow people to reach their full capabilities. We have to think about cities as gigantic ecosystems, yes there are some negatives but there are also a lot of positives ... cities are really the only way that we can live sustainably with as many people that we have on the planet."

Explore further Socioeconomic networks and built environments of cities contribute to lower rates of psychological depression

2021 Chicago Tribune.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Guinean authorities on Wednesday announced that 58 people had been confined to their homes after being identified as contacts of a woman who contracted the Ebola virus.

The Ebola case was discovered in Ivory Coast over the weekend in an 18-year-old Guinean woman who had travelled by road from Labe in Guinea, a journey of some 1,500 kilometres (930 miles).

It was Ivory Coast's first known case of the disease since 1994. Ebola is often deadly, causing severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.

It is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.

The discovery in Ivory Coast came nearly two months after the UN's health agency declared an end to Guinea's second outbreak of Ebola, which started last year and claimed 12 lives.

"In Labe, 58 contacts have been identified," Elhadj Mamadou Houdy Bah, the regional health director, told AFP.

"The good news is that none of them are presenting any signs (of Ebola) at the moment, all are being followed," he added.

The driver of the vehicle that transported the young Ebola sufferer to Abidjan is one of the cases identified.

As the sole centre in Labe able to handle such contact cases is currently full with coronavirus patients, the Ebola contact cases were placed under confinement at home for an observation period of 21 days, the Guinean health authorities said.

An Ebola outbreak from 2013-2016 left 11,300 people dead throughout West Africa, including 2,300 people in Guinea.

The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that this toll has been underestimated.

On Tuesday the WHO said that nine Ebola contact cases had been identified in Ivory Coast, following the case of the Guinean woman there.

She is being treated in a hospital in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city, while health workers are being vaccinated against the disease.

Residents of the Abidjan district where the young Guinean woman was staying are also being vaccinated.

Explore further Ivory Coast starts Ebola jabs after first case in decades

 2021 AFP
Samaritan's Purse staff set up a portable bed in one of four wards that are part of the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. The field hospital, an outreach program that is part of a non-denominational evangelical Christian organization, joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

On normal days, the garage is where people park while visiting Mississippi's only children's hospital, a building next door decorated with a logo of a rainbow and sun. Now air-conditioned tents with beds, monitors and oxygen fill the garage's bottom floor.

By Wednesday, coronavirus patients will begin being treated in Mississippi's second field hospital opened within days on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus. It comes as the surging delta variant of COVID-19 has overwhelmed hospitals in a state with one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates.

The first emergency field hospital opened last week with federal government backing after hospitalizations began spiking in Mississippi; this one is being spearheaded by a Christian relief charity Samaritan's Purse. The North Carolina-based relief organization arrived Sunday with more than 50 more medical professionals to erect tents with 32 more beds.

University of Mississippi Medical Center spokesperson Marc Rolph was somber about unfolding events.

"It's unbelievable that we're doing this again within what? 6 days? Heartbreaking," he said of two field hospitals that have gone up.

Mississippi's State Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, knows many of those infected will be young.

Unlike earlier surges, this wave is predominately impacting younger, unvaccinated people just as classes are resuming, Dobbs said. More children are hospitalized than ever, and one between the ages of 11 and 17 died just last week.

Five intensive care beds, part of the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital, are set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

"Instead of seeing women bury their parents, we're seeing women bury their children," he said on a visit Tuesday afternoon. "It's a sad and heartbreaking thing."

More than 392,300 people have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic in Mississippi, a state of about 3 million people. At least 7,880 have died since.

Dobbs likens the newest Mississippi surge to a "tsunami" and it has overwhelmed the state's hospital system. On July 27, some 726 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus. By Aug. 16 that figure stood at 1,623.

Patients were waiting in hallways and emergency rooms, with no beds and no staff to immediately tend to them.

Dobbs said the virus situation in Mississippi is the worst its ever been, but even the latest field hospital will have a big impact, saying it would bring care for those "who might not get care of otherwise."

Medical staff confer in one of four wards that are part of the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. The non-denominational evangelical Christian organization fielded a team of 53 people, many who do double duty of setting up the medical facility as well as practicing medicine. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Tuesday that about 20,000 Mississippi students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure4.5% of the public school population, according to the latest enrollment figures.

The state called on the federal government for help, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of three dozen physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists last week to set up the first emergency field hospital. That site, in another parking lot at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, is serving 20 patients.

Samaritan's Purse is known for its medical missions across the world, including in Liberia, West Africa, where it was on the frontlines of the Ebola outbreak. It is currently also in Haiti helping out after a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake there.

Nurse practitioners Taryn McCoy, left, and Gina LaFountain take inventory of supplies in the intensive care ward, one of four wards that are part of the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Since the pandemic's start, the charity has set up five other emergency hospitals in areas of the world hardest hit by the virus, including in Italy, New York City and Los Angeles County.

Edward Graham, assistant to the vice president of programs and government relations at Samaritan's Purse, said his physicians are using their training fighting Ebola and other emergencies to tackle the virus in Mississippi.

"These hospitals were designed for overseas use; we never thought we'll be doing this," he said. "But our neighbors here in Mississippi have called and asked for, and we've responded."

The inflatable tentsnegative pressure, to keep the virus insideare anchored by cinderblock in case of storms or high winds.

Five beds thus far have been set up to treat intensive care patients with ventilators.

Ventilators sit beside each of the five intensive care beds that are part of the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, speaks about the placement of the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, on the Jackson, Miss., campus. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Medical supplies such as syringes and alcohol pads are at the ready in the intensive care ward of the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss., \. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Edward Graham, Samaritan's Purse assistant to the vice president of Programs and Government Relations, speaks about the placement of the nondenominational evangelical Christian organization's 32-bed Emergency Field Hospital in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, on the Jackson, Miss., campus. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, director of the International Health Unit of Samaritan's Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization, speaks about the need to put the organization's 32-bed Emergency Field Hospital in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Edward Graham, Samaritan's Purse assistant to the vice president of Programs and Government Relations, speaks about the placement of the nondenominational evangelical Christian organization's 32-bed Emergency Field Hospital in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, on the Jackson, Miss., campus. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs speaks about the need for the 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages, as an additional tool to fight the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, on the Jackson, Miss., campus. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Edward Graham, Samaritan's Purse assistant to the vice president of Programs and Government Relations, left, confers with Dr. LouAnn Woodward, University of Mississippi Medical Center vice chancellor, about the placement of the non-denominational evangelical Christian organization's 32-bed Emergency Field Hospital in one of the Medical Center's parking garages, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. The field hospital joins a 20-bed field hospital and monoclonal antibody clinic opened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at UMMC in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

Outside the tents, orange fencing marks the entrance to the "hot zone," where only staff clothed in full PPEtwo pairs of gloves, protective gowns, goggles, hair nets, rubber boots, face coveringscan go. Before staff leave to enter the "clean zone," they must wash with bleach water.

Briefing journalists on Tuesday, the medical center's head, LouAnn Woodward, renewed pleases for people to get vaccinated, noting the health care workforce is exhausted and traumatized. Only 34% of the state's population is fully vaccinated.

Woodward said that while Samaritan's Purse is responding to a natural disaster in Haiti, the situation in Mississippi is a "disaster of our own making."

"We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat, we have failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves," she said.

Explore further Mississippi health system buckles under 'astounding' rise in COVID cases

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
While a life-altering pandemic has caused a substantial uptick in anxiety and depression symptoms among adults and children alike, LGBTQ+ youth have turned to peers in anonymous online discussion forums for support. New research from the University of California, Davis, suggests these LGBTQ+ teenagerswho already experience disproportionate levels of psychological adversityexhibited increased anxiety on the popular r/LGBTeens subreddit throughout 2020 and the start of 2021.

With physical isolation leading to an increase in reliance on digital communication, LGBTQ+ youth used this forum to express emotional distress related to LGBTQ+ discrimination, personal struggles with sexuality, romantic relationships and more.

"While researchers and mental health professionals have closely monitored the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health conditions, few have taken a deep dive into the LGBTQ+ youth population specifically," said Hannah Stevens, a doctoral student in communication and lead author of the paper. It was published today published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance.

Researchers in the Department of Communication analyzed nearly 40,000 subreddit postsa forum dedicated to a specific topic on the website Redditfrom LGBTQ+ youth. They uncovered trends in anxiety, sadness and anger communicated within the messages.

This research revealed that while anger and sadness remained consistent following the start of the pandemic, anxiety increased significantly. Further analysis linked this trend to 10 key conversation topics: attraction to a friend, coming out, coming out to family, discrimination, education, exploring sexuality, gender pronouns, love and relationship advice, starting a new relationship, and struggling with mental health.

Stevens said the combination of these factors, and limited in-person social interactions outside of the home, have resulted in LGBTQ+ youth turning to online support over the past 18 months. "The raw, emotional messages analyzed through this research reveal eye-opening insights into the most prevalent concerns in their daily lives."

The study compared the evolution of conversation topics in the r/LGBTeens subreddit to conversations among the larger population of teenagers. Researchers also plotted the changes in LGBTQ+ emotions over time, which found an unprecedented increase in overall negative emotion during the 2020-21 time period.

"By understanding the root causes of anxiety in LGBTQ+ youth, mental health professionals can better tailor the intervention tactics they employ," Stevens said. "Ultimately, this will result in better mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth."

Explore further More bullying of LGBTQ+ students in politically conservative districts

More information: Hannah R Stevens et al, Natural Language Processing Insight into LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Content Analysis of Anxiety-Provoking Topics and Trends in Emotion in LGBTeens Microcommunity Subreddit, JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (2021). Hannah R Stevens et al, Natural Language Processing Insight into LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Content Analysis of Anxiety-Provoking Topics and Trends in Emotion in LGBTeens Microcommunity Subreddit,(2021). DOI: 10.2196/29029
Graphical abstract. Credit: DOI: 10.1093/function/zqab038

According to a report by the American Psychological Association published in February 2021, 42 percent of American adults reported unintended weight gain since the COVID-19 pandemic began, averaging about 29 pounds.

For those who are still struggling to get back on track with their exercise routine, there is encouraging news: new research from the U of A indicates that prior training of muscles can accelerate muscle growth and response even after extended idleness. Getting back what was lost is likely easier than most people realize.

Kevin Murach, an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation, recently conducted research that supports this. In "Nucleus Type-Specific DNA Methylomics Reveals Epigenetic 'Memory' of Prior Adaptation in Skeletal Muscle," published in the American Physiological Society's flagship journal, Function, Murach and his colleagues found that previously trained muscles in mice responded with more sensitivity, and grew more rapidly, than previously untrained muscles.

Further analysis revealed that the muscles, and specifically the DNA of the muscle cells themselves, retained a kind of cellular memory of previous adaptation to exercise. More technically stated, "Muscle nuclei have a methylation epi-memory of prior training that may augment muscle adaptability to retraining."

Muscle memory in cells

Murach and his team studied the skeletal muscles of mice, which were trained on a progressively weighted wheel over a period of eight weeks to build muscles, then taken off the wheel for 12 weeks, or "detrained."

This was followed by a four-week period of retraining. These mice were then compared against a control group that was only trained for four weeks. Findings indicated that the previously trained cohort saw accelerated gains in muscle growth after retraining when compared to the control group, and that specific epigenetic changes to DNA methylation persisted after the original training.

Murach thinks these findings point to an epigenetic explanation of muscle memory.

To many people, the term "muscle memory" evokes a motor skill, like throwing a Frisbee or riding a bike, that is acquired through repetition and honed to the point it can be done with little conscious thought or effort. But what if muscle memory runs deeper than the nervous system? Murach wants to know if information from previous training can be retained at the cellular level, in the DNA of a muscle cell. This is what he means by an epigenetic explanation.

Murach explained, "Epigenetics is the idea of changing how a cell responds to stimuli (i.e., alters the expression of genes) without altering the genetic code. Cells can respond to things based on DNA without changing the DNA, just changing how it's accessed. You can change the cellular response without changing the genetic code."

In short, when it comes to exercise, a kind of rebound response may be stored in muscle cells at the epigenetic level, which is what his study points to.

Anecdotally, most gym rats know that muscle acquired earlier in life is easier to reacquire than new muscle. Put another way, someone who put on 10 pounds of muscle in college, then lost it when their kids were born, likely finds it much easier to put that muscle back on than someone who never had it to begin with. But anecdotes aren't science, and a single study isn't definitive. Murach is eager to learn more about what is happening on the molecular level.

Murach explained, "understanding the cues that enhance muscle adaptability, specifically those at the epigenetic level, has consequences for healthy gymgoers and athletes, as well as populations susceptible to muscle dysfunction, such as those forced into inactivity as well as aged individuals."

Murach's co-authors included Yuan Wen, Cory M. Dungan, C. Brooks Mobley and Taylor Valentino from the University of Kentucky, and Ferdinand Von Walden from the Karolinksa Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. This is Murach's first paper to be published as a faculty member of the U of A, where he arrived in June of this year and established the Molecular Muscle Mass Regulation Laboratory.

While there is a lot more to be learned about what's happening to muscles on the cellular level, Murach thinks it's safe to conclude "it's better to have worked out and lost muscle, than to have not worked out at all."

So if your exercise routine was disrupted by COVID-19, don't despair. Your cells may be in better shape than you realize.

Explore further Muscles retain positional memory from fetal life

More information: Yuan Wen et al, Nucleus Type-Specific DNA Methylomics Reveals Epigenetic "Memory" of Prior Adaptation in Skeletal Muscle, Function (2021). Yuan Wen et al, Nucleus Type-Specific DNA Methylomics Reveals Epigenetic "Memory" of Prior Adaptation in Skeletal Muscle,(2021). DOI: 10.1093/function/zqab038
(HealthDay)A recall of more than a dozen types of Philips breathing machines because of potential cancer risks has millions of Americans struggling to find replacements to deal with sleep disorders, breathing problems and respiratory emergencies.

The recall involves certain Respironics BiPAP (bi-level positive air pressure), CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) and ventilator machines made before April 26, The New York Times reported.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said earlier this summer that the recalled machines pose risks that could be "life-threatening, cause permanent impairment and require medical intervention."

Polyester-based polyurethane foam that reduces sound and vibration in the machines can break down and result in users breathing in chemicals or swallowing or inhaling black debris, possibly resulting in asthma, skin and respiratory tract irritation and "toxic and carcinogenic effects" to organs including the kidneys and liver, the agency warned.

The FDA has ordered Philips to submit a repair-and-replacement program for the faulty components.

Beyond providing the agency with a plan, Philips must conduct extensive testing and the FDA will then review the data before any machines can be sent to patients.

"We will authorize such a plan as soon as the company provides the agency with sufficient evidence to support the safe and effective mitigation of the product defect, including fixing or replacing the devices patients are currently using," FDA spokeswoman Shirley Simson told the Times.

About 2 million of the recalled machines were in use in the United States, according to Mario Fante, a spokesman for Royal Philips, the parent company of Respironics. That's about half of the total number of units worldwide, the Times reported.

These machines are used at home by some of the estimated 24 million Americans with obstructive sleep apnea. Customers with recalled machines should register their products and consult their doctors, Philips advised.

The company is working "expeditiously" but is "not able to provide an immediate solution," Fante told the Times.

Philips is "already producing repair kits and replacement devices in large quantities" of about 55,000 units a week that have not yet been approved for shipping, he said.

The company isn't taking orders for sleep therapy devices for new patients, Fante added.

Explore further Philips takes profit hit from product safety fault

More information: Visit the Mayo Clinic for more on Visit the Mayo Clinic for more on CPAP machines.

Copyright  2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Identification of circURI1. Credit: WANG Xiaolin

Recently, researchers led by Prof. Lin Wenchu from the High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. Shan Ge and Associate Prof. Hu Shanshan from the University of Science and Technology of China, proposed an elegant mechanism that one circRNA, called circURI1, exerted an anti-metastatic effect through sequestering hnRNPM to modulate alternative splicing in Gastric cancer (GC). This is the first reported association between circRNA and alternative splicing. The work was published in PNAS.

GC is the fifth most common malignant tumor and the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide, largely due to the presence of metastatic spread in patients. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of natural covalent closed single-stranded RNA molecules, which have emerged as key regulators of human cancers, yet their modes of action in GC remain obscure.

The researchers performed GC circRNA profiling and identified circURI1 with higher expressions in GC compared to the corresponding non-tumor tissues. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function studies revealed that circURI1 repressed cell migration and invasion in vitro and GC metastasis in vivo.

Mechanistically, circURI1 behaved as a decoy of hnRNPM in a sequence-dependent manner to modulate alternative splicing of a subset of genes related to cell migration, thus suppressing GC metastasis.

This study provides a new perspective on the molecular basis of cancer metastasis by circRNAs, and suggests that circURI1 as a potential target for diagnosis and treatment in gastric cancer.

CircURI1 suppresses cell invasion and gastric cancer metastasis. Credit: WANG Xiaolin

Explore further Researchers develop interactive database for translatable circular RNAs based on multi-omics evidence

More information: Xiaolin Wang et al, CircURI1 interacts with hnRNPM to inhibit metastasis by modulating alternative splicing in gastric cancer, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Xiaolin Wang et al, CircURI1 interacts with hnRNPM to inhibit metastasis by modulating alternative splicing in gastric cancer,(2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2012881118
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The World Health Organization condemned Wednesday the rush by wealthy countries to provide COVID vaccine booster shots, while millions around the world have yet to receive a single dose.

Speaking before US authorities announced that all vaccinated Americans would soon be eligible to receive additional doses, WHO experts insisted there was not enough scientific evidence that boosters were needed.

Providing them while so many were still waiting to be immunised was immoral, they argued.

"We're planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we're leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket," WHO's emergency director Mike Ryan told reporters, speaking from the UN agency's Geneva headquarters.

"The fundamental, ethical reality is we're handing out second life jackets while leaving millions and millions of people without anything to protect them."

Earlier this month, the WHO called for a moratorium on COVID vaccine booster shots to help ease the drastic inequity in dose distribution between rich and poor nations.

That has not stopped a number of countries moving forward with plans to add a third jab, as they struggle to thwart the Delta variant.

First shot 'critical'

US authorities, warning that COVID-19 vaccination efficacy was decreasing over time, said Wednesday they had authorised booster shots for all Americans from September 20. They will start eight months after an individual has been fully vaccinated.

While the vaccines remain "remarkably effective" in reducing the risk of severe disease, said officials, hospitalisation and death from the effects of COVID, protection could diminish in the months ahead without boosted immunisation.

Washington had already authorised an extra dose for people with weakened immune systems.

Israel has also begun administering third doses to Israelis aged 50 and over.

But WHO experts insisted that the science was still out on boosters and stressed that ensuring that people in low-income countries where vaccination is lagging received jabs was far more important.

"What is clear is that it's critical to get first shots into arms and protect the most vulnerable before boosters are rolled out," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told Wednesday's press conference.

"The divide between the haves and have nots will only grow larger if manufacturers and leaders prioritise booster shots over supply to low- and middle-income countries," he said.

'Shame on all humanity'

Tedros voiced outrage at reports that the single-dose J&J vaccine currently being finished in South Africa was being shipped for use in Europe "where virtually all adults have been offered vaccines at this point".

"We urge J&J to urgently prioritise distribution of their vaccines to Africa before considering supplies to rich countries that already have sufficient access," he said.

"Vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity and if we don't tackle it together, we will prolong the acute stage of this pandemic for years when it could be over in a matter of months."

South African NGOs have denounced the shipments from South Africa as "vaccine apartheid" when less than two percent of 1.3 billion Africans have been fully vaccinated so far.

"Millions of doses" produced there have been exported since March to Europe and the United States, several NGOs said in a statement Tuesday.

"J&J are complicit in vaccine apartheid, diverting doses from those who really need them to the wealthiest countries on earth," Fatima Hassan, of the South African NGO Health Justice Initiative, told AFP.

"It's colonialist extraction, plain and simple," said Hassan.

Doses are assembled and packaged in South Africa by the pharmaceutical giant Aspen in Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth.

"Global allocation of vaccines is currently not being made by public health officials but instead by a handful of company officials, who consistently prioritise Europeans and North Americans over Africans," said Dr. Matthew Kavanagh of the Health Law Institute at Georgetown University.

Explore further France to offer COVID booster shots to elderly, vulnerable from September

 2021 AFP
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Healthcare workers have been gradually coming around to COVID-19 vaccines, with one-third more people vaccinated since earlier in the year, but 27 percent of them are still unvaccinated, and 15 percent of the unvaccinated group are firmly opposed to immunizations. More healthcare employers may be pressured to mandate immunizations to stave off contagious Delta variant infections.

"The fact that 27 percent of staff in healthcare facilities are currently unvaccinated poses a significant risk to vulnerable patients, which will likely exacerbate outbreaks in healthcare settings," according to the study from the COVID States Project, a collaborative effort by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers.

Long-term nursing facilities across the United States have responded to the Delta outbreak by mandating vaccines or even firing workers who don't get their shots. In some places, staff have also resigned in protest of the requirement.

"The Delta variant is so contagious that you have outbreaks in healthcare facilities that are driven by non-vaccinated workers, but then spreads to vulnerable patients as well," says David Lazer, university distinguished professor of political science and computer sciences at Northeastern, and one of the researchers who conducted the study.

"In places where you have lots of healthcare workers who are not vaccinated and there haven't been mandates, it's going to be like lots of tightly-packed dominoes where you knock one over and it's going to create these big waves of infections," he explains.

Texas, for example, doesn't require nursing home residents or staff to be vaccinated. The number of nursing homes across the state with at least one active COVID-19 case increased nearly 800 percent in the past month. Nearly half of nursing home employees in Texas remain unvaccinated.

Massachusetts, meanwhile, requires all staff in long-term care facilities to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 10. The mandate marked Gov. Charlie Baker's first order to require vaccination in any private or public workforce.

Healthcare employees surveyed in the Northeastern study are a large and heterogeneous group that includes dental hygienists, nurses, and neurosurgeons. The early summer study looked at about 1,500 of them and compared their vaccination behavior to a much larger pool of more than 20,000 people in the general population.

"They have been in every way predictive of what happened with non-healthcare workers subsequently," says Lazer.

His study found that healthcare industry personnel initially had higher vaccination rates than others because they had first access to vaccines, but as time went on and vaccines became more widespread, that gap narrowed. Non-healthcare workers are slowly catching up. It now stands at 73 percent of healthcare workers being vaccinated compared to 64 percent of the general public, according to the study.

Researchers also discovered that vaccination attitudes among healthcare workers and the general public moved in lockstep for more than a year between the summer of 2020 and the start of 2021. In February of 2021, healthcare workers' resistance to the vaccine declined by 10 points compared to only six points for everyone else. The findings were promising news, researchers noted.

"This drop might be a hopeful sign that vaccine resistance attitudes among non-healthcare workers will drop in the coming months as well," they wrote.

Some of that resistance may fall by the wayside as mandates kick in and employers require immunizations. Unwilling employees could lose their jobs entirely or be kept away from patients, says Lazer.

"Is vaccine resistance dropping because mandates are pushing some of the vaccine resistant to get vaccinated?" he asks. "That's something we may find out later when we go through the data."

Prior Northeastern studies have found growing public support of vaccine mandates since the start of 2021.

More than 82 percent of nursing home patients were vaccinated as of early August, compared to 60 percent of the staff, according to national data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. More than 130,000 elderly people in nursing homes have died from COVID-19.

As of July 2021, when the most recent Northeastern survey was conducted, researchers found that the vaccine preferences of healthcare workers was settling into two oppositesthose either already vaccinated or those explicitly refusing to get the vaccine.

As more people get immunized, many who were in the "wait and see" category have been getting vaccinated, leaving a "hardcore" group of the unvaccinated, the survey found.

Researchers' initial thoughts when they began studying healthcare workers could have gone either way. One possibility was that, given the nature of these workers' jobs and their willingness to help the sick, they would automatically become vaccination evangelists.

"That's a totally reasonable hypothesis, but that's not what we see in the data," says Lazer. The data point to "cynicism that results from seeing too much how the sausage is made." In other words, workers who are lower in the hierarchy of the health system are skeptical about the benevolence of the healthcare system in general.

"They're differently situated in terms of the information about the value of the vaccine," Lazer explains, and "they may have concrete reasons to be skeptical of medical elites."

Explore further Largest operator of nursing homes in U.S. issues vaccine mandate for all workers

More information: The report is available online: The report is available online: news.northeastern.edu/uploads/COVID19 %20CONSORTIUM%20REPORT%2062%20HCW%20August%202021.pdf
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Areas of high socioeconomic disadvantaged are being worst hit by shortages of GPs, a trend that is only worsening with time and is likely to widen pre-existing health inequalities, say researchers at the University of Cambridge.

In a study published today in the BJGP Open, a team from the University of Cambridge looked at the relationship between shortages in the healthcare workforce and levels of deprivation. The team found significantly fewer full time equivalent (FTE) GPs per 10,000 patients in practices within areas of higher levels of deprivation. This inequality has widened slightly over time. By December 2020, there were on average 1.4 fewer FTE GPs per 10,000 patients in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas.

The same was the case for total direct patient care staff (all patient-facing general practice staff excluding GPs and nurses), with 1.5 fewer FTE staff per 10,000 patients in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas.

The lower GP numbers in deprived areas, was compensated, in part, by more nurses.

The analysis used data captured between September 2015 and December 2020 from the NHS Digital General Practice Workforce collection. They compared this workforce data against practice population sizes and levels of deprivation across England.

In addition to their report, the team have today launched an interactive dashboard that maps local-level primary care workforce inequalities to accompany the national-level analysis done in the paper. Clear local-level inequalities in GP distribution can be seen within West, North and East Cumbria, Humber, Coast and Vale, and Coventry and Warwickshire STP (Sustainability and Transformation Plan) areas, among others.

Workforce shortages, especially in primary care, have been a problem for health care systems for some time now, and the gap between the growing demand for services and sufficient staff has been widening. Although the number of consultations in general practice has been increasing, staff numbers have not kept up with demand. The number of GPs relative to the size of population has been decreasing since 2009, and the GP workforce is ageing. Doctors are increasingly working part-time, which suggests that shortages will grow steadily worse.

In 2015, then-Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt promised an additional 5,000 GPs for the NHS by 2020, but this was not achieved. Instead, it is predicted that there will be a shortage of 7,000 GPs by 2024.

Dr. John Ford from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, the study's senior author, said: "People who live in disadvantaged regions of England are not only more likely to have long-term health problems, but are likely to find it even more difficult to see a GP and experience worse care when they see a GP. This is just one aspect of how disadvantage accumulates for some people leading to poor health and early death.

"There may be some compensation due to increasing number of other health professionals, which may partially alleviate the undersupply of GPs in more socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. But this is not a like-for-like replacement and it is unlikely to be enough."

The researchers say there are a number of reasons that may account for why GP workforce shortages disproportionately affect practices in areas of higher deprivation. Previous studies have suggested that the primary driver of GP inequality was the opening and closing of practices in more disadvantaged areas, with practice closures increasing in recent years.

Claire Nussbaum, the study's first author, added: "The government has made reducing health inequalities a core commitment, but this will be challenging with the increasing shortage of GPs in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage, where health needs are greatest. The primary care staffing inequalities we observed are especially concerning, as they suggest that access to care is becoming increasingly limited where health needs are greatest.

"Addressing barriers to health care access is even more urgent in the context of COVID-19, which has widened pre-existing health and social inequities."

The researchers say that the imbalance in recruitment of staff within primary care must be addressed by policymakers, who will need to consider why practices and networks in disadvantaged areas are relatively under-staffed, and how this can be reversed. Potential options include increased recruitment to medical school from disadvantaged areas, incentivisation of direct patient care posts in under-staffed areas, enhanced training offers for these roles, and offering practices and networks in under-staffed areas additional recruitment support.

Expanded use of additional roles under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, designed to provide financial reimbursement for Primary Care Networks to build workforce capacity, may partially alleviate GP workload in overstretched practices, but the report's authors argue that there is a risk that additional workforce will gravitate to more affluent areas, further perpetuating inequity in primary care staffing.

Dr. James Matheson, a GP at Hill Top Surgery in Oldham, said: "People living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas shoulder a much higher burden of physical and mental health problems but have less access to the GPs who could support them towards better health. For the primary care teams looking after them this means a greater workload with fewer resourcesa burnout risk which can further exacerbate the problem.

"General Practice in disadvantaged areas is challenging but also enjoyable and professionally rewarding but now, more than ever, we need to see a more equitable distribution of workforce and resources to ensure it is sustainable."

Explore further More primary care physicians could mean gains in life expectancy, fewer deaths

More information: Claire Nussbaum et al, Inequalities in the distribution of the general practice workforce in England: a practice-level longitudinal analysis, BJGP Open (2021). Claire Nussbaum et al, Inequalities in the distribution of the general practice workforce in England: a practice-level longitudinal analysis,(2021). DOI: 10.3399/BJGPO.2021.0066
THE PHILIPPINES has extended the travel ban on travelers from India and nine other countries until August 15 to prevent the further spread...
HOUSTON  At least four school districts in Texas have closed campuses due to coronavirus outbreaks early in the new school year.

The shutdowns are taking place as more districts and communities are requiring students and residents to wear face coverings indoors, defying Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on mask mandates.

The school district in Gorman in North Texas had been set to begin the school year Wednesday but is delaying that by a week. Campus shutdowns also were announced Tuesday by the districts in the East Texas towns of Bloomburg and Waskom.

Those moves came a day after the Iraan-Sheffield district in West Texas closed its schools for two weeks.

Mask wearing was optional in these four school districts. At least 21 other districts, including some of the states biggest, have instituted mask mandates, which are in violation of Abbotts executive order banning such measures.



MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  West Virginia University is requiring masks to be worn in classrooms and labs for the next 30 days, saying not enough students and employees have submitted proof of vaccination against the coronavirus.
This type of bipartisan leadership you demonstrated, Sen. Tester, in working to be an author of this major infrastructure bill. And truly working across the aisle is exactly what I believe an overwhelming majority of Montanans want, Vanatta said. We are tired of divisive politics. We are tired of name calling and blame games, and we're ready for our elected officials to lead us as they were hired to do. You and many other senators from both sides of the aisle did just that in this infrastructure bill.

The City of Billings has $6 billion of infrastructure to take care of, said Debi Mehling, the citys public works director.

Acknowledging that our citizens pay for water, sewer, storm drain, road, all of the infrastructure, it's a substantial part of their monthly expenses. Mehling said. So anytime there's an infrastructure bill like this, or help from the federal government, or the state level, it's a direct impact to our citizens.

Tester said the water projects in the infrastructure bill in particular were going to be important for Montanas future. There was $300 million in the bill to complete three large drinking water projects serving several hundred miles of Hi-Line communities, including three American Indian reservations.
 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says Southeast Asia is battling the worlds highest COVID-19 death toll, driven by the delta variant and unequal distribution of vaccines. Southeast Asia recorded 38,522 deaths from COVID-19 in the last two weeks, nearly twice as many as North America, it says, citing data from John Hopkins University. Seven of the top 10 countries where COVID-19 deaths have doubled the fastest are in Asia and the Pacific, with Vietnam, Fiji and Myanmar in the top five, according to Our World in Data. Its Asia Pacific director Alexander Matheou called Wednesday for richer countries to urgently share their excess vaccine doses with Southeast Asian nations to curb record surge in infections and deaths in the region. It said vaccine companies and governments also need to share technology and scale up production to help ramp up low vaccination rate in the region. While the United Kingdom, Canada and Spain have fully vaccinated over 60% of their population, it said Southeast Asian nations are falling far behind. Malaysia has fully vaccinated 34% of its population, Indonesia and Philippines close to 11% and Vietnam less than 2%. Matheou said each country must aim for mass vaccination rates of 70%-80% for the world to overcome the pandemic.
Many have wondered what these quarantine hotels are like  and how those of us cloistered inside pass the time during those 14 days.

After landing in Sydney, we were welcomed by friendly local health officials who ushered us through customs and baggage collection and then onto the bus, where the jovial police officer ran through what to expect over the next two weeks. We were checked into the hotel one at a time, and then finally  three hours after landing  I walked into my room.

I was lucky enough to be placed in a one-bedroom apartment with every luxury included  a washing machine, two TVs and a kitchen. A friend dropped off gym equipment for me, and I rented an exercise bike to try and meet some fitness goals.

The provided meals are the biggest challenge. After two weeks of convenience store food in Japan, the grim, plastic-wrapped meals that arrive three times a day arent a whole lot better. The meals vary daily, but there is no choice.

My savior has been my wife, who every few days has delivered some great food and wine (we are allowed one bottle per day  more than enough for me!). Her deliveries have made my time here bearable.
If that werent enough to demonstrate just how out-of-touch Regier is, he goes on to blame the Biden administration for limiting the amount of oil and gas produced in Montana and for eliminating hundreds of jobs  something he and his allies wish could be true for the sake of political leverage, but simply isnt.

The truth is, this administration has done nothing to limit the amount of gas produced on public land in Montana. It hasnt had to, because oil and gas executives are doing it themselves. Thats right: If anyone or anything is responsible for the fact that no drills are operating on public lands in Montana today, its the industry.

According to data from the Bureau of Land Management, oil and gas companies are sitting on nearly 800 already approved permits to drill on public lands, but currently not using any of them, even though market conditions are quite favorable. That means the companies could drill now, but theyve chosen not to. And thats largely been the case for the last 10 years. Between 2011 and 2020, leases covering over 1.6 million acres of public lands expired without resulting in a single job or any return on public investment.
Months later, when we actually reached our goal, our first response was a rush of elation and a sense of completion and achievement, Jennings said. After this initial emotion, I personally experienced a feeling of pride in the communitys showing of gratitude toward our killed in action veterans and their families. Without the peoples support, both financially and their passion toward honoring those killed in action, this memorial would never have come to fruition.

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The group submitted its design to several monument companies and received bids for the work. The committee chose Blue Ridge Monuments of Marion to create and install the monument.

Then committee members made sure they had all of the names of the soldiers who were killed in the line of duty.

The Department of Defense maintains a registry of all U.S. military members killed in action, Jennings said. We extracted the names of those from North Carolina, then through many hours of research and interviews with local residents, family survivors, church and court records, we singled out the Burke County residents.

The committee negotiated with city and county leaders to find a prominent spot for the monument in downtown Morganton.
Early treatment with these monoclonal antibodies  Regeneron and others  have proven to radically reduce the chances that somebody ends up being hospitalized, DeSantis said Monday at a treatment site in Orlando. Reducing hospital admissions has got to be a top priority.

Experts agree that keeping people out of the hospital is a top priority, but say vaccines  not treatments for people after they get sick  are the best way to do that. The Regeneron drugs, when given within 10 days of initial symptoms, have been shown to cut rates of hospitalization and death by roughly 70%. The vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. have been proven in large, real-world studies to be 95% effective against hospitalization.

We definitely need treatments like monoclonal antibodies that can prevent mild disease from progressing to severe disease. Ultimately, its still best to prevent someone from contracting COVID-19 in the first place, said Dr. Leana Wen, public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore Health Commissioner. Monoclonal antibodies are not prevention.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and is receiving Regeneron treatments. Like DeSantis, he has been opposed to mask mandates in public schools. He was vaccinated in December.
Turkey is already home to some 4 million migrants  most of them Syrians refugees who fled the civil war in the neighboring country. Anti-migration sentiment is already running high in the country as it grapples with economic woes - including high unemployment - that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Video images circulating on social media over the past months have shown groups of young men allegedly arriving in Turkey from Iran. Some media reported that up to 1,000 migrants have been crossing the border with Iran every day.

Opposition parties have been calling on the government to take control of the borders and prevent a new migration surge.

They have also warned against any new migration agreement between Turkey and Western nations like the one Ankara reached with the EU in 2016. Under that deal, Ankara agreed to prevent the flow of migrants to Europe while the EU for its part promised, among other things, to send billions of Euros to Turkey for the Syrian refugees.

The main opposition party has also claimed that Erdogan struck a secret deal with U.S. President Joe Biden under which Turkey would accept Afghans who had worked with U.S. forces. The U.S. Embassy released a statement on Wednesday saying the claims are completely without foundation.
Smith has pleaded not guilty to the charges. A trial was set for the end of this month, but in the meantime, the county attorney, Leo Gallagher, received a July 26 letter from Knudsen's office, citing the AG's statutory authority over county attorneys and ordering him to deliver all the files in the Smith case to the AG's office and to "take no action" in the case "without first consulting the Department of Justice."

When Gallagher contacted the AG's office early this month, saying as per instruction he had done nothing yet to prepare for Smith's trial, he was ultimately informed that the AG's office had completed a review of the case, and then he was ordered to dismiss the gun-related charges against Smith.

Gallagher replied that he "cannot in good conscience move to dismiss these counts and comply with my oath of office." He then asked that the Department of Justice assume the case.

The Attorney General's Office told Gallagher he was free to prosecute if he wished on the other counts.

But Hoovestal has told the court that he and the Attorney General's Office are "engaged in settlement negotiations. It is anticipated that these settlement negotiations will be successful and that a trial will be unnecessary."
"The letters took about a week to get back and forth. We didn't know if we were every going to meet each other," Moss said. "I called over to the hospital and asked if they could have visitors, and, they said, 'Oh, yes.'"

Moss traveled five or six miles to the hospital and spent part of the day with Stevens, who was touched that Moss took the time to visit him. He almost couldn't fathom the fact that he was face to face with someone from Sioux City, being that he was more than 8,000 miles from home.

"To have somebody from Sioux City, Iowa, come to visit you, it was almost like family," Stevens said.

Moss said he tried to make another trip to the hospital before Stevens was released, but he said the bridge was closed off, so he couldn't cross over. Stevens returned to the states. He said he received a steak dinner from the military, but no counseling services. He repressed his feelings and tried to forget the war.

"When I got back to the United States and I was laying on a bench in Denver, two policemen came up to me and, with their baton, hit the bottom of my feet, and said, 'Get the hell out of my airport.' That was my welcome home," Stevens recalled. "Nobody appreciated us, so, when I got home, I took off my uniform, never talked about it again and, basically, just tried to forget everything that took place."
Case study 1 - On Environmental Interest

In 1985 an engineering firm, approached construction company Transfield with an idea for a car tunnel to cross Sydney Harbour. The Sydney Harbour Bridge suffered traffic congestion at peak hours and the Tunnel would provide an alternative route between North Sydney and the City Business District (CBD). Transfield joined with the Japanese firm Kumagai Gumi to form a consortium that then sold the idea of a toll-financed tunnel, which they would build, to the Department of Main Roads. The Minister for Main Roads was particularly keen on the idea.

Before approval could be given to the Tunnel an environmental impact statement (EIS) had to be prepared. An EIS, which is required by law in New South Wales (NSW) for major road proposals, is supposed to provide a justification for the project, a detailed assessment of the potential environmental effects of the project and consider other alternatives. The aim of an EIS is to ensure that development decisions take account of and where possible mitigate environmental impacts. Transfield-Kumagai hired engineering consultants Cameron McNamarra to prepare the EIS on their behalf.

In Australia there has been a progressive loss of faith in the environmental impact assessment process. Communities likely to be affected by proposed engineering projects such as freeways, chemical plants and waste facilities are often disappointed to find that EISs are not the independent, objective assessment of environmental impacts that they expected. Increasingly such documents are being viewed by the local residents as sales documents for the project and the engineers who prepare them as mouthpieces for the proponents. Subconsultants working on EISs have also become concerned that their findings are edited and selectively reported in the final document.

The Harbour Tunnel EIS, as in most cases, supported the project and argued that there would be no adverse environmental effects. However, in this case the consultants were accused of breaching the Engineering Code of Ethics, by North Sydney Municipal Council and the Society for Social Responsibility in Engineering, for not putting the public interest first. These organisations made representations to the Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust) alleging that the consultants had overestimated the benefits and underestimated the environmental costs of the Tunnel project. John Gerofi, an engineer who conducted an inquiry into the tunnel proposal for the Council, stated that; "The inquiry can find no rational explanation as to why competent and respected consultants employing professional engineers and other qualified staff would have produced an EIS with so many questionable assumptions which favoured the project, and with so many deficiencies."

The Institution never proceeded with an investigation of the engineering consultants who authored the Harbour Tunnel EIS. Bill Rourke, the Institution's chief executive at the time, said that it had not been given evidence that constituted a prima facie case against any individual member of the Institution. The North Sydney Council decided not to assemble a case against individuals. Gerofi later stated in a letter to Engineers Australia, that "the defamation laws, plus a lack of resources and a reluctance to accuse individuals will prevent all but the most blatant ethical transgressions from being raised" if the Institution continues to confine its attention to individuals.

This case raises various questions about ethics, engineering and the environment. Answer following:

Highlight conflict between self-interest, employer interest, professional interest and public interest. What is Ethical Behaviour in This Situation? Does a favourable interpretation of the data consist of unethical conduct? Is it fair to single out individual engineers who are doing the job as their employers require them to and who are not acting very differently from other engineers in similar positions? Can the environment be protected by ethical conduct?

Case Study 2 - Leaking Waste Containers

ABC's chemical waste is stored in a warehouse at an off-site location. While inspecting the warehouse, engineer Scott Lewis notices several leaking drums. He calls Tom Treehorn, head of ABC's Division of Chemical Waste. Tom responds, "I'll be right over with a crew to bring the leaking drums over here." Scott points out that the law forbids returning chemical waste to the "home" site. Tom replies, "I know, but I don't have any confidence in the off-site folks handling this. We know how to handle this best. It might not be the letter of the law, but our handling it captures its spirit."

Scott believes that Tom Treehorn is serious about preventing environmental problems -- especially those that might be caused by ABC. Still, he knows that the Environmental Protection Agency will be upset if it finds out about Tom's way of dealing with the problem; and if anything goes wrong, ABC could get into serious legal difficulties. After all, he thinks, ABC is not a waste disposal facility.

Answer following question :

What is Ethical Behaviour in This Situation? What should Scott do at this point? Give reasoning in support of your answer. Do you agree that they chose the proper course of action?

Although he isn't sure they are doing the right thing, Scott says nothing further to Tom and helps him load the leaking drums onto the truck for their return to ABC. The chemical waste is disposed of on the ABC site, with no apparent complications.

In further justification of his actions Tom points out to Scott that ABC also saved a lot of money by taking care of the problem themselves rather than having to pay someone else to dispose of the chemicals.

Answer following questions:

If Scott says nothing, and help Tom with his plan, does a favourable interpretation of the data consist of unethical conduct? Yes, or No, Justify your answer. Do you agree that they chose the proper course of action? In general term, according to professional Society codes of ethics, what action should be taken by Tom and Scott?

It is now several years later. Tom Treehorn has retired and moved to Florida. Scott Lewis left ABC shortly after he discovered the chemical leaks in the warehouse. He is now a senior engineer in a company in a nearby city. He is startled by a front page story in the press. ABC is being charged with contaminating the groundwater in the community surrounding ABC. The paper claims there is substantial evidence that ABC had for years violated the law by dumping waste materials on site. Tom Treehorn is mentioned as the main person who was in charge of overseeing the handling of chemical waste during the years of most flagrant violation. Those years included the short time Scott spent at ABC. A local group of citizens has started a class action suit against ABC.

Answer following questions
A Facebook Inc. executive said the company is proactively removing content from its platforms that promotes the Taliban as the group seizes power in Afghanistan.

The Taliban is on the companys list of dangerous organizations and therefore any content promoting or representing the group is banned, Adam Mosseri, head of Facebooks photo-sharing app Instagram, said Monday during a Bloomberg Television interview.

We are relying on that policy to proactively take down anything that we can that might be dangerous or that is related to the Taliban in general, Mosseri said.

Now this situation is evolving rapidly, and with it Im sure the risk will evolve as well. We are going to have to modify what we do and how we do it to respond to those changing risks as they happen.

Thousands of people are seeking to flee Afghanistan after Taliban fighters took control of the capital of Kabul. The U.S. said Monday it was taking steps to secure the airport and evacuate American citizens, as well as locally employed staff and their families.

The move came after American-backed President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the Taliban said it would soon declare a new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after seizing the presidential palace.

The Taliban uses social media to mobilize support, said Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and co-author of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media.

The decisions that are made by Facebook and Twitter in the next couple of days will have a direct impact on the lives on the many people who find themselves under the Talibans rule, Brooking said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Now read: Big changes for Facebook privacy and security settings
Private security firms like Fidelity are ready to support the South African Police Service (SAPS) if there is another outbreak of public violence.

Wahl Bartmann, CEO of Fidelity Services Group, said his national Joint Operations Centre (JOC), which was set up during the devastating riots in July, is liaising closely with all the relevant authorities.

Bartmann was responding to MyBroadbands questions regarding the Netwerk24 report that insurrectionists are planning an attack for Monday, 23 August.

A document from intelligence officials reportedly stated that instigators are agitating for rioters to acquire firearms and ammunition through targeted attacks.

These attacks will be aimed at police stations, military bases, and other premises where law enforcement officials work.

The masterminds behind the attack have also encouraged people to take firearms from law enforcement officials and security officers.

Other targets include state, municipal, and police vehicles.

Citing sources, Netwerk24 reported that intelligence officials received information there were plans to take over national keypoints and make the country ungovernable as part of a campaign dubbed #RamaphosaShutDown.

The masterminds behind the campaign also reportedly told rioters to target correctional service facilities to free prisoners.

Police and the security industry are taking the threats seriously and have plans in place to thwart the attacks.

A national order has been issued that no police officer may work alone and that all officers must wear bulletproof vests, including those working in charging offices at police stations.

Another document from the head of visible policing in the Western Cape issued several directives to police leaders in the province.

These included the deployment of additional units, the tightening of entry controls, and making alternative transport arrangements for officers who usually rely on public transport.

We saw in July that it is impossible for SAPS to effectively control the looting and damage without support from other security providers, Bartmann told MyBroadband.

He said they saw how Fidelitys standard operating procedure of real-time escalations of threats, mobilisation of forces, and threat analysis reports proved effective during the Free Zuma protests.

[These] could prove highly beneficial for any future widespread violence and protests, Bartmann stated.

Bartmann confirmed that his teams have been working with customers on several different contingency plans to manage any future unrest.

Should the unconfirmed news of a second wave of riots materialise, Fidelity will place helicopter pilots on standby and be ready to deploy its anti-riot resources  including manpower and armoured personnel carriers.

We have the capacity to allocate additional staff to the JOC compliment to assist with risk analysis, as well as to assist with recovery efforts through air and ground support, in conjunction with the SAPS, said Bartmann.

In a worst-case scenario, the teams can help with the distribution of food and fuel.

[Our] JOC is continuously liaising with our intelligence resource networks gathering concrete information related to the possible second-wave of riots and will report immediately if any threats are received, Bartmann assured.

Now read: Zuma hospitalised for surgeries
Merkel says that Germany is trying to establish contact with Taliban

Digest: More on COVID-19 in Armenia, armed robbery takes place in Yerevan

Russia FM calls on Azerbaijan to unconditionally release Armenian POWs

Russias Lavrov: Rhetoric of both sides of Karabakh conflict needs to be moderated

Armenias Mirzoyan: We will respect Afghanistan peoples choice

Armenia FM: No negotiations on peace agreement with Azerbaijan underway

Eurasian Development Bank wants to become one of largest creditors of Armenia economy

Armenia Investigative Committee: Man found dead with gunshot wound inside car in Yerevan

Lavrov: In talks with Armenia FM we will separately discuss Nagorno-Karabakh situation

Opposition MP: Positive signals being exchanged with Turkey are new trap for Armenia

Armenia FM: Tense situation in region is consequence of Azerbaijan's destructive policy

ECtHR ruling: Ambassador to Sweden, Iceland to get compensation from Armenia government

Armenia, Russia FMs hold tete-a-tete meeting

Armenia ex-president Kocharyan, former deputy PM Gevorgyan case court hearing not held

Ombudsman: Azerbaijan MOD aims to cover up their criminal acts against Armenia civilian population

Fallen soldiers family stages protest outside Armenia government building

No electricity in court where Armenia 2nd president Kocharyan, ex-deputy PM Gevorgyan criminal case is heard

Armenia ex-president Kocharyan, former deputy PM Gevorgyan criminal case court hearing resumes

524 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

OSCE Minsk Group new Russian Co-Chair visits Azerbaijan

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37,000 first-graders start school in Armenia

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Some 30,000 people evacuated in California due to wildfires

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Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to cause rift among parliament opposition factions, MPs

Armenia PM goes on short vacation

UN Security Council adopts Afghanistan resolution

Pentagon announces US completion of evacuation out of Kabul airport

Armenia ombudsman reaffirms Azerbaijan soldiers deliberate starting fire near Sotk, Kut villages of Gegharkunik

Ukraine and Armenia to cooperate in attracting investments

Armenian Ministry of Education and French Embassy sign cooperation agreement

Israeli Defense Minister meets with the President of Palestine

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Opposition Armenia Faction MP summoned to Special Investigation Service

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FM: Armenian captives in Azerbaijan are subjected to torture

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Health ministry: 275,138 people so far vaccinated in Armenia against coronavirus

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The operations at Armenias Sotk gold mine, which were suspended since Tuesday due another provocation by the Azerbaijani armed forces, have resumed Wednesday morning. Ruzanna Grigoryan, a representative of GeoProMining Gold company which operates this mine, informed Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.

"The work started at 8am. Due to safety, the second shift did not work yesterday," Grigoryan said.

She added that the situation is calm at the moment.

The workers of this mine have been evacuated for the past two days because of Azerbaijani shootings in Gegharkunik Province of Armenia.

The situation was aggravated in the Gegharkunik part of the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, as Azerbaijan had again resorted to provocation, opening fire on Armenian positions.
YEREVAN.  At Wednesdays regular Cabinet meeting of the government of the Republic of Armenia (RA), Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented the government's action plan for 2021-2026.

He said that this program consists of these six sections: security and foreign policy, economy, infrastructure development, human capital development, law and justice, and institutional development.

Also, Pashinyan quoted the text of this program's preface.

He noted that this program of the government is based on the commitments undertaken before the RA citizens during the ruling Civil Contract Partys election campaign for the June 20 snap parliamentary elections, the pre-election promises given to them, and the strategy of Armenia's transformation until 2050.

"The snap elections of 2021 showed the irreversibility of democratic processes in the RA. These were already the second consecutive national elections that were highly praised by the international community. The snap elections of 2021 were of exceptional importance for public solidarity, restoration. The atmosphere of public and political unrest that started in November 2020 was overcome by the election results. Many external and internal challenges threatening the RA remain unresolved. The severe consequences of the 44-day [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war [last fall] have significantly changed Armenia's external environment, not only exacerbating a number of pre-existing challenges, but also bringing new ones. The protection of Armenia's external security, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the fair solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the creation of a favorable regional and international atmosphere around Armenia continue to be a priority. The government, which received a vote from the people to solve this problem, intends to take serious measures to unite the best public and national potential, the Armenian PM stated.

According to Pashinyan, the establishment of national unity based on the rule of law and rights, mutual respect, ruling out of hate speech and words degrading the dignity is one of the priority tasks of the government. "The misunderstanding of democracy as fertile ground for permissiveness and impunity poses serious threats to the legal order, public safety, the rule of law and right," he added.

The Prime Minister noted that opening the era of peaceful development for Armenia and the region is nevertheless the biggest mission undertaken by the government before the people as a result of the snap elections. "The government realizes that the solution of this problem does not depend only on the Republic of Armenia, but also on the attitude and desire of other countries in the region. The RA government assumes its share of what to do and responsibility to open an era of peaceful development for the region, the premier added.

Nikol Pashinyan said that the process of reforming the Armenian armed forces has started and is going on in Armenia to a great extent. "The reformed armed forces shall be the main factor in ensuring our external security," the PM added.

He stressed that the next key factor in ensuring security is an active foreign policy. "Armenia shall pursue an active and proactive foreign policy, working to have effective working relations with all countries and international organizations," Pashinyan said.

Referring to foreign policy, the premier stated: "An important factor is the Armenian-Russian strategic alliance and the RAs membership in the CSTO. The formation of a stable regional environment and the unblocking of regional infrastructures were emphasized. This is an innovation because in our foreign policy directions we give a special place to our regional foreign policy. We emphasize the role of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and clarifying the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh. The full restoration of the peace process in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is an essential factor for regional stability. The [Armenian] government's program has formulated a certain positioning on the July 29 statement of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. We have formulated our program in such a way that it be maximally equivalent to the calls of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the resumption of the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process," Pashinyan noted.

The Armenian PM said that the next direction of ensuring security is the formation of a stable system of national security bodies. "We have been talking for a long time about the reforms of the National Security Service and the national security system. Our plan is that in the near future the RA border troops will receive more precincts from the RA armed forces; that is, the territories will be expanded. In this respect, the border troops shall be expanded, transformed, reformed. This expresses our intention and goal to advance the peaceful regional agenda. Usually the border guards take on responsibility for the areas that are considered non-warthat is, peacefulzone. A foreign intelligence service will be established in Armenia over the next five years," the Armenian PM concluded.
YEREVAN.  The 44-day [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war [last fall] gave a new impetus to the issue in connection with constitutional amendments, and showed the extent to which the system of government that we have now meets the challenges in our country. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this Wednesday while presenting the 2021-2026 program of the government of Armenia.

Touching upon the matter of changing the current system of governing in the country, Pashinyan noted that the respective decisions should be made only after discussions, noting that the position of the ruling political force will be especially important in this issue.

"There is a lot of talk about whether we should change the system of government in the country, or we should not change the system of government, but follow the path of its certain reforms. We have not set a presumption in our program. Our presumption is that we should have discussions with the broad political and public circles. The position of the ruling political force as a political force that got the people's vote will be very important here. But the position of the ruling political force should not be the only factor that will influence this decision," Pashinyan said.

According to him, there will be no public consensus on changing the system of government, as there will be different opinions on it.

"I want to bring the most obvious example, when there was a threat of a military coup in the country, it took a month to resolve this situation, and during that time what happened or did not happen and how it affected our country's security system, unfortunately, we saw it in the month of May. I believe that the lack of the possibility to quickly resolve this situation in the conditions of martial law is the obvious problem that exists in our constitutional regulations," said Nikol Pashinyan.
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Hakob Arshakyan today hosted Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Peoples Republic of China to Armenia Fahn Yong, as reported on the website of the National Assembly of Armenia.

The deputy parliamentary speaker attached importance to further deepening and development of the relations between Armenia and China and underscored the importance of the strengthening of cooperation between and reciprocal visits of the parliamentary friendship groups.

The parties placed special emphasis on the need for expansion of economic relations and the deepening of cooperation in high technology and education and exchanged views on the enhancement of postal services, as well as the launch of air communication.

Ambassador Yong expressed willingness to support further intensification and deepening of the friendly ties between both countries.
The Daily Beast

HRH Princess Charlene/InstagramThe narrative of a love match between Prince Albert of Monaco and his bride, former South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock, so relentlessly marketed by the tiny principality, has long struggled to maintain credibility when confronted with reality.Even before their wedding, there were extraordinary stories that Charlene tried to thrice flee the statelet only to be intercepted and brought back to the palace by the local security service.One of her escape at
TOPSHOT-PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN-CONFLICT

Afghan nationals cross the border into Pakistan at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing in Chaman on August 18, 2021. Credit - AFP/Getty Images

When the Taliban first waved the flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan over Kabul in 1996, Syed Nasirs parents  worried about imminent violence  hastily fled to neighboring Pakistan, where they settled in the port city of Karachi. Like many Afghans, they expected to return home once the instability ebbed.

But, the Talibans brutal rule, followed by the instability of the U.S. invasion and ongoing insurgency meant that Nasirs family  and many others  stayed in Pakistan. Now, 25 years later, these refugees have found themselves experiencing renewed panic and fear  and a growing sense of deja vu  watching a reinvigorated Taliban assert control over their war-battered country.

Nasir, 18, who was born in Pakistan, regularly scans Afghan TV channels and social media for the latest news while checking on his sister, who is still stuck in Kabul. She had been working at a multinational company, but found herself unemployed when the company shut down as the Taliban began ramping up attacks across the country. We told her to come to Karachi in July, but she said that the countrys capital would be safe, he says.

There are officially 1.4 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, the third-largest refugee population in the world, though the U.N. estimates that the real number is much higher, up to three million.

Many were shocked, along with the rest of the world, with the speed at which the Taliban captured Kabul and took over the government. In my life, I have seen the arrival and withdrawal of Soviet troops, the arrival and withdrawal of U.S. troops, and now the re-emergence of the Taliban, says Safiullah Noori, 66, an Afghan refugee in Karachi.

A refugee crisis looms

Afghan nationals queue up at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing point in Chaman on August 17, 2021 to return back to Afghanistan. AFP/Getty Images

Pakistan is fearful of an impending refugee crisis amid the tumult in Afghanistan. Officials are expecting that up to 700,000 could flee to Pakistan if the situation in Afghanistan worsens now that the Taliban is back in control. Its a crisis that the government said it is unprepared to handle without international assistance and financial support.

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This is the biggest worry for us right now, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tells TIME. We are already hosting three million Afghan refugees. Our economy is not stable enough to take more, and at the same time, the COVID-19 situation doesnt allow us to open borders.

Generations of Afghans have made their home in Pakistan, but their experience shows there is no guarantee that life will improve for refugees who flee over the border. Those who fled the Talibans first reign grapple with the constant threat of deportation, police harassment, and discrimination.

READ MORE: How You Can Help People in Afghanistan

In recent weeks, Pakistani politicians have resuscitated a discussion on Pakistans larger responsibility toward refugees. Many critics feel that Pakistan has historically extended a munificent hand by hosting waves of refugees since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, only to be greeted with refugees who they claim are linked to criminality or terrorism.

Pakistan is not alone in worrying about a flood of migration from Afghanistan. European officials have voiced concerns about the prospect of refugees traveling to the European Union. And neighboring countries like Uzbekistan are limiting the number of refugees allowed in.

If Pakistan faces another Afghan refugee crisis, Chaudhry says his government is preparing a comprehensive strategy to isolate refugees in temporary camps near the border. We would like them not to enter the cities, as happened in the 90s, he says.

However, some human rights experts say that crowding refugees in temporary border camps runs the risk of creating a public health crisis in a country where COVID-19 cases are still high. This is a humanitarian problem, says Kaleem Durrani, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistans Karachi coordinator. The federal government has not been serious about following COVID-19 [prevention protocols], so it is unlikely that the measures would be followed in the camps.

In order to reduce the number of militants and refugees crossing over, the Pakistani military is continuing to fence its long and porous 1,622-mile land border with Afghanistan, 90% of which has been completed. However, the Pakistan-Afghan border has never been easy to seal, with ethnic Pashtuns split between Afghanistan and Pakistan regularly traveling to Pakistan for education, medical care or family visits.

For refugees like Nasir, the restoration of Taliban rule has changed his ability to be with his family still living in Afghanistan, introducing a new sense of uncertainty. Now, we do not know what will happen in Kabul, he says.

However, scenes of chaos at Kabul airport on Monday offered little solace for refugees. Abdullah Khan, a spokesperson for the state-run Pakistan International Airlines, tells TIME that before the Taliban takeover, Pakistan had arranged a deal with then-President Ashraf Ghanis government to increase the number of flights to Kabul. The challenge was the government fell much quicker than expected, and [on Sunday] all the airport staff left their post in Kabul [and there was no check-in or security staff], Khan says. We understand the situation, there is a panic and need for people to get out.

Pakistans balancing act with the Taliban

The Taliban takeover presents a tricky balancing act for Pakistan. While the government has not publicly expressed support for the Taliban, many observers say it tacitly approves of the takeover. The military leadership [in Pakistan] appear to see this as a net win, gaining leverage in Kabul and displacing India in Afghanistan, Aqil Shah, author of The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan, says. Pakistan will continue to provide political and diplomatic support to the Taliban regime in Kabul.

On Tuesday, Chaudhry said that the country would not unilaterally recognize the Taliban government, and instead wait for a regional decision. In March, Pakistan signed a joint statement with the U.S. pledging that it would not support a Taliban in government. It remains to be seen whether Islamabad will renege on this pledge, or if it will gradually move toward recognition, in a gesture hearkening back to Pakistans embrace of the Taliban in the 1990s  when Pakistan was one of the few states to formally recognize the legitimacy of the Taliban government.

For refugees like Noori in Karachi, however, concerns are more focused on the safety of relatives, who are unable to safely flee to Pakistan. It used to be easy to cross the border  just give 25,000 to 30,000 rupees [$120-$180] to border guards at Chaman, he said. But it seems this time, Pakistan will make it difficult for refugees to enter.

Like many Afghans, Noori has prayed for the day he could return to his country. With the Talibans resurgence, there is little doubt in his mind that this dream will not materialize. Even after 40 years, nothing has changed in Afghanistan. Fear, hunger, displacement, and uncertainty are our destiny, he says.

Nasir says his sister is filled with trepidation about the Taliban government she lives under in Kabul, and regrets not coming by road to Pakistan earlier this year. Now it may be too late, but the family has not given up hope: If God wills it, she will be with us soon, Nasir said.

Sitting in Karachi, Nasir says he had been playing an audio message that was circulating of a senior Taliban commander who promised not to target or harm civilians.

People are saying that the Taliban has changed, Nasir said, but this is only the beginning.
The Air Force Academy requires its incoming cadets to watch a diversity and inclusion video supportive of attending a Black Lives Matter chapter meeting.

Critics argue this proves military academies have implemented critical race theory as part of their curriculum.

We are pleased to offer this introductory D&I course as part of our commitment to working with cadets and cadet candidates in fostering a safe community built on mutual respect, teamwork, and personal dignity, a note from Yvonne L. Roland, the director of Culture, Climate, and Diversity, reads at the onset of the training.

The video follows Jose, a minority student, and three friends, while the instructions tell cadets to decide how you think his friends should respond. In the first scenario, two of the white friends pressure Jose to attend a Black Lives Matter rally, while the third later posits that the slogan should be "All Lives Matter," which was later described as a really problematic comment.

DEPOSED AFGHAN PRESIDENT ASHRAF GHANI RESURFACES IN UAE AFTER FLEEING KABUL

I can confirm this is part of required training for inbound cadets, Air Force Academy spokesman Dean Miller told the Washington Examiner. This is the first year this training has been used, and it is used at universities across the country.

Retired Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop and Dr. Ron Scott, a retired USAF Col., created an organization, Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Incorporated, to stop the implementation of critical race theory, which they argue is simply Marxism repackaged in new terms.

Black Lives Matter as an organization has openly espoused Marxism as part of its stated aims, though the phrase is often used to describe concerns about police shootings in black communities.

Critical race theory dates back to the 1970s, and it provides an alternative perspective on the country's history of issues of race. Critical race theorists allege that the country's foundational institutions are designed to keep white people ahead of minorities, requiring the dismantlement of the system to achieve a more just society.

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Opponents of the theory, mainly but not exclusively conservatives, argue that it is divisive because it assigns whites the role of oppressors and people of color the role of victims.

The decades-old theory has gotten significantly more attention in recent months amid accusations that schools and military institutions have begun introducing its core tenets in the classroom.

Col. Mark Anarumo, the president of Norwich University and formerly the director and permanent professor for the Center for Character and Leadership Development at the Air Force Academy, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that the teaching of critical race theory does not allow for a high-level debate or enhanced understanding of a topic.

Its what to think versus how to think, and the problem with that is there is a natural power dynamic in higher education, or really in any education, where if the professors are steering you towards a certain way to think, and you buck that, your grade suffers, he added.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Department of Defense does not teach or embrace the theory during a House Armed Services Committee budget hearing in June, but Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave an impassioned speech defending the merits of teaching the theory, comparing it to learning about Mao Zedong and Karl Marx, during the same hearing.

Lynne Chandler Garcia, an associate professor of political science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, admitted to teaching critical race theory in a June op-ed for the Washington Post, in which she argued that doing so was vital.

Asked about the apparent discrepancy between Garcia and Austins comments, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told Politico, "There is no contradiction here. The Secretarys comments stand. That a professor at an academic institution such as the Air Force Academy teaches a given theory as part of an elective course does not in the slightest way signify some larger effort by the Department to teach, espouse or embrace said theory.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Critical race theory was referenced during the academys Acceptance Day Parade, which occurred earlier this month, according to one veteran who was in attendance to celebrate a relative who was honored as a newly accepted cadet, and he said he has never been sicker in my life.

I was disgusted by the fact there was a message of divisiveness vice a message of unity. I believe American citizens join the military because they love this nation, the veteran, who requested anonymity to protect his relative from retribution, added. I've never met anyone who said they joined just to see what was going on. This same love of nation, patriotism, is what brings men and women of all backgrounds, all races, all religions, and all ethnicities together. It is the glue that holds us together. It is also the one thing that will make a person risk his/her life in defense of the greatest nation in the world.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Critical Race Theory, Pentagon, Air Force, National Security, Military, military training, Defense, Black Lives Matter

Original Author: Mike Brest

Original Location: Air Force Academy requires training linked to critical race theory and Black Lives Matter
Former U.S. President George W. Bush Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

Around four-in-10 respondents in a new Insider poll said Bush is the president most responsible for the outcome of the Afghanistan war.

Biden ranked second in the Insider poll, with 27% of respondents saying he's most responsible.

Biden faces widespread criticism over his handling of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

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More Americans blame former President George W. Bush for America's failure in Afghanistan than any other president that succeeded him, according to a new Insider poll.

Around four-in-10 respondents said Bush is most responsible for the war's outcome - the Taliban regained power despite the US's nearly 20-years of involvement there - ranking him ahead of former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump as well as current commander-in-chief Joe Biden.

Insider surveyed 1,105 respondents from August 16-17 through SurveyMonkey Audience. Respondents were asked to rank nine entities in order of how responsible each were for the outcome of the War in Afghanistan. Here is the ranking, based on the percentage of people who placed each entity in their top three:

The Taliban, 55% ranked among top three most responsible Afghan Leadership, 48% Afghan Military, 41% George W. Bush, 34% United States Military Leadership, 31% Joseph Biden, 29% Barack Obama, 21% Donald Trump, 22% United States Military, 20%

Looking strictly at the four presidents in the survey, 38% of respondents ranked Bush as the president most responsible for the outcome, 27% Biden, 19% Trump and 12% Obama.

Bush ordered the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. The Taliban, which controlled the country at the time, had allowed Afghanistan to become a safehaven for Osama bin Laden and his terror group Al Qaeda. The US aimed to destroy Al Qaeda, which was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, via the invasion. Shortly after the 2001 invasion, Bush rejected an offer by the Taliban to discuss handing over bin Laden in exchange for the US to stop bombing Afghanistan.

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By December 2001, the Taliban was in retreat and bin Laden fled to Pakistan. The terror leader would eventually be killed by US Navy SEALs in an operation in Pakistan in 2011 under the Obama administration, but America's war in Afghanistan continued for another decade as the Taliban waged an insurgency against the US and its allies.

Obama oversaw a massive surge in US troops in Afghanistan during his first term. He sought to bring US troops home by the end of his second term, but failed to accomplish this.

Trump in February 2020 brokered a deal with the Taliban to see the US withdraw troops within 14 months, which emboldened the militants and left Afghan forces demoralized. By the time Trump left office, there were roughly 2,500 US troops left in Afghanistan.

Biden, who's overseen the US military drawdown and has received widespread criticism over its handling, defended his decision to rapidly remove all troops from the country on Monday. Though recent polling has shown relatively strong support for the withdrawal itself, many have disapproved of the execution of the pullout - particularly in relation to how the Biden administration has approached helping Afghans who assisted the US during the war.

Overall, most Americans placed the blame on the Taliban for the crisis in Afghanistan. Roughly 55% of respondents put the militant group in their top three choices of who is most responsible for the war's outcome. Nearly half of the respondents, 48%, put Afghan leadership in their top three. Respondents also said the Afghan military was more to blame for the war's outcome than the US military.

The poll comes in light of major developments in the war-torn nation. In a little over a week, Taliban forces took over most of Afghanistan's cities and the capital Kabul, leading to the sudden collapse of the US-backed Afghan government on Sunday. Afghans, afraid of a possible return to strict Taliban rule and desperate to leave the country, flooded the Kabul airport. The US, in the midst of its military withdrawal, plunged into a chaotic evacuation of American citizens from its embassy.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Polling data collected 1,105 respondents August 16-17, 2021 with a 3 percentage point margin of error.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Students from Hartford and nearby towns will learn about the Amistads place in Connecticut history starting Sept. 9, when the reproduction of the legendary tall ship will dock on the Connecticut riverfront for a month and educators will visit schools to teach about the famous 1839 emancipation trial.

The monthlong Amistad Journey to Freedom program will be held at middle and high schools in Hartford, Farmington, Windsor, Bloomfield and East Hartford. Student educators from Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic will assist educators from New Haven-based Discovering Amistad with the lessons. At the conclusion of the program, students from the five districts will gather for a symposium to discuss what they learned and to learn from each other.

According to discoveringamistad.org, lessons begin with the 1839 Amistad Uprising and the subsequent landmark Supreme Court decision and move through the arc of more than 175 years of history.

A community welcome event will take place Sept. 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza in Hartford. The ship will docked be there until Oct. 1.

Other community events will be held throughout the ships stay, including A Walk to Freedom on Sept. 17, the anniversary of the trial, from Connecticuts Old State House in Hartford, where the initial Amistad trial was held, to the riverfront. The public is invited to participate.

The Amistad Journey to Freedom program is funded by NBC/Telemundo CT.

The Amistad uprising of 1839 happened when 53 kidnap victims from Sierra Leone took control of the Portuguese ship where they were being held by enslavers who had ignored European laws prohibiting the slave trade. The ship was captured and towed to New London. In 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the enslaved people, who returned to Africa.

The Amistad is a powerful reminder of the darkest aspects of our history, as well as a memorial to the enormous courage of those who fought against oppression and injustice, and a symbol of our nations capacity to make progress, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said.

The replica was launched in 2000 and was named the flagship of Connecticut discoveringamistad.org.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.
By Fabian Cambero

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - An historic benefits package at BHP's sprawling Escondida copper mine has raised the prospect for tough new negotiations and strikes at mines around the country, workers and analysts told Reuters.

Success at the bargaining table was driven by soaring copper prices, which broke records earlier this year and have remained high enough to whet workers' appetite for raises, bonuses and a bigger slice of profits.

The higher bar comes as fresh labor talks are pending at a raft of mines across the world's top copper producer. That includes Codelco's flagship El Teniente mine, its smaller El Salvador and Ministro Hales mines, BHP's Cerro Colorado, Anglo American's El Soldado and KGHM's Sierra Gorda.

Chile, unlike neighboring Peru, largely maintained its output of the red metal even during the worst of the pandemic, and workers said they are due their fair share after working through difficult, potentially deadly, conditions to keep mines open.

The payoff deal last week at Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, came after a terse standoff that nearly ended in a strike.

Workers will receive benefits equivalent to about $30,000 each, including a bonus equivalent to 1% of dividends paid to shareholders and distributed to all workers in equal parts, the union said after inking the deal.

Unions had entered talks with high expectations, thanks to the high prices, said Juan Carlos Guajardo, head of Chilean consultancy Plusmining, adding that the resulting record-making benefits amounted to an "implicit endorsement of these greater demands."

The benefits in Escondida were significantly higher than the $24,000 doled out in March to union workers at Antofagasta's Los Pelambres mine.

Chile produces nearly 30% of the world's copper, a key metal in construction and electric vehicle manufacturing.

PANDEMIC SACRIFICE

Three unions that recently walked of the job at Codelco's Andina copper mine near the capital Santiago have made obtaining recognition of their work during the pandemic a key point in talks.

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"Today we have to recognize [those sacrifices]," Manuel Canas, secretary of one of the striking unions at Andina, told Reuters during a protest outside Codelco's offices in Santiago.

The world's largest copper miner, the state-run Codelco managed to slightly increase production during 2020 amid the worst of the outbreak.

Canas acknowledged the smaller Andina might not have the sway of Escondida, but said high prices and hard work during the pandemic should, at minimum, force the company to "maintain current benefits not only for current workers but for those who may arrive."

Codelco, which has pinched pennies to underwrite a 10-year, $40 billion plan to revamp its aging mines, has dug in its heels, saying that its final offer to the unions "constitutes the maximum effort of the company within the framework of its transformation."

Workers at JX Nippon Mining's Caserones mine, smaller than both Escondida and Andina, also walked off the job last week. The mine operator told Reuters there had been no progress in talks.

Alejandra Wood, executive director of Chile's Center for Copper Studies (CESCO), told Reuters that discussions of hiking royalties on miners to help underwrite social programs, together with a move to rewrite the constitution, have also given miners more leverage.

"The price of copper is high, and there is an idea that profits must be shared," she said. "Market and political conditions are undoubtedly influencing workers' expectations."

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
Australia's first rescue flight from Afghanistan evacuated 26 people, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday.

The plane arrived in Afghanistan late on Tuesday to help rescue citizens and Afghans who have visas.

Taliban fighters seized the capital Kabul on the weekend as U.S. led Western forces have been withdrawing.

Morrison is under intense pressure to expedite the rescue of its citizens and Afghans that worked with Canberra during Australia's two-decade long deployment.

"We were able to get our first flight in last night, enabling us to transfer also in, key personnel from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Home Affairs and Defence to facilitate the evacuation of citizens, residents and visa holders, Afghan nationals from Kabul. This was the first of what will be many flights, subject to clearance and weather."

Another 250 military personnel would be sent to help with evacuations Morrison added, though he didn't specify the number of Afghans who had been given visas after working for Australia.

He noted that the security situation at the airport in the capital Kabul had with the help of U.S. and UK troops on the ground of the airport, after flights were forced to stop on Monday when thousands of frightened Afghans swamped the tarmac, desperate for a flight out.

More than 39,000 Australian military personnel served in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led international force that battled the Taliban after they were ousted in 2001.

And 41 Australians were killed there.

Morrison warned on Tuesday, however, Australia was unlikely to be able to help all of those who had assisted them.
Federal health officials announced Wednesday that the public will have access to an extra dose of a Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as soon as mid-September, citing evidence that protection against the virus wanes over time.

Based on our latest assessment, the current protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death could diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout, said Biden administration officials including Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

Federal health experts concluded that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability starting eight months after receiving the second of the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration will still have to conduct a scientific evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of a third dose, and the CDCs panel of vaccine experts will be responsible for reviewing clinical trial data before making its recommendation. Even without the automatic approval of booster doses from federal regulators, though, the administration is prepared to begin distributing the boosters beginning the week of Sept. 20.

TEXAS TO BRING OUT-OF-STATE HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS TO HELP OVERWHELMED HOSPITALS

The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination, and in association with the dominance of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease, Biden officials said in a statement.

People who were prioritized in the first round of vaccinations, such as long-term care facility residents, seniors, and healthcare workers, will be prioritized for the booster shots, as their protection against COVID-19 will have faded the most. Adults who received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine starting in March, meanwhile, will also likely need an extra dose to bolster their immunity at a certain point, but regulators are waiting on that companys trial data.

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Our top priority remains staying ahead of the virus and protecting the American people from COVID-19 with safe, effective, and long-lasting vaccines, especially in the context of a constantly changing virus and epidemiologic landscape, the officials said, adding that they are prepared to modify the booster rollout plan should new data emerge that requires it.

Recent reporting out of Israel pointed to waning immunity in people who received the second dose of the vaccine between January and April. Israel successfully squashed new outbreaks by the beginning of the summer by fully vaccinating nearly 69% of its population, but new cases cropped up. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said Tuesday that the Israeli health officials' findings made a strong case for booster shots in the United States, which at least a million people have procured without federal approval.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The people who got immunized in January are the ones that are now having more breakthrough cases, Collins said, adding that the administration does not want to wait "until its like, 'Oh, too late.' So thats why were looking at the data.

The CDC also cited evidence from a Mayo Clinic study as well as a study conducted in New York supporting the call for boosters. The Mayo Clinic found that vaccine effectiveness against the delta variant declined for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines  76% to 42% and 86% to 76%, respectively. The two-dose vaccination regimen was still effective at preventing hospitalization over time, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.

The delta variant took over as the dominant strain in the U.S. fairly quickly this spring, proving to be far more contagious than the previously dominant alpha variant.

Medical ethicists made the case against booster shots in rich countries last week, arguing that that unmitigated COVID-19 spread in poorer countries where vaccines are scarce increases the likelihood that more virulent, vaccine-resistant strains will crop up, potentially endangering even vaccinated people.

The World Health Organization has also argued that relatively healthy Americans should not get third doses while most of the worlds population has yet to receive one. Biden administration officials have called this a false choice, saying on Wednesday that the U.S. has already donated more vaccines abroad than any other country.

"I do not accept the idea that we have to choose between America and the world. We clearly see ... that we've got to do everything we can to protect people here at home while recognizing that tamping down the epidemic pandemic across the world and getting people vaccinated is going to be key to preventing the rise of future variants," said Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

Murthy pledged Wednesday that the administration will "also continue to accelerate our efforts to vaccinate the rest of the world we take that responsibility very seriously."

People who have received both doses of an mRNA vaccine are still considered fully vaccinated and maintain the "highest degree of protection" against severe infection and hospitalization due to COVID-19, Murthy said, adding, "We believe that that third dose will ultimately be needed to provide the fullest and continually extended protection that we think people need for the virus."

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Tags: Healthcare, News, Coronavirus, Biden Administration, Vaccination, CDC, FDA

Original Author: Cassidy Morrison

Original Location: Biden administration to roll out third shots for people with Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines
NEW YORK (AP)  Every trip to New York is special for Sue Bird because she's coming home.

Those trips have become more meaningful lately with her career coming closer to the end.

Its a chance to have my friends and family come watch, Bird told The Associated Press in an interview after practice Tuesday. For them to watch me play and for me to see them afterwards. It worked out great; we are here for two games. That excitement never ends.

Her friends and family will have to wait until Friday to see the New York native play, though. She's sitting out the Seattle Storm's Wednesday night's game against the Liberty as she's still recovering from the Olympics where she led the U.S. to a seventh consecutive gold medal and earned her record fifth in the process.

How many more chances people will get to see her play in New York is still unknown as Bird doesn't know when she'll retire.

When Im in a season its hard to wrap my head around that, the 40-year-old said. My personality, I guess, is not going to deal well with that. It can overwhelm me. Its an ongoing conversation since it would be silly to not ask yourself the questions as youre going through it, otherwise it will be a big surprise at the end and I dont want to go through that. I want to be prepared in a way, mentally and emotionally. At the same time, Im not in a place to make any statements about anything.

When she made the Tokyo Olympics her last one, she decided that a long time before the first game was played.

I've had some friends say you better tell me so I can make plans, Bird said. At the end of the day, I have to do what's right for me and what I can handle. It's no secret, we're closer to the end than the beginning. getting closer and closer with each season that goes by.

Bird is fortunate that her fiancee Megan Rapinoe is going through a similar discussion about retiring from the U.S. national soccer team. The two bounce things off each other.

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Were both going through it, which is nice, Bird said. There are days we can dig deep or others where were like not today. I dont want to go there today. 

Bird doesn't have much left to accomplish in her career. She's the league's all-time assist leader and has won four championships in Seattle, including two in the past three seasons. She's still playing at a very high level.

That makes it harder, Bird said of still playing well. 'I think it makes it harder, but also I watched Lauren (Jackson) and what Lauren went through and have basketball taken away from her. It wasnt her decision to retire. Her body made that decision for her. ... I feel lucky if I retired in the next minute it would be my choice on my terms. Im fortunate thats the case."

___

More AP womens basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Border Patrol agents have increasingly come under attack in recent weeks in Texas and California, officials said Tuesday, including one incident where an agent was fired upon 20 times as criminal gangs continue to smuggle people and drugs into the United States.

The brazen attacks have taken place along the U.S.-Mexico border, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection statement said. In each case, the agents took cover and were not harmed.

The agency did not release any figures detailing how many incidents have occurred or say whether they are related to an influx of migrants at the border.

MAYORKAS ANNOUNCES 212,672 MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS IN JULY, SAYS BORDER IS ONE OF THE TOUGHEST CHALLENGES WE FACE

Fox News has reached out to CBP officials and the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents border agents.

"We take these threats and acts of violence seriously and will do everything we can to identify and bring those to justice who have sought to harm the men and women of the Border Patrol," Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said in a statement.

On Aug. 9, agents were shot at while taking a group of migrants into custody just south of San Diego. Residents near the area reported seeing several people from the Mexican side of the border flee in a truck and motorcycle.

Three days before, an agent was on patrol near El Paso, Texas when shots rang out. The agent took cover and was not injured. Surveillance cameras captured two people with high-caliber rifles across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

The shooters fled and the agent was uninjured.

Another agent working a checkpoint near El Paso was hit and dragged by a car whose driver was allegedly trying to evade arrest last week. The driver was arrested and turned over to the FBI and the agent was doing well, officials said.

Customs and Border Protection officials are working with the federal government and Mexican law enforcement in response to the recent incidents.

Since October 2020, the start of the 2021 fiscal year, there have been 388 assault incidents on CBP agents as of Aug. 5, according to figures recently released by the agency. There were 415 incidents for the 2020 fiscal year, the data show.

The majority of the types of assault were physical, followed by the use of a rock or other object. Ony four involved a firearm since October.
Alasdair, 54, and wife Lydia Walker-Cox, 50, kept their card shop open during lockdown. (SWNS)

The owners of a gift card shop that refused to close during lockdown have been fined 35,000.

Alasdair Walker-Cox, 54, and wife Lydia, 50, were penalised for breaking coronavirus restrictions after keeping Grace Cards and Books in Droitwich, Worcestershire, open despite non-essential shops being told to shut.

They insisted they did nothing wrong because the shop sold essentials like newspapers, snacks and baking products and said they would rather go to prison than close.

Worcestershire Regulatory Services issued them with seven separate fines during two lockdowns last November and in February.

Read more: No.10 insists public should wear masks in indoors despite maskless Tory front bench

Police visited Grace Cards and Books in the St Andrews Square shopping centre, Droitwich. (SWNS)

Walker-Cox went on trial at Kidderminster Magistrates Court to deny failing to comply with The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions ) Regulations.

Magistrates found him guilty of the charges and gave him 5,000 fines for each breach - totalling a cost of 35,000 on Tuesday.

The couple had accumulated 20,000 in penalties for keeping their store open at the St Andrews Square shopping centre.

Prosecutor Howard Leithead, said: "Any shop can set up a few drinks and sell newspapers to become a newsagents - this clearly wasn't a newsagents.

He added: "The shop is a called a card and book shop - that is exactly what it is."

Read more: 1 in 5 in England want to bring back COVID rule banning people from leaving the house

Giving evidence, Walker-Cox told the court how they had compared their business to others like WH Smith.

He said: "We noticed WH Smith were open and we sold similar items to them so we remained open.

"We could increase our offerings of essential goods.

Watch: What UK government COVID-19 support is available?

Walker-Cox also admitted in court he wanted to remain open because he was worried about paying rent to the landlord.

When accused of bending the rules to make it look like he was a newsagents, Mr Walker-Cox replied: "No, we are a newsagents."

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Natasha Hausdorff, defending, claimed Walker-Cox's shop can fall into either the category of news or food , which was on a government exemption list during the pandemic.

The shop was issued with seven separate fines. (SWNS)

The couple argued they sold essential items. (SWNS)

Sentencing, District Judge Ian Strongman, said: "The products Mr Walker-Cox had in his shop were not those of a food retailer but those of a confectioner.

He added: "It's a card and book shop who happen to sell a few newspapers.

"On this occasion, the local authority were right to serve the prohibitions notices.

Speaking previously, the couple, who have run the shop for 30 years, said they would rather go to prison than close their business.

Mrs Walker-Cox said: Were willing to go all the way, its the principle now and we have got legal help.

"The cost of closing is the same as remaining open so were damned either way."

Watch: How the world could be better after COVID
The Biden administration's decision to offer booster shots of coronavirus vaccine to most Americans comes down to staying ahead of declining vaccine effectiveness  especially if effectiveness against severe disease eventually begins to drop.

Why it matters: Even with more than half of the population fully vaccinated  well above most of the rest of the world  the coronavirus is still causing a domestic crisis, and the administration is determined to avoid worst-case scenarios.

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No one wants to have decreasing vaccine efficacy against severe disease when youre seeing it decrease against mild to moderate disease. You want to get ahead of that," a senior Biden official told Axios.

Driving the news: The White House coronavirus team will today address the subject of boosters in a briefing, and the president will speak after, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said yesterday.

Multiple news outlets, including Axios, reported Monday night that the administration is coalescing around a plan to give most Americans booster shots around eight months after their first round of vaccines.

New CDC data showing a drop in vaccine effectiveness over time  viewed by the administration's COVID task force over the weekend  ultimately prompted the decision, Politico reported yesterday.

The big picture: New data released by other countries and non-governmental researchers has shown a significant decline in the vaccines' effectiveness against infection.

However, no data has yet shown a big decline in their effectiveness against severe disease, and the vast majority of Americans currently hospitalized are unvaccinated.

It's unclear whether the decline is because of the vaccines' effectiveness waning over time, against the Delta variant, or both. Breakthrough cases are more dangerous for some populations, like the elderly, than others.

What they're saying: Effectiveness against severe disease may have held, but you dont know how long itll hold," said a source close to the administration. "If you know effectiveness declines and you know you can increase your immunity, why wouldnt you?

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You are conservative in your planning or else you risk a lot of bad outcomes in vulnerable people," the source added.

Between the lines: The administration's decision balances competing longer-term risks. On one hand, it's possible vaccine effectiveness against severe disease does wane in the future.

On the other hand, the virus is still spreading much more rampantly among the unvaccinated, including in pockets of the world that still don't have access to shots. That could easily become America's direct problem if it results in a new variant that can evade vaccine protection.

Experts are generally much more concerned with the latter.

"If we want the vaccine to protect us against symptoms and transmissions (in the first world), then we do so at the cost of others around the globe & the cost of future variants," former Biden coronavirus advisor Andy Slavitt tweeted.

Boosters could also slow the spread of the virus, which could help protect millions of unvaccinated Americans and those at high risk if they do develop a breakthrough case.

"The political realities favor the kind of choice weve been seeing made all pandemic. Protect well off first to the nth degree before we consider others," Slavitt wrote.

The bottom line: The decision to boost most adults' protection against the virus may not be morally sound in the eyes of many epidemiologists or the World Health Organization, nor is it guaranteed to be the best decision for Americans in the long term. But politically? It's a no-brainer.

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The member of the Pivot Gang rap crew was fatally shot Monday, as was his uncle, reportedly in front of his grandmothers home.

Chicago hip-hop fans and supporters are mourning the death of DJ SqueakPIVOT, a member of the Pivot Gang rap crew. He was 26.

The music man born Javunte Wheeler was shot and killed on Monday, reportedly in front of his grandmothers home. His uncle, Derion S. Hood, 27, was also fatally shot.

Chicago hip-hop fans and supporters are mourning the murder of DJ SqueakPIVOT (above), a member of the Pivot Gang rap crew. He was 26. (Instagram)

Wheelers rap collective informed fans of his death on Tuesday on their official Twitter page, writing, We are heartbroken to share the news of the passing of one of our own, Squeak Pivot. We appreciate the support from the community at this time and ask that you keep Squeaks family and friends in your prayers.

Squeak found his voice as a DJ and producer, they added, becoming known as a Chicago staple and touring the country with his sound as a DJ and member of Pivot Gang. Being on this journey together while witnessing his growth as an artist and brother is something were extremely proud of.

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We will miss his infectious smile, his love for music, and the love he showed to everyone who came into contact with him, said his artistic family.

According to People magazine, Chicago Police said that both men were shot in the head by an unknown offender, they died of their injuries after being transported to a local hospital.

Recent reports indicate that Ring doorbell surveillance video shows the pair were murdered by a passenger in Wheelers vehicle, someone he knew. The person is recorded getting out of the car, shooting them, then getting in the drivers seat and pulling away.

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Supporters of the Chicago-based collective shared their condolences on social media.

In a September 2020 interview with The Triibe, Wheeler told Rome J, I made beats because I needed something to do while I was on house arrest. I just started making beats with gang [Saba and Dae Dae]. I got into DJ-ing because my homies aint have no DJ.

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He released a solo EP called En Route in June of this year.

Wheeler told the outlet last year that he was inspired by previous successful Chicago acts, saying the city was known for hustlers. Ima West Side ni**a, an entrepreneur, he said. Like, thats who I am. This sh just in me. We know how to get it. We know how to make sh happen. Its just us. Its always just been in me too. My OG used to tell me that sh all the time: Since you been a kid, its seemed like you been here before.

In his last tweet on Monday, Wheeler wrote, Cant be uh fallen (star emoji) if ya head still high.

Fans are still posting condolence comments under the final message from the artist on the rise.

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The post Chicago DJ SqueakPIVOT, 26, fatally shot in the head appeared first on TheGrio.
Afghans wait at the Kabul airport on Monday, trying to flee the country as the Taliban seized control. (AFP/Getty Images)

If theres one thing President Biden could take comfort in this week, given the Afghan debacle, it might be this: Voters have remarkably short attention spans.

By the 2022 midterm elections, and certainly by 2024, other issues likely will be front of voters minds  issues closer to home. The question is whether this humiliatingly tragic saga so damages Bidens claim to competence  a claim buttressed by his stewardship of the COVID-19 vaccine mobilization  that it will threaten what he wants voters to be focused on by next year: The success of his potentially transformative domestic agenda, a multiyear, multitrillion investment in physical and human capital.

Will Bidens embarrassment over the chaos in the militarys exit so rattle the swing-vote lawmakers in both parties, whose votes he needs, that they think twice about supporting him on the hard votes ahead?

The humiliation sure didnt help, especially when you consider what Biden had been counting on since he called for the withdrawal from Afghanistan in April  that voters could credit him as the president who ended the endless war.

Many still will. Despite the anvil of criticism thats fallen on Biden from the elites (myself included) for effectively abandoning countless Afghan allies to brutal Taliban rule in the rush to exit, average Americans support for getting U.S. troops out of Afghanistan was the rare issue that united left and right in this dangerously polarized nation.

The public will be more forgiving of Biden. That is particularly likely since blame for the ignominious end in Afghanistan is spread among presidents of both parties and a bazaar of corrupt, hapless Afghan leaders. How galling that the name of the Kabul airport where Americans and Afghans swarmed to escape honors Hamid Karzai, the longtime president who left a legacy of corruption, election fraud and complicity in his half brothers drug trafficking and double-dealing against the United States.

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For years, polls have shown the U.S. publics apathy toward the war in Afghanistan and an eagerness to withdraw. Soon after Bidens April announcement, Frank Newport, senior scientist at the Gallup Poll, wrote that he didnt expect significant pushback from the American public. An Associated Press-NORC poll in September  a time when both Biden and then-President Trump were calling for an end to the war  showed more than 6 in 10 Americans supported a total withdrawal or at least a decrease in the already minimal number of troops.

In Gallups monthly polling updates over time, virtually no Americans cited Afghanistan as an important problem for the nation. Forgotistan is what Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America ruefully called it. Among both veterans and Americans overall, nearly 6 in 10 said the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting, according to surveys by the Pew Research Center in July 2019. As Afghanistan imploded this weekend, Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and a Marine veteran of the Iraq war, tweeted, I havent gotten one constituent call about it and my district has a large Veteran population.

Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who for decades surveyed opinions for the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, said he expects most Americans are reacting with relief rather than recriminations after a 20-year war that cost more than $2 trillion and the lives of 2,448 U.S. troops (as well as the lives of more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers, police and civilians).

Our involvement in Afghanistan never had the kind of emotional stake that Vietnam or even Cuba had, he told me. The statistics may suggest Americans should have been more engaged, but psychologically, Afghanistan never had the same emotional effect on the voters.

A new poll released Tuesday did give Biden and Democrats some reason to worry. The survey by Morning Consult/POLITICO, conducted Aug. 13-16 as Afghanistan cities toppled to the Taliban  found that Americans support for withdrawal had slid 20 points, to 49%. The partisan divide was stark, with Democrats more than twice as likely as Republicans to express support.

This one poll was taken amid the heartbreaking havoc playing out on our TVs. And there may be more harrowing images in coming months as the restoration of the Taliban brings medieval repression and atrocities. But Americans, who tuned out Afghanistan for all the years U.S. troops were there, will almost certainly turn the channel once theyre gone.

And as much as Republicans are trying to exploit the administrations failure in planning for the exit to their political advantage, theyre greatly handicapped in using this cudgel against Biden and his party.

Trump last year elevated the Taliban to legitimacy on the global stage, making about the only deal of his presidency with the militants  a deal so bad, especially in retrospect, that this week the Republican National Committee removed praise for it from its website.

He wanted to leave more quickly and claims now hed have done so flawlessly  this from the man who botched the response to the pandemic with such deadly results. Michael R. Pompeo, his secretary of State and a potential Republican presidential aspirant, negotiated the deal that freed about 5,000 Taliban fighters, some of whom reportedly helped seize Kabul this week.

More than ever, Biden and his party have to deliver the infrastructure bills that hes promised. Afghanistan has set back what hes laid out as the defining goal of his presidency: To counter the global rise of autocracies by proving that the United States and other democratic powers can do big things, and competently. Now do it.

@jackiekcalmes

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Aug. 18The Oneonta Common Council listened as SUNY Oneonta Chief of Staff Danielle MacMullen provided a SUNY Oneonta COVID-19 update during Tuesday night's meeting.

After last year's COVID-19 outbreak at the beginning of the fall 2020 semester, which was the biggest outbreak at any SUNY campus, the college has instituted several requirements for new and returning students living on and off campus for this semester.

According to MacMullen, students returning to class are encouraged to be vaccinated and will be required to be vaccinated if the Federal Food & Drug Administration approves a vaccine for full use. She said as of now 74% of the incoming students are fully vaccinated and 85% of the staff, professors and students have received at least their first dose of the vaccine.

She said students and staff who aren't vaccinated will be tested weekly. With the realization that people who have been vaccinated can still get the delta variant, she said the school will either let vaccinated students to be tested weekly, or would randomly test vaccinated students.

MacMullen spoke after city health officer Diane Georgeson gave the Common Council a COVID-19 update. In it, she talked about the delta variant and how much more contagious it is than the original disease, talked about the vaccines and talked about Otsego County's COVID-19 vaccination and infection rates.

"New York state isn't as impacted as other states, but it's trending upward," Georgeson said. "This is because our vaccination rate is better than those states."

She said, 58% of all New Yorkers are fully vaccinated including 70% of those over 18, while in Otsego County 51% are fully vaccinated, including 57.5% over 18.

"The delta variant is more transmissible between unvaccinated persons, and there is new information that the fully vaccinated can still acquire the virus and transmit the virus," she said.

She said the vaccines were misunderstood by some people.

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"The vaccines are doing what they were designed to do," she said. "The were created to prevent severe illness and death and the vaccines work even against the delta variant. Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday that over 99% of deaths were in people that were unvaccinated."

Of the 350 million vaccine doses given to the American public, there have been 6,631 deaths after the vaccine, she said.

"This does not mean that the vaccine caused the death," Georgeson said. "The CDC looks at all the cases to determine if the vaccine actually caused the death and in most cases it did not."

She said people are far more likely to die of COVID-19 and encouraged everyone to be vaccinated.

Council Member Len Carson asked Georgeson if Otsego County gave them a breakdown of cases in the city of Oneonta.

She said they have repeatedly asked the county for numbers of Oneonta residents who have COVID-19, but were denied for privacy reasons. She said they asked if there were any clusters in the city and were told no and the same was said of the baseball camps.

"Testing the wastewater will be helpful," Georgeson said. Earlier in her presentation she said there was some quantifiable evidence that some people in the city have COVID-19 as it showed up in the testing of the wastewater.

Also during the meeting:

The council approved Timothy Foster as assistant fire chief and Darren Johnstone as firefighter beginning Aug. 18.

The council voted to enter into an agreement with Otsego County for the city to provide transit services for Otsego Express Route 6, which runs from Oneonta to Sidney, and to continue to provide transit services for the Oneonta to Cooperstown route.

The council approved the purchase of an ambulance, with an estimated cost of $328,000. The city will fund the ambulance through donations restricted for replacements of ambulances in the amount of $153,000 and the rest will come from the public safety equipment reserve.

The council also approved trading in its Volvo L70F Loader and purchasing a Volvo L90 Loader for $132,260, purchasing a tractor with a snow blower for $65,000, purchasing a Pipeline CCTV Inspections Camera Van for $125,000 for the sewer and water departments and purchasing and installing an emergency generator at the Pony Farm Pump Station for $25,000.

Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.

Follow her @DS_VickyK on Twitter.
A Delaware Charter School is offering parents $700 per child to drive their own kids, WP reported.

The incentive is one way school systems are adjusting to a shortage in bus drivers.

Pittsburgh Public Schools plans to delay school by two weeks due to the shortage, causing protests.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

School systems across the nation are facing a shortage of bus drivers, the Washington Post reported on Monday. With the end of summer quickly approaching, some schools have been forced to push back start dates while they search for new hires.

EastSide Charter School in Delaware is offering parents financial incentives to drive their own children to and from school.

Pittsburgh district officials said they are short about 6,000 bus seats for students heading to school this year. Steve Ruark/AP

"EastSide wants to pay you $700 for the year for dropping off and picking up each child from school (example - if you have 3 children we would give you $2,100)," the school website says. "Delaware is currently facing a bus driver shortage. We believe that empowering parents is the best solution."

Pittsburgh Public Schools plans to delay school openings by two weeks due to transportation issues caused by the shortage. The announcement caused approximately 70 parents and students to protest outside of the school's administration building last week, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

District officials said they are short about 6,000 bus seats for students heading to school this year.

"These are some difficult decisions we are going through right now based on our current state and the current context we're in right now," Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said during a virtual news conference. "It's not ideal times. We're trying to make sure that we get as many students into school as we can."

Schools in North Carolina's Chapel Hill - Carborro districts are offering bus drivers a $2,000 bonus in an effort to fill around 30 driver positions, per CBS17. The school board said it is likely that all 30 spots won't be filled in time for the start of school.

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At the same time, many school districts are struggling to hire enough teachers, Insider's Madison Hoff reported. In a survey by Frontline Education, two-thirds of about 1,200 school and district leaders reported a teacher shortage, with particular hiring needs around special education and substitute teachers.

According to a survey of 2,690 members of the National Education Association in May, 32% said the "pandemic has led them to plan to leave the profession earlier than they anticipated," NEA Today's Tim Walker wrote.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A screenshot from video published by the civil-rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of 16-year-old Taylor Bracey. @AttorneyCrump/Twitter

The school resource officer seen slamming a student to the ground during arrest won't face charges.

The Florida state attorney's office made the announcement on Tuesday, WKMG-TV reported.

The civil-rights attorney Ben Crump said, "The state attorney has failed to get justice for Taylor."

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The school resource officer who slammed a Black teen on the ground at an Osceola County, Florida, high school earlier this year will not face charges, the state attorney's office said.

"After a thorough review of the evidence, and the applicable law in this matter (the independent review) has concluded that officer Fournier's use of force did not violate any laws of the state of Florida," Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell said at a news conference on Tuesday, WKMG-TV reported. "As such, there will be no criminal charges filed in this matter."

A graphic video that circulated online in January shows the officer, later identified as Deputy Ethan Fournier of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, throwing Liberty High School student Taylor Bracey on the ground during an arrest.

The sheriff's office said the officer was trying to stop a fight between Bracey and another student. However, one of the attorney's representing the Bracey family, Ben Crump, said it was a "verbal altercation" in an interview with NBC News at the time.

Following the incident, the teen's mother, Jamesha Bracey, said her child was "traumatized" and suffered from memory loss and headaches.

Officials said that Fournier was placed on paid leave amid a criminal investigation from the Department of Florida Law Enforcement. According to WKMG-TV, the findings were then passed over to the State Attorney's Office.

In response, the family's attorneys released a statement opposing the State Attorney's Office decision.

"The facts of this case are laid out for everyone to see in that disturbing video. A Black teenager was violently body-slammed to the ground, knocked unconscious, and handcuffed at her own school by Deputy Fournier," the statement said. "That kind of force is aggressive, unacceptable, and not at all what it looks like to de-escalate a situation between high school girls. Taylor is still feeling the repercussions from Fournier's actions and likely will for the rest of her life."

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The statement continued: "This disgusting incident certainly sends a message to our young people of color - police officers should not be trusted, and 'protect and serve' is nothing more than a meaningless slogan. While the state attorney has failed to get justice for Taylor, we won't stop until we do."

Read the original article on Insider
JERUSALEM (AP)  Egypt's intelligence chief on Wednesday paid a rare visit to Israel to discuss the cease-fire deal between Israel and the Hamas militant group that followed an 11-day war in May, Israel announced.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said Egyptian official Abbas Kamel also invited the Israeli leader to visit Egypt in the coming weeks.

Egypt has played a key mediation role between Israel and Hamas over the years. Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers are bitter enemies that have fought four wars since the Islamic militant group took control of Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian elections.

The most recent war ended in May, but the sides appear to have reached no agreements beyond a halt in fighting.

Hamas demands an easing in an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has crippled the local economy and the resumption of hundreds of millions of dollars of badly needed assistance from Qatar. Israel has demanded the return of the remains of two soldiers killed in a 2014 war as well as two Israeli civilians believed to be held by Hamas.

Hamas in recent weeks allowed supporters to send incendiary balloons into Israel and more recently a rocket was fired into Israel this week, the first time since the war. Israel did not respond, a possible signal that diplomatic efforts are picking up.

Bennett, who often accused his predecessor, Benjamin Netanytahu, of being too soft on Hamas, came under criticism Wednesday for the show of restraint. But at a news conference, he defended his decision, saying he would not allow Israel's enemies to determine its actions.

We will react in the time, place and conditions that suit us, he said.

Bennett's office gave few details about Wednesday's talks with Kamel, saying they focused on mutual security and economic issues as well as Egyptian media in the Gaza security situation.

Bennett said Kamel extended an invitation on behalf of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. He gave no further details.

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Later Wednesday, Kamel visited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank. Israel and the U.S. have said they would like to bolster Abbas in his rivalry with Hamas.

The Islamic militant group has controlled Gaza since ousting Abbas' forces in 2007, a year after it defeated his Fatah party in Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Abbas' office said that he and Kamel reviewed the latest developments in the Palestinian territories, and ways to strengthen bilateral relations and achieve stability and peace in the region.
The head of elections in Mesa County was already in hot water  and now it's beginning to boil.

Driving the news: The FBI announced an investigation Tuesday into the alleged security breach of election equipment at the office of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Republican.

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The federal agency is the third to examine the matter, now teaming up with local prosecutors in Grand Junction and the Colorado secretary of state's office.

This week, Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Peters and two others entered a secure area of the Election Division office after hours and violated security protocols by making two copies of a computer hard drive, which were shared widely online, the Daily Sentinel reports.

Why it matters: Due to the alleged breach, Mesa County now must replace all of its voting equipment before the November election or be forced to conduct a hand count.

On Tuesday, Griswold appointed Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner to supervise the election and a three-person advisory commission to assist.

Griswold says Peters is not a trusted authority while under investigation, though she lacks the power to remove her from office.

Context: A Colorado secretary of state investigation last week found Peters' actions led to a security breach that leaked private information on a far-right conspiracy site.

Peters also recently attended an event in South Dakota that spread misinformation about the election, telling the crowd she has been "persecuted."

The bottom line: Although the state's top elections officials do not believe the state's voting systems are compromised, Mesa County taxpayers will have to foot the bill for new voting equipment before the Nov. 2 election.

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BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union on Wednesday condemned what it called Belaruss aggressive behavior in organizing illegal border crossings with migrants into Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with the aim of destabilizing the 27-nation bloc.

So far this year, more than 4,100 asylum-seekers, most of them from Iraq, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania. Thats 50 times more than during all of 2020. They're being sheltered in temporary camps across the Baltic EU member.

Poland said Wednesday it had deployed nearly 1,000 troops to its border with Belarus to help border guards cope with a surge of migrants  again mostly from Iraq  who were trying to enter the country.

This aggressive behavior  is unacceptable and amounts to a direct attack aimed at destabilizing and pressurizing the EU, said a statement by Slovenia, which holds the blocs rotating presidency until the end of the year, after emergency talks among the bloc's interior ministers.

The European Union will need to further consider its response to these situations in order to increase its effectiveness and to deter any future attempts to instrumentalize illegal migration in this manner," the statement said.

The migrant movements spiked dramatically after the EU slapped sanctions on Belarus officials. The measures were imposed after President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a crackdown on opponents and protesters after claiming victory in a vote last year that the West denounced as rigged. His main election challenger fled to Lithuania.

Slovenia said EU nations are determined to take all necessary measures to effectively protect all the EU external borders, by counteracting Belarus aggression. They also recognize the need to strengthen the entire external border of the European Union to prevent illegal border crossings in the future.

No details about how that might happen were provided.

Many of the migrants were believed to have arrived in Belarus by plane on commercial flights from Iraq. Those flights have stopped for now, perhaps in part due to the EU's threat to impose visa restrictions on Iraqi citizens and officials.

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Still, Lithuanias border guard released video footage on Wednesday which it said reveals that migrants are being pushed across the border into EU territory by Belarus riot police. Another video showed several people cross into Lithuania and immediately return to Belarus to be filmed by Belarus officials.

After talks with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Wednesday, EU Parliament President David Sassoli accused Lukashenko of exploiting these poor people, men and women.

I have seen these outrageous actions when officials push people across the border. It is both an issue of human rights, and also a question of protecting the border of the EU, Sassoli said. It is an organized activity of the Lukashenko regime.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas accused Lukashenko of launching a hybrid attack against the bloc by channeling migrants to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland in retaliation for the EUs sanctions.

Kallas said this is no refugee crisis, but this is a hybrid attack on the European Union.

Merkel said she would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday. Belarus depends heavily on Russian energy supplies and Moscow has authorized loans to prop up the country's beleaguered economy.

___

Dapkus reported from Vilnius. Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.

___

Follow all of AP's global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Follow all AP stories on developments in Belarus at https://apnews.com/hub/Belarus.
WASHINGTON, DC --News Direct-- Society for Science

Today, the Society for Science is proud to release the names of 66 stellar educators who will serve in the organizations Advocate Program in the 2021-2022 school year. Fifty-eight Advocates will each receive a $3,000 stipend while eight Lead Advocates will receive $5,000 each. Throughout their one-year terms, these dedicated Advocates will encourage at least three to five students  who identify as a race or ethnicity historically underrepresented in STEM  in science and engineering research and help them enter those projects into competitions.

Now in its seventh year, the Advocate Program strives to educate and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators through hands-on research and competition, and supports full representation of all identities in STEM fields. Advocates will break down barriers to competition participation by providing support for selecting competitions, gathering materials, meeting deadlines, preparing for competition and ensuring inclusivity.

In the coming school year, students and teachers will have to remain flexible during a fluctuating public health emergency, said Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of the Society for Science and Publisher of Science News. Through the Advocate Program, we hope students continue to participate in meaningful and transformative science research experiences. We hope this program continues to be a catalyst for underrepresented students to consider future STEM careers. The 66 Advocates are a truly amazing group of mentors for the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Twenty-seven returning Advocates have shared that the program kept students engaged in scientific research and competition despite the pandemic last year. In the last month, just as the U.S. population saw COVID-19 restrictions lift, infection rates decline and vaccination rates soar, and the educational community was shifting back to some form of normal, the delta variant began to spread. In the upcoming school year, we can expect a changing roadmap to dictate student learning in a variety of environments (i.e. in-person, remote or hybrid) and that schools will vary their safety protocols across the nation. Throughout this flux, returning and new Advocates will seek to keep their mentees engaged.

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The Advocate Program uses a tiered mentorship model, where educators are not only mentoring their students and raising future generations of scientists and engineers, but they are also mentoring, learning from and evolving supportive relationships with each another. Advocates will further develop their science research programs in another unusual year, connect with professionals in the science community and meet like-minded educators who value authentic student research and the educational opportunities that science competitions offer.

To date, Advocates have supported more than 4,000 students during their participation in the program, of which, 3,076 students have successfully competed in at least one science research competition. During the 2020-2021 cycle, approximately 80 percent of student mentees participated in science competitions at the local and/or national level. Moreover, students of Advocates are responsible for over 5,000 unique competition entries, with many students entering more than one competition. Ninety percent of those students are from low-income households and 70 percent are of a race or ethnicity underrepresented in STEM.

This year, the Advocates are from 31 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and include 23 middle school teachers, three who work with both middle and high school students, 29 high school teachers, six affiliated with universities and five out-of-school educators.

The following are 2021-2022 Lead Advocates, who will oversee groups of Advocates:

McKenzie Baecker, Two Rivers Public Charter School (Washington, DC) Scotti Benton, Jasper County Middle School (Monticello, GA) Elizabeth Bieri, Holy Family Cristo Rey Catholic High School (Birmingham, AL) Robin Driver, Eisenhower High School (Yakima, WA) Reshawndra Hutchins-Trapp, Elite Scholars Academy (Jonesboro, GA) Jeremy Jonas, Tucson High Magnet School (Tucson, AZ) Sam Loftus, Shasta Middle School (Eugene, OR) Yajaira Torres-De Jesus, Colegio Rosa Bell (Guaynabo, PR)

The following are 2021-2022 Advocates:

Adenike Akinyode, Eastside High School (Gainesville, FL) Laura Alberici da Barbiano, Blanson CTE High School (Houston, TX) Ramon Benavides, Del Valle High School (El Paso, TX) Dallas Bergstrom, Miller Career & Technology Center (Katy, TX) Caitlin Bonham, Kenwood Academy High School (Chicago, IL) Humberto Bracho, Frick United Academy of Language (Oakland, CA) Justin Brown, Kealakehe High School (Kailua-Kona, HI) Leslie Cannon, The ATLAS Academy at Tennyson Middle School (Waco, TX) Philip Clarke, Centennial School District (Gresham, OR) Cameron Cooley, Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering (Memphis, TN) Sarah Cooper, Southeast Career and Technical Academy (Las Vegas, NV) Renee Cordes, Flathead High School (Kalispell, MT) Christine Danger, University of Florida & Hillsborough Public Schools (Tampa, FL) Lakshmi Darbha, Aavanee (Frederick, MD) Dannielle Davis, Circle of Excellence Network (St. Louis, MO) Michelle Denson, Atlanta Public Schools (Atlanta, GA) Jessica Doiron, Freedom High School (Woodbridge, VA) Martrice Donaldson, School District of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) Lauren Dudley, Chapman University (Orange, CA) Mark Eastburn, Princeton High School (Princeton, NJ) Kathleen Galau, Thunder Mountain High School (Juneau, AK) Jennifer Gentry, Vanderbilt Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach (Nashville, TN) Christine Girtain, Toms River High School South & Toms River High School North (Toms River, NJ) Angela Groves-Price, WP McLean Middle School (Fort Worth, TX) Todd Ireland, 100 Black Men of Douglasville, Inc. (Douglasville, GA) Sunday Iwalaiye, Prince Georges County Public Schools (Laurel, MD) Karen Johnson, Evanston Township High School (Evanston, IL) Edwina Kinchington, Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy (Pittsburgh, PA) Andrea LaRosa, Westside Middle School Academy (Danbury, CT) Debra Las, John Adams Middle School (Rochester, MN) Gaurang Limachia, GoSTEM (Chicago, IL) Amy Mallozzi, Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR) Priscilla Martinez Fuentes, Homer Hanna Early College High School (Brownsville, TX) Margarette Marturano, Seminole Ridge High School (Wellington, FL) Erin Mayer, Casey Middle School (Boulder, CO) Allyson McFalls, Blowing Rock Elementary School (Blowing Rock, NC) Amy Melby, Yuma High School (Yuma, CO) Ryan Melton, Grenada Career and Technical Center (Grenada, MS) Jessica Menchaca, Del Valle ISD (Del Valle, TX) Raquel Miranda, Project Youth 4 Youth International (El Paso, TX) Lalitha Murali, Glen Hills Middle School (Glendale, WI) Jacqueline Nichols, Sunnyside Unified School District (Tucson, AZ) Bree Oatman, South Dakota Discovery Center (Pierre, SD) Susana Oliu, John Muir High School Early College Magnet (Pasadena, CA) Yolanda Pender-Bey, Mount Vernon Elementary School (Chicago, IL) Macy Pickman, USD 409 (Atchison, KS) Eileen Poserio, Wolf Point High School (Wolf Point, MT) Cecilie Prine, Lander Middle School (Lander, WY) Mary-Elizabeth Quan, Ontario-Montclair School District (Ontario, CA) Nate Rayor, Mescalero Apache School (Mescalero, NM) Carter Shank, Kings Science and Technology Magnet Center (Omaha, NE) Bradley Spencer, Weber School District (Roy, UT) Scott Troy, Westminster High School (Westminster, CO) Joshua Truitt, Hilsman Middle School (Athens, GA) Kiara T. Vann, Stratford STEM High School (Nashville, TN) John Wiley, Challenge School (Denver, CO) Sara Yeh, Ray Wiltsey Middle School (Ontario, CA) Jean Yoo, Almeria Middle School (Fontana, CA)

The Advocate Program is made possible by the Arconic Foundation, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Regeneron. In addition to receiving stipends, each Lead Advocate will supervise six to eight new Advocates with whom they host monthly calls, facilitating monthly reports on how their students are doing in their research endeavors and offering helpful guidance and support. Lead Advocates are returning educators who hold additional responsibilities; each hosts a session at an Advocate Training Institute and creates a webinar providing guidance to any educator seeking to bolster STEM research programs in their schools.

This past June, this years cohort attended a virtual Advocate Training Institute, where sessions covered topics such as research in hybrid learning environments, designing and implementation of a STEM research course, strategies to level up student research and using public resources to support student projects.

For additional information about the Advocate Program, visit: https://www.societyforscience.org/outreach-and-equity/advocate-program/

About Society for Science

Society for Science is dedicated to the achievement of young scientists in independent research and to public engagement in science. Established in 1921, the Society is a nonprofit whose vision is to promote the understanding and appreciation of science and the vital role it plays in human advancement. Through its world-class competitions, including the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, and the Broadcom MASTERS, and its award-winning magazine, Science News and Science News for Students, Society for Science & the Public is committed to inform, educate, and inspire. Learn more at www.societyforscience.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (Society4Science).

Contact Details

Society for Science

Aparna Paul

+1 781-375-8353

aparna@societyforscience.org

Company Website

https://www.societyforscience.org/

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/in-the-face-of-shifting-learning-environments-the-society-for-science-awards-214-000-to-66-educators-tasked-with-guiding-students-in-scientific-research-487172853
Facebook said Wednesday it's seeing signs that resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine is weakening both in the United States and abroad, though it acknowledged it still doesn't have hard numbers on how frequently misinformation is being shared on its platforms.

Why it matters: Facebook touts a survey showing improved attitudes toward the vaccines, but that survey finding raises questions, as other polling has shown significant and entrenched hesitancy, especially in the U.S. It also doesn't show that Facebook or other social media can be credited for any shift.

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When it comes to the spread of hate speech, child exploitation and other types of problematic content, Facebook says the key metric is prevalence  that is, how often such content is shown  and points to declines in such information appearing on its site. Hate speech, for example, represents just five posts in 10,000.

But Facebook said it doesn't yet have data to share when it comes to COVID-19 misinformation.

Instead, Facebook points to other statistics, such as how many times people viewed authoritative content about the vaccine, or how many users posted a profile picture frame highlighting their vaccination status.

The company acknowledged that anti-vaccine information is often less overt than changing a profile picture.

The other side: Critics blasted Facebook, with Accountable Tech executive director Nicole Gill saying that "Facebook is teeming with deadly vaccine misinformation."

"It is hard to overstate the shamelessness of Facebook executives who continue to portray the company as heroes of this pandemic and dutiful custodians of authoritative information," Gill said in a statement.

"You dont have to take my word for it  just spend a few hours on the platform," Gill said. "Or listen to the heartbreaking testimonials from health workers who have lamented their dying patients exposure to those viral lies."

The Biden Administration also criticized Facebook. In the middle of a pandemic, being honest and transparent about the work that needs to be done to protect public health is absolutely vital, but Facebook still refuses to be straightforward about how much misinformation is circulating  and being actively promoted  on their platform," White House spokesman Michael Gwin said in a statement to Axios.

Facebook also released for the first time a report on the most widely viewed content, including specific links and domains, aiming to show that such content is a mix that includes memes and nonprofit organizations.

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The New York Times' Kevin Roose has used Facebook's CrowdTangle data to show that the content that is most widely engaged with tends to be right-leaning political content.

Facebook's new data doesn't contradict these findings, but offers up a different metric.

"The narrative that has emerged is quite frankly wrong," Guy Rosen, Facebook's vice president of Integrity, said on a conference call with reporters. "We think it is really important for this data to be out there."

The big picture: Facebook has long argued that engagement as a proxy alone shouldnt be used to determine whats the most vital content in its platform. Instead, its argued that reach is a better metric.

But the tech giant for years has refused to release reach data, frustrating journalists that rely on engagement data from CrowdTangle.

Between the lines: Earlier this summer, the New York Times published a report that said Facebook was moving CrowdTangle over to its community standards enforcement team, to help it better identify threats.

Sources say this caused frustration among CrowdTangle employees, who worried about whether the data would still be visible enough to the public.

Facebook is now releasing reach data, but on its own terms.

The lists dont show whats garnering the most reach at any given time, like CrowdTangle does, but rather over larger chunks of time, to show generalized patterns.

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The claim: Gen. David Berger said the Marines wouldn't comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates

A fabricated story circulating on social media says the head of the United States Marine Corps is pushing back against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.

The article, published Aug. 10 by a website called Real Raw News, claims Gen. David Berger made a threat to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a private phone call.

"If you try to forcibly vaccinate even one of my Marines, you better come armed," the article quotes Berger saying to Austin.

The Pentagon announced Aug. 9 that, starting Sept. 15, all members of the U.S. military will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19. That date could be changed if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives the vaccines full approval or if infection rates continue to rise.

The Real Raw News article claims Berger told Austin "there will be no mandatory vaccinations for my Marines." As evidence, the website cites an anonymous "source in Gen. Bergers office who overheard a heated conversation" between Berger and Austin.

The article was widely shared in Facebook groups and subreddits with hundreds of thousands of members. But it's made-up.

Fact check: Story of Marine Corps leader rebuking Pelosi is fabricated

The Marine Corps told USA TODAY the article is not based in fact. Real Raw News has previously published made-up stories about a number of topics, including fabricated conversations between Berger and high-profile government officials.

USA TODAY reached out to Michael Baxter, the owner of Real Raw News, for comment.

Article is 'in no way factual or accurate'

The purported showdown between Berger and Austin detailed in the Real Raw News article never happened.

"The article you have referenced is satire and is) in no way factual or accurate," Capt. Andrew Wood, a spokesman for the Marine Corps, told USA TODAY in an email.

Two White House Marine sentries rehearse opening the front doors at the U.S. Capitol ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington.

A disclaimer on the Real Raw News website says it "contains humor, parody, and satire." But there is no such disclaimer on its article about Berger and Austin.

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Berger has not responded publicly to the Defense Department's coronavirus vaccine mandate. However, his purported comments in the Real Raw News article arent in line with Bergers past support for the vaccine.

In December, Berger tweeted a photo of himself receiving the vaccine, as the fact-checking website PolitiFact reported.

Fact check: COVID-19 vaccine protects both the person vaccinated and those around them

"As the vaccine becomes available, I encourage all Marines and their families to get the shot to slow the spread of the virus," Berger wrote in the photo's caption.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that Berger said the Marines wouldn't comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The Marine Corps told USA TODAY the Real Raw News article is inaccurate. Berger has previously expressed support for COVID-19 vaccination.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Marine Corps Gen. Berger didn't defy COVID-19 vaccination
DENVER (AP)  The FBI said Wednesday its agents are joining a criminal investigation into an alleged security breach of a rural Colorado county's voting equipment.

The agents are working with Mesa County prosecutors to determine if there was a criminal violation, FBI spokeswoman Courtney Bernal said in a statement.

The federal probe comes after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold alerted federal cyber security officials within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of the suspected May breach.

No elections have occurred since, and the federal officials confirmed the alleged breach posed no significant risks at this point, Griswold said earlier this week.

The allegations involve images of election management software used by Mesa County election's equipment that were obtained by conspiracy theorists.

Griswold's office said it believes one of the images was taken on May 23 from a secure room where the equipment was stored and accessed by Peters, another county elections worker and a non-employee.

Griswolds office identified the non-employee but refused to say anything more about who he is or why he was there. The Associated Press isnt naming him until more information becomes available. He has not been charged with a crime.

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters condemned Griswolds inquiry into the alleged security breach at an event last week in South Dakota hosted by My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, who has become well-known for his unwavering support of former President Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election because of widespread fraud. A range of election officials across the country, including Trumps former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that widespread fraud did not occur.

Peters said Griswold's investigation is an attempt at a takeover of Mesa Countys elections in one of Colorados last Republican strongholds. Peters also alleged the investigation is an attempt by Griswold and Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis to control the way you vote," she told the South Dakota audience.

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The dispute is the latest illustration of how the November 2020 election that is a distant memory for many remains front and center for some far-right Trump supporters. A Republican-led audit of Arizona ballots has been going on for months despite any evidence to support the review.

Accelerating the dispute on Wednesday, Griswold's office blasted the My Pillow chief executive as the chief misinformation spreader in a fundraising email and asked Colorado residents to donate to Griswold's reelection campaign to take action to show we stand with the truth, not with conspiracy theories created and spread by sore losers.

The federal inquiry adds yet another layer to the political brawl between Griswold, a Democrat and Peters, a Republican. The feud came to a head last week when Griswold accused Peters of assisting in the security breach by directing staff to turn off video surveillance of its voting equipment before a May 25 software update and allowing a non-employee into the elections office at that time.

Griswold appointed Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner to supervise the countys upcoming elections and a three-person advisory committee to assist Reiner. Griswold also ordered Mesa County to replace its voting equipment due to the posting of the countys voting equipment passwords on a far-right blog.

Colorados voting system has been praised by officials, including former Trump-appointed Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, as one of the nation's safest.

The states election procedures were developed under both Republican and Democrat-appointed secretary of states.

___

Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
School districts fight against the state government over mask mandates intensified on Tuesday. As the State Board of Education prepared to penalize two districts over their refusal to include a parent opt out in their mask requirements, one southwest Florida school board signaled its plans to hold a special session to follow suit. Even with the State Boards findings, both of the affected boards decided to hold the line regardless of the consequences. The battle continues today, with the Hillsborough and Miami-Dade districts prepared to weigh in. Read on for the latest on this story and more Florida education news.

The State Board rebuked the Alachua and Broward school districts for violating state laws and rules. It did not impose any specific penalties, instead opting to investigate further.  The Alachua School Board went on to extend its mask mandate for another eight weeks, regardless of the possible repercussions from the state, Mainstreet Daily News reports. More from the Gainesville Sun. Peruse this Twitter feed for an overview of the two meetings.  The Broward School Board also continued its mask mandate despite the state threat. It further allocated $5.5 million for equipment to allow quarantined students to attend remotely, WSVN reports.

More on masks

The Lee County School Board reviewed its mask rules on Tuesday. It received advice from medical professionals to mandate masks, WINK reports.

The Sarasota County School Board prepared to have a similar conversation. Amid concern over rising caseloads and strained resources, its board chairwoman planned to call an emergency meeting on masks this week, the Herald-Tribune reports. The district later set its session for 3 p.m. Friday, WFLA reports.

The Flagler County School Board considered imposing a universal mask mandate. The proposal failed at a raucous meeting, Flagler Live reports.

The legal arguments kept coming. The state moved to dismiss parents lawsuit challenging the Department of Educations order on masks, WKMG reports. More from Florida Phoenix.  Lawyers for the parents filed a separate motion opposing the dismissal request, Bloomberg reports.

Story continues

Many districts retained their opt-out provisions. In Seminole County, about 17 percent of students took advantage so far, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Survey says ... A new national poll shows support for school mask mandates, with differences among regions and political perspectives, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

Other coronavirus concerns

Two Charlotte County charter schools closed because of coronavirus outbreaks. They are scheduled to reopen Aug. 26, the Charlotte Sun reports.

The Broward County School Board wants employees to be vaccinated. It offered them $250 bonuses, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

Lee County parents are looking for data on virus cases in schools. The school district decided to create its own tracking system after the state stopped providing details, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

Palm Beach Countys health department director said contact tracing in schools works. Its helping control quarantine numbers, WPTV reports.

The Bradford County school district imposed restrictions on campus visits. Volunteers and non-essential visitors wont be permitted during the virus resurgence, WCJB reports.

School news

Some Pasco County parents and activists have continued concerns over the school district sharing student data with the Sheriffs Office. They rallied outside the School Boards meeting Tuesday and called for changes.

Miami-Dade County teachers are getting $100 gift cards. The money comes from a controversial donation from a district online education vendor, the Miami Herald reports.

The Jefferson County school district got initial permission to retake full control of its schools. It has to meet some conditions, though, the Jefferson County Journal reports.

St. Johns County opened a new high school to accommodate growth. Anticipated to begin with 1,170 students, it began with 1,350 teens on the first day, the St. Augustine Record reports.

Hes moving on. A top Duval County school district executive has taken a new job in the Polk County school system, the Florida Times-Union reports.

Time to reopen. Bay County schools will resume classes after two days away for Tropical Storm Fred, the Panama City News Herald reports.

From the court docket ... The Duval County school district will pay $300,000 in a settlement with a teacher who accused the district of violating her right to free speech, WJXT reports.  An Osceola County school resource officer videotaped slamming a student to the ground will not face charges, WKMG reports.

Dont miss a story. Heres a link to yesterdays roundup.

Before you go ... Sometimes its easy to forget that school isnt only about students and their teachers. Many other people play pivotal roles in ensuring the days go smoothly for the children. The Pinellas County school district has created some short videos highlighting some of the staff members who fill those roles. Meet the food and nutrition manager at High Point Elementary.

  

Sign up for the Gradebook newsletter!

Every Thursday, get the latest updates on whats happening in Tampa Bay area schools from Times education reporter Jeffrey S. Solochek. Click here to sign up.
LA PAZ (Reuters) -Former Bolivian President Jeanine Anez was briefly taken to a hospital from jail on Wednesday, her third hospital trip in two weeks.

Doctors said she had a thorax exam and is suffering from hypertension. She has since returned to the jail. One of the attorneys who represents Anez, Norka Cuellar, told journalists the former leader's condition was "serious," without elaborating.

Anez was detained earlier this year over accusations that she participated in a coup to oust longtime leader Evo Morales in 2019. She denies the allegations and says she is a victim of political persecution. She is being held in jail while she awaits trial.

Bolivia is now governed by socialist President Luis Arce, who belongs to Morales' party.

Since being jailed, Anez has suffered several health scares, and doctors have said she has hypertension and some mental health issues.

Wednesday's hospital visit "was not coordinated with the family or with the lawyers," said Luis Guillen, another attorney who represents Anez. "In an abrupt, sudden way, she was taken today from her jail... and taken to this hospital without us knowing anything about the reasons."

Last week, Anez was twice taken to a hospital near where she is being held in La Paz. On Wednesday, she was taken to a separate facility in the nearby city of El Alto.

(Reporting by Danny Ramos, Writing by Marcelo Rochabrun, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Aug. 18In the days that followed Battalion Chief Joshua Laird's death from injuries he sustained in an Ijamsville house fire, an army of people mobilized to support his family.

Droves gathered in the drizzling rain to salute his casket as a procession transported it to a Taneytown funeral home. Others made meals for his family or donated what they could to a memorial fund. As of Tuesday afternoon, a fundraising page for the family had brought in more than $125,000.

Frederick's business community has contributed in its own way to the rush of generosity emanating throughout the county. A Facebook page created to organize support for the Laird family is filled with posts from local business owners, announcing fundraisers for the firefighter's memorial fund and offering services to his wife and daughters for free.

Dr. Steven Tan and his wife, Dr. Ashley Wong, still have a month before their health care center, Pediatric Eyes and Smiles, opens in Urbana, but the two have offered free dental and eye care to Laird's daughters until they turn 18 years old. Tan and Wong have two young children themselves, and on the night of Laird's death, Tan said he couldn't sleep.

Laird, who served 21 years in the county division of fire and rescue services, paid the ultimate sacrifice, Tan said. Offering free health care to his children is "the least, honestly, my wife and I can do," he said. Tan and Wong live minutes away from the house where Laird responded to his last alarm. Their business is also located nearby.

Following Laird's death, Katie Silver, who owns Silver Psychotherapy in Ijamsville, felt similarly pulled to help the family. She's been providing mental health treatment to first responders, military and police officers for 17 years and also grew up in the county. On Facebook, she offered pro-bono grief and trauma therapy to Laird's wife and two daughters.

"I can't imagine doing anything other than lending support to the family," she said.

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This coming Saturday, The Buzz Cafe in Monrovia will be partnering with a local realtor to raise money for the Laird family. Between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., Josie Medwick  as well as Cross Country Mortgage and Impact Maryland Real Estate  will be matching the cost of every cup of coffee sold and donating it to Laird's wife and daughters.

The Buzz is located less than a mile away from the Green Valley Fire Station, which was where Laird was assigned at the time of his death.

"My husband's in law enforcement and I have a lot of law enforcement friends," Medwick said. "I support and stand behind them 100 percent. So, when I heard about Laird, I had to help. It didn't matter to me what I was doing, I just had to help."

Dublin Roasters Coffee, located on North Market Street in Frederick, is also raising money in honor of Laird. Through next month, the coffee shop will be donating $5 to the Laird Memorial Fund for every bag it sells of its "Fire Ground Blend."

Since Serina Roy posted about the fundraiser on Facebook Monday afternoon, more than 50 people have put in orders for the blend, she said. Many have attached notes to their orders, sharing stories of how they knew Laird or voicing their desire to honor him.

"COVID helped everybody come together," said Roy, the owner of Dublin. "I watched businesses work together and people help other people. This feels very similar. I've never seen this volume of outpouring for a person that's passed away in our service industry. This has been amazing."

It wasn't until recently that Roy realized that her path had crossed with Laird's while he was alive. Dublin Roasters used to be located in New Market, across the street from the fire department there. Laird was assigned to that post at the time, and he would bring his buddies into the shop when he could smell the coffee roasting.

Laird's death struck a personal note for Roy in another way, too. Before she became a police officer for the city of Frederick, she used to volunteer for the United Steam Fire Engine Company downtown.

"Once you're in either of those two families, you're there forever," she said.

Follow Angela Roberts on Twitter: @24_angier
(Pool/AFP/Getty)

The G7 nations will have accumulated close to a billion spare vaccine doses by the end of 2021, analysis suggests, as campaigners warn that unequal access to the Covid jabs will prolong the pandemic and endanger millions of lives across the globe.

A billion vaccines would be enough to help protect the 30 least-vaccinated countries, the majority of which are in Africa.

Scientific advisers to the UK government have urged ministers to take more action in supporting overseas vaccination efforts to combat rising global infections and to prevent the emergence of new variants, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has condemned international leaders for stockpiling doses and making them unavailable to the rest of the world.

Yet analysis from science analytics company Airfinity suggests that, by the end of the year, Britain and its fellow G7 nations will have hoarded 977,813,000 of leftover vaccine doses that are desperately needed in some of the worlds poorest countries.

Many of these nations  including Namibia, Sierra Leone, Gabon and Macedonia  wont have immunised even 20 per cent of their populations by the beginning of 2022, according to current vaccination rates.

In line with current uptake rates across Europe, Airfinitys analysis assumes that 80 per cent of people aged 16 and over will have received two vaccine doses throughout the course of each G7 nations rollout. It also factors in the administration of booster shots to high-risk populations from September 2021.

Even then, Airfinity estimates that the G7 nations  UK, US, Germany, Italy, France, Canada and Japan  will still have 1,723,513,000 doses left over between them once their vaccination and booster programmes are completed.

Some 745,700,000 of these are to be donated to the Covax vaccine-sharing initiative in the coming months, leaving just under 1 billion spare doses.

But campaigners do not believe these donations will be enough to bridge the widening gap between those with access to the jabs, and those currently without.

Story continues

Luke Gibson, a Covid-19 vaccine campaign manager at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said: With new and dangerous variants spreading across the globe, it is in everyones interests to ensure everyone, everywhere is vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible.

The fastest way to save lives right now is for high-income countries to stop hoarding Covid-19 vaccine doses, and immediately redistribute their excess doses to low- and middle-income countries.

Earlier this month, the WHO called for a moratorium on booster shots in an attempt to vaccinate 10 per cent of every countrys population by the end of September. According to Oxford Universitys Our World In Data, 70 countries have yet to reach this figure.

The 30 countries with the lowest vaccination rates  encompassing more than 977 million people  have not even surpassed the 2 per cent mark.

Nations such as Nigeria, Mali, Sudan, Liberia, Cameroon, Chad and Yemen have meanwhile vaccinated less than 1 per cent of their populations, Our World in Data shows.

Every day, every hour, people in developing countries are dying with no hope of a vaccine, while rich nations stockpile billions of doses, said Max Lawson, head of inequality policy at Oxfam.

The UKs scientific advisory group for emergencies urged the government last month to ramp up its efforts in supporting international vaccination programmes.

Unless more is done to increase oversees vaccination rates by sharing doses or supporting increased manufacturing, the continued global circulation of Covid-19 will lead to the evolution of new dangerous variants, the experts warned.

Both Oxfam and MSF have also called upon the global community to approve the sharing of vaccine blueprints between manufacturers. This would allow more drugmakers across the world to produce doses, they say.

For the world to overcome Covid-19, pharmaceutical companies must share their vaccine technology and know-how with manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries so more vaccines can be made in more places across the world, said Mr Gibson.

Oxfam said that objection to the proposals was a crime of historic proportions.

All G7 nations have outlined their intentions to donate millions of doses to the Covax scheme, which is co-led by the WHO, Gavi and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

The US is to hand over 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the worlds poorest nations, while the UK has said it will donate 100 million through Covax.

In June, the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, said he would urge G7 leaders to commit to vaccinating the world against Covid-19 by the end of next year.

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The possibilities are endless  or are they? The evolutionary journey that Covid could take

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The Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board inched toward a possible takeover of elections in Fulton County after a Wednesday vote to appoint a bipartisan panel to investigate Fulton County.

Republicans in Georgia have long sought state control of the election review process in Fulton County, especially after it rendered a key victory for Democrats in the 2020 election. The county was also one of the key locations of former President Donald Trump's election fraud claims, despite an independent monitor finding no evidence of irregularities.

"The narrative driving this pressure has been influenced by disinformation surrounding the November 2020 election, but the fact remains that Fulton County voters have reported numerous problems for far longer than November 2020, particularly surrounding registration and absentee ballots," election board member Sara Tindall Ghazal said following a vote to appoint three people to conduct a performance review of Fulton County elections, the Associated Press reported.

GEORGIA REPUBLICANS SET PROCESS IN MOTION FOR STATE TAKEOVER OF FULTON COUNTY ELECTIONS

Members of the three-person panel include Republican Ricky Kittle, chairman of the Catoosa County Elections Board; Democrat Stephen Day, a member of the Gwinnett County Elections Board; and Ryan Germany, general counsel for Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The review board is assigned to conduct a full and thorough investigation of election equipment, registrations, elections, and compliance with state law. The board will then issue a report sharing its conclusions.

The formation of the review panel comes as Republican lawmakers asked for an investigation into Fulton County's handling of elections last month. The GOP lawmakers said they want the review to ensure that election officials in Fulton County, which consists of nearly 11% of the state's electorate, have been appropriately following state voting laws.

Story continues

The Georgia panel's investigation will take roughly 90 days from the request before a preliminary hearing is held over the investigation's results.

The review follows an election integrity-related audit in Phoenix, Arizona, where the state Senate has subpoenaed 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 election to ensure that Maricopa County's election officials properly counted and certified the vote count. Still, the Fulton County review is not a full forensic audit and aims to ensure county election officials have been following proper procedures.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

President Joe Biden received nearly 73% of the vote in Fulton County, while Trump was favored by 26% of residents. Biden garnered 243,904 more votes in the county. Trump lost the state of Georgia by approximately 12,000 votes, and Republican allies of the former president have sought to contest the ballot counts throughout the state, particularly in Fulton County, after election officials were slower to report tallies in the aftermath of the election.

The Washington Examiner contacted the Georgia State Election Board but did not immediately receive a response.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Georgia, Election, Republican, 2020 Elections, Atlanta, trump, Joe Biden

Original Author: Kaelan Deese

Original Location: Georgia GOP-controlled board inches toward possible takeover of elections in Fulton County
Hurricane Grace made landfall along Mexico's eastern Yucatan peninsula Thursday, clocking winds of 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour as the National Hurricane Center warned of a "dangerous storm surge" in the area.

The center said in its last update that the Category One hurricane -- the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale -- was 10 miles from the town of Tulum on Mexico's Caribbean coastline.

On Wednesday, as the Hurricane approached Mexico ground flights and forced tourists in some hotels along the Riviera Maya to hunker down overnight in storm shelters.

At least 124 flights to or from Cancun were canceled, the city's mayor, Mara Lezama, said on Twitter.

"Hotels in Tulum have been evacuated and the tourists taken to various hotel shelters," said Carlos Joaquin, governor of the southeastern state of Quintana Roo.

Another 125 people from neighboring municipalities were also evacuated, while sea crossings to nearby islands were suspended and ports were closed, he said on Twitter.

After it has crossed the Yucatan, the storm was expected to move over the southwest Gulf of Mexico before lashing the eastern states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas.

Grace was "expected to bring strong winds and a dangerous storm surge" to parts of the Yucatan, according to the NHC.

"Heavy rainfall from Grace will likely result in areas of flash and urban flooding, and will also be capable of producing mudslides," it said.

The storm surge will be accompanied by "large and destructive waves" near the coast, the NHC warned.

Businesses on the Riviera Maya boarded up windows, while fishermen and tour operators hauled their boats onto land and tourists soaked up the final hours in the sun.

At supermarkets in Cancun, some residents stocked up on food in preparation for the storm's arrival, although the authorities called on people to avoid panic buying.

"We don't know what it will be like," said 41-year-old housewife Hortencia Rodriguez.

Story continues

"With Wilma we didn't prepare and we were hit hard," she said, referring to a Category 5 hurricane that pummeled Cancun in 2005.

Authorities in Quintana Roo set up 85 shelters for people who needed refuge from the storm.

bur-dr/sw/ssy/jfx
President Joe Bidens chaotic exit from Afghanistan has sent a shiver of frustration and bewilderment through allies at home and abroad who regarded his inauguration as a break from former President Donald Trumps oft-haphazard approach to foreign policy.

I think that what has happened shows that Europe needs to develop this famous strategic autonomy' in order to be ready to face challenges that affect us eventually, European Union High Rep. Josep Borrell, a former Spanish politician who now leads the blocs diplomatic corps, told reporters Tuesday.

That ideal of "strategic autonomy" was the litany of the EU smart-set during the Trump years. Bidens inauguration was heralded in Brussels as the magic moment when an intemperate former reality TV star would give way to a president with decades of experience, flanked by a host of advisers lauded for their professionalism and competence. Now, Bidens allies at home and abroad are stunned to see him follow Trumps line in Afghanistan and compound that choice with mismanagement.

In implementing this flawed plan, I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal, said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, on Tuesday. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will continue fulfilling its oversight role with a hearing on U.S. policy towards Afghanistan, including the Trump administrations flawed negotiations with Taliban, and the Biden administrations flawed execution of the U.S. withdrawal.

WHITE HOUSE CONCEDES FAIR AMOUNT OF DEFENSE EQUIPMENT NOW IN TALIBAN HANDS

German politician Armin Laschet, the heir-apparent to outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel, described the situation even more harshly.

This is the greatest debacle that NATO has seen since its foundation, and it is an epochal change that we are facing, he said this week.

Thats the kind of criticism European officials might have expected Trump to earn rather than Biden, given the former president described the alliance as obsolete during his campaign to win the White House in 2016. NATO officials and European leaders heaved a sigh of relief when Biden defeated Trump. Still, they learned with respect to Afghanistan that Biden would be much more friendly than Trump, as one official put it  but not any more deferential to European views.

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At the moment when the Biden administration took over earlier this year, most of the European allies, they preferred to keep a very limited military presence, the European official told the Washington Examiner. The Biden administration decided that they wanted to complete the withdrawal ... They were willing to talk to allies, to listen to them, but the decision was still their decision.

In June, Biden said he had strong consensus among the leaders ... on Afghanistan during his appearance at the NATO summit in Brussels. That statement belied the disagreement over his decision to withdraw so soon after taking office, and the fall of Kabul just months later has caused transatlantic frustration to break into public.

It looks like NATO has been completely overtaken by American unilateral decisions, former British national security adviser Peter Ricketts told Financial Times. First of all, Trumps decision to start talking to the Taliban about leaving and then the Biden decision to set a timetable.

Ricketts continued: The Afghanistan operation was always going to end sometime. It was never going to go on forever. But the manner in which its been done has been humiliating and damaging to NATO.

When confronted with an impassioned appeal from an Afghan journalist who questioned why "the Western countries and the European Union try to make the same mistakes as the United States, Borrell pinned the blame for the current crisis on Bidens continuation of Trumps policies.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

You know, it is not the European Union who decided to leave Afghanistan, Borrell replied. It has been a decision of [former] President [of the United States, Donald] Trump, who negotiated this with the Taliban. And this decision has been implemented later by the following American administration ... And this could have been managed in a better way, for sure.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Foreign Policy, National Security, Taliban, Joe Biden, Afghanistan, Bob Menendez, Senate Foreign Relations, NATO, European Union, War in Afghanistan

Original Author: Joel Gehrke

Original Location: 'Greatest debacle that NATO has seen: Biden stuns allies with Afghanistan mistakes expected of Trump
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek firefighters on Wednesday battled a wildfire raging through one of the last remaining pine forests near Athens and said that homes could be at risk.

More than 500 wildfires have broken out in recent weeks across the country, ravaging swathes of forest and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people.

"he flames are huge. I do not know what will happen, the fire is approaching homes," Lefteris Kosmopoulos, deputy local governor of the Western Attica region, told state TV ERT.

Buses were on standby in Vilia, about 50 km (30 miles) from Athens, to evacuate residents if needed, as strong winds fanned a fire that started on Monday but had seemed under control. About a dozen smaller villages have been evacuated since Monday.

About 400 firefighters, assisted by additional firefighters from Poland, 15 helicopters and six firefighting planes, were dispatched to the area.

The biggest fire of the past few weeks, on the island of Evia near the capital, burned for days before being contained, ravaging swathes of forest in the north of the island.

Like other countries across the Mediterranean region including Turkey and Tunisia, Greece has seen some of its highest temperatures in decades this summer.

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Gareth Jones)
A new survey of college students finds that the hard seltzer trend isn't going away.

The big picture: The shift among young adults toward spiked seltzers  and away from cheap beer  will prompt lasting changes in the alcohol industry.

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By the numbers: After a pandemic boom, recent sales data indicates that interest in hard seltzer brands might be slowing, with the spiked seltzer maker Boston Beer warning in late June that earnings would come in below analyst forecasts.

Yes, but: No one has told college kids about that.

Axios received an early look at a new survey of college students' drinking preferences and brand perception from the polling and research firm Generation Lab.

Respondents were asked to rank 13 alcoholic brands  a mix of beers, wines and hard seltzer. The results show that seltzer industry leader White Claw was seen as the coolest brand, while White Claw and its rival Truly were viewed as "on the rise."

What they're saying: While beer brands like Bud Light and Corona were viewed by respondents as having the most brand exposure  mostly through ads  the seltzer brands "are something respondents were increasingly seeing at parties and other social events," says Cyrus Beschloss, CEO of Generation Lab.

The bottom line: While hard seltzer sales might level off  in part due to the reopening of bars  beer and hard liquor drinking trends for young people "are changing in a way that seems relatively permanent, and they're going to stay with seltzer," Beschloss says.

More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free
After a 13-year-old Mississippi girl died from COVID-19 complications over the weekend, national media outlets and political commentators have jumped at the opportunity to question governor Tate Reeves decision not to mandate masks in the states schools, and they are accusing him of downplaying the impact of the virus on kids.

During a brief segment on Tuesday about Smith County eighth-grader Mkayla Robinsons death, Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of MSNBCs Morning Joe, pointed responsibility at Reeves. Thats on him, she said, after playing a clip of the Republican governor defending his decision not to re-institute a mask mandate in the states schools.

If you look at those individuals under the age of 12, what you find is that it is very rare that kids under the age of 12 have anything other than the sniffles. Does it happen from time to time? Sure it does, Reeves said at a Friday press conference, one day before Mkaylas death.

There have been 392,309 cases of COVID-19 in Mississippi since the start of the pandemic, and 7,880 deaths, according to the Mississippi Department of Health. Only five of those deaths have been children, including Mkaylas.

Few details surrounding Mkaylas death have been released, including if she was vaccinated or if she suffered from any co-morbidities that may have left her more vulnerable to the virus. Attempts by National Review to reach the local coroner were unsuccessful on Tuesday.

Mkaylas death was first reported on Facebook by a local Mississippi newspaper, the Smith County Reformer, which said she died of complications from COVID. According to local news accounts, the teen attended school last week before coming down with a sore throat on Thursday. She was diagnosed with COVID on Friday and died on Saturday.

Reeves instituted a school mask mandate last year, but has so far declined to re-institute it this year, pointing at the relatively small number of kids who have died from COVID in Mississippi.

Story continues

I dont have any intention of issuing a statewide mask mandate for any category of Mississippians at this time. I dont know how I can say that differently other than the way Ive said it repeatedly for a number of days and weeks and months, Reeves said at the Friday press conference. He also said updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling for masks in schools was foolish, and reeking of political panic.

Attempts by National Review to reach Reeves and his press secretary on the phone and by email were unsuccessful on Tuesday.

A story in the Mississippi Free Press accused Reeves of downplaying the virus. Other news outlets, including Rolling Stone and People, also have published stories linking Mkaylas death to Reevess decision to forgo a mask mandate in the states schools.

Students in Smith County started the school year on August 6 with no mask mandate, but changed course on August 10 after dozens of students and educators tested positive for the virus. Mississippi is one of the states thats been hard hit by the fast-spreading delta variant. Only 36 percent of Mississippians are fully vaccinated against the virus, according to a New York Times tracker.

More from National Review
A court will deliver its verdict Friday against Paul Rusesabagina, the "Hotel Rwanda" hero turned government critic, who is charged with terrorism in a trial supporters say is politically motivated.

Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for Rusesabagina, the 67-year-old former hotelier credited with saving hundreds of lives during the 1994 genocide, and whose bravery inspired the Hollywood film.

Rusesabagina, who used his subsequent celebrity to denounce Rwandan leader Paul Kagame as a dictator, was arrested in August 2020 when a plane he believed was bound for Burundi landed instead in Kigali.

His family say Rusesabagina was kidnapped and have dismissed the nine charges against him, including terrorism, as payback by a vengeful government for his outspoken views.

The hearings against Rusesabagina and 20 other defendants started in February.

But Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen and US green card holder, has boycotted the trial since March, accusing the court of "unfairness and a lack of independence".

"Any questions of a legal case or a trial are an impolite fiction -- a show put on by the Rwandan government to silence a critic and chill future dissent," the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation, a charity founded by him, said in June.

The United States, the European parliament, and Belgium have raised concerns about his transfer to Rwanda and the fairness of his trial.

"In a country where freedom is limited, all power rests in the hands of the executive. How would a judge dare make a decision inconsistent with the desires of the President of the Republic?" opposition leader Victoire Ingabire, who spent six years in prison for terrorism, told AFP.

The judge presiding over the case, Antoine Muhima, has defended the proceedings, saying none of the accused has been denied the right to speak.

- Hero to villain -

Rusesabagina was the former manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali, where he sheltered hundreds of guests during the genocide that left 800,000 people dead, mostly ethnic Tutsis.

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A decade later the American actor Don Cheadle played Rusesabagina, a moderate Hutu, in the Oscar-nominated blockbuster that brought his story to an international audience.

Rusesabagina soon became disillusioned with the new Tutsi-dominated government led by Kagame, the rebel-leader-turned president whose forces ended the killings.

He accused Kagame of authoritarian tendencies and left Rwanda in 1996, living in Belgium and then the United States.

Abroad, he used his global platform to crusade for political change in Kigali, and developed close ties with opposition groups in exile.

Kagame's government accuses Rusesabagina of supporting the National Liberation Front (FLN), a rebel group which is blamed for attacks inside Rwanda in 2018 and 2019 that killed nine people.

"Must Africans/Rwandans not protect themselves from armed group attacks organised by dissidents? Or must innocent civilian victims be denied justice because one of 21 suspects is famous abroad?" Kagame's spokeswoman, Yolande Makolo, posted on Twitter on Sunday.

Rusesabagina has denied any involvement in the attacks, but was a founder of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), an opposition group of which the FLN is seen as the armed wing.

Seeking a life term, prosecutors in June said Rusesabagina "encouraged and empowered the fighters to commit those terrorist acts".

But his co-defendants gave conflicting testimony over the level of Rusesabagina's involvement with the FLN and its fighters.

His family has campaigned globally for his release, saying Rusesabagina is a political prisoner, and accusing Rwandan authorities of torturing him in custody.

In July, a media investigation claimed that Rusesabagina's daughter, Carine Kanimba, was spied on using Pegasus malware developed by Israeli company NSO.

Investigators confirmed that a cell phone belonging to Kanimba, a US-Belgian dual national, had been compromised multiple times.

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary said on Wednesday it had organised the evacuation of a group of 26 Hungarian nationals working as contractors from Afghanistan and they would return to Hungary shortly on a flight organised by another country.

Hungary is also sending its own evacuation mission to Afghanistan to help other Hungarians still in Kabul, deputy foreign minister Levente Magyar told a news conference.

"We are now relying on the goodwill of those Talibs against whom we have been fighting a war for 20 years," Magyar said.

"Our goal is to help Hungarian citizens who got stuck there return home, this is our primary obligation now."

Magyar declined to give details about the Hungarian evacuation, citing security reasons.

Magyar said the Hungarian government was also willing to help a "few dozens" of Afghans and their families who had helped Hungarian forces in Afghanistan but firmly rejected the idea of accepting further asylum seekers who want to leave the country.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves;Editing by Alison Williams)
Illinois lawmakers are reacting to the stunning collapse of the government in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has taken control of a majority of territory after President Joe Biden began pulling out American troops, signaling the end of a costly two-decade U.S. campaign to remake the country after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Images of unrest and desperation at the airport in Kabul spread across the world Monday as the Taliban took the city and thousands of Afghans sought to flee.

In Peoria on Tuesday, Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin said they were caught off guard.

The Taliban conquered nine provincial capitals in 13 days, Durbin said. No one saw that coming. I didnt and those who briefed us didnt. We were trying to have an orderly evacuation of Americans and the circumstances overwhelmed us.

Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger told CNN there is plenty of blame to go around.

The Republicans have failed you and the Democrats have failed you, Kinzinger said. The last president failed you on Afghanistan, and this one is failing you on Afghanistan.

Republican Congressman Rodney Davis said this is an example of the problems with Bidens foreign policy.

I dont care if you are a Democrat or a Republican, what we see in Afghanistan is absolutely heartbreaking, Davis said. This should not have a political litmus test. America should stand together against what the Biden administration has botched miserably.

Davis added that the Taliban now has control of more territories than they did before 9-11, more room for al-Qaida operatives to operate and a threat to American security.

Republican Congressman Darin LaHood, who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation, released a statement on the situation in Afghanistan.

President Biden and his Administrations failure of leadership has enabled a return to a pre-9/11 Afghanistan  creating a fertile breeding ground for radical terrorism to grow once again. President Biden has abandoned men and women who served as local partners in Afghanistan, endangered the lives of innocent women and children, and disrespected the sacrifice of the brave men and women in our military who served the United States and kept Americans safe throughout the last 20 years. President Biden owns the horrific scenes to come from Afghanistan and his actions threaten the security of America and our allies.

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Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also issued a statement.

Right now, my attention is focused on the evacuation, which includes ensuring our nation leaves absolutely no stone unturned in our efforts to secure the safe return of my constituents, including American hostage Mark Frerichs, as well as all Americans in Afghanistan and on safely evacuating as many of our Afghan partners as possible.

Duckworths office is urging anyone who knows of any Illinoisan in Afghanistan who needs assistance to contact her office.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Illinois, Afghanistan, State

Original Author: Kevin Bessler, The Center Square

Original Location: Illinois lawmakers react to government collapse in Afghanistan
Aug. 18A 26-year-old woman from Middletown, New Jersey, was airlifted from Doubletop Mountain in Baxter State Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The woman  who was hiking with three other people  was descending to Kidney Pond when she suffered a lower leg injury, according to Park Director Eben Sypitkowski.

A helicopter was dispatched and a team was able to short-haul the woman to Kidney Pond and then later flew her to Millinocket Regional Hospital Tuesday evening where she was treated for injuries, he said.
Aug. 18More than 100 physicians representing both Joplin hospitals sent a letter to area school boards Tuesday night urging them to consider requiring "a policy of universal masking for the upcoming school year."

"We agree with the guidance from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics that in-person learning is preferable to virtual options for schooling and feel it is imperative to achieve a full year of in-person education. However, COVID-19-related outbreaks will result in school closures and quarantines, disrupting in-person education."

Later, the letter states: "To keep our kids in school and healthy, universal masking for Pre-K through grade 12 must be required for all students, teachers, staff and visitors on the school campus no matter vaccination status. This is consistent with both the most recent updated CDC guidance and guidance from the AAP."

The letter was signed by physicians from Freeman Health System, Mercy Hospital Joplin, KCU, and Via Christi in Pittsburg, Kansas. It went to school board members in Joplin, Webb City, Carl Junction, Carthage, Neosho, Seneca, McDonald County, East Newton, and Galena, Kansas. It also went to the Joplin Area Catholic Schools system, College Heights Christian School and Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School.

The letter begins by thanking board members and praising them for their efforts keeping COVID-19 numbers low last year among students and staff.

It then notes the threat this fall, particularly from the delta variant.

"We do not truly know the long-term effects from COVID-19, especially the Delta variant. With COVID-19 cases last year, we saw children with prolonged issues that can present weeks to months after initial infection, including heart, lung, kidney, blood vessel damage and death."

It also notes that a recent article in The Lancet, a British medical journal, found that four in 100 children hospitalized with COVID-19 may develop long-term neurological complications at a much higher rate than adults.

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"We currently know that the Delta variant is twice more contagious than the original COVID-19 strain and is now dominant in our community. Our local and regional hospitals have been inundated with COVID-19 patients, including children. Currently, our ICU beds in the Joplin area are at greater than 90% occupancy, mostly of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients."

The letter also noted that Monday, 11 of the 52 new cases in Jasper County were in children.

"This is a strikingly high percentage of a preventable disease," the letter states.

It also noted the low vaccination rates in Jasper County  29.8% of the population has initiated vaccination  and among Missouri children ages 12-17  35.5%  before noting the numbers are "far below" the numbers needed for herd immunity in the population, which is 70%-80%.

"Furthermore, there are no pediatric ICU beds in Joplin for children younger than 18; children will need to be airlifted to Kansas City or Springfield for care.

"There are two ways to protect from COVID-19 infection: Masks and vaccination. Currently, vaccination is only approved for children over 12 years of age. This leaves our youngest without a way to protect themselves even if they are willing to receive the vaccine. Masks work to reduce the spread of disease. Masks are a simple and cheap, lifesaving protective equipment. Cloth masks have been shown to decrease transmission of respiratory droplets, the main way COVID-19 is transmitted, by 50-70%."

It also noted there is no strong evidence that masks harm adults or children either psychologically or physically.

"With such a simple, cheap, safe and effective way to protect our children, why would we not choose to have universal masking?"

The letter notes that the Marion, Arkansas, school district has more than 1,400 students in quarantine after 140 positive cases. Superintendent Glen Fenter was quoted in the letter, "If our students had been under the same mask mandate that we administered last year, instead of 730 people quarantined. We would have had 42."

In Florida, Brevard Public Schools have 470 COVID-19 cases and 1,060 students and faculty in quarantine after only one week of school unmasked.

The letter then notes that some area schools are requiring masking  Springfield, and Fayetteville, Arkansas, as well Joplin Area Catholic Schools.

The physicians recommend:

"Universal masking for all indoor activities. Exemptions due to underlying medical conditions should be permitted with authorization from a licensed health care professional. Mask policies are enforced according to the code of conduct and honor code."

"Also, current CDC guidelines state that if someone is in direct contact (less than six feet for more than 15 minutes and are unvaccinated) they should quarantine at home and may be released with a negative COVID test on day seven. This is contrary to the guidelines established by the Joplin School District, which allow the exposed student to return to school wearing a mask if they exhibit no symptoms, or five days later with a negative test without wearing a mask. We strongly urge you to follow CDC guidelines in this regard."

The letter urges boards to look at data, science and the advice of health care profession, and "not succumb to the politicization and therefore, polarization that has occurred since COVID-19 began.

"We understand that personal choice matters, but the boards have other policies that go against it to save lives including a 'nut-free' policy that occurs at many schools. How is this any different?"

The letter ends by noting that without universal masking, school outbreaks "are inevitable due to COVID-19. Both the staff and students will suffer if this occurs, and parents will have an added burden of teaching their kids in a virtual environment. After-school activities, including sports, will suffer as well. This all could be avoided with a universal masking policy. Why not protect our kids to the fullest?"

Among those physicians who signed the letter were Eden Esguerra, an infectious disease specialist at Mercy Hospital Joplin, who was one of the first physicians in Joplin to receive the vaccine; Beth Garrett, a Freeman pediatrician; Robert McNab, director of the COVID-19 unit at Freeman; and Tracy Godfrey, president of Mercy Clinic Joplin.
The Daily Beast

Fox BusinessDonald Trump has had a lot to say about how Joe Biden has mishandled the withdrawal from Afghanistanbut, when given the chance to explain what he would have done differently, Trumps master plan boiled down to leaving the country in smouldering ruins before leaving it forever.The ex-president appeared on Fox Business on Tuesday morning to get some things off his chest a day after the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan. During a curious rant about how he believes unnamed shadowy force
Mali has suffered two military coups and an attempted assassination in the past year in addition to an ongoing jihadist insurgency.

Here is a timeline on the anniversary of the first military takeover:

- August coup -

On August 18, 2020, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is overthrown by a group of young army officers after months of protests sparked by perceived corruption and failure to quash jihadist violence.

The following day, Assimi Goita, a colonel believed to be in his late thirties, emerges as the new military strongman.

The coup is roundly condemned by the international community and the West African economic bloc, ECOWAS, imposes sanctions.

- Civilian interim president -

On September 12, the junta bows to international pressure and vows to allow full civilian rule within 18 months.

On September 21 former defence minister Bah Ndaw is made interim president with Colonel Goita as vice president.

A fortnight later a government is formed with the military holding the key posts. ECOWAS lifts its sanctions.

- Election dates set -

On April 15 the dates of presidential and parliamentary elections for a civilian transfer of power are set for February and March 2022.

- Government resigns -

With discontent with the military growing, the government of prime minister Moctar Ouane resigns on May 14. But he is put straight back in charge and 10 days later forms a new interim government, dropping some military figures from key posts.

- Army steps in again -

Army officers unhappy with the reshuffle promptly arrest Ouane and president Ndaw, enacting a second military takeover.

The international community demands their release, with France warning that the European Union could impose sanctions.

Colonel Goita says he stripped the pair of their powers for trying to "sabotage" the transition. But he says he will stick to the interim government's election deadline.

- The Goita enigma -

As the United Nations Security Council condemns the arrests, the junta says Ndaw and Ouane have resigned.

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On May 27 Ouane and Ndaw are reportedly freed, but ECOWAS says they remain under house arrest.

The following day Mali's constitutional court declares Goita transitional president. He promises that a new prime minister will be appointed within days.

- Out of ECOWAS, AU -

On May 30, Mali is suspended from ECOWAS, although the bloc stops short of reimposing sanctions. Two days later the African Union follows suit.

On June 3, France suspends joint military operations with Mali.

Despite the condemnation, Goita is sworn in as transitional president and promises that "credible, fair and transparent elections" will be held by February 2022.

He appoints a veteran political player, Choguel Kokalla Maiga, 63, as prime minister.

- Assassination bid -

On July 20, Goita survives an assassination attempt at Bamako's main mosque.

Five days later the government says the man accused of lunging at him with a knife has died in detention after "his health deteriorated".

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Aug. 18Masks must be worn in Rochester businesses and other indoor public spaces when children or medically vulnerable people are present.

The requirement started at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday when Mayor Kim Norton signed the document, and, without further action, lasts until 10:15 a.m. Friday.

Under state statute, a citywide emergency declaration requires action by the city council to extend it beyond three days.

The Rochester City Council is holding an emergency meeting at 3:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss options related to the declaration.

"If circumstances change drastically, if we have a big drop or they find better language they are comfortable with, I'm more than happy to find language they would support," Norton said Tuesday morning.

During Monday's council meeting, council members suggested the declaration might need new language to be approved.

"I see the vagueness of 'any place where kids are going to be' being pretty difficult to regulate," said council member Nick Campion.

Council member Shaun Palmer also raised concerns about requiring masks when medically vulnerable people are present, since the original version didn't define that status.

"We all could be considered (in that category)," he said. "I don't know who is expected to come into a bar or a restaurant that might have a condition, and I don't know what it is."

Norton updated the declaration Tuesday to include the CDC definition of "medically vulnerable," which includes people with cancer, chronic diseases, heart conditions, and other health issues.

"Council members a week ago said they wanted it to be narrow," she said. "I've done my best, working with the city attorney, to make it narrow, but I know that narrow also means it's not just 'everybody wears a mask.' "

She said the narrow focus offers some businesses flexibility.

"It does allow gyms for adults, bars, and that sort of thing to not mask because adults are either vaccinated or can make that choice, but children don't have that choice," she said.

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As of Sunday, 82.2% of eligible Olmsted County residents have received at least one dose of vaccine, with 78.1% being considered fully vaccinated.

That leaves 65.1% of the population fully vaccinated when all residents  including children younger than 12  are counted.

Norton said she's hoping people will acknowledge that the youngest residents remain at risk.

"I would ask the community to err on the side of safety," she said. "A child could be in the store or might be in right after you pass through an aisle. It doesn't hurt to wear a mask, even if a child isn't present."

The new mandate comes as Olmsted County is seeing increasing spread of the COVID-19 virus, despite having the state's highest reported vaccination rate for residents 16 and older.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the county saw 224 new confirmed COVID cases, a 28.7% increase, during the seven-day period that ended Sunday. It comes with a 6% positivity rate for COVID tests.

Additionally, local wastewater tests are revealing an increase in the ribonucleic acid specific to the coronavirus, according to Rochester Public Works Director Wendy Turri.

The RNA tests to determine the prevalence of the virus locally dropped to less than 5 copies per milliliter during the summer, after a November high in the 40s. Last week, results were in the teens, Turri said.

Working with Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota Rochester and Olmsted County Public Health, she said city staff recently increased testing to three or four times a week to get a better handle on trends.

Public Health Director Graham Briggs said trend data is important to make future decisions, since daily numbers often fluctuate.

"It's very hard to theorize what will be coming," he said of using the daily results.

Mayo Clinic infectious disease specialist Elis Berbari said last week local circumstances would be more bleak without the county's high vaccination rate.

"The vaccine is doing its job in preventing people from getting sick or being hospitalized, or requiring an intensive care unit," he said.

At the same time, he noted that vaccine effectiveness is waning in some cases, sparking discussion of booster shots earlier than expected.

Briggs told county commissioners Tuesday that his staff is starting to discuss options related to providing booster shots.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we see a third dose coming for everyone at some point," he said, noting that the county could administer up to 50,000 shots a week if doses are available, or the doses could be provided in doctor's offices or pharmacies.

Berbari said the more contagious delta variant, along with a vibrant local economy, means COVID isn't likely to disappear in the near future, as some had hoped.

"With the delta variant, it's clear this is something we are going to have to learn to live with," he said.

Briggs said he expects COVID-19 will become something that recurs in a milder form in the future.

"It's likely to become an endemic cold virus 10 years from now for our kids, grandkids," he said.

But the virus hasn't reached that stage yet, he warned, noting that it remains potentially deadly for people who haven't been vaccinated.

"There is going to be risk there until we develop immunity as a community, across the community," he said, offering encouragement for people to seek vaccinations and continue wearing masks.
TAMPA  The Olympics may be over, but the competition is just getting underway for the 240 athletes who will represent Team USA at the Paralympic Games next week in Tokyo.

Of the American athletes competing, several have Florida ties, including eight who will be making their Paralympic debuts.

The Paralympics will be televised across NBC, NBCSN and the Olympic Channel Tuesday (for opening ceremonies) through Sept. 5, between 9 p.m.-9 a.m. EST. The full schedule can be found online at www.olympics.com/tokyo.

Meet some of the athletes from Florida who will represent the United States.

Beatrice de Lavalette, 22, Lake Worth Beach, equestrian

By the time de Lavalette was old enough to walk, she was in a saddle riding horses in France. By 12, she joined a dressage and hunter seat equitation team. At 17, she lost both of her legs in the Brussels Airport terrorist bombing when she happened to be standing next to a bomber while waiting in line in March 2016. Five months later, she was back on her mare, Delegada X, after spending the first four months in the intensive care unit. In April 2017, she competed in her first para-equestrian show. She will be making her Paralympic Games debut.

Terry Hayes, 63, North Fort Myers, wheelchair fencing

Hayes is in her first Paralympics after placing ninth in team saber at the World Championship. She ranks sixth in saber and foil and seventh in epee in the U.S. Shes been fencing since 2016 after getting diagnosed with Primary Cerebellar Degeneration, a progressive brain disease, and becoming a full-time wheelchair user. She Googled wheelchair sports and found a video of Lauryn DeLuca fencing in at the 2016 Paralympic Games. At 63, she will be the oldest Category B fencer in Tokyo.

Kyle Coon, 29, Jacksonville, triathlon

Coon is set for his first Paralympics after finishing first at the World Triathlon Para Series in May in Yokohama, Japan. He lost his vision at age 7 due to a rare form of eye cancer, but it didnt stop him from hiking the Ankascocha Trail into Machu Picchu in 2006 or Mt. Kilimanjaro the following year at age 15. In 2018, he raced on a tandem bike from Oceanside, Calif. to Annapolis, Md. in a weeks time (seven days, 15 hours). Hes also the first totally blind person to finish an Ironman-branded triathlon, completing Ironman Arizona (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, 26.2-mile run) in less than 11 hours in 2018.

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Nicole Nicky Nieves, 31, Kissimmee, sitting volleyball

Nieves began playing sports at age 10, after her family moved to Kissimmee from Queens, N.Y. Despite being born without a left hand, she competed on the court for volleyball, as well as track and field and cheerleading. During her senior year at Gateway High School, she was named conference player of the year. She held the U.S. to a gold medal in sitting volleyball at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Luis Puertas, 34, Orlando, track and field

Puertas is another Paralympics first-timer, placing fourth in the 200-meter race at the World Championships in 2019. He was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq, with the U.S. Army in the fall of 2006 when his convoy was hit by an explosive device. He lost both of his legs after being trapped beneath the door of the armored vehicle he was traveling in. He took up para-running the following year after trying a number of different rehabilitation techniques, including para-swimming.

Emma Rose Ravish, 21, Alva, archery

Ravish will be making her Paralympics debut in recurve archery after winning a silver medal at the 2021 Para Pan American Championships. She lives by the mantra, God dont make no junk. Before she was born, her leg growth was stunted through her biological mothers alcohol and drug use while pregnant. Four days after her birth in Oregon, she moved to Florida with her new mother. She began playing sports in middle school but has been drawn to archery since 2010-11, when she competed at a camp in North Carolina.

Sereda is the second-oldest Floridian competing for Team USA. She retired from the Army in 2011 after 24 years of service but sustained neck, back and brain injuries in an automobile accident a year later. She began cycling in 2014 and was invited to her first para-cycling camps at the Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo, two years later. In 2017, She began racing internationally in 2017 and will compete in her first Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Brad Snyder, 37, St. Petersburg, paratriathlon

Snyder, a seven-time Paralympic medalist in swimming, says its not about the medals, its about the journey. Which is why the St. Petersburg native and Baltimore, Maryland, resident wants another shot at the Paralympics, this time in a new event. Snyder has competed in two previous Paralympics (London in 2012 and Rio in 2016), winning five gold medals and two silvers. The 2002 Northeast High School graduate went on to captain the U.S. Naval Academy team in 2005-06. But he stepped on an improvised explosive device in Kandahar, Afghanistan, while trying to help other bombing victims in September 2011. The explosion blinded him but did not affect his arms or legs. His eyes, however, had to be removed and replaced with prosthetics. A year after his accident, he won the first of his two gold medals in London in the 400-meter freestyle.

Jenson Van Emburgh, 21, Belleair Beach, table tennis

Part of the U.S. Junior Para National Team for the past nine years, Van Emburgh will be competing in the Paralympics for the first time. The Naples native and Seminole High School graduate was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury at birth. After first trying sled hockey, wheelchair tennis and basketball, he discovered a passion for table tennis. He won silver medals at the Pan American Championships in 2017 (singles) and 18 teams). His father, Greg, is a former tennis player who reached the doubles finals at Wimbledon in 1990.

Daryl Walker, 31, Jacksonville, goalball

Walker is aiming for a gold medal after winning silver in Rio in 2016. The three-time Paralympian has albinism, a genetic condition that reduces the amount of melanin pigment formed in the skin, hair and/or eyes, according to the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation. He first played goalball during a physical eduation class in 1996 at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind and has loved it ever since. He made his first national team in 2003, at age 21. Since then, hes competed in 12 countries, winning five national championships.

MeiMei White, 17, Orlando, swimming

White was born with a proximal femoral focal deficiency of her right leg, which resulted in multiple surgeries before her leg was amputated at 2 years old. At 5, she started swimming and hasnt stopped. She competed in her first World Para Swimming World Series in 2018, finishing third (400-meter freestyle), fifth (100 free) and sixth (50 free). She competed again in 2019 in Indianapolis, finishing first (100 breaststroke and 400 free) and third (200 Individual Medley). These are her first Paralympic Games.

Contact outdoors reporter Mari Faiello at mfaiello@tampabay.com. Follow @faiello_mari.
Aug. 18An attorney for the state Supreme Court Disciplinary Board again rejected a claim that the New Mexico attorney general and Albuquerque lawyer Marcus Rael had a conflict of interest in a proposed merger between Public Service Company of New Mexico and two out-of-state firms.

Jane Gagne, assistant disciplinary counsel for the board, was asked by New Energy Economy's Mariel Nanasi to review her original finding that Attorney General Hector Balderas and Rael had no conflict. Gagne performed the review last week and reiterated her initial ruling.

Nanasi had complained that when Rael was paid $400 an hour to work for Iberdrola of Spain in the merger proposal, Rael's friendship with Balderas and his numerous contracts with the Attorney General's Office constituted a conflict of interest.

A hearing examiner with the state Public Regulation Commission had found there was a conflict and ordered Rael to stop working for Iberdrola. Gagne said Rael has done so.
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP)  A Miami businessman accused of servicing Venezuela's fleet of Russian fighter jets in violation of U.S. sanctions was denied bail as a federal judge determined he was a flight risk due to extensive ties with the South American country's military.

Jorge Nobrega admitted to having been on several Venezuelan air bases, flown in military aircraft and having friends inside the military upon his recent arrest, a federal prosecutor said in an arraignment hearing Wednesday.

The case against the previously unknown Nobrega, which prosecutors said is likely to include money laundering charges, stands out from a bevy of other ongoing criminal investigations focused on corruption in Venezuela because it's one of the first to look into the dealings of Venezuela's military, a key plank of support for President Nicolas Maduro.

It also is likely to shed a light on how Maduro's socialist government began relying on Thailand's publicly-traded Tipco Asphalt, a longtime buyer of the country's crude oil, to make payments around the world once U.S. sanctions imposed in 2019 cut off its access to western banks.

Nobrega after his arrest Sunday at Miami's international airport spoke for more than two hours to investigators from the Department of Homeland Security and acknowledged receiving two payments in March 2020 from Tipco, prosecutor Kurt Lunkenheimer said in court.

More than 2.4 million euros ($2.8 million) allegedly was transferred between March and July 2019 from Tipco to a bank account in Portugal in the name of Nobrega's company, Achabal Technologies, according to federal investigators. Of that amount, the bulk was transferred to Nobrega's U.S. accounts. But about 1 million euros in the Portuguese bank remains unaccounted.

He may have the means to live nicely outside the United States if he were to flee, Lunkenheimer argued.

Judge Jacqueline Becerra agreed and said that his ties to Venezuela's government and the fact that he had a common law wife and two younger children living in Venezuela were also a factor in her decision to reject a request for bail that included offering up as collateral two Miami apartments as well as an Orlando home he still owns with his ex-wife.

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The criminal complaint and affidavit against Nobrega allege that his Miami company sold to Venezuelas military a suppressant foam to insulate fuel tanks on its Sukhoi combat aircraft from exploding under enemy gunfire.

In a recorded meeting with an unidentified informant, Nobrega allegedly bragged about meeting with Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and likened the technique to a form of dialysis that would save Venezuela the expense of sending the fleet in Russia for servicing.

He was allegedly paid for his work by Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA via Tipco.

An Associated Press investigation last year revealed how Venezuela had been relying on Tipco to blunt the impact of U.S. sanctions. In exchange for deep discounts on crude shipments, Tipco would pay PDVSAs obligations and deduct the amounts from what it owed the Venezuelan oil giant, according to records obtained by AP.

Tipco is not named as a defendant in the criminal complaint. But an investigator for the Department of Homeland Security, citing APs reporting, identified the Thai company as the third-party money launderer that collaborated with PDVSA to move hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Venezuelas socialist government.

U.S. sanctions against Maduros government make it illegal for U.S. firms  and those who assist them  from doing business with PDVSA except with a license from the U.S. Treasury Department. Additionally, any export of military equipment or services requires the approval of the State Department, which Achabal didnt have.

Documents obtained by AP show that Achabal received three payments totaling more than $3.6 million via Tipco between February 2019 and March 2020. Two other U.S.- registered vendors not affiliated with Nobrega received an additional $4.1 million in the same manner, according to the same records.

The documents  invoices, contracts, shipping records, and wire receipts  were provided to AP by a former PDVSA consultant located outside Venezuela on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Nobrega, a Venezuelan-American dual national, established Achabal in the 1990s. The company lists as its address on Florida corporate registry a small warehouse near Miamis international airport identified by giant sign for another company. Several other businesses are also registered at the same address.

There is no indication Tipco knew what services Achabal was providing Venezuela even as it acted as a financial intermediary allowing the company to evade compliance with sanctions.

But investigators obtained documents that suggest Achabal tried to hide its dealings with Venezuela, at one point presenting purchase orders from an Australian vendor specializing in fuel handling equipment to justify more than $800,000 in two transfers to Achabals bank account in Portugal.

Law enforcement is unaware whether these supporting documents reflect actual business dealings and are being reused by Nobrega to provide justification for the wire transfers, or whether they were completely fabricated, the federal agent said in his affidavit.

Tipco did not respond to a request for comment on the criminal complaint.

But CEO Chaiwat Srivalwat, in an email to AP last year, said that any payments to third parties at PDVSAs request strictly corresponded to its oil purchases from Venezuela.

Tipco is a PDVSA client, not the Venezuelan central bank, Jean-Pierre Pastor, Tipcos representative in Venezuela, wrote in bold and underlined text in an email to PDVSA in January 2020 complaining of the frequent requests for it to pay its vendors.

Tipco tried as much as possible to assist you in this difficult period, added Pastor, the brother of longtime Tipco board member Jacques Pastor, who has also served as the head of the Asia-Pacific office for Tipcos top shareholder, French road builder Colas. Lets hope you will not forget it.

___

Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman
Michael Keaton Christopher Polk/Getty Images

Is Michael Keaton about to cross from one Marvel universe to another? Don't ask him  the actor will likely have "no idea what you're talking about."

Keaton is set to make a highly-anticipated return as Batman in The Flash, as well as a return as the Vulture in the Marvel film Morbius. But it's safe to say he isn't exactly the biggest superhero movie expert on Earth, as he detailed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"After the first Batman, I'm not sure I've ever seen an entire [comic book] movie," Keaton told the Reporter. "I just never got around to it. So you're talking to a guy who wasn't in the zeitgeist of that whole world."

Keaton also discussed reprising the Vulture in Morbius, a return that surprised fans considering his character originated in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, but Morbius isn't officially part of that universe. The actor explained, though, that when the filmmakers walked him through various Marvel universe mechanics and plot points on the set of Morbius, it went just a bit over his head.

"I'm nodding like I know what the f--- they're talking about," he said. "I go, 'Uh-huh.' And I'm thinking, 'You may as well be explaining quantum physics right now to me.'"

After Keaton famously played Batman in 1989's Batman and its sequel, Batman Returns, The Flash will see his version of the character return alongside Ben Affleck's more recent version. While Keaton walked away from the role after two films, it sounds like he's ready to come back and crush it a third time.

"Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, 'I bet I could go back and nail that motherf---er,'" Keaton told the Reporter. "And so I thought, 'Well, now that they're asking me, let me see if I can pull that off."

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Lily Cole. David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Mother of Pearl

Lily Cole posted two pictures of herself wearing a blue burqa to Instagram.

Critics slammed the photos as culturally insensitive and ill-timed as the Taliban retook Kabul.

Cole apologized and said she "hadn't read the news at the time."

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The model and actress Lily Cole has apologized after posting images of herself wearing a burqa in an attempt to "embrace diversity" and promote her new book hours after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

In a series of now-deleted Instagram stories, Cole posted two images of herself wearing a blue burqa. In one of the photos, Cole's face is covered, and the caption links back to the promotional page for her new book on climate change.

Part of the caption read: "Let's embrace diversity on every level - biodiversity; cultural diversity; diversity of thinking; diversity of voices; diversity of ideas."

Cole was quickly slammed by critics who said her pictures were culturally insensitive and ill-timed as just days before Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, had fallen to the Taliban, raising concerns about the future of women's rights in the country. Under the last Taliban regime in the 1990s, strict rules mandated that women wore burqas specifically designed to cover the wearer from head to toe. Failure to wear one while in public could earn women severe punishments.

The British journalist Janice Turner posted Cole's original Instagram story with the caption: "Lily Cole and the vacuity of modern hashtag-feminism. Putting Instagram posturing before universal human rights. I bet Afghan women are celebrating the 'diversity' of wearing this shroud."

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Cole subsequently deleted the images from her Instagram story and published a statement of apology where she said she had shared "an old photo" of her wearing a burqa that had been loaned by a friend.

"As she pointed out I was undermining its original purpose by wearing it with my face exposed, but I understand why the image has upset people and want to sincerely apologize for any offense caused," the statement read.

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"I hadn't read the news at the time I posted so it was incredibly ill-timed. Thank you for pointing that out to me."

Cole continued to say that her "heart breaks reading about what is happening in Afghanistan." She then shared several news articles with information about Afghanistan as well as links to web pages that are raising funds for Afghan refugees.

The Taliban took control of Kabul on Sunday seizing power in Afghanistan 20 years after it was driven out by US-led forces. In its first press conference following the shocking takeover, Zabihullah Mujahid, the group's spokesman, said they would protect women's rights and press freedom.

"We are going to allow women to work and study. We have got frameworks, of course. Women are going to be very active in the society but within the framework of Islam," Mujahid said.

However, earlier this week, Insider's Sinead Baker wrote that there have been reports of women already being barred from schools and leaving home without a male escort in some of the regions of Afghanistan that have been captured by the Taliban.

Reuters also reported that women have also been forced from banking jobs.

Read the original article on Insider
The sudden fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has thrust the group's presence in the Qatari capital into the spotlight.

But what now for the sometimes controversial outpost which Doha gambled would boost its own diplomatic credentials?

- Why is there a Taliban office in Doha?

Located far from war-ravaged Afghanistan, Qatar nonetheless invited the Taliban to open a political office in Doha in 2013, with Washington's blessing as conflict in Afghanistan raged.

It was intended to be a base for Taliban negotiators, including accused militants, so the international community could engage the group politically.

The Qatar process got off to a rocky start, with controversy erupting soon after when the insurgents raised their flag above the high-walled villa.

Together with the Taliban branding of their mission as the office of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" -- the name they used during their 1996-2001 rule -- it provoked outrage in Kabul.

"The US increasingly pressured the Qataris to host some of the Taliban leaders that were released from Guantanamo," said regional analyst Andreas Krieg.

"The Taliban office then became more and more an integral part of the US strategy to negotiate a withdrawal from the country under the Trump administration."

Qatar maintained contact with the Taliban during its 1996-2001 rule but, unlike Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, never established diplomatic ties.

The Taliban nonetheless saw Qatar, which hosts the largest US airbase in the region, as a neutral host for talks.

- Did the office contribute to diplomatic efforts?

While the situation in Afghanistan was ultimately decided on the battlefield rather than around the negotiating table, analysts said that providing a political space for the Taliban was an important role for Qatar.

"Qatar has been at the centre of this diplomatic engagement for a really long time, and that can only happen because there's been a decent engagement with all sides," said Royal United Services Institute research fellow Tobias Borck.

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"Conversations were had; the deal the Trump administration made with the Taliban last year... required having this space."

Under the February 2020 deal, the US and its allies agreed to withdraw forces in return for Taliban security guarantees -- as well as an insurgent commitment to negotiate with the now defunct government.

In Doha in the days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Qatari capital's small community of Afghan emigres were disconsolate.

One man, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, teared up while watching a Taliban official speaking on an Afghan news channel.

"They (the Taliban) say a lot of good positive messages until they control everything -- then they will start the crackdowns," he said.

- What did Qatar get out of it?

Qatar was riding high when the Taliban and US signed their deal in February.

But critics have questioned why the Intra-Afghan Dialogue, a key proviso of the withdrawal deal, was erratic and faltering.

There will also be some who question whether Qatar could have done more to broker some sort of deal to avert a Taliban takeover.

"Partly due to Qatar's own capacity issues, they don't understand Afghanistan," said Michael Stephens, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

"(But) it was exactly what they wanted to be -- the centre of intercultural diplomacy.

"It was the image they were trying to cultivate."

- What does the future hold?

Now the head of the Taliban's political office and deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has returned to Afghanistan, aboard a Qatari air force plane, and it is unclear what role the Gulf outpost will play.

Several group members remain in Qatar, as does the former Afghan government negotiating team, who number around 20. They now face an uncertain future in Qatar.

"If the US rallies support to not recognise the Taliban government it will be hard for Qatar to" recognise the Taliban, said Krieg, suggesting the office would be unlikely to transform into a full embassy under those conditions.

"Qatar is likely going to follow the US lead on this while not jeopardising its standing as a mediator in this conflict," he said.

Borck said he was "sure Qatar will remain at the centre of the conversations that happen -- there isn't any viable alternative."

gw/dm/dv
People search for victims in a home destroyed by an earthquake in Haiti, on Aug. 15, 2021. AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn

Over 500,000 children in Haiti have been left without proper food, shelter, or clean water after an earthquake last week.

UNICEF said over 84,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, in addition to schools, hospitals and other infrastructure.

As of Tuesday, officials said the death toll in the disaster had reached over 1,900 people.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

More than 500,000 children have been left without proper food, shelter, or clean water after a powerful earthquake rocked Haiti on Saturday, UNICEF said on Tuesday.

The organization said both flooding and mudslides caused by a Tropical Storm Grace will likely further complicate the humanitarian response and worsen the situation of vulnerable individuals.

UNICEF also said over 84,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Schools, hospitals, bridges, and other public infrastructure have also been damaged by the back-to-back disasters.

"Right now, about half a million Haitian children have limited or no access to shelter, safe water, health care, and nutrition," said Bruno Maes, UNICEF's Representative in Haiti.

Haiti - which was still reeling from the assassination of its president in July - was struck by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Saturday. On Tuesday, officials said the death toll in the disaster had reached over 1,900 people.

The organization said it plans to mobilize additional supplies like education and recreational kits, as well as host community-oriented engagement activities to maintain support for children and prevent family separation. With its partners, UNICEF is working to provide emergency shelters, safe water reservoirs and hygiene kits.

Assessments conducted by UNICEF revealed plenty of destruction to schools in particular just weeks before they were set to reopen.

"It will be extremely difficult for parents, teachers, and the government to get children safely back to school just three weeks from now, when schools re-open on September 7," Maes said. "But it is so crucial for children who have just gone through this traumatic earthquake-plus-extreme weather experience, to have the normalcy and stability of being in a classroom with their friends and teachers."

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Over the last two years, children have been out of school for months on end, whether because of political instability or the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maes said putting children back in school is "perhaps the best way" to make sure students, families, and communities can recover.

UNICEF estimates it will need $15 million, subject to review and adjustment as the situation develops, to assist at least 385,000 people.

Those looking to help relief efforts can donate to charities such as UNICEF or Hope for Haiti.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A man cries Tuesday as he watches Taliban fighters violently attempt to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside the Kabul airport. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Taliban fighters wounded at least six people outside the Kabul airport, according to Marcus Yam.

The LA Times photographer captured photos of the violence, which he told CNN was "indiscriminate."

He said a Taliban fighter fired into "the crowd, smiling at another Taliban fighter as if it were a game."

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Marcus Yam, a photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times, captured harrowing images on the scene near the Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Crowds of Afghans at the Kabul airport on Tuesday. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Yam took photos of Afghans looking to flee the nation after Taliban forces regained control of the country over the weekend.

Afghans scatter as Taliban fighters use weapons maintain crowd control at the Kabul airport on Tuesday. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Taliban fighters used weapons like guns, whips, sticks, and sharp objects to maintain crowd control of Afghans looking to evacuate, Yam said.

Taliban fighters amid crowds of Afghans on the airport road in Kabul on Tuesday. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Yam said Afghans were waiting outside the airport to "try their luck" and get on a flight out of the nation, which is now under Taliban control.

A man cries as he watches fellow Afghans get wounded as Taliban fighters use weapons to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside the Kabul airport for a way out. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

"The violence was indiscriminate," the LA Times photographer told CNN's Anderson Cooper in a phone interview Tuesday evening. "It seemed like they were doing whatever they wanted."

A man carries a bloodied child, as a woman lies wounded on the street at the Kabul airport. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

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"I even watched one Taliban fighter, after firing some shots in the general direction of the crowd, smiling at another Taliban fighter," Yam continued. "As if it were a game for them or something."

Men try to help a wounded woman and her wounded child as Taliban fighters violently attempted to maintain crowd control. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Yam said it was "shocking" to see people wounded and beaten in the street by Taliban fighters.

A wounded child in Kabul on Tuesday. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

At least six people, including a woman and her child, were wounded outside the airport within the hour of violent escalation, the photographer said.

A man carries a bloodied child in Kabul on Tuesday. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Read the original article on Business Insider
Environmental finance goal builds on longstanding commitments to reduce environmental impact, transition to a low carbon economy and leverage resources to move all forward financially

Northampton, MA --News Direct-- PNC Financial Services Group

PITTSBURGH, August 18, 2021 /3BL Media/ - The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) announced today it is committing $20 billion over five years in support of environmental finance. This commitment is an extension of PNC's long-standing support for accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy, and is complementary to the bank's recently announced Community Benefits Plan, which pledges $88 billion in loans, investments, and other financial support to bolster economic opportunity for low- and moderate-income (LMI) individuals and communities, people and communities of color, and other underserved individuals and communities.

"PNC recognizes that environmental issues, including climate change, are impacting our business, our clients and the communities in which we operate," said Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer Richard Bynum. "We acknowledge that the transition to a low-carbon economy presents both risks and opportunities, and we are committed to balancing financial priorities, responsible risk management and environmental considerations in ways that benefit our varied stakeholders."

The $20 billion environmental finance goal is comprised of the following pillars:

Green Buildings  loans for buildings that meet third party-recognized standards or certifications, including LEED and ENERGY STAR.

Renewable Energy  financing for renewable energy production and transmission, including wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower.

Clean Transportation  financing for zero and low emissions vehicles, electric vehicle charging stations, and zero and low passenger or freight/rolling stock.

Environmental sustainability-linked bonds and loans which align to third-party frameworks such as the Green Bond Principles, and loans linked to environmental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or those with designated environmentally sustainable use of proceeds.

In 2020, PNC established a sustainable finance practice and its first head of Sustainable Finance, Kristi Eberhardt. The practice is focused on counseling clients through their own climate transition strategies, goals and approaches and offers support with sustainable debt issuances and sustainability-linked loans. The sustainable finance practice works across lines of business at PNC to assist with structuring loans and debt issuances that incorporate preferential pricing tied to the achievement of sustainability KPIs  both those with environmental benefits and social benefits. The sustainable finance practice was borne out of the issuance of PNC's inaugural green bond in late 2019 and it recently issued a social bond aimed at financing or re-financing eligible social projects that promote positive social outcomes and that benefit low- to moderate-income individuals and communities, majority-minority census tracts, and/or vulnerable or underserved populations.

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"PNC continuously assesses ways in which we, as a financial institution, can accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy," said Eberhardt. "Launching a sustainable finance practice was a logical step in advancing our environmental, social and governance goals and leveraging our expertise to help our clients meet theirs. We're excited to help more businesses grow in sustainable ways that benefit our environment and our society."

This week PNC released its first Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report which focuses on PNC's climate risk management strategy. TCFD provides a reporting framework containing recommendations over four categories  governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, to give investors informative and actionable information on how companies manage climate risk as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy. PNC formally endorsed the TCFD recommendations in 2019, and in 2020, began developing a plan to integrate the recommendations into business operations. This inaugural TCFD report is a first step in providing a more granular look at how PNC is incorporating a climate lens into day-to-day business strategy and risk management.

Building on the belief that complex problems require collaboration and conversation, PNC recently joined the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). PCAF is a collaboration amongst financial institutions worldwide to enable harmonized assessments and disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions financed by loans and investments. PNC's PCAF membership will help the company define a path toward alignment with a Net Zero future.

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.

CONTACT:

PNC Media Relations(412) 762-4550media.relations@pnc.com

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from PNC Financial Services Group on 3blmedia.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/pnc-pledges-20-billion-in-environmental-finance-908467714
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has sent more than 900 troops to help secure its border with Belarus, its defence minister said on Wednesday, after a surge in illegal border crossings.

Poland and Lithuania, which are members of the European Union, have reported a sharp increase in the number of migrants from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq trying to enter their countries from Belarus this year.

The EU has accused Minsk of using the migrants as a tool to put pressure on the bloc over sanctions it has imposed on Belarus, a charge that Minsk has denied, and Lithuania wants tougher EU rules approved on migration.

"The Polish Army is supporting the Border Guard in protecting the border with Belarus... More than 900 troops are involved in this operation," Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak wrote on Twitter.

In an emailed statement, the Polish interior ministry put the number of troops involved in the operation at around 1,000. It said more soldiers and police officers could be sent if necessary.

The ministry said 2,100 people had attempted to cross the Polish-Belarusian border illegally this month, including 138 in the past 24 hours. Of these, 1,342 had been prevented from crossing and 758 had been detained.

The Border Guard had previously said it detained 122 illegal migrants along the frontier throughout 2020.

The government said on Tuesday it had adopted a draft law to accelerate the process of deporting illegal migrants.

Private broadcaster TVN24 said about 50 migrants stuck between Belarusian and Polish border guards had set up a makeshift camp on the border.

(Reporting by Alicja Ptak, Anna Koper, Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, writing by Alan Charlish, editing by Timothy Heritage)
The Telegraph

When I was young, carefree and skinny, I was proud that my blood pressure was at the lower end of the healthy range, no matter how much salt I poured onto my chips. Now Im 58, a bit fatter and a lot more stressed, its crept up a bit. But, at around 122/85, my blood pressure is still regarded as normal. In fact, the average adult in the UK has blood pressure similar to mine and Ive certainly never considered taking medication for it.
Britain has said it will welcome up to 5,000 Afghans during the first year of a new resettlement programme that will prioritize women, girls and religious and other minorities, part of Western plans to help those leaving the country.

Former leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn said a cap on the number of people from Afghanistan being offered asylum from was unthinkable and unacceptable.

In the long term, the program aims to assist up to 20,000 people, the Home Office said.
Students at Quinnipiac University who have yet to be vaccinated for COVID-19 are set to face penalties, including $100 weekly fines and losing access to the school's Wi-Fi, if they don't get the shot.

To avoid these penalties, the approximately 600 unvaccinated students will need to submit proof of vaccination before Sept. 14. If this deadline is not met, they will be prohibited from using the school's Wi-Fi and fined up to $2,275 throughout the semester.

TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT USES UNIQUE LOOPHOLE TO GET AROUND GREG ABBOTT'S BAN ON MASK MANDATES

John Morgan, the university's associate vice president of public relations, revealed the updated policy to the school's newspaper, the Quinnipiac Chronicle, adding that unvaccinated students had been informed of the policy.

Unvaccinated students will be required to get a COVID-19 test weekly and face an additional $100 fine each time they don't. If students receive at least one shot by Aug. 25, the fines will be waived.

The Connecticut school begins classes on Aug. 30 and has implemented other mandates to keep COVID-19 cases down. On Aug. 2, the school announced that masks must be worn in all indoor settings, and it is also encouraging students to test themselves for COVID-19 five days ahead of returning to campus.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Due to the growing delta variant, Connecticut, along with other states, has seen a growing number of COVID-19 cases. As of Tuesday, the state reported it has had 364,891 positive cases. Approximately 72% of Connecticut residents have received the first dose of the vaccine, and over 64% are fully vaccinated, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Vaccination, College, Connecticut, Coronavirus

Original Author: Asher Notheis

Original Location: Quinnipiac University to fine and restrict Wi-Fi for unvaccinated students
Elephant in front of school. Illustrated | iStock

If nothing else, the late pandemic era should finally obliterate the notion that the modern GOP is "the party of local control."

Consider these events from the last few days: In Arizona, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey announced on Tuesday the state would refuse to give federal COVID-19 relief money to school districts that impose mask mandates on their students. In Florida, the Republican-controlled State Board of Education voted to begin investigations of school districts in Alachua and Broward counties that have defied Gov. Ron DeSantis' mandate ban. And in Texas  where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott just tested positive for the coronavirus  the state supreme court this week sided with Abbott and temporarily blocked mask mandates in San Antonio and Dallas independent school districts.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (another Republican) left no doubt who gets the final say over local decision making in Texas. Spoiler: It's not the locals. "Let this ruling serve as a reminder to all ISDs and local officials that the governor's order stands," he tweeted.

COVID is rampant in all three states, which makes the prohibitions on mask mandates seem unwise. They're also unpopular with the broader public: A recent poll shows two-thirds of Americans favor state or local mask requirements. The problem? The same poll shows  no surprise  that the mandates are mostly disfavored by Republican voters. So maybe it's understandable (if extremely frustrating) why Ducey, DeSantis, and Abbott have pre-empted local officials in their states.

Understandable, but not very consistent. Conservatives have long argued  in a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson  that "the government closest to the people serves the people best." It's a big country, after all. What works in one location might not be best in another. "Texas is so diverse that what is right in Houston and Harris County and Dallas and San Antonio may not be the best approach in Amarillo," an Abbott spokesman said early in the pandemic. That statement is apparently no longer operative.

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The GOP's commitment to local control has always been honored more in the breach, anyway. Donald Trump spent his presidency trying to crack down on sanctuary cities. Republican-controlled legislatures routinely prohibit local communities from adopting gun restrictions or minimum wage laws. In this case, conservative hypocrisy is playing out amidst a public health crisis. The results could be dangerous.

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We see it all the time in Hollywood: George Clooney and Amal have a 17-year-age gap; Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are 25 years apart, and Holland Taylor and Sarah Paulson have a gap of 32 years.

While these relationships are often judged, some couples with drastic age differences find long-lasting happiness. Relationship expert and author of "He's Just Not Your Type" Andrea Syrtash understands why. May-December romances, as they are often called, can find success, she says, as long as they have healthy foundations.

"If a couple shares common values it can definitely work whether or not they are the same age," Syrtash says.

There's a stigma around May-December romances. Why?

Experts say negative rhetoric surrounding these kinds of relationships can often begin with friends and family.

Polly Young-Eisendrath a psychologist and couples therapist who specializes in dialogue therapy says much of the stigma around May-December relationships comes from the assumptions about the power dynamics at play.

"I think the stereotype is usually that one person is going to be dominating the other person, usually with the idea that the older person is going to dominate the younger person," Young-Eisendrath says.

George Clooney and his wife Amal share a 17-year age difference and have been married for 8 years.

She added sometimes the parents of the younger partner can have fears surrounding their children's relationships but notes that times are changing.

"Younger people also have power, now and I don't think there are as many stereotypes about the age differences as there used to be," she added.

The reception these relationships receive can also vary culturally. Henry Offiah, 27, found himself in a serious relationship with a woman almost 10-years his senior. Although he says it didn't work out in the end, he didn't hesitate to enter into the relationship.

"I never really thought much of it, my parents are 12 years apart from each other," Offiah says. "I'm Nigerian ... so it's kind of common. Ten-plus years apart from each other is normal in our culture."

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Offiah says after the relationship ended, he reflected on the role the age difference played between him and his partner. Marriage and relationship counselor Jean Fitzpatrick says lifestyle differences often lead to the demise of these relationships.

"The older partner may want to start having children before the younger partner, the younger partner may be focused more on going out every night and travel," Fitzpatrick explains. "So that's one thing that can be challenging."

How to make a relationship with a drastic age gaps work

Despite the challenges, many couples with age differences find success.

"There's a poignancy to being with someone older," Paulson told the New York Times of her relationship with Taylor. "I think there's a greater appreciation of time and what you have together and what's important, and it can make the little things seem very small."

Taylor said she believes Paulson is brave for embracing their age difference.

"A big age span is a challenge to any relationship," she told Us Weekly. "(Paulson is) very brave and she is very truthful and shes going to live her truth. And so I basically am following her lead and Im blessed."

Experts say there can be benefits to being in a relationship with a large age gap. Fitzpatrick says the older person often has a perspective where they get "less worked up" about things, while the younger partner has an enthusiasm that is also "a nice contribution." Other benefits of a multi-generational relationship include:

The relationship has a combination of maturity and energy

There is a diverse peer group to bounce ideas off of

Partners are able to teach each other

Couples who make these relationships work are not dissimilar to couples who embrace other stark differences in their lives Young-Eisendrath says. The key is not letting outside perceptions get in the way.

"The thing about age difference is that people have to realize the kinds of assumptions they're making," she said, "and then they have to make room for the reality of who the other partner is."

Syrtash says age gaps can be forgotten as long as there is communication in the relationship.

"I do believe in people dating with age gaps as long as they share values and as long as they're on the same page with life goals," Syrtash says. "What's normal in a relationship is what's normal to the people in the relationship."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: George Clooney and Amal make their age gap work. Here's how.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the Taliban's initial statements and actions suggested Afghanistan's internal problems could be settled through negotiations involving all local political, ethnic and religious forces.

The ministry said in a statement that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi had discussed Afghanistan by phone and that both shared that view.

The Taliban said on Tuesday it wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect women's rights within the framework of Islamic law, as they held their first official news briefing since their lightning seizure of Kabul.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the situation in Afghanistan on Wednesday and called on key players to ensure security there, Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The Taliban said on Tuesday they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect women's rights within the framework of Islamic law, as they held their first official news briefing since their lightning seizure of Kabul.

Lavrov and Cavusoglu discussed Afghanistan in detail, the foreign ministry said, and expressed a mutual interest in stabilising the situation.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
Watch: 8 Out Of 10 Cats comedian Sean Lock dies aged 58

Jimmy Carr has called the death of Sean Lock "brutal news" and led the tributes to his 8 Out Of 10 Cats companion after the comedian passed away from cancer aged 58.

Lock's agent said on Wednesday the star of the Channel 4 panel show and BBC sitcom 15 Storeys High died at home from cancer surrounded by his family.

8 Out Of 10 Cats host Carr tweeted: "Brutal news about Sean Lock today. I loved him. Im watching clips of him right now - laughing & crying. Ill miss him so much."

Comedian Jon Richardson, who worked with Lock on 8 Out Of 10 Cats wrote: "I idolised Sean as a comic long before I became a comedian myself and ten years working alongside him didnt diminish that in the least. An incredible comic brain and a truly unique voice.

"Im devastated for his family today and sad for comedy that we have lost one of the very best. Undisputed, undefeated, carrot in a box champion. I will miss him."

Read more: 11 of Sean Locks best jokes

Jimmy Carr, Jon Richardson and Sean Lock on the popular Channel 4 quiz.

QI star Alan Davies sent his condolences to Lock's wife and children as he revealed he knew the comedian had been secretly battling cancer for some time.

He tweeted: "Sad news about Sean Lock. Funny on stage, hilarious off. We met in 1988 right at the start of our stand-up careers. I hadnt seen him in recent years as he quietly wrestled with illness but I feel very sad today for Anoushka and their children. RIP Locky."

Sean Lock with fellow comedians Jimmy Carr, Lee Evans, Jack Dee and Jonathan Ross in 2011. (Getty)

Strictly Come Dancing winner Bill Bailey said: "Its heartbreaking to lose my dearest friend Sean Lock , he was a true original, a wonderful comic. All my thoughts are with his family."

Stephen Fry recalled working with Lock on QI, hailing the comedian as 'completely brilliant'.

He tweeted: "Oh no, what horrible news I think it safe to say that the best episodes of QI that I was involved with were always the ones where Sean Lock was a guest. Such complete brilliance in every comic direction. What a loss. My heart goes out to his family."

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Ross Noble shared on Twitter: "With the passing of Sean Lock we have lost the best of the best. He made me laugh like few others do. A massive talent who made stand up look effortless and approached his illness in the same no nonsense way he approached life. A great loss."

Comedian Janey Godley fondly remembered working with Lock, saying: "Sean Lock off stage, sitting telling you a story that will make you laugh so hard it hurts your kidneys, is the best experience anyone can have."

Watch: Sean Lock reads old love letters on 8 Out of 10 Cats

Countdown's Susie Dent, who worked with Lock on 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, said: "I wish I had the words to describe the exceptional man that was Sean Lock. But today I dont, and I think he might have liked it that way."

Eddie Izzard said: "So sorry to hear this. Farewell Sean, you brought a wonderful comedic talent to the world and you will be missed."

Ricky Gervais tweeted: "Such sad news. RIP the great Sean Lock. One of the funniest, most influential comedians of a generation. A lovely man."

David Baddiel recalled touring with Lock, saying: "Devastated to hear about Sean Lock. He toured with Newman and Baddiel on our last show together. One of the funniest men I ever knew."

John Bishop confessed: "I am shocked and saddened at the news of the loss of Sean Lock. He was a brilliant comedian but more importantly he was a great person on so many levels. He will be missed hugely."

The UK comedy circuit is mourning the loss of Sean Lock, who has died from cancer aged 58. (PA)

Mark Steel said: "Oh bless you Sean Lock, brilliantly funny, brilliantly grumpy, brilliantly bonkers, magnificent company, a proper comic."

Mock The Week's Angela Barnes wrote: "Ah man, rest in peace Sean Lock, thanks for the laughs. And 100% f*** cancer."

Katy Brand said: "Sean Lock was a brilliant comedian and I always learned something watching him work. Thoughts with his friends and family. Very shocking and sad. RIP."

Sean died surrounded by his family. (PA)

Have I Got News For You regular Phil Wang tweeted: "So dreadfully sad. Sean Lock was one of the best. A rare comedian who could make you laugh like a drain if youd never seen comedy before or had watched it every day of your life. God damn it."

Omid Djalili said: "Heartbroken to hear about the passing of Sean Lock. Wonderful human being and easily one of the funniest on and off the stage. Love that he shunned social media and remained aloof from petty squabbles. Devastating loss."

Comedian Lee Mack, who was a close friend, said in a statement: Ive known this day was coming for some time, but its no less heart-breaking.

Lee Mack has paid tribute to his friend Sean Lock, who has died aged 58. (PA)

A true original both in comedy and life. I will miss him so much.

A statement from Lock's agent said: It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Sean Lock.

He died at home from cancer, surrounded by his family.

Sean was one of Britains finest comedians, his boundless creativity, lightning wit and the absurdist brilliance of his work, marked him out as a unique voice in British comedy.

Sean was also a cherished husband and father to three children.

Sean will be sorely missed by all that knew him.

We kindly request that the privacy of his family and children is respected at this difficult time.

Watch: The celebrities we lost in 2020
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A British man jailed in Singapore for breaking coronavirus protocols by refusing to wear a face mask was released on Thursday and will be deported, the country's prison department said.

Benjamin Glynn, 40, was convicted on Wednesday and sentenced to six weeks in jail but was released due to time served while remanded in detention, which included two weeks in a mental health institution, the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) said.

Glynn was found guilty on four charges over his failure to wear a mask on a train in May and at a subsequent court appearance in July, as well as causing a public nuisance and using threatening words towards public servants.

In a statement seen by Reuters, SPS said Glynn was being processed by Singapore's immigration authority, which would make arrangements for his deportation.

The judge had sent Glynn for psychiatric assessment due to his conduct and remarks made in court.

On Wednesday he asked the court to drop what he called "unlawful charges" and for his passport to be returned so he could leave Singapore, according to media outlet CNA.

It quoted the judge as telling Glynn that he was "completely misguided" in is belief that he was exempt from Singapore's laws on wearing masks.

Glynn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The Asian business hub is well-known for its enforcement of strict rules and has jailed and fined others for breaking COVID-19 regulations. Some foreigners have had their work permits revoked for rule breaches.

The city-state has kept its coronavirus outbreaks under control, in part due to its strict enforcement or measures.

In February, a Singapore court sentenced a British man to two weeks in jail https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/briton-jailed-breaking-singapores-strict-quarantine-rules-2021-02-26 after he sneaked out of his hotel room to meet his then fiancee while in quarantine.

(Reporting by Chen Lin; Editing by Martin Petty)
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain plans to airlift around 500 people including Spanish embassy staff and Afghans who worked with them and their families from Kabul, radio station Cadena SER said on Wednesday, citing sources close to the evacuation.

A first military plane landed at Kabul airport late on Wednesday morning, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It was due to take off shortly with some of the evacuees aboard.

Cadena SER said Spanish authorities were planning to fly back embassy workers including Afghan staff who worked as translators or in logistics and security.

Afghan contractors would be allowed to take their spouses, children and other close family with them, Cadena SER said.

Officials from the foreign and defence ministries declined to confirm the number of people to be evacuated from Kabul.

The first plane had taken off on Wednesday morning from Dubai, where it was sent earlier this week to carry out the evacuation. Another aircraft is currently in Dubai and a third, equipped with medical infrastructure, is on its way, the Foreign and Defense ministries said in a statement.

France, Germany and Britain have already begun evacuating residents https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/evacuations-afghanistan-gather-momentum-taliban-promise-peace-2021-08-18 and local contractors after Taliban militants seized control of Afghanistan from the government at the weekend.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez offered on Tuesday to create a hub for the hundreds of Afghan refugees to be airlifted out of Kabul to the European Union but did not give details.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Nathan Allen and Catherine Evans)
Afghans climbing over the Kabul airport fence in Afghanistan. STRINGER/Reuters

Miles Routledge went viral after he said on 4chan that he was in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday.

The student appeared to livestream from a safe house on Sunday after the Taliban occupied Kabul.

A Facebook profile that appears to be Routledge's says that he has now left on an evacuation flight.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Miles Routledge, a 21-year old Loughborough University physics student who reportedly went to Afghanistan, appears to have now been evacuated to Dubai "thanks to the brilliant people at the British Army," according to a video posted to his purported Facebook account.

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The Daily Mail reported earlier this week that Routledge arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 13 on a flight from Istanbul, Turkey. After being moved into a safe house on Sunday, according to Input, following the Taliban insurgence in the country, a Facebook account under his name said he was being evacuated from the country on a flight to Dubai on Tuesday.

Since he posted about his trip on 4chan, a forum associated with the development of internet memes and various online subcultures, Routledge has become a prominent figure on the site, with users making memes of him and referring to him as "Lord Miles" after Routledge appeared to say that he bought a lordship for 15.

Miles Routledge appears to have posted across social-media platforms about his trip to Afghanistan

Accounts under Routledge's name have shared regular updates about his trip across Twitch, 4chan, and Facebook.

Routledge appeared to start posting about his trip on August 13. In a now deleted 4chan thread, Routledge appeared to write on Friday that he was "goofing off and soaking up the sun" in Kabul. With doubts cast over the validity of the trip, the account later posted what appeared to be a plane ticket from Istanbul to Kabul. Details on the ticket matched valid flight records reviewed by Insider.

Routledge also appears to have documented his purported trip on his Facebook account, with several since removed images appearing to show him in Kabul. Insider has been unable to independently verify the posts.

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One purported screenshot of a Facebook post from Friday appears to show several images of Routledge at a bird market in Afghanistan.

"A bomb went off around 500m from here but we're all gucci," the account said. On the same day, a 4chan user purporting to be Routledge said that they "did some trolling in the bird market this morning."

Routledge appeared to go live on the streaming platform Twitch on Sunday. During the stream, which has since been reuploaded to YouTube, Routledge appeared to show a visa that allowed him access to Afghanistan in response to comments doubting his account.

On Monday and Tuesday, Routledge appeared to publish two posts saying he was being evacuated from the country to Dubai. On August 15, the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry said it was working to facilitate evacuations of citizens of Britain and other countries, according to Reuters.

A spokesperson for the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office was unable to confirm Routledge's whereabouts but said, "We are working hard to contact all the British nationals we are aware of who remain in Afghanistan, to help them leave the country.

"The safety of British nationals is our top priority which is why we have been urging British nationals to leave Afghanistan by commercial means since April 21. On August 6 we updated our advice to urge British nationals to leave immediately and to update us on their plans for departure."

Routledge and his friends have spoken with various publications

Routledge has spoken about his experiences with various publications.

"I was under the impression that the country wouldn't fall for another month, so I thought it was going to be fine," he said in an interview with The Spectator.

In an interview with Input, Routledge said he knew "s--- hit the fan" in Kabul on the third day of his trip, Sunday. He told Input that while he was trying to visit an ATM, he witnessed a bank run, which has been reported on by Al Jazeera, with hundreds of people waiting outside to get money.

Routledge told Input he visited a variety of embassies to try and get assistance but they were all closed. He said he then hitchhiked to the Kabul airport along with his translator but was unable to get a flight. According to Input, Routledge said he was then guided by locals to a safe house.

Routledge's friend also spoke with The Sun. They described Routledge's trip as an "elaborate meme gone way too far."

His mother, Susan, has also been in contact with The Sun, though Routledge said during his livestream and on 4chan that he was not in contact with his family.

When contacted by Insider, Routledge's only comment was a thank-you the Canadian Embassy and his tour guide.

"We are good friends, and thank God we've made it this far. I can never thank him enough for his help," he said.

Routledge says he is a fan of extreme tourism and plans to go to North Korea next

"I hate lying around on a beach, so I wanted to do something a little bit different," Routledge said to The Times.

He told Input that his first experience of "extreme tourism" - which involves traveling to past or present sites of extreme tragedy and death - was on a trip to Chernobyl in Ukraine with his friend two years ago.

A Facebook account appearing to belong to Routledge celebrating the "two-year anniversary" of this trip in a post in May. In the post, the account holder said Chernobyl was "better than my university halls."

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.

Read the original article on Insider
A suspected robber was shot to death early Wednesday inside of a Dallas home when he attempted to rob a resident, Dallas police said.

The accused robber died after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

Homicide detectives interviewed the resident who shot the man, but he was later released. Police said they would refer the case to a Dallas grand jury.

The shooting was reported at about 12:10 a.m. Wednesday in the 1200 block of Diceman Avenue.

The resident told Dallas police the suspected robber approached his home, entered it and tried to rob him. Fearing for his life, the resident fired at the accused robber several times, he told police.

When they responded to the shooting call, police found the body of a man lying in the home.

The accused robber did not have an identification card on him, police said. Officials with the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office are working to positively identify him.

No one else was reported to be injured in the shooting.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.

He also pushed back against criticism that the U.S. should have done more to plan for the evacuation and withdrawal, which has been marked by scenes of violence and chaos as thousands attempted to flee while the Taliban advanced.

In an interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos, Biden said the U.S. will do everything in our power to evacuate Americans and U.S. allies from Afghanistan before the deadline.

Pressed repeatedly on how the administration would help Americans left in the nation after Aug. 31, Biden said, "If theres American citizens left, were gonna stay till we get them all out.

Up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took full control of the nation last weekend.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. military does not have the forces and firepower in Afghanistan to expand its current mission from securing the Kabul airport to collecting Americans and at-risk Afghans elsewhere in the capital and escorting them for evacuation.

The question of whether those seeking to leave the country before Bidens deadline should be rescued and brought to the airport has arisen amid reports that Taliban checkpoints have stopped some designated evacuees.

I dont have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul, Austin said. And where do you take that? How far do you extend into Kabul, and how long does it take to flow those forces in to be able to do that?

Austin, a retired four-star Army general who commanded forces in Afghanistan, spoke at his first Pentagon news conference since the Taliban swept to power in Kabul on Sunday.

He said the State Department was sending more consular affairs officers to speed up the processing of evacuees.

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Were not close to where we want to be in terms of the pace of the airlift, Austin said.

He said he was mainly focused on the airport, which faced a number of threats that must be monitored.

We cannot afford to either not defend that airfield or not have an airfield that's secure, where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield, he said, adding that talks with the Taliban were continuing to ensure safe passage for those evacuating.

Austin said there were about 4,500 U.S. troops at the airport, maintaining security to enable the State Department-run evacuation operation that has been marked by degrees of chaos and confusion.

Biden, however, told ABC that there wasnt anything his administration could have done to avoid such chaos.

The idea that somehow, theres a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I dont know how that happens, he said.

Senior U.S. military officers were talking to Taliban commanders in Kabul about checkpoints and curfews that have limited the number of Americans and Afghans able to enter the airport.

John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said that over 24 hours about 2,000 people, including 325 American citizens, had left aboard 18 flights by U.S. Air Force C-17 transport planes. The number of departing Air Force flights was likely to be similar in the coming 24 hours, Kirby said, although he said he could not estimate how many people they would carry.

He said the administration was considering its options for dealing with a separate but related problem  the abandonment by Afghan security forces of an array of military equipment, weapons and aircraft that have fallen into the hands of the Taliban or other militant groups.

We don't, obviously, want to see our equipment in the hands of those who would act against our interests or the interests of the Afghan people and increase violence and insecurity inside Afghanistan, Kirby said. There are numerous policy choices that can be made, up to and including destruction. He said those decisions had not yet been made.

Kirby said several hundred more U.S. troops were expected to arrive at the airport by Thursday.

An Air Force unit arrived overnight that specializes in rapidly setting up and maintaining airfield operations, Kirby said. And he said Marines trained in evacuation support have continued to arrive and will assist in getting civilians onto flights.

The top congressional Republicans, Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Mitch McConnell, asked Biden on Wednesday for a classified briefing with the gang of eight  the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, McCarthy and McConnell.

McCarthy and McConnell said they want a briefing on the number of Americans still in Afghanistan and the plans to evacuate those outside of Kabul. Their letter prompted Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill to tweet that she had already requested such a meeting. He also said House members will receive an unclassified telephone briefing Friday and an in-person briefing Tuesday.

___

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Darlene Superville, Matthew Lee, Eric Tucker, Alexandra Jaffe and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
A Tampa-based tech company reimagining the world of business insurance just got a huge influx of cash.

Whats happening: TrustLayer, a digital risk management platform, just closed a Series A funding round of $15.1 million.

Lightning owner Jeff Vinik is one of those investors, the company said in its announcement.

Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

How it works: Trustlayer uses robotic process automation and AI  similar to the blockchain technology we covered earlier this year  so companies can automatically verify the insurance and licenses of their vendors, suppliers, borrowers and tenants.

Its a game changer for accuracy, especially when compared to the old-fashioned paper method of insurance processing.

90% of insurance certificates put companies at risk for serious liabilities by materially misrepresenting their coverage, according to a 2015 study.

Whats next: The company is using the new funds to hire engineering and sales workers locally and nationally.

And it aims to launch a fully-digital proof of insurance product to make the lives of carriers, brokers and the insured easier.

Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19, his office said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Governor Greg Abbott today tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result, the statement read. Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads, and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently.

The Texas Republican, who has signed legislation banning vaccine and mask mandates in his state, gave what he described as a standing room only event in Collin County Monday night. Photos of the event show few people wearing masks at the indoor gathering.

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Like former President Donald Trump, Abbott was receiving a monoclonal antibody treatment, the statement from his office said. But unlike Trump, who entered Walter Reed hospital in reportedly dire health, Abbott is asymptomatic and has already been vaccinated.

The Governor will isolate in the Governors Mansion and continue to test daily. Governor Abbott is receiving Regenerons monoclonal antibody treatment, the statement read.

Abbott had reportedly told others that he had received a booster shot, NBC News reported.

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This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation that Americans with compromised immune systems receive a booster shot for COVID-19. The U.S. plans to advise most Americans to receive a booster shot eight months after being fully immunized for COVID-19.

Breakthrough infections of COVID-19 remain very rare. In the U.S., 193,204 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among fully vaccinated people between Jan. 1 and early August, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Abbotts wife, Cecilia, tested negative for the virus, the statement said, and those who had recently come in close contact with the governor have been notified of his positive test result.

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____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19, his office announced on Tuesday. Abbott is fully vaccinated and so far is experiencing no symptoms.

"The Governor has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result," Abbott's communications director Mark Miner said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "Governor Abbott is in constant communication with his staff, agency heads, and government officials to ensure that state government continues to operate smoothly and efficiently. The Governor will isolate in the Governor's Mansion and continue to test daily."

In a video posted to his Twitter account Tuesday evening, Abbott said he has "no symptoms such as fever or aches and pains" and "will remain engaged every day to govern the great state of Texas."

As you may have heard, I have Covid.Right now I have no symptoms such as fever or aches and pains.Thanks for the well wishes from around the country.I will remain engaged every day to govern the great state of Texas. God bless you all, and God bless Texas. pic.twitter.com/kbYPt1FpNj

 Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 17, 2021

Miner also said that Abbott is being treated with Regeneron's monoclonal antibodies, which may help shorten the duration of the COVID infection.

Cecilia Abbott, his wife, has tested negative, according to Miner.

Texas has seen a spike in cases over the past several weeks due to the Delta variant. On Tuesday the state health department reported 20,123 new COVID cases, which is among the highest number of positive daily cases in Texas since the pandemic began.

More than 12,000 patients were hospitalized with the virus as of Monday, the most since January. Last week, Abbott announced that he had arranged for more than 2,500 medical personnel to help hospitals handle the surge in cases. Earlier this month, he also asked Texas hospitals to voluntarily postpone elective procedures.

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Abbott has resisted enacting new restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus. He recently banned local governments from putting COVID restrictions back in place and has challenged local school districts that have tried to institute mask mandates.

The governor has appeared in public in recent days, tweeting a picture Monday night from a crowded event in the Dallas suburbs.

On Friday, Abbott announced a plan to launch nine monoclonal antibody infusion centers across Texas equipped with Regeneron's monoclonal antibodies. Former President Trump was also treated with the drug company's monoclonal antibodies after he tested positive for COVID-19 last October.

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook removed 18 million posts with COVID misinformation, won't say how many people viewed them

Latest COVID surge puts ambulance workers in crisis mode

Opening statements begin today in R. Kelly racketeering and sex trafficking trial
The Paris school district found a loophole in Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts executive order preventing mask mandates across the state.

Paris ISDs board of trustees voted to alter the districts dress code to include masks, according to its website.

The school district, which is located about 100 miles northeast of Dallas, has nearly 4,000 students across eight campuses, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The Texas Governor does not have the authority to usurp the Board of Trustees exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district, Paris ISD said in a release posted on its website. Nothing in the Governors Executive Order 38 states he has suspended Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code, and therefore the Board has elected to amend its dress code consistent with its statutory authority.

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Abbott announced his executive order last month that prohibits any government entity, including a county, city, school district and public health authority and any public or private entity that is receiving or will receive public funds from enforcing mask or vaccine mandates.

Violations could lead to fines of up to $1,000. Private businesses, however, have the right to require customers and employees to wear masks.

Abbott announced Tuesday afternoon that he has contracted COVID-19, although he is so far asymptomatic, according to his spokesman.

The Board of Trustees is concerned about the health and safety of its students and employees, the Paris ISD release says. The Board believes the dress code can be used to mitigate communicable health issues, and therefore has amended the PISD dress code to protect our students and employees.
Former President Donald Trump followed President Joe Biden's speech on the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan with a brief message on Monday, criticizing the U.S. military withdrawal from the country.

"It's not that we left Afghanistan," Trump said in his latest tweemail. "It's the grossly incompetent way we left!"

The United States has deployed roughly 7,000 troops, including multiple Marine battalions and the Army's 82nd Airborne, to facilitate the hasty exit of embassy diplomats and others as the Taliban conquered Kabul, leaving residents scrambling to flee the embattled nation.

Biden returned to the White House, after spending the weekend at Camp David, to deliver an address to the nation about Afghanistan, saying he stands "squarely behind" his decision to end the U.S. war-fighting mission in the country ahead of a deadline of Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

BIDEN: AFGHAN GOVERNMENT COLLAPSED 'MORE QUICKLY THAN WE ANTICIPATED'

"Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building," Biden said in the televised national address. "It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy. Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland."

"There was only a cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan, lurching into the third decade of conflict," he added. "I stand squarely behind my decision."

Biden was met with some criticism for how he deflected blame despite the withdrawal, which was set in motion by the Trump administration, and the Taliban takeover taking place under his watch as president.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

"The president said that the buck stopped with him, but, in fact, the speech was full of finger-pointing and blame, especially for the Afghans," CNN's Jake Tapper said shortly after Biden's speech.

Story continues

"Mr. Biden also focused on the larger decision to end the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, that was, in fact, his larger focus, whether or not the U.S. should continue to be there, he did not really get into or accept any blame for the catastrophic exit that we have been watching on television in the last several days," Tapper added.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Afghanistan, Taliban, National Security

Original Author: Jake Dima

Original Location: Trump follows Biden speech by blasting 'grossly incompetent' Afghanistan withdrawal
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday backed a peaceful resolution for the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia that has displaced tens of thousands and left millions hungry. He also said Turkey was willing to mediate between Ethiopia and Sudan to resolve a separate border dispute.

Erdogan spoke during a joint news conference with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The visit comes amid a broadening of the conflict in Tigray, which began in November after a political fallout between Abiy and the leaders of the Tigray region who had dominated Ethiopias government for nearly three decades.

Thousands have been killed in the nine-month war in Tigray that has been marked by widespread allegations by ethnic Tigrayans of gang rapes, manmade local famines and mass expulsions of Tigrayans by Ethiopian and allied forces.

The peace, tranquility and integrity of Ethiopia, which has a strategic location and importance in Africa, is important to us, Erdogan said. All the countries in the region will be affected by the worsening of the situation (over Tigray).

Erdogan, who hosted General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan, chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, in Ankara last week, said Turkey was also prepared to contribute toward a peaceful resolution of a dispute between Ethiopia and Sudan over the Al-Fashaga region.

We are ready to make any contribution to an amicable resolution of the problem, including mediation, he said.

On Wednesday, Erdogan and Abiy oversaw the signing of military agreements, including a military financial cooperation deal. Details of the deals were not immediately available.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is seeking to airlift 1,000 people every day from Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the country, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Wednesday.

Asked about whether Britain hoped to take 1,000 people out of Afghanistan a day, the spokesman told reporters they were "aiming to operate at that capacity".

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; writing by Michael Holden; editing by James Davey)
United Airlines has told its flight attendants not to use duct tape to restrain unruly passengers.

It reminded staff to de-escalate, adding that there are "designated items" to use instead of tape.

Recent viral videos show disorderly American and Frontier Airlines passengers taped to their seats.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

United Airlines has instructed its flight attendants not to use duct tape on disorderly passengers.

John Slater, United's senior vice president of inflight services, sent a memo to flight attendants on Friday telling them to avoid using tape to restrain unruly passengers.

"Please remember that there are designated items onboard that may be used in difficult situations, and alternative measures such as tape should never be used," he wrote in the memo, which was viewed by Insider. "The overwhelming majority of our customers have been on their best behavior throughout the pandemic and returned to our flights with confidence and enthusiasm."

United declined to name the "designated items" to which Slater referred.

The memo referenced recent viral incidents in which disorderly passengers were taped to their seats.

"As you've likely seen, a few airlines have recently made news about the way they've handled situations onboard," Slater wrote in the memo. "When things have evolved, you've relied on all aspects of inflight safety training, including de-escalation. This professionalism and composure have set us apart from some of our competitors."

The memo continued with tips for flight attendants to manage chaotic situations onboard.

"Address difficult situations calmly by informing, de-escalating and following our reporting process," Slater wrote in the memo. "In the event you are unable to reach an agreement with a customer about one of our safety-related policies, you should follow your regular de-escalation and training process and always use your best judgment."

Story continues

Read more: Elon Musk is banking on making China being Tesla's biggest market. These 4 Chinese electric car companies stand in his way.

United says the memo served as a reminder of existing policies, not a notice of a new one.

"These are not new safety policies and this reference was in a weekly memo we distribute to our inflight crews that includes pertinent information like important notices and reminders about standard safety policies," the airline told Insider.

While United has used duct tape on unruly passengers in at least two situations well before the pandemic, other airlines have used duct tape to restrain disorderly passengers much more recently.

The memo comes after viral videos recently showed unruly passengers being duct-taped to their seats on Frontier and American Airlines flights. On a Frontier Airlines flight last month, a passenger was restrained with duct tape after he punched and groped flight attendants, walked around shirtless, and yelled obscenities, according to police. On an American Airlines flight earlier that month, a viral TikTok video showed a woman duct-taped to her seat after the airline says she attacked flight attendants and tried to open the plane's front boarding door mid-flight. Last week, a 13-year-old boy on an American Airlines flight was taped to his seat after witnesses say he became physical with his mother and tried to kick out a window.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The USS Arlington, after completely refitting its gear and stores in just 24 hours at Naval Station Norfolk, headed south Tuesday evening to help with disaster relief in earthquake- and storm-ravaged Haiti.

Its 400-plus member crew, just back Monday night from three weeks at sea  where it took part in the Navys globe-spanning Large Scale Exercise 2021  scrambled all day Tuesday to unload the materiel for that mission and fill the ship with enough supplies for a humanitarian mission that could last up to 120 days.

As the afternoon wore on, they were joined by some of the 200 Marines who drove up from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The ship also took on pilots, aircrew and mechanics for MH-60 helicopters, which will be flying search and rescue missions and hauling relief supplies to communities where ports arent working or roads are impassable.

Usually, this is the kind of thing that takes five days, said Marine Lt. Col. Corbin Murtaugh, the planning officer for Expeditionary Strike Group 2, the 14-ship, Little Creek headquartered Navy and Marine unit that specializes in amphibious and near-shore operations.

But Arlington exercised on this in June, and weve done this before, he said. This is expedited.

Sailors shifted pallets full of medical supplies, emergency food supplies, diapers and other baby products, along with heavy equipment to shift rubble from hundreds of collapsed buildings, as well as the stores and spare parts needed to keep the ships company on station and the helicopters flying.

Its a little tight to head out so soon after three weeks at sea, but thats just being selfish, said Capt. Eric Kellum, commanding officer of the Arlington.

But you know my mission orders say to ease suffering and save lives  that mission, to save lives, you just cant do better than that, he said.

Haiti was hammered Saturday by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. At least 1,300 people are believed to have died, with an estimated 5,700 more suffering injuries.

Story continues

At least 700 buildings have collapsed. About 1.5 million people have been affected one way or the other by the earthquake. Hundreds of thousands are sleeping in the open.

It is the second major quake to ravage Haiti in a decade, and the country, one of the poorest in the western hemisphere, was still recovering.

Aid efforts are being slowed by Tropical Storm Grace, which hit Haiti on Monday, bringing the kind of rains that could cause flooding and mudslides.

The Arlington will join the U.S. Southern Command Joint Task Force-Haiti that is coordinating Department of Defense support for the whole of government response by the United States.

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid makes his first-ever public appearance at a press conference. MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES

WhatsApp shut down a Taliban helpline in Kabul for reporting looting and violence.

A spokeswoman told Insider that WhatsApp shut it down to adhere to US sanctions on the Taliban.

WhatsApp's parent company, Facebook, bans the Taliban and pro-Taliban content on all its platforms.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp shut down a helpline set up by the Taliban on which it encouraged people to report looting and violence, the Financial Times first reported.

The FT reported that the Taliban started advertising the WhatsApp helpline on Sunday when it captured the capital city of Kabul, taking power in Afghanistan for the first time in 20 years. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the Taliban used WhatsApp to tell people in Kabul that "we are in charge of security."

Facebook announced Tuesday that it bans the Taliban on all its platforms under its "Dangerous Organizations" policy. It also bans support or praise for the group, it said.

A WhatsApp spokeswoman told Insider the company shut down the helpline to comply with US laws.

"We're obligated to adhere to US sanctions laws. This includes banning accounts that appear to represent themselves as official accounts of the Taliban," she told Insider.

"We're seeking more information from relevant US authorities given the evolving situation in Afghanistan," she told Insider.

WhatsApp told the FT it was actively looking at WhatsApp groups' names, descriptions, and profile pictures to stop the Taliban from using it.

Read more: After 20 years of destruction, the US has a moral obligation to let in 1 million Afghan refugees

Facebook announced Tuesday it had deployed a team of "Afghanistan experts" to help it identify problems on its platforms related to the Taliban.

Ashley Jackson, a former Red Cross and Oxfam aid worker, told the FT that removing the Taliban helpline was just "grandstanding" and would not help people in Kabul.

Story continues

"If the Taliban all of a sudden can't use WhatsApp, you're just isolating Afghans, making it harder for them to communicate in an already panicky situation," Jackson told the FT. She added the Taliban had long used similar helplines.

"I know it sounds improbable that these could actually help, but in this really bizarre, fast-moving situation, civilians need all the resources they can get, and this is one of them," she added.

Kaweh Kerami, a PhD Candidate at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) specialising in the politics of Afghanistan, told Insider Facebook's overall approach to the Taliban and pro-Taliban content is appropriate.

"Facebook's decision to ban the Taliban's accounts and content is a late but good step in reminding the violent group, living the euphoria of capturing the capital Kabul, that they are (still) considered as a terrorist organization by US law - and which equally means more sanctions could follow if the group does not change its behavior," Kerami said.

Kerami added people in Kabul might avoid Taliban helplines anyway for "privacy and security reasons."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Facebook was repressing freedom of speech in Afghanistan by banning the Taliban.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Aug. 18A former instructor at the state Corrections Training Academy has filed a whistleblower lawsuit, contending he was forced out for refusing a directive to pass all prison guard cadets regardless of their performance on physical and written tests.

The eight-week academy  opened in the wake of a bloody 1980 riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico  provides basic training for correctional officers and probation and parole officer cadets.

Because of the dangerous nature of the work, successfully completing the training and related exams is crucial to health and safety of inmates, former advanced instructor Aaron Bell says in his lawsuit, filed Aug. 13 in state District Court.

Between 15 percent and 23 percent of new recruits typically don't satisfactorily complete the program, but Bell's lawsuit alleges training academy director George Stephenson instructed him to not to fail any of the cadets unless told to do so.

The state Department of Corrections has a chronically high vacancy rate  hovering around 25 percent system-wide, with periodic spikes to 50 percent at some facilities  among correctional officers.

"Director Stephenson told him that they needed to establish their 'Return on Investment' in the Academy by bringing up their recruitment numbers, and that [Bell] should pass all of the cadets  regardless of their physical ability or test scores  and 'let the facilities weed them out' after graduation," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Stephenson also removed screening tools  such as lie detector and physical ability tests  historically used to determine if a potential cadet should even be admitted to the academy.

Bell refused to follow the directive "because it would lead to a specific danger to the public and his fellow correctional officers," according to his lawsuit, and informed his director that passing everyone was improper, unsafe and violated the written polices of the Corrections Department.

Story continues

According to the lawsuit, which seeks reinstatement, damages and legal fees, Bell faced retaliation for his refusal to follow the directive.

According to the lawsuit, Stephenson called Bell into his office and yelled at him for not passing everyone and refused to process paperwork for a pay increase Bell was supposed to receive for a recent promotion.

Instead, the lawsuit says Bell was demoted and given "retaliatory write ups on false and pretextual grounds."

Stephenson did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Corrections spokesman Eric Harrison wrote in an email Tuesday the department had not yet been served with Bell's lawsuit.

Harrison wrote the Corrections Department held four training academies in Santa Fe during the 2021 fiscal year, in which 50 of 69 individuals graduated. Four separate satellite academies also were held, with 41 of 52 people graduating. The overall pass rate for the eight academies was 75 percent.

Bell, who had worked for the department for nearly 20 years, seven at the academy, resigned Aug. 2 according to the department. He filed his complaint on his last day on the job.

"The violation of public trust here is the most disturbing part of this," Bell's attorney Shane Youtz said Tuesday. "Corrections officer is the most dangerous job in New Mexico. They've got to be properly trained or corrections officers get injured, and so do prisoners."
National parks are considering more ways to address crowding as visitors continue to pack in amid the pandemic.

Several parks have seen their busiest months on record this summer. Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming reported nearly 830,000 visitors in July, a new monthly record at the park. Nearby Yellowstone National Park set new visitation records in both May and June. In Utah, Zion National Park, Canyonlands National Park and Capitol Reef National Park all set records for June. The problem has even caught the attention of Congress.

At least two national parks are now considering fee-based changes.

'We can accidentally love our parks to death': How to protect crowded national parks

Park ranger pro tips: Pack your patience and make reservations

Tourists stop their car in front of the Great Arch in Zion National Park on August 26, 2020.

Indiana Dunes National Park is considering charging entrance fees for the first time to help pay the cost of its growing popularity. The park service says fees would go toward maintenance, programming and public safety needs. The park has seen visitation spike since becoming Indiana's first national park in 2019. Before that, it was a national seashore. If approved, entrance fees would start at $15. Public comments are being accepted until Oct. 1.

Zion is weighing whether to require reservations for one of its most popular hiking trails, Angel's Landing. There would be a $6 lottery fee for a chance to access the trail and an additional $3 fee to actually use it. The park is also considering $20 nightly camping fees for Lava Point Campground. Zion is accepting public comments on both until Sept. 12.

A number of America's most popular national parks began requiring reservations this summer in an effort to mitigate congestion. They include Yosemite National Park and Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road.

'You really look familiar': 'Modern Family's Julie Bowen helps rescue woman at Arches National Park

Local leaders near Arches National Park have asked the park to consider a similar timed-entry system. The park has already closed its gates more than 80 times this year due to heavy visitation.

Story continues

The National Park Service continues to encourage people to explore less visited sites.

"About half of all our recreation visits are occurring at only the top 23 most-visited parks," NPS regional director Michael T. Reynolds in a Senate Subcommittee on National Parks hearing on overcrowding in late July.

There are 423 sites within the national park system.

Underrated national parks: 16 gems in the Midwest

Turning one-star reviews into internet gold: Subpar Parks offers a different view of national parks

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: National parks weigh fees, reservations as crowds keep growing
A rerun of Vietnam withdrawal playing out Former President Trump went a bit darker this past week when he said the police officer who shot and killed a rioter at the January 6th insurrection should face justice. That policeman was doing his job unlike the president who was instigating treason against the government he swore to protect. If someone is going to face justice it shouldnt be the policeman.

The UN climate folks published their newest summary of where were headed and for those who havent noticed, were headed for hell on Earth. Many areas of southern Europe and northern Africa have joined our West and parts of Siberia by experiencing disastrous wildfires. A town in southern Italy established a new high temperature record for Europe this week. When will the public and politicians begin to take this seriously. A massive fossil fuel use tax and accompanying fossil fuel tax dividend equally distributed to the citizenry would be a good start.

This past week the 2020 census info was also made public and we can expect the politicians to start redrawing the boundaries of voting districts to better maintain their hold on electoral power. Drawing these boundaries should be a job given to 6-year-olds who havent yet sold their souls to some political ideology or power broker. Letting politicians do it is just asking for trouble.
Japan has evacuated all personnel from its embassy in Kabul amid the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country, setting up a temporary office in Istanbul to resume the embassy's operations, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Twelve Japanese embassy staff members arrived in Dubai on Tuesday "aboard a military airplane of a friendly nation" after the embassy in Kabul was shut Sunday, according to the ministry.

"Securing the safety of Japanese citizens is our top priority, and we will closely cooperate with relevant countries including the United States with our national interests in mind," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a press conference.

On Sunday, the Islamic militant group regained control of the country 20 years after it was ousted from power by U.S.-led forces, with President Ashraf Ghani fleeing Afghanistan following the Taliban's seizure of the capital.

Japan has been actively involved in Afghanistan's reconstruction from a U.S.-led war against al-Qaida, hosting meetings in 2002 and 2012 that gathered donor countries and international organizations together to discuss the development of the conflict-ravaged nation.

Since 2001, Japan has provided to Afghanistan some $6.8 billion in reconstruction assistance as of November 2020. The Japanese government has also pledged additional support of $720 million for the period between 2021 and 2024. - Japan Today
Nikkei - Sep 01

Taiwanese technology companies have made hardly any supply chain investments in Japan as an alternative to mainland China, directing most of their new factory construction and acquisitions to the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia instead, official research shows.
Back then, it just so happened that Moss' wife, Darlene, and Stevens' mother, Irene, worked at Travelers Insurance, which was located on the top floor of the Badgerow Building in downtown Sioux City. Irene said to Darlene, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if Frank could get over to visit (Don)."

"The letters took about a week to get back and forth. We didn't know if we were every going to meet each other," Moss said. "I called over to the hospital and asked if they could have visitors, and, they said, 'Oh, yes.'"

Moss traveled five or six miles to the hospital and spent part of the day with Stevens, who was touched that Moss took the time to visit him. He almost couldn't fathom the fact that he was face to face with someone from Sioux City, being that he was more than 8,000 miles from home.

"To have somebody from Sioux City, Iowa, come to visit you, it was almost like family," Stevens said.

Moss said he tried to make another trip to the hospital before Stevens was released, but he said the bridge was closed off, so he couldn't cross over. Stevens returned to the states. He said he received a steak dinner from the military, but no counseling services. He repressed his feelings and tried to forget the war.
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All this attention focused on CRT reminds me of advice I received long ago from an old attorney, delivered via a unique analogy. The sage lawyer told me that peoples legal problems are regularly like a greased pig race  an event in which piglets are greased and released into a fenced ring where participants, typically young farm kids, try to catch them in exchange for a prize, often ownership of the caught piglet, which can then be fattened and sold. The wise counselors comparison of the difficulties of getting ones arms around legal conundrums to capturing a greased pig makes sense. But even more illuminating was the old lawyers guidance that, when confronting a greased pig race, one must also wonder who greased the pigs.

So who is greasing this CRT pig? Critical race theory is a concept that has been around for more than 40 years and, until this spring, was a little-known bit of academia that few of us had ever heard of. I was never exposed to it, never, in my own education through high school, college and law school from which I graduated in 1983, 1986 and 1989 respectively; or my eight years on the North Platte school board (2005 to 2013); or during the years my kids were in school and college  our oldest started kindergarten in 1994 and our youngest was last in college in 2019. I try to stay pretty well informed, I read extensively, and I stay abreast of what is happening in education and politics. But until four months ago, critical race theory was entirely unknown to me. So why has CRT suddenly become a plague upon our land demanding the attention of our governor, university leadership, local school boards and who knows who all else?
I dont have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul, Austin said. And where do you take that? How far do you extend into Kabul, and how long does it take to flow those forces in to be able to do that?

Austin, a retired four-star Army general who commanded forces in Afghanistan, spoke at his first Pentagon news conference since the Taliban swept to power in Kabul on Sunday.

He said the State Department was sending more consular affairs officers to speed up the processing of evacuees.

Were not close to where we want to be in terms of the pace of the airlift, Austin said.

He said he was mainly focused on the airport, which faced a number of threats that must be monitored.

We cannot afford to either not defend that airfield or not have an airfield that's secure, where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield, he said, adding that talks with the Taliban were continuing to ensure safe passage for those evacuating.

Austin said there were about 4,500 U.S. troops at the airport, maintaining security to enable the State Department-run evacuation operation that has been marked by degrees of chaos and confusion.
Washington, PA (15301)

Today

Rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low 63F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low 63F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
Crude oil prices climbed higher today after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 3.2 million barrels for the week to August 13.

This compared with a small draw of 400,000 barrels for the previous week and a slightly bigger draw of 1.1 million barrels reported for the week to August 13 by the American Petroleum Institute.

Analysts had expected an inventory draw of 1.26 million barrels for the period.

In fuels, inventory movements were mixed.

The authority estimated a gasoline inventory build of 700,000 barrels for the week to August 13, with production averaging 10 million bpd.

This compared with a decline of 1.4 million in gasoline inventories reported for the previous week and production averaging 10 million bpd.

In middle distillates, the EIA estimated an inventory decline of 2.7 million barrels, with average production at 4.8 million bpd.

This compared with an inventory build of 1.8 million barrels for the previous week and production averaging 4.9 million bpd.

Oil has been under pressure recently after China released weaker than hoped for economic data in factory output and retail sales. The U.S. also posted weaker retail sales growth for July, but factory output grew, which contributed to a stronger dollar, which normally has a negative impact on crude.

However, the effect of the weak figures was mitigated by OPEC+ that indicated it did not feel any further additions to supply outside what was already agreed were necessary. This comes despite calls from the White House to add more barrels to output as prices at the pump at U.S. fuel stations rally.

Worry about the latest wave of Covid-19 and its future impact on world economies and oil demand remains strong, too, pressuring oil.

At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $69.44 a barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $66.87 a barrel, both up slightly from the opening of trade.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Guyana-Suriname basin is gaining considerable attention from big oil despite the threat of peak oil demand and global push to significantly reduce carbon emissions. The U.S. Geological Survey calculated that the basin had mean undiscovered resources of 15.2 billion barrels of crude oil, 2.3 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 42 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Those numbers along with ExxonMobils exceptional exploration success in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana, with 21 high-quality oil discoveries, highlight the considerable hydrocarbon potential of what could be the last major offshore oil boom. The considerable potential of the Guyana-Suriname basin saw the USGS commit to reassessing its hydrocarbon potential in late-2019 but that was delayed by the pandemic. While Guyana is at the heart of what is emerging as South Americas hottest offshore oil boom, things continue to heat up on the Suriname side of the oil basin. Apache and partner TotalEnergies are experiencing substantial success in offshore Suriname Block 58. Since January 2020 the partners, which each hold a 50% share in Block 58 where TotalEnergies is the operator, have made four significant oil discoveries in the block. Then in late July 2021, while conducting appraisal drilling in Block 58 near the Sapakara West discovery, TotalEnergies made another discovery with the Sapakara South-1 well.

Source: TotalEnergies.

That latest discovery brings the total number of discoveries in offshore Suriname Block 58 to five. Block 58 is adjacent to the prolific Stabroek block and is situated on the same crude oil fairway, meaning there will more than likely be further oil discoveries in the immediate future. When the Sapakara South -1 well is complete the Maersk Valiant drillship will move to drill the Bonboni prospect approximately 45 kilometers to the north.

The crude oil found is described as high quality with API gravities of 27 to 45 degrees. Those characteristics and the assay for Exxons Liza crude oil grade, which has an API gravity of 32 degrees and 0.58% sulfur content, indicate that the basins petroleum resources are light and relatively sweet. That is important to note because demand for sweet medium and light crude oil is expanding at a solid clip because of stricter fuel emission regulations and the push to decarbonize the global economy in a post-Paris climate accord world. Those events see big oil shying away from investing in carbon-intensive petroleum projects. It is those operations that involve the exploitation of sour heavy and extra-heavy crude oil grades that are carbon-intensive to extract and refine. For those reasons, in accordance with plans to focus on low carbon intensity projects, TotalEnergies chose to hand its 30.32% in Venezuelas extra-heavy crude oil Petrocedeno operation to national oil company PDVSA at a $1.38 billion capital loss.

TotalEnergies, however, is committed to continuing its exploration and development drilling in Block 58 offshore Suriname, which some analysts believe could hold up to 6.5 billion barrels of oil. Aside from targeting the Bonboni prospect for drilling the energy supermajor and partner Apache plan to conduct flow testing of the Sapakara South-1 well before the end of 2021. Exxon with 50% partner Petronas, which is the operator, discovered hydrocarbons with the Sloanea-1 exploration well in offshore Suriname Block 52 during December 2020. That block is to the north of Block 58 and also believed to be on the same oil fairway which contains the discoveries made in the neighboring offshore Guyana Stabroek block.

Related: Biden Administration Takes Aim At Soaring Gasoline Prices

Aside from the attractiveness of the crude oil grades found in Block 58, it is estimated that offshore Suriname will have an average breakeven price of $40 per barrel once the discoveries are developed and enter production. While that is higher than the $35 currently pegged for Liza Phase one in the Stabroek block in Offshore Guyana they are among some of the lowest in South America and should fall as additional infrastructure is established. Surinames national government in Paramaribo is determined to make the former Dutch colony into a major regional oil producer. As part of that strategy, national oil company and industry regulator Staatsolie launched the 2020/21 shallow-water offshore bid round in November last year. In late June 2021 Staatsolie awarded three shallow-water offshore blocks; Block 5 went to U.S. energy supermajor Chevron while Blocks 6 and 8 were awarded to a consortium composed of TotalEnergies (40%), Staatsolie (40%), and Qatar Petroleum (20%).

Source: Staatsolie.

Surinames shallow-water blocks are to the south of Block 58 and contain similar geology to the deep-water blocks where discoveries have been made. This along with the blocks being underexplored and hydrocarbons being found during drilling in the 1980s points to their being the potential for crude oil discoveries.

Paramaribo is determined to become a major regional oil producer with it predicted that offshore Suriname holding at least 1.9 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources for the discoveries made to date. Blocks 58 and 52 are expected to commence production sometime this decade with industry consultancy Rystad Energy anticipating that Suriname will be pumping around 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day by 2030. Staatsolie has a 20% participation right under the production sharing agreements signed with Apache, TotalEnergies, Exxon, and Petronas. A favorable regulatory environment including low royalties, competitive breakeven prices, and increased political stability all make Suriname an attractive destination for foreign energy companies. Regardless of the threat of peak oil demand, Suriname is shaping up as the next big oil boom in Latin America.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Chaos enveloped Kabul's main airport, with thousands of Afghans frantically rushing to flee Taliban fighters while U.S. Marines sought to provide security for American diplomats and allies being evacuated. Across town outside the Russian Embassy on August 16, it was a different scene: Taliban fighters taking up guard duties at the outer perimeter of the sprawling post: steel, brick, and barbed-wire walls outside; fountains, manicured lawns, and rose bushes inside.

"They made a good impression on us, proper guys, well-armed, stood around the outer perimeter of the embassy so that no one could break through to us: not a terrorist, not a madman," Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov said in a televised interview with Russian state TV. "Taliban representatives assured us again that they will not touch a hair on the heads of Russian diplomats there. They said, 'You can safely continue working.'"

Zhirnov's unruffled remarks, and his elaborate praise for members of a militant group that is officially designated a terrorist group by the Russian government, belie a far more complicated calculus for Moscow following the Taliban takeover.

On the one hand, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan means one less location close to what Russia sees as its historical sphere of influence where Washington has a formidable military deployment, a perennial source of anxiety for Russian planners.

But the sudden, messy vacuum the United States is leaving behind means a new set of uncertainties and potential problems for the Kremlin.



The Russian Embassy in Kabul (file photo)

At the very least, there's one reaction coming from Moscow that was easy to foresee: gloating over the fact that the United States, in the Kremlin's eyes, has failed at nation-building and suffered a blow to its image on the world stage.

"To some degree it came as a surprise," Zamir Kabulov, the Kremlin's special envoy for Afghan affairs, said of the quick collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.

"We proceeded from the understanding that the Afghan Armywould still resist for some time. But apparently, we were too optimistic in assessing the quality of the armed forces trained by the Americans and NATO," he told the Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy.

He also pointedly contrasted the fast-paced developments this summer, ahead of the planned withdrawal of U.S. military forces by August 31, with the Soviet pullout in 1989 after a nearly decade-long war of occupation. The Soviet-backed government stayed in power in Kabul for nearly three years after Soviet troops. The U.S.-backed government of Ashraf Ghani effectively collapsed even before the U.S. withdrawal.

Soviet-backed Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah's regime "stood for another three years," Kabulov said. "The regime they created collapsed even before the Americans left. This is where the fundamental difference lies." Related: Top U.S. Negotiator: Iran Nuclear Deal May Be Impossible The opportunity to make such comparisons may be a benefit, at least in terms of propaganda, but on a practical level, the developments present problems for Moscow.

One of them: How do you refer to the new government in Kabul when its members are considered terrorists under Russian law -- a designation, since 2003, that obligates Russian media to include a tedious disclaimer in all news articles mentioning them?



Russia's special presidential envoy for Afghan affairs, Zamir Kabulov (left), speaks to the Taliban's top political leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (third from left), and other members of the Taliban delegation at peace talks in Moscow in May 2019.

A more nuanced political situation might suit the Kremlin better than full Taliban rule, giving Russia a chance to gain influence and play to various sides as the United States steps back.

"For Russia, the formation of a transitional government in Afghanistan, where the Taliban would invite other participants in Moscow meetings, would be one of the best possible scenarios," Kirill Krivosheyev, a political observer and newspaper columnist, wrote in an opinion piece for the Carnegie Moscow Center. "This would make it possible, on the one hand, not to directly recognize the authority of the organization declared terrorist, and on the other, not to spoil relations with the Taliban."

1996 Vs. 2021

Moscow's long-standing fear of instability on its southern borders is the primary factor in its calculations with Kabul. That depends on the ability of the Central Asian nations bordering Afghanistan -- Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan-- to defend their borders and keep Taliban fighters, and extremist ideology, from destabilizing their own societies.

But Moscow has quietly built up its diplomatic ties with the Taliban for several years now. And ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks make up a sizable proportion of Afghanistan's population, meaning they also have longstanding cultural, linguistic, and economic levers to pull on the Kabul government.

"While Russia may be open to limited forms of cooperation with major powers such as China, India, and even the United States on Afghanistan and regional security, it has also invested directly in cultivating relationships with senior Taliban leaders," Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C., said in an analysis. "Consequently, Russia now has some ability to exert direct leverage within Taliban-controlled Afghanistan."

In fact, Kabulov suggested that, while the Taliban takeover came swiftly in the end, Russia may have been preparing for the possibility for years.

"It is not in vain that we have made contacts with the Taliban movement for the last seven years, discussed many points," he said in his interview with Ekho Moskvy. "And we saw that yes, this force would eventually, if not fully come to power, in any case, play a leading role in the future in Afghanistan."

The last time the Taliban came to power was in 1996, amid civil war and near-total anarchy, Moscow was more fearful of the consequences.

Russia itself was roiling still from the Soviet collapse five years earlier. It also feared the weakness of the newly independent Central Asian states who were dealing with their own turmoil: Tajikistan was racked by its own civil war in the 1990s; the Ferghana Valley, whose borders skein through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, regularly saw outbursts of violence; the First Chechen War had cracked the entire region's door to Islamic extremist ideology.

That isn't the case now, said Ivan Klyszcz, a researcher and political scientist at the University of Tartu, in Estonia.

"The [Taliban] takeover doesn't change Moscow's fundamental policy toward Afghanistan: to keep the instability of the civil war away from Central Asia," he told RFE/RL.

Having open lines of communication -- Zhirnov met on August 17 with Taliban representatives for the first time since the Taliban takeover -- also doesn't necessarily mean Moscow will be able to drive policy.

"It's more about making sure they have privileged or constant communication with the Taliban, especially where it comes to the borders with Central Asia, and the fight with [Islamic State]," Klyszcz said.

"The main problem for Russia will be making sure that the Taliban does not try to foment violence, or spread its harsh version of Islam, beyond Afghanistan's border," said Arkady Dubnov, a longtime expert on South and Central Asia, said in an interview with Republic magazine. Depending on this, "Moscow will promote political recognition of the Taliban and getting them taken off the United Nations list of terrorist organizations."

"One can hardly expect any significant financial assistance from Moscow to Kabul. This will be done by the Americans and the collective West, because it is largely responsible for what happened in Afghanistan today. Russia is, as they say, out of the business here," he said.

Empty Words?

It's the fight with Islamic State, and other extremist groups like Al-Qaeda, where Moscow's interests are more likely to dovetail with those of the United States and the West: The Kremlin not only was happy to support the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan 20 years ago, it facilitated the use of Russian airspace, and signaled support for the United States to use bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Related: Canada Could Boost Oil Pipeline Capacity As Soon As September

As time went on, however, Moscow's tolerance for the U.S. presence in Central Asia waned, and it worked to push the Americans out in the 2000s. Since then, Moscow has bolstered a major military base in Tajikistan and more recently held military exercises with both Tajik and Uzbek forces along the border.

The top U.S. and Russian diplomats, Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov, spoke by phone on August 16, discussing "the situation in Afghanistan after the flight of the country's leader, the disintegration of the existing government bodies, and a de-facto ongoing regime change," according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The two also agreed "to continue consultations" that would involve China, Pakistan, other "interested nations" and to press the United Nations to organize some sort of meeting of Afghan society and government.

Aleksei Pushkov, a sharp-tongued Russian lawmaker and perennial critic of the West, proclaimed the U.S. pullout "a powerful blow to the international reputation of the United States and its capacity for "global leadership."

"The decline of a whole school of thought, a whole system of myths and ideas about the 'end of history' and the triumph of the Western model," he called the defeat in a post to Telegram.

But Russian gloating over the U.S. withdrawal shouldn't be taken overly seriously, Klyszcz said.

"They're mostly empty words, a convenient way to push a narrative about U.S. decline, the rise of multipolarity, the rise of other partners in the global system etc." he said. "But it also has a strategic value, it's not as much about U.S. decline, it's about Western models of governance and conflict management. Moscow can use the [U.S. failures in Afghanistan] to promote its own model of conflict resolution by reducing the prestige of the competing Western model."

By RFE/ RL

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The oil market is not as tight as the Wall Street consensus view, and with the current slowdown in demand growth, the fundamentals justify more like $65 a barrel Brent rather than $75, Standard Chartered said in a research note dated Tuesday.

At present, the oil market is in a mild surplus. The bank's commodity analysts said that it will continue to be in surplus in September.

Standard Chartered's view echoes last week's warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that new mobility restrictions in Asia to fight the Delta variant are set to slow global oil demand growth in the second half of 2021.

"The balances appear to justify USD 65/bbl or lower more than USD 75/bbl or higher in our view, particularly when a significant amount of money has already entered the market in the Wall Street-generated belief (mistaken according to our analysis) that the balances are much tighter and justify USD 80-100/bbl," Standard Chartered's analysts wrote.

The current balance of supply and demand implies that "the consensus Wall Street view of a very tight market for the rest of 2021 was incorrect and that the period of significant excess demand was over."

The bank estimates that the market will see small surpluses in August and September, followed by small deficits in October and November. Moreover, global oil demand will not regain its level from July 2021 until November.

"In our view Q4 oil market balances are not tight, and the 2022 balance is now oversupplied to an extent that will likely cause OPEC+ to pause its schedule of monthly supply increases early in the new year," Standard Chartered said.

OPEC+ is set to meet on September 1 for the regular monthly meeting.

"The current price cycle is one which we would describe as a 'skimming stones' period of trading," says the bank, adding: "Like skimming stones across water, each bounce is less high than the previous and the length between bounces is diminishing."

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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World

AP

Taliban promise women's rights

Associated Press photos A man holds a certificate acknowledging his work for Americans as hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday. The Taliban declared an amnesty Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. U.S soldiers stand guard along a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul on Monday. Capt. Chris Herbert via Associated Press Afghans pack inside an Air Force C-17 plane as they are transported from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan on Sunday. The desperation of Afghans speaks to the harshness of the Talibans previous rule.

KABUL, Afghanistan  The Taliban vowed Tuesday to respect womens rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists as part of a publicity blitz aimed at reassuring world powers and a fearful population.

Following a lightning offensive across Afghanistan that saw many cities fall to the insurgents without a fight, the Taliban have sought to portray themselves as more moderate than when they imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in the late 1990s. But many Afghans remain skeptical  and thousands have raced to the airport, desperate to flee the country.

The Taliban have agreed to allow safe passage from Afghanistan for civilians struggling to join a U.S.-directed airlift from the Kabul airport, President Joe Bidens national security adviser said Tuesday. Jake Sullivan said a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and others has yet to be worked out with the countrys new rulers.

Pentagon officials said that after interruptions Monday, the airlift was back on track and being accelerated Tuesday. Overnight at the airport, nine Air Force C-17 transport planes arrived with equipment and about 1,000 troops, and seven C-17s took off with 700 to 800 civilian evacuees, including 165 Americans, Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor said at the Pentagon.

The goal is to ramp up to one evacuation flight per hour by Wednesday, with 5,000 to 9,000 evacuees leaving per day. Taylor said more than 4,000 U.S. troops are now at the airport. That number is expected to top 6,000 in coming days.

On Monday the airlift had been temporarily suspended when Afghans desperate to escape the country breeched security and rushed onto the tarmac. Multiple Afghan civilians died when a C-17 transport plane was swarmed amid takeoff. The Air Force said human remains were found in the planes wheel well when it landed in Qatar.

The desperation of Afghans speaks to the harshness of the Talibans previous rule, when they largely confined women to their homes, banned television and music, and held public executions. A U.S.-led invasion drove them from power months after the 9/11 attacks, which al-Qaida had orchestrated from Afghanistan while being sheltered by the Taliban.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Talibans longtime spokesman, emerged Tuesday in his first-ever public appearance to address those concerns at a press conference.

He promised the Taliban would honor womens rights within the norms of Islamic law, without elaborating. The Taliban have encouraged women to return to work and have allowed girls to return to school, handing out Islamic headscarves at the door. A female news anchor interviewed a Taliban official Monday in a TV studio.

The treatment of women varies widely across the Muslim world and sometimes even within the same country, with rural areas tending to be far more conservative. Some Muslim countries, including neighboring Pakistan, have had female prime ministers, while ultraconservative Saudi Arabia only recently allowed women to drive.

Mujahid also said the Taliban would not allow Afghanistan to be used as a base for attacking other countries, as it was in the years before 9/11. That assurance was part of a 2020 peace deal reached between the Taliban and the Trump administration that paved the way for the American withdrawal.

Mujahid reiterated that the Taliban have offered full amnesty to Afghans who worked for the U.S. and the Western-backed government, saying nobody will go to their doors to ask why they helped. He said that private media should remain independent but that journalists should not work against national values.

Kabul, the capital, has remained calm as the Taliban patrol its streets. But many remain fearful after prisons and armories were unlocked and emptied during the insurgents sweep across the country.

A group of women wearing Islamic headscarves demonstrated briefly in Kabul, holding signs demanding the Taliban not eliminate women from public life.

Sullivan said the U.S. and other governments will not simply take the Taliban at their word when it comes to womens rights.

Like Ive said all along, this is not about trust. This is about verify, Sullivan said at a White House briefing. And well see what the Taliban end up doing in the days and weeks ahead, and when I say we, I mean the entire international community.

Whatever their true intentions, the Taliban have an interest in projecting moderation to prevent the international community from isolating their government, as it did in the 1990s.

The European Union said that it was suspending development assistance to Afghanistan until the political situation is more clear but that it would consider boosting humanitarian aid.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the Taliban must respect U.N. Security Council resolutions and human rights to earn access to about 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in development funds earmarked through 2024.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain might provide up to 10% more humanitarian aid, but the Taliban would not get any money previously earmarked for security.

Biden has defended his decision to end Americas longest war, blaming the rapid Taliban takeover on Afghanistans Western-backed government and security forces. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg echoed that assessment, while saying the alliance must investigate the flaws in its efforts to train the Afghan military.

Talks continued Tuesday between the Taliban and several Afghan politicians, including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the countrys negotiating council. The Taliban have said they want to form an inclusive, Islamic government.

The talks focused on how a Taliban-dominated government would operate given the changes in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, rather than just dividing up ministries, officials with knowledge of the negotiations said on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.
Garth Brooks has canceled the next five shows on his stadium tour.

In July, I sincerely thought the (COVID-19) pandemic was falling behind us. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part. ... So, it is with a heavy heart we announce the decision to cancel all five shows but with a hopeful heart, we will reschedule and start over when this wave seems to be behind us, Brooks said in a statement posted to his official website.

Since restarting the tour in July, Brooks has performed for more than 300,000 fans across five cities, according to the website, most recently on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.

With more than 90,000 fans in attendance, the show took place without significant health restrictions. Despite recommendations to wear masks, very few concertgoers were masked before, during and after the 2-hour concert.

During the next two months, Brooks was set to play stadium shows in Cincinnati; Charlotte, North Carolina; Baltimore; and Foxborough, Massachusetts. A fifth show in Nashville, Tennessee, had yet to be rescheduled.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday backed a peaceful resolution for the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia that has displaced tens of thousands and left millions hungry. He also said Turkey was willing to mediate between Ethiopia and Sudan to resolve a separate border dispute.

Erdogan spoke during a joint news conference with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The visit comes amid a broadening of the conflict in Tigray, which began in November after a political fallout between Abiy and the leaders of the Tigray region who had dominated Ethiopias government for nearly three decades.

Thousands have been killed in the nine-month war in Tigray that has been marked by widespread allegations by ethnic Tigrayans of gang rapes, manmade local famines and mass expulsions of Tigrayans by Ethiopian and allied forces.

The peace, tranquility and integrity of Ethiopia, which has a strategic location and importance in Africa, is important to us, Erdogan said. All the countries in the region will be affected by the worsening of the situation (over Tigray).
UTAG President, Prof. Charles Marfo has sent a strong message to the National Labour Commission regarding their resort to the court to arbitrate the ongoing impasse between them and the government over their conditions of service.



The University lecturers have been on strike for the past 2 weeks demanding that government resolve their conditions of service challenges before they return to work.



However, the National Labour Commission has secured an interlocutory injunction from an Accra High Court to compel the UTAG to call off their strike.



But UTAG has refused to comply with the court order as they remain on strike while negotiations continue.



Speaking in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, the UTAG President warned the Labour Commission against its court threats saying, "the government or the Ministry, through the Labour Commission, should stop intimidating us with the court. I think when that's addressed, there will be amicable settlement''.



"When we're trying to set aside the previous one which ended yesterday, they (National Labour Commission) are filing another one. So, with this, what can I tell the members to understand me," he said.



Prof. Charles Marfo added that the teachers are very angered by some utterances made by the authorities.



"A lot of our members are very annoyed," he stressed.







Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Students of Aburaman Senior High School in the Abura/Asebu/Kwamankese district of the Central Region have appealed to the Ghana Education Service and government to come to their aid as they face numerous challenges in the school.



According to the students, it is difficult for them to access water and have had to depend on a well outside the school, which often is not clean.



The students also complained about lack of classroom desks and as a result sit on their bags, gallons or cement blocks during teaching.



"Some even had to sit on their sandals or shoes to be able to participate in the lessons."



Again, they lack dormitories causing some of them to sleep in classrooms.



They disclosed this to Peace FM's reporter Sally Ngissah when Peace News visited the school.



The students added that their, "dining hall is too small to contain all the students and that some of the students opt to eat in the classroom when it is breakfast, lunch and dinner" and sometimes they have to dine in batches.



In an interview with the Chief of Abura Dunkwa, Nana Asokwa Awegyir II expressed worry over the inadequate infrastructure at Aburaman SHS, so pleaded with government to come to our aid. I realized the President is doing well by distributing buses to schools, yet Aburaman Senior High School hasn't received any, except for the old one which was given to us by our first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, which is in bad shape. The headmistress of the school does not have a car, instead she uses taxi everyday to school".



Peace FM News checks also revealed school projects initiated under previous governments which have been abandoned on the school campus.













Source: Sally Ngissah/Peace News









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Senior statesman and Special Advisor to the President of Ghana, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has commended the Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, for spearheading Ghanas successful bid to host the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).



Addressing participants of the ongoing 2021 Ghana Industrial Summit and exhibition at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), Mr. Osafo-Maafo revealed that Kyerematen is among those who initiated, drafted and ensured that AfCFTA became a reality, and also championed for its headquarters to be situated in Accra.



According to Mr. Osafo-Maafo, the Trade Ministers desire to see the formation of AfCFTA dates back more than two decades ago when he authored a document to advocate for the establishment of an organisation to oversee the implementation of intra-African trade.



Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen was one of the first people in the 1990s to put up a paper for the establishment of a body to supervise African continental trade.



He was also the Minister for Trade and Industry during the period that a location for the headquarters of AfCFTA was being determined, and he made sure that Ghana had it.



Mr. Osafo-Maafo, who was assigned to North Africa, explained that Mr. Kyerematen, used his diplomatic skills to galvanise support from other countries by tasking senior cabinet members from Ghana to lobby for votes from each region of the continent.



With its Secretariat in Accra, AfCFTA brings together all 55 member states of the African Union, covering a market of more than 1.2 billion people and a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than US$3.4 trillion, making it the worlds largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organisation.



The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) projects that AfCFTAs implementation will significantly boost intra-African trade by 52.3 per cent while eliminating import duties.



Ghanas participation in AfCFTA will allow Ghanaian businesses the opportunity to access a wider continental market by easing trade restriction procedures within the zone.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Ghana branch of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), has condemned the Anglican priest, Rev Father Balthazar Obeng Larbi, for kissing girls during a church service in a school.

The group in a statement on Wednesday, August 18, 2021, said Sexual harassment and sexual abuse is not a laughing matter and that For far too long, the issue of sexual harassment has been at best side-lined and at worst silenced in the church.



The President of FIDA-Ghana, Afua Brown-Eyeson, who signed the statement said It is now time to challenge cultures of entitlement and abuse of power by clerics which plague women and girls in religious settings.



She added, The reality though is that sexual harassment and abuse by clerics has been in the news for quite a while due to undue influence, duress and fear of religious authority. Though religious authority is regarded highly in Ghana, it should not be used as a cloak to oppress and abuse women and girls who most often need the protection of these clerics.



FIDA, however, applauded the Anglican Church of Ghana for taking this matter seriously by relieving Rev Father Larbi of his duties, providing counselling for the girls and investigating this unfortunate incident.



The group also called on women and girls who have been sexually harassed in churches to come out with their experiences in order to raise awareness of these despicable acts.



Background



Social media platforms went ablaze last Monday, August 16, 2021, when a video showing Rev. Fr Larbi kissing three female students of the single-sex college which trains teachers.



Read also: Kissing priest asked to step aside





He was seen standing by a podium while the three students walked up to him in turns, where he kissed them on their lips.



Wearing a full cassock, the Anglican priest was also seen urging the students to come to him and remove their face masks.



He then kissed them, amid shouts and jubilation from other students in what appeared to be an auditorium.



On Wednesday, August 17, 2021, Rev. Fr Baltharzar Obeng Larbi was directed by management of the college to step aside to facilitate investigations into the matter by the Anglican Church of Ghana.



Below is FIDAs statement



FIDA-GHANA CONDEMNS ANGLICAN PRIEST KISSING FEMALE STUDENTS



Since yesterday, the attention of the country has been drawn to the video published by some media houses and circulating on some social media platforms of an Anglican priest, Rev Father Balthazar Obeng Larbi, kissing girls during a church service in a school. Also circulating are screenshots of chats allegedly posted by students of the same school claiming the incident as the modus operandi of the said reverend father.



Quite disturbing to watch was the jeering and excitement on the faces of onlookers which in no doubt emboldened the perpetrator to continue kissing the girls. Sexual harassment and sexual abuse is not a laughing matter.



For far too long, the issue of sexual harassment has been at best side-lined and at worst silenced in the church. It is now time to challenge cultures of entitlement and abuse of power by clerics which plague women and girls in religious settings. The reality though is that sexual harassment and abuse by clerics has been in the news for quite a while due to undue influence, duress and fear of religious authority. Though religious authority is regarded highly in Ghana, it should not be used as a cloak to oppress and abuse women and girls who most often need the protection of these clerics.



Needless to say, sexual harassment is gender based violence and a violation of the human rights of girls and women and is prohibited in the 1992 Constitution, the Domestic Violence Act and the Labour Act. The Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome, offensive or importunate sexual advances or request made by an employer or superior officer or a co-worker, whether the worker is a man or woman. The effect of sexual harassment in the academic and professional lives of women has in most situations denied women of their rightful places of merit and contributed to the huge gender gaps in education and the workplace, thus the need for the Affirmative Action Law.



FIDA-Ghana applauds the Anglican Church of Ghana for taking this matter seriously by relieving Rev Father Larbi of his duties, providing counselling for the girls and investigating this unfortunate incident. It is now time for women and girls who have been sexually harassed in churches to come out with their experiences in order to raise awareness of these despicable acts. Being mindful of the possibility of being stigmatised for speaking out, FIDA Ghana would like to inform the public of its Gender Based Violence reporting phone number or whatsapp platform on 0554121205 and website on [email protected] These platforms provides opportunity for victims of violence to report such acts whilst providing a trained lawyer to attend to their legal needs.



FIDA-Ghana appeals to the media houses and persons to be circumspect in sharing the video to protect the identity of the girls as they are victims.



Finally, FIDA-Ghana calls on leaders at every level within religious Institutions to initiate changes and to establish and maintain a culture which abhors sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. In order to make this work, we call on members of religious institutions, students, faculty, staff, and administrators to assume responsibility for promoting a harassment-free environment.



(Signed)



Afua Brown-Eyeson



President, FIDA-Ghana.

Source: graphiconline.com









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The National Youth Authority (NYA), has commended the Internal Province of Ghana Anglican Communion, for the swift condemnation and dismissal of one of their priest, Reverend Father Baltharzar Obeng Larbi who gave kisses to some female students.



Rev. Father Larbi was captured on video kissing female students at St. Monicas College of Education, Mampong.



A statement issued in Accra by the NYA and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), called on the Ghana Police Service to as a matter of urgency conduct investigations into the matter to determine any civil or criminal infractions that could arise from the despicable act of the said priest, and apply sanctions where necessary.



The Authority also implored the Ghana Bar Association of which the priest is reported to be a member, to demonstrate good faith and live up to their billing as the rightful custodians of the law by reprimanding the Rev. Larbi, whose action could bring the noble legal profession to disrepute.



The NYA lauded the Anglican Communion for upholding the high moral standards that the church was known for.



The statement pledged to continue to work and to partner with all well-meaning individuals and institutions desirous of promoting the cause of youth development in Ghana.



Meanwhile, Authorities of St. Monicas College of Education in Asante Mampong have commenced counselling services for students who were seen kissed by the Chaplain of the school in the viral video.



At least three female students were kissed on the lips by Rev Father Obeng Larbi in what school authorities have described as a Peace Kiss during a Sunday Mass Service.



Rev. Larbi, in his defence of the act, claimed that the kiss was to show appreciation and to honour the students who are members of the Chaplaincy Committee of the College for distinguishing themselves.



The management of the college, in consultation with the Anglican Church, has since relieved him of his post after five years of service.









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A 65-year-old woman identified as Madam Bachong Bawuobilia has been confirmed to have died at Funsi in the Wa East District last Saturday following torrential rains that flooded a number of communities in the Upper West Region.



Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Regional Manager of the Ghana Red Cross, Mr Jeremiah Afako said the room in which Madam Bawuobilia slept collapsed and fell on her whilst she was asleep at dawn of Saturday.



He said, the deceased shared the room with her daughter in-law who had earlier woken up to do her morning chores when the incident occurred.



Mr Afako said her room was weakened by the floods, saying immediately the room collapsed on her, the daughter in-law raised the alarm. She was rushed to the Saint John's Health Centre at Funsi but medical authorities pronounced her dead. The Red Cross Manager said, the deceased has since been buried in line with Islamic rites.



Meanwhile, preliminary assessment of the flood situation by the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) has indicated that over 336 people have been displaced with 80 houses collapsing in three districts, namely; Nadowli-Kaleo, Jirapa and Daffiama/Bussie/Issa (DBI).



According to the Regional Director of NADMO, Mr Mustapha Ahmed, over 700 acres of farmlands occupied by 1,605 farmers have also been taken over by the floods. He said relief items are being mobilised for onward distribution to the affected people.



Mr Ahmed said, they have intensified their education for those living in low lying areas to migrate as quickly as possible to higher ground since information on the weather by the Metrological Service has predicted that more heavy rains are expected in the next few days.



On COVID - 19 pandemic, he advised that strict adherence must be observed despite the disaster.









Source: Graphiconline.com









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A presidential aspirant in the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) national elections, Mr Gayheart Mensah has expressed concern about the failure of young to learn from their mistakes.

Mr Mensah said he had observed that the youth of today see nothing wrong with being corrected on the same mistakes on a daily basis.



Speaking with host, Rev. Erskine on the Y-Leaderboard Series on YFMs Myd-Morning Radio Show, he shared that when he was a writer with the Ghanaian Times Newspaper, he hated to see red inks in his writings, hence, his drive was that the next time he wrote, he should not have red inks in his script.



He said he made a conscious effort to improve daily till it got to a time that when he wrote, the news editor did not even look at it because she was confident that there would be no mistakes.



Per his observation, the quest to excel was extremely high back in those days.





I look at people I work with today and the challenge is that no matter how many times you correct them, they come back with the same mistakes and I dont think theyre pride tainted when they have to be corrected with every sentence and every paragraph, he said.



He advised the youth not to take things for granted and constantly seek opportunities to learn and improve their skills.









Source: graphiconline.com









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Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, says the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) does not have the majority power in Parliament.



According to him, aside from the fact that the people during the 2020 elections voted for an equal number of seats for both NPP and the opposition NDC, most of the NPP MPs are in the Executive arm of government and sometimes fail to attend parliamentary sittings.



He explained that because these MPs have been tasked to take care of matters at their respective ministries, they can sometimes vote on some matters.



The 137-137, it was the people who decided. There was no system or formula put in place; the people just voted. One of the persons who made them the majority, they didnt want him, so he stood as independent and beat the government candidate.



He is now the second deputy speaker, so actually, there is no majority. But, if not because of my impartiality, anytime they want to vote, I step aside, and one of them will come and sit down, and they are 137-137. So, they dont have the power they think they have; they dont have it at all, Mr Bagbin said.



The Speaker of Parliament stated that despite having an affiliation with the opposition NDC, he has no interest in being partial to frustrate government business.



Thus, he is interested in ensuring that, even though all the powers may not lie with the NPP when it comes to parliament, the governments business is seen to a successful end.



So, the President is trying to get me to take some steps to assist so that they (ministers/members of the executive) can be in parliament to work, Mr Bagbin added.

Source: myjoyonline,com









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Former President John Dramani Mahama has told President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that he has set a bad precedence following the closure of some radio stations that delayed in renewing their license.



Mr Mahama said this in the Upper East region on Tuesday August 17 when he was thanking the chiefs and people of the region after the 2020 elections.



He said The constitution guarantees freedoms, human rights, freedom of association and so many other things, freedom and independence of the media and indeed there is a whole chapter on media freedom.



Unfortunately, even when you have the best constitution you can have governments that try to bend it to be able to achieve whatever ends they have in terms of limiting our democratic rights. So today government can say that a radio station has delayed in paying its license fee and so we are shutting you down.



When I talk about it I talk about it because of the precedence it can set .Because the shoe can be on the other foot the next day, they say the stick that is used to beat Takyi, it is the same stick they will use to be Baah. So the stations you dont like you can close them down today, when another government comes and it decides to do the same thing to the stations they dont like too, what kind of country will we be building?



The National Communications Authority (NCA), the broadcasting and telecommunication frequency regulator in Ghana, shut down Radio Gold and Radio XYZ, both based in Accra and aligned to the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).



A statement issued by the NCA in Accra on May 9, 2019, said the closures were carried out in line with Regulations 65 (1) of the Electronic Communications Regulations, 2011, L. I. 1991, which states that A person shall not use a radio frequency without authorisation from the Authority.



Referring to a 2018 ruling by the Electronic Communications Tribunal on the status of FM stations with expired authorisation, the NCA said Companies whose authorisations had expired reverted to the same position as a fresh applicant, adding that these applications shall go through the required procedure for new FM Broadcasting Authorisation.



The regulator did not mention the two stations, implying that it was a general exercise. However, only Radio XYZ and Radio Gold have been closed so far. Officials of the NCA, backed by armed police officers, stormed the premises of the radio stations to enforce the shutdown in the afternoon of May 9.



This is the second time in less than two years that the regulator has flexed its muscles against defaulting stations.



In September, 2017, the NCA carried out a massive purge of the broadcasting industry that saw a total of 34 radio and television stations being shut down for various infractions, in enforcement of Section 13 of the Electronics Communications Act (2009), Act 775.



The regulator also imposed fines on a number of stations ranging from GHC50,000 (US$11,000) to GHC61,000,000 (US$13.8 million) depending on the infraction and the duration the infraction persisted.







Source: 3news.com









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Former Acting General Secretary of the Convention People's Party (CPP), James Kwabena Bomfeh has fired shots at former President John Dramani Mahama over his statements on the Agenda 111 project by President Nana Akufo-Addo.



As President Akufo-Addo describes the Agenda 111 project as unprecedented, former President John Dramani Mahama has described it as an afterthought and overly ambitious project.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 cut sod for the commencement of works on 88 of the 111 hospital projects indicating to the general public that the hospitals will be completed within 18 months.



So far sites have been identified for 88 of the 111 hospitals, and after cutting the sod, work on the other 87 sites will also commence today [Tuesday].



The acquisition of the remaining 13 sites will be completed shortly for work to begin. Each hospital is being constructed at a cost of $16.88 million, i.e. $12.88 million for construction and $4 million for medical equipment, and all the hospitals are to be completed in 18 months and works will begin on the regional and other hospitals in the latter part of the year, the President said.



But Mr. Mahama doubts the government can complete the project within time.



During his 'Thank You tour' in the Upper East Region, he said; It is only an afterthought that suddenly they realized that they must be doing some infrastructure and Agenda 111 has been conjured with no transparency as to how the money for the projects are going to be procured.



Is it going to lead to more borrowing when we already have such a high level [of debt]? he questioned and stressed the government should avert its mind and try to finish some of those projects including some of those that they themselves have initiated.



In a quick reply to Mr. Mahama, James Kwabena Bomfeh, popularly called Kabila, slammed the former President for having doubts over the project.



According to Kabila, the Agenda 111 is very possible, hence alluding to some policies like the free SHS, One District One Factory among others which the opposition party claimed weren't feasible but the President has done them.



Kabila cautioned Mr. Mahama to be measured in his comments on the project stressing he not being privy to the details of the project doesn't mean the project Committee members are also clueless.



"If you don't have power and don't know all the details, be measured in your utterances. I don't believe that the contractors and scholars who are involved in this project will look on and say we should do this just for show. So, I plead that we should commend the President and encourage them to effectively execute the project," he stated during Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo'.





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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Social commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, has shamed naysayers of President Akufo-Addo's Agenda 111 Hospital project.



The Minority in Parliament and NDC 2020 Presidential candidate, former President John Dramani Mahama have cast doubts over the feasibility of the project.



According to the former President, the project is ''only an afterthought that suddenly they realized that they must be doing some infrastructure and Agenda 111 has been conjured with no transparency as to how the money for the projects are going to be procured.



Government should avert its mind and try to finish some of those projects including some of those that they themselves have initiated, he added.



Is it going to lead to more borrowing when we already have such a high level [of debt]? he further questioned.



But Allotey Jacobs strongly believes there will be no impediments in the way of the President in completing the project.



"The feasibility of the project is that it is for Ghanaians, not for NPP, not for NDC but for Ghanaians. And my wish and my dream is that, at the end of the day, we will see all these projects in place; then it will become part of the social interventional projects by the NPP and its government. The talk is too much! . . . that people try to dissuade us from believing in ourselves as Ghanaians," he told host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo'.



Allotey Jacobs encouraged President Akufo-Addo to continue to dream big for Ghana stressing "when you dream big, the grace of God supports you".





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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Seen in a long exposure photograph, embers light up hillsides as the Dixie Fire burns near Milford in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

Wind-driven wildfires raged Wednesday through drought-stricken forests in the mountains of Northern California after incinerating hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of people to flee to safety.

A reversal of wind direction was expected to test some previously quiet fire containment lines, but also push flames back in other areas, authorities said.

The newest inferno, the Caldor Fire, continued to grow explosively in the Sierra Nevada southwest of Lake Tahoe, covering 84 square miles (217.5 square kilometers) after suddenly ravaging Grizzly Flats, a community of about 1,200.

At least 50 homes burned there but tallies were incomplete because officials had not been able to make thorough assessments of the damage in Grizzly Flats. Two people were hospitalized with serious injuries on Tuesday and about 5,900 homes and other structures were threatened by the fire.

In the Sierra-Cascades region about 100 miles (161 kilometers) to the north, the month-old Dixie Fire expanded by thousands of acres to 993 square miles (2,572 square kilometers)two weeks after the blaze gutted the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville. About 16,000 homes and buildings were threatened by the Dixie Fire, named for the road where it started.

Jennifer Whitmore sprays her home with water as the Caldor fire burns near White Hall, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Ethan Swope

"It's a pretty good size monster," Mark Brunton, a firefighting operations section chief, said in a briefing.

"We're not going to get this thing overnight," he said. "It's going to be a work in progresseating the elephant one bite at a time kind of thingand it's going to be a long-haul mindset. It's a marathon and not a sprint."

The Caldor and Dixie fires are among a dozen large wildfires in the northern half of California. In contrast, Southern California has had few wildfires recently. Very moist ocean air even ushered in occasional drizzle or light rain on Wednesday.

But Northern California's wildfires have left scenes of utter devastation.

Few homes were left standing in Grizzly Flats, where streets were littered with downed power lines and poles. Houses were reduced to smoldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruins. A post office and elementary school were destroyed.

Jennifer Whitmore sprays her home with water as the Caldor fire burns near White Hall, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Ethan Swope

Hulks of gutted vehicles littered the ruins and the skeletons of chairs stood in rows among the ashes of a church.

Derek Shaves, who fled Grizzly Flats late Monday, said he visited the next day, finding that his home and most of the houses in his neighborhood were gone.

"It's a pile of ash," he said. "Everybody on my block is a pile of ash and every block that I visitedbut for five separate homes that were safewas totally devastated."

All 7,000 residents of the town of Pollock Pines on Tuesday were ordered to evacuate because of the fire.

To the north at the Dixie Fire, numerous firefighting resources were deployed into the area of Susanville, a city of about 18,000 a few miles from the northeastern edge of the blaze, where residents have been warned to be ready to evacuate.

Fire officials said early Wednesday that the fire did not push toward Susanville overnight, and that was one location where the switch in wind direction to the northeast could push flames back on themselves.

Destiney Barnard holds Raymond William Goetchius while stranded at a gas station near the Dixie Fire on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Doyle, Calif. Barnard was helping Goetchius and his family evacuate from Susanville when her car broke down. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

Late Tuesday, Pacific Gas & Electric began shutting off power to as many as 51,000 customers in 18 Northern California counties to prevent wildfires for the first time since last year's historically bad fire season.

The utility said the shutoffs were focused in the Sierra Nevada foothills, the North Coast, the northern Central Valley and the North San Francisco Bay mountains and could last into Wednesday afternoon.

The nation's largest utility announced the blackouts as a precaution to prevent gusts from damaging power lines and sparking blazes.

PG&E has notified utility regulators that the Dixie fire may have been caused by trees falling into its power lines. The Dixie Fire began near the town of Paradise, which was devastated by a 2018 wildfire ignited by PG&E equipment during strong winds. Eighty-five people died.

Susanville residents sit in the back of a pick-up truck while stranded outside the Dixie Fire zone on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, in Doyle, Calif. The car they were using to evacuate broke down on the way out. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

A man douses flames as the Dixie Fire burns south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

The moon rises over flames as the Dixie Fire burns in Lassen County, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

Jason Tow speaks with a firefighter as the Dixie Fire burns near his home in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

The Dixie Fire burns across Highway 395 south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

Jason Tow makes a phone call as the Dixie Fire burns near his home south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

A bulldozer creates a firebreak as the Dixie Fire burns south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

Flames from Dixie Fire rise above a truck in Lassen County, Calif., on early Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

A firefighter battles the Dixie Fire shortly after it jumped Highway 395 south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region threatens to spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

The Dixie Fire burns south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on early Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

Flames from the Dixie Fire leap over Highway 395 south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on early Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. Credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

A scorched property, destroyed by the Caldor Fire, sits in Grizzly Flats, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Ethan Swope

The remnants of a foundation is all this left after a property was destroyed by the Caldor Fire in Grizzly Flats, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Ethan Swope

U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan looks over Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Boulder Creek, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury

U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan talks to reporters at Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Boulder Creek, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury

California Gov. Gavin Newsom looks over Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Boulder Creek, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, second from left, and U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan, left, talks with fire officials at Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Boulder Creek, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Nic Coury

The Dixie Fire is the largest of nearly 100 major wildfires burning across a dozen Western states, including Alaska. The wildfires, in large part, have been fueled by high temperatures, strong winds and dry weather.

Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

*****

This story corrects that the Dixie and Caldor fires are more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) apart, not a few miles.

Explore further Fueled by winds, largest wildfire moves near California city

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Many seahorses mate for life, and males are always pregnant. Credit: Steven L Gordon/Shutterstock

Seahorses have long been a popular attraction in public aquariums, but they remain mysterious. They are a fish with a difference in that they swim in an upright, vertical position. They have flexible necks and long, tubular snouts that point downward, giving them the appearance of a horse's head. Their lower bodies form a flexible, prehensile tail, which is square in outline and can wrap around objects. There are at least 47 known species, all belonging to the genus Hippocampus, a Greek term that means "horse sea monster." So what else should we know about this creature?

They are notoriously poor swimmers

Seahorses do not have the typical pelvic, anal and caudal fins that provide thrust, lift and steering on most fishes. Instead, they propel themselves by fluttering their small dorsal fin at about 35 beats per second. Steering is accomplished using even smaller pectoral fins on the sides of their head. These pectoral fins look like ears and add to the horse-like appearance of the head. Their inability to swim well means that they sometimes die of exhaustion in rough seas .

They are masters of camouflage

Seahorses typically inhabit shallow seagrass and algae beds and coral reefs in temperate and tropical waters around the globe, typically between 45 degrees north and 45 degrees south of the equator. They are masters of camouflage. They can change their color over time, and some species can even grow filaments (called cirri) along their body to help them blend in with their surroundings.

They ambush their prey

Camouflage is critical to seahorses as they use it to ambush their prey. They remain motionless and camouflaged, anchored to seagrasses, corals or sponges by their prehensile tail, and suck up any passing plankton or fish fry with their long, tubular snout. Seahorses must be within a few millimeters of their prey to capture them, so remaining undetected is paramount.

They have no stomach

Seahorses have no teeth and no stomacha trait they share with a few species of wrasses, a species of brightly colored marine fish. Food passes through their digestive tract so rapidly that they need to eat almost constantly to live and grow. A single seahorse can eat up to 3000 brine shrimp per day.

They can move their eyes independently

Seahorse eyes move independently, giving them a nearly 360-degree field of vision, so they can literally keep one eye out for predators while using the other to follow prey. However, they are bony and indigestible, and their only real predators are crabs, which grab seahorses with their pincers, and humans who collect them for traditional medicine, curios, and aquarium pets.

They mate for life

Most seahorses are monogamous and mate for life, although a few species are polygamous and change mates from one breeding cycle to the next. However, all species of seahorse mate with only one individual per breeding cycle. Seahorses can often be seen swimming in pairs with their tails linked together. They engage in a courtship dance which includes spinning around, swimming side by side and changing colors. This can last up to nine hours. This courtship dance is repeated daily, strengthening the bond between the mated seahorse pair.

The males give birth to babies

Seahorses are one of the few animal species on Earth in which the male bears the unborn young. During mating, the female deposits her eggs into the male oviduct (yes, the males have an oviduct), which sits in a pouch in the male's abdomen, called a brood pouch. The male carries the eggs in his brood pouch until they hatch into fully formed, miniature seahorses and are released into the water. Males can give birth to as few as five or as many as 1,500 young.

The males are continuously pregnant

Male pregnancy allows the females to continue making eggs while the male is pregnant with the young, allowing seahorses to reproduce more quickly. As soon as the male gives birth, the female will deposit more fertilized eggs in his brood pouch.

They are in trouble

The life history and ecology of seahorses make them particularly vulnerable to overfishing and environmental disturbance, including climate change. Their exoskeleton allows them to be dried and preserved easily. Many cultures believe seahorses to hold medicinal properties, especially traditional Chinese medicine, in which their dried bodies are believed to cure or prevent skin infections, asthma, and impotence, despite no evidence to support these claims. At least 25 million are traded annually for Chinese medicine. Fisheries harvest them faster than they can replenish their populations, leading to alarming declines in seahorse numbers.

Explore further Study reveals how retinoic acid regulates brood pouch formation and pregnancy of male seahorses

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Water sampling in a Gwynns Falls stream. Credit: Benjamin Glass-Siegel/Baltimore Ecosystem Study

In Baltimore, Maryland, leaky sewage infrastructure delivers tens of thousands of human doses of pharmaceuticals to the Chesapeake Bay every year. So reports a new study in Environmental Science & Technology that monitored an urban stream network over a yearlong period. Drug concentrations detected were persistent, variable, and occurred at ecologically relevant levels.

Pharmaceutical pollution to freshwaters is a global problem that is poorly quantified. Mixtures of drugs in lakes, rivers, and streams can disrupt animal biology and behavior, algal growth, and other ecological processeswith harmful cascading effects.

Lead author Megan Fork, a postdoctoral research associate at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, says, "Pharmaceuticals enter freshwaters through multiple pathways, including effluent from wastewater treatment and septic systems, as well as agricultural runoff. An important, but often overlooked contributor is aging and faulty wastewater infrastructure, which is common in many older cities."

For a year, weekly water samples were collected from six sites in Baltimore's Gwynns Falls watershed. Fork explains, "Because Gwynns Falls streams don't receive wastewater effluent, we were able to estimate annual loads of pharmaceutical pollution attributed to leaky pipes alone." Sites represented a gradient of development, ranging from suburban to highly urban. The team also sampled a forested reference site to the northwest of the Gwynns Falls watershed.

Samples were screened for 92 pharmaceutical compounds. Across the seven study sites, 37 unique compounds were detected. The most common was the antibiotic trimethoprim. The highest concentration of pharmaceuticals was detected where the Gwynns Falls meets Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Here, the painkiller acetaminophen was most prevalent. Drug concentrations were higher at more densely populated sites.

To estimate the amount of pharmaceutical compounds that leaky pipes delivered to the watershed each year (the annual 'load'), the team paired data on drug concentrations detected at the Gwynns Falls outlet with river discharge rates recorded by a USGS monitoring station at the site. Annual loads were calculated for nine pharmaceutical classes.

The results: leaky pipes in the Gwynns Falls watershed deliver the equivalent of tens of thousands of doses of pharmaceutical compounds to Baltimore's Inner Harbor; this includes 30,000 adult doses of antidepressants, 1,700 doses of antibiotics, and about 30,000 tablets of acetaminophen. Concentrations were environmentally relevantat levels that could affect organisms' behavior, biology, and other ecological processesand highly variable, meaning aquatic organisms are exposed to a constantly changing mixture of compounds.

Fork explains, "Establishing the loads of contaminants such as pharmaceuticals is important since low concentrations may mislead regulators and managers into thinking that they are insignificant. In Baltimore we are already seeing that stream-dwelling bacteria are resistant to common antibiotics, suggesting that low chronic exposures can result in significant effects on stream life."

Next, the team calculated the annual watershed 'mass balance' for eight pharmaceutical classes. The goal: to reveal the pathways by which pharmaceutical compounds being consumed in the Gwynns Falls watershed enter the environment, and how these pathways differ among compounds.

Mass balance calculations took into account data on: per capita wastewater volume, the quantity of pharmaceuticals consumed (estimated using national data on prescriptions, scaled to the population of the Gywnns Falls watershed), concentrations of drugs in sewage, the proportion of pharmaceutical compounds metabolized in the body versus the proportion excreted, the amount of pharmaceutical pollution removed by wastewater treatment, the amount that leaks, and the amount that enters the environment via treated wastewater plant effluent.

Although the Gwynns Falls watershed does not receive wastewater treatment plant effluent, sewage produced in the Gwynns Falls watershed gets piped away for treatment in a nearby watershed. After treatment, this effluent is discharged into the Chesapeake Bay. This diverted sewage was included in the mass balance calculations.

Emma Rosi, senior co-author and aquatic ecologist at Cary Institute, explains, "Our findings show that plants and animals exposed to sewage from leaky pipes are receiving a different mix of compounds than those exposed to wastewater treatment plant effluent. In the Gwynns Falls watershed, wastewater effluent is the main delivery pathway for antibiotics, while painkillers are more likely to enter the environment via leaking infrastructure. This sort of information is critical to assessing organisms' exposure to different compounds and associated effects."

Reducing pharmaceutical inputs to freshwaters requires municipal investment in repairing old and damaged wastewater infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment facilities to more effectively remove these contaminants. Quantifying annual loads of pharmaceuticals entering freshwaters, and identifying pathways of entry to the environment, can guide regulation and provide metrics to assess future pollution mitigation efforts.

Rosi notes, "We estimate that nearly 1% of raw sewage originating in the Gwynns Falls watershed flows into the environment via leaking infrastructure. If we extrapolate our calculations to the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed, we estimate that approximately 11.7 billion liters of raw sewage may enter the Bay via leaks every yearcarrying a range of pharmaceutical compounds that can affect aquatic organisms and disrupt ecosystem processes."

With Fork concluding, "Our findings underscore the ubiquity of drugs in freshwaters, and the need to examine and account for all pollution pathways, not just obvious ones like wastewater treatment plant effluent."

This research is a contribution to the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, a Long Term Ecological Research site funded by the US National Science Foundation. For over 20 years, the Gwynns Falls study sites have been monitored for water pollution; this data adds to a growing body of research looking at emerging environmental contaminants.

Explore further Ecological consequences of amphetamine pollution in urban streams

More information: Dosing the coast: Leaking sewage infrastructure delivers large annual doses and dynamic 2 mixtures of pharmaceuticals to urban rivers, Environmental Science & Technology (2021). Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology Dosing the coast: Leaking sewage infrastructure delivers large annual doses and dynamic 2 mixtures of pharmaceuticals to urban rivers,(2021). pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.1c00379
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Research published in the journal Psychology, Crime & Law suggests a new, low-cost approach that could potentially reduce antisocial behavior and crime.

The study, carried out by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) criminologist Dr. Neema Trivedi-Bateman and her student research assistant Emma Crook, reviewed evidence from programs designed to improve empathy amongst children, young people, and adults.

Weak empathy is associated with subsequent weak shame and guilt, all of which play a primary role in moral decision-making when making behavioral choices. Multiple types of crime, including violent, sexual, and fraud-related offenses are found to be linked to weak empathy. This is found in various countries and settings, such as in school, prison, psychiatric institutions, and within communities.

Previous research by Dr. Trivedi-Bateman has identified a strong link between weak empathy and involvement in crime, with prolific, violent offenders having empathy levels 15% lower than less severe offenders and non-offenders. Other studies have shown that higher empathy is linked to lower levels of juvenileyouth aggression, weapon carrying, and gang membership.

For the first time, this new study stresses the merits of programs that attempt to strengthen empathy and outlines under which conditions they are found to be most effective, finding that these initiatives can may reduce both reoffending and first-time offending amongst children-in society.

In Germany, a 10-week classroom-based program was found to increase empathy and reduce cyberbullying behavior, while a bullying-focused empathy program in Turkey saw a reduction in bullying behavior of 40% amongst the primary school pupils who took part, with the control group showing no change in their bullying behaviors.

The research explains how empathy deficiency should be of central concern to criminal justice agencies and that it could be identified and addressed as early as in infancy.

By using a combination of universal empathy-training programs for the general population, including pre-natal training for parents to help them foster empathy from birth, social and emotional learning programs in schools, and specific offender-targeted programs beginning as early as mid-childhood, Dr. Trivedi-Bateman believes that offending rates could be reduced.

Dr. Trivedi-Bateman, senior lecturer in criminology at Anglia Ruskin University, said:

"Empathy is crucial for supporting law-abiding behaviors and decisions, and traditional sources of empathy development, such as parents and teachers, are vital for the development of lawful behavior in children.

"Deficient empathy is a risk to all members of the community and can occurs when children have inadequate or absent role models. If deficient empathy can be identified and addressed from infancy, we strongly believe that fewer incidents of harm and wrongdoing will occur in society.

"Our study highlights that targeted empathy training programs used in North America, Asia and Europe can be beneficial. We also show that repetition and rehearsal of the empathy strengthening techniques are key to successful and longer-term outcomes, while the use of virtual reality technology, placing participants in 'victim' and 'offender' scenarios, are beneficial when used in cases of bullying and domestic abuse.

"So far this has been a largely neglected area of crime policy focus but if the UK can adopt empathy training programs on a wider scaleinvolving parents, siblings, teachers, peers, and the criminal justice system, such as probation servicesit could pave the way for a new and relatively low-cost approach to tackling crime in this country."

Explore further Leaders with empathy react poorly to providing negative feedback

More information: Neema Trivedi-Bateman et al, The optimal application of empathy interventions to reduce antisocial behaviour and crime: a review of the literature, Psychology, Crime & Law (2021). Neema Trivedi-Bateman et al, The optimal application of empathy interventions to reduce antisocial behaviour and crime: a review of the literature,(2021). DOI: 10.1080/1068316X.2021.1962870
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The findings of a new study by the University of Liverpool provides further evidence of an approximately 200 million-year long cycle in the strength of the Earth's magnetic field.

Researchers performed thermal and microwave (a technique which is unique to the University of Liverpool) paleomagnetic analysis on rock samples from ancient lava flows in Eastern Scotland to measure the strength of the geomagnetic field during key time periods with almost no pre-existing, reliable data. The study also analyzed the reliability of all of the measurements from samples from 200 to 500 million years ago, collected over the last ~80 years.

They found that between 332 and 416 million years ago, the strength of the geomagnetic field preserved in these rocks was less than quarter of what it is today, and similar to a previously identified period of low magnetic field strength that started around 120 million years ago. The researchers have coined this period "the Mid-Palaeozoic Dipole low (MPDL)."

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study supports the theory that the strength of the earth's magnetic field is cyclical, and weakens every 200 million years, an idea proposed by a previous study lead by Liverpool in 2012. One of the limitations at the time was the lack of reliable field strength data available prior to 300 million years ago, so this new study fills in an important time gap.

The Earth's magnetic field shields the planet from huge blasts of deadly solar radiation. It is not completely stable in strength and direction, both over time and space, and has the ability to completely flip or reverse itself with substantial implications.

Deciphering variations in past geomagnetic field strength is important as it indicates changes in deep Earth processes over hundreds of millions of years and could provide clues as to how it might fluctuate, flip or reverse in the future.

A weak field also has implications for life on our planet. A recent study has suggested that the Devonian-Carboniferous mass extinction is linked to elevated UV-B levels, around the same as the weakest field measurements from the MPDL.

Liverpool palaeomagnetist and lead author of the paper, Dr. Louise Hawkins, said: "This comprehensive magnetic analysis of the Strathmore and Kinghorn lava flows was key for filling in the period leading up the Kiman Superchron, a period where the geomagnetic poles are stable and do not flip for about 50 million years.

"This dataset compliments other studies we have worked on over the last few years, alongside our colleagues in Moscow and Alberta, that fit between the ages of these two locations.

"Our findings, when considered alongside the existing datasets, supports the existence of an approximately 200-million-year long cycle in the strength of the Earth's magnetic field related to deep Earth processes. As almost all of our evidence for processes within the Earth's interior is being constantly destroyed by plate tectonics, the preservation of this signal for deep inside the Earth is exceedingly valuable as one of the few constraints we have.

"Our findings also provide further support that a weak magnetic field is associated with pole reversals, while the field is generally strong during a Superchron, which is important as it has proved nearly impossible to improve the reversal record prior to ~300 million years ago."

The paper, "Intensity of the Earth's magnetic field: evidence for a Mid-Paleozoic dipole low," is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Explore further Study reveals strange magnetic behaviour 8-11 million years ago

More information: Louise M. A. Hawkins et al, Intensity of the Earth's magnetic field: Evidence for a Mid-Paleozoic dipole low, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Louise M. A. Hawkins et al, Intensity of the Earth's magnetic field: Evidence for a Mid-Paleozoic dipole low,(2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2017342118
The blaze has scorched some 5,000 hectares in a region known for its forests and vineyards.

Hundreds of firefighters struggled for a third day Wednesday to contain France's worst wildfire of the summer near the glitzy Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez which has forced thousands of residents and tourists to flee.

The blaze has scorched some 5,000 hectares in a region known for its forests, vineyards and fauna since it broke out in the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening.

The fire "had not spread" during the night but "that does not mean it is under control," said the fire service spokesman for the Var region, Franck Graciano.

"We will carry out the same basic work as yesterday by dropping water on the critical places," he said.

Some 1,200 firefighters were deployed, using high-pressure hoses and water-bombing planes and helicopters to control the flames.

High temperatures and strong winds forced local authorities to evacuate around 7,000 people from homes and campsites, the Var prefecture said Tuesday, many to the safety of municipal buildings and schools.

Among them were 1,300 people staying at a campsite in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas down the coast from Saint-Tropez.

Other fled the village of La-Garde-Freinet, but there were not new evacuations overnight, the fire service said Wednesday.

"We started smelling the smoke around 7:00 pm, then we saw the flames on the hill," said Cindy Thinesse, who fled a campsite near Cavalaire on Monday evening.

"We hesitated, but when we saw that, we decided to leave," she told AFP.

Water-dropping planes and helicopters were used to control the flames.

'Battle is ongoing'

"The coming hours will be absolutely decisive" for the firefighting effort, President Emmanuel Macron, who has been taking his summer break on the Mediterranean coast, said during visit to first responders Tuesday evening.

While Macron added that "the battle is ongoing and the fire has not yet been contained, stabilised," he said that the firefighters' courage had managed to "avoid the worst" with no casualties so far.

Large blazes have already ravaged parts of Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, Northern Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco this year.

The Mediterranean basin has long faced seasonal wildfires linked to its dry and hot weather in the summer, but climate scientists warn they will become increasingly common because of man-made global warming.

The French fire is believed to have started near a motorway stop some 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of Saint-Tropez.

"We've never seen it spread with such speed, it was three or four times the usual," Thomas Dombry, mayor of La Garde-Freinet village, told AFP.

Some 1,200 firefighters were deployed to battle France's worst wildfire of the summer.

Authorities were counting the cost to the environment even as the fires still raged Tuesday.

"Half of the Plain des Maures nature reserve has been devastated," Concha Agero, deputy director of the French Office of Biodiversity, said Tuesday.

Charred power lines lay on the ground Tuesday, and many trees were burnt around their trunks but their branches were intact, suggesting the fire had ripped through at speed.

But after a calm night on Tuesday, technicians Wednesday began trying to restore phone and electricity lines.

Explore further Thick smoke over Athens as suburbs battle wildfires

 2021 AFP
Ceramic grave goods from Popova zemlja. Credit:  Borko Rozankovic

The field of archaeogenetics has substantially contributed to a better understanding of how the movement and admixture of people across Europe during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages shaped genetic ancestries. However, not all regions are equally well represented in the archaeogenetic record. To fill this gap, researchers of the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) and the Science of Human History (Jena), University of Vienna and Croatian collaborators from Kaducej Ltd. and the Institute for Anthropological Research have now sequenced whole genomes of 28 individuals from two sites in present-day eastern Croatia and gained new insights into this region's genetic history and social structures.

Present-day Croatia was an important crossroads for migrating peoples along the Danubian corridor and the Adriatic coast, linking east and west. "While this region is important for understanding population and cultural transitions in Europe, limited availability of human remains means that in-depth knowledge about the genetic ancestry and social complexity of prehistoric populations here remains sparse," says first author Suzanne Freilich, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Vienna.

To this aim, an international team of researchers set out to fill the gap. They studied two archaeological sites in eastern Croatiaone containing predominantly Middle Neolithic burials from within the settlement site, the other a Middle Bronze Age necropolis containing cremations and inhumationsand sequenced whole genomes of 28 individuals from these two sites. The researchers' goal was to understand both the genetic ancestry as well as social organization within each communityin particular, to study local residency patterns, kinship relations and to learn more about the varied burial rites observed.

Middle Neolithic settlement at Popova zemlja

Dated to around 4,7004,300 BCE the Middle Neolithic settlement at Beli-Manastir Popova zemlja belongs to the Sopot culture. Many children, especially girls, were buried here, in particular along the walls of pit houses. "One question was whether individuals buried in the same buildings were biologically related to each other," says Suzanne Freilich.

"We found that individuals with different burial rites did not differ in their genetic ancestry, which was similar to Early Neolithic people. We also found a high degree of haplotype diversity and, despite the size of the site, no very closely related individuals," Freilich adds. This suggests that this community was part of a large, mainly exogamous population where people marry outside their kin group. Interestingly, however, the researchers also identified a few cases of endogamous mating practices, including two individuals who would have been the children of first cousins or equivalent, something rarely found in the ancient DNA record.

Burials at Popova zemlja were typically along the walls of pit houses or in other pits with ceramic vessels near their heads. Credit:  Borko Rozankovic

Middle Bronze Age necropolis at Jagodnjak-Krcevine

The second site the researchers studied was the Middle Bronze Age necropolis of Jagodnjak-Krcevine that belongs to the Transdanubian Encrusted Pottery Culture and dates to around 1,800-1,600 BCE. "This site contains burials that are broadly contemporaneous with some individuals from the Dalmatian coast, and we wanted to find out whether individuals from these different ecoregions carried similar ancestry," says Stephan Schiffels.

The researchers found that the people from Jagodnjak actually carried very distinct ancestry due to the presence of significantly more western European hunter-gatherer-related ancestry. This ancestry profile is present in a small number of other studied genomes from further north in the Carpathian Basin. These new genetic results support archaeological evidence that suggests a shared population history for these groups as well as the presence of trade and exchange networks.

"We also found that all male individuals at the site had identical Y chromosome haplotypes," says Freilich. "We identified two male first degree relatives, second degree and more distantly related males, while the one woman in our sample was unrelated. This points to a patrilocal social organization where women leave their own home to join their husband's home." Contrary to the Middle Neolithic site at Popova zemlja, biological kinship was a factor for selection to be buried at this site. In addition the authors found evidence of rich infant graves that suggests they likely inherited their status or wealth from their families.

Filling the gap in the archaeogenetic record

This study helps to fill the gap in the archaeogenetic record for this region, characterizing the diverse genetic ancestries and social organizations that were present in Neolithic and Bronze Age eastern Croatia. It highlights the heterogeneous population histories of broadly contemporaneous coastal and inland Bronze Age groups, and connections with communities further north in the Carpathian Basin. Furthermore, it sheds light on the subject of Neolithic intramural burialsburials within a settlementthat has been debated among archaeologists and anthropologists for some time. The authors show that at the site of Popova zemlja, this burial rite was not associated with biological kinship, but more likely represented age and sex selection related to Neolithic community belief systems.

So far, few archaeogenetic studies have focused on within-community patterns of genetic diversity and social organization. "While large-scale studies are invaluable in characterizing patterns of genetic diversity on a broader temporal and spatial scale, more regional and single-site studies, such as this one, are necessary to gain insights into community and social organization which vary regionally and even within a site," says Freilich. "By looking into the past with a narrower lens, archaeogenetics can shed more light on how communities and families were organized."

Explore further Bronze Age migrations changed societal organization, genomic landscape in Italy

More information: Reconstructing genetic histories and social organization in Neolithic and Bronze Age Croatia, Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-94932-9 Journal information: Scientific Reports Reconstructing genetic histories and social organization in Neolithic and Bronze Age Croatia,
Greece has been hit by a savage fire season this year.

As devastating wildfires ravage Greece, experts say the blazes cast a harsh light on the failure to prepare against and contain them, threatening irreversible damage to the country's rich biodiversity.

Climate scientists warn extreme weather and fierce fires will become increasingly common due to man-made global warming, heightening the need to invest in teams, equipment and policy to battle the flames.

But "Greece has always struggled to protect its rich ecosystem," Takis Grigoriou, who heads the climate change department for Greenpeace Greece, told AFP.

Greecealong with Turkey, Italy, Spain and Algeriahas been hit by a savage fire season that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described as an "ecological disaster".

Authorities were taken by surprise at the end of July, as hundreds of fires began around Athens, but also on the islands Evia and Rhodes and in the Peloponnese peninsula.

Critics say poor infrastructure, weak policy and a lack of respect for nature are all at least partly to blame for the failure to contain the blazes in Greece.

As a result, precious ecosystems will pay the price, and human lives are at risk.

Failing prevention policy

In two weeks, more than 100,000 hectares of land went up in smoke, eating up buildings, pine forests, olive groves, beehives and livestock and forcing dozens to flee from their homes.

Heat waves increase the flammability of forests.

The European Forest Fire Information System said it is the biggest loss of land since 2007.

On Tuesday, over 400 Greek and Polish firefighters were battling a massive fire on a mountain near Vilia, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of Athens for a second day.

Sweltering heatwaves such as the ones blanketing southern Europe increase the flammability of forests.

But Efthymis Lekkas, Athens University professor of natural disaster management, said Greece's failing operational and prevention systems are also to blame.

"Firebreak roads in forests weren't prioritised by the different Greek governments because they didn't have a direct political impact," he said, estimating the long-term impacts of the fires at around five billion euros ($5.9 billion).

And illegal buildings, a lack of forest mapping and poor respect for nature are all part of a failing fire prevention policy, Grigoriou from Greenpeace said.

Authorities organised mass evacuations to avoid human losses.

Locals met by AFP denounced the firefighters' lack of equipment to battle the huge blazes, which paled in comparison to the means of the firefighters from twenty other countries that came to lend a hand.

One resident, who could only watch helplessly as her village in the north of Evia island was circled by flames, told local reporters that allowing the fires to get so close to homes was a crime.

Unique species

Authorities organised mass evacuations to avoid deaths, with the memory of the loss of 102 lives in fires in July 2018 and 77 lives in 2007 still sore. This year, three deaths have been recorded so far.

Beyond the loss of human life, such huge wildfires will cause immense and long-lasting biodiversity loss, says Diana Bell from British University of East Anglia's School of Biological Sciences.

"Greece is home to more than 6,000 different species of plants and trees," with some of them "not found anywhere else in the world", Bell told AFP.

Experts say when locals flee their homes engulfed in flames, more rural areas are abandonedincreasing their flammability.

And when locals flee their homes as their properties are engulfed in flames, more rural areas are abandonedincreasing their flammability, she added.

Athens has linked the wildfires to climate change, but environmental groups have accused the government of using rising temperatures as an excuse to cover up the lack of means and prevention policies.

The country has ignored policy proposals from the World Wildlife Fund for 20 years, said the head of the group's Greek chapter, Demetres Karavellas.

"The climate crisis is not an excuse to fail but must be taken as an alarm to instigate change," he said.

 2021 AFP
The greater reproductive capacity of older, larger females among West Coast rockfishes has been well documented, relative to smaller fish of the same weight. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Southwest Fisheries Science Center

Management of many of the largest fisheries in the world assumes incorrectly that many small fish reproduce as well as fewer large ones with similar total masses, a new analysis has found. That can lead to overharvesting the largest, most prolific fish that can contribute the most to the population.

Better protection of larger, mature females could improve the productivity of major fisheries. This is crucial at a time when fisheries are increasingly important in providing food resources around the world. The results were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.

"It is a fundamental question in fisheries managementhow much reproduction can you count on?" said Dustin Marshall of Monash University in Australia, lead author of the research. "When you are expecting smaller females to produce the same number of eggs per body mass as larger, older females, you're not going to have an accurate picture."

Building on earlier research

The new research applies previous findings that questioned longtime assumptions of fisheries management. Traditional thinking held that reproduction is a function of biomass. That means that fish representing a certain mass would produce similar numbers of offspring regardless of their age or maturity. However, syntheses of previous research by some of the same authors demonstrated that larger, older, and more mature fish produce more offspring. Also, previous work suggests that offspring of these older, larger mothers may survive at higher rates.

Management measures, such as establishing Marine Protected Areas that provide refuge for fish to grow larger, can help boost the yields of fisheries and replenish depressed species. They can in effect provide a reservoir of more mature fish with greater reproductive capacity.

"We need to ask, 'How can we make the most of these fish that reproduce more efficientlyboth to sustain the species and to support sustainable fisheries?'" said E.J. Dick, a fisheries research biologist at NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center and senior author of the paper.

By contrast, when fishing removes the more prolific larger fish, the traditional assumptions tend to overestimate the production of eggs and the population's capacity to replenish itself. That can lead to overharvesting which for many of the largest fisheries could remove around twice as many fish as intended, the scientists found.

"In this paper, we connect the dots between early findings that large, old Pacific rockfish produced more eggs per body mass than smaller ones did, and Professor Marshall's more recent work showing that many other species do, too," said Marc Mangel, professor emeritus of mathematical biology at UC Santa Cruz and a coauthor. "Without recognizing this, fisheries scientists and managers may overestimate the number of spawning fish needed to produce a certain level of recruitment, and set mortality levels from fishing too high."

Recognizing greater capacity

In their new analysis, the scientists examined whether the largest fisheries in the world take the findings into account. In many cases, they found, fisheries do not.

"This systematic error could help to explain why some stocks have collapsed despite active management," the scientists wrote. They recommended that managers recalibrate future species stock assessments to recognize the greater reproductive capacity of larger fish. This could reduce overharvesting and may even boost the yields of fisheries.

"Such reductions could have negative repercussions in the short-term, for both food security and the economy, but will yield positive benefits in the long-term," the scientists wrote. They said that better recognizing the capacity of larger fish could help boost the catches of Atlantic cod fisheries in the longer term, for example.

"Our work suggests that modern management could respond to this challenge by better leveraging the reproductive potential of larger, older fish in exploited stocks more so than is presently the case, using relatively simple policy innovations," they said.

Explore further Both old and young fish sustain fisheries
Credit: QLM

A new a quantum-enabled gas imaging camera will help dramatically cut environmentally damaging methane leaks from the oil and gas industry.

The camera is produced and developed by University of Bristol spinout QLM Technology and funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund's commercializing quantum technologies challenge.

It can visualize and measure the amount of gas being lost through leaks from great distances.

This represents a major improvement on current methods of detection, which are time consuming and make measuring the amount lost difficult.

State of the art quantum technology

UK Research and Innovation's commercializing quantum technologies challenge director Roger McKinlay said: "This camera uses state of the art quantum technology to 'see the invisible." It will help reduce the amount of methane which escapes into the atmosphere through leaks, which is both costly to the oil and gas industry and damaging to the environment. In the year of COP26, innovations like this that find practical ways of reducing emissions have never been more important."

More potent than CO 2

Methane leaks are nothing to be sniffed at.

If released into the atmosphere, methane is 84 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

This makes large scale emissions many times worse for the atmosphere.

Worse than coal

Scientists estimate that if just 3.2% of methane brought up from wells leaks rather than being burnt, natural gas becomes even less eco-friendly than coal.

It is therefore imperative that leaks be minimized or eliminated altogether.

The camera will:

reduce costly losses of gas

make facilities safer

keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.

You can't manage what you can't measure

Murray Reed, CEO of QLM Technology, said:

"The oil and gas majors have pledged to significantly reduce their methane emissions, but you can't manage what you can't measure and no-one is measuring methane properly, continuously, and at scale. The scale of the problem is enormous, with more than half a million active gas wells in North America alone, and many thousands of offshore rigs and gas storage facilities worldwide. In the UK we have 24 major pipeline compressor stations, which power long-distance natural gas pipes, and hundreds of above ground storage installations. All are leaking at some time."

Seeing the invisible

The camera is the result of the two-year Single Photon Lidar Imaging of Carbon Emissions (SPLICE) project.

It can continuously detect, quantify and model the development of leaks, and notify plant operators immediately when gas escapes.

Existing laser-based systems for methane measuring use complex and costly mirror arrays to reflect light into a conventional detector.

Revolutionary detector

By contrast, the QLM product uses a revolutionary single photon avalanche detector.

The detector is so sensitive it can detect just a few photons of light and can therefore "see" gas without the need for a mirror.

The universities of Sheffield, Aston and Bristol, meanwhile, are working to expand the range of gases that the new sensors can detect, to include many other greenhouse gases.

This opens up the possibility of using this technology in other sectors, such as agriculture.

Explore further Watchdog: Fossil fuel firms need to curb climate gas leaks
A standstill polar position during 11070 Ma suggests tectonic quiescence of southwest Japan. This standstill was followed by two large tracks during the Cenozoic. Credit: Koji Uno from Okayama University

The geological record of the movement of Earth's "tectonic plates" is preserved in the magnetic orientation of old rocks found in the interior of these tectonic plates. As these rocks form, the magnetic orientation of their magnetic minerals aligns in a direction that depends on their position with the Earth's magnetic field. As the tectonic plates move and their position with the Earth's magnetic poles shift, the magnetic orientation of the new, younger rocks changes accordingly. By tracking these changes in the magnetic orientation, apparent polar wander paths or APWPs can be generated, which gives a picture of the continent's position or the movement of Earth's tectonic plates at different geological time scales.

From the APWPs, geologists can trace the movement of continents dating back millions of years. One important event was the opening of the Japan Sea in the Miocene epoch of the current geological era (Cenozoic), whereby southwest Japan drifted away from the Asian continent. However, not much is known regarding the tectonic history of the region for the preceding Mesozoic era.

In a study published in Earth, Planets and Space, researchers from Okayama University, Japan aimed to fill this gap, by constructing the Mesozoic APWP for southwest Japan. This information is useful to understand the tectonic activity in East Asia, as Professor Koji Uno, the lead scientist on the study, explains: "The construction of the Mesozoic APWP for southwest Japan would contribute to elucidating the intracontinental deformation history along the eastern margin of East Asia since the Mesozoic."

The researchers initially conducted paleomagnetic analysis on sandstone and mudstone samples taken from southwest Japan. By measuring the remnant magnetization in the rock samples, they determined the 110 Ma paleomagnetic pole position. In addition to this, they derived the paleomagnetic pole positions based on data from other studies to construct an APWP for southwest Japan during the mid to Late Cretaceous every 10 million years i.e. 90, 80, and 70 Ma. Combining their data with data on the well-established Miocene paleomagnetic poles, the researchers obtained the APWPs that highlighted the movement of southwestern Japan from the Cretaceous in the Mesozoic era to the Cenozoic era (110 million years to 12 Ma).

Comparing the APWPs of southwest Japan to that of East Asia, the researchers found the pole positions to be stationary between 110 Ma and 70 Ma implying that southwest Japan was a stable part of East Asia during the Cretaceous. However, post-Cretaceous, in the Cenozoic era, two clockwise rotations in the pole positions were found. The researchers interpret these as tectonic rotations of southwest Japan. "The earlier rotation occurred during the Paleogene (between 70 and 20 Ma), when southwest Japan was attached to the Korean Peninsula, as part of the East Tan-Lu Block. During the Neogene (between 20 and 12 Ma), the later rotation occurred, and southwest Japan detached from the East Tan-Lu Block to form the Japan Sea," elaborates Prof. Uno.

These findings highlight the interaction of southwest Japan with East Asia and improve the understanding of the tectonic history of the region. Prof. Uno observes, "It is suggested that the interior of southwestern Japan was stably preserved, despite it experiencing a large tectonic event, the formation of the Japan Sea. Previous studies have shown that Kibi Plateau, the area where new data was obtained in our study, was a stable continental ground; the results of our study also support this idea. This is an important piece of evidence for the relative geological stability of the Japanese islands."

Explore further Flare ups and crustal removal in northeast Japan

More information: Koji Uno et al, An improved apparent polar wander path for southwest Japan: post-Cretaceous multiphase rotations with respect to the Asian continent, Earth, Planets and Space (2021). Koji Uno et al, An improved apparent polar wander path for southwest Japan: post-Cretaceous multiphase rotations with respect to the Asian continent,(2021). DOI: 10.1186/s40623-021-01457-6
A smoke plume rises and spreads over California during the 2018 Ranch Fire. New research demonstrates the ability of the satellite-based sensor EPIC to accurately monitor smoke plumes like this one, as well as other aerosols suspended in Earths atmosphere. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, CC BY 2.0

Aerosols are small, solid particles that drift aloft in Earth's atmosphere. These minuscule motes may be any of a number of diverse substances, such as dust, pollution, and wildfire smoke. By absorbing or scattering sunlight, aerosols influence Earth's climate. They also affect air quality and human health.

Accurate observations of aerosols are necessary to study their impact. As demonstrated by Ahn et al., the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) sensor on board the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite provides new opportunities for monitoring these particles.

Launched in 2015, DSCOVR's orbit keeps it suspended between Earth and the Sun, so EPIC can capture images of Earth in continuous daylightboth in the visible-light range and at ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared wavelengths. The EPIC near-UV aerosol algorithm (EPICAERUV) can then glean more specific information about aerosol properties from the images.

Like other satellite-borne aerosol sensors, EPIC enables observation of aerosols in geographic locations that are difficult to access with ground- or aircraft-based sensors. However, unlike other satellite sensors that can take measurements only once per day, EPIC's unique orbit allows it to collect aerosol data for the entire sunlit side of Earth up to 20 times per day.

To demonstrate EPIC's capabilities, the researchers used EPICAERUV to evaluate various properties of the aerosols it observed, including characteristics known as optical depth, single-scattering albedo, above-cloud aerosol optical depth, and ultraviolet aerosol index. These properties are key for monitoring aerosols and their impact. The analysis showed that EPIC's observations of these properties compared favorably with those from ground- and aircraft-based sensors.

The research team also used EPIC to evaluate the characteristics of smoke plumes produced by recent wildfires in North America, including extensive fires in British Columbia in 2017, California's 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire, and numerous North American fires in 2020. EPIC contributed to the observational proof of smoke self-lofting via the tropopause by solar absorptiondriven diabatic heating in 2017. EPIC observations successfully captured these huge aerosol plumes, and the derived plume characteristics aligned accurately with ground-based measurements.

This research suggests that despite coarse spatial resolution and potentially large errors under certain viewing conditions, EPIC can serve as a useful tool for aerosol monitoring. Future efforts will aim to improve the EPICAERUV algorithm to boost accuracy.

Explore further Improved algorithms help scientists monitor wildfires from space

More information: Changwoo Ahn et al, Evaluation of Aerosol Properties Observed by DSCOVR/EPIC Instrument From the EarthSun Lagrange 1 Orbit, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (2021). Journal information: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres Changwoo Ahn et al, Evaluation of Aerosol Properties Observed by DSCOVR/EPIC Instrument From the EarthSun Lagrange 1 Orbit,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2020JD033651

This story is republished courtesy of Eos, hosted by the American Geophysical Union. Read the original story here.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Two Johns Hopkins University researchers who study classroom stress and the emotional well-being of students and teachers have released an app that allows teachers to get daily reports about how their students are feeling.

Though the tool wasn't created for the pandemic, it certainly has come in handy over the last year as educators struggle to keep tabs on students, especially if they're teaching remotely.

Researchers know students will be anxious this year as schools struggle with the Delta variant.

"When they come back it will be a new normal; they don't know what's going to happen," said co-creator Lieny Jeon, the Jeffrey Alexander Grigg Associate Professor in the university's School of Education. "Some students will be very nervous or anxious and teachers may be too because they don't know what to expect for students. This app could provide a platform for both students and teachers to understand each other."

This year the phone and tablet-based app, WellCheq, will be used in about 20 K-12 schools, including schools in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, and several overseas including Madrid and Chile.

Each day students register their feelings on the app, choosing from emojis such as "optimistic," "stressed," "frustrated," "focused," and "angry." Students also log how they are doing on a scale of 1 to 10. Teachers, who receive a report for each student and the classroom as a whole, can then tailor to fit the emotional needs of the class.

Co-creator Jodi Miller, a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins and former Philadelphia teacher, studies stress and what it does to students' brains and bodies. Teachers need to know when students are struggling, but she knows it can be hard for students to let teachers knowespecially if they're learning remotely.

"It's so hard to look an adult in the eye and tell them how you're feeling," Miller said. "If we give them a space to say something other than "happy" or "great," then maybe teachers can use that as a jumping off point for conversations."

Miller and Jeon are distilling data gleaned from the app over the last year to determine if it's possible to detect trends in students emotions over time as schools fluctuated between in-person and remote learning.

Explore further Four teachers in same Florida county die of COVID-19 within 24 hours
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Without the global CFC ban we would already be facing the reality of a 'scorched earth', according to researchers measuring the impact of the Montreal Protocol.

Their new evidence reveals the planet's critical ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere could have been massively degraded sending global temperatures soaring if we still used ozone-destroying chemicals such as CFCs.

New modeling by the international team of scientists from the UK, U.S. and New Zealand, published today in Nature, paints a dramatic vision of a scorched planet Earth without the Montreal Protocol, what they call the "World Avoided". This study draws a new stark link between two major environmental concernsthe hole in the ozone layer and global warming.

The research team, led by a Lancaster University scientist, reveals that if ozone-destroying chemicals, which most notoriously include CFCs, had been left unchecked then their continued and increased use would have contributed to global air temperatures rising by an additional 2.5C by the end of this century.

Their findings, outlined in the paper 'The Montreal Protocol protects the terrestrial carbon sink', show that banning CFCs has protected the climate in two wayscurbing their greenhouse effect and, by protecting the ozone layer, shielding plants from damaging increases in ultraviolet radiation (UV). Critically, this has protected plant's ability to soak up and lock in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and so prevented a further acceleration of climate change.

The research team developed a new modeling framework, bringing together data on ozone depletion, plant damage by increased UV, the carbon cycle and climate change. Their novel modeling shows an alternative future of a planet where the use of CFCs continued to grow by around three percent a year.

Their modeling reveals:

Continued growth in CFCs would have led to a worldwide collapse in the ozone layer by the 2040s.

By 2100 there would have been 60 percent less ozone above the tropics. This depletion above the tropics would have been worse than was ever observed in the hole that formed above the Antarctic.

By 2050 the strength of the UV from the sun in the mid-latitudes, which includes most of Europe including the UK, the United States and central Asia, would be stronger than the present day tropics.

The depleted ozone layer would have seen the planet, and its vegetation, exposed to far more of the sun's UV.

Plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) through photosynthesis and studies have shown that large increases in UV can restrict plant growth, damaging their tissues, and impairing their ability to undertake photosynthesis. This means the plants absorb less carbon.

Less carbon in vegetation also results in less carbon becoming locked into soils, which is what happens to a lot of plant matter after it dies. All of this would have happened on a global scale.

The researchers' models show that in a world without the Montreal Protocol the amount of carbon absorbed by plants, trees and soils dramatically plummets over this century. With less carbon in plants and soils, more of it remains in the atmosphere as CO 2 .

Overall, by the end of this century without the Montreal Protocol CFC ban:

There would have been 580 billion tons less carbon stored in forests, other vegetation and soils.

There would be an additional 165-215 parts per million of CO 2 in the atmosphere, depending on the future scenario of fossil fuel emissions. Compared to today's 420 parts per million CO 2 , this is an additional 40-50%.

in the atmosphere, depending on the future scenario of fossil fuel emissions. Compared to today's 420 parts per million CO , this is an additional 40-50%. The huge amount of additional CO 2 would have contributed to an additional 0.8C of warming through its greenhouse effect.

Ozone depleting substances, such as CFCs, are also potent greenhouse gases and previous research has shown that their ban prevented their contribution to global warming through their greenhouse effect. By the end of this century, their greenhouse effect alone would have contributed an additional 1.7C global warming. This is in addition to the newly quantified 0.8C warming, coming from the extra CO 2 that would have resulted from damaged vegetation, meaning that temperatures would have risen 2.5C overall.

Dr. Paul Young, lead author from Lancaster University, said: "Our new modeling tools have allowed us to investigate the scorched Earth that could have resulted without the Montreal Protocol's ban on ozone depleting substances.

"A world where these chemicals increased and continued to strip away at our protective ozone layer would have been catastrophic for human health, but also for vegetation. The increased UV would have massively stunted the ability of plants to soak up carbon from the atmosphere, meaning higher CO 2 levels and more global warming.

"With our research, we can see that the Montreal Protocol's successes extend beyond protecting humanity from increased UV to protecting the ability of plants and trees to absorb CO 2 . Although we can hope that we never would have reached the catastrophic world as we simulated, it does remind us of the importance of continuing to protect the ozone layer. Entirely conceivable threats to it still exist, such as from unregulated use of CFCs."

The planet has already seen 1C warming from pre-industrial temperatures. Even if we had somehow managed to get to net zero CO 2 emissions, the additional 2.5C rise would take us to a rise of 3.5C. This is far in excess of the 1.5C rise above pre-industrial levels that many scientists see as the most global temperatures can rise in order to avoid some of the most damaging effects of climate change.

Dr. Chris Huntingford of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said: "This analysis reveals a remarkable linkage, via the carbon cycle, between the two global environmental concerns of damage to the ozone layer and global warming."

Explore further How saving the ozone layer in 1987 slowed global warming

More information: The Montreal Protocol protects the terrestrial carbon sink, Nature (2021). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03737-3 Journal information: Nature The Montreal Protocol protects the terrestrial carbon sink,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03737-3
BepiColombos second Venus flyby in images. Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

ESA's Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo spacecraft made a historic Venus flyby earlier this week, passing by the planet within 33 hours of each other and capturing unique imagery and data during the encounter.

The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft flew past Venus on 9 August at a distance of 7995 km, while the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission skimmed past at just 552 km from the planet's surface on 10 August. The flybys were needed to give the spacecraft a gravity assist to help them reach their next destinations. BepiColombo will make the first of six flybys at Mercury during the night of 1-2 October, before entering orbit in 2025. Solar Orbiter will make a close Earth flyby on 27 November, before further Venus slingshots will tilt its inclination in order to get the first-ever views of the sun's poles.

The Venus flybys required extremely precise deep-space navigation work, ensuring that the spacecraft were on the correct approach trajectories accurate to within just a few kilometers at a distance of 187.7 million km from Earth.

Feeling the heat

As expected during BepiColombo's close flyby, the spacecraft modules felt a rapid increase of heat as it passed from the nightside to dayside of the planet. The JAXA Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), situated inside the sunshield, recorded an increase of 110 degrees Celsius on one of its eight solar panels, from -100C to +10C. Within the spacecraft itself only an increase of 2-3 degrees was observed, demonstrating the effectiveness of the insulation.

On the European Mercury Transfer Module, a temperature increase of 50 degrees was observed on the spacecraft radiator, while the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) recorded a change of about 20 degrees.

Flying by Venus. Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Gravity tug

Both Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo also felt the immense gravitational pull of the planet in the angular momentum of their reaction wheels, which are used to maintain spacecraft attitude, keeping it pointing on course.

Quick look magnetic field strength data recorded by Solar Orbiters magnetometer during the 9 August 2021 Venus flyby. The field is seen increasing in magnitude due to the compression of the field as the spacecraft travels past the flank of the planet, and then the sharp drop as it passes the bowshock back into the solar wind. Closest approach took place at 04:42 UTC. Credit: ESA/Solar Orbiter/MAG team

The Italian Spring Accelerometer (ISA) onboard the BepiColombo MPO recorded the accelerations measured by the spacecraft with great sensitivity. The ISA team then translated the acceleration data into frequency to make them audible to the human ear. The resulting sound is rich with interesting effects due to the planet's gravity acting on the spacecraft structure, the response of the spacecraft to the rapid temperature changes, and the reaction wheels that are working hard to compensate for these effects.

The accelerometer also felt the tidal effects acting on the spacecraft as it flew at different distances past Venus. The very small difference in gravitational attraction between BepiColombo's center of mass and ISA relative to Venus could be detected, the first time an accelerometer recorded this effect at another planet. The team is analyzing this precious data and will use the measurement as a reference to fine-tune the instrument ahead of the scientific phase at Mercury.

Credit: European Space Agency

Multipoint science

Many of the science instruments were on during the flybys, using the opportunity to collect data on the Venusian magnetic, plasma and particle environment around the spacecraft. Moreover, the unique aspect of the dual flyby is that the two datasets can be compared from locations not usually sampled by a planetary orbiter.

The magnetometer teams from both spacecraft report they saw the effects of the flyby in their data, allowing a rare glimpse into the solar wind interaction with a planetary atmosphere.

The BepiColombo MPO magnetometer team created a simple sonification of the variability of the total magnetic field as they flew past Venus. The audio captures low-frequency wind-like noises caused by the solar wind and its interaction with Venus. The sudden transition of the spacecraft into the very calm solar wind at the bow shock (the location where the planet's magnetosphere meets the solar wind) is clearly recorded.

The Solar Orbiter magnetometer team also describes the magnetic field increasing in magnitude due to the compression of the field as they traveled past the flanks of the planet, and then a sharp drop as they crossed the bow shock back into the solar wind again.

Credit: European Space Agency

And while Solar Orbiter crossed through the tail of the magnetosphere and out of the bow shock into the solar wind, BepiColombo was 'upstream," so the teams will know the input magnetic field conditions throughout the encounter to see how Venus has affected the solar wind downstream. It will take many weeks to make a detailed analysis of the two datasets.

Sensors on both BepiColombo MPO and MMO were also monitoring for ions circulating in the magnetosphere and in the close vicinity of Venus. Particles follow electromagnetic fields, and are also strongly related to processes in the ionosphere and atmosphere. For example, the SERENA/PICAM ion particle detector on MPO clearly measured a peak in hydrogen ion density during the closest approach. SERENA is the Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances instrument suite and PICAM is the Planetary Ion Camera.

With the close encounter, MPO's MErcury Radiometer and Thermal infrared Imaging Spectrometer (MERTIS) could capture spectra of the Venus atmosphere while the planet completely filled its field of view. Such high resolution spectra of Venus have not been obtained since the Venera 15 mission in the early 1980s. A first look at the MERTIS data shows the expected band of carbon dioxide and hints of more spectral features. The detailed analysis revealing the thermal structure in the atmosphere and potentially sulfur dioxide abundance will take many weeks. Apart from the scientific value of this data, it will also help to verify the instrument calibration in preparation for the first thermal infrared observations of Mercury by a spacecraft.

Venus photobomb

It was not possible to take high-resolution imagery of Venus with the science cameras onboard either mission, but both could use other instruments to capture black-and-white imagery.

Credit: European Space Agency

Credit: European Space Agency

Solar Orbiter's SoloHI imager observed the nightside of Venus in the days before closest approach. SoloHI usually takes images of the solar windthe stream of charged particles constantly released from the sunby capturing the light scattered by electrons in the wind. In the days leading up to the Venus flyby, the telescope caught the dramatic glare of the planet's dayside. The footage shows Venus moving across the field of view from the left, while the sun is off camera to the upper right. The planet's nightside, the part hidden from the sun, appears as a dark semicircle surrounded by a bright crescent of light.

BepiColombo's three monitoring cameras captured a series of black-and-white snapshots, starting from the approach over the nightside, through closest approach and in the days after as the planet faded from view.

Where to next?

Solar Orbiter and BepiColombo both have one more flyby this year.

During the night of 1-2 October BepiColombo will see its destination for the first time, making its first of six flybys of Mercury at a distance of just 200 km distance. The two planetary orbiters will be delivered into Mercury orbit in late 2025, tasked with studying all aspects of this mysterious inner planet from its core to surface processes, magnetic field, and exosphere, to better understand the origin and evolution of a planet close to its parent star.

On 27 November, Solar Orbiter will make a final flyby of Earth at 460 km, kicking off the start of its main mission. It will continue to make regular flybys of Venus to progressively increase its orbit inclination to best observe the sun's uncharted polar regions, which is key to understanding the sun's 11 year activity cycle.

Explore further ESA gets ready for double Venus flyby
Fossil turtle hatching. Credit: Artwork copyright Masato Mattori

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in China and Canada has identified a turtle egg fossil from the Cretaceous period that contains an embryo. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes where the egg was found and what they learned about it during their examination.

Finding the eggs of dinosaurs or turtles from the Cretaceous period is extremely raretheir fragile nature makes it difficult for them to survive to the present, even in prime conditions. Finding a fossilized embryo still inside such an egg is even more rare. But that is just what the team in China discovered when they visited a farmer in China's Henan Province. He had inadvertently dug up what he had described as several strange-looking rocks. One of those rocks turned out to be a turtle egg that the team dated to a time during the Cretaceous period, somewhere between 66 and 145 million years ago.

In studying the egg using a variety of techniques, including micro-computed tomography, the researchers were able to see that the egg was from a turtle that had belonged to a group known as nanhsiungchelyidsa land-dwelling species wiped out by the same impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Prior research has shown that they were all quite large. The specimen that had laid the egg found by the farmer likely had a shell diameter of up to a meter and a half. To learn more about its characteristics, the researchers recreated the embryo with a 3D software application. In so doing, they found flat ribs that are characteristic of modern baby turtles. As the turtle grows, they form the basis of the shell. The researchers suggest that the ancient turtle likely was not much different from modern turtles, with one exceptionan extremely thick eggshell.

A Nanhsiungchelyid turtle egg containing an embryo. Credit: Yuzheng Ke

As a rule, eggshells are pretty thin, whether from birds or turtles. This is because the little creature growing inside must at some point break its way out. With a shell nearly two millimeters thick, the baby inside the ancient egg would have required some special abilities to make its way into the world.

Explore further New species of pelomedusoid turtle found in Madagascar

More information: Yuzheng Ke et al, A large and unusually thick-shelled turtle egg with embryonic remains from the Upper Cretaceous of China, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B Yuzheng Ke et al, A large and unusually thick-shelled turtle egg with embryonic remains from the Upper Cretaceous of China,(2021). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1239

 2021 Science X Network
The COSMOS-Webb survey will map 0.6 square degrees of the skyabout the area of three full Moonsusing the James Webb Space Telescopes Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, while simultaneously mapping a smaller 0.2 square degrees with the Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The jagged edges of the Hubble fields outline are due to the separate images that make up the survey field. Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute

When NASA's James Webb Space Telescope begins science operations in 2022, one of its first tasks will be an ambitious program to map the earliest structures in the universe. Called COSMOS-Webb, this wide and deep survey of half a million galaxies is the largest project Webb will undertake during its first year.

With more than 200 hours of observing time, COSMOS-Webb will survey a large patch of the sky0.6 square degreeswith the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). That's the size of three full moons. It will simultaneously map a smaller area with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

"It's a large chunk of sky, which is pretty unique to the COSMOS-Webb program. Most Webb programs are drilling very deep, like pencil-beam surveys that are studying tiny patches of sky," explained Caitlin Casey, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-leader of the COSMOS-Webb program. "Because we're covering such a large area, we can look at large-scale structures at the dawn of galaxy formation. We will also look for some of the rarest galaxies that existed early on, as well as map the large-scale dark matter distribution of galaxies out to very early times."

(Dark matter does not absorb, reflect, or emit light, so it cannot be seen directly. We know that dark matter exists because of the effect it has on objects that we can observe.)

COSMOS-Webb will study half a million galaxies with multi-band, high-resolution, near-infrared imaging, and an unprecedented 32,000 galaxies in the mid infrared. With its rapid public release of the data, this survey will be a primary legacy dataset from Webb for scientists worldwide studying galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

Building on Hubble's achievements

The COSMOS survey began in 2002 as a Hubble program to image a much larger patch of sky, about the area of 10 full moons. From there, the collaboration snowballed to include most of the world's major telescopes on Earth and in space. Now COSMOS is a multi-wavelength survey that covers the entire spectrum from the X-ray through the radio.

Because of its location on the sky, the COSMOS field is accessible to observatories around the world. Located on the celestial equator, it can be studied from both the northern and southern hemispheres, resulting in a rich and diverse treasury of data.

"COSMOS has become the survey that a lot of extragalactic scientists go to in order to conduct their analyses because the data products are so widely available, and because it covers such a wide area of the sky," said Rochester Institute of Technology's Jeyhan Kartaltepe, assistant professor of physics and co-leader of the COSMOS-Webb program. "COSMOS-Webb is the next installment of that, where we're using Webb to extend our coverage in the near- and mid-infrared part of the spectrum, and therefore pushing out our horizon, how far away we're able to see."

The ambitious COSMOS-Webb will build upon previous discoveries to make advances in three particular areas of study, including: revolutionizing our understanding of the Reionization Era; looking for early, fully evolved galaxies; and learning how dark matter evolved with galaxies' stellar content.

Goal 1: Revolutionizing our understanding of the reionization era

Soon after the big bang, the universe was completely dark. Stars and galaxies, which bathe the cosmos in light, had not yet formed. Instead, the universe consisted of a primordial soup of neutral hydrogen and helium atoms and invisible dark matter. This is called the cosmic dark ages.

After several hundred million years, the first stars and galaxies emerged and provided energy to reionize the early universe. This energy ripped apart the hydrogen atoms that filled the universe, giving them an electric charge and ending the cosmic dark ages. This new era where the universe was flooded with light is called the Reionization Era.

The first goal of COSMOS-Webb focuses on this epoch of reionization, which took place from 400,000 to 1 billion years after the big bang. Reionization likely happened in little pockets, not all at once. COSMOS-Webb will look for bubbles showing where the first pockets of the early universe were reionized. The team aims to map the scale of these reionization bubbles.

"Hubble has done a great job of finding handfuls of these galaxies out to early times, but we need thousands more galaxies to understand the reionization process," explained Casey.

Scientists don't even know what kind of galaxies ushered in the Reionization Era, whether they're very massive or relatively low-mass systems. COSMOS-Webb will have a unique ability to find very massive, rare galaxies and see what their distribution is like in large-scale structures. So, are the galaxies responsible for reionization living in the equivalent of a cosmic metropolis, or are they mostly evenly distributed across space? Only a survey the size of COSMOS-Webb can help scientists to answer this.

Goal 2: Looking for early, fully evolved galaxies

COSMOS-Webb will search for very early, fully evolved galaxies that shut down star birth in the first 2 billion years after the big bang. Hubble has found a handful of these galaxies, which challenge existing models about how the universe formed. Scientists struggle to explain how these galaxies could have old stars and not be forming any new stars so early in the history of the universe.

With a large survey like COSMOS-Webb, the team will find many of these rare galaxies. They plan detailed studies of these galaxies to understand how they could have evolved so rapidly and turned off star formation so early.

Goal 3: Learning how dark matter evolved with galaxies' stellar content

COSMOS-Webb will give scientists insight into how dark matter in galaxies has evolved with the galaxies' stellar content over the universe's lifetime.

Galaxies are made of two types of matter: normal, luminous matter that we see in stars and other objects, and invisible dark matter, which is often more massive than the galaxy and can surround it in an extended halo. Those two kinds of matter are intertwined in galaxy formation and evolution. However, presently there's not much knowledge about how the dark matter mass in the halos of galaxies formed, and how that dark matter impacts the formation of the galaxies.

COSMOS-Webb will shed light on this process by allowing scientists to directly measure these dark matter halos through "weak lensing." The gravity from any type of masswhether it's dark or luminouscan serve as a lens to "bend" the light we see from more distant galaxies. Weak lensing distorts the apparent shape of background galaxies, so when a halo is located in front of other galaxies, scientists can directly measure the mass of the halo's dark matter.

"For the first time, we'll be able to measure the relationship between the dark matter mass and the luminous mass of galaxies back to the first 2 billion years of cosmic time," said team member Anton Koekemoer, a research astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who helped design the program's observing strategy and is in charge of constructing all the images from the program. "That's a crucial epoch for us to try to understand how the galaxies' mass was first put in place, and how that's driven by the dark matter halos. And that can then feed indirectly into our understanding of galaxy formation."

Quickly sharing data with the community

COSMOS-Webb is a Treasury program, which by definition is designed to create datasets of lasting scientific value. Treasury Programs strive to solve multiple scientific problems with a single, coherent dataset. Data taken under a Treasury Program usually has no exclusive access period, enabling immediate analysis by other researchers.

"As a Treasury Program, you are committing to quickly releasing your data and your data products to the community," explained Kartaltepe. "We're going to produce this community resource and make it publicly available so that the rest of the community can use it in their scientific analyses."

Koekemoer added, "A Treasury Program commits to making publicly available all these science products so that anyone in the community, even at very small institutions, can have the same, equal access to the data products and then just do the science."

COSMOS-Webb is a Cycle 1 General Observers program. General Observers programs were competitively selected using a dual-anonymous review system, the same system that is used to allocate time on Hubble.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier space science observatory when it launches in 2021. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Provided by Space Telescope Science Institute
Credit: Lousanroj / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0

New research shows changes in tides and hurricane activity played a part in upending the Maya civilization centuries ago.

Changes to the water table throughout the Yucatan Peninsula impacted the Maya and now offer lessons on the effects of present-day climate change, researchers say.

"Big parts of the Yucatan Peninsula sit on rock formations made of limestone, with fissures and caves throughout," said Aaron Coutino, a recent PhD graduate in applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo. "Rainwater and runoff accumulate in the cave formations and underground rivers, and that's where much of the freshwater is on the Yucatan."

"If you have changes in sea level or tidal activity, then what happens in those fissure zones is a mixing between the fresh water on the surface and the salty water that intrudes from the ocean underneath."

The researchers show that fluctuations in Maya population and settlement patterns were impacted by access to fresh water. Long before the arrival of Europeans and the eventual destruction of the Maya civilization, the archeological record shows cycles of internal disruption.

"Sometimes things in Maya cities were good, and sometimes people seem to disperse out into the countryside," said Marek Stastna, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo and a co-author on the study.

"There's a variety of theories in the archeological community as to why. This research suggests it was to do with regular access to freshwater. The water stops being good for drinking and even stops being useful for irrigation. When you can't irrigate your crops, you can't have a city of 40,000, like some of the Maya cities were."

The researchers placed sensors in bodies of water throughout the Yucatan to gather data. They found daily fluctuations of water levels and salination that show ocean tides impact even far-inland lakes. Their work offers new insights for archeologists and climate historians, but also for present-day climatologists.

The researchers say the study informs how the contemporary world can think about the different ways climate change expresses itself. The Yucatan, with its unique water table, is vulnerable in particular ways. Other regions will have their specific vulnerabilities.

"Right now, you see how climate change expresses itself in places like British Columbia, with these huge forest fires. And in the Yucatan, climate change expresses itself through the underground water table. If you're in Acadia, maybe the bigger concern is coastal erosion, but in the Yucatan change can manifest inland" Stastna said.

"People shouldn't be thinking about whether climate change is happening, but how it expresses itself in different places."

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Explore further Tides and tidal mixing were stronger during the Last Glacial Maximum

More information: Aaron Coutino et al, Inland Tidal Oscillations Within the Yucatan Peninsula, Geophysical Research Letters (2021). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Aaron Coutino et al, Inland Tidal Oscillations Within the Yucatan Peninsula,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2020GL092091
Nonessential travel to Canada is again open to Americans, as long as they have a COVID-19 vaccine.

Cross-border travelers will also need to wait two weeks after receiving the final dose of an approved vaccine.

Vaccines are free and easily accessible for anyone 12 and older at local pharmacies and health clinics. But even with a vaccine, Canada is still requiring a negative COVID-19 test.

That test has to be administered within 72 hours of arriving at the border. Many test sites wont guarantee a result that fast and rapid antigen tests are not accepted.

The tests are hard to find in some parts of the North Country.

I probably called around 6 or 7 places, said Lake Clear resident Kinna Ohman-Leone.

She frequently traveled across the border before the pandemic and found a pharmacy in Plattsburgh that offered quick test results.

But they didnt have any openings because you can only book two days in advance and it was too late to get an opening.
A release from Cuomos office didnt address the court fight, pointing instead to Velazquez accomplishments behind bars. He earned a bachelors degree, has worked from behind bars as a teaching fellow for a Columbia University professor and established programs that enlist inmates to counter gun violence and talk to prison officials and the public, leading to gun buyback, youth mentorship and other programs, according to Cuomos office.

Velazquez lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said he was working to confirm when his client would be released.

I am thrilled for a wonderful man who should never have been convicted and remained locked up for years because DA Vance looked the other way in the face of an injustice, Gottlieb said.

A request for comment was sent to the DAs office.

Cuomo has issued pardons and clemencies on several occasions in recent years, with many of the pardons going to immigrants facing deportation, where a pardon could be beneficial to their attempts to be allowed to remain in the country.

The governor's office said all five people pardoned Tuesday were in that position. The other four people receiving commutations in addition to Velazquez were also cited for what they accomplished while in prison.
A strong majority in the state Assembly had said they would impeach Cuomo if he didnt step down.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said last week that he was dropping the impeachment drive, but on Monday, facing a bipartisan backlash, he said the bodys Judiciary Committee would still finish its investigation into Cuomos conduct and issue a public report.

It's unclear when that report will come out.

In addition to investigating the harassment allegations, lawyers hired by the Assembly have been looking into the Cuomo administrations handling of COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes and his use of state resources for his $5 million pandemic book deal.

Evidence gathered during the investigation is being made available to committee members, but under tight security.

Assemblymember Marjorie Byrnes, a Republican on the committee, said Tuesday that she and other committee members are poring over the documents in a room that is being guarded by the sergeant of arms.

If this material is never released to the public, then the people of this state and in my district are never going to know the truth, she said.
Durst admitted Monday for the first time publicly that he sent police a note directing them to Bermans cadaver. He said he denied sending it for years because it made him look culpable.

During questions from his own lawyer, Durst testified earlier that he had not confessed to any killings when he was captured speaking to himself on a live microphone after filming a documentary about his life and the deaths of people close to him.

In the climactic scene of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, he could be heard in a bathroom muttering: "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.

Durst, who had just been caught in a lie about the cadaver note, said he either didnt say everything he was thinking or didnt speak loudly enough for the mic to catch it.

What I did not say out loud or, perhaps I said very softly, is: Theyll all think I killed them all, of course,'  he testified.

Many viewers have interpreted the two sentences, which were edited together by the filmmakers for a dramatic conclusion to the six-part HBO series, as an admission.
Over the past two decades, the U.S. spent more than a trillion dollars in Afghanistan. It trained Afghan soldiers and police and provided them with modern equipment.

As of February, the Afghan forces numbered 308,000 personnel, according to a United Nations Security Council report released in June  well above the estimated number of armed Taliban fighters, which ranged from 58,000 to 100,000.

Ultimately, though, the Afghan forces proved to be no match for the Taliban.

Carter Malkasian, a former senior adviser to the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is also the author of "The American War in Afghanistan: A History," said the Afghan forces sometimes lacked coordination and suffered from poor morale. The more defeats they had, the worse their morale became, and the more emboldened the Taliban were.
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Atlantic City Airshow to provide 'economic shot in the arm' after pandemic

Edward Lea, Staff Photographer The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds soar over the beach Tuesday during a practice run for the Atlantic City Airshow. Edward Lea, Staff Photographer The Thunderbirds pass Bally's Atlantic City. Edward Lea, Staff Photographer Pilots perfect their stunts Tuesday ahead of the airshow.

To Greater Atlantic City Chamber President Michael Chait, that stress was missed after the COVID-19 pandemic shelved the 2020 show.

It feels great, Chait said, because its an economic shot in the arm for the destination. Thats the way weve always looked at the airshow. Its an enormous amount of work that requires collaboration from dozens of businesses, government agencies, members of the military (and) nonprofits.

Wednesdays return will be the 18th time the airshow has come to the city. It traditionally brings more than 100,000 people to the citys beaches and Boardwalk, and is often one of the biggest events in the city all year.

According to Chait, data from previous years shows the airshow is responsible for an estimated $50 million in city revenue each year.

World War II-era planes and veteran pilots get "second life" with Skytypers The endless cacophony of airplane motors flying by in late August in Atlantic City are a dead giveaway for which event is on the horizon: the airshow.

I dont know if theres another event that brings this kind of economic impact to the region within, really, two days, he said. We dont even count practice day attendance, but theres a significant amount of people on the beach on Tuesday, as well.

Jane Bokunewicz, faculty coordinator of the Lloyd D. Levenson institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton University, agreed.

In terms of visitation, Bokunewicz said, we historically see similar increases in (Atlantic City) Expressway toll plaza vehicle counts for the airshow as we see with the beach concert series and some summer holiday weekends.

With other major events such as the beach concerts traditionally being held on the weekend, Bokunewicz added Wednesdays airshow gives the rest of the week in the city a major boost.

A midweek holiday like the airshow is a particular benefit to the citys businesses, she said, as it generates economic activity that they otherwise might not see during the week.

Chait announced the cancellation of the 2020 show last June. The following December, the chamber began discussions on potential performers in the event of the 2021 show being good to go.

In February, the chamber began communicating with its partners, including GEICO, city government and Meet AC, about the show. The show, however, was still up in the air.

We were pretty confident in the spring that we could have the planes fly, Chait said. We were concerned in the spring about generating enough support and revenue from sponsorships to cover the cost of the event.

When the state announced the end of outdoor gathering limits in May, everyone knew the show would be on.

The only issue is they didnt have much time.

South Jersey hosts three mega-events over the next 10 days Two multiday concerts and the Atlantic City Airshow will attract thousands of all ages to the region, said Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton University.

Im already working on 2022. We work a year out, Chait said. Really, the majority of the work for this years airshow was done in two months.

The reason they were able to put it all together so quickly, Chait said, is because the shows been around for nearly two decades. The logistical framework is already there, so the only real variables were adjusting new performers to the operation and taking into account pandemic guidelines if needed.

As this years airshow was in its early stages of development, the chamber also was in constant communication with AtlantiCare to ensure the show could be held safely. Chait said they ran their plans by the health system multiple times so everything could be done correctly if social distancing was required.

The venue also helps.

The airshow is a unique opportunity to attract a large audience to Atlantic City and feature some of its greatest assets like the beach and Boardwalk, Bokunewicz said. This year, as an outdoor event, it may also appeal to those concerned about COVID-19 transmission, as scientists have said risk of outdoor transmission is lower than that of indoor transmission.

Schedule announced for Atlantic City Airshow ATLANTIC CITY  The full schedule for the Atlantic City Airshow has been released, allowing spectators to know when to expect specific aircraft Aug. 18.

Given the event is outdoors, weather is a factor. There is no rain date for the show, scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. While it will be fairly cloudy, the cloud ceilings should stay high enough for the airshow to go on. A brief shower may lower the cloud ceiling for a short period, and should that occur, it may pause the action. However, it will more than likely be dry. Winds will be from the south 5 to 10 mph, with temperatures around 80.

With things nearly ready in time for Wednesdays performances, Chait is excited to see the looks on everyones faces for the first time in two years.

I cant wait to see people on the beach enjoying the airshow, he said. You see everything from kids being completely enthused to veterans where the event brings a tear to their eye. Its this wide range of emotions and a lot of pride.

Staff Meteorologist Joe Martucci contributed to this report.

Related

Airshow schedule 11:00 a.m.: Airspace closes for airshow 11:03 a.m.: Army Golden Knights streamer drop 11:30 a.m.: U.S. Army Golden Knights flag jump/national anthem 11:38 a.m.: Golden Knights mass exit show 11:48 a.m.: 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard F-16 flyby 11:49 a.m.: 108th New Jersey Air National Guard KC-135 flyby 11:51 a.m.: 193rd Pennsylvania Air National Guard EC-130J flyby 11:53 a.m.: U.S. Air Force 436th AW C-17 flyby 11:55 a.m.: New Jersey Air National Guard Composite Wing flyby (KC-135 & 2 F-16s) 11:56 a.m.: FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center citation flyby 11:58 a.m.: 6ABC Chopper flyby Noon.: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City helicopter flyby 12:02 p.m.: U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster III demonstration 12:14 p.m.: Paul Dougherty Eagle Aerobatics 12:28 p.m.: Medical helicopter flybys 12:30 p.m.: State Police flybys 12:32 p.m.: 80th FTW T-38 Talon flyby #1 (4-ship) 12:34 p.m.: 305th AW KC-10 flyby 12:36 p.m.: 305th AW C-17 flyby 12:38 p.m.: 80th FTW T-38 Talon flyby #2 (4-ship) 12:42 p.m.: NJ-ArNG/NJ-ANG UH-60 SPIES/FRIES Demonstration 12:48 p.m.: GEICO Skytypers 1:11 p.m.: U.S. Coast Guard MH-65 demonstrations 1:21 p.m.: David Windmiller Edge 540 Aerobatics 1:35 p.m.: Army Golden Knights streamer drop 1:39 p.m.: Jim Beasley Jr. P-51 Mustang demonstration 1:49 p.m.: U.S. Air Force F-22A Raptor demonstration 2:04 p.m.: Air Force Heritage Flight (F-22 & P-51) 2:18 p.m.: Army Golden Knights mass exit show 2:40 p.m.: Air Force Thunderbirds enlistment ceremony 2:50 p.m.: Thunderbirds
Hashimi had waited seven years for permission to emigrate to America, he said, and left behind his elderly father, siblings, nieces and nephews. A building contractor in Afghanistan, he is now working at the French-Afghan fusion restaurant Setaara as a cook.

I am worried about my sister who is a security guard in a bank, Hashimi said of his concerns that the Taliban will target her for revenge. Those who wear uniforms might be presumed to be pro-U.S., he said, whether they worked for the Ghani government or not.

One brother did work with the Americans and is still waiting for help to leave the country, Hashimi said.

His sister called him over the weekend to ask whether she should go to Kabul Airport and try to get on a plane, he said. Rumors were circulating that anyone who showed up would be flown out, which is why so many people converged on the airport and overwhelmed U.S. operations.

Hashimi, skeptical of the rumors, told her to stay safe at home.

Panahs son Abdullah, now a medical resident at Jefferson Health NJ, was in his third year of medical school when he started Setaara in 2019 with his aunt. Its on Arctic Avenue across from White House Subs.
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP  Critical race theory is not being taught in the townships public schools, Superintendent Kim Gruccio told residents and board members Tuesday during a school board meeting.

I want to relieve anxiety, angst, misinformation, and lets do it now, Gruccio said. Does the state of New Jersey require the teaching of critical race theory? No, it does not. It is not included in the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, therefore it is not included in our curriculum here in Egg Harbor Township.

Gruccio made her announcement in response to questions she received at a school board workshop meeting last week from parents asking about changes to the curriculum and information they received through social media.

I think there is some concern and anxiety over what may be added to the curriculum that some parents might not be in favor of occurring, as other people have mentioned, the critical race theory, the LGTBQ curriculum, Elizabeth McBane told the board members during public comment Aug. 10, things that maybe parents would like to teach their children themselves from their own background, their own religious standpoint.

Another parent, Regina Bongiorno, told the board that parents are talking about the curriculum on social media.
When the Gloucester County clinic opened its doors at noon Tuesday, six of the seven people already in line were there for a third shot. One 30-year-old was eligible due to medication she takes to manage Crohns disease. Another woman who works as a home health aide has gastritis, which she hoped would get her another dose.

I got to protect my clients, said Florence Russell, 59, of Clayton. I go to their homes.

+7 Atlantic City develops a taste for Phish this weekend ATLANTIC CITY  Melissa Oliver and Harriet Nucci were not friends before they sat in the sha

No one there had to prove their eligibility, officials said.

Were not prescreening at all, said Chad Bruner, the county administrator. We take them on their face value.

The only documentation required, he said, was proof of vaccination so that a record of the third shot could be added.

The decision to widen eligibility for booster shots to all vaccinated Americans comes with unanswered questions  including who should be prioritized to receive them and how effective booster shots may be especially since it isnt clear whether the vaccines are losing effectiveness generally or if delta can evade the vaccine. Or perhaps both factors are at play.

But George Perry, eager as he was to get his third shot, says hes not going to push the limits of science  and his immunity.

Im acting as if I hadnt had a shot at all, he said, vowing to keep up his health precautions. Its not a big stretch for me to stay at home.
If that answer sounds unduly severe or heartless, we can relieve some of its moral ambiguity by raising another issue. Its possible that no amount of blood, resources and accumulated decades of effort could have changed the outcome in Afghanistan.

At present that looks very much like the case. If only we had had the wisdom to consider that likelihood before we invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001 or, more fatally, before we were lulled into staying for two decades with little understanding of the culture, of U.S. goals or the probability of achieving them.

My own generations war, Vietnam, would have been a good place to start thinking about this. Or we might have considered whether the war in Iraq was worth it or would achieve U.S. goals before invading Iraq. At the least I hope well remember to think about nearly all of our post-World War II military history before we invade Iran.

Criticisms of President Joe Bidens decision to withdraw from Afghanistan have already begun. But sometimes there are bad options and less-bad options. Sometimes there are only bad options.

And then there is Afghanistan, which at this point presents only one real option. Its an ugly one, but, unfortunately, its the only one we have.
It has been a bloodbath. Since June, local Afghans and outside groups estimate that the Taliban have executed as many as 900 people in Kandahar province. Among the victims was a popular Afghan comic, Nazar Mohammed, whose torture before he was shot was captured on a viral video. In Kabul, the Taliban have killed journalists and prosecutors.

In the face of this slaughter, the U.S. has engaged in humiliating diplomacy with the thugs responsible for it. Bidens envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, traveled to Doha, Qatar, to plead with the Taliban not to overrun the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, even as it was overrunning provincial capitals throughout the country. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that the Taliban must make an assessment about what they want their role to be in the international community.

A president committed to a global democratic renewal would understand that the Taliban have no interest in playing a role in the international community, and that it would poison the international community if they did. And yet as a result of Bidens decision to withdraw from Afghanistan with no conditions and no contingency plans, this is what his administration has been reduced to saying.

Its a far cry from the first hopeful weeks of Bidens presidency.
The beaches at the city park, Lake Story, had been segregated until just a few years before. Whites used the beach on the northside and Blacks the one on the southside.

Some Galesburg restaurants turned Black diners away. Real estate agents often wouldnt show people of color homes north of Main Street. And the local newspapers society page wouldnt write about events south of Main Street.

The ornate Orpheum Theater had Black people sit in the balcony, apart from white folks.

But our teacher taught us that segregation was a Southern problem.

Was she ignorant of segregation in our hometown? Or perhaps she thought it was a lesson too close to home. One thing was for certain, shed never receive a medal for courage in the classroom.

In a world of right and wrong, she chose a third route: compliance.

My first exposure to the concept of lynching was when our teacher told the Emmett Till story in our ninth grade civics class. The inflection of his voice and the smug manner in which he told of how Emmett was killed struck me as odd. In his rendition, the bad guys werent those who kidnapped and killed the 14-year-old child. It was Emmett himself.
"Thereafter, Hanapel expressed his concern about getting in trouble and stated he could go to jail. Further, Hanapel followed his statements of concern with a sexually driven conversation with the undercover female minor," the affidavit states.

"During the conversation, Hanapel sought to meet the minor to engage in the above acts. The meeting was set at a location in Rapid City. When Hanapel appeared at the location he was arrested.

"Hanapel was later interviewed and acknowledged that the minor told him she was only 14 years of age, that he had made the aforementioned statements in the chats and that his intention was to have sex with the 14-year-old female minor," the affidavit states. Hanapel was granted conditional release on Aug. 16. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Clayton John Paulson, 36, of Spearfish, is charged with enticement of a minor using the internet. Paulson began communicating with a 15-year-old persona on Aug. 11 via Whisper, an online application.
******

Since she first got sick on Aug. 1, Shabazzs Facebook page, usually full of inspirational quotes, selfies and photos of her children, and videos of her tireless advocacy, has shown the deterioration as shes struggled against the virus. Three days into it, she posted that she was going to the hospital to see if she had COVID-19, but Shabazz said she was not tested and was sent home after being told it was just a bug.

On Aug. 6, her daughter posted asking if someone could drive Shabazz to the hospital.

She is not doing well and cant drive herself please and thank you, the post read.

Shabazz passed out and her daughter called an ambulance to take her to the hospital, where she tested positive for COVID-19 but was again sent home, this time with medication. But it wasnt until Aug. 9 when she passed out a second time that she was admitted to Southside Regional. Shes been there and on oxygen ever since.

The next posts were bleak. She asked people to stop calling because she couldnt talk  it took too much out of me, she said.

In a three-minute video posted Thursday, she is lying there wheezing swallow breaths and coughing. Help is the caption on the video.
A task force created to establish an oversight body for the Richmond Police Department is set to recommend a new, and independent city office  not just a civilian review board.

The new office or department would not only investigate complaints about police misconduct, but discipline officers, review policies, and audit data, according to the recommendations. Most of these powers were enshrined in a state law passed by the General Assembly last year in the wake of social justice protests, but few current oversight bodies incorporate them all.

The task force is not slated to send its final report to the City Council until the end of the month, but it presented an abbreviated version of its recommendations at a town hall on Tuesday.

Were talking about a larger office, Eli Coston, who co-chairs the task force, said at Tuesdays meeting at Diversity Richmond. Yes, there would be civilian review board members that sit on that body. But there would also be city employees that are part of that larger office. So an executive director, for example; people who actually perform the audits of police data; employees who are policy people to work on policy changes and recommendations.
The referendum wound up on the ballot after a coalition of Democrats, who held sweeping control of the state legislature, joined Republicans to approve it. All but a handful of House Democrats  including all Black lawmakers  opposed the constitutional amendment.

One of the key criticisms of the measure was that if the redistricting commission deadlocks and isnt able to produce a map, power over the process would shift to the Virginia Supreme Court, which is made up of mostly judges elevated to the high court by Republicans.

***

The possibility of a deadlock has loomed over the commission since it started meeting in the spring, and making key decisions about the process. Two early decisions would forecast splits to come: The commission has two chairs  citizen members proposed by leaders from each party  and two legal counsels, who represent the interests of Democrats and of Republicans.

On Tuesday, those lawyers said they couldnt agree on one impartial entity to provide the technical support the commission needs to draw its maps  a mix of computer programing and geographic data analysis.
Wednesday afternoon update

Fortunately, the midday showers from the remnants of Fred passed through metro Richmond without any tornadoes or flooding. Many areas had about one quarter-inch of rain, though some only had a few hundredths.

Shortly before 4 p.m. the NWS canceled the flash flood watch in central Virginia.

There are still some isolated showers around and some more might pop up over the next few hours, but no widespread rain is expected.

A tornado watch is still in effect for Northern Virginia until the early evening, however.

Richmond has an extraordinarily high dew point reading of 80 degrees as of 4 p.m., which is giving the 86-degree temperature a heat index of 101.

Wednesday morning update

It's been a calm but very muggy morning in metro Richmond, but that will change as downpours from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred move in from the Piedmont.

That rain stretches along a roughly north-south line from Winchester to Powhatan to near Emporia as of 10:35 a.m., and it's moving to the northeast. Goochland and western Chesterfield County already have that rain, so wet weather will spread into much of metro Richmond before lunchtime. The chance for on-and-off rain may continue well into the afternoon, however.

So far, there have been no new reports of severe weather or flooding this morning in the Piedmont areas off to our southwest.

The amount of rain it would take to cause flash flooding is lower in metro Richmond versus the outlying areas, however.

And as the sun heats up the air over the next several hours, there could be more fuel some gusty or rotating storms.

A tornado watch may soon be needed for the Fredericksburg region and points north to Winchester, Washington and south-central Pennsylvania, according to the National Weather Service. That's where ingredients are most favorable for some rotating storms. There's still a tornado chance anywhere north of the U.S. Highway 460 corridor and east of that line of showers, a region that includes metro Richmond, the Tri-Cities and peninsulas  the odds are just lower compared to Northern Virginia.

So a flash flood warning may be more probable than a tornado warning, but have a way to receive any weather alerts today.

That line of showers and storms will shift eastward across Tidewater and the Delmarva Peninsula by the early evening. That's the last of Fred's influence on our region, so we are likely to have dry weather in the Richmond area overnight.

Look for more updates through the day.

Tuesday evening update

Even a glancing blow from a much-weakened Tropical Storm Fred could still bring a risk of tornadoes and even more flash flooding to central Virginia on Wednesday.

The main part of Fred  the low pressure center and core of steady rainfall  will keep whirling northward through West Virginia and Pennsylvania during the day. By Thursday, the leftovers will bring downpours to New York and New England as more typical summer weather returns to Virginia.

But the eastern fringe of Fred's rain bands will gradually push eastward and northeastward through our region between the morning and evening.

This probably won't be an all-day washout for the Richmond region, rather on-and-off in nature. In fact, most computer models show spottier rain coverage than we had over the weekend. But soggy, damp dew points in the mid-to-upper 70s will be hard to ignore, and a sign that even small showers could have impressive rainfall rates.

And because the ground is so saturated, the National Weather Service in Wakefield noted that it may only take 1 inch of rain in a short time to trigger flash floods in urban and suburban settings. The potential exists for an isolated, high-end scenario of 2 inches, though most will see lower totals.

For that reason, a flash flood watch will be in effect until Wednesday evening for metro Richmond. Flash flood watches also extend northward through Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia, and westward through Charlottesville, the foothills and mountains. Areas south of the Tri-Cities and east of New Kent looked less flood-prone and were not included in the watch as of Tuesday evening.

And if temperatures heat into the mid-to-upper 80s as expected, there will be enough instability and wind shear for some gusty or rotating cells somewhere in the northern two-thirds of the commonwealth. It's hard to narrow the tornado risk area down much further until those cells pop up, but this kind of setup has been active before. Tropical-spawned tornadoes are often short-lived, harder to detect and not accompanied by thunder or hail.

Fred already prompted dozens of tornado warnings between Georgia and Southwest Virginia on Tuesday, with several sightings and damage reports in upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina.

Hopefully our phones won't blare with more weather alerts, but be ready to take those safety precautions if they do.

***

Monday's forecast and recap of weekend rain totals

The troublesome combination of a stalled front and sticky air brought rounds of downpours and flash flooding to Virginia over the past few days.

So given our saturated state, a tropical storm would be an unwelcome addition.

Over the next few days, the threat of excess rain will shift to the western half of Virginia as the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred move up the Appalachian Mountains. Fred's steadiest and heaviest rains are projected to miss metro Richmond to the west, but chances for hit-or-miss downpours will continue across central Virginia at least until Wednesday, possibly Friday.

Each soggy day can make the next downpours run off more quickly, so day-to-day trends are critical. More flash flood watches and warnings are a possibility.

The multi-day, scattershot nature of the recent rain resists a straightforward recap of totals  yet another downpour had prompted flash flood warnings in the metro area at the time of writing on Monday  but two things have been true each day: there's been some high variation over short distances, and some unlucky spots ended up with a lot.

How much rain fell on Sunday?

Some metro area neighborhoods got as little as a half-inch or less on Sunday, mainly west of Route 288. Others in Richmond and Chesterfield County were swamped by 4-plus inches, which caused high water to block roads.

Richmond International Airport only picked up 0.61 inches. Luckily, volunteers who report rain totals in the CoCoRaHS program give us more neighborhood-level detail. They measure a 24-hour total after daybreak, and the highest observation on Monday morning's map was 4.44 inches in the Fan District of Richmond. A few other sites in the West End were just short of that, while Tuckahoe was closer to 2 inches.

The Ashland area had nearly 4 inches from Saturday evening's flooding storm.

How much rain have we seen over the past week?

At least 2 inches of rain fell on much of central Virginia, according to a NWS map of gauge and radar estimates for the 7-day period ending Monday morning.

The biggest 4-plus-inch bull's-eye reached from Richmond and Ashland, which mostly came from those two weekend storms mentioned above. Other localized spots of heavier rain fell across southern Chesterfield County, between New Kent and King William, western Louisa and also northern Buckingham. Only a few locales got through the whole week with less than one half-inch, like southern Powhatan or western Spotsylvania.

Monday's rain kept adding to this, so grand totals from this stretch of wet weather are very much in flux.

How much more is in the forecast? What will we get from Tropical Storm Fred?

Rain forecasts in late summer are always more generalized than the results, given the spotty nature of downpours. But the expected path of Tropical Storm Fred gives us a more broad-brush pattern of heavier rain in the western half of the state and less in the east.

Fred came close to strengthening to a hurricane as it made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Monday afternoon. Its winds will steadily weaken as it moves north across Georgia on Tuesday, but the core of heavy rain should reach the Appalachians more or less intact.

Amounts of 1 to 3 inches may be common in the mountains and western Piedmont between Tuesday and Wednesday night, but it may only get that heavy in isolated fashion in Tidewater. Expect the overall heaviest rain to be along or near the crest of the Blue Ridge, on the order of several inches. Some tornadoes are possible Tuesday night into Wednesday, especially in southwest Virginia or the western Piedmont.

After Fred washes out in the Northeast on Wednesday night, we won't be under the influence of any organized systems or fronts in the latter part of the week. But hotter temperatures pushing 90 degrees and lingering humidity may yield the typical afternoon and evening showers and storms.

It's too early to pin our hopes on a fall cold front. So the pattern that could get us to dry off the fastest would be another ridge of high pressure sitting over the area. If that's the case next week, we might be looking at more heat index misery.

Will the James River flood?

It's not expected to in the near future, though we always keep an eye on tropical systems that move over the upper part of the James River basin.

Richmond's Westham gauge is about 1 foot higher than it was late last week, and will hover near or just below a 5-foot stage through Thursday, according to the NWS forecast from Monday evening.

What else is going on in the tropics?

Tropical Depression Grace was located near Haiti on Monday evening, and is likely to continue moving west over the next five days so it will not affect the Eastern Seaboard. That path takes it near Jamaica and Cuba on Tuesday, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Thursday, and the western Gulf of Mexico by Friday and Saturday where it is likely to strengthen into a hurricane.

Tropical Storm Henri formed near Bermuda on Monday afternoon. Henri will slowly drift west this week, but is expected to veer back out to sea this weekend before threatening the Carolinas. Some higher surf is possible at nearby beaches depending on how strong Henri gets.

Check Richmond.com/weather for John Boyer's forecast updates. Contact him at JBoyer@timesdispatch.com.
UPDATE 8:15 A.M., 8/17/2021: A flash flood watch has been issued for many localities to the south and southwest of Roanoke, as seen in the map above. This is generally where the heaviest rain from Tropical Storm Fred's remnants are expected, with widespread 2-plus inches and locally up to 5 inches or perhaps even more in a few isolated spots. As Fred's remnant circulation tracks north-northeast along or just west of the spine of the Appalachians today, it will carry its most concentrated area of rain just north and east of its center. The counties along and west of Interstate 77 in Virginia extending into West Virginia appear to have the best shot of the heaviest rainfall. East of the storm, moisture will also be pulled up the slope of the Blue Ridge, which could lead to localized downpours there. More squally type rains appear to be in the offing for most of the Roanoke area and points just east  not continuous, but waves of showers and storms today through early Wednesday. Many locations will see an inch or two of rain, locally 3-plus, in these squally rains. There is some risk of strong downdraft winds and/or isolated tornadoes as some warming to increase instability may occur between the bands of rain, and winds aloft moving in different directions with Fred's circulation may give some of these cells a spin. Do not be surprised to see a tornado watch later today in western North Carolina, possibly extending into Southwest Virginia by evening. END UPDATE.
Andes, with the firefighters union, said in a follow-up email Tuesday that the group is not against the vaccines and is asking its members to abide by the citys requirement.

As an employee group, we must represent all our members, and do so to the best of our ability, he said. If any member has questions that have gone unanswered, it is within our realm of responsibility to get them the answers they are requesting. This vaccine is being debated in every walk of life, our organization is no different, we just feel it should be up to each individual to learn as much as they can before making a decision as important as this.

Margaret Foster Riley, a public health sciences and law professor at the University of Virginia, said: Often these disputes with police and fire unions are more about their insistence that such terms be negotiated with the unions as employment issues as much as they are substantive objections to the policies. That said, I dont think the objecting city employees have a strong case.

She said vaccine mandates for employees who deal directly with the public  especially mandates with reasonable exceptions for individuals whose health precludes vaccination  are likely to be upheld by the courts.
CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's state Capitol works and why it matters. Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers.
The Anne Frank Center on the UofSC campus brings to life the story of the young Jewish girl who  in the pages of her world-renowned diary  documented two years of hiding in German-occupied Amsterdam during World War II. By sharing Anne's legacy with visitors, students and teachers, UofSCs Anne Frank Center seeks to inspire our commitment to never be bystanders but instead to stand up together against antisemitism, bigotry and inequality wherever it may exist today.

Schedule A Tour

The center will open to timed-entry group tours beginning Sept. 15, 2021. All tours are led by volunteer docents or staff.

The Anne Frank Center invites schools and other groups to plan visits with guided tours and extended programming on campus. We also bring traveling exhibitions and other educational programming to schools across South Carolina. Email the Anne Frank Center to discuss the possibilities.

Regular tours are free for UofSC students, and there is an optional suggested donation for the general public.

The Anne Frank Center
In fact, the proviso implicitly contemplates there could be a universal mask mandate, but its terms prohibit only discrimination against unvaccinated individuals by requiring them to wear masks when vaccinated individuals are exempt from that requirement, the unanimous opinion reads.

The university's interim president, Harris Pastides, said in a statement Tuesday evening that in light of the court's ruling, he would require face coverings in buildings effective immediately" to slow the spread of the virus.

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of all members of our Gamecock community to help protect ourselves and others by adopting sound public health practices as we continue our efforts to safeguard our campus against this still-evolving health concern, said Pastides, a trained epidemiologist who once led the universitys school of public health.

School authorities initially said at the end of July that they would require face coverings to be worn at all times inside all campus buildings except dorms, private offices or dining halls. But after Wilson's opinion, Pastidestold the campus the university would change course and only encourage masking indoors.

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Des ressortissants indiens a bord d'un avion militaire indien a l'aeroport de Kaboul, le 17 aout 2021, prets a etre evacues apres la prise de controle de l'Afghanistan par les Taliban.  STR, AFP

Trois jours apres la prise de Kaboul par les Taliban, les evacuations se poursuivent en Afghanistan. A l'aeroport de Kaboul, pris d'assaut par les candidats a l'exil, un pont aerien mobilise depuis dimanche les allers et venues d'avions du monde entier. Parmi eux, ceux de l'armee americaine, qui prevoit d'evacuer plus de 30 000 personnes entre Kaboul et leurs bases au Qatar et au Koweit.





L'evacuation de diplomates, d'autres etrangers et d'Afghans ayant travaille avec eux se poursuit, mercredi 18 aout, dans des conditions difficiles a Kaboul, tombee aux mains des Taliban.





Un gigantesque pont aerien mobilise depuis dimanche une noria d'avions du monde entier, dans un aeroport pris d'assaut par les candidats a l'exil et dont les abords sont etroitement controles par les Taliban.





Les membres de l'Otan, qui se sont reunis mardi, "ont annonce l'envoi d'avions supplementaires" pour assurer les evacuations, a indique le secretaire general de l'Otan, Jens Stoltenberg, tout en precisant que "les operations a l'aeroport (de Kaboul) reprennent graduellement" apres les scenes de chaos de lundi.





Outre les avions, certains pays ont envoye des renforts militaires. De quelque 3 000 lundi soir, le nombre de soldats americains a l'aeroport de Kaboul doit atteindre 6 000 "dans les prochains jours".





Ils ont ete rejoints notamment par des forces speciales francaises, qui ont pour mission de participer aux operations d'evacuation de plusieurs dizaines de Francais ainsi que de certains Afghans.





Un nouveau vol francais a quitte Kaboul dans la nuit





Les 45 premiers exfiltres de Kaboul par la France sont arrives mardi apres-midi a Paris sur le tarmac de l'aeroport de Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, dans un A310 de l'armee francaise aux couleurs bleu blanc rouge, apres avoir fait escale a Abou Dhabi. Cet avion transportait egalement une soixantaine de militaires francais de retour d'operations exterieures, avait precise de son cote une source au ministere des armees.





Tous les passagers devaient passer des tests de depistage du Covid-19 et subir des verifications sanitaires a leur arrivee.





Un nouveau vol francais transportant des personnes evacuees d'Afghanistan a quitte Kaboul dans la nuit de mardi a mercredi en direction d'Abou Dhabi, la capitale des Emirats arabes unis, a-t-on appris aupres de temoins a l'aeroport.





D'autres rotations sont prevues dans les heures et jours a venir pour evacuer tous les ressortissants francais.





Les autorites refusent d'indiquer a ce stade combien de personnes au total la France va exfiltrer dans le cadre de cette operation baptisee Apagan. Elle mobilise deux avions de l'Armee de l'air sur le troncon Emirats-Kaboul et deux autres pour les vols entre les Emirats et la France.





640 Afghans dans un avion militaire americain





L'armee americaine a evacue plus de 3 200 personnes d'Afghanistan, notamment du personnel americain, a l'aide d'avions militaires, selon la Maison Blanche. En plus de ces 3 200 personnes, pres de 2 000 refugies afghans ont ete evacues vers les Etats-Unis.





Les Etats-Unis prevoient d'evacuer plus de 30 000 personnes par un pont aerien entre Kaboul et leurs bases au Koweit et au Qatar.





Une photo devenue virale montre environ 640 Afghans - hommes, femmes et enfants - entasses a l'interieur d'un avion de transport Boeing C-17 de l'US Air Force. Un nombre aussi eleve de passagers n'etait pas prevu en un seul vol, a precise un haut fonctionnaire de la defense americaine a Defense One, beaucoup de desesperes ayant grimpe au dernier moment a l'interieur par la rampe encore a moitie ouverte a l'arriere de l'avion.





"L'equipage a pris la decision d'y aller" plutot que de les forcer a redescendre, a explique le fonctionnaire.





Les Etats-Unis ont "la responsabilite et les moyens" d'evacuer les Afghans qui les ont aides en Afghanistan, a estime mardi l'ancien president George W. Bush, qui a declenche il y a 20 ans l'offensive americaine en Afghanistan.





Berlin accuse les Taliban d'entraver les departs





Un avion militaire allemand, qui a pu atterrir dans la nuit de lundi a mardi a Kaboul, n'a reussi a emporter avec lui que sept personnes, alors que des centaines d'autres attendent de pouvoir gagner l'Allemagne.





Berlin accuse les Taliban d'entraver l'acces a l'aeroport de Kaboul aux candidats afghans au depart, alors que quelque 10 000 Afghans ayant collabore avec l'armee allemande ou des ONG, ou des membres de leur famille, doivent etre evacues selon la chanceliere Angela Merkel.





L'Autriche et la Roumanie ont egalement indique que leurs ressortissants et les Afghans qu'ils comptent evacuer rencontraient des difficultes pour se rendre a l'aeroport.





De son cote, Madrid a envoye dans la nuit de lundi a mardi un premier avion militaire (A400) a Dubai, parti de Saragosse (nord-est), pour "rapatrier le personnel de l'ambassade de Kaboul, des ressortissants espagnols dans le pays ainsi que les Afghans qui ont collabore avec l'Espagne", selon le ministere de la Defense.





Un deuxieme avion a decolle dans l'apres-midi, de la meme base aerienne.





Un avion militaire tcheque en provenance de Kaboul a atterri mardi soir a Prague avec a son bord 87 personnes evacuees, dont l'ambassadeur Jiri Baloun, des soldats tcheques, des Afghans ayant travaille pour eux ainsi que deux ressortissants polonais. Un premier vol avait rapatrie 46 personnes en Republique tcheque, lundi.





Des Afghans vont transiter par Skopje





La Macedoine du Nord va suivre l'exemple de l'Albanie et du Kosovo voisins en accueillant 180 civils afghans (employes d'ONG, journalistes, leurs familles), ainsi que six femmes et enfants, employees ou membres de familles d'employes de la mission de l'ONU en Afghanistan.





Ces refugies resteront en Macedoine du Nord jusqu'a l'obtention de visas leur permettant de rejoindre les Etats-Unis. Les frais de leur sejour seront couverts par les Etats-Unis et des organisations internationales.




 Notable accounting of "widespread support" for the death penalty in public polling | Main | "Environmental Indifference" 

Regular readers know I do not blog much these days about federal sentence reasonableness review because there are not that many blogworthy opinions. Out of many thousands of appeals brought by federal defendants each year, typically only a few hundred are successful, and all but a few dozen involve miscalculation of the guideline range. The government rarely appeals, though it has a much better success rate in the relatively few appeals it brings each year.

In one particular (and relatively rare) categories of cases, the government has a particularly notable history of appellate success when arguing a sentence in unreasonably lenient (see posts linked below for some historical examples). This category is terrorism cases, and a Second Circuit panel added another example in this category with its ruling today in US v. Ceasar, No. 19-2881 (2d Cir. Aug. 18, 2021) (available here). Federal sentencing fans will want to review this 53-page opinion in detail, but here is the opinion's introduction:

It is undisputed that beginning in or around January 2016, the defendant-appellee, Sinmyah Amera Ceasar, conspired to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ("ISIS"), in violation of 18 U.S.C.  2339B(a). Using social media and the encrypted messaging application Telegram, Ceasar expressed her support for ISIS, encouraged others to join ISIS abroad, and helped individuals in the United States contact ISIS members overseas. The overseas ISIS members then facilitated U.S.-based ISIS supporters' travel to ISIS-controlled territory. Ceasar herself intended to travel to ISIS territory by way of Sweden, where she planned to marry another ISIS supporter. In November 2016, Ceasar was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on her way to Sweden via Turkey. Following her arrest, Ceasar entered into a cooperation agreement with the government in which she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. In April 2018, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted her presentence release.

While on presentence release, Ceasar reoffended. Despite the fact that the conditions of her release explicitly prohibited her from contacting individuals or organizations affiliated with foreign terrorist groups, Ceasar obtained a laptop computer, recreated pseudonymous social media accounts, and resumed contacting or attempting to contact several individuals known to be supporters of ISIS or other extremist groups. The FBI, investigating Ceasar's conduct, found that she had intentionally deleted incriminating communications and had instructed others with whom she had been in contact to do the same. The bond underlying her presentence release was revoked, and she was remanded pending sentencing. When the FBI interviewed Ceasar about her conduct while on presentence release, she made a significant number of false and misleading statements....

Mental health professionals who met with and treated Ceasar characterize her conduct as a misguided search for community stemming from a lifetime of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and neglect. Beginning in her childhood, Ceasar's father sexually abused her. At age 13, she entered the foster care system and was abused or neglected in each home in which she was placed. While Ceasar has never been legally married, she entered into three successive so-called "religious marriages" with older men, beginning when she was 16. In each of those marriages, her husband physically or emotionally abused her. Ceasar was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse and trauma she endured.

Ceasar faced a Sentencing Guidelines range of 360 to 600 months' imprisonment. Prior to sentencing, the district court ordered the government and Ceasar to provide expert witness testimony or other materials to assist in its sentencing determination. The district court held a multiday sentencing hearing at which two government and three defense experts testified as to Ceasar's involvement with and support of ISIS and whether she would be likely to reoffend.

The district court concluded that the advisory Guidelines range was "excessively harsh" and varied downward from it dramatically. The court found that Ceasar was motivated by the abuse and trauma she suffered most of her life, and that she needed educational and mental health support in lieu of a long prison sentence. On June 26, 2019, despite the Guidelines minimum of 360 months, the court imposed a 46-month sentence on Ceasar for the Material Support Offense, one month for the Obstruction Offense, and one month for committing an offense while on presentence release, pursuant to 18 U.S.C.  3147, all to run consecutively for a total term of 48 months' imprisonment. Because she had been in custody from the time of her arrest in November 2016 until she was granted presentence release in April 2018, and was then remanded to custody on July 19, 2018 (following her violation of the conditions of her presentence release), Ceasar served only 13 additional months from the time of sentencing (June 26, 2019) until she was released from prison on July 28, 2020.

The government appealed on substantive reasonableness grounds, arguing that the district court abused its discretion by considering Ceasar's need for rehabilitation to the exclusion of other sentencing factors, and that this mitigating sentencing factor could not bear the weight assigned to it. The government further argues that Ceasar's sentence was shockingly low compared with other sentences imposed for similar crimes.

We are not without sympathy for Ceasar, but we are constrained to agree with the government. We conclude that the district court placed more emphasis on Ceasar's need for rehabilitation than that sentencing factor could bear, and failed adequately to weigh section 3553(a) factors that balance the needs and circumstances of an individual defendant against, among other things, the goals of protecting the public, deterring criminal behavior, and engendering respect for the law. We further conclude that in comparison with sentences for similar terrorism crimes, Ceasar's sentence of 48 months' imprisonment was shockingly low and unsupportable as a matter of law. We therefore vacate the judgment of the district court and remand for resentencing.
In-depth Analysis and Data-driven Insights on the Impact of COVID-19 Included in this Nigeria Data Center Market Report. Nigeria data center market to grow at a CAGR of 17% during 20212026.

New York, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Nigeria Data Center Market - Investment Analysis & Growth Opportunities 2021-2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06129724/?utm_source=GNW





The data center market in Nigeria is among the fastest-growing markets in Africa. The Nigeria data center market investments are majorly driven by factors such as digitalization, advanced technologies, the presence of major operators, internet penetration, and government initiatives. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong market enabler for several digitization initiatives across Nigeria. Lagos is the primary data center hub in Nigeria, housing most of Nigerias total number of data centers. The shift of industry sectors such as BFSI, education, retail, manufacturing, and others towards new technologies such as cloud and big data will aid the markets growth during the forecast period.



NIGERIA DATA CENTER MARKET INSIGHTS



 The growing demand for smart devices, the increasing demand for analytics, cloud adoption, and wireless networking technologies have led several organizations in Nigeria to invest in big data and IoT technology.

 Despite the slowdown in the economy, IT infrastructure providers and data centers have seen an increase in demand due to the shift to remote working in the country.

 Most facilities in the country are adopting low to medium voltage switchgear as the number of data center investments increases.

 In 2020, the Nigerian government announced the plan to establish the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Nigeria (CFAIR) to facilitate emerging technologies such as ICT security and networking.

 Growing investments in start-ups such as FinTech and e-commerce using big data analytics and IoT applications are expected to increase the demand for all-flash storage in the Nigerian data center market.

 The implementation of 5G networks will increase the usage of new-class ethernet switches among facilities in the country.

 The adoption of water and air-based chillers in the facilities will gain traction as the region experiences a moderate climate.

 Greenfield data center projects are witnessing increased investment from local and global service providers as they aim to expand their presence in the country.



The report considers the present scenario of the Nigeria data center market and its market dynamics for the forecast period 2021?2026. It covers a detailed overview of several growth enablers, restraints, and trends in the market. The study includes the demand and supply aspects of the market.



KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT:

 Over 90% of Nigerias data is still hosted abroad. Many government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria host their data outside the country. Improved digital infrastructure and connectivity will increase the demand in the country, leading to further growth of data centers.

 Nigeria has the presence of renowned contractors such as Arup, that was involved in designing the data center facility for Rack Centre in Lagos.

 The penetration of AI and ML to monitor the facilities is likely to increase in the market and improve the efficiency of the facility operations.

 21st Century Technology (21CTL) along with Konet has announced an edge hyperscale data center project in Nigeria, to be operational in 2022. The company is also building data centers in Apapa and Ikoyi, as well as edge data centers in Victoria Island, Maryland, and Ikeja.

 The market size of Tier IV facilities is expected to reach more than USD 15 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 24.42%.

 Due to the increased risk of physical security attacks in the country, facilities in Nigeria, are deploying additional security measures such as multi-factor authentication and anti-climb perimeter fences.

 Modular data centers are also extensively deployed in the country as a low-cost option to traditional data center deployment. Huawei Technologies is one of the significant vendors supplying modular facilities in the region.



NIGERIA DATA CENTER MARKET VENDOR LANDSCAPE



The rapid growth and development of data center projects will allow new players to enter the Nigerian market. Schneider Electric is one of the major vendors among support infrastructure providers in the Nigerian data center market. The power instability across the country leads to the installation of power backup equipment such as generators among the facility operators, with diesel generators leading the market. IT infrastructure providers such as NetApp, Lenovo, IBM, and HPE have a strong presence in the Nigerian data center market.



IT Infrastructure Providers

 Arista Networks

 Broadcom

 Cisco Systems

 Dell Technologies

 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

 Huawei Technologies

 IBM

 Jupiter Networks

 Lenovo

 NetApp



Construction Constructors & Sub-Contractors

 Arup

 CAP DC

 Edarat Group

 Future-tech

 Interkel

 JLB Atchitects

 NLE



Support Infrastructure Providers

 ABB

 Caterpillar

 Cummins

 Eaton

 Envicool

 Legrand

 Rittal

 Schneider Electric

 Siemens

 STULZ

 Vertiv Group



Investors

 21st Century Technology

 Africa Data Centres, Galaxy Backbone

 MainOne (MDXi)

 Medallion Communications

 Rack Centre

 Teraco Data Environments



WHY SHOULD YOU BUY THIS RESEARCH?



 Market size available in the investment, area, power capacity, and colocation revenue.

 An assessment of the Nigeria data center investment in the market by colocation, hyperscale, and enterprise operators

 Data center investments in terms of white floor area (square feet) and power capacity (MW) across cities in the country

 A detailed study of the existing Nigeria data center market landscape, an in-depth industry analysis, and insightful predictions about the Nigeria data center market size during the forecast period

Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party facilities in Nigeria

o Facilities Covered (Existing): 11

o Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 9

o Coverage: 2 Cities

o Existing vs. Upcoming (Data Center Area)

o Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)

 Data center colocation market in Nigeria

o Market Revenue & Forecast (2020-2026)

o Retail Colocation Pricing

 Classification of the Nigeria data center market investments into multiple segments and sub-segments (IT, power, cooling, and general construction services) with market sizing and forecast.

 A comprehensive analysis of the latest trends, growth rate, potential opportunities, and growth restraints, and prospects for the data center market.

 Business overview and product offerings of prominent IT infrastructure providers, construction contractors, support infrastructure providers, and investors operating in the market

A transparent research methodology and the analysis of the demand and supply aspect of the market



REPORT COVERAGE:

This report analyzes the Nigeria data center market share and elaborative analysis of the existing and upcoming facilities, datacenter investments in terms of IT, electrical, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, tier standard, and geography. It discusses the market sizing and estimation for different segments with respect to the investment in the facilities. The segmentation includes:



EXISTING VS. UPCOMING DATA CENTERS

 Existing Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity)

o Lagos (No. of facilities: 10)

o Abuja (No. of facilities: 1)

 List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity)



NIGERIA DATA CENTER INVESTMENT COVERAGE



 Infrastructure Type

o IT Infrastructure

o Electrical Infrastructure

o Mechanical Infrastructure

o General Construction



 IT Infrastructure

o Server

o Storage

o Network Infrastructure



 Electrical Infrastructure

o UPS Systems

o Generators

o Transfer Switches and Switchgears

o PDUs

o Other Electrical Infrastructure



 Mechanical Infrastructure

o Cooling Systems

o Rack Cabinets

o Other Mechanical Infrastructure



 Cooling Systems

o CRAC & CRAH Units

o Chillers

o Cooling Towers, Condensers, and Dry Coolers

o Other Cooling Units



 General Construction

o Building Development

o Installation & Commissioning Services

o Building & Engineering Design

o Physical Security

o DCIM



 Tier Segments

o Tier I & Tier II

o Tier III

o Tier IV



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

1. What is the current size of the Nigeria data center market?

2. Who are the key investors in the market?

3. What is the expected CAGR for the Nigeria Data Center Market for the forecast period?

4. How many existing and upcoming data centers are present in Nigeria?

5. What are the investments opportunities in Nigeria?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06129724/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

Story continues

CONTACT: Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001




Lindell's recounting of the incident last week matched much of Buongiorno's description, except that Lindell said the second man wrapped his arm around him and shoved an object into his side. He pointed to a photo that showed the man had a yellow object in his hands.

It happened pretty fast, but the guy knew what he was doing, Lindell said, adding that it was one of the worst attacks on me Ive ever had."

However, it appeared Lindell waited until Thursday to file a police report after the Sioux Falls Police Department sent an officer to meet with Lindell. He told the conservative talk show FlashPoint last week that he believed the man used his finger. But this week he also said he was checked by medics for puncture wounds.

Buongiorno said nothing he saw could be described as an attack that would leave Lindell in pain. He added Lindell showed no indication anything was amiss as he walked to the glass elevator and rode it to the 6th floor.
He was allegedly paid for his work by Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA via Tipco.

An Associated Press investigation last year revealed how Venezuela had been relying on Tipco to blunt the impact of U.S. sanctions. In exchange for deep discounts on crude shipments, Tipco would pay PDVSAs obligations and deduct the amounts from what it owed the Venezuelan oil giant, according to records obtained by AP.

Tipco is not named as a defendant in the criminal complaint. But an investigator for the Department of Homeland Security, citing APs reporting, identified the Thai company as the third-party money launderer that collaborated with PDVSA to move hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Venezuelas socialist government.

U.S. sanctions against Maduros government make it illegal for U.S. firms  and those who assist them  from doing business with PDVSA except with a license from the U.S. Treasury Department. Additionally, any export of military equipment or services requires the approval of the State Department, which Achabal didnt have.
UNITED NATIONS  The United Nations says it's sending about a third of its 300 international staff in Afghanistan to Kazakhstan to work remotely on a temporary basis in light of the volatile situation in the country.
Science and its Pretenders: Pseudoscience and Science Denial

Posted on 18 August 2021 by Guest Author, BaerbelW

This is a re-post from the Thinking is Power website maintained by Melanie Trecek-King where she regularly writes about many aspects of critical thinking in an effort to provide accessible and engaging critical thinking information to the general public.

The human brain is a fascinating thing. Its capable of great things, from composing symphonies to sending people to the moon. Its ability to learn and problem solve is truly awe-inspiring.

But the brain is also capable of Olympic-level self-deception. When it wants something to be true, it masterfully searches for evidence to justify the belief. And when it doesnt want to believe, its ability to deny or discount evidence is (unfortunately) unsurpassed.

In humanitys search to understand the world around us, the invention of science was revolutionary. No more relying on our flawed perceptions and irrational thinking. Finally, there was a way of knowing that demanded evidence and made a systematic attempt to identify and minimize our biases. The proof was in the results: we owe much of the increase in the quality and quantity of our lives over the last century to scientific advancements.

Its no wonder then that people trust science. Unfortunately, many dont understand how science works and what makes it reliable, leaving people vulnerable to assertions that seem scientific but arent. Charlatans who seek to elevate their claims dress them up in the trappings of science to fool those with worldviews that align with their goals. They know full well that we are most likely to fall for misinformation when we wantor dont wantto believe.

Making good decisions requires good thinking and the ability to identify the misuse of science to justify our beliefs. We dont want to be fooled by sciences pretenders.

Science is a reliable way of knowing

To understand what science isnt, we have to first understand what it is.

And like most things in life, its complicated.

Unlike how science is often taught in school, there is no single, recipe-like scientific method. At its core, science is a community of experts using diverse methods to gather evidence and scrutinize claims. Its a way of learning about the natural world, of trying to get closer to the truth by testing explanations against reality and critically scrutinizing the evidence.

Science is reliable because the process is designed to minimize the impact of our biases and root out errors or fraud. Scientists must follow the evidence wherever it leads, regardless of their beliefs or biases. Its human nature to want to confirm our pet hypotheses, but the ability to find supporting evidence doesnt make them true. Instead, scientists set out to disprove their explanations, and when they cant, they accept them. Before their study can be published in the scientific literature, it must pass peer review, in which other experts critically scrutinize their work.

A critical foundation of science is skepticism, which is simply insisting on evidence before accepting a claim. Scientists are open to all claims, but proportion their acceptance to the strength and quality of the evidence.

Scientific conclusions are always tentative. Each study is a piece of a larger puzzle that becomes more clear when more pieces are put into place. Science doesnt provide absolute certainty, but instead reduces uncertainty as evidence accumulates. But theres always the possibility that were wrong, so we should leave ourselves open to changing our minds with new evidence.

Importantly, science is a community effort, providing a system of checks and balances on the process that helps to correct for biases and identify errors and fraud.

Is science perfect? No. But its better than the alternatives.

Which brings me to.

Sciences pretenders dont play by sciences rules

If humans are masters at self-deception, sciences pretenders are our enablers. By disguising our desired beliefs in the trappings of science, we are able to convince ourselves (and others) that our conclusions are justified.

We dont set out to fool ourselves, of course. But our beliefs are important to us: they become part of who we are and bind us to others in our social groups. So when were faced with evidence that threatens a deeply-held belief, especially one that is central to our identity or worldview, we engage in motivated reasoning and confirmation bias to search for evidence that supports the conclusion we want to believe and discount evidence that doesnt.

The key difference between science and its pretenders is this: Whereas science is an objective search to understand and explain the natural world, sciences pretenders are motivated by their desire to protect cherished beliefs.

To accomplish this goal, sciences pretenders break many of the rules that make science reliable. Instead of following evidence to a conclusion, sciences pretenders work backwards, searching through the body of evidence for the pieces they can cherry pick to make their case. Rather than minimizing biases and identifying errors, the pretender community is hostile towards legitimate criticism, even viewing it as a conspiracy. In fact, the pretenders require believing in a grand conspiracy perpetuated by the entire scientific community. Why else would nearly all scientists reject your claims? And while science is always tentative and willing to change with evidence, the pretenders are absolutely certain theyre right. If the evidence available today isnt enough to change their mind, why would it be any different in the future?

While all of sciences pretenders portray themselves as scientific while failing to adhere to sciences methods, the two major types of pretenders have key differences.

Science denial is the refusal to accept well-established science. Essentially, denial suggests that the expert consensus is wrong by focusing on minor uncertainties and engaging in conspiracy theories to undermine robust science. Denial is motivated by not wanting to believe a scientific conclusion, often because it conflicts with existing beliefs, identity or vested interests.

Industry-funded denial campaigns from the tobacco industry, for example, manufactured doubt about the link between smoking and health problems to prevent government regulation. Fossil fuel companies used the same strategy, with many of the same think tanks and scientists, to convince the public that the science of human-caused climate change wasnt settled, even though their own scientists made the same connections.

Denialists dont want to believe, so they attack science using one of its most essential characteristics  that science never proves with 100% certainty. They know that people dont understand how the process of science works. They tell the public that its only a theory, even though a scientific theory is the pinnacle of certainty in science. Or they say science hasnt proven something, ignoring the fact that science never proves.

Many denialists unfortunately believe they are the true skeptics who are embracing sciences rigor. They claim they want evidence, but theyve set an impossibly high standard that can never be achieved. Failure to accept well-supported conclusions in the light of overwhelming evidence isnt skepticism. Its denial.

Pseudoscience is the promotion of a non-scientific theory. Basically, pseudoscience promotes unsupported, false, or even unfalsifiable claims as scientific by dressing them up as science. Pseudoscientific beliefs are motivated by wanting to believe a non-scientific conclusion, often due to existing beliefs, identity or wishful thinking.

Alternative medicine, the health/wellness industry, and the New Age movement are just a few of the many areas that promote pseudoscientific claims. Pseudoscience plays on our biases, appeals to our desires, and offers false hope. It would be fascinating if the stars could predict our future, or if a mysterious human-like creature lived wild in the mountains. And we know our healthcare system has problems, so natural and ancient cures offer enticing  although ineffective  alternatives.

Pseudoscientists want to believe, so their standard of evidence to support their beliefs is very low. Anecdotes are widely used, even though science knows that we can easily be misled by our personal experiences. Claims are often so vague that nearly any evidence could be interpreted as supporting them. Studies that are so poorly designed they cant pass peer review are instead published in their own journals that lack critical scrutiny.

Many who believe in pseudoscience claim scientists wont accept their conclusions because they are too skeptical, or conspiring against them. But the process of science is designed to challenge ideas, not confirm them. Criticism is expectedencouraged even. Pseudoscientists are so sure theyre right, and their desire to believe is so strong, that they are unable to objectively evaluate their own claims.

Those who promote pseudoscience can be excellent marketers, skillfully convincing those who want to believe without using reliable evidence. If their claims were scientific they would certainly sell it as such. But thats why its pseudoscience.

Example: Evolutionary theory, evolution denial, and creationism

Theres perhaps no theory more important to science, and yet more misunderstood by the public, than evolution.

Scientific theories are explanations supported by vast amounts of evidence. Scientists use theories to make predictions for further testing, the results of which either strengthen the theory or suggest the need to modify it. Over time, experts begin to agree that theres enough evidence to accept the explanation. This is the process of science in action.

The term theory is the source of much confusion for most people, however, who use it to mean guess. But while science doesnt prove explanations, theories are as close as science can get. In fact, the ultimate goal of science is to understand and explain natural phenomena with theories. Other theories include gravitational theory, cell theory, germ theory, molecular theory, gene theory..

Evolutionary theory is the single most important theory in all of the life sciences. It essentially states that all species alive today have a common ancestor. It helps to explain the similarity of living organisms as well as their diversity: more related populations are more similar and less related populations less similar. Evidence for evolution comes from many diverse lines, including anatomical similarities, shared developmental pathways, vestigial structures, imperfect adaptations, DNA and protein similarities, biogeography, fossils, etc. There are certainly details left to work out, but the basis of evolutionary theory is so well supported that the plausibility of it being found to have serious flaws is next to zero.

So, the science is clear, living things have evolved. The evidence agrees and so do the experts. As Theodosius Dobzhandky explained, Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.

Unfortunately, there are many who do not want to accept that living things evolved, viewing it as a threat to their religious beliefs. And motivated reasoning is a powerful thing.

The desire to not believe leads to denial. Evolution is just a theory, and isnt settled science. Impossibly high standards of proof are demanded and minor uncertainties used to try to bring down the whole theory.

The desire to want to believe in a religious explanation fuels the pseudoscience of creationism. An important characteristic of science is that it must be falsifiable, and since there is no conceivable way to test for a supernatural creator, creationism is not science. Even more, there simply isnt evidence to support the idea that living things were created in their current form only a few thousand years ago.

Both evolution denial and creationism work backwards from their desired conclusion. Both cherry pick evidence and ignore or discount disconfirming evidence. Both are overly confident theyre right and unwilling to objectively evaluate the body of evidence and change their mind.

And both accuse scientists of conspiring against them. Why else would nearly all experts reject their claims?

However, this conspiracy would require the cooperation of botanists, zoologists, cytologists, microbiologists, molecular biologists, geneticists, paleontologists, etcfrom nearly every academic institution, government agency, and industryand in nearly every country on earth.

This assertion fundamentally misunderstands sciences incentive structure: the best way to make a name for yourself as a scientist is to discover something previously unknown or to disprove a longstanding conclusion. Want to win a Nobel prize and go down in history? Disprove evolution.

The bottom line

Science is one of the best tools humanity has ever developed to understand reality. The unfortunate truth is that we are easily fooled, and as Carl Sagan explained, Science is a way to not fool ourselves.

Sciences pretenders portray themselves as scientific but dont adhere to the process that makes science so reliable. Yet there are no hard and fast lines that clearly distinguish between science and its pretenders. Its a spectrum with lots of shades of gray.

Our desire to protect our beliefs can make us easy prey for sciences pretenders. No one can fool us like we can. The most difficult time to be skeptical is when we want, or dont want, to believe. It all comes down to how willing we are to be honest with ourselves.

So ask yourselfwhat would change your mind? If you honestly cant think of evidence that would cause you to reconsider your position, youre not thinking like a scientist.

To learn more

Learn the characteristics of denial with the Cranky Uncle game

Merchants of Doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming

Special thanks to John Cook and Jonathan Stea for their feedback.
In the months before the Taliban took control of Kabul the first time, one phone call signaled the dark times ahead for our family.

It was 1996, and my mother was shouting on the phone as if to make her voice physically carry across the space separating California and Afghanistan.

On the other end was my cousin Fereshta, whose name is the Persian word for angel. Fereshta told my mother how the Taliban were beating women in the streets, how they were hanging people in public, and how she didnt know what to do next. My mother was visibly shaken. The memory of their voices on the phone has never left me. Its hard to forget the sound of an angel screaming.

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That memory was later replaced by a brighter one. In 2013, I was working in Afghanistan, and on Eid that year, I was able to travel to Mazar-e-Sharif to see Fereshta. I met her and her soft-spoken, intelligent daughter, who was learning to drive and then dreaming of becoming a pilot. The north was safe, and in the familys little SUV, my cousins daughter drove us across the green hills of Mazar that turn red with poppies every spring.

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But now, just as with my parents and the generation before them, that sparkling memory of hope, or even just the possibility of hope, is a memory of a place that doesnt exist anymore. Afghan civil society and we in the diaspora warned this would happen. But for the past decade, it seems the only Afghan the United States wanted to listen to was Dick Cheneys old pal from the oil industry, Zalmay Khalilzad, who served in four presidential administrations culminating in this years last-minute push to reach a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban.

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President Joe Biden chose to expedite the withdrawal of U.S. troops during the height of summer fighting season, knowing full well that is when the Taliban are most active. Bidens sped-up withdrawal also meant Afghans who were worried for their safety and trying to make the best decision for their families couldnt get passports to leave the country in time. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was already overwhelmed processing requests, and current U.S. policies require Afghans seeking P1 or P2 refugee status to leave the country first. The searing images at the airport in Kabul, of people so desperate they were literally holding onto planes taking off, are a direct result of Bidens decisions. Could that C-17 have carried 600 Afghans to safety in a more orderly fashion just a week ago?

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This chaos did not unfold, as Biden so nonchalantly said in his address to the nation Monday night, because Afghans did not want to leave earlier. It did not unfold, as White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, because Afghans did not have the will to fight the Taliban.

The White House has clearly revealed its lack of policy on Afghanistanand its refusal to listen to Afghans.

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In his speech on Monday night, Biden repeated the old Orientalist trope about Afghanistan being a graveyard of empires and asserted multiple times Afghans wouldnt fight for their own country. As Afghans, were used to our nation being reduced to a cliche by talking heads, but this one was particular painful to hear. Since 2007, over 70,000 Afghansmen and womenwho were members of the security forces or the national police sacrificed their lives for the possibility of hope. Many more were killed while just trying to build their own lives.

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For the remaining soldiers who were left to guard the fragile state after the U.S. made its intention to leave clear, what did the White House expect them to do? The deck was stacked against them and solidly in the Talibans favor. The U.S. had announced the time and date of its retreat, spent the last few years sidelining and delegitimizing the state it was sworn to protect, and negotiated for the release of the Talibans leader and hundreds of other prisoners held in Pakistan. Did we expect them to fight against such odds? They have families too.

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I dont know where my cousin Fereshta or her daughter, the erstwhile future pilot, are today. But like every other Afghan I know in the diaspora, Ive spent the last 48 hours collecting passport information and documents of family members and complete strangers seeking safety. Its a pattern thats familiar to us now.

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The end of the United States fraught, complicated, and dirty involvement in Afghanistan didnt have to come like this. Biden inherited a war exacerbated by his predecessors, but that didnt mean he had to follow their disastrous lead. Even at this late stage, its possible to mitigate the all but certain humanitarian disaster by enacting a bold plan that grants humanitarian parole to all Afghans in dangerespecially the women and girls that the United States spent the last 20 years saying it cared about. The brave Afghans who cannot or will not leave their country also must be supported. The United States must not grant any form of legitimacy for the Taliban, and it must demand that access to education for women and girls be a clear red line for the international community.

Washington hasnt listened to our voices the last 20 years. This time, it needs to.

For more on the Afghan perspective on Americas withdrawal, listen to this episode of What Next.
If the Taliban claim to want international legitimacy, these actions are not going to get them the legitimacy they seek, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Aug. 6 in a statement that felt fairly toothless at the time and even more so a little over a week later when the Taliban overran Kabul. All the same, the Talibans initial pledges that it will not seek to punish those who worked for the U.S.-backed regime and wants to include women in its government are probably aimed at seeking the approvalor at least the tolerationof outside powers.

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The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, it was an international pariah. Under heavy international sanction for its support for terrorism, abuses of human rights, and involvement in drug trafficking, it was officially recognized by just three other countriesPakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Even those few allies backed away from the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks.

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Little is known about how the group now plans to govern the country it once again rulesand any statement it has made this week should be taken with many grains of salt. The optimistic view in the lead-up to the U.S. withdrawal was that the Taliban did not want to repeat the experience of the 1990s and would therefore somewhat moderate its behavior in order to win some kind of acceptance from the international community. At least, wed better hope thats the case. At this point, international legitimacy is about the only point of leverage the outside world has over the Talibans behavior.

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In some sense, the U.S. already conferred legitimacy with the Taliban by negotiating with it over the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but this is not the same thing as official diplomatic recognition. In fact, the original agreement negotiated by the Trump administration in 2020 was awkwardly titled Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America.

Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

In theory, the U.S. policy is to recognize the de facto rulers of any given country as being the government of that country. In practice, the U.S. has often refused to recognize leaders it finds particularly objectionable: Venezuelas Nicolas Maduro is the most recent notable example. So even if the Taliban are the de facto rulers of Afghanistan, and even if some level of communication continues between the two sides as the evacuation of Kabul continues, dont expect the U.S. to formally recognize them. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the conditions under which this would change.) Other Western powers, Canada for instance, have been even more explicit in refusing to recognize the Taliban.

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What about other countries? The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, both of whom maintained relations with the Taliban in the 1990s, have responded cautiously to events in Afghanistan. A statement from the Saudi foreign ministry said vaguely that the kingdom stands with the choices that the Afghan people make without any interference.

Pakistan is a more complicated case. Afghanistans neighbor has given support to the Taliban and provided its fighters with safe havenone major factor behind the failure of counterinsurgency over the past 20 yearsbut now the Pakistans military and intelligence commanders are a bit like the dog that caught the car: The Taliban insurgency, they believe, served their interests. A Taliban victory, which could result in a full-scale civil war across their border, new refugee outflows, and new life for Pakistans own domestic insurgents, is a different story. For whatever its worth, Pakistan has signed on to an international statement stating its opposition to the reestablishment of an Islamic Emirate by the Taliban.

Pakistan is being quite careful about its stance, says Madiha Afzal, an expert on Pakistani foreign policy at Brookings. Pakistan will not be the first to recognize the Taliban given the kind of negative status that gave them in the 962001 time frame. Its not going to stick its neck out. She feels its more likely Pakistan will follow the international community in deciding whether to give the Taliban its formal favor.

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The main country that could shift that balance is Pakistans neighbor China. Some media reports have suggested Beijing may be considering formalizing its relations with the Taliban. If this happened, numerous others countries would likely follow suit, and all the high-minded talk from the White House briefing room about isolation and illegitimacy would start to look pretty irrelevant. Despite numerous overtures over the years, China has few major economic investments in Afghanistan compared with other parts of Central Asia where it has made major inroads via its Belt and Road Initiative. Leaders in Beijing would love to see a pliant and stable Afghanistan but are probably in no hurry to do anything official, according to Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center. Recognition is possible but not very probable at this point, she says. It depends on whether the Taliban is going to have a clean ending to the civil war. If it is not, that means that the Talibans legitimacy is being questioned domestically. Chinese officials have condemned the hurried U.S. withdrawals and expressed concerns about links between the Taliban and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Uyghur militant group that Beijing has combated via a massive security crackdown in Xinjianga campaign the U.S. and other governments have denounced as a genocide.

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Another country to watch for possible overtures to Afghanistans new rulers is Russiawhich is somewhat ironic given the Soviet militarys humiliating defeat at the hands of the Talibans forebears in the 1980s, a formative political experience for the generation currently ruling in Moscow. Mark Galeotti, a U.K.-based Russia analyst, says chaotic U.S. withdrawal has been viewed with some schadenfreude but also concern: Russians, he says, have no positive interest in Afghanistanits just a potential source of bad stuff from terrorism to opiumand theyre just trying to manage the situation. That management has included direct outreach to the Taliban, despite the fact that it is formally considered a terrorist group in Russia, on both official and clandestine levels. But the Russians, too, may be in no hurry to make anything official. Theyre not opposed to the idea [of recognition] in general terms. But what they dont want to do is give the impression either to the Taliban or the international community that they are rolling over too easily.

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All the same, divisions between the worlds major powers views of the Taliban and that of Western powers were already evident in a U.N. Security Council meeting about the crisis on Monday, says Richard Gowan, U.N. analyst at Crisis Group. China and Russia both indicated a significant degree of willingness to take the Taliban seriously. The Chinese talked about the importance of the Taliban living up to their commitments, he says.

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Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said during Mondays session that theres no point in panicking about the Taliban takeover.

One potential area of conflict may come over control of Afghanistans seat at the United Nations. For the moment, Ambassador Ghulam M. Isaczai, appointed in July, continues to represent Afghanistan and gave an impassioned statement on Monday on behalf of millions of people whose fate, he said, hangs in the balance. But the Taliban may soon try to claw that seat back. Typically, when a country has rival governments, whichever one controls the countrys territoryor at least its capitalalso represents it at the U.N., but there have been cases, mainly involving military coups, in which the U.N. General Assemblys credentials committee has accredited rival governments that are not in territorial control of the country. Afghanistan itself was a textbook case: During the last period of Taliban rule, representatives of ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani continued to represent Afghanistan at the U.N. despite the Talibans best efforts to take over the seat. The issue could potentially come to a head when the credentials committee meets during the U.N. General Assembly in September: The committee is already being closely watched thanks to another dispute involving Myanmars seat following a military coup earlier this year.

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Even if its true that the Taliban has changed since 2001, so has the world. The U.S. doesnt have the unchecked influence it once did, and there are other potential sources to confer legitimacy on Afghanistans new rulers, whatever Washington thinks about it. A number of countries would likely be willing to establish relations with the Taliban but also dont necessarily want to be the first to do so. Whether or not one of them takes that leap is contingent on a number of factors including whether the Taliban can actually show it is in control of Afghanistanconquering a country isnt the same thing as ruling itwhether it continues to support international terrorist groups, and whether it can refrain from the sort of atrocities that might make even China and Russia reluctant to extend a hand. Right now, from Washington to Beijing, to Moscow, to Islamabad, everyone is waiting to see what comes next.

For more on what went wrong for the American effort in Afghanistan, listen to this episode of What Next.
At the moment, an influential segment of the press is consumed by the idea that Joe Biden has made a substantively shameful and politically disastrous blunder by withdrawing United States troops from Afghanistan after 20 (!) years of brutal stalemate. (There is, to be clear, a line of targeted criticism out there about the way the administration seems to have conducted the withdrawal without any regard for the survival of Afghans who had worked with the U.S.; it is at least equaled in volume by analysis of what the purportedly embarrassing optics or images of the withdrawal itself say about the U.S. and its level of world power, and the latter is what Im talking about here.) As recently as a few months ago, American voters, politicians, and opinion journalists almost universally believed that leaving the country was the sensible course of action. Now, though, the terrainor at least the terrain of national commentaryhas shifted because the evacuation of Kabul reminds the center-lane media of one of the few events in post-WWII American history it has collectively internalized, namely, the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces in 1975. (The others are Nixon resigning, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11basically, the things that seemed most exciting on TV.)

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After seven months in which his administration seemed to exude much-needed competence  everything about Americas last days in Afghanistan shattered the imagery.



~ @SangerNYT https://t.co/Z9DX9O0Gs8  Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) August 16, 2021

The lesson that this part of the press seems to have taken, though, from the admittedly compelling image of a final helicopter taking off from a roof near the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, is that the United States should have extended its military engagement in Vietnam.* These writers might not put it this way, given that they also know Vietnam was a quagmire in which regrettable things happened while All Along the Watchtower played on speakers mounted to the outside of a helicopter, but thats the logical endpoint of the analogy: that Biden screwed up by ending the war because it associates him with images that might make Americans sad about losing.

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Probably the most perverse example of this perverse ideathat a global audience encountering images of American defeat is a more alarming news event than actual Americans continuing to die and kill others indefinitelywas published this week in the Atlantic. In the piece, writer Yascha Mounk (a former Slate contributor) argues that the withdrawal was a mistake because the U.S. public will deplore its connotations of American weakness and is likely to judge Biden harshly for the scenes of national humiliation. Americans, Mounk claims, again projecting his argument onto an empirically wobbly claim about what U.S. citizens are likely to judge harshly, are likely to judge their leaders harshly if their actions humiliate the country in dramatic fashion or fail to protect the homeland. (He writes elsewhere that photos of the Kabul withdrawal are likely to become iconic. If only there were some group of people who were allowed to interpret events in the worldto mediate them, if you will, through mediums like magazines, in order to prevent the public from likely drawing such destructively atavistic and nationalist conclusions!)

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Readers who have a passing familiarity with 20th century history might be reminded of certain other times that the military occupation of foreign countries was purportedly required to rectify a perceived national humiliation on behalf of a homeland. Given that Mounks goal as a crusading public intellectual is to prevent fascists from taking power, it might seem odd that he is in effect making the case for pulling a Hitler here, but he claims that it is necessary in order to prevent the rise of, basically, a Super Hitler in 2024. Designed to weaken the hands of populists like Donald Trump, he says, Bidens choice of retreat over endless bloodshed will only make their resurgence more likely. American strength needs to be projected abroad through violence, he says, lest Trump take power on a promise to restore American strength.

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Though he claims he is not endorsing the misguided military adventures that have diminished the countrys standing over the past decades, Mounk concludes that the U.S. should have continued doing what it took to ensure that the Taliban wouldnt take over all of Afghanistan, which is, confusingly, a good description of the permanently vague and inevitably permanent mission he described as misguided at the beginning of the same paragraph. The end goal of all of it, in any case, is to maintain support for what he describes as Americas leadership of the liberal international order. The liberal international order, though, is supposedly about the propagation of human rights and prosperity. So what Mounk is sayingand admittedly, this took me 36 hours to ultimately parse outis that the U.S. needs to satisfy its thirst for violently established national superiority by continuing to bludgeon an essentially random country where it has manifestly failed to instill human rights and prosperity, in order to maintain its future capacity to act on humanistic values to spread prosperity.

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To put that in terms that the Endless Repetition of the Same Few Historical References Media would understand, Mounk appears to be suggesting that we destroy the village in order to save it. And while one might have thought the reason that quotation was infamous is because it is so obviously indefensible, what weve really learned about our country in the past two weeks is that there is no historical lesson so clear-cut that it cant be forgotten over, and over, and over.

For more on the Afghan perspective on Americas withdrawal, listen to this episode of What Next.
For a couple months now, Democratic lawmakers for Texas have been locked in a struggle with the states Republicans over proposed restrictions on voting. In July, the battle intensified when a bunch of the state House Democrats fled to D.C., denying their chamber a quorum and making it impossible for the rest of the statehouse to even consider legislation. But the Dems werent in D.C. to hide outthey were also there to lobby Congress to pass federal voting protections. What they left behind was a hamstrung state Legislature and a ticked-off governor, Greg Abbott, who has promised to wait out this whole thing. Texas Republicans have also struck back: Last week, the Legislature passed arrest warrants for the absent Dems, and on Tuesday the state Supreme Court affirmed the Texas governments power to detain those lawmakers and bring them to the statehouse. So what happens to the fleeing Texas Democrats now? How long can they stay in D.C., whats their endgame, and what happens if theyre forced back to Texas? To find out I spoke with Ashley Lopez, a reporter for the KUT public radio station in Austin, Texas, on Wednesdays episode of What Next. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Mary Wilson: How long has the Texas statehouse been without a quorum now?

Ashley Lopez: Technically, since the beginning of June. But its been several weeks now that the House has been unable to do practically anything. Its really messy. I dont think Ive ever seen state governance so chaotic here. Texas politics has always been nuts, but I dont think Ive ever seen it like this.

These Democrats all have jobs outside of the Texas Legislaturelawmaking is only a part-time gig, because state representatives are not full-time lawmakers in Texas. And they all have family, too, here in Texas. You cant indefinitely live in another state forever, and I think thats what the Republicans are counting on.

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What is happening in Austin these days? What is the Capitol building like right now?

Well, its very wet right now. There was a storm that came through, and so there is flooding in the Capitol on top of everything. The state Senate, however, has been hard at work. Its passed most of its agendaI think pretty much all of it at this point. But it just cant send it anywhere. So lawmakers have been holding committee hearings, passing bills, voting them out on the floor. There was even a filibuster on that big voting bill that the Democrats left to avoid passing. So its strange. One part of the Capitol is completely at a standstill, but the Senate has gotten some stuff done. And its been pretty interesting to watch.

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I want to talk a little bit about the voting bill that is at the center of this stalemate. This is all about stopping a plan that would narrow voting access in Texas. Is it fair to say this proposal is a lot like the proposals popping up in GOP-led states across the country where Republicans want to restrict voting access?

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I think its reacting to the same thing as the other bills: to 2020 and the Republican base voters who believe the election was stolen. But I think people need to remember that Texas already outlawed a lot of the things that other states are outlawing. This is already one of the most restrictive places to cast a ballot. Other states are limiting vote by mail and drop boxes, but we already had one of the most limited vote-by-mail programs in the country, and mail-vote drop boxes were always illegal here.

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It sounds like its rather draconian.

Democrats are upset about this because if you give people an opportunity to vote in one way and then remove it, thats just making it harder to vote from one election to the next. But overall, would this affect long-term traditions of voting statewide? The truth is, there are not a lot of places to cut. Its already hard to like to appeal to people to understand how hard it is to vote here. We dont have online voter registration, even though most of the country does. So to Democrats, the bill feels draconian because its making it harder to vote in the few ways that people actually can vote here. I think the bigger thing to watch for is just how much is being criminalized in the voting process: assisting voters and stuff like that. I think that is where the most eyebrows will be raised in the long run.

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Would the bill criminalize sending applications to people to vote by mail?

Yeah. It would outlaw the ability of county election officials to send people applications for vote by mailnot for sending a vote-by-mail ballot, just the application for one.

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So people have to ask for that application if theyre going to get it.

Yes, they have to apply to apply, basically. When we didnt have the vaccine, county election officials were really nervous about people showing up in person at one time to vote. They wanted to keep the numbers of in-person voters down, especially for those who are disabled or olderwho happened to be one of the few communities allowed to vote by mail in Texas. So county election officials preemptively sent these voters mail-ballot applications because in most counties, that form of voting is underutilized. They thought this would have the added benefits of keeping those populations safe and keeping in-person numbers low. So lawmakers came back and are now trying to basically make that illegal.

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And the lobbying of senators and Congress for national voting legislation isnt going well. So if youre one of quorum breakers, your sense of resolve is the only leverage you have.

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The power hasnt shifted. Republicans still have the ability to pass legislation. This is just more like a stalling tactic. But once everything is said and done, Republicans still have the numbers, they still have the power to pass legislation.

How was the Texas House able to call a quorum to send out arrest warrants but not to do legislative work?

Well, they called a quorum to take a vote to see if they have a quorum, basically. Once they fell short, Republicans were like, OK, now we can send out arrest warrants to have state police bring these people back, if theyre in the state. The reason why Democrats are in Washington is because Texas State Police obviously have no jurisdiction there. But presumably, if any of those Democrats were to set foot in Texas, they could be arrested and brought back to the Capitol. Theyre not going to be put in jail, but whats likely is to happen is state police will grab them and put them in the state Capitol to vote.

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Greg Abbottwho recently tested positive for COVID-19has said he will keep calling special sessions to try to get Democrats who have fled the state to come back and vote on this on this voting bill. And, maybe more to the point, this makes it hard for Dems to stay outside the state and away from their homes and families. Is there any backstop? Is there anything that could stop the constant Groundhog Day of another special session and another special session?

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Well, according to the governor, the only thing that will stop it is if a voting bill gets passed and sent to his desk. Thats kind of where were at. I dont think anyone right now is looking at what the middle ground could look like.

Whats probably going to happen is someones going to have to give in. And I dont think its going to be Republicans. They have all the power. They have the ability to wait out Democrats. So its going to likely be that at some point, Democrats are going to have to come back to the state, go back to the Capitol and vote against bills theyre really concerned about. Thats whats likely to happen.

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In the airy lobby of Taipeis new technology hub, customers are waiting on their boba fix at Crane Cha, a beverage store. Behind a plexiglass partition, a robot is assembling their drinks.

The Bubble Tea Shaker Robot, or BTSR, launched in 2018 and is the brainchild of Taiwan Intelligent Robotics Co. After the machine receives a customers order, its thick white robotic arm moves along a wall of nozzles to fill up on ingredientstea, milk, ice, sugar, toppingsin its stainless steel shaker. The BTSR shakes it to mix and pours the contents into a paper cup, which is sealed and handed to the customer. Over and over, exactly the same every time.

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In Taiwan, there are more than 20,000 drinks stores that do it the old-fashioned way. Young part-time workers assemble a drink in a series of standardized steps; at some stores they might rely on a motorized shaker, but the operation is primarily manual and susceptible to human inconsistencies. With more than 100 million drinks sold a year, some companies are betting on these beveragesmore commonly called hand-shaken drinks in Taiwanto be made by robotic hands instead.

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A boba robot is a particularly Taiwanese instance of the global trend of automation in the restaurant industry. According to Research Nester, the cooking robotics market will be worth $322 million by 2028. Thats more than 70 percent growth projected in nine years. In an industry thats typically low-margin and heavily dependent on human labor, automated technology promises to make operations cheaper and more effective.

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Cafes are an obvious site for disruptionubiquitous and dependent on baristas. San Franciscos VC-backed Cafe X is an automated cafe system also featuring a robotic arm; other robo-baristas from smaller upstarts include Belaruss Rozum Robotics and Colorados Robo Esso. There are also companies taking on the harder task of assembling full meals. Bostons Spyce is a conveyor belt kitchen making salads and warm bowls. Bangalores Mukunda Foods makes automated cooking equipment for restaurants to make local dishes like biryani.

In Taiwan, boba is the quintessential national drink, and one of the countrys main cultural exports.

BTSR isnt even the first boba robot, nor is Cran Cha the first shop to adopt such technology. In recent years, other upstarts have opened and shuttered. Babo Arms, which self-proclaimed as the worlds first robot beverage store, opened in Taipeis popular Dongmen District in 2018 before closing one year later. Jhu Dong Auto Tea, a beverage store in Taichungs popular Fengjia Night Market, opened in 2019 and quickly suffered a similar fate.

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The fact that numerous stores have experimented with automationdespite failingis a clear response to growing international and local pressures. Taiwans beverage retail market is competitive, robot or no robot. According to a survey from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the biggest challenges facing beverage store owners are high staff turnover, intense competition, and rising operating costs. The number of stores has almost doubled in the past decade and the market is beginning to saturate. Businesses are looking for other ways to grow and overseas expansion is one attractive option, with Taiwanese beverage stores now in business on five continents. But even abroad, difficulties persist.

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The biggest challenge that Taiwanese beverage companies face overseas is standardizing the Standard Operating Procedure and training, said K.T. Huang, the CEO of Taiwan Intelligent Robotics Co. Most inquiries he has received for the BTSR have come internationally, and the robot is an attempt to solve those problems.

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Its expensive to set up overseas operations, according to Huang, for it takes 20 to 30 managers about one to three months of training. Ongoing operations costs are also high, especially overseas where wages are higher than in Taiwan. But a store outfitted with the BTSR needs just one worker, rather than the average four to six, to help with stocking and customer delivery. By Huangs calculations, if stores with BTSR are centralized in an urban area, 30 to 40 percent of the corporate costs in training and regional management can be cut. An investment in the BTSR doesnt take long to break even: a year in the U.S., and two to three years in Taiwan. The pandemic interrupted many of Taiwan Intelligent Robotics Co.s overseas conversations, but also underscored the need for automated solutions.

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Like Taiwan Intelligent Robotics Co., NOOONE, a company designing robotics solutions for beverages and pastries, says that most of its inquiries are coming from overseas, especially from Taiwanese business people in the U.S. Those in countries with higher wages are showing the most interest. For the trend to take off in Taiwan, CEO Chang Shu-hao said, the cost of the equipment has to come down from todays industry starting price of roughly $20,000. More collaboration and resources in the industry in the next few years could make that a reality.

Back in Taiwan, however, interest and demand have been minimal. The average beverage store doesnt survive longer than three to five years. The cost of labor isnt prohibitively high enoughdue to stagnating wages in the last two decadesto compel the small businesses to adopt an automated solution yet.

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Experiments in automation in the restaurant and beverage industry in Taiwan have been precisely thatexperiments. The giants are nowhere to be seen yet. Qingxin Fuquan, the biggest beverage franchise in Taiwan with more than 900 stores, said that it hasno plans at the moment for automation. Kebuke, a hipper upstart that is popular among younger customers, responded likewise.

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Other experiments from larger corporations in Taiwan have yet to lead to widespread adoption. Convenience stores that depend on part-time workers doing manual work are an example. 7-Eleven piloted an unstaffed convenience store in 2018, to initial excitement but lackluster demand, and it closed in a year. In the same year, Fujitsu partnered with FamilyMart to pilot the RoboPin, a desktop-sized robot, to interact with customers and show off new products. Others are exploring smart vending machines and coffee makers.

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Outside of Taiwan, there are promising signs of larger-scale implementation. After White Castles successful pilot in 2020 of Flippy the robot burger flipper, the plan is to roll it out to 10 new stores. The goal is for Flippy to improve customer service and kitchen operationsand to increase safety during a global pandemic.

Consumers need time to adapt to and adopt automation. NOOONEs Chang opened an unstaffed concept store in Taichung, Taiwan, to see how customers responded. He said they liked that the store was clean and sanitary, and found it novel and interesting. But visitors from central and southern Taiwanand especially those above the age of 40had trouble using the digital interface to order. While these interfaces are prevalent in Taipei, they have yet to penetrate widely to the rest of the country.

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Automation may reduce, but not fully eliminate, the need for human staff. While the BTSR can run entirely solo in Huangs designsave for when ingredients need stockinghaving one person on staff adds a human element. Service needs warmth, Huang said, and staff can assist with ordering and hand-delivering the beverage from the service window to the customer.

Automation will inevitably become a trend, Chang said. He predicts prices will be competitive in Taiwan in the next five years, and the technology will be more prevalent in 10. It needs some time to ferment.

Soon, it wont be a novelty to sip on your robo-made boba while eating a robo-flipped burger or convey-belt assembled salador maybe even a beef noodle soup.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Back to school: Masks still mandatory, tests not necessary but recommended

Education minister pointed out districts where classrooms are likely to deal with infected children soon.

Schools in Slovakia will open on the second day of September with the outlook that they will not be forced to close and go online as a nationwide measure at any point during the 2021/2022 school year. By the time all schoolkids are immunised, either through vaccination or through infection, classrooms are likely to be quarantined, perhaps even repeatedly, at the local levels.

Slovakia's Covid automat warning system, which the government approved on August 10, is counting on schools to operate even in the worst epidemic situation, marked as black tier in the system, while individual classrooms instead of entire schools will be closing when infection is detected.

A low vaccination rate in a district increases the probability that classrooms will close very soon after the school year starts in that area. Education Minister Branislav Grohling mostly named eastern-Slovak towns as examples of such districts, including Gelnica, Kosice, Stara Lubovna, Spisska Nova Ves, Poprad, Svidnik, Kysucke Nove Mesto, Poltar, Vranov nad Toplou, and Humenne.

The vaccination rate among teachers is 66 percent, higher than the vaccination rate of the whole population (currently just over 42 percent overall, or some 50 percent of the adult population), but still insufficient to prevent the more infectious Delta variant from spreading in schools.

As for pupils, the latest data shows that 20 percent of people aged 12-17 have been vaccinated so far. There is no vaccine for children younger than 12. Elena Prokopova, chief expert of the Health Ministry for general care for children and adolescents, believes that as the school year progresses, most kids will have gained antibodies either by vaccination or recovery from Covid.

What the 2021/2022 school year will look like in Slovakia (Q&A) When will a school need to close? Will my child have to get tested regularly? What if my child tests positive using the home rapid test? Will my child need to wear a mask to school? These rules apply to kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. The Slovak Spectator will provide details on rules for universities as soon as they become available.

Will school open in September?

Yes, schools will welcome all pupils and students back on September 2. (September 1 is a national holiday in Slovakia).

Based on the Covid automat, schools should remain open in all tiers of the warning system, including the black tier, being the worst epidemic situation.

18. Aug 2021 at 12:09 | Nina Hrabovska Francelova
Single-dose vaccine without registration. Where to get a jab this upcoming weekend?

Walk-in vaccination will be available in 12 towns around Slovakia.

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The single-dose vaccine Janssen by Johnson & Johnson will be available without previous registration this upcoming weekend based on a schedule prepared by the Health Ministry.

Our paywall policy The Slovak Spectator has decided to make all the articles on the special measures, statistics and basic information about the coronavirus available to everyone. If you appreciate our work and would like to support good journalism, please buy our subscription. We believe this is an issue where accurate and fact-based information is important for people to cope.

The ministry also stressed that people who will be vaccinated this upcoming weekend with the single-dose vaccine will still be considered to be fully vaccinated in time for Pope Francis' visit to Slovakia. Only fully vaccinated people will be allowed to meet the Pope. The condition applies to people older than 12.

The last date to be vaccinated with a single-dose shot to be considered fully vaccinated in time for the Popes visit is Sunday, August 22.

The Education Ministry has meanwhile called on people, particularly those working in schools, to get vaccinated before the start of the school year, which begins in Slovakia on September 2. Vaccinated people, for example, are exempted from quarantine when they encounter a coronavirus positive person but have no symptoms.

During the weekend, starting on Friday, vaccines will be available without previous registration in 12 towns across Slovakia.

The Janssen vaccine is meant for people older than 18.

Walk-in vaccination will be available to anyone based on an ID and health insurance card. Foreigners can use their residence card or other confirmation of residence for identification.

Region Town Vaccination centre Aug 20 Aug 21 Aug 22 Epidemiologic outpatient's department, Sasinkova 7:30-14:45 Zilina Zilina Hlinkovo square 11:00-18:00 Presov Presov Presov - Sekcov, OC Eperia, Arm.gen.Svobodu 25 10:00-18:00 Poprad Poprad, Max Poprad, Dlhe hony 4588/1 10:00-18:00 Kosice Kosice VKOC Kosice - SOS informacnych technologii 13:00-17:00 Michalovce OC Zemplin Michalovce at car park - vaccination bus 10:00-18:00 Spisska Nova Ves OC Madaras Spisska Nova Ves - indoors 10:00-18:00 10:00-18:00 Gelnica Tesco Gelnica at car park - vaccination bus 9:00-18:00 Kosice Crow Arena Kosice at car park - vaccination bus 9:00-15:00 Banska Bystrica Banska Bystrica FNsP Banska Bystrica 8:00-12:00 Bratislava Bratislava Poliklinika Mlynska Dolina 8:00-15:00 Trnava Senica Tesco SE Sotinska 1586/35, 905 01 Senica 10:00-17:00 Dunajska Streda Tesco DS Hlavna 75, 929 01 Dunajska Streda 10:00-17:00 Trnava Tesco, Veterna 10:00-17:00

18. Aug 2021 at 17:03 | Compiled by Spectator staff
The $13,800 Open Handicap Pace was the featured event on the Tuesday night (August 17) harness racing program at Running Aces and it drew a talented field of seven to battle it out for weekly top pacing honours.

Last weeks winner Castle Flight (Nick Roland) was sent off as the slight favourite at 2-1 on the board, while SB Bodacious (Rick Magee) was also heavily supported at 2-1 in his highly anticipated racing return. The two favourites were the fastest off the starting car and they traded blows early, with Castle Flight working hard to clear the lead from post seven and SB Bodacious battling for the front from post six.

Roland was able to get to the front just before the :27.3 quarter, but Magee was not content to sit the pocket with SB Bodacious and they swept back to the lead near the three-eighths marker, while Elusive Image (Mooney Svendsen) got away in third and So So De Vie (Brady Jenson) settled in fourth. The half-mile was accomplished in :57.1 and Jenson got rolling first-over with So So De Vie and Stuckey Dote (Jacob Cutting) picked up the cover.

So So De Vie hounded the leader down the backstretch and around the far turn and the top two continued to go at it all the way to the wire, with SB Bodacious ($6.40) digging in gamely and holding on for a narrow victory by a nose over So So De Vie in 1:53.3 for his seventh win in 13 starts this year. Stuckey Dote rallied late to pick up third.

The winner is a five-year-old Minnesota-sired gelding by Voracious Hanover, also owned and trained by Magee.

The $17,250 Minnesota-sired freshman A trot went to CR Promise To You ($33.80) for her first career pari-mutuel win. The Tom Ridge filly saved ground in fourth throughout and had plenty of trot as they straightened for home, with driver Brady Jenson steering her into the passing lane to sweep by the leaders for a 1-1/2 length tally in 2:01.1 while front-runner Calico Creek (Rick Magee) held second and race favourite Vickies Vacation (Nick Roland) checked in third. The winner is owned by Rick and Mr. Caroll Huffman, and is trained by Justin Anfinson.

The $11,500 B split went to Triggered for her first career score. The daughter of Banker Volo dominated the affair after taking the lead before the half-mile marker, and was never in doubt once on the lead. She posted a 4-1/2-length win in 2:00.4 over Luna Love So Good (Brady Jenson) and Imaflashofpixie (Rick Magee). Triggered (Mooney Svendsen, $2.40) is owned and trained by Bob Lems, who is also the winning breeder.

Drivers Brady Jenson, Rick Magee and Dean Magee all posted doubles on the Tuesday card, while Jenson also completed a training double.

Live racing returns to Running Aces on Thursday (August 19) with first post at 6:05 p.m. (CDT).

(Running Aces)
A 33-year-old woman complained to police Monday after she was forcibly removed from an Omaha Public Schools elementary school for refusing to wear a mask.

The incident occurred about 8:45 a.m. at Picotte Elementary School, 14506 Ohio St. OPS require all students, teachers and parents to wear a mask indoors at school.

The woman, a parent of a Picotte student, told police that when she dropped off her son at the school, she asked school staff that he not be forced to wear a mask.

The woman told police that as she was leaving, she noticed that someone made her son put on a mask as he entered the building. The woman, who was not wearing a mask, said she then tried to go inside the school to retrieve her son but was stopped by a security guard.

The security guard grabbed her by the wrist and forcibly "dragged" her back outside, she reported.

The woman complained of "considerable pain" to her wrist but had no injuries, according to a police report. She said she anticipated that she may develop a bruise.
Gov. Greg Abbott spoke at an event at Heritage Ranch in Fairview one day before announcing that he tested positive for COVID-19.
Virginia is suffering through two outbreaks.

One is another outbreak of COVID-19.

The other outbreak were seeing is an outbreak of secrecy.

The secrecy outbreak has infected both political parties in Virginia, just in different ways.

First, the Democrats who control the General Assembly decided that they will go about filling an unusually large number of court vacancies in secrecy. Theyve expanded the Court of Appeals from 11 to 17 judges  whether it really needed to be expanded is now a moot point. Between those six new judges and some seats already open, Democrats now have eight judgeships to award  for which they will publicly interview eight judges. In other words, those will be pro forma interviews for decisions that have already been made.

Republicans say thats unprecedented; Democrats say its not. Its certainly true that the selection of judges has always been rather, umm, opaque, shall we say? Its also always been a prized prerogative of the majority party in Richmond, which is the status Democrats now enjoy. Our question is not what precedent dictates but what good government dictates.
1. The 9th District and 5th District will have to grow in size. Every locality west of Montgomery County lost population. So did every locality along the North Carolina border west of Suffolk, and so did many of the counties bordering them to the north  the historic heart of Southside. None of this should come as a surprise, but it should clarify a question weve been asking for a while now (and were not alone): Where should the 9th expand? There are really just three options, and none of them are particularly appealing. Theyre just unappealing in different ways. The 9th already goes up to Alleghany County; it could keep going in that direction, eating into the southern part of the Shenandoah Valley. That starts to create a weird-looking district. It may not be politically gerrymandered  a Republican district would be adding Republican localities  but it wouldnt exactly be compact. The 9th could push into Southside; it already takes in part of Henry County. It could push up to add Franklin County or east into Pittsylvania County. Again, not particularly compact. Or the 9th, which already includes Salem and part of Roanoke County, could swallow more or maybe all of the Roanoke Valley. That would be compact and wouldnt really change the political character of the district, but it would change the districts character in other ways  by making a rural district more urban and suburban.
At Hart-Cs Steak Burger & Thai Cuisine in Longview, customers have their own language to order food.

My hot No. 90 is a popular request co-manager Suriya Phromnopavong and the rest of the staff can decipher.

No. 90 is the eaterys pad thai  what Phromnopavong calls Hart-Cs signature dish  and my hot is Phromnopavongs preferred level of spice  a joke created by a heat-craving customer years ago that stuck with regulars.

At Hart-Cs, Phromnopavong said there are four levels of spice: hot, extra hot, extra extra hot, then my hot. The first three levels are created with chopped fresh Thai chilies added to a dishs meat or tofu, while my hot also includes dried ground chilies in the sauce.

The my hot level can be added to almost any dish, such as chow main, chop suey and the Thailand staple pad thai. Hart-Cs pad thai is a naturally gluten free dish made of rice noodles, fish sauce, an egg, green onions, bean sprouts and choice of tofu, chicken, beef, pork or shrimp. Fresh sprouts, peanuts and a wedge of lime are served on the side.

Pad thai is such a Thailand staple, Phromnopavong said, if a Thai restaurant doesnt serve the dish, customers should be wary.
HONG KONG (AP)  Four members of a Hong Kong university student union were arrested Wednesday on accusations of advocating terrorism when they paid tribute to an attacker who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself, police said.

Police arrested four males aged between 18 and 20 years old who were committee members and members of the student council at the University of Hong Kong, said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the police national security division. He said the arrests were in relation to a council meeting that promoted terrorism.

Those arrested included the president and council chairman, who were among more than 30 students who attended the meeting last month in which they passed a motion to mourn the sacrifice of the attacker, local media reported.

The arrests are the latest use of a strict national security law that Beijing imposed on semiautonomous Hong Kong last year after months of antigovernment protests. The protests which roiled the former British colony for months in 2019 often led to clashes between demonstrators and police.

Authorities have said the the man who on July 1 stabbed the officer in the shoulder before killing himself had material in his home decrying the national security law as well as notes where he declared his hatred for the police.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Robert Durst said he deeply regretted telling his life story to filmmakers in hopes of restoring his reputation.

If a Los Angeles prosecutor keeps exposing lies Durst told over the years, the New York real estate heir on trial for murder may wish he hadn't taken a chance to appeal directly to jurors in his bid for acquittal.

Durst testified under cross-examination Tuesday that he lied under oath in the past and would do it again to prevent incriminating himself. But he said he hadn't lied  at least up to that point  during his five days of ongoing testimony in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Under questioning from Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who relished the prospect of grilling Durst and prepared a 200-page outline for questioning, the multimillionaire acknowledged there are some acts he would never come clean about.

If youve said youve taken an oath to tell the truth but youve also just told us that you would lie if you needed to, can you tell me how that would not destroy your credibility? Lewin asked.

Because what Im saying is mostly the truth, Durst said. There are certain things I would lie about, certain very important things.
We are the largest employer in the City of Los Angeles and we need to set an example, Martinez said. How can we urge Angelenos to get vaccinated if we wont demand that of our own employees? No resident should be nervous that the city worker helping them is unvaccinated and may get them sick.

City employees will also be required to get booster shots when they become available.



ST.. LOUIS  St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones on Wednesday ordered the citys employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing.

Jones said in a statement nearly 6,000 civil service employees will be expected to get the vaccine by Oct. 15 or they will be required to submit to weekly testing by the citys health department. She said there will be no exceptions from the weekly testing for people who arent fully vaccinated.

St. Louis is joining the ranks of major public and private sector employers across the country who are requiring vaccination to protect public health, Jones said. By encouraging vaccinations, we help keep our hospitals running, protect our children, and save lives.
Video game giant Ubisoft's Singapore office is under investigation over claims of sexual harassment and racial discrimination, a watchdog said, in the latest controversy for the French firm.

The publisher of the blockbuster Assassin's Creed and Far Cry titles saw some senior staff resign last year after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged.

Gaming website Kotaku last month published allegations of harassment, bullying and racial pay disparities following interviews with 20 current and former employees at Ubisoft Singapore.

Also read: Looking for a smartphone? Check Mobile Finder here.

The Singapore employment watchdog TAFEP said Tuesday it began investigating after receiving "anonymous feedback containing links to media articles about allegations of workplace harassment and unfair treatment at Ubisoft Singapore".

It also urged anyone with knowledge of criminal conduct such as sexual harassment and assault to report the incidents to the police.

The current and former employees cited in the Kotaku report spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Two women alleged inappropriate touching and comments, while another worker said: "The salary gap between locals and expats was just insane."

Ubisoft Singapore said in a statement to AFP it was aware of the allegations made to the watchdog.

"As our discussions with them are ongoing, we do not have anything we can share at this stage," the statement added.

"Every Ubisoft studio, including Ubisoft Singapore, strives to create and foster a culture that team members and partners can be proud of. We do not and will not tolerate discrimination or abuse."

Local newspaper the Straits Times said Ubisoft has about 500 employees in the city-state, which is trying to build itself up as a regional hub for tech companies.

The global gaming industry has long been dogged by criticism over its treatment of women and minorities in both games and real life.

Last year's allegations against Ubisoft saw managers in the company's Toronto and Montreal studios accused of sexual misconduct.

Senior staff in Brazil, Bulgaria and the United States also faced accusations, with some of the alleged incidents going back years.

Earlier this month, another gaming giant Activision Blizzard announced a management shakeup following employee protests and a California state lawsuit alleging the firm enabled toxic workplace conditions and discriminated against women.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Indiana health officials said Tuesday they are notifying nearly 750,000 state residents that a cybersecurity company "improperly accessed" their personal data from the state's online COVID-19 contact tracing surveya description the company disputed as a "falsehood."

The Indiana Department of Health said the state was notified July 2 that a company gained "unauthorized access" to data, including names, addresses, dates of birth, emails, and data on gender, ethnicity and race.

The nearly 750,000 people whose data was accessed represent all of the state's participants in its online COVID-19 contact tracing survey, said agency spokeswoman Megan Wade-Taxter.

State Health Commissioner Kris Box said the state health department does not collect Social Security information for its COVID-19 contact tracing program, and no medical information was obtained.

"We believe the risk to Hoosiers whose information was accessed is low," Box said in a news release.

State officials did not identify the company involved in their news release, but Wade-Taxter said the company was UpGuard, a cybersecurity company based in Mountain View, California.

UpGuard spokeswoman Kelly Rethmeyer said in statement Tuesday that Indiana's news release describing the data access incident includes "many falsehoods."

"For one, our company did not `improperly access' the data. The data was left publicly accessible on the internet. This is known as a data leak," she said. "It was not unauthorized because the data was configured to allow access to anonymous users and we accessed it as an anonymous user."

Rethmeyer added that UpGuard "discovered this leaked information in the course of our research and notified the Indiana Department of Health since they were unaware of the leak."

She added that the company "aided in securing the information, in turn ensuring that it would no longer be available to anyone with malicious intent."

A message seeking comment on UpGuard's statement was left Tuesday afternoon with Indiana's health department.

Indiana officials said in their news release that UpGuard signed a "certificate of destruction" last week with the state to confirm that it had destroyed the data and not released it to any other entity.

Rethmeyer said that UpGuard has deleted "all the data in our possession."

The Indiana Office of Technology and the state health department added that they have corrected a "software configuration issue" involved in the data access incident. Both departments also requested the accessed records, and those were returned Aug. 4, according to the news release.

"We have corrected the software configuration and will aggressively follow up to ensure no records were transferred," said Tracy Barnes, Indiana's chief information officer.

Rethmeyer questioned the state's description of the software issue, saying that "the `Configuration issue' is that every record was made to be publicly accessible."

Indiana's health department said it will send letters to affected Hoosiers notifying them that the state will provide one year of free credit monitoring and is partnering with Experian to open a call center to answer questions from those affected.

The Indiana Office of Technology said it will also continue regular scans to ensure that the information was not transferred to another party.

Explore further Data firm working for Trump exposed 198 mn voter files: researchers

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
French video game giant Ubisoft is under investigation in Singapore over claims of sexual harassment and racial discrimination.

Video game giant Ubisoft's Singapore office is under investigation over claims of sexual harassment and racial discrimination, a watchdog said, in the latest controversy for the French firm.

The publisher of the blockbuster Assassin's Creed and Far Cry titles saw some senior staff resign last year after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged.

Gaming website Kotaku last month published allegations of harassment, bullying and racial pay disparities following interviews with 20 current and former employees at Ubisoft Singapore.

The Singapore employment watchdog TAFEP said Tuesday it began investigating after receiving "anonymous feedback containing links to media articles about allegations of workplace harassment and unfair treatment at Ubisoft Singapore".

It also urged anyone with knowledge of criminal conduct such as sexual harassment and assault to report the incidents to the police.

The current and former employees cited in the Kotaku report spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Two women alleged inappropriate touching and comments, while another worker said: "The salary gap between locals and expats was just insane."

Ubisoft Singapore said in a statement to AFP it was aware of the allegations made to the watchdog.

"As our discussions with them are ongoing, we do not have anything we can share at this stage," the statement added.

"Every Ubisoft studio, including Ubisoft Singapore, strives to create and foster a culture that team members and partners can be proud of. We do not and will not tolerate discrimination or abuse."

Local newspaper the Straits Times said Ubisoft has about 500 employees in the city-state, which is trying to build itself up as a regional hub for tech companies.

The global gaming industry has long been dogged by criticism over its treatment of women and minorities in both games and real life.

Last year's allegations against Ubisoft saw managers in the company's Toronto and Montreal studios accused of sexual misconduct.

Senior staff in Brazil, Bulgaria and the United States also faced accusations, with some of the alleged incidents going back years.

Earlier this month, another gaming giant Activision Blizzard announced a management shakeup following employee protests and a California state lawsuit alleging the firm enabled toxic workplace conditions and discriminated against women.

Explore further Senior staff leave gaming firm Ubisoft in harassment probe

 2021 AFP
In this May 28, 2020, file photo, a passenger wears personal protective equipment on a Delta Airlines flight after landing at MinneapolisSaint Paul International Airport in Minneapolis. Federal officials are extending into January a requirement that people on airline flights and public transportation wear face masks to limit the spread of COVID-19. The Transportation Security Administration's current order was scheduled to expire Sept. 13. An agency spokesman said Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, that the mandate will be extended until Jan. 18. Credit: AP Photo/John Minchillo, File

Federal officials are extending into January a requirement that people on airline flights and public transportation wear face masks, a rule intended to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The Transportation Security Administration's current order was scheduled to expire Sept. 13. An agency spokesman said Tuesday that the mandate will be extended until Jan. 18.

The TSA briefed airline industry representatives on its plan Tuesday and planned to discuss it with airline unions on Wednesday. The mask rule also applies to employees on planes and public transportation.

The mask mandate has been controversial and has led to many encounters between passengers who don't want to wear a mask and flight attendants asked to enforce the rule. The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that airlines have reported 3,889 incidents involving unruly passengers this year, and 2,867or 74%involved refusing to wear a mask.

Individual airlines declined to comment on the Biden administration's decision, and their trade group, Airlines for America, said only that U.S. carriers will strictly enforce the rule. A broader group, the U.S. Travel Association, said the extension "has the travel industry's full support." The largest union of flight attendants said the move will help keep passengers and aviation workers safe.

In this May 24, 2020, file photo, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant prepares a plane bound for Orlando, Fla. for takeoff Sunday, at Kansas City International airport in Kansas City, Mo. Federal officials are extending into January a requirement that people on airline flights and public transportation wear face masks to limit the spread of COVID-19. The Transportation Security Administration's current order was scheduled to expire Sept. 13. An agency spokesman said Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, that the mandate will be extended until Jan. 18. Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File

"We have a responsibility in aviation to keep everyone safe and do our part to end the pandemic, rather than aid the continuation of it," said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. "We all look forward to the day masks are no longer required, but we're not there yet."

The mask order, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for responding to the pandemic, was first issued on Jan. 29, days after President Joe Biden took office. Before that, airlines had their own requirements for face coverings but former President Donald Trump's administration had declined to make it a federal rule.

The extension was not surprising after a recent surge in COVID-19 cases linked to the delta variant of the virus. The seven-day average of new reported cases has topped 140,000, an increase of 64% from two weeks ago and the highest level in more than six months.

Henry Harteveldt, a travel-industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group, said the administration's decision will reassure people who are concerned about the virus.

"I anticipate it will make them feel more confident about traveling through the fall and winter, including the holiday season," Harteveldt said. "Those who don't take the virus seriously will probably complainbut they have no choice but to suck it up and wear their masks if they want to take an airline flight somewhere."

In recent days, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have reported that the increase in coronavirus infections has caused a slump in bookings beyond the usual slowdown that occurs near the end of each summer.

Explore further CDC requires face masks on airlines, public transportation

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers at Mandiant has found a security vulnerability in IoT devices that use the ThroughTek "Kalay" network. Parent company Fireeye has published a blog account of the work done by the team that discovered the threat, which explains how users can protect themselves. ThroughTek has also posted a warning about the vulnerability on its website.

In working with a team at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)which has also posted an advisory, warning users of the vulnerability on its websitethe team at Mandiant found that users of certain Internet of Things (IoT) devices could be at risk of having their privacy invaded. The researchers found that the vulnerability allowed potential hackers to access devices and to take control over them. This means that hackers could be listening in to conversations occurring near baby monitors, or nanny cameras, for example, or watching live video streaming from security cameras. The team at Mandiant suggests that as many as 83 million devices could be at risk.

The researchers found that the vulnerability exists for IoT devices that connect to associated mobile apps across the Internet using the ThroughTek "Kalay" network. The protocol is implemented by ThroughTek as a software development kit which third-party developers can use as a means of adding remote access to consumer devices. They also found that because of the way the protocol is implemented by various device-makers, it was impossible to identify the hardware devices that are impacted. The team at Mandiant notes that the problem they found was in the registration mechanism for conversations between devices and the mobile apps that connect to them.

Once the vulnerability was discovered, Mandiant, along with ThroughTek and CISA, notified all of the known third parties who use the Kalay network of the problem. They also provided them with information that would allow them to know if their product was involved. Meanwhile, a team at ThroughTek came up with a patch to fix the problem. Unfortunately, customers who bought and use devices that are impacted by the vulnerability cannot apply the patch themselvesthey have to contact the maker of their device to make sure that the patch has been applied.

Explore further Vulnerability found in Kindle e-reader

More information: Mandiant Discloses Critical Vulnerability Affecting Millions of IoT Devices: Mandiant Discloses Critical Vulnerability Affecting Millions of IoT Devices: www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-re  ing-iot-devices.html

 2021 Science X Network
College of Coastal Georgia students are back on campus for their fall semester, and the college is continuing to encourage all on campus to get vaccinated and to wear face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local_news

Commissioners uncertain how to plan for Georgia/Florida game

The surge in COVID-19 cases has county commissioners torn about how to prepare for the large crowds that descend on the Golden Isles for the annual Georgia/Florida football game.

During a special-called meeting Tuesday, commissioners were asked for guidance to enable tourism officials and other businesses impacted by the game to make plans.

Scott McQuade, president and CEO of the Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he has not found a consensus among merchants.

The event is important to the business community, he said.

During a normal year, hotels, motels, and other lodging establishments report anywhere from 90 percent to 100 percent occupancy, he said.

One concern is the beach parties that McQuade said got reckless and intolerable resulting in an alcohol ban five years ago on what was known as Frat Beach.

The crackdown hurt attendance the first year but rules have been relaxed, resulting in a slow return of college students for the game.

McQuade said he is not asking for an alcohol ban to return, though that might be coming in the future depending on the pandemic. He is uncertain if the game attendance will be restricted like last year when the crowd was limited to 50 percent capacity.

We saw a 50 percent reduction in occupancy in the hotels (last year), he said.

One concern expressed by many merchants is for commissioners not to shut down Frat Beach without considering other alternatives.

Commissioner Bill Brunson said there is no good answer to how to prepare for the annual event.

We cant get anybody to come to work, he said of the ongoing struggles to hire staff in the hospitality industry.

Another consideration is the stretched public safety resources normally dedicated to helping the crowd, including extra law enforcement and a team of nurses on call to deal with any health issues that happen. Those people who would normally be available are busy dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Frat Beach takes a lot of resources, Brunson said.

The Ahmaud Arbery murder trial will be ongoing at the time, leading to expected crowds in town unrelated to the game. The combination could turn into a potential super spreader, Brunson said.

It could turn into a really catastrophic thing if this goes sideways, he said.

Forest Brown, a representative for Brogens Inc., said he doesnt know the answer to how to handle the upcoming event, especially not at the expense of a catastrophe in the county.

He said businesses are short staffed, but hed hate to end the strong tradition of people coming to the Golden Isles for the annual game in Jacksonville, Fla.

I wouldnt want to be in your shoes. The numbers from the hospital dont lie. Kids think theyre bulletproof, he told commissioners of the decision they will ultimately make.

Commissioner Allen Booker said its time to tell the truth about the virus.

This thing is deadly. Its killing people, he said.

Sheriff Neal Jump expressed concern about the Arbery trial happening at the same time as game crowds are in town.

The Georgia/Florida game will be at the height of the Ahmaud trial, he said.

Once the trial starts, its unlikely deliberations will be interrupted for more than a day, Jump said. And some of his staff must be dedicated to security and other duties during the trial. But public safety will remain a priority.

We will do what we have to do for the citizens of Glynn County, he said.

If resources get stretched too far, Jump said he will reach out to surrounding counties for assistance.

Commissioners decided to delay a decision about possible game restrictions until Thursdays meeting at at 6 p.m. because Commissioner Cap Fendig was unable to attend Tuesdays meeting. Fendig represents St. Simons Island, and other commissioners said it was important to get his input before making a final decision.

In other business:

 Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution declaring emergency conditions because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Meetings for commissioners, committees, boards and planning commissioner will be conducted by teleconference and/or video conference.

 Americas Second Harvest is trying to purchase a 53,000-square-foot building as a new warehouse/food bank. The existing facility is only 5,000 square feet and is sometimes too crowded to accept donations.

Monica Couch, a representative for the non-profit, said her organization is seeking support for a grant application due in November for $2 million to purchase the building and make the needed renovations. If the grant is approved and matching funds raised, the project will be complete in 2023.

Ryan Moore, director of the Golden Isles Development Authority, said the existing tenant is planning to expand at another location in Glynn County.

This will be a great kick off for Second Harvest to move into a much larger, nicer building, he said.

 A discussion about options to improve the gateway to St. Simons Island included proposals for as many as three roundabouts coming onto the island, additional lanes, roundabout improvements and flyover lanes  bridges costing as much as $10 million that would provide shortcuts to major arteries on the island.

Commissioner David OQuinn did not express enthusiasm for any of the five options presented.

Im not married to any concept here, he said.

A consultant said the triple roundabout concept may be challenging because of the speed motorists drive when they cross the causeway onto St. Simons Island.

Future meetings to discuss alleviating traffic on St. Simons are planned.
A suspect died after being shot by law enforcement officers at the end of a standoff near Snook early Wednesday morning after an arrest warrant Tuesday evening turned into a standoff, according to Texas Department of Public Safety officials.

The suspect has been identified as James Matalice Smith, 41, of Somerville.

Burleson County Chief Deputy John Pollock was shot in the initial altercation after trying to serve an arrest warrant Tuesday evening. He was taken to St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan and remained in stable condition as of Wednesday afternoon.

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DPS officials said at approximately 3 a.m. Wednesday, Smith exited the home and law enforcement officers expected he would surrender. As they attemped to arrest him, Smith fired a weapon at DPS troopers, striking a trooper in the arm. Law enforcement officers returned fire, shooting Smith, who was pronounced dead after being treated by Burleson County Emergency Medical Services.

The trooper was transported to St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan for non-life-threatening injuries and is in stable condition.
A total of 14 people have spoken this week during Bryan and College Station school board meetings in favor of their districts requiring masks.

Four people spoke at Bryans school board meeting Monday and 10 addressed the College Station school board Tuesday night.

The first of the 10 who spoke during Tuesday nights College Station meeting was Brazos County Health Authority Dr. Seth Sullivan, an infectious disease specialist, who recommended masks be worn in schools. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended universal masking in schools.

The protocols in place last year worked, he said, and the masks worked against last years strains, which were not as virulent or transmissible.

What Im asking is for a very difficult spot that everybody here is in, and I am very aware of how difficult a spot this is, Sullivan said.  I can appreciate your difficulty, I promise you. But I do recommend masks be worn indoors K through 12. I recommend that kids on buses be wearing masks as well, and I recommend that we think about thresholds for where we need to have further mitigation factors, and I think that we watch whats happening with other schools very closely and were going to see them happening.

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Gina Jackson, Turners mom, said she feels like she drops her daughter off with family when she brings her to Johnson.

Im excited for her to have this as her base going forward, so that she has a solid foundation of what its like to have community, Jackson said. Her teachers, her friends, everybody is just together, and I think that its going to help her know what to expect going forward. She has high expectations. They set the bar high.

Students were not the only people feeling both nervous and excited. Tuesday also marked the first start of school for Colby Zamzow, a new student teacher from Texas A&M.

While it is an good day with a lot of excitement, he said was nervous about how he reacts to the kids and the kids react to him as a younger teacher in that leadership role.

Ashely Justice, a PE aide at Johnson, was one of the greeters for the first day and said she looks forward to welcoming the students to school and being the first smiling face they see, even if it is behind a mask.
Richwood, TX (77531)

Today

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 79F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 79F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Richwood, TX (77531)

Today

Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 79F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 79F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
The Smith Mountain Lake Association is asking residents to reconsider one aspect of the popular Pirate Days weekend because of its potential effect onthe environment and even its legality following new laws passed July 1.

Water balloon fights are common at the annual Pirate Days weekend. The balloons are tossed from boats and from several marinas.

The SMLA concerns over use of water balloons on the water include the potential impact of the used balloons on fish and aquatic birds, who may consume pieces of the balloons that look similar to some of the baits used by fishermen, boat engines which could overheat if water intakes become clogged by pieces of the balloons and shorelines which can become littered with debris, said John Rupnik, SMLA president in a recent statement.

While Pirate Days organizers ask participants to use water balloons labeled as biodegradable, Rupnik said those items still can take months or longer to break down. In that time they can still do damage to the lake.
A North Korean threat actor has been discovered taking advantage of two exploits in Internet Explorer to infect victims with a custom implant as part of a strategic web compromise (SWC) targeting a South Korean online newspaper.

Cybersecurity firm Volexity attributed the watering hole attacks to a threat actor it tracks as InkySquid, and more widely known by the monikers ScarCruft and APT37. Daily NK, the publication in question, is said to have hosted the malicious code from at least late March 2021 until early June 2021.

The "clever disguise of exploit code amongst legitimate code" and the use of custom malware enables the attackers to avoid detection, Volexity researchers said.

The attacks involved tampering with the jQuery JavaScript libraries hosted on the website to serve additional obfuscated JavaScript code from a remote URL, using it to leverage exploits for two Internet Explorer flaws that were patched by Microsoft in August 2020 and March 2021. Successful exploitation resulted in the deployment of a Cobalt Strike stager and novel backdoor called BLUELIGHT.

CVE-2020-1380 (CVSS score: 7.5) - Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability

CVE-2021-26411 (CVSS score: 8.8) - Internet Explorer Memory Corruption Vulnerability

It's worth noting that both the flaws have been actively exploited in the wild, with the latter put to use by North Korean hackers to compromise security researchers working on vulnerability research and development in a campaign that came to light earlier this January.

In a separate set of attacks disclosed last month, an unidentified threat actor was found exploiting the same flaw to deliver a fully-featured VBA-based remote access trojan (RAT) on compromised Windows systems.

BLUELIGHT is used as a secondary payload following the successful delivery of Cobalt Strike, functioning as a full-featured remote access tool that provides complete access to a compromised system.

In addition to gathering system metadata and information about installed antivirus products, the malware is capable of executing shellcode, harvesting cookies and passwords from Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, and Google Chrome browsers, collecting files and downloading arbitrary executables, the results of which are exfiltrated to a remote server.

"While SWCs are not as popular as they once were, they continue to be a weapon in the arsenal of many attackers," the researchers noted. "The use of recently patched exploits for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge will only work against a limited audience."
State of the schools

Central District Health Department Director Teresa Anderson said THE coronavirus is showing itself circulating through area schools hallways.

There has been a 30% increase in cases in the Central District when comparing the month of July with the first half of August.

All of July we had 47 school-age children test positive, Anderson said. In the first 16 days of August there were 33, but well probably find a bigger increase.

She added: Where were at right now is just the beginning of the surge.

Masking in schools is essential, due to the delta variants highly contagious nature, Anderson said. I hope other schools will appreciate the value of masking to prevent the rapid spread of delta (variant).

Vaccinations among eligible students (12 years and older) havents quite reached 5%, Anderson reported. As of Tuesday night, 4 1/2% of children in CDHDs jurisdiction had been fully vaccinated. Another 4 1/2% had received their first dose.

Those numbers can be improved with community effort, she said. We need everyone to understand this is a community effort. Weve got the tools, were just not using them.
The equipment will be accessible for children and adults with a range of abilities, focusing on parallel play, where family and friends can engage and connect with each other through fun activities. Finding appropriate bathroom facilities is often a challenge for families with older children with mobility issues, as they may require changing stations that can accommodate larger individuals. The bathrooms to be constructed at the Peyton Parker Lane Playground will be equipped for these needs, thus allowing greater use of the park.

Fundraising continues for the project, which has garnered great support within the community. Private and corporate donations have poured in for the project, estimated to cost a total of $1 million. Private donations over the past 13 months total $550,000. Project organizers hope that fundraising will soon be completed and construction can begin in 2022. The playground will be installed at Mincks Park on the northeast side of York, near the Family Aquatic Center and Ballfield Complex. This location will be ideal for the playground, as many families are already visiting the area to make use of these other facilities. The all-inclusive playground will provide the perfect opportunity for York residents as well as out of town guests to have access to recreation that meets all patrons needs.
Paris, TX (75460)

Today

Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 75F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 75F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
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Its a place where you dont have to worry about layoffs or slowdowns; were experiencing really, really rapid growth and expect that to continue, he said. This is an opportunity for people to get in on the ground floor and there is a lot of room for growth with the company and in the industry.

Leslie Cornelius-Weldon of Shawnee College said the job fair is open to anyone, not just Shawnee students or graduates. Applicants must be 21 years of age to interview with aeriz. She said attendees at the job fair will get some help with developing their applications.

Were going to help them with resume writing and interviewing skills, so they will get some pertinent skills they can use to apply at aeriz or other companies," she said.

Greg Mason, dean of workforce, innovation, adult basic and continuing education for the college, said the job fair  and the resulting jobs  are beneficial for the areas economy.

A company like aeriz can be a real boom to the community because it creates real jobs with real wages that allow people to take care of their families, to contribute to the community and to stay here in a region we all love and call home. This is a great opportunity for individuals and the community as well, he said.
MILWAUKEE  The family of one of the two men fatally shot during a demonstration against police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has filed a federal civil lawsuit against local law enforcement, accusing officers of facilitating Kyle Rittenhouse's attacks.

Anthony Huber was participating in an Aug. 25 protest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake two days earlier. The Black man was left partially paralyzed after he was shot in the back by police during a domestic disturbance call.

Rittenhouse, who is white, was 17 at the time and traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, and joined other armed individuals in Kenosha who answered a call from local militia to protect businesses from protesters. The protests turned chaotic that night.

According to prosecutors, Rittenhouse opened fire on Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, killing them. Gaige Grosskreutz was also shot, but survived his injuries. The three men are white.

Rosenbaum was shot in the parking lot of an auto dealership and as Rittenhouse ran from the scene he stumbled and fell. Huber was shot in the chest as he tried to disarm Rittenhouse by wrestling his rifle away.
The technology the researchers are using is called the Clemson Water Management System. It was developed by Payero and uses sensors to collect and transfer data over a wireless network.

During the trials, soil moisture sensors were installed at four depths  6, 12, 18 and 24 inches. Hourly data were collected automatically through a custom-made Internet-of-things (IoT) system, transmitting data to a Cloud server using a cellular network.

Although these results are for just one year, Payero said they look very promising. He and his team will continue on-farm trials on six farms in 2021 and another six in 2022 to see if the results hold.

This easy-to-use, affordable soil moisture monitoring system will help growers enhance water-use efficiency and increase profits while substantially reducing water and energy use, erosion and leaching of chemicals such as pesticides and soil nutrients, Payero said. It also will help growers apply water at optimum rates where needed.

Joe Oswald is a fourth-generation farmer at JCO Farms in Allendale County. His family farm is participating in the study. They grow corn, soybeans, cotton, peanuts, oats, rye and sorghum, as well as run 150 head of Angus cattle. Because this is a study, farmers and researchers are learning as the research progresses.
As we write, Afghanistan is essentially in the hands of the Taliban. Government forces, by most accounts, have not been willing to fight for the U.S.-backed regime. They have given way to the Taliban, which now will have lots of U.S. military equipment in their arsenal.

Contending that the Afghan military would be able to maintain control of the country was not unlike the pronouncements made by U.S. officials when our forces exited South Vietnam decades ago. There was never a chance of success there nor in Afghanistan.

And just as the exit from Vietnam was messy, so is the departure from Afghanistan. We are left now to evacuate U.S. personnel as we move out of the embassy and leave the country in the hands of the Taliban, which ultimately will unleash deadly wrath on those in their country associated with the Afghan government and the U.S. A bloodbath can be expected.

The departure should have been handled differently by Trump and Biden. Announcing dates only gave the Taliban an excuse to bide time and negotiate. There was no need to continue active fighting. Just wait until the U.S. leaves and then take over.
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Cheney bill aims to protect private landowners from 30 by 30

Cayla Nimmo, Star-Tribune A herd of cattle and horses feed on a ranch in April in Casper. Legislation introduced by Rep. Liz Cheney aims to limit the federal government's ability to assume ownership of private land under a Biden administration executive order. Cayla Nimmo, Star-Tribune Rep. Liz Cheney sits down for an interview with the Star-Tribune on May 25. Cheney is facing a tough reelection fight.

Rep. Liz Cheney introduced legislation Tuesday that has been lauded for safeguarding landowners rights  a key conservation sticking point in Wyoming  but would actually do much more.

The bill preemptively limits the federal governments ability to assume ownership of privately owned land under the Biden administrations 30 by 30 conservation initiative, which seeks to protect 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

The legislation Ive introduced will protect the private property rights of individuals across our state who need access to these lands to provide for themselves and their families, while also ensuring that the current Administrations political agenda will not undermine the interests of farmers and ranchers in Wyoming, Cheney said in a statement.

President Joe Bidens Jan. 27 executive order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, set 30 by 30 in motion. A 22-page report published in May rebranded it as the America the Beautiful initiative.

Section 216 of the executive order directed the secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce departments and the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality to meet with a range of stakeholders  including landowners, fishermen and all levels of government  before developing multiple reports on how best to achieve the presidents sweeping conservation goals. The section does not mention any specific methods for doing so.

Theoretically, most Americans support conserving 30% of lands and oceans by 2030  86% of voters, to be exact, according to a 2019 poll commissioned by the Center for American Progress.

In practice, things are trickier. The Biden administration has emphasized its desire to ensure that conservation over the next decade is a collaborative process, but has offered few concrete details about how it plans to undertake the 30 by 30 directive.

Its relatively new. Its somewhat undefined. But I think its a conversation worth having, said Dan Smitherman, Wyoming state director of the Wilderness Society. The conservation group is a vocal supporter of the initiative and an advocate for ongoing cooperation across interest groups.

Many Wyoming residents, however, oppose 30 by 30 out of concern about property rights. Theyre worried about losing access to cattle grazing, mining and other activities currently done on federally owned land, and even more afraid that the federal government could force them off land they own in the name of conservation.

Cheneys office is marketing Tuesdays bill as a way to protect private landowners. It includes assurances that nonconsenting private landowners would not be required to sell property to the federal government or participate in conservation practices on any privately held land.

But it would actually have much farther reach if passed.

For one, it would essentially void all recommendations issued under the 30 by 30 order  even if they are not directly connected to private land ownership.

The bill would also bar the executive branch from mandating that state, tribal or local governments participate in conservation recommendations issued as a result of section 216 of the executive order.

Cheneys office has focused on promoting the private property component of the bill. Landowner issues have been the subject of debate in Wyoming since 30 by 30 was announced, and they remain a key source of resistance to the initiative.

This is not the only concern, but its a major concern, said Jeremy Adler, Cheneys director of communications.

The May report indicates that the Biden administration plans to pursue voluntary arrangements with landowners, not involuntary ones.

Efforts to conserve and restore Americas lands and waters must respect the rights of private property owners, the report says. Such efforts must also build trust among all communities and stakeholders, including by recognizing and rewarding the voluntary conservation efforts of private landowners and the science-based approaches of fishery managers.

And the plans advocates question Wyoming leaders emphasis on property rights when so little has been decided.

Its a solution looking for a problem, Smitherman said. And personally, I think its political posturing.

Some Wyoming conservation groups, including the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, have yet to take a stance on the 30 by 30 initiative.

But Cheneys legislation already has the endorsement of a number of key players in Wyoming.

It is critical that any conservation initiative be locally-based, cooperative and truly voluntary, Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement issued through Cheneys press release. Representative Cheneys bill ensures that any program is voluntary and recognizes the private property rights that are fundamental to Wyoming landowners.

And outside of politics, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association chimed in.

The potential threats to private property rights and the multiple use of public lands have hindered producers in making needed decisions with positive long-term implications for their business and for our state, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the association. Passage of this legislation will enable us to return to addressing natural resource management decisions based on sound science and economic analysis, not on political expediency.

As she campaigns for reelection, Cheney will be able to point to her bill as an example of how she uses her office specifically to represent her constituents, especially in light of the criticism shes faced from fellow Wyoming Republicans following her criticism of former President Donald Trumps attempts to undermine the 2020 election.
One of these churches is headed by pastor Jean Bilbalo Joint, who is also originally from Les Cayes. Joint said about 400 members of his church attend services in Haitian Creole and the majority are from southwest Haiti.

Its very sad this time, he said. People need a lot of help.

Organizations in Miami's Little Haiti are also raising funds and asking for donations of camping gear. Some have also seen personal losses in the most recent earthquake.

Reginald Jean-Mary, a pastor of Notre Dame dHaiti Catholic Church, said his cousin, who is also a pastor, was officiating a baptism in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the town of Les Anglais when the earthquake hit and helped pull people from the rubble of the church. Since then, he has learned of other members of his church who have lost loved ones.

Jean-Mary said his homeland had not been able to fully recover from the 2010 earthquake and 2016's Hurricane Matthew. This earthquake struck just after a month after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

It has been brutal blows. This is very difficult for the people, for the country," he said. "We are people of faith. We are people of hope. But I have to ask myself this question: Why?

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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And heres the thing, we already know what to do, Gordon said. I do believe statewide orders are not necessary, what will help ease the situation is people choosing to get vaccinated.

Vaccines have been widely available to Wyoming adults since late March, earlier than much of the country. Despite that head start, thus far Wyomingites are making the choice to be vaccinated at a much slower rate than the rest of the nation.

Just under 43% of adults are fully inoculated. For those 12 to 17 years old, that number falls to below 16%. Nationwide, more than 60% of adults are fully vaccinated, as are 48% of those 12 to 17, according to the New York Times.

Two weeks after vaccines were opened to Wyoming adults, uptake in the state began to fall.

Recently, however, vaccination is slightly on the rise. Between the last week of July and the first week of August, more than 5,000 residents received a first dose  more than had sought a first vaccine in any two week period since mid May.

Gordon stressed vaccination is an intensely personal choice, but that he encourages people to get the shots, adding he felt the vaccines were safer than the risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.
A wildfire burning in the Bighorn National Forest has spread considerably, increasing in size by about 22% in one day, according to the latest update from authorities.

The Crater Ridge Fire had consumed 4,093 acres as of Wednesday morning, up from 3,357 acres a day earlier, an update from the team fighting the fire shows. It was 30% contained.

Firefighters faced their biggest challenge on Tuesday when gusty winds pushed the flames across a forest road, the update states. Poor visibility from heavy smoke, combined with erratic winds, created conditions that were too dangerous for firefighters to access.

Those same factors pushed the fire along its eastern perimeter while grounding helicopters that for weeks had been dumping water on the blaze.

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Crews were expecting better weather conditions on Wednesday. A cold front moving into Wyoming dropped temperatures by about 20 degrees, with highs in the area of the fire expected to only reach 55 degrees. Humidity was forecast to rise and rains were likely in the area.

If conditions allowed it, crews were expected Wednesday to work directly along the fire when it was safe, the update states.
It is as if the enemy came to claim a soul. It was more than just sickness. Its lying down on your bed and knowing you cannot move, like death.
The celebration will feature mariachi music performed by Los Changuitos Feos de Tucson, traditional folklorico dancing by the Cienega High School Folklorico Club, and waila music by Gertie N the T.O. Boyz.

Waila music is the polka-inspired dance music of the Tohono Oodham Nation, Hartmann-Gordon said. The name waila developed from the Spanish word bailar, meaning to dance.

Community partners will be providing a range of activities to bring the history of the presidio to life and put Tucsons community on full display.

Old Pueblo Archaeology, the Chinese Cultural Center, and Buffalo Soldier re-enactors will all be in attendance. The museum wants to capture the diversity of Tucson.

We have been building up this idea of the community partners, and I am really thrilled this year that we have so many, Hartmann-Gordon said.

Going into the fall, the museum is looking to expand its educational outreach beyond the downtown presidio and out into local schools.

The Portable Presidio program has been in development over the past 15 months and was created in response to the restrictions brought on by the pandemic.
Hospital admissions for COVID-19 patients in Pima County are climbing, with 67 new patients admitted Aug. 11  the highest number in one day in more than a month.

As of Aug. 12, the last day Pima County data was updated by the Health Department here, 348 out of the county's 356 intensive care unit beds were in use and the number of occupied surge beds peaked at 1,451 last week, leaving just 51 beds out of the 1,502 total. Surge beds are set up during health crises to handle overflow.

Unvaccinated people and the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant are two of the primary reasons for the increase, health experts say. The delta variant has become the dominant strain, and is up to six times more contagious than other strains.

There were over 145 cases per 100,000 people here as of Aug. 14, county health data show. That's a threefold increase in the number of cases in the past two weeks, and the agency has made an urgent request for everyone to do what they can to protect public health by getting vaccinated, wearing masks when indoors and social distancing.
BALTIMORE (AP)  A group of 11 young men who are allegedly part of a violent Baltimore gang dubbed 39 Babies have been indicted for crimes including first-degree murder, assault, carjacking and retaliatory shootings, Maryland's attorney general announced Wednesday.

At a news conference with city law enforcement and federal agents, Attorney General Brian Frosh alleged that the indicted individuals were part of a violent gang masquerading as a rap group. He said they branded themselves the 39 Babies  in homage to their local zip code, 21239 - and the GreenTeam.

These men used threats and violence to control their territory and retaliate against adversaries. They flaunted guns and money on social media and in music videos, Frosh said.

According to the indictment, the investigation began with a February 2020 homicide and attempted murder in Baltimore. Ballistics evidence linked the guns used in those attacks to multiple incidents including other homicides and non-fatal shootings, among other crimes.

Authorities allege a subsequent investigation revealed that members of the criminal organization engaged in eight attempted murders, distributed cocaine, spoke about multiple murder-for-hire plots, and illegally possessed, sold, and traded guns.
I am not on the board for political partisanship, Combs said. We have to keep our schools open. That is my goal.

One member who voted against the mask mandate, Melissa Snively, said there will be repercussions from the state that could include funding cuts, although President Joe Biden has vowed the federal government would make up any losses for districts that impose mask mandates.

Were going to go down this road and get our hands slapped, Snively said. I have no interest today in breaking the law.

Also Wednesday, the Miami-Dade school board passed a similar mandate with a medical exemption by a 7-1 vote. In Miami-Dade, Florida's largest school district with 334,000 students, a task force of medical experts recommended students be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms next week. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho agreed and pushed for the new rule at Wednesday's meeting.

DeSantis said at a Wednesday news conference near Fort Lauderdale that Broward, Miami-Dade and other districts that impose mask mandates are violating a law passed by the Legislature and signed by him that states it is up to parents to make health decisions.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)  California's attorney general said Tuesday that his office will conduct its own review of a transit officer's involvement in the shooting death of a 22-year-old Black man at a San Francisco Bay Area train station in 2009.

The decision by Rob Bonta comes after Nancy OMalley, Alameda County's district attorney, announced in January that her office would not file a murder charge against former Bay Area Rapid Transit officer Anthony Pirone in the death of Oscar Grant on News Years Day.

She said that while his conduct that night was unacceptable, he did not fire the gun that killed Grant.

Instead, Pirone hauled Grant out of a train car and pinned a knee to his neck and back in a manner similar to that used in the death of George Floyd last year in Minneapolis. The BART officer who shot Grant in the back while he was on the ground, Johannes Mehserle, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and served 11 months.

Grant's family has sought criminal charges against Pirone for years and petitioned Bonta's office after O'Malley declined to go forward. The office pledged a thorough and independent review of the role played by Pirone.
The bigger threat is probably just the chances of flooding and widespread flood watches that are in effect right now, he said.

Schools were closed and people evacuated along three rain-swollen rivers in far eastern Tennessee. "The areas around the Pigeon, French Broad and Nolichucky Rivers have become unsafe, Cocke County Mayor Crystal Ottinger said in an order posted to Facebook late Tuesday. Four shelters opened.

Schools in Lincoln County, West Virginia also canceled classes Wednesday due to high water from heavy rains.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday he had declared a state of emergency and approximately 100 people had been rescued during the flooding in the state's mountains. There were at least 70 water rescue efforts in Buncombe County, spokesperson Lillian Govus said, and 911 call records show 2,400 calls within 24 hours, more than twice the typical volume.

Authorities also found at least 10 cars abandoned in flooded roads where people apparently sought safety and had to leave their cars behind, said Taylor Jones, the countys emergency services director. The town of Candler saw significant flooding, with impassible roads and two washed-out bridges preventing dozens of people from leaving their houses. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of people arrested after an armed standoff along a Massachusetts highway that challenged state courts' jurisdiction over their case.

Rhode Island-based U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. dismissed the complaint brought by the Rise of the Moors group, saying in his decision Tuesday this court must abstain from hearing such challenges based on a precedent which reflects a longstanding policy against federal court interference with state court proceedings."

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island also alleged defamation and discrimination.

McConnell's ruling said there is an absence of any clear defamation allegations" in the suit, which sought $70 million in damages.

The Massachusetts State Police and several individual troopers, a Massachusetts state judge, the state as a whole, and several media organizations were named as defendants.

The plaintiffs represented themselves and no defense attorney was listed in court documents.

Eleven people associated with the Rhode Island-based group were arrested last month after an early morning standoff along Interstate 95 in Wakefield.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Local prosecutors have reached a $2 million settlement with a New Orleans man who spent 23 years in prison before being cleared on charges including rape and manslaughter.

I welcome this measure of justice after so many years, Robert Jones, now 48 and community outreach director for Orleans Public Defenders, said in a statement released through his attorneys.

Jones will get the money over six years, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said Tuesday in a news release.

After years of intense litigation, and with trial approaching, the settlement will avert the expense of a three- to four-week trial and the risk that a jury might award Jones more money, the statement said.

Jones, who always had said he was innocent of crime wave in 1992, when he was 19, was convicted in 1996 of rape and robbery. After the conviction, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of British tourist Julie Stott.
Neighbor Joseph Boyer, 53, said he knew the girl's family.

The mother and father are in the hospital, but all three kids died, he said. The bodies of the other two siblings were found earlier.

Illustrating the lack of government presence, volunteer firefighters from the nearby city of Cap-Haitien had left the body out in the rain because police have to be present before a body can be taken away.

Another neighbor, James Luxama, 24, repeated a popular rumor at many disaster scenes, saying that someone was sending text messages for help from inside the rubble. But Luxama had not personally seen or received such a message.

A throng of angry, shouting men gathered in front of the collapsed building, a sign that patience was running out for people who have waited days for help from the government.

The photographers come through, the press, but we have no tarps for our roofs, said one man, who refused to give his name.

The head of Haitis office of civil protection, Jerry Chandler, acknowledged the situation. Earthquake assessments had to be paused because of the heavy rain, and people are getting aggressive, Chandler said Tuesday.
The governments priority is the safety of Polish citizens, the ministry said in a statement. The government, which is led by the right-wing Law and Justice party, has been opposed to illegal and uncontrolled migration from the outset and believes the migrants trying to get in from Belarus maybe pose a threat to our citizens.

Two lawmakers from the opposition party Civic Platform party brought blankets, sleeping bags and food to a group of some 50 people trapped in a no-mans land between Poland and Belarus on Wednesday. They called on the Polish government to ensure the group was given humane treatment.

Poland and the Baltic nations accuse Lukashenko of using the migrants as instruments in a hybrid war. They believe his government has acted in retaliation to EU sanctions imposed on Belarus following Lukashenko's reelection last year in a vote which the West saw as rigged, as well as for harsh repressions of Belarusian protesters.

European Union ministers were holding a meeting on Wednesday to address the matter. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on the eve of the meeting that this is hybrid aggression that uses human beings.
OPINION: Mask up, get the vaccine and social issues are the topics of today's letters. Share your concerns in a Letter to the Editor at tucson.com/opinion.
OPINION: "The "Tucson Fight For 15 is a bad bill for Tucson. Now is the time for us to take a hard look at our future. Will there be opportunities for our children? Grandchildren?" writes Tucson business owner Joshua Jacobsen.
The delta-driven surge has resulted in a higher percentage of those infected being hospitalized, according to Dr. Dale Bratzler of OU Health.

Bratzler said an average of about 4,200 people were being treated daily for the virus at the peak in mid-January, compared to the current average reported by the state health department Tuesday of 2,187, or 53% of the peak.

Currently, 1,360 coronavirus patients are hospitalized, which is 70% of the early January high of 1,994, Bratzler said.

The key message here is that a larger proportion of people who are being diagnosed now with COVID-19 are ending up in the hospital, Bratzler said.

The delta variant also moves quickly, said Dr. Bahar Malakouti of Mercy Hospital.

Patients wake up with a cough on Monday and by Friday were having to tell their families there is nothing else we can do to save their lives, Malakouti said.

Virus patients are overwhelming hospitals, she said, forcing facilities to transfer patients, including accident victims or those suffering heart attacks and strokes.
Objectives also include bridging physical divides and countering past isolation through improvements that lead to a pedestrian-friendly environment, safe streets and crossings, enhanced transit connections and visual access.

We are excited and humbled to be a part of this initiative that has the potential to repair historical inequities and build on the momentum of local advocates to develop a plan that creates avenues for equitable investment and build generational wealth, Garlen Capita, Wallace Roberts Todds urban designer and professional-in-charge, said in a statement.

We are committed to a transparent planning process that ensures that the voices, memories and history of the Greenwood neighborhood are central to the conversation in developing a vision for the future.

World Won Development will serve as Wallace Roberts Todds local engagement partner. The Kirkpatrick Heights Addition and Greenwood lie just north of downtown and the Inner Dispersal Loop. A former prominent black business district, Greenwood was decimated by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre but was rebuilt in subsequent decades.

Recent generations have watched the area decline because of significant social and physical changes, including urban renewal, gentrification and the construction of Interstate 244 through the community.
Although bodies of water and hiking trails might seem like the ideal for outdoor destinations, playgrounds of turf and metal are just as valid (and usually closer to home). Check out the local fauna and flora while there, especially at the Gathering Place. We use the iNaturalist app to photograph and identify interesting finds.

As for apps, we arent totally anti-phones; when used judiciously, they can enhance the outdoor experience. Other useful apps for iOS and Android include AllTrails (for all your hiking needs), Sky Guide (for star-gazing) and Merlin Bird ID (for birding, of course).

The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department offers free passports for kids that contain suggested activities and information about each state park. Be sure to collect a sticker at each parks office when you go.

Check out travelok.com for more information about Oklahomas state parks and the city of Tulsas website for a parks guide.

The options of outdoor play are too numerous to list here. But classics such as splashing in puddles (with boots, preferably!), exploring creeks, riding bikes, observing critters and going on scavenger hunts are timeless ways to experience the great outdoors.
Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part. I have asked the wonderful cities of Cincinnati and Charlotte to wait too long and I dont want to now do that same thing to the great folks in Boston and Baltimore. As far as Nashville, we are looking for a makeup date from the July rain-out and though this is not COVID-related, to make them wait makes me sad, as well. So, it is with a heavy heart we announce the decision to cancel all five shows but with a hopeful heart, we will reschedule and start over when this wave seems to be behind us.
The University of Tulsa is offering two scholarships to Afghan students seeking refuge in the United States in response to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

TUs Afghan Refugee Scholarships, announced Tuesday, are available immediately and will cover the total cost of attendance at the university for up to four years.

TU has long been one of our nations most international universities, welcoming students from more than 60 countries to the heartland, TU President Brad Carson said. At a time when these brave young people need us most, we are opening our doors to provide a safe place to learn and grow.

We challenge other organizations to consider similar support for the Afghan people.

Officials said the new scholarships do not affect the millions of dollars TU already provides in merit- and need-based aid.

To be considered for TUs Afghan Refugee Scholarship, students must:

Apply as a first-time undergraduate for a bachelors degree.

Have fled Afghanistan and can legally enter, or have legally entered, the U.S.

Demonstrate they would not have the financial means to attend TU otherwise.
Update (1 p.m. Monday): Police on Monday identified the decedent: Adam Stallings, 52 of Okmulgee. The second person shot was Breyon Stallings, 29 of Okmulgee, police said, and the alleged shooter has been identified as Marshall DeJear, 44 of Okmulgee.

Investigators believe DeJear was at his home on West Creek Drive when Breyon Stallings arrived and the two reportedly exchanged words and Stallings left the area. Some time later Adam Stallings and Breyon Stallings returned to the area, where they reportedly pointed handguns at DeJear. According to a police statement, DeJear drew his own firearm and shot both men; Adam Stallings died, and Breyon Stallings was transported to a Tulsa hospital in unknown condition.

Okmulgee police are investigating after a man was found fatally shot in the street and a second person was hospitalized with a gunshot wound.

Police about 6:30 p.m. Saturday received a report of a shooting in the 600 block of West Creek Drive. When officers arrived, they found a man lying in the street dead with a blood trail leading away from the street.
The city of Tulsa has already distributed more than 52% of its share of the federal funds, according to the Treasury, going through the money far faster than most cities.
The federal eviction moratorium was modified recently and specifies that it applies to regions experiencing high numbers of COVID-19 cases, which includes most of the country.

La Cosecha Director Rita Gallardo said the organization, created in 2015, typically provides groceries and other essential items to the Tulsa community using the church as a hub. The decision to use the church as the meeting place for what the city called the ERAP Application Station was an easy one, Gallardo said.

She said the line started to form outside the church doors around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

La Cosecha was serving about 600 families every week (before COVID-19), and now we are serving about 2,000 every week, so yes, it has changed things for us, for sure, Gallardo said of the pandemic.

She said La Cosecha  meaning The Harvest in Spanish  was also working with the Tulsa Police Department on a drive-through event on Saturday to give away backpacks containing much-needed childrens school supplies.

Asked about the increase in service over the past year, she said: Its heartbreaking to see the situations people have. We try to do as much as we can to help them and support them, but they are facing very sad situations.
He suggested that people act as if anyone with whom they come into contact is infected, because they cant know for sure. A person could have minimal or no symptoms but still be infectious.

We let our guard down, Bratzler said. Cases fell in Oklahoma. We were down to 99 cases a day in early June. Just 99 a day in the whole state. We opened up; we relaxed all of our mask mandates in communities around the state; vaccination rates slowed down because people didnt see it as a priority anymore.

Wickwire said that no matter how many codes may be called simultaneously, our team has committed that no one dies alone on our watch.

I cant tell you how many patients Ive sat next to, stroked their faces and let them know that they are loved and appreciated, she said.

Help us make their stories heard. Please fight with us instead of against us.

Hospitalization risk 600 times less if vaccinated

Like so many people, Dr. Julie Watson is tired, frustrated and wants the pandemic to be over and life to return to normal.

Watson, chief medical officer for Integris Health, said the path is through vaccination.
The excitement of the first day of school this week is tempered with the concern for basic health safety as the pandemic worsens.

Students are showing up with backpacks, paper and pencils but need to add masks to their daily checklist.

Vaccination remains among the most powerful preventions of COVID-19 spread. But nonvaccine tools are particularly critical for children younger than 12, who are not eligible for inoculation.

Parents should be encouraging students to wear masks and wash their hands regularly.

Oklahoma has more than 703,000 public school students and 38,000 private school students gathering to start classes. This makes schools potential hosts as superspreaders of the virus.

With the passage of Senate Bill 658, lawmakers and Gov. Kevin Stitt tied the hands of schools in their ability to mandate recommended pandemic health precautions. Schools need the support of families and communities to encourage safe behavior on campus.

Oklahomas public health statistics have returned to the dangerous levels of the prevaccine months of the pandemic.
In a recent Tulsa World column, former local educators Laura Bellis and Nate Morris urge Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to follow Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in "allowing for mask requirements in schools while investing in vaccination promotion statewide." ("State needs more aggressive political leadership in face of renewed COVID-19 threat," Aug. 9).

In numerous letters others have pleaded with Stitt to attack the ramped increase in recent COVID-19 infections and deaths by issuing a state of emergency to enact preventative measures.

Our governor, however, has refused to budge, and we should not expect him to implement a policy which supposedly infringes on individual rights.

No matter the consequences, Stitt will remain steadfast in his refusal to capitulate to pleas and reason.

As we begin opening schools, many teachers fear for their own and their students' safety.

The COVID-19 variant poses an ever increasing threat to children, who so far remain ineligible for vaccination and subject to infection.

Some of those kids may die due to inaction by leaders, who care more for their political interests or other nefarious reasons.
We no longer hold anyone accountable for their actions.

President Donald Trump was impeached twice for crimes he committed, but the Senate didnt hold him accountable. So he kept up business as usual!

Eleven of his close associates were found guilty of crimes but immediately pardoned; they were not held accountable.

Big Oil has ruined the Florida Everglades, dragging drilling platforms through the vegetation that helps reduce the effects of hurricanes.

Companies left drilling rigs leaking oil, and one platform was responsible for the worst oil spill ever.

Officials tried to mitigate the loss of wildlife and commercial fishing grounds, but the Gulf will never recover.

Big Oil has never fully been held accountable for the damages it caused.

We have rogue politicians refusing to work on needed legislation. Instead, they just go around the Capitol verbally attacking other members who are trying to do what they were elected to do.

They too have not been held responsible.
The Peoples Committee of Ho Chi Minh City is seeking financial aid of nearly VND28 trillion (US$1.22 billion) and 142,200 metric tons of rice from the state budget to support needy people adversely affected by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

The aid is supposed to benefit 1,580,100 households with 4,749,330 people in the city, covering meals and room rentals during its current social distancing implementation according to the prime ministers Directive No. 16, which will run until September 15.

According to the plan, each household will receive VND1.5 million ($66) a month for rentals and VND50,000 ($2.2) a day for meals, whereas each person will be granted 15 kilograms of rice.

The proposal was composed in the spirit of the prime ministers direction on COVID-19 prevention and control, which requires local authorities to ensure that no people are deprived of food, clothing, shelter, or medical support and provide cash and food aid to help people feel secure and comply with regulations on pandemic prevention and control.

Since a new wave of infections rooted by the fast-spreading Delta variant hit Vietnam in late April, Ho Chi Minh City authorities have enforced social distancing measures at different levels in an effort to curb the virus spread.

The stringent measures, however, have greatly affected the operation of agencies, organizations, and businesses in the city, leaving negative impacts on its socio-economic development.

The citys tax revenue has gradually decreased since May and is expected to fall short of the central estimate.

The lives of the working poor have also been troubled, with many internal migrants having to leave the city for their hometowns.

As of Wednesday morning, Vietnam had documented 293,301 COVID-19 cases, with 111,308 recoveries and 6,472 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country has detected 289,276 domestic transmissions in 62 out of 63 provinces and cities in this fourth bout, which started on April 27.

Ho Chi Minh City is on top of the caseload with 156,186 patients.

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Japan's exports marked a fifth straight month of double-digit growth in July, driven by U.S.-bound shipments of automobiles in a positive sign for a trade-led economy, although a key gauge of capital spending fell for the first time in four months.

The mixed batch of indicators underscored fragility in the world's third-largest economy, which grew 1.3% in the April-June quarter due to solid exports and a surprise gain in private consumption.

However, prolonged coronavirus curbs on bars, restaurants and other face-to-face service sector businesses cloud the outlook, piling pressure on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to deploy another big stimulus package.

Ministry of Finance data out on Wednesday showed Japanese exports grew 37.0% year-on-year in July, a tad slower than a 39.0% increase expected by economists in a Reuters poll, although the gain was exaggerated by the contrast to the prior year's COVID-19-induced slump.

It followed a 48.6% growth in the prior month.

"Exports remained in an uptrend, which will continue in the coming months even though car production may face supply constraint due to chip shortages," said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.

"Although the service sector may take a hit from a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, corporate capital spending and output will stay on firm footing," he said.

Still, Suga may roll out stimulus package of around 30 trillion yen ($274 billion), which will be used as a show of political will to back the economy at the time of the elections, Maruyama added.

By region, exports to China, Japan's largest trading partner, rose 18.9% in the year to July, led by chip-making equipment and plastic, the data showed.

U.S.-bound shipments, another key market for Japanese goods, grew 26.8% in July led by exports of cars, car parts and motors, it showed.

Imports rose 28.5% in the year to July, versus the median estimate for a 35.1% increase, bringing the trade balance to a surplus of 441 billion yen ($4 billion), compared with the median estimate for a 202.3 billion yen surplus.

Brisk external demand has helped underpin Japan's factory activity although a global chip shortage and signs of stalling in China's economic recovery are sources of concern.

Separate data by the Cabinet Office showed core machinery orders, a highly volatile indicator of capital spending for the coming six to nine months, fell 1.5% in June from the previous month, versus a 2.8% decline expected by economists in a Reuters poll.

Year-on-year, core orders, which exclude those of ships and electricity utilities, jumped 18.6% in June, a third straight month of annual gain, prompting the Cabinet Office to maintain its view machinery orders are showing signs of pick-up.
Sydney's Delta outbreak has not peaked and residents must brace for more deaths, authorities said on Wednesday, as Australia's largest city continued to break records for new daily infections despite a nearly two-month lockdown.

"We haven't seen the worst of it and the way that we stop this is by everybody staying at home," New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the state capital.

NSW reported its biggest daily rise of 633 new cases, including 545 in Sydney, eclipsing the state's previous daily high of 478 hit on Monday. Sixty people have died since the first Delta case was reported in Sydney on June 16, including three confirmed on Wednesday.

With only about 28% of people in NSW above 16 years of age fully vaccinated, state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant warned there would be more deaths if cases continued to rise.

Australia is in the grip of a third wave of infections that has exposed weaknesses in the country's vaccine rollout and forced more than half of its 25 million people into lockdown.

Only one-fourth of the adult population is fully vaccinated so far, putting pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison whose government missed its initial vaccine targets.

Sydney, Melbourne and the capital Canberra are under stay-at-home orders, pushing the A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy to the brink of its second recession in as many years.

Victoria state, home to Melbourne, reported 24 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the same number as a day earlier, as authorities race to track infections with an unknown source.

A staff member speaks with people at the entrance to a vaccination centre as a lockdown remains in place to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Sydney, Australia, August 18, 2021. Photo: Reuters

Vaccination push

With just over 40,000 cases and 970 deaths, Australia has largely staved off the high COVID-19 numbers seen in many other developed countries.

But efforts to contain the outbreak to Sydney have failed with the virus spreading to several regional towns where vaccination rates are low.

To ramp up the rollout, five vaccination teams of defence personnel are due to arrive in regional towns this week.

More than 500,000 Pfizer doses, half of the supply procured from Poland over the weekend, have been moved to the 12 worst-affected suburbs in Sydney to vaccinate people aged below 40 years.
Poland has offered to gift Vietnam over 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine shots and is willing to transfer another three million doses to the Southeast Asian country.

During a meeting with Polish Ambassador to Vietnam Wojciech Gerwel in Hanoi on Tuesday, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanked the Polish government for the expected donation of 501,000 AstraZeneca vaccine shots and its willingness to transfer an additional three million doses to Vietnam.

Poland has also decided to provide Vietnam with medical equipment worth US$4 million, which is scheduled to arrive on August 25, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The assistance reflects the traditional friendship and deep connection between the two peoples, PM Chinh stated.

Ambassador Gerwel affirmed that Vietnam is a priority partner of Poland in the region and is the first country outside Europe to receive COVID-19 vaccine and medical aid from Poland.

The diplomat praised Vietnams COVID-19 prevention and control efforts and expressed his belief that the nation will be able to control the pandemic.

Regarding bilateral cooperation, PM Chinh suggested that the two countries step up cooperation in such fields as investment, official development assistance, national defense, information technology, education and training, and culture.

The premier also asked the European nation to create favorable conditions for Vietnamese products to enter its market.

He thanked the Polish government for assisting Vietnamese expatriates in Poland in stabilizing their life, particularly amid this health crisis.

The host and guest discussed ways to further promote Vietnam-Poland cooperation at multilateral and regional forums.

On the occasion, PM Chinh invited his Polish counterpart to visit Vietnam, while the Polish diplomat conveyed similar invitations from the Polish president and prime minister to their Vietnamese counterparts.

Vietnam has so far received about 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through purchases, the COVAX Facility, and donations from other countries.

More than 15.2 million shots have been administered since inoculation was rolled out on March 8, with over 1.4 million people fully vaccinated.

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Ho Chi Minh City police nabbed a foreigner on Tuesday after he was spotted biking outside during the movement curb hours and refusing to cooperate with officers on duty.

The foreign man was pulled over on Tuesday evening while riding a bicycle on a section of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in District 1, a police team stated.

After being questioned for his pulled-down face mask and resistance to the citys social distancing mandate, which requires all residents to stay home from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am the next day to curb the coronavirus spread, the man got into a quarrel with the police and started threatening them with violence.

After failing to pacify the situation, the officers had to tackle the man and brought him to the nearby Da Kao Ward police station for COVID-19 testing and further handling.

Ho Chi Minh City police officers confront a foreigner for flouting COVID-19 movement curbs, August 17, 2021. Photo: Dan Thuan / Tuoi Tre

On Monday, authorities in Ho Chi Minh City extended their social distancing drive by another month, banning outdoor travels considered unnecessary, among other activities deemed non-essential.

The city is Vietnams largest coronavirus hotspot at the moment, recording 156,186 local COVID-19 cases since the fourth wave hit the country in late April.

Ho Chi Minh City police confront a foreigner for flouting COVID-19 movement curbs, August 17, 2021. Video: Dan Thuan / Tuoi Tre

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More than 2,200 people are seriously ill due to COVID-19 in Ho Chi Minh City, while 16 others are in critical conditions, according to the citys Center for Disease Control (HCDC).

The southern metropolis has recorded 158,499 COVID-19 patients as of Wednesday morning, including 158,096 local infections and 403 imported cases, the HCDC stated.

The city is treating 32,667 coronavirus patients, of whom 1,978 are under 16 years old.

A total of 2,256 patients are in serious conditions and need breathing support, while 16 others are subject to ECMO, an outside-body life support system, due to their critical conditions.

More than 2,560 people were discharged from COVID-19 treatment facilities in the city on Tuesday, the HCDC continued, adding that 285 coronavirus-related deaths were announced on the same day.

Ho Chi Minh City currently has 17 active infection clusters, and has not detected any new clusters for four days.

From April 27 to August 17, nearly 4.6 million people were sampled for COVID-19 testing.

Approximately 44,400 COVID-19 patients with no or mild symptoms are being quarantined and treated at home.

Among them, 26,574 had received treatment at local hospitals for a certain period before being monitored at their houses.

Over 14,300 other patients are quarantined and treated at concentrated facilities managed by district-level authorities.

Nearly 3,100 direct contacts of COVID-19 patients are being quarantined at concentrated centers, while over 16,100 others are undergoing home quarantine.

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A midwife has died of COVID-19 in a province in southern Vietnam this week, having yet to be vaccinated because of her pregnancy.

Dr. Nguyen Hong Chuong, director of the Department of Health in Binh Duong Province, on Tuesday sent a condolence letter to the family of 32-year-old Duong Nguyen Thuy Trinh, a midwife at Binh Duong General Hospital, after she died of the respiratory disease during her 20th week of pregnancy.

In the letter, Chuong said family members and colleagues will forever be proud of Trinh for sacrificing herself in the cause of protecting and taking care of the peoples health.

Trinh had contracted the coronavirus and been treated at a facility of Binh Duong General Hospital in Phu Chanh Ward in the provinces Tan Uyen Town over her deteriorating condition.

She passed away on Monday night.

She had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 due to her pregnancy.

Binh Duong is currently the second-hardest virus-hit locality in Vietnam, only after Ho Chi Minh City, with 49,833 infections, including some 550 patients in severe conditions.

On Tuesday, the southern province reported 3,332 new local transmissions.

Trinh was not the first medical staff in Binh Duong to be infected with the coronavirus, according to the provincial health department, which declined to give a specific number.

Her workplace, Binh Duong General Hospital, which has been treating serious COVID-19 patients in the province, has been overloaded, according to Dr. Van Quang Tan, director of the hospital.

In addition to COVID-19 patients, the hospital still receives and treats severe cases of other diseases.

Nearly 12,500 coronavirus-infected cases are being treated in medical facilities in Binh Duong.

More than 100 of them are pregnant women.

As of Wednesday morning, Vietnam had documented 293,301 COVID-19 cases, with 111,308 recoveries and 6,472 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country has detected 289,276 domestic transmissions in 62 out of 63 provinces and cities in this fourth bout, which started in late April.

Ho Chi Minh City is on top of the caseload with 156,186 patients.

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The Ministry of Health confirmed 8,800 new coronavirus infections in Vietnam on Wednesday, alongside over 3,700 recoveries.

Forty-two provinces and cities recorded 8,788 local cases whereas another 12 infections were imported from abroad, the health ministry said.

The ministry had reported 9,595 domestically-infected patients on Tuesday.

More than 5,900 of the latest local cases were found in the community while the remainder were detected in isolated areas or centralized quarantine facilities.

Ho Chi Minh City logged 3,731 of the new domestic infections, up by 172 cases from yesterday, Binh Duong Province 2,513, Dong Nai Province 443, Long An Province 428, Tien Giang Province 282, Da Nang 278, Kien Giang Province 169, An Giang Province 105, Tay Ninh Province 104, Can Tho City 91, and Hanoi 46.

Since the fourth COVID-19 wave began in Vietnam on April 27, the country has found 298,064 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities.

Ho Chi Minh City is on top with 159,917 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 52,346, Long An Province with 16,007, Dong Nai Province with 14,945, Bac Giang Province with 5,743, Dong Thap Province with 5,369, Tien Giang Province with 5,141, Khanh Hoa Province with 4,733, Tay Ninh Province with 3,717, Can Tho City with 3,012, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 2,666, Hanoi with 2,591, and Da Nang with 2,527.

By comparison, Vietnam confirmed 106 community cases in the first wave from January 23 to April 16, 2020, 554 in the second from July 25 to December 1, 2020, and 910 in the third from January 28 to March 25, 2021.

The ministry announced 3,751 recoveries on Wednesday, taking the total to 115,059 recovered patients.

The death toll has spiked to 6,770 after the health ministry reported 298 fatalities the same day, including 255 registered in Ho Chi Minh City and 20 in Binh Duong Province.

The Southeast Asian country has detected an accumulation of 302,101 cases since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it on January 23, 2020.

Health workers gave 395,979 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Tuesday.

About 15.5 million vaccine shots have been administered in Vietnam since the country rolled out vaccination on March 8, with nearly 1.5 million people having been fully vaccinated.

The Vietnamese government expects to obtain 175 million shots of various vaccines, including 51 million Pfizer-BioNTech jabs, by early 2022.

It set a target of immunizing two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year.

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A COVID-19 patient in Ho Chi Minh City has survived his critical condition and seen his health improve thanks to timely treatment as his wife had made a touching call for help on the verified Facebook page of Cho Ray Hospital.

The administrator of the Facebook page had received the chat message sent by the wife of Tran Van An, 27, at 2:12 pm on August 7, the COVID-19 Resuscitation Hospital managed by Cho Ray Hospital said in an announcement on Tuesday.

Doctors, please help my husband! My husband is being treated for COVID-19, now he has to be intubated in a critical condition and at risk of death, the wife wrote.

As the administrator talked with the wife about An's situation, she said that the man was being treated at Thu Duc City Hospital.

Following the discussion, the board of directors of the COVID-19 Resuscitation Hospital contacted Thu Duc City Hospital to learn more about Ans case.

After doctors evaluated medical and transporting factors, An was transferred to the COVID-19 Resuscitation Hospital on the night of August 7.

The patient was comatose, sedated, and needed the support of a ventilator upon his admission to the new hospital.

After three days, Ans condition gradually improved.

He was extubated and given high-flow oxygen.

After five days, the patients condition stabilized.

He has been weaned off the high-flow oxygen machine and switched to a normal oxygen mask.

Doctors said the patient is expected to stop depending on the oxygen mask in the next few days and be discharged from the hospital.

An, who is able to talk at present, said that he could not remember when he was transferred to the COVID-19 Resuscitation Hospital.

Now I feel much better, no longer having difficulty breathing, An told the Vietnam News Agency.

"Thank you doctors, who brought me back from the dead!

I look forward to coming home soon to be reunited with my wife, children, and family."

As of Wednesday morning, Vietnam had documented 293,301 COVID-19 cases, with 111,308 recoveries and 6,472 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country has detected 289,276 domestic transmissions in 62 out of 63 provinces and cities in this fourth bout, which started in late April.

Ho Chi Minh City is on top of the caseload with 156,186 patients.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Ten years ago today, in one of the ABCs darkest days, a helicopter crash over Lake Eyre led to the death of camera operator John Bean, reporter Paul Lockyer and pilot Gary Ticehurst.

All three were working on a news documentary and capturing footage of Australias spectacular inland waterway.

To mark this sad anniversary, for the next month the ABC has made available on iview the documentary Lake Eyre, which showcases some of their beautiful work and includes a tribute to the three men.

The loss of Paul, John and Gary was absolutely devastating, said ABC Director, News Gaven Morris. To many of us they were good friends as well as colleagues. It was a terrible blow that will always be deeply felt. The thoughts of everyone at the ABC are with their families and friends.

John Bean was an award-winning cameraman and master craftsman who worked for the ABC for two decades in Australia and internationally. He attended Griffith Film School and Griffith University awards the ABC John Bean ACS Memorial Scholarship for Cinematography in his honour.

Paul Lockyer was one of the ABCs most respected journalists with a career spanning more than 40 years, starting as an ABC cadet in Perth. As a foreign correspondent he reported on some of the worlds biggest events, but it was the stories of Australias bush and its people for which he will be best remembered.

Gary Ticehurst was the ABCs lead helicopter pilot. In almost 40 years of flying he logged more than 16,000 hours at the controls and contributed to thousands of stories. He was the embodiment of all the people who work so hard behind the scenes.
ABC has defended filming of upcoming surf drama Barons in Sydney, after some locals complained the shoot was not essential work.

The 8 part drama has filmed at Palm Beach, Warriewood and Collaroy and will continue until mid-September, observing strict workplace COVID health rules.

The series produced by 2Jons, Micanical Media and Fremantle, centres around the hedonistic world of surfing and the cutthroat culture of big business with a group of 20-somethings who share a love of the ocean and surfing.

Yet some local residents have complained to Federal Mackellar MP Jason Falinski that production is not essential work.

This production is allowing a lot of people from out of area into our local government area. I saw road crew working without their masks up at Turimetta and frankly, was disgusted, one unnamed resident claimed.

ABC said production, with the support of the NSW Government, was complying with Public Health Orders and strict COVID-safe measures.

It said cast and crew undergo regular COVID-19 tests and all staff were trained on minimising the spread of the virus.

There are also limits on the numbers of people on-set or on-site and personal protective equipment is given to all crew.

Filming  is in accordance with advice from NSW Health that screen production may continue in NSW as long as screen production companies are working within the Public Health Orders and implementing Covid-safe plans.

We also note Public Health (COVID-19 Temporary Movement and Gathering Restrictions) Order 2021 permits screen production cast and crew to leave home to undertake any activities associated with their projects, including filming.

It will air in 2022.

Source: Daily Telegraph
There's no need to arrange travel or lodging for the Oct. 29-31 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop since we are gathering virtually.

Here's info for the next in-person workshop on March 24-26, 2022:

Travel and lodging are not included in the registration fee. Workshop attendees should make their own travel and lodging arrangements.

Dayton International Airport has daily flights from around the country. Ground transportation to and from the Dayton airport is available through Charter Vans, Clean Cab Ohio and Uber. Apart from Dayton, the closest major airports are in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, each about an hour's drive away.

Attendees arriving at the Dayton International Airport can call Charter Vans (937-898-4043) to arrange pick-up (must call 24 hours in advance to let them know the time and how many people you have). To travel to the Marriott at the University of Dayton, per-person prices are $37 for one or two passengers. It's $15 per person for three or more. These prices do not include tax.

Transportation also is available from Clean Cab Ohio (937-242-8779). The flat-rate fare is $38, which includes tax. (Please request the special Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop rate. The normal fare is $43.) The cabs seat four to six people. Arrangements can be made in advance by phone or by emailing cleancabohio@yahoo.com. It's recommended you make arrangements a day or two in advance.

Uber is also available. The estimated rates range from $21 to $27 for uberX and $32 to $42 for uberXL per ride.

For driving directions, click here.

The Dayton Marriott at the University of Dayton (1414 S. Patterson Blvd.) is the official hotel of the Bombeck Workshop. The keynote dinners and other workshop events will take place at the Marriott.

Workshop sessions and keynote lunches take place in Curran Place (1700 S. Patterson Blvd.), which is within a short walking distance from the Marriott. Free shuttle buses between the two venues are available. Each venue offers free parking.
James Ndungu was caught out by vigilante paedophile hunters who set up fake online profiles posing as teenage girls. (SWNS)

A teacher has avoided jail after attempting to lure what he thought was an underage girl to his home while his wife worked night shifts as a carer.

James Ndungu, 45, also tried to lure a teenage girl to "pop into my classroom" and begged others for "kisses and cuddles

The married father-of-two was caught out by vigilante paedophile hunters who set up fake online profiles posing as teenage girls.

In one WhatsApp message, Ndungu told the girl she was sexy and gorgeous and sent her a selfie of himself asking her to keep it private.

After the decoy girl told him she was just 14, Ndungu replied: Im okay with your age.

In another message he told her a girl he loved her and wanted to meet her, adding she could go to his home "because my wife works nights".

Vigilante group Justice for Kids also set up a second fake profile of another 14-year-old girl.

A court heard Ndungu asked for pictures of her 13-year-old friend.

Read more: Man found guilty of murdering teenager during New Years Day row with neighbour

James Ndungu was handed a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and sign the sex offenders' register for ten years. (SWNS)

Ndungu, who was born in Kenya but moved to Worcester in 2000, admitted two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

He also pleaded guilty to arranging the commission of a child sexual offence. All the offences took place last October.

He was handed a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and sign the sex offenders' register for ten years.

Judge James Burbidge QC told him: You were then a school teacher.

Read more: Handyman murdered ex's new partner by smashing him on the head and burning him alive in car

That is one of the bizarre and worrying aspects of the case.

Ndungu left Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College in Worcester last November where he had worked for 15 years.

After the case, headteacher Greg McClarey said: We are deeply appalled and dismayed by the behaviour of a former member of staff.

We took immediate action when the school was alerted that a police investigation was underway concerning Mr Ndungu, implementing our safeguarding procedures and working closely with the Police and the Local Authority.

Story continues

Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College takes its safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously and we regularly review our procedures to ensure the continued safety and well-being of our pupils.

The Crown Prosecution Service last year issued guidance around the use of so-called vigilante groups.

They said: "Online child abuse activist groups( OCAGs) activity, whilst often well intentioned, has the potential to disrupt legitimate covert law enforcement activities.

It may be necessary for police forces to take action to intervene where these groups persist in their activity. The police also have concerns about the risks posed to individuals targeted by this activity, which may give rise to e.g. violence being perpetrated against suspects or suspects engaging in self-harm because of the online publicity generated by the OCAGs."

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Between January 1973 and 1992, Armenian assassins murdered 37 Turkish diplomats and family members in 22 different cities and countries around the world stretching from Los Angeles, U.S. to Sydney, Australia. Last month, hundreds of Armenians in Los Angeles gathered in Glendale, California, honoring the so-called Lisbon Five. The commemorations were organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

As Raoul Lowery Contreras, US Marine veteran, political consultant and the author of The Armenian Lobby & American Foreign Policy and The Mexican Border: Immigration, War and a Trillion Dollars in Trade" writes for Daily Sabah, for many Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora, the Lisbon Five are true national heroes and martyrs on the so-called altar of freedom."

However, the Lisbon Five are not martyrs and heroes. They are murderers; they are terrorists! In 1983, five young Armenian men  aged between 19 and 21  plotted an attack on the Turkish embassy in Lisbon, Portugal. They drove two rental cars to the Turkish Embassy. They planned to attack it and to hold hostages until their demands were met. They demanded that Turkey acknowledge the deaths of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as a genocide.

Their attack failed when a Turkish security officer shot and killed one of the 19-year-old men. The remaining four attacked the next-door Turkish ambassadors residence. They took the wife and the 17-year-old son of the acting Turkish ambassador hostage. They detonated a bomb that killed the Turkish ambassadors wife and a Portuguese police officer. The ambassadors son escaped. The Armenian terrorists were also killed in the explosion.

A typed note to The Associated Press by the Armenian Revolutionary Army claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide attack. It said, We have decided to blow up this building and to remain under its collapse. This is not suicide, nor an expression of insanity, but rather our sacrifice to the altar of freedom. Actually, what they did is the precise definition of insanity. As the adage goes: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different outcome.

Between January 1973 and 1992, Armenian assassins murdered 37 Turkish diplomats and family members in 22 different cities and countries around the world, stretching from Los Angeles to Sidney, Australia. Lisbon was just one instance. The Washington Post asked on July 31, 1983: How many more Turkish diplomats will be killed by fanatical murderers from Armenian terrorist groups? The question has a raw answer: as many as the terrorists think they can put away without getting caught.

An old issue

Armenian terrorism, as we can see, is not new. It is also pervasive. It started right here in California in 1973, when an Armenian terrorist murdered the Turkish Consul-General and his deputy in Santa Barbara. The Armenian terrorist was arrested and later pardoned by Californias only ethnic Armenian governor, George Deukmejian.

9 years later, in 1982, a second Turkish Consul General was murdered in cold blood by Armenian terrorists in Los Angeles. One of the terrorists escaped. The other one, Hampig Sassounian, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Just a few months ago, after almost 40 years in prison, Hampig Sassousians five different denials of parole from California prisons were finally overridden by the Los Angeles Superior Court. Governor Newsom of California decided not to appeal the Courts ruling. So the terrorist Sassounian will soon be released.

Though his crime was in 1982, this years court ruling to let him go made worldwide news this year, including a condemnation by the Biden Administration. Another infamous Armenian terrorist was Monte Melkonian, a native-born Californian of Armenian parents. In 1980, in Athens, Greece, Monte murdered a Turkish diplomat and his 14-year-old daughter. Later, in France, he was arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison and was deported when he finished his sentence. He then went to his parents homeland, Armenia, where he was given command of troops to invade and ethnically cleanse Azerbaijans Karabakh region in the early 1990s war. He personally participated in several mass atrocities against Azerbaijani civilians, the largest of which was at the town called Khojaly in 1992.

Monte Melkonian was killed in 1993 by Azerbaijani soldiers. Armenia immediately declared him a national hero, named a military academy after him and erected his statues. Yes, an assassin-for-hire terrorist is a national hero in Armenia, as is Hampig Sassounian, admitted murderer of a Turkish diplomat walking free on the streets of Los Angeles, as are the Lisbon Five! Recently, a large mural dedicated to Monte Melkonian was installed in an Armenian-populated part of Los Angeles.

In July 2020, hundreds of radicalized Armenians chased and violently attacked a handful of Azerbaijani Americans in broad daylight in Los Angeles. A dozen Azerbaijani Americans were injured and hospitalized. The Los Angeles Police Department opened a hate crime investigation and is still looking for the violent Armenian radicals.

With that vicious hate crime, the Armenian violent radicalism the world has experienced since the 1970s has returned to the United States.

The acts of terror

Let me stress, it is not welcome today, nor was it ever welcome when Armenian terrorists killed on the streets of Los Angeles, as well as planting and exploding many bombs throughout Los Angeles and neighboring Orange County. Those terrorist murderers and bombers were apprehended and jailed. In Sassounians case, he was in prison for almost 40 years. Those terrorists, including Sassounian, were members of a terrorist organization called Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG). This organization was part of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a.k.a. Dashnak Party.

The same radical Armenian Dashnak Party sympathized in the 1930s with Hitler and Nazi Germany and supported the Holocaust. The same Armenian party continues its existence in the U.S. despite its pro-Nazi past and support for domestic and international terrorism. The lobbyist arm of Dashnaks is the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). ANCA was even chaired by Mourad Topalian, a suspected leader of the JCAG terrorist group and a participant in the 1980 bombing of the Turkish Mission in New York City. He was arrested and charged by the U.S. Government with conspiracy acts, possession and storage of weapons and explosives. In 2001, he was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

Instead of being ashamed of what Topalian did, ANCA presented him with a "Freedom Award" after he was arrested and charged. This is the same ANCA that manipulates Congress members in Washington to give millions of dollars to Armenia, a country that calls terrorists and murderers and Nazi collaborators national heroes. This is the same ANCA that sponsored the violent riot in Los Angeles last July that police are still investigating as a hate crime.

Yet many elected officials in the U.S. in general, and in California in particular, turn a blind eye to the true nature of radical ANCA and Dashnaks and continue to cater and pander to ANCA, accepting their campaign checks and parroting their narratives. They should wake up and dissociate themselves from radical and racist ANCA and Dashnaks.
With the Taliban (Taliban movement banned in Russia) seizing control of Afghanistan, the India-funded Chabahar port project in Iran is under a cloud, The Hindu Business Line writes.

As it is, things were getting difficult despite the good relations between India and Iran. The cargo volumes shipped through Chabahar has been on the decline since last year after the outbreak of Covid. The Afghan debacle could be the final nail in the coffin, said an official who was involved with the project till recently. Let things settle down to get a clear picture, he added.

Indias plan to erect four new rail-mounted quay cranes (RMQC) or ship-to-shore cranes at Chabahar port has been stuck for months as crane makers stay away due to sanctions imposed on Iran, forcing India Ports Global Ltd to extend the bid deadline 15 times since September last year. While the United States has excluded Chabahar port from the sanctions list, potential crane manufacturers are not fully convinced. To add to the woes, India Ports Global Ltd, the state-owned entity tasked with developing and running the port, has been without a full-time managing director since September last year.

Role of Afghanistan

Being a land-locked country, imports into Afghanistan are either routed through Pakistan or Iran. Compared to imports via Karachi or Bandar Abbas, Chabahar is a much closer route into Afghanistan. The United States also wanted Afghanistan to be dependent more on India-Iran than on Pakistan, he said. Afghanistan was also more friendly to India and even signed a transit agreement with India and Iran to complement the port project. The US allowed India to go ahead with the Chabahar deal despite the sanctions it had imposed on the Persian Gulf nation over its nuclear program, mainly because it was looking to help Afghanistan in its re-construction, he said. The port was being developed more for Afghanistan than for Iran, he said.

However, another official who was involved in handling cargo at Chabahar said that the port had nothing to do with Afghanistan. Chabahar is being built as a gateway to the East and West of the Caspian Sea as part of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). Afghanistan was always looked at for sympathys sake from the point of view of Chabahar port, he said.

The INSTC is a 7,200-km-long multi-modal network of sea, rail and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. The re-building of Afghanistan is linked to Chabahars success and not the other way round, he added.

Build Indias presence

India's participation in the development of Chabahar Port will provide India an alternative and reliable access route into Afghanistan utilising Indias earlier investment in building the Zaranj-Delaram highway in that country. Located in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province on Irans South-eastern coast (outside Persian Gulf), Chabahar port gives India a sea-land access route into Afghanistan and Central Asia through Irans eastern borders. The project is considered a strategic venture for the development of regional maritime transit traffic into Afghanistan and Central Asia.

India Ports Global and Aria Banader Iranian Port & Marine Services Company (ABI) of Iran signed a deal in May 2016 to equip and operate the container and multi-purpose terminals at Shahid Beheshti  Chabahar Port Phase-I with a capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $22.95 million on a 10-year lease. Cargo revenues collected will be shared by India and Iran as per an agreed formula.

The project has been bogged down by delays due to the US sanctions. Though the ten-year operation period is yet to start, India and Iran have operationalised the port through an annual short-term contract in the so-called zero period given the challenges over financing the purchase of key cargo handling equipment such as RMQC.
The long-lasting Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict has led to human suffering and population displacement, and the status quo related to the occupation of Azerbaijani territories could not be a final resolution in this process. Following the six weeks of intense fighting in which both sides used all available weapons, thousands of people were killed and injured, Shahmar Hajiyev, leading advisor in the Center of Analysis of International Relations, writes for Eurasia Review.



Under the mediation of the Russian Federation, on November 10, 2020, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation has signed a Trilateral Declaration (known also as the November deal) officially reaching a ceasefire and end to all military operations. Tripartite declaration should close the long-lasting hostility and open a new chapter in the regions history as Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to reopen transportation corridors and support regional economic integration. Now, the key question is how Azerbaijan and Armenia will live peacefully, and how the geopolitical landscape of the South Caucasus region will be changed in the near future.

Importantly, the new full-scale military conflict between parties remains less likely as all major actors, especially Russia and Turkey prefer peace and stability in the region. According to the November deal, Russia became a key guarantor for the ceasefire and peace and deployed its peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh and along the Lachin Corridor. Also, Armenia pledged to return Agdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin districts to Azerbaijani control, while Azerbaijan guaranteed the security of the Lachin Corridor, to be used as a humanitarian connection between Armenia and Armenians living in Karabakh.



Analyzing the November deal, one could emphasize that during the post-war period the security issues and the restoration of economic relations by reopening transportation corridors are essential towards building trust, security and supporting sustainable peace.

Although the conflict is over, there are still challenges and difficulties in implementing all clauses of the November deal. Specifically, the fourth clause of the November deal which stipulates  The peacemaking forces of the Russian Federation shall be deployed concurrently with the withdrawal of the Armenian troops. But, the continued illegal transit of Armenian armed forces and weapons through the Lachin Corridor to Karabakh may spark escalations and damage peace efforts. According to the statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan; Violating the Tripartite Declaration, Armenia has moved its armed forces to the territories of Azerbaijan, where the peacekeeping forces of the Russian Federation are temporarily stationed, and set up new Armenian posts near Mukhtarkend and Shushakend, as well as in the eastern part of Kalbajar and Lachin districts. All these facts and recent border clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the Syunik province (Zangezur in Azerbaijani) demonstrated a climate of mistrust, therefore any small escalations may raise tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Another essential clause of the November deal is the ninth clause which stipulates  All economic and transport connections in the region shall be unblocked. The Republic of Armenia shall guarantee the security of transport connections between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to arrange unobstructed movement of persons, vehicles and cargo in both directions. The Zangezur region has strategic importance for regional economic integration as Baku wants to restore the existing infrastructure of the Soviet period connecting its Nakhchivan exclave with mainland Azerbaijan through the Zangezur corridor. It is vital task for Azerbaijan to unblock this route in order to lift a long-lasting blockade of Nakhchivan region. There was no direct connection between Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and mainland Azerbaijan, and people had to travel to Nakhchivan region either by air or by car via Iran or Turkey. Also, to support energy needs of the region, Azerbaijan signed the swap agreement with Iran in 2004 to supply natural gas to its exclave. Under the swap agreement Azerbaijan supplies gas to Irans isolated northwestern border city of Astara and only 85 percent of supplied volume flows to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Later, in 2020 to support energy security of the region, Baku and Ankara signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction of the Igdr- Nakhchivan gas pipeline. The pipeline would carry 500 million cubic meters of natural gas without charge. The gas pipeline has strategic importance for Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic as it will eliminate energy dependence on Iran.



For Turkey, the reopening of the Zangezur corridor has a geostrategic importance as Ankara will have a direct land passage to mainland Azerbaijan. Also, the corridor will increase trade between Turkey and Azerbaijan by further supporting economic integration. Particularly, Turkey is very interested to have direct access to Central Asian markets through Azerbaijan because such route would be shorter and cheaper. At the present, the Turkish trucks mainly use Russia-Georgia routes before heading to Central Asia.



For Russia, the reopening of the corridor will open a railway route to Armenia via Azerbaijan which is cheaper and more profitable because of tension and mutual mistrust in relations between Moscow and Tbilisi. Particularly, according to the ninth clause of the November deal  The Border Guard Service of the Russian Federal Security Service shall be responsible for overseeing the transport connections, hence Moscow should support the Zangezur corridor which would be the first important step towards security and stability in the region.



As one can see from the above-mentioned facts, the November deal comes from the strategic interests of all involved parties. First of all, unblocking the Zangezur corridor would bring new economic opportunities, as well as support a final peace deal based on mutual recognition of territorial integrity. Through economic cooperation and integration, Azerbaijan and Armenia can open a new page in bilateral relations and end hostility between two nations. Armenia can also take advantage of regional projects and support its energy security. The Azerbaijani government has already started reconstruction works in all liberated territories, and the government is ready to support the Armenian population of the Karabakh region.


It's not just an ancient phenomenon. From ancient catacombs to modern subways, humans have always traveled underground for brief amounts of time. But have entire societies of people ever lived underground? Yes, but historically only during emergencies and when they have had no other option. In recent decades, however, that has begun to change, Live Science writes. "The thing that is important to know about the underground is that we do not belong there. Biologically, physiologically, our bodies are just not designed for life underground," said Will Hunt, author of the book "Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet" (Random House, 2019). "And yet there are moments when we have retreated underground."

People throughout history have temporarily lived below the surface for various reasons. If there were no materials to build houses with, they dug subterranean homes, Hunt told Live Science. In places with extreme climates, people went beneath the earth in the summer to stay cool and in the winter to stay warm. Underground was also a safe place to hide from enemies.

For example, ancient people built the famous underground cities of Cappadocia in what is now Turkey, for protection against both weather and war. "They were geographically in a very strategic place," Hunt said. "They were constantly being attacked." The inhabitants retreated belowground during emergencies, but they didn't stay there for a long time, perhaps for weeks at a time.

One of the largest underground cities in Cappadocia is Derinkuyu, which dates to around the seventh or eighth centuries and could have housed about 20,000 people, according to Atlas Obscura. Geophysicists have found that another recently discovered city in the region spans 5 million square feet (460,000 square meters) and may be 371 feet (113 m) deep, according to National Geographic. If true, this would make the recently found Cappadocia city about a third larger than Derinkuyu.

The underground cities of Cappadocia are an "architectural marvel," Hunt said. Wells plunged deep into the water table. Holes leading up to the surface acted as ventilation shafts. Layers of protection  including large, circular stones that the ancient people rolled in front of entrances to the city  separated those inside from invaders on the surface.

Not all subterranean dwellings were as complex as those in Cappadocia, however. People also lived in natural and human-made caves, Hunt noted. Constructed caverns can be found anywhere with the right kind of geology  for example, stone hills made from tuff, a soft volcanic rock that's easy to dig into. "They're very common," he said. "You find people making cave dwellings all over the world." Even in modern day Australia, in a town called Coober Pedy, about half the population lives in "dugouts," or holes carved into the sides of hills, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

Many marginalized people have found shelter below the surface in abandoned infrastructure of modern cities. There are fewer of these "mole people" of New York than there were in the 1980s, but perhaps more than 1,000 unhoused people live in tunnels beneath the streets of the city, Hunt said. Many homeless people also live in tunnels beneath Las Vegas. And large communities of orphans live under the streets in Bucharest, Romania.

As more people move to cities, more of those city dwellers may move underground. Places such as Singapore are exploring options for building downward. The technology needed to do so is already here, said Eun Hee Lee, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham's Malaysia campus who studies the psychology of being underground. The challenge is convincing people to move underground.

In reality, being beneath the earth hasn't yet been shown to cause negative psychological effects, as long as lighting, room size, ceiling height and other physical attributes of the setting are consistent with aboveground, Lee said. For example, technology such as lightwells, which allow natural sunlight to brighten underground spaces using materials such as reflective paint, could fight depression that arises from a lack of sunlight. People may feel isolated from their counterparts on the surface, and they may feel a lack of control, but these feelings are manageable, Lee said. However, people still dislike the idea of living belowground.

In any case, Lee thinks people worldwide will start to make the move before long, inspired by places that are paving the way, such as RESO, an underground city in Montreal, Canada that is more than 20 miles long and includes shopping malls, offices, hotels and schools. "Realistically, we will go underground soon. Within at least 30 years, there are going to be more underground work environments, more underground fun places," she said. "It's coming. It's not just an idea."
Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said on Twitter that he is in the country and is the "legitimate caretaker president" as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and a transitional government is formed.

"Clarity: As per the Constitution of Afghanistan; in absence, escape, resignation or death of the president; the FVP (first vice president) becomes the caretaker president," he said.

"I am currently inside my country and I am the legitimate caretaker president," Saleh added.

"I am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support and consensus," he declared.

Saleh had said after a security meeting chaired by then President Ashraf Ghani last week that he was proud of the armed forces and the government would do all it could to strengthen resistance to the Taliban.

Earlier, Saleh also vowed that "he will not surrender," Daily Sabah reported.
The Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov met with the Minister of National Defense of Turkey Hulusi Akar during his visit to the International Defense Exhibition IDEF-2021 in Istanbul on August 17, according to Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry.

At the meeting, the parties noted the importance of developing cooperation in the defense industry and exchanged views on regional security, bilateral relations and other issues of interest.
The sanitary-epidemiological situation with the coronavirus spread in Kazakhstan has stabilized over the past three weeks, Health Minister Alexey Tsoy said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

"During the last three weeks, a gradual stabilization of the epidemiological situation has been noted in Kazakhstan. During one week, on average, about 53,000 cases [of coronavirus infection] have been registered. Since August 1, the index of the spread of the coronavirus infection has decreased from 1.11 to 0.97," he said.

According to the health minister, 53% of hospital beds in infectious units are occupied and 47% at intensive care units. "In general, a steady work of the countrys medical facilities is noted since today over 120,000 patients with the coronavirus infection are being treated," he pointed out.

In all Kazakhstan, since the beginning of the pandemic, 708,379 coronavirus infections have been confirmed, with 585,298 recoveries and 7,867 fatalities. The republic has the population of 19 mln people.

As of August 18, some 6,183,445 people received the first component of a vaccine (62% of the population subject to inoculation), including 4,819,587 people who have completed the immunization process (48% of the population subject to inoculation). "The regions are supplied with the vaccines in the sufficient amount, deliveries are performed on schedule," the health minister noted.
Georgia has reported 5,914 new cases of coronavirus, 3,316 recoveries and 49 deaths in the past 24 hours.

57,312 remain infected with Covid-19 in Georgia currently.

56,878 tests were conducted around the country in the past 24 hours. 34,374 of the 56,878 tests were rapid tests, while the remaining 22,504 were PCR tests.

Georgian health officials say that the coronavirus cases still continue to surge and that the epidemiological situation remains 'alarming'. However, they hope that the restrictions which came into power last week and yesterday will work and in the coming days daily infections will decrease.

Health Minister Ekaterine Tikaradze stated earlier today that a field hospital for 500 is ready to receive Covid-19 patients. "However, we will do our best to use the field hospital only when there is no other way," Agenda.ge cited her as saying.

The country has had 496,376 cases of coronavirus since February 26, 2020. 10.71 per cent of tested individuals had Covid-19 in the past 14 days. 432,506 of the 496,376 patients have recovered, while 6,532 have died from the virus.

7,029 patients are undergoing treatment in hospitals as of today. 1,461 of the 7,029 patients are in critical condition. 327 of the 1,461 critical patients are on artificial ventilation.

46,833 individuals are undergoing treatment at home. 51,513 individuals are in self isolation.

More than 7,515,000 tests have been conducted in the country so far. 857,056 individuals have received at least one dose of the vaccine in the country so far, of which 251,447 individuals have been completely vaccinated.
The European Union is ready to begin dialogue with the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) but their recognition will depend on what they do, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel said on Tuesday.

"The Taliban have won the war. So we will have to talk with them, in order to engage in a dialogue as soon as necessary to prevent a humanitarian and a potential migratory disaster but also a humanitarian crisis," he told a news conference after an online extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers. "It is not a matter of official recognition, it is a matter of dealing with them."

"This dialogue will also have to focus on the means to prevent a return of a foreign terrorist presence in Afghanistan," he noted. "We will deal with the Afghan authorities such as they are, at the same time remaining naturally vigilant of the respect of international obligations."

After the United States announced the end of an armed operation in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its troops, the Taliban launched a large-scale offensive on the government army and by August 15 entered Kabul after meeting no resistance. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he was resigning to avoid bloodshed and fled the country. Western nations are evacuating their citizens and embassy employees.
New Covid-19 vaccination centre opens at Georgian National University SEU

A large new Covid-19 vaccination centre will open today at Georgian National University (SEU), where the public will be able to receive Pfizer, Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines against Covid-19 without any prior registration, announces the Ministry of Health of Georgia.

The vaccination centre will be open every day, including weekends, from 10:00 to 18:00.

While public transport is suspended until September 4, special transport lines are operating in the capital city of Tbilisi to ensure the population has access to vaccination centres.

As of August 18, a total of 605,609 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in Georgia, while 251,447 people are fully vaccinated in the country, announces the National Center for Disease Control.

Individuals who are unable to visit vaccination centres due to health conditions are able to call the hotline 1522 and ask for vaccination service at home, Agenda.ge reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a telegram of condolences to the next-of-kin of the pilots killed in the crash of an Il-112V plane near the Kubinka airfield, Moscow region, on Tuesday.

"Nikolai Kuimov, Dmitry Komarov and Nikolai Khludeyev were courageous people, true heroes and professionals. They belonged to the cohort of pioneers who tested the most sophisticated hardware and made a tremendous contribution to the development of domestic aviation. I ask you to convey my most sincere condolences and words of support to the next-of-kin of the killed pilots," said the telegram posted on the Kremlin website on Tuesday.

Russias new Il-112V light military transport plane crashed near the Kubinka airfield, 1.5 kilometers away from the landing strip, during a test flight on Tuesday. It collided with the ground and exploded. There were three crew onboard. They all died, including the flight commander, merited test pilot and Hero of Russia, Nikolai Kuimov. The pilots were trying to save the aircraft to the very end and were steering it away from residential buildings.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived on a working visit to Nur-Sultan today.



During his visit, the head of government will meet with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin, President Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev and the first president of the republic, leader of the nation Nursultan Nazarbayev.



The Russian prime minister's visit will begin with talks with Askar Mamin. Following the meeting, which will be held at the Astana International Financial Center, joint documents are expected to be signed.



During the visit, topical issues of the development of Russian-Kazakh cooperation in the industrial, energy, transport, cultural and humanitarian fields will be discussed.



In addition, it is planned to discuss the expansion within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union and joint measures to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus, TASS reports.
The rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected "within the framework of Islamic law", the Taliban (banned in Russia) say.

In the group's first news conference since taking control of the country on Sunday, a spokesman said women would be free to work but gave little detail about other rules and restrictions.

Zabihullah Mujahid repeated that all Afghans must live "within the framework of Islam".

Rights groups fear women's freedoms could be eroded under the Taliban, BBC reported.

The militant group introduced or supported punishments in line with their strict interpretation of Islam's legal system, Sharia law, when they controlled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

Women had to wear the all-covering burka, and the Taliban also disapproved of girls aged 10 and over going to school.

In the news briefing on Tuesday, Mr Mujahid fielded several questions from the international media about what women's rights could look like under a Taliban government.

"We are going to allow women to work and study within our frameworks," he said. "Women are going to be very active within our society."

But he did not expand when asked about dress codes and what roles women would be able to have within the country's workforce.
Members of the Taliban radical militant group (outlawed in Russia) said on Wednesday that Afghan civilians must hand over their guns and ammunition to the groups authorized members, according to Taliban officials.

The Taliban also said its leaders would act openly, instead of remaining in the shadows, Reuters reported.

"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders, there will be no shadow of secrecy," the news agency quoted a Taliban official as saying.

Taliban members have also been ordered not to celebrate their recent sweep of the country, in which they established control over the Afghan capital of Kabul, the militant groups official stated.

On August 15, fighters from the Taliban radical militant group entered Kabul without any resistance and established full control over the Afghan capital within several hours. President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani announced that he had stepped down to avoid bloodshed and fled the country. Western nations are evacuating their citizens and embassy staff.
The disorganized withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan which is overseen by Joe Bidens administration is a great shame for the United States.

According to former U.S. President Donald Trump, these developments can be viewed as one of the worst operations of the kind in history.

"What took place yesterday in Afghanistan made our withdrawal from Vietnam look like childs play. Perhaps in World history, there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously," he pointed out. "A President who has been illegitimately elected has brought great shame, in many ways, to our Country!"

After the main part of the Western military contingent was pulled out of the country, the radical movement launched a large-scale offensive to establish control over the country. On August 15, Taliban militants entered Kabul without a fight and took over the city in a matter of hours. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stepped down to avoid bloodshed, as he put it, and fled the country. Western states are currently evacuating their citizens and embassy staffers.
U.S. intelligence officials had been warning of a quick Taliban takeover in Afghanistan  even as President Joe Biden was publicly downplaying the threat, a new report says.

A number of classified intelligence assessments in recent months questioned whether Afghan security forces would try to resist the Taliban, sources told the New York Times.

The reports also expressed doubts as to whether the Afghan government could remain in control of Kabul.

Some of the assessments were handed down last month as the Talibans rapid onslaught was gaining momentum amid the withdrawal of US troops, the sources said.

It came at a time when Biden was continuing to downplay the Taliban threat, saying as recently as July 8 that it was highly unlikely that insurgents would overrun the country.

The Taliban seized control of Kabul following the collapse of the Afghan government.

In the aftermath of chaotic and deadly scenes at Kabul airport on Monday, Biden was forced to concede that the Taliban had achieved a much faster takeover of the country than his administration had expected.

The administration is facing mounting questions as to how US forces were unprepared for the Talibans takeover of Kabul given the intelligence warnings.

Some of the reports came from the CIA and units within the State Department.

But a senior administration official claims intelligence agencies never actually gave a clear estimate for when the Taliban could take over even as the situation escalated last month.
President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on August 18 sent a letter to President of the European Council Charles Michel suggesting the European Union (EU) share COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam, in an effort to step up the vaccine diplomacy strategy.

At batch of vaccines in Vietnam.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on August 18 sent a letter to President of the European Council Charles Michel suggesting the European Union (EU) share COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam, in an effort to step up the vaccine diplomacy strategy.

In the letter, President Phuc thanked the EU for its support to Vietnam over the past time, especially offering 2.4 million doses of vaccines to the country via the COVAX Facility mechanism.

As Vietnam is meeting difficulties in having enough vaccines to vaccinate its nearly 100 million population as well as medical equipment, he proposed the EU provide maximum assistance for Vietnam via donating and transfering vaccines, sharing technology, providing medical equipment and sharing experience in coping with the pandemic, on the basis of the development of bilateral comprehensive partnership and cooperation.

On the issue, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also sent a letter to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

The PM spoke highly of the active development of Vietnam  EU ties amid the pandemic.

He expressed his wish that the EU would consider assisting Vietnam in vaccine supplies, as well as suggest COVAX Facility prioritise the allocation of vaccines to Vietnam and ASEAN member states amid the complicated developments of the pandemic./.

Source: VNA
The Vietnam Space Center (VNSC) has handed over its NanoDragon satellite to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) at the Uchinoura Space Centers launch site in Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan.

Vietnamese researchers work on the nanoDragon satellite project. (Photo: VNSC)

Before the satellite was handed over to the Japanese partner, it was tested for the last time by JAXA on August 16-17 to ensure safety for the upcoming launch.

According to JAXA, the NanoDragon satellite will be launched into orbit before March 2022 under the program "Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration 2".

Under this program, nine satellites will be launched along with Vietnam's satellite, including the major satellite weighing about 100kg, 4 micro-class satellites and 4 cubesat class satellites.

Specifically, the major satellite is JAXAs RAISE-2 satellite. The four micro-class satellites are HIBARI (55 kg) from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Z-Sat (46kg) from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., DRUMS (62kg) from Kawasaki Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., and TeikyoSat-4 (52kg) from Teikyo University.

The three Cubesat-class satellites include ASTERISC (4kg) from Chiba Institute of Technology, ARICA (1kg) from Aoyama Gakuin University and KOSEN-1 (3kg) from Kochi National College.

These satellites will be launched by Japan's No. 5 Epsilon rocket.

NanoDragon is a cubesat satellite, weighing about 4 kg.

NanoDragon is a cubesat satellite, weighing about 4 kg and the 3U size (100 x 100 x 340.5 mm).

The NanoDragon satellite is the product of the Project "Research, design, manufacture, launch and test operation of nano-sized microsatellites" under the "National science and technology program on space technology in 2016-2020. The whole process of researching, designing, integrating and testing satellite functions was completely conducted in Vietnam by staff of the Vietnam Space Center.

NanoDragon is expected to operate in a solar synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 560 km. The satellite was developed for the purpose of demonstrating that it is possible to use micro-satellite beam technology to receive automatic identification system (AIS) used for tracking and monitoring vehicles at sea.

After completing the manufacturing, integration and functional testing process in Vietnam, from March 9 to April 9, 2021, the pre-launch environment test was performed at the Test Center for Small Satellites of the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan.

A ground station to operate the satellite after launch was installed at the Vietnam Space Center in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, Hanoi.

Source: VNA

Trong Dat
To date, the country has 1.27 million freelance workers and a number of specific workers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic who have received support from the Government.

After a month implementing Resolution 68, tens of millions of people have benefited from the policy, and millions of workers have received cash support.

According to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, by August 16, 37 out of 63 provinces and cities approved a list of nearly 1.27 million freelance workers and other specific subjects who benefit from the governments aid. Of these, there are over 100,000 lottery ticket vendors.

As many as 28 of 63 provinces and cities (mainly in the southern region) have given support for nearly 962,000 people, with a total budget of nearly VND 1,364 billion.

In addition, local governments have aided nearly 164,000 people listed as specific subjects with a total budget of over VND 182.3 billion.

After a month implementing Resolution 68, tens of millions of people have benefited from the policy, and millions of workers have received cash support.

According to Vietnam Social Security, to support pandemic-affected employees and employers, 238 agencies in 35 of 63 provinces are allowed to suspend payment of retirement and survivorship funds with a total amount of over VND 292 billion.

Social security agencies in 60 of 63 provinces have confirmed the list of 274,610 employees of 15,179 units to enjoy support policies from the State, including 178,280 employees of 14,044 units who have temporarily suspended contracts or taken unpaid leave.

Over 15,230 employees who have temporarily quit their jobs without pay at 526 organizations received VND1 million/person.

Particularly, over 375,000 units employing over 11.2 million employees have been exempted from paying to the occupational accident and disease insurance fund, with a total value of over VND4.3 trillion.

Gia Van  Kien Trung

Nearly 300 tons of food distributed to Covid-19-infected people Postal businesses are supplying essential goods and supporting the consumption of agricultural products as well as implementing many charity activities.
Follow the law

Over the past few days I have seen both letters to the editor and opinion pieces advocating that school boards ignore Gov Abbotts executive order GA-38 prohibiting the mandating of masks. In Sundays paper, Brandon Moore ends his letter with History will show you to be correct if you require masks.

My issue is not with Moores apparent sincere belief nor is it an issue with the mask mandate or any COVID-19 related mandates per se. Rather, I am concerned with a more important issue that such advocacy outwardly suggests it is OK to ignore executive orders or laws with which you do not agree. Over my lifetime I could cite numerous orders, laws or ordinances that I did not like but I always recognized the way to deal with those is to advocate for the reversal or changing of the law, not direct disobedience that threatens civil order. Suggesting that a large number of people ignore a lawful order seems to be bordering on lawlessness at best and anarchy at worst.
During a White House speech amid the Afghanistan evacuation fiasco, President Joe Biden looked into the camera with a cold, steely eye and said, I am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me.

Its a powerful line. Or rather, it would have been, if not for the 16 minutes and 39 seconds of buck-passing that preceded it.

Biden may have been going for a Harry Truman moment, but he sounded a lot more like Bill Clinton. It all depends on what your definition of chaos is.

Political pundits measure speeches like Bidens on Monday by a simple standard: What does he need to do, and did he do it? In this case, Bidens speech was a mulligan. There was nothing he really could do. In the modern era, a pixel is worth a thousand words, and the images on Americas phones and Facebook were too terrible to be talked away.

When Biden said he had spent the past week moving quickly to execute the plans we had put in place to respond to every constituency, including the rapid collapse were seeing now, what were voters supposed to think? Was watching desperate Afghans fall thousands of feet to their deaths after clinging to the outside of a U.S. transport plane really the plan we had in place?

If so, somebody needs a new plan.
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'Disappointing': Local veterans take stock after troop pullout from Afghanistan

Courier File Photo Iowa National Guard members at a homecoming ceremony in August 2018 after a year-long deployment to Afghanistan. Courier file photo From left, Dustin Wellman, Robert Knapp and Ross Jordan hold up their friend Spc. Levi Newman for a photo during a homecoming ceremony for Detachment 1, Company C, Medical Evacuation 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion at the Aviation Support Facility in Waterloo on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. The unit deployed to Afghanistan in 2012.

WATERLOO  It was in May, just as spring semester at Waterloo East High School was wrapping up, that Glen Keith heard the question from his modern history class: If the U.S. pulled troops out of Afghanistan, would the Taliban take over?

Keith

Keith, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who did two tours of duty in Afghanistan in 2003-04 and again in 2009-10, was blunt.

I said, Yes, the Taliban will take back over, he said he told his students. The writing was on the wall  it just wouldnt work.

That doesnt mean Keith, who teaches in Easts Junior ROTC program, wasnt surprised at the speed with which the Taliban wrested control of the government U.S. and NATO troops had propped up for the past 20 years. He was also surprised at their strategy of taking the northern port cities first rather than starting in the southern Kandahar province where they had more support.

To see it fall as quick as it did, Keith said, trailing off.

Hes been texting with friends he served with, noting those hes talked with have mixed emotions.

You see young people, particularly women, and all the strides they made  education, the ability to access jobs and the ability to really dream. To see that now being in jeopardy, I think is really tough, Keith said.

But 20 years is a long time  time enough for young people to grow up in a democracy and not want to lose it, he thinks.

On the flip side, I have hope, because now you have a generation of Afghans that have tasted the ability to get an education, a little freedom, Keith said.

Retired U.S. Army Sgt. Mike Perkins of Waterloo agreed with Keiths general assessment. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 and spent a year as an Army infantry team leader and later a squad leader.

Its not surprising. It was obvious that this was going to happen, just maybe not as fast, he said.

Functioning by oppression

Perkins said more of a commitment should have been made by the U.S. government, primarily the State Department, to create a more stable, non-corrupt bureaucracy.

We have the money as a country. We just didnt apply our resources effectively or correctly, he said.

Troops did what they could to stabilize the country in the short-term, but military personnel werent qualified to achieve any long-term gain, he said.

When the society is functioning by oppression, its not going to blossom, Perkins said. We needed to help with things like building schools, and theres not much there economically besides opium production.

Keith agreed. He worked in logistics, helping troops get supplies and running support for convoy operations, and also helped train an Afghan brigade, which he described as capable, but without the investment and infrastructure of a country like the U.S.

Soldiers families would be threatened by warlords if they helped the Americans, Keith said, and it didnt help that outside of major cities there was no electricity or water infrastructure, few roads and few schools.

They werent set up very well to become a modern country, Keith said.

Politics of war

As President Joe Biden removed U.S. troops from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of occupation, he defended the move even as the Taliban quickly reasserted power. He said he was deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision.

Bidens decision has its defenders, including Iowa Democratic Party veterans caucus chairwoman Michelle Servadio Elias.

For many, this withdrawal may feel like a betrayal, she wrote in a Monday release. However, the United States cannot keep fighting an endless war that wouldve continued to impact our Armed Forces and their families for generations to come.

Servadio Elias added veterans who are triggered by current events should call the Veterans Crisis Line at (800) 273-8255, something U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican serving the 1st Congressional District in eastern Iowa, also encouraged Sunday as the situation in Afghanistan unfolds.

I cant imagine the emotional and mental health toll that the horrific situation in Afghanistan is having on them, Hinson wrote in a release Sunday. She noted the Crisis Line could also be accessed via text at 838-255, or by visiting VeteransCrisisLine.net.

By Monday, Hinson responded like other Republicans, noting a sad chapter in American foreign policy has been capped off by a sad response from Biden.

Biden orders 1,000 more troops to aid Afghanistan departure WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden on Saturday authorized an additional 1,000 U.S. troops for deployment to Afghanistan, raising to roughly 5,000 the number of U.S. troops to ensure what Biden called an orderly and safe drawdown of American and allied personnel.

It is now clear that the President has no real plan of action to right this wrong, protect American and Afghan lives, and safeguard our homeland from a resurging terrorist threat, Hinson wrote.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican and Iowa Army National Guard veteran, also put the blame for the fast rise of the Taliban squarely on the presidents shoulders.

The rushed and haphazard withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan is not the strategic shift President Biden sold to the American people, she wrote in an op-ed published on Fox News over the weekend. Instead, its a total abandonment of a country and its people  and a gift to the Taliban.

Longest war: Were America's decades in Afghanistan worth it? Here's what 19-year-old Lance Cpl. William Bee felt flying into southern Afghanistan on Christmas Day 2001: purely lucky. The U.S. was hitting back at the al-Qaida plotters who had brought down the World Trade Center, and Bee found himself among the first Marines on the ground.

Ernst wrote the troops stationed there the past 20 years ensured the threats that grew in Afghanistan have been kept at bay, out of our neighborhoods and away from our families, and said she fervently disagreed with the decision to withdraw completely.

A reinvigorated Taliban in Afghanistan could lead to increased threats of terrorist attacks and endanger our national security, she said.

The polarizing response to the withdrawal is nothing new in todays political climate, said Christopher Larimer, University of Northern Iowa associate professor of political science. He added Republicans are likely to seize on the fallout during next years midterm elections.

High school students honor alum killed in Afghanistan WAVERLY | It was a silent tribute to a fallen hero. It spoke volumes.

Youre going to hear Republicans talking about this constantly as an example of what they see in terms of his leadership style, Larimer said.

Larimer noted the complete troop pullout  discussed and ultimately dismissed by the Obama and Trump administrations  was hard to wrap my head around now that it finally arrived.

After 20 years, now this is where we are, he said. Its hard to comprehend.

Mother gets Harkin to bring soldier son home in time for Xmas CEDAR FALLS | With help from his strong-willed mother and Sen. Tom Harkin, Sgt. Kasey Walker made it home to Cedar Falls in time for Christmas.

Job not done

In talks with his fellow veterans, Keith said the general feeling was one of melancholy.

It hurts, because any time the military deploys, were training to accomplish a mission and we put all our energy to do whats required of us, he said. To see it come about this way, its disappointing.

Cole Passick, a UNI political science student, was deployed to Afghanistan in the fall of 2011 and spent nine months there as a Marine Corps combat engineer.

I disagree with not finishing the job we started, he said. We shouldnt leave a job half done.

The first word to come to his mind when thinking about todays current events was disappointment.

A lot of us put months, years out there, he said. Weve lost friends and dealt with PTSD. Weve sacrificed marriages and missed birthdays. Its so disappointing because the country is going back to the dark ages, and all the progress that was made is being reversed.

He said the bringing home of troops wasnt surprising, but he wasnt expecting a full-blown pull-out.

I really dont know what led to this, he said.

Keith said he tries to remember that Vietnam veterans like his father felt the same way. Now, hes met several veterans from that era who have gone to that country on vacation.

Morris, Kelly enjoy quiet homecoming CEDAR FALLS | There was no airport reception, no motorcade.

Im hoping to see an outcome like that in my lifetime, Keith said.

Keith thinks there are two ways the Talibans return to power could affect Afghanistan.

Either (citizens are) going to force the Taliban to cooperate and try to make a more multi-ethnic society, or it will lead into a bloody civil war, he said.

Just $1 for 6 months for a Courier digital subscription

Keith thinks the U.S. and NATO countries intelligence and communication between agencies has progressed well enough that it would be more difficult for the Taliban-sheltered al-Qaida militant group to pull off another terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11.

The danger exists, but its a calculated risk, he said.

He holds out hope the Taliban will have to contend with that generation of young Afghans accustomed to a democratic government, education and rights for women that wont be easily forgotten.

I think, once you light that little flame in a person, I think theres always going to be a desire to get back to that, Keith said. I hope and pray that it turns out that way.
INDEPENDENCE  The Iowa State Auditors Office has found that inmates at the Buchanan County Jail dont always serve the proper amount of time behind bars.

In a report filed Wednesday, the auditor found 109 instances where inmates were apparently let out of jail early and without explanation, instances where they didnt serve the full time the court had ordered.

Of those, 101 were released a day or two early, and there were 33 instances in which an individuals time served was less than the jail time sentenced by more than two days.

Auditors determined 25 of the 33 hadnt been released from jail improperly  16 had been transferred to another correctional facility to serve the remainder of their jail sentence; another four were convicted of a drunk driving offense and could attend a 48-hour class to reduce their sentence to the time already served; four others hadnt reported to the jail in the first place to begin serving their time; and one had been released on appeal bond.

The remaining eight were let out earlier at the direction of the Buchanan County Sheriffs Offices now former jail administrator.

The audit also uncovered 40 instances where inmates stayed in jail longer than their sentences, again without explanation.
If rejected the LSA must within 35 days draw up a second set of maps and lawmakers again will vote them up or down. If that plan is rejected a third set is drawn by the LSA within 35 days and lawmakers may amend the maps like any other legislation before approving them.

In 2000 the legislature rejected the first set of maps but approved the second and in 2010 lawmakers approved the first set of maps.

The Iowa Constitution requires legislative districts to be enacted by lawmakers by Sept. 15, a deadline that cannot be met this year due to census data coming in later than usual as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Iowa Supreme Court is empowered to take over the process for legislative maps and ensure that they are completed if the deadlines are missed. Its unclear how the court plans to handle the process but it said in April it would meet its constitutional responsibility by implementing a process that follows the law. Some have interpreted that as meaning the court would allow the normal process of legislative approval to take place even after the deadline but the court has not further commented on its plans.

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While working around TRV and getting ready to go home to Moscow, Russia. Just some thoughts

We (USA & NATO) entered Afghanistan under false pretenses, we (USA & NATO) stayed in Afghanistan under false pretenses and as we (USA & NATO) tried to present false pretenses and leave.we had our false pretenses shoved up our asses in Afghanistan

Now who to blame?

Maybe better to say, We (USA & NATO) should never have ever have been and I mean ever been in Afghanistan in the first place and to have done so over blatant lies makes it even worse!

The blame list is very long:

There are also a lot of US Allies who have been thrown under a Bus because of this mismanaged deployment

Some are having to now bargain with the Taliban to get the their Nationals and their families out

BRUSSELS, August 17. /TASS/. The European Union is ready to begin dialogue with the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) but their recognition will depend on what they do, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel said on Tuesday.The Taliban have won the war. So we will have to talk with them, in order to engage in a dialogue as soon as necessary to prevent a humanitarian and a potential migratory disaster but also a humanitarian crisis, he told a news conference after an online extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers. It is not a matter of official recognition, it is a matter of dealing with them.

Source: EU recognized Taliban victory in Afghanistan  World  TASS

China, Russia and Iran just updated their timelines as to the demise of the Western Empire

US Treasury Freezes Billions In Afghan Reserves, Depriving Taliban Of Cash.So for 20 years, the USA has bombed the crap out of Afghanistan for a fake reason, killed 10,000s of thousands of civilians, spent Trillions of dollars, Plus all the loss of lives and limbs, not to mention the PTSD problems and the suicides later of our military personnel, And now we take their money! Did I miss anything?

The Yuan will be Afghanistans new official and legal tender

The more articles that come out about this..makes me realize there is more to the story..I smell LIES

So has the State Department canceled their Gay Pride parade in Kabul given recent developments?

You can now walk all the way from Syria, through Iraq, then Iran into Afghanistan and voila you are in China

Taliban Spokesman Asked about Freedom of Speech, Tells Media Hacks to Go Ask Facebook, YouTube and Twitter

Oh the crash control propaganda is in full swing at the western press

WtR

PS: So is Afghanistan the Graveyard of Empires?
Humboldt County is known for many thingsmagnificent coastal redwoods, forested hiking trails, and some of the best cannabis in the world are only a few.

The road to view such sights has long been traveled in Subarus and Birkenstocks, but a new dispensary, day spa, and social club has arrived to flip that narrative on its head.

Papa & Barkley Social, from the popular brand of cannabis wellness products, is a new destination for locals and tourists, aficionados and microdosers alike. And since it's located in Eureka right off highway 101, it's an easy must-stop for anyone touring or passing through the Emerald Triangle and looking for a little taste of luxury.

The space is a collaboration with the hospitality experts at Humboldt Social, which operates several different lodging, dining, and event spaces nearby, including the boutique hotel Humboldt Bay Social Club. Just a 20-minute drive from Papa & Barkley Social, the stay has plush suites and extended-stay cabins, a coastal restaurant and bar, and forested grounds with a private beach. What we're trying to say is that you can easily make a canna-glam weekend of it here.

The curated dispensary features the full line of Papa & Barkley wellness products as well as sun-grown flower and pre-rolls from local women-led, craft cannabis farms. (Courtesy of Papa & Barkley)

From the moment you check in, you'll find that Papa & Barkley Social is an elevated experience. Guests are greeted with a warm spa towel, and the air is perfumed with the scents of eucalyptus and peppermint. The brand's soothing palette of blue-gray and natural wood informs the country-modern decor. Merchandise from local farms and designers, as well as non-cannabis wellness products, are on display.

Papa & Barkley is best known for its spa-quality topical balms for pain and inflammation, and also makes a variety of extracts, edibles, and tinctures. The full suite of products is on offer in the dispensary where you'll also find a curated selection of sun-grown cannabis from women-led, craft farms and some young cannabis plants cloned from popular genetics for DIY growing at home. Flower and pre-rolls can be enjoyed on the outdoor patio.

What sets this dispensary apart from any other we've ever seen is the day spa, which offers chair and table massages; combination treatments, like The Entourage Effect, with add-ons such as dry brushing, stretching, and hot stones; and, of course, CBD- and THC- infused body oils and balms.



For true cannabis lovers, the consumption lounge will be the real star of the show. It's one of only a few such outdoor spaces in California, and one of even fewer that have food. This area invites you to chill out and stay awhile with fire pits, tables, and an array of seating hugged in by growing vines. A living wall decorates a small bar to be used for social events. When you get the munchies, the Pig & Leaf food truck will be on hand with an internationally inflected menu of charcuterie, Thai pickled veggies, tacos, Mediterranean pitas, Korean bulgogi wraps, and salads.

"When people are waiting for their massage, they can wait outside and have an edible or eat somethingget really tuned up, if you willthen come in here and relax," says P&B chief product officer Guy Rocourt. "If you have big stress, you can definitely leave it here."



But just because things are a little classier at Papa & Barkley Social doesn't mean they're a far cry from the Humboldt County culture. Rocourt says the hospitality space is a hub for holistic wellness and a place to ease into the rhythms of the Redwood Empire.

"We are from Humboldt, and we are all about sun-grown cannabis," he explains. "Culture is really important to us. We go to a bunch of small farms who we can empower directly. That's how you get the good stuff."

// Papa & Barkley Social, 4325 Broadway St., Eureka, papaandbarkleysocial.com
San Francisco Bay Area company LQ Digital is planning to open its new Downtown Albuquerque office at the beginning of October, with at least 30 employees on board.

The digital marketing firm hosted a tour of the 15,000-square-foot office, located on the fifth floor of the First Plaza high-rise, on Tuesday morning. During the event, LQ Digital CEO Katy Keim said the still-under-construction office near Civic Plaza will eventually house 100 employees, who will be primarily tasked with calling customers on behalf of client companies.

We have six weeks to get ourselves ready to be fully operational on Oct. 1, Keim said. I know I dont plan to miss that deadline.

LQ Digital, which works with companies ranging from anti-virus software company McAfee to health supplement and fitness brand Onnit, announced earlier this year it will be opening an office and hiring 100 employees in Downtown Albuquerque. The Journal reported in January that LQ Digital is receiving $417,164 in state funding through the Job Training Incentive Program to support the project.

Keim said the company looked at other cities to expand into, including Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Boise, Idaho, but ultimately settled on Albuquerque. Keim cited Duke Citys diversity and embodiment of the companys four primary values  truth, pride, ownership and hustle  as reasons it won out.

Our job here is to embrace what Albuquerque has built, build upon it and see what we can learn from all of you, Keim said.

The office will have an open floor plan, with large windows designed to maximize views of Civic Plaza and the Sandia Mountains. Keim said the office also has a handful of smaller rooms for one-on-one conversations or small team meetings. At the back of the office, a large classroom will allow LQ to bring groups of employees through a rigorous onboarding process.

Keim said the company currently has eight employees working remotely in Albuquerque, and is looking to have 30 to 40 on the team by opening day. Keim said the jobs come with a salary range of $13 to $15 per hour, plus a $1,000 referral bonus.

Keim said these early hires, known as ground-breakers, will help set the tone for the Albuquerque office as it grows.

Theyll not only come and work for us, but theyll help build the culture, Keim said.

City leaders, including Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, were on hand to celebrate and visit the planned office space. Keller said the company represents the sort of economic diversification that can help the city combat systemic issues like crime and homelessness.

The answer, in many ways, is that rising tide of diverse economic growth that activates areas of our city, Keller said. And Downtown is ripe for that.
Officials believe Fridays incident is the only deadly school shooting in Albuquerque Public Schools history, though there was a fatal shooting at Manzano High School after school hours in 1976. Journal records show that, statewide, there have been at least four other high-profile school shootings:

 Feb. 14, 2019, Rio Rancho. Police say Joshua Owen, then 16, took his parents gun and tried to shoot three students at V. Sue Cleveland High School, but the gun misfired and Owen ended up shooting into the air. Owen was arrested in an arroyo near the school and faced multiple charges, including three counts of attempted murder. Court records show he had written a to-do list that included shooting his ex-girlfriend and killing himself. Owen was released and the charges against him dropped after he was declared not competent to stand trial. His parents were each charged with a felony count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Owens father died in March 2021 and the case against his mother is ongoing.

 Dec. 7, 2017, Aztec. William Atchison, 21, killed Francisco Fernandez, 18, and Casey Marquez, 17, and fired multiple rounds into classrooms at Aztec High School before killing himself as police closed in. Investigators discovered that Atchison, a former student, had legally bought a gun and pretended to be a student to get into the school. Authorities found a thumb drive on him that detailed plans to hold a class hostage and go apeshit before committing suicide. Over a year before the shooting, the FBI briefly investigated Atchison after he posted online about committing a mass shooting, but he told agents he was just trolling.

 Jan. 14, 2014, Roswell. Mason Campbell, then 12, shot and seriously injured two 13-year-old students with a shotgun in a crowded gymnasium at Berrendo Middle School. At the time, authorities said the shooting was planned, but the victims  one of whom lost most of his vision  were chosen at random, while classmates said Campbell was often the target of bullying. Campbell was remanded to the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department until 21 after pleading no contest to three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and carrying a firearm into a school.

 Nov. 19, 1999, Deming. Victor Cordova Jr., then 12, fatally shot Araceli Tena, 13, in the back of the head and pointed the gun at faculty, police and other students at Deming Middle School. Relatives told authorities that Cordova  who lived in Mexico and attended school in Deming  had a history of emotional issues, had been violent and made suicidal remarks. At the time, Cordova was believed to be the youngest child charged with murder in the state; he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and 11 counts of aggravated assault. Cordova was sentenced to state custody until he was released to the custody of his aunt and uncle in 2003 after they petitioned for guardianship in Colorado.

 Aug. 19, 1976, Albuquerque. Gerald Singleton, then 17, killed 14-year-old Roger Martinez in a drive-by shooting outside the Manzano High School gymnasium hours after school had let out. Martinez and his brother had just finished a cross-country workout when they went to shower at the school. The brother told police Martinez went outside for a moment and staggered back into the gym, having been shot. Police arrested Singleton soon after and deemed the shooting a senseless killing with no motive. Singleton pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and served one year in the New Mexico Boys School at Springer.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

Three New Mexico organizations are receiving money from the National Endowment for the Humanities to help fund four projects.

The NEH says it aims to help the preservation of historic collections, humanities documentaries and exhibitions, scholarly books and research, and educational opportunities for teachers. The government agency on Tuesday announced $28.4 million for 239 humanities projects nationwide. The New Mexico organizations received a total of $232,000.

According to the NEH, several of the projects focus on the intersection of the humanities and technology, such as an international collaboration examining how the humanities can contribute to creating ethical, human-centered artificial intelligence systems, and the development of a digital catalog of the works of artist Georgia OKeeffe.

The grants announced today demonstrate the resilience and breadth of our nations humanities institutions and practitioners, NEH acting Chairman Adam Wolfson said in a statement. From education programs that will enrich teaching in college and high school classrooms to multi-institutional research initiatives, these excellent projects will advance the teaching, preservation, and understanding of history and culture.

The Georgia OKeeffe Museum was awarded two grants  one for $50,000 and one for $10,000. The first is a project that is reimagining the Georgia OKeeffe catalog digitally.

According to Liz Neely, project director, the museum is planning to develop the digital catalog, which will allow scholars and the public to engage with OKeeffes works.

The second grant is for an item-level collections survey of OKeeffes bound material.

The collection includes handmade and rare titles such as Some French Moderns Says McBride, a collection of articles by art critic Henry McBride that were selected, designed and formatted by Marcel Duchamp; a leather-bound edition of The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde adorned with original drawings by photographer Edward Steichen; and numerous books given to OKeeffe by her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, that include ephemera, photographs, and original sketches by OKeeffe placed within the pages, says Elizabeth Ehrnst, project director.

Santa Fe-based Center was awarded $162,500 for The Democratic Lens: Photography and Civic Engagement.

According to Matthew Contos, project director, the grant will be used to create a lecture series examining the historical and contemporary role of photography in civic participation.

New Mexico State University was awarded a $9,649 grant to purchase furniture and supplies to rehouse Native three-dimensional object collections at the NMSU University Museum.

According to NMSU, the museums collection includes material from archaeological digs in the Southwest.

Project will rehouse approximately 400 items of Native material culture, including katsina dolls by Hopi artists, examples of three-dimensional basketry, beaded buckskin bags and belts, objects related to public ceremonies and rituals, and pieces made for tourists or made by contemporary artists, said Kristin Otto, project director.
SANTA FE  New Mexico will begin routinely collecting demographic data about sexual orientation and gender identity during government surveys under an executive order signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The order on Monday responds to growing concerns that basic demographic information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations is being left out of an array of studies that shape public policy and governmental planning decisions.

California lawmakers in 2015 approved similar survey requirements at four health and well-being agencies. Officials at the National Institutes of Health are developing guidelines for collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity to better serve unmapped LGBTQ populations.

Lujan Grisham said survey responses will be voluntary as all state agencies begin collecting self-identification information. The order prohibits the public release of any personal identifying information.

The governor called the order a step toward identifying and addressing inequities in access to public resources.

The executive order was applauded by several advocates for the LGBTQ community at a news conference in the governors cabinet room.

If you really look at us as a community, weve never been asked who we are, ever, said state Sen. Leo Jaramillo, D-Espanola, who is gay. Now, were included in a conversation and data-collecting that will then help in ways that we may not even see or think of.

Marshall Martinez, executive director of the Equality New Mexico Foundation, said that public health officials have asked questions for decades about sexual orientation in the context of prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, slowing the progress of HIV in the process.

At the same time, silence on many other questionnaires about sexual orientation and gender orientation has reinforced harmful social stigmas.

Being one of the first states in the country to do this will send a vital message to LGBTQ youth: You matter, and your whole identity is respected and affirmed in New Mexico, Martinez said.
BORMES-LES-MIMOSAS, France  A wildfire near the French Riviera killed two people and was burning out of control Wednesday in the forests of the popular region, fueled by wind and drought. Over 1,100 firefighters were battling the flames and thousands of tourists and locals were evacuated to safer areas.

The fire started Monday evening 40 kilometers (24 miles) inland from the coastal resort of Saint-Tropez. Whipped up by powerful seasonal winds coming off the Mediterranean Sea, the fire had burned 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest by Wednesday morning, local officals said.

The prefect of the Var region, Evence Richard, told reporters that two people were killed. The local prosecutor said the bodies were found in a home that burned down near the town of Grimaud. An investigation has been opened to formally identify the victims.

At least 27 people, including five firefighters, have suffered smoke inhalation or minor injuries from the blaze, the prefecture of the Var region said. Authorities closed a highway north of the fire area on Wednesday afternoon due to the thick smoke.

In the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, huge water-bombing planes could be seen swooping down to fill their bellies with water to dump across the flaming Riviera backcountry.

The end of the day brought new risks, because the airborne battle against the blaze by nine water-dropping aircraft and two planes spreading fire retardant must stop at night. Reinforcements to give firefighters on the ground periodic rests were coming in from northern France and elsewhere.

The wildfire has forced about 10,000 people to flee homes, campgrounds and hotels, sending them to sleep in temporary shelters, the prefect tweeted. Among them were over 1,000 people who stayed around a gym in the seaside resort of Bormes-Les-Mimosas where authorities supplied food and water.

Vassili Bartoletti and his family, who are from northeastern France, were evacuated early Tuesday from a campground where they had been vacationing.

Around midnight, someone knocked at our door and told us to take our belongings and leave. At the end of the alley, we could see the red flames, he told The Associated Press. So we left hastily.

Bartoletti said his 6-year-old son was very anxious about the fire.

I showed him the map. I showed him we were far away, that weve been moved to a safe place in Bormes-Les-Mimosas, he said.

Last month, while the family was on vacation on the Italian island of Sardinia, a major blaze there for three days threatened the town where they had rented a house. They did not have to evacuate but endured smoke in the air and saw water-dumping planes and helicopters going back and forth repeatedly.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been vacationing in a nearby coastal fortress, visited the fire zone on Tuesday and praised the firefighters for their work.

French officials warned that the fire risk would remain very high through Wednesday because of hot, dry weather. Temperatures have reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) in recent days.

Wildfires have swept across the Mediterranean region in recent weeks, leaving areas in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain in smoldering ruins. In Greece on Wednesday, a major wildfire northwest of Athens, the capital, decimated large tracts of pine forest for a third straight day.

In neighboring Albania, hundreds of hectares (thousand of acres) have burned over the last month. Police reported Wednesday that a former deputy minister has been arrested for arson.

In Spain, authorities in the central region of Castilla y Leon said firefighters had established a perimeter around a blaze that has consumed at least 12,000 hectares (29,650 acres) this week. A fire on the Canary Islands was also brought under control after singeing 300 hectares (740 acres) of farmland.

While the Mediterranean is known for its sunny, hot summers, scientists voice little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving extreme events such as heat waves, droughts and wildfires. Such hardships are likely to happen more frequently as the Earth continues to warm, they say.

____

Corbet contributed from Saulieu, France. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Joseph Wilson in Madrid, and Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania contributed to thisstory.

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Follow APs coverage of climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change
KABUL, Afghanistan  Taliban militants attacked protesters Wednesday in Afghanistan who dared to take down their banner and replace it with the countrys flag, killing at least one person and fueling fears about how the insurgents would govern this fractious nation.

While the Taliban have insisted they will respect human rights, unlike during their previously draconian rule, the attack in Jalalabad came as many Afghans were hiding at home or trying to flee the country, fearful of abuses by the loosely controlled militant organization. Many people have expressed dread that the two-decade Western experiment to remake Afghanistan will not survive the resurgent Taliban, who took control of the country in a blitz that took just days.

Taliban leaders talked Wednesday with senior Afghan officials about a future government. In a potential complication to any effort to stabilize the country, the head of the countrys central bank warned that American sanctions over the Talibans designation as a terrorist organization threatened Afghanistans economy, which already is dangerously low on hard foreign currency.

One figure who was not at the talks in Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled as the Taliban closed in on the capital. The United Arab Emirates acknowledged Wednesday that the Gulf nation had taken him and his family in on humanitarian grounds.

In an early sign of protest to the Talibans rule, dozens gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad and a nearby market town to raise the tricolor national flag, a day before Afghanistans Independence Day, which commemorates the 1919 treaty that ended British rule. They lowered the Taliban flag  a white banner with an Islamic inscription  that the militants have raised in the areas they captured.

Video footage later showed the Taliban firing into the air and attacking people with batons to disperse the crowd. Babrak Amirzada, a reporter for a local news agency, said the Taliban beat him and a TV cameraman from another agency.

A local health official said the violence killed at least one person and wounded six. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists. The Taliban did not acknowledge the protest or the violence.

It was a rare resistance to their rule. In the days since the Taliban seized Kabul on Sunday, the militants only faced one other protest by a few women in the capital.

There has been no armed opposition to the Taliban. But videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there. That area is in the only province that has not fallen to the Taliban.

Those figures include members of the deposed government  Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he is the countrys rightful president, and Defense Minister Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi  as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In an opinion piece published by The Washington Post, Massoud asked for weapons and aid to fight the Taliban.

I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my fathers footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban, he wrote. The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again.

The Taliban, meanwhile, pressed ahead with their efforts to form an inclusive, Islamic government. They have been holding talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government. Mohammad Yusof Saha, a spokesman for Karzai, said preliminary meetings with Taliban officials would lead to eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader who just returned to the country from Qatar.

Karzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction called the Haqqani Network. That network, once allied to the U.S. during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, was blamed for a series of devastating suicide attacks amid the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The Haqqani Network, like the Taliban at large, faces U.S. sanctions.

On Wednesday, hundreds of people remained outside Kabuls airport, already the scene of deadly chaos involving crowds trying to flee the country. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch, dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

One Afghan who formerly worked with the U.S. military said he was turned away by American troops even after the State Department told him to come for a flight, according to Sam Lerman, an Air Force veteran who is helping former colleagues leave the country. The Afghan was told he needed a green card, Lerman said.

People are going to die as a result of that confusion, Lerman said.

The Taliban have promised to maintain security, but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government. Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militants.

In theory, Ghani remains the president of Afghanistan, though many in the country blame him for the collapse of Afghan security forces.

Speaking late Wednesday in a video posted to Facebook, Ghani defended abandoning Kabul as the Taliban advanced, describing it as the only way to prevent bloodshed. He denied rumors that he left with millions of dollars.

I was forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing, Ghani said. He also said he supported the talks Abdullah and Karzai are conducting with the Taliban.

In a sign of the monetary difficulties any future Afghan government will face, the head of Afghanistans central bank said the countrys supply of physical U.S. dollars is close to zero. Afghanistan has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some $7 billion held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

The next shipment never arrived, he wrote. Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.

A U.S. official confirmed that the Treasury Department has frozen the Afghan governments accounts in the United States and halted direct assistance payments to the government. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly.

Ahmady said the lack of U.S. dollars will likely lead to a depreciation of the local currency, the afghani, hurting the countrys poor.

The Taliban won militarily  but now have to govern, he wrote. It is not easy.

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This story has been updated to correct that Sam Lerman is an Air Force veteran helping Afghans leave the country, not an Afghan trying to leave the country, and that an Afghan he was helping was turned away before he made it inside the airport.

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Faiez reported from Istanbul, Gannon from Guelph, Canada, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem, Rahim Faiez in Istanbul, Sylvia Hui in London and Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
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David Clinton Heard, whom the actress described as having 'struggled with alcohol and drug abuse issues his whole life,' reportedly ran the fighting ring on his 10-acres of land in Texas.

Aug 17, 2021

AceShowbiz - Amber Heard's father was once entangled in legal trouble. David Clinton Heard, whom the "Aquaman" actress described as having "struggled with alcohol and drug abuse issues his whole life," was reportedly jailed in the past for running an illegal, "barbaric" pit bull fighting ring.

Revealing the news was Paul Barresi, who once worked with Amber's legal team amid her nasty court battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp. However, instead of finding evidence against Johnny for his alleged abusive behavior, Paul found David's dark past.

Paul told Radar that David was once arrested, convicted and incarcerated for animal cruelty "by orchestrating a cruel, heartless, torturous pit bull ring in Texas in the 1980s." Paul allegedly ran the fighting ring, which involved at least seven dogs, on his 10-acres of land.

David only served 15 days in jail after entering a guilty plea. He got off scot-free on cruelty to animals charge by pleading "nolo contendere", which carries the same fundamental consequences as a guilty plea but without the admission of guilt.

Speaking about the discovery, Paul said, "I dove into the state of Texas' archived court catacombs and unearthed the shocking documents and proof about Amber's dad." Paul went on, "I found however that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I can't help but ask, whether Amber and members of her family knew that her father was the ring leader of barbaric dog fights that rendered pit bulls maimed or dead."

The report arrived after Amber claimed that Johnny once dangled her dog Pistol out of a speeding car window. "When you were in the car, you were smoking and you opened the window and you were angry and you were aggressive," The Sun's lawyer, Sasha Wass told the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor during a hearing in July 2020.

The "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" star, however, shut down the accusations. "I can say it is a very endearing image, but it is absolute utter falsity, it is fraudulent," he pointed out. "I don't think hanging an animal, a small defenseless dog that weighs three pounds out of a window is fun."
WENN/Sheri Determan TV

The Slim Shady is expected to make his acting comeback in the upcoming TV series called 'Black Mafia Family', portraying drug dealer-turned-FBI informant.

Aug 18, 2021

AceShowbiz - Eminem is returning to acting to play Detroit, Michigan drug dealer-turned-FBI informant Rick Wershe, Jr. in pal 50 Cent's upcoming series, "Black Mafia Family".

50 broke the news on Tuesday (17Aug21), revealing he couldn't imagine making the show without the "Lose Yourself" rapper, who hasn't had a leading acting role since his breakout performance in "8 Mile" two decades ago.

"Oh yeah i'm bringing the big dogs out," 50 wrote on social media. "I couldn't do a show based in Detroit without incorporating the legend @eminem. Got him to play white Boy Rick in BMF, this s**t is out of here (sic)."

According to The Wrap, Eminem will guest star in an episode of the series, which is produced by 50 Cent.

"I'm honored and appreciative of my good friend Em for supporting my new show BMF," 50 added in a statement.

Wershe's story was told in the 2017 documentary "White Boy" and it was fictionalised for the 2018 film "White Boy Rick", starring Matthew McConaughey and Richie Merritt.

Wershe was arrested for cocaine possession and handed a life sentence. He was paroled last summer (20), aged 50.

Meanwhile, 50 Cent's new series is inspired by the real-life story of the Detroit crime family led by Demetrius "Big Meech" and Terry "Southwest" Flenory.

Meech will be played by the gang leader's real-life son, Demetrius "Lil Meech" Flenory, Jr., while Snoop Dogg and La La Anthony have also landed roles. The series is scheduled to premiere on U.S. cable network Starz on 26 Sept (21).
Instagram Celebrity

Falynn, who was previously married to Porsha's now-fiance Simon Guobadia, confirms that she is expecting her first child with Jaylan Banks through a YouTube video.

Aug 18, 2021

AceShowbiz - Porsha Williams proved that she has nothing against Falynn Guobadia. After her former co-star on "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" announced that she's expecting her first child with new boyfriend Jaylan Banks, the "Dish Nation" host gave a subtle congratulation to the pregnant beauty.

Falynn and Jaylan broke the happy news through a YouTube video that they uploaded on Tuesday, August 17. After The Shade Room shared a short clip of the footage on its Instagram account, Porsha was caught liking the post.

In her announcement, Falynn declared, "Jaylan and I will actually be having a baby." The expectant mom, who was seen sitting next to her partner in the clip, went on, "Jaylan and I are expecting. We are adding another little one to the crazy bunch. It is Jaylan's first baby, so welcome aboard."

The mom of three then explained why she decided to announce her fourth pregnancy. "I do realize that a lot of you and a lot of blogs have somewhat caught wind of our little news and we just wanted to make sure that we made it past the 2-month mark," she explained.

As for Falynn's beau, he claimed that he's "as ready as [he] can ever be" to become a father for the first time. He continued, "I've always wanted to have some type of father figure in my life so I'm giving back to the boys what I've never received... I'm ready to start the new adventure with you."

Hours later, Falynn showed off her baby bump during a YouTube Live. "Here we are, these are my stretch marks that I'm so embarrassed about,'' she told her fans. She also shut down Simon's cheating accusation against her. "Somebody was divorcing me because I was pregnant with my best friend's child. No, sorry to tell you that's not true at all. I was sitting at home, begging for him to come home for months."

Falynn was previously married to Simon Guobadia, who is now engaged to Porsha. The former couple confirmed their separation in April and finally finalized their divorce in July. At that time, the 32-year-old exclaimed on Instagram Story, "I am officially divorced! It's a party! It's a partyyy!!!"

Falynn has previously clarified that Porsha was not the cause of her split from Simon. "No, no one has that power over my life, my husband's life and our marriage," she said in a YouTube video posted in June. "However, Simon and I were the ones who are married to one another, we're the ones who created a family together and built a life with one another. I blame the both of us. He's to blame, I am to blame and that is all."
Netflix TV

The new images featuring the 'Tenet' actress and the 'Affair' star in season 5 are shared on the popular show's official account on Instagram as well as Netflix's social media accounts.

Aug 18, 2021

AceShowbiz - "The Crown" has finally released the first look at Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Dominic West as Prince Charles in upcoming season 5. The new images hit the web through the popular show's official account on Instagram as well as Netflix's social media accounts.

In the new pictures, Debicki's Diana can be seen looking pensive while resting on a sofa. West's Prince of Wales, meanwhile, is seen forlorn while standing outdoor. Putting one of his hands on his suit's pocket, the prince looks as if he's worried over something.

"Our new Prince Charles (Dominic West) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki)," the account writes in the caption.

In season 5 of "The Crown", Debicki takes over the role of the beloved royal from Emma Corrin, who plays Diana in season 4. Netlix announced her casting back in August, writing on Twitter, "Elizabeth Debicki will play Princess Diana in the final two seasons of The Crown (Seasons 5 and 6)."

In the accompaniment statement, "The Great Gatsby" star said, "Princess Diana's spirit, her words and her actions live in the hearts of so many. It is my true privilege and honour to be joining this masterful series, which has had me absolutely hooked from episode one."

As for West, his casting was confirmed by Josh O'Connor, who won a 2021 Golden Globe and Critics Choice award for his portrayal of Charles on the show before passing the baton to West. "It's lovely to come away and go, 'Great. Now hand it over to Dominic West,' " Josh tells GQ when asked if he would be handing out advice to his successor. "If Dominic West came to me asking me for advice, I'd laugh him off. I'd be like, 'Dom! You're Dominic West!' "

Season 5 of "The Crown" is set to pick up where the fourth season left off - the early 1990s. It is expected to feature the queen's year of "annus horribilis" in 1992, when the royal family faced numerous scandals. The scandals include the split Prince Charles and Diana, the report of an affair between Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, the publication of topless sunbathing photos of Sarah Ferguson as well as a fire incident at Windsor Castle. It is, however, unclear if season 5 will document Princess Diana's death in 1997.

Also starring in the new season are Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret and James Murray as Prince Andrew. Also joining the cast is Jonny Lee Miller as former Prime Minister John Major.
Instagram Celebrity

Weeks before being spotted attending the Saint-Tropez bash together, the former One Direction member and his ex-fiancee were seen enjoying drinks at a hotel in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

Aug 18, 2021

AceShowbiz - Pop star Liam Payne and his former fiancee Maya Henry appear to have confirmed reports they're back together after they attended a party together in Saint-Tropez, France on Monday, August 16.

The former flames announced their engagement in August 2020, two years after the pair were first linked, but in June, the former One Direction star - who shares son Bear, four, with former girlfriend Cheryl Cole - told the "Diary of a CEO" podcast he was single, and seemed to blame himself for the split.

"I feel like more than anything at this point, I'm more disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people," he revealed, explaining he's "not been very good at relationships" and adding that he needed to "work on myself before I put myself on to somebody else."

Liam and Maya were spotted earlier this month (August 2021), enjoying drinks at a hotel in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and he wasn't shy about going public with his romance plans, writing on Instagram, "Don't let someone go if you really want to love them even if you have to learn to love them through your own mistakes let your instinct tell you that you need them and keep them close we are always running out of time we never gain it [sic]."

Now it seems his efforts have paid off because the pair were spotted together on the French Riviera after attending a bash on a luxury yacht. They were photographed strolling together in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after they returned to the mainland. They have yet to comment on reports they have rekindled their relationship.
WENN Celebrity

The former 'Melrose Place' star was a passenger in a Ford Edge driven by her uncle Mitch, who then appeared to suffer a heart attack, causing the car to hit another vehicle.

Aug 18, 2021

AceShowbiz - Alyssa Milano might have saved her uncle's life after a car accident which could've turned out worse. The actress and her uncle got into the scary situation on early Tuesday morning, August 17 in Los Angeles.

The Phoebe Halliwell of "Charmed" was sitting in the passenger seat when her uncle Mitch, who drove a Ford Edge, suffered a medical emergency behind the wheel. Mitch fell unconscious as he appeared to have a heart attack.

This caused the SUV to drift to another lane and hit another vehicle. Thanks to Alyssa's quick thinking, it came to a stop. According to TMZ, while her uncle passed out, she quickly reached over him and used her hand to slam the brakes to stop the car.

Alyssa even performed CPR on her uncle until first responders took over. According to the California Highway Patrol's press release, two Los Angeles Police Department units arrived at the scene. Mitch was later transported to the hospital, while the 48-year-old actress was picked up by her husband, David Bugliari.

The press release also noted that two Good Samaritans stopped to help. "With the assistance of a good Samaritan, they were able to bring the Ford to a stop in between the #1 and #2 lane," it stated.

Alyssa's camp tells TMZ that she's grateful for everyone who aided her uncle, including first responders and hospital staff. The actress herself was seemingly not seriously injured in the accident as she was able to tweet later on Tuesday night.

Alyssa Milano tweeted after involved in a car accident with her uncle.

The "Melrose Place" alum took the opportunity to remind people to protect each other by any means necessary, while not directly addressing the car accident. "We should all take every opportunity we have to protect the people we love. Get vaccinated. Wear masks. Lock up your guns. Learn CPR. Small, common-sense actions," so she posted on her Twitter page. She added, "It's not hard to take care of each other, but it is important."
Instagram Celebrity

The 'Voice' artist's Instagram post arrives after 7-year-old Serenity Broughton and her 6-year-old sister Aubrey were shot in a recent gun incident that killed Serenity's life.

Aug 18, 2021

AceShowbiz - With so many people becoming victims of gun violence, Lil Durk thinks that it's time to make changes. Taking to his social media account, the "Laugh Now Cry Later" spitter called for an end to gun violence after two young girls being shot in his hometown.

On Tuesday, August 17, the rapper shared a screenshot about Broughton sisters who were victims in a shooting incident earlier this month. "I be willing to help the best way I can but some higher power act as if they don't care," Durk wrote over the image. "This need to change and ASAP."

Lil Durk called for a change in Chicago.

Durk's post arrived after 7-year-old Serenity Broughton lost her life to gun violence after being shot in the chest. Meanwhile, her 6-year-old sister Aubrey has since been stabilized after being rushed to Loyola University Medical Center. The two reportedly were shot on Sunday when they were with their family after enjoying a morning at church. It was said that the girls were inside the family's vehicle when someone drove by and opened fire.

"Aubrey, the bullet ruptured her lung and she had to be intubated," the girls' grandmother Regina Broughton said, adding, "Serenity's injury was fatal. The bullet pierced her heart -- she didnt have a chance." A neighbor went on to share, "Like a machine gun going off, like, you know what I mean, like two people shooting at each other or something."

The little girls father denied involvement in any gangs, saying in a statement, "I'm not no gangbanger. I'm not out here doing the wrong thing. I'm a CTA worker. I'm a bus driver."

Of Aubrey's condition, meanwhile, Regina told reporters, "She's in a lot of pain. They're keeping her mildly sedated." She continued, "I did hear her speak, which was reassuring, except she was crying out that it hurt."
Samsung, Indias most trusted smartphone brand, announced its partnership with leading actor and youth icon Alia Bhatt for its premium Galaxy Z Series foldable smartphones. Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip3 5G, Samsung's most powerful and premium foldable smartphones, come with an array of more optimized foldable experiences allowing consumers to unfold newer experiences. From the iconic design to the immersive large screen experience, Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 offer users unique new ways to work, watch and play.

SCREENXX Awards 2021 Early Bird Discount for nomination of Digital Video Content and OTT Platform.. - Tuesday, August 31, 2021 - ENTRIES OPEN

"We are happy to have partnered with Alia Bhatt for our foldable campaign in India. Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 are an amalgamation of style, premium looks, innovation and utility that promise a smooth smartphone experience for our young users. Alias immense popularity among young Gen Z and millennial consumers will help us deepen our bonds with them. Moreover, Alia's quality and depth of work resonates with Samsung's key values of openness and innovation, said Sumit Walia, Senior Director, Samsung India.

Speaking about the association, Alia Bhatt stated, I have done a small test run with Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 and I feel they live up to every promise that the brand has made. Samsungs new foldable phones look sleek and come in interesting colour options. I love the camera and the large cover screen, and also the fact that these foldable phones are very compact and portable. As for technology, it is truly cutting edge at the same time very user friendly and easy to navigate through.

The campaign has shaped up really well. I really liked the script and the communication that Samsung wants to put forth. I am really excited for the campaign to break, now. I think Samsung has a strong presence and it is a very trusted brand. It is a pleasure to be a part of their journey while adding a little to my own, Alia Bhatt added.

Over the course of next few days, weeks and months, Alia Bhatt will be involved in a robust campaign that entails digital and outdoor activations.

Alia Bhatt has always been on the forefront of brand communications and a trusted partner for marketers and brand managers to leverage their campaigns, cutting across industries. Alongside her cinematic accomplishments, the actor runs multiple charitable programmes hinged on sustainability and animal welfare. She has also made strategic investments in a few unicorns and has started up a kids wear label recently.

Meanwhile, Samsung announced that pre-bookings for Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 will open on August 24 in India. Samsung is committed to giving more consumers access to the unique foldable experience. Thats why Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 are being offered at attractive prices in India.
Following the success of five super-hit seasons, Dice Media returns with a new Season of its franchise Instagram series, Firsts, making it the longest running digital property ever witnessed in India. Season 6 showcases an enriching journey of a young couple faced by an unplanned pregnancy and eventually taking a leap of faith into parenthood. Prega News and Country Delight make the ideal collaborators for this season as they continue to be the perfect companions in the lives of every to-be-mother across the country. With an intent of building a community of its own, the former seasons have beautifully captured the first moments that people experience in every relationship through topics such as college romance, LGBTQ+ relationships, arranged marriages and the acceptance of the specially-abled in a unique love story.

Firsts season 6 is an emotional journey of an ambitious married couple- Pakhi, ( Tara Alisha Berry ), and Ankur, ( Karan Jotwani ) who are caught off-guard when they accidentally get pregnant. The young working professionals work through their apprehensions and doubts as they experience their magical Firsts of welcoming the baby. The 20 unique one-minute episodes of this season show the duo navigating through many obstacles like managing work commitments, growing together as a couple, while learning to embrace parenthood.

The uniqueness of the series remains in its ability to beautifully capture the firsts that a pair would experience in this situation. The ever- reliable Prega News helps confirm the pregnancy and thereby we witness their first reaction to becoming parents. It goes on to showcase the first official announcement of conceiving, to the first maternal instincts of wanting to provide the best for your child. This is seen when Pakhi chooses Country Delights 100% pure cow milk, a direct-to-home consumer brand that delivers pure, fresh & minimally processed food essentials, by sourcing its produce directly from a network of farmers.

Commenting on the partnership, Joy Chatterjee, General Manager - Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma said, Prega News is the No.1 brand in the category. The concept of the film perfectly matches our product proposition. We realised that it is the perfect opportunity to showcase why Prega News is an essential part of every mothers life whenever she is expecting a newborn. The product is known for its accurate results and is widely trusted by doctors and millions of consumers. Prega News shares an irreplaceable bond between an expecting mother and a baby. Millions of women have embarked on a journey of motherhood, and we take pride in being their companion during the happiest moments of life. We are remarkably delighted to partner with Dice Media on this beautiful conceptualisation of a young couple becoming parents.

Shradha Agarwal, COO and Strategy Head, Grapes Digital said, We are extremely happy and pleased that Prega News and Dice Media have come together, and we got a chance to make this happen. When we saw the storyline and concept, we thought of striking an emotional chord with the audience and thats why we came up with the idea. Prega News is the preferred companion of millions of expecting mothers. The experience holds much more significance when a couple is welcoming their first child. We wanted to highlight the same love, compassion and cherishable moments of life through this partnership. Firsts has always kept the fun and laughter quotient high and Season 6 will be no different. I am confident that it will live up to the expectation of the audience.

Speaking about the association, Kunal Langer, AVP, Branded Content Sales, Pocket Aces says, Firsts has been a successful franchise where we always aim to showcase interesting relationship based stories with emotional bonds that connect with our audiences from all age- groups. As our audiences have matured, so have our storylines and with Season 6 delving into an unplanned pregnancy of a couple, we aim to add to a new milestone to our innovative content narratives. Country delight and Prega News make the perfect fit for us to present the ideal brand association and we are extremely glad to have them on board with us. As our roadmap is to find unique storylines that are relatable to the constantly progressing audience and fans, we are hopeful to continue our wonderful associations in future.
After the Talibani capture over Afghanistan, Facebook has announced its ban on all Taliban-related content that supports the insurgents, on their platform as the Group is a terrorist organization. Facebook is hiring an expert and dedicated team of Native Afghans to monitor and remove content linked to the Taliban.

Taliban has been using social media to spread its agenda for years now and currently, the situation of the rapid takeover of Afghanistan raises new and fresh challenges for tech firms in order to deal with the content posting with relation to the Group.

SCREENXX Awards 2021 Early Bird Discount for nomination of Digital Video Content and OTT Platform.. - Tuesday, August 31, 2021 - ENTRIES OPEN

"The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies. This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them," a Facebook spokesperson told the BBC.

"We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us to emerging issues on the platform."

The social media giant said it does not make decisions about the recognition of national governments but instead follows the "authority of the international community".

Facebook applies its policy to all its social media platforms as the Taliban is active in its propaganda mainly through WhatsApp.
Haier, the global leader in Home Appliances & Consumer Electronics and Worlds Number 1 brand in Major Appliances for 12 Consecutive Years*, today announced an array of exciting cashback offers and affordable No Cost EMI schemes on its diverse range of products to add fervor to the ongoing festive season. As part of the schemes, the consumers will have access to unique offers and assured benefits on the purchase of Haier electronic products.

In line with its motto of Inspired Living, the brand is motivating consumers to add style and finesse to their lifestyles in the new normal by providing offers of 9 months EMI and Zero down payment on select models across categories such as Air Conditioners, Washing Machines, Refrigerators, and Televisions. Haier is giving amazing offer to its customers in association with Bajaj/IDFC. Additionally, the brand is also offering up to 15% cashback on credit card EMI purchase with banks including HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Standard Chartered, Bank of Baroda and American Express.

Commenting on the offers, Mr. Eric Braganza, President, Haier Appliances India said, This year has been challenging in many ways for us and our customers. The pandemic has confined us to our homes, leading to a paradigm shift in the consumer behavior and the home appliances industry at large. We remain committed to providing products as per the need and demand of the industry and with this festive season we aim to give our customers a smarter life with our new and innovative smart home products that would not only inspire their lifestyles in the new normal but are also suitable for a stylish home makeover.

Even during the difficulties poised by the pandemic, Haier India has been embedding latest technologies in its products across categories to upgrade the lifestyles of its customers and match their demands in the new normal. From the launch of dual drum super silent washing machine and UV Clean Pro AC to Magic Convertible Bottom and Top Mounted Refrigerators, Haiers exclusive range of smart home appliances is packed with unique features enabled by AI and IoT, making it the most sought after brand in the Indian home appliance sector.

The offers will be applicable on the purchase of select products from Haiers exclusive stores, select multi-brand retail stores, and leading electronics stores across India till 31st August 2021.
With the aim to raise awareness about the importance of an inclusive society, JK Cement, the leading premier cement giant, launched its digital social media campaign titled Yeh Yaarana Pucca Hai (#YYPH). The campaign is launched as part of a bigger initiative, Banaye Har Raah Aasaan, where JK Cement achieved a historic feat by building 251 ramps in one single day across the districts of Jaipur, Rajasthan on 5th August 2021.

The six-minute-long film, YYPH, takes an emotional route to deliver a strong message on the need to create an inclusive infrastructure for differently-enabled students and access quality education to all children by providing them with equal opportunities. Through this campaign, JK Cement makes an appeal to society that every child has the right to education and as responsible citizens, we should always aim to ensure that. The video, in the end, also talks about how JK Cement is leading from the front by walking the talk and has already built 251 ramps in various schools in Rajasthan.

The story of YYPH talks about a few school children and their bond of friendship among them. It depicts how these children put their efforts, despite not getting any financial support, to create a wheel-chair accessible ramp in the school for their state-level cyclist friend who met with an accident and would not be able to walk for the next few months and therefore is unable to attend school. The creative agency behind the creative campaign is Purple Focus Pvt Ltd & the film is directed by Jay Bhansali.

Talking about this initiative, Rajnish Kapur, COO (Grey Business), JK Cement, said "Our late CMD, Sh. Yadupati Singhania Ji was a visionary and believed that to be leaders, we have to be first into the future". It is his humble thoughts, humility, and compassion that made JK Cement one of the most trusted brands in the country today. The campaign Banaye Har Raah Aasaan is a way to give back to society and our social media film, Yeh Yaarana Pucca Hai, talks about why it is important to take our thoughts and journey forward.

Talking about the social media campaign, Pushp Raj Singh, President Marketing (Grey Business), JK Cement said, JK Cement as an organisation has always been a socially conscious entity and that is why we call ourselves, "a brand with a purpose". In the past, we have given many messages to society- be it with our Yeh Pucca Hai campaign, or our Humse Hai Suraksha campaign. Through this new social media campaign, we wanted to highlight how each one of us can make a difference and with all our forces combined, we can drive meaningful and lasting positive change. JK Cement has always believed in creating strong foundations and truly believes that the youth of the country is our future. Hence, with our commitment to strength, consistency, and durability, we are building an inclusive and better society for all.

JK Cements commitment towards inclusive education aligns with the governments National Education Policy, which targets at ensuring equal and inclusive education opportunities to all students.
Saridon, the headache relief solution owned by Bayer Consumer Health division in India, has rolled out a new campaign by repositioning the brand. Sar Dard Chupao Nahi, Mitao is the new sign off line and fresh thinking for this, whereby the brand is seen as the first line of defence for getting relief from headaches.

By leveraging their lineage and deep-rooted consumer trust, the campaign through its refreshed modern and contemporary packaging appeals to the heroism drive of the resilient young Indians to make Saridons innovative triple-action formula their secret ally in finding relief from their frequently experienced stress-induced headaches instead of hiding it.

Conceptualised by Lowe Lintas, the 30-second TVC at a more purposive level, highlights the need for people to release the pressure, stress, tensions, and headaches with the help of Saridons one-stop relief mechanism. It features the heart-warming, iconic Sirf ek Saridon jingle bringing alive the nostalgia that has resonated with its millions of consumers for decades.

Speaking to Adgully, Ritu Mittal, Head - Marketing and Digital, Bayer Consumer Health India, shares her views and insights about the campaign and how they plan to garner visibility to create a strong presence for Saridon across the country through this new campaign.

Whats the objective of relaunching the Saridon brand with a new positioning and a new sign?

As per the Global Workplace Study 2020, the Indian workforce is the most resilient in the world. While resilience as an attribute is an asset, it may be a bane when applied/ practiced for ones health. By leveraging our lineage and deep-rooted consumer trust, our campaign through its refreshed modern and contemporary packaging appeals to the heroism drive of the resilient young Indians to make Saridons innovative triple-action formula their secret ally in finding relief from their frequently experienced stress-induced headaches instead of hiding it.

The brand had strong equity with the earlier baseline and jingle Sirf Ek Saridon jingle and was very synonymous with headaches and pain. So, why this new relaunch after nearly 5 decades?

Saridon has been Indias Go-To solution for headaches for the last five+ decades. The relaunch aims to reconnect with the young adults in India to liberate them from the feeling of putting up a brave face when in pain. It is an opportunity for us to own the larger conversation around stress and help provide an effective solution to manage it. Introducing a category first life insight, the campaign leverages nostalgia through the heartwarming, iconic Sirf Ek Saridon jingle that continues to resonate with millions of our consumers even today. The jingle presents an assured and a comfort factor to our audience married with our aim to empower consumers to proactively take charge of their own health.

How did you arrive at the new tagline Sardard Chupao Nahi, Mitao? How did this new insight emerge?

The genesis of the tagline lies in the category first insight discovered during the campaign research phase which highlights that young adult do not act upon their headaches but rather continue to work through it. The tagline #SardardChupaoNahiMitao is a call to action which aims to change this observed behavior pattern while providing our consumers with a trusted/reliable/ effective solution.

Can you elaborate on the creative thought and how did the idea come up for the new TVC?

We wanted to communicate our message of Saridon being the first line of defense for headaches and build relevance with young Indians while creating distinctiveness. The new TVC brings a fresh human insight to the category demonstrating that Saridon truly understands our consumers pain experience. The campaign connects with their head and their heart. While our media strategy is all-encompassing, from our experience, TVC continues to be one of the key mediums to communicate it. It also helps us build relevance with our target audience spread across metros, Tier II & III markets in India effectively.

Saridon as a brand is a strong OTC brand. Are you also aligned with e-pharmacy and is the brand available beyond the chemist outlets?

We want to ensure that Saridon is the Go-To solution for every headache in India and is the first line of defense for all our consumers looking to get rid of pain. Saridon is the deepest distributed analgesic brand in India. We will ensure the availability of Saridon tablets across channels including chemist outlets, e-pharmacy, and pharmacy chains.

How do you plan to create awareness with the new TVC? Whats your media strategy to reach the masses?

We have deployed an integrated communications campaign to generate awareness about the relaunch campaign. It involves strategic media mix exposure through avenues like television, new-age, digital and social media promotions. Consumers today are interested in a two-way conversation with brands. We will ensure that we are engaging our consumers with relevant, innovative, and contextual content across platforms.
In a bid to make parents and students aware about its online tutoring platform, Vedantu-a pioneer in LIVE online learning, launched an ad campaign on Public App in seven major Indian languages- Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, English and Hindi. Through the Vedantu Improvement Promise (VIP) campaign, the brand aims to reach a wider audience by geo-targeted ads in that regions local language. The one-day long campaign received great overall response and generated over 40 lakh views, with an industry best engagement rate of 4.8% and CTR (click though rate) of 1.32%.

According to a report by Google/KPMG, around 70% of current Indian internet users prefer Indic languages over English. Brands nowadays, have realized the need to regionalize ads to create and garner a larger impact. Keeping this in mind, the Vedantu Improvement Promise advertisement allowed users to view an informative card in that regions local language along with the dubbed campaign film, featuring Aamir Khan. With this bold initiative, Public enabled Vedantu to share its messaging in a more impactful way which resonated with their set of audience.

Commenting on the campaign, Harshil Dhingra, Chief Business Officer, Public App said, We thank Vedantu for reposing their trust in us to reach the right audience and spread the message of their VIP initiative. We ensured hyper-localisation through our geo-targeted ads for this campaign and also made them available in all major Indian languages according to the region. Its great to see the kind of response and popularity it garnered in such a small time.

Speaking about the campaign, Kunal Dubey, Head of Marketing, Vedantu, said, At Vedantu, we aim to create a healthy learning environment, keeping students at our core. Learning is a collective effort, and the academic progress should not be only students' and parents' responsibility, therefore the whole system needs to assure accountability of their progress. Through the partnership with Public app, we have been successful in maximizing our efforts to create impact at scale through the apps wide audience base and spread the message of our latest ad campaign across the country.

This is one of the unique and industry first innovative campaign ads that Public has run in recent months. The app has conceptualized plenty of non-intrusive, mobile-friendly, and full-screen display ad formats including video interstitials for leading brands like GSK, Skoda, Amazon Prime Video, OnePlus, HDFC Bank, TVS, Coinswitch Kuber, Swiggy, Rebel Foods and many more.

With a promise to deliver a seamless experience and increase user delight for its users and advertisers, the brand is working towards adding in-built video creation tools to help create good quality professional content on mobile and aims to make Public app the worlds largest location based social network in the next few years.
In line with its global commitment to support over 50 million small businesses go digital, Visa (NYSE: V), the global leader in payments technology, today launched Bring India Home (BIH) - a digital platform to help local artisans and small businesses from across 17 Indian states to go digital. The platform will help these small business owners attract new consumers and incentivize consumers for shopping digitally across the platform. Visa will also conduct instructional sessions to familiarize these businesses with the nuances of digital payments as well as digital marketing techniques.

Launching the initiative, TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa, said Small businesses are hugely important to creating jobs in the economy and employ over 100 million people across India alone. With the pandemic shifting consumer spends online, Bring India Home will help Indian small businesses to go digital, expand their product reach as also allow millions of online Indian consumers to explore unique, Made-in-India products from local artisans and communities.

BIH follows Visas recent partnership with iFundWomen to support women entrepreneurs in India and reflects Visas distinct leaning from a corporate purpose and business perspective too. From building dedicated small business hubs to launching a public campaign such as #WhereYouShopMatters that focuses on local communities; Visa has actively endorsed and supported small business communities around the world in recent times. Besides a global commitment to help 50 million small businesses across the world go digital over the next three years, Visa Foundation has also made a $200 million commitment to help small and minority-owned firms globally, particularly firms owned by women.
The Federal Council

Bern, 18.08.2021 - The Federal Council acknowledged the results of the consultation on the partial revision of the Patents Act at its meeting of 18 August 2021 and decided on the further course of action. Modernising the patent examination procedure was, in principle, welcomed in the consultation. The Federal Council has decided to take into account the criticism voiced in individual areas by making adjustments to the contents of the draft bill. It has mandated the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) to submit a dispatch by the end of 2022.

The partial revision of the Patents Act, which the Federal Council submitted for consultation on 14 October 2020, was aimed primarily at fulfilling the parliamentary mandate to introduce a fully examined Swiss patent together with a utility model as an unexamined IP right (19.3228 Hefti Motion). The consultation, however, revealed that an either-or solution - either a fully examined patent or a utility model - is too rigid, while a flexible patent examination is what is wanted.

The tried and tested 'unexamined' Swiss patent is staying



In view of the results of the consultation, the Federal Council continues to support the introduction of a fully examined patent. It decided, however, that a utility model will not be introduced and that it would like to keep the current patent system, to the extent that - according to feedback from the consultation - it has proved its worth. In general, a patent application will therefore still not be examined for novelty and inventive step by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI). As a result, an 'unexamined' - but less expensive - IP right will continue to be available to inventors as called for by the motion.

Flexible patent examination - fully examined Swiss patent on request

In future, inventors should also be able to request that all patentability requirements are examined (in particular novelty and inventive step) by the IPI. Such a fully examined Swiss patent is, in particular, for SMEs a valuable alternative to a fully examined European patent granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) with protection extended to Switzerland - a path that is often laborious and expensive for an SME.



More legal certainty with obligatory searches



The Federal Council would also like to create more legal certainty for the 'unexamined' IP right, as was called for in both the motion and consultation. As a result, every patent application is to be supplemented with a compulsory patent search. The public search report documents the state of the art from which the invention must be sufficiently different. On the basis of this information, it is therefore possible to better evaluate whether the invention can really be protected by a patent.

Streamlined appeal procedure with a court specialised in patent matters

The Federal Council wants to make the Swiss patent system as lean as possible in order to offer an attractive alternative to the European patent. IPI decisions must be reviewable by a court on appeal. This review is to happen in future directly through the Federal Patent Court, which has the necessary high level of technical expertise. The opposition procedure introduced in 2008 is to be dispensed with altogether. It has never been resorted to since it was introduced.

Address for enquiries

Alexander Pfister, Head of Legal Services  Industrial Property Rights

Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property IPI

Direct line: T +41 31 377 74 88



Esther Marchetti-Baumgartner, Legal Services  Industrial Property Rights

Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property IPI

Direct line: T +41 31 377 72 64

Publisher

The Federal Council

https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html



Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property

http://www.ige.ch



Federal Department of Justice and Police

http://www.ejpd.admin.ch




The Federal Council

Bern, 18.08.2021 - Swiss citizens living abroad, their immediate family members and cross-border commuters without compulsory health insurance are to be allowed to get vaccinated in Switzerland. At its meeting on 18 August, the Federal Council launched consultation proceedings on an amendment to the Epidemics Ordinance.

To date, due to the limited availability of vaccine doses, only people resident in Switzerland, cross-border commuters working in the health sector and foreign nationals with compulsory health insurance have been able to get vaccinated in Switzerland. However, now that all people living in Switzerland who wish to be vaccinated have had the opportunity to do so, the Federal Council believes that the vaccine should be made available to other people with close ties to Switzerland. This concerns Swiss citizens living abroad who do not have compulsory health insurance in Switzerland, their immediate family members (partners, children, parents and parents-in-law living in the same household), and cross-border commuters who do not have compulsory health insurance in Switzerland.

The Federal Council is consulting the cantons and the social partners on an amendment to the Epidemics Ordinance. This provides for the Confederation to assume the costs of vaccination for cross-border commuters, since they are regularly in Switzerland and could influence the course of the pandemic here. The Federal Council also intends to allow Swiss citizens without compulsory health insurance in Switzerland living abroad and their immediate family members to be vaccinated in Switzerland. For these individuals, who are not normally resident in Switzerland, it is proposing two variants for consultation. Under the first variant, the costs of vaccination are assumed by the Confederation. The second variant requires these individuals to assume the costs of vaccination themselves.

The Federal Council will announce its decision on 25 August.

Address for enquiries

Federal Office of Public Health

COVID-19 Infoline +41 58 463 00 00

COVID-19 Vaccination Infoline +41 58 377 88 92

Publisher

The Federal Council

https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html



Federal Department of Home Affairs

http://www.edi.admin.ch



Federal Office of Public Health

http://www.bag.admin.ch



Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html




The Federal Council

Bern, 18.08.2021 - Swiss producers will in future be able to register geographical indications in several states simultaneously via a simple procedure. At its meeting on 18 August 2021, the Federal Council approved the entry into force of the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications as well as the implementing ordinances per 1 December 2021.

On 19 March 2021, Parliament approved the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications and the amendment of the Trade Mark Protection Act. The Lisbon System enables Swiss beneficiaries of appellations of origin (e.g. Gruyere) and geographical indications (e.g. Bundnerfleisch or Swiss for watches) to obtain a high level of protection on the territory of the contracting parties for an unlimited period of time.

The implementing ordinances set out, in particular, the conditions for the international registration of Swiss denominations and for the acceptance or refusal of the effectiveness of foreign international registrations in Switzerland. The details of these procedures are outlined in the Trade Mark Protection Ordinance (Art. 52p to 52r TmPO).

The international registration of Swiss denominations and the examination of foreign international registrations via the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) are free of charge. However, if a third party files an opposition with the IPI against the effectiveness of a foreign international registration in Switzerland, a fee of 800 Swiss francs is to be paid. The international fee and any national fees which may be required by other contracting parties are directly levied by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Address for enquiries

Felix Addor, Deputy Director General, Chief Legal Counsellor

Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property

Direct line: +41 31 377 72 01

Publisher

The Federal Council

https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html



Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property

http://www.ige.ch



Federal Department of Justice and Police

http://www.ejpd.admin.ch




Alton, IL (62002)

Today

Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.
Excerpted from The Defender, from Children's Health Defense>



Will Vaccination Become the Price of Admission to Society?

By Dr. Joseph Mercola



An Aug. 2 op-ed by the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board suggested we ought to make vaccination the price of admission to society. One way to evaluate the reasonableness of such a proposition is to replace COVID vaccination with anything else.

Story at-a-glance:

In June, the U.S. National Security Council released a new National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism document. While its being largely framed as a tool to fight extremism, the definition of what constitutes a domestic terrorist is incredibly vague and based on ideologies rather than specific behaviors.



This policy can easily be used to silence political opposition simply by labeling anyone who disagrees with the government as a domestic terrorist and charging them with a hate crime, and were already seeing signs of this.



Dr. Peter Hotez recently published a paper in PLOS Biology, in which he suggests criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci and other scientists ought to be labeled a hate crime.



Former assistant secretary for Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem is urging the U.S. government to put unvaccinated citizens on a no-fly list.

In June, the U.S. National Security Council released a new National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism document. While its being largely framed as a tool to fight white supremacy and political extremism, the definition of what constitutes a domestic terrorist is incredibly vague and based on ideologies rather than specific behaviors.

Its not difficult to imagine this policy being used to silence political opposition simply by labeling anyone who disagrees with the government as a domestic terrorist and charging them with a hate crime. Read more at The Defender.
Last month, when I visited with several farmers and farm journalists on the telephone and with people who attended a Town Hall meeting at my local Shelby County Fair, nearly everyone I asked told me they are worried about increasing political and ideological divisions among agricultural producers, as well as among all Americans. They also hoped these differences would lessen.

This column takes a candid look at what is more important to agricultural producers: Their political opinions and ideological beliefs, or their shared purpose as food producers. We begin with some background.

Famed animal ethologist, Robert Ardrey, proposed some 60 years ago that almost all forms of life engage in competition for the best territories in which to procreate their species. Humans also participated in survival of the fittest, which led some to leave Africa in search of food and other necessities for life some 1.5 million years ago, according to a July 11, 2018, article in Nature.

When modern humans in Southwest Asia figured out how to raise crops and livestock as farmers about 15,000 years ago, the urge to acquire the best land and sea territories didnt dissipate. Instead, it led to greater competition for these assets.

Many wars have been fought, including the American Revolution, about who controlled the land and seas in the New World. Land issues in the U.S. reached more recent turning points during the Civil War, the Great Depression and the Farm Crisis of the 1980s.

I lived through the 1980s when many farmers were going under financially and all-too-common suicides occurred. With backing from Southwest Iowa Mental Health Center, I undertook grant-funded research and service projects to assist marginalized farmers.
The Wheat Quality Councils 2021 spring wheat and durum tour, which was expected to find low yields and low quality, found variable yields but a good quality crop.

The trade was concerned with the low yielding and low quality crop we had heard about. However, we did not see low test weights. There were not a lot of kernels and heads, but the kernels that were there looked very good, said Dave Green, executive vice president for the Wheat Quality Council and organizer of the tour, during a Northern Crops Institute webinar on July 29. There is value in the crops this year.

The group covered parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota.

On the tour, the group sampled 257 spring wheat fields, as well as 15 durum fields, and found ripe fields that were ready to be harvested earlier than in a normal year.

Not much was harvested yet, just a few fields, but the crop is ripe in a lot of areas so they will make a big dent in the crop over the next 10 days, Green said. I like our numbers (averages from the samples) because the crop is so far along.

The average final yield estimates for spring wheat came at 29.1 bushels per acre. For durum, the yields came in at 24.3 bushels per acre from 15 samples.

I dont know if I would trust our durum yield (averages) with just 15 fields that we sampled. However, all the durum we saw had good quality, he said.
According to Travis Evenson, a job that combines agriculture, farming, and working with people has been exceptionally rewarding.

Evenson is an agronomy specialist at Wholesale Ag Products in Underwood, N.D., whose territory includes the central and western regions of the state. The business has evolved into one of the most trusted sources in the region for chemical and seed.

It is a career for me at this point, and it has been exceptionally rewarding. I enjoy working with farmers and making product recommendations that help improve crop yields and quality, he said.

Throughout the spring and summer, Evenson rotates through seed recommendations, scouting fields, and chemical application recommendations.

It can require some creative thinking with the various management techniques and crop rotations, he said. Not only do you need to know what will work with the current fields needs, but you need to think ahead to next year and be aware of residual [chemicals].

He has gained knowledge and experience with different diseases and pests, along with understanding varying soils and farm practices.

Its an ideal career for someone who enjoys working outside, interacting with people, and being innovative, he said. Technology is advancing quickly and its fun to be a part of the change.

Unfortunately, this has been a trying year for farmers across the state.

We are experiencing the worst drought in decades in some areas in North Dakota, he said. There are a lot of tough-looking crops out there. Right now, at Wholesale Ag, we are trying to get guys by with as few expenses as possible and set them up as best we can for next year.
The site of a former trailer park soon will host mobile homes of a different sort, thanks to the efforts of a Tekamah man. Sam Titus wants to create an RV park at the site along Highway 32 on the citys western edge. Titus already has done a lot of development at the site, removing the old trailers and levelling the lot.
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Much has been made of the similarities between what weve witnessed in Kabul, Afghanistan and the fall of Saigon in 1975. These comparisons are entirely appropriate, to be sure. Like the South Vietnamese in 1975, any Afghans who placed their trust in the ally-ship and promises of the United States very likely await torture and death at the hands of the murderous scourge which had been held at bay by American resolve and military might. It is only the absolute certainty of such a horrific fate that led South Vietnamese would-be refugees to cling to boats and helicopters as the Americans evacuated, just as Afghans clung for dear life to departing American airplanes.

The similarities are obvious. What may not be so obvious to some, though, is the contrast between the America that Ive known all my life and what the events in Kabul signify that America has become.

My America was different than my parents America, you see.

My father left home at a young age to fight the communists, in defense of South Vietnam. His treatment by his countrymen upon his return was the most shameful violation of the public trust imaginable, and that internal stain upon our national soul was rivaled only by the global stain of our complete abandonment of the promises made to our allies in South Vietnam.

In the Carter years leading up to 1980, America was in a state of economic stagnation and social malaise, while American credibility and its resolve to protect its national interests in the face of the communist threat on the global stage was little more than a punchline to an old joke in the eyes of our many enemies abroad.

That changed with the election of Ronald Reagan.

On Nov. 4, 1979, militant Iranian "students" attacked and seized the American embassy in Tehran. For the next 444 days, 52 Americans were held hostage by the denizens of Ayatollah Khomeini. President Carter ordered a disastrous rescue mission in which eight Americans were killed without having made any rescues, and diplomatic efforts were equally fruitless.

Then, just over a month after my birth on Nov. 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan carried 44 states to become president. Minutes after his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981, the American hostages were released.

The progressive left has created all sorts of fanciful tales to dispute the significance of this moment in Reagans legacy. For example, Mark Bowden writes in Guests of the Ayatollah that Iran negotiated the release with Carter but waited to release the prisoners until Reagan was inaugurated to make Carter look weak because Carter had become the personification of America. This is nothing more than really bad and unconvincing storytelling. Why would the Ayatollah want to make the meaningless Carter look bad, after all, at the cost of making his newest adversary in Reagan look strong by comparison?

Stupid theories like Bowdens aside, the world knew what to take from that moment in history, and was reminded of it many times over in the ensuing decades. Reagans election was a turning point for the country. America under Reagan would not be the weak, inept, self-loathing shell of itself that had capitulated to the communists and squandered its victory in Vietnam.

This was a new America. A strong America. An America that made good on promises to its allies in defense of freedom and against the forces of tyranny -- and one that desired peace, but understood that only a strong America could secure peace.

It was this vision of peace through strength that Americans voted for. In the summer of 1980, Reagan told his countrymen that [w]e know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak, he said. It is then when tyrants are tempted.

It was that America which brought down the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism, and it was that doctrine that persisted for a long time thereafter.

And it was that America and that doctrine which unceremoniously gasped its last breath in Kabul in 2021.

Undoubtedly, my take on American history before Reagan will be a bit different than someone who lived through it. But what seems clear enough in the record of history is that the Soviets and Middle Eastern dictators knew that Reagans America was a marked change from the America that had abandoned Saigon to the communists.

This week, thousands of Taliban, ISIS, and al Qaida prisoners have been freed to plot murderous jihad attacks against the West, and the Taliban will undoubtedly cozy up to communist China, which seeks to advance its Belt and Road Initiative. The humanitarian casualties in the wake of the Taliban takeover will undoubtedly be severe and appalling, but its important to understand that the mission in Afghanistan was never strictly humanitarian or about nation-building, contrary to popular opinion and some particularly awful political messaging by Republicans in recent years. It was about the geopolitical value of Afghanistan as a matter of national security interest, ensuring not only that Afghanistan would not be a safe haven for terrorists who would attack America and its allies in the West as they did on 9/11, but that there would be maintenance of a friendly government there rather than the fascist tyranny of the hostile Taliban.

The comparison between Saigon and Kabul will continue because its apt. America has indeed abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban as it once abandoned South Vietnam, and with it, Joe Biden has similarly abandoned American diplomatic and military credibility on the world stage, making us and our allies much weaker.

It doesnt matter if you believe that or not. What matters is how our enemies see things, and their perception is reality. As the Global Times correctly asserts, the Taiwanese would be wise to heed the lesson in Afghanistan:

The geopolitical value of Afghanistan is no less than that of Taiwan island Once a cross-Straits war breaks out while the mainland [China] seizes the island with forces, the US would have to have a much greater determination than it had for Afghanistan, Syria, and Vietnam if it wants to interfere.

Within one day of Kabuls fall to the Taliban, our allies in Taiwan, the Chinese communists, and the rest of the world know well that the America that once sought peace through strength is dead and gone, now only a memory -- a shadow of its former self thats as frail and feeble as its current president.

When the forces of freedom are weak, Reagan warned, tyrants are tempted. The question is not whether tyrants will be tempted, but the extent to which they are willing to go to exploit the weakness that they now undoubtedly sense.

Image: Official photo / Pixabay / Pixabay License

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
The measure of a mans character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. -- Thomas Babington Macaulay

To deport or not to deport? Perhaps not the question.

During presidential political campaigns, a frequent question posed is, What will we do with millions of illegal immigrants already in America? And how about the thousands more arriving constantly? These are the wrong questions. The more precise and important questions are:

What will good immigrant parents decide to do about their illegal situation and status?

What impact over time do parents living in the shadows of illegal, unethical, and criminal status have on their own character structure and by psychological influence, the character structure of their children?

Does the shadowy atmosphere of being an illegal cause denial of that reality?

Does denial or repression about being illegal often cause defiance, rebellion, and a false sense of entitlement?

Does being illegal often cause a passive sense of psychological invisibility and submissiveness?

Is skipping to the head of the line to gain American citizenship and potential prosperity a violation of personal conscience?

Why did an illegal immigrant parent not fight for freedom, safety, and prosperity in his or her country of origin?

What are personality, character, and character disorders as they relate to the parenting processes of illegal immigrant parents and the impact on their childrens character? Little has been written about the unconscious psychosocial aspects of illegal immigrants identities and actions as parents.

Definitions of personality and character.

For psychologists and psychiatrists, personality is the relatively persistent totality or complex array of behavioral and emotional characteristics that distinguishes an individual over time. Character is a core sector of personality.

Good character implies adequate intelligence, a good sense of humor/playfulness, personal integrity, ethical consistency, social adaptability, and flexibility during adversity. It has survival value.

In popular use, character implies more emphasis on ethical integrity. Character Disorder manifests through an individuals chronic, habitual, repetitive, and maladaptive patterns of behavior and emotional reactions. These patterns are relatively inflexible, limit the optimal use of potentialities, and often provoke responses that the person or group wants to avoid.

Causes of character disorder

Some personality traits are influenced by genes and inherited. However, Nature/Nurture issues arise from the fact that character and character disorder are formed over many years of personality development.

Character forms in the context of family and social life in a community. Parental attitudes, parenting style, and values (or lack of them), are clearly shaping factors in personality formation. The qualities of emotional, empathic, and nurturing connection between the child and caretakers, weave their effects into the developing personality over many years. The child unconsciously identifies with many parental traits or stoutly rebels against them.

Parenting of illegal immigrants and the results

The conscious decision to illegally enter America has consequences. Often it leads to some immediate economic and educational advantages for illegal immigrants and their children. Education and a job in America create the ability to send money back home to relatives in the country of origin.

However, the shadow-side of the illegal entry decision lives on in illegal immigrants subconscious mind. It festers as guilt and shame in the illegal immigrants conscious mind. Illegal immigrant parents decisions result in the intergenerational transmission of guilt and shame to the minds of their children and grandchildren.

If there are no overt signs of this cultural class guilt and shame it is because of massive denial and reaction formation. Shameful and shameless behavior and hidden guilt about it can spawn acting-out behavior. Alcoholism, crime, reckless driving, and shameless predatory sexual behavior can result.

In other words, the actions in which illegal immigrant parents engage have conscious, preconscious, and unconscious effects on their childrens minds, morals, and character. A parent who is haunted or should be haunted by illegal behavior finds it hard to be an effective role model and example of moral integrity for his child.

The child can repress or suppress the hints about the shadowy family secret but, during adolescence, the youth can rebel and become defiant. The sense of entitlement and defiance can lead to acting out and authority conflict. Without a strong parent with good moral character, these adolescents push school authorities or the police into roles as stern parental figures.

Earning legal citizenship, a good college education, and a job are different from expecting it to be handed out as free stuff. Hard work to earn an education builds character as part of the process. Free education and other free stuff can promote future generations of sucking dependency upon government entitlement programs.

In conclusion, the shadowy family secret of an illegal immigrant family often gets transmitted over several generations unless or until the truth is faced and resolved. It is alarming to consider how seldom society seriously discusses the illegal immigrants parenting, as it affects their childrens identity formation.

Even highly successful children of illegal immigrants can understandably have normal pangs of conscience about the illegal behavior of their parents/themselves. Paradoxically, the more personal integrity children have, the more they will be haunted and hampered psychologically. The psychologically most healthy transform their guilt and shame into effective community service, often in the military or health care fields.

Truth heals the pain which it evokes -- Goethe

Image: Illegal alien families. YouTube screen grab.

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Equity is equality of outcome among racial and ethnic groups. Recently, the pursuit of equity in education, criminal justice, and in the professions has resulted in an impressive string of victories.

In education, equity warriors have been frustrated by a stubborn pattern in SAT and ACT scores. For decades Asians have scored higher than whites, who have scored higher than Hispanics, who have scored higher than blacks. These differences seem impervious to any K-12 education policy tinkering regardless of the policys ideological origin. Busing, charters, vouchers, increased spending, and universal testing have all failed to close these uncomfortable gaps.

Finally, in 2020, COVID provided the equity commissars a solution to their SAT/ACT problem. Many college bureaucrats who hope to increase the percentage of non-Asian minorities have discarded the SAT/ACT requirements for admission. At first, it was temporary, but then for many, it became permanent. The outcome is freshman classes with demographics that are now deemed more equitable. No standards, no problem. Equity!

Its not just higher education thats abandoning objective standards. Selective admission middle and high schools that use a test as part of the admissions process have been targeted by the equity enforcers. Due to admission tests, student bodies at these prestigious selective schools in New York City and Virginia have actually become less white, but not in the way the equity crowd wants; they have apparently become too Asian. The equity solution: ditch the admission tests in favor of a lottery. This would purge these schools of those equity-thwarting, overachieving Asian students. No standard, no problem. Equity!

The quest for equity also threatens gifted programs across the country. The demographics of these programs frequently arent necessarily reflective of a schools overall student body. For the equity mob, this is an offense that needs rectifying. Since admission standards to gifted programs are in part determined by testing and grades, some of these very programs have been deemed inequitable and have been eliminated. No standards, no problem.

The equity warriors arent just focused on the higher end of the achievement curve. Most states require some sort of demonstration of actual learning before students graduate high school. Until recently, in 27 states, high school students had to pass an exit exam; now only 11 require it. The disparate impact these exams have on black and Hispanic students has been cited as a reason.

Other states have a more nuanced graduation requirement which allows students to demonstrate proficiency through research papers, projects, exhibitions, and other performance assessments. Oregon had such a flexible requirement until this week when the governor signed a bill suspending that states proficiency requirement. The governors staff cited the disparate impact this requirement has had on some students of color. Yet another standard removed, even this modest one, in the name of equity.

Criminal justice has also been impacted by equity. Several progressive district attorneys around the country have ceased prosecuting many crimes in the name of equity. In Los Angeles, George Gascon refuses to prosecute trespassing, disturbing the peace, driving with no license or a suspended license, making criminal threats, drug possession, drinking in public, loitering to commit prostitution and resisting arrest, among others.

San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin refuses to prosecute crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk. He also prosecutes shoplifting at much lower rates than even his progressive predecessor.

Progressive D.A.s in Chicago, Seattle, New York, and Philadelphia have also refused to prosecute numerous crimes, citing their disparate impacts. These property and nuisance criminal laws are a standard of minimally acceptable behavior, yet even these standards have been discarded in the name of equity.

This isnt to argue that no laws need to be reconsidered. Across the country, in red and blue states, marijuana laws have been relaxed or discarded with a variety of rationales. Some reforms may be prudent despite their furthering of the equity fad.

Standards are also under siege in many professions. Medical students are required to take the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 exam after their first year of medical school. Since the exam was initiated, the group average scores of Asians and whites have been higher than those of Hispanics and blacks. Starting in 2022 the scores will be reported as pass/fail with the hope that non-Asian minorities will benefit from this change because it reduces the effect of an inequitable exam.

Similarly, Slate has referred to the 150-plus-year-old institution of the bar exam for attorneys as the relic of a racist club. A Washington Post education writer also argued for the bar exams abolition, citing (among other reasons) the poor test passage rate of African Americans.

Despite many states suspending the bar last year because of the pandemic, no state has signaled the permanent abolition of their bar exam. Perhaps the financial self-interest of lawyer legislators and state bar association members has prevented the equity zealots from abolishing this standard, at least for now.

Last year in an attempt at upholding the standard of objectivity in promotions, the U.S. Navy banned the inclusion of officers photos in files being examined to determine advancement. Now, promotion packages will again use photos after data suggested minorities are less likely to be selected blindly in some situations by promotion review boards.

The standard that hiring should be without bias is a recurring hindrance to equity. Perhaps the purest form of merit-based hiring is the blind audition used by orchestras. Since the widespread adoption of judging aspiring classical musicians solely on the quality of their music without seeing the auditioner, Americas orchestras have gone from about six percent female in 1970 to almost half today.

However, under this strict meritocracy, black membership has remained under two percent. Not surprisingly, those demanding equity have targeted the blind audition. The New York Times classical music critic has argued: To Make Orchestras More Diverse, End Blind Auditions.

Until the equity tide ebbs, no standard in any sphere is safe. Those who advocate equality of group outcomes over objective standards applied equally to individuals are likely emboldened by their impressive string of standard-killing victories.

Randy Boudreaux is an attorney in New Orleans.

Image: Piqsels

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It is often said that science and religion are polar opposites.

But this notion may not be true and is, instead, based on popular misconceptions, the ongoing struggle between the two concepts for social dominance, and misunderstandings of both the scientific method and the underlying idea of faith.

In fact, the two meet at countless points and often take parallel paths.

Before continuing, this critique centers on Western religious and scientific constructs. When it wants to, an organized religion can stop scientific progress in its tracks  take historical Islam, for example. Once the primary protector and advancer of knowledge (although they were invented in India, we call them Arabic numerals for a reason), Islamic leaders in the Middle Ages proclaimed edicts -- enforced often at scimitar point  that put an end to all of that.

While doubtlessly some Western sects have persecuted knowledge seekers under the cloak of dogma, those efforts had as much to do with secular societal dominance as they did with saving souls. The Galileo affair illustrates that process.

Galileos experience is seen today as the ultimate example of backward religion crushing glorious reason, but the facts of the matter do not support that view. Pope Urban VIII, Galileos friend, and, at the time a supporter, encouraged him to write a treatise on the two opposing cosmological concepts -- heliocentrism (Earth around the Sun) and geocentrism (everything around the Earth).

Urban, it seems, was expecting the book to be a relatively even-handed debate but would certainly not have had a problem if it leaned towards heliocentrism (he had defended Galileos support for heliocentrism previously). What Urban was not expecting was Simplicio - the character in the book tasked with defending geocentrism. He was portrayed as an idiot, a fool who made no sense whatsoever. Simplicio was also, rightly or wrongly, interpreted as a caricature of Urban himself. Suffice to say, the Pope was not amused.

And Urban had a trump card up his sleeve for the coming kerfuffle  he knew Galileo could not actually prove the Earth revolved around the Sun. It turns out that Galileo was right, but at the time the math and mechanics were simply not there to definitively prove so. Geocentrism was on its last legs  with Galileos physical observations and the work of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe (one of the very few astronomers who have ever had to wear a false silver nose due to an ill-fated drunken duel), et.al. making sure of that. Meanwhile, the torturous mathematical and mechanical hoops geocentrists had to jump through to make it work were expanding exponentially. Galileo, by applying Occams Razor, simply knew he was right.

The Galileo debate is, even if incorrectly, rather well-known and has been the subject of significant public discourse. Another science versus religion conflict is far less well-known: The initial debate around the Big Bang.

First postulated by a Catholic priest and theoretical physicist Georges Lemaitre in the 1920s, the Big Bang theory didnt really come into its own until after World War II when physicist George Gamow took hold of it, blended in new information and better math techniques, and made it a real contender when compared to the then-dominant steady state theory (very nutshell, the Big Bang theory postulates a singular event to start an expanding universe while the steady-state concept says the universe does not grow or shrink and always existed and always will).

One aspect of the competition between the two theories was that many mocked the Big Bang as a way to shoehorn God back into the creation picture. The (simplified) criticism was based on the idea that the eternal nature of the steady-state not only does not require a God, it really does not allow for it. God becomes at the very least extraneous, if not impossible, to existence because a supernatural (in the literal sense of beyond nature) being could not exist outside of an eternal and unchanging universe.

The Big Bang theory, while it assumes (simplified) the idea that gravitational interaction of random particles adrift in the nothingness is the causal event of the universe, cannot and does not flatly state that God is impossible. It allows for the possibility that another force was at play and maybe that force could be God. Of course, it also allows for the idea that our universe is just an extra-credit middle school class project of a pan-hyperdimensional teenager but it may not be best to dwell on that possibility, especially if you have kids of your own.

It wasnt until new radio-telemetry data began to be collected in the 1960s, showing that the steady-state was essentially impossible, that the Big Bang gained the upper hand.

How does the Big Bang call into question the supposed split between science and religion? For one, surprisingly, it puts the story of creation from Genesis back on the table.

Genesis, day one  formless and empty and utter nothingness and then Let there be light.

Big Bang, day one - formless and empty and utter nothingness and then, well, Bang, for whatever reason.

And then from there, both Genesis and naturalism track rather closely to one another. Simplified, again, the Genesis timeline to today goes: the beginning of everything. undifferentiated stuff, sky, ground, vegetation, stars, fish, animals, and then humans. Also, simplified, the naturalist evolutionary timeline to today goes: the beginning of everything, undifferentiated stuff, sky, stars, ground, vegetation, fish, animals, humans.

Except for the stars/vegetation glitch (seven out of eight is not bad at all for pre-scientific storytelling), the two ideas are not at all mutually exclusive. They are not identical and they tell the story in very different ways, but they do not, when boiled down to their basics, conflict with one another. And if there is no truly fundamental conflict then there can be no complete and final split.

Like faith, science is a journey. Although technically a noun, in practical effect science is a verb, a process for trying to best explain the discordant carnival called life in which we are immersed. Like the winding journey towards betterment that can exemplify faith, science is never settled. In fact, settled science is the least science-y thing that can exist and is the opposite of the process. It is the equivalent of a merely skin-deep type of faith of transitory convenience because it denies the very concept of change in order to take advantage of the circumstances of the present.

Like faith, science cannot be followed; it can only be experienced. The core of the scientific method is the endless search for the best possible explanation of everything. Attempting to follow the science is as impossible as it would be to follow your own car while in the drivers seat. Data can be followed, observations can become more accurate, probabilities can be drastically increased until a hypothesis becomes a theory and then a very likely accurate description, but the scientific process continues ad infinitum.

Like faith, science is a journey and while there are times that their paths seem to diverge, they can always remain visible to one another. And that might be the best of both worlds.

Thomas Buckley is the former Mayor of Lake Elsinore and a former newspaper reporter who studied the history of physics and philosophy of science in college. He is currently the operator of a small communications and planning consultancy and can be reached directly at planbuckley@gmail.com. You can read more of his work at https://thomas699.substack.com/

Image: Quasar Tsunamis Rip Across Galaxies. Hubble Space Telescope.

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The videos coming from Afghanistan have been one of the hardest things I've ever had to deal with in my adult life. As most of you can tell from my name, half of my family comes from Kabul, Afghanistan. Some of my relatives are still there in Kabul.

Let us not lie to ourselves: the debacle unfolding in Afghanistan was 100% predictable  anyone who could not see this coming is lying to himself.

I am no foreign policy expert. But I know Afghans well  grew up with them. The thought that they could actually want democracy or some type of constitution was noble but very naive. While I enjoyed seeing pictures and videos of their Loya Jirgas (their term for a political convention), the fact is, that country cannot easily be fixed, if at all. And the sooner that some of our people in the State Department and some of our "experts" get this, the better off we will be. Yes, we did have to go in there and remove the Taliban after 9/11, but pretty much everyone (other than the Liz Cheneys of the world) would agree we spent too much time there.

Afghans as a general rule cannot handle democracy. It is foreign to how they think and process information. Afghans tend to look up to one local elder as their boss, and everything flows from the wisdom or lack of wisdom of that elder. The concept of free will is foreign to Afghans. Changing this behavior to put trust in a local government system and court system is not going to occur.

Approximately 1013 years ago, 1 trillion dollars of lithium and other minerals were found in Afghanistan. Think of the number of hospitals and schools that could have been built. Or think of the other investments that the Afghans could have made with a trillion dollars. But they would rather follow their warlords and their elders than modernize. They do not trust people who are not from their own tribe. Some of this is learned behavior; some of this is just plain bad business sense. But they would rather be poor and proud and always at war with someone than live a better existence.

This behavior will not be changed anytime in the near future. So, while many thought democratizing Afghanistan was a real possibility, the fact is that most Afghans do not want democracy in their own country. (For the record, my father is a great American, but that's also because he was something of an outcast in Kabul  he wasn't a "go with the flow" kinda guy. My dad naturally stands up to power and corruption. That sort of independent thinking was part of why he had to leave Kabul in the early '60s. It is also what makes him a great American.) My dad came to this country and became the embodiment of the American dream. My father had to overcome many trials to get to this country and then to succeed. But he succeeded because he believed and still does believe in something more than himself  something that the majority of Afghans cannot understand.

The Bush administration was in a rather bizarre bind after 9/11. They had to take out the Taliban. And they knew that to take out the Taliban would mean doing some rebuilding of the country. However, this should not have been a 20-year open-ended commitment. Just like an addict who can't get off the meth, you can't make someone do what you want him to do, even if it's in his own best interest. There is a saying among Afghans: you can't buy their loyalty, but you can rent it for a little while. These words are prophetic and sad  yet also so very true. Many Afghans also do not understand the concept of working together; thus, the concept of trying to make an army out of a group of people who view themselves as members of a tribe rather than as a united country was bound to fail.

For the record, I oppose open-ended commitments of American armed forces. Our Army/Navy/Air Force/Marines are supposed to do a job, do it well, and get out of there. Open-ended commitments that last for decades often do more harm than good. And likely the 20-year commitment here did more harm than good. Trump was right to want to leave Afghanistan, and while I can't blame Biden for wanting to get out, the fact is that Biden did not listen to his military brass  thus the end result.

G.W. Bush never really did much with the fact that Pakistan was doing everything it could to undermine American influence over the goings-on in Afghanistan. Quite difficult to handle a problem when an important country in the region is doing everything it can to undermine you. Why we keep sending these people billions of dollars is beyond comprehension. Only a "foreign policy expert" could explain this to you. "Foreign Policy Expert" = same type of person who gave us the Afghan debacle over the weekend.

Anyone with half a brain could have seen that once the U.S. forces left, the Taliban would take over in a matter of weeks. So if you figure you can't stop the Taliban from taking over, that's fine. It's a rough decision, a horrible decision, but an adult decision. But at least have an action plan in place to make sure we aren't sending troops back in there to rescue Americans. The only thing that makes sense is that Biden and his people didn't want to admit that the Taliban would take over  so they dithered and did nothing  and the end result was we had to send American troops back in there to rescue our embassy and the several thousand American citizens who lived in or near Kabul. American power, which had been tattered during Vietnam and the Carter years, had been rebuilt by Reagan. Bush 43 may have bungled Iraq, and Obama looked weak, but Trump was a strong president who knew how to take on our enemies in the Middle East. Does anyone with a brain really think the Taliban would try to seize the U.S. embassy under President Trump? Absolutely not!

However, in just a few days, Team Biden tossed everything away, and now the end result is that our enemies in the Middle East will be more likely to launch terror attacks on us. Heck, even CNN and Obama's own people agree that Team Biden screwed this whole thing up.

Oh, and maybe General Milley would be better off reading up on real-world history and ceasing to whine about "white rage." After all, General Milley predicted that the Afghan military would be able to defeat the Taliban just a few months ago. We spent two trillion dollars for the heart-wrenching videos we saw over the weekend.

A few other things.

To those of you in the Armed Forces who tried to free my father's homeland from Islamic fascism, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am only sorry that the people in that country cannot appreciate what you were trying to do. To those of you who believed the hype that Joe Biden was this foreign policy expert and the wise adult in the room, well, you were wrong  and should have known this before voting for him. You cannot fix something or someone who is perfectly happy remaining broken. Afghanistan will always be a problem. Everyone's heart should be breaking for the innocent women and children who will suffer under Taliban control. However, one must wonder how the Taliban will feel about using the proper pronouns. Last but not least, we are only discussing Kabul. Imagine what the rest of the country will be like. Don't be shocked if there are over a million executions in the years to follow.

John Massoud is a Member of the Strasburg, Virginia Town Council in Virginia; the chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Party in Virginia, and the former chair of the Shenandoah County Tea Party.

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab (cropped).

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At a certain point, one must ask whether what's happening in Afghanistan is the result of grotesque incompetence or if there is something more malevolent going on. I've received myriad emails speculating that the military left all its materiel behind as a gift to the Chinese or the Taliban. People think this because it's incomprehensible to them that a functional military, knowing in advance that it was withdrawing, would let its weapons, supplies, and information fall into enemy hands. People are also beginning to wonder whether the Biden administration cares at all that American citizens are trapped in that benighted country.

As of Tuesday morning, the administration didn't even know how many Americans are stuck in Afghanistan:

On CNN, John Kirby asked how many Americans are still in Afghanistan: "We think there are certainly thousands of Americans, we don't have an exact count, I would say somewhere, best guess between 5,000-10,000 that are near Kabul."  Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) August 17, 2021

Charlie Spiering did not make a transcribing error. That's what Kirby really said:

Biden administration spokesman John Kirby admits they dont know the number of Americans in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/6y3HoUyfJ0  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 17, 2021

Even at 10,000, Kirby may be lowballing it: "George W. Bush's former Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Charles, says there are between 15,000 and 40,000 'scattered' across all of Afghanistan."

But frankly, when it comes to trapped Americans, the Biden administration isn't really that into them, if you know what I mean. As far as the government's concerned, they're on their own when it comes to escaping the Taliban:

The below note went out this afternoon to American citizens requesting to be evacuated from Afghanistan, @alanacbs reports. It instructs people to come to Hamid Karzai Intl Airport in Kabul, but says the US govt cannot guarantee their safety as they make the trip. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/rgEyjGup4K  Sara Cook (@saraecook) August 17, 2021

But all is not lost, because Jen Psaki did explain that the government does have plans for evacuating people  Afghan people:

Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki cant offer any guarantee that all Americans will be evacuated from Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/0XKueyBXCg  RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 17, 2021

Maybe I'm unduly obsessed with my own country, but shouldn't the administration's total focus be on rescuing Americans? And believe me, they do need to be rescued. After all, the Taliban now have a potential 5,000 to 40,000 Americans to hold as hostages.

Additionally, the Taliban are already back to their old tricks of torturing and murdering people. The Daily Mail has a long, illustrated article (the illustrations are gory if you're squeamish) showing how the Taliban deal with crowd control, employees of the Afghan government, and women. The Taliban lied when they said they wouldn't seek revenge. Who's surprised? Anyone?

Humanism and the milk of human kindness are sorely lacking in these soldiers of Allah. They hew to Mohammed's principles of warfare: kill the enemy's men and enslave their women. That these men and women are their own countrymen is irrelevant.

I'm terribly sorry for the Afghan people at the mercy of their more radical countrymen, but, as I explained in a prior post, that doesn't mean I want tens of thousands of them brought here. These Afghans are not the same as the ones who immigrated to the West decades ago. Too many of these people have contempt for the West and are part of the jihadist movement.

Here's Tucker's wrap-up along with an important anecdote from Sean Parnell:

Image: Chaos in Kabul. YouTube screen grab.

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For more than a decade, I hunted terrorists as a supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and I believe that the United States' abandonment of Afghanistan is a disgraceful, immoral, and short-sighted foreign policy disaster.

On September 11, 2001, I was one of the first rescuers to reach the World Trade Center after it collapsed. I stood in the rubble and swore an oath to seek vengeance against the Islamists who targeted the U.S. I pushed my agency to investigate narco-terrorism and spent the next 14 years pursuing terrorists across the globe. I helped open the DEA's office in Kabul, wrestled a suicide bomber, fought the Taliban in combat, and chased terrorists across five continents. I achieved the first precedent-setting narco-terrorism arrest and convicted the world's most prolific heroin trafficker.

For days, I've been receiving frantic messages from Afghan allies who are trapped in Afghanistan or have families still in grave danger. The U.S. has a moral obligation to protect Afghan citizens who fought side by side with Americans against the Taliban, the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, and other terror groups. Right now, Islamists are going house to house, raping and murdering American allies. The rapid abandonment of the Afghan military and our other allies is unconscionable, but there is still time to expand the beachhead at Kabul International Airport and evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans who will otherwise be murdered for believing in democracy and human rights.

Despite problems with reconstruction, the war in Afghanistan has been successful. The purpose of the invasion was to depose the Taliban regime that provided a haven for al-Qaeda and to combat terrorism. The U.S. achieved those goals by pushing the Taliban into Pakistan and denying the country to terrorists for almost twenty years. Southwest Asia has the highest concentration of terror groups in the world, and it is the epicenter of radical Islamic terrorism. A strong military presence in Afghanistan has facilitated intelligence, law enforcement, and military operations against Islamists who want to destroy the West. The advantage of maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan has been obvious.

Shortly after the invasion, the U.S.'s goals transitioned into reconstruction. The U.S. spent trillions of dollars, much of which disappeared into dark caves of corruption and bureaucratic incompetence. Critics argued that creating a democracy was impossible in a country with no history of individualism, but it takes time for cultures to change, and Afghanistan saw improvement. After decades of invasions and civil war, girls went to school, women rejoined society, and an eighth-century culture took its first steps into modernity.

The Taliban and other Islamist terror groups were not destroyed because of failed political and military strategies. When al-Qaeda and the Taliban fled into Pakistan, the U.S. asked Pervez Musharraf to deal with them. That was a mistake. Putting an Afghan face on reconstruction and the war resulted in the massive loss of American tax dollars, and it inhibited the American military through restrictive rules of engagement.

There were other failures in Afghanistan beyond not following al-Qaeda across the border, such as systematically releasing enemy combatants and not holding Pakistan responsible for its role in creating and supporting the Taliban. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have mistakenly negotiated with the Taliban, despite the implausibility of reasoning with radical Islamists who seek a global caliphate.

Even if withdrawing from Afghanistan was justified, the rapid retreat did not allow the Afghan government to prepare. In recent months, the Biden administration announced that the Afghan military was ready to take over and the Taliban were not strong enough to conquer the country. Wrong on both counts. Biden claimed that the Taliban did not possess the same capabilities as the North Vietnamese, and the world would not witness another harried Saigon-like evacuation. Wrong again.

By abandoning Afghanistan, the U.S. has given Islamic radicals a base to train, plan, and project terrorism. The Taliban are sworn enemies of the U.S., and the threat of Islamic terrorism has not dissipated. Eventually, Islamic terrorists will attack the homeland again. What could have been prevented by maintaining a few thousand troops in Afghanistan will eventually result in the necessity of another invasion.

Next month is the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. How soon we forget.

Jeffrey James Higgins is a retired supervisory special agent who wrestled a suicide bomber, fought Taliban in combat, and chased terrorists across five continents. http://JeffreyJamesHiggins.com.

Image: Pixnio.

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I'm not a scientist, a doctor, or an expert in viruses or pandemics. I didn't even finish college. When I form an opinion about something in one of those disciplines, I must rely on experts in the field, but I try to be judicious in the information I gather. I look at the source material and the experts' credentials, and I consider what ulterior motives said experts may have when they share their conclusions. All of this is to say that I felt myself to be on safe ground when I shared an article on Facebook that Dr. Robert Malone wrote.

Dr. Malone discovered in vitro and in vivo RNA transfection, which is the process of artificially introducing nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) into cells, utilizing means other than viral infection. Dr. Malone is the inventor of mRNA vaccines, which he developed at the Salk Institute in 1988. Whatever you may think of mRNA vaccines, I think it is safe to say Dr. Malone is a genuine expert in this field and that he knows something about how viruses work.

Not according to Facebook. I received a warning from Facebook, and, although it did not delete my post sharing Dr. Malone's article, Facebook labeled it as partly false information:

The fact-checkers upon whom Facebook relied are Angeline Rouers, an immunologist and research fellow at the Infectious Diseases Labs of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore; Dale Fisher, a professor of medicine at the National University of Singapore who specializes in infectious diseases; and Emma Hodcroft, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland. I cast no aspersions on the knowledge of these experts. They seem to be intelligent people who are well informed in their various fields. However, I do not believe they are as well versed in mRNA vaccines as Dr. Malone, the man who developed the core technology Pfizer and Moderna used to create the vaccines now being used around the world.

All that Dr. Malone has said, out of the abundance of his knowledge about mRNA and viruses, is that universal vaccination may be a problem. He has some valid concerns. His most serious concern is that universal vaccination may cause vaccine-resistant mutations and, if the population is trained with universal vaccination to have the same immune response, a mutated version of the virus that is resistant to the vaccine will spread rapidly through the population, no matter what their vaccination status is. Dr. Malone does not think the Biden administration's current strategy of pushing or even mandating universal vaccination will make us safer, and he is worried that it may lengthen, or possibly even worsen, the pandemic.

You may agree or disagree with his conclusions, but I think that, as the developer of the mRNA vaccine, Dr. Malone has the right to voice his concerns without those concerns being labeled by Facebook as partly false merely because he disagrees with the Biden administration. Scientists such as the aforementioned experts have the right in turn to voice their disagreement with Dr. Malone, but Facebook shouldn't give them more weight than Dr. Malone merely because what they are saying does agree with the Biden administration.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.

Image: Censored woman (edited by Andrea Widburg). Rawpixel license.

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The eyes of the country are glued on the debacle unfolding with the Afghan withdrawal. It is surely correct to pull out of that backward hellhole. But Joe Biden and those advising him have demonstrated their utter incompetence to do it in any order. The most notable of this group include the "woke" chairman of the Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley; the pathetically weak secretary of state, Antony Blinken; and the effete national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. But they are far from alone. Below this group are levels upon levels of entrenched swamp creatures just as bad as their leaders are. This cadre cycles from one government agency to another, or back and forth between Washington-related think-tanks and government positions. Never leaving the Washington bubble, these people preen about with their ribbons, diplomas, and job titles, projecting themselves as the smartest of the smart. But by the results of their handiwork, they show themselves to be incompetent and clueless about the real world. Their 20-year record just in Afghanistan back to the Bush-Cheney administration proves that.

So what does the botched Afghan bug-out have to do with COVID? Plenty. In speaking of the Afghan mess, Tucker Carlson said that we as a country are led by "buffoons." That's obvious. And it should also be obvious by now that the people running the national health establishment are cut from the same cloth as those buffoons running the foreign affairs establishment.

Anthony Fauci is their frontman. That's all he is. Fauci is a cutout figurehead, the same as the installed president, Joe Biden. On COVID, one day the message is this, and the next day, it's that. The media are too busy pushing the most recent party line to highlight the contradictions or draw logical conclusions from them. The push now is for mandates for the entire population to be vaccinated with experimental and unproven vaccines. This is insane.

The catastrophe we're now witnessing in Afghanistan did not happen overnight. It was twenty years in the making. Throughout that time, the Intelligence Community and military brass both kept reassuring us that "we're winning" and progress is being made. Looking back, they either were fools or were deliberately lying to keep America's blood and money flowing into that nation-building folly.

Don't think something similar isn't going on with the official government COVID policies. Already it is known that the health establishment has repeatedly lied about the number of COVID cases and COVID deaths. They lied about the source of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. And they continue to lie about the effectiveness of masks and general lockdowns in stopping viral transmission. Worst of all, the Fauci crew cannot justify the vaccination policy they're demanding. This is evidenced by how they tolerate no criticism of their pronouncements, call for censorship, and run from any open debate with opposition virologists on the matter.

Taken together, this portends a coming health debacle similar to the one in today's Afghanistan. Sorry, folks, but nothing else can be expected when the country is led by buffoons.

Image: PxFuel.

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Watching the Fall of South Vietnam as a Marine captain was one too many embassy evacuations for a lifetime. With the disastrous collapse of the Afghan Army, and the next round of an American defeat stamped indelibly on the pages of our history, I asked a fellow Marine who served with great honor in Afghanistan as a colonel what he had learned. He stood strongly on the point that tactically, in the field, the combat engagements against the Taliban were for the most part strongly supported by accurate and timely actionable intelligence, so his Marines and other services and allies could successfully carry the fight to the enemy.

However, when I asked him about the strategic intelligence about the progress of the effort to fight, win, and leave a lasting force against extremely evil fanatics, he quipped: "It was all fluffy bunnies and unicorns." Sadly, he has been proven to be spot on.

The danger of general officer groupthink in self-perpetuating willful blindness of an ongoing failed effort  often built on horrendous corruption  is now evident. Senior leaders up to and including President Biden are either spinning like Admiral Kirby's channeling of Baghdad Bob or metaphorically throwing down their rifles, running from the media accountability field of battle.

It is disgraceful that after a presidential "Fluffy Bunnies and Unicorns" statement in July, everyone around the globe is now seeing horrific carnage and ugly score-settling by the Taliban.

Together, with our NATO Allies and partners, we have trained and equipped over three hu-  nearly 300,000 current serving members of the military  of the Afghan National Security Force, and many beyond that who are no longer serving. Add to that, hundreds of thousands more Afghan National Defense and Security Forces trained over the last two decades. We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools  let me emphasize: all the tools, training, and equipment of any modern military. We provided advanced weaponry. And we're going to continue to provide funding and equipment. And we'll ensure they have the capacity to maintain their air force.

How could they miss the dry rot and corruption that hollowed out the Afghan Army? What are our national security commanders and CIA missing as we enter an emerging danger zone of life-or-death strategic capabilities and intentions with China, their People's Liberation Army, and perhaps even Putin's Russia?

The most important question is, simply, how can any American trust the Intelligence Community in determining the true capabilities and intentions of nations armed with nuclear weapons and the means to launch them? If the strategic judgment of the Intelligence Community and then the acceptance of such bad intel by the president, secretary of defense, and chairman of the JCS has proven to be so disastrously wrong, there is no reason to rely on them.

I will leave Afghan score-settling accountability on what happened to others, including, I hope, an awakened media who may finally stop picking political sides with hollow opinioned narrative news and begin to behave like the responsible fact-based journalist they once were.

It is now time to employ a major Intelligence Community term of art: we need a Damage Assessment, shining sunlight on the I.C. failure and the willfully blind acceptance of their bad intel by commanders. A full-on robust publicly debated Damage Assessment should transcend the current ongoing Afghan debacle and also must focus with rigorous accountability going forward on what are we missing strategically with Russia and China so we do not all wake up to a strategic surprise by China that could reach all of us sleeping safe at home in our beds.

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab (cropped).

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Is Kamala Harris jumping ship?

Sure looks like it, now that Congress is talking up the 25th Amendment to remove doddering Joe Biden from office for incapacitation amid the biggest foreign policy catastrophe since the Saigon embassy rooftop evacuation of 1975.

Suddenly, Kamala doesn't seem to want to be anywhere near old Joe.

First, there have been reports of screamings behind the scenes, according to commentator Jack Posobiec, who seems to have someone on the inside at the White House giving him the lowdown.

Chaos in the WH, in-fighting, fingers pointed everywhere, knives out. Like Game of Thrones meets Veep but written by non-binary TikTok influencers  Jack Posobiec  (@JackPosobiec) August 18, 2021

Im told K asked Biden a question during todays video conference and he ignored her, even after she repeated it twice  Jack Posobiec  (@JackPosobiec) August 17, 2021

Shade War going hot - Kamala refused a request to do a presser today. Said she was focused on Haiti not Afghanistan. Now staffers for the rival teams have been openly fighting all day, per WH official  Jack Posobiec  (@JackPosobiec) August 16, 2021

He wanted K to stand with him and she said no  Jack Posobiec  (@JackPosobiec) August 16, 2021

There's also this report from Citizen Free Press, citing multiple sources:

Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly did not want any part of facing the music on Sunday after the catastrophic collapse of Afghanistan. The U.S. humiliation on the world stage set off public demands to hear from the president; but in the absence of the Commander-in-Chief, any White House explanation about the disastrous finale in a two-decades-long war would have sufficed. According to multiple reports, Harris was asked to address the American people on Sunday about the unraveling situation in the war-torn country, but refused. As the Taliban threatened the lives of thousands of Americans and allies in Kabul, pressure mounted on the White House to look the people in the eye and explain what happened. Yet, no one did. A well-placed source inside the White House informs Becker News that Kamala Harris objected to addressing the nation on Sunday. The source reports that Kamala Harris could be heard screaming, They will not pin this s*** on me! Furthermore, the source reports that Jill Biden was at Camp David deflecting calls being made for Joe Biden.

With a tin ear of her own, Harris has refused to cancel her long-planned trip to Vietnam, home of the actual Saigon, and certainly a place where the topic of Afghanistan is going to be brought up. Fox News has the story on that here, with an insightful video clip from Greg Gutfeld.

What's more, she's making herself scarce, according to Breitbart News, perhaps to avoid questions about her own role in the Afghanistan fiasco, which is far from over.

Vice President Kamala Harris vanished from public view for five days as President Joe Biden and his administration tackled their worst foreign policy blunder to date. Her last solo public appearance was on August 12, as she met with business leaders to discuss the importance of childcare and paid leave benefits. Harris last appeared publicly with President Joe Biden on August 10 as they celebrated the presidents proposed infrastructure deal passing the Senate with a bipartisan majority. The vice president was spotted in a photo released by the White House over the weekend showing President Biden attending a video conference from Camp David with Harris and other administration officials.

Since May, according to my Washington sources, she's apparently been in a sort of open rebellion against Biden anyway, over Joe's fobbing the border crisis onto her, a job that President Biden dumped into her lap with predictable failed results, and dueling negative press briefings. She's been sidelined repeatedly by Mrs. Edith Wilson -- Jill Biden, that is -- quite possibly over a string of bad decisions regarding the Afghanistan fiasco, including the business of Joe Biden hiding out in Delaware at a time of crisis.

Now there's talk from Congress of invoking the 25th Amendment, and Kamala seems to be waiting in the wings.

Hearing K discussed the 25th tonight in a non-joking way for the first time  Jack Posobiec  (@JackPosobiec) August 17, 2021

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments transmit to Congress their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume office.  Jack Posobiec  (@JackPosobiec) August 17, 2021

It's ugly, and with Biden's poll numbers sinking to Kamala levels of public disapproval, it looks as though the vice president is doing her utmost to escape responsibility for the Afghan fiasco, despite being "the last person in the room" when the awful decision on the pullout was made. She's unlikely to escape scrutiny. But like a rat on a sinking ship, she's paddling away as fast as she can.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of public domain sources

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We saw Joe Biden's horrible press conference. Sixty-nine percent of Americans disapprove of how he handled the recent debacle in Afghanistan. Who else was involved in this disaster? The first domino to fall in Afghanistan was caused by secretary of defense Lloyd Austin and chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley. According to the AP on July 6, 2021:

The U.S. left Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base's new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans' departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.

The Afghan commander of Bagram Airfield tried to put a good face on the sudden withdrawal in the middle of the night, but it set the stage for the collapse of the Afghan military and the Taliban blitzkrieg in Afghanistan. Suddenly, the Afghan military that trusted us realized there would be no orderly withdrawal of American military forces. They could not even count on the Americans to leave the electricity on for the Afghan military as the Americans vanished into the night. The dominoes started falling quickly and soon led to Saigon 2.0 in Kabul.

Timelines are important. On June 23, 2021, less than two weeks before deserting our Afghan allies in the middle of the night, Sec. Austin and Gen. Milley testified before Congress. U.S. rep. Seth Wilbur Moulton, former Marine Corps officer, specifically asked both Sec. Austin and Gen. Milley about evacuation plans. Rep. Moulton made several poignant comments:

As we withdraw from Afghanistan, we have not seen an operational plan to save our brave Afghan partners and allies.

And:

Mr. Secretary, I don't need to tell you this, but these brave Afghan partners, these Afghan and American heroes, people who we asked to risk their lives, not just for Afghanistan, but for America, because we had their backs. Their future is in your hands. This much is certain, the Taliban will kill them if they can and they will rape and murder their wives and kids first if they can. Chairman Milley, if the service chiefs were ordered to evacuate our Afghan allies today, is there a plan in place to get that started immediately?

Sec. Austin and Gen. Milley carefully parsed their evasive answers. They had their opportunity to speak up and object to the disaster that would soon unfold. They did not. They are either complicit or incompetent.

Sec. Austin and Gen. Milley did not have much to say about evacuation plans. However, both spent a lot of time defending their decisions on Critical Race Theory.

Rep. Gates commented:

I would particularly observe that on July 27th, 2019, Bishop Garrison tweeted regarding former President Trump, "He's dragging a lot of bad actors out into the sunlight, normalizing their actions," and here's the relevant part. "If you support the President, you support that. There is no room for nuance in this. There is no more, but I'm not like that talk," and then he replies to his own tweet with, what seems to be a very ethno nationalist hashtag, hashtag black 44. Could you enlighten us as to what advice Mr. Garrison has given you and are you concerned that while you testify publicly to our committee, that the department doesn't embrace critical race theory, you have hired someone who is precisely a critical race theorist?

This generated an interesting exchange:

Secretary Austin:

This is the first I've ever heard Mr. Garrison be described as a critical race theorist, so this is new. Mr. Gates:

Did you review his Tweets before you hired him personally? Secretary Austin:

Pardon me? Mr. Gates:

Did you review his tweets before you hired him? Secretary Austin:

I did not personally review his tweets.

Without being asked, Gen. Milley chimed in with this comment:

I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned non-commissioned officers, of being "woke."

And:

I want to understand White rage. And I'm White.

Gen. Milley was personally offended enough to fend off criticism of being "woke" and boldly told everyone exactly what he thought. Why was Gen. Milley not as bold to speak up about the imminent plans to desert our Afghan allies in the middle of the night and push over the first domino that would soon lead to the collapse in Afghanistan? If Sec. Austin was bold enough to push back against questions about Critical Race Theory, why was he not bold enough to speak about the imminent desertion? As a former general, Sec. Austin should have comprehended the devastating effects desertion would have on our Afghan allies.

If Sec. Austin was clueless, Milley should have informed him. (The role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is codified in law at 10 U.S. Code 163). In late June, if Gen. Milley did not know what was about to happen in Afghanistan, he was derelict in his duties. If he did know and did nothing, he is complicit. If either of them knew and did not formally document his objections, the blood of thousands of innocent Afghans is on his hands.

American citizens and Afghans were deserted and left to the Taliban. The rage is just beginning. Gen. Milley was playing politics by virtue-signaling about Critical Race Theory and defending against being "woke." Instead, he should have been orchestrating an orderly withdrawal. Gen. Milley claimed he wanted to understand White rage. He will soon get an opportunity to understand not only "White Rage," but rage from many different races and ideologies.

I believe that both Sec. Austin and Gen. Milley are directly responsible for deserting our allies in the middle of the night, which led to the collapse of the Afghanistan military and government. As of late Tuesday, August 17:

National security officials in the Biden administration told a bipartisan group of Senate staffers on Tuesday that about 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan, according to two Senate aides.

Gen. Milley and Sec. Austin should resign immediately.

Full Disclosure: General Milley and I were once peers. I was also an officer and Green Beret assigned to 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne). Now I am ashamed of Mark Milley. He has disgraced the Green Beret, the Special Forces tab, and the motto of the Special Forces: De Oppresso Liber (Liberate the Oppressed).

Image via Pixabay.

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Yes, Forrest Gump's "stupid is as stupid does" sums it up. So does "someone with the I.Q. of a cabbage could have predicted the outcome" that I used recently to describe the mentality it takes to defund the police. The consequences for South Vietnam and Indochina are known but have been ignored; they didn't fit the preferred political narrative. However, those results decades ago are important to gauge the human costs on Afghanistan's horizon.

In Afghanistan, the crimes against humanity could hit a new high, AKA low. Sharia law won't be kind to the vanquished, and women will suffer unimaginably. Taliban "justice" is ugly at best, horrific more often.

The scenarios leading to the outcomes in Vietnam and Afghanistan are different, but the cabbage-level I.Q. causes are the same. One reason the resulting horrors of the former are not well remembered is that the media conveniently glossed over them back then. They cast America and American warfighters as the problem.

Being proud of my combat service in Vietnam, I take the communist victory and outcomes personally, for myself and my 58,000-plus brothers and eight sisters who died. The Vietnam War wasn't lost on the battlefield; it was lost in Washington.

The last combat troops left Vietnam March 29, 1973. It wasn't until March 1975 that North Vietnam mounted the final offensive against South Vietnam. That makes it very different from Afghanistan. However, the end came quickly  April 1975  which is why the analogies are being drawn today.

Images of Saigon in 1975  helicopters plucking people off the embassy roof  have been seen everywhere since the news flash hit that thousands of Marines were heading to Afghanistan to rescue the remaining Americans. In blitzkrieg fashion, the Taliban had taken city after city; Kabul was obviously next.

Question: With America's massive investment of money, political capital, and human capital in South Vietnam and Afghanistan, how could they be abandoned to collapse so quickly?

Answer: "Stupid is as stupid does."

For Vietnam, the time lag prior to the rapid fall was due to the shellacking North Vietnam got from their invasion of the South in 1972. It took them until 1975 to recover. Then, between 1972 and '75, Washington's "I.Q. of a cabbage" took steps that guaranteed their victory.

First, as highlighted by the former Vietcong minister of justice, "the Paris Peace Accords created vast new opportunities to bring the Thieu [South Vietnam] government to an end" (1). More importantly, "then on June 4[, 1973] the Case-Church Amendment passed, blocking funds for Indochina military involvement after August 15 (2). That meant there would be no U.S. support in or over Vietnam  no air support  so the final nail in South Vietnam's coffin was ready and waiting two years before the invasion.

Additionally, the resupply of ammunition to South Vietnamese troops was so bad by 1975 that soldiers were receiving a ridiculous "85 rifle bullets per man per month" (3). That's not even a one-minute quickie with an M-16, so they were doomed when the invasion was launched.

And what were the results of the U.S. bailing on a longtime ally?

Between 1975 and 1992, almost two million Vietnamese risked their lives to flee oppression and hardship after the Vietnam War, in one of the largest mass exoduses in modern history. Communist brutality drove the departures, mostly by sea. Appallingly, "estimated deaths have ranged from 200,000 and 600,000 from pirate attacks, rape, torture, prosecution, drowning and starvation."

One account of seeing South Vietnamese "boat people" images on TV read: "Piles of corpses were on the beach, mostly of children who had died of hunger and thirst. A woman was carrying her dead child in her arms." That's what the North Vietnamese communist victory delivered.

Even worse was the communist Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia that accompanied North Vietnam's conquest in April 1975. "The Cambodian Genocide was the murder of between 1,500,000 and 3,000,000 Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge." That occurred in just four years: 1975 to 1979.

What's happening in Afghanistan doesn't bode well for America or the world. The Cambodian Genocide might pale in comparison to where the Afghan fiasco is heading. ISIS and al-Qaeda prisoners have already been freed from prison, and the Taliban will happily allow them to reside in their country.

Question: Does America allowing the Taliban to take over Afghanistan uncontested mean that another September 11 is on America's horizon?

Answer: "Stupid is as stupid does," so most likely, yes! Regardless, al-Qaeda and ISIS will both have a safe haven from which to operate globally. Terrorism worldwide will be on the rise.

How Afghanistan will compare to Vietnam in the long run is to be determined, but "stupid is as stupid does" is what comes when politicos don't learn from history. Unfortunately, it's the norm in Washington, D.C., where the I.Q. of a cabbage  skunk cabbage  is as good as it ever gets.

R.W. Trewyn was a Staff Sergeant in Vietnam, earned a Ph.D. and has slogged academe's once hallowed halls 50-plus years.

(1) Tang, Truong Nhu, Chanoff, David, and Toai, Doan Van. A Vietcong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and its Aftermath, p. 220, Vintage Books, New York, 1985.

(2) Id., page 229.

(3) Lewy, Guenter. America in Vietnam, p. 208, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1978. [An earlier version of this essay erroneously referred to page 40.]

Image via Pixabay.

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The terrorist dirtbags of the Taliban, having had the entire nation of Afghanistan handed to them by Joe Biden, are now having a grand old time mocking the media world the Democrats have created. They're gibing at Democrat-endorsed social media censorship, making Joe Biden and his fawning press a figure of fun, and using their own access to social media to consolidate power. Grotesquely enough, they know where the U.S. vulnerabilities are, given the house the Democrats have built.

It starts with this kind of rubbish:

I don't know whether this is a real picture or a Photoshop, but it was first passed around by a blue-check mainstream journalist, probably from Pakistan, who seems to have rather close ties to the Taliban. He's got nearly 29,000 followers and Devin Nunes, ranking Republican member on the House intelligence committee, thinks he's important enough to follow.

Obviously, this kind of trolling, pointing to the utter triviality of Joe Biden's fawning press obsessed with asking Joe ice cream questions instead of serious ones -- as Afghanistan was falling into their hands -- is something they wanted out there and it's getting around.

It gets worse. The Taliban has also closely watched the unchecked censorship on monopoly social media, home of where most news has migrated and decided to rub its censorship practices into the Democrat-linked press's face.

According to the Daily Mail:

The Taliban spokesman on Tuesday mockingly responded to a question about whether their government would respect freedom of speech - telling the journalist to ask Facebook. The Taliban is banned from Facebook and its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as TikTok and YouTube - but it is allowed on Twitter. Zabihullah Mujahid, who has 310,000 followers on Twitter, was asked about the Taliban's plan for freedom of speech. 'This question should be asked to those people who are claiming to be promoters of freedom of speech who do not allow publication of information,' he replied. 'I can ask Facebook company.'

Facebook only started shutting Taliban accounts down once criticism got out about the Taliban operating freely on Facebook while America's 45th president's account was apparently permanently shut down. It's likely they would have left them up otherwise, but the hypocrisy of their skewed stance was just too much for them.

Twitter continues to ban Trump, though, while the Taliban operates freely there.

The whole thing calls to mind that social media censorship is a problem in a nation that claims a First Amendment right to freedom of expression yet hardly has one. How the Taliban must be giggling about it. And how it has likely emboldened them, given that they have no intention of having a free press in the country they just took over. It shows how shortsighted the people behind this censorship who benefit from it, must think nobody abroad notices.

The problem in fact starts with the claim that social media companies doing the censoring are private companies who are free to censor as they want. The problem gets ugly though when we learn that these companies are monopolies, and worse still, subject to Democrat regulators, and various Democrats have been telling them what to censor -- a beyond-the-state act of censorship that's effectively one political party censoring dissidents and opponents. That's what communist parties in Soviet states and satellites used to do, a grotesque politicization of government. Democrats for months now have been happy with this thumb-on-the-scale-of-justice situation, having their cake of being able to claim a free press in the U.S., and censoring unfavorable news on the side with the alacrity of the East Germans. Now the Taliban has blown that fraud apart, and what an embarrassment that it was they who did it.

The other problem is that social media has served as an enabler for the Taliban, in this case, Twitter.

According to the Washington Free Beacon:

Taliban leaders used Twitter and WhatsApp to spread propaganda and establish control over Kabul as they stormed the Afghan capital over the weekend. On Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that residents welcomed the Taliban and that "the situation in Kabul is under control." The jihadist group used WhatsApp to disseminate a similar message to Kabul residents as it entered the city. In recent days, Taliban leaders have circulated WhatsApp numbers that Afghan regime officials or soldiers could call to negotiate their surrender. ... The Taliban has used WhatsApp and Twitter for years to share official statements, but in the past week it has escalated its use of the platforms, using WhatsApp to announce new rules for Kabul residents. On Monday, Mujahid tweeted a warning against looting and unauthorized intimidation of Afghan officials. The Taliban's "complaint commission" posted WhatsApp numbers for city residents to call "if they face threats from anyone" and set up an emergency broadcast system via the app as well. Twitter and Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, regularly banned ISIS members from their platforms. But the sites appear to let the Taliban broadcast its messages without incident.

Twitter's response to this travesty, serving as the Taliban communications center, has been disgusting:

Twitter Says Taliban Spokesman Will be Allowed to Remain if He Doesn't Get Too Violent https://t.co/Hvd2N0qb4j  Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) August 17, 2021

One can only hope that they can be sued by all the relatives of the dead people as the Taliban conducts house-to-house searches and gets the execution stadiums ready now.

But of course, the Taliban knows that Democrats will do nothing, which is why they are having such a grand old time trolling now.

They know that the Democrats have one goal, and that's Getting Trump. That's why they permit this violation of the First Amendment and any other lawlessness that they know they can get away with. The Constitution be damned.

The Taliban knows this and that's behind all the Taliban merriment, with mocking troll memes on Joe and his fawning press being passed around on social media, claims to social media censorship hypocrisy, and Twitter allowing itself to become the Taliban command center for the vilest terrorist regime on earth.

Had enough? The 25th Amendment can't come soon enough, and it's way past time for our country to clean house.

Image: Twitter screen shot

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Fraud and 2020 are a popular theme among many who voted for President Trump. Yet I'd rather talk about a different fraud or one where the evidence is clear.

We saw a lot of disappointment from the media about what just happened in Afghanistan, as reported by Joe Cunningham:

If for one brief moment, it appears that the love affair between the Biden Administration and most of our legacy media is on the rocks. Hailed as the Returner of Norms, Joe Biden was supposed to be everything Donald Trump wasn't. Calm, collected, a man with a plan, sparse in tweets, progressive, etc. His administration was predicted by all the major outlets to be a great one that would make America rational again. But the last several days have proven that, even as a Democratic administration, you can still get negative coverage. The withdrawal from Afghanistan has been an absolute nightmare scenario for any politician, but for the President and head of a political party, it looks like this is only the beginning. The media coverage is absolutely brutal.

You are even hearing about the optics, or the president by himself in a conference room or flying back to vacation after delivering a speech. Some were even complaining that the president did not take questions.

Where were these reporters during the campaign? What about the optics of a candidate who stayed in the basement and did not do press conferences? I guess those optics were OK because the objective was to defeat Trump.

Yes, there was fraud in 2020. It was the media protecting a candidate from rigorous questions or questions period. They all knew that Biden could not put in a full day on the job, but that was overlooked to get Trump.

As Bill O'Reilly just said:

As usual, the corrupt and lazy corporate media (network and cable news) missed the most important aspect of the Afghanistan debacle. And that is yet another horrendous situation presided over by a diminished president. It doesn't really matter anymore why Joe Biden cannot make sound decisions. What matters only is that he cannot. And neither can his advisers.

Yes, we are stuck with a diminished president, and everyone in the media knew it in 2020. That's the real fraud of 2020.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).

Image: Gage Skidmore.

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Naga Chaitanya's Love Story Release Date Announced:- Akkineni Naga Chaitanya is done with the shoot of his upcoming release Love Story long ago but the film's release is delayed. The film is announced for summer release this year but the release was kept on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sekhar Kammula is the director and Sai Pallavi is the heroine in this romantic drama that is set in the Telangana village backdrop. With the coronavirus calming down and small films raking decent money across the theatres of Telugu states, the makers of Love Story announced the release date.

Love Story will hit the screens on September 10th all over. The theatrical and the non-theatrical rights are sold for record prices. Pawan Ch is the music director and the album is on the top of the music charts already. Sai Pallavi's single Saaranga Dariya is a smashing hit and the lyrical song clocked a record number of views. Sree Venkateswara Cinemas LLP are the producers of Love Story and Sekhar Kammula's Amigos Creations co-produced the movie. Narayan Das Narang and Puskur Ram Mohan Rao are the producers. Love Story is carrying huge expectations and it is the first Telugu biggie releasing after the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
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(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 18 - Italy's intelligence and security chief Elisabetta Belloni told the parliamentary oversight body COPASIR Wednesday that the DIS will continue to support intelligence operations in Afghanistan, primarily with the aim of helping the evacuation of Afghans who helped the Italian mission there, COPASIR chair Adolfo Urso said after Belloni's two-hour briefing.

"The DIS director assured the continuation of the operational and information support of intelligence operators in the Country, also in order to guarantee the evacuation of those who worked with our 20-year mission, as well as their family members," said Urso.

Belloni's hearing touched on many aspects regarding above all national security, he said. (ANSA).


(ANSA) - PERUGIA, AUG 18 - A 29-year-old Afghan student at Perugia's University for Foreigners told ANSA Wednesday his sisters will not be able to study in his homeland after the Taliban's return to power in the country following a 20-year US-led mission.

"Afghanistan will not have a future with the return of the Taliban and I'm worried about my family," said Habib Mahboobullah, who was forced to leave the country six year ago "due to a problem with a very powerful Taliban, member of parliament at the time, who wanted me dead".

Habib reached Italy in 2019 after travelling through Iran, Turkey, Greece and lastly Norway, where his Afghan wife and their almost two-year-old son live.

He is studying Italian with the help of the local branch of Catholic charity Caritas.

"But in these days I can't study, my thought is just on my mother, father and brothers and sisters who live in Baghlan, a city six hours by car from Kabul".

Habib said he was "greatly saddened" by the scenes of the Taliban takeover and said "America should not have left".

He said he did not believe the Islamaic Emirate's professions of allowing girls to keep on studying and women to keep working, albeit under sharia law.

"Now the girls in my country will have to stay shut up at home.

"None of my sisters has ever worn the veil and still less the burqa.

"Now they will all have to wear it and they won't be free to move around the city".

Habib said he had three dreams, of living with his wife and son as soon as it is possible after COVID, opening an Afghan restaurant in the centre of Perugia and "above all bringing my family, which is living in Afghanistan, to Italy".

He said "another reason for this is that it will be the only way to embrace them again, since I won't be able to go back to Afghanistan as long as the Taliban are there". (ANSA).


(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 18 - Some 85 Afghan former assistants to the Italian mission in Afghanistan left for Rome on the second Italian airlift flight for those at risk of Taliban reprisal Wednesday, after 20 were brought out on Monday.

A further 150 are set to depart from Kabul later Wednesday, on board two more flights.

"Our commitment," said Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini, "is to work with the utmost effort to complete the evacuation plan for Afghan collaborators, of activists and others exposed to danger".

An Italian air force C130J will bring the first 85 Afghan ex-mission workers and relatives to Kuwait, where they will be transboarded onto a KC767.

Another two C130Js will make the same round trip from Kuwait later Wednesday and the 150 or so people will fly on to Rome on another KC767.

The Italian air force has deployed seven aircraft for the Aquila Omnia Operation: three KC767s that will shuttle between Kuwait and Rome and four C130Js that will operate the airlift from Kabul to Kuwait. (ANSA).


MADRID - Spain is paying tribute on Wednesday to Federico Garcia Lorca, considered one of the greatest Spanish poets of all time, on the 85th anniversary of his death.



Garcia Lorca was killed by members of Franco's forces in August 1936 - the exact date given is usually 18 August - one month after the start of the Spanish Civil War.



His body was never found, but it is believed to be buried in a mass grave in the area of Granada, his birth province.



He is the author of poetic anthologies such as Romancero Gitano and Poeta en Nueva York, which are considered important by experts in Spanish literature.



EFE news agency said Wednesday that the niece of one of the people who was shot together with Garcia Lorca has asked the European Court of Human Rights to authorise a new search for their remains, after the Spanish courts opposed it.



Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez honoured Garcia Lorca citing some verses written by the great poet.



"Eighty-five years after his execution, his work, his legacy and his way of observing and understanding reality are still present," he tweeted.
ROME - The Community of St. Egidio in Rome sent 50 volunteers, the majority of whom are university students and young people from Padua, Treviso, Trieste and Bologna, on a "solidarity trip" to the heart of the Balkan migrant route alongside refugees in camps and makeshift shelters around Bihac.



The summer season hasn't marked the end of the emergency in that region of Bosnia, with tired, hungry and mistreated refugees continuing to travel the land-based migrant route in the hopes of reaching Europe.



Some of the migrants attempt the so-called "game" - the dangerous crossing of the border into Europe - more than once.



The majority of the migrants are Afghans, along with Africans from various countries.



The migrants' hygienic conditions continue to be extremely serious, in addition to problems tied to the scarcity of food and the lack of drinking water.



Part of the work of the St. Egidio volunteers took place together with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), with which a fruitful collaboration has been active for some time.



In addition, together with IPSIA-ACLI, visits to the Lipa camp were also possible.



As a sign of friendship and solidarity, each migrant at the camp was given a t-shirt, a garment that is much appreciated in this season.



Many refugees regularly and enthusiastically participate in language lessons provided by St. Egidio outside the Lipa camp.



The lessons are held in small groups and teach simple phrases in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German.



The lessons are a chance to speak, get to know others better, and make friends, as well as to strengthen the hope of a better future for all.



"The presence of the young people from St. Egidio shows a different side of Europe, one that is welcoming, kind, and supportive," said the Community of St. Egidio.
ROME - About two-thirds of the Christian population in Syria abandoned the country in the last decade, since the start of the bloody conflict in spring 2011, according to the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), a faction tied to the autonomous Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava).



It said the Christian population went from eight to 10% before the civil war to a current figure of around 3%.



The decrease in the Christian population, according to an article in AsiaNews, is apparent in Kurdish majority areas, such as Jazira in the northeast, where the number dropped from 150,000 to just 55,000.



However, the decline has also been reported in areas under government control where economic difficulties, lack of resources, general impoverishment due to sanctions, and the Covd-19 pandemic have fuelled the exodus.



A Catholic source in the capital told AsiaNews that "there are no precise statistics" on the number of Christians who have left the nation; however, it can be said that their presence "has decreased a lot during the past 10 years of war." The source said several bishops, priests and pastors "have noticed this decline, especially among young people" and "in the event that Europe and Canada should open their doors to immigration, many Syrians, especially Christians, will leave".



Fr Ibrahim Alsabagh, custodian and priest of the Latin parish of Aleppo, spoke recently of the difficulties of the Christian population, especially the youth population, in a "Letter to Friends".



The 50-year-old Franciscan said there are "many problems that block the possible recovery of Syria" and that favour the continuous exodus.



In the future, he warned, the "priority of pastoral action will be aimed at young people and couples" who intend to marry at a historical juncture in which "getting married is a heroic act of faith".



At the political level, initiatives are emerging among various Christian groups aimed at unity and collaboration, the only way to acquire greater economic, social and political weight.



In this regard, further confirmation comes regarding the decision of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) and the Syriac Union Party (SUP) to start talks to "boost their influence in the country".



SUP leader Henna Sewime told Kurdish news media network Rudaw that the talks are centred around three fundamental points: Christian unity, a united Syria, and the recognition of Christians in the future constitution of the country.
LE LUC - One person has died in the wildfire that has been devastating the inland area of Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera, said the prefecture of the department of Var on Wednesday. This was the first victim in the largest wildfire of the summer in France, where on Wednesday morning 1,200 firefighters were still working to battle the blaze.



The wildfire, which broke out Monday near a highway rest area, concerns an area of 6,375 hectares, of which 5,000 have burned thus far.



Firefighters worked all night with 225 firetrucks to put out the flames, while about 7,000 people spent a second night in reception centres in the area after being evacuated from their homes.



"There's no longer wind, so we can work on the perimeter of the fire," the spokesman for the Var fire department told AFP on Tuesday evening.



"The situation is no longer as alarming as it was before, but it is still concerning," he said.



The 7,000 evacuated people are local residents as well as French and foreign tourists who were staying in their own homes or at campsites.



"It is still not possible for them to return," the prefecture said in a statement.



A total of 15 reception centres were set up to house the displaced in the eight municipalities of Var.



Two departmental roads remain closed to traffic.


Israel to allow in-school Covid jabs for staff, students Health ministry says open to staff and authorised students

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, AUG 18 - Nachman Ash, the general director of the Israeli Health Ministry, signed a directive ordering schools across the country to allow vaccinations inside their buildings during school days.



The directive instructs the heads of the institutions to allow health ministry teams to enter during school hours and administer vaccinations to staff who wish to have one and to students over 12 years old who have written permission from their parents.(ANSAmed).




British citizens who fled Afghanistan this week have said they feel immensely lucky to have escaped the nation as Afghan families still strive to find a way out after the Taliban takeover.

Kitty Chevallier, a charity worker from Basingstoke, Hampshire, left Kabul via a UK evacuation flight on Monday morning  sharing photographs of people packed on to an RAF cargo plane.

The 24-year-old had been working in the capital since September 2020 with Afghanaid, a UK-registered charity that champions womens rights and provides clean water and sanitation for Afghans.

As we drove there at 4am, the runways were crowded with hundreds of Afghan families hoping to get out somehow, she told the PA news agency.

Kitty Chevallier said she was immensely lucky to board a flight early on Monday morning (Kitty Chevallier)

Im very aware how immensely lucky I was to get helped out of the country.

One of the strangest moments was getting on the plane, not knowing when wed be able to come back or what the city would look and feel like when we did.

Ms Chevallier praised the handling of her evacuation, adding that soldiers who processed her were all patient, helpful and reassuring.

She said it feels bizarre to now be out of Afghanistan and said she is still in contact with several friends and colleagues stranded in the nation.

Which is of course nerve-wracking, she added.

Ive been doing what I can to help arrange their departure, where that has been possible, and Ive been encouraged to see that most of them have now been given the opportunity to leave on a UN flight tomorrow.

However the real tragedy is being in touch with Afghan colleagues and friends, for whom the chances of leaving the country are far, far smaller, and who have so much more to lose.

The eligibility criteria for the resettlement schemes currently available are really tight but we are providing whatever support and advocacy we can  were going to keep trying.

Ms Chevallier has been working in Kabul since September (Kitty Chevallier)

It is feared those who worked with Western authorities or organisations could be at greater risk of reprisals from the Taliban, though the group has initially denied this will be the case.

The messages weve been hearing from the Taliban, including in the provinces where we run projects, are encouraging and makes it sound as though there will not be any danger from them, Ms Chevallier said.

But meanwhile, Ive heard multiple examples of aid workers receiving threatening messages, even death threats  so they are obviously very scared.

Ms Chevallier called on the UK to increase, not cut aid going to Afghanistan and said criteria allowing people to return to the UK need to be urgently expanded to include aid workers and civil society activists, especially women.

We must not forget Afghanistan the news stories will probably dry up before long, but our support must not, she said.

Jack, from Birmingham, whose name has been changed to protect his family still in Afghanistan, also left the nation by a British military plane this week.

It was strange and frightening I was sad departing my native country the way I had to, the 27-year-old Afghan-born British citizen told PA.

(We) waited in a building around 12 hours before being transported to the airport it was difficult like waiting, security, hunger.

(Most) of those fleeing had to sit on the planes rough floor but overall it was worth it  I am extremely thankful.

Family and friends are (still) there. It was tough not being able to say goodbye.
The parents of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn have said they are ready for the most difficult day of our lives as they prepare for a legal showdown with their sons alleged killer.

Anne Sacoolas is set to give evidence under oath in front of Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn in Washington DC as part of a civil claim for damages, days before the two-year anniversary of the 19-year-olds death.

He was killed when a car crashed into his motorbike outside US military base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on August 27 2019.

Harry Dunn was killed in a road crash outside RAF Croughton in August 2019 (Family Handout/PA)

Sacoolas, 43, left the UK 19 days after the crash following the US governments decision to assert diplomatic immunity on her behalf.

She was charged with causing death by dangerous driving by the Crown Prosecution Service but an extradition request submitted by the Home Office was rejected by the US State Department in January last year.

Mrs Charles and Mr Dunn told the PA news agency the deposition by their sons alleged killer is their chance to hear from her in detail about the crash, adding: It is important for our mental health to have the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle put together.

They travelled to the US just over a month ago for their own depositions and described the process as arduous and difficult, but said giving evidence helped them to stand up and speak for him as he cannot speak for himself now.

Speaking to PA ahead of Sacoolass deposition, Mrs Charles said: Its almost two years since we lost Harry, and to this day we still do not know the full extent of what happened to him.

We were told by the police in the weeks after Harry died that we had less than 1% chance of having anyone held accountable for his loss. That was not nor ever will be acceptable to us.

The depositions are part of the discovery process in the Dunn familys damages claim, in which correspondence and documentation relevant to the case will be handed over ahead of a trial at the end of the year.

The damages claim, brought against Sacoolas and her husband Jonathan, has unearthed a great deal of previously unheard material, such as the State Department roles held by the couple at the time of the crash.

Alexandria District Court in the US state of Virginia heard the pairs work in intelligence was a factor in their departure from the UK, as they left for security reasons.

Mrs Charles continued: Our lawyers in Washington have told us that the deposition of Mrs Sacoolas is our chance to hear from her in detail about the crash and it is important for our mental health to have the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle put together.

Without that, our minds swirl around with uncertainty every day and I cannot put the image of Harry lying in the ditch by the side of the road dying out of my mind.

We know its going to be the most difficult day of our lives other than having to leave Harry after he died in hospital, but we are determined to see this through and we are ready for it.

Harrys father told PA the deposition was an opportunity to get our answers.

Mr Dunn said: We are really grateful to Judge Ellis for allowing us to bring the civil claim against Mrs Sacoolas in the US, where she decided to base herself after leaving the UK.

As a family, we all felt it was important to do and we followed legal advice.

Having to travel to the US, particularly in the middle of a pandemic which appears to be hitting the US harder than ever at the moment, is not easy.

But this is about Harry and our rights as human beings, and nothing will keep us away from doing what we have to do to get to the bottom of things and secure our rights.

I dont care how hard this will be. Charlotte and I will sit in the same room with Mrs Sacoolas and get our answers.
Boris Johnson has faced fierce criticism from senior Tories as MPs returned to Westminster for an emergency debate on the fall of Afghanistan.

In a packed Commons chamber, the Prime Minister defended the final pull-out of British troops, saying it was an illusion to think the international military mission could have continued without US forces.

But he faced cries of disbelief when he denied the Government had been unprepared for the lightning takeover by the Taliban which saw the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani collapse in just days.

In a series of highly charged interventions, he was accused by senior Conservatives of presiding over an operational and strategic blunder which would weaken the West in the eyes of its adversaries.

Former prime minister Theresa May said it was a major setback for British foreign policy nearly 20 years after UK forces first entered the country in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US.

In an emotional speech which drew rare applause from some MPs, Tory Tom Tugendhat  who served as an Army officer in Afghanistan  said the UK and its Western allies had received a very harsh lesson.

This doesnt need to be defeat but at the moment it damn well feels like it, he said.

Mr Johnson said ministers had considered the possible options when the US announced its intention to withdraw, but they came up against the hard reality that there was no will among allies to continue without the Americans.

Deploying tens of thousands of British troops to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban was not, he said, an option that would commend itself either to the British people or to this House.

British nationals board an RAF aircraft at Kabul airport (LPhot Ben Shread/MoD/PA

The West could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without US air power and without American might, the Prime Minister said.

I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by Nato in Afghanistan. That idea ended with the combat mission in 2014.

Mr Johnson said planning had been under way for many months for the US withdrawal  which precipitated the collapse of the Government  and that a decision to commission an emergency handling centre at Kabul airport was taken two weeks ago.

He said the UK was doubling humanitarian aid to Afghanistan to 260 million while the immediate priority was to evacuate the remaining UK nationals and those Afghans who had worked with the British in the country.

However, Mrs May said she found it incomprehensible and worrying that the UK had been unable to put together an alternative alliance to sustain the Afghan government.

She accused Mr Johnson of hoping on a wing and a prayer itd be all right on the night.

Theresa May said it was a major setback for UK foreign policy (House of Commons/PA)

We boast about global Britain, but where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul? A successful foreign policy strategy will be judged by our deeds, not by our words, she said.

Russia will not be blind to the implications of this withdrawal decision and the manner in which it has been taken.

Neither will China and others have failed to notice the implications because in recent years the West has appeared to be less willing to defend its values.

The Conservative chairman of the Defence Committee Tobias Ellwood said the collapse of Afghanistan was the result of an operational and strategic blunder.

What we require is the backbone, the courage, the leadership to step forward, yet when our moment comes such as this we are found wanting, he said.

We are complicit in allowing another dictatorship to form as we become more isolationist.

Mr Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the criticisms by US President Joe Biden of the Afghan forces had been shameful.

Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have, he said.

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said there had been a failure of preparation by the Government for which Mr Johnson bore a heavy responsibility.

He said the Prime Minister was in a position to give a lead on the international stage but had failed to do so.

The desperate situation requires leadership and for the Prime Minister to snap out of his complacency, he said.

We do not turn our backs on friends at their time of need. We owe an obligation for the people of Afghanistan.

Mr Johnson said the Government had so far secured the safe return of 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghans, with a further 2,000 Afghan applications completed and many more being processed.

He acknowledged the sacrifice of the British forces who had served in the country since 2001, and said he was committed to working with allies to ensure it did not again become a centre of international terrorism.

Even amid the heart-wrenching scenes we see today, I believe they should be proud of their achievements and we should be deeply proud of them, he said.

They gave their all for our safety and we owe it to them to give our all to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a breeding ground for terrorism.
Images of unrest and desperation at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, spread across the world on Monday as the Taliban took the city and thousands of Afghans sought to flee.

The chaos brought widespread criticism of the U.S. withdrawal, but President Joe Biden said on Monday afternoon that he stood "squarely behind [his] decision" to begin formally pulling out troops in May.

Still, the U.S. exit poses a "real chance" of destroying the Biden presidency, Eurasia Group founder and political scientist Ian Bremmer tells Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in a new interview. The crisis could severely undermine Biden's standing if Americans die or are taken hostage while the U.S. completes its withdrawal, Bremmer said.

"There are a lot of Americans that we want to get out of there," Bremmer says. "What if we have a hostage crisis? What if we have a firefight? What if Americans get killed? What if we end up not being able to get all these Americans out? That destroys Biden's presidency."

"There is a real chance of that happening," Bremmer adds. "It's not a 50% chance; maybe it's a 5% chance. But it is way higher than it should be."

The U.S. military on Tuesday restored order at the international airport in Kabul, as an additional 1,000 U.S. troops arrived in the country, bringing the total to 3,500, the New York Times and Washington Post reported.

Thousands of Americans as well as tens of thousands of Afghans who aided the U.S. remain in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported. In his address on Monday, Biden vowed to evacuate the Americans and offer refugee access for some vulnerable Afghans.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Bremmer cautioned that if the situation worsens it could approach the severity of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, in which Iranian students took dozens of Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy amid that nation's revolution. The hostage crisis lasted 444 days, causing a sharp decline in the popularity of then-President Jimmy Carter, who lost his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan in 1980.

"This is not the Iran crisis, the hostage crisis of '79. It's not. But it could become that," Bremmer says. "There is now a proximate risk that this gets a lot worse."

President Joe Biden speaks about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Bremmer, who founded the Eurasia Group in 1998, is the author of 10 books, including Us vs Them: The Failure of Globalism." His forthcoming book is "The Crises We Need: How to Confront the Three Greatest Dangers of Our Time," which publishes in April.

Bremmer said the Biden administration "really, really failed" in its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, but he predicted the political damage caused by the crisis will most likely fade.

"If the only thing that happens is the debacle that we see on the ground affecting Afghans, then I'm not sure it has huge lasting effects on Biden," Bremmer says. "It makes him look more incompetent; it makes him look like he can't execute well."

"But I don't see a lot of Americans voting on the back of leaving Afghanistan one way or the other," Bremmer adds. "I really don't."

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YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. Historian Ashot Melkonyan reacted to Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyevs overt fake and manipulations over his latest bizarre statements regarding Armenian provinces and towns.

Aliyevs latest target was Vardenis, a region in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia, which, perplexingly enough, he decided to call Basarkechar and ordered the media of his country to do the same.

Although these kind of ridiculous statements dont even require a refutation, nevertheless renowned scholar Ashot Melkonyan took the time to respond as a historian for anyone who might be confused over the matter.

Scholar, Director of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Ashot Melkonyan told ARMENPRESS that the Azeri leaders latest fake statements seek to falsely present the region as a Turkish-Azerbaijani one.

Melkonyan says that when Aliyev rants Syunik, Sevan, Vardenis and Yerevan are historical Azeri lands, historically the present-day territory which is called Azerbaijan republic doesnt have anything to do with the historical Atropatene  Irans northern regions, from which the Turks simply stole the naming when they created an artificial state in 1918.

Secondly, he said, to speak about any Turkish toponym or Turkish element in our region  including Eastern Armenia, Georgia, Eastern Transcaucasia and Northern Iran prior to 14-15th century, when Turkmen tribes penetrated the region, and moreover before the 11th century when Seljuk-Turks appeared in the region for the first time, is simply ridiculous.

Therefore, starting from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku  the territories of Atropatene, Shaki, Shirvan, provinces of Utik and Artsakh, Paytakaran of Mets Hayk, all had Armenian names, populated by Armenians and were Armenian, and to speak about any Turkish element there before the 11th century is simply ridiculous, Melkonyan said.

What Aliyev is saying today is obviously false and is a manipulation in an attempt to falsely present the region as a Turkish-Azerbaijani one.

Melkonyan notes that the civilized world, including the scientific and academic communities, are very well aware of this and understand that the Azerbaijani historiography is entirely fabricated and doesnt have anything to do with real science. However, he warns, it is another matter that the Azeri authorities are utilizing their funds to spread these falsifications all over the world in hopes that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth.

I think that most of the civilized world, namely Europe, the United States and Russia, with their scholarly circles and specialized communities, very well know real history. Whenever there is an occasion, for example Russian scholars always say that it is ridiculous to speak about an Azerbaijani ancient culture, because it is a made up, fake culture created on the basis of Turkified Iranian element in Eastern Transcaucasia, not to mention the political entity of so-called Azerbaijan republic.

Interview by Aram Sargsyan
YEREVAN, AUGUST 18, ARMENPRESS. It is necessary to hold debates with various circles on the topic of Constitutional changes to understand whether the system of government should be changed or not, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting.

The PM noted that the issue of Constitutional changes is defined in the Governments action plan as an opportunity for open debates. ''It's a much discussed issue if the system of government should be changed or not, or we should take the path of reforming the system of government. Our presumption is that we should have discussions with various political and public circles. Of course, the position of the ruling political force as a political force that won the people's vote of confidence will be very important here, but it should not be the only factor to influences this decision'', Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister emphasized that it is undeniable that there are problems in the constitutional structures, referring to the events of the last 7-8 months, in particular, the coup d'etat attempt, when the situation over the Chief of the General Staff was not resolved for almost a month.

Does this mean that we should undertake changes of the system of government, or not? This questions should be answered in the sidelines of more detailed discussions. It's necessary to be ready that there will be no public consensus and we will have to opt for the most rational solutions'', Pashinyan concluded.
Hundreds of students from Afghanistan studying at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University and other universities are not willing to return

New Delhi: With the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, most Afghan nationals living in New Delhi are uncertain whether they would ever get to see their kith and kin in their country. Glued to their TV sets to get latest updates on the developments unfolding back home, many Afghans said they have not been able to contact their families for the past several days. Several Afghan students studying at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University are not willing to return to their country and want to extend their visas through academic courses. While some blame the United States for not drawing a foolproof plan before withdrawing their military forces, others blamed President Ashraf Ghani for abandoning them to meet his selfish interests.

Accusing former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of having mishandled the situation and running away, Roheed, a 26-year-old native of Kabul, who has been living in Delhi since 2012 with his mother and brother, said the situation was worse than it was 20 years ago.

The Taliban has no religion and whatever claims they make were just for show -- a gimmick. They only want every Afghan to follow their footsteps. The claims made by the Taliban to the media are just lies, he told this newspaper. In last two decades they have mastered the art of lying. Once the cameras are off, they continue with their bloodshed.

In March 2019 my wife went to Kabul, where she was brutally killed in a market by Taliban assailants only because we had a love marriage. She was shot over a dozen times by them. Now, my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter is there with my relatives and I am very tense about her and the other relatives who are living there, said the teary-eyed Roheed, who lives as a refugee in the Lajpat Nagar area and works as a translator.

Mohammad Omid, 25, who came to India in 2017 from Mazar-e-Sharif as a refugee, told this correspondent that whenever anyone raises any issue through the social media, the Taliban immediately take them to a deserted area and kill them. He said: In India at least we have security, but the fear is still there about our loved ones who have been left behind. The photos and videos coming from there are heart-wrenching.

Either listen to what the Taliban is ordering or face bullets, said 15-year-old Mustafa, who came from Mazar-e-Sharif when he was 10 along with his mother, brother and sister-in-law. We are in great danger there and I would request everyone to please help us. Even the Covid situation has forced us into a hand-to-mouth situation. There are times when we have slept without having food.

Mustafa and his family are among the hundreds of people who are still trying to get the coveted refugee status from UNHCR. The UN agency, he said, is also not helping us. Despite repeated requests, they dont even consider our requests. We would like to request the Indian government and other big countries to please help the Afghan people.

Hundreds of students from Afghanistan studying at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University and other universities are not willing to return to their country and want to extend their visas by signing up for fresh academic courses. The students are worried about their stay in India as their visas are due to expire within a month.

Many of those who have come from war-torn Afghanistan to escape from either death or captivity are also unemployed, with few sources of income, and are desperately looking for a way to make ends meet.
Special Judge Geetanjali Goel of the Rouse Avenue Court said that the accused was discharged and asked him to file a bond

New Delhi: The Delhi court on Wednesday cleared Congress leader Shashi Tharoor of charges in connection with the case involving the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel of the Rouse Avenue Court said that the accused was discharged and asked him to file a bond.

Shashi Tharoor, who was present during the virtual hearing, thanked the court and said it had been absolute torture for the past seven-and-half years.

Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa told the court that they will be filing the bond today or tomorrow. Tharoor was represented by Senior advocate Pahwa and lawyer Gaurav Gupta.

Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava represented Delhi Police in the matter.

Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.

Tharoor was the main accused in the matter according to the Delhi Police.

The former union minister, who is currently on bail in the case, was charge-sheeted by Delhi Police under Sections 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel recently reserved the order after prosecution and defence counsel concluded their arguments on the issue of framing of charges.

Earlier, Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava stressed that Pushkar has undergone mental cruelty which led to her bad health. The Public Prosecutor also argued that it was not an accidental death and relied on the post mortem report which suggested that the cause of death is poisoning which could be oral or injected.

Srivastava had also said that due to the mental cruelty caused to Pushkar, her health became worse. He further added that Pushkar was not facing any health issues earlier but problems begun due to "stress and betrayal".

Tharoor's Defence counsel and Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa said that prosecutors were not able to establish evidence against the leader and the theory of injecting poison is in the air and cannot be admissible.

Tharoor's lawyer also read the statement by Sunanda's son recorded under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in which he had said, "In the mortuary of AIIMS, I asked the doctor who conducted the post mortem about the case of death, he (doctor) responded that there is no foul play or poisoning but the same doctor later went to the media and said that death is due to poisoning. Shashi cannot harm even a fly."
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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SUV

Eligible for the $6,587 Federal Tax Credit, in addition to different state incentives, the 2022 Sorentois powered by a 1.6-liter turbo-four and an electric motor.The assembly generates a combined output of 261, and is backed up by a 13.8battery that gives it a targeted all-electric range of 32 miles (51 km). The combined driving range of theis estimated at 460 miles (740 km).A six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters directs the thrust to the all-wheel drive system with center locking differential. Drivers can choose between different modes on the go, including the dedicated Snow Mode.In addition to the model-specific rear logo, plug port on the rear quarter panel, and 19-inch wheels, the electrified Sorento boasts 143.8 cu-ft (4,072 lt) of passenger space, the most of any PHEV SUV, Kia claims.It has standard three-row seating , with second-row captains chairs, fake leather upholstery or perforated leather available as an option, 12.3-inch digital gauges, 360-degree camera system, 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, sat-radio, and wireless smartphone charging pad. The electrochromic rearview mirror, Bose premium audio, 8 USB charging ports, smart key, and others are included as well.An array of safety gear is present, like the blind spot collision avoidance, driver attention warning, forward collision warning, forward collision avoidance assist, highway driving assist, intelligent speed limit assist, lane following assist, navigation-based smart cruise control, rear cross-traffic collision avoidance assist, and safe exit assist.Built in Korea, at the Hwasung factory, next to the HEV variant, the 2022 Sorento PHEV will launch in two trim levels, the SX and SX-P. Pricing details will be announced in due course.
Folks, Beechcraft is a name thats been known to the world over since 1932. Initially operating as a Cessna factory, their role in WWII helped solidify the idea that this company can produce fitting aircraft. Years later, in 2014, Textron, a company founded that same year, completed its acquisition of Beechcraft, but the company maintained its ability to produce renowned aircraft.One jet in their lineup is the Citation M2 business jet, an aircraft aimed at being the perfect entry-level jet for pilots. Features like speed, control, range, and comfort, are at the center of its construction. Let's not forget about performance and ease-of-use.As any craft meant to take you far, far away, one important feature of the M2 is its range. With a range of 1,550 nautical miles (1,783 mi), you wont be doing and trans-Atlantic crossings, unless you can land this on an aircraft carrier and refuel, but it is perfect for quick trip from Chicago to New York. Better yet, imagine doing a bit of island hopping with your very own private jet; quite a few are available for charter.Speaking of privacy, this is the smallest of the business class jets that Beechcraft currently offers, so only your closest friends will be joining you on this trip; up to seven passengers. But your friends or business partners will thank you later as their bottoms will be sitting on leather seats, surrounded by textured walls and extensive comfort features.If youd like, the Citation can be optionally equipped with a forward cabinet, just perfect for storing some snacks, drinks, and anything else you can think of. Being a business jet, you can bet there are some naughty things going on aboard. Speaking of extras, the craft can be loaded up to a 3,810-lb (1,728-kg) limit.One important feature to note are the jet powerplants. Two, Williams International, FJ44-1AP-21 powerhouse produces 1,956 lbs (887 kg) of thrust. What does this mean in terms of speed based on the crafts load and atmospheric elements? Well, the jet is capable of hitting 404 ktas (464.9 mph), 0.71 Mach. If only just a tad more power.As it stands, the entire jet comes in with a tip to tail length of 42.6 (13.0m), height of 13.9 ft (4.2m), and has a wingspan of 47.25 ft (14.4 m). Altogether, the M2 requires 3,210 ft (978 m) of field length for taking off, so you probably wont be visiting the smallest islands with this puppy , but city airports should do just fine.The final space where Beechcraft really put in the effort is the cockpit. Together with Garmin, the M2 is supplied with a G3000 avionics display and control systems. I'm not really sure what user-friendly means in the piloting world, but the manufacturer does make it sound like I can just hop on up in the cockpit and fly this myself. Heck Beechcraft even offers lessons to take your flying abilities to the next level.Finally, the most important aspect of this aircraft is its cost. Let's say you put in the work and finally become a millionaire, one day. Well, I've got news for you. Youd better keep working as the starting price for one of these puppies, according to evojets , is around $4.6 million (3.94 million).But, with a little bit of business-mentality, I'm sure you can turn this craft into a money-maker, not a money-waster. Then again, youll probably acquire it with some tax right-off, and that $4.6 million wont matter, especially since you own a private jet
kWh

NEDC

EV

ICE

Cars.com recently made a list with the options available for customers there, and the cheapest vehicle with an automatic transmission was the 2021 Chevrolet Spark LS, which costs $15,695. Thats $744 more than the BYD Dolphin, which is a significantly larger vehicle.While the Spark is 143.1 inches (3.64 meters) long and has a wheelbase of 93.9 in (2.39 m), the Dolphin is 160.2 in (4.07 m) long and has a wheelbase of 106.3 in (2.70 m). It would be better compared to the Honda Fit, which was 161.4 in (4.10 m) long and had a 99.6 in (2.53 m) wheelbase. When it was discontinued in the American market, the Fit  known as Jazz in Europe  had a base price of $17,145.The Dolphin is impressive even in terms of weight. With its smallest battery pack option (30.72)  which is also the cheapest  it weighs only 1,285 kg (2,832.9 lb). The Honda Fit weighed 1,253 kg (2,762.4 lb) when it was still for sale in the U.S.The problem with those prices is that they include an RMB13,000 ($2,008) government subsidy. That means the price without incentives would be RMB109,800 ($16,959). That would still make it one of the cheapest cars for sale in the U.S., according to Cars.com's list . It would be more affordable than the Kia Rio LX, which costs $17,045.The good news is that the U.S. also offers a federal tax credit for electric cars. If the BYD Dolphin were sold in that market, it would be eligible to $7,500, which would drop its price to $9,459. In other words, the BYD could bring a car cheaper than $10,000 back to the American market.There are talks about an even more generous subsidy with the H.R. 3684 - Invest in America Act. Despite ongoing discussions about prices and buyer income limitations , the BYD Dolphin would easily make the cut.The cheapest Dolphin offers anrange of 301 kilometers  or 187 miles. Although that seems low, the BYD would be the most affordableto offer an 800V thanks to the e-platform 3.0 it introduces. That and Blade Batteries would allow it to recover 150 km (93.2 mi) of range in only 5 minutes. Fast charging stresses the battery pack, but BYD said its LFP Blade Batteries could last more than 1.2 million km (745,645.4 mi).The other versions of the Dolphin cost RMB106,800 ($16,496 for 405 km of NEDC range), RMB111,800 ($17,268 for 405 km of NEDC range), and RMB124,800 ($19,276 for 401 km). In miles, 405 km is equivalent to 252 mi, and 401 km corresponds to 249 mi  all that still below the $20,000 limit.We have no idea if BYD plans to sell the Dolphin abroad, but it definitely should, especially in Europe. Checking those prices, many American customers must feel tempted to give it a try. The fact is that the Dolphin drowns discussions about cost parity between EVs andcars.
EV

kWh

Folks, the trailer you see in the image gallery has absolutely nothing to do with the Cybertruck and isnt the work of Tesla, even though this camper does include recharging abilities to extend yourroad trip. Thats right, this trailer can recharge your EV.Ok, so let me slow down just a little bit. The trailer you see is known as The Boulder, the newest flagship from Colorado Teardrop Campers . You may have heard of this team in the past as theyve been around since 2014, and since then, have grown to be known for their versatile and rugged designs.Today, this team is still leading the way through innovation and even meeting the growing needs of EV drivers and lovers of the outdoors. Seeing an expanding EV industry at hand, Colorado decided it would be one of the teams leading the way. Sure, a trailer capable of recharging other vehicles and gear is nothing new, but the way The Boulder does it is on a whole new level.How does this new-age trailer work? Quite simply , actually. In the floor, a battery bank built right into the frame offers more than enough energy to recharge your EV, whether it be a Tesla or anything else. To get an idea, the manufacturers website shows that 75of juice is available in the pack. Even so, the trailer only comes in with a dry weight of just 1,950 lbs (884 kg) with batteries.Now, just because theres a huge battery pack hidden under your feet, thats not to say that The Boulder cant perform as a camping trailer, it most certainly can. As it stands, the cabin is 150 inches (381 centimeters) long, 60 inches (152 centimeters) wide, and offers 55 inches (139 centimeters) of headroom.The interior is designed around a queen-sized mattress, so plenty of room for living space, storage compartments, and a few other options, do exist. One other feature that looks to be included in the interior is that of bunk bedding.Since the queen bedding is mounted dead center, its also modular, transforming into a dining area when needed. But at the north and south ends of the queen, two elevated bunk beds are seen. If you have less than four guests that need a sleeping space, just transform a bunk into storage.Outside the camper, a galley the likes of those that are offered by other Colorado teardrop trailers, is found waiting with everything you need to survive out in the wild . Don't worry about animals getting ahold of your meal plan as everything locks up neatly.Speaking of locking up neatly, is it just me or does this trailers shell remind you a whole lot of the Cybertruck? Well, the video below displays how air flows around the construction. One thing the team set out to do when designing this EV-drawn trailer was to make it as efficient as possible, in the process, maximizing your EVs range.So far, thats about all the product page shows, which still leaves one huge question unanswered , how do I recharge the battery pack? The video reveals that you will need to eventually pull over and recharge via a charging station. Sure, that sounds like a downside, but it wont be long until someone at Colorado figures out how to recharge this trinket with nothing more than the power of the sun. Cant wait for that day.At this point, the trailer wont be showcasing too many trinkets and features, but if you find something youd like to add to your construction, this manufacturer is the sort of team that is very open to suggestions, especially when building your dream trailer. How much is this puppy going to run you? At this time, $55,000 (46,940 at current exchange rates), but with the option to choose one of several benefits packages that even include free add-ons.I said it earlier and I'll say it again, the future is here folks, and companies like Colorado Teardrop Campers are doing exactly what is needed to catch the growing EV trend. Welcome to a new age.
AMG

Mercedes-Benz offers more than ten versions of its cars with a V8 engine under their hoods in the United States, which is the second-largest market for the brand. As with other manufacturers, China has surpassed the U.S. Market in sales volume, and that includes themodels offered by the German conglomerate.So, what is going on? The automaker issued a statement to The Detroit Bureau , which states that supply chain challenges, along with several other factors, are to blame for the situation. The German company noted that it is exploring every opportunity to solve the challenges as soon as possible, and that it is working closely with its dealers to help resolve the issue.In other words, the global chip shortage is affecting the German brand, just like any other automaker in the world. Because of the limited availability of some components, the company had to prioritize what models will be available with V8 engines , and what vehicles would have to be offered primarily with the rest of their engine options.Which are the two exceptions? Well, both the S 580 and S 580 Maybach models , based on the latest S-Class , are considered essential for the brand, and they can still be ordered with a V8 engine in the U.S. market despite the low availability of semiconductors.The decision makes sense, as the new S-Class is the kind of model that is appreciated with a V8 engine, and customers may stray to its rivals if they cannot order it with that type of power plant. Since the car was first shown last year, and this year marks its first year of sale on U.S. shores, it makes sense to prioritize it ahead of other models, such as the G-Class, GLS, GLE, GLC 63, E 63, and C 63. Yes, all those models (and others) will not be available to order as MY2022 cars in the U.S. market.Other markets may be affected by the situation, so do not be surprised if you find out that your local dealer cannot place an order for a V8-engined Mercedes-Benz these days. The issue will go away eventually, but we must note that other automakers are also affected, so demand for semiconductors is high at the moment, while production capacity is limited. Industry analysts expect the chip shortage to affect manufacturers well into 2022.
ALD

On June 20, 2021, the SpaceX Transporter-2 rideshare mission was successfully launched. One of the satellites that were part of the cargo was Lemur-2, developed by Spire Global, a provider of space-based data, analytics, and space services. Whats special about this satellite is that it integrated innovative Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. The objective is to monitor and establish their electrical performance in the space environment, and thats part of their overall qualification process.There are two things that make these batteries particularly important. The first is that they are the first space batteries to be manufactured with the Particle Atomic Layer Deposition (PALD/) technology.Forge Nano, the Colorado-based company that created them, specialized in precision nano-coating technology, and has developed its proprietary PALD technology. What this does is make batteries survive longer and perform better in various circumstances. This type of coating also works with most cathodes, anodes, separators, and solid-state battery materials, which makes it very versatile, while also being cost-effective.The second thing is that these batteries are mostly made with U.S.-sourced materials . And, if youre familiar with what the battery industry has been going through this year, this is a significant factor. And another first  no other space batteries have been made using mostly U.S. materials, until now. Spokane-based Pyrotek has provided the domestically sourced anode material, in combination with the cathode material from Forge Nano.Last but not least, the ZeroVolt technology developed by EnerSys also contributed to the performance of the space battery cells, by optimizing energy density, low-temperature performance and cycle life stability.By sending these batteries into space, integrated within the Lemur-2 satellite, Forge Nano hopes to collect more performance data that will help advance the used of this technology in the space industry. And thats just the beginning, as other commercial applications will follow, with the objective of establishing a fully integrated US battery supply chain.
Revealed for Brazil and other Latin American countries, the Commander is produced at the Goiana Pernambuco assembly plant. This facility, which is fully owned by the automaker under the FCA Fiat Chrysler Automoveis do Brasil Ltda. legal entity, is also responsible for the Fiat Toro unibody pickup truck, the Jeep Compass compact crossover, and the subcompact Renegade.Loosely inspired by the facelifted Compass and the Commander/Grand Commander for the Chinese market, the Commander for Latin America features the iconic seven-slot grille, LED headlights, and LED taillights to boot. The nameplate on the liftgate is finished in a copper-like hue, which is pretty similar to the Grand Wagoneer that Jeep sells in the United States.Scheduled to launch in Brazil on August 26th, the Commander features a few interesting details that pay tribute to the Willys MB/Ford GPW military utility vehicles. Those fellows entered service in 1941, hence the Since 1941 motif on the leather-wrapped center console. Stylish in every respect, the cabin is dressed up in plenty of soft-touch materials on the dashboard and interior door cards. Pictured with a digital instrument cluster, Uconnect 5 touchscreen infotainment, and push-button start, the D-segment crossover further shows TD 4x4 badging on the left-hand side of the square liftgate.TD stands for turbo diesel, namely the TD350 engine option that produces 170 PS (168 horsepower) and 350 Nm (258 pound-feet) of torque from 1,750 revs in the Compass. A T270-branded turbo gasoline mill is on the menu as well with 185 PS (182 horsepower) and 270 Nm (200 pound-feet).The biggest rival of the Commander in Brazil is the Volkswagen Tiguan, which comes exclusively in the long-wheelbase Allspace specification in this part of the world. Only available in R-Line 350 TSI attire, the seven-seat German competitor is 236,090 reais or $44,620 at current exchange rates.
kW

We're excited to be working with Hemmels on its all-electric 'Pagoda' project.



Where would you take one for a drive?



????: Hemmels#PoweredBySwindon pic.twitter.com/senxWGjnms  Swindon Powertrain (@SwindonPower) August 18, 2021

If you dont have any idea what we are talking about, Hemmels is a British restomod company dedicated to a few Mercedes-Benz vehicles such as the 190 SL, the 300 SL (the Gullwing), and the 280 SL (the Pagoda). It only works in 30 cars per year and spends 4,000 man-hours disassembling each vehicle, restoring it, and adding some modern conveniences.Apart from putting electronic fuel injection and ignition in these classics, it also decided to offer an electric version of the Pagoda. Each will cost $289,000, and the company said it would produce them in minimal numbers. Series I and II are already sold out, and Hemmels is now taking orders for Series III. The company did not disclose how many cars will be made in each series or how many series the Hemmels 280 SL Electric will have.Hemmels also did not disclose how many miles the Electric Pagoda will deliver, nor how big its battery pack is. The closest we got to that was that it could run for three hours, but we have no idea at what speed.Like Everrati with the Porsche 911, Hemmels promised to keepthanks to aIt is here that Swindon Powertrain fits in.Although neither company has revealed what the electric motor offers in terms of power, the one Swindon Powertrain developed for the Mini could produce as much as 120(163 hp). Thats a little less than the Mercedes-Benz 280 SL delivered: its 2.8-liter inline-six engine could generate 125 kW (168 hp). However, were sure Swindon gave the Electric Pagoda more power. That will surely help convince more people to pay the $289,000 Hemmels asks for these unique EVs.
EV

SUV

If the plan goes through, Rivian says the plant would result in the creation of 7,500 jobs by 2027, and that would make the company one of the largest employers in the region.Rivian currently has plans to assemble the R1T , R1S, and their line of commercial delivery vans at a factory in Normal, Illinois. That plant was once the site of production for the Mitsubishi Eclipse.The factory in Illinois Normal factory has two separate production lines producing vehicles. One is dedicated to the R1 and another line focused on commercial vans. Amazon ordered 100,000 of the Rivian electric vans and deliveries starting in 2021.To date, the upstartautomaker has raised upwards of $8 billion from heavyweight backers, including Ford Motor Company, Cox Automotive, Fidelity Management, and most critically, Amazons Climate Pledge Fund.The Fort Worth plant would cover some 2,000 acres of undeveloped land and city officials say a master-planned community in the area will also include homes for approximately 50,000 residents.We reported earlier that Rivian was eyeing Arizona as a site for the huge plant, but concerns about the available infrastructure there may have brought that idea to a halt. Texas offers major advantages for Rivian thanks to access to ports, proximity to Mexican suppliers and a nearby tech-centered economic boom.Rivian CEO, RJ Scaringe, recently notified customers that deliveries of the R1T electric pickup truck and R1Swill be pushed back forScaringe said those delays are largely a result of impacts of the pandemic - chief among them a global squeeze on the availability of semiconductor chips.He did say R1T deliveries will begin in September 2021 and that deliveries of the R1S begin shortly thereafter.
LSE 21 was a globally integrated, live scenario-driven exercise with activities that tested and evaluated warfighting principles that will determine how the future Navy and Marine Corps compete, respond to crises, fight, and win in combat.During the exercise, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps successfully tested the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS). The system, which is around two years old, consists of an unmanned Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, also known as the Remotely Operated Ground Unit Expeditionary-Fires (ROGUE-Fires), and a launcher with ready-to-fire naval strike missiles.Since NMESIS is not a fielded capability yet, the fire control component of the system was controlled by MCSC engineers throughout the exercise. Marines, on the other hand, were able to practice navigating the system and test its operability with their Naval and Air Force partners.SINKEX, the exercise scenario incorporating NMESIS, provided a testing environment for new and evolving technologies to connect, find, identify, target, and eliminate enemy threats in all domains, culminating in a live-fire demonstration of the naval strike missile against a sea-based target.This week was very successful, said McPherson, long-range fires program manager at MCSC. In addition to the two live fire shots that hit the target, we also successfully deployed the system aboard the Marine Corps primary transport systems, the C130 and LCAC.This exercise gave us an opportunity to not only measure, but also validate the concepts for the Marine Corps anti-ship capability, which is one of the most important avenues of the Commandants Force Design 2030, said Lieutenant Col. Ryan Collins, combat integration office for artillery and fires at Marine Corps Combat Development Directorate, Combat Development and Integration.
Although Tesla denies that in communications with authorities and its manuals, both the company and Elon Musk have already said more than once that their systems are safer than human drivers. Teslas CEO has also already said that autonomous driving wasthat drivers in Teslas cars would commute with no driver input (back in 2018), and that Teslas were appreciating assets because they would become Robotaxis soon.While Tesla fans treat that as merely missing deadlines, Mahmood Hikmet made an hour-long video showing many of Teslas autonomous driving promises over the years. Like the U.S. senators now asking for FTC to intervene, he believes that Tesla is autonowashing its cars.This expression was coined by Liza Dixon,as she defined herself in her website. In her own words, it means thatAccording to Reuters , Blumenthal and Markey wrote this in their letter to FTC:Tesla and Mr. Musks overstatements of their vehicles capabilities demonstrate a deeply concerning disregard for the safety of those on the road and require real accountability. (...) Their claims put Tesla drivers  and all of the traveling public  at risk of serious injury or death.According to FTCs website, itTo do that, the commission canThat is what may be coming for Tesla if Lina Khan decides to take the senators letter as her first task as FTCs new chair.
Palmdale, CA (93550)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 67F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 67F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
The parliament voted 65 to 18 to approve the measure in the first and second readings during an emergency session on Tuesday.

The opposition voted against the bill, insisting that authorities have other options to help farmers irrigate their land plots without an additional use of water from the key lake whose proper level has been a priority for successive Armenian governments.

Armenias law on Lake Sevan allowed the government to use no more than 170 million cubic meters of the lakes water annually for irrigation and power generation purposes.

The approved changes now allow the authorities to use an additional 75 million cubic meters of water from Armenias largest body of fresh water.

The government says it will help cater for the needs of the rural economy that has been hit by water shortages due to a low level of precipitation this summer.

Farmers in several rural communities have staged protests in recent weeks complaining about water shortages. They said they were losing their crops and opportunities to repay business loans.

Member of the opposition Hayastan faction Artsvik Minasian, who served as Armenias environment minister in 2016-2018, warned about the negative consequences of the decision from the environmental point of view.

Our faction will vote against this decision, but our vote is not against our agriculture, but against the government[s mishandling of the sphere], he said during the debate in parliament.
Outlining the action plan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian stressed that it was based on the promises that he made to voters in the June 20 snap parliamentary elections in which his Civil Contract party scored a landslide victory as well as on the document called Armenia Transformation Strategy By 2050 that Pashinian presented last year.

According to Pashinian, ensuring the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia, a fair solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, and creating a favorable external environment around Armenia remain priority tasks for his government.

In order to solve this problem, the government, which received a vote of confidence from the people, intends to take serious measures to mobilize the best potential of society and the nation, Pashinian said.

Pashinian said that large-scale reforms are underway in the armed forces as the army is the main factor in ensuring the countrys external security.

The Armenian leader also stressed the importance of carrying out an active foreign policy as another prerequisite for security.

Armenia should pursue an active, a proactive foreign policy, working with all countries and international organizations, he said.

At the same time, as an important security factor, Pashinian singled out Armenias strategic alliance with Russia and the countrys membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization.

From the point of view of regional stability, Pashinian also noted the importance of continuing negotiations within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France aimed at determining the final status for Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian leader said that opening regional infrastructures will also be important for his government in the context of creating a stable regional environment in the wake of last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Pashinian acknowledged has essentially changed Armenias external environment.

In this sense, Pashinian also said that the government program envisages the deployment of border troops instead of army units at some sections of the border and the establishment of a foreign intelligence service in the next five years.

In terms of the economy, Pashinian said that as part of the 2021-2026 action plan, the minimum monthly salary in Armenia will be raised from the current 68,000 drams ($138) to 85,000 drams ($172).

The minimum monthly salary in Armenia was last raised on January 1, 2020. Before that it was 55,000 drams ($111).

Under the action plan unveiled by Pashinian, in 2021-2026 the average annual economic growth rate is expected to be at the level of 7 percent. The plan envisages that it could be up to 9 percent a year in case of favorable external conditions.

The program envisages that by 2026 the level of poverty in the country will drop below 10 percent, while extreme poverty will be stamped out.

Pashinian said that Armenia will also continue to develop its infrastructure, including roads. He said the European Union has made a package of 2.6 billion Euros (about $3 billion) available to Armenia in the next four years for that purpose. These projects, Pashinian said, will include the construction of a 60-kilometer-long road connecting the towns of Sisian and Kajaran in Armenias southern Syunik province, the construction of reservoirs and other infrastructure and education projects.

Pashinian said that 300 schools and 500 kindergartens will be built or renovated in Armenia in the next five years. He said that the governments goal is also to equip all 1,400 schools across Armenia with natural science labs.

Pashinian also mentioned that every third and subsequent child in all families regardless of their social status will receive 50,000 drams (about $100) a month until the age of six.

Under Armenias constitution, the governments action plan is to be submitted to the National Assembly for endorsement within 20 days after the formation of the government. It is due to be debated in parliament next week.
Coolidge police confirmed to Arizona's Family that the father and daughter who died after an gas line explosion Sunday morning around 5:40 a.m. near SR 87 and East Randolph were also attacked by two inmates who escaped from Florence Prison in January.
Bakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Mainly clear. Low 69F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Mainly clear. Low 69F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2010 file photo a woman leaves a sign at a memorial for Oscar Grant after the sentencing of former Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter of Grant in Oakland, Calif. California's attorney general said Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, that his office will conduct its own review of a transit officer's involvement in the shooting death of Grant at a San Francisco Bay Area train station in 2009. The decision by Rob Bonta comes after the Alameda County's district attorney, announced in January that her office would not file a murder charge against former Bay Area Rapid Transit officer Anthony Pirone in the death of Grant on News Years Day.
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Bluefield, WV (24701)

Today

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Hanif Sufizada, University of Nebraska Omaha

(THE CONVERSATION) Editors note: Afghan scholar Hanif Sufizada, who works at the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha, got caught in Kabul during the chaos of the U.S. military pullout, when thousands of Afghans fled to the airport, seeking a way out of the country. Editor Catesby Holmes sent Sufizada an email on Aug. 17, 2021, telling him that she hoped he was OK  and his email back let us know that he wasnt.

Sufizadas dispatches from Aug. 17 and 18 advance an important story: He brings an on-the-ground account of his struggle to leave Afghanistan and the impossible and irrational obstacles he had to overcome in order to flee  all of which he faced even though he is a U.S. resident with a green card and a family in Omaha. Sufizada, an economics scholar and former Afghan government official whose most recent story for The Conversation was The Taliban are megarich  heres where they get the money they use to wage war in Afghanistan, wrote us from Qatar on Wednesday morning, Aug. 18, that he finally secured passage on a plane out of a U.S. military base in Qatar and is headed back to the U.S.

Tuesday, Aug. 17, Qatar

I was in Kabul when all this chaotic situation broke out. When I went to the airport to fly out of Kabul on Sunday, the day Taliban took over Kabul, I was lost and unable to locate American forces to evacuate me.

Before going to the airport I went to the U.S. Embassy, but no one was there because they had shifted their entire embassy to the Hamid Karzai International Airport. Tired and fearful of the Taliban capture of Kabul, I managed to enter the airport.

Because I filled out the Online Evacuation Request Form, I wanted to meet the evacuation team to explain my case. When I reached there, everything was chaotic. There was only one single civilian plane, which we were told was dedicated to the evacuation of Afghan officials. Even some people with valid tickets were canceled to fly, they were replaced, we believed, with high-ranking officials.

People like me just felt shocked and fearful of the evolving situation. So I searched for more than two hours to find Americans. Thanks to an employee of the airport who told me where Americans were, after waiting for several hours, I met an American soldier and begged him to evacuate me. He did help and wanted to check me in.

But while waiting in the queue, a mob of people threatened by Taliban rushed to American troops for evacuation. So I was forgotten and soldiers had to control the unruly mob. Eventually, they sent back everybody. I came back from the point it took me nine hours to reach. I spent the entire night, staying up and asking soldiers to allow me to evacuate because I have a valid U.S. green card. They didnt listen and I had to stay up until morning.

Hungry, thirsty, tired and scared, I, along with two others, an Afghan-German and an Afghan-British, were struggling to be evacuated. I approached all people for help to get evacuated, but the situation was so chaotic that nobody heard us. I was caught several times amid repeated gunfire. We were a group of three people  the U.S. Marines saved all of us. However, initially they thought that we were from among the mob who would rush to the airplane. We were not.

Finally, I got a chance to speak with one of the Marines and explain that we had valid U.S., German and British documents and were eligible for evacuation. Others sought help from their embassies but they didnt get any assistance. I convinced one of the Marines that I have a green card and also work for a university in the U.S. He then gave me permission and it was around 4 p.m. on Monday. After looking at our documents, he gave us a green signal to be separated from the mob. That was a moment of relief. He told us to go to the north gate.

Here, I was separated from the two others, who flew British airlines.

After going to the north gate of American base in Hamid Karzai International Airport, I was manifested and got ready to fly by military plane.

Then I had to wait another nine hours to get into the plane  still sleepless.

We arrived in Qatar at 5:30 a.m. and as of writing this to you  after almost 13 hours still sleepless  I am still in Qatar waiting for my flight to Kuwait, from where I will go to Washington, D.C., and then to Omaha. It has been such a torment so far. But we are safe from the Taliban.

I am so tired and my kids, who are in Omaha, are waiting to receive me. I dont know how I feel, but I am happy coming home after all this drama.

Now I am at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where I have been waiting and waiting to get clearance to go to USA. I came here at 5:30 a.m. and now it is 12:35 p.m. and I am still waiting for clearance. I am tired, weak and feel helpless.

Wednesday, Aug. 18, Qatar

After almost 35 hours, I got the opportunity to fly to Washington, D.C., in a special commercial flight chartered by the American Army. My current supervisor from University of Nebraska Omaha, my former supervisor from Tetra Tech, my American classmates from Cornell University, and friends all helped and sought the assistance of their representatives and senators for my evacuation.

[Understand key political developments, each week. Subscribe to The Conversations politics newsletter.]

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/an-afghan-american-scholar-describes-his-fear-filled-journey-from-the-chaos-at-kabul-airport-to-a-plane-bound-for-home-in-the-us-166387.
Entergy Texas is once again helping customers stay cool and save money this summer by donating boxed fans to dozens of agencies across Southeast Texas.

The companys 21st annual summer fan distribution program gave away 1,300 fans to 34 agencies across the region. But thats only a fraction of the 24,500 fans the agency has donated since the program began, according to an Entergy Texas news release.

The Texas summers are stifling on their own, but for customers without access to air-conditioning, they can be unbearable, Stuart Barrett, vice president of customer service for Entergy Texas, said in the release. We know these fans go a long way in helping our customers stay comfortable and help them save money by offering an alternative cooling option.

Among the organizations to receive fans in Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties were: Some Other Place in Beaumont, Salvation Army in Beaumont, United Christian Care Center in Vidor and the Salvation Army in Orange.

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The release said that in 2021, the Entergy Corporation and the Entergy Charitable Foundation helped power stronger, healthier communities by contributing some $438,700 to more than 70 nonprofit organizations in Texas during the first two quarters of the year.

These grants provided funding and support for initiatives directed toward education and workforce development, poverty solutions, the arts and community improvement across southeast Texas, according to the release.

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electricity to approximately 473,000 customers in 27 counties.

Parent company Entergy delivers electricity to 3 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy owns and operates one of the cleanest large-scale U.S. power generating fleets with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including 7,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, Entergy has annual revenues of $10 billion and approximately 12,500 employees.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
The Port Arthur Police Department has stopped thieves from stealing metal catalytic converters.

Officers received a call shortly after 4:30 a.m. to report a metal theft in progress in the 7200 block of Lake Arthur Drive.

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Officers arrived in the area and vehicle pursuit ensued, a PAPD news release said. Officers followed and subjects were taken into custody. The Metal Catalytic Converters were recovered.

The incident remains under investigation by the police department. No further information was provided.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-News

In a news briefing on Thursday, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients announced the two states alone make up nearly 40 percent of new hospitalizations across the country in the past week. He also states Florida has had more COVID-19 cases than all 30 states with the lowest case rates combined.

Previously, on August 2, Zients sharedTexas and Florida accounted for a third of the new COVID-19 cases reported in the United States.
Bedford, PA (15522)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

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Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
A member of the Australian Defense Forces watches Philippine Marines fire at targets during training exercises at the Gen. Gregorio Lim Marine Base southwest of Manila, Dec. 18, 2017.

Regional allies the Philippines and Australia agreed to boost logistical support and make it easier for them to work together in addressing security challenges, officials said Wednesday.

The Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement (MLSA) is expected to deepen longstanding defense relations, both nations said. Australian officials said the pact is similar to one Canberra entered into with New Delhi in 2020 that allowed military ships and aircraft to refuel and access each others military bases.

As Australia and the Philippines face a rapidly evolving strategic environment, seeking new opportunities like this is increasingly important for deepening defense engagement, said Steven J. Robinson, Australian ambassador to the Philippines, in a statement. For example, it will be easier for both countries to respond to humanitarian disasters in our region together.

The Australian embassy did not provide details as to when the MLSA would take effect or if it has been signed. The Philippine defense department officials confirmed the agreement but did not give additional details, deferring to their Australian counterparts.

Robinson said the agreement would help both countries regional security challenges but did not identify those challenges. Australia has been one of the Philippines top supporters in its territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea.

Chinas expansive claims include waters within claimed territories of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan. While Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesias exclusive economic zone as well.

Existing pact

The Philippines has an existing military pact with Australia.

In September 2012, Manila and Canberra signed the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement that allows for the entry of Australian troops into the Philippines.

That agreement was instrumental during a post-disaster response after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 that left thousands of people dead. The pact facilitated the rapid deployment of medical assistance, humanitarian and reconstruction support involving more than 500 service personnel along with aircraft and a navy ship.

In 2017, Australia sent troops to the southern Philippines to provide intelligence that helped defeat militants linked to the Islamic State who took over the city of Marawi.

Meanwhile, a U.S. warship, the USS Charleston, arrived in the Philippines on Monday for a resupply shortly after President Rodrigo Duterte announced that a security alliance with Washington was back on track.

The visit, the first by a commissioned U.S. warship since 2019, highlights the strong alliance, military relationship and renewed engagements between the two countries, the U.S. said.

Crew members were not allowed to leave the ship because of COVID-19 safety protocols.

Our U.S. Navy ships presence at sea and in ports like Manila promote security and stability that drives the peace and prosperity for the benefit of regional countries, Vice Adm. Karl Thomas, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, said in a statement.

The port call occurred weeks after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to Manila on July 30.

During Austins visit, Duterte announced he was restoring the Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. after earlier threatening to scrap it. The VFA, signed in the late 1990s, provides legal cover for large-scale joint military exercises between Washington and Manila.

In February 2020, Duterte said he was ending the 22-year-old pact after Washington had denied a visa to Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, his former national police chief and main enforcer of his administrations war on drugs.
Assault rifles recovered by security officials from fallen New Peoples Army rebels are displayed following a gun battle in the Eastern Samar province in the Philippines, Aug. 18, 2021.

Military officials on Wednesday said the death toll in a raid against communist guerrillas in the eastern Philippines two days earlier reached 19.

Photographs released by the army showed dead New Peoples Army (NPA) fighters in body bags near the town of Dolores in Eastern Samar province, the military said, adding security forces suffered no injuries during the Monday operation.

During todays scouring, one more cadaver was found with the help of a K9 team, totaling 19 NPA rebels who have died in the encounter, said Capt. Reynaldo Aragones, spokesman of the local infantry unit, in his report.

The NPA is the armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

The military previously reported 16 rebels had been killed after troops launched an air, sea and ground operation against the NPA on Monday.

Maj. Gen. Pio Denoso, commanding general of the Army 8th Infantry Division that engaged the rebels, said troops also recovered 29 firearms.

We crippled the rebels in Eastern Samar with the outcome of this attack, he said.

Eastern Samar is one of the poorest provinces in the island nation and the NPA has taken advantage of the situation by turning the areas youth against the national government, the military has said.

Mondays raid began at dawn after civilians tipped off the military that a large group of NPA fighters had established a camp near Dolores town.

The rebels regularly visited the towns residents asking for food and supplies, Denoso said.

We carefully planned our attack using everything in our disposal, Denoso told reporters during an online forum on Tuesday.

About 50 NPA rebels were at the camp at the time of the assault, according to the general.

He said the army sent drones to determine the exact position of the rebel camp he described as in the middle of a thick forest near a remote village. The camp was surrounded by huts that were used for lectures and doubled as bomb-making facilities.

We were glad that the camp was far away from any civilian houses and there would be no collateral damage, he said.

Denoso said Air Force FA-50 jets and artillery pounded the rebel camp before ground troops began their assault.

Incidents of bombs hitting civilian huts

On Tuesday, the CPP denounced the use of aerial bombs as superfluous and a disproportionate use of force.

Aerial bombing and strafing are indiscriminate. Over the past years, there have been several incidents of bombs hitting civilian huts, farms or exploding in the proximity of communities. said Marco Valbuena, CPPs chief information officer, in posts on Twitter.

Even with advanced drones, the AFP can only detect the presence of people in an area, but could not determine whether they are civilians or distinguish between armed and unarmed people.

The Philippine communist guerrillas have been waging one of Asias longest-running insurgencies, which began in 1969.

The government of President Rodrigo Duterte ended peace talks with the CPP in 2017 after accusing the rebels of carrying out deadly attacks despite the negotiations.

Last year, the government named both the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations. In June, the government added the communist partys political wing, the National Democratic Front, to that list and froze bank accounts linked to the movement.

The NPAs strength is estimated at around 5,000 fighters nationwide, down from at least 20,000 at its peak in the 1980s.
Rescue workers assist an injured protester before transferring him to the Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok, Aug. 16, 2021.

A Thai teen is in a coma after being shot in the neck during clashes between police and anti-government protesters near a Bangkok police station, a hospital and his mother said Tuesday.

In a statement, the Rajavithi Hospital said an unidentified man in his 20s was admitted Monday evening after suffering a bullet wound. A woman later identified the shooting victim as her 15-year-old son.

At admission, he was unconscious, breathless, pulseless and had bullet entry on his neck. After six minutes of CPR, he regained vital signs, the statement said. A CT scan result showed the bullet lodged at the brain stem and fractured first and second cervical vertebra.

As of today, the injured is unconscious, comatose, on a respirator with stable vital signals. He is under assessment, the statement went on to say.

Nipaporn Somnoi, the boys mother, told reporters she learned about his injuries on social media.

He asked me permission to join the protest but I denied, telling him its not the business of a boy like him, but he did not listen, Nipaporn said.

As of Tuesday, authorities had not determined who shot the teen or what kind of bullet struck him during the rally a day earlier near the Din Daeng police station. Officers said they used only rubber bullets while a government spokesman reported live ammunition was found at the scene.

[We] confirm that we used riot gear approved by the government, there was no live ammunition fired, Pol. Lt. Gen. Pakapong Pongpetra, the chief of the Bangkok Metropolitan Police Bureau, told reporters.

Police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to deter about 200 mostly young protesters on motorbikes and others who sought to march to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-chas residence to call for him to resign over mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Observers called Mondays protesters a hardcore faction that splintered from peaceful car mob gatherings where motorists honk, chant or unfurl posters. Local media, police and social media sources showed them using small pipe bombs and sling shots against police on Monday.

Pakapong said six police officers and a few other protesters suffered less serious injuries on Monday. Police had earlier claimed an officer was struck in the neck by a bullet fired from a home-made air gun on Aug. 7.

The Thai foreign ministry issued a statement on Tuesday in support of the police actions the night before.

The police also stressed that they had followed procedures in accordance with domestic law and international practice, announcing forewarnings before taking any actions and doing so only in necessary circumstances to deescalate potential violent incidents or physical harm, spokesman Tanee Sangrat said. Only rubber bullets and barriers were used as part of crowd-control measures.

Noting that officers reported finding live ammunition at the scene, he called on the public to allow the investigation to proceed.

[A]ll sides and particularly the press should refrain from making unsubstantiated accusations until investigations have been completed, so as to not further aggravate the situation, he said.

Since July 2020, protesters have called for Prayuths resignation, a rewriting of constitution and reform of the monarchy.

More recently, they have expressed anger over the governments failure to curb the pandemic.

Nearly 950,000 Thais, including more than 500,000 in the last four weeks, have contracted COVID-19, while 24 million of the nations more than 66 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine.
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FILE - In this Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, file photo, a masked family walks past Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom, at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Walt Disney World is tweaking its face mask policy. Starting Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, the theme park resort in Florida will allow visitors to chose whether or not to wear face coverings in outdoor lines, outdoor theatres and outdoor attractions.
Four people were injured when a car involved in a crash in Boston plunged about 40 feet and landed on its roof on railroad tracks
Gov. Charlie Baker has filed a nearly $1.6 billion supplemental budget, most of which would be used to provide unemployment insurance relief for employers, which he says is critical to help businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic
As the start of the school year approaches, Berkshire County school districts have begun to decide what their students, faculty and staff are required to do. Here is what we know from the districts that have decided so far ...
Two doctors' groups on Tuesday urged Gov. Charlie Baker to require that students and adults wear masks in schools regardless of their vaccination status, a move the governor has avoided in favor of letting local officials make their own calls.

Massachusetts Medical Society President Dr. Carole Allen and Massachusetts Academy of Family Pediatricians President Dr. Julie Johnston described mask-wearing as "a public health measure proven to reduce the transmission of COVID-19" and said it is crucial to balance safety with the importance of returning "to full-time, in-person learning with as little disruption as possible."

"By introducing a statewide indoor masking policy for K-12 students consistent with guidance from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics, the Commonwealth reaffirms its commitment to keeping all of our schools open and our students and staff safe," Allen and Johnston said. "It is imperative that Massachusetts teachers, staff, students, and visitors start this school year with uniform masking requirements to protect them and those with whom they live and interact outside of the academic setting."

Tri-Town Health to seek unified stand on masking guidance Stockbridge Board of Health President Dr. Charles Kenny suggests that a policy recommending indoor masking, approved by all three towns, including Lenox and Lee, would carry more weight.

State officials have recommended, but not required, that students in kindergarten through sixth grade wear masks because those age groups cannot yet be vaccinated. They're also recommending older students and adults who are unvaccinated wear masks indoors at school. Baker has stood by that approach, pointing to the state's high vaccination rates and saying local officials are best positioned to make decisions for their districts.

"Giving locals the opportunity to own the decisions they make is a big and important issue, and if you look at what's playing out in other states right now where state government has taken away the authority for locals to make their own decisions, that's not the right way to play this game. It's just not," he said Monday.

Breakthrough cases

In the week between Aug. 7 and Aug. 14, almost 2,700 fully vaccinated people became infected with COVID-19 in Massachusetts, the Department of Public Health said Tuesday.

There have been a cumulative 12,641 breakthrough infections reported out of 4,415,936 fully vaccinated people as of Aug. 14, DPH said Tuesday  meaning that 0.29 percent of all fully vaccinated people have subsequently been infected with the coronavirus, up from 0.23 percent of the immunized population a week ago and 0.18 percent two weeks ago.

In the week from Aug. 7 to Aug. 14, DPH counted 2,672 new breakthrough infections, about a 20 percent increase over the 2,232 breakthrough infections reported the previous week. A total of 496 people with breakthrough infections, or 0.01 percent of all vaccinated people, have been hospitalized and 124 fully vaccinated people, or 0.003 percent of people who have gotten vaccinated, have died of COVID-19, DPH said.

In its most recent weekly report, DPH reported 51 new hospitalizations and 18 new deaths among fully vaccinated people. The 2,672 newly-reported breakthrough cases represent nearly 40 percent of the state's recent one-week total of new cases, based on the seven-day average of 995.1 new cases each day that DPH lists for Aug. 14, the end of the seven-day period covered in DPH's latest breakthrough infection report.

As it did last week, DPH cautioned Tuesday that there are probably more breakthrough infections and hospitalizations among fully vaccinated people than it counts and can report.
California Rep. Barbara Lee spoke out Tuesday morning about her lone vote, two decades ago, against sending troops to Afghanistan. At the time, the Bush administration pushed to enter what became Americas most prolonged military effort.

During an appearance on CNN, Lee remembered being criticized for voting against the war knowing that Congress should not have sanctioned then-president George H.W. Bushs call for military action so quickly.



I take a lot of criticism for a lot of issues; we all do, she said.Whats important is...I knew then we were giving any president the authority to use force forever, which established the framework for forever wars. Congress has the responsibility to debate and authorize the use of force. You dont give it to presidents just to use in perpetuity, and thats what happened.

I knew then that theres no military solution in Afghanistan, she continued. You have to understand the history there, and so we cant nation-build. Our troops did everything we asked them to do; they accomplished their goals and their mission. Why in the world we would allow any president to keep our brave troops in harms way for this long is mind-boggling. But now, having said that, we have to learn the lessons.



RELATED: Barbara Lee Disagrees With Obamas Decision on Libya

The congresswoman, who represents the Bay Area, has been a trending topic since Taliban forces rode into Kabul last weekend, essentially taking control of the country despite the attempts of U.S. and allied forces to stop them since 2001. The war has cost $2 trillion (including Iraq) and the lives of 2,400 servicemembers and 3,800 contractors, according to the Associated Press.

Eager to respond to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration sought to weed out terrorist operatives in Iraq and Afghanistan and went to Congress to get approval for military action. The move was based on apparent intelligence that the Taliban was providing a safe haven for al-Qaeda, the Islamist group held responsible for the attacks.



Lee, however, was against abruptly giving the power to wage war to the president in the resolution put before legislators. On Sept. 14, she asked her colleagues to pause and think about what they were doing before they acted.

Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, lets step back for a moment. Lets just pause, just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control, said Lee on the House floor. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, as we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.



The resolution swept through the Senate, and her House colleagues, Democrat and Republican, went along. She stood steadfast the only legislator to vote against it.
Altamonte Springs, Fla., authorities have released the audio of a heartbreaking 911 call after a toddler fatally shot her mother. Shamaya Lynn was killed when, during a Zoom call with colleagues, her two-year-old found a loaded gun and shot the woman in the head, according to Fox News. The call describes the moments after the tragic event.

One participant of the Zoom meeting called 911 to say she witnessed a toddler in the background and heard a loud noise. Lynn fell backward and never returned to the call. The coworker explained to the dispatcher that the scene was frightening. "One of the girls just passed out. Shes bleeding. She has her camera on," the woman says.

"She just fell back and her nose was bleeding  I don't know if something hit, she hit the desk, I don't know. All I heard -- we heard a loud kaboom, and she then leaned back and we just saw blood from her face," Lynns colleague says. "The baby's back there crying, she's not answering or anything. We're calling her name, she's not talking or responding."



Editors Note: The below audio may be triggering for some readers.


A 13-year-old boy from Georgia has been charged with murder and aggravated assault after police say he shot his mother and then called 911.

Warner Robins, Ga., police posted a news release to their Facebook page detailing the events of the crime.

Officials say that 37-year-old Navy veteran, Dominique Bowers, was shot in her home. She was found dead by officers who located her son away from the home.

The teen has not been named by police. He appeared in Houston County Superior Court and is being held in the Crisp County Youth Detention Center.

Authorities have not revealed any information about what led to the shooting.

According to her Facebook page, Bowers was a former Builder Petty Officer 2nd Class in the U.S. Navy. She studied psychology at Roanoke College and worked for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Her profile says she was engaged.
Conservative radio host Larry Elder disagrees with California Gov. Gavin Newsoms mandate that all teachers and school staff be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing. In his opposition, hes promised to undo the requirements if he wins in the Sept. 14 recall election.

When I become governor, assuming there are mandates for masks and statewide mandates for vaccines, they will be suspended right away, said Elder in a Zoom news conference, laying out his plan. This is America. We have freedom in America.

As new infections began to rapidly climb in the state due to the Delta variant last month, Newsom required all state employees and health care workers to be vaccinated or test regularly.

Elder admits that hes vaccinated and does believe that vaccines work. But he is 69 years old and runs the risk of serious illness because of his age and a blood disorder. Elder insists he doesnt think the state should mandate immunization for people who dont want it. He also said he would eliminate any mask requirements for school children.



RELATED: Trump Backer Herschel Walker Says Jesus Would Be Against Reparations



Elder is the Republican front-runner in the race to replace Newsom, should voters elect to recall the current governor. He entered the recall race just days before the July 16 filing deadline. Even so, hes emerged as the clear head of a 46-candidate pack. He also enjoys name recognition and support from his nationally syndicated radio show which brings him more than a million daily listeners.

On both his shows and the campaign trail, Elder has reiterated some controversial views. He contends that racism is not at all a major problem in America today and that police are much less likely to use force against Black people than white suspects. He also believes that the minimum wage should be abolished.

Californias voters are faced with just two questions on the recall ballot: Should Newsom be removed, and who should replace him? If a majority of voters decide Newsom should be recalled, then whoever is the top vote-getter among the replacements wins.

It is possible that Elder could win the governors office with a plurality of voters. However, current polling suggests that Newsoms response to the COVID-19 pandemic has a majority of voters favoring him.
In her first news conference with reporters since May, Olympian and No. 2 player in the world, Naomi Osaka began to cry, apparently needing to step away from the questioning.

This was also Osakas first media session since appearing in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo earlier this month, and it got off to a hard start for the 23-year-old.

Speaking in a Zoom call before heading into Cincinnati's Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Paul Daugherty asked about her relationship with the media saying, "You are not crazy about dealing with us, especially in this format. Yet you have a lot of outside interests that are served by having a media platform. I guess my question is, how do you balance the two?"

Osaka seemed to pause a few times which prompted the moderator to ask to move to the next question. Osaka, however, wanted to answer. She first asked Daugherty to clarify what he meant by his question. Osaka admitted that because of her ability at the sport, she faces more scrutiny than she would like, but she summed up her reply by telling the reporter, I'm not really sure how to balance the two, I am figuring out at the same time as you are."

Osakas agent, Stuart Duguid, called Daugherty a bully and said his intent was obvious in the interview, Everyone on that Zoom will agree that his tone was all wrong and his sole purpose was to intimidate. Really appalling behavior.

After the exchange, Osaka held back tears as she answered questions about her thoughts on the recent devastation in Haiti, where a 7.2 magnitude earthquake killed more than 1,300 dead people. Osakas father is Haitian, and she pledged to donate her winnings in the Western & Southern Open to help the country.

Osaka then left the news conference for a few minutes. She then returned to finish answering questions.
Spearfish, SD (57783)

Today

Clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 67F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph..

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Clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 67F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph.
Spearfish, SD (57783)

Today

Clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 66F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 66F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph.
Joe Biden addresses the public on Afghanistan, Donald Trump says the President surrendered to the Taliban, The White House boosts Food Stamp benefits, the push to remove Gavin Newsom grows in California... Anxiety now keeping 4 in 10 Americans awake each night.

Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, should CNN fire Chris Cuomo?
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com We received about seven thousand emails commenting on Mr. Trump's decision not to attend the Republican debate in Iowa and his chat with me. There was massive press coverage on that. I'll run it down for you real quickly. The CBS morning show, fair. ABC's Good Morning America, fair. The Today Show used a report by Peter Alexander who said I all but begged Trump to do the debate. MSNBC  we don't even monitor anymore. CNN was strange. They used their usual hatchet men to attack Fox News, but Anderson Cooper was fair. The worst was old Bob Beckel: BOB BECKEL, CNN ANALYST: OReilly is scared to death of Megyn Kelly because Megyns been beating him in the ratings. The first time that has happened since Fox has been on the air. Of course that is false. And that's why Beckel doesn't work at Fox News anymore. He could not care less about facts. On the newspaper side, you know, there wasn't anything horrendous. Papers like the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, they don't really care for FNC or Donald Trump. But in this case there weren't any distortions or fabrications, the kind of stuff seen on the left-wing Internet sites. Perhaps the most interesting analysis was done by Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post. He puts forth that Trump is so far out in front that he doesn't need any more debates. So that's why he passed on Iowa, the excuses were all smoke. Now it's impossible to say whether that's true but it's certainly a provocative theory. On the viewer front, about 70% of the folks thought the interview was worthy. Thirty percent hated it. Sarah Skelton, Yukon, Canada: "O'Reilly I'm not sure what type of car you drive, but I'm guessing it has a Donald Trump bumper sticker on the back." Frank Richardson, Newport News, Virginia: "Bill thanks for pressing Trump. Based on his tirade against FNC, I will have a very difficult time supporting him." Ann Smith, Appleton, Wisconsin: "O'Reilly, you claim America wants to get to know Trump. Since when is that your job?" I believe it's my job to give my opinion Ann, and that's my opinion. Jack Faulkner, Klamath Falls, Oregon: "O'Reilly, you exposed Trump for what he really is: A vindictive person who is not presidential." Nancy Smith, Tucson, Arizona: "Bill, it is not your job to tell Trump how to run his campaign. He is at least as smart as you think you are." Pam Atkinson, Florissant, Colorado: "Gallant effort, Bill, but Trump can't be rehabilitated. Narcissists only see their point of view." Pat Hofstetter, Elburn, Illinois: "Bill, don't be a pinhead. Trump is right in changing the status quo and not allowing ridiculous questions by debate moderators." Ray Schenk, Roswell, Georgia: "Bill, I must compliment you on the Trump interview. You schooled him, and he lost his powerful persona as a result of his running away from the debate." And finally Don Newsham, Happy Jack, Arizona: "Bill, you're a wimp." So you can see that the Trump interview sparked a tremendous amount of debate. And that's a good thing for America because this man may get the Republican nomination. As I said to him last night, the more folks know about the Trump candidacy, the better. Talking Points submits to you that most Americans did not know much about Barack Obama. Yes he was re-elected, and that's to his credit. His skillful campaigning allowed him two terms. But did voters really understand Mr. Obama's governing philosophy? I don't think so. So if Donald Trump, a private business man his whole career, is trying to gain enormous power, we the people have to pay attention. And that was the theme of last night's interview. By the way, even if you're calling me names I appreciate your watching The Factor and taking the time to write in. What I don't appreciate is dishonesty by the media. But in truth I thought I would see a lot more of that after last night's interview. Everyone should understand that many consider FNC the most powerful news agency in the world right now. And that leads to an enormous amount of envy. Finally, for all you one-issue folks, I usually throw your mail in the garbage, not because of your opinion but because fanaticism is boring. When I get mail from ardent-feminists, when I get mail from socialists or other extreme folks, it vanishes. Maybe that's wrong, but I simply don't have time for it. And that's the memo.
According to the uber-liberal New York Times, Donald Trump's keynote address last week was designed to terrify voters.

TRUMP: The irresponsible rhetoric of our president, who has used the pulpit of the presidency to divide us by race and color, has made America a more dangerous environment than frankly I have ever seen. ((EDIT)) The problems we face now - poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad - will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them in the first place.

But President Obama does not buy Mr. Trump's allegations; instead he paints an optimistic picture:

OBAMA: But it's also important for the American people to remember that our crime rate in this country is much lower than it was in the '80s or the '90s or when I first took office, that immigration rates are substantially lower than they were when Ronald Reagan was president, that, as serious as these terrorist attacks are, the fact of the matter is, is that the American people are significantly more safe now than they were before all the work that we have done since 9/11.

Talking Points is in business to put forth the truth so here it is.

According to an average of polling by Real Clear Politics, 69% of Americans are unhappy with the direction of the country.

Just 23% are happy with the present condition of the USA.

That is a direct repudiation of President Obama's point of view.

Because if we are all safer and the economy is fine, why would the folks feel the country is on the wrong track?

The perception problem is two-fold: Americans believe that a stagnant economy is making it very difficult for workers to increase their salaries.

The majority of Americans also believe that disorder both at home and around the world is putting them in danger.

Donald Trump has capitalized on those sentiments, saying he will make things better.

Hillary Clinton seems to mostly support President Obama's vision, but does acknowledge the economic problem.

HILLARY CLINTON: I want an economy that gets back to raising incomes for everybody. Most Americans haven't had a raise. I want an economy that's going to help lift millions of people out of poverty. Because, given the great recession, we have fallen back in the wrong direction.

But the great recession was nearly nine years ago. I mean, come on, by this time the American economic engine should be roaring.

Instead growth this year is estimated to be below two percent -- that is dismal.

There are three new polls in the Trump-Clinton race.

CNN has it 48-45 Trump, so he got a bounce out of the Republican Convention last week.

CBS has it 44-43 Trump, a statistical tie.

And the Los Angeles Times has it 45-41 Trump over Clinton.

So despite all the controversy surrounding Donald Trump, if the election were held today he might very well win.

However, to be fair, perhaps Hillary Clinton will get a bounce out of her convention this week.

Now back to the problems.

Higher taxes and massive income redistribution will not stimulate the economy, so Mrs. Clinton is going to have to deal with that and separate herself from the Obama machine.

Many in the Democratic Party support open borders -- that means the consequences of illegal drug importation, illegal aliens committing crimes and higher competition for low wage jobs will continue.

It'll be interesting to see if any Democrat puts forth a specific solution to deal with illegal immigration this week.

On the foreign front President Obama's decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq directly led to the rise of ISIS.

The president's failure to attack ISIS on the ground has allowed the savages to expand their influence.

Mr. Obama's failure to destroy Assad's air force in Syria when he could have after drawing a red line over poison gas has directly led to millions of refugees storming into Europe.

That crisis has profoundly damaged the region and perhaps even stimulated Great Britain to leave the European Union.

President Obama's failure to confront Putin in Russia has directly led to chaos in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

The Iranian nuke deal has increased the power of the mullahs in the Middle East.

The Libya debacle has given ISIS a foothold in that country.

The Chinese are expanding in southeast Asia.

Afghanistan is now a sanctuary not only for the Taliban but also for ISIS terrorists who killed 80 people over the weekend in Kabul.

The list goes on.

Back home race relations are worse than at any time since the 1960s.

In some areas police and young black men even fear for their lives.

The far-left has run wild under President Obama, selling a narrative that America is a bad country dominated by white supremacy.

Drug use is skyrocketing even as the Obama administration puts forth that criminals who sell poison like heroin, meth and cocaine are non-violent and deserve leniency.

Political correctness is destroying free speech and giving power to charlatans who are clogging the court system with frivolous law suits.

Again, Talking Points could go on for hours.

So Donald Trump may be terrifying voters with his rhetoric, but his warnings are based in reality, are they not?

Foreign and domestic terrorism is a contagion that is not being effectively confronted.

Americans understand that all our lives have been changed. It is now routine to see innocent people slaughtered.

Now all of what I have just laid out is in-stone truth.

No spin.

And that has led to the rise of a strong-man politician, Donald Trump.

The Democratic Convention this week will seek to counter Mr. Trump.

We'll see if it succeeds.

And that's the memo.
The Israel Innovation Authority will fund NIS 18 M during first year to progress the project in collaboration with HyLabs and the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya

On Aug 15th, the Israel Innovation Authority announced funding of the first synthetic biological R&D infrastructure company in Israel. The funding will be a total of around NIS 18 million during the first year.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with HyLabs and the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. The total budget is expected to reach NIS 40 million subjects to the project achieving its pre-defined targets. The company will be supported by a scientific advisory committee, including world leaders in the area of synthetic biology, from both academia and industry.

This field focuses on providing solutions to complicated problems which require multidisciplinary knowledge, by shaping and building biological devices and systems used by people and society  for example by designing microorganisms and biological molecules (such as, RNA and proteins) as a basis for diagnostic tools, vaccinations and new medicines, solutions for alternative energy, new materials (like flavorings), and also the development of complete bio-sensors and biological chips' systems.

Israel Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Orit Farkash-Hacohen: the field of synthetic biology attracts the best scientists and entrepreneurs in the world. Embedded within it are economic, entrepreneurial and scientific opportunities. I see the role of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology to invest in and assimilate technological infrastructure, so that the State of Israel is a source of innovation and accomplishment in the future of international technology, thus developing and attracting the best scientists and entrepreneurs. I empower the work of the Israel Innovation Authority and support their activities to significantly advance innovative R&D infrastructure in new fields.

Dror Bin, Israel Innovation Authority CEO: After a year of extensive research, the authority identified synthetic biology as an innovative infrastructural field based on broad multidisciplinary ground-breaking knowledge in academia, which enables the advancement of the Bio-Convergence industry in Israel and the development of new companies in the field. To this effect, we decided that the time was right and it was important to move quickly. For this reason, we have assembled a team of experts to define the activities and guidelines required to establish a synthetic biological infrastructure company in Israel.
Aims to make IVF treatment accessible to all

Delhi-based Crysta IVF has launched a centre in Indore. The centre is guided by Dr Hemant Athavale who has more than 25 years of experience and Dr Mangala Athavale with 40 years of expertise in infertility-related treatments.

The Indore centre hosts various treatments such as IVF, IUI, embryology and surrogacy. The cost of IVF treatment varies for each fertility case depending on various factors such as the amount of stimulation required, egg donor, age, freezing of eggs or sperms, usage of advanced fertility treatment such as laser-assisted hatching, ICSI, Tesa etc. The centre at Indore is well-equipped with advanced technology to cure different types of infertility problems.

Dheeraj Jain, Founder, Crysta IVF, said With this centre at Indore, we hope to make fertility treatments accessible and affordable to all.

The centre in Indore is part of the companys ambition of launching 12 new centres in the next nine months.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bang

The US 'loss' of Afghanistan is a repositioning and the new mission is not a 'war on terror,' but Russia and China

Wait until the war is over

And were both a little older

The unknown soldier

Breakfast where the news is read

Television children fed

Unborn living, living, dead

Bullet strikes the helmets head

And its all over

For the unknown soldier The Doors, The Unknown Soldier

In the end, the Saigon moment happened faster than any Western intel expert expected. This is one for the annals: four frantic days that wrapped up the most astonishing guerrilla blitzkrieg of recent times. Afghan-style: lots of persuasion, lots of tribal deals, zero columns of tanks, minimal loss of blood.

August 12 set the scene, with the nearly simultaneous capture of Ghazni, Kandahar and Herat. On August 13, the Taliban were only 50 kilometers from Kabul. August 14 started with the siege of Maidan Shahr, the gateway to Kabul.

Ismail Khan, the legendary elder Lion of Herat, struck a self-preservation deal and was sent by the Taliban as a top-flight messenger to Kabul: President Ashraf Ghani should step out, or else.

Still on Saturday, the Taliban took Jalalabad  and isolated Kabul from the east, all the way to the Afgan-Pakistan border in Torkham, gateway to the Khyber Pass. By Saturday night, Marshal Dostum was fleeing with a bunch of military to Uzbekistan via the Friendship Bridge in Termez; only a few were allowed in. The Taliban duly took over Dostums Tony Montana-style palace.

By early morning on August 15, all that was left for the Kabul administration was the Panjshir valley  high in the mountains, a naturally protected fortress  and scattered Hazaras: theres nothing there in those beautiful central lands, except Bamiyan.

Exactly 20 years ago, I was in Bazarak getting ready to interview the Lion of the Panjshir, commander Masoud, who was preparing a counter-offensive against  the Taliban. History repeating, with a twist. This time I was sent visual proof that the Taliban  following the classic guerrilla sleeping cell playbook  were already in the Panjshir.

And then mid-morning on Sunday brought the stunning visual re-enactment of the Saigon moment, for all the world to see: a Chinook helicopter hovering over the roof of the American embassy in Kabul.

A US military helicopter flying above the US embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2021. Photo: AFP / Wakil Kohsar

The war is over

Still on Sunday, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem proclaimed: The war is over in Afghanistan, adding that the shape of the new government would soon be announced.

Facts on the ground are way more convoluted. Feverish negotiations have been going on since Sunday afternoon. The Taliban were ready to announce the official proclamation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in its 2.0 version (1.0 was from 1996 to 2001). The official announcement would be made inside the presidential palace.

Yet whats left of Team Ghani was refusing to transfer power to a coordinating council that will de facto set up the transition. What the Taliban want is a seamless transition: they are now the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Case closed.

By Monday, a sign of compromise came from Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen. The new government will include non-Taliban officials. He was referring to an upcoming transition administration, most probably co-directed by Taliban political leader Mullah Baradar and Ali Ahmad Jalali, a former minister of internal affairs who was also, in the past, an employee of Voice of America.

In the end, there was no Battle for Kabul. Thousands of Taliban were already inside Kabul  once again the classic sleeper-cell playbook. The bulk of their forces remained in the outskirts. An official Taliban proclamation ordered them not to enter the city, which should be captured without a fight, to prevent civilian casualties.

The Taliban did advance from the west, but advancing, in context, meant connecting to the sleeper cells in Kabul, which by then were fully active. Tactically, Kabul was encircled in an anaconda move, as defined by a Taliban commander: squeezed from north, south and west and, with the capture of Jalalabad, cut off from the east.

At some point last week, high-level intel must have whispered to the Taliban command that the Americans would be coming to evacuate. It could have been Pakistan intelligence, even Turkish intelligence, with Erdogan playing his characteristic NATO double game.

The American rescue cavalry not only came late, but was caught in a bind as they could not possibly bomb their own assets inside Kabul. The horrible timing was compounded when the Bagram military base  the NATO Valhalla in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years  was finally captured by the Taliban.

That led the US and NATO to literally beg the Taliban to let them evacuate everything in sight from Kabul  by air, in haste, at the Talibans mercy. A geopolitical development that evokes suspension of disbelief.

Ghani versus Baradar

Ghanis hasty escape is the stuff of a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing  without the Shakespearean pathos. The heart of the whole matter was a last-minute meeting on Sunday morning between former President Hamid Karzai and Ghanis perennial rival Abdullah Abdullah.

They discussed in detail who they were going to send to negotiate with the Taliban  who by then not only were fully prepared for a possible battle for Kabul, but had announced their immovable red line weeks ago  they want the end of the current NATO government.

Ghani finally saw the writing on the wall and disappeared from the presidential palace without even addressing the potential negotiators. With his wife, chief of staff and national security adviser, he escaped to Tashkent, the Uzbek capital. A few hours later, the Taliban entered the presidential palace, the stunning images duly captured.

A screengrab from a video showing Taliban leader Mullah Baradar Akhund, front, center, with his fellow insurgents, in Kabul on August 15. Born in 1968, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, also called Mullah Baradar Akhund, is the co-founder of the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was the deputy of Mullah Mohammed Omar. Photo: AFP / Taliban / EyePress News

Commenting on Ghanis escape, Abdullah Abdullah did not mince his words: God will hold him accountable. Ghani, an anthropologist with a doctorate from Columbia, is one of those classic cases of Global South exiles to the West who forget everything that matters about their original lands.

Ghani is a Pashtun who acted like an arrogant New Yorker. Or worse, an entitled Pashtun, as he was often demonizing the Taliban, who are overwhelmingly Pashtun, not to mention Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, including their tribal elders.

Its as if Ghani and his Westernized team had never learned from a top source such as the late, great Norwegian social anthropologist Fredrik Barth (check out a sample of his Pashtun studies here).

Geopolitically, what matters now is how the Taliban have written a whole new script, showing the lands of Islam, as well as the Global South, how to defeat the self-referential, seemingly invincible US/NATO empire.

The Taliban did it with Islamic faith, infinite patience and force of will fueling roughly 78,000 fighters  60,000 of them active  many with minimal military training, no backing of any state  unlike Vietnam, which had China and the USSR  no hundreds of billions of dollars from NATO, no trained army, no air force and no state-of-the-art technology.

They relied only on Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and Toyota pick-ups  before they captured American hardware these past few days, including drones and helicopters.

Taliban leader Mullah Baradar has been extremely cautious. On Monday he said: It is too early to say how we will take over governance. First of all, the Taliban wants to see foreign forces leave before restructuring begins.

Abdul Ghani Baradar is a very interesting character. He was born and raised in Kandahar. Thats where the Taliban started in 1994, seizing the city almost without a fight and then, equipped with tanks, heavy weapons and a lot of cash to bribe local commanders, capturing Kabul nearly 25 years ago, on September 27, 1996.

Earlier, Mullah Baradar fought in the 1980s jihad against the USSR, and maybe  not confirmed  side-by-side with Mullah Omar, with whom he co-founded the Taliban.

After the American bombing and occupation post-9/11, Mullah Baradar and a small group of Taliban sent a proposal to then-President Hamid Karzai on a potential deal that would allow the Taliban to recognize the new regime. Karzai, under Washington pressure, rejected it.

Baradar was actually arrested in Pakistan in 2010  and kept in custody. Believe it or not, American intervention led to his freedom in 2018. He then relocated to Qatar. And thats where he was appointed head of the Talibans political office and oversaw the signing last year of the American withdrawal deal.

Baradar will be the new ruler in Kabul  but its important to note hes under the authority of the Taliban Supreme Leader since 2016, Haibatullah Akhundzada. Its the Supreme Leader  actually a spiritual guide  who will be lording over the new incarnation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada posing for a photograph at an undisclosed location in 2016. Photo: AFP / Afghan Taliban

Beware of a peasant guerrilla army

The collapse of the Afghan National Army (ANA) was inevitable. They were educated the American military way: massive technology, massive airpower, next to zero local ground intel.

The Taliban is all about deals with tribal elders and extended family connections  and a peasant guerrilla approach, parallel to the communists in Vietnam. They were biding their time for years, just building connections  and those sleeper cells.

Afghan troops who had not received a salary for months were paid not to fight them. And the fact they did not attack American troops since February 2020 earned them a lot of extra respect: a matter of honor, essential in the Pashtunwali code.

Its impossible to understand the Taliban  and most of all, the Pashtun universe  without understanding Pashtunwali. As well as the concepts of honor, hospitality and inevitable revenge for any wrongdoing, the concept of freedom implies no Pashtun is inclined to be ordered by a central state authority  in this case, Kabul. And no way will they ever surrender their guns.

In a nutshell, thats the secret of the lightning-fast blitzkrieg with minimal loss of blood, inbuilt in the overarching geopolitical earthquake. After Vietnam, this is the second Global South protagonist showing the whole world how an empire can be defeated by a peasant guerrilla army.

And all that accomplished with a budget that may not exceed $1.5 billion a year  coming from local taxes, profits from opium exports (no internal distribution allowed) and real estate speculation. In vast swaths of Afghanistan, the Taliban were already, de facto, running local security, local courts and even food distribution.

Taliban 2021 is an entirely different animal compared with Taliban 2001. Not only are they battle-hardened, they had plenty of time to perfect their diplomatic skills, which were recently more than visible in Doha and in high-level visits to Tehran, Moscow and Tianjin.

They know very well that any connection with al-Qaeda remnants, ISIS/Daesh, ISIS-Khorasan and ETIM is counter-productive  as their Shanghai Cooperation Organization interlocutors made very clear.

Internal unity, anyway, will be extremely hard to achieve. The Afghan tribal maze is a jigsaw puzzle, nearly impossible to crack. What the Taliban may realistically achieve is a loose confederation of tribes and ethnic groups under a Taliban emir, coupled with very careful management of social relations.

Initial impressions point to increased maturity. The Taliban are granting amnesty to employees of the NATO occupation and wont interfere with businesses activities. There will be no revenge campaign. Kabul is back in business. There is allegedly no mass hysteria in the capital: thats been the exclusive domain of Anglo-American mainstream media. The Russian and Chinese embassies remain open for business.

Zamir Kabulov, the Kremlin special representative for Afghanistan, has confirmed that the situation in Kabul, surprisingly, is absolutely calm  even as he reiterated: We are not in a rush as far as recognition [of the Taliban] is concerned. We will wait and watch how the regime will behave.

The New Axis of Evil

Tony Blinken may blabber that we were in Afghanistan for one overriding purpose  to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Photo: AFP / Patrick Semansky

Every serious analyst knows that the overriding geopolitical purpose of the bombing and occupation of Afghanistan nearly 20 years ago was to establish an essential Empire of Bases foothold in the strategic intersection of Central and South Asia, subsequently coupled with occupying Iraq in Southwest Asia.

Now the loss of Afghanistan should be interpreted as a repositioning. It fits the new geopolitical configuration, where the Pentagons top mission is not the war on terror anymore, but to simultaneously try to isolate Russia and harass China by all means on the expansion of the New Silk Roads.

Occupying smaller nations has ceased to be a priority. The Empire of Chaos can always foment chaos  and supervise assorted bombing raids  from its CENTCOM base in Qatar.

Iran is about to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a full member  another game-changer. Even before resetting the Islamic Emirate, the Taliban have carefully cultivated good relations with key Eurasia players  Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and the Central Asian stans. The stans are under full Russian protection. Beijing is already planning hefty rare earth business with the Taliban.

On the Atlanticist front, the spectacle of non-stop self-recrimination will consume the Beltway for ages. Two decades, $2 trillion, a forever war debacle of chaos, death and destruction, a still shattered Afghanistan, an exit literally in the dead of night  for what? The only winners have been the Lords of the Weapons Racket.

Yet every American plotline needs a fall guy. NATO has just been cosmically humiliated in the graveyard of empires by a bunch of goat herders  and not by close encounters with Mr Khinzal. Whats left? Propaganda.

So meet the new fall guy: the New Axis of Evil. The axis is Taliban-Pakistan-China. The New Great Game in Eurasia has just been reloaded.
Anecdotal evidence detailed by former Google software engineer Mike Hearn strongly suggests that most restaurants, cafes and other businesses in France are not enforcing the countrys controversial vaccine passport system.

As we highlighted last week, on the first day the new program was in place, police were visibly patrolling bars and cafes demanding customers show proof theyve had the jab.

However, this seems to have largely been a bluff as just days later, businesses and venues have become very lax at checking peoples papers despite the threat of large fines.

I decided to do a simple experiment to find out: always present an expired test even though I had a valid negative one, and see what happens, writes Hearn.

Over a four day stay I was required to show a valid pass exactly zero times; that includes at the airports in both directions. Compliance is absolutely min viable and often lower.

At small businesses enforcement was non-existent: sometimes the pass requirement was ignored entirely, other times we were asked do you have a pass and our answer wasnt checked. One restaurant had come up with a clever way to detect police stings without requiring customers to actually present a pass. As expected, enforcement was stricter by larger firms, however even there we saw the following:

 Test certificates being checked once and then swapped for a token that doesnt expire.

 Expired tests being accepted.

 People accepting paper test certificates without scanning them.

 Scanning tests and then not looking at the screen to see the results.

 Accepting QR codes that failed to scan.

Hearn also reveals how mask mandates in theme parks and other venues are also not being followed, despite signs everywhere ordering people to cover their faces, while social distancing is also a forgotten memory.

Images showing empty cafes and bars on the first day the system was introduced may have spooked venues into taking a hands off approach.

In passing the law but failing to ensure that it is enforced, France is following the same model as Israel, where the point of introducing the system wasnt really to enforce it, but merely as a means of bullying young people into getting the vaccine.

As we highlighted last week, despite the odious and draconian nature of the vaccine passport system, President Macron asserted that the it was actually introduced to protect peoples freedom, which is like saying putting you in prison is for your own safety.
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Brandon University officials have added another impressive instructor to their ranks by recruiting award-winning musician, composer and writer Marika Galea for the upcoming fall semester.

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Brandon University officials have added another impressive instructor to their ranks by recruiting award-winning musician, composer and writer Marika Galea for the upcoming fall semester.

According to a Tuesday news release from BU, Galea will be teaching in the School of Musics jazz and contemporary popular music department, where she hopes to bring her extensive on-the-ground experience to students.

"The music industry and its role in our broader society are constantly changing," Galea said in Tuesdays release. "My purpose as an educator is to empower students to meet that challenge by building the fundamental skills and awareness they need to navigate their musical lives long after their time at BU."

Even though she is best known for her work as a bassist, Galea doesnt limit herself to this one instrument and is constantly exploring new ways of fusing improvised jazz, narrative songwriting and hypnotic soundscapes into her work.

Throughout this pursuit, Galea has collaborated on projects that have garnered nominations and wins for Juno, Golden Globe, Polaris and HotDocs awards.

Additionally, CBC Music named Galea one of the "35 best Canadian jazz artists under 35" in 2017, characterizing her as a "supremely gifted young artist with a lifetime of stories to tell in the future."

Galea also has a background in teaching, having lent her expertise and experience to pupils at McGill University, the Prince Edward County Jazz Festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Because of this, local music teacher Eric Platz is very excited to welcome Galea to BUs School of Music, especially since her research interests include music performance, production, composition and multidisciplinary collaboration.

"Theres a real spirit of collaboration in the School of Music, and I think that Marika will fit in with that very well," Platz said in Tuesdays release.

Throughout this summer, BU officials have hired several high-profile musicians to teach at their School of Music starting this fall, including jazz performer Ken Gold and Anishinaabe violist Melody McKiver.

 The Brandon Sun
OROMOCTO, N.B. - A New Brunswick soldier accused of serving cannabis-laced cupcakes to a group of Canadian Armed Forces members taking part in a 2018 live-fire training exercise was found guilty Wednesday on nine charges.

Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell arrives for a court martial at CFB Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B., on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell was convicted today on eight counts of administering a noxious substance and on one charge of disgraceful conduct. A charge of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline has been stayed. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Bissett

OROMOCTO, N.B. - A New Brunswick soldier accused of serving cannabis-laced cupcakes to a group of Canadian Armed Forces members taking part in a 2018 live-fire training exercise was found guilty Wednesday on nine charges.

Military Judge Cmdr. Sandra Sukstorf told the court the actions of Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell were "shockingly unacceptable."

Cogswell was convicted on eight counts of administering a noxious substance and on one charge of disgraceful conduct. A charge of conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline was stayed.

The noxious substance charges fall under the Criminal Code, while the more serious charge of disgraceful conduct is under the National Defence Act and carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Cogswell was accused of serving the cupcakes to eight soldiers while operating a mobile field canteen on July 21, 2018, on 5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown in New Brunswick. The soldiers were taking part in Exercise Common Gunner  a major live-fire training exercise involving about 150 personnel  using large howitzer guns.

The affected soldiers had to stop their role in the exercise when they became ill and complained of feeling paranoid and anxious.

Testimony during the court martial described soldiers who were wandering around places they shouldn't have been while others were laughing and giggling. At one point it was reported that group of people fell down laughing.

Sukstorf told the court she was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Cogswell was responsible.

"You added the cannabis into the cupcakes or alternatively, you were aware the ingredients you added had cannabis in it," Sukstorf said. "You were aware of the effects the cannabis could produce, and you distributed the cupcakes to the troops from the mobile canteen."

Sukstorf said people were driving trucks, setting up large howitzer guns and handling ammunition while impaired. "These circumstances presented a potential for significant harm including death," she said.

"In this case there indeed was evidence of harm in terms of the physical mind-altering effects suffered by the complainants," the judge told the court. "The interference in their bodily integrity by the introduction of drugs, that they did not consent to, as well as the fact the exercise was interrupted and training was affected."

Cogswell did not testify in her own defence, but two videotaped statements given to military police were played for the court during the court martial.

A sentencing hearing will be held in November.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
But even before the Elliott campaign, the continued usefulness of the dual-listed company structure had been questioned. When it was formed for the merger of BHP and Billiton in 2001, it was done for three broad sets of reasons.

One was to avoid what would otherwise have been significant tax events for the companies and their shareholders; another was to minimise the flow back of shares into the market from shareholders in the South African but UK-listed Billiton unable to invest in an Australian-listed entity; and the third was to create a vehicle for streaming BHPs valuable franking credits to the Australian shareholders for whom they had value. That streaming of the credits was possible while the UK entity had sufficient earnings and retained earnings to pay equivalent dividends to those declared by BHP Ltd. The dissolution of the dual-listed company structure has gone from nice to do to lets do it. When almost all the Billiton assets were spun off to create South 32, however, there werent sufficient profits within Plc to cover the dividends. Plc now generates only about 5 per cent of the DLCs earnings, but BHP will distribute 89 per cent of this financial years earnings to shareholders in its two entities.

The South 32 demerger forced BHP Ltd to transfer earnings, via a dividend that carried with it Australian franking credits of no value to non-Australian shareholders, effectively destroying BHPs ability to use the credits efficiently and undermining the rare ability the structure once had to stream them. The proposed Woodside deal encapsulates the mounting problem BHP has been confronting. Lets say BHP Petroleum is valued by the transaction at about $US13.5 billion (it could be higher, depending on how Woodside shares are trading). When the transaction is effected, the Woodside scrip or their equivalent value will be distributed to all BHP shareholders, which means 40 per cent of them will go to shareholders in the UK entity, taking with them about $US5.4 billion of valuable franking credits that have no value to Plc shareholders. That underscores how the dissolution of the dual-listed company structure has gone from nice to do to lets do it.

The cost of unifying the corporate structure has been reduced by the removal of the tax obstacles from as much as $US3 billion to only $US400 million to $US500 million, reducing, if not entirely removing, the main rationale for deferring the decision. Loading The demerging of petroleum, the planned offloading of BHPs thermal and lesser-quality metallurgical coal assets and the go-ahead for the Jansen potash project in Canada will leave BHP a different and smaller company, less diversified and more reliant on iron ore and copper. With net debt of only $US4.1 billion (its target range before the deal with Woodside was $US12 billion to $US17 billion) and a somewhat imbalanced portfolio BHP will have the capacity, and arguably the need, to invest or acquire on a large scale. With the dual-listed company structure, it is difficult for BHP to use its own scrip in an acquisition because it has to treat shareholders in each entity equally. When it spun out South 32 it had to give the British shareholders value equivalent to that received by the Australian Ltd shareholders.

There might be some tax benefits, for instance, for shareholders in a US-domiciled company targeted by BHP in using Ltd scrip rather than cash, which is more easily and efficiently done with a conventional corporate structure. Thats illustrative, but there is no doubt that a simplified structure and primary listing would make it less complicated and more efficient to make the acquisitions that appear probable once petroleum and coal have disappeared from the portfolio. It would create options that were easier exercised. The UK, which has historically provided the core of the capital that developed the Australian mining industry and miners, will feel like it is losing out when BHP is removed from the FTSE 100 and becomes just another foreign company with a secondary listing on the UK boards. In the near term, however, Plc shareholders should get something of a bonus from an uplift in their share price. Plc shares rose about 3.4 per cent in response to the spate of BHP announcements. Historically, Plc shares have traded at a discount to Ltds, generally in a range between about 10 per cent and 14 per cent.

Different tax and listing rules and corporate laws might be part of the explanation for the discount, although a more material factor might be the greater liquidity in Ltds shares derived from its 60 per cent share of the dual-listed company structure and the comfort provided by its ownership of 95 per cent of the operations. Loading The discount for Plc shares relative to Ltds had blown out ahead of Tuesdays announcements to as much as 21 per cent, so unification and the swapping of Plc scrip for Ltd scrip ought to close out that discount and provide some compensation to the UK shareholders for the loss of the influence the structure  which required the approval of both sets of shareholders for anything meaningful  has conferred. In some respects, it will be sad to see what was a very creative and effective structure when it was created two decades ago dissolved. But the changing nature of BHP since 2001 and the next wave that will flow from Tuesdays announcements meant that a structure that once generated efficiencies will soon be highly inefficient. For BHP, the dual-listed company structure has finally become an anachronism.
Energy giant Woodside will confront significant concerns about its $18.5 billion acquisition of BHPs petroleum assets as investors query the clean-up bills for ageing fields and the merits of increasing oil exposure while the world retreats from fossil fuels.

In a landmark agreement announced on Tuesday, top global miner BHP will sell its entire oil and gas division spanning Australia, the Americas and North Africa to Perth-based Woodside in exchange for shares. Woodside shareholders would own 52 per cent of the merged entity, while BHP shareholders would own 48 per cent, the companies said.

Meg ONeill has been appointed new CEO of Woodside Petroleum, Australias largest oil and gas producer. Credit:Janie Barrett

The combination, if it proceeds, would double Woodsides production levels, turning it into a top-12 global oil and gas player and a top-10 producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to investment bank Credit Suisse.

In oil and gas industry circles, a BHP Petroleum-Woodside tie-up has been on the deal dream list going back three decades, analyst Saul Kavonic said.
In the first episode of Kevin Can F**k Himself, Allison (Annie Murphy) snaps and does away with sitcom cliches. Credit:Jojo Whilden/AMC

While writing her pilot, she began to wonder about those wives, women who seemed to exist to set up their husbands jokes and tote identical plastic laundry baskets around the house. What would it be like to play that woman? What would it be like to be that woman?

Armstrong (Lodge 49) grew up on reruns of classic multi-camera sitcoms  The Cosby Show, Frasier  watching them obsessively. I joke that it was my after-school activity, she said. It must have been a nightmare to my mother. But as an adult, she started to see them differently. Especially The King of Queens-style sitcoms, which paired a schlubby husband with a knockout wife.

Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, Valerie Armstrong experienced what she described as a feminist fit of rage. So she put that rage into a comedy pilot: a pussy hat in script form.

The resulting show, Kevin Can F**k Himself, offers one answer. Created by Armstrong, it stars Annie Murphy (Schitts Creek) as Allison, a Massachusetts housewife and part-time employee at a package store. For about a decade, Allison has been married to Kevin (Eric Petersen) and treated his man-child antics with some degree of amused tolerance. But during the first episode, she snaps.

During Allisons scenes with Kevin, the show is shot in the overbright style of a multi-cam set-up. But as soon as Allison steps away from him, the style switches to that of a gritty single-camera drama. The King of Queens meets Breaking Bad. An indictment of white-male entitlement, it is both a tribute to and a reassessment of the traditional multi-camera, or multicam, approach.

Shot live, more or less continuously and typically in front of an invited audience, multicams emerged in the early 1950s and dominated network schedules for decades. They have cycled in and out of fashion over the years  The Big Bang Theory was still one of TVs most popular shows when it signed off in 2019, and One Day At a Time remained a critical darling until it ended last year  but they are mostly out of favour now. This means that Kevin deconstructs a form that has already done a pretty good job of deconstructing itself. (The title is an apparent riff on Kevin Can Wait, a Kevin James sitcom that sought to recapture the ratings magic of The King of Queens and failed.)

Some multicams have skewed surprisingly progressive, taking on subjects such as abortion and the AIDS crisis sometimes years before dramas feel ready. (Think Designing Women and Murphy Brown  or a recent example, such as The Carmichael Show.) But the marital sitcoms that inspire Kevin were never especially enlightened. They worked to perpetuate certain social norms while using women, people of colour and queer people as fodder for hacky jokes.

According to Alfred Martin, a communication studies professor at the University of Iowa and author of The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom, cliches such as the spousal attractiveness gap reinforce the cultural capital of white masculinity.
Adrian Grenier isnt in every scene of Clickbait, but some trace of his character, Nick Brewer, is. A high school physical therapist, Nick kisses his wife goodbye at breakfast time; by morning tea hes popped up in a video online, sporting a beaten face and holding a placard promising that at 5 million views he will die.

What Nick might have done to deserve such a fate is the driving force in this taut, propulsive, twist-filled cyber thriller, as his sister Pia (Zoe Kazan, The Big Sick), wife Sophie (Betty Gabriel, Get Out) and police detective Roshan Amir (Phoenix Raei, Stateless) search for the real Nick among the online traces and clues.

Adrian Grenier stars as Nick Brewer in Clickbait. Credit:Ben King/Netflix

Is he really a rapist? Does he really abuse women? Is he actually a serial cheat, with a high school student among his many conquests? In other words, is the devoted family-man persona merely a sham?

My character sort of lives in the minds and hearts and stories of all the characters, and so you get to know him through all of their eyes, says Grenier, the 45-year-old actor best known as Vinnie Chase in the hit series (and not-so-hit spin-off movie) Entourage.
Victoria will record its highest daily case total of this outbreak on Thursday.

One government source said the number was higher than 35, and the Herald Sun reported the figure would be greater than 40.

Many of the cases stem from people getting their mandated tests on day 13 of their quarantine period, including people linked to Al Taqwa college.

These cases pose minimal risk because they have been in isolation.

Authorities are increasingly concerned about mystery cases with an unknown source of acquisition.

Many of these cases are popping up in Melbournes inner south-eastern suburbs.

Melbourne was due to exit lockdown on Thursday night, but stay-at-home orders have been extended for another fortnight.

Thursday will also mark two weeks since the current lockdown - originally designed to be a snap lockdown - began.
Philimon Darmos Camden home is filled with hundreds of Assyrian, English and Arabic books. Among them are more than 30 bilingual dictionaries, which he draws on when translating COVID-19 public health messaging.

The 83-year-old began translating public health messaging from English to Assyrian for the NSW government last year and said he has never been busier.

Philimon Darmo is translating COVID-19 public health messaging from English to Assyrian for his community. Credit:James Brickwood

I have never been under so much pressure as I am now, he said. Its like a hobby. I could spend the time reading my books, but that would be boring.

On any given day, Mr Darmo might translate new restrictions, exposure sites or other announcements, which are then circulated throughout the community. He is one of more than 800 translators and interpreters working with Multicultural NSW on a casual basis, although not all of them work on COVID-19 messaging.
A man has fallen to his death from a balcony in Ipswich while being chased by police.

Police attended Oaks Ipswich Aspire Suites on West Street, Woodend, just before 8am on Wednesday.

A man fell to his death while trying to flee police at a high-rise in Ipswich. Credit:Twitter/Nine News

Mario Merlo, 42, who was on bail and wanted for bikie-related activities, allegedly climbed over a balcony and tried to enter a neighbouring apartment when he slipped, Nine reports.

He fell about 13 floors onto a pool deck, where he died.
A Townsville student who attended school for three days this week has been forced into home quarantine after travelling to the COVID-19 hotspot of Sydney without isolating on their return last Friday.

Queensland police were alerted on Wednesday after a teacher learnt the Pimlico State High School student had been to Sydney. The student was immediately sent home.

A Pimlico State High School student was sent into home quarantine after travelling to Sydney last week. Credit:Google Maps

New South Wales recorded 633 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, with between 357 and 463 from August 9 to 13.

The student, who didnt have COVID-19 symptoms, was in Sydney last week, returned to Queensland on Friday, and said they didnt undergo quarantine.
Restrictions including mask wearing and capacity limits will ease across parts of Queensland from 4pm on Friday.

Originally planned to have more freedoms granted from Sunday, the success of authorities managing the Indooroopilly and Cairns clusters mean changes have been brought forward.

People eat lunch at Brisbanes Breakfast Creek Hotel on Wednesday. Credit:Matt Dennien

The Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Gold Coast, Somerset, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim, Sunshine Coast and Noosa council areas will enter the so-called second stage of the path from lockdown until 4pm on Friday, August 27.

The Cairns and Yarrrabah local government areas will join the rest of the state in stage three. Here is what the roadmap lays out.
The great Australian promise to the people of Afghanistan was to bring peace, security and even prosperity by clearing the country of the Taliban.

Now all it offers is the rescue of 3000 refugees from a regime that beheads those who once worked for its enemies.

Scott Morrison hints that number will be only the first intake in a bigger Australian response to the fall of Kabul. A longer and bigger program will be needed. After two decades of war, Australia cannot run from its obligation to those left behind.

The showpiece for the Australian promise, many years ago, was a training centre in the Australian military base in Tarin Kowt, in Oruzgan province, where soldiers tried to encourage local men to learn trade skills.
Stay at home. Dont break the rules, everybody knows what they mean. Just a small number of people are choosing to ignore what the rules are. Around 550 of the new cases are young people and workers in western and south-west Sydney, where movement between households remains one of the biggest factors in transmission. Deeply concerned: Dr Kerry Chant said NSW needed to dramatically decrease mobility, while increasing vaccination. Credit:James Brickwood Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn, Greenacre, Yagoona, St Marys and Strathfield are key suburbs of concern. Ms Berejiklian said, given the high viral load in essential workers moving in and out of hotspots, there could be an outbreak anywhere.

University of Melbournes Professor McCaw, who is a member of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, said he would not be surprised if the state recorded up to 2000 daily cases within a month. However it could go lower too. Our models show the possibility of increases and decreases, but I think its more likely to be well over 1000 and up to 2000 within a month or so, he said. Professor McCaw said it was deeply concerning there were still thousands of unlinked cases, meaning the situation was likely to deteriorate rather than improve. He said despite the reported reproductive rate of about 1.3, the figure would be lower in some parts of the state and higher in others, adding that increasing vaccination coverage will ultimately help reduce new cases. Dr Chant said the reproductive rate needed to fall below 1 before case numbers started declining, urging the community to decrease mobility to stop the spread.

Every person is passing on the virus to more than one person, so we are continuing to see case numbers increase, she said. You might have one person who has connections across three households, but in each of those households youve got tens of people. And we know that household transmission for COVID is so common, she said. Dr Chant said she wanted to see fewer people in settings like workplaces and childcare centres. Data journalist Juliette OBrien, who has been tracking COVID cases since the pandemic began, said the outbreak is at a point now of absolutely taking off.

Ms OBrien said based on a current five-day average of about 470 cases, and with a reproductive rate of 1.3, daily cases would reach above 2200 within the next month. NSW has to some degree been keeping a lid on Delta until this point. And I think that has lured us into a sense of complacency, she said. On June 18 we had one case under investigation, today we have 3803. More than one third of cases in the outbreak have no known link to a cluster. And the vast majority, about 88 per cent, are located in 12 LGAs of concern. Cases are growing too quickly for our vaccination targets, said Ms OBrien. We are running toward vaccine targets and with these case numbers we are not running fast enough. Ms Berejiklian has consistently maintained the states lockdown settings are some of the harshest in Australia, and that she would only consider stricter measures if they were based on health advice.

Dr Chant said she engaged in regular discussions with Ms Berejiklian about what more we can do, insisting that they had a shared vision. We continually reflect on the data, any intelligence were getting about how transmission is occurring and keep on updating our ideas and concepts, she said. People aged 16 to 39 in Sydneys 12 local government areas of concern will start receiving Pfizer jabs at ten sites from Thursday after appointment bookings for the vaccination drive opened on Wednesday. The ambitious plan to inoculate more than half a million young people in two-and-a-half weeks has forced the temporary cancellation of non-urgent elective surgery at private hospitals across greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and regional locations. Health workers across the private hospital network, as well as others from smaller vaccination clinics and services like Breast Screen NSW, will help manage the roll-out.

Loading In Liverpool, four mobile AstraZeneca walk-in clinics will temporarily close for two-and-a-half weeks to allow health workers to boost the roll-out of Pfizer jabs at the Liverpool Vaccination Clinic. Labor health spokesman Ryan Park said closing a smaller clinic was not the solution as the outbreak worsened. We want more places for people to get vaccinated, not less, and we dont want a situation where these major vaccination hubs end up being superspreaders of the virus because thousands of people are forced to wait in lines for hours to get a vaccine, he said. Labor member for Auburn Lynda Voltz said her diverse electorate urgently needed access to vaccination in smaller multicultural sites.
Googles had great success with its line of A-branded smartphones, offering all the important features at a lower cost, and now it wants to do the same for wireless headphones.

The Pixel Buds A-Series, which are out in Australia next week, look almost identical to last years $280 Pixel Buds, but go for the much more wallet-friendly price of $159. Theyre small and light as far as true wireless buds go, fit well thanks to a built-in flexible stabiliser fin, and dont move around or dangle out, at least in my ears. Theyre also water resistant, last around five hours per charge and can get another 19 hours worth of juice from the included charging case.

Compared to most other buds, the A-Series is very low profile and sits almost entirely in your ear.

The soft tips, which come in three sizes, are shallow and comfortable, sealing the ear but not making it feel clogged. The tradeoff for how small and comfortable the buds are is that, unlike many popular competitors, the Pixel Buds do not offer active noise cancellation.

Musical and phone call performance is very impressive at this price and size. The sound is natural and clear, although out of the box some might feel the low end is lacking. Google offers a bass boost mode that more than rectifies this, but warns activating it may eat into your battery life.
Berlin: European governments were locked in urgent talks on Tuesday on how to avoid a wave of refugees heading into Europe as thousands of Afghans flee the Taliban takeover.

Even as they send military aircraft to rescue their people and former Afghan staff, European leaders want to avoid a flood of refugees like that of 2015.

The UN refugee agency estimates that about 550,000 Afghans have been driven from their homes so far this year, and there are fears that thousands more may now follow.

No repeat of 2015: Party leader and Chancellor candidate of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Armin Laschet. Credit:Getty

France and Germany called for asylum seekers to be given shelter in neighbouring countries and on the way to Europe.
Lansdale, PA (19446)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with rain developing after midnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
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Coal India Chairman Pramod Agrawal has said it will be difficult for the PSU to give 50 per cent wage hike to workers, as demanded by the unions, due to financial constraints facing the company, according to a union leader.

Nathulal Pandey, president of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha-affiliated Hind Khadan Mazdoor Federation, said he had a meeting with the Coal India (CIL) chairman on Wednesday during which the issue of workers' wages came up.

"The chairman told me that it is difficult for the PSU to give 50 per cent hike in workers' wages as the company is facing financial constraints. Even if the company gives a hike of let's say 10 per cent, it will result in financial burden of around Rs 5,000 crore to the PSU," Pandey said.

Every fifth year, there is a revision of wages of CIL employees. The hike is due from July 2021.

Coal India had in 2017 signed a wage agreement with worker unions proposing 20 per cent hike in salaries for five years.

CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output, has a total workforce of 2.59 lakh. Out of this, around 15,000 are executive staff.

Unions have submitted a charter of demands to CIL, including at least 50 per cent hike in salaries for the five-year period.

(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.)
DrinkPrime, a startup on a mission to make safe drinking water accessible and affordable to everyone, raised Rs 8 crores as part of their debt in June 2021. The company raised funding from the impact-focused lender, UC Inclusive Credit, and non-banking financial company, Western Capital.

Since its inception in 2016, DrinkPrime has constantly focused on its mission of improving access to clean and safe drinking water.

We want to be the most convenient option when it comes to accessing safe drinking water, said Vijender Reddy Muthyala, co-founder, and CEO, DrinkPrime.

We, at DrinkPrime, are proud to serve more than 1 lakh users across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi NCR.

DrinkPrime was founded to provide a solution to the drinking water problem in India. With most of the water in the plastic cans being unsafe and with less than 5 per cent of Indians actually owning a water purifier, the problem is real.

We found that DrinkPrime identified the need to provide a solution to one of the critical demands - access to safe and affordable drinking water in urban areas, said Anil Kejriwal, founder, and CEO, Western Capital. Their vision of a healthy India is what motivated us to support them.

It has been five years since the brand embarked on the journey to make safe drinking water accessible and affordable to everyone. Today, people in seven cities depend on them to access drinking water a safer way. The firm had raised Rs 21 crores in the pre-series A funding round last year.

We will utilise the funds to ensure that we serve more people in the country, thereby, bringing a change to the existing drinking water scenario, said Manas Ranjan Hota, co-founder, and COO, DrinkPrime.

DrinkPrime wanted to change the traditional one-size-fits-all water purification process and the water purifier ownership landscape. They offer personalised water purifiers designed to perfectly purify drinking water depending on the water quality in an area.

They purify water according to the TDS (total dissolved solids) of the area. This would create a huge impact on the water space, said Deepak Srinivas, co-founder, and chief business officer, UC Inclusive Credit. DrinkPrime is leading a change in the water consumption space, which is one of the key areas for us to invest and make an impact.
Instant delivery startup RaRa Delivery has raised $3.25 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital Indias Surge and Indonesias East Ventures. RaRa Delivery is Southeast Asias only last-mile logistics company focused on one to three-hour deliveries for e-commerce. It does this through its data-driven approach and proprietary technology. The company is on a mission to move all Indonesian deliveries to instant and same-day. RaRa Deliverys tech team is based in India, with an aim of scaling its India operations from 10 to 40 in the next six months.

In this age of instant gratification, RaRa Delivery is revolutionising logistics by making it possible for anyone, anywhere to get delivery in a few hours in Indonesia, said Karan Bhardwaj, founder and CEO, RaRa Delivery. While the express delivery space has been flourishing in sectors such as groceries and healthcare, we saw a unique opportunity to scale this offering across all categories, as customer expectations grow alongside the maturity of Indonesia's e-commerce sector.

Instant gratification is becoming a norm across consumer categories as peoples online ordering habits change, with rapid deliveries fast becoming a need rather than a luxury. In Indonesia, consumer appetite for fast convenience has risen and consumers are willing to pay a premium for fast deliveries. The market size for same-day delivery is expected to grow to 30 per cent, totalling 4.5 million parcels a day by 2023, and premium logistics charges for same-day delivery services is projected to increase to IDR (Indonesian rupiah) 65 trillion in 2023, up from IDR 4.4 trillion in 2018, thereby outpacing the growth in other delivery services.

When it comes to e-commerce in Indonesia, the challenge is building out the technology and infrastructure to solve for scalable, fast deliveries at the most optimal cost in such a large, populous country. There is a significant market opportunity for a last-mile delivery company specialising in instant delivery infrastructure catering to multiple merchants through one seamless interface.

RaRa Delivery was founded in Singapore in July 2019 by Karan Bhardwaj, who graduated from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Prior to founding RaRa Delivery, he was managing the end-to-end e-commerce supply chain at Unilever across Southeast Asia and Australasia.

Led by Sequoia Capital Indias Surge and Indonesias East Ventures, the funding of RaRa Delivery is supported by 500 Startups, Angel Central, GK Plug and Play, and angel investors Royston Tay and Yang Bin Kwok.

RaRa Deliverys mission is to make this possible by leveraging a differentiated operating model and real-time batching technology. While other with express logistics infrastructure are focusing on one-to-one deliveries, Rara has developed proprietary, real-time batching technology to do many-to-many deliveries within a few hours. Hence it is bringing down the eventual cost of delivery for customers. At the same time, drivers are able to earn more money in fewer hours.

Our vision of creating an ecosystem that allows e-commerce marketplaces and sellers to provide a premium customer experience to their end consumers is now becoming a reality, starting first in Indonesia, said Bhardwaj. RaRa Delivery is proud to be working with the largest brands in Indonesia in this challenging yet exciting growth chapter.





RaRa Delivery's Founder, Karan Bhardwaj

The company is also focusing on integrating its services into all major online marketplaces in Southeast Asia to allow any seller to offer instant and same-day deliveries to their customers.

RaRa Delivery has ramped up its offering given the rising demand for instant groceries and medical supply delivery services in response to the global pandemic. The startup counts grocery players such as Sayurbox, as well as healthtech company Alodoktor as key customers. It has been providing essential one to three-hour delivery windows required for food and medical supplies in this crucial time of Indonesias fight against Covid-19. The customer experience benefits are felt by large merchants and marketplaces that generate huge demand. RaRa has been able to deliver three-hour deliveries up to 20 per cent cheaper due to the efficiencies of batching technology.

Besides the one to three-hour delivery, RaRas platform offers customers reliability and convenience through real-time notifications and status updates. Customers can chat with service agents and drivers, all through a single chat platform. In the back-end, Rara receives orders from businesses and merchants via API integrations, then calculates capacity, timeslots, distance and route optimisation to slot these orders into batches and ensure that productivity is maximised to reduce the cost per order. RaRa Delivery is also one of the few businesses in Indonesia to do real-time reconciliation of Cash on Delivery (COD) through the platform. The company has grown 15x over the past one year.

"RaRa Delivery has been our trusted delivery partner since the launch of Cerita Roti in November 2020, said Jack Siah, VP, Kopi Kenangan, one of the fastest-growing grab-and-go coffee chains in Indonesia. Today, partnering with RaRa has enabled us to serve good quality bread to our customers through Kopi Kenangan outlets in Jabodetabek. The speed and agility of their offering ensure we can continue to deliver on our promise of an exceptional customer experience. We look forward to scaling the business together with RaRa to all Kopi Kenangan outlets nationwide."
has been banned for operating flights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a week.

According to sources, the suspension came into effect from Tuesday for carrying passengers who had not undergone a rapid-PCR test at the departure airport and will run till August 24

has eased entry restrictions allowing permanent residents to enter the country but passengers are required to undergo a RT-PCR test 48 hours before departure and an another rapid-PCR test at the airport a few hours before the flight. The rapid PCR test requirement came into effect from August 5.

Passengers also need an approval letter from authorities for travel. Airline check-in staff at the airport are required to check the test reports before accepting passengers. The documents are also checked upon arrival in the



Sources pointed out carried passengers who had not undergone tests resulting in suspension of flights for a week. Passengers took to social media venting their frustration on the flight cancellations.

In a statement said all flights to UAE stand cancelled till August due to operational issues

"We have informed all our passengers and will support them with refunds or accommodation in other flights once we resume operations," the airline said.
Singapore-based investor Investment Management today said that its industrial platform has acquired an additional one million square feet of warehousing space in Free Trade and Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) located at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai.

Industry sources said the deal would have happened around Rs 500 crore.

already owns one million square feet of warehouses in the FTWZ acquired over the last decade, and the new acquisition will immediately double its ownership in the park to 2 million square feet.

has a JV with Dutch fund APG for retail malls in te country. It also owns office and IT parks and has lending arm Xander Finance.
India on Wednesday reported a net decrease of 2,431 in active cases to take its count to 367,415. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 2.12 per cent (one in 47). The country is eleventh among the most affected countries by active cases. On Tuesday, it added 35,178 cases to take its total caseload to 32,285,857 from 32,250,679  an increase of 0.1%. And, with 440 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 432,519, or 1.34 per cent of total confirmed infections.

With 5,505,075 more Covid-19 vaccine doses being administered on Tuesday, Indias total count of vaccine shots so far reached 560,652,030. The count of recovered cases across India, meanwhile, reached 31,485,923  or 97.52 per cent of total caseload  with 37,169 new cured cases being reported on Wednesday.

Now the tenth-most-affected country by active cases, third by deaths, second by total cases, and first by recoveries, India has added 249,346 cases in the past 7 days.

India now accounts for 2.12% of all active cases globally (one in every 47 active cases), and 9.84% of all deaths (one in every 10 deaths).

India has so far administered 560,652,030 vaccine doses. That is 1738.41 per cent of its total caseload, and 40.18 per cent of its population.

Among Indian states, the top 5 in terms of number of vaccine shots administered are Uttar Pradesh (65460153), Maharashtra (55447364), Gujarat (44867308), Rajasthan (43184047), and Madhya Pradesh (41190477).

Among states with more than 10 million population, the top 5 in number of vaccine shots per one million population are Kerala (772012), Uttarakhand (711296), Gujarat (702452), Delhi (687699), and J&K (581146).

Backwards from here, the last 1 million cases for India have come in 27 days.

The count of active cases across India on Wednesday saw a net reduction of 2,431, compared with 12,101 on Tuesday. States and UTs hat have seen the biggest daily net increase in active cases are Kerala (2930), Goa (11), Himachal Pradesh (10), Delhi (4), and Ladakh (4).

With 37,169 new daily recoveries, Indias recovery rate stands at 97.52%, while fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.34%.

The Indian staes and UTs with the worst case fatality rates at present are Punjab (2.72%), Uttarakhand (2.15%), and Maharashtra (2.11%). The rate in as many as 14 is higher than the national average.

Indias new daily closed cases stand at 37,609  440 deaths and 37,169 recoveries. The share of deaths in total closed cases stands at 1.16%.

Indias 5-day moving average of daily rate of addition to total cases stands at 0.1%.

Indias doubling time for total cases stands at 635.8 days, and for deaths at 681 days.

Overall, five states with the biggest 24-hour jump in total cases are Kerala (21613), Maharashtra (4408), Tamil Nadu (1804), Karnataka (1298), and Andhra Pradesh (1063).

Among states with more than 100,000 cases, the five with worst recovery rates at present are Kerala (94.78%).

India on Tuesday conducted 1,797,559 to take the total count of tests conducted so far in the country to 498,427,083. The test positivity rate recorded was 2%.

Five states with the highest test positivity rate (TPR)  percentage of tested people turning out to be positive for Covid-19 infection (by cumulative data for tests and cases  are Goa (15.16%), Dadra & Nagar Haveli-Daman & Diu (14.72%), Sikkim (12.86%), Kerala (12.57%), and Maharashtra (12.47%).

Five states with the highest TPR by daily numbers for tests and cases added  are, Kerala (15.48%), Sikkim (12.15%), Manipur (9.29%), Meghalaya (8.81%), and Mizoram (5.88%).

Among states and UTs with more than 10 million population, five that have carried out the highest number of tests (per million population) are Delhi (1323699), J&K (930398), Kerala (829612), Karnataka (609108), and Telangana (598667).

The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (6401213), Kerala (3724030), Karnataka (2931827), Tamil Nadu (2592436), and Andhra Pradesh (1995669).

Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 4408 new cases to take its tally to 6401213.

Kerala, the second-most-affected state by total tally, has added 21613 cases to take its tally to 3724030.

Karnataka, the third-most-affected state, has reported 1298 cases to take its tally to 2931827.

Tamil Nadu has added 1804 cases to take its tally to 2592436.

Andhra Pradesh has seen its tally going up by 1063 to 1995669.

Uttar Pradesh has added 26 cases to take its tally to 1708991.

Delhi has added 38 cases to take its tally to 1437156.
The national capital reported 36 coronavirus cases and four deaths, while the positivity rate declined to 0.05 per cent, according to a Health Department bulletin issued on Wednesday.

The stands at 25,077, the bulletin said. Seventy-six patients recovered in the last 24 hours.

reported 38 fresh coronavirus cases and four fatalities, while the positivity rate stood at 0.07 per cent on Tuesday.

A total number of 66,445 tests, including 44,818 RTPCR/CBNAAT/TrueNat tests, were conducted in the last 24 hours.

The cumulative number of cases rose to 14,37,192, of which 14,11,688 have either recovered/been discharged or migrated out.

The national capital reported 27 COVID-19 cases and zero deaths on Monday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.07 per cent.

Twenty-four people have succumbed to the disease so far this month.

The cumulative was 25,053 on July 31.

reported 53 fresh COVID-19 cases and zero fatalities on Sunday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.08 per cent.

On Saturday, the national capital had reported 50 COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 0.07 per cent and one death.

On Friday, the city had reported 50 cases with a positivity rate of 0.07 per cent and zero deaths.

According to the latest bulletin, there are 427 active COVID-19 cases in Delhi, a dip from 471 the previous day. Of these, 141 are under home isolation, down from 156 a day ago.

Out of 12,057 beds in hospitals, 247 are occupied.

The number of containment zones in the city stands at 242, a minor increase from 241 a day ago, it stated.

battled a brutal second wave of the pandemic that claimed a large number of lives, with the shortage of oxygen at hospitals across the city adding to the woes.

On April 20, Delhi had reported 28,395 cases, the highest in the city since the beginning of the pandemic. On April 22, the case positivity rate was 36.2 per cent, the highest so far.

The highest number of 448 deaths was reported on May 3.

The city government has been ramping up health infrastructure to prevent a repeat of the crisis witnessed during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in April and May.

Steps have been taken to increase the number of hospital beds to accommodate up to 37,000 cases a day and to become self-reliant in terms of oxygen supply.

According to government data, 1,18,17,243 vaccines doses have been administered in the capital since the inoculation exercise started on January 16.

Nearly 33,55,027 people have received both the doses.

The Health Department had recently told the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) that it will take another year to vaccinate all eligible beneficiaries aged above 18 against the coronavirus at "the present rate of vaccine supply".

Around 1.5 crore beneficiaries are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the national capital and three crore doses are required to fully inoculate them.

Around 45 lakh doses are required every month to complete the vaccination by December 2021, it had said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India is committed to the UN Framework Convention on (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, Union Bhupender Yadav said on Wednesday, while extending support to the UK which will host the international climate conference COP 26 in November this year.

The minister, in a meeting with COP 26 President-Designate Alok Sharma, said that India will work constructively for successful and balanced outcome at the UNFCCC COP26 (conference of parties).

The minister discussed issues relating to climate change, COP 26, India-UK 2030 Roadmap and other related matters, ministry sources said.

"Had an engaging and fruitful discussion with @COP26 President @AlokSharma_RDG and assured India's full support to the UK for a successful COP 26.

"Conveyed the Indian government's position that COP 26 should ensure a balanced outcome with equal treatment to agenda items such as adaptation, finance, technology transfer," Yadav tweeted after the meeting.

India believes climate actions must be nationally determined and advocates that the differentiation and operationalisation of flexibility in the UNFCCC and the for developing nations must be at the core of decision-making, he said.

The also noted the global initiatives spearheaded by India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for tackling climate change, like Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and International Solar Alliance (ISA).

Alok Sharma sought the support of India on COP 26 initiatives launched by the UK and for a successful COP at Glasgow, and acknowledged India's leadership role, the ministry said.

Both the leaders also exchanged views on important climate negotiation agenda items to be deliberated in the upcoming COP 26 at Glasgow, it said in an official statement.

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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest to businessman in connection with a porn films racket case registered by the city police in 2020.

A single bench of Justice S K Shinde directed the police to respond on August 25 to the pre-arrest bail plea filed by Kundra.

"Interim protection granted till then," Justice Shinde said.

Kundra, the husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, is currently in jail after being arrested in July in another case related to production and distribution of pornographic clips on some mobile apps.

He filed the anticipatory bail plea in the HC last week in connection with the 2020 case, after a sessions court rejected his application seeking pre-arrest bail.

In his plea, Kundra claimed that another accused in the case was granted bail and hence, he too should be given bail on parity.

Opposing the plea in the HC on Wednesday, Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde submitted that Kundra's role in the case was different from the other accused in the case.

She sought time to take more instructions on the application.

Granting her time, Justice Shinde directed for an interim order protecting Kundra from arrest till the next hearing date -August 25.

The FIR against Kundra was registered in October 2020 by the Mumbai police's cyber crime cell for alleged broadcasting of nude erotic content on an OTT platform.

Kundra in his plea submitted that he was falsely implicated in the case.

He claimed there was not a single iota of evidence with the prosecution to connect the 'Hotshot' app with the offences alleged, as none of the actresses arraigned as accused in the case had raised any grievance.

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India should have publicly engaged with the before they took over Afghanistan, former External Affairs Minister K said on Wednesday and favoured establishing diplomatic ties if they function as a responsible government going forward in the war-torn country.

Singh, who was the foreign minister in UPA-I and also served as India's Ambassador to Pakistan besides holding other senior diplomatic positions, said India should adopt a "wait and watch" approach for the time being but noted that the that have taken over seems to be a "better lot" than those that ruled there two decades earlier.

In an interview with PTI, 92-year-old Singh said India was quite close to President Ashraf Ghani "who has run away" but the situation has "altered drastically" now.

Though the situation is not "adversarial", even a semblance of friendship has disappeared and that is why the Indian government government is "very careful", he added.

The Americans have to take a lot of blame because US President Joe Biden, by pulling out his troops, made it easy for the to walk in, Singh said.

His remarks follow Taliban insurgents sweeping Kabul after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country on Sunday, bringing an unprecedented end to efforts made by the US and its allies to transform the war-ravaged nation in the last two decades.

Asked if India should have engaged with the Taliban earlier, Singh answered in affirmative and cited Americans' example of holding talks with the group.

"If I was the foreign minister, I would have had contact with them. I would have gone out of my way and told my intelligence agency to make a contact quietly," said the former Congress veteran, who was the external affairs minister from May 2004December 2005. A few years later, he had quit Congress.

Citing the example of Americans having contact with Cuba at Guantanamo, he said India should have engaged with the Taliban as "we can't leave the field open to Pakistan and China"



On whether, like China, India should also have engaged with the Taliban leadership publicly, the former minister said at least at the foreign secretary level, India should have kept contact with the Taliban publicly.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had met Mullah Baradar at Tianjin last month and sought to prevail on him to build a "positive image and establish a broad and inclusive political structure that suits Afghanistan's realities".

Singh said the Taliban, not the present lot but the one that ruled earlier, openly had said they were anti-Hindu. They are still much closer to Pakistan, but that doesn't mean that Islamabad can dictate terms to them, he added.

"Pakistan financed them, then Americans armed them. It is a very complex situation but at the moment we are not a player," he said.

Singh said India spent USD 3 billion on in the last 10-12 years, building roads, hospitals, schools and whatever little industries they have.

"All that is gone (with the Taliban coming). Violence has already started, they beat up a few people. But they are a better lot than those 30 years ago, they are more educated, they are more aware of the world. They have also become conscious that the world opinion matters," Singh said.

He noted that the present lot of Taliban will be more careful but India was not a priority for them.

Asked if India should recognise them if they stick to their words that they will not allow Afghan soil for activities inimical to any other country, Singh said, "I think we should, absolutely. We can't choose a government of another country and if they are functioning as a responsible and a reasonable government, there is no reason (not to recognise) because we have a stake in "



The former foreign minister also asserted that the priority should be to evacuate Indians those who want to come back.

On the Modi government's policy, particularly after 2019, Singh said, "I say this with due respect to the present government, we have not taken as much interest as we should have. If I were a foreign minister, I would have sent for Hamid Ansari, a former Indian envoy to Afghanistan, to consult him on this crisis."



"I would have said, let us wait and keep well informed. There are other friendly countries who are there, they can let us know," he said.

Talking about India's Afghan policy over the years after independence, Singh said India was a major player in Afghanistan 30-40 years ago but that changed in the later years.

"Jawahalal ji, Indira Ji and Rajiv (Gandhi) were very interested in relations with Afghanistan and they had personal relations with the heads of state and government. When V P Singh and Narasimha Rao took over, they did not know much. Things have now altered... We have consul general's office in some places but we don't carry enough weight with the Afghan government for the last 20-30 years," he said.

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Shiv Sena MP on Wednesday slammed the for organising the Jan Ashirwad Yatra and claimed that it could invite the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking to the media, the Shiv Sena MP said, "Jan Ashirwad Yatra will invite the third wave. Jan Ashirwad Yatra is performed when there is no need. It will increase the corona crisis in the state."

The Yatra, which is slated to be held between August 16 to 20, is aimed at seeking blessings of the people by the 43 new ministers.

The new Union Ministers have embarked on Jan Ashirwad Yatra as they could not be introduced in Parliament earlier this month due to repeated disruptions by the opposition.

Raut also praised Thackeray for his work during the time of COVID-19.

"Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has worked above politics, especially during corona time. The way he worked in Corona's time was noticed and noted by the world. In the time when work from home was the need of the hour, he was working as the Chief Minister. He is the number one leader in the state and in future, he will become number one in the country," he said.

He further said that the Opposition has shouted many times before about what the Chief Minister did for Maharashtra, but his work was noticed.

(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.)
has emerged as one of the top performing states in terms of providing safe drinking water



through taps, with 87 per cent of its rural households having access to the amenity, a key aide of Chief Minister



Nitish Kumar said on Wednesday but insisted it was largely on account of a state scheme and not the Centre's Jal Jeevan Mission.

State water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha made the averment on his official twitter handle, sharing a newspaper



report that put among the top four states of the country in terms of availability of tap water to rural



households.

The report was based on data provided by the website of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), an ambitious project of the



Narendra Modi government launched two years back which aims at providing tap water to all rural households by 2024.

According to the JJM data, Bihar, often accused of administrative lethargy, accounts for 1.46 crore water connections



out of 4.73 crore for the entire country, placing it well above the average of 41.57 per cent since the launch of the mission in 2019.

Only Goa and Telangana with a 100 per cent success rate besides Haryana (99.25 per cent) have performed better than

Besides, the Union Territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have



provided water connections to cent per cent households, according to the JJM website.

The JJM website shows that it has been a giant leap for Bihar, one of the most populous states in the country,



where only 1.84 per cent households had access to tap water as on August 15, 2019. Since then, a staggering number of



over 1.46 crore water connections have been added.

Jha, however, insisted that much of the state's spectacular success was owing to Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal scheme of the



Bihar chief minister which predated the Centre's JJM.

According to Jha, the scheme was launched in September 2016 and was responsible for ensuring availability of tap water



in most of the state.

In a tweet, he said, under the Jal Jeevan Mission Bihar has done work in 4,891 wards out of a total of 1,14,651



rural wards. 1,346 wards taken up under the erstwhile Rural Supply Programme of GOI.

Remaining 1,08,414 wards covered under state government's Har Ghar Nal Ka jal scheme.

(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 Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Wednesday announced the data from regarding the one-shot Russian Sputnik Light vaccine demonstrating high safety profile and a 93.5 per cent efficacy.

An official release stated that the one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine has proven to be highly effective against COVID among more than 320,000 subjects who had received the vaccine based on the data collected by July 30, 2021.

The data also indicates a high safety profile of Sputnik Light with no serious adverse events associated with vaccination; no deaths related to the vaccination; no cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT) cases after vaccination; no Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) cases after vaccination; no capillary leak syndrome cases after vaccination; and no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis reported.

The statement said, thanks to its safety and efficacy, the single-component Sputnik Light vaccine is now both used on standalone basis and also studied in combination with vaccines from other producers in a number of countries.

The heterogeneous boosting approach ("vaccine cocktail" using human adenovirus serotype 26 as the first component and human adenovirus serotype 5 as the second component) was at the core of Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus. With this approach proving successful in creating a longer and more durable immunity against the coronavirus, RDIF took the lead in initiating partnerships with other vaccine producers to conduct joint studies of a combination of the first component of Sputnik V with foreign vaccines.

In particular, the initial safety results of the world's first study of a combination between Sputnik Light and the AstraZeneca vaccine in Azerbaijan demonstrates a high safety profile for the combined use of the vaccines with no serious adverse events or cases of coronavirus after

Also RDIF, Ministry of Health of Argentina, Ministry of Science of Argentina and CONICET are conducting a study for the evaluation of the immune response and safety of heterogeneous regimens combining Sputnik Light and vaccines produced by AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Moderna in the city and province of Buenos Aires, as well as San Luis, Cordoba and La Rioja provinces. The results of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund said: "The one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine enables authorities of to speed up the of the population and accelerate the creation of herd immunity. As demonstrated by data from the Ministry of Health of Paraguay, as well as and a number of other countries around the world, Sputnik Light has a high safety profile and one of the best efficacy numbers as compared to many two-shot vaccines.

(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.)
Sputnik Light, the single dose version of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V, has shown 93.5 per cent efficacy, claimed the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Wednesday. The data is from Paraguays Ministry of Health.

Sputnik Light was tested on 320,000 subjects who received the vaccine based on data collected by July 30, 2021.

The data also indicates a high safety profile of Sputnik Light with no serious adverse events associated with vaccination; no deaths related to the vaccination; no cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT) cases after vaccination; no Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) cases after vaccination; no capillary leak syndrome cases after vaccination; and no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis reported, claimed RDIF in a statement.

Sputnik V is a heterogeneous vaccine which uses two different vectors Ad26 and Ad5 in its two doses. Sputnik Light is the first dose component of this vaccine.

With this approach proving successful in creating a longer and more durable immunity against the coronavirus, RDIF took the lead in initiating partnerships with other vaccine producers to conduct joint studies of a combination of the first component of Sputnik V with foreign vaccines, RDIF said in a statement.

In particular, initial safety results of the worlds first study of a combination between Sputnik Light and the AstraZeneca vaccine in Azerbaijan demonstrates a high safety profile for the combined use of the vaccines with no serious adverse events or cases of after vaccination, the RDIF claimed.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund said: "The one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine enables authorities of Paraguay to speed up the vaccination of the population and accelerate the creation of herd immunity. As demonstrated by data from the Ministry of Health of Paraguay, as well as and a number of other countries around the world, Sputnik Light has a high safety profile and one of the best efficacy numbers as compared to many two-shot vaccines.

In India the RDIF has tied up to manufacture 1.7 bn doses of Sputnik V vaccine. Around 250 mn doses are for India. If Sputnik Light is approved in India, then the potential number of people covered by the vaccine would double.
In a major step that shatters a thick glass ceiling, the on Wednesday allowed eligible women to take the Defence Academy (NDA) entrance exam scheduled for September 5. The top court, however, said that the result of the examination would be subject to final adjudication of the petition.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy passed the interim order on a plea filed by one Kush Kalra, which sought direction to the authorities concerned to allow eligible women candidates to appear for the and Naval Academy examination and train at the academy at Khadakwasla, Pune. The bench also directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to issue appropriate notification in view of its order and give due publicity to it.

During the hearing, senior advocate Chinmoy Pradip Sharma, appearing for Kalra, said they have received the Centre's counter affidavit on Tuesday in which the government has stated that it is purely a policy decision and the court should not interfere with it.

The bench asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati why the government is continuing in this direction after the verdicts of this court related to extending permanent commission in the army and navy to women.

This is unfounded now. We are finding it absurd. Will the army act on after the judicial orders are passed? We will then pass an order, if that is what you want. I have this impression right from the High Court that till an order is passed, the army does not believe in doing anything voluntarily, the bench said.

Bhati said the army has conferred permanent commission (PC) to many women.

The bench said, You had kept on opposing it (PC) till the orders were passed by this court. You did not do anything of your own. The navy and air force were more forthcoming, while the army seems to have some kind of bias.

Bhati said that in this case there are several modes of entry into the army such as NDA, Indian Military Academy (IMA) and Officers Training Academy (OTA), and that women can join the force through OTA and IMA.

The bench said, Why is it not through Is co-education a problem? Bhati said that this is a policy decision that women are not allowed in The top court told Bhati that this policy decision is based on gender discrimination. It said, We direct the respondents (Centre) to take a constructive view of the matter in view of the judgements of this court. Bhati said that she herself had argued the PC matter and appeared for women Short Service Commission officers, who were seeking grant of the PC.

The bench said its endeavour is to persuade the army to do things by itself rather than on the basis of judicial orders. We tried but there was no success in the Permanent Commission matter either in the High Court or even in the till Justice Chandrachud passed the order, the bench said.

The top court told Bhati that even if it was a matter of policy, the government was still allowing womens entry through the two other avenues, then why not from the third. It is not a case of just gender principle but it is a case of discrimination, it said, adding that women officers are now admitted even in combat roles.

Bhati said that in the army women are granted permanent commission only in 10 streams, while in the air force they are admitted as fighter pilots. The bench observed that the mindset has to change, and that even during hearing of permanent commission before the high court, the government counsel had tried to persuade the army but it did not materialise. The air force and navy have acted in a more liberal way. However, in the army you kept giving them a five-five years job and never gave permanent commission till the verdict of the If you are introducing women in the army, then why do you create a bar in NDA, the bench said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Commerce and industry minister on Wednesday described the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative as a way to engage with the world. Chairing the fifth meeting of (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) industry ministers, Goyal said Aatmanirbhar was not an inward looking policy but was about global competitiveness and expanding the frontiers from a position of strength.

He also expressed India's desire to widen the scope of (NDB) for strengthening social infrastructure, besides promotion of the industrial sector, according to a ministry statement.

We have also announced the PLI (production-linked incentive) schemes worth $26 billion covering 13 champion sectors in the next five years to create and nurture manufacturing global champions for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The mission is expected to boost all round trade, the statement said quoting Goyal.





ALSO READ: BRICS for partnership in strengthening agro-biodiversity for food security

The minister said that emerging technologies would be an indispensable part of almost all activities, including manufacturing. Adoption of new technologies by small businesses would play a crucial role in achieving the target of inclusiveness, he pointed out.

India has developed a vibrant and dynamic start-up ecosystem, leveraging existing platforms and digital technologies such as Aadhar and UPI payments for ensuring delivery of critical services to the last mile. Online systems like COWIN and digital vaccination certificates are being cited as success stories across the world today, he said.

He also said that the government was working towards reducing compliances on businesses and citizens. India has improved its rank from 142 to 63, a leap of 79 ranks, during the last five years in the World Banks Doing Business Report.

Other nations reiterated their commitment to make efforts to foster open, fair, and non-discriminatory trade environment, ensure greater participation in global value chains, promote digital inclusion, assess the implications, and encourage the progressive, safe, equitable, and sustainable use of disruptive technologies for advancing growth.
India exported goods worth $7.1 billion in the second week of August, up 39.5 per cent year-on-year, led by robust demand of engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, as well as gems and jewellery products, according to preliminary data collated by the commerce and industry ministry.

However, the number is slightly lower as compared to the first week of August, when were $7.4 billion.

Engineering goods witnessed the maximum increase during the week, owing to higher demand from US and Italy. However, some of the increase was offset by decrease in exports of petroleum products, iron ore, and leather manufactures over 2019-20, according to an analysis by the Department of Commerce.
By Rajendra Jadhav and Mayank Bhardwaj

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India could export 6 million tonnes of sugar in the new season starting in October even without government subsidies, with global prices making overseas sales more lucrative after rising to their highest in 4-1/2 years, industry officials said.

New Delhi is expected to withdraw sugar export subsidies from the new season as a sharp rise in prices makes it easier for Indian mills to sell on the world market, the most senior civil servant at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution told Reuters on Tuesday.

"Even without the subsidy, India could export 6 million tonnes of sugar provided the market remains stable above 20 cents per lb," said B.B. Thombare, president of the West Indian Association.

On Tuesday benchmark raw in New York hit a 4-1/2-year high of 20.37 cents, supported by fund buying against a backdrop of tightening supplies. [SOF/L]

Exports from the world's second-biggest sugar producer could cap the rally in global prices and help to boost supplies in Asia and Africa while Brazil, the world's biggest exporter, expects to harvest a smaller crop than last year owing to drought and frosts.

Shares in Indian sugar producers fell by up to 5% after Reuters reported that India might withdraw sugar export subsidies.

"Every month traders are slashing production estimates for Brazil. It seems supply would be limited in the world market during November to March and someone must fill in. India could do it as it has ample stocks," said one Mumbai-based dealer at a global trading company.

Brazil's 2021/22 center-south (CS) is forecast to fall to 32.5 million tonnes from a June forecast of 34.1 million tonnes, according to food trader Czarnikow.

Cashing in on rising sugar prices, Indian traders have, for the first time, signed contracts a few months ahead of shipments to export about 725,000 tonnes of raw sugar and 75,000 tonnes of white sugar.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav and Mayank Bhardwaj; Editing by David Goodman)

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The Ministry of Tourism has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited and Ibibo Group Private Limited as part of its ongoing efforts to strengthen the hospitality and tourism industry in the aftermath of the coronavisrus pandemic, a statement said in Wednesday.

The Ministry of Tourism has already signed MoUs with EaseMyTrip, Cleartrip and Yatra.com.

"The primary objective of this MoU is to provide an extensive visibility to accommodation units, which have self-certified themselves on SAATHI (System for Assessment, Awareness and Training for the Hospitality Industry) on the OTA platform. The MoU also outlines both parties to encourage units to register on NIDHI and thereby on SAATHI and encourage local tourism industry with appropriate safeguards for curbing spread of COVID-19.

"The idea is also to gather more information on accommodation units in order to gain actionable insights and designing evidence based and targeted policy measures and to promote safe, honourable and sustainable tourism," it said.

The event was organised under the arrangement between Ministry of Tourism and Quality Council of India (QCI) for implementing measures for strengthening the Indian hospitality and tourism industry.

"The Ministry of Tourism and MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited & Ibibo Group Private Limited will endeavour to take necessary steps to encourage and promote strategic and technical cooperation in the Indian hospitality and tourism sector for overall benefit in the identified areas through the MoU. It is expected that in the future more OTAs will come forward for signing such MOUs in order to strengthen the hospitality and tourism industry of India," it said.

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A day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lifted its ban on on issuing new credit cards, the countrys largest private sector lender on Wednesday said it had resources and plans in place to further reinforce pole position in the segment and that it would come back with a bang.

We will aggressively go to the market, with not just our existing suite of credit cards but also new offerings in the form of co-brands and partnerships, Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive officer of HDFC Bank, said in a letter to his employees.

The banks management had earlier indicated that the lender had been sourcing liability customers aggressively over the past few months. So, they have a full set of customers who are pre-approved and pre-scrubbed, to whom cards can be issued.

The central bank had on Tuesday lifted the ban on issuing new credit cards, imposed in December last year after repeated instances of technology outages, but continued with the restrictions on new launches on the digital front.

We will continue to engage with the RBI and ensure compliance on all parameters, the bank said in an exchange filing.

The stock rallied in early trade on Wednesday, but closed modestly lower at Rs 1,512.90 on the BSE, down 0.13 per cent, due to profit-booking.

At the end of November last year, had 15.38 million outstanding credit cards in the market, but this number dropped to around 14.82 million at the end of June. HDFC Bank remains the leading player in credit cards, but other players have gained market share at its expense over the past few months.

Yes, we lost customer market share in the last 9-10 months, but I am confident that we will regain and grow our customer market share and revenue market share in the time to come, Jagdishan wrote.





ALSO READ: Lifting of credit card ban may spark up to 32% rally in HDFC Bank: Analysts

Because of the ban, the bank lost 558,545 credit cards between December and June, while its rivals -- ICICI Bank, SBI Cards, and Axis Bank -- gained 1.3 million, 748,707, and 252,145, respectively. Also, during recent quarters, HDFC Bank reported moderation in fee income/net interest income (NII), as this segment contributes approximately 25-33 per cent of the total fee income for the bank.

In a report, Motilal Oswal said the lifting of the RBI restrictions before the festive season augurs well for the bank and that it expects the bank to turn more aggressive on credit cards over the next few months. Typically, the bank adopts an aggressive stance during the festive season and offers discounts on various consumer durable products to drive spends and accelerate growth in consumer durables financing.



About the RBIs ban, the HDFC Bank MD said: I am thankful for the rap on the knuckles from the regulator. This rap has opened our eyes to the world of possibilities, reimagine our IT systems & processes, and turbo-charge the speed of technology transformation. Today, I can proudly say that we are well and truly on our way to enhance customer experience by harnessing technology and digital, all of which will be evident in the coming time.

Following the action in December, there was an audit by a third-party tech auditor, who prepared a report and had submitted it to the RBI. The regulator and the bank were engaged in discussions after that.

The bank has been making a lot of changes to its technology infrastructure after the outages it faced over the years. The bank is making large-scale investments in technology infrastructure, wherein it is bringing new talent, getting into cloud-native stacks -- a shift from the traditional monolithic IT infrastructures -- and working with strategic partners for better products and services.

The bank management has made it clear that it will do whatever it takes to ramp up its technology infrastructure. The benchmarks are constantly shifting on IT spends and the bank is aware that some of its benchmarks will become global. The management had said in the past that it was modernising the existing bank and also created a vertical within the bank called an "enterprise factory". And, it has created another vertical called the "digital factory", housed with resources focused on building a digital platform for the bank.

In todays day and time, there could be issues with technology, but we have started building an architecture that will ensure our systems bounce back quickly while ensuring minimal inconvenience to our customers and having multiple channels available for customers to complete the transaction, Jagdishan said.

We will not just run the bank but also build the bank as we go ahead, riding on digital and enterprise factories with infrastructure scalability, disaster recovery resilience, enhanced monitoring capabilities, and security enhancements as the key pillars, Jagdishan added.
By Karin Strohecker, Simon Lewis and David Lawder

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The took over with astonishing speed, but it appears unlikely that the militants will get quick access to most of the Afghan central bank's roughly $10 billion in assets.

The country's central bank, Da Bank (DAB), is thought to hold foreign currency, gold and other treasures in its vaults, according to an Afghan official.

But most of the assets are held outside Afghanistan, potentially putting most of them beyond the insurgents' reach, according to Afghan officials, including the bank's acting governor, Ajmal Ahmady, who has fled Kabul.

"Given that the are still on sanction lists, it is expected (confirmed?) that such assets will be frozen and not accessible to Taliban," Ahmady said in a Twitter thread https://twitter.com/aahmady/status/1427883023123558400 on Wednesday.

"We can say the accessible funds to the are perhaps 0.1-0.2% of Afghanistan's total reserves. Not much," he added.

The Taliban said on Saturday that the treasury, public facilities and government offices were the property of the nation and "should be strictly guarded."

The most recent financial statement posted online https://dab.gov.af/sites/default/files/2021-08/Monthly%20Financial%20statement%20%20for%20the%20month%20of%20Jawza%20%201400%20%28English%29%20%20.pdf shows DAB holds total assets of about $10 billion, including $1.3 billion-worth of gold reserves and $362 million in foreign currency cash reserves, based on currency conversion rates on June 21, the date of the report. Ahmady estimated total reserves stood at $9 billion last week.

MANY ASSETS HELD ABROAD

Central banks, especially in developing nations, often park their assets overseas with institutions such as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) or the Bank of England.

DAB's consolidated statement https://dab.gov.af/sites/default/files/2021-04/DA%20AFGHANISTAN%20BANK%20CONSOLIDATED%20FINANCIAL%20STATEMENTS%20FOR%20THE%20YEAR%20ENDED%20QAWS%20301399%20%28DECEMBER%20202020%29final.pdf showed that the FRBNY held gold bars worth 101,770,256,000 afghanis - at the time $1.32 billion - on behalf of the Afghan central bank in its vaults by end-2020.

The DAB's June statement also states the bank owned investments worth $6.1 billion. The June report did not provide details of those investments, but a breakdown in the year-end report showed the majority were in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds and bills.

Investments were made through the Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), an arm of the World Bank, or through the FRBNY and held in New York. Among its smaller items are shares in an investment pool by the Bank for International Settlement (BIS), which is based in Switzerland, as well as the Economic Cooperation Organisation Trade and Development Bank in Turkey.

"As per international standards, most assets are held in safe, liquid assets such as Treasuries and gold," Ahmady said on Twitter, confirming assets were all held at the Fed, BIS, through the World Bank programme or other bank accounts.

Asked about the holdings, a FRBNY official said the bank does not acknowledge or discuss individual account holders, but is generally in contact with U.S. government agencies to monitor events that may impact control of a foreign central bank.

An official in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration told Reuters: "Any central bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban."

DAB's foreign currency cash holdings worth around $362 million are almost entirely U.S. dollars and were held at the bank's head offices and branches as well as the presidential palace, which is now in the hands of the Taliban.

The DAB's year-end statement also details that just under $160 million worth of gold bars and silver coins were held at the bank's vault at the presidential palace.

The Afghan central bank's vaults also contain a hoard of 2,000-year-old gold jewellery, ornaments and coins known as the Bactrian Treasure, according to UNESCO. The around 21,000 ancient artefacts were presumed lost until 2003, when they were found in a secret vault in the central bank's basement, having survived the previous era of Taliban rule undiscovered.

Afghan lawmakers in January floated the idea of sending the treasures abroad for safe keeping, warning they were vulnerable to theft, local broadcaster Tolo News reported.

ACCESS TO SDRs IN DOUBT

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the Afghan central bank's international reserves at $9.5 billion in 2021 in its latest review published in June https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2021/06/28/Islamic-Republic-of-Afghanistan-First-Review-Under-the-Under-the-Extended-Credit-Facility-461288.

This translates into import cover of more than 15 months - well above the three months seen as a safe minimum.

A key question will be the handling of Afghanistan's share of a pending $650 billion allocation of Special Drawing Rights currency reserves to the Fund's 190 member countries on Aug. 23.

This distribution of SDRs, the Fund's unit of exchange based on dollars, euros, yen, sterling and yuan, aims to shore up the reserves of developing countries strained by the COVID-19 pandemic. IMF member is eligible for an allocation of about $455 million, based on its 0.07% quota shareholding in the Fund.

The Taliban gaining access to those assets would be hard to digest in capitals around the globe, but not all countries have access to the SDRs they are allocated.

In 2019, the IMF suspended Venezuela's SDR access after more than 50 member countries representing a majority of the Fund's shareholding refused to recognise Nicolas Maduro's government.

"Not sure if that allocation will now proceed with respect to Afghanistan," said acting central bank governor Ahmady.

A group of 18 Republican U.S. lawmakers urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a letter https://hill.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20210817ltrtosecyellenresdrstoafghanistan.pdf to intervene at the IMF "to ensure that no allocated SDRs are made available to a Taliban-led Afghanistan," requesting an update on the situation by Thursday.

The Fund, which defers to its members on disputed political transitions, has not responded to a request for comment on the pending SDR allocation to Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker in London, Simon Lewis and David Lawder in Washington, Additional reporting by Jonnelle Marte in New York; Editing by Jane Merriman and Andrea Ricci)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least three people were killed in anti- protests in the Afghan city of Jalalabad on Wednesday, witnesses said, as the militant group tried to set up a government and Western countries stepped up evacuations of diplomats and civilians.

More than a dozen people were injured after militants opened fire on protesters in the eastern city, two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters.



The have promised peace following their sweep into Kabul, saying they will not take revenge against old enemies and will respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.



The witnesses said the deaths took place when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's national flag at a square in Jalalabad, some 150 km (90 miles) from the capital on the main road to Pakistan.



Taliban spokesmen were not immediately reachable for comment.



As the Taliban consolidated power, one of their leaders and co-founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, returned to for the first time in more than 10 years. A Taliban official said leaders would show themselves to the world, unlike in the past when they lived in secret.



"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders," the senior Taliban official told Reuters. "There will be no shadow of secrecy."

But thousands of Afghans, many of whom helped U.S.-led foreign forces over two decades, are desperate to leave the country.



About 5,000 diplomats, security staff, aid workers and Afghans have been evacuated from Kabul in the last 24 hours, a Western official told Reuters on Wednesday.



The evacuations by military flights will continue around the clock, he said, adding that clearing the chaos outside the airport was a challenge.





"It's absolutely hectic and chaos out there." the official said. The Taliban held their first news briefing since their return to Kabul on Tuesday, suggesting they would impose their laws more softly than during their harsh 1996-2001 rule.



"We don't want any internal or external enemies," Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban's main spokesman, told reporters.



Women would be allowed to work and study and "will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam", he said.



During their rule, also guided by sharia religious law, women were prevented from working, girls were not allowed to go to school and women had to wear all-enveloping burqas to go out and then only when accompanied by a male relative.



'TIME WILL TELL'



British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, echoing leaders of other Western countries, said the Taliban would be judged on their actions.



"We will judge this regime based on the choices it makes, and by its actions rather than by its words, on its attitude to terrorism, to crime and narcotics, as well as humanitarian access and the rights of girls to receive an education," Johnson told parliament.



Many Afghans are sceptical of the Taliban promises. Some said they could only wait and see.



"My family lived under the Taliban and maybe they really want to change or have changed but only time will tell and it's going to become clear very soon," said Ferishta Karimi, who runs a tailoring shop for women.



Mujahid said the Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and government officials, and were granting an amnesty for ex-soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for forces.



"Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors," he said, adding that there was a "huge difference" between the Taliban now and 20 years ago.



The Taliban, who have fought to expel foreign forces since they were overthrown by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, seized Kabul on Sunday as Western forces withdrew under a deal that included a Taliban promise not to attack them as they leave.



U.S. President Joe Biden, who has faced a barrage of criticism about the withdrawal, has said he had had to decide between asking U.S. forces to fight endlessly or follow through on the withdrawal deal of his predecessor Donald Trump.



Washington was blocking the Taliban from accessing any Afghan government funds held in the United States, a Biden administration official said.



U.S. forces running the airport had to stop flights on Monday after thousands of frightened Afghans swamped the airfield looking for a flight out. Flights resumed on Tuesday as the situation came under control.



Seventeen people were wounded on Wednesday in a stampede at a gate to the airport, a NATO security official said, adding that civilians seeking to leave had been told not to gather unless they had a passport and visa to travel.



Britain's ambassador to said his team had evacuated about 700 people on Tuesday and hoped to scale up the operation in coming days.



When asked whether Britain hoped to take 1,000 people out of a day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said they were aiming to operate at that capacity.



Germany has flown 130 people out, France said it had moved out 25 of its nationals and 184 Afghans, and Australia said 26 people had arrived on its first flight back from Kabul.



"Everyone wants out," said one Afghan man who arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday with his wife and son on a flight via Tashkent. "We saved ourselves but we couldn't rescue our families."
Afghanistan's former president has met with a senior leader of a powerful faction who was once jailed and whose group has been listed by the U.S. as a terrorist network.

Former President and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government met with Anas Haqqani as part of preliminary meetings that a spokesman for Karzai said would would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top political leader.

The US branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger sanctions.

The have pledged to form an inclusive, Islamic government, although skeptics point to its past record of intolerance for those not adhering to its extreme interpretations of Islam.

(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 have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who had fought against them during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s, according to photos circulating on social media Wednesday.

The statue depicted Abdul Ali Mazari, a militia leader killed by the in 1996, when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords. Mazari was a champion of Afghanistan's ethnic Hazara minority, Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Taliban's earlier rule.

The statue stood in the central Bamyan province, where the infamously blew up two massive 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha carved into a mountain in 2001, shortly before the US-led invasion that drove them from power. The Taliban claimed the Buddhas violated Islam's prohibition on idolatry.

The Taliban returned to power last weekend after capturing much of the country in a matter of days, less than three weeks before the U.S. plans to complete its troop withdrawal.

The Taliban have promised a new era of peace and security, saying they will forgive those who fought against them and grant women full rights under Islamic law, without elaborating. But many Afghans are deeply skeptical of the group, especially those who remember its previous rule, when it imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

At that time, women were largely confined to their homes, television and music were banned, and suspected criminals were flogged, maimed or executed in public.

The group also hosted Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the years before the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. The US-led invasion drove them from power and scattered al-Qaida, but the Taliban then launched a potent insurgency against the US and the Western-backed government.

The Taliban now say they will prevent from again being used as a base for attacks, something that was enshrined in a 2020 peace deal with the Trump administration that paved the way for the American withdrawal.

Thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country in recent days as the US and its allies have struggled to manage a chaotic withdrawal from the country. The Taliban took over the civilian side of the Kabul airport on Tuesday and have used force to try to control the crowds.

Hundreds of people were outside the airport early Wednesday. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

The US Embassy has meanwhile relocated to the military side of the airport, where it is coordinating the air lift of diplomats, foreigners and Afghans who worked with the Americans and now fear reprisal.

The British government said it will welcome up to 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, and a total of 20,000 Afghans will be offered a way to settle in the UK in the coming years.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make a better place over the last 20 years," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Tuesday.

The head of Afghanistan's Central Bank meanwhile said the country's supply of physical U.S. dollars is close to zero." has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some USD 7 billion held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

(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 Chinese region of Inner Mongolia has approved a massive power project that will use solar and wind to produce green hydrogen.

Inner Mongolias Energy Administration has given the go ahead to a cluster of plants in the cities of Ordos and Baotou that will use 1.85 gigawatts of solar and 370 megawatts of wind to produce 66,900 tons of green hydrogen a year, the Hydrogen Energy Industry Promotion Association said in a report. Development will begin in October and the projects will be operational in mid-2023, the association said, without specifying the cost or the developers.

The project, which would produce enough hydrogen output to displace about 180 million gallons of gasoline a year if it were used for fuel cell vehicles, is the biggest yet to be spearheaded by the government, according to BloombergNEF analyst Xiaoting Wang. Chinas booming hydrogen industry still has bottlenecks -- including how the fuel is stored and used--that need to be tackled in the next five years, Securities Daily said in an article on Wednesday.

Less than 20% of the power from the Inner Mongolian development will go to the grid, with the rest dedicated to green hydrogen. While several projects have been announced in China that combine renewables with green hydrogen, most are intended for electricity generation first, with the hydrogen component just window dressing to help get approval, Wang said.

The project will, however, require at least 465 megawatts of electrolyzers to produce that much hydrogen, she said, adding that global electrolyzer shipments were just 200 megawatts in 2020 and are forecast to be 400 megawatts this year. These projects will install more electrolyzers than the entire global market in 2021, Wang said.

Hydrogen is widely viewed as vital to Chinas drive to decarbonize its economy by 2060. The output value of the countrys hydrogen industry is forecast at 1 trillion yuan ($154 billion) in five years time and it could reach 12 times that by 2050, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, based on China Hydrogen Alliance projections.

The biggest Chinese green hydrogen projects so far have come from industrial giants like Sinopec or Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group, which is set to complete a 150-megawatt solar-powered electrolyzer array this year at one of its coal-to-chemical plants. China Baowu Steel Group has announced plans for 1.5 gigawatts of renewable-powered electrolyzers, without providing timing.

While Inner Mongolia has long been one of the leading coal mining regions in China, officials are positioning it as a potential renewable energy hub to export electricity and hydrogen to the rest of the country. The region gets about 3,100 hours of sunlight a year for solar generation, and is located on the main channel of Siberian wind that could power dozens of gigawatts of wind turbines, according to the hydrogen association.
President put Chinas wealthiest citizens on notice Tuesday, offering an outline for common prosperity that includes income regulation and redistribution, according to state media reports.



Since Xi took office in 2012, the ruling party has made it a priority to end poverty and build a moderately prosperous society, goals that the party sees as central to promoting well-being and strengthening its governance. Income inequality in the country is wide -- the richest 20% earn more than 10 times poorest 20% -- and hasnt budged since 2015.

Beijing has undertaken massive efforts to reduce poverty, especially in rural areas. More recently, its taken aim at the upper end of the spectrum, with a crackdown on the technology industry, which has minted several billionaires, and criticism of the excesses of celebrity culture.

At Tuesdays meeting of the Communist Partys Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, the government detailed new strategies to target the upper echelons. Officials vowed to strengthen the regulation and adjustment of high income, protect legal income, reasonably adjust excessive income, and encourage high-income groups and enterprises to give back to society more, according to a summary of the meeting published by state media Xinhua.

At the same time, officials also pledged to expand the size of the middle-income group, grow the earnings for low-income group and prohibit illicit income to promote social fairness and justice. It also reaffirmed Deng Xiaopings famous words, to let some people get rich first, adding that an environment will be created where more people have the opportunity to become wealthy.

REDISTRIBUTION PUSH Chinese President led a meeting Tuesday that emphasised how the country would focus on moderate wealth for all, rather than just a few, state media said

High-profile meeting lays out vision for achieving goal

Economists see possibility of property, inheritance taxes

Beijing also unveils new rules targeting anticompetitive practices by internet companies

Property, Inheritance Taxes



Economists say the moves suggest Beijing may be moving closer toward introducing taxes on property and inheritance. Authorities have long talked about a property tax and have tested taxing residential property in Shanghai and Chongqing since 2011. A high-level meeting in May indicated officials may be making a renewed push to implement it.

Chinas wealth and income inequality has worsened to such a serious level that policy makers have no choice but to face it and make addressing it a priority, said Larry Hu, head of Greater economics at Macquarie Group in Hong Kong. Xis meeting brought the issue to the highest level and is an important signal of future policy direction, he said.

Carol Liao, economist at Pimco Asia Ltd., said capital gains taxes are also an option, as well as other measures to improve income distribution, like enhancing social security programs, providing incentives for charity and more government transfers to less developed regions.

doesnt have an inheritance tax, and imposing one would have an important regulatory effect on wealth distribution, Shi Zhengwen, a tax law professor at China University of Political Science and Law, was cited by financial media outlet Yicai as saying.

At Xis meeting, officials pledged to provide conditions for people to enhance their education and move up the income ladder. They also called for promoting the equal access to public services by improving housing supply, elderly care and the medical system.

The meeting also highlighted the need to curb financial risks. Efforts should be made to strike a balance between ensuring stable economic growth and preventing financial risks, according to Xinhua.

Zhejiang Experiment



The government identified the eastern province of Zhejiang, home to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and known for its robust private sector, as a pilot zone for the new initiatives.

Last month, Zhejiang released detailed plans for raising per capita disposable income to 75,000 yuan ($11,563) by 2025, which would be a 45% increase within five years. It also wants wages to account for more than half of its gross domestic product, and to lift its urbanization rate to 75%.

To achieve those goals, the provincial government will encourage workers to bargain collectively for wages; listed companies to raise cash dividends to shareholders; and farmers to pursue entrepreneurship strategies. It will also promote the development of financial products to benefit residents.

The road map also said the government will better protect the rights of those in new forms of employment, including delivery workers and drivers working for ride-hailing companies, and implement tax benefits for philanthropic donations.

--With assistance from Peter Elstrom.
In the last two decades, millions of Afghan women and girls received an education. Now the future they were promised is dangerously close to slipping away. The Taliban--who until losing power 20 years ago barred nearly all girls and women from attending school and doled out harsh punishment to those who defied them--are back in control. Like many women, I fear for my Afghan sisters.

I cannot help but think of my own childhood. When the took over my hometown in Pakistans Swat Valley in 2007 and shortly thereafter banned girls from getting an education, I hid my books under my long, hefty shawl and walked to school in fear. Five years later, when I was 15, the tried to kill me for speaking out about my right to go to school.

I cannot help but be grateful for my life now. After graduating from college last year and starting to carve out my own career path, I cannot imagine losing it all--going back to a life defined for me by men with guns.

Afghan girls and young women are once again where I have been--in despair over the thought that they might never be allowed to see a classroom or hold a book again. Some members of the say they will not deny women and girls education or the right to work. But given the Talibans history of violently suppressing womens rights, Afghan womens fears are real. Already, we are hearing reports of female students being turned away from their universities, female workers from their offices.





ALSO READ: Afghanistan LIVE: US intelligence predicted Afghan military collapse

None of this is new for the people of Afghanistan, who have been trapped for generations in proxy wars of global and regional powers. Children have been born into battle. Families have been living for years in refugee camps--thousands more have fled their homes in recent days.

The Kalashnikovs carried by the Taliban are a heavy burden on the shoulders of all Afghan people. The countries who have used Afghans as pawns in their wars of ideology and greed have left them to bear the weight on their own.

But it is not too late to help the Afghan people--particularly women and children.

Over the last two weeks, I spoke with several education advocates in Afghanistan about their current situation and what they hope will happen next. (I am not naming them here because of security concerns.) One woman who runs schools for rural children told me she has lost contact with her teachers and students.

Normally we work on education, but right now we are focusing on tents, she said. People are fleeing by the thousands and we need immediate humanitarian aid so that families are not dying from starvation or lack of clean water. She echoed a plea I heard from others: Regional powers should be actively assisting in the protection of women and children. Neighboring countries  China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan  must open their doors to fleeing civilians. That will save lives and help stabilize the region. They must also allow refugee children to enroll in local schools and humanitarian organizations to set up temporary learning centers in camps and settlements.

Looking to Afghanistans future, another activist wants the Taliban to be specific about what they will allow: It is not enough to vaguely say, Girls can go to school. We need specific agreements that girls can complete their education, can study science and math, can go to university and be allowed to join the work force and do jobs they choose. The activists I spoke with feared a return to religious-only education, which would leave children without the skills they need to achieve their dreams and their country without doctors, engineers and scientists in the future.



ALSO READ: The Taliban are only pretending they aren't barbaric mass murderers

We will have time to debate what went wrong in the war in Afghanistan, but in this critical moment we must listen to the voices of Afghan women and girls. They are asking for protection, for education, for the freedom and the future they were promised. We cannot continue to fail them. We have no time to spare.

( is a global activist for girls education and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is also co-founder of the Malala Fund.)
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he will chair an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 30-nation military alliance on Friday to discuss developments in

Stoltenberg tweeted on Wednesday that he has convened the videoconference to continue our close coordination and discuss our common approach on

On Tuesday, Stoltenberg blamed a failure of Afghan leadership for the swift collapse of the country's Western-backed armed forces, but he conceded that must also address flaws in its military training program.

has been leading security efforts in since 2003 but wound-up combat operations in 2014 to focus on training the national security forces. NATO helped build up an army some 300,000 strong, but that force withered in the face of the offensive in just days.

Stoltenberg says that around 800 civilian personnel from NATO countries continue to work in Afghanistan, many in Kabul helping with air traffic control, refueling and communications at the airport.

(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.)
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday spoke to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over the evolving situation in and stressed on the need for an inclusive political settlement in the war-ravaged country, saying that peace and stability in that nation was of critical importance for and the region.

Qureshi received a telephone call from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang and the two leaders exchanged views on the evolving situation in Afghanistan, according to Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO).

Qureshi said that in the given situation, it was extremely important to ensure safety and security as well as protection of rights of the Afghan people.

He stressed that an inclusive political settlement was essential, for which all Afghans should work together.

Qureshi underlined that a peaceful and stable was of critical importance for and the region. In this perspective, had assiduously supported the Afghan peace process, the FO said.

Qureshi said Pakistan and China, as part of Troika Plus, have made valuable contributions to these efforts and that it was equally important for the community to remain engaged in support of the Afghan people.

The meeting of the Extended Troika, including Special Envoys of Pakistan, US, China and Russia, was held in Doha on August 11.

The members of the Extended Troika had discussed the deteriorating security situation in and explored ways of expediting the intra-Afghan peace talks for achieving an inclusive political settlement and bringing an end to the four-decades long conflict in Afghanistan.

Qureshi emphasised that the community must also have sustained economic engagement with Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Qureshi apprised Wang of Pakistan's efforts to facilitate the evacuation of personnel and staff of diplomatic missions, organisations, media and others from Afghanistan.

insurgents swept Kabul on Sunday after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation.

Qureshi said that Pakistan and China were "iron brothers" and strategic partners. The two countries had the tradition of maintaining close coordination and communication on issues of common interest and significance, he added.

Qureshi and Wang agreed to remain in close contact to promote the shared objectives, the FO 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, Aug 18: Regional powers, irrespective of size, are vying with each other to fill in the power vacuum in caused by the US retreat from the Hindukush mountains and the Taliban's dramatic takeover of Kabul on Sunday.

Countries which have been a tiny blip on the map have emerged as prime influencers in the new Great game that is being played in the heart of Eurasia.

In the new pecking order, the tiny Emirate of Qatar, which has in the last decade punched far beyond its weight has stolen the limelight as the rivuleted into Kabul and the Americans hastily rushed to Kabul airport to mark an unceremonious exit. The images of a superpower in retreat that followed marked a pivotal moment in the world's perception, including of its allies of Washington's fragility as the impregnable fortress of security.

Qatar was seriously in the Afghan game for long, and visibly so, after it hosted the office in Doha in 2013. The Qatari capital then on became the hub of a simmering Afghan transition that culminated on Sunday in Kabul. Due to the extensive networks of influence that it has assiduously accumulated over the years, buttressed by its enormous wealth, gas-rich Qatar has emerged as the power-broker-in-chief in Kabul. Its self-confidence is visible in Qatar's statement when its foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman: 'There is concern about the fast pace of developments and Qatar is doing its utmost to bring a peaceful transition, especially after the vacuum that happened.'

Afghanistan's next door neighbour Iran has quickly adapted to the changed geopolitical circumstance, and is ready to play a major role under the new geopolitical circumstance. Already, the Iranians known for their long tradition of seasoned statecraft have waved the olive branch at the Taliban-a group they hated but kept engaged even during the group's years in the wilderness.

Iran has offered its services as diplomatic peacemaker to usher a smooth transition in Kabul marshalled by the 'The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its efforts to (help realize) reconciliation in Afghanistan,' Iran's top diplomat Javad Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

Behind their velvety demeanour, the Iranians have sufficient reserves of firepower just in case the wily Taliban do not play ball. The Fatimyoun brigade comprising battle-hardened Afghan refugees, trained on the lines of the Lebanese Hezbollah, which has tasted combat in the Badlands of SyRaq (Syria and Iraq)is at the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and can be unleashed if required. The Afghan warlord Ismail Khan, the 'lion of Herat' was pictured in Mashhad, Iran's spiritual oasis, after the Taliban overran the Afghan border city last weekend. Though aging, Khan is now Iran's strategic asset who might come in handy, should the internal situation in Kabul take yet another tumultuous turn in the cloak- and- dagger of turbulent

Turkey is also in overdrive to dig-in inside Kabul and 'Sultan' Erdogan, infused with Ottoman pride is looking for help from Pakistan. Islamabad is too deeply invested in the Taliban, but yet could expect a blowback should the Taliban mutate into a Pashtun nationalist force, with eyes on Pashtun territory beyond the Durand line.

India, China and Russia have no choice but to remain riveted to for reasons of security, geo-economics and more. India will not accept a Pakistan dominated Afghanistan, which can jeopardise not only New Delhi's security but pose an existential threat to the Union in its present form. China needs to stay in Afghanistan to extend and safeguard an extended China Pakistan Economic Corridor and prevent the use of Afghan soil to inflame a Uyghur insurgency in the Xinjiang region, the heart of Beijing's ultra-ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Russia cannot afford the spread of terrorism, radiating from Afghanistan into Central Asia, its backyard. For that matter, neither can it afford China intrusion into the hallowed steppes of Central Asia from the Afghan bridgehead. Welcome to post-US Eurasia, where fear, promise and chaos collide.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative

(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.)
(Reuters) - US Inc said on Wednesday an investigation into a revealed that personal data, including social security numbers and driver's license information, of more than 40 million former and prospective customers was stolen.

The stolen files also included data from 7.8 million existing wireless customers.

Dates of birth, first and last names were also stolen, the telecom services provider said, adding there was no indication of their financial details being compromised.

The company, which had 104.8 million customers as of June, acknowledged the on Sunday after U.S.-based digital media outlet Vice first reported that a seller had posted on an underground forum offering for sale some private data, including social security numbers from a breach at servers.

Vice said the seller claimed that 100 million people had their data compromised in the breach. The seller was offering data on 30 million people for 6 bitcoin, or around $270,000.

Reports later suggested that the asking price had slumped and the entire data was being sold for just $200.

Reuters has not been able to check the veracity of the forum's post.

T-Mobile's is the latest high-profile cyberattacks as digital thieves take advantage of security weakened by work-from-home policies due the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, cryptocurrency platform Poly Network lost $610 million in a hack and later offered the hacker or hackers a $500,000 "bug bounty".

(Reporting by Derek Francis, Akanksha Rana and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu, Rashmi Aich and Sriraj Kalluvila)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India largely imports dry fruits from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Traders say that their prices may go up due to uncertainty in the market.

Ajay Sahai, director general and CEO of exporters body FIEO, however is of the view that volume of imports may not go down as much as to affect the country's domestic consumption requirements, but speculations may lead to price rise. Besides, India imports dry fruits from other markets as well, including the US, he said. However, replacing Afghan produce with that from the US would increase freight cost due to distance and tariff would also be ...
The (RBI) has relaxed its norms on what banks can do with their excess dollars in the currency market, according to sources.

The RBI had already allowed banks to invest their excess dollars in foreign currency bonds, but a rule in July 2016 had stated that a banks investment in unlisted securities should not be over 10 per cent of their investment in non-statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) bonds, or corporate bonds.

Now, the foreign currency bonds, even if issued by sovereigns, are unlisted for this purpose in India, and banks investment in them was to remain within this 10 per cent cap. Sources say about two weeks back, some banks crossed this 10 per cent mark, inviting RBI caution. In response, these banks lobbied to the RBI to let them cross the limit as the sovereign securities such as US bonds are risk free. The banks had cited billions of dollars in losses if they had to unwind their transactions, and had said such investment flexibility should be given to them considering the need to manage huge dollar inflow coming because of the initial public offerings (IPO) lined up.

The RBI, reported by Bloomberg first and confirmed by banking sources to Business Standard, has now allowed the banks to keep sovereign bonds away from this 10 per cent limit.

Banks, at the end of their trading day, used to park their excess dollars in overnight or even dated US treasury securities. The RBIs large exposure framework (LEF), which kicked in from April 1 this year, disturbed this arrangement, setting hard limits on what banks can do with their foreign currency assets. There was no bar in parking funds in foreign sovereign assets, as long as it was within the limits. RBI also prohibited banks from swapping their rupee liquidity for dollars and repatriate them back to their foreign offices to invest in US treasuries.

Banking sources say the swap arrangement would likely be allowed again.

This will keep the forward rates under check, said foreign exchange and bond expert Paresh Nayar.

Rupee liquidity is abundant, and if banks can swap, coupled with the relaxed investment limit, they can park their money in treasury bills, said Nayar.

This will drain some of the spot dollar liquidity and put that on a future date, bringing down the forwards rate.

The forward rates for one month and three months had spiked at the end of April, rising as high as 16 per cent, as the RBIs LEF curbs set in. However, with the ease in restrictions now, there wont be any untoward movement in the forward rates, which would also help the domestic currency to stabilise, currency experts said.
Nifty futures on Singapore Exchange traded 43 points higher at 16,646 around 8.30 am, indicating a firm start for the benchmark indices on Wednesday.

Here are the top stocks to track in today's session:

HDFC Bank: In a partial relief to HDFC Bank, the Reserve Bank of India has allowed the lender to issue new credit cards, sources in the bank said. In December last year, the banking regulator had directed not to issue new credit cards and halt all launches of its digital business-generating activities under its programme Digital 2.0. READ MORE

Canara Bank: The state-run lender opened its on Tuesday to raise up to Rs 2,500 crore and set the floor price of the issue at Rs 155.58 per equity share.

Cadila Healthcare: Zydus Cadila received tentative approval from the US health regulator to market Lenalidomide capsules used for the treatment of various types of cancers.

ISGEC Heavy Engineering: The company has bagged an order for two gas fired boilers from Naval Project, Indian Navy. The scope of work includes manufacturing of two 40 TPH Boilers on a turnkey basis.

IFCI: CARE downgraded credit rating on IFCI's long term bank facilities to BB from BBB- and maintained Negative outlook.

HCL Technologies: The IT firm has signed a five-year IT transformation deal with Wacker Chemie AG, German multinational chemical company, to establish a modernized digital workplace and improve its quality-of-service delivery.

Listing Today: Meghmani Finechem and Meghmani Organics will get listed on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday. The company to list equity shares on the bourses after demerger of agrochemical and pigment business. It was formerly known as Meghmani Organochem.

Wipro: The IT major has unveiled the Wipro AWS Launch Pad co-innovation centre in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Designed to accelerate innovation, the centre empowers Wipro Brazil in the development and showcasing of tailored offerings on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for clients throughout industries nationwide, a statement said.

Bharat Dynamics: The company signed agreement with MBDA to establish advanced short range air-to-air missile facility in India.

KPI Global Infrastructure: The company has terminated Power Purchase Agreement signed for the capacity of 1.20 MW solar power plant under independent power producer (IPP) segment.

Dilip Buildcon: Dhrol Bhadra Highways, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, has received the financial closure letter from the NHAI for four laning of Dhrol-Bhadra Patiya section of NH-151A in Gujarat. The project is expected to be completed in 2 years and will cost Rs 882 crore.

lnterGlobe Aviation: ICRA has downgraded the long-term rating of the company to A from A+ and the outlook remains negative.

Hindustan Aeronautics: The company has placed an order of Rs 5,375 crore for 99 F404-GE-IN20 engines and support services with GE Aviation, USA to power the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft. "This is the largest ever deal and the purchase order placed by HAL for LCA," R Madhavan, CMD, HAL said.

Kaveri Seed Company: The board is slated to meet on August 25 to consider the proposal of share buyback.
seem to be the real spice of the IPO frenzy, with surging number of applications for a slice of the offers and record over-subscriptions making the new listings-platter more than full on the

And lakhs of first time are flocking to the capital and joining the IPO (Initial Public Offer) bandwagon.

Experts opine that there has never been so much IPO applications coming in from the retail side with some issues getting as many as over 3 million applications and over 100 times the demand over supply.

Reflecting the rush of the into the equity market, their total holding in NSE-listed companies hit an all-time high of 7.18 per cent in the June quarter.

So far this year, there have been at least 40 new listings that have raked in around Rs 68,000 crore and more are in the offing. The depth of investor interest, especially from the retail segment, is much visible with many being oversubscribed over 100 times and offers worth over Rs 75,000 crore in the pipeline. Also, reports say the total number of may well top the 100-mark this year.

As an article in the latest RBI bulletin puts it, "2021 could well turn out to be India's year of the IPO".

According to NSDL and exchange data, since the pandemic hit the nation in March 2020, over 30 million retail investors have opened demat accounts, taking the overall number of demat accounts to close to 80 million as of June 2021.

During this period, the market, after tanking over 35 per cent in the first COVID wave, has rallied over 100 per cent and on Wednesday, the benchmark 30-share Sensex scaled the 56,000 peak during the intra-day session. The Sensex crossed the 50,000-mount only in January this year.

A retail investor is the one who has up to Rs 2 lakh exposure and high net worth individuals (HNIs) are those investing over Rs 2 lakh while QIBs (qualified institutional buyers) are part of the institutional portion.

That first-time retail investors are flocking to the market directly like fish to water is also clear from the massive over-subscription of the retail portion of most this year. This trend is best exemplified by they way they lapped up the Rs 1,513-crore Glenmark Life Sciences issue -- in terms of applications, the number was more than 3.9 million, which is the second highest on record after Reliance Power issue in February 2008 that had 4.2 million retail applications and 82.62 times retail demand.

In terms of retail over-subscriptions, the Glenmark issue got 14.6 times and the overall demand was close to 45 times.

According to Sameer Kaul, chief executive at TrustPlutus Wealth, the retail attraction is driven by the over 100 per cent rally in the over the past 15 months on the back of abundant liquidity, globally and in the domestic market.

This is clear from the massive spike in the number of demat accounts opened since the pandemic, he told PTI.

Anu Jain, head of equity broking at IIFL Wealth, said the ongoing IPO frenzy is mostly a question of supply and demand, which is higher given the liquidity floating around.

Market participants chase returns and this can sometimes skew the demand and supply balance. "We saw some really robust listing gains in July. Big issues like Tatva Chintan, Zomato, and GR Infra saw listing gains of around 96, 78, and 97 per cent, respectively," Jain said.

In the HNI category, the nearly Rs 600-crore Mtar Tech IPO was the most oversubscribed at 201 times, followed by the Rs 730-crore issue from Rolex Rings by 130 times, and the Rs 1,838-crore Devyani International by 117 times, where the retail demand was almost 40 times more than the offer.

The Rs 1,546-crore Clean Science issue got a demand for close to 95 times but the retail demand was among the lowest at nine times.

In the retail category, healthcare companies were the most preferred with the Rs 100 crore-Nureca issue getting a retail demand for 165.66 times and the overall demand for 40 times. The Rs 1,213-crore Krsnaa Diagnostics topped the over-subscription list with over 64 times the offer and the retail demand was at 42 times.

Of the total companies that got listed through IPO so far this year, only four had issue size greater than or equal to Rs 5,000 crore.

However, the Rs 9,375-crore Zomato issue despite being the largest so far in 2021, comparatively received less response from retail investors. In fact interest of retail investor was less in all the four IPOs which were above Rs 5,000 crore.

The Rs 500-crore IPO of Tatva Chintan Pharma saw an overwhelming response from retail investors with an oversubscription of 180.35 times. Investors have put in bids for 58.82 crore equity shares against offer of 32.61 lakh equity shares.

Amit Gupta, fund manager-PMS at ICICI Securities, said that high liquidity in domestic and foreign is driving the IPOs.

Market is giving value to future growth despite valuations being a little costly. Another reason is the recent massive upsides in the midcaps in the secondary market, which is driving the massive oversubscription in the primary market.

"We have seen returns of 500-700 per cent in some recent IPOs," Gupta said and also cited the lack of other investment options beyond equities as one the key drivers.

According to Prime Database, retail holding in NSE-listed companies hit an all-time high in the June quarter at 7.18 per cent or worth Rs 16.18 lakh crore, which rose more than 16 per cent between the March and June quarters. In quarter ended March, the retail share was 6.96 per cent or Rs 13.94 lakh crore.

(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.)
An FIR has been filed against MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq and two others in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district for their controversial remarks over the Taliban's takeover of

The case has been registered against Barq at the Sadar police station on a complaint lodged by Rajesh Singhal late on Tuesday night.

The charges against the MP include Sections 124A (Sedition), 153A (Promoting enmity between groups) and 295A (outraging religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

"The complainant Rajesh Singhal has filed a complaint alleging that Shafiqur Rahman Barq, during a press conference, compared the terrorists to India's freedom fighters," said Sambhal SP Chakresh Mishra on Wednesday.

" has been declared a terrorist organisation by the Indian government. These statements come under sedition. The police will take strict actions against the people making such statements," Mishra said.

However, Barq denied making such a statement.

Speaking to ANI, the SP leader said, "I did not make any such statement. My statement has been misinterpreted. I am a citizen of India, not of Afghanistan, so I have no business with what is happening there. I support my government's policies."

Barq, earlier on Tuesday, had supported the regime change in and said that the is fighting for the freedom of their country and Afghan people want freedom under its leadership.

The SP MP had told ANI: "When India was under British rule, our country fought for freedom. Now Taliban wants to free their country and run it. Taliban is a force that did not allow even strong countries like Russia and US to settle in their country."

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister KP Maurya had slammed Barq and said there is no difference between Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and the leaders of the SP.

"The can say anything, if such a statement has come from the SP on the Taliban, then what is the difference between Imran Khan and the leaders of the SP," said Deputy CM.

Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday and took control of the presidential palace. Taliban leaders have been discussing future government plans in Doha after gaining control of Kabul, as per a media report.

Panic has gripped the Afghan capital as people fear a return to the Taliban's brutal rule and the threat of reprisal killings. Thousands of Afghans flooded the tarmac on Monday morning, at one point swarming around a departing US military plane as it taxied down the runway.

(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.)
Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles Piyush Goyal said that technology & ideas are the twin engines of growth and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is the fuel that powers them. He said there is need to bring an IP revolution for Inclusive Progress in the nation and strengthening IPR laws. He said it will boost job creation, quality, competitiveness & manufacturing. The Minister said that powered by Intellectual Property, India can be the "Innovation Powerhouse" of the world. Shri Goyal said that Intellectual Property Rights actually translates into India's progress in real-time and extend Intellectual Property Right to India's Prosperity Right.

He said, we must aim to make India the Design hub of World. It is the key for success of Start-up India, Make in India & Design in India. Goyal further said that IP has the power & potential to change lives & create livelihoods for billions. India recorded 572% growth in grant of Patents in last 7 years. A total of 28,391 patents were granted in 2020-21 as compared to 4,227 grants during 2013-14.

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The on Wednesday termed Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari as a "political agent" of the Union Home Ministry, in the wake of delay in the nomination of 12 persons, recommended by the state government, as members of the Legislative Council from his quota.

An editorial in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said the state government recommended the 12 names around eight months back.

"A midwife at the Raj Bhavan should clear the doubts about how many more months it would take for the delivery (signing the file concerned)," it said in sarcastic remarks.

Everybody was happy when Koshyari had climbed the Sinhagad fort (in Pune) at the age of 80, but he is trying to "bring down the democratic and constitutional fortress", the edit alleged.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, whose party shares power with the and Congress in Maharashtra, has already noted that the state chief minister had sent reminders to the governor, but "he (Koshyari) could have forgotten it because of his advancing age," it quipped.

"The governor is the Union Home Ministry's political agent, is the easiest definition according to us. His mind is not clean as he is not clearing the file of 12 nominees as MLCs from his quota. He is clearly under pressure from the 'top' for not signing on the file, the Sena claimed.

The Marathi daily also said it is the "constitutional duty" of the governor to sign on proposals sent by a state cabinet.

"It doesn't suit the dignity of his post if he breaks the constitutional framework...and by postponing the appointment of the 12 nominees, the governor and the BJP have turned themselves into a laughing stock, it said.

The Marathi daily also said when a senior Congress leader prodded Koshyari about the issue of nomination of MLCs at a recent function in Pune, the governor wondered why the leader was so inquisitive when the state government was not insisting about it.

"With this, the governor has put himself in an awkward situation. This comment does not suit his position as governor of the state. Does he want (people) to stand outside the Raj Bhavan and clang 'thalis' to seek his attention over the file related to the nomination of MLCs?" the Sena sought to know.

He (Koshyari) has "lost his social stature because of his own acts". Even the Bombay High Court and senior leaders like Sharad Pawar are openly pointing fingers at his actions. The people of Maharashtra are not bitter with him, but as a governor, his acts are "against the Constitution, it claimed.

The examples of West Bengal and Maharashtra have shown that the use of Raj Bhavan cannot help in toppling a government, it added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first evacuation flight by from included 21 Indian nationals deployed for providing security at the French embassy in the Afghan capital.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had on Tuesday thanked his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian for evacuating the Indian nationals from to Paris, in the backdrop of the Taliban capturing power in the Afghan city.

"The first French evacuation flight from # yesterday included 21 Indian nationals: the elite Gurkhas who were ensuring the security of the French Embassy," French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain tweeted on Wednesday.

He said has been actively coordinating with India on developments relating to

"As discussed in call between Min @JY_LeDrian & Min@DrSJaishankar, coordinates actively with India on #Afghanistan, especially at #UNSC," Lenain said.

After his telephonic conversation with Le Drian, Jaishankar said the evolving situation in was discussed.

"Discussed the evolving situation in with Foreign Minister @JY_LeDrian. We will continue to coordinate in the UN Security Council. Thank him for evacuating 21 Indian nationals from Kabul to Paris," Jaishankar tweeted.

The Taliban swept across Afghanistan this month, seizing control of almost all key Afghan towns and cities in the country following the withdrawal of the US forces from the country.

Kabul fell to the Taliban on Sunday after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the country for an unknown destination.

India on Tuesday completed the evacuation of all its diplomats and other staff members from Kabul in view of escalating tension and deteriorating security situation in the city.

(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.)
on Wednesday said it has signed Bollywood actor as the face for its newly announced Galaxy Z series of foldable smartphones for India.

will bring its ultra-premium Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip3 5G smartphones in India from September 10, with prices starting at Rs 84,999. Pre-bookings for the devices will open on August 24.

The South Korean tech giant - which competes with Apple in the premium smartphone category - had unveiled the two high-end foldable smartphones at its Galaxy unpacked event last week.

Alia's qualities and immense popularity among young Gen Z and millennial consumers make her the perfect partner to drive the adoption of Galaxy Z series foldable smartphones, India Senior Director Sumit Walia said in a statement.

"Our research shows that more and more young consumers are now looking for a new form factor for their smartphone, which is also an essential lifestyle statement. Galaxy Z series foldable smartphones will add that new dynamism to their life," he added.

Bhatt will be involved in a robust campaign that entails digital and outdoor activations.

"It is a pleasure to be a part of their journey while adding a little to my own. The campaign has shaped up really well. I really liked the script and the communication that Samsung wants to put forth. I am really excited for the campaign to break, now," Bhatt said.

Galaxy Fold3 5G will be available in two variants - 12 GB RAM and 256 GB memory (Rs 1,49,999) and 12 GM RAM and 512 GB memory (Rs 1,57,999). The Galaxy Flip 3 5G 128 GB variant will be priced at Rs 84,999, while the 256 GB model will be available for Rs 88,999.

During the launch last week, Samsung had said it is pricing the new generation lower than last year's lineup as it wants to provide more consumers access to the "unique foldable experience". The Z Fold3 features a 7.6-inch Infinity Flex display and includes the first-ever S Pen support on a foldable device.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi [India], August 18 (ANI/PRNewswire): The adoption of artificial intelligence and deep learning to harness their transformative potential is becoming a key priority of most organizations.

This has given rise to significant demand for Artificial Intelligence & Deep Learning skills in the industry.

KPMG in India, one of the market leaders in data science advisory services, has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Deakin University, Australia, to offer a Post Graduate Industry Practitioner Programme in Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning to Indian students.

This program aims to prepare experienced data science and IT professionals for a career in the high growth field of artificial intelligence and deep learning. Participants who complete all the modules along with the assignments will receive a certificate jointly from Deakin University, Australia, and KPMG in India.

As a pathway option, the participants will also be able to receive recognition for prior learning (RPL) into Deakin University's relevant postgraduate studies onshore or online in Australia.

Ravneet Pawha, Deputy Vice President (Global Engagement) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University, remarked, "Artificial intelligence (AI) is driving digital disruption and enabling us to utilise the power of machines for intelligent automation. This joint Post Graduate Industry Practitioner Programme will equip professionals with specialist knowledge and skills necessary to design and develop software solutions that harness the latest advances in artificial intelligence and deep learning."

Through this program, learners will receive 4 credits recognised by Deakin University, Australia which can be further utilized by the learner to pursue a postgraduate/master's degree at Deakin University, Australia. These credits and certificate can be a testimony to demonstrated capability and are a good way to gain visibility with present and future employers.

"Artificial intelligence and deep learning technology are transforming industries around the world as well as our daily lives. As artificial intelligence applications become more common and reach into new areas, the AI industry is experiencing enormous growth - and offers promising opportunities for talented professionals," added Vijay Gogoi, Associate Partner, KPMG Learning Academy.

For more information about the program, please email in-fmlearningacademy@kpmg.com

This story is provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PRNewswire)

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dr. Christopher Ledtke said people who are unvaccinated comprise 90% of new cases and more than 95% of hospitalizations and serious illness from COVID, which is proof that vaccines remain very effective.
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Poll workers assist voters at the Carteret County Board of Elections one-stop site in Beaufort Oct. 17, 2018. While approving its 2021 early voting plan this week, the County Board of Elections chose to slim down the weekday hours at early voting sites, citing low turnout and an expectation of increased absentee by-mail voting in light of the lingering coronavirus pandemic. (News-Times photo)
Haverhill - Beverly E. Scott of Haverhill, MA, died in February 2021 after a long illness. Born in 1935 in Haverhill, she was the daughter of Glen and Stella (Lamb) Blackden. She attended Merrimac, MA schools and graduated from Merrimac High School and Lowell Hospital School of Nursing. Beve
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Average sales per production company came in at 831 million yen ($7.6M), falling for the first time in four years. Large companies with their own IP generally fared better, as they could depend on revenue from streaming and other licensing. Overall, 31.6% saw their sales rise while 48.6% saw them fall. In terms of profit, 31.1% reported an increase in profits, while 29.5% of companies had a drop in profits. Nearly 38% of the companies suffered losses last year.

Meanwhile, anime is globalizing. Of the 300 companies, 68 reported that they have struck business deals with overseas companies. China was the most common international partner (36 companies), followed by South Korea (15) and the U.S. (14).

Tokyo continues to dominate the industry: the capital is home to 270 of the surveyed companies. Small companies are most common, with 109 posting revenue of 100M yen ($910,000) or less and 96 having five employees or fewer. The number of companies founded since 2000 stands at 190.

The report also sounds warnings about systemic issues in the industry. It notes that problems around employment and productivity persist in Japanese studios, then adds that the quality of Chinese animation is rapidly improving, with companies securing top-flight animators (often by offering better pay than Japanese studios) and acquiring know-how by investing in Japanese productions.

These companies could soon rival their Japanese counterparts for supremacy in the industry, the report suggests. As a result, the anime bubble of the 2010s may burst, just as a slump in DVD sales ended a previous boom in 2007. If Japans industry is to thrive, the report concludes, there will have to be urgent investment in talent and technological resources.

In November, the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) published the latest edition of its annual Anime Industry Report, in which it stated that the anime industry grew to 2.5112 trillion yen (USD$24.08B)  an all-time high  in 2019. This number is an order of magnitude larger than Teikoku Databanks because it follows the AJAs far broader definition of the industry, which includes the revenue from spin-off businesses.
The film adapts the novel series of the same name by Nahoko Uehashi. A mighty amount of exposition is crammed into its first five minutes, but the story is familiar: a group of warriors called The Lone Antlers fought back against an invasion of their country by the Empire of Zol, and lost. Their leader and captain Van is imprisoned, but escapes with a young girl named Yuna after a mysterious attack from supernatural wolves (expect plenty of Princess Mononoke comparisons, not unearned).

From here The Deer Kings focus is constantly shifting, in a manner that feels right for its patiently paced and observant odyssey. Though the traveling companions change, Van remains the anchor, gradually opening up as his relationship with his new adoptive daughter changes him.

That, and his newfound spiritual connection to the natural world, dovetail with the films fantasy and sociopolitical context in surprising ways. A number of old stories  the found family, nature pushing back against human industry and empire  are told here with new verve. The film feels pleasantly traditional, but distinguishes itself with an atypical approach to fantasy: billed as a medical fantasy, it looks to scientifically rationalize its various mysteries.

As expected from the impressive creative talent involved, The Deer King is lushly presented, full of gorgeous lighting and background art, its beautiful character drawings carrying the visual signatures of Andos work with both Ghibli and Kon in their attention to the little quirks and imperfections of their faces. (Ando serves here also as animation director and character designer.)

Ando and Miyajis professional background can also be seen in the complex and well-considered lore of the decaying kingdom, as well as how the characters move with an incredibly believable weight, no matter how surreal or abstract the imagery surrounding them becomes in the later acts.

The Deer King emphasizes its strong connection with the earth through the real human heft of its animation, a strong balance to the films frequent spiritual and out-of-body experiences. That attention to every nuance of movement of its humans and animals, the consideration of the strain of muscles or the smallest twitches in the face, reflects the films grounded and humanist approach to its large-scale fantasy.

Its a helpful anchor because the narrative is incredibly dense. But aside from its sweeping opening it rarely feels overwhelming, as it carefully unspools the complications born from the offscreen conflict: political change, social unrest, love between people from warring nations, the belief in divine retribution. The Deer King is truly engrossing and rich in its world building, but it leaves enough unsaid that viewers will walk away wanting even more.

GKIDS will release The Deer King theatrically in North America early next year.

Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko

After the sprawling and mesmeric abstract fantasy of Children of the Sea, director Ayumu Watanabe comes back to an earthly plane with the humble Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko. Where his previous film worked in a lot of plot and existential questions, Nikuko is considerably sparser and smaller-scale.

Based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Kanako Nishi, the film centers on Nikuko and her 11-year-old daughter Kikuko, who live in a houseboat in a small seaside fishing town to which they have only just moved. Nikuko has a tendency to fall for men who let her down, and each heartbreak takes the pair to a new place.

Despite the film being named after Nikuko, Kikuko is the real focus. Watanabe examines her inner life and little schoolyard dramas, treating them seriously no matter how trivial they seem. The film overtly recalls iconic imagery from My Neighbor Totoro, and also shares its willingness to treat a childs perspective seriously and with great care.

By comparison, her mother Nikuko, who works as a waitress in a local bar, is treated like a cartoon, a sort of foil for Kikuko. Her larger-than-life attitude naturally embarrasses the still-young Kikuko, but the film pushes too far in seeking to mine comedy from Nikuko, too often looking for cheap laughs at her weight. This feels egregious in a film that treats its other main character with such subtle and sensitive care.

The films saving grace, then, is that it mostly remains with Kikuko, enlivening her point of view through its lovely craft. Kenichi Konishis character designs range from a subdued realism and scratchy lines in the weathered faces of kindly old-timers to the exuberance of wide-eyed, gangly teens.

Despite the vast difference in tone, the film is something of a reflection of Children of the Sea: both are coming-of-age stories about girls attuned to the voices of the world around them. So, appropriately, just as the natural world in Children of the Sea held a voice of its own, so it does here, partly through the lively, complex detail of Shinji Kimuras art direction.

As he did in Children of the Sea, Kimura designs the world around Kikuko to complement how she perceives it, with plants and animals conversing with her and each other. That rich liveliness is realized with lovely compositing, which highlights earthy textures and gentle, natural interplay of light and shadow.

Bolstered by that visual acuity, Nikuko is a mostly pleasant, low-stakes series of vignettes that occasionally undermines itself, but mostly charms with its easygoing coming-of-age narrative.

Pompo: The Cinephile

Pompo: The Cinephile starts with an absurd pitch  a mercenary, no-nonsense child-prodigy producer is renowned for making gleefully trashy B-movies  and only gets sillier from there. But the focus of Takayuki Hiraos film is not so much on the eponymous character as it is on her production assistant Gene.

After having Gene run a number of menial tasks, Pompo sees fit to assign him as the director of her passion project. Its a script that she wrote for a more prestigious movie, the kind of classical blockbuster destined for awards season (Pompos industry, Nyallywood, is a thinly veiled simulacrum of Hollywood). The rest of the film follows Gene through pre-production, shooting, and post-production as he learns how to be a director on the fly.

Pompo is more ridiculous for its naive earnestness than for any kind of knowing or satirical silliness. For starters, it portrays Hollywood nepotism as a good, uncomplicated thing rather than a symptom of a narcissistic industry. Hirao, who also wrote the script (adapting a manga series by Shogo Sugitani), threads the needle from this, to the making of a big-budget Oscar-bait picture, to syrupy sentimental monologues from those beloved champions of creativity, bankers. That part is so bizarre that it almost comes back around to being entertaining.

The film is certainly passionate about filmmaking, and deserves props for efforts to conjure up excitement for the less glamorous minutiae of the craft. A lot of the films most audacious visuals are reserved for the edit suite: theres a hilarious, charmingly heightened representation of how it feels to press a delete key, in which Gene holds a big sword and slashes at giant flying reels of film.

Aesthetically and otherwise, Pompo represents all of Hollywoods allure with few of its complications: its shiny, pretty, and also shallow. Its earnestness doesnt feel inherently wrong in itself  in fact, that idealism is quite pleasant. But it carries a nagging feeling of falsity.

Its no Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, the recent Masaaki Yuasa-directed series about storytelling in the medium of animation, which was also (intentionally) outlandish but showed a lot more nuance in its engagement with the difficulties of such work, as well as more visual imagination. Its perhaps an unfair comparison  but when such a series exists, its hard not to see Pompos scope as narrow.

Theres enough pleasantness in Hiraos visual style to keep it from being unwatchable, but Pompos charming enthusiasm cant compensate for its frequently trite vision of its chosen profession.

Fantasia runs until August 25, with online screenings geo-locked for Canadian viewers.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Health-care workers in Quebec will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 1, Premier Francois Legault said Tuesday.

While 90 per cent of health-care workers in the province are already vaccinated, Legault said the remaining 10 per cent pose a risk to patients.

"The recommendation of public health is clear, there's a risk for vulnerable patients," he said. "Of course, it's hard for the workers, but we have to protect patients."

The mandate will apply to any health-care worker who enters into contact with patients for more than 15 minutes at a time, including nurses, doctors and ambulance workers, and it will apply to both private sector and public sector employees, Health Minister Christian Dube said.

Health-care workers will be expected to get a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 1 and a second by Oct. 1, Legault added.

The premier said he has not decided what the penalties will be for those who refuse to be vaccinated, adding that the issue will be part of consultations with opposition parties, which he said could start as early as next week.

Other public sector workers such as teachers and bureaucrats are not targeted by the vaccine mandate, but Legault said the consultations will also include discussions on whether to extend the vaccination requirement beyond health-care workers.

Legault faced criticism from opposition parties last week after his government introduced plans for a vaccine passport without consulting with other political parties. The government will require people to show proof of vaccination starting Sept. 1 before they can enter places such as bars, restaurants and festivals.

The premier had said he didn't think a debate was necessary on vaccine passports, adding that opening up discussion in the legislature on the issue would expose Quebecers to conspiracy theories. But vaccine mandates are different, he said.

For me, there is a large difference between the vaccine passport, where were talking about non-essential activities, and mandatory vaccination, where we say someone is required to be vaccinated and if you dont, you cant work," Legault said.

Since April, Quebec has required unvaccinated health-care workers to be tested for COVID-19 three times a week, but Legault said Tuesday that measure is no longer sufficient.

Quebec's announcement on the vaccine mandate came amid rising COVID-19 cases. Its high, its increasing and experts expect that it will continue to increase in the next few weeks, Legault said. It also came one week after the government said it would impose a vaccine passport system.

Dube said the government is considering integrating its passport system with the federal government's ArriveCAN smartphone application, which travellers are required to download. He said that would help tourists enter bars and restaurants after Sept. 1. He said the province may also ask visitors to visit a vaccination site and show proof of vaccination in order to obtain a quick-response code, which can be scanned by businesses covered by the passport system.

Quebec is the latest province to become more strict with COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

Ontario's chief medical officer of health said Tuesday that employers in health and education will be required to ask workers about their vaccination status and that those who aren't fully vaccinated, or who don't have a documented medical exemption, will need to take an education session and be subject to regular tests.

Dr. Kieran Moore said that directive takes effect on Sept. 7, covering hospitals, ambulance services and community and home-care service providers. It will be similar to one already in place in long-term care homes, and mirrors staff policies introduced by some hospitals.

On Thursday, health officials in British Columbia said vaccination against COVID-19 will be a condition for employment at long-term care centres and assisted living facilities in the province. Workers have until Oct. 12 to get vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Legault also announced Tuesday that mask-wearing will be mandatory inside classrooms in junior colleges and universities when classes resume in the fall. The province's reopening plan for colleges and universities had previously only required students to wear masks in common areas.

He said the Health Department is still considering whether to impose a mask-wearing order inside classrooms for primary and secondary schools.

Quebec reported 323 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and no more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus. The Health Department said hospitalizations rose by six, to 88, and 27 people were in intensive care, unchanged from the prior day.

Officials said 42,634 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered Monday. Quebec's public health institute says 85.6 per cent of residents 12 and over have received at least one dose of vaccine and 75.6 per cent are considered adequately vaccinated.
Photo: The Canadian Press

The Taliban violently broke up a protest in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person as they quashed a rare public show of dissent. The militant group meanwhile met with former officials from the toppled Western-backed government.

As officials work to shape a future government, the United Arab Emirates acknowledged that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the Taliban advance, and his family were in that country.

The Taliban's every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely. They insist they have changed and wont impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating womens rights, carrying out public executions and harboring al-Qaida in the years before the 9/11 attacks.

But many Afghans remain deeply skeptical, and the violent response to Wednesday's protest could only fuel their fears. Thousands are racing to the airport and borders to flee the country. Many others are hiding inside their homes, fearful after prisons and armories were emptied during the insurgents blitz across the country.

Dozens of people gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad to raise the national flag a day before Afghanistan's Independence Day, which commemorates the end of British rule in 1919. They lowered the Taliban flag  a white banner with an Islamic inscription  that the militants have raised in the areas they captured.

Video footage later showed the Taliban firing into the air and attacking people with batons to disperse the crowd. Babrak Amirzada, a reporter for a local news agency, said he and a TV cameraman from another agency were beaten by the Taliban as they tried to cover the unrest.

A local health official said at least one person was killed and six wounded. The official was not authorized to speak to media and so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the U.S. against the Taliban in 2001, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there. It's in the only province that hasn't yet fallen to the Taliban.

Those figures include members of the deposed government  Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he is the countrys rightful president and Defense Minister Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi  as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. It's unclear if they intend to challenge to the Taliban, who seized most of the country in a matter of days last week.

The Taliban, meanwhile, pressed ahead with their efforts to form an inclusive, Islamic government. They have been holding talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government. Mohammad Yusof Saha, a spokesman for Karzai, said preliminary meetings with Taliban officials would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader, who returned to the country this week.

Karzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction. The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

Meanwhile, the UAE's Foreign Ministry acknowledged in a one-sentence statement that Ghani and his family were in the country for humanitarian considerations. The president fled the Taliban advance on Sunday and disappeared amid widespread anger from Afghans over the collapse of the countrys security forces.

The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear if hed received any other assistance. The UAE is a close U.S. ally.

Amid the uncertainty, thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country in recent days, and the U.S. and its allies have struggled to manage a chaotic withdrawal from the country.

Hundreds of people were outside the airport early Wednesday. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch, dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

In Kabul, groups of Taliban fighters carrying long guns patrolled a well-to-do neighborhood that is home to many embassies as well as mansions of the Afghan elite.

The Taliban have promised to maintain security, but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government. Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militants.

Another Taliban promise being closely watched is their vow to prevent Afghanistan from again being used as a base for planning terrorist attacks. That was enshrined in a 2020 peace deal with the Trump administration that paved the way for the drawdown of American troops, the last of whom are supposed to leave at the end of the month.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Porter Airlines says it will require employees to be fully vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test administered within 72 hours of the start of their shift.

The requirement comes ahead of the airline's plan to resume flights on Sept. 8.

The federal government announced last week its intention to mandate vaccination for federally regulated employers and workers.

The airline says once specific requirements from the government are known, its policy may evolve.

Porter CEO Michael Deluce says requiring vaccination or regular testing is a critical measure to protect the health of workers.

Porter suspended operations on March 21, 2020, due to the pandemic.
Cemix plant holds opening ceremony with President Putin in attendance

18 August 2021

Lasselsberger Group recently held the opening ceremony for its Cemix greenfield 700tpd white cement production line in Russia. Sinoma-Tianjn Cement Industry Design & Research Institute (TCDRI) carried out the project on an EPC basis.

Russian President Putin attended the opening ceremony. The Austrian Prime Minister sent a congratulatory video message. President Putin gave a speech, fully affirming the technological advancement of the white cement production line based on the BIM platform by Sinoma-TCDRI in terms of advanced cement technology and high environmental protection standard.

During the tour, the head of state got acquainted with the production process, samples of raw materials and finished products.

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Chatham, VA (24531)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening with thunderstorms becoming likely overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with thunderstorms becoming likely overnight. Low 72F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Hamilton County Schools senior Annabelle Hill has been named Girls Nation President.

Jenise Gordon, chairwoman of the American Legion Auxiliary Volunteer Girls State program, said, We are so incredibly proud of Annabelle and this outstanding accomplishment. Annabelle impressed our selection committee at Girls State, which earned her the honor of representing Tennessee as one of two Girls Nation Senators.

To rise to the position of Girls Nation President requires not only a command of the issues but a command of the room. She does both with a beautiful mixture of confidence and grace.

The senior at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences (CSAS) virtually attended American Legion Auxiliary Volunteer Girls State (ALA VGS) where she was selected to attend ALA Girls Nation as a Tennessee senator. The program is typically based in Nashville but was held virtually due to COVID. ALA VGS provides young women with information and tools to become informed voters and citizens.

We are so proud of Miss Hill and her achievement, said former Supt. Bryan Johnson. Our goals in student achievement are more than classroom success, its leadership and growth cultivated through organizations like Girls Nation.

The program "uses a practical and engaging curriculum with respectful debates on real-world topics to foster confident, impactful citizens. After a week of immersive learning and an interview process, two participants are chosen as Tennessee Senators to represent the state at Girls Nation."

After being chosen as a Tennessee Senator, Ms. Hill attended Girls Nation where she became elected as Girls Nation President.

Annabelle is a natural leader. It doesn't surprise me that this translates at the national level as well, said Jim Boles, Principal of CSAS. She's a 'go-getter' for sure and enriches any group she is a part of. We're lucky to have her as part of the CSAS community.
Six Jewish-themed, award-winning films produced in the United States, Syria, Israel, Italy and Poland and will be screened in person and virtually beginning Oct. 6, for six consecutive weeks. All films have received recognition at festivals throughout the United States, Europe and Israel. The Series is brought to the community by the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga and shown at the Jewish Cultural Center.

Although the pandemic has created great change in our screening process, we felt it important to offer in-person screenings and upgrade the experience using our new state of the art projector and screen, in addition to a virtual option, said Michael Dzik, executive director of the Jewish Federation. As the longest running, international film series in Chattanooga, we felt that we should make the Film Series would accessible to the greatest number of people.

Mr. Dzik reminds people that screening circumstances may change as needed in response to the pandemic.







Here is the schedule:

Oct. 6 Kiss Me Kosher

A subversive love story between clashing cultures and families. The film is a romantic misadventure crossing all borders. When two generations of Israeli women fall for a German woman and a Palestinian man, chaos follows. The film takes aim at some of the most pressing social issues in Israel today. English, German, Hebrew, Arabic, subtitles, 1h 41min

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGGjxGYAWo8

Oct. 13 Neighbors

In a Syrian border village in the early 1980s, Sero attends school for the first time. A new teacher has arrived with the goal of making Syrian comrades out of the Kurdish children. He uses the rod to forbid the Kurdish language, orders the veneration of Assad, and preaches hate of the Zionist enemy - the Jews. The lessons upset and confuse Sero because his long-time neighbors are a lovable Jewish family. Kurdish, subtitles, 2h 4min

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXoINcqFOOM

Oct. 20 Here We Are

Aharon has devoted his life to raising his son Uri. They live together in a gentle routine, away from the real world. But Uri is autistic, and now as a young adult it might be time for him to live in a specialized home. While on their way to the institution, Aharon decides to run away with his son and hits the road, knowing that Uri is not ready for this separation. Or is it, in fact, his father who is not ready? Hebrew, subtitles, 1h 34min

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsl3zZi75Pc

Oct. 27 Tiger Within



A story featuring an unlikely friendship between a homeless teen and a Holocaust survivor, sparking larger questions of fear, forgiveness, healing and world peace, starring Ed Asner. English, 1h 38min

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbzK2ozG5UQ

Nov. 3 Thou Shall Not Hate

The son of a Holocaust survivor who lives in Trieste as a surgeon begins to doubt his actions of refusing to help a victim of a traffic accident that he encountered on his way home from work. Polish origin, Italian, subtitles, 1h 36min

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTu6FW9n-6g

Nov. 10 Starry Sky Above the Roman Ghetto

In her Roman attic, a girl finds an old picture of the Jewish child Sarah Cohen whose family had been killed by the Nazis in World War II. She will track down Sarahs past with help of current and new friends. Italian, subtitles, 1h 40min

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTu6FW9n-6g

STAR sponsors will be able to view each film in-person and/or virtually. To participate in-person, guests must be vaccinated, wear a mask and RSVP. Star Sponsorships are $100. STAR sponsorships come with two tickets to the in-person Sponsor Reception or choose Cocktail Party in-a-Box drive through. Dates listed are for in-person viewing at 7:15 p.m. Come in person and see film using the new state-of-the-art screen and projector. Want one film at a time? Each film will cost $12 and only be available virtually.

Virtual films, other than the Sponsor Film, will be available from noon Tuesday to noon Friday. To purchase a STAR sponsorship or onefilm-at-a-time visit www.jewishchattanooga.com.










I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. II Timothy 4:7-8

Well done my good and faithful servant! Dr. Jimmy DeYoung surely heard those words as he left his earthly body and entered into the presence of the Lord and Savior that he so fervently served throughout his life.

Jimmy was born in October of 1940 in Miami, FL. To tell the story of the full life that God allowed Jimmy to experience, it seems like you are telling five different life stories. After graduating from Miami High in 1959, he managed to make one of the best decisions of his life by marrying his lifetime companion, Judy. They immediately became a military couple when he joined the Air Force and not long after they became parents when their first son, Jimmy III was born. Jimmy served his country for four years and was always proud of his status as a Veteran. His second child, Leslie, was also born during this time.

After leaving the Air Force, Jimmy briefly served in the pastorate before attending Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga, TN to train for his future life in ministry. While at TTU, Jimmy learned from one of his heroes of the faith, Dr Lee Roberson and was also instrumental in founding the WDYN Christian radio station which is still on the air today. Jimmy and Judy welcomed the arrival of their third child, Jodi during this time of their life.

While at TTU, Jimmy was recruited by two men who would later become his mentors and deepest friends, Jack Wyrtzen and Harry Bollback, to join the ministry of Word of Life in Schroon Lake, NY. Jimmy served in many fulfilling roles while at Word of Life including staff evangelist, and director of the WOL Inn. Lifetime friends and partners in ministry were made while the DeYoung family was at Word of Life. Jimmy also ran for U.S. Congress while living in New York and the family welcomed their fourth and final child, Richard into the world.

In 1980, Jimmy moved to New York City where he worked for Salem Communications as the General Manager of the Christian Radio station WNYM. It was during this time that Jimmy first went to Israel and began to develop a relationship with that country and its people that would define so much of his later life.

With their children grown, Jimmy and Judy embarked on yet another great adventure in ministry and moved to Jerusalem, Israel to become missionaries and journalists in 1991. Jimmy, along with John Schmidt and Meno Kalisher, started a local church entitled The Jerusalem Assembly. This church is still active in Israel with Meno as its pastor and it is still committed to evangelism and proper biblical teaching. Jimmy also served as a journalist in Israel reporting from the land to many christian outlets including weekly appearances on Moody Radio.

God allowed Jimmy to have another great opportunity to serve when he joined Mart DeHann as the Bible Teachers on the Day of Discovery Television program. Jimmy and Mart taught in hundreds of episodes from what he called the Bible lands (Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey). These programs focused on teaching biblical truths from the lands where the bible was written and they were a blessing to many.

After living in Israel for over 20 years, Jimmy and Judy relocated to their current home in Chattanooga, TN where Jimmy founded the ministry of Prophecy Today. Prophecy Today is a ministry that is dedicated to educating the Christian community on the soon return of Jesus Christ and encouraging Christians to prepare for this event by sharing the gospel.

In the years of Prophecy Today radio over 1,000 programs went out and Jimmy and Judy had ministry in thousands of locations around the world.

He was preceded in death by his parents, James DeYoung Sr and Katherine Eula DeYoung of Miami, FL., father in law, Robert Lee Varble and mother in law, Gladys Mildred Varble DeYoung of Tallahassee FL.

Dr. DeYoung is survived by his wife and faithful companion of 61 years, Judy Ann DeYoung; son James DeYoung III and his wife Jill of San Antonio, TX; daughter Leslie Faircloth and her husband Steve of Trenton, GA; daughter Jodi DeYoung of Chattanooga, TN; son Richard DeYoung and his wife Sara of Chattanooga, TN; 14 grandchildren; Joshua(Hannah), Trent(Joy), Tanner, Elissa, Katie, Jason, Haley, Abby, Callan, Elize, Sunny, Hunter, 8 great grandchildren; Tinsleigh, Maddix, Nora, Shepherd, Ozzie, Lilly, Christian Liam, brother, Bob (Pat), sister, Betty Kay (Duke), sister, Sharon (Chuck), Brother in Law, Bud(Bonnie), Sisters in Law, Barbara and Nancy and numerous nieces, nephews, and countless friends.

Jimmy will be laid to rest in the Chattanooga National Cemetery with military honors by the United States Air Force Honor Guard in a private family ceremony.

A Celebration of Jimmys Life Memorial Service will be held after burial at the Red Bank Baptist Church at 3 p.m. on Friday August 20, 2021 with a receiving of friends to follow. This service is open to public and will be livestreamed via Red Bank Baptist churchs link redbankbaptist.online.church

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to Jimmys ministry, Prophecy Today: Central Missionary Clearinghouse, P.O. Box 2510 Chattanooga, TN 37409.

Arrangements are under the care of Chattanooga Funeral Home Crematory and Florist East Chapel, 404 South Moore Rd. East Ridge, TN 37412.

Please share your thoughts and memories at www.ChattanoogaEastChapel.com




Whether theyre stealing each others AirPods or trolling each other on Twitter, Joshua Jackson and his wife, Jodie Turner-Smith, seem to truly enjoy each others company. The pair had something of a whirlwind romance, first locking eyes at a party and then courting for a short period of time and then tying the knot in 2019. They also have a 16-month old daughter together.

Joshua Jackson and Jodie Turner-Smith | David M. Benett/Getty Images

Unfortunately, Jackson and Turner-Smith have been subjected to some intense vitriol over the course of their relationship. Because they are an interracial couple, a lot of the negativity hurled at them is rooted in racism and misogynoir. However, they also deal with more mild criticism that most celebrities are subjected to. Recently, Turner-Smith received some pretty intense criticism because Jackson revealed that she actually proposed to him.

Joshua Jackson revealed that his wife, Jodie Turner-Smith, proposed to him

Jackson was quick to express his opinions about the Internets reaction to Turner-Smith proposing to him. In an interview with Refinery 29, the Dawsons Creek alum shared that he belatedly realized that hed inadvertently put his wife in a tight spot by revealing that she was the one who proposed to him.

Married an actual factual Queen. https://t.co/UA0zaVcFFE  Josh Jackson (@VancityJax) August 5, 2021

RELATED: Joshua Jackson Got Stuck After Dawsons Creek Ended

So I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didnt give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist, Jackson shared. Continuing on, the actor gave more context about how he and his wife got engaged. In fact, he revealed that he also proposed to Turner-Smith before they decided to get married.

The Dr. Death star eventually got down on one knee and proposed to his wife too

So yes, we were in Nicaragua on a beautiful moonlit night, it could not possibly have been more romantic, Jackson shared. And yes, my wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, but what I didnt say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that Im still old school enough that I said, This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity [to propose also]. She has a biological father and a stepdad, whos the man who raised her. [I said], You have to give me the opportunity to ask both of those men for your hand in marriage. And then, I would like the opportunity to re-propose those to you and do it the old-fashioned way down on bended knee. So, thats actually how the story ended up.

I would like to take this moment to update my previous *note*. @MissJodie is now also absolutely smashing the croisette as well. Good Lord pic.twitter.com/c66FlbgJof  Josh Jackson (@VancityJax) July 8, 2021

RELATED: Dawsons Creek: Joshua Jackson on Pacey Sleeping with His Teacher

Jackson vehemently defends Turner-Smith

While Jackson eventually went the more traditional route with his engagement, he still vehemently defended his wifes decision to claim her power and taking charge of her life, needs, and wants. And the Little Fires Everywhere star has some pretty strong words for anyone who thinks otherwise. For anybody who is freaked out by a woman claiming her own space, shut the f up.
More information is surfacing about Kenya Moore and Marc Dalys divorce proceedings. Moore finally filed for divorce nearly two years after announcing their split. In addition to issues revolving around custody and money, there are now allegations of domestic abuse being mentioned in court documents. Regardless, The Real Housewives of Atlanta star says her main focus is co-parenting peacefully.

Marc Daly and Kenya Moore attend 2020 Bronner Brothers International Beauty Show | Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Kenya Moores divorce documents mention domestic violence

Moore and Daly are battling over several issues in their divorce, with the main areas of contention being custody arrangements and finances. Moore was recently given permission by a judge to have their daughter featured on RHOA, which Daly has been in opposition of.

Their daughter appeared in several scenes during Season 12 but was not in season 13 due to Dalys request. Moving forward, Moore is allowed to have the toddler on the show but has to inform Daly of her filming schedule and only have her appear in age-appropriate scenes.

Source: YouTube

Related: Are Kenya Moore and Marc Daly Divorcing Because of Real Housewives of Atlanta?

Aside from that, court documents reveal another serious issue at play as domestic violence is mentioned in Moores paperwork. According to BOSSIP, the report notes Moores testimony highlights disputed instances of domestic violence.

The court ruled that both Daly and Moore must work on lessening disparaging communication between them. Additionally, the judge finds Moore to be an upstanding parent and says Daly is capable of bridge those gaps currently in place between him, Moore, and the toddler.

The former Miss USA previously hinted to Marc Daly being verbally abusive

During season 12, Moore admitted to Kandi Burruss feelings of constantly compromising in the relationship while Daly lives as he desires. In her confessional, Burruss told producers that shes observed Moore being the submissive one. Moore says she simply picks and chooses her battles to avoid confrontation.

I just feel a lot of times stuck, cause I dont want a conversation to elevate to a full-blown argument because he doesnt compromiseIm not a fighter [in relationships], I want peace. I like to resolve issues, Moore cried. She also said that Daly tends to take things too far.

Source: YouTube

Related: RHOA: Kenya Moore Says Shes No Longer Fighting for Her Marriage With Marc Daly  Im the Prize

When Burruss asked Moore if Daly ever called her a b-, Moore did not deny it. Instead, she responded, Hell admit to that. Hell admit, I am a fighter. I like to fight.

The former beauty broke down even more when considering the effects their arguing would have on their daughter. I dont want it for Brooklyn. I waited my whole life for her and I was that little girl who was never protected and I will protect her, she said.

Viewers also took notice of the way Daly spoke to Moore. He was often short-tempered and easily agitated. Many social media users felt that Daly didnt even like Moore.

Despite the ongoing battle, Kenya Moore recently celebrated Fathers Day with Marc Daly

While they are going at it in court, they appear to be working toward a healthy co-parenting relationship on the personal side. Moore recently shared photos and videos of the three in the Bahamas celebrating Fathers Day.

Brooklyn is on the beach actually with her dad, she said with a smile during an Instagram live Q&A with fans. Marc is here. I know thats a bombshell, but its not what you think. Were just having a family Fathers Day vacation.

She continued, emphasizing the need for a healthy co-parenting relationship: We are co-parenting and everything is working out pretty well so far. Its his Fathers Day present from Brooklyn and I think its working out pretty good so far. So please continue to keep us in your prayers because Brooklyn is the happiest girl in the world and I think we can only achieve that by having a good relationship  with me with Marc.
TLCs Little People, Big World has been on the air for over a decade, following the lives of Matt and Amy Roloff. When Little People, Big World fans were first introduced to the Roloff family back in 2006, the couples four children were still quite young. Their only daughter, Molly, was just 12 when filming first began. Today, Molly is an accomplished 27-year-old career woman who has distanced herself from her familys popular reality television show. So what does Molly Roloff do for a living? Read on to learn more about Matt and Amys daughter and why she prefers life away from the spotlight.

Get to know Matt and Amy Roloffs only daughter

Molly Roloff from Little People, Big World | TLC

As many Little People, Big World fans watched Molly Roloff grow up on screen, its only natural that they are curious as to what shes been up to as of late. While the only Roloff daughter isnt a regular on her familys reality television show anymore, she has made special guest appearances on Little People, Big World since leaving for college in 2012. However, Molly has made it clear since leaving for college that she much prefers being out of the spotlight.

When Molly did leave for college nearly a decade ago, she left behind her family farm in the suburbs of Portland, Ore., in favor of Whitworth University in Spokane, Wash. According to her LinkedIn profile, she tripled majored while at Whitworth, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, Spanish Language, and Literature. After graduating in 2016, Roloff quickly put her college degree to good use when she landed her first job as an accountant.

What does Molly Roloff do for a living?

While Molly has changed companies since landing her first accountant job, she is still working as an accountant in Washington state today. Screen Rant reports that Molly is currently working as a senior accountant in a remote position due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems like her hardworking college days have really paid off in recent years.

Through their farm, entrepreneur endeavors, and television fame, the Roloff family has accumulated a large amount of wealth over the years. However, Molly showed early on that she had no intention of following in her familys footsteps or living off of the familys wealth. Ultimately, forging her own path has turned out well for Roloff as Celebrity Net Worth reports that she has accumulated a net worth of over $700,000, all on her own accord.

Molly Roloff prefers life away from the spotlight

Get all of the details from "Little People, Big World" star Molly Roloff's wedding to Joel Silvius: https://t.co/GTWrfTQUZq pic.twitter.com/jViVvyTpF8  Us Weekly (@usweekly) August 6, 2017

Along with creating a successful career for herself, Molly Roloff has also started her own family since graduating college. According to Good Housekeeping, Molly tied the knot with her longtime boyfriend, Joel Silvius, in an intimate wedding on her familys Oregon farm in August 2017. After getting married, Molly and Joel bought their own home in Spokane, Wash. Since getting married, Molly and Joel seem to like keeping their personal lives pretty low-key. Both Molly and Joel keep private social media pages and are only seen online when one of Mollys siblings tags the couple in a post.

While Mollys younger brother, Jacob, has made it loud and clear that he does not want anything to do with filming for Little People, Big World, Molly hasnt been so brash with her commentary regarding the familys reality show. Instead, Molly has found a way to drift into the background without causing much of a scene. As of late, Zach is the only Roloff child still filming for the show. Ultimately, after all those years in the spotlight, Molly has made it abundantly clear that she much prefers keeping a quaint, private life.

RELATED: Little People, Big World: Matt Roloff Will Reportedly Retire From Roloff Farms in 2022
1981s Raiders of the Lost Ark introduced audiences to Harrison Fords Indiana Jones. It didnt take long for the character to become an icon. Director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas, and Ford reunited three more times over the years, most recently in 2008. But one of their Indiana Jones films proved to be so controversial that it was banned from India. Heres the movie in question and why it received such treatment.

Harrison Ford | Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Indiana Jones is a beloved cinematic hero

Prior to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ford was best known as Han Solo in Lucas Star Wars trilogy. And for most actors, the chance to spend time in the galaxy far, far away would be enough to define their career. But Indiana Jones has even eclipsed Han Solo as Fords signature character. And its easy to see why the hero is so beloved.

Besides Fords rugged good looks, Indy boasts an exciting double life. At his day job, hes a buttoned-down professor. But when hes not in the classroom, Indy is scouring the globe for rare artifacts, armed primarily with a whip. Fans flocked to see Raiders of the Lost Ark, turning the movie into a popular franchise in its own right. Nevertheless, its sequel never made it to India.

RELATED: Harrison Ford Wants Indiana Jones 5 to Be More Like the Marvel Movies

Why India banned Steven Spielbergs sequel

1984s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom courted controversy with its violence, famously contributing to the creation of the PG-13 rating. But India had a much more specific grievance with the film, namely its depiction of its own culture. Although Spielberg had hoped to film in India, the movies script  which leans into negative stereotypes of the nation and its people  prevented that from happening, Vogue reported.

The movie features human sacrifices and monkey brains as a local delicacy. Moreover, Temple of Doom depicts the cult-like villagers as worshipping the god Kali. The film makes Kali out to be more demonic. Yet, according to Express, the entity is devoted to change and empowerment. And since Spielberg reportedly refused to change the script, the movie filmed in Sri Lanka instead. India never released it to its theaters.

RELATED: Steven Spielberg Admits Indiana Jones 4 Wasnt the Best Thing to Come from Making the Movie

Indiana Jones 5 will likely avoid controversy

Given how India is reflected in Spielbergs movie, it stands to reason the government might take offense. However, Spielberg himself has acknowledged his own displeasure with the movie as a whole. He later made Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to redeem the franchise. And many feel he undermined it yet again with 2008s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Naturally, Indiana Jones 5 could give the series another chance to bounce back. Ford returns in the title role, this time with James Mangold (Logan, Ford v Ferrari) directing. Spielberg will serve as an executive producer. Besides Ford, the movie will co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Toby Jones, and Antonio Banderas. The untitled Indiana Jones 5 hits theaters on July 29, 2022.
Yellowstone spinoff 1883 is officially in pre-production and coming soon to Paramount+. Taylor Sheridans newest western comes as the flagship series  which stars Kevin Costner as sixth-generation patriarch John Dutton sits at the top of the cable ratings.

1883 is a prequel that jumps back to the earlier days of the American west. There are some big names in the cast  including country music legends Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

Yellowstone prequel star Tim McGraw | Frederick Breedon IV/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The Yellowstone prequel is a retelling of Western expansion

The Yellowstone spinoff 1883 will tell the story of early generations of the Dutton family as they migrate from Texas to Montana. According to the official Paramount+ synopsis, the series is taking a deep dive into Western expansion in the 19th century and one familys quest for their American dream.

1883 follows the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America, the description reads. It is a stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in Americas promised land  Montana.

Two country music legends have been added to the cast

It was recently revealed that veteran actor Sam Elliott will play Shea Brennan, the lead character of 1883. The Oscar nominee has accumulated over 100 credits during his career, some of his most recent projects being The Ranch and A Star is Born.

The character  described as a tough as nails, handsome cowboy with immense sadness in his past  will reportedly be leading the Duttons and other settlers across the country to Montana.

Playing husband and wife James and Margaret Dutton will be real-life married couple and country music legends Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

Does Tim McGraw have any acting credits?

Both McGraw and Hill have a number of hits to their name, but their acting credits are few and far between. McGraw has the most acting experience on his resume. His first credit came in 1997 on The Jeff Foxworthy Show, but the rest of his appearances have been in films.

Most notably, McGraw starred in The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and Friday Night Lights with Billy Bob Thornton. Hes also appeared in The Shack, Flicka, Black Cloud, The Kingdom, Four Christmases, Tomorrowland, and Country Strong.

Meanwhile, Hill has just two acting credits to her name  2004s The Stepford Wives reboot and 2017s Dixieland.

Tim McGraw says starring in the Yellowstone prequel is a dream job

Both McGraw and Hill announced their casting news on their respective Instagram pages. McGraw told his 2.9 million followers that he can finally explain the beard he recently started to grow. McGraw described his character  the first Dutton family patriarch  as truly a dream job.

The Duttons are tremendous characters and its so thrilling to be able to bring them to life, McGraw told Parade Magazine. As a kid growing up riding horses, you think about dream jobs like this and I am just so excited to work with this amazing cast and crew.

Taylor Sheridan is focused on making the Yellowstone story bigger

After signing his nine-figure deal with ViacomCBS earlier this year, creator Taylor Sheridan admitted he was getting a rare opportunity to expand the Yellowstone universe and tell a bigger story.

RELATED: Yellowstone Fans Will Not Believe the Staggering Amount of Money It Takes to Make the Sprawling Western

As a storyteller, our job is to entertain first, educate second, and enlighten third. What weve done with Yellowstone is so rare to do, Sheridan told Outsider. I was always fascinated when I came up with the story of Yellowstone about how do we make it bigger and expand it.

The plan for the prequel is to cover more than a century

Sheridan was very serious when talking about expanding the Yellowstone universe. He says that the plan for 1883 is to cover the entire 130-year legacy of the Dutton family.

What an opportunity to witness the first Duttons to come to Montana, Sheridan said. We see them when they were homesteading. When we say the Wild West, what that really means is a West beyond the reach of the rule of law. It really is the beginning of an empire before it was an empire.

The Yellowstone creator also wrote the first episode of the prequel

Filming for 1883 is scheduled to begin in late summer 2021, and the pilot script is officially in the hands of the cast. Hill posted a photo of the scripts front page with her name on it when she announced she had been cast as Margaret Dutton. The pic revealed that Sheridan wrote the pilot episode and is also directing it.

RELATED:Yellowstone Creator Taylor Sheridan Just Bought 1 of the Largest Ranches in the World  Inside His Plans for the Four Sixes Ranch

The expectation is that season 1 of 1883 will premiere at some point in the spring of 2022. But the Paramount Network has yet to confirm a date. We do know that when the spinoff does arrive, it will be available exclusively on streamer Paramount+.

Seasons 1 through 3 of Yellowstone are available on Peacock. Season 4 is expected to premiere in November 2021 on the Paramount Network.
JUBA, South Sudan, August 18, 2021 (Morning Star News)  Christian leaders in Sudan said government officials have detained a shipment of Bibles by demanding customs fees from which it is exempt.

The Rev. Saad Idris Komi, chairman of the Sudan Pentecostal Church, said customs officials refused to release the Bibles earlier this month after rejecting his denominations application for tax-exempt status for the shipment. Sudans Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act, enacted in July 2020, eliminates customs duties for religious literature, Pastor Komi said.

Botrous Badawi, a Christian and an advisor to the minister of Sudans Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments, raised a complaint about the detained shipment during a workshop on religious freedom in Khartoum in Aug. 8.

Church leaders say there is a dire need for Arabic-language Bibles among the countrys estimated 2 million Christians.

Badawi also criticized the government for taking no action to return confiscated church buildings. The facilities include the former Catholic Club, strategically located opposite Khartoum International Airport. The building was turned into a headquarters for the National Congress Party led by former President Omar al-Bashir, deposed in April 2019.

A building of the Sudan Interior Church, used by the Khartoum International Church and other Christian organizations, was turned into offices for the former National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), which previously had broad powers to jail without charges or trial Christians and others deemed undesirable.

In March 2020 Sudan ordered the removal of committees imposed on churches by Bashirs government, a move expected to return oversight of church properties to their rightful church owners, and Christian leaders are awaiting legal action needed to regain them. They are demanding that the transitional government return all church buildings, lands and properties wrongfully confiscated by the former regime.

In light of advances in religious freedom since Bashir was ousted, the U.S. State Department announced on Dec. 20, 2019 that Sudan had been removed from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom and was upgraded to a watch list.

The State Department removed Sudan from a Special Watch List in December 2020. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018 and was moved to the Special Watch List in 2019.

Sudans Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Act prohibits the labeling of any group as infidels, (takfir), the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted in a September 2020 report.

The transitional government sworn in on Sept. 8, 2019, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, an economist, has been tasked with governing during a transition period of 39 months. It faces the challenges of rooting out longstanding corruption and an Islamist deep state rooted in Bashirs 30 years of power.

After Bashir was deposed, military leaders initially formed a military council to rule the country, but further demonstrations led them to accept a transitional government of civilians and military figures, with a predominantly civilian government to be democratically elected in three years. Christians were expected to have greater voice under the new administration.

Following the secession of South Sudan in 2011, Bashir had vowed to adopt a stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) and recognize only Islamic culture and the Arabic language. Church leaders said Sudanese authorities demolished or confiscated churches and limited Christian literature on the pretext that most Christians had left the country following South Sudans secession.

In April 2013 the then-Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Endowments announced that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in Sudan, citing a decrease in the South Sudanese population. Sudan since 2012 had expelled foreign Christians and bulldozed church buildings. Besides raiding Christian bookstores and arresting Christians, authorities threatened to kill South Sudanese Christians who did not leave or cooperate with them in their effort to find other Christians.

Sudan ranked 13th 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/Phototreat
'Abject failure,' 'shameful afront': Christian leaders react to Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

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Faith leaders and Christian organizations are among the many reacting as turmoil continues to engulf Afghanistan due to the Talibans takeover of large portions of the country.

The world was horrified to see the videos of desperate Afghans trying to cling to a departing plane at Kabul's airport, some falling to their death. The Taliban takeover has caused concern for the fate of women and minorities who fear enslavement, rape or execution.

President Joe Biden gave a speech to the nation Monday on the Talibans rapid capture of parts of the Middle Eastern country following a pullout of the United States military presence. The president told the American people he is deeply saddened by the facts we now face. But he stood by his decision to pull remaining U.S. troops after nearly two decades of involvement that began shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans.

Over the weekend, as the terrorist group began to take control of the capital city of Kabul, the president of Afghanistan fled the country. Following the Talibans takeover of Kabul, the U.S. deployed an additional 1,000 American troops to help evacuate Americans in addition to the 5,000 deployed last week.

The following pages include reactions from evangelical pastors, grassroots leaders and faith-based refugee resettlement organizations to the dire situation in Afghanistan.

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The Afghan disaster and the warning of Jesus

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Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, This man could not finish what he started to build. Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand? And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace. Luke 14:28-35

As Christ taught us, lets count the cost of our lost war.

Dollars spent on the war in Afghanistan: $2.26 trillion

GDP of Afghanistan: $19.29 billion

American soldiers killed in Afghanistan: 3,200

Terrorist attacks in Afghanistan in 2019: 1,422

Afghanistan's share of global deaths by terrorism: 41%

Years America occupied Afghanistan: 20

Days it took the Taliban to capture Kabul: 9

Afghanistans ranking on the global terrorism index: 1

You can see in the infographic below, courtesy of Statista, how some of these stats have changed  in fact, gotten worse  over these past years.

This is the legacy of the War in Afghanistan: more terrorism, more instability, and more violence. Despite the UN, despite the World Bank, despite the IMF, despite the American, British, Canadian, French, German, and Italian military, Afghanistan in many ways is in a worse position today than it was even 20 years ago.

The excellent Orthodox conservative writer Rod Dreher recently pointed out that the War on Terror was bookended by men jumping out of American buildings to certain death on September 11th, and men falling off American planes to certain death twenty years later. This outcome was surely unimaginable to President Bush in 2001 when he ordered the invasion, or to President Obama in 2009 when he ordered a surge of US troops; that's because they didnt count the cost. Lets go back, as we always should, to Him whose warnings our ruling class did not heed.

During Christs infancy, shortly after the death of Herod the Great, a rebel by the name of Judas attacked the Galilean city of Sepphoris and organized an armed revolt against the Herodian dynasty. Unlike that of his forebearer, Judas Maccabeus, this Judas revolt failed. According to the historian Josephus, Romes Syrian governor burned the city down and sold its inhabitants into slavery.

Sometime during Jesus teenage years, Sepphoris was rebuilt by Herod Antipas. Given their profession, and that they lived in nearby Nazareth, its likely that Christ joined with His stepfather in rebuilding the city. The young Jesus would have spent days toiling away in the shadow of decrepit former homes and businesses, as He built a new city in the rubble of a former rebel stronghold. (Sound familiar?)

Christ may well have been thinking of the failed revolt in Sepphoris when He spoke about war in Luke 14, just as Vietnam serves as the base-case for invasion and occupation for Baby Boomers, and as Iraq and Afghanistan for Millennials and Zoomers constitute the intellectual and emotional lens through which any possible war is filtered.

The Biblical perspective on war is, as one might expect, nuanced. Some conflicts  such as the Maccabean Revolt and the wars against the Amalekites, Midianites, and Philistines  carry divine endorsement. Some conflicts  such as the First Jewish-Roman War and the Bar Kokhba Revolt  carry divine punishment. Besides the obvious, two things separate the just and unjust war in Christian thought: the primacy of national sovereignty, and a reasonable expectation of victory.

First, God is not an imperialist. In 1 Peter 2:17 (Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king,) the Greek word basileus is used, which generally means not emperor, but king. A king is sovereign over one nation; an emperor is sovereign over many. Godcreated the nations and divided them:

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. Deuteronomy 32:8

Lest we think this is some temporary division of the Old Testament era, Saint Paul repeats this doctrine in speaking to (formerly imperial) Greek pagans:

From one man He madeevery nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. Acts 17:26

He, not us, made the nations. They are not mans to play with; they are the creation of God, who went so far as to assign them spiritual principalities (see Daniel 10:13, Job 1:6, and, debatably, the aforementioned Deuteronomy 32:8.) Indeed, the very concept that there are laws of war  and therefore that some wars are unjust  comes from Christian thought, seen explicitly in the writing of the Arminian scholar Hugo Grotius. It was that same philosophy that resolved the Eighty Years' War and Thirty Years' War in the Peace of Westphalia, which legally instantiated the sovereignty of nations.

Were we honoring this principle in Afghanistan, where our presidents became de facto sovereigns of a foreign nation? Has our war of these past 20 years about redressing the crimes committed against us and protecting our rights and interests? Or was it about exporting our Western, liberal, democratic form of government to nations that have never known it and do not want it?

Even if we leave that aside, the issue of cost is glaringly obvious. What is required for a war to be just is that it be proportional to the crime and worth what we pay, whether financially, or in prestige, or in lives. If the mere presence of an evil foe was sufficient justification for war, Christ would have been encouraging a revolt against the Romans, not repeatedly warning against it. Taking up arms when one has no reasonable chance of victory is what Saint Peter did at Jesus arrest  prompting Him to tell Peter to sheathe his sword, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. War must carry a realistic possibility of victory, and it must not be more destructive than the peace.

This does not describe the war in Afghanistan. The invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 was justifiable  we were attacked, and the Taliban was aiding and shielding those who attacked us. What it became was something very different: a war for democracy; a war to enforce a very particular, modern, Western view of politics; a war to build a nation; a war that we did not count the costs of. We spent several times the GDP of Afghanistan to make it a liberal democracy, and we still failed, because the enterprise was absurd from the start.

Now, in the shadow of American humiliation and Afghan ruin, our foes are eager to pick up the pieces we broke. Expect China, Pakistan, Russia, and even India to reconsider their political and economic position in South and Central Asia, and not to Americas benefit  nor Afghanistans.

This is, of course, to say nothing of the thousands of men Western powers sent to die in a foreign country, not for national security  that stopped being the goal years ago  but for secular neocolonialism.Our now-abandoned Afghan colony was the fever dream of a political class unmoored from the Bible, unmoored from the Christian view of nations, unmoored from the spirit of Grotius and Westphalia, unmoored from world history, unmoored from a sense of proportion and scale, unmoored from who we are and what our purpose is; a political class which had somehow convinced themselves that they should  and could!  build a little America out of an ancient mountain range in South Asia.

Over $2 trillion spent to remake a country with a GDP of under $20 billion in our image. Over $2 trillion, over 3,000 lives, and a country that is less safe than it was when we started. Christ told us to count the cost of war before it begins; we ignored Him. Now America joins the ranks of the British, the Soviets, the Mongols, the Greeks, and the Persians in the graveyard of empires.
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As the nation saw Americans fleeing our embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, it is reminiscent of another painful memory of the past: the fall of Saigon, Vietnam, in 1975.

In that war, America lost over 58,000 brave military service members during the 11 years of the conflict, 1964-1975. When our troops mostly left in 1973, the responsibility fell to the South Vietnamese to fight the communists from the North.

The ultimate end to the war came after the Democratic Congress refused to provide needed supplies to the South Vietnamese military. Soon after that fateful decision, the North Vietnamese prevailed, installing a brutal communist dictatorship over the entire country.

One of the reasons we fought in Vietnam was to prevent the expansion of communism throughout the world. We were following the Domino Theory, which feared that as one country fell to communism others would fall like dominos.

In the years since Vietnam, communism continued to expand until the American military won a victory in Grenada in 1983, pushing out Cuban troops from the country. At the same time, tragedy struck in Lebanon and 241 American troops were killed in the bombing of our barracks. Soon thereafter, our troops left the country.

Under President George H. W. Bush, the military was used in Panama to remove dictator Manuel Noriega. He also launched the successful Gulf War I, known as Desert Storm, which quickly forced Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

When Bill Clinton was president, he ordered an escalation of military personnel in Somalia, which led to a failed raid and the death of 18 American soldiers. It was a humanitarian mission gone awry. His other major military operation was an intensive bombing campaign in the former Yugoslavia.

In the presidential campaign of 2000, Republican candidate George W. Bush promised not to engage in nation building. Of course, everything changed when the country was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Bush immediately began a plan for military operations in Afghanistan, followed by Iraq. The results have been disastrous for America.

Instead of bombing and destroying the al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan, then declaring victory and leaving, the United States decided to embark on a nation building campaign. To say it has been a failure, is a massive understatement.

In Afghanistan, the U.S. spent $2 trillion and lost over 2,300 men and women serving in our military, as well as thousands of our military contractors. In addition, tens of thousands of Afghan military and innocent civilians were also killed over the last 20 years.

After so many years, it was right for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 to call for U.S. military forces to leave Afghanistan. This was the countrys longest war, and it was unpopular with Americans who agreed with Trumps vision to focus on the home front.

Throughout his term, President Trump faced resistance from the military leadership to remove troops from Afghanistan. Ultimately, by the end of his term, Trump had reduced our forces to 2,500, but there was some stability in the country. American forces were no longer being killed and the Afghan military still maintained control of some of the country.

The Trump plan was to leave in a coordinated manner by May 2021, but President Joe Biden extended it until the summer. Unfortunately, the withdrawal of military forces has been unorganized and haphazard. As our military left, the Taliban easily gained new territory and defeated the Afghan army, which often refused to fight.

When he made the withdrawal announcement on July 8, Biden predicted that the Taliban would not necessarily take over the country because there were 300,000 Afghan troops who were well equipped with U.S. military arms.

Once again, Biden was wrong. The Taliban made quick work of the heavily armed and supposedly well-trained Afghan army. Today, we are burning files in the embassy, leaving in a hurry in helicopters and trying to find ways to evacuate thousands of Americans and loyal Afghanistan interpreters who worked closely with our military.

It is a disgrace that these interpreters are not already protected, and that this departure was so poorly planned. It was so chaotic that Biden had to order 6,000 troops back into Afghanistan to help with the withdrawal of our embassy personnel.

What is the lesson from this debacle? The U.S. should not be entering any more long-term foreign wars. Nation building never works. It was a spectacular failure in Afghanistan. It was foolhardy to believe that the U.S. military could remake Afghanistan into a Western democracy. Throughout history, Afghanistan has been very hostile to outside forces. Both the British and the Soviet Union had failed to conquer Afghanistan previously.

Today, there is not an appetite in our country, and we dont have the money for these costly foreign military operations. Our country is already saddled with trillions of dollars in new debt. We can no longer be the policeman of the world. Other countries, including wealthy members of NATO, need to spend more on their own national defense and not rely on the taxpayers of the U.S.

We need to focus on the many problems in our own country. Currently, the U.S. is being invaded at our southern border. Projections show that over 2 million people will illegally enter our country from the southern border in 2021.

If we want to find the next mission for our military, we do not have to look all over the world. We need to look at our southern border. This is where the military should be stationed. It would provide additional security and bolster the overwhelmed border patrol.

Instead of nation building around the world, it is time we focused on protecting our nation from a serious threat at our border.

Unfortunately, there is zero chance that Biden will order our military to provide this security. Incredibly, he prefers to continue with business as usual and allow our country to be invaded by illegal immigrants.
What would God want America to do in Afghanistan?

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It is a video I will not forget. As airplanes took off from the Kabul airport, desperate Afghans clung to plane tires before plummeting from the sky to their deaths. According to U.S. officials, seven people were killed at the airport yesterday when crowds of Afghans swarmed the tarmac as U.S. military flights were preparing to leave.

The Taliban have been in control of Afghanistan for only a few days but reports of horrific atrocities against women and girls are already emerging. Surrendered Afghan troops are being executed. According to one civil servant, Everyone is wondering, What will happen to our future? An article in the Atlantic is especially heartbreaking, describing the tragic consequences for many who helped us and are now being left behind.

President Joe Biden addressed this escalating crisis in a speech yesterday afternoon, stating that he stands squarely behind his decision to withdraw U.S. forces and claiming that it is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistans own armed forces would not.

Some are defending the presidents decision, while others are calling the fall of Afghanistan an indelible stain on his presidency and a defeat that will echo for eternity.

The 'policemen of the world'?

As a nonpartisan cultural commentator, my purpose today is not to take a partisan position on this issue. However, I do want to address a pressing biblical question raised by this tragedy: What is our responsibility to care for those who cannot care for themselves?

In the context of the fall of Afghanistan, what role should America have played in defending those who were likely to become victims of the Taliban without our support? Are we to be the policemen of the world? If we are to risk our soldiers and invest our resources in Afghanistan, what should we do to help Haiti as it responds to another catastrophic earthquake and devastation from another tropical storm?

The U.S. spent approximately $1 trillion over 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan; what impact could that money have made on crushing poverty in Haiti? On responding to escalating violence and the continuing coronavirus pandemic in America?

In short, what would God want America to do to help hurting people in Afghanistan?

'Three pillars of equal standing'

Cultural commentator David French wrote an article last Sunday in which he referenced a document called The Responsibility to Protect, a report produced by an International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) established by the Canadian government in the early 2000s.

This report identifies three pillars of equal standing: the responsibility of each State to protect its populations (pillar I); the responsibility of the international community to assist States in protecting their populations (pillar II); and the responsibility of the international community to protect when a State is manifestly failing to protect its populations (pillar III).

The question is, how are we to balance these three pillars? How are we to care for those abroad while caring for those at home?

French cites the work of Australian ethicist Luke Glanville elevating the universal worth of human beings as created in the image of God. According to Glanville, the famed Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas taught that we should give priority to those more closely united to us, an approach known as the order of charity. But Thomas also insisted that the most important criterion is the degree of need.

Glanville summarizes, Sovereign boundaries are morally relevant and it is right that states give some priority to the care of the vulnerable within their borders. Then he adds that states are also bound to care for the vulnerable beyond their borders in cases of extreme persecution and suffering if they can do so without excessive cost to themselves.

Of course, the question is whether America could defend the Afghani people without excessive cost to themselves.

Paul Miller, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and former national security staff member, asserts strongly that we could do so for an indefinite period. He points to important successes of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and claims that we could have enabled reconstruction and development to continue. David French agrees, asserting that we can stop a mass atrocity with a minimal exertion of our vast national might.

Others, including Biden, claim that the swift fall of Afghanistan proves that the Afghan forces would never have withstood the Taliban no matter how long our forces remained before withdrawing.

'Rescue those who are being taken away to death'

The purpose of this Daily Article is not to offer my personal opinion on this fraught and deeply emotional issue. Rather, it is to encourage us to think biblically about our responsibilities to those in need. On this point, I believe that the ICISS pillars of care are especially relevant.

As pillar I states, it is the responsibility of each State to protect its populations.

Americas Founders agreed, declaring that all men are created equal. Unlike civilizations and cultures that rank people according to royal status (dynastic kingdoms) or utility to the state (communist societies), we believe that every American possesses the same unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This commitment is actually a biblical mandate rising from the biblical commitment to the sanctity of every human life. We are each conceived in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Racial and class distinctions are immaterial to our Lord (Galatians 3:28).

And we are to prioritize the care of those closest to us, remembering that if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8).

Pillar II, calling on the international community to assist States in protecting their populations, is also biblical.

We are to care for those beyond our borders, recognizing our common humanity and the fact that every person on our planet is someone for whom Jesus died (Romans 5:8). In heaven, we will join people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages (Revelation 7:9). We are to help meet their needs on Earth, knowing that our service to others is service to Jesus himself (Matthew 25:40).

ICISSs pillar III, noting the responsibility of the international community to protect when a State is manifestly failing to protect its populations, is biblical as well.

Consider this sobering text: Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, Behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:1112).

A personal Acts 1:8 strategy

Just as God loves each of us as if there were only one of us (St. Augustine), so should we love each person in the world as if there were only one person in the world.

Our problem is that, unlike God, you and I have only a finite capacity to love others and to meet their needs. Resources invested in Afghanistan are not invested in Haiti or in Americas cities. Time you spend with your children and grandchildren is time you are not spending with other children and grandchildren in need.

For this reason, it is vital that we seek our Fathers direction in responding to the needs of our world. His Spirit has already prepared the hearts and minds of those to whom He would direct us to share our witness and His Word. He knows the needs He has gifted and equipped us best to meet. He has a kingdom assignment, a mission field, for every believer.

In fact, I am convinced that every Christian needs a personal Acts 1:8 strategy: a plan to serve those close to home (our Jerusalem), those further away (our Judea and Samaria), and those to the end of the earth. What is yours?

'No power on earth can keep intercession out'

As we ask God to show us how best to balance the three pillars of care, we should pray for our leaders to do the same. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) includes a profound prayer for those in positions of public trust, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person. We should offer such prayer for our leaders daily (1 Timothy 2:12).

And the BCP invites us to pray for others along the lines of the three pillars each day:

For all who live and work in this community.

For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer; for refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger; that they may be relieved and protected.

And for our enemies and those who wish us harm, and for all whom we have injured or offended.

The late Richard Halverson was a pastor, author and chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He rightly observed, Intercession is the truly universal work for the Christian. No place is closed to intercessory prayer: no continent, no nation, no city, no organization, no office. No power on earth can keep intercession out.

Lets claim this fact today to the glory of God.

Originally published at the Denison Forum.
Supreme Court refuses to grant students request to block Indiana University vaccine mandate

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The U.S. Supreme Court has denied an appeal request from a group of Indiana University students seeking exemption from the institution's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied an application for injunctive relief without comment on Thursday in the case of Ryan Klaassen, et al., Applicants v. Trustees of Indiana University.

According to SCOTUSblog, the denial was an indication that Barret and the other justices did not regard it as a particularly close case.

Barrett, who is responsible for emergency appeals from Indiana, denied the students request without comment, without seeking a response from the state, and without referring the request to the full court for a vote, SCOTUSblog added.

In May, Indiana University announced that all faculty, students and staff would be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and only allowed exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

Those who were exempted for medical or religious reasons would be required to be tested regularly for COVID-19 and wear facemasks when in public spaces on campus.

In response, eight students filed a lawsuit against the university, arguing that the vaccine mandate violated the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

Judge Damon Leichty of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Indiana ruled against the students in July, concluding that their arguments were not likely to succeed on their merits.

[T]he students here havent established a likelihood of success on the merits of their Fourteenth Amendment due process claim, or that the balance of harms or the publics interest favors the extraordinary remedy of a preliminary injunction, before a trial on the merits, wrote Leichty.

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld the lower court ruling, denying the students an injunction.

Seventh Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook authored the unanimous panel opinion, deciding that a university may decide what is necessary to keep other students safe in a congregate setting.

Indiana University has exceptions for persons who declare vaccination incompatible with their religious beliefs and persons for whom vaccination is medically contraindicated, wrote Easterbrook. The problems that may arise when a state refuses to make accommodations therefore are not present in this case.

Easterbrook also pointed out that six of the eight students have made a claim for a religious exemption while a seventh is eligible for it, adding that plaintiffs just need to wear masks and be tested, requirements that are not constitutionally problematic.

As students are returning to school for the fall, many educational institutions are considering or even implementing mandatory vaccinations for students and staff.

This has prompted some students to protest that such mandates either violate their rights or do not include sufficient exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

In July, an incoming student of Brigham Young University-Hawaii named Olivia Sandor garnered national headlines when she was denied a medical exemption to being vaccinated.

Sandor, who was diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome in February 2019 that was likely caused by a different vaccine, was denied admission to BYU as a result.

Having Guillain Barre means I am not able to be vaccinated. It could end in permanent paralysis, and possibly death if it spread up my body. This is not a choice for me, she posted to social media.

Do I understand why they denied me? No. Do I think its OK that they did that? No. Do I think its humane? No, but I do know that the Lord has something better in store for me.
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Only about thirty percent of our people have returned.

The normally upbeat pastor sagged as he described the before and after impact of COVID-19 shutdowns on his churchs attendance.

He confirmed findings by George Barna. As noted in The Christian Post,Barna reported: One in three practicing Christians is still and only attending their pre-COVID church. Some secular observers gloat over statistics indicating that professing Christians have abandoned churches, and even the faith.

There is a sad irony in this phenomenon.

Reading Barnas reports and those of others brought back to my mind an interview I did more than 50 years ago with one of that eras most famous authors.

William Bradford Huie had penned The Execution of Private Slovik. It would be hailed as one of the top investigative books of the 1960s, and I talked with Huie about the book and Slovik at Huies home in north Alabama.

In 1944, as the Allies Normandy invasions advanced against the Nazis, Eddie Slovik became the first American soldier since the War Between the States to be executed for desertion.

Huie sought to understand why this young Detroit native had run away from the battle in France. Huie discovered that Slovik, terrified, had asked his commanding officer to transfer him to the rear of the unit of attack. Sloviks superior refused, and Slovik told him bluntly that he would run away any way. If caught and sent to the front, Ill run away again ...

And thats exactly what happened.

The dates of the Slovik tragedy reveal the irony. Sloviks desertion occurred in the fall of 1944, when Allied armies were headed, with great cost, but much determination, to victory in Europe. Sloviks execution was on January 31, 1945, five months before VE (Victory in Europe) Day.

Slovik had made it that close to triumph and the end of the war in Europe.

That brings us to the tragic irony of those who are deserting their faith and churches at this point in history. To understand, we must travel much farther back in time, to ancient Jerusalem.

Jesus of Nazareth, after a night of weeping over the city and its rejection of prophets sent by God and their message, walks toward the Temple compound. Some of His followers join Him, and they head in the direction of the Mount of Olives.

As they pass the imposing Temple structure, someone calls Jesus attention to its massive stones. Do you see all these buildings? Jesus replies. I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another! (Matthew 24:2)

Later, up the slope of the Mount, a smaller group of Jesus disciples huddle around Him. Tell us, when will all of this happen? What sign will signal Your return and the end of the world?

Jesus provides detail: false Christs and false prophets will abound, wars will singe the world, people group will arise against people group, Christs followers will increasingly be hated and persecuted, lawlessness in the form of antinomianismthe sheer hatred of law and orderwill explode, and apostasy, falling away from doctrinal truth, will increase as many of His followers in that future period lose their passion for Him and His teaching.

But positively, This gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to the whole (inhabited) world as a testimony to all the nations (ethnesin, people groups), and then the end (telos, purpose) will come. (Matthew 24:14)

Therefore, the whole purpose of time and history is the atonement of Jesus Christ for the sins of all humanity, and the announcement of that good news to every people group in the world.

There are many other things that will characterize the end-times, but the proclamation to the whole world is the major marker.

Jesus stresses that the one who endures (literally, 'keeps standing firm') to the fulfillment of the telos-purpose will be saved (Matthew 24:13).

So the big question on many minds today is this: Are we in the End Times? And, if so, where are we? How close to the "end are we?)

Times grand fulfillment is the totality of the Christ event: Jesus coming into the world to redeem it, His proclamation, His crucifixion and resurrection, His ascension, and the creation and empowerment of His Church to continue His incarnational ministry in the world as His Body.

The events prior to the Christ event were in the age leading to His first coming. Everything after that  including our era  is leading to the Lords Second Coming.

A fragment in one of the Apostle Pauls letters provides a tantalizing clue. He writes Christs followers in Corinth to heed well the lessons Moses and the Hebrews learned in the Sinai wilderness. These are written for the people on whom the culmination of the ages has come (1 Corinthians 10:6).

If the Corinthian believers 2,000 years ago lived in the culmination (or end-goal) of the purpose of time and history, surely we must.

Whatever the case, we live in the period when for the first time ever certain End Times prophecies can be fulfilled  like the collapse of the global economy in one hour (Revelation 18:10-11), and the proclamation, or announcement of the Gospel of the Kingdom to the whole Earth (Matthew 24:14).

Private Slovik deserted when the Allies at last had the upper hand and were moving fast toward victory  which he missed.

With respect to Christ, the moment He was conceived in the womb of Mary, the beachhead  the seed  of the Kingdom of Heaven was present in the fallen creation, and the world began moving toward His second coming.

Now is not the time to run away.
SYDNEY (AP)  Australias most populous state reported a record 633 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday as concerns grew about the delta variant's spread beyond Sydney.

The previous record in New South Wales, which includes Sydney, was 466 on Saturday. Three people died on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the outbreak first detected in Sydney in mid-June to 60.

I cant express enough my level of concern at these rising numbers of cases, state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said. Im incredibly concerned.

Infections were also reported in towns in the west, north and central regions of the state in recent days, Deputy Premier John Barilaro said. The delta strain is really putting regional New South Wales on that knife edge, Barilaro said.

Sydney has been in lockdown since June 26 and the entire state has been locked down since Saturday.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has rejected criticism that Sydney's lockdown restrictions needed to be tougher, describing the lockdown as extremely harsh and extremely strict and based on expert health advice.

The national capital Canberra, which is surrounded by New South Wales, reported 22 new infections from the cluster that originated in Sydney. There have been 67 infections detected since the coronavirus was first discovered in Canberra on Thursday last week.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

 The first outbreak in six months in New Zealand has grown to seven people. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday that number is expected to keep growing, especially after some of those infected spent time at a church, a school, a casino and a hospital. Ardern also announced people will be compelled to wear masks in supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies during strict lockdowns. That came after the government on Tuesday imposed a strict lockdown of at least three days for the entire country and at least seven days in Auckland and Coromandel after identifying the first infection. Ardern said genome testing has confirmed that the outbreak is of the delta variant and originated from the outbreak in Sydney, although its not yet clear how the virus breached New Zealands border quarantine controls.

 Beijings top official is reiterating the need for strict anti-coronavirus measures at next years Winter Olympics, now less than 200 days away. Cai Qi, the citys Communist Party chief and president of the organizing committee, was quoted as saying Beijing was intent on holding a safe Olympics. On a tour of venues, Cai emphasized strict measures to prevent the spread of the virus were needed but did not say whether general spectators would be permitted in the stands. The Tokyo Olympics were held without fans and with participants contained in a bubble with frequent testing and mask-wearing. State media report Olympics staff may get vaccine booster shots as a further safeguard.

 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says Southeast Asia is battling the worlds highest COVID-19 death toll, driven by the delta variant and unequal distribution of vaccines. Southeast Asia recorded 38,522 deaths from COVID-19 in the last two weeks, nearly twice as many as North America, it says, citing data from John Hopkins University. Seven of the top 10 countries where COVID-19 deaths have doubled the fastest are in Asia and the Pacific, with Vietnam, Fiji and Myanmar in the top five, according to Our World in Data. Its Asia Pacific director Alexander Matheou called Wednesday for richer countries to urgently share their excess vaccine doses with Southeast Asian nations to curb record surge in infections and deaths in the region. It said vaccine companies and governments also need to share technology and scale up production to help ramp up low vaccination rate in the region. While the United Kingdom, Canada and Spain have fully vaccinated over 60% of their population, it said Southeast Asian nations are falling far behind. Malaysia has fully vaccinated 34% of its population, Indonesia and Philippines close to 11% and Vietnam less than 2%. Matheou said each country must aim for mass vaccination rates of 70%-80% for the world to overcome the pandemic.

 Qantas Group says it will require all staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Front-line employees, including cabin crew, pilots and airport staff, must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 15 and remaining employees have until the end of next March, the Australian airline company said Wednesday. Exemptions will be made for staff who are unable to be vaccinated for documented medical reasons. Such exemptions are expected to be very rare, the company said. It said a survey found that 89% of staff were already vaccinated or planned to be. U.S. airlines are divided over whether to insist staff are vaccinated. Qantas has become the second large Australian company outside the health and aged care sectors to make COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory. The Transport Workers Union, which represents Qantas Airways and subsidiary Jetstar staff, criticized the company for making the announcement without a plan to ensure employees could secure vaccinations.

 Sri Lanka is closing swimming pools, gymnasiums and childrens parks and imposing stricter rules on people leaving their homes in an effort to control soaring COVID-19 cases. The new regulations allow only one person to leave home other than for employment. Offices and businesses can operate with limited personnel and customers. Sri Lanka is facing a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, with health officials warning that hospital facilities and morgues are at full capacity. The government has ruled out a full lockdown, saying the ailing economy cannot sustain one. Sri Lanka has reported 365,683 cases, including 6,434 deaths.
Residents of Port Arthur are calling for a federal civil rights investigation into the state of Texas role in allowing the Oxbow Calcining plant to operate without modern pollution control.

The Port Arthur Community Action Network, represented by Lone Star Legal Aid and in partnership with the Environmental Integrity Project, announced Wednesday that it has filed a request for an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The basis of the complaint alleges lax regulations and enforcement by the Texas Commission on Environmental Qualitys has allowed the aged Oxbow Calcining plant to continue to release large amounts of pollution over their neighborhoods, infringe on their civil rights.

Air is Life. Serial polluter OxBow is placing the lives and health of the Port Arthur and southeast Texas community at risk, John Beard, founder and CEO PACAN, said in a statement. Respiratory and heart disease, and other health maladies detract from the quality of life and harm children, the elderly and a community already overburdened by chronic illness. OxBow must be held accountable, and this action is to compel the EPA, and others, to act. Lives are at stake.

The Port Arthur Community Action Network is specifically asking EPA to investigate whether TCEQ violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), which prohibits any program that receives funeral funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.

The groups allege that TCEQ did this by issuing air pollution control permits to Oxbow, and failing to require modern pollution control devices, despite the large amount of air pollution released by the plant.

TCEQ does allow plants created before a specific time period to operate under less strenuous standards, which is why the 85-year-old plant has been able to continue running without the installation of the latest pollution control equipment.

The group also is asking TCEQ to issue a stronger air pollution control permit for the plant, and for Oxbow to hold an outreach event with the Port Arthur community to explain what they are doing to control the pollution.

Environmental groups that track the states emissions have long labeled the plant a serial polluter, especially for a toxic compound found to cause chronic health issues.

Sulfur dioxide (SO2), the compound concerning community and environmental advocates, can trigger coughing, lung disease in prolonged exposure and eye irritation and is a main ingredient in microscopic soot particles that can trigger asthma and heart attacks.

Unlike most other modern industrial facilities, the Oxbow plant does not have a pollution control device called a scrubber to capture sulfur dioxide.

Oxbow released about 22 million pounds of sulfur dioxide each year from 2016 through 2019 - outpacing other, much larger petrochemical facilities in Port Arthur and landing it on the list of largest sources of air pollution in the state.

The plant accounts for 92% of the sulfur dioxide air pollution in Jefferson County.

About 2,624 residents live within a three-mile radius of the plant, 98 percent of whom are people of color, and 62 percent of whom are lower income, according to U.S. Census data.

Bringing this civil rights complaint under Title VI is the first step to asking EPA to review the disparate impacts that West Port Arthur faces because of the continued operations of Oxbow and the excessive SO2 emissions emitted by the facility, Amy Dinn, managing attorney of Lone Star Legal Aids Environmental Justice Team, said in a statement. Should the federal agency fail to act on this complaint, Port Arthur Community Action Network can seek judicial review of that decision.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jd_journalism
SEATTLE (AP)  Seattle police are investigating a domestic violence-related shooting on Tuesday evening that left a woman injured and the suspect dead.

The shooting happened in the Magnolia neighborhood at a home in the 1900 block of 32nd Avenue West, KIRO-TV reported. Officers responded at about 5:15 p.m. to a report of a family disturbance. When officers arrived, they heard gunshots inside the home.

Police said a 44-year-old woman came out of the home with multiple gunshot wounds to her legs and told police her son shot her. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition. Two people inside the home safely got out and were not hurt.

Investigators said the suspect barricaded himself inside and didnt respond to police requests to surrender. A SWAT team went inside the home after a warrant was approved to enter and arrest the suspect.

Police said when they got inside, they found the 20-year-old suspect dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP)  A Washington state appeals court has overturned a 2019 ruling that found Bellevue-headquartered thrift chain TVI Inc., which operates Value Village and Savers, had misled customers by deceptively marketing itself as a charity.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office sued TVI in 2017 over alleged violations of the states Consumer Protection Act, will appeal the decision, spokesperson Brionna Aho said in an email to the Seattle Times.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP)  Belarusian authorities on Wednesday blocked the website of the country's leading independent news agency and detained some journalists after raiding their apartments as part of a sweeping crackdown on independent media and human rights activists.

Police searched the office of the BelaPAN news agency and the apartments of at least six of its staff. The agency's website was no longer available online. BelaPAN is the oldest and the only large independent news agency in Belarus, operating since 1991. It's been one of the last major independent media outlets still operating.

The raids follow the worst traditions of the Soviet times  people are being woken up early in the morning, they are being threatened and intimidated, BelaPAN journalist Tacciana Karavenkova, who has left Belarus, told The Associated Press. Today I woke up at 7 a.m. to messages from colleagues in our editorial chat about massive raids.

After the raids, the authorities detained BelaPAN's chief editor Iryna Leushyna, its accountant Katsyaryna Boyeva and the agency's former director Dzmitry Navazhylau. Belarus' Investigative Committee said the three are being investigated on a charge of organizing and taking part in activities blatantly violating public order  an offense punishable by up to four years in prison.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists urged authorities stop pressuring the news agency and to release its detained staff.

One can shut down independent media, detain its staff members, intimidate people, but no one can suppress thoughts and ideas, the association said.

Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko faced months of protests triggered by his being awarded a sixth term in an August 2020 vote that the opposition and the West saw as rigged. He responded to the demonstrations with a massive crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police.

In recent weeks, Belarusian authorities have ramped up the pressure against non-governmental organizations and independent media, conducting more than 200 raids of offices and apartments of activists and journalists in July alone, according to the Viasna human rights center.

A total of 31 Belarusian journalists remain in custody either awaiting trial or serving their sentences  including BelaPAN journalist Andrei Alexandrov, who has been behind bars since January, facing 15 years in prison on treason charges.

The authorities have shut down other important independent media outlets, such as the widely popular Tut.By news site and the oldest newspaper in Belarus, Nasha Niva.

The United States embassy in Belarus on Wednesday condemned the crackdown on independent media.

The regimes fear of truth is bottomless as it rabidly assaults press freedom. Virtually all independent media outlets in Belarus have been targeted. Today it was BelaPANs turn again. But the voices of freedom cannot be silenced; justice will prevail, the U.S. embassy said in a tweet.

___

Follow all AP stories on Belarus at https://apnews.com/hub/Belarus.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)  The city of Charlotte has begun efforts to rename nine streets that were previously named for people identified as Confederate leaders and white supremacists.

A news release from the city Wednesday announced that Jefferson Davis Street, located in a predominantly Black neighborhood on the city's north side, would be changed to Druid Hills Way. The changes follow approval from the Charlotte City Council in February to adopt recommendations from a commission to rename streets.
CHICAGO (AP)  The Chicago Teachers Union and the city's school district are at "an impasse in talks over COVID-19 safety protocols ahead of school starting at the end of the month, the union's leader said Wednesday.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey noted remaining disagreements include metrics over when to close schools in case of an outbreak, rules about when students need to quarantine, and physical social distancing rules, which were cut back from 6 feet to 3 feet.

Similar clashes over reopening during the pandemic have extended remote learning for students in the nations third-largest school district. But Sharkey said teachers were still planning on returning to buildings when school starts Aug. 30.

We are beginning without a comprehensive reopening agreement. This is a real problem. So far, the city has not been willing to agree to metrics, which would close schools and keep us safe if this surge continues, Sharkey said at a rally outside a high school on Chicago's near Southwest Side. And theyre not willing to make those commitments, and were not willing to sign an agreement without those commitments. So we have an impasse.

Chicago Public Schools has planned for students to return to in-person classes five days a week. The district first went remote in March 2020, with students returning in phases last year for limited in-person instruction. This coming academic year, all teachers and staff are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and students, teachers and staff must wear masks, among other safety measures.

School officials said Wednesday that all of the district's health and safety protocols were in line or beyond what public health experts have recommended.

It is disappointing that the CTU is rejecting science for their own gain and continues to second guess health experts and express their own unscientific opinions about health related matters, said a statement from Chicago Public Schools spokesman James Gherardi. The CTU appears to be committed to spreading doubt instead of preparing for the upcoming school year after the past years immense disruption to learning.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed a Michigan City mans convictions for fatally shaking his two-month-old son in 2019 and plotting to kill his wife as he awaited trial in jail.

In his appeal, Brandon Bottom, 27, argued that a LaPorte County judge erred by not providing public funds to hire an expert witness He also claimed there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions.
GREENWICH, Conn. (AP)  Republican Ryan Fazio has won a special election for a Fairfield County state Senate seat that had been held by the GOP for decades before a surprise Democratic win in 2018.

Fazio defeated Democrat Alexis Gevanter and petitioning candidate John Blankley in Tuesday's election in the 36th District, which includes Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan. All three candidates live in Greenwich.
A federal lawsuit accuses police in Morgan County of targeting out-of-state drivers and falsely claiming canine alerts for drugs in the vehicles.

Attorney Louis J. Meyer of the Peoria law firm Meyer & Kiss filed the civil action Monday on behalf of Benjamin Stone of California. It names the city of Jacksonville, Morgan County, Sheriff Mike Carmody, Sheriffs Deputy Derek Suttles and Jacksonville Police Officer Jordan Poeschel.

Stone said he was followed for more than a mile May 9 on Interstate 72 while traveling from California to Washington, D.C. When he stopped to get gas and go to a hotel, Suttles continued to follow and stopped him in the hotel parking lot, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit contends Stone had not violated any law and there was no reason to stop him.

Suttles asked if there were any illegal drugs in the car and Stone said there were not, according to the lawsuit. When Suttles asked if he could search the vehicle, he was told he could not, the lawsuit said. Suttles said he was going to have a drug-sniffing dog check the car. Poeschel arrived a short time later and falsely claimed that his K9 detected contraband, according to the complaint.

Stone was asked to give police his keys, which he refused. Suttles threatened plaintiff that he was going to have a bad day and told him to stop playing Mr. Lawyer, the lawsuit said.

A locksmith was called and police searched the car but found nothing, according to the complaint. Stone was not charged, it said.

Stone maintains the stop and search violated his constitutional rights, and that the actions were part of practices within the sheriffs department to stop and search people driving on I-72 with out-of-state license plates without cause or reasonable suspicion, fabricate false canine alerts to justify the searches, and conduct illegal traffic stops in an attempt to seize money and vehicles pursuant to asset forfeiture, according to the complaint.

Other individuals that have been stopped by defendant Suttles allege similar conduct. During the traffic stop (that was the subject of a 2015 federal lawsuit), the defendants, including defendant Suttles, bragged that they had stopped at least 30 other cars the same day, according to the complaint. The policy-makers of the Morgan County Sheriffs Department, including defendant Carmody, acted with deliberate indifference in maintaining, overlooking and preserving the unconstitutional practices, policies and customs.

Stones legal claims are similar to those made in federal lawsuits filed in 2015 by Douglas Raney, Michael Shackleford and Tim Hagen  who maintained they were improperly searched after being pulled over by Suttles on their way from Kansas to a Notre Dame game in Indiana  and by Calvin Kisselbach, who was stopped while traveling from White Hall to Jacksonville.

Those suits were settled in 2016 for a combined $24,000 and attorney fees.

None of those named in the Stone lawsuit has responded to the allegations. Assertions made in filing a claim present only one side of a case.
Two of the nations wealthiest foundations have created a new $7.5 million fund to help give tenants more say in housing matters, as millions of Americans struggle to make rent and face possible eviction as a result of the pandemic.

The HouseUS Fund, supported by the Ford and Robert Wood Johnson foundations has committed about $1.6 million this year to grassroots organizations that are working to help people stay in their homes. The fund will also support groups that advocate to provide renters with access to lawyers and eliminate certain late fees and penalties levied by landlords, among other things.

With a goal of raising a total of $20 million, the funds co-directors, Syma Mirza and Kevin Simowitz, say HouseUS will not focus on providing low-interest loans or grants to help reduce risk for lenders that finance homes for low-income residents, things that philanthropy has often done to support affordable housing. Instead, the co-directors would like to help tenants organize and have more say in securing a place to live for the long run.

This fund is not about building housing or building homes, its about building power, Mirza says. We are looking at the broader definition of housing and approaching it as a right rather than a commodity.

Adds Simowitz: Homeowners and landlords do pretty well in the way that housing policy is set up right now. The fund, he says, is really about making sure the tenants have at least equal power.

The funds grantees include nonprofits in 10 states and include Colorado Homes for All, the Florida Housing Justice Alliance, and the Nevada Housing Justice Alliance.

Simowitz says the fund doesnt have a list of national policy priorities, but securing a national Tenants Bill of Rights would be a good start. Such a policy could do things like provide protection from eviction and spell out rules governing rental increases. It could also allow renters to organize into a union without landlord interference and make it easier for renters to purchase buildings when landlords put them on the market. Organizations supported by the fund have also promoted the creation of community land trusts that allow people in a neighborhood to create a nonprofit to purchase housing developments and preserve them as affordable housing.

According to July Census Bureau findings tabulated by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 16% of renters in the United States, or 11.4 million adults, are behind on their housing payments, showing signs of improvement since January 2021, when an estimated 15 million people were behind.

The problem is worse among people of color. Nearly one in four Black renters is behind on payments, and almost one in four Latino, Asian, and Native Americans were not caught up on payments, compared with just over one in 10 white renters.

The federal government has made more than $46 billion available through the Emergency Rental Assistance program. But less than 10 percent of that had actually gone to directly help renters through the end of June.

As HouseUS works to support more tenants right groups, other philanthropic efforts are underway to ensure the federal money is put to good use.

Susan Thomas, president of the Melville Charitable Trust in Connecticut, is leading an effort called the Partnership for Equitable and Resilient Communities, in which nonprofit leaders will work with federal agencies to help steer the distribution of $379 billion in federal assistance earmarked for housing and homelessness through several pandemic relief acts.

The partnership will work with local groups throughout the nation to design plans for how to distribute the federal money equitably and help groups that receive federal funds evaluate their impact. How the partnership will work, including which foundations will join and which geographic locations will serve as test cases, is still being worked out, Thomas says.

Typically, federal funds are announced and local governments and nonprofits scramble to figure out how to spend, Thomas says.

We cant have that. We know money is coming in. So we need to think about the comprehensive plan. We need to think about what the federal dollars are able to do with what theyre not able to do. And philanthropy needs to organize around filling those gaps.

In 2017, Melville created Funders for Housing and Opportunity, a pooled fund with a goal of making $10 million in grants over three years. Both Ford and Robert Wood Johnson joined the effort, along with seven other foundations. Since its creation, a few grant makers, including the Ford, Gates, and MacArthur foundations, have dropped out of the effort. But the funds donors have grown to 12, and this year it plans to make $4.6 million in grants, down slightly from the $5.7 million in grants it made last year.

Thomas is convinced that the funds grantees have helped make people aware of the housing crisis in the United States. The Biden administrations focus on Covid recovery gives her hope for progress on the issue.

We have an administration now that has housing as one of its top priorities, she says. Thats why I wanted to go into partnership with the administration  because we dont have to convince them, and thats half the battle.

HouseUSs Simowitz isnt convinced that headway can be made without a big shift in how foundations work to advance housing issues.

Philanthropys approaches have traditionally been too small in their thinking about what the possible policy solution could be, he says. They rely on kind of working within the system that we have instead of imagining what it would take to build a new one together.

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This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Alex Daniels is a senior reporter at the Chronicle. Email: alex.daniels@philanthropy.com. The AP and the Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP and the Chronicle are solely responsible for all content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
DECATUR, Ga. (AP)  Georgia's surging coronavirus caseload is prompting new local restrictions amid ongoing opposition to mask and vaccine mandates by the governor.

The city of Decatur next to Atlanta began requiring masks inside grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses in the city on Tuesday. Decatur's ordinance does allow businesses to opt out of the requirement, but only if they post a sign at each public entrance saying they do not adhere to it.

City Commissioner Tony Powers said businesses had an incentive to comply voluntarily.

I don't want to penalize someone by saying, 'Oh, we're singling you out because you're different, he said at a meeting on Monday. But if I'm that business, I'd say, 'God, I don't really want to be singled out. I don't want to be that business.' Because people will shop where they feel safe.

The city of Athens is under a similar, voluntary mask policy for businesses. Savannah has instituted a mask requirement at city buildings, hospitals, schools and a few other places, but not businesses. Atlanta requires masks indoors and doesn't allow businesses to opt out.

In Atlanta, organizers of Dragon Con, the sci-fi, fantasy and gaming convention that draws tens of thousands of visitors to the city over Labor Day weekend every year, announced Tuesday that they will require this year's attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of arrival.

Also in the Atlanta area, scores of protesters gathered in the city of Marietta on Wednesday to oppose Wellstar Health Systems vaccine requirement for employees, WSB-TV reported. Wellstar is among a number of hospital systems in the state that have mandated vaccines for staff, as have some private colleges and universities and other private employers.

Elsewhere in the state, the top judge in Georgia's Macon Judicial Circuit suspended some jury trials because of the COVID-19 surge.

Chief Judge Howard Simms has put trials in Bibb County on hold through August and will reevaluate the suspension in September, local prosecutors said Tuesday. The judicial circuit also includes Peach County, and jury trials will continue there.

The district attorney's office for the Macon circuit said it will be prepared to move forward with trials once they are deemed safe. In the meantime, it will work with defense attorneys to resolve cases involving nonviolent offenders to present them to judges for approval.

Bibb County, like other places in Georgia, is in the midst of a surge in infections fueled by the delta variant of the virus among people who are not vaccinated. Only 42% of Georgias population is fully vaccinated, well below the national average.

Hospitals have had to put off elective surgeries and turn patients away amid a crush of COVID-19 cases not seen since a winter surge. More than 4,700 COVID patients were hospitalized statewide Wednesday, and almost 90% of intensive care beds were in use.

Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday reiterated his opposition to mask and vaccine mandates and said he had no plans to force businesses to close. He announced additional state funding for hospital staff and encouraged unvaccinated residents to talk to their doctors or others they trust about vaccines.

Georgians know the risk of this virus, and they know we have the tools at our disposal to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death," he said at a news conference.
HONG KONG (AP)  Four members of a Hong Kong university student union were arrested Wednesday for allegedly advocating terrorism by paying tribute to a person who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself, police said.

Police arrested four men between 18 and 20 years old who were committee members and members of the student council at the University of Hong Kong, said Li Kwai-wah, senior superintendent of the police national security division. He said the arrests were in relation to a council meeting that promoted terrorism.

Those arrested included the president and council chairman, who were among more than 30 students who attended a meeting last month at which they passed a motion to mourn the sacrifice of the attacker, local media reported.

The arrests are the latest use of a strict national security law that Beijing imposed on semi-autonomous Hong Kong last year after months of anti-government protests in 2019. The demonstrations often led to clashes between demonstrators and police.

Authorities have said the man who stabbed the police officer in the shoulder on July 1 before killing himself had material in his home decrying the national security law as well as notes in which he declared his hatred for the police.

Police previously cautioned people against mourning the attacker, saying it was no different from supporting terrorism.

The student union withdrew its motion mourning the attacker after facing criticism from the government and the university and some union members quit. The university responded by severing ties with the union.

Li said the four arrested Wednesday were still in custody.

More than 100 pro-democracy activists have been arrested under the national security law, which outlaws subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign collusion to interfere in the citys affairs.

Critics say the law has been used to stifle dissent and restrict freedoms Hong Kong was promised it could maintain for 50 years following its 1997 handover to China.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Indiana's state and health care officials are raising alarms about increasing pressure the coronavirus is putting on hospitals as patient counts this week more than quadrupled pandemic lows recorded just weeks ago.

The state reported that 1,616 residents were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to the most recent data released by the state health department. Of those, 408 were in intensive care, the most since Jan. 28.

The uptick comes one day after the state's hospitals recorded more than 1,500 COVID-19 patients for the first time since February.

The statewide patient count  which two weeks ago was fewer than 1,000  prompted the Indiana Hospital Association to issue a warning and call for those who aren't yet vaccinated to do so immediately. The association reported that COVID-19 hospitalizations are up nearly 300% since July 4.

Hoosiers should feel confident that Indianas hospitals are managing through the current situation by collaborating with one another and the state of Indiana," Brian Tabor, the association's president, said in a statement. However, should the current trends continue, everyone in need of health care could be impacted."

State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said Wednesday that unvaccinated people make up more than 97% of hospital admissions in Indiana. To relieve pressure on hospitals, more people need to get vaccinated, she said.

Vaccination is the answer, Box said. That's the way that we're going to get control over this pandemic. That's the way we're going to win over this virus.

Box also acknowledged long wait times for COVID-19 testing, noting that demand skyrocketed when many of the states testing sites were slowing down.

She said state officials have called back National Guard members to help local health departments with testing. The state is also looking to hire more health care workers to provide testing in schools, where demand has increased since the start of the new academic year.

On Monday, 62 counties were in Indianas second-riskiest category for the spread of the virus, up from 43 counties a week earlier, according to the most recent update posted Wednesday on the states coronavirus dashboard.

Indianas color-coded coronavirus risk map reflects weekly COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and the seven-day positivity rate.

Eleven counties are in the highest-risk red category, which indicates very high community spread, up from eight last week.

Only 19 counties are listed as moderate-risk, or yellow, a drop from 40 a week ago. For the first time since Feb. 3, no Indiana county is blue  low risk.

Indiana recorded 3,558 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday, up from 2,507 one week ago, and marking the highest one-day total since Jan. 22.

Tests conducted this month on a sample of Indianas cases showed that as of Wednesday, nearly 83% of them were the delta variant, the dashboard showed.

Indianas top health officials have warned that the highly contagious delta variant will continue to spread if vaccination rates do not improve. About 51% of Indianas eligible population  those age 12 and up  are fully vaccinated, according to the state health department.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb ended a statewide mask requirement in May, when virus spread had tapered and hospitalizations were on the decline. The governor said Wednesday that hes concerned about the delta variant but will leave decisions about mask requirements and other restrictions up to local officials.

We're not in the same place we were over a year ago, Holcomb said. We'll continue to make sure local communities and counties have the resources they need so we can help them help themselves.

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Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Republican state Sen. Max Wise, who has played a key role in shaping Kentucky education policy as a committee chairman, said Wednesday he's strongly considering a bid for governor in 2023.

The Campbellsville lawmaker said he'd bring solid conservative credentials on social and economic issues if he enters what could become a crowded field of GOP candidates for the state's top elected post. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has said he intends to seek a second term.

People right now feel like their values are being trampled upon," Wise told The Associated Press in a phone interview. I think they feel like they dont have a voice for conservative values.

Much of the frustration, he said, stems from mandates being pushed down from state government, leaving out local decision-making. He criticized the governors mask mandate in K-12 schools, saying those decisions should be left to local school district leaders working with health officials.

Beshear says masking up is necessary to try to prevent virus outbreaks that would close schools. Without masks, children too young to receive the vaccine would be defenseless, he said. The state school board followed up with an emergency regulation requiring masks in public schools.

Wise said he's also heard from Kentuckians angered by the governor's decision this summer to offer $1,500 bonuses meant to lure thousands of unemployed Kentuckians back to work as many employers struggled to hire enough workers. Wise criticized the use of a bargaining chip to reward people to get a job when many people kept working throughout the pandemic.

Wise, 46, is in his second Senate term and is chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He played a key role in passing high-profile school safety legislation and said he'll push for more funding for the safety efforts in the next state budget.

Though the election is two years away, considerable jockeying is under way among Republicans eyeing the governor's race.

At the recent Fancy Farm picnic, U.S. Rep. James Comer singled out Wise and former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft as two names that Kentuckians will likely be hearing a lot about in 2023. Craft, whose personal family wealth would give her a built-in ability to mount a campaign, has said she's seriously considering entering the governors race.

Wise didn't offer a timetable for deciding whether to join the race but said hes received considerable encouragement since Comer mentioned him at the state's premiere political event. Wise said voters are looking for someone who is genuine and can connect with them.

I think I have the ability to relate to people, Wise said. "Im not for sure every candidate who maybe is looking at the Kentucky governors race can truly be relatable to people across the state.

Republican state Auditor Mike Harmon already announced hes in the governor's race, while state Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and state Rep. Savannah Maddox are seen as among potential GOP gubernatorial candidates.
NEW YORK (AP)  A newspaper editor friend of former President Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner was hit Wednesday with state cyberstalking charges in New York, seven months after Trump pardoned him in a similar federal case just before leaving office.

Manhattan prosecutors accused Ken Kurson, the New York Observers editor when it was owned by Kushner, of hacking his wifes online accounts and sending threatening, harassing messages to several people amid heated divorce proceedings in 2015.

Kurson, of South Orange, New Jersey, is charged with eavesdropping and computer trespass, both felonies. At times, prosecutors said, Kurson was monitoring his now ex-wifes computer activity from his desk at the Observers Manhattan offices.

Kurson did not enter a plea at his arraignment Wednesday. He was released on his own recognizance.

The allegations mirror federal charges filed last October against Kurson  a case that went away when Trump pardoned him in January in the final hours of his White House term.

Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses.

We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York, Vance said in a statement.

A message seeking comment was left with Kursons lawyer.

Speaking about the federal charges last year, Kurson lawyer Marc Mukasey said: The conduct alleged is hardly worthy of a federal criminal prosecution. Ken will get past it.

Kurson is the first person in Trumps orbit to be charged by local prosecutors after being pardoned by the former president, though its not the first time Manhattan prosecutors have tangled with a Trump ally.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. charged former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort with state crimes in 2019 as a hedge against a possible pardon after he was convicted in federal court over similar mortgage fraud allegations.

Manafort challenged Vances case on double jeopardy grounds and won, with a final decision coming in February, less than two months after Trump pardoned him in the federal case.

Last month, Vance brought tax fraud charges against Trumps company, the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. A court hearing in that matter is scheduled for Sept. 20. Neither Weisselberg nor the company had been charged with those crimes previously.

New York eased double jeopardy protections in 2019 to ensure state prosecutors could pursue charges against anyone granted a presidential pardon for similar federal crimes.

In Kursons case, double jeopardy wouldnt necessarily be an issue because his federal case ended before a conviction or acquittal.

The federal case against Kurson, who now works in the cryptocurrency industry, arose from a background check after the Trump administration offered Kurson a seat in 2018 on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Manhattan prosecutors started investigating Kurson for possible violations of state law once Trump pardoned him.

In explaining the pardon, the Trump White House cited a letter from Kursons ex-wife in which she said she never wanted him investigated or arrested and, repeatedly asked for the FBI to drop it.

It wasnt clear from the criminal complaint filed Wednesday whether shes cooperating with the state case. In the document, prosecutors cited interviews she and Kurson gave to police in New Jersey in 2015, as well as computer records and an interview with a person who worked with Kursons ex-wife.

According to Manhattan prosecutors, Kurson monitored his now ex-wifes computer keystrokes in 2015 and 2016 using spyware, obtaining passwords and accessing her Gmail and Facebook accounts. In October 2015, prosecutors said, he accessed and then anonymously disseminated his now ex-wifes Facebook messages.

According to Wednesdays criminal complaint, Kursons now ex-wife told South Orange police he was terrorizing her through email and social media, causing her problems at work and in her social life.

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Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak
A Morgan County farmer will be one of the faces of Illinois family farms this week at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield.

Doug Coop of Coop Family Farm will be at the Illinois Department of Agriculture booth starting at 12:30 p.m. Friday as part of the Illinois Farm Bureaus Meet the Farmer program.

As society has changed over the decades, many of us have become disconnected from various sectors of the economy, Coop said. One of those big disconnects is agriculture. We dont have that connection with our farmers and butchers and milkmen.

Meet the Farmer hopes to address that in some small way.

Theres a lot of information out there about where our food comes from, Coop said. Some of its accurate and factual. A lot of it isnt. The chemicals we use on crops, GMOs, non-GMOs. This gives Illinoisans a chance to meet the farmers and ask, What is this about?

Coop recognizes the disconnect isnt as severe in central Illinois.

If youre curious or have questions about how your food is grown or where it comes from, were literally a stones throw away, he said of the regions farmers, noting that a person could pull off the road, stop a farmer in his field and theyd likely be more than happy to talk.

But thats not necessarily true elsewhere in the state.

More Information If you go ... The Illinois Farm Bureau's Meet the Farmer program continues at 12:30 p.m. today through Saturday in the Illinois Department of Agriculture booth at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. The lineup includes:  Today: Heap's Giant Pumpkin Farm - Known for their signature giant pumpkins, Heap's Giant Pumpkin Farm in the Kendall County community of Minooka is open to visitors for fall family fun each year. Since 2001, Kaylee and Kevin Heap have continued to grow their operation into an agritourism destination.  Thursday: Joy Lane Produce - Joy Lane Produce is a hydroponic greenhouse in West Salem. The farm is owned and operated by Heather and Andrew Spray, who specialize in growing different varieties of lettuce and leafy greens year-round.  Friday: Coop Family Farm - Doug Coop found his way back to the family farm after transitioning from active duty to the U.S. Army Reserve in 2009. While his role initially was a supportive one on the farm, he since has retired from the Army and transitioned to overseeing the family's corn and soybean operation in Morgan County.  Saturday: Raines Honey Farm - Phillip and Sharon Raines have raised bees on their family farm near Davis for the past 20 years. In addition to caring for more than 350 hives, the pair also collects from 350 to 499 gallons of honey from their bees and travels with them to California for almond pollination and to parts of northern Illinois for orchard pollination each year. They also make and sell beeswax products, including candles, soap, lotion and lip balm. See More Collapse

There are 6 or 7 million people in (the Chicago area), he said. How many of them know the people who produce one of the most important things in their lives  food?

Coop served in the Army for about 20 years  a combination of active duty, Reserve and National Guard  before getting out to join his father, Ric Coop, on the 750-acre family farm just west of Jacksonville as an eighth-generation farmer, he said. The family part of the name is rounded out by Doug Coops wife, Mindi; his mom, Melody; his young son, Tucker; and his young daughter, Audrey.

He got involved with Meet the Farmer through his role on the Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau board and, while hes happy to talk to non-farmers about agriculture, he thinks his background in disaster preparedness means hell have something to offer his fellow farmers if they visit the booth while hes there.

One of the things Ive been trying to work on with the farm bureau is crisis or consequence management, he said. Trying to get people to think about worse-case scenarios, get people to think about what the worst possible thing that could happen to their farm and how they can manage that.

The region is close enough to the New Madrid Fault that a serious earthquake is less a matter of if than when, he said, and tornadoes seem to be increasingly common.

What are you going to do on your farm, for your business, if we dont have power for weeks, months on end? he asked. If roads and bridges are destroyed, natural gas supplies are cut and youre trying to keep your livestock heated?

While hes not expecting people to have the answers off the top of their head, he is asking people to think about it and come up with a couple of ideas, he said.

In a rural area  its not that youre not going to get the help, but the focus is going to be on the higher-population area impacted, he said. In rural Illinois we need to be a bit more resilient, a bit more self-sufficient.  If you wait until the crisis happens to start thinking, its a little too late.

Its also an important step in keeping the American agricultural system functional, he said.

In the United States, we have one of the best  and I mean we have one of the highest qualities of food  readily available food supplies in the world, one of the most affordable food supply systems in the world, he said. I noticed in my travels  its not like that everywhere. Some places might have high quality but not the supply. Or supply, but youre going to pay. Sometimes you shop these other places and the availability isnt there.

Not so in the United States, Coop said.

We are so blessed, he said. Because of our agricultural system, you can basically go to the store anytime you want and get any food you want at any time. And the system is the result of decades and generations of family farms providing that security for us.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP)  A contractor that recently took over management of the University of Iowa utility system has been cited for safety violations after a worker fell into an underground steam tunnel and was injured, newly released records show.

The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Engie North America for five violations in connection with the March 25 incident in which a steamfitter fell 20 feet (6.1 meters) from a ladder down a maintenance hatch.

Engie paid a $16,000 penalty as part of a settlement reached last month, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request. Under the deal, the agency dismissed two of the violations and downgraded the severity of others.

Engie took over the universitys utilities operations, running plants that provide energy, steam and water to campus buildings, under a landmark $1.2 billion privatization agreement that began last year.

The injured employee and more than 120 university utilities workers accepted jobs with Engie, which will receive escalating payments from the university for providing service for the next 50 years. The university received a cash windfall upfront that it has invested an endowment for education and research programs.

The incident occurred underneath the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. The employee was going down a fixed metal ladder to get to the lower level of a steam tunnel when he slipped and fell, plunging through the hatch and striking the floor.

The 30-year-old suffered dislocated and fractured foot bones and was later hospitalized, state records show.

The employee has since returned to work, said Engie spokesman Michael Clingan.

The Iowa City Fire Department said emergency responders were on the scene within minutes, treating the worker roughly 30 feet (9.1 meters) below ground. But the department said it took a 43-minute rescue operation to remove him from the tunnel to above ground.

Engie failed to report the workers hospitalization within 24 hours as required under OSHA rules, missing the deadline by four hours, records show. The agency performed an inspection of the work site days later.

Inspectors found that the ladder from which he fell had a width of 15 inches (38.1 centimeters) between its side rails, an inch (2.5 centimeters) less than safety rules require. The citation said that exposed workers to a risk of falling.

Inspectors also found the ladder had suffered significant corrosion on its bottom 10 inches (25.4 centimeters), also increasing fall risks. They found a second ladder that led to the tunnel was too close to a sump line, violating a rule that requires more space between rungs and the nearest object.

Clingan, the Engie spokesman, said one ladder has been repaired and another has been temporarily taken out of service. The company inspected other ladders and will repair any deficiencies that are identified, he said.

Clingan defended the companys overall safety record, citing data showing it has fewer lost-time incidents than most of its competitors and a goal to eliminate all injuries. He said the company continues to integrate its safety practices and culture with the recently added members of our workforce.

OSHA records show the university's facilities management division, which previously oversaw utilities, was cited for safety violations only once in the last 10 years, a 2019 case that resulted in a $8,051 fine.

Steam tunnels, where workers maintain pipes that distribute steam to heat and cool buildings, can be dangerous. In 2018, a 61-year-old steamfitter at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls died after getting caught in a massive steam leak. A university investigation found that a cap that failed was likely to blame, and the school paid $14,000 to settle safety violations.
WARREN, Maine (AP)  The second of two men imprisoned for the 1983 murder of a 19-year-old Maine woman has died, one week after his accomplice's death.

Joseph Albert, 77, who was serving a 70-year-sentence for the death of Justine Gridley, died Tuesday at the Maine State Prison in Warren, according to a release from Corrections Commissioner Randall Liberty.
JEFFERSON, Wis. (AP)  Three people have died in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 94 in Jefferson County early Wednesday, according to sheriff's officials.

Jefferson County Sheriff Paul Milbrath said that about 4 a.m. a vehicle pulling a trailer veered out of control and slammed into a guardrail on I-94 westbound. A second vehicle and then a semi crashed into the cargo trailer and guardrail.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A major Southern California water agency has declared a water supply alert for the first time in seven years and is asking residents to voluntarily conserve.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California took the step Tuesday, hoping to lessen the need for more severe actions such as reducing water supplies to member agencies.

The move comes a day after U.S. officials declared the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, a key water source for Southern California.

This is a wake-up call for what lies ahead," said Deven Upadhyay, chief operating officer for the district that supplies water to 19 million Californians.

We cannot overstate the seriousness of this drought," he said. "Conditions are getting worse, and more importantly, we dont know how long it will last.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom last month asked Californians to scale back water use and many of the state's counties, mostly in Central and Northern California, are already under a state of drought emergency.

Concern about water supplies spread to the state's heavily-populated southern region following a winter of low precipitation and shrinking reservoirs throughout the West.

Newsom on Tuesday said he may put mandatory water restrictions in place in the coming months, the East Bay Times reported.

At the moment, were doing voluntary, he said. But if we enter into another year of drought  and as you know our water season starts Oct. 1  we will have likely more to say by the end of September as we enter potentially the third year of this current drought.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California receives about half its water from the Colorado River and State Water Project.

Water levels in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir on the Colorado River, were at about 35% of capacity on Tuesday. The State Water Project, which collects water from rivers and tributaries, has already reduced the Southern California district's allocation to 5% and next year the amount could be zero, officials said.

Scientists say climate change has made the American West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will keep making weather more extreme.

Glen MacDonald, a University of California, Los Angeles distinguished professor of California and the American West, said even if precipitation returned it would not likely be enough to keep pace with the loss of water through evaporation due to rising temperatures.

That has the potential to not only turn California lawns brown but could also affect the nation's food supply, which relies heavily on the state's farmlands, MacDonald said.

We are living in the perfect drought, right now, he said. Its unfortunate, but we kind of have seen this coming.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.

He also pushed back against criticism that the U.S. should have done more to plan for the evacuation and withdrawal, which has been marked by scenes of violence and chaos as thousands attempted to flee while the Taliban advanced.

In an interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos, Biden said the U.S. will do everything in our power to evacuate Americans and U.S. allies from Afghanistan before the deadline.

Pressed repeatedly on how the administration would help Americans left in the nation after Aug. 31, Biden said, "If theres American citizens left, were gonna stay till we get them all out.

Up to 15,000 Americans remain in Afghanistan after the Taliban took full control of the nation last weekend.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. military does not have the forces and firepower in Afghanistan to expand its current mission from securing the Kabul airport to collecting Americans and at-risk Afghans elsewhere in the capital and escorting them for evacuation.

The question of whether those seeking to leave the country before Bidens deadline should be rescued and brought to the airport has arisen amid reports that Taliban checkpoints have stopped some designated evacuees.

I dont have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul, Austin said. And where do you take that? How far do you extend into Kabul, and how long does it take to flow those forces in to be able to do that?

Austin, a retired four-star Army general who commanded forces in Afghanistan, spoke at his first Pentagon news conference since the Taliban swept to power in Kabul on Sunday.

He said the State Department was sending more consular affairs officers to speed up the processing of evacuees.

Were not close to where we want to be in terms of the pace of the airlift, Austin said.

He said he was mainly focused on the airport, which faced a number of threats that must be monitored.

We cannot afford to either not defend that airfield or not have an airfield that's secure, where we have hundreds or thousands of civilians that can access the airfield, he said, adding that talks with the Taliban were continuing to ensure safe passage for those evacuating.

Austin said there were about 4,500 U.S. troops at the airport, maintaining security to enable the State Department-run evacuation operation that has been marked by degrees of chaos and confusion.

Biden, however, told ABC that there wasnt anything his administration could have done to avoid such chaos.

The idea that somehow, theres a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I dont know how that happens, he said.

Senior U.S. military officers were talking to Taliban commanders in Kabul about checkpoints and curfews that have limited the number of Americans and Afghans able to enter the airport.

John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said that over 24 hours about 2,000 people, including 325 American citizens, had left aboard 18 flights by U.S. Air Force C-17 transport planes. The number of departing Air Force flights was likely to be similar in the coming 24 hours, Kirby said, although he said he could not estimate how many people they would carry.

He said the administration was considering its options for dealing with a separate but related problem  the abandonment by Afghan security forces of an array of military equipment, weapons and aircraft that have fallen into the hands of the Taliban or other militant groups.

We don't, obviously, want to see our equipment in the hands of those who would act against our interests or the interests of the Afghan people and increase violence and insecurity inside Afghanistan, Kirby said. There are numerous policy choices that can be made, up to and including destruction. He said those decisions had not yet been made.

Kirby said several hundred more U.S. troops were expected to arrive at the airport by Thursday.

An Air Force unit arrived overnight that specializes in rapidly setting up and maintaining airfield operations, Kirby said. And he said Marines trained in evacuation support have continued to arrive and will assist in getting civilians onto flights.

The top congressional Republicans, Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Mitch McConnell, asked Biden on Wednesday for a classified briefing with the gang of eight  the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, McCarthy and McConnell.

McCarthy and McConnell said they want a briefing on the number of Americans still in Afghanistan and the plans to evacuate those outside of Kabul. Their letter prompted Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill to tweet that she had already requested such a meeting. He also said House members will receive an unclassified telephone briefing Friday and an in-person briefing Tuesday.

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Darlene Superville, Matthew Lee, Eric Tucker, Alexandra Jaffe and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Taliban militants attacked protesters Wednesday in Afghanistan who dared to take down their banner and replace it with the country's flag, killing at least one person and fueling fears about how the insurgents would govern this fractious nation.

While the Taliban have insisted they will respect human rights, unlike during their previously draconian rule, the attack in Jalalabad came as many Afghans were hiding at home or trying to flee the country, fearful of abuses by the loosely controlled militant organization. Many people have expressed dread that the two-decade Western experiment to remake Afghanistan will not survive the resurgent Taliban, who took control of the country in a blitz that took just days.

Taliban leaders talked Wednesday with senior Afghan officials about a future government. In a potential complication to any effort to stabilize the country, the head of the country's central bank warned that American sanctions over the Taliban's designation as a terrorist organization threatened Afghanistan's economy, which already is dangerously low on hard foreign currency.

One figure who was not at the talks in Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled as the Taliban closed in on the capital. The United Arab Emirates acknowledged Wednesday that the Gulf nation had taken him and his family in on humanitarian grounds.

In an early sign of protest to the Taliban's rule, dozens gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad and a nearby market town to raise the tricolor national flag, a day before Afghanistans Independence Day, which commemorates the 1919 treaty that ended British rule. They lowered the Taliban flag  a white banner with an Islamic inscription  that the militants have raised in the areas they captured.

Video footage later showed the Taliban firing into the air and attacking people with batons to disperse the crowd. Babrak Amirzada, a reporter for a local news agency, said the Taliban beat him and a TV cameraman from another agency.

A local health official said the violence killed at least one person and wounded six. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists. The Taliban did not acknowledge the protest or the violence.

It was a rare resistance to their rule. In the days since the Taliban seized Kabul on Sunday, the militants only faced one other protest by a few women in the capital.

There has been no armed opposition to the Taliban. But videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there. That area is in the only province that has not fallen to the Taliban.

Those figures include members of the deposed government  Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he is the countrys rightful president, and Defense Minister Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi  as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In an opinion piece published by The Washington Post, Massoud asked for weapons and aid to fight the Taliban.

I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my fathers footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban, he wrote. "The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again."

The Taliban, meanwhile, pressed ahead with their efforts to form an inclusive, Islamic government. They have been holding talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government. Mohammad Yusof Saha, a spokesman for Karzai, said preliminary meetings with Taliban officials would lead to eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader who just returned to the country from Qatar.

Karzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction called the Haqqani Network. That network, once allied to the U.S. during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, was blamed for a series of devastating suicide attacks amid the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The Haqqani Network, like the Taliban at large, faces U.S. sanctions.

On Wednesday, hundreds of people remained outside Kabul's airport, already the scene of deadly chaos involving crowds trying to flee the country. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch, dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

One Afghan who formerly worked with the U.S. military said he was turned away by American troops even after the State Department told him to come for a flight, according to Sam Lerman, an Air Force veteran who is helping former colleagues leave the country. The Afghan was told he needed a green card, Lerman said.

People are going to die as a result of that confusion, Lerman said.

The Taliban have promised to maintain security, but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government. Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militants.

In theory, Ghani remains the president of Afghanistan, though many in the country blame him for the collapse of Afghan security forces.

Speaking late Wednesday in a video posted to Facebook, Ghani defended abandoning Kabul as the Taliban advanced, describing it as the only way to prevent bloodshed. He denied rumors that he left with millions of dollars.

I was forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing, Ghani said. He also said he supported the talks Abdullah and Karzai are conducting with the Taliban.

In a sign of the monetary difficulties any future Afghan government will face, the head of Afghanistans central bank said the country's supply of physical U.S. dollars is close to zero." Afghanistan has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some $7 billion held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

The next shipment never arrived, he wrote. Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.

A U.S. official confirmed that the Treasury Department has frozen the Afghan governments accounts in the United States and halted direct assistance payments to the government. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly.

Ahmady said the lack of U.S. dollars will likely lead to a depreciation of the local currency, the afghani, hurting the country's poor.

The Taliban won militarily  but now have to govern, he wrote. It is not easy.

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This story has been updated to correct that Sam Lerman is an Air Force veteran helping Afghans leave the country, not an Afghan trying to leave the country, and that an Afghan he was helping was turned away before he made it inside the airport.

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Faiez reported from Istanbul, Gannon from Guelph, Canada, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem, Rahim Faiez in Istanbul, Sylvia Hui in London and Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  UNITED NATIONS  The head of the U.N. food agency in Afghanistan says a humanitarian crisis is unfolding with 14 million people facing severe hunger following the Taliban takeover of the country.

Mary Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Programs country director, said in a video briefing to U.N. correspondents from Kabul on Wednesday that the conflict in Afghanistan, the nations second severe drought in three years, and the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed an already dire situation into a catastrophe.

McGroarty said over 40% of crops have been lost and livestock devastated by the drought, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced as the Taliban advanced, and winter is fast approaching. Really the race is on to get food where its most needed, she said.

WFP reached 4 million people in May and plans to scale up to reach 9 million over the next couple of months, but there are many, many challenges, she said.

McGroarty called for a halt to the conflict and urged donors to provide the $200 million needed to get food into the country so it can get to communities before winter sets in and roads are blocked.

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MORE ON THE CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN:

 Taliban violently disperse rare protest days after takeover

 Mullahs rise charts Talibans long road back to power

 Taliban allowing safe passage from Kabul in US airlift

 In Talibans 7-day march to power, a stunning string of wins

 US agencies scrub websites to protect Afghans left behind

 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

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UNITED NATIONS  The United Nations says its sending about a third of its 300 international staff in Afghanistan to Kazakhstan to work remotely on a temporary basis in light of the volatile situation in the country.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced on Wednesday that about 100 U.N. personnel were traveling from Kabul to Almaty, Kazakhstans largest city, to work in a temporary satellite office.

He said the majority of the U.N.s humanitarian staff remain in Afghanistan, providing vital assistance to millions most in need.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council on Monday following the Taliban takeover of the country that the U.N. is committed to staying in Afghanistan and helping millions of people, but he also said the 193-member world organization will adapt to the security situation.

This is a temporary measure intended to enable the U.N. to keep delivering assistance to the people of Afghanistan with the minimum of disruption while at the same time reducing risk to U.N. personnel, Dujarric said. Personnel will return to Afghanistan as conditions permit.

In addition to the international staff, the U.N. and its agencies have about 3,000 Afghan employees.

Dujarric said a significant amount of work is being undertaken, as we speak, specifically to safeguard national staff.

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WASHINGTON  U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. military doesnt have the capacity at this point to extend security forces beyond the perimeter of the Kabul airport in order to get more civilians safely evacuated out of Afghanistan.

Afghans and aid organizations have said that citizens are having a hard time getting past the Taliban and into the airport, in a mass exodus triggered by the insurgents rapid takeover of the country and its capital on Sunday.

Austin told reporters at a Pentagon press conference on Wednesday that the U.S. is working to get as many people through the evacuation process and out of the country as quickly as possible, but were not close to where we want to be.

The Pentagon says that about 5,000 civilians have been taken out of Afghanistan so far, but officials have said they want to get to a goal of getting a maximum of 5,000 to 9,000 people out a day.

Austin said that securing the airport is the paramount mission right now and he doesnt want to do anything to detract from that. He said the U.S. military doesnt have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of citizens and get them to the airport.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani defended his decision to flee Kabul in the face of the Taliban advance, describing it as the only way to prevent bloodshed. He also denied claims by his countrys ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen millions of dollars from state funds.

Ghani posted a video on his Facebok page late on Wednesday, confirming that he was in the United Arab Emirates. He thanked Afghan security forces in his message, but also said that the failure of the peace process led to the Taliban snatching power.

He also indirectly tried to quash an accusation by Afghanistans ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen $169 million from state funds.

He claimed that he was forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing.

Accusations were charged in these days that money was transferred, these accusations are fully baseless. he said.

Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday just as the Taliban approached Kabul.

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ANKARA, Turkey  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he welcomes the Talibans recent moderate statements and is willing to meet with Taliban leaders for the good of the Afghan people and Turkeys interests.

Erdogan also told Kanal 7 television on Wednesday that Turkey was determined to stand by Afghanistan, regardless of who is in charge of the country.

Our relevant institutions have been in contact with the Taliban for a while. We have previously stated that we can host the Taliban leaders. We maintain this stance, Erdogan said. We are ready for any kind of cooperation for the peace of the Afghan people, the well-being of our ethnic Turkic brothers in the country and to protect our interests.

The Turkish leader described the Talibans approach toward majority-Muslim Turkey as being careful and very sensitive.

I hope that the same sensitivity will continue from now on, he said.

On Turkeys proposal for Turkish troops in Afghanistan to carry on running and guarding Kabuls airport, Erdogan said Turkeys continued military presence would strengthen" the Taliban's hand internationally and make things easier for them.

Erdogan said a total of 552 Turkish nationals have so far been evacuated from Afghanistan.

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ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan  Turkmen diplomats in Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif have met with the Taliban there on Wednesday, Turkmenistans Foreign Ministry said, describing the meetings as friendly, positive and constructive.

The energy-rich Central Asian nation that shares a border with Afghanistan has an embassy in Kabul and consulates in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif. All three missions have been operating as usual after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on Sunday. Taliban fighters are guarding the outer perimeter of the missions, the ministry said.

Turkmenistans general consuls in Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif and the Taliban representatives discuss issues related to the implementation of duties of the Turkmen consular organization in the northern provinces of Afghanistan and organizational and other matters" related to the missions, the ministry said. It added that Turkmen officials have regular contacts with the Taliban regarding security along the Afghan-Turkmenistan border.

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MOSCOW  Afghanistans ambassador to Tajikistan has accused Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of stealing $169 million from state funds and has called on international police to arrest him.

Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday, just as the Taliban approached Kabul, and his whereabouts remained unknown until Wednesday, when the United Arab Emirates said it has accepted him and his family on account of humanitarian considerations.

Ambassador Mohammad Zahir Aghbar told a news conference on Wednesday that Ghani stole $169 million from the state coffers and called his flight a betrayal of the state and the nation.

The ambassador did not elaborate or explain his claim further.

Aghbar also promised to file a request to the Interpol to arrest Ghani. Shahriyor Nazriev, director of the Interpols National Central Bureau in Tajikistan, told Russias state news agency RIA Novosti that they havent received such a request yet.

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SKOPJE, North Macedonia  North Macedonias prime minister says the country is increasing to more than 450 the number of Afghan refugees to whom it is offering temporary shelter.

Zoran Zaev said on Wednesday that these are people who have closely collaborated with Western forces in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, and include human rights activists, journalists and students.

The first are expected to arrive in North Macedonia by the end of the week. Initially, authorities had said they would accept 186 people.

The center-right main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party complained, noting that North Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe and that richer countries should take Afghans in.

The Afghans will be put up in motels, resorts and hotels, at the expense of international organizations, as well as the United States.

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BERLIN  German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by phone on Wednesday with U.S. President Joe Biden about the situation in Afghanistan, her office said.

During the call, Merkel stressed the importance of enabling as many Afghans as possible who supported German military and civilian efforts in the country to leave. The two leaders agreed to fly out as many people in need of protection as possible, her office said.

Germanys foreign minister said his countrys ambassador in Kabul has begun talks in Doha with Taliban representatives to ensure they allow Afghans to reach the airport.

Heiko Maas said Germany has flown more than 500 people out of Afghanistan, including about 200 Afghan citizens, since Sunday and we want to continue doing so in this quantity in the coming days.

Maas said the assumption is that the window for evacuation flights will be limited but all those in positions of responsibility on the ground, in particular the United States, are trying to use this time as best as possible.

He added that according to his information there are currently hundreds, if not thousands of people massed outside the gates of the airport, and sporadic outburst of violence.

Maas said Germany is also trying to bring supplies of food to Kabul to provide for those waiting to be evacuated, and has a Medevac plane in the region.

Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Germany would do everything to get as many local staff out of Kabul as possible.

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LJUBLJANA, Slovenia  Slovenias foreign minister says the small Alpine state is ready to accept up to five Afghan staff who had worked for the European Union mission in Afghanistan.

Anze Logar said on Wednesday that for the time being, Slovenia will not offer taking in additional refugees from Afghanistan.

EU foreign ministers have agreed that member states should do their utmost to assist Afghans who have worked with the bloc over the past 20 years and bring them safely to Europe, avoiding possible reprisals by the Taliban.

Slovenias state STA news agency reported that according to Logar, there are between 400 and 500 people who fall into this category.

Slovenia, which is currently heading EUs rotating presidency, is run by a right-wing conservative government that has strongly advocated anti-migration policies and the influx into Europe of refugees from the war-ravaged countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

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ROME  Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini says 1,500 Italian military personnel are working non-stop to provide safe transport out of Afghanistan for Afghans who worked with Italy and their families.

Italy on Wednesday increased the number of its Air Force aircraft involved in the mission from seven to eight. The aircraft are shuttling between Kabul, Kuwait and Rome in the humanitarian airlift.

After 86 passengers arrived late Wednesday afternoon in at Romes Leonardo da Vinci airport, two C130J planes took off from Kuwait for Kabul, where they will embark 103 persons, the defense ministry said. Earlier in the day, an Italian Army official told reporters in Rome that Italys goal is to evacuate as many as possible who are in need  not just those who had worked with Italys forces in Afghanistan  as long as security conditions allow.

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TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has discussed the situation in Afghanistan with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.

The Iranian presidents website, president.ir, reported on Wednesday that he talked on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and told him Iran was ready to cooperate with China in establishing security, stability and peace in Afghanistan, as well as on issues regarding the development, progress and prosperity for Afghans.

Raisi said: We believe that the departure of foreigners, as well as past experiences in this country, has highlighted the need for the support and participation of all Afghans to ensure the security and development of Afghanistan more than ever.

Raisi separately spoke with Vladimir Putin and was quoted by the website as saying that stability must be established in Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Raisi was quoted as saying that establishing security and peace in Afghanistan has always been emphasized by Iran and we believe that all Afghan active groups should work together to establish stability in the country as soon as possible and make the U.S. withdrawal to a turning point for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Raisi also praised what he described as Iranian-Russian cooperation in Syria, where the two have over the past years boosted Syrian President Bashar Assads government and turned the tide of war in Assads favor and called for Iran and Russia to increase the interaction between Tehran and Moscow.

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ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys defense ministry says a Turkish Air Force plane has ferried some 200 Turkish citizens from Kabul to Pakistan as nations continue to evacuate their citizens after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

The group was expected to be flown back to Istanbul later on Wednesday on board a Turkish Airlines plane that was being sent to Islamabad to collect the evacuees, an airline official said.

A defense ministry official said all of those being evacuated were Turkish nationals. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make public statements.

Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey;

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TERMEZ, Uzbekistan  Uzbekistan has taken in several hundred Afghan refugees, a Russian state-funded media outlet reported Wednesday.

The Sputnik Uzbekistan news site said about 150 Afghans, including 17 women and children, have been temporarily placed in a camp near the Uzbek-Afghan border in the southeastern Surkhandarya region of Uzbekistan. They have all been tested for coronavirus, and no infections have been registered among them.

In addition, some 650 Afghan servicemen who arrived to Uzbekistan by plane have been temporarily housed in a COVID-19 hospital near a local military training site, the report said.

A diplomat in Uzbekistan confirmed to The Associated Press that the ex-Soviet country has taken in a number of Afghan soldiers and was not sending them back to Afghanistan any time soon. The Afghan soldiers will stay in a tent camp while the weather is good. The diplomat spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

There have been conflicting reports about how many Afghan refugees Uzbekistan has admitted. Uzbekistan has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and hence does not have any asylum procedures.

Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska in Termez, Uzbekistan;

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LONDON  Britains ambassador to Kabul says his team has got days, not weeks to speed up the evacuation of British nationals and Afghans who worked with U.K. forces.

Laurie Bristow said his team helped 700 people fly out on military flights on Tuesday, and the goal is to help 1,000 people each day.

We are trying to scale up the speed and pace over the next couple of days, he told Sky News. Were working on the basis of days, not weeks, so we really do have to get those numbers through.

Gen. Nick Carter, head of the British armed forces, said he expected seven aircraft to head to Kabul to enable another 1,000 people to leave on Wednesday.

Bristow said the Taliban are supporting the operation and his team is working with them where we need to, at a tactical, practical level.

My assessment is that they see it as in their interests to help it to happen in an orderly and clear way, he said. Obviously its in our interests for them to see it that way.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier on Wednesday that authorities had so far secured the safe return of 306 British citizens and 2,052 Afghans, with a further 2,000 Afghan applications completed and many more being processed.

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WASHINGTON  The Pentagon says that 2,000 people  including 325 American citizens  were evacuated from Afghanistan in 18 flights over the past 24 hours, just days after the Talibans stunningly swift takeover of the country.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says the U.S. military is still working toward its goal of getting a maximum of 5,000 to 9,000 people out a day.

He said on Wednesday that the U.S. military says its talking regularly with the Taliban to help get Afghans into the airport, and also to improve the paperwork process, including for Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visas.

Kirby also said that U.S. troops have fired warning shots along the airport perimeter as a crowd control measure. He said there are now about 4,500 U.S. troops on the ground to secure the airport and help the airlift, and several hundred more are expected to flow in over the next 24 hours.

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BEIRUT  Save the Children is warning that the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan is exacerbating what was already an extremely dire situation in the country.

The aid organization's regional director for Asia, Hassan Noor, says the aid group paused its Afghanistan operations and closed its offices as of Sunday, pending an assessment of the security situation. The group has 1,500 national staff in the country and had been working in 10 of Afghanistans 34 provinces, reaching hundreds of thousands of children.

Speaking to journalists at an online press briefing, Noor said the future of Afghanistans population, particularly women and children, was very concerning, particularly with regards to how their humanitarian needs will be met.

Even before this latest conflict, Afghanistan held the worlds largest internally displaced population, with 2.9 million people displaced across the country at the end of 2020. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes in the past few weeks as the Taliban advanced.

Noor said Save the Children has decided to remain in Afghanistan for now and is committed to resume delivering aid as soon as the security situation allows.

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ROME  An Italian Air Force jet has ferried 86 passengers to Romes main airport from Kabul.

The Foreign Ministry said the passengers who arrived on Wednesday afternoon included Italians as well as European Union and NATO personnel plus numerous Afghan citizens who worked with Italy and their family members.

Italian Army Col. Diego Giarrizzo told reporters at the airport that in addition to hundreds of previously designated Afghan citizens, the number of those needing evacuation will grow since the humanitarian air bridge continues as long as security conditions allow.

Wednesdays flight was the second such evacuation mission this week, and Italy said it is deploying a total of seven military jets to fly passengers out of Kabul airport.

Well make every effort to bring out as many as possible, the colonel said.

Among those arriving in the latest flight was a female Italian humanitarian aid worker.

Giarrizzo said Kabul airport security conditions were currently OK but stressed that they are very fluid. U.S., British and Turkish military forces were helping to keep the airport entrance more orderly, he added.

Asked about efforts to help terrified women flee Kabul, Giarrizzo said that of all those who need (to leave) and make a request, we are trying to bring them via this humanitarian air bridge to Italy. We will evaluate them swiftly....do everything possible, considering this is a humanitarian emergency.

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BRUSSELS  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he will chair an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 30-nation military alliance on Friday to discuss developments in Afghanistan.

Stoltenberg tweeted on Wednesday that he has convened the videoconference to continue our close coordination and discuss our common approach on Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Stoltenberg blamed a failure of Afghan leadership for the swift collapse of the countrys Western-backed armed forces, but he conceded that NATO must also address flaws in its military training program.

NATO has been leading international security efforts in Afghanistan since 2003 but wound-up combat operations in 2014 to focus on training the national security forces. NATO helped build up an army some 300,000 strong, but that force withered in the face of the Taliban offensive in just days.

Stoltenberg says that around 800 civilian personnel from NATO countries continue to work in Afghanistan, many in Kabul helping with air traffic control, refueling and communications at the airport.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark  Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark had set up an air bridge between Kabul and Copenhagen via Islamabad in Pakistan, and has evacuated 84 people, including local Afghan employees and interpreters.

She said that the Taliban takeover means the rules of the game were changed in a short time and the situation is very chaotic.

Frederiksen also said: This was not the way we wanted to leave Afghanistan.

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said a base had been established in Islamabad for the airlifts. The operation is in full swing. We do everything we can, he added.

The Scandinavian countrys Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said Denmark also has been able to evacuate Danes, Norwegians and Americans

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ANKARA, Turkey  Turkeys defense minister says at least 62 evacuation flights were made from Kabuls international airport in the past two days, after security was restored at the airfield.

Hulusi Akar told state-run Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that Turkish troops and other NATO soldiers were involved in the effort to restore calm at the airport. Turkish air force planes were meanwhile, evacuating Turkish citizens from Afghanistan, he said.

Turkey last month took over running the airport as U.S. troops were completing their pullout from the country.

Akar also said Turkey was engaged in talks with the United States, other NATO allies as well as other nations over Ankaras proposal for Turkish troops to continue protecting and operating the airfield.

We have stated that we are considering continuing our work if the necessary conditions are met, Akar was quoted as saying. He did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, the first military cargo plane sent by Spain to Kabul has left the airport, but Spains defense ministry is not yet giving any more details on how many people are on board or who they are.

The Dutch defense ministry says that a C-17 military transport plane has flown out of Kabul carrying around 35 people with Dutch, Belgian, German and British passports. The plane is headed for Tbilisi in Georgia.

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WASHINGTON  The U.S. State Department has released a joint statement signed by about two dozen nations expressing concern for the rights of Afghan women and girls and urging those in power in Afghanistan to guarantee their protection.

Wednesdays statement was signed by the United States, Britain, the European Union and 18 other countries. It says the statements signatories are deeply worried about the Afghan womens rights to education, work and freedom of movement in the wake of the Taliban takeover.

Afghan women and girls, as all Afghan people, deserve to live in safety, security and dignity, it said. Any form of discrimination and abuse should be prevented. We in the international community stand ready to assist them with humanitarian aid and support, to ensure that their voices can be heard.

It went on to add that the world will monitor closely how any future government ensures rights and freedoms that have become an integral part of the life of women and girls in Afghanistan during the last 20 years.

Since sweeping into Kabul on Sunday and taking over the country, the Taliban insist they have changed and wont impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating womens rights.

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PRAGUE  The third Czech evacuation flight in three days has left the Afghan capital of Kabul and is heading for Prague.

Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek says Afghan interpreters with their families, including children, and Afghan nationals with permanent residency in the Czech Republic are onboard the flight Wednesday.

Defense Minister Lubomir Metnar says there are 62 passengers on the flight plus crew.

The previous two flights from Kabul to Prague on Monday and Tuesday carried a total of 133 people, including Czech and Afghan nationals and two Polish women.

Four Afghans are being transported at the request of another European Union member state  Slovakia  that has pledged to grant asylum to 10 Afghans who recently cooperated with EU states. Slovakia's transport plane has yet to receive approval to fly to Kabul.

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WARSAW, Poland  The Polish government says it's in the process of evacuating people from Afghanistan, most of them Afghans who have worked with the Polish mission there.

Poland has sent three military planes to Afghanistan to carry out the evacuations.

A government official, Michal Dworczyk, said 250-260 people have expressed a wish to be evacuated, but that not all of them might be able to reach the Kabul airport to leave. Officials said Wednesday that a first group of 50 people was flown from Kabul to Uzbekistan.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a Dreamliner was on its way to Uzbekistan to bring the people to safety in Poland.

Some of those being evacuated are Polish citizens but the majority are Afghans who have worked with Poles in Afghanistan.

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TIRANA, Albania  Albania is preparing for the arrival of Afghans who worked with Western peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan and are now threatened by the Taliban.

A students campus in the capital, Tirana, is among places that will temporarily shelter the Afghans while the United States processes their visa requirements. Some hotels at the nearby port city of Durres will also take in Afghans.

Government sources, who spoke anonymously under regulations, said that about 300 Afghans are expected to arrive on a military plane late on Wednesday.

Albania was among the first to offer temporary shelter to the Afghans leaving their country after all Western military left and the Taliban have usurped the power.

But some Albanians were upset. Llesh Perkola, a Tirana resident in the capital Tirana, wondered who had decided so fast to shelter them. Perkola said that Albania is a small country and bringing that many people from Afghanistan is not a good thing.

Others say Albanians were in the same position after the collapse of the communist regime and the anarchy of 1997. Ylli Suberaku, 66, remembers Albanians fleeing the country toward the worlds streets. They were welcomed and integrated in the societies of the host countries.

U.S. Ambassador to Tirana Yuri Kim said Tuesday: Weve been deeply moved by the gesture of the Albanian people, the decision to give temporary refuge to those who are in greatest need.

Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania;

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KABUL, Afghanistan  Afghanistans former president has met with a senior leader of a powerful Taliban faction who was once jailed and whose group has been listed by the U.S. as a terrorist network.

Former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government, met with Anas Haqqani as part of preliminary meetings that a spokesman for Karzai said would would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader.

The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

The Taliban have pledged to form an inclusive, Islamic government, although skeptics point to its past record of intolerance for those not adhering to its extreme interpretations of Islam.

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BEIJING  China says it is waiting for the establishment of an open, inclusive, and widely representative government in Afghanistan before it decides on the issue of recognition.

If we are going to recognize a government, we will have to wait till the government is formed, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday.

Only after that, will we come to the question of diplomatic recognition, Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing.

Zhao reiterated Beijings hopes for a a smooth transition following the Talibans sweep to power to avoid further violence or a humanitarian disaster.

China will continue to support the peaceful reconstruction of Afghanistan and provide assistance to Afghanistans economic and social development within its capacity, Zhao said.

The Taliban must make good on its commitment not to give shelter to terrorists or allow foreign elements to operate within its territory, singling out the East Turkestan Islamic Movement that Beijing blames for attacks in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, which shares a narrow, remote border with Afghanistan.

Beijing long called for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, but has condemned what it calls the hasty retreat of American forces for the current instability.

China has sought good relations with both the former Afghan government and the Taliban, hosting the groups top political leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, for talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi late last month.

___

MADRID  The European Unions top diplomat says that it is necessary to talk with the Taliban to secure the evacuation of foreign nationals and those Afghans who have worked with NATO forces.

I said that we must speak with them and some people found that scandalous, Josep Borrell, the EUs High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told Spanish National Radio on Wednesday. But how are we supposed to open a safe passage to the airport if we are not speaking with those who have taken control of Kabul?

Borrell said his main concern is the immediate situation of those needing help to immediately leave the country for fear of reprisals.

We have seen images of crowds on the landing strips that make the operation of the airport difficult. We hope that the situation can be controlled and that our planes can land and take off, but to be frank, I dont know, Borrell said. Where we need to act is not so much in the airport itself, which the American army has under its control, but in how to get those who need to leave to the airport.

My responsibility is to identify and help move those who have worked with us, Borrell said. (But) that does not exclude the EU from opening its arms to other people.

What has happened in Afghanistan is a defeat for the entire western world and we all must have the courage to accept that, he said.

___

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan is issuing visas upon arrival to all diplomats, foreigners and journalists who want to leave Kabul over security concerns.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Wednesday that since Sunday, 900 foreigners including diplomats and staff working for international organizations have arrived in Pakistan from Kabul via air travel.

He said transit visas were also being issued to foreigners upon arrival from Afghanistan at airports and land crossings so that they could travel on to their home countries.

Ahmed said hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans crossed into Pakistan from two key land border crossings in recent days.

He said all Pakistanis who want to leave Afghanistan will be brought back over the coming two days.

___

BERLIN  Germany will send up to 600 army personnel to Kabul to help evacuate German citizens and former Afghan local embassy staff.

Chancellor Angela Merkels Cabinet on Wednesday okayed the mission which started Monday. Germanys Bundestag Parliament will have to vote on the military mission as well which is likely going to happen next week.

Every armed foreign deployment of the German army has to be approved by parliament in Germany.

Normally this has to happen before the start of the deployment but in this case, because of the imminent danger German citizens were exposed to in Afghanistan, Cabinet and parliament were also allowed to approve the mission in retrospect, German news agency dpa reported.

___

KABUL, Afghanistan  Afghanistans central bank governor says that the country has some $9 billion in reserves abroad and not in physical cash inside the country.

Ajmal Ahmady, the head of Afghanistans Central Bank, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that the majority of that  some $7 billion  is being held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady says Afghanistans holding of physical U.S. dollars is close to zero as the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive that swept the country last week.

The next shipment never arrived, he wrote. Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.

He noted the lack of U.S. dollars likely will see the afghani depreciate and inflation rise, hurting the poor in the country. Getting access to those reserves likely will be complicated by the U.S. government considering the Taliban a sanctioned terror group.

The Taliban won militarily - but now have to govern, he wrote. It is not easy.

___

LONDON  The British government says it will welcome up to 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, and a total of 20,000 Afghans will be offered a way to settle in the U.K. in the coming years.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Tuesday: We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years.

The new Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme will focus on women, children, and others who have been forced to flee their home or face threats of persecution from the Taliban.

Opposition parties have criticized the plan for not going far enough to make a real difference. Nick Thomas-Symonds, of the Labour Party, said the proposal did not meet the scale of the challenge.

British lawmakers are returning to Parliament Wednesday for an emergency session to discuss Afghanistan. Johnson is set to tell lawmakers there must be an immediate increase in aid to Afghanistan to avert a humanitarian crisis erupting in the country following the Talibans seizure of power.

___

ANKARA, Turkey  Turkey has has denied reports claiming that it has given up on plans to continue running Kabuls airport, saying it was awaiting the results of ongoing talks between the Taliban and several Afghan politicians.

We hope that they reach an agreement through peaceful means, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Hurriyet newspaper in comments that were printed on Wednesday. After these (talks) take place, we can talk about these things.

Turkey, a NATO member whose some 600 troops provided security at the international airport in Kabul, has proposed to continue running and protecting the airport following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops. The Taliban has said it wants all NATO troops to leave Afghanistan.

Cavusoglu meanwhile, defended the governments decision to engage in talks with the Taliban, following criticism from opposition parties.

This does not mean that we espouse their ideology. Everyone is being pragmatic, he said.

The minister also came under criticism for saying the government welcomes positive messages from the Taliban.

We said, We welcome their messages, but we said that we are cautious, that is, we should see these (messages) applied in practice, Cavusoglu said.

___

ISLAMABAD  The British prime minister and German chancellor have called their Pakistani counterpart about the rapidly evolving situation in Afghanistan, the foreign ministry said in an overnight statement.

It was their first contact with Imran Khan since the Taliban took control of the country Sunday.

According to Pakistans foreign ministry, Khan told Germanys Angela Merkel that an inclusive political settlement was the best way forward for resolving the conflict in Afghanistan.

In a separate statement, the ministry said Khan also received a call from the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Khan passed along a similar message.

___

KABUL, Afghanistan  The Taliban have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who had fought against them during Afghanistans civil war in the 1990s.

The statue depicted a militia leader killed by the Taliban in 1996, when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords.

Abdul Ali Mazari was a champion of Afghanistans ethnic Hazara minority, Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Talibans earlier rule.

The statue stood in the central Bamyan province, where the Taliban infamously blew up two massive 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha carved into a mountain in 2001. The Taliban claimed the Buddhas violated Islams prohibition on idolatry.

___

CANBERRA, Australia  Australia has evacuated the first 26 people, including Australian and Afghan citizens, from Kabul since the Taliban overran the Afghan capital, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday.

An Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft landed at an Australian military base in the United Arab Emirates with the 26 who included a foreign official working for an international agency, Morrison said. The remainder were Australians and Afghans.

This was the first of what will be many flights, subject to clearance and weather and we do note that over the back end of this week, there is some not too favorable weather forecast, Morrison said.

Two Hercules and two larger C-17A Globemaster transport aircraft will make further evacuation flights.

Australia plans to evacuate 130 Australians and their families plus an undisclosed number Afghans who have worked for Australian soldiers and diplomats in roles such as interpreters.

Australias goal is to evacuate 600 people, according to media reports. Morrison did not provide a number. Our goal is as many as we can, as safely and as quickly as we can, he said.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP)  Gov. Phil Scott said his administration has reached out to the White House to reiterate an earlier request for Vermont to take in more refugees as thousands flee Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power.

We're ready, willing and able to help those who are coming from war-torn countries, Scott said Tuesday during his weekly coronavirus briefing.

The Republican governor said it was the right decision to end the nearly 20-year war that he said didn't appear to be winnable but he said he disagreed with how President Joe Biden did it.

I think we have a moral obligation to make sure that we protect those who helped protect us for those 20 years who are living in that country. And we probably should have stayed a little bit longer to make sure they got out first, Scott said.

It's horrific what we're seeing as those who are desperate to get out the country and maybe for good reason," he said.

Biden called the anguish of trapped Afghan civilians gut-wrenching and conceded the Taliban had achieved a much faster takeover of the country than his administration had expected.

But the president expressed no second thoughts about his decision to stick by the U.S. commitment, formulated during the Trump administration, to end Americas longest war, no matter what.

____

Corrects to show that earlier request was for more refugees, not specifically Afghan refugees.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Legislature wants a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Democrats that seeks to have a judge take over the process of drawing new boundary lines if lawmakers and the Democratic governor can't reach agreement.

Republicans, in a motion filed Tuesday, call the Democratic lawsuit wildly premature and a direct attack on the Legislatures constitutionally delegated responsibility of redistricting. Democrats are attempting to obstruct and impede the Legislature's redistricting work, Republicans argued.

The lawsuit was filed by national Democratic attorney Marc Elias on Friday, the day after Wisconsin and other states received census data that will be used to draw new political boundaries.

Republicans argue the Legislature should be allowed to intervene, and moved to dismiss the lawsuit because it has the potential to prescribe new rules for the Legislature's ongoing redistricting efforts, to take away the Legislature's power to redistrict, and ultimately to alter the Legislature's very makeup.

The current maps were drawn by Republicans and enacted by then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2011. Republicans who strengthened their legislative majorities under the maps want to use them as the starting point for redistricting this year.

The lawsuit filed by Elias, who is leading the Democratic Partys legal fight against new voting restrictions, asks the court to throw out Wisconsin's current maps as unconstitutional, not allow them to be used for the basis of drawing new lines or any future elections. Democrats also ask the federal court to draw new maps if, as expected, Gov. Tony Evers doesn't sign into law maps drawn by the Legislature.

Elias did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the Republican motion.

The Legislature argued in its motion that there is also no basis to declare the current maps unconstitutional.

Democrats "meritless constitutional claims are a poor disguise for their premature attempt to beat everyone to the courthouse, thereby impeding ongoing state reapportionment efforts, the Legislature argued.

Republicans also argued that the lawsuit could result in a judge drawing maps before lawmakers even get a chance to complete their work.

Everyone agrees that new districts are needed with the arrival of new census data, Republicans said in the filing by their attorney Kevin St. John, a former Wisconsin deputy attorney general. The Legislature intends to provide them.

Both sides are moving quickly in the legal fight. The Democratic lawsuit came less than 24 hours after census data was delivered. Republicans sought the required approval by a legislative committee to intervene Friday and that was granted Tuesday. The motions were filed in federal court hours later.

The Legislature is being represented by private attorneys paid for by taxpayers, rather than the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Republicans contend their interests won't be represented by the justice department, which is led by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

WASHINGTON  Fort Bliss in El Paso will be the destination for potentially thousands of Afghan refugees, Pentagon officials said Monday during a press conference to address the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.

As we prepare for even more arrivals, [U.S. Northern Command] and the U.S. Army are working to create additional capacity to support refugee relocation in the U.S., including temporary sights under assessment at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, Department of Defense official Gary Reed said.
Houston might be out of Hurricane Grace's crosshair, but we're not out of the woods entirely.

The storm is expected to hit Central Mexico in the coming days, missing Houston and Southeast Texas by hundreds of miles. But that doesn't mean we won't feel the effects of the storm, which could cause hazardous rip currents and tall waves along the Gulf Coast.

High tide Friday and Saturday could also lead to minor coastal flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologists say this could be dangerous for those in the water or visiting the coast this weekend. Anyone caught in rip current should swim parallel to the coast until they're able to swim ashore.

The hurricane is projected to make landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula early Thursday morning and weaken to a tropical storm. It will move into the Bay of Campeche on Friday, regain strength into a hurricane once again and slam into eastern Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Hurricane Grace is the seventh named storm of the 2021 season, and an eighth  Tropical Storm Henri  is expected to strengthen into a hurricane and die out hundreds of miles off the East Coast.

This season is predicted to be active, according to the hurricane center.

In total, meteorologists predict 15 to 21 named storms. Of those, seven to 10 are thought to become hurricanes, while including three to five major hurricanes.

What's the must-have item in your hurricane kit? Let me know on Twitter: @jayrjordan
PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool needed a CRS score of at least 751 in order to receive an invitation.

Express Entry: 463 PNP candidates invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool needed a CRS score of at least 751 in order to receive an invitation.

Express Entry: 463 PNP candidates invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool needed a CRS score of at least 751 in order to receive an invitation.

Express Entry: 463 PNP candidates invited to apply for Canadian permanent residence PNP candidates in the Express Entry pool needed a CRS score of at least 751 in order to receive an invitation. Shelby Thevenot Alexandra Miekus Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Canada invited 463 provincial nominees in the Express Entry pool to apply for permanent residence on August 18.

In order to receive an invitation, candidates needed a score of at least 751 with a nomination from an Express Entry-linked Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). It is normal for PNP draws to have high score cutoffs because the provincial nomination itself is worth 600 points. In the previous PNP draw, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited candidates with scores of at least 760.

Candidates with the minimum score were only invited if they submitted their profiles before April 13th, 2021 at 16:29:29 UTC. IRCC always publishes a cutoff time, whether or not there was an actual tie.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

16 PNP draws in 2021

So far in 2021, IRCC has only been drawing two types of candidates from the Express Entry pool: PNP and Canadian Experience Class (CEC).

The reason is pandemic-related. Express Entry candidates who are eligible for the PNP or CEC are highly likely to be in Canada already. PNP candidates have demonstrated to a province that they will succeed in the Canadian labour market. The function of the PNP is to tune in on where there are gaps in the workforce. The programs that future immigrants apply to at the provincial level were curated to fix those gaps. When immigrants get nominated for them, it means they fill a need in the regional labour market. Federal programs cannot fill regional needs in the same way.

All this to say, it is important for the federal government to keep working with the provinces to support their immigration goals. Now that approved permanent residents are exempt from travel restrictions, PNP applicants abroad can complete their landing in Canada and become permanent residents.

Express Entry invitations almost double 2020 levels

The number of Invitations to Apply (ITAs) issued by IRCC has almost doubled compared to the same time last year. With more invitations comes a higher chance that IRCC will admit its target of 108,500 newcomers through the Express Entry system in 2021. So far this year, Canada has issued 102,779 invitations through the Express Entry system.

The minimum score requirements have been up and down due to the nature of CEC- and PNP-only draws. CEC draws typically have lower cutoffs because the draws are concentrated in the one group of applicants. They are not competing with others in the Federal Skilled Worker Program, for example. So, with bigger draw sizes, IRCC can invite more candidates, thus bringing the score down.

PNP candidates automatically get 600 points with their provincial nomination, so PNP draws will always be higher than any other type of Express Entry draw.

What is Express Entry?

Express Entry is a points-based system that manages immigration applications for the three Federal High Skilled programs, which include the: Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker Program, and Federal Skilled Trades Program. Some PNPs also use Express Entry to invite candidates to apply for a provincial nomination.

If you are eligible for an Express Entry-managed program, you will get a score based on the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). The CRS awards points based on skilled work experience, education, age, official language skills, and other factors.

The CRS is out of a possible 1,200 points. The vast majority of Express Entry candidates have less than 500 points.

IRCC invites the highest scoring candidates to apply for permanent residence during regular rounds of invitation. Invited candidates get to officially apply for Canadian immigration.

Who was invited?

The following is a hypothetical example of someone who may have been invited in the new draw.

Cho-hee is 32, holds a masters degree and has been working as a software engineer for five years. She wrote the IELTS and scored an 8 in each category. Cho-hee has never worked or studied in Canada. She entered the Express Entry pool as a Federal Skilled Worker with a score of 462. After receiving a provincial nomination from Ontario, Cho-hee saw her CRS score increase to 1062. She then received an ITA in the new Express Entry draw.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
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Marbumrung will be based in San Francisco, California, and will report to Zack Ellison, A.R.I.s Founder and Managing General Partner.

FREMONT, CA: Applied Real Intelligence (A.R.I.), a venture debt investment firm that offers innovative financing solutions to successful VC-backed companies announced the hiring of Chief Marbumrung as Managing Director, Investments. Marbumrung will be based in San Francisco, California, and will report to Zack Ellison, A.R.I.s Founder and Managing General Partner. He will drive A.R.I.s regional expansion in the Bay Area and Northwest United States.

I have long been impressed with Chief since we worked together at Scotia Bank from 2008 through 2010 during the depths of the Global Financial Crisis. During that volatile economic period, we were able to achieve great financial results because of a strong team-first culture, rigorous credit underwriting, and unrelenting focus on risk management. A.R.I. is built on these same principles and Chief will be instrumental in our rapid growth and continued success, said Ellison.

Marbumrungs responsibilities will include transaction structuring, credit analysis, investment due diligence, and loan underwriting. He will also be in charge of establishing and maintaining strategic alliances with A.R.I.s portfolio companies and sponsors, which include venture capital firms, private equity firms, bank lenders, and non-bank lenders. As a member of the firms Executive, Investment, and Risk Committee, he joins Zack Ellison, Wendell Sammons, and Jeffrey Sokolowski.

Marbumrung commented, Im excited to team with Zack once again. He has built something special at A.R.I. - the right mission, the right strategy, and the right team, all coming together at the right time. A.R.I. is democratizing the availability of capital for all founders, particularly those who have been historically underserved, while providing family offices, endowments, pensions, and other institutional investors with access to innovation as an asset class.

Before joining A.R.I., Marbumrung worked at BNP Paribas in San Francisco as a senior banker handling the Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) sectors. BNP Paribas is Frances largest bank, with total assets of over EUR 2.6 trillion. He was in charge of originating and managing U.S. corporate relationships in the TMT segments, where he executed substantial loans and other transactions in a number of high-growth industries such as enterprise software, IT services, IT hardware, cybersecurity, and telecommunications, among others.

Marbumrung formerly worked on BNPs Loan Capital Markets platform in New York as part of the deal team. In this role, he was responsible for underwriting, structuring, and executing bilateral and syndicated loan transactions for corporate clients in various industries, including healthcare and technology, to support mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, and special dividend financing other strategic investments.

Marbumrung began his financial services career as a corporate banker with Scotia Bank in New Yorks U.S. Power Utilities & Power Project Finance division, where he concentrated on loan transactions in the electric utility, mining, and natural gas industries. He graduated from Boston Universitys College of Engineering with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Georgetown Universitys McDonough School of Business with an MBA. He has also held the FINRA Series 79 and 63 licenses.
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The Beaverton Housing Complex has been upgraded with free internet to provide online access to veterans and their families

FREMONT, CA: Comcast today announces that the Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center in Beaverton have been designated a Lift Zone in Oregon/SW Washington as part of its ongoing commitment to assist low-income families and individuals in connecting to the internet so they can fully participate in distance learning and the digital economy.

Comcast is providing high-capacity Wi-Fi connections in secure locations to assist students  and in this case, veteransin getting online, engaging in distance learning, accessing virtual support services, and doing job searches. Over the next three years, this initiative will provide free connections throughout various partner community facilities.

Comcast provides free gigabit-speed Wi-Fi in the Lift Zones, allowing dozens of students/individuals to operate on laptops concurrently.

"Our veterans and their families are very appreciative of our housing complex becoming a Lift Zone, says Major Rhonda Lloyd of the Salvation Army Veterans and Family Center. This will allow the children who live here to use the computer lab for schooling, and our veterans to access virtual training and conduct job searches."

Several additional Lift Zone locations are now being constructed throughout Comcast's Oregon/SW Washington service zone, to have more than 30 by the end of the year. Already, 20 Lift Zones are operational; most of them are located at Boys and Girls Clubs.
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Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low 69F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low 69F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.
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Yesterday, the Taliban held a press conference in Kabul. While many of the journalists who cover Afghanistan were familiar with the official who led the briefingZabihullah Mujahid, the Talibans top spokespersonthey had never before seen him in the flesh. Sharif Hassan, a New York Times reporter in Kabul, noted that, for over a decade, Mujahid has been more responsive and active than the entire press team of Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, who just fled the country. I have spoken with him and texted him a lot, Hassan said, of Mujahid. But this is the first time I am seeing his face. Not that we should necessarily talk in the singular here. Reporters have long speculated that Zabihullah Mujahid is a pseudonym used by a group of Taliban representatives; some felt that the man on stage in Kabul looked suspiciously young for a longstanding fixture of the Taliban leadership. We are all accepting this is THE Zabihullah Mujahid, Lyse Doucet, the BBCs chief international correspondent, said. Maybe he isnt?

At the press conference, the Taliban sought to present a new face to the world, metaphorically as well as literally, even if caveats and uncertainties abounded. Mujahid insisted that the new government intends to respect womens rights (within the framework of Islamic laws), allow for freedom of the press (within the framework of Islamic values and national unity), and forgive those who worked with international forces and the prior government. In one exchange that went viral online, a reporter raised freedom of speech, and Mujahid replied that they should ask their question of Facebook (which had earlier confirmed that the Taliban will remain banned across its platforms). LOL, Donald Trump, Jr., tweeted. Also not wrong. Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, tweeted that the Taliban spokesperson has taken more questions from US media in recent days than the President of the United States. Other international observers described the presser as savvy. Major Western news outlets carried Mujahids assurances in banner headlines (which struck some critics as credulous). The Associated Press situated the briefing within the Talibans broader push to reassure world powers and a fearful population. Politico Playbook declared: The Taliban PR blitz begins.

Related: A dark time for Afghanistans journalists

In fact, the Taliban PR blitz began a long time ago. The Taliban has created a sophisticated communications apparatus that projects an increasingly confident movement, an International Crisis Group report concluded, in 2008. Using the full range of media, it is successfully tapping into strains of Afghan nationalism and exploiting policy failures by the Kabul government and its international backers. The Talibans propaganda tools have included pamphlets, cassette tapes, sermons in mosques, and DVDs; as time passed (and in spite of its reputation for Luddism), the group honed its digital outputupdating a website with statements in various languages, posting tweets from the battlefield, and using social media as a recruitment tool, not just in Afghanistan but in the wider region, too. (It even tried to launch an Android app, but Google refused to host it.) As far back as 2010, the Taliban was using its messaging to portray itself as a government in waiting, including by making reassuring noises about womens rights, while undermining the US-backed administration. There is such a thing as a good story, not in the moral sense, but in the sense that a story grips you and pulls you along, that it has a dramatic climax, that it paints good and evil in clear terms, that it satisfies some deep craving in the listener, Vanessa M. Gezari wrote for CJR, in 2011. The Taliban know how to tell a good story. (The story grew so strong that the US eventually created a psyops unit to counter it.)

The Talibans media footprint has only grown since last year, when the Trump administration struck a withdrawal agreement with the group. Experts told the Times that the deal helped legitimize the Taliban on the international stagethe same paper even published a conciliatory op-ed by its deputy leadereven though, in reality, the group was speaking from both sides of its mouth, emphasizing peace in some of its communications and militarism in others. During peace talks in Doha, Qatar, a Taliban negotiator visited the hotel room of a Times correspondent to talk, and share cookies and dried fruit. The Taliban also granted access to women journalists in Doha, including some from Afghanistan. Yesterday, Beheshta Arghand, a female anchor on TOLOnews, in Kabul, interviewed a Taliban official on air. Women journalistsfrom both domestic and international mediawere also allowed to ask questions at Mujahids briefing.

The reality of the Taliban, of course, belies this softening of the groups media presentation. As NBCs Richard Engel has noted, the group has so far been relatively tolerant of international journalists in Kabul because it has a victorious story to tell; it also wants to avoid, to the extent possible, international pariah status as it sets up a government. But the groups repressive tactics are already amply on display. Female journalists may be allowed on TOLOnews for now, but the Taliban already suspended women who work for Afghanistans state media. The Taliban is the Taliban, Khadija Amin, one of the journalists affected, said yesterday. They have not changed. As Ive written recently, the group brutally laid waste to press freedom as it advanced across Afghanistan during the early stages of the US pullout. The Taliban may be telling the world what it wants to hear, but outside Kabul, the situation is starkly different, Frud Bezhan, who covers Afghanistan for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, wrote yesterday. When the worlds focus shifts, thats when Afghans will see the real Taliban the one committing rights abuses and rolling back freedoms in cities/provinces outside Kabul.

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This is not to say that the Taliban is a monoliththe groups orientation is more complicated than Western media coverage often portrays, and different leaders and factions have different priorities. There is legitimate uncertainty as to just how repressive the new Taliban regime intends to be, and theres room for nuanced reporting that teases that out. But the question, ultimately, is one of shades of terrible, no matter what the Talibans spinners might say. As the BBCs Yalda Hakim put it yesterday, creating mystery around the character of Mujahid then presenting a face, and moderate voice, to the press was doubtless part of the Talibans scriptand yet she found it hard to reconcile yesterdays rhetoric with the bloodthirsty texts shes received in Mujahids name in the past. At yesterdays briefing, Mujahid sat in a seat occupied, until recently, by Dawa Khan Menapal, the head of press relations for the fallen government. Two weeks ago, Taliban fighters assassinated Menapal; Mujahid himself confirmed the killing. A journalist pointed out to Mujahid that he was in Menapals seat. Mujahid responded that the previous government had started the fighting.

The real takeaway from the Taliban presser was the courage of Afghan journalists, Yogita Limaye, also of the BBC, observed afterwardasking tough, direct questions of a group known to target people from the profession, rebutting when answers were evasive, asking more pointed questions when answers were vague. Unlike Mujahid, the Afghan reporters standing up to ask tough questions wont have the luxury of obscuring their identity when it suits them to do so.

Below, more on Afghanistan:



Other notable stories:

ICYMI: A depressing vacuum in Afghanistan coverage, as Kabul falls

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

Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
LEWISTON, Idaho  A federal judge says a discrimination lawsuit filed against the University of Idaho by a UI College of Law professor can move forward.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected a request from the University of Idaho to throw out the lawsuit last week, The Lewiston Tribune reported.

Professor Shaakirrah Sanders was hired to teach at the College of Law in 2011 and and in 2018 became the first African American to achieve the rank of full professor at the school. She filed the lawsuit several years ago, alleging that she was unfairly denied an associate dean position in 2017, that she faced a variety of unfair conditions and terms of employment, and that school officials retaliated against her when she complained about the treatment.

The University of Idaho asked the court to throw out the lawsuit before it went to trial, contending in part that Sanders failed to file the complaint on time and that she failed to show that there was a valid dispute about the facts of the case.

In his ruling first reported by the American Bar Associations ABA Journal, Winmill rejected the universitys argument, noting that UIs Office of Civil Rights and Investigations received at least 35 reports of sexual or racial discrimination at the College of Law during a nine-year period starting in 2011. Those complaints triggered a formal review that included interviews with nearly three dozens staffers and faculty members.

According to the review, Winmill wrote, several faculty members felt that females are disproportionately `shut down or admonished by those in the senior leadership group for the aggressive communication, and that gender bias affected who is allowed to speak at meetings and in what way. The leadership of the College of Law changed after the review.

Winmill did agree to dismiss two claims based on alleged violations of state whistleblower and academic freedom laws, because he said the university is immune from lawsuits in federal court regarding state law.

The University of Idaho didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Any notion that the worst days of Islamist terrorism are long behind us was brutally shattered at Kabul Airport Aug. 26 as twin bombs ripped indiscriminately through Afghan civilians and U.S. and other foreign servicemen trying to complete the desperate evacuation of thousands of people for whom Taliban rule represents the most terrible fate.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  The Department of Budget and Management is looking for more funds for additional cash aid in case Metro Manila and select provinces are placed under a longer lockdown.

Budget Undersecretary and Officer-in-Charge Tina Canda admitted that extending the enhanced community quarantine, or ECQ, in regions would require additional ayuda. The government has been distributing 1,000 to the poorest residents forced to stay at home for two weeks this August.

"Kapag ganoon, talagang ang national government will have to generate forced savings on the part of the agencies -- meaning, 'yung mga non-essential ide-defer na 'yan para ma-cover 'yung requirement," Canda told CNN Philippines.

[Translation: If it happens, the national government will have to generate forced savings on the part of the agencies -- meaning, the non-essential projects and purchases will have to be deferred to cover the funding requirement]

She added that a DBM bureau has been tasked to identify possible sources of funding under existing agency budgets and to compute how much they can generate.

Canda also said savings may be drawn from agencies with less than 50% of their budget unused as of August or eight months into the fiscal year, calling it a "red flag" which gives a hint about an agency's performance.

"Lalo na kung capital outlays 'yan, puwede mo na silang tanungin na: 'are you capable of still constructing or even starting 'yung preliminary works?' Halimbawa ganon, these are the items that we can use," she explained.

[Translation: Especially if that covers capital outlays, you can ask the agency: 'are you capable of still constructing or even starting the preliminary works?' If, for example, they say no, these are the items that we can use.]

Unused allotments for official travel, trainings and seminars, and office supplies are also being considered for declaration as savings. These are barely used due to the implementation of ECQ and work-from-home setup for most of the year, Canda said.

READ: Gov't agencies ordered to identify savings for additional COVID-19 response funds

State agencies earlier identified 13.1 billion in savings used for the distribution of financial aid to Metro Manila residents. Just this month, DBM released over 11 billion for Metro Manila residents, 2.715 billion for displaced residents in Laguna and 700 million for Bataan.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  A shorter interval between doses of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine is not recommended for now due to insufficient evidence, the Department of Health said Wednesday.

OCTA Research fellow Nic Austriaco earlier proposed to reduce the two-dose interval for Sinovac shots to 14 days from 28 days to boost the number of fully vaccinated people amid the threat of the feared Delta variant.

"Hindi po nirerekomenda ng ating eksperto na iksian ang pagitan mula sa una at ikalawang dose ng Sinovac," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a town hall meeting.

[Translation: Our experts are not recommending a shorter period between first and second doses.]

Vergeire earlier said the DOH will look into Austriaco's proposal.

Meanwhile, those in areas that face a threat of community transmission due to variants of concern can receive their second AstraZeneca dose eight weeks after the first shot, Vergeire added.

Based on the AstraZeneca vaccine's emergency use authorization, it could take up to 12 weeks before vaccinees receive their second dose.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  The Justice Department on Wednesday clarified how Afghan nationals fleeing their country amid political unrest will be handled should they seek refuge in the Philippines.

If their status as refugees is recognized by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and they need temporary shelter in the Philippines, we have an emergency transit mechanism in place pursuant to a memorandum of agreement with the UNHCR, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevara told reporters.

Meanwhile for Afghans applying for permanent refugee status in the country, Guevara said the agencys refugees and stateless persons unit (RSPU) will evaluate whether they meet global standards for such status.

The National Bureau of Investigation and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency may also be called upon to determine whether an applicant poses a national security threat, he added.

The DOJ chief also clarified theres no specific quota for the number of refugees the Philippines can accommodate. Theres also no well-defined order of preference regarding who will be granted refugee status, he said, adding everything is on a case-by-case or person-to-person basis.

The Bureau of Immigration is in charge of implementing the departments decision to determine and grant the individual refugee status and will issue them appropriate documentation, said Guevara.

Once granted refugee status, an applicant and his family are essentially on their own, he said. But the Philippine government may extend such assistance as it could afford.

The Palace on Tuesday said the country is ready to accept those fleeing from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over it.

The Philippines is among the few nations in the region to have acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 protocol the UNHCR said, adding the country has likewise enacted a national asylum procedure to determine the refugee status of asylum seekers.

The international organization also supports the DOJ in the determination of refugee claims, and partners with civil society in advocating, assisting, and attaining solutions for refugees and asylum seekers, it added.

From 1980 to 1994, the Philippines took in some 400,000 Indo-Chinese refugees who escaped in boats from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, the UNHCR said. The refugees were processed for relocation to other countries willing to admit them, like the US, Canada, France and Australia.

In 1975 to 1992, several thousand Vietnamese "boat people" also sought refuge in the Philippines.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  The Department of Trade and Industry does not agree with the proposal to prohibit non-vaccinated people from entering shopping malls and other establishments, an official said on Wednesday.

DTI Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said such a move would be discriminatory, adding many Filipinos have not yet received an anti-coronavirus shot, not of their own accord but because of the availability of vaccines.

Secretary (Ramon) Lopez does not subscribe to it, thats the latest I recall, kasi magkakaroon siya ng discrimination [because that would result in discrimination], Castelo told CNN Philippines Newsroom Ngayon.

Ayaw naman natin na mag-discriminate [We don't want to discriminate] against those vaccinated and against those that are not, she added.

Castelo said the government should perhaps wait first for the majority of the Filipino population to be immunized against the coronavirus before considering implementing such a policy.

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion on Tuesday suggested establishments in Metro Manila, such as malls and restaurants, should allow entry only to fully vaccinated people to create "safer bubbles" that could control the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

However, Concepcion also acknowledged that there should be enough fully vaccinated residents before implementing these restrictions.

Official data as of Aug. 15 showed around 27.8 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, with 12.5 million given as second shot. The government's year-end goal is to vaccinate 70 million Filipinos.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  The police continues to monitor Mindanao amid concerns that the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan could inspire local rebel groups to ramp up their attacks, Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said on Wednesday.

Eleazar said they are also working with the military.

"Sa ngayon, maayos at kontrolado natin ang sitwasyon doon," the chief said in a statement. "Hindi namin hahayaan na makapaghasik ng kaguluhan sa bansa ang mga lokal na terorista para sabayan ang gulo sa Afghanistan."

[Translation: For now, the situation there is in order and under control. We will not allow local terrorists to wreak havoc in the country to coincide with the conflict in Afghanistan.]

He said state forces are on full alert and that they will intensify their intelligence-gathering operations.

Earlier this week, the Taliban took hold of the entire country of Afghanistan after the United States withdrew its troops, marking the end of a two-decade war.

The country is now facing the return to power of the Islamic fundamentalist group, which, if it's anything like it was in the 1990s, would mean a deterioration in civil liberties, particularly for women and girls, CNN reported.

READ: Who are the Taliban and how did they take control of Afghanistan so swiftly?

Mindanao, meanwhile, has had a history of attacks by extremists, both local and foreign.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18) - Senators on Wednesday called out Health Secretary Francisco Duque for his rant against the Commission on Audit, saying state auditors are just doing their mandate.

In a Senate inquiry, Blue Ribbon Committee chairman Richard Gordon defended COA, noting that the commission gave the Department of Health enough time to respond to its findings.

"Hindi natin dapat sunugin yung messenger ng COA. Alam ko merong 30 to 60 days para magawan ng paraan yung mga discrepancies o kakulangan ng Department of Health," Gordon said.

[Translation: Do not shoot the messenger of COA. I know the Department of Health was given 30 to 60 days to address the discrepancies.]

"Kaya hindi tayo dapat nagwawala na winarak sila. Sorry Sec. Duque, I do not agree with your statement na winarak kayo. Ginawa ng COA ang tungkulin nila at kayo may pagkakataon na sumagot," Gordon added.

[Translation: That's why we should not throw a fit and say we were destroyed. Sorry, Sec. Duque, I do not agree with your statement that you were destroyed. COA just did its job and you have a chance to respond.]

The embattled secretary on Tuesday claimed state auditors have "destroyed" the image of the DOH over what he described as a premature release of a report stating "deficiencies" in the department's handling of pandemic funds worth 67.3 billion.

Duque said he and other Health officials have lost sleep over the matter.

But for Senator Risa Hontiveros, it's all about accountability.

"Kung may nawarak man ngayong panahon ng pandemya, ang nawarak ay kabuhayan at kinabukasan ng milyon-milyong ordinaryong mamayan," she said.

[Translation: If something was destroyed during this pandemic, it's the livelihood and future of millions of ordinary people.]

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said COA is important "for good governance."

"We are not here to tear the DOH down. We are here to help the DOH. We are here to guide them, particularly this coming budget season, on how we can spend the money efficiently, effectively...Itong mga COA reports (These COA reports), allow them to use as a tool or a guide on how we can improve our agency," he said.

Suspension?

Senator Grace Poe said she believes Duque should have already been suspended over the alleged misuse of pandemic funds.

"Shouldn't Secretary Duque be suspended by now if we're going to apply the same judgment as what happened to the PhilHealth executives?" she argued.

Poe was referring to last year's suspension of several Philippine Health Insurance Corporation officers over alleged corruption in the agency.

"It's very simple, 11.89 billion of unobligated allotment for hazard pay and special risk allowance. Ito ay hindi lamang kapabayaan, sabi nga ng isa, ito po ay kriminal (It's not just a case of negligence, as one said, it's criminal)," she added.

COA also flagged in its report an unutilized amount of 11.89 billion, which was supposed to cover the hazard pay and special risk allowances of healthcare workers amid the pandemic.

Despite calls for the secretary to step down over corruption allegations hounding the DOH, President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not let Duque resign.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  Two decades after being ousted by the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan, Taliban militants are back and have seized control of the Southern Asian country, causing grave concern to the international community. An international studies expert recommends, however, to give them "the benefit of the doubt."

Speaking to CNN Philippines' New Day on Wednesday, International Studies Professor Renato de Castro urged the public to see the whole picture and wait for their next steps after taking over Afghanistan.

"You have to look at it. They fought a 20-year insurgency against a superpower, against its supported regime, so it basically won that civil war. My point is let's give the Taliban a chance. Let's give the benefit of the doubt," he said. "Hopefully, of course, this might be too presumptuousit might adopt the same model as some of the Arab countries in the model like for example Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain. Or hopefully not like Saudi Arabia. A lot of things have changed since they were overthrown in October 2001."

De Castro also said "people are still assuming" that the Taliban faction that ruled in Afghanistan during the September 11 attack in 2001, or 9/11, is the same group that took over the capital city Kabul a few days ago.

"Let's just hope and assume that after 20 years and the fact that the leadership of the Taliban has been exiled abroad, there will be a change," he added.

American troops drove out Taliban forces from Afghanistan in 2001 after accusing the group of supporting the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda founded by Osama bin Laden that mounted the 9/11 attack.

But after the Taliban got hold of Afghanistan once again, US President Joe Biden withdrew American troops, ending the US military's 20-year combat mission in the nation and blaming the Afghan leaders whom he said just "gave up and fled the country."

De Castro said Biden made the right decision, noting that the US government poured over $83 billion for training Afghanistan's military forces to defend their country in the past 20 years.

"President Biden made the right choice to cut it clean. They did not foresee the collapse of the Western-supported government. It's that weak," De Castro said. "So what's the point of fighting for a regime that has no capability nor the willingness to fight for its very own survival?"

De Castro urged the public to look at the next steps of Taliban in the coming months and how these will be perceived by the international community. He said the group's behavior must be measured by how its members will establish policies on three key areas: their openness to have an inclusive Islamic regime built by previous administrations, its views on human rights, and its respect for women's rights.

"You know my bet here is that, the Taliban, they learned their lesson....That depends on the policy they would undertake in the next few months and how of course this will be viewed by the United States, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and the European Union," he said.

Malacanang on Tuesday said the Philippines is willing to accept refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan. The government is also working on the repatriation of Filipinos that are still in Kabul, with over 35 already repatriated so far.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18)  Metro Manila is experiencing an "epidemic of the unvaccinated" based on data of people confined in hospitals, a National Task Force Against COVID-19 adviser said Wednesday, as he stressed the importance of the vaccination drive.

At the Laging Handa briefing, Dr. Ted Herbosa said data showed that about 80% of those confined in hospitals have not been vaccinated.

Meanwhile 10% to 15% have received one dose, and an even smaller number have received two doses but were still admitted to the intensive care unit.

"So, base sa datos na ganito, talagang may epidemya pa ng unvaccinated, that's why very important matuloy iyong pag-vaccinate," Herbosa said.

[Translation: Based on this data, there is a really an epidemic of unvaccinated individuals, that's why it's important to continue the vaccination drive.]

Herbosa also noted that vaccination efforts have slowed down because of lack of manpower, but he said a suggestion has been presented to make up for it.

"Maganda iyong suhestiyon kanina umaga sa aming meeting, nag-suggest si former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, na gamitin na rin iyong medical students na graduating. I think nag-training naman pala sa kanila, inihanda sila. So, parang approval na lang, parang mag-a-allocate pa yata ng kaunting allowance para sa mga medical students na magbo-volunteer at tutulong sa pagbakuna sa mga vaccination centers," he said.

[Translation: Former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit's suggestion this morning to deploy graduating medical students is good. I think they were trained to prepare them. So, all that is needed is an approval, and the allocation of a small allowance for the students who will volunteer and help at vaccination centers.]

On Monday, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. reported to President Rodrigo Duterte that over 27 million vaccines doses have been administered, with over 12.5 million Filipinos fully inoculated against COVID-19.

READ: Gov't urged to order boosters, vaccine shots for kids ASAP

Galvez also said that close to 6 million vaccines of different brands would be arriving in the country this week.
The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville, Millsboro, Long Neck and Georgetown, Delaware areas.
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Brian Quijadas one-person, hip-hop show, Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, blends looped rhythms, rap, songs, poems and spoken word pieces to tell his coming of age story and explore his cultural identity. It opens Thursday on the outdoor stage at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, and runs through Aug. 22.
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!
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There has been some concern that Windows 10 gathers too much private information from users. Whether you think Microsoft's operating system crosses the privacy line or just want to make sure you protect as much of your personal life as possible, we're here to help. Here's how to protect your privacy in just a few minutes.

Note: This story has been updated for the Windows 10 May 2021 Update, version 21H1. If you have an earlier release of Windows 10, some things may be different.

[ Further reading: 15 ways to speed up Windows 10 ]

Turn off ad tracking

At the top of many people's privacy concerns is what data is being gathered about them as they browse the web. That information creates a profile of a person's interests that is used by a variety of companies to target ads. Windows 10 does this with the use of an advertising ID. The ID doesn't just gather information about you when you browse the web, but also when you use Windows 10 apps.

You can turn that advertising ID off if you want. Launch the Windows 10 Settings app (by clicking on the Start button at the lower left corner of your screen and then clicking the Settings icon, which looks like a gear) and go to Privacy > General. There you'll see a list of choices under the title "Change privacy options"; the first controls the advertising ID.

Move the slider from On to Off. You'll still get ads delivered to you, but they'll be generic ones rather than targeted ones, and your interests won't be tracked.

IDG You can turn off Windows 10's advertising ID if you want. You'll still get ads, but they'll be generic ones. (Click image to enlarge it.)

To make absolutely sure you're not tracked online when you use Windows 10, and to turn off any other ways Microsoft will use information about you to target ads, head to the Ad Settings section of Microsoft's Privacy Dashboard. Sign into your Microsoft account at the top right of the page.

Then go to the "See ads that interest you" section at the top of the page and move the slider from On to Off.

Turn off location tracking

Wherever you go, Windows 10 knows you're there. Some people don't mind this, because it helps the operating system give you relevant information, such as your local weather, what restaurants are nearby and so on. But if you don't want Windows 10 to track your location, you can tell it to stop.

Launch the Settings app and go to Privacy > Location. Underneath "Allow access to location on this device," click Change and, on the screen that appears, move the slider from On to Off. Doing that turns off all location tracking for every user on the PC.

IDG Clicking the Change button lets you turn location tracking on or off for every user on the Windows 10 device. (Click image to enlarge it.)

This doesn't have to be all-or-nothing affair  you can turn off location tracking on an app-by-app basis. If you want your location to be used only for some apps and not others, make sure location tracking is turned on, then scroll down to the "Choose apps that can use your precise location" section. You'll see a list of every Windows 10 app that can use your location. Move the slider to On for the apps you want to allow to use your location  for example, Weather or Maps  and to Off for the apps you don't.

That doesnt cover desktop apps, though. So after you turn on location tracking, go to Allow desktop apps to access your location. When you do that, a list of desktop apps that use location tracking appears. Move the slider to On for each of the apps you want to use your location and Off for each app you dont.

When you turn off location tracking, Windows 10 will still keep a record of your past location history. To clear your location history, go to the Privacy Dashboard, scroll down to the Location Activity section, click View and Clear Location Activity, and delete all or some of your location history.

There's a lot more you can do to protect your privacy when you're there. For details, see "Use Microsoft's Privacy Dashboard" below.

Turn off Timeline

Timeline is a Windows 10 feature that lets you review and then resume activities and open files you've started on your Windows 10 PC, as well as any other Windows PCs and devices you have. So, for example, you can switch between a desktop and a laptop, and from each machine resume activities you've started on either PC.

In order to do that, Windows needs to gather information about all your activities on each of your machines. If that worries you, it's easy to turn Timeline off. To do it, go to Settings > Privacy > Activity history and uncheck the boxes next to Store my activity history on this device and Send my activity history to Microsoft.

IDG Here's how to turn off Timeline so that Microsoft doesn't gather information about your activities on your PC. (Click image to enlarge it.)

At that point, Windows 10 no longer gathers information about your activities. However, it still keeps information about your old activities and shows them in your Timeline on all your PCs. To get rid of that old information, go down to the "Clear activity history" section of the screen and click Clear.

Note that you'll have to take these steps on all of your PCs to turn off the tracking of your activities.

Curb Cortana

Cortana is a somewhat useful digital assistant, but there's a tradeoff in using it: To do its job well, it needs to know things about you such as your home location, place of work, and the times and route you take to commute there. If you're worried it will invade your privacy by doing that, there are a few things you can do to limit the information Cortana gathers about you. But there's some information you'll have to share with Cortana if you want to use the assistant at all.

Start by opening Cortana settings: Click the Cortana icon to the right of the Windows search box (it's a circle), then click the three-dot icon in the upper left of the screen and select the settings icon that appears in the pane. Then click Privacy. A panel appears that lets you, to a limited extent, limit the information Cortana gathers about you.

IDG Here's the central location for handling privacy in Cortana, but there's not a lot you can do to limit its privacy gathering if you want to continue to use it. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Click Revoke permission and sign out, and you'll be signed out of Cortana, your chat history will be cleared, and Cortana won't track information such as your location or connect with your calendar, email, contacts and other apps and services. But you won't be able to use Cortana, either. The next time you sign in, Cortana will once against track you and connect with all those services.

If you only want to clear your chat history but remain signed into Cortana, click Clear in the chat history section. Your chat history will be deleted, but once you start using Cortana, you'll once again build up a chat history.

Note that the Microsoft Privacy dashboard section of Cortanas settings is outdated. It brings you to the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard, but the Dashboard no longer lets you clear Cortana data.

Ditch a Microsoft account for a local account

When you use your Microsoft account to log into Windows 10, you're able to sync your settings with all Windows devices. So, for example, when you make changes to your settings on a desktop PC, those changes will also be made on your laptop the next time you log in.

But maybe you don't want Microsoft to store that information about you. And maybe you want to cut your ties as much as possible to anything Microsoft stores about you. If that's the case, your best bet is to stop using your Microsoft account and instead use a local account.

To do it, go to Settings > Accounts > Family & other users. Then click Add someone else to this PC. From the screen that appears, select I don't have this person's sign-in information. On the next page, select Add a user without a Microsoft account and follow the instructions to create and use a local account.

Keep in mind that when you do this, you won't be able to use Microsoft's OneDrive storage or download and install for-pay apps from the Microsoft Store. You can, however, download and install free apps from the Microsoft Store.

Change your app permissions

Windows apps have the potential to invade your privacy  they can have access to your camera, microphone, location, pictures and videos.

But you can decide, in a very granular way, what kind of access each app can have.

To do this, go to Settings > Apps. Below "Apps & features" you'll see a list of your installed apps. Click the app whose permissions you want to control, then click Advanced options and set the app's permissions by toggling them either on or off.

IDG Setting permissions for Microsofts 3D Viewer app. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Note, though, that not all apps have an "Advanced options" link. And of those that do, not all let you customize your app permissions.

However, there's another way to change app permissions. To do it, go to Settings > Privacy and look under the "App permissions" section on the left-hand side of the page. You'll see a list of all of Windows' hardware, capabilities and features that apps can access if they're given permission  location, camera, microphone, notifications, account info, contacts and so on.

Click any of the listed items  for example, Microphone. At the top of the page that appears, you can turn off access to the microphone for all apps. Below that you'll see a listing of all the apps with access to the microphone, where you can control access on an app-by-app basis. Any app with access has a slider that is set to On. To stop any app from having access, move the slider to Off.

Control and delete diagnostic data

As you use Windows 10, data is gathered about your hardware and what you do when you use Windows. Microsoft says that it collects this data as a way to continually improve Windows and to offer you customized advice on how to best use Windows.

That makes plenty of people uncomfortable. If you're one of them, you can to a certain extent control what kind of diagnostic data is gathered about you. To do it, head to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & Feedback. In the "Diagnostic data" section, you can choose between two levels of diagnostic data to be gathered. Note that there's no way to stop Microsoft from gathering diagnostic data entirely. Here are your two choices:

Required diagnostic data : This sends information to Microsoft "about your device, its settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly." If you're worried about your privacy, this is the setting to choose.

: This sends information to Microsoft "about your device, its settings and capabilities, and whether it is performing properly." If you're worried about your privacy, this is the setting to choose. Optional diagnostic data: This sends the whole nine yards to Microsoft: It will send info about the websites you browse and how you use apps and features, plus additional info about device health, device usage, and enhanced error reporting." It also sends along required diagnostic data. If you're worried about your privacy, don't make this choice.

IDG Go here to control what diagnostic data Windows 10 gathers. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Next, scroll down to the "Tailored experiences" section and move the slider to Off. This won't affect the data Microsoft gathers, but it will turn off targeted ads and tips that are based on that information. So while it won't enhance your privacy, you'll at least cut down on the annoyance factor.

Now scroll a bit further down and in the "Delete diagnostic data" section, click Delete. That will delete all the diagnostic data Microsoft has gathered about you. However, after you delete it, Microsoft will start gathering the data again.

Finally on this screen, consider scrolling up to the "Improve inking & typing recognition" section and moving the slider to Off. That will stop Windows 10 from sending to Microsoft the words you input using the keyboard and inking.

One final note about diagnostic data. You may have heard about a tool Microsoft has been hyping, called the Diagnostic Data Viewer, which you can download from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft claims it lets you see exactly what kind of diagnostic data Microsoft gathers about you. Don't believe it. It's something only a programmer could love  or understand. You won't be able to use it to clearly see the diagnostic data Microsoft collects. Instead, you'll scroll or search through incomprehensible headings such as "TelClientSynthetic.PdcNetworkActivation_4" and "Microsoft.Windows.App.Browser.IEFrameProcessAttached" with no explanation of what it means. Click any heading, and you'll find even more incomprehensible data.

Use Microsoft's Privacy Dashboard

Microsoft has built an excellent, little-known web tool called the Privacy Dashboard that lets you track and delete a lot of information Microsoft gathers about you. To get to it, go to https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/.

As covered earlier in this story, here you can turn off ad targeting. You can also view and delete your browsing history, search history, location activity, voice activity, media activity, and more.

(Note that for your browsing and search history, it only tracks your activity when you use Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer. It doesn't track data when you use other browsers, like Chrome or Firefox. And it only tracks your location history when you're using Microsoft devices, not those that use iOS or Android.)

IDG Microsoft's little-known Privacy Dashboard is a great place to delete much of the information Microsoft gathers about you. (Click image to enlarge it.)

To use it, head to the information you want to view and clear, then click the appropriate link  for example, View and delete browser history in Microsoft Edge. Note that in some instances, you wont have full control over deleting and managing data.

Get granular in the Settings app

All this shouldn't take that long and will do a great deal to protect your privacy. However, if you want to dig even deeper into privacy protections, there's something else you can do.

Launch the Settings app and click Privacy. On the left-hand side of the screen, you'll see the various areas where you can get even more granular about privacy  for example, in the Windows permissions section you can change your global privacy options for things such as speech recognition and inking. And here's where you'll get access to all app permissions, as outlined earlier in this article.

These steps can take you a long way towards making sure that Windows 10 doesn't cross the line into gathering data you'd prefer remain private.

This article was originally published in January 2016 and most recently updated in August 2021.

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Teteyu.com scored 40 Social Media Impact. Social Media Impact score is a measure of how much a site is popular on social networks. 2/5.0 Stars by Social Team

This CoolSocial report was updated on 18 May 2015, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.

The total number of people who shared the teteyu homepage on Delicious. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared, liked or recommended the teteyu homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if teteyu has a Facebook fan page). The total number of people who shared the teteyu homepage on StumbleUpon. This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the teteyu homepage on Twitter + the total number of teteyu followers (if teteyu has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the teteyu homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button.

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PAGE TITLE _ DESCRIPTION ! KEYWORDS , ,  OTHER KEYWORDS puripara , puripara , puripara , puripara , puripara , puripara , puripara



The description meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. The title found in the head section of the homepage. The keywords meta-tag found in the head section of the homepage. CoolSocial advanced keyword analysis tool is able to detect and analyze every keyword on each page of a site.

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DOCTYPE XHTML 1.0 Transitional CHARSET AND LANGUAGE GB2312 DETECTED LANGUAGE SERVER nginx OPERATIVE SYSTEM

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Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for teteyu.com by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

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Well, folks, in case the news about Afghanistan, the Delta Variant, and the earthquake in Haiti weren't enough to make you bust out the tissues on this Tuesday evening, it seems we come bearing even more somber news. Several episodes of Disney+'s new animated series What if  marked a heart-wrenching milestone MCU and Hollywood as a whole  Chadwick Boseman's final acting performance before passing away almost one year ago.

Yet aside from entertaining audiences everywhere with his iconic portrayal of the beloved hero for the last time, including What if TChalla Was Star-Lord?, one of the several episodes he starred in, it seems Boseman's performance had a broader impact on Marvel as a whole  inspiring the direction of Black Panther 2, according to Marvel President, Kevin Feige.

We didnt know it would be his final performance obviously, Marvel president Kevin Feige told Variety. He came in numerous times, was so gung ho about it, was so excited about it," the exec recalled. "He read the episode that airs 24 hours from now and then came back and said I really love this version of TChalla. And we had a conversation after that with Ryan [Coogler, director of Wakanda Forever] about how do we get some of this voicenone of the storylinebut just some of that voice into Panther 2 Im excited for the fans to see that as well.

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So, folks, here's to Chadwick Boseman. Thank you for inspiring so many.

For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ on TikTok as @HuntressThompson_, and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.
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Yes, there is no better qualified city than Colorado Springs.

Not a big deal, as long as most Space Force operations remain here.

Huntsville, Alabama deserves it. People can afford to live there.

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Andy Tanner is reworking his solo material for a three-piece  Bandy Tanner  playing Aug. 27 at the Nickel.
Governor agrees delta variant is problem, but not enough to mandate masks in schools
International ransomware gangs aren't the only people after your enterprise's money. Long after a ransomware attack fades into gloomy history, your organization could face another potentially devastating financial threat: lawyers filing action lawsuits on behalf of clients who may have lost confidential personal or business information to the attackers.

Data breach legal actions aren't going away, as bad actors continue to exploit weaknesses in corporate IT systems and gain access to personal data, says David Balser, an attorney and leader of King & Spaldings trial and global disputes practice. "As cases evolve, plaintiffs are advancing novel theories of causation and damages, even when no harm to consumers has occurred," he notes.

Ted Kobus, practice chair for digital assets and digital management at law firm BakerHostetler, believes that the ransomware lawsuit landscape is rapidly changing. "Historically, we have seen consumers filing these lawsuits," he says. "However, due to the increase in the number of supply chain attacks, we may see downstream companies attempting to create a class seeking indemnification for business interruption, incident response costs, and other damages."

Fortunately, a ransomware attack doesn't have to expose an enterprise to potential lawsuits. It's up to the CISO to minimize the risk of ransomware attacks and, if one occurs, to immediately take the steps necessary to limit the damage.

Here are seven actions CISOs can take to protect their enterprise against ransomware-related legal actions.

1. Assess the risk

The likelihood of a lawsuit is primarily dependent upon the type of ransomware attack, as well as what information was stolenif any. "For instance, if you operate a consumer-facing website that's frozen due to ransomware, but no consumer information is extracted, the likelihood of a class action is minimal," says Jeff Dennis, a partner at law firm Newmeyer & Dillion. However, if the ransomware attack led to the extraction of mass amounts of consumer data, then the chances of facing a class action lawsuit may increase dramatically. "Additionally, if you are a company that stores or manages data for a number of other companies and you are ransomed, you may face a class action lawsuit brought by those companies if they cannot access their data for a significant period of time," he notes.

A proper risk assessment will tell you where your weak points are in network access permissions, network monitoring and visibility, backup systems, and staff training. Include your connected business partners in the assessment process, too, to ensure that they have deployed strong security technologies and practices.

2. Adopt ransomware prevention best practices

The best way for an organization to protect itself against a financially devastating lawsuit is to take reasonable steps to avoid becoming a ransomware attack victim. Such steps include conducting cybersecurity education and awareness activities, creating an incident response plan, controlling and ranking user access privileges, monitoring for potential malware exposures, and deploying effective network monitoring and visibility tools.

3. Build a recovery plan

Since a ransomware attack can occur anytime, anyplace, and to any type of enterprise, it's important to be fully prepared. A disaster recovery plan will help an organization victimized by ransomware to get back on its feet as quickly as possible with minimal impact on customers and business partners.

Many organizations follow the "3-2-1" backup and recovery rule. This strategy requires creating three file backups, with two backups placed on different types of storage media and another copy located offsite (but not in the cloud, which might also be affected by an attack). The recovery plan should also address backup frequency (generally at least daily) and regular backup testing.

4. Practice good security hygiene

If a CISO follows generally accepted security best practices, it's likely that the organization will be recognized for its good faith efforts and less likely to be viewed as negligent.

A first step toward ensuring that critical files are ransomware resistant is requiring two-factor authentication for access, notes Ron Gula, president of venture capital and private equity firm Gula Tech Adventures. Other steps to take include encrypting data, setting backup drive files to read-only once the write process has been completed, and unmounting the drive the moment a backup is completed.

Additional common-sense security measures include keeping system and application software up to date, using segmented network technology, and educating management and staff on generally recommended security practices. "Ransomware testing must be continuous as well," Gula warns. "Just like wearing masks and getting vaccines for COVID, protecting your files and data from ransomware is the new normal."

In essence, prevention is the best protection. An enterprise that's committed to following best security practices and updating its strategy and tactics as the ransomware battlefield evolves, should be able to successfully defend itself against aggrieved parties today and for years to come. "The law regarding customers suing for data breaches is far from clear, with some federal courts making ... plaintiffs prove significant harm while others have said that the threat of future harm, such as through identity theft, is sufficient to provide legal standing," says Steven J.J. Weisman, an attorney and college professor who teaches courses on white collar crime at Bentley University. "Regardless, it can be expected that companies will in the future be held to greater standards in regard to protecting their data."

5. Encourage top-down management support

Senior management commitment is critical to a cybersecurity compliance programs success, says Braden Perry, a litigation, regulatory, and government investigations attorney at law firm Kennyhertz Perry. "This commitment is shown when management ... provides the compliance department with the authority to implement, communicate, and improve compliance policies and procedures."

Even the best security policies and practices will ultimately fail without the full support of enterprise leaders. It's crucial to have direct-line access to the CEO and the organizations oversight committees, Perry says. "The CISO should be part of senior management, with sufficient resources and staff to oversee and manage the compliance structure," he advises. Forward-thinking enterprises view and treat their compliance departments as an asset, not a cost, which can be the key to creating buy-in from the top down.

6. Support transparency

Once a ransomware attack has been confirmed, the CISO should immediately begin working with management colleagues on ways to minimize the event's impact on external parties. Kobus suggests focusing response efforts on clearly and honestly communicating with all affected individuals or business partners. "In the more than 15 years I have been working on these types of matters, there has been one constantclear and transparent communication is the best way to assure affected parties that you conducted a responsible and appropriate investigation ... and you have taken steps to ensure that this type of incident does not happen again."

Enterprises that are transparent with their customers, actively engage with them, and generally try to do the right thing, stand the best chance of either avoiding or winning a ransomware lawsuit, Dennis says. Being open about the attack's scope and impact, as well as detailing the steps that were taken to protect confidential customer data, can go a long way toward defusing the anger that many class action attorneys relish, he notes.

7. Consider insurance coverage

Depending on the policy acquired, general liability insurance may be able to protect an enterprise against some or all lawsuit costs. "The insurance company will ordinarily cover the investigation, litigationincluding attorney feesand judgments/settlement," Perry says. Be sure to check the policy carefully, however, including any recent updates or amendments. Given the recent rise in ransomware attacks, most insurance carriers are beginning to reevaluate their coverage options.

There's also an important downside to relying on general liability insurance as a financial shield. "There are disadvantages, as your litigation strategy is put into the insurance company's hands and they control who they hire, and the strategy/settlement negotiations," Perry explains. He also warns that insurance policies generally wont cover punitive damages or intentional acts.

Perry also cautions against relying on errors and omissions (E&O) or professional liability insurance, since such policies are limited to service provided. "This is questionable coverage for ransomware attacks, so an enterprise may be stuck with traditional liability coverage," he notes.
As the federal government may soon recommend a COVID-19 vaccine booster amid a surge in infections driven by the delta variant, Connecticut officials say they will do what it takes to get residents additional doses.

The New York Times, citing officials within the Biden administration, said the decision for a booster could come as early as this week, but hinges on approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

Were ready to go. ... Weve got plenty of vaccine. Weve got the distribution facilities in place, Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday. When they say green light for those who are older ought to get a booster, well be ready. My hunch, if I had to guess, they are going to give us the green light for those in nursing homes first.

While boosters have been discussed amid the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant, federal regulators had until recently not approved additional doses. Last week, the FDA approved additional doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for those who are moderately to severely immunocompromised  a relatively small group of the general population.

Connecticut officials said they would follow the latest recommendation for administering a third dose to those who are immunocompromised. While they do not have an exact number of people affected, state officials believe its a small group of residents and supply will not be a problem.

Well do what it takes to get the people who need that booster, vaccinated, Lamont said Tuesday. My instinct is right now that with our pharmacy partners and our medical providers, that may be enough. We are also bringing mobile vaccines to high schools and such.

For a broader booster program, officials are also confident the supply will not be an issue, like it was early in the vaccine program.

How a booster rollout would look in Connecticut depends on what the federal government may recommend, officials said.

Acting Department of Public Commissioner Deidre Gifford said she was not sure if mass vaccination sites would return.

It depends on how broad their dose recommendation is, she said.

Unlike initial vaccine rollout, Gifford said primary care physician will be involved in administering boosters.

Gifford noted on Tuesday the third dose being administered to those who are immunocompromised does not equate to a booster. She said the CDC has been clear that the third dose is given to these individuals because they do not get an adequate immune response from two doses. Meanwhile, a booster is meant to address waning immunity over a period of months.

A potential booster recommendation comes as Connecticut has seen a slowing of the overall vaccination rate. After early demand for the vaccine, weekly doses administered dropped sharply in late June and July, state statistics show.

Dr. Jo-Anne Passalacqua, an infectious disease specialist with Hartford Healthcare and St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport, has heard about the likelihood of booster vaccines, but anticipates residents might have some resistance to the idea.

I think its going to be a lot for people to sort of wrap their minds around. Were still rolling out the first round of vaccine, and talking about second round of vaccine is maybe going to be hard for people, she said.

While the pace of vaccine administration has fallen off, Connecticut has among the highest vaccination rates in he country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 74 percent of all eligible state residents are fully vaccinated and more than 82 percent have received at least one dose.

Now eight months into the vaccine program, Passalacqua said shes seen a significant number of breakthrough infections  COVID cases in people who have been fully vaccinated.

Were not seeing critical illness and death in fully vaccinated people, but we are seeing illness and, in some cases, hospitalization, she said. That makes you think it might be a real benefit to this booster situation.
NEW YORK (AP)  Here's what to know about R Kelly's criminal trial in New York, which began Wednesday:

WHAT IS R. KELLY KNOWN FOR?

Youve probably heard I Believe I Can Fly at an inspirational moment or Ignition (Remix) at a college party. Thats R. Kelly. The 54-year-old is an R&B superstar whose heyday was in the 90s and early 2000s when he racked up a slew of awards, including multiple Grammys.

WHERE IS R. KELLY CHARGED?

New York, Illinois and Minnesota, all sex-related cases. The trial now underway is in a federal court in Brooklyn. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

WHAT IS THIS SPECIFIC TRIAL ABOUT?

This is a racketeering case. Prosecutors say R. Kelly physically, sexually and psychologically dominated children  girls and boys  and women, often recording sex acts with minors, and using a cadre of loyalists to do his bidding and recruit victims. Kelly's lawyers have pushed back, calling the accusers groupies who "were dying to be with him.

CAN I WATCH THE R. KELLY TRIAL LIVE?

No. No cameras are allowed in federal court.

COULD R. KELLY SERVE PRISON TIME IF CONVICTED?

The top count of racketeering carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He also faces charges under the Mann Act.

WHAT IS THE MANN ACT?

The Mann Act is a 1910 law that forbids transporting any woman or girl over state lines for immoral acts.

WAS R. KELLY CHARGED WITH A CRIME WHEN HE MARRIED 15-YEAR-OLD AALIYAH IN 1994?

Not at the time. Aaliyah, an R&B superstar whose career was cut short by a fatal plane crash in 2001, worked with Kelly. He produced her debut album, which happened to be named Age Ain't Nothing But A Number. They married in secret that same year, but it was annulled months later because she was underage.

HOW OLD WAS R. KELLY WHEN HE MARRIED AALIYAH?

27.

DOES AALIYAH HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS CASE?

Yes. This is the first time R. Kelly has faced charges in connection with his marriage to Aaliyah. Federal prosecutors charged Kelly with obtaining a fake ID for a minor the day before their wedding. Kelly's attorneys have long said he didn't know how old she was. Their Illinois marriage license said she was 18.

IS R. KELLY IN JAIL RIGHT NOW?

When he isn't in court, he's at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal lockup in Brooklyn. That's the same jail currently holding Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite awaiting trial on charges that she procured young victims for the sex-abusing millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

HOW LONG HAS R. KELLY BEEN IN JAIL?

Hes been held since July 2019, when federal indictments were announced in Chicago and New York. But hes only been in New York since June. His lawyer says hes gained a lot of weight and run out of money while in jail.

WAS R. KELLY ATTACKED IN JAIL?

Yeah, almost exactly a year ago, in Chicago. A convicted member of the Latin Kings gang says he beat Kelly up  repeatedly hitting him on the head  because he wanted attention on his own case. Kelly's lawyers tried to use the attack as justification for releasing him on bail, to no avail.

WHO IS ON THE JURY?

Seven men, five women. We don't know who the jurors are  the judge ordered their names and other details that could identify them withheld.

HOW LONG IS THE TRIAL EXPECTED TO LAST?

About a month or so.

WHO HAS TESTIFIED SO FAR?

Jerhonda Pace, who testified she was 16 when she met Kelly. She said he beat and choked her and gave her herpes. An ex-employee, Anthony Navarro, said he never saw any sexual abuse but testified that R. Kelly's home was like a Twilight Zone where everyone  including girls  was under his thumb, needing to seek permission to eat or leave.

IS THERE ANYTHING UNUSUAL ABOUT THE TRIAL?

Well, media and the public are barred from the courtroom and have to watch a video feed of the witnesses from an overflow room, where no phones or computers are allowed. The judge cited coronavirus concerns in decreeing the viewing accommodations, but other recent trials in New York have permitted access to the courtroom.

THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME R. KELLY'S BEEN IN LEGAL HOT WATER, RIGHT?

He was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago. He's also been embroiled in many lawsuits.
GUILFORD  Republican Board of Education incumbent candidates who were defeated in Julys caucus and two newcomers have petitioned for a GOP primary next month.

The Republican Registrar of Voters confirmed the petition garnered more than the 200 required signatures to force a primary, according to a press release from the slate of candidates.

The slate, which includes incumbents Joseph Golino, Theodore Sands and Amy Sullivan and newcomers William C. Mulligan and James F. OKeefe, have joined forces since the caucus.

Mulligan was a member of the Guilford High School Building Committee that managed the construction of the new high school and OKeefe is a former Board of Finance member and former chairman of the Guilford Republican Town Committee.

A group of political newcomers  Bill Maisano, Nick Cusano, Tim Chamberlain, Alexandra Passarelli and Danielle Scarpellino  won the Republican endorsements for Board of Education at last months caucus.

The hotly debated issue of how race is being taught in Guilford schools has become a campaign platform for these candidates.

They believe critical race theory, a controversial academic framework through which to view systems of racism and oppression in America, is being taught in local classrooms. However, members of the school board and Superintendent Paul Freeman have denied those claims and there has been no evidence critical race theory is being taught in Guilford or elsewhere in Connecticut.

The petitioning GOP candidates, running under the slate Republicans for Education, emphasized the district is not teaching critical race theory to students.

Mulligan and OKeefe, who consider themselves moderate Republicans, see critical race theory as a divisive issue that does not focus on the best interest of the students, their statement said.

The Republican primary will be held Sept. 14.

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties became the third and fourth school districts in Florida to adopt stricter mask mandates Wednesday, a day after school boards in Broward and Alachua counties faced threats of severe penalties for defying Gov. Ron DeSantis administration.

The Hillsborough County school board, which oversees the state's third-largest district with more than 206,000 students in the Tampa area, voted 5-2 to adopt a 30-day mask mandate with a medical opt-out for students, teachers and staff. Most school districts have adopted optional mask policies or given options to parents to easily opt out of requirements. The new policy takes effect Thursday.

Hillsborough school board attorney Jim Porter acknowledged the move could lead to conflict with DeSantis and state education officials who argue such mandates are illegal and subject to punishment.

There is a risk they will find us in non-compliance, Porter said at a nearly five-hour meeting.

The main sponsor, board member Nadia Combs, said the virus outbreak poses an immediate danger to the system and steps must be taken to contain it or the district might face a complete shutdown. Within days of students returning to class, infections forced thousands of students into isolation, having tested positive for COVID-19, or into quarantine because of close contact with a positive case.

I am not on the board for political partisanship, Combs said. We have to keep our schools open. That is my goal.

One member who voted against the mask mandate, Melissa Snively, said there will be repercussions from the state that could include funding cuts, although President Joe Biden has vowed the federal government would make up any losses for districts that impose mask mandates.

Were going to go down this road and get our hands slapped, Snively said. I have no interest today in breaking the law.

Also Wednesday, the Miami-Dade school board passed a similar mandate with a medical exemption by a 7-1 vote. In Miami-Dade, Florida's largest school district with 334,000 students, a task force of medical experts recommended students be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms next week. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho agreed and pushed for the new rule at Wednesday's meeting.

DeSantis said at a Wednesday news conference near Fort Lauderdale that Broward, Miami-Dade and other districts that impose mask mandates are violating a law passed by the Legislature and signed by him that states it is up to parents to make health decisions.

Last month, DeSantis held a news conference with parents who opposed mask mandates in schools and issued an executive order to protect parents right to make decisions regarding masking of their children." DeSantis' order also tasked the education commissioner to find ways to make districts comply, including withholding state funds.

The districts were changing their policies following a recommendation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools wear masks.

Forcing young kids to wear masks all day, these kindergartners, having the government to force them, thats not defying me, that is defying the state of Floridas laws, DeSantis said. This is not something we are making up. This is what the state law says."

In Broward County, the state's second-largest district with 261,000 students, two teachers and an assistant teacher died from COVID-19 last week. In Miami, a 13-year-old student and four district employees have died from the virus in recent weeks, Carvalho said.

Hospitalizations have risen this week in the state after slowing down over the weekend. Hospitals are reporting 16,721 patients with COVID-19, compared to Tuesday's tally of 16,521, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. About 55%  more than 3,600 patients  of intensive care unit patients have COVID-19.

Many hospitals statewide expect critical staffing shortages starting next week.

There can be no question that many Florida hospitals are stretched to their absolute limits, said Mary Mayhew, president of the Florida Hospital Association.

Floridas Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday for the Department of Education to further investigate Broward and Alachua school districts to impose possible sanctions and report to the state Legislature, which could take additional action for violating rules such as not allowing opt-out for parents who dont want their children wearing masks.

Despite this pressure, the Alachua County School Board, which serves nearly 30,000 students in the Gainesville area, voted Tuesday night to extend its mask mandate for another two months, WJXT reported. Alachua's mandate requires a doctor's note, violating the governor's executive order to let students opt out without requiring any medical recommendations, referrals, or permissions, the station reported.

___

Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in Tampa, Florida, Kelli Kennedy, Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.

___

Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
3 1 of 3 Bridgeport Police / Contributed Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Bridgeport Police / Contributed Show More Show Less 3 of 3





BRIDGEPORT  The police departments Detective Bureau is asking for the public to help to identify a man they say was responsible for intentionally setting a fire in the city earlier this year.

The individual allegedly set fire to a structure on the corner of Olive and Rosedale streets on Jan. 15. Police said the man was seen on surveillance footage walking away after allegedly setting the fire and watching from a distance.
BRIDGEPORT  The head of the local NAACP and a former mayor are calling on city officials to seek an independent investigation after a former senior police officer alleged in a recent lawsuit that he was forced to resign after being ordered to help former Police Chief Armando Perez cheat on the police chiefs exam.

In his lawsuit, filed recently in Superior Court, former Police Capt. Mark Straubel claims he was forced to resign in August 2018 under duress by Perez and former police union president Charles Paris after Straubel was ordered by Perez to assist him in a conspiracy to rig the selection process for chief of police so that Perez would ultimately gain the permanent position of chief of police.

After helping Perez become chief, the lawsuit states, Perez and Paris forced Straubel to resign by threatening to expose allegedly racist comments Straubel had made to a co-worker and also threatening to put illegal material on Straubels work computer to be found by the Office of Internal Affairs.

Straubel also claims in the lawsuit that Perez often used racist language and fantasized about eliminating Black officers. Straubel claims in the suit that as Perezs top aide, he witnessed Perez on a daily basis engaged in racist commentary with his administrative assistants.

The suit states that Perez also encouraged Straubel to engage in a sexual relationship with another city employee to learn what was going on in the Police Department.

There must be a call for an outside investigation of the entire situation dealing with Straubel and the actions of the Police Department, said the Rev. Stanley Lord, head of the local NAACP.Several of the former chiefs staff that may be complicit with his harmful actions are currently working and possibly intercepting evidence to correct the pervasive culture Perez cultivated. We look forward to seeing this travesty of justice corrected by seeking an expanding the federal and local investigation address actions made by city and police employees who have damaged the quality of life and livelihood of Black people and other minorities in our community.

Former Bridgeport mayor Thomas Bucci represents police captains Roderick Porter and Lonnie Blackwell in federal discrimination lawsuits against the Police Department. Porter contends in his lawsuit that he was the victim of racist comments by Straubel.

There are serious allegations in this lawsuit that should result in a thorough, unbiased investigation, Bucci said.

The allegations are so serious and this misbehavior all emanates back to the corrupt appointment of AJ Perez as chief of police. And those responsible for that appointment are still in office, Bucci said. It has to be investigated and not just through the civil proceedings. Im calling on a referral by city police authorities to recognize they are not independent and that this should be referred to an independent law enforcement agency for investigation.

Straubels lawyer, Eric Brown, said he would not oppose an independent investigation of his clients allegations but at this point he is relying on the lawsuit and the civil discovery process to provide them with the information they need for their case.

But if the city believes in order to get rid of the stink of the Perez administration it may need to do this (an independent investigation) it could be a good thing, he said.

Brown added that his client has taken great courage to come forward and expose what has happened behind closed doors but I believe that wherever this lawsuit leads it will be good for the community.

Brown also represents former Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi who claims in a lawsuit that he was deprived of the chiefs job by the illegal actions of Perez and Dunn.

Straubel is seeking unspecified damages in his suit against the city, Perez, Paris, and the Police Departments union. City officials, Paris, and the union did not return calls and emails for comment on Monday.

We will respond in court, said Perezs lawyer, Robert Frost.

Straubel resigned from the Police Department in August 2018, following the release of allegedly racist texts that were investigated by the Bridgeport States Attorney. He resigned after being placed on paid leave by Perez pending further investigation.

The plaintiff suffered damages including lost wages and benefits in the past, present and future and emotional distress, the lawsuit states.

The 65-year-old Perez was sentenced last April to a year and a day in prison after he and the citys former personnel director, David Dunn, pleaded guilty last October to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making a false statement to the FBI. Dunn was sentenced to four months in prison.

According to federal prosecutors, both Perez and Dunn participated in a nine-month conspiracy to deceive the city by secretly rigging the purportedly open and competitive selection process for a permanent Bridgeport chief.

Prosecutors stated that Perez enlisted two officers under his command, who are only designated in the memorandum as Officer 1 and Officer 2, to prepare his resume and cover letter for the search process and later to complete his written examination and to get the oral exam test questions in advance.

In his lawsuit, Straubel states that he was Officer 1 and was ordered by Perez to help him cheat on the selection process. The plaintiff felt coerced into participating in this conspiracy under threat of job loss, the lawsuit states.
TERMEZ, Uzbekistan (AP)  When Sami Elbigi heard about the Taliban's advance towards Mazar-e-Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan that has been the main hub of anti-Taliban resistance, he knew it was time to run.

He took his phones, a suit and some clothing and kissed his mother goodbye. A thought crossed his mind that might be the last time he will ever see her.

Elbigi, 30, left his Afghan hometown of Hairatan and rushed to the Uzbek border. He still had a valid business visa due to his profitable cross-border oil company, so entering Uzbekistan wasn't a problem. But he was one of the lucky few who managed to find refuge in the ex-Soviet republic in recent days  those without visas have not been allowed in.

The Taliban takeover happened so fast, we have not expected that. I still cannot believe it, Elbigi told The Associated Press, sitting in a cafe in Termez, an Uzbek city close to the Afghan border, with numb disbelief on his face.

My visa expires in one month, and I dont know what I will do next. I have no plan. I left everything behind, he said.

As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in a swift power grab, thousands of Afghans have been looking for ways to escape what they see as a return of a ruthless fundamentalist rule. But neighboring Uzbekistan appears wary about a flood of Afghan refugees.

Afghan citizens who applied for Uzbek visas in recent months told The Associated Press that Uzbekistan has been refusing visas to Afghans, citing coronavirus concerns.

Experts note that Uzbek authorities have long maintained a tightly closed border with Afghanistan, fearing an influx of extremists, and have only accepted a handful of asylum-seekers from its unstable neighbor.

Since the Taliban controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s, "the Uzbek government has continually refused to sign and ratify the Refugee Convention  one of the most widely observed treaties in the world  which would require it to provide some type of processing and protection to those seeking asylum out of fear of persecution, said Steve Swerdlow, a human rights lawyer and associate professor of human rights at the University of Southern California.

The Taliban's advances in Afghanistan in recent months made several Central Asian nations nervous, prompting authorities in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to ramp up border security. Afghanistan borders Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and a tiny strip along China's Xinjiang region.

Last week, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Russia finished joint military drills in the Tajik region of Khatlon, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Afghan border. On Tuesday, the Russian military started another exercise in Tajikistan. China and Russia held joint military exercises last week in northwest China.

But the slow vibe of the southern Uzbek city of Termez bears few traces of the unfolding crisis across the border. A few Afghans in traditional two-piece garments walk down the streets but city life continues undisturbed.

Termez, a largely Persian-speaking city, has long been a town of choice for many Afghans moving to Uzbekistan.

Together with the U.N. Development Program, the Uzbek government in 2019 opened the Termez Centre for Education in Afghanistan, a place where Afghan girls facing hurdles in education could continue their studies. Men from northern Afghanistan have also set up businesses in the city.

For the past three years, Fayzad Hasanzoda, 20, and his brother successfully ran a restaurant in Termez. They said they invested $1 million in the venture, which makes their stay in Uzbekistan secure. But despite their high social status in Uzbekistan, they were unable to help their family escape from Afghanistan.

I applied for a visa for my parents, my brother and sister two months ago. Normally it takes a week to receive it, but we still haven't gotten any response, Hasanzoda told the AP. We want them to join us in Uzbekistan, but its not easy.

Since the fighting in northern Afghanistan intensified, there are regular reports about Afghan soldiers fleeing across the highly guarded border but they are routinely sent back.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry reported that 84 Afghan servicemen crossed into Uzbekistan on Saturday and asked for assistance. The ministry said it was in touch with Afghan officials regarding their return.

There are exceptions, however. On Aug. 14, Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan army commander, former northern warlord and vice president, crossed into Uzbekistan with a group of followers, which marked his surrender in the fight with the Taliban for control of Afghanistan's northern districts. His current whereabouts are unclear, but the commander, an ethnic Uzbek, has a house in Termez and has maintained close ties with the Uzbek government.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministrys news agency, Dunyo, said on Tuesday that media reports about the alleged presence of Dostum, as well as another former warlord, Ata Mohammad Noor, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Uzbekistan were, according to official information, not true.

On Sunday, an Afghan military plane crashed in Uzbekistan. Two pilots aboard survived and were hospitalized. Official Uzbek reports emerged Monday then were retracted about hundreds of Afghan military troops reaching Uzbekistan in dozens of aircraft that were forced to land in Termez. The AP could not independently verify those reports.

The Friendship Bridge at the Uzbek-Afghan border remains eerily quiet. Local residents say that not even Afghans who live in Uzbekistan are allowed back in these days.

How many Afghan refugees have been taken in by Uzbekistan remains unclear. On Monday, the country's Prosecutor General's office said 158 Afghan civilians and soldiers tried to illegally enter Uzbekistan across a river. In the same statement, officials alleged that 22 Afghan warplanes and 24 military helicopters with 585 Afghan troops illegally entered Uzbekistans airspace and were forced to land at Termez.

Shortly after, the Prosecutor General's office withdrew the statement, claiming it wasn't based on verified data from relevant authorities.

On Tuesday, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry warned that any attempts to violate the border would be harshly suppressed." The ministry said Uzbek authorities maintained close contacts with the Taliban on border issues.

A drive past the Termez Airport showed locals stopping along the road to look at numerous helicopters that were not there the day before  even though it's impossible to tell from the distance whether they were Uzbek or Afghan military aircraft.

Swerdlow, the human rights lawyer, thinks Uzbekistan should open its borders to desperate Afghan refugees.

This unfolding crisis  and Tashkents current seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council -- underlines how important it is for the U.S. government and other international partners to urge Uzbekistan to implement the (refugee) convention, provide proper aid, and refrain from pushing persons who fear persecution or torture back into Afghanistan, he said.

___

Associated Press writer Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed.

___

Follow all AP stories on developments in Afghanistan at https://apnews.com/hub/Afghanistan.
Traditionally, in public relations, one of the first things you think about when crafting a pitch, release or post is, how is this different, unique, special, etc. The idea is to come up with a hook, something that will catch the eye of the intended recipient. Something different than what everyone else is doing.

In the world of credit unions, our something different is something that others might consider odd, counterintuitive, or at least challenging to message. That something is collaboration.

When I first started working in public affairs for credit unions, I attended what we call a Marketing Council, an open discussion for the discipline among our membership. The idea that a group of professionals from different organizations would get together and swap stories was completely foreign to me. Coming from other industries that were for-profit, there was no way anyone would sit in a room with people who could be considered their competitors and share their trade secrets! Sharing ideas, giving marketing and public relations advice, and even (gasp!) working together on campaigns would cause any one of us to run the other direction.

Of course, one doesnt have to be part of this movement for long to realize that our collaboration is just one of the areas that makes us unique. That uniqueness has played out in a big, public way in two specific campaigns, and its proving to be a wise decision.

First is the Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union  awareness campaign that is currently active in 26 states across the nation with 1,132 participating organizations. With the goal of increasing consideration of credit unions by consumers, the public-facing campaign has seen an 8% increase nationwide since 2019. The campaign, while customizable for participating organizations, has a common look and feel that showcases our collaboration and unique value to consumers.

Second is the recent #ILoveMyCreditUnion social media campaign. Developed as an organic, easy-to-implement viral message, the coordinated social media effort reached more than 22 million people across multiple channels in one day! The initiative, coordinated by our friends at the Illinois Credit Union System (ICUS), was a simple but effective way for those of us in the credit union movement to create a digital wave inspiring people to share their credit union stories. More than 700 organizations across 48 states and nine countries participated, including credit unions, leagues, associations, and industry partners.

Thousands of credit union industry employees, volunteers, families, and friends posted on their favorite social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram) sharing messages, pictures, or videos to show why #ilovemycreditunion. This grassroots effort proved highly successful and was easy to participate in. And its something that just wouldnt work for other types of organizations because the sincerity of the message simply would not be there.

Credit unions are different. And special. And how we promote them and tell our story should be also. Our uniqueness is our ability to work collaboratively for the greater good of many while serving the individual member one at a time. In our promotions, and media relations efforts, we should embrace and celebrate it.
Card processing for merchant services is an integral part of a credit unions mission to serve small businesses. Its fair to say that credit card payment processing is the lifeblood of many successful entrepreneurs, and credit unions want to help them succeed in their endeavors.

However, there still seems to be some apprehension with new businesses when they decide between a credit union and a major bank to help them launch their product or service to market. We believe that understanding these myths and learning how to educate new prospects is essential to growing your credit union. This post will examine some common myths about merchant credit card processing and offer insight into how credit unions can help small businesses get ahead.

Myth One: You cant process credit cards without a high-cost merchant account.

Reality: Merchant credit card processing services are available to credit unions in the form of credit union payment processing. These products generally dont require an upfront investment for small businesses with low transaction volumes. This means that even if your business is starting out, you dont need to shell out a bunch of money; instead, costs scale as your business grows and begins to increase its revenue streams.

Myth Two: Credit unions are only for credit union members.

Reality: Although people with common financial needs traditionally founded credit unions, these days, credit unions offer many of the same services as banks and can help small businesses in a variety of ways. While some credit union products may be available exclusively to credit union members, small businesses often reap the rewards of lower costs and strong attention to detail that larger banks often ignore if they are not a fortune 500 company.

Myth Three: Credit unions dont provide credit, loans, or other financial services to businesses.

Reality: This is no longer true as credit unions have evolved and continue to evolve with the needs of their members. Most credit unions offer small businesses a variety of credit products like lines of credit for working capital financing and access to commercial loans that can help with a thousand minor oversights that startups often overlook.

Myth Four: Credit Unions are too expensive or dont provide the best rates for credit cards, loans, checking accounts, etc.

Reality: Some credit unions may be a bit more pricey than others, but they often offer better rates for members who want them and those looking to launch their first business and negotiate better rates than the fixed costs of most major banks.

Takeaways

Credit unions typically offer various services like merchant credit card processing for small businesses that major banks dont usually provide. BillingTree partners and supports some of the nations leading credit unions and believes in their services to small businesses.

To offer small businesses and potential new members the best, you need to bring everything together in one convenient place. BillingTree offers the premier online payment platform that improves the member experience and gives credit unions the tools they need to promote, scale, and grow their member base.

Learn more about BillingTree and what you can do to improve the member experience today!
Were living through one of the most explosive periods of economic growth in recent history. After the pandemic shuttered storefronts and stalled the economy, businesses both small and large are today roaring back into action.

I think thats especially true for credit unions. Credit unions have always been the financial industrys best-kept secret. But right now, Americans are saving more money than they ever have, and many are willing to switch financial institutions in pursuit of better flexibility or rates.

Credit unions can leverage these general economic and consumer trends to build their businesses and expand their operations. If your credit union is looking to grow your physical presence in a new market, you need to know what to look for in a new location.

With that in mind, here are three tips to help you plan while expanding your business.

1. Go where youre wanted.

Not all states, cities and towns are equal when it comes to supporting new businesses. Many are so mired in complicated procedures, regulations and policies that its downright frustrating for an expanding business to build. You might think itll be worth it in the end to jump through all the hoops. But the truth is, it doesnt have to be that way.

Plenty of state and local governments are going out of their way to incentivize new business growth. Whether through tax breaks, grant initiatives, or even funding for employee training programs, some local leaders know how to make expanding your business easier and more cost-effective for you.

When we were looking to expand at PenFed, we settled on Texas mostly because of a number of incredibly generous incentives programs available there, like the Texas Enterprise Fund. You dont have to fight an uphill battle with local officials; go where youre wanted, and you will reap the rewards.

2. Build where people want to live and work.

Its almost a guarantee that some sort of remote work or hybrid work environment will be with us for a long time to come. But that doesnt mean you should simply build where its cheapest and hope for a remote workforce to fill your employee roster. In-office work is and will remain crucial, and people genuinely want to have some sort of face-to-face contact with their coworkers and supervisors.

For this reason, its important to try to expand to where people want to live and work. A new office can flourish best and retain the most employee talent if its based in an area that attracts people.

PenFed, for example, is based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, an area that has been experiencing rapid population growth and higher-than-average office growth over the last 10 years. That kind of environment has been a huge boon to our business; we know we can draw on a rich pool of employee talent from the surrounding area to select for new positions and grow.

3. Expand to where you want to invest.

Lastly, business growth is never just about business  its also about people and places. The decision to build a new office or branch is a big one, and it will have repercussions in the local community for years to come. By expanding, you are choosing to invest in a new locale, and that locale should be a place that you, your employees, and your members want to see investment in.

Theres nothing quite like feeling as if youre an integral part of a community. Credit unions, in particular, are designed to put their members  and their communities  first. To me, a big part of that means always having a vision for how your next business expansion will build back in the local community and integrate your business with the environment. Expand to invest in people, not just your bottom line.
Publishers Note: CUInsight is hosting a free webinar Wednesday, September 1st titled, 3 ways CUs can engage students as they return to school. We hope youll join us! Register here.

Technology has fundamentally changed the way we learn. Its undeniable. Without technology, you wouldnt be reading this article right now. While people may debate whether this change has been positive or negative, theres no denying that learning has changed significantly in the digital era. Similarly, this shift has been turbo-charged by the coronavirus pandemic, leaving students across the world needing to adapt quickly to online learning. As they finally return to the classroom, educators will need to consider their approach to truly engage this tech-savvy generation of students.

We put this to the test and spoke with four students to understand how exactly they want to learn:

Roshni: Ive always hated textbooks because I find them incredibly difficult to concentrate on. Most of the time they are filled with irrelevant information and I just want to sift out the essential parts  so I always appreciate when teachers break down the text into the most important bullet points.

Kevin: Whenever theres something I dont understand, I head straight to YouTube. I believe in learning from multiple perspectives on any given topic. A teacher may offer just one perspective in the classroom, so by introducing other perspectives or approaches, learning would definitely be improved.

John: Would you rather read 19 pages out of a text book or watch a two minute video? The information may not be as well retained through a short video, but it provides visuals that are essential for learning. I find the best combination to be watching a video explanation after reading parts of a textbook.

Natalie: I definitely think there will be a hybrid version of education as we move into the future, not only split between in-person and online learning, but also between long-form and bite-sized education. In the past two years, there has been so much money poured into developing online and more efficient learning tools, and I definitely see the benefits.

Dont forget to join CUInsight and Zogo for our free webinar titled 3 ways CUs can engage students as they return to school, on Wednesday, September 1st. Register yourself and a colleague here.
Cullman, AL (35055)

Today

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 66F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Evening clouds will give way to clearing overnight. Slight chance of a shower throughout the evening. Low 66F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
Facebook Bans The Taliban

Facebook will ban the Taliban and related content from its platforms as it says the group is a terrorist organisation. The company says it has a dedicated team of Afghan experts to monitor and remove content linked to the group.

Facebooks ban applies across platforms the social media giant operates, including Instagram and WhatsApp. But WhatsApps end-to-end encryption on messages makes that more challenging.

For years, the Taliban has used social media to spread its messages and the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan poses a new challenge for big US tech companies on handling content created by a group considered to be terrorists by some world governments



Taliban members have reportedly continued to use Facebook's end-to-end encrypted messaging service WhatsApp to communicate directly with Afghanis despite the company prohibiting it under rules against dangerous organisations. A Facebook spokesperson said the company was closely monitoring the situation in the country and that WhatsApp would take action on any accounts found to be linked with sanctioned organisations in Afghanistan, which could include account removal.

"The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organisation under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organisation policies... This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them," a Facebook spokesperson told the BBC.

The social media giant said it does not make decisions about the recognition of national governments but instead follows the "authority of the international community".

Facebook told the BBC that it would take action if it found accounts on the app to be linked to the group. Rival social media platforms have also come under scrutiny over how they handle Taliban-related content. Taliban spokesmen have used Twitter to update their hundreds of thousands of followers, as the organisation retook control of Afghanistan.

Facebook and its platforms are not the only ones used by the Taliban to spread its messages. Notably, Twitter has come under fire for giving a platform to the spokespersons of the Taliban to update their hundreds of thousands of followers as they took control of different regions of Afghanistan. In response to BBC questions about the Taliban's use of Twitter, a company spokesperson highlighted policies against violent organisations and hateful conduct. According to its rules, Twitter does not allow groups that promote terrorism or violence against civilians.

The Taliban is not sanctioned as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department, nor is it proscribed by the UK or EU, although it has historically been sanctioned by Canada, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. The organisation is considered a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity by the US Treasury department, which means financial transactions with the group are prohibited.

It is not clear whether this designation will be upheld nor if Facebook could legitimately refuse the Taliban a governmental presence if its control of Afghanistan becomes internationally recognised.

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Lovinas Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, Amish Family Recipes, is available wherever books are sold. Readers can write to Eicher at P.O. Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply), or email LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org, and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.
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Audit report: Hertford should have removed Jackson after guilty plea

Jackson Wood

HERTFORD  Hertford Town Councilor Quentin Jackson should have been removed from office after he pleaded guilty to assaulting another council member in December 2019, a new report by the state auditor says.

The report, released Tuesday and based on a special investigation performed by State Auditor Beth Woods office, also details $11,671 in questionable travel and other expenses incurred by Jackson while he was the town councils mayor pro tem.

The 99-page report also states that the town disregarded the law and its attorneys advice when it overpaid $25,749 for a street lighting project, awarding the contract to the highest bidder, referred to in Woods report as Jacksons preferred vendor for the project.

Woods report doesnt refer to Jackson specifically by name; it refers to him throughout only as the former mayor pro tem.

Jackson on Tuesday took issue with the report and said he would discuss his objections in greater detail later in the week.

I dispute all of the findings, Jackson said.

Woods report states Hertford didnt follow its own charter when it allowed Jackson to remain in office following his guilty plea to assault. Jackson, who struck then-fellow Councilman Sid Eley in the face following a council meeting in October 2018, pleaded guilty to simple assault and was sentenced to serve 15 days in jail.

According to Woods report, North Carolinas Constitution disqualifies an elected or appointed official ... from holding office if they are not qualified to vote because of a felony conviction. However, Hertfords charter is more restrictive. It states the mayor of a member of the board of commissioners ... convicted of a crime while in office, shall immediately forfeit his office.

Because Jackson didnt forfeit his office following his conviction, the town not only allowed him to continue participating in its decision-making, it also ended up paying $3,000 for his legal fees related to the assault charge, Woods report states.

Woods report recommends Hertford Town Council follow the towns charter and remove the former mayor pro tem from office. It further recommends the council consider changing its charter to comply with the state constitution.

In the towns response to Woods report, Mayor Earnell Brown indicated the council wasnt likely to follow the state auditors recommendation and remove Jackson.

Although the majority of the current Town Council is resolute in its condemnation of (Jacksons) behavior, the current Town Council is advised by its attorney that the Town Charters provision for immediate forfeiture of office is unenforceable as it runs counter to the forfeiture requirements stated in the North Carolina Constitution, Brown said.

Woods report also details $11,671 in expenses Jackson incurred between January 2018 and June 2020 that she describes as questionable.

Wood said Jackson improperly used at town credit card to make 81 questionable purchases totaling $6,113. Seventy-eight of the purchases lacked an itemized receipt or other documentation to support a valid town purpose, the report said. Jackson also did not get approval from either Town Council or Town Manager Pam Hurdle for the credit card purchases, Wood said.

Jackson also took 13 trips that cost the town $4,845 without obtaining required pre-approvals from other town officials. Five of the trips were out of state. A list included in the report shows Jackson traveled to a converence ni Washington, D.C. in March 2019; to a meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, in June 2019; to Jackson, Mississippi, for a conference in July 2019; to Columbia, South Carolina, for conference in October 2019; and to San Antonio, Texas, for a conference in November 2019.

Jackson also took three unknown trips that cost the city $797 and five in-state trips that cost $520, Woods report shows.

Woods report also states Jacksons violations of the towns travel policy cost the town $4,845 and that he potentially misused a town vehicle that cost Hertford $1,721. It further states he received a benefit reserved for town employees that cost the town $1,000.

Regarding the potential misuse of a town vehicle, Wood said Jackson made 37 fuel purchases totaling $1,721 without documenting they were for a valid town purpose.

Wood said Jackson claimed that all of his vehicle use was town related and that every bit (of his travel) is written down. Jackson further told auditors that he kept notes of his vehicle use to document the mileage, the purpose of the trip and those traveling with him. But despite several requests from investigators for those notes, Jackson never provided them, she said.

The report states Jackson also requested and was reimbursed $1,000 from town funds for college courses he took at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Jackson told investigators he was pursuing a law degree.

The towns personnel policy allows Hertford employees to be reimbursed for educational courses which will improve their skills for their current job or prepare them for promotional opportunities, Woods report states. Theyre eligible for up to $500 per year. The policy, however, doesnt say anything about reimbursing council members for college courses.

According to Wood, Jacksons questionable expenses werent detected because of inadequate oversight by both the Town Council and Town Manager Pam Hurdle. She also said the town had inadequate policies for town credit cards and vehicle use.

Specifically, the Town Manager did not require employees to provide receipts. Also, she did not require adequate documentation to support a valid Town purpose, Woods report states.

Although Hertford has a travel policy that required prior approval from the town manager and Town Council, councilors and Hurdle failed to enforce the policy by requiring Jackson to get prior approval for his trips, Wood said. Jackson did submit some travel authorization forms for payment after his travel, and Hurdle said she approved those forms. However, she did not question him when he did not submit travel forms for prior approval, even though she knew he was traveling, Wood said.

Hurdle said in a response to The Daily Advance Tuesday that council members have wide leeway in travel expenses under town policy.

Our employees travel with per diem allowance and do not have to provide receipts, Hurdle said. Our policy allows a certain amount for meals and all housing is arranged and paid before employees travel. This is for employees only, not council members. Council members have more leeway with their expenditures during traveling.

Hurdle, who has announced she is retiring Jan. 1, 2022, claimed council travel expenses are basically out of her hands.

The process is the Council gets approval from the Mayor for traveling, Hurdle said. The forms go to staff to set up traveling arrangements, the forms are presented to the finance department for verification of funds, and then sent to the town manager for approval.

Once the mayor has approved the travels and it goes through the steps of approval, I approve the travel, Hurdle continued. The town manager does not have the authority to approve Town Councils expenditure.

Hurdle also approved the Fayetteville Tech reimbursement for Jackson despite knowing he is not a town employee, according to Woods report.

The response by Brown on behalf of the town states a majority of the current council agrees with the reports finding that the managers oversight was not sufficient.

The town manager clearly has a duty to ensure policies adopted by the council are accurately and consistently followed by all staff, the response states.

Woods report recommends the town seek reimbursement from Jackson for the tuition assistance and for any credit card purchases he made for which he didnt have receipts or documentation to support a valid town purpose.

Brown in the response to the report states the majority of the current Town Council agrees with the reports finding that the former Mayor Pro Tem is not an employee of the town and therefore cannot take advantage of the tuition reimbursement benefit provided to employees. It intends to pursue reimbursement of town funds provided to the former Mayor Pro Tem for his classes and will discuss options with the towns attorney in coming days.

Woods report is also critical of Town Councils decision on April 8, 2019, to award a purchase contract for 400 LED street lights to the highest bidder for a downtown-lighting project. According to Wood, the town received 12 bidders for the project who submitted bids ranging from $61,786 to $87,535.

Town minutes show the council discussed the low bidders decision to withdraw from the project but there was no discussion about the other bids, Wood said.

Even though the towns attorney cautioned councilors that they were required under state law to award the lighting contract to the lowest responsible, responsive bidder that met the bid requirements, they nonetheless awarded the contract to the highest bidder, Woods report states.

The report also notes that after learning they would be required to conduct an informal bid process for the lighting project, town officials on multiple occasions sought ways to avoid that process and award the contract to the acting mayor pro tems preferred vendor.

Citing town council meeting minutes from March 18, 2019, Woods report states Jackson stated that his preferred vendor would get the business  a reference to the lighting contract.

Woods report urged Hertford Town Council to comply with state law and follow its attorneys advice when awarding future contracts. Under state law, all public contracts for $30,000 or more require an informal bid process, and that bid process requires governments to award contracts to the lowest responsible, responsive bidder.

Browns response states the majority of the current Town Council disagrees with the former Town Councils decision and actions and views this as textbook graft on the part of the Former Mayor Pro Tem.

The response adds the town will comply with state law and its attorneys advice when awarding all future contracts.

The response characterizes the way the town government had operated for years as a family business approach.

This response does not assert, and should not be interpreted to suggest, that any staff member took improper actions, the statement continues.

Wood said her office initiated the audit after receiving 10 allegations that questioned the appropriateness of (the towns) operational and management decisions. Wood said her offices probe focused on fraud, waste and abuse allegations.

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The head of the U.N. food agency in Afghanistan says a humanitarian crisis is unfolding with 14 million people facing severe hunger following the Taliban takeover of the country
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Ashland, KY (41101)

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Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
Sunbury, PA (17801)

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Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

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Periods of rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
When Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, rejected parallels between the chaotic scenes in Kabul at the weekend and the fall of Saigon, there were millions who would beg to differ.

The sight of the helicopter on top of the US embassy in the Afghan capital airlifting officials out and scenes of desperate Afghan civilians clinging to military aircraft before falling to their deaths were all too redolent of that humiliating departure from South Vietnam in 1975.

US domestic support for the occupation had evaporated. Which is why, after spending well over $1trillion and seeing 2,400 killed and 20,000 wounded over two decades, the US was determined to bring their troops home. The UK too, with more than 450 dead and 2,600 injured, had already pared their forces back, along with the rest of Nato.

So the issue was not whether a withdrawal would take place but when and, vitally, how. Instead of an well-planned withdrawal, this looks like a defeat.

The sight of the helicopter on top of the US embassy in the Afghan capital airlifting officials out and scenes of desperate Afghan civilians clinging to military aircraft before falling to their deaths were all too redolent of that humiliating departure from South Vietnam in 1975

Crowds of Vietnamese and Western evacuees wait around the swimming pool inside the American Embassy compound in Saigon hoping to escape Vietnam via helicopter in April 1975

When President Joe Biden vowed an orderly withdrawal of US troops whilst denying there would be a Taliban takeover, he must have known that his own intelligence team had concluded there was little chance of the government and army holding out for even six months. They didnt last six days.

At every level, from intelligence to planning and execution, what the world sees is a totemic failure. It exposes the West to the charge that we cannot be relied upon as an ally for the long term.

And as we tumble out of Afghanistan, China and Russia are rubbing their hands.

Russia knows how we caved over their Syrian escapades and how when the Assad regime crossed President Obamas red lines, we blustered but did little. When Russia invaded Georgia, Crimea, and East Ukraine, shooting down a civilian airliner for good measure, we didnt complain for long.

From the Uighur genocide to the illegal occupation of the South China Sea and the breaching of the Sino/British Agreement on Hong Kong, the Chinese Communist Party also watches as the West bleats but does little. Now President Xi looks across to Taiwan and smiles, for he sees that President Bidens resolve to protect the island is surely not that strong after all. As the Global Times, Chinas mouthpiece, put it: From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the islands defence will collapse in hours and US military wont come to help.

The sad truth is that across the globe the West finds itself consistently outfoxed by authoritarian states.

When President Joe Biden vowed an orderly withdrawal of US troops whilst denying there would be a Taliban takeover, he must have known that his own intelligence team had concluded there was little chance of the government and army holding out for even six months. They didnt last six days. Pictured: Taliban fighters in Laghman province on August 15

And as we tumble out of Afghanistan, China and Russia are rubbing their hands. Pictured: UK troops boarding RAF Voyager Aircraft on August 14 to travel to Afghanistan

As Afghanistan proves, left undefended, democracies can be easily overrun.

If it can happen in Afghanistan it could happen in Taiwan, or Africa, or anywhere.

We are a far cry from the lofty commitment of President John F Kennedy when he said: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

In previous chapters of horror we have been saved by the strength and courage of great leaders. Churchill and Roosevelt saw down Nazism in the 1940s; in the 1980s, Thatcher and Reagan saw down Communism.

We shouldnt think for one moment that which we in the free world hold so dear, our belief in democracy, human rights and the rule of law, is the natural order of things. For as Reagan said: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction... It must be fought for. Whether we like it or not, we are engaged in an ideological conflict akin to the 1930s and the Cold War. I fear now it is a war we may be losing.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith is the Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Green
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Ayesha Ahmadi's sister (back row, centre) is trapped in Kabul

Distraught Afghans in Australia are desperately awaiting news from their families after watching on helplessly as the Taliban seized control of their homeland in little more than a week.

Among them is Afghan Australian Women's Association President, Ayesha Ahmadi, 29, whose 18-year-old sister works as a primary school teacher in the capital, Kabul - now arguably the world's most dangerous place to be a woman.

Ms Ahmadi, who has lived in Adelaide since 2013 and did not wish to share her family's names, has not heard from her sister since late Sunday night when rifle-touting insurgents swarmed the presidential palace and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the desk of ousted President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the city one day earlier.

At least eight were killed at Kabul's Hamid Karzai airport on Monday, including two who were shot dead by US troops, three who were run over by taxiing jets and three stowaways who fell from the fuselage of an airborne C-17 US Air Force plane, as thousands frantically tried to to get flights out of the country.

Ms Ahmadi told Daily Mail Australia she has not slept for days over fears for her sister's safety in the embattled city, 9,580 kilometres away. She said her sister has not been online on instant messaging apps for more than 24 hours.

Scroll down for video

Taliban fighters are seen on the back of a vehicle in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after sweeping into the capital virtually unopposed and declaring the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the desk of ousted President Ashraf Ghani

An Afghan family rushes to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, hours after Taliban fighters poured into the city and seized control of the presidential palace

'I have headaches from the tension. We've had no sleep,' she said, before slamming the Taliban for their treatment of innocent civilians.

'They don't represent Islam and they don't represent the people of Afghanistan.'

Ms Ahmadi, who came to Australia on a spousal visa from her home in Ghazni Province almost eight years ago, said her family-of-eight scattered across the world to escape persecution from Taliban forces.

She spoke of villages overrun by the terror group where each family is forced to give up one of their daughters - girls as young as 12 and 13 - to be married to a fighter.

Thousands of Afghans have rushed onto the tarmac at the airport, three so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto this US Air Force jet as it took off and plunged to their deaths

A burqa-clad woman walks beside a building site in Kabul on June 21, 2021. The fate of women's rights in Afghanistan now hangs in the balance as the notoriously misogynist Taliban regain control for the first time in almost 20 years.

Ms Ahmadi said one of her five sisters was forced into an arranged marriage with a Taliban militant who forbade her working and beat her so severely, she miscarried their child.

'He would not allow her to leave the house, not even to our family home,' she said.

Ms Ahmadi said her father spent his life savings on plane tickets for two of his daughters to get them to Europe.

Chilling reports trickling out of Kabul on Monday claimed Taliban gangs are stalking the streets hunting girls as young as 12 for sex slaves, as militants go door-to-door trying to track down locals accused of helping Western forces during the Afghanistan War and subsequent 20-year intervention from the US, Britain and Australia.

Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport is thronged with thousands of frantic people (pictured) following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

Thousands of Afghan residents (pictured) rushed to the airport in an attempt to flee the embattled capital on Monday

Jihadist commanders are reportedly ordering imams in areas they have captured to bring them lists of unmarried women aged from 12 to 45 for their soldiers to marry because they view them as 'qhanimat' or 'spoils of war' - to be divided up among the victors.

The fate of women's rights in Afghanistan now hangs in the balance as the notoriously misogynist extremists regain control for the first time in almost 20 years - despite the billions of dollars spent by the US and NATO to build Afghan government security forces and functioning infrastructure.

Female Afghans are feared to be among those most at-risk under the new government. When the Islamists came to power in 1996 after the country's bloody Civil War, they imposed strict religious law that brutalised and oppressed women and girls.

Last month, reports from recently seized Taliban territory claimed armed insurgents walked into the offices of Kandahar's Aziza Bank and ordered nine women working there to leave.

Who are the Taliban and what do they want? The Taliban - 'students' in the Pashto language - are extremist Islamist militants who want to impose their fundamentalist interpretation of religious law on Afghanistan. The group has its origins in the US-backed mujahedin, radical Islamic guerilla fighters, who fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s. It is believed that the predominantly Pashtun movement first appeared in religious seminaries - mostly paid for by money from Saudi Arabia - which preached a hardline form of Sunni Islam. The promise made by the Taliban - in Pashtun areas straddling Pakistan and Afghanistan - was to restore peace and security and enforce their own austere version of Sharia, or Islamic law, once in power. In September 1995 they captured the province of Herat, bordering Iran, and exactly one year later they captured the Afghan capital, Kabul, overthrowing the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani - one of the founding fathers of the Afghan mujahideen that resisted the Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban were in control of almost 90 percent of Afghanistan. Afghans weary of infighting and corruption among the mujahideen largely welcomed the Taliban in the early days of their power, but they also introduced controversial punishments in line with their extremist interpretation of Sharia law that included public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers, and amputations for those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow long beards and women were forced to wear the all-covering burqa, a tent-like veil with a fabric grate over the eyes. The Taliban also banned television, music and cinema, and disapproved of girls aged eight and over going to school. They were accused of various human rights and cultural abuses, predominantly for their gender policies that discriminate against women. From the age of eight, girls were not allowed to be in direct contact with males other than a close 'blood relative', husband, or in-law. Women were also forbidden from leaving the house without a blood relative or without wearing a burqa, wearing high-heeled shoes in case a man was aroused by their footsteps, speaking loudly in public or allowing a stranger to hear their voice, standing on their balconies, being photographed or filmed and speaking on radio, television or at public gatherings of any kind. The Taliban were removed from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001, but have been operating in the background ever since. One of the most high-profile and internationally condemned of all Pakistani Taliban attacks took place in October 2012, when schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head on a on her way home from a school exam in the town of Mingora in neighbouring Pakistan. The group has been on the offensive in recent months and this week consolidated its power by taking the capital city Kabul and declaring the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from ousted President Ashraf Ghani's desk in the ancient presidential palace. Advertisement

The gunmen escorted the women to their homes and told them not to return to their jobs, Al Jazeera reported, explaining male relatives could take their positions instead.

There have also been reports of women-centric shops with notices pasted on them warning them not to enter or they would 'face the consequences'. Taliban fighters reportedly shot dead a woman wearing 'tight clothes' and in some areas, women cannot leave home without a male chaperone.

The reports have sparked fears of a fresh wave of female oppression, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying he was 'concerned' by accounts of human rights violations against women who fear a return' to the late 1990s when the terror group held almost 90 percent of the country.

During its reign, women were forced to wear the all-covering burqa, a tent-like veil with a fabric grate over the eyes, and from the age of eight girls were not allowed to leave the house without a man who was a close 'blood relative', their husband or an in-law.

Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near the Zanbaq Square in Kabul on August 16, 2021, the day they claimed victory over the western-backed Ashraf Ghani government

Women were also forbidden from wearing high-heeled shoes in case a man became aroused by their footsteps, speaking loudly in public or allowing a stranger to hear their voice, standing on their balconies, being photographed or filmed and speaking on radio, television or at public gatherings of any kind.

Taliban spokesmen have said the reason for these restrictions is to create a 'secure environment where the chastity and dignity of women may once again be sacrosanct', an idea reportedly based on Pashtunwali beliefs about purdah, a practice in certain Muslim and Hindu societies where women are 'screened' from men or strangers.

BBC Persia TV lead Jamaluddin Mousavi on Tuesday tweeted a photo from inside a private university in Kabul where photos of female employees have been whitewashed from a poster, with the hashtag: Afghanistan Under the Taliban.

Diana Sayed, CEO of the Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights in Melbourne, said the takeover which stunned the world with its speed has left the Afghan community reeling.

'We're terrified, absolutely terrified,' Ms Sayed told Daily Mail Australia.

'This time round it goes beyond women, children and minorities at risk, I feel like no one is immune.'

Burqa clad women walk past a billboard on the wall of a beauty salon in Kabul on August 7, 2021, days before the Taliban takeover of the city. There are fears for women's rights under the new regime.

Ms Sayed said she knows of people shutting down their social media accounts for fear of being monitored and targeted by the Taliban regime.

'They're not only bunkering down and staying off the streets, they're also blacking out online. Twenty years ago the Taliban didn't have this sort of technology to surveil the population  now they do.'

Meanwhile, the situation is similarly tenuous for Afghan allies of the US, British and Australian Defence Forces who acted as translators, security guards and aides during their presence in the country over the past 20 years.

Afghans who have supported western troops for many years are now trapped in Kabul and are said to have been placed on Taliban 'kill lists' for their cooperation with 'infidel enemies'.

Ms Ahmadi said her father fled Afghanistan two years ago after extremists threatened him over his support for women's education, which the Taliban has historically forbidden for girls over the age of eight.

Taliban fighters sit at the desk of ousted President Ashraf Ghani in the ancient Afghan presidential palace, hours after the President fled the country allegedly to facilitate a peaceful transfer of power. In the weeks leading up to their return to power, the Taliban's leadership have strived to portray a softer image than when they last ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, but women are struggling to take comfort from such assurances.

What were women banned from doing under the Taliban in the 1990s - and why? When the Taliban last held control of large swathes - almost 90 percent - of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, women were forced to wear the all-covering burqa, a tent-like veil with a fabric grate over the eyes. The burqa is based on Pashtunwali beliefs about living in 'purdah', a practice in certain Muslim and Hindu societies where women are 'screened' from men or strangers. This concept also led to raft of other laws that restricted women from participating in society. From the age of eight, women were forbidden to receive an education and to leave the house without a man who was a close 'blood relative', their husband or an in-law. Women were also banned from: - Working - Wearing high heels in case a man became aroused by their footsteps - Speaking in public or allowing a stranger to hear their voice - Standing on their balconies in case they were seen from the street - Being photographed or filmed - Speaking on radio or television Advertisement

She said her sister stranded in Kabul is now 'terrified' the terrorists will connect her to their father due to his involvement with the women's rights movement.

She said she had cousins and friends working for the western-backed Ghani regime who were killed in Taliban rocket attacks on government offices.

Ms Ahmadi is desperate for the Australian government to approve applications for humanitarian visas for men and women at risk from the new regime in Afghanistan, but scarcely any have been given the green light since the start of the pandemic.

'They need to speed up the processing for those who are in danger, and so many are in danger,' she said.

'All Afghans living in Australia have family back there and they are all as worried as I am.'

Many Afghans were promised visas to Australia but remain trapped in the embattled country due to the snail-paced application process which has been slammed by hosts of The Project, Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly.

Carrie Bickmore slammed the abandonment of Afghan nationals as 'gross' while Waleed Aly described the scenes unfolding in Kabul as 'sad, horrible and heartbreaking'.

'We have been doing stories for weeks now on the number of the interpreters trying to get back, taking years of applications, years and years and years,' Bickmore said during an interview with former defence minister Christopher Pyne on Monday night.

She added: 'It's pretty gross to use people and then just leave them.'

Mr Pyne disagreed with the characterisation, saying the situation had escalated unpredictably and applications needed to be carefully vetted.

'The truth is that, Carrie, that they do need to make sure that every claim is actually tested,' he argued.

But Aly was also unconvinced by the government's effort to support their Afghan allies.

He argued the Australian government had appeared to not act in good faith due to the incredibly cumbersome and slow application process.

Malala Yousafzai, an activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, who survived being shot in the head by a member of the Taliban, tweeted on Sunday expressing her concern for women, minorities and human rights advocates under the group's rule

'The criticism is that it's deliberate,' Aly said.

'There's no necessary need for it. Other countries have found far easier ways of doing it.'

Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights CEO Diana Sayed is calling for the Australian government to approve specialised immediate intake visas to get at-risk Afghans out of the country.

We dont want a long process like what was given to the Syrians, we want it now, she said.

Ms Sayed said she also wants Prime Minister Scott Morrison to grant permanent protection visas to the 5,100 Afghans living in Australia under temporary or refugee status.

These people have had children here, they pay tax, they own businesses. Its ridiculous to leave them in this kind of limbo, she added.
A chilling video has shown the devastating effect of swallowing a lithium coin battery - and what parents can do to save their child's life.

The infographic, from Duracell, illustrates how these batteries start to burn through the oesophagus as little as 30 minutes after being ingested, causing life-long injuries and in some cases, even death.

If your little one has swallowed a coin battery, experts say you should go to the emergency department immediately without allowing the child to eat or drink and - if possible - providing medical staff with the serial number from the battery pack.

They say the worst thing you can do is it force your child to vomit as this can cause more damage to the throat and insides.

This chilling time-lapse experiment involving a battery and a chicken fillet shows what just one button battery can do if a child swallows it - after 30 minutes (left) and four hours (right)

The small, shiny batteries are commonplace in Australian homes, used in gadgets including TV remote controls, watches, calculators and kitchen weighing scales.

More than 20 Australian children are hospitalised each week after accidentally swallowing batteries.

Three have tragically died since 2013, including Gold Coast toddler Brittney Conway who passed away on July 28, 2020, three weeks after swallowing a battery and enduring significant medical procedures to save her life.

Duracell are now offering a solution with the launch of its first-ever range of coin batteries covered in a non-toxic coating of Bitrex - the most bitter substance on Earth.

The transparent film is said to provoke an 'instinctive reaction' that causes children to spit out the battery if they place it in their mouth.

The bitter-tasting batteries, which will be stocked in Coles and IGA in sizes 2032, 2025 and 2016, also come in a 'double blister' packaging which can only be opened with scissors - further reducing the risk of toddlers getting their hands on them.

What should you do if your child swallows a battery? * Head to emergency immediately. Tell the doctors that you suspect your child has swallowed a battery and it was coin-sized. * If possible, provide the medical team with the identification number found on the batterys pack. * Do not let the child eat or drink until an X-ray can determine if a battery is present. * Do not induce vomiting. Source: Battery Controlled Advertisement

Top heart surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp is calling on parents to be aware of the dangers lurking in plain sight at home, a plea that has never been more relevant with 14 million Australians - almost half the country - currently in lockdown.

Dr Stamp, who has operated on a child who swallowed a lithium battery, said more Australians need to be aware of the dangers of leaving the objects lying around.

'It's so important we continue to look for methods that can decrease the risk of ingestion, in addition to keeping these batteries, and devices that contain lithium coin batteries away from children,' she added.

Founding director of CPR Kids Sarah Hunstead agrees, saying she knows of many families who aren't even aware of the risks.

'Children are innately curious, and it is a normal part of their development to put everything in their mouth,' Ms Hunstead said.

'That's why it is of utmost importance to ensure that lithium coin batteries are kept away from young children.'

Back in 2019, Ms Hunstead demonstrated the dangers of lithium batteries with an experiment on a chicken fillet.

After placing a battery inside the meat, she closely monitored progress over the following hours, noting a small amount of burning had already occurred around the 30-minute mark.

By the time four hours had elapsed, the burn marks were clear and more pervasive.

Those at greatest risk are aged under four years old, and there are currently around 20 children presenting to the emergency department with injuries each week (stock image)

The effect on the chicken flesh is reflective of what happens inside a child's body.

Battery Controlled report when a coin-sized lithium button battery gets stuck in a child's throat, 'saliva triggers an electrical current' that sparks a chemical reaction which can 'severely' burn the oesophagus in as little as two hours.

'If this has happened to your child, they will likely start coughing, drooling or complain about discomfort,' the website reads.

Ms Hunstead's experiment quickly drew stunned responses after it was shared online, with some horrified but more grateful to have been educated on the issue.

'My son swallowed one when he was three, [it was] the size of a 10c coin,' one person wrote.

'The coin stayed in him the next day until we got sent to the children's hospital. It had burnt his stomach lining and his oesophagus went through hell. Now mothers, I don't leave any batteries in the house.'

Another added: 'I don't understand why they haven't stopped button batteries being put in children's toys'.
You can now sink your teeth into one of the silkiest vanilla slices in the country without leaving the house.

Poles Patisserie in Penrith, at the foot of the Blue Mountains, are now delivering their sweet treats across the locked down city.

The family-owned business has been serving up fresh cakes and pastries for over 30 years.

Poles Patisserie is now offering delivery for their famous vanilla slice to customers across Sydney

They will also be delivering their vanilla slice's decadent upgrade which features cream and chocolate

The bakery has over 100 different slices, pastries and cakes to choose from and they can all be delivered to your door for lockdown

They have had over 100 different types of cakes, pies and pastries in their range but their vanilla and French vanilla tarts remain a standout.

Their $5.50-a-slice vanilla slice is their best seller.

'Our 100% Australian milk creamy custard is seductively sandwiched between two hand made sheets of puff pastry, then topped with sweet passion fruit sugar icing and passion fruit seeds,' they explain on their website.

'Our vanilla slice brings a whole new meaning to menage a trios.'

And if the original isn't quite decadent enough the bakers offer the French vanilla slice describing it as 'something truly special'.

'This captivating slice comes with an extra layer of fresh sweet cream, and is finished off with a crescendo of chocolate sugar icing,' the bakers said.

The bakery has been operating in the foothills of the Blue Mountains for 30 years

They are offering city-wide deliver on all of their products following the extended lock down

The specialty slice costs $6-a-piece.

Poles began offering the city-wide delivery after realising their customers 'couldn't live without the slice' just two weeks into the lockdown.

'You can order anything we sell in store online and have it deliver to your door step,' they added to the post about the slices.

And their fans were elated by the news with one pregnant woman noting she needed the slice after beginning maternity leave on day one of lockdown.

Another keen foodie admitted he had been considering whether buying the slice would be an 'essential reason' to leave his local government area.
David Hasselhoff's daughter Hayley was spotted looking stylish in the streets of Mallorca.

Hayley Hasselhoff, 28, has been relaxing on the Spanish Island, where she has shown her sense of style and poise in a series of streetwear photos.

The actress was the first ever plus-size model to make it on the cover of Playboy Germany when she flaunted her curves in the magazine's April edition.

She said she wanted to celebrate her body and revealed her father, 69, was 'supportive' of the career move at the time.

Now Hayley is bringing the sexy to the streets of Mallorca, where she sported several lacy outfits from designers plus-size friendly brands like Eloquii and Marina Rinaldi.

Hayley Hasselhoff, 28, the daughter of thr Baywatch actor, was spotted posing in Palma de Mallorca last week, wearing several ready-to-wear outfits, including this bustier off the shoulder dress by Eloquii

The model, who was the first plus-size women to grace to cover of Playboy Germany in April, also wore a lacey black dress with knee-high boots on the photoshoot

In several pictures, Hayley is seen enjoying an ice-cream while wearing a black bustier dress from Eloquii with black braided heeled mules by River Island and a butter yellow woven crossbody bag by Eloquii as well.

Strolling along the streets of Mallorca, she was seen posing next to a Vespa, her hair styled in a messy blond bob, with a dash of makeup and a nude lip highlighting her natural beauty.

In another series of pictures, Hayley could be seen ordering a coffee while wearing a vibrant coral dress with frilly shoulders and indulging in some selfies.

Her blond locks cascading down her shoulders, she beamed as she seemed to make the most of the Mallorca sun.

Hayley with her famous dad David Hasselhoff at the VIP opening of the Maddox Gallery Exhibition 'Best of British' in 2018 in Los Angeles

Hayley indulged her sweet tooth with a coffee at a terrace, and an ice-cream as she strolled along the streets of Mallorca

Ouh la la! The model flaunted her curves in the streets of Mallorca in the lacey dress from Marina Rinaldi, with knee-high boots from Asos

Hayley shielded from the un with a pair of Tom Ford sunglasses, which she paired with a butter yellow woven crossbody bag by Eloquii

The model then performed an outfit change and headed to a building of medieval inspiration in a lacey dress from Marina Rinaldi, with overknee high heel boots by Asos.

Another picture showed her sporting an oversized trench coat over wide-legged trousers from Marina Rinaldi over a lacey top from Elomi with a beige and back handbag.

In April, she made her Playboy Germany debut, the actress said her Baywatch-star dad believed in her and trusted the choices she made for her career after she first started working aged 14.

She also revealed she felt 'empowered' by being able to celebrate and showcase her body as she starred topless for the iconic magazine.

Who could the caller be? With her blond locks cascading down her shoulders, Hayley looked in her element during the photoshoot

From girl-next-door to femme fatale! Hayley kept her accessories to a minimum during the photoshoot so that the focus would stay on her outfit. Pictured in a red dress from with short bell sleeves and large waist belt by Marina Rinaldi on the left, and a lacey black dress from the same designer, right

Who's the fairest of them all? Hayley took the time to take her own selfies during her photoshoot in Mallorca

Hayley, the youngest daughter of David and actress Pamela Bach, 57, told MailOnline at the time: 'My dad is very supportive in the choices I make for my own career. My mum and my dad are always very supportive in everything that I have done.

'You have to remember I've been in this industry since I was 14 and I've been a curve model since I was 14.

'We all have different journeys in the curve industry but for me I started out as a curve model and I am still a curve model today.

'To see the progression of where I've gone, to where I am today, I think they're both very, very supportive and they believe in me and all the choices I make in my own career, just like I do for them.'

In an interview with You magazine in May, the model said she had been bullied as a teen for her size, and admitted it was hard growing up being the daughter of 'that guy from Baywatch.'

Hayley paired her silky dress with knee-high boots and a leather handbag as she posed around Mallorca
A World War Two veteran who doesn't consider himself a hero has been praised by Good Morning Britain viewers for his stoicism, wit and sharp mind despite being 100 years old.

Colin Bell, from Tunbridge Wells, who flew 50 bombing raids over Germany in World War Two as a Mosquito pilot, appeared on Good Morning Britain today to discuss The Pathfinders: The Elite RAF Force that Turned the Tide of WWII.

Speaking to hosts Richard Bacon and Charlotte Hawkins, he explained how he filled out missions in a 'wooden airplane' and had a 'number of close shaves' and 'tussles with Nazis'.

Colin Bell, from Tunbridge Wells, who flew 50 bombing raids over Germany in World War Two as a Mosquito pilot, appeared on Good Morning Britain today to discuss The Pathfinders: The Elite RAF Force that Turned the Tide of WWII.

'I flew one of the fastest and best aircrafts in Word War Two.

'I don't consider myself a hero, the real heroes were the chaps that flew the heavy bombers. They flew more slowly they were much more vulnerable.

'I had a number of close shaves, it was inevitable. The worst place to fly over was Berlin, it was a hell of rough ride but we just had to get on with it. It was a matter of survival,' he explained.

Describing the Mosquito planes, he went on: 'It has to be understood at the time it had been put together and laminated and compressed, it was almost as strong as metal.

Colin - pictured as a child - remained incredibly humble and said that he 'wasn't a hero'

'I put in a word straight away, it was a master-plane, it could out-fly anything the Germans could produce in the way of propeller driven aircraft.

'And the only aircraft that was much of a threat to us was the jet propelled [Messerschmitt] ME 262 which I had a tussle with one night over Berlin'.

Remaining incredibly humble about his war heroics, he went on: 'It was a privilege to fly and a privilege to be in the RAF. It you had to fight a war you couldn't be in a better aircraft.

'I must admit [when flying] I'd have a little nap on the way back, I'd tell my navigator to keep the plane on course and wake me up when we got back to the airfield and I would land it.

Colin was discussing new book, The Pathfinders: The Elite RAF Force that Turned the Tide of WWII, with its author Will Iredale (right)

'On one occasion on my way I was woken to a hell of a bang and my navigator said "what the hell was that" and i said "it was a shell of course".

'We checked if it did any damage. When I spoke to the intelligence officer he laughed and said, you flew over a anti-aircraft training school.

'They're only allowed one shell a night - and they let it off on you'.

Viewers were amazed by Colin who looked 'very young' for 100, branding him an 'extraordinary man'.

'Colin Bell, a true hero. Looks like he could still fight the Luftwaffe at 100,' said one.

Viewers were amazed by Colin who looked 'very young' for 100, branding him an 'extraordinary man'.

'Colin Bell looks and sounds amazing for 100 years! What an extraordinary man,' added another.

'I could listen to Colin Bell all day,' wrote a third.

'Good grief, Colin Bell is 100yrs old, he looks a lot younger,' commented a fourth.

'They don't make 'em like Colin Bell any more. 100 year old, ex-squadron leader looking age 70, and with a mind still as sharp as a tack.

'Recalling some great memories from his time as a pilot in WW2, incredibly interesting to hear,' added a fifth.

Others branded him 'a truly amazing man' and said they wanted a 'whole show' of him.
A heroic construction worker who saved the life of an alligator handler who was attacked while trying to feed the animal at a children's birthday party says it feels 'amazing' to have saved a life, and that the handler guided him free after escaping herself.

Donnie Wiseman, 48, from Kaysville, Utah, went viral after his wife Theresa shared a clip of him wrestling an alligator during a party in Scales & Tails in Salt Lake City on Saturday.

The couple were at the petting zoo with their six-year-old son when the handler was pulled into the alligator's pen, whipped around while gripped in the alligator's jaws.

Appearing on ITV's This Morning via video link today, Donnie, who was joined by Theresa, explained he's been left with a few scratches but is okay - while Theresa added the party continued and they enjoyed cake and opened presents shortly after the attack.

Donnie also shared how the handler - who is known only as Lyndsey - explained to him what to do and how to escape from the alligator once she'd been freed.

Donnie Wiseman, 48, from Kaysville, Utah, went viral after his wife Theresa (pictured) shared a clip of him wrestling an alligator during a party in Scales & Tails in Salt Lake City.

'I didn't want anything to happen to that girl,' Donnie explained.

'I knew when he [the alligator] bit down on the hand, that we were in trouble.

'I'd seen her face and she was scared. I was scared. I have experience with reptiles from my past, not alligator by any means, you need to have a permit for that.

'Honestly, I'm watching it again and I'm so glad I could assist her, she remained cool and calm, she was such a hero.

'After she gets pulled out, she was still there and she helped me get out of there with out getting any injuries.

'It definitely wasn't something I expected to ever do in my life. Saving someone from an alligator, in Utah!'

'Once I was in there he asked what do I need to do, and she said "just talk to me"'

The couple were at the centre with their six-year-old son for a children's birthday party when the handler was pulled into the alligator's pen, whipped around while gripped in the alligator's jaws. Donnie is pictured wrestling the alligator

'I said, "what's your name?", she said, "my name's Lyndsey" and then he [the alligator] let go'.

'After we released her I knew, don't let go. She asked me if I was bit, I sat up, let him shake me a couple times and I though "I just can't slip".

'I made my move and got out unscathed.'

Discussing his recovery, Donnie added he rang up his colleagues afterwards to let them know what happened.

'I have a few scratches but it was so important that this girl didn't die.

'I got a personalised message from her mum. It felt really good to know I saved someone's life,' he added.

Appearing on ITV's This Morning via video link today, Donnie, who was joined by Theresa, explained he's been left with a few scratches but is okay - while Theresa added the party continued and they enjoyed cake and opened presents shortly after the attack

Theresa added: 'People ask why I kept filming, I was in shock.

'I started filming to film the gator being fed and then he jumped in I was frozen.

'Once he was out I stopped. I was in shock. As soon as he got out I was shaking and crying.

'Right after we went back and still had cake and presents.

'The kids who were taken out right at the beginning.

'My six-year-old son was there and he didn't comprehend what happened.'.

Shane Richins, Scale and Tails owner, said in an interview Monday that the handler was opening the enclosure to feed the alligator as usual, but this time the reptile 'got a little extra spunky.'

Richins said the centre normally has a strict policy for a second handler to be nearby when employees are working with the alligators.

However, that hasn't been enforced in recent years if the worker isn't planning to enter the enclosure, he said.

'We still enforce it strictly whenever somebody gets in with the gator but, of course, going forward, we will be back to strictly enforcing it with any interactions with the gator for that very reason,' Richins said.

Richins said the handler underwent surgery and is taking antibiotics.

The West Valley City business said Sunday she is 'doing well and is in recovery.'
A woman who was conceived when her 13-year-old mother was raped by a man, 28, while babysitting has recalled how coming face-to-face with her birth father was the 'hardest thing she has ever done'.

Pensioner Carvel Bennett, 74, was jailed for 11 years for the historical rape earlier this month, after the daughter conceived in the attack doggedly pursued the case against him for more than a decade.

He was convicted by a jury in 90 minutes in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in UK legal history.

His daughter, who has remained anonymous, who was given up for adoption after Bennett's victim gave birth, took DNA tests in her 40s that proved that he was her father with the evidence used to put him in the dock.

Speaking on Woman's Hour earlier today, she recalled the 'trauma' of pursuing the case, saying: 'It's felt a really lonely, isolating journey.'

A woman who was conceived when her 13-year-old mother was raped by a man, 28, while babysitting has recalled how coming face-to-face with her birth father was the 'hardest thing she has ever done'

The woman had been taken into care just after being born in Birmingham and adopted at seven months old.

It was only when she was given access to her social services documents that she discovered that her mother was 13 when she was raped, and that her father was Bennett, then 28, with a 1975 file stating: 'The matter was investigated by police but never brought to court'.

She said: 'I found out I was concieved in rape when I went to seek my social care files when I was 18-years-old. Prior to that I had a small amount of documentation that my adoptive parents showed me.

'It said my mother was 14-years-old and my father was 30-35. I was a child at the time, so I didn't automatically go to that was rape, that was assault.

'I was so focused on wanting to see my birth mother, that that wasn't the main point I was focused on.'

'When I was 18, I wasn't surprised but it was still shocking to read that. It was shocking that people didn't do anything.'

Pensioner Carvel Bennett, 74, was jailed for 11 years for the historical rape earlier this month, after the daughter conceived in the attack doggedly pursued the case against him for more than a decade.

In 2014 the Jimmy Savile scandal broke and he was revealed as a sexual abuser that the woman decided to trace her birth father with the aim of getting him prosecuted for raping her mother as a child.

The woman, who works as a social worker, said: 'When I saw those cases, I thought...well I have forensic evidence, I've got documentary evidence in the form of social care files.

'It now seems the tide is turning that people are interested in going after these abuses.

'I did about two years of research before I approached social care and police in 2014.'

She said she was met with 'closed doors', saying: 'Birmingham City Council, I approached the safeguarding board, they weren't particularly interested.

'It was kind of waving me off. I highlighted, this is a child protection, safeguarding issue.

'I thought it was unbelievable that a safeguarding board wasn't interested.

'The police were initially interested in speaking to my birth mother. That wasn't how I had approached them. I approached them as pursuing this in my own right.

'Why should she have to go through this? The allegation is documented by a social worker, references to police. The police at the time said there wasn't enough evidence.'

'I know I exist because you chose to rape a child': Daughter condemns rapist pensioner father, 74, in harrowing impact statement after taking DNA test in long battle to jail him for attack on her 13-year-old mother when he was 28 1975 - Anonymous child, then 13, is informed by her mother that she had to babysit Bennett's children one evening. But she was then shocked to find him there, before he asked her to come upstairs to a bedroom. Speaking in court last month, prosecutor Peter Glenser QC said the defendant told the girl to take her clothes off when they were alone together. Mr Glesner said: 'She does recall saying: 'I don't want to do this' and him saying: 'It's going to be alright. 'She remembers him saying he wasn't going to hurt her and she should say nothing.' Mr Glesner revealed that a few weeks later it 'became obvious she was pregnant'. The court heard how the victim was taken to a mother and baby home to give birth to her daughter, who was ultimately put up for adoption. She said when she returned home she was made to sit in a chair and watch a programme about someone having to give up her child. She said: 'I had to sit there and watch it to see if I would cry. I know that's why I had to watch it. I thought I won't cry. I was adamant I wasn't going to cry. So I never.' 1993 - Daughter learns she was concieved in rape when she goes to seek her social care files. 1995 - Meets with her birth mother for the first time and goes to stay for the weekend. Avoids asking her directly about the conception 2014 - The Jimmy Savile scandal broke and he was revealed as a sexual abuser that she decided to trace her birth father with the aim of getting him prosecuted for raping her mother as a child. July 2015 - Having tracked down her birth father Bennett, he goes to visit him at home. 2019 - She appears on Victoria Derbyshire programme and tells her story. The segment prompts her birth mother to come forward to police, and police move the case forward. August 2021 - Carvel Bennett, 74, is convicted by a jury in 90 minutes at Birmingham Crown Court in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in UK legal history. Advertisement

She said she felt her mother wasn't taken seriously because she was a black working class woman of Jamaican heritage.

The woman then took DNA tests to prove the biological connection and also found her birth mother, who cannot be named.

She said: 'I was very clear that this would mean my birth mother may not want to see me, if she was alive.

'I didn't know what kind of life she had had, what this could have done for her.

'It was really emotionally difficult to think someone who I'd thought about every day of my life may not want to see me because of what this person did.

'I still sought to trace her with the help of my adoptive father.'

She said she was 20-years-old when she finally tracked down her birth mother, recalling she ended up 'staying the weekend' with her.

She explained: 'It was really bizarre. Do I regret that? No. I was so overwhelmed and grateful that she wanted to meet me, I didn't set out to establish a mother and child relationship.

'As horrific as the story was I still wanted to meet her.'

During the meeting, she said she had been 'very careful' about 'not directly asking' her birth mother how she had been conceived.

She said: 'I was very careful not to ask direct questions, this was a first meeting. My priority was meeting her and understanding her life experiences.'

She said she didn't form a bond over that weekend, saying instead she felt she wanted to pursue justice for herself and her mother.

She said: 'To know a child had been so grossly let down...I approached my birth mother in 2014, after doing lots of research, and said, " I want to try to do this in my own right. I don't think you should have to come forward. You've done that already and the people did nothing.

"'My intention isn't to have you involved, it's to do a victimless, evidence based prosecution."'

'I'm talking to you now because a man raped a child. It's the reason I'm alive.'

However it wasn't until a segment on the Victoria Derbyshire show about the case in 2019 prompted her birth mother to come forward to the police that the case began to move forward.

She said: 'The Victoria Derbyshire show was a catalyst for her to make a statement in her own right.

'The police turned up on her door step days after it aired.'

In the meantime, she was able to track down her birth father.

She explained: 'It got the point where I found him. I went to the police and said, "This is him."

'My partner at the time and I were talking, saying "This is going on and on. I know where he is."'

The pair went to visit him in July 2015, with the woman wearing a hidden camera in order to interview him.

She said: 'I knocked on the door and said are you Carvel Bennett. I said, "I think I'm your daughter" and he said "Oh come in".'

She said she spent 40 minutes with him in his home, asking him questions about if he remembered babysitting for her mother.

The woman explained: 'He said I looked like his daughter. He said he'd been invited in by a social worker to do a blood test, but never heard anything back.

'He said when he was spoken to, he didn't think it was him because of the timing.'

Bennett's daughter, was taken into care at birth but later discovered Bennett was her father and took DNA tests to prove it, eventually getting him in the dock

She continued: 'I did say outright to him, "Did you have sex with her?" And he said, "Well if you have sex with somebody, it doesn't mean you make a baby."

At the end of the meeting, she took his phone number, thanked him for his time and the pair had a brief hug.

After a decade of battling with police and other agencies who told her that she was not the victim, the woman pursued him in the courts, which she said was constantly delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She said the experience of being in the room with both her parents at the same time was 'extraordinary', adding: 'A family reunion in the backdrop of a rape trial.'

Finally, she won the battle that saw her father convicted of rape at Birmingham Crown Court earlier this month.

In court, she bravely revealed that her fight for justice has caused a 'deeper split' between her and her birth mother which she described as 'utterly tragic'.

She said in a statement read in court: 'Carvel Bennett you have caused total carnage. Your act of violence decimated any potential relationship between my birth mother and me because you chose to rape a child.'

She added: 'You have avoided justice for 45 years. You have got to have a family life, had the opportunity to get married, live with children and see them grow up. Because you raped a child I only had seven days at the hospital with my birth mother'.

Police bring charges in just seven per cent of violent crimes and in only 1.5 per cent of rapes, figures show Less than seven per cent of violent crimes ended in anyone being charged  with sexual offences even lower at just 3.5 per cent and rape only 1.5 per cent. Theft figures were nearly as bad, with just 5 per cent of cases going to court, followed by robberies at just 8.2 per cent. The statistics  released by the Home Office  suggest a challenging picture of justice and few offences leading to prosecution. They show over 1.6million violent offences were reported in the year leading up to March 2021 of which around 139,000 saw charges from the Crown Prosecution Service. Shadow policing minister Sarah Jones said: 'Under the Conservatives, criminals have never had it so good'. Advertisement

'Because you chose to rape a child we are still paying the price,' she said, adding that his crime had robbed her of a family life.

She said: 'I read my grandmother visited and thought I looked like you. Imagine how it felt for my 14-year-old mother to look down to see the features of her perpetrator.

'I was left in hospital for three days before being placed with my foster family. Who cared for me in that time I will never know. How terrifying. How traumatic.'

She added: 'I know I exist because you chose to rape a child, to know I'm, for some, the embodiment of one of the worst things to happen, to be pregnant by your perpetrator, to find out what happened to my mother was horrific.

'It could have been a reason for her not to meet me. That horrendous thought weighed heavy until we were able to reunite. I am more than evidence, more than a witness, more than a product of rape. I am not your shame.'

She concluded by telling Bennett: 'This sentence is 46 years overdue. The pain you have caused is immeasurable.'

The jury heard heartbreaking evidence from his victim, who remembers repeatedly telling her attacker: 'I don't want to do this' but he carried on anyway.

The pensioner admitted having sex with the her teenage mother in the 1970s and accepted he is the biological father of her daughter. But Bennett, of Erdington, denied a charge of rape and claimed the victim told him she was 16 and consented to sex.

The jury heard evidence from her birth mother, now 59, that she had been informed by her mother that she had to babysit Bennett's children one evening.

But she was then shocked to find him there, before he asked her to come upstairs to a bedroom.

Prosecutor Peter Glenser QC said the defendant told the girl to take her clothes off when they were alone together.

Mr Glesner said: 'She does recall saying: 'I don't want to do this' and him saying: 'It's going to be alright.

'She remembers him saying he wasn't going to hurt her and she should say nothing.'

Mr Glesner revealed that a few weeks later it 'became obvious she was pregnant'.

Bennett was sentenced to 11 years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court earlier this month (pictured)

The court heard how the victim was taken to a mother and baby home to give birth to her daughter, who was ultimately put up for adoption.

She said when she returned home she was made to sit in a chair and watch a programme about someone having to give up her child.

She said: 'I had to sit there and watch it to see if I would cry. I know that's why I had to watch it. I thought I won't cry. I was adamant I wasn't going to cry. So I never.'

The victim stated she was still 'shocked' at the whole ordeal but felt it was soon 'brushed under the carpet' by everyone

After a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, a jury took just one hour and 48 minutes to reject his account and find him guilty.

She described seeing him being convicted as 'just incredible', adding: 'It still hasn't sunk in. This only happened two weeks ago.

'It hasn't dawned on me. I think of this baby, left in hospital. The odds were against me and to think I, conceived in rape, have actually done this. It's incredible for me to digest.

'I think for me, part of the justice is for him to be called to account, he's absolutely responsible for the rape and right he got a prison sentence.'
Gordon Ramsay has blasted a mother's family-friendly recipe in his latest TikTok video.

The chef took aim at American social media chef Tara Ippolito, who showcased how to create a 'chicken nugget parmesan' in a short TikTok video.

The dish involves putting chicken nuggets, tomato sauce and parmesan on glazed brioche buns cooked in the oven.

He quipped: 'The hardest part of this recipe? Love let me tell you the secret, it is swallowing it.'

Gordon Ramsay has blasted a mother's family-friendly recipe in his latest TikTok video

It is the latest in a series of videos in which Ramsay gives cutting feedback to home chefs on their culinary creations.

Talking through the recipe, Tara, who is known for her budget friendly recipes, said: ' Why not chicken nugget parmesan? It's breaded boneless chicken, which is really just what a chicken cutlet is anyway.

'It saves you all the time of making them and each one fits perfectly into these teeny, tiny party rolls [brioche burger buns].'

The amateur chef demonstrated dusting the nuggets with flour and adding cheese before covering with party rolls.

Gordon (pictured left) labelled his reaction to Tara's video an 'Italian tragedy' and argued the most difficult part of Tara's process is swallowing the dish

Gordon (pictured left), who boasts almost 26 million followers, racked up over 12 million views on his reaction video

Gordon Ramsay (pictured left) has divided the opinion of social media users with his latest TikTok video reacting to an amateur chef's chicken nugget parmesan dish (pictured right)

She continued: 'The hardest part of this whole recipe is the garlic butter that goes on top of it. This isn't my preferred chicken parmesan method, but it works well.

'Especially if you've got some kids to feed, how could you go wrong with this.'

But Ramsay was unimpressed and pulled faces throughout Tara's video.

The celebrity chef racked up over 12 million views on the clip. Many fans commented in defence of Tara.

One person wrote: 'I'm starting to question your opinions now Mr Ramsay lol. That looks pretty damn good haha.'

A flood of responses to Gordon's video argued Tara's dish looks good and praised it for people cooking on a budget

Another said: 'Really, Gordon Ramsay, what's wrong with it? It's quick, easy, affordable, portable and even the kids can make it.'

A third added: 'This is what normal people without culinary degrees eat on a daily basis Gordon and TBH it looks good.'

Tara told Insider that she isn't hurt by Gordon's reaction to her recipe but shocked that he knew about her videos.

The mother-of-two, who has gained a following for her budget recipes, revealed that she's overwhelmed by the support.

'I'm not mad at Gordon at all, I was just blown away by how the community of women and moms came to support me,' Tara said.
A new study that remained unpublished for more than a year found that animals known to be carrying coronaviruses were sold at local wet markets in the 2010s.

Researchers from the Chinese government's Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, the University of Oxford in the UK and the University of British Columbia in Canada collected data from several markets in Wuhan and photographs from the Huanan seafood market.

Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the study found that several species including civets, dogs, minks, raccoons and more - infected with different types of coronaviruses - were sold for years, reported Bloomberg.

For the past several months, there has been back-and-forth speculation about the origins of COVID-19 and whether it came from wild animals or was manufactured in and accidentally escaped from a laboratory.

The findings seem to support scientists' original theory, which is that the virus occurred in nature before it jumped to humans.

A study from researchers in China, the UK and Canada that went unpublished for more than a year has been posted online looking at four markets in Wuhan. Pictured, from Huanan seafood market in Wuhan: (a) king rat snake (b) Chinese bamboo rat (c) Amur hedgehog being sold

The report finds that more than 38 species of wild live animals were sold for food and as pets from the markets in Wuhan. Pictured, from Huanan seafood market: (d) raccoon dog (e) Marmot and hedgehogs, and (f) hog badger being sold

The study was originally conceived as a way to study the origins of a tick-borne illness that had sickened hundreds in China's Hubei province years earlier, according to Bloomberg.

Lead author Dr Xiao Xiao, a virologist at the Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, collected data from four markets in Wuhan between May 2017 and November 2019.

When doctors began to report in January 2020 that a mysterious pneumonia-like disease was sweeping through Wuhan, Xiao collaborated with other scientists and began combing through his data.

They found that more than 47,000 transactions of 38 species of wild live animals - including mammals, birds and reptiles - during the two-and-a-half year period.

The animals, which were sold for food and as pets, were kept in poor hygiene conditions and were infected with a range of zoonotic diseases, which are infectious diseases that jump from a non-human animal to humans.

Among the disease include influenza, rabies and several coronaviruses including those that originate in birds and in fowl.

One of the infected animals, a masked palm civet, is a species linked to the 2003 outbreak outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a cousin of the new virus.

The team put together a manuscript and sent the report to a journal in February 2020, but it was rejected, reported Bloomberg.

'We'd imagined that the journal we sent it to would say: "Fantastic! Of course we want these data out as quickly as we can. The World Health Organization would be absolutely thrilled to receive this information,"' co-author Dr Chris Newman of the University of Oxford, told the news website.

'[The journal] did not think [the study] would have widespread appeal.'

Newman said the study provided solid evidence that live animals were being sold as food at the center of the outbreak and should have been published in the early days of the pandemic.

Several early reports, including a team from Beijing and WHO researchers sent to China, seem to imply the outbreak originated from the Wuhan market.

However, the Chinese government switched gears in summer 2020, denying that wet markets exist in China and that the virus originated from wild animals being sold there.

Many of the animals, especially at the Hunan seafood market, were sold infected with diseases, including coronaviruses that originate in birds and in fowl. Pictured: Huanan market in April 2020

The findings may offer a clue in the origins of COVID-19 and whether it jumped from animals to humans or escaped from a lab. Pictured: CDC illustration of the virus that causes COVID-19

'SARS-CoV-2 could not have possibly evolved in an animal market in a big city and even less likely in a laboratory, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Science wrote in a paper released in July, first reported by Bloomberg,.

The Communist Party has since implied that the virus originated from Europe or even the United states.

In the paper, Xiao and his colleagues wrote that in the markets he visited, at least 30 percent of the animals had injuries consistent with gunshot wounds or traps, implying they had been caught in the wild.

None of the 17 shops within the four markets displayed an origin certificate or quarantine certificate, 'so all wildlife trade was fundamentally illegal,' the paper wrote.

Perhaps, most importantly, seven of the shops were linked to some of the earliest every documented COVID-19 infections, including workers at the Huanan market, reported Bloomberg.

The researchers say they revised the manuscript twice and sent it to a journal, but it was rejected.

The manuscript was revised again and sent to Scientific Reports in October 2020

Springer Nature, which publishes the journal, sent a copy to the WHO, but to a generic email address regarding unpublished research that went unexamined, according to Bloomberg.

A copy was also sent to Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead for the WHO, but she missed the original email and never received a follow-up.

Since then, a report from The Wall Street Journal, citing a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report, detailed how three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic,

The newspaper said the report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.

In late May, President Joe Biden ordered a 90-day review in to the origins of COVID-19, which is set to be published later this month.
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British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said its new Covid vaccine has produced good results in initial laboratory tests, with human trials expected to begin this year and ministers set to order up to 50 million doses of the jab.

The mRNA technology at the heart of the vaccine could be used to create a so-called multivalent jab that would be designed to protect against several Covid variants, GSK and German partner CureVac said.

A first version of the vaccine developed by the German company had failed in large-scale trials. The latest trials were conducted in collaboration with Harvard and involved macaque monkeys being jabbed with either the original vaccine or a new version, known as CV2CoV.

The Times reported that human trials are expected to begin later this year. Britain said in February that it could order 50 million doses, with ministers suggesting the project would lead to the UK developing the ability to manufacture its own mRNA vaccines.

GSK, one of the world's biggest vaccine companies, has been criticised over delays in producing a successful Covid jab. Its new vaccine is based on the same type of mRNA technology that is found at the heart of the Pfizer and Moderna jabs.

It comes as Moderna's Covid vaccine was approved for all 12 to 17-year-olds, with a review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the drug watchdog, finding the jab was safe and effective in youngsters.

Both Moderna and Pfizer's jabs have been linked to myocarditis, a rare heart problem believed to affect around one in 20,000 young people. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has claimed the risk of heart inflammation still outweighs the benefit of Covid jabs for healthy under-16s.

In other Covid developments:

New Zealand was plunged into one of the world's toughest lockdowns after a single Covid case was found;

New study that remained unpublished for a year found that animals known to be carrying coronaviruses were sold at local wet markets in the 2010s;

Britain recorded 170 Covid fatalities and 26,852 positive tests;

A new Covid test said to be quicker than a lateral flow and as accurate as a PCR could be rolled out in just three months;

Millions of people who have caught coronavirus face being turned down for vital life, critical illness and income protection insurance.

A GSK employee works on a vaccine packing line at the factory of British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline in Wavre

It comes as Moderna's Covid vaccine was approved for all 12 to 17-year-olds, with a review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the drug watchdog, finding the jab was safe and effective in youngsters

Britain recorded 170 Covid fatalities and 26,852 positive tests

Britain records 170 Covid fatalities in deadliest daily toll since MARCH - as cases creep up again in 14% week-on-week jump with 26,852 positive tests but hospitalisations stay flat Britain today recorded 170 Covid fatalities in the deadliest recorded daily toll for five months, and infections are continuing to rise. Department of Health statistics show today's death count was 16.4 per cent up on last week's count and was the most registered in a day since March 12 (175), when the second wave had started to fizzle out. But day-to-day figures can fluctuate heavily, especially on Tuesdays  which are artificially higher because of the recording lag at weekends. The overall trend  measured by the seven-day average  has flattened out over the past fortnight and the daily counts are just a fraction of what they were when cases were at a similar level in January. Deaths and hospital admissions  which have also levelled off, jumping just 2.4 per cent in a week  lag several weeks behind cases because of how long it takes for infected people to become seriously ill. Advertisement

The new Covid jab was shown to stimulate more robust immune responses, with higher levels of antibodies and stronger activation of so-called 'memory B' and 'T' cells, important aspects of the body's defences against the virus, the paper reported.

Monkeys vaccinated with the new jab were also found to be better protected when they were exposed to the virus. In a statement, the companies said there was 'highly effective clearance of the virus in the lungs and nasal passages'.

Rino Rappuoli, chief scientist and head of GSK vaccines research and development, said: 'The mRNA technology is a key strategic priority for us, and we are investing significantly in a number of mRNA programs focused on the collaboration with CureVac.

'The strong immune response and protection in pre-clinical testing of this second-generation mRNA backbone are very encouraging and represent an important milestone for its further development.'

It comes as Moderna's Covid vaccine was today approved for all 12 to 17-year-olds, in a sign that Britain is edging closer to routinely jabbing children. It becomes the second coronavirus vaccine to be approved for British children after Pfizer's, which uses the same technology, was green-lit in June.

All 16 and 17-year-olds are already being invited for the Pfizer vaccine and don't need permission from a parent or guardian to get one. But only under-16s who live with vulnerable people or who have immune weaknesses themselves are being invited currently.

However, health chiefs last week hinted Britain may follow the US' lead in vaccinating all children over 12. More than 10million under-18s in America have already had their first jab.

The JCVI will look at Moderna's trials of its Covid jab in children before making a recommendation. The panel will likely look abroad to rollouts where the vaccine is already being given to children.

Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA, said: 'I am pleased to confirm that that the Covid vaccine made by Moderna has now been authorised in 12-17 year olds. The vaccine is safe and effective in this age group.

'We have in place a comprehensive safety surveillance strategy for monitoring the safety of all UK-approved Covid-19 vaccines and this surveillance will include the 12 to 17 year age group.

'It is for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to advise on whether this age group should be vaccinated with the Covid vaccine made by Moderna as part of the deployment programme.'

This will give them the opportunity to build up some level of protection before the school year starts in September, when infections are expected to rise sharply. Other countries have successfully been vaccinating younger children for some time, but the UK has taken a more cautious approach.

So far the JCVI is only recommending the Pfizer vaccine be rolled out to children under 16 if they have severely weakened immune systems or learning difficulties. Youngsters who live with immunosuppressed family members are also eligible for a jab.

The JCVI claims healthy children are at such a low risk from coronavirus and long Covid that the tiny risk of heart problems after vaccination outweighs the benefit.

Young people appear to be at a one in 20,000 chance of developing myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, after a second dose of Pfizer's vaccine. Because Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines both use the same mRNA technology, the risk is thought to be similar.

In guidance issues last month, the JCVI said the risk of a youngster dying from Covid was just one in a million. The main benefit of vaccinating children is to protect older adults, which has made the move somewhat controversial.

A spokesperson for the department said: 'We welcome the news that Moderna's vaccine has been approved as safe and effective for people aged 12 and over.

'As has been the case with all other approvals, we will now be guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and have asked for its formal recommendation on whether to administer this vaccine to people aged 12 to 17.

Meanwhile, separate data today revealed Covid was blamed on more than one in 20 of all deaths in England and Wales at the start of August

New Zealand is plunged into a three-day lockdown and Auckland for a whole week over just ONE case of coronavirus New Zealand has been plunged into a snap lockdown after a single mystery Covid case was found in Auckland, the nation's first locally-acquired case since February. The entire country will enter a three-day Level Four lockdown from 11.59pm Tuesday, while Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula will suffer under the rules for at least a week. Kiwis will be locked in their homes for all but essential reasons, with businesses forced to shut and masks mandatory whenever a person leaves the house. A 58-year-old Auckland man, who is unvaccinated, tested positive on Tuesday and is believed to have been infectious for the last five days. He had travelled with his wife to Coromandel  which is on the east of the North Island  at the weekend. The case is being assumed to be infected with the highly contagious Indian Delta strain until genome testing results come back on Wednesday. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged the country to follow the rules 'to the letter' amid fears the highly-transmissible variant could undermine New Zealand's brutal 'zero-Covid' strategy. Advertisement

'All young people aged 16 to 17, clinically vulnerable children aged 12 to 15 and people who live with adults who are immunosuppressed will be offered a first dose of a Pfizer jab by Monday 23 August.'

Originally, the JCVI said in July that the Pfizer vaccine should not routinely be given to 16 and 17-year-olds.

But it U-turned earlier this month because of a rise in the number of infected teenagers getting seriously ill with the Delta variant. NHS data shows around 20 Covid-infected children aged between six and 17 are being admitted to hospital every day currently.

For comparison, the rate was in single figures until the start of July, when the third wave began to spiral rapidly. There were two days in May where no youngsters were hospitalised.

The tiny numbers of children who become seriously ill is the main argument used by critics of No10's decision to expand the roll-out to youngsters. Data also suggests around one in 15,000 teenage boys given Pfizer's jab will develop myocarditis - which can lead to heart failure.

It has raised concerns about the risk-benefit ratio for children, especially boys, who may be up to 14 times more likely to be struck down with the complication. But other scientists agree with the UK's move to vaccinate children, saying cases of the condition appear to usually be mild.

Any increase in prevalence tips the risk-benefit balance in favour of jabs because the dangers posed by Covid are skewed higher.

Professor Finn, a paediatrician at Bristol University, said while most young people will only have the virus in a mild form, the vaccines will be effective at preventing serious cases.

Meanwhile, separate data today revealed Covid was blamed on more than one in 20 of all deaths in England and Wales at the start of August.

Some 527 death certificates mentioned Covid in the week ending August 6 - up 30.4 per cent on the seven days prior. This equated to 5.2 per cent of the total - the highest proportion since March, according to the Office for National Statistics. Additionally, it marked the eighth consecutive week that the proportion of deaths blamed on Covid has been on rise in England and Wales.

In total, 9,537 deaths were registered in England that week, 13.1 per cent above the five-year average, while there was 634 recorded deaths in Wales, 10.8 per cent higher than the average.

The figures reflect the impact of the country's third wave of Covid, which was sparked by the highly-transmissible Indian variant which began spreading in mid-May. As well as the lag in getting ill, the ONS figures are delayed by a further week and a half due to how long it can take to process fatalities.

The relatively low number of deaths in the third wave so far, when compared with the second wave of the virus, reflects the success of the roll-out of the country's jab roll-out. Covid vaccinations have prevented between 81,300 and 87,800 deaths in England alone, health chiefs estimate.

Of the 527 deaths registered across the two nations, the majority (411, 78 per cent), occurred in the over-60s.

And the fatalities tended to drop through the age groups, with 58 deaths recorded among people in their 50s, 29 among people in their 40s, 22 in people in their 30s and five in people in their 20s.

One child aged between five and nine died with the virus, as well as a baby less than one-year-old. Across England, deaths from all causes increased from 9,481 to 9,537 in the most recent week.

Fatalities increased in five of the nine regions of the country, with the largest hike being seen in the South East, which recorded 51 more deaths. And deaths linked with the virus rose in all regions apart from Yorkshire and the Humber, where fatalities linked with the virus dropped from 65 to 57.

The biggest rise in Covid-related deaths was seen in the South East, where the figure more than doubled in a week, from 25 to 56.
Long-awaited NHS guidelines on how to treat chronic fatigue syndrome have been postponed indefinitely.

Health watchdogs halted the publication of advice because of disagreements about treatment recommendations they were planning to make.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said it was unable to produce guidelines on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) which were 'supported by all'.

It is understood the final advice would have urged doctors to stop offering patients graded exercise therapy (GET).

The controversial therapy  which charities say suggest it's psychological  involves doing increasingly more exercise to build-up a tolerance for carrying out physical activity.

Health chiefs were also set to advise against the routine use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)  commonly used to treat anxiety and depression.

A NICE spokesperson claimed the delay was prompted by 'a number of professional groups' who were unwilling to support the advice.

Campaign group Action for M.E. said it was 'baffled' by the delay to the guidelines  which were last updated in 2007.

It warned the move will hold-off 'desperately needed improvements to patient care', the charity said.

Meanwhile, ME Action UK accused watchdogs of 'capitulating to the vested interests of those who support graded exercise therapy'.

And charities say these treatments are 'driven by outdated views' that are 'no longer supported by science'.

But some neurologists and medics day without the two treatments 'there is nothing' for ME sufferers.

Around 250,000 people in the UK and 17million around the world are estimated to have ME. People who have the condition usually suffer from extreme tiredness and feeling generally unwell

What is ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis)? ME is a long-term and poorly understood condition that causes a range of symptoms. It is grouped together with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and is also known as CFS/ME. Its main symptom is extreme tiredness and feeling generally unwell. Some people suffer from sleep problems, muscle and joint pain, headaches, a sore throat and problems thinking. And they might also experience flu-like symptoms, feeling dizzy or stick and having a fast or irregular heartbeat. The severity of symptoms can change day to day and doing too much activity usually makes them worse - known as post-exertional malaise. People with ME can have huge differences in their symptoms and how long they last. Around 250,000 people in the UK and 17million around the world are estimated to have the condition. There is no diagnostic test for ME, so doctors decide whether a patient has the condition based on their symptoms and ruling out other conditions. As it stands, the treatments offered to patients for ME are cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a talking therapy used for anxiety and depression, and a structured exercise programme called graded exercise therapy (GET). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) was due to publish guidelines this month that would no longer recommend these treatments. But strong opinions around the illness made it impossible for NICE to reach a consensus on the treatments it should tell doctors to offer. Source: NHS and Action for M.E. Advertisement

ME/CFS causes a range of symptoms but the most common are extreme tiredness and generally feeling unwell.

Around 250,000 people in the UK and 17million around the world are estimated to have the condition.

There is no 'one size fits all' approach to managing the condition and NHS guidelines recommend CBT, GET, activity management and medicine to control symptoms.

NICE started working on new guidelines in January 2018.

It published a draft version in November that suggested exercise programmes, such as (GET), would no longer be recommended to treat ME/CFS.

A final version of the guidelines, cementing that these treatments should no longer be used, was due to be released today.

NICE said: 'Because of issues raised during the pre-publication period with the final guideline, we need to take time to consider next steps.

'We will hold conversations with professional and patient stakeholder groups to do this. We need to do this so that the guideline is supported.'

The body said it used its 'usual rigorous methodology and process' in developing the guidance, which 'brought together' the available evidence and the real, lived experience and testimony of people with ME/CFS'.

It added: 'But despite the best efforts of the committee, we have not been able to produce a guideline that is supported by all.'

NICE added: 'Unless the recommendations in the guideline are supported and implemented by professionals and the NHS, people with ME/CFS may not get the care and help they need.

'In order to have the desired impact, the recommendations must be supported by those who will implement them and NICE will now explore if this support can be achieved.'

A spokesperson for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said they are 'very pleased' the guidelines have not been released.

It added it will work with NICE 'to ensure future guidance is of benefit to children, young people and those who manage their care'.

Sian Leary, spokesperson for ME Action UK, said: 'At a time when NICE needs to show strength, and to back their own independent processes, they have instead shown a depressing level of weakness.

'They are capitulating to the vested interests of those who support graded exercise therapy, instead of standing up for the thousands of people being harmed.'

Urging NICE to reconsider, she added the organisation, which is made up of patients and carers working for more recognition and research for ME, is 'shocked to hear the actions of the medical establishment have led to the delay'.

Action for M.E. claimed the guidelines would bring clinical practice 'up to date with current scientific knowledge'.

It said: 'Delays will hold-off still further the desperately needed improvements to patient care.

'Many medical professionals, researchers and patient representatives have spent three years diligently reviewing and assessing the evidence.

'The document has been approved by the committee and should be published.

'The guideline removes support for therapies driven by outdated views regarding treatment for M.E. which are no longer supported by the science.

'We understand these new guidelines may take time to become accepted by elements of the medical community, but they should not be delayed.

'No minority party should be able to undermine the careful scientific consensus established by the NICE committee and the rigorous work that has been undertaken in good faith.'

Sonya Chowdhury, chief executive at Action for M.E., says: 'We are in the dark about this.

'The NICE committee has worked hard to produce balanced guidelines which reflect science and best medical practise. Nobody should be able to undermine that.'

Dr Nina Muirhead, head of medical education at Doctors for ME, said: 'Doctors are in desperate need of improved support in how to care for patients, delaying that prolongs unscientific approaches which have no place in our medical community.'

But Dr Alastair Miller, a consultant physician in acute medicine and infectious disease at Cumberland Infirmary, who was formerly principal medical adviser for Action for M.E., told the Guardian : 'The draft guidelines were predicted to stop the use of GET and limit the use of CBT which have served most chronic fatigue syndrome/ME clinicians and patients well for many years and were endorsed by the NICE guidelines in 2007.

'Most NHS clinicians use GET and CBT and have done so for a long time. Importantly, without CBT and GET, there is nothing.

'No new therapies or approaches have emerged since 2007, so in practice one needs to question whether there was ever a requirement to have a new guideline.

'If the professional bodies that represent those who care for these individuals were not prepared to support the guideline, this may have made NICE think again.

'It is difficult to say where we go from here. There are some amongst the charities and patient groups that are utterly opposed to CBT and GET, and so compromise and consensus may be difficult to achieve.'
Around 85,000 Britons are missing out on therapy for osteoporosis because of a 'Wild West' postcode lottery of care, a charity warns.

Only half of NHS trusts have a Fracture Liaison Service and many are failing to meet targets, the Royal Osteoporosis Society says.

The service is considered a gold standard of care and identifies, assesses and treats anyone who sustains a fracture after the age of 50.

But a Freedom of Information request sent to 123 trusts in England reveals only 51 per cent have one.

This compares with 100 per cent coverage in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Only half of NHS trusts have a Fracture Liaison Service and many are failing to meet targets, the Royal Osteoporosis Society says

Osteoporosis - low bone density - affects 3.5million people in the UK but is known as a 'silent disease' because of under-diagnosis and treatment.

Only 14 of English trusts said they hit the national standard of identifying at least 80 per cent of qualifying patients in 2020 - down from 19 in 2019.

Further, just 30 saw at least 80 per cent of referrals within the guideline 12 weeks and a mere ten reviewed at least 80 per cent of patients on osteoporosis drugs after a year.

The pandemic has impacted care, with 79 per cent of bone scanning services operating at 'severely reduced capacity', the FOI reveals.

These are contributing to delays, which can allow bones to deteriorate further before treatment begins, the ROS warns.

Only 32 per cent of 3,000 patients polled for the ROS believe they are getting the level of monitoring they need - down 15 points since the last survey in 2014.

What is osteoporosis? Osteoporosis is a disease where bone density is lost leaving patients prone to fractures. Usually, old bone tissue is broken down and replaced with new tissue. Osteoporosis occurs when the breaking down of bone outpaces its replacement. Bisphosphonates are clinically proven to reduce the risk of fractures by increasing bone mass and mineral density as well as filling pits created by overactive bone cells. The drugs bind to the surface of bones, blocking bone removal. Because longer-term treatment can sometimes have side-effects, the doctor may suggest a break from treatment after three to five years. Advertisement

Worryingly, 38 per cent of respondents had to wait over a year after their first broken bone to get diagnosed; 28 per cent more than two years; and 17 per cent more than five years.

Craig Jones, chief executive of the ROS, wants a Fracture Liaison Service in every trust.

He said: 'Every hour in modern Britain, people will suffer 60 broken bones due to osteoporosis  affecting mainly older people, who have already suffered so much during this pandemic.

'The disease has a devastating personal, societal and financial impact.

'It doesn't need to be like this: levelling up services in the NHS can spare tens of thousands of people the long-term pain, disability and loss of independence caused by fractures, protecting quality of life as people live longer, and paying back the NHS's investment many times over.'

Osteoporosis is easily treatable by safe, cheap and effective medication if diagnosed early, allowing patients able to live a perfectly ordinary life.

But treatable problems can escalate, with a fifth of women suffering three or more broken bones before getting a diagnosis.

As many people now die of fracture-related causes as from lung cancer, diabetes or chronic lower respiratory diseases, the ROS says.

Jan Westbury, 65, from Fordingbridge, said nobody mentioned a Fracture Liaison Service when she fractured both her arms in a fall in 2012.

She added: 'The healthcare professionals who cared for me did not mention that I could have low bone density.

'The post code lottery for a Fracture Liaison Service means that I and many others miss out on access to proper co-ordinated care and expert advice.'

An NHS spokesperson said: 'Patients who need it, can and should continue to come forward for care and treatment for osteoporosis - whether that is through a Fracture Liaison Service, their GP or in other local healthcare settings.'
It's proving to be a tough start to the new school year for some children in Florida.

As of Tuesday, the number of students in Hillsborough County, which includes the Tampa Bay area, who are in quarantine or in isolation after being exposed to COVID-19 has risen to 8,400.

That's equivalent to a little less than 4 percent of the student population in the county.

More than 1,695 cases have been detected since August 2, of which 1,197 are in students and 498 are among teachers and staff.

An meeting has been scheduled by the Hillsborough County School Board for Wednesday to discuss the latest impacts and the best way to mitigate the spread of the virus, 'up to and including mandatory face coverings for all students and staff,' a notice from the district said.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 379 children have died, 43 of which have occurred since the Indian 'Delta' variant became dominant

A total of 8,400 students and 300 staff are in quarantine, according to Hillsborough School County dashboard. Pictured: High school students return on the first day of school, amid the coronavirus pandemic, at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, FL, on August 10

The number of students quarantined for COVID-19 for exposure to the virus grew Tuesday to 4% of the student population, with 1,600 students and staff testing positive

Of the nearly 1,200 cases among kids, nearly 400 tested positive for the virus on Monday alone.

Of the almost 500 school staff, 48 are employees of the school district office in downtown Tampa.

According to an update from the district on Tuesday, this has led to 8,400 students are currently quarantined or in isolation out of 213,491 total and 307 school employees quarantined or in isolation out of 23,596 total.

The current policy in Hillsborough County is that masks are mandated for students, but there is an opt-out provision.

As of a week ago, there were over 26,000 opt-outs; about 14 percent of the district's students.

Elizabeth Devolder, a mother for Tampa, made the decision to keep her fifth and second-grade children home from school in what she is calling voluntary quarantine.

'Although they were not immediately exposed, and they're not required to quarantine, I felt like why do we have to wait for our kids to get sick before we take an action?' she told local ABC Action News.

'I think it's terrifying,' she added of the positive cases.

The district's school board scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the surge in coronavirus rates among public school students on Wednesday. Pictured: Addison Davis, Hillsborough County Superintendent of Schools (right) fist bumps student James Braden before he heads to class on the first day of school at Sessums Elementary School Tuesday

Across the Tampa Bay area, districts are reporting more than 2,800 cases of COVID-19 in schools.

Some districts are stepping up to help kids in quarantine. Pinellas County added live tutors to assist students with completing their assignments, while Hillsborough County added an online portal with resources for parents.

Devolder plans to keep her children home until the numbers go down. Until then, they'll be writing to lawmakers asking them to put more protections in place.

'We homeschooled last year and if we have to do that again, we'll do that again,' she added.

The news comes as Florida continues to be America's COVID-19 epicenter with 151,764 new cases reported last week with a record-high seven-day average of 21,681 cases per day.

Average cases in Florida vastly increased to 30,353 on August 16 after the mandate to wear masks in closed public spaces was removed for the summer by Governor Ron DeSantis

According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the state has the highest hospitalization rate in the country with 65 COVID-19 patients per 100,000 people - triple the national rate, according to CNN.

What's more, half of all ICU beds in Florida are occupied by Covid patients, HHS data show.

'[Staff are] mentally, physically and spiritually exhausted and when they have all these patients in front of them sick with COVID-19 and they see the mortality that's unnecessary, it's demoralizing, Maggie Hansen, Chief Nurse Executive at Memorial Healthcare System, told NBC Miami.

'They're sad and frustrated because something can be done. Get vaccinated so they can get back to the business of health care.'

In late July, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order preventing mask mandates in schools and in early August, he threatened to withhold salaries from school superintendents or board members who ignore his new mandate.
As COVID-19 vaccine boosters start to roll out across the country, there is one group that seems to have been left out of the conversation.

Recipients of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine are not yet eligible for an extra dose while they are becoming available to those who received the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna jabs.

This has left J&J vaccine recipients in limbo, especially the immunocompromised who may be at risk from the Indian 'Delta' variant despite being fully vaccinated.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says they plan to eventually approve booster shots for J&J recipients, but can not yet do so due to a lack of data.

But some people who got the J&J shot have resorted to receiving extra doses before being authorized.

The 13.9 million recipients of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have been left in limbo, as they await word on when booster shots will be made available for them

Expert recommends that some J&J recipients concerned about booster shots should contact physician about receiving an additional jab. Pictured: A woman receives a dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine from a healthcare worker, August 2021

The FDA authorized additional vaccine doses for immunocompromised recipients of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines last week and is expected to be recommended to receive booster shots eight months after completing their first vaccination series.

The agency has yet to give guidance for J&J recipients, though.

While the number of Americans who have received the one-shot vaccine, around 13.9 million, is dwarfed by the nearly 350 million Americans who received the two-shot jobs, this group is still extremely worried.

'They're in limbo,' Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told the DailyMail.com.

'It's a big issue for individuals who received the vaccine. It is a small number in comparison to others, but it is very important to these recipients.'

Schaffner's medical center in Nashville has been inundated with calls from J&J vaccine recipients worried about the prospect of the Delta variant.

He says that he is especially worried about some immunocompromised people, and specifically HIV patients, who received the one-shot vaccine.

Data on the J&J vaccine are coming in slower than in came in for others, though, meaning health officials do not have the information necessary to make an official recommendation.

Schaffner says there are some way around this.

He insists that while he can not make any blanket recommendations, those who are worried should contact their doctor and discuss the prospect of receiving an additional dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Some physicians are already making that recommendation, and in San Francisco the city's health department is already offering J&J recipients at 'supplemental' shot of a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has reported that at least one million Americans have received an 'unauthorized' booster shot.

The data necessary to make an official recommendation may take some time, though, if it ever does come in.

'I don't think we'll have a great of information on mixing and matching with the J&J [vaccine],' Schaffner said.

'I don't think we'll have a lot of data about J&J first dose then Pfizer or Moderna second [dose].'

Schaffner does say that data from Europe and the AstraZeneca vaccine could be valuable.

Data out of Europe find that the combination of the AstraZeneca vaccine - which is not available in the U.S.- and the Pfizer vaccine is both safe and effective.

While the J&J vaccine is not exactly the same as its counterpart, it is similar enough that data from across the pond could be used to make a decision in America.
COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will soon be made available to recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines starting the week of September 20, the White House announced on Wednesday.

Adults over age 18 who received the two-shot vaccines will be eligible for the third shot eight months after receiving their second and final dose.

The decision is pending approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a recommendation made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) advisory committee.

There is currently no plan in place for Americans who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

'Our goal has been to determine when that time might come for the COVID-19 vaccines,' Dr Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, said during a news conference on Wednesday.

'...Recent data makes clear that protection against mild and moderate disease has decreased over time.

'This is likely due to both waning immunity and the strength of the widespread Delta variant.'

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Americans who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine will be eligible for booster shots starting the week of September 20 (file image)

Dr Vivek Murthy (pictured), said at a news conference on Wednesday that waning vaccine efficacy combined with dangers posed by the Delta variant are the reasons the White House plans to open the door for a third dose of the vaccine

The announcement comes after the FDA approved vaccine booster shots for immunocompromised Americans last week.

Officials cited the waning immunity the current crop of COVID-19 vaccines have, combined with the Indian 'Delta' variant's ability to cause breakthrough cases as the reason why boosters are needed.

The CDC released three studies on Wednesday, which director Dr Rochelle Walensky said shows that 'vaccine protection begins to decrease over time.'

One study from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found the Pfizer vaccine is only 42 percent effective against the Delta variant, and the Moderna vaccine is only 76 percent effective.

A second study found that vaccines' effectiveness against COVID-19 diagnoses dropped from 96 percent to 80 percent in New York state between May 2021 and July 2021.

The third study found the effectiveness of the shots against infections in nursing home residents was 75 percent. Post-Delta, this had fallen to 53 percent.

While the shot's ability to defend a person from contracting the virus decreases over time, fully vaccinated people are still very unlikely to suffer hospitalization or death from COVID-19.

However, White House officials said at the press conference that they have concerns the decline of the vaccines' effectiveness will continue.

Effectiveness of the Moderna (yellow) and Pfizer (blue) COVID-19 vaccines began to drop in June and July as the 'Delta' variant became more prevalent in Minesota. Moderna had an effectiveness of 76%, while Pfizer's vaccine was 42% effective, according to a Mayo Clinic study

Dr Rochelle Walensky (pictured), director of the CDC, says that more than one million uauthorized booster shots have already been distributed. She was among a panel of health officials at a White House news conference on Wednesday announcing plans to start rolling out vaccine booster shots to Americans in September

The third dose will provide people with additional antibodies and shore up protection against Delta, and any other future variants.

'The Delta variant is twice as transmissible as the Alpha variant, it's dangerous, and it continues to spread' President Joe Biden said during a news conference Wednesday,

'Vaccines are the key to stopping it from making progress.'

Declining efficacy is common among vaccines.

The flu shot is required every year due to how quickly the efficacy declines, and even some longer term vaccines like the tetanus shots require boosters every year.

While there are no plans yet laid out, the FDA says they plan to eventually approve booster shots for J&J recipients, but cannot yet do so due to a lack of data.

'We...anticipate booster shots will likely be needed for people who received the J&J vaccine,' a joint statement from the HHS and public health experts said on Wednesday.

'Administration of the J&J vaccine did not begin in the U.S. until March 2021, and we expect more data on J&J in the next few weeks. With those data in hand, we will keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots as well.'

That has not stopped many from going out of their way to receive unauthorized shots of a Pfizer or Moderna dose to compliment their J&J vaccine, though.

Last week, the CDC reported that more than one million Americans across the country have received unauthorized shots.

The new booster shot directives will effect over 150 million Americans who are fully vaccinated with either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.

Not all agree with making a third dose available, though.

The chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO) said there will be 'even more dire situations' if high-income countries start administering boosters before low-income countries even administer first shots to their populations.

On Wednesday, Dr Soumya Swaminathan said that the pandemic cannot be controlled if a majority of the developed world remains unvaccinated.

'We believe clearly that the data does not indicate that boosters are needed,' Swaminathan said at a news conference in Geneva.

White House officials also announced that they believe the country will hit 200 million people at least partially vaccinated at some point on Wednesday.

Currently, around 60 percent of Americans have received at least one shot, and about half of the country is fully vaccinated.

Experts believe the country will need to reach somewhere around 80 percent of the population fully vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity, meaning there is still a long way to go.

Vaccine demand in the country is on the rise, though, as the Delta variant causes a nationwide surge.

More than 500,000 Americans are getting vaccinated every day, an increase of the lowest points late in spring where only 300,000 were getting jabbed every day.

Vaccine outreach has not kept up with the Delta variant, though, which is causing a surge in cases that may end up being the largest the country has ever seen.

Currently, the U.S. is averaging around 140,000 new cases every day - a mark not reached since the backend of the massive winter surge on February 2.

The current case rate is a 600 percent increase over the 20,000 cases per day the nation was recording on July 1, when it seemed the pandemic was nearing its end.

America also eclipsed 1,000 deaths in a single day on Tuesday, the first time the mark has been reached since March.

A majority of new cases, and almost all deaths, are among the unvaccinated, as health officials urge the remaining unvaccinated people to get their shots.
A Texas mother's dying wish before she died of COVID-19 was that her four children get vaccinated against the virus.

After a week-long trip at church camp, Lydia Rodriguez, 42, of Galveston, Texas, and other members of her family tested positive for the coronavirus.

Rodriguez hadn't been vaccinated because she thought her body was strong enough to fight COVID-19 without the vaccine but - by the time she wanted the vaccine it was too late, reported The Washington Post.

Instead, she was placed on a ventilator, her cousin Dottie Jones told The Washington Post.

The mother-of-four lost her husband, Lawrence, to the virus at the beginning of August, and before she lost her own battle to it Monday.

Lydia Rodriguez, 42 (left), and her husband Lawrence Rodriguez, 49 (right), who passed away from coronavirus complications said they wish they had been vaccinated

'Please make sure my kids get vaccinated': Mother-of-four Lydia Rodriguez (center), 42, who died of COVID-19 after being infected at week-long church camp, asked her sister to promise that her children will be immunized against the virus

Before her passing on Monday, Rodriguez had made one final request during a phone call to her sister: 'Please make sure my kids get vaccinated.'

Two weeks prior to her death, the mother of four lost her husband, Lawrence, 49, from coronavirus complications with them in the same intensive care unit.

The couple, who were married for 21 years, were among the millions of Americans, who did not receive the coronavirus vaccine, which is available to anyone over the age of 12.

Health officials have stressed that the vaccine significantly lowers one's chance of developing complications from the virus.

Parents Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez died from COVID-19 within weeks of each other, leaving behind their four children: 18-year-old twins (top), a 16-year-old boy (bottom left) and an 11-year-old girl (bottom right)

The tragic story of the Rodriguez family reflects that of other unvaccinated patients who request doctors for vaccine after COVID-19 seriously affects their health.

'Lydia has never really believed in vaccines,' Jones, 55, told The Post.

The case of the Rodriguez family reflects that of other unvaccinated patients

'She believed that she could handle everything on her own, that you didn't really need medicine.'

Jones, a neonatal nurse could have supplied her cousin with endless amounts of information on the benefits of the vaccine but it was always going to be a hard sell:

'I knew she would never get vaccinated,' Jones said. 'I was very concerned.'

Rodriguez's husband, who also didn't believe in the effectiveness of vaccines, also declined to get the jab, reported The Post.

In early July, days after Rodriguez and her children returned from a Christian church retreat, the family fell ill.

In a short amount of time, the entire family caught COVID-19, including Rodriguez's husband, who did not attend camp due to work.

Rodriguez was admitted to the ICU on July 12, and her husband was admitted to another ward, Jones said.

Texas, which has a 50-60% vaccination rate, is one of the many southern states that has seen its number of new daily infections rise since the delta variant hit the U.S.

By then, the rest of the family ran errands and took care of the couple's four children while they were quarantining at home after catching the virus from their parents.

The youngest child was the only one to experience mild symptoms while the other three were asymptomatic. according The Post.

Lawrence Rodriguez requested a vaccine before being put on a ventilator, but it was also too late for him and he died on August 2.

At the time, Lydia Rodriguez was on an oxygen mask that prevented her from talking to her children.

'We are praying for you and taking care of the kids,' Jones recalled telling her cousin, according to The Post.

Hospital staff called the family on August 16 to report that Rodriguez had passed away. Two days later, Wednesday, would have been her 43rd birthday.

The family made sure to to honor Rodriguez's last wish.

The couple's eldest children, 18-year-old twins, have since been vaccinated, the 16-year-old son will soon be vaccinated and they will also schedule an appointment for the 11-year-old daughter as soon as she turns age 12.

'Our hearts are just broken,' Jones told ABC 13.

'We hurt for the kids. Please vaccinate. It is our desire that no other family have to endure this preventable scenario.

A fundraiser set up by Jones for the Rodriguez family, who are reportedly now in the care of extended family, which has - as of Wednesday - collected nearly $50,000.43.
Lollapalooza may not have been the Covid success that many have named it.

The iconic music festival returned to Chicago's Grant Park at the end of July, with around 385,000 revelers partying maskless, marking a return to pre-pandemic life.

Attendees were required to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test in order to attend.

Initial reports determined vaccine and testing checks worked, as only 203 people who attended the event tested positing in the weeks after, or 0.05 percent.

The some health experts have doubts because out of state contact tracing may not be very thorough, and many vaccinated people with asymptomatic cases may never even test for the virus.

Lollapalooza drew massive crowds, over 350,000 people in total. Pictured: Machine Gun Kelly performs at the festival on July 31

Chicago's public health department continues to monitor cases linked to Lollapalooza. Pictured: Princess Nokia performs at the festival on August 1

'This work is not always completely accurate and often gives us undercounts,' Dr Mercedes Carnethon, vice-chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told USA Today.

Carnethon said the contact tracing used to track down cases post-Lollapalooza was imprecise because tracers often can not reach people.

Some people, especially the vaccinated, may have contracted the virus and just never have gotten tested because they were asymptomatic.

Only 58 of the 203 cases detected were among Chicago residents as well, and it is harder for local contact tracers to reach people outside of the community.

'It was not a disaster,' Carnethon told USA Today.

'But I would fall short of using it as a model and strategy to hold these large events.'

She said that with the way the Indian 'Delta' variant spreads, getting a complete count of COVID-19 cases related to Lollapalooza will be extremely hard amid a nationwide surge of the virus.

Health officials initially said the relatively low case counts were not a surprise becuase 90 percent of the crowd in attendance was vaccinated.

Lollapalooza was not a superspreading event with just 203 people testing positive, according to data released Thursday from the Chicago Department of Public Health. Some experts doubt those case counts are complete, though, and that there is no way to track all the cases tied to the event. Pictured: Chicago health commissioner Dr Allison Arwady holds a press conference about city Covid numbers

Chicago officials estimated that about 90 percent of Lollapalooza attendees were vaccinated. Pictured: A view of the festival stage on August 1

'We've had no unexpected findings at this point,' Dr Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said during a news conference last week.

'There's no evidence at this point of a superspreader event, and there's no evidence of substantial impact to Chicago's epidemiology.'

Based on estimates of the festival's vaccination rate, the public health department calculated that about four in every 10,000 vaccinated attendees got Covid.

Among unvaccinated attendees, the risk was much higher: 16 out of every 10,000 attendees got Covid.

The city identified these Lollapalooza cases through contact tracing - asking Chicago residents who tested positive whether they'd attended the festival.

Chicago's public health department also put out a nationwide alert, requesting other cities and states to submit information for any cases linked to Lollapalooza.

Additionally, the department conducted supplemental interviews of anyone who tested positive and attended the festival.

This process is not able to specifically prove that attendees got sick at Lollapalooza, Arwady said.

Attendees may also have been infected at bars and restaurants or other high-risk locations outside the festival.

In addition to contact tracing, the city public health department is monitoring data from local hospitals to identify any rise in Covid symptoms.

'We did not see increases or additional cases coming in through the emergency department,' Arwady said.

Arwady noted that 13 of the Chicago residents who tested positive said they attended Lollapalooza after starting to experience symptoms - making it likely that they infected others at the festival.

Even if you're vaccinated, Arwady said, it's still important to stay home and get tested if you experience Covid symptoms.

The Chicago public health department will continue to monitor cases linked to Lollapalooza.

'I expect we may see some more positives come in,' Arwady said - particularly from other public health departments outside the city and state.

However, Arwady is confident that 'we would have seen a surge if we were going to see a surge, at this point.'
More than 1,000 people have been barred from using electric scooters during a citys trial scheme.

The figures emerged following a spike in complaints and accidents in Liverpool.

The vehicles have been linked to several serious collisions, including nine cases where riders had life-changing injuries.

Operators Voi said over 1,000 people had been banned for seven days for antisocial riding

One female rider lost a finger and a passenger on an e-scooter suffered a serious leg injury when his suspected drunk driver lost control and they both fell off.

Operators Voi said over 1,000 people had been banned for seven days for antisocial riding.

They are one of several operators who have launched e-scooter schemes in more than 50 English towns and cities over the past 18 months.

Although the scooters are designed to carry one person, drivers with passengers hanging on to the back of them have become common.

A man wearing a dark jacket, short blue jeans and a backpack was filmed riding an electric scooter through the Queensway Tunnel in Liverpool

There have also been complaints about the scooters being driven by children as young as ten on main roads and causing an obstruction to pedestrians  especially blind and disabled people.

Voi said: The [ban] figures reflect the positive and successful collaboration between Voi, Liverpool City Council, and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to clamp down on a tiny percentage of people engaging in anti-social behaviour and misuse of our service.
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The evacuation of some 40,000 Brits, Americans and Afghans who sided with the West from Taliban-occupied Kabul is set to take weeks while thousands of people camp out at the US-controlled Kabul airport.

Currently flights are grounded after floods of desperate Afghans invaded the runways and tried to jump onto passing US planes before two stowaways fell to their deaths.

The airport is being secured by 6,000 US troops but they yesterday failed to stop the runway being invaded despite helicopters being used to try and herd people off the tarmac.

Meanwhile there are at least 34,000 people - both citizens and Afghan allies - hoping to be rescued by the US and Britain and an unknown number relying on European countries, Canada and Australia.

The US hopes to be able to evacuate 5,000 people a day and the UK 1,000 a day but has so far both have managed a tiny fraction of that.

Britain's force in the Afghan capital currently stands at around 600 personnel, with another 300 on their way to help rescue the 4,000 or so UK nationals - along with locals who sided with Western forces against the jihadis.

The Government's plan is to have all British nationals evacuated by the end of the month, flying out more than 1,000 every day.

But so far around 300 people, including Britons and Afghans eligible for settlement, have been flown out, meaning the rate stands at roughly 100 evacuations a day. Unless that rate increases dramatically, it will take more than a month to reach the 4,000-person target.

MailOnline understands that 12 British military aircraft have so far been utilised in bringing back Britons and others trapped in Kabul.

Britain's force in the Afghan capital currently stands at around 600 personnel, comprised of 16 Air Assault Brigade, Logistics, Medics and RAF servicemen, with another 300 on their way to help rescue the 4,000 or so UK nationals - along with locals who sided with Western forces against the jihadis. Pictured: British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan being relocated to the U.K. as part of Operation PITTING

Afghan people sit as they wait to leave the Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, after an end to Afghanistan's 20-year war

People struggle to cross the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country after rumors that foreign countries are evacuating people even without visas, after the Taliban over run of Kabul, Afghanistan, 16 August

The UK Armed Forces are enabling the relocation of personnel and others from Afghanistan. On Sunday 16th August the first flight of evacuated personnel arrived at RAF Brize Norton in the UK

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 revealed empty skies for civilian aircraft over Afghanistan on Monday evening

The U.S. military is aiming to fly up to 30,000 people out of the Afghan capital, including embassy personnel, U.S. citizens, special immigration visa (SIV) applicants and other at-risk individuals. Of that total, 8,000 will be transported to a third country for visa processing, with the other 22,000 heading to the United States.

Pentagon officials said America intends to send over enough aircraft to fly out as many as 5,000 civilians a day, including U.S. citizens along with Afghan translators and others who worked with the country during the war.

It is estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 SIV applicants and family members require evacuation, but the Biden administration thus far has only evacuated a fraction of that total.

U.N. resident coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, said today that the recent fighting had displaced some 600,000 people, and the uncertainty and fluid nature of the situation means humanitarian teams are not able to help everywhere.

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

The U.S. force in Kabul airport currently stands at around 3,000-strong, but that number is expected to soon double amid mounting concerns that Afghan security contractors could mutiny if they think they will not be let out of the country.

America's plans to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghan civilians now seem less likely to be realised as Taliban militants in U.S.-issued armored vehicles surround Hamid Karzai International Airport, cutting it off from the rest of Kabul.

On Sunday, more than 60 countries issued a joint statement calling for all Afghans wishing to depart Afghanistan to be allowed to do so. Of the 27 member states of the European Union, only Hungary and Bulgaria did not sign the statement.

Germany's foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Monday that the international community had 'misjudged the situation', adding: 'Neither we nor our partners and experts did foresee the speed which with the Afghan security forces withdrew and capitulated.'

Maas said that of the 2,500 embassy staffer who had been identified previously for evacuation, 1,900 had already been brought to Germany. In addition to the 600 still remaining on the ground, Maas added that Germany feels responsible to evacuate another 2,000 people - including human rights activist and their families.

He said one of the biggest problems right now was to get the people from their homes or safe houses to the airport to fly them out.

And two German military transport planes that were on the way to Kabul to help with evacuations became currently stuck in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they initially stopped to get refueled.

Germany news agency dpa reported on Monday afternoon that the A400M planes could not continue their flight to Kabul as planned because they could not land there because of the chaos at the airport in the Afghan capital.

The news agency reported that one of the planes would try to continue its trip to Afghanistan later Monday to be near the airport when it opens again for evacuation planes.

All in all, the German Air Force has sent three planes to Afghanistan to help with the evacuation of embassy staff and local employees.

Poland's prime minister says the country is sending planes to Afghanistan to evacuate translators and other people who have helped Poland over the years.

'Our priority now is to ensure the safety of all those who are associated with Poland in Afghanistan,' Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, adding that 'some these activities must, for obvious reasons, remain secret.'

He said that more planes than necessary will be sent and that Poland will be in a position to help other allies evacuate people as well.

He said Poland would do its best to 'everyone who has helped Poland over the years, whether as a translator or in any other form of assistance' as humanely as possible.

Japan's top diplomat has urged all parties in Afghanistan to work on restoring security and order in the country after the Taliban seized power there.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi spoke on Monday at a joint news conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukry.

Motegi also called for all concerned parties in Afghanistan to ensure the protection of lives and property in the country. He said he has agreed to cooperate with Egypt, as an influential power in the Islamic world, to ensure that the latest developments in Afghanistan don't cause further unrest.

Some two-dozen human rights experts working with the United Nations say countries must not 'stand on the sidelines' now that the Taliban - a U.N.-listed terror organization - have seized control of Afghanistan.

A sharply worded statement on Monday demanded action from the U.N. Security Council. The experts denounced the Taliban's 'relentless campaign' against civilians, aid workers and journalists that have included assassinations, illegal restrictions on the rights of women and girls, and 'mass executions of civilians.'

'It is unacceptable for states to stand on the sidelines when a United Nations Security Council listed terrorist organization overruns the territory of Afghanistan and engages in acts that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,' the experts said in a joint statement that drew an unusually large number of signatures.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said that all embassy personnel had been transferred to Kabul airport, but it remained unclear on Monday how many had been successfully extracted from the country

People climb a barbed wire wall to enter the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday. U.S. troops have taken over air-traffic control functions at the airport and halted civilian flights

Thousands of Afghans have rushed onto the tarmac at the airport, some so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto the American military jet as it took off and plunged to death

Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul on Monday. Several people were killed as they tried to cling to the plane as it took off

Thousands sign petition to rescue British Council-backed educators More than 85,000 people have now signed a Change.org petition to rescue British Council-backed educators who fear Taliban persecution. The British Council, the UK's cultural outreach organisation first established in Kabul in 1964, employs dozens of Afghans, including educators, who have 'promoted British values such as democracy, justice, and education for all children, including girls', the petition reads. It goes on: 'To the Taliban, they are one and the same as the British Embassy or armed service personnel. 'British Council educators have often worked in hard-to-reach, remote areas at great personal risk. They have been at the forefront of efforts to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan. As such, they are known to the Taliban and their allies as spies and collaborators with Western ''infidels''. Despite this, they have worked fearlessly for a peaceful and better future.' The withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan has left them and their families 'in great peril', the petition says, revealing that one educator, who is currently in hiding in a regional capital city under Taliban occupation, said last week that his work means he is 'perceived as promoting Christianity in schools'. He adds: 'Many people also see me as a British spy. The mullah in our local mosque preaches that anyone supporting the British Council and teaching its language is an infidel, and he refers to me personally as evidence. I humbly urge the British government to grant me and my family asylum to relocate to the United Kingdom and live peacefully.' The petition demands that the educators are currently on Taliban 'death lists' and are in hiding. It urges Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to 'save these brave educators before it is too late'. Advertisement

They cited unspecified reports from 16 provinces in Afghanistan that have shown women and girls have faced rights violations including the requirement to wear full-body burqas, forced marriage, ban on employment and limits to freedom of movement and health care. The experts alluded to similar restrictions when the Taliban last held power before being toppled by a U.S.-led coalition two decades ago.

The experts called on the Security Council - which was holding a special session on Afghanistan on Monday - to be 'unequivocal in action.'

'The people of Afghanistan deserve better than to endure the silence and by-standing of the member states of the United Nations at this perilous moment,' they wrote. 'We cannot stand idly by as the lives of the Afghan people are treated with contempt, derision, and weariness.'

The experts also demanded accountability for what they said were the deaths of 1,000 civilians who were killed 'last month alone.'

A Hungarian official on Monday criticized the pullout of American-led forces from Afghanistan and said Hungary will not take in refugees fleeing the country after its takeover by the Taliban.

Levente Magyar, a state secretary with Hungary's foreign ministry, told state news agency MTI that the government would not make Hungarians pay for the 'flawed geopolitical decision' of the U.S. military withdrawal by accepting refugees 'without any kind of restrictions.'

Hungary's right-wing government is a staunch opponent of immigration, and in 2015 built a fence along its southern border in response to an influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

That fence would be used to deter a potential wave of refugees from Afghanistan, Magyar said, adding that the government is assessing how it can help those Afghans who have worked as interpreters or in other capacities for Hungarian troops.

The head of the U.N. refugee agency says its recent interaction with the Taliban - Afghanistan's new rulers - has been 'relatively positive' and that humanitarian aid teams will stay in the country to help people in need after the Kabul government was toppled.

Filippo Grandi, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, said UNHCR discussions with the Taliban 'may at times be difficult.'

In an interview at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva, Grandi said the agency would continue to press for respect of the rights of women and girls, who had faced strict rules and bans on school education, for example, when the Taliban previously ran the country - before a U.S.-led international coalition drove them from power in 2001.

Grandi noted that most of the displacement in recent weeks has been within Afghanistan, but appealed to other countries to keep their borders open and take in any refugees who could flee in the future. He said a half-million people have been internally displaced this year, the 'vast majority' of which in the last few weeks alone.

Thousands of Afghans swarmed the runways at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which is now surrounded by the Taliban

Hug crowds gathered near the airport's perimeter to try to find a way in, but the gates are now guarded by the Taliban

He said that while UNHCR and partners have been previously in contact with Taliban leaders in rural areas before its forces swept into cities in recent weeks. Most of the recent interaction has been on issues like security and safety of the sites of UNHCR and partners

The United Nations chief is calling for an immediate end to violence in Afghanistan and urging the international community to unite to ensure that the human rights of all people, especially women and girls, are respected.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the U.N. Security Council at an emergency meeting on Monday 'and the international community as a whole to stand together, work together and act together.'

He said he is 'particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan who fear a return to the darkest days' in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled and barred girls for getting an education and imposed draconian measures on women.

HAMAS WELCOMES 'DEFEAT OF AMERICAN OCCUPATION' IN AFGHANISTAN The Islamic militant group Hamas has congratulated the Taliban for their swift takeover of Afghanistan and the end to the United States' 20-year presence in the country. In a statement on Monday, Hamas welcomed 'the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan land' and praised what it said was the Taliban's 'courageous leadership on this victory, which was the culmination of its long struggle over the past 20 years.' Hamas, a Palestinian group that opposes Israel's existence, has governed the Gaza Strip since taking over the area in 2007, a year after it won a Palestinian election. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union. It wished the people of Afghanistan future success and said the ouster of the American troops proves 'that the resistance of the peoples, foremost of which is our struggling Palestinian people, is due for victory.' Advertisement

Guterres said 'the world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead' and with the country's future and the hopes and dreams of a generation of young Afghans in the balance, the coming days 'will be pivotal.'

At this 'grave hour,' the secretary-general urged all parties, especially the Taliban, 'to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs can be met.'

Guterres said the U.N continues to have staff and offices in areas now under Taliban control, and which so far have been respected. 'Above all, we will stay and deliver in support of the Afghan people in their hour of need.'

'We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,' he said.

The Russian embassy in Kabul alleged Monday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has fled from Kabul with four cars and a helicopter full of cash, Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The report quoted embassy spokesman Nikita Ishchenko as saying that 'the collapse of the regime ... is most eloquently characterized by how Ghani escaped from Afghanistan: four cars were filled with money, they tried to shove another part of the money into a helicopter, but not everything fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac.'

Ghani left Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban swept into the Afghan capital. Media reports suggested that the president went to the neighboring Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, but there was no official confirmation of his whereabouts.

Kremlin envoy on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov on Monday described Ghani's flight from Kabul as 'disgraceful,' adding that Ghani 'deserves to be brought to justice and held accountable by the Afghan people.'

India's Foreign Ministry has said the suspension of commercial operations at the Kabul airport has forced the Indian government to pause its repatriation efforts but the process would restart once the flights are resumed.

In a statement on Monday, the ministry said it is in touch with some Indian nationals in Afghanistan who wish to return to the country and that it has been issuing periodic advisories for their safety and security.

The ministry said it is in 'constant touch with the representatives of Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities' and it will facilitate repatriation to India of those who wish to leave Afghanistan.

'There are also a number of Afghans who have been our partners in the promotion of our mutual developmental, educational and people to people endeavors. We will stand by them,' the statement said.

The ministry said the Indian government is monitoring the rapidly developing situation 'on a constant basis at high levels' and that it will 'ensure the safety and security of Indian nationals and our interests in Afghanistan.'

The Dutch defense minister says a Dutch military aircraft is en route to Afghanistan to evacuate embassy staff, their families and Afghan translators who worked with the Netherlands. Ank Bijleveld says in a tweet on Monday that more flights are planned 'in part due to the uncertain situation.'

The Baltic country of Lithuania is trying to evacuate 30 Afghan interpreters who helped the country's troops during peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, an official said Monday.

'The possibilities for transporting them are decreasing fast,' deputy minister Margiris Abukevicius told reporters. Lithuania estimates that when the family members are included, the figure is of 100 people.

The Baltic country depends on other nations, he said. 'The only option is one of partners' military transport as Lithuania currently has no troops or other personnel of Afghanistan soil' he added.

Vilnius chiefly had troops in the southern Ghor province. The Baltic country joined the multinational operation in Afghanistan in 2002

ROME - An Italian military flight carrying 70 embassy staff, Afghan employees and Italian nationals has landed at Rome's Leonardo Da Vinci Airport.

All were undergoing COVID tests before being allowed to leave the airport after the overnight flight from Kabul.

Francesca Mannocchi, an Italian journalist who was among those evacuated, said 20 were Afghan employees and their families, including women and children, who have been evacuated for their safety.

The airlifts come as thousands packed into the Kabul airport on Monday, rushing the tarmac and pushing onto planes in desperate attempts to flee the country after the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government. U.S. troops fired warning shots as they struggled to manage the chaotic evacuation.

NATO envoys to meet on Tuesday amid Taliban crisis in Afghanistan NATO envoys are set to meet Tuesday to discuss security developments in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the strife-torn country over the weekend. The 30-nation military organization said Monday that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who will chair Tuesday morning's meeting of ambassadors, will hold a news conference after it, at 1300 GMT. NATO took charge of international security operations in Afghanistan in 2003 - its first major mission outside Europe and North America - aiming to help stabilize the government, build up local security forces and remove a potential rear-base for terrorist groups. The U.S.-led military alliance wound down combat operations in 2014 to focus on training Afghan security forces but the Afghan armed forces withered before the insurgent offensive. The Taliban were emboldened by the Biden administration's decision to withdraw U.S. troops and wind up the NATO training mission in Afghanistan. The mission numbered about 10,000 personnel a year ago. An official said Sunday that 'there are no troops under NATO command in Afghanistan currently.' NATO also has a small diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. An official said Sunday that the military organization continues to 'maintain our diplomatic presence in Kabul.' Advertisement

Doctors Without Borders says its operations across Afghanistan have not been affected by the recent developments in Kabul.

While many foreigners have fled the country, the group - known by its French initials, MSF - continues to have some international staff on the ground. It also has more than 2,300 Afghan colleagues spread out across five Taliban-held provinces: Kandahar, Herat, Kunduz, Khost and Helmand.

Filipe Ribeiro, MSF's country representative in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press that the group's female medical practitioners in these provinces have resumed work and were already veiled or in the sky-blue burqas before the Taliban takeover, in line with local norms and customs.

'We do not face any impediments with regards to female staff coming to work,' he said, referring to MSF-run projects in those provinces.

As the Taliban pushed to takeover Helmand and Kunduz, MSF staff tended to large numbers of people wounded in the fighting, he said.

Speaking from his base in Kabul, Ribeiro said the capital's streets were quiet and calm on Monday, despite scenes of chaos unfolding at the airport.

The group halted its main operation in Kabul after May 2020 following an attack on a maternity ward that was blamed on the Islamic State group.

Ribeiro said the focus remains on supporting Afghanistan's welfare.

'We have to keep in mind the health system was already dysfunctional beforehand, and nowadays it's important to keep supporting the Afghan population and to guarantee that the medical services will continue,' he said.

Australia is sending three transport and air-to-air refueling jets with 250 military personnel to repatriate more than 130 Australians and their families from Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.

Australia is also working to evacuate an undisclosed number of refugees, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement.

The support comes as the U.S. and other nations scramble to evacuate diplomats and Afghan employees and their families from Kabul. The Taliban a day earlier toppled the Western-backed government.

An Airbus A330 airliner modified for aerial refueling would support U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan later this week, Australia's Defense Department said in a statement. Two C-17A Globemaster heavy transport aircraft would also be sent to the Middle East, the statement said.

Australia shut its Kabul embassy in May and withdrew the last of its troops from Afghanistan in June.

More than 39,000 Australian military personnel have served in Afghanistan since 2001, and 41 died there.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has delivered a compelling message to any NSW residents feeling hesitant about getting the AstraZeneca vaccine.

During Tuesday's Covid press conference Mr Barilaro didn't hold back as he urged communities in rural and regional parts of the state to roll up their sleeves.

'Book in and get vaccinated. Don't get caught up in the AstraZeneca versus Pfizer debate,' he said.

Deputy premier John Barilaro (pictured) has delivered a compelling message to any NSW residents hesitant about getting the AstraZeneca vaccine

'The reality is we don't have that debate when it comes to flu shots each and every year. We get the shot. We're not sure of the brand, we just get on with it.'

The deputy premier said he didn't want to see regional communities slip behind as the state tries to hit 80 per cent vaccination due to a 'lacklustre' approach to the jab.

'There are vaccinations out there. The GP network, the pharmacy network, is growing each and every day in relation to vaccination, and our own clinics are out and about,' he said.

'We are focused on vulnerable communities in western NSW where we're concerned with vaccination and again my message is get vaccinated and help us stop the spread.'

The deputy premier has previously urged regional communities to roll up their sleeves by promoting vaccinations as free and accessible.

Earlier in the month the member for Monaro said another 300 pharmacies across the state would soon begin administering vaccines, making it even easier to get a jab.

'Time and time again our community has come together when things need to get done and this is no different,' Mr Barilaro said.

'Getting the jab greatly reduces your risk of dying if you happen to contract the virus and the protection it provides is essential for us to be able to welcome visitors, tourists, customers, suppliers and investors back to our regions.'

It comes as NSW reported 452 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 and one death, with at least 54 people circulating in the community for all or part of their infectious period.

On Tuesday, Ms Berejiklian urged residents in seven suburbs in Sydney's west and south-west where the virus was spreading most rapidly to increase their vaccination rates (pictured, a Queensland woman receiving the Pfizer jab last week)

NSW reported 452 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 and one death, with at least 54 people circulating in the community for all or part of their infectious period on Tuesday (pictured, women exercising in Bondi)

An unvaccinated woman in her 70s from western Sydney died in Westmead Hospital after the state recorded eight deaths on Monday.

Southwest and western Sydney suburbs continue to be the main generators for most of the cases, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Tuesday.

Ms Berejiklian urged residents in seven suburbs in Sydney's west and southwest where the virus was spreading most rapidly to increase their vaccination rates.

Those suburbs are Blacktown, Seven Hills, Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn, Bankstown and Greenacre.

The isolation status of 297 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday remains under investigation. Some 75 per cent of cases in NSW were people under 40.

'And that's why those extra jabs we receive from the Commonwealth will be put straight into the arms of 16-to-39-year-olds in the local government areas of concern,' Ms Berejiklian told reporters.

The premier said life would be 'much freer than what it is today', once the state reaches 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination targets.

Ms Berejiklian's assertions on state targets come after she warned on Monday some restrictions will still be enforced as long as case numbers remained high.

She said these would include mask wearing in varying circumstances, social distancing, and vaccinations.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said life would be 'much freer than what it is today', once the state reaches 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination targets

'We will need to live with restrictions so long as Delta is around  even if we had zero cases and even we were at 80 per cent double doses, you would still have to respect some rules that exist ,' she said on Monday.

But 2GB Healthy Living host Dr Ross Walker said the claim was 'ridiculous' and leaders need to give hope to those stepping up to be vaccinated.

'If you're vaccinated, your hairdresser, people running a restaurant, and those in retail, why on earth can't we go back to some degree of normality?' he told 2GB's Ben Fordham.

Dr Walker said research from the Doherty Institute indicates vaccination reduces the risk of hospitalisation or death by 87 to 90 per cent.

As Covid-19 is a respiratory virus, Dr Walker said it will always be in circulation and countries 'have to learn to live with them'.

'Eighty per cent vaccination should allow us to get back our freedoms,' he said.

'Why don't we lock the state down every year for influenza?' he said. I think everybody is just sick of the inconsistent messaging.'

All of NSW entered lockdown on Saturday evening after the state recorded 466 Covid cases - its second highest ever daily tally throughout the pandemic (pictured, a woman walking through Dubbo in regional NSW)

The entire state is now locked down and a 21-day police blitz came into effect on Monday to enforce new regulations with almost 18,000 police officers supported by 800 members of the Australian Defence Force.

NSW police issued nearly 600 infringement notices to people flouting tough new health orders on the first day of a three-week crackdown as the state continues to report escalating coronavirus numbers.

Police also conducted 3800 welfare checks to see if people were following stay-at-home orders.

One Covid positive man from the hotspot of Fairfield in Sydney's southwest wasn't home when police arrived and was later unable to provide an excuse for his actions Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon told Nine Network on Tuesday.

Tougher non-compliance fines of up to $5000 are in place with people confined to within five kilometres of their homes.

Meanwhile, Sydney hospitals are dealing with staff shortages as COVID clusters send workers into isolation at Nepean and St George Hospitals.

In newly-locked down regional areas, people can now only leave their residence for an essential reason (pictured, Dubbo residents line up for drive-through Covid-19 testing)

Residents in NSW must carry masks at all times, no visitors are allowed in the home unless for carers' responsibilities or for compassionate reasons, and those in a relationship (pictured, residents get tested for Covid-19 in West Dubbo)

A South Eastern Sydney Local Health District spokesperson said four inpatients and two staff had tested positive for COVID-19 in the oncology ward at St George Hospital.

'All 21 patients on the oncology ward have been tested and been in isolation since the first patient tested positive. The ward is currently closed to new admissions,' the spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The two staff members who tested positive are both fully vaccinated, while three patients have had one dose of the vaccine and one patient has not been vaccinated.

Four Covid-positive inmates are also being housed at the remand centre of Silverwater Jail, including two cases uncovered over the weekend. Their source of infection is being investigated.

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann says the government needs to ensure frontline healthcare workers are adequately protected from COVID.

'Doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers have been raising the alarm that they did not have adequate personal protective equipment such as correctly fitted N95 face masks,' she said on Tuesday.

Several schools are shut because of Covid cases including Jamisontown Public School and the Meadows Public School at Schofields in Sydney's west as well as Blacktown North Public School in southwest Sydney.
Chicago police have warned of a marauding group of teenagers behind a spree of robberies and assaults in downtown - while Mayor Lori Lightfoot remains largely silent on the city's crime problem after clashing with cops over the shooting death of officer Ella French.

Police reported a string of six robberies in the downtown area over the past three days in which a group of up to ten teenagers, who are believed to range in age from 12 to 19 years old, surrounded their victims, beat them and demanded they hand over their belongings.

The attacks appear to come at all hours, ranging from late in the afternoon to early in the morning.

So far, Lightfoot's office has remained silent on the attacks, and did not return a Daily Mail request for comment.

Police reported six attacks in the three-day period by groups of up to 12 teenagers in the city's downtown area (pictured). In two instances the victims required hospitalization

Despite a string of robberies by a band teenagers in downtown Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has remained largely silent amid her ongoing feud with city police

The first and most serious attack in the series took place on Friday at around 11.30am, when a 23-year-old woman and 26-year-old man were assailed by a group of about five to seven teen girls and boys.

When they refused to hand over their belongings they began punching and kicking the two. After the woman was taken to a hospital for a head and was listed in critical condition.

Others included two separate robberies on Saturday evening that took place at 5.23pm and 8.30pm respectively.

Then at around 1am on Monday, the teens surrounded a woman, took out a BB gun and beat her over the head with it, injuring her seriously enough to require hospitalization.

Police arrested six teens alleged to have been involved in the BB gun attack, but have linked the attack to others, in which groups of up to 12 assailants have been involved.

And just hours later, at 8.37am, another robbery took place, police said, in which 12 teens took a 40-year-old man's groceries and bicycle.

They came as theft, murders, shooting incidents and sexual assaults are all up in the city, according to police statistics.

Thefts are up 9 percent over the same period last year, with 6,997 recorded in 2021 compared to 6397 in 2020.

The robberies come as crime has risen in multiple categories across the city. Overall crime, however, is down

Murders meanwhile saw a 3 percent jump, with 489 recorded so far in 2021 compared to 476 in the same period last year.

Shootings also jumped with 2,176 recorded in 2021 compared to 1936 last year, a 12 percent increase.

Rapes saw the most dramatic spike of 22 percent, with 1,269 recorded in 2021 compared to 1,038 last year.

Overall crime, however, is down six percent.

Meanwhile Lightfoot, who has previously supported efforts to defund the police, has been in an ongoing feud with officers in the city over the past week in the aftermath of the on-duty killing of officer Ella French last Saturday.

On Thursday night Lightfoot mispronounced French's name, with the mayor mistakenly calling her 'Ella Franks' Thursday night.

Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown (left) and Mayor Lori Lightfoot referred to slain police officer Ella French as 'Ella Fitzgerald' and 'Ella Franks', respectively

That came in addition to gaffes by Chicago Police Department Superintendent David Brown, who called her 'Ella Fitzgerald' twice earlier this week.

That's on top of Lightfoot denying French an honor guard bagpipe procession from the hospital to the morgue, a customary and symbolic act of respect for an officer killed in the line of duty.

French, 29, was gunned down in a shootout while conducting what seemed like a routine traffic stop on Saturday.

Her partner, who has not been named, was wounded but survived.

After French was pronounced dead at the hospital last Saturday night, French's body was transported by ambulance to the medical examiner's office, and fellow officers were prepared to line the streets and play the bagpipes.

Chicago Police Officer Ella French, pictured, was shot dead on Saturday in the line of duty

Two hundred cops turned out to honor French at a prayer vigil on Tuesday after being 'banned' from holding the procession

But First Deputy Police Supt. Eric Carter banned it.

He told the EMTs driving the ambulance to carry on straight to the medical examiner's office for the autopsy to be carried out, saying: 'We don't have 20 minutes for this s**t.'

That same night, Lightfoot showed up at the hospital to offer her support to the families of French and her wounded partner.

Cops who were still there turned their backs on her when she arrived and there were reports that the mayor forced her way into the facility.

'There was  let me choose my words carefully  well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession, which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue

On Wednesday, Lightfoot held a press conference to deny that claim and to also accuse the cops who wanted to perform the honor guard of 'hijacking' the night and depriving French's family of a crucial window of time to see her body before the autopsy was carried out.

She also railed against the journalists present, accusing them of asking her 'offensive' questions about forcing her way into the hospital and accusing them of 'mining from the bottom of the chum barrel' and producing 'sickening' reports that criticized her.

'There was no official honor guard that night.

'There was  let me choose my words carefully  well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession, which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue.

'And again, given the new restrictions that the new coroner has put in place, that wouldn't have been fair to them and they may have lost an important window of time

'So the call was made, under those circumstances, to focus on the family.

'Eric Carter made the right call. I support what he did and I'm horrified that in this moment people are trying to savage him for whatever agenda or purpose,' Lightfoot said.

She then fumed at the media and told them they were using unreliable sources.

'I would just caution you all. Be careful. Be careful. Check your sources. Make sure they're accurate. Get the right context. Because I know firsthand, it's really hard when the media becomes ferocious in propagating a story that's just not true.'

Lightfoot then got angry when a journalist asked her if she'd forced her way into the hospital.

'I don't force my way anywhere. And that's offensive, frankly, that you would ask me that question.

'I just sat here and talked about the fact that we've got to be really careful and you have to be really careful in your reporting and be responsible. And you just keep lobbing this nonsense that's offensive and insulting and really does a disservice to the moment that we're in.'

She questioned why it's acceptable 'for people to engage in such nasty, vicious talk' and then have it 'repeated by media as if it is fact and true.'

'People feel like it is their right to spew hatred at everyone that they don't agree with or make fun and mock, usually anonymously and cowardly from social media.

Eric Morgan is pictured during the traffic stop in the new body worn camera footage

The Morgan brothers were said to have been driving with expired license plates, prompting police to pull them over. They were charged in connection to French's killing

'I think our media plays a very important role in our democracy, but you lose me, you lose me when it's a race to the bottom and it's all about the fight and it's all about the conflict.

'I've got to tell you, some of the reporting I've seen this week is just sickening.

'We all need to ask ourselves what we can do better to show our people everywhere that we have the capacity to be human beings again.'

'Give me a break. What else are you going to mine from the bottom of the chum barrel? Come on. You're better than that. You're better than that. You're better than that,' she said.

Chicago police union boss John Catanzara told Fox News that Lightfoot had to shoulder some of the blame for French's death.

Two brothers - Emonte Morgan, 21, and his brother Eric, 22, have been arrested and charged after French, 29, was shot dead and her partner was critically injured during a routine traffic stop on Saturday.

Lightfoot arrived at the University of Chicago Medical Center shortly after the shooting, where dozens of police officers turned their backs when she greeted them. French's partner remains in critical condition at the hospital.

The father of the injured officer, who has not been named, reportedly told Lightfoot when she went to the hospital that 'there's blood on her hands.'

On Wednesday, Lightfoot held a press conference to deny that claim and to also accuse the cops who wanted to perform the honor guard of 'hijacking' the night

A former top police official has slammed the Chicago Police Department after it was revealed that a 'sacred' ritual was skipped after the shooting death of Ella French over time concerns.

Garry McCarthy, the department's former superintendent, told Fox News that officers 'feel under attack by politicians' after French's body was taken directly to the medical examiner's office for her autopsy without a guard of honor.

He claimed they avoided drawing their weapons to honor their fallen colleague - as is tradition - over fears they'd have to file a report for doing so, as part of new police reform laws.

The Emerald Society, an Irish-American fraternal organization for members who most often come from law enforcement, had gathered outside the medical examiner's office to play ceremonial bagpipes for her final send-off.

Garry McCarthy, the department's former superintendent, said Chicago cops 'feel under attack' from politicians like Lightfoot, who wanted to defund the police last summer despite soaring gun crime in the city

Chicago police and other officials worked swiftly to arrest three suspects after French's death, though charges have not yet been filed.

French was the first Windy City officer to be fatally shot in the line of duty in almost two years, and the first female cop shot to death in the line of duty since 1988.

Still, McCarthy blasted the department for skipping the procession - which he called an 'inexcusable' affront to cops in the city, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

'The officers here in CPD and probably across the country  feel under attack by politicians and the public. Most of them feel like they're not being supported by their leadership Garry McCarthy, the department's former superintendent

'The officers here in CPD and probably across the country  feel under attack by politicians and the public. Most of them feel like they're not being supported by their leadership,' he said.

He added: 'It's so important, the sacred nature of rituals, certainly within policing.'

'If there's an excuse for what happened, then maybe, you know, Eric should talk about it publicly himself,' he said.

McCarthy said that officers also did not draw their weapons, as traditionally practiced after the death of a colleague. He blamed the skipping of that tradition on possible police reform measures.

'That's probably the result of a policy that was put in place for every time you draw your weapon, you have to do a report about it. Policing is entirely under attack, and that's why we have a 100% increase in the murder rate,' McCarthy said.

'There's always enough time. Let's put it that way. If we had to wait two or three days, I would have done it,' he said.
Yellowstone National Park rangers and Wyoming sheriff's deputies seeking a murder suspect mistakenly held a vacationing family at gunpoint for an hour, a lawsuit claims.

Brett and Genalyn Hemry, of Independence, Missouri, were vacationing in 2017 with their seven-year-old daughter in Yellowstone where park rangers and local sheriff's deputies mistook Brett for triple-murder suspect Gerald Michael Bullinger.

The couple say they and their daughter were held at gunpoint for an hour before cops allowed Brett to show his ID and prove he is not the alleged killer.

The family say they were victims of false arrest, excessive use of force and false imprisonment.

A federal lawsuit, filed July 19 in US District Court in Cheyenne, seeks unspecified damages to be determined at trial.

Law enforcement officers at the time of the encounter were seeking Bullinger, a Utah man suspected of killing his wife Cheryl Baker, his girlfriend Nadja Medley and her 14-year-old daughter Payton in Idaho.

Bullinger's whereabouts remain unknown.

A family vacationing in Yellowstone National Park says they were held at gunpoint in 2017 by park rangers and local county sheriff's deputies, who allegedly mistook the father for a triple-murder suspect, according to a federal lawsuit

The suit alleges that the rangers and sheriff's deputies mistook vacationing father Brett Hemly for Gerald Michael Bullinger (pictured) who is accused of murdering his wife, girlfriend and girlfriend's daughter

Investigators had found a car Bullinger was driving in Bridger-Teton National Forest outside Moran, near Grand Teton National Park in western Wyoming, on July 12, 2017.

In their suit, the Hemrys say that on July 20, 2017 they were driving in their family SUV out of Yellowstone's east gate, when two park rangers in separate vehicles began to follow close behind, prompting Brett Hemry to pull over about 15 miles east of the park.

The rangers had allegedly flagged the SUV as one Bullinger may have been driving.

After the family stopped, the rangers then allegedly pulled in front of the family's SUV, blocking it, and held the family at gunpoint, ordering them to drop their car keys outside and keep their hands up.

More officers arrived, including Park County sheriff's deputies, and officers then held the three family members at gunpoint in separate vehicles, the lawsuit alleges.

About an hour after being pulled over, officers allowed Brett Hemry to show his identification.

They then told him they were seeking a murder suspect and showed him a photo of Bullinger, the lawsuit alleges.

Hemry 'bore no resemblance' to Bullinger except for his light hair color, the lawsuit claims.

'The terrified family went on its way, without receiving an apology or additional explanation,' the lawsuit states.

The suit also alleges that Brett Hemly looks nothing like Bullinger, except that they both have grey hair

Park County Sheriff Scott Steward declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Yellowstone officials said they do not comment on pending litigation.

Authorities had been looking for Bullinger since the bodies of Baker, 57, Medley, 47, and Payton were found shot and covered with plastic in a shed on June 19, 2017.

Bullinger, a commercial jet pilot, is believed to have been having an affair with Nadja, the widow his late brother Tom, and was living with her and Payton in Idaho.

Meanwhile, Baker, a recently retired school teacher, decided to take a surprise trip from Utah, where they were selling their family home, to visit to her husband in Idaho.

He had told her he living alone there in a trailer while fixing up a rundown property for them to move into.

Bullinger with his girlfriend Najda Medley and her daughter Peyton. He is accused of killing the two in 2017

Bullinger with his wife Cheryl Baker. He is also accused of her murder, and has not been found

What happened after the surprise visit is unknown, and four years later Bullinger has not been found.

Colleague Julie Grose said they last saw Baker  who was a veteran teacher with 30 years experience - at the school on June 6 for her last day.

'We had a meeting to say goodbye and Cheryl was talking about her retirement and the farm. She told us about a shed on the property that she planned to convert into an art studio, she was passionate about art.

'She seemed so happy talking about it, it is very sad. Why would she have said that if she knew about this other woman, she was never phony, she never said anything to upset people.'

Drake added: 'She was a wonderful teacher and gave so much, she will be missed.'
Twitter has refused to join its social media counterparts in banning the Taliban from its platform, saying it'll monitor content to ensure there aren't messages 'glorifying violence'.

The move is in stark contrast to the company's Big Tech rivals. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram (both owned by Facebook), TikTok and YouTube have all banned and terminated accounts that are related to, promote or praise the Taliban.

Twitter said in a statement that it will 'continue to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter rules, specifically policies against glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.'

The social media giant used this justification to permanently ban Donald Trump after the January 6 Capitol Riot, causing cries of censorship from Trump supporters.

Twitter defended its decision to allow Taliban-related accounts to remain active, saying that people in Afghanistan are using the platform to seek help and refuge.

Facebook, which also has muzzled Trump, has had its ban on the Taliban in place for years because it considers it a 'dangerous group.'

This double standard drew the ire of Trump supporters and conservatives.

Trump supporters and conservatives question Twitter's stance on not banning Taliban-affiliated accounts

The two Taliban spokesmen, Suhail Shaehee and Zabihullah Mujahid have more than 351,000 and 310,000 Twitter followers, respectively. Their accounts have been active for years.

On Tuesday, Rep. Doug Lamborn sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey expressing concerns about members of the Taliban being allowed to use the platform to get their message out.

'Why does Twitter allow two Taliban spokesmen to have a platform but restricts the First Amendment Rights of former President Trump? It's past time to hold #BigTech accountable. #Taliban,' he tweeted.

In his letter, Lamborn said it's clear that the Taliban falls under the 'violent organization category.'

'In my review of these accounts, I did not find a single fact check on any of their tweets, nor any warnings for false or misleading content,' Lamborn wrote in his letter to Dorsey.

'These propaganda updates usually assert that the overthrow has been largely peaceful, despite reports to the contrary ... It is impossible to see how the accounts of Zabihullah Mujahid and Yousef Ahmandi do not violate your policies.'

On Tuesday, Rep. Doug Lamborn sent a letter (pictured) to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey expressing concerns about members of the Taliban being allowed to use the platform

'Why on God's green Earth does the Taliban spokesman have an active Twitter account but not the former President of the United States?' asked Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina Republican.

'Who's side is the AMERICA BASED Big-Tech companies on?' he added.

'The Taliban Spokesman has a Twitter account without any problem. Meanwhile, President Trump is banned from the platform,' tweeted Rep. Claudia Tenney, a New York Republican. 'Something is very wrong here.'

Adrian Hilton, a conservative academic and lecturer on political philosophy in the UK, also pointed out the apparent double standards.

'Twitter banned Donald Trump for expressing support for rioters who stormed the US Capitol. Twitter permitted the Taliban official spokesman to live-tweet Mujahideen terror, the acquisition of arms, storming the Afghanistan capital, and the occupation of the presidential palace,' he wrote.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has had an active Twitter account since 2017

Trump was permanently banned from Twitter over the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6

A Taliban spokesperson attack Facebook and big tech when asked about freedom of speech

During a Tuesday press conference in Kabul - which was broadcast and translated into English by Al Jazeera and posted on Twitter - a spokesperson was asked about freedom of speech.

'This question should be asked to those people who are claiming to be promoters of freedom of speech who do not allow publication of information. I can ask [the] Facebook company,' he replied.

The Taliban spokesman's comments were greeted by virtual applause from Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, who retweeted the 30-second video clip and said, 'LOL ... Also not wrong.'

Over the weekend, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was all but complete, after the U.S. spent two decades and billions of dollars attempting to prop up a democratic government friendly to the West.

The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 ousted the Islamist militants from power, but they never left, and returned to power after Afghan government forces completely capitulated.

After the Taliban blitzed across the country in recent days, the Western-backed government that has run the country for 20 years collapsed.

During the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, the insurgents reportedly married girls as young as 12 and forced them into sex slavery as 'spoils of war,' and killed Afghan troops who tried to surrender.
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Fresh chaos descended in Kabul today as thousands of Afghans desperate to escape Taliban rule pleaded with troops to be allowed on planes out of the country after the militants used whips, sharp objects, and gunfire to bead back crowds outside the city's airport.

One man was photographed with tears streaming down his cheeks, his face contorted in anguish as he saw his fellow Afghans being whipped. The Taliban then opened fire to drive the masses back from the site.

Women were filmed reaching their hands through iron railings towards US troops while screaming 'the Taliban are coming' in footage being circulated on Afghan social media accounts this morning.

Taliban gunmen have now surrounded the airport - the only route out of Afghanistan for thousands of refugees stranded in the capital and nearby provinces - and are checking the documents of those trying to reach it.

Islamist fighters were funneling people towards a gate on the airport's civilian south side, demanding documents before occasionally allowing someone to pass. Each time the gate opened, dozens tried to rush inside - with gunshots fired to keep them back.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman, claimed on Tuesday 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago' - when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

The Taliban has also said women will have to wear hijabs but not burkas. Yet despite their claims to have moderated their position, there was no sign of that on Wednesday.

Reports yesterday suggested the militants were going door-to-door, rounding up those who had worked with the Afghan armed forces or government. Exclusive video obtained by Fox News showed a convoy of Taliban fighters roaring down a street, then opening fire in Kabul looking for ex-government workers.

A child covered in blood is carried away with his father after the Taliban used whips on the crowd trying to get in to Kabul airport on Tuesday

The Taliban turned on the crowd at Kabul airport on Tuesday, driving the hundreds back from the airport perimeter as they pushed to flee the country

An Afghan woman is seen lying on the ground after the Taliban used whips and sharp objects to drive people from the airport

A man cries as he watches fellow Afghans get wounded after Taliban fighters use gunfire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside Kabul airport for a way out

Afghans run from the airport after the Taliban began using whips and sharp objects to repeal the crowd, before opening fire on those hoping to flee

Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul on Tuesday and man checkpoints set up across the city

Pictured: Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban, speaks during a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. For years, Mujahid had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the militants

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid answers press members questions as he holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan

A group of women began protesting on Tuesday, demanding the extremist group does not 'eliminate' women from society but were not approached by Taliban fighters until the afternoon

Taliban fighters stand guard before their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid arrives for his first news conference in Kabul on Tuesday

More footage revealed crowds hard up against concrete perimeter walls on the airport's military north side, with shots being fired over the heads of men, women and children to keep them back.

Afghan translators and other visa holders trying to reach the airport have told MailOnline that they are actually in hiding near the airport, afraid to break cover and try to reach the runway in case the Islamists haul them away.

Others who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds - without making it on to a flight.

The jihadists have been dubbed 'Taliban 2.0' for their media charm offensive in trying to persuade the world that they are 'moderate' compared to the Taliban of 20 years ago.

But reports today said militants were going door-to-door, rounding up looters and those who worked with the Afghan armed forces or government.

Exclusive video obtained by Fox News showed a convoy of Taliban fighters roaring down a street, then opening fire in Kabul looking for ex-government workers.

And the so-called 'Angels of Salvation' were dragging suspected robbers from their homes and lining them up against the walls with guns trained on them following looting.

One alleged car thief had his face covered in black tar before he was strapped to the back of truck with his hands tied behind his back and paraded through the city.

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she told a press conference.

Flights that were supposed to be carrying thousands of people out of the country each day have so-far been taking off with just a few hundred aboard, with the UK evacuating some 370 people between Sunday and Monday.

Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule

Crowds pictured outside Kabul airport on Wednesday morning, which is now the only viable route out of the country for thousands of refugees trapped in the capital

Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their 'consent'

Taliban gunmen patrol through crowds of desperate Afghans at Kabul airport today, as people try to board planes out of the country fearing for their safety under Islamist rule

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

A Taliban fighter whacks a boy across the back of the thighs as families cower under a bush

An alleged looter is placed up against a wall with fighter training their guns on his back after he was dragged out of his house by the Islamist 'Angels of Salvation'

A fighter canes a boy who cowers with women and young children

During the press conference on Tuesday, Mujahid did not detail what restrictions would be imposed on women, although he did say it would be a government with 'strong Islamic values'.

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

Mujahid claimed: 'We are committed to the rights of women under the system of Sharia. They are going to be working shoulder to shoulder with us.

'We would like to assure the international community that there will be no discrimination.'

The Taliban denied it was enforcing sex slavery, and claims that such actions are against Islam.

During the 1990s, the regime established religious police for the suppression of 'vice', and courts handed out extreme punishments including stoning to death women accused of adultery.

During their press conference in the capital city, the Taliban insisted girls will receive an education and women will be allowed to study at university - both of which were forbidden under Taliban rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 before the US-led invasion.

The group also said they want women to be part of the new government after female Afghans staged a protest outside a local Taliban HQ in the Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul, while chanting 'honor and lives are safe' and 'join voices with us'.

However, women and girls remain the most at risk under the new regime, with gangs in conquered areas allegedly hunting children as young as 12 and unmarried or widowed women they regard as spoils of war - 'qhanimat' - being forced into marriage or sex slavery.

The spokesman suggested that the Taliban intended to put the last 20 years behind them, claiming that the group is 'not going to revenge anybody, we do not have grudges against anybody'.

'We want to make sure Afghanistan is not the battlefield of conflict anymore. We want to grant amnesty to those who have fought against us,' he said.

Yet footage from within Kabul showed the Taliban driving around in their pickup trucks and opening fire.

Some reports said they were going door-to-door to hunt down opponents.

And it also emerged on Tuesday that the Taliban is already offering 'safe haven' to Al Qaeda, according to a Pentagon watchdog report - published just a day after President Biden said the war in Afghanistan had succeeded in ensuring the country could not be used to launch attacks against the U.S.

The revelation will bring fresh questions about why Biden was intent on pushing through the U.S. withdrawal so fast.

And with U.S. troops and diplomats heading for the exits, who is left behind to provide intelligence on the deadly terrorist group?

The new report by the Lead Inspector General for Operation Freedoms Sentinel - the name of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan - said terrorist networks including ISIS had made the most of the Department of Defense's drawdown.

'As the DoD restructured its counterterrorism mission to locations outside of Afghanistan, ISISKhorasan exploited the political instability and rise in violence during the quarter by attacking minority sectarian targets and infrastructure to spread fear and highlight the Afghan governments inability to provide adequate security,' it said.

'Additionally, the Taliban continued to maintain its relationship with al Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan.'

Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 terror attacks from Afghan soil, triggering the 2001 invasion by U.S. troops.

He was finally hunted down and killed by Navy Seals in neighboring Pakistan 10 years later.

Disrupting his network in Afghanistan has been a key part of the U.S. and NATO mission.

But with the Taliban retaking power, analysts are assessing what it means for Al Qaeda and the threat it poses to the West.

Footage obtained by Fox News showed Taliban fighters driving through the streets of Kabul and opening fire. It was unclear whether they were firing in the air or aiming for people. Reports have claimed they are going door-to-door hunting down opponents

The Taliban fighters, flying their white flag, were filmed surreptitiously from a balcony in Kabul on Tuesday

A man claiming to be a member of Al Qaeda is pictured in Yemen in 2009. The terrorist group is likely to be granted safe haven by the Taliban, according to a Pentagon watchdog report published on Tuesday

President Biden has repeatedly declared victory in the U.S. mission to ensure Al Qaeda could not use Afghan soil to launch attacks on the U.S. But a new report says the Taliban is offering safe haven to the terrorist group

Taliban fighters pose on October 14, 2001, near Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Twenty years after their regime was topped by U.S. and allied forces they are back in power

Taliban fighters stand guard in a vehicle along the roadside in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule

A peace deal signed by the Trump administration in Doha, the capital of Qatar, last year required the Taliban to stop giving safe haven terrorist groups.

Yet, the Taliban's upper echelons are filled with figures who have fought alongside Al Qaeda or hosted their operatives. For example, Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of the Taliban's deputy leaders and the son of a close friend to Bin Laden, is known to be a key conduit to the terror group.

As the Taliban advanced rapidly across Afghanistan, undoing billions of dollars of work that was meant to build a new democracy, officials have repeatedly seized on the eradication of Al Qaeda in the country as justification for leaving.

'We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001, and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again,' said Biden on Monday, after being forced to leave Camp David to address the crisis.

'We did that. We severely degraded Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.'

Biden is seen talking to his national security team from Camp David at the weekend. Officials insist they will hold the Taliban to the terms of a peace deal signed in Doha last year, when they promised not to host terrorist groups

The top ranks of the Taliban include the likes of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the Haqqani network, and who is believed to have close ties with Al Qaeda. This rare photograph is taken from an FBI most wanted poster

Other officials say they intent on holding the Taliban to the Doha deal.

'We have a proven ability to fight terrorism effectively without having a large military footprint on the ground  and we will hold the Taliban accountable to not allowing Al Qaeda to have a safe haven in Afghanistan,' National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC's Good Morning America.

Terrorism experts scoff at the idea that the Taliban is no longer operating with Al Qaeda or that the terrorist group has been defeated.

'The recent narrative of a degraded or defeated or decimated group - pick your D word, they've used - is delusional,' said Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal which tracks Al Qaeda activity in the region.

'They've been there, operating alongside the Taliban the whole time. This narrative has persisted because the only way to pursue a U.S. exit out of Afghanistan was to downgrade Al Qaeda's presence.'

He said Pentagon assessments had long been works of fiction, putting the Al Qaeda presence at about 50-100 fighters - despite reporting that 40-80 operatives were being killed each year.

'The intelligence services are clueless or lying,' he said.

Roggio added that the chaotic departure of diplomats, contractors and troops - not to mention Afghans who had worked for the U.S. - would severely erode Washington's ability to gather intelligence on Al Qaeda.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the report and instead directed inquiries to the White House and to the Pentagon Office of the Inspector General.

Taliban fighters ride a newly acquired police pickup truck outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul after their whirlwind advance across the country

Hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, as they try to flee the Taliban takeover

The White House did not immediately respond and a spokesman for the Pentagon Office of the Inspector General said it had nothing to add to the report.

A recent United Nations report said Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was 'living but ailing in Afghanistan.'

'Al Qaeda is present in at least 15 Afghan provinces, primarily in the eastern, southern and south-eastern regions,' it said. 'Its weekly Thabat newsletter reports on its operations inside Afghanistan.'

And an offshoot, Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent operates under Taliban protection from Kandahar, Helmand and Nimruz Provinces.

In the aftermath of the Taliban takeover, Nathan Sales, former US ambassador-at-large, said Al Qaeda was one of the big winners.

'The Biden administrations withdrawal from Afghanistan is the best news Al Qaeda has had in decades,' he wrote in a briefing paper for the Atlantic Council.

'With the Taliban back in charge of the country, it is virtually certain that al-Qaeda will reestablish a safe haven in Afghanistan and use it to plot attacks on the United States.'

The Biden administration blame game begins: Chaos as the White House, Pentagon and State Department all look to blame each other for the debacle in Afghanistan

U.S. officials are engaged in cross-agency recriminations as they grapple with failures of intelligence, execution, and imagination that preceded the sudden collapse of Kabul and the chaotic evacuation underway.

Biden, in his speech to the nation on Monday, pointed to the May 1, 2021 U.S. withdrawal deadline that former President Donald Trump's administration negotiated with the Taliban  as well as the failure of U.S. trained Afghan forces to fight.

'Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,' Biden said. 'If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.'

Biden administration officials are pointing fingers at various agencies who failed to properly plan for or anticipate the sudden Taliban takeover of Kabul

He stood by the determination to pull out as the 'right decision.'

Diplomats have said they were relying on intelligence assessments that the collapse of Kabul was less than imminent  although the Intelligence Community briefed lawmakers in July about the 'accelerating' pace of Taliban gains.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at a Pentagon press conference late last month, even amid Taliban gains across provinces: 'And there is a range of possible outcomes in Afghanistan.  A negative outcome  a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan  is not a foregone conclusion.'

That estimation of the Afghan government's strength also influenced the White House position, as President Biden publicly announced a total withdrawal of U.S. forces by Sept. 11th, then moved up the date by weeks.

A White House official singled out Milley's public assessment, calling it 'utter bunk,' CNN reported.

'We have noted the troubling trend lines in Afghanistan for some time, with the Taliban at its strongest, militarily, since 2001. Strategically, a rapid Taliban takeover was always a possibility,' said a senior intelligence official Sunday.

Defense officials have said they prepared for worst-case scenarios, and have expressed frustration that State Department officials didn't speed evacuation actions.

Pentagon spokesman Adm. John Kirby, a former State Department spokesman under President Obama, said the administration did plan for Taliban gains.

He spoke to CNN Tuesday about the chaotic departure flights from Hamid Karzai airport that reportedly left eight people dead.

'Could we have predicted every single scenario and every single breach around the perimeter of the airport with only a couple of thousand troops on the ground?' Kirby said. 'Plans are terrific and we take them seriously, but they are not and never have been perfectly predictive.'

Former Donald Trump national security advisor John Bolton told the network Tuesday that both Trump and Biden made the strategic mistake of withdrawing from the 20-year war.

This image distributed Courtesy of the US Air Force shows the inside of Reach 871, a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III flown from Kabul to Qatar on August 15, 2021

Pentagon assessments of the durability of Afghan national forces are also coming under scrutiny. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the military had planned for contingencies involving a Taliban takeover

'It's been a catastrophe and I'm afraid it's going to get worse. I think Biden does bear primary responsibility for that although you see now fingers being pointed saying Trump didn't leave us with any plans. We'll have to see how that shakes out,' he said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified in June that he didn't expect an 'immediate deterioration in the situation' as the U.S. undertook its drawdown.

Whatever happens in Afghanistan, if there is a significant deterioration in security  that could well happen, we have discussed this before  I dont think its going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday,' he said  although what ultimately unfolded was a sudden Taliban takeover in a matter of days.

A foreign policy ally said Biden's advisors would never have let him take off for Camp David last Friday, as the president did, had they anticipated the sudden collapse, the Washington Post reported.
A Florida deputy who was caught on video slamming a 16-year-old female high school student headfirst to the ground earlier this year will not face any criminal charges, a prosecutor announced on Tuesday.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an investigation in January after a video went viral showing Osceola County Sheriff's Deputy Ethan Fournier, a school resource officer at Liberty High School in Kissimmee, body-slamming Taylor Bracey on January 26.

The findings of the four-month investigation were turned over to Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell in May to determine if Fournier should face any charges.

Osceola County Sheriff's Deputy Ethan Fournier will not face any charges for body-slamming 16-year-old Taylor Bracey at school in January, as seen in viral video left and right

During a news conference on Tuesday, Worrell announced that Fournier, who has worked for the sheriff's office for a decade, acted within the bounds of Floridas use of force statutes, reported ClickOrlando.com.

'After a thorough review of the evidence, and the applicable law in this matter (the independent review) team has concluded that officer Fourniers use of force did not violate any laws of the state of Florida,' she said. 'As such, there will be no criminal charges filed in this matter.'

In clearing Fournier of wrongdoing, Worrell said she was 'angry' after watching the video and called for school resource officers (SROs) to be trained to better respond to situations involving children, reported Fox 35 Orlando.

Worrell also advocated for spending money on body cameras for SROs and mental health resources for students in crisis.

'Every SRO should be required to go through crisis intervention training," Worrell added. 'There are now more police officers working in our schools than school nurses. The number of police officers in schools is more than double the number of social workers and psychologists.'

Fournier had been on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He had no previous record of misconduct, other than minor property damage.

Officials said Fournier was trying to stop Bracey from fighting with another student.

Fournier (left), a 10-year veteran, was working as a school resource officer and was trying to stop a fight between Taylor (left) and another student

Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell announced at a press conference on Tuesday that Fournier acted within the bounds of Floridas use of force statutes

Footage shows Bracey's head hit a concrete walkway with an audible thud and she appears to lose consciousness.

Fournier then pulls the girl's hands behind her back and placed her in handcuffs. Other students watching the incident cry out in shock.

'The student was not complying with lawful commands,' Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez said at the time.

Lopez previously said neither the student nor the sheriff had any serious injuries and were 'fine.'

However, the teen's mother, Jamesha Bracey, told media outlets within days of the incident that her daughter was suffering from memory loss, headaches, blurry vision and sleep deprivation after the incident.

Jamesha Bracey, pictured in January flanked by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, said her daughter suffered from memory loss and headaches

There was no update on the girl's condition Tuesday.

Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the family, called the incident 'mind-boggling,' according to ABC News.

'He's supposed to be trained,' Crump said of Fournier in January. 'It's foreseeable that children may get in altercations at school. You're not supposed to knock them unconscious. You're supposed to be the person who knows how to de-escalate the situation.'

The mom contended that if her daughter were white, like Fournier, this would not have happened to her.
A senior Taliban commander named Abdul Ghani Baradar gave an interview to Newsweek in 2009 and was asked what the future of his homeland might hold.

'The history of Afghanistan shows that Afghans never get tired of struggling until they have freed their country,' he responded. 'We shall continue our jihad until the expulsion of our enemy from our land In every nook and corner of the country, a spirit for jihad is raging.'

Twelve years later, that prediction seems eerily prescient  aside from one minor detail. The Taliban's 'enemy' were not exactly expelled  but instead chose to quit the hostile land of their own accord.

Abdul Ghani Baradar is preparing to be unveiled as president of a new Islamic republic after the Taliban's success in Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Baradar, who back then was in deep hiding  the interview was conducted via a network of encrypted phone messages forwarded by his insurgent group's PR man  has experienced a dramatic uptick in his personal fortunes.

Today, the bearded 53 year old finds himself in downtown Kabul attempting to act like a global statesman as he prepares to be unveiled as presideomarnt of a new Islamic republic.

'We have reached a victory that was not expected,' he declared, promising to 'show humility in front of Allah', as well as 'serve the Afghan people and set an example for the rest of the world'.

It's quite the change in circumstances for a man who, until 2018, was languishing behind bars in Pakistan, having been arrested in 2010 after spending a decade on the run.

Back then, he was the subject of UN sanctions and named by Interpol as one of the world's most wanted men, thanks to his role overseeing a Taliban insurgency that cost the lives of thousands of western troops.

Baradar, who has spent much of his adult life fighting guerrilla wars, was identified as the mastermind of his group's murderous tactic of planting 'flowers'  their name for improvised explosive devices  on trails and dirt roads, hoping to then ambush small units using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

'Keep your weapons on your backs and be on your motorcycles,' he reportedly told sub-commanders back in 2008. He added: 'America has greater military strength but we have greater faith and commitment.'

Mullah Omar (pictured) was the Taliban boss who effectively ran Afghanistan when it was sheltering the leaders of Al Qaeda in the run-up to the 9/11 terror attacks

Thanks in part to the success of this deadly strategy, the cunning  if until lately relatively little-known  former warlord may eventually prove to be even more dangerous than his late friend and mentor Mullah Omar.

He was the Taliban boss who effectively ran Afghanistan when it was sheltering the leaders of Al Qaeda in the run-up to the 9/11 terror attacks.

The duo met during the 1980s on the front-line of the Afghan Mujahideen's decade-long war against the Soviet Union when they became experts at knocking out Russian tanks with rocket-propelled grenades.

Later, after Omar had lost an eye to shrapnel, they travelled to his home district of Maiwand where 20-something Baradar served under his command.

At some point, they are believed to have married a pair of sisters. Omar, who was eight years his protege's senior, gave him the nickname 'Baradar', meaning 'brother', as a sign of trust and which he then incorporated into his name.

After the Russians were driven out in 1989, they travelled to Kandahar to set up a madrassa  an Islamic religious school. But with Afghanistan falling into civil war between rival factions, they became disgusted at the behaviour of local warlords who, fighting among themselves, had begun kidnapping and raping girls and boys from surrounding villages.

In the autumn of 1994, Omar held a meeting in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, where a group of young Islamic scholars  including Baradar  pledged to dedicate themselves to the religious purification of the country and the creation of an Islamic emirate. They called their new group the Taliban.

Its first insurgency, a revolt against a local warlord, involved a tiny force of just 30 men and half as many firearms. But the movement quickly grew and by 1996 controlled the entire country.

Baradar also built links with Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks from a secret base in the mountainous region bordering Pakistan

Renowned as a canny military leader and politician, Baradar was made the deputy defence minister in the Taliban government, which banned music and art, prevented girls from attending school, forced women to wear burqas and presided over a medieval justice system.

Baradar also built links with Osama bin Laden  the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks from a secret base in the mountainous region bordering Pakistan  according to the New York Times.

After the US invasion, hundreds of senior Taliban hardliners fled.

Baradar is believed to have helped Mullah Omar escape by riding a motorcycle across the border, with his chief on the pillion seat wearing a burqa.

Once on the run in Pakistan, they controlled their group from a network of safe houses. And in 2006, Baradar became its effective deputy leader following the death of a commander named Akhtar Usmani. According to Interpol, Baradar was also a member of the Quetta Shura  the Taliban's military council  from 2007 onwards.

By 2010, Omar's health was failing (he's believed to have died from tuberculosis in 2013) and Baradar was reported to have 'absolute control' over the Taliban's day-to-day operations.

But in February that year, he was finally arrested in a CIA raid on a slum in Karachi, Pakistan.

'His wife is Mullah Omar's sister-in-law. He controlled the money. He was launching some of the deadliest attacks against our security forces,' crowed a senior Afghan official to the BBC.

Tory MP Patrick Mercer, who is a former soldier, declared: 'It's a coup he was taken alive... This is the man behind the operations which have claimed the lives of more than 260 British soldiers.'

Yet even though the Taliban's insurgency continued, its imprisoned leader was executing a surprising volte-face.

Instead of advocating terror, he began lobbying his organisation's commanders to engage in dialogue with the US and Afghan governments that would allow them to return to power  and see him released from prison.

At the behest of President Trump's Afghan peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad  who reportedly believed he'd settle for a power-sharing arrangement  Baradar was freed in October 2018 to participate in peace talks.

The following year, he was named as the Taliban's chief negotiator in formal negotiations.

Last February, he signed the Doha Agreement in which President Trump had agreed to withdraw all but 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by the time he left office.

That highly-controversial deal, which was sealed via a 35-minute phone call with Trump at the White House, revolved around an agreement that remaining US soldiers would pull out once the Taliban agreed to both stop supporting terror groups and to ensure that Afghanistan is not used as a base for attacks on the West.

With its chaotic withdrawal, the US has kept its side of the bargain. But whether the former jihadi they've left in charge remains true to his word remains to be seen.
The British public last night condemned Joe Biden for the crisis in Afghanistan as they expressed fears the turmoil could lead to fresh terror attacks here.

A poll for the Daily Mail found the Presidents decision to pull out US troops was considered wrong by almost two to one.

Mr Biden is seen as most to blame for the Talibans victory, just ahead of Donald Trump.

Almost half (49 per cent) say their view of Mr Biden has worsened. But the results of the JL Partners survey, the first major poll conducted since the collapse of Afghanistan, also make grim reading for Boris Johnson.

Nearly seven in ten (67 per cent) feel the Prime Minister and his team have not been in control of the situation, including 58 per cent of Tory voters.

A poll for the Daily Mail found the Presidents decision to pull out US troops was considered wrong by almost two to one. Joe Biden is seen as most to blame for the Talibans victory, just ahead of Donald Trump

And the majority (51 per cent) believe he should have done more to persuade Mr Biden not to pull out his troops so soon.

However, there is a reluctance for British soldiers to remain in the country, with around six in ten (58 per cent) opposed to them staying on their own without the Americans alongside them.

More than half (51 per cent) said ministers have not done enough to help Afghan interpreters who helped British troops find refuge along with their families.

The Mail has highlighted the urgent issue over the six years of our award-winning Betrayal Of The Brave campaign. A majority (53 per cent) said Britain should do more to accept refugees fleeing the Taliban, compared to just one in five who disagreed.

Only eight per cent said they believed Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has handled the crisis well, with 13 per cent saying the same about the Prime Minister. Both Mr Raab and Mr Johnson were on holiday as Kabul fell to the advancing fanatics.

The PM returned from his break in the West Country on Sunday afternoon for a Cobra meeting in Whitehall, while the Foreign Secretary, who had been in Crete, eventually arrived back in the country in early hours of Monday. Nearly four in ten (38 per cent) said Mr Raab came back from his holiday too slowly, while 33 per cent said Mr Johnson had not returned quickly enough.

However, only a fifth of voters (20 per cent) wanted either the Foreign Secretary or the Prime Minister to resign. And even fewer  eight per cent  thought Defence Secretary Ben Wallace should go.

The poll revealed growing fears about the threat of terrorism in the wake of the Taliban takeover. An overwhelming 59 per cent said Britains safety has worsened, while 55 per cent warned they believe the risk of a terror attack in this country has grown.

Almost half (49 per cent) say their view of Mr Biden (pictured on August 12) has worsened. The US is still seen as the most powerful nation by 41 per cent, but it was only five points higher than China on 36 per cent

The results of the JL Partners survey, the first major poll conducted since the collapse of Afghanistan, also make grim reading for Boris Johnson (pictured on July 28)

Almost a third (30 per cent) expressed concern that their own personal safety is now worse.

Four in ten (40 per cent) said Britains influence on the world stage has declined.

The US is still seen as the most powerful nation by 41 per cent, but it was only five points higher than China on 36 per cent. However despite the chaos in Afghanistan, Britons still preferred Mr Biden to his predecessor, Mr Trump, to handle the situation by 38 per cent to 20 per cent.

Almost six in ten (59 per cent) expressed the belief the 457 British military personnel killed in Afghanistan died for nothing. Some 65 per cent said the West has let down Afghan women and children, while 53 per cent expect UK troops will eventually have to go back.

JL Partners interviewed 1,040 adults in Britain yesterday.
Up to 25,000 Afghans in danger from the Taliban will be allowed to come to Britain in one of the most generous resettlement schemes in the country's history.

Boris Johnson last night announced that up to 20,000 will be given the right to live here under a far-ranging new scheme  with 5,000 expected in the first year.

An additional 5,000 will be allowed to move to the UK under an existing programme designed to protect Afghan translators and other workers who were employed by British authorities.

Up to 25,000 Afghans in danger from the Taliban will be allowed to come to Britain in one of the most generous resettlement schemes in the country's history

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban.

It will also offer help to those forced to flee their homes and to religious minorities in the country. They will be given the right to stay in the UK permanently.

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million.

Mr Johnson said: 'We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years. Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help.

'I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK.' But the PM stressed he wanted to share responsibility with other nations to prevent a 'humanitarian emergency' in Afghanistan.

Boris Johnson announced that up to 20,000 will be given the right to live here under a far-ranging new scheme  with 5,000 expected in the first year

'The best solution for everyone is an Afghanistan that works for all Afghans. That means the international community coming together to set firm, political conditions for the country's future governance.'

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the scheme would allow the 'most vulnerable' Afghans to 'start a new life in safety in the UK, away from the tyranny and oppression they now face'.

'We will not abandon people who have been forced to flee their homes and are now living in terror of what might come next,' she added.

Afghans allowed to come to the UK will be distributed across the country, the Government indicated last night. A spokesman said it would work with the devolved administrations and local councils to make sure Afghans get help to rebuild their lives.

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban

Ministers had promised to set up a 'generous' and 'world-leading' programme to resettle those fleeing the new Taliban regime.

Miss Patel was last night due to hold an emergency meeting with members of the 'Five Eyes' intelligence-sharing alliance that also includes the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She would press for 'international collaboration on setting up safe and legal routes for Afghan refugees, a source said.

The new Afghan programme will be modelled on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme which launched in 2014 in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UNHCR identifies potential cases for the UK to consider and applicants are then vetted by British officials.

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million

The UK can reject cases on 'security, war crimes or other grounds', according to Home Office guidance. World leaders have shown varied reactions to the plight of Afghans. French president Emmanuel Macron came under fire last night after he said France would 'protect' itself from migrants fleeing the crisis in Afghanistan.

He faced accusations that he was letting down ordinary Afghans after he pledged a robust European approach against illegal migration.

Greece took a similar approach yesterday as it said it would not become 'the gateway of Europe' for Afghans fleeing the conflict.

The country was on the frontline of Europe's migration crisis in 2015 and, like other EU member states, it is nervous developments in Afghanistan could trigger a replay of the situation.
Afghans who apply to come to Britain are being rigorously checked for links with radical Islamist groups and crime.

But applicants will not be automatically barred from coming here if questionable activities  known as a 'security triggers'  emerge in the vetting process.

A scheme has been operating since April to relocate Afghans who worked for the British authorities.

After examining more than 3,300 claims, the Home Office has identified 'very few' cases in which applicants pose a national security risk, it is understood.

Security sources said last night that Afghans who apply for UK visas are vetted for Islamist sympathies. Other checks include any involvement in sex crimes or violent offences. But a security source said there were no 'automatic thresholds' that would lead to refusal, and each application was decided on a case-by-case basis.

Afghans who apply to come to Britain are being rigorously checked for links with radical Islamist groups and crime. Pictured: Members of the UK Armed Forces help Afghan civilians onto the RAF aircraft in Kabul on Monday

Evidence of any 'security triggers' is weighed up against any possible mitigation, sources said, before a decision is made on whether to allow the applicant into Britain.

Some who have been approved have faced Taliban death threats against themselves or their families. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the vetting process was 'vital' and that Home Office staff were working 'round the clock' to approve Afghans to come to the UK.

She added: 'Anyone who fails these checks will be refused entry to the UK.'

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the vetting process was 'vital' and that Home Office staff were working 'round the clock' to approve Afghans to come to the UK

Amid the fast-paced situation in Afghanistan, there is nothing to suggest British jihadis have tried to reach the new 'Islamic Emirate', a security source added.

Vetting will be extended to thousands more Afghans who are expected to apply for UK visas under the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme announced last night. A Government spokesman said: 'There are people in Afghanistan who represent a serious threat to our national and public security. We are doing everything we can to resettle Afghan nationals but we will not compromise on security.

'We have incredibly thorough checks across government and our world-class intelligence agencies. If somebody presents a danger to this country we simply cannot allow them to travel here.'

He added: 'We have so far resettled over 3,300 Afghan interpreters, staff and their families who served alongside our brave military and our officials are working as quickly as possible to bring more people to safety in the United Kingdom.'
It was midnight, at the end of a dreadful day. I had dodged my way along back roads, then main roads, trying to avoid Taliban checkpoints in a desperate bid to reach Kabul airport to try and find any information about flights to the UK.

The two-hour journey had been a mistake. Not only did I have to run the gauntlet of triumphant, often aggressive, Taliban fighters as they randomly searched vehicles and fearful passengers  pedestrians, too  but when I arrived I had become caught up in the chaos at Kabul international airport.

Hundreds of my fellow countrymen, young and old, were seeking information on how to escape our homeland. It was brutally hot and everyone was nervous. We felt the eyes of men who had been our enemy staring into us with the cold eyes of a victor.

At each gate to the airport  there were five in all  I had asked for the British. I had spent six years working with them as their interpreter, but the unsmiling Turkish guards would let no one through. We were left in a dangerous no-mans land of about 100 metres with Taliban on one side, walls topped with razor wire on the other.

Loyal service: Latif Hottak (pictured right), who has spent six years working with the British Army as their interpreter, and another translator in Helmand in 2008

I was desperate. I was a potential Taliban target because of my years of work for British soldiers. But also because, over many years, the UK Government had repeatedly and unjustly refused me relocation  a chance to escape and build a new life for my family.

One wall was slightly lower than the rest, maybe about two metres high. I decided to try and scale it so I would drop down into the comparative safety of the airport.

As I clambered up the wall, there was a burst of gunfire, followed by another. It was into the air but none of us knew that and panic set in as we scrambled first for safety, then threw ourselves back to the tarmac outside the airport.

It was something I had done many times in the dirt and maize fields of Helmand while on foot patrol with brave British soldiers when the Taliban had opened fire. Then, it had not been in the air.

This time, there were three more bursts, then silence and barked orders from the Taliban to leave. I felt my legs and blood was gushing from cuts. But in the panic I had not noticed the pain.

The journey home on foot in the twilight of the evening was slow  each step agonising. I kept my head low and tried not to limp, merging into groups of other Afghans.

When I eventually arrived home at the darkened basement that has been our home for three years, I sat on the rugs covering the floor which are also our beds. I was exhausted and depressed.

My wife Ruqia is a nurse and gently dabbed my wounds with a cold cloth while I told my four children what had happened. The story had no happy ending. There was to be no airport escape.

So when the phone rang on the corner table, I could hardly be bothered to answer. It was my brother Rafi, also an ex-translator, who calls most nights from the UK to check on us. With the Taliban having arrived in the city 24 hours earlier, he, like us, was extremely worried. There were reports of fighters conducting house-to-house searches looking for those who worked for foreign forces.

Rafi and I had been interpreters together. We had joined at the same time in 2006 and taken the same risks on the frontline. He was blown-up by an IED in Helmand, a blast that killed a British officer. Rafi had been saved by doctors at Camp Bastion.

I am approved at last  but will the call ever come for the flight? Will the airport still be open? writes Latif Hottak (pictured: British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan board a military plane for evacuation from Kabul airport)

When he recovered, we took on a new role together working with UK Special Forces. That was until the death threats became too much and he escaped with people traffickers to the UK. After a fight, he was granted asylum.

He called me regularly. Together with the Daily Mail, he had been battling to overturn my case so we could be a family again in the UK. In truth, I was jealous of his life of safety and freedom, a life that seemed unobtainable  especially with the Taliban on the streets.

But this call was different. Rafi was not his normal self. He was excited and the words I had longed to hear tumbled out quickly.

They were beautiful, magical and I couldnt believe them. My case had been granted. I screamed, my wife screamed and my four children screamed.

Rafi waited and allowed us an unforgettable moment of joy, of relief. He then read out the email sent to him by the Ministry of Defence. A massive burden had been lifted.

My eldest son Zaki, who is 13, grabbed the phone and shouted at Rafi: Uncle, I am coming to see you! Yes you are, Rafi replied and we all laughed and talked and talked.

As Ruqia and I laid Zaki and our other children Sana, Sudies and Sama down on their mats nearby, none of us slept.

But this time it was the excitement, not the fear of the Taliban arrival, that kept us awake. I thought of my six years of loyal service to the British; how I had saved the life of a soldier after hearing Taliban forces prepare to open fire as he climbed into a compound. I had grabbed his legs and dragged him from his ladder.

I thought about how, for some reason, the British said I had been dismissed for helping an Afghan soldier pass his exam. It was not true. But it prevented me from having a chance of relocation. Rafi and Daily Mail journalist David Williams have never given up on me. They dug and dug until they found evidence that helped the truth come out. Earlier this month, the Mail put that evidence to the MoD.

I did not sleep. Yesterday, I felt different, not tired. My head is clear, and my load is lighter. But there is a terrible contradiction.

I feel elated but scared too, very scared. I am approved at last  but will the call ever come for the flight? Will the airport still be open? Will we be able to safely navigate our way through the Taliban lines?

More and more fighters are arriving. These are hardened men from the battles of Helmand. What happens if I am recognised? I experienced the chaos and the dangers of the airport and how the mood can change. It worries me greatly: the checkpoint, the searches, the paperwork, the children saying a word out of place.

Only when we are in the air and away from Afghanistan will I relax. Until then, we will wait and hope and pray for our deliverance  and that this is not all too late.

As told to David Williams

A lottery at every road stop

By David Williams for the Daily Mail

Yama, a former frontline interpreter for UK forces, had hoped to be in Britain with his wife Parwana after being approved for relocation eight months ago.

Instead, he is in his third hiding place since the Taliban swept across the country to Kabul. Yama, 31, who has taken the precaution of growing a thick beard, said he and his 30-year-old wife were stopped a dozen times by the Taliban on Monday.

He said: Every time you come to a checkpoint you are nervous, frightened. It is like a lottery  how will they react? Will they search you? Will someone tell them who you really are? Will they be looking for you and have your picture?

In hiding: Former interpreter Yama with his wife Parwana. He is in his third hiding place since the Taliban swept across the country to Kabul

Will they ask you to get out of the car? All these things go through your mind. You can feel your heart beat loudly.

Parwana is disabled in both legs after being hit by shrapnel from a Taliban mortar when she was five years old. She uses a wheelchair.

Yama said: In a taxi, I wrap a blanket or cloth which covers her legs. It is dangerous for women under the Taliban and in particular for those women who are disabled. I 100 per cent trust the British and I am waiting for their call but we are frustrated and angry that this has taken so long.

He added: We do not understand why a case that was approved in December is still going on. It will be difficult and dangerous to safely reach the airport.

We have heard there are many roadblocks. Please relocate us. Dont leave it too late.

If they find out who I am, Im dead

Wazir and his family slept in the open on the edge of Kabuls crowded international airport yesterday  and he admitted to feeling safe for the first time in weeks.

However, the 31-year-old former frontline interpreter is still having to reckon with the threat of mortal danger.

He said: The Taliban are close on the streets outside and if they find out who I am they will kill me, I am sure.

The ex-translator had worn one of his wifes burqas as a disguise to slip past insurgents storming his home city of Kunduz. Those who worked for the Afghan government and Western forces were being hunted down in revenge attacks, he said.

Desperate for sanctuary: Wazir, pictured right, with a British soldier. He and his family are at Kabul airport

He finally made it into the airport amid the chaos by clambering over a wall with wife Frishtah, 30, three year-old son Mohammad and daughters Tamaz, six, Iqrah, four, and 11-month-old Yususra.

There are American and British troops here and we know we are safe from attack, Wazir said yesterday. We have nowhere else to go and pray that Britain will show compassion and save us.

He is trying to secure sanctuary in the UK after being rejected for relocation because he had been dismissed after nearly three years on the frontline. He has reapplied. Each flight we see arriving represents hope, he explained.

Wazir said he had written to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace pleading for sanctuary. I am only a target because I risked my life for the British forces and I ask that the Government recognise this and save my life and that of my family, he said.

If we are denied this and manage to escape... then we will be forced to try and reach safety with the help of people smugglers  this is very dangerous.
President Joe Biden's administration is planning to extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through January 18 as the Delta COVID-19 variant continues to surge.

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesperson confirmed the extension.

'The purpose of TSAs mask directive is to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation,' the spokesperson said.

The mandate was previously set to expire on September 13.

Major US airlines were informed of the planned extension on a call with TSA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday, four people briefed on the matter said.

Airlines have endured consistent struggles with the mask mandates in the airport and on flights as 2,867 passengers in total this year have refused to wear masks, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

A TSA federal fine is still in place through September for passengers who refuse to wear a mask, beginning at $250 and an extension to $1500 for repeat offenders, according to The Hill.

The Biden administration extended the mask mandate for public transportation until January 18 due to the surge in cases from the Indian 'Delta' variant

Passengers who continue to refuse to comply with the mask mandate will be asked to pay a $250 by the TSA, up to $1,500 for repeat offenders

The Association of Flight Attendants supported the extension of this mandate.

International AFA president Sara Nelson said: 'While vaccination has been key to the increased air travel demand, the lagging vaccination rates and rise of the Delta variant has caused cases to skyrocket again - threatening lives, continued virus mutation, and recovery from this pandemic.

'TSA Administrator [David] Pekoske's decision in coordination with the Biden administration to continue the TSA enforcement directive for the CDC transportation mask mandate will help tremendously to keep passengers and aviation workers safe.'

Although masks are required for indoor public transportations as well stations and airports, the CDC began letting passengers go mask-free in outdoor transportation hubs in June.

CDC official Mary Centron told Reuters: 'Masks are really powerful and we should make sure they're part of our arsenal.

'The truth is that the unvaccinated portion that's out there is extremely vulnerable.'

Republican lawmakers have opposed the mask mandate for public transportation after they introduced a legislation in July.

They also believe that unvaccinated individuals should be exempt from having to follow the mandate.

Various U.S. states have also begun implementing mask mandates for indoor public spaces as the Delta variant continues to spike cases across the nation.

Various U.S. states have begun implementing masks in public places again as cases continue to soar

The number of COVID-19 cases is continuing to rise across the United States as the fourth wave of the pandemic rages on, but there are signs the increase may be slowing.

On Sunday, officials recorded 38,482 new cases of the virus with a seven-day rolling average of 130,221, data from Johns Hopkins University show.

This represents a 150 percent from the average of 52,116 reported three weeks ago and is the highest figure seen since February 2, according to a DailyMail.com analysis.

Although that is a large jump, it's smaller than the increase seen last Sunday, when it was reported that infections had risen by 240 percent over a three-week period.

Deaths are also on the rise, despite levels remaining far below those seen pre-vaccination.

There were 382 virus-related fatalities recorded on Sunday with a seven-day rolling average of 644, which is a 129 percent increase from the average of 281 reported three weeks prior and the highest number seen since May 30.

However, about half as many deaths are being recorded as were during November 2020, the last time that COVID-19 cases were trending upward.

The surge in the U.S. has been blamed on the spread of the Indian 'Delta' variant, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates.

Over the last two weeks, Florida's seven-day rolling average of new Covid cases has risen 139 percent from 15,817 per day to 37,941, which is the highest ever recorded.

In Florida, virus cases have filled so many hospital beds that several hospitals say they have run out of room.

Hospitals are converting conference rooms, cafeterias and ambulatory centers into Covid wards to deal with the surge in patients.

Florida continues to be America's COVID-19 epicenter with 151,764 new cases recorded last week as hospitals report a record-high number of hospitalizations

'Between increasing numbers of COVID patients and unusually high patient volume of extremely ill non-COVID patients, our hospitals are working to maximize their available staff and beds,' Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association (FHA), said in a statement.

In Texas, the seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 cases has risen 348 percent in a month to 12,478 per day from an average of 2,783 per day.

The state expects that a rise in deaths will soon follow with officials requesting five mortuary trailers from the federal government, reported NBC News.

The trucks will be sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and distributed around Texas.

Texas is currently averaging 80 COVID-related deaths per day, a figure not seen since mid-March 2021.

In Texas, the seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 cases has risen 348% in a month to 12,478 per day from an average of 2,783 per day

According to a survey conducted by the FHA, 68 percent of hospitals are expected to reach a critical staffing shortage.

According to state data, more than half of the hospital regions in Texas - 12 out of 22 - have 10 or fewer ICU beds currently available.

Of those regions, seven - Abilene, Bryan, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Lufkin and Waco - have no ICU beds available.

'The ICUs are full,' Dr Kunal Sharma, Chief of Emergency Services at LBJ Hospital, told CBS News.

'Every bed is accounted for, and in fact, we have patients waiting in our emergency center for ICU beds to open up...Some wait hours, some wait days, to be frank.'
The operator of an obscure website about tunnels under Washington, DC, alerted the FBI about a huge spike in traffic from militia sites and apparent Trump supporters in the days before the January 6 Capitol riots.

Former Capitol Hill intern Elliot Carter is the creator and curator of WashingtonTunnels.com, a website dedicated to the underground tunnels and pipe systems in the nation's Capitol.

The site includes maps and details of the underground transit rail system, along with water and sewer systems and has a steady following among local history and city planning buffs.

It also has maps of the underground tunnels on the Hill, usually used by staffers and occasional visitors to travel from the Capitol building to House and Senate Office Buildings, the Library of Congress and the Capitol Visitor Center.

In the days before the Capitol riots, Carter notified the FBI's Washington Field Office after noticing an uptick in traffic to his site with views coming from unusual sources - including anonymous message boards, sites and forums named after militias or firearms, or using Donald Trump's name.

His tip was mentioned in a Senate review of the insurrection as part of a mountain of evidence that authorities were forewarned about potential violence on January 6 but failed to prepare.

The website WashingtonTunnels.com is dedicated to the underground tunnels and pipe systems in the nation's capitol

The obscure site includes maps and details of the underground transit rail system (pictured) along with water and sewer systems and has a steady following

Included on the site are maps of the underground tunnels on the Hill, usually used by staffers and occasional visitors to travel from the Capitol building to House and Senate Office Buildings, the Library of Congress and the Capitol Visitor Center

Carter told NBC Washington his traffic is normally limited to visitors and referrals from people in DC and in nearby communities in Virginia and Maryland.

Starting on New Year's Day the website saw an unusual spike in traffic from all over the country.

'These people were suddenly obsessed with the Capitol building,' Carter said.

According to Carter, analytics revealed that the page views were coming from hyperlinks shared on anonymous message boards, sites and forums named after militias or firearms, or using Donald Trump's name.

'These were names I really didn't recognize,' he added.

Carter said he was so concerned that he decided to contact the FBI's Washington Field Office.

Although he never got a reply to his email, his the tip about his website was mentioned in the US Senate Rules Committee's June 2021 review of the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

The report cited an 'online tip' was 'received by the FBI National Threat Operations Center of a 'significant uptick' in new visitors to the website WashingtonTunnels.com.'

A Capitol Police spokesman confirmed that they were alerted by a law enforcement source about the spike in website traffic regarding the maps but they were not prepared for the incoming insurrection (pictured)

A Capitol Police spokesman confirmed to NBC Washington that they were alerted by a law enforcement source about the spike in website traffic regarding the maps but they were not prepared for the incoming insurrection.

'Ahead of January 6, the USCP knew Congress and the Capitol grounds were to be the focus of a large demonstration attracting various groups, including some encouraging violence,' the spokesman said in a statement. 'Based on this information, the Department enhanced its security posture. What the intelligence didn't reveal was the large-scale demonstration would become a large-scale attack on the Capitol Building, as there was no specific, credible intelligence about such an attack.'

'The USCP consumes intelligence from every federal agency. At no point prior to January 6 did it receive actionable intelligence about a large-scale attack,' the statement added.

NBC Washington reported that the traffic that flooded the site might have started on anonymous message boards, but went mainstream when a hyperlink to the website was shared on Twitter on January 4, which

Kristofer Goldsmith, a military veteran who studies extremist groups and their use of social media and communications technology, told NBC that it was inevitable that Carter's site would be shared on a more mainstream social media platform.

'It may start in the dark corners of the internet, but where it becomes dangerous is when it ends up on these mainstream platforms,' he said.

Following the riots, Carter took the website offline, but later brought it back online because the site does not actually contain any sensitive information that is not already public knowledge.

On January 6 Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building.

Just before the attack, Trump delivered fiery remarks at the White House and then encouraged his supporters to march to Capitol Hill.

Trump has denied any wrong doing although he spent the weeks after the November election falsely claiming he won and was the victim of voter fraud.

He was impeached a second time on charges of he incited an insurrection at the Capitol. He was acquitted by the Senate.

Four people died on the day of the violence, one shot dead by police and the other three of natural causes.

A Capitol Police officer who had been attacked by protesters died the following day.

Two police officers who took part in the defense of the Capitol later took their own lives. More than a hundred police officers were injured.
Lawmakers from President Biden's own party are continuing to fume about the unfolding chaos in Afghanistan and firing up probes where they will demand answers from the Democratic administration.

The push for formal oversight comes even as White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan promised an internal 'hotwash' that would ultimately take a look back at how the events culminated in the sudden collapse of Kabul and a rush to evacuate U.S. nationals and allies.

The increasingly frustrated Democrats are vowing to investigate what went wrong, setting up a formal and public reckoning even as the Biden team is trying is fielding off bitter criticism from Republicans and former President Donald Trump.

'We are now witnessing the horrifying result of many years of policy and intelligence failures,' said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who said the Foreign Relations Committee he chairs will probe events in Afghanistan

'The events of recent days have been the culmination of a series of mistakes made by Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 20 years,' Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

'We are now witnessing the horrifying result of many years of policy and intelligence failures,' Menendez said. While hammering the Trump Administration for its deal with the Taliban, he also called out the Biden administration's 'flawed' execution of the strategy.

In implementing this flawed plan, I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal,' Menendez said. 'We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.'

A Taliban fighter patrols in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Lawmakers want to probe the swift Taliban takeover of much of the country

Soldiers help a women who fell due to high temperature at the Kabul International Airport as thousands of Afghans rush to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, on August 18, 2021

President Joe Biden returned Tuesday night from Camp David

Menendez said his committee would hold a hearing on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan, including negotiations between former Republican President Donald Trump's administration and the Taliban and the Biden's administration's execution of the withdrawal.

Committee Republicans said they wanted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify, 'to understand why the State Department was so ill prepared for the contingencies unfolding before us,' according to a letter sent to Menendez.

'Updates from the State Department have been inconsistent, lacked important detail, and not be responsive to Members and the American people,' the Republicans wrote.

The date of the hearing was not immediately announced.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) vowed in his own statement to probe 'failures of intelligence, diplomacy and a lack of imagination as we transitioned military forces from the country.'

Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic Intelligence Committee chairman, had said on Monday he intended to work with other committees 'to ask tough but necessary questions' about why the United States was not better prepared for the collapse of the Afghan government.

Republicans continued their harsh criticism of Biden's policies.

House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), called the latest events a 'catastrophe' in a blunt statement.

'At minimum, the Biden administration owed our Afghan allies of 20 years a real plan,' he said, the Hill reported.

Rep. Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.) said the 'rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan reveals a failure to prepare for a scenario where the Afghan government and military would refuse to fight the Taliban's advances when put to the test.'

'The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning,' Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee wrote in a letter to the White House on Tuesday.

The congressional probes  Democrats control both Houses of Congress  follow a period in which committees tried and failed repeatedly to get top Trump Administration officials to testify in House probes when seeking to conduct public oversight of the administration.
Former President Trump on Tuesday claimed he threatened to launch strikes against the chief Taliban negotiator's home village if insurgents failed to observe the terms of a peace deal, as he blasted President Biden's handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'It's not the concept of leaving,' he told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity.

'It's the way they withdrew. It was not even possible to believe.'

The former president has kept up a running commentary on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, condemning Biden's handling of the withdrawal and insisting he would have managed a safe, swift operation when the time was right.

Biden and his officials have in turn said their hands were tied by a deal struck with the Taliban by Trump.

But the former president said he made clear in negotiations there would be consequences if Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's political chief, failed to stick to the terms of their deal.

'We had a very strong conversation,' he said.

'I told them upfront, I said: 'Look, before we start, let me just tell you right now that if anything bad happens to Americans or anybody else, or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before, a force so great that you won't even believe it, and your village, and we know where it is - and I named it - will be the first one.'

Former President Trump condemned President Biden's handling of the Afghan withdrawal, as thousands of Americans await rescue from the country

President Biden flew back to the White House from Camp David on Tuesday evening. His approval rating has plunged and the administration is in damage limitation mode as it deals with the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan. Biden did not call any foreign leader leaders until speaking with Britain's Boris Johnson on Tuesday afternoon

Biden stands by his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops and instead blamed Trump and Afghan leaders for the way the country collapsed

Baradar flew back to Afghanistan on Tuesday and is among the leading contenders to head the new government.

Trump's comments come after the Taliban - hours after they promised their rule would be 'moderate' - starting using whips and sharp objects to beat back Afghans crowded along the walls of Kabul airport.

One man was photographed with tears streaming down his cheeks, his face contorted in anguish as he saw his fellow Afghans being whipped.

Women were filmed reaching their hands through iron railings towards US troops while screaming 'the Taliban are coming' in footage being circulated on Afghan social media accounts this morning.

Meanwhile more footage revealed crowds hard up against concrete perimeter walls on the airport's military north side, with shots being fired over the heads of men, women and children to keep them back.

Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport - the only route out of Afghanistan for thousands of refugees stranded in the capital and nearby provinces - and are checking the documents of those trying to reach it.

Islamist fighters were funneling people towards a gate on the airport's civilian south side, demanding documents before occasionally allowing someone to pass. Each time the gate opened, dozens tried to rush inside - with gunshots fired to keep them back.

Afghan translators and other visa holders trying to reach the airport have told MailOnline that they are in hiding near the airport, afraid to break cover and try to reach the runway in case the Islamists haul them away.

Others who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds - without making it on to a flight.

A man carries a bloodied child, as a woman lays wounded on the street after Taliban fighters use guns fire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside the Kabul Airport for a way out

The Taliban turned on the crowd at Kabul airport on Tuesday, driving the hundreds back from the airport perimeter as they pushed to flee the country

A child covered in blood is carried away with his father after the Taliban used whips on the crowd trying to get in to Kabul airport on Tuesday

An Afghan woman is seen lying on the ground after the Taliban used whips and sharp objects to drive people from the airport

Taliban fighters patrol Kabul after sweeping through the country and seizing the Afghan capital within days. Biden is under intense pressure to explain how it could have happened

Crowds pictured outside Kabul airport on Wednesday morning, which is now the only viable route out of the country for thousands of refugees trapped in the capital

Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their 'consent'

Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule

The jihadists have been dubbed 'Taliban 2.0' for their media charm offensive in trying to persuade the world that they are 'moderate' compared to the Taliban of 20 years ago.

But reports today said militants were going door-to-door, rounding up looters and those who worked with the Afghan armed forces or government.

Exclusive video obtained by Fox News showed a convoy of Taliban fighters roaring down a street, then opening fire in Kabul looking for ex-government workers.

And the so-called 'Angels of Salvation' were dragging suspected robbers from their homes and lining them up against the walls with guns trained on them following looting.

One alleged car thief had his face covered in black tar before he was strapped to the back of truck with his hands tied behind his back and paraded through the city.

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

A Taliban fighter whacks a boy across the back of the thighs as families cower under a bush

A fighter canes a boy who cowers with women and young children

An alleged looter is placed up against a wall with fighter training their guns on his back after he was dragged out of his house by the Islamist 'Angels of Salvation'

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

The Trump administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, last year.

It was meant to be a first step towards an overall deal between the insurgents and the Afghan government.

Critics say it simply paved the way for the U.S. departure while the Taliban never honored its part in splitting from al-Qaeda and simply waited for the international troops to leave.

Matt Lewis, conservative podcaster and author, said Trump's naivete in negotiating with the Taliban and an invitation to Camp David (hurriedly withdrawn) was the 'origin sin' in the disaster.

'I just think it is naive and hubristic to think that they would negotiate in good faith and honor their commitments,' he said.

The former president made his comments after another frantic day in Kabul, where the U.S. and allies continued emergency evacuations of diplomats and civilians.

American officials said they were in contact with Kabul's new rulers, who had promised safe passage for those trying to flee.

Trump said the U.S. had never suffered a worse humiliation, with thousands of 'potential hostages' stuck in the country.

'You can go back to Jimmy Carter with the hostages. We all thought that was a great embarrassment and we were pulled out of that by Ronald Reagan,' he said.

'This is a many many times worse and you're dealing with thousands and thousands of Americans and others that are stranded and very dangerously really stranded in Afghanistan.'

Biden had botched the withdrawal by failing to bring home civilians and billions of dollars in military hardware before U.S. troops left.

And he compared the chaotic scenes at the airport with the final 18 months of his presidency and his threat of punitive action.

'We lost no soldiers in the last year and a half because of me and because of the understanding that we had,' he said.

'Think of that, in Chicago, and in New York and in other cities in the United States, many people die every weekend.

'We lost no soldiers in Afghanistan, because they knew I wasn't going to put up with it, and that's what happened.'

He said he had no faith in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country at the weekend.

'I thought he was a crook and got away with murder,' he said.

'He spent all of this time wining and dining our senators. The senators were in his pocket.'

He also claimed he always knew that Afghan forces would melt away in the face of a Taliban assault.

'They were doing it for a paycheck, because once we stopped, once we left, they stopped fighting... So we were sort of bribing them to fight, and that's not what it's all about,' he said.

For all his anger, regional analysts insist both administrations erred: Trump in trusting the Taliban to abide by the peace deal and Biden in failing to predict such a rapid collapse of Afghan forces.

Lisa Curtis, an Afghanistan expert who served on Trump's National Security Council, said Biden should have reevaluated Trump's deal.

'I wouldn't call it a peace deal - I would call it more of a withdrawal deal, because I think the only thing the US really got out of it was an agreement by the Taliban not to shoot U.S. forces on their way out,' she said.

'We didn't get peace, and we didn't get a break with Al Qaeda.'

Despite criticism of his Afghan initiative, Trump has kept up a withering barrage as his successor faced his biggest foreign policy test so far.

Trump told Hannity he was not opposed to the withdrawal of U.S. troops. 'It's the way they withdrew. It was not even possible to believe,' he said

Mullah Baradar headed the Taliban's political office in Doha after being freed by Pakistan in 2018. He returned to country on Tuesday, arriving to a hero's welcome in Kandahar

Biden was forced to return to the White House on Monday after criticism that he stayed at Camp David at the weekend as the Afghan crisis unfolded

GOP Senator Rick Scott suggests invoking the 25th amendment Republican Senator Rick Scott has proposed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Joe Biden from office amid the Afghanistan crisis. He questioned on Monday whether Biden should be removed for mental incompetence after the shambolic scenes in Afghanistan. 'After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?' he wrote. Scott's echoes recent statements from former President Donald Trump, who has said Biden should step down after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US troops. Advertisement

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump condemned chaotic scenes at Kabul's international airport as Afghans crowded the runway in search of a flight out.

'What took place yesterday in Afghanistan made our withdrawal from Vietnam look like childs play,' he said in an emailed statement referencing the fall of Saigon, when American diplomats had to be rescued from the roof of their embassy by helicopter.

'Perhaps in world history, there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously.

'A president who has been illegitimately elected has brought great shame, in many ways, to our Country!'

A day earlier he promised that his administration would have done things differently and mocked Biden's absence from Washington at the weekend.

He accused Biden of surrendering first to COVID-19 and then to the Taliban.

'The outcome in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal, would have been totally different if the Trump administration had been in charge,' he said.

'Who or what will Joe Biden surrender to next? Someone should ask him, if they can find him.'

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she told a press conference.

Biden was widely criticized for spending the weekend at Camp David rather than returning immediately to the White House as the Taliban closed in on the Afghan capital Kabul

Pictured: Taliban fighters on a pick-up truck move around a market area, flocked with local Afghan people at the Kote Sangi area of Kabul on August 17, 2021, after Taliban seized control of the capital following the collapse of the Afghan government

Pictured: Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban, speaks during a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. For years, Mujahid had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the militants

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid answers questions as he holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan. The

Chaos and fear spread at Kabul's airport on August 16th as hundreds of people try to flee the Taliban

Biden has said his hands were tied by Trump's February 2020 deal with the Taliban, a deal which left out the Afghan government and promised US troops would withdraw if the Taliban agreed not to attack US forces or harbor terrorists such as Al Qaeda.

The Taliban deal was meant to set the stage for a second peace deal, between the Taliban and the Kabul government.

But experts said the Trump deal had alienated the Kabul government, particularly over an agreement to free 5000 Taliban prisoners. Afghan officials said they were blindsided by the promise and feared the prisoners would return to the battlefield.

Kabul was unhappy with some aspects of the deal, including freeing 5000 Taliban prisoners amid fears they would simply return to the battlefield.

Biden extended Trump's initial May 1st deadline for a full military withdrawal.

But Trump said the problem was not leaving, it was the manner in which it was done.

'Can anyone even imagine taking out our military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our country and who should be allowed to seek refuge?

'In addition, these people left topflight and highly sophisticated equipment,' he said. 'Who can believe such incompetence?'
Sydney's record coronavirus outbreak is being driven by workers in the city's hard-hit southwest bringing it home to their families.

More than 70 per cent of transmissions were among households, sparking desperate measures including 'health hotels' to isolate infected family members.

Four are already running at Meriton buildings in the CBD with the NSW Government to open a fifth to deal with increasing case numbers - a record 633 on Wednesday.

Two ADF members at Sydney Olympic Park vaccination hub on Tuesday (pictured)

Nearly 1,000 people were staying in the health hotels last week, a health sector source told the Sydney Morning Herald.

In the previous two weeks, 70 per cent of Covid cases linked to known cases or clusters were transmitted by household contacts, which the health department said reflected the general trend of the outbreak.

About 100 cases in the past 14 days were transmitted by infected people visiting another household, most of which would be illegally.

The department said special health accommodation was being offered to those who could not effectively isolate at home or who were from large families.

The likelihood of household transmission is reduced by about 50 per cent three to four weeks after vaccination.

The local councils with the most cases are Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, and Blacktown - which together have more than 1,300 cases in the past week.

Of the active cases in NSW, 85 per cent are from southwest or western Sydney.

Sydney is under an extended lockdown with residents across the city required to stay within 5km of their homes to exercise and shop for essentials (pictured: a Sydneysider on Tuesday)

Thousands of Year 12 HSC students can get a vaccine at the new vaccination hub at Qudos Bank Arena (pictured)

There is also a trend of the delta strain being more easily transmitted to younger people - three-quarters of new cases are less than 40 years old.

A million extra Pfizer vaccine doses were secured by the federal government this week with more than half to be focused on younger people in the 12 LGAs of concern in Sydney.

'A key factor in being able to secure these doses from our Polish friends has been we have had a significant outbreak in our largest city,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.

These doses are approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Mr Morrison said 530,000 of these doses will be prioritised for express delivery to the 12 NSW local government areas where the Covid-19 outbreak continues to grow.

'This allocation of the doses is based directly on the advice I have received from the chief medical officer Professor (Paul) Kelly,' he said.

About 350 stood-down Qantas workers have been called on to help staff the Qudos vaccination hub (pictured)

ADF personnel help staff the the Qudos vaccination centre (pictured) with an additional 500 ADF members called in to Sydney to assist with logistics

Ten government vaccination clinics ramped up their capacity to deliver the additional 530,000 doses provided by the federal government to this priority group over the next two-and-a-half weeks.

'We know there are several hundred thousand people in these LGAs who are unvaccinated in this age group, and this is a great opportunity for them to come forward and get their jab,' NSW Health Deputy Secretary Susan Pearce said in a statement on Wednesday.

Appointments for both jabs can be booked at nsw.gov.au from Wednesday.

A new mass vaccination hub at Qudos Bank Arena will be used to help administer the doses - with 350 stood-down Qantas workers called on to help staff the facility.

Qantas will require its frontline employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 within three months.

Pilots, cabin crew and airport workers from Qantas and Jetstar will have until November 15 to be fully jabbed.

Private hospital companies Healthscope and Ramsay Health Care have also provided staff to work in the isolation accommodation and vaccine hubs.
Michigan Rep Rashida Tlaib and Massachusetts Rep Ayanna Pressley each raked in thousands of dollars of rental income in 2020 despite having publicly advocated to cancel rent nationwide during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic 'squad' members' rental incomes were revealed in 2020 financial disclosures filed Friday.

Tlaib disclosed between $15,001 and $50,000 from a Detroit property, while Pressley earned between $5,000 and $15,000 from a Boston property in her husband's name.

The value of Tlaib's property is estimated to be between $100,001 and $250,000, while Pressley's property was converted into a multi-family apartment after it was purchased.

Michigan Rep Rashida Tlaib (left) and Massachusetts Rep Ayanna Pressley (right) each raked in thousands of dollars of rental income in 2020 despite having publicly advocated to cancel rent nationwide during the coronavirus pandemic

In April 2020, both Tlaib and Pressley joined fellow 'Squad' Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D -New York) to co-sponsor Minnesota Rep Ilhan Omar's bill to 'institute a nationwide cancellation of rents and home mortgage payments through the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.'

If passed, the bill would have canceled rent and mortgage payments nationwide.

'Let me be clear as someone who has been praying through this all & as someone who attended the National Prayer Breakfast. My retweet was not to be an attack on prayer. It was to bring attention to the need for meaningful action to combat this public health crisis, Tlaib wrote in a tweet shared last March.

Additionally during a press conference, Pressley said 'With the economic impact of the pandemic worsening and the threat of eviction and homelessness looming large for families nationwide, we must take every measure possible to keep families safely housed, forgive all rental debt, and ensure that the credit scores of hard hit families are not forever tarnished.'

In April 2020, both Tlaib and Pressley joined fellow 'Squad' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-N.Y.), to co-sponsor Rep. Ilhan Omar's, (pictured) , bill to 'institute a nationwide cancellation of rents and home mortgage payments through the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.'

According to the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act, the bill would establish a relief fund for landlords and lenders 'to cover losses from the cancelled payments, so long as they agree to abide by a set of fair renting and lending practices for five years.'

Additionally, the bill would have also created an optional buyout fund to completely 'finance the purchase of private rental properties by non-profits, public housing authorities, cooperatives, community land trusts, and states or local governments.'

Both Pressley and Tlaib continue to remain a vocal advocate for extending the eviction moratorium, which the Biden administration extended earlier this month.

The extension, which came in a new Centers for Disease Control targeted moratorium issued on August 3, came after intense pressure from congressional Democrats, including a sit-in on the Capitol steps by Rep Cori Bush (D - Missouri).

Biden warned that the latest effort, which extends the moratorium until October 3, 'is likely to face obstacles.'

He also revealed that he consulted constitutional scholars  most of whom gave him the bad legal news.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken a swipe at NSW's Covid response, saying Sydney's 'light and long' lockdown is doomed to failure.

Kiwis were put into an intense level four lockdown on Tuesday after the country's first community case in six months, with the cluster since growing to 10 cases.

It's the first time the deadly Indian delta variant has spread in New Zealand and the outbreak, linked to Sydney's current Covid cluster, has put the country's PM on edge.

Auckland is now locked down for the next week, with the rest of the country in lockdown for at least three days. It's the first time the country has been at level four restrictions since April 2020.

A workmate of Patient Zero - who has no known links to overseas travel or Sydney - is among the new cases as well as a fully-vaccinated nurse, sparking fears of an outbreak at the hospital where they work.

Another case is an AUT student who had recently being in a lecture theatre with 84 others while infectious.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, pictured, has taken a swipe at NSW's Covid response, saying Sydney's 'light and long' lockdown is doomed to failure

'We want to be short and sharp rather than light and long,' said Ms Ardern. 'We've seen what happened in Sydney. We don't want that experience here.

'As we see overseas, particularly in Sydney, unnecessary trips outdoors have spread the virus and many communities have not been able to get on top of it.'

Ms Ardern dismissed critics of the move straight to a level four lockdown and said the lessons learned in Australia were a warning to New Zealanders.

A reporter quizzed Ms Ardern: 'In Australia, we've seen problems with compliance. What is your message to people who questioned the need for an alert level four lockdown?'

The PM replied: 'Australia - we just need to look overseas at what has happened there because of some of the decisions of those covered by those lockdown, some who may not have necessarily followed the rules.

Kiwis were put into an intense level four lockdown on Tuesday after the country's first community case in six months, with at total of 10 cases now linked to the cluster. Seen here is a deserted street in Devonport on Wednesday

'It has essentially extended the period of time that they're there. New Zealand hasn't had that same experience for those periods we've had lockdowns.

'By and large there's been really good compliance. I just say to Kiwis: Do what we've done before.'

She added: 'Going hard and early has worked for us before. Beating Delta means lifting our game.

'While we know that Delta is a more dangerous enemy to combat, the same actions that overcome the virus last year can be applied to beat it again.'

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she doesn't want the same experience in Sydney where numbers are surging but people are still on the beach as seen here at Bondi on Sunday

Under the level four restrictions only essential workplaces are allowed to open and schools will pause face-to-face learning.

Residents can only leave home to exercise, shop for food or medical supplies, or to get tested, and must wear a mask outside at all times.

The lockdown came into effect at midnight on Wednesday, sparking panic buying in supermarkets.

Frenzied shoppers were spotted fighting over toilet paper in chaotic scenes at supermarkets after the lockdown was confirmed.

'I was doing my weekly shop when it (lockdown) was announced. Five minutes later people were sprinting - genuinely sprinting - to the toilet paper section,' a Rolleston resident, south of Christchurch, told the NZ Herald.

'Moronic. Loo paper is made locally, so it won't run out.'

At one supermarket in Manurewa in south Auckland, customers were seen fighting (pictured) over items, including toilet paper

Disbelieving shoppers also posted videos and images on social media of empty supermarket shelves, stripped of bread and milk.

The latest outbreak began with an unvaccinated Auckland tradesman, 58, who is believed to have been infectious while travelling in the community for five days.

The latest lockdown came into effect at midnight on Wednesday, sparking panic buying in New Zealand supermarkets, as seen here in Wellington

The latest outbreak began with an unvaccinated Auckland tradesman, 58, who is believed to have been infectious while travelling in the community for five days. A deserted shopping street in Wellington on Wednesday is pictured here

Ms Ardern added: 'I asked New Zealanders to please follow the rules to the letter.

'The simplest thing New Zealanders can do to stop the spread of the virus is to stay at home.'

New Zealand's vaccination rollout has been plagued by similar problems to Australia's.

But unlike NSW, New Zealand has now been put their vaccine programme on hold during the current outbreak, with vaccine centres shut until at least Friday.

New Zealand have suspended their vaccine rollout during the lockdown while New South Wales stepped theirs up in the face of soaring numbers. Seen here are people exercising at Bondi Beach on Sunday

'In this early phase, the most important thing is to stop the outbreak,' said Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins.

'And the best way to do that is to stop any unnecessary movement that could see interactions and spread of the virus.

'The approach in Sydney and New South Wales to surge up vaccination is because they're using that to help control a much bigger outbreak.

'But our teams have been working on ways to safely vaccinate.'
woman says castle 'belongs to people' and they are 'taking power back'

A group of anti-lockdown protesters who stormed Edinburgh Castle citing the Magna Carta has been removed.

The 20 demonstrators were dispersed after spending hours in the Scottish hill fort claiming they were 'taking our power back' and 'overthrowing the Queen'.

One man was arrested for disorder related offences and a police officer had minor injuries during the arrest.

The group claimed their actions were justified by Article 61 of the Magna Carta - a phrase used by lockdown sceptics to justify ignoring coronavirus restrictions.

The 61st clause of the medieval charter of rights briefly gave 25 named barons the power to 'assail' the monarch.

It lasted a year from 1215 to 1216 before being expunged from subsequent revisions of the document, which has never held any legal power in Scotland anyway.

But it failed to concern the protesters, who documented their stand in a 13-minute Facebook livestream video yesterday afternoon.

A group of around 20 people (pictured left) was seen at Edinburgh Castle in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday afternoon, with Police Scotland confirming officers (right) were still in attendance hours later

In the 13-minute clip, a woman says the castle (pictured on July 23 this year) 'belongs to the people' and that they are 'taking our power back'

Edinburgh Castle: A royal house, military garrison, a prison and a fortress of the rock Edinburgh Castle is one of the oldest fortified places in Europe and has been a royal residence, military garrison, a prison and fortress. The building itself was built at the start of the 12th century during the reign of David I. But it did not look as it does today - it started as a hill fort and it was reinforced and developed over the years. There have been a number of sieges at the rock, with the Wars of Independence seeing its owners change multiple times. The Scots retook the castle from the English in 1314 following a night raid led by Thomas Randolph, who was nephew of Robert the Bruce. Queen Margaret - later to become a saint - died at the site and the chapel was built in her honour by her son. Meanwhile workers created the Great Hall for King James IV in 1511, yet he died just two years later during the Battle of Flodden. The forces that killed him were sent by his English brother-in-law - the notorious Henry VIII. Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James VI in the Royal Palace in 1566. He went on to be king of Scotland at 13 months old and united the crowns of Scotland and England in 1603. Advertisement

Superintendent Gerry Corrigan, Police Scotland said 'Officers attended at Edinburgh Castle following reports that a group of protesters had gathered within the Castle grounds at around 5.05pm on Tuesday, 17 August, 2021.

'The group later dispersed. One man was arrested for disorder related offences and a police officer sustained minor injuries during this arrest.

'A full report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.'

Social media footage showed a police constable asking one of the organisers: 'How many more people are you expecting to come to Edinburgh Castle today to join your protest?'

When she tells him 'it's not a protest, we're actually taking it back', he replies: 'Right, no worries.'

The group declared Magna Carta 'the only law in the land' and told passersby the Scottish people had been 'lied to all our lives'. They added the building 'belongs to us' and said they had 'taken it back' in an effort to 'restore the rule of law'.

Another man then says: 'Treason's been going on for that long now, we can't sit back and let everybody perish under the stupid legislation and fraudulent government tyranny, so let's just take it all back, not just the castle.'

The woman then speaks again calling for 'no more enslavement' and the 'people and commonwealth are going to be free'.

She tells viewers they are going to 'take everybody down', including government, the courts and 'the crown is coming down today'.

After saying the group is 'putting we, the people, back into power', a second man adds: 'We are the people.'

The woman also claims 'corrupt, evil, satanic paedophiles are running this country' and Scots have been kept 'like peasants for 800 years'.

The woman says she has put Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone 'on notice' about them taking the castle.

At one stage the police officer asks the woman for her name, to which she says she is 'not obliged' to give, before identifying herself anyway.

A member of staff at the castle, left, and an officer at the landmark, right. A Police Scotland spokesman said on Tuesday evening: 'Officers are currently in attendance at Edinburgh Castle and are engaging with a group of people who have gathered within the castle grounds'

The castle pictured in the Facebook Live video. A spokesperson for Historic Environment Scotland added: 'A group of around 20 individuals entered Edinburgh Castle this evening without payment'

A Police Scotland spokesman said Tuesday night: 'Officers are currently in attendance at Edinburgh Castle and are engaging with a group of people who have gathered within the castle grounds.'

A spokesman for Historic Environment Scotland added: 'A group of around 20 individuals entered Edinburgh Castle this evening without payment.

'After refusing requests to leave the premises Police Scotland were called to the site and are dealing with the matter. There are no other visitors currently on site.'
Shocking video captured the moment a hatchet-wielding man brutally attacked a customer at a Manhattan bank as New York City's violent summer rages on.

The random attack unfolded at a Chase Bank on Broadway in the Financial District just before 5.30pm Sunday.

Surveillance video obtained by DailyMail.com on Tuesday shows the victim standing at an ATM in the bank vestibule when the assailant walks in behind him.

The suspect is seen removing a hatchet from a dark bag and sneaking up behind the victim before slashing him.

Video captured the shocking moment Queens man Miguel Solorazana, 50, is slashed with a hatchet while using an ATM at a Chase Bank in downtown Manhattan at 5.30pm Sunday. It begins with the attacker walking into the ATM room with the hatchet in hand

The attacker then suddenly walks up behind Solorzana and begins swinging his weapon in the violent attack

The unknown assailant starts with slashes to the back of the surprised victim's knees

The Solorzana quickly turns to face his attacker, and tries to fend him off using his backpack

The terrified and bloodied victim, who was identified as 50-year-old Queens resident Miguel Solorzana by the New York Daily News, attempts to fend off the crazed attacker.

Solorzana is seen desperately trying to grab the weapon, as he becomes increasingly bloodied, before falling to the floor several times.

Once the assailant is finished attacking Solorzana, he proceeds to smash the ATM screens before walking away, but not before leaving the hatchet and his backpack behind, police said.

'He hit me. In the bank, he hit me,' Solorzana, speaking in Spanish, told the Daily News.

'The guy that got hit in the head was screaming,' a witness told the New York Post.

Soon, the backpack is ripped away, as the attacker continues to slash him with the weapon

Terrified and bloodied, the Queens resident desperately tries to grab the weapon away from his attacker

Solorzana, who suffered three slash wounds to the head falls to the ground several times as he fights for his life

Eventually, Solorazana, severely bloodied, flees, and his attacker does not follow. Police say they have the suspect in custody pending charges

'It's crazy,' the witness said. 'People were shouting and we saw the guy laying down - a lot of blood.'

Police sources said the Solorzana was immediately transported to Bellevue Hospital with three slash wounds to his head and a slash wound to his right leg.

He required two surgeries after the attack, his friend Manny, told the Daily News.

'The whole family is in Mexico,' he said of his friend. 'I didnt ask him about what happened, I just wanted to make sure hes okay.'

Solorzana remains in stable condition, police said.

Officials said a 37-year-old suspect in the attack is in custody.

Police picked the suspect up while he was smashing car windows near 19th Street and 7th Avenue, 1010 Wins reported.

He was taken to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation pending charges, and has not yet been identified.

After Solorzana been driven off, the attacker proceeds to smash the ATM screens one by one before walking away. Police said a suspect in the attack is in custody pending charges

The smashed ATMs (pictured) seen in the aftermath of the brutal attack

During a recent ATM visit at a Lower Manhattan Chase bank, a 51-year-old man was brutally attacked by a hatchet-wielding lunatic, surveillance footage shows

Crime rates throughout New York City have been increasing over last year

The attack comes amid a growing crime wave in the Big Apple, with more and more assaults happening in broad daylight.

On Friday, an aspiring actor who once appeared as an extra on Law & Order was shot dead in a Bronx deli.

Jayquan Lewis, 21, was standing at the cashier counter at BH gourmet Deli in Fordham at 4pm when another man collapsed to the floor, in a 14-second clip published by the New York Post.

Another person standing next to Lewis at the counter on his phone is seen fleeing out of frame.

After fatally shooting Lewis the gunman appears to casually walk out of the deli.

Lewis was shot three times in the chest, three times in the arm and one time in the stomach. He was pronounced dead at St Barnabas Hospital.

Jayquan Lewis, 21, was shot point-blank inside a Bronx deli just after 4pm Friday

Police are still looking for the killer, whose motive is unknown.

And just one week before, two people died with one victim severely injured in two separate but 'likely connected' shootings in Brooklyn.

The gunman shot three men sitting in a car that the NYPD said was damaged in a car accident on August 8 around 12.30am, and then opened fire at a party of 100 to 150 people at an event space down the block.

Two of the men in the car died - Bronx resident Nicholas Palmer and Queens resident Novada Bailey, both 36. A third unidentified man was critically injured.

At least two other people were also shot and injured during the incident, with one person rushed to the hospital and another driving himself to a hospital about 24 miles away in Westchester County.

According to NYPD data, felony assaults are up 5.3 percent from last year, as of August 15, with misdemeanor assaults up 2.1 percent.

Police investigated the scene at B.H. Gourmet Deli on Friday, where Lewis was fatally shot

One of the five shooting victims was taken into an ambulance on August 7

Murders have also increased, from 275 reported during the same time frame in 2020 to 277 reported thus far in 2021.

There have also been 10.7 percent more shooting incidents, with 7 percent more victims.

And grand larcenies have also increased 1.6 percent, with grand larcenies from automobiles skyrocketing 20.2 percent.

Rapes have increased 8.6 percent and hate crimes have nearly doubled.
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A second field hospital has opened in Mississippi as the surging delta variant overwhelms the University of Mississippi Medical Center with new COVID cases.

The first emergency field hospital opened last week with federal government backing after hospitalizations began spiking in Mississippi, but now emergency wards have been set up in car parks as ICUs and makeshift wards alike are overrun with patients, many of them young people.

Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates of all US states.

The State Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said the latest surge is predominantly impacting younger, unvaccinated people, as 20,000 Mississippi students have been quarantined for COVID-19 exposure.

'Instead of seeing women bury their parents, we're seeing women bury their children,' he said on a visit to a hospital ward on Tuesday afternoon.

'Its a sad and heartbreaking thing.'

Five intensive care beds, part of the new 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital, are set up in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages

The University of Mississippi Medical Centre has been overrun with patients suffering from the delta variant of COVID-19, and has been forced to open several makeshift wards

The second makeshift ward was opened on Wednesday by Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, after the first was opened last week with federal government backing

Portable ventilation units were hauled into the garages of the medical center to provide treatment to increasing numbers of patients

Two makeshift wards have now been constructed in the hospital parking area

The Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital is the second makeshift hospital to be introduced after the University of Mississippi Medical Center could no longer cater for patients and sent them to wards in the parking garages

More than 392,300 people have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic in Mississippi, a state of about 3 million people. At least 7,880 have died since.

Dobbs likened the newest Mississippi surge to a 'tsunami' and it has overwhelmed the state's hospital system.

On July 27, some 726 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus. By Tuesday August 16, that figure stood at 1,623.

Patients were waiting in hallways and emergency rooms, with no beds and no staff to immediately tend to them.

The second makeshift ward has been spearheaded by Christian relief charity Samaritan's Purse.

The North Carolina-based relief organization arrived Sunday with more than 50 more medical professionals to erect tents with 32 more beds.

University of Mississippi Medical Center spokesperson Marc Rolph was somber about unfolding events.

'Its unbelievable that were doing this again within what? 6 days? Heartbreaking,' he said of two field hospitals that have gone up.

Dobbs said the virus situation in Mississippi is the worst its ever been, but even the latest field hospital will have a big impact, saying it would bring care for those 'who might not get care of otherwise.'

State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Tuesday that about 20,000 Mississippi students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure - 4.5% of the public school population, according to the latest enrollment figures.

The state called on the federal government for help, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of three dozen physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists last week to set up the first emergency field hospital.

Dr. Thomas Dobbs likened the newest Mississippi COVID surge to a 'tsunami' as he highlighted the need for a 32-bed Samaritan's Purse Emergency Field Hospital in one of the University of Mississippi Medical Center's parking garages

Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates of all US states

State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Tuesday that about 20,000 Mississippi students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure

Samaritan's Purse is known for its medical missions across the world, including in Liberia, West Africa, where it was on the frontlines of the Ebola outbreak. It is currently also in Haiti helping out after a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake there.

Since the pandemic's start, the charity has set up five other emergency hospitals in areas of the world hardest hit by the virus, including in Italy, New York City and Los Angeles County.

Edward Graham, assistant to the vice president of programs and government relations at Samaritan's Purse, said his physicians are using their training fighting Ebola and other emergencies to tackle the virus in Mississippi.

'These hospitals were designed for overseas use; we never thought well be doing this,' he said. 'But our neighbors here in Mississippi have called and asked for, and we've responded.'

The inflatable tents - negative pressure, to keep the virus inside - are anchored by cinderblock in case of storms or high winds.

Five beds thus far have been set up to treat intensive care patients with ventilators.

Outside the tents, orange fencing marks the entrance to the 'hot zone,' where only staff clothed in full PPE - two pairs of gloves, protective gowns, goggles, hair nets, rubber boots, face coverings - can go. Before staff leave to enter the 'clean zone,' they must wash with bleach water.

Briefing journalists on Tuesday, the medical center's head, LouAnn Woodward, renewed pleases for people to get vaccinated, noting the health care workforce is exhausted and traumatized. Only 34% of the state's population is fully vaccinated.

Woodward said that while Samaritan's Purse is responding to a natural disaster in Haiti, the situation in Mississippi is a 'disaster of our own making.'

'We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat, we have failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves,' she said.
A Sydney man who collided with a kangaroo while driving through country NSW has been fined $1,000 after he spilled to police that he was breaking lockdown because he was 'sick of Covid'.

Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said officers were called to Mendooran, near Dubbo in central NSW, on Tuesday to speak to the man who had just hit the animal.

'That person told police quite willingly he arrived about 10 days ago from Queensland,' Commissioner Worboys said during Wednesday's press conference.

'He came to the airport, he hired a car and he decide that he would travel around country New South Wales on back roads because he was sick of Covid.'

Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said officers were called to Mendooran, near Dubbo in central NSW on Tuesday to speak to the man who had just hit the kangaroo

Locals saw the collision with the kangaroo unfold and upon realising the man had breached public health orders alerted police.

Commissioner Worboys said the man was sent back to a nominated address in Sydney with police checking he did in fact make the journey to the city.

Those in Sydney require a permit to leave the city into regional parts of the state.

Within the past 24 hours 736 infringement notices were handed out across NSW which is in the midst of a statewide lockdown.

Another 633 infections were recorded on Wednesday along with three deaths.

An unvaccinated man in his 60s died from the virus at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney's south-west and two men in their late 70s died at Nepean Hospital.

Another 633 infections were recorded on Wednesday in NSW along with three deaths

One of them was fully vaccinated and the other had received his first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Commissioner Worboys said he was 'disappointed' with the amount of residents flouting the rules amid such high case numbers.

'When you look at 448 of those (infringements) issued to people who were moving outside of their house without a good reason, that again shows us that people are clearly want to step outside of the rules and put the safety of theirs and the community at risk,' he said.

Another man tried to talk his way out of a fine when he was found not at his house after claiming he was 'taking the bins out'.

Police had carried out a compliance check at the man's home in Padstow, in Sydney's south-west, on Tuesday morning but were aware he may try to leave in the afternoon.

'Police went back to that location, found him away from his home, made a telephone call where he tried to tell police that he was taking the garbage bins which was clearly not the case,' Commissioner Worboys said.

The Padstow man was fined $5,000.

Of the new cases announced on Wednesday, 550 were found in west and south-west Sydney.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the worst was yet to come for the city - which has now spent almost eight weeks under a stay-at-home lockdown.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned the worst is yet to come for Sydney

'What the data is telling us in the last few days is that we haven't seen the worst of it,' she said.

'The way that we stop this is by everybody staying at home. You cannot get the virus if you do not have contact with other people.

'You have to assume, no matter where you are in the state, that every time you set foot out of your door, that you have the virus or anybody you're in contact with has the virus.'

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro also pleaded for residents in regional parts of the state to stay home after 23 cases were recorded in western NSW - including 17 in Dubbo.

Ms Berejiklian earlier on Wednesday morning revealed hairdressers, beauticians and cleaners could be among the first professions to get back to work once they are fully vaccinated.
An entrepreneur worth more than $200million is offering to give away $100million worth of Bitcoin to Australians who have had a Covid vaccine.

Finder co-founder Fred Schebesta made the announcement to Kyle Sandilands who last month made a 'Get Vaxxed Baby' rap video encouraging younger people to get the jab.

'I've got this crazy idea right now - I've never spoken about this,' he told his KIIS FM breakfast show.

'We're going to give everyone in Australia who gets vaccinated $5 of Bitcoin.

'Get vaxxed baby, and get your Bitcoin baby as well. How can I help?'

The 40-year-old financial comparison website pioneer is offering $5 worth of Bitcoin to anyone who has had a Covid vaccine since February 21, with only one cryptocurrency claim per person allowed.

An entrepreneur worth more than $200million is offering to give away $100million worth of Bitcoin to Australians who get even one dose of a Covid vaccine. Finder co-founder Fred Schebesta (pictured) made the announcement to Kyle Sandilands, who made a 'Get Vaxxed Baby' rap video encouraging younger people to get the jab

Sandilands, who in July did his own viral take on Vanilla Ice's 1990 chart-topper Ice Ice Baby, was impressed.

'I love that, what a great incentive,' he said.

'You've come along with a great idea.'

Jackie O suggested Sandilands could do part two of his vaccination song.

Should Australia's 20,619,959 people aged 16 and over get vaccinated and take him up on the offer, Mr Schebesta would be shelling out $104million of his $214million fortune, as estimated by The Australian Financial Review's Young Rich List panel.

The ultra-wealthy multi-millionaire, who lives in a $17million Coogee mansion in Sydney, is considered Australia's 26th richest individual aged 40 or younger.

Should Australia's 20,619,959 people aged 16 and over take him up on the offer, Mr Schebesta would be shelling out $104million of his $214million fortune, as estimated by The Australian Financial Review's Young Rich List panel (pictured is a woman receiving a Pfizer vaccine at Melbourne's drive-through vaccination centre in Melton)

He made the announcement to Sandilands and his co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson on Tuesday before New South Wales had a record 633 new daily cases.

So far just under half, or 48.75 per cent, of working age and adult Australians have had a Covid jab while 26.88 per cent were fully vaccinated as of August 16.

In NSW, 53 per cent of the state's 6,565,651 eligible residents have had a first dose with 27.81 per cent fully vaccinated.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian hinted tougher lockdowns in Sydney and western NSW would not be eased until 70 per cent of the eligible population had had two doses of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer, with that goal unlikely until the end of October.

While Bitcoin is worth $61,000 now, as recently as late March it was worth $80,000.

While Bitcoin is worth $61,000 now, as recently as late March it was worth $80,000. Despite the volatility, Mr Schebesta predicted it would be worth $338,000 by 2025. That $5 worth of Bitcoin now would be worth $27.70 in four years' time

Despite the volatility, Mr Schebesta predicted it would be worth $338,000 by 2025 as more people embraced decentralised finance to do transactions instead of using bank accounts.

That $5 worth of Bitcoin now would be worth $27.70 in four years' time.

That would work out at 136 per cent appreciation a year, significantly more than an average bonus savings rate of 0.35 per cent, with the Reserve Bank of Australia cash rate at a record-low of 0.1 per cent.

To claim the $5 worth of Bitcoin, download the Finder app and provide proof of vaccination to get the cryptocurrency in the Finder wallet.
An overjoyed couple have been reunited with their beloved pet after she was allegedly dognapped from their front yard.

The couple only took their eyes off the five-year-old Japanese Spitz named Atlas for a few minutes to grab something from inside their southwest Sydney home.

Atlas was last seen approaching a woman crouched by her car, who allegedly grabbed the dog, put her inside the car, and drove off.

Three frantic days later, the missing pooch was tracked down and snuggled into the arms of Elise Pham and her partner at Fairfield Police Station.

A south-west couple have been reunited with their five-year-old Japanese Spitz 'Atlas', after it went missing from their home on Sunday

Heartwarming footage shows the fluffy white dog trot across the station to the relieved couple who kneeled down to pat her.

'Everyone is a friend to her and she'd just go to anyone,' Ms Pham told 9News.

'She is a big, fat, friendly ball of fur.'

After reviewing CCTV from the surrounding area, police spoke police spoke to a 23-year-old woman at a home on Mimosa Road in Bossley Park, before locating Atlas.

The woman was arrested and charged with stealing a dog, possessing a stolen dog, and not wearing a mask.

She was granted conditional bail and will face Fairfield Local Court on September 13.
The White House confirmed that it is relying on the Taliban to help provide safe passage for civilians looking to evacuate Afghanistan as the State Department warns US civilians there to 'shelter in place' until it is safe to leave.

On Tuesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that the Biden administration was in contact with the Taliban, who committed to ensuring US citizens exit the country safely.

'The Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment,' Sullivan said.

The deal comes just six weeks after president Biden stated 'No, I do not trust the Taliban.'

Sullivan addressed reports of Taliban fighters beating Afghans attempting to enter the airport in Kabul.

He said for the most part the Taliban is keeping up their end of the deal.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan (pictured) said the Taliban is committed to ensuring that U.S. citizens are able to exit the country safely

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (pictured) speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday

Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul on Monday

'By and large what we have found is that people have been able to get to the airport and present themselves,' Sullivan said.

'There have been instances where we've heard that people are being turned back and even beaten. We are taking that up in our channels with the Taliban.'

Sullivan also said that the United States believes the Kabul evacuation can go until August 31 and it is talking to the Taliban about the exact timetable, Reuters reported.

This comes as the Biden administration deals with the fallout of withdrawing remaining US forces in the country.

The Taliban seized the opportunity and was able to almost immediately take over Afghanistan, faster than even the Biden administration said it had anticipated.

U.S Air Force C-17 helps safely evacuate about 640 Afghans from Kabul late Sunday

Afghans line up and wait outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Tuesday

President Biden deployed thousands of US troops back to Afghanistan to provide security for US citizens and allies trying to escape the country

In response, Biden deployed thousands of US troops back to Afghanistan to provide security for US citizens and allies trying to escape the country as much of the world watched shocking images of desperate Afghans clinging to a US military jet at Kabul's international airport.

As the situation grows more dire, the State Department told thousands of American citizens looking to get out of Afghanistan to 'shelter in place' until they are given further instruction from the US embassy.

'Our message remains for American citizens and for others who have expressed interest in relocation out of Afghanistan: shelter in place until and unless you receive a communication from the U.S. embassy,' spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday.

'We are doing everything within our power to affecta corridor of safe passage for civilians,' he added. 'If they feel that it is unsafe for them to make their way to the airport, they should not seek to do so.We will continue to be in touch with them to provide clear guidance about when and how they should make their way to the airport compound.'

US defense officials in charge of evacuating Americans from Kabul claimed on Tuesday morning they would fly 5,000 a day out despite only managing to rescue 1,400 in the three days since the city fell, while as many as 40,000 may remain stranded - some in remote parts of the country.

The Taliban is fast encroaching on the airport in Kabul and its fighters are now in charge of every access point on the way from the city.

They have set up guard at the airport's entrance which means NATO troops are relying on their cooperation to safely get foreign nationals and Afghan refugees through the gates and onto planes.

The State Department has been deliberately vague on the number of Americans who remain in Afghanistan and who they are.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday morning that between 5,000 and 10,000 are in Kabul, but earlier admitted he had no idea how many there were or where they were.

George W. Bush's former Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Charles, says there are between 15,000 and 40,000 'scattered' across all of Afghanistan.
Scott Morrison has given a shout-out to an indigenous elder during a national press conference hours after the man complained of being turned away from a vaccine hub.

'I send a big thank you to 'Riverbank' Frank. What a legend. How good is he?' Mr Morrison said on Wednesday.

'Out there sending those messages that we were talking about yesterday, showing that leadership he has displayed across his life in that community. Thank you very much,' he said.

The PM was referring to Frank Doolan who lives in a caravan with no electricity by the Macquarie River on the outskirts of Dubbo.

The town is currently dealing with an outbreak of the Delta strain with 107 active cases in the community - with most among Aboriginal people in West Dubbo.

'Riverbank' is leading a push for local indigenous communities to get vaccinated, however, when he went to be vaccinated himself he was turned away from the local Aboriginal medical centre and directed to another clinic 45 minutes away.

A security guard at the second clinic refused to let him in because it only accepted online bookings, ignoring his explanations that he had no digital access.

Aboriginal elder Riverbank Frank Doolan, pictured, in Covid-hit rural NSW, was twice turned away while trying to get vaccinated and told to book online, despite having no electricity or internet access

Mr Doolan, 60, questioned why the city-centric online system still hasn't been adapted for remote communities in an interview published hours before Mr Morrison's speech.

'The Department of Health has known for 18 months that this day could arrive,' he told The Australian. 'And now it has.'

Social media was flooded with messages from Australians who felt Mr Morrison's shout-out to Mr Doolan was misplaced.

'Just how many feet can he put in his mouth? Riverbank Frank was initially turned away from vaccination point for lack of appointment,' tweeted one man.

'Did the PM just shout out Riverbank Frank? That is the biggest black clad (taking unfair advantage of an Indigenous individual). Wow,' wrote Aboriginal activist Teela Reid.

'Morrison drops Riverbank Frank into his congratulations, obviously not briefed on the facts,' added Grace Pettigrew.

Others believed Mr Morrison's shoutout was genuine and an attempt to praise Mr Doolan for his work encouraging indigenous Australians to get vaccinated and respect the lockdown.

'Anyone who has anything to do with Dubbo, gains from the counsel of this wise and gentle Wiradjuri man. Today 'Riverbank Frank' got a deserved shout out from the PM for his work on boosting vaccination rates,' wrote journalist Hugh Riminton.

Mr Doolan was first turned away from the local Aboriginal medical centre and directed to another clinic 45 minutes away. Seen here is a Covid testing clinic in Dubbo

A security guard at the second Dubbo clinic refused to let Mr Doolan in because it only accepted online bookings, ignoring his explanations that he had no digital access. Seen here is a woman getting a dose of AstraZeneca vaccine at a Dubbo pharmacy on Friday

A number of measures were announced at Tuesday's press conference to tackle the outbreak in Western NSW.

Five ADF vaccination teams are to be dispatched to the region which will comprise medics, nurses, logisticians, a clinical lead, and they'll be hubbed out of Dubbo.

In addition, the first of five AUSMAT teams is expected to be dispatched within 48 hours.

Professor Len Notaras, the head of the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, is in charge of assembling teams of leading medical professionals from around the country.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is also providing additional services at Walgett, Dubbo, Bourke and supplies including an additional 9,480 vaccines rushed to the area.

Testing equipment, support for local GPs and 10,000 masks have also been provided in Western NSW.

Indigenous communities are one of the most vulnerable populations when it comes to Covid-19 because of underlying health conditions and social structure.

The Department of Health website says inoculating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults is a 'priority' in the Covid-19 vaccination rollout program.

'This is because of the higher risk of getting very sick and developing serious illness from Covid-19,' it adds.

'This may be due to a higher rate of chronic health conditions and in some cases crowded-living conditions, which increases the risk of spreading the infection.'

Mr Doolan had worked with his local MP Dugald Saunders to record a video explaining the threat of Covid to Aboriginal communities and the vital need for lockdowns.

But his lack of modern technology meant he still struggled to get a jab when he went into town to be vaccinated.

Riverbank Frank Doolan, 60, seen here with his dog, has questioned why the city-centric online system still hasn't been adapted for remote communities

A passing nurse finally helped Mr Doolan access the website and make a booking, although the process still stalled because he had no email address.

It required the intervention of a nursing unit manager to sign off on the vaccination before Mr Doolan could get his jab.

'I'm afraid. It's not good,' he said. 'Not good at all. We're 'roos in the spotlight when it comes to this.'

All Indigenous people over the age of 12 are eligible for a Covid vaccination.

The Department of Health website directs Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to go through their local healthcare worker to get the jab.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted The Prime Minister's office, NSW Health, the Department of Health for comment.
Tucker Carlson has slammed the Biden administration over its plan to allow 30,000 Afghan refugees into the US, branding it an 'invasion'.

He launched his attack on Tuesday night after White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US would evacuate not only Americans from Afghanistan, but also Special Immigration Visa applicants and members of 'vulnerable populations'.

'Notice how she puts all three together. Americans, special visa applicants, vulnerable populations. What the hell is that?' Carlson replied.

'The American government exists to help American citizens. Not to help vulnerable populations, whatever that is.'

Carlson told viewers it's 'not just translators they want to import', but also 'anybody in Afghanistan who wants to come here for the free health care.'

He went on to call the migration of Afghan refugees an 'invasion' and said that potentially millions of them could soon take over American neighborhoods.

Carlson extended on his remarks from Monday, when he said: 'So first we invade, and then we are invaded. It is always the same.'

Tucker Carlson slammed the Biden administration over its plan to allow 30,000 Afghan refugees into the US on Tuesday night, branding it an 'invasion'

Over the weekend Fox News obtained a Department of Defense report which showed the US plans to bring in 30,000 Afghan refugees 'in the immediate future'.

DoD spokesman Chris Mitchell said some 22,000 will be housed in US facilities that could potentially be military garrisons.

SIV, or Special Immigrant Visa, applicants are a group of Afghans who worked for the US military in some form. Some 2,000 SIVs have been moved by the Biden administration thus far.

Carlson asserted that the media supports bringing in refugees because 'they hate the population of the United States'.

Carlson said that 46 US senators - 43 Democrat and three Republican- reportedly called on the Biden Administration to 'create a humanitarian parole category for Afghan women leaders, activists, judges and other public figures to quickly and efficiently relocate to the US'.

Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp was further criticized by Carlson for allowing refugees into the state.

Sean Parnell, a Senate candidate and US veteran, appeared on the show and agreed with Carlson's concerns as he also felt that getting Americans out of Afghanistan should be the priority.

Sean Parnell, a Senate candidate and US veteran, appeared on the show and agreed with Carlson's concerns

Parnell commented on his experiences in Afghanistan as one of them involved an Afghan interpreter that he and his men had knew and trusted for over a year.

The interpreter was reportedly involved with placing an IED mine that killed one of the men in Parnell's platoon.

Parnell said: 'Just because an Afghan works with us and is friends with us does not mean they are safe to bring here. This is precisely why we cannot bring 30,000 unvetted Afghan refugees to the United States of America.'

Carlson added: 'Something happens in the brains- particularly these middle-aged Republican leaders, their brains go soft. Low testosterone may be part of the cause.'

Afghan refugees continue to attempt to flee the Taliban rule as images have revealed them running alongside planes and attempting to climb onto aircrafts on the runway.

At least three people plummeted hundreds of feet to their deaths after clinging to a US jet as it took off from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The partner of a slain Chicago cop has been pictured paralyzed in the hospital as he faces a 'potentially lifelong disability' after they were both shot in the line of duty while performing a traffic stop.

Officers Carlos Yanez and Ella French were shot in the West Englewood neighborhood on August 7 after performing a routine traffic stop for expired plates.

Yanez was severely wounded but survived his injuries, while French, 29, succumbed to hers.

A GoFundMe campaign set up for Yanez features a photo of the officer lying in his hospital bed unconscious.

The description states that Yanez suffered 'multiple gunshot wounds to the eye, brain, and shoulder all causing potentially lifelong disability'.

'In turn, we suspect home modifications, accommodations, and transportation needs to increase accessibility and quality of life,' it states.

Officers Carlos Yanez is seen paralyzed in a hospital bed after he was shot during a traffic stop

Yanez and his partner, 29-year-old Ella French, (pictured) were shot in the West Englewood neighborhood on August 7, after performing a routine traffic stop for expired plates.

The Morgan brothers were said to have been driving with expired license plates, prompting police to pull them over

Yanez had much of his face and eye socket fractured during the shooting, but received surgical treatment to repair it.

'We remain hopeful for a miraculous recovery but have to prepare for what's to come,' the page said.

Emonte Morgan, 21, and his brother Eric, 22, were arrested and charged for French's death, but an ABC 7 report found that Emonte was actually supposed to be behind bars that day.

Emonte was charged with first-degree murder of a police officer, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

His brother was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, and obstruction of justice.

Yanez is seen in a photo on the GoFundMe page which revealed he is facing a 'potentially lifelong disability'

Emonte has been connected to a hit-and-run case from April in which a walker was struck in a crosswalk and sent flying against a stop sign.

According to ABC 7, Morgan didn't stop driving until he struck a parked car nearly a mile and a half away.

He was freed on a personal recognizance bond in the wake of the hit and run - despite being on probation for a 2019 robbery conviction at the time.

French's death was the first fatal shooting of a Chicago officer in the line of duty since 2018 and the first female officer fatally shot on the job in 33 years.

She was one of 10 people killed and 64 wounded by gun violence throughout the city last weekend as the city continues to suffer from high crime rates.

Chicago police union boss John Catanzara told Fox News that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had to shoulder some of the blame for French's death due to the city's soft stance on crime.

Lightfoot had also been criticized for incorrectly referring to French as 'Ella Franks' and siding with First Deputy Police Supt. Eric Carter in dismissing a traditional bagpipe service for French outside the medical examiner's office.

Carter allegedly said 'We don't have 20 minutes for this s**t.'

Data from August showed murders in the city were nearly the same as the number reported last year, but shootings increased by 15% and the number of people shot in the city rose by nearly 10 per cent year-over-year.

Chicago Police Department said that there were 105 homicides recorded in the month of July.
The Taliban spokesman on Tuesday mockingly responded to a question about whether their government would respect freedom of speech - telling the journalist to ask Facebook.

The Taliban is banned from Facebook and its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as TikTok and YouTube - but it is allowed on Twitter.

Zabihullah Mujahid, who has 310,000 followers on Twitter, was asked about the Taliban's plan for freedom of speech.

'This question should be asked to those people who are claiming to be promoters of freedom of speech who do not allow publication of information,' he replied.

'I can ask Facebook company.'

Zabihullah Mujahid, pictured on Tuesday in Kabul at his first ever news conference, shrugged off questions about whether the Taliban would respect freedom of speech. He pointed out that Facebook blocks their content

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid answers press members questions as he holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan

Facebook and other social media companies have been criticized for censoring conservative figures such as Donald Trump, who has been blocked since the January 6 Capitol riot, in response to concerns about stirring up violence.

Mujahid's remarks were commended by Donald Trump Jr, who retweeted the 30-second video clip and said, 'LOL ... Also not wrong.'

A spokesman for Facebook said in a statement earlier in the day the company was going to continue banning content from the Taliban, citing the fact the State Department designated it as a terrorist group.

'The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law, and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies,' the spokesman said.

'We also have a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us to emerging issues on the platform.'

Twitter has been criticized for allowing Taliban figures to remain active on their platform, but the company said they were monitoring the situation.

Twitter said in a statement that it will 'continue to proactively enforce our rules and review content that may violate Twitter rules, specifically policies against glorification of violence, platform manipulation and spam.'

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has had an active Twitter account since 2017

Trump was permanently banned from Twitter over the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6

Mujahid on Tuesday was asked what Taliban rule will look like.

He claimed 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago', when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

During their press conference in the capital city, the Taliban insisted girls will receive an education and women will be allowed to study at university - both of which were forbidden under Taliban rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, before the US-led invasion.

The terror group also claimed they want women to be part of the new government after female Afghans staged a protest outside a local Taliban HQ in Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul.

However, women and girls remain the most at risk under the new regime, with gangs in conquered areas allegedly hunting children as young as 12 and unmarried or widowed women they regard as spoils of war - 'qhanimat' - being forced into marriage or sex slavery.

The Taliban has also said women will have to wear hijabs but not burkas.

During the press conference on Tuesday, Mujahid did not detail what restrictions would be imposed on women, although he did say it would be a government with 'strong Islamic values'.

Mujahid claimed: 'We are committed to the rights of women under the system of Sharia. They are going to be working shoulder to shoulder with us. We would like to assure the international community that there will be no discrimination.'

The Taliban denied it was enforcing sex slavery, and claims that such actions are against Islam.

During the 1990s, the regime established religious police for the suppression of 'vice', and courts handed out extreme punishments including stoning to death women accused of adultery.

'We are going to decide what kind of laws will be presented to the nation,' said Mujahid.

'This will be the responsibility of the government with the participation of all people.'
AstraZeneca is to be rebranded in Australia under a new name after widespread fears circulated about its very rare side-effects.

The vaccine will now be known as Vaxzevria as part of a global name-change designed to ensure those who have received the jab Down Under are able to travel internationally when borders do open, the manufacturer says on its website.

The company says the rebrand has already been rolled out in the EU and the Australia switch is to bring it into line with uniform branding overseas.

AstraZeneca has been mired in controversy since it led Australia's vaccination rollout at the start of the year when a handful of blood clot deaths were linked to the vaccine.

It saw increasing restrictions on its approval, from under 40s to under 50s and then under 60s, until the outbreak of the current deadly Indian delta strain outbreak in NSW where it is now promoted to anyone over the age of 18.

Controversial Covid vaccine AstraZeneca is to be rebranded in Australia under a new name Vaxzevria (pictured) after widespread fears over its very rare side-effects

An initial shortage of supplies of Pfizer, the only other locally-approved vaccine at the time, meant Australia lacked any weapon to combat the spread of the virus.

Official ATAGI approval was changed to allow any adult to be vaccinated with it after discussion with a doctor, but by then damage had already been done to the brand.

It caused vaccine hesitancy with many people wanting to wait for delayed access to the Pfizer vaccine, slowing the rollout program - which at one stage was the worst in the developed world.

Overall, seven people have died in Australia from very rare blood clot complications associated with AstraZeneca, out of more than 15.6million vaccinations in total.

AstraZeneca has been mired in controversy since it led Australia's vaccination rollout when a handful of deaths were linked to the vaccine early in the programme. Seen here is a woman being vaccinated at a drive in clinic in Melbourne

Worldwide, 750million doses of AstraZeneca have been sent to 170 countries around the world and it was used widely in the UK which recently moved out of lockdown.

The manufacturer says the change of name will bring it into line with the global branding and eliminate any confusion for Australians travelling overseas.

The new name will be used on vaccine certificates and any vaccine passports which may be introduced to allow international travel.

'We are currently in the process of registering the trade name Vaxzevria, which is used in many other markets including the EU,' said the company.

The new name will be used on vaccine certificates and any vaccine passports which may be introduced to allow international travel. Seen here are air travellers at Perth Airport on Monday

'This will facilitate travel for people who have received AstraZeneca's vaccine from anywhere in the world.'

The manufacurer stressed it would be the same product despite the rebrand.

'AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine is the same product wherever it is made, including at CSL [in Australia],' said the company.

'As such the vaccine made by CSL is a valid vaccination for travel to Europe.'
Vaccinated Australians are already eligible for more than $17,000 in discounts and vouchers as private companies join forces with the government to encourage jabs.

Travel outlets, airlines, telecommunication providers and pubs are among the first to offer a range of benefits for Aussies who can prove they've been vaccinated.

Qantas and Jetstar are launching an incentive program to reward vaccinated Frequent Flyer members to partner instituting a mandate all staff are innoculated within three months.

The Flying Kangaroo is handing out 10 'super prizes' that offer 'unlimited flying for a year'.

'You could fly to New York every week, to London every other week,' Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.

Discovering which deals best suit you is as simple as visiting the website One Big Switch, which also lists a range of benefits from Virgin, Luxury Escapes and even the Windsor Hotel in Perth - who are offering a free pint to vaccinated patrons.

Vaccinated Australians are already eligible for more than $17,000 in discounts and vouchers as private companies join forces with the government to encourage jabs

'You could fly to New York every week, to London every other week,' Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said of the 10 'super prizes' being offered for vaccinated customers (London pictured)

Virgin Airlines have announced as 'VA-X and Win' promotion that will give away business class flights and one million Velocity points to winners.

The competition will start later in 2021.

Luxury Escapes, which provides holiday packages to Australians, are offering $200 vaccine vouchers to members who provide proof of their jabs.

They can be used towards limited time Lux Exclusive offers.

The Windsor Hotel in Perth (pictured) are offering a free pint to vaccinated patrons to assist the rollout

Virgin Airlines have announced as 'VA-X and Win' promotion that will give away business class flights and one million Velocity points to winners (pictured, a Maldives getaway)

Sydney Seaplanes are offering 25 per cent off all bookings for fully vaccinated Aussies in a promotion that extends until the end of August.

'Everyone, regardless of their COVID-19 immunisation status, is free to book now and redeem their discount during the sale period provided they are fully vaccinated when they fly,' the company said in a statement.

'If making an online booking in the passenger details 'Additional info' field write 'vaccinated' and the discount of 25% will be applied to your booking.'

Private health companies Medibank and AIA Health Insurance are also offering schemes to reward the vaccinated, with both handing out 1,000 in rewards points for their members.

Sydney Seaplanes are offering 25 per cent off all bookings for fully vaccinated Aussies in a promotion that extends until the end of August

Telstra is even incentivising its own staff to get jabbed, offering 200 'appreciate points' to fully-vaccinated staff, with CEO Andrew Penn confirming the news on his Twitter account.

'Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and get vaccinated. As a team of thousands, serving millions every day, we can play an important role,' he said.

'Thats why were rewarding our people who do just that.'

The federal government purchased 500,000 vaccines from the global Covax initiative to supplement the one million jabs arriving from Poland.

The extra vaccines will be prioritised for distribution in NSW as the state battles the ongoing Delta variant crisis.
A Florida police officer has died nearly two months after he was shot in the head during a traffic stop.

Jason Raynor, 26, died on Tuesday following complications from a gunshot wound to the head, his colleagues at the Daytona Beach Police Department said.

Raynor was wounded during a June 23 traffic stop by 29-year-old Othal Wallace, police said.

Daytona Beach Police officer Jason Raynor, 26, died on Tuesday following complications from a gunshot wound to the head

In a statement, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said Raynor died surrounded by family

Raynor had been with the Daytona Police for three years and previously served with the Port Orange Police Department.

In a statement, Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said Raynor died surrounded by family.

'Jason's sacrifice will never be forgotten,' Chief Young said.

After the shooting, Port Orange Police called officer Raynor 'exemplary' and said he earned an award of achievement for being one of three officers who helped talk a woman down from jumping off a bridge.

'Officer Raynor's on the job accolades are surpassed only by his jovial spirit and genuine concern for his brothers and sisters and the communities he serves,' the department said on Facebook.

Raynor had been with the Daytona Police for three years and previously served with the Port Orange Police Department

His shooter Othal Wallace, 29, (pictured) was arrested 56 hours after the shooting near Atlanta following a multi-state manhunt, clickorlando.com reported

His alleged shooter Wallace was arrested 56 hours after the shooting near Atlanta following a multi-state manhunt, clickorlando.com reported.

He remains jailed in Volusia County on a charge of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer to which he has plead not guilty.

A GoFundMe set up for the family has received over 5,000 donations, raising over $375,000.

Raynor's family remained hopeful he would recover after a surgery last week and asked for prayers.

'We ask for the continued prayers and thoughts and thank those of you who have shown support in so many ways,' they said in a statement.

Chief Young said that the shooting was 'heartbreaking' for the department, Clickorlando.com reported.

'I'm extremely heartbroken,' Young said. 'We work extremely hard to try to change the narrative so that we do not have the issues that you see in other areas of the country as it pertains to law enforcement and the communities that we serve.'

'I want to assure my residents, the residents of this city, that even though we are hurt, and even though we are heartbroken, if you need us, we will be there,' Young added.
A group of tradesmen fled a construction site and tried to hide in a nearby carpark when police arrived following reports they had left Sydney Covid hotspots.

Police were tipped off about workers from Sydney staying in Kiama, on NSW's South Coast, to work on a large block of units for seniors this week.

Officers knocked on the door of an address the group had been staying in on Monday night and spoke to the workers before showing up at the construction site the following morning.

But as police pulled up, several tradesmen then ran into the nearby carpark.

Police were tipped off about workers from Sydney staying in Kiama, on NSW's South Coast, to work on a large block of units (pictured) for seniors this week

The team's manager and 33 workers were spoken to by police with five being fined $1,000 each for breaching public health orders.

NSW Police said the workers fined are from Covid-riddled suburbs of Sydney and further inquiries would be carried out to determine if other breaches were made.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the company that owns the construction site for comment.

Kiama MP Gareth Ward alerted police after a local business owner became concerned with the tradies in the area.

'I'm advised a number of construction workers fled the scene, which was probably a good indication that something was up. You could say they split faster than a St George Illawarra Dragon,' Mr Ward told The Mercury.

'Police have advised me that some of these people may have come from the 12 LGAs of concern. I don't want Covid in my community and this is just a total disregard of the law that has been made now abundantly clear, and I look forward to police pursuing this matter to the full.'

Five men at the construction site (pictured) were from Sydney and have since been fined $1,000 each by police

Within the past 24 hours 736 infringement notices were handed out across NSW which is in the midst of a statewide lockdown.

Another 633 infections were recorded on Wednesday along with three deaths.

One Covid breach was seen in a Sydney man who decided to drive through country NSW.

He collided with a kangaroo while driving and was eventually caught by police only to tell them he was 'sick of Covid'.

Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said officers were called to Mendooran, near Dubbo in central NSW, on Tuesday to speak to the man who had just hit the animal.

'That person told police quite willingly he arrived about 10 days ago from Queensland,' Commissioner Worboys said during Wednesday's press conference.

'He came to the airport, he hired a car and he decide that he would travel around country New South Wales on back roads because he was sick of Covid.'

Commissioner Worboys said the man was sent back to a nominated address in Sydney and fined $1,000.
Activist Malala Yousafzai said she fears for the future of Afghan women's education two days after the Taliban seized control of the country.

Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012, opened up about the crisis in a New York Times essay published Tuesday, recalling how the Taliban banned girls from getting an education after invading her hometown in Pakistan in 2007.

'Afghan girls and young women are once again where I have been  in despair over the thought that they might never be allowed to see a classroom or hold a book again,' Yousafzai, 24, wrote.

Women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai, 24, (pictured) said she 'fears' for the future of Afghan women Tuesday, after the Taliban seized control of the country Sunday.

The Afghan government surrendered to Taliban troops after storming into the US embassy and presidential palace in Kabul

Under Taliban rule, girls were banned from attending school, while women could only appear in public wearing full body coverings and accompanied by male escorts

Yousafzai, has been a long-time advocate for women's rights to an education and was shot in the face by Taliban gunmen on a bus when she was 15.

She was the youngest person to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her advocacy.

Under Taliban rule, girls were banned from attending school, while women could only appear in public wearing full body coverings and accompanied by male escorts.

Women who did not faithfully observe the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law were publicly flogged or executed.

Some in the militant group have promised not to ban women from attending schools or work and to allow them into government. However, Yousafzai, said there have already been reports about Afghan women having their rights taken away.

'One woman who runs schools for rural children told me she has lost contact with her teachers and students,' Yousafzai wrote.

Yousafzai fears the Taliban will impose the previous regime's religion-only education.

'We need specific agreements that girls can complete their education, can study science and math, can go to university and be allowed to join the workforce and do jobs they choose,' the activist added.

In addition, Yousafzai pleaded with regional powers to actively help 'in the protection of women and children' and for neighboring countries, like China, Iran and Pakistan, to allow refugees into their country.

Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai tweeted about her concerns regarding the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan after she was shot in the face on a bus by a Taliban gunman

Terrorist prisoners were released from Pul-e-Charki prison in Kabul after Taliban troops gained control of a former U.S. air base

Yousafzai fears the Taliban will impose the previous regime's religion-only education

'It is not too late to help the Afghan people  particularly women and children,' Yousafzai wrote.

She added: 'We will have time to debate what went wrong in the war in Afghanistan, but in this critical moment we must listen to the voices of Afghan women and girls.'

'They are asking for protection, for education, for the freedom and the future they were promised,' Yousafzai said. 'We cannot continue to fail them. We have no time to spare.'

On Sunday she tweeted: 'We watch in complete shock as Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. I am deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates.

'Global, regional and local powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide urgent humanitarian aid and protect refugees and civilians.'

The Afghan government surrendered to Taliban troops after storming into the US embassy and presidential palace in Kabul.

The Taliban then freed thousands of terrorist prisoners from the Pul-e-Charkhi prison located in the Bagram Air Base, one that formerly belonged to the US.

The release has raised concerns as the fear of terrorist groups rising again has struck a chord with government officials.

Mark Milley, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, said in a phone call on Sunday that there will be a further assessment of the situation in Afghanistan in light of these concerns.

President Joe Biden announced that he is deploying troops to Afghanistan to 'to make sure we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance', according to CNN.

Biden also added that the troops would be coming home at the end of August, which has been supported and praised by Nancy Pelosi.

Similar to Yousafzai's concerns, Pelosi also worries for the safety of women and girls under the control of the Taliban.

She told CNN: 'The Taliban must know that the world is watching its actions. The U.S., the international community and the Afghan government must do everything we can to protect women and girls from inhumane treatment by the Taliban.'

9/11 widow and activist Terry Strada told Fox News: 'I am sad, I am mad, I am angry for the Afghani people and I'm terrified for the world.'

Strada lost her husband Tom during the attack at the World Trade Center and has been an advocate for justice among another families affected by the 9/11 tragedy.

Former assistant secretary of state Robert Charles for George Bush also added that we will be seeing an 'upsurge in terrorism' after Biden decided to pull troops from Afghanistan and no 'peace accord' has been settled between us.

Former President George Bush first deployed US troops to Afghanistan in 2001.
There was only one female journalist at the Taliban's first official press conference this week and her bold question to the group of armed men who took over Afghanistan's capital shocked the world.

Charlotte Bellis was the first person in the media scrum sitting before the Taliban on Tuesday to ask a question, her blonde locks peeking out from underneath a face covering.

And it centred around how they would respect the rights of thousands of terrified Afghan women.

Ms Bellis has worked for Al Jazeera, an independent news organisation funded partly by the Qatari government, from Afghanistan since 2019.

The experienced reporter, originally from New Zealand, was the only female journalist allowed to attend the Taliban's first official press conference. And she didn't waste the opportunity.

Journalist Charlotte Bellis has won the hearts of women all over the world after she directly asked the Taliban what rights would be afforded to the thousands of terrified Afghan women

In footage of the tense event Ms Bellis appears calm and measured as she introduces herself to Afghanistan's new rulers and asks her hard-hitting question.

'I want to talk to you about women's rights and girl's rights, about whether women will be allowed to work and if girls will still go to school,' she said.

'What assurances can you give to women and girls that their rights will be protected?'

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman at the event, assured reporters that the 'Islamic Emirate' would give women their rights as long as they followed Sharia law.

'Women will be afforded all their rights. Whether it is at work or other activities because women are a key part of society,' he said.

'We are guaranteeing all their rights within the limits of Islam.'

Charlotte Bellis (pictured) has worked as a reporter for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan since 2019

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (pictured) assured attending reporters that Afghan women would be afforded all their rights as long as they followed Sharia law

Ms Bellis's pointed question is what thousands of distraught Afghan women have been asking themselves since the Taliban seized control of their homes and lives.

Late on Sunday night, rifle-touting insurgents swarmed the presidential palace and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the desk of ousted President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the city one day earlier.

The following day, at least eight were killed at Kabul's Hamid Karzai airport including two who were shot dead by US troops, three who were run over by taxiing jets and three stowaways who fell from the fuselage of an airborne C-17 US Air Force plane.

Chilling reports out of Kabul claimed militants were going door-to-door trying to track down locals accused of helping Western forces during the Afghanistan War and subsequent 20-year intervention from the US, Britain and Australia.

Reports also claimed Taliban gangs were hunting for girls as young as 12 for sex slaves, reminiscent of the violence women and young girls experienced almost 20 years ago during their previous Islamist regime.

Women and female children were previously locked inside their homes and forbidden to leave for education or work, the Australian reported.

Ms Bellis' mere presence at the conference and her ability to directly question a Taliban spokesman could be observed as a small beacon of hope for women (pictured, Zabihullah Mujahid, center, speaks at the first press conference in Kabul)

Female Afghans are still feared to be among those most at-risk under the new government due to strict religious laws that brutalised and oppressed women and girls (pictured, Taliban fighter patrols in Jalalabad, Afghanistan on Wednesday)

Ms Bellis's mere presence at the conference and her ability to directly question a member of the Taliban could be observed as a small beacon of hope for women.

However, female Afghans are still feared to be among those most at-risk under the new government due to the strict religious laws that were imposed by the Islamists after they came to power in 1996.

There have also been reports of women who have been shot dead for wearing tight clothes, escorted home from work and told not to return, and in some areas forbidden to walk the streets without a male chaperone.

Ms Bellis told AM Radio the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul on Monday had been 'surprisingly friendly', but warned it still had a hit list.

The reporter said a few of her friends had bought guns but many more had fled, despite the Taliban vowing they want no bloodshed.

Ms Bellis said people only had to look to other regions that have been under the clutches of the Taliban for a while to understand the reality of the situation.

'There have been stories verified of atrocities - things like targeted assassinations,' she explained.

'They have a hit list and they kill people on it and make no apologies for that.'

Ms Bellis (right) said the arrival of Taliban forces in Kabul on Monday had been 'surprisingly friendly', but warned it still had a hit list they would make no apologies for

Ms Bellis said there is 'no chance' US forces will enter Afghanistan which she believes is what prompted president Ashraf Ghani to flee the country (pictured, thousands of Afghans rush to the Hamid Karzai International Airport to leave Kabul on Monday)

Ms Bellis said just last week she became aware of one of her colleagues names on the hit list and told the Taliban it would be 'unfortunate' if they killed him.

The man simply suggested her colleague call 'the hotline' to secure amnesty, however if the immunity will be delivered still remains unclear.

Ms Bellis said there is 'no chance' US forces will enter Afghanistan which she believes is what prompted president Ashraf Ghani to flee the country.

However the journalist added the lack of foreign money will hold the Taliban back from governing the country.

'They want legitimacy - that's why they didn't take Kabul by force and it's why they've stopped at this point so they don't fall down,' she said.
The US military evacuated about 1,100 Americans, permanent residents of the United States, and their families from Afghanistan on Tuesday, a White House official said - raising questions as to how they will manage the massive airlift needed to get all US citizens to safety.

President Joe Biden's team said that they were optimistic that the pace of evacuations would increase.

'Now that we have established the flow, we expect those numbers to escalate,' the White House official said in a statement.

The evacuees were flown out on 13 flights - 12 with C-17 sorties and one with a C-130.

An A-400M transport aircraft evacuating people from Afghanistan arrives at Tashkent International Airport in Uzbekistan on Tuesday

US Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command, directs operations with US Marine Brigadier General Farrell J. Sullivan, the commander of the Naval Amphibious Task Force, at Kabul airport on Monday

Indian citizens sit aboard an Indian military aircraft at the airport in Kabul on Tuesday, awaiting evacuation

Asked how many C-17 transport aircraft were being utilized to fly people out of Afghanistan, one senior defense official told Voice of America: 'every one that's available.'

The US has approved about 6,000 troops to assist with security and evacuations on the ground, more than double the number of American troops in Afghanistan when the withdrawal was announced in May.

Washington said on Tuesday night that more than 3,200 people have been evacuated from Kabul so far.

'In addition to these more than 3,200 total evacuated, we have relocated nearly 2,000 Afghan special immigrants to the United States,' said the White House official.

Yet there was confusion on Tuesday night as to even how many eligible Americans and residents remained in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden, seen on Monday addressing the nation about the situation in Afghanistan, has been strongly criticized for the chaotic scenes as the country's government collapsed and the Taliban took over

Biden is seen on Tuesday arriving at Camp David with a military attache

The State Department confirmed on Sunday that the evacuation of personnel from its embassy in Kabul was complete, and that the staff were now in the airport - just hours after the US started pulling staff from the consulate amid the Taliban's takeover of the capital city.

'We can confirm that the safe evacuation of all Embassy personnel is now complete,' said Ned Price, State Department spokesman, in a statement.

'All Embassy personnel are located on the premises of Hamid Karzai International Airport, whose perimeter is secured by the US Military.'

He did not say how many were there.

Thousands of Afghans on Tuesday lined up at Kabul airport to try and secure a place on a plane out of the country

An Afghan man who worked for the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan show his documents as he waits outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country on Tuesday

On Tuesday, John Kirby, the press secretary for the Department of Defense, told CNN's New Day host John Berman that there could be anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 US citizens near Afghanistan's capital.

'We think there are certainly thousands of Americans,' Kirby said. 'We don't have an exact count.'

He said that once full operations at the airport are up and running, there would be the potential to remove between 5,000 and 9,000 people per day.

One former official, Robert Charles, who was assistant secretary of state for President George W. Bush, said on Tuesday he had been told there were around 40,000 Americans and permanent residents awaiting evacuation.

'There is a document in the embassy called the F77 and that describes how many Americans are in the country,' he told Fox News.

'I was told that there are 15,000, possibly as many as 40,000 Americans waiting to get out.'

He said it was 'Dunkirk with a bad ending'.

Robert Charles said he believed there could be as many as 40,000 Americans awaiting evacuation in Afghanistan

David Petraeus, the former CIA director, agreed.

'This is a Dunkirk moment and our decisions created it,' he told The Cipher Brief.

'We need to acknowledge that. And we should now act as if we do recognize the catastrophe that we have created for Afghans who supported us.

'We should ensure that the Taliban knows that we will not tolerate their efforts to impede the movement of individuals to get to the airport and get out of the country. And we should demonstrate that if need be.

'That is the only way to discharge our moral obligation to those who supported and served with us and who are now marked men and women in their own country because of that.'

On Monday the airport was temporarily closed after chaotic scenes, which saw thousands flood the airport and cling to planes as they were taking off. Human remains were found in the fuselage, it was confirmed on Tuesday by the US Air Force.

Pandemonium unfolded at Kabul airport on Monday as thousands of people ran on to the runway in a desperate attempt to escape Taliban rule, fearing bloody reprisals by the Islamists

Thousands of Afghanis had raced on to the tarmac at Kabul airport before some jumped on the side of a US C-17 jet which was flying hundreds of diplomatic staff and visa holders out of the country

New video footage has emerged showing a dozen men clinging to the landing gear of a US evacuation jet flying out of Kabul airport on Monday as pandemonium unfolded after the Taliban seized the capital

The remains were found in the wheel well once the aircraft landed at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The Air Force is impounding the plane to collect the remains and to inspect the plane.

Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, said: 'We have been working, engaging, coordinating with Taliban elements on the ground to ensure safe passage.

'We will continue to work that issue, day by day, until we've completed our mission.'
A Gurkha veteran staging a hunger strike in Westminster was last night rushed to hospital after having a heart attack.

Dhan Gurung, 60, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, is believed to have had a minor heart attack after 11 days without food outside Downing Street.

But the former soldier is said to still be refusing to break his hunger strike, which he is doing to protest pension rights.

He previously said: 'We will keep coming back here, we want to continue our hunger (strike) until death. We don't care about sacrificing our life.'

The group of Nepalese-born soldiers are campaigning for equal pensions for Gurkhas who retired before 1997 and are not eligible for a full armed forces pension.

The Support Our Gurkhas protesters reached their 12th day of not eating today, while demonstrating opposite Downing Street.

It comes after it emerged on Monday there are no plans for Boris Johnson to meet the veterans.

Dhan Gurung (pictured), 60, is believed to have had a minor heart attack after 11 days without food

The Support Our Gurkhas protesters are campaigning for equal pensions for Gurkhas who retired before 1997 and are not eligible for a full UK armed forces pension

Nepalese-born Gurkhas staging a protest outside Downing Street are pictured entering their sixth day of hunger strike

Yam Gurung, 71, spokesman for the Gurkhas, said he now has a blood pressure monitor and a heartbeat monitor to keep on top of his health.

He said the Support Our Gurkhas protesters are getting 'weaker', adding: 'On Monday, Dhan sent an email to his family in Nepal and said 'This will be my last email'.

'I was so worried about him I stayed with him all day. Then the next morning he said he was OK and so I went home.

'The next thing I hear is he had been rushed to hospital. I was so frightened. He was taken to hospital because his heart is so weak and he is taking medicine but is not eating anything, he's just having water. He's getting weaker and weaker.

'He didn't want to go to hospital - he said 'I will die here'. But we convinced him to go.

'He told me quietly that his heart can stop any time, so we have got monitors and a medic keeping an eye on his health.'

He added: 'It wasn't a heart attack, he just has minor problems with his heart. They're (all the Gurkhas) are getting weaker.

'The Government must listen. We have done so much. Why are they treating us like illegitimate children? We have done so much for them.

'We don't want anybody to die here. Not a single one. We are human beings. I want to ask Boris Johnson, what is your interpretation of human rights? Tell the world. Tell the Gurkhas.'

Change was brought in after an amendment to immigration rules in 2007, backdated to July 1997, meant more retired Gurkhas were likely to settle in the UK on discharge, whereas the previous pension scheme had lower rates

Mr Johnson was seen leaving Downing Street and heading to Parliament at around 9.20am on Wednesday.

The Gurkha protesters, along with other protesters campaigning on separate issues, began shouting at Mr Johnson as he drove past.

Shortly after 11am, hundreds of Gurkhas marched past Parliament. They chanted 'No justice, no peace' and 'What do we want? Justice' as they walked past the Commons.

The Gurkhas later looped back round and walked to Parliament Square.

The Prime Minister's spokesman was asked whether any talks were planned after the protesters said they would end their hunger strike if a meeting was arranged.

He said: 'I believe the Defence Secretary said that he would be happy to meet with any Gurkha.'

The spokesman added that there were 'no plans' for Mr Johnson to join a meeting.

On Friday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he was happy to meet protesters, but warned no government 'of any colour' had ever made retrospective changes to pensions like the ones the demonstrators are calling for.

Actress and campaigner Joanna Lumley urged the Government on Saturday to meet the 'brave and loyal' veterans 'to address the injustices highlighted'.

The 75-year-old, who in 2009 led a campaign to allow Gurkhas settlement rights in Britain, was born in India and moved to England as a child. Her father was a major in the Gurkha Rifles.

Dhan Gurung also said he and his fellow demonstrators had been 'harassed' by police, who then dismantled a gazebo

'Only a deep sense of injustice could drive these brave and respectful souls to this point,' the Absolutely Fabulous actress said.

'At the heart of this matter is how we value those who have offered, and sometimes given, the ultimate sacrifice to protect our way of life and to keep us safe.'

Around 200,000 Gurkhas, recruited from Nepal, fought in both world wars, and they have also served in places such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Borneo, Cyprus, the Falklands, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those who served from 1948 to 2007 were members of the Gurkha Pension Scheme until the Labour government of the time eliminated the differences between Gurkhas' terms and conditions of service and those of their British counterparts.

Serving Gurkhas, and those with service on or after July 1 1997, could then opt to transfer into the Armed Forces Pension Scheme.

The change was brought in after an amendment to immigration rules in 2007, backdated to July 1997, meant more retired Gurkhas were likely to settle in the UK on discharge, whereas the previous pension scheme had lower rates as it had assumed they would return to Nepal where the cost of living was significantly lower.

Gurkha men, recruited from the rugged Himalayan country of Nepal, have a reputation as hard and loyal fighters, and are known for the trademark curved kukri blades they carry sheathed on their belts

Leo Docherty, minister for defence people and veterans, has said the group (pictured last week) has refused to meet him

Mr Wallace told Sky News on Friday: 'I am very happy to meet any Gurkha. My father fought alongside the Gurkhas in Malaya in the 1950s, it is a pretty remarkable group of people.

'The group of people currently protesting are groups affected by the change by the Labour government in 1997 to 2003. This was about people who are under a 1947 pension, it is a very small group of Gurkha pensioners, they had different advantages in their pension scheme in that old scheme.

'That scheme said that you got it after 15 years when a British soldier got it after 22, but there is a difference and they feel that difference needs to be made up.

'That is not the same as the Gurkhas of today or the Gurkhas after 2003 - they get exactly the same pensions as British serving personnel.'

Leo Docherty, minister for defence people and veterans, has said the group has refused to meet him.

He said: 'I was disappointed the Satyagraha protest group declined to meet with me and hope they will engage positively in the Gurkha veterans dialogue the Defence Secretary hosts in early September.

'We greatly value the contribution that Gurkhas make and consider the 1948 Gurkha Pension Scheme to be objectively fair and equitable, but I am always willing to speak with veterans and help resolve any such welfare concerns.'

A London Ambulance Service spokesman confirmed it was called out Downing Street last night.

They said: 'We were called at 5.54pm yesterday to reports of an incident on Downing Street, SW1A.

'We sent an ambulance crew, who treated a person at the scene and took them to a hospital.'
The state's health boss has finally lost her calm composure as New South Wales recorded its worst day of the coronavirus pandemic with a huge jump in case numbers.

Renowned for her steely composure during daily Covid-19 briefings, a visibly frustrated Dr Kerry Chant looked anything but calm on Wednesday as NSW recorded 633 new cases on day 54 of Sydney lockdown.

The spread of the highly contagious Delta strain into regional areas in recent weeks has taken a heavy toll on the state's chief health officer, with pundits suggesting she's fed up with Premier Gladys Berejiklian and ministers ignoring her advice to go even harder on lockdown.

Dr Chant struggled to contain her composure as she issued an emotional plea to NSW on Wednesday, begging people to follow the rules.

Dr Kerry Chant looked visibly frustrated and stressed at Wednesday's Covid briefing after the state recorded 633 new cases

'I can't express enough my level of concern at these rising numbers of cases,' she began her health briefing.

'As the Premier has indicated, every person is passing on the virus to more than one person, so we are continuing to see case numbers increase.'

She urged everyone to comply the public health orders.

'Don't try and look for loopholes. You know the intent,' Dr Chant begged.

'Please minimise your movements. Stay at home. We can get through this and I'm very confident with all the efforts in place that we can, but we need everyone to play their part.'

Commentators were quick to weigh in on the visible strain on Dr Chant.

'The utter exhaustion and frustration on Dr Kerry Chant's face says it all,' The Project co-host Lisa Wilkinson tweeted.

'Can't help wondering if when she talks about people "doing the wrong thing" if she's talking about the NSW government and how they have "interpreted" her health advice from the start of this COMPLETE mess.'

There are claims Dr Chant has recommended a harder lockdown for Sydney but her advise has been ignored by the government (pictured, Sydneysiders on day 54 of lockdown)

Dr Kerry Chant (pictured on Wednesday) appeared frustrated as she sidestepped questions that she and NSW Gladys Berejiklian weren't on the same page

Heart surgeon Dr Nikki Stamp added: 'The look on Dr Kerry Chant 's face every day really belies just how bad things are. Her authenticity is sorely needed right now.'

Cracks continued to emerge later in the press conference when she was grilled about claims she and Premier Berejiklian are not on the same page regarding lockdown restrictions.

'I have been told that you are in agreement with Commonwealth health officials that this lockdown needs to go harder and you have expressed that over several weeks to the Premier and she's not on the same page as you on this. What is your comment?' Sky News journalist Andrew Clennell asked.

Dr Chant replied: 'Can I just indicate the fact that the Premier is very committed to achieving the same outcomes.

'We have a shared vision, a shared vision which is high vaccination coverage and very low levels of community transmission. I can't restate that.

'I don't want to - I can't comment any further than to say that the Premier, in all my discussions with her, is absolutely committed to increasing vaccine coverage and getting low community transmission.'

Commentators have weighed in on the visible strain on Dr Chant in recent days including The Project host Lisa Wilkinson (pictured)

The state's health boss reiterated pleas for people to stay at home as cases continue to soar (pictured Milsons Point this week)

Another reporter demanded a yes or no answer as to whether Dr Chant has suggested a harsher lockdown and that advice has been ignored

'It's not as easy as that,' Dr Chant said, only to be told, 'yes it is'.

Dr Chant's visible frustration has been building up for several days after wild speculation emerged on the weekend that she had resigned

She missed several daily briefing before re-emerging on Sunday, a day after unaffected regional areas joined the rest of the state in lockdown.

'Is it just me or have we just seen Dr Kerry Chant crack it with the politicians? I don't think I've seen her as clear, concise and in command of her advice directly to NSW. She cut right through,' Channel Seven newsreader Michael Usher tweeted.

2GB afternoon radio host Jim Wilson added: 'Agree, best CHO in the land and is fed up with the politics, she deals in science and facts!'
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill has been found not guilty of driving without due care and attention when a motorcyclist died in a crash.

Magistrate Ross Mack said Ms Hill could not have predicted Daryl Andrew Lynch would accelerate into a red light which caused his death after colliding with her vehicle.

'It was so unpredictable that it fell outside the normal risks for a normal driver,' Mr Mack said on Wednesday in Townsville Magistrates Court.

'It is on that basis that I'm unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Ms Hill drove without due care and attention.'

Mayor of Townsville Jenny Hill has been found not guilty of driving without due care and attention after a motorcyclist died following a collision in January 2020 (pictured)

The collision happened when Ms Hill was driving her black Holden Commodore at 7.43am on January 30, 2020.

CCTV footage played in court showed her turning right through an intersection in the suburb of Aitkenvale when Mr Lynch accelerated through and collided with her vehicle.

Prosecutors alleged that Ms Hill turned right through an amber light and that by speaking on the phone, albeit hands-free, she fit the objective test of being distracted in the circumstances.

But they also agreed that based on witness accounts and analysis of the CCTV footage, Mr Lynch accelerated through a red light as traffic around had stopped.

Their argument was that the presence of Ms Hill's car in the intersection at the time while turning through an amber light caused Mr Lynch's death.

But her defence argued there was insufficient evidence to prove causation.

Ms Hill (picutred) fit the objective test of being distracted under circumstances as she turned right though an amber light while speaking on the phone, albeit hands-free

Defence barrister Saul Holt QC told the court Mr Lynch's decision to accelerate and go through a red light is not a scenario a reasonable and prudent driver has to anticipate.

CCTV footage also showed another vehicle heading through the lights as Ms Hill made her right turn across the intersection.

'There will be circumstances where a driver will cross the face of traffic on an amber or red light - it's mandatory in some circumstances,' Mr Holt said.

'The actual driving, which put the car in position to be hit by the motorcycle was driving which cannot, when one looks at the footage, be said to be without due care and attention.'

He also highlighted police body worn camera footage showing Ms Hill talking to police after the incident, where she said she 'ducked down' and it was 'too late, he was flying'.

'I heard a noise and that is it,' Ms Hill could be seen telling police.

Based on analysis of the footage, police determined Mr Lynch was speeding between 85km/h and 100km/h in a 60km/h zone.

One of 10 witnesses, Anna Smith, a driver directly in front of Mr Lynch, said she heard the motorcycle rev up and shift into the left lane next to her to beat the lights.

'I thought - please do not run that you are committing suicide or on drugs,' she told the court.

Daryl Andrew Lynch (pictured) died after he accelerated his motorcycle through a red light, colliding with Ms Hill's vehicle

'I heard the bike take off and held my breath for dear life.

'I didn't see the impact, but heard it. (I) heard the loudest sound of impact, something hitting something else. It was deafening.'

Outside court afterwards, Ms Hill thanked her counsel as well as the community for their support but shared sympathy for the family of the deceased.

'Thankfully today's judgment now puts this matter to rest,' she said.

'Despite believing in the correctness of today's result this remains a very sad case.

'The circumstances that you've heard about today are tragic, and I understand the grief of Mr Lynch's family.'
An autopsy report has shown that a Victorian man allegedly murdered by his younger brother was killed by an eight-centimetre stab wound that pierced his heart.

Jesse Tovey, 26, is accused of murdering his 29-year-old brother Joshua Tovey at Hastings, on the Mornington Peninsula, in January.

The 26-year-old on Wednesday faced Melbourne Magistrates Court, where a forensic pathologist said Joshua Tovey was killed by an eight-centimetre stab wound that pierced his heart.

Joshua Tovey, 29 was stabbed to death by his brother at Hastings in the Mornington Peninsula in January

The expert's autopsy report, tendered to the court, revealed the 29-year-old man was also stabbed three more times in the shoulders and neck.

The report said it was difficult to determine the shape and size of the blade used and that it remained possible that multiple weapons were involved.

The forensic pathologist was told the brothers' mother woke up about 6.30am on January 18 when she heard two men having an argument.

Jesse Tovey, 26 allegedly murdered his older brother after an argument

According to her report, the mother saw Joshua Tovey jump the front fence as he was chased by his younger brother.

The 29-year-old was later found lying on the ground in a car park.

Jesse Tovey will face the same court for a committal hearing in December.
House hunters are being urged to use a kit of simple tools including a mirror, hair-dyer and tissues to check out their new properties during final inspections.

Experts from Australian Apartment Advocacy recommend using the unexpected items before agreeing to lease or buy any property.

These recommendations attempt to help soon-to-be owners or renters find any defects before being handed over the keys.

Experts recommend using obscure items before agreeing to lease or buy a property - hopefully helping Australians avoid any nasty surprises after moving in (stock)

PROPERTY INSPECTION CHECK LIST Marble: To roll on balconies to ensure proper drainage Mirror: To check paintwork on top and bottom of doors Tissues: To held up in every room to check for any wind or drafts Hairdryer: To check power points Batteries: To make sure remotes for any electrical items are working Advertisement

In the report, it advises hopefully buyers or renters to bring a hairdryer along to final insepctions to check all the power points in the home are working.

Holding up tissues in every room will detect any wind or drafts that are coming through any crack or holes in the home, the experts also suggested.

A small mirror should be used to look at the top and bottom of doors to ensure they have been painted and checking batteries confirms if remotes are functional.

Another of the recommendations was to ask for a flood test on any balconies the property may have, but if developers refuse, a marble can be used to make sure water will drain to any drainage point.

Samantha Reece, who founded the group said to realestate.com that avoiding a defective build when buying a property starts with asking hard questions to developers.

Ms Reece said that if drainage isn't working correctly, settlement should be delayed as water can cause major damage to concrete and tiles.

In the report, it says that a hairdryer can be brought along to inspections to check all the power points in the home are working (stock)

The advice includes bringing a mirror with you to inspections to check for paintwork on tops of doors (stock image)

'To fix it, you have to grind back the balcony, repair the tiles and then have it retested by an engineer,' Ms Reece said.

'You can't defer it, the defect will get more expensive; the scope for recourse will diminish.'

Without all these recommendations, above all for peace of mind, a professional building inspection could be booked, but will cost around $700-$800.
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THE EMPTIEST FLIGHTS OUT OF KABUL Germany: Airbus A-400M with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 7 on board Australia: Hercules C-130 with space for 120 people, departed Wednesday with 26 on board Netherlands: Boeing C-17 with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 40 on board France: Airbus A400M with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 41 on board Italy: Boeing KC767 with space for up to 200 people, departed Monday with 70 on board Spain: Airbus A-400M with space for 150 people, departed Wednesday with unknown number on board - though officials earlier said just 25 embassy staff had made it to the airport Overnight, the United States only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes - an average of 110 per flight. A single C-17 has been used to transport more than 600 people out of a typhoon before, and one took off on Sunday with 640 Afghans on board because the crew decided not to leave them behind. But Washington has pledged to ferry out at least 20,000 people at a rate of 9,000 per day. Meanwhile Britain has managed to rescue around 1,000 people out of a total of 7,000 the Ministry of Defence said needed to be evacuated, meaning there are around 6,000 left. Advertisement

Evacuation flights out of Kabul are taking off near-empty after the Taliban formed a ring of steel around the airport - blocking tens of thousands of desperate Afghans from entering as westerners said they are unable to get through the crush.

Those on the ground say the Taliban are blocking anyone who does not have a foreign passport from entering the airport, meanwhile foreigners including British and German expats say they have become trapped in the chaos, unable to get through the disorderly crowds to board flights home.

The situation is fueling fears that the West's Afghan allies have almost no hope of making it out of Afghanistan. And there are growing fears that the fate of Westerners could become a bargaining chip for the Taliban, and they could even end up as hostages.

Sources told Bild that the German Ministry of Defence fears that the Taliban could take hostages as leverage for upcoming negotiations in Doha. Foreign Minister Hieko Mass said on Monday that the German government is seeking contact with the militants.

The first Dutch evacuation flight reportedly left Kabul without a single Dutch national on board after passengers were blocked by US troops.

'The Americans were guarding the gate. I showed my passport and said I was Dutch,' a man told Dutch media outlet NOS. 'After saying three times that I was Dutch, he told me to keep my distance otherwise he would shoot.'

Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag said the Americans gave the plane 30 minutes on the tarmac before ordering it to leave, and pleaded for the US to 'give us more time'. But the Netherlands did manage to evacuate its first nationals on Wednesday, with 35 on board a plane headed for Georgian capital Tbilisi, the Dutch defence ministry tweeted.

Massive US cargo planes are taking off with an average of just 100 passengers from Kabul - despite being able to carry more than 600.

Flights bound for Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Italy - which between them have vowed to rescue thousands of people - have been taking off with just a few dozen people on board despite having capacity to take hundreds.

In one case, a German plane with room for 150 departed Kabul on Tuesday with just seven on board.

Overnight, the US only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes - an average of 110 per flight. A single C-17 has been used to transport more than 600 people out of a typhoon before, and one took off on Sunday with 640 Afghans on board because the crew decided not to leave them behind.

This despite Washington's pledge to ferry out at least 20,000 people at a rate of 9,000 per day.

Meanwhile the UK has managed to rescue around 1,000 people out of a total of 7,000 the Ministry of Defence said needed to be evacuated, meaning there are around 6,000 left.

Flights bound for Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Italy - which between them have vowed to rescue thousands of people - have been taking off with just a few dozen people.

In one shocking case, a German plane with room for 150 departed Kabul on Tuesday with just seven on board.

There are now thought to be around 50,000 people - mostly Afghans - gathered outside two entrances to Hamid Karzai airport - the civilian south side and military north side, both of which are under Taliban control.

Those on the ground say the Taliban are blocking anyone who does not have a foreign passport from entering the airport, meanwhile foreigners including British and German expats say they have become trapped in the chaos, unable to get through the disorderly crowds to board flights home.

Paul 'Pen' Farthing, a British ex-pat and former marine who is stranded in Kabul, tweeted today that 'it is still a crush of desperate people at Kabul airport [with] ex-pats still being turned away. Somebody get a grip. Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Joe Biden. You created this disaster.'

Meanwhile, Vanessa Faizi, a German national who was visiting family in Afghanistan when fighting broke out, said she is now trapped at Kabul airport and trying desperately to get back to her fiance in the city of Hesse.

'People are trampled, children are trampled, please get us out,' she said in a tearful video sent to German newspaper Bild.

In scenes of utter desperation today, people began passing babies towards guards stationed at the airport's northern gate so they could be put on flights. Earlier in the day, women had stood at the same gate reaching towards US troops and begging to be allowed through, with one shouting: 'Please. The Taliban are coming for me.'

The heartbreaking footage is a far cry from the 'big-hearted' response to the crisis pledged by western nations, which between them have vowed to take more than 100,000 refugees out of the country.

The movement of people into the airport is 'painfully slow', sources on the ground told MailOnline. One airport worker who had been summoned to work via email two days ago had only just managed to clear the Taliban checkpoints on Wednesday.

The civilian and VIP gates are both under the strict control of the Taliban who 'don't have much idea of what they're doing,' the source said.

US troops manning the airport fired crowd-control shots last night, the Pentagon revealed on Wednesday, in an effort to bring order to the thousands throning at the perimeter.

In his second TV interview in under 12 hours, Donald Trump accused Joe Biden of 'leading lambs to slaughter' by abandoning Afghans to the Taliban, and said his successor's handling of the military withdrawal makes his widely-criticized border crisis look like 'baby food'.

'This is the most embarrassing moment in our country's history,' he raged.

A NATO C-17 plane arrives at Tbilisi airport in Tbilisi, Georgia, on August 18, 2021

Overnight, the US only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes - an average of 110 per flight. A single C-17 has been used to transport more than 600 people out of a typhoon before (right), and one took off on Sunday with 640 Afghans on board (left) because the crew decided not to leave them behind.

In scenes of utter desperation at Kabul airport today, people began passing babies to guards at the northern entrance hoping they will be put on flights out of the country and escape Taliban rule

Paul 'Pen' Farthing and his wife Kaisa got caught up in the crush, saying it is a 'lottery' as to who gets on a plane. Meanwhile German national Vanessa Faizi said she also got trampled at the airport and has been unable to leave

Sir Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Afghanistan who has stayed in Kabul to help people leave, said his team were putting 'everything we can' into getting people out

Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule

Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their 'consent'

Taliban fighters stand along a road in Kabul on August 18, 2021 following the takeover of Afghanistan

Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

An alleged looter is placed up against a wall with fighter training their guns on his back after he was dragged out of his house by the Islamist 'Angels of Salvation'

A statue of political leader Abdul Ali Mazari, who was murdered by the Taliban in 1995, was destroyed

A Taliban fighter whacks a boy across the back of the thighs as families cower under a bush

Taliban gunmen opened fire on crowds late Tuesday, with images showing a bloodied child being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road

Pictured: Protesters walk through a busy road-way in Jalalabad waving an Afghan flag, moments before the Taliban opened fire and reportedly killed three people

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, center left, warned the Taliban it will meet with 'overwhelming force' if it tries to impede evacuations from Kabul airport

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled with $169MILLION in his cash-stuffed helicopter and has been given asylum in Dubai on 'humanitarian grounds' By Lauren Lewis Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled with $169million in his cash-stuffed helicopter and has been given asylum in Dubai on 'humanitarian grounds', it has emerged. Ghani fled the country on Sunday night as the Taliban encircled the capital - saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed - capping a military victory that saw them capture all cities in just 10 days. He made a snap decision to leave Afghanistan on Sunday and did so without assistance from the US, a presidential palace bodyguard told Fox News. The decision, made in a matter of minutes, came after last ditch negotiations with Taliban leaders in Qatar to avoid bloodshed as the group surrounded Kabul on Sunday. The source said Ghani's decision to leave Afghanistan likely prevented fighting in the streets of the capital. The former president took with him four cars and a helicopter loaded with bags of cash - but was forced to leave some of the money behind as it would not all fit on the flight. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani fled to Dubai with $169m worth of cash as the Taliban completed their lightning conquest of the country, it has emerged Earlier reports said Ghani had fled to Uzbekistan, citing Russian Embassy sources. It was also claimed to former president had flown to Tajikistan, but diverted to Oman when officials in Dushanbe refused him permission to land.

But the United Arab Emirates said today that it was hosting Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in Dubai 'on humanitarian grounds'. Meanwhile Afghanistan's Vice President Amrullah Saleh has stayed in the country and retreated to his hometown in the Panjshir Valley - the only region the Taliban have not conquered - and is massing troops to resist the militants. Advertisement

Sir Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Afghanistan who has stayed in Kabul to help people leave, said his team were putting 'everything we can' into getting people out.

In a video posted on Twitter, he said: 'My name is Laurie Bristow, British ambassador here in Kabul.

'I've just stepped out of the evacuation handling centre for a moment. We're putting everything we can into getting British nationals, and Afghans who have worked with us in the past, out of Afghanistan and to safety.

'So yesterday we got about 700 people out. We're trying to scale up the speed, the pace over the next couple of days.

'We'll put everything we can on this for the next few days, trying to get out everyone who we need to get to safety as soon as we can.'

But Mr Farthing was unimpressed by the efforts, telling MailOnline: 'Kabul Airport is an absolute disaster zone, there are still people being crushed, there are still people risking their lives by climbing on to the landing gear of planes shortly before they take off. It is sheer and utter chaos.

'There is no order, it is literally a lottery as to who gets on one of the planes and who doesn't.

'My Norwegian wife and the manager of the sanctuary, who is American, were both turned back at the airport yesterday despite being told by their respective embassies to arrive at certain rendezvous points within the airfield.

'The U.S soldiers guarding the perimeter gate to the airfield would not let them through because of the melee outside with so many local Afghans attempting to get through.

'To get people back and away from the fence, they fired a volley of warning shots above people's heads. But all this did was to work up an already terrified crowd, most of whom did not know who exactly was doing the shooting or where it was coming from.

'This isn't how me or my colleagues would have handled the situation, it exacerbated an already tense situation.

'My wife and the manager of the sanctuary were caught up in it but are now fortunately safe and I'm currently working on a way of getting them back here to safety.

'For Boris Johnson to stand up in the Commons this morning and say they have control of the situation here is astonishing.

'He is not being briefed correctly from his people on the ground because what I'm seeing is completely different, Afghanistan is facing its biggest humanitarian disaster for a generation.'

Downing Street said the British embassy in Afghanistan 'effectively has relocated to the airport' in Kabul.

Some who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds without making it on to a flight. Others said Taliban fighters beat the crowd with sticks, lengths of rubber hose, knotted rope, and rifle butts, often pointing guns at people and on at least on occasion opening fire.

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she told a press conference.

Flights that were supposed to be carrying thousands of people out of the country each day have so-far been taking off with just a few hundred aboard, with the UK having evacuated just 306 citizens and 2,052 Afghans so far - with thousands more waiting.

At least 12 military flights took off from Kabul yesterday, including three UK planes as the Ministry of Defence aims to ferry up to 7,000 Britons and Afghan allies out. Most are heading to other stable parts of the Middle East, where the passengers catch charter flights back to Britain.

Some 370 UK embassy staff and British nationals were flown out by the RAF on Sunday and Monday, adding to the 289 Afghan nationals transported last week.

There are at least 56,000 people who need evacuating from Afghanistan - including 22,000 flying on US special immigrant visas, 4,000 British nationals, 10,000 refugees Germany has said it will accept, and 20,000 bound for Canada. In reality, that number is likely to be far higher once diplomatic staff from other countries with relations with Afghanistan's former government are taken into account.

The US said it may issue 80,000 special immigrant visas to those who helped with combat operations and are likely to face revenge attacks from the Taliban, while 7,500 troops guarding the airport - including 6,000 Americans and smaller numbers of British, Turkish and Australians - will also need to leave.

Spain, France and India confirmed their diplomatic staff were evacuated yesterday. Russia and Indonesia said their embassies will be partially evacuated, while the EU mission said staff including its ambassador Andreas Von Brandt are still in the country and will need to leave.

Life under the 'moderate' Taliban The 'moderate' Taliban has already started tarring alleged thieves and strapping them to trucks to be paraded through Kabul, fired at crowds trying to escape to the US-controlled airport and is going house-to-house to round up looters. The so-called 'Angels of Salvation' are dragging suspects from their homes at gunpoint and lining them against walls after chaos broke out in Kabul following the Taliban takeover. Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp. A traffic cop stands nearby and waves through traffic, seemingly unperturbed or unable to prevent the rough justice as commotion builds around the accused man. Other footage shows Taliban fighters outside Kabul airport wielding AK-47s and rocket launchers, marching towards the terrified crowds and firing warning shots into the air. Former civil servants and those who worked for foreign countries are prisoners in their own homes and living in fear as the Taliban go from house-to-house to interrogate people on who they are and what they do. An ex-interpreter reported seeing his house being raided via an app on his phone as he remains holed up in a safehouse. The jihadists have been dubbed 'Taliban 2.0' for their media charm offensive in trying to persuade the world that they have moderated compared to the Taliban of 20 years ago. Advertisement

Tempers were already fraying around the airport on Tuesday as gunmen opened fire into crowds, with harrowing images showing a young child with a bloodied head being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road behind them.

The US army's General Frank McKenzie is leading 6,000 US troops and 900 British soldiers who are trying to evacuate as many as 50,000 Afghan refugees and thousands of other foreign citizens, including aid workers and diplomats, who live in Kabul.

For the moment, the Taliban say they are giving 'amnesty' to foreigners who wish to leave. But amid tense scenes at the capital, which fell to insurgents with astonishing rapidity, fears are growing that the tentative calm could fall apart at any moment.

Vice Admiral Sir Ben Key, who is running the British evacuation operation, told the BBC the UK will be bringing back as many people as it can, as quickly as possible, until either demand is met or 'the security situation means that we're no longer operating with consent'.

But eligible individuals have to make the trip to the airport themselves when called to do so, and the Taliban now control the access points, he added.

Sir Ben said that his forces face a race against time, and they are 'alive to the uncertainty' of the situation.

Tories hammered Boris Johnson over the 'catastrophic failure' in Afghanistan today - as the PM swiped at Joe Biden saying the 'successful' Afghan mission could not continue without 'American might'.

As the desperate evacuation effort continues in Kabul, the PM defended his handling of the chaos insisting there was a 'hard reality' as a result of the US stance.

Mr Johnson told the recalled chamber - packed out for the first time since last year after Covid restrictions were dropped - that the 'sacrifice' of British troops was 'seared into our national consciousness'. He said the 'core mission' had been achieved as Afghanistan had not been a hotbed for terrorism.

However, he was immediately assailed by Tories, with defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood saying the West had 'ceded the country to the very insurgents we went to defeat'. Theresa May said Afghanistan would now be a breeding ground for extremism, accusing the PM of operating 'on a wing and a prayer' and hoping it would be 'alright on the night'. Former chief whip Mark Harper said there had been a 'catastrophic failure'.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the premier had displayed 'staggering complacency', pointing out that his last visit to Afghanistan as Foreign Secretary in 2018 had been a ploy to avoid a vote on Heathrow Airport expansion.

There were also calls for the government to go further and faster in providing safe haven for Afghans who face the threat of persecution under the new Taliban regime. Labour's Chris Bryant said only 5,000 of 20,000 refugees were set to be accepted this year, raging that the rest were being asked to 'hang around and wait until they have been executed'.

Gen. McKenzie, whose forces now operate in a country almost completely dominated by the Taliban, has warned that his troops will respond forcefully to defend the airport if necessary, as US troops, backed by British SAS and Royal Marines special forces, guard the perimeter with snipers on rooftops, and machine gunners and armored cars guard the runway.

The Afghan resistance grows: Protesters fly the government flag in two regional cities and are fired at by the Taliban Rebel fighters and protesters have bravely defied the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan - flying flags of resistance across the country in a show of defiance against the Islamists. Troops loyal to vice president Amrullah Saleh today paraded the flag of the 'northern alliance' - an anti-Taliban league of warlords and politicians - through the Panjshir Valley, an area just 80 miles north of Kabul that the jihadists have never conquered. Meanwhile, protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost, which sit a similar distance from the Afghan capital, waving the national flag in defiance of the Taliban which replaced it with their own white emblem. At least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured after Taliban militants opened fire during the protests against the group in Jalalabad, two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters. The witnesses said the deaths took place when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's national flag at a square in the city, some 90 miles to the east of Kabul. Taliban spokesmen were not immediately reachable for comment. Images that appeared to have been taken in Khost showed students - abandoned by the Afghan army but unwilling to submit to the Taliban - removing the group's flag from the main square and replacing it with the national colours. More video then appeared to show Taliban gunmen opening fire on crowds in both locations, though there were no immediate reports of casualties. The Taliban has tried hard to present itself as the legitimate government of Afghanistan after security forces largely melted away as American and NATO troops withdrew, handing them back control of the country. At a press conference on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid laid out their vision for the country - promising to guarantee women's rights and stop all reprisal attacks in remarks that raised eyebrows and solicited scepticism. Pictured: Protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost on Wednesday, which sit around 80 miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul. Pictured: Scenes from Jalalabad Advertisement

In other developments:

An exclusive poll for the Mail revealed that the British public believe Mr Biden is most to blame for the crisis, and two-thirds say the decision to pull out of Afghanistan was wrong;

The poll also showed that the public fear the turmoil will lead to fresh terror attacks on our soil;

The Taliban's leaders claimed they would 'like to live peacefully';

Mr Johnson suggested the new Taliban government could be recognised internationally if it upheld human rights standards;

Emmanuel Macron was under fire after he said France would 'protect' itself from migrants fleeing the crisis;

It was claimed the Foreign Office had pulled all of its diplomats out of Kabul apart from the ambassador himself - creating havoc for Afghan interpreters wanting to leave;

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab conceded he would not have left the UK for a five-star Crete holiday had he known what would unfold over the weekend;

It emerged that Afghans who apply to come to Britain are being rigorously checked for links with radical Islamist groups and crime;

The Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the 'tragic failures' in Afghanistan and called for rapid humanitarian help for its people.

The White House today confirmed that the Taliban had promised that civilians could travel safely to the Kabul airport, but reports of insurgents beating and shooting Afghans trying to enter could rattle the uneasy deal between the country's new rulers and their Western adversaries.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was keen to present the Islamists as a reformed group at a press conference on Monday, pledging to safeguard women's rights, stop reprisal attacks, wipe out the drugs trade, and live in peace will allies and enemies alike.

But that paper-thin veneer was already being torn up on Tuesday as video emerged showing the Taliban tarring alleged thieves and strapping them to trucks to be paraded through Kabul, firing at crowds trying to escape to the US-controlled airport and going house-to-house to round up looters.

The so-called 'Angels of Salvation' are dragging suspects from their homes at gunpoint and lining them against walls after chaos broke out in Kabul following the Taliban takeover.

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

A traffic cop stands nearby and waves through traffic, seemingly unperturbed or unable to prevent the rough justice as commotion builds around the accused man.

Other footage shows Taliban fighters outside Kabul airport wielding AK-47s and rocket launchers, marching towards the terrified crowds and firing warning shots into the air.

Former civil servants and those who worked for foreign countries are prisoners in their own homes and living in fear as the Taliban go from house-to-house to interrogate people on who they are and what they do.

An ex-interpreter reported seeing his house being raided via an app on his phone as he remains holed up in a safehouse.

Australia on Wednesday said it had no plans to allow in refugees and cast doubt on the promises being made by other nations.

Australia plans to provide just 3,000 Afghans with visas over a year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

'I note that some are talking about figures of 20,000 but can I tell you there are no clear plans about that. Australia is not going into that territory,' he told a news conference.

Australia deployed 39,000 troops over two decades as part of US and NATO-led operations in Afghanistan.

As Australia's air force evacuated 26 people - including Australian and Afghan citizens - in a first flight from Kabul, Defence Minister Peter Dutton cast doubt on the capacity of other countries to honour their pledges.

'I don't think that, firstly, is going to happen and, secondly, there is no way in the world you can guarantee the security arrangements with that sort of movement of people,' Dutton told the national broadcaster ABC.

'Let's see whether people put their money where their mouth is,' he said.

Truck-loads of Taliban fighters armed with AK-47s and rocket launchers now wait outside the airport and man the gates into it, as their blood-soaked organisation returns to power following a 20-year conflict with a global superpower that had sought to destroy them.

An Australian Hercules C-130 plane with room for 120 people takes off from Kabul airport with just 26 passengers early on Wednesday - one of several aircraft to depart half-full

The flight was mostly filled with Australian citizens but also included Afghan nationals with visas, and one foreign official working in an international agency

While thousands of people have arrived at Kabul airport trying to get on flights out of the country (pictured), some western visa holders on the ground have said they are in hiding nearby for fear Taliban gunmen will target them

Taliban gunmen patrol through crowds of desperate Afghans at Kabul airport today, as people try to board planes out of the country fearing for their safety under Islamist rule

Crowds pictured outside the military north entrance Kabul airport on Wednesday morning, which is now the only viable route out of the country for thousands of refugees trapped in the capital

Shots are fired over the heads of terrified Afghan civilians by nervous Taliban guards at the northern side of Kabul airport overnight, as civilians try to get inside

Cars are seen parked along a road leading to the military northern side of Afghanistan's Haid Karzai airport overnight as an estimated 50,000 people try to board flights out of the country

'If I hear once more that the airport is safe - it's not': Westerners trying to flee Kabul tell of being groped and crushed Western nationals trying to flee Kabul have described being crushed and groped during a stampede of Afghans held at Taliban checkpoints outside the airstrip providing evacuation flights as Afghanistan is taken over by the Islamist terror group. Armed militants have surrounded the capital's airport and seized control of all access points, meaning they they can decide who stays and who leaves the Middle Eastern state as the Taliban plunge Afghanistan back into what locals and many Western governments fear will be Islamic tyranny. Ex-Royal Marine commando Paul 'Pen' Farthing described how his wife and pregnant employee, from whom he has been separated, had been 'crushed, groped and pushed' by crowds outside the airport - and had been denied entry by British and US troops stationed there. In videos posted to Facebook, Farthing said they are now in a secure British location, but furiously urged Boris Johnson to 'get his s**t together' and slammed 'snake' Joe Biden's 'absolutely disgusting' withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan following the 20-year Western intervention. He also took fire at the British troops who allegedly prevented his wife from entering Kabul airport, adding: 'They should not be wearing the beret of Her Majesty's British forces if they're not prepared to open that gate for a pregnant woman.' One female student also described how she feared she would be crushed to death by panicking crowds at Kabul airport. Speaking to MailOnline, Aisha Ahmad - who studies in the capital - said: 'People had heard that the Americans were letting people onto the aircraft to get them out of the country. 'I didn't believe it at first, but then I went to the airport and saw that people had been allowed onto the tarmac without any checks, so I thought maybe it was true. 'There were thousands of people inside the airport. Then at one point we were all pushed back by the Taliban police to get us out of the airport and women and children were trampled under people's feet. 'I couldn't breathe in the crush and I really thought I was going to die. My feet are all swollen and covered in bruises. We thought there was a flight going to Germany which we might get on, but in the end they only took German nationals on board.' Advertisement

As of Tuesday afternoon, 12 flights had taken off, many heading to nearby cities like Doha, while others have landed at RAF bases in Cyprus.

But tens of thousands of desperate civilians who worked for the coalition are still stuck in Kabul and facing certain death unless they can be flown out of the country.

The Pentagon says it is aiming to have a flight out of Kabul every hour so that it can evacuate 9,000 people per day.

It comes after Taliban leaders held an extraordinary press conference on Tuesday to proclaim the group's return to government and to portray the outfit as a new, modernised force.

During an astonishing 40-minute appearance, they said there would no revenge attacks, their opponents will be 'pardoned' and women will be allowed to work and study as a 'very important part of society'.

But on the streets of Kabul, the reality of life under Taliban rule was setting in, with 'terrified' women reportedly confined to their homes, and militants going door to door hunting for ex-government workers.

This year alone, the Taliban have murdered seven Coalition Forces translators, with many more wounded. The father of a US translator was also shot dead yesterday according to his family.

Around 1,700 so-called locally employed staff who worked with British forces and their family members have now been approved to come to the UK. A further 200 are having their claims assessed.

But while many are at Kabul airport waiting for a flight out, many more are in hiding in the city or elsewhere in the country, too terrified to brave the streets. As the Taliban tighten their grip, they face an uncertain future.

Last night, an interpreter called Ahmed shared his harrowing story. He said: 'My wife and I were hiding in the basement of a storeroom, but the man who gave us shelter got scared when the Taliban were nearby and asked us to leave.

'We are about half a mile from the airport. Now we have found somewhere else, a private place. I have to speak quietly because the Taliban checkpoint is nearby. Other interpreters are hiding nearby, they have children with them, so it is worse for them.

'The Taliban have positioned their gunmen at the airport and are demanding to see paperwork and visas. Apparently they let you through if your papers are valid but I do not trust them. A mistake now could cost us our lives.'

Remarkably, in spite of the presence of 7,000 elite US troops and 900 British Special Forces and Paratroopers at Hamid Karzai International Airport, the Taliban are calling the shots.

Admiral Key said the Taliban could withdraw their consent at any time. He added: 'We have to be pragmatic and honest. The Taliban are controlling what and how much we can achieve. We do not know how long we are going to have to do this and we may find the security situation makes it untenable for us to continue to evacuate people.

'The Taliban are providing the security tapestry around Kabul now - they are the providers of security, not us. At the moment we have their consent. They are happy so long as we are going about our business [of withdrawing].'

The revelation that the Taliban are already dictating terms last night caused further anxiety among those waiting for flights to the UK. Only one mercy mission left Kabul yesterday - an RAF Voyager aircraft carrying 250 passengers which was due to touch down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last night.

It is not known how many of those on board were eligible Afghans and how many were UK passport-holders.

A Taliban gunman speaks with a driver along the main road to Hamid Karzai airport, where evacuation flights are taking place

Taliban fighters are pictured in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, which sits along one of the main roads leading to the airport, carrying out checks on those that pass through

Taliban fighters pose for photograph in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul along one of the main roads to the airport

British forces say evacuation flights are happening with 'consent' of the Taliban, as fighters were pictured patrolling one of the main roads to the airport today (pictured)

A Taliban fighter stands guard at a checkpoint in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan

The Taliban has insisted there will be total amnesty for those who fought against them in Afghanistan and that evacuation flights will be protected, but there have been reports of gunmen firing into crowds

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

Last night, former translator Farid, 33, described the 'nightmare' being experienced by those stranded in Kabul. He said: 'It is terrifying, they are on every street. This is their last chance to get us. Taliban fighters are coming to Kabul from Helmand province.

'If they recognise us they will not be waving us through their checkpoints. They are going from house to house asking if people know any government workers and people who worked for Western forces.'

Mr Johnson suggested last night there could be a way for the Taliban to win recognition from the international community.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'He said any legitimacy of any future Taliban government will be subject to them upholding internationally agreed standards on human rights and inclusivity.'

Western nationals trying to flee Kabul have described being crushed and groped during a stampede of Afghans held at Taliban checkpoints outside the airstrip providing evacuation flights as Afghanistan is taken over by the Islamist terror group.

A young female student has told MailOnline how she feared she would be crushed to death at Kabul Airport today as thousands of people desperate to board a flight were pushed by police out of the area, causing a stampede.

While some order was restored inside the airport following yesterday's scenes of pandemonium on the runway, Aisha Ahmad said chaos still reigned outside.

'People had heard that the Americans were letting people onto the aircraft to get them out of the country,' she said.

'I didn't believe it at first, but then I went to the airport and saw that people had been allowed onto the tarmac without any checks, so I thought maybe it was true.

'There were thousands of people inside the airport,' said Aisha, 22, 'Then at one point we were all pushed back by the Taliban police to get us out of the airport and women and children were trampled under people's feet.

'I couldn't breathe in the crush and I really thought I was going to die. My feet are all swollen and covered in bruises. We thought there was a flight going to Germany which we might get on, but in the end they only took German nationals on board.'

'From what I can see in the media, the situation inside the perimeter has calmed down a bit, but that has just transferred the problem outside onto the streets. People are so desperate.'

Aisha, who studies at Kabul University, said she was desperate to leave her country after receiving 'serious threats' because of posts on her Twitter feed.

She changed her profile photo to one of former law student Breshna Musazai, who was shot twice by the Taliban in 2016 but survived and more recently worked with an NGO to help give more girls the chance to study.

She said that Kabul was like a 'ghost town' since the Taliban had arrived and most shops were closed as traders worried about the worsening security situation and the possibility of looters.

'People are very conflicted about the future and what kind of Taliban we are facing now. Some think they've changed, and others are not so sure. I personally believe they will be softer for a few months, and then after that they will be the same Taliban of old.

'We're also uncertain about how women will be treated. In some provinces they've told women not to come to work, but we don't know if that's temporary. Whether they will start punishing men for shaving their beard and women for not wearing the hijab, no-one really knows.

'I have lost all hope and I don't think it will be an easy path for Afghan women. My mother used to tell me stories about what the Taliban did and now I fear it will all come true like a bad dream.'

'We will honour women's rights (within Islamic law)': Taliban spokesman holds first news conference in Kabul and promises they won't persecute women or take revenge

Boris Johnson pledged to take 25,000 Afghan refugees in the House of Commons today, but Kier Starmer hit out - saying evacuation flights were leaving Kabul airport half-empty

British nationals and Afghan evacuees are seen disembarking an RAF Voyager A330 aircraft at Brize Norton

British nationals and Afghan evacuees are seen walking on the tarmac at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire

People evacuated from Afghanistan by a German Bundeswehr airplane arrive at the airport in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

German citizens and some Afghanis and their families offered sanctuary by Germany arrive in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on board a rescue flight before onward travel to Europe

Ducking bullets at the airport... bleeding and terrified... my horror attempt to flee Taliban

By LATIF HOTTAK for the Daily Mail

It was midnight, at the end of a dreadful day. I had dodged my way along back roads, then main roads, trying to avoid Taliban checkpoints in a desperate bid to reach Kabul airport to try and find any information about flights to the UK.

The two-hour journey had been a mistake. Not only did I have to run the gauntlet of triumphant, often aggressive, Taliban fighters as they randomly searched vehicles and fearful passengers  pedestrians, too  but when I arrived I had become caught up in the chaos at Kabul international airport.

Hundreds of my fellow countrymen, young and old, were seeking information on how to escape our homeland. It was brutally hot and everyone was nervous. We felt the eyes of men who had been our enemy staring into us with the cold eyes of a victor.

At each gate to the airport  there were five in all  I had asked for the British. I had spent six years working with them as their interpreter, but the unsmiling Turkish guards would let no one through. We were left in a dangerous no-man's land of about 100 metres with Taliban on one side, walls topped with razor wire on the other.

Loyal service: Latif Hottak (pictured right), who has spent six years working with the British Army as their interpreter, and another translator in Helmand in 2008

AIRPORT SECURITY: TROOPS STATIONED AT KABUL AIRSTRIP US Major General Hank Taylor said there were 2,500 troops at the airport on Monday, with 3,000 to 3,500 due to arrive yesterday - bringing the total to 6,000 UK The UK had around 700 troops led by members of 16 Air Assault Brigade (The Paras), another 200 were announced last night - bringing the total to 900 soldiers Turkey Turkey, which is a Nato member, has around 600 soldiers in Kabul to assist with the evacuation. It had offered to keep them in the city to operate the airport once the US pulls out, but dropped those plans following the collapse of the Afghan government. Australia Canberra announced plans to send an evacuation force of 250 troops to Afghanistan on Monday to help its embassy staff and Afghan nationals. Smaller numbers of FRENCH, POLISH and SPANISH troops have arrived to help their diplomats return. Advertisement

I was desperate. I was a potential Taliban target because of my years of work for British soldiers. But also because, over many years, the UK Government had repeatedly and unjustly refused me relocation  a chance to escape and build a new life for my family.

One wall was slightly lower than the rest, maybe about two metres high. I decided to try and scale it so I would drop down into the comparative safety of the airport.

As I clambered up the wall, there was a burst of gunfire, followed by another. It was into the air but none of us knew that and panic set in as we scrambled first for safety, then threw ourselves back to the tarmac outside the airport.

It was something I had done many times in the dirt and maize fields of Helmand while on foot patrol with brave British soldiers when the Taliban had opened fire. Then, it had not been in the air.

This time, there were three more bursts, then silence and barked orders from the Taliban to leave. I felt my legs and blood was gushing from cuts. But in the panic I had not noticed the pain.

The journey home on foot in the twilight of the evening was slow  each step agonising. I kept my head low and tried not to limp, merging into groups of other Afghans.

When I eventually arrived home at the darkened basement that has been our home for three years, I sat on the rugs covering the floor which are also our beds. I was exhausted and depressed.

My wife Ruqia is a nurse and gently dabbed my wounds with a cold cloth while I told my four children what had happened. The story had no happy ending. There was to be no airport escape.

So when the phone rang on the corner table, I could hardly be bothered to answer. It was my brother Rafi, also an ex-translator, who calls most nights from the UK to check on us. With the Taliban having arrived in the city 24 hours earlier, he, like us, was extremely worried. There were reports of fighters conducting house-to-house searches looking for those who worked for foreign forces.

Rafi and I had been interpreters together. We had joined at the same time in 2006 and taken the same risks on the frontline. He was blown-up by an IED in Helmand, a blast that killed a British officer. Rafi had been saved by doctors at Camp Bastion.

When he recovered, we took on a new role together working with UK Special Forces. That was until the death threats became too much and he escaped with people traffickers to the UK. After a fight, he was granted asylum.

He called me regularly. Together with the Daily Mail, he had been battling to overturn my case so we could be a family again in the UK. In truth, I was jealous of his life of safety and freedom, a life that seemed unobtainable  especially with the Taliban on the streets.

I am approved at last  but will the call ever come for the flight? Will the airport still be open? writes Latif Hottak (pictured: British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan board a military plane for evacuation from Kabul airport)

But this call was different. Rafi was not his normal self. He was excited and the words I had longed to hear tumbled out quickly.

They were beautiful, magical and I couldn't believe them. My case had been granted. I screamed, my wife screamed and my four children screamed.

Rafi waited and allowed us an unforgettable moment of joy, of relief. He then read out the email sent to him by the Ministry of Defence. A massive burden had been lifted.

My eldest son Zaki, who is 13, grabbed the phone and shouted at Rafi: 'Uncle, I am coming to see you!' 'Yes you are,' Rafi replied and we all laughed and talked and talked.

As Ruqia and I laid Zaki and our other children Sana, Sudies and Sama down on their mats nearby, none of us slept.

But this time it was the excitement, not the fear of the Taliban arrival, that kept us awake. I thought of my six years of loyal service to the British; how I had saved the life of a soldier after hearing Taliban forces prepare to open fire as he climbed into a compound. I had grabbed his legs and dragged him from his ladder.

I thought about how, for some reason, the British said I had been dismissed for helping an Afghan soldier pass his exam. It was not true. But it prevented me from having a chance of relocation. Rafi and Daily Mail journalist David Williams have never given up on me. They dug and dug until they found evidence that helped the truth come out. Earlier this month, the Mail put that evidence to the MoD.

I did not sleep. Yesterday, I felt different, not tired. My head is clear, and my load is lighter. But there is a terrible contradiction.

I feel elated but scared too, very scared. I am approved at last  but will the call ever come for the flight? Will the airport still be open? Will we be able to safely navigate our way through the Taliban lines?

More and more fighters are arriving. These are hardened men from the battles of Helmand. What happens if I am recognised? I experienced the chaos and the dangers of the airport and how the mood can change. It worries me greatly: the checkpoint, the searches, the paperwork, the children saying a word out of place.

Only when we are in the air and away from Afghanistan will I relax. Until then, we will wait and hope and pray for our deliverance  and that this is not all too late.

Hero's welcome for Baradar the Butcher: Taliban co-founder arrives in Afghanistan after 20-year exile The Taliban have posted a triumphalist video seemingly showing one of its cofounders arriving to a hero's welcome in Kandahar and locals cheering on his motorcade. The group says the footage shows Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar returning to cheering crowds in Afghanistan on Tuesday following 20 years of exile amid the Western effort to eliminate the Taliban threat. On Sunday his forces had taken Kabul, and Baradar, head of the Taliban's political office, is now tipped to become the country's next leader, following the collapse of the previous US-backed regime. The 53-year-old had been deputy leader under ex-chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, whose support for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden led to the invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 terror attacks. Around a dozen people joined Baradar on the flight and were noisily welcomed on the runway Baradar arrived in Kandahar Province on Tuesday, landing in the insurgent group's former capital just days after they took control of the country. Taliban spokesman Dr M Naeem uploaded footage of his flight landing and of a motorcade of 4x4s bearing the white flag of the organisation. He wrote: 'This afternoon, a high-level delegation from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan headed by Mullah Baradar Akhund left Qatar and arrived in our beloved country this afternoon and landed at Kandahar Airport.' Baradar (pictured) set up an Islamic school in Kandahar with his former commander Mohammed Omar, and the two mullahs helped to found the Taliban movement Commentators have pointed out similarities between Baradar's return and that of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran in 1979, following 14 years of exile in Paris as an outlawed cleric. Baradar, who was born in Uruzgan province in 1968, was raised in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, and went on to fight with the mujahedeen against the Soviets in the 1980s. Afterwards, as the country was gripped by a civil war between rival warlords and Baradar set up an Islamic school in Kandahar with his former commander Mohammed Omar, and the two mullahs helped to found the Taliban movement, an ideology which embraced hardline orthodoxy and strived for the creation of an Islamic Emirate. The Taliban seized power in 1996 after conquering provincial capitals before marching on Kabul, just as they have in recent months, and Baradar went on to perform a number of different roles during the group's five-year reign. He was the deputy defence minister when the US invaded in 2001, and though he went into hiding, he remained active in the Taliban's leadership in exile. Baradar had been freed from jail in Pakistan three years ago at the request of the U.S. government. Just nine months ago, he posed for pictures with Donald Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to sign a peace deal in Doha which now lies in tatters. In 2010, the CIA tracked him down to the Pakistani city of Karachi and in February of that year the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) arrested him. But in 2018, he was released at the request of the Trump administration as part of their ongoing negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar, on the understanding that he could help broker peace. In February 2020, Baradar signed the Doha Agreement in which the U.S. pledged to leave Afghanistan on the basis that the Taliban would enter into a power-sharing arrangement with President Ashraf Ghani's government in Kabul. He was pictured in September with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who 'urged the Taliban to seize this opportunity to forge a political settlement and reach a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire,' the US said in a statement. Pompeo 'welcomed Afghan leadership and ownership of the effort to end 40 years of war and ensure that Afghanistan is not a threat to the United States or its allies.' The Doha deal was heralded as a momentous peace declaration but has been proved to be nothing but a ploy by the Taliban. Advertisement

'We will honour women's rights (within Islamic law)': Taliban spokesman holds first news conference in Kabul and promises they won't persecute women or take revenge

The Taliban claimed that Afghan women will not be persecuted under their Islamic rule during their first press conference since their sweeping conquest of Kabul this week, as the man tipped to be Afghanistan's next leader arrived in the country after a 20-year exile.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman, claimed 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago', when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

During their press conference in the capital city, the Taliban insisted girls will receive an education and women will be allowed to study at university - both of which were forbidden under Taliban rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 before the US-led invasion.

The terror group also claimed they want women to be part of the new government after female Afghans staged a protest outside a local Taliban HQ in Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul, while chanting 'honour and lives are safe' and 'join voices with us'.

Pictured: Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban, speaks during a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. For years, Mujahid had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the militants

The Taliban's war on female Afghans: Islamic group's brutal oppression of women and girls during 1990s tyranny A woman wearing a blue-coloured burqa walks next to the construction site of a building in Kabul on June 21, 2021 Under the hardline version of Sharia - Islamic law - that the Taliban imposed the last time they controlled the capital, women and girls were mostly denied education or employment. Burqas - full body and face coverings - became mandatory in public, women could not leave home without a male companion, and public floggings and executions, including stoning for adultery, were carried out in city squares and stadiums. Under threat of execution, girls were banned from mainstream education after the age of eight - forcing those who wanted to learn to do so in secret schools. From the age of eight, girls were not allowed to be in direct contact with males other than a close 'blood relative', husband, or in-law. Punishments were often carried out publicly, either as formal spectacles held in sports stadiums or town squares or spontaneous street beatings. Many punishments were meted out by individual militias without the sanction of Taliban authorities. In October 1996, for instance, a woman had the tip of her thumb cut off for wearing nail varnish - while in 1999, a mother-of-seven was executed in front of 30,000 spectators in Kabul's Ghazi Sport stadium for murdering her husband. She had been jailed for three years and tortured prior to the execution, but had refused to plead her innocence in a bid to protect her daughter. Even after the Taliban's ousting in 2001, women often remained marginalised, especially in rural areas. The United Nations chief called for an immediate end to violence in Afghanistan and urging the international community to unite to ensure that the human rights of all people are respected. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Security Council at an emergency meeting on Monday 'and the international community as a whole to stand together, work together and act together.' He said he is 'particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan who fear a return to the darkest days' in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled and barred girls for getting an education and imposed draconian measures on women. Mr Guterres said 'the world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead' and with the country's future and the hopes and dreams of a generation of young Afghans in the balance, the coming days 'will be pivotal.' At this 'grave hour,' the secretary-general urged all parties, especially the Taliban, 'to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs can be met.' Mr Guterres said the UN continues to have staff and offices in areas now under Taliban control, and which so far have been respected. 'Above all, we will stay and deliver in support of the Afghan people in their hour of need.' 'We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,' he said. Advertisement

However, women and girls remain the most at risk under the new regime, with gangs in conquered areas allegedly hunting children as young as 12 and unmarried or widowed women they regard as spoils of war - 'qhanimat' - being forced into marriage or sex slavery.

The Taliban has also said women will have to wear hijabs but not burkas. During the press conference on Tuesday, Mujahid did not detail what restrictions would be imposed on women, although he did say it would be a government with 'strong Islamic values'.

Mujahid claimed: 'We are committed to the rights of women under the system of Sharia. They are going to be working shoulder to shoulder with us. We would like to assure the international community that there will be no discrimination.'

The Taliban denied it was enforcing sex slavery, and claims that such actions are against Islam. During the 1990s, the regime established religious police for the suppression of 'vice', and courts handed out extreme punishments including stoning to death women accused of adultery.

Just minutes before the hour-long press conference, it was confirmed that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's deputy leader and co-founder, had arrived back in Kandahar from Qatar, with what was described as a high-level delegation.

'We are going to decide what kind of laws will be presented to the nation. This will be the responsibility of the government with the participation of all people,' Mujahid claimed.

Much of the rest of Mujahid's press conference was also aimed at quashing fears about reprisal attacks against those who supported the Western-backed government, saying the new government did not want internal or external enemies.

Earlier, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News 'thousands' of schools would continue to educate girls as the group announced a 'general amnesty' for those who previously worked in the Afghan government, saying 'their properties will be saved and their honour and their lives are safe.'

A group of women staged a demonstration demanding the right to work and study in Kabul on Tuesday morning.

Chanting the slogan: 'join voices with us' the small group of women approached a local Taliban HQ in Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul.

But rather than arresting or beating the protestors, the senior Taliban commander present tried to reassure them by telling them: 'Don't worry, your rights will be respected. You will be allowed to work and study.'

One observer who saw the women's protest said: 'The Taliban are on their best behaviour at the moment. They are keen to take control of the levers of government in Kabul with the least possible bloodshed and in the quickest time.

'They know that to do that they need to win the hearts and minds of the people, or at least allay their fears.

'We've all heard orders from their high command stating that women will be allowed to work and girls to go to school, but that's very different from the way the Taliban have behaved in the past. The proof will be whether they continue to maintain that position over the next few weeks and months, or revert to their old ways.'

Meanwhile, MailOnline received a heartfelt video plea from a young Afghan student outlining her fears for the days ahead.

Kabul University student Rukhsar, 22, said; 'I am disheartened by the recent situation and advance of the Taliban because I have been sitting at home and worrying about my future.

'I have dreamed of doing a lot of things in my life but now everything has been stopped suddenly. 'Everything has changed in a flash of light.'

She added: 'I don't know about my future now and the international community have turned their faces away from us. This is our right to go to university and to do work in the offices.'

Mujahid also confirmed the Taliban's intention to form a government, and made assurances that its shape will be announced once it has been completed.

'Afghanistan will have a strong Islamic government,' he said. 'What the name and makeup will be, let's leave that to political leaders. I can assure you it will have strong Islamic values.'

When asked by a reporter whether the Taliban would renounce terrorist group Al-Qaeda, Mujahid answered evasively, saying the group would not permit foreign fighters to use Afghanistan 'against anybody'.

'I would like to assure the international community that nobody will be harmed,' Mujahid said from the former government's media information centre in Kabul, speaking into a row of microphones.

'We do not want to have any problems with the international community,' he added, before defending the Taliban's right to 'act according to our religious principles.'

'Other countries have different approaches, rules and regulations... the Afghans have the right to have their own rules and regulations in accordance with our values.'

The spokesman suggested that the Taliban intended to put the last 20 years behind them, claiming that the group is 'not going to revenge anybody, we do not have grudges against anybody'.

'We want to make sure Afghanistan is not the battlefield of conflict anymore. We want to grant amnesty to those who have fought against us,' he said.

He described the Taliban's '20 year struggle for freedom, emancipating the country form occupation,' and said of the recent incursion: 'This was our right, we have achieved our right, I would like to thank God for bringing us to this stage.'

There have also been concerns that the Taliban would restrict media and journalists within the country. Mujahid also attempted to allay those fears in Tuesdays conference.

'I would like to assure the media that we are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks', Mujahid said. 'Private media can continue to be free and independent.

'Islam is very important in our country... Therefore Islamic values should be taken into account when it comes to the media, to developing your programmes.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid answers press members questions as he holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan

The same group of women started protesting this morning, demanding the extremist group does not 'eliminate' women from society but were not approached by Taliban fighters until the afternoon

'Impartiality of the media is very important, they can critique our work so that we can improve. But the media should not work against us', he added.

Mujahid put particular emphasis on people being safe under the new Taliban regime, and that thing would be different from over two decades ago.

'In your homes, nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to be interrogated or chased, those who have knocked on doors to inspect houses are abusers, they are going to be pursued and investigated,' he said.

'Thousands of soldiers who fought us for 20 years, after the end of occupation, they have been pardoned. Those who are at the airport waiting, when they come back to their homes, they will be safe... we want to give them confidence.'

The Taliban's spokesman said that the group has pardoned everybody for the stability and peace of Afghanistan,' and said any harm caused in the recent incursion was 'one of the side effects of conflict'.

'A huge occupying force was defeated, it was impossible for us to emancipate the country, without injuries, without harms, without hurts.

'Animosities have come to an end, we want to live peacefully, we don't want any internal enemies or external enemies.'

Mujahid said that the country was at a 'historic stage', with consultation over the creation of the new 'inclusive' government to be completed soon. He also said that while there had been some riots involving people who 'wanted to abuse the situation,' he assured Kabul's residents they would be protected.

He also signalled the Taliban might invite countries to return to their embassies after frantic efforts were made in the last few days by many western countries to embassy evacuate staff from the city.

'The security of embassies is crucially important to us. The areas where there are embassies will have complete security,' he said.

Despite the obvious PR campaign, terrified families in Kabul today handed red and white roses to the Taliban fighters who have taken their city - as they desperately tried to build bridges with them.

Footage of the men and boys approaching the armed members showed them handing the symbolic coloured flowers.

In Afghani culture red roses symbolise friendship, while the white blooms mean forgiveness.

Ironically the flowers were nearly wiped out during the last Taliban regime when gardens were left neglected.

The handing of the roses was a last gamble of families in Kabul who are anxiously waiting to see how rule under the Islamists will look.

With little else to urge compassion from them, mothers and fathers are hoping the gesture will encourage mercy.

The peaceful act is in stark contrast to the actions of Taliban fighters marauding the capital city.

They have been targeting pro-West men and women and knocking on doors to take them away.
Almost all surgeries in New South Wales will come to a halt in private hospitals, after the state reported a record high 633 Covid cases on Wednesday.

The ongoing surge in infections has put immense pressure on the already stretched resources of the healthcare system and now the NSW Ministry of Health wants to free up staff to cope with the influx of cases.

NSW Ministry of Health's deputy secretary Phil Minns issued a letter to private hospitals across the state declaring that only 'emergency' surgeries would will be permitted from August 23.

Similar non-urgent surgeries have already been halted in public hospitals.

Almost all surgeries in New South Wales will come to a halt in private hospitals, after the state reported a record high 633 Covid cases on Wednesday. Pictured: paramedics are seen at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney

The ongoing surge in infections has put immense pressure on the already stretched resources of the healthcare system and now the NSW Ministry of Health wants to free up staff to cope with the influx of cases

What surgeries are still permitted? The 'special conditions' order will only permit category one procedures. These are identified as surgeries which could 'deteriorate quickly to the point that it may become an emergency'. Patients who undergo category one procedures are also required to be admitted to hospital within 30 days. The three remaining three categories, which are all not likely to become and emergency, will be subject to the ban. Advertisement

Mr Minns said the ban will brought in to 'protect the health and safety of the public through reducing risk of community transmission by restricting the range of medical and/or hospital services being offered at certain licenced private health facilities'.

He hopes the shock move will help 'maintain a balance of services offered by licenced facilities throughout the State' and 'increase the availability of trained health staff to assist in supporting the coordinated statewide response of the NSW Government to the Covid-19 pandemic.'

The 'special conditions' order under the Private Health Facilities Act separates all non-elective surgeries into four categories.

Category one procedures, which require patients to be admitted within 30 days and have the risk of becoming an 'emergency' are still able to go ahead.

But the remaining three categories will be subject to the ban.

Category two surgeries are outlined as procedures which require admission within 90 days but are not likely to become an emergency.

Likewise, category three surgeries pertain to procedures where admission within 365 days is preferred, but have a low risk of their condition deteriorating rapidly.

The fourth category is identified as those who have deferred admission for personal reasons or are clinically not yet ready for their admission.

NSW Ministry of Health's deputy secretary Phil Minns issued a letter to private hospitals across the state declaring that only 'emergency' surgeries would will be permitted from August 23. Pictured: Blacktown Hospital staff in Sydney are seen leaving after their shifts

Macquarie University Hospital (pictured) is one of dozens of private hospitals subject to the ban on non-elective surgeries

Private hospitals effected by the ban on non-elective surgery Calvary Riverina Hospital Macquarie University Hospital Albury Wodonga Private Hospital Armidale Private Hospital Baringa Private Hospital Castlecrag Private Hospital Hunters Hill Private Hospital Kareena Private Hospital Lake Macquarie Private Hospital North Shore Private Hospital Nowra Private Hospital Port Macquarie Private Hospital Southern Highlands Private Hospital St George Private Hospital Strathfield Private Hospital Warners Bay Private Hospital Westmead Private Wollongong Private Hospital Brisbane Waters Private Hospital Dubbo Private Hospital Forster Private Hospital Gosford Private Hospital Hurstville Private Hospital Lingard Private Hospital Maitland Private Hospital Mayo Private Hospital Shellharbour Private Hospital Tuggerah Lakes Private Hospital Sydney Adventist Hospital Campbelltown Private Hospital Hunter Valley Private Hospital Newcastle Private Hospital Norwest Private Hospital Prince of Wales Private Hospital Sydney Southwest Private Hospital Nepean Private Hospital Northern Beaches Hospital St Vincents Private Community Hospital Griffith Mater Hospital Sydney St Vincents Private Hospital, Darlinghurst Advertisement

Sydney's Covid-19 outbreak exploded yet again on Wednesday as NSW authorities confirmed the state's worst day of the pandemic to date with a record 633 new cases and three deaths from the virus overnight.

An unvaccinated man in his 60s died from the virus at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney's south-west and two men in their late 70s died at Nepean Hospital.

One of them was fully vaccinated and the other had received his first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Of the new cases, 550 were found in west and south-west Sydney.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the worst was yet to come for the city after almost eight weeks spent in lockdown.

'What the data is telling us in the last few days is that we haven't seen the worst of it,' she said.

Berejiklian snapped at a reporter who asked why she hasn't plunged NSW into a more radical lockdown, telling him bluntly: 'it's not your press conference'.

Sky News journalist Andrew Clennell was reprimanded by the premier for continually asking questions about whether she will implement a harder, stage-four lockdown.

'Excuse me, it's not your press conference, there's other journalists here as well,' Ms Berejiklian said.

She also hit out at the 448 residents across NSW who were caught leaving home without an essential reason in the past day alone - a statistic she described as 'heartbreaking'.

Sydney's Covid-19 outbreak has exploded yet again as NSW hit a record 633 new cases overnight. Pictured is a Sydneysider wearing a mask in the city on Monday

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the worst was yet to come for Sydneysiders as the state recorded by far the highest daily rise in cases during the Covid-19 pandemic to date

'Can I just ask everybody to care. Don't care about us or the broader community, but care about those closest to you,' she said.

'Care about your family, your friends that you are causing inordinate amounts of grief.

'Even if you don't care about the people you don't know, care about those closest to you because you are risking their lives and you're risking their livelihoods.'

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant warned there will be more deaths from the virus if current trends continue.

Ms Berejiklian launched into a reporter for insisting she send the entirety of New South Wales into a more radical lockdown , saying: 'it's not your press conference'

Of the new cases, 550 were found in Sydney's west and south-west. Pictured is a police officer and ADF personnel monitoring a line of people waiting to receive their Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday

'We will see more admissions and more deaths if these numbers continue to increase,' she said. 'We have a collective responsibility to do all we can to stop seeing those deaths.'

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro also pleaded for residents in regional parts of the state to stay home after 23 cases were recorded in western NSW - including 17 in Dubbo.

'The message for everybody is to follow the stay at home orders and cut down mobility,' he said.

Fifteen cases were detected in the Hunter-New England region and 54 were found in the Nepean Blue Mountains region west of Sydney.

Seating areas are pictured roped off to prevent members of the public gathering at Bronte Beach in Sydney on Wednesday

There are 462 Covid-19 cases in hospital across NSW - 77 of whom are in intensive care, with 25 requiring ventilation.

Ms Berejiklian earlier on Wednesday morning revealed hairdressers, beauticians and cleaners could be among the first professions to get back to work once they are fully vaccinated.

'I don't want to give the game away but it would be potentially, you know, services which could be provided to people so long as both parties are vaccinated,' she told KIIS FM.

A health expert has offered a glimmer of hope for long-suffering Sydneysiders desperate to be freed from lockdown, saying harder restrictions could mean cases plummet within months.

Epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely said he believed NSW can significantly drop to as few as 30 cases a day by mid-October under a 'hard lockdown' which used tougher restrictions.

'It will take until about mid-October under really hard lockdown under modelling we are releasing tomorrow, or February under a soft lockdown,' Professor Blakely told The Project on Tuesday night.

A queue to receive a Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at the New South Wales Health vaccination centre at Sydney's Olympic Park on Tuesday

'So it will take a long time to get those case numbers down to that level. This is really challenging stuff. It is more about a bridge over towards October, November, when the vaccination coverages get up and seeing how we go at that point. It is challenging.'

He had difficulty describing the current state of Sydney's 53-day lockdown when asked if it was a 'soft' lockdown unlikely to decrease cases.

'I don't know what they are in, to be honest,' he conceded.

'A hard lockdown would take until October to get to about five cases a day.
Incredible pictures have emerged of Australia's first evacuation flight from Afghanistan after the Taliban took power.

The RAAF flight from Kabul to an Australian airbase in the UAE included Australian citizens, Afghan nationals with visas and one foreign official working in an international agency.

One image shows them waiting to board the C-130 Hercules plane on the tarmac at Kabul Airport, which was secured by US and UK forces on Tuesday.

Another shows a young Afghan boy and his father by being greeted by Australian health officials in a hangar.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australia will be taking in 3,000 Afghan refugees this financial year.

The first evacuation flight touched down in the UAE at 10.45am eastern time with 26 people on board.

'This was the first of what will be many flights subject to clearance and weather,' Mr Morrison said.

The Prime Minister warned the evacuation process would be difficult. Pictured: Troops guarding the C-130 alongside passengers

This is the first picture of the Australian Defence Force evacuation flight which departed Kabul with 26 on board

The RAAF C-130 Hercules which successfully evacuated 26 people from Kabul airport

A young boy appears to be one of the lucky ones who was on the flight out

The Prime Minister warned the evacuation process would be difficult as the situation on the ground worsens and did not say how many people he aimed to rescue.

'This is not a simple process. It is very difficult for any Australian to imagine the sense of chaos and uncertainty existing right across this country. The breakdown in formal communications, the ability to reach people,' he said.

Mr Morrison said legitimate Afghan refugees but would be welcome but anyone who arrived illegally by boat would be turned away.

'We will only be resettling people through our official humanitarian program going through official channels,' he said.

Officials help process arrivals at the arrivals who touched down at an airbase in the UAE

The C-130 Hercules plane (pictured) touched down in the UAE at 10.45am eastern time with 26 people on board

Australia's 3,000 humanitarian visa places will focus on family members of Australians, persecuted minorities such as women and girls. Pictured: The first evacuation flight

'We will not be allowing people to enter Australia illegally, even at this time. Our policy has not changed.

'We will be supporting Afghans who have legitimate claims through our official and legitimate processes. We will not be providing that pathway to those who would seek to come any other way. That is a very important message. The government's policy has not changed, will not change,' he said.

The 3,000 humanitarian places will focus on family members of Australians, persecuted minorities such as women and girls, children, the Hazara and other vulnerable groups.

Canada has offered resettlement to more than 20,000 people at risk and the United States is accelerating its visa application process.

In 2015, the Abbott government granted 12,000 humanitarian visas to people in Syria on top of Australia's regular humanitarian program.

Mr Morrison said one additional C1-30 and two C-17s will soon join the existing C-130 to make regular flights out of Kabul in the coming days.

A team of Australian officials is on the ground in Kabul trying to track down Australians and Afghans with visas to help get them get out.

'I stress how important that is. To get people on a flight and get people on the ground to process this,' the Prime Minister said.

Afghans climb on top of a passenger jet at Kabul's airport on Monday amid chaotic scenes as civilians try to find safe passage out of the Afghan capital after Taliban takeover

Australia has successfully completed its first evacuation flight from Afghanistan, Scott Morrison (pictured) announced

'This will be done in as orderly fashion as is possible in the circumstances. We need to be very clear who is getting on our planes, who is going to our base and going to come here and live in Australia.

'We have to be very, very clear about that. We are taking all the sensible precautions that moving urgently to address the very real need in these stressing conditions.'

Mr Morrison described the the situation on the ground as 'uncertain' and Foreign Minister Marise Payne warned the Taliban controlled checkpoints around the Airport.

'We are working closely with the US particularly the UK, others, Germans included, to try to improve or address those security challenges, those check points particularly, and then the security in terms of access to the airport there,' she said.

Most of the people Australia was looking to evacuate were in Kabul but not all, Senator Payne added.

The Taliban terror group took power on Monday when its fighters marched on the capital and government forces fled.

US and UK troops have secured the airport to allow Allies to evacuate their citizens.

On Tuesday Mr Morrison admitted that not all Afghans who had worked with Australians during the war would be rescued.

'We will continue to do everything we can for those who have stood with us, as we have to this day,' he told reporters in Canberra.

On Tuesday Mr Morrison admitted that not all Afghans who had worked with Australians during the war would be rescued. Pictured: German evacuees

'But, I want to talk openly to veterans that, despite our best efforts, I know that support won't reach all that it should.'

Cabinet's national security committee is meeting daily to discuss plans to extract Australians and Afghans who helped allied forces during the two-decade war.

The ABC reports the rescue mission, which involves 250 troops and three RAAF aircraft, has begun with a military transport plane flying out of Kabul on Wednesday morning.

There are grave concerns the Taliban will hunt down and execute people who helped Australia, the United States and other allies.

Since April, 430 Afghan nationals who have worked with Australia have been allowed into the country, with a total of 1,800 granted visas.

There are more than 130 Australians working for the United Nations, non-government organisations and elsewhere still in Afghanistan, which is now under Taliban control.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews expects the vast majority of people applying for temporary visas will be approved.

'I'm hopeful there is only a very, very small number, that may require significant security checking,' she told 4BC radio.

Australian Defence Force personnel based themselves in the United Arab Emirates while waiting for the Afghan capital to become safer.

People swarmed Kabul airport in an attempt to board military flights, with footage showing some falling to their deaths after clinging to planes.

NATO video posted online on Tuesday showed the runway empty with American troops on the tarmac.

A C-17 jet carrying 640 Afghan refugees that left Kabul on Sunday night as the Taliban claimed the city. The flight landed in Qatar. The refugees ran up the half-open ramp while US forces were preparing for take-off, according to an unnamed defense official cited by Defense One on Monday. At least one other C-17 has departed the area

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke confirmed no Afghan visa holder in Australia would be sent home while the situation remained dire.

Mr Morrison refused to commit to offering paths to permanent residency or citizenship, but insisted there were no plans to send people into danger.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said the idea that minority groups like the Hazara community would ever return wasn't realistic.

'We need to give them the certainty of Australian citizenship on a permanent basis, rather than some pretence that somehow their circumstances are temporary,' he said.

The prime minister didn't rule out a special intake of refugees, similar to the 12,000 people granted asylum from Syria in 2015.

But he said his immediate focus was on making sure the Australian mission was successful given the desperate situation in Kabul.

It comes after thousands of Afghans stormed Kabul Airport in a desperate bid to escape the country.

A video showed desperate Afghans clinging to the sides of a U.S. military plane as it tried to leave the city's airport.

Another showed people plunging to their deaths from a C-17 transport aircraft.

Australia joined the war in Afghanistan in November 2001. Pictured: An Australian Platoon from Combat Team Tusk in Afghanistan

Australia joined the war in Afghanistan in November 2001 after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, the worst terror attack in history.

The US-led coalition swiftly deposed the Taliban government before year's end, but western troops had stayed for 20 years since, dealing with lingering pockets of resistance and trying to train the local army.

At the peak of the war, Australia had 1,500 troops in Afghanistan and in total 39,000 Australian Defence Force personnel have been deployed on Operations SLIPPER and HIGHROAD.

Since the end of 2013, Australia has only maintained a small training force in Afghanistan rather than active combat troops.

In February the US said it would withdraw by May. The Taliban reclaimed control from the Afghan government over the weekend.

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The Taliban's new 'moderate' facade has already crumbled with images emerging today of alleged thieves being tarred and strapped to trucks, and reports of a journalist shot dead for raising a flag and of a woman killed for refusing to wear a burqa.

The terror group's 'Angels of Salvation' are going from door-to-door and dragging political opponents from their homes at gunpoint. One suspect's neighbour reported that the Taliban said he would be hanged tomorrow.

A journalist who raised the Afghan national flag in defiance at a protest in the northern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday was shot dead by the jihadists, along with two other protesters.

According to local reports. Zahidullah Nazirzada had joined defiant crowds in raising the tricolour, now outlawed and replaced by the Taliban's white banner.

Footage from Kabul showed a car thief on Tuesday with his face covered in tar, tied to the back of a truck and his hands behind his back as people gathered around to gawp. A traffic cop stood nearby apparently powerless.

A young woman was shot dead for allegedly refusing to wear a burqa by marauding jihadists when they captured the northern town of Taloqan in Takhar province last week, according to a post widely shared on social media.

She is seen lying in a pool of blood as her distraught parents crouch beside her body in the image which was shared by the Afghan Ambassador to Poland, Tahir Qadry, who denounced the 'butchering of civilians.'

Other footage shows Taliban fighters outside Kabul airport on Tuesday wielding AK-47s and rocket launchers, marching towards the terrified crowds and firing warning shots into the air.

The jihadists have been dubbed 'Taliban 2.0' for their media charm offensive in trying to persuade the world that they have moderated compared to the Taliban of 20 years ago.

But these barbaric atrocities tell a different story:

Suspected political enemies are being dragged from their houses and are to be hung, according to sources

Ex-interpreter saw his ho u se being raided via an app on his phone as he remains holed up in a safehouse

se being raided via an app on his phone as he remains holed up in a safehouse Journalists and student activists have been hauled out of their homes in the middle of the night

Kabul's first female mayor Zarifa Ghafari said: 'I'm just sitting here waiting for them to come, there is no help'

21-year-old former teacher says she is a 'prisoner in her own home' as the Taliban fighters raid nearby houses

In Kabul's Pol-e-Charki prison, the militants murdered former ISIS chief Ziaul Haq, fuelling fears of civil war

A mother-of-four was beaten to death in front of her daughter before a grenade was hurled into their home

A bloodied child, who appeared to have been killed, was seen being carried outside the airport on Tuesday

Taliban are causing stampedes outside the airport as they fire guns into the air and beat would-be refugees

Women reached their arms through railings outside airport crying to the US troops: 'The Taliban are coming'

Teenage boys cowering with their younger siblings and mothers are separated by fighters and beaten

Two killed and at least 10 injured when Taliban opened fire on protest over removal of the national flag

Journalist Zahidullah Nazirzada was reportedly shot dead while raising the Afghan national flag in Jalalabad

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

Taliban opened fire on protesters who were flying the Afghan flag in Jalalabad, bottom left of frame, leaving three dead

A young woman was shot dead for allegedly refusing to wear a hijab by marauding jihadists when they captured the northern town of Taloqan in Takhar province last week. She is seen lying in a pool of blood as her distraught parents crouch beside her body in an image shared by the Afghan Ambassador to Poland Tahir Qadry who denounced the 'butchering of civilians.'

Journalist Zahidullah Nazirzada (right) was reportedly shot dead (left, the purported scene of his death) while raising the Afghan national flag which the Taliban have outlawed in favour of their own

An alleged looter is placed up against a wall with fighter training their guns on his back after he was dragged out of his house by the Islamist 'Angels of Salvation'

The Taliban turned on the crowd at Kabul airport on Tuesday, driving the hundreds back from the airport perimeter as they pushed to flee the country

A statue of political leader Abdul Ali Mazari, who was murdered by the Taliban in 1995, was destroyed

A child covered in blood is carried away with his father after the Taliban used whips on the crowd trying to get in to Kabul airport on Tuesday

A fighter canes a boy who cowers with women and young children

An Afghan woman is seen lying on the ground after the Taliban used whips and sharp objects to drive people from the airport

A Taliban fighter whacks a boy across the back of the thighs as families cower under a bush

A man cries as he watches fellow Afghans get wounded after Taliban fighters use gunfire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside Kabul airport for a way out

A 21-year-old woman who was working as a teacher in Kandahar before it fell described how she had fled to Kabul earlier this year but now lived in fear that the Taliban will soon come knocking on her door.

She told Radio 4: 'When the Taliban attacked and captured Kandahar we were unable to live anymore, because of the shooting, the bombing and the killing of innocent civilians.

'Now I'm taking refuge here in Kabul because of Taliban. But when it comes to Taliban we never expected this, that Kabul would be captured and the city has fallen.

'But now we are trapped we cannot do anything, everywhere Taliban are seen.

'I feel personally at risk from the Taliban because I was working for an educational organisation and the Taliban do not accept this, now I do not feel safe at all.

'I am here taking refuge in Kabul, I do not leave the house, I do not even go for something I really need. I'm afraid, I'm like a prisoner in my own home.

'They are going house-to-house, they are asking what people have been doing, they want to know who lives where. Yesterday, I saw their car passing through our street, so we collected all the documents and ID we had in the house and hid it.'

The young woman said that she was desperate to receive asylum status in Britain.

Another woman named only as Najia was at home with her three young sons and daughter in a small northern village when the Taliban knocked at their door.

Her 25-year-old daughter Manizha described how they had come to the house three days before demanding that her mother cook for their men.

Pictured: A group of men on top of a tower-like structure wave an Afghan flag in Khost

This screengrab taken from video from Pajhwok shows Afghan people protesting over the reported removal of Afghan flags replaced with the Taliban flags after Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan at Jalalabad on August 18, 2021

Pictured: Afghan protesters wave the national flag as they run, ride and drive down the streets of Jalalabad. The Taliban are said to have quelled the protest, killing three people

Pictured: Protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost on Wednesday, which sit around 80 miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul. Pictured: Scenes from Jalalabad

She told CNN: 'My mother told them, "I am poor, how can I cook for you?" [The Taliban] started beating her. My mother collapsed, and they hit her with their guns - AK47s.'

Manizha shouted at the fighters to relent and in response they hurled a grenade into a neighbouring room, fleeing as the house became engulfed in flames.

The mother-of-four, Najia, later died of the beating.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman, claimed on Tuesday 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago' - when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

The Taliban has also said women will have to wear hijabs but not burkas.

But despite his claims video emerged today showing terrified women at the gates to Kabul airport pleading with US troops to let them through, wailing: 'The Taliban are coming.'

The women were seen reaching their hands through iron railings towards the soldiers while screaming in the video which was shared widely on Afghan social media accounts this morning.

Taliban gunmen have now surrounded the airport - the only route out of Afghanistan for thousands of refugees stranded in the capital and nearby provinces - and are checking the documents of those trying to reach it.

Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule

Crowds pictured outside Kabul airport on Wednesday morning, which is now the only viable route out of the country for thousands of refugees trapped in the capital

British forces say evacuation flights are happening with 'consent' of the Taliban, as fighters were pictured patrolling one of the main roads to the airport today (pictured)

The Taliban has insisted there will be total amnesty for those who fought against them in Afghanistan and that evacuation flights will be protected, but there have been reports of gunmen firing into crowds

A Taliban gunman speaks with a driver along the main road to Hamid Karzai airport, where evacuation flights are taking place

Taliban gunmen patrol through crowds of desperate Afghans at Kabul airport today, as people try to board planes out of the country fearing for their safety under Islamist rule

Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul

The race to get out of Kabul: What is the situation in Afghanistan and how many people are being evacuated? The Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly 20-year war. Here is the latest: The Taliban, who ran Afghanistan in the late 1990s, have again taken control after the Western-backed government that has run it for 20 years collapsed

The Taliban's deputy leader and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kandahar Tuesday after 20 years of exile, landing in the insurgent group's former capital just days after they took control of the country.

It comes as the Taliban held a press conference in which it insisted it would respect women's rights - but women's rights but 'within Islamic law'

They insisted would not exact revenge, which the group insisted they 'want to live peacefully' after taking control of Afghanistan

Thousands of people are racing to Kabul Airport which is one of the last routes out of the country amid fears the Taliban could carry out revenge attacks

Tens of thousands of people need evacuating - including some 22,000 on US special immigrant visas, 6,000-7,000 British nationals and Afghan allies, and 10,000 refugees that Germany has said it will accept

Some people are so desperate that they clung to the side of a military jet as it took off and then plunged to their deaths yesterday - at least seven died

At least 12 military flights took off from Kabul today

Britain has carried out three MoD military flights so far today amid hopes they can get 6,000-7,000 people out in total

RAF planes are taking people to other stable parts of the Middle East where they can get charter flights back to the UK

Eleven aircraft of five different types are believed to be shuttling in and out of Kabul - the RAF Voyager Tanker (Airbus A330 MRTT), Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Airbus A400M Atlas

900 British armed forces are in Afghanistan to bring UK nationals home and secure safety of some Afghans

370 UK embassy staff and British nationals were flown out by the MoD on Sunday and yesterday, while 289 Afghan nationals were taken out last week

A further 350 British and Afghans will be taken out of the country in the next 24 hours, UK Government says

The US may issue up 80,000 special immigrant visas to those who helped with its combat operations

7,500 troops currently guarding the airport - including 6,000 Americans and smaller numbers of British, Turkish and Australians - will also need to leave

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for G7 leaders to hold a virtual meeting 'in the coming days'

Defence Minister Ben Wallace says the Taliban takeover is a 'failure of the international community'

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says UK must work with 'challenging' partners on dealing with Taliban

US President Joe Biden called the situation 'gut-wrenching' but rejected blame for what's happening

The Taliban now say they want to form an 'inclusive, Islamic government' with other factions - and are holding negotiations with senior politicians

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has already fled the country after the Taliban reached Kabul on Sunday Advertisement

Islamist fighters were funnelling people towards a gate on the airport's civilian south side, demanding documents before occasionally allowing someone to pass. Each time the gate opened, dozens tried to rush inside - with gunshots fired to keep them back.

Meanwhile more footage revealed crowds hard up against concrete perimeter walls on the airport's military north side, with shots being fired over the heads of men, women and children to keep them back.

Afghan translators and other visa holders trying to reach the airport have told MailOnline that they are actually in hiding near the airport, afraid to break cover and try to reach the runway in case the Islamists haul them away.

Others who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds - without making it on to a flight.

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she told a press conference.

Flights that were supposed to be carrying thousands of people out of the country each day have so-far been taking off with just a few hundred aboard, with the UK evacuating some 370 people between Sunday and Monday.

General Sir Nick Carter, head of the UK armed forces, told BBC Radio 4 that Britain 'hopes' to get 1,000 people out today with seven evacuation flights going into the country - though was forced to admit that is only possible due to 'collaboration' with the Taliban.

He also flatly denied reports that people are struggling to get to the airport, saying: 'Subject to the situation remaining calm, which the Taliban are working hard to achieve alongside us, the system will work.'

One man was photographed on Tuesday with tears streaming down his cheeks, his face contorted in anguish as he saw his fellow Afghans being whipped outside the airport.

The Taliban then opened fire to drive the masses back from the site.

Reports suggested the militants were going door-to-door, rounding up those who had worked with the Afghan armed forces or government. Exclusive video obtained by Fox News showed a convoy of Taliban fighters roaring down a street, then opening fire in Kabul looking for ex-government workers.

The Taliban on Tuesday used whips and sharp objects to beat back women and children desperate to enter Kabul airport, forcing crowds to run away in terror.

One man was photographed with tears streaming down his cheeks, his face contorted in anguish as he saw his fellow Afghans being whipped.

The Taliban then opened fire to drive the masses back from the site.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman, claimed on Tuesday 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago' - when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

The Taliban has also said women will have to wear hijabs but not burkas.

Yet despite their claims to have moderated their position, there was no sign of that on Tuesday.

Reports suggested the militants were going door-to-door, rounding up those who had worked with the Afghan armed forces or government. Exclusive video obtained by Fox News showed a convoy of Taliban fighters roaring down a street, then opening fire in Kabul looking for ex-government workers.

Afghans run from the airport after the Taliban began using whips and sharp objects to repeal the crowd, before opening fire on those hoping to flee

Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul on Tuesday and man checkpoints set up across the city

Pictured: Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban, speaks during a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. For years, Mujahid had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the militants

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid answers press members questions as he holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan

A group of women began protesting on Tuesday, demanding the extremist group does not 'eliminate' women from society but were not approached by Taliban fighters until the afternoon

Taliban fighters stand guard before their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid arrives for his first news conference in Kabul on Tuesday

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

During the press conference on Tuesday, Mujahid did not detail what restrictions would be imposed on women, although he did say it would be a government with 'strong Islamic values'.

Mujahid claimed: 'We are committed to the rights of women under the system of Sharia. They are going to be working shoulder to shoulder with us.

'We would like to assure the international community that there will be no discrimination.'

The Taliban denied it was enforcing sex slavery, and claims that such actions are against Islam.

During the 1990s, the regime established religious police for the suppression of 'vice', and courts handed out extreme punishments including stoning to death women accused of adultery.

During their press conference in the capital city, the Taliban insisted girls will receive an education and women will be allowed to study at university - both of which were forbidden under Taliban rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 before the US-led invasion.

The group also said they want women to be part of the new government after female Afghans staged a protest outside a local Taliban HQ in the Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul, while chanting 'honor and lives are safe' and 'join voices with us'.

However, women and girls remain the most at risk under the new regime, with gangs in conquered areas allegedly hunting children as young as 12 and unmarried or widowed women they regard as spoils of war - 'qhanimat' - being forced into marriage or sex slavery.

The spokesman suggested that the Taliban intended to put the last 20 years behind them, claiming that the group is 'not going to revenge anybody, we do not have grudges against anybody'.

'We want to make sure Afghanistan is not the battlefield of conflict anymore. We want to grant amnesty to those who have fought against us,' he said.

Yet footage from within Kabul showed the Taliban driving around in their pickup trucks and opening fire.

Some reports said they were going door-to-door to hunt down opponents.

And it also emerged on Tuesday that the Taliban is already offering 'safe haven' to Al Qaeda, according to a Pentagon watchdog report - published just a day after President Biden said the war in Afghanistan had succeeded in ensuring the country could not be used to launch attacks against the U.S.

The revelation will bring fresh questions about why Biden was intent on pushing through the U.S. withdrawal so fast.

And with U.S. troops and diplomats heading for the exits, who is left behind to provide intelligence on the deadly terrorist group?

The new report by the Lead Inspector General for Operation Freedom's Sentinel - the name of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan - said terrorist networks including ISIS had made the most of the Department of Defense's drawdown.

'As the DoD restructured its counterterrorism mission to locations outside of Afghanistan, ISISKhorasan exploited the political instability and rise in violence during the quarter by attacking minority sectarian targets and infrastructure to spread fear and highlight the Afghan government's inability to provide adequate security,' it said.

'Additionally, the Taliban continued to maintain its relationship with al Qaeda, providing safe haven for the terrorist group in Afghanistan.'

Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 terror attacks from Afghan soil, triggering the 2001 invasion by U.S. troops.

He was finally hunted down and killed by Navy Seals in neighboring Pakistan 10 years later.

Disrupting his network in Afghanistan has been a key part of the U.S. and NATO mission.

But with the Taliban retaking power, analysts are assessing what it means for Al Qaeda and the threat it poses to the West.

Footage obtained by Fox News showed Taliban fighters driving through the streets of Kabul and opening fire. It was unclear whether they were firing in the air or aiming for people. Reports have claimed they are going door-to-door hunting down opponents

The Taliban fighters, flying their white flag, were filmed surreptitiously from a balcony in Kabul on Tuesday

A man claiming to be a member of Al Qaeda is pictured in Yemen in 2009. The terrorist group is likely to be granted safe haven by the Taliban, according to a Pentagon watchdog report published on Tuesday

President Biden has repeatedly declared victory in the U.S. mission to ensure Al Qaeda could not use Afghan soil to launch attacks on the U.S. But a new report says the Taliban is offering safe haven to the terrorist group

Taliban fighters pose on October 14, 2001, near Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Twenty years after their regime was topped by U.S. and allied forces they are back in power

Taliban fighters stand guard in a vehicle along the roadside in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule

A peace deal signed by the Trump administration in Doha, the capital of Qatar, last year required the Taliban to stop giving safe haven terrorist groups.

Yet, the Taliban's upper echelons are filled with figures who have fought alongside Al Qaeda or hosted their operatives. For example, Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of the Taliban's deputy leaders and the son of a close friend to Bin Laden, is known to be a key conduit to the terror group.

As the Taliban advanced rapidly across Afghanistan, undoing billions of dollars of work that was meant to build a new democracy, officials have repeatedly seized on the eradication of Al Qaeda in the country as justification for leaving.

'We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001, and make sure Al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again,' said Biden on Monday, after being forced to leave Camp David to address the crisis.

'We did that. We severely degraded Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.'

Biden is seen talking to his national security team from Camp David at the weekend. Officials insist they will hold the Taliban to the terms of a peace deal signed in Doha last year, when they promised not to host terrorist groups

The top ranks of the Taliban include the likes of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the Haqqani network, and who is believed to have close ties with Al Qaeda. This rare photograph is taken from an FBI most wanted poster

Other officials say they intent on holding the Taliban to the Doha deal.

'We have a proven ability to fight terrorism effectively without having a large military footprint on the ground  and we will hold the Taliban accountable to not allowing Al Qaeda to have a safe haven in Afghanistan,' National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC's Good Morning America.

Terrorism experts scoff at the idea that the Taliban is no longer operating with Al Qaeda or that the terrorist group has been defeated.

'The recent narrative of a degraded or defeated or decimated group - pick your D word, they've used - is delusional,' said Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal which tracks Al Qaeda activity in the region.

'They've been there, operating alongside the Taliban the whole time. This narrative has persisted because the only way to pursue a U.S. exit out of Afghanistan was to downgrade Al Qaeda's presence.'

He said Pentagon assessments had long been works of fiction, putting the Al Qaeda presence at about 50-100 fighters - despite reporting that 40-80 operatives were being killed each year.

'The intelligence services are clueless or lying,' he said.

Roggio added that the chaotic departure of diplomats, contractors and troops - not to mention Afghans who had worked for the U.S. - would severely erode Washington's ability to gather intelligence on Al Qaeda.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the report and instead directed inquiries to the White House and to the Pentagon Office of the Inspector General.

Taliban fighters ride a newly acquired police pickup truck outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul after their whirlwind advance across the country

Hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, as they try to flee the Taliban takeover

The White House did not immediately respond and a spokesman for the Pentagon Office of the Inspector General said it had nothing to add to the report.

A recent United Nations report said Al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was 'living but ailing in Afghanistan.'

'Al Qaeda is present in at least 15 Afghan provinces, primarily in the eastern, southern and south-eastern regions,' it said. 'Its weekly Thabat newsletter reports on its operations inside Afghanistan.'

And an offshoot, Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent operates under Taliban protection from Kandahar, Helmand and Nimruz Provinces.

In the aftermath of the Taliban takeover, Nathan Sales, former US ambassador-at-large, said Al Qaeda was one of the big winners.

'The Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan is the best news Al Qaeda has had in decades,' he wrote in a briefing paper for the Atlantic Council.

'With the Taliban back in charge of the country, it is virtually certain that al-Qaeda will reestablish a safe haven in Afghanistan and use it to plot attacks on the United States.'

GUY ADAMS: Meet the butcher of 260 UK troops who boasted of raging jihad... who is now in charge in Afghanistan

Abdul Ghani Baradar, 53, is preparing to be president of new Islamic republic

He was previously named as one of the world's most wanted men and jailed

He oversaw a Taliban insurgency that cost lives of thousands of western troops

A senior Taliban commander named Abdul Ghani Baradar gave an interview to Newsweek in 2009 and was asked what the future of his homeland might hold.

'The history of Afghanistan shows that Afghans never get tired of struggling until they have freed their country,' he responded. 'We shall continue our jihad until the expulsion of our enemy from our land In every nook and corner of the country, a spirit for jihad is raging.'

Twelve years later, that prediction seems eerily prescient  aside from one minor detail. The Taliban's 'enemy' were not exactly expelled  but instead chose to quit the hostile land of their own accord.

Abdul Ghani Baradar is preparing to be unveiled as president of a new Islamic republic after the Taliban's success in Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Baradar, who back then was in deep hiding  the interview was conducted via a network of encrypted phone messages forwarded by his insurgent group's PR man  has experienced a dramatic uptick in his personal fortunes.

Today, the bearded 53 year old finds himself in downtown Kabul attempting to act like a global statesman as he prepares to be unveiled as presideomarnt of a new Islamic republic.

'We have reached a victory that was not expected,' he declared, promising to 'show humility in front of Allah', as well as 'serve the Afghan people and set an example for the rest of the world'.

It's quite the change in circumstances for a man who, until 2018, was languishing behind bars in Pakistan, having been arrested in 2010 after spending a decade on the run.

Back then, he was the subject of UN sanctions and named by Interpol as one of the world's most wanted men, thanks to his role overseeing a Taliban insurgency that cost the lives of thousands of western troops.

Baradar, who has spent much of his adult life fighting guerrilla wars, was identified as the mastermind of his group's murderous tactic of planting 'flowers'  their name for improvised explosive devices  on trails and dirt roads, hoping to then ambush small units using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

'Keep your weapons on your backs and be on your motorcycles,' he reportedly told sub-commanders back in 2008. He added: 'America has greater military strength but we have greater faith and commitment.'

Mullah Omar (pictured) was the Taliban boss who effectively ran Afghanistan when it was sheltering the leaders of Al Qaeda in the run-up to the 9/11 terror attacks

Thanks in part to the success of this deadly strategy, the cunning  if until lately relatively little-known  former warlord may eventually prove to be even more dangerous than his late friend and mentor Mullah Omar.

He was the Taliban boss who effectively ran Afghanistan when it was sheltering the leaders of Al Qaeda in the run-up to the 9/11 terror attacks.

The duo met during the 1980s on the front-line of the Afghan Mujahideen's decade-long war against the Soviet Union when they became experts at knocking out Russian tanks with rocket-propelled grenades.

Later, after Omar had lost an eye to shrapnel, they travelled to his home district of Maiwand where 20-something Baradar served under his command.

At some point, they are believed to have married a pair of sisters. Omar, who was eight years his protege's senior, gave him the nickname 'Baradar', meaning 'brother', as a sign of trust and which he then incorporated into his name.

After the Russians were driven out in 1989, they travelled to Kandahar to set up a madrassa  an Islamic religious school. But with Afghanistan falling into civil war between rival factions, they became disgusted at the behaviour of local warlords who, fighting among themselves, had begun kidnapping and raping girls and boys from surrounding villages.

In the autumn of 1994, Omar held a meeting in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, where a group of young Islamic scholars  including Baradar  pledged to dedicate themselves to the religious purification of the country and the creation of an Islamic emirate. They called their new group the Taliban.

Its first insurgency, a revolt against a local warlord, involved a tiny force of just 30 men and half as many firearms. But the movement quickly grew and by 1996 controlled the entire country.

Baradar also built links with Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks from a secret base in the mountainous region bordering Pakistan

Renowned as a canny military leader and politician, Baradar was made the deputy defence minister in the Taliban government, which banned music and art, prevented girls from attending school, forced women to wear burqas and presided over a medieval justice system.

Baradar also built links with Osama bin Laden  the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks from a secret base in the mountainous region bordering Pakistan  according to the New York Times.

After the US invasion, hundreds of senior Taliban hardliners fled.

Baradar is believed to have helped Mullah Omar escape by riding a motorcycle across the border, with his chief on the pillion seat wearing a burqa.

Once on the run in Pakistan, they controlled their group from a network of safe houses. And in 2006, Baradar became its effective deputy leader following the death of a commander named Akhtar Usmani. According to Interpol, Baradar was also a member of the Quetta Shura  the Taliban's military council  from 2007 onwards.

By 2010, Omar's health was failing (he's believed to have died from tuberculosis in 2013) and Baradar was reported to have 'absolute control' over the Taliban's day-to-day operations.

But in February that year, he was finally arrested in a CIA raid on a slum in Karachi, Pakistan.

'His wife is Mullah Omar's sister-in-law. He controlled the money. He was launching some of the deadliest attacks against our security forces,' crowed a senior Afghan official to the BBC.

Tory MP Patrick Mercer, who is a former soldier, declared: 'It's a coup he was taken alive... This is the man behind the operations which have claimed the lives of more than 260 British soldiers.'

Yet even though the Taliban's insurgency continued, its imprisoned leader was executing a surprising volte-face.

Instead of advocating terror, he began lobbying his organisation's commanders to engage in dialogue with the US and Afghan governments that would allow them to return to power  and see him released from prison.

At the behest of President Trump's Afghan peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad  who reportedly believed he'd settle for a power-sharing arrangement  Baradar was freed in October 2018 to participate in peace talks.

The following year, he was named as the Taliban's chief negotiator in formal negotiations.

Last February, he signed the Doha Agreement in which President Trump had agreed to withdraw all but 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by the time he left office.

That highly-controversial deal, which was sealed via a 35-minute phone call with Trump at the White House, revolved around an agreement that remaining US soldiers would pull out once the Taliban agreed to both stop supporting terror groups and to ensure that Afghanistan is not used as a base for attacks on the West.

With its chaotic withdrawal, the US has kept its side of the bargain. But whether the former jihadi they've left in charge remains true to his word remains to be seen.

The Biden administration blame game begins: Chaos as the White House, Pentagon and State Department all look to blame each other for the debacle in Afghanistan

U.S. officials are engaged in cross-agency recriminations as they grapple with failures of intelligence, execution, and imagination that preceded the sudden collapse of Kabul and the chaotic evacuation underway.

Biden, in his speech to the nation on Monday, pointed to the May 1, 2021 U.S. withdrawal deadline that former President Donald Trump's administration negotiated with the Taliban  as well as the failure of U.S. trained Afghan forces to fight.

'Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,' Biden said. 'If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.'

Biden administration officials are pointing fingers at various agencies who failed to properly plan for or anticipate the sudden Taliban takeover of Kabul

He stood by the determination to pull out as the 'right decision.'

Diplomats have said they were relying on intelligence assessments that the collapse of Kabul was less than imminent  although the Intelligence Community briefed lawmakers in July about the 'accelerating' pace of Taliban gains.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said at a Pentagon press conference late last month, even amid Taliban gains across provinces: 'And there is a range of possible outcomes in Afghanistan.  A negative outcome  a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan  is not a foregone conclusion.'

That estimation of the Afghan government's strength also influenced the White House position, as President Biden publicly announced a total withdrawal of U.S. forces by Sept. 11th, then moved up the date by weeks.

A White House official singled out Milley's public assessment, calling it 'utter bunk,' CNN reported.

'We have noted the troubling trend lines in Afghanistan for some time, with the Taliban at its strongest, militarily, since 2001. Strategically, a rapid Taliban takeover was always a possibility,' said a senior intelligence official Sunday.

Defense officials have said they prepared for worst-case scenarios, and have expressed frustration that State Department officials didn't speed evacuation actions.

Pentagon spokesman Adm. John Kirby, a former State Department spokesman under President Obama, said the administration did plan for Taliban gains.

He spoke to CNN Tuesday about the chaotic departure flights from Hamid Karzai airport that reportedly left eight people dead.

'Could we have predicted every single scenario and every single breach around the perimeter of the airport with only a couple of thousand troops on the ground?' Kirby said. 'Plans are terrific and we take them seriously, but they are not and never have been perfectly predictive.'

Former Donald Trump national security advisor John Bolton told the network Tuesday that both Trump and Biden made the strategic mistake of withdrawing from the 20-year war.

This image distributed Courtesy of the US Air Force shows the inside of Reach 871, a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III flown from Kabul to Qatar on August 15, 2021

Pentagon assessments of the durability of Afghan national forces are also coming under scrutiny. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the military had planned for contingencies involving a Taliban takeover

'It's been a catastrophe and I'm afraid it's going to get worse. I think Biden does bear primary responsibility for that although you see now fingers being pointed saying Trump didn't leave us with any plans. We'll have to see how that shakes out,' he said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified in June that he didn't expect an 'immediate deterioration in the situation' as the U.S. undertook its drawdown.

'Whatever happens in Afghanistan, if there is a significant deterioration in security  that could well happen, we have discussed this before  I don't think it's going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday,' he said  although what ultimately unfolded was a sudden Taliban takeover in a matter of days.

A foreign policy ally said Biden's advisors would never have let him take off for Camp David last Friday, as the president did, had they anticipated the sudden collapse, the Washington Post reported.
A former Royal Marine has blasted ministers after his wife and the pregnant manager of his dog rescue centre were left trapped outside Kabul airport.

Paul 'Pen' Farthing, 52, said Boris Johnson would be 'personally responsible' if anyone harmed his Norwegian partner Kaisa after she was reduced to wandering the streets in Afghanistan.

Mr Farthing, who served in Helmand Province in 2006, is holed up with 23 staff from his Nowzad charity for stray animals around five miles away. He will not leave until the Government offers them all safe passage out of the country following the Taliban's rapid takeover.

Former Royal Marine Commando Pen Farthing works with his Norwegian wife Kaisa Helene (above) and their team in Kabul for an animal chairty. He said yesterday Boris Johnson would be 'personally responsible' if anyone harmed his Norwegian partner

Mr Farthing said in a Facebook video yesterday: 'The Taliban have actually moved next door, but they haven't come to see us yet'

Mrs Farthing was told to get out along with the dog centre manager, who is 34 weeks pregnant and has a one-year-old.

Despite him meeting British and US troops at the north gate of Kabul's airport, they refused to come out of their camp to bring them inside the military cordon, Mr Farthing said. 'There is no security on the outside of Kabul airport. They got caught and crushed in a stampede.

'As a Royal Marine Commando, I am absolutely furious with these soldiers because they refused to go out of that camp to rescue those people to get them inside the safety of Kabul airfield.

'If the British military are there and they are not getting outside to rescue some of the people that they have been sent to get out of Kabul safely, then what is the point of them being here?

'Boris Johnson and all of the senior staff of this Government need to know what a complete cluster they are making of this withdrawal in Afghanistan. People are going to die. Somebody needs to get a grip. This is not acceptable.'

In a desperate tweet at 3pm yesterday, he wrote of the plight of his wife and his manager, adding: 'Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab  anything happens, I will hold you personally responsible.'

He finally received a message saying they were in two separate safe locations  but miles away  at around 4pm.

Pictured: Paul and Kaisa Farthing at their Afghan 'wedding' celebration, thrown in Kabul by their friends. He finally received a message saying his wife and charity manager were in two separate safe locations  but miles away  at around 4pm

The former Royal Marine Commando runs an animal rights charity in Afghanistan and is now trying to evacuate dogs and cats

David Hill, of Nowzad, which wants to evacuate 200 animals at a projected cost of 200,000, told the Mail: 'They are safe, but they were left wandering the streets of Kabul. They are staying in locations they know are safe, that's all we know. They were lucky to get out of the stampede.'

Mr Farthing set up his charity, which is backed by Ricky Gervais and Dame Judi Dench, after falling in love with a stray dog in Afghanistan while on tour in 2006. It is the country's first official animal sanctuary and looks after more than 140 dogs, 60 cats, 24 donkeys and some horses.

He has had to put some of his older and injured dogs down so that he is ready for a quick removal once all his staff are out, but had promised friends he will 'bolt the door' and stay to the end if they are not given safe passage. Taliban fighters had moved in next door to him on Monday.

Mr Farthing hit out at the West's withdrawal, saying: 'I am getting fed up of the politicians trying to convince the world they have got a handle on this. They do not. This is a masterclass, an absolute masterclass, in how to do everything wrong in a withdrawal from a country that we have completely messed up.

'We cannot get to Kabul airport. Outside of that perimeter the Taliban now control everything. There are thousands and thousands of desperate Afghans who are trying to get into an airport.'

Mr Farthing said he was 'beyond furious', and called on Mr Johnson to 'control this situation', adding: 'This government and Joe Biden have created an absolutely unimaginable horror show of a withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'By creating this withdrawal the government, the Americans  especially Joe Biden  have created undue panic and stress and nothing is going to be achieved.'
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More than 100 local councils have pledged their support in rehoming displaced Afghans as the first RAF rescue mission for those fleeing Kabul landed in the United Kingdom last night.

Local authorities across the country, from Wiltshire to Northumberland, have committed to taking in displaced Afghans as Boris Johnson launched plans to resettle up to 25,000 refugees over five years.

At least 240 refugees have already arrived in England since the fall of Kabul per reports, with passengers disembarking an RAF Voyager A330 aircraft at RAF Brize Norton, Oxon, last night.

Families fleeing Afghanistan have been rehomed in West Yorkshire, Portsmouth, Hampshire, Surrey and Melton in Leicestershire, as more than 100 local councils have so far pledged to provide accommodation if needed.

Council leaders and mayors in Liverpool, London, Kent and Essex have all shared strong statements promising to provide support in their communities in the wake of the Taliban's devastating advance to Kabul.

Some 370 UK embassy staff and British nationals were flown out by the RAF on Sunday and Monday, adding to the 289 Afghan nationals transported last week.

A further 350 Britons and Afghans should be taken out of the country in the next 24 hours - but the pace will need to be stepped up dramatically if those at highest risk are to get to safety.

Women, girls and those facing persecution will get priority as some 20,000 are granted the right to live in the UK  with 5,000 expected in the first year.

At least 240 refugees have already arrived in England per reports, with West Yorkshire housing the vast majority with 174 as local authorities across the country pledged their support

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban

Boris Johnson will run the gauntlet of MP fury about the meltdown in Afghanistan this morning when he addresses the recalled House of Commons

Afghans allowed to come to the UK will be distributed across the country. Pictured: British nationals and Afghan evacuees arrive on a flight from Afghanistan at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire

Local authorities have been asked to support efforts to relocate approximately 3,000 displaced Afghans in the coming weeks

US troops, backed by British SAS and Royal Marines special forces, are positioned at the 7.8-mile perimeter with snipers on rooftops, as well as machine gunners and armored cars on the runway. Meanwhile, truck-loads of Taliban fighters are outside the airport and manning the gates into the airport armed with AK-47s and rocket launchers

A British soldier stands guard as British citizens and dual nationals residing in Afghanistan are loaded on to an evacuation flight at Kabul Airport in an undated photograph

Priti Patel immediately dismisses calls from Tory MPs to DOUBLE Afghan refugee intake to 40,000 - as PM faces wrath of recalled Commons TODAY over military meltdown By James Tapsfield, Political Editor for MailOnline Priti Patel today batted away Tory calls to more than double the government's vow to take 20,000 Afghan refugees - but said the number of interpreters and support staff given safe haven will rise. In a round of interviews as the desperate evacuation effort continues in Kabul, the Home Secretary dismissed criticism of the new resettlement scheme, saying it represents an 'enormous effort'. Women, girls and those facing persecution will get priority as some 20,000 are granted the right to live in the UK  with 5,000 expected in the first year. Meanwhile, Ms Patel said an existing programme designed to protect Afghan translators and other workers who were employed by British forces will be expanded from 5,000 people to around 10,000. However, senior Conservatives have suggested that the UK should be accepting 'north of 50,000' refugees, and there has also been criticism of the pace. Ms Patel said the circumstances were 'very difficult'. 'We have to ensure we have the support structures throughout the United Kingdom. We will be working with local councils throughout the country, the devolved governments as well,' she told Sky News. 'We are working quickly on this. We cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go. Currently we are bringing back almost 1,000 people a day. 'This is an enormous effort. We can't do this on our own. We have to work together.' She insisted that it was right to set an initial figure of 20,000 for the coming years, although it could rise in the future. 'We have got to come up with the actual infrastructure, the support, the resettlement,' Ms Patel told BBC News. 'We are going to be working with all partners. We could end up bringing many more but first of all we have to have the underpinning and the infrastructure and the support to do that.' Ms Patel said that double the 5,000 originally announced could be admitted under the existing Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP). 'There could be up to 10,000. We are expanding categories of people,' she said. 'We are working with the MoD on the ground. We are working with partners on the ground to identify these individuals. 'We are working night and day. I am sending in Home Office officials, Border Force officials, to the region to help support this scheme as well.' Advertisement

Local authorities have been asked to support efforts to relocate approximately 3,000 displaced Afghans in the coming weeks.

Downing Street has already received more than 2,000 accommodation promises from 104 councils, the Times reports.

Afghans allowed to come to the UK will be distributed across the country, the Government indicated last night.

A spokesman said it would work with the devolved administrations and local councils to make sure Afghans get help to rebuild their lives.

Boris Johnson last night announced that up to 20,000 Afghans will be given the right to live here under a new Afghan resettlement programme  with 5,000 expected in the first year.

An additional 5,000 will be allowed to move to the UK under an existing programme designed to protect Afghan translators and other workers who were employed by British authorities.

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million.

Several local authorities have committed to taking in an undisclosed amount of refugees.

Birmingham City Council has been in talks with the Home Office since June, with plans to rehome 80 Afghan refugees in private rented housing.

The local authority will receive more than 1million in funding to provide a year's worth of support to those who are rehomed - including assistance finding accommodation, school places, medical support, National Insurance credentials and other benefits.

Migration Yorkshire said more than 200 people will be arriving in the county through the Afghan Relocation and Assistance policy.

Cllr Gerry Anderson, leader of Ashford Borough Council in Kent, has already spoken with the Home Office to take in families under the proposed resettlement scheme.

It is understood that approximately 10 families a year will be rehomed in the town.

Cllr Anderson told Kent Online: 'These people are going to be useful contributors to the country. They're going to get jobs and they're mainly English speaking.

'People may condemn it and gripe about it but frankly I don't give a damn about that because I think the vast majority of people who are intelligent, reasonable and sensible will realise that what we're doing is really the right thing to do.'

Similar commitments have been made across the country, with Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson, Greater Manchester's Andy Burnham and council leaders in Newcastle, Essex, Wiltshire and more promising to assist in the relocation plans.

A Northumberland County Council spokesman confirmed plans to accommodate three families in the local area.

He said: 'Northumberland has a long history of supporting those in need from other countries and prior to the current situation in Afghanistan we agreed to the Governments request to support their Afghan Local Employed Staff (LES) resettlement proposals.

'We are initially looking to support three families in the near future, with a further three families to follow later in the year.

'We will also review options to either accelerate or increase our support as necessary.'

A collective of Labour-run council leaders in 22 London boroughs, from Barking to Waltham Forest, released a joint statement on the Afghan refugee relocation effort.

They said: 'We urgently call on the Government to implement a national refugee resettlement scheme programme with target numbers from Afghanistan with proper support and funding to aid delivery, so that local authorities can plan effectively and provide sanctuary.

'We will work closely with London's Afghan community and with our voluntary sector and national government to ensure refugees get the support they need to recover from the trauma they have lived through and start to rebuild their lives.'

Meanwhile, in other nations within the UK, Wales Labour tweeted: 'In Wales, we will play our part in providing sanctuary for those facing persecution.

The Welsh Labour Government is working with the UK Government and our councils to help Afghan refugees.'

More than 2,000 former Afghan staff, including translators and their families, have already resettled in the UK since June, according to Sky News.

Afghans who apply to come to Britain are being rigorously checked for links with radical Islamist groups and crime.

But applicants will not be automatically barred from coming here if questionable activities  known as a 'security triggers'  emerge in the vetting process.

A scheme has been operating since April to relocate Afghans who worked for the British authorities.

After examining more than 3,300 claims, the Home Office has identified 'very few' cases in which applicants pose a national security risk, it is understood.

Security sources said last night that Afghans who apply for UK visas are vetted for Islamist sympathies. Other checks include any involvement in sex crimes or violent offences.

But one told MailOnline that there were no 'automatic thresholds' that would lead to refusal, and each application was decided on a case-by-case basis.

Wales Labour tweeted: 'In Wales, we will play our part in providing sanctuary for those facing persecution. The Welsh Labour Government is working with the UK Government and our councils to help Afghan refugees.'

Priti Patel today batted away Tory calls to more than double the government's vow to take 20,000 Afghan refugees - but said the number of interpreters and support staff given safe haven will rise

'We'll take 25,000 refugees': Boris Johnson says thousands fleeing Afghanistan will be given right to live in UK Up to 25,000 Afghans in danger from the Taliban will be allowed to come to Britain in one of the most generous resettlement schemes in the country's history. Boris Johnson last night announced that up to 20,000 will be given the right to live here under a far-ranging new scheme  with 5,000 expected in the first year. An additional 5,000 will be allowed to move to the UK under an existing programme designed to protect Afghan translators and other workers who were employed by British authorities. The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban. It will also offer help to those forced to flee their homes and to religious minorities in the country. They will be given the right to stay in the UK permanently. A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million. Mr Johnson said: 'We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years. Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help. 'I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK.' But the PM stressed he wanted to share responsibility with other nations to prevent a 'humanitarian emergency' in Afghanistan. Advertisement

An RAF rescue mission repatriating British nationals and Afghan evacuees fleeing Taliban tyranny landed at Brize Norton last night - but thousands more trapped in Kabul were left fearing for their lives.

The passengers touched down in Oxfordshire as UK troops try to repatriate at least 6,000 British personnel and translators from the Middle Eastern country after it fell to Taliban militants last week.

But British forces are scrambling to evacuate another 1,000 UK nationals and Afghan refugees from Kabul today as thousands remain trapped in the city amid a fragile truce with Taliban militants encircling the city's airport.

Armed Forces chief General Sir Nick Carter said the next 24 hours were 'critical', with fears of mayhem if crowds of desperate people attempt to rush the runway at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

In Hamid Karzai International Airport on Tuesday, Islamists opened fire on a crowd of Afghans trying to flee Taliban rule, with harrowing images showing a young child with a bloodied head being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road.

At least 12 military flights took off from Kabul on Tuesday, including three UK planes as the Ministry of Defence aims to ferry up to 7,000 Britons and Afghan allies out.

Most are heading to other stable parts of the Middle East, where passengers catch charter flights back to Britain.

There are at least 56,000 people who need evacuating from Afghanistan - including 22,000 flying on US special immigrant visas, 4,000 British nationals, 10,000 refugees Germany has said it will accept, and 20,000 bound for Canada.

In reality, that number is likely to be far higher once diplomatic staff from other countries with relations with Afghanistan's former government are taken into account.

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban.

It will also offer help to those forced to flee their homes and to religious minorities in the country. They will be given the right to stay in the UK permanently.

Mr Johnson said: 'We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years. Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help.

'I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK.'

But the PM stressed he wanted to share responsibility with other nations to prevent a 'humanitarian emergency' in Afghanistan.

'The best solution for everyone is an Afghanistan that works for all Afghans. That means the international community coming together to set firm, political conditions for the country's future governance.'

Up to 25,000 Afghans in danger from the Taliban will be allowed to come to Britain in one of the most generous resettlement schemes in the country's history

Boris Johnson announced that up to 20,000 will be given the right to live here under a far-ranging new scheme  with 5,000 expected in the first year

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the scheme would allow the 'most vulnerable' Afghans to 'start a new life in safety in the UK, away from the tyranny and oppression they now face'.

'We will not abandon people who have been forced to flee their homes and are now living in terror of what might come next,' she added.

Security sources said last night that Afghans who apply for UK visas are vetted for Islamist sympathies.

Other checks include any involvement in sex crimes or violent offences.

But a security source said there were no 'automatic thresholds' that would lead to refusal, and each application was decided on a case-by-case basis.

Ministers had promised to set up a 'generous' and 'world-leading' programme to resettle those fleeing the new Taliban regime.

Miss Patel was last night due to hold an emergency meeting with members of the 'Five Eyes' intelligence-sharing alliance that also includes the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

She would press for 'international collaboration on setting up safe and legal routes for Afghan refugees, a source said.

The new Afghan programme will be modelled on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme which launched in 2014 in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UNHCR identifies potential cases for the UK to consider and applicants are then vetted by British officials.

The UK can reject cases on 'security, war crimes or other grounds', according to Home Office guidance.

World leaders have shown varied reactions to the plight of Afghans. French president Emmanuel Macron came under fire last night after he said France would 'protect' itself from migrants fleeing the crisis in Afghanistan.

He faced accusations that he was letting down ordinary Afghans after he pledged a robust European approach against illegal migration.

Greece took a similar approach yesterday as it said it would not become 'the gateway of Europe' for Afghans fleeing the conflict.

The country was on the frontline of Europe's migration crisis in 2015 and, like other EU member states, it is nervous developments in Afghanistan could trigger a replay of the situation.

Yesterday, Taliban leaders held an extraordinary press conference to proclaim the group's return to government and to portray the outfit as a new, modernised force.

During an astonishing 40-minute appearance, they said there would no revenge, their opponents will be 'pardoned' and women will be allowed to work and study as a 'very important part of society'.

But on the streets of Kabul, the reality of life under Taliban rule was setting in, with 'terrified' women reportedly confined to their homes, and militants going door to door hunting for ex-government workers.

This year alone, the Taliban have murdered seven Coalition Forces translators, with many more wounded. The father of a US translator was also shot dead yesterday according to his family.

Around 1,700 so-called locally employed staff who worked with British forces and their family members have now been approved to come to the UK. A further 200 are having their claims assessed.

But while many are at Kabul airport waiting for a flight out, many more are in hiding in the city or elsewhere in the country, too terrified to brave the streets.

As the Taliban tighten their grip, they face an uncertain future.

Last night, an interpreter called Ahmed shared his harrowing story. He said: 'My wife and I were hiding in the basement of a storeroom, but the man who gave us shelter got scared when the Taliban were nearby and asked us to leave.

'We are about half a mile from the airport. Now we have found somewhere else, a private place. I have to speak quietly because the Taliban checkpoint is nearby.

'Other interpreters are hiding nearby, they have children with them, so it is worse for them.

'The Taliban have positioned their gunmen at the airport and are demanding to see paperwork and visas. Apparently they let you through if your papers are valid but I do not trust them. A mistake now could cost us our lives.'

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million

Scramble to save 1,000 from Kabul TODAY: Britain will fly seven more mercy mission flights into Afghan capital over 'critical' 24 hours... but Army chief hints rescue is 'dependent' on 'collaboration' with Taliban

By Rory Tingle and Jack Wright for MailOnline and Marc Nicol and David Williams and John Stevens for the Daily Mail

British forces are scrambling to evacuate another 1,000 UK nationals and Afghan refugees from Kabul today as thousands remain trapped in the city amid a fragile truce with Taliban militants encircling the city's airport.

Armed Forces chief General Sir Nick Carter said the next 24 hours were 'critical', with fears of mayhem if crowds of desperate people attempt to rush the runway at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

NATO forces are utterly reliant on the Taliban to allow evacuees through their checkpoints - even as former British Army translators speak to being targeted by kill squads seeking to avenge their work for the West.

It came as panicked screams mixed with the sound of gunfire at Kabul airport today amid fresh chaos as thousands of Afghans pleaded with troops to be allowed on the only planes out of the country.

General Carter, Chief of the Defence Staff, this morning insisted the evacuation was going 'relatively smoothly' but hinted the rescue operation was dependent on 'collaboration' with the Taliban.

'We hope to get around 1,000 people out today and we've got about seven aircraft going in,' he told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme.

'There are a lot of challenges on the ground, not least because there are a lot of desperate people trying to get to the airport.

'Subject to the situation remaining calm which the Taliban are working hard to achieve alongside us then the system will work, we believe.'

Asked about the West's reliance on Taliban cooperation to allow evacuees to leave, he added: 'So far people are coming forward. Obviously as we get to the higher numbers it may become more challenging, but let's wait to see what happens. At the moment we are collaborating with the Taliban on the ground, who are providing security.'

Later on Sky News, in comments that provoked fury, General Carter suggested the Taliban had 'changed' and were seeking an Afghanistan that was 'inclusive for all'.

British rescue missions have already begun arriving at RAF Brize Norton, with passengers seen disembarking from a Voyager A330 aircraft last night. The UK is aiming to repatriate at least 6,000 people from Afghanistan after it fell to Taliban militants last week.

Military personnel board a Royal Air Force Airbus A400M transport plane, after arriving by bus at RAF Brize Norton yesterday, as Britain sends 900 soldiers back to Afghanistan over the coming days to help with repatriations and evacuations

British nationals and Afghan evacuees are seen walking on the tarmac at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last night

This morning, women were filmed reaching their hands through iron railings towards US troops while screaming 'the Taliban are coming' in footage being circulated on Afghan social media accounts.

Taliban gunmen have now surrounded the airport - the only route out of Afghanistan for thousands of refugees stranded in the capital and nearby provinces - and are checking the documents of those trying to reach it.

Islamist fighters were funnelling people towards a gate on the airport's civilian south side, demanding documents before occasionally allowing someone to pass. Each time the gate opened, dozens tried to rush inside - with gunshots fired to keep them back.

Meanwhile more footage revealed crowds hard up against concrete perimeter walls on the airport's military north side, with shots being fired over the heads of men, women and children to keep them back.

Afghan translators and other visa holders trying to reach the airport have told MailOnline that they are actually in hiding near the airport, afraid to break cover and try to reach the runway in case the Islamists haul them away.

Others who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds - without making it on to a flight.

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she told a press conference.

Flights that were supposed to be carrying thousands of people out of the country each day have so-far been taking off with just a few hundred aboard, with the UK evacuating some 370 people between Sunday and Monday.

General Sir Nick Carter, head of the UK armed forces, told BBC Radio 4 that Britain 'hopes' to get 1,000 people out today with seven evacuation flights going into the country - though was forced to admit that is only possible due to 'collaboration' with the Taliban.

He also flatly denied reports that people are struggling to get to the airport, saying: 'Subject to the situation remaining calm, which the Taliban are working hard to achieve alongside us, the system will work.'

A man carries a bloodied child, as a woman lays wounded on the street after Taliban fighters use guns, whips, sticks and sharp objects to control a crowd as thousands of Afghans wait outside Kabul Airport

Taliban patrolling Kabul, Afghanistan after the capital city fell to the Islamist terror group on Sunday

Evacuees on a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, carrying 640 Afghans to Qatar from Kabul on Sunday

An RAF flight carrying British personnel and Afghan interpreters to safety touched down in Oxfordshire last night

The RAF rescue mission repatriating British nationals and Afghan evacuees landed at Brize Norton last night, while thousands remain stuck in Kabul terrified for their lives amid a frenzied international effort to evacuate as many people as possibl

General Carter was slammed for his comments in a second interview, with Sky News, in which he controversially defended the Taliban and suggested they wanted an 'inclusive' country - despite their record of oppressing women and enforcing a brutal version of Sharia law.

Responding to presenter Kay Burley referring to the militants as 'the enemy', he said: 'You need to be careful when talking about the enemy. What the Taliban are is a disparate collection of tribespeople, as President Karzai put to me only yesterday, they are country boys.

'And the plain fact is they happen to live by a code of honour and a standard, it's called Pashtunwali. It has honour at the heart of what they do... they don't like corrupt governance or governance that is self-serving and they want an Afghanistan that is inclusive for all.'

'Except women?' Burley interjected, to which he responded: 'We have to wait and see... you have to listen to what they are saying at the moment. I do think they have changed and recognise Afghanistan has evolved and the fundamental role women have played in that evolution.

'And yes, they undoubtedly will say they want to respect women's rights under Islamic law and that will be a Sharia law, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't allow them to be involved in government, education and medicine. So I think we need to be patient and give them the space to show they can step up to the plate.'

Responding to the comments, Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said: 'I think that's a very difficult and unpalatable message' to Afghans who are 'very, very fearful about the future'.

Lynne O'Donnell, a journalist in Afghanistan, wrote: 'Gen Sir Nick Carter calls the murderers, liars, misogynists & drug dealers of the #Taliban 'reasonable, changed'. And there we were thinking he was a serious person. A fool & apologist, an embarrassment & liability. Shame on you.'

And commentator Isabel Oakshott added: 'I wonder how all those who served in Afghanistan/lost limbs and loved ones in that godforsaken place feel about Gen Sir Nick Carter now depicting the Taliban as simple 'country boys' (his actual words) who want a country that's 'inclusive for all' (his actual words).'
Boris Johnson faced anger today that the UK's Afghan allies are being left 'waiting to be executed' after it was announced 30,000 people will be resettled in the UK - but only 2,000 have been evacuated from Kabul so far.

Women, girls and those facing persecution will get priority as some 20,000 are granted the right to live in the UK under a new scheme  with 5,000 expected in the first year.

Meanwhile, a separate programme designed to protect Afghan translators and other workers who were employed by British forces is now expected to cover around 10,000, up from the 5,000 previously suggested.

However, senior Conservatives have suggested that the UK should be accepting 'north of 50,000' refugees.

And Labour MPs warned the pace is far too slow, saying those left behind will have to 'hang around and wait until they have been executed'.

Mr Johnson revealed in the Commons this morning that just 2,052 Afghan nationals had been extracted so far - with thousands more still waiting.

Boris Johnson ran the gauntlet of MP fury about the meltdown in Afghanistan this morning when he addressed the recalled House of Commons

Up to 25,000 Afghans in danger from the Taliban will be allowed to come to Britain in one of the most generous resettlement schemes in the country's history

How will the new resettlement scheme work and who will get priority? The resettlement programme is a new initiative to help Afghans forced to flee their country as refugees. It is separate from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which grants haven to former interpreters and others who helped Western forces over the past 20 years. The two schemes are explained below: Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy: This is available to any current or former locally-employed staff who worked for the British forces who are assessed to be at a 'serious risk' of being killed. Successful applicants will be offered priority entry into the UK regardless of their employment status, rank or role, or length of time served. Local staff who work or worked in the public eye and who could be at risk as the security situation evolves will be relocated to the UK on a routine basis, and those not eligible to move will be offered other support such as security advice and relocation within Afghanistan. Some 10,000 former Afghan staff and their family members are expected to be relocated to the UK under ARAP. Afghan citizens' resettlement scheme: The government is aiming for the new Afghanistan citizens' resettlement scheme to resettle 5,000 Afghan nationals who are at risk due to the current crisis in its first year, and a total of 20,000 in the long term. Priority will be given to women and girls, and religious and other minorities. There will be a particular focus on whether people are at risk of human rights abuses and dehumanising treatment by the Taliban. The UK can reject cases on 'security, war crimes or other grounds'. The initiative will be modelled on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme which launched in 2014 in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR identifies potential cases for the UK to consider and applicants are then vetted by British officials. The government has insisted that the new route will not compromise on national security and any person arriving on the route will have to pass the same strict security checks as those resettled through other schemes. Advertisement

In a round of interviews, Home Secretary Priti Patel said the circumstances were 'very difficult'.

'We have to ensure we have the support structures throughout the United Kingdom. We will be working with local councils throughout the country, the devolved governments as well,' she told Sky News.

'We are working quickly on this. We cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go. Currently we are bringing back almost 1,000 people a day.

'This is an enormous effort. We can't do this on our own. We have to work together.'

She insisted that it was right to set an initial figure of 20,000 for the coming years, although it could rise in the future.

'We have got to come up with the actual infrastructure, the support, the resettlement,' Ms Patel told BBC News.

'We are going to be working with all partners. We could end up bringing many more but first of all we have to have the underpinning and the infrastructure and the support to do that.'

Ms Patel said that double the 5,000 originally announced could be admitted under the existing Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).

'There could be up to 10,000. We are expanding categories of people,' she said.

'We are working with the MoD on the ground. We are working with partners on the ground to identify these individuals.

'We are working night and day. I am sending in Home Office officials, Border Force officials, to the region to help support this scheme as well.'

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said the higher figure was a 'recognition that more may come forward via that route now'.

'Obviously this is not a time-limited or capped offer, as the Prime Minister has said we owe a debt to those Afghan nationals that have helped Britain over the last 20 years and we intend to honour them,' he said.

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban.

It will also offer help to those forced to flee their homes and to religious minorities in the country. They will be given the right to stay in the UK permanently.

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million.

In the Commons, Labour MP Chris Bryant asked why only a quarter of the 20,000 are expected to come to the UK in the first year.'

What are the 15,000 meant to do? Hang around and wait until they have been executed?' he said.

Mr Johnson replied: 'The 5,000 on whom we are spending 200million to bring a further 5,000 on top of the  I think it will be 10,000 altogether that we will bring under the Arap (Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy) and other programmes.

'We will be increasing that number over the coming years to, as I have said, to 20,000, but the bulk of the effort of this country will be directed and should be directed to supporting people in Afghanistan and in the region in order to prevent a worse humanitarian crisis.'

Mr Johnson later confirmed that the extra 5,000 Afghans who would be granted entry to the UK this year would be additional to existing refugee resettlement efforts from Syria, and not just a 'refocusing'.

Mr Johnson said: 'We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years. Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help.

'I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK.' But the PM stressed he wanted to share responsibility with other nations to prevent a 'humanitarian emergency' in Afghanistan.

'The best solution for everyone is an Afghanistan that works for all Afghans. That means the international community coming together to set firm, political conditions for the country's future governance.'

Ms Patel said the scheme would allow the 'most vulnerable' Afghans to 'start a new life in safety in the UK, away from the tyranny and oppression they now face'.

'We will not abandon people who have been forced to flee their homes and are now living in terror of what might come next,' she added.

Afghans allowed to come to the UK will be distributed across the country with devolved administrations and local councils enlisted to make sure Afghans get help to rebuild their lives.

Priti Patel today batted away Tory calls to more than double the government's vow to take 20,000 Afghan refugees - but said the number of interpreters and support staff given safe haven will rise

Boris Johnson announced that up to 20,000 will be given the right to live here under a far-ranging new scheme  with 5,000 expected in the first year

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban

However, Nicola Sturgeon criticised the UK Government for failing to do enough to help Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country.

The SNP leader said: 'I don't think the UK Government is doing enough or stepping up and meeting its responsibilities.

'Twenty-thousand (refugees) over what they're describing as the long term  I don't know exactly what they mean by that  doesn't even live up to the Syrian resettlement programme.

'I think the commitment is only for 5,000 in this first year.

'What's unfolded in Afghanistan over the past days and weeks is horrifying and it has been contributed to because of the abrupt, unmanaged withdrawal of troops.

'I think countries across the world have a real obligation  for humanitarian and human rights reasons  not to simply abandon the people of Afghanistan, women and girls in particular, to the mercies of the Taliban and to whatever fate has in store for them.'

Ministers had promised to set up a 'generous' and 'world-leading' programme to resettle those fleeing the new Taliban regime.

Ms Patel has been pressing members of the 'Five Eyes' intelligence-sharing alliance that also includes the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for 'international collaboration on setting up safe and legal routes for Afghan refugees'.

The new Afghan programme will be modelled on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme which launched in 2014 in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UNHCR identifies potential cases for the UK to consider and applicants are then vetted by British officials.

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million

The UK can reject cases on 'security, war crimes or other grounds', according to Home Office guidance.

World leaders have shown varied reactions to the plight of Afghans.

French president Emmanuel Macron came under fire last night after he said France would 'protect' itself from migrants fleeing the crisis in Afghanistan.

He faced accusations that he was letting down ordinary Afghans after he pledged a robust European approach against illegal migration.

Greece took a similar approach yesterday as it said it would not become 'the gateway of Europe' for Afghans fleeing the conflict.

The country was on the frontline of Europe's migration crisis in 2015 and, like other EU member states, it is nervous developments in Afghanistan could trigger a replay of the situation.
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Two stowaways who plummeted to their deaths from an airborne plane in Kabul on Monday were impoverished teenage bothers who sold watermelons at Kabul's central market, according to reports on Afghan social media.

Video from Hamid Karzai International Airport on the day showed Afghans desperately scrambling to escape the city by clinging onto the evacuating U.S. military aircraft after the Taliban took control of the country.

But in horrifying footage taken from below the plane, at least two people were seen falling through the air from the C-17 aircraft after it had taken off. Three who clung to the outside of the aircraft are believed to have died.

According to the reports two - aged just 16 and 17 - who sold fruit and scavenged in the bins of Kabul's markets to provide for their mother, who is now left with no other children after they fell to their deaths.

The bodies of the teenagers - believed to be brothers - have been returned to their parents, the reports said.

The identities of the people who fell from the C-17 are officially unknown, but one Twitter user posted later that the teenagers were his aunt's neighbours.

'Genuinely in tears right now. Two young boys who fell whilst clinging onto U.S. planes were my Aunts neighbours. Both boys aged 16 & 17, bodies have just been brought home to their parents,' the user wrote on Monday.

'Both boys would sell watermelons in Kabul markets and feed off the bins to survive and provide for their mother. The 2 boys were their mother's only children. She has no other family and has no idea how she will survive under Taliban regime.'

Speaking to VICE, a family member of the teens said: 'We are really upset that we've lost two. We've found the body of one of them, but the other one is still missing.'

The family member also confirmed that despite having checked multiple hospitals and found no trace of the other teenager's body, they are still searching for any sign of him.

Separate footage was captured on Monday by one of a dozen men who were seen on wheel housing of the American C-17 military transport plane as it taxied towards the runway. A number of those seen in the video look to be young men, clinging on for dear life and watching as crowds of people lined the tarmac.

It is not known what became of the man who filmed the video or those who appeared in it, but horrifying footage taken on board a similar jet reveals how one was crushed to death in the landing gear - his legs dangling sickeningly from the side of the aircraft.

The horrifying scenes will likely become the defining image of America and NATO's withdrawal from Afghanistan, a debacle that has seen President Biden accused of 'humiliating' his country on the world stage and western allies shamed for 'abandoning' Afghans who assisted their failed fight to install democracy in the country.

MONDAY: Footage published by Afghan outlet Asvaka showed stowaways falling to the deaths after clinging on to the wheels of a military plane as it took off from Kabul airport. According to reports on Afghan social media, two young boys - aged 16 and 17 - plummeted to their deaths from a plane on Monday

MONDAY: Video footage emerged showing a dozen men - some young - clinging to the landing gear of a US evacuation jet flying out of Kabul airport as pandemonium unfolded after the Taliban seized the capital

MONDAY: Thousands of Afghans raced onto the tarmac at Kabul airport before some jumped on the side of a US C-17 jet which was flying hundreds of diplomatic staff and visa holders out of the country

TODAY: Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their 'consent'

The Taliban returned to power last weekend after capturing much of the country in a matter of days, less than three weeks before the U.S. plans to complete its full troop withdrawal.

Their conquest of Kabul on Sunday sparked a mass-panic as people feared a return of the brutal regime seen when the group last controlled in the country from 1996 to 2001, with thousands trying to escape via the airport.

As foreign nations evacuated their own citizens who were living and working in Kabul, Afghans rushed onto the tarmac in an attempt to secure passage on planes out of Afghanistan and climbed onto the outside of the plane.

In chaotic footage from the airport, many people were seen clinging to the U.S. military C-17 Globemaster III plane as it prepared to take off, and as it taxied down the runway.

The United States Air Force (USAF) later confirmed human remains were found in the wheel well of a C-17 aircraft that left Kabul on Monday, and announced an investigation had been launched into the incident at the airport.

The plane was taking off from Hamid Karzai International Airport after delivering equipment to aid the evacuation of Americans and allied personnel from Kabul.

'The aircraft was surrounded by hundreds of Afghan civilians who had breached the airport perimeter,' said USAF in a statement issued on Tuesday evening.

'Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to depart the airfield as quickly as possible. Human remains were discovered in the wheel well of the C-17 after it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

'The aircraft is currently impounded to provide time to collect the remains and inspect the aircraft before it is returned to flying status.'

In chaos on the ground, at least five more people were killed, including two shot dead by US troops and three run over by taxiing jets.

At least 56,000 people need to be flown out of Afghanistan, including 22,000 using American special immigration visas and 4,000 Britons - though the true number is likely to be far higher once staff at dozens of embassies in the capital are taken into account.

Germany and Canada have said they will take 30,000 refugees between them, and some in the US have warned 80,000 visas may need to be granted to all those they have promised sanctuary - such as translators and informants, who now live in fear of Taliban reprisals. The UK has said it will take in 20,000 refugees.

The Taliban has declared an 'amnesty' across the country on Wednesday, urging people to return to their homes while vowing that government staff and women will be protected, and even invited to join the government.

Pictured: Afghans desperately tried to climb onto the rear right wheel of the US Air Force C-17 on Monday in a last ditch attempt to flee the country after the Taliban swept to power

Footage appeared to show the horrifying sight of a man's body crushed in the landing gear of a US jet on Monday, with officials confirming that human remains were found after the aircraft made an emergency landing

Panicked screams mixed with the sound of gunfire were heard at Kabul airport on Wednesday amid fresh chaos as thousands of Afghans desperate to escape Taliban rule pleaded with troops to be allowed on the only planes out of the country.

Women were filmed reaching their hands through iron railings towards US troops while screaming 'the Taliban are coming' in footage being circulated on Afghan social media accounts this morning.

Meanwhile more footage captured gunshots ringing out among crowds at the airport's north gate overnight and this morning as men, women, and children huddled nearby, barely flinching as bullets were fired into the sky.

Taliban gunmen have now surrounded the airport - the only route out of Afghanistan for thousands of refugees stranded in the capital and nearby provinces - and are checking the documents of those trying to reach it.

That means that Afghan translators and others holding visas that would allow them on the evacuation flights are in hiding close to the airport, afraid to break cover and try to reach the runway in case the Taliban hauls them away.

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit on Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she said.

Flights that were supposed to be carrying thousands of people out of the country each day have so-far been taking off with just a few hundred aboard, with the UK evacuating some 370 people between Sunday and Monday.

General Sir Nick Carter, head of the UK armed forces, told BBC Radio 4 that Britain 'hopes' to get 1,000 people out today with seven evacuation flights going into the country - though was forced to admit that is only possible due to 'collaboration' with the Taliban.

He also flatly denied reports that people are struggling to get to the airport, saying: 'Subject to the situation remaining calm, which the Taliban are working hard to achieve alongside us, the system will work.'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce today that the UK will take 25,000 Afghan refugees over five years including 5,000 this year - though it is unclear how exactly those people will get out of the country.

Such an operation would take months to complete at the current rate, even assuming all those who want to leave can reach the airport, and it is unclear how long the Taliban will allow the current airport amnesty to last.

Meanwhile the US has said it may issue up to 80,000 special immigrant visas to provide a route out of the country for its Afghan allies,

Tempers were already fraying around the airport on Tuesday as gunmen opened fire into crowds, with harrowing images showing a young child with a bloodied head being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road behind them.

While thousands of people have arrived at Kabul airport trying to get on flights out of the country (pictured), some western visa holders on the ground have said they are in hiding nearby for fear Taliban gunmen will target them

Taliban gunmen patrol through crowds of desperate Afghans at Kabul airport today, as people try to board planes out of the country fearing for their safety under Islamist rule

Pictured: Taliban fighters on a pick-up truck (L) move around a market area, flocked with local Afghan people at the Kote Sangi area of Kabul on August 17, 2021, after Taliban seized control of the capital following the collapse of the Afghan governmen

Pictured: A general overview of a market place, flocked with local Afghan people at the Kote Sangi area of Kabul on August 17, 2021

The race to get out of Kabul: What is the situation in Afghanistan and how many people are being evacuated? The Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal after a costly 20-year war. Here is the latest: The Taliban, who ran Afghanistan in the late 1990s, have again taken control after the Western-backed government that has run it for 20 years collapsed

The Taliban's deputy leader and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kandahar Tuesday after 20 years of exile, landing in the insurgent group's former capital just days after they took control of the country.

It comes as the Taliban held a press conference in which it insisted it would respect women's rights - but women's rights but 'within Islamic law'

They insisted would not exact revenge, which the group insisted they 'want to live peacefully' after taking control of Afghanistan

Thousands of people are racing to Kabul Airport which is one of the last routes out of the country amid fears the Taliban could carry out revenge attacks

Tens of thousands of people need evacuating - including some 22,000 on US special immigrant visas, 6,000-7,000 British nationals and Afghan allies, and 10,000 refugees that Germany has said it will accept

Some people are so desperate that they clung to the side of a military jet as it took off and then plunged to their deaths yesterday - at least seven died

At least 12 military flights took off from Kabul today

Britain has carried out three MoD military flights so far today amid hopes they can get 6,000-7,000 people out in total

RAF planes are taking people to other stable parts of the Middle East where they can get charter flights back to the UK

Eleven aircraft of five different types are believed to be shuttling in and out of Kabul - the RAF Voyager Tanker (Airbus A330 MRTT), Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Lockheed C-130 Hercules and Airbus A400M Atlas

900 British armed forces are in Afghanistan to bring UK nationals home and secure safety of some Afghans

370 UK embassy staff and British nationals were flown out by the MoD on Sunday and yesterday, while 289 Afghan nationals were taken out last week

A further 350 British and Afghans will be taken out of the country in the next 24 hours, UK Government says

The US may issue up 80,000 special immigrant visas to those who helped with its combat operations

7,500 troops currently guarding the airport - including 6,000 Americans and smaller numbers of British, Turkish and Australians - will also need to leave

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for G7 leaders to hold a virtual meeting 'in the coming days'

Defence Minister Ben Wallace says the Taliban takeover is a 'failure of the international community'

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says UK must work with 'challenging' partners on dealing with Taliban

US President Joe Biden called the situation 'gut-wrenching' but rejected blame for what's happening

The Taliban now say they want to form an 'inclusive, Islamic government' with other factions - and are holding negotiations with senior politicians

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has already fled the country after the Taliban reached Kabul on Sunday Advertisement

The Taliban took over the civilian side of the Kabul international airport on Tuesday and have used force to try to control the crowds.

Hundreds of people were outside the airport early Wednesday. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside.

Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

The Taliban have promised a new era of peace and security, saying they will forgive those who fought against them and grant women full rights under Islamic law, without elaborating. But many Afghans are deeply skeptical of the group, especially those who remember its previous rule, when it imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

At that time, women were largely confined to their homes, television and music were banned, and suspected criminals were flogged, maimed or executed in public.

The group also hosted Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the years before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The U.S.-led invasion drove them from power and scattered al-Qaida, but the Taliban then launched a potent insurgency against the U.S. and the Western-backed government.

The Taliban now say they will prevent Afghanistan from again being used as a base for attacks, something that was enshrined in a 2020 peace deal with the Trump administration that paved the way for the American withdrawal.

The U.S. Embassy has meanwhile relocated to the military side of the airport, where it is coordinating the air lift of diplomats, foreigners and Afghans who worked with the Americans and now fear reprisal.

The British government said it will welcome up to 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, and a total of 20,000 Afghans will be offered a way to settle in the U.K. in the coming years.

'We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years,' Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Tuesday.

The head of Afghanistan's Central Bank meanwhile said the country's supply of physical U.S. dollars is 'close to zero.'

Afghanistan has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some $7 billion held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

'The next shipment never arrived,' he wrote. 'Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.'

He said the lack of U.S. dollars will likely lead to a depreciation of the local currency, the afghani, hurting the country's poor. Afghans have been lining up outside ATM machines for days, with many pulling out their life savings.

Ahmady said the Taliban will struggle to access the country's reserves because of international sanctions.

The 'Taliban won militarily - but now have to govern,' he wrote. 'It is not easy.'

The US army's General Frank McKenzie is leading 6,000 US troops and 900 British soldiers who are trying to evacuate as many as 50,000 Afghan refugees and thousands of other foreign citizens, including aid workers and diplomats, who live in Kabul.

For the moment, the Taliban say they are giving 'amnesty' to foreigners who wish to leave. But amid tense scenes at the capital, which fell to insurgents with astonishing rapidity, fears are growing that the tentative calm could fall apart at any moment.

Vice Admiral Sir Ben Key, who is running the British evacuation operation, told the BBC the UK will be bringing back as many people as it can, as quickly as possible, until either demand is met or 'the security situation means that we're no longer operating with consent'.

But eligible individuals have to make the trip to the airport themselves when called to do so, and the Taliban now control the access points, he added.

Sir Ben said that his forces face a race against time, and they are 'alive to the uncertainty' of the situation.

The White House today confirmed that the Taliban had promised that civilians could travel safely to the Kabul airport, but reports of insurgents beating and shooting Afghans trying to enter could rattle the uneasy deal between the country's new rulers and their Western adversaries.
Young women have been urged to stay alert after two teenage girls were followed through a park and over a bridge by a man who hid in bushes to conceal himself.

The 17-year-old girls were walking along John Street in Canterbury towards Tasker Park at about 4pm on August 17.

They noticed a man following them when they continued through a nearby park and over the Georges River foot bridge to meet a friend, as he attempted to hide in nearby bushes.

The 17-year-old girls were walking along John Street in Canterbury towards Tasker Park at about 4pm on August 17 when they noticed a man following them. Police believe the man in this picture can help with enquiries

After leaving the park, the group of girls again noticed him following them at the intersection of Redman Street and Park Street in Campsie.

Police were called and officers from the Campsie Police Area Command searched for the man who could not be found.

Police believe a man of Asian appearance, aged in his mid 30s, of slim build with dark shoulder length hair may be able to assist with enquiries.
The head of UK forces today swiped at Joe Biden over the headlong US withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying it 'shattered' the morale of local forces.

General Sir Nick Carter dismissed the president's claim that the Afghan army had lacked the stomach for battle, insisting they 'fought very bravely' until the West effectively walked out.

Sir Nick said as the government teetered on the verge of collapse he had been focused on 'giving confidence' to the country's military, which had been trained and equipped by the UK and US for two decades.

Pointing to the impact of the July 4 drawdown of US troops, which the Americans evacuate Bagram airbase in the middle of the night, the Chief of the Defence Staff said: 'They lost their air power. That was a very shattering moment in terms of their morale...

'What happened from 4th of July onwards, their morale was shattered.'

The comments came as Donald Trump slammed Mr Biden for leaving the country and Boris Johnson urged the US president not to throw away the gains of the last 20 years.

General Sir Nick Carter dismissed the president's claim that the Afghan army had lacked the stomach for battle

How US troops abandoned Bagram airport base in the dead of night WITHOUT telling Afghan forces US forces in Afghanistan abandoned their main base at Bagram airport overnight earlier this month - shutting off the lights and slipping away into the night without telling government forces who were supposed to take it over. General Mir Asadullah Kohistani, who was left in charge of the base which for 20 years served as the headquarters for America's war on the Taliban, said he only discovered the Americans had left two hours after they were gone when they called from Kabul airport. By the time he arrived with troops to secure the site, looters had broken in and carried away many items that the soldiers had left behind - including laptops, stereo speakers, bicycles and guitars which were being hawked from second-hand shops by Sunday morning. General Kohistani said troops also left behind small arms and ammunition along with hundreds of military vehicles and thousands of civilian cars and trucks, though many do not have the keys needed to start them. He has also inherited Bagram prison and its roughly 5,000 inmates - mostly believed to be Taliban. Advertisement

Mr Trump today claimed he threatened to launch strikes against the chief Taliban negotiator's home village if insurgents failed to observe the terms of a peace deal, as he blasted President Biden's handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'It's not the concept of leaving,' he told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity.

'It's the way they withdrew. It was not even possible to believe.'

The former president has kept up a running commentary on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, condemning Biden's handling of the withdrawal and insisting he would have managed a safe, swift operation when the time was right.

Mr Biden and his officials have in turn said their hands were tied by a deal struck with the Taliban by Mr Trump.

But the former president said he made clear in negotiations there would be consequences if Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's political chief, failed to stick to the terms of their deal.

'We had a very strong conversation,' he said.

'I told them upfront, I said: 'Look, before we start, let me just tell you right now that if anything bad happens to Americans or anybody else, or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before, a force so great that you won't even believe it, and your village, and we know where it is - and I named it - will be the first one.'

Former President Trump condemned President Biden's handling of the Afghan withdrawal, as thousands of Americans await rescue from the country

Meanwhile, in a thinly veiled warning over the consequences of the US military retreat from Kabul, Boris Johnson reminded Mr Biden of the need to protect the West against terrorism.

It follows a wave of criticism from US media and British and European politicians following the Taliban's dramatic takeover.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'The leaders welcomed US and UK cooperation in recent days to help evacuate our nationals, current and former staff, and others from Afghanistan.

'They resolved to continue working closely together on this in the days and weeks ahead to allow as many people as possible to leave the country.'

The discussion between the pair is thought to be one of the first calls from an international leader the President has taken since the insurgents' power grab.

The Downing Street spokesman added: 'The Prime Minister and President Biden agreed on the need for the global community to come together to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

'The Prime Minister outlined UK plans including increased humanitarian aid to the region and resettlement of refugees.

'The Prime Minister stressed the importance of not losing the gains made in Afghanistan over the last twenty years, of protecting ourselves against any emerging threat from terrorism and of continuing to support the people of Afghanistan.'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson reminded US President Joe Biden of the need to protect the West against terrorism

The discussion between the pair is thought to be one of the first calls from an international leader the President has taken

The pair said they will discuss this issue further at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders in the coming days.

It comes as the American media turned on Mr Biden yesterday over the botched withdrawal of troops.

The President had blamed the Afghans for not being prepared for the Taliban insurgents' rapid attack.

But his address to the American people on Monday night was slammed by media outlets and political commentators.

The Wall Street Journal described the speech as 'one of the most shameful in history by a commander in chief'.

In an editorial, the newspaper said the President had 'refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal while blaming others', adding that the 'one group he conspicuously did not blame was the Taliban'.

The President blamed the Afghans for not being prepared for the Taliban attack in his speech

His address to the American people on Monday night was slammed by media outlets and political commentators

It was reported last night that in 2010, Mr Biden said 'f*** that' when asked if the US had a moral obligation to protect civilians in Afghanistan. He made the blunt remarks to Richard Holbrooke, a top US diplomat in the Barack Obama administration.

In Monday's speech, Mr Biden said: 'I stand squarely behind my decision', and claimed that Afghanistan's political leaders and military were 'not willing to fight for themselves'.

'We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.'

A Washington Post editorial said Mr Biden could have listened to the 'many seasoned hands' giving him alternatives to withdrawal, adding that him blaming others was 'unseemly' given that 2,448 US service members died in Afghanistan in 20 years.

The pair said they will discuss the issue further at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders

An editorial in the New York Post said Mr Biden 'alone is responsible' for the Taliban takeover

An editorial in the New York Post said Mr Biden 'alone is responsible' for the Taliban takeover, which it described as an 'utter catastrophe, for Afghans and for world security'.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said: 'This is an extremely bitter development. Bitter, dramatic, terrible  especially, of course, for the people in Afghanistan. We all made the wrong assessment.'

The Ministry of Defence in the UK repeatedly warned its US counterparts that the plan to remove US troops by September 11 was too quick. Officials told Washington the timetable was 'very aggressive'.

A Foreign Office source said: 'There was not a lot of consultation. He [Mr Biden] basically announced what he wanted to do. Every Nato ally, including us and his defence staff, will have been advising a longer delay.'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted: 'We all made the wrong assessment.'

Former Treasury minister Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons transport committee, called Mr Biden a 'total blithering idiot' for blaming Afghan forces. Another former minister, Simon Clarke, said it was the end of an American era.

'The more you reflect, the more you realise the speech he gave last night was grotesque,' he tweeted. 'An utter repudiation of the America so many of us have admired so deeply all our lives  the champion of liberty and democracy and the guardian of what's right in the world.'

Tory backbencher Angela Richardson said: 'The world just got a little bit smaller after that statement. Very protectionist.

'Only concerned about terrorist threats on US soil and no real acknowledgment of the devastation left behind in Afghanistan.'

Britons condemn Joe Biden: New poll makes grim reading for US President as decision to pull his troops out of Afghanistan is considered WRONG by almost two to one

The British public last night condemned Joe Biden for the crisis in Afghanistan as they expressed fears the turmoil could lead to fresh terror attacks here.

A poll for the Daily Mail found the President's decision to pull out US troops was considered wrong by almost two to one.

Mr Biden is seen as most to blame for the Taliban's victory, just ahead of Donald Trump.

Almost half (49 per cent) say their view of Mr Biden has worsened. But the results of the JL Partners survey, the first major poll conducted since the collapse of Afghanistan, also make grim reading for Boris Johnson.

Nearly seven in ten (67 per cent) feel the Prime Minister and his team have not been in control of the situation, including 58 per cent of Tory voters.

A poll for the Daily Mail found the President's decision to pull out US troops was considered wrong by almost two to one. Joe Biden is seen as most to blame for the Taliban's victory, just ahead of Donald Trump

And the majority (51 per cent) believe he should have done more to persuade Mr Biden not to pull out his troops so soon.

However, there is a reluctance for British soldiers to remain in the country, with around six in ten (58 per cent) opposed to them staying on their own without the Americans alongside them.

More than half (51 per cent) said ministers have not done enough to help Afghan interpreters who helped British troops find refuge along with their families.

The Mail has highlighted the urgent issue over the six years of our award-winning Betrayal Of The Brave campaign. A majority (53 per cent) said Britain should do more to accept refugees fleeing the Taliban, compared to just one in five who disagreed.

Only eight per cent said they believed Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has handled the crisis well, with 13 per cent saying the same about the Prime Minister. Both Mr Raab and Mr Johnson were on holiday as Kabul fell to the advancing fanatics.

The PM returned from his break in the West Country on Sunday afternoon for a Cobra meeting in Whitehall, while the Foreign Secretary, who had been in Crete, eventually arrived back in the country in early hours of Monday. Nearly four in ten (38 per cent) said Mr Raab came back from his holiday too slowly, while 33 per cent said Mr Johnson had not returned quickly enough.

However, only a fifth of voters (20 per cent) wanted either the Foreign Secretary or the Prime Minister to resign. And even fewer  eight per cent  thought Defence Secretary Ben Wallace should go.

The poll revealed growing fears about the threat of terrorism in the wake of the Taliban takeover. An overwhelming 59 per cent said Britain's safety has worsened, while 55 per cent warned they believe the risk of a terror attack in this country has grown.

Almost half (49 per cent) say their view of Mr Biden (pictured on August 12) has worsened. The US is still seen as the most powerful nation by 41 per cent, but it was only five points higher than China on 36 per cent

The results of the JL Partners survey, the first major poll conducted since the collapse of Afghanistan, also make grim reading for Boris Johnson (pictured on July 28)

Almost a third (30 per cent) expressed concern that their own personal safety is now worse.

Four in ten (40 per cent) said Britain's influence on the world stage has declined.

The US is still seen as the most powerful nation by 41 per cent, but it was only five points higher than China on 36 per cent. However despite the chaos in Afghanistan, Britons still preferred Mr Biden to his predecessor, Mr Trump, to handle the situation by 38 per cent to 20 per cent.

Almost six in ten (59 per cent) expressed the belief the 457 British military personnel killed in Afghanistan died for nothing. Some 65 per cent said the West has let down Afghan women and children, while 53 per cent expect UK troops will eventually have to go back.

JL Partners interviewed 1,040 adults in Britain yesterday.
Dozens of desperate Afghan civilians attempted to cling to the plane as it left Kabul, resulting in several deaths and forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Qatar

The C-17 aircraft had dropped vital cargo and equipment to aid the evacuation of American and allied personnel

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The United States Air Force (USAF) has confirmed human remains were found in the wheel well of a C-17 aircraft that left Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday.

USAF is now investigating the incident which saw dozens of desperate Afghan civilians attempt to cling to the C-17 Globemaster III as it took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport after delivering equipment to aid the evacuation of Americans and allied personnel from the Afghan capital.

Footage captured by another civilian holding on to the side of the plane appears to show how the man was crushed to death as the landing gear was raised - his legs dangling sickeningly from the side of the aircraft.

'The aircraft was surrounded by hundreds of Afghan civilians who had breached the airport perimeter,' said USAF in a statement issued on Tuesday evening.

'Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to depart the airfield as quickly as possible. Human remains were discovered in the wheel well of the C-17 after it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

'The aircraft is currently impounded to provide time to collect the remains and inspect the aircraft before it is returned to flying status.'

Up to eight people were killed amid chaotic scenes at the airport on Monday, with several civilians plummeting hundreds of feet to their death as they failed to cling to the plane. Evacuations were paused as American and allied soldiers attempted to secure the airport perimeter, before resuming 90 minutes later.

Footage appears to show the horrifying sight of a man's body crushed in the landing gear of a US jet, with officials confirming that human remains were found after the aircraft made an emergency landing

Men flee the Taliban at Kabul airport by clinging onto the fuselage of the departing C-17 aircraft

The horrifying scenes will likely become the defining image of America and NATO's withdrawal from Afghanistan, a debacle that has seen President Biden accused of 'humiliating' his country on the world stage and western allies shamed for 'abandoning' Afghans who assisted their failed fight to install democracy in the country.

Order seemed to have been restored on Tuesday after American troops secured the runway perimeter with barbed wire and Apache helicopters were brought in to drive civilians back - with people lining up to board rescue flights bound for Spain, France, India, the US and UK.

At least 56,000 people need to be flown out of Afghanistan, including 22,000 using American special immigration visas and 4,000 Britons - though the true number is likely to be far higher once staff at dozens of embassies in the capital are taken into account.

The Taliban declared an 'amnesty' across the country on Tuesday, urging people to return to their homes while vowing that government staff and women will be protected, and even invited to join the government.

Meanwhile, Kabul's international airport, the only way out for many, reopened to military evacuation flights under the watch of American troops.

Still, there were indications that the situation remained tenuous. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, now operating from the airport, urged Americans to register online for evacuations but not come to the airport before being contacted.

The German Foreign Ministry said a first German military transport plane landed in Kabul, but it took off with only seven people on board due to continued chaos. Another left later with 125 people.

By late Tuesday, the Taliban entered the civilian half of the airport, firing into the air to drive out around 500 people there, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to brief journalists.

Pandemonium unfolded at Kabul airport on Monday as thousands of people ran on to the runway in a desperate attempt to escape Taliban rule, fearing bloody reprisals by the Islamists

Thousands of Afghan civilians had raced on to the airstrip at Kabul airport before some jumped on the side of a US C-17 aircraft, which made an emergency landing in Qatar

Three people were also seen falling from one of the jet as the landing gear was retracted, before their bodies came crashing down on house rooftops in Kabul

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, noted the Taliban's vows of amnesty but also gave voice to the fears of everyday Afghans, who worry the Islamists will not live up to their word.

'Such promises will need to be honored, and for the time being - again understandably, given past history - these declarations have been greeted with some skepticism,' he said.

'There have been many hard-won advances in human rights over the past two decades. The rights of all Afghans must be defended.'

President Ashraf Ghani earlier fled the country amid the Taliban advance and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Scenes at the airport were calmer today after American troops secured the perimeter overnight, with hundreds of people lined up behind barbed wire today trying to board Freedom Flights out

Afghan security guards try and maintain order as hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul

French security forces escort diplomatic staff and their colleagues on board an evacuation flight bound for Abu Dhabi from Kabul airport on Tuesday morning
Two businesses in which Rishi Sunak's owned shares have gone bust in the pandemic owing 623,000 to the taxman - after one secured 1.3million from her husband's Covid loan scheme.

Akshata Murthy owned part of Lava Mayfair Club Limited, a private members club 'focusing on positive social change' that collapsed owing 43.7m to creditors, including 374,000 to HMRC.

Her investment firm, Catamaran Ventures, is one of 53 shareholders in Mrs Wordsmith Limited, an educational firm that fell into administration in March owing 16.3m, despite receiving a 1.3million loan from the government's Future Fund.

Rishi Sunak with his wife Akshata Murthy at Lords as England played India earlier this month

It also put staff on furlough but no longer able to resist the pressure from HM Revenue and Customs and other key creditors', The Mirror reported, citing administrators.

The firm - which produced multimedia books for children - now owes 249,000 in income tax and National Insurance contributions.

Lava Mayfair also furloughed staff but was unable to continue operating after its landlord sued when rent payments went unpaid.

It is in debt to Metro Bank for 9.9m and Ms Murthy is among shareholders who will lose money.

The business, which was financed by an ethical investment company, was in the process of refurbishing a Grade II listed, seven-storey building in central London to create a new venue offering restaurants, bars, a gym, exhibition space and meeting rooms.

Ms Murthy, 41, is one of Britain's wealthiest women, with shares in her billionaire father's tech firm worth 430million.

She and her relatives hold a multimillion pound portfolio of shareholdings which came to light amid questions over the Chancellor, who met his future wife while studying at Stanford University, California, failing to declare them in the register of ministers' interests.

Mr Sunak, 41, has put his investments in a 'blind trust' and is not required to name companies in which his wife  who he met while studying at Stanford University - owns shares.

Ms Murthy owned part of Lava Mayfair Club Limited, a private members club 'focusing on positive social change' that collapsed owing 43.7m to creditors, including 374,000 to HMRC

Her assets make Ms Murthy richer than the Queen, who is estimated to be worth 350million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

She is the daughter of one of the richest men in India - billionaire N. R. Narayana Murthy - who has been described as the father of the Indian IT sector and 'one of the 12 greatest businessmen of all time'.

Mr Sunak is the son of a GP father and pharmacist mother who emigrated to Southampton from East Africa in the 1960s, and he studied at Oxford University before winning a Fulbright scholarship to Stanford where the future husband and wife met.

Before becoming Chancellor, he was better known in India than he was in Britain after his marriage made him a household name.
Health officials are scrambling to find the source of a mystery outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Melbourne with two new cases.

Two Cranbourne East residents in the city's south-east required hospitalisation after they contracted the life-threatening disease earlier in August

Investigations are under way into potential sources of the outbreak, including local cooling towers, pools and spas.

Melbourne is also grappling with its latest coronavirus outbreak which has plunged the city into its sixth lockdown since the start of pandemic.

An investigation is underway after two Melburnians contracted Legionnaire's disease (pictured, Legionella pneumophila bacterium, the causative agent)

Healthcare workers are encouraged to look out for Legionnaires' disease in patients with flu-like symptoms who've been in Cranbourne East since the start of August and to 'consider alternative diagnoses to Covid-19 for respiratory infections and undertake appropriate investigations'.

Legionnaires' is a type of pneumonia caused by legionella bacteria, which can be found in natural bodies of water like lakes, rivers, creeks and hot springs.

It can also be found in spas, potting mixture, warm water systems and artificial cooling or heating systems.

The disease does not spread from person to person or by drinking contaminated water, it is contracted by breathing in fine droplets of water containing the bacteria.

Two mystery cases of Legionnaires' disease have emerged in the Cranbourne region in Melbourne's south-east (pictured)

Those most at risk of catching the disease are people aged over 50, those with weak immune systems, chronic lung disease, or who smoke and drink heavily.

Some symptoms of the disease are similar to Covid-19, since it can present as flu-like with headaches, a fever and a cough. The illness could progress to pneumonia, with some sufferers experiencing confusion.

Anyone with these symptoms who works, visits or lives in the Cranbourne East area is urged to seek immediate medical attention.

Early diagnosis and treatment with antibiotics can reduce severity of illness and complications.
Mary Wells, 21, was found stabbed to death in a house in Colchester, Essex, in January

A man has admitted killing a 'shy and kind' American woman days before she was due to fly home.

Adam Butt, 22, had previously denied murder after 21-year-old Mary Wells was found with stab wounds to her neck and body in a shared Colchester home in Essex.

An inquest into her death heard Ms Wells had flown thousands of miles to see a man she had met online.

Butt, of Colchester, was arrested after she was found dead in January and denied murder at a hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court last month.

But during a short hearing at the same court yesterday, Butt admitted manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.

The court heard a jury trial could still proceed on the murder charge, but discussions between the Crown Prosecution Service and Butt's defence team are ongoing.

Butt remains remanded at a psychiatric hospital.

Judge Christopher Morgan said: 'I will adjourn this matter to a pre-trial review or further case management hearing on September 3.

'The defendant can appear over the videolink if he requires, or he can be produced as he has been today.

'The trial, which is due to commence in September, will remain at this stage until the parties have had the opportunity of fully considering the position in light of the plea of manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility entered today.'

Speaking at an inquest, assistant coroner Tina Harrington established a provisional cause of death as penetrating wounds to the neck and torso.

Mary had been born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and lived in Dallastown, Philadelphia, where she graduated from high school.

Paramedics were called to the property but tragically they could not save Ms Wells' life

A fundraising page was set up to help her grieving family with the process of transporting her body home.

On the page, Ms Wells was described as kind, a person who 'would give someone the shirt off her back'.

The page set a target of raising 3,300 and reached the goal in just two days.

It said: 'Mary was so kind and selfless, she would give someone the shirt off her back. Mary was quiet and didn't ask for much.

'She wasn't the kind of person that likes to fight or argue. She was very shy.

'Mary had a tough couple of years. She lost her mum due to health problems and lost her grandmother, who took care of her after her mum died two years ago.'

The tragic woman had spent six months in the UK and was due to fly home on February 8 but died on January 17.
This is the shocking moment a 100,000 Tesla Model X collided with a bus after the driver failed to shut one of its distinctive 'falcon wing' doors.

Footage captured in Southgate, north London, shows the Tesla driver make their way along the road with one of their rear doors fully open at around 4.45pm on August 14.

Just seconds later, the open 'falcon wing' door smashes into a double-decker bus approaching from the opposite direction - shattering the glass on the driver's window.

It is unclear how the motorist was not alerted to the open rear door by the car's alarms - or failed to spot it, even though it appears to be on the driver's side.

The Tesla Model X collides with a double-decker bus in Southgate, north London, on August 14

The driver of the Tesla fails to shut one of its distinctive 'falcon wing' doors and continues to drive along the road

During the clip, the driver of the Tesla moves off from a parking bay and merges into traffic.

The motorist continues to drive along the road with one of the upward-opening car doors sticking out.

Within seconds, it collides with the route 125 bus driving in the opposite direction and the bus driver leans away from his steering wheel to protect himself.

The Tesla driver then moves their vehicle to the side of the road as their damaged falcon door hangs off the car.

Tom Cunnington, TfL's Head of Bus Business Development: 'We are aware of an incident involving a route 125 bus on Saturday in Southgate, and a video on social media of the incident that shows what happened from an onlooker's perspective.

'This would have been a very frightening experience for the bus driver, who we wish well, and we are supporting the bus operator's ongoing investigation.'

The Tesla Model X, which is known for the falcon wing doors that open upwards, was first launched by Elon Musk's all-electric-car company in 2015.

The motorist continues to drive along the road before colliding into the route 125 bus driving in the opposite direction

The Tesla driver slows down and moves their vehicle to the side of the road with their damaged door

It is Tesla's most advanced car yet, with radar and sonar systems enabling partial self-driving and an air filtration system or 'bioweapon defence mode' which Musk claims can filter out viruses.

The car also features a warning alarm which is set off when the double-hinged falcon doors are open.

MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police for comment.

The scenes come after one mother accidentally clipped one of the falcon doors on her Tesla Model X in Salt Lake City, Utah, last year.

Meg Jensen, from Salt Lake City, shared footage of her mother accidentally crashing into their garage with her Tesla

Meg Jensen shared footage of her mother colliding into the side of her garage after she dropped her children off at home.

The collision, which saw the open falcon door crash into a wall, caused Ms Jenson's mother to abruptly stop her car.

In a caption on social media she wrote: 'My mom in her Tesla X vs. the Garage... Which will win? Caught on Nest cam security.'


Three people have been killed after the Taliban opened fire on protesters who raised the government flag in Jalalabad as so-called resistance demonstrations spread across Afghanistan on Wednesday.

According to witnesses, the deaths took place when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's national flag at a square in the city, some 90 miles to the east of Kabul.

The attack comes as rebel fighters and protesters bravely defied the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan - flying the flags of the government and that of the northern alliance across country in a show of resistance against the Islamists.

Pictured: Protesters walk through a busy road-way in Jalalabad waving an Afghan flag, moments before the Taliban opened fire and reportedly killed three people

Pictured: A man holds an Afghan flag in the streets of Jalalabad city, Afghanistan on August 18, 2021, where the Taliban are reported to have killed three people

Pictured: A group of men on top of a tower-like structure wave an Afghan flag in Khost

This screengrab taken from video from Pajhwok shows Afghan people protesting over the reported removal of Afghan flags replaced with the Taliban flags after Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan at Jalalabad on August 18, 2021

Pictured: Afghan protesters wave the national flag as they run, ride and drive down the streets of Jalalabad. The Taliban are said to have quelled the protest, killing three people

Troops loyal to vice president Amrullah Saleh today paraded the flag of the 'northern alliance' - an anti-Taliban league of warlords and politicians - through the Panjshir Valley, an area just 80 miles north of Kabul that the jihadists have never conquered.

Meanwhile, protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost, which sit a similar distance from the Afghan capital, waving the national flag in defiance of the Taliban which replaced it with their own white emblem.

Images that appeared to have been taken in Khost showed students - abandoned by the Afghan army but unwilling to submit to the Taliban - removing the group's flag from the main square and replacing it with the national colours.

More video then appeared to show Taliban gunmen opening fire on crowds in both locations, resulting in the deaths of at least three people.

The Taliban has tried hard to present itself as the legitimate government of Afghanistan after security forces largely melted away as American and NATO troops withdrew, handing them back control of the country.

On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the UK would judge the Taliban by 'actions, rather than by its words' amid promises of an amnesty.

At a press conference on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid laid out their vision for the country - promising to guarantee women's rights and stop all reprisal attacks in remarks that raised eyebrows and solicited scepticism.

Pictured: Protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost on Wednesday, which sit around 80 miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul. Pictured: Scenes from Jalalabad

Meanwhile, the Taliban blew up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who fought against them during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s, according to photos circulating on Wednesday, sowing further doubt about their claims to have become more moderate.

The insurgents' every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely. They insist they have changed and won't impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating women's rights, carrying out public executions and banning television and music.

But despite the Taliban's assurances, many in Afghanistan have made desperate attempts to escape. Some who can't are taking a stand.

Multiple videos from the newly conquered country showed a growing resistance against the Taliban, in what could be the early makings of another civil war.

The video from the Panjshir Valley showed a convoy of vehicles parading the green and white flag of the 'northern alliance' - an anti-Taliban league of warlords and politicians who have previously fought against the militant islamic group.

People driving cars and riding motorbikes and mopeds are shown in the video driving down a rural road waving the flags. The video lasts over two minutes, during which a constant stream of hundreds of vehicles are shown passing through.

Separate footage from Jalalabad - that lies roughly 80 miles to the east of Kabul - showed protesters marching through the streets of the city waving the black, green and red flag of Afghanistan.

As they marched through a market distrike, some people who were walking on the pavement were seen joining the protesters' demonstration.

Another Jalalabad demonstration caught on video saw people driving down the street in yellow Tuk Tuks while others walked and ran alongside, many carrying Afghan flags.

Khost - found to the south of Kabul and Jalalabad - also played host to some resistance to the Taliban on Wednesday.

Images appeared to show young residents taking down the flag of the Taliban in a town square, replacing it with Afghanistan's, and in another video from the city, people could be seen waving Afghanistan flags from an overpass.

Other footage appeared to show the Taliban firing near protesters in Khost, but no casualties were immediately reported, raising the suggestion that the shots were fired in an attempt to control the crowd.

Pictured: People on an overpass wave Afghan national flags in defiance of the Taliban on Wednesday in Khost.

Troops loyal to vice president Amrullah Saleh today paraded the flag of the 'northern alliance' - an anti-Taliban league of warlords and politicians - through the Panjshir Valley, an area just 80 miles north of Kabul

Vice President Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Massoud, the son of his former mentor and famed anti-Taliban fighter Ahmed Shah Massoud, are putting together a guerilla movement in the Panjshir Valley - the only region not controlled by the Taliban.

Saleh said on Tuesday he was in Afghanistan and the 'legitimate caretaker president' after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as it emerged he was massing troops and planning a counter offensive against the Taliban.

Amrullah Saleh made the comment on Twitter on Tuesday. He cited the Afghan constitution was empowering him to declare this. He wrote that he was 'reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus.'

As of now, Afghan leaders, including former President Hamid Karzai and peace council chief Abdullah Abdullah, have been negotiating with the Taliban since the fall of Kabul.

Footage that emerged on Tuesday showed Massoud, accompanied by a heavily armed entourage, boarding an Afghan air force Mi-17, a Soviet designed military helicopter.

At least 15 people boarded the flight and were seen helping each other climb on to the military helicopter, thought to be taking off from within the Panjshir region.

Several of the group sported military uniforms, while others were seen in pakols - traditional round-topped woolen hats favoured by Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Saleh, who is from the northern Panjshir valley, fled to his hometown on Sunday. The region is known as a mountainous redoubt tucked into the Hindu Kush that never fell to the Taliban during the civil war of the 1990s or was conquered by the Soviets a decade earlier.

He has vowed not to surrender to the extremist group, writing on Twitter on Sunday: 'I won't dis-appoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with Taliban. NEVER'.

In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Saleh said that it was 'futile' to argue with US President Joe Biden, who has decided to pull out US forces.

He called on Afghans to show that Afghanistan 'isn't Vietnam & the Talibs aren't even remotely like Vietcong'.

At a press conference on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid (pictured) laid out the Taliban's vision for the country - promising to guarantee women's rights and stop all reprisal attacks in remarks that raised eyebrows

The Taliban's war on female Afghans: Islamic group's brutal oppression of women and girls during 1990s tyranny A woman wearing a blue-coloured burqa walks next to the construction site of a building in Kabul on June 21, 2021 Under the hardline version of Sharia - Islamic law - that the Taliban imposed the last time they controlled the capital, women and girls were mostly denied education or employment. Burqas - full body and face coverings - became mandatory in public, women could not leave home without a male companion, and public floggings and executions, including stoning for adultery, were carried out in city squares and stadiums. Under threat of execution, girls were banned from mainstream education after the age of eight - forcing those who wanted to learn to do so in secret schools. From the age of eight, girls were not allowed to be in direct contact with males other than a close 'blood relative', husband, or in-law. Punishments were often carried out publicly, either as formal spectacles held in sports stadiums or town squares or spontaneous street beatings. Many punishments were meted out by individual militias without the sanction of Taliban authorities. In October 1996, for instance, a woman had the tip of her thumb cut off for wearing nail varnish - while in 1999, a mother-of-seven was executed in front of 30,000 spectators in Kabul's Ghazi Sport stadium for murdering her husband. She had been jailed for three years and tortured prior to the execution, but had refused to plead her innocence in a bid to protect her daughter. Even after the Taliban's ousting in 2001, women often remained marginalised, especially in rural areas. The United Nations chief called for an immediate end to violence in Afghanistan and urging the international community to unite to ensure that the human rights of all people are respected. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Security Council at an emergency meeting on Monday 'and the international community as a whole to stand together, work together and act together.' He said he is 'particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan who fear a return to the darkest days' in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled and barred girls for getting an education and imposed draconian measures on women. Mr Guterres said 'the world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead' and with the country's future and the hopes and dreams of a generation of young Afghans in the balance, the coming days 'will be pivotal.' At this 'grave hour,' the secretary-general urged all parties, especially the Taliban, 'to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs can be met.' Mr Guterres said the UN continues to have staff and offices in areas now under Taliban control, and which so far have been respected. 'Above all, we will stay and deliver in support of the Afghan people in their hour of need.' 'We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,' he said. Advertisement

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed on Tuesday 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago', when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

During their press conference in the capital city, the Taliban insisted girls will receive an education and women will be allowed to study at university - both of which were forbidden under Taliban rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 before the US-led invasion.

The terror group also claimed they want women to be part of the new government after female Afghans staged a protest outside a local Taliban HQ in Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul, while chanting 'honour and lives are safe' and 'join voices with us'.

However, women and girls remain the most at risk under the new regime, with gangs in conquered areas allegedly hunting children as young as 12 and unmarried or widowed women they regard as spoils of war - 'qhanimat' - being forced into marriage or sex slavery.

The Taliban has also said women will have to wear hijabs but not burkas. During the press conference on Tuesday, Mujahid did not detail what restrictions would be imposed on women, although he did say it would be a government with 'strong Islamic values'.

Mujahid claimed: 'We are committed to the rights of women under the system of Sharia. They are going to be working shoulder to shoulder with us. We would like to assure the international community that there will be no discrimination.'

The Taliban denied it was enforcing sex slavery, and claims that such actions are against Islam. During the 1990s, the regime established religious police for the suppression of 'vice', and courts handed out extreme punishments including stoning to death women accused of adultery.

When asked by a reporter whether the Taliban would renounce terrorist group Al-Qaeda, Mujahid answered evasively, saying the group would not permit foreign fighters to use Afghanistan 'against anybody'.

'I would like to assure the international community that nobody will be harmed,' Mujahid said from the former government's media information centre in Kabul, speaking into a row of microphones.

'We do not want to have any problems with the international community,' he added, before defending the Taliban's right to 'act according to our religious principles.'

'Other countries have different approaches, rules and regulations... the Afghans have the right to have their own rules and regulations in accordance with our values.'

The spokesman suggested that the Taliban intended to put the last 20 years behind them, claiming that the group is 'not going to revenge anybody, we do not have grudges against anybody'.

'We want to make sure Afghanistan is not the battlefield of conflict anymore. We want to grant amnesty to those who have fought against us,' he said.

He described the Taliban's '20 year struggle for freedom, emancipating the country form occupation,' and said of the recent incursion: 'This was our right, we have achieved our right, I would like to thank God for bringing us to this stage.'

There have also been concerns that the Taliban would restrict media and journalists within the country. Mujahid also attempted to allay those fears in Tuesdays conference.

'I would like to assure the media that we are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks', Mujahid said. 'Private media can continue to be free and independent.

'Islam is very important in our country... Therefore Islamic values should be taken into account when it comes to the media, to developing your programmes.

'Impartiality of the media is very important, they can critique our work so that we can improve. But the media should not work against us', he added.
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MPs hammered Boris Johnson over the 'catastrophic failure' in Afghanistan today - as the PM swiped at Joe Biden saying the 'successful' Afghan mission could not continue without 'American might'.

As the desperate evacuation effort continues in Kabul, the premier defended his handling of the chaos insisting there was a 'hard reality' as a result of the US stance.

Mr Johnson told the recalled chamber - packed out for the first time since last year after Covid restrictions were dropped - that the 'sacrifice' of British troops was 'seared into our national consciousness'. He said the 'core mission' had been achieved as Afghanistan had not been a hotbed for terrorism.

However, he was immediately assailed by Tories, with defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood saying the West had 'ceded the country to the very insurgents we went to defeat'. Theresa May said Afghanistan would now be a breeding ground for extremism, accusing the PM of operating 'on a wing and a prayer' and hoping it would be 'alright on the night'. Former chief whip Mark Harper said there had been a 'catastrophic failure'.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the premier had displayed 'staggering complacency', pointing out that his last visit to Afghanistan as Foreign Secretary in 2018 had been a ploy to avoid a vote on Heathrow Airport expansion.

There were also calls for the government to go further and faster in providing safe haven for Afghans who face the threat of persecution under the new Taliban regime. Labour's Chris Bryant said only 5,000 of 20,000 refugees were set to be accepted this year, raging that the rest were being asked to 'hang around and wait until they have been executed'.

On the current airlift, Mr Johnson revealed that just 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghan nationals had been extracted so far - with thousands more still waiting.

Meanwhile, other Tory MPs branded Mr Biden 'shameful', with former soldier Tom Tugendhat condemning the criticism of Afghans' courage when the president has not seen service himself.

In an emotional speech which drew rare applause from some MPs, Mr Tugendhat also said the UK and its Western allies had received a 'very harsh lesson'.

Opening a bruising emergency debate, Mr Johnson said: 'The sacrifice in Afghanistan is seared into our national consciousness, with 150,000 people serving there from across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom  including a number of members on all sides of the House whose voices will be particularly important today.'

He added: 'As for our Nato allies and allies around the world, when it came for us to look at the options that this country might have in view of the American decision to withdraw we came up against this hard reality.

'That since 2009, America has deployed 98 per cent of all weapons released from Nato aircraft in Afghanistan and at the peak of the operation  where there were 132,000 troops on the ground  90,000 of them were American.

'The West could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America... without US logistics, without US airpower, and without American might.'

As the desperate evacuation effort continues in Kabul, the PM addressed the House of Commons to defend the handling of the crisis

Johnson insisted the UK's 'core mission' in Afghanistan 'succeeded' as he faced the wrath of the House of Commons over the military meltdown

Labour leader Keir Starmer (left) said the premier had displayed 'staggering complacency'. Theresa May (right) said Afghanistan would now be a breeding ground for terror, accusing the PM of operating 'on a wing and a prayer'

Up to 25,000 Afghans in danger from the Taliban will be allowed to come to Britain in one of the most generous resettlement schemes in the country's history

The President blamed the Afghans for not being prepared for the Taliban attack in his speech

UK forces chief says US withdrawal 'shattered' Afghan morale General Sir Nick Carter dismissed the president's claim that the Afghan army had lacked the stomach for battle The head of UK forces today swiped at Joe Biden over the headlong US withdrawal from Afghanistan saying it 'shattered' the morale of local forces. General Sir Nick Carter dismissed the president's claim that the Afghan army had lacked the stomach for battle, insisting they 'fought very bravely' until the West effectively walked out. Sir Nick said as the government teetered on the verge of collapse he had been focused on 'giving confidence' to the country's military, which had been trained and equipped by the UK and US for two decades. Pointing to the impact of the July 4 drawdown of US troops, the Chief of the Defence Staff said: 'They lost their air power. That was a very shattering moment in terms of their morale... 'What happened from 4th of July onwards, their morale was shattered.' The comments came after Boris Johnson last night urged Mr Biden not to throw away the gains of the last 20 years following the chaotic US withdrawal. Advertisement

Mr Johnson said the immediate focus was to get Britons and vulnerable Afghan allies out of Kabul.

'The situation has stabilised since the weekend but it remains precarious, and the UK officials on the ground are doing everything that they can to expedite the movement of people, those that need to come out, whether from the ARAP scheme or the eligible persons, to get from Kabul to the airport, and at the moment it would be fair to say that the Taliban are allowing that evacuation to go ahead,' he said.

He said 'the most important thing is that we get this done in as expeditious a fashion as we can and that is what we are doing'.

Intervening in Mr Johnson's speech, former PM Theresa May demanded details of his discussions on the 'possibility of putting together an alliance of other forces in order to replace the American support in Afghanistan'.

Mr Johnson replied: 'I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by Nato in Afghanistan.

'That idea ended with the combat mission in 2014.

'And I do not believe that today deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that no matter how sincerely people may advocate it  and I appreciate their sincerity  but I do not believe that that is an option that would commend itself either to the British people or to this House.

'We must deal with the position as it is now is, accepting what we have achieved and what we have not achieved.'

In her own speech afterwards, Mrs May said: 'Was our intelligence really so poor? Was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak?

'Was our knowledge of our position on the ground so inadequate?

'Or did we just follow the United States, and hope that on a wing and a prayer it would be alright on the night.'

She added: 'It hasn't been alright on the night.'

When ex-Cabinet minister John Redwood interjected that the blame lay with Mr Biden, Mrs May said the US president had only 'upheld' a decision made by Donald Trump, noting: 'It was a unilateral decision of President Trump to do a deal with the Taliban that has led to this withdrawal.'

She added: 'I think it is absolutely essential for us to recognise the probability that Afghanistan will once again become a breeding ground for the terrorists who seek to destroy our way of life.'

The former prime minister also said it was 'a major setback for British foreign policy' nearly 20 years after UK forces first entered the country in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US.

And Mr Tugendhat - who served in Afghanistan - said: 'This doesn't need to be defeat but at the moment it damn well feels like it.'

Meanwhile, Mr Ellwood said the collapse of Afghanistan was the result of 'an operational and strategic blunder'..

'What we require is the backbone, the courage, the leadership to step forward, yet when our moment comes such as this we are found wanting," he said.

'We are complicit in allowing another dictatorship to form as we become more isolationist.'

Mr Johnson acknowledged the sacrifice of the British forces who had served in the country since 2001, and said he was committed to working with allies to ensure it did not again become a centre of international terrorism.

He said: 'Even amid the heart-wrenching scenes we see today, I believe they should be proud of their achievements and we should be deeply proud of them.

Top Tory lashes Biden for questioning Afghan courage when he has never served A senior Tory today lashed out at Joe Biden for questioning the courage of Afghan troops when he has not seen service. In an emotional speech, Foreign Affairs committee chair Tom Tugendhat - a former soldier - said he was 'sad' at having to criticise the US. But he added: 'To see their commander in chief call into the question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran is shameful. 'Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have.' Mr Tugendhat suggested the West and the UK had not shown patience, adding: 'This is a harsh lesson for all of us and if we're not careful it could be a very, very difficult lesson for our allies. 'It doesn't need to be. We can set out a vision, clearly articulate it, for reinvigorating our European Nato partners, to make sure that we are not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leader, that that we can work together with Japan and Australia, France and Germany, with partners large and small and make sure we hold the line together.' Advertisement

'They gave their all for our safety and we owe it to them to give our all to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a breeding ground for terrorism.'

Sir Keir accused the PM of 'staggering complacency', pointing out that both he and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab were on holiday as the crisis unfolded.

Addressing veterans and their families he said: 'Your sacrifice was not in vain, you brought stability, reduced the terrorist threat and enabled progress. We are all proud of what you did.

'Your sacrifice deserves better than this and so do the Afghan people. There's been a major miscalculation of the resilience of the Afghan forces and a staggering complacency from our Government about the Taliban threat. The result is that the Taliban are now back in control of Afghanistan.

'The gains through 20 years of sacrifice hang precariously. Women and girls fear for their liberty, Afghan civilians are holding on to the undercarriage of Nato aircraft literally clinging to departing hope and we face new threats to our security and an appalling humanitarian crisis.'

Sir Keir praised the British ambassador in Kabul for processing the paperwork of those who needed to flee as the Taliban approached, adding: 'The Prime Minister's response to the Taliban arriving at the gates of Kabul was to go on holiday.

'No sense of the gravity of the situation, not leadership to drive international efforts on the evacuation.'

When asked by the Tory benches what he would do differently, Sir Keir said: 'I wouldn't stay on holiday whilst Kabul was falling.'

Addressing Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Sir Keir said: 'He shouts now but he stayed on holiday while our mission in Afghanistan was disintegrating. He didn't even speak to ambassadors in the region as Kabul fell to the Taliban. Let that sink in.

'You cannot co-ordinate an international response from the beach. A dereliction of duty by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, a Government totally unprepared for the scenario that it had 18 months to prepare for.'

Sir Keir said: 'He failed to visit Afghanistan as Prime Minister, meaning that his last trip as foreign secretary in 2018 was not to learn or to push British interests but to avoid a vote on Heathrow.'

In an emotional speech, Mr Tugendhat lashed out at Mr Biden. 'To see their commander in chief call into the question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran is shameful,' he said.

'Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have.'

How will the new resettlement scheme work and who will get priority? The new Afghan resettlement programme is separate from the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which grants haven to former interpreters and others who helped Western forces over the past 20 years. It will be modelled on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme which launched in 2014 in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR identifies potential cases for the UK to consider and applicants are then vetted by British officials. Priority will be given to women and girls, and religious and other minorities. There will be a particular focus on whether people are at risk of human rights abuses and dehumanising treatment by the Taliban. The UK can reject cases on 'security, war crimes or other grounds'. Advertisement

Mr Tugendhat suggested the West and the UK had not shown patience, adding: 'This is a harsh lesson for all of us and if we're not careful it could be a very, very difficult lesson for our allies.

'It doesn't need to be. We can set out a vision, clearly articulate it, for reinvigorating our European Nato partners, to make sure that we are not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leader, that that we can work together with Japan and Australia, France and Germany, with partners large and small and make sure we hold the line together.'

In a round of interviews earlier, Home Secretary Priti Patel dismissed criticism of the new resettlement scheme, saying it represents an 'enormous effort'.

Women, girls and those facing persecution will get priority as some 20,000 are granted the right to live in the UK  with 5,000 expected in the first year.

Meanwhile, Ms Patel said an existing programme designed to protect Afghan translators and other workers who were employed by British forces will be expanded from 5,000 people to around 10,000.

However, senior Conservatives have suggested that the UK should be accepting 'north of 50,000' refugees, and there has also been criticism of the pace.

Ms Patel said the circumstances were 'very difficult'.

'We have to ensure we have the support structures throughout the United Kingdom. We will be working with local councils throughout the country, the devolved governments as well,' she told Sky News.

'We are working quickly on this. We cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go. Currently we are bringing back almost 1,000 people a day.

'This is an enormous effort. We can't do this on our own. We have to work together.'

She insisted that it was right to set an initial figure of 20,000 for the coming years, although it could rise in the future.

'We have got to come up with the actual infrastructure, the support, the resettlement,' Ms Patel told BBC News.

'We are going to be working with all partners. We could end up bringing many more but first of all we have to have the underpinning and the infrastructure and the support to do that.'

Ms Patel said that double the 5,000 originally announced could be admitted under the existing Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).

'There could be up to 10,000. We are expanding categories of people,' she said.

'We are working with the MoD on the ground. We are working with partners on the ground to identify these individuals.

NOW they tell us how appalled they are! In a series of hand-wringing speeches, MPs on all sides of the house attacked Joe Biden and Boris Johnson over the fall of Kabul yesterday. But many of the strident speeches were by those who had barely spoken on the subject before. THERESA MAY The former PM branded the withdrawal from Afghanistan a major setback for British foreign policy. She said it was incomprehensible and worrying that the Government had not been able to put together an alternative alliance of countries to continue to support Afghanistan in the absence of US forces. She concluded: The politicians sent them [the troops] there. The politicians decided to withdraw. The politicians must be responsible for the consequences. But despite her fiery rhetoric, astonishingly Mrs May has never spoken in a debate on Afghanistan before. SIR KEIR STARMER The Labour leader said: The lack of planning is unforgivable and the Prime Minister bears a heavy responsibility. The Governments preparation for withdrawal was based on a miscalculation of the resilience of the Afghan forces and a staggering complacency about the Taliban threat. But his Commons record reveals he has only mentioned the country twice. Once to criticise cuts in foreign aid, and another time to criticise Mr Johnson for avoiding a vote on Heathrow to make a trip to Afghanistan when foreign secretary. SIR ED DAVEY The Liberal Democrat leader castigated the PM for backing Donald Trumps flawed deal with the Taliban. He said: From the Prime Ministers self-evident lack of influence and clout in Washington, to his negligent inability, yet again, to master his brief and plan properly for the withdrawal, todays occupant of No10 has become a national liability. But 12 years ago, Sir Ed called for tea with the Taliban as part of a deal with the Islamists, and said fighters should be offered a decent daily wage to get them to defect. CAROLINE LUCAS The Green Party MP said: Watching the scenes at Kabul airport this week has left me and so many others with feelings of overwhelming grief and anger. She was previously a leading light in the Stop The War coalition and called for British troops to return home more than a decade ago. LISA NANDY The shadow foreign secretary wound up yesterdays debate, attacking the Government over its failures in planning. But only last month she said British military presence in Afghanistan had outlived its usefulness. She also abstained on a 2010 vote on continuing UK deployment there. Advertisement

'We are working night and day. I am sending in Home Office officials, Border Force officials, to the region to help support this scheme as well.'

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban.

It will also offer help to those forced to flee their homes and to religious minorities in the country. They will be given the right to stay in the UK permanently.

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million.

Earlier, the Chief of the Defence Staff gave his own damning verdict on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying it 'shattered' the morale of local forces.

General Sir Nick Carter dismissed the president's claim that the Afghan army had lacked the stomach for battle, insisting they 'fought very bravely' until the West effectively walked out.

Sir Nick said as the government teetered on the verge of collapse he had been focused on 'giving confidence' to the country's military, which had been trained and equipped by the UK and US for two decades.

Pointing to the impact of the July 4 drawdown of US troops, the Chief of the Defence Staff said: 'They lost their air power. That was a very shattering moment in terms of their morale...

'What happened from 4th of July onwards, their morale was shattered.'

The comments came after Mr Johnson last night urged Mr Biden in a telephone call not to throw away the gains of the last 20 years following the chaotic US withdrawal.

In a thinly veiled warning over the consequences of the US military retreat from Kabul, the Prime Minister reminded the President of the need to protect the West against terrorism.

It follows a wave of criticism from US media and British and European politicians following the Taliban's dramatic takeover.

It comes as the American media turned on Mr Biden yesterday over the botched withdrawal of troops.

The President had blamed the Afghans for not being prepared for the Taliban insurgents' rapid attack.

But his address to the American people on Monday night was slammed by media outlets and political commentators.

The Wall Street Journal described the speech as 'one of the most shameful in history by a commander in chief'.

In an editorial, the newspaper said the President had 'refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal while blaming others', adding that the 'one group he conspicuously did not blame was the Taliban'.

In Monday's speech, Mr Biden said: 'I stand squarely behind my decision', and claimed that Afghanistan's political leaders and military were 'not willing to fight for themselves'.

'We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.'

A Washington Post editorial said Mr Biden could have listened to the 'many seasoned hands' giving him alternatives to withdrawal, adding that him blaming others was 'unseemly' given that 2,448 US service members died in Afghanistan in 20 years.

The RAF's frantic efforts to evacuate Britons and Afghan allies from Kabul have been continuing

Priti Patel today batted away Tory calls to more than double the government's vow to take 20,000 Afghan refugees - but said the number of interpreters and support staff given safe haven will rise

Boris Johnson announced that up to 20,000 will be given the right to live here under a far-ranging new scheme  with 5,000 expected in the first year

'The best solution for everyone is an Afghanistan that works for all Afghans. That means the international community coming together to set firm, political conditions for the country's future governance.'

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the scheme would allow the 'most vulnerable' Afghans to 'start a new life in safety in the UK, away from the tyranny and oppression they now face'.

'We will not abandon people who have been forced to flee their homes and are now living in terror of what might come next,' she added.

Afghans allowed to come to the UK will be distributed across the country, the Government indicated last night. A spokesman said it would work with the devolved administrations and local councils to make sure Afghans get help to rebuild their lives.

The new Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will focus on women and girls who fear their rights will be trampled under the 'Islamic Emirate' declared by the Taliban

Ministers had promised to set up a 'generous' and 'world-leading' programme to resettle those fleeing the new Taliban regime.

Ms Patel has been pressing members of the 'Five Eyes' intelligence-sharing alliance that also includes the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for 'international collaboration on setting up safe and legal routes for Afghan refugees'.

The new Afghan programme will be modelled on the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme which launched in 2014 in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UNHCR identifies potential cases for the UK to consider and applicants are then vetted by British officials.

Boris Johnson went for a run this morning before facing MP fury about the dramatic military meltdown in Afghanistan

A previous scheme for Syrian refugees cost about 8,000 per person  so the new commitments are likely to come with a huge price tag of up to 200million

The UK can reject cases on 'security, war crimes or other grounds', according to Home Office guidance.

World leaders have shown varied reactions to the plight of Afghans.

French president Emmanuel Macron came under fire last night after he said France would 'protect' itself from migrants fleeing the crisis in Afghanistan.

He faced accusations that he was letting down ordinary Afghans after he pledged a robust European approach against illegal migration.

Greece took a similar approach yesterday as it said it would not become 'the gateway of Europe' for Afghans fleeing the conflict.

The country was on the frontline of Europe's migration crisis in 2015 and, like other EU member states, it is nervous developments in Afghanistan could trigger a replay of the situation.
If production increases, there is less need to dilute it, leading to stronger heroin

Afghanistan makes most of the global opium supply and production is still rising

The Taliban's seizing of Afghanistan could flood British and European streets with deadly super-strength heroin, experts fear.

The Islamist terror group relies heavily on the war-torn country's multi-billion-pound opium trade.

Production increased last year in the country, which already makes up two-thirds of the world's opium supply.

Ian Hamilton, a drug addiction researcher at the University of York, claimed it was a problem 'coming down the road'.

Afghanistan produced 37 per cent more opium last year, a report by the United Nations revealed. The country cultivated opium from 224,000 hectares of poppy fields  an area 50 per cent bigger than the entirety of Greater London

Heroin is made from opium that is removed from the pods in certain poppy plants, which is turned into morphine and then heroin. (Pictured: an Afghan man working on a poppy field in Nangarhar, eastern Afghanistan, in April 2016)

The Balkan route (red dotted line) is the main pathway for opiates from Afghanistan to be smuggled into Europe, which is the where the majority of heroin produced in the country ends up. It is usually smuggled through Iran, Turkey and the Balkans. Meanwhile, most of the opiates taken in the US arrived from Mexico and Colombia

Heroin and morphine behind most drug-related deaths in 2020 Opiates heroin and morphine caused nearly 30 per cent of all drugs deaths in England and Wales last year. Office for National Statistics data showed 4,561 deaths in England and Wales registered last year were related to drug poisoning in 2020, marking the ninth successive year that drug fatalities have risen. And heroin and morphine sparked 1,337 deaths - more than any other drug. This marks an increase of 69 per cent on 10 years ago. Heroin caused more deaths than cocaine (777), antidepressants (517) and methadone (516). Many of those who died from taking illegal drugs were born in the 1970s. The victims include members of the so-called 'Trainspotting generation' that live in poorer towns and cities and became addicted to heroin in the 1990s when prices were cheap. Experts slammed the data as 'tragic and concerning', and called on ministers to urgently dish out extra support to fix the 'public health emergency'. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the Government 'is committed to tackling drug misuse and saving lives'. Ministers are now proposing to make naloxone  a medicine that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose  more widely available. Meanwhile, MDMA, also known as ecstasy, was behind ten times more deaths than in 2010, and among men fatalities linked to the drug were thirteen times higher than ten years ago. Cocaine-related fatalities jumped almost five-fold over the same period to 777, with rates among women soaring from just 19 to almost 160. And deaths involving benzodiazepine  a class of powerful sleeping pills that include Xanax and Valium  rose by almost 60 per cent in ten years. Experts said today the figures were sad but not surprising, especially for cocaine 'given that [the drug] is so readily available and as easy to order as a Deliveroo'. The ONS figures cover 2020 but because of registration delays most of the fatalities occurred the previous year, meaning they do not show how lockdown may have encouraged the use of illegal drugs. Experts said successive shutdowns were only likely to spark a rise in drug-linked deaths. It comes after Scotland recorded a record high 1,339 drug-related deaths in 2020, the worst drugs death rate in Europe. Advertisement

He told MailOnline: 'Opium production has increased significantly over the past year  and that's not a coincidence.

'There's been less and less official control over production and distribution. That opium yield increase is going to find its way into Western markets.

'And the worrying thing about that is, if the yield increases, you end up with stronger, more potent heroin because there is less need to dilute it.'

Heroin  usually sold as a brown powder  is produced from morphine, which is extracted from the pods of opium poppy plants.

Super-strength heroin is more likely to cause addicts to overdose, charities say.

New heroin users may think they are taking a safe dose in line with what has been suggested to them, when it is actually much stronger.

And regular users will keep taking the same quantity without knowing its potentially deadly strength.

Mr Hamilton said 'it's a bit like regularly drinking pints then all of a sudden switching to spirits'.

Afghanistan accounts for almost two-thirds of all opium produced across the world, according to the United Nations.

A UN report published in May claimed Afghanistan last year saw a 37 per cent increase in the amount of opium produced.

The country cultivated opium from 224,000 hectares of poppy fields  an area 50 per cent bigger than the entirety of Greater London.

Europe is the main destination for heroin produced in Afghanistan. It is usually smuggled through Turkey and the Balkans.

Meanwhile, most of the opiates taken in the US were trafficked from Mexico and Colombia.

Crystal meth is also becoming a problem in the country, with the the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction warning it could become as big an industry in the country as heroin.

Experts pinned the growing production and supply of the crystal meth on drug smugglers finding ephedra, the plant used to make ephedrine, which is a key component of the drug, growing wild in the country's mountains.

It comes after health chiefs yesterday issued a warning about heroin overdoses, following more than a dozen recent deaths.

There have been at least 46 poisonings in South London, the South East, South East and East of England over the past fortnight.

Public Health England said urgent investigations with the police are still ongoing.

And it said there are early signs the overdoses may have been caused by batches of heroin mixed with a potent and dangerous synthetic opioid.

Officials did not say what the mixed drug could be  but experts suggested it could be fentanyl or spice.

Fentanyl, a strong opioid painkiller designed to treat severe pain, is 50 times more potent than heroin and has been linked to thousands of deaths in the US.

It comes as drug deaths in the UK hit 4,561 in England and Wales in 2020, the highest level since 1993.
New Zealand's city streets were largely deserted today after the nation was plunged into lockdown as part of a desperate attempt to press on with its 'zero Covid' approach.

The country was virus-free and living without restrictions until policymakers ordered a snap nationwide lockdown on Tuesday, in response to a single new infection  the first locally-acquired case in six months.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that a total of 10 cases have been detected since the draconian stay-at-home order was announced, all of which were infected with the highly-transmissible Delta.

Its is the first sign the mutant strain could undermine the 19 months of economically-crippling restrictions New Zealanders have had to endure to pursue the elimination strategy.

Scientists have warned 'zero Covid' is near impossible with the Delta strain, which is many times more infectious than the original virus that emerged in China.

Delta is already wreaking havoc in neighbouring Australia, which took a similar approach to New Zealand but is seeing the strategy fall to pieces.

The state of New South Wales has struggled to contain its crisis, and is recording a record 600 new infections per day, fuelled by the the outbreak in Sydney. More than 25million Aussies are now living under draconian lockdown rules.

Police are enforcing the rules with fines of up to AUD$5,000 (2,500) as the country desperately tries to cling on to its failing 'zero Covid' pursuit with Beijing-style measures.

Australia and New Zealand's sluggish vaccine rollouts have left them particularly susceptible to a deadly outbreak of the Delta strain. Only 17 per cent of the entire New Zealand population has been fully vaccinated. Australia is also lagging behind (21 per cent).

Kiwis were put into an intense level four lockdown on Tuesday after the country's first community case in six months, with at total of 10 cases now linked to the cluster. Seen here is a deserted street in Devonport on Wednesday

The latest outbreak began with an unvaccinated Auckland tradesman, 58, who is believed to have been infectious while travelling in the community for five days. A deserted shopping street in Wellington on Wednesday is pictured here

New Zealand and Australia have seen very few Covid cases per capita, one of the benefits of pursuing 'zero Covid' policies - despite leaving multi-billion dollar holes in their economies. But there are signs Australia's crisis could spike in the coming weeks amid the spread of the viciously infectious Delta variant, which has raised fears in New Zealand

But the nations have lagged behind the West in terms of vaccinations, with New Zealand only fully inoculating 17 per cent of its population compared to 21 per cent in Australia. The UK, on the other hand, has seen more than 60 per cent of the total population jabbed. Note: The percentage totals look at the entire populations, even children who are not being routinely vaccinated

The tough and controversial 'zero Covid' policy adopted by the Australasian countries have, however, resulted in very few deaths

The ten positive cases in New Zealand were all linked to the original infection in the country's largest city Auckland, although health officials said modelling suggested case numbers could rise to 120.

Auckland  where the infected man lives  and Coromandel, where he had visited, are in a full lockdown for seven days and the remainder of the country for three days while health experts try to find the source of his infection.

The move into the strictest lockdown underscored the vastly different approach New Zealand has taken to the virus than most other nations, which are trying to suppress its spread rather than eliminate it entirely.

The new cases include a workmate of New Zealand's 'Patient Zero' - a 58-year-old unvaccinated Auckland man with no known links to overseas travel or Sydney - as well as a fully-vaccinated nurse, sparking fears of an outbreak at the hospital where they work.

Another case is an student who had recently being in a lecture theatre with 84 others while infectious.

Ardern said the rapid rise in cases justified her decision to issue stay-at-home orders when just one case had been identified.

"It demonstrates, at this stage, Level 4 (hard lockdown) is the right place to be," Ardern told TVNZ.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, pictured above, criticised Australia's Covid response, saying Sydney's 'light and long' lockdown is doomed to failure

At one supermarket in Manurewa in south Auckland, customers were seen fighting (pictured) over items, including toilet paper

Australia and New Zealand managed to suppress Covid while the rest of the world battled perpetual lockdowns... but now even the pariahs are being hit by the Delta variant thanks to abysmal jab rollouts Australia and New Zealand were hailed as the 'envy of the world' after seemingly managing to suppress the virus and pursue a 'zero Covid' strategy. In doing so the countries had to enforce some of the strictest border measures in the world, leaving a multi-billion dollar hole in their economies and the tourism industry in ruins. But it allowed their populations to continue life largely as normal while the rest of the world lost their basic freedoms - with restaurants, bars, nightclubs and sporting events operating at full capacity. However, the success of the zero Covid strategy could now be undermined by abysmal vaccine rollouts in both Australia and New Zealand. Just 21 per cent of the population in Australia has been doubled-jabbed and 17 per cent are fully protected in New Zealand - compared to more than 60 per cent in Britain. The low vaccination rates have given the highly-infectious Delta variant - more than twice as virulent as the original Covid virus - the opportunity to spread with free reign, with cases rising fivefold in Australia in a month. However, the nation's Covid situation is still a far cry from levels seen elsewhere in the West, including the UK. Figures compiled by Oxford University-backed researchers show about 400 people out of every 1million are testing positive for the virus every day in the UK. In contrast, the rate stands at just 16 in Australia. It's even lower (1.07) in New Zealand, according to Our World in Data. The Delta variant, which was first identified in India, is thought to behind the recent uptick in Australia. At the beginning of June, it was linked with just 19 per cent of cases, but this jumped to 90 per cent by July 12. New Zealand has not published data on its virus sequencing, so it is unclear how prevalent the more infectious strain is in the country. The sacrifices made by millions of Australians and New Zealanders - including not seeing family abroad for more than a year due to border closures - could be in vain if the countries do not get a grip on their crises. In Britain, and most of Europe, ministers have constantly strived to keep borders open, even to their detriment. Last spring the UK's huge death toll was blamed on allowing thousands of travellers to return from Italy and Spain, where the virus was rife. More recently, Boris Johnson was lambasted for his decision not to stop travel from India despite a devastating wave of the Delta variant crippling major hospitals there. The UK went on to become the next epicentre for the highly infectious Delta variant. Australia and New Zealand have also opted for strict city-wide lockdowns at the first sign of community transmission of the virus, even if there have only been a handful of cases. In Britain, by contrast, there has been staunch opposition to lockdowns which has seen the government try much looser locally targeted curbs. Advertisement

"From the experience of what we've seen overseas, we are absolutely anticipating more cases," Ardern told a media conference, but added that putting the country in hard lockdown would put the country "in a much less risky position," she added.

Panic buying erupted following the announcement of the lockdown as people stocked up on essentials at supermarkets despite repeated assurances from the government that there will be no shortage in supplies.

Disbelieving shoppers also posted videos and images on social media of empty supermarket shelves, stripped of bread and milk.

Under the level four restrictions only essential workplaces are allowed to open and schools will pause face-to-face learning.

Residents can only leave home to exercise, shop for food or medical supplies, or to get tested, and must wear a mask outside at all times.

Frenzied shoppers were spotted fighting over toilet paper in chaotic scenes at supermarkets after the lockdown was confirmed.

'I was doing my weekly shop when it (lockdown) was announced. Five minutes later people were sprinting - genuinely sprinting - to the toilet paper section,' a Rolleston resident, south of Christchurch, told the NZ Herald.

'Moronic. Loo paper is made locally, so it won't run out.'

Ardern had won praise for containing local transmission of COVID-19 via an elimination strategy, imposing tough lockdowns and shutting New Zealand's international border in March 2020.

The last reported community case of COVID-19 in New Zealand was in February, with about 2,500 confirmed cases overall and 26 deaths, and citizens have been living without restrictions.

This success helped her secure a second term in office, but her popularity is being dented by delays with a vaccine rollout, as well as rising costs in a country heavily reliant on an immigrant workforce.

Just over 21% of the country's 5 million people have been fully vaccinated so far, the slowest among OECD nations. The vaccine programme has been suspended to ensure safety measures are in place to handle the current outbreak of Covid cases

Opposition National Party leader Judith Collins said the country had little choice but to go into lockdown.

"If there's a failure, it is around getting vaccinations into the country and then getting them into people," she told state broadcaster 1News.

Ms Ardern dismissed critics of the move straight to a level four lockdown and said the lessons learned in Australia were a warning to New Zealanders.

'We want to be short and sharp rather than light and long,' said Ms Ardern. 'We've seen what happened in Sydney. We don't want that experience here.

'As we see overseas, particularly in Sydney, unnecessary trips outdoors have spread the virus and many communities have not been able to get on top of it.'

One reporter asked Ms Ardern: 'In Australia, we've seen problems with compliance. What is your message to people who questioned the need for an alert level four lockdown?'

The PM replied: 'Australia - we just need to look overseas at what has happened there because of some of the decisions of those covered by those lockdown, some who may not have necessarily followed the rules.

'It has essentially extended the period of time that they're there. New Zealand hasn't had that same experience for those periods we've had lockdowns.

'By and large there's been really good compliance. I just say to Kiwis: Do what we've done before.'

She added: 'Going hard and early has worked for us before. Beating Delta means lifting our game.

'While we know that Delta is a more dangerous enemy to combat, the same actions that overcome the virus last year can be applied to beat it again.'

Ms Ardern added: 'I asked New Zealanders to please follow the rules to the letter.

'The simplest thing New Zealanders can do to stop the spread of the virus is to stay at home.'

New Zealand's vaccination rollout has been plagued by similar problems to Australia's.

But unlike NSW, New Zealand has now been put their vaccine programme on hold during the current outbreak, with vaccine centres shut until at least Friday.

'In this early phase, the most important thing is to stop the outbreak,' said Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins.

'And the best way to do that is to stop any unnecessary movement that could see interactions and spread of the virus.

'The approach in Sydney and New South Wales to surge up vaccination is because they're using that to help control a much bigger outbreak.

'But our teams have been working on ways to safely vaccinate.'

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she doesn't want the same experience in Sydney where numbers are surging but people are still on the beach as seen here at Bondi on Sunday

The latest lockdown came into effect at midnight on Wednesday, sparking panic buying in New Zealand supermarkets, as seen here in Wellington
Police are investigating whether a 40,000 Tesla Model 3 was on autopilot when it mowed down six schoolchildren and a parent outside a private school in Sussex.

Several ambulances and an air ambulance attended the crash, which took place on the grounds of the 36,000-a-year Ardingly College, at around 4.30pm on Monday.

An eight-year-old boy - reportedly trapped underneath the car - was flown to St George's Hospital in London shortly after the collision, after sustaining what police describe as serious but not life threatening injuries.

Six other people  five children and one adult  were all taken to local hospitals for treatment to minor injuries as they waited to be picked up after a school holiday camp.

The driver, a 47-year-old woman who was in the vehicle at the time of the collision, was uninjured.

Following initial reports of a 'driver error', police are now understood to be looking into whether the car was being driven on its autopilot setting.

South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAMB) confirmed it had sent several vehicles to a road traffic collision in College Road, Ardingly, this afternoon at around 4.30pm. Pictured: General view of College Road

A child has been seriously injured and six more people have been hurt after a 40,000 Tesla car smashed into pedestrians

The Argus reported the child was trapped under what is believed to be a Tesla during the incident

How does Tesla's Autopilot work? Autopilot uses cameras, ultrasonic sensors and radar to see and sense the environment around the car. The sensor and camera suite provides drivers with an awareness of their surroundings that a driver alone would not otherwise have. A powerful onboard computer processes these inputs in a matter of milliseconds to help what the company say makes driving 'safer and less stressful.' Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car nor does it make a car autonomous. Before enabling Autopilot, driver must agree to 'keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times' and to always 'maintain control and responsibility for your car.' Once engaged, if insufficient torque is applied, Autopilot will also deliver an escalating series of visual and audio warnings, reminding drivers to place their hands on the wheel. If drivers repeatedly ignore the warnings, they are locked out from using Autopilot during that trip. Any of Autopilot's features can be overridden at any time by steering or applying the brakes. The Autopilot does not function well in poor visibility. Advertisement

It comes after the US government announced this week it will formally investigate Tesla's partially automated driving system over 11 accidents - one deadly - feared to have been caused because the system has trouble spotting parked emergency vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the investigation covers 765,000 vehicles, nearly everything Tesla has sold domestically since 2014.

Of the 11 crashes that have been identified over the past three years, 17 people were injured and one was killed.

That deadly accident happened in Interstate 70 in Cloverdale, Indiana, in December 2019 and saw passenger Jenna Monet, 23, killed after the Tesla being driven by her husband Derrick slammed into the back of a parked fire engine.

Ardingly College, an independent day and boarding co-educational school with fees of 36,000, is located in the village.

Sussex Police Superintendent James Collis said yesterday: 'I'd like to thank our emergency services partners and members of the public who assisted at the scene. Our thoughts are with those there yesterday and their families.

'The cause of the collision will form part of our investigation, and we ask people not to speculate at this time.

'Thank you to those that have already given details. Anyone else who saw what happened or who has any other information, including any relevant dash cam or mobile phone footage, is asked to please get in touch.'

The 11 crashes have occurred when Teslas on Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control hit vehicles at scenes where first responders have used flashing lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board or cones warning of hazards.

Shares of Tesla fell more nearly 4.5 percent to $685.20 in early Monday trading on back of the news.

But the company's billionaire owner Elon Musk has claimed in recent months the function was safer than ever.

He tweeted: 'Tesla with autopilot engaged now approaching ten times lower chance of accident than average vehicle.'

No fatalities have been reported yet and the accident is believe to be the result of 'driver error'

ITV Meridian reported a child was airlifted to hospital by the air ambulance with serious injuries after the collision and six other people are being treated for minor injuries

Sussex Police confirmed the incident took place on College Road in Ardingly. Pictured: General view of Ardingly

South East Coast Ambulance Service said: 'Following an RTC in Ardingly this afternoon, our crews treated and transported six patients - 5 children and 1 adult - to local hospitals; three with potentially serious injuries.

'One patient in a critical condition was transported by air ambulance to St Georges, London.'

Anyone who saw what happened is asked to contact police online or by calling 101 quoting serial 980 of 16/08.
What emergency Covid powers does the Scottish Government want to be permanent? The ability to order schools to close if it is 'necessary and proportionate'

Impose future lockdowns and restrict gatherings of people

Operate virtual courts, so people can avoid attending in person and instead take part remotely

Release prisoners early to alleviate pressure on the jail system

Permanent shift to the remote registration of deaths or still births

Remote council meetings and electronic court documents Advertisement

Sweeping powers to impose lockdowns, close schools and release prisoners in response to any health crisis could be made permanent under SNP proposals.

The Scottish Government wants to introduce a 'permanent suite of powers' to tackle coronavirus or any other infectious disease or contamination in the future that threatens public health.

But critics say the highly controversial move could be viewed as an excessive infringement on the liberty of Scots.

The Tories said it is a clear signal ministers 'are unwilling to give up their control over people's lives'.

Most emergency powers introduced at the beginning of the pandemic will already continue until March 2022 and can be extended by a further six months if a majority of MSPs vote for it.

But the consultation published yesterday proposes making many of the powers available to ministers permanently.

It is claimed this would ensure they 'can respond effectively and rapidly to any future threats to public health in Scotland'.

Scottish Conservative Covid recovery spokesman Murdo Fraser said: 'These powers were intended to be temporary measures to deal with the pandemic.

'The fact SNP ministers are now seeking to make many of them permanent is a clear sign they are unwilling to give up their control over people's lives.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh this morning

'With the vast majority of Covid restrictions having now been eased, Scots will be asking serious questions over why these laws would need to remain in place permanently.

'It is a dangerous route to go down to allow ministers to implement sweeping powers upon society on a whim.'

He added: 'Yet again, the SNP are making rash decisions over Covid related laws, when the focus should be on accelerating our recovery from the pandemic.'

The consultation paper says that 'it seems likely Covid will not be the last infectious disease or public health threat Scotland will face' and that the Government 'considers that building public health resilience in the future requires action to ensure a permanent suite of powers that will allow Scottish ministers to tackle any type of infectious disease or contamination that may pose a significant health threat'.

It says the Scottish Government 'proposes those powers that have played a particularly significant role in managing the Covid response should be available permanently' on the statute book.

But Jo Bisset, organiser for parents group UFTScotland, said: 'The only thing any government should be putting into law is a cast-iron guarantee that schools will never close again.'

Shoppers in Glasgow city centre on May 28 when Mrs Sturgeon announced Glasgow would remain in Level Three lockdown because cases remained high in the city at the time

She added: 'The closure of schools and the associated disruption was a disaster for a generation of Scotland's children, something that will become painfully apparent in years to come.'

Covid Recovery Secretary John Swinney said: 'We want to ensure we remove measures no longer needed in order to respond to the pandemic whilst keeping those where there is demonstrable benefit to the people of Scotland.'

He added: 'While the pandemic has been incredibly disruptive, its urgency has forced the public services we rely on to adapt and continue and still deliver, driving the pace of digital adoption, and in some cases more efficient ways of working.

'As we enter the recovery phase, we now have a unique opportunity to reimagine how health and social care, learning and justice services can be designed and delivered around the lives and needs of the people who use them.'
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The US State Department have dispatched a former ambassador and another Army commander to oversee evacuation logistics and reinforce security at Kabul airport amid increasing violence from the Taliban outside the airport gates.

Former ambassador John Bass and Army Maj. Gen. Christopher Donohue, a special operations officer and current commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, will join the head of US Central Command General Frank McKenzie, who arrived in Kabul on Tuesday.

The attempt to regain control comes after the Taliban set up checkpoints outside the civilian and military sections of the airport on Tuesday and used whips and sharp objects to beat back women and children desperate to flee, forcing crowds to run away in terror.

The Taliban then opened fire to drive the masses back from the site.

General McKenzie said any attempts by the Taliban to interfere with rescue operations 'will be met with overwhelming force.'

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby disclosed on Tuesday that US officers were speaking with Taliban commanders 'multiple times a day' about avoiding conflict at the airport, but several Afghans have been killed or injured outside the airstrip by advancing Taliban forces.

US General Frank McKenzie (left) reviews and US Marine Brig. Gen. Farrell J. Sullivan (right) review an aerial photo at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Tuesday amid escalating violence from the Taliban towards civilians outside the airport gates

General Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, met directly with Taliban officials on Sunday for negotiations in Qatar before arriving to personally oversee operations in Kabul on Tuesday

General McKenzie will be joined by former ambassador John Bass and Army Maj. Gen. Christopher Donohue, a special operations officer and current commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, to oversee evacuation logistics at Kabul airport

Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul, setting up checkpoints on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back

The Taliban had previously agreeing to allow 'safe passage' from Afghanistan for civilians who want to leave, according to President Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday.

Sullivan acknowledged reports that some civilians were encountering resistance - 'being turned away or pushed back or even beaten' - as they tried to reach the Kabul international airport.

But he said 'very large numbers' were reaching the airport and the problem of the others was being taken up with the Taliban, whose stunningly swift takeover of the country on Sunday plunged the US evacuation effort into chaos, confusion and violence.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed on Tuesday 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago' - when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

But reports from Kabul suggest Taliban militants are already going door-to-door, rounding up those who had worked with the Afghan armed forces or government, in addition to beating Afghan civilians outside Kabul airport.

Women were filmed reaching their hands through iron railings towards US troops while screaming 'the Taliban are coming' in footage being circulated on Afghan social media accounts.

It is thought the footage was filmed at the northern military side of Hamid Karzai airport, where around 25,000 people are gathered, with more footage revealing Taliban guards firing over the heads of men, women and children crouched in the road overnight.

Meanwhile those trying to get into the civilian south side of the airport - where another 25,000 are thought to have massed - faced patrols of Taliban gunmen on the roads leading up to the airport, before being funnelled between concrete barriers towards a large metal gate under the watchful eye of Taliban gunmen.

Witnesses at the airport gates said that very few people were being allowed through, with dozens trying to push through the gate each time it was opened, causing gunmen to fire into the air.

Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport on Wednesday as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule

US attempts to reinforce security come after escalating violence on Tuesday when Taliban fighters used whips and sticks to beat Afghan civilians attempting to reach the airport

A man cries as he watches fellow Afghans get wounded after Taliban fighters use gunfire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside Kabul airport for a way out

An Afghan woman is seen lying on the ground after the Taliban used whips and sharp objects to drive people from the airport

Pentagon officials said that after interruptions on Monday, the airlift was back on track and being accelerated despite weather problems, amid regular communication with Taliban leaders.

Additional US troops arrived and more were on the way, with a total of more than 6,000 expected to be involved in securing the airport in coming days - more than twice as many as in all of Afghanistan when Biden announced in April he would be ending the war and pulling out all troops.

According to an unnamed US official, the military has so far evacuated more than 3,200 people including around 2,000 Afghan civilians from Kabul, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone.

'Today, US military flights evacuated approximately 1,100 US citizens, US permanent residents, and their families on 13 flights,' the official said, adding: 'Now that we have established the flow, we expect those numbers to escalate.'

General McKenzie said he had previously negotiated a safe passage agreement with Taliban leaders on Sunday in Doha, Qatar, before arriving in Kabul on Tuesday.

'I cautioned them against interference in our evacuation, and made it clear to them that any attack would be met with overwhelming force in the defense of our forces,' McKenzie said.

'The protection of US civilians and our partners is my highest priority and we will take all necessary action to ensure a safe and efficient withdrawal.'

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she said.

US troops, backed by British SAS and Royal Marines special forces, are guarding the 7.8-mile perimeter with snipers on rooftops, as well as machine gunners and armored cars on the runway. Meanwhile, truck-loads of Taliban fighters are outside the airport and manning the gates into the airport armed with AK-47s and rocket launchers.

Many Afghans are waiting to be evacuated from the airport in Kabul, but some civilians have been attacked by the Taliban as they attempted to reach the airport gates

Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul on Tuesday and man checkpoints set up across the city

At the White House, Sullivan said US officials were engaged in an 'hour by hour' process of holding the Taliban to their commitment to allow safe passage for civilians wishing to leave the country.

The goal is to ramp up to one evacuation flight per hour by Wednesday, with 5,000 to 9,000 evacuees leaving per day, Taylor and Kirby said.

In a presidential speech on Monday, President Joe Biden called the anguish of trapped Afghan civilians 'gut-wrenching' and conceded the Taliban had achieved a much faster takeover of the country than his administration had expected. The US rushed in troops to protect its own evacuating diplomats and others at the Kabul airport.

But the president expressed no second thoughts about his decision to stick by the US commitment, formulated during the Trump administration, to end America's longest war no matter what.

'I stand squarely behind my decision' to finally withdraw US combat forces, Biden said.
Hosts of The Project have debated whether companies should be allowed to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for their workforce, after Qantas became the second company in Australia requiring staff to get the jab.

Waleed Aly said he's 'not comfortable' with the idea that employers should be the ones to decide, insisting it is the responsibility of government.

But comedian Peter Helliar disagreed, saying hospitality bosses should have the right to make workers get the vaccine.

Comedian Peter Helliar said cafe owners should have the right to mandate Covid vaccines for workers. Pictured: A cafe in Sydney remains open during lockdown

Waleed Aly said he's 'not comfortable' with the idea that employers should be the ones to decide, insisting it is the responsibility of government. Pictured: Empty tables at a cafe in Hyde Park in the central business district in Sydney Sydney, Monday, July 26, 2021

Poll Should cafe bosses be allowed to mandate Covid vaccines for wokers Yes No Should cafe bosses be allowed to mandate Covid vaccines for wokers Yes 133 votes

No 164 votes Now share your opinion





'It should be government, but there should be some sectors that I think need to be vaccinated,' he said.

'Hospitality is one. If I owned a cafe, I'd want all my staff vaccinated because they have been through a bit.'

Channel Ten star Carrie Bickmore said mandating vaccines for some workers may be what's needed to encourage Australians to get the jab.

'Perhaps when it comes to employment and you realise its going to effect your job, that might be a different motivation the same way it is motivating people that are in lockdown and want to get out of lockdown,' she said.

Fellow present Rachel Corbett remarked that opinions on the divisive issue are likely to vary greatly based on the number of Covid cases.

'It depends if you're in the mid-of an outbreak or not,' she said.

'You change your perspective on things when you realize that you're really in the firing line.'

Channel Ten star Carrie Bickmore (left) said mandating vaccines for some workers may be what's needed to encourage Australians to get the jab

Pictured: A drive through patient gets vaccinated at the new western health drive through Covid-19 vaccination centre in Sydney's Melton, August 8, 2021.

The debate comes as Qantas announced plans to make Covid vaccinations mandatory for all employees giving staff three months to roll up their sleeves.

Frontline staff like cabin crew, pilots and airport workers numbering approximately 2000 employees will have until November 15 to get jabbed, while the 20,0000 remaining workers have until March 31 next year.

The airline announced the decision for mandatory vaccinations was made 'as part of the national carrier's commitment to safety'.

'Frontline employees  including cabin crew, pilots and airport workers  will need to be fully vaccinated by 15 November 2021 and the remainder of employees by 31 March 2022,' Qantas said in a statement.

'There will be exemptions for those who are unable for documented medical reasons to be vaccinated, which is expected to be very rare.'

Australian airline Qantas has announced vaccinations will be mandatory for all frontline staff by November 15, with the 20,000 remaining employees to have until March 2022 to get jabbed (pictured, a Qantas plane taking off from Sydney airport in May 2021)

Qantas boss Alan Joyce (pictured) said a fully-vaccinated workforce would keep not only employees safe but their customers and the communities they fly to

The airline said the decision was made after a survey was presented to 22,000 Qantas and Jetstar employees to get their opinion on mandatory jabs.

Of the 12,000 employees who responded to the survey, 89 per cent said they had already been jabbed or had booked one.

Of that group, 60 per cent were fully vaccinated, 77 per cent had received one dose and 12 per cent were booked in or planned to do so.

Just four per cent of people were unwilling or unable get the jab, with seven per cent undecided or preferring not to say.

Of the 12,000 Qantas and Jetstar employees who responded to a survey on mandatory vaccinations, 89 per cent said they had already been jabbed or had booked one (pictured, passengers at Sydney airport in June 2021)

Of that group, 60 per cent were fully vaccinated, 77 per cent had received one dose and 12 per cent were booked in or planned to do so (pictured, passengers at Sydney airport in July)

Qantas boss Alan Joyce said having a fully vaccinated workforce will not only keep staff safe from the virus but also their customers and the communities they fly to.

'One crew member can fly into multiple cities and come into contact with thousands of people in a single day,' the chief executive said.

'Making sure they are vaccinated given the potential of this virus to spread is so important, and I think it's the kind of safety leadership people would expect from us.'

Mr Joyce said the airline had a responsibility as an essential service to help defend against snap lockdowns and border closures that came with outbreaks of the virus.

The carrier said three-quarters of its staff backed the move towards mandatory vaccines and said they would feel concerned working alongside unvaccinated colleagues.

'Many of our people said they would feel concerned about working with unvaccinated colleagues, which is something that many workplaces across the country are grappling with,' Mr Joyce said.

'We understand there will be a very small number of people who decide not to get the vaccine, and that's their right, but it's our responsibility to provide the safest possible environment for our employees and for our customers.'

Qantas said three-quarters of its staff backed the move towards mandatory vaccines and said they would feel concerned working alongside unvaccinated colleagues (pictured, masked passengers and flight crew on a Qantas flight to Auckland from Sydney in April 2021)

Qantas is the second major Australian employer to announce mandatory vaccinations for all of its staff, following food manufacturer SPC who became the first earlier this month (pictured, passengers boarding a Qantas flight to New Zealand in April 2021)

Qantas is the second major Australian employer to announce mandatory vaccinations for all of its staff.

Earlier this month food manufacturer SPC became the first company to make a Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for all workers and visitors to its site.

The firm announced all staff and contractors at the company's factory in Shepparton in regional Victoria must be fully vaccinated by the end of November.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie praised SPC for 'having the guts' to make vaccinations mandatory for its staff.

'The last thing we need is for food suppliers, which are so crucial, to be shutting down,' she told the Today show on Thursday morning.

'I applaud them, [for] having the guts to come out and do that.'

SPC's edict followed tech giant Microsoft announcing all employees must show proof of vaccination before entering its US offices from September.

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie praised SPC for 'having the guts' to make vaccinations mandatory for its staff (pictured, a health care worker fills a syringe with a Pfizer vaccine)

SPC is Australia's primary producer of packaged fruit and its brands include Ardmona, Goulburn Valley, SPC, ProVital, Kuisine, and PomLife.

Chairman Hussein Rifai said the emergence of the highly contagious Delta variant prompted the move - which is a first in Australia for non-health-related businesses.

'Lockdowns are not a sustainable solution and the Australian economy needs to open up again,' he said.

'The Delta variant poses a significant threat to our people, our customers and the communities we serve.

'The only path forward for our country is through vaccination.'

All SPC workers will be offered paid time off to get their vaccinations, and two days special paid leave if they become unwell afterwards.

SPC is Australia's primary producer of packaged fruit and its brands include Ardmona, Goulburn Valley, SPC, ProVital, Kuisine, and PomLife (pictured, SC Ardmona factory)

The canned fruit and vegetable processor announced all staff and contractors at the company's factory in Shepparton in regional Victoria must be fully vaccinated by the end of November (pictured, SPC employees leaving the Ardmona factory in Shepparton, Victoria)

SPC chief executive Robert Giles said the company was setting an example for others.

'Australian companies must go further by rapidly vaccinating their staff,' he said.

'We firmly believe that it will be manufacturers and innovators like SPC who will help drive Australia's post-Covid economic recovery.'

Last month the FairWork Ombudsman updated its advice on whether companies could mandate vaccinations among their employees.

Previously the watchdog released guidance saying that businesses were 'overwhelmingly' unable to require staff to get the jab.

However, the Ombudsman has now said businesses in key industries such as border control, quarantine, healthcare and aged care organisation are 'more likely' to enforce vaccinations for their workers.
Mental health referrals in the UK have spiked by nearly a fifth on the back of the coronavirus crisis, analysis suggests.

Around 300,000 Britons were recommended for treatment in March this year, a rise of 18 per cent compared to February 2020 - a month before the first lockdown.

Referrals more than doubled in hardest-hit areas in England, including Leeds, Redbridge and Greater Preston, according to the analysis by the BBC.

Urgent referrals to crisis care teams - which include suicidal patients - have also risen 15 per cent in the same time period, nationally.

However, the impact of the pandemic on mental health referrals in England seems less clear when looking at the entire year. There were roughly 3million in the 12 months to March 2021, about the same as the previous year.

Charities fear patients have suffered in silence and put off coming forward for care during the pandemic, and warn there could be huge increases in referrals to come.

Despite the spike in referrals this March, the number of patients actually receiving care was 9 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.

Limited capacity due to social distancing is said to be partly to blame, as well as reduced services during lockdowns.

One suicidal mother who tried to take her own life last spring said she felt 'abandoned' by the NHS when it shut down services to focus on Covid in the first wave.

Experts have long warned that a silent mental health epidemic has been brewing amid the pandemic, particularly in the young.

Separate data last month showed twice as many children and young adults were referred to mental health services in England last year as cases hit a record high.

Around 300,000 Britons were recommended for treatment in March this year, a rise of 18 per cent compared to February 2020 - a month before the first lockdown

Katie Yelland, 30, tried to take her own life weeks before the first lockdown after suffering from post-natal depression. She said she felt abandoned by the NHS' mental health services and had to rely on her family to support her through her depression

Analysis of NHS Digital data shows that the biggest increase in all mental health referrals was in Leeds, one of the most deprived areas in the UK.

A total of 7,385 adults were referred to mental health services this March, which was more than double the number in February 2020 (3,385).

It was followed by the London borough Redbridge, where there was a similar rise. It saw 2,510 referrals in March compared to 1,180 last February.

Referrals in Preston, Lancashire, doubled to 1,905 in the same time period.

There were also significant rises in North East Lincolnshire (61 per cent), Morecambe (55 per cent), Chorley and South Ribble (52 per cent), Rotherham (52 per cent) and Fylde and Wyre (51 per cent).

Suicidal mother 'abandoned' by NHS when mental health shut down in first lockdown Katie Yelland, 30, tried to take her own life weeks before the first lockdown after suffering from post-natal depression following the birth of her son in August 2019. She said she felt abandoned by the NHS' mental health services and had to rely on her family to support her through her depression because services were paused to focus on Covid. Describing how her treatment stopped after lockdown was imposed, Ms Yelland told the BBC: 'Everything just kind of built up and caved in on me. Access to the services just wasn't there. 'I was just abandoned for a good number of weeks, while the new NHS system got into place. 'Once that system was finally in place, it was then an absolute minefield trying to use it and professionals didn't know how to use it. 'I was really isolated and I felt really concerned. I was really confused and became very reliant on my family. It opened their eyes to how much I was struggling. 'They've just seen me happy and bubbly. They hadn't seen the internal struggle that that was going on.' Before the pandemic, Ms Yelland saw a psychiatric nurse and the perinatal mental health team on a weekly basis. She added: 'The care from the perinatal team just completely stopped. There was nothing, just here one day, gone the next, and with the community team there was nothing. 'I was left for a good number of weeks, with no help, just getting worse and worse.' Advertisement

While year-on-year comparisons of referrals are less stark, there are concerns that people have put off coming forward until now and that there could be further spikes.

Urgent referrals - which include patients at risk of suicide - spiked to 15,485 across England this March, a rise of 16 per cent compared to last February (12,870).

Charities warned that they were braced for leaps in referrals now that Covid has been largely reduced and people feel more comfortable to seek support.

But MINDS's head of health policy Geoff Heyes told the BBC: 'Had those people been able to get support earlier, be that through community mental health services, through talking therapies in their community, they may well have not got that unwell.'

Rethink said it had seen a 'huge surge' in the number of people looking for help.

The charity's deputy chief executive Brian Dow added: 'If this increase in referrals is sustained, it has the potential to place the system under real pressure.

'We're already seeing signs of stretched services across the country, with people being sent miles away for care because there aren't beds locally.'

'We also saw a worrying increase in the number of people doing searches for things such as PTSD.

'We know that, for example, lots of people in frontline healthcare delivery did experience very serious problems, and there seems to be an acute rise in the number of people experiencing PTSD.'

Children, too, appear to be bearing the brunt of the negative mental health effects of the pandemic and lockdowns.

Data shows there was a record high for referrals to child and adolescent mental health services in England in March 2021.

There were a total of 65,533 across the country, more than double the number in March 2020 and 68 per cent higher than March 2019.

Between 2020 and 2021, the data reveals there were 527,339 referrals in total, compared with 397,822 the previous 12 months - a 33 per cent year-on-year increase.

Emergency referrals for under-18s were 62 per cent higher in March 2021 than the previous year.

Katie Yelland, 30, tried to take her own life weeks before the first lockdown after suffering from post-natal depression following the birth of her son in August 2019.

She said she felt abandoned by the NHS' mental health services and had to rely on her family to support her through her depression because services were paused to focus on Covid.

Describing how her treatment stopped after lockdown was imposed, Ms Yelland told the BBC: 'Everything just kind of built up and caved in on me. Access to the services just wasn't there.

'I was just abandoned for a good number of weeks, while the new NHS system got into place.

'Once that system was finally in place, it was then an absolute minefield trying to use it and professionals didn't know how to use it.

'I was really isolated and I felt really concerned. I was really confused and became very reliant on my family. It opened their eyes to how much I was struggling.

'They've just seen me happy and bubbly. They hadn't seen the internal struggle that that was going on.'

Before the pandemic, Ms Yelland saw a psychiatric nurse and the perinatal mental health team on a weekly basis.

She added: 'The care from the perinatal team just completely stopped. There was nothing, just here one day, gone the next, and with the community team there was nothing.

'I was left for a good number of weeks, with no help, just getting worse and worse.'

The UK government says it plans to expand and transform mental health services with 2.3billion a year by 2023-24.
A NSW government minister has revealed he is suffering from a condition that sees half of the face droop, diagnosed hours after viewers expressed grave concerns for his health at a Covid-19 briefing.

Victor Dominello sparked alarm at the state's daily press conference on Wednesday when television cameras picked up on his droopy eye.

The customer services minister revealed later that night he's since been diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a type of paralysis that affects one side of the face, and encouraged Australians to keep an eye on their health during the pandemic.

The condition causes sudden muscle weakness or paralysis that causes half of the face to appear to droop, leading to one-sided smiles and one eye that refuses to close.

'At this mornings press conference - a number of people commented on my droopy eye,' he captioned a screengrab of the concerning feature.

Victor Dominello was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy a few hours after viewers expressed concern for him at Wednesday's Covid-29 briefing

'Some people thought I was winking at the cameraman. Some thought I had a stroke.'

Mr Doninello recalled how he felt a pain in his skull behind his right ear on Monday before waking up two days later with pins and needles on the right side of his tongue.

'I only got it checked this afternoon - after a number of people reached out to see if I was ok,' he continued.

'Thanks to everyone who reached out. The reason I am posting is because hopefully it will remind people to look after their health.

'We are focused on Covid but there are plenty of other health problems going on.

'If you have any health concerns - please get them looked after.'

Victor Dominello (pictured with Gladys Berejiklian) woke up on Wednesday morning with pins and needles on the right side of his tongue

The NSW customer services minister (pictured) hopes his shock diagnosis will serve as a reminder to everyone to look after their health

His plea to everyone comes after NSW recorded 633 Covid-19 cases, the highest spike in daily new cases since the start of the pandemic.

He ended the post by paying tribute to the staff who treated him at Royal North Shore Hospital.

Bell's Palsy is usually a temporary condition with symptoms typically improving within a few weeks, with complete recovery in six months.

Around 90 per cent of patients will recover completely with time.
A woman lost her eye after her new partner's jilted ex-girlfriend instigated a violent attack on her, which saw her battered with a metal pole.

Kelly Howard urged her new boyfriend Dean Rowlands and another man, Thomas Pindair, 30, to 'f*** up' the face of Holly Catherall, who had begun a relationship with Howard's ex-partner.

Rowlands, 31, attacked 21-year-old Ms Catherall and hit her repeatedly in the face with a pole in Haverfordwest, Wales, in July 2018, Swansea Crown Court was told.

The court heard that mother-of-three Howard cheered on as Rowlands battered Ms Catherall with a metal pole, which resulted in the loss of her left eye.

Kelly Howard (pictured) urged her new boyfriend Dean Rowlands and another man to 'f*** up' the face of Holly Catherall, who had begun a relationship with Howard's ex-partner

In a victim statement, Ms Catherall said: 'The last thing I saw was the look on Dean Rowlands' face when he swung the pole into my face.

'It was evil. He really wanted to hurt me.'

Ms Catherall added that she was bleeding so badly that she was unable to 'scream' or cry out for help, but was only able to 'gurgle'.

She underwent a ten-hour operation and had 40 stitches around her eye, but it could not be saved, the court was told.

Amy Hughes, the sister of Ms Catherall's new partner Sam, was also assaulted in the incident, WalesOnline reported.

Howard denied affray following the attack on Ms Catherall, but was found guilty after a trial.

A judge told her she had been 'unable to accept' that Ms Catherall had started seeing her former partner.

James Hartson, defending Howard, said: 'She did not acquit herself very well that day.

'During interview she was distraught and expressed genuine remorse for the injury and her own role.'

Rowlands denied grievous bodily harm with intent but was also found guilty.

Rowlands (pictured), 31, attacked 21-year-old Ms Catherall and hit her repeatedly in the face with a pole in Haverfordwest, Wales, in July 2018, Swansea Crown Court was told

Jon Tarrant, mitigating for Rowlands, said picking up the pole had been 'instantaneous and opportunistic'.

Rowlands was jailed for 10 years, while Howard was jailed for two years and handed a restraining order from contacting Ms Catherall.

Recorder John Philpotts told Rowlands: 'You took a prominent role in the incidence of serious street violence.

'During the incident you used a weapon to inflict a very grave injury on Holly Catherall.

'In my judgement that violence was instigated initially by your partner Kelly Howard because she resented her former partner was in a relationship with someone else but you willingly and enthusiastically entered into verbal abuse and threats of serious violence and in the course of violence a young woman lost her eye.

'The last thing she saw or will see in her left eye was you about to strike her.'

He also told Howard: 'In my judgement you instigated the violence because you were unable to accept the fact your former partner was in a relationship with another woman.'

A third defendant, 30-year-old Thomas Pindair, was handed a suspended sentence for actual bodily harm, after admitting taking part in the attack.
A firearms review will be carried out into the police force which gave Jake Davison his licence and gun back just weeks before he killed five people in one of Britain's worst mass shootings.

The inquiry into Devon and Cornwall Police's firearms licensing procedures will be overseen by the National Police Chiefs' Council.

It is the third investigation into the events of last week in which Jake Davison, 22, shot dead his own mother and four others in Plymouth, before turning the gun on himself.

Jake Davison killed five people in Plymouth last Thursday before turning the gun on himself

Davison killed his mother Maxine Davison, 51, at a house at the start of his murderous rampage

Davison went into the street and shot dead Sophie Martyn, 3, and her father, Lee Martyn, 43

Davison also shot and murdered dog walker Stephen Washington, 59, last Thursday evening

Kate Shepherd, 66, was Davison's final victim and was shot dead near a hair salon in Plymouth

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is already investigating the decision by the Devon and Cornwall force to return Davison's shotgun certificate and weapon to him.

They had been seized in December last year following an assault allegation the previous September and were returned to him in July.

Inquests to open into Plymouth shooting victims and gunman A coroner is to open inquests into the deaths of Plymouth gunman Jake Davison and his five victims - a week after the shootings shocked the UK. Ian Arrow, senior coroner for Plymouth, Torbay and south Devon, will formally open hearings tomorrow morning into the deaths of Maxine Davison, 51, Sophie Martyn, three, her father Lee Martyn, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66. In a separate hearing in the afternoon, Mr Arrow will formally open the inquest into the death of apprentice crane operator Davison, 22. A spokesman for the coroner said Mr Arrow would be receiving evidence from the senior officer leading the investigation for Devon and Cornwall Police. The hearings will take place at the coroner's court at Derriford Business Park in Plymouth. Advertisement

The Government has also announced firearms applicants will be subject to social media checks.

All police forces in England and Wales are being asked to review their current firearm application processes, as well as assess whether they need to revisit any existing licences.

The deaths of Maxine Davison, 51, Lee Martyn, 43, daughter Sophie, Stephen Washington, 59, and Kate Shepherd, 66, as well as Davison, are also the subject of an inquiry by Plymouth coroner Ian Arrow.

The peer review was announced by Devon and Cornwall police and crime commissioner Alison Hernandez.

'I have spent considerable time with this community after this appalling incident and want to reassure them that we stand with them at this tremendously difficult time,' she said.

'Not only have they lost much-loved friends and family members but they have found themselves at the centre of a sometimes intrusive national and international media presence.

'The impact of this will be felt by this community for a long time.

'I want to let the people of Keyham know that after the initial attention has died down we will still be there for them.

'We must not jump to conclusions about the reasons for these heinous crimes but await the Independent Office of Police Conduct's investigation, a National Police Chiefs' Council-led inquiry into the police's procedures and the coroner's report as we seek to fully understand what, if any, changes may need to be made into firearms licensing procedures.

People take part in a minute's silence outside Plymouth Guildhall on Monday in memory of the five people who were killed by gunman Davison last Thursday

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Devon and Cornwall Police chief Shaun Sawyer look at the tributes in Plymouth on Saturday

Police stand outside a house in Plymouth on Monday after five people were killed last week

'I am assisting the chief constable to organise a fast review of the general procedures of firearms licensing in Devon and Cornwall to ensure they are following national guidance correctly.

'We will also be working with police and crime commissioners from around the country to ensure that if there are lessons to be learned about licensing procedures in England and Wales these will be shared with colleagues from around the country.'

Earlier this week, it emerged Davison received mental health support during the coronavirus lockdown and had been in contact with a telephone helpline service in Plymouth run by the Livewell Southwest organisation.

Social media usage by Davison suggested an obsession with 'incel' culture, meaning 'involuntary celibate', as well as an interest in guns and the US.

Reports have suggested Davison's mother had been struggling to get help for her son, having become concerned about his mental health.
General Sir Nick Carter faced a backlash today over positive comments he made about the Taliban during TV interviews.

Veterans, politicians and commentators rounded on the Chief of the Defence Staff after he claimed the Islamist group may have 'changed.'

Speaking on Sky News today, General Sir Nick suggested the Taliban wanted an 'inclusive' country - despite their record of oppressing women and enforcing a brutal version of Sharia law.

He described the militant regime as a, 'disparate collection of tribespeople...country boys,' adding, 'They happen to live by a code of honour.'

Andrew Neil claimed the top soldier had 'joined the Taliban PR team' and pointed out General Sir Nick had previously suggested that the Afghan Army 'was a formidable fighting machine'.

Military Cross recipient Trevor Coult, who did five tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, blasted him as 'deluded' and 'out of touch'.

The ex-staff sergeant from Suffolk claimed General Sir Nick 'knows as much about Afghanistan as Prince Harry'.

Meanwhile Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy branded the army chief's comments 'unpalatable' to Afghans trapped under Taliban rule.

She said if the military believes the group had changed since it was last in power in the 1990s then 'we need to see some evidence'.

His latest comments come days after he penned an article saying it was 'too soon' to write off Afghanistan and the population was rallying in support of its army.

General Sir Nick Carter has sparked outrage over positive comments about the Taliban (pictured yesterday) during TV interviews

Responding to Sky News presenter Kay Burley referring to the militants as 'the enemy', General Sir Nick said: 'You need to be careful when talking about the enemy.

'What the Taliban are is a disparate collection of tribespeople, as President Karzai put to me only yesterday, they are country boys.

'And the plain fact is they happen to live by a code of honour and a standard, it's called Pashtunwali.

'It has honour at the heart of what they do... they don't like corrupt governance or governance that is self-serving and they want an Afghanistan that is inclusive for all.'

'Except women?' On the show today Burley interjected, to which he responded: 'We have to wait and see... you have to listen to what they are saying at the moment.

'I do think they have changed and recognise Afghanistan has evolved and the fundamental role women have played in that evolution.

'And yes, they undoubtedly will say they want to respect women's rights under Islamic law and that will be a Sharia law, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't allow them to be involved in government, education and medicine.

'So I think we need to be patient and give them the space to show they can step up to the plate.'

Veterans and politicians rounded on the Chief of the Defence Staff (pictured) after he suggested the Islamist group may have changed

General Sir Nick's comments come just days after he penned an article in the Times in defence of the now vanquished Afghan Army.

He wrote on August 7: 'Thousands of people have been displaced and the potential for a humanitarian disaster is greater than at any time in the past 20 years.

'It is too soon, however, to write off the country. There are increasing signs that the population is rallying in defiance.

'Crowds in Kabul this week shouted 'Allahu Akbar' from their rooftops in support of the Afghan Security Forces.

'This was reminiscent of people coming out during lockdown in support of the NHS. The cause may be different but this is what happens when people feel the need to act in unison in support of a common goal.'

Under Taliban rule, girls were banned from attending school, while women could only appear in public wearing full body coverings and accompanied by male escorts.

Women who did not faithfully observe the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law were publicly flogged or executed.

Some in the militant group have promised not to ban women from attending schools or work and to allow them into government.

General Sir Nick's comments drew fury from veterans, politicians and commentators, with one even branding him an 'apologist'.

Mr Neil posted on Twitter: 'UK Chief of Defence joins Taliban PR team. Didn't he tell us a few months ago that the Afghan Army was a formidable fighting machine?'

Mr Coult, who was awarded the MC by the Queen for his heroic actions in Iraq, told MailOnline: 'I can't believe he can be so deluded and out of touch.

'I'm just confused why the Armed Forces has put its head in the sand. It's absolutely shocking, I'm appalled at them.

'It's just soldiers again being used as pawns. He knows as much about Afghanistan as Prince Harry.'

He added: 'Any general who tells you what's going on on the ground hasn't got a clue.

'The soldiers fought very hard in the war and politicians have just p***ed on the graves of the 457 who died there.'

Mr Coult (pictured), who was awarded the MC by the Queen for his heroic actions in Iraq, told MailOnline: 'I can't believe he can be so deluded and out of touch

Shadow Foreign Secretary Ms Nandy appeared on Sky News moments after General Sir Nick and immediately lambasted his comments.

She said: 'I think that's a very difficult and unpalatable message to the many Afghans - including women and girls - who are not just suffering at the moment but also very very fearful about the future.

'I think we should be talking to the Taliban, that's absolutely right, but we should be get guarantees around human rights and the future of for women and girls.'

'None of the guarantees have been given, so if there is a sense from military leaders that the Taliban may turn out to be different in their behaviour than we've seen in recent weeks then we need to see some evidence of that and they ought to be pushing for those guarantees.'

Shadow Foreign Secretary Ms Nandy appeared on Sky News moments after General Sir Nick and immediately lambasted his comments

Meanwhile Lynne O'Donnell, a journalist in Afghanistan, wrote on Twitter: 'Gen Sir Nick Carter calls the murderers, liars, misogynists & drug dealers of the Taliban ''reasonable, changed''.

'And there we were thinking he was a serious person. A fool and apologist, an embarrassment and liability. Shame on you.'

London-based commentator Isabel Oakeshott added: 'Chief of the Defence Staff becomes apologist for the Taliban, calling them ''country boys'' who dislike corruption and want inclusivity and appealing to people to give them a chance. Has he taken leave of his senses?

'I wonder how all those who served in Afghanistan/lost limbs and loved ones in that godforsaken place feel about Gen Sir Nick Carter now depicting the Taliban as simple 'country boys' (his actual words) who want a country that's 'inclusive for all' (his actual words).'

Soon after his comments politicians descended on Westminster to return to Parliament after it was recalled by the PM to discuss the Afghanistan crisis.

Boris Johnson said it was an 'illusion' to think Britain alone could have prevented the collapse of the country after the US withdrew its forces.

The PM denied the Government had been unprepared for the Taliban takeover at the weekend.

He told a packed Commons chamber the priority now is to evacuate remaining British nationals and their allies.

The Government has faced intense criticism - not least from Tories - following the rapid unravelling at the weekend of the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani in the face of the Taliban advance.

Mr Johnson said when ministers came to consider the UK's options after the US announced its intention to withdraw, they came up against the 'hard reality' that there was no will among allies to continue without the Americans.

'The West could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America,' he said.

'I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by Nato in Afghanistan. That idea ended with the combat mission in 2014.

'I do not believe that today deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that, no matter how sincerely people may advocate it - and I appreciate their sincerity - but I do not believe that that is an option that would commend itself either to the British people or to this House.

'We must deal with the position as it is now, accepting what we have achieved and what we have not achieved.'

There were cries of disbelief from MPs when Mr Johnson rejected claims that the events of the weekend had caught the Government unawares.

He said planning had been under way for a number of months and that a decision to commission an emergency handling centre at Kabul airport was taken two weeks ago.

'I think it would be fair to say that the events in Afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse has been faster than even the Taliban themselves predicted,' he said.

'What is not true is to say the UK Government was unprepared or did not foresee this.

'It was certainly part of our planning - the very difficult logistical operation for the withdrawal of UK nationals has been under preparation for many months.'

Mr Johnson said the priority was to evacuate as many of the remaining UK nationals and Afghans who had worked with the British in the country as quickly as possible.

While the Taliban were currently allowing the evacuation to continue, he said it was unclear how long that would remain the case.

'The situation has stabilised since the weekend but it remains precarious, and the UK officials on the ground are doing everything that they can to expedite the movement of people,' he said

'At the moment it would be fair to say that the Taliban are allowing that evacuation to go ahead.

'The most important thing is that we get this done in as expeditious a fashion as we can and that is what we are doing.'

Johnson insisted the UK's 'core mission' in Afghanistan 'succeeded' as he faced the wrath of the House of Commons over the military meltdown

Up to 25,000 Afghans in danger from the Taliban will be allowed to come to Britain in one of the most generous resettlement schemes in the country's history

Mr Johnson said the Government had so far secured the safe return of 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghans, with a further 2,000 Afghan applications completed and many more being processed.

He acknowledged the sacrifice of the British forces who had served in the country since 2001, and said he was committed to working with allies to ensure it did not again become a centre of international terrorism.

'Even amid the heart-wrenching scenes we see today, I believe they should be proud of their achievements and we should be deeply proud of them,' he said.

'They gave their all for our safety and we owe it to them to give our all to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a breeding ground for terrorism.'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said there had been a 'failure of preparation' by the Government for which Mr Johnson bore a 'heavy responsibility'.

He said the Prime Minister was in a position to give a lead on the international stage but had failed to do so.

'The desperate situation requires leadership and for the Prime Minister to snap out of his complacency,' he said.

'We do not turn our backs on friends at their time of need. We owe an obligation for the people of Afghanistan.'

Overnight the Government announced plans to resettle 20,000 vulnerable Afghans - particularly women and girls - with 5,000 arriving in the first 12 months.

The plan drew criticism from some MPs that it was not generous enough but Home Secretary Priti Patel said it was important to have the right support in place first.

'We cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go. This is an enormous effort. We can't do this on our own,' she told Sky News.

In the meantime, she said a separate scheme to resettle 5,000 interpreters and other local staff who had worked with the British was being expanded.

She said: 'There could be up to 10,000. We are expanding categories of people. We are working with partners on the ground to identify these individuals.'

UK forces chief Nick Carter blames Biden's midnight flit from Bagram airbase for 'shattering' morale among Afghan soldiers who had 'fought very bravely' until then

General Sir Nick Carter said abrupt withdrawal of US forces 'shattered morale'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with US President Joe Biden over the phone

It follows criticism from the US media and politicians over the Taliban takeover

The pair will meet virtually at a meeting of the G7 leaders in the coming days

The head of UK forces today swiped at Joe Biden over the headlong US withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying it 'shattered' the morale of local forces.

General Sir Nick Carter dismissed the president's claim that the Afghan army had lacked the stomach for battle, insisting they 'fought very bravely' until the West effectively walked out.

Sir Nick said as the government teetered on the verge of collapse he had been focused on 'giving confidence' to the country's military, which had been trained and equipped by the UK and US for two decades.

Pointing to the impact of the July 4 drawdown of US troops, which the Americans evacuate Bagram airbase in the middle of the night, the Chief of the Defence Staff said: 'They lost their air power. That was a very shattering moment in terms of their morale...

'What happened from 4th of July onwards, their morale was shattered.'

The comments came as Donald Trump slammed Mr Biden for leaving the country and Boris Johnson urged the US president not to throw away the gains of the last 20 years.

How US troops abandoned Bagram airport base in the dead of night WITHOUT telling Afghan forces US forces in Afghanistan abandoned their main base at Bagram airport overnight earlier this month - shutting off the lights and slipping away into the night without telling government forces who were supposed to take it over. General Mir Asadullah Kohistani, who was left in charge of the base which for 20 years served as the headquarters for America's war on the Taliban, said he only discovered the Americans had left two hours after they were gone when they called from Kabul airport. By the time he arrived with troops to secure the site, looters had broken in and carried away many items that the soldiers had left behind - including laptops, stereo speakers, bicycles and guitars which were being hawked from second-hand shops by Sunday morning. General Kohistani said troops also left behind small arms and ammunition along with hundreds of military vehicles and thousands of civilian cars and trucks, though many do not have the keys needed to start them. He has also inherited Bagram prison and its roughly 5,000 inmates - mostly believed to be Taliban. Advertisement

Mr Trump today claimed he threatened to launch strikes against the chief Taliban negotiator's home village if insurgents failed to observe the terms of a peace deal, as he blasted President Biden's handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'It's not the concept of leaving,' he told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity.

'It's the way they withdrew. It was not even possible to believe.'

The former president has kept up a running commentary on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, condemning Biden's handling of the withdrawal and insisting he would have managed a safe, swift operation when the time was right.

Mr Biden and his officials have in turn said their hands were tied by a deal struck with the Taliban by Mr Trump.

But the former president said he made clear in negotiations there would be consequences if Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's political chief, failed to stick to the terms of their deal.

'We had a very strong conversation,' he said.

'I told them upfront, I said: 'Look, before we start, let me just tell you right now that if anything bad happens to Americans or anybody else, or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before, a force so great that you won't even believe it, and your village, and we know where it is - and I named it - will be the first one.'

Meanwhile, in a thinly veiled warning over the consequences of the US military retreat from Kabul, Boris Johnson reminded Mr Biden of the need to protect the West against terrorism.

It follows a wave of criticism from US media and British and European politicians following the Taliban's dramatic takeover.

Former President Trump condemned President Biden's handling of the Afghan withdrawal, as thousands of Americans await rescue from the country

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'The leaders welcomed US and UK cooperation in recent days to help evacuate our nationals, current and former staff, and others from Afghanistan.

'They resolved to continue working closely together on this in the days and weeks ahead to allow as many people as possible to leave the country.'

The discussion between the pair is thought to be one of the first calls from an international leader the President has taken since the insurgents' power grab.

The Downing Street spokesman added: 'The Prime Minister and President Biden agreed on the need for the global community to come together to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

'The Prime Minister outlined UK plans including increased humanitarian aid to the region and resettlement of refugees.

'The Prime Minister stressed the importance of not losing the gains made in Afghanistan over the last twenty years, of protecting ourselves against any emerging threat from terrorism and of continuing to support the people of Afghanistan.'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson reminded US President Joe Biden of the need to protect the West against terrorism

The discussion between the pair is thought to be one of the first calls from an international leader the President has taken

The pair said they will discuss this issue further at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders in the coming days.

It comes as the American media turned on Mr Biden yesterday over the botched withdrawal of troops.

The President had blamed the Afghans for not being prepared for the Taliban insurgents' rapid attack.

But his address to the American people on Monday night was slammed by media outlets and political commentators.

The Wall Street Journal described the speech as 'one of the most shameful in history by a commander in chief'.

In an editorial, the newspaper said the President had 'refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal while blaming others', adding that the 'one group he conspicuously did not blame was the Taliban'.

The President blamed the Afghans for not being prepared for the Taliban attack in his speech

His address to the American people on Monday night was slammed by media outlets and political commentators

It was reported last night that in 2010, Mr Biden said 'f*** that' when asked if the US had a moral obligation to protect civilians in Afghanistan. He made the blunt remarks to Richard Holbrooke, a top US diplomat in the Barack Obama administration.

In Monday's speech, Mr Biden said: 'I stand squarely behind my decision', and claimed that Afghanistan's political leaders and military were 'not willing to fight for themselves'.

'We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.'

A Washington Post editorial said Mr Biden could have listened to the 'many seasoned hands' giving him alternatives to withdrawal, adding that him blaming others was 'unseemly' given that 2,448 US service members died in Afghanistan in 20 years.

The pair said they will discuss the issue further at a virtual meeting of G7 leaders

An editorial in the New York Post said Mr Biden 'alone is responsible' for the Taliban takeover

An editorial in the New York Post said Mr Biden 'alone is responsible' for the Taliban takeover, which it described as an 'utter catastrophe, for Afghans and for world security'.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said: 'This is an extremely bitter development. Bitter, dramatic, terrible  especially, of course, for the people in Afghanistan. We all made the wrong assessment.'

The Ministry of Defence in the UK repeatedly warned its US counterparts that the plan to remove US troops by September 11 was too quick. Officials told Washington the timetable was 'very aggressive'.

A Foreign Office source said: 'There was not a lot of consultation. He [Mr Biden] basically announced what he wanted to do. Every Nato ally, including us and his defence staff, will have been advising a longer delay.'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted: 'We all made the wrong assessment.'

Former Treasury minister Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons transport committee, called Mr Biden a 'total blithering idiot' for blaming Afghan forces. Another former minister, Simon Clarke, said it was the end of an American era.

'The more you reflect, the more you realise the speech he gave last night was grotesque,' he tweeted. 'An utter repudiation of the America so many of us have admired so deeply all our lives  the champion of liberty and democracy and the guardian of what's right in the world.'

Tory backbencher Angela Richardson said: 'The world just got a little bit smaller after that statement. Very protectionist.

'Only concerned about terrorist threats on US soil and no real acknowledgment of the devastation left behind in Afghanistan.'

Britons condemn Joe Biden: New poll makes grim reading for US President as decision to pull his troops out of Afghanistan is considered WRONG by almost two to one

The British public last night condemned Joe Biden for the crisis in Afghanistan as they expressed fears the turmoil could lead to fresh terror attacks here.

A poll for the Daily Mail found the President's decision to pull out US troops was considered wrong by almost two to one.

Mr Biden is seen as most to blame for the Taliban's victory, just ahead of Donald Trump.

Almost half (49 per cent) say their view of Mr Biden has worsened. But the results of the JL Partners survey, the first major poll conducted since the collapse of Afghanistan, also make grim reading for Boris Johnson.

Nearly seven in ten (67 per cent) feel the Prime Minister and his team have not been in control of the situation, including 58 per cent of Tory voters.

A poll for the Daily Mail found the President's decision to pull out US troops was considered wrong by almost two to one. Joe Biden is seen as most to blame for the Taliban's victory, just ahead of Donald Trump

And the majority (51 per cent) believe he should have done more to persuade Mr Biden not to pull out his troops so soon.

However, there is a reluctance for British soldiers to remain in the country, with around six in ten (58 per cent) opposed to them staying on their own without the Americans alongside them.

More than half (51 per cent) said ministers have not done enough to help Afghan interpreters who helped British troops find refuge along with their families.

The Mail has highlighted the urgent issue over the six years of our award-winning Betrayal Of The Brave campaign. A majority (53 per cent) said Britain should do more to accept refugees fleeing the Taliban, compared to just one in five who disagreed.

Only eight per cent said they believed Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has handled the crisis well, with 13 per cent saying the same about the Prime Minister. Both Mr Raab and Mr Johnson were on holiday as Kabul fell to the advancing fanatics.

The PM returned from his break in the West Country on Sunday afternoon for a Cobra meeting in Whitehall, while the Foreign Secretary, who had been in Crete, eventually arrived back in the country in early hours of Monday. Nearly four in ten (38 per cent) said Mr Raab came back from his holiday too slowly, while 33 per cent said Mr Johnson had not returned quickly enough.

However, only a fifth of voters (20 per cent) wanted either the Foreign Secretary or the Prime Minister to resign. And even fewer  eight per cent  thought Defence Secretary Ben Wallace should go.

The poll revealed growing fears about the threat of terrorism in the wake of the Taliban takeover. An overwhelming 59 per cent said Britain's safety has worsened, while 55 per cent warned they believe the risk of a terror attack in this country has grown.

Almost half (49 per cent) say their view of Mr Biden (pictured on August 12) has worsened. The US is still seen as the most powerful nation by 41 per cent, but it was only five points higher than China on 36 per cent

The results of the JL Partners survey, the first major poll conducted since the collapse of Afghanistan, also make grim reading for Boris Johnson (pictured on July 28)

Almost a third (30 per cent) expressed concern that their own personal safety is now worse.

Four in ten (40 per cent) said Britain's influence on the world stage has declined.

The US is still seen as the most powerful nation by 41 per cent, but it was only five points higher than China on 36 per cent. However despite the chaos in Afghanistan, Britons still preferred Mr Biden to his predecessor, Mr Trump, to handle the situation by 38 per cent to 20 per cent.

Almost six in ten (59 per cent) expressed the belief the 457 British military personnel killed in Afghanistan died for nothing. Some 65 per cent said the West has let down Afghan women and children, while 53 per cent expect UK troops will eventually have to go back.

JL Partners interviewed 1,040 adults in Britain yesterday.
An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 struck near the coast of Port-Olry, Vanuatu, Wednesday morning, triggering a tsunami warning for nearby areas.

The quake was triggered at a depth of 56 miles (91 km) and was about 12 miles (19 km) north-west of Port-Olry, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said hazardous waves were possible for coasts located within 300 km of the epicentre.

USGS had initially put the magnitude at 7.1 and the depth at 51 miles, but these figures were later revised.

The quake was triggered at a depth of 56 miles (91 km) and was about 12 miles (19 km) north-west of Port-Olry, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS)

Vanuatu is one of many Pacific nations which have endured increasing numbers of extreme weather conditions, disasters and rising sea levels

Vanuatu is a South Pacific Ocean nation comprised of dozens of small islands that stretch over 800 miles, known for their coral reefs, underwater caverns and shipwrecks

Vanuatu is a South Pacific Ocean nation comprised of dozens of small islands that stretch over 800 miles (1300 km).

The islands are known for their coral reefs, underwater caverns and abundance of shipwrecks, some of which are WWII era American battleships.

The area has contended with increasing instances of extreme weather conditions, natural disasters and rising sea levels in recent years, which most experts believe is due to the effects of climate change.

25 percent of Vanuatu's 276,000 citizens lost their homes in 2015 when Cyclone Pam, a category five storm, devastated the South Pacific archipelago of 83 islands and wiped out two-thirds of its GDP and demolished 17,000 buildings.

Since the devastation of Cyclone Pam, local residents have reverted to constructing their buildings in a more traditional fashion, as the more modern concrete buildings with iron rooves were blown away.

Though difficult to assemble, the traditional 'cyclone houses' are made of thatched coconut palm fronds, wild cane and bamboo strips which are secured together using vines sourced from local forests.

However, such structures are more vulnerable to tsunamis and flooding, which is cause for alarm given the rapidly rising sea levels around the islands and the frequency of natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Vanuatu became well-known in Britain when it emerged a tribe on the island had worshipped Prince Philip following his visit with the Queen in 1974.

The royal connection with the tribe continued when Prince Charles paid a visit to Vanuatu in 2018, following in his fathers footsteps.
Johnny Depp has won the right to sue Amber Heard in $50 million libel case after a Virginia judge threw out the actress's plea to dismiss the suit.

Depp, 58, is trying to clear his name after losing a defamation suit against The Sun after the paper branded him a 'wife-beater' amid allegations of domestic abuse.

The Virginia case relates to a 2018 Washington Post op-Ed in which Heard, 35, wrote about surviving domestic abuse - although she did not name her ex-husband in the piece.

Depp's suit, filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, accuses Heard of creating a 'hoax' account of being a domestic violence survivor for the 2018 article.

Heard had requested the libel suit against her, filed in March 2019, be thrown out, claiming the ruling in the UK case should swing any new cases in her favor because they both relate to domestic abuse allegations against Depp.

But Judge Azcarate yesterday ruled the statements made by The Sun and Heard were 'inherently different'.

Johnny Depp has won the right to sue Amber Heard (pictured together in November 2011) in a $50 million libel case after a Virginia judge threw out the actress's plea to dismiss the suit

The ruling stated: 'The Sun's interests were based on whether the statements the newspaper published were false. [Heard's] interests relate to whether the statements she published were false.'

The ruling also noted Depp filed the defamation suit against The Sun before Heard's op-Ed was published - and that she was not named in the case against the British paper.

In the December 2018 op-Ed, Heard wrote: 'I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out.'

Depp (pictured in July 2020) lost his suit against The Sun in November after a judge ruled the paper's claim the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was a 'wife-beater' was 'substantially true'

Depp's suit, filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, accuses Heard (pictured outside the UK High Court in July 2020) of creating a 'hoax' account of being a domestic violence survivor for a 2018 newspaper article

During the trial Heard showed bruises she claimed were inflicted by Depp as he allegedly smashed her iPhone in her face at her LA home in May 2016

The UK's High Court ruled against Depp following an explosive three-week trial last July, finding allegations the actor was a 'wife beater' was 'substantially true.'

The judge ruled that Depp assaulted Heard on a dozen occasions and put her in 'fear of her life' three times often while on drink and drugs binges, which he said turned the actor into a 'monster', in one of the most high-profile libel clashes of this century.

Lawyers for The Pirates of the Caribbean star had asked two Court of Appeal judges to grant permission for him to challenge the ruling, with the aim of having its findings overturned and a second trial ordered.

They claimed the judge in Depp's initial libel trial had not 'factually' considered all the allegations of violence against him and that they had 'fresh evidence' Heard had 'lied' about giving her entire $7million divorce settlement to charity.

They said that the charity claim influenced how her testimony was viewed, but the Court of Appeal ruled that it did not have an impact on the judge and that he would have reached the same conclusion on Heard being the victim of domestic violence.

Depp lost his role in Warner Bros Fantastic Beasts following the High Court judgment, and the damage to his reputation risks him losing out on more roles in the future.
A shopper refusing to wear a mask has pushed an elderly man to the ground in a cowardly supermarket attack.

CCTV footage captured in Drakes Supermarket at Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide, shows the man shove the shopper in the chest after he suggested he buy a mask, which are mandatory indoors in South Australia.

The elderly man can be seen falling backwards before landing on his backside, taking out another shopper's trolley during his fall.

Tempers flared after the young woman working behind the counter asked the man to put on a mask after he blatantly pushed in the line.

Police said he became irate and abusive, and the other shopper attempted to show the man masks were for sale behind the counter, pointing to them.

The anti-masker can be seen yelling angrily and walking out of the supermarket before he doubles back.

Vision shows the man yelling in the elderly shopper's face, before giving him a brutal shove to the chest - sending him flying.

An anti-masker has been captured on CCTV footage shoving another shopper, sending the elderly man flying backwards into a nearby aisle after he pointed out masks available for purchase

Police arrested a 41-year-old man on August 17 in relation to the incident.

Currently, South Australia is under level one restrictions with additional measures in place to stop the spread of the virus.

The state recorded zero new cases on Wednesday, and currently has one active case.

Despite this, strict restrictions are still in place with masks worn in high-risks settings, shared indoor public places, gyms, transport services, health care services and personal care services.

The footage was captured in Drakes Supermarket in Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide (pictured)

Residents must maintain physical distancing, keeping a distance of 1.5 metres where possible.

Contract tracing is required and a three people per four square metre rule is in place for dense seating activities.

Additional restrictions include one person per two square metres for non-seated activities and one person per four square metre in gyms.

Private residences are not allowed more than 10 people in their homes including residents, and non-residential premises can have no more than 50 people.
A body has been found in the search for a missing Belfast woman.

Jamie-Lee Wilson, 25, from the Gortnamona area of the city, was last seen leaving Turf Lodge at around midday on August 10.

She was heading in the direction of the Springfield Road and was believed to been last known to be staying at a friend's house in Beechmount.

The car that Jamie-Lee was driving, a black Volvo, was located by police in the Dundrod area with her jacket, phone and bank card inside.

Jamie-Lee Wilson (pictured), 25, from the Gortnamona area of Belfast, was last seen leaving Turf Lodge at around midday on August 10

Searches were being carried out across Belfast and in the Dundrod area.

A family member who had previously shared pictures of Ms Wilson's car took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to say that 'unfortunately it isn't good news'.

They added: 'Deep down I think we already knew since this morning.'

A PNSI spokesperson confirmed in a statement issued on Tuesday evening that they are no longer looking for Ms Wilson.

The spokesperson said: 'Police are no longer searching for missing person Jamie-Lee Wilson.

A PNSI spokesperson confirmed in a statement issued on Tuesday evening that they are no longer looking for Ms Wilson (pictured)

'Thank you for your help and assistance.'

Ms Wilson was described as being around 5ft 4in, with long blonde hair and blue eyes, and of a slim build.

After her car was discovered, Ms Wilson's sister-in-law told Belfast Live: 'We are all heartbroken wondering where she is, the whole family just need her home where she belongs.'
'No I did not send it to myself,' insisted Fiscus in a denial on Twitter

But state investigators traced the order to Fiscus' own credit card

Fiscus had claimed someone sent a dog muzzle to her office through Amazon

Fiscus was fired in July after investigators determined 'threat' was a hoax

Tennessee's fired top vaccination official is insisting that she did not send herself a dog muzzle as a hoaxed threat, after state investigators found that her own credit card was used to order the item.

'Hold tight. No I did not send it to myself,' Dr. Michelle Fiscus insisted in a tweet on Monday, rejecting the findings of a Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security investigation.

'Regarding the muzzle: I ASKED Homeland Security to investigate the origin,' Fiscus wrote, pointing to evidence that the Amazon account used to send the muzzle had been created in Washington state.

Shortly after receiving the muzzle in early July, Fiscus was fired in what she characterized as a political move by Republicans who were angered by a memo she sent arguing that minors can be vaccinated without parental permission.

Fiscus quickly gave national interviews to CNN and the New York Times, touting the dog muzzle 'threat' as evidence of her political persecution.

'At first, I thought that was a joke and contacted a few friends, and then, when no one claimed it, I realized that that was something that was sent to me as some kind of a message,' Fiscus told CNN.

Shortly before her firing, Dr. Michelle Fiscus (pictured) claimed someone anonymously sent a dog muzzle to her state office through Amazon in the mail in an attempt to intimidate her

An evidence photo shows the Amazon package used to ship the muzzle to Fiscus

The muzzle is seen in an evidence photo by state investigators, who determined that the muzzle was purchased with Fiscus' own credit card and closed the case

Fiscus maintained that she did not mail the dog muzzle to herself in a tweet on Monday

Fiscus pointed to data (above) showing the Amazon account used to send the muzzle had a login history in Washington state, saying that it showed her innocence

However, investigators determined that her own credit card was used to purchase the muzzle

The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security conducted an investigation and discovered the package containing the muzzle traced back to an Amazon account in Fiscus' name.

Following questions from investigators, Fiscus provided information for an Amazon account in her name which was a different account than the one used to purchase the muzzle.

Investigators subpoenaed Amazon for information on all accounts associated with Fiscus, and found that the credit card used to purchase the muzzle was the same card associated with her primary Amazon account.

'The results of this investigation indicate that purchases from both Amazon accounts were charged to the same American Express credit card in the name of Dr. Michelle D. Fiscus,' an investigative report stated.

'At this time, there appears to be no threat toward Dr. Fiscus associated with receipt of the dog muzzle. This case is closed,' wrote Special Agent Mario Vigil.

The Amazon account used to send the muzzle showed a login history from Washington state in March of this year, which Fiscus pointed to as evidence that she did not create the account.

During a recent appearance on CNN, Fiscus (right) told Anderson Cooper (left) there was no note to accompany the package, and that Amazon refused to reveal the sender

'At first, I thought that was a joke and contacted a few friends, and then, when no one claimed it, I realized that that was something that was sent to me as some kind of a message,' Fiscus said of the muzzle (pictured)

At the time she received the muzzle, Fiscus was already facing political heat over her push to vaccinate kids over 14 without parental permission.

In July, Fiscus said she was presented with a letter of resignation and a letter of termination amid scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department's outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against the virus.

Fiscus, who was the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, chose to be fired and said she was not given a reason for her ouster.

But the expert added that she believes her termination came because she sent out information on May 10 about the mature minor doctrine, according to News Channel 5.

'I was told that I should have been more 'politically aware' and that I 'poked the bear' when I sent a memo to medical providers clarifying a 34-year-old Tennessee Supreme Court ruling,' Fiscus said.

'I am not a political operative, I am a physician who was, until today, charged with protecting the people of Tennessee, including its children, against preventable diseases like COVID-19.'

The doctrine is a rule of law in the US and Canada arguing that an unemancipated minor may have the maturity to choose or reject health care treatment without the knowledge of their parents, and should be allowed to do so.

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee's administration and the Health Department declined to comment on the firing, citing personnel matters.

In a June committee meeting, Republican lawmakers criticized the letter that she was told had been 'blessed by the governor's office'.

Dr Michelle Fiscus was fired Monday after she published a memo supporting teenagers over the age of 14 getting a Covid-19 vaccine without parental permission

The firing of Fiscus comes amid scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department's efforts to vaccinate teenagers against COVID-19. Pictured: Boy, 12, is given COVID jab on May 13

Tennessee has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Only 38 percent of the state's nearly seven million residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Republican lawmakers also admonished her agency for its communications about the vaccine, including online posts.

One graphic, featuring a photo of a smiling child with a Band-Aid on his arm, said: 'Tennesseans 12+ are eligible for vaccines. Give COVID-19 vaccines a shot.'

HOW MATURE MINOR DOCTRINE ALLOWS CHILDREN TO MAKE HEALTHCARE DECISIONS WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT Mature minor doctrine is a legal principle which allows a minor to make decisions about his or her health and welfare, if they can show that they are mature enough to make a decision on their own. This prevents the usual necessity for parental consent from becoming a barrier to treatment about which children may be reluctant to inform parents. Not all states recognize the common-law mature-minor doctrine. In the states where it exists, the mature minor doctrine takes into consideration the age and situation of the minor to determine maturity, in addition to factors and conduct that can prove maturity. This doctrine has been consistently applied in cases where the minor is sixteen years or older, understands the medical procedure in question, and the procedure is not serious. Application of the doctrine in other circumstances is more questionable. Source: US Legal Advertisement

During the hearing, Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky held a printout of a Facebook ad touting eligibility for teens and called the agency's advocacy 'reprehensible,' likening it to peer pressure.

Asked about the hearing last month, Gov. Lee said generally that the state will 'continue to encourage folks to seek access - adults for their children, and adults for themselves to make the personal choice for vaccine'.

Two weeks after the hearing, the Health Department told county-level employees to stop vaccination events aimed at teens and to halt online outreach to them, The Tennessean reported, citing emails it obtained.

Fiscus said that issues on vaccine communication first arose last fall, before the shots were federally authorized.

She said health officials asked for permission to start messaging about how COVID vaccines would be safe, effective and well-studied - which was denied.

The governor's office then controlled communication, while Fiscus added that the state's public messaging began this May.

'When the vaccines did finally become available, the messaging that came from the governor's communication team was, 'Talk to your doctor to see if COVID-19 vaccine is right for you',' Fiscus said.

'We tried to explain that this is not a foot powder. This is the life-saving tool that we have to fight this pandemic and that we should be strongly encouraging people to get vaccinated.'

Following the scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers, Fiscus said she was given both a resignation letter and a termination letter on Monday, but chose to be fired claiming she 'didn't do anything wrong'.

Fiscus then penned a blistering 1,200-word response to the decision in which she fumed that she is ashamed of Tennessee's leaders and afraid for her state.

'I don't think they realized how much of an advocate I am for public health and how intolerant of injustice I am,' Fiscus told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

She said she was 'angry for the amazing people of the Tennessee Department of Health who have been mistreated by an uneducated public and leaders who have only their own interests in mind.'

Fiscus also claimed that the Tennessee Department of Health has halted all outreach efforts around any kind of vaccines for children, not just COVID ones, which confirmed through department documents.

The decision to end vaccine outreach and school events came from Health Commissioner Dr Lisa Piercey, according to the publication.

The Health Department will still send postcards reminding adults to get their second dose of the COVID vaccine, but teenagers will be excluded from the mailing list so it is not interpreted as 'solicitation to minors'.



Some Democrats criticized the firing, with state Sen. Raumesh Akbari alleging that Fiscus was 'sacrificed in favor of anti-vaccine ideology.'

House Speaker Cameron Sexton was one of few Republicans to weigh in, saying through a spokesperson that health officials made the decision internally.

Sexton's spokesperson, Doug Kufner, said: 'While members have expressed concerns about the department's recent vaccine marketing strategy, Speaker Sexton will not speculate on the factors that went into this decision.

'However, Speaker Sexton does believe that those who have voiced their dissent agree with yesterday's outcome.'

Meanwhile, Republican state Sen. Richard Briggs, a physician, said he's unsure why Fiscus got fired, but added that 'it would be wrong if the reason for her firing was because she had a campaign to try to get our children vaccinated'.

He said he doesn't want to second-guess the department, but 'because of the way it at least looks superficially without the details being known, there probably needs to be some clarification'.
A teenager who is aiming to be the youngest woman ever to fly around the world solo has started her journey.

Zara Rutherford, 19, left Belgium on Wednesday for the trip, which will span five continents and 52 countries.

Her trip should end early in November, and according to her website, if completed will make her the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe solo, and the youngest person to do so in a microlight aircraft.

Zara Rutherford, 19, is pictured before leaving Kortijk-Wevelgem Airport in Belgium at the start of her solo journey around the world

Her trip should end early in November, and according to her website, if completed will make her the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe solo

The teenager, pictured with her mother Beatrice de Smet and father Sam Rutherford, left Belgium on Wednesday for the trip, which will span five continents and 52 countries

Miss Rutherford has both British and Belgian nationality and is following in the footsteps of her parents, who are both pilots.

She studied at St Swithun's School, Winchester, Hampshire, and the solo trip is her gap year project before she goes to university, where she plans to study computer science or computer engineering, with the long-term ambition of becoming an astronaut.

Miss Rutherford will be flying a Shark Ultralight, the world's fastest light sport aircraft, for the self-funded record attempt.

The spare seat has been removed to accommodate an extra fuel tank and to avoid any questions about another person flying with her.

Miss Rutherford has both British and Belgian nationality and is following in the footsteps of her parents, who are both pilots

She studied at St Swithun's School, Winchester, Hampshire, and the solo trip is her gap year project before she goes to university

Speaking to the PA news agency when she announced the project in July, Miss Rutherford said: 'At first I was planning to fly around the world as an adventure during my gap year, not realising I would become the youngest woman to do so if I achieved it.

'It was only when I started researching more that I noticed I could be the first Belgian and the youngest woman to solo circumnavigate the globe.

'I'm hoping to get more girls interested in aviation.'

The route will take her through the UK, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, the US and Latin America to Colombia, then back north via Alaska to Russia, China, Indonesia, India and the Middle East before ending in Belgium.

The current female record holder is American Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 at the time of her circumnavigation in 2017, while the youngest male record-holder was 18 years old.

Miss Rutherford will be flying a Shark Ultralight, the world's fastest light sport aircraft, for the self-funded record attempt
A Colorado father has made a desperate plea for the rescue of his wife and children who are stuck in Kabul.

The Englewood family are hiding out in the city after becoming stuck when the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan on Sunday while they are in the country visiting relatives.

The unidentified father has reached out to former Special Forces Colonel Patrick Allen pleading for help after their Turkish Airlines flight home on Sunday was cancelled hours before it was due to take off.

'My wife and daughters are, for now, hiding in a house in Kabul', the unnamed man told Fox31. 'I think it's chaos. There are a lot of lives in danger.

'She called my on Saturday night, crying that the Taliban are all over the city and she wanted to get out'.

A man in Colorado has made a desperate plea for the rescue of his wife and children who became stuck in Kabul after the city fell to the Taliban while they were visiting family

It comes as scenes of chaos at Kabul's Hamid Karzai airport continued for a third day as thousands of Afghans try to flee the country before the Taliban impose their rule

Panicked by the sudden fall of Kabul to the Islamists, the father booked a flight home from Kabul for his wife and children on Sunday, but it was cancelled hours before it was due to depart.

'Around midnight, I got a text message from Turkish Airlines saying that her flight got cancelled', he said.

The man then contacted retired Special Forces colonel Patrick Allen, who served in Afghanistan, and he reached out to State Representative Jason Crow for assistance.

Allen said: 'The immediate concern is we have U.S. citizens  they were Afghan nationals who became U.S. citizens  who are now stuck in Kabul.'

He warned the unnamed man's family were at risk 'as a result of them being so closely associated with American soldiers' as he called on the government to evacuate them.

'We can't have what was going on [on Monday], people holding on to airplanes and things like that.

'I especially care about my family here, my Afghan family, as I don't see myself as just a sponsor. They're pretty much our family, their children are our grandchildren.'

The man then contacted retired Special Forces colonel Patrick Allen, who served in Afghanistan, and pleaded for help

The unidentified man pleaded for the safe return of his family from Kabul

It comes as scenes of chaos at Kabul's Hamid Karzai airport continued for a third day as thousands of Afghans try to flee the country before the Taliban impose their rule.

Crowds at Kabul's airport today were forcibly dispersed by Taliban fighters who fired shots in the air and used whips and sharp objects to force thousands of Afghans away from the site.

Evacuation flights out of Kabul are taking off almost empty despite tens of thousands of Afghans trying to flee the country after the Taliban formed a ring of steel around the airport and barred most people from reaching it.

One Australian Hercules C-130 aircraft with room for 120 people took off with just 26 on board today, the government has confirmed, while a German Airbus A-400M with room for 150 was carrying just seven people when it departed yesterday.

That is despite there being around 50,000 Afghans gathered at the airport who have been promised sanctuary by western nations.

According to a British Ex-Pat and former Royal Marine, British and other foreign nationals are struggling to get through into Kabul airport, and are even being turned away.

'It is still a crush of desperate people at Kabul airport. Ex-pats still being turned away. Somebody get a grip, Paul 'Pen' Farthing tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

Calling on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and other world leaders, he added: 'Somebody get a grip... I will not stop until you get it right.'

Most of those at the airport do not have travel documents, witnesses told MailOnline, and with most embassies closed or moved within the airport perimeter they now have almost no way to obtain them.

Meanwhile, those with documents say they daren't go near the airstrip for fear Islamist guards will haul them away.

And one airport worker told MailOnline that, even with correct documents, it took them two days to reach the terminal building after passing through five checkpoints along the way.

Desperate scenes have played out at Kabul Airport since Monday, with at least two falling Afghans falling to their deaths after they clung to the wheels of the US military evacuation flight.

Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back

While thousands of people have arrived at Kabul airport trying to get on flights out of the country (pictured), some western visa holders on the ground have said they are in hiding nearby for fear Taliban gunmen will target them
Kamala Harris typically stands over President Joe Biden's shoulder when he addresses the nation. But she decided to skip his speech on the chaos surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal and has not held a public event in six days - despite boasting she was the 'last person in the room' when the president decided to pull U.S. troops.

Rather than taking her usual spot behind Biden's right shoulder as he updated the nation on the situation in Afghanistan and defended his decision to withdraw troops on Monday, the vice president watched the speech 'from the Green Room', according to a White House official.

Harris also still plans to depart on Friday for her second foreign trip in office to Singapore and Vietnam, her office confirmed, despite the ongoing chaos and the comparisons between the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the toppling of Kabul by the Taliban over the weekend.

The vice president was last pictured with the president on August 10 during Biden's remarks on the Senate finally passing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

She held her last public event on August 12 when she met with CEOs to discuss the care economy.

In a gaggle before the event, a reporter asked Harris if 'Afghanistan is lost to the Taliban?'. She did not answer the question, but said she would be leaving for a briefing on the situation after the roundtable on Thursday.

The vice president was also pictured in a Zoom meeting on Sunday with the president and other intelligence and global entities in an image released from the White House of Biden on the call from Camp David.

On Tuesday she tweeted her support for the withdrawal and said the mission was now to get Americans, allies and Afghans out of the country safely.

August 16: President Joe Biden made remarks from the White House on Afghanistan on Monday and noticeably was not joined by the vice president

August 10: Vice President Kamala Harris almost always stands behind Biden's right shoulder for his press conferences and remarks. Here she appears alongside the president as they celebrate the Senate's passage of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill last week

August 15: Harris was last seen on Sunday in a picture released from the White House of Biden on Zoom talking about the situation in Afghanistan. The vice president is pictured (center) joining the call virtually

August 12: Harris' last public event was held Thursday when she spoke with CEOs about the so-called care economy

Harris campaigned on the bid to get US troops out of Afghanistan during her Democratic primary run in 2020.

Biden was bashed for remaining silent on the unfolding situation in Afghanistan for six days before finally addressing the country in a White House speech on Monday before promptly returning to Camp David.

He doubled-down during his remarks that the withdrawal was the right move despite almost the whole of Afghanistan falling to the Taliban in just over a week and U.S. troops questioning what the two-decade war was for.

Overnight, an Instagram post revealed that Harris will be speaking at the Newsmaker Plenary on Thursday about 'COVID-19 and the black community.' Dr. Anthony Fauci will also attend the event hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists.

Notably, no public guidance was released for Harris for her Monday or Tuesday schedule. For Wednesday, her schedule states she will receive a closed-door briefing from the White House coronavirus response team.

On Friday, guidance went out stating: 'The Vice President will be in Washington, DC. The Vice President has no public events scheduled.'

Harris will still leave for a trip to Singapore and Vietnam on Friday, the White House confirmed. She also tweeted on Tuesday voicing her support for the withdrawal from Afghanistan

The vice president will speak at the Newsmaker Plenary to talk about 'COVID-19 and the black community', the National Association of Black Journalists announced overnight

While Pentagon and State Department officials deflect blame and struggle to get Americans and allies out of Afghanistan, Harris will depart for a trip to Singapore and Vietnam on Friday.

Her office said on background that Harris is being briefed regularly on the unfolding situation in Afghanistan and is actively engaged in White House and interagency discussion. They also insist her briefings will continue during her visit to Southeast Asia.

The reason Harris will not postpone her trip, the office noted, is because the Biden administration is still committed to 'advancing our strategic interest in other regions on other issues' while simultaneously managing developments in Afghanistan.

The vice president leaves from Washington on Friday and will arrive in Singapore on Sunday. While there, Harris will deliver a speech laying out the future of America's relationship with the region increasingly under pressure from Beijing.

In scenes of utter desperation at Kabul airport today, people began passing babies to guards at the northern entrance hoping they will be put on flights out of the country and escape Taliban rule

Upon arriving in Vietnam on August 24, Harris will make history by being the first sitting vice president to visit the country - despite the comparisons between the fall of Saigon with the toppling of Kabul over the weekend.

Harris' public absence over the last few days has been noticed, especially considering it was repeated that she was the last one to speak to Biden about his decision to go forward with the Afghanistan withdrawal.

In an interview on CNN in April, Harris was asked about Biden's statement that he wanted the VP to be 'the last voice in the room' when making big decisions. The president said this was similar to the working relationship he had as vice president under Barack Obama.

Harris confirmed she was the last one to speak to Biden regarding the move to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021  the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The withdrawal went forward on an expedited timeline, however, which Biden now blames on Donald Trump for setting a May 1 deadline with the Taliban.

Harris doesn't have a long history on Afghanistan and when serving as a U.S. senator for California spok very infrequently about the conflict. She did, however, have access to classified information as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2017-2021 that PResident Biden, a private citizen at the time, was not privy to.

The vice president has visited Afghanistan once near the end of 2018 as she prepared to launch a run for president. But the two-decade-long conflict was not part of her campaign stump speech.

Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their 'consent'

Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back
John Howard has fiercely defended Australia's two-decade long military campaign in Afghanistan, just days after Taliban forces marched into the capital overthrowing the western-backed government.

The former Australian Prime Minister, who made the call to send troops to the hard-line Islamic state in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center, maintains the war effort was 'not a failure'.

He argued the point with Leigh Sales on ABC's 730 program before lashing out at the veteran presenter, calling her line of questioning 'completely unfair'.

The TV row came as Australian diggers desperately tried to rescue up to 800 allies trapped in Kabul, with an RAAF flight forced to leave with just 26 passengers after Taliban fighters shot at refugees desperately trying to get to the airport.

Taliban gunmen opened fire on crowds late Tuesday, with images showing a bloodied child being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road

John Howard (pictured during a visit to Afghanistan in March 2007) furiously hit back at Leigh Sales questioning, accusing her of making a 'completely unfair generalisation' of Australia's attitude towards its Afghan allies - whose lives are now under threat from the Taliban

Sales criticised the government's 11th hour rescue mission to pull out hundreds of local Afghans interpreters at risk of being slaughtered for working and assisting Australia forces over the past 20 years after being put on a Taliban 'kill list'.

She asked why anyone would ever again put their life, or their family's life, at risk to assist Australia again when many have largely been abandoned in the face of the hostile takeover.

'No, no, no!' Mr Howard furiously replied.

'I think you're making a judgement that can't be justified on the known facts. You're implying that the government is not trying.

'You're making a completely unfair generalisation about the behaviour of the government.'

Mr Howard also took aim at the US for its abrupt exit strategy.

'There's no doubt that the collapse of the opposition to the Taliban has been very rapid. I've got some views about how that should never have been allowed to occur,' he said.

'I think the Americans were too hasty in winding down to zero their military involvement in Afghanistan. I think it could have been possible to have had a more orderly withdrawal. But we had to deal with the situation we faced.'

Mr Howard was Prime Minister for more than 11 years from 1996 to 2007, overseeing Australian troops entering the war in Afghanistan in 2001.

Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back

Australian citizens are pictured on Wednesday inside a military transport plane as it takes off from Kabul airport in Afghanistan

In the aftermath of September 11, US forces along with Australia and other allies launched Operation Enduring Freedom to stamp out the terror group Al-Qaeda who were being harboured by the Taliban government.

At the time Howard said the goal 'is to seek out and destroy al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan can never again serve as a base from which terrorists can operate'.

With fears the failed state will now become an even worse breeding ground for Islamic terror groups, Sales probed whether he considers the catastrophic Afghanistan war on terror 'a failure'.

'At the end of 2001, there was an overwhelming belief in Australia that it was the right thing to do,' Mr Howard said.

'The truth is that the great fear of the US, Australia and of the West after September 11, was that there would be other attacks orchestrated out of Afghanistan.

'That has not materialised. So on that criteria, the mission, whatever may be said of it, has not been a failure.'

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp

John Howard is seen arriving in Afghanistan during his time as Prime Minister back in November 2005 (pictured) during a top secret visit to the Australian Special Operations Task Group

When asked what he would say to the families of 41 soldiers who lost their lives in the Afghan war, those who were maimed, suicided or now suffer physiological trauma, Mr Howard was steadfast that the brave men did not die in vain.

'Nobody who wears the Australian uniform ever dies in vain because Australia is always associated with a noble military objectives when it goes into combat,' Mr Howard said.

'That is a view that I have seen attributed to the parents of some of the men who lost their lives.'

Afghan asylum-seekers made a desperate bid to escape the embattled capital on Wednesday, but were blocked from reaching rescue flight as the Taliban shot and beat western allies trying to reach the airport.

According to Paul 'Pen' Farthing, a British Ex-Pat and former Royal Marine, British and other foreign nationals are struggling to get through into Kabul airport, and are even being turned away

Australian diggers are hoping to rescue up to 800 people at risk from Taliban reprisals, but an RAAF flight left the city with just 26 onboard and more than 100 empty seats.

Officials remain on the ground as US troops try to control the situation at the airport, with Scott Morrison saying they would be on hand to process asylum-seekers desperately seeking refuge and take them away on later flights.

'We need to be very clear who's getting on our planes, who's going to our base, and who's going to come and live here in Australia,' the Prime Minister said.

But even Aussie allies who have been approved to travel Down Under are struggling to see how they can safely make the flights.

'What is your advice for us?' one refugee, currently in hiding in Kabul, asked The Australian.

Crowds pictured outside the military north entrance Kabul airport on Wednesday morning, which is now the only viable route out of the country for thousands of refugees trapped in the capital

Taliban fighters are pictured in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, which sits along one of the main roads leading to the airport, carrying out checks on those that pass through

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

'What we should do  stay at home or find a way to enter the airport?'

Another added: 'There is about seven or eight persons with their families who have their visas on hand and waiting for flight.'

A German Airbus A-400M with room for 150 was also carrying just seven people when it departed on Tuesday, with tens of thousands of Afghans trying to flee.

That is despite there being around 50,000 Afghans gathered at the airport who have been promised sanctuary by western nations.

One particularly harrowing piece of footage showed women pleading with US troops that 'the Taliban are coming for me'.

America, Britain, Canada, and Germany are among other nations who have pledged to take tens of thousands of Afghan refugees each as part of a 'big-hearted' response to the collapse of their country that has failed to materialise.

Most of those at the airport do not have travel documents, witnesses said, and with most embassies closed or moved within the airport perimeter they now have almost no way to obtain them.

Meanwhile, those with documents say they daren't go near the airstrip for fear Islamist guards will haul them away.

Pressed over why Australia is not taking more migrants, defence minister Peter Dutton rubbished other country's promises to take tens of thousands - saying bluntly: 'I don't think that is going to happen.'

Witnesses at the airport gates said that very few people were being allowed through large metal gates that have been set up at the civilian entrance, with dozens of people trying to push through each time the gate was opened - prompting nervy guard to fire into the air.

Seventeen people were later injured in a stampede.

Some who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds without making it on to a flight.

Others said Taliban fighters beat the crowd with sticks, lengths of rubber hose, knotted rope, and rifle butts, often pointing guns at people and on at least on occasion opening fire.

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

Tempers were already fraying around the airport on Tuesday as gunmen opened fire into crowds, with harrowing images showing a young child with a bloodied head being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road behind them.

The White House confirmed that the Taliban had promised that civilians could travel safely to the Kabul airport, but reports of insurgents beating and shooting Afghans trying to enter could rattle the uneasy deal between the country's new rulers and their Western adversaries.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was keen to present the Islamists as a reformed group at a press conference on Monday, pledging to safeguard women's rights, stop reprisal attacks, wipe out the drugs trade, and live in peace will allies and enemies alike.

But that paper-thin veneer was already being torn up on Tuesday as video emerged showing the Taliban tarring alleged thieves and strapping them to trucks to be paraded through Kabul, firing at crowds trying to escape to the US-controlled airport and going house-to-house to round up looters.

The so-called 'Angels of Salvation' are dragging suspects from their homes at gunpoint and lining them against walls after chaos broke out in Kabul following the Taliban takeover.

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

The Taliban has insisted there will be total amnesty for those who fought against them in Afghanistan and that evacuation flights will be protected, but there have been reports of gunmen firing into crowds (pictured, a fighter in Kabul on Wednesday)

Other footage shows Taliban fighters outside Kabul airport wielding AK-47s and rocket launchers, marching towards the terrified crowds and firing warning shots into the air.

The Taliban's spokesman said that the group has pardoned everybody for the stability and peace of Afghanistan,' and said any harm caused in the recent incursion was 'one of the side effects of conflict'.

'A huge occupying force was defeated, it was impossible for us to emancipate the country, without injuries, without harms, without hurts.

'Animosities have come to an end, we want to live peacefully, we don't want any internal enemies or external enemies.'

Mujahid said that the country was at a 'historic stage', with consultation over the creation of the new 'inclusive' government to be completed soon.

He also said that while there had been some riots involving people who 'wanted to abuse the situation,' he assured Kabul's residents they would be protected.

German citizens and some Afghanis and their families offered sanctuary by Germany arrive in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on board a rescue flight before onward travel to Europe
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The daughter of exiled Afghan president Ashraf Ghani is living a luxurious lifestyle in New York City, while her father has been given asylum in Dubai on 'humanitarian grounds' after fleeing Afghanistan in a helicopter that was allegedly filled with $169million in cash.

Mariam Ghani, 42, lives in a loft in a luxury co-op in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, the New York Post reported.

The visual artist and filmmaker, who was born and raised in America, is said to practice a bohemian lifestyle much different than that of women in Afghanistan.

When interviewed in 2015, the New York Times described her loft as a 'map to her layered identity,' featuring floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books, embroidered pillows made by a collective in Aleppo, Syria, and a Turkmenistan rug gifted to her by her father. Her refrigerator was decorated with magnets touting motivational sayings and her kitchen shelves lined with green tomatoes she pickled herself.

'I'm a Brooklyn cliche,' she said at the time, commenting on her way of living.

Mariam Ghani (pictured in her apartment in 2015), daughter of exiled Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, continues to live her luxurious New York City lifestyle as her father remains in hiding after fleeing Afghanistan in a helicopter filled with cash

Ghani lives in a loft in a luxury co-op in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood (left). In 2015, her loft featured floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books, embroidered pillows made by a collective in Aleppo, Syria, and a Turkmenistan rug gifted to her by her father

Ghani, who has refused to speak with reporters about the ongoing takeover of Afghanistan, is encouraging Americans to advocate for the Afghans whose lives have and continue to be impacted by the Taliban's insurgence in the country.

She posted on social media Tuesday answering the question: 'What can we do to help Afghans right now?'

Ghani, who says she is 'angry, grieving and terribly afraid for [her] family, friends and colleagues left behind in Afghanistan,' encourages US citizens to contact their elected officials asking to halt deportations of Afghan refugees and expedite Special Immigrant Visas.

'To everyone who has checked in and reached out in solidarity over the past days: thank you. It has meant a lot,' she wrote, noting that she is 'working feverishly to do anything [she] can on their behalf'.

She says that, in addition to contacting elected officials, individuals can donate to or volunteer with several organizations who help refugees and displaced people.

Ghani (pictured in her apartment in 2015) has refused to speak with reporters about the ongoing takeover of Afghanistan and is encouraging Americans to advocate for the Afghans whose lives have been impacted by the Taliban's insurgence

Rula (second from right) and Ashraf Ghani (second from left) with their children (Mariam Ghani on right), her late mother and brother Riad in 2012

Ghani (pictured) was born in Brooklyn, raised in suburban Maryland and has spent her adult life launching an art and teaching career

Art institutions and coalitions can publicly advocate for cultural workers to be recognized as 'urgently at risk under a Taliban regime,' Ghani stated. She also urged foundations, art institutions and academic facilities to sponsor migration of at-risk artists, journalists and activists.

Ghani was born in Brooklyn, raised in suburban Maryland and has spent her adult life launching an art and teaching career.

Her work has been showcased in museums around the world, including the Tate Modern in London and the Guggenheim and MOMA in New York.

She studied at New York University and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. In 2018 she became a faculty member at Bennington College in Vermont.

Ghani grew up in exile and was unable to travel to Afghanistan until 2002 when she was 24 years old, according to her Guggenheim biography. However, her art was often inspired by the her family's homeland and her multicultural upbringing.

Her father, who began working for the Afghan government in 2002, recently fled Afghanistan in secret as the Taliban took the capital city of Kabul.

Russia's embassy in Kabul said on Monday that Ashraf Ghani had fled the country with four cars and $169million in his cash-stuffed helicopter. He reportedly had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit.

Ashraf on Wednesday denied reports he took large sums of money with him as he departed the presidential palace.

He said the allegations that he left with the large sum of money were 'baseless' and 'lies'.

He has been given asylum in Dubai on 'humanitarian grounds', it has emerged.

Ghani, who has refused to speak with reporters about the ongoing takeover of Afghanistan, took to Instagram (above) encouraging Americans to advocate for the Afghans whose lives have and continue to be impacted by the Taliban's insurgence in the country

Ghani (pictured) said she is 'angry, grieving and terribly afraid for [her] family, friends and colleagues left behind in Afghanistan' and encourages US citizens to contact their elected officials asking to halt deportations of Afghan refugees and expedite Special Immigrant Visas

Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, described the scene of Ashraf's flee: 'Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac.'

'As for the collapse of the (outgoing) regime, it is most eloquently characterized by the way [Ashraf] fled Afghanistan,' Ishchenko continued.

Ashraf escaped Afghanistan on Sunday night as the insurgents encircled the capital - saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed - capping a military victory that saw them capture all cities in just 10 days.

Earlier reports said Ghani had fled to Uzbekistan, citing Russian Embassy sources. It was also claimed to former president had flown to Tajikistan, but diverted to Oman when officials in Dushanbe refused him permission to land.



But the United Arab Emirates has since confirmed that it was hosting Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in Dubai 'on humanitarian grounds'.

Speaking from exile in the United Arab Emirates Wednesday, Ghani said in a video streamed on Facebook: 'If I had stayed, I would be witnessing bloodshed in Kabul.'

The address is his first public comment since it was confirmed he was in the UAE.

He left on the advice of government officials, he added.

Ghani said that he had been attempting to stop Afghanistan turning 'into another Yemen of Syria', and he said that allegations he had left the country with a large amount of money were 'baseless' and 'lies'.

He insisted was no truth to allegations that he escaped with 'suitcases of cash', saying it was all part of a 'personality assassination'.

Ousted Afghan president Ghani confirmed he was in the United Arab Emirates but said he was in 'consultation' to return to Afghanistan.

Ashraf Ghani (pictured) had fled Afghanistan on Sunday with four cars and a helicopter full of cash. Officials said he had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in the chopper

Pictured: Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, August 15, 2021

His message Wednesday echoed a Facebook post he shared on Sunday, where he also stated that he left Afghanistan because he wanted to avoid bloodshed and clashes with the Taliban that would endanger millions of Kabul residents.

'Dear countrymen!' he wrote. 'Today, I came across a hard choice; I should stand to face the armed Taliban who wanted to enter the palace or leave the dear country that I dedicated my life to protecting and protecting the past twenty years.

'If there were still countless countrymen martyred and they would face the destruction and destruction of Kabul city, the result would have been a big human disaster in this six million city.

'The Taliban have made it to remove me, they are here to attack all Kabul and the people of Kabul. In order to avoid the bleeding flood, I thought it was best to get out.'

Taliban officials have since said they have received no reports of any clashes anywhere in the country: 'The situation is peaceful,' one official said. The Taliban controlled 90 percent of state buildings and fighters had been told to prevent any damage, the official added.

In a Facebook post on Sunday (pictured), Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani said he fled the country because wanted to avoid bloodshed

New York Post reporters confronted Ghani at her Brooklyn home, asking for comment on the ongoing situation overseas. She refused to answer their questions, leaving it unclear if she has heard from her father or knows where he is.

However, when asked about her father in 2015  refusing to comment on anything that could compromise his political position  she referred to him as a 'remarkable person'.

'He is a remarkable person,' she said. 'And he's always been a remarkable person.'

Ghani, who claims she 'grew up very much in between cultures' and uses that as the position she works from artistically.

One of her most recent works, a documentary film titled What We Left Unfinished, explored five Afghan motion pictures that were started and abandoned during the nation's Communist era. The documentary is currently playing in select theaters nationwide.

Ghani (right) is described as a 'feminist, archivist and activist'. She recently released a documentary film (picture above from film's Instagram account) exploring five Afghan motion pictures that were started and abandoned during the nation's Communist era

Ghani's documentary film, What We Left Unfinished (film poster pictured above), is currently playing in select theaters nationwide

In the 2015 New York Times profile piece, Ghani is described as a 'feminist, archivist and activist' who was 'as well-versed in the politics of extraordinary rendition as she is in the very Brooklyn pursuit of homemade chile-passion-fruit sorbet'.

'One of the reasons I wanted to be an artist is because I saw that by being an artist I could be so many other things as well,' she said at the time.

She taught classes in Kabul and hired women to work on her sets and serve as research assistants for her projects.

'I think things in Afghanistan have to change for the better for everyone in order for them to change for the better for women,' Ghani told the newspaper. 'Women's rights can't be detached from human rights and economic justice and structural inequities.'

Now, as the Taliban becomes the recognized ruler of Afghanistan, women say they fear what's next to come.

Under the Taliban, which ruled in accordance with a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, women were largely confined to their homes.

Older generations of Afghans remember their ultra-conservative Islamic views, which included stonings, amputations and public executions during their rule before the US-led invasion that followed the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The Taliban is now the recognized ruler of the Afghanistan. Pictured: Taliban fighters posed for a photograph in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021

'The Islamic Emirate doesn't want women to be victims,' Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban's cultural commission, said Tuesday.

'They should be in government structure according to Shariah law.'

He added: 'The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.'

Samangani remained vague on other details, however, implying people already knew the rules of Islamic law the Taliban expected them to follow.

'Our people are Muslims and we are not here to force them to Islam,' he said.

The insurgents have sought to project greater moderation in recent years, but many Afghans remain skeptical.

One Afghan resident, whose identity remains anonymous, wrote an article published in The Guardian outlining her fears.

'As a woman, I feel like I am the victim of this political war that men started,' she said.

'I [feel] like I can no longer laugh out loud, I can no longer listen to my favorite songs, I can no longer meet my friends in our favorite cafe, I can no longer wear my favorite yellow dress or pink lipstick. And I can no longer go to my job or finish the university degree that I worked for years to achieve.'

She explains that she is concerned for that women will once again 'be deprived of all basic rights'.

'When I heard that the Taliban had reached Kabul, I felt I was going to be a slave. They can play with my life any way they want,' she wrote.

'I did not expect that...after 20 years of fighting for our rights and freedom, we should be hunting for burqas and hiding our identity.'

Afghan women say they fear what's next to come amid the Taliban insurgence. Pictured: Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of women's rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 17, 2021

The previous Taliban rule  from 1996 to 2001  was a 'bleak period for Afghan women,' according to the New York Times.

Women were under extreme restrictions regarding behavior, dress and movement. Those who did not adhere to the rules were whipped and publicly humiliated.

If a woman was accused of adultery she would be stoned to death. Homosexuality was considered a crime and punishable by death.

Girls were not permitted to receive an education so women teachers would set up secret schools in their homes.

Women in the medical field did continue to work but had to do so in establishments segregated by sex.

'I am a journalist and I am not allowed to work,' said television Khadija Amin who claims the Taliban had indefinitely suspended her and other female employees.

'What will I do next? The next generation will have nothing, everything we have achieved for 20 years will be gone. The Taliban is the Taliban. They have not changed.'

At this time it is unclear what life will look like for Afghan women under the new Taliban rule, however, some say they will fight before allowing the new government to take away the rights earned over the past two decades.

'The Taliban has never seen or experienced women going to work and going to school in large numbers,' argued Afghan women's rights activist Wida Saghary. 'We must resist them and go to work and go to school. Women can't cave in.'


Real estate heir Robert Durst told a court that he 'deeply regrets' telling his life story to filmmakers in the hope of restoring his reputation.

Durst was testifying in his own defense on Tuesday as he stands trial for the murder of his friend Susan Berman.

Berman, who had helped Durst facilitate an alibi in the 1982 disappearance of his first wife Kathie McCormack, was found murdered 'execution-style' at her Los Angeles home on December 24, 2000.

Prosecutors say Durst silenced Berman because she was preparing to speak to New York authorities about McCormack and how she provided a phony excuse for him.

Durst has pled not guilty. At trial Tuesday, he said he would never admit killing Berman - even if he had done so.

In questions from his own lawyer, Durst said he had not confessed to any killings when he was caught speaking to himself on a live microphone after filming a documentary about his life and the deaths of people close to him.

In the climactic scene of 'The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,' he could be heard in a bathroom muttering: 'What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.'

Durst, who had just been caught on video in a lie about a note directing police to his best friend Berman's 'cadaver,' explained in court on Tuesday that the mic hadn't captured his full thought.

'What I did not say out loud or, perhaps I said very softly, is: 'They'll all think I killed them all, of course,'' he testified.

Real estate heir Robert Durst told a court that he 'deeply regrets' telling his life story to filmmakers in the hope of restoring his reputation. Durst was testifying in his own defense on Tuesday as he stands trial for the murder of his friend Susan Berman

In the climactic scene of 'The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,' he could be heard in a bathroom muttering: 'What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.' He is pictured with director Andrew Jarecki

The timeline that led police to suspect Robert Durst was a serial killer - and how he was unmasked January 31, 1982: Kathleen McCormack, Durst's first wife, is last seen by someone other than Durst 1999: A New York State Police investigation into the disappearance of McCormack, now declared legally dead, is re-opened December 24, 2000: Susan Berman, a friend of Durst who facilitated his alibi in McCormack's disappearance, is found murdered execution-style at her Los Angeles home October 9, 2001: Durst is arrested in Texas after body parts of his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, are found floating in a nearby bay November 11, 2003: Due to a lack of forensic evidence, Durst is acquitted of Black's murder December 21, 2004: Durst pleads guilty to two counts of bail jumping and one count of evidence tampering. He is sentenced to five years in prison but receives credit for time served July 15, 2005: Durst receives parole and is released from prison. He briefly returns to prison after violating parole and is released again in March of 2006 February 8, 2015: HBO's The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, premieres. The show investigates the deaths of McCormack, Berman and Black March 16, 2015: The day after The Jinx finale airs, in which Durst off-handedly rambles to himself that he 'killed them all, of course,' Durst is arrested on first-degree murder charges in Berman's death March 2, 2020: After years of postponements, Durst appears at trial for Berman's murder May 17, 2021: Westchester County DA reclassifies McCormack investigation as a murder June 14, 2021: Following delays due to the pandemic and Durst's failing health, the trial is reconvened Advertisement

Many viewers interpreted the remarks, which were edited together by the filmmakers for a dramatic conclusion to the six-part HBO series, as an admission.

Authorities arrested Durst the night before the finale aired in March 2015 because they expected him to flee after the 'gotcha' moment and the unexpected dialogue that followed.

Durst testified he had been planning to kill himself with a gun when FBI agents apprehended him in the lobby of a New Orleans hotel, where he was registered under an alias.

When pressed by Prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney John Lewin about the note he posted to Beverly Hills police about Berman's 'cadaver', Durst said he had to lie because otherwise it was clear he was present when Berman died.

'Well, it's worse than that,' Lewin said. 'You previously said on multiple occasions that quote, 'That's a note only the killer could have written.''

Durst said it was a line fed to him by the film's producer that he repeated again in an interrogation in 2015 by Lewin.

'Seriously?' Lewin said in a comment stricken from the record after an objection from the defense.

Durst reached out to filmmaker Andrew Jarecki in the hopes of repairing his reputation after becoming a pariah following the Texas case.

Despite being the scion of a New York developer, he was rejected by condominium associations in New York, Houston and California, he said. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art wanted him to make a donation anonymously.

Jarecki had made 'All Good Things,' a feature film based on Durst's life starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst.

Durst hoped he'd be treated sympathetically.

Despite advice from his lawyers and 'everybody' not to give a series of interviews for the film project, Durst ignored them all.

He said he was high on methamphetamine and repeatedly lied during the interviews. He had assured Jarecki he was being honest because things would go 'very, very wrong' if he wasn't truthful.

When Lewin suggested that his lies to the filmmakers and at trial were coming back to haunt him, Durst said only that everything he did with Jarecki was a mistake.

If Lewin keeps exposing lies Durst told over the years, the New York real estate heir on trial for murder may wish he hadn't taken a chance to appeal directly to jurors in his bid for acquittal.

Authorities arrested Durst the night before the finale of The jinx aired in March 2015 because they expected him to flee after the 'gotcha' moment and the unexpected dialogue that followed.

Durst testified under cross-examination Tuesday that he lied under oath in the past and would do it again to prevent incriminating himself. But he said he hadn't lied - at least up to that point - during his five days of ongoing testimony in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Under questioning from Lewin, who relished the prospect of grilling Durst and prepared a 200-page outline for questioning, the multimillionaire acknowledged there are some acts he would never come clean about.

'If youve said youve taken an oath to tell the truth but youve also just told us that you would lie if you needed to, can you tell me how that would not destroy your credibility?' Lewin asked.

'Because what Im saying is mostly the truth,' Durst said. 'There are certain things I would lie about, certain very important things.'

''Did you kill Susan Berman?' is strictly a hypothetical,' Durst said. 'I did not kill Susan Berman. But if I had, I would lie about it.'

Durst, 78, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the point-blank shooting of Berman, his longtime confidante, in her Los Angeles home. Durst said he found a lifeless Berman lying on a bedroom floor when he showed up for a planned visit just before Christmas in 2000.

Playing clips of interviews Durst gave filmmakers, an interrogation conducted after Durst's arrest in New Orleans in 2015, and clips from his testimony, Lewin got Durst to admit several lies he told over the years.

Durst has pleaded not guilty to murder in the point-blank shooting of Susan Berman, his longtime confidante, in her Los Angeles home.

Prosecutors say Durst silenced Berman as she prepared to speak with New York authorities about the disappearance of his wife, Kathie McCormack, in 1982 and how she provided a false alibi for him.

Durst was also acquitted of murder in Morris Black's death after he testified he fatally shot the man during a struggle for a gun. He was convicted of destroying evidence for chopping up the mans body and tossing it out to sea

Robert Durst has never been charged with a crime in his wife's disappearance and has denied killing her.

In May of 2021, the investigation into McCormack's vanishing had been reopened as a murder investigation by a district attorney in New York's Westchester County.

He was also acquitted of murder in Morris Black's death after he testified he fatally shot the man during a struggle for a gun. He was convicted of destroying evidence for chopping up the mans body and tossing it out to sea.

If he had killed his wife and murdered Morris Black, Durst said he wouldn't admit those crimes either.

Testifying at trial is incredibly risky for a defendant, and most lawyers won't put their clients on the stand. Durst's testimony Tuesday showed that a history of lies and inconsistent stories had made him vulnerable.

'You dont just make up lies for the sake of lying,' Lewin said. 'You lie in particular when there is a reason for you to lie. And, generally speaking in this context, when it relates to incriminating evidence, correct?'

Durst agreed.
President Joe Biden ignored Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley's request to keep a force of 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and warnings about the stability of the country from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in the run-up to the Taliban's takeover this week.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Biden had heard about many of the risks of a full-scale U.S. pull-out from Afghanistan - including that the Taliban could take over the country - but went ahead with it anyway.

The decision led to chaotic scenes at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport this week as Americans and Afghans alike tried to flee.

CNN's Clarissa Ward reported Wednesday that the scene around the Kabul airport continued to be 'extremely chaotic' with Taliban fighters screaming at people and threatening them with guns.

'This was mayhem, this was nuts, this is impossible for an ordinary civilian - even if they have their paperwork - no way they're running that gauntlet, no way they're going to be able to navigate that. It's very dicey, it's very dangerous and it's completely unpredictable,' she described.

'To me it's a miracle that more people haven't been seriously, seriously hurt,' Ward offered.

Biden stayed firm with his decision, the Journal reported, because he believed the U.S. was propping up an Afghan government on life support, which the president viewed as corrupt and blamed for wasting billions of dollars of U.S. aid.

He and his advisers had hoped President Ashraf Ghani and the Afghan government would pull itself together once the U.S. laid out an exit date, the Journal said, however some military advisers warned that Ghani wasn't up to the task.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (left) warned President Joe Biden that a full withdrawal from Afghanistan wouldn't provide any insurance of stability, while Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley wanted to keep 2,500 U.S. troops there

Biden according to the Journal, believed the U.S. was propping up an Afghan government on life support, which the president viewed as corrupt and blamed for wasting billions of dollars of U.S. aid. He's photographed returning to D.C. Tuesday night from Camp David

The Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday, the same day Ghani fled Afghanistan.

Milley had argued that the U.S. should keep a small fighting force in the country. There were about 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when Biden took over the drawdown from former President Donald Trump.

Austin, who previously served as military commander in the region, warned that a full withdrawal wouldn't provide any insurance of stability.

Biden had argued that by reneging on the agreement Trump made with the Taliban, American forces and U.S. allies could be exposed to more violence.

Biden's team was blindsided by the pace in which the Taliban took over Afghanistan and miscalculated the Afghan army's willingness to fight.

"...our producer was taking video on his iPhone, two Taliban fighters came up with their pistols and they were ready to pistol whip him."@clarissaward describes the "mayhem" outside the Kabul airport, including a Taliban fighter with "a huge makeshift whip." pic.twitter.com/Ftul1IIkCp  Alli Hedges Maser (@AllisonLHedges) August 18, 2021

Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted Kabul might fall within 30 to 90 days, the Journal said.

On July 8, Biden told reporters that the Afghan army could call on 300,000 fighters compared with 75,000 Taliban and that the fall of Kabul was 'not inevitable.'

Yet a drumbeat of public assessments had questioned their ability to fight and by July classified intelligence reports had grown more pessimistic about whether the government could hold on to the capital, according to the New York Times.

The revelations will intensify questions about why Biden pushed ahead with such a rapid withdrawal, and why his administration was not better prepared to rescue Americans and Afghan staff.

One report in July, as the Taliban advanced, described the growing risk to Kabul and said the government was unprepared for a direct assault.

It mapped out a cascading collapse as the Afghan security forces fell apart - much as happened last week.

President Biden was forced to return to the White House from Camp David on Monday to address the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan and defend his decision to bring home U.S. troops

Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule

Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane, some climbing on the plane, as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug.16. 2021.

A historical analysis, reportedly provided to Congress, derived lessons from the Taliban takeover in 1996. Their speed then surprised observers.

This time around, the report forecast they would first take border crossings, then move into provincial capitals, before securing territory in the north before moving into Kabul - predictions that largely proved accurate.

But a senior intelligence official said the reports did not offer a definitive assessment of an imminent Taliban takeover. The official told the newspaper that just a week before Kabuls fall, analysis was that a Taliban takeover was not yet inevitable.

Biden was forced to return to the White House on Monday as his administration dealt with the fallout of the U.S. withdrawal and the return of the Taliban.

He insisted officials had 'planned for every contingency' but: 'The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.'

Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a Republican who served under President Barack Obama, told the Journal that he doubted the Biden administration's planning.

'Anytime you've got a situation like this, that's so volatile, so unpredictable, so dangerous, you've got to plan for the worst and I don't think they did that,' Hagel said.

Just a month earlier Biden had dismissed any idea that he faced his own fall of Saigon moment.

'The Taliban is not the ... the North Vietnamese army. Theyre not - theyre not remotely comparable in terms of capability.

'Theres going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the - of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.'

But television pictures at the weekend showed helicopters ferrying embassy staff to the airport in Kabul in an emergency evacuation.

A U.S. Chinook helicopter over the U.S. embassy in Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban closed on the capital and American staff were rushed to airport for evacuation

Taliban fighters pray while raising their flag in Ghazni, southeastern Afghanistan. The speed of their advance took U.S. officials by surprise, forcing Biden to send thousands of troops back to the country to help rescue American nationals and Afghans who worked for the U.S.

The white flag of the Taliban has been raised all across the country in the wake of their lightning advance across the country

Lisa Curtis, who was senior director for South and Central Asia on President Trump's National Security Council, said the assessments may have overlooked two key issues.

'Did they ever factor in these analyses that we would demand all 18,000 contractors, leave the country at the same time,' she told reporters on a conference call.

'Also the pace. Did anybody predict that the the pace would be so quick?.

'Those are questions that we need to ask - if the intel community considered that it withdraw would be handled in the way that the Biden administration handled it because I know when I was at the NSC that nobody considered such a rapid haphazard type of withdrawal scenario.'

Other analysts said the idea that the Kabul government could hold on for at least a year were based on a flawed understanding of the Afghan army's will to fight.

'Most of the U.S. assessments inside and outside the U.S. government had focused on how well the Afghan security forces would fare in a fight with the Taliban. In reality, they never really fought,' Seth G. Jones, an Afghanistan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the New York Times.

Reports from inside Afghanistan suggest the Taliban had prepositioned fighters around key targets and had already begun negotiating with elders in preparation for the U.S. withdrawal.

But even public assessments made bleak reading and should have sounded warnings about the U.S. departure.

In March, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said there was little prospect of a peace deal being agreed.

'The Taliban is likely to make gains on the battlefield, and the Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support,' it said in its Annual Threat Assessment report.

'Kabul continues to face setbacks on the battlefield, and the Taliban is confident it can achieve military victory.'
A martial arts fanatic tried to drown his partner in the bath after their relationship fell apart during lockdown, a court heard yesterday.

Scott Richards, 32, is accused of holding nurse Kathryn Rich's head underwater at their home after she finished a shift.

The couple's 11-year relationship deteriorated at the start of the pandemic last year, the jury was told. Richards was forced to close his martial arts training company and Miss Rich was doing 12-hour night shifts at a busy NHS hospital.

Scott Richards (pictured), 32, Treherbert, Rhondda, Wales, is accused of holding Kathryn Rich's head underwater in the bath at their home after she finished her shift as a nurse

The couple's 11-year romance hit the rocks when the national lockdown started last year, the jury was told. Richards was forced to close his martial arts training company and Ms Rich (pictured) - who is in her late 30s - was doing 12-hour night shifts at a busy NHS hospital

The alleged attempted drowning happened when 40-year-old Miss Rich was following NHS guidelines to have a bath after finishing her shift. Rosamund Rutter, prosecuting, said: 'The defendant subjected his partner to a frightening and cruel act of violence, which may be partly due to the lockdown.

'He pushed her head into the bath water and held it down. She could not breathe and desperately tried to pull her head back but the defendant had a firm grip.'

The court heard Miss Rich was 'coughing and spluttering' before Richards let go.

Miss Rutter said: 'She rang the police to say her partner had tried to drown her. When she gave a statement she told them about a previous attack on March 24, the day after the national lockdown started.'

The court heard Richards had found a 'personal note' in Miss Rich's handbag that made him suspect she had been unfaithful with a work colleague.

The court heard Ms Rich was 'coughing and spluttering', from being held under water for a few seconds before Richards let go (pictured together)

The discovery led to Richards, from Treherbert, Rhondda, South Wales, dragging his partner out of bed by her pyjama top, headbutting the bridge of her nose and pushing her against a door frame, the jury was told.

This incident was said to be more than a week prior to the alleged attempted drowning on April 4 last year. Photographs of her injuries, taken on Miss Rich's mobile phone, were shown to Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.

The newly-qualified mental health nurse said: 'He [Richards] owns a martial arts business and he had to close it down and start classes over [video call app] Zoom. Covid had started in January and I was doing six months of night shifts.'

Miss Rich said she had written a letter about her feelings towards her work colleague but their relationship was 'just flirting' and there was no affair.

She told the court: 'I assume he thought I was having an affair with someone in work.'

Photographs of her injuries, taken on Ms Rich's mobile phone, were shown to Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court. Pictured: the couple together

The alleged bathroom incident happened because Richards was unhappy that Miss Rich posted an emoji on the Facebook page of a male friend in fancy dress. She said: 'Covid had just hit and we were told to have a bath and wash our uniforms when we got home from work.

'The bath was run when Scott came upstairs and pushed me backwards with quite a lot of force. The bath was pretty full, he pushed my head and shoulders under water.

'I couldn't get out of the water, it was probably only seconds but it felt longer.

'When he let go I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't hear. I swallowed water, my clothing was soaked.' Richards denies causing actual bodily harm and assault by beating. The trial continues.
A coroner today asked jurors at the inquest into the death of Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman to consider whether his horrific attack could have been prevented.

Amman, 20, was shot dead by armed undercover officers after he stole a knife from a shop and began randomly stabbing members of the public in South London.

The jury, which has been directed to return a conclusion of 'lawful killing', will also now consider whether opportunities were missed by police and probation services.

Jurors in the capital have retired to consider their conclusions on events leading up to the incident on Streatham High Road shortly before 2pm on February 2, 2020.

Amman had been released from HMP Belmarsh into the community just over a week earlier on January 23 to serve the remainder of his 40-month sentence on licence.

Sudesh Amman, 20, was shot dead by armed undercover officers after he stole a knife from a shop and began randomly stabbing members of the public in Streatham, South London

Body worn camera footage issued by the Metropolitan Police showing armed officers approaching the prone body of Amman, who had been shot, on February 2, 2020

Following two and a half weeks of evidence, coroner Mr Justice Hilliard summed up what had been heard and gave legal directions to the jury today. He said the only 'safe conclusion' on the actions of the police was that Amman was lawfully killed.

He told jurors: 'Sudesh Amman was trying to do dreadful things on February 2. What is required is a cool, calm, careful and impartial assessment of the evidence in the inquest. What you mustn't do is indulge in speculation or guesswork.'

Probation officer defends decision not to recall terrorist A former probation service worker has defended a decision not to initiate a process to recall Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman to prison in the days before his attack, despite evidence he had made 'concerning' purchases. Speaking on Monday, Alan Reid said that although there may have been grounds to search the 20-year-old's probation hostel room, the service did not want to compromise covert police operations. Amman was shot dead by undercover officers on February 2, 2020 after he stabbed two members of the public on Streatham High Road in South London. He had previously been seen buying items - including four bottles of Irn Bru, parcel tape and tin foil in Poundland - that it was feared could be used to make a hoax suicide belt. But jurors heard that such purchases - described by Jonathan Hough QC, counsel to the inquest, as 'concerning' - had not raised the threshold of concern high enough to warrant initiation of the process to recall him to prison. Mr Reid, former national security lead for the probation service, said he had spoken to a colleague two days before the attack to discuss responses to Amman's actions. '(On Friday 31) I didn't think there was enough information to recall (Amman) to prison,' he said on Monday, giving evidence to the inquest into Amman's death. Mr Reid said the probation service 'quite possibly' could have justified a search of Amman's room at the hostel as 'routine'. 'There was certainly scope to do a routine search,' he said. '(But) the overarching impression that I was left with was that we didn't want to take any action that would compromise the police operation.' Rajiv Menon QC, representing Amman's family, suggested a probation officer's threshold for initiating the recall to prison was 'plainly a modest one'. The inquest previously heard from Carina Heckroodt, head of the London Extremism Gangs and Organised Crime Unit at the probation service, who also denied it was a 'missed opportunity' to recall Amman to prison after his Poundland purchases. Advertisement

The coroner said the evidence showed each of the officers who shot Amman 'at every stage honestly believed that it was necessary to use force in defence of himself and others'.

He added that the amount of force used at each stage was 'no more than reasonably necessary in the circumstances'.

'Therefore, the only safe conclusion is that Sudesh Amman was lawfully killed,' he said. 'On that basis, as a matter of law, as the coroner I direct you to return a short-form conclusion of lawful killing.'

The inquest, held at the Royal Courts of Justice, heard Amman was considered 'one of the most dangerous individuals' investigated by police and MI5, and that he maintained an extremist mindset throughout his time in prison.

He was seen purchasing items - including four small bottles of Irn Bru, parcel tape and tin foil - in Poundland two days before he struck, leading to suspicions he was planning to make a hoax suicide belt.

These suspicions were confirmed after Amman was shot and he was found to be wearing one.

The belt was later dismissed as a 'crude' fake, although police are trained to consider all such devices as viable until proven otherwise.

Mr Hilliard asked jurors to consider whether the probation service missed any opportunity missed that may have prevented the attack and Amman's consequent death, by deciding not to recall him to prison after being notified of the 'concerning' purchases.

Jurors were also asked whether police investigators and probation both missed opportunities to organise searches of Amman's hostel room.

The inquest was previously told by a former probation service worker that such a search 'quite possibly' could have been justified as 'routine'.

The coroner also asked jurors to consider if an opportunity had been missed to stop and search Amman on the day of the attack, as he made his way to the Streatham High Road.

Amman was observed leaving his approved premises at 1.22pm and wandering 'very slowly', appearing 'aimless', to the high street, before beginning his attack at 1.57pm.

Mr Justice Hilliard reminded jurors of Amman's background including concerns of aggressive behaviour from a young age and previous arrests for terror offences.

Amman was born on December 27, 1999 in Coventry, and was the oldest of six boys of Sri Lankan descent.

Little is known about Amman's path to radicalisation - although he was said to have been traumatised by witnessing the decapitation of human bodies during a family holiday to Sri Lanka aged 15.

He was convicted in 2018 of 13 counts of collecting material useful for terrorism and disseminating terrorist publications.

He was released on January 23, 2020 despite concerns from the police and MI5 that he retained his extremist mindset, reportedly saying he was 'proud' of being the youngest terrorist offender in Belmarsh.

Photographs taken from a classified police intelligence report into Amman when he was under surveillance, which have both been shown to the jury in the inquest into his death

But just days before he struck he claimed to have changed his ways, telling a mentor he 'now realised' that those who committed terrorist acts ended up 'pushing people away' from Islam.

The inquest heard Amman was shot at six times after lunging at officers at the end of his 62-second stabbing spree, with between two and four bullets hitting him.

Attention was drawn to the bravery of officers BX75 and BX87, who fired the fatal shots, then contained the situation despite knowing about the presence of a potential bomb, after discovering the hoax belt.

Amman was declared dead 90 minutes later at 3.24pm.

The jury, which was previously reduced from 11 to nine after two members were discharged due to medical issues, will now consider its conclusions.
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US cargo planes that can carry 600 people each left Kabul with just 100 on board on Tuesday night in another shocking display of incompetence from Western governments who have promised to save tens of thousands of people from the increasingly threatening Taliban in Afghanistan.

Overnight, 18 C-17 US Air Force jets left Kabul carrying 2,000 people in total including 365 Americans.

One of them that was filmed by a CBS journalist on board was carrying around 300 people including translators, women and children. It leaves 1,700 that were removed on the remaining 17 jets - an average of 100 per flight.

The planes are fitted to take 150 soldiers and heavy cargo loads but in disaster situations like the one unfolding in Afghanistan, they can be used take 600 people without surpassing weight limits.

On Sunday, one of the jets took 640 Afghans out of Kabul and in 2013, a different ones as used to remove 670 people from a typhoon in the Philippines. And while the near-empty flights took off on Sunday, thousands of people were at the gates of the airport in Kabul, screaming, crying and begging to be saved from the Taliban.

Flights bound for Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Italy also took off on Wednesday with just a few dozen people on board despite having capacity to take hundreds. In one shocking case, a German plane with room for 150 departed Kabul on Tuesday with just seven on board.

One of the reasons for the woefully low passenger counts is that no one can get to the airport and through processing to board them.

Taliban is controlling all of the streets surrounding the airport and the US - and other countries - are relying on its fighters to let people through, including westerners who could become hostages if caught, and Afghan interpreters, translators or diplomats who could face persecution if the Taliban finds out who they are.

Already, the the terrorist group - which had vowed peace as part of a revamped image - has abandoned its promise by parading thieves with ropes round their necks, beating children and relentlessly shooting bullets in the air.

The White House is offering no assurances on how long troops will stay in the region to help.

A CBS reporter was on board one of the US jets that took off on Tuesday night. She said there were 300 people on board - half the number that were removed on the same type of jet on Sunday

One of the flights had some 300 Afghans on board. All brought luggage and there was enough room for people to lie down, stretch out and stand-up

We joined around 300 #Afghans last night, as the US airlifted them out of #Afghanistan, two days after the #Taliban took the capital. heres a glimpse of their journey. @CBSThisMorning @CBSNews @HaggisCamera AgnesReau https://t.co/zM1ATSSfIg  Roxana Saberi (@roxanasaberi) August 18, 2021

FLASHBACK - On Sunday, a single C-17 was used to get 640 Afghans out (left). In 2013 (right), 670 were removed from a typhoon in the Philippines

This is the scene at the city entrance to the airport in Kabul. It is being controlled by the Taliban and US forces are on the inside but the people waiting to fly out can't get through the fighters at the front, and are being given no help by the State Department

In scenes of utter desperation at Kabul airport today, people began passing babies to guards at the northern entrance hoping they will be put on flights out of the country and escape Taliban rule

Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule

Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The group is becoming increasingly violent, abandoning promises to be peaceful, and their cooperation is what the evacuation mission is relying on

The Taliban turned on the crowd at Kabul airport on Tuesday, driving the hundreds back from the airport perimeter as they pushed to flee the country. They had promised to be peaceful but have already given up on it

A young woman was shot dead for allegedly refusing to wear a hijab by marauding jihadists when they captured the northern town of Taloqan in Takhar province last week. She is seen lying in a pool of blood as her distraught parents crouch beside her body in an image shared by the Afghan Ambassador to Poland Tahir Qadry who denounced the 'butchering of civilians.'

A man cries as he watches fellow Afghans get wounded after Taliban fighters use gunfire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside Kabul airport for a way out

A Taliban fighter patrols in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Americans cannot get to the airport, which is surrounded by Taliban fighters, and the only area where troops are is inside

Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021

Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back

At a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Dept. Secretary of State Wendy Ruth Sherman suggested that Americans shouldn't have a problem getting to the airport because so many Afghans have managed to.

'The Taliban has said that the roads are open, that people can move. We've heard all of the stories about checkpoints, harassment, difficulties, jammed traffic, we're trying to work through those issues.

'I will say, in spite of the obstacles, many, many afghans in all of the categories are finding their way to the airport,' she said.

She said the US has processed 4,800 Americans to get them out, but it's unclear if that number includes people who have already left before. Another 800 Afghans have been processed to be removed.

'Our focus is on getting the people out of Afghanistan to safety.'

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby briefed reporters over the phone on Wednesday and admitted he hoped getting people to the airport would go more 'smoothly'

At a conference call briefing with journalists on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby talked about the ongoing 'processing' issues and delays in getting people their necessary paperwork.

He admitted that he didn't know how many Americans were still stuck in Kabul and said he 'couldn't predict' how many would leave overnight.

'I cant tell you the numbers of people coming and going. Our force flow gets smaller as we get more troops on the field. I cant predict how many people will be evacuated,' he said.

'We're still working on the processing here...We're not unaware that there has been issues out in town and harassment of individuals, that's one of the reasons we're in touch with the Taliban to try to make sure that doesn't happen.

'I don't have a specific next step. We are in communication with the Taliban. We want to see this go more smoothly, we want to see this go faster,' he said.

There are at least 11,000 US citizens still stuck in Afghanistan and tens of thousands of Afghans who helped the US in the war and are trying to get Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to be removed before the Taliban gives up on the goodwill and kills them.

There are now thought to be around 50,000 people - mostly Afghans - gathered outside two entrances to Hamid Karzai airport - the civilian south side and military north side, both of which are under Taliban control.

US troops controlling the military side fired warning shots into crowds on Tuesday night to stop the increasingly desperate people from overrunning the airfield again.

In the last 24 hours:

The Taliban started abandoning its promise of peace and is now parading 'thieves' through the streets with ropes around their necks, smacking and shooting people and rounding up enemies

18 C-17 jets arrived and the total number of US troops at the airport rose to 4,500, including 1,300 Marines

US jets only removed 2,000 people - 325 were American and at least 11,000 Americans remain stranded

Other jets from the UK, Spain, Italy and Australia left with less than half of their seats full

The Taliban has set up checkpoints around the airport and there are reports they are blocking people from getting through

The State Department told US citizens to make their own way to the airport, with no promise of help getting there

Joe Biden returned to the White House but he has not scheduled any kind of Afghanistan update

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley will speak at 3pm

Kirby also claimed the effort was 'working', despite US troops resorting to firing their weapons at the military entrance to the gate on Tuesday night to control the increasingly desperate crowds.

Between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning, only 2,000 people were taken out of Afghanistan on US jets - 3,000 fewer than the Pentagon's daily goal of at least 5,000. There are at least 11,000 Americans in Afghanistan who are yet to be removed.

THE EMPTIEST FLIGHTS OUT OF KABUL Germany: Airbus A-400M with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 7 on board Australia: Hercules C-130 with space for 120 people, departed Wednesday with 26 on board Netherlands: Boeing C-17 with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 40 on board France: Airbus A400M with space for 150 people, departed Tuesday with 41 on board Italy: Boeing KC767 with space for up to 200 people, departed Monday with 70 on board Spain: Airbus A-400M with space for 150 people, departed Wednesday with unknown number on board - though officials earlier said just 25 embassy staff had made it to the airport Advertisement

Only 325 of the people removed overnight were American.

Faziya Nematy, a New York resident who visited Afghanistan in July and has become stuck, said on Wednesday there was no way for her to get to the airport with her son.

'I, myself, am stuck here. Im a U.S. citizen, cant even get out, have my kids here.

'Theres no help here, theres not one single American troop here.

'Now this whole thing is just full of people,' she told WRGB.

The father of one Colorado family has told how his wife and daughters are hiding out, unable to get to the airport.

The wife and kids are Afghan natives but now have American citizenship.

They were visiting family and have now become stuck.

'My wife and daughters are, for now, hiding in a house in Kabul.

'I think it's chaos. There are a lot of lives in danger. She called me on Saturday night, crying that the Taliban are all over the city and she wanted to get out,' the man, who did not want to give his name said in an interview with Fox 31.

Panicked by the sudden fall of Kabul to the Islamists, the father booked a flight home from Kabul for his wife and children on Sunday, but it was cancelled hours before it was due to depart.

'Around midnight, I got a text message from Turkish Airlines saying that her flight got cancelled. We can't have what was going on [on Monday], people holding on to airplanes and things like that.'

Afghanistan veterans are also pleading for the safe evacuation of some of the translators and interpreters they worked with when they were there.

On Tuesday, the State Department started telling some Americans to make their own way to the airport and that they couldn't help them or guarantee their safety on the way.

U.S. Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, arrives at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan August 17, 2021. He is in charge of negotiating with the Taliban to let people through to the airport

Inside the airport, soldiers are helping those who have been able to get through and are putting them on flights but outside, it is total chaos run by the Taliban

An Australian Hercules C-130 plane with room for 120 people takes off from Kabul airport with just 26 passengers early on Wednesday - one of several aircraft to depart half-full

The flight was mostly filled with Australian citizens but also included Afghan nationals with visas, and one foreign official working in an international agency

Planes from other countries have been leaving half empty while Afghan women and refugees beg and cry for help at the gates, only to be ignored.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday morning that he didn't know how many Americans were still in Afghanistan, and he couldn't 'predict' how many would be removed on planes in the next 24 hours.

He skirted the blame for people not being allowed through the checkpoints and claimed the rescue mission was 'working' despite the shortage of flights.

'We believe an important obligation to help get as many people out of Afghanistan as we can... our focus right now is on the airport and making sure the airport stays a safe and secure place where people can flow in and out of.

'It is working. We had another 300 plus American citizens go out over the last 24 hours.

'In that respect it's working we are continuing to have communication with the Taliban about making sure we can continue that flow and special immigrant visa applicants are included in it,' he said.

Kirby has been the face of the crisis while President Joe Biden keeps a low profile.

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

He returned to the White House on Tuesday night from Camp David and is due to give a COVID-19 speech this afternoon but has not made any public statement since his speech on Monday where he claimed he made the right decision withdrawing troops

In scenes of utter desperation today, people began passing babies towards guards stationed at the airport's northern gate so they could be put on flights. Earlier in the day, women had stood at the same gate reaching towards US troops and begging to be allowed through, with one shouting: 'Please. The Taliban are coming for me.'

The heartbreaking footage is a far cry from the 'big-hearted' response to the crisis pledged by western nations, which between them have vowed to take more than 100,000 refugees out of the country.

'We will honour women's rights (within Islamic law)': Taliban spokesman holds first news conference in Kabul and promises they won't persecute women or take revenge

The Taliban claimed that Afghan women will not be persecuted under their Islamic rule during their first press conference since their sweeping conquest of Kabul this week, as the man tipped to be Afghanistan's next leader arrived in the country after a 20-year exile.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman, claimed 'there is a huge difference between us and the Taliban of 20 years ago', when female Afghans were beaten in the street or publicly executed, denied work, healthcare and an education, and barred from leaving home without a male chaperone.

During their press conference in the capital city, the Taliban insisted girls will receive an education and women will be allowed to study at university - both of which were forbidden under Taliban rule in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 before the US-led invasion.

The terror group also claimed they want women to be part of the new government after female Afghans staged a protest outside a local Taliban HQ in Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul, while chanting 'honour and lives are safe' and 'join voices with us'.

Pictured: Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban, speaks during a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. For years, Mujahid had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the militants

The Taliban's war on female Afghans: Islamic group's brutal oppression of women and girls during 1990s tyranny A woman wearing a blue-coloured burqa walks next to the construction site of a building in Kabul on June 21, 2021 Under the hardline version of Sharia - Islamic law - that the Taliban imposed the last time they controlled the capital, women and girls were mostly denied education or employment. Burqas - full body and face coverings - became mandatory in public, women could not leave home without a male companion, and public floggings and executions, including stoning for adultery, were carried out in city squares and stadiums. Under threat of execution, girls were banned from mainstream education after the age of eight - forcing those who wanted to learn to do so in secret schools. From the age of eight, girls were not allowed to be in direct contact with males other than a close 'blood relative', husband, or in-law. Punishments were often carried out publicly, either as formal spectacles held in sports stadiums or town squares or spontaneous street beatings. Many punishments were meted out by individual militias without the sanction of Taliban authorities. In October 1996, for instance, a woman had the tip of her thumb cut off for wearing nail varnish - while in 1999, a mother-of-seven was executed in front of 30,000 spectators in Kabul's Ghazi Sport stadium for murdering her husband. She had been jailed for three years and tortured prior to the execution, but had refused to plead her innocence in a bid to protect her daughter. Even after the Taliban's ousting in 2001, women often remained marginalised, especially in rural areas. The United Nations chief called for an immediate end to violence in Afghanistan and urging the international community to unite to ensure that the human rights of all people are respected. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Security Council at an emergency meeting on Monday 'and the international community as a whole to stand together, work together and act together.' He said he is 'particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan who fear a return to the darkest days' in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled and barred girls for getting an education and imposed draconian measures on women. Mr Guterres said 'the world is following events in Afghanistan with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead' and with the country's future and the hopes and dreams of a generation of young Afghans in the balance, the coming days 'will be pivotal.' At this 'grave hour,' the secretary-general urged all parties, especially the Taliban, 'to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs can be met.' Mr Guterres said the UN continues to have staff and offices in areas now under Taliban control, and which so far have been respected. 'Above all, we will stay and deliver in support of the Afghan people in their hour of need.' 'We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,' he said. Advertisement

However, women and girls remain the most at risk under the new regime, with gangs in conquered areas allegedly hunting children as young as 12 and unmarried or widowed women they regard as spoils of war - 'qhanimat' - being forced into marriage or sex slavery.

The Taliban has also said women will have to wear hijabs but not burkas. During the press conference on Tuesday, Mujahid did not detail what restrictions would be imposed on women, although he did say it would be a government with 'strong Islamic values'.

Mujahid claimed: 'We are committed to the rights of women under the system of Sharia. They are going to be working shoulder to shoulder with us. We would like to assure the international community that there will be no discrimination.'

The Taliban denied it was enforcing sex slavery, and claims that such actions are against Islam. During the 1990s, the regime established religious police for the suppression of 'vice', and courts handed out extreme punishments including stoning to death women accused of adultery.

Just minutes before the hour-long press conference, it was confirmed that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's deputy leader and co-founder, had arrived back in Kandahar from Qatar, with what was described as a high-level delegation.

'We are going to decide what kind of laws will be presented to the nation. This will be the responsibility of the government with the participation of all people,' Mujahid claimed.

Much of the rest of Mujahid's press conference was also aimed at quashing fears about reprisal attacks against those who supported the Western-backed government, saying the new government did not want internal or external enemies.

Earlier, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News 'thousands' of schools would continue to educate girls as the group announced a 'general amnesty' for those who previously worked in the Afghan government, saying 'their properties will be saved and their honour and their lives are safe.'

A group of women staged a demonstration demanding the right to work and study in Kabul on Tuesday morning.

Chanting the slogan: 'join voices with us' the small group of women approached a local Taliban HQ in Khair Khana district, a suburb of north-west Kabul.

But rather than arresting or beating the protestors, the senior Taliban commander present tried to reassure them by telling them: 'Don't worry, your rights will be respected. You will be allowed to work and study.'

One observer who saw the women's protest said: 'The Taliban are on their best behaviour at the moment. They are keen to take control of the levers of government in Kabul with the least possible bloodshed and in the quickest time.

'They know that to do that they need to win the hearts and minds of the people, or at least allay their fears.

'We've all heard orders from their high command stating that women will be allowed to work and girls to go to school, but that's very different from the way the Taliban have behaved in the past. The proof will be whether they continue to maintain that position over the next few weeks and months, or revert to their old ways.'

Meanwhile, MailOnline received a heartfelt video plea from a young Afghan student outlining her fears for the days ahead.

Kabul University student Rukhsar, 22, said; 'I am disheartened by the recent situation and advance of the Taliban because I have been sitting at home and worrying about my future.

'I have dreamed of doing a lot of things in my life but now everything has been stopped suddenly. 'Everything has changed in a flash of light.'

She added: 'I don't know about my future now and the international community have turned their faces away from us. This is our right to go to university and to do work in the offices.'

Mujahid also confirmed the Taliban's intention to form a government, and made assurances that its shape will be announced once it has been completed.

'Afghanistan will have a strong Islamic government,' he said. 'What the name and makeup will be, let's leave that to political leaders. I can assure you it will have strong Islamic values.'

When asked by a reporter whether the Taliban would renounce terrorist group Al-Qaeda, Mujahid answered evasively, saying the group would not permit foreign fighters to use Afghanistan 'against anybody'.

'I would like to assure the international community that nobody will be harmed,' Mujahid said from the former government's media information centre in Kabul, speaking into a row of microphones.

'We do not want to have any problems with the international community,' he added, before defending the Taliban's right to 'act according to our religious principles.'

'Other countries have different approaches, rules and regulations... the Afghans have the right to have their own rules and regulations in accordance with our values.'

The spokesman suggested that the Taliban intended to put the last 20 years behind them, claiming that the group is 'not going to revenge anybody, we do not have grudges against anybody'.

'We want to make sure Afghanistan is not the battlefield of conflict anymore. We want to grant amnesty to those who have fought against us,' he said.

He described the Taliban's '20 year struggle for freedom, emancipating the country form occupation,' and said of the recent incursion: 'This was our right, we have achieved our right, I would like to thank God for bringing us to this stage.'

There have also been concerns that the Taliban would restrict media and journalists within the country. Mujahid also attempted to allay those fears in Tuesdays conference.

'I would like to assure the media that we are committed to the media within our cultural frameworks', Mujahid said. 'Private media can continue to be free and independent.

'Islam is very important in our country... Therefore Islamic values should be taken into account when it comes to the media, to developing your programmes.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid answers press members questions as he holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan

The same group of women started protesting this morning, demanding the extremist group does not 'eliminate' women from society but were not approached by Taliban fighters until the afternoon

'Impartiality of the media is very important, they can critique our work so that we can improve. But the media should not work against us', he added.

Mujahid put particular emphasis on people being safe under the new Taliban regime, and that thing would be different from over two decades ago.

'In your homes, nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to be interrogated or chased, those who have knocked on doors to inspect houses are abusers, they are going to be pursued and investigated,' he said.

'Thousands of soldiers who fought us for 20 years, after the end of occupation, they have been pardoned. Those who are at the airport waiting, when they come back to their homes, they will be safe... we want to give them confidence.'

The Taliban's spokesman said that the group has pardoned everybody for the stability and peace of Afghanistan,' and said any harm caused in the recent incursion was 'one of the side effects of conflict'.

'A huge occupying force was defeated, it was impossible for us to emancipate the country, without injuries, without harms, without hurts.

'Animosities have come to an end, we want to live peacefully, we don't want any internal enemies or external enemies.'

Mujahid said that the country was at a 'historic stage', with consultation over the creation of the new 'inclusive' government to be completed soon. He also said that while there had been some riots involving people who 'wanted to abuse the situation,' he assured Kabul's residents they would be protected.

He also signalled the Taliban might invite countries to return to their embassies after frantic efforts were made in the last few days by many western countries to embassy evacuate staff from the city.

'The security of embassies is crucially important to us. The areas where there are embassies will have complete security,' he said.

Despite the obvious PR campaign, terrified families in Kabul today handed red and white roses to the Taliban fighters who have taken their city - as they desperately tried to build bridges with them.

Footage of the men and boys approaching the armed members showed them handing the symbolic coloured flowers.

In Afghani culture red roses symbolise friendship, while the white blooms mean forgiveness.

Ironically the flowers were nearly wiped out during the last Taliban regime when gardens were left neglected.

The handing of the roses was a last gamble of families in Kabul who are anxiously waiting to see how rule under the Islamists will look.

With little else to urge compassion from them, mothers and fathers are hoping the gesture will encourage mercy.

The peaceful act is in stark contrast to the actions of Taliban fighters marauding the capital city.

They have been targeting pro-West men and women and knocking on doors to take them away.
Close to 50 million current, former and prospective T-Mobile customers had their names, social security numbers, and IDs stolen by a 'bad actor' who snaked into the company's system and allegedly posted the data for sale on an 'underground forum.'

T-Mobile first announced the breach Monday, saying that they had closed the 'entry point' used to gain access to the system, but the extent of the exposure was not known until Tuesday.

About 7.8 million current customers and 40 million former or prospective customers who applied for credit with the carrier had their sensitive information stolen, T-Mobile said in a statement.

Another 850,000 active prepaid customer had just their names, phone numbers and account PINs exposed.

Close to 50 million T-Mobile users had their data potentially exposed in a data breach

The information includes names, social security numbers and drivers' licenses

None of the stolen files include financial information like debit or credit cards, T-Mobile said, and no Metro by T-Mobile, former Sprint prepaid or Boost customers had their names or PINs exposed.

Motherboard reported that a hacker was selling a subset of the data with 30 million customers' Social Security numbers and drivers' licenses for six Bitcoin, or $270,000.

'I think they already found out because we lost access to the backdoored servers,' the seller said.

The seller advertised the data as: 'T-Mobile USA. Full customer info.'

The breach was announced Monday, but the extent of it was not known until Tuesday

Data breaches are a top concern for major companies in the US, with ransomware attacks against hospitals and other companies that store highly sensitive information increasing in recent years.

The Biden administration has made protecting the country from cyberattacks a 'top priority.'

'All organizations must recognize that no company is safe from being targeted by ransomware, regardless of size or location,' said Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, in an open letter to the private sector on June 2.

'Ransomware attacks have disrupted organizations around the world, from hospitals across Ireland, Germany and France, to pipelines in the United States and banks in the UK. The threats are serious and they are increasing.'

Colonial, the nation's largest fuel pipeline, paid $4.4 million to Darkside after a ransomware attack in May. Above, fuel holding tanks at Colonial Pipeline's station in Washington, DC

Vehicles waited in lines at a Costco in Raleigh, North Carolina on May 13. Fuel headaches continued for motorists in the South even after the Colonial Pipeline restarted operations

In May, the 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline was disrupted by a ransomware attack.

The pipeline runs from Houston, Texas through the southeastern US, carrying about 45 percent of all fuel consumed in the East Coast.

The pipeline paid a ransom of $4.4 million in Bitcoin to the criminal hacking group Darkside.

The Department of Justice eventually recovered $2.3 million, or 63.7 Bitcoin, from the group, according to CNN.

Also in May, Irish hospitals were reduced to pen and paper after the Conti ransomware group got a hold of the country's health service system and asked for $20 million, according to the BBC.

The group eventually handed over access to the hospitals' systems for free, but threatened to 'sell or publish a lot of private data' if they didn't get the money.

The US subsidiary of the German telecom giant is headed by CEO and president Mike Sievert (left). John Legere (right) stepped down as CEO in April 2020

T-Mobile US, a subsidiary of the German telecom giant, finalized a deal to buy Sprint for $26 billion in 2020, leaving T-Mobile as the surviving brand - meaning former Sprint customers are likely included in the breach.

'Late last week we were informed of claims made in an online forum that a bad actor had compromised T-Mobile systems,' the carrier said Tuesday.

'We immediately began an exhaustive investigation into these claims and brought in world-leading cybersecurity experts to help with our assessment.'

T-Mobile will publish a website to help its customers protect themselves from the breach later on Wednesday.

Risk Based Security identifies the health care sector as the most hacked in the first half of 2021. Names and social security numbers were the most sought after

In the meantime, the company is urging its customers to change their PINs online or by phone.

They are also offering two years of free identity protection services from McAfee's ID Theft Protection.

Almost 19 billion records were exposed worldwide in the first half of 2021, according to an analysis by Virginia-based cybersecurity firm Risk Based Security.

The healthcare sector accounted for most of the breaches, followed by the finance and insurance sector and information sector.

'As ransomware gained in popularity, the targeting of credit card data began to drop off. This can be seen in the leveling off of breaches in the retail space and the increase of incidents in the manufacturing space - a sector especially sensitive to downtime,' the analysis said.
Former President Trump accused President Biden of 'leading lambs to slaughter' by abandoning Afghans to the Taliban in a Fox Business interview Wednesday morning, and said his successor's handling of the military withdrawal makes his widely-criticized border crisis look like 'baby food.'

'If you think this ends yesterday night, that's just the beginning. The Taliban are tough and they're great negotiators. You have to get the people out of there,' Trump said. 'Can you imagine having your military go home and leaving all those people? That's called the lambs being led to slaughter.'

In his second TV interview in under 12 hours the former president unloaded on Biden's 'disaster' foreign policy and said he allowed the Taliban to take over Afghanistan 'in one day.'

'This is the most embarrassing moment in our country's history,' he raged.

When asked if the insurgent group's invasion of Kabul was a 'coup,' Trump again deflected to his political rival.

'This was a coup of incompetent people - unfortunately our leadership was the incompetent people.'

Trump also criticized Biden's handling of the worsening US southern border crisis on his watch, but said the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan 'is worse.'

'This makes the border look like baby food,' he said.

He unleashed similar attacks on Biden in his interview with Sean Hannity on Fox Tuesday night.

Trump unleashed on Biden in his second Fox interview in 12 hours. He spoke with Fox News's Sean Hannity on Tuesday night and Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday morning

President Biden flew back to the White House from Camp David on Tuesday evening. His approval rating has plunged and the administration is in damage limitation mode as it deals with the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan. Biden did not call any foreign leader leaders until speaking with Britain's Boris Johnson on Tuesday afternoon

Trump slammed Biden for his 'disaster' foreign policy and said he would have conducted the Afghanistan evacuation differently

Biden was widely criticized for spending the weekend at Camp David rather than returning immediately to the White House as the Taliban closed in on the Afghan capital Kabul

He said Biden's bad policy decisions began 'when he was born.'

The former president has kept up a running commentary on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, condemning Biden's handling of the withdrawal and insisting he would have managed a safe, swift operation when the time was right.

Biden and his officials have in turn said their hands were tied by a deal struck with the Taliban by Trump.

'I had a very hard deal with them - it was conditions based,' Trump defended.

'I spoke to the boss, I spoke to the head man, and frankly I got along with him great.'

Trump said the Taliban were 'naturally tough' and 'have been fighting for 2,000 years' but blamed weakness on Biden's part for allowing their swift takeover.

'The president has the power through the presidency to do something very good, but we let them gain 19 steps out of 20,' he said.

Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul after the militant group took the city earlier this week. Trump called the Taliban 'great negotiators' and 'naturally tough'

Men try to help a wounded woman and her wounded child after Taliban fighters use guns fire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside the Kabul Airport for a way out

The Taliban turned on the crowd at Kabul airport on Tuesday, driving the hundreds back from the airport perimeter as they pushed to flee the country

Taliban fighters patrol Kabul after sweeping through the country and seizing the Afghan capital within days. Biden is under intense pressure to explain how it could have happened

He suggested the US should have 'bombed the hell out of' its military bases to prevent insurgents from taking US military technology.

'I frankly would've bombed every one of the forts,' Trump said.

Trump on Tuesday claimed he threatened to launch strikes against the chief Taliban negotiator's home village if insurgents failed to observe the terms of a peace deal, as he blasted President Biden's handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'It's not the concept of leaving,' he told Fox News anchor Sean Hannity.

'It's the way they withdrew. It was not even possible to believe.'

The former president said he made clear in negotiations with the insurgent group when he was in office that there would be consequences if Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's political chief, failed to stick to the terms of their deal.

'We had a very strong conversation,' he said.

Former President Trump condemned President Biden's handling of the Afghan withdrawal, as thousands of Americans await rescue from the country

'I told them upfront, I said: 'Look, before we start, let me just tell you right now that if anything bad happens to Americans or anybody else, or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before, a force so great that you won't even believe it, and your village, and we know where it is - and I named it - will be the first one.'

Biden stands by his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops and instead blamed Trump and Afghan leaders for the way the country collapsed

Baradar flew back to Afghanistan on Tuesday and is among the leading contenders to head the new government.

Trump's comments come after the Taliban - hours after they promised their rule would be 'moderate' - starting using whips and sharp objects to beat back Afghans crowded along the walls of Kabul airport.

One man was photographed with tears streaming down his cheeks, his face contorted in anguish as he saw his fellow Afghans being whipped.

Women were filmed reaching their hands through iron railings towards US troops while screaming 'the Taliban are coming' in footage being circulated on Afghan social media accounts this morning.

Meanwhile more footage revealed crowds hard up against concrete perimeter walls on the airport's military north side, with shots being fired over the heads of men, women and children to keep them back.

Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport - the only route out of Afghanistan for thousands of refugees stranded in the capital and nearby provinces - and are checking the documents of those trying to reach it.

Islamist fighters were funneling people towards a gate on the airport's civilian south side, demanding documents before occasionally allowing someone to pass. Each time the gate opened, dozens tried to rush inside - with gunshots fired to keep them back.

Afghan translators and other visa holders trying to reach the airport have told MailOnline that they are in hiding near the airport, afraid to break cover and try to reach the runway in case the Islamists haul them away.

Others who have braved the gates told of how they were crushed, trampled and molested amid the crowds - without making it on to a flight.

A man carries a bloodied child, as a woman lays wounded on the street after Taliban fighters use guns fire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside the Kabul Airport for a way out

A child covered in blood is carried away with his father after the Taliban used whips on the crowd trying to get in to Kabul airport on Tuesday

An Afghan woman is seen lying on the ground after the Taliban used whips and sharp objects to drive people from the airport

Crowds pictured outside Kabul airport on Wednesday morning, which is now the only viable route out of the country for thousands of refugees trapped in the capital

Taliban gunmen have surrounded the airport (pictured) with gunshots fired over the heads of arriving passengers, with British forces admitting that evacuations are only taking place with their 'consent'

Women were filmed pleading with US troops that the 'Taliban are coming' in footage that appeared to have been taken at Kabul airport this morning as thousands of desperate Afghans try to flee Islamist rule

The jihadists have been dubbed 'Taliban 2.0' for their media charm offensive in trying to persuade the world that they are 'moderate' compared to the Taliban of 20 years ago.

But reports today said militants were going door-to-door, rounding up looters and those who worked with the Afghan armed forces or government.

Exclusive video obtained by Fox News showed a convoy of Taliban fighters roaring down a street, then opening fire in Kabul looking for ex-government workers.

And the so-called 'Angels of Salvation' were dragging suspected robbers from their homes and lining them up against the walls with guns trained on them following looting.

One alleged car thief had his face covered in black tar before he was strapped to the back of truck with his hands tied behind his back and paraded through the city.

Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp.

A Taliban fighter whacks a boy across the back of the thighs as families cower under a bush

A fighter canes a boy who cowers with women and young children

An alleged looter is placed up against a wall with fighter training their guns on his back after he was dragged out of his house by the Islamist 'Angels of Salvation'

FALL OF KABUL: A TIMELINE OF THE TALIBAN'S FAST ADVANCE AFTER 40 YEARS OF CONFLICT Feb. 29, 2020 Trump negotiates deal with the Taliban setting U.S. withdrawal date for May 1, 2021 Nov. 17, 2020 Pentagon announces it will reduce troop levels to 2500 in Afghanistan Jan. 15, 2020 Inspector general reveals 'hubris and mendacity' of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan Feb 3. 2021 Afghan Study Group report warns against withdrawing 'irresponsibly' March Military command makes last-ditch effort to talk Biden out of withdrawal April 14 Biden announces withdrawal will be completed by Sept. 11 May 4 - Taliban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces May 11 - The Taliban capture Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country June 7 - Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces June 22 - Taliban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts July 2 - The U.S. evacuates Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night July 5 - The Taliban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August July 21 - Taliban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior U.S. general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance July 25 - The United States vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified airstrikes to help them counter Taliban attacks July 26 - The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009 Aug. 6 - Zaranj in the south of the country becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north Aug. 13 - Pentagon insists Kabul is not under imminent threat Aug. 14 - The Taliban take the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70 km (40 miles) south of Kabul. The United States sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps Aug. 15 - The Taliban take the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul Taliban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the United States evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter Advertisement

The Trump administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, last year.

It was meant to be a first step towards an overall deal between the insurgents and the Afghan government.

Critics say it simply paved the way for the U.S. departure while the Taliban never honored its part in splitting from al-Qaeda and simply waited for the international troops to leave.

Matt Lewis, conservative podcaster and author, said Trump's naivete in negotiating with the Taliban and an invitation to Camp David (hurriedly withdrawn) was the 'origin sin' in the disaster.

'I just think it is naive and hubristic to think that they would negotiate in good faith and honor their commitments,' he said.

The former president made his comments after another frantic day in Kabul, where the U.S. and allies continued emergency evacuations of diplomats and civilians.

American officials said they were in contact with Kabul's new rulers, who had promised safe passage for those trying to flee.

Trump said the U.S. had never suffered a worse humiliation, with thousands of 'potential hostages' stuck in the country.

'You can go back to Jimmy Carter with the hostages. We all thought that was a great embarrassment and we were pulled out of that by Ronald Reagan,' he said.

'This is a many many times worse and you're dealing with thousands and thousands of Americans and others that are stranded and very dangerously really stranded in Afghanistan.'

Biden had botched the withdrawal by failing to bring home civilians and billions of dollars in military hardware before U.S. troops left.

And he compared the chaotic scenes at the airport with the final 18 months of his presidency and his threat of punitive action.

'We lost no soldiers in the last year and a half because of me and because of the understanding that we had,' he said.

'Think of that, in Chicago, and in New York and in other cities in the United States, many people die every weekend.

'We lost no soldiers in Afghanistan, because they knew I wasn't going to put up with it, and that's what happened.'

He said he had no faith in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country at the weekend.

'I thought he was a crook and got away with murder,' he said.

'He spent all of this time wining and dining our senators. The senators were in his pocket.'

He also claimed he always knew that Afghan forces would melt away in the face of a Taliban assault.

'They were doing it for a paycheck, because once we stopped, once we left, they stopped fighting... So we were sort of bribing them to fight, and that's not what it's all about,' he said.

For all his anger, regional analysts insist both administrations erred: Trump in trusting the Taliban to abide by the peace deal and Biden in failing to predict such a rapid collapse of Afghan forces.

Lisa Curtis, an Afghanistan expert who served on Trump's National Security Council, said Biden should have reevaluated Trump's deal.

'I wouldn't call it a peace deal - I would call it more of a withdrawal deal, because I think the only thing the US really got out of it was an agreement by the Taliban not to shoot U.S. forces on their way out,' she said.

'We didn't get peace, and we didn't get a break with Al Qaeda.'

Despite criticism of his Afghan initiative, Trump has kept up a withering barrage as his successor faced his biggest foreign policy test so far.

Trump told Hannity he was not opposed to the withdrawal of U.S. troops. 'It's the way they withdrew. It was not even possible to believe,' he said

Mullah Baradar headed the Taliban's political office in Doha after being freed by Pakistan in 2018. He returned to country on Tuesday, arriving to a hero's welcome in Kandahar

Biden was forced to return to the White House on Monday after criticism that he stayed at Camp David at the weekend as the Afghan crisis unfolded

GOP Senator Rick Scott suggests invoking the 25th amendment Republican Senator Rick Scott has proposed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Joe Biden from office amid the Afghanistan crisis. He questioned on Monday whether Biden should be removed for mental incompetence after the shambolic scenes in Afghanistan. 'After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?' he wrote. Scott's echoes recent statements from former President Donald Trump, who has said Biden should step down after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US troops. Advertisement

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump condemned chaotic scenes at Kabul's international airport as Afghans crowded the runway in search of a flight out.

'What took place yesterday in Afghanistan made our withdrawal from Vietnam look like childs play,' he said in an emailed statement referencing the fall of Saigon, when American diplomats had to be rescued from the roof of their embassy by helicopter.

'Perhaps in world history, there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously.

'A president who has been illegitimately elected has brought great shame, in many ways, to our Country!'

A day earlier he promised that his administration would have done things differently and mocked Biden's absence from Washington at the weekend.

He accused Biden of surrendering first to COVID-19 and then to the Taliban.

'The outcome in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal, would have been totally different if the Trump administration had been in charge,' he said.

'Who or what will Joe Biden surrender to next? Someone should ask him, if they can find him.'

In a sign of how dire the situation has become, White House spokesman Jen Psaki was forced to admit Tuesday that there is no guarantee that all US citizens and visa holders will be able to leave the country before troops pull out on August 31.

'Our focus right now is on the task at hand, and that is day by day getting as many American citizens, SIV applicants, as many of the vulnerable population who are eligible to be evacuated to the airport and out on planes,' she told a press conference.

Pictured: Taliban fighters on a pick-up truck move around a market area, flocked with local Afghan people at the Kote Sangi area of Kabul on August 17, 2021, after Taliban seized control of the capital following the collapse of the Afghan government

Pictured: Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban, speaks during a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. For years, Mujahid had been a shadowy figure issuing statements on behalf of the militants

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid answers questions as he holds a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan. The

Chaos and fear spread at Kabul's airport on August 16th as hundreds of people try to flee the Taliban

Biden has said his hands were tied by Trump's February 2020 deal with the Taliban, a deal which left out the Afghan government and promised US troops would withdraw if the Taliban agreed not to attack US forces or harbor terrorists such as Al Qaeda.

The Taliban deal was meant to set the stage for a second peace deal, between the Taliban and the Kabul government.

But experts said the Trump deal had alienated the Kabul government, particularly over an agreement to free 5000 Taliban prisoners. Afghan officials said they were blindsided by the promise and feared the prisoners would return to the battlefield.

Kabul was unhappy with some aspects of the deal, including freeing 5000 Taliban prisoners amid fears they would simply return to the battlefield.

Biden extended Trump's initial May 1st deadline for a full military withdrawal.

But Trump said the problem was not leaving, it was the manner in which it was done.

'Can anyone even imagine taking out our military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our country and who should be allowed to seek refuge?

'In addition, these people left topflight and highly sophisticated equipment,' he said. 'Who can believe such incompetence?'
The woman whose viral video captured a man dangling from the bar of a chairlift ride just moments before he plummeted 50 feet to his death said she tried in vain to stop the ride after noticing he 'didn't have any equipment that would save him from a fall.'

'I thought it was a stunt, or he is a gymnast practicing for American Ninja Warrior, rehearsing,' said Lucy Grace Astilla, who was at Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmington, Utah, where the tragedy unfolded Saturday.

Astilla was taking aerial footage from the Sky Ride with her husband when he saw the man hanging from the cable car - facing forward - traveling in the opposite direction, she told Fox 13.

'When my husband and I started to ride in that car, I was inspired to open my phone to take videos,' she told DailyMail.com on Wednesday. 'I was not expecting [a] scene like this.'

She could be heard in the video asking, 'Why is he doing it like that?' as she pans over to the man, who is clutching the safety bar as it crossed above a fountain surrounded by people, many of whom stopped and pointed up at the man.

But the realization dawned quickly that he 'didnt have any equipment that would save him from a fall,' she told Gephart Daily





She said she started trembling as she noticed him struggling to keep his grip.

Astilla then yelled for the operator to stop the ride as her cable car returned to the station, she said, which they did - but it was already too late. She heard people screaming nearby.

At first, she assumed the roars were coming from riders on a nearby roller coaster, she said, but soon she learned the grim truth: The screaming was because the man fell.

'I felt so numb, trembling and so sad,' she said.

She rushed over to the scene and saw several people try to help the 32-year-old man, with first responders quickly arriving at the scene.

Lucy Grace Astilla was taking aerial footage of Lagoon Amusement Park when her husband noticed a man traveling in the opposite direction of the Sky Ride was dangling from the safety bar of his seat. She said she assumed it was a stunt until she realized he did not have any equipment on him and asked the operators to stop the ride

A man was filmed hanging from the Sky Ride at Lagoon Amusement Park in Utah Saturday night, appearing calm as he did not appear to make any effort to get back into the chair. But just a few minutes later, police said, he plummeted 50 feet to the ground

Police said they received multiple calls just before 6 p.m. that night that the man had fallen from the ride, which transports guests from one side of the park to the other.

Officers and paramedics promptly arrived on the scene to render medical aid, they said, before ultimately deciding to airlift him to the University of Utah hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.

Farmington police announced the unidentified parkgoer's death on Monday and said the man was at the park with his family, although he was riding the cable car alone.

His family has reportedly asked authorities not to release his name.

Astilla's video appears to show the man climbing out of his seat

In Astilla's video, the man could be seen apparently climbing out of his seat as she points her camera down towards the water fountain before panning around to take in the scene.

She quickly turns the camera back to him as her husband starts talking next to her.

The man did not seem to be struggling to get back on the ride, and instead appeared calm as the seat he was dangling from passed by Astilla's camera.

As he vanished into the distance, Astilla could be heard saying: 'It's crazy.'

Mystery still surrounds how the man ended up over the side of the ride, and whether he let go of the bar deliberately, or fell after being unable to climb back in. An investigation is ongoing.

Both police and Lagoon officials said it did not appear the ride malfunctioned.

A toxicology tests will be conducted as part of an autopsy, and officials said it does not appear his fall was intentional.

'We don't know why he did that or what was going on,' Farmington Police Chief Wayne Hansen told KSL. 'We just don't know.'

Horrified families looked on as he passed by on the Sky Ride

Authorities have concluded the Sky Ride (pictured) did not malfunction while he was on it

Lagoon officials are cooperating with the investigation, noting that the Sky Ride has operated without incident since it was first installed in 1974

Police said they have checked the safety bar on the seat he was in and concluded it was working properly at the time the man was seen hanging from his seat.

'That's part of what we checked and it was functioning as it should,' Hansen told the Standard-Examiner. 'It would appear he did something to get around that.'

All of the rides are checked everyday and have safety information 'either printed or said verbally,' Adam Leishman, a spokesman for Lagoon, told Fox 13, adding in a statement to the Standard-Examiner: 'Our hearts go out to that man's family and friends, and our guests and our employees that witnessed the incident.'

For Astilla, she told DailyMail.com, it took her three nights before she could once again sleep - as she wondered whether the man would still be alive if he had someone to ride with.

'I do pray this would be the first time and the last time' an incident like this occurs, she said.

The Sky Ride has operated without incident since it was first installed at the park in 1974, Leishman noted.

The man's death was the first one at the park since the 1980s, when two separate fatal incidents saw a teenage girl fall to her death from a roller coaster, while a toddler was crushed on the Puff the Magic Dragon ride, according to the Standard-Examiner.
Covid-ravaged New South Wales is on track to start racking up more than 2,000 cases a day if current infection rates continue, with seemingly no end in sight to the state's gruelling lockdown.

The Delta variant's reproductive rate has shot up to 1.3, as dozens of exposure sites are recorded across regional areas including a busy Kmart, five Woolworths and two Aldi supermarkets.

There were three deaths and a record 633 infections on Wednesday, up from 452 cases the day before, with the massive jump sparking fears the worst is still to come.

The R-rate is now 1.3, meaning every 10 people who catch the devastating respiratory illness will pass it on to another 13.

If the alarming figure triggering exponential growth stays the same, one of Australia's top virus experts, James McCaw, has warned there will be 2,000 daily cases within four weeks.

Worryingly, these predictions are not based on modelling showing worst or best case scenarios, but are made using simple maths based on the current 1.3 R-rate.

Covid-ravaged New South Wales is on track to start racking up over 2,000 cases a day, as the Delta variant's reproductive rate skyrockets (pictured, Sydneysiders in lockdown on Wednesday)

At the moment the R-rate is now 1.3, meaning every 10 people who catch the devastating respiratory illness will pass it on to another 13 (pictured, Bronte Beach in Sydney's east)

The University of Melbourne professor, who advises the federal government on its coronavirus response, said the rate at which infections are picking up pace is 'deeply concerning'.

'It could go lower too. Our models show the possibility of increases and decreases, but I think it's more likely to be well over 1,000 and up to 2,000 within a month or so,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Using the 1.3 reproduction figure, NSW will see 2,278 daily cases on average by September 17, with more than 1,000 expected by September 2.

If the R-rate were to drop slightly to 1.2, a five-day rolling average by September 17 would be a slightly healthier 1,409.

An R-rate of 1.1 would see the average daily cases by the same date reach a far more manageable 836.

NSW Health are not only scrambling to get on top of the ever-growing outbreak, but also to prepare for the huge influx of positive cases that may need to be hospitalised.

At the centre of those concerns are a staggering 3,803 mystery cases that are yet to be linked to a source.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the worst was yet to come for Sydneysiders as the state recorded by far the highest daily rise in cases during the Covid-19 pandemic to date

In order to free up staff and hospital capacity, the NSW Ministry of Health made the shock move to cancel almost all surgeries in the state's private hospitals.

Under the 'special conditions' order only 'emergency' procedures will be allowed to go ahead from August 23.

Similar non-urgent surgeries have already been halted in public hospitals.

It comes just days after NSW Health admitted they have all but given up on listing exposure venues in virus-plagued Sydney.

Instead, health officials will concentrate on public alerts in regional areas and venues in the Harbour City deemed 'high-risk'.

Triggering fear are a staggering 3803 mystery Covid cases that are yet to be linked to their source (pictured, police assist NSW Health staff at a Covid vaccination clinic at Olympic Park on Wednesday)

NSW Health are not only scrambling to get on top of the ever-growing outbreak, but also to prepare for the huge influx of positive cases that may need to be hospitalised (pictured, Sydney on Wednesday)

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters the R-rate will need to drop below 1 before any improvements can be made in the case numbers.

She desperately reiterated her daily message on Wednesday morning calling on NSW residents to stay at home and abide by the state's harsh lockdown measures which are now in their eighth week in Sydney.

'Every person is passing on the virus to more than one person, so we are continuing to see case numbers increase,' she said.

'You might have one person who has connections across three households, but in each of those households you've got tens of people. And we know that household transmission for Covid is so common.'

Sydneysiders line up in Bankstown to get vaccinated against Covid-19 on Wednesday (pictured) - one of the city's virus hotspots

A long queue of people is seen lining up to vaccinated against Covid at Bankstown in Sydney on Wednesday (pictured) - with the area suffering a worrying influx of Covid cases

Of the 633 new cases, about 550 are young people and workers in Sydney's areas of concern in the west and southwestern suburbs where transmission of the virus to household contacts remains the leading cause of infections.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian specifically called out residents in Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn, Greenacre, Yagoona, St Marys and Strathfield, urging them to 'stay at home' and not visit other households.

'Stay at home. Don't break the rules, everybody knows what they mean. Just a small number of people are choosing to ignore what the rules are,' she said.

Her warning for Sydneysiders comes as dozens of venues throughout regional NSW were flagged by NSW Health as exposure sites.

A long list of businesses were issued with public health alerts in far west NSW's town of Dubbo, including a day spa, corner store and a gym.

Dubbo Kmart (pictured) was among dozens of venues in the far west town exposed to the virus

Dubbo Aldi (pictured) was issued a public health alert after being flagged as a Covid exposure site

Anyone who visited Dubbo's Itty Bitty Spa on Tuesday August 10 between 9:30am to 5:30pm is considered a close contact and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days.

The same goes for anyone who attended Dubbo Myall St Mini Mart on August 13 between 2:15pm to 2:30pm and gym-goers at Dubbo Snap Fitness on August 10 from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.

Meanwhile, five Woolworths supermarkets at Albion Park, Broken Hill, Shell Cove, Dubbo's Orana Mall and Dubbo Riverdale Shopping Centre, were issued casual alerts.

That means anyone who attended during the times listed by NSW Health must immediately get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.

It's the same story for shoppers at Broken Hill Coles, Dubbo and Edgeworth Aldi, and Kmart, also in Dubbo.

Albion Park Woolworths (pictured) near Shellharbour was flagged as a Covid exposures site

Australian Defence Force personnel assist NSW Police with Food Bank deliveries in Dubbo, NSW on August 18, 2021
China today threatened to 'crush' any US troops stationed on Taiwan as it conducts live fire drills in the South China Sea after Joe Biden abandoned Afghanistan.

An editorial in the regime-backed Global Times lashed out at a since-deleted tweet by Senator John Cornyn which erroneously stated there were 30,000 American soldiers stationed in Taiwan.

The bombastic propaganda article said that if Sen. Cornyn's claim was true this 'is equivalent to a military invasion and occupation of the Taiwan Province of China. It is an act of declaring war on the People's Republic of China.'

It added that China would 'destroy and expel US troops in Taiwan by any means and realize reunification by force.'

Backing up this fiery rhetoric, Beijing dispatched warships and fighter jets for drills off Taiwan on Tuesday in its latest show of strength to Washington.

Although China is the dominant power in east Asia, many of its neighbours like Taiwan and Japan look to the US as their closest military partner. Beijing, therefore, revels in anything which undermines Washington's credibility.

Chinese state media pumped out the images of desperate Afghans flooding Kabul airport in an effort to flee on Monday as a sign of the chaos prompted by the US retreat.

A nuclear-powered Type 094A Jin-class ballistic missile submarine of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is seen during a military display in the South China Sea in April 2018 (file photo)

Beijing has announced plans for a new airport on reclaimed land near Taiwan amid rising tension across the Strait

Chinese state media pumped out the images of desperate Afghans flooding Kabul airport in an effort to flee on Monday as a sign of the chaos prompted by the US retreat.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's Communist propaganda has been hammering Joe Biden for his disastrous retreat from Afghanistan

On Tuesday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Washington had left 'an awful mess of unrest, division and broken families' in Afghanistan.

'America's strength and role is destruction, not construction.'

State media has peddled the idea that America's rush from Afghanistan reflects its fair-weather attitude to all allies - including in Taiwan, which seeks strength from Washington's security guarantee as it defies Beijing.

Biden, hammered over the disorderly retreat, has defended the withdrawal saying China and Russia would 'love nothing more' than his country to have continued to sink resources into the Afghanistan quagmire.

But Beijing now perhaps senses any opportunity to seize the impetus in the region with the US licking its wounds over its calamitous foreign policy decision to quit Afghanistan.

Warships, anti-submarine aircraft and fighter jets took part in the live fire drills in an undisclosed location off Taiwan on Tuesday.

People's Liberation Army spokesman Shi Yi called it a 'necessary activity in response to the recent situation in the Taiwan Strait.'

It follows recent passages by US and European military vessels through the disputed waters in the South China Sea.

An editorial in the regime-backed Global Times lashed out at a since-deleted tweet by Senator John Cornyn which erroneously stated there were 30,000 American soldiers stationed in Taiwan

Earlier this month, the Biden administration approved a $750 million arms deal with Taiwan that included 40 M109 self-propelled howitzers and 1,700 kits to convert missiles into GPS-guided projectiles.

However, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen said today that the country needed to be 'stronger and more united' in ensuring its own defence following the chaos in Kabul.

The sudden departure of US troops has sparked discussion in Taiwan as to whether the US can be relied upon to come to Taipei's defence.

Tsai addressed those concerns directly in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

'Recent changes in the situation in Afghanistan have led to much discussion in Taiwan,' she wrote.

'I want to tell everyone that Taiwan's only option is to make ourselves stronger, more united and more resolute in our determination to protect ourselves.'

Tsai stressed that Taiwan should practice self-reliance.

'It's not an option for us to do nothing on our own and just to rely on other people's protection,' she said in the post.

She also said Taipei cannot rely on 'momentary goodwill or charity of those who will not renounce the use of force against Taiwan' in a clear reference to Beijing.

China has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure since Tsai's 2016 election, as she sees Taiwan as 'already independent' and not part of its 'one China'.

But analysts say that Afghanistan and Taiwan are not easy comparisons.

'(Taiwan) is a core interest for the US in that it is a well-functioning democracy, loyal ally, (with) a capable military and directly standing up to America's most important competitor,' Robert Kelly, an international relations expert at Pusan National University, wrote on Twitter.

'Afghanistan was on the fringe of US interests. A better analogue... is Israel.'

Meanwhile, Beijing is mulling its own options in the Middle East where it shares a land border with Afghanistan into eastern Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim-majority Uyghurs.

Around a fortnight before the Islamists seized power in a lightning offensive that stunned the world, Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted a Taliban delegation in Beijing.

And just one day after the Taliban entered Kabul, China said it was ready to deepen 'friendly and cooperative' relations with Afghanistan.

While Beijing says it has no desire to direct any future political settlement in Kabul, it appears to have scented opportunity to press its Belt and Road interests as the US pulls out.

As power transitions to the Taliban, Beijing has a few key demands, said Hua Po, an independent political analyst in Beijing.

'The first is to protect China's investments and ensure security of Chinese nationals,' he says.

A representative of Chinese state media mocked the U.S.'s withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the Taliban takeover was smoother than the presidential transition earlier this year

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, which is state-run media, is known to troll the U.S. in tweets

A Taliban fighter is captured outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday

Supporters of President Donald Trump invade the U.S. Capitol on January 6, as Congress was certifying the results of President Joe Biden's election

'Second, it is necessary to cut off relations with East Turkestan (Xinjiang) separatists and not let them return to Xinjiang.'

But pragmatism appears to be prevailing over ideology towards a group whose religious doctrines have in the past left China queasy.

And the Taliban appear to have understood that if they want good relations with China, they will have to leave China's Muslims - whose plight is a rallying cause for Islamists worldwide - alone.

A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Naeem, has vowed that 'Afghanistan's soil would not be used against any country's security.'

In China, state media has buffed up the potential of driving major economic schemes under the new regime, from the Aynak Copper Mine project - Afghanistan's largest copper deposit, and the world's second-largest - to the northern oil fields of Faryab and Sar-i-pul.

Beijing-backed firms have already pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into rights to mine and build, but extreme insecurity has iced most of the plans.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's generous lithium deposits - the country has been dubbed the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium' - have manufacturers of electric vehicles which run on the mineral licking their lips.

And China is the worlds largest EV maker.

Hu also touted the Chinese policy of 'non-interference' in a Monday tweet

Hu also tweeted that Taiwan's democratic government should look to Afghanistan as an example and rejoin mainland China, a communist nation, because it wouldn't have the help of the United States

The Taliban, who stand to benefit hugely from building ties with Beijing, 'look forward to China's participation in the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan,' foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Monday.

'We welcome this,' she said.

China's embassy in Kabul remains operational, although Beijing began evacuating Chinese citizens from the country months ago as security deteriorated.' -

Afghanistan has for centuries been a cauldron of big power aspirations in central Asia - many of which have eventually run aground.

While the Taliban are trying to rebrand as a more moderate force than during their first brutal hardline incarnation, they remain an unpredictable entity leading a volatile country.

'China knows this history, and they know that this is a government that they are not going to entirely trust,' said Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore who specialises in Afghanistan.

And that makes a hasty investment drive unlikely, he said.

'Why is it suddenly a more attractive prospect now, when you have a less stable situation with a government that is not immensely reliable?'

'I don't foresee Chinese companies saying 'let's go and mine some lithium' especially in some parts of the country that are still very dangerous,' Pantucci added.
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled with $169million in his cash-stuffed helicopter and has been given asylum in Dubai on 'humanitarian grounds', it has emerged.

Ghani fled the country on Sunday night as the Taliban encircled the capital - saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed - capping a military victory that saw them capture all cities in just 10 days.

He made a snap decision to leave Afghanistan on Sunday and did so without assistance from the US, a presidential palace bodyguard told Fox News.

The decision, made in a matter of minutes, came after last ditch negotiations with Taliban leaders in Qatar to avoid bloodshed as the group surrounded Kabul on Sunday.

Joe Biden had spent the weeks before backing Ghani's government, despite warnings from his intelligence community questioning whether he and his army would fight in the absence of US support.

The source claimed Ghani's decision to leave Afghanistan likely prevented fighting in the streets of the capital.

The former president took with him four cars and a helicopter loaded with bags of cash - but was forced to leave some of the money behind as it would not all fit on the flight.

Earlier reports said Ghani had fled to Uzbekistan, citing Russian Embassy sources. It was also claimed to former president had flown to Tajikistan, but diverted to Oman when officials in Dushanbe refused him permission to land.



But the United Arab Emirates said today that it was hosting Afghan president Ashraf Ghani in Dubai 'on humanitarian grounds'.

Meanwhile Afghanistan's Vice President Amrullah Saleh has stayed in the country and retreated to his hometown in the Panjshir Valley - the only region the Taliban have not conquered - and is massing troops to resist the militants.

The Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan, which reportedly refused Ghani refuge, has removed the former president's picture and replaced it with Saleh.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani fled to Dubai with $169m worth of cash as the Taliban completed their lightning conquest of the country, it has emerged

The Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan, which reportedly refused Ghani refuge, has removed the former president's picture and replaced it with Vice President Amrullah Saleh

The UAE said in a statement: 'The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds'.

This is not be the first time that the oil-rich Gulf country opens its arms to former leaders and their relatives, now persona non grata in their country.

In 2017, the emirate of Dubai hosted former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.

Spain's king Juan Carlos went into self-exile in the UAE in August last year as questions mounted over the origins of his fortune, and the UAE was Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's home during her eight years in exile before she was assassinated in her home country in 2007.

It comes as scenes of chaos at Kabul's Hamid Karzai airport continued for a third day as thousands of Afghans try to flee the country before the Taliban impose their rule.

Crowds at Kabul's airport today were forcibly dispersed by militants who fired shots in the air and used whips and sharp objects to force thousands of Afghans away from the site.

And evacuation flights were taking off almost empty after the Taliban formed a ring of steel around the site and barred most people from reaching it.

The extremists insist they have changed and won't impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating women's rights, carrying out public executions and harboring al-Qaida in the years before the 9/11 attacks.

But many Afghans remain deeply skeptical, and the violent response to Wednesday's protest could only fuel their fears.

Thousands are racing to the borders to flee the country. Many others are hiding inside their homes, fearful after prisons and armories were emptied during the insurgents' blitz across the country.

Pictured: Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, August 15, 2021

Russia said at the time the collapse of Ghani's government was 'most eloquently characterised' by the way the former president fled the country.

Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, said: 'Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac'.

Ischenko, the Russian embassy spokesman, confirmed his comments to Reuters.

He cited 'witnesses' as the source of his information. Reuters could not independently confirm the veracity of his account immediately.

President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said it was unclear how much money the fleeing government would leave behind.

'I hope the government that has fled did not take all the money from the state budget. It will be the bedrock of the budget if something is left,' Kabulov told Moscow's Ekho Moskvy radio station.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Ghani said he had left the country to avoid clashes with the Taliban that would endanger millions of Kabul residents.

'Dear countrymen!' he wrote. 'Today, I came across a hard choice; I should stand to face the armed Taliban who wanted to enter the palace or leave the dear country that I dedicated my life to protecting and protecting the past twenty years.

'If there were still countless countrymen martyred and they would face the destruction and destruction of Kabul city, the result would have been a big human disaster in this six million city.

'The Taliban have made it to remove me, they are here to attack all Kabul and the people of Kabul. In order to avoid the bleeding flood, I thought it was best to get out.'

Some social media users branded Ghani, who did not disclose his location, a coward for leaving them in chaos.

'The Taliban have won with the judgement of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honour, property and self-preservation of their countrymen,' Ghani said after fleeing.
A specialist sexual assault counsellor is to be hired by St Andrews University after it was rocked by a series of claims of campus 'rape culture' last year.

The new post will be supported by Fife Rape and Sexual Assault Centre to support students who report allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

It comes after dozens of survivors spoke out about their experience of sexual violence on campus during their time at the Fife university.

It was previously revealed that some 47 cases of sexual assault and harassment have been recorded by the university in the last four years.

Many allegations were shared anonymously via an Instagram account called St Andrews Survivors and were directed at the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) society - a US style fraternity based at the university.

St Andrews University is hiring a specialist sex abuse counsellor to offer support to victims of rape, sexual assault and harassment on campus after it faced claims of a campus rape culture

According to its bio, the St Andrews Survivors account aims 'to expose the reality of sexual abuse at our university' and 'empower survivors'.

Announcing the new post, which will see someone based on campus 3.5 days each week, a university spokesperson said it would allow students to access expert support.

'The new position will allow students the flexibility to seek support from the university counselling team and the expertise of the Frasac sexual violence counselling specialist.

According to its bio, the St Andrews Survivors account aims 'to expose the reality of sexual abuse at our university' and 'empower survivors'

'Our student counsellors are trained by Rape Crisis Scotland, and our counselling and wellbeing service is accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Psychological Society.

'Universities now face the immense challenge of simultaneously educating students about consent, while creating an environment in which they can come forward to disclose sexual violence and know that they will be listened to, supported and looked after,' they told one newspaper.

The St Andrews Survivors page says in its bio that it aims 'to expose the reality of sexual abuse at our university and empower survivors'.

The latest allegation was shared three weeks ago and was captioned 'Story #286'.

One anonymous post shared on the page said: 'I was out drinking and had met a frat boy through friends. I had a meltdown outside The Union and he comforted me, I explained that I had been sexually assaulted on another night out.

'He offered to take me to his for some water since he lived nearby and I didn't. I was very drunk and so he put me to bed and he was going to sleep on the floor.

'I woke up sometime later and he was in the bed with me feeling me up. I can't believe anyone could do this.'

St Andrews University bosses have previously rejected claims that reports of rape and sexual assault were poorly handled.

The university says it faces 'the immense challenge of simultaneously educating students about consent, while creating an environment in which they can come forward to disclose sexual violence and know that they will be listened to and supported' (stock photo)

In a recent BBC documentary, two former St Andrews students accused the university of making mistakes in the handling of their complaints as they revealed their experiences.

One student featured in the documentary, known as 'Megan', told how she decided not to proceed with her complaints after being asked questions she thought were accusatory or victim-blaming.

'She asked how much alcohol I had last night and just when I stated what had happened, I felt that her response was pretty hopeless sounding.

'The woman that I was working with is not to blame, it's just a very bureaucratic system,' Megan told the BBC's Disclosure programme.

But the university stated there was 'documentary proof' the claims are 'without foundation'.

The university accused the BBC programme of 'selective reporting', with a spokesperson saying: 'We categorically refute the allegations of poor handling' made by the BBC and have documentary proof that they are without foundation.

'We also know the BBC dismissed the testimony of a rape survivor who wished to talk positively about university support, and ignored others who expressed a similar view.'

They added: 'We will continue to work with our students to understand what may be missing in the application of policy and safeguards and to create an environment in which all survivors trust and believe that we care deeply.'

Several of the claims which surfaced over the last year were made against members of a US-style fraternity the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) society.

The worldwide society has a chapter of around 50 men who are members in St Andrews.

The St Andrews chapter of AEPi introduced 'mandatory consent education' for those joining as a result of the allegations.
A married Met Police inspector, 43, hanged himself after having an affair when he was struggling to cope with pressures from his job as the head of a knife crime taskforce, an inquest has heard.

Paul Davey, 43, was found by police at his flat in Horsham, West Sussex, after his wife of 20 years, Laura, called for help when she couldn't get in touch with him on March 27.

The police inspector was promoted to being the head of one of London's violent crime taskforces but started to show signs of burnout in 2019, Mrs Davey told the inquest.

She said it was around this time that her husband started having an affair and 'did not feel like his usual self'.

The inquest was told that as the stress of the role, which was based in Croydon, Surrey, began to take its toll on him, he began to express suicidal thoughts.

Paul Davey (pictured), 43, was found by police at his flat in Horsham, West Sussex, after his wife of 20 years, Laura, called for help when she couldn't get in touch with him on March 2

He had also recently reported taking a step back in his mental health and was judged to be high risk.

Mrs Davey added: 'In June 2020 he told me that while he was out on a cycle ride on a busy road he started to think about going into the back of a lorry.

'He was diagnosed with depression and anxiety due to his work and his relationship difficulties.'

The hearing at West Sussex Coroner's Court was told Mr Davey referred himself for talking therapy.

The inquest heard that after a long period of sick leave from work Mr Davey was able to return to his job and felt that he was making such good progress that he discharged himself from some of the support services he was receiving.

After lengthy discussions with his wife he decided to move out of the family home in April 2020, leaving behind his two daughters.

Mrs Davey said: 'He moved into a flat while he decided whether to continue his relationship with the person who he had been having an affair with. In November or December, he decided to make a go of it.

'In February 2021, he came and stayed with me for a couple of weeks before going back to his flat. During that time, he talked about hanging himself.'

The hearing at West Sussex Coroner's Court (pictured) was told Mr Davey referred himself for talking therapy

Mrs Davey said that her husband had been active on WhatsApp on March 26 but she couldn't get in contact with him after 7.03am the following morning.

She then called police who broke their way into his flat and found him hanging.

The coroner heard that Mr Davey had left notes for his family and friends at his house.

A post-mortem examination carried out by Dr Mark Whittaker concluded that Mr Davey had died by hanging.

Talking to the coroner, Mrs Davey added: 'Paul just could not stop it, he would just catastrophise things. But, you would see him and you would just think things were fine.

'A lot of people have family problems and do not like their job but Paul just could not deal with it. He lost himself and at the end, it was like he had a personality transplant.

'It is just unbelievable that this has ended up happening because he was not that person.'

Concluding the inquest, Ms Milner said: 'I am satisfied that Mr Davey died on March 27 and that he hung himself. Therefore, I conclude that Mr Davey died as a result of suicide.'

For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123, or go to samaritans.org
A conspiracy theorist caused around 150,000 damage when he set a 5G phone mast ablaze in a bid to 'protect' others.

David Patterson, 41, had previously constructed a 'bunker' in his kitchen using tins and covered himself in foil in a bid to make a barrier against harmful 'waves' from the transmitter.

After breaking into the locked compound in Wardley Garage, Gateshead, Patterson admitted to setting fire to the BT phone mast on the roof - which cost between 100,000 and 150,000 to replace.

He said he was motivated to commit arson because he believed 5G was 'dangerous' and that he genuinely thought at the time he was 'protecting his family and others from harm'.

Speaking from the dock in Newcastle Crown Court, Patterson admitted his actions were wrong and said conspiracy theories 'don't apply to me no (sic) more'.

David Patterson, 41, (pictured above) climbed over a fence into a locked compound at Wardley Garage in Gateshead and set fire to a 5G BT phone mast on the roof

Newcastle Crown Court heard in the early hours of June 21 last year the 41-year-old climbed over a fence into a locked compound at Wardley Garage in Gateshead and set fire to a BT phone mast on the roof.

Prosecutor Alec Burns told the court: 'Police attended and they arrested him.

He admitted he had set fire to the mast, saying because it was 5G he believed it was 'dangerous'.

Patterson (pictured on CCTV top left) admitted arson because he believed 5G was 'dangerous' and that he genuinely thought at the time he was 'protecting his family and others from harm'

Mr Burns said there were two seats of fire and the mast, which was destroyed by flames, cost between 100,000 and 150,000 to replace.

Damage caused to the garage building is estimated to cost around 15,000 to repair.

The court heard at the time of the fire Patterson had the 'delusional belief' that he was 'protecting his family and others from harm'.

Judge Sarah Mallett said Patterson had previously 'covered himself in tin foil and had a self-made bunker in his kitchen'.

Judge Mallett added: 'His belief was the tins and tin foil would act as a bunker from the waves he believed he was experiencing from the 5G mast, furthered as it was, that belief, by material that is readily accessible on the internet that frankly feeds beliefs that are widely considered and accepted to be completely delusional.'

Patterson, of Pensher Street East, Felling, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, admitted arson.

Speaking from the dock, Patterson told the court: 'I know what I did was totally wrong.

The damage caused by Patterson's actions are understood to have cost between 100,000 and 150,000 to repair

'Conspiracy theories don't apply to me no more. I am well aware my mind can't take it.

'I want to spend time with my lovely friends and lovely family now.'

Tony Davis, defending, said Patterson has been under the care of mental health services.

Judge Mallett adjourned sentence until October 1 and said although Patterson has made 'good progress' she has concerns about the future and wants more information about the mental health interventions available to the court.

The judge told him: 'I need to make sure the sentence I pass not only benefits you but, more importantly, benefits everyone by reducing the risks you have shown you are capable of causing.'

Patterson has been given conditional bail until the next hearing.
A meeting has been held in Kabul between Afghanistan's former president and a senior leader of a powerful Taliban faction who was once jailed and whose group has been listed by the U.S. as a terrorist network.

Former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government, met with Anas Haqqani as part of preliminary meetings on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Karzai said the meetings would would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader.

The meeting came amid claims that the Taliban has killed the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  Khorasan Province (ISKP), a branch of ISIS that operates around Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan all but defeated by the Taliban.

Pictured: In this photograph released by the Taliban, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center left, senior Haqqani group leader Anas Haqqani, center right, Abdullah Abdullah, second right, head of Afghanistan's National Reconciliation Council and former government negotiator with the Taliban, and others in the Taliban delegation, meet in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Karzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction - The Haqqani Network - that has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Afghanistan, including one which killed seven school children.

The Network is an important faction of the Taliban, who captured the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, and is based on the border with Pakistan.

The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

The group's overall leader - Sirajuddin Haqqani - is the son of its founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, a famed anti-Soviet fighter who died in 2018.

Sirajuddin is one of the deputy leaders of the Taliban under Supreme Commander Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The Taliban have pledged to form an 'inclusive, Islamic government,' although skeptics point to its past record of intolerance for those not adhering to its extreme interpretations of Islam.

Amid the uncertainty, thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country in recent days, and the U.S. and its allies have struggled to manage a chaotic withdrawal from the country.

Meanwhile, the UAE's Foreign Ministry acknowledged in a one-sentence statement that Ashraf Ghani, the President of Afghanistan and his family were in the country for 'humanitarian considerations.'

The president fled the Taliban advance on Sunday and disappeared, drawing widespread anger from Afghans over the collapse of the country's security forces.

According to a post on Twitter (pictured) - ISKP leader Sheikh Omar Khorasani was killed in Kabul's Pul-i-Charkhi prison after the Taliban took control of the city on Sunday

Amid the chaos in Kabul, ISKP leader Sheikh Omar Khorasani was killed in Kabul's Pul-i-Charkhi prison after the Taliban took control of the city on Sunday, concluding their lighting conquest of Afghanistan - according to a post on Twitter.

'[Khorasani] was buried at his hometown in Kunar today. His family sources say that the Taliban killed him,' the post read.

Khorasani, also known as Zai ul Haq, was said to be the leader of the Islamic State group in South Asia and the Far East.

According to the BBC, he was arrested in 2020 along with two other senior leaders of the militant group.

In the time that the Taliban were on the sidelines for the past 20 years, ISIS made significant gains, followed by equally significant losses in the Middle East.

Despite both being Sunni Islamist extremist groups looking to impose Sharia law, the Taliban and ISIS are diametrically opposed and have been fighting ever since ISIS was formed in 2015.

By 2019, ISKP was almost entirely eradicated from Afghanistan by the U.S. and Afghan militaries.

Baradar and Karzai: Old acquaintances to meet again

The meeting of Taliban and government officials in Kabul comes a day after the arrival of Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kandahar on Tuesday, the first time he has set foot in the country after almost 20 years of exile.

If the negotiations progress as predicted, it would not be the first time Karzai and Baradar have held meetings over the future of Afghanistan.

In the 1990s, the country slid into civil war, with rival mujahideen battling one another and carving out fiefdoms. Warlords set up brutal protection rackets and checkpoints in which their forces shook down travelers to fund their military activities.

In 1994, Mullah Omar, Baradar and others founded the Taliban, which means religious students. The group mainly consisted of clerics and young, pious men, many of whom had been driven from their homes and had known only war. Their unsparing interpretation of Islam unified their ranks and set them apart from the notoriously corrupt warlords.

A spokesman for Karzai said the meetings would would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (pictured), the top Taliban political leader

Baradar fought alongside Mullah Omar as he led the Taliban through its seizure of power in 1996 and its return to an insurgency following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

During the group's 1996-2001 rule, the president and governing council were based in Kabul. But Baradar spent most of his time in Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, and did not have an official government role.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, which had been planned and carried out by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida while it was sheltering under Taliban rule. Baradar, Omar and other Taliban leaders fled into neighboring Pakistan.

In the ensuing years, the Taliban were able to organize a potent insurgency based in rugged and semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border. Baradar was arrested in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi in 2010 in a joint raid by the CIA and Pakistan's counterterrorism forces.

In this file photo former US President George W. Bush (left) gestures as he speaks during a joint press conference with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai (right) at the Presidential Palace, on March 1, 2006 in Kabul

At the time, he had been making peace overtures to Afghanistan's then-President Hamid Karzai, but the U.S. was bent on military victory and it appeared that Pakistan wanted to ensure control over any political process. Baradar's removal empowered more radical leaders within the Taliban who were less open to diplomacy.

Karzai later confirmed the overtures to The Associated Press and said he had twice asked the Americans and the Pakistanis to free Baradar but was rebuffed. Baradar himself refused an offer of release in 2013, apparently because the U.S. and Pakistan conditioned it on his cooperation.

Karzai, who is now involved in talks with the Taliban about shaping the next government, could once again find himself negotiating with Baradar.

By 2018, the Taliban had seized effective control over much of Afghanistan's countryside. The Trump administration, looking for a way out of America's longest war, persuaded Pakistan to release Baradar that year and began pursuing peace talks with the Taliban.
Hundreds of students joining the University of Bristol in a month have been left fuming after being told they may be given housing in Bath because there are not enough rooms available in the city.

Undergraduate students who have applied to the University of Bristol through Erasmus or clearing may find they will be housed in a nearby town this academic year.

Returning students and first-year pupils who put Bristol as their insurance choice could also miss out on the chance to live in the city due to increased demand.

A notice on the University of Bristol's accommodation webpage said they are unable to guarantee University-allocated housing in these cases, and even if a room is available, it may be in Bath.

Students who put the University down as their first choice and firmly accepted their place will still be given guaranteed accommodation in Bristol, but others have been left fuming as they are told they may not get to live in their city of choice.

Around 300 undergraduate students may be faced with train or bus journeys from Bath to the University of Bristol that could last around one hour, or a commute by car that could take more than an hour in rush hour.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has also expressed 'alarm' at the University's decision to house some students in Bath, saying it had not been 'informed'.

Undergraduate students who have applied to the University of Bristol (pictured) through Erasmus or clearing may find they will be housed in Bath this academic year

The University of Bristol's notice on their website read: 'For all non-guaranteed applicants, we cannot guarantee to make you a University-allocated accommodation offer.

'If we do have a room available to offer, it is likely to be a shared room or accommodation in a neighbouring town or suburb, such as Bath.'

The University of Bristol was quick to add that they are trying to house as many students as they can in Bristol, and said the final number of students in Bath could be 'much lower' than expected.

Students given housing outside Bristol will receive a bursary of up to 500 per term for travel expenses, and the University will offer pastoral support.

But some students are furious at the news, arguing the lengthy commute will not be manageable, and even suggesting the University is cashing in with increased student numbers.

Teacher-assessed grades saw 75 per cent of students meeting the requirements of their offer to study at the University of Bristol, an increase from the 46 per cent pre-pandemic average, Epigram reported.

Fuming second-year Bristol student Anna Lart-Greene told Bristol Live: 'It's not fair on students or locals. Distance-wise, it's the equivalent of Uni of Manchester housing students in Bolton, or Nottingham housing them in Loughborough.'

Taking to Twitter, another person raged: 'Ruthless, profit-chasing university expansion means that the University of Bristol is housing first year students out in Bath.

A notice on the University of Bristol's website said they are unable to guarantee University-allocated accommodation, and even if a room is available, it may be in a neighbouring town

'Students have communities too by the way, and they're an essential part of the university experience.'

One Bath resident said: 'Obviously a big upgrade for University of Bristol students to live in gorgeous Bath. Not sure our already overwhelmed jewel of a city needs more students.'

Another person penned: 'It's astonishing that you could go to the University of Bristol for three years and never live there. I mean surely the city is part of the draw?

'Still, I suppose it could forge a sort of outsider camaraderie. I wonder when is the last train to Bath at night?'

Students in Bath also expressed their concerns that there would not be any room for Bristol students as well, as the city already houses the University of Bath and Bath Spa University.

One wrote: 'As a student in Bath I can confirm there is very little room for students of Uni of Bath / Bath Spa let alone Bristol students too'

Another angrily said: 'Thanks, Bristol uni, for sending your students to live in Bath, which has two unis of its own. THERE'S ALREADY NOT ENOUGH NON-STUDENT HOUSES HERE!'

Meanwhile, Bath and North East Somerset Council shared 'concern' that the University of Bristol would be housing some first-year students in Bath, insisting it had not been 'informed or consulted'.

Councillor Tom Davies said the influx of students would have an impact on the pressures of 'local housing', but the University of Bristol insisted that the rooms would be leased from Bath Spa University.

But some students are furious by the news, who have argued the lengthy commute would not be manageable, and suggested the University is cashing in with increased student numbers

Mr Davies, cabinet member for Adult Services and Council House Building, said: 'We are alarmed and concerned about reports, including information placed on their website, that the University of Bristol is suggesting offering accommodation to new students in our area from the start of next term.

'We have neither been informed nor consulted on this and we are therefore seeking urgent clarification from the University about their position.

'Any decision by the University to accommodate students in our area would have very significant implications for our communities, especially given the existing pressures on local housing.

'Students deserve good, local accessible accommodation and it is for the University to make appropriate plans for this. Local residents should not bear the brunt of any lack of preparation by the University of Bristol for the new academic year.'

A University of Bristol spokesperson said: 'Like many other universities, we have had particularly high demand for places in student residences this year.

'Students who had firmly accepted an offer to study here and made us their first choice are guaranteed a place in university-allocated accommodation in Bristol.

'Those who put Bristol as an insurance offer, or are returning, may be offered the option of low-cost shared rooms or accommodation nearby in Bath.

'We are also providing support and advice to students if they wish to find private accommodation in Bristol.

'We have the option to house around 300 students in Bath if needed. However, we are doing our best to accommodate as many students as we can in Bristol, so the final number could be much lower.

Around 300 undergraduate students may be faced with train or bus journeys from Bath (pictured) to the University that could last around one hour, or a 45-minute car commute

'All beds will be in purpose-built student accommodation, with the majority of these in residences leased from Bath Spa University. The remainder, if required, will be provided in existing, private student accommodation in the city.

'Students will get a free travel bursary and will have access to our pastoral services including on-site support.'

Meanwhile, applicants from a small array of courses at the University of Bristol are also being offered financial incentives to defer their studies until September 2022.

The small number of applicants will get a 7,000 rent reduction for guaranteed accommodation, plus a 3,600 bursary for their first year at the University.

This year, the total number of students accepted on to UK degree courses has risen five per cent on the same point last year, with 435,430 taking up places so far, initial Ucas figures show.

But on the most popular courses, up to a third of students may be rejected or have to go through clearing due to the number of people getting the required grades.

Nearly half of all A-level students received A* or A from their teachers, with 44.8 per cent of UK entries awarded an A or A* grade this summer - up by 6.3 percentage points on last year when 38.5 per cent achieved the top grades.

According to an analysis by Ofqual, 6.9 per cent of students in England were awarded three A*s this year - compared with 4.3 per cent in 2020 and 1.6 per cent in 2019, the last time they sat exams, as critics warned the education system had descended into the 'wild west of grading'.

Overall, the proportion of entries awarded the top A* grade this year has surged to 19.1 per cent - the highest proportion since the top grade was first introduced in 2010.
Joe Biden's average approval rating has dropped below 50 per cent for the first time in his presidency after his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that saw the Taliban take over in just over a week.

In two separate averages tracked by FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, Biden lost on August 16 his standing of overall approval from half the U.S. and the numbers continue to drop.

The day Biden's approval dropped below the 50 per cent mark was the same day he made remarks doubling-down on his decision to withdraw the U.s. military presence from Afghanistan after two decades.

It also came after the president received a slew of criticism from both sides of the political aisle for remaining silent and claimed he was 'vacationing' in Camp David as the Taliban took the capital city of Kabul on Sunday after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled.

The FiveThirtyEight average showed Biden dropped in his average approval on Monday to 49.9 per cent and on Wednesday that average approval dropped even more to 49.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics average, which includes some similar and some different polling sources, has the president sitting at a 49.6 approval as of Wednesday. It sat at its lowest of Biden's presidency on Tuesday with tracking a 49.4 per cent average approval rating.

Joe Biden's average approval rating has fallen to its lowest level of his presidency  dipping below 50 per cent  in the aftermath of the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. The president arrives in D.C. from Camp David on August 17

A FiveThirtyEight average shows Biden at an all-time-low approval Wednesday with 49.3%

A separate polling average from RealClearPolitics showed Biden at 49.4% approval on Tuesday

The latest numbers show a steady decline from around May, when Biden and the CDC announced relaxed mask guidance that allowed some semblance of normalcy  before the indoor mask mandates were reinstituted at the end of last month.

Biden has flaunted a very steady approval between 51-55 per cent since taking office on January 20.

FiveThirtyEight's peak for Biden was in March with 55.1 per cent approval and RealClearPolitics' peak for the current president peaked in April with 55.7 per cent.

Former President Donald Trump's average approval rating during his term hovered between 40-45 per cent during for the majority of his four years. Trump's predecessor Barack Obama largely stayed in the 45-50 per cent range, according to the FiveThirtyEight average.

A separate poll released Monday showed that nearly seven in 10 likely primary election voters disapprove of Biden's handling of the situation in Afghanistan, which is widely attributed to his decline in overall approval, as well.

Biden got a small polling boost earlier this summer as mask mandates relaxed with more Americans getting vaccinated. Since becoming president, Biden has scored highly when it comes to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mask mandates, however, went back into effect for all vaccinated Americans in indoor public places in high-case areas  like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Also contributing to the decline in approval is the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Biden's approval started to dip on Monday, when another survey showed nearly 7 in 10 Americans disapproved of his handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan that saw the Taliban take over in just over a week

Hundreds of Afghans line up on August 17 around the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in a desperate attempt to try and get on board an evacuation flight out of Afghanistan

Even some progressive Democrats have admitted that while they agree with the withdrawal, they do not feel the execution was done right by the Biden administration.

Along with the Taliban takeover has come complications evacuating Americans and U.S. allies from Afghanistan.

On Monday, American citizens still stranded in Afghanistan were told to shelter in place rather than make their way to the Kabul airport as it came under attack from the Taliban and was forced to close as Afghan citizens overran the tarmac in a desperate attempt to get on evacuation flights.
The painful yells of a bleeding woman struck in the head by a metal object that fell from a roller coaster were captured on video by the bodycam of first responders after they arrived to treat her at the popular Ohio amusement park.

The video shows Sandusky EMS workers hurriedly preparing a stretcher for the woman, who is heard off camera crying and screaming in pain.

Her cries get louder as the first responders load her onto the stretcher.

The unidentified woman was waiting in line for the Top Thrill Dragster coaster at the Cedar Point amusement park on Sunday when the metallic object suddenly knocked her to the ground.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital and transferred to a trauma center.

Her name and condition have not been released.

EMS personnel arrived at the scene within seconds to help the woman, who was bleeding

The victim was crying and screaming in agony after a metal object fell from the rollercoaster

John McDermott, 27, said he was waiting in line with his girlfriend and son when he saw the object fall from the 420-foot-tall structure right in front of him.

'I saw the thing hit the crowd, the lady fell, I heard it bounce off the concrete. It was something metal. It wasn't a small object. It was pretty big  bigger than the palm of my hand. It looked like a metal disc flying through the air,' McDermott told Cleveland.com.

McDermott said several people called 911 and rushed to the woman's aid. Some took of their shirts to stop the bleeding until Sandusky EMS arrived.

'You need to send someone to Cedar Point,' one guest said in a 911 call, Newsweek reported. 'There's someone who's in bad shape ... Something flew off of a ride and hit them and they're bleeding from the head.'

Nurse David Vallo said EMS was at the scene in seconds of the incident, and transported the woman to Firelands Hospital with help from the Sandusky Fire Department, The News Messenger reported.

A statement from Cedar Point said that a small metal object had become disengaged from a train on the rollercoaster as it was ending its run.

'At this time, our focus is on the guest and her family,' said Tony Clark, director of communications for the park.

First responders hurried to get the woman on the stretcher and transported her to Fireland Hospital, where she was later transported to a trauma center

The metal object fell off the popular Top Thrill Dragster ride in Cedar Point amusement park

The rollercoaster is 420ft. tall and was last inspected in May, with a following inspection due in September. Ohio law requires rollercoasters to be inspected twice a year

Three inspectors from the Ohio Department of Agriculture came to investigate the ride this week, according to agency spokeswoman Katie Boyer. The investigation is on going.

The ride is currently closed.

An Ohio law requires all rollercoasters to be inspected twice a year. The Top Thrill Dragster was last inspected on May 14, with it's next inspection due in September.

The Top Thrill Dragster is one of the most popular rides at Cedar Point. It first opened in 2003, stands 420ft. tall and goes from zero to 120mph in less than 4 seconds.
The attorney representing one of six men indicted in last year's plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer claimed that an FBI agent told an informant to lie and delete text messages in an alleged attempt to cover up the agency's actions encouraging the conspiracy.

Suspect Brandon Caserta's lawyer, Michael Hills, laid out the accusations in a court filing on Friday, asking US District Judge Robert Jonker to compel the government to produce all communications between FBI agents and a confidential informant known as 'Dan.'

The FBI in October 2020 said it thwarted the plot to kidnap Whitmer by anti-government extremists upset over her coronavirus restrictions.

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Brandon Caserta, one of the six men indicted for allegedly plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer, claims that an FBI agent told an informant to lie and delete text messages as part of a suspected entrapment coverup

Attorney Michael Hills provided this screenshot of an exchange between an FBI agent and an informant known as 'Dan'

The agent instructs 'Dan' to delete their communications, then tells him to lie and accuse another person named 'Trent' of being the informant

Caserta, Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr, Ty Garbin, Caleb Franks and Daniel Harris were charged in federal court with conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

In the August 13 filing, Hills argued that the text messages between 'Dan' the informant and two FBI agents indicate that the federal agency 'was pushing their paid agent to actively recruit people into an overt act in furtherance of a conspiracy.'

The government previously refused the defense's request to furnish the requested communications, arguing that lawyers have failed to show evidence of entrapment.

Hills attached screenshots of text messages between 'Dan' and FBI's Henrik Impola, in which the agent instructed the informant to 'delete these,' purportedly referring to their texts.

According to the lawyer, Dan's FBI handler also asked him to lie to Pete Musico, a founding member of the Wolverine Watchmen militia, 'and accuse an innocent individual as being undercover federal agent spying on Mr. Musico.'

This photo combo shows from top left, Kaleb Franks, Brandon Caserta, Adam Dean Fox, and bottom left, Daniel Harris, Barry Croft, and Ty Garbin, who were described as anti-government extremists angry over Whitmer's policies to prevent spread of the coronavirus

In one text message attached to the filing, Agent Impola writes to Dan: 'Copy. Best thing to do is deny and accuse somebody like Trent.'

According to the defense attorney, Trent was on the 'outskirts' of the militia group and was not indicted in connection with the kidnapping plot.

Hills argued that Impola's behavior, as evidenced by his exchanges, 'casts a dark shadow over the credibility of this investigation and demonstrates the need for immediate disclosure as demanded.'

Hills further asserted that FBI's informant was the 'person at the center of all activity' and that the agents pushed him 'to actively recruit and entice people to either enter a conspiratorial agreement or an overt act in support of an agreement.'

The attorney revealed that he is seeking the communications 'for the purposes of entrapment defense.'

Assistant US Attorney Nils Kessler has denied that the agents were encouraging the plot, claiming in a recent court filing the 'defendants were predisposed to join the kidnapping and explosive conspiracies, and therefore will not be able to prove entrapment.'

In this courtroom drawing, five defendants in the Whitmer kidnapping case appear in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 13, 2020

Caserta and the other suspects were arrested after four members of the militia group scheduled an October 7 meeting in Ypsilanti, west of Detroit, to meet an undercover FBI agent and buy explosives and other supplies, the indictment says.

Eight other men who are said to be members or associates of the Wolverine Watchmen are charged in state court with counts including providing material support for terrorist acts. Some of them are accused of taking part in the alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer and put her on 'trial,' or abandon her in the middle of Lake Michigan in a disabled boat.

Caserta, Fox, Croft, Harris and Franks are set to go on trial on October 12. Garbin awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to conspiracy.
Urbina has previously served three years in the Morris County Jail, where he is currently being held, for aggravated assault in 2016. His nickname, according to local news outlets, is 'Beans'

A 27-year-old New Jersey man has been charged with murder after allegedly beating his girlfriend's three-year-old boy to death in a hotel room, then forcing the mother to delete incriminating content from her phone.

Edwin Urbina turned himself in yesterday, four days after the alleged beating, according to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.

He faces charges of first-degree murder, second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree witness tampering and fourth-degree evidence tampering.

A medical examination indicated that the young victim sustained 'a number of physical injuries' that resulted in his death, according to the East Hanover Police Department.

East Hanover police said that the boy's mother, 28-year-old Krystal Straw, was not present for the brutal beating of her son at the Oyo Hotel in Morristown, New Jersey.

When she arrived, police said Urbina made Straw delete content from her phone and deny his involvement in her son's beating.

The child was gravely injured, but not yet dead.

She then allegedly 'transported Urbina to another location' before taking the child to a hospital, where he went into cardiac arrest.

Police were called around 5 am, according to Patch.

East Hanover police said that the boy's mother, 28-year-old Krystal Straw, was not present for the brutal beating of her son that they said took place at the Oyo Hotel (pictured)

Urbina has previously served three years in the Morris County Jail, where he is currently being held, for aggravated assault in 2016, wrote local news outlet Morristown Green.

'IN CUSTODY  for murder of a 3 year old child; lets put him back where he belongs,' wrote Morris County Sheriff's Department Deputy Ashley Monaco on Facebook at approximately 8 am yesterday.

Both Urbina and Straw are locked up without bail and awaiting trial on August 18, according to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office.

The boy's mother was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, third-degree witness tampering and fourth-degree evidence tampering before Urbina was arrested.

A warrant was issued for Urbina on Monday. East Hanover Police said he was taken into custody without incident, although the department said that he 'should not be approached' and was 'considered dangerous' in earlier press releases.

According to Morristown Green, armed police in tactical gear with dogs patrolled the area of Clydes Potts Drive, Urbina's last known address on the day of the alleged killing.

Some residents, the outlet wrote, expressed concern over the police 'display of force' online.

'The residence wasnt even occupied,' wrote one resident. 'Our children wont forget what they saw. But they want our children to respect the uniform. Where is the respect for our community?'

The Morris County Prosecutor's Office told the Daily Mail that Urbina's first court appearance was today at 12:30 pm.
Two US officials stationed in Germany have been left unable to work after developing Havana Syndrome, sparking fears they were attacked with a mystery sonic weapon.

The mysterious condition was first reported in 2016 when a staffer at the US embassy in Cuba suffered headaches, hearing loss, memory issues and other symptoms.

Germany has said they are aware of reports US officials stationed in the country developed symptoms of the mystery ailment, but that they had no further details of the incident.

The mysterious condition was first reported in 2016 when a staffer at the US embassy in Cuba (pictured) suffered headaches, hearing loss, memory issues and other symptoms

People who are believed to have been affected have reported headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions, with some requiring months of medical treatment.

Some have reported hearing a loud noise before the sudden onset of symptoms.

Similar symptoms have been reported by officials stationed in other European capitals, including Vienna in Austria last month, as well as China and Russia.

Unconfirmed cases were reported in Poland, Taiwan, Georgia, and Washington DC.

Victims included intelligence officers and diplomats working gas exports, cybersecurity, and political interference - all Russia related projects, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Scientists and government officials are not yet certain about who might have been behind any attacks, if the symptoms could have been caused inadvertently by surveillance equipment - or if the incidents were caused by a mysterious sonic weapon.

The sonic weapon the could cause Havana Syndrome is said to be a smaller version of this 1990s Soviet microwave generator, which is kept at the University of New Mexico

People who are believed to have been affected have reported headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions, with some requiring months of medical treatment

What is 'Havana Syndrome'? The problem has been labeled the 'Havana Syndrome,' because the first cases affected personnel in 2016 at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba. At least 130 cases across the government are now under investigation, up from several dozen last year, according to a U.S. defense official who was not authorized to discuss details publicly. The National Security Council is leading the investigation. People who are believed to have been affected have reported headaches, dizziness and symptoms consistent with concussions, with some requiring months of medical treatment. Some have reported hearing a loud noise before the sudden onset of symptoms. Investigators believe there are at least four cases involving Trump White House officials. Advocates for those affected accuse the U.S. government of long failing to take the problem seriously or provide the necessary medical care and benefits. US senators said last month that the government is investigating an apparent increase in the mysterious directed-energy attacks. Symptoms include; -hearing loss -severe headaches -memory issues -dizziness -brain injury Advertisement

More than 200 US officials and personnel around the world have complained of symptoms such as migraines, hearing loss and dizziness.

In June US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a government-wide review was under way into who or what caused suspected radio frequency attacks 'directed' at diplomats.

Since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January, roughly two dozen intelligence officers, diplomats and other officials in Vienna have reported symptoms similar to those of Havana syndrome, making it the second-biggest hotspot after Havana.

But so far, the feeling is that the State Department has been 'tepid' in moving forward with the investigation.

As early as 2014, the National Security Agency (NSA) said in a memo to one intelligence officer who said he had suffered possible symptoms that an unnamed 'hostile country' to which the official traveled in the late 1990s had a 'high powered microwave system weapon that may have the ability to weaken, intimidate or kill an enemy over time and without leaving evidence.'

The memo said intelligence indicated that such a weapon was 'designed to bathe a target's living quarters in microwaves, causing numerous physical effects, including a damaged nervous system.'

Seven years on and the State Department's approach still appears to be very 'hands off' despite Blinken promising to open an investigation and to meet with any of the State Department victims.

The suspected directed-energy attacks have baffled US investigators who are working to determine who and what is causing them since they first began in Cuba.

In May reports emerged that some US officials suspected Russia's infamous foreign intelligence agency - the GRU - could be the culprit.

Last month former CIA officer and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Marc Polymeropolous claimed he was zapped by one of the attacks while visiting a Moscow hotel room in 2017 and blamed it for destroying his career, as well as debilitating headaches that he continues to suffer from.

While in October last year it was reported how diplomat Mark Lenzi, 45, was stationed in Guangzhou, China, in 2017, when he developed unexplained symptoms, including headaches, memory loss and trouble sleeping.

His neighbor Catherine Werner also fell ill and fellow US official Robyn Garfield was evacuated from Shanghai with his family in June 2018.

And diplomats say they are not even being given the most basic information such as the numbers of those affected nor the locations of such 'attacks'.
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Vice President Kamala Harris was finally back at President Joe Biden's side as the chaotic situation in Afghanistan unfolded  and was captured in an official White House photo wearing a mask while the president quizzed his security team on the tense situation on the ground.

It was a brief, if partially obscured, reemergence for Harris, who the White House often features during Biden speeches but who has turned up infrequently during the Afghanistan policy crisis. She is pictured seated to Biden's right, wearing a black face mask, with her finger on her temple.

Harris was not with Biden at either of his two public events this week: a Monday speech to the nation on the state of the evacuation and the withdrawal of U.S. forces, and a Wednesday speech on COVID where Biden ignored shouted questions from the press.

She also not present during Biden's solo sit-down interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos where Biden said there was no way to have avoided the chaos that ensued. In the absence of taking reporter's questions, the interview served as his most extensive explanation of the reasons behind his decisions to pull out troops and his most robust effort to push back at critics of the rushed evacuation.

After being identified with the administration's immigration policies by taking an oversight role for 'root causes' of immigration, Harris has been less visible during the days around the fall of Kabul  although she boasted that she was the 'last person in the room' when the president decided to pull U.S. troops.

On Friday, she plans to depart on Friday for her second foreign trip in office to Singapore and Vietnam, her office confirmed.

President Joe Biden met with top military and security officials at the White House Wednesday amid the unfolding chaos in Afghanistan  as he prepared to try to explain the situation to the American people once again in a sit-down interview

Biden met with top military and security officials at the White House Wednesday amid the unfolding chaos in Afghanistan.

The president returned to the White House Tuesday evening, cutting short a trip to Camp David amid the rush to evacuate Americans and foreign nationals from the airport in Kabul.

The White House blasted out a photo image of the meeting Wednesday afternoon, in the latest public demonstration that Biden was in command, following days of televised images on television that the White House called 'heartbreaking.'

He was seated at the head of a table in the White House Situation Room. The president's own black mask can be seen dangling from his ear, and he is the only attendee whose face is fully visible. Seated around the table are Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose agency is struggling to process potential Afghan special immigrants, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

The name tag of White House counsel Dana Remus can be seen in the image.

Biden also received the President's Daily Brief Wednesday morning  amid an interagency clash over agency planning as well as intelligence failures over the swift collapse of Kabul  although the White House said Tuesday it had been 'clear eyed' about the contingencies.

And in his campaign to sell his Afghan strategy amid images the White House called 'heartbreaking', Biden sits down with ABC's George Stephanopoulos for an interview set to air Thursday morning on 'Good Morning America,' after speaking to the nation from the White House on Monday.

The veteran anchor and former Clinton Administration press secretary has been Biden's go-to interviewer in the past. Biden last sat down with Stephanopoulos in March.

His face time with Milley comes after the the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Biden had cast aside Milley's request to maintain a force of 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, amid warnings by Milley and Austin about the potential risks. Biden went ahead with his plan to remove all U.S. troops anyway  in a move that many officials now say undermined the position of the Afghan government.

The Pentagon orchestrated its first public briefing with Milley and Austin on Wednesday, in its own effort to demonstrate command. At the press conference, Milley pushed back at critics who said the military should have better prepared for the U.S.-backed Afghan government to crater.

'There was nothing that I or anyone else saw indicating a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,' Milley said.

Biden had been speaking to both men via videoconference from Camp David prior to his return.

According to an official White House readout released Wednesday afternoon, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were briefed by their security team on the 'evolving situation in Afghanistan.'

'They were briefed on intelligence, security and diplomatic updates. They discussed efforts to accelerate evacuations of U.S. citizens, SIV applicants, and other vulnerable Afghans, and to facilitate safe passage to Hamid Karzai International Airport,' according to the readout.

They also discussed 'their focus on monitoring for any potential terrorist threats in Afghanistan, including from ISIS-K.'

Also attending were Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director William Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and others.

Amid the turmoil in Kabul  with reports of Taliban guards firing into the air at the airport, a crush of would-be evacuees seeking to get there, and beatings of protesters in the northeastern city of Jalalabad  Biden is also getting briefed on the pandemic and vaccine developments.

His only public event is set for Wednesday afternoon, and is on the pandemic. A limited number of reporters are being allowed into the event, however, and he is certain to get hit with questions on Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden returned Tuesday night from Camp David

Biden met with Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin. The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that it has a channel of communication with the Taliban

Lawmakers from Biden's own party are continuing to fume about the unfolding chaos in Afghanistan and firing up probes where they will demand answers from the Democratic administration.

The push for formal oversight comes even as White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan promised an internal 'hotwash' that would ultimately take a look back at how the events culminated in the sudden collapse of Kabul and a rush to evacuate U.S. nationals and allies.

The increasingly frustrated Democrats are vowing to investigate what went wrong, setting up a formal and public reckoning even as the Biden team is trying is fielding off bitter criticism from Republicans and former President Donald Trump.

'The events of recent days have been the culmination of a series of mistakes made by Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 20 years,' Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

'We are now witnessing the horrifying result of many years of policy and intelligence failures,' Menendez said. While hammering the Trump Administration for its deal with the Taliban, he also called out the Biden administration's 'flawed' execution of the strategy.

In implementing this flawed plan, I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal,' Menendez said. 'We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.'

A Taliban fighter patrols in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Lawmakers want to probe the swift Taliban takeover of much of the country

The Taliban turned on the crowd at Kabul airport on Tuesday, driving the hundreds back from the airport perimeter as they pushed to flee the country. They had promised to be peaceful but have already given up on it

Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The group is becoming increasingly violent, abandoning promises to be peaceful, and their cooperation is what the evacuation mission is relying on

A young woman was shot dead for allegedly refusing to wear a hijab by marauding jihadists when they captured the northern town of Taloqan in Takhar province last week. She is seen lying in a pool of blood as her distraught parents crouch beside her body in an image shared by the Afghan Ambassador to Poland Tahir Qadry who denounced the 'butchering of civilians.'

Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021

Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back

There are now 4,500 troops on the ground at the airport in Kabul including 1300 marines but the people outside the airport walls can't get to them safely and there is no presence in the town of any US military. Here Marines from the 24th Expeditionary Unit (MEU) prepare to board a C-17 Globemaster at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, en route to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in a photo released by the Pentagon

Biden will sit down with ABC's George Stephanopoulos amid the turmoil

Menendez said his committee would hold a hearing on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan, including negotiations between former Republican President Donald Trump's administration and the Taliban and the Biden's administration's execution of the withdrawal.

Committee Republicans said they wanted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify, 'to understand why the State Department was so ill prepared for the contingencies unfolding before us,' according to a letter sent to Menendez.

'Updates from the State Department have been inconsistent, lacked important detail, and not be responsive to Members and the American people,' the Republicans wrote.

The date of the hearing was not immediately announced.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) vowed in his own statement to probe 'failures of intelligence, diplomacy and a lack of imagination as we transitioned military forces from the country.'

Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic Intelligence Committee chairman, had said on Monday he intended to work with other committees 'to ask tough but necessary questions' about why the United States was not better prepared for the collapse of the Afghan government.

Republicans continued their harsh criticism of Biden's policies.

House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), called the latest events a 'catastrophe' in a blunt statement.

'At minimum, the Biden administration owed our Afghan allies of 20 years a real plan,' he said, the Hill reported.

Rep. Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.) said the 'rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan reveals a failure to prepare for a scenario where the Afghan government and military would refuse to fight the Taliban's advances when put to the test.'

'The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning,' Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee wrote in a letter to the White House on Tuesday.

The congressional probes  Democrats control both Houses of Congress  follow a period in which committees tried and failed repeatedly to get top Trump Administration officials to testify in House probes when seeking to conduct public oversight of the administration.
Reports of a Taliban special forces unit patrolling Kabul have begun to emerge from Afghanistan, shattering the stereotypical image held by many of the militant group.

Rather than the typical Salwar Kameez and AK-47 slung over the shoulder that has become synonymous with farmer-turned-terrorist Taliban fighters, the 'Badri 313' battalion forces are an altogether different outfit.

The unit, previously unveiled by the Taliban in promotional material, are reportedly highly trained and equipped with state-of-the-art military equipment.

Where the unit acquired the equipment is unknown, but it appears to be a combination of U.S. military hardware and that use by Afghan forces, likely seized as Western and allied forces withdrew from the country.

In videos released by the group, the Badri 313 soldiers are seen with military helmets and sunglasses instead of the usual tuban, bullet proof vests over camouflage jackets and trousers instead of the typical robes, and armed with tactical rifles.

In addition, the unit appears to be armed with modern sidearms, wearing modern combat boots, and even have night vision goggles - making them difficult to distinguish from any other country's special combat units.

Images of the special commando-style unit have previously been released, and there are now reports that its personnel are patrolling the streets of Kabul after the Taliban took control of the city on Sunday.

Rather than the typical Salwar Kameez and AK-47 slung over the shoulder that has become synonymous with farmer-turned-terrorist Taliban fighters, the 'Badri 313' battalion forces are an altogether different outfit

Reports of a Taliban special forces unit patrolling Kabul have begun to emerge from Afghanistan, shattering the stereotypical image held by many of the militant group. Picturd: A still grab from a video purporting to show the Badri 313 special forces unit in training

According to reports on Afghan social media, they have been deployed for security purposes after the Taliban's lightning sweep of country culminated in them assuming control of Afghanistan for the first time since 2001.

The unit is reportedly named after the Battle of Badr that is written about in the Qur'an, in which the Prophet Mohammed successfully defeated an enemy force with just 313 men - some 1,400 years ago.

According to a report from India Today, the Badri 313 prepares like any other special forces commando unit, employing tactical and attack training in undisclosed locations run by the Taliban.

When the Taliban first released images of the Badri 313, experts believed that they were sending a signal that showed they were no longer a rag-tag group of farmers, but now had modern military capabilities.

The Taliban's tenacity has been well documented, but their lack of equipment always put them at a significant disadvantage against US and NATO forces.

The addition of night vision goggles in particular raised eyebrows when images of the Badri 313 were released, suggesting the Taliban would now be better equipped to combat night raids, or even carry out their own.

Pictured: A soldier reportedly part of the Badri 313 patrols the street in a promotional video released by the taliban showing off the unit

The unit, previously unveiled by the Taliban in promotional material, are reportedly highly trained and equipped with state-of-the-art military equipment. Pictured: A member of the Badri 313 unit holds an assault rifle

Rather than the typical Salwar Kameez and AK-47 slung over the shoulder that has become synonymous with farmer-turned-terrorist Taliban fighters (pictured), the 'Badri 313' battalion forces are an altogether different outfit

Zaid Hamid, a Soviet-Afghan war veteran, told The Sun in July that it appeared that the Taliban had 'gone up a step'.

'When I was part of Afghan Mujahideen, we defeated the Soviet Union using the Soviet weapons, either snatched from the Soviet army or given to us by our allies.

'But Afghan Taliban have gone a step further. They only snatched from the Americans and the Afghan army,' Hamid told the newspaper.

He added: 'From a rag tag militia of shepherds, farmers and shopkeepers, Afghan Taliban have really come of age. Indians fear that very soon they will find them in Indian-occupied Kashmir too.'

In videos and images released by the group, the Badri 313 soldiers are seen with military helmets and sunglasses instead of the usual tuban, bullet proof vests over camouflage jackets and trousers instead of the typical robes, and armed with tactical rifles

Pictured: Badri 313 soldiers undergo a training exercise in promotional images

The unit (pictured) is reportedly named after the Battle of Badr that is written about in the Qur'an, in which the Prophet Mohammed successfully defeated an enemy force with just 313 men - some 1,400 years ago

A member of the Pakistan Defence website told the news outlet that it showed the Taliban were no longer a bunch of farmers, but a professional paramilitary force, with one experts suggesting they were even better equipped that Pakistan's army.

Speaking to India Today, Indian Maj Gen GG Dwivedi said the 'Taliban are highly ideological outfit and they draw their motivation from religious fervour' adding that it is 'Not a surprise to see them equipped. This is a danger to the entire region.'

Questions will surely be raised over how the Taliban have come into possession of such high-tech military equipment, with some suggesting that they have stolen or seized it from departing U.S. troops or defeated Afghan soldiers.
US companies are exploiting 'woke' values and pretending to care about social justice in order to boost profits and gain more power at the expense of the American people, a new book claims.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy lifted the lid on the 'dirty little secret' behind corporations supporting social causes such as the Black Lives Matter movement, in Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam, released Tuesday.

The 35-year-old, who stepped down as CEO of Roivant Sciences in January, accused big companies such as Coca-Cola of capitalizing on the outrage over George Floyd's death after employing and promoting progressive values in the workplace.

The same money-making tactics were also allegedly employed by Delta Airlines, after it took a public stance against Georgia's restrictive voting laws to enhance its reputation.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who stepped down as CEO of his biotech firm Roivant Sciences in January, accuses Corporate America of pretending to care about justice to boost profits, in new his book

The entrepreneur's claims come as major US corporations jumped on the social justice bandwagon following the rise of the BLM movement and anti-racism protests

Ramaswamy highlights the hypocrisy of companies such as Nike, that would rather pledge $40M to help the black community instead of making more affordable sneakers for inner city kids

The former hedge fund manager turned author warns the 'social justice scam' is a 'dangerous expansion of corporate power that threatens to subvert American democracy' by foisting liberal morality on consumers.

Corporate America's newfound wokeness has gone further than social responsibility or its previous incarnation, which was known as 'stakeholder capitalism, the book claims.

'Here's how it works: pretend like you care about something other than profit and power, precisely to gain more of each,' Ramaswamy writes.

'Corporations win. Woke activists win. Celebrities win.

'But the losers of this game are the American people, including both sincere progressives who are used as pawns and everyday.

Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam was released August 18

'Conservatives who are silenced, our hollowed-out institutions, and American democracy itself.

'The subversion of America by this new form of capitalism isn't just a bug; as they say in Silicon Valley, it's a feature.'

Ramaswamy also singles out Goldman Sachs, where he worked at the start of his career, as a prime offender.

He recounts how for the company's annual 'Service Day', the one day of the year when Goldman employees were supposed to give back to their community, he was taken to a park in Harlem, New York, where they were supposed to plant trees.

When his boss arrived he told the group of staffers: 'Alright guys. Let's take some pictures and get out of here!'

Within half an hour they were all in a nearby bar drinking with no trees planted.

In January last year Goldman chief executive David Solomon said that the company would refuse to take any company public unless they had at least one 'diverse' member on the board.

But he didn't elaborate on what 'diverse' meant, other than to say it had a 'focus on women.'

Another hypocritical company is Amazon which last year pledged to donated $10million to groups focused on aiding black communities.

But a few months earlier Amazon had fired several workers who spoke up about working conditions in its factories  many of whom were black.

Another company accused of hypocrisy is Amazon which last year pledged to donated $10million to groups focused on aiding black communities. Pictured: The pan African flag hanging from Amazon's HQ

A few months earlier, however, Amazon had fired several workers who spoke up about working conditions in its factories - many of whom were black

Nike would rather spend $40million on a commitment to help the black community in the US than stop selling $200 sneakers to inner city children who can't afford them.

Or actually do something about the sweat shops in Asia that produce its clothes, Ramaswamy points out.

Coca-Cola implemented corporate programs teaching employees 'to be less white' and that 'to be less white is to be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be more humble.'

Staff at the beverage giant were told that 'white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior' during training sessions.

Yet Coca-Cola continues to sell sugary drinks that are targeted at children.

Ramaswamy says that the intervention of Delta - which is based in Atlanta - in Georgia's politics was even more dangerous.

The company put out a statement saying that that the state's new voting rules, which Democrats said would disenfranchise thousands of voters, were 'unacceptable and does not match Delta's values.'

Coca-Cola said that its 'focus is now on supporting federal legislation that protects voting access and addresses voter suppression across the country.'

The book says that 'a statement that sounded more like that of a Super PAC than a soft drink manufacturer.'

In January last year Goldman chief executive David Solomon (left) said that the company would refuse to take any company public unless they had at least one 'diverse' member on the boar, but didn't elaborate on what 'diverse' meant

Last year, Coca-Cola implemented corporate programs teaching employees 'to be less white' and 'less oppressive'

Ramaswamy writes: 'Speaking as a former CEO myself, I'm deeply concerned that this new model of capitalism demands a dangerous expansion of corporate power that threatens to subvert American democracy.

'For corporations to advance social causes, they must first define which causes to prioritize and what position to take.

'Yet that isn't a business judgment; it's a moral one. America was founded on the idea that we make our most important value judgments through our democratic process, where each citizen's voice is weighted equally, rather than by a small group of elites in private.

'Debates about our social values belong in the civic sphere, not in the corner offices of corporate America.'

Ramaswamy says that chief executives are free to speak in a personal capacity.

He writes: 'But there's a difference between speaking up as a citizen and using your company's market power to foist your views onto society while avoiding the rigors of public debate in our democracy.

'When companies use their market power to make moral rules, they effectively prevent those other citizens from having the same say in our democracy.'

In interviews Ramaswamy, an Indian American who grew up in Ohio, has railed against the annual World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland.

He calls the event the 'Woke Vatican' and says that former Vice President Al Gore and Larry Fink, chief executive of investment company BlackRock, are its 'archbishops.'

Chief executives 'further down the chain' like James Quincey of Coca-Cola, Ed Bastian of Delta, Marc Benioff of Salesforce, John Donahoe of Nike and Alan Jope of Unilever are the wokeism 'cardinals.'

In the past, Ramaswamy, an Indian American who grew up in Ohio, has railed against the annual World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, calling the event the 'Woke Vatican'

In the book Ramaswamy writes: 'Today, progressive social values like 'going green' and 'being diverse' have become, counterintuitively, the modern equivalents of strippers and dwarf-tossing.

'They are patronized and tipped by the same corporate chieftains who indulge their fancies, all the while those corporate chieftains accrete greater wealth and power for themselves along the way.

'Yet this version of corporate social responsibility is ultimately a scam - not on shareholders, who often profit from it, but on the American public as a whole.

'It's a new form of capitalist excess.'

The way to counter all of this is not to fight back directly, Ramaswamy writes.

To do so is a 'losing battle' and you would be canceled immediately.

The real answer is to build a vision for a 'shared American identity that is 'so deep and so powerful that it dilutes wokeism to irrelevance.'

He writes: 'One that no longer leaves us susceptible to being divided by corporate elites for their own gain.'
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper laid blame for the coup in Afghanistan on both President Biden and his former boss, President Trump.

Esper said that withdrawing from Afghanistan was the 'right policy objective' but the US should have compelled the Taliban to uphold its side of the peace agreement before leaving.

'Just because negotiations began under the Trump administration does not ignore the fact that President Biden owns the situation implementation of his withdrawal,' Esper told CNN on Tuesday.

Trump signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, a deal which Esper called 'good enough.'

In that deal, the US had agreed to withdraw forces and release some 5,000 Taliban prisoners if the militant group agreed not to allow Afghanistan to be used by terror groups to attack the US or its allies.

Esper said he implored Trump not to reduce the US troop presence further below 4,500 until the Taliban upheld its side of the deal. Last October, when Trump said he wanted to get troops out by Christmas, Esper wrote a formal letter recommending against the decision. The former president ultimately did not withdraw troops by Christmas.

Trump ousted Esper weeks later in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Defense Sec. Mark Esper said he implored Trump not to reduce the US troop presence further below 4,500 until the Taliban upheld its side of the deal. Last October, when Trump said he wanted to get troops out by Christmas, Esper wrote a formal letter recommending against the decision

Esper said that withdrawing from Afghanistan was the 'right policy objective' but the US should have compelled the Taliban to uphold its side of the peace agreement before withdrawing

The former defense secretary disputed the Biden administration's assertion that they were 'bound' to continue Trump's plan. 'They could have tried to go back to the table with the Taliban to negotiate. They could have demanded, as I have argued, they agree to conditions they established and that we use military power to compel them to do that.'

'There were more options available to President Biden and his administration than simply continuing withdrawal of US forces and doing it in such a precipitous and poorly planned way that we now see this crisis.'

Both Trump's peace deal and Biden's handling of the withdrawal are under scrutiny after over the weekend Kabul fell to the Taliban and the Afghani government relinquished control, more quickly than US intelligence ever predicted.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Biden, who a week ago said there was still hope Kabul might not fall to the Taliban, was warned about the many risks of full-scale withdrawal from Afghanistan, but stayed firm in his decision because he believed U.S. was propping up an Afghan government on life support, which the president viewed as corrupt and blamed for wasting billions of dollars of U.S. aid.

Taliban fighters are pictured in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, which sits along one of the main roads leading to the airport, carrying out checks on those that pass through

The Taliban has insisted there will be total amnesty for those who fought against them in Afghanistan and that evacuation flights will be protected, but there have been reports of gunmen firing into crowds

A Taliban fighter whacks a boy across the back of the thighs as families cower under a bush

Taliban gunmen opened fire on crowds late Tuesday, with images showing a bloodied child being carried by a man while a woman lay wounded in the road

Life under the 'moderate' Taliban The 'moderate' Taliban has already started tarring alleged thieves and strapping them to trucks to be paraded through Kabul, fired at crowds trying to escape to the US-controlled airport and is going house-to-house to round up looters. The so-called 'Angels of Salvation' are dragging suspects from their homes at gunpoint and lining them against walls after chaos broke out in Kabul following the Taliban takeover. Footage shows an alleged car thief with his face covered in black tar and strapped up to the back of a truck, with his hands tied behind his back as people gather around to gawp. A traffic cop stands nearby and waves through traffic, seemingly unperturbed or unable to prevent the rough justice as commotion builds around the accused man. Other footage shows Taliban fighters outside Kabul airport wielding AK-47s and rocket launchers, marching towards the terrified crowds and firing warning shots into the air. Former civil servants and those who worked for foreign countries are prisoners in their own homes and living in fear as the Taliban go from house-to-house to interrogate people on who they are and what they do. An ex-interpreter reported seeing his house being raided via an app on his phone as he remains holed up in a safehouse. The jihadists have been dubbed 'Taliban 2.0' for their media charm offensive in trying to persuade the world that they have moderated compared to the Taliban of 20 years ago. Advertisement

Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley had argued that the U.S. should keep a small fighting force in the country. There were about 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan when Biden took over the drawdown from former President Donald Trump.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who previously served as military commander in the region, warned that a full withdrawal wouldn't provide any insurance of stability.

Biden had argued that by reneging on the agreement Trump made with the Taliban, American forces and U.S. allies could be exposed to more violence.

He and his advisers had hoped President Ashraf Ghani and the Afghan government would pull itself together once the U.S. laid out an exit date, the Journal said, however some military advisers warned that Ghani wasn't up to the task.

Ghani has since fled the country, and many members of the Afghan security forces gave up with little fight as the Taliban moved in.

'The lowering of the U.S. flag over our embassy in Kabul, and the Talibans seizure of the presidential palace, mark a bitter end to Americas noble effort these last twenty years to help the Afghan people escape their tragic history,' Esper wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

'The only way this conflict could have ended better was through a political agreement among Afghans that was conditions based, patient, and backed up by U.S. and allied militaries. We had this, but both presidents abandoned the process and stuck to an arbitrary timeline,' he added.

'By pressing for a precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces, rather than leveraging that military muscle to compel Taliban compliance with the 2020 peace agreement, both presidents hastened the Afghan governments collapse.'

Taliban fighters have formed a wall around the airport in Kabul and flights meant to be rescuing Western allies are taking off near-empty.

There are now thought to be around 50,000 people - mostly Afghans - gathered outside two entrances to Hamid Karzai airport, desperate to escape.

America has so far evacuated around 2,000 people from Afghanistan out of a total of 22,000 they want to rescue - meaning there are around 20,000 to go, including US citizens and Afghans who have been granted visas.

At least three people were killed Wednesday and more than a dozen injured after Taliban militants opened fire during the protests against the group in Jalalabad, two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters.
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Most Tory MPs refused to wear a face covering today as Parliament returned to full capacity for the first time since Covid struck  but the opposition benches masked-up in a sign of how politically divisive masks have become.

Government guidance recommends masks are worn in 'crowded and enclosed spaces'.

Yet all but two front bench ministers  Michael Gove and security minister Damian Hinds  declined to wear one in the packed Chamber.

Boris Johnson led those on the Government's front benches who declined to wear a covering. Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel also went maskless.

MPs were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder into the House for the first time since March last year to debate the situation in Afghanistan and were not required to socially distance or wear a face covering.

By contrast, virtually everyone on the opposition benches opted to wear one, including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner.

The Tory backbenches were almost entirely mask-less, too, with former Prime Minister Theresa May and ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt among a small number of outliers.

Today's emergency debate was the first to be held under new post-Covid rules which mean MPs have to attend in person to be able to say something. MPs are no longer allowed to dial into Commons debates via Zoom, which became the norm in lockdown.

Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle  a former Labour MP has urged mask-wearing in the Chamber but he does not have the power to enforce it.

Boris Johnson led those on the Government's front benches who declined to wear a covering. The backbenches were almost entirely mask-less too

MPs were crammed shoulder-to-shoulder into the House for the first time since March last year to debate the situation in Afghanistan and were not required to socially distance or wear a face covering

The move by many Conservatives to ditch their masks came hours after a public health expert urged MPs to wear them to set a good example.

Edinburgh University professor of public health Linda Bauld acknowledged that while it might be difficult to make a speech in Parliament with a mask on, it would be 'good practice' for them to be worn when not speaking.

She said: 'The virus is airborne, we currently have slightly rising numbers of cases, so it is a protective measure that they can take and I'm sure everyone in public health would agree when indoors we should do that where possible.

UK's Covid cases rise again to 33,904 after 15% week-on-week jump - as hospitalisations and deaths creep upwards Britain's daily Covid cases are not showing any signs of slowing down yet, official figures suggested today. Department of Health bosses posted another 33,904 positive tests, up 14.5 per cent on last Wednesday's figure of 29,612  despite swabbing levels remaining flat. It is the third consecutive day that the rolling seven-day average  which offers a more accurate picture over the true state of the crisis because daily counts can fluctuate heavily  has risen. Meanwhile, hospitalisations and deaths are still creeping upwards. Both measures lag several weeks behind cases because of how long it can take for the infected to become severely ill. Another 111 fatalities were recorded today, up 6.7 per cent on last week. The average daily toll, which hasn't stood in triple figures since March, is now around 94. And 773 Covid-infected patients were admitted to NHS hospitals on August 14, the most recent day UK-wide data is available for  up 8.6 per cent on the previous Saturday. Advertisement

'It is important that people who are in positions of authority lead by example, and that's been a bit of an issue throughout the pandemic in a whole variety of respects but continues to be the case.

'If public figures are wearing them indoors, that will encourage others to do that in working environments even if it's advisory.

'When you're in a crowded indoor environment and distancing, as in two metres, is not possible, then a face covering does provide additional protection.

'And I think if members of the public are seeing a crowded indoor environment, where those mitigations are not being used when they're available, that's not best practice and it may send a message in relation to other environments that people are accessing.'

Since July 19 face coverings have not been mandatory in England, but Government guidance says they are recommended in crowded and enclosed spaces.

It says: 'We expect and recommend that members of the public continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you don't normally meet.'

It adds that people should 'use your judgment in deciding where you should wear one'.

Asked why a number of MPs were not wearing masks in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said it was a matter for the parliamentary authorities.

The spokesman said the advice 'still remains' that face coverings should be worn in indoor crowded spaces.

But he added: 'The arrangements for the House are a matter for the parliamentary authorities, as you know masks are not a mandatory requirement.'

The Chamber was at full capacity today despite a decision to recall Parliament from recess coming at the 11th hour, highlighting the outrage over the situation in Afghanistan.

As the desperate evacuation effort continues in Kabul, Mr Johnson defended his handling of the chaos insisting there was a 'hard reality' as a result of the US stance.

The PM told MPs that the 'sacrifice' of British troops was 'seared into our national consciousness'. He said the 'core mission' had been achieved as Afghanistan had not been a hotbed for terrorism.

However, he was immediately assailed by Tories, with defence committee chair Tobias Ellwood saying the West had 'ceded the country to the very insurgents we went to defeat'.

Theresa May said Afghanistan would now be a breeding ground for extremism, accusing the PM of operating 'on a wing and a prayer' and hoping it would be 'alright on the night'. Former chief whip Mark Harper said there had been a 'catastrophic failure'.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the premier had displayed 'staggering complacency', pointing out that his last visit to Afghanistan as Foreign Secretary in 2018 had been a ploy to avoid a vote on Heathrow Airport expansion.

There were also calls for the government to go further and faster in providing safe haven for Afghans who face the threat of persecution under the new Taliban regime.

Labour's Chris Bryant said only 5,000 of 20,000 refugees were set to be accepted this year, raging that the rest were being asked to 'hang around and wait until they have been executed'.

On the current airlift, Mr Johnson revealed that just 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghan nationals had been extracted so far - with thousands more still waiting.

Meanwhile, other Tory MPs branded Mr Biden 'shameful', with former soldier Tom Tugendhat condemning the criticism of Afghans' courage when the president has not seen service himself.

Opening a bruising emergency debate, Mr Johnson said: 'The sacrifice in Afghanistan is seared into our national consciousness, with 150,000 people serving there from across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom  including a number of members on all sides of the House whose voices will be particularly important today.'

He added: 'As for our Nato allies and allies around the world, when it came for us to look at the options that this country might have in view of the American decision to withdraw we came up against this hard reality.

'That since 2009, America has deployed 98 per cent of all weapons released from Nato aircraft in Afghanistan and at the peak of the operation  where there were 132,000 troops on the ground  90,000 of them were American.

'The West could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America... without US logistics, without US airpower, and without American might.'
President Joe Biden's administration will unveil a major overhaul of the U.S. asylum system on Wednesday, including a plan to double staff, in an effort to speed processing at the U.S.-Mexico border where migrant arrests have soared to 20-year highs this year.

The new proposed rule would authorize asylum officers to decide whether or not to approve a claim for protection at the Mexico border, bypassing backlogged immigration courts where cases can often take years to be resolved by judges, according to a summary of the regulation and Reuters interviews with U.S. officials.

The Biden administration aims to hire an additional 1,000 asylum officers and another 1,000 support staff, said a senior Department of Homeland Security official, who declined to be named ahead of an official announcement.

President Joe Biden's administration will announce a rule change Wednesday that will allow asylum officers to decide whether or not to approve a claim for protection at the Mexico border bypassing immigration judges

The move is meant to expedite claims at the border, as droves of migrants continue to flood into the United States. Here migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. from Mexico are detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Luis, Arizona

Migrants attempt to cross in to the U.S. from Mexico are later detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border Monday in San Luis, Arizona

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shines a flashlight on a group of migrants who have entered the U.S. from Mexico

The hiring spree would more than double the current crop of about 800 asylum officers and would be funded either by Congress or immigration application fee hikes.

'We hope that we will be able to assess claims within three months of arrival,' the senior official said. 'A lot of that will depend on the number of asylum officers that are hired.'

The new process is the biggest proposed change to the asylum system since Biden took office in January, and a key part of a 21-point immigration plan unveiled in July.

The proposal for the reworked asylum process comes as arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border have risen to the highest monthly levels in two decades, giving opposition Republicans ammunition to hammer Biden, a Democrat, for rolling back many of former President Donald Trump's restrictive immigration policies.

'If we can determine who is a legitimate asylum seeker and who is not earlier in the process, I think that drives down some of the incentives for irregular migration,' the official said.

Biden's asylum overhaul is overshadowed by his decision to keep in place a Trump-era border expulsion policy known as Title 42, which the administration says is needed to limit the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic.

Title 42, issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, blocks most migrants caught at the border from even being considered for asylum.

A group of migrants sit and wait as they are detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sunday in San Luis, Arizona

A group of migrants is detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Sunday night in San Luis, Arizona

The proposal will go through a 60-day period of public comment, followed by a government review. The process to finalize it could stretch into early 2022, the DHS official said.

The regulation would apply to immigrants who are placed in fast-track deportation proceedings known as 'expedited removal' on or after the rule's effect date.

The changes could enable more migrants in the expedited removal program to be released from custody, with the possibility of being enrolled in an alternative form of monitoring as their cases are processed.

Currently, expedited removal is typically only applied to immigrants in detention. That greatly limits its application, particularly for families, due to limited space for family detention, the official said.

The expedited removal provision could trigger backlash both among immigration hardliners and liberals, since it would allow immigrants to be released from custody while also expanding the use of the fast-track deportation process.
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Britain's daily Covid cases are not showing any signs of slowing down yet, official figures suggested today.

Department of Health bosses posted another 33,904 positive tests, up 14.5 per cent on last Wednesday's figure of 29,612  despite swabbing levels remaining flat.

It is the third consecutive day that the rolling seven-day average  which offers a more accurate picture over the true state of the crisis because daily counts can fluctuate heavily  has risen.

Meanwhile, hospitalisations and deaths are still creeping upwards. Both measures lag several weeks behind cases because of how long it can take for the infected to become severely ill.

Another 111 fatalities were recorded today, up 6.7 per cent on last week. The average daily toll, which hasn't stood in triple figures since March, is now around 94.

And 773 Covid-infected patients were admitted to NHS hospitals on August 14, the most recent day UK-wide data is available for  up 8.6 per cent on the previous Saturday.

Sturgeon's Covid 'power grab': SNP ministers want to make emergency laws PERMANENT Sweeping powers to impose lockdowns, close schools and release prisoners in response to any health crisis could be made permanent under SNP proposals. The Scottish Government wants to introduce a 'permanent suite of powers' to tackle coronavirus or any other infectious disease or contamination in the future that threatens public health. But critics say the highly controversial move could be viewed as an excessive infringement on the liberty of Scots. The Tories said it is a clear signal ministers 'are unwilling to give up their control over people's lives'. Most emergency powers introduced at the beginning of the pandemic will already continue until March 2022 and can be extended by a further six months if a majority of MSPs vote for it. But the consultation published yesterday proposes making many of the powers available to ministers permanently. It is claimed this would ensure they 'can respond effectively and rapidly to any future threats to public health in Scotland'. Scottish Conservative Covid recovery spokesman Murdo Fraser said: 'These powers were intended to be temporary measures to deal with the pandemic. 'The fact SNP ministers are now seeking to make many of them permanent is a clear sign they are unwilling to give up their control over people's lives. Advertisement

It came as it was revealed sweeping powers to impose lockdowns, close schools and release prisoners in response to any health crisis could be made permanent under SNP proposals.

The Scottish Government wants to introduce a 'permanent suite of powers' to tackle Covid or any other infectious disease or contamination in the future that threatens public health.

But critics say the highly controversial move could be viewed as an excessive infringement on the liberty of Scots. The Tories said it is a clear signal ministers 'are unwilling to give up their control over people's lives'.

Most emergency powers introduced at the beginning of the pandemic will already continue until March 2022 and can be extended by a further six months if a majority of MSPs vote for it.

But the consultation document, published yesterday, proposes making many of the powers available to ministers permanently.

It is claimed doing so would ensure they 'can respond effectively and rapidly to any future threats to public health in Scotland'.

In other developments, analysis suggested mental health referrals in the UK have spiked by nearly a fifth on the back of the coronavirus crisis.

Around 300,000 Britons were recommended for treatment in March this year, a rise of 18 per cent compared to February 2020  a month before the first lockdown.

Referrals more than doubled in hardest-hit areas in England, including Leeds, Redbridge and Greater Preston, according to the analysis by the BBC.

Urgent referrals to crisis care teams  which include suicidal patients  have also risen 15 per cent in the same time period, nationally.

However, the impact of the pandemic on mental health referrals in England seems less clear when looking at the entire year. There were roughly 3million in the 12 months to March 2021, about the same as the previous year.

Charities fear patients have suffered in silence and put off coming forward for care during the pandemic, and warn there could be huge increases in referrals to come.

Despite the spike in referrals this March, the number of patients actually receiving care was 9 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.

Deserted streets, panic buying and Auckland shut for a week: New Zealand plunged into a draconian Covid lockdown as Delta variant cases rise to TEN New Zealand's city streets were largely deserted today after the nation was plunged into lockdown as part of a desperate attempt to press on with its 'zero Covid' approach. The country was virus-free and living without restrictions until policymakers ordered a snap nationwide lockdown on Tuesday, in response to a single new infection  the first locally-acquired case in six months. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that a total of 10 cases have been detected since the draconian stay-at-home order was announced, all of which were infected with the highly-transmissible Delta. Its is the first sign the mutant strain could undermine the 19 months of economically-crippling restrictions New Zealanders have had to endure to pursue the elimination strategy. Scientists have warned 'zero Covid' is near impossible with the Delta strain, which is many times more infectious than the original virus that emerged in China. Delta is already wreaking havoc in neighbouring Australia, which took a similar approach to New Zealand but is seeing the strategy fall to pieces. The state of New South Wales has struggled to contain its crisis, and is recording a record 600 new infections per day, fuelled by the the outbreak in Sydney. More than 25million Aussies are now living under draconian lockdown rules. Advertisement

Limited capacity due to social distancing policies is said to be partly to blame, as well as reduced services during lockdowns.

Across the other side of the world, New Zealand's city streets were left deserted after the nation was plunged into lockdown as part of a desperate attempt to press on with its 'zero Covid' approach.

The country was virus-free and living without restrictions until policymakers ordered a snap nationwide lockdown on Tuesday, in response to a single new infection  the first locally-acquired case in six months.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that a total of 10 cases have been detected since the draconian stay-at-home order was announced, all of which were infected with the highly-transmissible Delta.

Its is the first sign the mutant strain could undermine the 19 months of economically-crippling restrictions New Zealanders have had to endure to pursue the elimination strategy.

Scientists have warned 'zero Covid' is near impossible with the Delta strain, which is many times more infectious than the original virus that emerged in China.

Delta is already wreaking havoc in neighbouring Australia, which took a similar approach to New Zealand but is seeing the strategy fall to pieces.

The state of New South Wales has struggled to contain its crisis, and is recording a record 600 new infections per day, fuelled by the the outbreak in Sydney. More than 25million Aussies are now living under draconian lockdown rules.

Police are enforcing the rules with fines of up to AUD$5,000 (2,500) as the country desperately tries to cling on to its failing 'zero Covid' pursuit with Beijing-style measures.

Australia and New Zealand's sluggish vaccine rollouts have left them particularly susceptible to a deadly outbreak of the Delta strain.

Only 17 per cent of the entire New Zealand population has been fully vaccinated. Australia is also lagging behind (21 per cent).

The ten positive cases in New Zealand were all linked to the original infection in the country's largest city Auckland, although health officials said modelling suggested case numbers could rise to 120.

Auckland  where the infected man lives  and Coromandel, where he had visited, are in a full lockdown for seven days and the remainder of the country for three days while health experts try to find the source of his infection.

The move into the strictest lockdown underscored the vastly different approach New Zealand has taken to the virus than most other nations, which are trying to suppress its spread rather than eliminate it entirely.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly spoke with senior officials from the Biden White House for 90 minutes in a virtual meeting on Tuesday to hash out plans that would ensure the passage of the Democrat-backed $3.5 trillion infrastructure package.

The pricey bill full of left-wing wish list items has no Republican support and would help President Joe Biden completely overhaul the federal government's spending priorities.

Pelosi met with Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti and Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell for an hour and a half.

Officials did not say what kind of plan of action came out of the meeting but are aiming to put out a unified front with the House Speaker, Axios reports.

It comes in the face of opposition from moderate House Democrats who took issue with Pelosi's promise to progressives to not bring a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure compromise to a vote until the larger bill is passed by the Senate.

Pelosi met with senior Biden officials on Tuesday after conflicting demands from progressive and moderate Democrats threaten to derail Joe Biden's infrastructure agenda

She met with with Chief of Staff Ron Klain (left), Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti (center) and Legislative Affairs Director Louisa Terrell (right)

In a letter addressed to her 'Democratic Colleagues' on Tuesday Pelosi called on lawmakers to pass the $3.5 trillion budget 'immediately' upon returning from recess on August 23rd.

'Any delay in passing the budget resolution could threaten our ability to pass this essential legislation through reconciliation. This jeopardizes the once-in-a-generation opportunity we face to enact initiatives that meet the needs of working families at this crucial time,' Pelosi wrote.

'While the bipartisan infrastructure bill offers important progress, it is not reflective of the totality of Democrats vision.'

Nine moderate Democrats threatening mutiny with Pelosi The nine moderate Democrats who wrote to Speaker Pelosi to say they won't vote for budget deal unless House passes infrastructure first: Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas Rep. Filemon Vela of Texas Rep. Jared Golden of Maine Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas Rep. Jim Costa of California Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia Advertisement

Pelosi's promise to the progressive caucus would force weeks of delays on both infrastructure deals.

The Senate is on break until the fall. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's appeals to get moderate Democrats like Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on board could push the vote back even further.

But last week nine moderate Democrats lauded the smaller bill as 'a bipartisan victory for our nation' that will 'create millions of good paying jobs.'

Referring to the progressive wing urging Pelosi to hold the $1.2 trillion measure up, they wrote: 'Some have suggested that we hold off on considering the Senate infrastructure bill for months until the reconciliation process is completed. We disagree.'

With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can't afford months of unnecessary delays.'

They vowed to 'not consider' Biden's reconciliation package until the bipartisan bill is signed into law.

Their threat endangers the two-track plan of passage that Biden and congressional Democratic leaders saw as their way to ensure they get both pieces of legislation signed into law.

Progressive Democrats hit back at the moderates, setting up a battle between the two wings of the party - each of which has enough votes to tank either piece of legislation.

'You're not a "moderate" Democrat if you vote against jobs with a livable wage, paid leave, child care, health care and a livable planet for American families,' wrote Rep. Rashia Tlaib of Michigan, a member of the The Squad.

'Democrats need to be the party that delivers for people. That doesn't just mean fixing roads & bridges, it means improving lives with: Child care, Paid leave, Education, Affordable housing, Medicare expansion, Lower drug prices, Climate action, A roadmap to citizenship,' tweeted Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the head of the Progressive Caucus.

The Democratic infighting threatens to derail infrastructure legislation that would allow Joe Biden to reshape how the federal government spends money

Progressive Democrats slammed the nine moderates attempting to hold up the $3.5 trillion bill to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan compromise legislation

With a thin majority in the House, Pelosi can afford to lose no more than three votes on any piece of legislation.

Unless she can convince one wing of the party or another to reverse course, both piece of legislation fail and a major piece of Biden's economic agenda collapses.

The competing demands between the moderates and liberals essentially has Pelosi in a stalemate and threatens an early deal she made with progressives, who vastly outnumber the moderates with their 96 members of the Progressive Caucus. Pelosi told liberals she will not bring the bipartisan infrastructure plan to the House floor until the Senate approves their social programs.

The Senate passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill - which funds traditional projects like roads and bridges - with 69 votes, including 19 Republicans.

The Senate then approved the $3.5 trillion budget resolution with only Democratic votes. If the House passes the resolution, it will allow Democrats in both chambers to pass a massive social policy program - including free pre-school, expanded paid family and medical leave, and environmental programs - this fall without fear of a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
A former soldier-turned-Conservative MP warned Afghanistan 'damn well feels like' defeat, as he urged a fresh 'vision' must be developed to help.

Tom Tugendhat, who served in Afghanistan, was applauded following an emotive Commons speech in which he also recalled his experiences in the country.

MPs returned to Parliament from their summer break for an emergency sitting this afternoon, three days after the country's capital Kabul fell to the militants on Sunday.

The former soldier touched on the efforts of the military, aid workers, journalists and others before noting: 'I know that we've all been struggling and if this recall has done one thing... I've spoken to the Health Secretary, he's already made a commitment to do more for veterans' mental health.'

Mr Tugendhat said it was with 'great sadness' that he was to criticise the US, noting: 'To see their commander in chief (Joe Biden) call into question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran is shameful.

Pictured: Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat served in Afghanistan and gave a powerful speech in the Commons, sharing his experiences, as he said the current situation felt like a defeat

'Those who have not fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have.'

Mr Tugendhat suggested the West and the UK had not shown patience, adding: 'This is a harsh lesson for all of us and if we're not careful it could be a very, very difficult lesson for our allies.

'It doesn't need to be.

'We can set out a vision, clearly articulate it, for reinvigorating our European Nato partners, to make sure that we are not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leader, that we can work together with Japan and Australia, France and Germany, with partners large and small and make sure we hold the line together.'

He ended by recalling his time as an adviser to the governor of Helmand and the 'joy' given to families by the opening of schools for girls, adding: 'I didn't understand it until I took my own daughter to school about a year ago.

'There was a lot of crying when she first went in, but I got over it and it went OK. I'd love to see that continue.'

Pictured: Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat (right) shared this photo of himself with Dan Jarvis (now a Labour MP) on active duty together in Afghanistan when they were both in the Army

He left MPs with a second, 'harder' image, which he explained: 'It's one that the forever war that has just reignited could lead to.

'It is the image of a man whose name I never knew, carrying a child who had died hours earlier, carrying this child into our fire base and begging for help.

'There was nothing we could do. It was over.

'This is what defeat looks like when you no longer have the choice of how to help. This doesn't need to be defeat but at the moment it damn well feels like it.'

MPs across the house took to social media to praise Mr Tugendhat for his emotional statement.

Conservative colleague Dehenna Davison tweeted: 'The speech my friend and colleague @TomTugendhat just made in the Chamber is one I will remember for the rest of my life.

Pictured: Conservative MP for Tonbridge and Malling, Tom Tugendhat speaking during an extraordinary session of parliament called to discuss the collapse of the Afghan government

'Tom, thank you for sharing your experiences and reflections. I am so proud to know you.'

Labour's Wes Streeting wrote: 'Britain is very fortunate to have soldiers like @TomTugendhat and Parliament is very lucky to have his wisdom and experience leading the Foreign Affairs Committee.

'Magnificent and moving speech during the Afghanistan debate.'

And Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone posted: 'A most extraordinary, moving speech from my brave colleague @TomTugendhat. He is quite right that the situation in Afghanistan is a harsh lesson. It teaches us how crucial it is that we work collectively with our NATO partners, as opposed to being dependent on just one ally.'

Conservative former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt also criticised the US.

He said: 'President Biden said this week that his only vital national interest in Afghanistan was to prevent a terrorist attack.

Pictured: Former soldier Dan Jarvis, Labour MP for Barnsley Central, who served in the British armed forces in Afghanistan, hit out at US President Joe Biden for criticising the Afghan forces

'Even if that is the case, both he and President Trump should be deeply ashamed, and I say this with great sadness, because their actions have returned Afghanistan to the very government that harboured the 9/11 bombers.'

Dan Jarvis, Labour MP for Barnsley Central, who served in the British armed forces in Afghanistan, spoke of the service and sacrifice of the 'brave' British servicemen and women 'who throughout showed outstanding professionalism and courage'.

He went on: 'It was particularly distasteful and dishonouring of President Biden to make reference to the lack of courage and commitment by those Afghan soldiers who have served with such bravery and distinction.'

Veteran and Conservative former defence minister Johnny Mercer also accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of 'consistently failing' to support former soldiers properly, and warned there would be a 'bow wave' of mental health issues among veterans following the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He added: 'The Prime Minister must not wriggle out of his commitments on this issue.

'The Office for Veterans' Affairs is nothing like it was designed to be and he knows that.'
Geronimo the alpaca is set to be slaughtered after his owner lost a last-ditch High Court bid to save him.

The animal has twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis and, as a result, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has ordered its destruction.

His owner Helen Macdonald, who owns a farm at Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, has received an outpouring of support from the public, with more than 130,000 people signing a petition calling on Boris Johnson to halt the killing.

Ms Macdonald, who imported Geronimo from New Zealand, believes the tests are returning false positives, but has been refused permission to have him tested a third time.

Earlier this month she lost her final appeal to save her beloved pet at the High Court in London and a warrant was signed for his destruction.

An urgent application for a temporary injunction to halt the enforcement of the destruction order was considered yesterday by Mrs Justice Stacey at the High Court in London.

However, the judge said she would need further information from Ms Macdonald and from Government lawyers before she could make her decision, and said she would resume the hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

Today, the judge refused the urgent application and concluded there was 'no prospect' of Ms Macdonald succeeding in her bid to reopen a previous ruling.

The animal has twice tested positive for bovine tuberculosis and, as a result, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has ordered its destruction

Geronimo the alpaca with owner Helen Macdonald. On Tuesday, an urgent application for a temporary injunction to halt the enforcement of the destruction order was considered by Mrs Justice Stacey at the High Court in London

Ned Westaway, representing the Defra executive agency the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha), told the court the agency will not seek to execute the warrant on Wednesday evening, and would give Ms Macdonald the opportunity to make her own arrangements for Geronimo's destruction.

Ms Macdonald's lawyers told the court Geronimo first tested positive for bovine tuberculosis in September 2017 and has been in isolation since.

Catrin McGahey QC told the court that although Defra argued in previous hearings that there was a 'residual risk' to other animals, the agency has also agreed Ms Macdonald's bio-security arrangements are 'impeccable'.

She said it had come to light following the publicity resulting from Ms Macdonald's case that other animals who have been subjected to the same testing regime as Geronimo have later showed no signs of the disease after being euthanised.

The alpaca's owner Helen Macdonald (pictured with Geronimo), 50, made a last-ditch legal application to delay the animal's execution

Ms McGahey said: 'The only issue is whether the defendants should have disclosed the fact that they had in their possession evidence that other camelids who had been subjected to repeated priming had gone on to test positive in Enferplex tests, and that there had been no sign of bovine tuberculosis on post-mortem examination.'

End of cruel livestock hauls under new rules Farm animals will not be subjected to cruel long journeys under rules to be introduced by the Government. The measures include shorter maximum travel times, giving them more headroom in transit and stricter guidance on transporting in extreme hot or cold temperatures. The rules will apply to livestock in England and Wales on journeys above 40 miles (65km). A ban on exporting live animals for slaughter and fattening is also part of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill which is working its way through Parliament. Environment Secretary George Eustice said: 'We are legislating to ban the export of live animals for slaughter and fattening and... developing other measures to improve the welfare of animals during transport.' Advertisement

The barrister said the publicity had led the Daily Mail to find the owners of nine other camelids who were tested under the same regime, whose animals showed no signs of the disease after slaughter.

However, following an adjournment to allow Ms Macdonald's lawyers to decide what evidence they wish Defra to produce and a time estimate of how long that may take, the judge refused to grant injunctions to spare Geronimo pending a further hearing and for disclosure.

Mrs Justice Stacey said that on the evidence before her, Ms Macdonald had not succeeded in showing there was any prospect of her reopening the litigation.

She said the farmer's complaint about non-disclosure did not give rise to an arguable case, but was a 'disingenuous and backdoor way of seeking a further route to appeal' when there was none left.

Last week the Government insisted all the evidence on the animal's condition had been 'looked at very carefully'.

A Defra spokesman said on Wednesday: 'There are no plans to execute the warrant today. We are sympathetic to Ms Macdonald's situation, just as we are with everyone with animals affected by this terrible disease.

'It is for this reason that the testing results and options for Geronimo have been very carefully considered by Defra, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and its veterinary experts, as well as passing several stages of thorough legal scrutiny.

'Bovine tuberculosis is one of the greatest animal health threats we face today and causes devastation and distress for farming families and rural communities across the country, while costing the taxpayer around 100 million every year.

'Therefore, while nobody wants to cull infected animals, we need to do everything we can to tackle this disease to stop it spreading and to protect the livelihoods of those affected.'

The law firm representing Geronimo's owner Helen Macdonald said they were 'deeply disappointed' with the outcome of the hearing on Wednesday.

Olephant Solicitors said: 'Mrs Justice Stacey did not grant the injunction we were seeking, the result of which is that the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) can enforce the warrant to execute Geronimo at any time after 4.30pm on Thursday 19th August 2021.

'Further, the judge did not order the disclosure we had sought regarding nine other camelids that had previously tested positive for bovine TB after multiple priming yet showed no signs of bovine TB post-mortem.

'Unfortunately, Mrs Justice Stacey has taken at face value the statements by Defra that they, and specifically the Secretary of State, have complied with their duty of candour in bringing before the court all relevant information in applying for the warrant.

'We are surprised and concerned by that approach, given the information that has come to light in recent weeks regarding the nine other camelids.'
Ann Marie Crook (pictured), 42, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court this morning and admitted causing death by dangerous driving

A woman has admitted causing the death of a former headteacher after crashing head-on into her car while driving the wrong way down a motorway slip road.

Ann Marie Crook, 42, was driving a black Renault Clio which hit 64-year-old Paula Kingdon's Honda Jazz on the M57 near Kirkby, Merseyside, in October 2019.

She also drove dangerously on the East Lancashire Road in the build-up to the fatal crash, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

The motorway was closed between junctions four and six before two air ambulances took both women to hospital, where Ms Kingdon died a short time later.

Crook was left fighting for her life in hospital in a critical condition, said Merseyside Police in a statement following the incident.

Crook, of St Helens, appeared in the dock this morning and admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

She was supported by family sitting in the public gallery, while members of Ms Kingdon's family were sitting in the area normally reserved for the jury.

Sarah Griffin, defending, requested a pre-sentence report on behalf of her client, which was granted by Judge Garrett Byrne.

Judge Byrne adjourned Crook's sentencing until September 16 and remanded her on unconditional bail until that date. Crook cried as she left the dock.

Paula Kingdon (pictured above), 64, was driving her Honda Jazz which was hit on the M57 near Kirkby, Merseyside, in 2019. She was taken to hospital, where she died a short time later

Ms Kingdon was the headteacher of Westfield Infants School, near Chesterfield in Derbyshire.

She was described as 'open-hearted' and 'funny', as well as a 'proud Liverpudlian'.

Philip Childs, a close friend who launched a JustGiving Page which crowdfunded over 2,000 for a memorial, paid tribute to Ms Kingdon.

He said: 'Paula was practically one of our family.

'But her influence, respect and love spread far and wide, not just in our circle of friends but through the hundreds and hundreds of children, and later, their children, who she inspired during 40 years, 20 as headteacher, at Westfield Infants School.'

Speaking in 2019, he told the Derbyshire Times: 'Her death was a great shock and a great loss.

Judge Byrne adjourned Crook's sentencing until September 16 and remanded her on unconditional bail until that date (file photo of Liverpool Crown Court)

'She was the kindest person you could meet, the most open-hearted, funny, with a great sense of humour.

'She had time for everyone, she couldn't do enough for anyone. She was a wonderful person.

'I still expect her to come through our door to visit us.'

He said Paula was returning to her adopted home city of Sheffield, having been to Merseyside to see her stepdad and Liverpool FC play, when the crash happened.
New York City police have charged Aaron Garcia, 37, of Yonkers with attempted murder and assault in connection to a Sunday evening hatchet attack caught on video at a bank in lower Manhattan. He is pictured in previous mugshot.

A suspect with a string of outstanding warrants has been arrested over a vicious hatchet attack on a man at a bank in lower Manhattan.

Aaron Garcia, 37, of Yonkers, was charged with attempted murder and assault for the Sunday evening attack, which left Queens resident Miguel Solorzano, 50, bloodied and hospitalized with slashes to his face and leg.

Authorities revealed Wednesday that Garcia is already wanted by Yonkers Police, who have an active arrest warrant out on him for a February 15 assault, and four active bench warrants for failure to appear in court.

He had three prior arrests in 2020 stemming from charges of harassment, aggravated harassment, stalking and criminal contempt, Yonkers police said.

A close relative, who asked not to be named, said Garcia had previously served in the Army, and was not the same after his return from deployment to Iraq, the New York Daily News reported.

'He was a little off-center. He was in combat. All he would say is "I saw dead bodies,"' the relative told the outlet.

Police officials said Garcia was arrested after being held at Bellevue Hospital to undergo psychiatric evaluation Wednesday.

The horror attack at 5.20pm Sunday was caught on security camera at the Chase Bank on Broadway in Manhattan's financial district.

The footage shows Solorzano standing at an ATM when a man - identified by police as Garcia - removes a hatchet from a dark bag and walks up behind him.

Garcia then repeatedly hits Solorzano with the hatchet as the victim desperately tries to defend himself.

Once the assailant is finished attacking Solorzano, he proceeds to smash the ATM screens before walking away, but not before leaving the hatchet and his backpack behind, police said.

Solorzano, who lives in Corona, suffered three slash wounds to the head and another to his right leg, New York City police officials reported.

He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he remains after undergoing two surgeries.

Garcia was arrested at around 9.20pm Tuesday in Chelsea, where he was reportedly found breaking car and storefront windows with a hammer.

Video captured the shocking moment Queens man Miguel Solorazano, 50, is slashed with a hatchet while using an ATM at a Chase Bank in downtown Manhattan at 5.30pm Sunday. It begins with the attacker walking into the ATM room with the hatchet in hand

The attacker then suddenly walks up behind Solorzano and begins swinging his weapon in the violent attack

The unknown assailant starts with slashes to the back of the surprised victim's knees

The Solorzano quickly turns to face his attacker, and tries to fend him off using his backpack

Police said Garcia went on his Chelsea rampage at around 8pm, and began by smashing car windows.

As he walked past Elmo's restaurant on 7th Avenue near 20th Street, he allegedly ran into a 54-year-old man, and raised the hammer as if to hit him, but ran off, the New York Daily News reported.

Chelsea cops said Garcia then smashed a window at Rebar Chelsea, a gay bar on 7th Avenue and West 19th Street and a nearby bus stop before he was finally apprehended around the corner, according to the outlet.

Garcia is also suspected of another assault in Lower Manhattan earlier this month, when he allegedly kicked someone on South Street on August 3, around 6.20pm, the New York Post reported.

Earlier that day at around noon, he is alleged to have pointed a knife at a bystander on Pine Street, who had yelled at him for urinating in public.

Garcia's relative expressed shock at his arrest.

'This cant be true,' she told the Daily News. 'If you knew what kind of people we are, you would understand why Im reacting this way.'

'I cant imagine hes gone that far. Nobody told us anything . . . I cant imagine that would be linked to us. I dont understand.'

Solorzano has told of his horror at being attacked.

Soon, the backpack is ripped away, as the attacker continues to slash him with the weapon

Terrified and bloodied, the Queens resident desperately tries to grab the weapon away from his attacker

Solorzano, who suffered three slash wounds to the head falls to the ground several times as he fights for his life

Eventually, Solorazano, severely bloodied, flees, and his attacker does not follow. Police say they have the charged Garcia with assault and attempted murder in connection to the attack

After Solorzana been driven off, the attacker proceeds to smash the ATM screens one by one before walking away. Police said a suspect in the attack is in custody pending charges

'He hit me. In the bank, he hit me,' Solorzano, speaking in Spanish, told the outlet.

'The guy that got hit in the head was screaming,' a witness told the New York Post.

'It's crazy,' the witness said. 'People were shouting and we saw the guy laying down - a lot of blood.'

Solorazano required two surgeries after the attack, his friend Manny, told the Daily News.

'The whole family is in Mexico,' he said of his friend. 'I didnt ask him about what happened, I just wanted to make sure hes okay.'

Chase released a statement on the incident, saying it had assisted with the investigation.

'We shared the video of this senseless attack with police and continue to work with them on their investigation,' a spokeswoman said.

'Weve reached out to our customer and his family, and share their hopes for continued recovery.'

Solorzano remains in stable condition, police said.

The smashed ATMs (pictured) seen in the aftermath of the brutal attack

During a recent ATM visit at a Lower Manhattan Chase bank, a 51-year-old man was brutally attacked by a hatchet-wielding lunatic, surveillance footage shows

Crime rates throughout New York City have been increasing over last year

The attack comes amid a growing crime wave in the Big Apple, with more and more assaults happening in broad daylight.

On Friday, an aspiring actor who once appeared as an extra on Law & Order was shot dead in a Bronx deli.

Jayquan Lewis, 21, was standing at the cashier counter at BH gourmet Deli in Fordham at 4pm when another man collapsed to the floor, in a 14-second clip published by the New York Post.

Another person standing next to Lewis at the counter on his phone is seen fleeing out of frame.

After fatally shooting Lewis the gunman appears to casually walk out of the deli.

Lewis was shot three times in the chest, three times in the arm and one time in the stomach. He was pronounced dead at St Barnabas Hospital.

Jayquan Lewis, 21, was shot point-blank inside a Bronx deli just after 4pm Friday

Police are still looking for the killer, whose motive is unknown.

And just one week before, two people died with one victim severely injured in two separate but 'likely connected' shootings in Brooklyn.

The gunman shot three men sitting in a car that the NYPD said was damaged in a car accident on August 8 around 12.30am, and then opened fire at a party of 100 to 150 people at an event space down the block.

Two of the men in the car died - Bronx resident Nicholas Palmer and Queens resident Novada Bailey, both 36. A third unidentified man was critically injured.

At least two other people were also shot and injured during the incident, with one person rushed to the hospital and another driving himself to a hospital about 24 miles away in Westchester County.

According to NYPD data, felony assaults are up 5.3 percent from last year, as of August 15, with misdemeanor assaults up 2.1 percent.

Police investigated the scene at B.H. Gourmet Deli on Friday, where Lewis was fatally shot

One of the five shooting victims was taken into an ambulance on August 7

Murders have also increased, from 275 reported during the same time frame in 2020 to 277 reported thus far in 2021.

There have also been 10.7 percent more shooting incidents, with 7 percent more victims.

And grand larcenies have also increased 1.6 percent, with grand larcenies from automobiles skyrocketing 20.2 percent.

Rapes have increased 8.6 percent and hate crimes have nearly doubled.
A senior firefighter has won more than 40,000 after he was sacked for calling his boss a 'buffoon'.

Paul Renforth had a reputation for being 'quite an angry individual' and had 'bad blood' with managers, an employment tribunal heard.

He directed the insult towards Simon Smith at the start of a shift, prompting the station manager to email his boss saying 'enough is enough'.

The incident in June 2018 was the 'final straw' and the 'catalyst' for his dismissal from the fire station at London Luton Airport after 15 years of service.

But a judge has now ruled he was unfairly dismissed because bosses made an 'early' decision to sack him and did not follow a reasonable process.

The tribunal in Watford heard Mr Renforth began having 'difficulties' in 2015 after he returned from a 13-month tour of duty in Afghanistan with the Army.

Paul Renforth (pictured above) directed the 'buffoon' insult towards Simon Smith at the start of a shift, prompting the station manager to email his boss saying 'enough is enough'

He and boss Paul Allen, London Luton Fire Station Manager, had a 'difficult relationship' from 2016 and Mr Allen even wrongly suspected Mr Renforth was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder - despite there being no evidence of it.

The hearing was told there were several instances in which Mr Smith had to report behavioural issues or hold a meeting with Mr Renforth.

After Mr Renforth called him a 'buffoon' and 'messed about at roll call', Mr Smith wrote to Mr Allen.

He said: 'I do not know what your plans are for him and I don't want to step on your toes but enough is enough with him.

'I want to deal with him but if you deem it better to wait then I can do that, if that's the case then please accept this as a report of his further continued poor conduct.'

The matter resulted in a disciplinary process, during which Mr Renforth was invited without notice to an impromptu meeting and handed a letter which said: 'Invitation to meeting to discuss your potential dismissal..'

He was dismissed in May 2019, with the fire service claiming the relationship with Mr Renforth was 'irreconcilable'.

But an employment judge ruled Mr Renforth was unfairly dismissed because Operations Director Neil Thompson, the dismissing officer, carried out a 'flawed' investigation.

Mr Thompson failed to speak to other managers and relied on second-hand reports. Mr Allen made an 'early decision' to sack Mr Renforth three months before he was eventually fired, it was heard.

Judge Neil Shastri-Hurst said: 'Starting at the commencement of the formal process, no reasonable employer would have conducted itself as [the fire service] did by sending a letter entitled "invitation to discuss your potential dismissal".

The tribunal ruled that London Luton Airport Operations Ltd, which owns the fire service, must pay 40,497 in compensation for unfair dismissal (file photo of London Luton Fire Station)

'This in itself placed Mr Renforth on the defensive, and was hardly conducive to resolving any factions in relationships, nor would it have any positive effect of the relationship between employee and employer.

'It also demonstrates that, from the commencement of the process, [the fire service's] view was that it was for Mr Renforth to bear the burden as to why he should not be dismissed.

'The [fire service] failed to explore all reasonable alternatives to dismissal.

'Mr Thompson was aware that there were alternatives available, such as redeployment and swapping shifts, and yet these were not discussed with Mr Renforth, as the burden had been placed on Mr Renforth to provide the answer to avoid dismissal.'

A procedurally fair process may have revealed that a manager in charge of another watch would have worked with Mr Renforth, the judge added.

The tribunal ruled that London Luton Airport Operations Ltd, which owns the fire service, must pay Mr Renforth 40,497 in compensation for unfair dismissal.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has dodged a question about COVID-19 misinformation on the platform, as the company faces fury from the Biden administration.

In an interview clip shared on Wednesday, CBS This Morning host Gayle King repeatedly pressed Zuckerberg on how many people had viewed pandemic misinformation on Facebook.

'One of the things that the White House has asked for repeatedly and still hasn't gotten a number, is how many people have viewed and shared, do you have that number?' asked King.

'Well, if we see harmful misinformation on the platform then we take it down. It's against our policy. So the 18 million number that I shared is the number, of pieces of content that we've seen on the platform that we've taken down,' Zuckerberg responded.

CBS This Morning host Gayle King repeatedly pressed Zuckerberg on how many people had viewed pandemic misinformation on Facebook, but he would not answer directly

.@GayleKing exclusively asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg how many people have seen misinformation on COVID & vaccines on his platform.



"The number that I have off the top of my head that I can share is the number of pieces of misinformation that we've taken action against." pic.twitter.com/y210HYTU7c  CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 18, 2021

He continued: 'Now do we catch everything? Of course there are mistakes that we make or areas where we need to improve, but that's the best number that we have in terms of what we've seen and what our systems have been able to detect.'

King pressed him further: 'Those are two separate issues. You've taken down 18 million pieces of misinformation, but how many people have viewed the misinformation?'

'The White House has said at one point that Facebook is killing people. That was very bold and very blunt and provocative, and I think at one point the president walked that back,' she added.

'I understand what you're saying,' replied Zuckerberg. 'The number that I have off the top of my head that I can share is the number of pieces of misinformation that we've taken action against.'

Zuckerberg also insisted that millions have used Facebook's vaccine finder to locate appoints for shots, and that hundreds of millions had visited the site's coronavirus hub to get authoritative misinformation.

The full interview is scheduled to air on Thursday morning on CBS. It comes as tensions between Facebook and the White House continue to simmer, with the Biden administration insisting the company do more to crack down on misinformation.

Zuckerberg said that Facebook has removed 18 million pieces of pandemic misinformation, but the White House is demanding a harder crackdown and more cooperation

In July, President Joe Biden publicly accused Facebook of 'killing people' with misinformation, though he later tempered the statement.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Republicans have grown increasingly enraged with the social media giant over what they see as too much censorship.

Facebook blocked former President Trump from the platform until 2023 and has limited the sharing of articles that could be unfavorable to President Biden.

Sources close to the Biden administration told the New York Times that the White House believes Facebook, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, was 'particularly problematic,' as executives point to steps taken to share factual information but avoid responsibility for falsehoods spread on the platform.

'We've made clear to them when they haven't lived up to our, or their own, standards and have actively elevated content on their platforms that misleads the American people,' Mike Gwin, a White House spokesman, said.

Meanwhile Andy Stone, a spokesman for Facebook, said that the White House wasn't giving the company enough credit for promoting the vaccine, and said Facebook had been working with the White House for 'many months' to get people vaccinated.

'We remove Covid-related content that breaks our rules and continue to link to authoritative health information on all Covid-related posts,' Stone said.

A large number of Facebook policies deal with clear misinformation - such as outlawing claims that jabs contain 'the mark of the beast', or turn you into a monkey.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Republicans have grown increasingly enraged with the social media giant over what they see as too much censorship

But the site also says it bans 'claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or seriously harm people (such as causing blood clots.)'

That is despite the fact that medical regulators in Europe and elsewhere have seen fit to put warnings on AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson jabs saying they can cause blood clots - albeit in vanishingly rare cases.

Facebook also faced controversy when it initially banned suggestions that the virus emerged from a Chinese lab -- and then was forced to roll back that policy in March as it became increasingly clear that lab origin was a viable theory.

The Biden team has clashed repeatedly with social media companies over misinformation for years, and White House chief of staff Ron Klain has raised the issue in conversations with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, according to an official. Biden himself has not spoken with the executive since taking office.

Earlier this month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared misinformation about the vaccines a deadly threat to public health.

'Misinformation poses an imminent and insidious threat to our nations health,' Murthy said during remarks Thursday at the White House. 'We must confront misinformation as a nation. Lives are depending on it.'

Murthy said technology companies and social media platforms must make meaningful changes to their products and software to reduce the spread of false information while increasing access to authoritative, fact-based sources.

Too often, he said, the platforms are built in ways that encourage the spread of misinformation.

'We are asking them to step up,' Murthy said. 'We cant wait longer for them to take aggressive action.'

Facebook on Friday responded to Bidens attack, with spokesperson Kevin McAlister saying, 'The facts show that Facebook is helping save lives. Period.'

The company also released a blog post saying its internal research showed it was not responsible for Biden's missed vaccination goal.

'The data shows that 85% of Facebook users in the US have been or want to be vaccinated against COVID-19,' the company said. 'President Biden's goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.'
In response, Southwest reiterated that wearing a face covering while flying is a federal mandate for any passenger aged two and older

She said: 'I really don't want parents to feel like they have to hold down their child to put on a mask. I also don't want to feel like I can't travel with my kids'

Cleek said that both she and her husband actively tried to calm their daughter down and were doing 'everything they could to comply'

The mom claims the flight attendant gave the family two choices: cut a hole in the mask or glue it to her daughter's face

Ali Cleek claims a Southwest Airlines flight attendant suggested she glue her 2-year-old's mask to her face after the child refused to keep it on

A mom has blasted a Southwest Airlines flight attendant who she says told her to glue her two-year-old daughter's mask to her face when the child refused to wear it on a flight from Florida to Virginia.

Ali Cleek, was traveling from Orlando to Norfolk, Virginia, last week when her daughter, Drew, started crying and refused to keep on her mask.

The mom of two says Drew wanted to suck her thumb, which is the girl's way of self-soothing.

Cleek claims the flight attendant gave the family two choices: cut a hole in the mask or glue it to Drew's face.

'I really don't have words.. I'm still shaking,' Cleek wrote in an Instagram post.

'I don't like being this person. Wearing a mask is the federal mandate I get it. I respect it. But at some point we have to have human decency. Compassion.'

Ali Cleek spoke out on social media after she claims a flight attendant told her to glue her two-year-old daughter's mask to her face. Her daughter, Drew (pictured), was crying on the family's Southwest flight and refused to keep on her mask because she wanted to suck her thumb

In an interview Monday with Fox News, Cleek described herself as a 'rule follower' and said she does not want to come across as an anti-masker, but also notes the incident had her in tears.

Cleek shared that she and her husband were actively trying to calm Drew down and get her to wear the mask as two flight attendants stood over them.

'The flight attendant told me two things. 1. We could cut a hole in it (her sarcasm was absolutely ridiculous and infuriating) OR 2. We could GLUE IT TO HER FACE,' she wrote.

Cleek said the family was 'doing everything [they] could to comply'.

'Drew is a thumb sucker and her only way she biologically knows how to soothe herself is by sucking her thumb which is damn near impossible with a mask,' Cleek's post reads.

She furthered her explanation, telling the news outlet: 'I just know that regardless if it was sarcasm or not I was embarrassed and trying to follow the mandate as much as I could.'

The family (pictured at Universal Studios last week) claims they were actively trying to calm Drew down and get her to wear the mask

Cleek (pictured with her family at a birthday party in July) said the flight attendant gave the family two choices: cut a hole in the mask or glue it to Drew's face

Cleek says that since the incident an airline customer service representative contacted her to apologize.

'They said they would essentially talk to the flight crew,' she said.

The mother hopes Southwest will communicate with all employees to prevent a situation like this from happening again.

'I know I never want another parent to be in tears on an airplane because their 2-year-old won't wear a mask. I really don't want parents to feel like they have to hold down their child to put on a mask. I also don't want to feel like I can't travel with my kids by plane,' she said.

When contacted by DailyMail.com, Cleek declined to comment further.

Meanwhile, in a statement obtained by Fox, Southwest failed to acknowledge the incident and reiterated that the federal mask mandate for travelers has been in effect since February and 'requires all passengers over the age of two to wear a mask at all times throughout the travel journey'.

'We [Southwest] appreciate the ongoing cooperation among our customers as we work, collectively, to follow the federal mandate and support the comfort and wellbeing of all who travel with us during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,' the statement reads.

In a statement obtained by Fox, Southwest failed to acknowledge the incident and reiterated that the federal mask mandate for travelers has been in effect since February and 'requires all passengers over the age of two to wear a mask at all times throughout the travel journey'

'As a note, customers are reminded of the federal mask mandate multiple times prior to travel. Southwest provides reminders during the booking process on our website; in pre-trip emails sent to customers prior to departure; and as a part of a customer's Health Declaration Form that must be acknowledged during the check-in process on the Southwest app, Southwest.com, Southwest's mobile website, and airport kiosks.'

DailyMail.com has requested further comment from the airline.

This is not the first time Southwest has made headlines for incidents involving face coverings on children.

In May, the air carrier refused to let an Iowa family on their connecting flight home because their 5-year-old son, who has autism, couldn't wear his face mask.

Cody and Paige Petek's young son, who is nonverbal and has autism and a sensory processing disorder, was struggling to wear his mask and was kicked off their plane from St. Louis to Des Moines.

Several passengers reportedly fought to keep the boy and his family on board, but Southwest Airlines still turned them away, claiming they were following federal laws.

However, TSA policy states that people with disabilities who cannot wear a mask because of the disability are exempt from the mandate.

The Petek family's lawyer, Anthony Marchetti Jr., previously said Southwest Airlines may have violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Cody and Paige Petek's young son, who is nonverbal and has autism and a sensory processing disorder, was struggling to wear his mask before the family boarded their Southwest plane from St. Louis to Des Moines last May

Southwest Airlines booted another family off their plane in early April because their two-year-old couldn't keep his facemask on.

Erik Harvey posted an 18-minute video to Facebook on April 1 titled 'Kicked off the plane *'not an April fools joke' where he shared his traveling experience.

In the video, which has garnered over 1,000 views, he said he was 'fired up' as he told the story of his family getting kicked off a Southwest flight from Denver, Colorado to Austin, Texas, where they intended to visit family.

The family of three had boarded the plane when two-year-old Jackson ripped off his face mask and was 'done' and would not put it back on.

It was then a flight attendant approached the family and said the child had to put it on or the family would have to get off the plane.

Harvey said he and his wife, Michelle, were 'flustered' trying to get their son to put the mask on but he would not cooperate. The flight attendant told them they had to deboard the plane.

However, the Harvey family's situation saw a better ending than most. After Harvey's video talking about the experience went viral, pilot James Peck flew his twin-engine airplane to Denver, picked up the family, and flew them to Austin at no charge.

The pilot also offered to fly the family back to Denver at the end of their trip.

After venting on Facebook about being kicked off a Southwest Airlines commercial flight, Erick Harvey's friend, pilot James Peck, flew the family to Austin, Texas
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He has become a celebrity the world over in recent months with his jaunts keeping us all entertained - and a little bit envious - during lockdown.

But, Wally the Walrus may have taken his European tour one step too far, after he was recently spotted clambering aboard yet another boat just off the Irish coast.

The four-year-old whiskery gentleman started out on his tour in March, and when he fancied a pit-stop, he'd haul his 800kg bulk onto the nearest motorboat and take a nap. Sometimes for several days.

He was photographed attempting to hope onto a vessel with a little more style and speed on Wednesday, just off the Irish coast in Crookhaven.

Wally was spotted relaxing on a speed boat in the latest part of his European tour which has taken him across Ireland, England, Wales, and to the coasts of France and Spain

The lonely walrus is believed to be from Svalbard, north of Norway, and has been on a 4,000km solo trip for months

Wally was first spotted on Valentia Island in Co Kerry in March, and has also been seen off Pembrokeshire in Wales, Cornwall in England, and the coast of France, and most recently in the Isles of Scilly.

Local went as near as they dared to try to coax the artic walrus from taking a rest on a speedboat in favour of a less expensive rib craft, but he seemed quite at home in the lap of luxury.

Efforts are now being made to lure Wally onto a specially modified rib in a bid to prevent further damage to more.

Melanie Croce, executive director at Seal Rescue Ireland, said: 'We hope that the next time he jumps off of the boat, they're going to try to take the boat away, so that he uses the rib alternatively.'

'If he does take to the rib, which is what we're hoping he'll do, then that will be a designated place for him to be safe.

'We do know that he has sunk a few boats, and he's capsized a few boats.

'This is because it's an Arctic species, so usually they rely on holding out on sea ice.

'Since we don't have sea ice, he is being opportunistic and climbing up on the next best thing, or the closest thing, which would be boats and ribs.'

The four-year-old whiskery gentleman started out on his tour in March, and when he fancied a pit-stop, he'd haul his 800kg bulk onto the nearest motorboat and take a nap. Sometimes for several days

Local went as near as they dared to try to coax the artic walrus from taking a rest on a speedboat in favour of a less expensive rib craft, but he seemed quite at home in the lap of luxury

Efforts are now being made to lure Wally onto a specially modified rib in a bid to prevent further damage to more boats.

The lonely walrus is believed to be from Svalbard, north of Norway, and has been on a 4,000km solo trip for months.

From a first sighting off the south-west coast of Ireland, then on to Wales, Cornwall, France, the Isles of Scilly and Bilbao, Wally has left a trail of destruction and a couple of sunk boats in his wake.

His sighting in Bilbao in northern Spain is believed to be the farthest south a walrus has ever been seen.

'The biggest things are to maintain safe distance of at least 100 metres, and to observe quietly,' Ms Croce added. 'This is a huge animal, he's 800 kilos. And so he could hurt someone or he could hurt himself, if he's scared.

'If people are startling him and stressing him, it could cause him to cause damage to property.

She added that Wally's fans should not share his exact location, as it's drawing more visitors, which could disturb him and cause injury to himself and others, and damage to more boats.

The walrus is believed to be from Svalbard, north of Norway, and has been on a 4,000km solo trip for months. Pictured: Wally takes an interest in a boat off the coast of Ardmore

Wally was previously pictured hitching a ride on a boat so he could sunbathe and rest as experts believe he was seeking physical contact

Alaskan walrus expert Lori Quakenbush said Wally will only be able to move on if the has the energy to make the 3,200km journey home

Wally rested in a boat off the coast of Clonakilty, Ireland earlier this month as part of his tour of Europe

Wally resting on the Slipway to the Lifeboat house on May 17, 2021 in Tenby, Wales. The Walrus stayed at Tenby in March making the slipway of the RNLI lifeboat house his regular resting place

Up to 100 people gathered around the walls of the harbour in Crookhaven to catch a glimpse of Wally.

'All day, he's been surrounded by boats, paddleboarders, kayakers, people coming right up close to the boat and sticking cameras in his face,' Ms Croce said.

'We really need to put his welfare and his safety first.

'So we really are just advising the public to keep a safe distance, to please keep from disclosing the location, and to report it Seal Rescue Ireland's 24 hour hotline if you do see him.'

She added that Wally is also showing signs of an injury to his flipper which could be down to people approaching him, causing him to climb in and out of the boat.

It is believed Wally's adventure could be linked to climate change.

'I would certainly suspect that sea ice melting due to climate change has displaced him,' Ms Croce said.

'You know, animals like walruses and polar bears, ringed seals, hooded seals, these are all species that rely on sea ice.

It is thought Wally is using boats in the same way he would use ice caps in the artic - as a resting place when he gets tired

She added that Wally's fans should not share his exact location, as it's drawing more visitors, which could disturb him and cause injury to himself and others, and damage to more boats

His most recent sighting near Ireland has left experts claiming he may be heading back to the Arctic after his adventure

Wally the Walrus appearing in a boat off the coast of Clonakilty, Ireland earlier this month and appeared to be steering

'Due to climate change, we're losing huge amounts of sea ice, and so they're losing habitats.'

His most recent sighting near Ireland has left experts claiming he may be heading back to the Arctic after his European venture.

'We do hope that he makes his way northward up the west coast of Ireland, and keeps going and eventually makes it to the Arctic,' Ms Croce added.

'They're very, very social. So it's not good for him to be so far away from his kind. We really want him to be back home with his own kind, in his own native habitat.

Elsewhere in Ireland, locals can also start to be on the lookout for grey seals as their birthing season approaches.

Ms Croce urged the public to also keep a safe distance from seals and their pups.

The moment Wally the Walrus greeted holidaymakers in a surprise visit to the Isles of Scilly

'This is the time of year where we're going to be seeing pregnant females come up on the beach,' she said.

'They're going to be having their pups and those pups also need to be resting, undisturbed from humans.

'If you do come across a seal on the beach resting, please give it space of at least 100 metres.

'If you do think that it needs help you can call our 24-hour rescue hotline, and we'll send out a trained volunteer to monitor it and potentially rescue it.'
Hundreds of firefighters struggled for a third day to contain France's worst wildfire of the summer near the Riviera resort of St Tropez which has left two dead and forced thousands of residents and tourists to flee the blaze.

One of the victims of the wildfire was so badly burned that investigators seeking to identify the charred body 'could not tell whether it is a man or woman'.

The blaze is the latest to hit a Mediterranean region that has been an onslaught of fires claim lives in Greece, Turkey, Italy and Algeria in recent weeks, with numerous officials saying climate change is the cause.

The fire near St Tropez has scorched some 7,000 hectares in the Var region, which is known for its forests, vineyards and fauna since it broke out in the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening.

Hundreds of firefighters struggled for a third day to contain France's worst wildfire of the summer near the Riviera resort of St Tropez

A fire brigade truck from the southern Var region drives next to a wildfire near Le Luc near the French Riviera on Wednesday

Whipped up by powerful seasonal winds coming off the Mediterranean Sea, the fire near St Tropez has scorched some 7,000 hectares in a region known for its forests, vineyards and fauna since it broke out in the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening

Burned out cars are seen outside a house destroyed by forest fires, near Grimaud on Wednesday

The fire 'had not spread' during the night but 'that does not mean it is under control,' said the fire service spokesman for the Var region, Franck Graciano.

'We will carry out the same basic work as yesterday by dropping water on the critical places,' he said.

Var's senior local official, or prefect, Evence Richard said two people had been found dead.

The local prosecutor said the bodies were found in a home that burned down near the town of Grimaud.

Investigators were seeking to identify the corpse, which was so badly disfigured that 'nothing can indicate whether it is a man or a woman,' prosecutor Patrice Camberou said. 'The house was completely destroyed by fire,' he added.

The other victim was a man, authorities said.

At least 27 people, including five firefighters, have suffered smoke inhalation or minor injuries from the blaze, the prefecture of the Var region said.

Authorities closed a road north of the fire area on Wednesday afternoon due to the thick smoke.

Around 1,200 firefighters were deployed, some using high-pressure hoses and water-bombing planes and helicopters to control the flames.

Around 1,200 firefighters were deployed, some using high-pressure hoses and water-bombing planes and helicopters to control the flames

A fire rips through the forest near Le Luc in the Var region on Wednesday as smoke filled the air

At least 27 people, including five firefighters, have suffered smoke inhalation or minor injuries from the blaze, the prefecture of the Var region said

The wildfire has forced more than 7,000 people to flee homes, campgrounds and hotels, sending them to sleep in temporary shelters, according to the prefecture.

Among them were 1,300 people staying at a campsite in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas down the coast from Saint-Tropez.

Speaking about the thousands evacuated, Richard said 'we will re-evaluate the situation at the end of the afternoon... but for now a return is not on the agenda.

Around 1,200 firefighters were deployed, some using high-pressure hoses and water-bombing planes and helicopters to control the flames.

Others fled the village of La Garde-Freinet, but there were no new evacuations overnight, the fire service said Wednesday.

'We started smelling the smoke around 7 pm, then we saw the flames on the hill,' said Cindy Thinesse, who fled a campsite near Cavalaire on Monday evening.

'We hesitated, but when we saw that, we decided to leave,' she told AFP.

The wildfire has forced more than 7,000 people to flee homes, campgrounds and hotels, sending them to sleep in temporary shelters, according to the prefecture

Evacuated campers rest in a gymnasium in Bormes-les-Mimosas, southern France on Wednesday

Burned remains of furniture and household goods lie scattered outside of a house destroyed by forest fire near Grimaud

Vassili Bartoletti and his family, who are from northeastern France, were evacuated early Tuesday from a campground where they had been vacationing.

'Around midnight, someone knocked at our door and told us to take our belongings and leave.

'At the end of the alley, we could see the red flames,' he said. 'So we left hastily.'

Mr Bartoletti said his six-year-old son was 'very anxious' about the fire.

'I showed him the map,' he said. 'I showed him we were far away, that we've been moved to a safe place [in Bormes-Les-Mimosas].'

Last month, while the family was on vacation on the Italian island of Sardinia, a major blaze there for three days threatened the town where they had rented a house.

They did not have to evacuate but endured smoke in the air and saw water-dumping planes and helicopters going back and forth repeatedly.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been vacationing in a nearby coastal fortress, visited the fire zone and praised the firefighters for their work.

'The coming hours will be absolutely decisive' for the firefighting effort, Macron said during a visit to first responders on Tuesday evening.

While Macron added that 'the battle is ongoing and the fire has not yet been contained, stabilised,' he said that the firefighters' courage had managed to 'avoid the worst'.

Tourists watch from the roadside as dense smoke darkens the sky from reignited forest fires north of Grimaud on Wednesday

The French fire is believed to have started near a motorway stop some 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of Saint-Tropez.

'We've never seen it spread with such speed, it was three or four times the usual,' La Garde-Freinet's mayor Thomas Dombry told AFP.

'Half of the Plain des Maures nature reserve has been devastated,' said Concha Agero, deputy director of the French Office of Biodiversity.

Charred power lines lay on the ground Tuesday, and many trees were burnt around their trunks but their branches were intact, suggesting the fire had ripped through at speed.

But after a calm night, on Wednesday technicians began trying to restore phone and electricity lines.

Firefighters battle to extinguish the wildfire near Le Luc on Wednesday as smoke filled the air

Firefighters carry heavy hoses in an attempt to extinguish the wildfire in Vidauban in the Var region on Wednesday

French officials warned that the fire risk would remain very high through Wednesday because of hot, dry weather.

Temperatures have reached 40Cs (104F) in recent days.

The Mediterranean basin has long faced seasonal wildfires linked to its dry and hot weather in the summer, but climate scientists warn they will become increasingly common because of man-made global warming.

A draft UN assessment seen exclusively by AFP says that fire seasons will also last longer in the Mediterranean, which it called a 'climate change hotspot'.

Wildfires have swept across the Mediterranean region in recent weeks, leaving areas in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain in smouldering ruins.

In Greece on Wednesday, a major wildfire northwest of Athens, the capital, decimated large tracts of pine forest for a third straight day.

In neighbouring Albania, hundreds of hectares (thousand of acres) have burned over the last month.

Police reported on Wednesday that a former deputy minister has been arrested for arson.

In Spain, authorities in the central region of Castilla y Leon said firefighters had established a perimeter around a blaze that has consumed at least 12,000 hectares this week.

A fire on the Canary Islands was also brought under control after singeing 300 hectares of farmland.

While the Mediterranean is known for its sunny, hot summers, scientists voice little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving extreme events such as heat waves, droughts and wildfires.

Such hardships are likely to happen more frequently as the Earth continues to warm, they say.
Walt Disney World in Florida has updated its face mask policy to allow guests the option not to wear one while in outdoor lines, outdoor theatres and outdoor attractions - just weeks after saying they must be worn in those areas.

But they will still be required for visitors ages two and up at all indoor locations, such as restaurants, theaters and transportation with the exception of ferry boats.

Face coverings will remain optional in outdoor common areas.

Disney revealed this month that it has put some cast members on mask lookout to make sure guests wear masks when they're supposed to.

By law the park has the right to deny services to anyone not willing to comply.

The indoor mask mandate was not put in place by a state or the federal government, but by Disney as a private business.

Last month, Disney officials said the company will be requiring all salaried and non-union hourly employees in the U.S. who work on site to be fully vaccinated.

Visitors at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida can now forgo wearing masks while outdoors

Florida has set a new record for weekly infections for the third consecutive week as the state's health department recorded 151,415 new COVID-19 cases over the past week

The park had previously closed due to the pandemic on March, 15 2020, and reopened July 11, 2020 in a phased reopening from coronavirus disease restrictions.

The mask change at Disney World came da

Florida has set a new record for weekly infections for the third consecutive week as the state's health department recorded 151,415 new COVID-19 cases over the past week- a 12 percent increase in the last seven days- for an average of 21,630 cases each day.

The state also recorded an additional 1,071 deaths, a daily average of 153, in the health department's weekly report.

This brings the statewide total to 2,877,214 cases and 40,766 deaths.

These growing numbers come as the state set a record for COVID hospitalizations as it contends with a massive surge as the Indian 'Delta' variant dominates this new Covid wave.

According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), nearly 15,800 patients in Florida are hospitalized with the virus and more than 30 percent of all patients in Florida hospitals are sick with Covid as are over 50 percent of patients in intensive care units.

The state's positivity rate is at 19.3 percent, slightly up from 19.2 percent the week before, and a total of 384,328 new doses of vaccine have been administered in the last week, down from 434,172 doses the week before, the weekly report said.

Florida no longer reports daily COVID-19 cases, instead publicly revealing weekly counts every Friday.

Dr. Marc Napp, the chief medical officer of the Memorial Healthcare System said: 'The numbers of patients are unprecedented and that's in black and white. We have more patients in our hospital now than ever before.'

Orange County, where Walt Disney World is located, is the fourth worst county for cases in Florida, behind only Miami-Dade, Broward and Hillsborough counties.

The department also reports Florida's inpatient beds are at 83 percent occupancy.

And while the national average for occupied ICU beds stands at just 19 percent, in Florida that figure is nearly 44 percent, according to NPR.

Disney World guests wear face masks and Disney-themed clothing while Walt Disney World conducts a phased reopening from coronavirus disease restrictions on July 11, 2020

Meanwhile, Florida Republican governor Rob DeSantis has been vocal about his decision not to implement statewide mask or vaccine requirements, even as school starts in the state next week.

In July DeSantis issued an executive order to protect 'parents freedom to choose' whether or not their children had to wear mask in schools.

The order noted that 'children are at 'low risk of contracting a serious illness due to COVID-19' and said that 'forcing' children to wear masks could 'inhibit breathing, and adversely affect communications in the classroom and student performance,' among other things.

DeSantis has described CDC recommendations to wear face masks as 'the most significant threat to freedom in my lifetime,' and even accused the health agencies of 'medical authoritarianism.'

On Tuesday, President Biden said in a statement at the White House that 'some governors aren't willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic.

'Just two states, Florida and Texas, account for one-third of all new COVID-19 cases in the entire country. Just two states,' he said.

'I say to these governors, please help. But if you are not going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives', Biden added.

While guests at Walt Disney World now have the option to forgo wearing a face covering outside, visitors must still wear them while indoors.

'It's definitely not going to impact my vacation in a negative way. Not at all. I'm going to do the right thing,' said one vacationer at Disney World earlier this month.

'Put your mask on and enjoy your life,' another added.
Former President Donald Trump would beat President Joe Biden in the next presidential race if it were held today, a new poll finds.

In the latest sign of Americans' growing disapproval of Biden just 37 percent of likely US voters would back him in an election right now.

Trump would score 43 percent of the vote, and 14 percent of people would pick 'some other candidate' - but the survey doesn't specify which.

Biden beat Trump in November 2020 with 51.3 percent of the popular vote, compared to Trump's 46.8 percent.

But this time, according to Rasmussen, Trump would win more women and black voters.

The survey was conducted between August 16th and August 17th amid the US's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years, thousands of deaths and more than $80 billion.

A Rasmussen poll taken this week saw more voters who would pick Trump over Biden if the 2024 election was held today instead

Many of those voters also blamed Biden over Trump for the Afghanistan crisis. Trump has also been criticizing Biden for how he's carried out the US evacuation

And Biden's performance is weighing heavy on voters' minds. Just over half of likely voters questioned by Rasmussen said Biden is more to blame than Trump for the Taliban taking over the war-torn country.

By contrast just 38 percent believe Trump is more to blame.

However in a bright spot for Biden most people said they don't regret their 2020 vote - 87 percent of Democrats are okay with how they cast their ballot, but 95 percent of Republicans are also satisfied.

Voters' apparent anger toward Biden is a signal his officials' repeat assistance that Afghanistan is Trump's fault is not working.

Both Biden and his national security team laid blame with Trump over a peace deal he brokered with the Taliban as president. He agreed to a May 1st drawdown of troops and the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners.

But critics say it's not withdrawing that's the problem but rather the hasty evacuation that's left Afghan civilians and American citizens stuck in Kabul even now after the Taliban blocked off entrances to Hamid Karzai International Airport.

President Biden flew back to the White House from Camp David on Tuesday evening. His approval rating has plunged and the administration is in damage limitation mode as it deals with the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan. Biden did not call any foreign leader leaders until speaking with Britain's Boris Johnson on Tuesday afternoon

Trump criticized Biden's handling of Afghanistan as recently as Wednesday morning.

He told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that Biden is 'leading lambs to slaughter' by abandoning Afghans with the hasty evacuation and called it the 'most embarrassing moment in our country's history.'

''This was a coup of incompetent people - unfortunately our leadership was the incompetent people,' Trump told her.

The sentiment was echoed by respondents to a poll taken between August 14th and August 17th, the majority of whom said they 'strongly disapprove' of Biden's handling of Afghanistan.

Republicans who answered the YouGov poll seem to feel stronger than Democrats. A whopping 67 percent of GOP voters 'strongly disapprove' of Biden's work on the crisis, while the majority of Democrat voters only 'somewhat approve.'

Many apparently fear for US national security amid the US's withdrawal, with 48 percent of people believing a terrorist attack is at least 10 percent likely within the next 12 months.

Nearly 1/5th of respondents said a terrorist attack is more than 50 percent likely to occur over the next year.

Thousands of Americans could still be stuck in and around Kabul after the Taliban took over the streets surrounding Hamid Karzai International Airport

Men try to help a wounded woman and her wounded child after Taliban fighters use guns fire, whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans who continue to wait outside the Kabul Airport for a way out

A man cries as he watches fellow Afghans get wounded by Taliban fighters who used whips, sticks and sharp objects to maintain crowd control over thousands of Afghans outside Kabul airport

Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The group is becoming increasingly violent, abandoning promises to be peaceful, and their cooperation is what the evacuation mission is relying on

Biden had extended Trump's original withdrawal deadline to August 31st. The sudden, chaotic scramble to leave this week was triggered by the Taliban's lightning advance when they took most of the country within days and Kabul falling to them Sunday.

Thousands of American citizens are likely still stuck in and around Kabul, with the Pentagon putting the figure between 5,000 and 10,000 on Tuesday.

Many are feared to be trapped outside of the airport because the Taliban controls the surrounding streets and deciding who will be let past into the final NATO and US stronghold left in the entire country.

Heartbreaking footage showing Afghan civilians clinging to American jets and appearing to fall out of the sky added to the negative image of how the US left.

Biden's favorability dipped below 50 percent for the first time as president, according to FiveThirtyEight's poll aggregator

Biden extended Trump's original May 1st withdrawal deadline to August 31st

More recently, pictures of Afghans beaten bloody trying to get to the airport and reports of barely-full evacuation flights have also earned Biden international outrage.

A FiveThirtyEight poll aggregator saw Biden's approval rating drop below 50 percent for the first time as president, a sign of broad discontent. His disapproval climbed to an all time high of 44.2 percent.

His favorability at this point in time even dipped below that of George W. Bush - who sent troops to Afghanistan in the first place - at the same period in his first term.

One of the polls used by the site, Ipsos, actually shows Biden's disapproval as higher than his approval in a 47 to 46 percent margin.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he left Kabul to prevent bloodshed as he denied reports he took large sums of money with him as he departed the presidential palace.

Ghani, who confirmed he was in the United Arab Emirates, said he was in 'consultation' to return to Afghanistan after he met a barrage of bitter criticism by former ministers for leaving the country suddenly as Taliban forces entered the capital on Sunday.

But the United States - Ghani's most important ally - reiterated today that it did not see Ghani as a player in the region, after the ousted president vowed to return.

'He is no longer a figure in Afghanistan,' Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters as she declined to comment on the United Arab Emirates' decision to grant him asylum.

Speaking from exile today, in his first public comment since it was confirmed he was in the UAE, Ghani said he had left on the advice of government officials, telling viewers through a video streamed on Facebook: 'If I had stayed, I would be witnessing bloodshed in Kabul.'

Ghani said that he had been attempting to stop Afghanistan turning 'into another Yemen of Syria', and he insisted allegations that he had left the country with a large amount of money were 'baseless' and 'lies'.

Reports had earlier suggested that Ghani fled with $169million in his cash-stuffed helicopter and has been given asylum in Dubai on 'humanitarian grounds'.

He said there was no truth to allegations that he escaped with 'suitcases of cash', saying it was all part of a 'personality assassination'.

Speaking in a live broadcast on his official Facebook page, Mr Ghani said he was 'forced' to leave Kabul, according to translation by Al Jazeera

Pictrued: Taliban taking control of the presidential palace in Kabul after Afghanistan's president flew out of the country

In scenes of utter desperation at Kabul airport today, people began passing babies to guards at the northern entrance hoping they will be put on flights out of the country and escape Taliban rule

Overnight, the US only put 2,000 people on 18 C-17 planes - an average of 110 per flight. A single C-17 has been used to transport more than 600 people out of a typhoon before (right), and one took off on Sunday with 640 Afghans on board (left) because the crew decided not to leave them behind.

Ghani said on Wednesday that he hopes to return home, after fleeing to the United Arab Emirates in the face of the Taliban's rapid advance, and said he supported talks between the Taliban and top former officials.

'For now, I am in the Emirates so that bloodshed and chaos is stopped,' he said in a video message - his first appearance since leaving the capital on Sunday. He noted he had 'no intention' to remain in exile.

The Afghan resistance grows: Protesters fly the government flag in two regional cities and are fired at by the Taliban Rebel fighters and protesters have bravely defied the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan - flying flags of resistance across the country in a show of defiance against the Islamists. Troops loyal to vice president Amrullah Saleh today paraded the flag of the 'northern alliance' - an anti-Taliban league of warlords and politicians - through the Panjshir Valley, an area just 80 miles north of Kabul that the jihadists have never conquered. Meanwhile, protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost, which sit a similar distance from the Afghan capital, waving the national flag in defiance of the Taliban which replaced it with their own white emblem. At least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured after Taliban militants opened fire during the protests against the group in Jalalabad, two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters. The witnesses said the deaths took place when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's national flag at a square in the city, some 90 miles to the east of Kabul. Taliban spokesmen were not immediately reachable for comment. Images that appeared to have been taken in Khost showed students - abandoned by the Afghan army but unwilling to submit to the Taliban - removing the group's flag from the main square and replacing it with the national colours. More video then appeared to show Taliban gunmen opening fire on crowds in both locations, though there were no immediate reports of casualties. The Taliban has tried hard to present itself as the legitimate government of Afghanistan after security forces largely melted away as American and NATO troops withdrew, handing them back control of the country. At a press conference on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid laid out their vision for the country - promising to guarantee women's rights and stop all reprisal attacks in remarks that raised eyebrows and solicited scepticism. Pictured: Protesters marched through the cities of Jalalabad and Khost on Wednesday, which sit around 80 miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul. Pictured: Scenes from Jalalabad Advertisement

'I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan.'

The United Arab Emirates announced earlier in the day that it was hosting Ghani 'on humanitarian grounds'.

In his message posted to Facebook, Ghani added that he supports talks between the Taliban and top former government officials, after it emerged that Taliban members had met with former president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who headed the failed peace process.

Taliban leaders have said they have 'pardoned all former government officials', according to the monitoring group SITE.

Ghani succeeded Karzai as leader of Afghanistan in 2014.

Mr Ghani told a Facebook live broadcast, according to translation by Al Jazeera: 'What had happened 25 years ago in Afghanistan was going to take place again. That was something that needed to be avoided, a shameful development like that.

'The dignity of Afghanistan was important for me, and that was to be ensured, so I had to leave Afghanistan in order to present bloodshed, in order to make sure that a huge disaster (was) prevented.'

He said: 'When it comes to the political leadership of the Taliban, it was a failure on their part and a failure on our part that the negotiations did not lead to anything, the peace process should lead to the end of war.'

He added: 'Currently I am in the UAE so that disasters are avoided. I'm in consultation with others until I (can) return so that I can continue my efforts for justice for the Afghans.'

The address comes as witnesses said at least three people were killed in anti-Taliban protests in the Afghan city of Jalalabad on Wednesday as the Islamist group moved to consolidate power - and Western countries ramped up evacuations from a chaotic Kabul airport.

The new government may take the form of a ruling council, with Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada in overall charge, a senior member of the group said.

But Afghanistan would not be a democracy, Waheedullah Hashimi told Reuters: 'It is sharia law and that is it.'

After seizing power at the weekend, the Taliban promised peaceful rule. They said they would not take revenge against old enemies and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.

A protest in Jalalabad, 90 miles from Kabul on the main road to Pakistan, was an early test of that commitment.

Two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters that Taliban fighters had opened fire when local residents tried to install Afghanistan's national flag at a square in the city, killing three people and injuring more than a dozen.

Taliban spokesmen were not immediately reachable for comment.

Thousands of Afghans, many of whom helped U.S.-led foreign forces in the two decades since an invasion ended the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule, are desperate to leave the country.

Taliban commanders and soldiers fired into the air to disperse crowds outside Kabul airport, a Taliban official said. 'We have no intention to injure anyone,' he told Reuters.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, who left the country as Taliban fighters seized control, is in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf state said.

About 5,000 diplomats, security staff, aid workers and Afghans have been evacuated from Kabul in the last 24 hours and military flights will continue around the clock, a Western official told Reuters. 'It's absolutely hectic and chaos out there,' the official said.

The United Nations said it had begun moving up to 100 international staff to Kazakhstan but said the measure was temporary and stressed it is 'committed to staying and delivering in support of the Afghan people in their hour of need'. The UN has about 300 international staff and 3,000 local staff in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have suggested they will impose their laws more softly than during their former harsh rule, and a senior official said on Wednesday that the group's leaders would be less reclusive than in the past.

'Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders,' the senior Taliban official told Reuters.

Hashimi, who has access to the group's decision-making, said the role of women, including their right to work and education and how they should dress, would ultimately be decided by a council of Islamic scholars.

'They will decide whether they should wear hijab, burqa, or only (a) veil plus abaya or something, or not. That is up to them,' he told Reuters.

Pictured: In this photograph released by the Taliban, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center left, senior Haqqani group leader Anas Haqqani, center right, Abdullah Abdullah, second right, head of Afghanistan's National Reconciliation Council and former government negotiator with the Taliban, and others in the Taliban delegation, meet in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Under previous Taliban rule, also guided by sharia religious law, women were prevented from working, girls were not allowed to go to school and women had to wear all-enveloping burqas to go out.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters on Wednesday: 'We'll see what they do, whether it will be according to the pronouncements that they made.'

Echoing that comment and those of other Western leaders, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Taliban would be judged 'by its actions rather than by its words'.

Many Afghans are sceptical of the Taliban promises. Some said they could only wait and see.

'My family lived under the Taliban and maybe they really want to change or have changed but only time will tell and it's going to become clear very soon,' said Ferishta Karimi, who runs a tailoring shop for women.

The Taliban seized Kabul on Sunday as Western forces withdrew under a deal that included a Taliban promise not to attack them as they leave.

U.S. President Joe Biden has faced a barrage of criticism about the withdrawal, including from British lawmakers on Wednesday who called Afghanistan's collapse into Taliban hands a failure of intelligence, leadership and moral duty.

Biden has said he had to decide between asking U.S. forces to fight endlessly or follow through on the withdrawal deal of his predecessor Donald Trump.

U.S. forces running the airport initially had to stop evacuation flights after thousands of frightened Afghans swamped the airfield.

Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan said his team had evacuated about 700 people on Tuesday while Germany's foreign minister said it had evacuated 500 people in total.

Asked whether Britain hoped to take 1,000 people out of Afghanistan a day, Johnson's spokesman said they were aiming to operate at that capacity.

France said it had moved out 25 of its nationals and 184 Afghans, and Australia said 26 people had arrived on its first flight back from Kabul. Denmark said it had evacuated 84 people on a military plane.

'Everyone wants out,' said one Afghan man who arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday with his wife and son on a flight via Tashkent. 'We saved ourselves but we couldn't rescue our families.'
Foreign Affairs chairman Rep. Greg Meeks told the Democratic caucus Wednesday that 'early next week' his committee would hold a hearing to demand answers of top Biden administration officials on the US' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed.

'That is Congress' role the role of oversight and that will take place early next week at least it will begin then,' Pelosi said Tuesday night.

The speaker lauded President Biden's decision to withdraw, but conceded Afghanistan has been left in 'disarray.'

'We should have been out of Afghanistan a while back, but now, we are  unfortunately, one of the possibilities was that it would be in disarray, as it is. But that has to be corrected,' she told KPIX 5.

Meeks on Tuesday invited Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken 'as early as possible.'

'The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly changing and it is imperative that the administration provide the American people and Congress transparency about its Afghanistan strategy,' the New York Democrat wrote in a statement.

'I have asked Secretaries Blinken and Austin to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and tell Congress what the administration's plan is to safely evacuate American citizens, SIVs, and other vulnerable Afghans from the country, and to understand our broader counter terrorism strategy in South Asia following the collapse of the Ghani government.'

'Nearly twenty years ago, I voted in support of the war in Afghanistan to hold those who attacked the United States on September 11 accountable and diminish the ability of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a launching point for further attacks against America and its allies. I still believe that was the right vote,' Meeks also said.

Neither Blinken nor Austin nor Biden have directly fielded questions from the press on the recent events unfolding in Afghanistan yet, instead relying on their spokespeople. Austin will give a joint conference with Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley Wednesday afternoon.

The push by President Biden's own party for formal oversight comes even as White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan promised an internal 'hotwash' that would ultimately take a look back at how the events culminated in the sudden collapse of Kabul and a rush to evacuate U.S. nationals and allies.

Increasingly frustrated Democrats in both chambers are vowing to investigate what went wrong, setting up a formal and public reckoning even as the Biden team is trying to field off bitter criticism from Republicans and former President Donald Trump.

Meeks has invited Austin and Blinken to testify before the House next week

'We are now witnessing the horrifying result of many years of policy and intelligence failures,' said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who said the Foreign Relations Committee he chairs will probe events in Afghanistan

'The events of recent days have been the culmination of a series of mistakes made by Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 20 years,' Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

'We are now witnessing the horrifying result of many years of policy and intelligence failures,' Menendez said. While hammering the Trump Administration for its deal with the Taliban, he also called out the Biden administration's 'flawed' execution of the strategy.

'In implementing this flawed plan, I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal,' Menendez said. 'We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.'

A Taliban fighter patrols in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Lawmakers want to probe the swift Taliban takeover of much of the country

Soldiers help a women who fell due to high temperature at the Kabul International Airport as thousands of Afghans rush to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, on August 18, 2021

Menendez said his committee would hold a hearing on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan, including negotiations between former Republican President Donald Trump's administration and the Taliban and the Biden's administration's execution of the withdrawal.

Committee Republicans said they wanted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify, 'to understand why the State Department was so ill prepared for the contingencies unfolding before us,' according to a letter sent to Menendez.

'Updates from the State Department have been inconsistent, lacked important detail, and not be responsive to Members and the American people,' the Republicans wrote.

The date of the hearing was not immediately announced.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) vowed in his own statement to probe 'failures of intelligence, diplomacy and a lack of imagination as we transitioned military forces from the country.'

Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic Intelligence Committee chairman, had said on Monday he intended to work with other committees 'to ask tough but necessary questions' about why the United States was not better prepared for the collapse of the Afghan government.

Republicans continued their harsh criticism of Biden's policies.

House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), called the latest events a 'catastrophe' in a blunt statement.

'At minimum, the Biden administration owed our Afghan allies of 20 years a real plan,' he said, the Hill reported.

Rep. Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.) said the 'rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan reveals a failure to prepare for a scenario where the Afghan government and military would refuse to fight the Taliban's advances when put to the test.'

'The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning,' Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee wrote in a letter to the White House on Tuesday.

The congressional probes  Democrats control both Houses of Congress  follow a period in which committees tried and failed repeatedly to get top Trump Administration officials to testify in House probes when seeking to conduct public oversight of the administration.
Former President Donald Trump complained Wednesday at the sight of 640 refugees packed onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 arguing the plane should have been filled with Americans fleeing Afghanistan instead.

'This plane should have been full of Americans. America First!' Trump said in a statement, sharing a tweet from CBS News that featured the photograph, that has gone viral since the Sunday flight.

Trump previously hammered President Joe Biden for not rescuing civilians who had aided the American war effort.

Former President Donald Trump complained Wednesday at the sight of 640 refugees packed onto a U.S. Air Force C-17 arguing the plane should have been filled with Americans fleeing Afghanistan instead

Trump sent out a statement Wednesday afternoon that said, 'This plane should have been full of Americans. America First!' He then shared a tweet that showed the viral image of 640 Afghan refugees packed into a C-17

Trump shared the viral photo of 640 Afghans crammed into a Air Force C-17 fleeing Taliban rule

On Monday, Trump hammered President Joe Biden for having the military leave Afghanistan for 'evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge'

'Can anyone even imagine taking out our Military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge?' Trump said in a statement Monday.

'In addition, these people left topflight and highly sophisticated equipment. Who can believe such incompetence? Under my Administration, all civilians and equipment would have been removed,' the former president added.

Trump's change of tune came as some of his allies started fear-mongering about Afghan refugees flooding into the U.S.

Steve Cortes, a senior adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign, reacted to the Afghan refugee photo Tuesday by tweeting, 'Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town?'

'America paid unimaginable costs in Afghanistan because of uniparty globalists who dominated the Bush & Obama administrations. No more,' he said.

The Center for Renewing America, which is led by former Trump Office of Management and Budget official Russ Vought, sent out a statement Tuesday cautioning that the U.S. shouldn't bring in too many Afghan refugees.

Steve Cortes, a senior adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign, shared the Afghan refugee photo Tuesday and tweeted, 'Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town?'

The statement was co-authored by Ken Cuccinelli, who served as the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security under Trump.

It was shared on Twitter by top Trump aide Stephen Miller.

'[W]e must keep in mind that most of the fleeing Afghans will not have directly aided the United States or directly fought against the Taliban. And it is not in our national interest to accept refugees merely because they are refugees,' the statement said.

'Already U.S. governors are rushing to resettle refugees from Afghanistan with no thought as to how it will impact the security or cohesion of their communities,' the statement continued.

'Americans understandably want to protect Afghans who risked their lives to fight w U.S. against the Taliban & Al-Qaeda,' it said. 'However, we must be careful that we do not allow the attitude behind the self-destructive open border policies & enforcement failures happening on our southern border to be repeated with the importation & resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans who we cannot properly vet and who may very well pose a security risk to our communities, and may be unable or unwilling to assimilate into our country.'

During his four years in office, Trump was an immigration hard-liner who vastly diminished the U.S.'s refugee program.

He also put in place a so-called 'Muslim ban,' which aimed to suspend travel and immigration from a handful of Muslim-majority countries.

He first announced his plans for a ban in December 2015, weeks before the beginning of the Republican primary.

Trump pushed to have the U.S. leave Afghanistan and signed a deal with the Taliban to remove all U.S. troops by May of this year.

Biden extended the deployment, with the aim to remove U.S. boots on the ground by August 31, less than two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, which prompted U.S. involvment in Afghanistan.
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The Biden administration's decision to round up hundreds of wild mustangs across the US Midwest is being sold as an effort to preserve the ecosystem and aid the horses and region from the ongoing 'megadrought.'

Though officials say it's done to help the region, others are criticizing the decision, saying it's being done to help cattle grazing.

'What were seeing here in the West gives some insight into a new norm,' Terry Messmer, a professor at Utah State University who studies wild horse management.

The wild horses are being rounded up with the aid of helicopters as the 'megadrought' has caused water levels in the area to decline precipitously, due to climate change.

A helicopter pushes wild horses during a roundup on July 16, 2021, near U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah

Earlier this month, officials said water levels at Lake Powell, on the Utah-Arizona border, fell 50 feet from the prior year.

The water levels at the Hoover Dam hit their lowest levels ever in June, reaching a level of 1,071.61 feet, the lowest since record keeping started in the 1930s.

In addition to these two lakes, others in the US have also hit record lows, including the Great Salt Lake, which hit its lowest levels since records began in 1847 last month.

California's Lake Oroville could hit a historic low later this month, despite the state's reservoirs normally reaching levels of 50 percent capacity during this time of year.

Government officials had to begin releasing water from sources upstream last month to keep the lake's level from dropping so low it would have threatened hydropower supplied by the dam.

The megadrought going on throughout the US west, a phrase that was recently coined, has been linked to climate change and may be the worst to hit the area in some 1,200 years, researchers said in April 2020.

The removals are adding fuel to longstanding conflicts with activists for the animals whose beauty and power make them an enduring emblem of the American West.

The horses are put into government corrals and pastures mostly in the West and Midwest managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), including the Ewing Wild Horse and Burro Off-Range Corral, before they are made available for public adoption.

Other horses wind up being used by law enforcement entities such as the US Border Patrol, while others go to prison inmate programs where they are tamed for future use.

Utah's Onaqui herd, which can weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds and are known for their brown and bay colors, have captured the imagination of Hollywood celebrities and Girl Scout troops alike.

Some horses have been given names, such as the patriarch 'Old Man,' a horse approximately 30 years old.

A free-ranging wild horse known as the Old Man is shown on July 14, 2021, as the sun sets near U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. He was left behind in a July roundup that removed about 300 other horses from the range

In a July 12 Facebook post, the non-profit American Wild Horse Campaign said the BLM would track Old Man's location and would not round up him as part of a larger effort.

Nonetheless, roughly 300 other horses were taken to be adopted or kept in captivity for the rest of their lives last month.

'It's really unfortunate the Biden administration continues to scapegoat the horses while giving a pass to livestock that have a greater impact on public lands,' Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign, told the Associated Press.

The BLM has oversight of nearly 250 million acres of public land, primarily in the West, and is tasked with managing the wild horse population.

Approximately 6,000 horses will be removed - mostly from Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming and Colorado, by October - as part of the plan to preserve the area, a 50 percent increase from 2020.

Eventually, land managers say they need to cut the number of wild horses by two-thirds to keep things in balance.

'In many places where wild horses and burros roam, virtually no vegetation was produced in the spring and early summer growing seasons,' said Jason Lutterman, spokesman for the National Wild Horse and Burro Program in Reno, Nevada.

Federal land managers are increasing the number of horses removed from the range this year during a historic drought

The Biden administration has issued reforms to ensure that the horses get put up for adoption and are not killed in slaughterhouses, but advocates worry problems could persist as long as the government offers a $1,000 adoption incentive.

Nonetheless, the advocates for the wild horses do acknowledge there is an issue caused by the megadrought, resulting in a lack of forage and water, but that removal of herds is unnecessary.

'The BLM has a drought trump card, and they use it sometimes when they want to take additional horses off the range,' AWHC's director of field operations Greg Hendricks explained.

Officials say it's necessary to protect the parched land and the animals themselves, but wild-horse advocates accuse them of using the conditions as an excuse to move out more of the iconic animals to preserve cattle grazing

Instead of rounding them up, advocates want to administer fertility treatments to limit the size of the herd without roundups that can be costly and tough on the animals, as one horse died during the Onaqui roundup.

To foster fertility treatments is difficult, given that new doses are required at least annually and they can be difficult to administer since the horses need to be tracked down and darted one at a time, Messmer said.

Cattle ranchers, meanwhile, say they've made voluntary changes to reduce grazing on federal lands. By hauling water to drought-stricken areas for their livestock, they've even helped the horses who drink it too, said Hunter Ihrman, a spokesman for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

The number of sheep and cattle that graze on leased public land is far larger than the number of wild horses, Messmer said. A key difference, though, is that livestock are part of the US economy.

'Americans like their McDonald's burgers. They like their Big Macs. They like all of those things, and all of those things have beef as part of it,' he said.

Free-ranging wild horses gallop from a watering trough on July 8, 2021, near U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah

Eventually, land managers want to double the number of removals, a step they say is essential across 10 Western states in the coming years. Wild horses are federally protected, so the plan, if approved by Congress, would increase costs to an annual high of about $360 million.

Without those changes, horses could die of thirst or starvation, they say. Dozens of horses were found dead near a dried-up watering hole in northern Arizona in 2018.

The wild horses now on the plains are largely descended from those brought by Europeans hundreds of years ago. Herds can double in size every four to five years, and when populations grow too high they destroy topsoil, disturb water supplies and eat grass essential to native species like the increasingly rare sage grouse, Messmer said.

Wild horses clash on July 16, 2021, near U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah

In recent weeks, federal land managers have conducted the largest helicopter roundup in Colorado in years, near the border with Utah. Meanwhile, volunteers trying to protect another herd nearby are working with the agency to get water to the horses using tanks, wells and water trucks, said Kathy DeGonia, president of Piceance Mustangs.

A wild horse walks to a watering trough on July 8, 2021, near U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah

Cattle ranchers say they've made voluntary changes to reduce grazing on federal lands and are hauling water to drought-stricken areas for their livestock, as well as horses

The rugged range of the Piceance-East Douglas herd is dotted with oil and gas production, so packed dirt roads make it easier to make water deliveries during the drought. Deliveries could run into November.

DeGonia's group also collaborates with federal officials on programs like sterilization and horse auctions.

'In a perfect world wed let all of these mustangs stay out there until they die,' she said. 'But theres just not enough food and water to maintain all the horses on the range.'
An underwater volcanic eruption near Japan has created a new, crescent-shaped island 745 miles south of Tokyo - although the new landmass will likely only be temporary.

Niijima, meaning 'new island', has a diameter of 0.6 miles and has emerged 3.1 miles north of Minami-Ioto, amid the Nanpo Islands that lie south of the Japanese archipelago.

The island formed from an eruption of Fukutoku-Okanoba, a submarine volcano which was first discovered in when it erupted back in 1904.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the submarine eruption  the volcanos first in over a decade  began early on August 13.

Japan Coast Guard officers caught the first sight of Niijima two days later.

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An underwater volcanic eruption near Japan has created a new, crescent-shaped island 745 miles south of Tokyo  but the new landmass will likely only be temporary. Pictured: Niijima ('new island') seen here 3.1 miles north of the remote island of Minami-Ioto in the Pacific

The island formed from an eruption of Fukutoku-Okanoba, a submarine volcano which was first discovered in 1904 and was last recorded to erupt in 2010

FUKUTOKU-OKANOBA Niijima  'new island'  formed from an eruption of Fukutoku-Okanoba, a submarine volcano which was last recorded to erupt in 2010. Fukutoku-Okanoba has produced three new islands in recorded history. The formation of the first  Shin-Iwo-jima, or 'New Sulphur Island'  being what first alerted researchers in 1904 to the existence of the island. Two other islands were birthed from the volcano in 1914 and 1986. However, all three were eventually lost to the sea thanks to erosion. Whether or not Niijima survives will depend a lot on how long the eruption lasts for and, by extension, what type of rocks the little landmass ends up being covered in. Ash and similar volcanic fragments are unlikely to be able to put up much resistance from the battering of the waves  however, if the volcanic activity continued to include lava flows, these could provide the island with a more durable coating. Advertisement

'According to the observation from the sky conducted by the Japan Coast Guard [on August 15], active eruptive activity is still continuing in Fukutoku-Okanoba, where the submarine eruption started on August 13,' said the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Based on their assessment of the eruption and its debris  and the possibility of further volcanic activity in the immediate future  the Japan Coast Guard has issued a navigation warning to all vessels in the area.

'Suspended matter  pumice stones, etc.  due to the eruption is flowing up to about 60 km (37 miles) in the northwest direction,' explained the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Sailors have also been advised to be wary of the risk of large volcanic bombs as well as violent horizontal eruptions of gas and ash known as base surges that can result from magmawater interactions.

The formation of new islands in some of Japan's southernmost waters would have geopolitical consequences if their appearance allowed authorities to claim an expansion to their territory.

However  should it survive in the long-term  Niijima is so close to Minami-Ioto that its addition would be unlikely to call for changes to the extent of Japan's territorial waters or exclusive economic zone, Japan's Daily News reported.

The appearance of new islands in the region is not without precedent.

In 2013, for example, an eruption formed a new island that ultimately merged with nearby Nishinoshima to form a mass that temporarily resembled Snoopy from Peanuts.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the submarine eruption began early on August 13, with Japan Coast Guard officers spotting Niijima two days later.

Niijima has a diameter of 0.6 miles and has emerged 3.1 miles north of Minami-Ioto, amid the Nanpo Islands that lie south of the Japanese archipelago

Based on their assessment of the eruption and its debris  and the possibility of further volcanic activity in the immediate future  the Japan Coast Guard has issued a navigation warning to all vessels in the area. Pictured: floating pumice material from the Fukutoku-Okanoba, seen here off of the coast of Io To (Iwo-jima)

Fukutoku-Okanoba's past additions to the Pacific seascape have proven only temporarily, however, with islands that first appeared in 1904, 1914 and 1986 having since all been lost to erosion.

Whether or not Niijima survives will depend a lot on how long the eruption lasts for and, by extension, what type of rocks the little landmass ends up being covered in.

Ash and similar volcanic fragments are unlikely to be able to put up much resistance from the battering of the waves  however, if the volcanic activity continued to include lava flows, these could provide the island with a more durable coating.

The appearance of new islands in the region is not without precedent  in 2013, for example, an eruption formed a new island (bottom left) that ultimately merged with nearby Nishinoshima (top left) to form a mass that temporarily resembled Snoopy from Peanuts (right)
China plans to launch a fleet of mile-long solar panels into space by 2035 and beam the energy back to Earth in a bid to meet its 2060 carbon neutral target.

Reports suggest that once fully operational by 2050, the space-based solar array will send a similar amount of electricity into the grid as a nuclear power station.

The idea for a space power station was first suggested by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1941 and has been explored by several countries including the UK and US.

Above the Earth there are no clouds and no day or night that could obstruct the sun's ray  making a space solar station a constant zero carbon power source.

However, the Chinese government appear to be ready to go from exploring the science and technology behind the idea, to putting a system into practice.

In the city of Chongqing, the Chinese government has broken ground on the new Bishan space solar energy station where it will begin tests by the end of the year, with the hope of having a functioning megawatt solar energy station by 2030.

It isn't clear how much the full space power station will cost to launch or operate, but it is expected to be operational by 2035 and at capacity by 2050.

Reports suggest that once fully operational by 2050, the space-based solar array will send a similar amount of electricity into the grid as a nuclear power station

The idea for a space power station was first suggested by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1941 and has been explored by several countries including the UK and US

SPACE-BASED SOLAR POWER (SBSP) The idea of Space-Based Solar Power stations has been around since 1941. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov first wrote about them in the short story Reason. In the story he wrote about a space station that transmits energy collected from the Sun to various planets using microwave beams. There were a number of concept designs from the 1970s but non were deemed economically viable. The basic concept involves a space station with a solar array to convert solar energy into electrical energy. Then it would use a microwave transmitter or laser emitter to transmit the energy to a collector on the Earth. The UK has joined Japan, China, Russia and the US in pursuing the idea of space based power generation. As of 2008, Japan made the idea of space solar power a national goal. Advertisement

A third of days in Chongqing city in southwestern China are marred with fog all year, making it an unlikely host for a research centre focused on solar power.

However, over the next decade a team based at the new centre will test and launch an array of solar panels into geostationary orbit.

It will start with just a megawatt of energy, but by 2049 this will be expended to a gigawatt of power, the same output as the largest nuclear power reactor in China.

Originally, ground was broken on the $15.4 million testing facility for the national space solar-power programme, in Heping village near Chongqing three years ago, but was delayed to make time for debates on cost, feasibility and safety.

However, those issues resolved, the project started up again in June with construction due to be finished by the end of the year.

The plan, once the first satellites are sent into orbit, will be to use an intensive energy beamed tightly focused on the new facility.

This is needed to penetrate the cloud and hit the ground station directly, with the orbiting station operating day and night.

Having solar panel array orbiting 22,400 miles above the Earth in geostationary orbit would allow the power station to avoid Earth's shadow and gather sunlight full time.

The researchers will work on the best design for sending the power back to the Earth, including building on existing long-range power transfer experiments.

It is thought that by using microwaves the team will be able to reduce the amount of energy lost as it passes through the atmosphere.

The basic concept involves a space station with a solar array to convert solar energy into electrical energy.

Then it would use a microwave transmitter or laser emitter to transmit the energy to a collector on the Earth.

Advantages of the technology include the fact it is always solar noon in space with a full sun and collecting surfaces could receive more intense sunlight than on Earth.

The UK Space Agency is also investigating the plausibility of space-based solar power stations as it would provide a constant zero carbon power source

It is estimated a large space power station would weigh several thousand tonnes, potentially requiring multiple launches to reach space

UK should build a 16.3BILLION space power station to help it achieve net-zero by 2050, report claims Building a 16.3 billion space power station would help the UK achieve net-zero by 2050, according to early findings from a report commissioned by the UK Space Agency in 2020. Solar power beamed from satellites could provide the UK with a continuous supply of green energy as soon as 2039, the agency said in an exclusive article in New Scientist. The final report is yet to be published, but early findings call for a network of satellites with solar panels placed in geostationary orbit. Each satellite would weigh about 2,000 tonnes and be about a mile across, collecting power constantly. They would then convert the power to a high frequency radio wave and beam it to the Earth where a 37 square mile array will be waiting to collect it. This array, like a giant fishing net, will catch the signal and convert it to electricity to feed into the grid. The report was produced by consultancy firm Frazer-Nash, who told a public meeting in July that the new technology was a good value investment for the UK. The proposed timeline would see a small trial in low Earth orbit later this decade, a full rollout in 2039. The proposed facility would have a capacity of 2 gigawatts, twice that of a Chinese proposal due to be online around the same time. The UK current generating capacity is about 76 GW including offshore wind. Report authors say with public investment, initial cost per megawatt hour will be about 50, similar to existing offshore wind farms but with a continuous supply of electricity. Advertisement

Scientists working out of the Bishan facility will first start by sending signals from balloons back to a receiving station, drawing on an earlier experiment that saw power sent over 980ft.

They hope to send up an airship to collect solar energy in the stratosphere and beam it 15 miles back to the base station once the building is complete.

As well as working on a space system to power the grid, the team will also develop other applications such as using energy beams to power long-distance drones.

Spread over 4.9 acres and surrounded by a clearance zone covering an area over 25 acres, the facility will have a safe buffer zone for experimental beams.

This is because Chinese studies have shown the risk of a space solar plant is 'not negligible' due to the potential for vibrations in the solar array causing misfires in the microwave beaming gun.

The Chinese team are working on ensuring it has an extremely sophisticated flight control system to maintain its aim at a tiny spot on Earth.

Radiation is another risk as people would not be able to live within a 3 mile range of the ground receiving station once it ramps up to a gigawatt of power.

Other countries are also said to be exploring the idea of space-based solar energy, including the US Military who believe it could be used to power drones and remote military outposts.

There are also concerns over the weaponisation of space as the energy beam could be used to take out hypersonic missiles and aircraft from a distance, or even cause a blackout over an entire city, defence analysts have warned.

The UK Space Agency commissioned a feasibility study into the concept in 2020, finding that the rapidly reducing cost of rocket launches would soon make it a viable way to reduce carbon emissions.

Historically, the cost of rocket launches and the weight that would be required for a project of this scale, made the idea of space-based solar unfeasible.

It is estimated a large space power station would weigh several thousand tonnes, potentially requiring multiple launches to reach space.

But despite that, the UK Space Agency study found that the Cost of Electricity produced by the stations, and send to Earth would be less than 3.79 per MWh.

For comparison ground based solar and onshore wind are currently about 36 per megawatt hour, a standard measurement, and nuclear is about 50 per MWh.
Ancient coins believed to be 1,700 years-old that may have been aboard a ship navigating the Mediterranean Sea have been discovered on an Israeli beach, officials said on Tuesday.

The coins were discovered by tour guide Yotam Dahan, who found the coins while on vacation with his family on Neveh Yam beach near Atlit, Israel, according to YNet News.

Dahan saw something sparkly sticking out of the sand, which turned out to be the 13-pound lump of coins, that he later posted to Facebook.

Coins believed to be 1,700 years-old have been discovered on an Israeli beach

Tour guide Yotam Dahan found them while camping with his family on Neveh Yam beach near Atlit, Israel

Upon posting to social media, Dahan was contacted by the Israel Antiquities Authority's (IAA) to get the exact location of the discovery.

Dr Donald Zvi-Ariel, a coin expert for the IAA, estimated the doubloons are from the 4th century.

The coins found by Yotam Dahan (pictured) were turned into a giant ball by the salty seawater

The salty seawater turned the massive hoard of coins into the giant ball discovered by Dayan.

Dahan was given a certificate of appreciation by the IAA after handing the coins over to the organization.

'Handing such findings over to the national collection helps us, the archaeologists, complete more parts of the puzzle that is the history of the Land of Israel,' Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Karem Said told Ynet.

A coin expert estimated the doubloons are from the 4th century and may have been on a ship that traveled the Mediterranean

Speaking with the Jerusalem Post, IAA marine archeology department head Jacob Sharvit said it's possible the coins were once aboard a ship sailing the Mediterranean.

'Archaeological sites are prevalent all along the Habonim beach strip,' Sharvit said.

'Archaeological records show vessels were often washed ashore along with all their cargo.

'The bundle of coins found shows they were packed together and agglutinated due to oxidation of the metals.'

Sharvit told YNet that the area in which the coins were discovered neighbors other archeological sites that show there was human activity in the area as far back as 9,000 years ago.

There is also evidence of maritime activity that dates to 4,000 years ago, Sharvit added.
Cremated remains, wedding rings and bullets have been uncovered by a team of archaeologists searching for evidence of a Nazi war crime in Poland's 'Death Valley'.

In the opening months of WW2, Nazi soldiers executed 30-35,000 Polish civilians in the Pomeranian province, soon after occupying the country.

The site of these killings gained the local name 'Death Valley,' and before the end of the war in 1945 Nazis returned to exhume and burn the victims to hide their crimes.

Despite efforts to hide the atrocious actions, abundant evidence of the massacres have been uncovered by experts from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

To gather the proof of what happened, the team of experts examined archives, worked with locals, and carried out archaeological investigations in the area.

Archaeologists working in 'Death Valley,' one of at least 400 locations these massacres took place, uncovered a mass grave and hundreds of artefacts such as victims' possessions including wedding rings, as well as bullets.

Gateway to the Cemetery of the Victims of Nazi Crimes in Chojnice. Cremated remains, wedding rings and bullets have been uncovered by a team of archaeologists searching for evidence of a Nazi war crime in Poland's 'Death Valley'

One of the weeding rings discovered in 2020 in Death Valley. The owner of the artefact was identified during archival research. It belonged to Irena Szydowska, a courier of the (Polish) Home Army

Research in Death Valley. From left: Anna Kobiaka, Dawid Kobiaka and Filip Wadoch. In the opening months of WW2, Nazi soldiers executed 30-35,000 Polish civilians in the Pomeranian province, soon after occupying the country

Piasnica massacres: Mass executions by Nazi soldiers in Poland Mass executions carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II in Piasnica, Poland, have become known as the Piasnica massacres. They happened between the Autumn of 1939 and spring of 1940 in Piasnica Wielka in the Darzlubska Wilderness near Wejherowo. It isn't clear exactly how many died, but the area later became known as Death Valley to the locals. Estimates in this area are up to 15,000 victims, with the wider death toll for the whole set of 400 or more killing sites as much as 35,000. Later studies revealed that most of the victims were Polish intellectuals, but there were also Jewish people, Czechs and German inmates from mental hospitals murdered. It was the first large scale Nazi atrocity in occupied Poland. Advertisement

The war crimes, which gave Death Valley its name, were part of a coordinated campaign in which the Nazis executed 12,000 civilians in the area around the village of Piasnica from late 1939 to early 1940, and just one of many similar mass-killings.

Lead author Dr Dawid Kobiaka, from the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the other researchers also explored archival material worked with the local community to gain more insight into these events.

'As a kid living near Death Valley, I used to play with my friends there,' said Dr Kobiaka, 'Three decades later, I discovered a mass grave of 500 Poles there.'

After the war, the remains of 168 of the victims were uncovered at the site, and local knowledge suggested that several other mass graves remained, that had not been found by the Nazis when they arrived to cover up their crimes in 1945.

As such, a new research project returned to the site to uncover more about these war crimes, led by Dr Kobiaka and his team.

They consulted historical records and, worked with the local community, and carried out non-invasive surveys, unfortunately this culminated in limited excavations.

'Without any doubt, the most important result of the research in 2020 in Death Valley was locating a mass grave from 1945,' said Dr Kobiaka, adding the team also uncovered hundreds of artefacts from the massacres.

'Among the most important artefacts found was a woman's wedding ring,' said Dr Kobiaka, 'It was identified by doctor Dariusz Burczyk from the Institute of National Remembrance, Poland as belonging to Irena Szydowska.

Aerial image documenting a line of trenches in Death Valley in 1940. The site of these killings gained the local name 'Death Valley,' and before the end of the war in 1945 Nazis returned to exhume and burn the victims to hide their crimes

Personal belongings of the victims murdered in Death Valley in the second half of 1945. Despite efforts to hide the atrocious actions, abundant evidence of the massacres have been uncovered by experts from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw

Despite efforts to hide the atrocious actions, abundant evidence of the massacres have been uncovered by experts from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw

photographs of the funeral of victims murdered in Death Valley. Archaeologists working in 'Death Valley,' one of at least 400 locations these massacres took place, uncovered a mass grave and hundreds of artefacts such as victims' possessions including wedding rings, as well as bullets

She was a courier of the Polish Home Army, and since the discovery her family has been informed about the finding, and the plan is to return the ring to them.

The investigation also helps shed light on the identity of the victims, revealing one of the 1945 massacres was of a column of prisoners from the Polish resistance.

'It is believed that more victims killed in Death Valley will be identified soon and their families will be informed about what really happened to their beloved ones,' said Dr Kobiaka.

A social and cultural aspect of the project: conversations with local people about the research and its goals

reconstruction of a line of trenches based on LIDAR data. The war crimes, which gave Death Valley its name, were part of a coordinated campaign in which the Nazis executed 12,000 civilians in the area around the village of Piasnica from late 1939 to early 1940, and just one of many similar mass-killings

fragments of burned human bones preserved on the surface of the wood. After the war, the remains of 168 of the victims were uncovered at the site, and local knowledge suggested that several other mass graves remained, that had not been found by the Nazis when they arrived to cover up their crimes in 1945

A wristwatch was among personal belongings of the victims murdered in Death Valley in the second half of 1945

An area of almost 10 acres was the subject of geophysical surveys by the study authors and a number of anomalies were discovered.

Without doubt, some of these can be linked with the massacres in Death Valley during the Second World War, the authors wrote.

Metal-detector surveys were also a crucial element of the project, and eight test trenches were opened at various locations on the northern outskirts of Chojnice.

Examples of charred wood used to build a stack on which the bodies of victims were burned

Urszula Steinke who lost her father in 1939 in Death Valley sat down to speak with study author Dawid Kobiaka

Alojzy Sominski, the father of Urszula Steinke is pictured left and Wadysaw Krecki, the father of Aleksandra Lubinska is seen on the right

Aleksandra Lubinska who lost her father in 1939 in Death Valley was one of dozens of local residents who sat down with author Dawid Kobiakato discuss what happened

A handful of objects dated back to the 19th Century, including musket bullets and civilian buttons - but most came from the time of the mass killings of the Autumn of 1939 and the second half of January 1945.

'We located the spot where the victims from January 1945 were killed and believed to have been burned in a stack formation,' the team wrote.

'Preserved fragments of wood confirm the accuracy of the witness testimonies, according to which the bodies, and the stack, were doused with a flammable substance and set on fire.

One of the mass graves in the Cemetery of the Victims of Nazi Crimes in Chojnice. The investigation also helps shed light on the identity of the victims, revealing one of the 1945 massacres was of a column of prisoners from the Polish resistance

Trenches used as mass graves by Germans in Death Valley in 1939: a) reconstruction of a line of trenches based on LIDAR data

An aerial imaginary of Death Valley in January 2021. A handful of objects dated back to the 19th Century, including musket bullets and civilian buttons - but most came from the time of the mass killings of the Autumn of 1939 and the second half of January 1945

An earring found in the trenches dug by the team. Follow up examinations of written records suggest women were among the victims killed in Death Valley

'The presence of valuable items belonging to the victims demonstrates that the bodies were not robbed; these artefacts also allow the possibility of identifying individuals through their possessions.'

The discovery of the cremated bones of victims is the most important result of the project, said Dr Kobiaka, as they were scattered on the surface of the ground.

'The discoveries at Death Valley have resulted in the opening of an official prosecution case by the National Institute of Remembrance, Poland, against those responsible for the massacre,' he said.

'Although the perpetrators are most likely dead, their crimes will not be forgotten.'

The findings have been published in the journal Antiquity.
Pandemic lockdowns led to an explosion in virtual private networks (VPNs), but a new report warns these 'private tunnels' are vulnerable to a particularly insidious attack that analyzes the size of the data packets zipping through them.

Disguising IP addresses, VPNs link user and their provider's data center, assigning each one of tens of thousands of 'ports,' or digital on and off-ramps, for the data to travel through.

Data packets sent over a VPN tunnel are encrypted and then encapsulated inside an outer packet before they're routed.

In the proposed attack, outer data packets of various sizes are sent to numerous ports. Most won't be the right size and will be rejectedbut if one hits the right port, it'll get forwarded on.

A hacker monitoring traffic could see the size of the packet that made it through and, from there, modify their source address so the system thinks something is coming from the other end of the VPN tunnel.

At that point, the cybercriminals can infect users with malicious data or send them to a bogus website

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A new report suggests hackers can exploit VPNs by blitzing them with data packets of various sizes. If one gets forwarded on, they can then modify their source address so the system thinks something is coming from the other end of the VPN tunnel

Regular office workers aren't the likely targets of such an attack, which would require a physical presence in the right part of an IT network to pull off.

'These attacks can't be performed by some kid in the basement,' Gareth Tyson, a cybersafety expert at Queen Mary University of London, told New Scientist. 'It's something that does require some dedicated effort, and in some cases a pretty powerful adversary.'

It would more likely be employed 'in an authoritarian regime where the state controls all the infrastructure,' Tyson added.

The vulnerability was uncovered by a team led by computer scientist William Tolley, a graduate student at Arizona State University and co-founder of Breakpointing Bad, a nonprofit that focuses on 'technical security issues motivated by privacy, free speech, and human rights,' according to its website.

The attack would require 'dedicated effort' and a physical presence in the right part of an IT network to work. Experts say the most likely culprit would be a totalitarian regime with complete control over the infrastructure

Such a Trojan horse attack would work on any VPN, Tolley said.



'This is more fundamental than a cute trick,' he told New Scientist. 'It's a fundamental networking vulnerability.'

Breakingpoint Bad's stated goal is 'to provide technical expertise and capabilities to at-risk populations subjected to repressive and authoritarian control.'

WHAT IS A VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK? A Virtual Private Network (VPN) extends across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data while maintaining the secrecy of a private network. VPN's are often used to allow employees to access the server of their office/workplace to allow for mobile working. They increase privacy and the internet security of users connected to public networks. They are also used to link offices/branches of the same company that are in different locations. Theoretically, all the information that passes through a VPN secure and can not be intercepted by anyone else. Although they do not offer total anonymity online, they are often used to optimise privacy. VPN's can also be used by individuals to allow them to get around geographical restrictions and censorship - for example, accessing the Netflix of the US from the UK or vice versa. Their use in 'geo-spoofing' locations is also used in to aid freedom of speech as many users wish to escape the limitations placed on their browsing by employers, organisations or third-parties. A VPN can also help protect you against malware or cons on the web. Advertisement

'Protecting network protocols within an encrypted tunnel, using technologies such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), is increasingly important to millions of users needing solutions to evade censorship or protect their traffic against in/on-path observers/attackers,' reads a blog post on the site.

Tolley's report, presented at the virtual Usenix Security Symposium last week, adds to the evidence that VPNs are not the bulletproof shield against hacking some companies believe them to be.

Two weeks ago, Cisco Systems rolled out a series of patches to address critical vulnerabilities in a subset of its small-business VPN routers that would allow hackers to take over a device remotely, Threat Post reported.

Security experts warned that nearly 9,000 systems could have been compromised.

According to the security-exposure firm Tenable, an unauthenticated user could send a specially designed HTTP request to a device, 'resulting in arbitrary code-execution as well as the ability to reload the device, resulting in a denial of service (DoS).'

No actual breaches were reported, though.

More broadly a VPN won't protect users against malware, phishing or other cyberattacks that don't require access to your IP address.

Unsuspecting users can still be exposed if they visit unauthorized sites or try to download third-party content.

In July, a joint advisory from the United States' FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the UK's National Cyber Security Center and Australia's Cyber Security Center indicated four of the 30 most exploited online vulnerabilities between 2018 and 2020 resided in VPNs, cloud-based services, and other tech designed to give users access to employer networks remotely.

'Many VPN gateway devices remained unpatched during 2020,' according to Ars Technica, at the height of the work-from-home trend.

Breakingpoint Bad says they reported the flaw to several VPN providers, but don't expect all VPNs will be updated to resolve the vulnerability.

'Our advice is to avoid VPNs if you're trying to keep your information private from government entities, or something like that,' Tolley told New Scientist
Scientists say a global environmental treaty that was signed more than 30 years ago helped save our planet from 4.5F global warming.

Without the Montreal Protocol, which was agreed in 1987 and led to a ban on ozone-depleting chemicals, researchers said we would already be facing the reality of a 'scorched Earth'.

They painted a dramatic picture of the 'World Avoided' thanks to what is regarded as one of the most important international treaties in history.

It was signed after the discovery of a hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic, the part of the upper atmosphere where ozone is found in high concentrations.

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Influential: The Montreal Protocol, a global treaty that was signed more than 30 years ago, helped save our planet from 4.5F global warming, scientists have said. It was agreed after the discovery of a hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic  seen here in 2006, at its largest

In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was agreed, which led to the phase-out of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and later the first signs of recovery of the ozone layer

WHAT ARE CHLORO-FLUOROCARBONS (CFCS)? Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are nontoxic, nonflammable chemicals containing atoms of carbon, chlorine, and fluorine. They are used in the manufacture of aerosol sprays, blowing agents for foams and packing materials, as solvents, and as refrigerants. CFCs are classified as halocarbons, a class of compounds that contain atoms of carbon and halogen atoms. Individual CFC molecules are labelled with a unique numbering system. For example, the CFC number of 11 indicates the number of atoms of carbon, hydrogen, fluorine, and chlorine. Whereas CFCs are safe to use in most applications and are inert in the lower atmosphere, they do undergo significant reaction in the upper atmosphere or stratosphere where they cause damage. Advertisement

New modelling by an international team of scientists from the UK, USA and New Zealand revealed that if ozone-harming chemicals had been left unchecked global air temperatures would have risen by an additional 4.5F by the end of this century.

Banning the chemicals, which include chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once widely used in fridges and spray cans, protected the climate in two ways, the research found.

It helped curb their greenhouse effect and, by protecting the ozone layer, shielded plants from damaging increases in ultraviolet radiation (UV).

Ozone absorbs UV, preventing most of it from reaching the ground.

Critically, this has protected the plants' ability to soak up and lock in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thus prevented a further acceleration of climate change.

The research team's modelling brought together data on ozone depletion, plant damage by increased UV, the carbon cycle and climate change.

It showed an alternative future of Earth where the use of CFCs continued to grow by three per cent a year.

This would have led to worldwide collapse in the ozone layer by the 2040s and 60 per cent less ozone above the tropics by 2100.

The strength of the UV from the Sun in mid-latitudes, which includes most of Europe including the UK, US and central Asia, and also New Zealand, would be stronger than the present day tropics by 2050.

The depleted ozone layer would have seen the planet, and its vegetation, exposed to far more of the Sun's UV.

Plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis and studies have shown that large increases in UV can restrict plant growth, damaging their tissues and impairing their ability to undertake photosynthesis. This means the plants absorb less carbon.

Less carbon in vegetation also results in less carbon becoming locked into soils, which is what happens to a lot of plant matter after it dies. All of this would have happened on a global scale.

The researchers' models show that in a world without the Montreal Protocol the amount of carbon absorbed by plants, trees and soils would have dramatically plummeted over this century.

With less carbon in plants and soils, more of it remains in the atmosphere as CO2.

Overall, by the end of this century without the Montreal Protocol CFC ban there would have been:

580 billion tons less carbon stored in forests, other vegetation and soils;

An additional 165-215 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, depending on the future scenario of fossil fuel emissions. Compared to today's 420 parts per million CO2, this is an additional 40-50 per cent;

The huge amount of additional CO2 would also have contributed to an additional 1.4F (0.8C) of warming through its greenhouse effect.

These models show the effects on the productivity and stores of the terrestrial carbon cycle. The purple line is what is currently projected for Earth, while the orange is the 'World Avoided'

These models show the effect of UV-driven changes in vegetation on atmospheric CO2 and surface temperature. The purple line is what is projected for Earth and the orange is what was avoided thanks to the Montreal Protocol

WHAT WAS THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL? The Montreal Protocol international environmental agreement is to protect the ozone layer through reductions in ozone-depleting substances (ODS) such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). It aims to phase out global CFC production by 2010. The 1987 protocol banned CFCs and other industrial aerosols that chemically dissolve ozone 6-25 miles (10-40km) above Earth's surface, especially over Antarctica and Australia. Since its adoption in 1987 and as of end-2014, it has successfully eliminated over 98 per cent of controlled ODS, helping reverse the damage to the ozone layer. A very significant co-benefit is that it has - during period 1989-2013 - reduced cumulative CO2-eq. emissions by 135 billion tonnes. Advertisement

Ozone depleting substances, such as CFCs, are also potent greenhouse gases and previous research has shown that their ban prevented their contribution to global warming through their greenhouse effect.

By the end of this century, their greenhouse effect alone would have contributed an additional 3F (1.7C) global warming.

This is in addition to the newly quantified 1.4F (0.8C) warming, coming from the extra CO2 that would have resulted from damaged vegetation, meaning that temperatures would have risen 4.5F (2.5C) overall.

Dr Paul Young, lead author from Lancaster University, said: 'Our new modelling tools have allowed us to investigate the scorched Earth that could have resulted without the Montreal Protocol's ban on ozone depleting substances.

'A world where these chemicals increased and continued to strip away at our protective ozone layer would have been catastrophic for human health, but also for vegetation. The increased UV would have massively stunted the ability of plants to soak up carbon from the atmosphere, meaning higher CO2 levels and more global warming.

'With our research, we can see that the Montreal Protocol's successes extend beyond protecting humanity from increased UV to protecting the ability of plants and trees to absorb CO2.

'Although we can hope that we never would have reached the catastrophic world as we simulated, it does remind us of the importance of continuing to protect the ozone layer. Entirely conceivable threats to it still exist, such as from unregulated use of CFCs.'

The planet has already seen 1.8F (1C) warming from pre-industrial temperatures.

Even if we had somehow managed to get to net zero CO2 emissions, the additional 4.5F (2.5C) rise would take us to a rise of 6.3F (3.5C).

This is far in excess of the 2.7F (1.5C) rise above pre-industrial levels that many scientists see as the most global temperatures can rise in order to avoid some of the most damaging effects of climate change.

Dr Chris Huntingford of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said: 'This analysis reveals a remarkable linkage, via the carbon cycle, between the two global environmental concerns of damage to the ozone layer and global warming.'

The research has been published in the journal Nature.
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NASA has marked the Curiosity rover's ninth anniversary on Mars by unveiling a new panoramic image of the Martian landscape, a locale that may explain why the Red Planet became dry.

The panoramic image, which was put together on July 3 by stitching 129 individual images together, shows Curiosity's current home, Mount Sharp, a 5-mile-tall mountain inside Mars' Gale Crater.

NASA marked the Curiosity rover's ninth anniversary on Mars by unveiling a new panoramic image. The panoramic image was put together on July 3 by stitching 129 individual images together of Mount Sharp

The image was created by the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam.

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Upon arrival at Mount Sharp in 2014, Curiosity has been traveling up the rock formation for the past several years and is now in an area that is full of clay minerals and sulfates

Upon arrival at Mount Sharp in 2014, Curiosity has been traveling up the rock formation for the past several years.

Spacecraft show it is somewhere between a region full of clay minerals and one with sulfates.

NASA believes this area of the peak (officially known as Aeolis Mons), may provide answers why the Gale Crater, which was likely once home to water, eventually went dry.

The image was created by the Curisoity rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam

'The rocks here will begin to tell us how this once-wet planet changed into the dry Mars of today, and how long habitable environments persisted even after that happened,' said Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity's deputy project scientist in a statement.

NASA has released several panorama images taken by Curiosity in the past, including ones created from thousands of images of the Martian landscape in March 2020.

Since Curiosity landed on August 5, 2012, not only has it explored a number of different Martian environments in the Gale Crater, but it also has looked at the soil to determine whether chemicals and minerals are still present.

According to the US space agency, Curiosity recently drilled its 32nd rock sample from the 'Pontours' target that will give experts an idea how the area transitioned from clay minerals, which are usually a sign of water, to sulfates.

According to the US space agency, Curiosity recently drilled its 32nd rock sample from the 'Pontours' target

NASAs Curiosity Mars rover has used the drill on its robotic arm to take 32 rock samples. The images were taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager, a camera on the end of Curiosity's robotic arm

Last month, scientists analyzed samples taken by Curiosity from the Gale Crater collected in and found they may contain remnants of a glauconitic clay that suggests Mars was habitable for up to a million years.

In the nine years that Curiosity has been on Mars, it has driven 16 miles inside the Gale Crater, after touching down at the Bradbury Landing Site, named for science fiction writer Ray Bradbury.

Curiosity landed inside Mars' Gale Crater on August 6, 2012 at a spot now known as Bradbury Landing

'Landing day is still one of the happiest days of my professional career,' the mission's new project manager, Megan Richardson Lin, added in the statement.

'We're driving a robot as it explores another planet. Seeing how new discoveries and scientific results guide each day's activities is extremely rewarding.'

Curiosity will eventually move onto the 'Rafael Navarro Mountain' and a butte on Mars that is higher than a four-story building, according to the US space agency.

Over the next 12 months, the rover will drive past the mountain and butte into a canyon, then revisit the 'Greenheugh Pediment,' a slope that it briefly traversed last year.

In May, NASA said the Curiosity rover may have discovered organic, or carbon-containing, salts on Mars, which the agency said could be chemical remnants of organic compounds.
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For most travellers, being stranded miles away from home during a global pandemic is the stuff of nightmares - but not for this wildlife photographer.

Felix Rome, from Salisbury, has been stuck at Governors' Camp in the Masai Mara in Kenya since March this year shortly before the country was added to the UK's red list. He can't afford to go home and quarantine and can't get a vaccine, as Kenya has a shortage. Yet the situation for him is a 'dream come true'.

He has the run of the reserve and is spending his days getting up close and personal with wonderful wildlife  lions, leopards, hippos, elephants and crocodiles - and taking pictures he's been hoping to capture since a young boy.

The 24-year-old told MailOnline Travel, from his tent while watching a herd of elephants: 'I've spoken to my family and said I might be here until 2022. I am torn because I miss my family and friends, but it's a dream come true out here. I'm the only photographer driving around taking photos. I go out and I'm the only one with a pride of lions.

'I can see a lion every day if I want to and it's just me. They are so unafraid of the car because they haven't seen many for a long time, so everything gets much closer than normal as well. As a photographer, it's a dream come true and I've got pictures I've been dreaming of since a young boy.'

He added: 'I have missed some sad events [at home], which was quite hard, but you have to roll with it and I don't know if this is ever going to happen again. I want to make the most of every single minute. I'm slightly torn because I want these camps to have business and money coming through, but at the same time I'm loving the fact it's so quiet.' Scroll down to see some of the incredible shots he's captured in 'captivity'

'The jackal is one of my favourite animals in the Mara,' said Felix. 'I hadn't spent much time around them before this trip, but they have shown me there is more to the Mara than just lions and elephants. When I watch them, I can't help but think of the common fox back in England. The fox often eluded me in the English countryside, but the jackal is much keener to have its photo taken. This little guy was very inquisitive and to my delight took a path through the long grass towards me. The Mara right now has very long grass which makes it difficult to photograph the smaller mammals. But this jackal knew of my struggle and decided to walk in a perfect path with no grass in the way'

'Ever since I arrived in the Mara I've had a fascination with hippos,' said Felix. 'The way they break out in fights, seemingly over nothing or yawn as a sign of intimidation - they have always intrigued me. You never know what you're going to get when you watch hippos. They could be completely quiet, no noise, no mess, no fuss, but other times there could be a huge squabble that goes on for seemingly no reason'

'Nature isn't always pretty,' said Felix, commenting on this image. 'It's ruthless sometimes and can be upsetting.' He explained that before he shot this image he received a text saying 'come outside tent 3, something crazy is happening'. He continued: 'I was awake for less than five minutes before witnessing a sad sight. A baby hippo had been caught by an enormous male crocodile. The mother got out of the water to inspect her child. She wanted to see if it was still alive and worth saving. She did this a few times before moaning in distress and anguish for her lost child. Many hours passed before another, smaller crocodile arrived on the scene and the meal commenced'

'Elephants make you feel small, no matter how tall you are,' said Felix. 'When you have a large bull elephant staring you down (as seen in this image), you feel insignificant. They could squash you with ease. There is something about them that makes you want to watch them for hours. They move with such grace that you wouldn't think they could be harmful at all. But if push comes to shove, they are the most powerful land animal on the planet'

'It was apparent from the first sunrise I saw in the Mara this year, that this was the time I was going to get the photographs I have been dreaming of,' said Felix. 'There is something magical about watching the sunrise over vast grasslands with elephants, lions, buffalo and hippo all wandering amongst the plains. The thing that keeps me hooked on wildlife photography is the unknown. When taking this pic, I had one of those mornings where everything worked. The sunrise was stunning. A herd of elephants was in the open and a couple of lions were wandering the plains in search of food. It's not often you get mornings like these as a photographer and you're full by 8:30am'

"'Cats Sleep Anywhere' was a poem my sister learnt when she was 10,' said Felix. 'It rings true. Cats really do sleep anywhere. This may not be an unusual place for a leopard to sleep, but I have never seen a leopard actually posed in the "classic shot" situation before. I wanted this shot to be face to face rather than side-on. I love how the two trees provide a frame'

'The alarm goes off,' said Felix, 'you get up and hop into the jeep as the pre-dawn light glows in pink and orange. Five minutes later you're watching a herd of Elephants at sunrise. This is safari. It's not often I see elephants in the open at sunrise. They tend to come out of the forest in the early morning so I never get them with beautiful light like this. This day was different. As the sun rose, a female posed in front of the rising sun, creating a halo effect around her head'

'If you think you have nerves of steel, trying going face to face with a lion on the hunt,' said Felix. 'This image is a snapshot of a magical encounter I had with two female lions, just a few metres from me. I was lying on the floor of the jeep hanging out the side slightly to get a lower perspective. As the lions walked past, one of them shot me a glance I'll never forget. Once they had past, my heart was pounding. You get a real appreciation of their size, power and beauty when you are on the same level and only a foot away from them'

Felix said: 'I've spoken to my family and said I might be here until 2022. I am torn because I miss my family and friends, but it's a dream come true out here'

There are seven camps in the Governors' Camp collection, spread over five locations approximately five miles apart

Felix said: 'The beauty of where I am is that the animals are so close, they are right around the camps'

'I go out on a game drive every day and then edit the pictures,' explained Felix. 'I also sometimes do hot air balloon rides so I can get aerial shots'

'I can move between the various camps along the river,' revealed Felix. 'They are all fairly close together. Each one has different animals that have taken over'

'I always loved animals,' said Felix. 'I remember from when I was tiny and said I want to be a wildlife cameraman because of the David Attenborough BBC programmes. Id go out in the woodland and wander around looking at insects and birds. I was very much a nature kid.' Pictured is Governors Il Moran Camp

Felix is no stranger to wild times. He revealed: 'I spent two months camping in the wilderness in Canada with no power, no internet and no cell phone reception. I had to wash in a river and catch salmon for dinner. I am very used to being away and out alone in the wilderness, so coming out here has been lovely as I have the luxury of a nice tent and warm water to have a nice shower, rather than washing in a freezing cold glacial river'

A lioness with three adorable cubs. Felix said: 'I had the pleasure of following this family one morning. As the sun rose over the Mara planes the cubs skipped through the long grass. It was a magical sight'

'I took this image in one of my YouTube videos,' explained Felix. 'If you've been watching them, you will know I love clean images, and it doesn't get cleaner than this. This female lion was chilling on top of a termite mound in the mid-morning sun. She had a great vantage point to find her next meal. I was with her for an hour before she decided to get up and head towards the river for a drink, where she met up with friend'

'I have been following a family of African marsh owls for the past week,' said Felix. 'Always a pleasure to observe an animal that's often not seen in the Mara. It took a few days for them to get used to the jeep, but afterwards they became perfectly comfortable with my presence. I'm hoping to continue following them in the next few weeks as I would love to make a video about these beautiful owls. In England, I'm only used to seeing tawny owls and the occasional barn owl, which often are seen late at night. But with these marsh owls I was able to watch them fly around, hunt and interact with one another at sunrise and in the early morning. It has been one of my most enjoyable wildlife encounters to date'

'Some morning safaris are better than others,' said Felix. 'This was a good morning. I managed to see and photograph a marsh owl at sunrise, then I found a pride of lions enjoying playtime'

'The more time I spend on safari, the more I appreciate birds,' said Felix. 'I was a lover of birds when I was younger but I haven't had that spark for a while. Until now. [Here] two long-crested eagles battle it out. I'm not sure what it was about but one swooped in and attacked the other. Long-crested eagles have risen high on my favourites list this trip. I hope to see more of them'

'Storm clouds and a subject is a photographer's dream,' said Felix. 'Having a dramatic, moody sky lifts a photo in an unusual way. Pamoja is an iconic lion here in the Mara, and she has three adorable cubs. One morning I saw her walking along the road, she was looking for her cubs. She found a termite mound and began scanning the grassland in search of the cubs. The clouds then rolled in, making for a stunning scene'

'The Mara is famous for elephants and lions roaming vast expanses of grassland,' said Felix. 'The sky is enormous. Uninterrupted storm clouds roll in as shards of light pierce through the dark sky, painting the landscape. It is a magical place. One morning the clouds rolled in as a line of elephants crossed the plains. A shard of light lit the grass behind them enhancing their outline from the landscape'

'Giraffes have always been one of my favourite animals to watch,' said Felix. 'They stroll gracefully across the plains, acting as moving perches for small birds. I took this image while spending a week in isolation after I arrived at camp. This group (a journey) passed by in front of my tent. I couldn't resist getting the camera out and taking an image of these beautiful, towering animals'

'In the early hours of the morning here in the Mara, you might be lucky enough to find a hippo roaming the grassland,' revealed Felix. 'They do this because it's cooler. During the day, it's too hot for them and their skin will dry out and burn. This male was casually feeding on a tasty tuft of grass. When they are out of the water you get new-found respect for their size, often missed when they are just poking their heads out of the water'

'Romi the leopard is one of the most gorgeous cats I have ever seen,' said Felix. 'I had the privilege of spending some time with her late one evening. Leopards are a prized animal on safari. Everyone wants to see them but often don't get the chance as they will avoid large groups of people and cars. It takes a while and a lot of searching to find a leopard, but even longer to get a good photo. Fortunately, this time, it was just us and we had the time to watch her quietly. This was one of the most memorable wildlife encounters in my life. One that will stay with me for a long time. Thank you, Romi!'

LEFT: This picture was taken during a hot air balloon trip. Felix said: 'As we glided over the marsh, the pilot spotted what he thought was a rock, but as we got closer it was no rock. A ginormous rock python was devouring a waterbuck. I had never seen anything like it. We floated over the scene only a few metres above, providing a fantastic view. I had heard stories and seen the odd video of the behaviour, but never something as big as a waterbuck being eaten, maybe an impala. I managed to grab a photo before we floated past. That python would have taken a week to digest its grand meal.' RIGHT: 'Serval are undoubtedly my favourite cat in the Masai Mara,' said Felix. 'They remind me of mini leopards as they walk stealthily through the long grass. Some are very inquisitive and come up to the jeep, where others disappear into the long grass, never to be seen again. I've seen quite a lot of servals in my time, but now, with fewer people around, I have managed to get the images I've been wanting so much. Servals hunt by listening out for any movement in the grass. Once they've locked onto a target, they spring up into the air and pounce down. I am desperate to get a photo of this particular occurrence - I'll get it one day!'

Felix said: 'The beauty of a hot air balloon flight in the Mara is it grants you a unique perspective of the landscape. Animals that once seemed big, hide in the landscape. Flying over a pod of hippos shows you a new and interesting angle. I love hippo pods from above, you see more of them and the way they interact with their environment'

Describing this image, Felix said: 'This image was taken on my first evening game drive after spending a week in isolation. This female lion gave us a huge yawn as she began preparing for the evening hunt'

Felix, left and right, was originally offered a three-month stint at Governors' Camp. He said: 'I came out here in March this year but two weeks into arriving the country went into lockdown so no one was coming in and out. Ive been stuck in the Mara since then. It was going to be just under three months but Im approaching nearly six'

Governors Camp Collection was started over 40 years ago by Aris and Romi Grammaticas. Governors Camp was Africas 'first luxury permanent tented camp and has been a pioneer in classic safaris'. This image is of Sandra, one of the waitresses
Broadcaster Andrew Marr checks in to our travel Q&A

This week broadcaster Andrew Marr checks in to our travel Q&A.

He talks about his earliest holiday memory, a nightmarish trip to Sardinia, and the impact his stroke has had on his experience of travel.

EARLIEST HOLIDAY MEMORY?

Going to the coastal town of Elie, Fife, for summer holidays as a child and staying with my grandad. We were hardy swimmers and I vividly remember waking up in my holiday bedroom, hearing seagulls and thinking: Im where I want to be.

FIRST TRIP ABROAD?

I went Interrailing around France and Italy, getting as far as Rome, when I was 17. I bought a bottle of whisky and sat on top of a ferry. By the time it docked I was sunburnt and almost too drunk to get off the boat.

FAVOURITE FOREIGN CITY?

The greatest place in the world for me is Venice  the famed City of Water  with its architecture, history and culture. I try to visit every year.

FAVOURITE VENICE RESTAURANT?

Corte Sconta, with its vine-covered courtyard. It serves fish from the lagoon and tasty, locally-sourced vegetables.

HOLIDAY FROM HELL?

A grim Club Med in Sardinia. It was too hot, too crowded and the music was too loud.

Andrew Marr's favourite foreign city is Venice, pictured, also known as the 'City of Water'. 'I try to visit every year,' he says

ARE YOU A GOOD FLYER?

I dont like flying. I will fly, but only because I have to.

HOW DO YOU FIND TRAVELLING SINCE YOUR STROKE?

It has got harder. I dont enjoy the whole airport experience and it means that outdoor exercise holidays are no fun any more.

CANT TRAVEL WITHOUT?

Drawing materials. I make semi-abstract drawings of whatever I see on my travels.
These incredible pictures show a lake that looks like its made entirely from a rather famous soft drink.

Its located in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte, and perhaps unsurprisingly, is known as the Coca Cola Lagoon, though its actual name is Lake Araraquara.

Coca Colas iconic hue comes from caramel, but the lagoons dark brown waters are the result of a high concentration of iodine and iron, combined with pigment from the areas tree roots.

Araraquaras dark brown waters come from a high concentration of iodine and iron, combined with pigment from tree roots

Despite its unusual appearance, the lagoon, near the town of Baia Formosa, is clean and safe for swimming, according to Visit Brasil, and locals even claim the waters have healing properties.

Needless to say, the lagoon has proven a popular tourist destination, with travellers journeying from far and wide to capture a selfie in the translucent tawny waters.

While there, tourists can paddle in the shallow lagoon, or relax on the white sandy shore, and listen to the Guariba brown howler monkeys in the surrounding Mata da Estrela nature reserve.

The water in the 'Coca Cola Lagoon' is clean and locals even claim it has healing properties

Many have taken to Tripadvisor after their visit to compliment the lagoon, with one recent adventurer writing: It really looks like the colour of coke. The nuances of colours are fantastic! The sand is white as snow.

Another wrote: The Lagoon really resembles Coca Cola. It's dark water but it doesn't smell bad and the water is fresh.

'Surreal, beautiful and enchanting' and 'an ideal place for a good bath and to relax' are two more descriptions of the quirky body of water posted to the site.

Visit Brasil advises travellers to double-check with their guide whether it is a good time to visit the lagoon, as there are times of the year where the pool of water almost dries out.

The 'Coca Cola Lagoon' isnt the only body of water on earth with a surprising hue - Australia has a candyfloss pink lagoon that has proven a hotspot for Instagrammers.

The unusual lagoon is located near the city of Baia Formosa

Many have taken to Tripadvisor after their visit to compliment the lagoon, with one recent adventurer writing: It really looks like the colour of coke. The nuances of colours are fantastic!'

Australia's Hutt Lagoon, pictured, is vibrant pink due to the presence of the carotenoid-producing algae

The Hutt Lagoon is a six-hour drive north of Perth and situated at Yalabathara on the mid-Western Australia coast.

Its vibrant colouring comes from the presence of carotenoid-producing algae, a source of beta-carotene, a food-colouring agent and a great source of Vitamin A.

It is recommended holidaymakers visit the site in summer between 10am and 2pm, as the pink colour is at its most vivid when the sun is angled directly over the water.
It's music to the ears of influencers.

British Airways has resumed daily flights from London to Dubai for the first time since January.

The flight departs London Heathrow at 10.25pm (local time) and arrives in Dubai at 8.25am (local time) the following day. The return flight departs Dubai at 12.15 and arrives at London Heathrow at 4.55pm.

British Airways has resumed daily flights from London to Dubai for the first time since January

Sohail Ali, British Airways' Senior Vice President, Middle East and Africa, Airport Operations, said: 'We can't wait to welcome our customers on board our flights and are delighted to be able to reunite families and friends with their loved ones after such a long time apart.

Meanwhile, BA has increased flights from 10 to 20 per week from the UK to India, as of Monday, August 16.

The decision came as the UK government moved India to the amber list and the Indian government allowed UK carriers to operate additional flights, increasing the weekly cap from 15 to 34 per week.

British Airways will now operate 20 direct return flights from London across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

British Airways added: 'Customers booking with British Airways can do so with absolute confidence, thanks to the airline's flexible booking policy. They are able to exchange their booking for a voucher or move their dates without incurring a change fee.

BA's flight departs London Heathrow at 10.25pm (local time) and arrives in Dubai, pictured, at 8.25am (local time) the following day

'British Airways' existing online Covid hub includes information on flexible bookings, testing, how to use a voucher and what the British Airways flying experience looks like for those that haven't travelled for some time.'

It comes as demand for foreign holidays surges, with families in Britain facing paying 15 to 20 per cent more for a foreign holiday next year compared to pre-pandemic prices.

Package holiday giant Tui admitted this month that 'prices are higher than 2019' with travellers now 'generally booking longer and more five-star than four-star'.

It reported a 120 per cent rise in holidays sold for next year after taking 1.3million bookings from the UK and Europe - with 744,000 breaks for 2022 sold since May.

The past 18 months have seen staycations surge among Britons put off from going abroad by rapidly-changing rules, costly PCR test prices and self-isolating requirements.
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It promises to be an out-of-this-world experience.

New renderings and photographs reveal the new 'Space 220' restaurant at Disney World's Epcot theme park in Florida, which is due to open in mid-September.

And one of the 'Imagineers' behind the concept, Zach Riddley, has posted a video tour of the eatery to Instagram.

Disney's new 'Space 220' restaurant (rendering above) is due to open in mid-September in the Epcot theme park

In the clip, he leads Disney fans through the space ahead of its much-anticipating opening, and says: 'Before reaching our amazing dining room, we need to elevate ourselves 220 miles above the Earth in our first-of-its-kind space elevator.'

Creating the illusion you are shooting into outer space, the elevator opens to the 'Centauri Space Station', where the panoramic dining area is located.

Zach explains: 'Once we arrive in our main dining room, you'll have a spectacular view back to earth. We cannot wait for you to experience this one-of-a-kind dining adventure.'

A first-of-its-kind space elevator opens to the 'Centauri Space Station', pictured, where the panoramic dining area is located

Visitors will be able to admire planet earth from a circular viewing platform, or grab a booth seat by one of the large space station windows, with the floating cosmos forming the backdrop.

The Imagineer, who works as an architect and designer for Disney, writes in his post: 'Space 220 is a perfect addition to Epcot continuing our legacy of original storytelling - fantastical experiences rooted in real science and designed with a range of world-class experts that makes you wonder "how'd they do that?!"'

Disney, meanwhile, revealed that Executive Chef Marc Kusche is behind the menu, with a two-course prix fixe menu for lunch, and a three-course prix fixe menu for dinner.

The cuisine is described as 'upscale, contemporary fare' and a selection of wine and cocktails will also be on offer.

To access the restaurant, visitors will need to check in to the Space 220 Departure Lounge in Future World, which is adjacent to the Mission: Space attraction.

Disney added: 'The Space 220 restaurant is another big milestone in the ongoing and historic transformation happening now at Epcot, and will be a part of the celebration of the Walt Disney World Resort 50th Anniversary.'

Visitors will be able to admire planet earth from a circular viewing platform, as shown in a recently released rendering (left) and photograph (right). 'Once we arrive in our main dining room, you'll have a spectacular view back to earth,' the Imagineer Zach Riddley enthuses

Commencing on October 1, Walt Disney World is planning an 18-month celebration to mark 50 years since it opened the doors of its first park in Florida.

All four parks at the Lake Buena Vista resort - including Epcot - will take part in 'The World's Most Magical Celebration', with new performances, sculptures and attractions set to be unveiled.

On October 1, 1971, the resort opened to guests, culminating years spent planning and developing Walt Disney's 'magical dream', officials said in a statement announcing the celebration. Since then, the vacation destination has expanded from Magic Kingdom, to include Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The resort also includes multiple themed hotels, water parks and Disney Springs, a shopping and restaurant venue.

Space 220 will take part in the celebration, along with Epcot's La Creperie de Paris, an eatery inspired by the flavourful world of Disney and Pixar's 'Ratatouille' that will open its doors on October 1.

Commencing on October 1, Walt Disney World is planning an 18-month celebration to mark 50 years since it opened the doors of its first park in Florida. All four parks at the Lake Buena Vista resort - including Epcot, pictured - will take part in 'The World's Most Magical Celebration'

Making the celebration all the more special, Epcot will feature 'Harmonious' - a show at the World Showcase Lagoon - which promises to be 'one of the largest nighttime spectaculars ever created for a Disney park'.

The show will comprise new interpretations of classic Disney songs, reimagined in more than a dozen languages by a diverse group of 240 artists from around the world.

And, if there wasn't enough on offer for space-lovers, the park will install new 'Beacons of Magic' lights to shine across the reflective panels of the famous Spaceship Earth sphere, 'connecting to one another in a symbol of optimism resembling stars in a nighttime sky'.
Sophia Bush flashed her new engagement ring Tuesday on social media while vacationing in Italy.

The 39-year-old actress posted a photo of herself beaming on Instagram while relaxing in a pool as her fiance Grant Hughes, 40, kissed her on the cheek.

'Leaning into this happiness,' Sophia wrote in the caption for her roughly 3.8 million followers.

Leaning in: Sophia Bush unabashedly leaned into her happiness while flashing her new engagement ring Tuesday on social media while vacationing in Italy

She added: 'I am deeply aware that joy is not an option for so many around the world in this moment. Clinging to gratitude right now because today it is an option for me. I wish this  in whatever version feels true for anyone who might see this  for you. Yes you.'

'I wish you joy. Love. The feeling of being seen. Of being safe. Of being held. Of falling asleep with a smile on your face. All my love to you. In these wild times. All of the good squeeze kind. All of ours,' Sophia concluded.

She wore a red swimsuit and accessorized with white heart-shaped sunglasses in the snap that also showed off her engagement ring.

Sophia tagged Kantor Gems as the designer of the ring.

Engagement ring: The 39-year-old actress actress posted a photo of herself beaming on Instagram while relaxing in a pool as her fiance Grant Hughes, 40, kissed her on the cheek

European vacation: The One Tree Hill star also posted photos from her vacation on Instagram Stories

Newly engaged: Grant, shown with a ring graphic, and Sophia got engaged last week

Water fun: The actress shared postcard photos from their getaway

'It was truly a pleasure to be able to surprise you with such a fantastic ring,' the jeweler wrote on Tuesday on its Instagram Stories.

Sophia shared several photos from their vacation on her Instagram Stories and posted as well as about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover prompted by US withdrawal.

The actress last week revealed that she and businessman Grant got engaged while on vacation in Lake Como, Italy.

Chili peppers: Sophia shared a photo of some red peppers, too

Sharing resources: The actress shared a list of groups helping the Afghan people

Crisis moment: She also urged people to contact their representatives over the crisis

She took to Instagram to share the engagement news and posted a photo of herself in a brown dress as Grant got down on one knee on a wood boat on Lake Como to propose.

Sophia and Grant have been dating for about a year.

She was previously married to Chad Michael Murray, 39, from 2005 until 2006.

Sophia, who was born in Pasadena, California, has the lead role in the upcoming medical drama Good Sam set to premiere later this year on CBS.

Surprise proposal: The actress last week revealed that she and businessman Grant got engaged while on vacation in Lake Como, Italy
She has been keeping a low profile after she was fined 4,500 in the Caribbean earlier this year for trying to flee Barbados while her boyfriend tested positive for Covid.

And Zara Holland put on a stylish display as she hit up The Arts Club in Mayfair on Tuesday.

The former Love Island star, 25, showcased her toned pins in the satin mini dress as she stepped out to the luxe venue for a night out with friends.

Golden goddess: Zara Holland put on a stylish display as she hit up The Arts Club in Mayfair on Tuesday

Her striking ensemble featured an all-over leopard print pattern, with a corset-style belt at the midriff.

The reality star, who appeared on the second series of the ITV2 show, headed out in a pair of black strappy heels which boasted peep-toe detailing.

Zara carried her essentials in a black fringe purse, while she accessorised with a sleek silver bangle on her wrist.

Blonde beauty: The blonde beauty styled her sunshine locks in subtle waves with a centre parting while she sported a pared-down, yet glowing makeup look

Stepping out: The reality star, who appeared on the second series of the ITV2 show, headed out in a pair of black strappy heels which boasted peep-toe detailing

The blonde beauty styled her sunshine locks in subtle waves with a centre parting while she sported a pared-down, yet glowing makeup look.

Zara and her partner Elliot Love, 30, were intercepted at Barbados airport and faced a jail sentence of up to a year, before both being let off with fines.

In early January, Zara was believed to have returned home without her partner, when she was seen sat alone before boarding a Virgin Atlantic flight to Manchester at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

Leopard print: Her striking ensemble featured an all-over leopard print pattern, with a corset-style belt at the midriff

Leggy display: The former Love Island star showcased her toned pins in the satin mini dress as she stepped out to the luxe venue for a night out with friends

Meanwhile, her boyfriend Love was forced to stay in the island's mosquito-ridden Paragon Isolation Centre until he was clear of the virus and had to pay a heavy fine to the country.

Following the offence Love managed to escape jail and received a reduced fine after his lawyer argued he was a 'simple guy', who owned a small demolition company and worked for 450-a week.

Love was fined 1,400 less than his famous girlfriend - despite him being prepared to get on a packed holiday jet while infected with the virus.

Zara was ordered to pay a heftier fine before fleeing the country due to her compliance in the offence, despite not testing positive herself.

The former Miss England jetted back to Britain just hours after she was ordered to pay her fine or go to jail for nine months for breaching the island's tough Covid rules.
Paris Hilton revealed Tuesday during a visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she already has a wedding dress for her planned three-day nuptials  as well as nine other outfits.

The 40-year-old heiress said she was planning to wear 'lots of dresses, probably 10.'

'I love outfit changes,' Paris added, though she said her fiance Carter Reum won't be so elaborately dressed because 'hes not as high maintenance as I am.'

Quick-change artist: Paris Hilton revealed Tuesday during a visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she plans to wear 10 different dresses during her planned three-day nuptials

Paris will likely need all those outfits, as she's planning on stretching out her nuptials over several days.

'It's going to be a three day affair,' she revealed. 'We have a lot happening.'

The Simple Life star said she was 'planning everything' for the wedding and said the whole affair was 'very stressful.

Jimmy, 46, then asked her if she had picked out a dress.

'Yes, that is basically the only thing that I have done,' she said. 'But I'm not a bridezilla at all.'

'I didn't think you would be,' he told her.

Staying busy: Paris said she was planning to wear 'lots of dresses, probably 10.' She'll need them for the multi-day wedding. 'It's going to be a three day affair,' she revealed. 'We have a lot happening'

Jimmy said he thought it was brilliant that she was documenting her wedding for a show on Peacock.

'Why add the extra pressure?,' Jimmy asked.

'I just feel that for my documentary 'This Is Paris' it ended in a way which was amazing, but that I feel like I wanted fans to see that I found my Prince Charming and that happy fairy tale ending,' Paris replied.

Jimmy asked Paris if she was going to DJ at her own wedding and she answered that she was going to hire a DJ, but also have a band.

'It's going to be a three day affair,' she said. 'We have a lot happening.'

Overwhelmed: The Simple Life star said she was 'planning everything' for the wedding and said the whole affair was 'very stressful'

NBC show: Jimmy said he thought it was brilliant that she was documenting her wedding for a show on Peacock

Jimmy asked Paris if she got upset when people come up to her DJ booth and request a song.

She said it depended on the request whether if it was a 'brutal' song or a good idea.

Jimmy asked how her parents Kathy, 62, and Richard, 66, were doing and Paris told him they were 'doing amazing.'

'Your Mom is a hit, she's not a housewife, but she's on Real Housewives,' said Jimmy of Kathy recently joining Bravo's The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills.

DJ question: Jimmy asked Paris if she got upset when people come up to her DJ booth and request a song

Famous mother: 'Your Mom is a hit, she's not a housewife, but she's on Real Housewives,' said Jimmy of Kathy recently joining Bravo's The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills

'She is so funny,' Paris said.

Jimmy wanted to know if her mother asked her before she went on the reality show.

Paris said that she and her sister Nicky, 37, read about Kathy joining RHOBH on TMZ.

No warning: Paris said that she and her sister Nicky, 37, read about Kathy joining RHOBH on TMZ

'We were terrified because we didn't want her to get involved in all the drama, but I'm very proud of her. She's just herself, she's funny and people are loving it so I'm really proud of her,' Paris said.

Jimmy noted that he saw one episode where Kathy didn't know what a Red Bull was or that it would keep her awake all night and Paris laughed.

Paris was then asked about her podcast 'This is Paris.'

Blue dress: Paris wore a blue mini dress for her in-person appearance on the NBC talk show

She said she enjoyed it because she had been interviewed a billion times and thought it was 'super fun' to be the one asking the questions.

Jimmy said the show was interesting because of her and said he learned that she was really interested and knowledgeable about NFTs.

Paris told him she should try to sell one of his jokes.

Newly engaged: The socialite and Carter Reum announced their engagement in February

'I couldn't even do that to my audience tonight,' said Jimmy. 'I doubt I could make money off the NFTs.'

Jimmy also wanted to talk to the socialite about her new Netflix cooking show 'Cooking with Paris.' He said he saw the episode with Kim Kardashian, 40, and asked her how long they had known each other.

'Since we were little girls,' Paris said. 'Our whole life.'

Cooking show: Jimmy also wanted to talk to the socialite about her new Netflix cooking show 'Cooking with Paris' and an episode featuring Kim Kardashian, 40

Jimmy asked how many times they cooked together.

'Back in the day when we would go out at night, we would come home late and make grilled cheeses,' Paris said.

Jimmy wanted to know her secret for grilled cheese. Paris told him brioche bread, cheddar cheese and lots of butter.

Cooked together: 'Back in the day when we would go out at night, we would come home late and make grilled cheeses,' Paris said

Jimmy then played a clip from the show of Paris in the kitchen with Kim.

'This is how it used to be,' Kim said on the show. 'Paris would have the ideas and I would come in and say this is never going to work out. This is not practical.'

Paris told her 'you are the organized one and I'm the most disorganized person in the world.'

The two started giggling when they had trouble forming blue marshmallows into shapes.

'I'm literally crying,' Kim said. 'The fact that you thought these marshmallows could work.'

Kim then asked her if she had blue all over her face as Paris and Jimmy both laughed watching the clip.
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Her teen daughter is following in her Hollywood footsteps.

And Thandiwe Newton walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of her new movie Reminiscence with 16-year-old actress daughter, Nico Parker at her side.

The mother and daughter lookalikes put on an affectionate show for the cameras as they posed for photos in their very stylish ensembles - both by Versace.

Good genes: Thandiwe Newton walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of her new movie Reminiscence with her lookalike 16-year-old daughter Nico Parker at her side

Thandiwe, 48, shares Nico with writer, director and producer Ol Parker whom she married in 1998.

For Tuesday's premiere, she chose a glittery silver and gold mini dress with one shoulder strap to which was attached a flowing sash.

She stepped out in sparkly silver heels with ankle straps. Thandiwe styled her hair into a sleek ponytail and accessorized with dramatic diamond earrings.

Mother and daughter: Westworld star Thandiwe, 48, shares Nico with writer, director and producer Ol Parker whom she married in 1998

For Tuesday's premiere, Thandiwe, 48, chose a glittery silver and gold mini dress with one shoulder strap to which was attached a flowing sash.

Stylish: The actress stepped out in sparkly silver heels with ankle straps. Thandiwe wore her long hair in a sleek ponytail and accessorized with dramatic diamond earrings

Famous face: The London-born beauty has two other children - daughter Ripley, 20, and son Booker, seven

Nico, who stood a few inches taller than her famous mother, opted for a patterned sleeveless tunic with matching tights.

The blue outfit featured swirly designs in red, yellow, green and white.

She wore shiny silver platform-soled shoes with chunky heels and her shoulder-length curls were tucked behind her ears.

Nico landed her first Hollywood film role at the age of 14 in Tim Burton's live action remake of Dumbo, released in 2019 but doesn't star in this movie.

She appeared in HBO's miniseries The Third Day with Jude Law last year and has been cast in HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us.

On trend: Nico opted for a patterned sleeveless tunic with matching tights. The blue outfit featured swirly designs in red, yellow, green and white

Touching: Her mom appeared to make sure Nico was camera ready as they made their way along the red carpet

Turned heads: The teen wore shiny silver platform-soled shoes with chunky heels and her shoulder-length curls were tucked behind her ears

Rising star: Nico landed her first Hollywood film role at 14 in Tim Burton's live action remake of Dumbo, released in 2019. She appeared in HBO's The Third Day with Jude Law last year

Reminiscence is the first film by Lisa Joy, the co-creator of HBO's Westworld in which Thandiwe stars.

Joy, who is married to writer and producer Jonathan Nolan, wrote and directed the sci-fi romance which has Hugh Jackman in the lead role.

For her big night, she chose a semi-sheer black blouse with she left unbuttoned to flash a little skin, and added black flared trousers with a sash belt.

Debut: Reminiscence is the first film by Lisa Joy, the co-creator of HBO's Westworld in which Thandiwe stars. Joy, who is married to Jonathan Nolan, wrote and directed the sci-fi romance

In the spotlight: For her big night, she chose a semi-sheer black blouse with she left unbuttoned to flash a little skin, and added black flared trousers with a sash belt

Some of Joy's Westworld cast showed up to support her film, including Aaron Paul, Luke Hemsworth and Jeffrey Wright along with Angela Sarafyan who has a role in Reminiscence.

Sarafyan, 38, arrived at the event in a full-length black dress with asymmetrical bodice and one long sleeve.

The sparkly dress fell open to the thigh at the front and she added matching heels.

Her hair was slicked back into a bun and she added dramatic smoky eye makeup and pale pink lip color.

Reminiscence opens in theaters on Friday.

Dramatic: Angela Sarafyan arrived in a full-length black dress with asymmetrical bodice and one long sleeve. The dress fell open to the thigh at the front and she wore matching heels

Red carpet ready: The Westworld actress, 38, who has a role in Reminiscence, wore her hair slicked back into a bun and she added dramatic smoky eye makeup and pale pink lip color

Supportive stars: Westworld actors Luke Hemsworth, left, and Aaron Paul, right, came out to support their show's co-creator Joy on her big night

Family night out: Westworld's Jeffrey Wright, 55, brought along his daughter Juno as his date for the screening

Pals: Paul, Wright and Juno posed with Joy as they helped celebrate her feature directorial debut
Kourtney Kardashian looked absolutely sensational in a tiny two-piece as she posed for a series of mirror selfies while vacationing with her beau Travis Barker in Mexico.

Just days after her drummer beau boarded his first flight since surviving a deadly plane crash in 2008, the 42-year-old reality star looked ready to hit the beach in her patterned swimsuit, which showcased her incredible curves on Tuesday afternoon.

As she flaunted her toned bikini body with her 138 million Instagram followers, the beauty oozed confidence as she stood proudly in a pair of black wedges.

Bikini body: Kourtney Kardashian looked absolutely sensational in a tiny, two-piece as she posed for a series of mirror selfies while vacationing with her beau Travis Barker in Mexico

In the images, she sported oversized black sunglasses, silver chain necklace and her dark tresses were styled in a high ponytail.

Later, she slipped into a chic, patterned cover-up as she stood outside the walk-in closet of her large hotel room.

Her post comes on the same day Barker, 45, flew again for the first time in 13 years after surviving a deadly plane crash that claimed the lives of four people.

Bombshell: Just days after her drummer beau boarded his first flight since surviving a deadly plane crash in 2008, the 42-year-old reality star looked ready to hit the beach in her patterned swimsuit

Taking to Instagram, Travis posted a photo of himself holding his girlfriend as they posed in front of Kylie Jenner's jet after safely touching down.

'With you anything is possible,' Travis captioned the photo.

The couple appeared to be returning home as they prepared to share a kiss with Kourtney wrapping her legs around her man.

Stunning: As she flaunted her toned bikini body with her 138 million Instagram followers, the beauty oozed confidence as she stood proudly in a pair of black wedges

Reacting to the post on Instagram, Kourtney sweetly wrote in the comments section of the photo, 'Anything and everything with you (heart emoji).'

A slew of other celebs showed their support for the couple in the comments section, with Khloe Kardashian chiming in, 'Love conquers ALL.'

Kim Kardashian remarked, 'THE CUTEST EVER.'

'With you anything is possible': Travis Barker recently credited Kardashian with helping him fly again almost 13 years after surviving a deadly plane crash that claimed the lives of four people

Travis hasn't been able to set foot on an airplane following the deadly plane crash in 2008 in South Carolina in which he was one of only two survivors.

The plane crash happened on September 19, 2008 - Travis boarded a private jet in South Carolina to head back to Los Angeles following a show, while accompanied by his friend Adam 'DJ AM' Goldstein, his security guard Charles 'Che' Still, and his assistant Chris Baker.

As the small plane was attempting to take off, one of its tires suffered a blow out, causing the craft to overshoot the runway, burst through the airport's fence and over the nearby highway, and finally crash into the embankment on the side of the road.

'Love conquers ALL': Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian were among the celebs showing their support for the couple

The pilot, Sarah Lemmon, and the co-pilot, James Bland, were killed within minutes from smoke inhalation and burns as the plane erupted into flames on impact, according to the Chicago Tribune. Still and Baker were also killed on impact.

Travis and Adam were able to escape from the burning plane via an emergency exit over the wing, but both were engulfed in flames as they slid down the wing and got covered in burning jet fuel.

The drummer had third-degree burns over 65 percent of his body and had to spend three months in the hospital while having skin grafts and 26 surgeries to repair the damage.

Tragedy: Travis hasn't been able to set foot on an airplane following the deadly plane crash in 2008 in South Carolina in which he was one of only two survivors (the aftermath of the crash in 2008)

Travis reportedly 'seemed a little bit nervous' before commencing his first flight in over a decade.

A source told E! News: 'Travis took his time and definitely seemed a little bit nervous. Kourtney was very supportive and helped him every step of the way. She made him feel comfortable on Kylie's plane with pilots they know and the large size of the plane.'

And insiders revealed the drummer's loved ones were 'excited' for him to conquer his fears.

Fiery crash: The pilot, Sarah Lemmon, and the co-pilot, James Bland, were killed within minutes from smoke inhalation and burns as the plane erupted into flames on impact in Columbia, South Carolina. Security guard Charles 'Che' Still and assistant Chris Baker were also killed on impact - seen in 2008

The source said: 'This has been something that Travis has been working on for some time. It's something he's wanted to do and to overcome. Kourtney has been incredibly loving and supportive and it is through her love, help and confidence in him that he was able to finally do this. The people that have been close to Travis since his crash are so very excited for him.

'His life has completely changed since he has been with Kourtney and he feels ready to do anything. She's helped him overcome this fear and he feels like he can do anything with her by his side. He has been wanting to fly for a while and he felt like finally the time was right.'

Back in June, Travis shocked his fans when he tweeted that he might ride on an airplane in the future.

He tweeted, 'I might fly again,' and his fans quickly launched adoring tweets in support of him returning to the sky.

'She's helped him overcome this fear': Kourtney was by Travis' side as they jetted off to Cabo

Travis has recently been opening up about the trauma he experienced during his plane crash.

In a May interview with Men's Health, he shared that the crash helped motivate him to stop abusing prescription drugs.

'People are always like, "Did you go to rehab?'' he recounted. 'And I [say], "No, I was in a plane crash." That was my rehab. Lose three of your friends and almost die? That was my wake-up call. If I wasn't in a crash, I would have probably never quit.'

After the crash, Travis was overcome with a debilitating fear even at the sight of an airplane.

'I was dark I couldn't walk down the street. If I saw a plane [in the sky], I was determined it was going to crash, and I just didn't want to see it,' he said, adding that he was 'haunted' by the experience of 'being burned' and 'trying to grab my friends from a burning plane.'

But he also struck a more hopeful note now that nearly 13 years have passed since the crash.

'Now it's been so many years, it's getting easier for me. There are days where I'll wake up and never think about it,' he said.
She was one of the most talked about members of the Westworld cast.

And Angela Sarafyan certainly sent tongues wagging again on her latest red carpet.

The 38-year-old Armenian-American actress looked absolutely gorgeous at the Hollywood premiere of her latest film Reminiscence on Tuesday.

Wow factor: Angela Sarafyan looked absolutely gorgeous at the Hollywood premiere of her latest film Reminiscence on Tuesday

Angela looked as elegant as ever as she donned a shimmering black and silver asymmetrical gown with a thigh-high split at the gala event.

The intricate number was mostly black but was silver down the left shoulder to the hemline as she teamed the look with matching glittering heels.

She accessorized with shiny black earrings which resembled flowers and a large silver band on her right ring finger.

Pretty: The 38-year-old Armenian-American actress looked as elegant as ever as she donned a shimmering black and silver asymmetrical gown with a thigh-high split at the gala event

In the details: She accessorized with shiny black earrings which resembled flowers and a large silver band on her right ring finger

Gorgeous: Her raven colored locks were slicked back into an elegant ponytai

Pop: The intricate number was mostly black but was silver down the left shoulder to the hemline as she teamed the look with matching glittering heels

Her raven colored locks were slicked back into an elegant ponytail as she accentuated her natural looks with complementary make-up topped off with a bit of sparkle as she sported shimmering silver eyeshadow.

Angela is best known for her work as Clementine Pennyfeather on the first two seasons of Westworld in 2016 and 2018. She was killed off in the second season but did make an appearance in last year's season 3.

In her latest film, Hugh Jackman stars as a scientist named Nick Bannister who discovers a way to relive his past and use that technology to search for his long lost love.

He then ends up falling for an alluring client named Mae, played by his The Greatest Showman co-star Rebecca Ferguson, who suddenly vanishes.

Stunning: She accentuated her natural looks with complementary make-up topped off with a bit of sparkle as she sported shimmering silver eyeshadow

Shining star: Angela is best known for her work as Clementine Pennyfeather on the first two seasons of Westworld in 2016 and 2018. She was killed off in the second season but did make an appearance in last year's season 3

The synopsis continues: 'A simple matter of lost and found becomes a dangerous obsession. As Bannister fights to find the truth about Maes disappearance, he uncovers a violent conspiracy, and must ultimately answer the question: how far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?'

The gala event was not attended by leading man Jackman but Angela's ex Westworld castmate Thandiwe Newton walked the red carpet with 16-year-old daughter Nico Parker at her side.

The mother and daughter lookalikes put on an affectionate show for the cameras as they posed for photos in their very stylish ensembles.

Thandiwe, 48, shares Nico with writer, director and producer Ol Parker whom she married in 1998.

Good genes: The gala event was not attended by leading man Hugh Jackman but Angela's ex Westworld castmate Thandiwe Newton walked the red carpet with 16-year-old daughter Nico Parker at her side

Mother and daughter: Westworld star Thandiwe, 48, shares Nico with writer, director and producer Ol Parker whom she married in 1998

For Tuesday's premiere, Thandiwe, 48, chose a glittery silver and gold mini dress with one shoulder strap to which was attached a flowing sash.

For Tuesday's premiere, she chose a glittery silver and gold mini dress with one shoulder strap to which was attached a flowing sash.

She stepped out in sparkly silver heels with ankle straps.

Thandiwe styled her hair into a sleek ponytail and accessorized with dramatic diamond earrings.

Nico, who stood a few inches taller than her famous mother, opted for a patterned sleeveless tunic with matching tights.

Stylish: The actress stepped out in sparkly silver heels with ankle straps. Thandiwe wore her long hair in a sleek ponytail and accessorized with dramatic diamond earrings

Famous face: The London-born beauty has two other children - daughter Ripley, 20, and son Booker, seven

The blue outfit featured swirly designs in red, yellow, green and white.

She wore shiny silver platform-soled shoes with chunky heels and her shoulder-length curls were tucked behind her ears.

Nico landed her first Hollywood film role at the age of 14 in Tim Burton's live action remake of Dumbo, released in 2019.

On trend: Nico opted for a patterned sleeveless tunic with matching tights. The blue outfit featured swirly designs in red, yellow, green and white

Touching: Her mom appeared to make sure Nico was camera ready as they made their way along the red carpet

Turned heads: The teen wore shiny silver platform-soled shoes with chunky heels and her shoulder-length curls were tucked behind her ears

Rising star: Nico landed her first Hollywood film role at 14 in Tim Burton's live action remake of Dumbo, released in 2019. She appeared in HBO's The Third Day with Jude Law last year

She appeared in HBO's miniseries The Third Day with Jude Law last year and has been cast in HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us.

Reminiscence is the first film by Lisa Joy, the co-creator of HBO's Westworld in which Thandiwe stars.

Joy, who is married to writer and producer Jonathan Nolan, wrote and directed the sci-fi romance which has Hugh Jackman in the lead role.

For her big night, she chose a semi-sheer black blouse with she left unbuttoned to flash a little skin, and added black flared trousers with a sash belt.

Reminiscence is set for worldwide release on Friday.

Debut: Reminiscence is the first film by Lisa Joy, the co-creator of HBO's Westworld in which Thandiwe stars. Joy, who is married to Jonathan Nolan, wrote and directed the sci-fi romance

In the spotlight: For her big night, she chose a semi-sheer black blouse with she left unbuttoned to flash a little skin, and added black flared trousers with a sash belt
Sean Penn directs his daughter Dylan in the new film Flag Day.

And on Tuesday, the pair continued their promotional tour ahead of the movie's Friday release in New York City.

Sean, 61, and Dylan, 30, stepped out in style for a screening in Tribeca, with the double Oscar winner looking dapper in a suit and tie as the actress turned heads in a fuchsia pant suit.

Family affair: Sean Penn and daughter Dylan arrived at a screening for their movie Flag Day in NYC Tuesday night with their arms around each other as their promotional tour continued

Father and daughter walked into the venue with their arms around each other.

Sean paused to greet waiting fans and sign autographs.

Both he and Dylan donned masks as COVID-19 cases continue to pose a threat due to the highly contagious delta variant.

Dylan is the Hollywood star's eldest child from his marriage to actress Robin Wright; the exes are also parents to don Hopper, 28.

Sartorial elegance: Sean, 61, and Dylan, 30, stepped out in style with the double Oscar winner looking dapper in a suit and tie as the actress turned heads in a fuchsia pant suit

Big night: Sean directs and stars in the drama which marks daughter Dylan's first substantial film role. He shares Dylan - and her brother Hopper - with his ex-wife Robin Wright

Striking look: Dylan wore her hair in a bun, accessorized with hoop earrings, carried a small black clutch and stepped out in nude sandal heels

Beaming: Dylan ditched her face mask and flashed a huge smile

Flag Day premiered at Cannes last month and is Penn's fifth outing as a director.

He and Dylan play father and daughter on screen in an adaptation of Jennifer Vogel's 2005 memoir Flim-Flam Man: The True Story of My Father's Counterfeit Life.

Dylan has had only a handful of small roles to date and explained that she'd always wanted to be behind the camera not in front of it.

'Growing up, being surrounded by actors and being on set, it was really something that didn't interest me at all,' she told the Associated Press. 'I always thought, and still think, my passion lies in working behind the camera.

'But as soon as I expressed wanting to do that kind of thing, both of my parents said separately: You won't be a good director if you don't know what it's like to be in the actor's shoes,' she said.
Joshua Jackson opened up about the toxic reaction his wife Jodie Turner-Smith received when he revealed last month that she had proposed to him.

The Affair star, 43, said he was shocked by the racist words left for the model-actress, 34, calling it 'a real education for [him] as a white man, truly.

'The way people get in her comments and the ignorance and ugliness that comes her way is truly shocking,' he said. 'And it has been a necessary, but an unpleasant education in just the way people relate to Black bodies in general, but Black female bodies in specific. It is not okay. We have a long way to go.'

The latest: Joshua Jackson, 43, opened up about the toxic reaction his wife Jodie Turner-Smith, 34, received when he revealed last month that she had proposed to him

The Fringe star, appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month, said that Turner-Smith had popped the question to him two amid a vacation two months after they first crossed paths in late 2018.

'She asked me on New Year's Eve,' he said on the NBC show. 'We were in Nicaragua - it was very beautiful, incredibly romantic, we were walking down the beach, and she asked me to marry her.

'There was a lead-up to it. I did not know, but she was quite adamant, and she was right. This is the best choice I ever made.'

The Vancouver native, who broke out on the 90s hit Dawson's Creek, opened up Tuesday to Refinery29 of how he didn't give proper context to the proposal story, and the reaction it received.

Backstory: The Fringe star appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month, said that Turner-Smith had popped the question to him two amid a vacation two months after they first crossed paths in late 2018

Jackson said, 'The way people get in her comments and the ignorance and ugliness that comes her way is truly shocking'

Loving: Actress Jodie posted this couple shot of the pair to her Instagram on Wednesday

'So I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didn't give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist,' Jackson said. 'So yes, we were in Nicaragua on a beautiful moonlit night, it could not possibly have been more romantic.

'And yes, my wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, but what I didn't say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that I'm still old school enough that I said, "This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity" to propose as well.

The Dr. Death actor said that he told Turner-Smith he also wanted to ask her biological father and stepdad for their blessing for her hand in marriage.

'And then, "I would like the opportunity to re-propose those to you and do it the old fashioned way down on bended knee" ... so, that's actually how the story ended up,' he told the publication, clarifying that there were 'two proposals.'

Casual: The couple was snapped in Los Angeles in August of 2019

Jackson, who was previously in a relationship with actress Diane Kruger from 2006 until 2016, didn't mince words with those who had critical words for his spouse on social media in the wake of the reveal.

'For anybody who is freaked out by a woman claiming her own space, shut the f*** up,' he said. 'Good God, you cannot believe the things people were leaving my wife on Instagram. She did it. I said "Yes." We're happy. That's it. That's all you need to know.'

Jackson credited Turner-Smith - who he wed in 2019 and welcomed a daughter with in April of 2020 - for her resilience 'with such amazing strength and grace, above the ugliness that people throw at her on a day to day' basis.

'I am impressed with her that she does it,' he said, 'but I would wish that that would not be the armor that she has to put on every morning to just navigate being alive.'
Anne Hathaway looked in great spirits as she smiled brightly on the set of her new miniseries, based on the podcast WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork.

While rocking a 'Good Karma' t-shirt and a pair of light-wash jeans with a single rip on the left knee, the 38-year-old looked looked like her bubbly self as she prepared for a day of shooting.

She completed her trendy look with her trademark oversized sunglasses and a black leather booties with a chunky heel.

Beaming: Anne Hathaway looked in great spirits as she smiled brightly on the set of her new miniseries, based on the podcast WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork

She oozed confidence as she rocked a fresh, bouncy blowout and wore a clear face shield amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on Monday afternoon in New York City.

Hathaway's onscreen husband Jared Leto was not seen filming with her, however, they did shoot together for several scenes over the weekend.

Hathaway and Leto are portraying the disgraced hedonists Rebekah and Adam Neumann in the highly-anticipated Apple TV+ series, set for release next year.

Friendly: While rocking a 'Good Karma' t-shirt and a pair of light-wash jeans with a single rip on the left knee, the 38-year-old looked looked like her bubbly self as she prepared for a day of shooting

On Sunday, the superstar duo were seen filming at The Shores beach club in Atlantic Beach, New York for the show, which focuses on the demise of a highly valuable startup that fell victim to their luxurious lifestyle.

Jared, 49, executive produces and stars as hard-partying WeWork CEO Adam in the show based on David Brown's 2020 Wondery podcast, while Anne, 38, who is also executive producer, stars as Adam's wife and disgraced chief brand/impact officer Rebekah, who is Gwyneth Paltrow's cousin.

The married couple, who wed in 2008 and have five children, became famed for their life of excess, including a vast property empire and many tales of Adam's partying, with a taste for tequila and around the clock revelling, before they were forced out of the company in 2019 and have since retreated to one of their Hamptons homes.

Casual: LShe completed her trendy look with her trademark oversized sunglasses and a black leather booties

Adam and Rebekah's billionaire lifestyle was renowned, with their multimillion dollar property portfolio spanning the US, while his hard-partying earned him the name of the company's 'partier in chief'.

Neumann's office suites were absurd even by the standards of Silicon Valley. In the early days of founding his company, he had a punching bag, a gong and a bar - later he had a private bathroom with a sauna and a cold-plunge tub at his office in NYC.

He once spoke about being the President of the United States - joking he could be 'President of the world'.

It was reported that Adam prompted WeWork to buy a $60m G650 jet, in which he added bedrooms and TVs. It was discovered that he was smoking marijuana on the jet. On one journey there was said to be so much cannabis smoke in the cabin that the crew felt the need to put on their oxygen masks.

As they worked on portraying the couple on Monday, Anne and Jared sat on wicker beach chairs underneath a cabana holding hands, set against a backdrop of blue tarp as the scene will presumably be set in Santa Monica and use CGI to fill in an appropriate background at a later date in post production.

While shooting, Anne wore a variety of white sundresses, including one embroidered featuring various sheer panels. Another was almost entirely sheer, with a white one-piece bathing suit showing through underneath.

FIlming: Hathaway and Jared Leto are portraying the disgraced hedonists Rebekah and Adam Neumann in the highly-anticipated Apple TV+ series, set for release next year (seen Sunday)

The Les Miserables actress also sported a wide-brimmed straw sun hat, and whimsical dark sunglasses lined in white. She smiled brightly as she was shooting her scenes, with her dark hair flowing from underneath her hat.

The star at one point sat solo with a cushion on the beach, momentarily holding a black umbrella given to her by a production assistant to stay shielded from the sun.

She was also seen with Leto on the sand surrounded by a gaggle of children. Jared was dressed in light tones as well, including white skinny jeans and a cream V-neck knit top.

Looking good: While shooting, Anne wore a variety of white sundresses, including one embroidered featuring various sheer panels

True to form, Leto barely looked like himself, perhaps even using prosthetics to change his face for the role of the disgraced founder of WeWork.

While Anne was barefoot, the Dallas Buyers Club star wore dark gray Birkenstocks-style sandals in the sand. He wore his dark hair long, brushed back behind his ears.

Jared also wore dark sunglasses and smiled while interacting with Hathaway and the children.

Impressive: True to form, Leto barely looked like himself, perhaps even using prosthetics to change his face for the role of the disgraced founder of WeWork

Both stars were at one point seen holding what looked to be a fake baby. They also sat down in the sand to play with the children.

They tied the knot in 2008 and went on to have five children, including two sets of twins.

WeCrashed marks the first time the Justice League action star and Anne have worked together, and filming is expected to continue through September.
Ferne McCann was overwhelmed with emotion as her best friend Danielle Armstrong asked her to be a bridesmaid at her upcoming wedding to Tommy Edney this week.

Ferne, 31, and Danielle, 33, who both previously starred on TOWIE, posed for several delighted snaps at an afternoon tea the bride-to-be held to formally ask her bridesmaids, ahead of the nuptials in August 2022.

Ferne looked incredible in a nude top and a pale blue mini skirt, which flaunted her bronzed legs as she whiled away the afternoon with friends at London's Lanesbrough Hotel.

Bridesmaid: Ferne McCann was overwhelmed with emotion as her best friend Danielle Armstrong asked her to be a bridesmaid at her upcoming wedding to Tommy Edney this week

Danielle flaunted her midriff in a white crop-top, teamed with stonewash jeans.

Ferne was presented with a custom goody bag, along with a card featuring photo memories of the pair, emblazoned with the caption: 'Ferne will you be my bridesmaid? 27.08.2022'

The afternoon tea venue was also decked out with a balloon display in honour of the special occasion.

Ferne wrote: I cannot wait to be your bridesmaid. A million times yes to my friend that I giggle with every single day over the same s****y banter. Im going to be bridesmaid. I feel honoured and very special after a gorgeous surprise day out. Bring on the HEN. Thankyou beautiful @daniellearmstrong88

Cheers: Ferne, 31, and Danielle, 33, who both previously starred on TOWIE, posed for several delighted snaps at an afternoon tea the bride-to-be held to formally ask her bridesmaids, ahead of the nuptials in August 2022

Leggy: Ferne looked incredible in a nude top and a pale blue mini skirt, which flaunted her bronzed legs as she whiled away the afternoon with friends at London's Lanesbrough Hotel

Danielle also posted a sweet montage of snaps, writing: 'Today I Got To Ask My Girlies To Be My Bridesmaids?Of Course They Said YESS

Surprising My Friends With An Afternoon Tea & Lots Of Bubbly. Each Friend Has A Special Place In My Heart & I Cant Wait To Have Them Apart Of Our Special Day. Roll On 2022 #MrsEToBe'

Danielle and fiance Tommy share one-year-old daughter Orla.

In the details: Guests were treated to a delicious afternoon tea and personalised cards

The girls: Ferne posed up with Danielle and her fellow bridesmaids

Ferne split from her marketing manager beau Jack Padgett in June, after they began dating in December and moved in together amid the winter

Speaking to The Sun on Saturday recently, the former TOWIE star said she still wants her happily ever after and is 'such a sucker for love'.

While she is not wallowing in heartache and is enjoying the single life, the star reflected on their split, revealing how the pandemic 'accelerated' their breakup.

I am such a sucker for love - I love love so much, and of course I want to find my happy ever after,' an optimistic Ferne said about her future dating life.

Wow: Danielle and Tom will tie the knot in August 2022

Cute: Ferne shared her delight at being asked to be a bridesmaid

The blonde beauty only had positive things to say about Jack, 27, describing the breakup as 'mature'.

'But it's been such a mature, grown-up breakup - and no one did anything wrong. I've learned so much from this relationship and from Jack, and we had some beautiful times,' she said.

Ferne and Jack moved in together amid the winter lockdown shortly after they began dating, and admitted that taking the next step in their relationship was its downfall.

Yay: Danielle also shared a slew of snaps and heartfelt message

Exciting times: Danielle announced she was engaged to Tom - her best friend of 22 years- last March (pictured while she was pregnant with daughter Orla in Dubai)

'But in the end, it also accelerated our breakup, because coming out of lockdown and the world opening back up meant suddenly our lives were very different and we were like passing ships,' she explained.

News broke of their split in June, with a source saying the couple were 'on different paths' and the end of lockdown made it 'clear' their lifestyles didn't match up.

A source close to the couple confirmed the breakup to MailOnline, and said it was clear when lockdown started to lift their work and lifestyles were just too different.
Former WAG Kyly Clarke just celebrated turning the big 4-0.

And the mother-of-one proved she's in the best shape of her life in a bikini snap on Wednesday.

Kyly, who let fans know the photo was a recent throwback, showcased her toned and tanned figure as she reclined on a sun chair.

This is 40! Former WAG Kyly Clarke showed off super fit figure in a striped bikini in a throwback photo she posted on Wednesday

The former House Rules star's flat stomach and toned thighs were also on full display.

'Mentally bringing back this feeling of being poolside, sun screened up, reading a book, half falling asleep in the warm, taking a dip when it gets too toasty,' she wrote in the caption.

Kyly is currently isolating with her daughter Kelsey Lee, five, during Sydney's harsh lockdown, and the pair just celebrated the mother-of-one's 40th.

Glam: Kyly looked years younger in a near makeup free selfie she posted on her milestone birthday earlier this month

While Kyly spent her birthday in lockdown, but she still managed to make the most of her day.

In a series of posts shared to Instagram, she detailed her big day in gorgeous photographs.

The spread was heavy on balloons, flowers, and a stunning cake.

Many happy returns: Kyly is currently isolating with her daughter Kelsey Lee, five, during Sydney's harsh lockdown and the pair just celebrated the mother-of-one's 40th

Nice! In a series of posts shared to Instagram, she detailed her big day in gorgeous photographs

'The magnificent birthday cake, my table flowers and the wonderful gifts, from my nearest and dearest friends and family,' she wrote alongside several images of the spread.

'I absolutely adore all of you and feel very blessed to have completed 40 laps around the sun.'

She went on to pay tribute to her daughter, writing: 'One of the most enjoyable moments right now has been blowing out my birthday candles with my own little angel. Wouldn't want to do this life without you.

She went on to pay tribute to her daughter, writing: 'One of the most enjoyable moments right now has been blowing out my birthday candles with my own little angel. Wouldn't want to do this life without you'

'I want to say thank you all for being a part of my journey so far, it's been one amazing ride and I am so excited to stay on it and bring you along or jump onto yours.'

Kyly added that she hadn't had her hair done in a while thanks to Sydney's lockdown, but was sure to spruce herself up for her 40th.

'And yes, seven weeks down and I blow dried my hair for you all. This time it was for you, because I have been loving my new no fuss bun style,' she wrote.
He recently caused a major stir after doubling down on his anti-vaxx stance, going as far as to say there is more evidence to support the existence of UFOs than of vaccine safety.

But Chet Hanks brushed off the controversy on Tuesday as it was revealed the aspiring rapper has been signed to Soulja Boy's record label SODMG Records.

'Chet Hanks, my new artist signed to SODMG Records as the first rapper signed this year. We are about to make history, you know what I'm sayin'!?' exclaimed Soulja Boy, who shared a video of himself and Chet to Instagram.

Signed: Chet Hanks brushed off his recent controversy on Tuesday as it was revealed the aspiring rapper has been signed to Soulja Boy's record label SODMG Records

In the brief clip, Chet can be seen standing beside the 31-year-old rapper in a black leather vest covered in patches and a pair of black pants.

The 31-year-old son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson also rocked a backwards cap and had a drink cup in his hand.

He and Soulja Boy shared a celebratory high-five, before Chet pointed towards the camera and urged Instagram to 'just wait! just wait!' to see what he has in store for them musically.

History: 'Chet Hanks, my new artist signed to SODMG Records as the first rapper signed this year. We are about to make history, you know what I'm sayin'!?' exclaimed Soulja Boy, who shared a video of himself and Chet to Instagram

Hyped: In the brief clip, Chet can be seen standing beside the 31-year-old rapper in a black leather vest covered in patches and a pair of black pants

Living it up: The 31-year-old son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson also rocked a backwards cap and had a drink cup in his hand

The caption of Soulja Boy's Instagram post read: 'Welcome my newest artist @chethanx to the family'

Chet's record deal comes just one day after he took to social media to continue spewing his controversial stance on the COVID-19 vaccine, despite his parents being among the first major celebrities to catch the virus in March 2020.

'Woke up and chose chaos lmaooooo,' Chet wrote of his latest video, going on to say that 'theres more evidence of UFOs being real than that vaccine being healthy for you, just saying. Aliens are out there, ready for yall to come get me, lets get the f***k out of here! Or do I have to show you my vaccine papers?

Just wait! He and Soulja Boy shared a celebratory high-five, before Chet pointed towards the camera and urged Instagram to 'just wait! just wait!' to see what he has in store for them musically

New artist: The caption of Soulja Boy's Instagram post read: 'Welcome my newest artist @chethanx to the family'

Beginning his diatribe moments earlier, Hanks said, Im gonna keep this real simple for you guys, real simple. Just like you have the right to be mad at me because I said Im not getting the vaccine . . . I have the right to not get that s**t.'

The celebrity offspring continues, 'I wanted to, but my immune system said its good, okay, it doesnt need to be tampered with. It said its good, okay. Lets be real. 99% of you m***********s wouldnt use a shampoo thats not FDA approved, but youre willing to get some experimental government injection. Okay.'

The FDA has authorized the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for emergency use for all individuals under 12. Full approval of the Pfizer shot is expected as soon as this month after the company accrued the six months of data necessary for the FDA to begin the evaluation process, according to The Hill.

But Hanks asserted that there is not enough evidence to prove that the Covid-19 vaccines is beneficial, despite 167million Americans - or just over half - being vaccinated as of yesterday, according to Our World in Data.

On the defense: Chet Hanks, son of actor Tom Hanks, defended his stance against the Covid-19 vaccination in an Instagram post on Wednesday, in which he said it is his right to not get it

Wild: Hanks called the shot an 'experimental government injection' and said 'Theres more evidence of UFOs being real than that vaccine being healthy for you, just saying'

The 31-yearold rapper's newest video alludes to the reactions he got from his last post, in which he pretended to encourage people to have a COVID vaccine - only to then launch into an anti-vaxxer rant and confirm that he wouldn't be getting the shot.

Hanks posted a video, captioned 'super important PSA,' in which he addressed the ongoing pandemic and began by encouraging his followers to take action by getting the vaccine, only to quickly change his tone.

'I suggest to all my followers, you guys, set an appointment and get the vaccine first thing -- PSYCH!' he said. 'B***h! If it ain't broke don't fix it! I never had COVID. Y'ain't sticking me with that motherf***ing needle!'

The clip yielded 369K views and 10.7K comments. Some users hailed the clip and just as many shared laughing emojis, but a number shared a thumbs down and others posted long reactions expressing their disappointment and outrage.

One user wrote, 'Yikes bro,' another commented, 'Rita come get your son,' and another said, 'Does daddy approve of this message?"

First of many: Hanks posted his first rant against the coronavirus vaccine on his Instagram account Monday night

Psych! He shared a video at first encouraging his followers to get the shot before yelling: 'PSYCH! Y'ain't sticking me with that motherf***ing needle!'

His latest video garnered 116K views and 2,884 comments, mostly of the same nature. One user joked, 'I dont wear a seatbelt in car cause Ive never gotten into a car accident!' and another wrote, 'A good way to live your life is to see what this guy does and then just do the opposite.'

In Hanks's first video, he duped viewers into thinking he supported the vaccine and said Americans needed to rally together to curb the spread of the virus, especially with the Delta variant on the rise.

'I've been on the fence about this for awhile, that's why I never spoke on it, but with the amount of people I know recently that have gotten COVID, and with the numbers rising, I think it's important for me to say I got the vaccine, I think everybody should,' Hanks said in a convincing tone. 'It's really important that we all do this.'

However, about halfway through the video Hanks revealed that he believed the pandemic was a hoax, calling COVID-19 'the motherf***ing flu'.

The musician argued that Americans need to 'get over it and told those who were sick or high-risk to 'stay inside'.

'Why are we working around ya'll?' he said. 'If you're in danger, stay you're a** inside. I'm tired of wearing a motherf***ing mask.'

Hanks' parents, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, were among the first celebrities to contract COVID and publicly share their journey with the disease.

Tom revealed that he and Rita had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, 2020, while he was shooting the upcoming film Elvis in Queensland, Australia. That was around the time the virus was deemed a global pandemic, with the revelation coming the same night then-president Donald Trump made a nationwide address where he announced his travel ban on Europe.

Sharing their journey: Hanks' parents, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, were among the first celebrities to contract COVID and publicly share their journey with the disease

History: Tom revealed that he and Rita had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, 2020, while he was shooting the upcoming film Elvis in Queensland, Australia

The couple were admitted to the Gold Coast University Hospital for care, and were ultimately released on March 16. They then went into quarantine for 11 days before heading back to to their home in Los Angeles where they remained in lockdown.

Tom and Wilson both donated their blood antibodies for virus research.

It is not clear if the couple has been vaccinated, but as of April 2021, the couple said they intended to get the vaccine.

Wilson opened up about their vaccination status when she was Hoda Kotb's surprise co-host on The Today Show on Friday, April 2. She referred to the age restriction on the vaccine at the time and said, 'We are in line now because so many people are vaccinated and they're opening up to the next tier . . . To witness people hugging each other for the first time in a year, grandparents hugging their grandchildren, people hugging their parents, there's nothing like that. That is truly a gift.'

In 2015, Chet spoke of how he had battled cocaine addiction, and checked into rehab to deal with his problem.

Tom said at the time that he loved his son 'unconditionally.'
His new sci-fi thriller Reminiscence recently premiered.

And Hugh Jackman appears to not have lost his on-screen charm over the years after a series of stills were released showing some steamy scenes from the movie.

The 52-year-old Australian actor is seen in several shots getting very close with his female co-star Rebecca Ferguson.

Sneak peek: Hugh Jackman's new sci-fi thriller film Reminiscence sees the actor in some steamy scenes with his female co-star Rebecca Ferguson

The pair, who play romantic leads in the film, are pictured affectionately embracing each other in one photo.

Another still sees Hugh and Rebecca stand close and gaze at one another.

The X-Men star's new movie sees him play Nick Bannister, an army veteran living in a future Miami who offers his clients the chance to relive any memory they wish.

On-screen romance: The 52-year-old Australian actor is seen in several shots getting very close with his co-star Rebecca Ferguson. The pair play romantic leads in the movie

Nick meets the mysterious Mae, portrayed by Rebecca, and a passionate love affair begins.

However, when a different client's memories involve Mae in a string of violent crimes, Nick must venture through a dark past to unravel the truth about his lover.

Hugh claims he was desperate to star in the 'unique' film and was fascinated by the story and how it 'kept going all over the place'.

Desperate: Hugh claims he was 'desperate' to star in the 'unique' new sci-fi film

The Wolverine actor told ComicBook.com: 'I actually rang my agent 20 pages in saying, "I know this is not a very cool, like a poker movie to make, but I'm totally doing this movie".

'It kept going all over the place. And it's just so unique and different. And I love that for audiences. And for me, it was a screaming 'Yes', an easy one.'

Hugh revealed that he actually had to fight underwater and confessed that he 'learned a lot' from the film's more challenging sequences.

Reminiscence premieres on August 20.
Sophie Falkiner showed off her taut physique while stepping out for a swim in Sydney on Wednesday.

The TV presenter-turned-model proved just how fit she is as she undertook a seaside exercise session amid the lockdown in New South Wales.

For the outing, the 48-year-old blonde stunner donned a black full-piece swimsuit.

Beach babe! Sophie Falkiner, 48, sizzled in the sun as she showed off her age-defying physique in Sydney on Wednesday

Clearly feeling at one with the water, Sophie let her hair down while she enjoyed her swim, using her black hair tie as an accessory on her wrist.

As she pranced across the shore, her buxom bust and toned pins were on display.

Despite being winter, Sophie still managed to catch some of the sun's rays.

At one stage, Sophie enjoyed a break from her swim by shooting through a text to a friend while she sipped on a store bought coffee.

Beach attire: For the outing, the 48-year-old blonde stunner donned a black swimsuit

Beach babe: Sophie showed off her ageless visage coming out of the surf

Letting her hair down: Clearly feeling at one with the water, Sophie let her hair down while she enjoyed her swim

Splish splash: Despite being winter, Sophie still managed to catch some of the sun's rays

Nice pins! As she pranced across the shore, her buxom bust and toned pins were on display

Who are you texting? Sophie enjoyed a break from her swim by shooting through a text to a friend

Before heading into the water, Sophie arrived to the beach in casual workout attire.

The blonde bombshell wore navy pants, teamed with a Canadian tourism sloppy joe.

She also carried her belongings in a black and white The Upside tote.

Sophie kept sun-safe by donning some black shades and a matching black trucker's cap.

Casual getup: The blonde bombshell wore navy pants, teamed with a Canadian tourism sloppy joe

Sun safe: Sophie kept sun-safe by donning some black shades

In August last year, the former Wheel Of Fortune presenter revealed that she signed up with a mature modelling agency.

At the time, she made an appearance on The Morning Show to talk about her new role with Silverfox.

She explained to hosts Larry Edmur and Kylie Gillies that 'age is just a number' and that women can still be 'stylish at any age'.

'Age is just a number!' In August last year, Sophie revealed that she's signed up to a mature modelling agency

'The agency really celebrates diversity - the only prerequisite they have is that you have to be 30 years of age or older, and a lot of people in the agencies are up to the age of 80,' she said.

'I would much prefer an uber-stylish woman in their sixties selling me a face cream, rather than a 16-year-old schoolgirl with no wrinkles.'

Her new role comes amid a rising demand for older models on our catwalks and in advertising.
Collingwood superstar Dane Swan is the latest celebrity to urge the general public to get vaccinated.

The 37-year-old got the jab on Wednesday and shared a post urging his almost 250,000 followers to do the same.

'Yep I just got vaccinated, why?' he wrote. 'Cause I hate being stuck behind my front door being treated like a prisoner in the state I live in.'

'I just got vaccinated': Collingwood superstar Dane Swan begged his fans and followers to get vaccinated after getting the jab this week

He then claimed that mass vaccination is the only way that lockdown will end and society will return to normal.

'And whether we like it or not the only way we are ever gonna be treated like humans again and live a normal life is by all being vaccinated,' he continued.

'So while we all whinge and complain about being locked down lets just all go and get the jab so we can get back to being free and living normal lives.

'And if that still isnt good enough do it for all the kids who havent been able learn, play, interact with other children. Its hurting them the most.'

The footy star then said people should want the vaccine because summer is coming up, and that they won't be allowed to socialise without it.

It's the only way? Dane claimed that mass vaccination is the only way that lockdown will end and society will return to normal

'And if thats not good enough well summer is coming and who doesnt wanna have a beer in a pub with all their mates then,' he wrote.

'And lets face it, most of the people who wont get it have put worse in their body at 3am in a cubicle or dance floor somewhere so the quicker we all do it the quicker we can move on with all our lives and get back to those dance floors.'

Despite his pleas, the majority of Dane's followers disagreed with his line of thinking.

'So now youll just be locked down with the jab rather than without. Nice,' snarked one.

'Now youll just be locked down with the jab!' Despite his pleas, the majority of Dane's followers disagreed with his line of thinking

Another wrote: 'Not sure I trust them that if we all get vaccinated will return to normal.'

One follower added: 'If you really think getting the jab will keep you from being locked down; you havent been paying attention.'

Despite the backlash, Australian rapper Illy was one of the few people who agreed with Dane, commenting on the post: 'Fkn amen.'
Phoebe Dynevor is reportedly set to executive produce and star in a new Amazon series.

The 26-year-old actress is said to have closed a lucrative deal for the new show, Exciting Times, a series in development at Amazon Studios that explores contemporary romance with a twist.

According to Deadline, Phoebe  who made a name for herself as Daphne in the Netflix hit Bridgerton  will play Ava, a young Dubliner who travels abroad to teach English grammar to wealthy children.

Make it big: Phoebe Dynevor has secured her first major gig behind the camera after signing a lucrative new deal to executive produce and star in the new series Exciting Times

She also becomes entangled in a love triangle with banker Julian and lawyer Edith.

The project is based on the debut novel by Irish writer Naoise Dolan, which was released in June last year and described as 'bracingly intelligent, hilarious and raw'.

Phoebe will executive produce alongside Naoise, as well as Cooper Raiff, who is also co-writing the television series.

Finance-producier Black Bear bought the rights to the book to turn it into a premium show and Black Bears Teddy Schwarzman, Ben Stillman, and Michael Heimler are also listed as executive producers.

Project: The 26-year-old actress - who made a name for herself as Daphne in the Netflix hit Bridgerton - will feature in the Amazon Studios production based on Naoise Dolan's novel

The actress - who is the daughter of Coronation Street legend Sally Dynevor and writer and actor dad Tim  shared a snap of the novel on Instagram and wrote: 'Here we go.'

Phoebe was the female lead in the first season of Netflixs Bridgerton, which broke the streamers viewership record in its first four weeks of release, and she will also appear in series two.

The rising star recently signed on to appear in Sony Pictures I Heart Murder, a female-driven thriller.

She also stars in Sky Cinemas original film The Colour Room, opposite Mathew Goode.

Phoebe previously said that being in films and television shows is not as 'easy' as it seems and that she has faced a lot of rejection in the past, which does 'wear her down'.

New role: Phoebe will play Ava in the series, a young Dubliner who travels abroad to teach English grammar to wealthy children before becoming entangled in a love triangle with a banker and lawyer

She said: 'This is not an easy industry. Ive been acting for 11 years and even when youre lucky its tough. Being an actor is 99 per cent being told "no"'.

Phoebe revealed she assumed she didn't land the role of Daphne in Bridgeton before her co-star Rege-Jean Page gave her a subtle hint: 'Sometimes it does wear you down. I remember telling Rege, "I just want to say youre brilliant. Good luck with it all  youre going to be great."

'I thought maybe hed read with loads of other girls. He sort of smiled and giggled at me.'

And Phoebe also addressed filming intimate scenes, which she said are a 'way more comfortable experience' now.

She added: 'You treat it like a stunt  you have an intimacy coordinator. She brings this bag full of equipment, like yoga balls and mats and padding, all these things you imagine they use for stunts.

Excitement: The actress - who is the daughter of Coronation Street legend Sally Dynevor and writer and actor dad Tim  shared a snap of the novel on Instagram and wrote: 'Here we go'

'Its just all amazing camera angles and you feel so safe. Its all about making it look real but not actually doing it  like someone getting punched in a screen fight when youre not actually punching them.

'Ive done sex scenes before where that wasnt the case and they are entirely different to shoot.'

The news comes amid reports that she has split from her boyfriend Pete Davidson after five months of dating.

The Bridgerton actress and comedian, 27, were last seen together in the UK in July, with them putting on a loved-up display at Wimbledon.

However a source has now claimed that the duo have split after trying to make things work long distance 'put a strain' on their relationship.

A source told The Sun: 'Pete and Phoebe's romance was a real whirlwind and from the start they were both totally committed.

'It was pretty telling when Phoebe headed to Croatia with her mates this week rather than going to see Pete in America.

'It was wild while it lasted... But the distance has put a strain on them. They will remain close but unless something drastic changes their relationship won't recover.'

The source continued that both of the stars have very busy schedules at the moment, with Phoebe filming Bridgerton series two in the UK and Pete working on Saturday Night Live in the US as well as filming a movie called Meet Cute.

It is also thought that travel restrictions have added a further pressure to their romance as it isn't easy to just 'jump on a plane' and see each other.

MailOnline has contacted Phoebe and Pete's representatives for further comment.
She famously placed runner-up on Matt Agnew's season of The Bachelor two years ago.

And now Abbie Chatfield has revealed that her feelings for the 32-year-old astrophysicist were very real.

'I cried the whole way home. I got a row to myself and was sobbing listening to 'Thank U Next' by Ariana Grande,' she told Andy Lee on The Hundred.

Tears: Abbie Chatfield [pictured] has revealed she 'sobbed' the entire plane ride home after she placed runner-up on The Bachelor

During her appearance on the Channel Nine game show, Abbie asked a virtual audience if she would answer 'yes' when asked if it was a good idea to appear on a dating show.

It turns out only 35 per cent thought it would be a good idea, with Abbie agreeing.

'I've been dumped three times in front of Australia so probably not [a good idea]. I probably should have asked The Hundred before I went on,' she laughed.

Heartbreak: Just last month, Abbie revealed she 'still cries' about Matt, who famously chose her love rival Chelsie McLeod during The Bachelor's tear-jerking finale

Remember this? Abbie and Matt famously enjoyed a romp on the beach

Back in May, Abbie revealed she 'still cries' about Matt, who famously chose her love rival Chelsie McLeod during The Bachelor's tear-jerking finale.

Speaking on her tell-all podcast It's A Lot, the blonde confessed: 'I told a man that I loved him after like, two months on The Bachelor. That's quite unwell. That's not right in the head.

'I still cry about him sometimes. That's going to be a Daily Mail headline - that's fine. Give me free advertising for the podcast, thank you!'

Time heals all wounds? Back in May, Abbie revealed she 'still cries' about Matt, who famously chose her love rival Chelsie McLeod during The Bachelor's tear-jerking finale

Despite being thoroughly confident he would chose her, Matt said his 'heart belongs to someone else' during the final in South Africa - chose fellow chemical engineer Chelsie instead.

However, the two weren't meant to be, and broke up just three months after the final episode aired.

After her time on the show, Abbie penned an emotional Instagram post thanking the Matt for the journey they shared together.

She wrote: 'It's been the toughest but most rewarding year of my life and I'll forever be grateful to the experience and also to Matt.

'It changed my life, and the adversity faced during and after the show is the reason I get to do what I love, and also the reason I got to look the hottest I will ever look.'
She recently went public with her new romance with The Vamps star Tristan Evans.

And Lottie Moss cut a low-key figure on Tuesday as she headed out for dinner with her friend Blithe Saxon and their mothers in London's Notting Hill.

The model and sister of Kate Moss, 23, was then see heading to the Electric House bar where she crossed paths with pal Liam Cairo, and later continued their fun evening by heading to his house.

Relaxed: Lottie Moss, 22, cut a low-key figure on Tuesday as she headed out for dinner with her friend Blithe Saxon and their mothers in London's Notting Hill

Lottie opted for a casual all-black look as she joined Blythe outside the eatery, accompanied by her mum Inger.

The blonde beauty chatted to her musician pal Blithe before the group were seen making their way to their next destination, with Lottie holding onto her mum's arm while they continued their conversation.

After arriving at their next venue, Lottie was seen embracing Liam, who is a longtime friend of her sister Kate, before they made their way into the club together.

Having fun? The model and sister of Kate Moss, 23, was then see heading to the Electric House bar where she crossed paths with pal Liam Cairo

Simple: Lottie opted for a casual all-black look as she seated herself outside the eatery for dinner with her friends

Chatting: She and her friends were deep in conversation as they strolled to their next venue, with Lottie opted for eye-catching leather flared trousers

Sweet: She headed out arm-in-arm with her mum Inger (pictured far right) alongside Blythe and her own mother

Happy: Lottie appeared to be in good spirits as she spoke to her friend throughout the dinner

Continuing their night out into the early hours, Lottie was then seen heading to back to Liam's house to carry on their evening.

Earlier this month, Lottie went public with with her romance with The Vamps Tristan Evans.

Lottie and Tristan, 26, put on a cosy display as they made their first public appearance together at the start of August.

Close friends: After arriving at their next venue, Lottie was seen with Liam, who is a longtime friend of her sister Kate

Best pals: The group were seen relaxing outside the club as they prepared to continue their evening

The pair hit up the MEDAHUMAN's CBD Spritz launch at Isabel Mayfair after dining at La Bodega Negra in London's Soho.

Once inside, Tristan promptly wrapped his arm around his model girlfriend as they posed for photographers, with the 6ft 1in musician towering over Lottie, despite the fact she was wearing heels.

It was revealed at the end of July that Lottie and Tristan were an item, after they were spotted getting up close and personal in Notting Hill two weeks earlier before he spent the next evening cooking for her during a cosy night in together.

Exit: Continuing their night out into the early hours, Lottie was then seen heading to back to Liam's house to carry on their evening

New romance: Earlier this month, Lottie went public with with her romance with The Vamps Tristan Evans

They're dating! Lottie and Tristan, 26, put on a cosy display as they made their first public appearance together at the start of August

Together: It was revealed at the end of July that Lottie and Tristan were an item, after they were spotted getting up close and personal in Notting Hill two weeks earlier

Edgier than her usual type, Lottie has previously dated Made In Chelsea boys Alex in 2016 and Sam Prince, 24.

Meanwhile, Tristan got engaged to model Anastasia Smith in April 2018, after dating for four years, but by the autumn the pair had split, removing all pictures together from their social media profiles.

Anastasia is now engaged to another man.

Last November The Vamps drummer told Attitude that 'there shouldn't be any boundaries,' when it comes to sexuality.

Former flames: Edgier than her usual type, Lottie has previously dated Made In Chelsea boys Alex in 2016 and Sam Prince, 24

Exes: Meanwhile, Tristan got engaged to model Anastasia Smith in April 2018, after dating for four years, but by the autumn the pair had split

Candid: Around the same time, Lottie came out as pansexual

Around the same time, Lottie came out as pansexual.

The younger half-sister of Kate Moss told her Instagram followers: 'I'm pansexual so I don't really mind... any gender. It kinda changes every day as well. It depends on who I meet.'

A pansexual person is attracted to someone or falls in love with them regardless of their biological sex or gender identity
Michael Greco revealed the incredible news that he's able to take his seven-week-old son Gianluca home, after the tot was 'fighting in ICU to live a normal life'.

In a heartfelt Instagram Stories post on Tuesday, the EastEnders star, 50, thanked his fans for their support as he revealed his son has made an 'incredible recovery'.

The actor - who played Beppe di Marco in the BBC soap from 1998 to 2002 - previously revealed that Gianluca underwent operations at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children to correct bowel issues following his premature birth.

'He's made an incredible recovery': EastEnders' Michael Greco (pictured), 50, revealed on Tuesday that he's now able to take his seven-week-old son Gianluca home, after the tot was 'fighting in ICU to live a normal life'

An understandably elated Michael took to his Instagram Stories on Tuesday, revealing the incredible news that medics have now discharged Gianluca.

'Hi everyone, thank you so much for all your support over the last seven really tough weeks. I've just had the most incredible news. I've just had the most incredible news from the doctors that my boy is being discharged today,' Michael told his followers.

'He's made an incredible recovery so soon, so strong. And I've just arrived at the hospital to take him home. Thank you all so much for all your well wishes and incredible support. Great day.'

Joy: An understandably elated Michael took to his Instagram Stories on Tuesday, revealing the incredible news that medics have now discharged Gianluca. 'He's made an incredible recovery so soon, so strong. And I've just arrived at the hospital to take him home,' he said

Michael has kept Instagram fans updated on his son's progress since his birth, having shared precious photos last month of the baby clutching his dad's finger.

In the pictures, Gianluca looked adorable in his hospital cot but had monitors and wires attached to his chest and nose.

Michael penned in the caption: 'Daddy, Daddy. What's the name of that song you love?...It's on the tip of my tongue... Oh yes, I know..... NESSUN DORMAAAAAAAA......

'My beautiful and brave son, Gianluca, hopefully has one more critical operation before he can start to try and live a normal, healthy life.

Struggles: Michael previously revealed Gianluca had 'one more critical operation' before he can start to 'live a normal life' after his premature birth

Doting dad: The actor previously explained that the baby - who had to have bowel surgery straight after his birth - weighed just 4.47lbs and came early due to scans failing to pick up birth defects

'I'm not the most religious of people but I am praying with all my heart that my absolute world will pull through like the true fighter he has already shown to be. I love you GG xxx.'

Michael previously revealed in an Instagram post that Gianluca was 'fighting to live a normal life' and was becoming 'stronger and stronger' while in ICU.

He explained that the baby - who had to have bowel surgery straight after his birth - weighed just 4.47lbs and came early due to scans failing to pick up birth defects.

Update: Gianluca was 'fighting to live a normal life' and became 'stronger and stronger' while in ICU

Alongside a photograph of his son in an incubator, Michael wrote: 'My boy. My beautiful boy is still in ICU and fighting to live a normal life.

'He has become stronger and stronger, day by day, and has given himself an incredible chance of a normal life that every newborn baby deserves.

'He's a true Greco and has made my heart completely full and bursting of love. Much, much more than I ever thought was possible. Daddy is still a 'tad' emotional. I love you Gianluca.'

Earlier in July, Michael shared a picture of Gianluca, detailing the arrival of his and girlfriend Helen Harris' son.

Baby boy: Doting dad Michael announced the birth of his first child on Instagram on July 3

Michael penned: 'Born July 1st 2021. Weighing 4.47lbs. The little man was born prematurely due to the fact that previous scans had failed to pick up his rare birth defect called Gastroschisis...

'The consultant suggested it was best for him to be born early so that he could get the necessary care and attention. He was born at University College of London Hospital...

'Their staff were extremely professional and mother and baby could not have been in better hands. Dad was a 'tad' emotional to say the least!...

'Baby has already had his first operation to replace his bowel where it should belong and is under the world's best care of Great Ormond Street where he will be in ICU for a while and most probably for up to 6 weeks...

Michael penned: 'Born July 1st 2021. Weighing 4.47lbs. The little man was born prematurely due to the fact that previous scans had failed to pick up his rare birth defect called Gastroschisis'

First-time dad: Sharing a picture of Gianluca, Michael detailed the arrival of his and girlfriend Helen Harris' son. Pictured with Helen

What is gastroschisis? Gastroschisis is a type of abdominal wall defect. It occurs when a child's abdomen does not develop fully while in the womb. Early in all pregnancies, the intestine develops inside the umbilical cord and then usually moves inside the abdomen a few weeks later. In gastroschisis, the abdominal wall does not form completely so the intestines develop outside and are open to the air when the child is born. Gastroschisis is immediately recognisable because the child's intestines are outside of the abdomen. Some areas of the intestines may look darker as they have been in contact with the amniotic fluid inside the womb, which can damage them. The umbilical cord is visible but pushed to the side by the exposed intestines. Gastroschisis is a serious condition so needs prompt treatment soon after birth. Immediately after birth, doctors will wrap the exposed intestines in a type of 'cling film' which reduces the amount of fluids and body heat lost, protects the intestines from further damage and also allows staff to monitor them closely. Once stable, the child will have an operation under general anaesthetic to put the intestines back inside the abdomen and close up the abdominal wall. Sometimes this needs to be done in stages, replacing the intestines a bit at a time until they can all be contained within the abdomen. Occasionally, children have treatment for gastroschisis in the intensive care unit. This involves placing a ready-made mesh sac over the intestines so that are contained and moved back into the abdomen. The sac is put in place on the intensive care unit without anaesthetic but with pain relief. This sac is then suspended above the child so that gravity gradually moves the intestines back inside the abdomen. It is tightened regularly until all the intestine is inside the abdomen, which usually takes a few days. Advertisement

'My heart is full already and this is by far the best day of my life. I love you Gianluca more than I can ever imagine.'

Gastroschisis is a type of abdominal wall defect. It occurs when a child's abdomen does not develop fully while in the womb.

Early in all pregnancies, the intestine develops inside the umbilical cord and then usually moves inside the abdomen a few weeks later.

In gastroschisis, the abdominal wall does not form completely so the intestines develop outside and are open to the air when the child is born.

It's a boy! In April, Michael announced that he and Helen were having a baby boy on television

Gastroschisis is immediately recognisable because the child's intestines are outside of the abdomen. Some areas of the intestines may look darker as they have been in contact with the amniotic fluid inside the womb, which can damage them. The umbilical cord is visible but pushed to the side by the exposed intestines.

In April, Michael announced that he and Helen were having a baby boy.

At the time he appeared on Loose Women, to reveal the sex of their unborn child, and held up a pair of tiny blue baby socks as he made the announcement.

He admitted he was so 'overwhelmed' when Helen revealed her pregnancy that he burst into tears, as he discussed becoming a dad in his 50s.

Exciting times: The TV star appeared on Loose Women earlier this year to reveal the sex of their unborn child, and held up a pair of tiny blue baby socks as he made the announcement

As he made the gender reveal, Michael acknowledged: 'I am a traditionalist. I know some people aren't these days of being traditional about blue and pink and blah, blah, blah. But I am.

'I'm Italian, I'm old-fashioned, I'm a traditionalist. And so the baby's gender is... a little boy!' announced Michael, as he held up a pair of blue baby socks, leaving the Loose Women panellists cheering as they congratulated him.

Earlier, the actor discussed how he felt about finding out he was going to be a father, admitting: 'I was overwhelmed when my partner told me and I did burst into tears. I didn't think I would, but I did.

'It's funny being a dad in my 50s now. There are no rules in life when you should be a dad and when you shouldn't. Some people have kids when they're younger, and some people have them in their older age... What I do know is I'm still fit and strong.'

Happy news: Michael shared a picture of the baby scan on social media in February and added: 'My heart is full and I love you more than life itself Baby G. Xxx'

Michael announced in February that he was set to become a father for the first time, with his 'soulmate' girlfriend, Helen.

The soap actor wrote on Instagram alongside a picture of a sonogram: 'Baby Greco. First time daddy at 51! Probably the greatest post I've ever shared.

'Can't explain how emotional it was for me to be told that I am to be a father for the very first time, with my absolute soulmate. I'm normally a very private person but I couldn't help reveal my utter joy and I just want to tell the world!

'In these devastating times that we are all facing right now, this is the best news I could ever dream of. My heart is full and I love you more than life itself Baby G. Xxx.'

It's not known how long Michael has been in a relationship with mother-of-two Helen for but he first shared a picture of her on social media seven months ago.

Happy couple: It's not known how long Michael has been in a relationship with mother-of-two Helen for, but he first shared a picture of her on social media last year

Michael bowed out of EastEnders 18 years ago when he was axed by executive producer John Yorke. He later went to star in Casualty and the Aladdin musical.

He previously dated Hollyoaks star Stephanie Waring, who played Cindy Cunningham from 2016 to 2017, but they split up over his party lifestyle.

In 1998, he got engaged to glamour model Linsey Dawn McKenzie but they went their separate ways. He was later linked to Lisa Faulkner and Dani Behr.
Pregnant Roxanne Pallett has confirmed she is set to welcome a baby boy with her fireman husband Jason Carrion.

The former Emmerdale star, 38, spoke exclusively to MailOnline about the thrilling news, as she gushed: 'I'd always spiritually seen myself having a little boy so it's beautiful for that dream to come true. J is so excited'.

Roxanne moved stateside after marrying Jason, 35, in January last year, two months after their engagement, before revealing their baby news earlier this year and the actress has been making the most of NYC's eateries to indulge her cravings.

Her love: Pregnant Roxanne Pallett has confirmed she is set to welcome a baby boy with her fireman husband Jason Carrion

On her delightful news, a thrilled Roxanne said: 'Our hearts melted when we found out. We can't wait to cuddle him! I'd always spiritually seen myself having a little boy so it's beautiful for that dream to come true...

'J is so excited, he's having adorable conversations with my tummy and kissing my bump constantly to feel him kick. And yes we've got a collection of cute little fireman outfits awaiting him so he can look just like daddy.'

Jason said: 'I've never felt so happy. We can't wait for him to be here with us. I really hope he gets Roxanne's beautiful dark features and that incredible British accent.'

On the couple's excitement, an insider went on: 'They are overjoyed. They've known the gender for a while but only recently shared their news with friends.'

Happy: Roxanne moved stateside after marrying Jason, 35, in January last year, two months after their engagement, before revealing their baby news earlier this year and the actress has been making the most of NYC's eateries to indulge her cravings

After ducking out of the spotlight following her Celebrity Big Brother scandal in 2018, in which she falsely accused Ryan Thomas of maliciously punching her, she has kept much of her pregnancy under wraps - in a 'refreshing' move.

The source went on: 'Roxanne's modest move to remain off the grid is refreshing as most celebs parade their pregnancies on social media for lucrative brand deals, especially with big gender reveals...

'But she's turned down several big acting projects too and is happier than ever being a wife and a mother.'

On her pregnancy cravings, the insider said: 'She's had so many cravings during the pregnancy too, she's been waking up in the middle of the night during the New York summer heatwave - craving citrus fruits, and she's been squeezing limes on everything!...

Yum! In a nod to the famed hot spots in NYC, she has been indulging her cravings in all the hot spots, including New York's Katz Deli - the diner made famous by Meg Ryan's naughty scene in movie When Harry Met Sally

'She had really bad morning sickness during her first trimester but now as she heads into her third trimester she is making up for lost time with a food frenzy!...

'One thing Jason is determined to find in New York for her is a British style chippy which she's been dreaming about! You can take the girl out the north but not the north out of the girl!'

In a nod to the famed hot spots in NYC, she has been indulging her cravings in all the hot spots, including New York's Katz Deli - the diner made famous by Meg Ryan's naughty scene in movie When Harry Met Sally.

The source said: 'Roxanne's been craving their famous pastrami on rye sandwiches with a side of dill pickles even at silly hours of the night!...

Yum! The insider went on: 'They're often seen calling into the famous Sex and the City 'Magnolia Bakery' for their famous banana pudding and chocolate cupcakes!'

'Roxanne's always been very petite, wearing a tiny size zero dress for their wedding last January, but she's now embracing her new appetite and her new curves. Being glam is the last thing on her mind, she's all about comfort now....

'She also used to be a big coffee drinker, her breakfast was usually a black coffee and a bar of chocolate, but now being pregnant she can't even stand the smell of coffee...

'She's instead been drinking lots of water with slices of lemons and limes added! She's been wanting limes squeezed on everything!...

Out and about: After ducking out of the spotlight following her Celebrity Big Brother scandal in 2018, in which she falsely accused Ryan Thomas of maliciously punching her, she has kept much of her pregnancy under wraps - in a 'refreshing' move

'Jason's been coming home from the firehouse loaded down with bags of limes for her! During the first trimester she couldn't eat much due to really bad morning sickness and food aversions so now she's making up for lost time with a food frenzy!'

'They're often seen calling into the famous Sex and the City 'Magnolia Bakery' for their famous banana pudding and chocolate cupcakes!...

'Hubby Jason is loving their daily food adventures and has been driving her around New York to the best bakeries in search of cookies and cupcakes!'

'She hasn't forgotten her British roots though as a friend added 'her mum and auntie have been sending her rhubarb and custard sweets and dolly mix' from England which she's been missing!'
Richard Bacon has said that he is 'touched' to be welcomed back to hosting Good Morning Britain as fans calls for him to be given a permanent job on the show.

The guest presenter, 45, fronted Wednesday's show alongside Charlotte Hawkins, 46, two years after he previously stood in for Piers Morgan who sensationally quit the show earlier this year.

As the pair came on air Charlotte said: 'Welcome to you!' before adding: 'Great to have you here, welcome back.'

Happy: Richard Bacon has said that he is 'touched' to be welcomed back to hosting Good Morning Britain as fans calls for him to be given a permanent job on the show

The former Blue Peter star replied: 'Richard Arnold just said welcome home out in the corridor. I was quite touched. It was quite sweet.

'It's great to be here. The voiceover at the beginning where it says 'Live from Television Centre'.'

Charlotte said: 'The excitement building...' as Richard added: 'It does but it feels big, doesn't it.'

The star then went on to explain how his life has changed since he last hosted the show.

Return: The former Blue Peter star said: 'Richard Arnold just said welcome home out in the corridor. I was quite touched. It was quite sweet'

Stand in: The guest presenter, 45, fronted Wednesday's show alongside Charlotte Hawkins, 46, two years after he previously stood in for Piers Morgan who sensationally quit the show earlier this year (pictured on GMB in 2019)

He said: 'For me, I haven't done this for a couple of years and I live in America now where I have a slightly silly job basically inventing game-shows and producing game shows, which is a strange thing to do in the world.

'But to actually come back and do this, my first love is news and current affairs and to actually come back and talk about things that matter.'

Richard hosted the morning show with Charlotte on Wednesday and will go on to present with Kate Garraway on Thursday and Friday, and Ranvir Singh on Monday, August 23.

Busy: Richard hosted the morning show with Charlotte on Wednesday and will go on to present with Kate Garraway on Thursday and Friday, and Ranvir Singh on Monday, August 23

Reaction: Fans were pleased to see Richard on their screens, with one viewer writing on Twitter: 'Yay love Richard Bacon. Can we have him full time please?'

Fans were pleased to see Richard on their screens, with one viewer writing on Twitter: 'Hoorah, at last a presenter that challenges politicians from both parties, well done Richard'

A second added: 'Yay love Richard Bacon. Can we have him full time please?'

A third remarked: 'Big improvement on the usual stand-ins.'

The presenter previously told The Mirror of his comeback: 'Being back on British breakfast broadcasting feels like coming home.'

Irreplaceable: Since Piers left the show amid a row concerning Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview, which aired in March, a rotation of co-hosts have joined Susanna Reid (pictured on GMB in 2020)

'I can't wait to see the team again and am very much looking forward to my time on the show with Kate, Ranvir and Charlotte.'

Richard has plenty of experience of presenting morning television, having hosted Channel 4's The Big Breakfast from 1999 to 2002.

Since Piers left the show amid a row concerning Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Oprah interview, which aired in March, a rotation of co-hosts have joined remaining anchor Susanna.

He will join a long list of hosts to stand in for Piers since his exit in March, including Ben Shephard, Bill Turnbull, Richard Madeley and Alastair Campbell.

An insider told The Mirror: 'ITV are using these guest presenter slots to decide what works and what doesn't. Bacon is an exciting prospect.'

Richard's return to British TV comes three years after he was placed in a medically-induced coma for 11 days, after being rushed to hospital with pneumonia.

He spent 11 nights in a medically-induced coma while battling the potentially fatal disease pneumonia in 2018, revealing that his body went blue at one stage and doctors expected him to die.

Back at it: The former Blue Peter presenter will host four episodes of the programme (pictured on GMB with Susanna Reid in 2019)

The presenter said that coming out of the coma was the worst day of his life because it took 14 hours and he kept hallucinating.

While presenting GMB in 2019, Bacon revealed how doctors gave him four minutes to inform family members and get his affairs in order before they would place him in a medically-induced coma.

Explaining the hours before he went to hospital Richard said: 'It was bad luck; I breathed something in.

'The working theory, they never really worked out what it was exactly, is that I got on the plane at the wrong time and the pressurised cabin caused this infection in both of my lungs to explode everywhere.'

Scary: Richard's return to British TV comes three years after he was placed in a medically-induced coma for 11 days, after being rushed to hospital with pneumonia

'When I got off the plane I couldn't breathe properly. I did something really stupid which is, I believed that because I go to the gym a lot I'd kind of be fine.

'Obviously working on your biceps has no impact on what's going on in your lungs. So, I left it 18 hours. When I got to A&E that's when it all kicked off.'

'I was very, very close to death,' he said adding that doctors 'went from telling me I needed to be in an induced coma to being in a coma in 4 minutes'.

'They said to me afterwards, ''it wasn't that you might die, we expected you to die''. I was the illest person in Lewisham hospital.'

Earlier this year, Richard was forced to shut down rumours that he'd been fired from Blue Peter for snorting cocaine off of the shell of the show's tortoise.

The presenter reflected on the past drugs scandal which saw him sacked from the programme in 1998, during an appearance on Dave show Unforgivable.

Quick to put a stop to any more rumours, Richard revealed: 'I didn't give any tortoises coke... I got fired for taking drugs.'

Richard was just 18 months into his dream job at Blue Peter when he was fired at the age of 22 after admitting he took cocaine in a London nightclub.
Penny Lancaster was left red-faced during her Celebrity Masterchef debut on Tuesday when one of her dishes was deemed inedible by judges.

The model and Loose Women star, 50, appeared alongside Melanie Sykes, Nabil Abdulrashid and Megan McKenna, when she was tasked with making her first meal of fried calamari and homemade tartare sauce.

While Penny seemed to think she was doing well, show stalwart John Torode and Gregg Wallace informed her that she had used whole eggs rather than yolks - leading to her inedible condiment coming out as a 'raw egg/oil milkshake'.

Nervous: Penny Lancaster was left red-faced during her Celebrity Masterchef debut on Tuesday when her food was deemed inedible by judges

Penny appeared to be brimming with confidence early on, as she said to the camera: 'I'm doing surprisingly well compared to what I imagined how I'd be doing. I don't want to slip up now', however she was derailed by tartare sauce-gate.

When she served , Penny said: 'That tartare sauce doesn't look like the tartare sauce I'd normally have', as Gregg said: 'You used whole eggs instead of egg yolks'.

Delivering the true blow of the situation, John stated: 'What I've got in here is a raw egg/oil milkshake. Unfortunately, I can't eat that.'

It wasn't all hopeless for Penny, as the judges complimented her calamari and she exclaimed, 'well, I got half of it okay!'

Ew: While Penny seemed to think she was doing well, show stalwart John Torode and Gregg Wallace informed her that she had used whole eggs rather than yolks - leading to her inedible condiment coming out as a 'raw egg/oil milkshake'

Not great? The model and Loose Women star, 50, appeared alongside Melanie Sykes, Nabil Abdulrashid and Megan McKenna, when she was tasked with making her first meal of fried calamari and homemade tartare sauce

All was not lost however, as Penny then wowed the judging panel with her next rounds which sent her flying into the semi-finals.

She conjured up a pan-fried turbot with buttered spinach and hollandaise, leaving guest chef Mitch Tonks 'gobsmacked' and branding the dish 'fabulous'.

He said: 'The fish is cooked perfectly, it's wonderfully seasoned, the flavour of the hollandaise is good, I haven't got a fault with it, it's really good'.

Gregg then exclaimed: 'Where did you come from!?', while John branded the dish 'absolutely perfect'.

Delicious: She conjured up a pan-fried turbot with buttered spinach and hollandaise, leaving guest chef Mitch Tonks 'gobsmacked' and branding the dish 'fabulous'

She then made a chicken and coconut curry, green papaya chutney, grated apple, turnip and carrot salad and coconut rice - inspired by the Seychelles.

Gregg continued the praise saying: 'I found myself going from bowl to bowl to bowl and finding it difficult to stop, you have had what we call in the industry and very good day.'

He then branded her 'a stand out cook' and sent her to the finals, while Britain's Got Talent star, Nabil, was sent home.
Outlander star Caitriona Balfe, 41, has welcomed a baby boy with her music producer husband Tony McGill after keeping her pregnancy under wraps.

The Irish actress, who plays Claire Fraser in the hit show, took to Instagram on Wednesday to make the surprise announcement alongside a black and white shot showing her holding her baby's hand and a lengthy, impassioned caption.

She penned: 'Ive been off socials for a while as I was taking some time to enjoy cooking up this little human . We are so grateful for this little soul'.

Included in her announcement was touching words highlighting the plight of the people of Kabul and links to charities to donate and provide help.

Her boy: Outlander star Caitriona Balfe, 41, has welcomed a baby boy with her husband Tony McGill after keeping her pregnancy under wraps

Her post went on: 'That he chose us as his parents. Im in awe of him already and cant help stare and wonder at all the possibilities of who he will become, where he will go and what hell do on the big adventure of his life...

'Right now he seems so small and fragile and I constantly think how grateful I am that I live in a place, in a time where he is born into peace and safety...

'Yet at the same time I see so many in the world right now that arent afforded that same privilege and opportunity who are born into famine or war and how unjust it is that the same safety isnt there for all children...

'Here in the west we have so much, we are so lucky and so if youd like to join me in supporting any of the wonderful charities that need help trying to give those that are forgotten dignity and hope...

Sweet: The Irish actress took to Instagram on Wednesday to make the surprise announcement alongside a black and white shot showing her holding her baby's hand and a lengthy, impassioned caption

Her love: She welcomed her son with her husband Tony McGill, who she wed in 2019 (pictured in 2017)

'We can give the gift of peace and safety and opportunity to a few more children  @wchildcancer @chooselove @unicef @refugees'.

Tony and Caitriona wed in 2019. Filming for Outlander season six wrapped in June, meaning Caitriona would have been keeping her baby news under wraps on set.

Her baby news comes after Caitriona detailed her struggle while working as a model in her early career in the fashion industry, prior to going into acting.

In January, she reflected on her time as a model in a candid chat on the Thanks A Million podcast with Angela Scanlon.

Career: Caitriona plays Claire Fraser in the show (pictured with Sam Heughan)

Looking back, Caitriona, who plays Claire Fraser in the show, hit out at the 's**t agencies' she worked with in the past as she criticised the 'weird balance of power' in the industry as a whole.

The actress worked in advertising campaigns with brands like Chanel, Dolce And Gabanna and Balenciaga for a period of ten years before going into acting.

While she didn't name companies, Caitriona said: 'You're supposed to automatically be this fun, interesting, edgy person that fashion people want to be around. But then at the same time you have to be so skinny and so androgynous.

'There was always people doing better and constantly being compared to people. I think, as a young woman in your teens and twenties, it's hard enough.
Michael Fassbender has been seen carrying a baby as he headed out in Paris on Tuesday.

The actor, 44, doted on the infant as he opted for a black tracksuit during his stroll in the French capital.

Michael was recently seen carring the infant while paying a visit to his wife Alicia Vikander while she filmed her new HBO series Irma Vep.

Relaxed: Michael Fassbender, 44, has been seen carrying a baby as he headed out in Paris on Tuesday

Michael sported a simple black hoodie and matching tracksuit bottoms as he carried the baby during a walk in the city.

The star was seen placing the infant into a pram before preparing to resume his walk in the city.

Michael and Alicia have lived in Lisbon, Portugal, since marrying three years ago and have not previously spoken about whether they would have children together.

The couple were last pictured together in October 2020 when they were seen enjoying a stroll in Alicia's native Sweden.

Low-key: The actor doted on the infant as he opted for a black tracksuit during his stroll in the French capital

The couple are currently in Paris while Alicia films Irma Vep, a limited series loosely based on the 1996 film of the same name.

The series follows Alicia playing Mira, an American movie star disillusioned by her career and a recent breakup who travels to France to star as Irma Vep in a remake of the French silent film classic. However, she struggles to differentiate between herself and her role.

Alicia and Michael met when they starred together in the romantic drama The Light Between Oceans, released in 2016.

Out and about: The star was seen placing the infant into a pram before preparing to resume his walk in the city

In an interview for the October edition of Elle Magazine, Alicia recently revealed that she would love to work with her husband in a film again.

She said: 'I would love to work with him one day, but we're very much individuals, which I love and I think is good in any relationship.

'We both take on parts because it's a film that is right for us, so it would have to be the same if we were ever to work together again.'

They are known as one of Hollywood's most private couples, with Michael previously discussing his decision not to speak about his wife.
He plays Dr. John Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes on BBC, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch.

And, staff at a Sherlock-themed escape room couldn't believe their eyes when Martin Freeman, 49, played detective in London on Sunday, but failed to find his way out despite being given an extra 40 minutes.

The actor shocked employees - who later shared the CCTV on TikTok - at Sherlock: The Official Live Game, 221B in Shepherd's Bush when he turned up with his his new girlfriend Rachel Mariam, 28 and his daughter Grace, 13.

No way! Off-duty Martin Freeman, 49, played detective at a Sherlock themed escape room in London on Sunday, but failed to find his way out

Staff told The Sun that Martin's team name was 'The Army Doctors' and that the actor joked: 'Yeah nothing's changed there Ben' at a safety video starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

One employee told the publication of Martin's attempt at the escape room: 'You have an hour to complete it, but we gave him 40 mins extra time. He still lost though!! It is very tricky.'

After trying out the experience, the actor had a drink in the bar, with Chris claiming: 'It was here he told us how much he loved the experience, things about the show and that he's going to tell Ben to come see us.'

Martin took the time to pose for a photograph with staff, who gushed: ''He couldn't have been more kind.'

Unexpected! Staff at Sherlock: The Official Live Game, 221B in Shepherd's Bush were stunned when the actor, who appears alongside actor Benedict Cumberbatch in the TV show, turned up

Martin's girlfriend Rachel was born in Toulouse, France, and has been appeared on shows such as BBC's critically-acclaimed hit Normal People and YouTube series Call It a Day.

The rising star also boasts a promising writing career, having competed against Shia LaBeouf's Honey Boy as a semi-finalist for her feature script Juliet Is Fine in the 2020 Save The Cat Screenplay Challenge.

A source previously revealed the actor introduced his new girlfriend to his friends before lockdown.

The insider told The Sun: 'Its still early days but they are getting on really well. They both love the same films and Martin supports her acting and writing career.

'They have spent quite a bit of time together at his home in North London because of Covid, but Rachel was able to meet some of his friends before lockdown.'

Family fun: The actor shocked employees when he turned up with his his new girlfriend Rachel Mariam, 28 and his daughter Grace, 13

Sherlock star Martin split from his on-screen wife Amanda Abbington, 47, in late 2016 following a 16-year romance.

The former couple share two children, daughter Grace and son Joe, 15. The Mr Selfridge actress previously admitted she kept their break-up a secret for six months.

Mother-of-two Amanda told The Sunday Times magazine: 'When we broke up nobody knew, we didn't tell anybody except for a few key people because they had to know, because of the logistics of hotels and stuff.'

'We still get on really well, we still really both admire each other as actors... he's a great guy, but we just couldn't live with each other any more.'
Stephanie Lynch was sent home by Jimmy Nicholson during Wednesday night's episode of The Bachelor after it was revealed she still isn't over her ex.

Speaking to cameras, the 27-year-old said: 'Am I ok? Yeah, dude. I'm (bleep) ecstatic. I would marry my ex a thousand times before I would get with Jimmy.'

Fans couldn't get enough of Steph's savage response, flocking to social media to share their views.

No looking back! Stephanie Lynch savagely burnt Jimmy Nicholson on Wednesday night's episode of The Bachelor after she exited the mansion - and fans are living for it

'Steph's parting shot was awesome,' one fan tweeted.

A second agreed writing, 'Steph's exit was everything I wanted it to be'.

Meanwhile, a third chimed in: 'Steph is the absolute best! Good for you girl!'

No surprise here! Fans watching from home couldn't get enough of Steph's response

Meanwhile, Bachelor host Osher Gunsberg said that the Perth blonde deserved an award for her performance.

'Can I give Steph her Logie? That was spectacular,' he tweeted.

During the episode, Jimmy pulled Stephanie aside to get to the bottom of rumours that she was still not over her ex partner.

It's over! The Bachelor mansion descended into chaos on Wednesday night after Jimmy confronted Steph (right) about still being in love with her ex

'I guess when I saw you on the red carpet, I was like, "Wow". From all the girls, you were someone that really, really stood out to me,' Jimmy began.

'I was like, "Ok, this is awesome. There's something there". And then mum came in and met you all and mentioned the fact that you spoke about your ex,' he told her.

A surprised Steph denied ever speaking about her ex, to which Jimmy replied: 'I don't wanna sit here and have an argument with you.'

Say what? A surprised Steph denied ever speaking about her ex, to which Jimmy replied: 'I don't wanna sit here and have an argument with you'

Bye bye! 'I'm very happy to leave,' a smug Steph replied, before she got up and walked away from the mansion

'Do you genuinely see something here with me? 'Cause if not, I think we should just call it a day.'

'I'm very happy to leave,' a smug Steph replied, before she got up and walked away from the mansion.

The Bachelor continues Thursday at 7.30pm on Ten
She's dedicated to fitness and often posts her yoga and Pilates workouts online.

And Sadie Frost showed off the incredible results in a sultry selfie shared to Instagram Stories on Tuesday, as she enjoys an idyllic getaway in Ibiza, Spain.

The 56-year-old, who has been joined on the trip by her millionaire beau Darren Strowger, revealed her toned figure in a skimpy black and white striped swimsuit.

Trim and terrific: Sadie Frost (pictured), 56, revealed her incredible figure in a skimpy striped swimsuit in an Instagram Stories post on Tuesday, as she enjoys a romantic getaway with millionaire beau Darren Strowger in Ibiza, Spain

Sadie took the sizzling snap from above, pouting for the camera as she captured her best angle.

The ex-wife of Jude Law accessorised simply with a delicate gold necklace and matching earrings, and chose an Instagram filter that gave her trendy sunglasses.

Sadie's wet brunette locks were slicked back off her face, and she appeared to be in her element as she reclined on a sun lounger at the luxury Six Senses Ibiza resort.

The actress revealed in the caption that she's on the mend having previously suffered some form of injury, writing: 'Foot healing, I am back on the fitness'.

Going strong: Sadie also took to Instagram Stories to share a loved-up snap with Darren (right), who she has been dating for more than six years after being first introduced by Kate Moss

Sadie also took to Instagram Stories to share a loved-up snap with Darren, who she has been dating for more than six years after being first introduced by Kate Moss.

In the photo, Sadie slipped her figure into a grey silk slip dress, adding sandals and a chic black kaftan-style jacket to the look.

Darren cut a dapper figure in a slim-fit white shirt, grey trousers and dress shoes.

The couple have been living together in London despite Sadie's previous statement that she may never live in the same roof as her millionaire beau.

Change of heart: The couple have been living together in London despite Sadie's previous statement that she may never live in the same roof as her millionaire beau

Sadie told MailOnline last year: 'I like being on my own and I like my own space.

'Some people who are in their 50s are settled down with a partner. I don't live with my partner. I have got more time on my own by being at home. I think I have got a little better as I'm not so co-dependent.

'I used to be not able to do anything on my own and I do like sharing my life with somebody.

Sadie told MailOnline last year: 'Some people who are in their 50s are settled down with a partner. I don't live with my partner. I have got more time on my own by being at home. I think I have got a little better as I'm not so co-dependent'

'But with my partner now, yes, we love each other and we are strong personalities, but I am not sure if we could live together.'

Sadie has three children with ex-husband Jude - Rafferty, 24, Iris, 20, and Rudy, 18 - and shares Finlay, 30, with former spouse Gary Kemp.

In May, Sadie began packing up her six-bedroom north London home, which she put on the market for 6million in 2019.

The director bought the property - a stone's throw away from Hampstead Heath, Primrose Hill and Regent's Park - for 2million in 2002, with her then-husband Jude, 48, but the couple divorced a year later.
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The line-up for the long-awaited third series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK has been unveiled, ahead of the show's return next month.

Once again 12 queens will battle it out to be crowned Drag Race Superstar, with the show also making history by introducing its first ever cisgender contestant, meaning she identifies with the sex she was assigned at birth.

Drag Race will also see the surprise return of contestant Veronica Green, after she was forced to pull out of the second series following a second Covid test.

Coming soon: The line-up for the long-awaited third series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK has been unveiled, ahead of the show's return next month

Leading this year's lineup is Victoria Scone, 27, from Cardiff, who is set to make history as the show's first ever cisgender woman contestant, meaning she identifies with the sex she was assigned at birth.

Speaking about taking part in the show, she said: 'I definitely didn't invent the art of drag for women. I am not the first and I certainly won't be the last. But I feel very capable and proud to have made it through the application process and be the first on Drag Race UK.

'Me being here is political but you can just have fun with it. That's why I started. I just wanted to entertain people and that's what we're going to do! Drag can just be fun!'

Victoria will be competing against Ella Vaday, Scarlett Harlett, Choriza May, Elektra Fence, Krystal Versace, Charity Kase, River Medway, Kitty Scott-Claus, Veronica Green Vanity Milan and Anubis.

Exciting: Leading the lineup is the show's first ever cisgender contestant, Victoria Scone (left), along with Veronica Green, who is returning after being forced to pull out of the second series following a positive Covid test

Veronica, who is 35 and hails from Lancashire, also shared her excitement at being able to return to the show, after she was forced to pull out of the second series.

She said: 'I'm hoping that as I'm not a newbie, the second time around will give me an advantage. I'm having the time of my life all over again. I love it!'

Vanity Milan, 29, said her south London upbringing had prepared her for the show's competitive nature.

Exciting: Vanity Milan, 29, said her south London upbringing had prepared her for the show's competitive nature

At odds: Scarlett Harlett (left) and Krystal Versace are also among the queens set to take part in the third UK series

She said: 'I am competitive. I believe if you put your mind to it, and you put the blood, sweat and tears, and, and the hard work and dedication behind it, you can be somebody! But that doesn't mean you have to take other people down to get there.

'I'm sophisticated, sexy and savage. I'm not a diva. I'm not a hun. I'm serving unapologetic blackness. Vanity is REAL. I am REAL.

'I grew up in Mitcham, South London where it's very REAL. I've lived in London 29 years, born and bred - South 'til the death! And my drag is very South London.'

Scarlett Harlett, 26, described herself as 'EastEnders personified,' and explained why she wants to be crowned series champion.

Dazzling: River Medway, 22, said that Hannah Montana has acted as an inspiration for her drag routines, adding: 'I've always been obsessed with her and now when I think about it I loved the transformation

She said: 'Representation really does matter to me. I have come from nothing. I grew up on a council estate and I feel so proud to have landed myself in one of the biggest shows in the UK right now.

'I want people to know you can make a banquet out of scraps. I am doing this for the Isle of Dogs!'

River Medway, 22, said that Hannah Montana has acted as an inspiration for her drag routines, adding: 'I've always been obsessed with her and now when I think about it I loved the transformation.

'By day, she was a schoolgirl, living a completely normal life, and then by night she's a popstar, with wigs, make up and outfits. That's drag ! And that's how I feel in drag.'

Krystal Versace, 19, didn't hold back when describing her alter-ego, saying: 'Oh, she's a sex goddess. She is the supreme. She is a god. It's the legs, the body, the hips, the waist. High, feminine glam. Super fierce. She is just the ultimate moment.'

Glamorous: Kitty Scott-Claus explained how she came up with her eye-catching name, while Ella Vaday, 32, vowed to own her east London upbringing

Kitty Scott-Claus, 29, explained how she came up withh her eye-catching name, saying: 'Originally I was going to be Madonna Kebab, then I thought about Chelsea Bun, or Burger Queen, but nothing landed.

'But one day it just hit me. I have a large array of funny catch phrases and funny voices  and I realised that whenever someone was being a bit catty, I always used to say ''ooh saucer of milk. This kitty's got claws!'' And so that's how Kitty Scott-Claus was born!'

Ella Vaday, 32, hails from Dagenham in Essex, vowed to own her east London upbringing, saying: 'I'm the drag Beast from the East. I'm like a desperate housewife of Dagenham. A yummy mummy  a bit garish, a bit classy, a bit Essex-y. I'm very sarcastic and dry.'

Elektra Fence, 29, from Burnley, said: 'My drag is electrifying! An Elektra Fence night is glitter, glamour, disco and dramatic!

'I love hosting drag brunches, and when you come to one of my brunches, you don't forget it because you'll have seen me drop from the sky down into the splits, bounced into a headstand, span around, leapt on to the bar, and leapt of it in to the splits. Done!'

Offering one of the boldest drag looks yet, Charity Kase, 24, said: 'I've got a reputation for really outlandish crazy looks. I like to play on the darkness in beauty, break beauty stereotypes and create a fantasy from another dimension. My name comes from my ability to craft stuff on a very low budget and transform the grotesque to glamorous and maybe be both at the same time!

'Charity Kase is my way of expressing my inner emotions and escaping from the mundane, boring, bland grey world that we live in. I try to transport people from reality into a world where the impossible is made possible, with makeup, crystals, and a hell of a lot of hot glue.'

Sensational: Elektra Fence, 29, from Burnley, said: 'My drag is electrifying! An Elektra Fence night is glitter, glamour, disco and dramatic!' while Choriza May, 30, said: 'I think I'm a funny queen. I love making people laugh'

Choriza May, 30, said: 'I think I'm a funny queen. I love making people laugh. Also, I'm very emotional, and I love connecting with the people through my art. I'm also a graphic designer and illustrator so I'm very creative. In fact, as a fan of Drag Race, I've created lots of fan art, and now it's hard to believe I'm on the show! It's just wonderful!'

Rounding out this year's lineup is Anubis, 19, who struggled to contain her excitement about taking part in the show.

She said: 'It is monumental. It's allowed me to fulfil a dream that I've had since I was 11 from when I first watched the US show and looked up to amazing Drag Race queens such as Sasha Velour and Bob The Drag Queen. I can't believe that I am now one of the family!

'That is genuinely mind blowing for me. I hope that I can resonate with someone too, and be someone's Sasha Velour or Bob The Drag Queen.'

Incredible: Rounding out this year's lineup is Anubis, 19, who struggled to contain her excitement about taking part in the show, while Charity Kase, 24, said: 'I've got a reputation for really outlandish crazy looks'

This upcoming edition will see the queens compete in weekly challenges, where their lip syncing, fashion sense, sewing, humour, singing, make-up, acting and dancing will be put to the test for ten weeks.

Following the franchise's mantra, the group will be assessed on their Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent, before the bottom two queens will be asked to lip sync to save their position in the competition.

RuPaul, 60, and Michelle Visage, 52, will be joined by comedians Alan Carr, 44, or Graham Norton, 57, on a rotational basis, while an extra special celebrity guest judge will sit on the panel each week.

RuPaul's Drag Race returns on BBC Three next month.

Watch RuPaul's Drag Race UK only on Stan in Australia.
Jay Pickett died three weeks ago at the age of 60 while shooting a movie in Idaho.

And this week ABC's soap opera General Hospital, a show he starred on for many years, shared a silent tribute to the veteran actor.

The tribute took place at the end of Tuesday's episode as producers showed a photo of the star adding. 'In Loving Memory of Jay Pickett.'

A farewell: Jay Pickett died three weeks ago at the age of 60 while shooting a movie in Idaho. And this week ABC's soap opera General Hospital, a show he starred on for many years, shared a silent tribute to the veteran actor. Seen in 2019 in Los Angeles

A fan favorite: The tribute took place at the end of Tuesday's episode as producers showed a photo of the star adding. 'In Loving Memory of Jay Pickett.' Pickett seen on All My Children

He had played Detective David Harper on General Hospital from 2006 to 2008.

In addition to General Hospital, Pickett starred as Dr Chip Lakin on Days of Our Lives from 1991 until 1992. Then came the role of Frank Scanlon on the soaper Port Charles (1997 until 2003).

Jay - who was born in Spokane, Washington - also guest starred on the prime time TV series Desperate Housewives, Perry Mason, China Beach, Mr. Belvedere, Dragnet, Saving Grace and NCIS.

On set: Jim Heffel, a costar and co-producer on the movie, shared the news on Facebook. 'Jay died sitting on a horse ready to rope a steer in the movie Treasure Valley in Idaho,' began the actor. 'The way of a true cowboy'

He is survived by his wife, Elena, and their children Tyler Pickett, Michaela Pickett, Maegan Pickett. They reside in California.

In July he collapsed suddenly. It happened while he was on a horse as he was about to shoot a scene for a movie filming in Idaho.

A costar took to social media to speculate Jay may have suffered from a heart attack, adding several of the crew members had tried to revive him.

The official cause of death has not yet been released.

Sad loss: Seen in 2002 in a promo still for Port Charles

The star was working on his film Treasure Valley in Idaho. He was the lead actor and had also written and was producing the Western film that was scheduled to be released in 2022.

Jim Heffel, a costar and co-producer on the movie, shared the news on Facebook.

'Yesterday I lost a good friend and the world lost a great person,' said Heffel.

'Jay Pickett decided to ride off into the Heavens. Jay died sitting on a horse ready to rope a steer in the movie Treasure Valley in Idaho. The way of a true cowboy.'

Travis Mills, who was also acting in the film, said on Facebook it seemed the star had a heart attack.

'Many of you have already heard about the tragedy that happened two days ago,' said Mills of the actor who grew up in Caldwell, Idaho.

'Jay Pickett, our leading man, writer, producer, and creator of this movie passed away suddenly while we were on location preparing to film a scene.

'There is no official explanation for the cause of his death but it appears to have been a heart attack. Everyone present tried as hard as they could to keep him alive. Our hearts are broken and we grieve for his family who are so devastated by this shocking tragedy.'

At work: He played a doctor on Port Charles. Seen here in 1998 with Sarah Aldrich

A team player: From left Pickett, David Gail, Pat Crowley, Sarah Aldrich on Port Charles

Jay was starring as Jack Braun in Treasure Valley. The synopsis is: 'When cowboy Jack Braun learns that his daughter may have survived a tragic fire that changed his life forever, he sets out on a quest to find her.'

Also in the film are James Russo, Brad Johnson, Arianne Martin and Brooke Burton.

The actor has several other films that are wrapped and waiting for release. They are Shooting Star with Heather McComb, Heart Of The Gun with John Marrs, and Catch The Bullet with Peter Facinelli.
She began playing the iconic role of Tracy Beaker in 2002 when she was just 12-years-old, reprising the role in 2012's Tracy Beaker Returns and 2021's My Mum Tracy Beaker.

And Dani Harmer, 32, is set to return to her famous role once again in the series The Beaker Girls.

The actress  who confirmed this week she is pregnant with her second child  will appear in the five-part series on CBBC and BBC iPlayer - following the success of three part series, My Mum Tracy Beaker.

Its back! Dani Harmer, 32, is set to reprise her role as Tracy Beaker once again in the series The Beaker Girls following the success earlier this year of My Mum Tracy Beaker (above with Emma Maggie Davies as Jess, Tracy's daughter)

My Mum Tracy Beaker was streamed more than two million times in its first three days of release.

The show will also see the return of Emma Maggie Davies as Tracy's daughter, Jess.

Some more familiar faces will also be returning including Jordan Duvigneau as Sean Godfrey, Lisa Coleman as Cam, Montana Thompson as Justine, and Danielle Henry as Mary.

And some newcomers are set to join the cast including Chi-Megan Ennis McLean, who will play Jordan, and Alibe Parsons, who is to portray junk shop owner Flo.

Great news! The actress  who confirmed this week she is pregnant with her second child  will appear in the five-part series on CBBC and BBC iPlayer

Picking up where the last series left off, The Beaker Girls will begin with Tracy and Jess enjoying their new responsibilities running a seaside junk shop called The Dumping Ground.

Tracy, who grew up in a children's care home, will also face a full-circle moment when she meets runaway teen Jordan, who has been repeatedly failed by the care system, and she contemplates becoming a foster parent.

Tali Walters, of BBC Children's in-house drama department, said: 'The enduring affection of our audiences for the character of Tracy Beaker was clear in the reaction to My Mum Tracy Beaker.

'The Beaker Girls promises to touch the hearts of our audiences and we're tremendously excited to work with such a talented cast and crew to bring this captivating mother and daughter back to the screen to unveil their next chapter.'

New show: My Mum Tracy Beaker was streamed more than two million times in its first three days of release

Reunion; The show will also see the return of Emma as Tracy's daughter, Jess

It comes after Tracey took to Instagram on Monday to announce the happy news that she's pregnant with baby number two.

Posting a sweet snap of herself, partner Simon Brough and their daughter Avarie-Belle, five, the pregnant actress confirmed she is due to give birth in February.

In the snap, her daughter could be seen holding up a roll of ultrasound snaps while standing between her mum and dad.

Dani wrote: 'Han Solo had Chewie. Frodo had Sam. Shrek had Donkey.

'Now be prepared for the adventures of Avarie-Belle and as of yet unnamed bump, coming February 2022.'

Congratulations: It comes after Tracey took to Instagram on Monday to announce the happy news that she's pregnant with baby number two

Exciting: Posting a sweet snap of herself, partner Simon Brough and their daughter Avarie-Belle, five, the pregnant actress confirmed she is due to give birth in February

Sending love: Dani's celebrity pals were quick to congratulate the star in the comments section beneath the sweet photograph

Dani's celebrity pals were quick to congratulate the star in the comments section beneath the sweet photograph.

Dani recently reprised her role as the former tearaway teen Tracy Beaker in a reboot of the much-loved series based on Jacqueline Wilson's 2018 book.

In February, Dani appeared on The One Show, where she explained how playing Tracy Beaker once more is 'really nice' especially because her character has 'lost her selfishness' as a teen and is now a dedicated mother to daughter Jess, played by Emma Maggie Davies,.

She admitted: 'Being a mother myself, it completely changes you. So it's been really nice to play Tracy and see how she's lost that selfishness that she once has and she's all just about Jess.

'But at the same time, she hasn't lost herself. She's still this fierce, strong female that she's always been.'

And the former Strictly star reminisced about growing up famous, and noted how at one point, she didn't want to be known as Tracy Beaker after being constantly called by her alter-ego's name.

She said 'When I was younger, I used to get called Tracy a lot more than I got called Dani. At one point I was like "oh, can I just not be Tracy, just for a minute!".
She has previously hit out at skinny-shamers after being accused of having cancer by cruel bodyshaming trolls.

And, Julia Bradbury, 51, took to Instagram on Wednesday where she shared a video of herself showering in a black swimsuit.

The Countryfile host demonstrated to her followers how she uses a plastic-free conditioner bar to wash her hair.

Shower time! Julia Bradbury, 51, took to Instagram on Wednesday where she shared a video of herself showering in a black swimsuit

Rubbing the bar through her raven tresses, Julia explained that the bars are 'tricker' because they need water.

She also enthused about the tins and bags made from ocean waste, which are available to store the conditioner bars in order to take them away.

After allowing the conditioner to do its work, Julia then turned on her shower and thoroughly rinsed her locks.

Julia captioned her video: 'Plastic-free hair conditioner Prt2. A couple of weeks ago I posted about the @gruum_hq shampoo bar...this is the conditioner.

Eco-warrior: The Countryfile host demonstrated to her followers how she uses a plastic-free conditioner bar to wash her hair

Tricky: Rubbing the bar through her raven tresses, Julia explained that the bars are 'tricker' because they need water

Squeaky clean: The TV star then thoroughly rinsed her locks

'The tins are a nice touch because bars tend to break down after a few washes so keeping them in the tins in my experience makes it easier to use them as they break up.

'You can also get a "soap bag" from places like @nonplasticbeach @acalaonline. Squeaky clean!

'Other shampoo bars that some of my followers recommend include @wildrefill @thegoodsoap1 @foamie_official @lytchettbaysoaps @nutandnoggin.'

The presenter added the captiones: '#plasticalternative #plasticfreebeauty #plasticfree #shampoobar #health #beauty.'

Birthday girl! At the end of July, Julia showed off her bronzed body in a plunging white Melissa Odabash swimsuit as she celebrated her 51st birthday

At the end of July, Julia showed off her bronzed body in a plunging white Melissa Odabash swimsuit as she celebrated her 51st birthday.

The TV star took to Instagram to share the snap of herself standing in the living room while clad in her chic one-piece.

She accessorised her swimwear with a gold statement necklace and bangles, while pulling her raven tresses back into a sleek bun.

Julia captioned her post: 'Thanks for all your lovely birthday messages and thanks @melissaodabash for the birthday suit. #spoilt #swimsuit #beachready #dive #birthday #jumpin #white #swimwear #gift.'

Earlier in July, Julia - who has previously been accused of having cancer by cruel bodyshaming trolls - beamed for a bikini-clad selfie displaying her figure.

Anticipating a pile-on, the presenter penned: 'Hey Skinny shamers ... Hope you're enjoying the sunshine. My collar bones are still sticking out...& I ate chips! [sic]. #skinnyshaming #sunshine #nohate #heat #heatwave'.

In the snap, mother-of-three Julia looked radiant as she smiled for the camera while sunbathing in a lacy black bikini.

The TV host was inundated with messages of support from her followers, and the next day, Julia took to Twitter to share a snap in a crop top as she thanked fans for their kind words.

She penned: 'Always turn a negative into a positive. Lots of grateful feedback about my skinny-shamIng response. It's unacceptable to shame people on here.

'I'm experienced enough to handle stuff but millions suffer with #mentalhealth issues & eating disorders.#bekind #mentalhealth #positive'.

Cruel: The Countryfile host has previously been accused of having cancer by cruel bodyshaming trolls so was preempting a slew of negative comments

Feeling good: The following day, Julia took to Twitter to share a snap in a crop top as she thanked fans, who rallied around her, for their kind words

Julia's defiant post came after she revealed she was asked if she had cancer by cruel online trolls who skinny-shamed her over a bikini picture she shared recently.

Speaking to The Sun, Julia admitted she will 'carry on' promoting body confidence for women over 50 after she was hamed on Instagram.

She said: 'One of the comments said, "She looks like she's come out of a chemotherapy session". That was the thing that surprised me  the vitriol. They asked, "Have you had chemotherapy?" Absolutely not. I do not have cancer.

'Initially it just makes you feel very sad. Then online, very quickly, that skinny shaming became just nastiness which rolls into lots of very personal comments which have nothing to do with the original post.

'But positive body image for women over 50 is so important, so I will carry on doing what I'm doing. I'm not going to stop for the haters.'

Hurtful: The Countryfile star was shocked when she was inundated with vile messages over a bikini picture she shared recently, with trolls telling her she looked too thin

Julia added that she thinks skinny-shaming is just as bad as fat-shaming and both types of comments could lead people to trying to 'alter' how they look.

She also compared receiving nasty comments online to being bullied in school and said it is a 'cruel' state of mind to be in.

The presenter said staying fit for her now is not about trying to look good or feel sexy but rather 'inner wellness'.

Julia insisted that she naturally has a 'skinny collarbone' and 'can't do anything about that' despite being cruelly told to eat a 'bag of chips' by trolls on the snap.

The star recently shared her BMI statistics to Instagram as asserted that she's a 'healthy weight'.

Defiant: Julia admitted she will 'carry on' promoting body confidence for women over 50 after she was shamed on Instagram

Having her say: The star recently shared her BMI statistics to Instagram as she insisted she's a 'healthy weight'

Leaning into the argument, Julia uploaded a snap of herself in a black crop top and matching leggings, while her caption detailed her weight and height measurements.

Snapping back at the trolls, Julia wrote: 'for those of you genuinely concerned', sharing her health statistics before asking the naysayers: 'How do you rate?'

She wrote: 'For those of you genuinely concerned : I'm 5ft 9 inches tall (1.75mtrs) & weigh 9 stone 6 lbs.

'According to the NHS BMI indicator my BMI measurement is 19.5. The healthy weight range for my height is between 8st 13lb and 12st 1lb. So I'm a healthy weight and 'I should keep up the good work!' according to the website.'

She then shared a link to the NHS' BMI calculator before then directly addressing her critics, adding: 'For those of you just trolling: How do you rate?'

It comes after Julia also defended herself on ITV's Lorraine, she said: 'Here's the problem, I have a skinny collarbone, I can't do anything about that.

'People saying: ''She needs a bag of chips'', I don't think a bag of chips is going straight to my collarbone or anything you eat.

'It is a serious problem though, I am fairly confident, I can deal with it, I am quite thick skinned, a lot of people have mental health issues or body issues. The fact is, one comment could get someone the wrong way.'

Julia added that she is fit and healthy, joking that she can even 'out eat' most of her family members.
'Die-hard' Bachelor Nation fan Kaley Cuoco did her best Bachelorette cosplay for W Magazine's second annual TV Portfolio issue, and revealed her favorite season.

'I loved Kaitlyn Bristowe. She was my favorite,' the 35-year-old Big Bang Theory alum gushed of the 11th season in 2015.

'She was so cool. She was very to the point, she was authentic, she was not fake. I loved that she was just herself. There've been some really classic people in the past that have been on the show, but she really was my favorite. I liked that she had an edge. She cussed, she had sex. I just found her to be like a girl's girl.'

'Die-hard' Bachelor Nation fan: Kaley Cuoco (L) did her best Bachelorette cosplay for W Magazine's second annual TV Portfolio issue, and revealed her favorite season

Kaley continued: 'I've been an avid, die-hard, devoted Bachelor slash Bachelorette slash Bachelor in Paradise fan for as long as I can remember. I go deep into Bachelor in Paradise. In fact, I'm mad that Bachelor in Paradise has not turned into a Big Brother situation, where you can just watch them 24 hours a day. That's what I think they should do.'

Cuoco 'was very excited' to find a red sparkly gown that captured 'the essence' of the ABC dating competition, and she got glam with help from hairstylist Marilee Albin and make-up artist Hinako Nishiguchi.

Washington bank marketing manager Katie Thurston got engaged to Canadian wildlife manager Blake Moynes during the August 9 finale of The Bachelorette's 17th season.

And cameras have already started rolling on the 18th season - starring Minnesota elementary school teacher Michelle Young - which kicks off on October 19.

The 35-year-old Big Bang Theory alum gushed of the 11th season in 2015: 'I loved Kaitlyn Bristowe. She was my favorite. She was so cool. She was very to the point, she was authentic'

Kaley continued: 'She was not fake. I loved that she was just herself....I liked that she had an edge. She cussed, she had sex. I just found her to be like a girl's girl'

Cuoco added: 'I go deep into Bachelor in Paradise. In fact, I'm mad that Bachelor in Paradise has not turned into a Big Brother situation, where you can just watch them 24 hours a day. That's what I think they should do'

Will you take the rose? The SoCal native 'was very excited' to find a red sparkly gown that captured 'the essence' of the ABC dating competition, and she got glam with help from hairstylist Marilee Albin and make-up artist Hinako Nishiguchi

It's worth noting that only seven Bachelorette couple remain together while The Bachelor has the worst track record with only two remaining couples after 25 seasons.

Surprisingly, Bachelor in Paradise is the most successful Bachelor Nation franchise with four of the winning couples still going strong after six seasons.

Kaley also dished on filming her first-ever sex scene during the first episode of her HBO Max hit show, The Flight Attendant, with Michiel Huisman.

'It's a little different when you're doing "sitcom sex scenes." I did not know what I was doing in Flight Attendant,' Cuoco admitted.

Washington bank marketing manager Katie Thurston (L) got engaged to Canadian wildlife manager Blake Moynes (R) during the August 9 finale of The Bachelorette's 17th season

The Bachelor 25th season runner-up: And cameras have already started rolling on the 18th season - starring Minnesota elementary school teacher Michelle Young - which kicks off on October 19

'I [asked] Michiel, "Have you ever done a sex scene?" And he goes, "I was on Game of Thrones [playing Daario Naharis between 2014-2016]. I've done like 80 sex scenes." I couldn't believe it! But I'd never really done a real one.'

The SoCal native decided to raise her hands and hover over the Dutch 40-year-old - playing her one-night stand Alex Sokolov - before the director called action.

'He said, "What are you doing?! You look like you're over a public toilet! You're being so weird!"' Kaley - who's married to equestrian Karl Cook - recalled.

'And I was like, "Until they call action I'm not touching, I'm not looking." Like I was just very weird. I made everything way weirder than it needed to be. He was like, "You're making this so awkward."'

'I did not know what I was doing': Kaley also dished on filming her first-ever sex scene during the first episode of her HBO Max hit show, The Flight Attendant, with Michiel Huisman (L)

Cuoco admitted: 'I [asked] Michiel, "Have you ever done a sex scene?" And he goes, "I was on Game of Thrones [playing Daario Naharis between 2014-2016]. I've done like 80 sex scenes." I couldn't believe it! But I'd never really done a real one'

Awkward! The Harley Quinn actress decided to raise her hands and hover over the Dutch 40-year-old - playing her one-night stand Alex Sokolov - before the director called action

Kaley - who's married to equestrian Karl Cook - recalled: 'He said, "What are you doing?! You look like you're over a public toilet! You're being so weird!"'

For her role as Cassie Bowden, Cuoco will compete for the lead actress in a comedy series trophy at 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, which air September 19 on CBS.

'It's really wild. I've been doing this for 30 years, and I've never had a moment like that,' the Harley Quinn actress marveled.

'You work and you work and you work. Then all of a sudden, you get this little gift and this little icing on top of this really massive cake that you don't even deserve anyway. I never, ever thought I would be Emmy nominated, and I've always been so happy with what I've done, so this is just an absolute gift.'

Kaley will face off against Shrill's Aidy Bryant, Mom's Allison Janney, Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross, and Hacks' Jean Smart.

'First timer over here!' For her role as Cassie Bowden, Cuoco will compete for the lead actress in a comedy series trophy at 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, which air September 19 on CBS

The 5ft6in blonde marveled: 'It's really wild. I've been doing this for 30 years, and I've never had a moment like that...I never, ever thought I would be Emmy nominated, and I've always been so happy with what I've done, so this is just an absolute gift'

Another big hit! Kaley also happens to be an executive producer on the series, which HBO Max has already renewed for a second season

The Flight Attendant also scored nods for comedy series, supporting actress (Rosie Perez), directing (Susanna Fogel), writing (Steve Yockey), and four other technical nods.

Cuoco also happens to be an executive producer on the series, which HBO Max has already renewed for a second season.

Elsewhere in W, the 5ft6in blonde gushed about her forever crush Brad Pitt and how she used to emulate all the hairstyles his ex-wife Jennifer Aniston rocked on Friends.
Julie Bowen set the record straight about helping a woman who had fainted and broke her nose in Arches National Park.

When she guested hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday, the 51-year-old Modern Family star joked that it was mostly her doctor sister and knife-wielding teenage son who helped, while she just shouted out 'things I'd heard on episodes of ER.'

The injured woman, Minnie John, previously wrote on Facebook about how she hit her head on a rock after fainting before Julie and her family came to the rescue.

No help: Modern Family star Julie Bowen, 51, joked Tuesday while guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live that was 'so useless' when she and her doctor sister stumbled upon a hiker who had fainted and hit her head on a rock

After settling into her monologue, Bowen shared how she ended up in the news after coming across an injured John in Utah's Arches National Park.

She joked that it was 'so gross' how the injured woman was 'bleeding all over the place,' but luckily her sister was a doctor and 'infectious disease specialist' who was 'more than qualified' to apply first aid.

'She goes Meredith Grey right away, applying pressure, doing doctor stuff,' she said. 'And I brought my professional expertise to the table by yelling things Id heard on episodes of ER, like yelling "code blue!" and "crash cart!"

'So useless!' she added.

Having a laugh 'She goes Meredith Grey' right away, applying pressure, doing doctor stuff,' Bowen said of her sister. 'And I brought my professional expertise to the table by yelling things Id heard on episodes of ER, like yelling 'code blue!' and 'crash cart!'

Time to shine: The TV star joked that her knife-wielding 14-year-old was excited to finally get to use his blade. 'Ive never seen a 14-year-old that happy  and I dont have parental controls on the Wi-Fi'

Helping Bowen out was her 14-year-old son Oliver, whom she said always asks her if she's checking a bag so that he can bring his knives when they travel.

'As my sister Annie unrolls the gauze in front of bloody Minnie John and opens it, she says "Does anyone have a knife?"Of course [my son] had a knife,' She said. 'Ive never seen a 14-year-old that happy  and I dont have parental controls on the Wi-Fi.'

Even though she wasn't making a big deal about her celebrity, John was a Modern Family fan and knew she looked familiar.

'[Minnie] started looking at me weird and she said "Why do I know you? Are you an actress?"' Bowen recounted. 'And I was so embarrassed about how useless I had been I said, "Yes! I am! Im Elizabeth Banks!" But then my sister told her I was on Modern Family and Minnie was a fan and got very excited.'

'Look, I know this isnt the point here. But believe me, getting recognized by someone who has sustained serious injury is extremely flattering,' the actress added. 'So just to recap, everyone helped save this woman. My sister, my twins, my knife-y son. And I did nothing.'

Honored: 'Look, I know this isnt the point here. But believe me, getting recognized by someone who has sustained serious injury is extremely flattering,' the actress added

Helping hand: Earlier this month, John opened up about her ordeal in a post on Facebook and explained how Bowen helped her

Earlier this month, John opened up about her ordeal in a post on Facebook, explaining how she fainted and hit her head on a rock after stopping to rest, before waking up to hear a familiar voice.

John said she then questioned whether she might know the woman who was with the doctor helping her, or if she was famous.

'Her sister the doctor asked me to guess and I told her I just hit my head, I can't remember. She said smiling, "Modern Family" and I said of course!,' John recounted about how she finally recognized Bowen, 51, from her role on the long-running comedy series.

In her August 3 post, the Oradell, New Jersey, native said she had been on a 'bucket list' trip to Arches and hiking to see Delicate Arch, a four-story sandstone arch perched on the rim of a deep red rock canyon, for an hour and a half when she could not go any farther.

John told her husband and son to go ahead as she rested along the trail, her head in her hands.

John said Julie Bowen and her sister Annie told her that their guide had seen her fall face forward on a rock, with her glasses breaking her fall, she said. They cleaned her up and gave her electrolytes as Julie Bowen assured her she was going to be OK.

Details: Bowen's sister, Dr. Annie Luetkemeyer, John and Bowen, posed for a picture at Arches National Park in Utah after the rescue effort

Out and about: Bowen was snapped visiting SiriusXM Studios in NYC in 2019

They used her phone to call her son and some people selflessly ran ahead to find him, about 20 minutes ahead, to let them know what had happened, John said.

John said she fractured her nose and received five stitches later at the hospital. She expressed gratitude to God for sending people to help her.

'Daredevil or dumb as can be, I still consider this trek up the mountain as one of my proudest achievements in my life. Sometimes you need to take those chances in life to live to experience heights and depths,' John wrote.
She's been in a relationship with Ryan Gosling since September 2011, welcoming two daughters during their almost decade together.

But on Tuesday, Eva Mendes stepped out solo as she kicked off a shopping outing in Beverly Hills.

The stunning 47-year-old actress cut a chic figure in a floral dress with mules for her solo adventure on Rodeo Drive.

Goddess: She's been in a relationship with Ryan Gosling since September 2011, welcoming two daughters during their almost decade together. But on Tuesday, Eva Mendes stepped out solo as she kicked off a shopping outing in Beverly Hills

Eva chose a green, yellow and white calf-length dress with a v-neck, adding a gray shirt underneath.

The beauty wore tan mules with a coordinating two-tone handbag, while sporting a black face mask.

The movie star styled her tresses loose and in natural waves, opting to keep her makeup to a minimum.

Her outing comes just weeks before the stunner is set to celebrate her 10 year anniversary with partner Ryan Gosling.

A vision: The stunning 47-year-old actress cut a chic figure in a floral dress with mules for her solo adventure on Rodeo Drive

Beautiful lady: Eva chose a green, yellow and white calf-length dress with a v-neck, adding a gray shirt underneath

The good looking duo began dating September 2011 after working together on the film The Place Beyond The Pines.

Ryan and Eva were friends for a 'long time' prior to their romantic relationship.

At the time, a source told Us Weekly that there has 'always been this strong chemistry between them.. this was just a matter of time!'

In early September 2011, the duo were spotted packing on the PDA during a date night to Disneyland in Anaheim.

In character: The good looking duo began dating September 2011 after working together on the film The Place Beyond The Pines; seen in the film

By the following September, the genetically blessed couple made their red carpet debut at the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of The Place Beyond The Pines.

In September 2014, Eva and Ryan welcomed their first child together, Esmeralda Amada, now six.

They welcomed their second child, daughter Amada Lee, now five, in April 2016.

In December 2015, Ryan was asked what he seeks in a woman, to which he sweetly answered: 'I know that I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with... that she's Eva Mendes. There's nothing else I'm looking for,' during an interview with Hello magazine.

Making it official: By the following September, the genetically blessed couple made their red carpet debut at the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of The Place Beyond The Pines; pictured September 7, 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival

In April 2019, Eva revealed that she didn't want kids before meeting Ryan, revealing to Women's Health: 'Ryan Gosling happened. I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have... not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him.'

The Hitch star further elaborated in October 2020 when speaking to radio station Nova 96.9's Fitzy & Wippa: 'I never wanted babies before until I fell in love with Ryan, and it kind of worked out to where I was 40 and having my first baby.'

Adding: 'I think I was 42 for the second one, so it worked out in that way that I had a career and then I change my focus to my family.'

The sweetest: In December 2015, Ryan was asked what he seeks in a woman, to which he sweetly answered: 'I know that I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with... that she's Eva Mendes. There's nothing else I'm looking for,' during an interview with Hello magazine; pictured together on March 28, 2013 at The Place Beyond The Pines film premiere
Chrissy Teigen has hilariously responded to Amy Schumer's imitation of her staircase saunter.

After the comedienne, 40, posted video of herself copying the supermodel seductively walking down a staircase after attending former President Barack Obama's 60th birthday bash, Teigen seemingly challenged the comic as she hit back in the comments section.

'Oh it's on,' Teigen, 35, wrote.

Up for the challenge! Chrissy Teigen hilariously responded to Amy Schumer's imitation of her staircase saunter

'We love you Chrissy!' Schumer imitated Teigen seductively walking down the stairs after Obama's 60th birthday bash at Martha's Vineyard in hilarious video

Teigen's original video - where she is singing happy birthday in a Marilyn Monroe-inspired white dress - was first posted a week ago, with the caption: 'Well that was magical. goodnight Martha's Vineyard. I have fallen in love with you hard!!'

Schumer appears to be staying at the same house that Teigen stayed at last week when she attended the former president's birthday.

Donning a decidedly less glamorous vest with the slogan 'boat hair don't care' - Schumer copied the video, captioning her post: 'Tribute. @rachelfeinstein_ steals the vid! We love you @chrissyteigen.'

The post went down a storm with Schumer's followers, including Killing Eve star Jodie Comer who commented, 'Amyyyyyy' alongside a crying face and heart-shaped emoji.

Reaction: Killing Eve star Jodie Comer and stand-up comedian Rachel Feinstein appeared to be tickled by the post

Glam: Teigen's video - where she is singing happy birthday in a Marilyn Monroe-inspired white dress - was first posted a week ago

Her version: Donning a decidedly less glamorous vest with the slogan 'boat hair don't care' - Schumer copied the video

Imitation: Another fan commented, 'Celeste Barber much?' comparing it to Australian comedian Barber, 39, who is known for hilariously imitating models on social media

'Boat hair don't care': Schumer poked fun at Teigen on her social media pages on Tuesday

Stand-up comedian Rachel Feinstein - who was tagged in the post - said under the snap: 'I am most proud of purchasing this high end top. #boathairdontcare #fendi.'

Another fan commented, 'Celeste Barber much?' comparing it to Australian comedian Barber, 39, who is known for hilariously imitating models on social media.

Teigen appeared on Schumer's show Inside Amy Schumer in 2014 playing a couples counselor - and the funny skit showed Schumer's boyfriend being more attracted to Teigen during a therapy session.

Best dressed: Teigen wore a Marilyn Monroe style dress to Barack Obama's 60th birthday bash last week with husband John Legend at Martha's Vineyard

The cookbook author has caught backlash over the past few months, after her past negative tweets about a number of celebrities came back to haunt her.

In July, Teigen posted a somber caption about struggling with being in the 'cancel club' after her controversy, saying 'it just sucks.'

Last week, Teigen revealed that she goes to therapy twice a week in a bid to improve her mental health.
Bella Hadid served as one of the faces of the Michael Kors Fall/Winter 2021 campaign which debuted this week.

The 24-year-old appeared to be the embodiment of old New York City glamour as she sported an elegant outfit while spending time next to the brand's storefront in New York City.

The fashion industry personality has previously worked with the brand and has been featured in several of its past campaigns.

A night on the town: Bella Hadid embodied New York City charm while serving as one of the faces of the Michael Kors fall-winter 2021 campaign

Hadid sported a beautiful silver sequined dress that showed off her toned legs and arms while working on the photoshoot.

She also donned a sizable white jacket that hung onto her right shoulder and contrasted well with the more eye-catching tone of her outfit.

The Instagram figure wore a stylish pair of high-heeled shoes and kept a shining silver purse with her as she posed for the shot.

Her gorgeous brunette locks were tied back tightly.

Fabulous: The social media personality wore a silver sequined dress and a white jacket in the line's promotional shots

Sending her well wishes: Hadid also appeared in a video that was shared to the brand's account where she and several other models were seen congratulating its founder

Hadid was also seen wearing the eye-catching outfit in a series of shots that were shared to Michael Kors' official Instagram account earlier this year.

In the photo, the model was seen enjoying the spotlight as she made an appearance at the brand's 40th-anniversary show, which was hosted at the Shubert Theatre.

Also present at the event were several other fashion industry figures, such as Naomi Campbell and Irina Shayk.

Hadid also appeared in a video where she was seen congratulating the brand's founder on his several decades of success in the fashion industry.

Making it known: Kors himself gave a press release where he noted that New York City had brought him 'amazing memories' and allowed him to meet plenty of 'fabulous people'; pictured here is Irina Shayk

In a press release via V Magazine, the designer, 62, spoke about how the Big Apple has largely contributed to his success.

'When I look back over 40 years, I think about all the amazing memories, energy and fabulous people that New York City has brought to my life and my career,' he said.

The executive also expressed that the brand's new set of apparel was designed with a particular intention in mind.

Doing his thing: The designer also expressed that the campaign was a way of creating his 'fantasy night out in the Theater District'; pictured here is Naomi Campbell

'This collection, and this campaign, is a celebration of the rebirth of city lifeof stepping out, finding the joy in getting dressed and making the streets your runway. It's my fantasy night out in the Theater District,' he explained.

Hadid was also featured in several shots that were intended to promote Michael Kors' activewear fall MKGO 2021 campaign.

The model was also photographed wearing several items from the fashion house at various locations around New York City while spending time with other models, such as Cindy Bruna and Ash Foo.

Impressive: Hadid also served as one of the faces of Michael Kors' fall 2021 MKGO campaign

In one of the shots, Hadid sported a puffy brown coat that featured one of the company's often-used patterns and an orange interior.

She paired her outerwear with a fashionable turtleneck dress that matched the inside of her jacket.

The social media figure added a bit of sleek charm to her clothing ensemble with a pair of reflective sunglasses.

Her typically free-flowing brunette hair remained tied back into a tight bun for a lengthy portion of the photoshoot.

Having fun: The model was seen enjoying a sunny day in New York City with several other fashion industry figures in the campaign's promotional shots

Looking good! Hadid wore a sporty orange turtleneck dress and kept a crossbody bag with her for the length of the photoshoot

Hadid has worked with the brand numerous times in the past and has been featured in several of its campaigns.

During an interview with WWD, the social media personality spoke about how the designer was personally invested in the well-being of the models involved with the company.

Specifically, the fashion industry figure noted: 'Working with Michael, he wants you to be happy, which we are.'

Hadid went on to express that she had a particularly enjoyable time during one of her first collaborations with the brand.

Enjoying it: During an interview with WWD, the model expressed that Kors wanted her to be happy while she was working with his brand

'On set here, it's a very happy set. And wearing his clothes, it makes you feel happy. For me, it was one of the first shoots where I was really able to smile and be myself, and I think that it shows a lot in the photographs,' she said.

Kors himself concluded the sit-down by offering the media outlet his view on the functionality behind fashion.

'I believe that when you put the right thing on, it's alchemy. It puts a spring in your step,' he remarked.
She just returned from older sister Jess' wild hen do in Ibiza, Spain this weekend.

And Natalya Wright, 21, wasn't shy in sharing a series of idyllic snaps from the festivities to her Instagram soon after.

The model put her bikini body on display in a beige crochet ensemble in a post on Tuesday, before delighting fans a day later with a snap of the soon-to-be bride.



Holiday state of mind: Natalya Wright (pictured), 21, put her bikini body on display in a racy crochet ensemble in an Instagram post on Tuesday, as she continues to share idyllic snaps from sister Jess' wild hen party festivities in Ibiza, Spain over the weekend

In the incredible bikini snap, Natalya drew attention to her trim physique and appeared in her element as she posed with a stylish round-rimmed hat in hand.

Her brunette locks fell in waves around her shoulders, and her makeup was elegant.

Drawing attention to the revealing ensemble, Natalya simply captioned the snap: 'A crochet dream'.

Boho glam: On Wednesday, Natalya shared another snap in the same ensemble, this time adding a matching high-waisted skirt and straw tasselled bag to the boho-inspired look

Stunning: The influencer was sure to add photos with sister Jess (pictured), 35, who looked gorgeous in a plunging white swimsuit that showed off her cleavage, teamed with a matching sarong, a straw round-rimmed hat and aviator sunglasses

Having a ball: A group shot also saw Natalya and Jess posing at a beachside bar with their mother Carol Wright, 61, and their pals

On Wednesday, Natalya shared another snap in the same ensemble, this time adding a matching high-waisted skirt and straw tasselled bag to the boho-inspired look.

She was sure to add photos with sister Jess, 35, who looked gorgeous in a plunging white swimsuit that showed off her cleavage, teamed with a matching sarong, a straw round-rimmed hat and aviator sunglasses.

Jess styled her locks out, opted for glamorous makeup and flashed the peace sign.

A group shot also saw Natalya and Jess posing at a beachside bar with their mother Carol Wright, 61, and their pals.

No sibling rivalry: Natalya first marked the hen do with a sweet post on Instagram on Monday, with the genetically blessed siblings in great spirits as they posed in bikinis

Natalya first marked the hen do with a sweet post on Instagram on Monday, with the genetically blessed siblings in great spirits as they posed in bikinis.

She wrote: 'The best weekend EVER celebrating you.. My sister, my bridey, oh what fun we have had. I am already maid of honoured out!!

'Bring on the wedding of the year @jesswright77 @okuhotels', with Jess replying: 'You couldn't have made the weekend anymore special & so happy I got to share it with my amazing sis. Love you '

Girls just want to have fun: Jess is pictured with her bridal party which includes mum Carol and sister Natalya

Party time: Jess and Natalya appeared to be loving life as they posed for a photo

It was announced on Monday that Jess has inked a deal with ITVBe and ITV Hub for a 90-minute special titled Jess Wright: The Wedding, which will chronicle the build-up to her big day with fiance William Lee Kemp, 34.

Filming is well underway, but the date the show will air is yet to be confirmed with ITV telling MailOnline it will likely be late autumn.

The show will follow Jess' journey to the altar as she and William set about staging their dream wedding, a star-studded event on the paradise island of Mallorca.

Jess penned online: 'A weekend full of glitter, love & endless laughter. The most amazing hen I could have ever wished for & the reason for that is the bestest group of girls ever'

The Wedding! It was announced on Monday that Jess has inked a deal with ITVBe and ITV Hub for a 90-minute special titled Jess Wright: The Wedding

Having already delayed their nuptials once already, and with travel restrictions constantly changing due to Covid-19, there is much for the pair to navigate.

Jess Wright: The Wedding is made by Potato, part of ITV Studios, the producers behind Ferne McCann: First Time Mum, Sam and Billie: The Mummy Diaries and the forthcoming Billie and Greg: The Family Diaries.

In an interview with Hello! Magazine, Jess admitted she and William had considered scrapping plans to exchange nuptials in Mallorca and have a smaller ceremony in England, as pandemic regulations affect travel.

From fiancee to wife! The show will chronicle the build-up to her big day with fiance William Lee Kemp, 34 (pictured)

Last hurrah! Jess celebrated her hen do with close friends and family

Noting that she's far from alone in her dilemma, Jessica told the publication: 'I really feel for all brides out there. Every day, we have been back and forth trying to decide what to do  I've been driving myself insane with it.'

'I have definitely relaxed since setting the new date. I can't wait to wear my dress  I just want to do it now.'

William popped the question on the snow capped peaks of Courchevel, France, in February 2020 after 13 months of dating.

Jess previously told Hello! that sister-in-law Michelle Keegan, who was absent from the hen do, would be one of the bridal party, as well as her sister Natalya.

Brother and former TOWIE star Mark Wright, 34, has been drafted in to serve as the master of ceremonies on his sister's big day.
He kicked off his 49th birthday - which took place on Sunday, August 15, with his three children.

And Ben Affleck closed out his birthday with girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and her children, twins Max and Emme, both 13.

'Jennifer had a cake for him. Ben is not one for big celebrations, so he thought it was perfect,' an insider for People said.

Must be love: He kicked off his 49th birthday - which took place on Sunday, August 15, with his three children. And Ben Affleck closed out his birthday with girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and her children, twins Max and Emme, both 13; pictured July 27 in Capri, Italy

'It was exactly what he wanted,' the insider added.

Ben has three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner: daughters Violet, 15, and Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, nine.

Before their evening celebration, Jennifer was seen heading to producer Jennifer Klein's home for her annual Day of Indulgence event with daughter Emme.

'When she stopped by the Made by Mary jewelry station, Jennifer and Emme picked out several 'birth flower necklaces,' including one for Violet and one for Seraphina.

Family is everything: 'Jennifer had a cake for him. Ben is not one for big celebrations, so he thought it was perfect,' an insider for People said; pictured with her kids Alex and Emme

Doting dad: Ben has three children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner: daughters Violet, 15, and Seraphina, 12, and son Samuel, nine; the movie star seen with his kids the morning of his 49th birthday in LA

Ben and Jennifer recently returned from a romantic getaway to St. Tropez for Jennifer's 52nd birthday.

The twosome have also spent time getting to know each other's children, with Jennifer planning on moving from Miami to Los Angeles to be closer to Ben.

Jennifer's kids Max and Emme, whom she shares with ex husband Marc Anthony, are 'onboard with starting fresh in Los Angeles,' according to another People source.

'They are slowly getting to know Ben. Everything seems to be running smoothly. It's very obvious that Jennifer is serious about Ben. She hasn't looked this happy for a long time,' the insider noted.

Bestie: Before their evening celebration, Jennifer was seen heading to producer Jennifer Klein's home for her annual Day of Indulgence event with daughter Emme

True love's kiss: Ben and Jennifer share a passionate kiss on Tuesday, August 17, in LA

The couple's relationship came as a shock to fans, heating up again nearly 17 years after their failed engagement.

Jennifer confirmed the end of her relationship with Alex Rodriguez, a former New York Yankee, in April after the pair dated for four years and were engaged for two years.

Her red-hot relationship with Ben comes as the star is working on cutting all ties to 46-year-old ex Alex, since the duo have worked together as business partners.

'Jennifer is done dealing with Alex. She's washing her hands of him romantically and also as a business partner. Her management team and her lawyers will be talking to his [team] to tie up any loose ends,' Us Weekly's source said.

When they split, the couple told Today in a joint statement that they would maintain any business arrangements, which includes a real estate portfolio, investors in telemedicine company His & Hers as well as the fitness app called Fitplan.

Former: Her red-hot relationship with Ben comes as the star is working on cutting all ties to 46-year-old ex Alex, since the duo have worked together as business partners; seen together at the Met Gal on May 7, 2018 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

'She will have to sell her side of the company or buy him out. She doesn't care about how it goes down, just that she is free of the ties to him. She knows it's [only far to Ben.'

In mid-May, Jennifer spent some time in Los Angeles with Ben, according to a source per PEOPLE.

'Jennifer was just in Los Angeles for a couple of days,' a source told the publication. 'She spent time with Ben. They have kept in touch every day since their Montana trip.'

In addition to Europe, they enjoyed time together in Miami, The Hamptons for Fourth of July; They even did a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood with Emme and Samuel.

Ben and Jen first started dating in 2002 after meeting on set of Gigli.

They soon became engaged and were set to get married in September 2003, but postponed their wedding and eventually broke up in January 2004.
Three-time Oscar nominee Tom Cruise's son Connor Instastoried a rare snap of himself fishing with his attorney friend Captain Jack Vasilaros in honor of his birthday on Tuesday.

'Happy birthday @hookedforlife!' the Florida-born 26-year-old - who boasts 34K Instagram followers - captioned the post.

'Cheers to another year slaying monsters around the globe.'

'Cheers to another year slaying monsters around the globe!' Three-time Oscar nominee Tom Cruise's son Connor (R) Instastoried a rare snap of himself fishing with his attorney friend Captain Jack Vasilaros (L) in honor of his birthday on Tuesday

Connor has been deep sea fishing as far back as 2014 and much of his social media revolves around showing off his large catches.

Cruise also has a separate Instagram account devoted to his passion for grilling called 'Connor's Meatshack.'

The EDM fan used to DJ and, for a time, was represented by booking agency SKAM Artist, but he appears to have stopped spinning sometime after August 2016.

Since 2017, Connor's big sister Bella has reportedly lived in Croydon, London with her husband of five years, IT consultant Max Parker.

'King size for the #KINGSMEN': The Florida-born 26-year-old (L, pictured April 23) has been deep sea fishing as far back as 2014 and much of his social media revolves around showing off his large catches

'Bacon smash burgers for the win!' Connor also has a separate Instagram account devoted to his passion for grilling called 'Connor's Meatshack' (pictured March 25)

'Good vibes on the beach': The EDM fan used to DJ and, for a time, was represented by booking agency SKAM Artist, but he appears to have stopped spinning sometime after August 2016 (pictured in 2014)

The Florida-born 28-year-old shared brand new digital artwork on Tuesday - which she sells through her website as well as pins, totes, and T-shirts.

Bella and Connor are the New York-born 59-year-old's eldest children from his 11-year marriage to Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, which ended in 2001.

The adopted siblings have two half-sisters - Sunday Rose, 13; and Faith Margaret, 10 - through the Australian 54-year-old's 15-year marriage to four-time Grammy winner Keith Urban.

And their 15-year-old half-sister Suri is from Tom's five-year marriage to Dawson's Creek alum Katie Holmes, which ended in 2012.

Across the pond: Since 2017, Connor's big sister Bella has reportedly lived in Croydon, London with her husband of five years, IT consultant Max Parker

What do you think? The Florida-born 28-year-old shared brand new digital artwork on Tuesday - which she sells through her website as well as pins, totes, and T-shirts

Worryingly, Cruise (born Thomas Mapother IV) hasn't been pictured with his youngest child in eight years, even though his custody arrangement allots '10 days a month of visitation' - according to Us Weekly.

The Mission: Impossible action star will next reprise his role as Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick, which finally hits US/UK theaters on November 19.

Joseph Kosinski's long-delayed $152M-budget sequel also features Val Kilmer, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Miles Teller.

1996 family portrait: Bella and Connor are the New York-born 59-year-old's eldest children from his 11-year marriage to Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, which ended in 2001

2017 family portrait: The adopted siblings have two half-sisters - Sunday Rose, 13; and Faith Margaret, 10 - through the Australian 54-year-old's 15-year marriage to four-time Grammy winner Keith Urban
Peaches Geldof's widower Thomas Cohen has undergone a dramatic style transformation, having a adopted a love of dresses and sultry make-up.

Once known for his love of retro tailoring and loose-fitting denim, the musician, 31, now dons mostly dresses, as documented on his Instagram, where he uses the name Sylph and has the username   - Arabic for Landlord.

He first showcased his transformed look as far back as 2018 with a snap taken in a Berlin art gallery while he donned a stunning orange gown with a voluminous sleeve, and he has kept his fashionable updates coming ever since.

Having taken on an ethereal persona and creating music under his new alias Sylph, Thomas often shares photos of his statement-making looks on social media alongside spiritual messages encouraging fans to embrace 'their divinity'

Transformation: Peaches Geldof's widower Thomas Cohen has undergone a dramatic style transformation with the 31-year-old showing off his love for dresses on Instagram

Transformation: He first showcased his transformed look as far back as 2018 with a snap taken in a Berlin art gallery while he donned a stunning orange gown with a voluminous sleeve (left) in a transformation from his favoured slick style (right, in 2012)

In a post shared last year, the fashion icon donned a lace-up frock alongside the caption: 'I feel everybody has the potential to be divine.'

He added: 'But am so sad that even after society had to isolate its re-emerging still without a consciousness companionate enough to recognise divinity in those who understand it within themselves the most. Sending a lot of love to everyone.'

Thomas has also grown out his already-lengthy raven tresses, with his hair now cascading past his shoulders and styled into sleek looks.

MailOnline has reached out to representatives for Thomas for comment.

Long hair: Thomas has also grown out his raven tresses, with his hair now cascading past his shoulders

Spiritual: Having taken on an ethereal persona and creating music under the alias Sylph, Thomas often shares spiritual messages encouraging fans to embrace 'their divinity'

Rocker Thomas is the widower of Peaches, who died in April 2014 after a drug overdose and shares two sons with his late wife.

Thomas was left a single father after Peaches, daughter of Sir Bob Geldof, suffered a drug overdose aged 25 at their home in Wrotham, Kent, while their son Phaedra remained in the house with her for eight hours.

On discovering her body, Thomas recalled in a 2017 interview with German newspaper Bild how his thoughts were forced to turn immediately to something as mundane as feeding his children their lunch, just one hour later.

Ethereal: Having taken on an ethereal persona and creating music under the alias Sylph, Thomas often shares photos of his statement-making looks on social media (pictured in 2013)

Message to fans: In a post shared last year, the fashion icon donned a lace-up frock alongside the caption: 'I feel everybody has the potential to be divine'

Tragic: Thomas was left a single father after Peaches, daughter of Sir Bob Geldof, suffered a drug overdose aged 25 at their home in Wrotham, Kent

He revealed: 'When I found her, I was not surprised. I thought to myself at the moment: ''Yes of course - you had to do that.'' What I can remember, it must have been an hour after I've found it, that it's time for the kids' lunch.

'They needed their lunch. So I took the children's chairs to the table, took the yogurts out of the fridge, the bananas.

'The routine I had to keep up with the children helped me a lot. They have lived longer than they knew their mother. They were just one and two years. Now they are four and five.'

Chatting with the publication, he bitterly discussed the drug that killed her: 'Heroin, is a drug where you're trying to enforce something on you that's greater than life. You can only really... its horrible you're filling your body with something.

Widower: Rocker Thomas is the widower of Peaches, who died in April 2014 after a drug overdose and shares two sons with his late wife (pictured in 2011)

'It was incredible traumatising, after it happened... a few months after. Because it was so deeply traumatising you know that moment.

'I want them to be happy, I don't care what they end up doing. They are miraculously having happy childhoods which hopefully leads to happy fruitful lives.'

In a statement released shortly after Peaches' death, Thomas said: 'My beloved wife Peaches was adored by myself and her two sons Astala and Phaedra and I shall bring them up with their mother in their hearts everyday. We shall love her forever. Thomas, Astala and Phaedra Geldof-Cohen.'

Peaches' death had tragic echoes of history repeating itself as her mother Paula Yates passed away in 2000, aged 41, from an accidental heroin overdose at her London home.

When she died, Paula was in the house with her then - four-year-old daughter Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, who she shared with INXS rocker Michael Hutchence. Her death occured on Peaches' sister and her daughter, Pixie's 10th birthday.

At Peaches' inquest in July 2014 it was revealed she had codine, methadone and morphine in her blood stream while drug paraphernalia, including spoons, tights and a capped syringe were found hidden in a box of sweets next to her body.

Police discovered a bag containing 6.9g of heroin, which they revealed sat at a high grade at around 61 per cent purity, while being priced at around 350 to 500.

During the inquest Thomas confirmed she had been attending treatment for two years and was undergoing weekly drug tests, which she maintained always came back clean - a claim he believed at the time.
Alyssa Milano has opened up about the 'terrifying and traumatic' incident that took place on Tuesday in which her uncle suffered a 'serious heart attack' while behind the wheel of a car.

Milano, 48, was a passenger in the vehicle when her uncle fell ill on an LA freeway, reportedly forcing her to hit the brakes with her hand and administer CPR to him.

In an Instagram post shared Wednesday, Milano revealed the health scare resulted in a car crash, and while her beloved uncle is currently in the hospital, she was uncertain if he would recover.

'We are unsure if he will recover': Alyssa Milano has opened up about the 'terrifying and traumatic' incident that took place on Tuesday in which her uncle suffered a heart attack while behind the wheel of a car (pictured January 2020)

'Yesterday my family suffered a terrifying and traumatic event. I was a passenger in a car my Uncle Mitch was driving when he suffered a serious heart attack, resulting in a car crash.

'I am grateful to the people who stopped to help us. I'll never be able to thank them enough for the car and attention they, along with the first responders, doctors, nurses, and staff at UCLA Medical Center paid to him and to me.

'Uncle Mitch is such an important part of our family. He's with us every day, spending time with my children and present in every meaningful part of our lives. He's still in the hospital, and we are unsure if he will recover.'

She also urged followers to get CPR certified in case of an emergency.

Terrifying: The actress opened up about the traumatic experience in a lengthy Instagram post

'Please, take this as your inspiration to get CPR certified. You don't know when you'll be called upon to save a life. The American Red Cross and many hospitals and other organizations offer regular classes. It's such a small effort and can have a huge impact.'

Milano reportedly leant over from her position in the passenger seat to hit the brakes with her hand as her uncle fell unwell, according to TMZ.

Law enforcement sources told the publication that the incident happened while the pair were driving in a Ford Edge on Tuesday.

Family: Milano saved her uncle's life with CPR after he 'suffered a heart attack' at the wheel on the LA freeway

They claim that another vehicle hit theirs as Mitch fell unconscious after suffering what is thought to be a heart attack.

Alyssa then hit the brakes with the vehicle then coming to a stop after making contact with another car in the lane it had drifted into.

'With the assistance of a good Samaritan, they were able to bring the Ford to a stop in between the #1 and #2 lane,' ET reported, citing the California Highway Patrol.

Milano administered CPR on her uncle until first responders were on the scene, and took her uncle to a local hospital, where he was being treated in the wake of the incident.

Heroic: Milano, pictured in 2019 in LA, administered CPR on her uncle until first responders were on the scene, and took her uncle to a local hospital

Statement: Milano on Tuesday evening took to Twitter with a message urging her followers to look out to protect their loved ones

Reps for the actress, who's been seen in recent years on shows such as Insatiable and Grey's Anatomy, told TMZ she was thankful for the people who helped her uncle at the scene, as well as first responders and medical workers.

The actress was subsequently picked up by husband David Bugliari, according to the CHP.

Milano on Tuesday evening took to Twitter with a message urging her followers to look out to protect their loved ones.

'It's not hard to take care of each other, but it is important,' she tweeted. 'Get vaccinated. Wear masks. Lock up your guns. Learn CPR. Small, common-sense actions.'

She had not yet directly addressed the harrowing incident on social media Tuesday evening.

The incident comes after Rose McGowan continued her attacks on her former Charmed costar Alyssa with a fiery Instagram post on Thursday.

The 47-year-old actress and activist slammed Milano for dismissive comments she made about her in August of last year.

McGowan had previously accused her costar of being a 'MeToo fraud,' and she continued her assault on the Time's Up organization in her latest post.

McGowan shared a clip from her Nightline appearance in January 2018 in which she lambasted Milano and appeared to accuse her of being complicit with abusers because of her connection to the talent agency Creative Artists Agency.

Milano's husband Bugliari is a CAA agent, and McGowan claimed in her interview clip that the agency was 'part of the pimp problem,' after previously accusing the agency of enabling abusers in Hollywood.

'Remember when Hollywood actresses & paid off activists wore stupid black dresses at the Oscars? That was sponsored by Times Up who were meant to help abuse victims?' she wrote in her caption.

Drama: The incident comes after Rose McGowan (pictured) continued her attacks on her former Charmed costar Alyssa with a fiery Instagram post on Thursday

'I told the world they are a lie 3+ years ago. I was mocked & harassed by so many who want to believe the illusion,' she continued. 'Wake up. Hard truths are inconvenient & uncomfortable. So what, suck it up. Milano, TimesUp, fake performatives and profiteers.'

She also referenced an August 2020 statement from Milano, calling it 'gaslighting in full effect.'

'She said of my truth telling, "Hurt people hurt people." No, Alyssa, its lizard people like you, SDK Knickerbocker, Gov Cuomo, the Pres, Tina Chen [sic] who hurt people. Your time is up. Exit stage left.'

It's unclear if the Grindhouse actress was calling Milano a 'lizard' person as a simple insult, or if she subscribes to the delusional conspiracy theory claiming that shape-shifting lizard people control society.

In her Instagram Stories, McGowan posted a screenshot of a private message with journalist Glenn Greenwald, in which he appeared to have sent her a tweet to a Washington Post article describing how members of the Times Up organization aided New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in his attempts to discredit a woman accusing him of sexual harassment.

Another tweet Greenwald had forwarded to McGowan read: 'Rose McGowan was right. She was ostracized for it, but she called this from day one.'
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Amal Clooney stunned in a vibrant orange jumpsuit as she and husband George took their twins Ella and Alexander, four, to lunch with friends at Villa d'Este by boat in Lake Como, Italy on Wednesday.

The human rights lawyer, 43, oozed elegance while her actor husband, 60, was effortlessly stylish in a short sleeved navy blue polo shirt and a cream pair of chinos, which he teamed with smart brown shoes.

The Hollywood couple recently denied reports that they are expecting another child, after rumours began circulating last month.

Wow! Amal Clooney, 43, stunned in a vibrant orange jumpsuit as she and husband George, 60, took their twins Ella and Alexander, four, to lunch in Lake Como, Italy on Wednesday

Amal showed off her passion for fashion in her eye-catching sleeveless jumpsuit, which elegantly skimmed her slim frame and boasted an open back with floating neck-tie detailing.

She boosted her height with sleek wooden wedges, while accessorising with a chic wide-brim hat and a tan coloured tote, and shielding her eyes with round shades.

Little Ella looked gorgeous in a white dress boasting ornate floral embroidery, which she wore with rose gold sandals.

Her twin brother Alexander was as dapper as his dad in a light blue shirt worn open over a plain white tee, and navy chinos.

Protective: George wrapped his protective arms around the twins during the boat ride and pointed out certain sights

What a way to travel: George carefully helped pass his children to assistants from the restaurant

Breathtaking: Amal's eye-catching sleeveless jumpsuit elegantly skimmed her slim frame and boasted an open back with floating neck-tie detailing

Food time: The couple held on tightly to their children as they made their way through the busy restaurant

At the end of last month, George and Amal's representatives confirmed that the couple are not expecting another child.

Insiders had previously claimed that the happy couple, who wed in 2014, had told their close friends that they were expanding their family when they threw a small dinner party near their Italian villa on July 4th.

Sparking speculation the Clooneys were adding another baby to their brood, a source had told OK! US: 'Amal's said to be past her first trimester. She's already starting to show, so soon enough, everyone will know.'

However their representative swiftly shut down any speculation and said: 'Stories saying that Amal Clooney is pregnant are not true.'

Dapper dude: Ella's twin brother Alexander was as dapper as his dad in a light blue shirt worn open over a plain white tee, and navy chinos

Teamwork: George escorted little Ella, who looked gorgeous in a white dress boasting ornate floral embroidery, while Amal held Alexander's hand

Dad life: George looked equally enthusiastic about having their children come along for the luxury lunch date

Family time: Amal and George looked as happier as ever as they spent the day with their children

Sunshine break: At one point, Amal moved undercover to escape the heat of the day

It was reported in June that George had whizzed his wife and their children to Lake Como ahead of the twins' fourth birthday.

A source told E! News at the time that the family 'haven't been there in two years' but would be spending the summer at their family home, Villa Oleandra.

They added: 'They brought along their giant St. Bernard puppy, Rosie. They will be spending as much of the summer as they can in Lake Como.'

In March, doting dad George spoke about how life changed when he became a father, saying: 'I don't think anyone is ever going to say at the end of the day 'God, I wish we'd done two more interesting films' rather than 'God, I'm really glad I spent this time with my kids or I did this with my kids.'

Adorable: Ella and Alexandra sat on their father's knee for the duration of the boat ride

Hot mama! Amal boosted her height with sleek wooden wedges, while accessorising with a chic wide-brim hat

Refined: The mother-of-two carried her belongings in a tan coloured tote

Chivalrous: George bent down to lift little Ella up from her mother's lap and pass her ashore

In December, the Hollywood star gave a rare into fatherhood as he spoke to AARP The Magazine about naming their twins and being a famous parent.

He said: 'I didn't want, like, weird-a*s names for our kids. They're already going to have enough trouble. It's hard being the son of somebody famous and successful...

'It's hard being the son of somebody famous and successful. Paul Newman's son killed himself. Gregory Peck's son killed himself....

'Bing Crosby had two sons kill themselves. I have an advantage because I'm so much older that by the time my son would feel competitive, I'll literally be gumming bread.'

Daddy duties: George took his parenting responsibilities in his stride as he cared for the twins while laughing with friends

Fancy! The Clooney family dined at Villa d'Este in Lake Como

Sun safe: George covered his famous face with a classic pair of shades

Finishing touches: Amal completed her sleek attire by shielding her eyes with round shades

He later spoke to CBS This Morning about how Amal and the kids changed his life.

George said: 'There is no question that having Amal in my life changed everything for me. It was the first time that everything that she did and everything about her was infinitely more important than anything about me...

'We never talked about having kids, and one day we said, 'What do you think?' And then we go to the doctor and you do the ultrasound and they're like, 'You got a baby boy!' and I was like, 'Baby boy, fantastic!'...

'And they go, 'And you got another one there.' I was up for one. Again, I'm old. All of a sudden, it's two. It's hard to get me to not talk, and I just stood there for, like, 10 minutes just staring at this piece of paper going, 'What? Two?'

Private shuttle: George and his family shared the boat ride to lunch with close friends

Worth the effort: George and Amal needed to climb a flight of stairs after disembarking the vessel

Day trip: The family of four enjoyed quality time together during their day out in Italy

He was later asked about why he 'waited so long' to become a father, to which George said: 'I found the right person to have them with, he said. There are some people, their goal was: I have to have children. Mine wasnt...

'I wasnt looking at life, going: My life will be unfulfilled without children. I felt like I had a pretty full life. Then I met Amal and realised that my life had been pretty empty.

'And then we throw these two kids in there and suddenly you realise how incredibly empty it was and, you know, it fills it all up. It makes it fun.'

He went on: '[Fatherhood] gives a sense of belonging, and a sense of home and the unconditional love, all the things that you were hoping you could get from a really good career and a dog. You realise that this is a lot more than that'.
In this June 8, 2021, file photo, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a news conference in Austin. Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021, according to his office, who said he is in good health and experiencing no symptoms. Abbott, who was vaccinated in 2020, was isolating in the governor's mansion in Austin and receiving monoclonal antibody treatment, spokesman Mark Miner said in a statement.
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Stuckey, a champion of civil rights, dies at 75

Stuckey

Curtis B. Stuckey, the outspoken civil rights attorney who became a champion of the downtrodden though his crusade for justice, died Aug. 10 at his home in Nacogdoches.

He was 75.

Curt truly was a hero to a lot of people, said Tim Garrigan, Stuckeys law partner for 30 years.

Family members did not announce his cause of death, though Stuckey had been in declining health for years.

During his lengthy legal career, Stuckey is perhaps best known for dozens of lawsuits filed against East Texas county jails.

The way prisoners were treated were horrible. Most of the jails didnt supervise or classify the prisoners. They didnt have air conditioning. They didnt have law libraries. Some didnt have visitation or medical care, Garrigan said. Most of that stuff happened outside public view.

That is, however, until Stuckey intervened.

He was a civil rights lawyer long before Ferguson, attorney John Heath Jr. said, referring to the death of Michael Brown, which sparked massive police reforms. He was doing that job before it was cool.

Stuckeys work drew the attention of The Dallas Morning News, and he was a prominent figure in the papers story that won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1992 by exposing police misconduct.

He was just driven to take the side of the little guy against the big guy, Garrigan said.

Stuckey was a longtime member of Austin Heights Baptist Church, where pastor the Rev. Kyle Childress remembers him as a unique character.

He was sort of rough around the edges but had this extraordinary tender heart and compassion, Childress said.

Stuckey and physician Dr. Bob Carroll would often argue, debate and spar over politics, but the two remained the closest of friends, Childress said.

His relationship with many of these judges could be described in much the same terms, Garrigan said. He had the respect of even the most conservative federal judges here. There was a lot of sparing that went on but the mutual respect was still there.

In court, Stuckeys tie was often crooked, and his hair might be somewhat of a mess.

He wasnt flashy like a TV lawyer, said Childress who use to attend some of Stuckeys court hearings. But I think he made a big difference for those who suffered and hurt or were beat down. Thats who he was an advocate for.

That advocacy extend beyond the courtroom and especially applied to children, Garrigan said. He constantly doted over children, slipping them dollar bills and cracking jokes.

Usually kids are ignored and taken for granted, but that was not true around Curt, Garrigan said.

He was also a major supporter of the childrens ministry at Austin Heights. Every week, Childress said, Stucky would personally greet all the children in church.

He would walk back there and wave and say hello. He wasnt there but for maybe two minutes, but thats what he did every Sunday morning, Childress said.

And after a lifetime of fighting for civil rights, Stuckey liked to remind people to be positive.

He would call people, some he had known for 50 years. He would call them every day and he would always say Youre good, good, good, good, Childress said. It was his favorite phrase.

Curtis B. Curt Stuckey was born May 27, 1946 in Vincennes, Indiana. After graduating from law school he traipsed his way across the South, Garrigan said, before finally settling in Nacogdoches.

Funeral is set for 10 a.m. Friday. Only a small group of family and friends will be allowed to attend due to COVID-19 prevention precautions. The funeral will be live-streamed by Cason Monk Funeral Home. Details about how to the watch the stream will be posted at www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/nacogdoches-tx/curtis-stuckey-10303700.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Multiple federal agencies that operated in Afghanistan and worked with Afghan citizens have been hastily purging their websites, removing articles and photos that could endanger the Afghan civilians who interacted with them and now fear retribution from the Taliban.

The online scrubbing campaign appeared to begin late last week when it became clear that the Afghan security forces had completely collapsed and the Taliban would take over the country far faster than even the most alarmist official predictions. The concern is that the Taliban or its supporters would search the websites and identify Afghans who had worked with the Americans or merely benefited from their services.

State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the department was advising personnel to search for and remove social media and website content featuring civilians because the safety of Afghan contacts is of utmost importance" to the government.

State Department policy is to only remove content in exceptional situations like this one. In doing so, department personnel are following records retention requirements, Price said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development said in a statement the agencies who operated in Afghanistan began clearing the websites last Friday  one day after the decision was made to send U.S. military to secure the Kabul airport as the capital collapsed.

Given the security situation in Afghanistan, and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our staff, partners, and beneficiaries, we are reviewing USAID public websites and social media to archive content that could pose a risk to certain individuals and groups," the agency said in an email to The Associated Press.

An official with the Agriculture Department said a similar scrubbing effort was underway there. That official spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not cleared to speak on the issue.

An Associated Press review of the USDA website revealed at least seven different links to Afghanistan-related press releases or blog posts that, when clicked on, defaulted to a page declaring Access denied: You are not authorized to access this page.

While much attention has focused on protecting Afghan interpreters and others who worked with the U.S. military, soldiers were only a portion of the U.S. personnel who operated in Afghanistan over the last two decades.

Organizations, including USAID, elements of the Agriculture Department and others, began arriving in Afghanistan as early as 2002, within months of the toppling of the previous Taliban government, focused on developing the countrys infrastructure, educational and agriculture sectors.

As recently as June, USAID announced the U.S. was providing more than $266 million in additional humanitarian assistance to help Afghans. Total humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan totaled more than $543 million since fiscal year 2020, according to the USAID press announcement.

The money brought the total U.S. humanitarian assistance to nearly $3.9 billion since 2002, the release said.

In some of the now-disabled Agriculture Department posts viewed by The Associated Press, several, but not all, contained details that would clearly be viewed by the Taliban as proof of collaboration, such as names and photos of Afghan agricultural specialists and governmental officials who visited the U.S. on multiple USDA-sponsored delegations or fellowships.

Others were more innocuous, such as an article about Minnesota farmers donating more than 2,500 bushels of soybean seeds to their Afghan counterparts. The fact that they have also been scrubbed from the site possibly indicates the level of caution being used or simply that whole sections of Afghan-related material were hastily deleted in large batches.

One scrubbed article makes it clear that even while the American military was deployed across the country, Afghan civilians and government officials were in danger of retaliation for the most low-level associations with the U.S. government.

It recounts in detail the USDAs working relationship with the members of an regional agricultural authority in a province near Kabul. USDA helped coordinate a shura (townhall meeting) between the council members and local farmers. The article, which includes a photo of the meeting, notes more than 250 farmers showed up despite insurgent threats of violence against any farmer or government official planning to attend the meeting or work with USDA.

The author praises the government officials who risk their safety each day to bring progress and opportunity to their fellow Afghans.
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Ecommerce marketplace Flipkart strengthened its tech-enabled supply chain network in Maharashtra with the addition of four new fulfilment and sortation centres to support local sellers from the state and cater to the growing demand.

The addition of the new facilities is a testament to Flipkarts commitment to serving customers and sellers from the state in a fast and seamless manner and contributing to their prosperity while boosting economic growth in the State, the company said.

The new facilities located in Bhiwandi and Nagpur are collectively spread across an area of nearly seven lakh square feet helping create over 4,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Apart from growing customer demand, this expansion comes on the back of a growing seller count from the state which rose by 30% in the last year. Flipkart has a very large and rapidly growing seller base in the state selling everything from home decor to mobiles to luggage and travel accessories to customers across the country.

As the countrys financial capital, Maharashtra has been at the forefront of driving the growth of e-commerce with millions of new customers, sellers and kirana partners taking to e-commerce to meet their requirements while making use of the entrepreneurship opportunities it offers.

Earlier in February, Flipkart signed an MoU with Maharashtra Small Scale Industries Development Corporation (MSSIDC) and Maharashtra State Khadi &Village Industries Board (MSKVIB), to bring local artisans, weavers, craftsmen and SMBs of the state into the e-commerce fold.

Industries Minister Subhash Desai said, "Maharashtra is one of the most attractive investment destinations in the country and Flipkarts recent investments are a welcome move for the state".

Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Flipkart, said, As a homegrown e-commerce company, we are continuously making deep investment in infrastructure and supply-chain in Maharashtra to support a robust ecosystem for local MSMEs, artisans, weavers and other under-served communities.
Domestic cooking gas LPG price on Wednesday was increased by Rs 25 per cylinder - the second straight month of increase in rates. Subsidised LPG now costs Rs 859 per 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi, according to a price notification of oil companies.

This is the second straight month of a price increase. Rates were hiked by Rs 25.50 per cylinder on July 1.

Non-subsidised LPG rates were increased on August 1 by the same proportion, and now the subsidised cooking gas prices have been raised. There is hardly any difference in the rate of subsidised and non-subsidised cooking gas.

Industry sources said the subsidised LPG price was not raised on August 1 because Parliament was in session and the government could have been attacked by the opposition. The latest increase in subsidised LPG price now has taken the cumulative rate hike since January 1 to Rs 165 per cylinder. The government eliminated subsidies on LPG by raising rates every month.

These monthly increases led to the elimination of subsidies by May 2020. The price of domestic cooking gas has more than doubled in the last seven years. The retail selling price of domestic gas was Rs 410.5 per 14.2-kg cylinder on March 1, 2014.

In Mumbai, a 14.2 kg LPG cylinder now costs Rs 859.5, while in Kolkata, it is priced at Rs 886. For people of Chennai, an LPG cylinder will now cost Rs 875.50, up from Rs 850.50. Meanwhile, diesel prices were cut by 19 to 21 paise across the country, while petrol prices remained unchanged, according to the price notification.

This is the first change in price in over a month. Petrol continues to remain unchanged at Rs 101.84 a litre in Delhi. Diesel rates have, however, been reduced to Rs 89.67 per litre from Rs 89.87. In Mumbai, the fuel now costs Rs 97.24 per litre.
Shares of HDFC Bank on Wednesday rose nearly two per cent in early trade as investors cheered the Reserve Bank's decision to allow the lender to issue new credit cards. With the lifting of the eight-month-long ban on HDFC Bank with respect to selling new credit cards, its shares climbed 1.61 per cent to Rs 1,539.10 apiece after opening at Rs 1,550.

The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 1,564.75 apiece on the BSE. The market capitalisation stood at Rs 8,51,282.53 crore.

On the NSE too, similar trends were witnessed as the shares gained 1.60 per cent to Rs 1,538.95 and reached an intra-day high of Rs 1,565.35. The scrip opened at Rs 1,556.70 apiece.

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, HDFC Bank said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), through its letter dated August 17, has relaxed the restriction placed on sourcing of new credit cards.

The central bank had issued orders in December and February to HDFC Bank on certain incidents of outages in the internet banking /mobile banking/ payment utilities of the bank over the past two years. HDFC Bank also said the restrictions on all new launches of the digital business generating activities planned under Digital 2.0 will continue till further review by the RBI. "We will continue to engage with RBI and ensure compliance on all parameters," it added.

The 30-share benchmark Sensex was trading higher at 56,064.67.
The leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban will show themselves to the world, an official of the Islamist movement said on Wednesday, unlike during the past 20 years, when its leaders have lived largely in secret.

"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders, there will be no shadow of secrecy," the senior Taliban official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Read | The Taliban are only pretending they arent barbaric

The official said Taliban members had been ordered not to celebrate their recent sweep of the country, which brought them to the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, and added that civilians should hand over weapons and ammunition.
By Azadah Raz Mohammad and Jenna Sapiano for 'The Conversation'

As the Taliban takes control of the country, Afghanistan has again become an extremely dangerous place to be a woman.

Even before the fall of Kabul on Sunday, the situation was rapidly deteriorating, exacerbated by the planned withdrawal of all foreign military personnel and declining international aid.

In the past few weeks alone, there have been many reports of casualties and violence. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. The United Nations Refugee Agency says about 80% of those who have fled since the end of May are women and children.

Read | 'Times have changed': Some Afghan women defiant as Taliban return

What does the return of the Taliban mean for women and girls?

The history of the Taliban

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, enforcing harsh conditions and rules following their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Under their rule, women had to cover themselves and only leave the house in the company of a male relative. The Taliban also banned girls from attending school, and women from working outside the home. They were also banned from voting.

Women were subject to cruel punishments for disobeying these rules, including being beaten and flogged, and stoned to death if found guilty of adultery. Afghanistan had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

The past 20 years

With the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the situation for women and girls vastly improved, although these gains were partial and fragile.

Women now hold positions as ambassadors, ministers, governors, and police and security force members. In 2003, the new government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which requires states to incorporate gender equality into their domestic law.

The 2004 Afghan Constitution holds that citizens of Afghanistan, man and woman, have equal rights and duties before the law. Meanwhile, a 2009 law was introduced to protect women from forced and under-age marriage, and violence.

Also Read | Hijab mandatory for women, not Burqa: Taliban

According to Human Rights Watch, the law saw a rise in the reporting, investigation and, to a lesser extent, conviction, of violent crimes against women and girls.

While the country has gone from having almost no girls at school to tens of thousands at university, the progress has been slow and unstable. UNICEF reports of the 3.7 million Afghan children out of school some 60% are girls.

A return to dark days

Officially, Taliban leaders have said they want to grant womens rights according to Islam. But this has been met with great scepticism, including by women leaders in Afghanistan. Indeed, the Taliban has given every indication they will reimpose their repressive regime.

In July, the United Nations reported the number of women and girls killed and injured in the first six months of the year nearly doubled compared to the same period the year before.

In the areas again under Taliban control, girls have been banned from school and their freedom of movement restricted. There have also been reports of forced marriages.

Women are putting burqas back on and speak of destroying evidence of their education and life outside the home to protect themselves from the Taliban.

As one anonymous Afghan woman writes in The Guardian: "I did not expect that we would be deprived of all our basic rights again and travel back to 20 years ago. That after 20 years of fighting for our rights and freedom, we should be hunting for burqas and hiding our identity."

Many Afghans are angered by the return of the Taliban and what they see as their abandonment by the international community. There have been protests in the streets. Women have even taken up guns in a rare show of defiance.

Read | Life returning to a new normal as Taliban consolidate power

But this alone will not be enough to protect women and girls.

The world looks the other way

Currently, the US and its allies are engaged in frantic rescue operations to get their citizens and staff out of Afghanistan. But what of Afghan citizens and their future?

US President Joe Biden remains largely unmoved by the Talibans advance and the worsening humanitarian crisis. In an August 14 statement, he said: "An endless American presence in the middle of another countrys civil conflict was not acceptable to me."

And yet, the US and its allies  including Australia  went to Afghanistan 20 years ago on the premise of removing the Taliban and protecting womens rights. However, most Afghans do not believe they have experienced peace in their lifetimes.

As the Taliban reassert complete control over the country, the achievements of the past 20 years, especially those made to protect womens rights and equality, are at risk if the international community once again abandons Afghanistan.

Women and girls are pleading for help as the Taliban advance. We hope the world will listen.

(Azadah Raz Mohammad is a PhD student, The University of Melbourne; and Jenna Sapiano, is a Lecturer, Monash Gender Peace & Security Centre, Monash University)
A cyber security researcher discovered nearly two million terrorist watchlist records, including "no-fly" list indicators, which were left exposed online last month.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not remove them until three weeks later.

Cyber security researcher Bob Diachenko came across a plethora of records that were exposed online.

"On July 19, I discovered a terrorist watchlist containing 1.9 million records online without a password or any other authentication required to access it," Diachenko said in a LinkedIn post on Monday.

The watchlist came from the Terrorist Screening Center, a multi-agency group administered by the FBI.

Also Read | Data leak? Bengaluru Covid-19 patients flooded with ads

"The TSC maintains the country's no-fly list, which is a subset of the larger watchlist. A typical record in the list contains full name, citizenship, gender, date of birth, passport number, no-fly indicator, and more," he wrote.

The cyber security researcher reported the matter to the Department of Homeland Security, which acknowledged the incident.

"The DHS did not provide any further official comment, though," he said.

The files were indexed by multiple search engines in an easily readable format. The exposed server was taken down about three weeks later, on August 9.

The list was left accessible on an Elasticsearch cluster that had no password on it.

The terrorist watchlist is made up of people who are suspected of terrorism but who have not necessarily been charged with any crime.

"If it falls in wrong hands, this list could be used to oppress, harass or persecute people mentioned on the list and their families. It could cause any number of personal and professional problems for innocent people whose names are included in the list," Diachenko said.

There have been several reports of US authorities recruiting informants in exchange for keeping their names off the no-fly list. Some past or present informants' identities could have been leaked.

The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) was set up by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2003.

The TSC maintains a watchlist of suspected terrorists. The notorious no-fly list is a subset of the TSC watchlist. The watchlist is supposed to be classified, with access only granted to "agencies and officials who are authorised to conduct terrorist screening in the course of their duties".

Prior to 2015, the watchlist was completely secret. Then the US changed its policy and began privately informing people in the US who were added to the list, but people outside the country still often can't find out whether they're on the no-fly list until they try to board a plane.

"Some members of the US Congress have proposed banning sales of firearms to people on the no-fly list," said the researcher.
Russia's single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine against Covid-19 has demonstrated 93.5 per cent efficacy in Paraguay, with data taken from the South American country's vaccination campaign, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Wednesday.

Developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, Sputnik Light had shown 79.4 per cent efficacy when it was first authorised for use in May.

The RDIF, citing data from Paraguay's health ministry collected by July 30, said the vaccine had proved highly effective among more than 320,000 people.

"The use of the single-component vaccine Sputnik Light allows the Paraguayan authorities to shorten vaccination periods for the population and speed up the formation of collective immunity," RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said in a statement.
One issued official blessings for the suicide bombers who killed scores in Afghanistans cities. Another enthusiastically deployed these bombers, as well as the gunmen who terrorised Afghan civil society in dozens of targeted assassinations.

These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging US drones. They are emerging now from obscurity after a 20-year battle, but little is known about them or how they plan to govern.

Afghanistans fate rests in their hands: the movements supreme leader, Maulawi Hibatullah Akhunzada; its political leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar; and several younger members who have led on the battlefield.

They have moved into the capital, Kabul, and are taking charge of the government and a nation of 39 million people. They have worked hard in the past few days to signal to the world that they are more worldly and tolerant than their predecessors in the 1990s, willing to work with women and urging people to get back to their jobs without fear of reprisals.

Read | UK scheme to facilitate resettlement of up to 20,00 Afghans in 'long term'

But the question remains: Have they really cast off an extremist ideology that carried them through two decades of war, or is this all a ruse designed to win global approval?

At a news conference Tuesday in Kabul, the Talibans chief spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, was in conciliatory mode. Animosities have come to an end and we would like to live peacefully, without internal or external enemies, he said. I would like to assure that after consultations that are going to be completed very soon, we will be witnessing the formation of a strong, Islamic and inclusive government.

He did not mention the assassination 11 days earlier of his predecessor, Dawa Khan Menapal, the spokesperson of the government of President Ashraf Ghani, who had delivered briefings from the same desk.

Nor did he mention Taliban fighters beating citizens at the Kabul airport or reports from provincial cities of backsliding into their old ways. In Kunduz, for example, Taliban officials, frustrated at civil servants refusal to return to work, set up checkpoints and sent fighters door to door looking for municipal workers.

There have been positive signs. A lower-ranking member of their hierarchy gave an interview to a female television journalist Tuesday, and Reporters Without Borders won a vague promise that the Taliban would respect freedom of the press.

And after moving into Kabul, the Taliban leadership did not immediately announce the formation of a new government, a sign to some observers that they remain open to some form of inclusive governance, as Mujahid said.

If the Taliban wanted a one-sided government, they would have already declared an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan yesterday in the presidential palace, Maulvi Qalamuddin, a former Taliban minister, said in an interview. They would have announced their Cabinet.

Others said it is likely to be some time before these matters are settled.

Read | Human remains found in landing gear of military flight from Kabul: US Air Force

There are people in there who think along more pragmatic lines, and some who dont, said a leading scholar of the Taliban, Antonio Giustozzi. And I think there will be a struggle. If there are incentives in the form of gestures by outside powers, he added, then I think it will be easier for the pragmatists.

Whether the Talibans actions since taking control are signs of genuine openness or a looming power struggle between moderate and hard-line factions remains to be seen. But what little is known of the biographies of these leaders yields some clues.

Akhundzada, the supreme leader and an Islamic legal scholar, has long been an enthusiastic proponent of suicide bombing. His own son trained to be a suicide bomber, with his fathers approval, and at 23 blew himself up in an attack in Helmand province. That sacrifice raised Akhundzadas profile in the movement, said Carter Malkasian, author of The American War in Afghanistan.

He believed in martyrdom and suicide bombing, Malkasian wrote.

A former judge in the Taliban regimes military court, Akhundzada later issued many of the fatwas, or religious orders, blessing suicide bombers. He is someone who is really a spiritual guide and ideologue, said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defending Democracies and senior editor of the groups Long War Journal.

He was chosen as a compromise candidate by the Talibans leadership after his predecessor, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, was killed in a US drone strike in 2016.

They needed somebody more consensual, somebody more able to keep the different factions together, Giustozzi said. He became a kind of prime minister. He is more leaning towards the pragmatic end.

Most recently, he overruled the groups political leaders and gave the go-ahead to the military wing to step up attacks on Afghan cities, Giustozzi said, in what turned out to be a winning bet.

Akhundzadas deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of a legendary mujahedeen figure and head of the Haqqani network in Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, has led much of the recent military efforts.

Read | Biden, Johnson agree to hold virtual G7 summit on Afghanistan

Haqqani, 48, widely known as Khalifa, oversees a sprawling web of fighters, religious schools and businesses with strong links to Gulf Arab countries from a base in Pakistans tribal areas. Known for its close ties to the Pakistani intelligence service, the Haqqani network became the most dogged opponent of the US presence in Afghanistan, responsible for hostage taking of Americans, complex suicide attacks and targeted assassinations.

Haqqani and his network also have some of the strongest and longest-running ties to al-Qaida. From their stronghold on the Pakistani border, they helped al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden escape from his headquarters in Tora Bora after the US invasion in 2001.

The Haqqanis sit at the nexus between the Taliban and al-Qaida; they are one of the key bridges, Joscelyn said.

Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of the Talibans founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has also gained importance for his work with the Talibans military forces, although Joscelyn said he will not challenge Haqqani for the No. 2 spot.

While his pedigree is unquestionable, he is considered less dogmatic than his famously stubborn father, and overcame a challenge from a hotheaded rival for leadership of the military wing of the Taliban movement.

Baradar, the Talibans chief political leader, cuts a less menacing figure than Haqqani and is believed to be as influential in the hierarchy as Akhundzada. One of the movements early joiners, he served as principal deputy to Omar, and fought in the same mujahedeen unit as Omar in the war against the Soviets.

Baradar led the movements military operations until his arrest by Pakistan, under US pressure, in 2010. Under his leadership the units were notable for their skillful use of guerrilla tactics against the British and the Americans. His peaceful demeanor, in the words of Malkasian, did not preclude a wholehearted endorsement of suicide bombings.

After three years in a Pakistani prison, he was released to house arrest in 2013. He was released from that in 2019, under US pressure, so he could help negotiate the peace deal concluded with the Trump administration in 2020.

In the course of the negotiations. he developed a warm relationship with the US envoy at the peace talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, according to Malkasian. On Tuesday, he entered his hometown, Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, to a triumphant welcome from its citizens.

While the Taliban leadership has unquestionably grown more sophisticated, it will take a lot more than words to convince their legion of skeptics. Joscelyn, for one, says the group remains the extremist organisation it always was.

They havent changed their ideology, and their ideology is this austere strict version of Islam that theyve had since the 1980s, he said. Women are only going to have the rights as defined under their version of Islam. They are back to square one.
US health officials may soon recommend Covid-19 booster shots for fully vaccinated Americans. A look at what we know about boosters and how they could help fight the coronavirus:

Why might we need boosters?

It's common for protection from vaccines to decrease over time. A tetanus booster, for example, is recommended every 10 years.

Researchers and health officials have been monitoring the real-world performance of the Covid-19 vaccines to see how long protection lasts among vaccinated people. The vaccines authorised in the US continue to offer very strong protection against severe disease and death.

Read | US to advise boosters to most Americans 8 months after Covid-19 vaccination

But laboratory blood tests have suggested that antibodies  one of the immune system's layers of protection  can wane over time. That doesn't mean protection disappears, but it could mean protection is not as strong or that it could take longer for the body to fight back against an infection.

The delta variant has complicated the question of when to give boosters because it is so much more contagious and much of the data gathered about vaccine performance is from before the delta variant was widely circulating. Delta is taking off at the same time that vaccine immunity might also be waning for the first people vaccinated.

Israel is offering a booster to people over 50 who were vaccinated more than five months ago. France and Germany plan to offer boosters to some people in the fall. The European Medicines Agency said it too is reviewing data to see if booster shots are needed.

When would they be given?

It depends on when you got your initial shots. One possibility is that health officials will recommend people get a booster roughly eight months after getting their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Also Read | Pfizer submits initial data for Covid vaccine booster authorisation

Officials are continuing to collect information about the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was authorized for use in the U.S. in late February, to determine when to recommend boosters.

Who gets them?

The first people vaccinated in the United States would likely be first in line for boosters too. That means health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, who were the first to be vaccinated once the shots were authorized last December.

Booster or third shot? What's the difference?

Transplant recipients and other people with weakened immune systems may not have gotten enough protection from vaccines to begin with. They can now receive a third dose at least 28 days after their second shot as part of their initial series of shots needed for them to be fully vaccinated. For those with normal immune systems, boosters are given much later after full vaccination  not to establish protection, but to rev it up again.

What questions remain?

Still unknown is whether people should get the same type of shot they got when first vaccinated. And the nation's top health advisers will be looking for evidence about the safety of boosters and how well they protect against infection and severe disease.

Global access to vaccines is also important to stem the pandemic and prevent the emergence of new variants. Booster shots could crimp already tight global vaccine supplies.

What about the unvaccinated?

Dr. Melanie Swift, who has been leading the vaccination program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says getting more shots into people who haven't yet been vaccinated at all is our best tool, not only to prevent hospitalization and mortality from the delta variant, but to stop transmission." Every infection, she says, gives the virus more chances to mutate into who knows what the next variant could be.

People who took the vaccine the first time are likely to line up and get their booster, Swift says. But it's not going to achieve our goals overall if all their unvaccinated neighbors are not vaccinated.
The Taliban on Wednesday said that the leaders of the movement would show themselves to the world, unlike during the past 20 years, when its leaders have lived largely in secret. It also asked civilians to surrender arms and its members to not celebrate as the victory belongs to Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Biden's ratings have dropped to their lowest since his presidency after the Afghanistan crisis. Stay tuned for more updates...
The Taliban, who have pledged a different sort of rule in Afghanistan from their brutal regime two decades ago, met with former president Hamid Karzai and senior official Abdullah Abdullah Wednesday as they seek to form a government.

The talks came as president Ashraf Ghani  who fled Afghanistan as the insurgents closed in on Kabul at the weekend, sealing their return to power  said from the United Arab Emirates that he supported those negotiations and was in talks to return home.

The Taliban won a lightning victory in a matter of days, taking control of the war-wracked country nearly two decades after being ousted by a US-led invasion in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The group has pledged not to seek revenge against opponents and to respect women's rights, but there are huge global concerns about their past brutal human rights record, and about tens of thousands of Afghans still trying to flee.

As the Taliban moves to put a government in place, leader Haibatullah Akhundzada has ordered the release of "political detainees", telling provincial governors to free them "without any restrictions or conditions", the group said.

Taliban negotiator Anas Haqqani met with Karzai, the first Western-backed leader of Afghanistan after the Taliban's ouster in 2001, and Abdullah, who had led the government's peace council, the SITE monitoring group said.

Read | Had I been in Kabul, another Afghan president would've been hanged in public: Ghani

Taliban leaders "have said that they pardoned all former government officials and thus there is no need for anyone to leave the country," SITE said, after the Taliban published images of Haqqani meeting Karzai in Kabul.

Ghani  who was in the United Arab Emirates, which said it was hosting him and his family "on humanitarian grounds"  said he wanted those negotiations to be a "success".

On Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declared a blanket amnesty in the movement's first press conference and said: "We will not seek revenge."

He said the new regime would be "positively different" from their 1996-2001 stint, which was infamous for deaths by stoning, girls being banned from school and women from working in contact with men.

He also said they were "committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam", without offering specifics.

But while the Taliban leadership tried to project a new image, video footage shot by Pajhwok Afghan News, a local news agency, showed protesters in the eastern city of Jalalabad who were carrying the Afghan flag fleeing with the sound of gunshots in the background.

Also Read | Who is Afghanistan's 'caretaker-VP' Amrullah Saleh?

Local media said the residents were protesting the removal of the flags in favour of those of the hardline movement.

"While I was filming, a Taliban (militant) started hitting me with a gun from behind," said Babrak Amirzada, a journalist for the agency said.

And residents in Bamiyan city reported that a statue of Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazari, killed by the group in the 1990s, had been decapitated.

Hazaras have long been persecuted for their largely Shiite faith and were massacred in the thousands during the Taliban's ruthless conquest of the country in the 1990s.

"We are not sure who has blown up the statue, but there are different groups of Taliban present here, including some... who are known for their brutality," a resident told AFP, asking not to be named.

The Taliban astonished the world in 2001 when it destroyed two monumental and ancient Buddha statues in Bamiyan, after deeming them un-Islamic.

Afghans and foreigners continued to flee the country Wednesday, with the United States and other nations stepping up evacuation airlifts from Kabul.

Desperate scenes from the airport at the start of the week have created searing images of Afghans terrified of the Taliban, and a diminished United States unable to protect them.

Some footage showed hundreds of people running alongside a US Air Force plane as it rolled down the runway, with some clinging to the side of it. One person was later found dead in the wheel well of the plane.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said while some shots had been fired, it was believed that none of them had "anything to do with hostile intent" and were instead fired by US personnel as crowd control measures.

US, Turkish and Afghan troops are in full control of both the civilian and military sides of the facility, Kirby told reporters.

Crowds built up outside embassies in Kabul on rumours that governments were offering asylum.

In a dramatic culmination to the Taliban's takeover, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the movement's co-founder and deputy leader, returned to Afghanistan from Qatar late Tuesday.

He chose to touch down in the country's second biggest city Kandahar -- the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and capital during their first time in power.

The United Nations Human Rights Council said it would hold a special session on Afghanistan next week to address the "serious human rights concerns" under the Taliban.

The European Union, the United States and 18 other countries issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying they were "deeply worried about Afghan women and girls", urging the Taliban to ensure their safety.

Demonstrations have been staged in cities around the world in support of Afghan civilians, and women and girls in particular.

US President Joe Biden's administration has so far given a non-committal response to the Taliban's pledges of tolerance, saying it is looking at actions, not promises.

Russia and China have meanwhile signalled their willingness to work with the Taliban.
US troops guarding the evacuation effort at Kabul airport fired some shots overnight as crowd-control efforts, but there were no indications of casualties or injuries, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.

Kirby told a news briefing that no shots were fired by American troops at Afghans or anybody else. Kirby said the number of US troops at Kabul's international airport reached about 4,500 on Wednesday and several hundred more were expected over the next 24 hours.

A Taliban official separately said Taliban commanders and soldiers were firing into the air on Wednesday to disperse crowds at the Kabul airport.

"We have no intention to injure anyone," the official told Reuters.

Chaos has continued outside the airport, the official said, blaming Western forces for a "chaotic evacuation plan" from Afghanistan.

Kirby said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley will brief the media on developments in Afghanistan at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).
She was worried that the situation would become worse in Afghanistan when the US announced that it will withdraw its troops from the country. But little did Hasi know that the Taliban would take over the country so soon and she would be left stranded at her sisters house in Kabul struggling to contact her husband in North Kolkata.

Hasi, born and brought up in Kabul, went there to meet her sister after five years in June and could have returned to India before the Taliban fighters took over the city. But she decided to stay by the side of her sister at the time of crisis.

The last time her husband Subrata Dutta spoke to her was on Monday through Facebook. But after exchanging a couple of messages he could not get in touch with her anymore. During that brief conversation she urged me not to worry and said that she will return to India soon, said Dutta.

But seeing the chaotic situation in Kabul, he is not sure how Hasi will return to India any time soon. Dutta first came to know Hasi about 10 years back and after being in a relationship for five years the couple got married.

Dutta said that he has gone to Afghanistan several times but has never seen the country in such a situation. Earlier she had been to Afghanistan several times. I knew the situation was worsening there. But never thought that the Taliban would take over the country in such a short time, said Dutta.

Dutta also said that he will urge the government to bring her back to India safely. I will request our government to ensure her safe return to India by any means, said Dutta.

As the chaotic situation continues in Afghanistan, Dutta, a motivational speaker by profession, is anxiously waiting more than 2000 km away from Kabul in Kolkata for his wife to return home.
The CPI(M) and CPI on Wednesday urged the Narendra Modi government to work closely with "major regional powers" to see that Afghanistan remains "peaceful and stable" while accusing it of "blindly following" the United States, resulting in "isolation in the region".

In a joint statement, both the parties said the United States has suffered a "humiliating defeat" in Afghanistan, as 20 years after the toppling of the then Taliban regime, the Taliban are back in power.

"The collapse of the Ashraf Ghani led government and the National Army shows the hollowness of the nature of the State set up by the US and its NATO allies. The Afghan policy of the Indian government had been blindly following the Americans and this had resulted in its isolation in the region and is hence left with few options," it said.

Read | Escorted by Taliban: India's midnight evacuation from Afghanistan

"India must work closely with major regional powers to see that the Afghan people are able to live in a peaceful and stable environment. The Indian government should immediately work towards the safe evacuation of all stranded Indian citizens in Afghanistan," the statement added.

Read | The Taliban are only pretending they arent barbaric

The statement reminded that the earlier Taliban government of the 1990s was marked by an "extreme fundamentalist approach, which was disastrous for women, girl children and suppressed ethnic minorities" and said, "it is imperative that the new set-up controlled by the Taliban give due regard to the rights of women and acknowledge the rights of ethnic minorities".

The international communitys concern that Afghanistan should not become a haven for terrorist groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda was collectively expressed by the United Nations Security Council in its emergency meeting on Afghanistan on August 16, it said.
The Congress on Wednesday alleged that there was total chaos and complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in the Northeast under the watch of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Senior party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala asked where is the Modi government when there are war-like hostilities between states ruled by BJP-NDA and when miscreants are attacking the convoy of Meghalaya Governor and militants firing through the streets.

Read | Shillong still tense, judicial inquiry ordered into ex-rebel's killing

"Chaos prevails and complete breakdown of law and order and Constitutional machinery in North East under the watch of PM and HM," he said on Twitter.

"Assam-Mizoram clash-police firing continues. 7 died earlier. War like hostilities between two states ruled by BJP-NDA. Miscreants attack the convoy of Meghalaya Governor. Militants were firing through streets. Home Minister of the state has resigned. China intruding into Arunachal. Where is the Modi Government," he asked.

Curfew was imposed in Shillong and mobile internet services withdrawn in at least four districts as vandalism and arson rocked the Meghalaya capital and nearby areas on Independence Day during the funeral procession of a former militant, who was killed in a recent police encounter. Earlier, in violent clashes between the Assam and Mizoram Police, several policemen were killed amid border tensions between the two states.
A Delhi court on Wednesday discharged Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a case related to death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar in 2014.

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel pronounced the order in a virtual hearing, freeing Tharoor in the case of abetment to suicide and cruelty against Pushkar who was found dead in a luxury hotel in Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.

Tharoor was represented by Senior advocate Vikas Pahwa and lawyer Gaurav Gupta.

Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava appeared for Delhi Police in the matter.

The pronouncement of the order has got deferred several times.

In its arguments, the Delhi police claimed Pushkar has undergone mental cruelty which led to her bad health. It was not an accidental death as the post mortem report suggested that the cause was poisoning which could be oral or injected.

Tharoor's counsel Pahwa contended that prosecutors were not able to establish evidence against the leader and the theory of injecting poison was in the air and could not be admissible.

He also relied upon a statement by Sunanda's son who said there was no foul play or poisoning as Tharoor can't harm even a fly.

In a statement, Tharoor said his faith in the judiciary stood vindicated with the order as charges against him were preposterous. "The fact that justice has been at last will allow us in the family to mourn Sunanda in peace," he said.
The opposition parties have slammed Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shobha Karandlaje for calling protesting farmers as brokers and middlemen.

Farmers are protesting against the three farm laws for nearly nine months at the borders of Delhi.

Karandlaje has dubbed protesters as 'brokers' and 'middlemen'.

Read more: Farmers will unitedly vote against BJP in next Uttar Pradesh polls: Akhilesh Yadav

"We can convince the genuine famers not the fake ones," she had commented.

Former minister and JD(S) leader Sa Ra Mahesh on Wednesday urged the Shobha Karandlaje to take back her statement on protesting farmers and apologise.

If the new laws on agriculture are in the interest of the farmers, it has to be communicated to the agitating farmers and they have to be convinced about them. Dubbing agitating farmers as brokers is not acceptable, he added.

Kuruburu Shantakumar, State Farmers Organisation Federation President chided Shobha Karandlaje and said that she gave the statement for cheap publicity.

"She has spoken very lightly about farmers," he mentioned.

Karnataka Sugarcane Growers Association members also staged a protest and questioned Shobha Karandlaje on her comments on agitating farmers.

Shobha Karandlaje on Tuesday had said that the government has held 11 rounds of meetings with agitating farmers and Prime Minister is trying to remove the shackles of farmers through these new sets of laws.

The central government is ready for another round of talks. But, the agitation in New Delhi is carried out by brokers, middlemen and those with vested interests who want to project the central government in a poor light, she said.

She further stated that, due to the Covid crisis, youths from urban areas are moving back to rural parts to carry out agriculture.

Commenting on the developments in Afghanistan, Shobha Karandlaje said that Afghanistan is the best example for us to see what happens if demons are protected and secured in the society.
A senior Hurriyat Conference leader was among four separatists arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police for allegedly selling MBBS seats in Pakistan medical colleges to Kashmiri students and using the money to support and fund militancy.

A police official said four people - Salvation Movement chairman Mohammad Akbar Bhat alias Zaffar Akbar Bhat, Fatima Shah, Mohammad Abdullah Shah and Sabzar Ahmad Sheikh  have been arrested by the Counter Intelligence (Kashmir), a branch of CID Department of J&K Police in a case related to selling of MBBS seats in Pakistan.

The cases had been registered in July last year after receiving information that several unscrupulous persons, including some Hurriyat leaders, were working with some educational consultancies and selling MBBS and other seats in professional courses in Pakistani colleges and universities.

Two more accused persons against whom there is ample evidence are evading arrest and both of them will be arrested soon, a statement from the CIK said.

The probe into the case suggested that the money collected from parents of aspiring or potential students was used, at least partly, to support and fund terrorism and separatism in different ways, it said.

Read | Recruitment of locals belies govt's claim of receding militancy in Jammu and Kashmir

During the CIK probe, it had surfaced that MBBS seats and other professional degree courses were preferentially given to students who were close family members or relatives of slain militants in Kashmir. There were also cases where the quota allotted to individual Hurriyat leaders were sold to anxious parents who wanted their children to pursue MBBS and other professional degrees.

The CIK statement said that more than 80 cases pertaining to the seats in academic years between 2014-18 were studied in which either the students or their parents were examined. Besides, searches of about a dozen premises in the valley had been undertaken to look for evidence of collection of money and its further usage, it said.

Analysis of digital records and paper receipts as well as records pertaining to bank transactions revealed that a sizable portion of the collected money was kept aside for personal use. Evidence also came on record to show that money had been variously put into channels that ended up in supporting programmes and projects pertaining to terrorism and separatism. For example, payment for organising stone pelting also could also be traced and brought on record, the statement said.

Examination of witnesses, corroborated by other circumstantial evidence, also indicated that many families who approached Hurriyat leaders to avail the programme of ISI that aimed at incentivising terrorism by compensating the family of slain terrorists, by way of providing free of cost MBBS and engineering seats were disappointed as monetary consideration was given precedence over the intended objective of the ISI programme, it added.

A conservative estimate indicated that the money involved could be around Rs four crore per year on the basis of the fact that each Hurriyat leader was allocated around 40 seats for the MBBS programme every year.

The investigation, as per the CIK, "has also revealed that both at the time of collecting the money from the parents as well as channelling it for use by terrorists and separatists, intermediaries were used to layer the transactions".

For example, in some cases money was received through educational consultancies to conceal the end-use, it said.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the West Bengal government on a plea to quash a notification setting up an inquiry commission headed by former top court judge, Justice Madan B Lokur, to investigate into allegations of snooping by Pegasus spyware.

A bench presided over by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, however, refused to stay for now the proceedings of the committee.

The court said that the plea, filed by Global Village Foundation Public Charitable Trust, will be heard along with other pending petitions seeking court-monitored probe into the reports on use of Israeli software Pegasus to spy on politicians, activists, court staffs, and journalists.

Also Read  No compromise with national security but authority must respond to charges of phones hacking: SC

The bench issued notice to the Mamata Banerjee government and put the matter for consideration on August 25.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, said the state government's decision to constitute such a committee was unconstitutional. He said he wanted to assist the court on the issue.

The PIL sought a direction to disband the two-member Commission of Inquiry, also comprising former acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, Justice (retired) Jyotirmay Bhattacharya.

Also Read  Pegasus probe: SC sends notice, seeks Centre's reply within 10 days

Advocate Saurabh Mishra appearing for the petitioner, asked the court to stay the proceedings of the Commission as the matter was being examined at a pan-India level.

The court, however, pointed out the panel was only taking preliminary steps and refused to stay the proceedings.

On Tuesday, the top court told the Centre that it would not like to compromise with the security of the nation but wanted the competent authority to apprise it on charges related to illegal hacking of phones.

The top court sought a response from the Centre on a batch of PILs for court-monitored independent probe into the snooping case, even though the Centre maintained it can't make public which software was used for interception of phones for security purposes.


Realising the limitation of the Pegasus campaign in rural India where snooping may not turn into a major poll issue, Congress is back to basics ahead of assembly polls in six states.

Attempting to re-orient the political discourse around 'chulha chowki, jobs and law and order (Kanoon Ka Raj), AICC on Wednesday hit out at the Modi government over the hike in prices of LPG cylinders and accused it of being insensitive.

The issue of Pegasus had rocked the Monsoon session of Parliament but many in Congress are of the view that the issue does not resonate so well in rural India as it does in Lutyens and in metros of the country, and cannot be stretched too far.

While Rahul Gandhi posted a picture of LPG cylinder with a graph of hike in its prices between January and August this year, alleging there has been "reverse development" in last seven years, the party at a press briefing in AICC not only displayed empty LPG cylinders and 'chulhas' to highlight the issue but also released a video showing women in Chandni Chowk of Delhi buying chulhas.

Read | Now, give a missed call for a new LPG connection

Addressing a joint press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, former MLA Alka Lamba, former Delhi Mahila Congress chief Amrita Dhawan and AICC Media Coordinator Radhika Khera said called the latest hike by Rs 25 in LPG cylinders as "very steep price hike"

"The prices are at Rs. 860 in the city of Delhi, touching almost a thousand in various parts of the country and the question remains that why is the government not doing anything about it? Because if you actually go by Saudi Aramco, which decides our prices, our gas cylinder should cost us only Rs 600, why are we paying Rs. 260 more? And in the last 8 or 9 months alone prices have gone up by Rs. 265, which is almost 44% higher," the Congress alleged.

They called the decision "anti-women and "anti-people". "At what stage will the government realise that during an economic crisis, when people have lost jobs, when their wages have gone down, when people are looking for employment opportunities, you cannot distort their home budgets?," they said.

All those women, who cannot afford gas cylinder are forced today and majority of the reports point in the direction, how people are forced to go back to cow dung cakes or actually using firewood," they said as the AICC released a video clip of a woman buying a chulha.

They also slammed the government on the alleged "chest thumping" on Ujjawala scheme days after the Modi government announced Ujjawala 2:0 from a rural district in poll-bound UP.

On Tuesday, the Congress had raised the issue of a hike in prices of petroleum products.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in a separate tweet hit out at the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, raising questions on the claim of the state government having given four lakh jobs to the youths and asked the government in which departments these jobs were given.

AICC communication chief Randeep Surjewala in a statement, alleged Modi government has pushed North East into chaos and break down of the Constitutional machinery.

"Uncertainty, conflict, violent clashes & unchecked lawlessness have marred a large part of Indias North East. The situation is beyond alarming. Multiple States of North East are being pushed into an unprecedented cycle of lawlessness with complete breakdown of law & order and Constitutional machinery. Shockingly and sadly, the Modi government and Home Minister Amit Shah remain oblivious to the goings on.

"This completely indifferent, criminally aloof hands-off-approach of BJP government also emanates from its illegal and often divisive usurpation of power in many North Eastern states and a blind lust to latch on to illegitimately formed governments, irrespective of consequences for the country," Surjewala said.
The Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice of India Justice N V Ramana has recommended names of eight judges, including three women, and a senior advocate for elevation to the top court.

Of the three women judges, Justice B V Nagarathna of Karnataka High Court would become the first woman Chief Justice of India in 2027, if her name is finally approved. She is the daughter of former Chief Justice of India E S Venkataramiah.

The statement giving names of the recommendation cleared by the Collegium was released hours after the CJI termed the media reports on the proposals, as "speculative, irresponsible and counterproductive" since the process was still on.

By the evening, it turned out that the Collegium has in fact approved those names in a meeting held on Tuesday.

Of all, Justice Hima Kohli, Chief Justice of Telangana High Court and Justice Bela Trivedi of the Gujarat High Court are the other two woman judges proposed by the five-judge Collegium, for elevation.

Among other recommendations are Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Kumar Oka, Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Sikkim High Court Chief Justice J K Maheshwari.

Justice C T Ravikumar, the second senior-most judge of the Kerala High Court, and Justice M M Sundaresh, the third senior-most judge of the Madras High Court, are the other judges recommended for elevation to the Supreme Court.

Former Additional Solicitor General and senior advocate P S Narsimha has also been picked up for elevation directly from the Bar.

The recommendations of the Collegium, if accepted, would take up the strength of judges in the top court to 33. One vacancy fell on Wednesday with the retirement of Justice Navin Sinha.

Notably, the recommendations from the Collegium comes days after the retirement of Justice R F Nariman, who remained adamant on the name of Justice Akil Kureshi for elevation, causing a 22-month-long impasse on the appointment of judges in the Supreme Court.

The Collegium at present comprised Justices U U Lalit, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.
With the Covid-19 spread largely under control, the Telangana health department is now cautioning the public about the danger of Dengue, Malaria etc seasonal diseases.

The state has recorded over 1,200 Dengue cases already in this season, with the vector-borne disease spreading fast in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area and a few other districts like Khammam. At the same time, Malaria cases are being reported from several districts.

Dengue, Malaria cases are rising in Telangana even as the Covid-19 cases have declined sharply. Telangana has reported 405 and 417 cases on Monday and Tuesday, when the samples tested were 84,262 and 87,230 respectively. The active cases are 6,939.

According to officials, Hyderabad has been reporting around 70-80 cases only for the past several days.

Covid-19 has come under control to a large extent and its R factor in our state is 0.7. People should not presume every fever as Covid-19 and should get themselves tested in case of symptoms like fever, said Dr Srinivasa Rao, director of public health, Telangana on Wednesday.

Rao stated that his department is implementing measures to check the growth of mosquitoes  the carriers of Dengue, Malaria etc infections, in this rainy season. The official added that the government is running diagnostic centres in 20 districts and is setting up fever clinics in major hospitals.

Meanwhile, over 1.65 crore people in Telangana have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine till Tuesday night. 42.2 lakh people have received both doses.

While the daily economic activities have resumed after the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted in mid-June, the K Chandrasekhar Rao government is yet to take a call on reopening the schools for offline classes.
The four-year-old case involving a break-in at former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaas Kodanad Estate in the picturesque Nilgiris district has come back to haunt Tamil Nadus principal Opposition AIADMK.

The new DMK governments decision to reopen the 2017 case and re-examine key accused, Sayan, reverberated in the Assembly on Wednesday with AIADMK legislators alleging political vendetta and staging a walkout after not being allowed to raise the issue in the House.

Outside the Kalaivanar Arangam, where the temporary Assembly Hall is situated, former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami alleged that the DMK was trying to frame me and a few functionaries of the AIADMK in the case. He also accused the DMK and Chief Minister M K Stalin of reopening the case out of political vendetta to settle scores with the AIADMK.

Responding to allegations levelled by members of AIADMK and alliance partners PMK and BJP, Stalin said the re-investigation is taking place with due permission from the court and there was no political angle in the new development. This is not a political vendetta. The DMK in its election manifesto promised to send real culprits behind the Kodanad break-in to jail. We will ensure that justice is served in the case. Nobody has to fear this case, Stalin told the Assembly.

Kodanad was the summer retreat of Jayalalithaa since she and her long-time aide V K Sasikala bought the sprawling bungalow in Kothagiri in the early 1990s. The former chief minister would visit the bungalow often when her party, AIADMK, was occupying the Opposition benches in the Assembly.

Quoting media reports, Palaniswami said the Nilgiris district police has once again examined Sayan, one of the prime accused, at a time the case was nearing completion.

What is the need to re-investigate Sayan? We feel the DMK government is trying to frame me and a few other AIADMK functionaries in the case. This is nothing but politics. The DMK is trying to take political mileage out of this case, Palaniswami alleged. Party coordinator O Panneerselvam said the AIADMK will boycott the assembly session on Thursday. The two leaders are expected to meet Governor Banwarilal Purohit on Thursday and discuss the issue.

Sayan and nine others are accused of breaking into the sprawling mansion owned by Jayalalithaa in 2017, months after her death, and killing a guard who was posted there. Police had then alleged that C Kanagaraj, Jayalalithaas former driver, and Sayan plotted the crime.

However, Kanagaraj, Sayans wife and their daughter died in separate road accidents, raising doubts. An independent investigation conducted by journalist Mathew Samuel alleged that Palaniswami was behind the break-in, but the former Chief Minister had steered clear of the issue, saying vested interests were trying to bring disrepute to him and Jayalalithaa.

During the press interaction on Wednesday, Palaniswami sought to know why lawyers associated with the DMK appeared on behalf of the accused in the case. DMK leaders applied for bail for the accused. Now DMK men are government lawyers and they have reopened the case. What is the connection between DMK men and the accused in the case? he asked.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed women to take up examination for the National Defence Academy (NDA) where only men can join for traning as officers in defence services, saying the bar created for female candidates was discriminatory.

The top court pulled up the Army for resisting opportunities to women, and asked it to change its attitude and not wait for judicial orders to be passed in such matters.

A bench presided over by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul rejected contention of Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, that it is a policy decision of the government.

"This is a policy decision based on gender discrimination... The Centre must take a constructive view," the bench said.

In an interim order, the top court directed that women can sit for exams for entry in NDA, slated for September 5.

However, the court said women's admissions will be subjected to its final orders.

Senior advocate Chinmoy Pradip Sharma, representing petitioner Kush Kalra, sought permission for women to appear in the examinations, scheduled on September 5.

In a fresh application, the petitioner pointed out that UPSC on June 9, 2021, had issued a notice declaring the date of examination for admission to the Army, Navy, Air Force wings of the NDA.

"It is further submitted that willing female candidates shall suffer irreparably if the said notification issued by the UPSC is not stayed as the examination is to be conducted on 05.09.2021," the application said.

The application said the examination notice is in complete violation of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19 of the Constitution. It pointed out that notice categorically states a condition for eligibility for the examination, that the candidate must be an unmarried male, which excludes eligible and willing female candidates.

The top court was hearing a plea seeking directions for necessary steps to be taken to allow eligible female candidates to appear for the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination and train at the National Defence Academy.

On March 10, a bench headed by then Chief Justice S A Bobde had issued notice to the Centre on the plea.

More to follow...
Vietnam will open its first Indian consul office in Bengaluru, Ambassador of Vietnam to India Phan Sanh Chau said on Wednesday. Industrialist N S Srinivasa Murthy has been named the honorary consul of Vietnam for Karnataka.

The consul will help improve investment ties between the two countries. Pharmaceuticals, automobile spare parts manufacturing and IT are potential sectors for collaboration, Ambassador Chau said.

As part of his visit, Chau met Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani took part in the 76th National Day reception of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the city.
Political circles in Goa were caught in a tizzy, amid rumours of yet another Congress MLA, this time a former Chief Minister, joining the BJP ranks on Wednesday.

Former Chief Minister Ravi Naik, who has in recent times been slamming the state Congress leadership and whose two sons joined the BJP last year, has however scoffed at the rumours, even as state Bharatiya Janata Party president Sadanand Shet Tanavade also dismissed the reports as an instance of "100 per cent falsehood".

"There are four former CMs. There's Rane, Luizoinho Faleiro, DIgambar and Ravi. These are the four ex CMs. Please confirm before writing, don't write half baked stuff... I have no idea about this. The reputation of journalism is being slandered, because of such news reports," Naik told reporters. Naik and the three other former Chief Ministers are a part of a five-member Congress legislative party.

Naik, whose sons Ravi and Ritesh joined the BJP last year, also said that if he does plan to leave the party, he would announce it beforehand. State BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade also dismissed the reports of a former Congress CM joining his party.

"I don't know why these kinds of rumours are spread. There is no truth to this. I am the state president. If someone needs to be taken into the party, the discussion should have happened with me. I know nothing about this issue. It is meaningless. Someone may have started this rumour. There is no truth to this. It is a 100 per cent falsehood," Tanavade insisted.

The Congress party in Goa has been at the receiving end of a series of betrayals by its MLAs over the last few years. 13 Congress MLAs have quit the party after being elected on a Congress ticket in 2017 state assembly polls.

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane was the first to quit the Congress soon after the Manohar Parrikar-led government was sworn in, followed by the party's MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte. All three resigned from the party and were re-elected as BJP MLAs.

In 2019, the party faced yet another exodus, with 10 MLAs, including then Opposition leader Chandrakant Kavlekar split the party's 15 member legislative unit before merging it into the BJP.
In nearly nine months since the Gujarat government implemented the Gujarat Land Grabbing (prohibition) Act 2020, the police have filed a record 345 FIRs against 1,178 persons under the stringent law.

The government said that it received 6,884 complaints related to land grabbing incidents, out of which 4,489 cases were investigated in which over 76.80 lakh square metres of land worth Rs 730 crore was found to be grabbed.

State revenue minister Kaushik Patel in a statement said that in 190 cases chargesheets have been filed before the concerned courts. He said the purpose of enactment of the new law is "eradicate the land grabbing elements of the poor middle class and small marginal farmers of the state." He said that over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in the value of property and because of that "organized land mafias are resorting to violence, intimidation, fraud or betrayal to grab the valuable lands."

The Gujarat government brought the stringent anti land-grabbing law in December 2020 with provisions of 10 years of imprisonment, which can be extended up to 14 years. The provisions under this law are said to be the harshest in the country.

Under the law, violators will attract a penalty equivalent to 'jantri' or government rate of the land in question. Initially, the complaints are examined by a seven-member committee headed by the district collectors. After primary investigation, the committee decides whether a case is genuine or false. The committee hands over the genuine cases to concerned police for filing FIRs. The law also has provisions for special courts to be constituted in each district and resolve such cases in six months.

While bringing the new law, the Vijay Rupani-led government did away with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was set up during the time of former chief minister, and now prime minister Narendra Modi, to look into such cases. The new law has been challenged in the high court which has admitted the petition. The petitioners have contended that they have been booked for a land transaction that actually took place nearly 50 years ago.

They have argued that many of the provisions under the act such as amalgamation of civil and criminal law, setting up of special court and appointment of judges by state government, booking suspects in the cases even when the law was non-existent are "unconstitutional" and should be quashed.
While a lot about the Milky way galaxy remains unknown to us, recently astronomers have been able to discover a break in one of its arms.

Astronomers have found a contingent of young stars and star-forming gas clouds sticking out of the Sagittarius Arm of the galaxy, according to a new study published in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal.

The authors of the study used NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope before its retirement in January 2020 to study the nearby portion of the Sagittarius Arm. In their observation, they found some newborn stars nestled in the gas and dust clouds (called nebulae).

The structure discovered in the Milky Way galaxy is stretching over some 3,000 light-years and looks like it is protruding out of the Sagittarius Arm of the galaxy.

Read | Musk says first orbital stack of Starship should be ready for flight in few weeks

It is the first such discovery in the milky way galaxy that is seen to have a dramatically different orientation from the other arms.

A key property of spiral arms is how tightly they wind around a galaxy, Michael Kuhn, an astrophysicist at Caltech and lead author of the new paper, told NASA.

The circle in the middle has a pitch angle of zero degrees. Gradually as the spiral becomes more open and bigger, the pitch angle of the arms also increases.

Most models of the Milky Way suggest that the Sagittarius Arm forms a spiral that has a pitch angle of about 12 degrees, but the structure we examined really stands out at an angle of nearly 60 degrees, he added.

Previously, similar structures called spurs or feathers were found in the arms of other spiral galaxies. This made the scientists wonder for decades if our galaxys spiral arms are dotted with these arms or relatively smooth.

The data from this study could reveal that the Sagittarius Arm of our galaxy is made up of new stars which are moving in the same direction and at the same velocity.

Distances are among the most difficult things to measure in astronomy. It is only the recent, direct distance measurements from Gaia that make the geometry of this new structure so apparent, co-author Alberto Krone-Martins, an astrophysicist and lecturer in informatics at the University of California, Irvine and a member of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC), told NASA.
Prevalence of B.1.617.2 variant of Covid-19, widely known as Delta variant, was not different between the vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in Chennai, a study conducted by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has concluded.

The study, approved by the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai of the ICMR, was conducted among both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals who visited triaging centres of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) between May 3 and 7, when the second wave of Covid-19 was vociferous in the city and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu.

The study findings indicate that the prevalence of B.1.617.2 was not different between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. Delta variant was the dominant circulating strain and one of the primary drivers for the second wave of SARS-CoV-2 in India, the study said.

The study concluded that B.1.617.2 has the potential to infect both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. However, it said, the progression of illness seems to be prevented by vaccination.

Therefore, non-pharmaceutical interventions must continue to slow down the transmission. Additionally, the pace and scale of vaccination have to be increased to mitigate the further waves of the pandemic, the study added.

The study chose three triaging centres in the north, central, and southern parts of the city and enrolled consenting Covid-19 positive individuals visiting these centres who had taken at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine a fortnight before confirmation of the diagnosis.

The institute also recruited unvaccinated Covid-19 positive individuals for the study and collected demographic details, clinical history, comorbidities, previous Covid-19 history and the date of vaccination.

Nasal and oropharyngeal (N/OP) swabs and blood samples were collected from the study participants. We tested the N/OP swab samples for the detection of E and RdRP gene using Real-time RT-PCR and only those with Ct<30 were included for the preparation of RNA libraries Illumina Covidseq protocol (Illumina Inc, USA), the study said.

The participants were followed up telephonically after four weeks to collect information about their symptoms, hospitalisation and treatment details, and clinical outcome.

Patients with SpO2 < 94%, dyspnoea and requiring supplemental oxygen during hospitalization were considered as having moderate/severe illness and remaining as mild illness. Categorical variables were expressed as proportions and continuous variables as the median and interquartile range (IQR), the study said.

Of the 3,790 Covid-19 cases who visited the triage centres between May 3 and May 7, 2021, 373 reported receiving at least one dose of vaccine 14 days before their Covid-19 diagnosis and the remaining 3,417 were unvaccinated. The study enrolled 354 (94.9%) of the 373 vaccinated and 185 (5.4%) of the 3,417 unvaccinated individuals.

Studies have documented reduction in neutralization titres among Covishield and Covaxin recipients after infection with delta variant. This might be the reason for the breakthrough infections observed in fully vaccinated individuals. However, the proportion of patients progressing to severe illness and mortality was lower in the vaccinated group, the study said.
A large hospital-based study in India has found that a single dose of Covishield barely offers any protection from Covid-19 symptoms or severe disease, though experts are still not fully convinced with such a conclusion.

Doctors at Delhis Gangaram Hospital used the hospital employees Covid-19 vaccination data to show a single dose of Covishield offers no protection against symptomatic outcome or any outcome of interest, but there is significant protection with both doses and previous infection.

This, the doctors say, could be due to emergence of the Delta variant, which is now the predominant strain not only in India but also in several other countries.

With the emergence of the Delta variant, previous studies showing 50-70 per cent protection with a single dose of Covid vaccine needs to be revisited. Vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant, Ruma Satwik, lead investigator of the study told DH.

Read | DCGI gives nod to study on mixing Covaxin and Covishield

She said because of the Delta variant, new UK data in June 2021 showed a single dose had offered only 30 per cent protection as against 60 per cent seen last year. Similarly, the Public Health Scotland data shows only 18 per cent protection with a single dose beyond 28 days.

The result from the Gangaram study is in contrast to previous research showing a modestly reduced but significant protection offered by a single dose as seen in the studies from Christian Medical College, Vellore (50%) and Public Health England (33%).

Eminent virologist and CMC professor Gagandeep Kang observed that one of the drawbacks of the new study was its small sample size of 623 people getting a single dose who were compared with 2,716 persons receiving both the shots. This increases the uncertainty factor (known as confidence interval) in the study result, making them unreliable.

Read | Delta variant not different between vaccinated and unvaccinated: Study

Satwik admitted having such a flaw in the study, but argued that data collection and statistical analysis were robust in her research, which was carried out with three other doctors from the same hospital. Moreover, the world is now divided into post Delta and before Delta periods, she said.

The findings come at a time when India is close to vaccinating half of its target population of 94.47 crore individuals with a single dose of a Covid vaccine, the lions share of which are Covishield.

The Centres plan is to inoculate as many people with a single dose hoping that such a strategy would offer at least some protection in case of a third wave.

"But the policy has to evolve for which more data is needed, Satwik added.
As terrible as many things in the world are, climate is unique in posing an existential threat to civilization. And its horrifying that so many political figures are dead set against any serious action to address that threat.

Despite that, theres still a chance that well do enough to avoid catastrophe  not because weve grown wiser but because weve been lucky. We used to believe that achieving big reductions in greenhouse gas emissions would be difficult and expensive, although not nearly as costly as anti-environmentalists claimed. Over the past dozen years or so, however, weve experienced a technological miracle. As nicely documented in an article by Max Roser, the costs of solar and wind power, once dismissed as foolish hippie fantasies, have plunged to the point that quite modest incentives could lead to a rapid reduction in use of fossil fuels.

But was it really luck? Did this miracle  actually two miracles, since generating electricity from the sun and from the wind involve completely different technologies  just happen to arrive in our moment of need? Or was it a consequence of good policy decisions?

The answer is that theres a pretty good case that policy  the Obama administrations investments in green energy and European subsidies, especially for offshore wind  played a central role.

Read | How the UN tracks and verifies temperature records

Whats the justification for that conclusion? Start with the fact that neither wind nor solar power was a fundamentally new technology. Windmills have been in widespread use at least since the 11th century. Photovoltaic solar power was developed in the 1950s. And as far as I can tell, there havent been any major scientific breakthroughs behind the recent dramatic decline in both technologies costs.

What were looking at, instead, appears to be a situation in which growing use of renewable energy is itself driving cost reductions. For solar and wind, weve seen a series of incremental improvements as energy companies gain experience, big reductions in the price of components as things like turbine blades go into mass production and so on. Renewables, as Roser points out, appear to be subject to learning curves, in which costs fall with cumulative production.

And heres the thing: When an industry has a steep learning curve, government support can have huge positive effects. Subsidize such an industry for a few years, and its costs will fall with experience, and eventually it will reach a tipping point where its growth becomes self-sustaining and the subsidies are no longer needed.

Thats arguably what has happened or is on the verge of happening, for renewable energy.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009  the Obama stimulus  was mainly intended to address the collapse in demand that followed the 2008 financial crisis. It helped a lot but got a bad reputation all the same because it was underpowered and hence failed to produce rapid recovery. (And no, thats not hindsight. I was screaming about it at the time.) But it also included significant funding for green energy: tax breaks, subsidies, government loans and loan guarantees.

Some of the projects the government backed went bad, and Republicans made political hay over the losses. But venture capitalists expect some of the businesses they back to fail; if that never happens, they arent taking enough risks. Similarly, a government program aimed at advancing technology is bound to end up with some lemons; if it doesnt, its not extending the frontier.

And in retrospect, it looks as if those Obama initiatives really did extend the frontier, pushing solar energy in particular from a high-cost technology with limited adoption to the point that its often cheaper than traditional energy sources.

Obamas policies also helped wind, but there I suspect that a lot of the credit goes to European governments, which heavily subsidized offshore wind projects early in the last decade.

In short, theres a really good case to be made that government support for renewable energy created a cost miracle that might not have happened otherwise  and this cost miracle may be the key to saving us from utter climate catastrophe.
Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the Centre had taken up a digital village programme.

Under the programme, a village in each district would be provided with better internet connectivity so that people can access various services from home.

Accordingly, 5,000 villages will be provided with internet facilities.

Speaking to mediapersons after janashirvada yatra in Mangaluru, he said digital village is a pilot project of the country under the BharatNet programme. BharatNet programme was launched prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, there is a need to implement it effectively by reaching out to the villages.

The demand for internet has increased drastically after the Covid-19 pandemic. The government is strengthening infrastructure that helps people to work in interior areas, he said.

There is a need to develop digital technology in the villages. I have already asked my ministry to study internet communication. There should be progress in communication. Becoming leaders of the world in technology is the mission of PM Narendra Modi. The digital village project has already commenced, he said.

There were some specific issues, including internet connectivity in Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Shivamogga and other parts of Karnataka. I have asked people on the job to identify these issues and address them, he said.

Diversifying tech projects

The minister felt the need for diversifying technology projects outside Bengaluru. There are plans to set up IT Park on PPP mode. Efforts are being made to upgrade communication and connectivity. IT companies will start investing in villages as well.

There are efforts to have more centres of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIEIT). A national mission on artificial intelligence, quantum computing, block chain, and other emerging technologies will be launched shortly.

My ministry aims at generating employment. I completed my engineering at Manipal. I have a close relation with Mangaluru and Manpal. I will extend all support for empowering youth , skill development and IT development in the region, he said.

BJP state president and DK MP has sought an IT Park to Mangaluru. I will extend all the required support increase IT business in the region, he added.

Earlier during the Janashirvada yatra programme, the union minister said India is rising in the world. Several vested interests in the world do not want India to rise. In the post covid era, we have to work with trust, he said.

He called upon the participants to inform people on the accelerated development works in the country in the last seven years.
The centenary celebrations of Kodagu District Cooperative Central (DCC) Bank will be held in Madikeri at 10 am on August 20.

Bank president Kodandera P Ganapathy said that Cooperation Minister S T Somashekar will lay the foundation stone for the proposed centenary building, which will be built at a cost of Rs 7 crore.

Minister for Social Welfare Kota Srinivas Poojary will take part in the programme. MLA M P Appachu Ranjan will inaugurate the stage programme. MP Pratap Simha will release a souvenir 'Sahakara Siri' on the occasion, he added.

MLA K G Bopaiah will flag off a mobile banking vehicle, said the president.

The centenary programme will be organised while adhering to Covid-19 guidelines. All the participants will be given masks and their body temperature will be tested at the entrance. Sanitisers have been arranged in the hall.

The DCC Bank president said that the bank has 21 branches with nine ATMs. Rupay Kisan credit cards have been issued to 39,846 farmers through the bank.

At present, there are 73 Vyavasaya Seva Sahakara Sangha, 79 Sahakara Davasa Bhandara, 12 Sahakara Mahila Samaja, 3 PLD Banks, 3 LAMP societies, 11 Marata Sahakara Sangha, 4 Town Cooperative Banks, eight Employees Cooperative Societies, four milk producers cooperative society and 91 other cooperative banks are the members of the DCC bank, he added.
The state government on Wednesday appointed Additional DGP (CID) Umesh Kumar as the nodal officer to coordinate with the Centre to bring back Kannadigas stranded in Afghanistan.

Kumar will coordinate with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to have Karnataka residents repatriated.

A control room has been established and the government has asked citizens to provide information by calling 080-22094498, 080-22942628 and 9480800187. Citizens can send an email to afghan_kar@ksp.gov.in

The information should contain the name, contact number and address of the informant along with how he or she is related to the persons stranded in Afghanistan. The government also wants the name of persons staying in Afghanistan, their present location, occupation or purpose of visit, passport details, date of arrival in Afghanistan and so on.

Read | India should have publicly engaged with Taliban earlier: Natwar Singh

Meanwhile, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said the state government would talk to the Centre on extending the visa of Afghans, especially students, currently residing in Karnataka.

There are 339 Afghans in Karnataka, according to my information. Of them, 197 are students. They are requesting us...they are helpless with their visa period expiring soon. Theres no reason for students to feel afraid, Jnanendra told reporters. The Bommai administration is with them from humanity's point-of-view. Visa renewal comes under the Centres jurisdiction. Certainly, our government will talk to the Centre and try to give them all sorts of protection, he added.

Jnanendra was speaking at the sidelines of a police event. He said he will not tolerate police personnel colluding with criminals. Only a handful of people do that, which makes citizens view with suspicion even the honest officers, he said. We will not tolerate, even for a second, police officers who join hands with rowdies and criminals. We will get their reports and show them their place.

Jnanendra also said the government was looking into some technical issues that came in the way of fully implementing the recommendations of the Auradkar committee. The committee has recommended hikes in wages and allowances for police personnel.
A Carn Wheelers' cyclist recently cycled the length of Ireland to raise fund for the Royal Jubilee Maternity and Royal Victoria hospitals in Belfast.

John Scullion set off on Friday from Mizen Head, on the tip of West Cork, to begin his cycle with the support of fellow club members Gerry Kelly and Rory OConnor.



John, Rory and Gerry start their epic cycle from Mizen Head.

John took on the challenge to raise funds for the Royal Victoria Hospital Ward 5C cardiac ward and the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital.

His family were indebted to the staff from both hospitals after the care provided for his wife Michelle during her lengthy stay before safely delivering their baby Odhran.

Michelle has a genetic heart condition, Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HOCM). While this didnt cause any issues with the three previous pregnancies, the fourth time round was very different.

In October 2019, while 26 weeks pregnant, consultants decided it was no longer safe for Michelle to continue her pregnancy at home and so began a three month hospital stay.

At this time with three babies at home, Aoife (5), Orlaith (3) and Michael (2), this was an extremely difficult time.

The staff supported Michelle both physically and mentally throughout those difficult three months and provided exceptional care which made a very difficult time much more bearable.

John and his family were indebted for the support they received and as a thank you he set out to raise money to help with much needed resources for both wards.



John with his wife Michelle and family after the cycle.

From Friday to Sunday John cycled a total of 415.3 miles over three days, a fantastic achievement and they rolled into Malin Head on Sunday afternoon. An excellent achievement by John, Gerry and Rory.

All donations for this worthy charity are still welcome - CLICK HERE...
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Abhishek Bachchan starts shooting for Tamil film Oththa Seruppu Size 7's remake in Chennai, film to be helmed by original's actor-director R Parthiban

Abhishek Bachchan has been on a roll. The actor has been shooting back-to-back films even during the pandemic and has a few in his kitty as well. Now, Abhishek has acquired the rights of the Tamil film Oththa Seruppu Size 7. And he has also started shooting the film in Chennai.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Abhishek Bachchan (@bachchan)

According to a report in Midday, the film Oththa Seruppu Size 7's remake would be directed by R Parthiban who had helmed and acted in the original. A source said, The project is Abhisheks baby. From flying down to Chennai to initiate talks, to setting up the production infrastructure, he has been thoroughly involved. Parthiban, who is helming the remake, will retain the gritty flavour of the original, but will tweak it to appeal to the pan-India audience. The source also added, Abhishek is sporting a distinct look. Cell phones arent allowed on the set as they want to keep details of the project under wraps.

The details about the film have been kept under wraps. But, there has still been no official word about the same. Well, we are eagerly waiting for the confirmation of the makers.
Kareena opens up about Jeh and Taimurs bond; reveals how the latter introduces his baby brother to friends

Back in 2016, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan welcomed their first child, a beautiful baby boy, into the world. They named him Taimur Ali Khan and soon he became one of the most popular and adored star kids of Tinsel Town. Well, this year the royal couple of Bollywood were blessed with another son, a younger brother for Taimur. Fans eagerly waited for a glimpse of their son Jeh, but the couple decided to keep him away from public glare. Much to our delight, on Mothers Day this year Bebo shared an adorable picture of her two sons, which made us all go aww.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@kareenakapoorkhan)

In a recent interview with NDTV, Kareena opened up about the bond that Jeh and Taimur share. She was quoted saying, He is overwhelmed and thrilled. We were worried at first that if he would be slightly jealous or that slightly feeling of, like there is someone new in the house but you know, Taimur is so wonderful that he is actually protective about him now. When one or two of his friends come over now, he is like, 'Have you seen my brother? Have you seen him, have you said hello to him?' This is the way he asks his friends. How cute is that! She added that Taimur is protective and has got that older brother vibe.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@kareenakapoorkhan)

Bebo also talked about her and Saifs decision to not share pictures of Jeh on social media. She explained that there was a lot of media frenzy when Taimur was born and this time they needed a breather. Kareena added, At the end of the day, they are kids, they need to have their space, they need to have their time. And I don't want anybody to be so interested in them. They should be allowed their space to grow, not this constant pressure of being in the limelight. And that's why we have taken this decision for Jeh.

Currently the happy family is in Maldives, where they rang in Saifs 51st birthday together.
Kareena reveals Jeh is a part of Laal Singh Chaddha; lauds Aamir Khan for looking after her during shoot

In August last year, Bollywoods OG diva Kareena Kapoor Khan revealed that she and her actor husband Saif Ali Khan were expecting their second child after Taimur. A few months later, the beauty returned to the sets of Aamir Khans Laal Singh Chaddha to resume work post the coronavirus lockdown. It wasnt an easy time for the actress, given the situation, but her co-star made sure that the shoot went down comfortably for everyone.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@kareenakapoorkhan)

In a recent chat with NDTV, Kareena lauded Aamir for being of great help to her. She was quoted saying, 100 percent credit goes to Aamir Khan for being absolutely wonderful and taking security measures, not knowing what Covid is and to have an artist who is five months pregnant. She further stated, I give him all the credit for looking after me and having faith in our entire crew. We used to continuously test them.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kareena Kapoor Khan (@kareenakapoorkhan)

Kareena also shared that she was constantly in touch with her gynecologist, who told her that if she is getting eight hours of sleep in the day she can work late in the night. He also asked her to keep washing her hands, wear a mask and keep faith. Kareena followed all the guidelines and it turned out to be a wonderful shoot. Bebo joked, So, my son is practically in Laal Singh Chaddha. He is in the romantic song with Aamir and me.

Bebo used to travel from Saifs hometown Pataudi, where she was staying with him and Taimur, to Delhi everyday for shoot. It took her around an hour and a half by road each day. Clearly a lot of hard work went into the film and we cant wait to see how fruitful it turned out when Laal Singh Chaddha arrives in theatres.
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By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN

Associated Press

NEW YORK  Notices taped to the windows and front door of the Stop Inn, a diner in Queens, made it clear the eatery would comply with the city's new edict against the coronavirus: All patrons dining indoors at restaurants, browsing works of art at museums or sweating it out at gyms must prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

The signs at the Stop Inn went up Monday evening, said a server, to give customers due notice that on Tuesday it would begin complying with the city's latest effort to curtail the spread of the virus, particularly the troublesome and more contagious delta variant that has fueled a surge in infections and hospitalizations across the country.





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NuScale Power

NuScale Power has signed a memorandum of understanding with Xcel Energy, a leading energy utility provider, to explore the feasibility of Xcel Energy serving as a plant operator at NuScale Plants. NuScale is a leader in developing advanced small modular reactors that are considered the next generation of carbon-free nuclear plants. NuScale is seeking an experienced nuclear plant operator to provide potential customers with the operational support needed to generate carbon-free energy using advanced reactor technology. Under the MOU, the two parties will examine the potential for Xcel Energy to become NuScale's preferred partner to provide a suite of operational power plant services to NuScale customers based on Xcel Energy's nuclear operational management systems. The MOU does not include a formal operating agreement, but it creates a framework for negotiating definitive agreements for Xcel Energy and NuScale to work together. NuScale is headquartered in Portland, and has offices in Corvallis, Oregon; Rockville, Maryland; Charlotte, North Carolina; Richland, Washington; and London. Xcel Energy is headquartered in Minneapolis.




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NEW YORK (AP)  Walmart raised its sales outlook for the year as Americans returned to shopping for back-to-school clothes and travel goods during the second quarter.

Still, concerns are mounting over how shoppers will behave in the months ahead as the delta variant of COVID-19 surges across the U.S. and mask mandates are reinstated. On top of that, higher prices on everything from food to automobiles are making shoppers more conscious about spending. And temporary government stimulus and other benefits, which helped prop up overall spending, are dissipating.





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SEATTLE  The land beneath the Residence Inn by Marriott, at 800 Fairview Ave. N. has sold for $80 million, according to King County records. The seller was Qwest, which had been ground leasing the property since 1988 (then as Pacific Northwest Bell). The hotel itself was developed in 1990.

The buyer was Apple Nine Seattle Fee Owner LLC, associated with Apple Hospitality of Virginia. That REIT had acquired the hotel building in 2006 for about $44.5 million.





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KENT  A warehouse at 24602 Pacific Hwy. S. has sold for nearly $7.6 million, according to King County records. The seller was CGA II LLC, which acquired the property in 2018 for $6.4 million.

The buyer was CREF3 Pacific Highway Owner LLC, which is associated with Fortress, the large global investment firm.





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ADA [ndash] Services for Joyce Evelyn Summers, 82, of Ada are 10 a.m. Friday at the Criswell Funeral Home Chapel, Rev. Harold Holt will officiate. Burial will follow at Rosedale Cemetery. The family will receive relatives and friends Thursday, from 5-7 p.m., at Criswell Funeral Home. Mrs. Su
Louth County Council has granted planning permission for the construction of a 78 unit independent living facility for the elderly on the Castle Road Dundalk.

The development, which is in the name of Independent Trustee Company, will demolish the existing Value Centre cash and carry and warehouse to build the new 78 unit facility.

According to the planning application, the facility will be a managed independent living residential development for the elderly.

The facility itself will be partly six storeys high and partly three storeys high, with 78 residential units.

30 of these units will be 1-bed, 24 will be 1.5-bed and 24 will be 2-bed.

The application says that there will be private open spaces available, like terraces and balconies for residents.

Other facilities, like a community room, a visitor meeting room, reception and other operational rooms are detailed.

There will be a total of 45 car parking spaces available, as well as 26 cycle parking spaces.

CEO of Alone, Sean Moynihan, says that facilities like this are needed to fill a middle ground in Ireland.

In all the housing challenges that the country is facing, what we miss is the housing needs of older people, said Mr Moynihan.

You either age at home, or you go to a nursing home [in Ireland].

According to Mr Moynihan, developments like this add an extra option for the elderly, for those who might not be able to live at home any longer, but who dont want to enter into a nursing home.

An awful lot of older people have housing issues, maybe the house they bought is no longer suitable, said Mr Moynihan.

There may be healthcare issues, frailty issues, other issues, risk issues We need to have housing choices.

According to Mr Moynihan, constructing managed independent living facilities will help future proof housing for older people, due to Irelands ageing population and the fact older people are living longer.

Those houses for older people will be available for the next generation of older people, so theres a lot of future-proofing.

Independent Trustee Company said that the property is currently owned in trust in their name due to it being held in a pension scheme.

Independent Trustee Company is a pension trustee company, which was first established in 1994.

The company is based in Harmony Court in Dublin city, and currently employs over 60 staff.
Wu Huan speaks during an interview in a safe house in the Ukraine on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Wu claims that she was held for eight days at a Chinese-run black site in Dubai along with at least two Uyghurs, in what may be the first evidence that China is operating a secret detention facility beyond its borders. She was on the run from the threat of being sent back to her home country because of her support of her fiance, Wang Jingyu, a perceived Chinese dissident.
Claremont, NH (03743)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 57F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.
All it takes is one breath of rural county fair, that intoxicating fragrance of horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, intermingled with all manner of deep-fried foods, and topped with a whiff of warm spun sugar, and nostalgia sets in.

What I wouldnt give to turn back the clock  for a few hours at least  and walk onto the Roosevelt County fairgrounds from my childhood.

My first stop would be on the shady bleachers on the south side of the old grassy paddock where a generation of 4-H and FFA kids showed their livestock for visiting judges.

Id stick around long enough to see the pet show when Salty Cox was on hand to dispense corny jokes and blue ribbons to all-comers. Even a few grown-ups competed back in those days, including our mom, who (encouraged by Cox) mischievously entered our dad one year.

Next on the list: a cheeseburger at the American Legion booth, cooked by a sweating Legionnaire on a mammoth grill and neatly wrapped in tissue paper by those Legion Auxiliary ladies like Ida Mae Zimmerman and Floy Wilbanks.

Their old wooden building that sat smack dab in the center of the fairgrounds was worth at least two stops, the second for a heaping snow-cone or a cloud of freshly made pink cotton candy, magically spun in a cavernous metal bin.

Pony rides held an inexplicable attraction for me  inexplicable because we lived on a ranch and owned horses. I cant justify why I insisted on cueing up to ride tethered ponies in a circle, but it drew me like a magnet.

After my turn on a pony, Id follow the sounds of music to find the Old Fiddlers Contest.

It would be worth pushing into those standing-room-only crowds to have one more chance to hear Dink Essary, Alva Jay Parker, and Howell Merrick playing Turkey in the Straw, The Tennessee Waltz, and the heart-racing Orange Blossom Special.

Another requirement of that nostalgic visit would be a spin through the Merchants Building to round up a supply of imprinted goodies from our local businesses -- yardsticks, rain gauges, and fly swatters - on a mission fueled by a small brown paper sack of peanuts fresh out of a roaster.

Along the way would be winding forays through every barn and building, searching for familiar faces, and playing an I Spy game of spotting the names of friends and neighbors scrawled on entry cards.

With luck, there would be a chance encounter with Billy Smith, Roosevelt Countys extension agent for 20 years, or Sheryl Borden, who was the extension home economist back then, or maybe Storm Gerhart, superintendent of the livestock shows.

Finally, to close out the evening, a ride on the most beautiful horse on the carousel, before lining up for a turn on the Ferris wheel.

For a kid whose idea of a skyscraper was the two-story Citizens Bank of Clovis building, which had opened in 1967, a Ferris wheel was the equivalent of a moon shot.

There was something quite magical about stepping into that swinging seat for a nighttime journey into the sky.

Soaring high enough to see all of Portales, dipping into the lights and noise and crowd of the midway, and then rising back to the stars, again and again and again, while tucked in the safety of my moms or dads arm  what better way to end a day at the fair.

Heres to new memories to tuck in between the old ones.

And maybe a side of kettle corn.

Betty Williamson believes county fairs are one of humanitys best things. Reach her at:

[email protected]
A Ballinhassig man is supporting the Cork team ahead of this weekends All-Ireland Hurling Final with his impressive display of lights.

Justin Nagles installation of lights cheering on the team, particularly local players Darragh OSullivan, Patrick Collins and Ger Collins, ahead of their clash with Limerick on Sunday has been getting a lot of attention this week.

The display of pixel lights allows Mr Nagle to program and fully control the individual LEDs which he has synced to the theme tune of The Sunday Game.

Speaking to Neil Prendeville on RedFM, he said that the idea to install the display which he usually puts up at Christmas time came about after the company his wife works for was challenged by Cork Chamber of Commerce to paint the town red.

Mr Nagle said that the display has been gaining a lot of attraction in the area and that the whole road is covered in red and white flags.

Those visiting can also tune into four songs that play out with the light display through an FM broadcaster which Mr Nagle said is accessible by tuning into 88FM from the car.

The songs chosen include the theme tune of The Sunday Game which the lights are synced to, the Frank and Walters After All, The Boys of Fairhill and Come On Ye Rebels.

The display runs from 8pm to midnight each night and Mr Nagles House can be found about three kilometres along the road to Kinsale from the Halfway Roundabout near the Rising Sun pub.
I CAN still remember the first time I went to Vesnova Childrens Institution. I was struck by the bleakness of the exterior, physically at the end of a road which was like a message to the children; youve reached the end of the road/end of life. The only way out would be a coffin or an adult institution.

That was only the beginning. Inside, my nostrils were assaulted with the smell of human decay, waste, and death. In locked units, children were in straitjackets, tied to radiators. The lice-infected children were suffering from malnutrition and there was an all-pervasive smell and presence of death.

After the initial shock, we got to work and over three decades we have created a place that restores dignity, and basic human rights.

However, over time, we started to question our work in the institutions/orphanages, and we began to ask ourselves if what we were doing was best serving the children, by propping up those places  were we becoming part of the system of segregating babies, children, young adults from their families and communities?

Sasha Levkin as a young boy.

We had to face the reality that we needed to rethink our approach and we knew it was not going to be a quick fix. We had a huge turning point when we began to research the area of global institutionalisation, and we then revolutionised our work and completely changed our direction.

It is not that long ago that Ireland committed to shutting down the many institutions throughout the country, that had incarcerated many young women and their children, and people with an intellectual or physical disability. Over time, attitudes changed, and thankfully the need for those institutions is now redundant in Ireland.

Adi Roche of Chernobyl Children International. Picture: Brian McEvoy

The needs of the children have always directed the areas of our work in Chernobyl Children International. Many years ago, a young boy came to me and asked me to help him leave the institution in which he was trapped due to his physical disability.

He wanted to live a free and independent life, but he was left to languish in an institution for the rest of his life.

This heart-breaking plea drove me to battle the bureaucracy for two decades and to fight for the right to live in freedom for the many children and teenagers like this young boy, who are trapped in institutions with no hope.

We believe it is a basic human right to have a place to call home. To ensure that children are no longer dehumanised and languishing in bleak, custodial state orphanages and institution-based care, we have developed programmes that advocate for the rights of children.

Our latest breakthrough in helping individuals break free from incarceration and segregation from their communities is the opening of a new 18-apartment Independent Living Home in the town of Chausey, in eastern Belarus.

The objective of this pioneering initiative is to show that with education, training, and support, people with disabilities can live a completely independent life and can become active members of society.

This ground-breaking Independent Living Home is the very first of its kind in Belarus and the development of this project was funded by Irish donations.

Adi Roche and Sasha Galdayev and Sasha Levkin

Our long-term ambition is for this model to be rolled out across Belarus and bring an end to enforced incarceration and institutionalisation of orphans and abandoned children who have grown up to be young men and women with ambitions and dreams.

The young boy who came to me all those years ago, Sasha Levkin, is now one of the first residents to move into this new Independent Living Home.

It is a dream come true for Sasha, and it is the beginning of his new life. He now has his own home and is free and has the right to live how he chooses.

The opening of the independent living complex at Chausey was made possible by the people of Ireland and is an enormous breakthrough that has come about after years of painstaking negotiations and the establishment of training programmes to prepare young men and women for the transition from institutional life to fully independent living. This is our most ambitious and sustainable project yet and will be our lasting legacy, offering a safe pathway out of institutions for the countless children and young adults still segregated and captive within the walls of prison-like institutions.

The Echo was the first newspaper to tell the story of Chernobyl and to share the true impact of disaster all those years ago. Words fail to express the gratitude that I feel for the generations of Echo readers, who have opened their hearts and homes to the Chernobyl Children.

Even though there can be times when the obstacles we have to overcome in our efforts to help the children of Chernobyl can seem insurmountable, gestures of kindness such as those of the Echo readers, restore our faith in the inherent decency of humanity and help us to continue our life-saving work.

The people of Ireland, and in particular, the people of Cork, have never forgotten the children of Chernobyl.

ABOUT CHERNOBYL CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL

On the fateful morning of April 26, 1986, the nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Station exploded, spewing 190 tons of deadly contaminating radiation 7km into the night sky which was then carried by the prevailing winds northwards.

The accident  which was immediately surrounded by denial and cover-up by the Soviet Union  affected the lives of seven million people in Ukraine, Belarus & Western Russia. Radiation levels were so high that 2,000 towns and villages, were demolished and buried beneath millions of tons of earth.

In 1986, as a young volunteer with the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Adi Roche along with volunteer doctors, provided an emergency information hotline, to give information to the Irish public who were deeply concerned about the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. In 1991, they received a desperate plea for help via fax from Belarusian doctors, who revealed how severe the situation in the Chernobyl region really was. Adis response was immediate, and she coordinated the first group of Chernobyl children to arrive in Ireland for a recuperative holiday that summer. In the years that followed, we focused on getting as many of the Chernobyl child victims out of the dangerous radioactive environment and getting them to the clean Irish environment for Rest & Recuperation.

Volunteers then joined to drive dozens of convoys of urgently needed humanitarian aid, and in the process, encountered hidden orphanages and mental asylums across the Chernobyl region where children lived in appalling conditions. Today the charity still continues their work with these children and families. To find out more about the work of Chernobyl Children International, visit www.chernobyl- international.com.
This year's National Volunteering Week is highlighting the importance of 'small'. A charitable gesture doesn't have to be monumental to make a difference in someone's life. To quote Oscar Wilde, 'The smallest act of kindness, is worth more than the grandest intention.'

We hear from Cork Volunteer Centre who want to show their appreciation for the help and commitment they've received through gestures, big and small and spur others on to jump on the bandwagon and do something for others.

National Volunteering Week is about giving to other people but also about making a change to your life too. Research from Volunteer Ireland demonstrates that volunteering is good for your physical and mental wellbeing.

Cork Volunteer Centre

Volunteers from Cork Volunteer Centre

We spoke with the manager of Cork Volunteer Centre, Julie Connelly on volunteering and their upcoming awards ceremony in light of National Volunteering Week.

Cork Volunteer Centre have 701 registered non-profit groups with them as of today, "we're the match-makers and middle-men," Julie said. Cork Volunteer Centre is funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and is staffed by a dedicated team of employees and volunteers. "When someone enters the building, the first person they meet is one of our dedicated team of reception volunteers. We feel that the best way to first learn about the benefits of volunteering is from someone engaged in this process themselves," said Julie.

Cork Volunteer Centre was set up to support and promote volunteering in the community of Cork City and Cork County and Julie has seen just that. In light of COVID19 many services were put on hold, but some were able to adapt, "people set up support groups over zoom, some fed the homeless night regardless of COVID, some made masks, and so much more...It makes you proud to work where you work," she continued.

Cork Volunteer Centre

There's more to volunteering

According to Julie, volunteering does more than help others, it helps the volunteers themselves, "Volunteering is so important for inclusion. Its a way to meet people, it's good for your mental health, it introduces new people into a community, it's good for your physical health, and it's a great way to try new things too."

She continued, "It's about doing something for your community, for the wider environment."

Cork Volunteer Centre and its volunteers

"Thank you so much and please keep doing what you're doing," was Julie's response to what she'd like to say to all the volunteers around Cork. "If you're considering becoming a volunteer give it a go, try it out," she continued.

Cork Volunteer Centre has exciting programmes coming up, this includes an opportunity for people to take part on a short-term volunteering basis around events and festivals and for people to "pitch in where there's a gap." Cork Community Volunteers programme give potential volunteers an opportunity to dip their toe in the volunteering pool.

Cork Volunteer Awards 2021

Volunteer Award Winners 2019.

"It's about thanking the unsung heroes," Julie said.

The volunteer awards aim to celebrate and recognise the thousands of remarkable people across Cork who selflessly give their time and talent to benefit their local communities, "A lot of [volunteer work] has been completely unrecognised and completely under the radar," continued Julie.

With eleven categories and one overall winner of the Cork Volunteer Awards, Julie says the criteria for a winner is "really open." It's not solely based on how long someone has volunteered for "it's also based on the impact theyve had and if they've done something innovative or smart to really benefit their charity."

'The team at Cork Volunteer Centre would like to thank everyone who volunteered over the last year, especially those who supported our Criticall Cork project.'

To find out more about Criticall Cork, visit www.corkvolunteer.ie/criticall

For more information on the awards categories and to shine a light on Corks Volunteers by nominating someone for Cork Volunteer Awards 2021 click here.

Or for more information on National Volunteer Week click here.


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Podcasts provide advertisers with microtargeted pitches that engage listeners more effectively than other outlets, observed Maury Rogow, CEO and creative director of Hollywood's Rip Media Group in an exclusive interview with the E-Commerce Times.

Most podcast listeners are educated, have disposable income, and are open to hearing advertising. Microtargeting of a podcast-streamed ad insertion is delivered in real time and provides trackable data on the number of listens.

Podcast streaming can be audio or video format. The video element often consists of a single static image or a video recording of the podcast hosts and guests.

This advertising format offers marketers an effective way to deliver focused messaging to a tightly defined audience that shares a commonality. They have a high similarity in tastes and interests compared to the audiences provided by other media outlets.

The most effective podcast advertising is delivered by the host. This makes many marketers extremely uncomfortable. But such risks can pay off incrementally because the targets will listen and remember the message, Rogow countered.

Capitalizing on podcast listeners' strong relationships with their favorite hosts is the primary benefit to the advertiser. Host-read advertising copy produces the best results, he said.

"Let the hosts be themselves. Let them do their things. That is why people are listening," he added.

Newer Ad Medium

Podcasts became a new outlet in the early 2000s. They now are reaching a mass market audience. This widespread audience growth has made advertising on podcasts a very viable opportunity to broaden vendors' e-commerce footprints.

Numerous reports by Reuters, The Podcast Consumer, Podcast Trends Report, Nielsen Marketers Guide to Podcasting, and IAB Podcast Ad Revenue Study show that podcasting is a growth medium with steadily expanding audiences.

According to various industry reports, about 25 percent of all listeners started in the past six months. Podcasts continue to attract new listeners to their existing audience of 90 million people monthly. Nearly 63 percent of respondents said they listen to more podcasts now than they did a year ago.

Edison Research in February announced the top 50 most listened to U.S. podcasts of 2020. This list ranks the podcasts based on audience size as determined by the Podcast Consumer Tracker, a service that measures the relative audience size and demographics of all podcast networks.

The methodology employed by Edison was to continuously collect data by surveying weekly podcast consumers ages 18 and older. The survey tracked which podcasts participants listened to in the previous week, along with demographic, psychographic, and purchase behavior information.

Rogow remarked that "Podcasts are just ubiquitous. A podcast is this weird thing hidden inside your computer or smartphone. You can hear them on Amazon Prime, download them from Audible, and Spotify. Every music platform is picking up podcasts."

Podcast advertising satisfies two primary goals. It provides a highly effective means for podcasters to monetize their programs. It also offers e-commerce merchants a way to advertise to targeted listeners to expand the advertising reach, he said.

Podcast Popularity Overview

The ongoing industry surveys sampled over 10,000 podcast listeners and tracked which shows they listen to, what they buy, and the demographic profiles for every leading network and top podcast, according to Edison Research senior vice president Tom Webster. His organization's published report lists these top 10 podcast offerings:

1. The Joe Rogan Experience

2. The Daily

3. Crime Junkie

4. This American Life

5. My Favorite Murder

6. Stuff You Should Know

7. Office Ladies

8. Pod Save America

9. Planet Money

10. Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!



The top 10 podcasts for 2021 tracked by Podtrac ranks many of the same shows as other lists, although not in the same order:

1. The Daily -- The New York Times

2. NPR News Now -- NPR

3. Up First -- NPR

4. Dateline NBC -- NBC News

5. The Ben Shapiro Show -- Daily Wire

6. Stuff You Should Know -- iHeartRadio

7. This American Life -- This American Life

8. Call Her Daddy -- Barstool Sports

9. Pardon My Take -- Barstool Sports

10. CNN News Briefing -- WarnerMedia



TopPodcast also presents a collection of (you guessed it) top podcasts. The website additionally offers tabs listing top networks, top podcast apps to download, top influencers, and more.

The Balance Small Business website provides a list of their best business podcasts.

Podcast Advertising Cheat Sheet

The industry average rates for podcast advertising are $15 CPM for a 10-second ad, according to AdvertiseCast. CPM as applied here is the price of an ad insertion in 1,000 podcast downloads.

A 30-second advertising spot averages $18 CPM. A 60-second ad spot averages $25 CPM.

Anchor sponsors pay on a CPM or "cost per mille" basis as well. Ad rates can extend to $50 CPM.

There are three primary types of podcast ads, with the following durations and placements:

Pre-roll ads, which are usually 15 to 30 seconds long and run before or after the show's intro;

Mid-roll ads are 30 to 90 seconds and are placed about halfway through an episode; and

Post-roll ads, which last 15 to 30 seconds and play right before or after the closing credits.

Depending on the skills set of the entrepreneur, self-written content is the least costly to create. Otherwise, producing professionally crafted content complete with voiceovers and sound effects is the domain of advertising agencies and media companies, noted Rogow.

A related strategy is obtaining sponsorships. Podcast sponsors provide a revolving door of recurring financial backing.

Advertising and sponsorships can go a long way to monetize a podcast. Improve Podcast claims that two million podcasts are available globally. They draw regular recurring audiences of 90 million people monthly. The trend of podcast ad revenue is on the rise, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Be proactive in finding advertising and sponsorship opportunities for your podcast, Rogow recommended. One of the most effective ways of finding advertisers and sponsors is to work through podcast ad networks.

These networks are a collection of podcasts that are produced, distributed, or made available to advertisers through a single company or network. They can handle all the tasks from finding advertisers and negotiating rates to getting the script. Another approach they use is to seek an offer from the podcast host.

Making Ad Content Matter

Rogow applies two sets of strategies to his advertising content. Both approaches are good guides for the do-it-yourselfer.

His first ad-writing formula is a four-step process he calls the epic story. It starts with engaging the audience with empathy. That is the introductory story he tells to set the tone for a problem his product can solve.

"For instance, get engaged with some empathy problem. Then go into the details and the solution," he explained.

The next part of his system to create a podcast ad involves story-telling the details to make the situation believable. Next, talk about the integrity of the product as a solution. The last step is the call to action.

"Remind the listeners how this product or solution can impact them. Provide the website, the contact details, where to get it, etc," he offered.

Rogow's second formula is far more creative and abstract. He includes in his ad content as many of the five human emotions as he can draw from to engage the audience. He uses the acronym STUF to explain his approach:

S is for something sexy or engaging;

T is for touching the heart;

U brings in something unique or totally unexpected about the product or solution;

F gets the audience to take action out of fear of missing out on the product or its solution.

Base ROI on the KPI

So how do you know when your podcast ads have hit the ROI sweet spot and not just cost you a whole lot of time and wasted money?

Rogow's answer was short and direct. "Just watch the KPI or Key Performance Indicators," he said. "They are different across industries. The funding needs and goals are different for everybody too."

So that response brought our discussion to the last question in our discussion about monetizing podcasts. What should somebody getting into this business expect as an advertisement return?

Don't Expect a Sudden Windfall

Financing your podcast through advertising works as part of a viable business plan, Rogow replied. But starting out, do not expect to strike it rich, at least right away.

"It is the long game that works reliably," he cautioned. "The income dollars are a lot less at first. But the really cool thing is you can microtarget. It is all about microtargeting."

For instance, if you advertise a business tool for SMBs, find a podcaster who attracts small business people. That gives you access to an audience where 80 to 90 percent of the listeners are really interested. The others are browsers.

Focus on the common theme of the listeners. Are they entrepreneurs? What is their connection to the podcast content?

"Knowing your audience lets you target the folks that are listening to the podcast and the hosts that are the best fit for your product line or your message. You really need to focus on the long game and not the short game," Rogow advised.

Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open-source technologies. He is an esteemed reviewer of Linux distros and other open-source software. In addition, Jack extensively covers business technology and privacy issues, as well as developments in e-commerce and consumer electronics. Email Jack.






Latin America crisis committee formed to combat ASF

A total of 22 organisations from 18 Latin American countries have formed a continent-wide committee to prevent the entry of African swine fever (ASF) into the region.

This development came following the entry of ASF into the Americas with the confirmation of the disease in the Dominican Republic.

The ASF LatAm Crisis Committee will work collaboratively to strengthen health advocacy in the continent at the private level. One of its initiatives was the establishment of a multinational community and intra-sectoral awareness campaign on the importance of preventive care in different areas. The campaign will be launched soon and involve actions with producers and social and government leaders from the different areas of the nations involved.

Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are some of the many countries that are part of the new committee.

- ABPA
Washington, MO (63090)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms this evening with a few showers possible late. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening with a few showers possible late. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Bobby Leo Dean, 78, of Athens passed away August 26, 2021, at his residence. A celebration of life service will be held 3 p.m. Sunday, September 5, 2021, at the Elk River Mills Memorial Cemetery, with Bro. Jim Clutter officiating. The family asks that you please wear a mask if you are in clo
While Facebook and Twitter are already struggling to handle vaccine misinformation and extremism, there's an increased focus on how social networks are handling Taliban-related content, following America's sudden withdrawal from Afghanistan. The militant group has swiftly overtaken Afghanistan's civilian government, taking control of the capital Kabul in only a few days, far sooner than intelligence analysts expected. Just like every modern organization, the Taliban relies heavily on social media to spread its messaging and communicate with followers, which puts the onus on technology companies to secure their platforms.

The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them." They went on to note that the company will be following the situation closely with the help of native Dari and Pashto speakers, who serve as local experts. Facebook isn't making any additions to its existing policies, which cover its core app, Instagram and WhatsApp, but it's clear that it's making the Taliban's uprising a priority.

Still, that statement doesn't mean much if Facebook can't actually see what's happening on its platforms. Vice reports that the Taliban has been spreading its message on WhatsApp, which uses end-to-end encryption to secure conversations. The company could technically ban specific accounts, but it won't be able to easily search and remove content like it can on Facebook proper and Instagram.

Twitter, meanwhile, wouldn't say if it would ban notable Taliban accounts like spokesperson Suhail Shaheen's. CNN reported yesterday that he had 347,000 followers on the platform, but now he's amassed over 361,000, a clear sign of growing influence. Twitter noted that people were using its service to seek help in Afghanistan, and that it would continue to enforce its existing rules around things like the glorification of violence and hateful conduct. The company also introduced the ability to report misleading tweets yesterday.

While Twitter is shying away from any definitive stances against the Taliban, a spokesperson noted: "Our enforcement approach is agile and we will remain transparent about our work as it continues to evolve to address these increasingly complex issues." Basically, the rules could change at any moment.

YouTube is taking a stronger stance, telling CNN that it would be terminating accounts run by the Afghan Taliban because the group appears on the US Treasury Department's sanctions list.

Moving forward, it's unclear how social media companies will recognize the Taliban as it takes control of Afghanistan. As the Washington Post reports, it's up to social media firms to determine who maintains official state accounts like the Afghanistan President's Twitter, which now has over 926,000 followers.
A number of companies make "hearing enhancement" devices that look more like a set of earbuds than a piece of clinical tech. Nuheara has been a staple at CES with its IQbuds line and companies like Bose, Bragi, Olive and others have offered a mix of tech and hardware to assist with hearing loss. Even Apple plans to introduce a "Converstaion Boost" for its AirPods Pro. Since the FDA allows companies to sell directly to consumers with mild-to-moderate hearing loss without the need for a prescription, the list of options is constantly growing. Another company that's specifically equipped to blur the line between hearing aid and true wireless earbuds is Jabra, thanks to the auditory assistance expertise of its parent company GN.

With the Jabra Enhance Plus, the company offers a more approachable device for people who may not need what all-day hearing aids offer just yet. Jabra describes these earbuds as "a miniaturized true wireless form factor" that's 50 percent smaller than its stellar Elite 75t model. Those are already some of the smallest buds I've tested, so reducing the size even further makes the Enhance Plus more comfortable and more discreet. Plus, a design that resembles earbuds rather than a traditional hearing aid helps reduce the stigma around wearing something that helps your hear better.

Inside, four separate sound processing features work to improve audio quality. The Enhance Plus analyzes sound to keep things as natural as possible while also reducing noise for speech clarity. The earbuds also ensure feedback doesn't hinder amplification and they isolate sounds coming from in front of you.

Jabra

In addition to providing hearing enhancement, the Jabra Enhance Plus can work just like a set of true wireless earbuds to play music and take calls. Similar to other earbuds, the Enhance Plus comes with multiple sizes of ear tips to help you find the best fit, on-board controls and water/dust resistance (IP52). Jabra says they'll last 10 hours on a charge with 30 hours total when you factor in the charging case. An app assists with setup and offers a degree of customization.

Jabra plans to launch the Enhance Plus at "select hearing care clinics" in the US "towards the end of the year." A licensed professional will conduct a hearing test to make sure these earbuds are appropriate. There's no word on pricing just yet, but the company says it's applying for approval under the FDA's self-fitting category. If you're looking for more of a true hearing aid rather than these "enhancers," Jabra also offers the Enhance Pro. It carries the more traditional behind-the-ear hearing aid design along with a charging case. It's also pricey, starting at $1,800.

If that's what you're after, the Bose SoundControl hearing aids went on sale in May, and as of last week, are available in all 50 states. That device puts the company's audio expertise to use to help you hear better, and Bose said it was the first FDA-cleared hearing aids that could be sold directly to consumers. What's more, they're more affordable at $850, but they run on the typical zinc-air batteries for hearing aids rather than being rechargeable.

Update 1:13PM ET: Bose SoundControl hearing aids are now available in all 50 states after a limited rollout at launch. This post has been updated to clarify that availability.
Pinterest has launched a new search feature that could make it easier for Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx and other POC users to find hair inspiration that would suit their hair types. The visual discovery website has introduced hair pattern search, it said, with BIPOC users in mind. This new feature uses computer vision-powered object detection to enable users to refine their searches by six different hair patterns: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight and shaved/bald.

Now, after users search for broader terms like "summer hairstyles," "glam hair" or "short hair," they'll find new hair pattern buttons that will narrow down the results. The feature is now live in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on desktop, as well as on iOS and Android. It will roll out to more locations over the coming months.

Yes, there are different types of curls, not to mention different hair textures and porosities, and Pinterest said its technology detected hair patterns in over 500 million images on its platform. Being able to refine results could help POC users find styling inspiration more easily instead of having to wade through pages and pages of hair images that wouldn't work for their hair types. That said, it remains to be seen how accurate the feature is and if it's truly effective in sifting through images on the website.

According to the company, this feature builds on its first inclusive product that allows users to search for images based on the subjects' skin tones. It worked with BIPOC creators and popular Pinners like Naeemah LaFond to design the product.

Pinterest's Head of Inclusive Product Annie Ta said in a statement:

"Our mission on the Inclusive Product team is to help everyone feel like Pinterest is a place for them. As a visual discovery platform, we have an opportunity and responsibility to do a better job of increasing representation in the products we build. That's why we built hair pattern search using computer vision technology to help identify hair patterns in images. By doing this, we hope we're able to use technology for good and make it easier for people, no matter who they are, to find hair inspiration for them on Pinterest."
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Is Ryan Sutter experiencing health concerns three months after learning that he has Lyme disease?

Sutter made sure his fans knew about his health journey and kept them updated with the recent treatments and procedures he received.

Over the weekend, Sutter shared an update to his fans about his health condition, revealing that he underwent a knee replacement procedure.

Ryan Sutter Underwent Surgery

On his Instagram account, the 46-year-old former "Bachelorette" star uploaded a photo of his leg with a long incision due to the surgery. He posted the update alongside a lengthy caption that disclosed his current status.

"Goodbye old friend. Thanks for all your support. We came into the world together, bound by blood and bone," he wrote. "We sought challenge [sic], taking on each one in a joint effort. Though you bent, you never broke."

He paid tribute to the body part that gave him "balance, strength, and hyperextension" while doing his adventures. He added that his knee helped him get through the most challenging year of his life before leaving several hashtags like "#adiosknee #kneereplacement #onward #ouch" and "#life" at the end of the post.

READ ALSO: Ellen DeGeneres Calls Herself 'Luckiest Girl' Amid Scandal -- Here's Why

His followers then sent him well wishes as he continues to work on improving his health.

One fan commented on the post and said, "Geez Ryan, I thought you were going to lose your leg... so dramatic over a knee. Heal quickly!"

"Wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery!" another added.

Ryan Sutter's Health Conditions

The reality TV star's knee surgery came months after he learned he has Lyme disease. Sutter and his wife Trista underwent a year-long journey last year to determine the cause of his extreme pain and fatigue.

After a few appointments with his doctors, he was diagnosed with the disease. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, the disease remains the most common vector-borne illness in the country. A patient gets the bacterium through the bite of infected black-legged ticks.

His doctors reportedly told him he had been exposed to mold toxins while working as a firefighter. He spent an 18-week fire academy program with the Denver Fire Department before experiencing the symptoms. These toxins, unfortunately, triggered the disease.

Apart from Lyme disease, he was also tested positive for COVID-19 and Epstein-Barr virus - a condition that can cause mononucleosis.

READ MORE: 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' Becomes MCU Best Action Movie So Far? Early Reviews Hint So!
Joshua Jackson recently opened up about the toxic remarks his wife Jodie Turner-Smith has been getting online after the actor revealed that the model was the one who proposed instead of him.

According to Daily Mail UK, Jackson is not taking the racist words lightly, and he mentioned that the situation is a "real education" for him as a white man.

The "Affair" actor added that people have been commenting on her posts, and the surprising amount of "ignorance and ugliness" that comes on the actress' way is bothering him.

He also mentioned that it's a "necessary," although unpleasant, education for the public on treating Black bodies, especially Black females.

"It is not okay. We have a long way to go," he went on. (via the outlet mentioned above)

The issue came after his appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," when he revealed that the model was the one who asked him for marriage during a vacation months after they met.

During New Year's Eve in Nicaragua, Turner-Smith popped the question where he described the country as "beautiful" and "incredibly romantic."

"we were walking down the beach, and she asked me to marry her." The actor said on the show.

In addition, although they're only dating for a few months at the time, he mentioned that Turner-Smith is the right person for him, and it is the best choice he had ever made.

Jackson spoke to Refinery29 to express his dismay after revealing their engagement story.

The "Dawson's Creek" actor mentioned that he accidentally threw his wife under the bus because he didn't give the whole backstory behind her proposal.

He added that internet users were quick to judge and became racist and misogynistic. Jackson also revealed that there were two engagements as he also proposed to Turner-Smith "the old fashioned way" by bending his knees.

READ NOW: Alyssa Milano Saves Uncle's Life By Doing THIS During Horrifying Car Accident [DETAILS]

Not Jodie Turner-Smith's First Time Being Criticized

Jodie Turner-Smith has been cautious regarding racism, leading to her decision to give birth at home.

According to Today, the couple welcomed their first child last April, and they decided to do a home birth instead of going to the hospital; It was more than personal preference.

She mentioned in an interview that there is an adverse birth outcome for Black women to give birth in America as the risk for pregnancy-related deaths is higher for people of color than for white women.

She added that it seems systematic racism for her. In addition, since the first COVID-19 wave occurred during the time of her birth, she was extra appreciative of the plan as the pandemic took a significant toll on hospital delivery rooms.

READ ALSO: Britney Spears, Jason Trawick's MAJOR Secret Exposed By Accounting Reports? Here's Proof
A woman has recently proclaimed that she is married to Michael Jackson - his ghost.

Kathleen Roberts, who also claims to be Marilyn Monroe's reincarnate, is telling people she's is the wife of the King of Pop's ghost.

The Daily Star first broke the news, with Roberts saying that the "Billie Jean" hitmaker's ghostly presence and she doesn't have intercourse, but the ghost reportedly possesses her body so it could dance, sing and eat.

Alongside a video, Roberts revealed that MJ proposed to her through a psychic and that he presented her a "pink engagement ring."

Roberts also told the outlet that their wedding's officiant was none other than Martin Luther King Jr. The entire nuptials happened when she was getting out of her bathtub.

She said of Michael Jackson, who died in June 2009 due to a cardiac arrest, "Michael stays in me all the time so he comes to the restroom with me and calls these special bonding moments 'toiletries.'"

She further revealed, "He stays possessed in me (relaxed not channeling and just enjoying living through me and communicating with me as a husband)."

Kathleen Roberts revealed what Michael Jackson "likes to eat" insider her and what he was shocked to find out about his husband's ghost.

"He loves cookies. He cusses a lot more than I'd expect him to as a former fan."

Medium Kathleen Roberts claims she is possessed by Michael Jackson https://t.co/3gRPIqBbdv she may be a medium, but has she ever looked in the mirror ??? and then Michael has already "contacts" for years with a SERIOUS Medium and has NEVER married her !!!  pic.twitter.com/YSDZyqvqf7  Lucrezia SonjaMJJ58 (@LucreziaSonja) August 18, 2021

READ ALSO: Nicole Kidman Bitter Over Husband Keith Urban's Alleged Crush on Rita Ora?

Roberts explained that the "Thriller" superstar also doesn't like to be "touched back," that when she kisses him, he will scare her with "spider visions and dead corpses visions."

The Monroe incarnate also stated that Michael is "very bossy" and doesn't shy away from pointing his "wife's" mistakes and flaws, something Roberts believes MJ got from his father.

But despite all of that, Roberts said that she overlooks that because she loves Michael Jackson's ghost and admitted that even she isn't perfect.

The article also disclosed how Roberts feels special that the Grammy-winning performer "chose" her to be his wife.

Unfortunately, Roberts' phenomenon has made people turn their heads on her, even previously mistaken that she has schizophrenia.

Michael Jackson would have been 63 years old on Aug. 29.

According to reports, his last words were when he pleaded for "some milk," which is his nickname for Propofol.

The doctor charged with the musician's death reportedly gave him 25 mg of the drug, which contributed to his cause of death.

READ MORE: Lena Headey aka Cersei Reveals How She Suffered Filming Most Brutal Scene on 'Game of Thrones'
2021-08-18

Maeci

Minister Di Maio to the EU Foreign Affairs Council on the situation in Afghanistan:

Yesterday, speaking from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, I took part in the EU Foreign Affairs Council, which met virtually to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

I indicated the Government's 5 priorities as part of a strategy that is shared at the European level.

 First: the protection of civilians. The safety of the Afghans who have collaborated with the international community and of personalities who have spoken out in favour of human and civil rights must remain at the centre of our efforts.

In this regard, Italy - for as long as conditions allow - will maintain a diplomatic presence at Kabul airport and will continue the evacuation operations of other Italians and the Afghan citizens who have supported our Embassy and our military contingent.

In these hours and in the coming days we will need to work on an internationally coordinated initiative to ensure that humanitarian flights take place and to make sure that this emergency is replaced by an organised process.

 Second: respect for individual rights and civil liberties. We cannot tolerate that the achievements of these two past decades are lost. I am thinking in particular of women's rights, to which the Spanish-initiated declaration is dedicated, and to which we have adhered. Ensuring respect for international human rights law and standards must be a clear condition for the Taliban; if not, the penalty will be international isolation of their country.

 Third: the migratory impact. We are aware that the demand for receiving refugees and migrants from Afghanistan will increase. It is, therefore, necessary for the EU to develop a shared response, in this case too in close cooperation with the partners in the region and at the same time, providing them with the necessary support.

 Fourth: the humanitarian situation. Firstly, there is a need to renew the call for international organisations to be granted full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to the country.

The international community must continue to ensure that the indispensable humanitarian assistance is provided to the Afghan people.

 Fifth: the fight against terrorism. We cannot allow Afghanistan to return to being a breeding ground for terrorist groups and a threat to international security. We must find alliances and involve all countries that share this same concern, particularly those in the region, as well as Russia and China.

We have the moral duty not to turn our backs on Afghanistan. We must remain united as the European Union, and in collaboration with our partners in NATO.

Italy will continue its commitment, paying special attention to women and young people and continuing with cooperation projects.

The Member States that are present at Kabul airport, including Italy, must ensure maximum solidarity and cooperation amongst themselves and with their allies so that the evacuation operations can be completed.

As we have always said: in together, out together. This must continue to apply now.
2021-08-18

Maeci

The 2021 Edinburgh International Festival will host a performance by mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato, accompanied by the Italian orchestra Il Pomo d'Oro. This event is promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Edinburgh.

The mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato, originally from Kansas, is one of the most important voices on the world opera scene. The Il Pomo d'Oro orchestra - which will accompany her during the concert - is recognised worldwide for its performances. The Bulgarian-born violinist Zefira Valova will conduct.

The ensemble will offer music by Monteverdi, Rossi, and Rameau with some arias by Handel.

The concert will be held on Monday 23 August. For further information click here
2021-08-18

Maeci

A series of Untitled Views, the artists signature works experimenting with editing colored smoke flares into artificial landscapes, and then fusing them with mirrored glass in a very particular printing process.



Magnifica is the title of Goldschmied & Chiaris first solo show in Washington DC. Organized by the Embassy of Italy, the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington, DC and International Arts & Artists, in collaboration with Cody Gallery at Marymount University, the exhibit will debut on September 2nd at Cody Gallery in Washington, DC and will remain on view until December 4th.





The exhibition, curated by Allison Nance, is a dialogue with the anthropomorphic shapes of tailored Murano vases (Magnifica). These playful pieces of art merge genres of performance art, studio-based photography, portraiture, and pop, subtly changing according to the surrounding space and the viewers perspective.



Sara Goldschmied and Eleonora Chiari are based in Milan, Italy, and have been working together since 2001.



Sara and Eleonora met in the late 1990s through a shared interest in photography and feminism activism. They have earned widespread respect and recognition, both in Italy and internationally, through their innovative use of photography, video, performance, and installations.





Their works are included in numerous collections including, the Castello di Rivoli (Turin, Italy), the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudegno (Turin, Italy), The Capital Group (Los Angeles), and the Maison Bernard Anthonioz (Paris, France) among others.



For more information iicwashington.esteri.it.
Members of the UKs opposition Labour party called on the government not to place a cap on the number of refugees from Afghanistan as they staged a protest outside the houses of parliament.
Whats a fair way to price auto insurance?

The question stems from a personal financial setback.

My 16-year-old daughter got her drivers license this month, which I just learned will double our household automobile insurance premiums. We previously paid $678 every six months but will now pay $1,276 every six months.

Yay.

Now I know where Ill spend the automatic child tax credit I was so happy about two weeks ago.

On ExpressNews.com: Taylor: The child tax credit is automatic payment for parents

This egregious pricing is typical for youthful drivers, who are guilty until proven innocent from the perspective of insurance companies.

Another guilty-until-proven-innocent factor used by auto insurance coverage is credit scores. The worse or thinner your credit, the more you pay.

This is counterintuitive. Why should people with a flawless driving record pay more for insurance because they were late on their credit card bill or just dont have a credit record? Driving and using credit responsibly are clearly separate skills.

The practice of using credit scoring in insurance products and pricing is the subject of an active debate at the federal and state levels. In Congress, both New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib have proposed banning it.

The insurance industry argues the historic correlation between lower credit scores and a higher number and higher dollar value of damage claims justifies the use of credit scoring in pricing.

In Texas

In June, entrepreneur Nestor Hugo Solari moved his startup auto insurance company, Sigo Seguros, to Austin and launched a new program in the state targeting the Spanish-speaking population.

One of Sigo Seguros selling points is that it does not consider personal credit scores when underwriting insurance. It considers the practice discriminatory, especially against Spanish-speaking Texans. To further appeal to its target audience, the company will not require a traditional state drivers license, either. Customers can provide a foreign drivers license and still receive coverage without any surcharge.

The typical customer for Sigo Seguros, according to Solari, seeks liability-only coverage and may forgo collision coverage because they drive older, less valuable cars.

Ive previously written about this, but from a personal-finance perspective, I favor this flavor of auto insurance. We need solid protection against catastrophic liability. But we dont need protection against car damage because, for personal finance reasons, people shouldnt drive valuable cars. Especially, I hasten to add, with a new 16-year-old driver behind the wheel.

I decline to insure against damage to my 2009 Hyundai, which has a trade-in value of maybe $2,000. At that kind of value, whats the point of damage insurance? The thing is nearly worthless on purpose, just the way I like it. So I save a little by declining collision coverage, as do many Sigo Seguros customers.

On ExpressNews.com: Taylor: Can you save on auto insurance?

I asked Solari about his issue with credit scores. He pointed out that the Spanish-speaking Texans his company seeks to serve may have thin or no credit files because of recent immigration status or because the community is relatively under-banked compared to native English speakers in the state.

I confirmed with my auto insurance company that itconsiders personal credit when determining my premiums. Texas insurance rules allow credit scoring as a factor for pricing as long as its not the only factor considered. Some states, including California and Massachusetts, have banned personal credit as a factor because of potentially discriminatory effects.

Other factors also matter, such as miles driven, car density as measured by ZIP code and driving record.

In theory, what is a fairer method for pricing auto insurance?

Critics of the use of credit scoring argue that observed driving behavior and driving record is what should count most. They have a point as well.

Enter Big Brother

In recent years, auto insurance companies have experimented with telematics, which provide data directly to the companies on customers driving style based on a phone app that tracks everything from acceleration and hard-braking to late-night driving and texting while driving.

Sigo Seguros offers a discount for customers who sign up for its mobile-phone based telematic system, seeing it as a better way to measure driving risk.

I was interested to learn this because I enrolled about a year ago in an app that offers a discount for letting my insurer track my driving experience. My insurance companys app even reports to me about my sudden braking and phone use while driving. Its probably tracking overall miles driven as well.

This kind of driving data strikes me as quite fair, because it measures factors that could increase the likelihood of auto accidents that credit scores, for example, do not. This is the ultimate goal  fairness in auto insurance based on observed risky behaviors. And fairness is good.

The downside of telematics is that Big Brother  in the form of my auto insurance company  is watching me as I drive.

This makes me paranoid about my ability to get away with crimes in the future, which is a real negative. On the plus side, I get 3 percent annual savings on my auto insurance premiums!

We are now paying through the nose because of my teen driver. Eventually I will need to rob banks just to pay for the auto insurance, but the auto insurance telematics will increase my likelihood of getting caught. A classic Catch-22.

Speaking of Big Brother watching, and as a total aside, I have really enjoyed the idea that Bill Gates can track my every move since I got the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19.

You know whats nuts about that worry in particular? We all carry smartphones everywhere! That is the actual tracking device recording all our movements. Its not the vaccine. Please, for the love of McKenzie Scott and all that is beautiful in this world, get vaccinated if you havent already.

Michael Taylor is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and author of The Financial Rules for New College Graduates.

michael@michaelthesmart

money.com |twitter.com/michael_taylor
The culture, flavor and tradition of the Land of Enchantment are embodied in the thousands of tons of Hatch green chiles harvested and roasted every year.

Green chile stew. Green chile chicken enchiladas. Green chiles on eggs, breakfast burritos, burgers, steaks  you get the point. The green chile is versatile and can be used in every meal of the day.

If you have some in your freezer, its certain to make some people green with envy, because as New Mexicans will proudly boast, nobody does green chiles like they do. Its a prized fruit (yep, its a fruit).

If you already are familiar with the Hatch green chile, then you know this is the time of year to stock up. And in the San Antonio area, Hatch green chiles are available and will be roasted on-site at various H-E-B stores and Central Market through Aug. 29, said store spokeswoman Julie Bedingfield.

Central Market has been roasting Hatch green chiles since 1995, said Mabrie Jackson, Central Markets director of public affairs. This year, more than 330,000 pounds of Hatch green chiles will be roasted at Central Markets across Texas, Jackson added.

Hatch facts

Hatch is small town in southern New Mexico, where farms have been producing chiles since 1931.

Photos by Ellen Schmidt

Hatch is to green chile as Napa is to grapes. There are several varieties of Hatch green chiles, but in order for chile to be considered Hatch green chile, it must be grown in the Hatch Valley, said Preston Mitchell, director of the Hatch Chile Association and owner of the Hatch Chile Store.

Mitchell said some companies sell products they call Hatch green chile, but if you dont see a certification stamp, it might not be authentic Hatch green chile.

What separates the Hatch green chile from other green chiles? The Chile Pepper Institutes Lisa Lopez says its all in the terroir. The soil along with the long hot days, cool nights and elevation make for growing conditions that cant be found anywhere else. Its these conditions that give our chile its unique flavor.

The green chiles popularity has exploded in recent years, said Chris Franzoy, co-owner and operator of Young Guns Inc. and Hatch Chile Factory in Hatch. In the past decade, business has tripled, and we ship about 400 truckloads of fresh Hatch chiles every year, and most is roasted at the store level, he said.

The heat is on

Eating these chiles is good for you, as one pepper contains almost as much vitamin C as six oranges, and they are high in vitamin A. The heat index on Hatch chiles ranges from varietal to varietal, from the mild Joe Parker to the extra-hot Lumbre. But if youre not sure, how can you tell without tasting if the chile you are holding is hot?

Simply cut the pepper open and look at veins found inside the pepper, Franzoy said. If (the veins) are white, the pepper is usually mild. But if you see a yellow to orange color, the pepper is hotter. The more orange color you see, the hotter the pepper is.

Roasting and storing

Roasting Hatch chiles can be a real source of pride and accomplishment  and its really easy. That said, it can be time-consuming, and if youre doing it indoors, its helpful to have a good vent.

Of course, the easiest way to roast Hatch chiles is to have someone else do it and just buy them  you avoid a lot of mess that way. But wheres the fun in that?

You can roast the chiles in your oven, on a grill or cast-iron skillet on your stove. Start by making a few holes in each pepper with a fork to prevent steam from building up. Also, having a cold beer or plenty of sangria on hand is recommended.

On the grill: When the grill is very hot, place the peppers on the grate and cook, turning often, until the skin of each pepper has blackened and blistered. Work in batches as needed. Its a good idea to use long tongs and wear heatproof gloves.

On the stove: If you have a gas stove, place the peppers directly on the high flames, turning with tongs until the skin is evenly charred. Your stove will get a bit messy, though. You can also place the chiles in a heavy skillet, such as cast iron, over high heat, turning until all the skin is evenly charred.

In the oven: Heat to 425 degrees. Place the chiles on a baking sheet and place that in the oven as close to the heating element as possible. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until you see that the skin has started to blister and blacken. At that point, turn the chiles with tongs and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes until that side has charred, too.

After your chiles are roasted by whatever method, remove them from the heat and place them in a large pot or bowl with a wet paper towel in the bottom. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let the peppers sit for at least 10 minutes to allow the steam to build and soften them, making the skins easier to remove.

When the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel them by rubbing off the skins with your hands. Also pull off the stems, pull out any attached veins, and brush off any seeds. It it highly recommended that you wear gloves while peeling chiles as the capsaicin (the spicy compound in peppers) can build up and burn your hands  and anything else they touch, like your eyes or nose  and it can be very difficult to remove.

To freeze the chiles, roast them first, then place them either whole or peeled in a freezer bag, squeezing out as much air as you can.

Roasting chiles is a lot of hard work but worth every bead of sweat. And your friends will appreciate the effort, too.

Recipe: Hatch Chile Mac and Cheese

Recipe: Green Chile Relleno Latkes

Recipe: Corn and Hatch Chile Casserole

Recipe: Pan-Fried Hatch Chile Crab Cakes

Dennis.Rudner@express-news.net
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Two teenagers have been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a shooting in a Northeast Side neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

San Antonio police were called to the 5800 block of Tranquil Dawn at around 5:30 p.m. for reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old suffering from gunshot wounds.
One Texas school district has found a way to get around Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on face masks in public schools by incorporating them into the dress code.

In a 5-1 decision during an emergency meeting Tuesday night, the Paris ISD Board of Trustees voted to amend the district's dress code in response to the surge in COVID-19 cases, officials said in a news release.

Clifton Fendley, who was the only opposing vote, said he believed the district was using a loophole to circumvent Abbott's mask order, the Paris News reported.

On ExpressNews.com: More of San Antonio goes back to school, with mask mandates pulled off

The updated dress code requires students to wear masks on all district campuses.

During the meeting, some parents and staff urged the school board to approve the dress code while others asked officials to keep face masks optional, the Paris News reported.

The change is not permanent, and the dress code will be revisited during monthly board meetings, officials said.

Lamar County, where Paris is located, is about 100 miles north of Dallas and has reported more than 400 new COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks.

On ExpressNews.com: Disabled students sue Abbott, saying his mask mandate ban endangers them

The Paris school board's decision to change its dress code is the latest attempt by school boards and cities across the state to push back on the governor's executive order.

Last week, a Bexar County district judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking Abbotts order, which allowed the City of San Antonio and the county to issue mask mandates. The Texas Supreme Court, however, affirmed Abbott's order on Sunday.

The next day, a state district judge granted a temporary injunction in a lawsuit against the governor to once again allow for mask mandates.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net
KIN MAN HUI/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Boerne Police Chief Jim Kohler is planning to step down at the end of October after leading the department for a decade.



Kohler joined the department over 30 years ago as a police officer and has worked his way through the ranks. After taking over the department in 2011, Kohler helped modernize its technology and has guided it through several notable law enforcement recognitions and designations.



Kohler, 57, announced Wednesday that he hopes to spend more time with his family. His last day is Oct. 31.



I have loved my career and I love the Boerne community, the people, every part of it, but it is the right time to take that step toward the next chapter in my life, Kohler said in a statement. The department and the communitys future are very bright, and I know the department is in the very capable hands of the next generation of law enforcement professionals.

In an interview with the Express-News, Kohler said that he is unsure of what he will do after he retires. However, he did indicate that he has several job offers on the table.
A disability rights group has filed the first federal lawsuit against Gov. Greg Abbott over his executive order banning mask mandates, saying it discriminates against disabled students and puts them at risk of contracting COVID-19.

Disability Rights Texas filed the suit in Austin on behalf of 14 students, three of whom are from Bexar and Medina counties. They are all under 12 years old, making them ineligible for the COVID vaccine.

The students have disabilities that include Down syndrome, moderate to severe asthma, chronic lung and heart conditions, cerebral palsy and weakened immune systems that could expose them to serious complications or death if they contract COVID, according to the rights group and its lawyers.

The suit contends that Abbotts order issued in late July, which prohibits school districts and charter schools from imposing mask mandates, puts students with disabilities at significant risk, is discriminatory and violates federal law  the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Under Section 504, students with disabilities may receive accommodations as well as supplementary aids and services to ensure that their individual educational needs are met as adequately as those of non-disabled students.

Thousands of students in the 17 school districts in the San Antonio metro area receive education under Section 504. For example, North East ISD, the second largest district in the area, has about 5,000 Section 504 students and Edgewood ISD has 1,145, spokespersons for the districts said.

If school districts are unable to implement COVID-19 protocol as they each deem appropriate, parents of medically vulnerable students will have to decide whether to keep their children at home or risk placing them in an environment that presents a serious risk to their health and safety, the lawsuit states.

The suit, filed late Tuesday, also names as a defendant Mike Morath, the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, which sent local school officials a public health guidance this month backing Abbotts ban on mask mandates.

The suit seeks a temporary restraining order to bar the state from violating federal law and to allow local school districts and local public health authorities to require masks for students and staff as they see fit.

Governor Abbott cares deeply about the health and safety of disabled students, as he does for all Texas students, his press secretary, Renae Eze, said via email. Since his accident that left him paralyzed, the governor has worked throughout his career to protect the rights of all those with disabilities in Texas.

Eze referred further questions to the Texas Attorney Generals Office. Messages seeking comment were left via email and by phone.

The TEA said it does not comment on pending litigation.

One of the student-plaintiffs, identified as Juliana, 8, lives in Bexar County and attends Bonham Academy in the San Antonio Independent School District. She has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a growth hormone deficiency and moderate to severe asthma.

Her mother, Julia Longoria, said she doesnt get much sleep because she worries her daughter, who needs in-person instruction to succeed in school, is at greater risk of serious illness, hospitalization and even death if she contracts the virus.

Shes more likely to have high-risk complications from COVID, Longoria said. Having to make a choice between my daughters education or her life  what kind of choice is that? My child has the right to an education and to be safe at school. I shouldnt have to choose.

Longoria said Juliana is attending school in person only because SAISD has a mask mandate. Longoria commended the district for requiring masks.

Last year, attending school remotely required modifications to Julianas curriculum and led to setbacks in her learning, Longoria said.

She was having panic attacks weekly, Longoria said. It was just unsustainable for a second grader.

As Juliana was about to begin third grade this month, Longoria said she and her husband discussed whether one of them should quit their jobs to home-school the girl  until they learned that SAISD would keep its mask requirement, even as the issue was being litigated in the Texas state courts.

In those lawsuits, several localities, including San Antonio and Bexar County, have sued Abbott over his ban on local mask mandates. In the San Antonio-Bexar County suit, state District Judge Antonia Toni Arteaga last week issued a temporary restraining order barring Abbott from enforcing his ban. That meant San Antonio and Bexar County and school districts in those areas could require masks.

On Sunday, the Texas Supreme Court issued a stay of the TRO. Then Arteaga heard further arguments and testimony in the case Monday and granted the city and Bexar County a temporary injunction against Abbotts order, once again allowing local governments and school districts to require masks. The state is appealing.

Longoria, who is a lawyer, said she agreed to help sue the governor in federal court to give a voice to those who dont know what to do or dont have access to the judicial system.

Theyre politicizing this, and I dont think people are seeing the faces of kids and how they are being affected, Longoria said.

The student-plaintiffs attend schools all over the state, including Hidalgo, Travis, Tarrant, Dallas and Harris counties.

Those from the San Antonio metro area include A.M., 8, who attends Edgewood ISD and was born with cerebral palsy, and D.D., 9, who attends Medina Valley ISD, has a visual impairment, a developmental delay, an intellectual disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is nonverbal.

Under Gov. Abbotts order, parents of these children face an untenable choice: educate their children at school and expose them to potential severe illness, long COVID, and even death, or keep their children home, where they will receive a fraction of their education in one of the least integrated settings available with limited to no exposure to non-disabled peers, said attorney Tom Melsheimer, whos representing the plaintiffs.

Either outcome is a violation of students rights under the ADA and Section 504, and both are wholly avoidable.

guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland
Chris Hernandez, a veteran of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, felt his stomach turn Sunday as news broke that Kabul had collapsed at the end of a sweeping Taliban offensive.

A police officer who runs a part-time photography business, he drove to a wedding in tears while trying to sort through what had happened over the weekend as Afghanistans capital city fell without a fight.

Hernandez, 50, listened to the radio and watched video of events unfolding in Kabul this week that included three people falling out of the wheel well of an Air Force C-17 cargo plane that left Kabul carrying hundreds of refugees.

In some ways, its really worse than the fall of Saigon, isnt it? he asked.

If they werent surprised at how Americas longest war ended, Texans who served in Afghanistan still felt shock.

They included Hernandez, of the Houston area, and Todd Plybon, 50, of Taylor, a Texas Army National Guard soldier who was seriously injured in a 2009 roadside bomb attack that killed two others. They had gone to Afghanistan to improve Afghan animal husbandry and agriculture, among other missions.

Like many in the Texas Guard, they were patriotic and sacrificed even before deploying. One fellow GI, Spc. Anthony G. Green, 28, of Yorktown, northwest of Victoria, went to Afghanistan with a 70 percent Veterans Affairs Department disability rating from a roadside bomb in his second tour of Iraq.

He didnt survive the blast that left Plybon, a University of Texas graduate with a degree in chemistry, with a traumatic brain injury, daily chronic pain and weekly visits to specialists.

Every soldier who served in Afghanistan made an investment there, and many left a part of themselves  or someone else  behind.

On ExpressNews.com: Bad choices in an unforgiving land

The war, in turn, reverberated at home.

As the week began, Houston Police Cmdr. Dan Harris, who commanded the Texas National Guard agribusiness development team, was still taking stock of the nations 20-year effort in Afghanistan. Like other veterans, his evaluation is a work in progress.

I think Im probably like most Americans. The first thing was surprise at how quickly the Taliban was able to gain ground and gain control, said Harris, 61, of Conroe.

There was also a sadness thinking about  the Afghan people themselves and what they are going through now and what they probably will be going through in the immediate future, he said. And then also thinking about the costs to America, and its not just America. There are other allies that were there with us.

The only bright side I can think of  until now we were successful preventing Afghanistan from being a launching base, a recruiting base, a training base for more terrorist attacks against the U.S. or other countries. Now, I dont know whats going to become of that mission, whats going to happen to Afghanistan.

The costs were stark  2,452 Americans dead, including Green and a fellow guardsman, Staff Sgt. Christopher Staats, 32, of Boerne. Both served with Harris and Plybon on Texas Agribusiness Development Team 2 at Ghazni.

Altogether, 3,596 troops from a 46-nation coalition had died in Afghanistan through Monday.

At home in Fredericksburg on Tuesday afternoon, Staats dad, Bobby Staats, 71, himself a former soldier in the Texas Guard, said he was watching the news.

Im feeling pretty bad about it, he said. Theres going to be a lot of people left behind that supported the United States. But this administration doesnt give a damn. They dont care. They do not care about nothing except their power.

In all, the Defense Department said 832,000 American troops served in Afghanistan. The highest death toll came in 2010, the year of President Barack Obamas surge, with 498 killed. The lowest, 11 dead, was last year, Along the way, the United States spent $2.26 trillion in Afghanistan, out of $6.4 trillion in all its post-9/11 wars, which include Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen, among others, said Stephanie Savell, co-director of Brown Universitys Cost of War Project.

The project estimates the death toll in Afghanistan and related fighting in Pakistan, including allied and combatant fighters and civilians who were killed in combat, at 241,000.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder and former chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said hed heard an earful from veterans stunned at how an American-trained and equipped military vanished as the Taliban closed on Kabul.

I think the overall mood is outrage and frustration and anger, and a sense of betrayal, he said, adding the callers were angry mostly at Washington and I think increasingly at the president. I think the more nuanced folks want to talk about the (Authorization for Use of Military Force) and how its gone this long, but I think everybody is focused on  pretty much a consensus  that whether we were going to leave or not, we didnt have to leave like this.

On ExpressNews.com: After 18 years, Texas veterans wonder how long U.S. can stay in Afghanistan

A one-time San Antonian who graduated in 1989 from Central Catholic High School, Hernandez saw news accounts of Afghan government forces surrendering or abandoning posts across the country. While initially angry with President Joe Biden over his decision to pull out of Afghanistan, he adopted a different attitude after listening to Bidens remarks to the nation Monday.

Part of the attitude change was based on something he had expected  a feckless Afghan government and shaky military force.

Out of the two wars I served in, I never expected Iraq to be the success story, he said.

Andrew Bacevich, a retired professor of international relations and history at Boston University who was critical of President George W. Bushs handling of the conflict in Iraq, had said he wasnt emotionally invested in the Afghan war.

Or so he thought.

Ever since the Taliban offensive has gained momentum, I have been overcome by a sense of anger, humiliation, and embarrassment that I find hard to explain, Bacevich, a Vietnam platoon leader and cavalry commander, said in an email. It was clear to me that the Afghan governments days were numbered. I just didnt expect things to fall apart quite so abruptly.

The war is intensely personal for Plybon and his wife, Tara. He takes a weekly infusion to help with the headaches that have plagued him since the blast. Now 50, Tara is his caregiver and hasnt worked in 11 years. While theyve made huge sacrifices at home that have become yet another forever war, shell insist theyre far more fortunate than Gold Star families.

Todd Plybon has taken up photography, shooting pictures of horses, old buildings and small towns, and has entered his work at shows, with some exhibited at a Georgetown museum. Proceeds go to the Ride On Center for Kids, a nonprofit that gives equine-assisted services to disabled children, adults and veterans.

The feeling that America didnt effectively fight the war has nagged Plybon over the years. Hes never forgotten a PowerPoint briefing slide displaying an icon marked Taliban HQ on a map of the Texas Guards area of operation outside Ghazni, an hour south of Kabul by helicopter.

I wanted to raise my hand and say, Excuse me, why is that there? he said, wondering why it wasnt bombed, if identified.

On ExpressNews.com: Texans brave war risks to teach farming to Afghans

No one asked the question. The Texas Guards task was to help introduce modern farming and ranching methods to Afghans. A subsistence farming tradition, an ineffective government and Taliban threats made everything difficult.

Hernandez was a human intelligence team leader and volunteered for missions from his base, typically two to three a week, sometimes more. Hed go out with the infantry as well and on occasion would find himself in big fights.

That, it turned out, is where he wanted to be.

His Texas Guard 636th Military Intelligence Battalion in Kapisa province, northeast of Bagram Air Base, didnt lose any soldiers, but Hernandez said he operated with French, Afghan and American embedded military training teams that lost 20 coalition and Afghan troops from February through November 2009.

In a novel he later wrote, Proof of Our Resolve, the protagonist, a Texas Army National Guard soldier, talks with the wife of a slain soldier.

In the novel, my protagonist is trying to explain to somebody who feels like she lost her husband for nothing  that he didnt die for Afghanistan, he died for America and he died because what he believed about his country and himself was so strong he was willing to fight and die to defend it, Hernandez said. And when youre willing to lay down your life for something you hold that dear, it has to be important.

On Monday, a friend of Hernandez  a Marine Corps special operations officer hes never personally met  posted a photo of an Afghan falling from a C-17 flying out of the country and invited viewers to think about the kind of desperation it takes to cling to an airplane that is big enough to carry 800 people as it takes off.

Think about the faith you have to have in America to have thought, even in your panic, thats somehow going to work out, the Marine wrote. Then maybe think what little thing you can do to nudge us back a little closer, no matter how infinitesimal the movement, to that ideal as a nation.

sigc@express-news.net

Twitter: @saddamscribe
Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, a day after attending a jam-packed, maskless GOP event. The news trended on Twitter and attracted reactions from across the country.

Some shared prayers and well wishes for the governor, while others criticized his anti-mask policies.

Abbott is fully vaccinated and has not shown any symptoms, according to his office.

On ExpressNews.com: Disabled students sue Abbott over mask mandate

"I want you to know that I have received the COVID-19 vaccine and that may be one reason why I'm really not feeling any symptoms right now," Abbott said in a video posted on Twitter.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a tweet that he hopes Abbott gets well quickly. "Our enemy is the virus. Its enemy is all of us," Jenkins tweeted.

Former Republican Presidential Candidate Joe Walsh said he's glad Abbott is vaccinated, but wishes the governor would urge Texans to take the vaccine.

Some San Antonio politicians like U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and state Rep. Diego Bernal called on Abbott to re-consider his ban on masks in places like public schools.

The governor received Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment after testing positive, which is recommended by federal health officials for those who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, according to the FDA. He has also received a third booster shot, according to NBC News.

Former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro pointed out that not everyone has the same access to treatment as Abbott.

Dr. Vin Gupta, a well-known lung and ICU health official, said in a tweet that the governor's treatment since finding out he contracted the virus shows how "anxious" and "scared" he is of COVID-19.

In response to Gupta's tweet, a Texas woman said it wasn't fair that Abbott is allowed immediate access to the treatment while people like her father, who is a cancer patient, have to wait days.

Abbott thanked those who sent him well wishes and is currently quarantining.

Malak.Silmi@express-news.net
For more than 40 years I have been a scholar in communication at the University of Texas at Austin with an emphasis in political rhetoric. Some of my research has pertained to President Lyndon Johnsons handling of the Vietnam War, beginning with the Gulf of Tonkin crisis in August 1964. My research focused on Johnsons initial justification for intervening in Vietnam to fight the Viet Cong, and his subsequent and failed rhetoric explaining the need to remain.

Sadly, history appears to be repeating itself. What happened in Kabul on Sunday was tragic and hard to watch, as was the Talibans quicker-than-predicted takeover of Afghanistan following the U.S. decision to leave. Admittedly, President Joe Bidens decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was a tough one to make.

Not surprisingly, there has been strong criticism by military and intelligence experts, as well as in the media, about the Biden administrations failure to implement a coherent and thoughtful plan for the safe evacuation of Americans and Afghanistan citizens who supported us. The media criticism continued following Bidens speech Monday, making clear the president failed to address directly and take responsibility for the tactical failure of the plan to leave so quickly.

Nevertheless, it could be argued that regardless of sound contingency plans, there may have been no way our exit would be anything other than chaotic, leading to pandemonium. That is something we learned the hard way during the fall of Saigon in April 1975  a horrifying image that immediately comes to mind as we watch what is happening at the Kabul airport.

The exit strategy notwithstanding, Bidens decision to leave Afghanistan was both necessary and inevitable. The problem is not just the lack of a thoughtful plan to leave. It is that the United States never learned the right lesson from the Vietnam War: You cannot successfully export democracy to a country where there isnt a will by the people to fight for it.

Just as was the case during the Vietnam War, for the past few years the U.S. policy in Afghanistan was framed by what, in my research over four decades ago, I labeled the irresistible rhetoric of redemption. This was an argument continuously and illogically made: It is necessary to provide more resources (money and lives) to protect what we already have invested and the losses already incurred.

This is a move destined to fail precisely because it has no end point and cannot undo the original mistake. How sad it is, therefore, that once again the United States did not heed the advice George Santayana, and then Winston Churchill, wisely offered: Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Richard Cherwitz is the Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin.
Our military shoulders huge burdens, but facing an unseen enemy should not be among them.

The pandemic afflicts everyone, soldier and civilian alike, but if COVID-19 spreads among the military, it also will harm its preparedness, jeopardizing missions. The damage will reverberate throughout the country, potentially undermining national security and readiness.

Recognizing the peril to its personnel, the U.S. Department of Defense has issued orders on two fronts. Vaccines will be mandatory by mid-September, and masks are again mandatory for indoor settings deemed high risk for the spread of COVID-19.

The vaccine mandate might ruffle some feathers, but the logic is simple. The delta variant is driving a surge in COVID infections, overwhelming hospitals with unvaccinated people. While breakthrough infections can occur, vaccines overwhelmingly keep people out of hospitals and alive.

We applaud Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for his decisiveness on this front, honoring the recommendations of public health officials, and putting the nations security ahead of the maddening political discussion around masks and vaccines.

On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: For military, a threat to U.S. in mask ban

Austin has said he may accelerate the timeline of mandating vaccines, depending on final FDA approval or heightened rates of infection.

I will not hesitate to act sooner or recommend a different course to the President if l feel the need to do so. To defend this Nation, we need a healthy and ready force, he said in a memo to military members.

And yet on the civilian side, we are fighting over masks in schools? Seriously?

On the military front, the requirement is an update to mask guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rescinding a previous military directive, which allowed fully vaccinated personnel to go without masks indoors or outdoors.

All defense personnel should continue to comply with CDC guidance regarding where masks should be worn, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Jamal Brown said in a statement. The Department will review and revise all applicable Force Health Protection guidance to address the new CDC guidelines.

The new mandate shows the reality of a navigating a shifting pandemic and deepening understanding of COVID. CDC requirements may change, but far from betraying any signs of weakness or befuddlement, the changes reflect our growing knowledge of the virus. The danger is fluid, and as our knowledge of the peril grows, the response must be equally fluid.

These mandates are particularly crucial for military personnel in the South, where many states, like Texas, are experiencing a surge in COVID. San Antonio recently went 26 minutes without EMS transports due to COVID demand. As of this writing, more than 12,220 people in Texas were hospitalized with COVID-19. Hospitals have issued dire warnings about running out of beds.

On ExpressNews.com: Lingle: Military's imperfect path led to common ground

If the military can take the right stances to diminish the threat of COVID, why cant the state?

The two directives provide further protection for an entity that has proven remarkably durable since the pandemic emerged more than a year ago. Fewer than 30 service members have died in a Reserve and active-duty force of more than 2 million, according to NPR. Complacency, military officials recognize, could be as damaging as the virus itself.

Almost 75 percent of active-duty personnel are partially vaccinated, while 65 percent are fully vaccinated. These are numbers that all Americans should applaud  and follow. Our national security depends on it.
NEW YORK (AP)  R&B star R. Kelly is a predator who lured girls, boys and young women with his fame and dominated them physically, sexually and psychologically, a prosecutor said Wednesday, while a defense lawyer warned jurors they'll have to sift through lies from accusers with agendas to find the truth.

The differing perspectives came as the long-anticipated trial began unfolding in a Brooklyn courtroom where several accusers were scheduled to testify in the next month about the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer whose career has been derailed by charges that have left him jailed as he goes broke.

Jerhonda Pace, the first government witness, told jurors Wednesday that she was a 16-year-old virgin and a member of Kelly's fan club when he invited her to his mansion in 2010. He immediately told her to take off her clothing, Pace said.

He asked me to continue to tell everyone I was 19 and act like I was 21," she said. Kelly responded that's good" when she revealed her virginity, said that he wanted to train her" sexually and ordered her to call him Daddy, she said.

They continued to see each other for another six months, with Kelly growing more and more controlling and erupting in violence when she broke what she called Robs rules. One time he grew so angry, He slapped me and choked me until I passed out, she said with no hint of emotion.

Afterward, he spit in her face and forced her to have oral sex, she said. She kept a blue T-shirt from the episode that has provided DNA evidence of the misconduct, prosecutors said.

The Associated Press doesnt name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent unless they have spoken publicly extensively. Pace has appeared in a documentary and participated in media interviews.

Prior to Pace's testimony, lawyers gave jurors an outline of the trial in their opening statements.

This case is not about a celebrity who likes to party a lot," Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez told the jury as she explained the evidence to be revealed at his federal trial. This case is about a predator."

She said he distributed backstage passes to entice children and women to join him, sometimes at his home or studio, where he then dominated and controlled them physically, sexually and psychologically.

The prosecutor said Kelly would often record sex acts with minors as he controlled a racketeering enterprise of individuals who were loyal and devoted to him, eager to fulfill each and everyone one of the defendants wishes and demands."

What his success and popularity brought him was access, access to girls, boys and young women, she said.

But Kelly's attorney, Nicole Blank Becker, portrayed her client as a victim of women, some of whom enjoyed the notoriety of being able to tell their friends that they were with a superstar.

He didnt recruit them. They were fans. They came to Mr. Kelly, she said, urging jurors to closely scrutinize the testimony. They knew exactly what they were getting into. It was no secret Mr. Kelly had multiple girlfriends. He was quite transparent.

It would be a stretch to believe he orchestrated an elaborate criminal enterprise, like a mob boss, the lawyer said.

Becker warned jurors they'll have to sort through a mess of lies" from women with an agenda.

Dont assume everybodys telling the truth," she said.

The remarks fit a theme set by the defense in court papers prior to the trial describing Kellys alleged victims as groupies who turned up at his shows and made it known they were dying to be with him. The women only started accusing him of abuse years later when public sentiment shifted against him, they said.

Kelly, 54, is perhaps best known for his smash hit I Believe I Can Fly, a 1996 song that became an inspirational anthem played at school graduations, weddings, advertisements and elsewhere.

The openings and testimony came more than a decade after Kelly was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago. It was a reprieve that allowed his music career to continue until the #MeToo era caught up with him, emboldening alleged victims to come forward.

The women's stories got wide exposure with the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly." The series explored how an entourage of supporters protected Kelly and silenced his victims for decades, foreshadowing the federal racketeering conspiracy case that landed Kelly in jail in 2019.

Prosecutors in Brooklyn have lined up multiple female accusers  mostly referred to in court as Jane Does  and cooperating former associates who have never spoken publicly before about their experiences with Kelly.

They're expected to offer testimony about how Kelly's managers, bodyguards and other employees helped him recruit women and girls  and sometimes boys  for sexual exploitation. They say the group selected victims at concerts and other venues and arranged for them to travel to see Kelly in the New York City area and elsewhere, in violation of the Mann Act, the 1910 law that made it illegal to transport any woman or girl across state lines for any immoral purpose."

An anonymous jury made up of seven men and five women was sworn in to hear the case. The trial, coming after several delays due mostly to the pandemic, unfolds under coronavirus precautions restricting the press and the public to overflow courtrooms with video feeds.

The New York case is only part of the legal peril facing the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

___

AP writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP)  A new film reveals and renews the tensions that went into creating the Sept. 11 museum beneath the memorial waterfalls and reflecting pool at the World Trade Center.

Unhappy museum officials have objected and sought changes to The Outsider, a documentary being released this week that reveals conflicting visions behind the New York landmark, which opened in 2014.

The film becomes public Thursday through an unusual venue  Facebook, which will stream it to users for $3.99. Following that, it will be available in some theaters and on other streaming services leading up the 20th anniversary of the attack.

The outsider is Michael Shulan, former creative director at the museum, who was often at odds with Alice Greenwald, current president and CEO, and her allies. The two worked for several years on its development and grew to have fundamental differences on how the story should be presented.

Essentially, Shulan felt the museum should be more welcoming, and better address what led up to the attack and its aftermath  wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and restrictions on personal liberty in the U.S. Some critics feel the facility now is hard to stomach with a concentration on the horrors of the day.

Michael wanted to engender questions, narrator Bob Garfield says in the film. Alice wanted to provide answers.

The husband-and-wife filmmakers, Steven Rosenbaum and Pamela Yoder, have their own history documenting Sept. 11, 2001. Their company was filming a show for Animal Planet in Manhattan that day, but pivoted after the planes hit. Rosenbaum told his crews to film what was happening in the street. That material and other crowd-sourced video was used for the 2002 film, 7 Days in September.

In 2008, they granted rights to the museum to use what it wanted of the 500 hours of video collected that week. In return, they were offered behind-the-scenes access to the museum's work with thoughts that it could make an interesting film in itself.

It was meant to be an observational documentary, Rosenbaum said. For the first two years, the museum was what we were told it was going to be.

Shulan, not part of the world of museums and curation, was recruited for his job after he opened a photo gallery of work from 9/11. He was an outsider. He became frustrated with those museum professionals and, clearly, they with him.

The filmmakers took his side in the dispute, and said they don't like what the museum has become.

It's nationalistic, belligerent and grievance-based, Rosenbaum said. If you went, you would wind up feeling sad and angry, and is that what a museum is supposed to do?

Shulan declined comment on the film, other than to say he wasn't aware of its focus on him until after it was completed. He left the museum after it opened, as he always intended.

The museum's spokeswoman, Lee Cochran, said The Outsider looks at the facility through a specific ideological lens that "we do not share.

At a moment when so many institutions in the U.S. are subject to ideological and partisan divisions, the Memorial & Museum must remain a sacred place that seeks to educate and unify, Cochran said. We made clear to the filmmakers that we were disappointed by many of their decisions, which we think are disrespectful towards victims and their families.

A concentration on how 9/11 changed America would make the museum outdated as soon as it opened, the museum has argued.

Museum officials had the right to review the film, primarily for security issues, and screened it in May. A few weeks later, its lawyer sent filmmakers a lengthy list of objections.

Most have been ignored, and some seem trivial. Officials claimed, for example, that a scene showing an exchange about potential items for sale at the museum's gift shop was defamatory. They said including a staff member's offhand comment that "fruit is so much healthier than donuts would damage that person's reputation.

They also objected to filmmakers showing museum officials reviewing a harrowing audiotape of a woman in the World Trade Center talking to an emergency operator as she realizes she's about to die, and video that shows victims either jumping or falling to their deaths.

Since both were rejected for potential display, the museum said these scenes will be unnecessarily tough to watch. Filmmakers said they wanted to illustrate the type of difficult decisions the creative director and curators faced.

Besides, editorial choices are their prerogative, not the museum's, they said.

After making their objections known, the museum said it is not pursuing them further, nor making any attempt to stop the film's distribution.

Separate from the film, Rosenbaum and Yoder said they are concerned about the museum imposing restrictions on how researchers use the video that they donated. The museum said it has the right to review portrayal of the footage to ensure accuracy but isn't aware of any researcher yet requesting to see some.

That raises the question of whether a grudge against museum officials may have affected their choices in making The Outsider. Rosenbaum said the film was finished before they learned about the potential access issue.

The film's timing is difficult for the museum, which has seen attendance drop because of the pandemic and cut back jobs and days that it is open.

Going to Facebook to first distribute the film is a novel approach and something of a test run, since it is believed to be the first time it has been tried. Filmmakers said they aren't aware that Facebook is promoting The Outsider.

It could be millions of audience members or it could be 35, Rosenbaum said. It's impossible to know and it's gut-wrenching.

The film will be in some theaters on Friday, then on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play.
HARTFORD  Police are investigating a shooting that hospitalized a man late Monday morning.

Officers were dispatched to the area around 593 Broad Street on a Shot Spotter activation, around 10:51 a.m., according to police.

While police were on the scene, a local hospital notified dispatch that a victim with gunshot wounds arrived for treatment, police said.

The victim, a male in his twenties, suffered from two non-life threatening gunshot wounds, according to police.

The Hartford Police Major Crimes and Crime Scene Divisions responded and assumed the investigation.

The investigation remains active and ongoing. Anyone with any information regarding the case is asked to call the HPD Tip Line at 860-722-TIPS (8477).

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
The federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter protesters via heavy-handed criminal prosecutions in an attempt to disrupt and discourage the global movement that swept the nation last summer in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, according to a new report released Wednesday by The Movement for Black Lives.

Movement leaders and experts said the prosecution of protesters over the past year continues a century-long practice by the federal government, rooted in structural racism, to suppress Black social movements via the use of surveillance tactics and other mechanisms.

The empirical data and findings in this report largely corroborate what Black organizers have long known intellectually, intuitively, and from lived experience about the federal governments disparate policing and prosecution of racial justice protests and related activity, the report stated.

The report, which was first shared with The Associated Press, argues that as the uprisings in the summer of 2020 increased, so did police presence, the deployment of federal agents and prosecution of protesters.

Titled Struggle For Power: The Ongoing Persecution of Black Movement By The U.S. Government," the report details how policing has been used historically as a major tool to deter Black people from engaging in their right to protest and weaken efforts to draw attention to issues impacting Black Americans. It also drew a comparison to how the government used Counterintelligence Program techniques to disrupt the work of the Black Panther Party and other organizations fighting for Black liberation.

We want to really show how the U.S. government has continued to persecute the Black movement by surveillance, by criminalizing protests, and by using the criminal legal system to prevent people from protesting and punishing them for being engaged in protests by attempting to curtail their First Amendment rights, said Amara Enyia, The Movement for Black Lives' policy research coordinator.

It is undeniable that racism plays a role," Enyia said. It is structurally built into the fabric of this country and its institutions, which is why its been so difficult to eradicate. Its based on institutions that were designed around racism and around the devaluing of Black people and the devaluing of Black lives.

In the report, published in partnership with the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility clinic at City University of New York School of Law, The Movement for Black Lives is calling for amnesty for all protesters involved in the nationwide protests.

The group, also known as M4BL, is demanding reparations from the government that includes an acknowledgment and an apology for the long history of targeting movements in support of Black life and Black liberation. It also is pushing for passage of the BREATHE Act, proposed federal legislation that would radically transform the nations criminal justice system, and ending the use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces in local communities.

The report also points to the stark difference in how the government handled the COVID-19 protests against local government shutdowns and mask mandates amid the pandemic during the same period. It analyzes 326 criminal cases initiated by U.S. federal prosecutors over alleged conduct related to protests in the wake of Floyd's murder and the police killings of other Black Americans, from May 31, 2020, to Oct. 25, 2020.

A key finding of the report was that the push to use federal charges against protesters came from top-down directives from former President Donald Trump and former Attorney General William Barr. M4BL and the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility clinic, also known as CLEAR, found that in 92.6% of the cases, there were equivalent state level charges that could have been brought against defendants.

Among those cases where comparable state level charges could have been brought, 88% of the federal criminal charges carried more severe potential sentences than the equivalent state criminal charges for the same or similar conduct.

We saw U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr overnight go from expressing some level of sympathy for racial justice protesters to labeling them as radical and violent agitators with absolutely no basis for that sort of characterization, said Ramzi Kassem, founding director of CLEAR and a law professor at the City University of New York, adding that Barr and Trump used the arrests and prosecutions to justify the hostile rhetoric aimed at protesters. All of this was very transparently aimed at disrupting a Black-led movement for social justice that was happening both spontaneously and in an organized fashion nationwide.

Race data was only available for 27%, or 89 of the defendants. And of that number, 52% were identified as Black. Of the Black defendants, 91% were identified as male.

The known proportion of Black defendants compared to the proportion of Black people in the United States, per the latest census data, indicates that Black defendants were dramatically overrepresented, the report stated.

Seventy-two cases, or 22.1%, involved charges with mandatory minimum sentences. And 67 cases, or 20.6%, involved offenses where defendants are alleged to have attempted, conspired, or aided and abetted an underlying crime without having actually committed the underlying criminal conduct.

Portland, Oregon, led in the number of charges brought for protest-related activity, making up 29% of federal charges. Chicago, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis followed.

Richard Wallace, founder of Equity and Transformation in Chicago, said over the past summer he witnessed overly aggressive policing by law enforcement officers who levied accusations of rioting and looting at protesters who were peacefully protesting. Wallace said he is deeply concerned for those who have been charged.

Coming from Chicago, where (Black Panther Party leader) Fred Hampton was killed and where, Martin Luther King came and said this is one of the most segregated cities he ever saw, we have a very keen historic lens as it relates to state violence, and Black movement, said Wallace, whose organization, also known as EAT, was founded by and for formerly incarcerated and marginalized Black people and focuses on individuals who operate within the informal economy.

What we saw in Illinois and across the country was this reverberation of Black power. And so, at all costs, the state is about dismantling that right, dismantling that in every possible way," he said.

The report also raises concerns about the involvement of Joint Terrorism Task Forces and found 20 cases that explicitly referenced task force involvement. The government greatly exaggerated the threat of violence from protesters, the report says.

Makia Green, a liberation organizer and co-conductor of the Washington D.C.-based group Harriets Wildest Dreams, fully supports the report's findings and calls for action. Green believes President Joe Biden needs to fulfill his campaign pledges of supporting Black Americans and addressing the root causes of white supremacy, by pushing for amnesty for protesters. Green said Congress also needs to support legislation to overhaul the criminal justice system.

Regardless of how we are often painted, activists are people who have the audacity to believe that we can live in a better world, where people are safe, where people are not afraid of being murdered by the police, Green said. There are attempts to stifle our movement but it is truly a reflection to our supporters, to our allies, and to the folks who showed up in the streets last year, of how beautiful and powerful this movement is.

___

Stafford reported from Detroit. She is a national investigative writer with The Associated Press Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/Kat__Stafford.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)  In his position of authority, the former head of the Khmer Rouge shared joint culpability for the regime's atrocities in Cambodia in the 1970s, prosecutors said Wednesday, rejecting defense arguments that he should not be held responsible.

Khieu Samphan, 90, is appealing his 2018 conviction for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is the last surviving member of the inner circle of Pol Pot's radical communist regime that ruled Cambodia with an iron fist from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.

His defense team has argued there were procedural errors in the original Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia trial and challenged the evidence against him.

In the third day of arguments Wednesday, defense attorney Anta Guisse questioned the use of the principle of joint criminal enterprise in his conviction, under which individuals can be held responsible for the actions of a group to which they belong.

Guisse told the international tribunal the reasoning was hazardous, arguing that it replaces belonging to a political project with a criminal objective and intent to commit a crime.

The court, she said had to establish that he intended to commit a crime and that he associated with other persons in order to achieve this objective and, furthermore, that he broadly contributed to the crime.

Short of that, she said, one cannot say that there was proof, that there was intent, to commit the crimes.

Khieu Samphan sat behind Guisse as she spoke, wearing earphones to hear the proceedings and a mask as part of the COVID-19 precautions.

Prosecutor William Smith rejected her argument, telling the ECCCs Supreme Court chamber that precedent from trials of war crimes from the former Yugoslavia had established that it's not required to show a defendant had knowledge of specific incidents.

Indeed, it would be artificial, impractical and defeat the purpose of having (joint criminal) liability in the first place to require the precise intent or precise knowledge of each and every crime committed in the course of a large-scale ongoing joint criminal enterprise," Smith argued. "As long as the appellant intended, or was aware of the general types of crimes being committed pursuant to the common purpose, that is all that is required.

After being ousted from power in 1979, the Khmer Rouge waged guerrilla warfare for another two decades before disintegrating. Pol Pot died in the jungle in 1998, and on Dec. 24 of that year, Khieu Samphan surrendered along with Nuon Chea, the movements chief ideologue.

Nuon Chea was considered Pol Pots right-hand man, while Khieu Samphan as head of state presented a moderate veneer as the public face for the highly secretive group.

Nuon Chea was convicted alongside Khieu Samphan in 2018 and died the following year.

The defendant is scheduled to address the tribunal on Thursday, the last day of the four-day hearing on his appeal. A verdict is not expected until next year.

Even if the conviction is overturned, Khieu Samphan is already serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2014 of crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people. That conviction was upheld on appeal in 2016.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok.
With the release of new census data needed by states to move forward with redistricting, the official 90-day period to create a new congressional map for Montana has begun.

The Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission on Tuesday officially accessed the census data it needed in order to begin the process of splitting the state into two congressional districts, marking the beginning of the countdown to Nov. 15, when a final map must be filed with the Secretary of States office.

A motion was put forth by Commissioner Jeff Essman at the beginning of the meeting, making the countdown official.

With the clock beginning to tick toward the endgame of creating a new congressional map, the commission discussed how the public could submit maps, along with the timeline for submission and workflow.

Whether people submitting maps could be anonymous was a hot topic.

We need to keep Montana on the level where Montanans as citizens are not afraid to express their positions on an issue without getting a lot of public kickback, Commissioner Joe Lamson said.

Essmann argued that when people engage in a public meeting or public process, they identify themselves. He then offered a solution, where people submitting maps would have their name on it, but the commission would decide by a majority vote on what maps to put forward for public comment.

Lamson disagreed with the majority vote aspect of Essmans point, arguing that a public map submission is akin to submitting a piece of legislation. Majority votes arent taken to submit legislation and move the process forward, Lamson said.

Ultimately, the commissioners all agreed that they did not want to put a target on anyones back but that keeping the submissions completely anonymous may be unavoidable.

Emotions may get high in this process, and we should certainly do what we can to shield those that want to be involved, said Commissioner Dan Stusek.

Essmann also provided a calendar highlighting that Sept. 15 is a soft deadline for public map submission. A key discussion on the tentative calendar was ensuring that the public would have ample opportunity to engage in the process, through map submissions and public comment on maps put forward by the commission. A rough final meeting date was set for Nov. 9, to give time for public comment on a tentative final map submission.

The point of the soft deadline is to encourage people, but not a hard deadline limiting public participation, said Commissioner Kendra Miller.

If the commission fails to hit the 90-day deadline, it could mean a higher level of legal liability for the final map that they produce. But Lamson feels confident that wont happen.

This is not rocket science, were not putting a person on the moon, Lamson said in an interview. Were just drawing a line on a map of Montana.
On this date in 1947, two friends who met as Stanford University undergrads filed articles of incorporation for a new company. The firm had been launched nearly a decade earlier as a partnership between pals with no venture capital fund behind them and no specific idea of the products they wanted to invent. The sum total of their assets consisted of $538 in start-up money from friends and family and a physical plant consisting of a rented car shed on Addison Street in the then-sleepy college town of Palo Alto, Calif.

The new enterprise was named after its founders, who proved to be inspiring bosses with novel ideas about business management. For one thing, they believed corporations have a responsibility for the welfare of their employees. The young men didn't stand on ceremony, either. Having embraced the relaxed social customs of their adopted home state, they insisted that their colleagues call them "Dave" and "Bill."

We know them as David Packard and William Hewlett, and their company as Hewlett-Packard.

When HP was incorporated, Packard was installed as president and Hewlett as vice president. So why wasn't the company known as Packard-Hewlett? This bit of historical trivia is a nugget of Silicon Valley lore. The answer is that they flipped a coin. I wrote about HP's founding five years ago in this space, but given the nation's current uneasiness about Big Tech, I thought the origin story of Silicon Valley is worth reprising.

Silicon Valley, as we know it, had many founders, and two rival historical strains. One of them traces its lineage to Stanford University; the other to the creation of Intel, the company started by Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore in 1968.

To summarize a complex legacy in a sentence or two: Intel's claim to fame is that the company and its founders invented and then mass-produced semiconductors, the micro-device that gave Silicon Valley its very name, generating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and industries and launching the modern technology revolution. How ubiquitous are these computer chips? Well, we can't communicate electronically -- or even build cars anymore -- without 'em.

The case for Stanford's genesis in the formation of the Digital Age? First, several of its tech-savvy scions predated the invention of the integrated chip by three decades; and second, they laid the groundwork for the Western-based electronics industry that made Northern California such a fertile launching pad for new ideas and innovation.

Looking at the history of the tech industry this way, a Stanford professor named Fred Terman can be described as the George Washington, or perhaps the Thomas Jefferson, of Silicon Valley.

In the mid-1930s, Terman held out to promising engineering students the possibility of helping them start businesses after graduation so they would stick around the San Francisco Bay Area. But the Depression put a premium on securing gainful employment or a safe academic sinecure, so upon graduation two of Terman's brightest proteges, Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett, did what young men in the West did in those days -- they accepted positions back East. Packard was snapped up by General Electric, Hewlett went on to grad school at MIT.

Terman lured them back to Stanford with scholarship money and part-time jobs on campus, in hopes that they would start something big. Professor Terman also gave the lads an idea for the product that would prove to be their first big sale. It was called an audio oscillator, and in 1939 a fellow entrepreneur, this one from Hollywood, bought eight of them.

His name was Walt Disney, and he needed the state-of-the-art devices for a picture he was making. It was called "Fantasia."

Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics. Reach him on Twitter @CarlCannon.
The government has announced it will end live exports for all purposes but breeding and introduce new measures to improve the welfare of farm animals transported live internally.

Defra and the Welsh government today (18 August) announced the development, despite some concern from farming industry groups.

The new measures will end the live exports of farm animals for slaughter and further fattening from Great Britain to anywhere in the world.

Internal transport will also be improved, including reduced maximum journey times, better space allowances such as more headroom, and stricter rules during extreme weather.

The ban on live animal exports could be delivered as early as January 2022 as the legislation is already going through parliament.

Every year thousands of farm animals are exported from the Port of Ramsgate in Kent to be driven across Europe.

But farming groups have warned that the significant regulatory change could potentially have a major impact on the UK food supply chain.

The Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) has said that a live export ban could 'cut off an essential lifeline' for sheep producers.

President Glyn Roberts: We fully appreciate peoples concerns about live exports, but we must bear in mind that the EU has legal welfare standards which are the highest in the world, and these apply both here and on mainland Europe."

According to Ruminant Health & Welfare (RH&W)  whose members represent the breadth of the supply chain  a ban on live exports would have far-reaching consequences.

It urged the government to build regional abattoir capacity in response: "Defra should, if a ban is implemented, take responsibility for the impact on businesses," said chairman Nigel Miller.

But the RSPCA, which has been campaigning on the issue of live exports for more than 50 years, welcomed the government's announcement.

The charity's chief executive Chris Sherwood said: There is absolutely no reasonable justification to subject an animal to an unnecessarily stressful journey abroad simply for them to be fattened for slaughter.

This is a victory for every single person who has signed a petition, demonstrated at the docks, wrote to their MPs and leaders and most importantly for the animals.

We also welcome tighter controls over transporting live animals within Great Britain as its a time when they can suffer stress and injury and their welfare needs to be protected.
Livestock rustlers have stolen up to 45 sheep from a Cheshire farm as police issue an appeal to the public for more information.

Up to 45 sheep were stolen from a field in Northwich over the weekend (14 August), according to Cheshire Police Rural Crime Team.

The cost of the theft is over 8,000, not counting any of the costs and time involved in nurturing and breeding the lambs.

The team have encouraged the general public to report any suspicious activity around farms or livestock.

Cheshire Police Rural Crime team said: The investigation is ongoing, with a number of lines of enquiry being completed along with checking of the surrounding area.

"We will continue to stop vehicles carrying livestock and we would ask the public to report any suspicious activities around your farms or livestock.

"We are especially keen to identify livestock wagons or trailers that appear unfamiliar.

"Livestock thefts of any sort are cruel, to the farmer that has taken time to raise their livestock, and to the animals which may be handled incorrectly."

Figures by NFU Mutual have revealed that animals worth an estimated 2.3m were stolen from UK farms in 2020, making it one of the most costliest crimes for farmers.

Overall, livestock rustling remains one of the most costly crimes for British farmers after vehicle and machinery theft.
A new, free service will help farmers gain advice and support to help them prepare for the biggest agricultural policy shift in a generation.

AHDBs team and a network of consultants will offer one-to-one advice to help farmers assess the impact of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) changes, and work out next steps to develop their businesses.

The Farm Business Review tool will show how the loss of these payments will impact individual farms, allowing farmers to evaluate both their business resilience and performance.

There will also be opportunities to take part in meetings with other farmers who are in the same boat.

The service is designed for beef, sheep, dairy, cereals and oilseeds producers  sectors most affected by the removal of BPS income.

Based on the results generated by the tool, AHDB will also offer on-farm advice to 600 of those with the greatest need for additional support in specific areas of their business, such as full-farm benchmarking and carbon audits.

AHDB's head of business resilience, Steve Dunkley said: With reductions in BPS payments having started, taking a wait-and-see approach isnt an option for farmers who have been most dependant on this income.

Reviewing your business and working out what needs to be done to create a secure future for you and your family should be a top priority."

AHDB advises farmers and growers to register in order to benefit. The service runs until February 2022.
The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.
Fountain Hills, AZ (85268)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 74F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 74F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
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SAP experts from FPT will be responsible for providing comprehensive services from consulting to the implementation of the in-memory system SAP S/4HANA

FPT Europe, a subsidiary of the global technology services provider FPT Corporation, has announced the collaboration with innogy Czech, a leading energy company providing natural gas, electricity and heating solutions, as well as clean mobility solutions, to migrate the innogy Czech's entire SAP R/3-based ERP infrastructure to the SaaS cloud. As the general contractor of the project, FPT will support the customer to migrate the current system to SAP S/4HANA as part of the greenfield approach. The goal is thus a complete redesign of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which is business-critical for innogy Czech, including streamlining and simplifying all processes automated in the system. FPT is responsible for the entire scope of the project, from consulting to planning and implementation.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210817005685/en/

The image features F-Town 3 FPT's Campus in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. FPT currently has global presence in 26 countries across Asia Pacific, Australasia, U.S. and Europe. With the delivery centers in Slovakia and Czech Republic, FPT is able to offer our European-based customers the unique delivery model Bestshore Model, which combines resources from offshore (Vietnam, Philippines and India), nearshore (Slovakia, Czech Republic) and onsite (Germany, UK, Belgium, Netherlands) for optimal cost structure and more efficient communication as well as project management.

"We entrusted FPT with the upgrade of our SAP system to S/4 HANA because of the company's expertise, technical capabilities and years of experience in the industry," says Milos Dusek, Senior Manager of Corporate Applications at innogy Ceska republika. "The project is of great strategic importance for innogy. FPT has proven to be a reliable strategic partner for us and has put together a qualified team to ensure that the first part of the project will be delivered successfully by the end of 2021."

Lighthouse project in the growing market of SAP S/4HANA

The aim of the project is to replace the current SAP ERP system used by innogy Czech in version R/3 ERP Central Component 6.0 EhP 8, which has so far been based on HANA DB2, with S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition. "SAP made an announcement that the company will end the support for its on-premises solutions by 2027. Many companies therefore would want to migrate their system to S/4 HANA in a timely manner," explains Andy Do, Deputy Director/Head of Delivery at FPT Europe. "FPT has strong expertise and many years of experience in cloud migration as well as SAP migration projects, but the project with innogy Czech can be considered as one of the largest end-to-end S/4HANA migration projects for us. It offers FPT a great opportunity to position ourselves as a trusted partner in the field of SAP S/4HANA migration."

The scope of work mentioned above will be applied for 5 companies within innogy Czech Republic group, including innogy Ceska republika a.s., innogy Zakaznicke sluzby, s.r.o., innogy Energie, s.r.o., innogy Energo, s.r.o. and innogy Energetika Plhov-Nachod, s.r.o.

FPT has more than 20 years of experience in providing services related to SAP. With a pool of more than 300 functional and 250 technical consultants, FPT has successfully implemented and rolled out SAP systems for customers in Southeast Asia, Japan and Europe. With SAP S/4HANA, FPT offers a wide range of services such as development, implementation and rollout. FPT also offers its own solutions in the field of Application Managed Services (AMS). FPT's services in the areas of SAP migration, SAP customization, SAP rollout and SAP Automation Testing help its customers assure smooth and efficient implementation of SAP S/4HANA.

About FPT Europe

FPT Europe, based in Essen, Germany is a part of FPT Corporation a technology and IT services provider headquartered in Vietnam with nearly US$2 billion in revenue and 36,000 employees. Being a pioneer in digital transformation, the company delivers world-class services in Smart factory, Digital platforms, RPA, AI, IoT, Data Analytics, Mobility, Cloud, Managed Services, Testing. FPT Software has served over 700 customers worldwide, 100 of which are Fortune 500 companies in the industries of Aerospace Aviation, Automotive, Banking and Finance, Communications, Media and Services, Logistics Transportation, Utilities, Consumer Packaged Goods, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Public sector, Technology and so on. Established in 2012, FPT Europe has become technology partners of 50 leading companies including Siemens, RWE, Allianz, Schaeffler, Airbus, Carlsberg and many more. For other information, please visit: www.fpt-europe.de

About innogy Czech

innogy Ceska republika is a leading energy company in the Czech Republic owned by the largest Hungarian energy group MVM. innogy supplies 1.6 million customers with energy and energy-related innovative services. First class customer service is provided by own call centres and a chain of customer service centres. In addition to gas and electricity supplies, innogy produces heat and electricity in heating plants across the country with an annual heat production of 900,000 GJ. Aside from the core business, innogy focuses on clean mobility, photovoltaics and energy management services. With a nationwide network of 60+ filling stations, own CNG technology production and more than 10 million kg CNG sold annually, innogy is a strong market leader. innogy is also building up a solid position in the fast-growing solar power plants market. The company employs 1,500 highly skilled people and the innogy brand is known to more than 90% of the Czech population.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210817005685/en/

Contacts:

FPT Deutschland GmbH

Linh Thi Khanh Pham

Head of Marketing

linhptk@fsoft.com.vn
SES's O3b mPOWER medium earth orbit satellite system to provide additional network diversity, service resiliency and gigabit connectivity as more critical workloads move to cloud

SES today announced Microsoft as the first cloud provider customer for its next-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system O3b mPOWER. Microsoft plans to leverage the MEO high-performance connectivity services to showcase its Azure Orbital solutions that integrate satellite connectivity with Azure services. Microsoft will use SES's current MEO to provide connectivity now before migrating to O3b mPOWER next year.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210817005926/en/

SES's O3b mPOWER Tapped by Microsoft for Azure Network Cloud Services (Photo: Business Wire)

SES's current O3b and upcoming O3b mPOWER systems operate in the medium earth orbit, around 8,000 km above earth's surface. When fully operational in 2022, O3b mPOWER will deliver an unprecedented increase of flexibility and throughput speed and capacity to any Azure Network locations on earth.

"Utilising SES' medium earth orbit system enhances the power of Azure Orbital and enables us to deliver greater resiliency and comprehensive satellite connectivity solutions for our customers," said William Chappell, Vice President of Azure Global, Microsoft. "Our collaboration with SES is key to delivering on our vision of multi-orbit, cloud-enabled capability to meet critical industry needs."

"Microsoft deploying our ground-breaking O3b mPOWER system is yet another step in our collaboration to bring high-performance, low latency Azure cloud services to customers around the globe," said JP Hemingway, CEO of SES Networks. "O3b mPOWER will introduce new levels of cloud-scale satellite connectivity, intelligent automation and managed services that extend the reach and unleash the capabilities of cloud players like never before."

Microsoft's plans to deploy O3b mPOWER at Azure Network locations is another step in the close collaboration between the two companies. SES is co-locating four of its O3b mPOWER gateways at or near Azure data centres; is the founding medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite connectivity partner for Microsoft Azure Orbital; is an Azure ExpressRoute for satellite partner; and is the first satellite operator to implement Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) using NFV technology on Azure.

Gaining momentum with O3b mPOWER

As the O3b mPOWER launch approaches later this year, the system continues to gain traction with customers across geographies and market segments. In addition to Microsoft Azure as the first cloud provider, other O3b mPOWER customers include Orange for enhanced enterprise and mobile networks, and major mega cruise operators such as Carnival and Virgin Voyages.

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About SES

SES has a bold vision to deliver amazing experiences everywhere on earth by distributing the highest quality video content and providing seamless connectivity around the world. As the leader in global content connectivity solutions, SES operates the world's only multi-orbit constellation of satellites with the unique combination of global coverage and high performance, including the commercially-proven, low-latency Medium Earth Orbit O3b system. By leveraging a vast and intelligent, cloud-enabled network, SES is able to deliver high-quality connectivity solutions anywhere on land, at sea or in the air, and is a trusted partner to the world's leading telecommunications companies, mobile network operators, governments, connectivity and cloud service providers, broadcasters, video platform operators and content owners. SES's video network carries over 8,650 channels and has an unparalleled reach of 361 million households, delivering managed media services for both linear and non-linear content. The company is listed on Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges (Ticker: SESG). Further information is available at: www.ses.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210817005926/en/

Contacts:

Suzanne Ong

External Communications

Tel. +352 710 725 500

suzanne.ong@ses.com
smartTrade Technologies, a leading provider of multi-asset electronic trading solutions, has once again won Best FX Aggregator for its LiquidityFX platform at the FX Markets Asia Awards 2021.

smartTrade Liquidity FX provides sophisticated cross-asset aggregation for banks and brokers operating in regional FX markets. The product supports a combination of currencies, order types and price tiering, with venue co-location in London, New York and Tokyo delivering low latency to market. A truly multi-asset-class product, LiquidityFX supports a range of instruments including FX Spot, Forwards, Swaps, NDFS, Cryptocurrencies and Options.

The FX Markets Asia Awards recognise the best banks, dealers, brokers and currency managers in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing this year on firms which developed unique and innovative ways to respond to industry needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

smartTrade was lauded for its unique value proposition of being the only FX aggregator developed in Asia, as well as for its focus on technology that offers optimum performance in terms of system capacity and latency.

Prior to winning the same award last year, smartTrade was named Best Liquidity Aggregation System Provider at the FX Markets eFX Awards 2019.

David Vincent, CEO of smartTrade Technologies said, "We are proud to receive the Award for Best FX Aggregator once again. The expansion of our local presence underlines our commitment to the Asia-Pacific region particularly important in crisis situations such as we experienced last year.

"As the regional FX ecosystem continues to evolve, customers in Asia are now requesting ever more sophisticated functionality. smartTrade is committed to enhancing and developing our platform to ensure that our product remains the FX aggregator of choice in the region."

About smartTrade

smartTrade Technologies, pioneer of multi-asset electronic trading solutions, offers innovative technology allowing you to focus on your trading and grow your business while quickly adapting to changing market requirements.

smartTrade provides agile end-to-end trading solutions supporting Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Equities, Derivatives (including Options), Cryptocurrencies and Money Markets. Our solutions offer connectivity to over 130 liquidity providers, aggregation, smart order routing, order management, pricing, distribution, risk management and fully customizable HTML5 user interface.

smartTrade works with a variety of clients ranging from banks, brokers and asset managers to corporate firms. LiquidityFX for Foreign Exchange and smartFI for Fixed Income are provided as a fully managed and hosted service, colocated in all the main marketplaces globally.

smartAnalytics, our multi-asset Big Data analysis solution, allows the creation of historical or real time dashboards and reports to interact more effectively with markets and end customers.

For more information, visit www.smart-trade.net

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005005/en/

Contacts:

Lara Michel Head of Marketing smartTrade Technologies lmichel@smart-trade.net
Pre-Stabilisation notice

August 18, 2021

Not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or any jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG

 500mn Mortgage Pfandbrief due 2026

Pre-Stabilisation Notice

Commerzbank AG (contact: Daniela Olt-Farrelly; telephone: +49 69 13620) hereby announces, as Stabilisation Coordinator, that the Stabilising Managers named below may stabilise the offer of the following securities in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052 under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU Regulation 596/2014).

The security to be stabilised: Issuer: Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG Guarantor (if any): none Aggregate nominal amount:  500,000,000 Description: Fixed rate Mortgage Pfandbrief due 2026 Offer price: tbc Other offer terms: Maturity 25 Aug 2026; payment date 25 Aug 2021; denoms 100k/100k, DIP Stabilisation: Stabilisation Coordinator:

Stabilising Managers: Commerzbank AG

BayernLB

Erste Group Bank

Helaba

UBS Stabilisation period expected to start on: August 18, 2021 Stabilisation period expected to end on: no later than 30 days after the proposed issue date of the securities Existence, maximum size and conditions of use of over-allotment facility. The Stabilising Managers may over-allot the securities to the extent permitted in accordance with applicable law. Stabilisation trading venue: Munich

In connection with the offer of the above securities, the Stabilising Manager(s) may over-allot the securities or effect transactions with a view to supporting the market price of the securities during the stabilisation period at a level higher than that which might otherwise prevail. However, stabilisation may not necessarily occur and any stabilisation action, if begun, may cease at any time Any stabilisation action or over-allotment shall be conducted in accordance with all applicable laws and rules.

This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to underwrite, subscribe for or otherwise acquire or dispose of any securities of the Issuer in any jurisdiction.

This announcement is not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or any other jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful.

END
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Defence Therapeutics Inc. (CSE: DTC) ("Defence" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce, that after a detailed and rigorous selection process, very strong and promising results of its bests AccumTM variants has been identified.

Defence's has tested 43 AccumTM variants conjugated to T-DM1 with a low conjugation ratio (1-4 AccumTM per T-DM1) in order to select the best ones to pursue our selection of the optimized Accum-T-DM1 conjugate based on in vitro assessments. These studies highlight the additive effect of the AccumTM technology and guide the selection of the optimal Accum-T-DM1 in vivo testing on breast and gastric cancer models.

On the 43 AccumTM variants tested, we have selected the 8 best which will be sent this week to our collaborator at the HUS Comprehensive Cancer Center in Helsinki, Finland for the optimization of Defence's Accum-T-DM1 ADC Therapeutic. The 8 selected Accum-T-DM1 increases the potency of T-DM1 by at least 5-fold on the HER2 positive breast cancer Trastuzumab and T-DM1 resistant cell line model named JIMT-1. At concentration of 1.0 ug/ml, T-DM1 only induce approximatively 10% of cytotoxicity comparatively to Accum-T-DM1 variants that increase the cytotoxicity by 40-70%. Our Collaborator will also do a head-to-head comparison to the new ADC Enhertu owned by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo. Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki) is a newcomer ADC designed to treat HER2 heterogeneous tumors through a bystander effect.

Defence's AccumTM platform has been developed and tested in vitro to enhance the intracellular drug delivery on multiple ADCs that are FDA approved or under development. In that regard, Defence is also pleased to announce the commencement of a new study project to test the AccumTM variants on the recent ADC Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki) owned by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo. Defence's scientific team believes the AccumTM will increase the routing and delivery of the deruxtecan to the nucleus and consequently will increase more significantly the potency of ADC from which the drug targets the nucleus protein/process compared to T-DM1 targeting microtubule (a cytoplasmic and non-nucleus protein machinery). Deruxtecan is a small toxic drug inhibitor targeting the nuclear protein named topoisomerase I.

"The 8 selected AccumTM variants produced very impressive results that confirms the strength and optimization of our AccumTM platform in the ADC field of therapeutics against breast and gastric cancer. The versatility of our AccumTM platform and variants gives us a solid competitive advantage" said Sebastien Plouffe, Chief Executive Officer of Defence Therapeutics.

About Defence:

Defence Therapeutics is a publicly-traded biotechnology company working on engineering the next generation vaccines and ADC products using its proprietary platform. The core of Defence Therapeutics platform is the ACCUMTM technology, which enables precision delivery of vaccine antigens or ADCs in their intact form to target cells by inducing their entrapment escape. As a result, increased efficacy and potency can be reached against catastrophic illness such as cancer and infectious diseases.

For further information:

Sebastien Plouffe, President, CEO and Director

P: (514) 947-2272

Splouffe@defencetherapeutics.com

www.defencetherapeutics.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking 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. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

Neither the CSE nor its market regulator, as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE, accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93403
Herzliya, Israel and Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Innocan Pharma Corporation (CSE: INNO) (FSE: IP4) (OTCQB: INNPF) (the "Company" or "Innocan"), is pleased to announce that, following the early indications of its CBD Loaded Exosomes platform (CLX), the Company has issued a notice to Ramot, the Technology Transfer Company of Tel Aviv University (TAU), declaring the Company's intention to exercise its option to enter into a full Research and License Agreement with Ramot (the "Agreement").



Figure #1 (left): Prof. Dani Offen, of TAU, Iris Bincovich InnoCan CEO; Figure #2 (right): Iris Bincovich InnoCan CEO and M.S.c Nataly Yom-Tov.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1 and Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6922/93469_66bb9a763493f857_002full.jpg.

It is expected that the agreement, once entered, will grant InnoCan a worldwide exclusive license to advance and to commercialize the products that will be developed from the technology.

Given the meaningful achievements in the development of the CLX, Innocan has concluded to execute its option based on the agreement with Ramot, and to step up this deep and meaningful co-operation which serves as a significant milestone in the Company's strategic commercialization strategy.

Keren Primor Cohen, Ramot's CEO said: "I am excited about Innocan's election to exercise its option to receive a license and am looking forward to the continuation of a fruitful and meaningful collaboration with the company."

Iris Bincovich, InnoCan's CEO said: "In light of the positive and exciting results of the CLX project, Innocan is pleased to move forward with entering into the Agreement to obtain worldwide exclusive rights for the development and commercialization of products to be manufactured and marketed based on the CLX technology developed at the Tel Aviv University. Tel Aviv University has a long and successful track record of developing and commercializing innovative health care products."

InnoCan's project with TAU is aimed at developing a breakthrough technology platform that enables the delivery of cannabinoids by loading them on Exosomes to be delivered to a specific body organ.

About Innocan

Innocan Pharma is a pharmaceutical tech company that focuses on the development of several drug delivery platforms containing CBD. Innocan Pharma and Ramot at Tel Aviv University are collaborating on a new, revolutionary exosome-based technology that targets both central nervous system (CNS) indications and the Covid-19 Corona Virus using CBD. CBD-loaded exosomes hold the potential to help in the recovery of infected lung cells. This product, which is expected to be administered by inhalation, will be tested against a variety of lung infections.

Innocan Pharma signed a worldwide exclusive license agreement with Yissum, the commercial arm of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to develop a CBD drug delivery platform based on a unique-controlled release liposome to be administered by injection. Innocan Israel plans, together with Professor Berenholz, to test the liposome platform on several potential conditions. Innocan Israel is also working on a dermal product that integrates CBD with other pharmaceutical ingredients as well as the development and sale of CBD-integrated pharmaceuticals, including, but not limited to, topical treatments for the relief of psoriasis symptoms as well as the treatment of muscle pain and rheumatic pain. The founders and officers of Innocan Israel each have commercially successful track records in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors in Israel and globally.

For further information, please contact:

For Innocan Pharma Corporation:

Iris Bincovich, CEO

+972-54-3012842

info@innocanpharma.com

Lytham Partners, LLC

Ben Shamsian CPA | Vice President

Direct: 646-829-9701; Cell: 516-652-9004

shamsian@lythampartners.com

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information set forth in this news release, including, without limitation, information regarding research and development, the entering into of the Agreement, collaborations, the potential for treatment of conditions and other therapeutic effects resulting from research activities and/or the Company's products, requisite regulatory approvals, and the timing for market entry, is forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. By its nature, forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Innocan's control. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Innocan, including expectations and assumptions concerning the anticipated benefits of the products, satisfaction of regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions and satisfactory completion of requisite production and distribution arrangements.

Forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this news release. The key risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: general global and local (national) economic, market and business conditions; governmental and regulatory requirements and actions by governmental authorities; and relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, customers, business partners and competitors. There are also risks that are inherent in product distribution, including import / export matters and the failure to obtain any required regulatory and other approvals (or to do so in a timely manner) and availability in each market of product inputs and finished products. The anticipated timeline for entry to markets may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to secure necessary regulatory requirements, or the need for additional time to conclude and/or satisfy the manufacturing and distribution arrangements. As a result of the foregoing, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this news release concerning the timing of launch of product distribution. A comprehensive discussion of other risks that impact Innocan can also be found in Innocan's public reports and filings which are available under Innocan's profile at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information as actual results may vary materially from the forward-looking information. Innocan does not undertake to update, correct or revise any forward-looking information as a result of any new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93469.
mPLUS has global rank leading technologies in battery manufacturing process machines, drawing attention from Siemens.

mPLUS and Siemens are expecting a higher level quality of products and services through their integrated expertise and know-how.

CHEONGJU, South Korea, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- mPLUS CORP., the secondary battery manufacturing process machine suppliers, announced they had signed an MoU with Digital Industries (DI) at Siemens Korea (Siemens Ltd. Seoul  SLS) for collaboration in the battery industry on August 10.

Mr. Rainer Brehm, CEO of Siemens DI FA (Digital industries Factory automation), visited mPLUS head office last month to have collaboration discussion with Mr. Jongsung Kim, the CEO of mPLUS, and the management team. They mutually agreed on the higher-level technical cooperations in the battery industry.

The MoU was signed by Jongsung Kim, the CEO of mPLUS, and Thomas Schmid, Head of Digital Industries of Siemens Korea.

The signed MOU states that joint collaborations are to grow together with integrating core competences of both companies, such as mPLUS's world-class proven technologies in building battery manufacturing process machines and Siemens's state of the art technologies for future automation like digital twin and industry 4.0, in which Siemens plays a key role.

From these collaborations, mPLUS expects to expand its market presence globally and Siemens to maintain its concrete position in the battery industry as the best factory automation solution partner

A representative from mPLUS said, "This MOU shows that the global leading company had recognized mPLUS's global technological competences.", "It has significant meaning to create synergy through a technological and strategic partnership which are covered by specialized expertise in each field of both companies." And added, "In particular, it will be an advanced collaborations for complete automation of equipment and production plants, not simple hardware cooperation. Through this, we will be able to provide high-level product development and service to global customers."
Total Telecom has conducted an interview with Caroline Gabriel, research director at Analysys Mason, discussing the ongoing semiconductor innovation and how China's technical acceleration is affecting the market.

According to Caroline, the Chinese semiconductor market is a lot closer to achieving self-sufficiency than we would have predicted a couple of years ago. She explained that China's dedication to achieving that self-sufficiency has been very strong and the levels of innovation have been impressive. China will likely reach self-sufficiency for 28nm chips this year and 14nm processors next year.

Although 28nm and 14nm chips are the most widely used chips today, developing more advanced chips, like 7nm and even smaller processors, are crucially fundamental for China to play role in emerging and future technologies. Caroline believed the progress towards this goal is just a matter of time as China has proven its ability to innovate and create effective partnerships with its progress in 14nm processors.

Like China, the European Union and individual governments in Europe have set aggressive targets to achieve self-sufficiency and build an export industry, as Europe has found itself stuck in the middle of China and the US, with its domestic market's deficiencies exposed by the ongoing supply shortage. Caroline added that Europe needs to be more self-sufficient and have a more robust ecosystem, to move away from the more old-school industry that it has now.

While the semiconductor industries around the world are scaling up as rapidly as possible, the increasing geopolitical polarisation is negatively impacting the industry's recovery. Total Telecom reports the crucial importance of global collaboration, with Caroline concluding that global crises are best addressed cooperatively, with everybody pooling their resources. She also highlighted the positive signs that Chinese and European industries may work together in the future to combine their expertise and achieve greater scale.

About Total Telecom

Total Telecom offers daily online news with the option to sign up for headlines by email and monthly analysis. Total Telecom organises the annual World Communication Awards, Asia Communication Awards and a range of conferences and networking opportunities, including Submarine Networks EMEA, 5GLIVE, Connected Italy, Connected Britain, Connected Germany and the Total Telecom Congress. Find out more at www.totaltele.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005268/en/

Contacts:

Media

James Llewellyn

james.llewellyn@totaltele.com
MRO Europe will be held in-person in Amsterdam October 19-21

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2021will hold MRO Asia-PacificSeptember 20-24 as a virtual event due to current Singapore travel restrictions. The event is free to registrants and will provide expert led content, matched networking, and a marketplace where the airline, OEM, MRO and supplier communities will discover and showcase new products and innovations, connect with and source new and existing business partners, and share knowledge and best practices.



Aviation Week Network announced that MRO Europewill be held in person October 19-21 in Amsterdam and plans a host of other live events during the remainder of this calendar year, including Aero-Engines Europein Stavanger, Norway, December 1-2.

"Over the year we have pivoted many of our events to a virtual format and they have exceeded all of our expectations," said Lydia Janow, Senior Vice President of Events for Aviation Week Network. "The response from the aviation community has been tremendous with thousands of attendees making new business contacts and sales, learning about new products and sharing knowledge. We have found that the digital platform breaks down barriers and is building virtual communities that communicate throughout the year."

The MRO Asia-Pacific agendafeatures leading airline and MRO industry leaders including:

Francesco Baccarani, VP Technical, SGI Aviation Pte

Martin Fuerl, Head of Product Sales Engine Overhaul Asia, Lufthansa Technik AG

Ben Gan, Regional Marketing Executive, Rolls Royce

Colin Gregory, VP Sales, Asia & Pacific Region, AAR

Vipula Gunatilleka, CEO, Sri Lankan Airlines

Ni Jiliang, CEO, AMECO

Mary Ellen Jones, Vice President Asia Pacific Sales, Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines

Richard Kendall, Chief Commercial Officer, HAECO Group

Raymond Leung, VP Group Commercial, Group COO, AirAsia

Norbert Marx, CEO & General Manager, GAMECO

Luc Morvan, Chief Representative, MTU Maintenance Lease Services Singapore

Deepak Nagpal, Senior AGM, Air India Engineering Services

Anh Nguyen, Technical Director, Vietravel Airlines

Romulo Jr Raras, AVP - Aircraft Engineering Department. PAL Express

Vikram Reddy, GM Engineering, GE Aviation

Mario Romano, Airlines & Fleets' RSM, Asia Pacific, StandardAero

Vaira Saravanan, Regional General Manager, Customer and Product Support Organization - APAC, GE Aviation

Foo Kean Shuh, SVP Corporate Planning, Fleet Management & Commercial, SIA Engineering Company

Tan Eng Shu, EVP/Head, Aerospace MRO, Commercial Aerospace, ST Engineering

MRO Asia-Pacific sponsors are Platform: LEKi Aviation; Session: Embraerand IFS;with support from Airlines For Americaand IATA.

The conference will be held both live, Singapore Standard Time, and on demand moments later, with the Marketplace being accessible 24/7, 365 days per year. To register please visit: Register for MRO Asia-Pacific.

ABOUT AVIATION WEEK NETWORK

Aviation Week Network is the largest multimedia information and services provider for the global aviation, aerospace, and defense industries, serving 1.7 million professionals around the world. Industry professionals rely on Aviation Week Network to help them understand the market, make decisions, predict trends, and connect with people and business opportunities. Customers include the world's leading aerospace manufacturers and suppliers, airlines, airports, business aviation operators, militaries, governments and other organizations that serve this worldwide marketplace. Aviation Week Network's portfolio delivers award-winning journalism, data, intelligence and analytical resources, world-class tradeshows and conferences, and results-driven marketing services and advertising is helping our customers succeed. Aviation Week Network is part of Informa Markets, a division of Informa PLC.

ABOUT INFORMA MARKETS

Informa Markets creates platforms for industries and specialist markets to trade, innovate and grow. Our portfolio is comprised of more than 550 international B2B events and brands in markets including Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Infrastructure, Construction & Real Estate, Fashion & Apparel, Hospitality, Food & Beverage, and Health & Nutrition, among others. We provide customers and partners around the globe with opportunities to engage, experience and do business through face-to-face exhibitions, specialist digital content and actionable data solutions. As the world's leading exhibitions organiser, we bring a diverse range of specialist markets to life, unlocking opportunities and helping them to thrive 365 days of the year. For more information, please visit www.informamarkets.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Elizabeth Kelley Grace

Elizabeth@thebuzzagency.net

+1-561-702-7471
Glory invests in OneBanks to acquire a significant minority stake

Investment will underpin OneBanks' ambitions to play a leading role in the delivery of everyday banking services in the UK

Javed Anjum to join OneBanks' Board of Directors as designated representative of Glory

Jonathan Hughes to become Executive Chairman of OneBanks

GLORY LTD. (TYO: 6457), a global leader in cash technology solutions to the financial, retail and quick service restaurant industries, today announced that it will become the cornerstone investor in OneBanks, the shared branch banking innovator, as part of a Series A funding round in support of OneBanks' ambition to become a leading infrastructure player in the provision of everyday banking services. OneBanks has previously secured capital from 'angel' backers including Rupert Pennant-Rea, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, and Baroness Bottomley, the former Conservative cabinet minister.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005055/en/

OneBanks shared branch location Kilwinning, Scotland (Photo: Business Wire)

On completion of the transaction, Glory will become the lead external investor with a significant minority of the enlarged capital and Javed Anjum, Glory's head of Software Strategy Innovation will join the OneBanks Board of Directors. Anjum has over 20 years of global experience in banking technology solutions with a specific focus on helping drive the evolution of retail bank branches.

Also on completion, Jonathan Hughes, serial entrepreneur and investor in the fintech sector, will assume the role of Executive Chairman of OneBanks. Hughes has over 25 years' experience in financial services and brings an enormous fund of experience to OneBanks, having previously been part of the team that turned around Worldpay whilst it was under private equity ownership, led the creation of Tyl by NatWest, co-founded Pollinate International, and was a Partner at Bain Company.

Glory's commitment, together with additional funds being raised from existing investors, will underpin OneBanks' ambitions to become a leading player in the delivery of everyday banking services, filling the gap being created in the UK market by the progressive withdrawal from the High Street of the mainstream banks. Following the completion of the current trial of its innovative shared branch kiosk formats in three locations this year, OneBanks intends to begin full UK nationwide roll-out, expanding to 15 locations by the end of 2022 and 150 by 2025.

Using the recently introduced Open Banking standards, OneBanks has developed proprietary technology that enables multiple banks to offer services from a single physical location at significantly lower cost than a traditional branch. Participating banks' customers both personal and small business have free access to multiple transaction types all supported by a member of the OneBanks team who is recruited from the local community.

Toshimitsu Yoshinari, Chief Solutions Officer at Glory Global Solutions, said: "We have many decades of experience helping banks transform their physical branch networks using the latest technologies in response to changing consumer expectations. The mass adoption of mobile and online channels has fundamentally changed the economics of branch banking across the UK and other countries and yet consumers still value, and in many cases need, convenient access to face-to-face banking services. We are delighted to be making this investment in OneBanks as they seek to introduce, in partnership with the major UK banks, their new open banking-enabled approach to providing this service to communities across the UK through shared branches."

Duncan Cockburn, Founder and CEO of OneBanks, said: "We see a huge opportunity for us as an independent player enabling an efficient service model which will allow banks to offer better basic banking facilities in communities where they are needed. To have a leading global provider of banking technology solutions for the financial industry buying in so enthusiastically into our vision is immensely valuable particularly at this stage in our development. Access to cash and the need for human interaction are still highly valued by many in our communities. We look forward to working together with our new partners to ensure that our concept of shared branch banking gains the widespread adoption to which we aspire."

Jonathan Hughes, Executive Chairman elect of OneBanks, commented: "OneBanks is a fantastic concept, and ensuring that communities nationwide are still able to do their banking in-person is so important for financial inclusion. I am honoured to have been asked to come on board as chairman and am looking forward to helping Duncan and the team move forward on to the next exciting stage."

ends >

About GLORY

As a global leader in cash technology solutions, we provide the financial, retail, QSR, cash center and gaming industries with confidence that their cash is protected and always working to help build a stronger business.

Our cash automation technologies and process engineering services help businesses in more than 100 countries optimize the handling, movement and management of cash. While we span the globe, we personally engage with each customer to address their unique challenges and goals enhancing staff efficiency, reducing operating costs and enabling a more rewarding customer experience.

Employing over 10,000 professionals worldwide with dedicated R&D and manufacturing facilities across the world, GLORY is built on a rich customer-focused, technology-driven heritage spanning almost a hundred years.

For further information please visit www.glory-global.com or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/glory_global.

About OneBanks

OneBanks, the future of high street banking, offers an innovative way to meet to the growing need for banks to continue to offer face-to-face human access to their services in an affordable way, alongside their online and smartphone-based apps. OneBanks has developed a low cost, pop up kiosk format which provides face-to-face banking services on behalf of multiple banks and financial services clients. It is supported by Open Banking technology which enables customers to access a range of banking services provided by their own bank in a secure, user-friendly way. As a shared facility, the cost of operation is designed to be split between multiple financial institutions, and is configured in a way that facilitates quick and easy assembly, enabling rapid set up in high footfall locations such as shopping malls, petrol stations, bus or railway termini and convenience stores.

The kiosks are designed to be open seven days a week and offer longer opening hours, better economics and greater security than existing alternatives to conventional branch networks. The format is equally suitable for personal and small business customers. The use of OneBanks kiosks is intended to be free to customers, the cost being borne by participating banks.

Learn more about OneBanks at www.onebanks.co.uk.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005055/en/

Contacts:

Glory

Paul Race

Vice President, Strategic Marketing

paul.race@glory-global.com

+44 7887 052366



OneBanks

Andrew Garfield 44 7974 982337

Jason Nisse: 44 7769 688618
GURUGRAM, India, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- VVDN Technologies, a premier electronic product engineering and manufacturing company, announced that it has joined the NVIDIA Partner Network (NPN) as a provider of AI-enabled computer vision solutions powered by the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform.

The NPN program is designed to help partners expand the usage of NVIDIA-based solutions, platforms, and technologies, and provide end customers with a world-class solution and support experience. As part of the NVIDIA Jetson partner ecosystem, VVDN can leverage the powerful GPU-accelerated edge computing capabilities of the NVIDIA Jetson lineup including Jetson AGX Series, Jetson TX2 series, Jetson Xavier NX and Jetson Nano to develop and manufacture next-gen innovative AI/ML based camera and vision solutions for its customers.

NVIDIA Jetson is the leading AI-at-the-edge computing platform with over half a million developers and a strong partner ecosystem. With pre-trained AI models, developer SDKs and support for cloud-native technologies across the full Jetson lineup, manufacturers of intelligent machines and AI developers can build and deploy high-quality, software-defined features on embedded and edge devices targeting robotics, AIoT, smart cities, healthcare, industrial applications, and more. Cloud-native support helps manufacturers and developers implement frequent improvements, improve accuracy, and use the latest features with Jetson-based edge AI devices.

Joining the NPN positions VVDN to provide a host of enhanced services including product engineering, AI/ML algorithm development, as well as manufacturing services to customers/OEMs/System Integrators/ISVs with accelerated time to market. VVDN is offering AI-based vision solutions powered by the NVIDIA Jetson platform, including carrier boards, edge gateways as well as edge AI cameras which are production-ready solutions available for customers.

VVDN's design and manufacturing capabilities of world-class cameras and vision products includes edge AI boxes, system on modules (SOM) and boards, 360-degree high-end multi-imager cameras, NVRs/DVRs and thermal cameras with video analytics for use in automotive ADAS, traffic safety, security, smart cities, industrial vision, video conferencing, retail applications and more.

Arun Kumar PB, Sr. Director - Vision, VVDN Technologies said: "VVDN's Vision Business Unit has invested heavily on AI/ML and computer vision algorithms targeting industries including security, smart cities, retail, automotive, medical as well as industrial. Joining the NPN as an NVIDIA Jetson ecosystem partner further helps our efforts as we get access to all the SDKs as well as exposure to new platform introductions. This will help us cater to our customers' need for more complex AI-enabled applications across the globe."

VVDN possesses strong expertise in Image/ISP Tuning, Video Stitching, Sensor Integration, AI/ML Integration, Video Analytics, Voice Integration and Video Cloud. VVDN's manufacturing facilities are equipped with state-of-the-art SMT lines, product assembly areas, ISO Class 6 and 8 Clean Room and R&D, Testing and Video labs for Next-gen product innovation.

About VVDN:

VVDN is a leading Product Engineering & Manufacturing company focused on designing & manufacturing end-to-end products across several technology vertical markets (5G, Data Center, Vision, Networking and Wi-Fi, IoT, Cloud & Apps). VVDN's India HQ is located at Global Innovation Park, Manesar, India and its North America HQ is located in San Jose, CA, USA. VVDN serves global customers across several regions including US, Canada, Europe, India, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. With more than 6000 employees, VVDN has 10 advanced Product Engineering Centers in India, which are fully equipped to design & test the complete hardware & software required to develop a complete product or solution. VVDN's 5 Manufacturing facilities are located at Manesar, Gurgaon, India, which includes in-house best-in-class SMT Factory, Molding & Tooling Factory, Product Assembly Factory, Die Casting facility and Product Certifications labs. VVDN's Engineering & Manufacturing facilities are fully complied to develop & manufacture Enterprise, Consumer, Industrial, and Automotive-grade products.

Visit www.vvdntech.com for more information.

Kunwar Sinha, kunwar.sinha@vvdntech.in

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MOSCOW, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund) announces the data from Paraguay's Ministry of Health on the one shot Russian Sputnik Light vaccine (the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine) demonstrating high safety profile and a 93.5% efficacy, as reported during the ongoing vaccination campaign in the country.

The one shot Sputnik Light vaccine has proven to be highly effective against COVID among more than 320,000 subjects who had received the vaccine based on the data collected by July 30, 2021. The data also indicates a high safety profile of Sputnik Light:

No serious adverse events associated with vaccination;

No deaths related to the vaccination;

No cerebral vein thrombosis (CVT) cases after vaccination;

No Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) cases after vaccination;

No capillary leak syndrome cases after vaccination;

No cases of myocarditis or pericarditis reported.

Thanks to its safety and efficacy, single-component Sputnik Light vaccine is now both used on standalone basis and also studied in combination with vaccines from other producers in a number of countries.

The heterogeneous boosting approach ("vaccine cocktail" using human adenovirus serotype 26 as the first component and human adenovirus serotype 5 as the second component) was at the core of Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus. With this approach proving successful in creating a longer and more durable immunity against the coronavirus, RDIF took the lead in initiating partnerships with other vaccine producers to conduct joint studies of a combination of the first component of Sputnik V with foreign vaccines.

In particular, initial safety results of the world's first study of a combination between Sputnik Light and the AstraZeneca vaccine in Azerbaijan demonstrates a high safety profile for the combined use of the vaccines with no serious adverse events or cases of coronavirus after vaccination.

Also RDIF, Ministry of Health of Argentina, Ministry of Science of Argentina and CONICET are conducting a study for the evaluation of the immune response and safety of heterogeneous regimens combining Sputnik Light and vaccines produced by AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Moderna in the city and province of Buenos Aires, as well as San Luis, Cordoba and La Rioja provinces. The results of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said:

"The one shot Sputnik Light vaccine enables authorities of Paraguay to speed up the vaccination of the population and accelerate the creation of herd immunity. As demonstrated by data from the Ministry of Health of Paraguay, as well as and a number of other countries around the world, Sputnik Light has a high safety profile and one of the best efficacy numbers as compared to many two-shot vaccines."

Key advantages of Sputnik Light:

Sputnik Light is the first component (recombinant human adenovirus serotype number 26 (rAd26)) of Sputnik V - the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus.

Sputnik Light has proven effective against all new strains of coronavirus, as demonstrated by the Gamaleya Center during laboratory tests.

Sputnik Light is compatible with standard vaccine storage and logistics requirements.

The Sputnik Light vaccine is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector platform that has proven to be safe and effective, with no long-term side effects, as confirmed in over 250 clinical trials conducted globally over the past two decades (while the history of use of human adenoviruses in vaccine development started in 1953).

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 RUB 2.1tn and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF portfolio companies employ more than 1 mn 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 rdif.ru

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Europe To Dominate The Global Biosimilar Market Landscape Driven By Favorable Policy Framework Says Kuick Research

NEW DELHI, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "Europe Biosimilars Market, Dosage, Price, Sales & Clinical Trials Insight 2026" Report highlights:

Europe Biosimilars Market Opportunity: > USD 10 Billion

Dosage & Pricing insight On Approved Biosimilars

Biosimilars for Cancers Accounts for > 20% Market

Biosimilars for Diabetes Accounts for > 5% Market

Biosimilars Approval & Commercialization by Country

Insight On Biosimilar Clinical Trials By Company, Indication & Phase: > 100 Biosimilars

Insight On Commercially available Biosimilars in Market: > 25 Biosimilars

Biosimilar Market Trends by Country

Download Report:

https://www.kuickresearch.com/report-europe-european-biosimilar-biosimilars-medicine-market-sales-size-omnitrope-ema-eu-guidelines-insulin-clinical-trials-approval-process-guidelines

Biopharmaceutical drugs have become an important part of modern pharmacotherapy. In recent times, biological drugs have comprised about 50% of the overall therapeutic market owing to their high efficacy and specificity in the management of wide range of diseases. However, the high cost of treatment associated with them possesses a significant burden on the healthcare systems. The patent expiration of the biologic drugs has led to the development of biosimilar which aim to reduce the cost of treatment thus increasing the accessibility of the medications to the patients.

Presently, there are 69 biosimilars in Europe which have been approved in clinic for the wide range of diseases including arthritis, cancer, inflammatory and auto-immune disorders. The European biosimilar market was the first to be established and still represents the most mature and advancing market at a global scale owing to the large number of approved and commercially avialable biosimilars. Adalimumab (Humira) is currently dominating the market which is due to high adoption rates of this drug associated with large number of biosimilar approval. Apart from this, several biosimilars for one reference product has been approved which increases the competition in the market. Adalimumab faces majority of competition with 6 biosimilars approved followed by Trastuzumab and Mabthera with five biosimilars competing with the reference product in the market.

Since the launch of first biosimilar in Europe, the biosimilar market is continuously evolving and showing high adoption rates. The region represents an excellent market for the growth of biosimilars due to the presence of large pharmaceutical sector which actively indulge in research and development activities. The biosimilar market in Europe is highly competitive, with many key players dominating the market landscape including Novartis, Celltrion, Accord Healthcare, Pfizer and Mylan. Most of the key players are adopting various growth strategies, such as acquisitions, partnerships and new product launches to increase their revenue.

Currently, the market is mainly dominated by UK which is mainly due to technological advancements in the healthcare care and healthcare spending. Regions including Denmark, Italy, France, and Germany are other lucurative markets and are expected high growth rates during the forecast period. Among the European countries, Denamrk has been outstanding for its biosimilar consumption. Moreover, Denmark has also implemented one of the most radical biosimilar programs and produced a considerable amount of share in the overall biosimilar volume.

As per "Europe Biosimilars Market, Dosage, Price, Sales & Clinical Trials Insight 2026" report findings, the Europe biosimilar market opportunity is expected to surpass US$ 10 10 Billion by 2026. The high rate in the market is mainly due to the rising demand for biosimilars due to their cost saving potential. In addition, the rising geriatric population in the region is also boosting the growth of European Biosimilar market. Moreover, an increase in burden on lifestyle diseases and the proliferation of chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer, asthma, arthritis and others, influence the biosimilar market during the forecast period. Furthermore, in coming years the patent of several drugs including Cimzia, Yervoy, Lemtrada, Lucentis and others are expected to expire during the forecast period, which will further propel the development of biosimilars in Europe.

Contact:

Neeraj Chawla

Research Head

+91-981410366

neeraj@kuickresearch.com

https://www.kuickresearch.com

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Enevate, a pioneering battery innovation company featuring extreme fast charge and high energy density battery technologies for electric vehicles (EVs) and other markets, announced that it reached a major milestone of 100 patents issued worldwide with more than 300 additional patents in process, bringing the company's total issued and in process patent portfolio to over 400.

Enevate's patented XFC-Energy technology stands to be a game-changer for the EV industry, providing a path to produce extreme fast-charge EV batteries at low cost and high-volume production. Enevate is currently working with multiple automotive and EV battery manufacturers to commercialize its technology for the 2024-2025 model year, utilizing existing manufacturing infrastructure with minimal investment required, a core goal of its development.

"Our team of world-class scientists and engineers continues to be intensely focused on developing innovative battery technology in support of auto and battery makers as they ramp plans to deliver electric vehicles," said Enevate Founder and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Benjamin Park. "Enevate's patented XFC-Energy technology is designed for high volume commercialization and is lower cost than today's conventional graphite Li-ion battery technology simultaneously delivering up to a 26% CO2 greenhouse gas reduction during manufacturing compared to conventional Li-ion batteries. Our EV battery solutions offered through a licensing and technology transfer business model will enable the kind of fast-charging capability demanded by consumers and accelerate the worldwide adoption of EVs."

Dr. Park continued, "We're far ahead of the competition, particularly if you consider IP covering silicon battery technologies which is a key focus of ours. Enevate has more patent families directed to silicon battery technologies than all of our competitors combined."

Enevate's 100th issued patent, US Pat. No. 11,075,408, was granted on July 27, 2021, and is entitled "Silicon-based energy storage devices with fluorinated polymer containing electrolyte additives." Dr. Park was one of the named inventors.

Dr. Park noted that, with nearly $200 million in funding from investors, Enevate is in growth mode, hiring additional scientists and reviewing plans for expanded facilities that will include a pilot production line. The line will serve as a manufacturing demonstration site for auto and battery makers focused on expanding or building new battery manufacturing plants, including large giga-factories.

Enevate's issued patent portfolio has grown significantly over the past year and a half. Enevate is the first to cross the 100 issued patent threshold among the group of competing companies racing to provide next-generation battery performance. The company's patent portfolio is broad as well, covering all major technologies within a battery: anode, cathode, electrolyte, formation, cell design, pack, and other related technologies. Enevate now has patents in jurisdictions covering over 95% of EV sales, current and projected, worldwide.

ABOUT ENEVATE (www.enevate.com)

Enevate develops and licenses advanced battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs), with a vision of EVs charging as fast as refueling gas cars, accessible and affordable to everyone, and accelerating EVs' mass adoption. With a portfolio of more than 400 patents issued and in process, Enevate's pioneering advancements (leveraging accelerated battery testing and machine learning) in silicon-dominant anodes and cells have resulted in battery technology that features five-minute extreme fast charging with high energy density, low-temperature operation for cold climates, low cost and safety advantages over conventional batteries.

Enevate's vision is to develop and propagate EV battery technology that contributes to a clean and sustainable environment. The Irvine, California-based company's investors include Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (Alliance Ventures), LG Chem, Samsung Venture Investment Corp, Fidelity Management Research Company, Mission Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Tsing Capital, Infinite Potential Technologies, Presidio Ventures a Sumitomo Corporation company, Lenovo, CEC Capital, and Bangchak. Enevate, the Enevate logo, HD-Energy, and eBoost are registered trademarks of Enevate Corporation.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005129/en/

Contacts:

Bill Blanning

bblanning@enevate.com

+1 (714) 916-4309
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / (TSXV:OGN)(OTCQX:OGNRF) Orogen Royalties Inc. ("Orogen" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors have approved the spinout of the Ball Creek copper-gold porphyry target located in the Golden Triangle, British Columbia (the "Ball Creek Project"), into a new company ("SpinCo") by way of a Plan of Arrangement under the British Columbia Business Corporation Act (the "Arrangement").

Upon completion of the Arrangement, the Company's shareholders will: (i) maintain their existing ownership of common shares in Orogen Royalties, that will continue to operate as an organic royalty and prospect generator in North America with its flagship Ermitano and Silicon royalties, and (ii) gain new shares in SpinCo on a ratio to be determined, that will focus on the exploration and advancement of the 100% owned Ball Creek copper-gold porphyry project. Orogen will also retain a minority shareholding interest in SpinCo and a royalty in the Ball Creek Project.

The Company expects that the Arrangement will increase shareholder value by allowing capital markets to ascribe full value to the Ball Creek Project independently of the Company's royalty assets, joint ventures, and other mineral properties. The spinout also enables SpinCo to operate under a different business model, with significant exploration and drilling programs planned to advance the Ball Creek Project.

The completion of the Arrangement, distribution of SpinCo common shares to the Company's shareholders, and listing of SpinCo's common shares on a recognized Canadian stock exchange are subject to several conditions including the completion of corporate, legal and tax structuring, completion of SpinCo financing, and appointment of a Board of Directors and management team for SpinCo. The Arrangement must also receive Orogen shareholder and regulatory approval. There is no certainty that the spinout transaction will be completed on the terms proposed or at all. The Company will provide additional updates when further details of the Arrangement are determined.

Orogen acknowledges that the Ball Creek Project is situated in the traditional territory of the Tahltan Nation with whom the Company has maintained a positive relationship since the project was acquired in 2015. The Company is committed to maintaining that relationship and look forward to dialogue based on respect and transparency.

"The approval from the Company's Board aligns with Orogen Royalties' goal to create value for its shareholders. SpinCo will be a stand-alone company that controls the exploration of the Ball Creek Project," said Paddy Nicol, President and CEO of Orogen Royalties. "Shareholders will participate in SpinCo directly as well as through their ownership in Orogen Royalties, providing exposure to exploration on an underexplored copper-gold project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle."

About the Ball Creek project.

The Ball Creek copper-gold porphyry project consists of over 500 square-kilometres of mineral tenure in the heart of British Columbia's prolific Golden Triangle (Figure 1), a region that has seen significant infrastructure development for access and power, and major mining company investments. Recent transactions include Newmont Mining's acquisition of 50% of the Galore Creek project for US$275 million in July 20181, Newcrest Mining's acquisition of 70% of the Red Chris Mine for US$804 million in August 20192, Newmont Mining's acquisition of GT Gold (Tatogga Project) in May 2021 for C$393 million3, and Royal Gold's acquisition of a 1% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty on the Red Chris Mine for US$165 million in August 20214.

The Ball Creek Project has had CA$5.3 million invested by the Company and its exploration partners since 2015, which identified at least three intrusive suites associated with mineral deposits in the region:

Stikine Suite, a Schaft Creek analog (indicated 1.3 billion tonnes at 0.26% copper and 0.16 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold 5 );

); Copper Mountain Suite, a Galore Creek analog (measured and indicated 1.1 billion tonnes at 0.47% copper and 0.26g/t gold 6 ); and

); and Texas Suite. a KSM analog (measured and indicated resources of 3 billion tonnes at 0.52g/t gold and 0.21% copper7).

Porphyry style mineralization has been identified in all the suites across the property (Figure 2) but more importantly, the Ball Creek Project is underexplored relative to the rest of the Golden Triangle. Furthermore, the project is fully permitted for exploration and drilling.

The Ball Creek Main zone ("MZ") is a 1,200 by 400 metre porphyry system that has returned drill intersects including 455 metres grading 0.28 g/t gold and 0.11% copper in drill hole BC12-47, and 231 metres grading 0.54g/t gold and 0.21% copper in drill hole BC07-12. The MZ remains open with anomalous intercepts at the extremities of the drilled area, untested internal areas, and open at depth.

Outside of the MZ, the 12 square-kilometre Ball Creek Cluster is defined by highly anomalous copper, gold and molybdenum soil and rock geochemistry with multiple exposures of porphyry-style alteration. This region is largely unexplored.

Other porphyry targets on the property, including More, Mess and Hickman, have seen limited exploration:

The More zone consists of an undrilled Galore Creek style megacrystic syenite porphyry occurrence partially hidden by Quaternary basalts with a potassically altered outcrop returning 6.8% copper, 0.20g/t gold and 10.3g/t silver;

The Mess zone consists of copper mineralization associated with the eastern contact of a monzonitic stock defining a fifteen-kilometre-long anomalous zone of mineralization at surface. There are greater than 500 metre internal gaps between drill holes and multiple strong soil anomalies remain untested; and

The Hickman target, discovered in 2019, represents an undrilled porphyry target with copper-gold mineralization at surface in a potassically altered diorite just eight kilometres from Schaft Creek.

Multiple underexplored epithermal and volcanic-hosted-massive sulphide prospects exist outside these defined porphyry targets.

Figure 1: Location of the Ball Creek project

Figure 2: Overview of the Ball Creek Project

Qualified Person Statement

All technical data, as disclosed in this press release, has been verified by Laurence Pryer, Ph.D., P.Geo., Exploration Manager for Orogen. Dr. Pryer is a qualified person as defined under the terms of National Instrument 43-101.

About Orogen Royalties Inc.

Orogen Royalties Inc. is focused on organic royalty creation and royalty acquisitions on precious and base metal discoveries in western North America. The Company's royalty portfolio includes the Ermitano West gold deposit in Sonora, Mexico (2% NSR royalty) being developed by First Majestic Silver Corp. and the Silicon gold project (1% NSR royalty) in Nevada, USA, being advanced by AngloGold Ashanti N.A. The Company is well financed with several projects actively being developed by joint venture partners.

On Behalf of the Board

OROGEN ROYALTIES INC.

Paddy Nicol

President & CEO

To find out more about Orogen, please contact Paddy Nicol, President & CEO at 604-248-8648, and Liliana Wong, Manager of Marketing and Investor Relations at 604-248-8648. Visit our website at www.orogenroyalties.com.

Orogen Royalties Inc.

1201 - 510 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC

Canada V6B 1L8

info@orogenroyalties.com

1. https://www.gcmc.ca/news/

2. https://www.newcrest.com/sites/default/files/2019-10/190816_Market%20Release_Newcrest%20complete%27s%2070%25%20acquisition% 20of% 20Red%20 Chris_0.pdf

3. https://www.mining.com/newmont-buys-canadas-gt-gold-for-325-million/

4. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210811005778/en/Royal-Gold-Acquires-Royalty-on-World-Class-Red-Chris-Mine

5. https://copperfoxmetals.com/projects/schaft-creek-project/overview/

6. https://www.gcmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2014-09-30-Galore-Creek-Reserves-and-Resources.pdf

7. https://assets.website-files.com/5f8f6760f825687e7c1c6508/5fdb652460559d050e6cd7ef_12172020Reserves-Resources-Dec-2020-withSnowfield.pdf

Forward-Looking Information

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this presentation, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that Orogen Royalties Inc. (the "Company") expect to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur.

Forward-looking information relates to statements concerning the Company's future outlook and anticipated events or results, as well as the Company's management expectations with respect to the proposed business combination (the "Transaction"). This document also contains forward-looking statements regarding the anticipated completion of the Transaction and timing thereof. Forward-looking statements in this document are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company, including expectations and assumptions concerning the receipt, in a timely manner, of regulatory and stock exchange approvals in respect of the Transaction.

Although the Company believe the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Furthermore, the extent to which COVID-19 may impact the Company's business will depend on future developments such as the geographic spread of the disease, the duration of the outbreak, travel restrictions, physical distancing, business closures or business disruptions, and the effectiveness of actions taken in Canada and other countries to contain and treat the disease. Although it is not possible to reliably estimate the length or severity of these developments and their financial impact as of the date of approval of these condensed interim consolidated financial statements, continuation of the prevailing conditions could have a significant adverse impact on the Company's financial position and results of operations for future periods.

Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

SOURCE: Orogen Royalties Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660180/Orogen-Announces-Spin-Out-of-the-Ball-Creek-Property
First candidate in multi-target collaboration to reach in-license milestone

BMS to take responsibility for clinical and commercial development

Exscientia receives $20 million option exercise fee with additional development milestones as well as tiered royalties on product sales

Exscientia, a clinical-stage, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven pharmatech company, today announced that Bristol Myers Squibb has elected to in-license an immune-modulating drug candidate created by Exscientia. Exscientia has two active collaborations with Bristol Myers Squibb, which together focus on multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology and immunology. A significant expansion of the relationship was announced earlier this year.

The in-licensed candidate targets a critical immunological kinase that historically has proven difficult to target due to the need for a combination of potency, selectivity, and overall drug-like properties. To design a novel candidate that overcame these issues, Exscientia utilized its end-to-end platform to drive the discovery process, including AI-driven design, structural biology, chemistry, and pharmacology, as well as late-stage preclinical studies. Exscientia's precision design approach focused on solving, in parallel, parameters important to overall therapeutic performance for the target, such as potency, selectivity, safety, and physicochemical characteristics. Exscientia's platform is ideally suited for solving multi-objective design problems to efficiently and rapidly discover novel drug candidates with superior properties.

Andrew Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer of Exscientia commented, "We are focused on using our patient-first AI technology to design precision engineered drugs against challenging drug product profiles. We are seeing great efficiency from our platform. This drug candidate molecule was just the 150th novel compound to be designed and tested and it was identified within 11 months of starting drug design. In partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb and its world-class research, clinical and commercialization capabilities, we look forward to advancing this candidate into the next stage of development."

Rupert Vessey, President of Research Early Development at Bristol Myers Squibb said, "We are pleased to in-license our first drug candidate resulting from our strategic collaboration with Exscientia. Artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to play important roles in drug discovery and Exscientia has delivered a promising development candidate in the field of immunology. We look forward to our continued collaboration and further advancing this candidate for the potential benefit of patients with unmet medical need."

Bristol Myers Squibb will be responsible for clinical and commercial development of the drug candidate. Under the terms of the agreement, Exscientia will receive a $20 million option exercise fee with the potential for additional development milestones as well as tiered royalties on any product sales.

About Exscientia

Exscientia is an AI-driven pharmatech company committed to discovering and designing the best possible medicines in the fastest and most effective manner. Exscientia is the first company to progress AI-designed small molecules into the clinical setting and repeatedly demonstrate the ability of AI to transform how drugs are created. Exscientia's AI platform has now designed three drugs that are in Phase 1 human clinical trials.

Drug design is precision engineering at the molecular scale. Exscientia has built dedicated AI systems that efficiently learn from the widest range of data and consistently reapply enhanced knowledge through iterations of design. Because Exscientia's AI platform learns more effectively and rapidly than human-led efforts alone, candidate molecules satisfying complex therapeutic requirements are created with revolutionary efficiency. Exscientia believes that designing better drugs, faster, will allow the best ideas of science to rapidly become the best medicines for patients.

Exscientia has offices in Oxford, Miami, Vienna, Osaka and Dundee. For more information visit us on www.exscientia.ai or follow us on Twitter @exscientiaAI.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005358/en/

Contacts:

Edelman

Nathan Field

P: +44 (0)78 6641 1198

Nathan.Field@edelman.com

For Exscientia

Amanda Galgay

contact@exscientia.ai
San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Tryp Therapeutics (CSE: TRYP) (OTCQB: TRYPF) ("Tryp" or the "Company"), a pharmaceutical company focused on developing psilocybin-based compounds for diseases with unmet medical needs, announced today the appointment of Dennis Langer, M.D., J.D., as Senior Advisor to the Company.

Dr. Langer has been a Director, Co-Founder, and CEO of various public and private biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical, and diagnostic companies. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development at GlaxoSmithKline and as CEO of Neose Technologies. He currently serves as a Director of Myriad Genetics, Inc. and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Dr. Langer previously served as a Director at several biotechnology companies that were successfully acquired including Pharmacopeia, Cytogen, Sirna Therapeutics, and Transkaryotic Therapies. Dr. Langer earned a B.A. from Columbia University, an M.D. from the Georgetown University School of Medicine, and a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School.

Dr. Langer will be advising the Company on strategic matters related to Tryp's drug development programs for chronic pain and eating disorders as well as providing additional insights into the large pharma and investor communities.

"I am looking forward to advising Tryp Therapeutics as they near the initiation of Phase 2a clinical trials this year," said Dr. Langer. "The Company continues to execute on its milestones and is unique in their strategy to deliver psilocybin-based solutions to chronic pain and other indications with critically unmet needs. The ultimate commercial potential for Tryp's products is significant."

Commenting on the appointment, Greg McKee, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tryp Therapeutics, said, "I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Langer as a Senior Advisor. He brings a wealth of experience in supporting drug development companies from mid-stage clinical activity through commercial success, and he will be a valuable asset as we interact with large pharmaceutical companies and institutional investors."

About Tryp Therapeutics

Tryp Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing psilocybin-based compounds for the treatment of diseases with unmet medical needs through accelerated regulatory pathways. Tryp's Psilocybin-For-Neuropsychiatric Disorders (PFN) program is focused on the development of synthetic psilocybin as a new class of drug for the treatment of chronic pain and eating disorder indications. The company has announced upcoming Phase 2a clinical trials with the University of Michigan and the University of Florida to evaluate its drug products for fibromyalgia and eating disorders, respectively. Tryp is also developing a proprietary psilocybin-based product, TRP-8803, that uses a novel formulation and method of delivery to improve the patient experience.

For more information, please contact Tryp at:

1-833-811-8797

investors@tryptherapeutics.com

www.tryptherapeutics.com

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this news release constitutes 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 Tryp 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 greater detail in the "Risk Factors" section of Tryp's final prospectus available at www.sedar.com. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect Tryp; 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 Tryp 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.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER HAS REVIEWED OR ACCEPTED 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/93478
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Provenance Gold Corp. (CSE: PAU) (FSE: 3PG) (OTCQB: PVGDF) (the "Company" or "Provenance") is pleased to announce that the second hole drilled on its White Rock property in northeastern Elko County, Nevada confirmed the thick zone of potentially open-pit grade gold mineralization intersected by its first hole. WR-16 intersected a 55-meter (180-foot) interval that averaged 0.618 g/t gold or 0.018 oz/t gold starting with 1.5 meters (five feet) of 3.55 g/t gold at 20 meters (95 feet) and ending with a 6-meter (20 foot) interval that averaged 2.3 g/t gold. The 55-meter-thick zone also contained 7 assay intervals over 1 g/t gold. It was stopped at 300 feet due to drilling conditions. The hole was collared near WR-15 and drilled due east at -50 degrees. The hole remains open to mineralization to depth. Based on historical data, Provenance believes another mineralized zone occurs below the one that was intersected by hole WR-16.

Provenance is waiting for assays from additional holes from this northwestern part of the currently recognized gold system at the White Rock Property. The current drilling has shifted to more than a kilometer to the east in the same recognized gold system, and the company is very encouraged by the visual appearance of the silicified and mineralized sedimentary rocks currently being drilled.

Provenance wanted to establish the continuity, structure, and grade of the White Rock gold system in the far western and eastern parts of this extensive 3.2 km by 1.6 km gold system in its first drilling program.

Steve Craig, Senior Consultant and Project Manager to Provenance stated "Our future drilling will focus on the Central Ridge portion of the system and explore its extensions. The Central Ridge is 1,200 meters long by 400 meters wide and consists entirely of mineralized silicified rock. We believe we are beginning to establish a major new gold system in a lightly explored part of Nevada that we believe will be the second discovery in a model similar to Liberty Gold's Black Pine Mine in nearby Idaho."





Figure 1 - Ongoing drilling at the White Rock Property, located in the southern part of the central mineralized area which extends under White Rock Mountain approximately 1.2 kms to the northwest of the drill rig. The first drill holes were against the mountain more than a kilometer to the north.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5654/93560_331e2872b4497bd9_001full.jpg

Quality Assurance and Quality Control: The reverse-circulation drilling program utilized by Provenance completed a quality assurance / quality control program (QA/QC) with control samples consisting of standards, blanks and duplicates inserted approximately every 100 feet. Control samples were randomly inserted into the sample stream prior to being sent to the laboratory. The RC drill sampling was in five-foot sample intervals. Drill samples were taken to Paragon Geochemical, an ISO 9001 compliant company in Sparks, Nevada for fire assaying for gold and silver. The rejects and pulps remain with Paragon in Sparks, Nevada. The QA/QC program was implemented as part of the sampling procedures for the exploration program.

Rauno Perttu, P. Geo., a Qualified Person (as defined by National Instrument 43-101), and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this News Release.

About Provenance Gold Corp.

Provenance Gold Corp. is a precious metals exploration company with a focus on gold and silver resources within North America. The Company currently holds interests in three properties in Nevada, USA. For further information please visit the Company's website at https://provenancegold.com or contact rclark@provenancegold.com.

On behalf of the Board,

Provenance Gold Corp.

Rauno Perttu, Chief Executive Officer

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange, nor its regulation services provider, accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When or if used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to a review of potential strategic acquisition opportunities, and other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93560
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / NextSource Materials Inc. (TSX:NEXT)(OTCQB:NSRCF) ("NextSource" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that its mine construction schedule is on track and on budget for its Molo Graphite Project in Madagascar.

Progress development highlights include:

Construction is on track, with all major equipment fabricated and ready to be received by the EPC

Overall project progress exceeds 25% completion

Personnel have been mobilized to site in Madagascar

Site works are on schedule to commence in Q3/Q4 2021

Plant equipment installation at site is on schedule to begin in Q1/Q2 2022

Mine is fully funded and on schedule to commission in Q2 2022

The Company's engineering, procurement, and construction management ("EPCM") contractor, Erudite Strategies Ltd., reports that the attrition and ball mills, crushers, flotation columns, screeners, feeders, mixing tanks, bagging and drying systems have been fabricated and are ready for assembly. These comprise the major components of the Molo mine processing plant.

This equipment will shortly be received by the Company's engineering, procurement, and construction ("EPC") firm, in order to begin assembling the modules. The EPC firm specializes in the design, engineering, construction and assembly of fully modular processing plants, and is the reason that the Company's Molo mine is able to have a very low mine capital cost ("CAPEX") versus its competition and can reach the commissioning stage inside of 12 months from initiation of construction.

Company personnel have been mobilized to Madagascar to begin preparations for site works, which are on schedule to commence in Q3/Q4 2021. Plant equipment is on track to be delivered to site in Q1 2022, with plant equipment module installation at site on schedule to begin in Q1/Q2 2022.

The various challenges associated with the construction of a mine during a global pandemic have been mitigated through the fabrication and assembly of the processing plant as a modular, 'turn-key' facility. This construction philosophy has enabled small, nimble technical teams to work on their components of the Molo mine in isolation, while minimizing the personnel and time required throughout the construction process.

Fully Funded to Production

Phase 1 of NextSource's Molo Graphite Project is fully funded and is expected to be the next graphite mine to enter production outside of China. The Company does not require any more money to reach commissioning, which is on schedule for Q2 2022, after receiving US$29.5 million in funding from its strategic investor, Vision Blue Resources ("Vision Blue") in May 2021. Founded by Sir Mick Davis, Vision Blue is NextSource's largest shareholder and is a private investment company with a focus on metals and minerals linked to the clean energy revolution.

As outlined in the Company's 2019 Feasibility Study ("FS"), Phase 1 of the Molo Graphite Mine is estimated to cost US$25 million, including working capital. Production capacity is expected to be approximately 17,000 tpa of SuperFlake graphite concentrate with FOB operating costs of US$566 per tonne.

Craig Scherba, CEO of NextSource Materials commented, "Constructing a mine during 'normal' times is fraught with challenges, and these challenges are exacerbated in the midst of a global pandemic. The construction philosophy we have adopted has mitigated these challenges, and the project is on-track due to the extremely hard work and perseverance of the various people involved. Their hard work and flexibility in adapting to ever-changing circumstances have been instrumental to date and to bringing the mine to fruition.

About NextSource Materials Inc.

NextSource Materials Inc. is a strategic materials development company based in Toronto, Canada that is intent on becoming a fully integrated, global supplier of critical battery and technology materials needed to power the sustainable energy revolution. The Company's Molo graphite project in Madagascar is fully funded to production and is one of the largest known and highest-quality graphite deposits globally, and the only one with SuperFlake graphite.

NextSource Materials is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol "NEXT" and on the OTCQB under the symbol "NSRCF."

For further information about NextSource visit our website at www.nextsourcematerials.com or contact us at +1.416.364.4911 or email Brent Nykoliation, Executive Vice President at brent@nextsourcematerials.com or Craig Scherba, President and CEO at craig@nextsourcematerials.com.

ABOUT SUPERFLAKE GRAPHITE

Independent testing by various third-party end users of flake graphite confirmed that NextSource's SuperFlake graphite meets or exceeds quality requirements for all major end-markets for natural flake graphite. The major end-markets are refractories, anode material for lithium-ion batteries, specialty graphite foils used as essential components in the chemical, aeronautical and fire-retardant industries, and graphene in high-end ink and substrate applications.

SuperFlake graphite concentrate can achieve 98% carbon (C) purity with flotation, has excellent thermal expansion, can be easily upgraded to 99.97% purity (battery grade), contains minimal deleterious substances and has high crystallinity.

SuperFlake graphite concentrate has excellent flake size distribution that is well above the global average, with 46.4 percent being classified as +80 (large), +65 (extra large) and +48 (jumbo) mesh in flake size. Specifically, 23.6 percent of SuperFlake graphite concentrate is +48 mesh and greater in size.

SuperFlake is a registered trademark in Canada, the United States, Japan, South Korea, U.K. and the European Union. These key jurisdictions represent the top demand markets for flake graphite and the locations where NextSource intends to sell its SuperFlake graphite and anode material.

Safe Harbour: This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. Forward looking statements and information are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "potential", "possible" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may", "will", "could", or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements include any statements regarding, among others; the successful and on-budget construction of the Molo Graphite mine, estimated future production from the Molo Graphite Project, completion of any technical studies and expansion of the Molo Graphite Project, any and all other economic and technical studies, graphite prices, project economics, permitting, the development timeline and the graphite market. All such forward looking statements are based on assumptions and analyses made by management based on their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors they believe are appropriate in the circumstances. However, these statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected including, but not limited to, unexpected changes in laws, rules or regulations, or their enforcement by applicable authorities; the failure of other parties to perform as agreed; social or labour unrest; changes in commodity prices; unexpected failure or inadequacy of infrastructure and the failure of ongoing and contemplated studies to deliver anticipated results or results that would justify and support continued studies, development or operations.. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based on what management believes are reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with them. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Subject to applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this news release.

SOURCE: NextSource Materials Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660251/Mine-Construction-on-Schedule-for-NextSource-Materials-Molo-Graphite-Project-in-Madagascar
Business owners can now launch their online store effortlessly and only pay when they make a sale, thanks to award-winning fintech myPOS. The new service called myPOS Online offers a complete set of features, including pre-designed store templates, hosting, customization, inventory tracking, secure checkout, shipping options, in-store pick up and even tools such as gift-card preparation.

"The pandemic helped supercharge global e-commerce, and there's no reason why micro- and small-sized businesses can't tap into this trend," said Stefan Stankov, Chief Commercial Officer of myPOS. "With myPOS Online, you can get in on the growth without the burden of upfront investments. So even if you are struggling on your post-pandemic recovery journey, we can help."

myPOS Online is offered on a freemium model where merchants pay a small transaction fee once they complete a sale. Like other myPOS services, the new offering enables SMEs to settle funds instantly at no extra charge. Plus, business owners get a free Visa card and a free merchant account in 14 currencies.

Small business owners who usually don't have the resources to develop online stores can now do so as myPOS Online has taken care of the details and requirements. No design or coding skills are needed. In a few intuitive steps, merchants pick a store and domain name, a look that suits their brand and goods they want to sell online. The setup and management can also be made on the go through the myPOS app.

myPOS Online also empowers merchants with flexible delivery and payment options, tracking of order and direct contact with the buyers.

myPOS Online integrates smoothly with the myPOS ecosystem, keeping sales and payments fully synced on all channels. Merchants have a chance not only to expand their brick-and-mortar business to avoid retail disruption, but to unleash their full business potential and efficiency. With myPOS, they can use specially developed automation tools to manage inventory, payments and other sales-related processes through one cohesive ecosystem, getting everything from just one provider.

To learn more about myPOS Online, visit mypos.com/online-shop

About myPOS

myPOS is an innovative fintech company serving small and medium-sized business clients across the European Economic Area and Switzerland. It provides easy and convenient in-store, online and on-the-go payment solutions for over 150,000 businesses in over 30 European countries.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005429/en/

Contacts:

Viva Bolova

+359-52-70-981

pr@mypos.com
Fredericton, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - TRU Precious Metals Corp. (TSXV: TRU) (OTCQB: TRUIF) (FSE: 706) ("TRU" or the "Company") is pleased to announce, further to its press release on July 7, 2021, initial assays from the first two holes of the 12 hole, Phase 1 diamond drilling program at its 100%-owned Twilite Gold Project in Central Newfoundland ("Twilite Gold'). Drilling focused on a previously identified target that the Company has now dubbed the "Fort Knox Gold Zone".

Highlights from drill holes TL-21-16 and TL-21-17 include:

Drilling confirms continuity of the gold zone 30 metres (m) down-dip from historic drill hole TL-99-14 and 70m down dip from historic hole TL-99-15, with similar grades and thickness. Some of the best intercepts include 11.5m with 1.03 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold (Au) in hole TL-21-17, and 10.5m with 1.07 g/t Au in hole TL-21-16.

The gold zone is open downdip on these sections and along strike to the northwest, where no previous drilling has been done.

Two gold zones have been encountered in hole TL-21-17, enveloping a black quartz breccia and at the sheared contact between the breccias and underlying graphitic sediments.

The drill program also confirmed the northwest trend of the mineralization, directly associated with a shear zone outlined by geophysics as a prominent detailed magnetic low that is continuous for at least 600m. The 600m detailed magnetic low is part of a regional structural break that has been outlined for approximately 7 kilometres by airborne magnetics on Twilite Gold. Regional till geochemistry has previously indicated a gold plus multi-element NNW anomalous trend coincident with the structural break. Only 200m of the shear zone at Twilite Gold has been tested by drilling to date, with results pending for 10 additional diamond drill holes.

Barry Greene, VP of Property Development and Director of TRU, commented: "We are delighted to see the continuity and expansion of the northwest trending Fort Knox Gold Zone successfully intersected in drill holes TL-21-16 and TL-21-17, and that the zone is wide open for potential further expansion. Since there has never been any drilling completed to the northwest beyond these holes, it becomes an obvious target area for a next phase of drilling. With thick sections of altered quartz breccia encountered in other nearby holes, for which assays are pending, we are hopeful for expansion of the gold zone to the southeast as well."

Table 1. Uncut Assay Highlights

Hole No. From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Zone TL21-16 107.00 117.50 10.50 1.07 Fort Knox Including 111.00 117.00 6.00 1.48 And 113.50 115.60 2.10 2.55 TL21-17 81.13 95.00 13.87 0.40 Including 81.13 84.00 2.87 0.93 TL21-17 129.50 141.00 11.50 1.03 Including 135.00 139.50 4.50 1.66 And 136.5 138.5 2.00 2.44







Figure 1 - Plan Map of Twilite Gold Drilling

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5993/93477_623a708e4417e952_001full.jpg

In hole TL-21-16, the uppermost gold mineralized zone is hosted by strongly bleached and iron carbonate altered mafic volcanics containing pyrite and arsenopyrite. The main gold zone is hosted by dark grey to black silicified breccia and continues across a sheared contact with graphitic sediments.

In hole TL-21-17, the uppermost gold mineralized zone is at the upper contact with a grey to black silicified breccia, and the main gold zone, which correlates with the main zone in hole TL-21-16, is situated at the lower contact of the grey to black breccia and continues across the sheared contact with graphitic sediments.







Figure 2 - Cross Section of Twilite Gold Drilling

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5993/93477_623a708e4417e952_002full.jpg

TRU Co-Founder and CEO Joel Freudman added: "We are pleased to share the initial results from our first drill program at Twilite Gold, which is also our first as a company. We are encouraged by the results from these first two holes. Our work at Twilite Gold will help us solidify the known mineralization areas and identify the project's expansion potential. With the drill program completed, our focus for Twilite Gold will be on analyzing the data we have accumulated as we receive the remaining assays from the other ten holes."

Table 2. Collar Details for TL-21-16 and TL-21-17

Hole No. Azimuth () Inclination () Length (m) UTM E UTM N TL-21-16 235.9 -61.1 176 589875 5408714 TL-21-17 237.1 -66.9 170 589850 5408773

Other Exploration Updates

Separately, further to its July 30, 2021 press release, the Company is also providing an update on the final exploration results from its Gander West Property ("Gander West"), located approximately 16 kilometres from New Found Gold Corp.'s Queensway Project. As previously announced, all rock sample and soil geochemical results were already received, but TRU has now received the results of the nine outstanding Gander West till samples submitted to Overburden Drilling Management Limited ("ODM").

TRU is pleased to report that ODM's gold grain analysis indicates visible gold grains in all nine of these samples. Pristine gold grains were recovered in seven samples, including 17, 12 and 11 pristine grains, respectively, in three of the samples. ODM has confirmed to the Company that this could be indicative of Gander West being fertile for gold exploration. The till samples had been collected around a large northeast elongated pond that was the site of a topographic lineament also indicated in the regional magnetic data as a potential fault structure. A more systematic program of till sampling is warranted to further delineate the potential head of the gold dispersal train, towards identifying a bedrock source.

Drilling Quality Assurance/Quality Control ("QA/QC")

All NQ core is sampled, cut by core saw, and split by Company personnel, and put into bags with unique sample tags for identification. The bags are sealed with a security tag and are then transported directly to the lab by TRU staff. All rock samples are analyzed at Eastern Analytical Ltd. ("Eastern Analytical") of 403 Little Bay Road, Springdale, NL, a commercial laboratory that is ISO/IEC 17025 accredited and independent of TRU. Eastern Analytical pulverized 1000 grams of each sample to 95% < 89 m. Samples are analyzed using fire assay (30g) with AA finish and an ICP-34, four acid digestion followed by ICP-OES analysis. All samples with visible gold or assaying above 1.00 g/t Au are further assayed using metallic screen to mitigate the presence of the nugget effect of coarse gold. Standards and blanks are inserted at defined intervals for QA/QC purposes by the Company as well as Eastern Analytical. The TRU exploration program design is consistent with industry best practices and the program is carried out by qualified persons employing a QA/QC program consistent with National Instrument 43-101.

Qualified Person

Barry Greene, P.Geo. (NL) is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the contents and technical disclosures in this press release. Mr. Greene is a director and officer of the Company and owns securities of the Company.

About TRU Precious Metals Corp.

TRU has assembled a portfolio of gold exploration properties in the highly prospective Central Newfoundland Gold Belt. The Company has an option with a subsidiary of TSX-listed Altius Minerals Corporation to purchase 100% of the Golden Rose Project, located along the deposit-bearing Cape Ray - Valentine Lake Shear Zone. TRU also owns 100% of the Twilite Gold Project, located along the same Shear Zone, and 3 early-stage properties including 2 near New Found Gold Corp.'s high-grade Queensway Project. TRU's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "TRU", on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol "TRUIF", and on the Frankfurt exchange under the symbol "706".

TRU is a portfolio company of Resurgent Capital Corp. ("Resurgent"), a merchant bank providing venture capital markets advisory services and proprietary financing. Resurgent works with promising public and pre-public micro-capitalization companies listing on Canadian stock exchanges. For more information on Resurgent and its portfolio companies, please visit Resurgent's LinkedIn profile at https://ca.linkedin.com/company/resurgent-capital-corp

For further information about TRU, please contact:

Joel Freudman

Co-Founder, President & CEO

TRU Precious Metals Corp.

Phone: 1-855-760-2TRU (2878)

Email: ir@trupreciousmetals.com

Website: www.trupreciousmetals.com

To connect with TRU via social media, below are links:

Twitter

https://twitter.com/corp_tru

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tru-precious-metals-corp

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHghHMDQaYgS1rDHiZIeLUg/

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/TRU-Precious-Metals-Corp-100919195193616

Acknowledgement

TRU would like to thank the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for financial support of the Twilite Gold Project through the Junior Exploration Assistance Program. TRU has been approved for funding for a portion of its 2021 exploration activities at the Twilite Gold Project.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

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.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including those relating to exploration and the drill program at Twilite Gold, and to exploration at Gander West. These statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Twilite Gold and the Company's exploration and drilling plans that are believed by management to be reasonable in the circumstances, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation: mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on Twilite Gold; the exploration potential of Twilite Gold and the nature and style of mineralization at Twilite Gold; risks inherent in mineral exploration activities and operational problems relating to drilling; volatility in precious metals prices; and those other risks described in the Company's continuous disclosure documents. Actual results may differ materially from results contemplated by the forward-looking statements herein. Investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements herein except as required by applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93477
The newest franchise location expands Spiffy's North Carolina footprint to the Triad area

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Get Spiffy, Inc. (Spiffy?), an on-demand car care, technology, and services company, today announced the launch of its newest franchise in Greensboro, NC. The latest franchise market, Spiffy's sixth since March 2021, opened for business on Monday, August 16.

For Greensboro franchise owner BJ Bodkin, the decision to jump into mobile car wash and detailing harkens back to the start of his career in the car wash industry. Before joining the mobile maintenance brand, Bodkin spent nine years detailing cars for different locations throughout North Carolina and the last 19 years of his career in the bottled water industry, managing operations for home and office deliveries. To him, Spiffy marries the car wash industry and the home and office delivery aspect of the bottled water industry.

"Spiffy has taken a disruptive approach to car care that I've dreamt about for 26 years: truly mobile car wash, detail, and maintenance that prioritizes convenience for vehicle owners," said Bodkin. "I'm fired up to bring Spiffy to Greensboro because their on-demand business model has been sorely lacking throughout the Triad area. We're looking forward to seeing the smiles on our customers' faces when we make their cars look brand new."

Since 2014, Spiffy has grown from a small mobile car wash and detail startup in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park to a national brand for on-demand maintenance, serving car owners and fleet clients alike. Their W2-trained technicians bring a frictionless customer experience directly to every customer in an upfitted blue van, complete with the water, power, and supplies needed to complete every service.

The Spiffy Green system uses less than half the water of a typical car wash with 100% eco-conscious products. After each appointment, the water, soap, and supplies are reclaimed and recycled to minimize environmental impacts.

"We've always seen the Triad area as a future Spiffy market, and BJ has brought an excellent blend of dedication and experience as our Greensboro franchise owner," said Scot Wingo, Spiffy CEO. "He has a strong understanding of what consumers want from their car care provider, especially the importance of providing a convenience-oriented experience."

Customers looking to bring Spiffy's mobile maintenance to their home, office, or fleet in the Triad area can visit https://www.getspiffy.com to book their first service.

About Spiffy

Spiffy ( www.getspiffy.com ) is an on-demand technology and services company with the mission to disrupt the car care experience everywhere. Spiffy offers a variety of zero-contact hand car washing, advanced detailing, and disinfection services, in addition to oil change, tires, and other preventative maintenance service options. Customers can schedule in less than two minutes with the Spiffy app. Every service is conveniently performed on-site at fleets, office parks, and residences using the Spiffy Green system that is the eco-friendliest way to service a vehicle.

Spiffy is available in cities and metro areas including Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Columbia, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Dover, Fort Lauderdale, Greensboro, Greenville, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Orlando, Palm Springs, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle-Tacoma, St. Louis, Tampa, Tucson, Washington DC, and Wilmington, DE.

Individuals interested in franchising opportunities can visit https://www.getspiffy.com/franchise to learn more.

PR Contacts:

Grayson Leverenz?

VP of Marketing

Get Spiffy, Inc.

grayson@getspiffy.com

919-500-2481

?www.getspiffy.com

SOURCE: Spiffy

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660153/Spiffy-Opens-Latest-Franchise-in-Greensboro
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Trigon Metals Inc. (TSX-V:TM) ("Trigon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the signature of a Power Supply Agreement ("PSA") with local power distributor, CENORED (Pty) Ltd ("CENORED").

On August 13, 2021, representatives of Trigon attended a rebranding launch hosted by CENORED, at which the formal PSA between Trigon and CENORED was signed.

This follows an earlier agreement between the parties on the terms and conditions of the PSA and the payment by Trigon for the installation of the power supply, on which preliminary work has already commenced.

Jed Richardson, President and CEO of Trigon, commented, "CENORED has established themselves as a welcomed partner in our restart efforts at Trigon. The relationship between Trigon and CENORED began in April of this year with an agreement to install new power infrastructure, updating our grid connection, and electrifying the Kombat mine and mill. This new announcement gives us a formalized agreement that ensures a reliable and stable power supply for our foreseeable future at Kombat and extends power benefits separately to the people of Kombat Village."

About CENORED

CENORED is the third licensed Regional Electricity Distribution Company to be established in Namibia, distributing power to three of Namibia's fourteen legislative regions an area of approximately 120,000 square kilometres and 8,000 kilometres of line infrastructure. The CENORED distribution licence area covers the Oshikoto, Kunune and Otjozondjupa regions (where Kombat is situated).

CENORED recently launched its Strategic Business Plan where it places emphasis on supplying power to large commercial consumers such as Trigon.

About Kombat Mine

The Kombat Copper Project is the flagship project of Trigon Metals Inc., with the Company's mining and prospecting licence areas covering an area of more than 7,500 ha in the Otavi Mountainlands in Namibia. The Kombat Project is comprised of three mining licences, which produced approximately 12.46 million tonnes of copper between 1962 and 2008, at a grade of 2.62%. The other two mining licences are within close proximity to Kombat at Gross Otavi and Harasib, which are believed to be highly prospective for lead and zinc. In addition, the Company also holds an interest in two exclusive prospecting licences, which represent a potential strike extension of Kombat.

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 power supply at Kombat, the restart of the Kombat Mine, the Company's strategies and the Company's abilities to execute such strategies, the Company's expectations for the Kombat Project, and the Company's 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.

For further information, contact:

Jed Richardson

+1 647 276-6002

jed.richardson@trigonmetals.com

Website: www.trigonmetals.com

SOURCE: Trigon Metals, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660270/Trigon-Secures-Power-Supply-for-Kombat-Mine-Restart-Namibia
UK-based asset manager meets rising institutional demand; sees growth in specialized active strategies

Jupiter Asset Management announced today its expanded commitment to the US institutional market to meet rising institutional interest in its strategies. Following a strong initial response, the firm is growing its US effort with the hiring of David Schrock, as head of US Institutional. Mr. Schrock will report to head of US distribution, Taylor Carrington, who established the Denver-based Jupiter office late in 2020.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005263/en/

David Schrock, Head of US Institutional (Photo: Business Wire)

"This is an important strategic initiative for Jupiter and we're making the necessary investments to be successful," said Andrew Formica, chief executive officer. "Jupiter's active alpha-centric platform meets institutional investors' needs for innovative strategies they can't get anywhere else."

Jupiter's selective US offering is built around four high-demand platforms: disruption and innovation, sustainable investing, emerging economies, and lower-correlated income and alternative strategies.

Jupiter and its partner, NZS Capital, the firm spearheading the disruption and innovation platform, have raised $1.2 billion of AUM since the two firms formed a strategic partnership in 2020*. The firm also believes that its sustainable investing platform, a focus at Jupiter since 1988, will satisfy institutional searches and requirements for active and authentic ESG strategies.

"We want to introduce the very best of Jupiter to our institutional partners in the US," said Taylor Carrington, "and we are hiring the very best to establish strong, lasting relationships."

David Schrock joined Jupiter in August and has 25 years in the industry. Most recently, he led the North American institutional business at Janus Henderson Investors.

"Attracting the best talent has high correlation with the best outcomes this is true in terms of investment management as well as distribution talent," said Warren Tonkinson, managing director of global distribution. "At Jupiter, we have been able to attract and retain both."

Jupiter's institutional commitment is global in scope. The UK-based manager is strengthening its outreach efforts with the hiring of 24-year industry veteran Adam Phua, head of Asian institutional. Most recently, Adam was managing director, head of Asia Pacific institutional sales for Allianz Global Investors. Jupiter will soon announce another key hire to the UK institutional team. The firm is also strengthening the support functions required to successfully reach and service institutional investors with key hires in marketing and operations.

*Source: Jupiter, gross AUM as at June 30, 2021

Jupiter Rising

Interesting fact: Jupiter will be most visible in the sky on August 19-20, 2021. That's when earth will spin directly between the sun and Jupiter. Always bright, investors around the world will have the best, sun-illuminated view of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, this year.

Optimal viewing times on August 20, 2021:

US investors: 8PM EDT

UK investors 00:00 GMT

Hong Kong investors: 8AM HKST

Important Information

The information contained in this press release is intended solely for members of the media and should not be relied upon by private investors or any other persons to make financial decisions.

This communication, including any data and views in it, is not a financial promotion as defined in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. It does not constitute an invitation to invest or investment advice in any way. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of any information provided but no assurances or warranties are given.

Market and exchange rate movements can cause the value of an investment to fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than originally invested.

The views expressed are those of the writing, are not necessarily those of Jupiter as a whole and may be subject to change. This is particularly true during periods of rapidly changing market circumstances.

Issued by Jupiter Asset Management Limited (JAM) and/or Jupiter Unit Trust Managers Limited (JUTM). JAM and JUTM are both authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and their registered address is The Zig Zag Building, 70 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6SQ.

No part of this communication may be reproduced in any manner without the prior permission of JAM and/or JUTM.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005263/en/

Contacts:

Taylor Carrington

Head of US Distribution

1-303-506-2947

taylor.carrington@jupiteram.com

Despina Constantinides

Head of Communications

+44 (0)20 3817 1278 +44 (0)7801 337 677

despina.constantinides@jupiteram.com
Aite-Novarica Group, in partnership with the Mobile Payment Conference, recognizes innovative digital wallet providers leveraging best-in-class technology at an awards presentation during this year's virtual Mobile Payment Conference, MPC 2021.

Boston, MA, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aite-Novarica Group has announced the winners of the 2021 Digital Wallet Innovation Awards. The awards, which will be presented virtually today during the Mobile Payment Conference, recognize innovation achieved by digital wallet providers that are changing the way that commerce is done.

In its third year, the Digital Wallet Innovation awards program, sponsored by Cybersource, a Visa solution, honors industry leaders that identify and implement new products, capabilities, and levels of automation and effectiveness that remove friction and add value to the consumer and merchant commerce experience. They are the pathfinders in the digital payment space. The winners across the five categories are as follows:

Customer Experience: VELA

Merchant Experience: Nexi

Product Design: Payactiv

Value-Added Services: Ceridian

Market Adoption: Comviva

In addition to the above categories, Aite-Novarica Group has created an overall winner, and one of the five winning firms will receive that award. The overall winner will be announced during the Mobile Payment Conference.

The award winners and finalists were selected based on the following criteria, which were considered when scoring each entry:

Level of innovation and competitive advantage

Market needs

Impact on customer experience

Impact on customer operational efficiency

Level of new revenue opportunity for the organization

Impact on customer retention/new customer attraction

Level of scalability across customer base

Future roadmap

"Digital wallets have become an essential component of the payments landscape, and the COVID-19 pandemic only increased the value that they provide consumers and merchants," says Thad Peterson, senior analyst at Aite-Novarica Group. "We're proud to recognize organizations that are innovative leaders in the digital wallet space," he explains.

The winners were selected by a global panel of independent experts on digital payments and wallets. The identification of an Aite-Novarica Group award winner or finalist is not an endorsement by Aite-Novarica Group of any vendor, product, or service.



To request additional information about Aite-Novarica Group's Digital Wallet Innovation Awards or to learn more about the Digital Wallet Database, please contact us at pr@aite-novarica.com.

About Aite-NovaricaGroup:

Aite-Novarica Group is an advisory firm providing mission-critical insights on technology, regulations, strategy, and operations to hundreds of banks, insurers, payments providers, and investment firms-as well as the technology and service providers that support them. Comprising former senior technology, strategy, and operations executives as well as experienced researchers and consultants, our experts provide actionable advice to our client base, leveraging deep insights developed via our extensive network of clients and other industry contacts. Visit us on the weband connect with us on Twitterand LinkedIn.



About Mobile Payment Conference:

Mobile Payment Conference (MPC) is the premier annual conference and exhibition on the future of alternative payments worldwide. MPC is known for bringing together thought leaders, innovators and decision-makers from financial, technology, government, retail, marketing, and mobile industries to discuss the evolution of the payments industry. Attendees benefit from access to the world's foremost experts in emerging payments and commerce, blockchain and digital currencies, cybersecurity and consumer privacy, customer experience and loyalty, and customer engagement and marketing.



About MPC21:

MPC21 Virtual, which marks the 11th year of the Digital Commerce Event, is set for August 17-19, 2021. This year's theme, "Where Digital Commerce & Technology Meet," will focus on the current and future applications of alternative payment technologies in established economies and emerging markets. For more information, visit www.mobilepaymentconference.com.
TORONTO, ON and NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 18 2021 / GlobeX Data Ltd. (OTCQB:SWISF)(CSE:SWIS)(FRA:GDT) ("GlobeX" or the "Company"), the leader in Swiss hosted secure communications and secure data management, is pleased announce that it has secured firm commitments of CA$5 million in equity financing in the form of Units.

Each Unit consists of one common share (a "Share") priced at CA$0.33 per share, and one-half of one share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Full Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase a Common share at a price of $0.60 per share for a two-year term (the "Warrant Term"). The offering has been is fully subscribed and is now closed.

The proceeds of the financing will be allocated to continue to accelerate the marketing of the Company's Sekur encrypted email and messaging solution to the US market and for general purposes.

The Company's CEO and CFO participated in the private placement as well with subscriptions of 2,295,000 units, or 15% of the total offering.

The Company will issue another press release once all the regulatory filings have been submitted and will disclose all details in relations to the final amount raised, and any fees paid to third parties, if any.

Sekur , which includes SekurMessenger as part of a bundle of email, messaging and file transfer into one app solutions, includes the Company's latest SekurMail technology, which includes proprietary anti-phishing and privacy feature called SekurSend . SekurSend  lets a user send an email to any other recipient, whether they have Sekur or not, in full privacy and security as the email never leaves Sekur 's encrypted email servers based in Switzerland. The recipient can then click on the notification and reply in the same manner using SekurReply  , without the recipient having to register for a Sekur account. The sender can also decide to protect any email sent by adding a password to open it, a read-limit and a self-destruct timer as well. Sending an email with the SekurSend  feature allows the senders and recipients to add limitless size attachments to the emails without crowding the recipients' email box. This also eliminates BEC attacks for businesses and email phishing attacks. Additionally, SekurMail includes full control of email delivery, automatic data export for large Enterprises and an automatic Data Loss Prevention technology ("DLP") with real time continuous archiving.

Recent data breaches in messaging applications and in particular in the WhatsApp application have created a certain urgency for businesses and data privacy advocates to protect their communications form cyber-attacks and identity theft via mobile and desktop devices.

SekurMessenger eliminates many of the privacy and security risks by not only not requiring a phone number, which would divulge a user's phone device ID, but also by not social engineering a user's phone or computer contact list and infecting the contacts by default as well, eliminating a huge loophole in security and privacy. SekurMessenger issues each user a username and a SM number. The SM number is the contact ID a user would disclose in order for other SM users to be added. The service comes with a self-destruct timer and other features as well, including GlobeX's proprietary VirtualVaults and HeliX technologies with all data stored in Swiss hosted encrypted servers.

Additionally, SekurMessenger now comes with a proprietary feature and technology called Chat by Invites. This feature allows a SekurMessenger user ("SM user") invite a non-SM user, or a group of non-SM users, to chat in a fully private and secure way, without the recipient ever having to register to SekurMessenger or download the app. At the end of the chat, the initiator of the conversation can remotely terminate the conversation and all traces of the conversation are deleted from all users, including the recipient. This unique feature is now fully deployed and functional on all iOS and Android devices and web platforms. The target sectors are numerous, including but not limited to real estate, legal, financial, government, energy, mining, manufacturing, trade and medical sectors.

GlobeX's Data privacy solutions are all hosted in Switzerland, protecting users' data from any outside data intrusion requests. In Switzerland, the right to privacy is guaranteed in article 13 of the Swiss Federal Constitution. The Federal Act on Data Protection ("FADP") of 19 June 1992 (in force since 1993) has set up a strict protection of privacy by prohibiting virtually any processing of personal data which is not expressly authorized by the data subjects. The protection is subject to the authority of the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Under Swiss federal law, it is a crime to publish information based on leaked "secret official discussions." In 2010 the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland found that IP addresses are personal information and that under Swiss privacy laws they may not be used to track Internet usage without the knowledge of the individuals involved.

About GlobeX Data Ltd.

GlobeX Data Ltd. is a Cybersecurity and Internet privacy provider of Swiss hosted solutions for secure communications and secure data management. The Company distributes a suite of encrypted e-mails, and secure communication tools, secure cloud-based storage, disaster recovery and document management. GlobeX Data Ltd. sells its products directly through its websites, through its approved wholesalers and distributors, and telecommunications companies worldwide. GlobeX Data Ltd. serves consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.
Innovative healthcare service ensures patients around the world get the support they need, even in a pandemic

OTTAWA, ON / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Calian Group Ltd. (TSX:CGY), deliverer of trusted solutions across Advanced Technologies, Health, Learning and IT & Cyber Solutions segments, announced an expansion of clinical trial and patient support programs (PSPs) to pharmaceutical customers in eight new markets.

Calian Health delivers on-demand nursing support at the most convenient location for the patient - whether at home, work, pharmacy or clinic. This expansion brings timely, high-quality care to patients in European countries and the US. While this announcement is not material, it represents a significant milestone in Calian service line evolution and customer diversification growth pillars.

The expansion is the direct result of overachieving industry target metrics during a 2020 pharmaceutical clinical trial pilot program. The pilots were implemented to re-start previous, non-Calian programs that had experienced service interruptions during the pandemic. The pilot program quickly surpassed key performance indicators for the industry. Calls to international call centers were answered within two minutes and patients requiring in-home nursing services were assigned to a nurse within 45 minutes - far surpassing the industry standard of 48 hours - and first patient visits were completed in four days, reducing the time to care by +70%, based on the industry average of 14 days.

"When we were approached by our client to help resolve a pandemic-related service interruption, we were able to respond quickly because of our patient support expertise and existing infrastructure, at the heart of which is our proprietary resource management software platform," said Jeff Smith, President, Alio Health, a Calian company. "Expanding on this proven approach to customers in new markets is a natural evolution of our service platform."

Within weeks of the successful clinical trial pilot, Calian Health expanded its home healthcare services to customers across eight new markets. By January 2021, the company had onboarded personnel internationally and welcomed its first patient enrollment in the Netherlands.

"We are excited to work with our global partners, to deliver clinical services that go beyond industry expectations by leveraging a new model for high-quality, cost-effective healthcare," said Gordon McDonald, President, Calian Health.

Calian Health continues to expand its international infrastructure to offer a suite of healthcare services globally. These include nursing support for medication administration, specimen collection, ECG monitoring, clinical trials, reimbursement assistance and more. The company has located offices in each region to ensure local support and to secure patient data in compliance with regional and international privacy regulations. Today, Calian Health operates across Canada, US, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland and Spain, with plans to expand further in Europe, and North and South America in 2022.

Read the Case Study in its entirety to learn how Alio Health Solves Pandemic Service Interruptions to Ensure Success of Clinical Trial: https://www.calian.com/case-studies/patient-support-program/

About Alio Health, a Calian company

Since its launch in 2012, Alio Health Services has grown rapidly in the areas of patient support program (PSP) management and health resource optimization. Alio Health specializes in the design and implementation of comprehensive patient support programs that enhance the patient's experience throughout their treatment journey. Its services are enabled by an innovative software application which streamlines the scheduling and delivery of health services for hospitals, health care institutions and home care locations. Driven by proprietary systems and system automation, Alio patient support programs ensure superior quality control and the provision of more cost-effective in-home services.

About Calian Health

Calian is one of Canada's largest national health and psychological services organizations with decades of experience in the management of healthcare professionals and health psychological service delivery, as well as the operation and management of primary care and occupational health clinics, pharmaceutical research and patient support programs (PSPs). With a network of more than 2,400 healthcare professionals, Calian supports more than six million patient visits per year at more than 180 clinic locations across Canada. Calian Primacy clinics are located in Loblaw grocery store locations across Canada (including Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs, Loblaws and No Frills).

About Calian

Calian employs more than 4,500 people in its delivery of diverse products and solutions for private sector, government and defence customers in North American and global markets. The company's diverse capabilities are delivered through: Advanced Technologies, Health, Learning, and IT and Cyber Solutions. Advanced Technologies provides innovative products, technologies and manufacturing services and solutions for the space, communications, defence, nuclear, government and agriculture sectors. Health manages a network of more than 2,400 healthcare professionals delivering primary care and occupational health services to public and private sector clients across Canada. Learning is a trusted provider of emergency management, consulting and specialized training services and solutions for the Canadian Armed Forces and clients in the defence, health, energy and other sectors. IT and Cyber Solutions supports public and private sector customer requirements for subject matter expertise in the delivery of complex IT and cyber security solutions. Headquartered in Ottawa, Calian offices and projects span Canada and international markets. For further information, please visit our website at www.calian.com.

Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Media inquiries:

info@calian.com

613-599-8600 x 2298

Investor Relations inquiries:

ir@calian.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

DISCLAIMER

Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Such statements are generally accompanied by words such as "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" or similar statements. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: the impact of price competition; scarce number of qualified professionals; the impact of rapid technological and market change; loss of business or credit risk with major customers; technical risks on fixed price projects; general industry and market conditions and growth rates; international growth and global economic conditions, and including currency exchange rate fluctuations; and the impact of consolidations in the business services industry. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, please see the Company's most recent annual report and other reports filed by Calian with the Ontario Securities Commission. Calian disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. No assurance can be given that actual results, performance or achievement expressed in, or implied by, forward-looking statements within this disclosure will occur, or if they do, that any benefits may be derived from them.

Calian  Head Office  770 Palladium Drive  Ottawa  Ontario  Canada  K2V 1C8

Tel: 613.599.8600  Fax: 613-592-3664  General info email: info@calian.com

SOURCE: Calian Group Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660206/Calian-Health-Expands-Clinical-Trials-and-Patient-Support-Programs-to-Customers-in-New-Markets
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Conquest Resources Limited (TSXV: CQR) ("Conquest") has resumed drilling on the Belfast-TeckMag Project following a scheduled two-week break for drill crews. Thirteen holes were completed in the initial six weeks which tested 13 of the 33 geophysical targets generated from the recently completed VTEM Max EM and magnetic surveys along with ground gravity surveys performed during the past winter and spring (fig 1).

Sulphide mineralization was encountered in most of the holes close to or at projected target depth. Three of the holes intersected semi-massive to massive sulphides comprised of pyrrhotite, pyrite, and minor chalcopyrite in the form of disseminations, sulphidic horizons, and breccia units representing conductors in six of the exploration holes. Two holes contained conductive metasediments, while another two targets tested remain unexplained as to the source of the anomaly. Assay laboratories have been backed up and turnaround time remains at 6 weeks or more. Bore hole EM may be performed on holes of interest when full assays are received and rock chemistry is available. A more detailed description of drill holes will be released when all data is collected.







Figure 1 - Drill Targets on the Belfast Copper Project

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7183/93463_105d975cc4513a5d_002full.jpg





Completed Drill Holes



To view an enhanced version of this table, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7183/93463_table1.jpg

Airborne MobileMT Survey

A 155-line kilometer Airborne Mobile Magnetotelluric survey was completed in conjunction with Inventus Mining Corp. to assess ground resistivity on a 64 square kilometer block of claims which included Conquest's recent acquisition of DGC leases from Teck Resources (fig 2). The area is the central location of the Temagami magnetic and gravity anomaly. The color contoured image of the deep regional resistivity distribution from the Mobile MT survey reveals a large low resistivity region or "footprint" in the central part of Afton Township. This location coincides with the gravity high and trend exhibited in the regional gravity station data as illustrated by the gravity contours (1-7 mgals).

To the south of the DGC leases, both the deep resistivity structure and the gravity contours deflect further south and trend to enclose a smaller 2x2 km area in the south part of Afton Township. Prior to the Mobile MT survey, this local gravity anomaly was targeted with a dense grid of ground gravity/mag stations. The color contoured results on the Afton gravity grid are shown on the inset of fig 2. The ground gravity survey also identified a distinct linear gravity low trending NE to SW on the west side of the ground grid which may represent a large fault zone. The gravity anomaly known as BC-32 will be drill tested this fall.

The Afton Township area is blanketed by Nipissing gabbro and Huronian sediments, which is of varying thickness but mostly covering the Temagami Greenstone Belt (TGB) of VMS exploration potential, as exhibited by the presence of abundant copper and gold occurrences and as yet undrilled VTEM responses east of Emerald Lake (BC 16, 17,31). The large spatial extent of this deep low resistivity footprint not only includes the central portions of the strongest Temagami magnetic and gravity responses, but also trends to the south away from the main magnetic/gravity sources. Conquest will undertake a drill program to assess the area of low resistivity in the TGB as the company continues to prioritize the abundance of geophysical anomalies associated with VMS Copper base metal deposits in the region.







Figure 2 -Regional MobileMT Survey on the Belfast Copper Project

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7183/93463_105d975cc4513a5d_003full.jpg

Conquest's Chief Geophysicist commented, "The MobileMT survey has gone a long way to uncover the secrets of the Temagami Anomaly. We can more clearly understand the distribution of shallow to deep sources that may be contributing to the magnetic and gravity measurements. This in turn will help us explore closer to the surface. The discovery of this large area of low resistivity south of the DGC leases and away from the main Iron Formation trends is encouraging for exploration for both Archean VMS and mafic intrusive deposits."

Qualified Person

The technical content of this News Release has been reviewed and approved by Joerg Kleinboeck, P.Geo., a qualified person as defined in NI 43-10.

ABOUT CONQUEST

Conquest Resources Limited, incorporated in 1945, is a mineral exploration company that is exploring for base metals and gold on mineral properties in Ontario.

Conquest holds a 100% interest in the Belfast - Teck Mag Project, located in the Temagami Mining Camp at Emerald Lake, approximately 65 kilometers northeast of Sudbury, Ontario, which hosts the former Golden Rose Gold Mine and is underlain by highly prospective Abitibi greenstone geology along a strike length of seventeen (17) kilometers.

In October 2020, Conquest completed the acquisition of Canadian Continental Exploration Corp. which holds an extensive package of mining claims which surround Conquest's Golden Rose Mine, and subsequently doubled its land holdings in the Temagami Mining Camp through the staking of 588 mining cells, encompassing approximately 93 sq km., centered on Belfast Township, on the edge of the Temagami Magnetic Anomaly.

Conquest now controls over 300 sq km of underexplored territory, including the past producing Golden Rose Mine at Emerald Lake, situated in the Temagami Mining Camp.

Conquest also holds a 100% interest in the Alexander Gold Property located immediately east of the Red Lake and Campbell mines in the heart of the Red Lake Gold Camp on the important "Mine Trend" regional structure. Conquest's property is almost entirely surrounded by Evolution Mining land holdings.

In addition, Conquest owns a 100% interest in the Smith Lake Gold Property of six patented claims and 181 staked mining claims to the north, west and south of the former Renabie Gold Mine in Rennie Township in northern Ontario, operated by Corona and Barrick that had reported gold production of over 1,000,000 ounces between 1947 and 1991 (Northern Miner March 4, 1991).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

general@conquestresources.com

www.conquestresources.com

Tom Obradovich

President & Chief Executive

416-985-7140

Forward-looking statements. This news release may include certain "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the completion of the Acquisition and the Consolidation, the release of escrowed funds, future cash on hand, potential mineralization, resources and reserves, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of Conquest, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Conquest's expectations are exploration risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by Conquest with securities regulators. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of TSXV) 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/93463
Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Manganese X Energy Corp. (TSXV: MN) (FSE: 9SC2) (OTCQB: MNXXF) ("Manganese X" or the "Company"), announces that it has entered into a 7-month marketing and consulting contract with Toronto based marketing firm, North Equities Corp. (the "Contract"). North Equities Corp. specializes in various social media platforms and will be able to facilitate greater awareness and widespread dissemination of the Company's news. In connection with the Contract, the Company will pay North Equities $112,000 and issue 325,000 stock options exercisable at $0.345, exercisable for a period of 2 months, and North Equities has agreed to a contractual lock up of 6 months on the shares underlying the options. Please visit www.northequities.com for additional information.

About Manganese X

Manganese X's mission is to advance its Battery Hill project into production, with the intent of supplying value-added materials to the lithium-ion battery and other alternative energy industries. The company is also striving to achieve new carbon-friendly more efficient methodologies, while processing manganese at a lower competitive cost. The company is moving toward commercialization of a manganese deposit in Canada.

Subsidiary Disruptive Battery's mission is to develop an HVAC air purification delivery system for cleaner and healthier air, aiming to mitigate COVID-19 and other contaminants on surfaces and in the air.

For more information visit our website at www.manganesexenergycorp.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Martin Kepman

CEO and Director

E-mail: martin@kepman.com

Telephone: 1-514-802-1814

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

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. Certain statement contained herein are "forward-looking statements". Often, but not always, forward-looking statement can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "expected", "scheduled", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or states that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. The Company cannot give any assurance that such forward-looking statements will prove to have been correct. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this document.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93562
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Pasofino Gold Limited (TSXV: VEIN) (OTCQB: EFRGF) (FSE: N07A) ("Pasofino" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received results for a further six holes drilled at the Tuzon deposit on the Dugbe Gold Project, in which the Company has an option to earn a 49% economic interest (prior to the issuance of the Government of Liberia's 10% carried interest).

Highlights

The results firm up on the increased lateral and strike extent of the higher-grade zone B at the 2Moz (Indicated MRE) Tuzon deposit.

4 of the holes have significant 2 g/t+ gold intersections including:

TDC040: 36.3 m grading 2.06 g/t gold (from 351.5 m downhole) and 15 m grading 2.01 g/t. TDC191: 11.2 m grading 1.37 g/t gold (from 125.2 m downhole) and 49.9 m grading 1.44 g/t gold.

150 m to 300 m wide zone of >2 g/t gold apparent with at least 250 m 'length'.

Results expected to have a positive impact on the updated MRE due September 2021.

Trenching underway on the 6 km soil trend extending on strike from Tuzon, following-up on the 36 m @ 0.6 g/t initial trench result reported in May1.

Ian Stalker, CEO, commented; "More excellent results from Tuzon, more indications that the deposit may be larger than the current 2 Moz (Indicated MRE) and have an extensive zone with above 2 g/t gold. With the recent positive results from the nearby Dugbe F deposit things are lining up well for our feasibility study ("FS"). Added to this we are pushing ahead with our exploration on the 6 km trend that extends on strike from Tuzon which we plan to drill later in the year."

Table 1. All intersections (not highlights) from the latest 6 drill holes with assay results at Tuzon.

Note: All intersections except those of TDC191 are expected to be close (within 10-20%) to the true thickness of the layer.

BHID From (m) To (m) Interval length (m) Grade Au (g/t) Zone TDC180 78.8 106.7 27.9 1.31 A TDC180 263.3 299.0 35.8 2.01 B TDC040 351.5 387.8 36.3 2.06 B TDC040 417.5 432.5 15.0 2.01 B TDC186 44.9 90.2 45.3 1.51 A TDC186 143.0 161.0 18.0 1.27 A TDC186 272.5 289.8 17.3 2.70 B TDC187 19.2 50.1 30.9 0.83 A TDC187 218.1 229.9 11.8 2.09 B TDC191 125.2 136.4 11.2 1.37 B TDC191 155.3 205.10 49.9* 1.44 B *includes 30.3 m @1.89 g/t from 155.3 B TDC078 - no significant intersection

The holes were drilled to firm up on the lateral and strike extension of the higher-grade 'zone B' of the Tuzon deposit (figure 1) and provide additional 'zone A' intersections. The results are provided below and in table 1 and are shown in cross-sections in figures 3 to 5. These results will be included in the update to the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) due in September 2021.



TDC040 extended a 2011 hole, successfully intersecting the southern limb of the host fold structure (referred to as zone B) with 36.3 m grading 2.06 g/t gold (from 351.5 m downhole) and 15 m grading 2.01 g/t. TDC186 intersected 17.3 m grading 2.70 g/t gold (from 272.5 m downhole) on the same line (figure 3) supporting the presence of a 150-300 m wide zone with over 2 g/t gold on this and other sections. These holes are the southernmost into zone B, beyond which it remains open (figure 1).



Lateral step-out hole TDC191 suggests thicker than expected mineralisation of zone B on the southern flank of the deposit returning 11.2 m grading 1.37 g/t gold ( from 125.2 m downhole) and 49.9 m grading 1.44 g/t gold (figure 5), building on the recent intersection in TDC179 (126 m grading 1.05 g/t) 2 .



The TDC187 intersection is thinner with 11.8 m grading 2.09 g/t gold (from 218.1 m downhole) but 'pushes' out the 'zone B' further than expected on the southern flank of the deposit (figure 4).



TDC078 was an old hole that was extended to test the northward limit of the host fold (figure 5) that does not contain significant mineralisation but helps support the resource model.





of the Tuzon deposit (figure 1) and provide additional 'zone A' intersections. The results are provided below and in table 1 and are shown in cross-sections in figures 3 to 5. (MRE) due in September 2021. These results highlight the quality of Tuzon's 'zone B' - which has returned many intersections with over 100 gram-metres (as in a minimum of 100 m @ 1 g/t or equivalent) as illustrated in figure 1. 'Zone A' also continues to deliver solid intersections and it is largely at or near surface; TDC186 returned 45.3 m grading 1.51 g/t gold from 44.9 m downhole and TDC180 and TDC187 had good intersections from as little as 19 metres downhole (table 1).





from 44.9 m downhole and TDC180 and TDC187 had good intersections from as little as 19 metres downhole (table 1). Trenching is underway on the 'Tuzon South' and 'Dugbe Shear Zone' targets (figure 2) to follow-up on encouraging 'first-pass' trench results reported in May 2021. These targets are on a 6 km long trend defined by soil anomalism extending southwest from Tuzon. Drilling is planned Q3/Q4 to test the best trench results.

Tuzon Drilling

A total of 23 drill-holes have been completed at Tuzon since April 2021, totaling 6,675 metres of drilling. Of these 6 were geotechnical holes. 5 of the exploration holes involved the deepening of previous (2014 and earlier) drillholes (such as TDC040). Aside from the geotechnical holes, the drilling has been aimed at 'stepping-out' laterally and on-strike; and providing some 'infill' intersections, with the objective of increasing the current Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) and converting some parts of the Inferred MRE to Indicated Mineral Resources. An updated MRE for Tuzon is expected to commence in August and be completed in September 2021. Sampling and analysis of the Tuzon core is ongoing; the results reported herein are the 2nd batch of recent holes for which sampling and analyses have been completed. The previous batch was reported 15 June 2021.

The Tuzon Deposit

The deposit footprint is 1.7 km long with an average width of 250 to 300 m, in plan view. Parts of the mineralised layer outcrop for the full length of the deposit. The depth to the base of the mineralised zone ranges from just below surface to over 400 m in the south reflecting the steady plunge of the controlling fold structure. As at the nearby Dugbe F deposit, the host-rock is orthopyroxene gneiss with increased sulphide content (visible pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite and pyrite). At Tuzon the layer has been repeatedly folded and is interpreted to be a large synform which plunges to the southwest at approximately 20 degrees. The mineralised layer is thickened on certain parts of the fold limbs and around the recumbent lower-most fold hinge. The northern limb is referred to as 'zone A' and the southern limb of the fold and the hinge of the synform are referred to as 'zone B'. Zone B is higher grade than zone A with an average of 1.7 g/t gold.

The current Indicated MRE stands at 41.9 Mt with an average grade of 1.51 g/t Au and contained gold of 2.03 M ounces. The current Inferred MRE is 10.4 Mt with an average grade of 1.31 g/t Au and contained gold of 0.44 M ounces.

Figure 1. Long section through the Tuzon deposit showing intersections with >20 gram-metres gold, and the position of holes TDC186, TDC040 reported herein. TDC174 was reported 15 June 2021.

*announcement dated 18 May 2021

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Figure 2. Map showing the Tuzon and Dugbe F deposits and the targets on strike from Tuzon.



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Figure 3. Cross-section on line 1120 N (refer to map in figure 6). Results reported herein are those with yellow text-boxes

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Figure 4. Cross-section on line 1200 N (refer to map in figure 6). Results reported herein are those with yellow text-boxes

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Figure 5. Cross-section on line 1360 N (refer to map in figure 6). Results reported herein are those with yellow text-boxes

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Drilling procedure and Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC)

The new holes were positioned using a professional surveying instrument, the Trimble R12i Rover unit. Downhole orientation surveys were completed for all holes and core was oriented to assist with interpretation. All drilling and logging were completed in adherence to industry standard operating procedures. Core recovery is over 95% for all mineralized intersections. Core was drilled HQ (65 mm diameter) through the overburden typically 2-10 m depth, then NQ (47 mm diameter) size. Samples were all half core, analyzed by ALS Kumasi in Ghana, a facility compliant to ISO 17025:2005 for the analytical methods used for the samples. Samples range from 1 kg to over 5 kg depending on the length of each sample. Within every 20 core samples submitted a certified standard and blank was inserted. The results of these samples show acceptable levels of variance. Duplicate (other half of the core) samples were inserted 1 in every 20 core samples to check on precision. Sample weights on dispatch and received sample weights were examined to monitor for sample swaps. All samples were stored and transported to the laboratory securely and accompanied by a company representative until arrival at the laboratory. Similar QAQC measures were undertaken for the previous drillholes reported herein; those samples were analyzed by ALS in Loughrea, Ireland which is an ISO 17025:2005 compliant facility for the analytical methods used for the samples. All samples were analyzed by fire assay with atomic absorption finish on a sample with 50g nominal weight.

Figure 6. Map locating the cross-sections and drill-holes. Those reported herein are TDC180, 186, 187, 191 and extended hole TDC040.

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Table 2. Collar positions of the new drillholes reported herein. Coordinates are in UTM zone 29N, WGS84 datum.

BHID Easting Northing Elevation Total

length Collar

Incl. Collar

Azimuth TDC040 555289.4 562804.0 123.00 425.20 -60 295 TDC078 555200.6 563098.5 113.18 365.5 -60 295 TDC180 555377.1 562857.1 116.06 278.30 -66 115 TDC186 555135.2 562861.9 107.99 347.50 -77 115 TDC187 555237.5 562909.1 117.47 484.10 -60 295 TDC191 555445.6 562993.8 105.63 269.21 -60 295

Qualified Persons Statement

Scientific or technical information in this disclosure that relates to exploration results was prepared and approved by Mr. Andrew Pedley. Mr. Pedley is a full-time consultant of Pasofino Gold Ltd.'s wholly-owned subsidiary ARX Resources Limited. He is a member in good standing with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and is as a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

About the Dugbe Gold Project

The 2,559 km2 Dugbe Project is located in southern Liberia and situated within the south westmost part of the Birimian Supergroup, which is host to the majority of West African gold deposits. To date, two gold deposits have been identified on the Project; Dugbe F and Tuzon. The deposits are located within 4 km of the Dugbe Shear Zone which is thought to have played a role in large scale gold mineralization in the area. A large amount of exploration in the area was conducted by Hummingbird, including 74,497 m of diamond coring. 70,700 m of this was at the Dugbe F and Tuzon deposits, discovered by Hummingbird in 2009 and 2011 respectively. Both deposits outcrop at surface and may be amenable to open-cut mining. In addition, there are a number of prospects within the Project, including 'Sackor' where gold mineralization has been intersected in drill-holes and where additional drilling is planned. No other prospects have been drill-tested to date. At some prospects extensive trenching identified anomalous levels of gold that require drill-testing. An aggressive exploration program to test the prospects is planned by the Company. In 2019, Hummingbird signed a 25-year Mineral Development Agreement ("MDA") with the Government of Liberia providing the necessary long-term framework and stabilization of taxes and duties. Under the terms of the MDA, the royalty rate on gold production is 3%, the income tax rate payable is 25% (with credit given for historic exploration expenditures), the fuel duty is reduced by 50%, and the Government of Liberia is granted a free carried interest of 10% in the Project. Over $70 million has been spent by Hummingbird on the Project.

Table 3. Mineral Resource Estimate for the Dugbe Gold Project using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off grade

Category Tonnes (million) Au Grade (g/t) Contained Gold (000 ounces) Tuzon Deposit Indicated 41.9 1.51 2,032 Inferred 10.4 1.31 439 Dugbe F Deposit Indicated 5.8 1.46 273 Inferred 16.3 1.57 823 Totals TOTAL INDICATED 47.7 1.51 2,304 TOTAL INFERRED 26.7 1.47 1,262

Rounding errors may be evident when combining totals in the table but are immaterial. The effective date of the Mineral Resource Estimate is August 19, 2020 as reported in "Dugbe Gold Project, Liberia NI 43-101 Technical Report, Effective Date 19 August 2020," a report prepared by SRK Consulting (UK) Limited. The Qualified Person is Mr. Martin Pittuck (CEng, MIMMM). The Mineral Resource has been classified under the guidelines of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council (2014), and procedures for classifying the reported Mineral Resources were undertaken within the context of the Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). The estimates are stated using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off grade. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have no demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, or other relevant issues. Mineral Resource estimates are stated within conceptual pit shells that have been used to define Reasonable Prospects for Eventual Economic Extraction (RPEEE). The pit shells used the following main parameters: (i) Au price of US$1700/ounce; (ii) plant recovery of 90%; and (iii) mean specific gravity of 2.78 t/m3for fresh rock and 1.56 t/m3for oxide material for Tuzon, and for Dugbe F a mean specific gravity of 2.73t/m3.

Figure 7. Dugbe Gold Project Mineral Development Area.

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About Pasofino Gold Ltd.

Pasofino Gold Ltd. is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (VEIN). Pasofino, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, has an option to earn a 49% economic interest (prior to the issuance of the Government of Liberia's 10% carried interest) in the Dugbe Gold Project

For further information, please visit www.pasofinogold.com or contact:

Ian Stalker, President & CEO

T: 604 367 8110

E: istalker@pasofinogold.com

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" that are based on expectations, estimates, projections and interpretations as at the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "aim", "plan", "expect", "project", "seek", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the ability to raise the funds to finance its ongoing business activities including the acquisition of mineral projects and the exploration and development of its projects. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to, the results of exploration activities; the ability of the Company to complete further exploration activities; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms and those risk factors outlined in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis as filed on SEDAR. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

1Announcement dated 18 May 2021

2Announcement dated 15 June 2021

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93568
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - LaSalle Exploration Corp. (TSXV: LSX) ("LaSalle" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of the final tranche of the private placement of Units announced July 13, 2021 (the "Offering") through the issuance of a further 2,343,740 Units at $0.16 for $375,000, bringing the total placement to 19,443,750 Units for total proceeds of $1,671,000. Each Unit is comprised of one common share and one-half common share purchase warrant, with each whole warrant being exercisable into one common share for 24 months from issuance at $0.24 per share. The shares and warrants issued in the final tranche of the Offering will be subject to a four-month resale hold ending December 18th, 2021. The placement is oversubscribed by 443,750 Units for which the Company received an additional $71,000.

The net proceeds of the financing will primarily be used to accelerate the exploration program at the Egan Gold Property, follow-up the discovery of high-grade gold on the Egan Gold property, extending the ongoing exploration program at Radisson and for general working capital purposes.

Ian Campbell, President and CEO, commented, "We wish to acknowledge the Quebec Institutional Funds with the continuing support of SIDEX and also welcome Mining Investment Fund Societe de developpement de la Baie James SDBJ to our shareholder base."

At Radisson, the Company is midway through its planned 3,000 metre drill program, and, has been actively exploring and expanding previously defined, high priority prospects including Goldhawk, Goldfang, MM5 and Wisht mineralized zones (see Press Release dated July 26, 2021). At Egan, the Company is directing a minimum of $500,000 to develop drill targets for initial drill testing in Q1, 2022 (see Press Release dated May 17, 2021).

A management fee of $6,000 was payable to SDBJ and $8,000 to SIDEX in connection with their participation in this tranche.

A director of the Company acquired an aggregate of 31,250 Units, which is considered a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company has relied on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in Sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(b), respectively, of MI 61-101 in respect of such insider participation.

About SIDEX:

SIDEX is an initiative of the Quebec government and the Fonds de solidarite des travailleurs du Quebec (F.T.Q.) whose mission is to invest in companies engaged in mineral exploration in Quebec in order to diversify the province's mineral base, promote innovation and new entrepreneurs.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Ronald Stewart, P.Geo., Vice-President, Corporate Development of LaSalle Exploration Corp., who is a non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

On behalf of the Board of Directors

LASALLE EXPLORATION CORP.

"Ian Campbell"

President and Chief Executive Officer

About LaSalle Exploration Corp.:

LaSalle is an exploration company focused on less explored districts of the Abitibi, recognized for mining investment based on mineral potential, policy and success, and the developing Eeyou Itschee-James Bay region in Quebec. LaSalle is actively exploring Radisson as well as the Blakelock and Egan high-grade gold properties located in northeastern Ontario. LaSalle trades on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") under the symbol "LSX". Additional information about LaSalle can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.lasallecorp.com. For more information about LaSalle, please contact Ron Stewart or Ian Campbell at (604) 647-3966.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Information

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. 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 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/93543
LOUISVILLE, KY / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Charah Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:CHRA) ("Charah Solutions" or the "Company") announced today that it plans to offer $130 million in aggregate principal amount of 8.50% senior notes due 2026 (the "Notes") in a registered underwritten public offering (the "Offering"). The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering, along with cash from the sale of equity to B. Riley Securities, Inc., to fully repay and terminate the Company's credit facility, dated September 21, 2018, by and among the Company, the lenders party thereto from time to time and Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent, with any remaining proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes, including funding future acquisitions and investments, repaying indebtedness, making capital expenditures and funding working capital. The Notes will be issued in minimum denominations of $25.00 and integral multiples of $25.00 in excess thereof.

In connection with the Offering, the Company has applied to list the Notes on the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE") under the symbol "CHRB." If approved for listing, trading on the NYSE is expected to commence within 30 days after the Notes are first issued. The Company and this issuance of Notes received a rating of B from Egan-Jones Ratings Company, an independent, unaffiliated rating agency.

B. Riley Securities, Inc., Boenning & Scattergood, Inc., Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. will act as joint book-running managers for the Offering. EF Hutton, division of Benchmark Investments, LLC is acting as lead manager for this offering. Aegis Capital Corp., B.C. Ziegler & Company, Colliers Securities LLC, Huntington Securities, Inc. and Newbridge Securities Corporation will act as co-managers for the Offering.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Notes may only be offered and sold under the Company's registration statement on Form S-1, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") but has not yet become effective. The Notes may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. A copy of the registration statement is available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus related to the Offering may be obtained from the offices of B. Riley Securities, Inc. at 1300 North 17th Street, Suite 1400, Arlington, VA 22209, by calling (703) 312-9580 or by emailing prospectuses@brileyfin.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "may," "expect," "estimate," "project," "plan," "believe," "intend," "achievable," "anticipate," "will," "continue," "potential," "should," "could," and similar terms and phrases. These statements are based on certain assumptions made by the Company based on management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, anticipated future developments and other factors believed to be appropriate. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied or expressed by the forward-looking statements, including the uncertainties related to market conditions and the completion of the public offering on the anticipated terms or at all. See the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 and other periodic reports as filed with the SEC for further information regarding risk factors. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to correct or update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

About Charah Solutions, Inc.

With 30 years of experience, Charah Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of environmental services and byproduct sales to the power generation industry. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Charah Solutions assists utilities and independent power producers with all aspects to sustainably manage and recycle ash byproducts generated from the combustion of coal in the production of electricity. The Company also designs and implements solutions for ash pond management and closure, landfill construction, fly ash sales, and structural fill projects. Charah Solutions is the partner of choice for solving customers' most complex environmental challenges, and as an industry leader in quality, safety, and compliance, the Company is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for a cleaner energy future. For more information, please visit www.charah.com/ or download our 2020 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report at charah.com/sustainability .

Investor Contact

Roger Shannon, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Charah Solutions, Inc.

ir@charah.com

(502) 245-1353

Media Contact

Tamara Davis

PriceWeber Marketing

media@charah.com

(270) 202-8516

SOURCE: Charah Solutions, Inc.

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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Discovery Minerals LTD (OTC PINK:DSCR), the precious metals exploration and production company, is pleased to announce the continuation of their geological review and work program for the Ruby Gold Mine on the widely known "Mother Lode" in Northern California.

The Company has chosen to follow the recommendation of their Geological Team and combine the reopening of the previous workings while also undertaking the forward planning approach to establishing reserves by using seismic survey and drilling in combination to help pinpoint ore locations.

Here are excerpts of the Geological Report on work conducted at the RUBY in July, August 2021:

Two options are available for the future development of the Ruby gold mine: 1) a systematic exploration approach where the locations widths and gold potential of the deep lead channels and the underlying orogenic veined structures are assessed and defined through underground mapping, underground drone surveying, drilling and geophysical exploration, and 2) to approach the mine in the traditional fashion of re-opening old exposures and conducting exploration at the underground mine faces. The first option aims to de-risk the investment, the latter carries a higher level of risk throughout the life of mine, leaves potential unquantified, and negates any concept of procuring plant and developing infrastructure to suit a defined resource. The latter also draws into question the concept of redeveloping through a new bigger, truck permissive incline or decline access portal due to uncertainty of where the best potential lies. Pre-development exploration will require a significant up-front cost, while the traditional small mine approach could feasibly advance exploration with gains from production and it is probable that the latter approach will be adopted. Preparations for the systematic exploration approach have been made, available geological and mine data has been digitized, detailed topographic data procured, and plans made for a trial seismic +/-microgravity survey. The objective of a seismic survey is to identify the base of the volcanic cover and secondly highlight where underground openings are located and test lines are planned to determine if a seismic approach would be feasible. The preferred approach would be to fast track the refurbishment of the underground access between the Ruby portal and the Lawry shaft, drill a series of inclined combined RC / diamond holes from surface to gain seismic sounding data for the various lithologies in addition to confirming the location of the volcanic cover / basement interface, probe for deep leads and extend across the orogenic veined structures. And then follow on with a trial seismic (+/-microgravity) survey to determine if a complete 2D/3D seismic survey could significantly reduce metreage of exploration drilling whether from underground of surface required to quantify the potential of the deep lead / lode complex. To date no advance has been made on the drilling or underground refurbishment but preparations have been made and quotes provided for conducting a trial seismic survey. No estimates have been acquired for drilling at this stage but it can be assumed based on costs elsewhere that 4 combined RC/diamond drill holes to 250m depth will probably incur an investment of approximately USD 300,000.

Consulting geologist Richard Cleath has joined the geological team on an as required basis to ensure that the exploration program is well managed and it is proposed that day to day exploration activities be conducted by geologists from a contracting geological services company. Data acquisition & onsite activities Richard Cleath has acquired and processed LIDAR topographic data with 2m pixel accuracy and this topographic data has now been incorporated into the projects data set and the pre-existing data sets including road and stream courses, the locations of historical workings etc. adjusted to fit the improved topographic control (figure 1 & 2). In addition, Richard has reviewed and compiled a series of screen shots from the Clifton conference presentation (Appendix I)which clarifies the nature of the auriferous channels in the Big Bend area and provides previously unseen information of the extent of the mining and the trace of the underground access tunnels between the Big Bend and the Lawry shaft(figure 9).In addition to data acquisition activities Richard Cleath visited the site in early July to gain a better understanding of the project and also assist with a site review by a seismic survey contractor to assess the feasibility of conducting a seismic survey across the project area. It was then proposed that a more limited trail seismic survey should be considered to demonstrate that the seismic which would provide the information required, follows existing road access ways where line clearance would be minimized. The combination of lines should provide the information required to determine if a complete systematic 2.D seismic survey will be successful (figure 3).

Once underground access is gained it would be preferable if a 3D drone assisted LIDAR survey be conducted to generate the best possible map of the underground workings - define where stopes have been back filled -sample the back fill and produce a more accurate plan of the auriferous channel ways. Underground workings data Figure 9 illustrates a low-resolution image presented by Clifton of the workings and access tunnels between the Big Bend and the Lawry shaft. This also illustrates why the seismic data could be extremely useful in clarifying the layout of the mine, what has been mined, what remains unmined and whether other channels remain to be located and tested.

Thoughts on the location of a drive through adit portal, an aspect that Mine Planning personnel are most interested in is the consideration of where a portal could be located for vehicle access to enable the use of heavier mining equipment to work the gravel channels and the underlying lode workings. The intention should be to find the best solution for both targets but given that the lode structures are widely spaced the initial intention should be to focus on the most accessible lode structure -i.e., the Wolf Vein and southern extension of the Carson workings and advance down or parallel to one of the channels that Keewatin Engineering Inc. inferred as unmined. Optimal drilling from underground should also be taken into account in the tunnel design. The immediate question is whether the portal should be inclined upwards (self-draining) or a decline. The former would require stepping back from the currently known target areas at an increased cost. The alternative would be to aim to intersect the existing Ruby workings with a decline (i.e. self drain the initial part of the access tunnel) and subsequently work deeper along lode structures with pumping back up to the Ruby access tunnel only. The most logical portal location for a decline would be to initiate the portal adjacent to a known channel and orogenic veined structure, and ramp laterally up into the old workings to extract back fill and / or lower grade (1/2 ounce?) channel bank deposits.

Safe Harbor: This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.

CONTACT:

Discovery Minerals Ltd.

Russell Smith

admin@discoveryminerals.com

(310) 607-8252

SOURCE: Discovery Minerals Ltd.

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Rise in government regulations, increase in expansion of OEMs and automotive component supplier drive the growth of the global vehicle occupancy detection market.

PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Vehicle Occupancy Detection System Market By Installation Type (Fixed Installation and Mobile Installation), Technology (Infrared, Ultrasonic, and Hybrid), and Application (Passenger Vehicles and Commercial Vehicles): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030" According to the report, the global vehicle occupancy detection industry was estimated at $42.5 million in 2020, and is anticipated to hit $225.5 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 19.1% from 2021 to 2030.

Download Sample Report (Get Full Insights in PDF - 315 Pages) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/12906

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities

Rise in government regulations, increase in expansion of OEMs and automotive component suppliers, and surge in demand for occupancy detection to reduce fatalities drive the growth of the global vehicle occupancy detection market. On the other hand, high cost associated with comprehensive occupancy sensing system and low penetration of advanced driver-assistant systems in emerging regions impede the growth to some extent. Nevertheless, increase in construction in HOV lanes in toll plazas is projected to pave the way for lucrative opportunities in the future.

COVID-19 Scenario:

The outbreak of covid-19 has massively impacted the automotive sector due to factors such as suspended manufacturing units, disrupted supply chain management, and declined consumer demand, which in turn impacted the vehicle occupancy detection market.

Nevertheless, the global situation is getting back on track at a slow & steady pace, and the market is expected to recoup soon.

The fixed Installation Segment to Dominate by 2030

By installation type, the fixed installation segment contributed to nearly three-fourths of the total vehicle occupancy detection market share in 2020 and is expected to lead the trail by the end of 2030. This is owing to rise in HOV lanes in toll plaza. However, the mobile installation segment is expected cite the fastest CAGR of 20.30% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to growth in government regulations across the world.

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The Infrared Segment to Maintain the Dominant Share

Based on technology, the infrared segment accounted for more than two-fifths of the global vehicle occupancy detection al market revenue in 2020 and is projected to retain its dominance by 2030. Rise in demand for enhanced infrared sensors across military and defense industries owing to various federal laws drives the growth of the segment. On the other hand, the ultrasound segment would also manifest the fastest CAGR of 20.30% throughout the forecast period. Ultrasonic sensors sense movement in a space to transmit high frequency sound waves which propels the growth the segment.

North America Garnered the Major Share in 2020

Based on region, the market across North America, held the major share in 2020, garnering nearly two-fifths of the global vehicle occupancy detection market. This is owing to the presence of major players in this region. On the other hand, the market across Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 22.0% from 2021 to 2030. Rising awareness about passenger safety paired with various government regulations fuels the market growth in this province.

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Key Market Players

Siemens

TransCore

Vehicle Occupancy Detection Corp.

Xerox Corporation

Conduent Inc.

Fortran Traffic System Ltd.

Indra Sistemas

Invision AI

NEC Corporation of America

S.A, Invision

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Stewart, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Decade Resources Ltd (TSXV: DEC) ("Decade" or the Company) announces that it has completed a Phase 1 program consisting of ten holes at depths up to 250m on the Del Norte property. The property is situated within BC's "Golden Triangle", 34 kilometres east of Stewart, BC.

Highlights of the recent drilling include:

Native silver observed along fractures in DDH-21-10 (see photo).

Visible gold associated with sphalerite (zinc sulphide), pyrite (iron sulphide), galena (lead sulphide) and tetrahedrite (copper-silver antimony sulphide) in DDH-21-9 (see photo).

Acanthite (silver sulphide with 87.1% silver content) associated with the above minerals in DDH-21-10 (see photo).

All ten holes contain Intersections of highly mineralized rocks over widths of 18-20m at depths up to 250m downhole.

Ed Kruchkowski, President of the Company states: "The recent financing from Teuton Resources Corp has allowed the Company to complete approximately 2300 m in the 10 current holes. The Company is very grateful for the support of Teuton that has allowed for the intersection of very prospective intervals in the latest drill holes. All holes have intersected the Argo/LG mineralization. The presence of visible gold in DDH-21-9 may indicate the source of the placer gold in Nelson Creek. This is one of four areas in the Stewart region whereby placer gold is found in streams and three of the other areas have gold deposits associated with them."

The drilling is testing the contact of felsic volcanic rocks of the Hazelton Group and sedimentary rocks of Salmon River Formation. This is the same horizon that hosts the Eskay Creek mine 60km north of Stewart. Drilling is from drill stations located on rock islands (nunataks) within the South Nelson Glacier. The 2021 drilling has successfully tested for extensions of 2020 gold-silver drill hole intersections. Highlights of 2020 exploration of the Argo zone include:

1049.64 g/t Ag eq over 6.03 m in DDH DN20-18, included within an interval grading 119.95 g/t Ag Eq over 58.37m

2128.48 g/t Ag eq over 2.46m in DDH DN20-20, included within an interval grading 221.03 g/t Ag eq over 34.09m

Discovery of float rocks from an area just above the 2021 drill station which assayed up to 20.6 g/t gold and 561 g/t silver.

Mineralization is located within pyrite-rich, black mud lapilli tuffs with sub-intervals of dacite lapilli tuffs. Sulphides include pyrite, sphalerite, galena and tetrahedrite along with visible gold and silver in the 2021 drill holes.

The Del Norte property was optioned from Teuton Resource Corp. in January of 2020 with terms allowing the Company to earn up to a 55% interest in the property by spending $4 million over a five year period. The Company can an earn an additional 20% interest by carrying the property to commercial production.

Private Placement

The Company is undertaking a $600,000.00 flow through and non-flow through financing to fund a phase 2 program and continued exploration. The flow-through is at at a price of seven cents per flow-through unit. Each flow-through unit will comprise one flow-through common share and one transferable non-flow-through common share purchase warrant, with each warrant being exercisable for the purchase of one additional common share, at a price of ten cents per share, for a two-year period.

The offering of non-flow-through units will be at a price of five cents per unit. Each unit will comprise one common share and one transferable common share purchase warrant, each warrant being exercisable for the purchase of one additional common share, at a price of eight cents per share, for a two-year period.

The proceeds from the sale of the flow-through units will be expended on the company's properties located in British Columbia and the proceeds from the sale of non-flow-through units will be used for working capital purposes. Certain directors and officers of the company may participate in the private placement.

Qualified Person

Ed Kruchkowski, P. Geo., a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 is responsible for the contents of this release. E. Kruchkowski is not independent of Decade as he is the president of the Company.

About Decade

Decade Resources Ltd. is a Canadian based mineral exploration company actively seeking opportunities in the resource sector. Decade holds numerous properties at various stages of development and exploration from basic grass roots to advanced ones. Its properties and projects are all located in the "Golden Triangle" area of northern British Columbia. For a complete listing of the Company assets and developments, visit the Company website at www.decaderesources.ca which is presently being updated. For investor information please call 250-636-2264 or Gary Assaly at 604-377-7969.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DECADE RESOURCES LTD.

"Ed Kruchkowski"

Ed Kruchkowski, President

"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. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements."





Figure 1

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Figure 2



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Figure 3

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DUBAI, UAE, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Webb Fontaine, a leading provider of advanced and innovative Trade and Customs services, has announced its first-ever partnership to work with Misr Technology Services in Egypt.

As an expert in the provision of the very latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and the installation of highly connected networking solutions, Webb Fontaine was chosen to spearhead a project to deliver a newly upgraded nationwide Integrated Risk Management (IRM) service in Egypt.

The prestigious project marks Webb Fontaine's first step into the rapidly growing Egyptian Trade and Customs sector, which has ambitions to expand and develop into one of the region's most advanced cargo handling and forwarding destinations in the near future.

Webb Fontaine in partnership with Misr Technology Services will deliver a range of services to important government bodies, departments and entities including officials from Egyptian Customs and regulatory authorities involved in the import and export of goods.

As the developer and administer of the current "Nafeza" National Single Window (NSW) system in Egypt, MTS selected Webb Fontaine's advanced Risk Management System due to its extensive use of AI and other market leading technologies.

Alioune Ciss, Webb Fontaine's CEO, said: "We are honored to be chosen by MTS as the key technology partner for this exciting project. AI has effectively transformed the way Trade and Customs are handled around the world and we look forward to showcasing this in Egypt. We look forward to being a big player in the successful digitalization of Egypt's Trade and Customs platform for many years to come."

Webb Fontaine's successful track record shows the company is experienced in using AI to facilitate trade, increase treasury revenue, reduce clearance times and costly congestion at port operations all the while greatly improving governance of a facility.

Misr Technology Services: As part of its first venture in the country, Webb Fontaine's RMS will be deployed as an integrated solution with "Nafeza." MTS will provide the hardware, ICT facilities and other key components. Beyond implementing the IRM, Webb Fontaine is eager to expand its presence in Egypt and deliver a wider scope of Trade and Customs services.
AXIS Insurance, the specialty insurance business segment of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited ("AXIS Capital") (NYSE:AXS), today announced three appointments within its U.S. Excess and Surplus Property team, effective immediately. Michael Worman and David Malcomjoin AXIS as Senior Vice Presidents, and Lisa Finch joins as Vice President. Their responsibilities will include developing new business opportunities, deepening relationships with new and existing distribution partners, and executing underwriting strategy.

"Michael, David and Lisa have extensive expertise and knowledge in the E&S Property market. Their combined experience, along with their ability to cultivate strong broker relationships, will enable us to further expand the business within their local areas," said Michael Carr, Head of E&S Property for AXIS Insurance.

About Michael Worman

In his new role as Regional Manager of the West Coast, Mr. Worman will be responsible for bringing in new business, strengthening existing relationships and driving business growth in the region. Mr. Worman brings 12 years' industry experience and joins AXIS from ACE/Chubb Westchester Property, where he was a Senior Vice President. He was previously at Berkshire Hathaway, having started his industry career at Travelers Insurance.

About David Malcom

Mr. Malcom will act as a Regional Manager in Alpharetta, and will continue to strengthen the Company's current relationships while simultaneously developing new ones. He joins AXIS from Ethos, where he was a Senior Vice President for Property. With 18 years' insurance experience, Mr. Malcom has held underwriting positions at Ironshore Insurance and Max Specialty.

Lisa Finch

Ms. Finch brings more than 40 years' experience to her new role as Vice President in Alpharetta, and she will focus on further expanding the regional book of business. She was previously Vice President at Ethos. Prior to that, she held the same role at Liberty International and Swiss Re.

About AXIS Capital

AXIS Capital, through its operating subsidiaries, is a global provider of specialty lines insurance and treaty reinsurance with shareholders' equity of $5.4 billion at June 30, 2021, and locations in Bermuda, the United States, Europe, Singapore and Canada. Its operating subsidiaries have been assigned a rating of "A+" ("Strong") by Standard Poor's and "A" ("Excellent") by A.M. Best. For more information about AXIS Capital, visit our website at www.axiscapital.com.

Follow AXIS Capital on LinkedIn and Twitter.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005023/en/

Contacts:

Investor Contact

Matt Rohrmann

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited

investorrelations@axiscapital.com

(212) 940-3339

Media Contact

Anna Kukowski

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited

anna.kukowski@axiscapital.com

(212) 715-3574
Two-day conference features expert-led sessions on real-world process automation experiences and success strategies

Process automation company Camunda today announced its full lineup of speakers for CamundaCon Live 2021, taking place online for a global audience September 22-23. This year's agenda features speakers from enterprise organizations across a variety of industries including Atlassian, BT Media, Ernst Young, Goldman Sachs, Intuit, and Swiss Re.

Thirty sessions will be offered by process automation professionals sharing their stories of digital transformation complete with use cases and best practices from their experience. CamundaCon Live brings together thousands of software developers, architects and IT executives for two days of networking, knowledge sharing, and inspiration. Last year more than 6,500 professionals from 150 countries participated in CamundaCon Live.

Additionally, CamundaCon Live 2021 welcomes guest keynote speakers Angie Jones, a Java champion, inventor, and principal developer advocate who leads the online learning platform Test Automation University, and Hannah Fry, an award-winning science presenter, television host, author, and associate professor in the mathematics of cities at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London.

The conference features three tracks:

Business Case studies and strategies for transforming business through process automation

Case studies and strategies for transforming business through process automation Technical Best practices, technical deep-dives and hands-on experience with Camunda

Best practices, technical deep-dives and hands-on experience with Camunda Camunda in Action Product demos and innovative solutions created by the Camunda community

Camunda CEO Jakob Freund will open the conference with a presentation on Digital Transformation Evolution or Revolution? Bernd Ruecker, Camunda co-founder chief technologist, and Daniel Meyer, Camunda CTO, will open day two with From Human Workflow to High-Throughput Process Automation.

"CamundaCon Live 2021 brings process automation into focus at a time when the need for solutions is at an all-time high. As global organizations look to meet the challenges of digital transformation, IT leaders and process automation practitioners will gain invaluable insight from industry experts and hands-on best practices from their peers across industry leaders such as Goldman Sachs, Atlassian or Intuit," said Gottfried Sehringer, Camunda CMO. "Attendees will discover an all-new, interactive experience for CamundaCon 2021 that will create a high-impact learning and networking opportunity that's not to be missed."

Attendees may register at no charge; registrants will also have access to an on-demand archive of sessions after the conference closes. See the agenda and sign up at camundacon.com.

Prior to CamundaCon Live 2021, developers are invited to attend Camunda Code Studio, a session for those who desire a foundational knowledge of using Camunda Platform. Seats are limited, register separately at camundacon.com/code-studio.

About Camunda

Camunda is an open source software company innovating process automation with a developer-friendly approach that is standards-based, highly scalable and collaborative for business and IT. A community of tens of thousands of users across companies such as Allianz, ING, and Vodafone design, automate and improve mission-critical business processes end-to-end with Camunda, enabling them to build software applications more flexibly, collaboratively and efficiently, gaining the business agility, visibility and scale needed to drive digital transformation. To learn more visit camunda.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005080/en/

Contacts:

Gabrielle Kondracki

PAN Communications for Camunda

pr@camunda.com

+1 617-502-4391
Corporates and Law Firms Feel Pressure to Comply with Regulations with Brexit as #1 Concern, Though Some Promising Signs of Improvement Have Surfaced

Today, global managed services provider Integreon released results of its 2021 Regulatory Readiness Report ("2021 Report"), its second annual survey of regulatory compliance professionals. Once again conducted by Pensar Media, the 2021 Report polled over 200 regulatory compliance professionals at US and UK corporations and law firms.

The pressure is on. The 2021 Report found that 70% of corporations do not completely agree that they have adequate resources and budget to achieve regulatory compliance. Corporate compliance budgets were spread more thinly in 2021, with minimal spending. Technology investment captured 26-50% of the budget for many respondents, likely a direct effect of data security concerns and the Covid pandemic which forced most businesses into work-from-home mode.

On the law firm side, 62% responded they are under client cost pressures when delivering legal services in support of regulatory change. 42% of law firms responded to those pressures by using outsourced alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) like Integreon or relying on their own offshore captive operations.

Corporations are still struggling to comply with US, UK and EU regulatory issues. 31% of corporates are still not fully compliant with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in 2021. Though this is down 7 percentage points from 38% in 2020, it's still high enough to raise eyebrows since organizations have already had three years to achieve compliance. Likely, the split of GPDR into EU and UK flavors due to Brexit has been a factor as well as other complications like the Schrems II decision. Compliance with CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) was static (40% in 2021, 41% in 2020.) However, it's not surprising that CCPA's compliance numbers would lag behind GDPR's since this California-specific law is new and smaller in scope than GDPR.

Brexit continues to stir up anxiety for corporates. Nearly half (49%) of corporations now report they are not well-prepared for Brexit compared to 44% last year. Full repercussions of Brexit are still in flux, though UK companies now must comply with UK-specific GDPR as well as EU GDPR for cross-border business. Brexit changes have already catalyzed massive repapering efforts for contracts, and 20% of corporates named Brexit as their biggest anticipated impact next year.

On the bright side, the 2021 Report also yielded some promising signs that corporations are getting more traction on regulatory compliance. 29% of corporations agreed that responding to regulatory change created operational pressure for their business, a 9 percentage point drop from 2020's 38% which shows improvement. Also, last year, 40% of corporations agreed that responding to regulatory change increased their business risk profile versus 21% in 2021, a drop of 19 percentage points.

The encouraging improvements described above may be linked to the 2021 Report's finding that law firms have stepped up their capacity to help corporates with regulatory compliance. Nearly half (49%) of law firm professionals completely agreed that their internal resources were sufficient to help multiple clients with regulatory compliance simultaneously, a 12 percentage point increase from last year's 37% response.

When asked which regulatory events will have the biggest impact next year, corporates named Brexit (20%), new US government legislation (8%), Covid-related legislation (7%), GDPR (7%) and LIBOR reform (6%). Law firms also noted Brexit as their #1 impact (28%) but named Covid-related legislation second (14%) followed by GDPR (13%), CCPA (7%) and LIBOR reform (7%).

"This year's Report shed light on how US and UK corporations and law firms are coping with the tremendous challenges of regulatory readiness," remarked Integreon CEO Bob Rowe. "Clearly corporations are still struggling to maintain regulatory compliance especially in light of static or inadequate resources. A combination of people, process and technology resources provided by law firms, ALSPs and software vendors are filling the gaps. Looking forward, issues like Brexit, Covid-related legislation, United States data privacy laws, and the LIBOR transition will all require corporations and their legal counsel to step up more. Integreon is committed to helping its clients to accomplish more with tight budgets and unrelenting requirements."

To request a complete copy of the 2021 Integreon Regulatory Readiness Report, visit: https://www.integreon.com/regulatory-readiness-report-2021/.

About Integreon

Integreon is a trusted, global provider of award-winning legal, business, and research support solutions to leading law firms, legal departments, financial institutions, and professional services firms. The company applies a highly trained, experienced team of over 3,500 employees globally to a wide range of problems that require scale and expertise, enabling clients to become more operationally efficient by streamlining operations, maximizing investment and improving the quality of work they provide their end clients. With delivery centers on three continents, Integreon offers multi-lingual, around-the-clock support, as well as onshore, offshore, and onsite delivery of services. Integreon is owned by EagleTree Capital, a leading New York-based private equity firm that has invested approximately $2.7 billion of equity capital since inception.

For more information about Integreon's extensive range of services, email info@integreon.com, visit www.integreon.com and follow Integreon at LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

About Pensar Media

Pensar Media is a research and content agency that specializes in legal and financial services. It provides survey-based thought leadership reports, content marketing and general copywriting support. For more information about Pensar Media's services, email hello@pensar.media or visit www.pensar.media.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005245/en/

Contacts:

Media

Christy Burke, Burke Company PR

212-620-7711

cburke@burke-company.com
CRANBROOK, BC / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Taiga Gold Corp (CSE:TGC) ("Taiga") or (the "Company") has received complete results from a 12 hole, 2139m diamond drilling program completed at it's 100%-owned Orchid project located within the Trans Hudson Corridor 120km east of La Ronge, Saskatchewan and 70km south of SSR Mining's Inc.'s Seabee Gold Operation, host of the Seabee and Santoy gold deposits. The Orchid property consists of 7,900ha overlying the same structural features and within rocks similar to those currently being mined at the Santoy deposit. The property is considered to have excellent potential to host significant gold mineralization and carries no underlying royalties or encumbrances.

See Taiga Project Location Map here

Drilling was completed in May 2021, and tested the Orchid East and West, Tim's, Terra Au, Tiger Lily and Wing Lake showing areas. Drill targeting focused on testing extensions of surface vein showings that are typically coincident with magnetic geophysical anomalies. The drilling program reported herein represents the first drill-testing of most of the mineralized zones within Orchid property boundaries.

2021 Drilling Highlights:

Tiger Lily: OC21001, the first drill test of a 2017 Taiga Gold discovery, returned 2.28 g/t Au over 0.98 m within an interval grading 1.57 g/t Au over 1.55m;

Orchid East and West: OC21005 returned 3.94 g/t over 1.0m. OC21006 had two separate intercepts, returning 5.2 g/t Au over 0.78m from an upper zone, and 3.94 g/t Au over 1m from a lower intersection;

Tim's Zone: OC21008 returned 2.09 g/t Au over 0.51m;

Terra Au: OC21010 returned 4.24 g/t over 0.51m;

Analytical results ranged from trace values to higher-grade intercepts, as summarized below.

Select Drill Results Table:

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Core Length (m)* Au (g/t) Zone OC21001 Tiger Lily Upper Interval 3.40 11.00 7.60 0.16 Lower Interval 71.45 73.00 1.55 1.57 Including 71.45 72.43 0.98 2.28 OC21004 Orchid East Orchid West 7.00 9.00 2.00 0.76 OC21005 11.00 16.90 5.90 0.18 26.00 27.00 1.00 3.94 OC21006 53.00 53.72 0.72 5.20 146.00 146.54 0.54 2.18 OC21008 Tim's 55.49 56.00 0.51 2.09 OC21009 Terra Au Upper Interval 23.47 28.01 4.54 0.23 Including 27.51 28.01 0.50 0.51 Lower Interval 172.28 178.64 6.36 0.35 Including 178.00 178.64 0.64 0.92 OC21010 25.20 30.25 5.05 0.22 90.36 90.87 0.51 4.24 OC21002, 003, 011, 012 no significant intercepts

* Drill indicated intercepts (core length) are reported as drilled widths and true thickness is undetermined

See Orchid Sections and Drill Collar Location Map here

Drill Hole Summary

Drill holes OC21001 and OC21002 tested sheeted veins hosted in tonalite-quartz diorite at the Tiger Lily showing. 2017 channel sampling at the Tiger Lily returned up to 10.1 g/t Au over 0.50m, with grab samples up to 8.7 g/t Au. Hole OC21001 was collared approximately 40m down strike from the main showing and intercepted two intervals of significant gold mineralization, both associated with up to 2% disseminated pyrite, silicification, and shearing. These zones returned 0.16 g/t Au over 7.60m and 1.57 g/t Au over 1.55m, including 2.28 g/t Au over 0.98m. Hole OC21002 intercepted mainly quartz diorite with limited intervals of mafic volcanics and did not return any significant assay results.

Drill holes OC21003 - OC21007 tested the quartz-tourmaline vein swarms of the Orchid E and Orchid W showings, associated with geophysical magnetic highs. Three of the five holes intersected gold mineralization associated with quartz or quartz-tourmaline veins, potassic alteration, and pyrite mineralization.

Drill hole OC21003, drilled beneath surface grab samples with up to 7.76 g/t Au at the Orchid E showing, encountered several zones of quartz-tourmaline veins and pyrite mineralization but no significant Au intercepts were returned.

Drill hole OC21004 returned one significant interval of 0.76 g/t Au over 2.0m from 7.0 - 9.0m. Mineralization was associated with pyritic quartz-tourmaline veins hosted in tonalite.

Drill holes OC21005 and OC21006 were drilled as a fence with OC21005 collared approximately 100m along strike to the south of OC21004. Hole OC21005 encountered an upper interval which returned 0.177 g/t Au over 5.90m related to intense, potassic alteration. A lower interval related to massive quartz veining and 5% fracture-filling pyrite returned 3.94 g/t Au over 1.0m. Drill hole OC21006 also encountered an upper and lower interval related to quartz-tourmaline veining and quartz-carbonate veining, respectively. The upper interval returned 5.2 g/t Au over 0.72m while the lower interval returned 2.18 g/t Au over 0.54m.

Drill hole OC21007, an approximately 260m step-out south from OC21005, was designed to test the southern extension of the Orchid W showing. This hole intercepted limited quartz-tourmaline veining and did not return any significant intervals.

Drill holes OC21008 and OC21011 were designed to test the Tim's Showing area which has yielded rock samples up to 52.4 g/t Au. OC21008 intersected tuff and mafic volcanics and returned 2.09 g/t Au over 0.51m from sheeted mm-scale, pyrite-pyrrhotite-bearing quartz-tourmaline veinlets. Hole OC21011 encountered primarily tonalite with several zones of disseminated pyrite mineralization but did not return any significant intervals.

Drill holes OC21009 and OC21010 were designed to test the Terra-Au showing where historical sampling of veins and shears veins returned up to 5.70 g/t Au. Both holes intercepted mainly granodiorite to tonalite with zones of shearing/alteration and quartz-tourmaline veining. Drill hole OC21009 returned 0.23g/t Au over 4.54m from 23.47 - 28.01m as well as a lower zone of intense shearing and disseminated pyrite within granodiorite that returned 0.354 g/t Au over 6.36m from 172.28 - 178.84m, including 0.924 g/t Au over 0.64m. Drill hole OC21010 intercepted sheared tonalite with 0.3% disseminated pyrite that returned 0.22 g/t Au over 5.05m as well as a carbonate vein with 2% vein-related pyrite that returned 4.24 g/t Au over 0.51m from 90.36 - 90.87m.

Drill hole OC21012 tested the Wing Lake showing where historic grab samples of chalcopyrite and pyrite hosted in quartz veins have yielded up to 1.300 g/t Au. Hole OC21012 mainly intercepted mafic volcanic tuff with occasional chalcopyrite/pyrite mineralization associated with quartz veinlets and did not return any significant results.

Rock grab samples are selective samples by nature and as such are not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted across the property.

Tim J. Termuende, P.Geo., President and CEO of Taiga Gold Corp commented recently on the results: "we are encouraged by the positive results obtained by the inaugural drill program completed by Taiga on the Orchid property and applaud the sound exploration work carried out to date by TerraLogic Exploration. The confirmation of significant subsurface gold mineralization in numerous discrete locations on the property validates the confidence that management has placed in the property and paves the way for future systematic exploration".

QA/QC

Geological and geotechnical logging and core sampling were completed at a facility on the Orchid property. Assay intervals were based on visual identification of mineralization, presence and density of quartz veins and lithological boundaries. Terralogic Exploration geologists maintained chain of custody and sampling procedures reported in this news release according to best industry practice and with due attention to quality assurance and quality control, including sampling field duplicates and insertion of certified standard and blank samples.

Samples were sent for geochemical analysis with ALS Global, Vancouver for the following analyses: 48 element four-acid ICP-MS (ME-MS61) and gold (Au) 30 g Fire Assay - AA finish (Au-AA23). Samples that returned over 1ppm Au by Au-AA23 were re-analysed using gold (Au) 30g Fire Assay - Gravimetric finish (Au-GRA21).

On receipt of final certificates of analysis, the QA/QC sample results were reviewed to ensure the order of samples were reported correctly, that the blanks ran clean, and that the results for each standard had minimal variance from its certified value. QA/QC for the Orchid Drilling Program included certified reference material ("CRM's") and blanks that were inserted into each sample batch in order to verify the analytical from the lab. The CRM's from all holes reported passed within 3 standard deviations and the blanks returned acceptable values. All of the lab internal standards and duplicates were within acceptable values.

See Orchid Project Summary Map here

Orchid Property History

The Orchid project was staked by Eagle Plains Resources in 2014 and was subsequently transferred to Taiga as part of a plan of arrangement completed in 2018. The property has historically been explored for its gold potential since the mid-1980s and contains numerous documented high-grade mineral occurrences grading from trace values to highs of 61.30 g/t and 41.3 g/t Au (Orchid Au Zone), 19.2 g/t Au (Tim's Showing), 12.7 g/t (Eureka), 11.4g/t Au over 1.9m (Versary) and 8.5 g/t (Terra Zone) as well as significant Ag (144.5 g/t), Cu (3.9%), and Mo (2600 ppm). The property is located within the Trans Hudson Corridor, an ancient belt of rocks that contain significant mineral deposits such as the +42M ounce Homestake gold deposit in South Dakota, the Flin Flon and Snow Lake VMS districts and the nearby Seabee/Santoy Gold Complex. Ore geology at the Seabee Gold Operation consists of high-grade vein mineralization associated with volcanic and mafic intrusive rocks which have been structurally disrupted by splays of the deep-crustal Tabbernor Fault system. The Seabee Gold Operation has been in continuous production since 1991 and has produced over 1.57 million ounces of gold from the Seabee and Santoy deposits. Both the Seabee Gold Operation and the Orchid project are underlain by rocks of the Pine Lake greenstone belt.

The above results were taken in part from Saskatchewan Mineral Deposit Index ("SMDI") descriptions. Management cautions that historical results were collected and reported by past operators and have not been verified nor confirmed by a Qualified Person, but form a basis for ongoing work in the Orchid property area. Management cautions that past results or discoveries on proximate land are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved on the subject properties.

Qualified Person

The four-week program at the Orchid was supervised by Jarrod Brown, P.Geo. of Terralogic Exploration Inc. of Cranbrook, B.C. and relied extensively on support services and personnel from the town of Deschambault Lake, SK for which we express our gratitude. Drilling services were contracted to Bryson Drilling of Archerwill, Saskatchewan.

Charles C. Downie, P.Geo., a "qualified person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and a Director of Taiga Gold Corp., has prepared, reviewed, and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release.

About Taiga Gold Corp

Taiga Gold Corp. was created in 2018 through a plan of arrangement with Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. and owns 6 projects targeting gold located within the Trans Hudson Corridor in the area near the Seabee Gold Operation, owned and operated by SSR Mining. Taiga's flagship Fisher property is currently being explored by the Fisher JV, which is owned 20% by Taiga. Taiga also owns a 2.5% NSR over the majority of the Fisher property area, which includes a $100,000 annual advance royalty payable to Taiga. Taiga's 100%-owned Leland, Chico and SAM properties are currently under option to partners SKRR Exploration, Aben Resources and Tactical Resources Corp (formerly DJ1 Capital), respectively. Taiga continues to advance its 100%-owned Orchid and Mari Lake projects.

Taiga's objective is to focus on the exploration and development of its gold projects located adjacent to the Seabee Gold Operation and along the Tabbernor Fault structure in eastern Saskatchewan, a highly prospective mining jurisdiction which was recently recognized by the Fraser Institute as one of the best places in the world in terms of Investment Attractiveness. Throughout the exploration and development process, our mission is to help maintain prosperous communities by exploring for and discovering resource opportunities while building lasting relationships through honest and respectful business practices.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Tim J. Termuende"

President and CEO

For further information on TGC, please contact Mike Labach at

1 866 HUNT ORE (486 8673)

Email: info@taigagold.com or visit our website at http://taigagold.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the CSE nor any other regulatory body has reviewed or approved the contents of this news release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming financings, work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

SOURCE: Taiga Gold Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660225/Taiga-Reports-Drilling-Results-from-the-Orchid-Gold-Project-Saskatchewan
Richard Leong will advise the fast-growing workplace communications startup as it scales.

Today, fast-growing employee communications platform Workvivo announces the appointment of Richard Leong, vice president of colleague experience and technology at VMware, to the company's board of advisors. Leong brings more than two decades of leadership experience in researching and developing the future of the workplace, helping to drive new and innovative ways to support choice and flexibility across the global workforce.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005432/en/

Richard Leong, VP, Colleague Experience and Technology, VMware (Photo: Business Wire)

Workvivo is an employee communications app that works with some of the world's best-known brands across sectors including tech, retail, hospitality and healthcare to elevate their workplace experience by helping employees stay informed, engaged and connected, from wherever they're working.

"The workplace is undergoing its greatest transformation in modern history. Employers have been 'thrown into' a new reality, facing critical post-pandemic challenges with no time to plan ahead," said John Goulding, CEO and co-founder of Workvivo. "Richard is a trailblazer in creating a holistic experience for global workforces, and an expert in putting employees first. He has already been a fantastic ally for Workvivo as we've scaled our communications platform, and will be a major asset to us as we grow to help more companies navigate the emerging challenges of the post-pandemic workplace. We are thrilled to have him join our board."

Richard Leong said: "The office is no longer the central hub of work, and companies everywhere must reimagine how to foster culture and community virtually and deliver a world-class employee experience. Innovative solutions such as Workvivo sit at the heart of the digital workplace, and I'm delighted to join as an advisor at this exciting stage for the company."

For most companies, internal communications and employee experience changed more in the past 18 months than in the previous decade. Employee expectations are different and amid the so-called "great resignation", employers will need to make bold moves, quickly adapt their approach and modernize their tools to enable a digital-first, connected and engaged workforce.

As vice president of colleague experience and technology, Richard Leong leads VMware technology team's experience-first culture aligned under a single mission to provide a delightful colleague experience. Richard and his team deliver seamless technology experiences and enable productivity and collaboration across the globe.

Richard previously served as Director of Employee Technology Engineering at Juniper Networks leading colleague technology services. Prior to his role at Juniper Networks, he held several technology leadership roles at BlackRock (formerly Barclays Global Investors) leading collaboration services and end user services for APAC, based in Hong Kong. He has spent an extensive period of his career in Asia-Pacific primarily in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. He currently serves as an advisor to several early-stage technology companies.

Since its founding in 2017, Workvivo has grown to have over 500,000 users worldwide. Last year, as the pandemic hit and changed the workplace forever, the company experienced over 200% growth.

Last year, Workvivo raised a $16 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global best known for its investment in world-leading companies like LinkedIn, Airbnb, Stripe, Uber and Square and Frontline Ventures. The Series A round follows on from a seed round the previous year, led by Zoom founder Eric S. Yuan.

About Workvivo

Workvivo is a new breed of employee communication app designed to build natural, meaningful bonds between teams while helping companies reach and engage their employees in ways that traditional tools simply can't.

Workvivo brings your people together, wherever they are. It's your intranet, internal comms tool, employee app, all merged into one familiar social experience at the very heart of your digital workplace. With annual growth of over 200% year-on-year, 500,000+ users across more than 50 countries, and customers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to tech start-ups, Workvivo is on a mission to elevate everyone's workplace experience.

To date, Workvivo has received backing from Zoom founder Eric S. Yuan, Frontline Ventures and Tiger Global, best known for market-defining companies such as Facebook, Linkedin, Stripe, and Spotify. Workvivo is headquartered in Cork, Ireland.

For more information, please visit https://www.workvivo.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005432/en/

Contacts:

Mark O'Toole

Mark@150bond.com

+353877782513
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Medical technology firm Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (ZBH) announced Wednesday U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance of the ROSA Hip System for robotically-assisted direct anterior total hip replacement. ROSA Hip is the fourth robotic system introduced by Zimmer Biomet and adds to the Company's comprehensive ROSA Robotics portfolio, which includes the ROSA Knee System for total knee arthroplasty, ROSA Partial Knee System for partial knee arthroplasty and ROSA ONE for neurosurgical and spine procedures. ROSA Hip is the newest addition to ZBEdge, Zimmer Biomet's suite of integrated digital and robotic technologies purposefully engineered to deliver transformative data-powered clinical insights, shared seamlessly across the patient journey, and with the goal of improving patient outcomes. ROSA Hip aims to assist direct anterior surgeons with preparation, positioning and component impaction, while intra-operatively quantifying cup orientation, leg length and offset. ROSA Hip is designed for compatibility with multiple implant systems, including the Avenir Complete Hip System, an evolution of the Avenir Hip Implant that has a clinically-proven heritage of over 10 years. 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.
Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - The Stock Day Podcast welcomed Envirotech Vehicles Inc. (OTCQB: ADOM) ("the Company"), a provider of purpose-built zero-emission electric vehicles focused on reducing the total cost of vehicle ownership and helping fleet operators unlock the benefits of green technology. CEO of the Company, Phillip Oldridge, joined Stock Day host Everett Jolly.

Jolly began the interview by asking about the Company's background and current projects. "Envirotech Vehicles is a purpose-built manufacturer that specializes in last mile delivery vehicles," said Oldridge. "Class 3 and 4 have been our primary focus this last year, and we now have a Class 5 and Class 6 chassis that will be delivered by the end of the year or first quarter of next year."

"Have you considered adding your own manufacturing plant here in the United States?" asked Jolly. "We're way beyond the consideration stage," said Oldridge. "We are opening manufacturing here in the United States," he shared. "We're very excited about that," said Oldridge, adding that the Company now has four states coming onboard. "We will be making that announcement in early fall of this year."

"Is the lower total cost of ownership resonating with customers?" asked Jolly. "We now have 300 vehicles under production and we are expecting the delivery of at least 100-200 vehicles by Christmas and the final 100 by March of next year," said Oldridge. "As a result, our production numbers and the capital cost of production has come down significantly," explained Oldridge, before elaborating on the vehicles' added benefits including fuel and maintenance savings.

"Can you tell us about the future products you're developing right now?" asked Jolly. "We have a Class 5 and Class 6 truck that we have been working on for the last year," shared Oldridge. "We're past the prototype stage and have actually gone into production," he said. "That will be a game changer for heavier delivery type vehicles," said Oldridge, adding that the Company hopes to receive 25 Class 5 vehicles and 15 Class 6 vehicles by the first quarter of 2022.

Jolly then asked about the Company's second quarter report. "It wasn't as strong as we had all hoped," said Oldridge. "We don't actually record a sale until we make the delivery of the vehicle. So, many of those sales that occurred in the second quarter in terms of a documented transaction will not be delivered until the third quarter," he explained. "I think the third quarter will show a nice change for us."

To close the interview, Oldridge encouraged listeners and shareholders to keep up-to-date with the Company's updates and current projects as they continue to grow and expand their sales pipeline.

To hear Phillip Oldridge's entire interview, follow the link to the podcast here: https://audioboom.com/posts/7925786-envirotech-vehicles-discusses-upcoming-manufacturing-facilities-in-the-united-states-and-2nd-quar

Investors Hangout is a proud sponsor of "Stock Day," and Stock Day Media encourages listeners to visit the company's message board at https://investorshangout.com/

About Envirotech Vehicles

Envirotech Vehicles, Inc. is a provider of purpose-built zero-emission electric vehicles focused on reducing the total cost of vehicle ownership and helping fleet operators unlock the benefits of green technology. We serve commercial and last-mile fleets, school districts, public and private transportation service companies and colleges and universities to meet the increasing demand for heavy duty electric vehicles. Our vehicles address the challenges of traditional fuel price cost instability and local, state and federal environmental regulatory compliance. For more information visit www.EVTVUSA.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release that relate to future plans, events, financial results, prospects or performance are forward-looking statements. While they are based on the current expectations and beliefs of management, such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in this press release, including the risks and uncertainties disclosed in reports filed by Envirotech Vehicles, Inc. (formerly ADOMANI, Inc.) with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available online at www.sec.gov. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements containing the words "planned," "expected," "believes," "strategy," "opportunity," "anticipated," "outlook," "designed," and similar words. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, Envirotech Vehicles undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, changed circumstances or unanticipated events.

Contact Information

IMS Investor Relations

John Nesbett/Jennifer Belodeau

Telephone: 203.972.9200

Email: jnesbett@imsinvestorrelations.com

Envirotech Vehicles

Michael K. Menerey, Chief Financial Officer

Telephone: (951) 407-9860 ext. 1205

Email: mike.m@evtvusa.com

About The "Stock Day" Podcast

Founded in 2013, Stock Day is the fastest growing media outlet for Nano-Cap and Micro-Cap companies. It educates investors while simultaneously working with penny stock and OTC companies, providing transparency and clarification of under-valued, under-sold Micro-Cap stocks of the market. Stock Day provides companies with customized solutions to their news distribution in both national and international media outlets. The Stock Day Podcast is the number one radio show of its kind in America.

SOURCE:

Stock Day Media

(602) 821-1102

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93525
Thunder Bay Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSXV: MEK) (OTCQB: MCREF) (FSE: M1C1) (the "Company" or Metals Creek) is pleased to announce final diamond drill results for drill holes DL21-016 and DL21-017 from the phase II diamond drill program at the Dona Lake Gold project (See News Release November 18, 2020).

Drill hole DL21-017 returned a core length intercept of 2.17 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) over 15.70 meters(m) (568.40 - 584.10m). Included in this interval was 3.94 g/t Au over 4m (568.40 - 572.40m). Mineralization is hosted within silicate-sulfide iron formation and characterized by stringer to disseminated pyrrhotite ranging from 1 to 5% with local pyrite. Sections of silicate-oxide iron formation with magnetite is also present.

Drill hole DL21-016 intersected the main zone at approximately 596m below surface and returned a core length intercept of 5.0 g/t Au over 3m. This was a part of a broader zone of mineralization of 2.39 g/t Au over 11.42m (625.58 - 637.00m). (See Table 1 Significant Results). Mineralization consisted of 3-12% pyrrhotite with local pyrite. Alteration consists of moderate to strong grunerite, amphibole and garnets with strong folding also present locally. Hole DL21-016 intercepted the main zone stratigraphy approximately 58m north along strike and roughly the same elevation as hole DL21-010, which was the deepest hole drilled to date on the Dona Lake project. A 3m felsic dike was present within the high-grade mineralization in hole 016 resulting in a narrower high-grade intercept. Both holes DL21-010 and DL21-016 continue to demonstrate the continuation of high-grade iron formation at depth below current drilling to date. Further delineation of the high-grade mineralization below the current drilling will be a high priority in the upcoming drill program scheduled for this fall.

Hole-ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au g/t Zone DL21-016 625.58 637.00 11.42 2.39 Main incl. 625.58 628.58 3.00 5.00 DL21-017 568.40 584.10 15.70 2.17 Main incl. 568.40 572.40 4.00 3.94

Table 1 Significant results

"This round of drilling was successful in further defining mineralization below the 455 level as well as evaluating the remaining high-grade mineralization south of the Dona Lake mine workings. Future drilling will continue to target the down plunge extension of the mine stratigraphy below existing drilling and continue to build on recent success in delineating high grade mineralization remaining south of the mine workings as well as testing for any potential high-grade mineralization north of the mine workings," States Alexander (Sandy) Stares, President and CEO of Metals Creek.

Drill intercepts reported in this hole are not true widths. There is insufficient data at this point to determine a true orientation.

The Dona Lake Gold Project was optioned from Newmont Corporation (previously Newmont Goldcorp - see news release dated 13 June 2019) and is located in the Pickle Lake Greenstone Belt which is host to several historic mines including the Dona Lake mine, the Central Patricia mine and the Pickle Crow mine. Dona Lake is accessible by an all-weather road southeast from the Town of Pickle Lake. The Project consists of 32 patented and leased mining claims and 35 map staked claims totaling approximately 1,122 hectares and covers the past producing Dona Lake Mine. To date Metals Creek have drilled 17 holes at Dona Lake, a compilation of assay results are shown in the table 2 below.

Hole-ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au g/t Zone DL20-001 137.00 153.00 16.00 0.74 Main incl. 139.00 140.00 1.00 4.53 DL20-002 254.85 269.20 14.35 2.43 Main incl. 254.85 260.00 5.15 5.67 and 278.60 287.80 9.20 2.34 B DL20-003 531.60 538.60 7.00 8.07 Main DL20-004 607.25 619.00 11.75 3.64 Main incl. 607.25 613.90 6.65 5.31 DL20-005 No Significant Assays DL20-006 224.90 238.80 13.90 1.26 Main incl. 235.46 238.80 3.34 2.78 and 252.90 264.75 11.85 2.21 B incl. 262.78 264.75 1.97 7.25 DL21-007 57.35 59.07 1.72 23.49 HW QV 427.02 450.10 23.08 3.89 Main incl. 434.45 439.45 5.00 7.79 and 441.17 445.35 4.18 7.48 and 460.00 464.00 4.00 4.90 B DL21-008 intersected mine workings DL21-009 intersected mine workings DL21-010 621.43 632.27 10.84 1.29 Main incl. 626.50 628.70 2.20 3.20 DL21-011 437.70 448.60 10.90 1.92 Main DL21-012 439.85 464.90 25.05 3.04 Main incl. 439.85 443.00 3.15 4.46 and 449.00 457.70 8.70 5.49 DL21-013 88.60 90.02 1.42 3.55 HW QV DL21-014 460.00 480.85 20.85 4.08 Main incl. 459.00 463.00 4.00 7.51 and 468.00 474.00 6.00 5.99 DL21-015 65.00 65.76 0.76 4.92 HW QV DL21-016 625.58 637.00 11.42 2.39 Main incl. 625.58 628.58 3.00 5.00 DL21-017 568.40 584.10 15.70 2.17 Main incl. 568.40 573.40 4.00 3.94

Table 2

All split core samples were sent to Activation Laboratories. The precious metals were analyzed utilizing a standard fire assay with an atomic absorption finish. As part of the Corporations QAQC protocol, approximately 10% of the samples submitted for assay were also sent for check assays. Standards and blanks were inserted randomly into the sample shipments as part of the sampling protocol. Samples with fire assay results above 1.0 g/t gold are re-analyzed using a gravimetric finish and samples with fire assay results above 5.0 g/t gold or samples showing visible gold are analyzed using the pulp metallic method.

Michael MacIsaac, P.Geo and VP Exploration for the Corporation and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release, and supervised the preparation of the information forming the basis for this 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 Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property from Newmont Corporation, including the former Naybob Gold mine, located 6 km south of Timmins, Ontario and has an 8 km strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF). In addition, Metals Creek has signed an agreement with Newmont Corporation, where 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 Corporation's website. Parties interested in seeking more information about properties available for option can contact the Corporation at the number below.

Additional information concerning the Corporation is contained in documents filed by the Corporation 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

www.MetalsCreek.com

Twitter.com/MetalsCreekRes

Facebook.com/MetalsCreek

Figure 1 - (Main Zone Long Section)

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Guangzhou, China--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Now BMAX has released a new product, which is a 14.1-inch laptop. This time, BMAX finally uses processors from AMD.

The 14.1-inch BMAX is powered by AMD's Ryzen 3450U mobile processor. This might not mean much to consumers unless they follow the world of mobile processors, but basically AMD chips are faster than the competing Intel CPUs that rule the market -- and they cost less. That means models like the BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro stay affordable but get them the processor performance of a pricier laptop.





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SPECS

General

Packaged Quantity: 1

Manufacturer: BMAX

Processor / Chipset

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3450U

Max Turbo Speed: 3.5 GHz

Number of Cores: Quad-Core

Cache: 4 MB

64-bit Computing: Yes

RAM

Configuration Features: 1 x 8 GB

Technology: DDR4 SDRAM

Display

LCD Backlight Technology: LED Backlight

Widescreen Display: Yes

Monitor Features: 100% NTSC Color Gamut, Narrow Border Display

TFT Technology: IPS

Hard Drive

Type: SSD

SSD Form Factor: M.2

Capacity: 512 GB

Hard Drive Features: SATA 3.0

Audio & Video

Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Vega 8

Memory Allocation Technology: Shared Video Memory (UMA)

Sound: Stereo Speakers, Microphone

Input

Type: keyboard, touchpad

Communications

Wireless Protocol: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2

Battery

Capacity: 57 Wh

Cells: 3-cell

Technology: Li-ion Polymer

Card Reader

Type: Card Reader

Supported Flash Memory: Micro SD Memory Card

AC Adapter

Input: AC 120/230 V (50/60 Hz)

Output: 47.5 Watt, 19 V, 2.5 A

Connections & Expansion

Interfaces: HDMI, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack

Memory Card Reader: Yes (Micro SD Card)

Header

Brand: BMAX

Product Line: BMAX MaxBook

Miscellaneous

Color: Black

Dimensions & Weight

Width: 323mm

Depth: 219mm

Height: 18.3mm

Weight: 1.3kg

Operating System / Software

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Edition

Microsoft Office 365(30 days trial)

Let's take a look at this laptop from BMAX.

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: BUILD

Grasp the future fashion

Compared with the 14.1-inch notebooks on the market, the BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro uses a minimalist design to extend consumers' vision of future technology in a square inch, making it more compact.

The consumers may not be able to fly, or they may not have superpowers. But as long as they have a heart beyond yesterday, they are the superman of their life. The new BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro, with a strong appearance, rewrites sleek with edges and corners and mediocrity with sharp edges, so that the overall design not only surpasses yesterday, but also guides the future direction.





BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: DISPLAY

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Amazing Visual Appeal

The design of the ultra-narrow bezel is also the embodiment of our pursuit of the product. The BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro features a 14.1-inch 6mm bezel design screen for unobstructed views. Rich and gorgeous, such as the real world. The color transition is extraordinary and the color is beautiful.





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Features of the display:

6mm Bezel

72% NTSC Color Gamut

178 Viewing Angle

81.2% Screen-to-Body Ratio

IPS Panel delivers an immersive world

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: PROCESSOR

Win with extreme speed





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The first-class hardware is indispensable to seize the opportunity, and the more advanced processor architecture brings us unlimited possibilities. BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro chooses the AMD Ryzen 53450U processor to create extraordinary performance.

Features of the processor:

12nm FinFET Process

3.5GHz Max Boost Clock

4 Cores 8 Threads

2MB L2 Cache, 4MB L3 Cache

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: CPU ARCHITECTURE

Compute Efficiency by Design

The "Zen+" core is a significant update to the historic "Zen" architecture. Now featuring:

Clock frequency increases 10%

Single-threaded IPC increases 3%

2933MT/s Higher DDR4 transfer rate

Lower power consumption

Improved cache prefetch

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: AMD SenseMI

AMD SenseMI Technology. Technology that thinks.

AMD's SenseMI technology is a set of learning and adapting features that help the AMD Ryzen processor customize its performance to the consumer and their applications, thanks to true machine intelligence (MI). Finally: performance that thinks.

Features of AMD SenseMI Technology:

Pure Power

A sophisticated grid of smart sensors that monitors CPU temperature, resource usage and power draw brings cool and quiet operation to the consumers' AMD Ryzen processor with intelligent power optimization circuits, plus the low power requirements of an advanced 14nm FinFET manufacturing technology.

Precision Boost

Fine-tuned processor performance adjusted in real time to meet the performance demands of consumers' game or app.

Extended Frequency Range

Clock speed scales with cooling performance.

Smart Prefetch

Sophisticated learning algorithms understand the inner workings of consumers' applications and anticipate what data they might need. Smart Prefetch predictively brings that data into the AMD Ryzen processor for fast and responsive computing.

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: GPU

Creating, gaming, working, learning and entertaining

Inspire infinite possibilities

The award-winning AMD Ryzen processor and AMD Radeon graphics combine strongly to deliver a fast, smooth and responsive user experience.

Features of the GPU:

Radeon Vega 8 Graphics

Graphics Core Count: 8

Graphics Frequency: 1200MHz

Fluent playback of 4K/60fps videos

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: KEYBOARD

Redefine the Typing Experience

The redesigned keyboard improves comfort and efficiency and provides a satisfactory typing experience. The extra-large and flat keycap allows the consumers to type seamlessly.

Features of the keyboard:

Full size keyboard with 3mm narrow bezel

Backlighting keboard

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: AUDIO

Redefine the Acoustic Experience

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro features the optimized 4-cell Magic Sound System that gives consumers the acoustic experience of the reverberant beam.

Features of the audio:

Intelligent Microphone Inputing

2 Acoustic Chambers and 4 Speakers

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: BATTERY

The BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro is equipped with a 57Wh high-capacity battery, which can last a whole working day.

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: HEAT SINK

The copper tube radiator can quickly discharge the heat, keeping the BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro at a reasonable temperature and ensuring lasting and stable operation.

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: EXPERIENCE

Uncompromising performance brings extraordinary experience

The consumers are the controller of their future. Powerful processors, stunning graphics and innovative features help increase their day's productivity and efficiency.

BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro: PORTS

Inheriting the rich expansion talent of BMAX MaxBook, it features two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a HDMI port, a Micro SD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack. It can meet the extended functions of data transmission, conference projection, and connection of new equipment.

MORE INFORMATION

Welcome to the new digital age of convenient connectivity with the BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro, delivering productivity, portability, and privacy for extreme efficiency.

BMAX is bringing our flagship laptop of the year to all.

Now, BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro comes! The first launch is at Banggood.

If customers want to know more about BMAX MaxBook X14 Pro, please visit: https://bit.ly/3xPH4bf

Media Contact

Company Name: Creature Future (Guangzhou) Information Technology Co.,Ltd.

City, Province, Country: Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Address: No.4 Nengyuan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

Contact Person: Candy Liang

Email: candy@cxwltech.com

Tele: (+86)18666627390

Website: http://www.bmaxit.com/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93561
The combined company will be the world's largest privately-owned global leader offering complete Service Lifecycle Management solutions for the manufacturers, distributors, and services ecosystem.

Syncron and Mize, Inc. today announced that Mize, Inc., a leader and innovator of Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WCM) solutions, has merged with Syncron, a leader in Service Parts and Contracts Management including Inventory, Pricing, and IoT-based preventive repair monitoring solutions.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005139/en/

Both Syncron and Mize are well-recognized leaders within their respective cloud solution markets. The combined company will use the Syncron brand and establish a fast-growing innovator with a customer base of more than 200 of the most known and respected brands in the automotive, construction agriculture equipment, industrial engineering, high-tech, med-tech, and consumer durables industries. With more than 700 employees by the end of 2021, based in 12 office locations in eight countries worldwide, the company will continue to invest significantly in innovation and expansion of its global coverage.

The Syncron Connected Service Experience (CSX) platform and Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) solutions enable the manufacturers to retain more customers, deliver services more cost-effectively, and generate higher-margin revenues from the install base.

"Product-related services have become the lifeline of manufacturers' EBITDA and net margins. Protecting end customer brand experience is of pivotal relevance for every manufacturer. Together we can help create higher margin businesses, and recurring revenue from subscription and outcome-based business models," said Dr. Friedrich Neumeyer, CEO, Syncron.

As a part of this arrangement, Ashok Kartham, Founder and CEO of Mize, will join the Syncron executive management team as the company's Chief Product Officer overseeing all product and development for Syncron.

"Manufacturers today use disparate systems to manage their service and parts business leading to silos of data, disconnected processes, and lower profitability. The combination of Syncron and Mize for the first time brings the leading service and parts management platforms together to maximize value to the customers," said Kartham. "With a unique ability to have one common real-time view on service parts, field service workforce, service histories, parts data, and pricing, we can provide a new level of value creation for our customers unmatched in the industry."

The deal is significant in that Mize and Syncron together can develop and deliver the first comprehensive, single platform portfolio of SaaS solutions to market that specifically addresses the complexities and profound opportunities possible in the aftermarket and services business. Syncron's capabilities in AI and ML will play a pivotal role to connect IoT-based failure prediction even better with planned service events based on optimal part availability. Manufacturers looking to enhance this vital part of their business will be able to address service profitability, optimize working capital, and enable business growth while also best approaching and developing innovative services for the world's new service economy.

"We have recognized Mize* and Syncron** both as a leader in several areas," said Aly Pinder, Lead Analyst of IDC. "We expect both companies to be able to further strengthen a joint position by creating customer innovations around fully integrated service lifecycle management processes proving value beyond individual products which I have been emphasizing for years."

"Manufacturing is going through acceleration of digitization and business model disruption," said Leo Apotheker, Chairman of the Board, Syncron. "Service experiences as a sustainable differentiator is at the top of every C-level agenda. Coupling the talent, expertise, and products of Syncron and Mize will empower the changes manufacturers need to compete effectively throughout this transition and best position themselves competitively."

Please visit syncron.com to learn more on how you can transform your service business to enhance service experience and drive higher profitability in a connected world.

For media inquiries, contact: Syncron Media, Syncron, +1 (404) 545-0561, media@syncron.com. For information on our joint solutions, please contact us at info@syncron.com.

Sources:

*IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Manufacturing Warranty and Service Contract Management Applications 2019-2020 Vendor Assessment (Doc US44408619, December 2019)

**IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Manufacturing Service Parts Management Applications 2020 Vendor Assessment (Doc US44801020, January 2020)

About Mize

Mize is a Service Lifecycle Management company that provides a SaaS solution for durable goods manufacturers and their value chain. The company provides a Connected Service Experience among OEMs and their end customers, dealer channels, service provider network, and suppliers, connecting and managing all service lifecycle interactions, extending across Warranty, Service Plans, Support, Service Delivery, Parts, and Returns. Mize solutions lead to reduced service delivery costs, optimized service experience, and maximized customer lifetime value. For additional information, visit m-ize.com.

About Syncron

Syncron empowers the world's leading manufacturers to maximize product uptime and deliver exceptional aftermarket service experiences while driving significant revenue and profit improvements. From industry-leading investments in research and development to providing the fastest time-to-value, Syncron's award-winning service parts inventory, price and uptime management solutions are designed to continually exceed customer expectations. Top brands from around the world trust Syncron, the largest privately-owned global provider of cloud-based aftermarket service solutions, to transform their service operations into competitive differentiators. For more information, visit syncron.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005139/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Robyn Ware

Syncron

Global Public Relations Manager

robyn.ware@syncron.com

(404) 545-0561
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.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed a sharp pullback in new residential construction in the U.S. in the month of July.



The Commerce Department said housing starts plunged by 7.0 percent to an annual rate of 1.534 million in July after jumping by 3.5 percent to a revised rate of 1.650 million in June.



Economists had expected housing starts to slump by 2.6 percent to a rate of 1.600 million from the 1.643 million originally reported for the previous month.



The bigger than expected decrease by housing starts came as multi-family starts plummeted by 13.1 percent to a rate of 423,000 and single-family starts dove by 4.5 percent to a rate of 1.111 million.



Housing starts in the Northeast showed a 49.3 percent nosedive, while starts in the West and Midwest tumbled by 11.3 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively. Housing starts in the South increased by 2.1 percent.



Meanwhile, the report said building permits shot up by 2.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.635 million in July after tumbling by 5.3 percent to a revised rate of 1.594 million in June.



Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, had been expected to climb by 0.8 percent to a rate of 1.610 million from the 1.598 million originally reported for the previous month.



Multi-family permits spiked by 11.2 percent to a rate of 587,000, more than offsetting a 1.7 percent drop in single-family permits to a rate of 1.048 million.



The report said building permits in the West spiked by 13.3 percent, while building permits in the Midwest jumped by 4.4 percent.



On the other hand, building permits in the South slid by 1.9 percent and building permits in the Northeast fell by 0.7 percent.



'Housing starts are expected to essentially trend sideways through the rest of 2021,' said Oren Klachkin, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. 'Solid housing demand and sparse inventory will give builders strong reasons to maintain solid levels of construction.'



'Builders still have a considerable backlog of starts to work through,' he added. 'However, high materials prices, a limited supply of workers and limited land availability will constrain activity.'



The National Association of Home Builders released a separate report on Tuesday showing homebuilder confidence in the U.S. unexpectedly slumped to its lowest level in a year in the month of August.



The report showed the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index tumbled to 75 in August from 80 in July, while economists had expected the index to come in unchanged.



With the unexpected decrease, the housing market index dropped to its lowest level since hitting 72 in July of 2020.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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The Launch Of New Products And Targeted Approach Will Drive The Market Says Kuick Research

NEW DELHI, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- "Global Bispecific Antibody Market Opportunity, Drug Sales, Price & Clinical Trials Insight 2028" Report Highlights:

Global Bispecific Antibody Market Opportunity: > US$ 20 Billion

Global Bispecific Antibody Market Growth Rate: 121% CAGR (2016 -2020)

Global Bispecific Antibody Sales In 2020: >55%

Bispecific Antibodies In Clinical Trials: More Than 400 Antibodies

Commercially Available Bispecific Antibodies: 3 (Blincyto, Hemlibra) & Rybrevant

Approved Bispecific Antibodies Dosage, Patent, Price, Yearly Sales, Quarterly Sales, Global and Regional Sales Insight

Download Report:

https://www.kuickresearch.com/report-global-usa-europe-japan-bispecific-antibody-antibodies-therapeutics-market-sales-size-therapy-trends-clinical-development-trials-emicizumab-hemlibra-blincyto--blinatumomab-forecast

In recent years, the idea of manipulating the immune system in the management of diseases has recently gained momentum. The major breakthrough in immunotherapy was the development of monoclonal antibodies in management of several diseases. However, their high molecular size as well as their poor penetration power has limited their use in management of multifactorial diseases like cancer. The advancement in the science and technology has led to the development of their improved bispecific counterparts.

Bispecific antibodies are the novel class of antibodies that act by binding two seaparte and unique antigens. The dual specificity of these molecules opens up wide range of opportunities and can be exploited in targeting two different signaling pathways simultaneously, dual targeting of different disease mediators, and delivering payloads to targeted site. Moreover, their smaller size also enhances their penetrability into the cell membrane. The clinical benefits of these antibodies have intensified the research in this sector from past few years.

Till date, two bispecific antibodies namely Blincyto and Hemlibra have been approved for therapeutic use. The approval of these bispecific antibodies have greatly revolutionized the market which can be justified by the robust sales of the drugs sicne their approval. The growing popularity and the therapeutic potential of the bispecific antibodies can be correlated to the exponential increase in the number of clinical trials. More than 300 bispecific candidates are currently present in preclinical/clinical development and are expected to enter the market in next 5-8 years.

The rising prevalence of the chronic diseases and the unmet need for the development of novel targete therapies will drive the growth of bispecific antibodies in the market. Furthermore, the multifactorial and the complexity of the diseases which requires targeting of two or more pathways at the same times also prompt the growth of the bispecific antibodies in the market. Further, the market is also propelled with the high research and development activities in this sector.

However, the growth of bispecific antibodies in the market will be mainly limited by the high cost of these drugs which possesses significant financial burden on the patient. The novel drug development process requires extensive research and development, wide range of clinical trials and stringent approval guidelines which in turn increase the investment as well as the cost of therapy. The high cost of the therapy limits its availability to all class of people.

North America and Europe were observed to be largest bispecific antibodies treatment market due to the presence of major key players in these regions. Moreover, the high prevalence of chronic diseases including cancer and blood disorders is expected to drive the market in recent future. The favourable initiatives taken by the federal government to encourage the use of novel therapies as well as to promote research and development is also adding to the growth of market. Similarly, Asia-Pacific market is also expanding due to untapped opportunities and the growing awareness among this region.

Overall, the global bispecific antibody market is going to witness high growth rate during the forecasted period. This will be accompanied by the rapid approval of several bispecific antibodies with wide range of applications. Moreover, North America is expected to dominate the global market for the next few years due to robust clinical practices in this region. Apart from this, the Asia will be emerging as a potential market in the forecasted period due to growing market penetration in this region.

Contact:

Neeraj Chawla

Research Head

+91-9810410366

neeraj@kuickresearch.com

https://www.kuickresearch.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1245952/Kuick_Research_Logo.jpg
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Matica Enterprises Inc. (CSE: MMJ) (FSE: 39N) (OTCQB: MMJFF) ("Matica" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company's subsidiary, RoyalMax Biotechnology Canada Inc. doing business as West Island Culture ("West Island") is launching the CITOYEN brand of cannabis in British Columbia. West Island is also the maker of the popular OUEST brand of premium cannabis. CITOYEN brand products are quality cannabis offerings at lower entry prices and with greater volumes in comparison to the Company's premium OUEST products.

"CITOYEN is the French term for citizen. As the name suggests, this is a flower that is accessible to all. It strives to provide consumers with a high-quality bud at a price that is affordable to all, truly The People's Flower," stated Boris Ziger, CEO, Matica. "Available in large size formats, our CITOYEN brand provides consumers what they have been asking for," he added.

To learn more about the CITOYEN line of products, please visit citoyencannabis.ca.

Legal Action

As per Matica press release dated May 14, 2021, Matica was served with a nuisance lawsuit by a shareholder of West Island. The legal action was dismissed by the Superior Court of the Province of Quebec.

About Matica

Matica is a multi-faceted, innovative company in the Quebec cannabis space. Its subsidiary, West Island Culture is a Dorval, Quebec based Health Canada Licence Holder with standard cultivation licence, standard processing, medical sales and sales licences. Matica continues to work with Yunify Natural Technologies, a Quebec based health and personal care research and innovation company to develop proprietary products for Matica and West Island, including topicals and ionic mists. Through its acquisition of Trichome Treats, an award-winning chocolatier, Matica and West Island intend on introducing edibles into the West Island product mix.

For more information on Matica Enterprises, please visit: www.maticaenterprises.com.

For more information on our cannabis brands, please visit go-ouest.ca and citoyencannabis.ca.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

MATICA ENTERPRISES INC.

Boris Ziger, CEO & Chairman

The Company's public filings are available for review at www.sedar.com and www.thecse.com.

For further information, please contact Boris Ziger, at:

Telephone: 416-304-9935

E-mail: info@maticaenterprises.com

Website: www.maticaenterprises.com, www.maticammj.com

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this press release may constitute forward-looking information. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. The Corporation assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to the Corporation. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in the Corporation's filings with the Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available at www.sedar.com.

This news release contains statements about the Company's information that may be made available on the S&P Capital IQ Corporation Records Listing Program and the business of Matica that are forward-looking in nature and as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them as actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, except as required by law.

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. We seek Safe Harbor.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93579
WALTHAM, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Tecogen Inc. (OTCQX:TGEN), a clean energy company providing ultra-efficient and clean on-site power, heating and cooling equipment, is pleased to announce the sale of a 200-ton Tecochill chiller to an assisted living facility in southwestern Connecticut. The system will provide seasonal cooling to the facility with the free waste heat utilized for domestic hot water use. The system also reduces the amount of backup standby generation needed to maintain habitable conditions for residents in the event of a grid outage. Tecogen will provide maintenance services for the system from its service center in Connecticut under a maintenance agreement.

The sale joins several other recent Connecticut chiller sales facilitated by Clover Corporation, Tecogen's manufacturers' representative in Connecticut. As electric rates in Connecticut continuing to increase, cooling with the Tecochill solution is increasingly compelling for critical care facilities seeking utility cost savings and added resiliency to grid outages.

"Assisted living facilities must always balance energy savings, greenhouse gas compliance, and resiliency to grid outages in order to provide affordable and reliable care to residents" commented Benjamin Locke, Tecogen's CEO. "With electric rates continuing to climb, this facility will avoid continued rate increases from the electric utility while simultaneously reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint relative to grid power. The added resiliency of the Tecochill solution ensures the facility can continue operation in the event of a grid outage. We look forward to maintaining the system for many years to ensure cost savings, resiliency, and GHG benefits are achieved."

About Tecogen

Tecogen Inc. designs, manufactures, installs, and maintains high efficiency and ultra-clean cogeneration products, including combined heat and power systems, air conditioning systems, and high-efficiency water heaters for residential, commercial, recreational, and industrial applications. The company's cost efficient, reliable, and environmentally friendly products for energy production nearly eliminate criteria pollutants and significantly reduce customers' carbon footprint.

In business for over 35 years, Tecogen has shipped more than 3,000 units, supported by an established network of engineering, sales, and service personnel throughout North America. Aggregate run hours on Tecogen's InVerde cogeneration systems exceeds 5 million hours. For more information, please visit www.tecogen.com or contact us for a free Site Assessment.

Tecogen, InVerde e+, Ilios, Tecochill, Tecofrost, Tecopack, Tecopower, and Ultera are pending or registered trademarks of Tecogen Inc.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" which may describe strategies, goals, outlooks or other non-historical matters, or projected revenues, income, returns or other financial measures, that may include words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "likely" or "may" and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

In addition to the Risk Factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q under "Risk Factors," factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from past and projected future results include the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on demand for our products and services, the availability of incentives, rebates and tax benefits relating to our products, changes in the regulatory environment relating to our products, competing technological developments, and the availability of financing to fund our operations and growth.

Tecogen Media & Investor Relations Contact Information:

Benjamin Locke, CEO

P: (781) 466-6402

E: Benjamin.Locke@Tecogen.com

SOURCE: Tecogen Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660287/Assisted-Living-Facility-Buys-Tecochill-for-Resilient-Cooling
Proteintech, the benchmark in antibodies, announces the tripling in size of its Rosemont, Illinois headquarters and laboratories to expand its antibody conjugation capabilities, increase GMP protein operations and add clinical capabilities to its antibodies' portfolio, including IBVR and ASR.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005104/en/

Proteintech's new laboratory at its headquarters expands its operations and adds clinical capabilities. (Photo: Business Wire)

Proteintech's move follows 20 years of strong and consistent growth at the company. Proteintech last expanded its headquarters just five years ago and expects to see growth continue amid demand for its antibodies, ELISA kits and protein products, according to Jeff Lee, Chief Operating Officer. In the past two years the company's headcount has doubled to 300 employees and expects it to double again in two years.

"It's a big year for Proteintech with it being our 20th year in business, receiving our 100,000th citation of our products in scientific publications, and expanding but we wouldn't have this company or any of its successes without our people," said CEO Dr. Jason Li. "Every step our employees took have made this company what it is today. They have made our company strong."

"The 100,000 citations we've received over the years is a contributing factor to our expansion. The consistent growth of citations from researchers using our products is a direct reflection on the value that researchers place on the consistent quality and reproducibility of our products correlating with the growth we've seen," said Dr. Deepa Shankar, Chief Scientific Officer.

The new headquarters will also house expanding operations for Proteintech's North American distribution, R&D, finance, logistics, customer support, and IT.

About Proteintech Group

Proteintech, founded in 2001, is a leading manufacturer of antibodies, proteins and immunoassays. Proteintech has the largest proprietary portfolio of self-manufactured antibodies covering 2/3 of the human proteome. In addition, Proteintech produces cytokines, growth factors and other proteins that are human expressed, bioactive and cGMP-grade. With the recent acquisition of manufacturer ChromoTek, Proteintech now offers nanobodies, high-performance recombinant reagents used in single cell analysis, super resolution imaging, and multiplex assays. Proteintech sites are ISO13485 and ISO9001-2015 accredited. To learn more about Proteintech, please visit www.ptglab.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005104/en/

Contacts:

Thompson Conard Communications

Jane Thompson

jane@thompsonconard.com

1-415-710-1675
ROSEAU, Dominica, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Commonwealth of Dominica has topped the chart with the best citizenship by investment (CBI) programme in the world for the fifth consecutive year. This is according to the CBI Index, an annual report published by the Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management magazine.

The study measures the performance and appeal of 14 CBI programmes across various indicators it calls 'pillars'. Dominica attained maximum points in six out of the nine 'pillars': Minimum Investment Outlay, Mandatory Travel or Residence, Ease of Processing, Due Diligence, Family, and Certainty of Product.

"For Dominica, first place has been a consistent result for five consecutive years. Maintaining a perfect score in six out of the nine pillars assessed, Dominica once again promises, among other things, an affordable minimum investment outlay, a streamlined application process, and certainty to investors," the report read.

Due to the transparency and prominence of the Dominica CBI Programme, Dominica was the only country that achieved a full score in the Certainty of Product pillar. "At 28 years old and with a track record of good governance, the Dominica CBI Programme has led the way in providing clarity as to how CBI funds are used," the researcher noted. It added that the country "used CBI revenues to successfully mitigate the effects of national disasters."

Ambassador Emmanuel Nanthan, the Head of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CBIU) in Dominica, commented, "It is of great honour to see that Dominica came out on top once again. Of course, it is not a surprise to us as we lead and set the example for excellence in the investment immigration industry. It was good to see the reward for it."

In terms of the global mobility afforded to Dominican citizens, the report noted that "Dominica was the Caribbean nation with the greatest increase in its visa-free and visa-on-arrival offering for the second year in a row." Applicants and their family members who successfully pass all security checks and obtain citizenship of Dominica can travel to over 75 percent of the world.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said: "Those who become Dominican citizens are considered a part of our family. They help build our roads, hospitals and schools through your investment in our CBI Programme."

Dominica established its CBI Programme in 1993. With a minimum contribution of USD 100,000 to the Economic Diversification Fund, reputable foreign investors can apply through an Authorised Agent listed on the CBIU site and attain second citizenship of Dominica without being subject to travel or residence requirements, often within three months of application submission. Applicants can also choose to apply through the real estate route , by investing in Government-approved eco-luxury properties like the Marriot, Hilton, or Kempinski or a boutique resort like the award-winning Jungle Bay or Secret Bay.

cbiusecretary@dominica.gov.dm, www.cbiu.gov.dm

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1597302/Government_of_Dominica.jpg
Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Quantum eMotion Inc. (TSXV: QNC) (OTC Pink: QNCCF) (FSE: 34Q0) ("QeM" or the "Company") today announces its participation in the Hudson Institute's Quantum Alliance Initiative (QAI), an international consortium of companies, institutions, and universities whose mission is to raise awareness and develop policies which will serve as a guide for the creation of a robust quantum ecosystem in the Western world.

The Hudson Institute has identified quantum computing and quantum cybersecurity as critical and strategic technologies with inevitable impact on national security and on the economy, hence the creation of QAI helps to foster more urgency among the cybersecurity industry to establish necessary global standards for securing quantum communication.

Francis Bellido, CEO of Quantum eMotion, commented "We are very excited and honored to have been invited to join the QAI. We believe our innovative approach to Quantum Random Numbers Generators can solve the inherent challenges of modern-day encryption and it positions QeM to be a valuable and contributing member of the QAI".

QeM's second generation QRNGs is based on the quantum tunneling phenomenon created by electrons and show distinctive advantages in term of robustness, speed, scalability, and cost which is perfect to address the cryptographic needs of Datacenters, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies industries.

"As the quantum computer threat to today's encryption system grows more real, innovative approaches to quantum security and safety will be determine which companies dominate the post-quantum cryptography landscape," says Arthur Herman, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and Director of Hudson's Quantum Alliance Initiative.

About QeM

The Company's mission is to address the growing demand for affordable hardware security for connected devices. The patented solution for a Quantum Random Number Generator exploits the built-in unpredictability of quantum mechanics and promises to provide enhanced security for protecting high value assets and critical systems.

The Company intends to target the highly valued Healthcare Services industry while ensuring its technology is also relevant and applicable to others, such as Financial Services, Cloud-Based IT Security Infrastructure, Classified Government Networks and Communication Systems, Secure Device Keying (IOT, Automotive, Consumer Electronics) and Quantum Cryptography.

For further information, please contact:

Francis Bellido, Chief Executive Officer

Tel: 514.887.5469

Email: info@quantumemotion.com

Website: www.quantumemotion.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially from targeted results. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in the Corporation's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Quantum from time to time with securities regulatory authorities.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93586
BASSETERRE, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An annual report conducted by researcher, James McKay, and published by the Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management magazine, has ranked the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis' Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme as the world's best. The report, known as the CBI Index, is one of the industry's most comprehensive and reliable tools for comparing CBI programmes on the market.

For the first time since the report's inception in 2017, St Kitts and Nevis' CBI Programme has topped the rankings after scoring full marks in five pillars reflecting investor priorities, including Mandatory Travel or Residence, Citizenship Timeline, Ease of Processing, Due Diligence, and Family. St Kitts and Nevis maintained a top score in the Mandatory Travel or Residence pillar as it does not require applicants to fulfil travel or residence requirements before or after applying to become citizens of the nation. It also received the highest score of all CBI jurisdictions for Citizenship Timeline as it is the only country with a guaranteed fast-track process.

The report highlighted: "St Kitts and Nevis once again leads the Citizenship Timeline pillar by virtue of its Accelerated Application Process, which offers citizenship to qualifying applicants within a maximum of 60 days and, under certain circumstances, as little as 45 days. For applicants who do not want to pay a premium, St Kitts and Nevis' standard route has an average processing time of three months."

The nation was also awarded perfect scores in the Ease of Processing and Due Diligence pillars. St Kitts and Nevis has achieved maximum points for its due diligence procedures for five consecutive years. Lastly, St Kitts and Nevis obtained full marks in the Family pillar, introduced in last year's edition. The increase came after the nation widened its definition of 'dependant' to include siblings aged 30 and under who are unmarried, childless, and financially dependent on the main applicant.

Prime Minister Timothy Harris commended the achievement, "As pioneers of the citizenship by investment programme, St Kitts and Nevis has long since been an industry leader within the CBI realm, we're extremely pleased that this is being reflected in a report of such stature."

"St Kitts and Nevis' CBI Programme is one of the oldest options on the market and has stood the test of time, evolving to meet the changing needs of investors - particularly over the last year," said Les Khan, CEO of the CBI Unit. "The report's ranking of the programme is a reaffirmation of why investors continue to choose our nation."

The 2021 CBI Index also noted that St Kitts and Nevis is the Caribbean CBI country with the most extensive visa-free and visa-on-arrival offering. Those who become citizens gain increased travel freedom to nearly 160 destinations across the globe, a number that continues to expand due to the efforts of Foreign Minister Mark Brantley.

Investors can also take advantage of a limited-time offer announced last year and extended to 31 December 2021 due to vast popularity. Under the offer, families of up to four can obtain citizenship by contributing US$150,000 to the Programme's Sustainable Growth Fund, instead of the US$195,000 contribution that previously applied to a typical family of four.

ciuunitskn@gmail.com , www.ciu.gov.kn

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1597315/CS_Global_St_Kitts.jpg
Oyu Tolgoi-Rio Tinto and Mongolian Airlines Partner with AOKpass, International SOS, and SOS Medica Mongolia to provide safe Return to Work and Travel

On 28 July 2021, Mongolian Airlines (MIAT) operated the first ever charter flight (OM7602) on which all passengers and air crew members used a digital health pass to verify their COVID-19 negative status. The flight, chartered by Rio Tinto, carried employees destined for Oyu Tolgoi site, one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world. AOKpass, integrated into International SOS' safe return to work solution, Work Pass, was used to authenticate the employees' COVID-19 negative PCR results on departure from Johannesburg Airport (JNB), in South Africa, and arrival at Ulaanbaatar Airport (ULN), in Mongolia.

Altannaran Gankhuu, Head of Foreign Relations Cooperation Department

MIAT Mongolian Airlines commented, "We are delighted to work with our partners to provide safe passage for the Oyu Tolgoi employees in this groundbreaking flight."

Phil Abraham, GM HSE, Oyu Tolgoi LLC Rio Tintosaid, "Oyu Tolgoi is one of the most modern, safe and sustainable operations in the world and it is critically important to us to ensure our employees are kept safe and well. Working in partnership with Mongolian Airlines, AOKPass and International SOS will protect our employees as well as providing a smooth journey."

All the employees took a PCR test 24 hours before the flight, which followed a previous test nine days prior to the flight. They also underwent an International SOS 'Fit for Travel Assessment', via survey forms through the Work Pass app. The International SOS Work Pass full integration with AOKpass provided the employees with a unique AOKpass QR code linking to their digital health certificate. This was presented at the arrival gate, where inspection personnel scanned the QR code to verify that the passenger has the valid required certificates for the flight and entry to country, including COVID-19 negative status.

Darren Toh, CEO at AOKPass, "This is a great step in the evolution of getting back to travel and back to work safely in a sustainable way. It is another milestone in the operational advancement of AOKpass. Being able to provide organisations and their employees with an easy and secure end-to-end process is going to be a key element in getting the global workforce and economy back to business,"

Michael Gardner, CEO Medical Services, International SOS added, "The integration of Work Pass* and AOKpass provides organisations and their employees with a safe and secure way to demonstrate adherence to health requirements of a work or travel environment via a single app. This is an exciting first of its kind pilot and we hope that many more organisations consider this to protect their employees and, ultimately, their business continuity."

https://appadvice.com/app/international-sos-work-pass/1561747846

ENDS

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005587/en/

Contacts:

For further information contact:

Suzanne Withers, Group Head of PR, International SOS

T: 07850 746585

E: Suzanne.withers@internationalsos.com
The information contained in this release was correct as at 31 July 2021. Information on the Company's up to date net asset values can be found on the London Stock Exchange Website at

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-home.html.

BLACKROCK LATIN AMERICAN INVESTMENT TRUST PLC (LEI - UK9OG5Q0CYUDFGRX4151 )

All information is at 31 July 2021 and unaudited.



Performance at month end with net income reinvested



One

month

% Three

months

% One

year

% Three

years

% Five

years

% Sterling: Net asset value^ -6.4 3.5 18.2 -5.6 15.1 Share price -6.4 2.0 22.2 -0.8 24.4 MSCI EM Latin America

(Net Return)^^ -4.7 6.0 18.3 -3.9 15.6 US Dollars: Net asset value^ -5.8 3.9 25.2 0.1 20.5 Share price -5.8 2.5 29.4 5.2 30.1 MSCI EM Latin America

(Net Return)^^ -4.1 6.4 25.3 1.8 21.0

^cum income

^^The Company's performance benchmark (the MSCI EM Latin America Index) may be calculated on either a Gross or a Net return basis. Net return (NR) indices calculate the reinvestment of dividends net of withholding taxes using the tax rates applicable to non-resident institutional investors, and hence give a lower total return than indices where calculations are on a Gross basis (which assumes that no withholding tax is suffered). As the Company is subject to withholding tax rates for the majority of countries in which it invests, the NR basis is felt to be the most accurate, appropriate, consistent and fair comparison for the Company.

Sources: BlackRock, Standard & Poor's Micropal

At month end

Net asset value - capital only: 417.89p Net asset value - including income: 418.00p Share price: 377.00p Total assets#: 188.7m Discount (share price to cum income NAV): 9.8% Average discount* over the month - cum income: 12.4% Net gearing at month end**: 16.3% Gearing range (as a % of net assets): 0-25% Net yield##: 5.3% Ordinary shares in issue(excluding 2,181,662 shares held in treasury): 39,259,620 Ongoing charges***: 1.1%

Total assets include current year revenue.

#The yield of 5.3% is calculated based on total dividends declared in the last 12 months as at the date of this announcement as set out below (totalling 27.69 cents per share) and using a share price of 524.19 US cents per share (equivalent to the sterling price of 377.00 pence per share translated in to US cents at the rate prevailing at 30 July 2021 of $1.3904 dollars to 1.00).

2020 Q3 interim dividend of 5.45 cents per share (paid 09 November 2020).

2020 Q4 Final dividend of 7.45 cents per share (paid on 08 February 2021).

2021 Q1 interim dividend of 6.97 cents per share (paid on 10 May 2021).

2021 Q2 interim dividend of 7.82 cents per share (payable on 6 August 2021).

*The discount is calculated using the cum income NAV (expressed in sterling terms).

**Net cash/net gearing is calculated using debt at par, less cash and cash equivalents and fixed interest investments as a percentage of net assets.

*** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding interest costs for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Geographic

Exposure % of

Total Assets % of Equity Portfolio * MSCI EM Latin America Index Brazil 61.6 61.0 65.2 Mexico 25.7 25.4 23.6 Chile 7.6 7.5 5.5 Argentina 3.4 3.4 1.6 Peru 1.5 1.4 2.2 Panama 1.3 1.3 0.0 Colombia 0.0 0.0 1.9 Net current liabilities

(inc. fixed interest) -1.1 0.0 0.0 ----- ----- ----- Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 ===== ===== =====

^Total assets for the purposes of these calculations exclude bank overdrafts, and the net current assets figure shown in the table above therefore excludes bank overdrafts equivalent to 15.0% of the Company's net asset value.

Sector % of Equity Portfolio* % of Benchmark* Materials 25.1 24.9 Financials 21.6 23.1 Industrials 9.2 6.0 Consumer Staples 8.7 14.9 Consumer Discretionary 7.3 5.7 Communication Services 7.0 6.7 Energy 6.7 9.3 Health Care 5.4 2.6 Information Technology 4.2 2.0 Real Estate 3.0 0.6 Utilities 1.8 4.2 ----- ----- Total 100.0 100.0 ===== =====

* excluding net current assets & fixed interest



Company Country of Risk % of

Equity Portfolio % of

Benchmark Vale - ADS Brazil 9.6 12.9 Banco Bradesco - ADR Brazil 6.8 4.5 Petrobras - ADR: Brazil Equity 4.3 3.1 Preference Shares 2.4 3.8 America Movil - ADR Mexico 5.2 4.4 B3 Brazil 3.9 2.8 Grupo Financiero Banorte Mexico 3.6 2.7 Walmart de Mexico y Centroamerica Mexico 3.2 2.6 Grupo Mexico Mexico 3.1 2.2 Cemex - ADR Mexico 3.0 1.9 Notre Dame Intermedica Participacoes Brazil 2.9 1.2

Commenting on the markets, Ed Kuczma and Sam Vecht, representing the Investment Manager noted;

For the month of July 2021, the Company's NAV returned -6.4%1 with the share price moving -6.4%1. The Company's benchmark, the MSCI EM Latin America Index, returned -4.7%1 on a net basis (all performance figures are in sterling terms with dividends reinvested).

Latin American equities posted a negative performance over the month with Peru and Brazil leading the decline.

Stock selection in Argentina contributed the most to relative performance over the period while stock selection in Brazil detracted most from relative returns. An off-benchmark holding of Argentinian steel manufacturing company, Ternium, was the top contributor on a relative basis following strong steel markets. A holding in Mexican telecommunications company, America Movil, also benefitted the portfolio on the back of better than expected results and deleveraging leading to a greater return of capital to shareholders. On the other hand, an overweight position in Via Varejo, the Brazilian retail company, detracted most from relative performance. We remain encouraged by the digital transformation cycle spurred on by Via Varejo's management and ownership changes and our base case is that it will remain a relevant store and online player in its key categories of electronics, appliances, and furniture; however, breaking into the top 3 of online marketplaces will likely be more challenging given increasing competition and heavy investment in logistics from its peers announced in the month. For example, recently Amazon Brazil announced the start of offering one day delivery in 50 states for Amazon Prime members for free, raising concerns on competition in Brazil. An overweight position in Petrobras, a Brazilian petroleum company, also weighed on relative returns as concerns remain about political interference in state owned companies ahead of election year.

Over the month we added to our position in Itau Unibanco, a Brazilian bank, on the view of strong outlook for company growth and earnings potential. We initiated a position in Smartfit, a Brazilian fitness services company on as we feel the company is well positioned for growth. We reduced exposure to Mexican telecommunications company, America Movil, taking profits following the stock's recent outperformance. We sold our holding in Banco de Chile, a Chilean bank, following political uncertainty in Chile. The portfolio ended the period being overweight to Mexico and Brazil, whilst being underweight to Colombia and Peru. At the sector level, we were overweight industrials and materials and underweight consumer staples and utilities.

It has been a tough period for Latin America (LatAm), with many countries hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. However, we see a strong case for better times ahead for the region as the world rebuilds after the pandemic, and LatAm may be one of the most important beneficiaries of recovery in the global economy. As the region rebuilds, it will have some important tailwinds. Perhaps the most significant is rising commodity prices. Vast stimulus in the US and economic recovery across the world has pushed up demand for commodities after a period of tight supply. Global governments have ambitious, commodity-heavy infrastructure plans, particularly for green energy development. LatAm is also one of the most abundant regions in the world for lithium, iron ore and copper, with some of the longest-life reserves at a low cost in Brazil, Chile and Peru. There are also broader factors that should support economic growth. Across LatAm, a growing middle class is fueling domestic consumption and after a brief hiatus from the pandemic, this spending appears to be resuming. As businesses in the US look to diversify their supply chains opportunities are being created in Mexico, particularly along the northern border, in the manufacturing sector. Importantly, a rich seam of new companies listing on the stock market is creating more opportunities all the time. The buoyancy of the Brazilian IPO (Initial Public Offering) market is perhaps the best example. 2020 was a bumper year for Brazilian IPOs. 28 companies listed on the main exchange, raising BRL$43.7 billion (US$8.3 billion) in spite of the pandemic. This was almost four times the previous year's figure and the highest level since the giddy pre-crash optimism of 2007. This year looks set to be even more promising; over 40 companies have already said they want to list on Sao Paulo's B3 exchange this year. There are sound reasons for this, with excess global liquidity, favourable macroeconomic conditions, and increased financial awareness among Brazilian investors, all supporting new issuance in Brazil. This is bringing new sectors and more choice for investors in the region. In the portfolio, we have exposure to structural growth themes in the region including healthcare, e-commerce and convenience stores. Against this positive backdrop, we see anecdotal evidence that investors are moving away from China - which has a lot of technology names - to more cyclical markets. LatAm markets, with their focus on materials, energy and financials, are a key beneficiary. LatAm is lightly represented in emerging market benchmarks and has generally been under-owned, so it only takes a small change in sentiment to have a significant impact. We expect more and more investors to rediscover the huge opportunities in this fascinating region.

1Source: BlackRock, as of 31 July 2021.

18 August 2021

ENDS

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.com/uk/brla on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - August 18, 2021 - Bavarian Nordic A/S (OMX: BAVA, OTC: BVNRY) will announce its 2021 first half results on Wednesday, August 25, 2021.

The management of Bavarian Nordic will host a conference call at 2:00 pm CEST.

To join the Q&A session dial one of the following numbers and state the participant code 8569159: Denmark: +45 32 72 80 42, UK: +44 (0) 844 571 8892, USA: +1 631-510-7495.

About Bavarian Nordic

Bavarian Nordic is a fully integrated vaccines company focused on the development, manufacture and commercialization of life-saving vaccines. We are a global leader in smallpox vaccines and have been a long-term supplier to the U.S. Government of a non-replicating smallpox vaccine, which has been approved by the FDA under the trade name JYNNEOS, also for the protection against monkeypox. The vaccine is approved as a smallpox vaccine in Europe under the trade name IMVANEX and in Canada under the trade name IMVAMUNE. Our commercial product portfolio furthermore contains the market-leading vaccine Rabipur/RabAvert against rabies and Encepur against tick-borne encephalitis. Using our live virus vaccine platform technology, MVA-BN, we have created a diverse portfolio of proprietary and partnered product candidates designed to save and improve lives by unlocking the power of the immune system, including an Ebola vaccine, MVABEA, which is licensed to the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. We are also committed to the development of a next generation COVID-19 vaccine based on an in-licensed capsid virus-like particle technology. The vaccine candidate, ABNCoV2, is currently being investigated in clinical trials. For more information visit www.bavarian-nordic.com .

Contacts

Europe: Rolf Sass Srensen, Vice President Investor Relations & Communications. Tel: +45 61 77 47 43

U.S.: Graham Morrell, Paddock Circle Advisors (US), Tel: +1 781 686 9600
CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / August 18, 2021 / Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (the "Company") (CSE:XOP)(LSE:COPL), is pleased to announce that further to its press release dated August 2, 2021, its application to its principal regulator, the Alberta Securities Commission (the "ASC"), for a management cease trade order (the "MCTO") under National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203") was granted on August 17, 2021. As previously announced, the application for the MCTO was made by the Company in order to secure additional time for the Company to prepare its unaudited interim financial statements and the applicable CEO and CFO certifications in respect of such filings for the period ended June 30, 2021 (collectively the "Interim Filings"). Under the terms of the MCTO, the Company's Interim Filings, business acquisition report in respect of its acquisition of Atomic Oil and Gas LLC and Southwestern Production Corp. on March 17, 2021 and any other periodic disclosure required to be filed pursuant to section 146 of the Securities Act (Alberta) while the MCTO is in effect (the "Other Disclosure") must be filed on or before August 31, 2021.

The MCTO restricts all trading in securities of the Company by the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer of the Company until two full business days following the date the Company files the Interim Filings and Other Disclosure. The MCTO does not affect the ability of shareholders to trade their securities. However, the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities could determine, in their discretion, that it would be appropriate to issue a general cease trade order against the Company affecting all of the securities of the Company. As previously announced, until filing of the Interim Filings and Other Disclosure, the Company confirms that it will satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines under NP 12- 203 and will file on SEDAR every two weeks a default status report containing the information described in section 10 of NP 12-203.

Bi-weekly Status Report

The Company confirms that since the date of its submission for the MCTO on August 2, 2021 (the "MCTO Notice"): (i) there has been no material change to the information set out in the MCTO Notice that has not been generally disclosed; (ii) there has been no failure by the Company in fulfilling its stated intentions with respect to satisfying the provisions of the alternative information guidelines set out in NP 12-203; (iii) there has not been any other specified default by the Company under NP 12-203; and (iv) there is no other material information concerning the affairs of the Company that has not been generally disclosed.

The Company confirms that its directors, officers and insiders cannot trade the Company's securities until the Interim Filings have been made. The Company is working diligently to complete the Interim Filings. The MCTO stipulated that the Interim Filings were to be filed by no later thanAugust 31, 2021 and the Company will be in a position to file the Interim Filings on or before that date. Until filing of the Interim Filings, the Company intends to satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines as required by NP 12-203.

About the Company

COPL is an international oil and gas exploration, development and production company actively pursuing opportunities in the United States with operations in Converse County Wyoming, and in sub-Saharan Africa through its ShoreCan joint venture company in Nigeria, and independently in other countries.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Arthur Millholland, President & CEO

Mr. Ryan Gaffney, CFO

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited

Tel: + 1 (403) 262 5441

Cathy Hume

CHF Investor Relations

Tel: +1 (416) 868 1079 ext. 251

Email: cathy@chfir.com

Charles Goodwin

Yellow Jersey PR Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 77 4778 8221

Email: copl@yellowjerseypr.com

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that discusses predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, without limitation, statements relating to the timing for completion of the Interim Filings and other statements that are not historical facts. In making the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release. 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. The securities of the company have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This release is issued for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (operated by CNSX Markets Inc.) has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release.

SOURCE: Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/660362/Canadian-Overseas-Petroleum-Limited-Announces-Approval-of-Application-of-Management-Cease-Trade-Order-and-Provides-First-Bi-Weekly-Status-Report
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - HB2 Origination, LLC ("Origination") is pleased to announce the closing of the previously announced private placement (the "Financing") of subscription receipts of Alpine Summit Energy Partners Finco, Inc. ("Finco"), a special purpose British Columbia company incorporated solely for the purpose of the Financing, for gross proceeds of approximately C$7.5 million, which represents a significant increase from the original US$3 million target, with significant US and Canadian investor support.

Eight Capital ("Eight") acted as the lead agent and sole bookrunner in connection with the Financing, which was conducted on a "best efforts" agency basis.

Summary of the Financing

The Financing was completed in connection with the proposed reverse takeover of Red Pine Petroleum Ltd. ("Red Pine") by the members of Origination (the "Transaction"). Further details of the Transaction were previously announced by Red Pine on April 8, 2021 and May 5, 2021. References herein to the "Resulting Issuer" refer to Red Pine, to be re-named "Alpine Summit Energy Partners, Inc.", following the completion of the Transaction.

Pursuant to the Financing, 161,976 subordinate voting subscription receipts of Finco ("Subordinate Voting Subscription Receipts") were issued at a price of C$4.01 per Subordinate Voting Subscription Receipt, and 17,057 multiple voting subscription receipts of Finco ("Multiple Voting Subscription Receipts", and together with the Subordinate Voting Subscription Receipts, the "Subscription Receipts") were issued at a price of C$401.29 per Multiple Voting Subscription Receipt, for aggregate gross proceeds of C$7,494,327. The Subscription Receipts are governed by the terms of the subscription receipt agreement (the "Subscription Receipt Agreement") between Finco, Red Pine, Eight and Odyssey Trust Company, as subscription receipt agent.

Each Subordinate Voting Subscription Receipt and each Multiple Voting Subscription Receipt entitles the holder thereof to receive, upon the satisfaction or waiver (to the extent such waiver is permitted) of certain escrow release conditions (the "Escrow Release Conditions") on or before the Escrow Release Deadline (as defined below), including all conditions precedent to the Transaction being satisfied, and without payment of additional consideration therefor, one class A common share (a "Class A Finco Share") and one Class B common share (a "Class B Finco Share") in the capital of Finco, respectively. On completion of the Transaction, each Class A Finco Share will be exchanged for one subordinate voting share of the Resulting Issuer (each, a "Subordinate Voting Share"), and each Class B Finco Share will be exchanged for one multiple voting share of the Resulting Issuer (each, a "Multiple Voting Share"), all in accordance with the terms of the business combination agreement among Finco, Origination, Red Pine, Alpine Summit Energy Investors, Inc. and Red Pine Petroleum Subco Ltd. dated April 8, 2021 governing the terms of the Transaction.

In connection with the Financing, Eight is entitled to receive a cash commission of C$26,525 (the "Commission") as well as cash advisory fees of C$197,500 (the "Advisory Fee") in connection with certain advisory services provided by Eight pursuant to the terms of an advisory agreement between Eight and Finco. On closing of the Financing, Eight received payment of 50% of the Commission and 50% of the Advisory Fee. The remaining 50% of the Commission and 50% of the Advisory Fee will be paid to Eight upon escrow release.

The gross proceeds of the Financing (less an amount equal to 50% of the Commission, 50% of the Advisory Fee and all of the reasonable costs and expenses of Eight in connection with the Financing) have been deposited in escrow with the subscription receipt agent until the satisfaction of the Escrow Release Conditions, including that all conditions precedent to the Transaction have been satisfied or waived, all in accordance with the terms of the Subscription Receipt Agreement.

In the event that the Escrow Release Conditions have not been satisfied by the date that is 30 days following the closing of the Financing, or such other date as Finco and Eight may determine (the "Escrow Release Deadline"), or Finco advises Eight or announces to the public that it does not intend to satisfy the Escrow Release Conditions, the aggregate issue price of the Subscription Receipts together with any earned interest shall be returned to the applicable holders of the Subscription Receipts (net of any applicable withholding taxes), and such Subscription Receipts shall be automatically cancelled and be of no further force and effect.

All Subscription Receipts issued in connection with the Financing are subject to a statutory hold period in accordance with Canadian securities laws. Following completion of the Transaction, the Subordinate Voting Shares and Multiple Voting Shares received upon the exchange of Class A Finco Shares and Class B Finco Shares, respectively, underlying the Subscription Receipts will not be subject to a statutory hold period in Canada.

Following completion of the Transaction, the net proceeds of the Financing are expected to be used for corporate and general working capital purposes.

None of the securities issued or to be issued in connection with the Transaction or the Financing have been, or will be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to any U.S. Person (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities in any jurisdiction where such offer or solicitation would be unlawful, including the United States.

Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including TSX Venture Exchange acceptance. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the listing application to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon.

For further information, please contact:

HB2 Origination, LLC

Chris Nilan, Head of Capital Markets

Phone: 615.488.0087 x 1104

Email: ir@ae-cap.com

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION:

This news 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 Origination's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Origination'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", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or the negative 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, information concerning the Transaction, expectations regarding whether the Transaction will be consummated, including whether conditions to the consummation of the Transaction will be satisfied, and the use of net proceeds of the Financing.

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, Origination 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, level of activity, performance or achievements of Origination (or the Resulting Issuer) 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 news release, Origination has made certain assumptions. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements are the following: the ability to consummate the Transaction; the ability to obtain requisite regulatory and shareholder approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions to the consummation of the Transaction on the proposed terms and schedule; the ability to satisfy the conditions to the conversion of the Subscription Receipts; the potential impact of the announcement or consummation of the Transaction on relationships, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, contractors and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; and compliance with extensive government regulation. 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. Although Origination 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. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and Origination 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.

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for release, publication, distribution or dissemination, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, in or into the United States.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93614
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Pan Global Resources Inc. (TSXV: PGZ) (OTC Pink: PGNRF) (the "Company") today announced the grant of a total of 3.82 million incentive stock options to directors, management, consultants and contractors. The options are for a ten-year term at an exercise price of $0.60 per option share.

About Pan Global Resources

Pan Global Resources Inc. is actively engaged in base and precious metal exploration in Spain and is pursuing opportunities from exploration through to mine development. The company has committed to operating safely and with respect to the communities and environment where we operate.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

www.panglobalresources.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

info@panglobalresources.com

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93619.
Nevada, United States--(Newsfile Corp. - August 18, 2021) - Duesenberg Technologies Inc. (OTCQB: DUSYF) (the "Company" or "Duesenberg"), an OTCQB-listed issuer, is excited to announce today that its subsidiary company; Duesenberg Heritage LLC, a Nevada incorporation would be applying to become a Low Volume Manufacturer in United States of America. Duesenberg Heritage LLC will reproduce very limited Duesenberg Heritage electric vehicles which were originally manufactured in the 1920s and 1930s; such as the Duesenberg Model J series.

Duesenberg Heritage will pursue the development of Duesenberg heritage electric vehicles that can be offered under the new rules issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which permit low volume motor vehicle manufacturers to sell cars that resemble vehicles produced at least 25 years ago, the Company announced plans to develop compliant versions of its Duesenberg Heritage electric vehicles such as Duesenberg II, Duesenberg Dual-Cowl Phaeton and Duesenberg Murphy Roadster for customers worldwide.

Joe Lim stated, "The collectible car market has reached new heights with record prices being reached at auction. The bill passed by Congress enables Duesenberg to reproduce one of today's most desirable and collectible cars on a limited production basis. Each reproduction can be personalized to fit the customers' needs for individuality making each vehicle produced a collectible."

Congress enacted a bill into law during 2015 that streamlined requirements for small automakers, however implementation was delayed while waiting for NHTSA regulations. The Specialty Equipment Manufacturing Association (SEMA) led the efforts to craft and enact this legislation. According to SEMA, the replica car law and implementing regulations allow a low volume manufacturer like Duesenberg Heritage LLC to construct up to 325 such replica cars a year subject to federal regulatory oversight. The cars must resemble production vehicles manufactured at least 25 years ago and meet current model year emissions standards.

In 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued guidelines for installing engine packages from other EPA-certified vehicles and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued a regulation for producing compliant engine packages. SEMA sued NHTSA in October 2019 to require the agency to issue regulations allowing the law to take effect. NHTSA issued a proposed rule in January 2020.

The regulation does not take effect until it is officially published in the Federal Register. Low volume vehicle manufacturers will then be required to register with NHTSA, EPA and CARB before selling vehicles and thereafter submit annual reports on vehicle productions.

With the new regulations, Duesenberg would be able to fast pace into the market with its electric vehicle under the new enacted bill.

More information will be the disclosed in the next coming weeks.

About Duesenberg Technologies Inc.

Duesenberg Technologies Inc. was established out of the collective ambition of investors experienced in the online business and marketing. Duesenberg Technologies' goal is to be climate neutral across its full value chain, in line with the goals set by the Paris Agreement. The Company is committed to energy resiliency through Development in Energy Transition Goal with added environmentally friendly technologies to its business strategy. This strategy identifies an immediate and urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help mitigate the effects of climate change, reduce energy use, and improve air quality. The Company is posed to play a vital role in supporting all three of these objectives by reducing the environmental impact through manufacturing a new type of luxury electric vehicles.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Lim, Hun Beng (Joe), President

CONTACT INFORMATION

Duesenberg Technologies Inc.

+1-236-304-0299

contactus@duesenbergtech.com

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Some of the statements contained or incorporated by reference in this business overview are "forward-looking statements" made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results described within the forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions of our management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are sometimes identified by language such as "believe," "may," "could," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "plan," "expect," "appear," "future," "likely," "probably," "suggest," "goal," "potential" and similar expressions and may also include references to plans, strategies, objectives, and anticipated future performance as well as other statements that are not strictly historical in nature. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. They reflect opinions, assumptions, and estimates only of Duesenberg Technology's management, reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of Duesenberg Technology to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Duesenberg Technology undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements in this business overview, whether as a result of new information, future events or circumstances, or otherwise that may arise on or after the date of any such statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/93622
Postman, a San Francisco, CA-based API platform, raised $225m in Series D funding, at a $5.6 billion valuation.

The round was led by existing investor Insight Partners, joined by new investors Coatue, Battery Ventures, and Bond, and existing investors CRV and Nexus Venture Partners, as well as individual investors DoorDash Product Leader Gokul Rajaram and Freshworks Founder Girish Mathrubootham.

The company, which has now raised more than $430m across four rounds, intends to use the funds to:

expand its teams in the areas of sales, marketing, product, and engineering,

continue to invest in its community of developers across the globe,

support students through innovative API literacy programs, and

contribute toward open source projects.

Led by CEO and Co-founder Abhinav Asthana, Postman provides a platform for building and using APIs, which is used by more than 17 million developers and 500,000 organizations worldwide. The company simplifies each step of the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration, enabling users to create and manage APIs.

To support its global growth of APIs across all industries, Postman has released new capabilities, including: Postman on the web, public workspaces, the Private API Network, the Public API Network, API security validations, OpenAPI validations, support for protocols like WebSockets and SOAP, user groups, and SCIM integration, along with hundreds of other improvements.

The company also has an office in Bangalore.

FinSMEs

18/08/2021
The David School in Floyd County held its first ever Camp Falcon last week, which was sponsored by the Floyd County Sheriffs Department.

The day camp featured deputies from the FCSD along with Sheriff John Hunt, EMTs and firefighters. The first responders served as camp counselors, leading the activities with the campers, while educating them about their roles as first responders.

Bryan Lafferty, principal at The David School, wanted to give the children of Floyd County a chance to unwind and concentrate solely on being a kid.

The David School, which receives no federal funding, is completely funded through grants and donations.

We have a lot of long term donors that fell in love with the school and the mission. Some from this area, and some from up in the northeast, said Lafferty.

The school does receive some funding from Berea as well as Harvard.

We have people as far as up in Connecticut that donate, we also had a trust come in from Harvard for the school this past year, Lafferty said.

Lafferty, in his first year as principal, has plans to hold the annual camp each summer.

Day one included a trip to Martin Fire Department, where the firefighters showcased their equipment and its function. Campers got to hookup the fire hoses and were even able to blare the sirens on the fire trucks.

Day two was a surprise as the campers were treated to helicopter rides over the eastern Kentucky terrain.

Day three was a day on the lake as camp leaders rented pontoon boats for a day on Dewey Lake. The K-9 Unit even stopped for a visit to show the role dogs play in keeping our communities safe.

One goal of Camp Falcon is to get the youth of Floyd County acquainted with first responders and law enforcement. To show them that they are there to help in their time of need.

We interact, we play with them, we feed them, we have lunch with them. I think they really enjoy that. We get to find out who the kids are, Hunt said. We know their name when they leave.
Google just launched its Pixel Buds A-Series, a cheaper version of the Pixel Buds in India, after it was introduced back in June priced at $99. These have custom-designed 12mm dynamic speaker driver that promise full, clear and natural sound, and Bass Boost option. These offer passive noise reduction, thanks to secure fit along with a spatial vent that in-ear pressure and spatial awareness. The stabilizer arc ensures a gentle, but secure fit.

It uses Bluetooth 5.0 with Fast Pair option to quickly connect to devices, has touch controls, but lack swipe to control volume like the Pixel Buds. The earbuds feature dual beam forming mics to focus on voice and reduce outside noise during calls. It features Adaptive Sound, which increases or decreases the volume based on your surroundings. There is built-in Google Assistant with support for real-time translation in more than 40 languages (including Bengali, Hindi, and Tamil) right in your ear while using a Pixel or Android 6.0+ phone. The earbuds have IPX4 rating for sweat and water-resistance.

These offer up to 5 hours of listening time or up to 2.5 hours of talk time and up to 24 hours of listening time with case, or up to 12 hours of talk time with the charging case. It also has fast charge that offers up to 3 hours of listening time or up to 1.5 hour of talk time with 15-minute charge of earbuds in the charging case. It doesnt have wireless charging.

The Google Pixel Buds A-Series comes only in Clearly White colour with new gray undertones, is priced at Rs. 9999 and will go on sale from 25th August 2021 through Flipkart, Reliance Digital, and Tata Cliq, and will be coming to more retail outlets subsequently.
A deputy was shot in San Bernardino on Aug. 17, and authorities closed off the streets to conduct an investigation. (Contributed photo by Gilbert Gonzalez)
Paxton, IL (60957)

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If You Go

The funeral service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 17, at the Mount St. Marys University PNC Sports Complex. There will not be a graveside service following the funeral.

The funeral will be live-streamed on FCG TV and at livestream.com/msmu/events/9801929.
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As Chief Growth Officer of The Predictive Index, Drew Fortin will curate the companys long-term vision and growth strategy, which includes expanding the talent optimization category and building PIs talent optimization platform for scale using product-led growth (PLG).
Aeon Must Die!, the stylish beat em-up is launching on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC in 2021. Get ready for an existential sci-fi massacre with a unique anime-inspired art style and a massive story of betrayal, love, and revenge across a broken universe.



A unique beatem-up packed with brutal, over-the-top action in an art style like youve never seen



Experience a spectacular beat em-up introducing breakneck risk-reward gameplay, innovative AI and tactical fighting, all packaged in an incredible art style.



Aeon, the dreaded Emperor of the unstoppable Void Armada, has been betrayed and left for dead by his generals. Weakened and without a body to exact his revenge, he manages to merge with you to survive and bring forth his wrath.



Choose who you kill or spare and change the fate of the galaxy



Travel across the futuristic city of Pantheon to destroy or subdue those who betrayed him, while fighting for your free will and the control of your body.



Will you succumb to Aeons will and unleash his awesome power, losing yourself in the process? Or will you choose the hard way and remain free, at the cost of your free will and strength?






[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]

August 18th, 2021 - Shanghai, China - Holding hands with Tom Clancys Rainbow Six Siege, strategic mobile RPG Arknights launches a new crossover event Operation Originium Dust to bring players brand new gaming experience with new collaboration Operators, stages, outfits and furniture. In the event, players will witness the gripping adventure of Team Rainbow and their unexpected encounter with Operators from Rhodes Island at the Border Town of Sargon.



Download and play Arknights now: Click here



About Operation Originium Dust

The narrative starts with Team Rainbow being on a mission and getting transported to the world of Terra by accident, and it occurs in a dusty desert with crisis and mysteries waiting for players to discover and solve. During this event, players will get acquainted with Team Rainbow and fight alongside them.



The new event stages are located in the desert of Sargon where endless sandstorms are sweeping through the area. Players can use Dirt Mound to block Sandstorms and protect the Operators from taking damage. By clearing the stages, players can get Rhodes Island Supply Ration Coupons to redeem 5-star crossover Operator Tachanka and other rewards, such as Elite materials, LMD, and Furniture pieces. Moreover, players shouldnt miss the chance to claim 2 Expert Headhunting Permits which grant 20 free pulls in the limited banner.



New Operators

Arknights is welcoming four eminent Operators from Rainbow Six Siege.



The first one is a 6-star Sniper, the team leader - Ash. Her main weapon is a customized M120 grenade launcher which is capable of clearing obstacles and inflicting significant damage on heavily-armored targets. Her traits and skills enable her to stun the enemies and deal some serious damage to them.



Aforementioned 5-star Guard Tachanka is available to redeem in the event shop. As the main firepower for his team, Tachanka is an undisputed master of the battlefield. His first skill fires an incendiary grenade at the target, creating a burning zone in surrounding areas.



5-star Defender - Blitz holds a handgun and a modified G52-Tactical Light Shield, which can be operated when in close quarters to blind all targets, conferring a tactical advantage to his entire team. As a defender, Blitz has a relatively long attack range and the ability to deal high damage. When his second skill is activated, he could stun and deal damage to all blocked enemies.



The last 5-star Operator Frost serves as a Specialist. Frost mainly uses modified mechanical traps named Welcome Mats. Through the player's strategic placement, the traps can obstruct the enemy and provide tactical support to the entire team. Empowered by her two skills, the mats could deal physical damage and either blind or stun the enemies.



About Multivariate Cooperation

Arknights is further introducing a new multiplayer cooperative game mode - Multivariate Cooperation for players to have fun when playing with friends. Players can find cooperation partners through matchmaking, invitation, or spontaneous application for a test project. In two different maps, upper and lower level, players will work together to fight all the enemies. By completing event missions and obtaining Rhodes Island Supply Ration Coupons, players can use them to exchange for rewards.



New Outfits and Furniture

To send a warm greeting to Team Rainbow, Operator Schwarz and Liskarm have put on new outfits from the Raythean Striker Collection. In addition, Ash and Tachanka have also clothed themselves in special collaboration attire. All the outfits will be available at the Store for a limited time during the event, along with a new themed furniture set, Special Equipment Exhibition Room.



Follow Arknights

Arknights Official Website

Arknights on Twitter

Arknights on Facebook

Arknights on Instagram

Arknights Official Discord

Arknights YouTube



About Yostar Games

Founded in 2014 and publisher of Azur Lane and Arknights, Yostar Games specializes in game development, global distribution, investment, and video game IP management. Situated in Tokyo and Shanghai, Yostar Games has rapidly become the top publisher and developer of the anime genre in China and is striving to become a global leader in the gaming industry.
But the Afghans with the most to fear are probably women and girls, who have experienced two decades of comparative freedom and rights. When the Taliban reclaim control, all of that will be lost. Education for females will be prohibited. Taliban enforcement squads will undoubtedly again patrol the streets to beat with canes any women out of compliance with a strict Islamic dress code.

But the Taliban arent merely rigid fundamentalists who intend to enforce a severe, inflexible version of Islam. There are ample reasons for the terror that is spreading before the Talibans rapid return to power, but a single example will serve:

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

In the summer of 2012 in Helmand province, a group of young Afghans got together for a mixed-gender party that included music and dancing. The Taliban decapitated 17 of them, including two women, and left their bodies alongside a road.

This is pure savagery. But this incident is no aberration. It represents the measure of brutality that the Taliban mean to impose under their rule. Its a brand of evil that deserves to be annihilated with military force, without mercy.
She urged BLM to reevaluate the cash incentives and instead consider payments in the form of federal subsidies for training of adopted horses to increase the likelihood that they stay in loving homes."

A half-dozen questions Feinstein said she wants the bureau to answer within the next 60 days include whether it tracks how many wild horses and burros are sold for slaughter, and if so, what those numbers look like. She also wants to know how many cases the bureau historically has referred to law enforcement, and the outcome of each of those cases.

About 50,000 wild horses and burros are in government holding facilities. The bureau said it has placed more than 8,000 in adoptive homes since March 2019, for a total of more than 270,000 over the life of the decades-old program.

The American Wild Horse Campaign and others filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., in July accusing the Interior Department and bureau of violating multiple U.S. laws in the creation of the Adoption Incentive Program.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Javon Bea: $3 million Mercyhealth fraud being investigated by U.S. Attorney

By Hillary Gavan Senior staff writer Bea

JANESVILLE

Mercyhealth CEO Javon Bea said the U.S. Attorneys Office in Madison is now investigating what he calls a $3 million kickback scheme that prompted the firing of longtime Mercyhealth executive Barb Bortner.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Bea said many employees at Mercyhealth are stunned as the company has learned more details of an apparent fraudulent billing scheme between an unnamed advertising broker and Bortner that Bea said appears to have been taking place since 2015.

Beas interview came a day after The Gazette obtained and reported on an internal memo from Bea to employees that BortnerMercyhealths former vice president of marketing and public relationshad been fired for playing a role in the alleged fraud.

Bea told The Gazette on Tuesday that the companys findings have been referred to the U.S. Attorneys Western District Office in Madison after Mercyhealth officials received information late last week that confirmed the existence of fraud.

Bea declined to explain how Mercyhealth turned up the suspected fraud, but he said it appears to have involved a third-party advertising vendor for Mercyhealth. Bea indicated the vendor bundles or aggregates packages of advertising products for other print and billboard media companies and then sells the ad products at volume pricing to companies such as Mercyhealth.

Under the scheme that Bea says Bortner was involved in, the advertising broker inflated invoices for media advertising packages that Mercyhealth bought. Bea said Mercyhealth believes Bortner signed off on the allegedly fraudulent invoices, which resulted in Mercyhealth paying outsized rates for advertising.

Bea said Mercyhealth believes Bortner received financial kickbackspayments to her from the vendor which shared a portion of profits generated through the allegedly inflated advertising billings.

Bea declined to name the vendor Mercyhealth believes was involved, but he said the so-called scheme appears to have spanned at least five years.

Along with launching a third-party audit of its marketing and invoicing practices, Mercyhealth is now severing ties with the vendor.

Its not clear how many allegedly fraudulent billings Mercyhealth paid out, but Bea said a Mercyhealth employee with Bortners executive authority typically would be allowed to sign off on $10,000 in invoices at any given time.

Bea said that means the alleged scheme likely would have had to roll out over a long period for Mercyhealth to amass $3 million in losses. He called such fraudulent practices not uncommon, but he said its the first time the company has been experienced such a financial loss.

In similar schemes, Bea said its common to have two people, including one on the outside, one on the inside.

Thats why for this kind of money ($3 million), it took a lot of years, Bea said, and a lot of small invoices.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Western Wisconsin District office on Tuesday said the federal law enforcement agency doesnt comment on ongoing investigations or cases. She said she could neither confirm nor deny whether the U.S. Attorney was looking into fraud at Mercyhealth.

Bea said he has not heard an update from the U.S. Attorneys office on Mercyhealths complaint of fraud.

Bea said its possible some of the media outfits that had sold advertising products through the vendor are local companies. But he said if the alleged fraud was similar to other kickback schemes he has heard of that involve a third-party vendor, its likely local companies would have been unaware the vendor was inflating advertising invoices to siphon extra money from Mercyhealth.

Even as Mercyhealth looks inward on its own processes to learn how $3 million in fraud could have happened under an executives watch, Bea believes Mercyhealths invoicing practices meet or exceed industry standards.

Bea said in the interview Tuesday and in his internal memo to employees that it appears patient care was not impacted by the alleged fraud.

Bortner was a 30-year Mercyhealth employee who Bea said started out as a marketing clerk and grew her career at the Janesville health care company to become the marketing departments leader and one of the companys top executives.

He said Bortner, along with some other longtime employees, have seen Mercyhealth grow into a regional powerhouse with more than a half-dozen full-scale hospitals and a growing presence in clinics spread over a large swath of rural, urban and suburban communities in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

He said Bortner was well-known in Janesville through her work at Mercyhealth and as a civic volunteer.

Were just extremely, profoundly disappointed by this. Obviously, she (Bortner) has been such a long-term employee, and Barb was a big personality at Mercy. And so thats why I think me and all of our staff at Mercy, the Mercy family, really feels betrayed by this, Bea said. Because it hasnt ever happened before.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Gettysburg, PA (17325)

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Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

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Gillette, WY (82718)

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Back Forty 40s Launch in Ontario with Organically Grown

Animal Mints and Wedding Pie Strains

40s Headlines Back Fortys irreverent,

multi-tiered Monday Merries marketing campaign

TORONTO, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Back Forty  a cannabis brand from Auxly Cannabis Group (TSX  XLY) (Auxly)  introduces Back Forty 40s, a new, straight-roll offering available now in Ontario at OSC.ca and at cannabis retail stores across the province. 40s are 0.35g single-strain, straight pre-rolls, machine rolled for a consistent, even burn with enhanced airflow and big flavour. Back Forty 40s launch with two high-potency cultivars  Animal Mints and Wedding Pie  and are presented in resealable, recyclable packages of 10, optimized for sharing out of the pack and preserving freshness. Back Forty is introducing 40s with an irreverent marketing campaign using Out-Of-Home advertising to encourage Canadians to unplug and embrace the outdoors by taking Mondays off through the summer. Back Forty 40s are the centrepiece of a summer of new product launches, which also features new dried flower strains and the brands first edible offerings.

Were thrilled to launch Back Forty 40s for Canadas savvy cannabis consumers, looking for high-quality products at affordable prices, said Brad Canario, Senior Director, Marketing, Auxly. 40s are a truly differentiated offering  leveraging state-of-the-art automation to deliver a straight pre-roll in packaging perfect for that last-minute camping trip or long day spent at the lake. For the launch of Back Forty 40s we wanted to make sure we had something unique in the market that delivered on the brand promise of recalling the simple joys found in nature. The Monday Merries is a challenge to all Canadians to focus on what really matters  getting outside  by including Mondays into the mix on the weekends throughout the rest of the summer.

Back Forty, Canadas #1 vape brandi, is launching 40s as the Canadian pre-roll market continues to grow. In 2020, pre-rolls were the second-largest product category in the Canadian market with 17% share of market. So far in 2021, pre-rolls have secured a 19.3% market share through June 30, 2021.ii

Back Forty 40s leverage Auxly genetics  the organically grown, high-potency strains Animal Mints and Wedding Pie. Animal Mints is a cross between Animal Cookies x SinMint Cookies, reaching potencies of up to 25%, with a total terpene content of up to 2.3%. Wedding Pie is the marriage of Wedding Cake x Grape Pie, reaching potencies of up to 26%, with up to 2.9% total terpene content.

This high-potency flower is machine rolled into 10 x 0.35g packages using first-of-its kind, state-of-the-art automation designed for consistency, an even burn and optimal air-flow and flavour. Each easy-to-share pack of 40s has a resealable film that locks in the freshness. And in true Back Forty fashion, 40s packaging is 100% recyclable. 40s are available in Ontario now, and will be coming soon to provinces across Canada.

Back Forty is launching 40s with an innovative Monday Merries campaign that flips the script on the negative stigma associated with Mondays. The campaign suggests that the greatest enjoyment is found by turning a Monday into a funday, so instead of going to work, Back Forty invites Canadians to explore their personal back forty, and, in doing so, reclaim the maligned day. The Monday Merries campaign includes social, digital and Out-Of-Home, with wild posting advertising soon to be live in major urban centres across Canada including Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

Back Forty 40s are only one of Back Fortys numerous product launches this summer, including new dried flower strains and the brands first edibles, Smores flavoured chocolates and Sour Cherry and Sour Grape soft chews. These new products will join Back Fortys already-popular lineup of vapes and flower, with more detail to follow in coming weeks.

About Back Forty

Back Forty is a cannabis brand wholly owned by Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. Through simple, uncomplicated cannabis products, Back Forty invites Canadian cannabis consumers to embrace the freedom of the outdoors. Learn more at b40cannabis.com and stay up-to-date at Twitter: @back40cannabis; Instagram: @backfortycannabis; Facebook: @back40cannabis.

About Auxly Cannabis Group Inc. (TSX: XLY) (OTCQX: CBWTF)

Auxly is a leading Canadian cannabis company dedicated to bringing innovative, effective, and high-quality cannabis products to the wellness and adult-use markets. Auxly is a team of cannabis enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, CPG professionals, scientists and researchers united in a commitment to our consumers. Auxly creates trusted brands and products in an expanding global market through a tailored cultivation platform, purpose-built facilities and state-of-the-art technologies.

Learn more at www.auxly.com and stay up to date at Twitter: @AuxlyGroup; Instagram: @auxlygroup; Facebook: @auxlygroup; LinkedIn: company/auxlygroup/.

For more information please contact:

Scott Campbell, 647-402-4957, press@auxly.com

Notice Regarding Forward Looking Information:

This news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as plan, continue, expect, project, intend, believe, anticipate, estimate, may, will, potential, proposed and other similar words, or information that certain events or conditions may or will occur. This information is only a prediction. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking information throughout this news release. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to: Auxlys execution of its product development and commercialization strategy; the successful production and launch of future Back Forty products; consumer preferences, political change, future legislative and regulatory developments involving cannabis and cannabis products; and competition and other risks affecting Auxly in particular and the cannabis industry generally.

A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from a conclusion, forecast or projection contained in the forward-looking information in this release including, but not limited to whether: there is acceptance and demand for Back Forty products by consumers and provincial purchasers; and general economic, financial market, regulatory and political conditions in which Auxly operates will remain the same. The forward-looking information contained in this release is expressly qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements and is made as of the date of this release. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise.



Neither Toronto Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

i Back Forty vapes were the top-selling brand in Canada at the end of Q2, 2021, with 13% market share, according to Headset Canadian Insights, Total Canadian Cannabis Sales, June 30, 2021.

ii Headset Canadian Insights, Total Canadian Cannabis Sales, June 30, 2021.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/652c16a5-e8de-41b2-b72b-b2235cc96669

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c4b2be22-2b7d-4adc-b625-f3bbf14c327d

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3b5f1383-573b-436b-b960-3190cfc7a782




SALT LAKE CITY AND KANSAS CITY, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Savage is partnering with Kansas City Southern (KCS) (NYSE: KSU) to construct a multi-commodity railport with transload and railcar storage capabilities in Mossville, La. Savage will own and operate the railport, being built on property leased from KCS at its Mossville Rail Yard. Savages Mossville facility is expected to be operational by January 2022 and will optimize and provide a critical link in the supply chains of Lake Charles area refineries, chemical plants and other businesses.

Savage has a longstanding relationship with KCS and were excited to open this new Louisiana railport and provide a sizable transload and storage facility at their Mossville yard in the coming months, said Savage President and CEO Kirk Aubry. Weve provided rail and loading services for Customers in the Lake Charles area for many years, and look forward to making a difference for even more businesses in Southwest Louisiana.

We are excited about this partnership with Savage, as the Louisiana railport will provide additional rail capacity and new services for shippers in the Mossville and Lake Charles region, which will expand their supply chain choices and allow for more competitive shipping options, said KCS President and CEO Pat Ottensmeyer.

Savages Mossville railport is part of the growing Savage Transload Network of about 50 multi-commodity, rail-connected terminals across North America, and the first developed in partnership with KCS. When completed, the Mossville railport will include over 70 active transloading spots (expanded from 40 existing spots) for moving chemicals, refinery products and other materials between trucks and railcars. It will also have 600 spots for railcar storage, enabling plants, refineries and other area businesses to store railcars closer to their facilities. The railport also provides access to moving products into Mexico on KCS rail lines.

Savages transportation (rail, truck, marine), logistics, materials handling and DBOOM (design, build, own, operate, maintain) services can help businesses of all types and sizes safely move and manage bulk materials. For business opportunities, contact Dan Price at DanielP@savageservices.com or (219) 322-0004.

About Savage

Celebrating 75 years in business, Savage is a global provider of industry infrastructure and supply chain services, with nearly 4,500 Team Members in over 200 locations. The Companys work in transportation, logistics, materials handling and other services enables its Customers and Partners to Feed the World, Power Our Lives and Sustain the Planet. www.savageservices.com/savage-companies

About Kansas City Southern

Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., KCS is a transportation holding company that has railroad investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama. Its primary U.S. holding is The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, serving the central and south-central U.S. Its international holdings include Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., serving northeastern and central Mexico and the port cities of Lazaro Cardenas, Tampico and Veracruz, and a 50 percent interest in Panama Canal Railway Company, providing ocean-to-ocean freight and passenger service along the Panama Canal. KCS' North American rail holdings and strategic alliances with other North American rail partners are primary components of a unique railway system, linking the commercial and industrial centers of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. More information about KCS can be found at www.kcsouthern.com

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MONTREAL, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Mining Group Ltd. ("Imperial") (TSX VENTURE: IPG; OTCQB: IMPNF) is pleased to announce that it has mobilized its exploration team to execute the corporations summer plans at the Crater Lake scandium-rare-earth project in northeastern Quebec.



We are now in the final stages of the surface evaluation of our Crater Lake property, said Peter Cashin, Imperials President & Chief Executive Officer. In addition to delivering the inaugural 43-101 resource estimation on our TG Zone later this month, we look forward to delivering on the results of the remainder of the targets present on the Crater Lake property. We clearly believe that much additional critical metal potential remains to be evaluated on our property as we have only drill-tested one-quarter of the favourable 14-km-long mineralized horizon. We also intend to assess a high-grade niobium-tantalum mineralized area identified in 2010, north and northwest of the scandium-bearing Crater Lake Complex.

Summer 2021 Exploration Activities

The program will include surface evaluation of additional high-priority scandium-rare-earth exploration targets outside of the drilled TG Zone mineralized area (see Imperial press releases April 28, May 27, June 23, 2021; Figure 1). The targets were identified during evaluation of Imperials winter drill program results as well as prior geophysical and mapping survey results over the property. Plans for the collection of a 50-tonne bulk sample of known surface mineralization at the STG mineralized Zone for use in a pilot plant study to further test and optimize Imperials metallurgical process method (see Imperial press release  June 9, 2021) will be completed. Drill evaluation of the new surface targets is planned for September (Figure 2).

In addition, detailed assessment of historical high-grade rare-earth niobium-tantalum occurrences, north and northwest of the Crater Lake Complex, known as the Crater Lake Extension property area (Figure 3), will be undertaken. In these areas, 2010 grab sampling results of up to 9.28% niobium oxide (Nb 2 O 5 ), 13.4% zirconium (Zr), 2.4% total rare earths oxides plus yttrium (TREO+Y) and 3,020 ppm tantalum (Ta) were returned requiring further investigation. The areas coincide with extensive TREO+Y-Nb-Ta till geochemical and radiometric anomalies over the areas of the occurrences.

QP

The technical content in this press release was prepared, reviewed and certified by Pierre Guay, P. Geo., Imperial's Vice-President, Exploration, a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101.

ABOUT IMPERIAL MINING GROUP LTD.

Imperial is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on the advancement of its technology metals projects in Quebec. Imperial is publicly listed on the TSX Venture Exchange as IPG and on the OTCQB Exchange as IMPNF and is led by an experienced team of mineral exploration and development professionals with a strong track record of mineral deposit discovery in numerous metal commodities.

For further information please contact:

Peter J. Cashin

President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: +1 (514) 360-0571

Email: info@imperialmgp.com CHF Capital Markets

Iryna Zheliasko, Manager-Corporate Communications

Phone: +1 (416) 868-1079 x229

Email: iryna@chfir.com





This press release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the Companys operations or to its business environment. Such statements are based on the Companys operations, estimates, forecasts, and projections, but are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict or control. Several factors could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed. These factors include those set forth in the corporate filings. Although any such forward-looking statements are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot guarantee that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. In addition, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, for any reason. We also do not commit in any way to guarantee that we will continue reporting on items or issues that arise. Investors are cautioned that this press release contains quoted historical exploration results. These are derived from filed assessment reports and compiled from governmental databases. The Company and a QP have not independently verified and make no representations as to the accuracy of historical exploration results: these results should not be relied upon. Selected highlight results may not be indicative of average grades.



Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Figures 1 to 3 associated with this press release are available at:

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- inCruises International announced this week that what began as a $100K fundraising goal to benefit their corporate charity of choice has now exceeded $250K raised to help the life-changing work of Mercy Ships.



Announced last February, the company's goal was to allow its members, supporters, and employees to be inspired to give and engage in a matching fund opportunity that would double their impact on the charity's healthcare services to those without other access in sub-Saharan Africa. The inCruises community surpassed the initial $100,000 goal a few weeks into the campaign and raised a total of $261K by August 12, 2021.

Inspired by inCruises partner Javier Cardona, inCruises and Mercy Ships galvanized their connection in 2021. As a parent of a child born with a congenital malformation, my family's dream was to get involved with an organization that could help special children in need like ours. Many families do not have the resources for the treatment and surgeries their children need; some of these conditions are even life-threatening. For these reasons, I became a believer in the mission of Mercy Ships, and I hope our inCruises family will do the same.

Mercy Ships is a non-profit organization and works with nations in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen local healthcare systems and provide national medical professionals training opportunities. The Africa Mercy, a former Danish rail ferry, is currently preparing to return to West Africa in 2022. The organization is also outfitting their newest purpose-built vessel, the Global Mercy, in Belgium until the new year. Built with the benefit of more than 30 years of offering surgical care, the new vessel will be the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship.

"The excellent work Mercy Ships does serves as a role model of possibility and positivity for some of the world's most needy. Their healing work has empowered our team to give back and support areas of the world that need medical resources the most. We are incredibly grateful to support the life-changing medical solutions Mercy Ships provides," states inCruises CEO Michael Hutchison.

"To provide access to critical surgical expertise in localities where this is simply unavailable to the general population, Mercy Ships relies on the partnership of volunteers and supporters around the world," said Robert Corley, Chief Operating Officer of Mercy Ships. "The incredible commitment from generous corporate partners and donors like inCruises makes it possible to provide these services at no cost to the recipients."

About inCruises International

Since launching its flagship membership in 2015, inCruises International has grown to become the premier cruise membership club with Members and Partners in over 200 countries worldwide. inCruises is making a measurable difference in its Members' lives and is committed to ethically providing a business ownership opportunity to its growing Partner team. The company is also committed to positive global corporate citizenship by supporting Mercy Ships and the Make-a-Wish Foundation. To share in the experience, please visit our Business and Membership opportunity at https://www.incruises.com .

ABOUT MERCY SHIPS:

Mercy Ships uses hospital ships to deliver free, world-class healthcare services, capacity building, and sustainable development to those with little access in the developing world. Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 55 developing countries, providing services valued at more than $1.7 billion and directly benefitting more than 2.8 million people. Our ships are crewed by volunteers from over 60 nations, with an average of over 1200 volunteers each year. Professionals including surgeons, dentists, nurses, healthcare trainers, teachers, cooks, seamen, engineers, and agriculturalists donate their time and skills. With 16 national offices and an Africa Bureau, Mercy Ships seeks to transform individuals and serve nations one at a time. For more information, click on www.mercyships.org .

For More Information Contact:

Beatriz Diaz

Beatriz.Diaz@incruises.com

+1 939 475-0930

For More Information Contact:

Laura Rebouche

U.S. National Media Relations Director Mercy Ships

Office: +1 903.939.7000

Direct: +1 903.939.7137

Email: laura.rebouche@mercyships.org

www.mercyships.org

For Intl: Diane Rickard

International Media Relations Manager

Mercy Ships

diane.rickard@mercyships.org

www.mercyships.org/press

Hi-res photos and general Mercy Ships B-Roll video footage are available upon request.



Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vicinity Energy , owner and operator of the nations largest portfolio of district energy systems, announces that it has purchased carbon offsets for its Grand Rapids district energy operations offsetting carbon emissions in the City by 95,400 metric tons over a three-year period.



Vicinity Energy supplies space heating and cooling, domestic hot and chilled water, humidification, and sterilization to over 100 facilities located in downtown Grand Rapids. Through its efficient district energy operations, Vicinity currently reduces greenhouse gas emissions in Grand Rapids by 11,000 tons of carbon emissions annually, the equivalent of removing 2,400 cars from the road. The purchase of carbon offsets will allow Vicinity to further support the sustainability efforts of the City of Grand Rapids and the Grand Rapids 2030 District Plan, offsetting carbon emissions by an additional 95,400 metric tons over a three-year period, without any additional cost to customers.

"The City of Grand Rapids and building owners in downtown Grand Rapids have received low-carbon energy from our district network for over a century, and this purchase of carbon offsets reinforces our commitment to the City and our entire Grand Rapids customer base in delivering thermal energy that is both reliable and sustainable," said JJ Loew, Vicinity Energy general manager in Grand Rapids. "We're proud to continue our greening efforts alongside the City and all our customers to reduce carbon emissions and increase climate resilience in our community, so that future generations may thrive here for years to come."

Sustainability is one of the Citys core values. Since 2008, the City has reduced our carbon emissions by 30%, which exceeds the 26-28% Paris Climate Accord target for 2025, and we remain committed to further reducing carbon emissions, said Alison Waske Sutter, Grand Rapids sustainability and performance management officer. Vicinitys purchase of carbon offsets supports our mutual goals to continue measurable progress toward reducing carbon emissions for both our city government operations and community in order to achieve the 2030 Districts target of net zero carbon by 2050.

This milestone in Grand Rapids marks another key step forward for Vicinity in its efforts to further green its district energy systems nationwide, including its recent purchase of carbon-free electricity in Baltimore and the integration of renewable biogenic fuel into its energy mix. Together, these actions bring Vicinity closer to its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 .

About Vicinity Energy

With 19 district energy systems in 12 major cities, Vicinity Energy is the leading provider of district energy solutions in the U.S. Vicinity produces and distributes steam, hot water, and chilled water directly through its vast underground network to individual buildings and campuses. District energy eliminates the need for boiler and chiller plants in individual buildings, improving overall efficiency, lowering carbon footprints, and increasing reliability. Vicinitys over 450 skilled engineers, operators, and energy experts have a singular dedication to customer success and a relentless focus on delivering reliable and efficient energy products and services. Vicinity is committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions across all operations by 2050. For more information about Vicinity or the companys Clean Energy Future roadmap, check out www.vicinityenergy.us .

Media Contact

Vicinity Media Relations

Colleen Doherty

Director of Communications

857 557 7814

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/dcf33004-69ba-4628-b313-39784eaaa6dd
Dallas, Texas, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The National Association of Realtors announced Feather as the winner of the third annual Pitch Battle competition at the 2021 Innovation, Opportunity & Investment (iOi) Summit held this year in Dallas, Texas.

Feather is a next generation furniture and home decor rental service that makes it possible for people to find elegant furniture quickly, without upfront costs or the commitment of traditional retail.

Second Century Ventures, NARs strategic investment arm, hosted the pitch battle at the two-day event, which included twelve finalists from across the U.S. and UK, all focused on developing innovative tools for the commercial and residential real estate marketplaces.

This years iOi Summit delivered on the promise to highlight trailblazing products and ideas, said NAR CEO Bob Goldberg. Feather is a worthy winner whose furniture rental service is indeed impressive and will no doubt contribute to both the residential and commercial sectors, as well as support Realtors and their clients for years to come, by making the home staging process more efficient.

Feather was able to best the competition of finalists by making the case in their pitch that their product would aid real estate by offering a sustainable furniture and home decor rental service model that allows clients to change their style, budget or decor needs in an affordable manner. Jay Reno presented for Feather in front of both a live audience of over 400 conference attendees and before a livestream audience of thousands. He noted that Feathers unique solution empowers Realtors and their clients not only to stage and sell faster, but also to live in and enjoy their homes all while reducing waste.

As winner of the 2021 Pitch Battle, Feather has secured a booth at the 2021 Realtors Conference & Expo in November. The company will receive $15,000, be awarded with the official Pitch Battle trophy later today, and be provided an exclusive opportunity to confer with the Second Century Ventures executive team, a coveted prospect for any start-up team. Feather will also be featured in REALTOR Magazine and RISMedia.

The National Association of Realtors is Americas largest trade association, representing more than 1.4 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

About Second Century Ventures

Second Century Ventures is the most active global real estate technology fund backed by the National Association of REALTORS, which leverages the associations more than 1.4 million members and an unparalleled network of executives within real estate and adjacent industries. SCV helps scale its portfolio companies across the worlds largest industries including real estate, financial services, banking, home services and insurance. SCV operates the award-winning global REACH technology scale-up program.

# # #

Information about NAR is available at www.nar.realtor. This and other news releases are posted in the newsroom under the About NAR tab.

Attachment
Chevy Chase, Md., Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GEICO is now accepting nominations for its 33rd annual GEICO Military Service Awards. Through this program, one active duty or reserve enlisted member from each of the six branches of military service and one enlisted member from the National Guard will be honored for their outstanding volunteer service to their military and civilian communities.

The GEICO Military Service Award Nomination form s are due to GEICO via the service-specific nomination process for each branch, no later than Dec. 1, 2021. The 2021 GEICO Military Service Award recipients will be selected in early 2022.

Each unit, base, post, or activity may nominate eligible enlisted members according to their established procedures. Nominees should exhibit noteworthy contributions or accomplishments in one of the three nomination categories:

Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention

Fire Safety and Fire Prevention

Traffic Safety and Accident Prevention

"We are proud to celebrate and honor these inspirational service members not only for their military service but for their support of their community by improving the safety and well-being of others," said GEICO Vice President Kirk La.

The GEICO Military Team and the GEICO Philanthropic Foundation work to provide GEICO Military Service Award recipients with a cash award and present public recognition wherever each recipient is currently serving.

Military members can learn more about the GEICO Military Service Awards and submit applications through their local base safety or personnel office. Each service establishes and publishes its service-specific processes and procedures for awards; amplifying information may be found by contacting Service Coordinators listed at https://www.geico.com/information/military/returning-the-favor/service-awards/.

About GEICO

GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company), the second-largest auto insurer in the U.S., was founded in 1936 and insures more than 28 million vehicles in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. A member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies, GEICO employs more than 43,000 associates countrywide. GEICO constantly strives to make lives better by protecting people against unexpected events while saving them money and providing an outstanding customer experience. Along with personal auto insurance, commercial auto and personal umbrella coverages are also available. Homeowners, renters, condo, flood, identity theft, term life, and more coverages are written through non-affiliated insurance companies and are secured through the GEICO Insurance Agency, Inc. Visit geico.com for a quote or to learn more.
New York, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "South East Asia CRM Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06039526/?utm_source=GNW

Mature customer service, automated engagement, improved customer experience, and increasing scope of digital operations are a few factors fueling the demand for CRM solutions across various industry verticals in the region.



- Moreover, the development of cloud computing technology and the availability of various service models, such as SaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), is also expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period in the region.

- Southeast Asia has witnessed an uptake in midmarket and enterprise companies moving to more modern business software applications to enhance their business processes and enrich the customer experience. E-commerce, ERP, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications have all been at the forefront of this software technology adoption.

- Furthermore, the increasing emphasis on customer engagement among enterprises? and growing adoption from SMEs aided by flexible pricing strategies provided by the vendors are driving the market growth in the region.

- According to the CRM Cloud Survey Report by SoftClouds (a vendor in technology solutions and digital transformation), 82% of companies use CRM solutions for sales process automation and sales reporting. According to Salesforce, CRM software helps to increase employee productivity, enhance customer engagement and retention, and reap other business benefits. According to the Cloudswave, using CRM in sales can increase the number of purchases customers make with the company. These facts are likely to boost the market growth in the region.

- The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has pushed organizations to undertake all necessary steps to ensure the safety of their employees and the community. Despite the crisis, the companies need to strive for pursuing opportunities, closing the sales, and resolving the issues of the customers. Following the mandate of work from home (WFH), there is an increasing need for the companies to collaborate with the clients in the remote working environment. This is subsequently anticipated to drive the demand for customer service CRM solutions.



Key Market Trends



Retail and Logistics Industry to Drive the Market



- New players in the region have been adopting e-commerce business models to benefit from the increasing smartphone usage. Thus, vendors in the market have been exposed to many opportunities to increase their client base.

- Additionally, retailers have been taking a hands-on approach to customer data, in order to predict patterns, customer preferences, and derive insights as combined with other data assets. Therefore, these companies have been integrating consumer insight with location data (GIS) to discover new insights into where and how people shop.

- Furthermore, omnichannel retailers have been leading the development of segmentations of their customer base into core shopper profiles in order to cater to where and how each segment behaves.

- For instance, Bata, a consumer goods retailer, in partnership with Singapore-based Capillary Technologies, strengthened its omnichannel CRM strategies across the Philippines and Vietnam. The company, post deployment, achieved 2.2x higher returns from targeted campaigns in Singapore and 57x ROI from Facebook-based campaigns in Malaysia. Bata used Capillarys Insights and Engage Platform to leverage on unified campaigns, precise custom targeting, to name a few.?

- According to a joint survey conducted by Centaur Media plc and Resulticks, the ability to deliver content and messaging in real time and across multiple channels had a direct impact on efficiency and effectiveness of customer engagement. For a majority of Southeast Asian companies, to meet their short-term marketing priorities, 65% of businesses are opting for real-time marketing while 52% are looking for omnichannel delivery and engagement



Global cues, such as BYOD, and use of IT tools for driving decision making expected to provide ample scope for future growth?



- The use of IT tools, such as Big Data technology for decision-making is poised to integrate with CRM significantly in the future. Customer service is one of the most critical areas on which organizations should deliver metrics in todays landscape. Enterprises in the region have been using real-time data to offer one-on-one personalized services and solutions to their customers.

- CRM has involved data, but most of it is utilized to be structured data, such as latest contacts, contact information, products bought, etc. With the integration of IT tools, such as Big Data techniques, it is also possible to process, store and analyze massive amounts of unstructured data not supplied by the customer and use this to gain additional insights. Using Big Data technologies, CRM could become a significant revenue driver.

- According to SAS, most of the Indonesian companies are in data awareness stage and are starting to adopt Big Data and AI technology, to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly increased the clouds adoption. For instance, Banking and business solutions provider NewGens Pte Ltd developed new products and gained access to new customers since going cloud native with GoCloud. Also, Syion, an IT business consulting specialist to clients such as Komoco Motors, Hyundai Motor Company, Maserati, Ferrari Automotive Dealerships, and the Four Seasons Hotel, shares its journey and experience on GoCloud with Amazon Web Services.

- The factors mentioned above are expected to provide growth opportunities for cloud CRM in the region. Cloud-based CRM allows robust integration with vital business applications with pre-built application connectors. This, in turn, facilitates significant user adoption of CRM. It also provides smooth transmission of data to and from other business systems, reducing the requirement for intensive IT support and involvement.



Competitive Landscape



The Southeast Asia CRM analytics market is competitive and consists of global and local players. These companies are leveraging product enhancements and partnerships initiatives to strengthen their market share and increase profitability. Some of the key developments in the market are:



- August 2021 - Microsoft released several Wave 2 features in early access form to Dynamics 365 ERP/CRM and the Power Platform, ahead of the start of their rollout in October and continuing into March 2022. The company added multiple new features to its Dynamics modules in Wave 2, including Finance and Operations, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Commerce, Business Central, Field Service, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources, Connected Store, Customer Insights, Customer Voice, and Project Operations. The company is also trying to integrate Dynamics and Teams increasingly tighter.

- March 2021 - Oracle Corporation announced the support extension provided for Siebel CRM to acquire more customers in the CRM market. The company has offered to provide extended functionalities, such as AI-powered, mobile sales capabilities to improve productivity and close deals faster. The product and solution also offer sale forecasting, order management, mobile selling, and loyalty marketing, among others.

- February 2020 - Brekeke Software Inc. announced the integration of Brekeke PBX with Zoho CRM. Office telephony services built with Brekeke PBX can now seamlessly connect with Zoho CRM by adding their Zoho account information in the Brekeke PBX admin tool. Brekeke PBX users can utilize Zohos CRM system to enhance productivity and the quality of their services.



Reasons to Purchase this report:



- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format

- 3 months of analyst support

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06039526/?utm_source=GNW



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to surge in Texas and hospital systems strain to their limits, Tejano business leaders and organizations are stepping up to make a difference. Across the state, Hispanic businesses are taking a new #SayAdiosToCOVID pledge to get 100% of their employees fully vaccinated by the end of November.



Latino business leaders in Texas are in a unique position to help stop the spread of the virus in the Hispanic community, which has been hit with a higher COVID-19 rate and a higher number of deaths than others. Thats why The Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce (TAMACC) has partnered with Your Shot Texas, a philanthropic collaborative, to fight the virus with information and resources.

COVID is a serious threat to our employees, our customers, our businesses and our community overall, said J.R. Gonzales, chairman of the TAMACC Foundation, the leadership training and education arm of the premier latino business organization in Texas. As Tejano and Tejana business leaders, we have a responsibility to bring this pandemic under control, or well face yet another economic crisis.

It is not just the right thing to do, its also good business. We cannot afford another shutdown of the economy. Not when 70% of our people say they dont have the financial reserves to cover three months of expenses if their employers close down, Gonzales said.

Statistics show that over 200,000 Texas businesses closed last year, shuttered by the COVID lockdown. The Texas Restaurant Association says the state lost close to 10,000 eateries to the pandemic. TAMACCs goal is to help get the state to herd immunity by having thousands of Tejano-owned businesses to get a fully vaccinated workforce.

Gonzales said early reception to the initiative, which launched this week, has been extremely positive and Hispanic chambers from El Paso to Waco and south to Corpus Christi and Del Rio are already working to promote the #SayAdiosToCOVID pledge. TAMACC has created a landing page on its website with all the resources businesses need to get their employees vaccinated. TAMACC also plans to announce webinars in Spanish and English to be conducted by participating chambers to share best practices with Tejano business leaders throughout the state.

We know its not easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is, Gonzales said. But I know we all want to get back to normal, move on and prosper. And getting as many shots in arms as we can is the best way to do that.

About The Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce

The Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce (TaMACC) is the leading business organization in Texas and has been since 1975. With a membership of over 15,000 organizations, TAMACC is the leading advocate for over 700,000 Hispanic owned businesses in Texas. It has grown into the most active state Hispanic association in the country which focuses on Legislative Advocacy, Procurement Programs, Training and Development of its members and Hispanic businesses in Texas.

About Your Shot Texas

Your Shot Texas is a collaborative response to raise confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and increase access among those most affected by the virus. The $2.35 million fund was created by Episcopal Health Foundation, Methodist Healthcare Ministries and The Meadows Foundation and is administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation. Other supporting funders include Arnold Ventures, The Cullen Foundation, The Cullen Trust for Health Care, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Rockwell Fund, Inc.

CONTACT:

Joe Ramirez

786-210-0985

attentagroup@icloud.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:



https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1c97a7d1-c686-4c03-a0f8-8c43bf80f425

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Gloucester, MA (01930)

Today

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 64F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 64F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
TOPEKA [mdash] Ervin H. Fry, 82, Topeka, died at 12:10 p.m., Monday, Aug. 30, at his residence after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born on April 2, 1939, in Yoder, Kansas, to Harvey and Elizabeth (Miller) Fry. On Dec. 13, 1962, in Topeka, he married Barbara Ellen Frey. She survives
What many people already feared has indeed come true: the Japanese Grand Prix at the classic Suzuka circuit has been cancelled for the second time in a row. And so there is work to do for the F1 management to fill up the calendar as good as possible.

COVID and quarantines

During the Olympic Games, which were recently held in Tokyo, the Japanese government was already severely criticized for allowing the sporting event to go ahead because of the huge corona problem in the country. Since the Olympic Games, these problems have only gotten worse, which means that the Formula 1 race will be the child of the bill.

The Grand Prix in Japan on October 10 would be the end of a triple header with Russia and Turkey. That last country could also become a problem for F1, as it is on the British government's red list. That would mean that seven of the ten teams would have to spend 10 days in quarantine after the race.

Possible options

Auto, Motor und Sport reports that several possibilities are being considered to compensate for the loss of Suzuka. One possibility would be to swap the dates of the races in Russia and Turkey, in order to bridge the quarantine period in Turkey. A second race in Texas, at COTA, would also be an option, although the COVID situation in Texas is not great either. Indianapolis would also still be an option. According to the German news media, Qatar could also fill the gap in the calendar.

Formula 1 said, "we are working on a revised racing calendar and will announce details in the coming weeks. Formula 1 has proven in 2020 and this year that it can adapt and find solutions to ongoing uncertainties."

Read more OFFICIAL: Mercedes pulls plug on Formula E project and focuses on F1
Local

Grand Haven

GH City Council hits the 'pause' button on BLP proposal

Jared Leatzow / Tribune photo / Jared Leatzow Karen Lowe, a candidate for a seat on Grand Havens City Council, speaks during the public comment period at Mondays meeting, which took place at the Community Center.

Nearly 100 people attended Mondays Grand Haven City Council meeting to weigh in and find out what decision the council might take on a controversial Board of Light & Power bond proposal.

They will have to wait a bit longer for answers as the City Council decided to postpone making a decision, pushing the vote back to their next scheduled meeting on Sept. 20.

If approved, the $50 million proposal would have been used to help pay back $13 million worth of bond anticipation notes (BAN) that the BLP borrowed for the demolition of its J.B. Sims Power Generating Station and to perform site remediation on Harbor Island. The remaining amount of money borrowed would be used to pay for the construction of a natural gas peaking plant and new office space for the BLP.

The meeting was relocated to the Community Center to accommodate for the large number of people expected to attend it. People were asked in advance by city staff to mask up and to keep their distance due to the increased transmission status of the COVID-19 virus.

Grand Haven Energy, a group opposed to the BLPs plans, helped fuel the larger-than-normal attendance. The group enlisted Grand Haven native and recording artist Garrett Borns, who is better known by his stage name BRNS, to encourage people to attend Mondays meeting.

Earlier this summer, the BLP released testing results showing that there was PFAS site contamination on Harbor Island; additional compounds including both cyanide and arsenic were discovered at the location.

Currently, there is an ongoing environmental investigation taking place on the island by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). Its unknown at this time how this investigation could affect future plans.

It is because of this investigation that the City Council decided to delay its decision. Council members are hoping to receive more information from the state agency leading up to their September meeting.

I think I would like to postpone this vote until we get more information from EGLE, Councilman Dennis Scott said. I know we have some more meetings scheduled with EGLE. I think that will give us three weeks from right now to get the information we need from those wells.

During the meeting, city officials said EGLE had started drilling additional wells on Harbor Island to sample from.

Councilman Mike Fritz said he would be willing to rescind the 2018 resolution that asked the BLP to include local power generation into their future plans. He said part of the reason for wanting a peaking plant was to help power the downtown snowmelt system. Fritz said boilers can be used to power the snowmelt system going forward, which would allow for the BLP to focus on just providing Grand Haven with electricity.

Grand Haven Energys Field Reichardt said he was baffled by the councils decision to push back the vote.

The many people who listened to council deliberate and delay their decision are probably as confused as I, he said. There are really big, unanswered questions, including the question about the environmental clean-up and future use of Harbor Island. At least there is more time to look at some of these issues. I do hope they take up the offer of some of our larger local industries to help identify an independent consultant to help us with a look at the plans and at options.

They may also gain some significant insights when they meet with the state government regulators, later this month, about the environmental challenges on Harbor Island, Reichardt added.

BLP General Manager Dave Walters said his staff will take the added time to re-evaluate the utilitys plans.

Over the past 12 months, we have observed decreased community support for a combined heat and power plant and other facilities on the Sims site, Walters said. With council postponing action and sending the bond resolution back to the (BLP) board for further consideration, this provides the board an opportunity to revise and potentially remove components of the now defined project from the bond notice of intent (NOI). This revised NOI can then be brought back to City Council for their consideration.

As the board has already determined, and some City Council members noted last night, there are no other suitable local generation alternatives that meet the joint City Council and board resolutions/directives for local generation and snowmelt, he said Tuesday morning. The BLP must then turn toward the purchase of capacity from the market. We expect to take up that issue at this Thursdays board meeting.

Mondays City Council meeting can be viewed online at www.facebook.com/cityofgrandhaven/.
Grand Haven, MI (49417)

Today

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 57F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 57F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Eric Kaltenmark is an emergency services photographer located in Afton, Tenn. Comments and questions can be emailed to eric@ek-photography.com
BEIJING (AP)  Chinas ruling Communist Party has expelled a leading internet censor and accused him of a range of crimes and rule breaking from corruption to failing to properly guide public opinion.

Peng Bo had been deputy head of the Leading Group for the Prevention and Handling of Cults, a body set up after the party launched a sweeping crackdown against the Falun Gong meditation sect that it viewed as a threat to its authority.

An investigation found that Pengs ideals and beliefs collapsed, and that he had been disloyal to the party, deviated from the Party Central Committee decisions on the online public opinion struggle (and) gave up on positions taken on managing the internet," the partys disciplinary watchdog body said on its website.

Peng also engaged in superstitious activities and illegally received large amounts of property," said the notice, dated Tuesday. Along with being expelled from the ruling party, he is stripped of all pay and benefits and is being referred for criminal prosecution for numerous violations of discipline and on suspicion of bribery, it said.

The public announcement was unusual both for the sensitivity of Peng's position and the accusations of losing faith and defiance of party orders. Such notices are generally brief and provide little information of the charges, almost always related to some form of corruption.

China heavily censors the internet and social media platforms for content not in alignment with party policies or that questions the party and state media's version of history and current events or its tight controls over religious expression.

Party officials and internet companies are expected guide public opinion by deleting postings seen as deviant, while content seen as insulting the party or nation can result in a massive backlash from online nationalists and possible criminal prosecution.

President and party leader Xi Jinping has also led a years-long crackdown on corruption that has ensnared numerous serving and retired officials in what some see as politically motivated prosecutions.
Gov. Ned Lamont said he will work on this together with the states largest nursing home union, after the president of the bargaining unit asked for a 30-day delay in complying with the governors vaccine mandate.

Rob Baril, president of SEIU District 1199, which represents about 5,500 nursing home employees, sent a letter to Lamont Tuesday, in which he said Sept. 7 is too soon for a vaccine mandate that could lead to the firing of workers who dont meet the deadline.

Such an extension will allow all employers to comply with the governors order and gives the union and its members more time for outreach and education to the workforce and operators on this important matter, Rob Baril, president of SEIU District 1199, said in the letter.

The governor said Tuesday hed be open to sitting down with Baril but emphasized the urgency in getting health care workers vaccinated.

If they need more time, more explanation, weve got to work on this together, the governor said after an event in New Haven. Its tough to just do this with a stick. Ive got to convince people that its the right thing to do, but were going to get it done.

The request, which Hearst CTInsider reported Monday, seeks a moratorium on the $20,000-per-day fine that nursing home companies face under Lamonts executive order. All employees, volunteers and outside contractors in long-term care facilities with direct access to residents and patients must have received their first dose with an appointment scheduled for a second dose.

Some companies will not be able to meet that requirement in time, Baril said, forcing them to either operate under critical short-staffing conditions or to shut down operations altogether, which ultimately hurts residents and patients in need of care.

Pedro Zayas, a spokesman for the union, declined Tuesday to say which employers wont be able to comply in time. A spokesman for the statewide nursing home association said Monday the industry would be very reluctant to support a delay to the Sept. 7 deadline.

The request comes from one of the states largest unions, which has been a powerful and active supporter of Democrats, ahead of a likely re-election bid by Lamont, a Democrat.

Lamonts pandemic-related emergency powers expire Sept. 30, raising questions about how the vaccine mandate would be enforced after that and whether Lamont even has authority to grant the unions request. The governor has not said whether he plans to ask the General Assembly for another extension of his powers.

Hearst CTInsider Staff Writer Ken Dixon contributed to this report.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
Im no expert on Afghanistan, but I do happen to be a historian and an expert on the subject of betrayals by the United States. After all, like all Afghans, I was born in a place where bad decisions made by American presidents had a horrific impact. Im Cuban.

The sudden humiliating loss of Afghanistan to the Taliban barbarians is no surprise. When an occupying force abruptly leaves a country after 20 years of presence there  a country full of rabid extremists backed by other nations  those radicals are bound to take advantage of the situation. President Biden knew this could happen, but he didnt seem to care. He said no such thing was possible, up until the moment he was proven to be a liar by the Taliban themselves. And now many Americans are trapped there, along with thousands of natives who fear the wrath of the Taliban. So it goes. Shameful things of this sort have happened before, way too many times, and will most likely keep happening until the United States learns to act more wisely with troublesome nations.

Simply put, the United States has abandoned the Afghan people after 20 years of costly investment in the struggle against terrorism. Its not just an issue of the trillions of dollars spent on this careless war, but also of the 2,448 Americans who lost their lives fighting on Afghan soil and the more than 20,000 who came home with injuries, many of them life-altering. This colossal expenditure in lives and money has been squandered, made to seem pointless. We rushed in there blindly to eradicate the Taliban and al-Qaida, ostensibly to make America safe, never weighing how staggering the odds against success truly were. So, now the Taliban are in control again, and they are likely to invite al-Qaida to set up shop there anew.

The cost of this defeat to American pride and trustworthiness is immense. But this dismaying loss of face is dwarfed by the price to be paid by the Afghan people, who will once again become subject to a tyranny as heinous as any seen in history. Our sudden pullout was a betrayal, pure and simple. Many or perhaps most Americans have no idea what it feels like for any foreigner to be betrayed by another nation that had pledged to help, and whose promises seemed trustworthy.

Ask any surviving Kurd who rose up against Saddam Hussein in 1991, at the urging of President George H.W. Bush, only to see the United States stand by idly as Hussein wiped out thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons. Ask any South Vietnamese who tried to flee Saigon in 1975 as it was overrun by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong communist troops after the pullout of American military forces.

While youre at it, ask Cubans who watched their own volunteer freedom fighters betrayed at the Bay of Pigs by President John F. Kennedy in April 1961. These men had been trained and funded by the United States under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, but President Kennedy, who had only been in office for three months, chose not to follow up on what had already been set in motion in a most unprincipled way. Although he approved the invasion and ordered its launch, he suddenly changed his mind as soon as the invaders set foot on Cuban soil and withdrew all air and naval support, leaving them as sitting ducks to be slaughtered or captured. Eighteen months later, he had a missile crisis on his hands, and he had no one to blame but himself for bringing the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation. Those Soviet missiles on Cuban soil were a direct result of his wanton betrayal of the men he sent into battle.

Im one of those Cubans old enough to remember Kennedys betrayal, vividly. The crushing of the invasion led to the imprisonment, torture and execution of some in my family. Watching the captured invaders humiliated on live television made a huge impression on me as a child. Many of them openly confessed that the United States had pulled the plug on them and left them to die I refused to believe it. Years later, as an adult, I would come face to face with the awful truth. Kennedys unprincipled decision still stings, and will keep stinging until the day I die.

I wept when I saw images of Kurdish children killed by poison gas in 1991, just as I had wept in 1975 watching desperate Vietnamese being helicoptered off the roof of the American embassy in Saigon. The old wound had been reopened. Once again, I have wept in the past few days, and am still weeping as I write this, looking at images from Kabul. One image in particular burns like acid in my eyes: an Afghan falling from an airplane he was unable to board. He held on to the planes fuselage as long as he could, hoping to escape the savagery of the Taliban, but it was hopeless. As hopeless as counting on the United States and its promises.

Most Americans have no clue how awful it is to be born in some other countries, or how lucky anyone is to be born here instead. And most Americans  including those at the White House  also have no clue how people in awful barbarian-ruled countries such as my native land count on promises made to them by the United States.

Is there any lesson to be learned here, after Kabul? Yes, and its very simple. No superpower should involve itself in helping less fortunate nations to keep their own barbarians at bay unless they can commit themselves fully to vanquishing those savages, perhaps even to civilizing them, as was done with the Axis powers eight decades ago.

No American should be asked to die for another nation unless absolute victory is the goal and there is zero tolerance for defeat. Wars that obviously cannot be won  such as the one in Afghanistan  should never be fought. And promises that cannot be kept should never be made.

Carlos Eire is the author of Waiting for Snow in Havana and the T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University.
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Google has already semi-announced its next flagship smartphones, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, although the full unveiling is still scheduled for sometime during the fall. Today, the company made the mid-range Pixel 5a official, and also took the opportunity to reveal a new detail about the upcoming Pixel 6 series.

Neither the Pixel 6 nor the Pixel 6 Pro will ship with a charger in the box. Google is thus following in the footsteps of Apple and Samsung, the biggest companies currently doing the same thing - either for all devices (Apple), or just for flagships (Samsung).

The Pixel 5a is thus the last Google phone to include a charging brick in the box. Google told The Verge that most people already have a USB-C charger, so there's no point in including one anymore. Like Apple and Samsung, Google stayed mum on the fact that this move also helps them save some money. Surprise, surprise.

It will be interesting to see if the Chinese phone makers will ever follow this trend, as a lot of their marketing is focused on charging speed, and to achieve all those amazingly quick top-ups you need to use the brick and cable in the box. That investment in very fast wired charging may just be what will keep those bricks in those (Chinese) boxes for just a tad longer, we'll see.

In Google's case, its products were never among the fastest to charge, and the same goes for both Apple and Samsung, so we kind of see a theme here.

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A new study by international researchers may help Guams fishers anticipate how good of a manahak run they can expect on any given year.

The study, Oceanographic chaos and its role in larval self-recruitment and connectivity among fish populations in Micronesia, was published by the Palau International Coral Reef Center in the peer-reviewed journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.

People who collect the Guam rabbit fish sometimes have good runs, but sometimes they dont. We want to understand why it is not consistent, said Yimnang Golbuu, CEO of Palau International Coral Reef Center.

Golbuu collaborated on the study with Eric Wolanski, a professor at James Cook University in Australia, and Robert H. Richmond, a research professor and director at the University of Hawaii-Manoas Kewalo Marine Lab. The trio have collaborated on a wide range of research for the past 21 years. This was one of their recent studies.

In the study, the scientists studied the patterns of recruitment  the process where the larvae become large enough to swim rather than float  of rabbit fish in Guams water.

The fish larvae have sensors that can detect the reef, which enables them to swim toward it. Once they arrive at their destination, they become a part of the reef population.

Aside from exploring the recruitment of rabbitfish in Guam, the authors also delved deeper into Palaus groupers and the connectivity of these fish across Micronesia.

I think it (this study) really started when we wanted to collect larvae from the spawning site, Golbuu said. We wanted to see where the larvae went. When we tried to put the larval collectors, we didnt find any of the larvae that we were expecting to find.

Regionally, the islands are not really isolated from each other, according to Golbuu. He recommends that the islands work together to ensure that their stocks remain healthy for reproduction.

We always say that the ocean really connects us as islands, and marine organisms have larvae that float in the water. So, its important to have regional efforts, Golbuu said. Youre not going to have success all the time in some years due to the ocean current and weather patterns.

Prior to the research, the impacts of El Nino or La Nina current could not determine the pattern of recruitment of Guams rabbit fish and Palaus grouper populations. After the study was conducted, the researchers discovered that normal ocean circulation patterns were an important factor as well.

Rabbit fishes on Guam are culturally important for the people of Guam, so we need to ensure that future generations of Guam can continue to have these resources by working locally and regionally, Golbuu said.
In the latest "My So-Called Plant Life," PDN Features Editor Therese Padua Howe shows off her miniature succulents, and a STEM experiment with seeds planted in different potting media.
Matthew Sablan, whose stage name is Sabyu, grew up hearing island jams on the radio and at family gatherings on Saipan. Ever since then, he started to collect CDs and listen to more tracks.

The son of Virginia Sablan and Juan Babauta from Garapan and Tanapag, he learned to play the guitar in middle school. He started making beats with a friend and they collaborated as a rap duo in high school. From there, he evolved into music production.

This sparked his decision to major in ethnomusicology  the study of music in different cultures worldwide at the University of Washington with a focus on audio engineering.

After graduating, he began writing and performing in shows. The 27-year-old artists music ranges from reggae, hip-hop, folk and rock, and his primary influences include Bob Marley, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine and Nahko.

He also serves as an artist mentor at Totem Star, a nonprofit organization based in Seattle that supports young artists from different backgrounds.

Ever since the pandemic hit, the recording studio at Totem Star shut down, so everything was moved to Zoom, Sablan said. Ive been working from home using Logic Pro (a music production software) and with artists remotely to do music production, guitar lessons, mixing and songwriting.

Sablan also helped several young artists release their albums while integrating his unique sound into the songs. He saw the bright side of the pandemic and spent time with his family and created his tracks too.

As things opened up a little bit, Im hoping to get more shows lined up, he said.

Aside from mentoring younger artists during the pandemic, Matthew Sablan created a song with Jeremy Castro from the Bay Area called Finadenne in 2020.

The songs idea is about how finadenne is a simple ingredient. It creates this complex flavor that brings the best out of foods that its paired with, Sablan said. We wanted to take that idea and apply it to bring the best out of people in our community, he said.

The concept of Finadenne emerged when Castro reached out to him on Instagram.

He just wanted me to take it and run with it as a musician, Sablan said. I let it marinate for months. One day, I just sat down, and the idea came to me. I recorded it on my phone really quickly and then started recording it in my studio.

He sent the song to Castro afterward and then connected with Guam brothers Michael and Jack Bevacqua for the artwork.

The essential words in the track are in the second verse, Well bring the unity in the community. Now thats familia.

I think the one continuous theme that I have in my music is love, and I think that love is often conditional, Sablan said. With my music, I strive to make it unconditional for anybody in this world at any walk of life, regardless of your race or gender.

Sablan explained how Bob Marleys song One Love had been thoughtlessly sung, but people rarely took action in reality.

I think that the rebellious nature of love is that its challenging for us to love everyone else in this world, Sablan said. Regardless of our prejudices, its a powerful testament to humanity.

Sablan believes that life is an art  the way we move in our day-to-day lives, whether simply conversing with other people or the way we walk or engage with our surroundings.

Were constantly creating, and were the authors of our book of life, Sablan said. As far as art goes, I express myself through music. Often, it comes from a higher power, and that energy moves through me and invites others to raise that vibration.

Many times, young artists get caught up in trying to be like someone  an artist who they think is remarkable, Sablan said.

If youre honest with yourself, other people will recognize that, Sablan said. You will be able to tell your story authentically. Your authentic story is completely original and unique in this lifetime, and that will captivate people.
A driver passes a security checkpoint as it prepares to exit the Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz, still under construction in this PDN file photo.
Andrew Philip Manibusan entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to distribute 50 or more grams of methamphetamine after he attempted to mail a package containing almost eight pounds of meth to Guam from California.

In May, Manibusan allegedly sent a package containing almost eight pounds of methamphetamine to a Santa Rita residence. The package was intercepted following a search warrant, and Manibusan was arrested in California in June, according to PDN files.

Manibusan was originally charged in California where he was residing as the case got moved to the District Court of Guam. He arrived on island two nights ago to plead for the charges at an arraignment hearing Wednesday morning.

After the not guilty plea, Manibusans attorney, Joseph Razzano asked the court to release Manibusan to live with his older sister on island.

U.S. Probation recommended his release as well but asked him to follow a list of conditions that included submitting to drug tests and not possessing drugs or firearms.

Prosecuting attorney, Rosetta San Nicholas objected to the release of Manibusan, but her argument was sealed to the public in an attempt to not interfere with ongoing investigations.

Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood said she would issue her ruling on Manibusans release at a later date. Manibusan will remain in custody until then.
Julius Rosales Bergeron is accused of throwing a glass cup at bartenders after he was asked to leave once the bar was closing for the night, according to a magistrates complaint filed in the Superior Court of Guam.

At about 2 a.m. Wednesday night, officers from the Guam Police Department arrived at a Tumon bar and interviewed a bartender who said Bergeron threw a glass cup at her, became disruptive, yelled and began pushing items on the bar. The glass cup did not strike the bartender, but she was fearful of Bergerons behavior, the complaint stated.

The woman asked Bergeron to leave since the bar was closing, but he refused and only left when several male customers escorted him out, according to the complaint.

At the scene, officers saw multiple broken glass cups and bottles on the floor of both sides of the bar, and two broken plexiglass dividers that were being used to separate the bartenders and customers, the complaint stated.

A witness to the events was working as a DJ at the bar and told officers Bergeron was being difficult with the female bartenders. The witness saw Bergeron get angry when asked to leave as well as push the tip jar and throw a glass cup at the bartenders, the complaint stated.

Francis Fileruw accused of slapping infant, threatening woman A man was arrested in connection to reports of incidents where he slapped a crying infant an

When interviewing Bergeron, officers noticed his speech was slurred and his eyes were bloodshot red. At the scene, he told officers he was kicked out of the bar despite trying to retrieve personal items in the bar. However, when interviewed again at the precinct, Bergeron told officers he wanted to keep drinking and even put all his money in the tip jar to do so, the complaint stated.

Bergeron continued by telling officers the bartenders still kicked him out of the bar which made him angry and caused him to push the plexiglass to the floor. He then admitted to breaking other glass cups because he was upset and felt disrespected as a customer, the complaint stated.

When asked if he threw a glass cup at a bartender, Bergeron replied by saying, If they say I did it, then I did it and Im willing to pay for it.

The Office of the Attorney General charged Bergeron with the following:
The Guam Police Department is currently investigating a shooting that occurred Wednesday morning in Harmon, according to a release sent by GPD spokesman Sgt. Paul Tapao.

The shooting incident happened at around 10:30 a.m. at a home along Trankilo Street in Harmon, Tapao said.

Reports suggest a man sustained a gunshot wound and is currently being treated at a hospital.

GPD's Criminal Investigation Division has been activated to assume the investigation, Tapao added.

This story is developing.

Nicholas Moore pleads not guilty to murder and aggravated assault charges Nicholas Moore pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in connection with the death of
JB Construction will pay a $1,000 fine in response to the notable enforcement action brought against them by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for illegally importing a forklift without proper certification.

The action also violated the Clean Air Act which defines U.S. EPAs responsibilities for protecting and improving the nations air quality and the stratospheric ozone layer, according to agencys official website.

U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Director of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Amy Miller said getting proper certification for equipment is important because of the possible health hazards equipment could cause.

Its so important to have a certificate of conformity because often many engines that dont have certificates of conformity can have excess emissions which can increase public health threats, can increase effects of respiratory elements and potential for early death, Miller said.

In the case of JB Construction, they did not have an EPA certificate of conformity, which is basically the EPAs stamp of approval for engines, according to senior inspector on the case, Nathan Dancher.

As a result of the violation, JB Construction was sent a letter saying they could enter an expedited settlement agreement. This would mean a lower fine than a normal settlement that could cost $48,762. The expedited settlement is usually offered to companies who have had no prior violations, according to Miller.

JB Construction agreed to the expedited agreement and were fined $1,000.

EPA was also able to export the forklift outside of the country as part of the agreement, Dancher said.

Guam EPA identifies polluted beaches After testing 43 samples, the Environmental Protection Agency identified polluted waters Thursday.
U.S. health authorities are expected to recommend a COVID-19 booster vaccine eight months after Americans get their second shot, The Associated Press reported.

Last week, boosters for those with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients, were recommended.

A policy to give an extra dose of the vaccine to those whose immune systems are moderately to severely compromised was discussed at the Vaccine and Antiviral Prioritization Policy Committee Tuesday. Since then, VAPPC has recommended that persons receiving additional doses come at the recommendation of a licensed physician or mid-level provider. This can be in the form of a physical or verbal prescription that must include the qualifying diagnosis or condition, according to a physicians advisory by Chief Medical officer Dr. Felix Cabrera.

Booster shots would only begin to be administered widely after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally approves the vaccines, The Associated Press reported.

The Northern Marianas Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation announced Wednesday it will offer a third vaccine to immunocompromised people.

Vaccination clinic targets Guam DOE workers, students A COVID-19 vaccination clinic for Guam Department of Education employees and students was he

Janela Carrera, Public Health spokeswoman, said theres a difference between the proposed booster and the policy being discussed for people with compromised immune systems.

For the booster we have no word yet because it has not been officially announced by the Biden administration, said Carrera.

If the booster becomes policy, she said Public Health would begin a strategy for how to administer the shots on Guam.
The second day of school  and the school days since  had none of the massive congestion of Aug. 12, the day the Guam Department of Education opened public schools to tens of thousands of teachers and students.

Superintendent Jon Fernandez said he always expects the first day of school to be hectic, with this year compounded further by safety measures and protocols.

"What was really outstanding to me was that we had some of that  we had a lot of that on the first day in terms of large numbers of car riders showing up at school, maybe doubling or tripling the car rider line and then crowding the parking lot for the buses. So we had a lot of traffic issues that were different from normal years," he said. "What was really nice to see was the school administrators, and their teams, make immediate adjustments based on what they saw."

"Because Day 2 was very quiet."

Fernandez said the stark change in just a day was due to school principals, who are empowered to make the changes necessary to maintain efficiency and safety.

Other factors also added to congestion, said Fernandez, such as parents who accompanied their children for the first day of school.

"(The parents) can't walk into the school, but they certainly want to watch their children, you know, walk off into the distance," said Fernandez, smiling. "We had a lot of that too."

Fernandez visited elementary schools and a high school over the last few days and said he was especially pleased to see elementary students were wearing masks and following sanitation guidelines. He said mask wearing is the greatest defense against the spread of viruses and it was heartening to see the students embracing safety.

At the high school he visited, he was also happy to see the student population wearing masks. The students were glad to be back at school, he said, and they missed their social circles.

"The challenge that we're working on is on the physical distancing with the older kids. They tend to want to continue to socialize, even though you tell them the rules," said Fernandez. "I think we're gonna need additional support help outside the classroom."
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Gwinnett Place CID, county police say Flock Safety cameras key to drop in crime; more cameras to be added

File Photo A Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District sign at the intersection of Pleasant Hill Road and Old Norcross Road welcomes visitors to the CID. The district announce it is adding additional Flock Safety cameras around the CID to help improve safety.

The Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District is expanding its network of Flock Safety automatic license plate reading cameras.

The CIDs board of directors recently voted to add more cameras around the district. Fifty cameras were installed in 36 locations around the CID in partnership with the Gwinnett County Police Department last year, and the new expansion of that effort will bring that total to 63 cameras in the district.

The CID remains committed to keeping Gwinnett Place safe and inviting with various safety initiatives like community patrols, graffiti removal, right-of-way landscape maintenance and the Flock Safety cameras, Gwinnett Place CID Executive Director Joe Allen said.

In addition to the added security cameras, the CID-funds daily community patrols, resulting in nearly 5,000 hours patrolling the area annually. The CID is committed to keeping its businesses, residents and visitors safe in the district.

Police and CID officials said the cameras have been a major help in catching wanted suspects. The cameras operate 24 hours a day and send immediate alerts to police officers if they scan license plates from vehicles that are reported stolen as well as plate numbers associated with people who are wanted by law enforcement.

Officers can also search the cameras database for vehicles that they are looking for.

One stat comparison that officials pointed to in an increase in stolen vehicle arrests that Gwinnett police officers were able to make for stolen vehicles in the district in just the first year of the cameras use.

The CID, Gwinnett police and Flock Safety said there were just two stolen vehicle arrests in 2019 but that number rose to 40 in 2020 after the cameras were installed. Across all types of arrests, Gwinnett police were able to arrest 94 people in the CID in 2020, according to a joint statement from the three groups.

The CIDs investment in the cameras has provided the Gwinnett County Police Department with additional tools to not just to solve crime but also prevent it, said Maj. Christopher Rafanelli, commander of the Gwinnett County Police Central Precinct. By working with the GPCID and placing cameras throughout the district weve been able to deter criminals or more quickly catch those who have committed a crime.

Officials also said that, as of June, the Gwinnett County Police Departments Central Precinct has seen commercial burglaries drop by 42.11%, residential burglaries drop by 10.68% and car break-ins drop by 27.76% since the cameras were installed.

Those drops in crimes give police a chance to better coordinate communication with other police precincts, investigate cases and make arrests in a faster and more efficient manner.

At Flock Safety, we know that the path to a safe community is through forging strong bonds between law enforcement and the communities they pledge to protect, which is why were honored to partner with Gwinnett Place CID and Gwinnett County Police, Flock Safety Founder and CEO Garrett Langley said.

The crime reductions that Gwinnett Place CID has seen is proof that when law enforcement, engaged and active citizens, and ethical, effective technology all work together, we really can make a demonstrable difference in public safety.




Haiti - Earthquake : The UN in solidarity with the Haitian people (Statement)





Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed expressed her support directly to Prime Minister Ariel Henry.



"The UN team on the ground is working with the Government to help ensure humanitarian aid and personnel can reach people in need.



UN agencies and partners are mobilizing resources and personnel in support of the Government response.



Staff from the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination teams are on their way to support coordination and assessments.



The UN has allocated US$8 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to provide essential health care, clean water, emergency shelter and sanitation for all affected people.



Today relief convoys reached affected communities in Les Cayes, Jeremie and Nippes.



We will continue to scale up our response to the hardest-hit areas even as Tropical Storm Grace approaches Haiti with its threat of heavy rainfall and flash floods.



As assessments reveal the level of suffering, the scale of humanitarian need in Haiti continues to grow. I call on all Member States to mobilize efforts to support Haiti in averting a humanitarian disaster.



I have a message to the people of Haiti: you are not alone. We will stand by your side and support you every step of the way out of this crisis."



TB/ HaitiLibre


















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Published on 2021/08/18 | Source

Korean movie opening today 2021/08/18 in Korea: "Hostage: Missing Celebrity" (2021)

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Directed by Pil Kam-sung

With Hwang Jung-min, Kim Jae-bum, Lee Yoo-mi, Ryu Kyung-soo, Han Kyu-won-I, Jung Jae-won,...

Synopsis

After a VIP movie premiere, Korean top movie star Hwang Jung-min gets kidnapped by strangers. Jeong-min first thinks that someone is playing pranks, but the kidnappers' cruelty helps Jeong-min realize that the abduction is no joke. Jeong-min tries to find his way out, while the kidnappers demand him a huge amount of ransom within 24 hours.

Jeong-min encounters a real brutality that is way different and more extreme than the ones he has seen in the movies.
Wet and unwelcome, Fred spawns twisters and flooding in US

Tropical Depression Fred has weakened to a depression and spawned several apparent tornadoes in Georgia as it dumps heavy rains into the Appalachian mountains
An 84-year-old man who spent most of his adult life behind bars for robbing banks was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison for carrying out an armed heist at an Arizona credit union
Yeah, Ill get the booster. I might even ask for a double, just in case.
Staff and wire report

Montana State University Rural Opiod Education Project Team is offering Montanans the chance to enroll in an online emotional well-being program for free.

Thrive by Waypoint Health Innovations is a self-paced and con dential online program for people who want to take charge of their emotional well-being. The program is composed of three modules that teach skills from cognitive behavior therapy that may help the user communicate more confidently, think more constructively, and do more activities that make them feel good.

Previous research via a collaboration between Montana State University Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery and Waypoint Health Innovations showed that Thrive

significantly reduces depressive symptoms. Although this research collaboration has reached its conclusion, the Montana State University Extension Rural Opioid Education Project Team has now partnered with Waypoint Health Innovations to allow for the continued availability of this program to all adult Montanans. This program omits the research component and the primary goal is to help Montanans increase their well-being.

Adult Montanans who have broadband Internet access can now use Thrive by Waypoint Health free of charge by visiting the thriveformontana.com website available at https://thriveformontana.com .
Since 16 August, Shengal province has been under the air raids of the Turkish occupation, resulted in the martyrdom the Commander of Shengal Resistance Units, Saeed Hassan, in 17th August by targeting the hospital in Sakena village.

In a statement to ANHA agency, Faris Harbo, head of the Relations Committee for the Autonomous Administration in Shengal, explained that "since August 16th, Shengal has been subjected to Turkish occupation air raids, which aims to occupy the region, by fighting the indigenous peoples in the region to force them to leave their land."

"Unfortunately, on August 16th, we lost the Yazidi Commander, Saeed Hassan, who was leading the Shengal Resisyance Units, YBS, in addition to his nephew who was accompanying him, who had a role in liberating the Yazidi lands occupied by ISIS terrorist," said Faris Harbo.

Harbo indicated that Turkey did not respect the visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi to Shengal province, and said, "It killed an Iraqi Yazidi Commander and one of his companions, who are officially affiliated with the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, an official Iraqi military force, and this indicates the lack of respect for this aggressor country for the sovereignty of Iraq." and head of his government."

He explained, "Turkey was not satisfied with that, but returned to bombarding a hospital in a village south of Mount Sinjar, and this matter left martyrs and wounded who were defenders of Iraq, the Yazidis and their land."

He stressed that the attacks are a continuation of the genocide of the Yazidi people, and said, "We consider these attacks a continuation of the genocide of the Yazidi people after what ISIS did, and today we see that the Turkish state led by its President Erdogan wants to complete what ISIS started, which is the elimination of the Yazidi people."

Faris Harbo was surprised by the Iraqi government's silence regarding the Turkish attacks, saying, "We are surprised and wonder: Why is this silence on the part of the Iraqi government, which bears the responsibility to protect its people on all Iraqi lands, and we stress the need for Iraq, in turn, to respond to Turkey by all possible means."

T/S

ANHA
Gideon Barideaux of Kerrville was two years old when he died on Aug. 9, 2020. The Kerrville Police Department said his death was ruled a homicide, but they haven't been able to close this case yet. They are seeking the community's help, to get further information from community residents; and a Crimestopper's reward is offered for information that leads to the arrest of suspect(s) in this case.
Apple Festival is back to celebrate 75th anniversary

Fourteen apple stands will be a part of the 75th annual Apple Festival on Labor Day weekend.

After a year off during pandemic restrictions, the North Carolina Apple Festival returns to Main Street this year in time to celebrate its 75th anniversary.

Beginning Friday, Sept. 3, and continuing through Labor Day, festivities include a street fair, live music, a parade, a kids carnival, pancake breakfasts, a recipe contest, apple taste testing, foot races, aircraft rides and a gem and mineral show.

You can bring your grandchildren or your grandparents to the Apple Festival, and theyll enjoy it, says David Nicholson, executive director of the festival. Once we get set up on Friday, I love to walk the streets and watch people of all ages having a good time.

After missing last year, festival organizers, farmers and attendees are excited for the return of this Hendersonville hallmark that honors the local apple crop. Henderson County leads the state in apple production and consistently ranks within the Top 20 counties nationwide. Many orchards have become destinations with a slew of agritourism offerings.

Fourteen local apple growers participate in the festival, selling fresh apples, as well as cider, slushies, doughnuts, fritters and other confections. In addition to fresh apples, the street fair showcases handmade arts and crafts. One-third of this years crafts vendors are new to the festival.

Live music takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 8 p.m. on stage at the Historic Courthouse. Headliners include Buddy K Big Band on Friday, Flashback on Saturday, and on Sunday, The Super 60s followed by The Mighty Kicks. The King Apple Parade serves as the grand finale on Monday at 2:30 p.m., with special emphasis on community members who have played critical roles throughout the pandemic.

The opening ceremony at 4 p.m. Friday includes a tribute to the festivals 75th anniversary and presentation of the Apple Farmer of the Year Award. At noon on Saturday, the Bandit Flight Team performs a patriotic aerial salute with a six-plane flyover above Main Street.

People tell me all the time that their first introduction to Hendersonville was the Apple Festival, Nicholson says. But then they tell me about all the things they come back to do like shop at local stores or eat at downtown restaurants.

For additional information about the North Carolina Apple Festival, including a full schedule of events, go to www.NCAppleFestival.org. To learn more about Hendersonville and explore lodging options: www.VisitHendersonvilleNC.org or (800) 828-4244.




LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Friday the 13th was our lucky day

If Friday the 13th connotes bad luck, no one told hundreds of Ecusta Trail supporters. They celebrating that day on Monday as the most important milestone to date in the evolution of the trail.

For more than 13 years  theres that number again  the Friends of Ecusta Trail has organized, advocated and cajoled as it cheer-led the effort to transform the 127-year-old Hendersonville-to-Brevard freight line into a 19.4-mile paved greenway for walkers, runners, skaters and bicyclists.

With Conserving Carolinas purchase of the rail corridor on Friday for $7.8 million, the original Ecusta Trail visionaries breathed a sigh of relief, paused to celebrate, then went right back to work on the next phase  raising money for construction.

Kieran Roe, executive director of Conserving Carolina, described the rollercoaster ride that led to the closing on Friday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday. In the spring of 2019, the ride began a more positive glide.

For years we had been talking about, Wouldnt this be a great idea, but until that conversation occurred  that the railroad was willing to sell we couldnt do anything, he said. From that point forward a whole lot has happened.

Roe admitted to some frustration with the complexities of dealing with a rail company, federal regulations and a legal thicket. Buying property from a railroad is not an easy thing to do, he said, especially a railroad whose deeds date back to the 1890s.

But Roe was right to point out that Watco, which operates Western North Carolina freight lines as Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, deserves credit for coming to the table. The railroad wished everyone well.

On behalf of everyone here at the Blue Ridge Southern Railroad and Watco, we think this is such a great outcome for this unused asset, said Laura McNichol, Watcos senior vice president. We know and understand how important and beneficial these trails can be to communities with the added benefit of preserving the corridor for future rail use should that ever be needed.

The effort has gotten a nice head start in the past two years. Conserving Carolina landed a $6.4 million NCDOT grant to support the rail corridor purchase and Henderson County received a $5.1 million award to help pay for the first six miles of the greenway  from downtown Hendersonville to Horse Shoe. Next up is a broad campaign to attract private donors and corporate sponsors and pull in other grants.

The Ecusta Trail celebration on Monday was the newest chapter in an old story that bears a big bravo. One need only to look at the picture on Page 1 to appreciate the spirit of cooperation that brought us to this moment. Cheering the ribbon snip, with broad smiles and laughter, are all five county commissioners, elected leaders from Hendersonville and Laurel Park, Conserving Carolinas skilled director, Kieran Roe, former state Rep. Chuck McGrady, an early and consistent supporter of the trail, and others.

This time, the picture doesnt need to paint a thousand words. Just this many: Its amazing what we can achieve when we work together.
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Uniontown, PA (15401)

Today

Periods of rain. Rain becoming heavy at times overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Rain becoming heavy at times overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected.
Lima, OH (45805)

Today

Partly cloudy. A chance of showers and storms toward Sidney/Bellefontaine, otherwise dry. High 82F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy. Low 62F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Now Open

18 August 2021

Set against a striking landscape of black sand, deep blue water and whitewashed houses, Radisson Blu Zaffron Resort, Santorini is opening its doors in scenic Kamari. The brand new five-star resort welcomes guests to a peaceful retreat just 150 meters from the beach and near a lively social center with a cafe-lined boardwalk, restaurants, bars, and ancient Greek ruins.

Inspired by the warm and earthy tones of the locally harvested saffron spice, Radisson Blu Zaffron Resort, Santorini has 103 spacious rooms and suites, as well as exclusive split-level villas with a size of 54m. Inspired by Santorini's curved architecture, the luxurious accommodation offers a relaxing ambiance with a minimalist aesthetic. Exotic touches reflect the locality, using materials such as wood, stone and marble. Guests can soak up the Cycladic sunshine on private balconies or terraces, while larger rooms, suites and villas offer a private plunge pool or jacuzzi.

Zeffirino Ristorante, the resort's fine-dining venue, brings the finest Italian flair to Santorini's culinary scene, transporting the tradition and passion of Genoa's Belloni family to the Cyclades. The restaurant offers dishes that have been scrupulously selected and imported from producers across the different regions of Italy with the menu paying tribute to the rich gastronomic heritage of the Emilia-Romagna and Liguria regions, and to the Zeffirino family, who were awarded the acclaimed title "Ambassador of Italian Cuisine in the World", thanks to their trademarked Genoese Pesto. Typical, tasty Italian dishes are served at Belloni Trattoria with its casual atmosphere and open kitchen. Belloni offers a fusion of Italian and Greek cuisine for lunch whilst in the evening, the trattoria presents a truly Italian menu with simple and tasty dishes, a wide variety of pizzas, and a unique focaccia from Liguria with cheese, created just for Santorini.

Two large pools with 80 sun loungers form the heart of the resort, with the Pool Bar as the perfect location for coffee, ice cream and a variety of snacks, aperitifs, sushi dishes, panini, sandwiches and burgers. The bar also serves eye-catching signature cocktails, created to enhance the Italian touch of the resort. For complete relaxation, the resort also offers a variety of treatments including facials and full-body massages as well as nail care in its Calliste Wellness facilities. A multi-functional conference room can hosts up to 80 delegates, offering an ideal setting for corporate meetings and business events, as well as social gatherings and receptions.
Appointment

18 August 2021

Located in the Outer Amirantes of Seychelles, Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island welcomes Donaldson Madubela as its new Executive Sous Chef. With more than 15 years of experience, Donaldson brings his creativity and extensive expertise to the table, to lead the culinary program and talented team at the lush coral island Resort.

Originally from Vanderbijl, South Africa, Donaldson spent his early years sharpening his skills in several five-star properties throughout his native country. From there he moved to the Seychelles, followed by Mozambique, where he has since held top culinary positions over the years, evolving and perfecting his craft at unique dining concepts and luxury hospitality establishments.

Donaldson draws inspiration from his grandmother, who taught him the basics of cooking, and the destination of Seychelles. An avid fisherman, he will be able to tap into his passion and implement his own twist on the local cuisine as he arrived in time to oversee the launch of the Resort's new barbecue on the sands dining experience at the Castaway Centre - where distinctive flavours, premium meat and fresh seafood are served alongside a Seychellois sunset.

In his role, Donaldson will manage kitchen operations and support the team in expanding their culinary horizons to continue creating unique experiences through food for Resort guests. As the Executive Sous Chef, Donaldson will oversee the kitchens of the all-day dining, Mediterranean restaurant Claudine, iconic Lighthouse serving dry aged meats, seafood and a raw bar, In-Villa Dining and all other pop-up dining experiences.
Appointment

18 August 2021

The St. Regis New York is pleased to announce the appointment of Virginia Weik as Director of Sales & Marketing for the flagship property located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan. Virginia brings a wealth of hospitality experience to her new role, where she will oversee property sales, marketing and advertising activities for the beloved hotel.

Weik joins The St. Regis New York from the Conrad New York Midtown, where she served as the Director Sales & Marketing. As part of the hotel's opening team, she was instrumental in launching all marketing, sales, PR and social media initiatives. Prior to this, Virginia served as a Senior Curator for Jetsetter, a Member of the GILT Group, where she researched, negotiated and curated unique luxury travel experiences. Earlier in her career, she also worked as the Director of Group Sales at InterContinental The Barclay New York; Sales Manager at New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge; and Sales Manager at Paramount Hotel, further enhancing her hospitality background. Virginia attended Hofstra University where she received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing.

The St. Regis New York, originally founded by John Jacob Astor over a century ago, is revered as one of the finest hotels in the world. The majestic Beaux Arts exterior, elegant public spaces, exquisitely designed guest rooms and suites and unparalleled, bespoke service have preserved its legendary status for more than 100 years. The hotel is also home to the famed King Cole Bar, the birthplace of the original Bloody Mary. Ideally located in the heart of Manhattan at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street, The St. Regis New York has received a myriad of awards and accolades over the years from various publications including Institutional Investor, Travel + Leisure, Harper's Hideaway and Conde Nast Traveler, as well as been honored with the prestigious AAA Diamond distinction, a coveted award that further confirms the hotel's place as one of the world's premier luxury experiences.
Press Release

18 August 2021

Iberostar Group, a global hospitality chain with 80% of its hotels on the seafront, has joined Expedia Group and UNESCO in the expansion of the UNESCO Sustainable Travel Pledge (hereafter UNESCO Pledge).

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Iberostar has a strong commitment to the oceans and the local communities where the company operates, while the UNESCO Pledge promotes responsible practices, community resilience, and heritage conservation, with the goal of changing the nature and impact of global tourism. Expedia Groups recent Traveler Value Index research1 shows that travelers want to support sustainable practices, with nearly three in five (59%) willing to pay higher fees to make their trip more sustainable.

Our partnership with UNESCO seeks to ensure the preservation and sustainability of communities, many of which are wholly dependent on travel, said Katherine Cheng, Head of Global and Community Impact, Expedia Group. Travelers are willing to do more when they have visibility into actions they can take, whether its paying higher fees or changing how they travel. The Pledge can help them make more informed decisions.

Launched in 2019 UNESCO and Expedia Group signed a global agreement promoting sustainable travel and heritage conservation through the UNESCO Sustainable Travel Pledge. Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO, said, An industry wide approach is key to ensuring a resilient recovery for tourism that contributes to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By joining the Pledge, Iberostar Group has made a firm commitment towards supporting our efforts to achieve truly sustainable tourism.

As tourism destinations are experiencing a double impact from climate change and a global pandemic, Iberostar is fast-tracking solutions to build a responsible tourism model supported by science and the protection of nature. The Groups goals, outlined in its 2030 Agenda, are the cornerstone of the companys effort to combat climate change: eliminate waste, source responsible seafood, neutralize carbon emissions and improve the health of the ecosystems surrounding its hotels, among others. Through its Protecting and Restoring the Mesoamerican Reef Project, Iberostar aims to increase the resiliency of the Mesoamerican Reef to adapt to climate change risks through the establishment of comprehensive, science-based, ecosystem propagation and restoration programs. This provides Iberostar guests with an opportunity to enjoy and connect with a more naturally functioning ecosystem.

"As tourism returns, Iberostar's commitment to leading a responsible tourism model has only grown," said Dr. Megan Morikawa, Global Sustainability Director for Iberostar Group. "The UNESCO Pledge allows us to share not only our journey in our 2030 Agenda, but to share and learn from the network of tourism providers in the community of others who have taken the Pledge. We see this as a critical way for tourism to catalyze solutions in the face of current and future crises."

In addition, Iberostar Group has also partnered with Expedia Group Media Solutions, the global travel advertising platform connecting marketers with hundreds of millions of travelers across the Expedia Group brand, on the Discover Iberostar campaign. As part of this campaign Iberostar Group and Expedia Group have both contributed $100,000 to the Protecting and Restoring the Mesoamerican Reef initiative.

The campaign will educate travelers about Iberostars Wave of Change movement, the chains commitment to the oceans and leading responsible tourism, to offer consumers a responsible vacation experience. Developed by Expedia Group Media Solutions in-house creative agency, Creative Partnerships, the interactive campaign features stunning images and thoughtfully curated information to inspire users to make more informed decisions on how they travel and to consider their impact on destinations. Through bold and direct messaging, users are encouraged to interact with the content, thereby making a positive impact and helping improve coastal health with just one click.

Restarting tourism slowly and driving demand in a deliberate-yet-responsible way can help destinations thrive for travelers and local communities alike, and, as travelers are increasingly making more eco-conscious and sustainable travel decisions, elevating awareness of sustainability initiatives can help further differentiate travel brands, said Jennifer Andre, Vice President, Business Development at Expedia Group Media Solutions. This new campaign and partnership with Iberostar Group further showcases our collective commitment to responsible and sustainable tourism, illustrating how collaboration across the industry can help drive change.

To learn more about the UNESCO Pledge, please visit our pilot microsite: https://unescosustainable.travel/. A global microsite will be announced later in 2021.

About UNESCO

UNESCOs mission is to contribute to the building of a culture of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. UNESCO works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It is through this dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCOs mission and activities.

About Expedia Group

Expedia Group, Inc. companies power travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. We provide industry-leading technology solutions to fuel partner growth and success, while facilitating memorable experiences for travelers. The Expedia Group family of brands includes: Expedia, Hotels.com, Expedia Partner Solutions, Vrbo, Egencia, trivago, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Wotif, ebookers, CheapTickets, Expedia Group Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert, CarRentals.com, and Expedia Cruises.
Press Release

18 August 2021

Deutsche Hospitality has gone the extra mile to safeguard the well-being of its guests and staff. The company has joined forces with the Frankfurt-based hygiene products supplier IBC Europe GmbH to add a special anti-microbial nano coating to all hotel surfaces which are frequently touched. Following the successful roll-out of this cooperation agreement to the companys hotels in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, the project to apply a protective sealant to contact surfaces will now also be implemented internationally. The touch points involved include the reception area, door handles, light switches, lift buttons, taps and soap dispensers. The protective film used has the effect of destroying any viruses and germs once they come into contact with the sealed surface.

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The health and safety of our guests and employees are our number one priority at all times, stated Marcus Bernhardt, CEO of Deutsche Hospitality. For this reason, we are working on an ongoing basis to develop our hygiene and protective measures further and are guided in this regard by expert recommendations.

Rainer Lindau, Managing Director of IBC Europe GmbH, explained: Our anti-microbial nano coating is simple to apply and easy to clean and has been dermatologically tested. This makes it particularly well suited to hotels. The AIRDAL Coating Technique eliminates any opportunity for germs to spread.

A comprehensive range of hygiene and protective measures is being implemented as part of Deutsche Hospitalitys Safe Travels Campaign. Innovations such as the nano coating of high-traffic touch points, physician-authorised coronavirus tests at reception, and staff vaccinations performed by a company doctor are being continuously introduced.

For further information on IBC Europe GmbH, please visit www.ibc-care.de.
Opinion Article

18 August 2021

Abstract

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After tens of thousands of hotels and restaurants were suffering from shutting down due to the pandemic, the hospitality industry is finally beginning to rebound. However, the rebound is not proceeding smoothly as the revenue lost during the pandemic can never be recovered and the hospitality industry cannot find enough workers post-COVID. Even worse, restaurants, theme parks, hotels, and tourist attractions are finding themselves squeezed from multiple sides: rising costs, worker shortages, unpredictable supplies of some foods, and in some cases, demand is so overwhelming that it is difficult to avoid customer dissatisfaction1. (Chen et al. 2021). At this point, it is necessary and important for hospitality business operators to find ways to overcome these challenges, especially to find out how to deal with the labor shortage and increasing labor costs, to better recover from the pandemic.

Background of labor shortage and increasing labor cost due to COVID-19

After COVID-19 forced restaurants, hotels, and bars to shut last year, data from hiring sites indicate relatively high numbers of workers pivoting away from the sector: On Job case, a digital job board and social network for hourly workers, searches for restaurant and food-service jobs in April were 35% lower than in the same period in 20192. (Chen et al. 2021). Millions of hospitality workers were laid off during the pandemic, which pushed many hospitality workers to find new kinds of jobs in some other industries. Studies have found that once the hospitality workers were laid off due to the outbreak of COVID last year, especially those entry-level workers, most of them are not willing to go back to their original job again. This leads to the labor shortage in the hospitality industry these days.

Along with the labor shortage phenomenon, heres another interesting thing happening in todays labor market: you may get the job that you had applied for in the past few years as companies are getting back in touch with previous applicants nowadays. Sounds surprising, right? But it really happened. Several persons from different industries recently received phone calls from a manager of a Cheesecake Factory, saying that they received their applications and wondered whether they are interested in having an interview for the role theyve applied. Most of the applicants denied this inquiry as they already got a job in the other companies and are no longer interested in working for that Cheesecake Factory. The reason why that manager was calling those previous candidates is because the company has increased its outreach to all potential candidates through various third-party job board databases and its own talent network database, as restaurants and dining places reopen to full capacity and their staffing level is increasing.4(Chen, 2021). Hospitality businesses are trying to reach out to previous applicants and hire them to fill out those vacant positions, which reflected that the huge impact of labor shortage on the hospitality industry.

The main reasons behind this phenomenon are the low labor wages and high employee turnover rate. Labor wages for those entry-level jobs in the hospitality industry were relatively low, comparing to the other industry. And as a matter of fact, the employee turnover rate in the hospitality industry is high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Food and Hospitality sector has an annual turnover rate of 73.8%. In other words, more than 6% of staff will leave their job every month.3 (Blair, n.d.). From Figure 1 we can see that the average quit rate of accommodation and food services, leisure and hospitality are both higher than the U.S. average standard, while the average weekly earnings of accommodation and food services, leisure and hospitality are both lower than the U.S. average standard.

Figure 1

Source: Work and Pay diagram. Adapted from Hospitality Firms Face a Squeezeby author Chen T., Haddon H., Weber L., Wall Street Journal, CCLXXVII (148), pA13.  Photo: Northern Arizona University

Moreover, from Figure 2 we can figure out that the quitting rate of food service and accommodation workers has increased after the occurrence of the pandemic, it reached to 5.7% in May 2021. On the other hand, the average hourly wages for hotel and food-service employees have increased as well after the breakout of the pandemic, reached to $15.14/hour.

Figure 2

Source: Adapted from Many Choose to Move on From Restaurant Jobsby author Chen T., Haddon H., Weber L., CCLXXVIII (11), pB2.  Photo: Northern Arizona University

The occurrence of labor shortage gradually leads to the increasing labor cost, as operators of hospitality businesses realize that without increasing the minimum pay for the workers, the labor shortage problem in their business will get worse. Nevertheless, another new problem comes up: how will those hospitality businesses generate enough profits to support their operations with the increasing labor cost? According to the Wall Street Journal, hiring woes could cost the region up to 10% of its annual $6.9 billion tourist economy. (Chen et al. 2021). So, it is urgent for operators of hospitality business to figure out efficient ways to overcome these severe problems while also have the ability to generate enough profits to support their operations.

Pros and Cons of labor shortage and increasing labor cost

For hoteliers and restaurant owners, or even those employers, one of the most significant advantages of labor shortage and increasing labor cost is to screen more qualified workers. Even though fewer workers are willing to work in the hospitality industry, this is a great time for hospitality businesses to hire more qualified workers, as they are selecting the best from those quality candidates who are willing to work in the hospitality industry at this special time. Meanwhile, for those employees who still have the passion to work for the hospitality industry, one advantage for them is that they will have more job opportunities and will have a higher possibility to get a job due to the labor shortage. And if they were offered a job, they would have had better wages and benefits than those previous staff, as a result of the increasing labor cost. Yet, just as every coin has two sides, there are also some disadvantages of labor shortage and increasing labor costs. For the employers, the main disadvantage is that it will take them more time to recover the operation since the hiring and screening process is becoming harder and need to be paid more attention to. Besides, as the labor cost goes up continuously, they have to find out some efficient ways to avoid losing profits but still grow their operations.

How restaurants can better deal with this problem and drive/thrive their operation

The main idea behind labor shortage and increasing labor cost is that operators of hospitality businesses and those employers want to maintain their employees and attract more qualified workers, so for those who cannot afford the increasing labor cost, they can provide their employees with more flexibility instead, such as having shorter shifts, more flexible schedules, better benefits, as long as not harming their ability to generate enough profits. Among these options, providing employees with flexible working schedules is more popular, as research shows that the average Generation Y worker is uninterested in a job for life, instead, they are seeking flexibility and work-life balance.3(Blair, n.d.).

Besides those possible solutions above, hospitality businesses could employ some other creative operating concepts such as below:

New operating model: ghost kitchen and virtual restaurant

According to the Restaurant Online Ordering Statistics, 60% of U.S. consumers order delivery or takeout once a week, and 87% of Americans who use third-party food delivery services agree that it makes their lives easier5. (Resendes, 2020). To get more specific  research shows working with a third-party delivery system raises sales (on average) up to 20%.6 (Guide to, 2020). It costs less and saves lots of money if start up a new business in a virtual way. This can also bring customers more convenience. Statistics also showed that the number of people using food delivery apps will rise by 25% in 2020, and since COVID-19, 51% of consumers have downloaded at least one new food-purchasing app. It is also predicted that the ghost kitchen market will swell to more than $1 trillion within the next year7. So, it is a good time for operators of hospitality businesses to employ virtual ghost kitchens at this point.

A ghost (Virtual) kitchen is where virtual brands are produced without a brick-and-mortar location and their facilities that are made solely for producing virtual brands6. (Guide to, 2020). Some advantages of ghost kitchens are that you can spend less money on your equipment and can start selling products faster than the other real kitchens. Besides, products can be tested before they are committed to a food truck or a real store. And if you already had an existing restaurant, ghost kitchen could also help to expand the delivery range of your business. On the other hand, ghost kitchens may lose some businesses due to location constraints.

For a restaurant, if it is not able to afford the increasing labor cost, it can transfer its operation into a virtual restaurant, which is a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery based on phone orders or online food ordering9. Lots of people thought ghost kitchens are exactly the same as virtual restaurants, which, however, is a misunderstood. Unlike a ghost kitchen, virtual restaurants do not rent from third parties, they have their own established physical store or food trucks, and use their existing kitchens to create additional, delivery-exclusive menus5. (Guide to, 2020). This type of restaurant can even use a shared kitchen with another business to cook their own food. Sometimes these are partnerships and other times the restaurant itself wants to experiment with a new flavor, so they will build a second menu only available online and cook the food in the same kitchen10.

Employing more robotics and AI on site

In the kitchen, smart ovens could be used, which can cook ingredients automatically and then switch to a holding mode. This could help save lots of labor, also save the current employees time. More than that, a food prep bot can also be employed as it can help with food preparation and deliver the food to the chef once it is well-prepared.

As the Delta Variant spreads out very fast all around the world, voice ordering is another great option in this post-COVID time as people are still concern about their health and may not want to have many direct connections with others while dining outside. Voice ordering can be applied both at home and in the store. This is a great option to employ, especially when your restaurant is at a busy time. Servers may be too busy to go to your table and take your order manually, at this point, you can just speak out what you want by talking to a voice-ordering device or just give a phone order, which will deliver your request to the cooks in the kitchen directly. Voice ordering can also be used at a self-order kiosk, and once you are going to order, it will take your order by recognizing your speaking conversation, without you touching anything. And it is common in the drive-thru, customers can just place their orders by talking to a voice-assistant-enabled order taker12. (Sebes, 2018).

To avoid the labor shortage and better apply the flexible schedule concept, operators of hospitality businesses could install scheduling software and get it connected with a cloud-based POS, which can help determine which of your staff tends to do the most up-selling and give those team members priority for high-volume shifts12. (Sebes, 2018).

Convenient and High-tech delivery concepts

Employing more robotics and AI on site could be another choice to overcome the increasing labor cost.

Having tech-advanced delivery concepts will also help operators save money on labor. Operators could consider having pick-up lockers, which are coded and facing the exterior of the restaurant, to improve its delivery process. This pick-up locker can be used along with an app, which customers can download ahead of time and receive their order updates from it. Once the food ordered is done, it goes directly to the lockers from the kitchen, and customers will receive the notification on an app, know which locker does their food located, and then pick their food up by scanning the QR code on the specific locker the app shows.

Another convenient food delivery concept is Automat, which can help deal with the labor shortage problem, simple foods and drinks are served by vending machines only. In the 19th century, the world's first automat was opened as a type of fast-food restaurant in Berlin, Germany. Automat was always considered as a type of restaurant, however, nowadays, it should no more be just considered as a restaurant, rather, it can be employed in any existing restaurant as a convenient way of food delivery to their customers. An automat works simply: you just simply fed your money into a glass-enclosed kiosk, removed a steaming plate of freshly made food15, and then enjoy! (Strauss, 2021). It is both convenient for operators and customers, which also helps save the serving time and customers waiting time, makes the service more efficient.

Conclusion

The high turnover rate has consistently been a problem in the hospitality industry. As the labor shortage is becoming a significant problem and increasing labor cost is growing as a trend in the hospitality, restaurants and the other hospitality business should be alert to these challenges and be well prepared, find out efficient solutions or adopt new operating concepts to thrive their business in this special time. As the increasing labor cost is going to be a long-term trend in the hospitality industry, operators and employers should come up with creative ways to maintain their current employees and attract more employees, without harming the profit of the operation. Considering switching your current business to a new operating model, such as a ghost (virtual) kitchen or a virtual restaurant, will help save a lot of money; employing more AI and robotics in store to take place of some of the labor you need, to overcome the problem of labor shortage; adapting convenient and high-tech delivery concepts in your operation is also a good way to help you overcome the labor shortage and increasing labor cost problems. Operators of hospitality businesses should always keep in mind that customer experience matters, focusing more on how to cater to customers needs and concerns nowadays, how to provide them with more convenient and better service will help you to succeed.

References
On a warm Friday night in July, the sun seemed to linger behind Amsterdams low, 16th century skyline. In the red light district, the crush of tourists that was common before the pandemic had long since vanished, making it easy for a delivery worker to cycle past a handful of gawkers around the old towns notorious storefronts.

While six German men in matching t-shirts ignored signs warning of a 95 ($112) fine as they swilled beers on a nearby footbridge, they were the exception. Mostly, only small groups of sedate strollers were about on this midsummer evening.

Centuries before its more lurid attractions took hold, Amsterdam was already a tourist draw. As far back as 1345, when a communion wafer at a local church apparently proved indestructible, pilgrims flocked to see the miracle host. In modern times, decidedly less spiritual activities have drawn millions to the citys quaint, canal-lined quarters. And the noise, garbage and violence followed.

The city was already scrambling to find ways to restrain the tourist trade before the coronavirus struck. Hefty fines for public drinking, tight restrictions on short-term rentals and outright bans on certain types of shops were implemented. But more visitors kept coming. By 2019, their numbers approached 9 millionmore than 10 per resident.

Then it all stopped. For months, tourists where nowhere to be found as borders were sealed tight. Later, as infection waves receded, only a trickle returned. Overall, Amsterdams commercial establishments have seen almost 25% fewer visitors since Covid-19 first arrived.

Even in the red light district, the lack of drunken revelers remains apparent despite many restrictions having been lifted. Locals wander wide-eyed through a part of town they rarely visit, amazed at its architectural beauty. Among city officials, this tiny silver lining to a global health catastrophe planted a seed. While Amsterdam arguably needs tourism to survive, maybe this once-in-a-century pandemic could be used to remake how the city embraces it.

As it turned out, local officials in other tourist hotspots across Europe had the same idea.

Cities across the continent want to mold visits into shapes less onerous for residents, and perhaps more lucrative for business. Optimally, a virtuous circle can be created where loud partiers are supplanted by museum-goers with more money to spendor so the thinking goes.

Call it curated tourism.

We met with representatives from Amsterdam, Barcelona and Florence during the pandemic, and all of us were thinking the same thing, said Hana Trestikova, Pragues councilor of tourism. Before Covid, over-tourism had become almost unbearable, and Covid gave a pause to try and make some changes in what our cities represent, how we promote ourselves and how we must focus on quality of visitsnot quantity.

Not so long ago, these cities marketed themselves to everyone. But Amsterdams widely available cannabis and legal prostitution, Barcelonas urban beaches and Pragues famous beer halls increasingly attracted tourists who brought what Geerte Udo, director of amsterdam&partners, diplomatically called negative effects.

When much of Europe shut down last year, the medieval center of Amsterdama UNESCO World Heritage Sitetook on a breathtaking beauty, said Udo, whose nonprofit serves as a civic booster. The emptiness also revealed how few locals actually live there, she said. You feel its not more than a theater backdrop.

But the pandemic also made clear how important tourist euros are to the livelihood of these cities. About 13% of Barcelonas economy and 11% of Amsterdams jobs can be tied to visitors.

Lenia Marques, assistant professor of cultural organization and management at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, said cities are thinking, who is the tourist were inviting? Do we want this mass needing more hotels, or do we seek tourists more interested in our culture, a tourist who will appreciate more of what we haveand be able to spend more?

In recent years, Pragues tourist problem started to resemble Amsterdams, Trestikova said. The Czech capital was getting 8 million visitors a year, almost doubling between 2012 and 2019. And like Amsterdam, most headed to the same neighborhoods, she said. In Pragues case, they clog the Old Town Square and Charles Bridge.

The city center is not a residential locality anymore, Trestikova said. There are not many apartments, and those are largely occupied by expats or converted to hotels and short-term rentals. We need to focus on what residents need and show a city thats not a film set but alive with people from Prague.

But reshaping a citys tourist trade is harder than just changing marketing firms. Trestikova said the biggest factors behind low-quality visits arent in the citys control. The cost of tickets on budget airlines, the number of Airbnb units and even the price of beer can only be changed at the national level, she said.

A spokesperson for the Czech Ministry of Regional Development acknowledged that taxes on alcohol and air travel are determined by Parliament, but noted Pragues city council can submit legislative proposals. A bill from the city that would provide municipalities with more power to regulate short-term rentals is currently under consideration, he said.

Situated in the most-visited part of the second most-visited country in the world (after France), Barcelona faces a unique challenge when it comes to transforming tourism. While the Spanish citys negative effects are less extreme than those endured by Amsterdam or Prague, Xavier Marce, councilor for tourism and creative industries, said he wants to attract tourists interested in more than just its seaside location.

When I visit New York, I am interested in what New Yorkers do, he said. Its much better to have a tourist model linked to culture or science, because it means that there is a connection with the resident.

Toward this end, Barcelona designed a network of bus stops to spread visitors more evenly around the city while also freezing new licenses for short-term rentalsthe abuse of which has been a key cause of over-tourism, Marce said.

Airbnb advertises apartments, but they dont check the legal status of those apartments, Marce said. Its when we let them know that the apartment is illegal when they remove it immediately. Andreu Castellano, an Airbnb spokesperson, said the company has worked with Barcelona officials since 2018 to drop operators who dont respect the rules. He added that more than 7,000 bad actors have been removed as a result.

In Italy, some Venetians want to do the opposite of what Barcelona is trying. Spread out tourism? Thats worse, said Melissa Conn, director of the nonprofit Save Venice. Conn said she prefers visitors stick to Piazza San Marco so residents can have the rest of the city to themselves. Save Venice Vice President Alberto Nardi agreed, but warned that tourism is critical to the citys survival. The owner of a jewelry shop on the piazza, Nardi said Venices population has been declining, its cost of living rising and non-tourism jobs vanishing.

Venice must develop businesses that are different from tourism, Nardi said.

For cities looking to change who comes calling, any effort requires an advertising campaign. Amsterdam has launched such an effort, spending 160,000 to stimulate desired behavior by touristsnamely by attracting different ones. Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs Victor Everhardt announced the initiative in June, which includes ads geared to urban residents in nearby countries such as France, Belgium and the U.K.

Were focusing on people who have interest in culture in the broadest sense of the word, he said. We try to persuade them to visit all these other beautiful parts of the city.

Even before Covid, Prague officials hired an agency that sought to persuade tourists to come for more than two nights. During the short-lived summer 2020 reopening, the city introduced Prague Unlocked, a campaign aimed at a Czech audience, since foreign travelers were still rare. It was a success. Usually just 15% of Pragues tourists are domestic (compared with 20% in Vienna and almost 50% in Paris). But in 2020, the number of Czech visitors rose by 16%, with many staying in three- and four-star hotels, Trestikova said.

Then theres the other side of the equation. Udo of amsterdam&partners said her group is lobbying the Dutch government to impose a minimum price on plane tickets, while others want to ban Airbnb from the city altogether. Barcelona last month instituted a new tax on stays in tourist establishments that goes to the municipal government. It could raise as much as 16.5 million annually with the revenue used to promote less-visited neighborhoods, such as Poblenou and Gracia.

Technology is also being leveraged to redirect tourist flows. Amsterdam works with phone companies to know how many people are in certain areas, then they can take measures to stop more people coming in, said Marques of Erasmus University. As areas become too crowded, visitors will receive a text message with an offer for an attraction in a different part of town. If things get really bad, stanchions will be erected to stop more people from entering and overcrowded area, she said.

But any plan that risks cutting tourist dollarseven for a short timeis likely to run into trouble with businesses already deeply hurt by the pandemic. For curated tourism to have a chance, said Barcelonas Marce, a citys hospitality sector must be on board.

Barcelonas hospitality sector is very strong, he said. You cant suddenly say there will be half as many tourists.
Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is an act of love, Pope Francis says in a public service ad that will start circulating online and on television Wednesday.

Working with the Ad Council, a nonprofit group, in its first campaign to extend beyond the United States, the pope encourages people around the world to get inoculated.

The ad shows the pope, speaking in Spanish with English subtitles, with church officials from the United States, Mexico, Brazil and other countries describing vaccination as a moral responsibility.

Thanks to Gods grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from COVID-19, the pope says in the ad. They bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another.

Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love. And helping the majority of people to do so is an act of love, Francis continues. Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable.

By taking part in the vaccination campaign, the pope has joined a group of influencers that has included former presidents, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Elmo from Sesame Street. The plea has become increasingly urgent as the mutating virus cycles through unvaccinated populations, threatening global attempts to return to normalcy.

In centers of faith, efforts to counter vaccine hesitancy have often been fraught. Vaccine acceptance among Hispanic Catholics in the United States rose to 80% in June from 56% in March, while jumping to 79% from 68% among white Catholics, according to a June survey of more than 5,000 adults by the Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core nonprofit groups. By comparison, 56% of Hispanic Protestants and white evangelical Protestants feel the same, a far smaller percentage than other groups.

Many religious Americans who are hesitant told researchers that faith-based arguments could persuade them to get the shot.

If youre used to your pastor being a cultural critic or a social commentator, then whether hes talking about the election or a social movement or the vaccine, youre more likely to listen to him, said Heidi A. Campbell, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies media and religion. Youre going to give whatever he says more street cred, because it comes with an air of divine authority, which he wouldnt have if he was just a teacher or a news commentator.

Pastors in Black communities, where congregants skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccines cite a history of medical mistreatment, have publicly rolled up their sleeves to get inoculated. Orthodox Jewish rabbis have taken to YouTube and Zoom to endorse the shot. During the Ramadan holy month, national Muslim groups issued statements emphasizing that the vaccine was halal, or permissible to use.

Still, some religious leaders have met resistance online and on the air, where a large audience can be exposed to vaccine misinformation. On WhatsApp, recordings of rabbis making unproven claims about the vaccines effects on fertility have circulated among Orthodox Jewish communities. On Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, some churches and Christian influencers have spread conspiracy theories linking vaccines to microchips or blaming those who get a shot for not trusting Gods will.

Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, recently declared itself a mask-free church campus whose congregants celebrate faith over fear. Its Facebook page, with 60,000 followers, includes videos featuring crowded gatherings where Greg Locke, the pastor, speaks of this delta variant nonsense and declares the vaccine a forcible communistic jab in the arm.

Pope Francis, who earlier in the pandemic was criticized for not wearing a mask in public, was vaccinated this year and has already publicly stated that vaccination was morally acceptable and an ethical obligation. In the Vatican, a hall designated for papal gatherings was repurposed as a vaccination clinic.

Joining the Ad Council campaign allows the popes message to reach an even wider audience. The Ad Council said it would run the ad on Telemundo, Universo and WarnerMedia platforms, as well as on media in Spanish-speaking countries.

Weve said all along that the messenger can be as or more important than the actual message itself, said Lisa Sherman, the chief executive of the Ad Council, a group that led a similar crusade in the 1950s, when it urged Americans to get vaccinated against polio.

The Ad Council has assembled a diverse group of more than 1,100 representatives for its $60 million vaccination campaign. Earlier this summer, around the same time the organization was completing plans with the pope, it was also signing up the pop rock band Foreigner.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
I consider the odds of contracting COVID-19 every time I think about going out these days.

I calculate how much time I might spend indoors with unvaccinated people who stubbornly insist on exposing me to the disease. I do it for myself and my family. And so are a lot of other people, and its slowing down the economy.

Gov. Greg Abbotts aggressive assault on public health expertise means no public spaces are safe. He wont let local officials require vaccines or masks. His minions at the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission are threatening to close restaurants or bars that require vaccines.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Our leaders are cynical, so we'll pay high COVID price

I am inoculated, but the vaccine is like a seawall. The harder and more frequently the virus pounds against it, the more likely the delta variant will break through. With COVID infection rates surpassing pre-vaccine levels and emergency rooms overwhelmed, I know the virus is out in force.

I stayed away from one of the energy industrys most significant events for fear of COVID. Ive attended six iterations of the Offshore Technology Conference. True to its roots, sessions begin with a factory floor-style safety briefing. Safety is job one, most of the time.

Hardcore conservatives make up a high percentage of attendees. I had little confidence they were vaccinated or would follow the organizers recommendations to wear a mask and socially distance.

The brass at Schlumberger recognized the threat. On Friday, the giant oil field services company, known for a big OTC presence, pulled out. The health and safety of our employees, their families, our customers, colleagues, and the wider community remain our highest priority, spokesman Scott Labelle said in a statement.

Schlumberger was not alone. Hotel and restaurants desperate for a decent turnout reported widespread cancellations. Managers struck reservations from their books and canceled workers hours.

Our concerns proved warranted. My colleague Marcy de Luna reported from the exhibit hall floor that masks were scarce. Thousands of people were exposing themselves and others to COVIDs hyper-transmissible variant.

The latest data shows every delta-infected person will, on average, give the virus to eight others. But Texass elected Republican leaders will spare no legal effort to stop anyone who tries to slow delta down.

Fear of delta is beginning to show in the economic data.

Consumer confidence in early August plummeted 13.5 percent from July to a level below April 2020, when the pandemic began, according to the University of Michigan.

There is little doubt that the pandemics resurgence due to the delta variant has been met with a mixture of reason and emotion, the surveys authors wrote. Consumers have correctly reasoned that the economys performance will be diminished over the next several months, but the extraordinary surge in negative economic assessments also reflects an emotional response, mainly from dashed hopes.

The crisis of confidence has infected small businesses, too. Less than 40 percent expect the U.S. economy to return to normal in the next 12 months, according to a survey sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. In March, two-thirds of small business owners expected commerce to return to normal.

The percentage of small operators who expect the economy to worsen has hit 20 percent, up from 15 percent a month earlier.

Airlines are reporting fewer reservations, and consumer visits to stores, restaurants, gyms and grocery stores are down 50 percentage points since delta showed up in late July, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from consumer analytics firm SafeGraph.

The delta variant is also hurting China, the worlds second-largest economy. A slew of economic indicators slowed faster than expected in July, according to Chinas National Bureau of Statistics.

The bad economic news sent oil prices down early Monday. They recovered only after OPEC officials promised not to produce additional barrels until economic activity picked up again.

TOMLINSONS TAKE: Masks off and let the unvaccinated pay the consequences for COVID stubbornness

Ive watched OTC events from home, noting the large percentage of speakers participating via the internet. Some complained about U.S. restrictions on international visitors, but many clearly had no interest in spending hours in windowless rooms with hundreds of strangers.

Conferences like OTC, though, are not really about the panels and keynote speeches. The real action comes in conversations over meals and drinks or client pitches made in conference rooms. Hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts were signed because OTC brought people together over 50 years.

The dealmaking at OTC and the economy are slowing due to COVIDs delta variant. The infection rate is climbing due to irresponsible politicians pandering to loudmouths. We know what we should do for the common good, but were not doing it. And for that, we know who to blame.

Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and politics.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com
Thousands of oil and gas professionals milled about the convention floor Tuesday, checking out semi-autonomous robots that can detect gas leaks and remote-operated submersibles used to inspect offshore rigs.

But beyond the OTC exhibition hall at NRG Center, a different version of the Offshore Technology Conference was taking place  entirely online. Following a year in which business meetings, weddings and family gatherings were confined to computer screens, Houstons largest trade show went virtual, allowing attendees to attend panel discussions, visit exhibitor booths and even network  all through their laptop or mobile device.

Anybody anywhere can join anytime, OTC Executive Director Leigh Ann Runyan said. The world has changed completely. Weve all learned we need to operate within the parameters weve been given and do it safely.

For the first time in its half-century history, OTC held a hybrid in-person and virtual conference to accommodate the tens of thousands of attendees who couldnt or wouldnt travel to the show because of the ongoing pandemic. The show, held just as coronavirus cases are again surging nationally, offered a glimpse into what could become the future of conventions in Houston.

OTC is not the first oil and gas conference in Houston to go virtual. CERAWeek by IHS Markit held in February, used video conferencing to bring together energy ministers, oil executives and professionals from around the world. Attendees logged into CERAWeeks website to view panel discussions about oil and natural gas, hydrogen and geothermal energy, and could converse with one another via a live-chat.

On HoustonChronicle.com: First virtual CERAWeek highlights diverse perspectives on energy transition

Utpal Dholakia, a marketing professor at Rice Universitys Jones School of Business, said there are substantial benefits to having in-person interactions at conferences, where face-to-face introductions can lead to future deals. But as society has become used to video chats and online meetings, the rise of the virtual conference is a trend that could persist well beyond the pandemic, he said.

More than half of 505 business event planners surveyed in February by Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research consulting firm said they expect that conferences will offer a virtual component after the pandemic ends.

I don't think the virtual mode of participation can completely replace in-person participation, Dholakia said. However, for more and more conferences in the future, a hybrid mode will become widely available. By this I mean the ability for an attendee to participate remotely or in person, based on their preference, which did not exist before.

OTC organizers began discussing a hybrid conference as soon as they canceled last years convention because of the pandemic and began planning this years event. The convention appeared poised for a major comeback with the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, but the highly-infectious Delta variant upended hopes for a packed, in-person convention.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Schlumberger pulls out of OTC due to COVID surge, 3 days before Houston conference begins

Just a few days before OTC was set to kick off, Schlumberger, the worlds largest oilfield services company, pulled out of the conference, citing the rise in local hospitalization rates due to COVID-19. Schlumberger joined Halliburton, Siemens Energy, Dril-Quip and Technip in hosting virtual booths this week.

OTC is expected to draw about 30,000 attendees, although a wave of recent hotel room cancellations suggests that attendance could be less. The conference, usually held in May, drew about 60,000 in 2019. Figures for in-person and online attendance at this years conference are expected this week.

We really wanted to be in person, but we had to come to terms (with the pandemic), Runyan said. We have brought the world back together, not in person completely, but weve done it virtually as well.

Runyan, who was named OTCs executive director in February, said she has been pleased with the online attendance to the conference so far. While there are many benefits to in-person conferences, virtual conventions have their benefits, too, she said.

OTC attendees this year can watch panel discussions, presentations and award ceremonies live or watch a recording almost immediately afterwards from the comfort of their homes. They could log into the conference website to visit virtual booths, where they could look over exhibiting companies product brochures and videos, and even leave a virtual business card.

We have enjoyed safe and effective in-person meetings this week from our customers visiting Houston from foreign countries and weve enjoyed virtual meetings with other customers from all across the globe, Halliburton spokesman William Fitzgerald said. Its been an in-person and virtual success.

Attendees can save money on flights, hotels and rental cars by participating virtually. Registration costs for both in-person and online attendees were the same: $180 for OTC members and $280 for non-members. Without traveling to the conference, oil and gas attendees also leave a smaller carbon footprint, Runyan added.

For the most part, OTCs virtual conference occurred seamlessly in the backdrop of the in-person conference, but it was not without some technical glitches. A malfunction with the visual connection at a panel Tuesday morning resulted in an audio only experience by attendees. Panel discussions featured a mix of in-person and virtual moderators and speakers, with the virtual ones appearing on TV screens. Virtual speakers responded to questions from the audience via live chat.

On HoustonChronicle.com: OTC kicks off much smaller than in years past

Runyan said OTC conducted three stress tests to make sure the conference had enough bandwidth to accommodate its online attendees, and it worked with vendors to ensure that technical difficulties were kept to a minimum.

The virtual component will be a big part of events moving forward, Runyan said. Technology doesnt scare people anymore. People are just so much more comfortable with it.

For many companies at OTC, however, there was no replacement for meeting with potential clients in person.

VideoRay, a Pennsylvania-based company that specializes in remote underwater vehicles technology, displayed one of its subsea machines inside a 4,400-gallon water tank. The underwater robot can be used to inspect offshore rigs, test the thickness of pipes and clean marine life off of equipment.

The companys highly visual demonstration, featuring the robot lifting a 25-pound weight, captured the attention of about 100 visitors gathered around its booth Monday. The robot, outfitted with seven propeller thrusters, costs $100,000 to $350,000.

Face to face always does better because of the human interaction, said Chris Gibson, VideoRays vice president of sales, marketing and business development.

Ghost Robotics, based in Philadelphia, attracted a crowd of attendees with its four-legged robot that walked and trotted through NRG Center like a well-trained dog. The all-weather machine can walk for three hours before requiring a charge.

Tom Jacobs, a Ghost Robotics senior engineer, said he felt like Pied Piper as several attendees followed his robot back to the companys booth.

In-person is good for sales, Jacobs said. People can see our videos online, but it doesn't compare to seeing it in person.

paul.takahashi@chron.com

marcy.deluna@chron.com
Fully vaccinated Houstonians should be able to get Covid-19 booster shots starting next month.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that a booster shot will be necessary to maximize vaccine-induced protected and prolong its durability.

Starting the week of Sept. 20, all Americans will be eligible for a booster if they are eight months post-second dose, according to the CDC. Those who were fully vaccinated first will likely be eligible in September for their booster.

Bill McKeon, president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, said that administering booster shots should pose no problem for TMC hospitals.

First in the booster-shot line, he said, will be health care workers. We want to be sure that we have the nurses and doctors to be able to care for our future COVID patients, he said.

Next up will be people over 65.

Remember our elderly population were also the first in line to get the vaccines, McKeon said. If were seeing a dropoff in their antibodies eight months in, that booster will play a powerful role in extending that immunity.

Steven Powell was one of the first U.S. health care workers to receive a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. His first dose came Dec. 17, 2020  eight months ago. The 33-year-old registered nurse said he is ready for his third dose after reading reports about vaccine efficacy waning over time. Hes not alone.

Its always been a concern for health care workers  those who obtained the vaccine first  because its new, and we dont fully know everything yet on how long it will be effective, Powell said. Because I was one of the first, and the research shows that a third dose in the Pfizer series is the best course of action when it comes to COVID variants, I want to receive it as soon as possible.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Former Houston Methodist employees sue hospital for wrongful termination over COVID vaccine mandate

On Aug. 13, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to allow for the use of a third dose in certain immunocompromised people, including those with solid organ transplants or people diagnosed with conditions that require treatment that weakens their immune systems. Several Houston hospitals are already offering those.

The CDC and Health and Human Services department have developed a plan to begin offering boosters for all this fall, a move that will be subject to an independent evaluation and determination of the safety and effectiveness of a third dose by the FDA. The CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will issue a separate booster dose recommendation based on that evaluation.

Booster shots will be delivered to residents of long-term care facilities, as well, the CDC reported. Officials are waiting on clinical studies to conclude whether Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients will also need an additional dose.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher and co-director of the Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, is not surprised by the proposed change in guidance from the Biden administration.

The need for a booster was predicted and predictable, said Hotez, who is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

With most vaccines, he notes, a booster shot would follow the initial dose by months or years. But because of the urgency to test the COVID vaccines, those times were reduced to three and for weeks for the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines  a compression that researchers expected to reduce the time before the vaccines protection waned.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston-area hospitals to administer COVID boosters for immunocompromised

In terms of durability, a three- or four-week interval between is like having a primary shot without the boost, said Hotez. So it was just a matter of time before wed need another booster. What we didnt know was how long it would last before that  whether it would last eight months or two years.

The U.S. began vaccinating healthcare workers and the elderly in mid-December, so the first people to have been fully vaccinated would be due for booster shots in early September.

As soon as Im eligible, Hotez said, Ill get the third shot.

Dr. Galant Chan, an infectious disease physician at Baylor St. Lukes, said the eight-month booster recommendation likely has to do with the coming fall months and influenza season.

Theres nothing magical about the eight-month mark. Its not like a magic number where youre at seven months youre fine, but you hit nine months, and youre off the cliff, Chan said. Its about weighing the benefits to overall public health, especially with whats happening with variants.

No one knows at what time peoples immunities will start to wane, Chan said, its a spectrum. Similar to other vaccines that require boosters, doses are not for long-lasting, lifetime immunity.

Dr. David Lakey, a member of the Texas COVID-19 Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel, said the Texas Department of State Health Services will follow guidelines from the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

When there is a formal recommendation from the committee on a third dose, the state will likely follow that guidance with haste, Lakey said. But theres no plan on how to distribute third doses on a large scale, if that should become necessary.

It will be different from immunocompromised people getting their third doses vs. everyone getting a third dose, Lakey said. We have the vaccine in pharmacies and at variety of providers across the state. Theres plenty of vaccine out there right now, so its a different situation than when they had to do large mass vaccination clinics.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Baylor College of Medicine student orientation turns into COVID cluster

For the past eight months, Powell knows he has been protected from harsh COVID symptoms thanks to the vaccine, mask wearing and social distancing when possible. He is tested twice a week. But the surge in delta variant cases worries him.

Last month, I was sent to Arkansas for two weeks because of the delta surge they were going through, Powell said. For two weeks, I was working 12-hour shifts every day. I worked with no one but COVID individuals and never tested positive. Not all my coworkers can say the same.

julie.garcia@chron.com

lisa.gray@chron.com
When Jonas Hilaire, senior pastor of First Haitian Church of God of Houston, learned that a magnitude 7.2 earthquake had devastated Haiti early Saturday morning, he felt compelled to act.

His native country is still recovering from residual effects of the 7.0 quake in January 2010 that claimed up to 120,000 lives  and, the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last month on July 7. And Tropical Storm Grace was about to drop nearly 10 inches of rain on displaced Haitians and the search for survivors.

The situation is really harrowing, Hilaire said.

By Sunday mornings sermon, his congregation of 120 Haitian Americans had weighed the options.

We met and we had a special moment just to pray, he said. Its so sad to see people, like kids and old people, with nothing at all, not even a small tent. The thing is, if we say were going to ship something it will take weeks. We want to send money right now.

They set up a Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund on GoFundMe with a goal of $10,000. By Wednesday donors raised half that amount.

One company offered clothing, but Hilaire had to decline. He says their Alief-area church has no place to store them. If we had a ship or a private airplane, we would take them and go right away.

Instead, he plans to focus energy on raising money, consoling parishioners  one church-goer has already lost several family members  and entrusting ministers in hard-hit Les Cayes and Jeremie to distribute funds where theyre needed most.

With an estimated 8,000 Haitians currently living in Houston, a number of local non-profits are providing aid to on-the-ground relief efforts by sending funds, hygienic and medical supplies, or both. Many organizations rely on Haitian churches and missionaries to distribute donations and essentials.

Living Water International, based in Stafford, has completed thousands of sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene projects in Haiti since 2004. A team of 18 staff members, all Haitians, are headquartered in the countrys northern region, away from Saturdays devastation.

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Creative road navigation

The challenge with the most recent earthquake is the damaged road infrastructure and transportation of goods, said Mike Mantel, president and CEO of Living Water International. Gang activity related to the recent political disruptions has made distribution efforts dangerous.

Ive experienced quite creative road navigation, he said. When you engage with local churches, theres usually enough relational currency and goodwill  theyre typically more effective than other attempts.

Through Facebook posts and a personalized email to donors, Living Water International raised $150,000 in three days. Mantels goal is to purchase, transport and distribute several thousand personal hygiene supply kits containing soap, hand sanitizer, COVID-19 protection masks and other cleansers to 5,000 people in Haitis most affected areas this weekend, and over 25,000 in the next 30 days.

To move that product efficiently and effectively, his team will lean on local churches.

When the earthquake hit we were able to connect with a church network, Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti. They have 400 churches that weve previously worked with, Mantel said. A number of wells have been damaged. So in the second, 60-day phase were working with Habitat for Humanity, key churches and partners to rehabilitate those broken water points.

Medical Bridges, which provides medical equipment and supplies from the Texas Medical Center and surrounding areas to underserved communities worldwide, is also counting on a number of partners to help transport a life-saving parcel to Haiti.

Annually, students at Texas A&M University construct five mobile Texas Aggie Medical Clinics.

Its a doctors office in a 40-foot shipping container, said Walter Ulrich, Medical Bridges CEO. You can move them, set them down, open the door and immediately start treating patients.

The containers are typically transported via ship, but given the pressing need, Ulrich is in communication with the Denton Program, a Department of Defense service that moves humanitarian cargo to developing nations. With any luck  and a military air freight  the mobile Texas Aggie Medical Clinic will arrive in Haiti by next week.

Rotary Internationals Houston club, District 5890, has indicated that theyll provide some of the funding to make that happen, Ulrich added. The value of the emergency shipment is an estimated $100,000.

Kids on the streets

Since 2013, Medical Bridges has supplied Haiti with $1.2 million worth of wholesale medical equipment and supplies:.Personal protective equipment, gloves, masks and gowns, Ulrich said. We equipped a hospital with a birthing bed, ultrasound machines  anything a hospital would need to operate, weve been able to send it to Haiti.

Immediately following the 2010 earthquake, Raleigh Jenkins, owner of ABC Home & Commercial Services, flew to Haiti to help control pest infestations in hospitals and medical tents.

The thing that spoke the loudest to me were the children living on the streets, living in garbage, he said. Theres not a real good structure to support orphaned and abandoned children. We were being led into that space to do that work.

So he founded A Childs Hope, a Christian-based orphanage, school and community in Haiti with the mission of giving lost, orphaned and abandoned children a home, family and future.

Thousands of kids were orphaned and never found their families, said Elizabeth Bird, director of A Childs Hope, of the previous earthquake. The orphan and social orphan issue has grown exponentially. In Haiti, kids will be given to other family members or friends with a higher economic status in return for service  that kid washes the dishes in order to earn their keep. Here we call it childhood slavery, but for them its what they do out of desperation.

The orphanage is currently home to 16 children. Another 300 are enrolled in the school. One week before this earthquake we built a wall around our school and orphanage. We work with and teacher farmers to raise rabbit and chicken farms, Jenkin said.

He and fellow leadership raised $400,000 at A Childs Hopes gala in 2019. Those funds were applied toward operational costs, community activities and food drives. Their next fundraiser isnt until October 2021 at Houston Oaks  until then, the organization is directing donors to Mission of Hope in Austin.

Weve leaned on them for times when weve needed support and boots on the ground in Haiti, Jenkins said. Theyre a group that will not work with the government, but rather missionaries funding and overseeing projects.

Ever since the presidential assassination last month, organizations have encountered issues with corruption and officials not wanting to cycle out of office.

People there need medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, MREs, water filters Im in the group thats trying to build this needs list, Jenkins said. Theres an efficiency to what we do.

amber.elliott@chron.com
Following President Joe Bidens decision to withdraw U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, Congressman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Congressman Troy Nehls (R-Texas) issued stern words for the president.

As the U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan, Taliban forces are overrunning the government, resulting in violence and mass hysteria.

More Katy news: Katy ISD readies for first day of school, reports 100 COVID cases throughout district

The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban is an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions, said McCaul, whose 10th Congressional District includes Katy. American forces were forced to abandon our embassy in Kabul as Afghans implored to be evacuated. Our local allies face torture and death as punishment for assisting us.

The move is especially wrenching for Nehls, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 as a major with the U.S. Army. He retired after 21 years of service upon returning from Afghanistan in 2009. Nehls 22nd Congressional District encompasses much of Fort Bend County.

I served in Afghanistan in 2008 and lost two close friends, Lt. Jeffrey Ammon and Lt. Jeffrey DePrimo, while deployed in Ghazni. I know all too well the sacrifice American warriors gave to secure that country the last 20 years, Nehls said. Their service and sacrifice is not in vain - they stabilized Afghanistan for two decades, saving countless innocent Afghan lives by doing so. They are heroes, but President Bidens withdraw was an absolute disaster and disgrace.

Nehls said that he was horrified by the violence that ensued from the withdrawal. Viral images of the Taliban takeover show civilians dying after attempting to cling to the wings of U.S. Air Force transport planes. There were at least seven fatalities reported from would-be evacuees attempting to board the aircraft.

Images of Afghans falling off the wings of aircraft mid-flight and the images of American troops rushing thousands of Americans out as the Taliban overrun Kabul made me sick to my stomach, Nehls said.

The decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan was part of a 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration.

McCaul however, called shifting the blame for the violent uprising to the Trump administration a cowardly strategy ... delusional, irresponsible and contemptible.

Representatives from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense stated that they were in the process of evacuating thousands of American citizens and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals. About 2,000 evacuees have arrived in the U.S. over the past two weeks, but experts estimate some 88,000 remain in the country, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Joe Biden is the commander-in-chief, and he owns this, McCaul asserted. He had no strategy. He still has no strategy other than race to the airport and get as many people out of there as possible.

Its not why we left, its how we left, and that catastrophic failure is entirely on President Biden, Nehls said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Hotez: As schools reopen, Houston will 'pay the price' for not doing more with masks, vaccines

McCaul also believes that there will be a resurgence in global terrorism now that Afghanistan is out from under U.S. military control.

Joe Biden is going to have blood on his hands and, under Taliban rule, Afghanistan will once again become a breeding ground for terrorism, McCaul said.

Nehls added, Our adversaries are laughing at us, deterrence has been undermined, and America is less safe. Everything this administration touches ends in failure.

claire.goodman@chron.com
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  Louisiana's top school board abruptly ended a chaotic meeting Wednesday without debating whether to challenge Gov. John Bel Edwards' mask mandate for schools, after a raucous crowd of angry parents packed the hearing room and refused to put on face coverings.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's meeting disintegrated into shouting of no more masks as a majority of the hundreds of people in attendance objected when told they must mask up to comply with Edwards' order, which includes state buildings.

At one point, board members exited the hearing room and controversial pastor Tony Spell, who has repeatedly refused to follow the governor's coronavirus restrictions, began preaching. Others gave testimonials about their opposition to mask-wearing. When board members returned to the tumultuous scene, they urged the crowd to follow the order or move to a separate room, to no avail.

We desire to hear from you and to have this discussion, said board President Sandy Holloway, as she urged people to wear masks in the room.

But she was greeted with outcry from the audience, with one person screaming: Dont infringe on our rights!

Rather than try to enforce the face covering requirement amid the resistance, the board voted 8-2 for member Holly Boffy's motion to adjourn the hearing  a decision that leaves Edwards' mask mandate unchallenged. The crowd erupted into shouting about recall efforts for board members, who were escorted out by law enforcement officers.

The Democratic governor enacted the statewide mask mandate earlier this month for all indoor public spaces  including school campuses from kindergarten through college  no matter whether or not someone is vaccinated, as Louisiana saw COVID-19 infections surge.

It is the only way that we have a reasonable shot to keep schools open and kids safe, Edwards said Wednesday on his monthly radio show.

He suggested opposition to the mask requirement came from a small, vocal minority.

There is no reasoning with some people, Edwards said. He added: The vast majority of the people in Louisiana do take this seriously.

Stacy Hudson, a Baton Rouge parent at Wednesday's education board meeting, brought a sign saying: UNMASK OUR CHILDREN. Hudson said she began homeschooling her 6-year-old daughter Sarah because of the mask mandate.

I wanted that to be a choice of the parents," Hudson said of wearing a mask. My child, my choice. She doesn't want to wear a mask. It's her body.

Louisiana had the nation's highest rate of new coronavirus infections over the last week per capita, and its hospitals are breaking records daily for the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19. The state health department reported 3,022 COVID-19 patients in the hospital Wednesday, 91% of them not fully vaccinated.

The mask mandate won support from Louisiana health care leaders who said they are seeing alarming increases in the number and severity of COVID-19 cases among children. But Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, GOP state lawmakers and others object to the requirement and suggest the education board should decide what happens in schools.

Parents who want to send their children to school without masks have shown up at local school board meetings, in protests and at the state Capitol  to outline their complaints.

Before Edwards' mask mandate, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education declined to enact statewide COVID-19 requirements, with Holloway saying in July that those decisions were best left to local school systems.

The board on Wednesday was supposed to discuss whether it agrees with an opinion from Landry that suggests Edwards face covering requirement cant apply to schools. The attorney general, who frequently spars with the governor, said only the education board and state lawmakers have the authority to issue such a mandate for schools.

Edwards, a lawyer, called the Landry opinion completely wrong.

Sixty-three of the 68 Republican lawmakers in the state House have urged the education board to adopt its own rules for COVID-19 safety protocols and give local school districts more control.

The two education board members who voted against adjourning Wednesday's meeting without the mask debate were Jim Garvey and Michael Melerine. Holloway did not vote.

State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley has not backed the mask mandate, saying he leans to local control on such issues. But Brumley has not said whether he supports a legal challenge.

___

Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.

___

Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Houston ISD is launching a virtual academy for students who need to quarantine to ensure they miss no instruction, the district said.

Students in grades Pre-K through high school can attend the academy for instruction in all core content areas, according to a Tuesday night statement from Superintendent Millard House II. Roughly 80 certified instructors will staff the classes.
Jennifer Linscomb, the Houston area director for Refugee Services of Texas, spent part of Tuesday preparing to help welcome Afghan refugees who might be placed in the region.

Since the fiscal year began in October, she explained, 324 Afghans who hold Special Immigrant Visas  meaning they worked for or on behalf of the U.S. government  had been referred to her organization.

Some have already made it to Texas from Fort Lee., Va., where they were temporarily based. Others have been assured of places in cities that the organization serves, including Houston. And still others are trying to clear bureaucratic hurdles, though they are expected to arrive in the state eventually.

Unfortunately, many have been unable to leave their native country since the Taliban entered and took control of the capital city of Kabul this past weekend. RST is planning for more arrivals, and to that end, working with partners in the private sector to ensure that housing, among other things, will be available.

Historically, Texans  including those in faith-based organizations and the business community  have come together in support of refugees.

Not only are a lot of our former clients (now) small business owners and doing great things in the community, but a lot of them give back by working for our agencies, Linscomb said.

These are days of uncertainty, however, for many who embraced democracy and stood by the U.S. during a 20-year conflict that sprung from the 9/11 attacks. The images from Afghanistan of the Taliban rolling into Kabul will haunt Americans for years, and rightly so. They depict a humanitarian disaster in which our nation obviously had a hand  and to which we have yet to muster an adequate response.

NEWSLETTERS Join the conversation with HouWeAre We want to foster conversation and highlight the intersection of race, identity and culture in one of America's most diverse cities. Sign up for the HouWeAre newsletter here.

To be clear, the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, after nearly 20 years of war, was not a particularly controversial one, polls show. Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump dont agree on much, but they agreed during the 2020 campaign that it was time to conclude Americas longest war.

Still, the execution of the withdrawal has been a nightmare, leaving the U.S. Embassy in Kabul abandoned and thousands of Afghan civilians stranded at the Kabul airport, hoping desperately for a way out.

How did this happen? Thats a good and as yet unanswered question. At the very least, the Biden administration underestimated the capacity of the Taliban  or overestimated the resilience of the bigger U.S.-trained and -equipped Afghan military.

There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy, Biden predicted in July, recalling the hurried evacuation from Saigon in 1975. Biden, who was a U.S. senator at the time, dismissed the possibility of a swift Taliban takeover in the wake of the planned U.S. withdrawal.

In an address to the nation Monday, he attempted to explain.

I know there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghan civilians sooner, Biden, a Democrat, said. Part of the answer is some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier, still hopeful for their country. And part of it is because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering, as they said, a crisis of confidence.

Biden went on to say that the military will move more SIV-eligible Afghans and their families out of the country in the coming days, as well as extend refugee protections to those who worked for the U.S. government or allied non-governmental organizations.

Still, this was a unsatisfying explanation. And it would have been nice to see Biden mount a vigorous defense of Afghan refugees, especially as his political foes were doing the opposite.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Biden & his radical deputies will use their catastrophic debacle in Afghanistan as a pretext for doing to America what Angela Merkel did to Germany & Europe, tweeted Stephen Miller, the Trump advisor known for his heavy hand in that administrations draconian immigration policies, including the Muslim ban and family separations along the southern border.

Commentator Tucker Carlson, who has espoused an increasingly strident nativism on his Fox News program, offered a similar line of argument.

If history is any guide  and its always a guide  we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country in coming months, probably in your neighborhood, Carlson said.

So first we invade and then were invaded, he sighed. It is always the same.

Similarly insidious lines of argument were often articulated during the insular, America-First years of the previous administration, and its disheartening to hear them made in this case. To that end, lets note that even Trump  whose administration negotiated the 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops by May 1, 2021  sees the magnitude of the current crisis.

Can anyone even imagine taking out our Military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and should be allowed to seek refuge? the former president asked in a statement Monday, reacting to events.

That appears to be the consensus of Americans watching the events unfold. Just as the region welcomed refugees from Vietnam after that long war concluded decades ago, local help organizations are preparing to do their part to welcome the Afghan refugees who will arrive in the coming weeks and months, despite the ongoing uncertainty.

Jida Nabulsi, the CEO of Amaanah, a Houston-based nonprofit that provides services to refugee and immigrant families, said shes expecting an increase in clients, most of whom are referred to the group by word of mouth. The new arrivals will need housing, and children will be plunged into the school year, even if they speak little or no English.

Im just very concerned about their mental health, honestly, Nabulsi added.

Being a refugee is hard enough, she continued, adding that trauma has been routine for many.

And in this case, she continued, the stress of dislocation has only been magnified by the speed with which the situation unraveled: Your fingers snapped and everything changed.

One way Houstonians can help, advocates say, is by expressing our support for Afghan refugees  which is, after all, consistent with the values and history of this diverse city.

I think Houston takes pride in that, being such a multinational, multicultural city, Linscomb said. I think theres a lot of pride.

erica.grieder@chron.com
Personal responsibility, apparently, is for the little people.

The powerful have Regeneron cocktails at the ready.

The powerful have good health insurance and doctors who make house calls.

The powerful can quarantine in the comforts of a taxpayer-funded mansion in downtown Austin.

Thats one takeaway from the announcement Tuesday that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has COVID-19  the very day after he tweeted about his appearance at another standing room only event in Collin County attended by an estimated 600 people. The tweet included photos of the event in which the maskless governor waves from a stage, facing a tight crowd of applauding supporters  nary a mask in sight.

How can we trust the governor to protect Texas from this raging pandemic when he wont even protect himself  or, for that matter, his supporters?

We wish the governor a speedy recovery, which is highly likely given that he is fully vaccinated and was reportedly experiencing no symptoms  yet another reminder how even though breakthrough infections occur, they rarely involve severe illness, prolonged hospital stays or death.

RELATED: Abbott tests positive for COVID after jam-packed, maskless GOP event

The bigger concern is whether Abbott exposed any of his unvaccinated supporters in one of his many campaign events, where photos have shown him rubbing elbows without a mask in large indoor gatherings, at times in up-close-and-personal conversation, at times squeezing in for photos or sharing a laugh under a crowded tent.

What happened to the governors March speech, where he announced that Texans had mastered the safety protocols such as masks and distancing that can stop the spread of COVID? What happened to the worn-out phrase he regurgitates every time he defends his callous ban on local mask requirements: Were past the time of government mandates, were into the time of personal responsibility.

If a man elected to lead nearly 30 million Texans cant be trusted to act responsibly, how can he effectively persuade others?

Were not just talking about the upper-income folks who attend Republican gubernatorial fundraisers.

Were talking about the millions of children returning to school who cant be vaccinated. Were talking about the rural Texans who must travel an hour to a hospital, only to find there are no beds available. Were talking about the multitudes of Texans who have no health insurance and no relationship with a trusted doctor who can inform them about vaccines.

Texans are watching you, governor. What are you showing them?

Not a champion of personal freedom. Only a mascot of incompetence.

An elected chief executive who is now contagious and home-bound because he refused to follow his own advice to the little people.

A governor who not only refuses to lead an effective campaign urging Texans to protect themselves and their communities, but actively threatens to punish and sue local leaders who try to impose safety requirements such as mask-wearing.

Sure, many Republicans had a great deal of fun chiding the COVID cases among Democrats who flew on a chartered plane without masks to DC in early June. They should have worn masks. But their indiscretion came at a time when many Texans were happily tossing our masks after becoming fully vaccinated.

We had done our part  or so we thought. We didnt account for the new, more contagious delta variant and the millions of fellow Texans who did not get the jab, and still wont wear so much as a mask to stop the spread. We didnt account for a governor who condones their irresponsible conduct with his own.

THE LATEST NUMBERS: Interactive maps, charts show spread of COVID across Houston

Abbotts carefree maskless outings come as Texas is experiencing what health experts call the worst surge of the pandemic.

Across Texas, more than 11,700 are hospitalized for COVID. Rural hospitals are turning away patients  COVID and non-COVID  and trying to fly critical ones out of state for care, watching some die in the process.

In Harris County, the largest contiguous medical center in the world is spilling over with the highest number of COVID patients ever admitted. Local officials say several hundred cant even get in the door.

Houston has reached the grim milestone of more than 3,000 COVID deaths and officials announced Tuesday that one in every five Houstonians getting tested is positive.

The states response has been too little too late. While the health department recently announced it was opening nine infusion centers for Texans to receive Regenerons experimental monoclonal antibody treatment that can help mild cases avoid hospitalization, NBC News reported on Monday that Texas had also requested five mortuary trailers from the federal government in anticipation of an influx of dead bodies.

Abbott likes to say, in another context, the most precious freedom is life itself. We agree. More than 54,000 Texans have lost theirs now  some because they believed vaccine conspiracies and some because they believed political leaders who claim a face mask is more tyrannical than a deadly infectious disease.

The governor is reportedly feeling fine, self-isolating and receiving the Regeneron treatment as a precaution.

He seems to be in good hands. If only we could say the same for Texas.
Global warming is fake news. Anyway, it isnt man-made. And doing anything about it would destroy the economy.

Opponents of action against climate change have always relied on multiple lines of defense: If one argument for doing nothing becomes unsustainable, they just retreat to another.

Thats what were seeing now, as conservatives argue against the Biden administrations push for climate-friendly public investment. As it happens, this push is taking place against a background of unprecedented heat waves, huge forest fires, severe drought in some places and catastrophic flooding in others  phenomena that scientists have long warned would become more common as the planet gets hotter.

Given these events, as The Times recently reported, Republicans have toned down their climate denial  in some cases pretending that they never denied the science in the first place. Thus Sen. James Inhofe, author of 2012s The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, is now claiming that he never called climate change a hoax.

If past experience is any guide, this new willingness to accept the reality of global warming wont last; the next time America has a cold snap, the usual suspects will go right back to denying climate change and attacking scientists. For now, however, theyre focused on the immense economic damage that, they claim, will result if we try to limit emissions of greenhouse gases.

So let me offer four reasons not to believe a word they say on this subject.

First, the U.S. economy has consistently done better under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents  a pattern so strong that even progressive economists admit that its puzzling. Whatever the cause of this partisan disparity, a party devoted to the zombie doctrine that tax cuts solve all problems has no standing to lecture us on whats good for the economy.

Second, there is a remarkable inconsistency between conservatives expressed faith in the power of private initiative and their assertion that climate policies will paralyze the economy. Businesses, the right likes to tell us, are engines of innovation and adaptation, rising to meet any challenge. Yet somehow the same people who laud private-sector creativity insist that businesses will shrivel up and die if confronted with new regulations or emission fees.

In fact, a number of studies have shown that government projections of the effects of new environmental or safety regulations consistently overestimate their costs, precisely because businesses respond to new rules and incentives by innovating, finding ways to reduce compliance costs. And industry projections of the adverse effects of regulation are far worse, typically overstating the costs to a ludicrous degree.

Third, history strongly refutes the notion that theres any necessary link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions.

Consider the case of Britain, where modern economic growth began. British emissions of carbon dioxide have been falling for half a century, despite a growing economy. On a per-capita basis, Britains carbon dioxide emissions are back down to what they were in the 50s  the 1850s, when real GDP per person was only about one-ninth what it is today.

Finally, Republican insistence that we must remain dependent on fossil fuels is especially strange given huge technological progress in renewable energy  progress so remarkable that the Trump administration tried to force power companies to keep using coal, which is no longer competitive on cost. Improved technology means that climate action looks far easier now than it did in, say, 2008, when John McCain called for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, a position that would be disqualifying for anyone seeking the Republican presidential nomination today.

Of course, these facts wont change Republican minds. Its painfully obvious that politicians opposing climate action arent arguing in good faith; theyve effectively decided to block any and all measures to ward off disaster and will use whatever excuses they can find to justify their position.

Why has the GOP become the party of pollution? I used to think that it was mainly about money; in the 2020 election cycle Republicans received 84 percent of political contributions from the oil and gas industry and 96% of contributions from coal mining.

And money is surely part of the story. But I now think theres more to it than that. Like pandemic policy, where the GOP has effectively allied itself with the coronavirus, climate policy has become a front in the culture war; theres a sense on the right that real men disdain renewable energy and love burning fossil fuels. Look at the dishonest attempts to blame wind farms for Texas blackouts actually caused by freezing pipelines.

In any case, what you need to know is that claims that taking on climate change would be an economic disaster are as much at odds with the evidence as claims that the climate isnt changing.
I think it may be time to call it quits on this war.

I wrote those words from a metal building where I slept on the Camp Bastion airfield in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It was October 2013, and earlier that day, a senior Taliban commander who we desperately wanted to erase from the battlefield stood in handcuffs 20 feet from the cockpit of my V-22 Osprey. But we returned to base without him. He went free  free to continue planning to kill my friends. It was the low point of my deployment. As the flight lead, I couldve made the decision to spend more resources and put more people at risk to try and detain the Taliban commander, but I felt the cost wasnt worth the looming possibility of still having to let him go while risking more lives. The way I felt when we let him walk free is a version of what a lot of veterans of this war are feeling now as we watch the Taliban takeover.

War is a powerful and blunt tool with which to impose our national will. The weight of the decision to take military action should be felt and considered by every leader, elected official and citizen. When the nation largely agreed on retaliation against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in 2001, we met some key criteria of the Powell Doctrine. We had a clear threat to national interest in al-Qaida, a defined objective in defeating the Taliban, and broad support at home and abroad. However, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force used to ignite this conflict in Afghanistan gave the president broad powers and no clear and attainable objective. By the time I arrived in 2013, our former objectives had been met years earlier and we were now spending blood and treasure to prop up a foreign government and military.

Twice a week during this deployment, we would fly two Ospreys with escorts to an airfield just southwest of the embattled town of Marjah, where some of the heaviest fighting of the war took place three years earlier. Our mission was to respond when a surveillance aircraft over the desert to the south detected a vehicle along one of the rat lines Taliban smugglers used to ferry people and supplies across the border with Pakistan. We would land our tiltrotor aircraft, insert a combined force of British SAS and Afghan Special Forces to inspect the vehicle, and detain smugglers or enemy combatants.

Many of these missions involved discovering an abandoned vehicle or, worse, a goat farmer delivering his animals to town. You could imagine the excitement when we found a steering column full of passports and identified one passenger as a senior Taliban commander. But this was 2013, during the Transition phase of the war, where the Afghan chain of command was supposed to take the lead. The Afghan Special Forces with us were not able to gain approval from the correct decision maker to detain these men and instead were instructed to release them. A group of vehicles were speeding across the open desert toward us less than 10 miles away and the escorts were running low on fuel. I made the call to leave.

We had evidence and positive identification, but the six accompanying Afghans who we were supposed to turn this mission over to, did not have the authority they needed. This sort of dysfunction is on global display now, as evidenced by the fall of the capitol of Helmand Province along with the others this past week. To defend the nation of Afghanistan, a construct of British colonialism in the first place, the populace would need to agree on what the nation of Afghanistan is. The Durand line, drawn by Sir Mortimer Durand of the British-Indian government in 1893, split Pashtun territory through its heart between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is no wonder a major Taliban source of strength is in Pashtun country, where their message of religious purity and evil foreign powers lands in fertile soil. Other borders with Persia and Russia in the late 1800s were also drawn by colonial or regional powers rather than by the folks who lived inside them. Rank and file Afghans, whether Pashtun, Punjabi or otherwise, would identify with an ethnic group before they would claim a national identity, and the Taliban tells a compelling story to these groups.

To have a strong national will, there must be a common vision. A common, consistent vision is hard to come by in America, too. Our vision for what success looks like in Afghanistan shifted over time, for example. We started dropping bombs in October 2001 and building bases in November 2001 to destroy al-Qaida, find Osama bin Laden, and break the country loose from the Taliban government harboring them. A month ago, Americans held on to the notion we installed and trained an Afghan military and government capable of keeping the Taliban at bay. Now the best we can hope for is to avoid another attack on U.S. soil launched from a training camp in Taliban territory.

We should take this as our lesson from the past 20 years, which we should have learned when Saigon was becoming Ho Chi Minh City 45 years ago: It takes a nation to fight and win a war, not just a military. Both South Vietnam and the United States were bitterly divided about the war with North Vietnam. Now Americans are not so much divided about war as we are disinterested until a collapse or catastrophe grabs the headlines. A popular refrain in military circles over the past 20 years is, America is not at war. The military is at war; America is at the mall. While the nature of our democratic republic rightly suggests we air our disagreements about whether to fight, once we commit troops, the entire nation and its politicians should clearly define and unwaveringly support this effort to the end  whether it be five years, 20 years or 100 years later.

This is the gravity of what war is. To be successful in the future, we must take the Powell Doctrine to heart and be hesitant to engage, but deliberate, fierce and steadfast once committed. In contrast to the way this war in Afghanistan is ending, a clearly defined objective would include some form of a timetable or event trigger.

We cannot grant warfighting power without a clear objective as was done with the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. If we forced Congress to vote more regularly on specific actions, and specifically declare war  something we havent done since World War II  for major conflicts, it would bring reality a little closer and force our representatives to feel the weight of these decisions on their shoulders. It would also create buy-in.

Instead of easily scoring political points when the enemy strikes a blow, a senator who voted for the war would be more likely to take a longer view and encourage support. Our elected officials and every citizen need to be part of the decision to commit troops with a clear, obtainable mission.

Philosophically, I have trouble with conscription, but practically there is no better way for the country to experience the impact of war than to have our brothers and sisters fight in it. A national call to service, though not only military service, is a good idea. Young Americans from all walks of life working alongside one another to serve something bigger than themselves would instill the national spirit we want to pass down, and can be done at local and state levels, too.

We need to think about maintaining a strong connection between our decision-makers and the 18-year-old with a rifle so the burden of war is shared by every social and economic class. This is how we make prudent decisions we can see all the way through. Our political winds may change direction every two to four years, but we cannot afford for our foreign policy to do the same.

I was a freshman at Texas A&M on 9/11. I was angry at what happened like everyone else and wanted to join the effort to fight the Taliban and find bin Laden. At 18, I was gung-ho about the Global War on Terror in all its theaters and a big supporter of President George W. Bush. I went to both his inaugurations. I am proud of my service and even prouder of those with whom I served because we were professional and did what we were asked to do well. Al-Qaida and the Taliban were largely defeated in 2002, then nearly two decades passed. I see clearly now how failing to define and support an attainable objective doomed our efforts. In 2013, I thought our mission in staying was to avoid what happened last week. Instead, eight more years of blood and treasure were wasted.

While we watch thousands of Americans and allied Afghans desperately awaiting airlift as the Taliban takes control, the predominant feeling I share with fellow veterans of this war, many with much more harrowing experiences than my own, is sadness. Sadness remembering the lives lost while watching this dark ending unfold and sadness for those trapped behind enemy lines.

My hope is we, who so effectively converted our rage into action to join this war or ardently protest the conflict from the start, can convert the emotions of this disastrous ending into actions to ensure we do not find ourselves here again. To do so will require we mute the pundits and political positioning that are just as likely to damage our ability to learn anything from this fiasco as they were to doom the outcome from the beginning.

Pitcock, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and member of the conservative organization Principles First, owns a a small business in Houston and resides in Nacogdoches. Twitter:jlouispitcock
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Work continues Tuesday to bring Mount Greylock's fields into compliance with Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The School Committee decided in the spring to separate that project from a more contentious proposal to build a synthetic turf field.

Mount Greylock School Committee Discusses Outstanding Questions in Field Debate

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday discussed whether it can make another try at improving playing fields at the middle/high school as soon as this fall.

Carolyn Greene of the panel's Finance Subcommittee reported that the district will know in October the current value of the $5 million capital gift Mount Greylock received from Williams College in 2016.

Over the last five years, that gift has been drawn down for various infrastructure needs at the Cold Spring Road school and what has not been spent has also appreciated in value as part of the college's multibillion-dollar endowment.

Once each year, the college provides an updated figure for how much the district has available from the gift's proceeds. And the Finance Subcommittee suggested that the full committee should decide by the fall whether it wants to pursue an artificial turf multipurpose field and/or a track for the campus in order to put such projects out to bid at the optimal time.

The question of whether the district should make those investments  particularly as regards the synthetic field  has long been a focus of debate on the School Committee and in the broader community, with loud voices speaking out for and against an artificial surface.

On Thursday, Greene asked her colleagues what questions they needed to have answered in order to be able to make a decision about whether to send the project out to bid for a third time  this time without the inclusion of Title IX and Americans with Disabilities Act work that was separated from the project in the spring and is currently underway.

"These are the questions that, perhaps, we hadn't given complete answers to, or community members felt we hadn't fully responded to," Greene said. "Some of them are questions we were still asking ourselves.  Is there anything we're missing, anything we should revise, adjust, edit? And then we'll spend a little time researching: What do we know? What else do we need to figure out?

"By 'we,' I kind of mean the administration, so I want to be mindful that this list can't grow very long. We need to contain the conversations to the highest priority: What we need in order for us to be able to make a decision about whether and how to move forward in October."

The questions compiled by the Finance Subcommittee included "policy" questions like whether the district should fund future maintenance of the turf field through usage fees charged to outside groups as well as thornier issues like "Are there student health concerns [with synthetic turf]?"

Potential health impacts from exposure to artificial surfaces have been raised by critics of the turf field as have questions about negative environmental impacts from artificial turf and whether the district should be sending the message that more plastics are ideal.

Another vein of criticism has concerned whether the district should spend the capital gift on a "want," like a turf field or reserve all of it for future infrastructure needs, like new roofs and boilers.

In December 2020, the School Committee voted 6-0-1 to reserve $1 million from the capital gift for a Mount Greylock "renewal fund." But even that decision raises a new question. "[I]s that $1M as of last year's vote or $1M as of  now?" the Finance Subcommittee's Thursday memo asked, acknowledging that $1 million set aside from the gift on Dec. 22, 2020, the date of the vote, would have appreciated in value proportionate to the overall performance of the investments in the Williams endowment.

That Dec. 22 vote came a week after the School Committee hosted a pair of hourlong public forums designed to allow proponents and opponents of an artificial turf field to make their cases to the committee.

On Thursday, the district's business administrator, who will be responsible for helping compile responses to the questions on the Finance Subcommittee's list, recognized that there are not definitive answers to some of those questions.

"For [How would the field itself impact the environment?'], this one is definitely gathering the latest research and putting it in front of us," Joe Bergeron said. "It's a judgment call. Unfortunately, when this topic is brought up in pretty much every community where it's considered, you find hours of debate on the topic. I think the best we could possibly do is serve up the latest studies we can find.

"For ['Are there student health concerns?'], it's the same thing. There is no yes or no."

Superintendent Jason McCandless reminded the School Committee members that whatever they decide on the synthetic turf question, they will not satisfy all their constituents  no matter how much research is compiled.

"The questions we started the evening with did capture the questions out there in the community," McCandless said. "Questions that were either not fully answered or not fully answered to the satisfaction of people approaching this with a well-defined position of desperately wanting the field or not wanting the field at all.

"For the people who like the outcome that the School Committee comes to  they will be of the opinion that there was just the right amount of process or there was way too much process because this is on year four or five of the conversation. For the people who don't like the outcome, they will be firmly convinced forever that there was no process at all. I think that's just human nature. Like every process I've ever been a part of, that's a piece of where you end up."
NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The public library plans to replace the majority of its public computers though it is yet to be seen where the funding will come from.

Library Director Sarah Sanfilippo told the trustees last week that she has been working with the city's Information Technology Department to replace the bulk of the library's fleet of computers but does not know how she will cover the $18,000 price tag

"They were very old, and it was all patchwork," Sanfilippo said. "Now we will have almost everything new, and it will be so much better for the patrons ... but it is going to cost a lot of money."

Sanfilippo said the computers are old and the majority of them still run the antiquated Windows 7 that will become even more obsolete when Windows 11 is released in the near future.

She had proposed purchasing refurbished computers but the IT Department felt this was not a good idea, knowing they would all likely have to be replaced again in a few years.

She said her own budget is pretty limited and had yet to get an answer from the city if it would be willing to chip in. She said she planned to ask the Friends of the Library and, on Wednesday, asked the trustees if they would be willing to help cover the cost.

"I am just throwing out lines and seeing what comes in," she said. "I don't really have a number."

The trustees agreed they wanted to help but didn't know where to start.

"I am open to helping as much as we see fit," Trustee Sarah Farnsworth said. "I think we just have to figure out what the city is kicking in."

The trustees were upset the public computer fleet was neglected for so long.

Sanfilippo said the IT Department has been understaffed, and IT updates are needed in other areas in the city. She said it is also the nature of libraries to work with what they have.

"Libraries tend to be pretty scrappy, and they get people to donate here and there or they find old computers," she said. "They put them all together and it works. But it is never part of the budget."

Farnsworth felt, especially after the pandemic, it should be clear how important technology is to the library.

"We need to stop pretending like technology is something extra," she said. "It is a lifeline, and it has to be given top priority."

The trustees agreed they would like to see technology upgrades become a regular part of the budget and to see a computer replacement schedule.

As for kicking in some money for the upgrades, they asked that Sanfilippo to get a number from the city first.

Also in regard to technology, the library plans to roll out lendable mobile hotspots.

"We are doing some preparation before we let them loose in the community," Sanfilippo said. "We want to make some cheat sheets so people know how to use them."

The hot spots, that provide unlimited wifi, can be taken home by patrons and can provide service for up to 10 devices.

"I am excited about this," Trustee Tara Jacobs said. "Especially after this year, it has shown how important this is."

Sanfilippo said they do come with filters that block certain websites. She said this can be turned off by library staff. Patrons do not have to give a reason.

She said the filters are on as a default to block pornography and other like the content. She said there seems to be a problem with the filtering that the company is trying to work out with the internet provider.

"People have been testing them and they have noticed they are filtering things they probably shouldn't like Planned Parenthood," she said. "... Someone said they were looking for maternity clothes, and the website was blocked. But it can be turned off and it is not a person blocking it."

In other businesses, Sanfilippo touched on the funds the late state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi left to the library, a portion of which was earmarked for astronomy materials.

Sanfilippo said a patron suggested using some of the funds to purchase star gazing binoculars.

"We were thinking we could put together a packet that people could borrow and look at the stars," she said. "Maybe have an event in the fall when it gets darker a little earlier ... the money has been sitting there a while it would be nice to get some use out of it."

Sanfilippo said they are working to bring on some part-time personnel and new volunteers as some volunteers left during the pandemic

The trustees also touched on changing their meeting time. Historically they have met Wednesday afternoons.

The board is still down a member and folks who work days have had a hard time making the meetings that typically start at 3:15 p.m. Sanfilippo said the trustees can change the time but per the charter, meetings have to take place on Wednesdays.
Ventfort Hall: The Concorde: Technology Meets Glamour

LENOX, Mass.  Frequent flyer and author Rene Silvin will relay his experiences with "The Concorde: Technology Meets Glamour."

His presentation will be available on Zoom only on Tuesday, August 24 at 4 pm. Silvin's program is part of the museum's Tuesday Talks.

The speaker flew on this technologically advanced plane 160 times and will present the history of this marvel of technology from an in-depth, personal point of view. As one of Air France's best customers, he was treated to a very early non-stop flight originating and ending in Paris. It was akin to a 3 - hour test flight over the Atlantic. He will also introduce us to the famous folk with whom he rubbed elbows in flight.

Of the 350 aircraft planned, a French/British joint development, a mere 20 were built due to the high cost of operation, and only 14 of these supersonic and expensive marvels went into service. Air France and British Airways were the only airlines that flew Concorde planes.

A fatal accident in 2000, followed by the tragic events of 9/11, precipitated Concorde's decline in popularity and led to the eventual retirement of this still unsurpassed supersonic plane.

Silvin has an active interest in historic preservation as vice-chairman of the Palm Beach Landmarks Preservation Commission. He is the author of "Noblesse Oblige, the Duchess of Windsor as I Knew Herand Normandie: The Tragic Story of the Most Majestic Ocean Liner," subjects of past lectures at Ventfort Hall. He is also the author of "I Survived Swiss Boarding Schools: An Arc to Triumph and Villa Mizner: The House That Changed Palm Beach."
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Like many entrepreneurs who start businesses that empower people with disabilities, Charlotte Dales drew inspiration from a family member. It was 2017, she had just sold her first company, and her cousin had just become the first licensed aesthetician with Down syndrome in Florida.

"What she'd been told her potential was all of her life, she was actually able to achieve far more," Dales says. "After getting my first facial from her, I knew this would be my next company."

Two years later, Dales founded Inclusively, a platform that helps people with a variety of disabilities--from mobility impairments and chronic illnesses to autism and PTSD--find accessible jobs at nearly 30 large employers, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Comcast. The Richmond, Virginia-based company raised a $5.5 million seed round in June, has 15 employees, and counts more than 15,000 job candidates on its platform.

One in four American adults has some form of disability, and plenty of employers want to tap this talent pool, especially in the current tight labor market. But many don't know where to start. There's no shortage of government agencies, charities, and advocacy groups helping people with disabilities find work, Dales says, but there's never been a single platform where companies can reach them all--and the people they support.

"Because it's so fragmented across so many different systems, it's really hard for employers to access the talent pool at scale," she says.

Inclusively bills itself not as a job training or placement service, but as a tech company that bridges the gap between organizations helping people with disabilities get hired and employers that want to hire them. Its platform and matching technology help businesses share job openings with a wider applicant pool and find candidates whose skills match their needs, while helping advocacy organizations connect with employers outside their existing networks, Dales says. "We can't scale if we're training candidates and helping them with every little thing," she says. "There are so many programs already out there that do that, and they do it well. They just need a more efficient way to manage candidates and to get better access into employers."

People with disabilities have a significantly higher-than-average unemployment rate, in part because traditional hiring processes aren't designed for them, Dales says. Listings on job boards often don't mention whether the employer can provide the accommodations people with disabilities might need, such as assistive devices or a modified work schedule, and applicant tracking systems are trained to filter out resumes with gaps, which are common among this population, she says. What's more, the average hiring manager might not have experience interviewing neurodivergent candidates, such as those on the autism spectrum.

On Inclusively's platform, employers can note available accommodations in job listings, and job seekers can indicate on their profiles which accommodations they would need in an interview or at work. In addition to charging employers to post listings, Inclusively offers training on workplace inclusivity and accommodations (which the company calls "success enablers").

Inclusively isn't the only company taking aim at this problem. InReturn Strategies, a startup in Leawood, Kansas, has a similar business model. Founded in 2013 by Jim Atwater, who is deaf, InReturn seeks to make inclusion a core part of companies' business strategies, rather than something extra. The company has a network of 4,500 organizations supporting people with disabilities, which it calls access providers, that can use its platform for free. Businesses pay to access the network, and InReturn helps them engage with underserved populations they couldn't otherwise reach, Atwater says.

"If I partner with a disability organization, I can only get what they have," he says. "They might support 100, or 200, or maybe only 25 people, and that's my limitation. But I can aggregate all of those populations and start to see who they are and where they are in my markets, and then I can start to integrate that strategically into my business plans."

Businesses tend to approach the disability community through philanthropic efforts, or to check a box in a diversity plan, and don't think of it as a valuable customer segment or talent pipeline, adds Scott Brouillette, who joined the company as CEO in 2019. "As somebody that has hired hundreds of people in the technology space," he says, "if I knew I was missing 25 percent of the world's population and someone gave me a mechanism or a platform to engage that, that's just a strategic advantage over any of my competitors." And by taking meaningful steps to be more inclusive, companies can earn the loyalty not just of the people they hire, but of their families, friends, and supporters, he says. "That directly affects your brand and the culture at your company."

Beechmont Automotive Group, which employs 375 people across several car dealerships and related businesses in Cincinnati, recently became an InReturn client and plans to use the platform for future hiring. "It's one of those things where we don't know that our ads for jobs or our advertising to sell cars doesn't reach communities," says Trey Woeste, a vice president at the company. "We didn't know that we weren't communicating effectively."
Alyssa Milano has been involved in a car accident after her uncle suffered a possible heart attack while driving.

The Charmed star was believed to be riding in the front passenger seat when her uncle went unconscious after becoming ill with a medical issue behind the wheel.

Milano, who is reportedly uninjured, told LA authorities that she felt a SUV hit the right side of their car after it drifted into another lane.

According to a California Highway Patrol (CHP) press release, obtained by PEOPLE, they were able to bring the Ford to a stop between the #1 and #2 lanes... with the assistance of a good Samaritan.

CHP said that the SUV drove away without stopping.

TMZ reports that Milano gave her uncle CPR until paramedics arrived. She was then picked up by her husband, David Bugliari.

In a Twitter post shared after the accident, Milano said: We should all take every opportunity we have to protect the people we love.

Alyssa Milano was left uninjured in car accident (Getty Images)

Get vaccinated. Wear masks. Lock up your guns. Learn CPR. Small, common-sense actions.

She added: Its not hard to take care of each other, but it is important.

The Independent has contacted Milano for comment.
Counterfeit versions of Covid vaccines in India and Uganda have been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the world health body said in a medical product alert issued on Monday.

The counterfeit versions were being passed off as Covishield, the primary vaccine used across India, said the alert.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) that manufactures Covishield  the version of the AstraZeneca jab for India confirmed the doses were fake.

The WHO warned the fake doses posed a serious risk to global public health and called for their removal from circulation.

The alert said the falsified products were reported to the health body between July and August this year.

It urged countries, healthcare centres, wholesalers and pharmacies to intensify increased vigilance within the supply chains of countries and regions likely to be affected by these falsified products.

All medical products must be obtained from authorised/licensed suppliers. The products authenticity and physical condition should be carefully checked, it said.

India is no stranger to vaccine scams during the coronavirus pandemic. There have been many incidents where fake jabs have been administered to individuals, and in some cases, to housing societies that carry out vaccine drives, usually in exchange for large sums of money.

The first reported fake vaccine scam unearthed in the country affected close to 2,000 people in Maharashtra state in June this year. Many of the victims were believed to have been administered simple saline solutions.

About 14 people, including registered doctors, were arrested once the scam was unearthed when none of them received government vaccine certificates.

In another prominent example of a vaccine scam in the country and in the same state, a Bollywood film producer claimed to have been a victim.

Ramesh Taurani, who heads Tips Industries, a music label and film production company in state capital Mumbai, had organised a vaccination camp for 365 employees of his film production company in May and July.

None of those employees received vaccination certificates, prompting Mr Taurani to file a police complaint.

The WHOs medical alert pointed out that falsified vaccines result in severe impacts to global public health and place additional burdens on vulnerable populations.

It is important to detect and remove these falsified products from circulation to prevent harm to patients, the alert said.

There has been no official response by Indias federal health ministry on the alert. Some media reports, however, have said the ministry was investigating the matter.

Although we have a strong system to prevent such cases, with this development, the only thing we want to ensure is that no Indian received a fake vaccine, a senior health ministry official was quoted as saying by the Mint newspaper.

We are investigating the matter, the official added.
A Delhi court on Wednesday cleared Indian politician Shashi Tharoor of charges linking him to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar, ending his seven-year-long legal battle.

Shortly after the judgment, Mr Tharoor, a key member of Indias opposition Congress party who had also served as an under-secretary general at the UN for nearly five years, thanked the court and the judge for bringing a significant conclusion to the long nightmare.

Pushkar was found dead in a luxury hotel suite in central Delhi on the night of January 17 2014, sending shockwaves across the country as Mr Tharoor was a serving minister in the federal government at that time. Mr Tharoor and his wife had moved into the hotel suite as his residence was under renovation.

A year later, the Delhi police filed a case against Mr Tharoor, charging him with abetment to suicide and cruelty.

Mr Tharoor, a Congress MP from the south Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram, released a statement on Wednesday, stating that he has consistently described the charges by the Delhi police as preposterous.

This brings a significant conclusion to the long nightmare which had enveloped me after the tragic passing of my late wife Sunanda. I have weathered dozens of unfounded accusations and media vilification patiently, sustained by my faith in the Indian judiciary, which today stands vindicated, the 65-year-old MP said.

The judgment, Mr Tharoor said, will allow him and his family to mourn Sunanda in peace.

Days before her death, tweets by Pushkar suggested differences between the couple amid reports of Mr Tharoors involvement with a journalist from Pakistan.

In court, Mr Tharoor maintained that Pushkars death was neither a suicide nor homicide as per the evidence, and should be considered an accident, Indian news channel NDTV reported.

Pushkar, Mr Tharoors lawyers said, was struggling with several medical conditions at the time of her death, the report added.

The mysterious death of Pushkar four years after her marriage to the parliamentarian became a sensational case in India with political rivals often targeting Mr Tharoor for his alleged involvement in the case.
At least three people are believed to have died after Taliban gunmen opened fire to break up a protest in Jalalabad on Wednesday, where scores of people had to the streets in a rare show of dissent against the militant groups takeover of Afghanistan, raising Afghan national flags.

Dozens of protesters in the eastern city had taken to the streets to protest the way the Taliban has taken the country by force and to defend the national flag, which the groups fighters removed from the presidential palace after it was vacated by fleeing President Ashraf Ghani.

Local resident Salim Ahmad told the Associated Press that Taliban members had fired into the air to disperse the crowd, but a witness told Reuters at least three people died in the shooting and ensuing chaos. Al Jazeera reported that around a dozen others were injured.

Since they started to make sweeping territorial gains across the country last month, the Taliban have been replacing the Afghan national flag with their own banner, a white background with an Islamic inscription in black.

The Taliban leadership have promised a general amnesty for those who opposed it in government during the past 20 years and say they will not carry out reprisal attacks.

But in another incident of violence on the streets on Wednesday, Taliban forces blew up the statue of a Shiite military leader who fought against the armed group in Afghanistans civil war in the 1990s, according to local reports.

Continuing to strengthen its grip on the country three days after sweeping into Kabul, Taliban militants with long guns were seen patrolling neighbourhoods of the capital, including areas in the so-called Green Zone that is home to many embassies as well as mansions of the Afghan elite.

The groups successful military campaign to take control of the country has triggered panic and chaos as many rushed to flee, fearing a humanitarian crisis and the return of draconian Taliban rule. There are widespread fears for the rights of women, children and minorities under the ultra-conservative Islamist group, though it has given some limited assurances on this front.

As it seeks to avoid making Afghanistan into a pariah state, the Taliban has claimed it will form an inclusive government, allow women to work and preserve their rights. In its rule prior to the US-led invasion in 2001, the Taliban quashed womens rights, banned TV and music and carried out public executions by stoning.

The chaotic withdrawal of Western forces and the Talibans takeover in Kabul has prompted countries around the world to pull out their diplomatic staff and other citizens as quickly as they can, mainly through Kabul airport - which remains under US control.

There is likely to be a major exodus of refugees from the country, with many Afghans also trying to flee. The British government committed on Wednesday to take in 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, primarily women and children.
 Close General Kenneth McKenzie announces completion of US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

The government has been threatened with legal action over its failure to respond to requests for help from a progressive female MP and a leading woman judge who are both in hiding in Afghanistan.

British lawyers have sent a warning letter to ministers stating that if they do not issue visas for the two women  who cannot be named to protect their identities  by 2pm on Wednesday, they will launch an emergency legal challenge to compel them to do so.

Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani, who has been supporting the two women, told The Independent they had been let down by the British government, describing the situation as shameful.

It comes as Qatars foreign minister publicly encouraged the Taliban to cooperate in the fight against terrorism and, following a meeting with the militant group, called on the international community to protect Afghan civilians. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani was speaking at a press conference in Doha.
As the Taliban prepares to take power in Kabul, many in Afghanistan are reflecting back on the previous Taliban regimes brutal policies, when beheadings, floggings, and stoning were common practices.

The group returns to a much-changed Afghanistan, with greater democratic freedoms and inclusivity for women. The change in Afghan society has raised the stakes for the Taliban as the US and Nato forces abruptly withdrew from the country in the past weeks.

How its power structure will accommodate the new reality and reconcile it with its own beliefs is being closely watched, along with the formation of its new government.

This will increasingly depend on a tiny circle of personalities embroiled in a fierce competition of personal ambitions and tribal feuds at the top of the Taliban power structure.

There are two elements to the Taliban, and their surroundings may have provided some conditioning on leadership roles as well as future direction. This includes those based in Pakistan and those residing in Qatar, said Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation and a visiting teacher at the London School of Economics in London.

The Judge and supreme leader

Haibatullah Akhunzada - the Talibans supreme leader (AP)

The 60-years-old groups supreme leader Haibatullah Akhunzada will likely issue the general guidance for his aides on how the group will run the country in the future. His current whereabouts remain unknown, but many experts say he is most likely in Pakistan.

He was elected as the undisputed leader of the movement after his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mansours assassination in an airstrike near the Afghan-Pakistani border in 2016.

So far, Akhunzada showed a high level of pragmatism and a great ability to manoeuvre within the Taliban. Mullah Mansour left a fractioned group as he reportedly failed to resolve feuds between different Taliban factions, which led to the defection of many commanders who later challenged the leadership. After the death of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban founder, in 2014, many commanders accused Mullah Mansour of covering up his death and assuming leadership without proper approval.

Akhunzada was selected for his credentials as the most prominent religious scholar and advisor to Mullah Omar, a veteran fighter (Mujahid) against the Soviet Union and - like the other Taliban leaders - a Pashtun, the biggest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Akhunzada obtains the prestigious title of emir ul momineen - or leader of the faithful and is the ultimate authority on religious, political, and military issues. He enjoys absolute powers due to Islamic jurisprudence rules, which make his orders enforceable. The supreme leader remains in office until death and may not be removed unless he violates strict religious laws or is unable to carry out his duties due to illness.

After his inauguration, Akhunzada received a pledge of loyalty from al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, which helped secure his jihadi credentials.

The Taliban leader doesnt oversee a clear power structure. The group does not have a public set of rules for running the day-to-day administrative work within its rank and file, and its members dont carry identity cards.

However, Akhunzada sits on top of the leadership Shura Council (Rahbari Shura), consisting of 21 members. Under the Shura Council, nearly two dozen commissions and offices serve as a kind of cabinet of ministers, such as the political office, the economic commission, the education commission and the high court of justice.

Akhunzada has three deputies, each overseeing a bundle of the political, military and economic affairs commissions and offices. These deputies are expected to manage the daily work in any possible Taliban government.

The founder

Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, widely expected to be the new President (AP)

The most famous deputy leader is Mullah Abdulghani Baradar, one of the groups most respected and popular figures and its political chief.

His name means Brother and was given to him by his brother-in-law, Mullah Omar. After fighting the Soviets side-by-side, the pair, with others, co-founded the Taliban.

Baradar is seen by most in the west as the leader of the reform camp in the leadership Shura Council.

Like Akhunzada and many other commanders, he was raised in Kandahar  the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

After the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001, Baradar joined a handful of Taliban commanders in signing a letter to Former President Hamid Karzai offering a deal that would have seen the militant group recognise the new administration.

Mullah Baradar was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 but was released after pressure from the US, possibly to secure support within the Taliban for the peace negotiations with Washington. He was immediately appointed head of the political office and was sent to Doha, where he oversaw the withdrawal agreement with the US.

Since then, he has met with leaders from other countries, including his meeting with Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month in Tianjin.

Without doubt, the real strings of the Taliban shall be pulled by Mullah Ghani Baradar and Hibatullah, although the former likes the publicity whilst the latter shuns it hence (they) form a good double team, Kamal Alam, visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told The Independent.

One thing is for sure, Baradar has been the public diplomat and the reformer talking about a new Taliban, he added.

Baradar is expected to be the new president or foreign minister in any future Taliban government.

Talibans negotiators (REUTERS)

The heir

The other deputy leader is Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the military commander of the Taliban. Mullah Yaqoob is the son of Mullah Omar, and he is believed to be in his mid-30s. He is a member of the Pakistan-based faction.

His bloodline and close ties to his father confers on him a symbolic power and makes him a unifying figure over a sprawling movement.

He was elevated to the military commander role after his predecessor, Ibrahim Sadr, a powerful field commander, opposed peace efforts with Washington. Sadr was among eight Taliban members designated as global terrorists by the US Treasury Department in 2018.

Mullah Yacoop is now believed to be the mastermind behind the recent military offensive that saw the Taliban bringing Afghan provinces under control at a speed that surprised western observers.

He is expected to oversee the military affairs in any Taliban government. Many experts say he may one day ascend to the role of the supreme leader.

Baradar and Yaqoob have supported Akhunzadas decisions in the leadership council, especially the negotiations with the US. Without this support, Akhunzadas peace efforts would have most likely been thwarted by hardliners.

They havent worked side-by-side for 20 years, so to suddenly combine their approaches could be complicated, and divisions may emerge Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation

The Haqqanis

In the face of Baradars and Yaqoobs prestigious status, the third deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is thought to be the most influential.

He is the son of the famous mujahideen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, who led Islamic fighters against the Soviet forces. Sirajuddin is considered one of the most dangerous commanders within the Taliban. The Haqqanis were believed to have introduced the car bombing as a tactic to the Taliban and were behind many massive explosions in Kabul and high profile assassinations targeting Afghan officials.

In addition to his duties as the leader of the Haqqani Network, operating across the Afghan-Pakistani border, Sirajuddin oversees the Talibans financial and military assets. He is wanted by the FBI, which still categorises the Haqqani Network as a terrorist organisation.

Another commander within the Haqqanis is Abdulhakim Haqqani, the head of the Talibans negotiating team in Doha. He is the Talibans former shadow chief justice and heads its powerful council of religious scholars. He is widely believed to be someone whom Akhundzada trusts most.

The negotiating team also includes Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, a former deputy minister in the Talibans government before its ouster. Stanekzai has lived in Doha for nearly a decade and became the head of the groups political office there in 2015.

He has taken part in negotiations with the Afghan government and has represented the Taliban on diplomatic trips to several countries.

Personal ambitions and tribal competitions will likely emerge within the Taliban once the group establishes a full grip on power.

Unless they have already been communicating through Pakistani intermediaries, it will be interesting if all these figures can quickly resolve that leadership hierarchy, or if differences emerge between the Qatar and Pakistan factions, Gohel said.

They havent worked side-by-side for 20 years, so to suddenly combine their approaches could be complicated, and divisions may emerge, not about doctrine but over a quest for power, he added.
The first female pilot in the Afghan air force has warned others not to believe Taliban propaganda on womens rights.

Speaking to Fox News, Niloofar Rahmani said the Taliban will hurt women the most.

Afghanistan's first female pilot, Niloofar Rahmani (Getty Images)

Unfortunately, my family is still there. And since I have heard what happened in Afghanistan, I cannot sleep, I cannot get my mind together, I am so in fear for their security. And, of course, it hasnt been only about me, she added.

The 29-year-old said her family and parents are in danger, adding that her parents have previously been targeted by the Taliban because of their support for their daughters career.

The resurgence of the Taliban amid the US withdrawal of its military presence has prompted widespread fear and worry among Afghans in general, but for women and girls in particular as the extremist group works to severely curtail womens rights, including access to education and employment.

Despite a history of oppression, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Talibans longtime spokesman, said on Tuesday that the Taliban would honour womens rights within the norms of Islamic law, without elaborating on what that would mean in practice.

The Taliban have encouraged women to return to work and have allowed girls to return to school, handing out Islamic headscarves at the door. A female news anchor interviewed a Taliban official on Afghan TV on Monday.

The treatment of women varies widely across the Muslim world and sometimes even within the same country, with rural areas tending to be far more conservative. Some Muslim countries, including neighbouring Pakistan, have had female prime ministers, while ultraconservative Saudi Arabia only recently allowed women to drive.

Ms Rahmani managed to leave Afghanistan for India in 2015 and was granted asylum to the US in 2018. She rose to prominence as the countrys first female air force pilot after the Taliban lost power as the US entered the country in 2001 on the hunt for terrorists following the 9/11 attacks. Her parents and sister are still in Kabul.

She said the Taliban have been sending her death threats since 2013, adding that she does not believe the Talibans claims that they will respect the rights of women and girls.

The world will be the witness of the Taliban. They are going to stone a woman in a Kabul stadium again for nothing, she said.

On the same day that Mr Mujahid said the Taliban would honour womens rights, Taliban fighters shot and killed a woman in Takhar province after she didnt wear a burqa in public.

Mr Mujahid also said the Taliban would offer blanket amnesty to Afghans who worked with the fallen US-supported Afghan government, an offer that was met with widespread scepticism. Both US and UK officials have said that the Taliban will be judged on their actions and not on their words.

We never thought the situation and the stories back in Afghanistan was going to repeat again like its going to repeat now, Ms Rhamani told Fox 13 Tampa Bay.

The Taliban started threatening me and my family by saying Im not a good Muslim woman, I have abandoned my Muslim culture and I deserve to be honour-killed.

They said my family brought shame to them, she said. We would relocate two, sometimes three times per month. The government never supported me in this. The Air Force told me they never forced me to be there, and I could leave ... if I wanted.

My brother was shot by the Taliban twice because he was my support, he had been helping me get from one side of Kabul to the other just to go to work.

She told the local TV station that she spoke to her father this weekend.

My dad is a very strong man, she said, becoming emotional. So hes trying to tell me everything is fine. But thats not the case.

Shes working on becoming a US citizen, hoping to some time join the US military.

All of a sudden, theyre seeing these evils in the city, she said about the young girls experiencing Taliban rule for the first time. And theyre just waiting for America to evacuate completely, and then theyll know that Afghanistan is completely under their control and theyll start the violence and laws, and itll be the same laws they had 20 years ago, maybe even stronger.

She watched the chaotic scenes from the Kabul airport in horror, with desperate Afghans hanging on to the outside of US military planes as they took off.

No human being would do that unless they thought it was worth risking their life over being in Afghanistan, she said. Because most of them lived under the Taliban regime beforehand. They are so afraid, that theyre ready to die just hanging on the aeroplane instead of living under that government.

This is a war against women, not against men, she told Fox News. I am just so much in fear for my family that I do not want to put them at risk for what I have done for my country.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Afghanistan is again in a state of turmoil after Taliban fighters recaptured the capital city of Kabul on Sunday, declaring the country an Islamic Emirate once more after president Ashraf Ghani abandoned the presidential palace and fled to Tajikistan.

The operation followed swiftly on from the withdrawal of American troops from the country last month at the order of Joe Biden, their exit coming almost 20 years after the US military drove the same faction out of Kabul at the outset of George W Bushs War on Terror in response to 9/11.

Joe Biden expressed his determination not to hand the responsibility for policing Afghanistan on to a fifth commander-in-chief following the completion of his own tenure in the Oval Office and trusted in the Afghan military, in whom the US had invested almost $1trn over two decades, to keep the Taliban at bay.

The fact of the matter is weve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country... and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated, US secretary of state Anthony Blinken lamented on Sunday.

Mr Bidens defence secretary Lloyd Austin also regretted the lack of resistance that the Taliban faced from Afghan forces, a collapse he said he found extremely disconcerting during a call with military leaders, according to CNN.

They had all the advantages, they had 20 years of training by our coalition forces, a modern air force, good equipment and weapons, Mr Austin said. But you cant buy will and you cant purchase leadership. And thats really what was missing in this situation.

The Taliban came to prominence in 1994 during the Afghan Civil War, its ranks composed largely of students - from which the group derives its name (translating from Pashto as students or seekers) - many of whom had been mujahideen resistance fighters who had battled occupation by the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

At that stage, Reaganite America supported the rebels in their fight against its own Cold War enemy, so much so that Sylvester Stallone famously fought alongside the gallant mujahideen in Rambo III (1988).

A Deobandi fundamentalist Islamist movement originating in the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan and in northern Pakistan, the Taliban was led by Mullah Mohammed Omar and conquered first the province of Herat and then the whole country by September 1996, overthrowing the Burhanuddin Rabbani regime, establishing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and making Kandahar the capital.

Although their new state was only recognised diplomatically by Pakistan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the Taliban were initially popular with local citizens, according to the BBC, largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.

But its rule by strict Sharia law would prove as tyrannical as it was ruthless, characterised by the massacre of opponents, the denial of UN food supplies to starving citizens and the oppression of women, which meant forcing them to wear burqas and denying girls the right to work, study or travel.

Films, music and other non-Islamic cultural influences were also outlawed and historic artefacts like the Bamiyan Buddha statues destroyed.

The Talibans brutal rule was then brought to an abrupt end by US-led coalition forces in December 2001 in retaliation for the devastating Islamist terror strike on the World Trade Center in New York City, which killed 2,996 people and left 25,000 injured, an atrocity orchestrated by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from within the sanctuary of Taliban-held Afghanistan.

Despite their defeat, Taliban fighters subsequently regrouped as an insurgency and have continued to battle to retake the country from US peacekeeping forces ever since.

Religious cleric Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada is the current leader of the movement, having succeeded Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in 2016 when he was killed in a US airstrike on Pakistan. He commands as many as 85,000 fighters, according to a recent Nato estimate.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Talibans co-founder, is still part of its hierarchy and remains a key influence, even meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Tianjin, China, late last month to discuss the likely consequences of the American withdrawal.

The Taliban previously reached out to Donald Trumps administration when the Republican took office in 2017 - recognising a fellow opponent of US involvement in costly forever wars overseas - and subsequently signed a peace accord in Doha, Qatar, in February 2020.

The agreement saw the extremists promising to prevent Americas enemies from using the country as a base for future terror attacks in exchange for troop withdrawal and the release of 5,000 of its prisoners.

Recommended Taliban hunts down government staff despite amnesty

But that did little to end violence in the territory, with the UN Security Council reporting last June that the Taliban had won back between 50 and 70 per cent of land outside of major urban centres and demonstrated little interest in securing peace for its own sake.

The group has made some moves to modernise its image of late, indicating it would be willing to permit a more liberal role for women in society and allow them to complete their education, but few international observers are convinced by the more temperate rhetoric, with many fearing a swift return to the old tyrannies of the 1996-2001 epoch.
Attempts by a Gloucestershire-based businessman to unite two of the countrys greenest energy suppliers under one banner have been rebuffed by London-listed Good Energy.

Goods chairman said that handing the business over to Ecotricity boss Dale Vince would not be in the best interests of Good and its stakeholders.

Such a takeover would place the collective interests of our investors and customers in combating the climate crisis into the hands of one individual, chairman Will Whitehorn said.

Ecotricity wishes to make Good Energy a renewable generation developer again, an approach we moved away from a number of years ago ... Will Whitehorn, Good Energy

The rejection could scupper Mr Vinces 57 million plan to buy Good Energy off the market and combine it with his own company.

Good said the bid undervalued its business.

Although both firms fight to slash carbon emissions from the UKs electricity supply, Good Energy and Ecotricity have shown little love for one other over the years.

Mr Vince may think the businesses are natural bedfellows but he has repeatedly been batted back by Good Energy, which was founded by Juliet Davenport.

Four years ago the businessman tried to muscle his way onto Good Energys board, reportedly unhappy with its support for the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, run by Ms Davenports husband.

(Ecotricity's) claim that they consider us 'sister companies, with more in common than separates us', is contradicted by their history as a disruptive shareholder ... Will Whitehorn, Good Energy

At the time, Good Energys board said it would not be good for the company to have the chief executive of a competitor on its board. The two sides made peace after weeks of back-and-forth.

On Wednesday, Good chairman Mr Whitehorn said: Ecotricity wishes to make Good Energy a renewable generation developer again, an approach we moved away from a number of years ago in favour of supporting small-scale renewable generators through long-term power purchase contracts.

Ecotricity believes we can compete more effectively together as genuinely green suppliers in a market of similar-looking products.

This is something Good Energy is already effectively doing by itself, as the only supplier with Uswitch Green Tariff Gold Standard accreditation for all its tariffs.

Ecotricity has been a loss-making business for the past four years. Its claim that they consider us sister companies, with more in common than separates us, is contradicted by their history as a disruptive shareholder, voting down 100% of our proposed special resolutions.
Hundreds of French firefighters battled for a third day on Wednesday to contain a raging wildfire near the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez that has killed two people and forced thousands to flee.

More than 20 people were also left suffering from smoke inhalation or minor injuries by the fire, which first broke out on Monday and tore through the Plaine des Maures nature reserve in the south of France.

The blaze is believed to have started near a motorway that runs through the reserve, northwest of Saint-Tropez. By Tuesday morning it had consumed 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of forest.

On Wednesday, a government official for the Var region confirmed that the fire had still not been contained.

Local authorities said in a statement that one person had died  the first confirmed fatality from the wildfire. The statement did not give the persons identity or say how they had died. Later, authorities confirmed a second person had died.

Thousands of residents and holidaymakers were forced to evacuate as more than 900 firefighters worked to contain the blaze, backed by water-dumping planes and helicopters.

Some 1,300 people staying at a campsite in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas, near Saint-Tropez, were evacuated, as were 12 other campsites.

Evacuations have also taken place in the villages of Le Mole and Grimaud, while Gonafron and La Croix-Valmer were also hit.

Thomas Dombry, mayor of La Garde-Freinet village, told reporters: Weve never seen it spread with such speed, it was three or four times the usual.

French president Emmanuel Macron left his nearby summer retreat on Tuesday to thank the firefighters for their efforts.

The worst has been avoided; we must remain humble in the face of these events, he said. Climate disturbances will lead to more such fires. He added that France had been less badly affected than some other countries in southern Europe.

The Mediterranean region has suffered extreme and deadly wildfires in recent weeks across parts of Greece, Turkey, Spain and Portugal as well as Algeria and Morocco.
Climate researchers have cautioned that melting glacier is causing Swedens once-tallest mountain peak to shrink further, shedding light on the extent to which global warming is affecting this part of the world.

The south peak of Swedens Kebnekaise was once the tallest mountain in the country  measuring as high as 2,118 metres  till scientists found in August 2018 that it had lost a third of its glacier, and was lower than the northern peak on the same mountain.

In the current research, scientists from Stockholm University have found that this south peak has shrunk further by nearly 2m compared to measurements taken last year.

According to the scientists, the peak is currently at its lowest height since the measurements started in the 1940s, and the melting glaciers offer clues on the extent to which the temperature in Sweden is rising due to global warming.

The measurement made on August 7, 2020, showed that the south peaks height was 2,096.5 metres above sea level (and then melted down another half metre on to mid-September). In the past year, the meltdown is thus closer to two metres, the scientists noted in a statement.

A 2018 study, published in the journal Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography, had drawn a correlation between the rate of loss of ice on the Swedish mountains and the extent of warming experienced by the country.

The height variation is therefore a good symbol of the glaciers response to a warming climate in Sweden. When hikers climb the top today, they pass a flat part  a pre-peak  which did not exist in the early 2000s, explains Per Holmlund, professor of glaciology, on site at the Tarfala Research Station in Sweden for further measurements.

Since 2020, the peak is 2.2 metres lower, but the pre-peak has grown by up to 1.2 metres, Holmlund said in a statement.

Due to rising air temperature and changing wind conditions, the scientists say the peak continues to shrink further with changes in appearance of the drift, affecting where snow accumulates in the mountains each year.

On average, the researchers say the entire drift has decreased in thickness by 0.5m since 2020  corresponding to about 26,000 tonnes of water.

In last weeks report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), over 230 scientists from 64 countries cautioned that the melting of glaciers around the world has been unparalleled for the past 2,000 years, adding that the Earths ice cover would continue to decline in size for centuries to come.
With a bit of imagination, almost anything can be turned into a wellbeing ritual  just ask Lady Leshurr

Recently, all Ive been doing is looking for houses, says the Birmingham-born rap artist, 32, when asked how she likes to switch off. And that really unwinds me because I listen to jazz music in the background, put my little lights and candles on, that kind of gives me my little zen space.

Leshurr, whose real name is Melesha OGarro, is all about keeping things real. This spans everything from her career decisions  shes previously talked about turning down mega-bucks deals in the US because she didnt want to compromise her creative control and integrity  through to the outfits she wears in her videos.

Lady Leshurr performing at the UEFA Euro Final in July (Ashley Western/PA)

All throughout my Queens Speeches [videos on YouTube], I got a lot of outfits from Primark, says Leshurr. Automatically, people can connect, if they can just look like me. I think being more grounded with the people watching and listening to you, you get a different kind of connection. I feel like they know you more, and the more you speak to them.

Her Queens Speeches, if youre not already familiar, are the brilliantly witty freestyle raps she released on YouTube back in 2015 and 2016. Music was already a big part of her life  Leshurr grew up loving artists like Eminem and Sister Nancy and honed her skills at the local youth club while growing up in Solihull, going on to make waves on the UK grime scene  and the YouTube videos saw her reach rocket (the fourth one has racked up more than 60 million views).

Leshurr has performed at the likes of Glastonbury and the Proms, and spread her wings into the worlds of TV  she reached the Dancing On Ice semi-final earlier this year and won Channel 4s The Celebrity Circle  and radio, hosting BBC Radio 1Xtra. Last year she became Olays first black ambassador, appearing in an advert for the skincare brand.

Right now, shes starring in Sky Mobiles Time to 65075 campaign, reminding people they can ditch bad relationships  or in this case, mobile network providers  via text. Leshurr created a track and video, which sees her parody scenes from iconic tunes like Beyonces Single Ladies, Outkasts Hey Ya! and Eminems Just Lose It.

Its been such a hit, fans have even been asking if the track can be put on Spotify. That just shows, people like a catchy song, says Leshurr. I like being quite light-hearted and funny, and I like the fact I could do that with this track. They gave me creative control to be funny  its just being me.

Humour is big for Leshurr  especially now. Weve just gone through lockdown and the whole pandemic. Theres no point putting more negative stuff into the world. With my music, I just express my personality. Quirky, light-hearted lyrics the common man can relate to.

She says using Snapchat back in 2014, was when she realised the value of letting her personality come to the fore. I started getting peoples feedback, saying, Oh youre funny because theyd seen a funny Snap or whatever. And then I thought, Im getting so much engagement with people seeing me for me, and not just a rapper.

Building on that energy helped inspire the Queens Speeches  which ultimately led Leshurr to fulfil her dream of being able to buy her mum a house. It just kind of took off, she recalls. I realised, not only do I need to be myself a bit more, but the world needs more laughter and happiness. And at that moment, it just seemed like a culture shift  grime wasnt seen as an aggressive genre anymore, it can be used in a friendly, light-hearted way. So, I took that approach and havent looked back.

After winning best female act at the 2016 Mobo Awards (Andrew Milligan/PA)

But while she owes a lot to social media, things have shifted recently. Leshurr has long been an advocate for talking openly about mental health and wellbeing. Plus, as well as now being in her 30s, shes faced tough challenges in the last few years, including the loss of her big sister to breast cancer in early 2019.

I think for me, Ive just got to do whats right for me, and whats good for me, and not for the perception of others and how my social media might look, because I really dont care for that anymore, Leshurr shares. I think thats where a lot of the mental health starts from, the comments, the likes, the poses, its too much.

Theres a big focus on work-life balance and burnout right now. In an industry thats notoriously high pressure, has that been a learning curve for her? One million per cent, because Ive never really switched off. When people use the example of being on a running machine at the gym  theres no button to get off, I cant get off. Ive literally been like that for the majority of my career.

I feel like a lot of people did need lockdown, just to be able to slow down, she adds. Some people are working so hard and burning themselves out and then still continuing. That happened to me a couple of times  for me, its because I dont want to miss out on opportunities  but I learned that I need to make sure Im good mentally.

Because Im getting older as well now, I used to be so active, but now Im kind of comfortable with how my career is, and I want to think about other things  like get a mortgage, get a house, more stuff like that, I need to set up for my future, whereas before I was just on the running machine. It comes with growth and maturity, just learning a bit more about yourself and having the space to find a new you, who you are inside, and taking care of yourself.

[xdelx]

Lady Leshurr has teamed up with Sky Mobile to drop Time to 65075, a break-up banger to inspire the nation to get out of bad relationships. If youre ready to ditch your mobile network, text PAC to 65075 to make the switch to something better. Watch the full video on Skys YouTube channel.
Joshua Jackson has defended his wife Jodie Turner-Smith from the racist and misogynistic trolls who criticised the actress for being the one to propose.

In July, Jackson revealed during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that he knew he and his wife would get married the moment she asked me.

She asked me on New Years Eve. We were in Nicaragua, it was very beautiful, incredibly romantic, we were walking down the beach, and she asked me to marry her, the Dawsons Creek star recalled at the time, adding that his now-wife had been quite adamant, and she was right.

In an interview with Refinery29, Jackson expressed his gratitude at being able to give context to this story, with the 43-year-old revealing that his wife has been targeted by trolls since he shared the details of their proposal, and that the experience ultimately helped him recognise how far we still are from equality.

So I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didnt give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist, he said.

Jackson then confirmed that he and Turner-Smith had been in Nicaragua and that it could not possibly have been more romantic and that his wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, before revealing that he also proposed to her.

What I didnt say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that Im still old school enough that I said: This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity [to do it too], Jackson said, adding that he told Turner-Smith he wanted to ask for her biological father and her stepfathers permission, and that he wanted the opportunity to propose to her the old fashioned way down on bended knee.

So, thats actually how the story ended up, he continued.

The actor went on to address people who are freaked out by a woman claiming her own space and who left negative comments on Turner-Smiths Instagram, telling critics to shut the f*** up.

Yes, two proposals. And also for anybody who is freaked out by a woman claiming her own space, shut the f*** up. Good God, you cannot believe the things people were leaving my wife on Instagram. She did it. I said yes. Were happy. Thats it. Thats all you need to know, the Dr Death star said.

While speaking with the outlet, Jackson also reflected on what he witnessed and learned from his wifes truly shocking experience, which he called a real education for me as a white man, truly.

He said: The way people get in her comments and the ignorance and ugliness that comes her way is truly shocking. And it has been a necessary, but an unpleasant education in just the way people relate to Black bodies in general, but Black female bodies in specific. It is not okay. We have a long way to go.

I would wish for my wife that she would not have to rise above with such amazing strength and grace, above the ugliness that people throw at her on a day to day. I am impressed with her that she does it, but I would wish that that would not be the armour that she has to put on every morning to just navigate being alive.

Jackson and Turner-Smith married in 2019, before welcoming their first child together, a daughter, in 2020, which the actor described to the outlet as the two best choices Ive ever made in my life.
Paris Hilton has shared details about her upcoming wedding to fiance Carter Reum, with the heiress revealing she plans to wear 10 different dresses.

The 40-year-old, who announced her engagement to the venture capitalist in February after a year of dating, discussed the upcoming nuptials during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday.

While speaking to Fallon about the event, which Hilton said will span three days, she revealed that they have a lot to plan, but that she has picked out at least one of her dresses.

However, according to Hilton, who assured Fallon that she is not a bridezilla at all, the dress is just one of many she expects to wear during the three-day affair.

Lots of dresses. Probably 10. I love outfit changes, the Cooking With Paris star told Fallon, before telling the host that its unlikely Reum will have the same wardrobe requirements as hes not as high-maintenance as I am.

During the interview, Hilton also revealed why she decided to film the preparations and wedding for the upcoming unscripted Peacock docuseries Paris in Love, with the DJ explaining that she wanted to show fans her story concludes in a happy ending after previously detailing the physical, emotional, and verbal abuse she was subjected to as a teenager at boarding school in her YouTube documentary This Is Paris.

I just feel like for my documentary, This Is Paris, it ended in a way in which, you know, it was amazing but I just feel like I wanted my fans to see that I found my Prince Charming and my happy fairytale ending, Hilton said.

The couple got engaged on 13 February while celebrating Hiltons 40th birthday, with a press release for the upcoming docuseries claiming viewers will witness a personal side of Paris that only her closest friends and family get to see.
Mariam Ghani, the daughter of exiled Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani, said she has been pretty burned out and has been on the receiving end of vitriol after her father left their home country as the Taliban wrested control.

Ms Ghani, a 42-year-old visual artist and filmmaker who lives in Brooklyn in New York city, shared a list of resources in an Instagram post that individuals and activists can use to help Afghanistans citizens. She also thanked those who expressed solidarity with her.

To everyone who has checked in and reached out in solidarity over the past days: thank you, Ms Ghani said in the post. It has meant a lot. Im pretty burned out, but I hope Ill be able to reply to you all individually at some point, she added.

Ms Ghanis father fled the country as the Taliban took control of large swathes of Afghan territory. Mr Ghani left with four cars and a helicopter full of cash, some of which he had to leave at the tarmac as it was difficult to fit all of it inside the chopper, according to the Russian embassy in Kabul.

The whereabouts of the 72-year-old exiled president, who was backed by western governments including the US, are currently unclear, with some media reports saying he was in Tajikistan.

Mr Ghani, in a Facebook post, said he left Afghanistan in order to avoid more bloodshed in his country, even as some media reports said his hasty departure hampered peace talks and a smooth transfer of power with the Taliban.

It is unclear if Ms Ghani is privy to her fathers whereabouts. In the same Instagram post, she said, in a reply to a user, that there was lot of vitriol coming my way on social media.

Screenshot of Mariam Ghanis reply to a user on her Instagram post (Mariam Ghani/Instagram)

She also refused to answer questions from a New York Post reporter outside her apartment, according to a report by the newspaper, which described the location of her apartment as a luxury co-op building on a quiet, leafy block of Clinton Hill, near buzzy restaurants and the Pratt Institute.

Ms Ghani has had her work featured in some well-known museums across the world, including the Tate Modern in London and the Guggenheim in New York. She released her first feature film What We Left Unfinished, about five films that started but were abandoned during the Communist era in Afghanistan.

A 2015 profile in The New York Times described her as a feminist, an archivist and an activist, as well-versed in the politics of extraordinary rendition as she is in the very Brooklyn pursuit of homemade chile-passion-fruit sorbet.

In her Instagram post, however, Ms Ghani did not specifically reference concerns that have sparked across the world about the future of the countrys women.

Taliban rule has in the past been known to marginalise women and other gender minorities, with several atrocities directed against them and their freedoms severely curtailed.

Ms Ghani has, however, liked several posts on Twitter that have criticised the handling of the USs pullout from the country, a decision that several experts said allowed the Taliban to take control of the country at a rapid pace.
WASHINGTON  U.S. health experts are expected to recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot.

The goal is to ensure protection against the coronavirus as the delta variant spreads across the country. Thats according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

An announcement was expected as soon as this week, with doses beginning to be administered widely once the Food and Drug Administration formally approves the vaccines. That action is expected for the Pfizer shot in the coming weeks.

Among the first to receive them could be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, who were some of the first Americans to be vaccinated last December.

Global health officials, including the World Health Organization have called on wealthier and more-vaccinated countries to hold off on booster shots to ensure the supply of first doses for people in the developing world.

 By Zeke Miller

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

 Sources: U.S. to recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters at 8 months

 New Zealand to enter lockdown after single virus case found

 Among Frances poorest, once-lagging vaccine rates jump

 Mask disputes, outbreaks make for rocky start of U.S. school year

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 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

WELLINGTON, New Zealand  New Zealand has detected its first community transmission of the coronavirus in months, triggering urgent meetings among top lawmakers.

Health officials say the positive case was found in Auckland on Tuesday afternoon and has no known link to outside the country.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised a tough approach, including possible lockdowns, for any outbreaks of the delta variant as New Zealand continues to pursue a zero-tolerance approach toward the virus.

The last community outbreak was in February and New Zealand has reported just 26 virus deaths since the pandemic began.

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HONG KONG  Hong Kong will tighten entry restrictions for travelers arriving from the United States and 14 other countries beginning Friday, increasing the quarantine period to 21 days.

Previously, the 15 countries, which also includes Malaysia, Thailand, France and the Netherlands, were classified as medium risk, with travelers able to serve only seven days of quarantine if they were fully vaccinated.

A resurgence of coronavirus cases in these countries due to the delta variant has led to Hong Kongs about-face. The change comes after a domestic worker who returned to Hong Kong from the U.S. earlier this month tested positive for the coronavirus despite receiving two shots of vaccine.

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SYDNEY  Australias most populous state has reported its third-highest daily count of coronavirus infections in the pandemic, and the government leader says the spread of the delta variant in Sydney has not yet peaked.

There were 452 new infections reported in New South Wales on Tueday, down from 475 on Monday and 466 on Saturday.

An unvaccinated woman in her 70s had died in a Sydney hospital Monday, bringing the death from the outbreak discovered in mid-June to 53.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she expects daily infections counts to remain high. She adds that "our challenge is to make sure that we keep vaccination rates up.

About half New South Waless population has had at least one injection of the two-shot Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine. The government wants 80% of the population fully vaccinated before it eases Sydneys lockdown, which began on June 26.

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MONTGOMERY, Alabama  Alabamas intensive care units are near capacity amid the states surge in COVID-19 cases.

The head of the Alabama Hospital Association says the state has 1,562 intensive care unit beds and 1,560 patients needing intensive care Monday. Dr. Don Williamson says that this is the greatest demand on the ICU system weve ever had.

Alabama has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus and the states low vaccination rate. Infections and hospitalization numbers are quickly approaching what they were at the winter peak of the pandemic.

Williamson says COVID-19 patients accounted for 48% of Alabamas ICU patients Monday. He says the overwhelming majority of them are unvaccinated.

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COLUMBIA, S.C.  Another local government in South Carolina is joining the state capital in requiring masks in schools despite a state budget proviso that bans districts from doing so without risking funding.

The Richland County Council voted Monday evening to mandate masks for students and for educators who work with children ages 2 through 14 in public and private schools and at day care centers. The ordinance says schools arent required to use public funds to provide face coverings.

Columbias city government already made masks mandatory for schoolchildren too young to receive the coronavirus vaccine. Columbias mayor has said the measure relies on local funds, not state appropriations.

Education groups are pushing for state lawmakers to repeal the state budget provision that went into effect July 1 and prohibits South Carolina educational institutions from using appropriated funds to mandate masks.

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ATLANTA  At least 10 Georgia school districts or charter schools have sent all students home because of exposure to the coronavirus, including Screven County, which announced its decision Monday.

Those districts have more than 26,000 students combined, about 1.5% of the statewide public school enrollment.

Some other districts have sent students home from individual schools, and thousands of students and teachers have been quarantined after two weeks of school for many Georgia districts.

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CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Wyomings governor says the state will not return to a statewide mask order or mandate vaccination against the coronavirus despite a resurgence of the virus.

Gov. Mark Gordon imposed a statewide mask mandate in December and lifted it in March. He said Monday that mandates can cause some people to resist wearing masks.

Gordon also says he doesnt expect any shutdowns like the public health orders that forced many Wyoming businesses and public places to close or limit occupancy through much of 2020 and into 2021.

Coronavirus infections are back up to levels not seen in Wyoming since January. Beckers Hospital Review says Wyoming has one of the nations lowest vaccination rates, about 37%.

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AUSTIN, Texas  Texas health officials say they asked for five mortuary trailers from the federal government as coronavirus infections and hospitalizations for COVID-19 reach the highest levels since January.

But the Texas Department of State Health Services also said Monday that no local officials so far have reached out with needs for extra mortuary space.

Texas reported more than 11,700 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday, a 17% increase from a week ago. The seven-day daily average of COVID-19 deaths is also back above 50 for the first time since spring.

The pandemic is blamed for more than 52,000 deaths in Texas.

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RALEIGH, N.C. --- North Carolina health officials say medically vulnerable residents with certain health conditions can get an additional dose of coronavirus vaccine, though some have already had a third shot after the FDA approved that last week.

The FDA signed off on the additional dose after emerging data suggested people with moderately to severely compromised immune systems do not necessarily build the same level of immunity as others.

Data from the state Department of Health and Human Services shows that coronavirus infections and hospitalizations for COVID-19 are at their worst levels in more than six months.

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HONOLULU  Some private schools in Hawaii are mandating coronavirus vaccination for students, faculty and staff.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser says Parker School in Waimea on the Big Island will require all employees and eligible students to be vaccinated by Oct. 1. The coeducational day school will test all students and employees for the virus before the school year. It plans to provide weekly testing while infection rates remain high on the Big Island.

In Honolulu, the Iolani School is requiring all eligible students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated or seek a health or religious exemption. A spokeswoman says the schools faculty and staff already have a 99% vaccination rate, while eligible students in grades 7 to 12 are at 95%. Younger students arent eligible for the shots.

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JERUSALEM  Israel says more than 1 million people over age 50 have received a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

Israel began offering the boosters to its older population two weeks ago, becoming the first country in the world using a Western vaccine to do so.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday that more than half of the target population has now received a booster shot.

Israel was one of the worlds leaders in vaccinating its population early this year, using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. But it has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks spread largely by the delta variant of the coronavirus.

Tthe World Health Organization has said it would be better to provide vaccines to poorer countries that have not yet inoculated their people.

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BELGRADE, Serbia  Serbia will start administering a third, or booster, dose of vaccines this week to people who previously were vaccinated at least 6 months ago, after cases of infections have surged in recent days.

Authorities on Monday said that citizens will receive text messages with invitations for booster shots. Initially, heath authorities will contact people with weakened immune systems, the elderly, medical workers and those whose jobs require frequent travel.

Serbia, a Balkan nation of around 7 million people, has vaccinated over 50% of its population.

The country loosened anti-virus rules during the summer which has led to a rise in confirmed new cases and hospitalizations mostly from the highly contagious delta variant.

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DALLAS  Some Texas counties and school districts remained defiant Monday and kept in place mandates requiring students and others to wear facial coverings despite rulings a day earlier by the Texas Supreme Court halting mask mandates in two of the largest counties in the nation.

However, other school districts and communities rescinded their mask mandates following Sundays court ruling, creating confusion for Texas students returning to in person classes this week.

The order by the states highest court halts mask requirements that county leaders in Dallas and San Antonio put in place as new infections soar and students begin returning to school.

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NEW YORK  New York City will begin requiring proof of coronavirus vaccinations Tuesday for anyone wanting to partake in much of public life including dining at an indoor restaurant, working out at a gym or strolling through a museum.

The list of public venues widened Monday as Mayor Bill de Blasio moved forward with an unprecedented move by the countrys largest city to goad more people into getting vaccinated and control a pandemic that has wrought havoc on the economy and peoples day-to-day lives.

While the new requirement goes into effect Tuesday, enforcement wont begin until Sept. 13 to give the public and employees more time to receive at least the required first shot.

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MADISON, Wis.  Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the Catholic Churchs most outspoken conservatives and a vaccine skeptic, says he has COVID-19 and his staff says he is breathing through a ventilator.

Burke tweeted Aug. 10 that he had caught the virus, was resting comfortably and was receiving excellent medical care.

Please pray for me as I begin my recovery, the 73-year-old Burke said in the tweet. Let us trust in Divine Providence. God bless you.

On Saturday, his staff tweeted that he had been hospitalized and was on a ventilator, but that doctors were encouraged with his progress.

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JACKSON, Miss.  Mississippis only Level I trauma center is setting up a second emergency field hospital in a parking garage to treat some of the sickest COVID-19 patients as the virus continues to ravage the state.

Samaritans Purse will set up the mobile intensive care unit with a team of medical staff in a garage near Childrens of Mississippi, the states only pediatric hospital. Since the start of the pandemic, the Christian relief charity has set up five other emergency hospitals in areas of the world hard hit by the virus, including New York City and Los Angeles County.

Mississippi, one of least vaccinated states in the country, has seen numbers of new COVID-19 cases double in the past two weeks, surpassing records for hospitalizations all previous surges of the virus since the start of the pandemic.

After facing a shortage of beds and staff needed to treat patients, the University of Mississippi Medical Center set up an emergency field hospital in a different parking garage last week, with the help of the federal government.

In the coming days, an additional tent will be set up where people who are positive for COVID-19 can receive monoclonal antibody treatment, Woodward said.
Detectives are appealing for help in their search for a man following a sexual assault on a London bus.

The Metropolitan Police released CCTV images on Tuesday of a man they are keen to identify, after a 21-year-old woman was assaulted in Kingston on 7 May.

The woman boarded the 418 bus, heading towards Epsom, at approximately 4:40pm that afternoon, the force said.

Shortly after, a man boarded the bus and asked to sit down beside her, in the row of seats behind the exit doors, which she permitted.

The man then began to inappropriately touch her leg, prompting the woman to stand up and move, telling the suspect to stop.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. 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The bridge was closed last year after cracks in it worsened during a heatwave Getty UK news in pictures 16 July 2021 The sun rises behind the Sefton Park Palm House, in Sefton Park, Liverpool PA UK news in pictures 15 July 2021 Sir Nicholas Serota watches a short film about sea monsters as he opens a 7.6 million, 360 immersive dome at Devonport's Market Hall in Plymouth, which is the first of its type to be built in Europe PA UK news in pictures 14 July 2021 Heidi Street, playing a gothic character, looks at a brain suspended in glass at the worlds first attraction dedicated to the author of Frankenstein inside the Mary Shelleys House of Frankenstein experience, located in a Georgian terraced house in Bath, as it prepares to open to the public on 19 July PA UK news in pictures 13 July 2021 Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford PA UK news in pictures 12 July 2021 A local resident puts love hearts and slogans on the plastic that covers offensive graffiti on the vandalised mural of Manchester United striker and England player Marcus Rashford on the wall of a cafe on Copson Street, Withington in Manchester Getty Images UK news in pictures 11 July 2021 England's Bukayo Saka with manager Gareth Southgate after the match Pool via Reuters UK news in pictures 10 July 2021 Australias Ashleigh Barty holds the trophy after winning her final Wimbledon match against Czech Republics Karolina Pliskova Reuters UK news in pictures 9 July 2021 England 1966 World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst stands on top of a pod on the lastminute.com London Eye wearing a replica 1966 World Cup final kit and looking out towards Wembley Stadium in the north of the capital, where the England football team will play Italy in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday PA UK news in pictures 8 July 2021 Karolina Pliskova celebrates after defeating Aryna Sabalenka during the women's singles semifinals match on day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London AP UK news in pictures 7 July 2021 The residents of Towfield Court in Feltham have transformed their estate with England flags for the Euro 2020 tournament PA UK news in pictures 6 July 2021 A couple are hit by a wave as they walk along the promenade in Dover, Kent, during strong winds PA UK news in pictures 5 July 2021 Alexander Zverev playing against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the fourth round of the Gentlemen's Singles on Court 1 on day seven of Wimbledon at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club PA UK news in pictures 4 July 2021 Aaron Carty and the Beyonce Experience perform on stage during UK Black Pride at The Roundhouse in London Getty for UK Black Pride

Another passenger informed the driver, who then removed the suspect from the bus, police said.

If you recognise this man or have any information about his whereabouts, please contact police right away, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Dougall said.

It is vital we identify him. No piece of information is insignificant and could help us in our investigation.

Anyone who can identify him is asked to tweet @MetCC or call 101 referencing CAD 1209/17AUG.
The Taliban want an Afghanistan that is inclusive for all, the head of the British army has claimed.

General Nick Carter, Britains chief of defence staff, made the comment after the militant group promised to respect womens rights under its rule.

However, the Talibans charm offensive appears to be at odds with reports on the ground, which suggest some women have been beaten by Taliban fighters who disapproved of the clothes they were wearing.

Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday, General Carter suggested, despite evidence to the contrary, that the Taliban wanted an inclusive Afghanistan. He added that you have to be very careful using the word enemy when referring to the group.

He also told the BBC Radio 4s Today programme that the international community should be patient, and give the Taliban time to show their credentials.

"It may be that this Taliban is a different Taliban to the one that people remember from the 1990s, he said, in reference to a time when womens lives in Afghanistan were heavily restricted.

"We may well discover, if we give them the space, that this Taliban is of course more reasonable but what we absolutely have to remember is that they are not a homogenous organisation - the Taliban is a group of disparate tribal figures that come from all over rural Afghanistan.

His view is not shared by some army veterans. Charlie Herbert, who served as a general in Afghanistan and also worked for NATO, said people should not be seduced by the Talibans rhetoric.

The former senior NATO adviser told Sky News that the new regime needed international recognition, which it is seeking to court through smooth words.

His appraisal of the situation was less sanguine than General Carters. "They are waiting, they are biding their time until we leave Kabul and then the bloodletting will start when there are no journalists and no internationals to see it, he said.

Boris Johnson also struck a note of caution while speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, saying the Taliban would be judged by its actions rather than by its words.

Since the Taliban captured Kabul on Sunday, the group has granted an amnesty to government workers and has spoken - in vague terms - of its commitment to the rights of women under the system of Sharia.

But despite talk of moderation, there is still a deep sense of trepidation among Afghans, particularly women. Such fear will not be eased by reports of people being rounded up at night by the Taliban.
Senior Tories have urged Boris Johnson to let in tens of thousands of fleeing Afghans when he unveils what is promised to be a world-leading resettlement scheme.

Two former ministers said the UK had a duty to be as generous as nations such as Canada, ahead of an expected announcement at an emergency Commons debate on Wednesday.

But Priti Patel vowed to maintain vital national security checks to counter the terror threat posed by the chaos in Afghanistan, the home secretary adding: We will not compromise on security.

The prime minister is expected to set up a legal immigration route separate from the standard asylum system, targeted particularly at women and girls and modelled on the help given to Syrians.

The current Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme only applies to current or former locally employed staff assessed to be at serious risk of threat to life.

Canada has announced the country will resettle 20,000 vulnerable Afghans, including human rights workers, journalists and female leaders, with Germany expected to admit up to 10,000.

Caroline Nokes, the former immigration minister, said Afghans are rightly scared and that the UKs role in and after the 2001 invasion meant it had a duty to them to help now.

For 20 years, we have sought to help the people of Afghanistan, to liberate them from a terrible oppressive regime, she told BBC Radio 4.

We have worked alongside them, we have encouraged them to take up elected office, to play roles in society that they would not previously have done so.

Asked if that meant letting in 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, Ms Nokes pointed to the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) for Syria  through which 20,000 refugees have arrived.

Tobias Ellwood, the former defence minister, told the PoliticsHome website, the number should be at least in the tens of thousands.

All the countries that were involved have a duty and an obligation to provide safe haven, given where weve left the country, the chair of the Commons defence committee said.

The Liberal Democrats said they backed resettling at least 20,000 Afghans, while Keir Starmer said it was up to the prime minister to answer that question in parliament.

Before we get to a number, the first question is getting our international partners round a table, including neighbouring countries to Afghanistan, to draw up an urgent plan for the safe and legal exit of refugees that inevitably will flow from this, the Labour leader said.

He added: I dont think a question of numbers at this stage is a helpful discussion. The first discussion has to be: is there a plan, is there a strategy?

Sir Keir also attacked both Mr Johnson and Dominic Raab being on holiday during the fall of Kabul, saying: For the prime minister and the foreign secretary to be missing in action at this vital time is something that everybody thinks is wrong.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said councils stand ready to ensure new arrivals get the support they need to settle into their new communities.
Only 5,000 fleeing Afghans will be offered sanctuary in the UK over the next year because it is very rare for people to abandon their country, Downing Street says.

Boris Johnsons spokesman defended the low figure  when thousands of Afghans are trying to escape the Taliban every day  on the grounds that it is based on our previous experience.

The number reflected our expectations of how many people will be able to both be seeking to leave, and will be able to leave, over that time period, The Independent was told.

I think its important to emphasise that its very rare that people want to leave where they live and start life in another country, the spokesman said.

The resettlement scheme has been widely criticised as inadequate  in the Commons, the prime minister was asked if other Afghans should wait around and wait to be executed.

It is on top of the existing Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, which helps current or former locally employed staff assessed to be at serious risk of threat to life reach the UK.

And the government has set out an ambition to relocate up to 20,000 of the most vulnerable Afghans in the long-term  without saying how long that might take.

Downing Street said Afghans could either be brought to the UK from within Afghanistan or from a neighbouring country if people go across the border.

Some of the initial 5,000 could be flown directly from Kabul, the spokesman said, adding it was not a hard requirement for those people to be part of the ARAP programme.

Its hard to be definitive at this point about what the situation might be within Afghanistan, the spokesman admitted.

Keir Starmer has attacked a lack of preparation, saying: We have had 18 months to prepare and plan for the consequences of what followed, to plan and to prepare for the resettlement of refugees.

Earlier, the head of the armed forces, General Sir Nick Carter, said; There are a lot of desperate people trying to get to the airport,  with the UK set to evacuate 1,000 people on Wednesday.

Mr Johnsons spokesman said it was right to focus on humanitarian support on the ground, as a 143m aid increase was announced  reversing the cut made earlier this year

The G7 group of leading nations and international diplomacy would hold the Taliban to account for their actions, he added.

Downing Street also echoed Priti Patel in saying it would be unreasonable to expect local councils to resettle 20,000 people immediately.

This is a comprehensive resettlement scheme that could involve housing, welfare, and obviously we need to make sure that is done properly, as we achieved successfully in the Syrian scheme.

That programme saw just over 20,000 Syrians escape civil war to reach the UK, but took seven years to reach that total.
Just 5,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban are to be welcomed to the UK in the year ahead, as Boris Johnsons government unveiled a new settlement scheme for those most at risk of persecution.

Fears are building for those who worked against the Taliban since the fall of Kabul, with ministers under pressure to step up efforts to rescue those desperately trying to flee the country.

The government has promised that up to 5,000 Afghans will be given refuge under the Afghanistan citizens resettlement scheme in the coming year  with an ambition to provide sanctuary to a total of 20,000 Afghans over the long term.

The prime minister, set to address parliament on the crisis on Wednesday, said: We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years.

Mr Johnson added: Many of them, particularly women, are now in urgent need of our help. I am proud that the UK has been able to put in place this route to help them and their families live safely in the UK.

But the Liberal Democrats criticised the vague promise to help 20,000 Afghans in the longer term  saying the higher figure should be the governments immediate target, while Labour said the plan does not meet the scale of the challenge.

Layla Moran MP, the partys foreign affairs spokesperson, said: We need these vulnerable people out of the country as soon as possible, instead of the governments vague promise of the long-term. There is no time to waste. The Taliban are knocking on doors right now and making lists of those they plan to kill.

Ms Moran added: The government have kicked this into the long grass when Afghans need help now  today. Twenty thousand should be the starting point of this scheme, not the target.

Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Labours shadow home secretary, said: Britain has an obligation to people in Afghanistan - it is right we have a scheme in place to help them rebuild their lives here.

The governments incompetence in failing to plan for this has left huge numbers of Afghans lives in danger today, especially those who served alongside the British and women and girls. After such catastrophic errors, the Government must step up with a more urgent plan of action.

This proposal does not meet the scale of the challenge. Not only does that risk leaving people in Afghanistan in deadly danger, it will also undermine the leadership role Britain must play in persuading international partners to live up to their responsibilities.

The government said the new scheme was modelled on the Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement scheme, which relocated 20,000 Syrian refugees over a seven-year period from 2014 to 2021.

The new route for Afghan asylum seekers will target women, children, and others who have been forced to flee their home or face threats of persecution from the Taliban.

It follows calls from leading Tory MPs for Mr Johnsons government to let in tens of thousands of Afghans following the Taliban takeover. Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the defence select committee, said earlier on Tuesday that the number offered refuge should be at least in the tens of thousands.

On Tuesday evening home secretary Priti Patel chaired a meeting of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance  comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and US  to identify safe and legal routes for those who need to leave Afghanistan.

I want to ensure that as a nation we do everything possible to provide support to the most vulnerable fleeing Afghanistan so they can start a new life in safety in the UK, away from the tyranny and oppression they now face, said Ms Patel.

However, a group of leading charities and MPs have urged the home secretary to make sure those forced to flee Afghanistan are not criminalised for their method of travel  as set out in the Nationality and Borders Bill going through parliament.

Amid the crackdown on migrant boat crossings in the English Channel, a joint letter from 85 organisations and 14 MPs warned that for many refugees regulated travel is not a viable option  many people need to flee urgently and by any means necessary.

Satbir Singh, chief executive for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said: Its clear that the British government must shift gear swiftly to protect Afghan refugees.

He added: It must guarantee peoples protection based on need, not on method of flight  it must grant immediate asylum to the several thousand Afghans waiting for status.

Ministers said they would keep the scheme under review in coming years, and would work with devolved nations and local councils to deliver support for those fleeing to the UK.

The government said the settlement scheme was in addition to the 5,000 Afghans already expected to move to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap), which is designed to offer local allies such as interpreters priority relocation to the UK.

In its first press conference since seizing control, the Taliban said on Tuesday that it would guarantee safety for those who had previously opposed the group and uphold womens rights  albeit within the constraints of sharia law.

But experts have expressed scepticism and warned that the country could again become a hotbed for terrorist groups.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the home secretary, Priti Patel, called on other nations to help take in Afghan refugees. The UK is also doing all it can to encourage other countries to help. Not only do we want to lead by example, we cannot do this alone, she wrote.
Theresa May has criticised the governments incomprehensible failure to bring together an alternative alliance to prevent the collapse of the Afghanistan administration after the US withdrawal.

In scathing comments, Boris Johnsons predecessor at No 10 said the events unfolding in the region had been a major setback for British foreign policy, adding: We boast about Global Britain, but where is Global Britain on the streets of Kabul?

What does it say about NATO if we are entirely dependent on a unilateral decision taken by the United States? she asked MPs on Wednesday.

I do find it incomprehensible and worrying that the United Kingdom was not able to bring together not a military solution but an alternative alliance with countries to continue to provide the support necessary to sustain a government in Afghanistan.

Citing previous remarks from the prime minister and US president Joe Biden on the possibility of the Taliban seizing power, Ms May told the Commons: Was our intelligence really so poor?

Was our understanding of the Afghan government so weak? Was our knowledge of the position on the ground so inadequate? Did we really believe this, or did we just feel we had to follow the United States and hope that on a wing and a prayer it would be alright on the night?

The former Conservative prime minister added: The reality is that as long as this time limit was given and dates given for withdrawal, all the Taliban had to do was to ensure there were sufficient problems for the Afghan government not to be able to have full control of the country and then just sit and wait.

All of our military personnel, all who served in Afghanistan should hold their heads high and be proud of what they achieved in that country over 20 years, of the change of lives they brought to the people of Afghanistan and the safety they brought here to the UK.

The politicians sent them there, the politicians decided to withdraw, the politicians must be responsible for the consequences.

During her speech, Ms May also criticised the former US president Donald Trump for opting to do a deal in Doha, Qatar, with the Taliban, telling MPs: What President Biden has done is upheld a decision that was made by President Trump.

It was a unilateral decision of president Trump to do a deal with the Taliban that has led to this withdrawal.

What weve seen from the scenes in Afghanistan is that it hasnt been alright on the night, so I say that there are many in Afghanistan who fear not just that their lives will be irrevocably changed for the worse, but who fear for their lives.

In an emotional speech which drew rare applause from some MPs, the Conservative Tom Tugendhat - who served as an Army officer in Afghanistan and now chairs of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee - said the UK and its Western allies had received a very harsh lesson.

This doesnt need to be defeat but at the moment it damn well feels like it, he said. Like many veterans, this last week which been one which has seen me struggle through anger and grief and rage.

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith also criticised Mr Biden for blaming the collapse of Afghanistan on the armys unwillingness to fight.

The MP said: I do say to the American president  you have no right to use excuses and base them on people who have lost their lives, and done so bravely.

Ex-foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt echoed his sentiments, telling MPs that president Biden said during a widely-criticised speech this week that his only vital national interest in Afghanistan was to prevent a terrorist attack.

Even if that is the case, both he and President Trump should be deeply ashamed, and I say this with great sadness, because their actions have returned Afghanistan to the very government that harboured the 9/11 bombers, Mr Hunt added.
MPs of all parties raged at the UKs weakness and shame after the sudden Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, leaving Boris Johnson isolated in an emergency Commons debate.

The prime minister came under fire for an intelligence failure that led to the chaotic retreat from Kabul and for hoping on a wing and prayer it would be all right, as Theresa May put it.

His predecessor in No 10 was among Tories who questioned the future of a Nato alliance dependent on an increasingly isolationist United States  after Joe Biden pulled the plug on the Afghan mission.

There was also fierce criticism of the low number of Afghans to be offered sanctuary in the UK  just 5,000 in the next 12 months  and of Mr Johnson and Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, for heading off on holiday as the crisis loomed.

Strikingly, Tory MPs failed to rally behind Mr Johnson with verbal support, in a Commons packed for the first time since the Covid pandemic broke out 17 months ago.

Liam Fox, a former defence secretary, was among those who warned: The strategic weakness of our alliance will have been noted not just in Kabul, but in Moscow, and in Beijing, and in Tehran and in Islamabad.

Tom Tugendhat  who served as an Army officer in Afghanistan  demanded a strategy for reinvigorating our European Nato partners, to make sure that we are not dependent on a single ally.

This doesnt need to be defeat, but at the moment it damn well feels like it, he said, drawing rare applause from some fellow MPs.

Labours Chris Bryant said he felt more ashamed than I can remember, warning: We have managed to humiliate ourselves.

We have shamed our politics and our way of doing business. We have trailed the British flag and our own honour in the dirt and in the mud.

And, in Mr Johnsons most uncomfortable moment, Mrs May asked him: What does it say about Nato if we are entirely dependent on a unilateral decision taken by the United States?

I do find it incomprehensible and worrying that the United Kingdom was not able to bring together, not a military solution, but an alternative alliance with countries to continue to provide the support necessary to sustain a government in Afghanistan.

The former prime minister demanded to know: Was our intelligence really so poor? Was our understanding of the Afghan Government so weak? Was our knowledge of the position on the ground so inadequate?

Did we just feel that we had to follow the United States and hope that, on a wing and a prayer, it would be all right on the night?

The government has insisted it tried, unsuccessfully, to put together an alliance to maintain some operations in Afghanistan, but declined to provide any details.

Asked when he had spoken with Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary-general, Mr Johnson replied the other day.

The prime minister again fought off calls for an independent inquiry into the Afghan war, claiming: Most of the key questions have already been gone into.

And he urged MPs to recognise that deploying tens of thousands of British troops to Afghanistan to continue fighting the Taliban would not enjoy public support.

The West could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without US air power and without American might, Mr Johnson insisted.

I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite among any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by Nato in Afghanistan. That idea ended with the combat mission in 2014.
The Scottish government is considering making its temporary coronavirus powers permanent, which would allow it to impose lockdowns, close schools and release prisoners early.

A change in the law would allow Holyrood to respond to any future public health threats more effectively and rapidly, according to consultation published by the government.

The powers  which also include the ability to move court sessions online and allow a wider range of healthcare workers to administer vaccines  would be deployed when necessary and proportionate, ministers say, but the Conservatives have accused them of being unwilling to give up their control over peoples lives.

Currently, the additional powers are set to end in March 2022, but can be extended by six months with Holyrood backing. The government is seeking the publics views on the possible permanent expansion, which they say could help to protect the people of Scotland from any incidence or spread of infection that could harm them even beyond Covid-19.

Some caveats would apply: schools would only shut with the sign off of the chief medical officer, for instance, while ministers would report to parliament every two months on the use of the powers.

Allowing the early release of prisoners would also likely carry caveats: currently, inmates can be released up to 90 days early to alleviate pressure on prison as long as they havent committed harassment or domestic violence offences. Prison governors can also veto specific prisoners they believe could pose a risk to someone.

The governments consultation also recommends a permanent online shift to some processes which were digitised during the pandemic, such as council meetings, court documents and registering still births and deaths.

Commenting on the consultation, deputy first minister John Swinney said that Scotland has a unique opportunity to reimagine health and social care.

We want to ensure we remove measures no longer needed in order to respond to the pandemic whilst keeping those where there is demonstrable benefit to the people of Scotland, he said.

This is an opportunity to maintain changes that have been welcomed by people who now dont want to lose transformations that have been innovative, beneficial, and increased access to services.

The consultation has, however, been criticised by the Conservatives.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: The fact that SNP ministers are now seeking to make many of [the powers] permanent is a clear sign they are unwilling to give up their control over peoples lives.

It is a dangerous route to go down to allow ministers to implement sweeping powers upon society on a whim.

The public have until 9 November to share their views with the government on the matter.
Fresh questions have been raised about the economic of Scottish independence after official figures showed the countrys public finances has an unprecedented black hole.

Scotlands deficit more than doubled to 22.4 per cent of GDP in 2020/21  the highest yearly figure since the governments annual accounts began two decades ago.

Public spending in Scotland increased by 21 per cent during the year, reflecting the impact of the pandemic, while average public spending per person rose to 1,828 above the UK average.

First minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon insisted the deficit was not a barrier to independence  arguing that the current fiscal position is not any indication of what life would be like if the country was to break from the UK.

But Tory MP Alister Jack, Scottish secretary in Boris Johnsons cabinet, claimed the figures showed how all of us in Scotland have benefitted from being part of a strong United Kingdom.

The figures were revealed in the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) report published by the Scottish government  the annual study which always sparks fierce debate on the economic case for independence.

Total public expenditure in Scotland for the financial year gone by, covering both Scottish and UK government spending and the rest of the public sector, was 99.2bn.

As well as the impact of coronavirus, the fiscal position was also affected by declining activity in the North Sea and a fall in oil prices.

This is equivalent to 9.1 per cent of total UK public sector expenditure, or 18,144 per person  which is 1,828 per person greater than the UK average.

Ms Sturgeon insisted the case had not been damaged. Having a deficit is not  self-evidently  a barrier to any country in the world being independent, she said.

The SNP leader added: Almost every country has a deficit and deficits that have grown and become massive over the course of the pandemic because, rightly, governments have chosen to support the economy and to support individuals.

Independent countries manage their deficits but also independent countries make the most of their talents and their resources and their attributes to build strong, sustainable economies, and that is  I think  the future that Scotland should grasp.

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, the partys shadow Covid recovery secretary, said the figures show the extent of the UK governments war chest of support during the pandemic, such as the furlough scheme.

These new figures demonstrate the strength and security that we gain as part of the United Kingdom, said Mr Fraser. In times of crisis, when a pandemic hits, Scottish jobs and public services are safer because we act together.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine MP also said the UK was stronger when we pull together, adding: These blistering figures drive home just how economically valuable the partnership across these isles is.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the figures showed an independent Scotland would need to raise taxes or cut spending to a greater extent than the UK in order to reduce its deficit.

The respected think tank said oil revenues would have to grow tenfold or the countrys economic performance would have to improve dramatically in a short period in order to avoid this  with neither scenario assessed as being likely.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family have been granted asylum in the UAE on the grounds of humanitarian considerations.

Mr Ghani fled Afghanistan last week as the Taliban approached Kabul. He posted a message on Facebook on Sunday, saying: Today I faced a tough choice  to stand up to the Taliban who wanted to enter the Citadel or leave my country that I have devoted the last 20 years to protecting.

He added: If I had stayed, it would have resulted in the martyrdom of many citizens and the destruction of Kabul.

The UAEs Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the president had been welcomed into the country but did not specify his exact whereabouts.

Speaking on a Facebook Live stream on Wednesday, Mr Ghani said he was in talks to return to Afghanistan.

I am currently in the Emirates so that might have already stopped the bloodshed and chaos, and currently, I am in talks to return to Afghanistan, the president said, according to Bloomberg.

Mr Ghanis departure precipitated the collapse of the Afghan government and has been slammed in many quarters.

President Biden placed blame squarely on Mr Ghani for the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, saying he misled the US over Afghan forces ability to defend their country.

President Ghani insisted Afghan forces would fight, but obviously he was wrong, he said in an address from the White House on Monday.

Afghan political leaders gave up and fled. The Afghan military collapsed, without trying to fight  American troops cannot and should not be fighting and dying in war that Afghan forces arent willing to fight for themselves, Mr Biden added.

Donald Trump, who had been a fervent supporter of Mr Ghani and described him as terrific in 2019, also turned on the Afghan president. In an interview on Fox News, he said: Now, I never had a lot of confidence, frankly, in Ghani. I said that openly and plainly. I thought he was a total crook.
The US will begin offering third Covid-19 booster shots to every American starting in September, top health officials announced Wednesday.

Based on our latest assessment, the current protection against severe disease, hospitalisation, and death could diminish in the months ahead, according to a joint statement from the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.

Federal health officials said the shots will become available from September 20 as long as they receive emergency approval from the CDC and FDA, which is expected in the coming weeks.

The statement said it was now very clear that immunity begins to wane after the initial two doses.

Health officials including the CDCs Dr Rochelle Walensky, acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock and White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the effectiveness of the vaccine was diminishing in both mild and severe cases.

We are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease, they said.

The danger was greatest for those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout, the statement said.

Every American will be eligible to receive an additional dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines eight months after their second shot.

Health officials are investigating the need for booster shots for the more than 14 million Americans who received the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine.

More data is expected to emerge on the suitability of extra J&J doses in the coming weeks.

Residents of long-term care facilities will be first in line, given the distribution of vaccines to this population early in the vaccine rollout and the continued increased risk that Covid-19 poses to them, health officials said.

Emergency workers and medical professionals will also be at the front of the queue to receive the booster shot.

President Joe Biden is due to speak about the booster shots in an address on Wednesday afternoon.

Cases of Covid-19 are surging to levels not seen since the height of the pandemic in winter, with more than 150,000 new cases being recorded daily in the US due to the hyper-transmissable Delta variant.

The decision to offer a third dose to Americans goes against pleas from the World Health Organisation to deliver shots to developing countries first.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this month that the wealthiest countries had received more than 80 percent of the worlds vaccine supply, even though they make up less than half of the global population.

We cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the worlds most vulnerable people remain unprotected, Dr Tedros said.

Prior to the US announcement on Wednesday, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, said more data was needed before booster shots should be given.

We believe clearly that the data today does not indicate that boosters are needed.

WHO senior adviser Bruce Aylward said two doses should be given to the most vulnerable worldwide before boosters are administered to those fully-vaccinated.

We are a long, long way from that, he said.

There is enough vaccine around the world, but it is not going to the right places in the right order.

The US has been closely monitoring the rollout of booster shots in Israel, where more than one million people have already received a third dose.

Last week, the FDA authorised additional vaccine doses for immunocompromised people who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
A family of three and their dog have been found dead in a remote area of the Sierra National Forest, after they were reported missing, authorities in California have said.

Identified as John Gerrish, Ellen Chung, and one-year-old Muji, the family were found on Tuesday evening near an area known as Devil's Gulch, in the Southfork of the Merced River, the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office said.

Search teams had located the vehicle belonging to the family, who were reported missing by a relative on Monday, not far from Devils Gulch.

It was not clear what caused the deaths of the family or the dog, and investigators were treating the incident as a hazmat and coroner investigation.

A spokeswoman for the sheriffs office, Kristie Mitchell, told CBS News: "It could be a carbon monoxide situation. That's one of the reasons why we're treating it as a hazmat situation.

The area where the family were found, Ms Mitchell said, has no cellphone service. It was close to the Hite Cove trail, which is known for its wildflowers.

This is never the outcome we want or the news we want to deliver, my heart breaks for their family, added Sheriff Jeremy Brierse in a statement.

Our Sheriffs Chaplains and staff are working with their family and will continue to support them during this heartbreaking time.

A friend of the family told Fox26 News that they were last heard from on Sunday, when they shared a picture of backpack to their social media accounts.

It comes after miners in Colorado died after they were exposed to fatal levels of carbon monoxide following an explosion in 2019, in an event that sickened 19 others. Officials in Mariposa County have not ruled out a similar event in the deaths.
The father of the first American service member killed in Afghanistan says he is ashamed of the US withdrawal from the country.

Johnny Mike Spann was killed during a Taliban prisoner-uprising in northern Afghanistan in November 2001.

The 32-year-old CIA paramilitary officer, who had two young daughters and an infant son, had volunteered for deployment to the country in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Mr Spann, a former Marine, was interviewing Taliban prisoners at a fort near Mazar-e Sharif on 25 November 2001, when hundreds of them staged a violent uprising.

He was among 2,448 American service members killed in Afghanistan from 11 September 2001 to April 2021.

Mr Spanns father, also called Johnny Spann, told The Washington Post he did not oppose US troops leaving Afghanistan, but believed it was happening at the wrong time.

Im very frustrated and ashamed of the way were exiting Afghanistan, he told the newspaper.

CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, 32, who entered the Marine Corps and then joined the CIA in June 1999 in an undated family photo. Spann is the first American known to be killed in combat in Afghanistan. (Getty Images)

Mr Spann, 73, says he watched in horror as desperate Afghans tried to climb onboard a US C-17 cargo plane as it left the country earlier this week.

We dont seem to learn from our mistakes, said the elder Mr Spann, a supporter of one-term president Donald Trump, as he added that the country had been handed over to the Taliban.

We could not have done the things that we did as a country without those Afghans. We made promises to them  and we know whats going to happen to them, he said.

Mr Spann, who is from Alabama, said that it was gut-wrenching for him to think of the death of his son and other Americans and Afghans being sort of brushed under thee rug and walked away from as the Taliban swept back into power.

But he added that the chaotic scenes in Kabul proved to him that his son actually died for a good cause.

They did what they were supposed to do, we did what we were supposed to do, he said.

Im proud of Mike and his partners, the people he went there with; Im so proud of them. I dont want them to think everything they did was in vain. For 20 years, they kept us safe.
Please make sure my kids get vaccinated.

Those were some of the last words of Lydia Rodriguez, a mother of four in Texas, who died of Covid on Monday after deciding not to get the vaccine. Two weeks earlier, her husband, Lawrence, died of Covid in the same hospital, having finally requested a vaccine right before being put on a ventilator.

Lydia has never really believed in vaccines, Dottie Jones, Lydias cousin and a neonatal nurse, told The Washington Post . She believed that she could handle everything on her own, that you didnt really need medicine.

In early July, each member of the Galveston, Texas, family tested positive for coronavirus, after Lydia and the children returned from a church camp. The kids, three of whom were old enough to qualify for vaccines but didnt get one, all had mild or asymptomatic cases, but Lydia, a piano teacher, and her husband soon hospitalised.

Ms Jones, who as a nurse has had a front-row view in recent days as Texas once again becomes a Covid hot spot, tried to warn her cousin about what she was seeing.

I knew she would never get vaccinated, Ms Jones told The Post. I was very concerned.

Lydia died two days before her 43rd birthday.

Now, the fate of the Rodriguez familys 18-year-old twins, 16-year-old son, and 11-year-old daughter are up to the courts. Family members have set up an online fundraiser to support the children, who are expected to get vaccines soon.

The familys tragic story echoes reports from ICUs around the country, where unvaccinated people, the vast majority of current Covid cases, continue dying in large numbers. Some who previously expressed hesitancy have come around to the free and effective vaccine , while others, including, alarmingly, some health care workers , have remained resistant.

The state of Texas is emerging as one of the national Covid hotspots amid the now dominant Delta variant, with a positivity rate at nearly 20 per cent.

Texas governor Greg Abbott has fought local officials and banned schools from implementing mask and vaccine requirements, even though hes also requested mortuary trailers from the federal government and come down with Covid himself in recent days.

Going forward, in Texas, there will not be any government-imposed shutdowns or mask mandates, Mr Abbott said earlier this month. Everyone already knows what to do.

Less than half of Texans are fully vaccinated , lower than the national average, and new cases and hospitalisations have exploded since June, nearing their historic highs set this winter. There are nearly 16,000 new cases of Covid a day in Texas.

Two Texas school districts, San Antonio and Bexar counties, the largest districts in the country, got temporary permission to impose a mask mandate, while a court considers the governors mask policy.
Fully vaccinated Americans will be able to receive a third shot by as early as mid-September, as the Biden administration looks to fast-track approval for Covid-19 booster shots.

Pfizer and Moderna have submitted early stage clinical trial data to the Food and Drug Administration as they seek authorisation for the third dose.

An administration source told the New York Times it had decided to allow people to get their third shot eight months after they received their second.

The added protection is required to keep the surging Delta variant, which is far more infectious, in check as the effectiveness of the initial jabs wanes over time.

An announcement confirming the booster shots could come this week, the New York Times reported.

Anyone who received the Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine will also require a second shot. The Biden administration is said to be awaiting the results of a two-shot clinical trial currently underway.

The booster shot rollout will follow a similar path to the initial vaccine rollout, with nursing home residents, first responders and health workers prioritised.

Older Americans will again be near the front of the queue.

Last week, US regulators approved an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for people with compromised immune systems.

This included anyone who has received an organ transplant, treatment for cancer, or had immunodeficiency or HIV.

After initially succeeding in dampening down cases of Covid-19, the Biden administration has struggled as cases of the Delta variant exploded in states with low vaccination rates such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

There are concerns that the colder weather in fall and winter will bring even more favourable conditions for transmission, as people spend more time indoors.

Health officials are keeping a close eye on Israel, which is seeing signs that the Pfizer vaccines strength is waning among elderly people who had their second shot in January and February.

More than one million Israelis have already received a booster shot, just under half of their eligible population of those aged 50 and over.

Its government reports that the booster shot is showing strong signs of providing added protection against the Delta variant, which is surging in the country.

National Institutes of Health Director Dr Francis Collins said on Tuesday that data from Israel was forcing the US to rethink its strategy on booster shots.

The people who got immunised in January are the ones that are now having more breakthrough cases, Dr Collins said.

The decision by the US to offer a third shot goes against guidelines from The World Health Organisation, which begged wealthy countries to wait until first doses of vaccines had been offered to residents of developing nations.

Shares of Pfizer were up 3 per cent to $50.40 by the closing bell on Tuesday.

Modernas stock price soared 7.5 per cent to just under $402 in trading Tuesday.

About 60 per cent of the eligible population in the US are now fully vaccinated.
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has called out Fox News for what she called the networks hateful rhetoric about refugees fleeing Afghanistan.

The Democrat lawmaker appeared on The ReidOut on MSNBC and critiqued Fox hosts Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson. MSNBC host Joy Reid showed clips of the Fox anchors commenting on the potential of Afghan refugees settling in the US.

Mr Carlson said the number of refugees could swell to millions and Ms Ingraham said they would be potentially unvetted.

This is their playbook, the representative for Minnesotas 5th District told MSNBC. They know how to whip up their base into frenzy. The reality is that weve been in this conflict, in this war for 20 years. There are people whove helped us in this mission.

She continued, There are people whose lives are going to be at risk, and we have to do everything that we can to bring them to safety.

And weve done this many a times where we have evacuated people, airlifted them into safe spaces so that we can properly vet them and have them come to the United States as vetted refugees. I know a little bit about that, you know?

Ms Omar came to the US as a refugee from Somalia in the 1990s after living for years in a refugee camp.

I know what its like to be a child in a family scrambling for safety in a war-torn country. I know the rigorous process you go through to get vetted as a refugee, she said.

She continued, We are the most vetted people who come to the United States. The process is long, and it doesnt just end when you arrive on the shores. It continues for years until you are eligible for citizenship at five years of entrance.

She explained her belief that the world had made a certain promise to Afghanistan that could not be broken.

And thats not a promise that the United States made, but its also a promise that our NATO allies have made, Ms Omar said. Its a promise that neighboring countries should fulfill, and we have to do everything to make sure there is a multinational coalition leading this effort to save not just our allies but every Afghani whos afraid for their lives, especially young women and, you know, vulnerable men as well.

The Independent reached out to Fox News for comment.
Anti-vaccine campaigners caused chaotic scenes at a local government meeting in California.

They came together to vocalise their opposition to the measures being discussed by San Diego officials to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, such as vaccine mandates.

At a San Diego County of Board of Supervisor meeting, representatives from numerous campaign groups spoke out against vaccine requirements in public spaces and offices. The groups present included ReOpen San Diego, Let Them Breathe and San Diego Rise Up, according to KUSI.

A man who identified himself Matt Baker said, You are about to open a pit of hell. You do not get a vaccine passport put on us. You know as the population whos in control, you know as politicians  once you get a power, you never relinquish it. Do you think that the four feet of marble that holds you above in this chamber will help you from the fate of humanity which you are unleashing?

He went as far as repeatedly exclaiming, Heil Fauci, referencing President Joe Bidens senior medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

He then waved a copy of the Nuremberg Code and pushed the idea that the board was violating international law.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr Fauci has been a focus of conservative ire over his support for masks, social distancing, lockdowns and vaccines to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

A considerable amount of the activists testimony was directed at Nathan Fletcher, the chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

Anti-vaccine campaigner Amy Reichert said at the meeting, I actually work for a big corporation, and my CEO has a message for you, hes not going to do it. Go pound sand, Nathan Fletcher.

The comment was met with riotous applause from the crowd assembled in the meeting room.

In response, Mr Fletcher tweeted, We just wrapped up our board of supervisors meeting for today. You can get your medical advice from this guyor your doctor. 

Three vaccines are approved for use in the US to provide protection from the coronavirus; a one-dose vaccine by Johnson & Johnson, and two-dose regimes manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna. They have all been granted emergency use authorisation, and the FDA is expected to fully approve the vaccines within the next month..

According to data from The New York Times, 51 per cent of US residents over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated. More than 623,000 people living in the US have died due to complications to the virus. More than 4m people have died worldwide.
 Close 'We will get you home': Biden promises to evacuate every American from Afghanistan

US President Joe Biden delivered an address to the nation for the second time this week, as the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan continues.

Mr Biden, who said this week chaos was unavoidable with his country's withdrawal from Afghanistan, addressed concerns about the evacuation of Americans, allies, and Afghan refugees, amid reports that the effort is falling behind.

The president vowed to Americans in Kabul we will get you home, but is being criticised for saying that there were no reports of people being stopped from reaching the airport by the Taliban who took control of the city on Sunday.

Reporters on the ground have many examples of people held back from accessing the airport by Taliban fighters and there are reports of physical violence and intimidation. The Pentagon then appeared to contradict the presidents statement.

Senator Lindsey Graham has threatened the president with impeachment if one American or Afghan ally is left behind in Kabul.

It remains unclear exactly how many people are awaiting airlifts from the country before an agreed deadline of 31 August, after Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban last weekend.

The US military has evacuated 13,000 people since 14 August, and 18,000 since late July. In the past 24 hours 5,700 people have been airlifted as the operation begins to meet capacity levels of 5,000 to 9,000 per day as detailed by the Pentagon.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to update lawmakers during an emergency session Wednesday about the evacuation of British nationals and allies from Afghanistan and the steps the government is taking to help Afghan citizens facing the return of the Taliban

Johnson, who spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday about the unfolding situation in Afghanistan, is set to flesh out details of a new settlement program that would allow up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghan refugees to seek sanctuary in the U.K. in the coming years.

The prime minister is also expected to tell lawmakers, who were summoned back to parliament for the emergency session, that there must be an immediate increase in aid to avert a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following the Talibans seizure of power.

Development charities noted, however, that any increase in aid to the country  Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says it will be around 10%  would come after the government slashed the U.K.'s aid spending by 75%.

Demonstrations are planned outside of parliament to call for support for Afghans and their families.

Like Biden, Johnson has faced widespread criticism over the sudden turn of events in Afghanistan, which has seen the Taliban return to power two decades after they were driven out following the 9/11 attacks. Criticism has been particularly acute from veterans and the families of the 457 British troops who died in the country while fighting there as part of an international military operation.

Under the British government's Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, up to 5,000 refugees would be admitted to the U.K. this year, and a total of 20,000 would be offered a way to settle in the U.K. in the coming years.

The program will focus on women, children, and others who have been forced to flee their homes or face threats of persecution from the Taliban, the government has said.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years, Johnson said.

Opposition parties and some members of Johnson's Conservative Party say the plan has not gone far enough to make a real difference, with some urging an increase in the number of refugees allowed in to over 50,000.

The government said the new program would be in addition to 5,000 Afghans already expected to move to the U.K. under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which is designed to offer local allies such as interpreters priority relocation to the U.K. Government figures showed 2,000 have already arrived under the ARAP program.

Officials said 520 British nationals, diplomats and former Afghan staff had left Afghanistan since Saturday on U.K. military flights from Kabul. The latest flight carrying evacuated British nationals and Afghans landed late Tuesday at RAF Brize Norton, located around 75 miles northwest of London.
As the Biden administrations withdrawal from Afghanistan continues its seemingly irretrievable descent into chaos, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has penned an op-ed lamenting that It didnt have to happen this way.

Writing in the Washington Post, Ms Rice  who served as national security adviser before taking over the State Department for George W Bushs second term  specifically pushes back against one of the main claims made by Joe Biden and his administration in recent days: that the shockingly fast Taliban takeover is ultimately a failure of Afghan forces, not American power.

A corrosive and deeply unfair narrative is emerging: to blame the Afghans for how it all ended. The Afghan security forces failed. The Afghan government failed. The Afghan people failed. We gave them every chance to determine their own future, President Biden said in his address Monday  as if the Afghans had somehow chosen the Taliban.

Twenty years was not enough to complete a journey from the 7th-century rule of the Taliban and a 30-year civil war to a stable government Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State under George W Bush

No, she writes, they didnt choose the Taliban.

Aside from driving home the scale of the challenges to which the Afghan people have been called to rise, Ms Rice emphasises that the idea the war has dragged on too long misses the point of what it was about.

Twenty years was not enough to complete a journey from the 7th-century rule of the Taliban and a 30-year civil war to a stable government, she argues. Twenty years may also not have been enough to consolidate our gains against terrorism and assure our own safety. We  and they  needed more time.

This runs directly counter to a central point of Mr Bidens much-criticised speech on the withdrawal from just days ago. Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building, he said. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralised democracy. Our only vital national interests in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on American Homeland.

As someone literally in the room when decisions about the original invasion were made, and as the USs top diplomat for the second half of the Bush presidency, Ms Rice is well-placed to say what the mission was originally meant to be about, whether or not her reader considers the premise valid or acceptable.

Condoleezza Rice was the US top diplomat for the second half of George W Bushs presidency (DDP/AFP via Getty Images)

In her op-ed, she also speaks strategically. More time would have served our strategic interests, she writes.

We did not want to give ourselves or the Afghans more time. Understood. But we were in such a hurry that we left in the middle of the fighting season. We know that the Taliban retreats in the winter. Might we have waited until then and given the Afghans a little more time to develop a strategy to prevent the chaotic fall of Kabul?

Now we have to live with the consequences of our haste.

Ms Rice is one of the less outspoken of the Bush administrations senior alumni, but this is far from the first time she has weighed in on the Afghan conflict since leaving public office in 2009. During the Trump administration, Ms Rice several times spoke up not just about the need to strike a deal in Afghanistan that would stabilise the country without involving a rushed American exit, however strong the domestic political pressure to bring the war to a close.

In an interview with CBSs Stephen Colbert in September 2019, she pointed out that the US had been keeping the peace in Korea for some six decades  and made her feelings on negotiating with the Taliban abundantly clear.

I wouldnt trust them. Ronald Reagan had a phrase, trust but verify. So you can negotiate an agreement, but we need to leave forces there long enough to make sure that the Afghan army is able to defend itself.
State election officials say they are confronting a myriad of challenges heading into the 2022 midterm elections, from threats of foreign interference and ransomware to changes of election laws and concerns of physical safety  all while still dealing with a wave of misinformation and disinformation surrounding last years presidential election.

The nations secretaries of state have been meeting with the goal of building relationships across states, sharing best practices and hearing from experts. The long list of challenges, outlined in various panel discussions over their association's four-day conference, might seem daunting but election officials said preparations have already begun.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican For us to be able to get together and talk with one another, compare notes, even commiserate on a human level a little bit about some of the drama over the last year and a half is a good experience. Its a useful thing, and we learn a lot from each other.

Heading into the 2020 presidential election, the focus for election officials was shoring up cybersecurity around the nations voting systems after Russia four years earlier had probed for vulnerabilities and, in a small number of cases, breached voter registration systems.

Then the pandemic happened, and state election officials had to scramble to ensure they could handle an onslaught of mail ballots from voters wary of crowded polling places while also dealing with shortages of poll workers and other staff triggered by the coronavirus.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said she was confident looking ahead to the midterms because states were able to hold successful and secure elections despite all those logistical challenges.

What we went through in 2020 was unlike anything any election administrators have ever had to go through, and we did it successfully, Benson said. And through that experience, we have the confidence that we can take on additional challenges in the future because we have already overcome so much.

In many ways, though, the election did not end as former President Donald Trump and his most ardent supporters continue to question his loss despite no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing. Nine months after the vote, election officials in key states still find themselves defending the integrity of their elections, combating conspiracy theories surrounding voting machines and facing death threats.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, told her colleagues during a discussion Saturday that just that day she had received three death threats on social media. She praised the U.S. Department of Justice for forming a task force to focus on threats to election officials and urged them to actively monitor social media accounts of key officials and not just rely on reports coming in.

In an interview, Griswold said she was concerned false claims surrounding the 2020 election were still driving threats to election workers across the country and what effect this could have on retaining a qualified and ethical workforce.

It cant be the new normal that civil servants get their lives threatened because people are believing a big lie that extreme elected officials are pushing out on a daily basis, Griswold said. Thats not good for the country. Thats not the United States that people think of when they think of the American dream.

Just last week, Griswold announced an investigation into a security breach at a local election office and said there was reason to believe an official in that office was aware of what happened and may have facilitated it. The official later appeared at a gathering of Trump supporters in South Dakota, accusing the state of wanting to take over the office. Griswold said instances like this underscore the importance of having guardrails in place to ensure elections are protected and warned democracy will be on the ballot in 2022.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said she and her staff have also experienced regular threats since the election and amid an ongoing review of the voting process in Phoenixs Maricopa County. Hobbs has objected to the review, which was initiated by Republicans in the Arizona Senate and involved handing over voting systems to an outside firm whose leader had tweeted support for conspiracy theories claiming Trump won.

Hobbs said she was confident cybersecurity defenses have improved but worried false narratives surrounding the election continue to proliferate and undermine public confidence in elections.

Weve put all of the things in place that need to be there to secure the systems. Its the disinformation that continues to be the biggest threat, Hobbs said.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Republican, said officials were being too dismissive of those who have concerns about the 2020 election and said he sees maintaining public confidence as the biggest challenge heading into next years midterms.

There are large swaths of America that have questions about that election, and theyre not being listened to. They are being muzzled, Warner said. And its not healthy.

Another key question will be funding and whether Congress allocates more money to help state and local election officials. Many state election officials have called for a steady source of funds so they can plan security upgrades, add cybersecurity professionals and help cover costs associated with an increase in mail voting.

While there is consensus the federal government should help fund elections, differences emerge along party lines as to how Congress should go about doing that. Republicans like Warner dont want to see strings attached to the funding, whereas Democrats like Griswold have been advocating for federal standards that would expand voting access and blunt the effects of new laws that tighten rules around mail ballots.

Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid said history shows election officials cannot rely on federal funds even though they are needed.

Would it be easier to have additional resources? Absolutely. But even without that, our counties will always do whatever they can, Degraffenreid said. But that may mean working really long hours, every day, just to make sure that they can support the functions within their office.
The downfall of Afghanistan has led President Joe Biden into his most precarious political position yet, but it is still unclear whether this will spell bad news for the presidents party in the coming months.

A Reuters Ipsos poll conducted Monday this week showed Mr Bidens approval rating dropped by seven points to 46 percent after the Taliban conquered the nation, which sent the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani into exile and Americans saw images of Afghans clinging to a plane as it took off. That was down from 53 percent from Friday.

Mr Biden has said he stands firmly behind his decision and the same poll showed that seven in ten Democratic and six in ten Republican voters said the chaos in Afghanistan was proof the US should leave the country, while at the same time, 51 percent of people surveyed said they wanted to send troops back to fight the Taliban.

Lis Smith, a Democratic consultant who was a senior adviser to Pete Buttigiegs campaign, said there is a huge disconnect between how Washington views Afghanistan versus most voters.

The reality is that most voters - both Democratic and Republican - are sick of open ended military engagements and much more concerned with whats happening at home than abroad, she said.

 Biden Stands Behind Decision To Withdraw

Conversely, another poll conducted this week from Politico and Morning Consult found that support for leaving Afghanistan collapsed . In April, 69 percent of voters supported all ground troops withdrawing from the country, but in a new poll conducted from 13 August to 16 August, just 49 percent did.

Most notably, support for the withdrawal did not just drop among Republicans, whose support for withdrawal went down 21 points, but also among Democrats, where support dropped by 15 points, while support among independents declined by 25 points.

Former president Donald Trump has battered Mr Biden in a barrage of statements, releasing 12 in five days attacking the current president.

Perhaps in World history, there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously, Mr Trump said in a statement Tuesday morning. A President who has been illegitimately elected has brought great shame, in many ways, to our Country!

This came despite the fact that Mr Trump signed the initial deal with the Taliban that ignited the current plan to withdraw and approved the release of 400 hardcore Taliban prisoners. Meanwhile the Republican National Committee scrubbed a webpage celebrating Mr Trumps historic deal with the Islamist group that now runs Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Sen Rick Scott of Florida who also serves as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the main campaign arm to elect Republicans to the Senate, said it was time to exercise provisions of the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Mr Biden from office. Though this is highly unlikely and would also require approval from his would-be successor Vice President Kamala Harris and a majority in Congress, where Democrats control both Houses.

James Zogby, who is the co-manager of Zogby Research who worked on Bernie Sanderss 2016 presidential campaign, said Republicans will use Afghanistan as a cudgel, despite the fact he thinks they would not have done better.

Will voters remember? Probably not, but Republicans are going to make sure they do remember, he said.

(AFP via Getty Images)

At the same time, plenty of Democrats in Congress are also demanding answers. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks announced Tuesday that there would be a hearing with Secretaries of State and Defense Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, respectively, on the debacle.

The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly changing and it is imperative that the administration provide the American people and Congress transparency about its Afghanistan strategy, he said in a statement.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, blamed both the Trump and Biden administrations.

The wholly inadequate agreement the Trump administration made with the Taliban did not get commitments for the Taliban to break ties with Al Qaeda, nor did it account for the day after our withdrawal, he said in a statement. In implementing this flawed plan, I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal. We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.

At the same time, Democrats are not sure it will damage them in the long run. Karin Johanson, who was executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee when Democrats took back the House in 2006, said the situation in Afghanistan was different from when the party won back the House from Republicans in response to the devolving situation in the War in Iraq.

Things were going badly in Iraq and we won in large part because of that, Johanson told The Independent. It was being bungled.

As a result, she said that it is still too early to tell the political ramifications.

All of this judgment that this is politically bad for the president is based on evidence, she said. I dont know where this conclusion that this has political ramifications comes from.

Rather, she noted how it is possible for the American people to hold two emotions at once.

One, the heartbreak of what is happening and the resolve that this was what needed to happen, she said. The fact that the president has been resolute has been to his benefit.

Similarly, Arizona Rep Ruben Gallego tweeted Monday that most people stopped caring about Afghanistan.

If a war is not felt across all spectrums of society then you cant expect all spectrums of society to care, he tweeted.
Republican lawmakers who voted against granting visas to 8,000 Afghans who supported the United States war effort against the Taliban are facing renewed criticism.

Last month, the House of Representatives gave near-unanimous support to allow the interpreters and contractors who worked with the US military be allowed to relocate under the Special Immigrant Visa programme.

The resolution, introduced by Democratic Congressman Jason Crow, passed by 407 votes to 16.

Just a reminder that on July 22, 2021, these 16 Members of Congress, all Republican, voted AGAINST evacuating our Afghan interpreters and their families. pic.twitter.com/JxeNrrD42G  Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 16, 2021

Those who voted against were all Republicans, and included far-right members Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Mr Crow, himself an Afghanistan combat veteran, said he owed his life to Afghans who had fought alongside US troops as the bill passed on 22 July.

Some members of this body, including me, may not be here today without the service and self-sacrifice of Afghans who answered the call to serve shoulder to shoulder with us, he said.

This week Mr Crow called out Ms Boebert, one of 16 Republicans who voted against the bill, over her criticism of the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

Wait a minute.



A few weeks ago you were 1 of only 16 members of Congress who voted against my bill to expand and speed up the visa program to evacuate and save our Afghan partners. https://t.co/TfDsfLioNg  Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) August 16, 2021

Wait a minute. A few weeks ago you were 1 of only 16 members of Congress who voted against my bill to expand and speed up the visa program to evacuate and save our Afghan partners.

Ms Boebert responded to say she didnt vote for the bill because amendments werent allowed.

We couldve fixed problems like reduced qualification standards and added anti-fraud measures to prevent what happened in the Iraqi program.

Only around 2,000 Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas have arrived in the United States since evacuation flights began in July.

The US has said it wants to relocate as many as 30,000 Afghans who are in the special immigrant visa application process.

The visa programme was effectively brought to a halt under the Trump administration, as part of a broader policy of reducing legal immigration.

In 2019, a federal judge ruled that the US government had broken the law by failing to resolve visa applications for thousands of Afghans and Iraqis who worked for American troops and diplomats.

Mr Crows HR 3985 resolution would expand eligibility to include family members of Afghans who have been killed. The bill must now pass the Senate for it to become law.

Tens of thousands of Afghans who contributed to the US 20-year occupation of Afghanistan are trying to leave the country over fears of persecution by the Taliban.
Former president Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he spoke with the mother and husband of Ashli Babbitt, whom police killed during the 6 January riot that, and said he knew the identity of the officer who fatally shot Ms Babbitt as she was trying to enter a restricted area of the Capitol.

Ms Babbit was killed by an officer during the insurrection led by Mr Trumps supporters.

We know who he is, he said. If that happened to the other side, there would be riots all over America and yet, there are far more people represented by Ashli, who truly loved America, than there are on the other side. The Radical Left haters cannot be allowed to get away with this. There must be justice!

The former presidents words come as Ms Babbitts family plans to seek a $10m wrongful death lawsuit against the officer who killed her. The lawyer for the family, Terry Roberts, said she was ambushed by the officer, who warned her to stay back.

Similarly, Ms Babbitts husband has called on the officer to be named.

Mr Trump has frequently begun invoking Ms Babbitts name. He has falsely said the officer who shot her was the head of security for a top Democrat, and said he regretted not lowering the flag half-staff for Ms Babbitt.
The US is fully withdrawing from Afghanistan, leaving the country after 20 years of war and more than 100,000 lives lost between Afghan civilians, military, coalition troops and militant fighters.

In the wake of the pull-out, critics from both sides of the political aisle have criticised Joe Biden's decision to end the US's presence in the country.

Mr Biden has been accused of abandoning the women and girls of Afghanistan, who will likely have their rights repressed under the renewed Taliban. Others have complained that the president did not commit to a nation-building project in Afghanistan, despite the fact that 20 years of investment and trillions of dollars have yielded nothing resembling a transformed and self-sustaining democracy in the country.

To make matters worse, a militant group calling itself ISIS-K has attacked the Kabul airport while US troops were working to evacuate Afghans, US citizens and other individuals from the country. The attacks left more than 60 people dead, including 12 US troops, and 140 injured. The attacks have further polarised the domestic response to Mr Bidens decision to pull out of the country.

The US exit from Afghanistan and the Taliban's return to power has caught US intelligence officials and the public at large by surprise. However, the US has been in the process  to varying degrees of success  of leaving the country for the past decade.

Why did the US leave Afghanistan?

Despite being a popular war in the US in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the American public cooled on it, seeing little return on their continued investment in a conflict with no clear end in sight.

According to a poll conducted by the Chicago Council in July, 70 per cent of Americans supported ending US troop involvement in the country.

For many Americans, the emotional investment in the US war in Afghanistan began to fade after the leader of the Al-Qaeda terror organisation and mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Osama Bin Laden, was killed in 2011.

Three years later, then-President Barack Obama announced the beginning of troop drawdowns in the country, proposing that US forces would be fully removed by 2016. During that time, US forces were tasked with training the military of Afghanistan's US-backed government to defend the country after they left.

However, corruption in the Afghan government and hurdles in establishing a unified and capable military caused US officials to pull back from the 2016 deadline.

Former President Donald Trump campaigned on ending the war in Afghanistan, but was talked down by US military officials who feared that the government would fold to Taliban forces without US involvement.

While Mr Trump ultimately took that advice, in 2020 he held negotiations with the Taliban to pull out of the country by 1 May 2021 and agreed to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners. In exchange, the Taliban agreed not to attack Americans while they were evacuating and to begin peace talks with the Afghan government. Those talks eventually fell apart.

The Taliban did not adhere to its end of the deal, and neither did Mr Biden adhere to Mr Trump's deal after he took office in 2021.

Thanks to its victories and a decreased US presence, the Taliban grew its power. While a renewed US troop presence likely could have beaten back the Taliban again, there was no indication that American voters would support the loss of American lives and further monetary investment that such a mission would require.

Mr Biden responded to the will of the American public and declared that he intended to remove all US troops out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks.

"We already have service members doing their duty in Afghanistan today whose parents served in the same war," Mr Biden said in April. "We have service members who were not yet born when our nation was attacked on 9/11."

Even if Americans supported further involvement in Afghanistan, there was no indication that further investment would result in a stable democracy with the capability to defend itself from the Taliban.

Estimates by the Cost of War project suggest the US spent $2.26 trillion on the war, including the costs of building and training the now-collapsed Afghan army. Ivo Daalder, a US Ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013, told NPR that after all the time and money the US poured into the country, it failed to produce a sustainable state.

"And for his critics who say, 'Oh, if we had just stayed a little longer we would have avoided the situation.' If you weren't able to do what needed to be done in 20 years, why do you think 21 or 22 years would have done the trick?" he said.

Further, a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a US watchdog agency monitoring the US mission in Afghanistan, recently published a report outlining the "many failures" of the past 20 years.

"Twenty years later, much has improved, and much has not," the report read. "If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that can sustain itself and pose little threat to US national security interests, the overall picture is bleak."

Between American public sentiment and a lack of real progress toward leaving a sustainable government, it is highly unlikely that Americans would support a renewed effort to spend US lives beating back the renewed Taliban.

How many people died in Afghanistan?

Since 2001, 2,443 American troops were killed while fighting the war in Afghanistan. An additional 1,144 allied troops also died, including 457 British forces personnel or Ministry of Defence civilians.

More than 71,000 civilians are believed to have died as a direct result of the war, according to the Costs of War project.

The number of civilian deaths is higher than the number of Afghan militants killed, which is estimated at approximately 66,000.

Many of the civilian casualties in the country are a direct result of then-President Obama relaxing the rules of engagement for airstrikes in the countries. Under Mr Obama's covert drone programme, civilian deaths skyrocketed. There were 10 times the number of drone airstrikes under Mr Obama's administration than his predecessor George W Bush's. Mr Trump would go on to authorise more airstrikes than both.

Further, the CIA trained and armed militant Afghan groups that have been accused of committing brutal human rights abuses against civilians, much like it did with the Contras in Nicaragua during the 1980s.

The Afghan landscape is also littered with unexploded ordinance and landmines, which will continue to pose threats to civilians for years.

Beyond the lives lost as a direct result of the war, the conflict has contributed to social decimation in the country, with malnutrition, poverty and illness rampant.

Deaths among Afghan civilians will likely continue to grow as the Taliban tightens its grip. US based advocates fear that interpreters and other Afghan nationals who cooperated with the US will be targeted by the Taliban. The US has evacuated more than 5,000 Afghans and is scrambling to find countries willing to house refugees fleeing the Taliban.

Why did the US invade Afghanistan?

The US war in Afghanistan was immensely popular in the aftermath of the September 11th terror attacks. Emotions were raw in the country, and Americans on both sides of the political aisle responded to the beat of war drums coming from the White House under then-President Bush.

Al-Qaeda, under its leader Bin Laden, took credit for the attack. None of the 9/11 hijackers were Afghan or Iraqi citizens. Most were from Saudi Arabia, an ally of the US with its own history of human rights abuses. The US maintains a friendly relationship with Saudi Arabia to this day.

The leader of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, was Egyptian.

Despite the nationalities of the hijackers, the US focused its attention on Afghanistan, where the hijackers had trained with Al-Qaeda forces. Mr Bush demanded that the Taliban, who ruled the country, hand over Bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda members, a request which the Taliban rejected.

Under the banner of "the war on terror", Mr Bush signed a joint resolution on 18 September, 2001, authorising the use of force against those responsible for the attacks. That resolution would later be used to justify the invasion of Afghanistan, domestic US spying programmes, and the detention of prisoners at the US war prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Despite an overwhelming US response in Afghanistan beginning in October 2001 that quickly unraveled the Taliban and sent the militants into retreat, the US would ultimately fail to find Bin Laden until a decade later.

While the US mission remained to root out Al-Qaeda members and hunt Bin Laden, the chaos created by the conflict resulted in the US working to establish an interim Afghan government. The US mission expanded to include a nation building project, including the establishment of a US-friendly military intended to defend the country once the US left.

By 2003, the Bush administration had declared that "major combat" in the country had ended, an announcement that coincided with Mr Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech celebrating victory in the then-concurrent war in Iraq. US forces would remain in conflict with the Taliban for another 18 years, spending trillions of dollars on a venture that would ultimately end in failure.

How much did the US spend on the war in Afghanistan?

The US spent $2.26 trillion on its venture into Afghanistan.

According to an analysis by Forbes, the war cost Americans $300m per day.

The staggering number includes $800bn in direct war-fighting costs, and $85bn to train the Afghan military, which collapsed in a matter of weeks after the US pulled out of Bagram Air Force Base in July. Another $750m a year went to paying the Afghan army.

Much of the war was funded with borrowed money. Researchers at Brown University estimate that more than $500bn in interest has already been paid, and that by 2050 the cost of interest on the US's debts for the war may reach $6.5 trillion, or $20,000 per US citizen.

The US ultimately spent more money on the war in Afghanistan than it did on stimulus checks to help its citizens survive the economic stagnation caused by the coronavirus. Each year, the federal government spends approximately $79bn on education programmes, meaning the US has spent more on the failed war in Afghanistan over 20 years than it spent on education programmes by nearly $1 trillion.

Even the much lauded $1 trillion infrastructure bill  which was subject to months of negotiations and complaints by even some Democrats that its costs were too steep  is less than what the country spent fighting in Afghanistan.

While the two decade long war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq came at an immense financial cost to Americans and an incalculable cost to the lives of Afghan, Pakistani and Iraqi civilians, there were some who benefited from the conflict.

According to an analysis by Pacific Standard, almost $5 trillion dollars was paid out to military contractors hired by the Pentagon, including Lockheed Martin, DynCorp, Black & Veatch, and Academi, formerly known as Blackwater, the mercenary company owned by Eric Prince, the brother of Mr Trump's Education Secretary Nancy DeVos and ally to the former president.

Blackwater mercenaries carried out the Nisour Square massacre, in which 17 civilians were killed and 20 were injured in Baghdad. Mr Trump would go on to pardon four of the mercenaries who took part in the massacre.
Two European Union foreign ministers have been accused of going on holiday as Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban.

Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto is currently on vacation, according to his deputy, who admitted on Wednesday that he did not know the whereabouts of his superior.

Levente Magyar, deputy foreign minister, told a local journalist at a press conference: I dont know where the minister is. All I know is that he is on leave.

The journalist added that the minister, Levente Magyar, was not aware of the exact number of Hungarian nationals who were stranded in Afghanistan.

Despite previous statements from the Hungarian foreign ministry stating that there were no Hungarian citizens in Afghanistan, it has since been revealed that there are more than 26 Hungarians awaiting evacuation at Kabul airport, Hungary Today reported.

The Hungarian government confirmed on Wednesday that an evacuation operation is underway to bring the remaining Hungarians and Afghans who aided Hungary out of Kabul.

Meanwhile, Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio was spotted sunbathing on a southern Italian beach amid reports that he would not appear before a parliamentary committee on Afghanistan until 24 August, according to an Italian journalist.

Around 50 Italian citizens and 20 Afghans who had worked with Italian forces were evacuated by plane on Sunday night, the Italian foreign ministry confirmed. On Monday, Mr Di Maio said in a radio interview that the flight would be the first of several in the next few days to repatriate citizens, the Local Italy reported.

The UKs foreign secretary was earlier this week accused of going AWOL after spending the past week on holiday abroad while the situation in Afghanistan was unravelling.

Dominic Raab was spotted sunning himself on holiday at a five-star resort in Crete, according to the Telegraph. Reports suggested he only left the Greek island on the evening of Sunday 15 August, despite Taliban forces storming the Afghan capital earlier the same day.

Mr Raab later admitted that in retrospect he wouldnt have gone away had he known the scale of the Taliban takeover.

An FCDO spokesperson said on Monday: The foreign secretary is personally overseeing the FCDO response and engaging with international partners. He is returning to the UK today, given the situation.

However Labour leader Kier Starmer told the House of Commons on Wednesday, in front of Mr Raab, that you cannot coordinate an international response from the beach.
Early on the morning of 22 August 1991, an Aeroflot jet carrying Mikhail Gorbachev touched down at Moscows Vnukovo airport. The Soviet president, confused following three days of captivity at his Crimean dacha, appeared from the front exit  photographed by the press gaggle in what would become the iconic image of the era. Out of view of the lenses, however, was a second stairway to the rear of the plane. This was from where Vladimir Kryuchkov, ringleader of the gang of eight coup leaders, would emerge.

Valentin Stepankov, prosecutor general of Russia, a state yet to formally exist, was waiting at the bottom of the stairs to arrest the KGB chief. Hed typed the warrant himself in the hours before, nervous should his intentions leak, and unsure how hed be received by a man who still formally controlled elite Soviet special forces. The chief prosecutor had arrived in Vnukovo supported only by a motley band of Ladas, police minivans, and a bus of young recruits hed scraped together from a loyal police academy.

I formally introduced myself to Kryuchkov, and asked him to accompany me to a room in the airport, Stepankov says. His response was to ask why it wasnt the Soviet prosecutor doing the arrests.

The events of the previous three days  when a group of hardliners had attempted to seize control from the reformist Gorbachev, only to see their beloved Soviet Union crash in the process  are among the most studied of all time. But the failure of the attempted coup is also one of historys greatest enigmas. All along the timeline, from Swan Lake appearing on Soviet TV sets on the morning of 19 August to Gorbachev returning on the 22nd, are a set of improbable combinations, inexplicable non-decisions, and more than a few shots of the strong stuff.

My wife said they looked like something from the Muppet show. I wrote a memo for London later that evening saying the coup looked very wonky indeed Rodric Braithwaite, UK Ambassador to Moscow at the time of the attempted coup

Rodric Braithwaite, UK ambassador to Moscow at the time, knew of the intelligence reports predicting a hardliner plot. But like the Soviet leader himself, he was surprised by its eventual timing. Only weeks earlier, Gorbachev had faced down a call to impose a state of emergency; that, most people thought, had emboldened his authority. Gorbachevs off on holiday, and so are we, Braithwaite recalls telling guests at a lunch on 18 August, before departing for a tour of Russian churches later that evening. When the Braithwaites returned to Moscow in a hurry the very next morning, tanks were already on the streets.

Sandbags stacked at the KGBs headquarters on Lubyanka Square suggested the putschists had prepared for a fight. But already, from the early hours, it had been clear something was not quite right. At the conspirators first attempt to explain their actions in a press conference on 19 August, at least some of them appeared drunk. A young journalist called Tatyana Malkina asked if they understood they had attempted a coup detat. Gennady Yanayev, Gorbachevs recently appointed deputy, who declared himself president following his betrayal, mumbled an answer. But it was his trembling hands that people noticed.

From left: Soviet interior minister Boris Pugo, Soviet vice-president Gennady Yanayev, and Oleg Baklanov, the first vice-president of the Soviet Defence Council, the members of the self-styled committee for the state of emergency, which headed the coup, in a press conference on 19 August 1991 in Moscow (AFP/Getty)

My wife said they looked like something from the Muppet show, recalls Ambassador Braithwaite. I wrote a memo for London later that evening saying the coup looked very wonky indeed.

Lev Gudkov, then a 44-year-old researcher working in the novel field of opinion polling, found out about the coup in a 7am phone call from his boss, the revered sociologist Yuri Levada. The two men were fearful for what it meant  We had a sense we were hurtling back to 1918 and the red terror  but their mood picked up following the unconvincing press conference. By the evening, Levada and Gudkov were broadcasting the results of their first union-wide opinion polls via Echo of Moscow, the one independent radio station that managed to stay on air. We were able to show a majority opposed the coup in all but two major cities  Minsk and Tbilisi, Gudkov says. Minds had shifted.

Boris Yeltsin addresses crowds from an army tank (Alamy)

With Gorbachev still interned in Crimea, the man on hand to channel popular energy against the plotters was his main democratic rival, Boris Yeltsin. In another inexplicable oversight by the plotters, the outspoken Russian president was never detained  despite an order being written for his arrest. Heavy drinking appears to be at least part of the reason why he was never brought in. By lunchtime, Yeltsin was in the White House, the seat of Russias parliament in central Moscow. From here, the lyrical populist would stage his bravest political performance, climbing on top of a tank to declare the plotters orders illegal.

Things remained tense and finely balanced into 20 August. On the one hand, most of the Soviet Unions most capable forces were formally subordinate to coup leaders. On the other, there were growing signs of sabotage and paralysis. As rumours swelled about an anticipated attack on the White House, protesters flocked to central Moscow in tens of thousands. Many of them helped build makeshift barricades from trolleybuses and anything they could lay their hands on. None of it could have stood up to a tank attack for more than a few seconds, of course, recalls Braithwaite. But the atmosphere was exhilarating  something like a music festival, with people playing guitars, sitting around and getting drunk.

The coup leaders had a detailed scheme to neutralise Yeltsin and the Russian government, with maps and instructions for the use of special forces and so on Valentin Stepankov, former prosecutor general of Russia

In confessions given to chief prosecutor Stepankov, never officially made public, the plotters admitted they had resolved to order the storming of the White House on the night of 20-21 August. The coup leaders had a detailed scheme to neutralise Yeltsin and the Russian government, with maps and instructions for the use of special forces and so on, Stepankov says. A unit from the KGBs Alfa special forces and Omon special police were supposed to take positions at 1am on the morning of 21 August, and they were due to begin the operation two hours later.

But the plan was derailed by tragedy. At approximately 11pm, news broke about the deaths of three protesters in an underpass half a mile away from the White House. The men were killed as tanks attempted to break through trolleybus barricades. Dmitry Komar, 23, and Vladimir Usov, 38, were crushed under tank treads. Ilya Krichevsky, 28, was shot in the head. Witnesses said the men believed the tanks were headed for the White House. In reality, the divisions in question had nothing to do with the planned operation, and soldiers appeared to be acting out of fear of falling to the mob.

A pro-democracy demonstrator fights with a Soviet soldier on top of a tank parked in front of the Russian Federation building on 19 August 1991 (AFP/Getty)

The deaths had a profound impact on at least one of the gang of eight. Spooked by the reality of deaths on the streets of Moscow, defence minister Dmitry Yazov brought his staff together for talks. He was stunned by what they had to say. Never mind agreeing to a potentially bloody assault on the seat of parliament  with tens of thousands of protesters surrounding it  why was he involved in such a plot in the first place? Realising he could not rely on his generals for support, Yazov gave a command to hold, then withdraw, positions.

The KGB guys who had gathered at their headquarters at Lubyanka at this point apparently became hysterical, says Stepankov.

Yazovs U-turn, and subsequent decision to fly to Crimea later on 21 August to free Gorbachev  with the other gang members traipsing behind him  consigned the coup attempt to history. Yet the three days in August would have long-lasting repercussions not only for the Soviet Union and Mikhail Gorbachev, who were both terminally damaged by the affair, but for Russia itself. On 25 December 1991, following months of humiliation, Gorbachev resigned. The dissolution of the Soviet Union followed a day later.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev at the extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow on 27 August 1991. The coup attempt would have lasting implications for Russia and the Soviet Union (AFP/Getty)

That cascade of events had the profoundest of impacts on a certain Vladimir Putin, who described it as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century. At the time, he was a badged democrat in the team of St Petersburgs reformist mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and so formally took the opposite side to the putschists. But he appears to have learned a lot from their mistakes. Much of the Kremlins domestic policy over the past few years has been driven at limiting the kind of freedom that allowed the Russian people and independent politicians to face down a military coup.

The publics appraisal of the events of August 1991 has changed over time, battered by the hardships unleashed by Yeltsins shaky reforms during the 1990s. Unpublished polls produced by the Levada Centre  Lev Gudkov now heads the research institute that takes his former bosss name  suggest that support for Yeltsins actions has fallen to 10 per cent from a high point of 57 per cent immediately following the aborted coup. Additionally, over half now regret the fall of the Soviet Union.

The fates of the eight men who had fought hard to conserve the Soviet Union are equally complicated. Interior Minister Boris Pugo hanged himself shortly after his arrest. But others played a successful long game. Stalling Stepankovs investigation for years until public opinion turned against Yeltsin and the market forces he had unleashed, the remaining seven plotters were able to secure an amnesty and escape a trial. The last of them, Oleg Baklanov, died in late July after a successful career in state industry.

People holding a huge Russian flag flash victory signs on 22 August 1991 on Red Square in Moscow as they celebrate the failure of a coup led by hardline communists (AFP/Getty)

To this day Stepankov says he regrets never seeing the men he arrested at Vnukovo airport on trial. It was a bad precedent for Russian history and politics, he says. That was laid bare just two years later, when Yeltsin ordered tanks back to the White House to settle a constitutional dispute with his unruly parliament.

Had there been proper censure, perhaps he wouldnt have given the order to shoot, Stepankov says, and perhaps 150 people wouldnt have been sent to their graves.
You would not have guessed it from Boris Johnsons opening speech in todays Commons debate on Afghanistan, but relations between London and Washington are extremely tense over the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

UK ministers are appalled by the lack of consultation and the failure of US intelligence over the speed of the Taliban advance (though the UK did not see that coming either). But the official line for ministers to take is clear: you can have a pop at Donald Trumps initial deal with the Taliban, but dont criticise Joe Biden.

Normally, statements issued by Downing Street after the prime minister speaks by phone to another world leader are notoriously bland. But after last nights conversation between Johnson and Biden, No 10 said revealingly: The prime minister stressed the importance of not losing the gains made in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, of protecting ourselves against any emerging threat from terrorism and of continuing to support the people of Afghanistan.

Remarkably, the UK is defending the gains while the leader of the 20-year operation is not. There is dismay among British ministers that Biden heaped blame on Afghans in his statement on Monday and insisted the intervention was not about nation building; you could have fooled Tony Blair and his successors, who repeatedly talked up its wider aims. It was noticeable that in the Commons today, Johnson praised the bravery and sacrifice of the Afghan army, insisted the core mission was a success and highlighted the lasting benefits to the country from the coalitions actions  though no one can guarantee the Taliban will allow them to last.

The UK shares the anger of Nato allies who, having triggered the organisations Article 5  an attack on one is an attack on all  for the only time in its history to go into Afghanistan after 9/11, expected to be equally involved in the exit strategy. They were all in it together  until it suited the US to be out.

The affair has exposed the fundamental flaw in Johnsons global Britain strategy: the UK is even more dependent on the US than before Brexit and yet enjoys precious little influence in Washington. Biden dismissed the UKs plea for a conditions-based withdrawal that might have made it easier to prevent a resurgence of terrorist attacks from Afghan soil.

At the same time, the UK has lost influence among its neighbours and allies. It was unable to forge a coalition of those still willing to stay in Afghanistan without Americas might. Italy was interested but France and Germany were not. Perhaps the die was cast once Americas air support was lost, but Brexit hardly made an alternative option any easier to pursue. During the Commons debate, Johnson was pressed by MPs, including Theresa May, on how hard he had really tried to form a continuing alliance to maintain stability in Afghanistan. May asked pointedly: Where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul? Johnson admitted the UK had considered increasing its military presence but did not believe the public or the Commons would support sending tens of thousands of troops to fight the Taliban. He insisted: It is an illusion to believe there is appetite among any of our partners for a continued military presence or military solution.

Although he would never admit it, on Afghanistan Johnson has more in common with the UKs former EU partners than the US, yet he is still chasing Bidens coattails. But where are the tangible benefits?

The jewel in the crown of post-Brexit Britain was supposed to be a US-UK trade deal. But Im told there is now little expectation on either side of the Atlantic of an agreement before 2023 at the earliest. There is also impatience in London that the Biden administration has not reciprocated after the UK allowed fully vaccinated Americans to enter the country without quarantine. Another shadow over the relationship is the Northern Ireland protocol; Johnson knows the White House is watching like a hawk what it sees as the UKs attempt to rewrite an agreement on which the ink is barely dry.

Although Johnson speaks to Biden less frequently than he did with Trump, UK officials insist the relationship is more stable than under the unpredictable Trump. Although it has undoubtedly been shaken by the rift over Afghanistan, Johnson cant criticise Biden in public, even after the catastrophe of recent days. In the medium term, he has nowhere else to run after Brexit. In the short term, Johnson must beg Biden to stump up billions of dollars more to help poor countries tackle climate change to prevent the Cop26 summit in Glasgow in November ending in failure. Whitehall sources say delivering the rich nations overdue promise of $100bn (72.7bn) a year to developing countries is a major hurdle that could hold the key to the summits success or failure.

For Johnson, all roads lead to Washington. But the once-special relationship has become a one-way street.
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Even in this day and age, mental health is not something that is given its due importance.

The lack of proper attention to mental health can lead to more complicated issues if they are not addressed on time.

However, getting help still remains a challenge for many who are suffering from mental health issues.

Unsplash

Such problems can be aggravated in incarceration, which in itself can be destabilising for many.

Taking into account the needs of prisoners suffering from mental health issues, the Kerala High Court has directed the state government to set up a mental health establishment in at least one prison in the state.

Mental Health Review Board

Justice V G Arun, said in a judgment on August 13 that the state government should also constitute a Mental Health Review Board under Section 73 of the Mental Healthcare Act.

The order came in a case, taken up by the court on its own, on the plight of mentally ill remand prisoners being brought to the notice of the Chief Justice by a high court judge based on a newspaper report.

Representational image

"The State Government shall forthwith set up a mental health establishment, as stipulated in Section 103(6) of the Mental Healthcare Act, in at least one prison in the State. The prisoners with mental illness shall ordinarily be referred to and cared for in the said mental health establishment," the court said.

The court also said that the Mental Health Review Boards shall ensure that prisoners with mental illness are allowed to live with dignity and treated as equal to persons with physical illness.

"The State Government shall, with the assistance of the KELSA, take necessary steps to trace the relatives of acquitted mentally ill prisoners and of the undertrial prisoners fit for rehabilitation and persuade their family members to provide necessary care and protection to those persons," the court said.

PTI

It added that if the family members of the acquitted mentally ill persons refuse to take them back, the State Government shall take steps for their rehabilitation by transferring them to the willing registered mental health establishments.

Once the mentally ill acquitted person is shifted to a mental health establishment, the amount fixed by state government shall be disbursed to that establishment.

"As on August 10, 2020, there were 77 convicts/ remand prisoners undergoing treatment in Government Mental Health Centres in the State, of whom 22 are continuing after acquittal. Of the other 55 prisoners, 48 are undertrial prisoners and seven are convicts," the court said.

Representational Image/iStock

Out of the 22 acquitted persons, 18 are fit for discharge and can be sent to rehabilitation centres and even from among the under trial prisoners, some are fit to be rehabilitated.

The court also noted that the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure are yet to be amended in tune with the provisions of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.

"For example, in most of the Sections of Chapter XXV of the Code, mentally ill accused are still termed as 'lunatic' and for mental health establishments the term used is lunatic asylum," it said.
Reuters

People in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city took to the streets on Wednesday demanding the reinstallation of Afghanistan's flag on offices instead of the Taliban's flag. However, the Taliban fighters opened fire at the protesters, according to local news agency Pajhwok Afghan News. Read more



Here's more top news of the day:

1) Assam-Mizoram Border Dispute: Police Allegedly Fire At Mizoram Residents, Tension Flares Up

AFP

Weeks after six Assam Police personnel were killed in a violent clash at the Assam-Mizoram border, tension along the disputed inter-state boundary escalated on Tuesday after an incident of fresh firing. Read more

2) Heartbreaking! 7-month-old Baby 'Abandoned' By Parents During Chaos At Kabul Airport

AFP

With the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan's capital Kabul, the scramble of panicked and desperate residents to leave the country has triggered a major refugee crisis. Several horrific visuals are emerging from the Afghanistan capital since the Taliban took control. Hundreds are attempting to flee the incoming regime. Read more

3) Women To Appear For NDA Exams, Army Slammed For 'Gender Discrimination': What SC Ordered

File Photo

The Supreme Court passed an interim order to allow women to take the admission exam to National Defence Academy (NDA). The Centre had earlier said that women cannot claim violation of any fundamental right for being denied entry as the male cadets trained there do not have any automatic advantage in future career advancement prospects over the women. Read more

4) In A First, Collegium Recommends 3 Women As SC Judges, One Of Them Could Become 1st Female CJI

PTI

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by chief justice NV Ramana and comprising four senior-most judges has reportedly recommended nine names for appointment to the top court. Read more

5) Salima Mazari, Governor Who Took Up Arms & Formed Army Against Taliban, Captured In Afghanistan

AFP

Salima Mazari, one of the first women governors in Afghanistan, who took up arms against Taliban, has reportedly been captured by the insurgent group. Read more
US President Joe Biden announced that the time has come to end America's longest war with his plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, on the 20th anniversary of the New York bombings. Germany and the UK will also follow in the footsteps of the US. And that it is an unconditional exit, despite growing fears that the Taliban will rule again. These are the main stages of the intervention of the United States and its allies in 20 years of war without resolution.



It all began in October 2011 after the 9/11 terror attack in the United States that killed 3,000 innocent people. President George W. Bush launched a broad military offensive in Afghanistan, following the refusal of the Taliban regime to hand over the head of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden. Just in a few days US forces defeated the Taliban who had been in power since 1996. Here are some pictures of the longest war:
Taliban militants have allegedly burnt down an amusement park a day after they were seen enjoying rides following the capture of Kabul.

The Taliban militants, some of them with weapons in hand, were seen enjoying a ride on the electric bumper cars in the videos. In another video, Taliban militants can be seen riding small merry-go-round horses.

Twitter

A new video which surfaced recently shows a similar park blazing in flames after the Taliban set it on fire.

The Bokhdi Amusement Park was set on fire by Taliban insurgents in Begha, Sheberghan. The reason is that the statues/idols standing there are in Public access Idols are illegal in Islam, This is the logic of the Taliban's brutal emirate. The homeland is occupied.#Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/MBuYsQQbxk  Ihtesham Afghan (@IhteshamAfghan) August 17, 2021

After capturing Kabul, Taliban militants were seen enjoying rides at the amusement park.

In the latest video doing the rounds on social media, an entire amusement park is seen burning with massive flames covering the area at night.

taliban fighters capturing an amusement park (literally just vibing) pic.twitter.com/bY9fnSDTls  goth dad (@gothdad123) August 13, 2021

A Twitter user who shared the video has claimed the clip is of the Bokhdi Amusement Park in Sheberghan.

The Twitter user added that the reason cited by Taliban for burning down the amusement park was that there were statues and idols inside which are against Islam.
People in Afghanistan's Jalalabad city took to the streets on Wednesday demanding the reinstallation of Afghanistan's flag on offices instead of the Taliban's flag. However, the Taliban fighters opened fire at the protesters, according to local news agency Pajhwok Afghan News.

Twitter

Fighters beat journalists covering protest

The Taliban fighters also beat up some journalists who were covering the protest. In videos shared on social media, hundreds of people could be seen taking out a march carrying Afghanistan's flag.

#Taliban firing on protesters in Jalalabad city and beaten some video journalists. #Afghanidtan pic.twitter.com/AbM2JHg9I2  Pajhwok Afghan News (@pajhwok) August 18, 2021





Gunshots could be heard in the background as the protesters dispersed from the area. It could not be confirmed if anyone was injured during the incident.



Breaking:



Protestors in Jalalabad city want the national flag back on offices & rejects Taliban terrorists flag. Taliban openly fires at protestors. Reports of casualties. pic.twitter.com/EFoy4oh3uT  Najeeb Nangyal (@NajeebNangyal) August 18, 2021

First sign of rebellion against the Taliban

Earlier in the day, a group of Afghan women was seen taking out the first public protest in Afghanistan demanding their rights. In videos shared on social media, the women could be heard demanding their rights, including social security, right to work, right to education and right to political participation.

Twitter

These protests mark the first sign of rebellion against the Taliban ever since the militant group took control of Afghanistan on August 15. Many Afghans have fled the country and thousands are still waiting to board a flight at the Kabul airport.
When the Taliban previously came into power in Afghanistan in 1996, they made it mandatory for women to be dressed up in the full burqa. However, they have recently made a statement to indicate that they wouldn't do the same this time, said an AFP report.

Under the terrorists' hardline 1996-2001 rule, girls' schools were closed, women were prevented from travelling and working, and women were forced to wear an all-covering burqa in public.



Reuters

"The burqa is not the only hijab (headscarf) that (can) be observed, there is different types of hijab not limited to burqa," Suhail Shaheen, spokesman for the group's political office in Doha, told Britain's Sky News.

The burqa is a one-piece overgarment that covers the entire head and body, with a mesh panel to see through.

The spokesperson did not specify other types of hijab that would be deemed acceptable by the militant organisation.

Aside from clothing, several countries have raised the alarm for the fate of women's education in Afghanistan.

Reuters

But Shaheen said things are going to be different from now.



Women "can get education from primary to higher education -- that means university. We have announced this policy at international conferences, the Moscow conference and here at the Doha conference (on Afghanistan)," Shaheen said.

Thousands of schools in areas captured by the Taliban were still operational, he added.

The previous Taliban government imposed the strictest interpretations of sharia, establishing religious police for the suppression of "vice".

CBS

Extreme punishments were handed out by the Taliban court including chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning to death women accused of adultery.
Woodbridge, VA (22192)

Today

Thunderstorms - some locally heavy downpours are possible, especially late. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Thunderstorms - some locally heavy downpours are possible, especially late. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 2 to 3 inches of rain expected.
Marjan Minnesma cheered along with her fellow climate activists in May when a judge ordered Royal Dutch Shell Plc to drastically slash its carbon-dioxide emissions. It was the first time a company had been held legally accountable for its planet-warming pollution.

It wasnt the first time Minnesma had celebrated a groundbreaking legal victory handed down in that court building in The Hague, Netherlands. Six years ago, her non-governmental organization Urgenda sued the countrys leaders for failing to cut pollution quickly enough to avoid catastrophic global warming. A judge agreed that protecting the environment was a human right and told the government to cut emissions 25% from 1990 levels by 2020.

Related: Shell to Appeal Landmark Climate Ruling in Dutch Court Shell Loses Landmark Climate Case in Ruling with Global Implications for Big Oil

The win was a watershed moment  since then, similar decisions were made all over the world, by high courts ranging from Germanys to Pakistans. But Minnesma isnt satisfied with how the verdict was enforced. The Netherlands came close to meeting the 25% target last year, with emissions dropping about 24.5% due to coronavirus-induced lockdowns, yet Minnesma says no structural changes have been made to keep CO below the threshold. Urgenda estimates that emissions for the first half of this year were 4.4 million tons higher than the same period in 2020.

After it won the 2015 case, Urgenda presented the government with a list of 54 policies it could potentially use to meet the emissions target, ranging from reducing the countrys livestock herd to greening rooftops. Still, the group says not enough was done to fulfill the verdict, which was confirmed by the Dutch Supreme Court in 2019. While the government did shut a coal plant, it remains locked in disagreements over compensation with companies that operate four other facilities that are supposed to close by 2030.

Minnesmas experience underscores the complexities of enforcing these verdicts once theyre handed down. Its a question that hangs over the Shell case, as well. The company plans to appeal the decision and it could take years to see tangible results in lowering emissions.

Donald Pols, director of Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth that brought the case against the oil giant, said the effectiveness of the ruling that will decide if we can stop climate change. Milieudefensie is closely watching how Urgenda strategizes to get its verdict enforced, Pols said. We have to be stricter when it comes to the execution of the verdict and will be quicker to take action when signals surface that the execution is slacking.

Other activists are looking to Urgenda for leadership, too. NGOs in Belgium, Ireland, Australia, Germany, France, Nepal, Colombia and Pakistan have all followed the groups playbook to win cases against their governments. New suits were filed in the Czech Republic, Poland and Italy this year. Apart from the Paris Agreement, Urgendas work is the biggest reason for the explosion of climate cases that have been filed since 2015, according to the London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. The group says at least 37 Urgenda-style cases have been brought since 2015.

Like Urgenda, Milieudefensie is exporting its winning strategy abroad, acting as matchmakers between financial donors and other NGOs working on similar cases. Pols will soon start training the British arm of Friends of the Earth, who are considering a case against BP Plc. French Oil giant TotalEnergies SE faces a case brought by lawyers with access to Milieudefensies know-how.

Frustrated with what she sees as a lack of progress, Minnesmais preparing to take the government of the Netherlands back to court. Theres no other option after years of talking and seeking cooperation, she said, sitting in her office in a former school building in Zaandam, near Amsterdam. The government is choosing to hollow out its foundation of rule of law by not adhering to the verdict. You expect a government like the Netherlands to abide by the verdict of a judge, Minnesma said.

In 2019, the Dutch government laid out a plan to cut emissions 49% by 2030. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, a body that advises the state on environmental issues, concluded in October that current policies will only produce a 34% decrease by the end of the decade. Were looking to see what we can do this year, but it is extremely difficult, said Prime Minister Mark Rutte in an interview this month.

Should she decide to sue, Minnesma plans to ask for a financial penalty for failing to obey the 2015 verdict. Legal specialists have told her the payout could be anywhere from 100 million euros ($118 million) to 2 billion euros, but theyre all guessing. Theres no precedent.

And it might be wishful thinking. Its unlikely Minnesma would be able win such a large award, says Eric de Brabandere, professor of international dispute settlements at Leiden University. Can a judge justify to the Dutch people giving 1 billion euros to an NGO? That is disproportionally big, he said. I do not think a judge will grant a number over 100 million euros.

Minnesma says the money would go into a fund dedicated to cutting emissions. It could be used, for example, to finance decarbonization efforts outside the scope of government aid, such as installing rooftop solar panels for the poor.

In the meantime, the government is hoping to keep talks going. We have excellent discussions with her, Rutte said of Minnesma.

Minnesma, in turn, said she hasnt spoken to Rutte since she began talking publicly about going back to court. The prime minister declined to go into details of the court case.

Pols thinks the Shell verdict will be easier to enforce than the ruling against the Dutch government. A big difference between companies and governments are the checks and balances, he said. Politicians are evaluated once every four years. For a company, this happens on a yearly basis. CEOs have to justify all risks they take, euros they spend, and once a year an accountant reports on the climate policy.

Shareholders also have the tools to intervene more directly, he said, and they will play an important role in the enforcement process. Pols says hes started having conversations with the heads of other big polluters in the Netherlands, including the chief executive officer of Tata Steels Dutch operations, about what they can do to avoid being similarly targeted.

Whether Shells shareholders push the company to do more depends on how public opinion changes, says Rutger Claassen, a professor of economic ethics at Utrecht University. Before the ruling, 89% of the companys shareholders voted in favor of its energy transition strategy while less than a third backed a resolution for more stringent targets to reduce emissions. But more extreme weather all over the world and increased government action, which could potentially get a high-profile boost at global climate talks in November, could push investors to do more. Shells position will depend on these developments, Claassen said.

Minnesma says shed hoped to avoid a second lawsuit. Her desire was to work hand-in-hand with the government to develop policies to accelerate climate action. Our case was successful because we deeply understand climate change and can translate it to the legal system, she said. Dont go re-inventing the wheel on your own and save yourself years of work.

But judges seem to better grasp the urgency of the climate challenge than politicians, Minnesma said. I am not in a fight with the government, she said. I care about climate change and if another lawsuit can help me, great.

With assistance from Fred Pals and Laura Hurst.

Photograph: Climate activist Marjan Minnesma. Photo credit: Peter Boer/Bloomberg.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
OneAdvent, the London-based managing general agency platform, has secured additional capacity for its financial lines MGA from Barbadian reinsurer Active Re.

Active Re has granted delegated underwriting authority to OneAdvent to write financial institutions and commercial D&O on a facultative reinsurance basis. (The capacity levels provided by Active Re were not disclosed).

The new facility will complement the MGAs existing financial lines facilities and primarily will be deployed to write small-and-medium-sized enterprises and mid-market-sized companies in emerging markets.

The additional capacity will allow the team, which is led by Roberto Murru, to grow the existing portfolio, while developing and launching complementary products and new classes of business, said OneAdvent in a statement. (OneAdvent operates as an MGA platform, Lloyds broker and niche product distribution business).

OneAdvent launched its specialist financial lines MGA in August 2019, which has expanded its focus from financial institutions to comprehensive coverage across several major verticals, including commercial directors and officers (D&O) insurance.

The MGA also launched on the Whitespace trading platform at the end of 2020, enabling more flexibility and security in the current remote working environment.

This new partnership will be integral to the building out of our financial lines proposition, said Murru. In the hardest market we have witnessed in over 35 years, we know there is lots of opportunity out there and this increased capacity, thanks to Active Re, will enable us to take advantage of that.

About Active Re

Active Capital Reinsurance Ltd. commenced operations in 2007, mainly providing credit-related reinsurance solutions to financial institutions in Latin America. It now specializes in reinsurance products for financial institutions, including fraud, theft, loss for credit and debit cards, credit, credit life, and surety bonds. Active Re has a general insurance and reinsurance license in Barbados and a Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of A- (Excellent) from AM Best. The company started providing delegated authority to MGAs in 2018 and has since established several partnerships with London-based MGAs.

Source: OneAdvent

Related:

Topics Insurance Wholesale
Swiss Re announced changes in the leadership of its Reinsurance Business Unit. Effective Jan. 1, 2022, Jason Richards will become country president and CEO UK & Ireland. He will be succeeded by Julie Stephenson as global head of Casualty.

Richards, who is currently global head of Casualty, will be appointed country president and CEO UK & Ireland. As CEO UK & Ireland, he will be responsible for driving profitable growth of the UK & Ireland reinsurance portfolio and continuing to strengthen Swiss Res influence and position in the London market.

Richards brings nearly 30 years experience in the re/insurance business. He joined Swiss Re in 2006 as part of the GE Insurance Solutions acquisition before becoming head of Property & Casualty Business Management in 2013. Richards took on his current role as global head of Casualty in November 2017 and has in this role successfully improved the quality of Swiss Res casualty portfolio, grown the P/C transactions portfolio, and set a strong foundation for its solutions business.

Stephenson will join Swiss Re as global head of Casualty and member of the Reinsurance Management Team. She is joining from U.S. commercial and property insurer CNA where she currently serves as a senior vice president and chief operating officer, Middle Market.

Stephenson joined CNA in 2015 as the commercial chief underwriting officer, responsible for profitability, portfolio management and underwriting governance for all of CNAs commercial property and casualty business. Prior to joining CNA, she served as senior vice president and global liability manager for Chubb and was responsible for the strategic direction of the portfolio across all global markets where Chubb has liability exposure, including the U.S., UK, Germany, Australia and China.

Topics Casualty Swiss Re
On Aug. 13, the former mayor of a southwest Illinois town became the second area mayor to plead guilty to lying to federal agents investigating a case involving commission payments related to the placement of casualty loss and workers compensation insurance for an Illinois municipality.

An indictment filed July 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois charged Tim Lowry, an insurance agent and the former mayor of Red Bud, Illinois, with falsely testifying in April 2019 to an FBI agent and an officer with the federal Southern Illinois Public Corruption Task Force that he did not pay Kevin Hutchinson, the former mayor of Columbia, Illinois, part of a commission Lowry received for facilitating an insurance contract with the city of Columbia for casualty loss and workers comp coverage.

Lowry, who owned the Ackermann Agency in Red Bud, directed payment through a third party to Hutchinson in the amount of $15,854 for placement of the insurance contract with the city of Columbia, court documents state.

The nearly $16,000 Lowry paid Hutchison represented around 40% of Lowrys 2016 through 2018 commission on the account from the Illinois Counties Risk Management Trust (ICRMT), an organization that provides insurance and risk management services to public entities in Illinois, according to the published stipulation of facts in the case.

When questioned by the FBI and the task force official in 2019, however, Lowry said he did not make any payments and that Hutchinson did not receive any as a result of the insurance contract with ICRMT.

Lowrys plea came roughly a month and a half after Hutchison, Columbias former mayor, was sentenced for lying to federal investigators about receiving payments from Lowry in relation to his citys purchase of the ICRMT coverage.

Hutchinson, 56, was indicted in February and pleaded guilty in March to the charge of lying to federal investigators. He was sentenced on June 29 to two years probation, a $500 fine, and 40 hours of community service, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Illinois.

Hutchinson was also a licensed insurance agent and owned a closely held Illinois corporation called BMC Associates Inc. Neither the city council nor the city manager were aware of the payments by Lowry to Hutchinson and his company, federal authorities said. Hutchinson resigned his post as mayor of Columbia after being indicted.

The Associated Press reported that before he resigned Hutchinson had been serving in his fourth term as mayor of Columbia, a community of about 11,000 located on the Mississippi River about 13 miles south of St. Louis.

Under Illinois law, as elected public officials both Lowry and Hutchinson were prohibited from having any direct or indirect personal financial interest in contracts with the municipalities they governed.

Although Lowry could face up to five years in prison, prosecutors are recommending a sentence of one year probation, a $1,000 fine and 40 hours of community service. Lowry has resigned as mayor of Red Bud, a small community also near St. Louis.

Lowrys sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 22.

Topics Illinois
Dozens of residences have been evacuated as a wildfire in northeastern Minnesota continues to spread, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire in the Superior National Forest near Greenwood Lake had expanded to about 3.1 square miles (8 square kilometers) by Aug. 17 as crews fought the fire on the ground and from the air.

Lake County sheriffs deputies and Emergency Management personnel went door to door to notify residents that they were in the evacuation zone, along McDougal Lakes, the Highway 2 corridor near Sand Lake and just north of Highway 1. About 75 residences were affected by the evacuation, the Forest Service said.

The fire was initially spotted around 3 p.m. Sunday and that night Gov. Tim Walz authorized the Minnesota National Guard to assist in the firefighting efforts, with fire dangers expected to remain high over the next several days.

This summer, Minnesota has experienced abnormally high temperatures and a historic drought resulting in dry conditions conducive to wildfires, Walz said in a statement.

Superior National Forest officials said in a statement that the cause of the Greenwood Lake fire had not determined by Monday afternoon. The lake is located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Isabella.

Byron Boler, a co-owner of Snowshoe Country Lodge on Sand Lake, told WTIP-FM in Grand Marais that he was doing outdoors chores Sunday afternoon when he spotted a big cloud of smoke billowing up about a quarter-mile southeast of his property and reported it. He said planes were soon scooping up water from nearby lakes and dumping it on the fire.

If the wind would have turned at all, we would have lost a lot of land, he said.

The smoke prompted the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to issue an air quality alert for the inland portion of Lake County. The MPCA said southerly winds were expected over the region for the next few days and would transport the smoke plume north.

The Superior National Forest is also monitoring two new, lightning-caused fires that are burning in remote parts of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to the northeast. A fire west of Sawbill Lake had grown to 10 acres (4 hectares), while another south of Little Saganaga Lake was around 2 acres (0.8 hectares). Aircraft were dropping water to try to limit their spread.

Drought conditions from the western U.S. across the northern plains to Minnesota have raised wildfire risks across a broad swath of the country. In California, firefighters have struggled to contain the month-old Dixie Fire amid forecasts of more dangerous weather. That fire has scorched more than 900 square miles (2,331 square kilometers) in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades since it ignited on July 13 and eventually merged with a smaller blaze called the Fly Fire.

There were nearly 100 large wildfires currently burning in the U.S. according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Minnesota
Northern California wildfires that incinerated two mountain communities continued marching through the Sierra Nevada while a utility purposely blacked out as many as 51,000 customers to prevent new blazes.

Two weeks after the Dixie Fire destroyed most of the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville, the Caldor Fire a few miles southeast exploded through tinder-dry trees and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a forest community of around 1,200 people.

Fire officials estimated that at least 50 homes had burned in the area since the fire erupted Saturday and two people were hospitalized with serious injuries.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in El Dorado County, where authorities were considering closing the entire El Dorado National Forest.

We know this fire has done things that nobody could have predicted, but thats how firefighting has been in the state this year, El Dorado National Forest Supervisor Chief Jeff Marsolais said at a briefing.

Both fires grew by tens of thousands of acres from Monday afternoon through Tuesday, torching trees and burning up brush left tinder-dry by high temperatures, low humidity and drought. Afternoon gusts drove the flames.

Few homes were left standing in Grizzly Flats, where streets were littered with downed power lines and poles. Houses were reduced to smoldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruins. A post office and elementary school were also destroyed.

At the Dixie Fire, numerous resources were put into the Susanville area, a city of about 18,000 a few miles from the northeastern edge of the blaze. Residents were warned to be ready to evacuate and new evacuations were ordered Tuesday for the month-old blaze, which was only a third surrounded.

Late Tuesday, Pacific Gas & Electric said it has begun shutting off power to as many as 51,000 customers in 18 Northern California counties to prevent wildfires for the first time since last years historically bad fire season.

The utility said the shutoffs were focused in the Sierra Nevada foothills, the North Coast, the North Valley and the North Bay mountains and could last into Wednesday afternoon.

The nations largest utility announced the blackouts as a precaution to prevent gusts from damaging power lines and sparking blazes.

PG&E has notified utility regulators that the Dixie fire may have been caused by trees falling into its power lines. The Dixie Fire began near the town of Paradise, which was devastated by a 2018 wildfire ignited by PG&E equipment during strong winds. Eighty-five people died.

The Dixie Fire is the largest of nearly 100 major wildfires burning across a dozen Western states, including Alaska. The wildfires, in large part, have been fueled by high temperatures, strong winds and dry weather.

Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco and Amy Taxin in Orange County contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe California Natural Disasters Wildfire
A federal judge has thrown out an $87 million lawsuit that a San Francisco school board member filed against the district and her colleagues after they voted to strip her of senior board positions because of tweets that were widely criticized as racist.

Judge Haywood Gilliam, Jr. said in his ruling this week that the claims by Alison Collins, who was vice president of the San Francisco school board, had no merit and there was no need to argue the case in court, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Collins filed the lawsuit in March, accusing the San Francisco Unified School District and five of her colleagues on the seven-member board of violating her free speech rights when they voted in a 5-2 ruling to strip her of her position as vice president and remove her from committees due to tweets dating back to 2016, before she was a school board member.

Collins sought $72 million in damages from the district and $3 million from each board member who had voted to strip her titles. In the lawsuit, Collins also sought an injunction to restore her as vice president, which the judge also denied.

Collins, who is Black, came under fire after critics unearthed the tweets in which she wrote that many Asian Americans use white supremacist thinking to assimilate and get ahead' and believe they benefit from the model minority BS.

In the thread, Collins called for Asian Americans to speak out against then-President Donald Trumps policies, saying that her daughter stepped in to stop Asian American boys who were bullying a Latino student. Dont Asian Americans know they are on his list as well? Collins wrote, using asterisks in place of a racial slur: Being a house n(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)r is still being a n(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)r. Youre still considered the help.'

The tweets sparked outrage and calls for Collins to resign, which she resisted and remains on the school board. At the time, Collins said the tweets were taken out of context and that she was speaking out against harassment, racism and bullying of Black and brown students in the district.

Gilliams ruling allows Collins to amend her complaint against the individual board members, but not the district, which is a government agency and not subject to lawsuits.

The ruling was welcomed by district officials Monday, as San Francisco schools reopened for the fall term.

Were focused on supporting our schools as they begin the new school year, Deputy Superintendent Gentle Blythe said. Its helpful to have one less distraction.

Collins did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits California Legislation K 12
A federal judge says a discrimination lawsuit filed against the University of Idaho by a UI College of Law professor can move forward.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill rejected a request from the University of Idaho to throw out the lawsuit last week, The Lewiston Tribune reported.

Professor Shaakirrah Sanders was hired to teach at the College of Law in 2011 and and in 2018 became the first African-American to achieve the rank of full professor at the school. She filed the lawsuit several years ago, alleging that she was unfairly denied an associate dean position, that she faced a variety of unfair conditions and that school officials retaliated against her when she complained.

The University of Idaho asked the court to throw out the lawsuit before it went to trial, contending in part that Sanders failed to file the complaint on time and that she failed to show that there was a valid dispute about the facts of the case.

Winmill rejected the universitys argument, noting that UIs Office of Civil Rights and Investigations received at least 35 reports of sexual or racial discrimination at the College of Law during a 9-year period starting in 2011. Those complaints triggered a formal review.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Legislation Education Universities
For decades, the American political class has intervened relentlessly and recklessly in countries whose people they hold in contempt. And once again they are being aided by Americas credulous mass media, which is uniformly blaming the Taliban victory on Afghanistans incorrigible corruption.

Almost every modern US military intervention in the developing world has come to rot. Its hard to think of an exception since the Korean War.

In the 1960s and first half of the 1970s, the US fought in Indochina  Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia  eventually withdrawing in defeat after a decade of grotesque carnage. President Lyndon B Johnson, a Democrat, and his successor, the Republican Richard Nixon, share the blame.

Disastrous consequences

In roughly the same years, the US installed dictators throughout Latin America and parts of Africa, with disastrous consequences that lasted decades.

Think of the Mobutu dictatorship in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the CIA-backed assassination of Patrice Lumumba in early 1961, or of General Augusto Pinochets murderous military junta in Chile after the US-backed overthrow of Salvador Allende in 1973.

In the 1980s, the US under Ronald Reagan ravaged Central America in proxy wars to forestall or topple leftist governments. The region still has not healed.

Since 1979, the Middle East and Western Asia have felt the brunt of US foreign policys foolishness and cruelty.

The Afghanistan war started 42 years ago, in 1979, when President Jimmy Carters administration covertly supported Islamic jihadists to fight a Soviet-backed regime.

Soon, the CIA-backed mujahedeen helped to provoke a Soviet invasion, trapping the Soviet Union in a debilitating conflict, while pushing Afghanistan into what became a 40-year-long downward spiral of violence and bloodshed.

Across the region, US foreign policy produced growing mayhem. In response to the 1979 toppling of the Shah of Iran (another US-installed dictator), the Reagan administration armed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his war on Irans fledgling Islamic Republic. Mass bloodshed and US-backed chemical warfare ensued. This bloody episode was followed by Saddams invasion of Kuwait, and then two US-led Gulf Wars, in 1990 and 2003.

Latest round of the Afghan tragedy Barely a month after the terror attacks of September 11, President George W Bush ordered a US-led invasion to overthrow the Islamic jihadists that the US had backed previously. Picture: AP /Pat Sullivan The latest round of the Afghan tragedy began in 2001. Barely a month after the terror attacks of September 11, President George W Bush ordered a US-led invasion to overthrow the Islamic jihadists that the US had backed previously. His Democratic successor, President Barack Obama, not only continued the war and added more troops, but also ordered the CIA to work with Saudi Arabia to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, leading to a vicious Syrian civil war that continues to this day. As if that was not enough, Obama ordered Nato to oust Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, inciting a decade of instability in that country and its neighbours (including Mali, which has been destabilised by inflows of fighters and weapons from Libya). What these cases have in common is not just policy failure. Underlying all of them is the US foreign-policy establishments belief that the solution to every political challenge is military intervention or CIA-backed destabilisation. That belief speaks to the US foreign-policy elites utter disregard of other countries desire to escape grinding poverty. Most US military and CIA interventions have occurred in countries that are struggling to overcome severe economic deprivation. Yet instead of alleviating suffering and winning public support, the US typically blows up the small amount of infrastructure the country possesses, while causing the educated professionals to flee for their lives.

Stupidity of its policy

Even a cursory look at Americas spending in Afghanistan reveals the stupidity of its policy there. According to a recent report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the US invested roughly $946bn between 2001 and 2021. Yet almost $1tn in outlays won the US few hearts and minds.

Heres why. Of that $946bn, fully $816bn, or 86%, went to military outlays for US troops. And the Afghan people saw little of the remaining $130bn, with $83bn going to the Afghan Security Forces.

Another $10bn or so was spent on drug interdiction operations, while $15bn was for US agencies operating in Afghanistan. That left a meager $21bn in economic support funding.

Yet even much of this spending left little if any development on the ground, because the programmes actually support counterterrorism; bolster national economies; and assist in the development of effective, accessible, and independent legal systems.

In short, less than 2% of the US spending on Afghanistan, and probably far less than 2%, reached the Afghan people in the form of basic infrastructure or poverty-reducing services.

The US could have invested in clean water and sanitation, school buildings, clinics, digital connectivity, agricultural equipment and extension, nutrition programmes, and many other programs to lift the country from economic deprivation. Instead, it leaves behind a country with a life expectancy of 63 years, a maternal mortality rate of 638 per 100,000 births, and a child stunting rate of 38%.

The US should never have intervened militarily in Afghanistan  not in 1979, nor in 2001, and not for the 20 years since.

But once there, the US could and should have fostered a more stable and prosperous Afghanistan by investing in maternal health, schools, safe water, nutrition, and the like.

Such humane investments  especially financed together with other countries through institutions such as the Asian Development Bank  would have helped to end the bloodshed in Afghanistan, and in other impoverished regions, forestalling future wars.

Yet American leaders go out of their way to emphasise to the American public that we wont waste money on such trivialities. The sad truth is that the American political class and mass media hold the people of poorer nations in contempt, even as they intervene relentlessly and recklessly in those countries. Of course, much of Americas elite holds Americas own poor in similar contempt.

In the aftermath of the fall of Kabul, the US mass media is, predictably, blaming the US failure on Afghanistans incorrigible corruption. The lack of American self-awareness is startling. Its no surprise that after trillions of dollars spent on wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and beyond, the US has nothing to show for its efforts but blood in the sand.

Jeffrey D Sachs, university professor at Columbia University, is director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
The director of a new Netflix documentary about serial killer Dennis Nilsen has said he hopes to shine a light on how the murderer got away with his crimes for so long.

Nilsen died behind bars in 2018, at the age of 72, having carried out a murder spree during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He is believed to have killed as many as 15 people, many of them homeless young gay men, after luring them into his north London home.

He was jailed for life in 1983, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 25 years, for six counts of murder and two of attempted murder.

Director Michael Harte made Memories Of A Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes using more than 250 hours of never-before-published cassette tapes of the killers private recordings from inside his prison cell and access to 7,000 pages of his unedited autobiography.

He told the PA news agency: The idea in our mind at the time was that weve got all this archive, surely theres a documentary that we can put together and maybe ask the question, why did he do what he did? Is this a way into his his mind? a serial killers mind.

However, I spent seven or eight weeks listening to the audio, and it was a tough, tough process, it was probably made even harder because of the pandemic because I just didnt have all my usual things to do to take a break from work, so it became quite intense.

But what I realised was by the end of the eight weeks, when I had gone through all the tapes, was I feel and believe that we have here is more of a documentary, not about why Dennis Nilsen did what he didbut why did he get away with it. And how did he get away with it for as long as he did?

Dennis Nilsen in a prison van after his sentencing (PA)

This happened over four or five years and then there were attacks before that. So that was the question.

Describing the act of sifting through the material, Harte said: The more you dig into his story, the less you start to understand about him because hes so contradictory.

And what I realised is when I was listening to his audio tapes was if were going make this film, we obviously have to interview other people here.. and what I realised was that a lot of the things he was saying, more often than not, were being contradicted by other people, by the people I interviewed.

So what I actually had on my hands more than anything was, heres an unreliable narrator.

But what I can try to understand is the fact that I could learn much more about why he got away with what he did. The second half the film is structured in such a way that that question starts to grow, why did he get away with so long.

Dennis Nilsens flat at 23, Cranley Gardens in Muswell Hill, north London (PA)

For me, that is (because of) prejudice. It seems that he understood prejudice himself, in terms of his background, not just in the police, but just the bigger picture in society.

Prejudice really allowed it to happen again, and again, and again. People had tried to warn others that theyd been attacked, and they werent listened to, for various reasons.

Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes launches on Netflix on August 18.
Author Emer McLysaght has been praised for speaking about her experience of seeking treatment for an eating disorder and her time spent in St Patricks Hospital in Dublin earlier this year.

McLysaght, who is from Co. Kildare and co-authored the bestselling Oh My God, What a Complete Aisling book series with Sarah Breen, spoke to Ryan Tubridy on RTE radio about her experience seeking treatment and being discharged into lockdown in March 2020.

I had the unfortunate incident to be released from two months in a psychiatric hospital, literally as the pandemic kicked off, she said.

The timing, looking back, is almost comical. I spent two months in hospital from mid-January to mid-March 2020. The day before I was discharged was the day that Leo Varadkar did his big speech about the schools closing, and people having to stay away from each other. The number one thing youre told when you're leaving somewhere like a psychiatric hospital is don't isolate yourself, don't be on your own.

Listeners were impressed by McLysaghts honesty when detailing her experience. Writing on Twitter, one person thanked her and described it as an incredibly powerful interview while another praised her for talking about eating disorders and mental health so fantastically well, burying some myths and giving more understanding.

After researching her symptoms and struggling through the cycles of her particular eating disorder, she sought help.

In hindsight I have had some kind of disordered eating/eating disorder for probably 20 years, since probably my late teens, she said.

When I went, eventually, to look for help for the eating disorder, it had gotten too much. I was like: I can't do this again, I can't go through the cycle.

It's really impossible to find out where to go to first: who do I approach, is there a specific doctor, is there a place?

McLysaght approached a GP to discuss her options, something she had been hesitant to do in the past as some medical professionals dismissed her and told her to lose weight.

I went to a new GP that someone had recommended. I said: Before you say anything, I think this is what I have. She was really great, and she listened, and it went from there. She referred me to the local mental health service. I saw a psychiatrist there and they deduced that I was in enough distress that they needed to refer me to St Pat's, where they have a dedicated eating disorder team.

Emer McLysaght with Sarah Breen, her 'Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling' co-author. Picture: Nathalie Marquez Courtney.

She said she felt guilty about being in a hospital ward as she felt she was not sick enough to be there.

I was in disbelief, I didn't think I would end up in hospital. I thought hospital was for people who were starving themselves to death and I wasn't at that time. But part of the eating disorder and part of mental illness is thinking I'm not sick enough for this, they've got it wrong.

"Even when I was in hospital I was saying: I don't deserve to be here, I'm taking up a bed someone else deserves. They told me: You wouldn't be here if you weren't sick enough to be here.

Part of her struggle to accept her hospitalisation was her own body image.

Distress around body image is often one of the enduring symptoms for individuals with EDs, even after strong recovery in other areas of life. Helpful article on #bodyimage @rdalleg @NCP_ED @LDCEDS @CAREDSCork @bodywhys https://t.co/86Dw5eKdek  Academy For Eating Disorders Ireland (@AEDI_network) August 2, 2021

I was embarrassed because I assumed I was going to be the only bigger person on the wards. I was embarrassed to tell people I was going in for an eating disorder because I felt like they'd look at me, going: You don't look like you have an eating disorder, that doesn't match up.

During her time there, she found it difficult to witness her fellow patients suffering.

Seeing how other people were suffering was really scary, everyone was on their own journey. Everyone had different ways that their disease manifested itself. I got really scared at times, because I was starting to really question my sanity.

She said she feels for patients who were impacted by visiting restrictions during the pandemic. The only impact Covid-19 had on her time in the hospital was on the moment she left.

Because of the pandemic, nobody could come in and help you with your bags. It was really lonely leaving, I had to walk out on my own. Luckily, I was there just before the pandemic [and could have visitors]. For my friends who were staying on there, it was pretty horrific after the pandemic. Visitors were your lifeline.

She describes her recovery as a daily struggle and praised her co-author Breen for her support over the past two years.

The past 18 months in particular have been quite difficult for me, and she has been my number one support.

BodyWhys helpline: 01 2107906
Boris Johnson has said it is an illusion to think Britain alone could have prevented the collapse of Afghanistan after the US withdrew its forces.

As MPs returned to Westminster for an emergency sitting of Parliament, the Prime Minister denied the British government had been unprepared for the Taliban takeover at the weekend.

He told a packed Commons chamber the priority now is to evacuate remaining British nationals and their allies.

The government has faced intense criticism  not least from Tories  following the rapid unravelling at the weekend of the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani in the face of the Taliban advance.

Mr Johnson said when ministers came to consider the UKs options after the US announced its intention to withdraw, they came up against the hard reality that there was no will among allies to continue without the Americans.

The West could not continue this US-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, he said.

I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by Nato in Afghanistan. That idea ended with the combat mission in 2014.

I do not believe that today deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that, no matter how sincerely people may advocate it  and I appreciate their sincerity  but I do not believe that that is an option that would commend itself either to the British people or to this House.

We must deal with the position as it is now, accepting what we have achieved and what we have not achieved.
Of the 54 people being treated in intensive with Covid-19, 43% are under 50, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has said.

"This is a stark reminder to all of us to continue to adhere to the public health guidance and to ensure to receive both doses of Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it is offered," Dr Tony Holohan said in a statement this evening.

The CMO said the incidence of disease is increasing across all age groups, but that for every fully vaccinated confirmed Covid case, vaccines were preventing about four other cases.

Meanwhile, a further 1,861 Covid cases were confirmed this evening by officals at the department of health.

At present, 249 patients with Covid-19 are being treated in hospitals.

The Department of Health has also confirmed that the number of Covid-related deaths reported in Ireland since the pandemic began is now 5,074.

Vaccines

"In the main, we have seen very high vaccination figures in our population, particularly in the over 60s cohort who were offered their vaccines first," Dr Holohan said.

"Covid-19 vaccines are ensuring that those who are fully vaccinated are protected from the severe illness and poor outcomes related to this disease.

"We have shown time and time again in this country that we can break the chains of transmission of Covid-19 and continue to protect ourselves and our loved ones by supporting one another to adhere to the public health advice."

The CMO urged anyone displaying symptoms of Covid-19 - like cough, fever, headache, sore throat, and blocked or runny nose - to isolate and get a test immediately.

"Continue to socialise safely by risk assessing, meeting outdoors where possible.

"Only meet up with small numbers of people and avoid crowds. Remember, it is okay to leave if you do not feel safe," he added.

83% of adults fully vaccinated

New vaccine doses have arrived in the largest delivery yet for the vaccine program as 83% of the adult population are now reported to be fully vaccinated.

The biggest weekly delivery of Covid vaccines includes the first tranche of Pfizer vaccines sourced from Romania and numbers over 540,000 doses according to the HSE Chief, Paul Reid.

Today we received our biggest weekly delivery of vaccines to this country of over 540,000 doses. This was hugely boosted by the first tranche of a total of 700,000 Romanian reallocated vaccines. It's key that we get to the smaller percentages of people now unvaccinated @HSELive pic.twitter.com/XCd3WczE7c  Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) August 18, 2021

Mr Reid said the delivery would be important for vaccinating the small remaining proportion of the population yet to receive a dose.

"It's key that we get to the smaller percentages of people now unvaccinated," he tweeted.

Vaccine rollout

The latest delivery comes as the HSE chief executive praised the progress of the vaccine rollout program.

It follows confirmation from Brian MacCraith, chair of the High-Level Task Force on Covid-19 vaccination, that 6.46 million vaccine doses have been administered to date.

Mr MacCraith said 82.8% of adults are fully vaccinated, while 90% have received at least a single dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Some 75% of the population aged over 12 are fully vaccinated.

The HSE CEO said "continued great progress" had been made vaccinating the 12-15 age cohort since registration opened for parents last week.

Almost 100,000 children in this age bracket had been registered and 47,000 vaccines administered, he said.

It comes as the latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) show that 111 people contracted Covid-19 in a healthcare setting in the last 14 days  0.5% of the total cases recorded.

Almost half of the 23,487 cases recorded over the two-week period  11,179  were caused by a close contact with a confirmed case, while 7,404 cases were attributed to community transmission.

Romania delivery

The government's decision to buy the 700,000 Pfizer vaccine doses from Romania was first reported in July as the country had decided to stop importing vaccines due to slow uptake amongst its citizens.

This was later finalised at the start of August and confirmed by the Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

The Government had hoped to buy a million doses, including 700,000 Pfizer/BioNTech and 300,000 Moderna vaccines.

Both are mRNA vaccines and are approved for use in under-18s by the European Medicines Agency.

The mRNA vaccine uses tiny fragments of the viruss genetic code to teach the body how to make a protein that will trigger an immune response.

The vaccine is now set to be the main supply source for the country's vaccine programme as the HSE has decided to stop placing orders for Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines.

Deliveries of AstraZeneca vaccines were plagued by supply constraints and contributed to great frustration among health officials.

Romania has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the EU, and there had been fears vaccines would spoil by the end of this month if not used or sold on.

-With reporting from Press Association
Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said he will chair an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 30-nation military alliance on Friday to discuss developments in Afghanistan.

Mr Stoltenberg tweeted on Wednesday that he has convened the videoconference to continue our close coordination and discuss our common approach on Afghanistan.
Burma China, India and Russia Donate COVID-19 Vaccines to Myanmar Military

Vaccines donated by Chinas armed forces arriving at Yangon International Airport in May. / Cincds

Myanmars military has received over 400,000 COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese, Indian and Russian armed forces, with more jabs from China in the pipeline, according to the military regimes spokesperson.

The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) will give another 400,000 doses next week, said Major-General Zaw Min Tun on Monday.

The Maj-Gen. told The Irrawaddy that Chinas PLA donated 200,000 jabs to the Myanmar military in May.

At the time, the junta said in a statement that the PLA had donated 500,000 vaccine doses and that they would be distributed to hospitals across the country.

However, the statement didnt mention a quota of vaccines for the military and its unclear whether the 200,000 jabs for the Myanmar military was part of the 500,000 doses or a separate consignment. In July, China donated a further two million vaccines.

Indias military also donated 200,000 jabs to the Myanmar military on February 11, said the Maj-Gen. On the same day, India shipped two million vaccines out of 30 million that the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government had bought. In January, India also donated 1.5 million doses to the then civilian government.

The Russian military has donated 900 vaccines to its Myanmar counterpart as well, said Maj-Gen. Zaw Min Tun.

We mostly rely on donated vaccines. So far around 400,000 or 500,000 people have been vaccinated, he said.

China, India and Russia all have good relations with the military regime. Both China and Russia have protected the junta at the United Nations (UN) Security Council, vetoing US and UK resolutions critical of the regime. India also has a warm relationship with the Myanmar military. In June, India abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a halt on weapons sales to Myanmar.

It remains unknown how many members of Myanmars armed forces have been infected with coronavirus, as the military has been tight-lipped about the number of COVID-19 cases among its personnel.

When asked about the impact of the pandemic on the military, Maj-Gen. Zaw Min Tun said only that the number of infections was nearly the same as the civilians have suffered and that the situation was now under control.

But it is believed that the rank and file of the Myanmar military and their families have been hit hard by the pandemic, according to local media reports and Facebook posts by military victims of COVID-19. There have been reports of low-ranking personnel being turned away by overwhelmed military hospitals.

Myanmar continues to reel from the third wave of COVID-19, with 6,000 deaths reported nationwide in July. Over 3,000 people a day have tested positive for coronavirus since early this month.



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Burma Myanmar Junta Targets Local COVID-19 Vaccine Production This Year

Members of the regimes medical corps administer COVID-19 vaccines to Buddhist monks in early August. / Cincds

Myanmars military regime hopes to produce COVID-19 vaccines this year with help from its allies China and Russia.

We are trying to make it happen within this year, regime spokesperson Major-General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy.

It seems the Southeast Asian country will make vaccines under license from China and Russia.

From Russia, we will take Sputnik V. From China, we havent decided yet which one to take, said the spokesperson. Chinas Sinovac and Sinopharm are both now widely used in Myanmars national COVID-19 vaccination program.

He said the vaccines will be made at the governments pharmaceutical factories in collaboration with local experts and their Chinese and Russian counterparts.

They will visit us [to see if we have the required technical capabilities]. They will supply raw materials [for vaccine production], he added.

Myanmar is still reeling from a third wave of COVID-19, with 6,000 deaths reported nationwide in July. Over 3,000 people a day have tested positive for coronavirus since early this month.

Military regime leader Min Aung Hlaing has vowed to inoculate half of Myanmars more than 54 million people by the end of the year.

However, he recently said his regime would be broke if it had to buy vaccines for more than 50 million people. So far, the junta has bought 4 million vaccine doses from China.

In contrast, the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led government that he ousted in the Feb. 1 military coup pledged to the people that the state would make sure to secure enough vaccine for everyone.

No one will be left behind, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said in December last year.

True to her word, her then-ruling National League for Democracy government ordered 30 million Covishield vaccine doses from India and another 27 million from COVAX, a United Nations-backed initiative to vaccinate the worlds most vulnerable. However, only 2 million doses from India have been shipped so far, as India is battling its own COVID surge at home and exporting vaccine is no longer a priority. Following Min Aung Hlaings coup in February, the vaccine from COVAX never arrived.

The regimes dream of making vaccines at home may have been sparked partly by Min Aung Hlaings lack of benevolence toward the peoplegiven the potential cost of purchasing dosesas well as vaccine-making countries difficulties in meeting demand.

The coup leader said that during his trip to Russia in June he had reached some basic agreements with authorities there to make vaccine in Myanmar. Since his trip, he has frequently mentioned vaccine production at home.

While trying to embrace modernity, the Myanmar coup leader has gone traditional at the same time, encouraging traditional medicine practitioners in the country to produce herbal medicines that could fight against the coronavirus. During a COVID-19 meeting early this month, he proudly said the countrys Ministry of Health and the militarys medical research corps were embarking on research for traditional COVID medicine.

For all his high ambitions, no one knows what the outcomes will be for either local production of COVID-19 vaccines or traditional medicines to treat the coronavirus. One thing is certain: six months after the coup, Min Aung Hlaing has proved himself to be a man of failed missionsfrom running the country to reviving the economy to responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. As for vaccine production at home and formulating herbal remedies for COVID-19? Lets wait and see, as only time will tell.



You may also like these stories:

Myanmar Resistance Landmines Kill Junta Troops After Attack on Power Line

Myanmars Central Bank Denies Printing More Money to Fund Budget Deficit

China, India and Russia Donate COVID-19 Vaccines to Myanmar Military
Burma Myanmar Resistance Landmines Kill Junta Troops After Attack on Power Line

A destroyed power pylon in Shan State on August 12. / Pekon PDF

Around seven junta soldiers were reportedly killed by landmines planted by the civilian resistance fighters from Shan and Kayah states while regime troops were inspecting a destroyed power cable in Shan State on Monday.

The Peoples Defense Forces (PDF) in Pekon Township, Shan State, mined two pylons supporting power lines from Lawpita Hydropower Plant in Kayah State to military bases in Naypyitaw on August 12.

The two towers near the border of Pekon Township were blown up by resistance forces.

The PDF in Pekon and the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) said the cable powers military bases in the capital.

PDF videos show the pylons falling after explosions at their base and the cables being cut by a man with a cutting tool.

Naypyitaw residents have not reported any power disruption at military bases.

On Monday, junta soldiers triggered PDF landmines near the destroyed pylons.

The KNDF told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that there were at least seven military casualties.

The Irrawaddy was unable to independently confirm the figures.

The PDF said the area has seen heavy junta reinforcements.

On August 14, a fierce shootout occurred in the township when PDF from Pekon and Demoso and Moe Bye in Kayah State and personnel from the KNDF and Karenni Army, the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party, attacked junta forces and the Pa-O National Organization (PNO) ahead of an alleged raid on the PDF in Pekon.

In the shootouts, 11 junta and PNO troops were reportedly killed.

On August 15, a fierce firefight occurred when the PDF ambushed around 400 junta reinforcements arriving in the township from Loikaw, Kayah State. The fighting resulted in many military casualties and a civilian fighter was injured, according to the PDF.



You may also like these stories:

Myanmars Central Bank Denies Printing More Money to Fund Budget Deficit

China, India and Russia Donate COVID-19 Vaccines to Myanmar Military

Myanmar Loses Over 100 Leading Figures from COVID-19, Juntas Poor Health Care
A complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleges that a Miami businessman helped Venezuela's military repair aircraft. The CEO of Miami-based Achabal Technologies Inc was taken into custody Sunday and will appear in Miami court Wednesday morning.

Jorge Nobrega, was charged with sanctions violations and money laundering.

The investigation into Nobrega dates to April 2019, reported Yahoo News. He is suspected of allegedly helping Venezuela's military repair its fleet of Russian Sukhoi SU-30 combat aircraft without seeking U.S. permission.

Nobrega allegedly opened a bank account for Achabal in Portugal, where he allegedly received "multiple payments for his services to Venezuela," according to the affidavit.

Achabal Technologies is based in 4696 N.W. 74th Ave, Miami and Nobrega is listed as the CEO and registering agent, according to Florida records.
Ever since Apple truly popularised the notion of totally wireless stereo ear buds with its AirPods, the world is awash in wireless bud options, with Google's latest version, the Buds A-Series, promising quality for $159.

Selling for $99 in the US, Google's new Pixel Buds A-Series is $159 in Australian dollars, which undercuts the official RRP of Apple's 2nd-gen AirPods, which is $249 from Apple and $188 from Amazon. It's also cheaper than the official $399 RRP of Apple's AirPods Pro, or the $295 price at Amazon.

That said, the Pixel Buds A-Series doesn't have some of the features of the 2nd-gen AirPods, such as wireless charging, nor does it have the noise cancelling of the AirPods Pro, but they are more affordable, and still deliver what Google says is "premium sound", with "rich sound, clear calls" and Google's hands-free helpfulness via the Google Assistant, along with the real-time translation feature that is powered by Google Translate.

The new comes via Matt Gaskell, Google's Director of Devices and Services in Australia and New Zealand in an official Google blog post.

Gaskell explains that when Google first introduced its truly wireless Pixel Buds, the company was "most excited about how such a small product could pack so much functionality", and says that Google is now "making that same premium sound quality, along with hands-free help from Google Assistant and real-time translation, available at an even more affordable price."

Google is sending members of the tech media review units of these ear buds, and I had hoped mine would arrive before the embargo lifted, but when you're in the middle of a pandemic and lockdown life, with postal services nowhere near as reliable as they were in the past, my Pixel Buds A-Series haven't arrived as yet, but I am certainly looking forward to trying them out.

Wireless headsets, be they from Apple, Samsung, Jabra, Google or a range of other vendors have become an essential part of the connected experience, letting you use your smartphone to make and take calls without a slab of metal encased glass to your ear, to enjoy digital media in privacy, to ask questions of your digital assistant and more, and they naturally free you of the wires that wired headphones often get tangled with.

Today's wireless headsets give you a good amount of battery as well as more battery in the charging case, and if I ever leave my AirPods and AirPods Pro behind, I regret it, because I'm so used to them, and they are so damn useful!

So, what else does Google and Gaskell have to say about the Pixel Buds A-Series?

A premium audio experience

Gaskell's blog post continues, stating: "Our research shows that most people describe great sound as full, clear and natural. This is what guides our audio tuning process and shows up in other devices, like Nest Audio. And Pixel Buds A-Series are no exception. Custom-designed 12mm dynamic speaker drivers deliver full, clear and natural sound, with the option for even more power in those low tones with Bass Boost.

"To experience the full range of the speakers capabilities, especially in the low frequencies, a good seal is essential. Weve scanned thousands of ears to make Pixel Buds A-Series fit securely with a gentle seal. In order to keep the fit comfortable over time, a spatial vent reduces in-ear pressure.

"Each earbud also connects to the main device playing audio, and has strong individual transmission power, to keep your sound clear and uninterrupted.

"Sound quality can also be affected by your environment. The new Pixel Buds A-Series come with Adaptive Sound, which increases or decreases the volume based on your surroundings. This comes in handy when you're moving from the quiet of your home to somewhere noisy like a city street, or while jogging past a loud construction site.

"And your calls will have great sound too. To make sure your calls are as clear as they can be, Pixel Buds A-Series use beamforming mics to focus on your voice and reduce outside noise, making your calls crystal clear (though of course, overall call quality depends on signal strength, environment, network, and other factors). Once your call is over, quickly get back to your music with a simple Hey Google, Play my music.

Here's one of Google's promo videos about the Pixel A-Buds:

Stylish and hardworking

Gaskell's blog post continues: "For Pixel Buds A-Series, we wanted to bring back the iconic Clearly White, but added a twist with new gray undertones.

"Pixel Buds design is inspired by the idea that great things can come in small packages: Pixel Buds A-Series include up to five hours of listening time on a single charge or up to 24 hours using the charging case. And with the ability to get a quick charge  about 15 minutes in the case gives you up to three hours of listening time  you can keep listening anywhere.

"Theyre comfortable enough for those long listening sessions, and dont worry if some of that time is devoted to a sweaty workout or a run in the rain: The earbuds are also sweat and water-resistant (IPX4)".

Here's another Google promo video:

Hands-free access to the best of Google

Gaskell adds: "Google Assistant is built right into the Pixel Buds A-Series. You can get quick hands-free help to check the weather, get an answer, change the volume, or have notifications read to you with a simple Hey Google.

Added accessories

We're told that "to help protect your new Pixel Buds A-Series, there is now the Tech21 EvoSlim  a lightweight case to shield your smallest tech from drops and scratches. It is made with a built-in microbe-reducing formula and has an easy-to-attach carabiner to help keep your Pixel Buds A-Series safe and close to hand. Available on the Google Store soon.

"Pixel Buds A-Series are now available for pre-order in Australia from the Google Store, arriving to customers from August 25. Pixel Buds A-Series will be available online from August 25 at JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, and Officeworks, and available at Optus and Vodafones later this year. Pixel Buds A-Series will also be available online at Telstra from August 27. For more country availability and waitlist options, visit g.co/pixelbudsaseries."

So, I'll have more to say once I've had a chance to test the Pixel Buds A-Series, but quality wireless sound has never been more affordable, no matter which smartphone operating system you use, and if you aren't already a wireless user of ear buds, now sounds about as good a time as any to try them out and see what they sound like for yourself!
Global data integration and integrity solutions provider Talend has announced the latest innovations added to Talend Data Fabric, a complete integration and governance platform designed to manage the health of corporate information.

Available now, new enhancements from Talend provide data professionals with new, high-performance integrations to leading cloud intelligence platforms, a self-service API portal, collaborative data governance capabilities, and private connections between Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure to ensure data security.

One of the biggest crises businesses face today is a lack of agility caused by untimely, inaccessible, incomplete, and inaccurate data, said Krishna Tammana, CTO, Talend.

With Talends latest release, were helping data professionals connect, share, and improve their data faster and more securely. These innovations represent one step in our ongoing journey to help our customers put healthier data at the centre of their businesses.

Talend lists the new Data Fabric capabiliities as:

Enable advanced data analytics and data sharing. Talend provides native integration with Databricks 7.3 and AWS EMR 6.2 on Apache Spark 3, which helps organisations take advantage of next-generation data analytics platforms to perform powerful and advanced analytics at scale while enjoying the faster performance, easier use, and greater flexibility of Spark 3.



This release also introduces a self-service API portal that provides a central listing of APIs and documentation to enable internal teams and external partners to discover, learn, integrate, and share data via microservices. The API portal also helps improve developer productivity and collaboration by making it easier to share APIs, documentation, and data structures across the app development team.

Ensure comprehensive security and protection. Talend is the first data integration and governance provider to support private connectivity between Talend and AWS or Azure instances via a private link. In addition to ensuring that sensitive data is secure and never exposed to the Internet, the use of a private link offers several additional advantages over a VPN, including reduced data transfer costs, faster time to deploy and operate, and increased performance for mission-critical workloads due to extra-low network latency and no Internet reliance. Private link support also provides compliance with local data protection and industry regulations such as PCI and HIPAA.

Talend also extends its single-sign-on and multi-factor authentication to meet security best practices and deliver a straightforward user login experience to all customers of Talends cloud platform without additional cost.

Deliver self-service data governance at scale. Talend provides tight coupling of data stewardship and data integration where read/write capabilities can be easily added to a data quality or governance "campaign" directly from a data pipeline. This provides greater collaboration between IT, who creates data jobs or pipelines, and the business subject matter experts, resulting in faster and more scalable data quality processes and subsequent decision making.

Talend continues to innovate and provide us with data governance capabilities that aide our business users in operating with more autonomy. The ability to manage data in campaigns directly without IT intervention, while at the same time retaining the ability to collaborate with IT when needed, gives us the agility to speed when it matters the most, said Rachell Powell, Senior Application Development Manager at Ferguson Enterprises.


The Samsung Health Monitor application is launching to provide access to blood pressure tracking and TGA-approved electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring via the Galaxy Watch series.

From 10 September, Australians will have access ECG and blood pressure readings on Samsungs latest wearables, the Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch4 Classic. These are the first accessories available in the country to offer both blood pressure and ECG monitoring.

The Samsung Health Monitor app will also be available on the Galaxy Watch3 and Galaxy Watch Active2 via a software update in the coming months.

Samsung Australia says ECG monitoring on compatible Galaxy watches is registered as a medical device with the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) when connected to a compatible Galaxy smartphone.

ECG tracking features electrocardiogram reading, displaying heart rhythm as either atrial fibrillation (AFib) or sinus rhythm.

We know that everyone wants access to the best in health technology to not only allow them to keep track of their fitness goals, but critically, to be aware of their general health and wellbeing, Samsung Electronics Australia head of content and services mobile division Mark Hodgson explains.

According to a study cited by Samsung Australia, it is estimated that around 33.5 million people worldwide are affected by atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common form of abnormal heart rhythm.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) was the underlying or associated cause of over 14,000 deaths in Australia, contributing to 9.0% of total deaths.

The electrocardiogram function works by recording the hearts electrical activity via a sensor on the compatible Galaxy Watch. First, users must open the Samsung Health Monitor app.

Next, rest the forearm on a flat surface and lightly place a fingertip from the opposite hand on the top button on the smartwatch for 30 seconds.

The app will then measure the users heart rate and rhythm, which will be displayed as either a Sinus Rhythm (a normal, regular heartbeat) or AFib (when the heart beats irregularly). Users can also export this data to PDF.

The ECG app feature was included in the ARTG as a Class lla medical device. Devices undergo a rigorous approval process to be included in the ARTG to ensure that the safety of the device is acceptable and performs as intended, confirming the Essential Principles which is a set of fundamental design and manufacturing requirements for medical devices.

High blood pressure affects one-in-three people aged 18 and over in Australia and two-thirds of adults with high blood pressure are undiagnosed. This is commonly linked to brain, kidney and heart diseases, and if left untreated, it can lead to stroke and heart failure.

The blood pressure monitoring feature on the Galaxy Watch helps users to track their general health by allowing them to measure blood pressure from their smartwatch.

Samsung Galaxy must install the Samsung Health Monitor app onto their Galaxy smartphone and connect it to their compatible Galaxy Watch.

To monitor blood pressure on the Galaxy Watch device, users will need to first calibrate with a traditional cuff. They will then be able to tap to Measure the blood pressure.

The device measures blood pressure through pulse wave analysis, which is tracked with the Heart Rate Monitoring sensors. The program then records the relationship between the calibration value and the blood pressure change to determine the blood pressure.

To ensure accuracy, users are required to calibrate their device at least every 28 days. Once the calibration and set-up process are completed, users can access this information and export measurements to PDF.

Samsungs latest watch series also introduces a range of general health and wellbeing solutions including body composition with key measurements like skeletal muscle mass, basal metabolic rate, body water, and body fat percentage.

The watch features sleep tracking designed to detect the sounds of a persons snores and get their blood oxygen level while resting to provide Sleep Scores that help users sleep better.

Galaxy Watch4 includes fall detection, which helps identify a potential fall and can send an SOS notification to chosen emergency contacts.

Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch4 Classic will be available from 10 September 2021.

Galaxy Watch4 will come in 40mm and 44mm, starting at A$399 for Bluetooth versions and A$499 for LTE models. The Galaxy Watch4 Classic will start at A$549 for Bluetooth versions and $649 for LTE models and will be available in 42mm and 46mm variants in black and silver.
Imaging vendor Lexmark has appointed Melanie Ford to the role of healthcare industry consultant for Australia and New Zealand.

"We're very pleased to have Melanie joining our business as our healthcare industry consultant based locally here in Australia. This appointment underscores the importance we place on helping our current and prospective customers, and our channel partners supporting the healthcare vertical," said Lexmark ANZ regional director Stephen Bell.

"Since the start of this pandemic, the healthcare industry has come under tremendous pressure. With her ability to derive deep insight into the challenges faced by the industry, Melanie is going to be incredibly important in helping Lexmark provide the best possible support in a difficult time for healthcare providers.

"Lexmark manages thousands of devices that support a wide range of healthcare providers across Australia and New Zealand. Our team in ANZ will be leveraging Melanie's guidance in how to best apply our leading technologies to deliver nimble and practical solutions that will help our customers navigate smoothly through this period of major changes."

Ford joins Lexmark from Telstra Health, where she spent five years as pre-sales and marketing manager.

She previously worked as a senior pre-sales consultant at EOS Technologies, as a project manager at Uniting, and spent 12 years with Cerner, most recently as healthcare executive and solution consultant.

Ford started her career in nursing, and holds a general nursing certificate from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital School of Nursing, a graduate certificate in oncological nursing from the Australian College of Nursing, and a masters degree in nursing from the University of Sydney  as well as a BA and Dip Ed in English literature, history and education from Macquarie University.

She is also a certified project manager and change management professional.

Ford is a former state and national board member of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (formerly HISA).

"In 1997, I embarked on my first EMR (electronic medical record) implementation. I truly believed that this was the solution to a comprehensive medical record. As time passed by, I realised software only satisfied part of the solution. Joining Lexmark is an attractive move for me because the company combines its hardware quite seamlessly with cloud-based software solutions," she said.
A well-known security researcher has slammed Microsoft for its "astonishingly bad" security advisories, pointing to the wording in a TCP/IP remote code execution vulnerability released on 10 August this year as an example.

Will Dormann, a software vulnerability analyst with Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute's CERT Co-ordination Centre (CERT/CC) since 2004, made the criticim in a tweet thread. His Twitter account specifies that all his tweets are his indvidual views.

He referred to this part of the advisory for CVE-2021-26424: "How could an attacker exploit this vulnerability? This is remotely triggerable by a malicious Hyper-V guest sending an ipv6 ping to the Hyper-V host. An attacker could send a specially crafted TCPIP packet to its host utilising the TCPIP Protocol Stack (tcpip.sys) to process packets".

Read any recent-ish Microsoft CVE bulletin and compare vs. what the rest of the public have published on that same issue.

Now ask yourself: Is Microsoft investing effort in producing clear, unambiguous, and actionable information about vulnerabilities?

Or is it: Azure || GTFO  Will Dormann (@wdormann) August 17, 2021

Dormann commented: "Should I parse this FAQ section as two sentences describing an attack vector, or two different attack vectors? While this bulletin has way more detail than others, the quality of what MSRC [the Microsoft Security Response Centre] is putting out these days is astonishingly bad."

He said what was published by Microsoft should not cause any reader to wonder if this was a Hyper-V-only vulnerability, or if a Hyper-V guest-to-host attack was just one of the many ways that it could be exploited.

Microsoft has changed the format of its advisories several times since it started issuing them more than two decades ago. The company now issues all advisories on the second Tuesday of the month, unless there are particularly severe issues to be patched.

Dormann contrasted the wording in CVE-2021-26424 to that in an advisory issued by Microsoft in 2008, pointing out that the company had used about 4000 words to describe the vulnerability in the latter case.

To answer my own question, it appears that Windows 7 cannot *HOST* Hyper-V. Only act as a guest.  Will Dormann (@wdormann) August 17, 2021

But for CVE-2021-26424, he said, less than 40 words were used to describe the flaw.

"Presumably one of several things happened at Microsoft," Dormann speculated. "Perhaps one or more of: It was determined that customers don't need/want vulnerability details; the Microsoft bottom line would be unaffected by eliminating effort put into bulletins [or] something else that MS knows."

He said that since Microsoft had listed Windows 7 as being affected by CVE-2021-26424, "it seems that this would be evidence that this vulnerability is *NOT* just in systems that can host Hyper-V VMs, right? Windows 7 cannot host Hyper-V VMs".

Responding to Dormann's tweets, Nate Warfield, chief technology officer of security shop Prevailion, said: "When I owned Hyper-V vulns for MSRC (2016-2020) what that *probably* means is it's guest to host RCE via tcpip.sys. I would venture a guess it's fragmentation or encapsulation related, and probably only works guest VM -> Hyper-V host. Just my 2 cents =)."

Dormann replied: "Thanks. Sure would be nice if somebody currently working at Microsoft was interested in clearly communicating with their customers/public..."
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Cryptocurrency business says theres no way people could meet the proposed rules.
Bear that mauled photographer was known but had never been in any trouble before.
Mike has reported on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's wildlife, wildlands and the agencies that manage them since 2012. A native Minnesotan, he arrived in the West to study environmental journalism at the University of Colorado.
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Supporters of the For the People Act rally inside the State Capitol Building in Charleston on Tuesday, urging U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito to support the bill next month.
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Chris Powell has worked for the Journal Inquirer since 1967, first as a reporter, then as an editor, and now as a columnist. He was managing editor from 1974 until retiring from that position in 2018.
Here are the main developments since the Taliban seized Kabul, taking power again in Afghanistan after two decades of war.

 Lightning takeover 

On Sunday, Taliban fighters appear on the edge of Kabul after a lightning offensive launched in May as US and NATO troops began to withdraw.

In the space of 10 days, they had seized city after city across the country with little or no resistance.

 Peaceful transfer 

As the Taliban pour into the suburbs, embattled President Ashraf Ghani urges government forces to maintain security in the capital.

He flees a few hours later.

The Taliban say they want a peaceful transfer of power.

 The Taliban have won 

Television images show the Taliban seizing the presidential palace.

In a Facebook post, Ghani says the Taliban have won and that he fled to avoid a flood of bloodshed.

The local Tolo media organisation suggests he is in Tajikistan.

 Airport chaos 

Frightened people besiege Kabul airport, the only exit route from the country. Chaos breaks out on the tarmac, carrying on into Monday as people try to rush aircraft.

All military and civilian flights are halted, before resuming in the evening.

 Terrorism sanctuary fears 

China becomes the first country to say it is ready to deepen friendly and cooperative relations with the Talibans Afghanistan.

It later accuses Washington of leaving an awful mess.

The UN Security Council says the country must not become a breeding ground for terrorism.

French President Emmanuel Macron pledges a robust European approach against illegal migration in the wake of the takeover.

 Biden defends exit 

US President Joe Biden cuts short his holiday to address the nation Tuesday, insisting he has no regrets and emphasises that US troops cannot defend a nation whose leaders gave up and fled.

 Go back to work 

The Taliban tell civil servants in Kabul to resume their duties without any fear. Some shops reopen and evacuation flights from the citys airport restart.

 Shameful for West 

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says the chaotic scenes at Kabul airport are shameful for the West.

Chancellor Angela Merkel calls for EU action to take in the most vulnerable.

 NATO blames Afghans 

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg blames Afghan leaders for the tragedy.

Russia says the Talibans initial assurances are a positive signal.

 Taliban leader returns 

Within hours of Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar returning to Afghanistan, the group says it will be different this time, that it will pardon its enemies and women will not have to wear the all-enveloping burqa.

 Women can work 

At their first press conference since seizing power, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid declares they will let women work in accordance with the principles of Islam.

Girls return to school in Taliban-held Herat.

 EU must talk to Taliban 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says the bloc will have to talk to the Taliban, while Canadian premier Justin Trudeau says he will not recognise their government.

 ICC: Possible violations 

Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, says reports of crimes during the Taliban advance may amount to violations of international law.

 UK to take 20,000 Afghans 

Despite the Talibans conciliatory tone, Afghans and foreigners continue to flee Kabul Wednesday.

Britain says up to 20,000 Afghans could be resettled in the country.

London has so far evacuated 2,000 since the return of the Taliban, with the United States flying out a similar number.

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Any US government official who sees Huaweis recent financial performance must feel that he is right.

Washingtons efforts to destroy Chinese technology groups seem to have worked: Huaweis revenue plummeted, and its high-end smartphones roll out It was not applicable to 5G in late July, and it was forced to sell part of its business.According to Chairman Eric Xu, the companys only goal in the next five years is Survive.

But policy experts warn that the United States cannot declare victory in the technological war with China. In fact, among the hundreds of Chinese technology companies sanctioned by the US Department of Commerce, Huawei is the only one fighting for survival.

For now, the restrictions imposed are quite limited, said Douglas Fuller, an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, who closely monitors the Chinese technology industry and the policies of Beijing and Washington. Obviously, they have seriously affected Huawei. But for all other companies, not so much.

Thats because Washington has used its most powerful weapon-banning the acquisition of semiconductors through American-made machines and the software tools needed to make semiconductors-only against Huawei.

Washington is facing a dilemma in trying to re-adjust its export controls: China has become the largest and fastest-growing market for US chip equipment makers and software manufacturers for chip design.

John Verwey, a trade and investment analyst specializing in microelectronics, debate It is the growth promoted by China that has provided funding for the innovation capabilities of American industries, thereby maintaining a leading position in the competition with China.

According to the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, the U.S. government must determine technologies that should be subject to additional export controls in addition to the existing military or dual-use technology register.

But as the government seeks to balance the national security risks posed by Chinas acquisition of key chip technologies with the risk of the United States losing important markets, work on these lists has been delayed.

Instead, Washington is pursuing China with a more crude tool: the so-called Entity List, which is a register of legal persons deemed to engage in activities that run counter to the interests of US national security or foreign policy. U.S. companies need to apply for an export license to sell products to target companies, but they are not subject to a comprehensive ban.

Control of specific technologies or end-uses can more effectively address broader national security risks, said Emma Rafaelof, a policy analyst at the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an agency authorized by the US Congress. Wrote in a report. PaperShe added that the lengthy process of determining which technologies should be subject to additional export controls allows the United States to export these technologies without restrictions during this period.

The Ministry of Commerce has included more than 250 Chinese companies on the list, most of which have emerged in the past two years. But the department continued to issue export licenses to some of them, while others discovered loopholes.

Respected

An industry insider said: For many of these Chinese companies, there are no consequences at all-you can say that this part of the US export control measures are useless.

Hikvision, China Surveillance Technology Company Listed In 2019, in order to carry out suppression and surveillance in Xinjiang, Report Operating income in the first six months of this year increased by 40%.

Chinas largest chip maker SMICs revenue increased 43% in the second quarter. Jefferies analysts wrote this month that although the company is prohibited from acquiring foreign equipment to use the newer technology to expand production capacity, its performance shows that SMIC has been able to slowly acquire US equipment, albeit only at mature nodes.

The possibility that Washington may impose Huawei-style sanctions on more Chinese companies hangs over the industry, as some officials in the Biden administration have discussed broader controls on exports of technology to China.

But in the long run, fears of greater damage to US technological leadership may continue to hinder this process. Fuller said: What we will get from the Biden administration is a case by case, not a very broad ban.
For the past few years, I have been an expert witness in a series of cannabis lawsuits in Oregon.My partner Hilary Bricken A large number of such incidents were also handled in California during the same period. Due to local rules of evidence and other factors, the way that litigants use experts varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but convincing expert testimony can succeed or fail in any jurisdiction. In this article, I will explain why.

Expert witness authority

In the context of witness services, the term expert is short for subject expert. Generally speaking, experts: 1) will publish a large number of articles in their field for a long time, 2) will have practical experience related to the topic at hand, and 3) will have experience in court (or arbitration) cases similar to immediate disputes. The more experience an expert has, the more authoritative the expert will appear through a certain combination of practical experience, academic and experimental experience.

In terms of marijuana litigation, I have handled cases in state and federal courts, involving everything from allegations of lawyer malfeasance to administrative rules and policies, to industry practices and market dynamics. I was hired as an expert for the first time shortly after the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, and the ability of cannabis growers to obtain bank accounts was a controversial key issue in the litigation. I was able to point out the articles I had written on the subject and, under direct and cross-examination, gave the court a detailed account of my personal experience with credit unions, government and industry clients. The court considered the testimony persuasive and made a ruling in favor of my client.

Expert witnesses can use the settlement

Oregon is an interesting and unusual state that does not allow expert witnesses to discover it. We have an ambush trial. This means that litigants do not need to disclose the content of expert witness testimony, the identity of the witness or even their existence in advance. If the two parties did not agree with each other, there would be no testimony, interrogation or other findings of expert witnesses. Other states, such as California, adopt more traditional methods and manage expert witness findings in their civil procedure codes.

However, regardless of the discovery setting, in some cases, litigants will disclose their experts outside of the normal discovery process, or disclose key testimony that the experts will provide. This is usually done to take advantage of the settlement or even voluntarily dismiss the other partys claims. Before anyone filed a complaint or statement of claim, I also asked the lawyer to keep me as an expert witness at the beginning of the matter. An experienced litigation attorney told me that no matter how the litigation progresses, she wants me to be available (and not available to the opposing party). This will lock me in and maximize her clients prospects for favorable results in the future.

Expert witnesses can provide insights

People tend to think that expert witnesses are the most valuable for providing convincing testimony. This is not entirely correct. Sometimes an expert can provide important insights to his or her client before any testimony is even discovered. Sometimes, these insights will greatly influence the methods or strategies of customers in disputes. For example, an expert can confirm the customers thinking on a particular issue, or the expert may introduce an idea or method that has not been considered-this has an important impact on the customers prospects for success.???

in conclusion

Many marijuana commercial disputes have occurred across the country. In Oregon, complaints are filed in court almost every week, and other disputes are submitted through private arbitration. Many of these disputes depend on whether a partys behavior (or omission) is reasonable, negligent, or reckless, or whether it complies with administrative rules and policies that are effective at a specific time.Expert witnesses can also assist in solving other key issues, such as The value of an enterprise Arguing. In many of these cases, hiring qualified and capable expert witnesses can play an important role.
BATON ROUGE, La.  State health officials announced that based on recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) guidance, third doses of COVID-19 vaccines are available to Louisianians with certain health conditions that put them at higher risk from COVID-19. Last week, the CDC recommended people whose immune systems are compromised and who have already gotten two doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines) get a third dose as a booster.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana will cover the COVID-19 booster at $0 out of pocket for eligible members of individual and employer health plans. Eligible members of Medicare and Medicaid plans or uninsured patients also can get a COVID-19 vaccine at no cost. This no-cost coverage is required by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. If you have questions about vaccine coverage on your health plan, contact Customer Service at the number on your member ID card.

At this time, there is no booster recommendation for people who got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine or for people who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines but do not have health conditions that affect their immunity.

Health officials are working to determine when or if other people will need booster vaccines. Visit the Louisiana Department of Healths website, www.ldh.la.gov, to see the latest updates and information about the states COVID-19 vaccine rollout. You can also see more information about the states booster vaccine recommendation, including frequently asked questions.

Who Should Get a COVID-19 Vaccine Booster?

Currently, federal and state health officials are only recommending the COVID-19 vaccine booster for people who have had two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and who:

Are going through cancer treatment

Had an organ transplant or stem cell transplant and are taking medicine to suppress their immune systems

Have HIV or other immune-suppressing health conditions

Take certain types of prescription drugs that could lower their immunity

Visit the CDCs website for more information about who should get a booster vaccine. People who qualify should get their third-dose booster vaccines at least 28 days after their second dose. If you are eligible for a booster, you will need to fill out a self-attestation form and bring it with you to your vaccine appointment.

If you are not sure whether or not you should get a COVID-19 vaccine booster, ask your healthcare provider for guidance.

Getting Your COVID-19 Vaccine Booster

You can call the State of Louisianas Vaccine Hotline at 1-855-453-0774 for help scheduling an appointment. The hotline staff can help you find vaccine locations near you or connect you with clinicians who can answer your vaccine questions. Or, visit the Louisiana Department of Healths website to see a list of vaccine locations. You can search by parish to find a vaccine site near you, and you can see which types of vaccine are being given at different locations.

You can get free rides to and from vaccine appointments. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation is sponsoring ride share programs statewide, and many community organizations offer similar programs. If you do not have a vehicle, are unable to drive or need transportation assistance, call 211 to get connected to programs in your area.

Visit the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana YouTube page to see short videos on the COVID-19 vaccines and other health topics. Subscribe to know when new videos are added. You can connect with Blue Cross on social media for regular updates. Blue Cross posts regularly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and now, TikTok.

For information on what Blue Cross is doing in response to COVID-19, visit www.bcbsla.com/covid19.
BATON ROUGE, LA - Gov. John Bel Edwards released the following statement on President Joseph R. Bidens extension of the National Guards Title 32 COVID-19 mission through the end of the year and 100 percent federal cost share for FEMA Public Assistance Category B  Emergency Protective Measures.

I want to thank President Biden and his administration for recognizing the ongoing important role of the National Guard in our fight against COVID-19. Our state was the first to petition the administration to extend Title 32 until the end of the year, and Im grateful for President Bidens decision. The Guard is a critical part of what we do especially as we continue battling this devastating fourth surge of COVID driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant. On any given week, hundreds of soldiers and airmen are administering thousands of tests and vaccines, providing medical support and distributing supplies and food to food banks across the state. Keeping them in place is incredibly important."

In Louisiana, today, we reported over 3,000 COVID hospitalizations for this first time since the beginning of the pandemic and sadly, 122 deaths, the second highest single day death count. We are working hard to increase vaccinations throughout our state, and these efforts rely heavily on assistance from our federal partners. The Louisiana National Guard has 919 Guardsmen currently activated, and I am extremely grateful for their hard work and commitment to protecting and serving the people of this great state.
LOUISIANA  Following this week's decision by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to apply for a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education that would allow for a one-year pause to the state's school performance scores, LFT has asked BESE to apply similar protections to teachers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and extreme weather events during the 2020-2021 school year.

LFT has consistently advocated for additional protections for teachers, who consistently showed up for their students regardless of the ongoing health crisis.

Below you will find a letter from LFT President Larry Carter to State Superintendent Dr. Cade Brumley and BESE President Sandy Holloway, regarding an additional waiver.

Dear President Holloway and Superintendent Brumley:

Due to the COVID-19 global health pandemic, the 2020-2021 school year was extremely challenging for students, families, and teachers. Unprecedented natural disasters, including Hurricanes Marco, Laura, Sally, Beta, and Delta in 2020 and the winter storm of February 2021, drastically disrupted the school year in multiple parishes. Students across the state were subjected to different levels of in-person instruction, online instruction, and instruction in a hybrid format of both in-person and online instruction.

The disorder of education due to COVID-19 and extraordinary weather events during the 2020-2021 school year resulted in inaccurate and unreliable educational outcomes and misleading measures that should not be a basis for evaluating teachers or students. It is almost impossible to create a metric that considers the repeated disruptions, unanticipated loss of instruction time, and emotional trauma due to COVID.

During Mondays BESE retreat, the board agreed to seek a waiver from ESEA accountability and reporting requirements for the 2020-2021 school year from the United States Department of Education. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers and School Employees applauds and supports this decision. In doing so, BESE acknowledged that using unreliable data in a punitive way was not in the best interest of our schools, teachers, or students.

We must base our decisions on the most accurate and relevant data, paying particular attention to the needs of the low-income, Black, and brown communities across Louisiana hit hardest by Covid-19 and the recession.

However, to address the structural inequities and shortcomings exposed by the pandemic, we must begin by raising up the employees who taught, fed, transported, and cared for our students, not penalize them for their heroic efforts.

In the 2020 Second Extraordinary Session, the Louisiana Legislature, recognizing the negative impact the pandemic and natural disasters would have on test scores, passed Act 53 by Sen. Cleo Fields, prohibiting the use of student tests results in evaluating teacher performance and student placement.

During the 2021 Regular Session, the Louisiana House of Representative unanimously adopted HR 133, authored by then Rep. Gary Carter, to urge and request the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to take all necessary actions to provide that no measure of student growth be used in the evaluation of teachers for the 2020-2021 school year. The Louisiana Federation of Teachers and School Employees stands with other education stakeholders in requesting Dr. Brumley and the BESE to petition the USDOE to grant accountability waivers for the 2020-2021 school year and to ensure that assessments provide information to parents, educators, and the public about student performance and to help target resources and supports.

Thanks to you both for the vital roles you play in the education of Louisianas children.

Sincerely,

Larry J. Carter, Jr.

President

Louisiana Federation of Teachers and School Employees

Click here to read the letter sent to BESE on Wednesday, August 18th.
NEW ORLEANS,La.  The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA) announced today the theme for this years Visual Arts and Songwriting Contest  Louisianas Culinary Heritage, resurrecting the widely popular theme from the foundations 2013 Arts Contest and expanding submission opportunities with its third annual Songwriting Contest (in partnership with the Trombone Shorty Foundation).

Louisiana high school juniors and seniors are invited to create a work of art or song representing our states unique culinary heritage, honoring its festivals, dishes and local ingredients. The 2022 contest winners will share $25,000 in college scholarships and have their artwork and/or song lyrics featured in GRFAs second cookbook, The Pot & the Palette Cookbook II. Visual art and song submission applications are now open at www.rodriguefoundation.org. Deadline for entry submission is Friday, January 28, 2022.

The Pot & the Palette Cookbook II (based on the original 2013 The Pot & the Palette Cookbook) will feature recipes from Louisiana chefs, musicians and local celebrities alongside illustrations and song lyrics from this years Arts and Songwriting Contest winners. The cookbook will debut in Fall 2022. Were thrilled to bring back Louisianas Culinary Heritage as this years theme and see students creative takes  both in art and song on what makes the flavors of Louisiana so unique, said Jacques Rodrigue, Executive Director of GRFA.

The Pot & the Palette Cookbook is a wonderful representation of Louisiana art and cuisine, and were excited to expand the collection with our second cookbook and showcase new artwork, songs and amazing Louisiana recipes! For artist George Rodrigue, the culinary heritage of Louisiana was a recurring theme throughout his career. He painted portraits of chefs, both well-known and obscure, and documented unique Cajun culinary traditions such as the Aioli Dinner (1971) and The Great Cajun Omelet (1984). He also owned several beloved restaurants throughout his life and produced several successful cookbooks including

award-winning The Pot & the Palette Cookbook in 2013, which features art from winners of GRFAs 2013 Annual Scholarship Art Contest.

VISUAL ARTS COMPETITION:

All high school juniors and seniors in the state of Louisiana are eligible to apply. Contest judges will select 10 finalists to share $19,000 in college scholarships. Following the Scholarship Awards Luncheon (date TBD), the winning entries will be featured in The Pot & the Palette Cookbook II (on stands Fall2022).

Individual artwork will be judged on the following three criteria:

1. Concept/Design: Does the artwork address the theme in a clear and inventive way? (1/3 score)

2. Technical Skill: Does the artwork show an understanding of visual art principles such as use of color, shading, light, and form? (1/3 score)

3. Creativity: Does the artwork showcase an original point of view? Does it provide a fresh perspective on the theme? (1/3 score)

SONGWRITING COMPETTION:

All high school juniors and seniors in the state of Louisiana are eligible to apply. A selection of three finalists will share $6,000 i college scholarships. Following the Scholarship Awards Luncheon (date TBD), finalists song lyrics will be showcased in The Pot & the Palette Cookbook II (on stands Fall 2022). Song submissions will be judged on the following criteria:

1. Structure and Composition: Does the song have clearly identifiable sections (verse, chorus, etc.)? Is the song between 2-5 minutes? Does the song have a clear theme and cohesive structure? Does the music have an identifiable rhyme scheme or pattern? (1/3 score)

2. Melody: Does the song have continuity and coherence in melody, as well as tone and style? Does the song offer something unique, different, and totally original? Does the music keep the listener interested and engaged? (1/3 score)

3. Lyrics: Are the lyrics creative and original? Do they inspire an emotional or visceral reaction from the listener? Do the music and lyrics fit together in a cohesive way? (1/3 score)

Louisiana is an international culinary melting pot and has reflected a cultural history of adventurous cuisine for many centuries. Statewide, we boast excellent restaurants, festivals and food-focused events. Uniquely, Louisiana yields seafood, wild game and produce, providing home cooks and chefs with a wide variety of fresh local ingredients. These indigenous resources complement Louisianas cultural gumbo of French, Spanish, African, Italian and German flavors, influencing the food we live to eat. For more information on GRFAs 2022 Art/Songwriting contest, please visit www.rodriguefoundation.org. Sign up for our mailing list to receive updates on The Pot & the Palette Cookbook II, pre-orders and more!
LAFAYETTE, LA - Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby announcing Tuesday that military medical assistance teams will be heading to Lafayette. Mr. Kirby announced that the assistance was requested by FEMA and the state of Louisiana in response to the latest COVID-19 surge.

The teams will be compromised of about 20 medical personel including doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists.

Currently (8/18/2021) Louisiana has 638,443 reported Coronavirus cases, 11,793 deaths, 3,022 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals, and 448 patients on ventilators. The entire state in now considered high risk.

https://www.facebook.com/DeptofDefense/videos/355520199562017

Navy Medical Specialists Arrive to Help Ochsner Lafayette General with Fourth COVID Surge
The parents of a 3-year-old boy who died after a procedure to pull teeth at a Wichita dentist's office filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday.
TVING released "Yumi's Cells" first trailer featuring Kim Go Eun's loveable friends.

The upcoming K-drama is a webtoon-based series of the same name written by author Donggeon Lee.

It follows the story of ordinary office girl Yumi living her extraordinary life.

Kim Go Eun's New Drama 'Yumi's Cells' Welcomes her Special Friends

In the latest teaser, the "Goblin" star, who portrays the titular role, Kim Yumi, illustrates the chemistry between her special companions.

Over the broadcast network's official Instagram, "Yumi's Cells" welcomes seven charming friends who are on the mission to help her out on her date.

The clip starts with Goo Woong, played by Ahn Bo Hyun, asking her out on a date.

"Shall we meet?" his message reads, making Yumi beaming with happiness.

Meanwhile, the cells, which represent love, emotion, rationality, fashion, found out about the exciting news and were thrilled to help Yumi.

After choosing her outfit, the cells wished her good luck saying, "Yumi, fighting!"

Yumi then reciprocates their energy with a sweet smile, suggesting that she's looking forward to her date.

'Yumi's Cells' Release Date

The rom-com K-drama, "Yumi's Cells", is helmed by Lee Sang Yeob, who is also the director behind "Shopping King Louie" and "A Piece of Your Mind," working alongside screenwriters Song Jae Jung, Kim Yoon Joo, and Kim Kyung Ran.

Kim Go Eun's new drama is set to be released September 17 with a total of 14 episodes and airing every Friday and Saturday.

"Yumi's Cells" can be watched via tvN and iQiyi,

Get to Know 'Yumi's Cells' Cast

Headlined by Kim Go Eun and Ahn Bo Yun, the much-awaited series features Yumi's out-of-the-ordinary experience after falling into a coma following a failed relationship.

After recovering from her condition, she struggled to control her brain and had difficulty processing her thoughts, emotions, feelings, and actions.

Luckily, she meets Goo Woong (Ahn Bo Hyun), who will help her wake up her love cells.

In the drama, Goo Woong is a skilled game developer who is afraid to open up about his emotions.

Despite this, he managed to sweep Yumi off his feet through his simplicity and honest personality.

Kim Go Eun and Ahn Bo Hyun Talks About their Characters in 'Yumi's Cells'

In a previous interview cited by an outlet, the "Cheese in the Trap" actress gave hints about her role as Kim Yumi in TVING's upcoming drama.

She described her character as a "lucky person" because she is surrounded by her special friends.

"Yumi is ordinary, but she seems like a lucky person who has special [beings] on her side. The cells which always encourage Yumi and put their heads together without rest so that Yumi can be pleased and happy give me hopeful thoughts."

Meanwhile, Ahn Bo Hyun lauded the combination of "reality and animation" seen in "Yumi's Cells."

KDramastars owns this article.

Written by Geca Wills
The much-awaited episode of the new KBS drama "Police University" starring "Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds" actor Cha Tae Hyun, "Love in the Moonlight" actor Jinyoung, and "Sweet & Sour" actress Krystal gave the viewers a deeper understanding of every character in the new drama series with their beliefs, life principles, and secrets revealed.

"Police University" episode four reached a new record of higher ratings than its previous episodes.

Oh Kang Hee's Family's Secret Has Been Revealed, Seeks Comfort in Kang Seon Ho

In the previous episodes, Kang Seon Ho, played by "Love in the Moonlight" actor Jinyoung, became the person who gives healing and comfort to Oh Kang Hee, played by the f(x) member Krystal, whenever she feels down.

What happened in the fourth episode is no different. After Oh Kang Hee and fellow freshman Park Min Gyu (Chu Young Woo) applied for a position in the university's student council, a video containing Oh Kang Hee's abominable past was posted in the university's official page.

In the video, Oh Kang Hee's mother was arrested in front of the university for illegal gambling. This caused the students to talk about Oh Kang Hee behind her back. The students ostracized the poor young girl relentlessly, even writing mean things in her textbook.

As a man who cares for the woman he loves, Kang Seon Ho took action and, with his amazing skills, hacked the site to take the video down. He also fixed Kang Hee's textbook by putting cute and adorable stickers on them, which made Kang Hee feel better.

New Love Triangle Arises, Kang Seon Ho vs. Park Min Gyu Intensifies

During their stay in the Korean National Police University, various activities were held in order to make them physically fit and ready for any situation.

In the fourth episode of the drama, the students were taught how to shoot a gun properly without hurting any civilians.

Senior student Lee Eun Ju (Byun Seo Yoon) showed off her amazing gun shooting skills, which made No Beom Tae (Lee Dal) and Jo Joon Wook (Yoo Youngjae) fall for her.

As she concentrates on her undeniable girl crush charms, she just didn't shoot the target but also shot the two friends' hearts.

No Beom Tae and Jo Joon Wook soon realize that the two of them are interested in the same girl, igniting a rivalry and competition between the two to win the senior's heart.

Meanwhile, the tensioned rivalry between Kang Seon Ho (Jinyoung) and Park Min Gyu (Chu Young Woo) amplifies as the two of them finally discloses that they both like the beautiful Judo girl.

It was revealed that Park Min Gyu knew Oh Kang Hee way before they entered the university. During Kang Hee's mother's trial, Park Min Gyu liked how brave and rational Oh Kang Hee is, opposite Kang Seon Ho, who only knew Kang Hee in her Judo match and started off on the wrong foot.

The two charismatic men decided that they cannot be friends as both of them will do their best to win Kang Hee's heart.

Kang Seon Ho, No Beom Tae, and Jo Joon Wook entered professor Choi Hee Soo's Judo club to gain physical strength and impress the woman of their dreams.

Kang Seon Ho and Yoo Dong Man Work Together To Catch Criminals

As Yoo Dong Man's subordinate suffers from a head injury brought by the culprit inside the police university, Yoo Dong Man desperately seeks help from Kang Seon Ho, who has superb hacking skills.

Kang Seon Ho, on the other hand, had a hard time adjusting in the university but with Yoo Dong Man over him, his experience was bearable.

Even though the detective was harsh on him, Kang Seon Ho takes his advice and beliefs and uses them in his own life.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Jeon Do Yeon Transforms Into a Dejected Writer in New Drama 'Lost' with Ryu Jun Yeol

In episode four, it was seen how Kang Seon Ho is greatly influenced by the rash detective. In addition to that, Yoo Dong Man is actually "Bird", his online buddy whom he trusts and he spent an entire year chatting with.

With this, Kang Seon Ho decided to help his professor, as he realized that he will learn more from him and his firsthand investigative experiences.

'Police University' Reaches Another Personal Best

"Police University" broadcasted its fourth episode to an average of 8.5% viewership ratings, a new record compared to its previous episodes.

The drama made an absolute 5.2% on its pilot episode, followed 6.5% during its second and 6.8% in its third.

The 1.7% ratings increase illustrates a successful start for the drama.

Follow KDramastars for more Kdrama, KMovie, and celebrity news updates!

KDramastars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Upcoming mystery suspense drama series "High Class" released new stills featuring "Parasite" actress Cho Yeo Jeong and "Where Stars Land" actress Kim Ji Soo.

The two experienced actors will star in the new drama alongside actors Park Se Jin, Ha Joon, and Gong Hyun Joo.

Cho Yeo Jeong and Kim Ji Soo Meet For The First Time in 'High Class'

tvN, one of the biggest broadcasting companies in South Korea, released new photo stills featuring actresses Cho Yeo Jeong and Kim Ji Soo who will be taking the lead in the upcoming suspense mystery thriller "High Class."

Former lawyer Song Yeo Ul, played by actress Cho Yeo Jeong, goes to the international school where her eight-year-old son is attending where she meets Nam Ji Seon, who is played by actress Kim Ji Soo, for the first time.

As a newcomer to the most sophisticated school in South Korea, Song Yeo Ul familiarizes herself in its facilities while the other parents talk to each other.

Her eyes twinkle with awe and excitement as she and her son start a new journey on the paradise-like island.

Song Yeo Ul greets the most famous and powerful woman inside the premises with so much happiness. On the other hand, Nam Ji Seon simply smiles at the former. Her eyes, unlike Song Yeo Ul, have a meaningful yet eerie look which foreshadows what will happen in the near future.

Expectations and anticipation were amplified as the two mothers finally met with meaningful smiles and tension in the atmosphere.

'High Class' Drama Summary and Further Details

The upcoming drama "High Class" is a mystery suspense thriller drama that depicts the story of a former lawyer who was framed for the abominable murder of his husband.

It also tells the stories of lies, dirty secrets, and hypocrisies behind the perfect lives of elite South Korean women in the society.

The upcoming tvN drama is written by screenwriter Hyun Jung together with "East of Eden" and "Missing 9" director Choi Byung Gil.

"High Class" is produced by Studio Dragon and under Production H and H World Pictures.

'High Class' Drama Premiere Date

Veteran actor Ha Joon and actresses Park Se Jin and Gong Hyun Joo join the main cast of the show.

Kim Young Jae, Lee Chae Min, and After School's Lee Ka Eun are also part of the drama.

The new tvN drama is slated to premiere on September 6 at 10:30 p.m. KST.

Check out the bizarre video teaser of "High Class" here:

Follow KDramastars for more Kdrama, KMovie, and celebrity news updates!

KDramastars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
The calls and emails about Covid-19 boosters have already started coming in to Dr. William Schaffner's medical center in Nashville, Tennessee.

It started last week, when the US Food and Drug Administration and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended an additional dose for certain immunocompromised people who had been given the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines.

Then, on Monday, Biden administration officials said they are working on a plan to recommend more Americans get a booster about eight months after being fully vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The question will be addressed during a White House Covid-19 briefing on Wednesday.

But nearly 14 million fully vaccinated people in the United States didn't get one of those mRNA vaccines. They got the single-dose shot from Johnson & Johnson, and so far, they are not a part of this booster conversation.

"Our J&J patients have not been overlooked or neglected. It's just the way the data are coming in," said Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

For J&J vaccine patients who are calling and emailing about boosters, he is telling them to wait.

"You can't make good recommendations without the data," he said.

Last month, J&J researchers reported the vaccine provides immunity that lasts at least eight months and possibly longer.

The J&J vaccine also appears to provide adequate protection against the Delta variant, the predominant strain of the virus making people sick in the United States today. J&J said in July that a second or booster dose of its vaccine would not be necessary at that time.

However, a spokesperson from Johnson & Johnson told CNN on Tuesday the company is gathering additional data to see if booster shots are necessary.

"Ensuring long-term and durable protection against hospitalization and death are critical in curbing the Covid-19 pandemic," the company said in an email to CNN. "Johnson & Johnson continues to diligently generate and evaluate evidence from ongoing trials as well as emerging real-world evidence as it assesses the need for a booster of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine."

Different vaccines, different studies, different timelines

Many vaccines need more than one shot to provide full protection. Some, like a tetanus shot, need an additional boost every 10 years or so because immunity wanes over time. Others, like the flu shot, need to be administered annually because each flu season bring new strains.

With Covid-19, scientists are still figuring out how long protection lasts and how the vaccines work against different variants. All of that will need to be determined by more research.

For mRNA vaccines, more data is coming in. Pfizer said Monday that it has submitted initial data to support the use of boosters to the FDA. Moderna said last week it's still in the process of submitting its data.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine works a little differently than the mRNA vaccines, which use a newer technology that delivers genetic material directly into cells via fatty particles. J&J's Janssen vaccine uses a viral vector, a common cold virus that is genetically engineered to infect cells, but won't replicate and spread in the body. It delivers genetic instructions to the cells, then trains them to identify and protect against the coronavirus.

Johnson & Johnson has always been on a different timeline, too. When Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were authorized in December, J&J was still gathering data. It got its emergency use authorization a couple of months later, in February.

And while there's evidence immunocompromised people may benefit from a third dose of an mRNA vaccine, it's still not clear if immunocompromised people who received the J&J vaccine would benefit from getting another dose.

"We have been reviewing the science and data on a near daily basis to evaluate whether or when boosters may be needed," the CDC said in an email to CNN when asked about boosters for the general public and for the immunocompromised on Tuesday.

"As we have been saying, boosters would probably be needed. We will be announcing more detailed plans soon, so we'll have more to share then. This will all be done in accordance with independent FDA and CDC review and recommendations."

Mixing and matching vaccines

It's also not clear if people who got J&J's vaccine and who need a boost would benefit more from an additional J&J vaccine, or should receive a different vaccine type.

Currently, the CDC's official stance is that people should stick with the shot they got initially. It says there isn't enough data to know if mixing and matching works and is safe.

In parts of Europe, though, doctors are mixing and matching the single dose AstraZeneca vaccine -- which is similar to the J&J vaccine -- with an mRNA vaccine.

In Germany, health officials recommended people who got a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine get an mRNA vaccine for their second dose. Early studies showed the mix generated a robust immune response. In June, German Chancellor Angela Merkel led the way and got the Moderna vaccine following her first dose of the AstraZeneca.

In the United States, at least one city didn't wait for data on whether to boost the J&J vaccine.

People vaccinated with the J&J vaccine can get a supplemental mRNA vaccine dose in San Francisco, where Department of Public Health officials made an "accommodation" for those who have consulted with a doctor, the department said August 4.

While Schaffner is enthusiastically encouraging anyone who has not yet gotten a first shot to get one immediately, for patients who got the J&J vaccine and want a booster, he's counseling patience.

"At the moment, the only thing we can tell them is sit tight," Schaffner said. "More information is on the way."

The-CNN-Wire

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SALEM, Ore.  A coalition of Oregon legislators were joined by Governor Kate Brown on Wednesday in saying that the state will accept refugees fleeing the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

On Tuesday evening, a number of state representatives and senators led by Rep. Khanh Pham and Senator Kayse Jama distributed a letter addressing Governor Brown and members of Oregon's congressional delegation, urging them to work for safe passage for Afghans fleeing the growing humanitarian crisis caused by the US withdrawal from the country and the Taliban's toppling of the government.

"Together, we call on the Biden administration to lift the refugee admission caps and take other emergency humanitarian actions that will save lives at this pivotal time. As a state, we must also take all the necessary steps to be prepared to resettle families when they arrive," the lawmakers wrote. "Events in Afghanistan echo the departure of the United States from Saigon following the end of the Vietnam War. In 1975, the United States lifted refugee caps to allow more than 125,000 families to resettle in communities across the country."

By Wednesday morning, the list of lawmakers grew to include House Speaker Tina Kotek and Senate President Peter Courtney, among others. Representative Pam Marsh was among the supporters of the original letter. Before noon, Governor Brown put out her own statement in support of the letter:

"As we watch the current situation unfold in Afghanistan, Oregon stands ready to help the federal government resettle Afghan refugee families.

"Over the last two decades, thousands of Afghans have worked alongside U.S. military service members, as interpreters and translators and in other roles, risking their lives as they contributed to our efforts in their country. The lives of Afghan women and girls are at risk simply because they had the audacity to learn in school and pursue careers. Equal rights advocates are being targeted for seeking a more just future with equal rights for all. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community in Afghanistan are in danger because of who they are and who they love. Oregon is ready to welcome any and all Afghans who would make our state their home.

"In Oregon, we welcome refugees from around the world, recognizing that resettlement is a lifeline our country provides for survivors of violence and oppression. We all thrive when we accept refugees into our communities. We benefit from the diversity of thought, opinion, and culture that refugee families bring. Oregon has welcomed more than 75,000 refugees since 1975. And these communities are a vital part of the fabric of Oregons history, culture, and economy.

"Oregon is ready to welcome our refugee sisters and brothers from Afghanistan, and the rest of the world. I am hopeful the Biden-Harris administration, along with Congress, will lift refugee admission caps and take other emergency humanitarian actions to save lives. Its critical that the United States take steps to evacuate as many people in danger from Afghanistan as quickly as possible, including expediting the visa approval process, particularly for those Afghans and their families who have risked their lives in service of this country.

"Oregon will continue to be a welcoming and inclusive place for all who call our state home  including and especially our immigrant and refugee communities."

In their letter, Rep. Pham and Sen. Jama highlighted their commitment to welcome vulnerable and displaced violence and oppression, particularly women, children, and LGBTQ+ people who face the threat of violence or death. They pointed in particular to the passage of Senate Bill 778 during this year's legislative session, a bill that establishes an Office of Immigrant and Refugee Advancement in the state, offering long-term support for immigrants and refugees.

"It reflects what we hope our Oregon values to be when we look out for our neighbors and stand up for justice," the lawmakers wrote. "We know that you share the same commitment to these values, and we are ready to partner with you and your offices in making it clear that Oregon welcomes families fleeing violence. As leaders, it is our duty to act swiftly and with urgency to save lives, place humanity above all, and ensure that Afghan refugees are safely evacuated to welcoming communities"
Major retail chains are having trouble finding workers, but not necessarily for jobs in the store -- it's the positions in warehouses that they're struggling to fill.

Here's what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

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1. Afghanistan

As the Taliban regime solidifies control in Afghanistan, the US is left in the uncomfortable position of relying on the group to ensure a safe exit from the catastrophe. The Taliban have agreed to provide safe passage to Kabul's airport for civilians who can come to the US, but there is uncertainty over how long the group will stay cooperative, and what actions they may take against people still in the country. Taliban leaders have said they will provide "blanket amnesty" for all in Afghanistan as they establish their new regime, but US officials and some citizens are wary of that promise. In the few days since the Taliban took the capital city of Kabul, women have reportedly stayed indoors for fear of their safety.

2 Coronavirus

Child cases of coronavirus are still rising in the US, and experts say the return to schools will gravely complicate that. The numbers paint a dangerous picture: More than 121,000 child Covid-19 cases were reported last week, which the American Academy of Pediatrics says is a substantial increase. About 99% of new cases in the country are due to the Delta variant. And right now, only 50.9% of the population is fully vaccinated. School mask mandates would help, but some governors and local leaders are doing everything they can to stymie such precautions. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has fought against pandemic precautions in his state, has tested positive for coronavirus. He is fully vaccinated and is currently quarantining, his office says.

3. Tropical storms

Tropical Storm Grace is heading toward Mexico today, threatening to bring with it hurricane-force winds, deadly rip tides and up to half a foot of rain. The storm is expected to reach hurricane strength by tonight and could strengthen even more by the time the center reaches the eastern Yucatan Peninsula. The storm has already passed over Haiti, disrupting the nation's recovery efforts after last weekend's earthquake. Along the eastern coast of the US, Tropical Depression Fred is expected to bring flash flooding to the Carolinas. The system was downgraded from a tropical storm but has already released tornadoes and heavy rains further south.

4. Wildfires

A new wildfire has exploded in California, tripling in size within a day. The Caldor Fire burning in El Dorado County has charred more than 30,000 acres and is 0% contained. Cal Fire officials say it's a threat to several highly populated areas, and nearly 7,000 people have been evacuated from its path. There are now 104 large fires burning, mostly in the West, which is experiencing historic drought conditions. Another fast-moving fire that is alarming officials is the Ford Corkscrew Fire burning northwest of Spokane, Washington. The Dixie Fire, the largest fire currently burning and the second-largest fire in California history, has also grown while containment remains stagnant.

5. China

Chinese President Xi Jinping has issued a bold new pledge to redistribute wealth in the country in the interest of "social fairness" and "common prosperity" -- a socially significant phrase in China that calls to mind former Communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong. It isn't clear how Xi intends to carry this plan out, but a state news agency speculated the government could consider taxation or other ways of redistributing income and wealth. Meanwhile, Chinese state media have leveraged the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan to stoke the flames of nationalism, lauding what they see as the decline of American influence. They're also using this opportunity to taunt Taiwan, a US ally, with renewed threats of invasion.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

Sorority rush content has taken over TikTok, and people are obsessed

Ah, it takes us right back to the hopeful and vaguely traumatic first weeks of college.

Jacksonville Jaguars release Tim Tebow after brief experiment at tight end

Time to give it another go with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.

Fewer people are going to Home Depot. That could be a bad sign for the housing market.

Wait, you're allowed to NOT go to Home Depot every single weekend? This is news to us.

Synchrony's CEO says the workforce will never go back to the old way of working

Once people figured out remote work could, well, work, it was only a matter of time.

McDonald's is adding a donut to its bakery line

And it's one of those cute pull-apart ones. Just a note to add to your potential breakfast roster.

TODAY'S NUMBER

1.2 million

That's how many people have been impacted by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Saturday, according to UNICEF. The quake left at least 1,941 people dead and more than 6,900 injured, and that toll is expected to rise as rescue efforts continue.

TODAY'S QUOTE

"If we don't get the number of bus drivers that we need, that we'd have to combine routes and make other adjustments."

Bob Mosier, a spokesperson for Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland. School districts around the country are experiencing a critical shortage in bus drivers, which is leading them to consider higher pay and other possible solutions.

TODAY'S WEATHER

Check your local forecast here>>>

AND FINALLY

Those are some cleeean lines

Who knew watching someone painting parking lot lines could be so satisfying? (Click here to view)

The-CNN-Wire

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The swift fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with thousands trying to flee the country. It's also brought renewed focus on Afghanistan's vast untapped mineral wealth, resources that could transform its economic prospects if ever developed.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the world. But in 2010, US military officials and geologists revealed that the country, which lies at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, was sitting on mineral deposits worth nearly $1 trillion.

Supplies of minerals such as iron, copper and gold are scattered across provinces. There are also rare earth minerals and, perhaps most importantly, what could be one of the world's biggest deposits of lithium  an essential but scarce component in rechargeable batteries and other technologies vital to tackling the climate crisis.

"Afghanistan is certainly one of the regions richest in traditional precious metals, but also the metals [needed] for the emerging economy of the 21st century," said Rod Schoonover, a scientist and security expert who founded the Ecological Futures Group.

Security challenges, a lack of infrastructure and severe droughts have prevented the extraction of most valuable minerals in the past. That's unlikely to change soon under Taliban control. Still, there's interest from countries including China, Pakistan and India, which may try to engage despite the chaos.

"It's a big question mark," Schoonover said.

Huge potential

Even before President Joe Biden announced that he would withdraw US troops from Afghanistan earlier this year, setting the stage for the return of Taliban control, the country's economic prospects were dim.

As of 2020, an estimated 90% of Afghans were living below the government-determined poverty level of $2 per day, according to a report from the US Congressional Research Service published in June. In its latest country profile, the World Bank said that the economy remains "shaped by fragility and aid dependence."

"Private sector development and diversification is constrained by insecurity, political instability, weak institutions, inadequate infrastructure, widespread corruption, and a difficult business environment," it said in March.

Many countries with weak governments suffer from what's known as the "resource curse," in which efforts to exploit natural resources fail to provide benefits to local people and the domestic economy. Even so, revelations about Afghanistan's mineral wealth, which built on earlier surveys conducted by the Soviet Union, have offered huge promise.

Demand for metals like lithium and cobalt, as well as rare earth elements such as neodymium, is soaring as countries try to switch to electric cars and other clean technologies to slash carbon emissions.

The International Energy Agency said in May that global supplies of lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements needed to increase sharply or the world would fail in its attempt to tackle the climate crisis. Three countries  China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Australia  currently account for 75% of the global output of lithium, cobalt and rare earths.

The average electric car requires six times more minerals than a conventional car, according to the IEA. Lithium, nickel and cobalt are crucial to batteries. Electricity networks also require huge amounts of copper and aluminum, while rare earth elements are used in the magnets needed to make wind turbines work.

The US government has reportedly estimated that lithium deposits in Afghanistan could rival those in Bolivia, home to the world's largest known reserves.

"If Afghanistan has a few years of calm, allowing the development of its mineral resources, it could become one of the richest countries in the area within a decade," Said Mirzad of the US Geological Survey told Science magazine in 2010. He led the Afghanistan Geological Survey until 1979.

Even more obstacles

That calm never arrived, and most of Afghanistan's mineral wealth has remained in the ground, said Mosin Khan, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former Middle East and central Asia director at the International Monetary Fund.

While there has been some extraction of gold, copper and iron, exploiting lithium and rare earth minerals requires much greater investment and technical know-how, as well as time. The IEA estimates that it takes 16 years on average from the discovery of a deposit for a mine to start production.

Right now, minerals generate just $1 billion in Afghanistan per year, according to Khan. He estimates that 30% to 40% has been siphoned off by corruption, as well as by warlords and the Taliban, which has presided over small mining projects.

Still, there's a chance the Taliban uses its new power to develop the mining sector, Schoonover said.

"You can imagine one trajectory is maybe there's some consolidation, and some of this mining will no longer need to be unregulated," he said.

But, Schoonover continued, the "odds are against it," given that the Taliban will need to devote its immediate attention to a wide range of security and humanitarian issues.

"The Taliban has taken power but the transition from insurgent group to national government will be far from straightforward," said Joseph Parkes, Asia security analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. "Functional governance of the nascent mineral sector is likely many years away."

Khan notes that foreign investment was hard to come by before the Taliban ousted Afghanistan's civilian Western-backed government. Attracting private capital will be even more difficult now, particularly as many global businesses and investors are being held to ever higher environmental, social and governance standards.

"Who's going to invest in Afghanistan when they weren't willing to invest before?" Khan said. "Private investors are not going to take the risk."

US restrictions could also present a challenge. The Taliban has not been officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States. However, the group was placed on a US Treasury Department list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists and a Specially Designated Nationals list.

An opportunity for China?

State-backed projects motivated in part by geopolitics could be a different story. China, the world leader in mining rare earths, said Monday that it has "maintained contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban."

"China, the next-door neighbor, is embarking on a very significant green energy development program," Schoonover said. "Lithium and the rare earths are so far irreplaceable because of their density and physical properties. Those minerals factor into their long-term plans."

Should China step in, Schoonover said there would be concerns about the sustainability of mining projects given China's track record.

"When mining isn't done carefully it can be ecologically devastating, which harms certain segments of the population without a lot of voice," he said.

Beijing could be skeptical of partnering on ventures with the Taliban given ongoing instability, however, and may focus on other regions. Khan pointed out that China has been burned before, having previously tried to invest in a copper project that later stalled.

"I believe they will prioritize other emerging/frontier geographies well before Taliban-led Afghanistan," said RK Equity partner Howard Klein, who advises investors on lithium.

 Matt Egan and Charles Riley contributed reporting.

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MONROE, Ore. -- The suspect in a standoff Tuesday evening at a residence in Monroe was arrested Wednesday morning.

Daniel Roloff, 58, was taken into custody peacefully just before 9 a.m., the Benton County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies first responded to the 26000 block of Foster Road at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday after receiving a report that a man was shooting a gun at construction workers at a home in the area.

After arriving at the scene, deputies evacuated the construction crew and established a perimeter near Dawson Road and Bellfountain Road. The Linn-Benton Alert system was used to let neighbors know about the active threat and to shelter in place.

Roloff allegedly shot at deputies when they tried to contact him. Nine shots were fired in nine minutes, deputies say.

Additional help was brought in, including the Linn County Sheriff's Office Regional SWAT team, the Corvallis Fire Department and the Monroe Rural Fire Department.

At about 11 p.m., law enforcement decided to have the SWAT team stand down, and Benton County deputies worked late into the night to get the barricaded man to come out of his home.

Early Wednesday morning deputies were still monitoring the area, but were no longer outside Roloff's house. They returned shortly before 9 a.m., served a search warrant at the home, and took the suspect into custody.
SALEM, Ore.  Gov. Kate Brown announced that Oregon will be assisting with federal efforts to resettle refugee families after a massive shakeup in Afghanistan.

Following US troops leaving the country, major cities fell to the Taliban one by one without a fight, and thousands have raced to the airport, desperate to flee the country.

"Over the last two decades, thousands of Afghans have worked alongside U.S. military service members, as interpreters and translators and in other roles, risking their lives as they contributed to our efforts in their country," Brown said.

While the Taliban is portraying itself as more moderate than when they imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in the late 1990s, many Afghans remain skeptical.

MORE: TALIBAN PROMISE WOMENS RIGHTS, SECURITY UNDER ISLAMIC RULE

Brown said women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and equal rights advocates are at risk.

Oregon is ready to welcome any and all Afghans who would make our state their home, Brown said in a statement.

Brown said resettling refugees is a lifeline the country provides for survivors of violence and oppression. Oregon has welcomed more than 75,000 refugees since 1975, Brown added.

As far as how local veterans are feeling about what's going on in Afghanistan, there are a few who are worried.

"It's just unfortunate and I had to reflect back on my time, knowing that, you know, when I was there, I did the mission that I was supposed to do and I hope that my mission served and helped the Afghan people," said Trevor Fahlman, an Afghanistan veteran.

Watch KEZI 9 News at 4, 5 and 6 for more from local veterans.
Weather Alert

...FROST ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 9 AM PDT WEDNESDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures as low as 37 will result in patchy frost formation. * WHERE...Colfax, Chewelah, Wallace, Osburn, Worley, Cheney, Hayden, Rathdrum, Republic, Eastport, St Maries, Moscow, Bonners Ferry, Kellogg, Tekoa, Uniontown, Mullan, Oakesdale, Kettle Falls, Rockford, Rosalia, Spokane, Sandpoint, Wauconda, Coeur d'Alene, La Crosse, Post Falls, Newport, Davenport, Priest River, Potlatch, Plummer, Genesee, Deer Park, Inchelium, Pullman, Colville, and Pinehurst. * WHEN...From 2 AM to 9 AM PDT Wednesday. * IMPACTS...Frost could harm sensitive outdoor vegetation. Sensitive outdoor plants may be killed if left uncovered. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Clouds are expected to thin overnight and winds calm down in sheltered valleys after midnight. Coolest temperatures will likely be just before sunrise Wednesday morning. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. &&
There are 2,409 Kilkenny people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week, a slight drop from 2,521 last week.

The greatest reduction this week is in the area of accommodation and food services sector.

The PUP figures published this week are in addition to the 184,213 people who were on the Live Register at the end of July.

The number of Kilkenny people on the PUP during the 2021 peak (February 9) was 8,957 while at the 2020 peak (May 4) there were 11,491 on the payment.

In total across Ireland there are 153,309 people in receipt a Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week (valued at 45.4 million).

There were 602,100 people availing of the payment across Ireland during the 2020 peak.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys welcomed this week's figures.

"The number of people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has now fallen by almost 70% since February," she said.

"In the past week, some 4,400 PUP recipients closed their claims with almost half of these working in the accommodation and food sector. It is heartening to see more people return to work each week as we continue to move cautiously through our recovery from Covid-19."

The county with the highest number of people receiving PUP is Dublin which stands at 58,215. It is followed by Cork (13,536) and Galway (8,120).

The Department continues to remind workers who are returning to work that they must close their claim for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment on the actual date that they start back at work, in order to ensure that their claim is processed correctly and to avoid incurring an overpayment that the Department will take steps to recover.

In line with the Governments National Economic Recovery Plan, the PUP will be gradually reduced on a tapered basis over a 6 month period until February 2022 to align it with the standard jobseekers payments. This transition commences in September 2021.

PUP has been closed to new claimants since July 8 this year. People who have lost their job since then can apply for Jobseeker's Benefit or Jobseeker's Allowance in the normal way.

The top three rates of PUP will reduce by 50 in September. The maximum weekly rate of 350 will reduce to 300.

The current rate of 300 will reduce to 250 and the current rate of 250 will reduce to 203.

The new payment rates will be reflected in payments received on Tuesday, September 14.

People on the 203 PUP rate will transition to standard jobseekers terms.

The Department runs post payment checks that includes verifying data against Revenue records, examining cases where the same Bank account is used multiple times, examining cases where an employer or members of the public report concerns, and the use of data analytics to identify and check claims. It also undertakes employer inspections.

This work is undertaken by the Departments Special Investigation Unit, which includes over 20 Gardai on secondment to the Department.
MASON CITY, Iowa - Airports in the Hawkeye State are getting a little financial help thanks to the Iowa Transportation Commission.

Around $7 million will be distributed statewide for many projects as part of the 2022 State Aviation Program. These range from safety initiatives and airport development projects, to infrastructure and maintenance improvements.

At the Mason City Municipal Airport, manager David Sims says a little over $121,000 of that funding will go towards modernizing and improving their equipment storage facility.
Lynn Grooms writes about the diversity of agriculture, including the industrys newest ideas, research and technologies as a staff reporter for Agri-View based in Wisconsin.
A Covid-19 vaccine record card is seen here at the Florida Memorial University Vaccination Site in Miami Gardens, Florida in April.
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Here's what you need to know: Wednesday, Aug. 18
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BEAVERTON, OR (KPTV) - A massage therapist in Beaverton is under investigation for inappropriately touching two clients, and investigators believe there may be more victims.

The Beaverton Police Department said the investigation began after two people came forward with details about inappropriate massages they received from 50-year-old Somsay Cheun at the SC Massage Clinic, located at 17200 Northwest Corridor Court. The incidents took place between 2019 and 2020.

Washington County man convicted in child sex abuse investigation WASHINGTON COUNTY, OR (KPTV) - A 28-year-old man has been convicted following a child sexual abuse investigation in Tigard, according to the W

The investigation led to the arrest of Cheun on Sunday. The Washington County Sheriff's Office said Cheun was issued a citation in lieu of arrest. Neither police or the sheriff's office have said what charges he is facing.

Due to the nature of the cases, police said investigators believe there may be more victims. Anyone who received treatment from Cheun and feel it was inappropriate is asked to contact Detective C. Herring at cherring@beavertonoregon.gov. Police said the Oregon State Board of Massage Therapists has an open investigation on this matter.
SALEM, OR (KPTV) - Governor Kate Brown is calling on Oregon superintendents, school board members and education leaders to not "jeopardize" the return to fill-time, in-person learning this fall by violating the state's indoor mask requirements.

Brown: Masks will be required in all Oregon K-12 schools this fall SALEM, OR (KPTV) - Governor Kate Brown announced Thursday that all K-12 schools statewide will be required to implement an indoor mask rule be

Most school districts in the state are moving forward with health and safety plans to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. However, the governor's office said Brown issued an open letter Tuesday in response to "troubling statements and actions from local school leaders indicating they would ignore state law." Some school boards have passed or are considering resolutions against Oregon's K-12 indoor mask requirements that were announced last month, according to the governor's office.

In her letter, Brown states one district leader sent a letter to parents urging them to make false claims on behalf of their children under the Americans with Disabilities Act to avoid mask requirements. The governor is calling on school districts to reject taking actions that defy state and federal laws, and to take action to protect students health and safety instead.

Because thats the thing about masks: they dont just protect you, they protect everyone around you. Wearing a mask is an act of kindness. By wearing masks, we are teaching our children that they can protect each other in the classroom. That we can all work together to keep each other safe. When I visited classrooms this spring, I saw children who were overjoyed to be with their friends and teachers again. For them, safety protocols were not a burden but a benefit, giving them a reprieve from virtual classrooms and isolation from their peers," Brown said in the open letter.

Brown continued: I have heard much about personal freedom when it comes to masks in school board meetings and on social media. I have not heard as much said about personal responsibility. As leaders, we have a great responsibility to our students and their futures. One of the sacred, fundamental responsibilities of a school district and its leaders is to keep the children in their care safe. It is up to us to make clear-eyed decisions based on science and fact. Flouting mask requirements will put everything we have worked towards in the last year at risk. Without the universal wearing of masks in our schools, the Delta variant will spread.

Oregon Health Authority reports another increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations PORTLAND, OR (KPTV)  The Oregon Health Authority reported 14 more COVID-19 deaths Monday and another day of record hospitalizations.

Cases and hospitalizations from the virus have increased dramatically in the state over the past few weeks. On Monday, the Oregon Health Authority reported their were 752 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, with 206 of those patients in intensive care unit beds.

The governor's office said the current indoor mask requirement can be enforced by Oregon OSHA under state law.
OLYMPIA, WA (KPTV)  The Washington State Department of Health is now recommending a third dose of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for a high-risk group of people. The agency said the third shot is just that, not a booster, for certain immunocompromised people who may not have built the same safeguards as others.

Amy Gonzales, 44, is a part of that group. Throughout the pandemic, she's had to have her guard up more than others.

"I was petrified," she said.

She's immunocompromised, and on immunosuppressants, which puts her at higher risk of getting Covid-19.

"I was finally diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that's called mixed connective tissue disease," Gonzales said. "I have severe asthma and I had gotten pneumonia a few times back-to-back. I almost didn't survive. It was pretty bad. The idea of having a virus out there that causes pneumonia was really scary because I feel like I would be one of those people who wouldn't survive it very well, if at all."

COVID-19 in Oregon: Legacy Health to limit visitors starting Monday PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - Legacy Health will limit the number of visitors in its hospitals and medical clinics starting Monday (Aug. 16) in respon

On Saturday, the Washington Department of Health officially recommended a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine for certain immunocompromised people, so they have an extra layer of protection against the Delta variant. DOH said those eligible should get it at least 28 days after their second shot and should try to get the same vaccine as the first two.

Those eligible include people receiving cancer treatment, someone on immunosuppressants or anyone with advanced or untreated HIV. The CDC has a full list online of those who are eligible for a third dose.

Gonzales said she already has her first two shots and with the Delta variant spreading rapidly, she's ready to get her third.

"When I was able to get the vaccine, it was a relief, she said. It was a relief to not be afraid to go to a store if I had to, but when the Delta variant came back, I was like, We're kind of back to where we were in February. Again, if it keeps me from getting (COVID-19) and pneumonia and those risk factors for my lungs and my stomach and everything like that, it's worth it."

Gonzales said she plans to get her third dose next Friday.
POCATELLO, Idaho (KPVI) - "As we saw the last four years, we had low gas prices, a stable Afghanistan and other things," said Bannock County Commissioner Terrel Tovey, who believes the new presidency has gone off the path. Read more
(CALDWELL CO., Mo.) U.S. Senator Roy Blunt made his way to Caldwell County Tuesday stopping by the Little Otter Creek project to hear how construction was going.

People see a lot of Government that doesnt work, said Senator Blunt. This is a great example of, not only, a government that works but works in a way that 100 years from today we anticipate that there will still be an incredibly positive impact.

The main goal of the visit was to talk to local public officials about the project and see how federal dollars, which he helped secure, were being used. The Little Otter Creek Project is estimated to cost about $25 million dollars through federal, state, and local entities and will provide a reliable water source for 10,000 people in Caldwell County.

Its great to be a part of something thats going to matter 100-years from now so its a big moment for Caldwell County and for me as I look at my last 18-months in the Senate, said the retiring senator.

Additionally, the project has been enhanced with features for recreation and floodplain management. Lawmakers say it could generate economic opportunities and benefits for surrounding counties too.

This project is not only going to benefit Caldwell County but once fully developed and fleshed out it will be a boon to all of Northwest Missouri, said J. Eggleston, State Rep. for District 2.

Eggleston said he believes the reservoir may just transform the area.

You think about the developments that Lake Viking did for Daviess County. For what Mozingo did for up near Maryville. Caldwell County is going to get to enjoy some of those same successes as the years come, Eggleston said.

Blunt agreed.

Water is one of the things it takes to grow. Its one of the things it takes to attract business, is one of the things to have a community as resilient as you want it to be, Blunt said. Once money has been spent and the waters there suddenly you can talk to people about manufacturing jobs and other jobs that you wouldnt be in contention for otherwise.

Construction on the project began this year after it secured permits and input from the Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Department of Agricultures Natural Resources Conservation Service. But the project has been around much longer.

It was initially proposed in the late 1980s after a severe drought in Caldwell County demonstrated the need for a reliable water source. Randy Railsback is not the State Representative for District 8 but before his career in politics, he spent nearly two decades working on the reservoir with the Green Hills Regional Planning Commission.

This is one of the biggest things to happen to this region for a long, long time, Railsback said. Honestly, theres no way small communities can afford that kind of a price tag but this is just like highways and bridges and everything else. This is an investment for the future.

The residents raised money through a  cent sales tax to buy the land needed for the project. Missouri will provide a state-matching grant for the money secured by Sen. Blunt. Railsback said the project has been a truly federal, state, and local partnership.

Randy Railsback, State Rep. Dist. 8: Its critical to this part of the world because the city of Hamilton, like so many of the others when we get into an extended drought period, the reservoir just starts running out of water.

Officials said the reservoir project is still years out from completion and say they expect the dam construction to take two years, and another two years for water to fill the lake.
GREAT FALLS, Mont.  For the first time in decades Montana is set to draw its second Congressional District following the 2020 Census data report.

The next step is to decide how Montanas Congressional District will be split up, but right now theyre putting the process together.

The Montana Districting & Apportionment Commission discussed the timeline on congressional redistricting.

In previous years people were able to submit maps to help redistrict, but were required to submit personal information.

Because of concerns online, the commission did talk about submitting anonymously.

"You know, you could have people emailing you nasty notes, you could have people attacking you on social media if you put forward a map that someone doesn't like. I don't think anyone wants this and certainly don't think anyone on the commission would support or advocate for that sort of treatment of members of the public, but I do think there's a potential for it," said Kendra Miller, districting and apportionment commission.

In the end, the commission did decide not to revise those changes and people will be able to submit their maps at this time.

But the next question was which maps will be revised.

"Certainly, if a map meets the constitutional and proposed and adopted criteria of this commission, we certainly have our chair to allow and would expect a map that meets all of the necessities to be able to move forward," Dan Stusek, districting and apportionment commission.

The state has put in a soft deadline for maps to be turned in by mid-September, and the commission will meet again in October to decide which maps will be put out for public comment.
BOZEMAN, Mont. - Montana State University is implementing a "call to action" to encourage students, faculty and staff to wear face coverings while in indoor campus spaces.

MSU President Waded Cruzado sent out a letter Tuesday, stating the decision will be in effect until Oct. 1. The university will then revisit the need and issue new guidance as needed.

We reached out to MSU's Vice President of Communications Tracy Ellig who reiterated that wearing face masks indoors on campus is not a requirement this school year, but a "call to actions for students, faculty and staff to wear masks."

In his letter, President Cruzado wrote he is "communicating that, irrespective of whether you believe (or not) in the effectiveness of face masks... we just need to do this."

Aside from the face mask recommendation, MSU will observe the following guidelines:

If we are in outdoor spaces on campus, wearing face masks is optional.

If social distance can be maintained in rooms with 10 people or fewer, wearing a face mask is recommended, but not needed.

In an instructional setting (classroom, studios, labs), if the instructor can be at least six feet from the class group, the instructor's use of a mask is recommended but not needed.

If we are exercising strenuously in Hosaeus Fitness Center or its associated facilities, wearing a face mask is recommended but not needed.

If there is rampant disregard for the need to wear face masks in indoor spaces or if the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Gallatin County shows a sustained increase, MSU will revert to mandating face masks for every faculty, student and staff member.

Students who are unable to wear face masks while indoors should contact the MSU Office of Disability Services. Likewise, MSU employees who are unable to wear face masks indoors should contact the MSU Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator.

Free COVID-19 testing for students showing symptoms is available at the MSU Student Testing Center in the Bobcat Stadium parking lot.

Students, faculty and staff are also encouraged to get vaccinated. You can do so by setting up an appointment at montana.edu/covidvaccine.

"We are all tired of wearing face masks, but we don't want to risk getting sick and we don't want others to get sick. We have better things to do than monitoring each other's behaviors and judging other people's convictions," President Cruzado wrote.
BELGRADE, Mont. - Eleven Montana World War II Veterans took a flight over Gallatin County Sunday afternoon.

The veterans met at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport and had a chance to fly in a 1942 Stearman biplane for 15-20 minutes.

Before the flights took off, family and close friends of the veterans gathered at Army National Guard to honor their loved ones and share stories.

The flights were able to happen because of Dream Flights, a non-profit organization, dedicated to honoring veterans.

Event organizer, Greg Baker said, "There is a fleet of seven steersman biplanes that go all over the United States and they may not fly 11 believe we are the biggest stop in the whole county but they stop at lots of cities around and they will take up one person two people and just make sure all these veterans are recognized for their service.

The Dream Flights said they plan on flying back to Montana to offer more flights for Korean and Vietnam war veterans.
VATICAN CITY, AUG 18 - Getting the COVID jab is an act of love, Pope Francis said Wednesday urging everyone to colloborate with vaccination campaigns. The Pope joined his voice to those of Bishops across North and South America to urge people to get jabbed against Covid-19, Vatican News reported. In a video message produced in conjunction with the Ad Council, Pope Francis praised the work of researchers and scientists in producing safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines. "Thanks to God's grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from Covid-19," he said in the video released on Wednesday. He added that vaccines "bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another." Pope Francis went on to say that getting a Covid jab that is "authorized by the respective authorities" is an "act of love." Helping other do the same, he said, is also an act of love. "Love for oneself, love for our families and friends, and love for all peoples. Love is also social and political." The Pope noted that social and political love is built up through "small, individual gestures capable of transforming and improving societies." "Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable," he said. Pope Francis then prayed to God that "each one of us can make his or her own small gesture of love." "No matter how small, love is always grand," he said. "Small gestures for a better future." The Pope was joined in the video by several Cardinals and Archbishops from across the Americas. Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archbishop of Los Angeles, lamented the suffering and death the pandemic has wrought across the globe. He prayed that God might "grant us the grace to face it with the strength of faith, ensuring that vaccines are available for all, so that we can all get immunized." Mexican Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes linked Covid-19 jabs to a better future for all. "From North to South America, we support vaccinations for all," said the Cardinal. Honduran Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said the world has much to learn from the coronavirus. "But one thing is certain: the authorized vaccines are effective, and are here to save lives," he said. "They are the key to a path of personal and universal healing." Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes praised the "heroic efforts" of health professionals in developing "safe and effective" jabs. He also repeated the Pope's affirmation that "getting vaccinated is an act of love". Salvadorian Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez said vaccination helps protect the most vulnerable. "Our choice to get vaccinated affects others," he said, adding that it is a moral responsibility. Peruvian Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos rounded out the testimonies contained in the video with an appeal to unity. "We are unitedNorth, Central, and South America and the Caribbeanto promote and support vaccination for all," he said, encouraging everyone to "act responsibly, as members of the great human family, seeking and protecting our integral health and universal vaccination." (ANSA).
ROME, AUG 18 - ITA, the new smaller incarnation of former national flag carrier Alitalia, on Wednesday got its license to fly. Civil aviation authority ENAC granted ITA, which stands for Italia Trasporto Aereo, its certificate as an air operator (COA) and its license to exercise air transport. ITA will be fully operational from October 15, after the positive conclusion of talks with the European Commission, the economy ministry said last month. The first flights of the new slimmed-down airline will leave on that date, it said. Transport Minister Enrico Giovannini said: "with ITA a new important Italian airline is born, with significant growth prospects, and which will be able to compete on the national and international market". ITA will start out with a fleet of 52 aircraft, which will go up to 78 in 2022 with the arrival of new-generation aeroplanes, according to the new company's industrial plan. The fleet will further increase to 105 aircraft by the end of 2025, including 81 new generation aeroplanes (77% of the fleet) to reduce the airline's environmental impact and boost efficiency. This year ITA will have 2,750-2,950 employees handling the aviation activities, a number that will go up to 5,550-5,700 by the end of the plan in 2025. The company will also introduce a new labour contract aimed at giving it greater flexibility and competitiveness. It aims to break even by the third quarter of 2023. Its hubs will be Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate airports. It will start out with 45 destinations and 61 routes and this will go up to 74 destinations and 89 routes in 2025. Its long-haul destinations in the IATA Winter 2021 season will be New York (from Rome and Milano, and Tokyo Haneda, Boston and Miami (from Rome). In the the IATA Summer 2022 season there will be new flights to Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Washington and Los Angeles. The loss-making former flag-carrier has been in extraordinary administration for years and the pandemic made its plight even worse. The European Commission asked Rome to show there would be "discontinuity" to give the green light to the launch of ITA, a new State-controlled company. A European Commission spokesperson said Brussels will "remain in close contact with the Italian authorities to ensure that the launch of ITA as a vital, new market player is in line with the EU laws on State aid. "Italy has reassured the European Commission that, at the end of the Alitalia operations, passengers' rights will be protected," the spokesperson added. Italian trade unions said the new airline was "born weak" and its business plan was "unacceptable". (ANSA).
REGGIO EMILIA, AUG 18 - A 40-year-old Brazilian man wanted for murder in Brazil was arrested in Reggio Emilia on Wednesday. The man had been served an international arrest warrant for allegedly strangling his wife in August 2007 and drowning her in the Igarape River in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande. He allegedly murdered her to get his hands on her life assurance, police said. The man fled to Germany and recently came to Italy for tourist reasons, police said. An extradition request is set to be filed. (ANSA).
ROME, AUG 18 - An Italian air force flight carrying 86 people including Afghan collaborators and their families, EU and NATO staff and some Italians landed at Rome's Fiumicino Airport Wednesday after picking them up from another transport from Kabul in Kuwait, the foreign ministry said. The batch of Afghan former assistants to the Italian mission in Afghanistan arrived in Rome on the second Italian airlift flight for those at risk of Taliban reprisal, after 20 were brought out on Monday. A further 150 are set to depart from Kabul later Wednesday, on board two more flights. "Our commitment," said Defence Minister Lorenzo Guerini, "is to work with the utmost effort to complete the evacuation plan for Afghan collaborators, of activists and others exposed to danger". An Italian air force C130J brought the 85 Afghan ex-mission workers and relatives to Kuwait, where they were transboarded onto a KC767. Another two C130Js will make the same round trip from Kuwait later Wednesday and the 150 or so people will fly on to Rome on another KC767. The Italian air force has deployed seven aircraft for the Aquila Omnia Operation: three KC767s that will shuttle between Kuwait and Rome and four C130Js that will operate the airlift from Kabul to Kuwait. Some 1,500 Italian soldiers are involved in the Afghan collaborator evacuation effort, Colonel Diego Antonio Giarrizzo of the interforce operational command said. "We want to bring them out as soon as possible," he said. "At Kabul airport there are crushes outside the gates guarded by the US, British and Turkish soldiers, but the situation inside is totally safe and secure". (ANSA).
ORISTANO, AUG 18 - A 70-year-old Italian ex army NCO was killed in his home on Sardinia on Wednesday, local sources said. Paolo Fonsatti was killed in the borgata of S'Ungroni ad Arborea, in the province of Oristano. His nephew, who was slightly hurt and taken to hospital, reportedly told police the case was an attempted robbery gone wrong. But police said they would have to fully reconstruct what happened. An autopsy has been ordered. (ANSA).
MILLER COUNTY, Mo.  Suspicions of foul play were confirmed this week, as investigators say the fire at a local biker clubhouse was set on purpose.

A representative with the Missouri State Fire Marshal's office has confirmed to LakeExpo that the cause of the fire at the Lake Ozark Chapter of the Midwest Drifters in Kaiser was "incendiary" in nature. The fire, which broke out on Wednesday, July 21, damaged the clubs headquarters, although no one was injured in the blaze.

State Fire Marshals also confirmed the Miller County Sheriff's office is assisting in the investigation. The Miller County Sheriffs office said they could not share any information about the investigation at this time.

The fire broke out less than a week after a gun battle between rival biker gangs, with the Galloping Goose and Midwest Drifters (two affiliated clubs) on one side, and the Mongols Motorcycle Club on the other. The fight left one man dead and four others hospitalized. Two people have been charged in connection with it.

Related coverage, below:
Sharon Nolan has been involved in Pennsylvania 4-H since she was 8. Now, after 11 years as a 4-H club member plus some 34 years as a dairy club leader, Nolan is helping her grandchildren embrace 4-H.
The IDFA reports that dairy supports over 3 million jobs nationwide and generates over $41 billion in direct wages. Dairys overall impact on the U.S. economy is about $753 billion annually. Where do dairy exports fit into all of this?
The Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating South and Latin America over the past year. The region accounts for 8.4% of the world population, but 18.6% of Covid-19 deaths. The outbreak took place in the context of weak economic performance, high levels of poverty. In addition, informal labour, significant social and economic inequalities, and fragile social protection systems have plagues the region as well. Multiple companies and private entities have invested in South America its rich natural resources.

There are multiple funds that are investing in South America with the aim of not just to achieve high returns but also to achieve societal and environmental goals by investing in businesses that focus on such initiatives. One example is the award-winning investment fund Lightrock that has invested in General Water. A company that uses innovative technologies to extract, treat and recycle wastewater while adhering to the highest environmental standards.

Another example is the efforts of a group of Peruvian businessmen that decided to take it to the next level by setting up a multimillion-dollar investment fund to fight the impact of the worldwide Covid pandemic in the region.

With years of experience, Baste Consulting an international multifamily Office created and managed an official fund to help struggling businesses in South and Latin America. A total of US$328 million dollars was invested.

Close to 70 companies received investments from as low as US$1.5 million to US$20 million depending on each case.

This was no simple task. South and Latin America in general over past years have faced many economic and political challenges. While the governments in the region were extremely swift in facing the challenge of Covid-19 their actions were poorly executed. This left the region in financial ruins. Prior to the pandemic, it was expected that the regions GDP would grow slightly by 1.8% which was much welcomed news. So far, the GDP has shrunk by 8.1%, with no end in sight. The pandemic and its mutations are inflicting considerable pain and damage in the region.

Baste Consulting was able to leverage the investments to acquire company shares or even offer low interested yield loans. These funds have not only strengthened economies that were in dire straits but saved many small and medium sized businesses.

The continuing economic crisis that began in the first quarter of this year was an unprecedented global shock to both aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Countries have imposed stricter social distancing measures to flatten the contagion curve of the pandemic and its mutations. Global production, consumption, and investments which many hoped were coming, have been slowing down again. Southeast Asia was hit first and the hardest until the rest of the world faced the same constraints.

Southeast Asia was the hub to the largest trading partners to the South and Latin America. The trade from Southeast Asia has an estimated increase from US$12 billion in 2000 to US$306 billion in 2018. Approximately three years ago, Asian investment represented about nine percent of Latin American total exports and 18.4% of total imports. All countries are not suffering the same, for example 28.1% of total Brazilian exports, as well as 10.5% of Argentinas and 32.4% of Chiles are concentrated in Southeast Asia.

There are six main trading partners of the region were Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela, whose exports are concentrated in four products: copper, soy, crude oil, and iron ore. These represent about 75% of Latin American total exports.

Foreign direct investment and loans have increased significantly in the past decade, between 2005 and 2017, more than US$90 billion dollars were in tranche payments to region. Those have virtually stopped or have slowed down significantly. However, Baste Consultings new fund is helping to pick up some of the slack.

Leonardo Duran Ferrer, Managing Partner at Baste Consulting, has stated that despite the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy, we believe that now is the time to invest in businesses that have managed to withstand the unprecedented obstacles of the past year.

Ferrer also stated that he believes that with careful management Baste Consulting will be the to go group in South and Latin America. Ferrer predicts that the pandemic will end, and the region will look to those that stepped up in the business world
Actor Johnny Depp scored a big win against Amber heard on Tuesday, Aug. 17, as the Virginia judge ruled out not to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against the Aquaman actress.

The decision was made by Fairfax County Chief Judge Penney Azcarte, making Johnny Depp's Case proceed to trial by next year.

"Mr. Depp is most gratified by the Court's decision," Benjamin Chew from Brown Rudnick in Washington D.C. said. Chew is Depp's lawyer.

READ NEXT: Bella Poarch's Rise to Stardom: 5 Fun Facts About the TikTok Superstar

Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard: Defamation Case Continues

The decision of Judge Azacarte stemmed out when Depp's ex-wife, Amber Heard tried the said lawsuit in Virginia to be thrown out, referencing a ruling in London judge in the previous year. The Aquaman actress argued that the court in Virginia should recognize the judgment made in the United Kingdom.

In previous reports, Depp filed a lawsuit against the publisher, The Sun (in the United Kingdom), for an article in 2018, labeling him as a "wife-beater." The actor lost the lawsuit as a judge from London determined that "wife beater" was not libelous against the actor, arguing that Heard's claims of domestic abuse "could be proved legal standard."

Despite Heard's bid to urge the Virginia Court to recognize the verdict made in the United Kingdom, Fairfax Judge Azcarte was not convinced, contending that the motion filed by the actress lacks "privity."

Azcarte underscored that the interests of the publisher and Heard were not identical. Furthermore, the judge also highlighted that Heard was not a party in the U.K. case and was not subject to the same "discovery rules."

Moreover, the judge pointed out that Heard could not be named a defendant in the U.K. because his defamatory statement was made following the commencement of the U.K. action.

"If anything, upholding English libel judgments in the United States would create the chilling effect and create a dangerous precedent," Judge Azcarte noted, adding that the Virginia court was unpersuaded by the argument served by the actress.

Johnny Depp's defamation case was scheduled to take place on April 11, 2022, in Fairfax County. USA Today reported that both sides, including Amber heard, would resume discovery proceedings such as taking a deposition.

Johnny Depp Comments on "Hollywood Boycott"

The decision on Johnny Depp's defamation case against Amber Heard, came two days after the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor commented on Hollywood boycotting him following his loss in his U.K. lawsuit.

Johnny Depp shared in an interview on Aug. 14, that he was asked to leave some of the movies he was supposed to work with, such as Fantastic Beasts where Mads Mikkelsen replaced him to play the role of Grindelwald in the franchise. Furthermore, his new film entitled Minamata will not be released in the United States.

Depp shared that his fall from grace was a result of the "absurdity of media mathematics."

"Whatever I've gone through, I've gone through... But ultimately, this particular arena of my life has been so absurd," Johnny Depp said in an interview.

READ NEXT: Erykah Badu Begs Obamas for Forgiveness After Posting Video of 'Maskless' Barack Obama at His 60th Birthday Bash

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Johnny Depp's Friends Reveal How Amber Heard Destroyed Johnny Depp - From Film Streak
U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration are now under scrutiny over his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, prompting U.S. lawmakers to launch an investigation.

The lawmakers on Tuesday promised that they would investigate what went wrong over the decision on Afghanistan, according to a Newsmax report.

Sen. Bob Menendez said that the events in Afghanistan had been a combination of mistakes by Republican and Democratic administrations over the years.

Menendez is the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He also said that what people see right now in Afghanistan results from many years of policy and intelligence failures.

Committee Republicans said they wanted State Secretary Antony Blinken to testify to understand why the State Department "was so ill-prepared."

There is no immediate date for the hearing just yet.

Sen. Mark Warner said that he plans to work with other committees to ask questions on why the U.S. was not better prepared for the collapse of the Afghan government, according to a Reuters report.

Warner chairs the Democratic Intelligence Committee.

READ NEXT: Pres. Joe Biden Does Not Regret Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan, Says Afghans Must Fight Taliban 'For Themselves'

Taliban Taking Charge of Afghanistan

Thousands of Afghans flooded the tarmac of Kabul's airport, with images of people clinging to the U.S. military transport as the Taliban managed to seize Afghanistan's capital.

Kabul's international airport was under foreign forces' protection, which included thousands of U.S. troops to assist in the evacuation.

Biden had defended his decision on Monday to pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying that the U.S. mission was complete. He added that nation-building was never the initial goal.

He said that he has learned that there was never a good time to withdraw the forces and that the incident had unfolded more quickly than they expected, according to The New York Times report.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had fled the country as the militant group seized the country's capital/

A U.S. military official said that the U.S. troops were not involved in Ghani's departure.

The head of the Afghan presidential security guard had greeted a Taliban commander in the presidential palace.

The security head said that he indulged at the request of the senior Afghan government negotiator.

Meanwhile, residents of Kabul had removed advertisements showing women without headscarves, fearing that it might upset the Taliban.

Some police officers were taken by Taliban members, while others tried to get into civilian clothes and flee.

The Taliban said they had entered Kabul to ensure order and public safety while promising to respect women's rights and forgive those who fought them.

The group also said that they would ensure Afghanistan will not become a haven for terrorists, according to an Associated Press News report.

The Taliban's previous rule had restricted mainly women from going outside. In addition, television and music were not allowed.

They had also held public executions during their earlier leadership in the country.

The Taliban had encouraged women to return to work while allowing young girls to return to school.

READ MORE: U.S. Military Launches Airstrikes Against Iran and Syria, Targets Militia Groups Behind Drone Attacks on U.S. Personnel

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Biden Speaks On Afghanistan Crisis As Taliban Regains Control - from NBC News


Texas Governor Gregg Abbot tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, Aug. 17, after shunning the face mask mandates, as well as vaccinations in the lone star state.

His office announced the news about the Texas governor contracting the coronavirus in a statement, emphasizing that the governor was fully vaccinated and was asymptomatic.

The Texas governor, who is now 63 years old, is included in the higher risk category for suffering from a severe case if he contracts the virus.

READ NEXT: Justice Department Urges Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to Walk Back on His New Migrant Order

Texas Governor Becomes COVID-19 Positive

Despite contracting the virus, Abbott's office confirmed that the Texas governor is in good health and does not experience any symptoms, CNBC reported citing the statement.

Furthermore, Abbott's office also highlighted that the Texas governor is in "constant communication" with his agency heads, staff, and government officials so that the local government of the lone star state would continue to run smoothly and efficiently.

Abbott plans to isolate himself in the governor's mansion as he would receive monoclonal antibody treatment. Although the governor tested positive for the disease, his wife, Cecilia Abbott, tested negative for coronavirus.

The detection of the virus on the Texas governor comes a day after he was present at the Republican Club of Heritage Ranch, located in the north of Dallas. Abbott's Twitter account announced the governor's presence on Tuesday, including a short video clip of a bunch of mask-less people.

.@GregAbbott_TX is at the Republican Club at Heritage Ranch meeting tonight! pic.twitter.com/oIuabG72lU  Texans for Abbott (@AbbottCampaign) August 17, 2021

Three hours before his positive result was announced, USA Today reported that Abbott met with musician Jimmy Vaughan. The governor posted a photo of him with the artists on his Twitter. However, the said tweet was not available on his Twitter account.

"I want to express my gratitude for everybody across the country that has been sending in their good wishes," the governor said in a video message posted on his social media account.

As you may have heard, I have Covid.



Right now I have no symptoms such as fever or aches and pains.



Thanks for the well wishes from around the country.



I will remain engaged every day to govern the great state of Texas.



God bless you all, and God bless Texas. pic.twitter.com/kbYPt1FpNj  Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 17, 2021

Texas Governor Shuns Face Mask Mandates

The Texas Governor tested positive following his threats to fine local officials who would enforce face mask mandates.

In late July, it can be recalled that Abbott issued an executive order that would ban government entities such as the county, school district, city, and public health authorities from requiring people to wear face masks.

"They [Texans] have the individual right and responsibility to decide for themselves and their children whether they will wear face masks, open their business, and engage in leisure activities," the Texas governor pointed out, contending that their state "mastered" their safe practices.

Under the executive order, local government entities requiring face mask mandates will be fined for up to $1,000.

Gregg Abbott is not the only governor who threatened their constituents about face mask mandates. It can be recalled that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also threatened the school officials in their state to have their salary withheld when they issue a face mask mandate on their respective school districts. However, most of the school superintendents in Florida clapped back on DeSantis threats, saying that threats on their paychecks would not affect their decision.

READ NEXT: WHO Chief: World's 1st Known COVID Patient May Have Been Infected by a Bat While Working in Wuhan Lab

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Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Tests Positive For COVID - From NBC News
Tijuana cartel boss Eduardo Arellano Felix will be released from prison on Wednesday, August 18, after serving most of his 15-year sentence.

However, according to San Diego Union-Tribune, it is not yet clear where he will be going next. Eduardo Arellano Felix, also known as "The Doctor," has once helped lead the Tijuana cartel with his brothers.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said his government was informed that the Tijuana cartel boss would not be deported to Mexico upon his release.

Ebrard cited a change in Arellano Felix's status and said that the United States is now considering the Mexican drug cartel boss to be a protected witness.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Arellano Felix was detained at a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. The agency confirmed that there was a release date. However, they did not add information about the transfers, release plans, or any immigration detainers due to privacy and security reasons.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not also provide any information on Arellano Felix's immigration status.

Arellano Felix has been nicknamed "The Doctor" because he holds a medical degree. He was the chief financial officer for the Tijuana cartel or Arellano Felix Organization (FAO) that sent tons of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. for nearly two decades.

Arellano Felix was arrested in Tijuana in October 2008 and extradited to San Diego in 2012. He pleaded guilty in 2013, and a San Diego judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison for laundering millions of dollars in illegal drug proceeds.

Under the terms of the plea deal, 15 years was the maximum sentence. Arellano Felix was the last of the brothers to be sentenced. However, a remnant of the drug cartel remains in Tijuana, where a turf battle between the group and rival Sinaloa cartel continues to cause violence and bloodshed.

READ NEXT: Sinaloa Cartel Ally Sentenced to More Than 20 Years in Prison for Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

Tijuana Cartel Historic Rivalry With Sinaloa Cartel

According to an El Pais report, the Sinaloa cartel and the Tijuana cartel had a violent rivalry in the early 1990s, marking Mexico's first major narco war.

When Tijuana cartel boss Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested, his nephews, the Arellano Felix brothers, led the cartel. Sinaloa cartel was then led by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

Local newspapers in Baja California in Mexico had once reported that there were only two types of dead at the time: the Sinaloans and Arellanos.

The battle between the Sinaloa cartel and the Tijuana cartel intensified further after Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and his lieutenant Hector Luis "El Guero" Palma Salazar tried to kill Ramon Eduardo Arellano Felix at a nightclub in Puerto Vallarta. But the botched attempt hit and killed six others instead.

The violence had spilled over into the lives of the cartel families when the Arellano Felix brothers ordered a hitman to seduce El Guero's wife.

The hitman has successfully completed his mission by killing El Guero's wife. He then sent her head to her husband in a refrigerated box.

The Sinaloa lieutenant had also received a videotaped showing the death of his two children, being thrown off in a 150-meter high bridge in Venezuela.

The Arellano Felix Brothers

Aside from Eduardo Arellano Felix, his brother Benjamin is also serving a sentence in a U.S. prison. Their fourth brother, Ramon, died in a shoot-out in Mexico in 2002, BBC News reported.

Their oldest brother, Francisco Rafael, was convicted in 2008 of six years in prison for selling drugs to an undercover agent. However, U.S. authorities had set him free as he had already served time in Mexico.

In 2010, following the arrest and absence of the Arellano Felix brothers, Tijuana had experienced relative peace after a truce has been formed between the Tijuana cartel and the Sinaloa cartel.

Sinaloa had gained the primary control of Tijuana and nearby areas. However, in 2015, there were reports that the Tijuana cartel was trying to control and retake the territory, InSight Crime reported.

The Arellano Felix brothers also have a sister named Enedina, who was reportedly responsible for handling the drug cartel's fiscal operations and money laundering.

READ MORE: El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel Continues to Thrive Despite the Drug Lord's Absence: Report

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Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Mexico - The State and the Drug Cartels - From DW News
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced Tuesday that the state would offer grants to schools that will not implement mask mandates.

The Republican governor from Arizona leveled up the pressure placed on public schools defying an order from the state that prohibits mask mandates.

Ducey's announcement came as the number of public school districts defying the state ban on mask mandates continues to grow, AZ Central reported.

READ NEXT: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Tests Positive for COVID After Shunning Face Mask Mandates in the State

Arizona Governor to Offer Incentives to School, Parents Who Will Reject Mask Mandates

The Arizona governor has created a school grant program amounting to $163 million, and only school districts that "follow all state laws" would be eligible for the grant program. The said budget would be derived from the federal COVID relief funds.

Doug Ducey said that schools with mask mandates or have to close because of COVID-19 outbreaks will not be eligible for the additional $1,800 per student.

The governor's spokesman C.J. Karamargin said that school districts who wish to be eligible for the grants were given 10 days to rescind their mask mandates.

"These grants acknowledge efforts by schools and educators that are following state laws and keeping their classroom doors open for Arizona's students," the Arizona governor said in a statement.

Ducey further noted that safety recommendation among school districts is welcome and encouraged. However, the Arizona governor said that mandates that place "more stress on students and families" are not allowed.

At least 14 Arizona school districts implemented mask mandates since schools opened this year. Although Ducey said that such mask mandates were illegal, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled on Monday that the districts can require wearing masks because the law issued by the governor does not take effect until September 29.

In the wake of Ducey's new grants concerning mask mandates, other Republican legislators lauded the move of the Arizona governor on Tuesday.

Representative Jake Hoffman from Queen Creek described the grants as a "great site in the right direction." Arizona Senate State President Karen Fann noted that she stands "100 percent" with Ducey's decision.

However, not everyone was glad about the decision of the Arizona governor. Arizona Democratic House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding accused Ducey of establishing a "Hunger Games" situation in the state.

"It's disgusting to put a bounty on spreading this illness to kids and punishing schools that try to operate safely," Bolding said in a statement.

Another Grant Program Announced by the Arizona Governor

Doug Ducey has also created a $10 million grant program that would provide funds to families that reject mask mandates.

Under the program, parents would be given $7,000 for each student if their public school required isolating or quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure or if it mandated masks or gave preferential treatment to vaccinated children.

Doug Ducey said the $10 million aid was for the state's low-income families. Families who will be eligible for the aid grant would be the ones who were affected by the COVID restrictions enacted by the schools.

READ MORE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Threatens to Withhold Salaries of School District Officials Over Face Mask Mandate Dispute

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'Long-haulers' in the Chippewa Valley fight to make sense of mysterious symptoms

Miller Cooper

EAU CLAIRE  Tracy Miller initially had a mild case of COVID-19.

Miller, 40, of Chippewa Falls contracted the virus in late November. Her first sign: On Thanksgiving, she couldnt taste her dinner. On Friday she woke up and realized she couldnt smell or taste anything.

Miller tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. For the next several days, her only symptoms were intense fatigue and shortness of breath, she said  she could only stay awake for a couple hours before needing to go back to bed.

After a few days, Miller recovered and went back to work as a private caregiver. But it wasnt until a few months later in February that the long-term, more mysterious symptoms started.

She now uses an inhaler because she still has trouble catching her breath after long walks or other physical activity. Perfume, a hobby Miller deeply enjoys, is out of reach for now, she says  it all just smells of chemicals to her nose.

Foods that she enjoyed before COVID-19 now taste strange and off-putting. The only pop I can drink is root beer, because everything else tastes like gas fumes, Miller said. There are a few things I cant eat anymore, like prime rib. If wet dog had a taste, thats what it would taste like.

Shes also fought more frightening symptoms. In February Miller went to a local emergency department with severe chest pain. An electrocardiogram, stress test and echocardiogram showed no problems, but she still experiences occasional chest pain.

Joint pain, body aches and fatigue also linger, Miller said. I have to take an Ibuprofen almost every day because my joints hurt so much. So far the tests have come back and everythings fine. So its been a rough road ... if everythings coming out fine, why do I feel like this?

Miller is one of Wisconsins many long-haulers  people who were infected with COVID-19 but, even after recovering, are experiencing mysterious, lingering symptoms.

Also called post-COVID syndrome or long COVID, the condition likely affects tens of thousands of Americans.

Early studies have offered different estimates of the percentage of COVID patients who go on to develop long-haul symptoms. A World Health Organization report in March cited early studies that estimated about 10% of people who test positive may have symptoms for three months or longer, and that 30% of COVID patients said they had persistent symptoms after nine months.

Were seeing a number of reports of people having severe fatigue, headaches, vertigo, difficulties with cognition, cardio-respiratory fitness, said Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinics Vaccine Research Group, in a call with reporters earlier this year. I think what were going to find out is that not all, but a large portion (of symptoms) are likely to relate to the significant cellular-level damage that this virus can cause ... were going to need to study those (long-term symptoms) as vigorously as we did the acute symptoms.

Symptoms range from minor to debilitating

Paula Cooper, 45, of Eau Claire tested positive for COVID-19 in November 2020. In the next 24 hours after her test, Cooper lost her sense of taste and smell and developed a fever, chills, body aches, ear pain, fatigue and a sunburned sensation on her skin.

Two weeks later she had largely recovered, but the fatigue continued, along with brain fog and a consistent sensation of pressure in her head.

I would try to push through activities like work or normal household chores and just get worn out, Cooper said. It was like taking two steps forward and one step back.

In April, Cooper and her family noticed that her brain fog was worsening. That month her fatigue seemed to intensify too. Shes had a few episodes of sharp chest pain, which thankfully resolve after about 30 seconds, and shortness of breath.

In May Cooper began experiencing sudden-onset vertigo, the kind that makes the room appear to be spinning and your eyes involuntarily shake, Cooper said. It made driving difficult. That was very debilitating.

Coopers physicians couldnt definitively say her symptoms are due to long-haul COVID, but they cant rule it out, she said. She eventually was accepted into Mayo Clinic Health Systems COVID long-hauler clinic in Rochester, Minn.

The ripple effects of long-haul COVID, for Cooper, arent just physical. Some family and friends didnt initially understand why she couldnt attend some gatherings or events because of her symptoms. Others worry for her.

While struggling with long COVID and feeling back to my normal, I definitely felt depressed, Cooper said. I didnt want to be a burden on anyone.

Miller said the most frustrating part about her post-COVID symptoms is losing her sense of taste and smell.

At one point, a minor air fryer accident in her kitchen caused part of the appliance to melt, but it took her several minutes to notice, she said: There was smoke everywhere, and I couldnt smell it.

Condition is confusing, disheartening for patients

The symptoms of long-haul COVID can be baffling, impacting multiple different organ systems.

All these things just pop up and theres no explanation for it, Miller said. People are probably thinking that its all in your head. No, this is really how I feel.

Mild or moderate COVID-19 lasts about two weeks for most people. Most recover. Others symptoms linger, even when theyre no longer testing positive.

Long-haul COVID doesnt seem to be linked to more serious cases of COVID, or even linked to people who have risk factors like high blood pressure or diabetes, according to Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital. The condition can happen in people who only have mild symptoms to begin with.

A Mayo Clinic Health System study on long-haulers, published in May, found that of 100 people suffering from long-haul COVID, three-quarters hadnt been hospitalized with the virus. The most common symptoms in the study were fatigue (80%), respiratory problems (59%) and neurological problems (59%).

More than one-third of the people in the Mayo Clinic study said they had difficulty performing basic activities of daily living, the researchers wrote. Only one-third of the patients had returned to work. Most were younger than 65.

At its root, long-haul COVID remains a mystery.

Johns Hopkins Hospital says the condition could stem from organ damage, a persistent inflammatory or autoimmune response or another reason.

There are glimmers of hope. Some patients, like Cooper, have found long-hauler clinics at large hospitals, where they can see specialists and experts tasked with making sense of their symptoms  though those clinics arent common or easily accessible for many patients yet.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said its contacting about 30,000 Wisconsin residents who have been tested for COVID-19 about participating in a survey on long-haul COVID. The survey will help inform the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the condition, according to the DHS website. (People with questions about the survey can email DHSCOVIDPublicHealthSurvey@dhs.wisconsin.gov.)

Searching for definitive answers can be frustrating for long-haul patients. But Cooper said her doctors have eked out some information: In her case, theyve ruled out several autoimmune diseases, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

I am hopeful because it seems as I continue to follow up, there are more recommendations and resources on how to manage the long lasting symptoms, Cooper said.

Shes also found solidarity in a Facebook group for Wisconsin COVID long-haulers, of which Miller is also a member: Even being part of the Facebook group is good therapy.

Other long-haulers may soon be able to qualify for disability benefits. President Joe Bidens administration recently announced that some cases of long-haul COVID will qualify as a disability under federal laws, if it substantially limits one or more major life activities, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

For Miller, a lack of research about long-haul COVID means hope is one of the only options.

As far as my taste or smell goes, the doctors say they dont know much  theres research being done and that they cant give you a timeframe, Miller said. Were hoping someday itll come back.
The incredible story of the discovery and return of the first ever plane built in Ireland, to its Portlaoise home, will be told on RTE television this Wednesday night, August 18.

The Portlaoise Plane and also the town's legendary pilot, Colonel James Fitzmaurice will be featured on the Nationwide show on RTE1 at 7pm.

The programme will also feature the conservation of the Col Fitzmaurice Archive, supported by The Heritage Council.

Laois Heritage Officer Catherine Casey is delighted at the publicity for the restoration projects.

"It was a pleasure to host Mary Fanning and her team in Portlaoise last month and thanks so much to everyone who helped on the day. We are delighted that the work of the Col Fitzmaurice Commemoration Committee in restoring and bringing the Portlaoise Plane back to Portlaoise, will feature on Nationwide," she said.

The Portlaoise Plane also known as The Aldritt Monoplane was built in Portlaoise, Laois Ireland in 1907, and was the first aeroplane built and flown in The Republic Of Ireland.

Colonel James Fitzmaurice was an Irish pioneering aviator, who co-piloted the first East to West Atlantic flight on April 12 1928. The Bremen plane departed Baldonnel Aerodrome and landed over 36 hours later on Greenly Island, Canada.

He had grown up in Portlaoise, attending school on the same street where the plane was built. He was inspired by the Portlaoise Plane in choosing his career.

WATCH: Historian Teddy Fennelly gives a lecture on Col James Fitzmaurice as part of Laois Heritage Week.
No progress is said to have been made on when fully vaccinated events can take place in Ireland, following a meeting between industry representatives and the Minister for Arts this Wednesday, August 18.

A meeting was held between Event Industry Alliance (EIA) and the Minister for Arts, Catherine Martin to ask when Ireland's festivals, live music gigs and circuses can resume

It follows their intense campaign and urgent request for engagement with all key stakeholders within the Event Industry.

In a statement released afterwards, they say they are disappointed that An Taoiseach or Tanaiste or Minister for Health did not attend.

"We acknowledged the fact that the Minister Catherine Martin took the time to meet with our industry representatives however we were disappointed that An Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar, or Minister Stephen Donnelly did NOT attend todays meeting. While we also acknowledge that representatives from the ministers departments did attend, this was the first time this has happened.

"The sector requires a whole cross Government approach to ensure that the severity of the situation that the Industry now finds itself in is fully appreciated. In addition, we are very concerned that after 17 months of closure each group had just a two to three minute opportunity to make a contribution towards the proposed reopening roadmap. This does not amount to constructive engagement but we do hope that this is a start.

The Event Industry Alliance reiterated their following key proposals for reopening:

1) A SAFE reopening date from 1st September 2021 for those full vaccinated at full capacity for indoor and outdoor events. These events need to be a viable and Food & Beverages should be allowed as this is a key source of income.

2) Vital industry business and workers supports remain in place and are extended until June 2022.

3) Meaningful engagement with Minister Martin & her department including schedule of weekly review meetings.

4) The sector are prepared to go above and beyond - Enhanced safety measures to include advance lead party registration/entry temperature checks/one way system/Children under 12 allowed with a fully vaccinated adult.

5) Urgent need for a whole of government approach and cross departmental collaboration, as a significant part of our industry still stands on the side lines with little or no engagement and are being bounced from department to department.

"We are deeply disappointed that there still is no confirmed reopening date, despite being mandated to close for 17 months, and ongoing requests for meaningful engagement with all sectors within our industry.

"There is an urgent and obvious requirement for cross department collaboration to ensure a strong aligned reopening. In various departments there is a perceived difference between culture based and other events. The reality is that strictly non cultural events account for 30-40% of the total 3.5bn industry value - however ALL EVENTS WILL be obliged to follow the same over-arching procedures, guidelines and industry restrictions.

"There is also an obvious collaboration with the Department of Health required.

"We again call for an urgent meeting with An Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar, Minister Eamon Ryan, Minister Stephen Donnelly and the Cabinet Sub Committee on COVID to urgently engage with our sector, the EIA say.

The EIA represent:

AIST- Association of Irish Stage Technicians

AOIFE: Association of Irish Festivals and Events

EIAI- Event Industry Association of Ireland.

EII- Event Industry Ireland

EPIC- Event Production Industry C19 working group

IEOA- Irish Exhibition Organisers association

ISG- Irish Showmans Guild (Funfairs &Circuses).

WBA- Wedding Band Association

VOPF- Venue Operators and Promoters forum.
The death has occurred of Michael (Gunner) Connolly

123 Branswood, Athy, Kildare



(Formerly of 181 Ashgrove, Kildangan). Sadly missed by his loving daughter Jordan, partner Lavinia, sister Delia, brother Paul, nephew Eric, all his brothers in the Vikings MC, relatives and his many friends.

Removal by Rigney's Funeral Director's on Thursday morning ( 19th August) to arrive at The Church of Our Lady of Victories, Kildangan for Requiem Mass at 11am , limited to 50 people. The Mass will be livestreamed ,see link https://laoisfuneralslive.com/0VgeIq . A private cremation will take place afterwards in Mount Jerome Crematorium at 3.15pm, link https://vimeo.com/event/153499

The death has occurred of Noel Hanlon

Gurteen, Nurney, Kildare



Noel, peacefully in the loving care of his family. He will be sadly missed by his wife Mary. Much loved father of Sarah, Gemma and Peter. Deeply regretted by son-in-law, John, Grandchildren Fionn and Tadgh, brothers Oliver and Peter, sisters Sheila and Maureen, brothers-in-law Larry, Billy and Martin, sisters-in-law Brigid, Mary and Alice, nieces, nephews, extended family, relatives and friends.

May he Rest in Peace

Due to current government guidelines a private funeral will take place. Removal from his home on Thursday to arrive at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Nurney for 3pm Requiem Mass. Burial afterwards in Nurney Cemetery. Family flowers only. Donations to the Beacon Renal Clinic, Tallagh, if so desired. Those wishing to leave condolences may do so on the link below or in the traditional way.

The death has occurred of Sr. Vera LENNOX

Finglas, Dublin / Kildare



LENNOX, Sr. Vera, Little Sisters of the Assumption, Finglas, Dublin and late of Rathangan and Ellistown Co. Kildare, 16th August 2021, peacefully in Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. Sr. Vera will be sadly missed by her nieces Lily, Freda and Mary, nephews Pat and Michael, grandniece and grandnephews, extended family, friends and by her community of Little Sisters of the Assumption. Sr. Vera is predeceased by her parents Michael and Nan, her sisters Marie Conlon, Srs. Una LSA, Patsy LSA, Ann (Nancy) LSA, Angela (Martha) LSA and by her infant brother Michael.

A private family funeral will take place, in line with Government Guidelines. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, may leave your personal message for Sr.Veras family in the Condolences section below.

Sr. Veras Funeral Mass can be viewed on Friday at 12.30pm on the following link: http://stcanicesfinglas.com/live.html.

May her generous and gentle spirit rest in peace.

The death has occurred of Winifred (Winnie) O'Toole (nee McGowan)

Dara Park, Newbridge, Kildare



Formerly of Falls Road, Belfast. Peacefully, at Naas Hospital, surrounded by her loving family. Wife of the late Jim, mother of the late David, John and Bobby, grandmother of the late Clare and Chelsea and sister of the late Pauline. Sadly missed by her loving daughters Mag, Eileen and Claire, sons Jerry, Bernard, Peter, Thomas, Paul and Seamus, sons in law, daughters in law, grandchildren, great grandchildren, brothers in law, sisters in law, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and friends.

May Winnie Rest In Peace

Due to Government advice and restrictions regarding public gatherings, a private family funeral will take place. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, please feel free to leave a message in the condolence page below. Removal from her family home on Thursday morning to arrive at St. Conleth's Parish Church, Newbridge for Requiem Mass at 11 o'clock. Burial afterwards in St. Conleth's Cemetery, Newbridge. Winnie's Funeral Mass will be live-streamed on the Newbridge Parish website:

https://www.newbridgeparish.ie/parish-church

The O'Toole family would like to give a special word of Thanks to everyone at Bluebird Care, for all there kindness and support.

The death has occurred of Cathie Roden (nee Dolan)

Celbridge, Kildare



RODEN (nee Dolan), Cathie (Celbridge, Co. Kildare and of Glenamaddy, Co. Galway) August 17th, 2021 (peacefully) in the loving care of the staff at Maynooth Community Care Unit. Beloved wife of Johnnie and much loved mother of Jean and Colin. Sadly missed by her loving husband, son, daughter, sister Patsy, brother Michael, grandchildren Jack and Elodie, son-in-law Garrett, daughter-in-law Aoife, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends.

May she rest in peace

A private funeral will take place due to government advice regarding public gatherings. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral; but due to current restrictions cannot, please leave your personal message by selecting Condolences below or alternatively leaving a message at www.cunninghamsfunerals.com. Family flowers only, donations, if desired, to The Irish Cancer Society.

Ar dheis De go raibh a h-anam dilis

The death has occurred of Frances Swan (nee McCarthy)

Riverdale, Leixlip, Kildare / Killarney, Kerry



Formerly of Minish, Killarney. Beloved wife of John and twin sister of the late Michael. Peacefully, in the tender and loving care of the staff of Ryevale Nursing Home, Leixlip, Kildare. Sadly missed and dearly loved by her daughters Esther (Cronin) and Carmel, son in law John, granddaughter Katie, relatives, neighbours and many friends.

May She Rest In Peace

In accordance with Government and HSE guidelines and in the interest of public health, a private funeral will take place for Frances in St. Mary's Cathedral, Killarney. Frances' Requiem Mass will be live streamed on https://www.churchservices.tv/killarneycathedral on Thursday morning at 10.30am, followed by burial afterwards in Aghadoe Cemetery, Killarney. If you wish to offer your condolences online, please click on the link below.

The death has occurred of Stephen Dunne

Coolier, Monasterevin, Kildare



Predeceased by his parents Jim and Mary and his brother Mike. Much loved brother of Tom, Maisie, Joisie (Smith), John and Seamus. Deeply regretted by his sister in law Kathleen, nieces, nephews, extended family, relatives and friends.

May He Rest in Peace

Removal from his home on Thursday, via Lackagh, to arrive at SS Peter and Paul's Church, Monasterevin, for 11am Requiem Mass which will be held in accordance with current Government guidelines. Requiem Mass may be viewed on https://www.monasterevinparish.ie/, press web cam. Interment afterwards in St. Evin's Cemetery. Those wishing to leave condolences may do so on the link below or in the traditional manner.

The death has occurred of Michael Ryan

Connagh Road, Collaghknock Glebe, Kildare Town, Kildare



Son of the late Peter and Margaret. Sadly missed by his loving brothers Peter, Eddie and Christy, sisters Mary and Bridget, brothers in law, sisters in law, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and friends.

May Michael Rest In Peace

Due to current government guidelines regarding public gatherings, a private family funeral will take place with a maximum of 50 people to attend the church. Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, please feel free to leave a message in the condolence page below.

Removal from McWeys Funeral Home, Abbeyview, Kildare Town on Wednesday morning to arrive at St. Brigid's Parish Church, Kildare Town, for Requiem Mass at 11am. Mass will be live streamed on mcnmedia.tv. Burial afterwards in St. Conleth's Cemetery, Kildare Town.
Residents in Two Mile House and nearby areas are to oppose an appeal against a decision not to allow 76 battery storage units at Dunnstown, off the Naas to Kilcullen Road.

Strategic Power Projects Ltd is appealing to An Bord Pleanala after Kildare County Council rejected the application, stating that it would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.



KCC said the facility, which residents claim is the largest of its kind in Ireland, is reliant on the availability of additional supporting infrastructure to transport the stored energy from the site.

KCC pointed out that a proposed electricity substation has not yet been approved and to allow the storage unit would be contrary to the proper planning and development of the area.



KCC also expressed concerns about fire safety aspects including sufficient access routes to enable fire fighting, inadequate separation distances between the storage units and a lack of water supply provision.

According to KCC the development could lead to serious danger to the environment and would seriously injure the residential amenities of property in the vicinity.

A third reason provided for refusing the application was insufficient detail about wastewater provision on the site.

Prior to the decision, SPP representative Paul Carson said the company has many years of experience analysing renewable energy and he said there are no safety issues associated with the project.



Ive been involved in renewable energy since 2010; we have a lot of experience and we approach these developments from a detailed and technical point of view. This will not have the impact that is suggested. We are categorically certain it will not have any impact, said Mr Carson.

He said similar plants have been constructed elsewhere without problem.

He also said that the only way that Ireland can meet climate targets in the future will be if it embraces renewable energy, be it wind or solar power.

Mr Carson also said that the only way that future electricity supply can be guaranteed is through developments like whats planned near Two Mile House. The facility, if it goes ahead, would encompass 10 acres of land in Dunnstown, at a site opposite the Dunshane Camphill Community residential home, say residents.

Residents also say they fear fires citing examples of similar incidents in China, the US and Australia.

The case is due to be decided by November 16.
The Leitrim Design House are delighted to host a new exhibition on ARTWALL by local artist Kara Doherty titled Connected.



Kara worked abroad for many years but returned home setting up her studio in the beautiful village of Cootehall.

Kara has devoted herself seriously to painting since 2016 and is constantly inspired by her surrounding landscape and the spaces we inhabit. She loves to observe the movement and textures in the sea, rivers, lakes, fields and mountains which become the focus of her paintings. Working in both acrylics and oils, with a multitude of palette knives and brushes she explores her personal response to the ever changing elements of nature.



Karas atmospheric seascapes are at times described as foreboding, warning of the continuous threat to our beautiful but fragile world. The ever changing drama of the skies, she sees as the canopy of our world fuels Karas passion for painting.

This series of seascapes and landscapes is on view from August 18th and runs until the end of September in The Leitrim Design House, Carrick-on-Shannon.



Karas paintings have been in great demand recently so a lot of interest is expected in this local artist.

You can put a deposit on all of the Irish made gifts, allowing you to pay over a number of weeks. Adding or starting your own art collection has never been more affordable!



Meet the Maker

Following on from a successful event with Bairbre Kennedy from Lichen Ceramics demonstration on August 14, Meet the Maker is back on Saturday, August 21 from 2  4pm. Please drop by, say hello and share your support to one of our best loved local wood turners Artwood on The Dock plaza.



These talented makers are the creators behind the very popular suncatchers capturing uplifting Irish light and spreading it throughout your home. Artwoods handcrafted local gifts are cherished and sent round the world in their compact gift boxes.

Enjoy many of our curated collections 24/7 on www.leitrimdesignhouse.ie

Place your order online or receive gift guidance by calling 071 96 50550 and they deliver your Irish made purchase to your door. Or call into the beautiful Leitrim Design House shop in The Dock. Follow on Facebook.com/TheLeitrim

DesignHouse/
WHILE the Limerick hurlers are preparing to battle Cork at Croke Park at the weekend, some of their supporters are ready for battle with rebels of a different kind.

Limerick soldiers who are currently serving overseas will be among the thousands of people across the world who will be cheering on the Treaty County from 3.30pm on Sunday. (Irish time)

Among them will be members of the Defence Forces who are currently deployed in Syria  for a six-month tour of duty  as part of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force.

The 63rd Infantry Group deployed to the Golan Heights, in Southwestern Syria in early April to take up the role of the Force Reserve Company in the UN-backed mission.

A number of those serving in the mission are from Limerick city and county and they have been proudly wearing their jerseys and flying the Treaty County flag since the hurlers semi-final victory over Waterford.

When not supporting their county, the soldiers main task is to operate the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) throughout the mission area and they are ready to rapidly deploy at the Force Commanders command.

The Group has a wide range of capabilities, including armoured force protection, patrolling and mobility, communications, engineer search and clearance, Explosive Ordinance Disposal, medical and operational expertise.

Since their deployment more than four months ago they have completed multiple operations by day and night.

Their tasks included armed patrols throughout the mission area, armed escorts of United Nations personnel and search and clearance operations of United Nations positions destroyed during the ongoing civil war.

The soldiers, including those from Limerick have been deployed in Syria for more than four months and are due to return to Ireland in October.
AN Bord Pleanala has granted planning permission for a major housing development on the outskirts of Limerick city.

The proposed development of 137 units at Walker's Lane, Annacotty was previously refused and the renewed application attracted a number of objections from local residents.

However, Regal Park Developments Limited has now been given the green light for the multi-million euro development subject to 29 conditions.

The development will see the constriction of 61 apartments, 51 duplexes and 25 houses at a site which is bordered by the Dublin Road and College Road.

Construction will take place in three separate phases and the development will also include the provision of communal and public open space including a playground facility. While not mandatory, a creche will be included if deemed necessary.

The developers had previously been refused permission for the project, with local residents expressing concern in relation to the size and scale of the development, and the impact it would have on local traffic.

In her report, planning inspector Lorraine Dockery acknowledges the development will introduce "new heights, built form and

streetscape into the area" but that she does not consider this to be a negative.

"While I acknowledge that there is an increase in intensity of development, over and above that previously permitted in the immediate area, I am of the opinion that the site has the capacity to generally absorb the level of development proposed."

Ms Dockery notes the proximity of the site to the Dublin Road and the ease of access to two local bus stops and other amenities such as schools and shopping centres.

Addressing concerns about the potential impact of the development on existing homes, the inspector said she does not believe it will be overbearing.

"I acknowledge that, without doubt, there will be a change in outlook as the site moves from its current greenfield nature to that accommodating a higher density development, such as that proposed. This is not necessarily a negative. I am cognisant of the relationship of the proposed development to neighbouring dwellings. In my opinion, a sufficient distance is being maintained from existing properties to ensure that any impacts are in line with what might be expected in an area such as this," she states.

A total of 183 parking spaces are to be provided (61 underground) and at least 10% must include charge points for electric vehicles. 120 bicycle spaces are also included in the plans.

Agreeing with the recommendation of its inspector, An Bord Pleanala directed that revised details should be provided and agreed with regard to bicycle and pedestrian connectivity to the Dublin road from the development before construction begins.

One of the conditions attached to the permission requires that the boundary walls at the rear of the properties are concrete and that privacy screens are installed between the apartment balconies.

A suitably-qualified ecologist must be retained by the developer and a 'bat conservation plan' must be submitted before construction begins.

According to the planning documents, the developer has agreed to hand over 14 of the new units to Limerick City and County Council once they are complete.
As BuzzFeed Inc. was exploring plans to go public earlier this year, it ran into a problem: Executives at the digital-media outlets biggest investor, NBCUniversal, thought they were getting a bad deal.

At issue was BuzzFeeds plan to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Executives at NBCUniversal were frustrated that the deal valued BuzzFeed at $1.5 billion, below the level where it had invested years earlier, people familiar with the situation said. The unit of Comcast Corp. was facing a substantial loss on the deal, while earlier investors would come out ahead.

NBCUniversal ultimately approved the deal after reaching an agreement in April with BuzzFeed Chief Executive Jonah Peretti that guaranteed it concessions while still leaving it facing a loss of roughly $100 million, the people said.

Tensions erupted during a BuzzFeed board call in the closing stages when Patrick Kerins, from early investor New Enterprise Associates and a proponent of the deal, launched into a tirade at NBCUniversal, criticizing its posture in the negotiations and the concessions it had won, people familiar with the deliberations said. He raised his voice as NBCUniversal executive Maggie McLean Suniewick listened in, they said.

Mr. Kerins declined to comment. NBCUniversal said in a statement it supports the deal. Im confident our investors, partners and shareholders will be pleased with the results," Mr. Peretti said in a statement on the deal.

SPACs are shell companies that raise money and trade on a stock exchange with the sole purpose of merging with a private firm to take it public. Combining with a SPAC is typically a faster way to the public market than a traditional initial public offering. Such deals have exploded in popularity this past year, but can come with significant trade-offs for the stakeholders involved.

The complexity of BuzzFeeds SPAC deal and the concessions it gave NBCUniversal show some of the challenges facing companies that choose to go public this way. Shares of many companies that merged with SPACs have fallen in recent weeks, fueling investor caution.

Sentiment has gone from red hot to ice cold," said Julian Klymochko, who manages a SPAC-focused fund at Accelerate Financial Technologies. There are a lot of deals out there that wont be successful."

To secure the SPAC deal, Mr. Peretti signed off on terms that could put more pressure on BuzzFeed if the shares dont rise once the merger is completed. He offered some of his own stake to NBCUniversal if the stock doesnt hit a certain level, according to regulatory filings and people familiar with the deal. BuzzFeed also agreed to convertible-debt financing that comes with a 7% interest rate if the stock doesnt reach a certain level. In most other SPAC deals, companies raise money by selling equity.

The 7% rate is similar to rates paid by some other companies going public through SPACs but above the average levels for riskier corporate debt and convertible bond sales this year, figures from FactSet and Dealogic show.

As with many SPAC mergers, BuzzFeed didnt place restrictions on investors withdrawing their money before the deal is done, which means it doesnt have full visibility into how much cash it will have on its balance sheet after the merger.

Mr. Peretti said in a statement that BuzzFeed reached major milestones during a difficult period including deals to acquire digital publishers HuffPost and Complex Networks.

The facts are that in the middle of a pandemic, BuzzFeed adapted to the market to become a profitable company, acquired HuffPost, signed a deal to go public and acquire Complex, and expects a year of significant growth," he said.

Investor Adam Rothstein, the SPACs executive chairman, said in a statement that BuzzFeed will have a healthy balance sheet in any withdrawal scenario.

A person familiar with BuzzFeeds decisions said the company raised convertible debt rather than equity so it could offer potential investors larger percentages of the company.

Mr. Perettis gambit could pay off if BuzzFeed delivers strong performance and its stock rises. A rebound in the digital advertising market this year could buoy its financials for the second quarter, as marketers who suppressed spending during the initial stages of the pandemic opened their wallets. The company ended the first quarter of the year with more than $150 million on its balance sheet.

BuzzFeed was among a crop of high-profile digital publishing startups that expanded quickly over the past decade. Its keen grasp of internet culture, notably with lists, quizzes, news coverage and partnerships with brands to produce sponsored content, propelled a 50% growth rate that made it a magnet for investors.

The industry matured, competition in the advertising market stiffened as Alphabet Inc.s Google and Facebook Inc. asserted their dominance, and costs, especially in BuzzFeeds news operation, concerned investors, people close to the company have said.

In the past few years, as BuzzFeeds growth slowed, the company began to focus on financial discipline and diversifying into such areas as licensing and e-commerce. BuzzFeeds revenue last year, amid the pandemic, was $321 million, up 1% over the prior year, filings show. Cost cutting and increased e-commerce revenue helped the company swing to a profit of about $11 million from a loss of $37 million the year earlier.

Viewing greater scale as the answer to competitive threats in digital media, BuzzFeed last year set out to make strategic movesmergers, an IPO or both. Some shareholders were eager to cash out, people familiar with their thinking said, even if dreams of a massive return had dimmed.

Near the end of last year, BuzzFeed began reaching out to SPACs, hoping to strike a deal to take the company public, according to a person familiar with its pitch to investors.

By February, 890 5th Avenue Partnersa SPAC named for the headquarters of Marvels Avengers superheroeshad reached out to BuzzFeed, and the firms were in discussions, filings show. The deal would help finance the acquisition of youth-media company Complex Networks, adding another company to a portfolio that already included digital publisher HuffPost.

By the middle of May, BuzzFeed and 890 had hammered out the contours of a deal. The combined company, boosted by its acquisitions, expects to generate $654 million in revenue by 2022, with $117 million in adjusted profits, and would increase sales by about 26% annually and reach $1 billion by 2024, according to an investor presentation.

Mr. Peretti, a pivotal figure in orchestrating the deal, wanted to secure control, according to people who were involved, and was successful. He will have about 65% of the voting power after the merger, filings show.

NBCUniversal invested $400 million in BuzzFeed in 2015 and 2016, valuing it at $1.7 billion in the latter round, including cash, The Wall Street Journal reported. The value of its BuzzFeed holding stood to shrink in the SPAC deal, which valued the company at $1.5 billion, after its various acquisitions.

To win over NBCUniversal, Mr. Peretti agreed to set aside 1.2 million shares of BuzzFeed stock, some of which would be granted to NBCUniversal if the shares stay below $12.50, according to people familiar with the matter and regulatory filings. Shares of the SPAC have been trading at about $9.90 since the BuzzFeed deal was announced in June.

BuzzFeed also agreed to let NBCUniversal convert its ownership in BuzzFeed to stock in the public company at a premium, the people said, effectively granting NBCUniversal shares worth an extra $29.8 million. Still, NBCUniversal could stand to lose roughly $75 million to $100 million on the transaction, depending on the companys stock price, filings show.

Because shares of the SPAC taking BuzzFeed public have been trading below their listing price, many investors who put money into the SPAC could pull out their money to eliminate a possible loss on the trade, analysts say.

If they did so, BuzzFeed would have less cash to invest in its business.

Either way, the SPACs creators stand to make tens of millions of dollars on paper through incentives, a standard feature of these mergers. The SPAC teams shares and other investments are worth about $78 million on paper at todays prices and cost roughly $8 million, according to New York University Law School professor Michael Ohlrogge, who studies SPACs.

Mr. Rothstein said in a statement that the investments would go to SPAC advisers, board members and operators, adding that they were all motivated to make the company a success.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text

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TAIPEI : Chinese state media has mocked the U.S.s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as the latest sign of Americas declining global prestige, but China is approaching its own plans for engaging with the country under Taliban rule with caution.

On Tuesday, Chinas Foreign Ministry cited portrayals in U.S. media of a new Saigon moment." Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency the day before tweeted side-by-side photos of helicopters evacuating U.S. government employees from Saigon and Kabul with the words history repeats itself."

Still, after largely being a bystander during two decades of heavy U.S. presence in its Western neighbor, Chinas leadership appears to be wary of stepping into a volatile political situation where it has little experience, experts say.

Beijings biggest concern is potential ripple effects of Taliban rule, with its history of Islamic extremism, in China, where authorities have used tight border controls and draconian measures to control the minority Muslim Uyghur population in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

China would really prefer not to be dealing with any of this," said Andrew Small, a senior fellow specializing in Chinese foreign policy at the German Marshall Fund, a Washington-based think tank. As it watches the uncertainty clouding Afghanistans future, Beijing is wary of being sucked in," Mr. Small said.

Even so, China has spent much of the past few weeks engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity, sending representatives to meet with the U.S., Russia, Pakistan and other countries in Qatar, and hosting Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar for high-level talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the eastern Chinese city of Tianjin.

On Monday, China sent its newly-appointed special envoy for Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyong, to Tehran for meetings with outgoing Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, while Mr. Wang spoke by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and separately with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The meetings, say experts, dont appear to show Beijing taking on a leading role in managing the crisis in Afghanistan, though Beijing appears to be laying the groundwork for an approach that will depart from Washingtons.

Beijing sees potential benefits to aligning itself with the Taliban and could formally acknowledge a Taliban-led government, which would ultimately put itself in a position to benefit from an eventual reconstruction of Afghanistan or opportunities to have more influence in the region.

It seems theyre trying to distance themselves from the American initiative," said Barnett R. Rubin, a former State Department official and Afghanistan scholar at New York University. Beijing will prefer to coordinate its relations with other countries in the region rather than follow the U.S.s bilateral approach, he said.

Cooperation between China and the U.S. on Afghanistan issues isnt impossible. The Biden administration has repeatedly pointed to Afghanistan as one of a few issues, along with climate change, on which the two countries have shared interests and can potentially collaborate.

Still, the State Departments description of Messrs. Blinken and Wangs Monday phone call was terse, while Chinas more detailed version offered few signals of cooperation, instead focusing on Washingtons missteps in Afghanistan and urging the U.S. to ensure what it called a soft landing" in the country that would prevent a new civil war or humanitarian disaster.

Unlike the U.S., which has a range of concerns, including the Talibans treatment of women and Afghans aligned with the former government, as well as the groups potential support for al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, Beijing has signaled a narrow focus on its own security interests.

Chinese authorities are concerned about the Talibans historic ties to Uyghur militants, particularly the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a largely defunct Uyghur separatist group that Beijing partly blames for ethnic tensions in Xinjiang.

Geng Shuang, Chinas envoy to the United Nations, said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday that ensuring Afghanistan doesnt become a haven for terrorists was the overriding priority for China, and urged the Taliban to deliver on pledges that it has made to Beijing to prevent international terrorists from basing themselves in Afghanistan.

Though there is scant evidence of Uyghurs training abroad and returning to China to stage terrorist attacks, Chinese authorities have raised the existence of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement to justify its suppression of ethnic Uyghurs. In recent years, the government set up internment camps in Xinjiang to detain more than one million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

The U.S. in 2002 listed East Turkestan Islamic Movement on a list that prohibited members of groups from entering or remaining in the U.S., and the following year Pakistan said it killed the groups leader in a drone attack. Last year, Washington delisted the group, arguing there was no credible evidence of its existence for more than a decadea move that Beijing protested.

When it comes to potential collaboration with the U.S., Beijing will want to know whether Washington is a reliable counterterrorism partner, including what its stance is on East Turkestan Islamic Movement, said NYUs Mr. Rubin. But with the U.S. withdrawing from Afghanistan, China could naturally be working more closely with regional players to secure common security interests.

They will want to coordinate their policies. China, Russia and Iran and to some extent Pakistan probably feel like they can magnify their effect together better," Mr. Rubin said.

Unlike the U.S. and other Western embassies that have rushed to evacuate personnel, the four countries have kept their embassies open, signaling an intent to keep the lines of communication open with the Taliban. On Sunday, the Chinese Embassy in Kabul said it had asked various factions in Afghanistan to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens.

In the days since the Taliban captured Kabul on Sunday, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has referred to the situation in dispassionate terms, describing the Afghan governments collapse as a major change" for the country and citing the Talibans pledges to set up an open and inclusive" Islamic government.

On Tuesday, Chinas Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. role in Afghanistan as destructive and noted that President Biden recently argued that the U.S. mission in the country wasnt nation building. Still, Ms. Hua gave no hint that Beijing was eager to step into such a role.

Chinas Communist Party-controlled tabloid Global Times on Monday rejected speculation that China sought to fill the power vacuum by sending in its own troops. The most China can do is to evacuate Chinese nationals if a massive humanitarian crisis occurs, or to contribute to postwar reconstruction and development," it said.

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An artist's impression of the supersolid, which is like a solid and a liquid at the same time.

Physicists have created the first ever two-dimensional supersolid  a bizarre phase of matter that behaves like both a solid and a frictionless liquid at the same time.

Supersolids are materials whose atoms are arranged into a regular, repeating, crystal structure, yet are also able to flow forever without ever losing any kinetic energy. Despite their freakish properties, which appear to violate many of the known laws of physics, physicists have long predicted them theoretically  they first appeared as a suggestion in the work of the physicist Eugene Gross as early as 1957.

Now, using lasers and super-chilled gases, physicists have finally coaxed a supersolid into a 2D structure, an advancement that could enable scientists to crack the deeper physics behind the mysterious properties of the weird matter phase.

Related: 12 stunning quantum physics experiments

Of particular interest to the researchers is how their 2D supersolids will behave when they're spun in a circle, alongside as the tiny little whirlpools, or vortices, that will pop up inside them.

"We expect that there will be much to learn from studying rotational oscillations, for example, as well as vortices that can exist within a 2D system much more readily than in 1D," lead author Matthew Norcia, a physicist at Innsbruck University's Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Austria, told Live Science in an email.

To create their supersolid, the team suspended a cloud of dysprosium -164 atoms inside optical tweezers before cooling the atoms down to just above zero Kelvin (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius) using a technique called laser-cooling.

Firing a laser at a gas typically heats it up, but if the photons (light particles) in the laser beam are traveling in the opposite direction of the moving gas particles, they can actually cause slow and cool the gas particles. After cooling the dysprosium atoms as far as they could with the laser, the researchers loosened the "grip" of their optical tweezers, creating just enough space for the most energetic atoms to escape.

Since "warmer" particles jiggle faster than cooler ones, this technique, called evaporative cooling, left the researchers with just their super-cooled atoms; and these atoms had been transformed into a new phase of matter  a Bose-Einstein condensate : a collection of atoms that have been super-cooled to within a hair's breadth of absolute zero .

When a gas is cooled to near zero temperature, all its atoms lose their energy, entering into the same energy states. As we can only distinguish between the otherwise identical atoms in a gas cloud by looking at their energy levels, this equalizing has a profound effect: The once disparate cloud of vibrating, jiggling, colliding atoms that make up a warmer gas then become, from a quantum mechanical point of view, perfectly identical.

This opens the door to some truly weird quantum effects . One key rule of quantum behavior, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, says you cannot know both a particle's position and its momentum with absolute accuracy. Yet, now that the Bose-Einstein condensate atoms are no longer moving, all of their momentum is known. This leads to the atoms' positions becoming so uncertain that the places they could possibly occupy grow to be larger in area than the spaces between the atoms themselves.

Instead of discrete atoms, then, the overlapping atoms in the fuzzy Bose-Einstein condensate ball act as if they are just one giant particle. This gives some Bose-Einstein condensates the property of superfluidity  allowing their particles to flow without any friction. In fact, if you were to stir a mug of a superfluid Bose-Einstein condensate, it would never stop swirling.

The researchers used dysprosium-164 (an isotope of dysprosium) because it (alongside its neighbor on the periodic table Holmium) is the most magnetic of any discovered element. This means that when the dysprosium-164 atoms were supercooled, in addition to becoming a superfluid, they also clumped together into droplets, sticking to each other like little bar magnets.

By "carefully tuning the balance between long-range magnetic interactions and short-range contact interactions between atoms," Norcia said, the team was able to make a long, one dimensional tube of droplets that also contained free-flowing atoms  a 1D supersolid. That was their previous work.

To make the leap from a 1D to a 2D supersolid, the team used a larger trap and dropped the intensity of their optical tweezer beams across two directions. This, alongside keeping enough atoms in the trap to maintain a high enough density, finally allowed them to create a zig-zag structure of droplets, similar to two offset 1D tubes sitting next to each other, a 2D supersolid.

With the task of its creation behind them, the physicists now want to use their 2D supersolid to study all of the properties that emerge from having this extra dimension. For instance, they plan to study vortices that emerge and are trapped between the droplets of the array, especially as these eddies of swirling atoms, at least in theory, can spiral forever.

This also brings researchers one step closer to the bulk, 3D, supersolids envisioned by early proposals like Gross', and the even more alien properties they may have.

The researchers published their findings Aug. 18 in the journal Nature.

Originally published on Live Science.
Yunhai 1-02's wounds are not self-inflicted.

In March, the U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Control Squadron (18SPCS) reported the breakup of Yunhai 1-02 , a Chinese military satellite that launched in September 2019. It was unclear at the time whether the spacecraft had suffered some sort of failure  an explosion in its propulsion system, perhaps  or if it had collided with something in orbit.

We now know that the latter explanation is correct, thanks to some sleuthing by astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who's based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Related: The worst space debris events of all time

On Saturday (Aug. 14), McDowell spotted an update in the Space-Track.org catalog, which the 18SPCS makes available to registered users. The update included "a note for object 48078, 1996-051Q: 'Collided with satellite.' This is a new kind of comment entry  haven't seen such a comment for any other satellites before," McDowell tweeted on Saturday .

He dove into the tracking data to learn more. McDowell found that Object 48078 is a small piece of space junk  likely a piece of debris between 4 inches and 20 inches wide (10 to 50 centimeters)  from the Zenit-2 rocket that launched Russia's Tselina-2 spy satellite in September 1996. Eight pieces of debris originating from that rocket have been tracked over the years, he said, but Object 48078 has just a single set of orbital data, which was collected in March of this year.

"I conclude that they probably only spotted it in the data after it collided with something, and that's why there's only one set of orbital data. So the collision probably happened shortly after the epoch of the orbit. What did it hit?" McDowell wrote in another Saturday tweet .

Yunhai 1-02, which broke up on March 18, was "the obvious candidate," he added  and the data showed that it was indeed the victim. Yunhai 1-02 and Object 48078 passed within 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) of each other  within the margin of error of the tracking system  at 3:41 a.m. EDT (0741 GMT) on March 18, "exactly when 18SPCS reports Yunhai broke up," McDowell wrote in another tweet .

Thirty-seven debris objects spawned by the smashup have been detected to date, and there are likely others that remain untracked, he added .

Despite the damage, Yunhai 1-02 apparently survived the violent encounter, which occurred at an altitude of 485 miles (780 kilometers). Amateur radio trackers have continued to detect signals from the satellite, McDowell said, though it's unclear if Yunhai 1-02 can still do the job it was built to perform (whatever that may be).

Space Junk Clean Up: 7 Wild Ways to Destroy Orbital Debris

McDowell described the incident as the first major confirmed orbital collision since February 2009, when the defunct Russian military spacecraft Kosmos-2251 slammed into Iridium 33, an operational communications satellite. That smashup generated a whopping 1,800 pieces of trackable debris by the following October.

However, we may be entering an era of increasingly frequent space collisions  especially smashups like the Yunhai incident, in which a relatively small piece of debris wounds but doesn't kill a satellite. Humanity keeps launching more and more spacecraft, after all, at an ever-increasing pace.

"Collisions are proportional to the square of the number of things in orbit," McDowell told Space.com. "That is to say, if you have 10 times as many satellites, you're going to get 100 times as many collisions. So, as the traffic density goes up, collisions are going to go from being a minor constituent of the space junk problem to being the major constituent. That's just math."

We may reach that point in just a few years, he added.

The nightmare scenario that satellite operators and exploration advocates want to avoid is the Kessler syndrome  a cascading series of collisions that could clutter Earth orbit with so much debris that our use of, and travel through, the final frontier is significantly hampered.

Our current space junk problem is not that severe, but the Yunhai event could be a warning sign of sorts. It's possible, McDowell said, that Object 48078 was knocked off the Zenit-2 rocket by a collision, so the March smashup may be part of a cascade.

"That's all very worrying and is an additional reason why you want to remove these big objects from orbit," McDowell told Space.com. "They can generate this other debris that's smaller."

Small debris is tough to track, and there's already a lot of it up there. About 900,000 objects between 0.4 inches and 4 inches wide (1 to 10 cm) are whizzing around our planet, the European Space Agency estimates . And Earth orbit hosts 128 million pieces of junk 0.04 inches to 0.4 inches (1 mm to 1 cm) in diameter, according to ESA.

Orbiting objects move so fast  about 17,150 mph (27,600 kph) at the altitude of the International Space Station , for example  that even tiny shards of debris can do serious damage to a satellite.
Denham Springs, LA (70726)

Today

A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Some clouds. Low 73F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Some clouds. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.
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Donald Trump is making his views known on President Joe Bidens withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In an interview with Sean Hannity on his Fox News show Tuesday night, the former president called Bidens handling of the situation the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country.

Just two weeks before the U.S. was planning to complete its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban took over the Western-backed government and have seized power in the country. The fall of the country prompted Afghans to rush to the Kabul airport in hopes of fleeing. During his interview, Trump blamed Biden for not getting American soldiers and civilians out of the country in time.

Biden put us in this position. He should have gotten the civilians out first, Trump said. Then he should have taken the military equipment, because we have billions of dollars a brand-new beautiful equipment. Take the equipment out, and then take the soldiers out.

Biden and Trump have been playing the blame game over the situation in Afghanistan. Though the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country happened under Bidens administration, Trump approved a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 to pull out U.S. troops within 14 months. Biden largely upheld Trumps agreement, although the timeline was delayed. The president said on Monday that he had inherited the deal from Trump and that no protections were put in place after May 1, but ultimately stood by the decision.

Trump also said he hadnt before realized how important a president is when speaking about Bidens handling of the situation.

We need a president thats respected, Trump said. I have never realized how important, frankly  and it is a horrible thing to say  how important a president, the head of it this country is. I thought it would maybe run through bureaucracy, it doesnt. You need somebody up there that they are going to respect.

Trump once again stated that he believes the 2020 election was rigged and contended that undocumented immigrants are spreading COVID-19 in the U.S. Though he said he would love people to take the vaccine, he was less enthusiastic about masks.

In the meantime, wear your mask if you want  but again, you want your freedoms, you have to have your freedoms, Trump said.

Though Trump would not confirm if he plans to run for president in 2024 because the campaign finance laws are extremely complicated and unbelievably stupid, he told Hannity: I think you will be happy and a lot of our friends will be happy.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Country star Garth Brooks is canceling his remaining stadium tour dates in five cities due to rising COVID-19 cases.

Brooks had said weeks ago that he would be reassessing the tour in light of the surge in cases. Tickets will be refunded for shows scheduled in Cincinnati; Charlotte, North Carolina; Baltimore; Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Nashville, Tennessee. He had also planned to play in Seattle but declined to put tickets on sale.

In July, I sincerely thought the pandemic was falling behind us," Brooks said in a statement on Wednesday. Now, watching this new wave, I realize we are still in the fight and I must do my part.

Brooks, one of the biggest selling entertainers in music, restarted touring in July and regularly performs in front of 60,000-70,000 people per stadium. Many of his shows sell out well in advance.

Brooks said he is hopeful that he can resume touring before the end of the year and reschedule those tour dates.
A recent raid in Cotulla led to the discovery of a man who was in possession of child pornography.

A grand jury indicted Jose Luis Lara Jr. on Aug. 10. He faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. He has been ordered detained pending trial.

The case unfolded on June 29, when Homeland Security Investigations special agents in Laredo received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip provided an e-mail address and two cellphones that were allegedly used to upload child pornography.

Special agents began investigating an address on Goft Street in Cotulla. Authorities said they reviewed 29 videos and images associated with the e-mail and the two cellphones and discovered material consistent with child pornography.

On July 22, HSI special agents, La Salle County Sheriffs Office deputies, La Salle County Constables Office deputies and the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers executed a federal search warrant at the home on Goft. Authorities encountered Lara, a U.S. citizen, at the residence.

After encountering Lara at the residence, local and state law enforcement officers interviewed Lara, at which point Lara advised the name of the child, which (special agents) had identified in some of the (child pornography) videos and images, states an arrest affidavit filed on July 26.

Lara allegedly agreed to provide a post-arrest statement without an attorney present. He admitted to using keywords to search for child pornography, according to court documents.

Lara stated he used his cellular phone to conduct these searches and to view adult pornography. Lara stated that special agents would find some weird stuff on the phone when examined; however, did not clarify what he meant. Lara confirmed that he had two email addresses, one of which was the e-mail address that was the subject of the  CyberTip, states the affidavit.

Federal authorities seized the two cellphones. An initial examination of one folders titled cp, cp full, toddler collection, and young. The folders contained child pornography, according to court documents.
Danny Zaragoza /Laredo Morning Times file

A man who tried to smuggle 15,000 rounds of ammo and more than 190 30-round magazines into Mexico via the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge has been indicted.

On Aug. 10, a Laredo federal grand jury charged Carlos Daniel Rodriguez with smuggling goods from the United States. He could face up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted.
A man has been arrested for pointing a gun at his wife, according to the Laredo Police Department.

Gilbert Rodriguez, 38, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, family violence with a weapon (firearm) and unlawful carrying of weapon.

Laredo police officers were dispatched to a person with a gun report at about 2:50 p.m. Monday in the 500 block of Pitaya Drive. Responding officers located the suspect by the intersection of Soria and Salamanca drives.

Authorities identified him as Rodriguez following a traffic stop. Rodriguez stated he had been in a verbal argument with his wife. He then left the house because he did not want things to get out of hand and because his wife is toxica, states the arrest affidavit.

Other officers spoke to the wife. She stated that Rodriguez had pointed a handgun at her during a verbal argument. Officers said they located a handgun inside Rodriguezs vehicle. He denied the allegations, according to the affidavit.

The wife did state that she did not want to press charges on Rodriguez and wanted him to be dispersed. But police told her that they would press charges on Rodriguez on behalf of the State of Texas, according to court documents.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)  A prominent Cambodian labor union leader who is a longtime government critic was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for inciting social unrest with sensitive comments about the country's border.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, has been in custody since July 2020 after the government claimed he spread false information about Cambodias border with Vietnam. A week before his arrest, Rong Chhun spoke to U.S. government-supported Radio Free Asia about his meeting with farmers in eastern Cambodia who complained their land was being infringed upon by Vietnam.

The Joint Boundary Commission of Cambodia and Vietnam rejected the allegations about any violation of Cambodian territory.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Rong Chhun and two co-defendants guilty of incitement to commit a felony. Ton Nimol and Sar Kanika, who were each sentenced to 20 months in prison, had been arrested in August 2020 while protesting in front of the court to demand the release of Rong Chhun.

The court also ordered the three to pay a compensation of up to $100,000 to the Joint Boundary Commission.

Rong Chhun's lawyer, Sam Sokong, told The Associated Press he was disappointed with the decision and the three defendants have told him to file an appeal.

I was disappointed and shocked when hearing the judge order my clients to face their maximum length of the prison term. There is no mercy, Sam Sokong said, referring to the penalty for inciting social unrest of two years in prison.

Sam Sokong quoted Rong Chhun as saying in the courtroom after the verdict that, The court is unfair and the judiciary system in Cambodia is under the influence of the government.

Labor leaders such as Rong Chhun hold significant political influence in Cambodia because they represent the vast number of workers in the textile industry, which is the countrys major export earner. The major unions have historically aligned themselves with the political opposition to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The issue of Vietnam encroaching on Cambodian land is a highly sensitive one with domestic political significance in Cambodia because of historical antagonism toward the countrys larger neighbor to the east. Hun Sens government maintains close relations with Vietnam, leading his political foes to accuse him of failing to protect Cambodian land. Several prominent opposition figures have been prosecuted on various charges in recent years for making such allegations.

Rong Chhun served on the national election committee of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party before it was dissolved by court order in 2017, ahead of the 2018 general election. The party dissolution was generally seen as intended to ensure victory for Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party. Hun Sen has been in power for 36 years, and has often been accused of heading an authoritarian regime.
The former president and board chair of the company that makes OxyContin told a court Wednesday that he, his family and the company did not cause the opioid crisis in the United States.

Richard Sackler, a member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, was asked under oath during a federal bankruptcy hearing whether he, his kin or the company bear responsibility. For each, Sackler answered simply: No.

In statements and court papers, Sackler family members have consistently denied wrongdoing in the opioid crisis, even as the company they own has twice pleaded guilty to federal crimes over their opioid practices.

But its rare for family members to be asked about it point-blank in open court. The hearing in federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, was held via videoconference.

Richard Sackler has not appeared in public forums in recent years outside video of a deposition he gave in a lawsuit in 2015. His denial of responsibility for the opioid crisis comes a day after his son testified that the family wouldnt accept a settlement without guarantees of immunity from further legal action.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain said Wednesday that he expected testimony to be completed Thursday and final arguments to begin Monday, and that a decision is likely later next week.

During Wednesdays hearing, Richard Sackler said he had laryngitis, and his voice was sometimes soft.

In response to more than three hours of questions, mostly from Maryland Assistant Attorney General Brian Edmunds, his most common answer was, I dont recall.

Sackler, whose father was one of three brothers who nearly 70 years ago bought the company that later became Purdue Pharma, didnt recall emails he wrote a decade or more ago; whether Purdues board approved certain sales strategies; whether a company owned by Sackler family members sold opioids in Argentina; or whether he paid any of his own money as part of a settlement with Oklahoma to which the Sackler family contributed $75 million.

Often, he answered questions with more questions, asking for precision.

When Edmunds asked him if he knew how many people in the U.S. had died from using opioids, Sackler asked him to specify over which time period.

Edmunds did: 2005 to 2017.

I dont know, Sackler said. He said that he had looked at some data on deaths in the past, though.

(The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tallied more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. to opioid overdose, including both prescription drugs and illicit ones such as heroin and illegally produced fentanyl, since 2000.)

At another point, Edmunds asked whether he ever had conversations with sales managers.

Can you define what you mean by sales managers? Sackler asked.

Edmunds did. Then Sackler said he didnt recall any such conversations.

Edmunds asked about a disagreement over company sales targets at one point. Sackler corrected him.

You used the word dispute, he said. It wasnt a dispute. It was a difference of opinion.

The previous words of Richard Sackler, now 76, are at the heart of lawsuits accusing the Stamford, Connecticut-based company of a major role in sparking a nationwide opioid epidemic.

In the 1996 event to launch sales of OxyContin, he told the companys sales force that there would be a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.

Five years later, as it was apparent that the powerful prescription pain drug was being misused in some cases, he said in an email that Purdue would have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible, describing them as the culprits and the problem.

For those reasons, the activists crusading against companies involved in selling opioids often see Sackler  who was president of the company from 1999 to 2003, chair of its board from 2004 through 2007, and a board member from 1990 until 2018  as a prime villain.

Members of the wealthy family have long avoided the spotlight in the business world and welcomed it in philanthropy. But in recent years, museums, including the Louvre in Paris and universities, such as Tufts in Massachusetts, that theyve supported have cut ties over the opioid crisis.

Richard Sacklers testimony came a day after his son, David Sackler, testified.

The younger Sackler, who also served on Purdues board, reiterated something that has long been the familys position: They will agree to their part of the plan to restructure Purdue only if family members receive protection from lawsuits over opioids and other Purdue action.

If those provisions do not stay in the deal, David Sackler said, the family would instead face lawsuits. I believe we would litigate the claims to their final outcome, he said.

On Wednesday, Richard Sackler said the family would not agree if states that oppose the deal were not bound by it and allowed to move ahead with lawsuits against the company and family members.

Under the proposed settlement, members of the Sackler family would give up ownership of Purdue and contribute $4.5 billion over time in cash and control of charitable funds. Most of the money, along with Purdues future profits, would be used to abate the opioid crisis. Some would go to individual victims and their families.
On Tuesday, Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz attended the North American Development Banks Border Environmental Forum XXV in San Antonio.

This forum brings local and state officials, private sector developers, large commercial users and others to learn and discuss topics such as binational relationships between the U.S. and Mexico, development of projects that help the environment, technological improvements and financing opportunities.

Saenz was pleased to meet the forums keynote speaker and Ambassador of Mexico to the U.S., Esteban Moctezuma Barragan, who was recently appointed by the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

During their discussion, Saenz discussed Port Laredos achievements including being the No. 1 inland port along the U.S.-Mexico border and the nations third-busiest port among more than 450 airports, seaports and border crossings.

Based on this discussion, Moctezuma has expressed interest in continuing enhancing a relationship with the City of Laredo.

Moctezuma has been invited by Saenz to visit Laredo in the near future.

I am honored to have made an acquaintance with Ambassador Moctezuma, Saenz expressed. Although we are in the beginning stages of our conversations, Ambassador Moctezuma was eager to learn more about the No. 1 inland port and help us continue to promote trade between the U.S. and Mexico. I will continue to develop relationships at an international level as trade continues to be the backbone of our beloved city. I look forward to working with Ambassador Moctezuma and continue to enhance our binational well-being and image. 
The Taliban's top political leader, who made a triumphal return to Afghanistan this week, battled the U.S. and its allies for decades but then signed a landmark peace agreement with the Trump administration.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is now expected to play a key role in negotiations between the Taliban and officials from the Afghan government that the militant group deposed in its blitz across the country. The Taliban say they seek an inclusive, Islamic government and claim they have become more moderate since they last held power.

But many remain skeptical, and all eyes are now on Baradar, who has said little about how the group will govern but has proven pragmatic in the past.

Baradar's biography charts the arc of the Taliban's journey from an Islamic militia that battled warlords during the civil war in the 1990s, ruled the country in accordance with a strict interpretation of Islamic law and then waged a two-decade insurgency against the U.S. His experience also sheds light on the Taliban's complicated relationship with neighboring Pakistan.

Baradar is the only surviving Taliban leader to have been personally appointed deputy by the late Taliban commander Mullah Mohammed Omar, giving Baradar near-legendary status within the movement. And he is far more visible than the Talibans current supreme leader, Maulawi Hibatullah Akhunzada, who is believed to be in hiding in Pakistan and only releases occasional statements.

On Tuesday, Baradar landed in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement he helped found in the mid-1990s. Ending 20 years of exile, he was thronged by well-wishers as he stepped off a Qatari government aircraft and drove off in a convoy.

Baradar, who is in his early 50s, was born in the southern Uruzgan province. Like others who would eventually become Taliban leaders, he joined the ranks of the CIA- and Pakistan-backed mujahideen to fight against the Soviet Union during its decadelong occupation of the country that ended in 1989.

In the 1990s, the country slid into civil war, with rival mujahideen battling one another and carving out fiefdoms. Warlords set up brutal protection rackets and checkpoints in which their forces shook down travelers to fund their military activities.

In 1994, Mullah Omar, Baradar and others founded the Taliban, which means religious students. The group mainly consisted of clerics and young, pious men, many of whom had been driven from their homes and had known only war. Their unsparing interpretation of Islam unified their ranks and set them apart from the notoriously corrupt warlords.

Baradar fought alongside Mullah Omar as he led the Taliban through its seizure of power in 1996 and its return to an insurgency following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

During the group's 1996-2001 rule, the president and governing council were based in Kabul. But Baradar spent most of his time in Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, and did not have an official government role.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, which had been planned and carried out by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida while it was sheltering under Taliban rule. Baradar, Omar and other Taliban leaders fled into neighboring Pakistan.

In the ensuing years, the Taliban were able to organize a potent insurgency based in rugged and semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border. Baradar was arrested in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi in 2010 in a joint raid by the CIA and Pakistan's counterterrorism forces.

At the time, he had been making peace overtures to Afghanistan's then-President Hamid Karzai, but the U.S. was bent on military victory and it appeared that Pakistan wanted to ensure control over any political process. Baradar's removal empowered more radical leaders within the Taliban who were less open to diplomacy.

Karzai later confirmed the overtures to The Associated Press and said he had twice asked the Americans and the Pakistanis to free Baradar from prison but was rebuffed. Baradar himself refused an offer of release in 2013, apparently because the U.S. and Pakistan conditioned it on his cooperation.

Karzai, who is now involved in talks with the Taliban about shaping the next government, could once again find himself negotiating with Baradar.

By 2018, the Taliban had seized effective control over much of Afghanistan's countryside. The Trump administration, looking for a way out of America's longest war, persuaded Pakistan to release Baradar that year and began pursuing peace talks with the Taliban.

Baradar led the Talibans negotiating team in Qatar through several rounds of those talks, culminating in a February 2020 peace agreement. He also met with then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Under the deal, the Taliban agreed to halt attacks on international forces and prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a haven for terror groups in return for a full U.S. withdrawal, now planned for the end of the month.

Last week, the Taliban pushed into the country's cities, seizing nearly all of the country in matter of days and then rolled virtually unopposed into the capital, Kabul.

In his first comment after the capture of Kabul on Sunday, Baradar acknowledged his surprise, saying that it was never expected that we will have victory in Afghanistan.

Wearing a black turban and vest over a white robe, the bespectacled Baradar looked straight into the camera.

Now comes the test, he said. We must meet the challenge of serving and securing our nation, and giving it a stable life going forward.

___

Gannon reported from Guelph, Canada. Associated Press writers Tameem Akhgar in Istanbul and Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed.
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested two convicted sex offenders accused of entering the country illegally.

The first case unfolded in the mid-afternoon of Aug. 13, when Laredo South Station agents detained a group of 10 migrants near the intersection of St. Cecilia and St. Robert lanes.

One migrant was identified as Juan Martinez-Martinez, a 33-year-old Mexican citizen. A records check revealed he is a registered sex offender with extensive criminal history that includes a sexual assault conviction in 2009 in Arkansas.

A second arrest occurred in the afternoon of Aug. 15. Hebbronville Station agents arrested 11 migrants near the Javelina Wind Farm southwest of Mirando City.

Mexican citizen Israel Hernandez-Valente, 42, was among the group. Further investigation revealed he was convicted of indecency with a child by sexual contact in 2017.

Both were turned over to the U.S. Marshals to be prosecuted for their immigrtion violations.

These arrests continue to highlight the dangers that illegal immigration poses to our country. Laredo Sector agents continue to arrest undocumented individuals who have been previously convicted of severe crimes. Dangerous criminals such as these endanger our communities and show a lack of regard for our countrys laws, Border Patrol said in a statement.

Authorities encourage the community to report suspicious activity such as human or drug smuggling by downloading the USBP Laredo Sector app or calling the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free at 1-800-343-1994.
In preparation for the Monday, Aug. 23 start of the Fall 2021 semester at Texas A&M International University, incoming Dustdevils have had the opportunity to participate in a beloved campus orientation tradition before beginning their TAMIU journey. The last such session is this Thursday and Friday.

To date, some 1,078 first-year students have joined in the two-day student orientation experience, affectionately known as Dusty Camp. During Dusty Camp, students learn more about campus services, academic expectations and receive a first-hand experience of student life on campus.

Student Orientation Leaders guide students throughout their Dusty Camp experience. This years OLs included Lyndsey Alaniz, Anabel Contreras, Julian Escalante, Arizbeth Espinoza, Leilany Garza, Jaden Gray, Victoria Moreno, Diego Partida, Barbara Perez, Derly Rojo, Jonathan Ruiz, Adamari Salinas, Morgan Torres, Yamile Vasquez, Astrid Veliz and Mayela Villarreal.

While orientation activities were halted last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dusty Campers were offered a choice this year between in-person or virtual orientation experiences.

Overwhelmingly, students opted for the in-person experience, resulting in all Dusty Camps being held in person, including an optional overnight stay at the Residential Learning Community, explained Dr. Nicholas Hudson, Student Orientation, Leadership and Engagement director.

Throughout all of our orientation programs, we have had the safety and well-being of all students, faculty and staff at the forefront of our actions. All attendees had to either provide proof of vaccination or undergo a rapid COVID test to ensure safety. Attendees were encouraged to always wear masks. Additionally, we practiced social distancing when possible and held some programming outside, Hudson said.

He reiterated the health and safety measures taken during each orientation session that helped ensure participants well-being.

Additional cleaning efforts were instituted. We also had a vaccination drive after every Dusty Camp to ensure that students who had not had a chance to get vaccinated were able to do so. We did our best to ensure a safe and comfortable experience for everyone within the guidelines provided by the State of Texas, the A&M System and the TAMIU Health and Safety Team, Hudson observed.

He noted the opportunities offered through these in-person experiences for students to truly connect with their university community and gain a better sense of what that experience truly means.

Students left feeling as if they understood institutional expectations related to academics, engagement and safety. Students enjoyed connecting with their fellow Dustdevils, faculty and staff, a great change of pace from being behind their computer screens as they had been throughout the last year, Hudson said.

Additionally, 355 students participated in Dustdevil Transition, a one-day orientation session aimed at preparing students who are transferring to the university from another higher education institution.

The university also held its first How To TAMIU. With more than 60 students in attendance, this one-day orientation event focused on university sophomore students transitioning back to an on-campus experience after spending the past year in a virtual classroom environment.

All TAMIU Orientation programs have five goals for our students to accomplish during their experience: discover their purpose for attending TAMIU; develop connections with other Dustdevils; learn all available resources at their disposal to ensure academic success; understand academic requirements and the academic culture of TAMIU, and finally, build their knowledge toward being university students, Hudson concluded.

Activities held throughout several of the orientation sessions included meeting with college deans, touring the campus and learning more about student resources. Students also learned more about the universitys rich history and campus traditions.

Throughout the scheduled Dusty Camp activities, first-year students also participated in Loteria and Laser Tag, as well as exploring the universitys Rec Center and Dustys Den as part of Get Involved Night.

Several parents and family-only orientation sessions also took place virtually. These live, question-and-answer sessions were made available in both English and Spanish. Recorded sessions are available for viewing at tamiu.edu/sole/PFOrientation.shtml.

For more information on this years orientation activities, visit tamiu.edu/sole/orientation.shtml.

TAMIUs Fall 2021 Registration is now underway. For detailed registration information, visit go.tamiu.edu/registration21.

TAMIUs Fall 2021 plans are focused on a return to a full and vibrant on-campus experience for all students, faculty, and staff at its 300-acre northeast Laredo campus. Classes begin Monday, Aug. 23. Late registration ends Friday, Aug. 27.

For more information, contact the Office of the University Registrar at 956-326-2250, email registrar@tamiu.edu or visit offices in the University Success Center, Suite 121.
LONDON (AP)  In a packed, emotional session of Parliament, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced accusations Wednesday from lawmakers across the political spectrum of needlessly abandoning Afghanistan to the whims of the Taliban and of undermining Britain's position in the world.

The members of Parliament were recalled from their summer break to attend the emergency session in London. Many, including a large number from Johnson's Conservative Party, voiced strong regrets and fears at the chaotic turn of events in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have seized control 20 years after being driven from power by a U.S.-led international force following the 9/11 attacks.

Johnson said he had little choice but to follow the decision of U.S. President Joe Biden to take American troops out of Afghanistan by the end of August.

The West could not continue this U.S.-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without U.S. air power and without American might, he said.

I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by NATO in Afghanistan," he added.

The Taliban used the impending withdrawal of all remaining NATO forces to rapidly sweep through Afghanistan, reaching Kabul on Sunday, a stunning advance that was faster than anticipated, if not unexpected. Thousands of people have fled to Kabul Airport in a desperate attempt to flee as Western nations evacuate citizens and Afghan employees.

Theres been a major miscalculation of the resilience of the Afghan forces and a staggering complacency from our government about the Taliban threat, said Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party.

Some of the most pointed interventions during the debate came from Johnson's Conservative ranks, notably his predecessor Theresa May, who asked whether Johnson had hoped on a wing and a prayer itd be all right on the night."

We boast about global Britain, but where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul? she asked. "A successful foreign policy strategy will be judged by our deeds, not by our words.

With the Taliban now in charge of Afghanistan, the immediate priority of the British government is to evacuate the 4,000 or so U.K. citizens still in Afghanistan and the thousands of Afghans who have helped the U.K. over the past 20 years.

Johnson said a new generous refugee settlement program would allow up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans, primarily women and children, to seek sanctuary in the U.K. in the next few years, including 5,000 this year. The total for this year is in addition to the 5,000 or so Afghan allies that the U.K. is now trying to evacuate from Kabuls international airport.

Johnson said the U.K. would work to unite the international community behind a clear plan for dealing with the Taliban. The prime minister, who is the current president of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, said he aimed to convene a meeting of the G-7 leaders in the coming days.

We are clear, and we have agreed that itd be a mistake for any country to recognize any new regime in Kabul prematurely or bilaterally, said Johnson, who spoke with Biden and other world leaders on Afghanistan in recent days.

We will judge this regime on the choices it makes and by its actions, rather than its words, he added.

The refugee plan, which is similar to a refugee package for Syria in 2015, came under immediate attack from lawmakers and activists, who said it fell short of what was required and did not come close to matching Britain's responsibility.

I have no words for it. This could have been so avoided," Paul Farthing, an ex-Marine who runs an animal sanctuary in Kabul, told the AP. We have destroyed this country and I dont see anybody regretting what theyve done.

Farthing is lobbying for the British government to take in 25 Afghans who work for his charity, including young female veterinarians in their 20s. Whats their future going to be? They are probably going to end up being married to Taliban fighters ... Are you telling me that the West is OK with that? Because thats what weve just created.

Johnson said authorities had so far secured the safe return of 306 British citizens and 2,052 Afghans. Britains ambassador to Kabul, Laurie Bristow, said his team helped 700 people fly out on military flights on Tuesday, and the goal is to help 1,000 people get out each day. He said he's got days, not weeks to speed up the evacuation operation.

Bristow said the Taliban is supporting the operation and his team is working with them where we need to, at a tactical, practical level.

For many U.K. lawmakers, Britain's withdrawal represents a huge failure for the Afghanistan mission, which saw 457 British troops die in the effort to stabilize the nation.

Let's stop talking about forever wars. Let's recognize that forever peace is bought not cheaply, but hard through determination and the will to endure, said lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee and a former soldier who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

While the lawmakers were debating the crisis in Afghanistan, dozens of former translators for the British Army protested outside Parliament, holding banners and signs that included images of people gravely injured in Afghanistan with the caption Protect our loved ones.

Dozens more people joined the translators, leading to a crowd of around 200. Women and children came bearing posters, red balloons and flags of Afghanistan painted on their cheeks.

___

Follow all AP stories on developments in Afghanistan at https://apnews.com/hub/Afghanistan.
Beth D. Ramage, formerly of Lockport, NY, passed away August 21, 2021 in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Beth was born May 17, 1931, daughter of Howard H. Dobbins and Almeda T. Dobbins. Beth was a graduate of Lockport High School and Queens College in Charlotte, NC. Predeceased by her husband of 6
A government decision to ringfence over 200,000 in State funding to allow retailers upgrade their shopfronts has been described as really positive news by a local business group.

Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys recently announced a new 7m fund to support the enhancement of streetscapes and shopfronts in over 50 rural towns and villages.

Under the Streetscape Enhancement Initiative, Longford has been allocated approximately 220,000 in funding in a move which has this week been given the thumbs up by Chamber of Commerce chiefs.

It's good news and anything that can help to improve and support local businesses who have gone through such a tough time over the past 18 months or so is really welcome, said president Fiona Fenelon.

Under the plans, local firms will be given the licence to carry out painting while also being able to install canopies and street furniture.

The monies ringfenced also provide for the decluttering of streetscapes, landscaping and the upgrading or restoration of historic and traditional shopfronts.

Ms Fenelon said finer details surrounding the scheme will be displayed on the chamber's various social media platforms in a bid to highlight how local firms can benefit from the initiative

A total of 7m has been set aside nationally under the plan with Longford town expected to be one of two urban centres countywide which are nominated to benefit from the funding announcement.

This new initiative is about local authorities thinking strategically and working in collaboration with local businesses and property owners to add colour and vibrancy to our rural towns and villages, said Ms Humphreys.

Outdoor dining is here to stay and I believe that will only be a positive for towns and villages across the country.
Crime, Community, Charity & Cause

By Chris Boyle Published: August 18 2021

Ultimately, I want the public to have more opportunities to interact with the law enforcement community, said Sheriff Toulon.

Suffolk County Sheriff Dr. Errol D. Toulon, Jr. is seeking additional interested Suffolk County residents to join the Suffolk County Sheriffs Office Community Advisory Board. All interested residents must submit letters of inquiry and resumes to be considered for Board Membership.

The Community Advisory Board meets monthly to give residents an opportunity to meet regularly via Zoom with the Sheriff and his staff, discuss topics of interest and concern, be a conduit for information to local communities, and provide input on Sheriffs initiatives and policies relating to the Office and its relationship with the general public. The Board consists of members from across Suffolk County.

Ultimately, I want the public to have more opportunities to interact with the law enforcement community, and to have a direct line of communication, said Sheriff Toulon. He added, Last year I brought together a diverse group of people to discuss issues, learn about the Sheriffs Office, and share ideas, and as a result, we launched our first satellite START Resource Center location. I look forward to adding some new voices to this Board and continually seeking public input to best meet the needs of the people we serve.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: August 18 2021

Wayne Chambers, 49, is charged with Murder in the Second Degree, a class A felony.

Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini has announced the indictment of a Medford man for allegedly stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death.

Wayne Chambers, 49, is charged with Murder in the Second Degree, a class A felony.

This was a brutal, tragic murder that took the life of someone who had dedicated her life to caring for others, District Attorney Sini said. After allegedly stabbing the victim to death, the defendant took several steps to try to avoid being caught, including dumping the victims car, changing his phone number, and attempting to hide out at a motel. He was ultimately apprehended thanks to a multi-agency effort, and we will seek justice for the victim.

At approximately 7:43 p.m. on July 22, Chambers drove to pick up Sandra McIntosh, 46, of Medford, from her job as a registered nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital. He was driving McIntoshs white Lexus SUV.

At approximately 8 p.m., residents on Woodland Avenue in Holtsville heard McIntosh calling for help and allegedly saw Chambers physically assaulting her in the street next to her vehicle. Chambers then allegedly fled the scene.

A resident called 911 and McIntosh, who had been stabbed 25 times, was transported to Stony Brook University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Following the stabbing, Chambers allegedly drove to the Bronx, where he abandoned McIntoshs vehicle, and later fled to Newburgh, N.Y. He also allegedly turned off his cell phone and obtained a new cell phone number to evade detection by law enforcement.

Chambers was located at a motel in Newburgh and arrested on July 30 by Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives and members of the City of Newburgh Police Department, the New York State Police and the United States Marshals Service.

Chambers was arraigned on the indictment yesterday in front of Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro and was remanded without bail. He is being represented by Richard Stafford and is due back in court on Sept. 21.

If convicted, Chambers faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

This case is being prosecuted by Deputy Bureau Chief Raphael Pearl, of the Felony Offense Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Eric Aboulafia, of the Felony Offense Bureaus Violent Crime Unit.
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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on AIM in London on Wednesday.







AIM - WINNERS







Powerhouse Energy Group PLC, up 6.8% at 4.00 pence, 12-month range 2.35-10.35p. The company, which transforms plastics and waste into clean energy, notes PEEL NRE plans to develop a second waste plastic to hydrogen site at the Rothesay Dock. The dock is located on the north bank of the River Clyde, West Dunbartonshire in Scotland. "The 13,500 tonne facility will be the second in the UK to use pioneering DMG technology developed by Powerhouse, after plans for a similar facility at Peel NRE's Protos site in Cheshire were approved in 2019," Powerhouse explains.







AIM - LOSERS







Falanx Group Ltd, down 4.8% at 1.00 pence, 12-month range 0.81p-1.76p. The cyber security and strategic intelligence services said its performance in its most recently ended financial year was hurt by delays associated with coronavirus pandemic. Falanx said revenue totalled GBP5.2 million for the year ended March 31, down from GBP5.8 million posted the year before, due to Covid-19 delays in the first half. Despite that, Falanx said it expects to report reduced a loss at an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization level for the year due to tight cost control. Going forward, Falanx said trading for the first four months of the current financial year has been encouraging and is in line with management's expectations.







SDX Energy PLC, down 10% at 13.02 pence, 12-month range 13.02p-19.45p. Hits 12-month low as drilling at the HA-1X exploration well on the Hanut prospect at South Disouq in Egypt showed the Basal Kafr El Sheikh sand had been eroded but noted good quality sands were found at the Qawasim level, however they were not charged with gas. Chief Executive Mark Reid said: "Whilst the result of this well is disappointing, I remain positive about the remaining prospectivity in the area which has not been materially impacted."







TMT Investments PLC, down 10% at USD9.00, 12-month range USD3.30-USD11.95. The Jersey-based investor in early-stage technology firms said its performance improved over the first half of 2021. Net asset value per share stood at USD7.49 as at June 30, up 23% from USD6.10 reported as of the end of 2020. During the first six months of 2021, the company said it had made USD14.1 million of investments across 13 new and existing portfolio companies. Since the end of June, TMT Investments said it has completed a further seven investments totalling USD8.3 million in new companies, namely Collectly, VertoFX, MetroSpeedy and Academy of Change, and existing companies, Postoplan, Novakid and Backblaze.







By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Aura Energy Ltd on Wednesday raised the capital estimate for its Tiris Uranium Project in Mauritania to reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shares in Aura Energy were trading down 4.8% at 5.00 pence each in London on Wednesday.

The Melboure-based minerals explorer said the Tiris project's estimated capital costs remain low, despite increasing to USD74.8 million, up 19% from its initial USD62.9 million guidance in 2019.

Predicted capital costs are up 10% when given in Australian dollars, increasing to AUD106.9 million from AUD96.8 million.

The new estimate - which replaced the results of a study from 2019 - responds to changes in global economic conditions resulting from the pandemic, such as increased freight and project development costs.

The company commissioned MinCore Engineers Pty Ltd to produce the updated capital estimate in late June.

Aura said its new figures are well-founded, with 85% of its capital estimate coming from supplier quotes for the Mauritania-based project.

In addition, the study estimates that over 15 years of production, the Tiris project will produce 12.4 million pounds of uranium oxide.

All-in sustaining costs are guided around USD29.81 per pound of uranium, the company added.

"[This] all-in sustaining cash cost...is extremely competitive when compared to our uranium development peers," Aura said, adding that the project benefited from shallow mining and beneficiation.

According to the feasibility study, the project has a payback period of four years and a 22% internal rate of return.

Meanwhile, the project's total post-tax cash flow is estimated to be USD214 million, with average post-tax cash flows of USD17.1 million, the company said.

"Tiris remains as a highly robust uranium project, which the company aims to capitalise on as the uranium market continues to recover. With the [definitive feasibility study] now updated with 2021 capital figures, Aura is well positioned to continue its discussions with global financiers in relation to both debt and equity funding arrangements. We now look forward to fast tracking Tiris into production, as the world shifts towards a decarbonised energy system," said Chief Executive Peter Reeve.

Aura began stage 2 exploration in its fast-tracked development of the Tiris project on July 28.

By Scarlett Butler; scarlettbutler@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Fulcrum Utility Services Ltd - energy and multi-utility services provider - Says Non-executive Director Stephen Gutteridge will step down from the board at the company's upcoming annual general meeting on September 29.

Non-Executive Chair Jenifer Babington says: "I would like to extend my thanks to Steve for his significant contribution to Fulcrum over the years and wish him well for the future. With the new leadership team now established, he leaves the business well placed to capitalise on the UK's journey to net-zero."

Current stock price: 24.50 pence

Year-to-date change: down 31%

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - SDX Energy PLC on Wednesday said results from drilling the HA-1X exploration well on the Hanut prospect in Egypt were disappointing, after reaching the target depth of 6,000 feet.

The primary target for HA-1X was the Basal Kafr El Sheikh sand at 5,200 feet. The well however found that the Basal Kafr El Sheikh sand had been eroded at this location.

Whilst drilling to the target depth, SDX Energy said good quality sands were found at the Qawasim level, however, they were not charged with gas.

SDX Energy shares were trading 12.2% lower in London on Wednesday at 12.72 pence each.

"Whilst the result of this well is disappointing, I remain positive about the remaining prospectivity in the area which has not been materially impacted," said Chief Executive Mark Reid.

The exploration and production company, which has assets in Egypt and Morocco, said it considers the result of the HA-1X well to have limited impact on the remaining 90 billion to 100 billion standard cubic feet of gas of prospectivity at its South Disouq project in Egypt.

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
A newborn orangutan has been delighting crowds at the southern Spanish zoo and cheering conservationists who are striving to protect the critically-endangered apes.

Visitors to the Bioparc Fuengirola in Andalusia looked on with glee as the baby, born on Aug. 4, clung tightly to her mother Suli, who clambered around her enclosure deftly catching pieces of fruit thrown to her by onlookers.

"She's like a little jewel for conservation and another contribution to the captive breeding programme in European zoos" said Antonio Garrucho, head keeper at the zoo.

Orangutan populations have halved over the past century as their natural habitats in the lowland forests of Indonesia have been cleared for logging and to make way for palm oil plantations.

The World Wildlife Fund considers them critically endangered, one notch above extinction in the wild, underscoring the importance of captive-breeding programmes.

The new baby, which has yet to be named, is the only one to be born in the European breeding scheme in the past 12 months, according to the zoo.

"The rate of forest destruction on the island (of Borneo) is very high, due to the extraction of raw materials, wildfires and desertification," Garrucho said.

"Climate change is having a huge influence and human beings are accelerating it."

In Fuengirola, safe from predation or encroachment, Suli lay back on the grass of her enclosure with her baby nestled snugly on her chest.
Manchester Center, VT (05254)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds light and variable.
This weeks drink has a glamorous history. Born in Peru in the 1920s (or maybe Chile, there is some debate), it was drunk by film stars, writers and presidents alike. Our new contributor Lauren Eads takes a closer look at the Pisco Sour!

Did you know that Ernest Hemingway holds the record for the most Pisco Sours drunk in one sitting at the Gran Hotel Bolivar in Lima? Or that John Wayne once had to carry Hollywood starlet Ava Gardner out of a bar after one Pisco Sour too many? Ill take both accounts with a good pinch of salt. But dont they paint a glamorous picture of Perus beloved cocktail?

If youve never tried a Pisco Sour youre missing out. Its a cocktail that sings of summer with its sweet sour tang and foamy-egg texture, shot through with a bolt of Pisco and a balancing dash of Angostura bitters.

So, how did this gloriously sweet and sour concoction come to be?

An American bartender in Peru

American bartender Victor Vaughen Morris is widely credited with its invention. Born in Utah, Morris moved to Peru in the early 1900s and opened a bar in Lima in 1916, shortly before Prohibition came into force in the US. At that time, Lima was undergoing a cultural renaissance, with the Jiron de la Union, a pedestrianised boulevard, at its heart. It was here that Morris bar became a thriving hub for English-speaking travellers and the purported birthplace of the Pisco Sour. It was created by Morris as an alternative to the Whisky Sour, but it was a bartender by the name of Mario Bruiget, who worked at Morris Bar, who really put the cherry on the top. He added the all important dash of Angostura bitters and egg white to the recipe sometime towards the end of the 1920s  the Pisco Sour, as we know it, had arrived!

Newspaper and magazine adverts for Morris Bar dating to 1924 implored English-speaking travellers to stop by and enjoy its notable Pisco Sours. Famous clientele listed on the bars registry include Emiliano Figueroa, ex-president of the Republic of Chile and its ambassador in Peru, Alfred Louis Kroeber, an archaeologist from the University of California Berkeley and Juan Ramon Montero, the first aviator to fly from Lima to (coincidentally) Pisco  a port city on Perus southern coast where pisco is said to have originated. Its not hard to see how the Pisco Sour travelled far and wide. It blazed a trail to California in the 1930s reaching bars as far north as San Francisco, and by the late 1960s could be found in New York.

Proto-Pisco Sours

Morris popularised the Pisco Sour, but its worth noting that there were mentions of similar serves prior to his. The most concrete is in a cookbook published in Lima in 1903, Nuevo Manual de Cocina a la Criolla. In it is a cocktail which calls for an egg white, a glass of pisco, a teaspoon of fine sugar and a few drops of lemon  a striking resemblance to the Pisco Sour if only for the absence of bitters. Its not exactly the classic we now know, but the beginnings of a beverage waiting to be cut from the rough and refined for international stardom.

Today, the Pisco Sour is so embedded in Peruvian culture that it has its own national holiday, with Dia Nacional del Pisco Sour (National Pisco Sour Day) taking place on the first Saturday in February.

The Chilean claim

But the Peruvian tale is only half of the story. Chile has fiercely refuted claims that pisco originated in Peru, claiming equal rights to the name pisco in a rivalry that stretches for centuries. Indeed, Peru and Chile were once united under the Viceroyalty of Peru (1542-1824) under Spanish rule, during which time pisco was first produced, muddying the waters further over which country should retain ownership. Furthermore, Chile claims the Pisco Sour was in fact invented by English steward Elliot Stubb in 1872 on Chilean soil, throwing shade on Perus well-publicised account of its creation. The dispute runs so deep that Peruvian Pisco cannot legally be sold in Chile, and is instead sold under the name Aguardiente de Uva. Its also illegal to bring Chilean Pisco into Peru with travellers warned any such bottles will be confiscated.

If you really want to get down to the nitty gritty, Peruvian Pisco producers are prohibited from ageing their spirit in wood whereas Chilean producers can and do use wood, sometimes ageing their spirit for as long as a year. The grapes permitted to distill the spirit in each country also vary, though use aromatic grapes from the Muscat family, alongside non-aromatic varieties such as Quebranta, Molla and Uvina. As for the cocktail itself, Perus version requires lime juice, while Chiles omits the egg white and bitters and specifies the use of Pica lime only. Simple, right?

All that really matters is how you make it (easily) and how it tastes  utterly delicious.

How to make a Pisco Sour

This recipe is taken from Martin Morales, chef, restaurateur and founder of the Michelin-Guide listed Peruvian restaurants Ceviche Soho, Andina, Ceviche Old St and Casita Andina in Soho.

50ml Barsol Primero Quebranta

50ml lime juice

50ml sugar syrup

1 egg white

Angostura bitters

Mix the pisco, lime juice and sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker with the egg white. Add a handful of ice and shake vigorously. Strain into two coupe glasses or tumblers, and add a few drops of Angostura bitters to the top of each cocktail. Garnish with a lime slice.

Author biog

Lauren Eads is an NCE/NCTJ trained journalist who started out as a trainee reporter at the Epsom Guardian in Surrey. In 2014, she moved to the Drinks Business where she became managing editor. During this time she completed her WSET Level 2, 3 and Diploma in wines and spirits, judged in a number of wine competitions, and was shortlisted as emerging wine writer of the year at the 2016 Louis Roederer Wine Writer Awards. She now works as a freelance journalist and copywriter.
Atlanta, GA (30303)

Today

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.
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Effective 12pm today (August 18) New Zealand will move to 'low risk'

Travel only permitted with 14 days of self-quarantine and COVID-19 testing

Cautious approach comes after COVID-19 cases detected in New Zealand

Transition based on latest health advice and controlled border arrangements

Based on the latest health advice, New Zealand will transition to a 'low risk' jurisdiction under Western Australia's controlled border effective from 12pm today (August 18).

Anyone entering from New Zealand from 12pm today will be subject to the following strict conditions:

present for a COVID-19 test on arrival (within 48 hours) and on day 12;

self-quarantine for 14 days in a suitable premise;

complete a G2G Pass declaration prior to arrival, stipulating they do not have any COVID-19 symptoms and which jurisdictions they have been in the previous 14 days;

land arrivals to be met at the border checkpoint, for a health screening and to have their G2G Pass declaration checked before proceeding to their self-quarantine premise.

Anyone who has arrived into WA from New Zealand since August 12 must monitor for symptoms and present for a COVID-19 test as soon as symptoms develop.

Anyone who has been to a New Zealand exposure site at the specific times must self-quarantine for 14 days and be tested within 48 hours and at day 12.

It is important that recent travellers from New Zealand familiarise themselves with the latest exposure sites, as contact tracing continues to uncover more sites, by visiting the New Zealand Ministry of Health's website at https://www.health.govt.nz

The WA Chief Health Officer will continue to monitor and review border controls.

WA's border arrangements are enacted under the Emergency Management Act and failure to follow these directions will be enforceable by law, with penalties ranging from $1,000 infringements to up to $50,000 fines for individuals.

More information on WA's controlled borders is available at https://www.wa.gov.au

Comments attributed to Premier Mark McGowan:

"As the situation in New Zealand evolves, we are taking a cautious approach and will upgrade our border controls to keep COVID-19 out of our community.

"Western Australia's controlled border arrangements have been instrumental in keeping our community safe.

"We understand this may be frustrating for some travellers but with the increasing threat of COVID outbreaks in Australia, we must do all we can to keep the virus out of WA.

"I urge any Western Australians who have recently travelled to New Zealand to come home now."

Comments attributed to Health Minister Roger Cook:

"It's important everyone remains vigilant and gets tested if unwell.

"Any recent travellers who have arrived in Western Australia must continue to monitor for new exposure sites in New Zealand.

"The outbreaks on the east coast of Australia and in New Zealand are a reminder of the continuing threat of COVID-19."

Premier's office - 6552 5000

Health Minister's office - 6552 6500
The world is watching the plight of Afghanistan which has fallen to the terrorist group, Taliban, again after 20 years. Its devastating to see Afghans fleeing their homeland to save themselves from the wrath of the Taliban once again. However, there was a time when Afghans used to enjoy movies and music and were die-hard fans of Bollywood, too.



 Yash Raj Films

Several Hindi movies have been shot in Afghanistan including Janasheen, Kabul Express, Dharmatma and the most popular one Khuda Gawah. It was the beginning of the Afghan civil war in 1992 when Indian superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi went to the war-ridden country to shoot Khuda Gawah.



 Glamour Films

A few years ago, Amitabh Bachchan had shared a post on his Facebook account narrating what it was like to shoot in Afghanistan during the troubled times and how much love they received from the people despite everything going on in the country.



 Twitter/Amitabh Bachchan

He wrote, "I cherish the memory of the movie entirely for the trip where it was shot during extremely troubled times."



The Soviets had just left the country and power [was] handed over to Najibullah Ahmadzai who was a die-hard fan of popular Hindi cinema. He wanted to meet me and we were given [the] right royal treatment. We were treated as VVIP state guests at Mazare-e-Sharif and taken through the length and breadth of the incredibly beautiful country in airplanes with armed escorts, he added.

 Glamour Films

"We received the traditional warmth of the locals who have [a] passion for hospitality. We weren't allowed to stay in hotel... a family just vacated its home for us and moved to a smaller house, he further wrote.



 Instagram/Social Influencing

He went on to narrate the terrifying situations where they had to face security issues in the probable war zone. "There were security problems, of course, with tanks and armed soldiers all over the streets. However, it still remains his most memorable trip despite all that because of the love he and the whole Khuda Gawah team received from the Afghans. Still, it's been the most memorable trip of my lifetime, he wrote.



Read the whole post here.

 Facebook/Amitabh Bachchan

In the movie, Sridevi played the double role of an Afghan woman who marries Amitabhs character Badshah Khan. The movie was hugely successful in Afghanistan and still remains popular.


The realities of war have always been ugly. And anyone who says otherwise is blind to it. The Talibans takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan has effectively set the nation back by a few decades at the very least.

 iStock

Following the US army's long awaited callback in 2020 by then President Donald Trump, the US embassy beat a hasty retreat from Afghanistan soon after Kabul fell. As did the Afghan leadership. Theyve effectively abandoned countless innocent lives to the whims of the merciless terrorist organization, The Taliban.



 iStock

Tragic visuals of desperate Afghan youth, clinging on to the wheels of escaping aircrafts have come to light, shocking the internet as a collective. Gut-wrenching stories of people awaiting their imminent fates at the hands of the Taliban have also resurfaced.



 Nomadic Indian

One such story is that of the last Hindu priest in Kabul, Pandit Rajesh Kumar. As chaos ensues around him, with distressed Afghan citizens looking for refuge in other nations, Pandit Rajesh Kumar has decided to stand his ground, refusing to flee. Its not for a lack of help being offered, either. He had several Hindu devotees asking him to escape with them, but he rebuffed their offers.



Pandit Rajesh Kumar, the priest of Rattan Nath Temple in Kabul:



"Some Hindus have urged me to leave Kabul & offered to arrange for my travel and stay.



But my ancestors served this Mandir for hundreds of years. I will not abandon it. If Taliban kiIIs me, I consider it my Seva"  Bharadwaj (@BharadwajSpeaks) August 15, 2021

Pandit Rajesh Kumar, who is in charge of the Rattan Nath Temple in Kabul said, "I will not abandon it (the temple). If Taliban kills me, I (will) consider it my Seva." His duty to his ancestral temple, where his elders served for hundreds of years, is a cause hes willing to die for.

Based on this video interaction from 2019, Pandit Rajesh Kumar has family members, including children, in Delhi.



People like Pt. Rajesh Kumar are the ones who are an absolute unit of integrity and character. Such people are made of nerves of steel & they will not relinquish their position until the soul departs from their body. I wish him all the luck in this world....  Incnd1ary (@PabloEkshobaar) August 15, 2021

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee President Manjinder Singh claimed that several Hindus and Sikhs had found refuge at the Karte Parwan Gurdwara, in Kabul after the distressing events that unfolded in Afghanistan. The DSGMC chief is in close contact with his counterpart from the Gurdwara Committee of Kabul, to ensure the safety of Hindus, Sikhs and other minority groups.

I am in constant touch with the president of Gurdwara Committee of Kabul and the Sangat who have told me that 320 plus people, including 50 Hindus and 270 plus Sikhs, have taken refuge in Karte Parwan gurdwara in Kabul in wake of recent developments. Taliban leaders have met them and assured them of their safety. We are hopeful that Hindus and Sikhs would be able to live a safe and secure life despite political and military changes happening in Afghanistan," Sirsa said.

Our heart goes out to all affected by the human rights disaster unfolding in Afghanistan. Its difficult to wish for peace with the Taliban involved, but we hope for a peaceful resolution to this cultural calamity that has befallen our Afghani brothers and sisters.
Apple may finally be forced to abandon the Lightning cable under new legislation that is being proposed by the European Commission. According to a report by Reuters, the European Commission is looking to establish one universal charger for smartphones and other devices. The European Commission is looking to make USB-C the standard charging port for all smartphones in the union.

 Unsplash/daniel-romero

This will effectively force Apple to ditch the Lightning cable in 27 countries, however the Cupertino giant is strongly opposing the legislation. Apple says that a common charger would lead to an unprecedented amount of electronic waste'' as hundreds of millions of active devices and accessories [are] used by their European customers.



Heres where Apples argument doesnt make sense  the company has already launched devices such as the iPad Pro, Powerbeats Pro and MacBook laptops that already use USB-C ports. This also doesnt mean that Apple has to continue using the Lightning port for future iPhones just because older customers are still using devices with Lightning cables. Most electronic companies have already switched to USB-C as a standard with Apple being the only exception.

Electronic waste has become a great concern in many countries which is the main reason why the European Commission is pushing for universally standard chargers. The legislation is up for presentation and still being drafted according to Reuters. Last year, EU Parliament lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favour of a common charger for both convenience and environmental benefits.

 Unsplash/mika-baumeister

If the legislation passes, Apple will be the hardest hit by the proposed legislation. Apple will be forced to either switch to USB-C or micro-USB chargers considering most non-Apple products have that connector. It could also be possible that it may completely change how we charge iPhones.



Apple has been rumoured to be working on a port-less charger or a wireless-only charging device which might be the next natural step of progression. Its still not certain whether Apple will switch to a different charging port or abandon it completely until the EU commission comes to a final decision.

Do you think Apple should ditch the Lightning cable and adopt the USB-C port for the iPhone? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Source: Reuters
Some PlayStation 5 customers in India reached out to me privately reporting that they did not receive an official warranty card inside the retail box. Both the PlayStation 5 Disc and Digital Edition come with an official Sony warranty card that is yellow in colour. These warranty cards are essential to show at service centres across the country for repairs/replacements in case of unforeseen problems.

 dennis-cortes-unsplash

We reached out to Sony India to enquire what customers should do in case they did not receive a warranty card in the console retail box. In response to the query, Sony India said:



In the very exceptional situation where warranty card may be missing from PS5 box, the customer may click a picture of the serial number appearing on the product and share it along with a copy of the invoice on Sony Indias official mail id: sonyindia.care@sony.com to avail the duplicate warranty card.

While most PS5 consoles will have the official warranty card inside the retail box, there have been multiple cases reported of a missing warranty card by customers from Bangalore, New Delhi and Indore. In all cases, the warranty card was missing from the Digital Edition of the PlayStation 5. However, it could be possible that this may also apply to the Disc versions of the console as well.

 martin-katler-unsplash

It is essential that customers who did not receive a warranty card within their retail box get in touch with Sony India customer care. The warranty card includes important information such as the model name, serial number and the warranty validity date for your PS5 console. You will be required to send a copy of the Purchase/GST invoice associated with your purchase in order to get a duplicate warranty card from Sony India.



To be on the safe side, in order to authenticate that your console was purchased via an Indian retailer, we also recommend sending a picture of the BIS sticker that can be found on the back of your console.

The PlayStation 5 launched in India on February 2, 2021 and has since been available via restocking six times. The Digital Edition was not available for purchase during the initial launch cycle and was made available in one of the later restocks.

If you want to know more about the PlayStation 5, you can read our detailed review here where we talk about the console's performance, design and features we feel can be improved.
Funeral services for Mrs. Lizzie Mae Evans Archie will be Thursday at 10:30 a.m., at Stephens Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Rock Hill Missionary Baptist Church. Visitation 9-10:30 a.m., Thursday. Friends may sign at www.stephensfunerals.com.
As the Taliban asserts authority in Afghanistan and U.S. troops pull out, people around the world are discussing what happened and wondering what it means for their countries and global security. Miami University professors who have studied Afghanistan, the Taliban, and world history are available to share insight into the unfolding situation.

Laura Neack, professor of Political Science

Neack is an expert in foreign policy and international and national security. She can speak to the history and politics of the Afghanistan wars, including the U.S. war there, and U.S. global counterterrorism efforts. She says that its important to note that in Afghanistan, there is a tradition of negotiated surrender and that tradition continued with the recent Taliban takeover.

The official U.S. military position -- that the Afghan forces were capable, committed, and well-commanded -- was based on a fantasy that the Afghan military could be just like the U.S. military sees itself, Neack said. That fantasy never matched the reality on the ground, but it was the active myth motivating the US military brass for 20 years.

She also said that the U.S. counterterrorism strategy over the past decade was to train-and-assist with air and logistical support intended to decrease over time as the local forces and local government become more capable, however, it wasnt reassessed.

Local forces that fail to become more capable over time only remain dependent on a U.S. military presence and are likely to fall when forced to stand on their own, Neack said. If the local forces cannot operate without the U.S. military, then other options must be explored or we run the risk of establishing a permanent military presence by default.

Nathan French, associate professor of Comparative Religion

French is an expert on Islamic studies and the contemporary Jihadi-Salafi movement, such as ISIS and al-Qaida. He can speak about the impact of the collapse of Afghanistan on Jihadi-Salafi movements, possible future directions for the Taliban, and general changes in the Taliban's approach over the last 20 years. He can also speak to the events and legacies of September 11, 2001, Islamophobia and concerns about Afghan immigration, and the "Forgotten" war in Afghanistan and the U.S. "War on Terror."

What the Taliban accomplished over the last week is stunning, but not surprising, French said. The narrative of the fall of the Afghan National Government -- particularly this close to 9/11 -- will serve as an instrument of mobilization and inspiration for many jihadist movements. With the usage of social media platforms, the effect on morale will be immediate -- movements are already signalling their praise online for what they argue the Taliban accomplished.

He said the Taliban is now facing a balance of two things: international recognition and satisfying regional supporters. He noted that a recent visit from China signalled that there may be a Chinese willingness to extend diplomatic recognition, and that Russia has also signalled its aid, depending on the Talibans ability to maintain stability.

The Taliban need this support given what will likely be a skeptical, if not hostile, U.S. and Western European response, French said. The Taliban will also need to uphold their local agreements in the face of a significant drought and the possibility of famine. They also face a generation of Afghans who fought for an Afghanistan in which they hoped the Taliban would never again play a part.

Homayun Sidky, professor of Anthropology

Sidky can discuss why circumstances resulted in a Taliban resurgence and the rebirth of their "Emirate." Previously having worked in the Middle East, Sidky is an ecological anthropologist, with strong interests in the history and theory of anthropology, and the anthropology of religion.

The rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the capitulation of the American-trained and equipped Afghan military, and the shameful flight of President Ashraf Ghani have surprised many in the United States and elsewhere, Sidky said. But sadly, this was an inevitable outcome due to crucial mistakes made by U.S. political and military strategists working with models of governance and political science state-building paradigms inappropriate for that particular cultural and geopolitical context.
With rising vaccination rates, so came more restaurant customers. People thrilled to be out and about in Miami started dining out so frequently, some restaurants saw long waits for tables because there werent enough servers to handle the onslaught.
A survey conducted alongside 42.75 miles of the Tittabawassee River cataloged more than 700 findings of invasive species in and along the river. The survey aimed to detail the effects of last years flood on the river ecosystem.

The survey, conducted by a grant funded invasive species organization called Central Michigan Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, found data showing a wide variety of invasive species in all variations of densities, with terrestrial, woodie species along the river bank making up the majority of sightings.

The survey is important because the earlier you catch an invasive species, the easier it is to get rid of, said Matthew Lindauer, coordinator of the organization.

The survey took a little more than two months to complete and was finished in late July of this year.

Overall, the survey was a success, Lindauer said. Anytime youre getting new data, especially when data like it hasnt been recorded yet, its always good to get a baseline to work from and a goal to work toward. Theres nothing out there that we found that posed an immediate threat to human health.

Specifically, the data reveals a dense population of purple loosestrife in the stretch from Edenville to Lynthur Lane in areas where the rivers edge once was before the dam failures.

The survey came about as a result of the dam failures last year, Lindauer said. And, because there was so much water going through the area it changed the landscape, or waterscape, pretty drastically. We wanted to know what effect that had on the invasive species that were there. To our knowledge, this is the first full survey of the Titabawassee for invasive species. We wanted to observe what things are there to get a better view of the changing environment after something that big took place.

It is likely that the purple loosestrife infestation is due to the failure of the dam and the changes it made to the landscape, according to Lindauer.

Your invasive species hotline Connect with Central Michigan Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area through Facebook. Call: 989-414-2237 OR 989-631-0830 Email: coordinator@cmcisma.org See More Collapse

As far as anything unexpected is concerned, we've found a plant that we haven't verified the identity of yet, but there's a chance that it's flowering rush, which we weren't hoping or expecting to see," Lindauer said. "That's getting tested at Michigan State Universitys plant lab so that we can say for sure what it is.

The plant sample is a question mark until Michigan State University gets back with the organization to verify if it is indeed flowering rush.

If the sample is flowering rush, that unfortunately means it has spread here," Lindauer said. "It is in Michigan, but we havent seen it yet in this immediate area, so its something that were looking out for and keeping on our radar. We are eagerly awaiting to hear from Michigan State.

Some unexpected good news to come out of the survey is that the surveyors did not report any non-native phragmites. It's certainly present in other areas of Midland, but not on the stretches of the Tittabawassee that they surveyed, according to Lindauer.

Its tough to say exactly why, but theres a couple reasons why this could be. It might be because the current of the river is moving too fast for the phragmites to take root, although I doubt that that is it, he said. I know that in previous years phragmites have been one of the more prominent invasive species and in Midland theyre doing a much better job at treating it. They had a ton of success getting it out of places where theyve been trying to tackle it.

Ultimately, the data provided will allow the organization to spread awareness of invasive plant and animal species in the area and provide information for successful management plans and removal.

Central Michigan Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area is a fairly new development, created in 2018 when it split off from the Saginaw Bay Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area. This allowed the Central Michigan Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area to focus on five counties in the Lower Peninsula: Clare, Gladwin, Isabella, Midland and Gratiot.

Headquartered within the Chippewa Nature Center, the organization strives to protect and improve the natural resources, economy and human health in Central Michigan through collaborative outreach and management of invasive exotic species. To fulfill this mission, the organization partners with various federal and state agencies, municipalities, tribes and nonprofits within the five counties.

An invasive species hotline for the area, the organization focuses on letting people know that these invasive species are out there and the potential ramifications of them to destroy our ecosystems, according to Lindauer.

In the future, Central Michigan Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area hopes to devote funding to getting a contractor to treat specific areas or species along the river.

Ideally, we would like to repeat this survey path on an annual basis in the future to continue to monitor how the landscape, or waterscape, will change and how invasive species respond to these changes, Lindauer said.

If youre interested in volunteering, reach out to Lindauer at coordinator@cmcisma.org.

Were always looking to have people get more involved and do volunteer opportunities, Lindauer said. The best thing that people can do to help us is to just be aware of what were doing and what species to be looking out for.
Shelton-based Budderfly has grown from a 2007 start-up company specializing in technology to a business to which other companies outsource the operation of their electrical, heating and cooling systems.

And in the process, the company has become one of the 10 fastest-growing privately held companies in the nation, according to the 2021 Inc. magazine 5,000 list. Revenues at Budderfly grew by 22,468 percent from where they were in 2017.

A total of 42 privately-held Connecticut companies made the magazines list of businesses with the fastest-growing revenues; 18 of them were from Fairfield County, 15 from New Haven County.

Matthew Nemerson, Budderflys vice president of strategic partnerships, said the company employs about 110 people. Nemerson said he expects the company another 30 to 40 employees if we grow as fast as we hope.

The company has clients in nearly every state in the U.S. and almost all of the Canadian provinces, according to Nemerson.

He described Budderflys business model in the simplest of terms.

We're the one paying the utility bill and making sure our customers HVAC systems, freezers and lights are all functioning properly, Nemerson said. Budderfly makes its money by reducing clients energy costs and then splitting the savings with them, he said.

Budderflys shift from a technology firm that made and installed energy savings to an power systems manager began in about 2017, he said. The companys chief executive officer and founder, Al Subbloie, had started Budderfly while he was chief executive officer at Tangoe, an Orange-based expense management software firm.

He joined Budderflys board of directors in January 2016, just four months before he stepped down as chief executive officer of Tangoe. He became president and chief executive officer of Budderfly in October 2017.

Nemerson said a shift in the companys focus was necessary because it turns out there are a lot of barriers to try and get people to invest in new (energy) equipment, new controls.

Nobody put in a new heater until it breaks, he said. Our company puts in the equipment and the customer and the company share in the savings. But nobody had ever thought of outsourcing (the responsibility for) keeping track of your energy usage, your electric meter.

Subbloie said the companys client list includes KFC/Taco Bell, Subway, and Wendys franchises, YMCA fitness locations, retail chains such as JackRabbit, as well as skilled nursing facilities.

Everyone from Quick Serve Restaurants (QSRs), office buildings, and retail locations to assisted living facilities and schools have one thing in common  significantly high energy usage caused by aging building infrastructures and inability to properly regulate power consumption, Subbloie said.

Nemerson said Budderflys service allows client companies to get something off their desk that is important, but at the same not so important that you cant let someone else take care of it.

People have more important things to worry about than paying their electric bill, he said.

Budderfly is the third Connecticut-based start-up that Subbloie, a graduate of Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge and Hartfords Trinty College, has landed on the Inc. 500 or Inc. 5,000 lists over a period of three decades.

Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. magazine, said building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement.

Building one in the crisis weve lived through is just plain amazing, Omelianuk said in a statement. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.

David Sacco, a practitioner in residence at the University of New Havens Pompea College of Business, said energy services are a high-growth business sector.

Its an impressive achievement for any company, Sacco said of making the Inc. list. But its easier for a smaller company to do. As a company gets bigger and its revenues grow, it become harder to replicate.

Some of the brands Budderfly has for clients give the company a certain cache, according to Sacco.

These are popular brands they are working with, he said.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
SHERMAN  Deer Pond Farm is hosting the following programs for the month of September:

First Friday Hike

Sept. 3, 9-11 a.m. No Fee

Fresh air, exercise and good company. Different trails explored each month. Pace adjusted to participants.

Birding: Hawk Watch with story time

Sept. 18, 1-3 p.m.

Throughout the fall and early winter, birds of prey are on the move. Hawks, eagles, vultures and falcons will be flying Southbound overhead, moving to their wintering grounds.

Join Stefan Martin, habitat steward as we look to the sky to identify and learn about these birds as they pass over Deer Pond Farm. A story time and craft will be presented for children too.

Fall Migration Bird Walk

Sept. 23, 9-11 a.m.

Fall migration is upon us. Many birds are moving from their breeding range to their wintering range. Join Miley Bull, senior director of science and conservation at Deer Pond Farm to learn which birds migrate, why and the factors that affect them.

Beginning birding walk

Sept. 26, 1-3 a.m.

Are you new to birding? Would you like help with binocular use and bird identification? In this program led by Deirdra Wallin, center manager, field guides, apps and tips will be shared. This includes information on using bird size and shape, color, behavior and habitat to help with identification.

Trees Along The Trail Walk

Sept. 25, 10 a.m. to Noon

Would you like to learn to identify native trees and shrubs? And understand their wildlife value? Join us for this 1.5 mile walk which will focus on some of the 50-plus native trees and shrubs found at Deer Pond Farm.

Conservation Walk: Healthy Habitats

Sept. 25, 1-3 p.m.

Did you know that there are 97 plant species that are officially designated as invasive in Connecticut? What is an invasive plant anyway, why should you care, and what can you do about them? What plants can you add to your landscape to support healthy habitats for wildlife? Conservation biologist Jim Arrigoni will lead a gentle walk and discussion to answer these questions and more while identifying invasive and native plant species along the way.

All on site programs:

Held outside

Registration required: ctaudubon.org.

$10 adult members, Free child member $15 adult non-members $5 child non-member. No fee when noted. Children under 18 must be with an adult.

Inclement weather cancels.

Bring binoculars, camera, water, and walking stick.

Trails are open to the public dawn to dusk daily. There is limited cell service on trails.

Special note: Please adhere to current COVID-19 protocols. Keep six feet from others and bring a mask. Visitor parking and guided programs at:

57 Wakeman Hill Road, Sherman, CT 06784, 860-799-4074.
DENVER (AP)  The FBI said Wednesday its agents are joining a criminal investigation into an alleged security breach of a rural Colorado county's voting equipment.

The agents are working with Mesa County prosecutors to determine if there was a criminal violation, FBI spokeswoman Courtney Bernal said in a statement.

The federal probe comes after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold alerted federal cyber security officials within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of the suspected May breach.

No elections have occurred since, and the federal officials confirmed the alleged breach posed no significant risks at this point, Griswold said earlier this week.

The allegations involve images of election management software used by Mesa County election's equipment that were obtained by conspiracy theorists.

Griswold's office said it believes one of the images was taken on May 23 from a secure room where the equipment was stored and accessed by Peters, another county elections worker and a non-employee.

Griswolds office identified the non-employee but refused to say anything more about who he is or why he was there. The Associated Press isnt naming him until more information becomes available. He has not been charged with a crime.

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters condemned Griswolds inquiry into the alleged security breach at an event last week in South Dakota hosted by My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, who has become well-known for his unwavering support of former President Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election because of widespread fraud. A range of election officials across the country, including Trumps former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that widespread fraud did not occur.

Peters said Griswold's investigation is an attempt at a takeover of Mesa Countys elections in one of Colorados last Republican strongholds. Peters also alleged the investigation is an attempt by Griswold and Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis to control the way you vote," she told the South Dakota audience.

The dispute is the latest illustration of how the November 2020 election that is a distant memory for many remains front and center for some far-right Trump supporters. A Republican-led audit of Arizona ballots has been going on for months despite any evidence to support the review.

Accelerating the dispute on Wednesday, Griswold's office blasted the My Pillow chief executive as the chief misinformation spreader in a fundraising email and asked Colorado residents to donate to Griswold's reelection campaign to take action to show we stand with the truth, not with conspiracy theories created and spread by sore losers.

The federal inquiry adds yet another layer to the political brawl between Griswold, a Democrat and Peters, a Republican. The feud came to a head last week when Griswold accused Peters of assisting in the security breach by directing staff to turn off video surveillance of its voting equipment before a May 25 software update and allowing a non-employee into the elections office at that time.

Griswold appointed Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner to supervise the countys upcoming elections and a three-person advisory committee to assist Reiner. Griswold also ordered Mesa County to replace its voting equipment due to the posting of the countys voting equipment passwords on a far-right blog.

Colorados voting system has been praised by officials, including former Trump-appointed Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, as one of the nation's safest.

The states election procedures were developed under both Republican and Democrat-appointed secretary of states.

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Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
LES CAYES, Haiti (AP)  Pressure for a coordinated response to Haiti's deadly weekend earthquake mounted Wednesday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble and the injured continued to arrive from remote areas in search of medical care. Aid was slowly trickling in to help the thousands who were left homeless.

International aid workers on the ground said hospitals in the areas worst hit by Saturday's quake are mostly incapacitated and that there is a desperate need for medical equipment. But the government told at least one foreign organization that has been operating in the country for nearly three decades that it did not need assistance from hundreds of its medical volunteers.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Wednesday that his administration will work to not repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid," a reference to the chaos that followed the country's devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government was accused of not getting all of the money raised by donors to the people who needed it.

In a message on his Twitter account, Henry said that he personally will ensure that the aid gets to the victims this time around.

The Core Group, a coalition of key international diplomats from the United States and other nations that monitors Haiti, said in a statement Wednesday that its members are resolutely committed to working alongside national and local authorities to ensure that impacted people and areas receive adequate assistance as soon as possible.

Haitis Civil Protection Agency raised the number of deaths from the quake to 2,189 from an earlier count of 1,941 and said more than 12,000 people were injured. The magnitude 7.2 earthquake destroyed more than 7,000 homes and damaged more than 12,000, leaving about 30,000 families homeless, officials said. Schools, offices and churches also were demolished or badly damaged.

While some officials have suggested that the search phase has to end and heavy machinery should be called in to clear rubble, Henry appeared unwilling to move to that stage.

Some of our citizens are still under the debris. We have teams of foreigners and Haitians working on it, he said.

He also appealed for unity: "We have to put our heads together to rebuild Haiti.

The country is physically and mentally destroyed," Henry said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said a preliminary analysis of satellite imagery after the earthquake revealed hundreds of landslides.

Tensions were growing Wednesday over the slow pace of aid efforts. At the airport in the southwest city of Les Cayes, one of the hardest-hit areas, throngs of people gathered outside the fence at the terminal after an aid flight arrived and crews began loading boxes into waiting trucks. One of the members of a Haitian national police squad on hand to guard the shipments fired two warning shots to disperse a group of young men.

Angry crowds also massed at collapsed buildings in the city, demanding tarps to create temporary shelters that were needed more than ever after Tropical Storm Grace brought heavy rain on Monday and Tuesday.

One of the first food deliveries by local authorities  a couple dozen boxes of rice and pre-measured, bagged meal kits  reached a tent encampment set up in one of the poorest areas of Les Cayes, where most of the warren's one-story, cinderblock, tin-roofed homes were damaged or destroyed by Saturday's quake.

But the shipment was clearly insufficient for the hundreds who have lived under tents and tarps for five days.

Its not enough, but well do everything we can to make sure everybody gets at least something, said Vladimir Martino, a resident of the camp who took charge of the precious cargo for distribution.

Gerda Francoise, 24, was one of dozens who lined up in the wilting heat in hopes of receiving food. I dont know what Im going to get, but I need something to take back to my tent, said Francoise. I have a child.

The quake wiped out many of the sources of food and income that the poor depend on for survival in Haiti, which is already struggling with the coronavirus, gang violence and the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

We dont have anything. Even the (farm) animals are gone. They were killed by the rockslides, said Elize Civil, 30, a farmer in the village of Fleurant, near the quakes epicenter.

Civils village and many of those in the Nippes province depend on livestock such as goats, cows and chickens for much of their income, said Christy Delafield, who works with the U.S.-based relief organization Mercy Corps. The group is considering cash distributions to allow residents to continue buying local products from small local businesses that are vital to their communities.

Large-scale aid has not yet reached many areas, and one dilemma for donors is that pouring huge amounts of staple foods purchased abroad could, in the long run, hurt local producers.

We dont want to flood the area with a lot of products coming in from off the island, Delafield said. She said aid efforts must also take a longer view for areas like Nippes, which has been hit in recent years by ever-stronger cyclical droughts and soil erosion. Support for adapting farming practices to the new climate reality  with less reliable rainfall and more tropical storms  is vital, she said.

Etzer Emile, a Haitian economist and professor at Quisqueya University, a private institution in the capital of Port-au-Prince, said the disaster will increase Haitians dependence on remittances from abroad and assistance from international nongovernmental groups.

Foreign aid unfortunately never helps in the long term, he said. The southwest needs instead activities that can boost economic capacity for jobs and better social conditions.

One of the country's most immediate needs now is medical equipment.

The hospitals are all broken and collapsed, the operating rooms arent functional, and then if you bring tents, its hurricane season, they can blow right away, said Dr. Barth Green, president and co-founder of Project Medishare, an organization that has worked in Haiti since 1994 to improve health services.

Green was hopeful the U.S. military would establish a field hospital in the affected area.

U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crews concentrated on the most urgent task, ferrying the injured to less-stressed medical facilities. A U.S. Navy amphibious warship, the USS Arlington, was expected to head for Haiti on Wednesday with a surgical team and landing craft.

Green noted that his organization has hundreds of medical volunteers, but the Haitian government tells us they dont need them.

He said Project Medishare was deploying nonetheless, along with other organizations. He said he sensed caution on the part of the government after bad experiences with outside aid following previous disasters.

At the public hospital in LAsile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in the southwest, the obstetrics, pediatric and operating wing collapsed, though everyone made it out. Despite the damage, the hospital was able to treat about 170 severely injured quake victims in improvised tents set up on the grounds of the facility.

People were arriving from isolated villages with broken arms and legs.

Hospital director Sonel Fevry said five such patients showed up Tuesday.

We do what we can, Fevry said.

Mercy Corps said about half of LAsiles homes were destroyed and 90% were affected in some way. Most public buildings where people would normally shelter also were destroyed. The nearby countryside was devastated: In one 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch, not a single house, church, store or school was left standing.

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Associated Press writers Trenton Daniel in New York; Christopher Sherman and Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City; and David McFadden in Baltimore contributed to this report.
BOSTON (AP)  Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday filed a nearly $1.6 billion supplemental budget, most of which would be used to provide unemployment insurance relief for employers, which he says is critical to help businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The legislation relies on a roughly $5 billion budget surplus based on better-than-expected tax revenues.

Thanks to careful management of the commonwealths tax revenues and strong economic activity, Massachusetts has an unprecedented surplus at the close of fiscal year 2021, and this legislation ensures those resources are put to work to support local economies and small businesses, the Republican governor said in a statement. Our proposal to provide employers with unemployment insurance relief is fiscally responsible and would provide much-needed support for businesses and workers across the commonwealth."

Driven by pandemic-related claims, the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which is funded by a payroll tax on employers, is expected to be $4 billion in the red by the end of next year, according to state figures.

The governor's proposal to provide $1 billion to the fund would relieve employers future obligations. Business groups have been lobbying for help with the unemployment insurance burden.

The supplemental budget bill would also finally implement the income tax charitable deduction  first approved by voters nearly 20 years ago  helping charities and nonprofits who supported vulnerable populations through the pandemic.

The proposal requires legislative approval.

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TEACHERS UNION-VACCINES

The largest teachers' union in Massachusetts says it supports requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees and eligible students in the state's public schools and colleges.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association announced its stance Tuesday, following a 46-4 vote by its board of directors at an emergency meeting Monday night.

Vaccinations are critical to protect students and educators, the union said.

The MTA believes that as COVID-19 cases continue to rise and the delta variant spreads, a vaccination requirement  with provisions and responsible accommodations negotiated locally under collective bargaining laws  is vital to the continuation of in-person learning in Massachusetts," the union said in a statement.

Vaccinations must be accompanied by other precautions and building improvements, including upgraded ventilation, mask availability, and accessible COVID-19 testing, MTA President Merrie Najimy said in a statement.

The union was also critical of state education officials for not issuing mask requirements for public schools. A spokesperson for state Education Secretary Jim Peyser had no comment.
A few months ago, officers responding to an incident on Goffe Street in New Haven found a 16-year-old boy shot in the back. The boys injuries were not life-threatening, and I join those praying for his full recovery.

But while I am grateful that this story did not end in tragedy, it is shocking just how common gun violence has become across the nation.

The economic hardship, uncertainty and social disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic have led to a dramatic spike in gun violence over the past year. Last month alone, 438 people have been injured or killed nationwide in mass shootings  which include incidents involving four or more injuries or deaths. More recently, in the first half of this year, mass shootings were up 55 percent nationwide compared to 2020.

Yet even as our nation faces this ever-growing crisis of gun violence, legislators have struggled to enact meaningful reform. Disagreements over the causes of gun violence and the best prevention methods have led to bitter partisan gridlock and ultimately put our communities and the safety of our law enforcement officers at risk.

Part of the challenge legislators face is that even as we have plenty of evidence showing the dangers of guns, we still do not have sufficient data to suggest which gun violence prevention strategies, responses or interventions are the most effective.

In 1996, a Republican-controlled Congress effectively halted all federal funding for gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. This meant that for over 20 years, our public health agencies were unable to treat gun violence as the public health crisis that it is.

When I took the gavel as chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds these agencies in 2019, I set about to reverse this two-decade-long lapse in funding. Standing up for this critical issue, I secured $25 million for gun violence prevention research at the NIH and CDC in 2020.

For the first time in more than two decades, research into gun violence prevention resumed. And we provided a further $25 million in resources to the CDC and NIH in 2021 to get these gun violence prevention research projects off the ground.

In fact, one of the beneficiaries of this funding is right here in our community.

Caitlin Elsaesser at the University of Connecticut is currently working on a two-year research project studying ways to reduce firearm threats that are expressed through social media. I am proud that we were able to provide this vital funding and am eager to see the results of her research.

In January, I became chair of the full Appropriations Committee, while keeping my perch overseeing health spending.

I led hearings this spring with the CDC and NIH to assess the agencies progress and continuing needs. What we learned is that these agencies need robust federal funding to fulfill the promise of this vital research.

That is why, in the 2022 funding bills that passed the House in July, I increased the funding provided for gun violence research to $50 million. As the Houses funding bills await consideration in the Senate, I will continue working to preserve this provision in the legislation that goes to President Bidens desk.

By helping to establish whether solutions such as gun-free zones, defensive gun-use practices, waiting periods or background checks are more or less effective in reducing gun violence, this critical funding will play a central role in informing better gun violence prevention policies and legislation.

We can all agree that gun violence is a problem in desperate need of a solution and that a rigorous, evidence-based approach is essential to preserving lives. By working together to provide meaningful research funding, I am hopeful that we can build healthier communities and make work safer for the law enforcement officers sworn to protect them.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro serves as chair of the House Appropriations Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. She represents Connecticuts Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Additional U.S. forces are headed to Haiti to provide humanitarian assistance following a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake Saturday and a subsequent tropical storm that has slowed rescue and recovery efforts.

The death toll continues to climb, with more than 1,400 dead and as many as 6,000 injured, according to The Associated Press.

In the aftermath of drenching rains and driving winds from Grace, a tropical depression that skirted the island Monday, the U.S. is bolstering its response to the aid mission. The Navy deployed the amphibious landing platform dock Arlington on Tuesday, with a contingent of Marines aboard. And the U.S. Coast Guard added seven cutters to the two already on scene.

Eight Army and Air Force helicopters from Joint Task Force Bravo, based in Honduras, also are deploying to the region.

The Defense Department on Sunday established Joint Task Force Haiti at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida at the request of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance.

Read Next: Hourly Evacuation Flights Planned from Kabul as Airlift Accelerates

The task force immediately dispatched a 14-member situation assessment team from Special Operations Command South, followed by Coast Guard helicopters to conduct damage assessments and ferry 15 injured Haitians to urgent-care centers.

As of Tuesday, U.S. Coast Guardsmen had rescued 51 people and provided support to a dozen more in 34 sorties. In addition, the service had delivered 5,500 pounds of medical supplies, according to officials.

Two cutters on scene, the Reliance and the Winslow Griesser, have been joined by the Margaret Norvell.

The helicopters from Honduras -- three UH-60 Black Hawks, three CH-47 Chinooks, and two HH-60 Pave Hawks -- are expected to arrive Wednesday to deliver supplies and support relief efforts, according to a Joint Task Force Bravo press release.

U.S. Southern Command said it also plans to use helicopters from the Puerto Rico National Guard for the response; a Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft, currently operating from El Salvador, will provide aerial imagery.

The Arlington will be carrying two MH-60 Sea Hawk helicopters, a surgical team and a mechanized landing craft to ferry supplies ashore, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.

The expeditionary fast transport Burlington also is involved in the response, according to Kirby, as is a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules and HC-144 Ocean Sentry surveillance aircraft.

According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the quake, aftershocks and related landslides have led to the collapse of at least 700 buildings, including hospitals and schools, and destroyed "several thousand homes."

The infrastructure damage is challenging relief efforts and making it difficult to get information from the damaged area, located along Haiti's southern peninsula.

The earthquake is the second devastating temblor to strike the country in recent decades; in January 2010, much of the capital city of Port au Prince was leveled by a 7.0-magnitude quake, resulting in 250,000 deaths and 300,000 injuries.

An additional 1.5 million people were displaced from their homes.

In 2016, the impoverished nation was hit by Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 storm that killed more than 540 people and caused $1.9 billion in damage.

The most recent quake comes at a time of political turmoil and subsequent economic strife in the country, following the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise, on July 7.

"The U.S. military continues to provide unique air, medical, logistical and engineering capabilities in support of USAID and their Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance," Kirby said. "[USAID is] leading this effort. We are supporting them to help save lives and alleviate human suffering in these critical early stages of a disaster relief operation."

In addition to federal forces, 72 members of the Fairfax County, Virginia, Fire Department's urban search-and-rescue crew have deployed to the disaster site.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: Taiwan, US Coast Guards Meet Despite Chinese Pressure
LONDON  In a packed and emotional session of Parliament, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced accusations Wednesday of needlessly abandoning Afghanistan to the whims of the Taliban and of undermining Britain's position in the world.

During the emergency recall of Parliament, lawmakers, including many from Johnson's Conservative Party, took turns in voicing their regrets and fears at the chaotic turn of events in Afghanistan that has seen the Taliban seize control, 20 years after they were driven from power by a U.S.-led international force following the 9/11 attacks.

Johnson said he had little choice but to follow the decision of U.S. President Joe Biden to take American troops out of Afghanistan by the end of August.

The West could not continue this U.S.-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without U.S. air power and without American might, he said.

I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by NATO in Afghanistan," he added.

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The Taliban used the impending withdrawal of all remaining NATO forces to rapidly sweep through Afghanistan, reaching Kabul on Sunday, a stunning advance that was faster than anticipated, if not unexpected. In response, thousands of people have fled to Kabul Airport in a desperate, chaotic attempt to flee as Western nation evacuate citizens and Afghan employees.

Theres been a major miscalculation of the resilience of the Afghan forces and a staggering complacency from our government about the Taliban threat, said Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party.

Perhaps the most pointed interventions during the debate came from Johnson's Conservative ranks, notably his predecessor Theresa May, who pondered whether Johnson felt he had hoped on a wing and a prayer itd be all right on the night."

We boast about global Britain, but where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul? she asked. "A successful foreign policy strategy will be judged by our deeds, not by our words.

With the Taliban now in charge of Afghanistan, the immediate priority of the British government is to evacuate the 4,000 or so U.K. citizens still in Afghanistan and the thousands of Afghan allies who have helped the U.K. over the past 20 years.

Johnson said a new generous refugee settlement program would allow up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans, primarily women and children, to seek sanctuary in the U.K. in the next few years, including 5,000 this year. The total for this year is in addition to the 5,000 or so Afghan allies that the U.K. is now trying to evacuate from Kabuls international airport.

Johnson said the U.K. would work to unite the international community behind a clear plan for dealing with the Taliban. The prime minister, who is the current president of the Group of Seven leading nations, said he was looking to convene a meeting of the G-7 leaders in the coming days.

We are clear, and we have agreed that itd be a mistake for any country to recognize any new regime in Kabul prematurely or bilaterally, said Johnson, who has spoke with Biden and other world leaders on Afghanistan.

We will judge this regime on the choices it makes and by its actions, rather than its words, he added.

The refugee plan, which is similar to a refugee package for Syria in 2015, came under immediate attack from lawmakers, who said it fell short of what was required, both in terms of speed and numbers.

The government has said 5,000 will be brought to resettle in the U.K. this year, said Chris Bryant, a Labour lawmaker. What are the other 15,000 meant to do? Hang around and wait to be executed?

Johnson said British officials were doing all they can to evacuate U.K. and Afghan citizens who helped the British forces based in Afghanistan and that the Taliban have not sought to disrupt that operation.

The situation has stabilized since the weekend, but it remains precarious, and the U.K. officials on the ground are doing everything that they can to expedite the movement of people, he said. At the moment, it would be fair to say that the Taliban are allowing that evacuation to go ahead.

For many, if not most, U.K. lawmakers, the evacuation represents a huge failure for the Afghanistan mission, which saw 457 British troops die in the effort to stabilize the nation.

Let's stop talking about forever wars. Let's recognize that forever peace is bought not cheaply, but hard through determination and the will to endure, said lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee.

And the tragedy of Afghanistan is that we're swapping that patient achievement for a second fire and a second war," said Tugendhat, who served both in Afghanistan and Iraq.
WASHINGTON -- A "victorious U.S. withdrawal" from Afghanistan was impossible to achieve because the U.S. government created unrealistic timelines to rebuild the country, leading to short-term fixes such as injections of troops, money and resources, according to the watchdog agency created by Congress to provide oversight.

U.S. officials also pushed their own political aims without taking into account what was achievable, a report released Tuesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, concluded in its final "lessons learned." By relying on quick-fix solutions, U.S. programs ultimately worsened the issues that they were meant to address.

"By design, these timelines often ignored conditions on the ground and forced reckless compromises in U.S. programs, creating perverse incentives to spend quickly and focus on short-term, unsustainable goals that could not create the conditions to allow a victorious U.S. withdrawal," according to the report.

The U.S. continued to draw down troops and resources, despite recognizing the Afghan government's failure to address its instability, the report said.

The government's unrealistic timelines -- devised on the "mistaken" belief that the choices in Washington could "transform the calculus of complex Afghan institutions, powerbrokers and communities contested by the Taliban" -- is one of seven lessons explained in the report that the U.S. must learn after almost two decades of war.

Since Congress created SIGAR in the fiscal 2009 National Defense Authorization Act to provide independent oversight on the billions of dollars appropriated for Afghanistan's reconstruction, the inspector general has systematically detailed years of waste, corruption and fraud. In the agency's last quarterly report, SIGAR chief John Sopko provided a grim outlook on the future of a country that the U.S. has spent 20 years and $145 billion trying to rebuild. The Defense Department has also spent an additional $837 billion on warfighting, during which 2,443 American troops and 1,144 allied troops have been killed and 20,666 U.S. troops injured, according to the report.

On Sunday, Taliban fighters poured into Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, ending the Afghan government's rule of the country and signaling the final stage of the U.S. involvement there. Images struck a nerve for many Americans on Monday morning of thousands of desperate Afghans clinging to and chasing after U.S. military aircraft in an attempt to flee the country.

In the midst of the chaos at the airport, the Pentagon deployed additional troops to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, bringing the total number of U.S. forces expected to be in Afghanistan to roughly 6,000 to assist with evacuations from the country.

The Taliban's swift takeover of the country in recent days is not surprising, Sopko told NPR. For the last 10 years, SIGAR has shone a light on the Afghan National Security Forces' weaknesses.

"I think the speed maybe is a little bit of a surprise. But the fact that the [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] could not fight on their own should not have been a surprise to anyone," he said Monday on NPR.

The SIGAR report issued Tuesday maps out a wide range of U.S. failures that led to the collapse of Afghanistan. The mission in Afghanistan was first tied to the defeat of the terrorist group al-Qaida, but the strategy expanded consistently to cover the destruction of the Taliban and corrupt Afghan officials.

A resulting weak and incoherent strategy by the U.S. government shows it was "simply not equipped to undertake something this ambitious in such an uncompromising environment," the report concluded.

As the U.S. government built unsustainable infrastructure, billions of reconstruction dollars were wasted, and persistent violence and insecurity undermined all reconstruction efforts. The U.S. also did not understand the country's social, economic and political dynamics, and attempted to impose Western models of governance onto Afghan economic institutions, the report found.

One of the most "significant failures of the mission" was the government's inability to attract the right civilian and military personnel, according to the report, as well as retain qualified workers. Many U.S. personnel were poorly trained and unqualified, and there was not enough staff to oversee spending, the report said.

Finally, the report found the U.S. did not conduct adequate monitoring and evaluation to figure out what worked and what didn't and how to improve, endangering the lives of U.S., Afghan, and coalition government personnel and civilians.

SIGAR officials said in the report that none of the policymakers the agency interviewed found it acceptable to keep the U.S. involved in Afghanistan for 20 years, the actions of these policymakers made it so that the prolonged involvement was inevitable.

"Not only did U.S. officials misjudge in good faith the time and resources required to rebuild Afghanistan, they also prioritized their own political preferences for what Afghanistan's reconstruction should look like, rather than what they could realistically achieve," the report said.

U.S. officials felt pressured to demonstrate progress and to increase resources for reconstruction as security crumbled, which accelerated unrealistic goals. Even when officials recognized the timelines had backfired, "they simply found new ways to ignore conditions on the ground," the report said.

In one "short-term solution," shortly after former President Barack Obama took office in December 2009, he ordered an 18-month surge of troops, money and resources into Afghanistan. The timeline was "sprung" onto U.S. Central Command, the report said, and commanders were given two days of notice prior to Obama's announcement.

"The U.S. government 'set in motion a series of events that fostered unrealistic expectations of what could be achieved in a few years and ensured the U.S. government's stabilization strategy would not succeed,' " SIGAR said in its latest report, citing one of the agency's earlier reports.

Between 2009 and 2010, spending in Afghanistan spiked more than 50%, though the U.S. had shown it could not manage their previous levels of funding.

"Enormous pressure to demonstrate progress to the Congress and the American and Afghan people distorted accountability systems into spin machines. There was little appetite for honest assessments of what worked and what did not," the report said.

The administration of former President Donald Trump "still continued its predecessor's tendency to draw down troops and resources with little concern for conditions on the ground," despite the U.S. and the Taliban reaching a peace deal in February 2020 to complete the U.S. withdrawal of troops in exchange for commitments from the Taliban to continue negotiations with the Afghan government.

The report concludes a cascade of government decisions resulted in a counterproductive cycle in which "short-term goals generated short timelines, which created new problems that could only be addressed by more short-term goals."

When all else failed, the U.S. government decided to pull out all of its troops, another short-term goal, without taking into consideration how that would impact the reconstruction mission and the personnel necessary to continue security assistance in Afghanistan.
Federal applicants are familiar with employers' requests to include a separate Knowledge, Skills and Abilities narrative (KSA) in their applications. Now, some vacancy announcements are requiring KSAs within the text of the resume. Knowing the best way to incorporate this information into your resume could be key to landing your next job.

Take the case of one Air Force applicant. He applied to an Air Force civilian GS-7 position at Offutt Air Force Base in Ohio. Having read that KSAs needed to be included in the resume, he submitted his application without a KSA narrative attached. But then he started doubting himself. The request seemed so unusual. Had he misread the application? Was his application going to be thrown out as a result?

Related: Search for Government jobs.

It turns out this applicant could rest assured. Novel as the application seemed, he understood the directions correctly. If your next application requests the same of you, don't be put off. Many job candidates find that applications requiring the new KSA treatment are easier to submit.

Why KSAs?

Whether incorporated into the resume or submitted separately, KSAs are a vital part of government applications. In a nutshell, KSAs are the specific knowledge, skills and abilities an agency seeks in a candidate. How far a candidate gets in the application process is likely to be determined by the ability to convincingly address the agency's requested KSA factors.

Federal agencies have been asking for KSAs for more than 20 years. The federal human resources specialists or a panel of experts read the KSAs and "rate and rank" qualifications. The score usually determines whether a candidate is referred to the supervisor and possibly whether an interview results.

But in the interest of efficiency and also to attract more candidates by making the application process easier, many job vacancy announcements from the Department of Defense, government intelligence agencies and the National Security Agency are now requesting that KSAs are incorporated into the resume. (Take note: In its online applications, the Federal Bureau of Investigations still requires KSAs to be addressed separately in essays.)

How Do You Include KSAs in Your Resume?

Including KSAs in your resume is simpler than you might think.

As a prospective job candidate, you may incorporate your KSAs in your resume's Work Experience or Additional Info section.

When doing that, you should aim to use some of the employer's actual KSA language in the KSA-supporting work examples you provide. If possible, try to quantify some of that information with numbers, dollars or percentages.

Remember that rather than use the popular bullet style of private industry resumes, many public sector candidates find it useful to showcase their KSAs through paragraphs on their resume, as the examples below illustrate.

Related: Does your resume pass the 6-second test? Get a FREE assessment.

Both of these examples, while formatted differently, include the actual words used in the employer's KSA request. Many people write KSAs without repeating those words -- that is a mistake.

KSA: Ability to analyze accounting systems and improve processes.

Option 1: Include this headline and descriptive accomplishment in the Work Experience section.

Analyze Accounting Systems and Improve Processes: Developed improved processes for my internal and external customers to gain access to automated accounting systems. The challenge was to design an intake sheet that gathered all the customer information and training the customers in efficiently accessing multiple, complex online accounting systems. I have successfully trained more than 40 accounting staff from 5 major Defense agency customers in accessing the databases saving time from frustrating phone calls, errors and repeated problem solving.

Option 2: Include this accomplishment in the Resume Builder's Additional Info field

Context: I developed improved processes for my internal and external customers to gain access to automated accounting systems. The CHALLENGE was designing the original intake sheet for customer information and passwords, keeping it simple and getting the right information to set up their access codes into the databases. Actions: I designed and tested the worksheets and created functional training material for internal and external customers so the information was received successfully.

Results: This improved the process, effectiveness and efficiency of work operations. I was able to train customers in accessing their accounts in multiple accounting databases with one form, rather than phone calls and continual troubleshooting. This saved hours of time. Also allowed customers to finish system builds through better instruction.

KSA Examples or Stories Told with the CCAR Model

Also observe that the bottom example uses something known as a context, challenge, action and results format (CCAR). The CCAR can prove a useful way to help HR specialists better understand and identify the challenges a candidate faced and the results produced.

One Last Point

Don't get too concerned about the length of your federal resume when including KSAs. Federal resumes are generally longer than most private industry resumes, and agencies should allow for ample room to include examples that support your KSAs.

Do You Have the KSAs to Do the Job?

As far as that Air Force applicant is concerned, still no word on whether he got the job. But one thing he can rest assured about: He got the KSA part of the application dead on.

Related: To apply for jobs that match your skills, visit the Military Skills Translator.

The Next Step: Find the Right Veteran Job

Whether you want to polish up your resume, find veteran job fairs in your area, or connect with employers looking to hire veterans, Military.com can help. Sign up for a free Military.com membership to have job postings, guides and advice, and more delivered directly to your inbox.
How to use the mindat.org media viewer

Click/touch this help panel to close it.

Welcome to the mindat.org media viewer. Here is a quick guide to some of the options available to you. Different controls are available depending on the type of media being shown (photo, video, animation, 3d image)

Controls - all media types

Zoom in and out of media using your mousewheel or with a two-finger 'resize' action on a touch device.

Use the mouse or your finger to drag the image or the view area of the image around the screen.

< and > at the left and right hand side of the screen move forwards and backwards for the other images associated with the media you selected. Usually this is used for previous/next photo in a gallery, in an article or in search results. Keyboard shortcuts: use shift + the left and right arrow keys.

< and > in the bottom center are used for switching between the photos of the same specimen. Keyboard shortcuts: use the left and right arrow keys.

> in the bottom center, raises the information box giving details and further options for the media, < at the top of this box then hides it. Keyboard shortcuts: use the up and down arrow keys.

? opens this help window. Keyboard shortcuts: use the H key or the ? key.

Other keyboard shortcuts:

1 Fit image to screen 2 Fill screen with image 5 Display at full resolution < Make background darker > Make background lighter space Hide/dim titles and buttons

Scalebar

If the field of view (FOV) is specified for the photo, the scalebar appears in the left bottom corner of the viewer. The scalebar is draggable and resizeable. Drag the right edge to resize it. Double click will reset the scalebar to it's default size and position. If the scalebar is in default position, double click will make it circular.

Controls - Video

Video files have a standard set of video controls: - Reset to start, - Skip back, - Play, - Pause, - Skip forwards. Keyboard shortcuts: You can stop/start video play with the P key.

Controls - Animation (Spin Rotation)

Animation (usually 360 degree spin rotations) have their own controls: - enable spin mode. Note that while images are loading this option will not be available but will be automatically activated when the animation has loaded. Once active you can spin the image/change the animation by moving your mouse or finger on the image left/right or by pressing the [ or ] keys.

The button switches to move mode so that you can use your mouse/fingers to move the image around the screen as with other media types.

The button, or the P key will start playing the animation directly, you can interrupt this by using the mouse or finger on the image to regain manual movement control.

Controls - 3D Stereoscopic images

If a stereoscopic 3D image is opened in the viewer, the 3D button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "3D settings" menu. The 3D images can be viewed in several ways:

- without any special equipment using cross-eyed or parallel-eyed method

- with stereoscope

- with anaglyph glasses.

- on a suitable 3D TV or monitor (passive 3D system)

For details about 3D refer to: Mindat manuals: Mindat Media Viewer: 3D

To enable/disable 3D stereo display of a compatible stereo pair image press the 3 key. If the left/right images are reversed on your display (this often happens in full-screen mode) press the 4 key to reverse them.

Controls - photo comparison mode

If a photo with activated comparison mode is opened in the viewer, the button appears in the bottom right corner giving access to "Comparison mode settings" menu.

Several layouts are supported: slider and side by-side comparison with up to 6 photos shown synchronously on the screen. On each of the compared photos a view selector is placed, e.g.: Longwave UV . It shows the name of currently selected view and allows to select a view for each placeholder.

Summary of all keyboard shortcuts
We had mentioned in Tuesdays closing report that Nifty, Sensex may come under pressure. On Wednesday, the indices opened higher but faced a minor correction. On the NSE, there were 689 advances, 1,325 declines and 3 unchanged.

The trend of the major indices on Wednesdays trading are given in the table below:

Vodafone India is in discussion with bond holders to refinance over Rs 6,000 crore of debt that is due in the next four-six months, the company said.

The RBI relaxed restriction placed on HDFC Bank for sourcing of new credit cards. The restrictions on all new launches of the Digital Business generating activities planned under Digital 2.0 will continue till further review by RBI, bank said in the press release.

Hindustan Aeronautics has placed an order of Rs 5,375 crore for 99 F404-GE-IN20 engines and support services with GE Aviation, US to power the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).

Bharat Dynamics signed agreement with MBDA to establish advanced short range air-to-air missile facility in India.

Bharat Forge plans to enter the electric vehicle (EV) space with two-wheelers and three-wheelers in FY22, a top company official said.

ISGEC Heavy Engineering bagged an order for two gas fired boilers from Naval Project, Indian Navy.

Subex won 5-year contract with Dhiraagu for integrated revenue assurance and fraud management.

Indiabulls Real Estate and Embassy Group entities, NAM Estates Pvt Ltd and Embassy One Commercial Property Developments Pvt Ltd, have sought approval from the National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) for their merger.

Religare Broking has partnered with Vested Finance to provide its customers access to foreign stock markets on its broking platform. Vested Finance is an online investment platform that enables Indian investors to invest in the US stock market in a hassle-free manner.

ANG Lifesciences India will acquire two formulation manufacturing facilities from Ind-Swift Limited for Rs 60 crore, payable through internal accrual & bank funding.

The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below:

The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below:
In a path-breaking judgement the Gondia District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to reverse the disputed transaction of Rs18.36 lakh into the customer's bank account.

The Commission even directed SBI to recover the money from the salary of its concerned officers and staff.

In an order on 10 August 2021, a bench led by Bhaskar Yogi, president and Sarita Raipure, member, says, "The opposite party (SBI) is hereby declared liable for the loss caused to the complainants. Opposite party is directed to reverse the disputed transaction of Rs18,36,400 along with simple interest at 6% per annum from 22 November 2019 till realisation to the complainants."

SBI has also been asked to pay Rs25,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and suffering to the complainants, both of whom are senior citizens.

The Commission further says, "Opposite party (SBI) may recover the above amount from the concerned officers or staff after conducting their internal enquiry from the salary of the staff who has committed dereliction in duty for the loss caused to the public institute (bank)."

Advocate Dr Mahendra Limaye, who represented the complainants in this case, says, "This judgement establishes that even if police have not fully investigated in the matter of cyber-crime, victims should not feel remediless and can avail option of civil remedy to fight for their rights in cyberspace and can get the lost amount back."

Gondia-based Dr Suresh Bholeshwar Katre and his wife Minakshi are both senior citizens and had filed a complaint against SBI alleging that the Bank had failed to protect and to take due care in the capacity of the trustee of money deposited in their savings account, resulting in an online fraudulent transaction of Rs12,86,800 and Rs5,49,600, respectively, from their savings account.

On 20 November 2019, both the senior citizens received an SMS on their mobile number saying "Your SBI account will be suspended today 20/11/19 due to wrong date of birth verified in your bank account. For reactive upgrade Fully KYC, immediately by online visiting click link below."

However, earlier the same day, Dr Katre had submitted his documents for know-your-customer (KYC) verification to SBI. After receiving the SMS, he thought the link in the SMS is sent by the Bank since only the Bank has his KYC verification information.

Dr Katre, using the link given in the SMS, updated his date of birth and mentioned the mobile number of his wife that was linked with their two bank accounts. After that Minakshi Katre, the wife of Dr Katre, received a message saying that account activation is successful. She also received an SMS for one-time passcode (OTP), which she shared with a person who called her from the number 9840997056.

On the same day, at around 2.10, both the Katres received messages about change in their net banking login and password from 20 November 2019.

On the night of 20 November 2019, Ms Katre received three SMSs and early morning of 21 November 2019 there were three more SMSs. In total, she received six SMSs informing her about the withdrawal of Rs1,99,800 in each transaction. Again at 5.02am on 22 November 2019, she received an SMS informing her of a withdrawal of Rs88,000 from her account. In total, Rs12.87 lakh vanished from her account in three days.

She also received similar SMS for her other account informing her of the withdrawal of Rs5,49,600 in three transactions at 5.02am on 22 November 2019.

After realising something is wrong with her accounts, Ms Katre reported the matter to SBI while requesting for a debit freeze of the beneficiary account. The Katres also registered a first information report (FIR) with the Gondia police station.

In their plea, the Katres contended that the SBI was unable to provide any information of the beneficiary and this "not-providing beneficiary accounts information as well as not initiating quick action of recalling the amount from the beneficiary bank by opposite party amounts to deficiency in service."

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) master circular on customer services in India dated 1 July 2015 at point no. 5.17 page 31, guidelines are provided for securing electronic payment transactions. These guidelines at (i) say that customer induced options may be provided for fixing a cap on value/mode of transactions/beneficiaries. "In the present case the Opposite party failed to fix the cap on such activities," they said.

The same circular at (iv) mandates that banks may put in place a mechanism for velocity check on the number of transactions effected per day or per beneficiary and any suspicious operations should be subjected to alert within the bank and to the customer.

The senior citizens submitted, "SBI has miserably failed on this count also as they failed to detect the suspicious transaction within the bank, occurring at odd hours of the day and the uncharacteristic velocity of the transactions. Also, though the e-mail ID of the complainant was registered with SBI, it failed to initiate emails for the huge volume of transactions. Failure of SBI to follow the RBI mandated guidelines also amounts to deficiency in service reasonably expected by the bank for the online transactions."

"RBI through KYC guidelines has mandated the opposite party to identify the clients as per their transactions pattern and provide security according to their classification but the opposite party also failed to provide reasonable security to the clients account and hence again liable for deficiency in service," they added.

The Katres also contended that SBI failed to provide robust and dynamic fraud detection and prevention mechanism as this led to happening of fraud and the complainant losing the huge amount of Rs18.36 lakh.

"These acts of omission and commission of SBI, which is one of the leading banks in India, having all the technological innovations at its discretion, of not responding to the enquiry by the complainant regarding detailed transaction information of our accounts and not initiating any proactive measures on its own after the receipt of the report about suspected activities happening on our account, and not protecting our confidential information, amounts to most severe deficiency in service as per banking industry guidelines and norms," the senior citizen couple contended.

In its submission, SBI contended that the Katres committed negligence and were not careful. "And on loss or injury, now the complainant cannot equate it with inadvertence and shift the burden of care on SBI, beneath the effect of instructions and circular of RBI, which even otherwise do not assure for the negligent act of complainant. It is well settled that once the things, which are declared not to follow or commit, if someone commits it, he is bound to suffer."

The Commission visited the website of SBI and took screenshots to understand the requirements of creating the user ID and login password.

It says, "From the screenshots for user-driven registrationnew user, it seems that the account number, customer identification file (CIF) number, branch code are mandatory fields and from pleadings, the complainant has only shared the birth date and the OTP. Thus the question as to who shared the account number and CIF number is to be seen."

"Only two persons, the complainant and the bank know the above details and if the complainant has received phone calls and the link on the same day and the number submitted in the KYC application when he had submitted the KYC documents, it is obvious that the confidential information is parted by the employees of the bank only," the bench noted.

Further it observed, "Unless the bank is able to satisfy the Court of either an express condition in the contract with its customer or an unequivocal ratification, it will not be possible to save the bank from its liability. Banks do business for their benefit. Customers also get some benefits. If banks are to insist upon extreme care by the customers in minutely looking into the passbook and the statements sent by them, no bank perhaps can do a profitable business. It is common knowledge that the entries in the passbooks and the statements of account sent by the bank are either not readable, decipherable or legible.

"There is always an element of trust between the bank and its customer. The banks business depends upon this trust."

Coming down heavily on SBI, the district commission observed that details of miscreants can be traced but the bank does not help poor consumers.

"Even the employees of the bank share details of customers to fraudsters, which can be taken note of, for the simple reason that a person's bank details are only with the bank or the consumer. Then how come anyone knows that a particular person has such and such a bank account in such and such a bank at such and such place."

"Thus, it is a burden on the part of the bank and its employees to discharge their burden first then only can the complainant be held responsible for any alleged negligence. Hence looking from any angle the opposite parties miserably failed to discharge their burden that the complainant was negligent.

"In view of the above ruling and facts of the present complaint, the complaint must be allowed with cost and compensation," the commission says.

It then directed SBI to reverse the transaction for Rs18.36 lakh to the bank accounts of the Katres and "recover the public amount from the salary of the public servant, who has performed their duty capriciously and caused harassment and mental agony to the complainants after conducting their internal enquiry from the staff, who has committed dereliction in duty, resulting in the loss, and cost to the public authority as per Supreme Court Judgment in case of Lucknow Development Authority vs. M. K Gupta 1994 AIR 787."

Here is the copy of the judgement from the Gondia District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission:
As COVID-19 hospitalizations at Midland Memorial Hospital continue to spike, here are the main takeaways from Tuesdays hospital press briefing.

--Officials reported there were 93 COVID-19 patients in the hospital Tuesday morning, up six from the previous day and 14 from last Thursday. Twenty-two of those patients are in critical care and 20 are on ventilators.

--The age range of COVID-19 patients continues to skew younger than in previous surges. Officials reported the following age breakdown: nine patients in their 20s, 18 in their 30s, 16 in their 40s, three in their 80s.

--The number of vaccinated patients in the hospital continues to align with the reported efficacies of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Officials said that 87 percent of the COVID-19 patients on Tuesday were unvaccinated, which came to a total of 12 breakthrough cases in the hospital. The age range of the breakthrough patients is 51 to 87.

--Officials said there were two COVID-19 patients in the labor and delivery ward because they were actively in labor.

--The percentage of residents testing positive for the coronavirus at Midland Health sites is at 33 percent, up from about 10 percent a month ago.

--The CDC has recommended booster shots for vaccinated individuals who are severely immunocompromised, such as those who have received organ transplants. Hospital officials said they would have more information on booster shots available by Thursday.

--Officials recommended canceling or delaying community gatherings, saying, It's very difficult to have a safe indoor gathering right now.

--Both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals should be wearing a mask in public and social distancing because of the viral load in the community, officials said.

--The emergency department is overwhelmed, and hospital officials asked that residents not come to the ER solely to receive a COVID-19 test. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Larry Wilson said residents should seek treatment from their primary care physicians unless they are experiencing severe symptoms, such as difficulty breathing.
BANGKOK (AP)  More than 1,000 people have been killed by security forces in Myanmar since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi about six months ago, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors protest-related arrests and deaths in Myanmar, said it confirmed two more deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,001.
WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines' effectiveness is slipping.

The plan, as outlined by the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top health authorities, calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The doses could begin the week of Sept. 20.

Our plan is to protect the American people, to stay ahead of this virus, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said as the agency cited a raft of studies suggesting that the vaccines are losing ground while the highly contagious variant spreads.

People who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also probably need extra shots, health officials said. But they said they are waiting for more data.

Officials said that before any booster program starts up, the Food and Drug Administration and a CDC advisory panel would need to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an extra dose.

We have a responsibility to give the maximum amount of protection, President Joe Biden said at the White House. He added that extra doses are also the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.

The announcement came the same day the Biden administration said it would require nursing homes to mandate vaccinations for staffers in order to continue receiving federal funds. Hundreds of thousands of nursing home workers remain unvaccinated, despite the heightened risk of fatal infections among elderly residents.

Officials said it is very clear that the vaccines protection against infections wanes over time, and they noted the worsening picture in Israel, which has seen a rise in severe cases, many of them in people already inoculated.

They said the U.S. needs to get out ahead of the problem before it takes a more lethal turn here and starts leading to increasing hospitalizations and deaths among the vaccinated.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's foremost expert on COVID-19, said one of the key lessons of the coronavirus is that its better to stay ahead of it than chasing after it.

The first boosters would go to people in high-priority groups that received the initial U.S. vaccinations: nursing home residents, health workers and those with underlying health conditions. Health officials are likely to recommend that the booster be the same brand of vaccine that people received initially.

Dr. Mark Mulligan of NYUs Langone Health center welcomed the announcement, saying: Part of leadership is being able to see around the corner and make hard decisions without having all the data. It seems to me thats what theyre doing here."

Top scientists at the World Health Organization bitterly objected to the U.S. plan, noting that poor countries are not getting enough vaccine for their initial rounds of shots.

Were planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while were leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket," said Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHOs emergencies chief.

The organization's top scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, said the evidence does not show boosters are needed for everyone, and she warned that leaving billions of people in the developing world unvaccinated could foster the emergence of new variants and result in even more dire situations."

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy rejected the notion that the U.S. must choose between America and the world," saying: We clearly see our responsibility to both."

White House officials noted that the U.S. has donated 115 million doses to 80 countries, more than all other nations combined. They said the U.S. has plenty of vaccine to dispense boosters to its own population.

Israel is already offering booster shots to people over 50. And European regulators are looking into the idea.

Last week, U.S. health officials recommended a third shot for some people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients. Offering boosters to all Americans would be a major expansion of what is already the biggest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Nearly 200 million Americans have received at least one shot.

Some experts have expressed concern that calling for boosters would undermine the public health message  and reinforce opposition to the vaccine  by raising more doubts in the minds of people already skeptical about the shots effectiveness.

As for why the vaccines appear to be less effective over time at stopping infections, there are indications that the bodys immune response to the shots fades, as it does with other inoculations. But also, the vaccines simply may not protect against the delta variant as well as they do against the original virus. Scientists are still trying to answer the question.

Officials said the eight-month timeframe was a judgment call about when vaccine protection against severe illness might fall, based on the direction of the current data. "Theres nothing magical about this number, the surgeon general said.

Nearly 20 months into the outbreak, the scourge has killed 620,000 Americans. Just weeks after the president declared the countrys independence from COVID-19 on July Fourth, emergency rooms in parts of the South and West are overloaded again, and cases are averaging nearly 140,000 per day, quadrupling in just a month.

In making its announcement, the CDC released a number of studies conducted during the delta surge that suggest that the vaccines remain highly effective at keeping Americans out of the hospital but that their ability to prevent infection is dropping markedly.

One of the studies looked at reported COVID-19 infections in residents of nearly 15,000 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. It found that the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against infection fell from about 74% in March, April and early May to 53% in June and July.

The study examined all COVID-19 infections, with or without symptoms. The researchers said more work is needed to determine if there was a higher incidence of infections that resulted in severe illness.

Another study was a look at 21 hospitals. It found that the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing COVID-19-associated hospitalizations was 86% at two to 12 weeks after the second dose, and 84% at 13 to 24 weeks after. The difference was not considered significant.

A third study, conducted in New York state, found that protection against hospitalizations stayed steady at about 95% over the nearly three months examined. But vaccine effectiveness against new laboratory-confirmed infections declined from about 92% in early May to about 80% in late July.

Also, the CDC released Mayo Clinic patient data from Minnesota that showed that in July, when the delta variant was prevalent, Moderna's vaccine was 76% effective against infection and Pfizer's 42%.

Some scientists had been looking for signs that hospitalizations or deaths are increasing, as a necessary indicator that boosters might be needed.

To some leading scientists, the new studies would not be sufficient, in and of themselves, to make the case for a booster, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases expert at Vanderbilt University and liaison to an expert advisory panel that helps the CDC form its vaccination recommendations.

___

Stobbe reported from New York. Associated Press writers Carla K. Johnson in Washington state and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.

___

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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An Andrews man who won $5.5 million in a lawsuit against La Fogata Mexican Grill after he sustained an injury during a bar fight in 2019 has been arrested for driving while intoxicated, according to jail records.

Daniel Rawls filed a lawsuit through his attorney in May claiming the restaurant and bar was negligent when they overserved him alcohol. He later sustained a head injury during an alternation with another customer in the parking lot of La Fogata, according to the lawsuit.
Horry-Georgetown Technical College will begin requiring those who enter into campus buildings to wear face coverings beginning Friday, the college said Wednesday.

Due to the rise in COVID-19 cases in the area, face masks will be required by anyone entering buildings at all campuses, except for private offices, regardless of vaccination status. The mask requirement will begin Friday and is effective until further notice.

"The HGTC leadership team is seriously concerned about the health and well-being of employees and students," HGTC President Dr. Marilyn Murphy Fore said in a statement. "We believe this is in the best interest of everyone and will help us do all we can to promote health and safety for members of the campus community. We will continue to monitor the situation and lift the requirement as soon as we feel comfortable."

HGTC plans to host vaccination clinics during its "Welcome Back" celebration and will be administering the Moderna vaccine to employees and students at no charge. Here is the schedule:
BEARDSTOWN  A downtown building dating to 1889 has shown such dire signs of deterioration that the mayor has been forced to close down the streets around it, hire structural engineers to determine its safety and evacuate a business.

My concern as mayor is public safety, Beardstown Mayor Tim Harris said.

The building at 121 W. Main St. is privately owned, but with so many calls from residents expressing concern about a bowing column and visible stress fractures, Harris visited the site Aug. 6.

By Aug. 7, engineers were at the site.

Structural engineers have deemed it unsafe, Harris said, noting that they determined the buildings collapse is imminent. We had to evacuate it.

The building at Main and Washington streets has two owners. The Mainstreet Tap bar on the northwest corner was shut down. The southwest corner of the building and the second story are owned by Christy Bley. A column on that corner has shown movement that forced the city to shut down and fence off parts of Main and Washington streets.

The owner has been 100% cooperative, Harris said of Bley.

The section Bley owns mainly has been used for storage for the past several years.

With it unclear whether the building will be demolished or renovated  and how long either of those options might take  Harris is doing what he can to make sure the area is safe.

The power, gas and electric have all been shut off, he said.

Demolishing the building is not an option for Bley, who said it has been in her family for more than 50 years.

The building coming down is not on my schedule, she said, adding that there is not too much weight on the second floor over the column in question.

Bley also had structural engineers at the site Tuesday to determine how to fix the problem.

The engineers said they could be out here working in two weeks, Bley said.

Harris is heeding the engineers he hired and is worried about not just the bowing column but the flow of traffic around the building and the citys recently renovated sewer system.

Standing on Main Street, Harris pointed to a dip in the road and noted it as the beginning of a sinkhole that will worsen when the Illinois River rises.

Beardstown has a history of sinkholes, he said.

Main Street also is a 80,000-pound Class I route for large semitrailer trucks.

The trucks cause vibrations, Harris said.

Despite having two owners, the sections of the building  known as the Odd Fellows Building  share the same safety components, from an exterior metal beam to a new roof, joists and walls. Both the bar owner and Bley have been cooperating, Harris said.

Though public safety is at the forefront of Harris mind, he is well aware of the buildings historic value to the city.

I dont think anyone wants to see a historic building come down, he said.
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Alert: Afghan health official says 1 killed, 6 wounded when Taliban violently dispersed protest
A woman who pulled off a road to change drivers during a trip with her father and three young children was knocked unconscious and arrested by two Northern California sheriff's deputies, who then lied about the encounter to responding paramedics and on official reports, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

Body cameras worn by the deputies with the Solano County Sheriff's Office recorded them pulling guns on Nakia Porter before slamming her to the pavement while handcuffing her along a rural road in the town of Dixon on the night of Aug. 6, 2020. Porter's father, Joe Powell, was also placed in handcuffs and briefly detained.

Porter was jailed overnight on suspicion of resisting arrest, but never charged. She said the ordeal was confusing and dehumanizing.

I was doing my best to do everything right, giving no reason to be treated like this, said Porter, 33, who is Black.

The lawsuit brought by attorney Yasin Almadani accuses the deputies of violating state and federal civil rights statutes by engaging in unlawful seizure, assault and excessive force."

Thankfully, the video evidence contradicted the fabricated facts, Almadani said. So what occurred here, we believe, was a racially motivated beating and terrorizing of a Black family.

Solano County sheriffs officials couldn't immediately comment because the department hadn't received a copy of the complaint by Wednesday afternoon, Sgt. Christine Castillo said in an email.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento asks a judge to order a jury trial for the arresting deputies, Dalton McCampbell and Lisa McDowell, and seeks unspecified damages.

The events unfolded as Porter and her 61-year-old father were making the 100-mile (160-kilometer) drive home to Orangevale, northeast of Sacramento, after a family trip to Oakland. Her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, and her 4-year-old niece were in the back seat. Porter is a software engineer, and her father, who's retired, worked in computer networking.

Porter was behind the wheel when they stopped along an empty road in Dixon. The deputies' squad car pulled up behind them with lights flashing. Porter already was out of the car and explained that they were just switching drivers and would be on their way, according to the court filing.

The deputies said they noticed the car had mismatched license plates  a California plate on the back of the car, and one from Maryland on the front.

However, the deputies had called in the rear license plate to their dispatch and knew that it matched the description of the car and that there was no report of the car being stolen, the filing states.

McCampbell, who had his gun drawn, ordered Porter back to the driver's side, and he and his partner moved to detain her, according to edited bodycam footage acquired by Almadani and provided to The Associated Press. Almadani acquired more than 18 minutes of raw footage through a California Public Records Act request, and edited it down to just under 10 minutes.

For those that are listening, I am not resisting, Porter said into the deputies' cameras. You are not reading me my rights.

The deputies pushed Porter against the squad car and then to the pavement while trying to handcuff her.

Put your hands behind your back. Get on your stomach," McCampbell shouted.

The footage gets very shaky, and it's hard to see whether Porter is resisting. Porter and the court filing allege the deputies punched her in the head and the stomach, kneeled on her back and pulled her hair. She said she passed out seconds after the deputies closed the handcuffs.

I think she's out, McCambell said on the video.

Porter, who is 5-foot-2 (1.6 meters) and 125 pounds (57 kilograms), said she was dragged unconscious to the back of the squad car, where she came to about five minutes later.

When paramedics arrived, McCampbell is heard saying Porter fought them, was knocked out for about 20 seconds and was able to walk herself to the squad car. McDowell estimates to the paramedics that Porter was unconscious for about five seconds.

Porter requested she be transported to a hospital, according to the lawsuit.

Deputies McCampbell and McDowell denied the request, continuing to lie to the paramedics by minimizing the assault and the injuries they had inflicted on Ms. Porter, the court filing said.

The lawsuit accuses the deputies of lying on their arrest reports about Porter fighting them and the length of time she was unconscious. Contact information for McCampbell and McDowell could not be found.

The suit also names a superior officer who signed off on the reports.

Cedric Alexander, a police use-of-force expert, was troubled by the video. He wondered why the deputies seemed to rush to detain Porter and Powell without first taking actions to de-escalate the situation, especially with three young kids in the car.

What's concerning here is the use of force," said Alexander, a former president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. "There needs to be a full investigation conducted outside of the sheriff's department, preferably by a district attorney's office.
On Wednesday, Landmarks Illinois announced the publishing of a new online database, Women Who Built Illinois, which includes information on over 100 female architects, engineers, developers, designers, builders, landscape architects, interior designers and clients and their projects which helped build Illinois between 1879 and 1979.

The first-of-its-kind database is the result of an in-depth survey of women in architecture, real estate and design-related fields that Landmarks Illinois publicly launched in 2020  a year that marked the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, upholding a U.S. citizen's right to vote regardless of sex.

The database seeks to call attention to the women who helped to create places that today are cherished by communities and property owners across Illinois. Many of these locations remain unprotected without a local landmark status or lack National Register designation that would provide opportunities for important financial preservation incentives, however.

"This new database recognizes those who laid the path for women today and who continue to impact the built environment of Illinois and Chicago," said Lisa DiChiera, Landmarks Illinois director of advocacy, who spearheaded the project, in a statement. "We hope students and professionals in architecture, planning and public history will be inspired to study these women, their careers and built works."

Among the more than 100 people in the Women Who Built Illinois database are:

Georgia Louise Harris Brown, the second African American woman to become a licensed architect and engineer in the United States and who did structural calculations for many projects and important firms, including Mies van der Rohe's Promontory Apartments in Chicago.

Marion Mahony Griffin, an important member of Frank Lloyd Wright's office for more than a decade and a prominent Prairie School architect who designed the Robert Mueller and Adolph Mueller houses in Decatur.

Gertrude Lempp Kerbis, an architect who opened her own firm, Lempp Kerbis, in 1967 following experience studying with architect Mies van der Rohe and working at many high profile architecture firms in Chicago, including C.F. Murphy Associates and Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Kerbis designed the 1962 O'Hare Airport Rotunda, which Landmarks Illinois included on its 2017 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois due to its uncertain future amid O'Hare terminal expansion.

Greta Lederer, a suburban home builder who in the 1950s developed the neighborhoods of Strawberry Hill, Westwood Acres and Skokie Ridge in Glencoe and additional homes in Highland Park and Northbrook. A 1957 Chicago Daily Tribune article attributed to her $10 million worth of home development on the North Shore.

Women with ties to the Metro East included in the project include Bernice Ropiequet Goedde, born in East St. Louis in 1902, who was the first woman to be elected to the East St. Louis School Board, and who later became president of the board, and was on the City Planning Commission for East St. Louis. Goedde was also a senior architect for Southern Illinois University and sat on the commission which oversaw the development of the SIU Edwardsville campus.

Retired architect Margaret Zirkel Young, who is also included in the Women Who Built Illinois database, said she hopes the project will inspire and motivate more women to enter the architecture profession. Zirkel Young was project architect at Ezra Gordon-Jack M. Levin & Associates for the firm's 1970s design commissions of Chicago's Newberry Plaza, River Plaza and the East Bank Club, to name a few.

"I never questioned being in a room with all men and no women," said Zirkel Young, in a statement. "I knew from the time of my first drafting class at Senn High School I wanted to be an architect. A favorite Goethe quote I would return to throughout my career was, 'Boldness has genius.'"

Landmarks Illinois encourages local historic preservation commissions and municipal planning departments to evaluate and prioritize places identified in the Women Who Built Illinois survey for local landmark and/or National Register designations. Landmarks Illinois also welcomes additional research on women in the survey for whom more information is needed.

"I am so impressed by this pursuit to research and document the women who are so important to the history of our state and our built world," said Kim Kerbis, project donor and daughter of late architect Gertrude Lempp Kerbis, in a statement. "Some of these inspiring women are known, many are unknown, but all are underappreciated, under-recognized and undervalued. The work Landmarks Illinois and its team of researchers and historians are doing is fascinating and long overdue."

Landmarks Illinois, now celebrating its 50th Anniversary, is a membership-based nonprofit organization serving the people of Illinois.

Research for and development of the database was led by DiChiera of Landmarks Illinois and Erica Ruggiero, Principal at McGuire Igleski & Associates, Inc., and Landmarks Illinois intern Cray Kennedy. Additional research and peer review was provided by Julia Bachrach, a Chicago-based architectural historian, planner and preservationist, and student volunteer Jared Saef, who also contributed research and photography.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Small children are among those held amid a new wave of detentions of ethnic Tigrayans suspected of supporting Tigray forces in Ethiopia's growing war, one detainee says, while witnesses and a human rights watchdog describe fresh disappearances in recent weeks.

In an interview with The Associated Press on a hidden phone, one of those detained described grim conditions in which more than 700 Tigrayan military members, their families and retirees are held at a camp in Ethiopias Oromia region. Readily giving his military ID number but speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the non-combatant said that two detainees died after beatings and another died from lack of medication for a pre-existing condition.

They call us cancers and tell us they will destroy us, the detainee said, describing how military personnel overseeing the detainees threatened to shoot each and every one of you if anyone tried to escape. New detainees continue to arrive, he said, and they have not appeared in court. He listed five children detained who are under 3 years of age.

His account reveals worse conditions than those described in AP interviews with more than a dozen detainees and their families earlier this year before the resurgent Tigray forces retook much of the Tigray region in June and the Ethiopian military retreated. His account could not be verified as Ethiopian authorities have not granted the press access to detention facilities.

A spokeswoman for the International Committee for the Red Cross confirmed that the group started visiting detainees in July, months after being made aware of them, but she could not comment on the conditions in which they're held.

What began as a political dispute between the current prime minister and Tigray regional leaders who dominated Ethiopias government for nearly three decades has killed thousands of people since the fighting began in November. The war has spilled into Ethiopia's Amhara and Afar regions in recent weeks and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Millions of people in the Tigray region remain cut off from the world, and some have begun to starve to death.

Ethiopias government, on the defensive, last week called on all able citizens to stop the Tigray forces once and for all, while urging people to watch for suspected collaborators. Although the government has repeatedly said it is targeting the Tigray forces and not ordinary Tigrayan civilians, numerous witness accounts allege otherwise.

An Ethiopian military spokesman, Col. Getinet Adane, did not respond to a request for comment on the detainees account or a question about why small children are allegedly being held.

Outside the military, thousands of ordinary Tigrayans have been targeted.

In a new report on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said Ethiopian authorities have carried out rampant arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of Tigrayans in the capital, Addis Ababa, since the stunning turn in the war in June, when Ethiopia announced a unilateral cease-fire. The rights group cited interviews with eight current and former detainees plus relatives, witnesses and lawyers of 23 others whose whereabouts are unknown.

Several people said they later saw detained civilian relatives or friends in state media broadcasts claiming to show captured Tigray forces.

The government should immediately stop its ethnic profiling, which has cast unjustified suspicion on Tigrayans, Human Rights Watch researcher Laetitia Bader said.

The report comes as United States special envoy Jeffrey Feltman visits Ethiopia in the latest effort to press the government and Tigray forces to immediately stop the fighting.

It appeared that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, would not be meeting the U.S. special envoy, as he traveled to Turkey on Wednesday to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish president said his country would be willing to act as a mediator in Ethiopia's tensions with neighboring Sudan over a disputed border area.

Among the newly detained in Ethiopia is Hailu Kebede, an official with the Salsay Woyane Tigray opposition party who has briefed diplomats on the war. His lawyer, Kirubel Gebregziabher, confirmed that he is accused of participating in the war and misinforming about a deadly airstrike by Ethiopia's military on a crowded market in Tigray in June. His next court appearance was delayed until Thursday in what supporters called an attempt to block any meeting with the U.S. envoy.

While the war is said to be popular among Ethiopians, some have expressed distress at the treatment of Tigrayans in their communities.

Last week a government worker, who described his ethnicity as Amhara and Oromo, wept as he told the AP that police and local authorities were going around government housing in his city in the Oromia region and telling Tigrayan families they had hours to clear out.

Without any legal paper, without any reason, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

These are Ethiopians, he said. Its horrible. ... Im a patriotic person, but that doesnt mean I support the government to do something unacceptable against Tigrayans.

Ethiopia has 6 million Tigrayans. What will the country do with them? he asked.

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Suzan Fraser in Turkey contributed.

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This version corrects to say the Turkish presidents mediation offer was for Ethiopias tensions with neighboring Sudan over a disputed border area.
Getty Images

Jacksonville Main Street has been selected as a community navigator to help small-business owners with options for pandemic-related economic recovery funding opportunities.

Illinois Main Street selected 21 organizations statewide to take part in the Illinois Small Business Community Navigator Program.
Jacksonville Police

ACCIDENTS

 Arthur W. Nergenah, 90, of Chapin was cited on a charge of failing to yield after the car he was driving and one being driven by Grant W. Varich, 78, of Jacksonville collided at 11:42 a.m. Tuesday in the 900 block of South Main Street.



Greene County

Greenfield Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Darrius D. Williams, 18, of Greenfield was booked into Greene County Jail at 4:34 p.m. Thursday on charges of burglary, obstruction of justice, resisting a peace officer and possession of a stolen firearm.

Roodhouse Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Kari Lynn Schofield, 33, of Jacksonville was booked into Greene County Jail at 11:11 p.m. Aug. 11 on charges of driving while license is revoked or suspended and operating an uninsured motor vehicle.

White Hall Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Cody J. Costello, 33, of Carrollton was booked into Greene County Jail at 4 a.m. Aug. 7 on charges of driving under the influence and improper lane use.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer
BORMES-LES-MIMOSAS, France (AP)  A wildfire near the French Riviera killed two people and was burning out of control Wednesday in the forests of the popular region, fueled by wind and drought. Over 1,100 firefighters were battling the flames and thousands of tourists and locals were evacuated to safer areas.

The fire started Monday evening 40 kilometers (24 miles) inland from the coastal resort of Saint-Tropez. Whipped up by powerful seasonal winds coming off the Mediterranean Sea, the fire had burned 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of forest by Wednesday morning, local officals said.

The prefect of the Var region, Evence Richard, told reporters that two people were killed. The local prosecutor said the bodies were found in a home that burned down near the town of Grimaud. An investigation has been opened to formally identify the victims.

At least 27 people, including five firefighters, have suffered smoke inhalation or minor injuries from the blaze, the prefecture of the Var region said. Authorities closed a highway north of the fire area on Wednesday afternoon due to the thick smoke.

In the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, huge water-bombing planes could be seen swooping down to fill their bellies with water to dump across the flaming Riviera backcountry.

The end of the day brought new risks, because the airborne battle against the blaze by nine water-dropping aircraft and two planes spreading fire retardant must stop at night. Reinforcements to give firefighters on the ground periodic rests were coming in from northern France and elsewhere.

The wildfire has forced about 10,000 people to flee homes, campgrounds and hotels, sending them to sleep in temporary shelters, the prefect tweeted. Among them were over 1,000 people who stayed around a gym in the seaside resort of Bormes-Les-Mimosas where authorities supplied food and water.

Vassili Bartoletti and his family, who are from northeastern France, were evacuated early Tuesday from a campground where they had been vacationing.

Around midnight, someone knocked at our door and told us to take our belongings and leave. At the end of the alley, we could see the red flames, he told The Associated Press. So we left hastily.

Bartoletti said his 6-year-old son was very anxious" about the fire.

"I showed him the map. I showed him we were far away, that weve been moved to a safe place in Bormes-Les-Mimosas, he said.

Last month, while the family was on vacation on the Italian island of Sardinia, a major blaze there for three days threatened the town where they had rented a house. They did not have to evacuate but endured smoke in the air and saw water-dumping planes and helicopters going back and forth repeatedly.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been vacationing in a nearby coastal fortress, visited the fire zone on Tuesday and praised the firefighters for their work.

French officials warned that the fire risk would remain very high through Wednesday because of hot, dry weather. Temperatures have reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) in recent days.

Wildfires have swept across the Mediterranean region in recent weeks, leaving areas in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain in smoldering ruins. In Greece on Wednesday, a major wildfire northwest of Athens, the capital, decimated large tracts of pine forest for a third straight day.

In neighboring Albania, hundreds of hectares (thousand of acres) have burned over the last month. Police reported Wednesday that a former deputy minister has been arrested for arson.

In Spain, authorities in the central region of Castilla y Leon said firefighters had established a perimeter around a blaze that has consumed at least 12,000 hectares (29,650 acres) this week. A fire on the Canary Islands was also brought under control after singeing 300 hectares (740 acres) of farmland.

While the Mediterranean is known for its sunny, hot summers, scientists voice little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving extreme events such as heat waves, droughts and wildfires. Such hardships are likely to happen more frequently as the Earth continues to warm, they say.

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Corbet contributed from Saulieu, France. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Joseph Wilson in Madrid, and Llazar Semini in Tirana, Albania contributed to thisstory.

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Follow AP's coverage of climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change
Turkey offers to mediate between Ethiopia and Sudan View Photo

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday backed a peaceful resolution for the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia that has displaced tens of thousands and left millions hungry. He also said Turkey was willing to mediate between Ethiopia and Sudan to resolve a separate border dispute.

Erdogan spoke during a joint news conference with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The visit comes amid a broadening of the conflict in Tigray, which began in November after a political fallout between Abiy and the leaders of the Tigray region who had dominated Ethiopias government for nearly three decades.

Thousands have been killed in the nine-month war in Tigray that has been marked by widespread allegations by ethnic Tigrayans of gang rapes, manmade local famines and mass expulsions of Tigrayans by Ethiopian and allied forces.

The peace, tranquility and integrity of Ethiopia, which has a strategic location and importance in Africa, is important to us, Erdogan said. All the countries in the region will be affected by the worsening of the situation (over Tigray).

Erdogan, who hosted General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan, chairman of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, in Ankara last week, said Turkey was also prepared to contribute toward a peaceful resolution of a dispute between Ethiopia and Sudan over the Al-Fashaga region.

We are ready to make any contribution to an amicable resolution of the problem, including mediation, he said.

On Wednesday, Erdogan and Abiy oversaw the signing of military agreements, including a military financial cooperation deal. Details of the deals were not immediately available.
UKs Johnson accused of complacency over Afghanistan retreat View Photo

LONDON (AP)  In a packed, emotional session of Parliament, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced accusations Wednesday from lawmakers across the political spectrum of needlessly abandoning Afghanistan to the whims of the Taliban and of undermining Britains position in the world.

The members of Parliament were recalled from their summer break to attend the emergency session in London. Many, including a large number from Johnsons Conservative Party, voiced strong regrets and fears at the chaotic turn of events in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have seized control 20 years after being driven from power by a U.S.-led international force following the 9/11 attacks.

Johnson said he had little choice but to follow the decision of U.S. President Joe Biden to take American troops out of Afghanistan by the end of August.

The West could not continue this U.S.-led mission, a mission conceived and executed in support of America, without American logistics, without U.S. air power and without American might, he said.

I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or for a military solution imposed by NATO in Afghanistan, he added.

The Taliban used the impending withdrawal of all remaining NATO forces to rapidly sweep through Afghanistan, reaching Kabul on Sunday, a stunning advance that was faster than anticipated, if not unexpected. Thousands of people have fled to Kabul Airport in a desperate attempt to flee as Western nations evacuate citizens and Afghan employees.

Theres been a major miscalculation of the resilience of the Afghan forces and a staggering complacency from our government about the Taliban threat, said Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party.

Some of the most pointed interventions during the debate came from Johnsons Conservative ranks, notably his predecessor Theresa May, who asked whether Johnson had hoped on a wing and a prayer itd be all right on the night.

We boast about global Britain, but where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul? she asked. A successful foreign policy strategy will be judged by our deeds, not by our words.

With the Taliban now in charge of Afghanistan, the immediate priority of the British government is to evacuate the 4,000 or so U.K. citizens still in Afghanistan and the thousands of Afghans who have helped the U.K. over the past 20 years.

Johnson said a new generous refugee settlement program would allow up to 20,000 vulnerable Afghans, primarily women and children, to seek sanctuary in the U.K. in the next few years, including 5,000 this year. The total for this year is in addition to the 5,000 or so Afghan allies that the U.K. is now trying to evacuate from Kabuls international airport.

Johnson said the U.K. would work to unite the international community behind a clear plan for dealing with the Taliban. The prime minister, who is the current president of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, said he aimed to convene a meeting of the G-7 leaders in the coming days.

We are clear, and we have agreed that itd be a mistake for any country to recognize any new regime in Kabul prematurely or bilaterally, said Johnson, who spoke with Biden and other world leaders on Afghanistan in recent days.

We will judge this regime on the choices it makes and by its actions, rather than its words, he added.

The refugee plan, which is similar to a refugee package for Syria in 2015, came under immediate attack from lawmakers and activists, who said it fell short of what was required and did not come close to matching Britains responsibility.

I have no words for it. This could have been so avoided, Paul Farthing, an ex-Marine who runs an animal sanctuary in Kabul, told the AP. We have destroyed this country and I dont see anybody regretting what theyve done.

Farthing is lobbying for the British government to take in 25 Afghans who work for his charity, including young female veterinarians in their 20s. Whats their future going to be? They are probably going to end up being married to Taliban fighters  Are you telling me that the West is OK with that? Because thats what weve just created.

Johnson said authorities had so far secured the safe return of 306 British citizens and 2,052 Afghans. Britains ambassador to Kabul, Laurie Bristow, said his team helped 700 people fly out on military flights on Tuesday, and the goal is to help 1,000 people get out each day. He said hes got days, not weeks to speed up the evacuation operation.

Bristow said the Taliban is supporting the operation and his team is working with them where we need to, at a tactical, practical level.

For many U.K. lawmakers, Britains withdrawal represents a huge failure for the Afghanistan mission, which saw 457 British troops die in the effort to stabilize the nation.

Lets stop talking about forever wars. Lets recognize that forever peace is bought not cheaply, but hard through determination and the will to endure, said lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee and a former soldier who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

While the lawmakers were debating the crisis in Afghanistan, dozens of former translators for the British Army protested outside Parliament, holding banners and signs that included images of people gravely injured in Afghanistan with the caption Protect our loved ones.

Dozens more people joined the translators, leading to a crowd of around 200. Women and children came bearing posters, red balloons and flags of Afghanistan painted on their cheeks.

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Follow all AP stories on developments in Afghanistan at https://apnews.com/hub/Afghanistan.

By PAN PYLAS and SYLVIA HUI

Associated Press
TATVAN, Turkey (AP)  Fearing a new refugee crisis, Turkey is sending soldiers to reinforce its border with Iran in order to stop a potential influx of Afghans fleeing the Taliban insurgency.

Irregular arrivals are already up as Afghans who fled weeks and months ago show up at Turkey's rugged border area after a long trek across Iran. A group of Afghans encountered by The Associated Press near the border said they had deserted the Afghan military and fled the country as the Taliban offensive accelerated.

We came out of necessity. The Taliban have attacked our country and now they control it, we hope that the Turkish government (accept us), one of them, Feroz Seddiqi, told the AP. He explained that they had scaled a mountain to reach Turkey, enduring thirst and hunger.

Nesar Ahmad, another member of the group, said they also experienced looting by thieves who took away their money and mobile phones.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government had brushed off warnings and criticism from opposition parties about an increase in the number of migrants from Afghanistan. This week, he admitted that Turkey faces a new refugee wave from Afghanistan and said his government would work with Pakistan to try and bring stability in the war-ravage country. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said the border with Iran is being reinforced with troops and that a wall being erected at the border is nearing completion.

Turkey is already home to some 4 million migrants  most of them Syrians refugees who fled the civil war in the neighboring country. Anti-migration sentiment is already running high in the country as it grapples with economic woes - including high unemployment - that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Video images circulating on social media over the past months have shown groups of young men allegedly arriving in Turkey from Iran. Some media reported that up to 1,000 migrants have been crossing the border with Iran every day.

Opposition parties have been calling on the government to take control of the borders and prevent a new migration surge.

They have also warned against any new migration agreement between Turkey and Western nations like the one Ankara reached with the EU in 2016. Under that deal, Ankara agreed to prevent the flow of migrants to Europe while the EU for its part promised, among other things, to send billions of Euros to Turkey for the Syrian refugees.

The main opposition party has also claimed that Erdogan struck a secret deal with U.S. President Joe Biden under which Turkey would accept Afghans who had worked with U.S. forces. The U.S. Embassy released a statement on Wednesday saying the claims are completely without foundation.

Akar, who inspected the border with Iran on Sunday, said that some 62,000 people were prevented from crossing that frontier since the start of the year.

We will intensify our efforts and reinforce the understanding that our borders are impassable, he said.

Yeni Safak newspaper, which is close to the government, reported that a 155 kilometer- (96 mile) stretch of a planned 241 kilometer (150 mile) wall has already been erected at the border. Nearly 200 watch towers equipped with electro-optical surveillance have also been constructed, the paper said.

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Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey and Tameem Akhgar and Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, contributed.
The Plainview Area Retired School Personnel Association (PARSPA) will resume in-person meetings this year for all meetings, except the one set for January.

Meetings are set for 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the Plainview Adult Activity Center, 1107 Smyth Street.
Johnnie and Bill Grantham finally got the silver lining to the diamond jubilee 75th anniversary they celebrated last July. This year, they were reunited with family.

Four generations of the Grantham family gathered on Friday at Calder Woods, after a years absence mid-pandemic, to celebrated the couples 76 years together.

It was a fitting fete, given July is national family reunion month.

While not all the family were able to attend, son Larry and his wife Susan Grantham, as well as their son Larry, Jr.; his wife Amanda; and their daughters Emma and Morgan, who live in California, attended the party.

Its the first time Emma and Morgan have seen their great-grandparents in nearly two years.

The family gathered in the cafe, where the usual Friday happy hour takes place, along with new friends that the Granthams have made since moving to Calder Woods two years ago.

Champagne corks popped as guests arrived, many stopping to congratulate the couple before taking their seats and reading over a printed story of the couple that ran in the community newsletter last year on their 75th anniversary.

It recounted the story of the couples first meeting.

It was a double date but not with each other.

Bill was with his girlfriend, Johnnie with her boyfriend. The date was marked by Bills old Model A convertible sliding into a ditch on a muddy road. Johnnie remembers refusing to get out into the mud to help push.

But two days later, when Bill called Johnnie and asked her out on a date of their own, she said yes.

Nearly a year later, they married.

Johnnie was just shy of 18, and Bill, 19, had left Lamar University to enlist with the U.S. Army Air Corps near the end of WWII.

I graduated high school in May and was married in July, So, I didnt wait long, Johnnie remembers.

The wedding took place July 18, 1945, while Bill was home on a 3-day pass from his Biloxi, Mississippi.

Shortly after, he was in Okinawa as a member of the 6th Emergency Rescue Squadron helping ships imperiled by typhoons just after the war with Japan ended.

Upon his return, the couples life together grew.

They got their first apartment through a housing allotment granted by the G.I. Bill, had their first child Larry in 1947, followed by a daughter, Cookie, 3 years later. From them came three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Bill worked at Sanitary Chemical Lavatories, investing in the business through the years. It later became Sanitary Supply -- a successful business, which son Larry now runs.

They lived over 40 years in a home in Avenue of the Oaks, a neighborhood trestled with stately oaks spanning the roadway.

It isnt far from their home now at Calder Woods, where the Granthams are enjoying the next phase of their life together and celebrating milestones like anniversaries and birthdays - Bill celebrated his 95th Wednesday - with new friends.

While the gathering raised their glasses, staffer David Long asked the inevitable question - what is the key to a long marriage?

Dont talk too much, joked Johnnie, to which Bill added, get over the little things, and dont let them grow.

What will grow is their time together, setting new records as Calder Woods longest married couple.

The best is yet to come, says Johnnie, pointing out a message written on a card from the community, adding with a smile, because youve got the best.

kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP)  A Miami businessman accused of servicing Venezuela's fleet of Russian fighter jets in violation of U.S. sanctions was denied bail as a federal judge determined he was a flight risk due to extensive ties with the South American country's military.

Jorge Nobrega admitted to having been on several Venezuelan air bases, flown in military aircraft and having friends inside the military upon his recent arrest, a federal prosecutor said in an arraignment hearing Wednesday.

The case against the previously unknown Nobrega, which prosecutors said is likely to include money laundering charges, stands out from a bevy of other ongoing criminal investigations focused on corruption in Venezuela because it's one of the first to look into the dealings of Venezuela's military, a key plank of support for President Nicolas Maduro.

It also is likely to shed a light on how Maduro's socialist government began relying on Thailand's publicly-traded Tipco Asphalt, a longtime buyer of the country's crude oil, to make payments around the world once U.S. sanctions imposed in 2019 cut off its access to western banks.

Nobrega after his arrest Sunday at Miami's international airport spoke for more than two hours to investigators from the Department of Homeland Security and acknowledged receiving two payments in March 2020 from Tipco, prosecutor Kurt Lunkenheimer said in court.

More than 2.4 million euros ($2.8 million) allegedly was transferred between March and July 2019 from Tipco to a bank account in Portugal in the name of Nobrega's company, Achabal Technologies, according to federal investigators. Of that amount, the bulk was transferred to Nobrega's U.S. accounts. But about 1 million euros in the Portuguese bank remains unaccounted.

He may have the means to live nicely outside the United States if he were to flee, Lunkenheimer argued.

Judge Jacqueline Becerra agreed and said that his ties to Venezuela's government and the fact that he had a common law wife and two younger children living in Venezuela were also a factor in her decision to reject a request for bail that included offering up as collateral two Miami apartments as well as an Orlando home he still owns with his ex-wife.

The criminal complaint and affidavit against Nobrega allege that his Miami company sold to Venezuelas military a suppressant foam to insulate fuel tanks on its Sukhoi combat aircraft from exploding under enemy gunfire.

In a recorded meeting with an unidentified informant, Nobrega allegedly bragged about meeting with Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and likened the technique to a form of dialysis that would save Venezuela the expense of sending the fleet in Russia for servicing.

He was allegedly paid for his work by Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA via Tipco.

An Associated Press investigation last year revealed how Venezuela had been relying on Tipco to blunt the impact of U.S. sanctions. In exchange for deep discounts on crude shipments, Tipco would pay PDVSAs obligations and deduct the amounts from what it owed the Venezuelan oil giant, according to records obtained by AP.

Tipco is not named as a defendant in the criminal complaint. But an investigator for the Department of Homeland Security, citing APs reporting, identified the Thai company as the third-party money launderer that collaborated with PDVSA to move hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Venezuelas socialist government.

U.S. sanctions against Maduros government make it illegal for U.S. firms  and those who assist them  from doing business with PDVSA except with a license from the U.S. Treasury Department. Additionally, any export of military equipment or services requires the approval of the State Department, which Achabal didnt have.

Documents obtained by AP show that Achabal received three payments totaling more than $3.6 million via Tipco between February 2019 and March 2020. Two other U.S.- registered vendors not affiliated with Nobrega received an additional $4.1 million in the same manner, according to the same records.

The documents  invoices, contracts, shipping records, and wire receipts  were provided to AP by a former PDVSA consultant located outside Venezuela on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Nobrega, a Venezuelan-American dual national, established Achabal in the 1990s. The company lists as its address on Florida corporate registry a small warehouse near Miamis international airport identified by giant sign for another company. Several other businesses are also registered at the same address.

There is no indication Tipco knew what services Achabal was providing Venezuela even as it acted as a financial intermediary allowing the company to evade compliance with sanctions.

But investigators obtained documents that suggest Achabal tried to hide its dealings with Venezuela, at one point presenting purchase orders from an Australian vendor specializing in fuel handling equipment to justify more than $800,000 in two transfers to Achabals bank account in Portugal.

Law enforcement is unaware whether these supporting documents reflect actual business dealings and are being reused by Nobrega to provide justification for the wire transfers, or whether they were completely fabricated, the federal agent said in his affidavit.

Tipco did not respond to a request for comment on the criminal complaint.

But CEO Chaiwat Srivalwat, in an email to AP last year, said that any payments to third parties at PDVSAs request strictly corresponded to its oil purchases from Venezuela.

Tipco is a PDVSA client, not the Venezuelan central bank, Jean-Pierre Pastor, Tipcos representative in Venezuela, wrote in bold and underlined text in an email to PDVSA in January 2020 complaining of the frequent requests for it to pay its vendors.

Tipco tried as much as possible to assist you in this difficult period, added Pastor, the brother of longtime Tipco board member Jacques Pastor, who has also served as the head of the Asia-Pacific office for Tipcos top shareholder, French road builder Colas. Lets hope you will not forget it.

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Joshua Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman
WELLINGTON, New Zealand  New Zealands first coronavirus outbreak in six months has grown to seven people.

The announcement Wednesday came a day after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed a strict lockdown after the first case was reported. The lockdown is for at least three days for the country and at least a week for the cities of Auckland and Coromandel.

Ardern said Wednesday the government expects the number of cases to keep growing, especially after some of those infected spent time at a church, a school, a casino and a hospital. She announced a new mandate compelling people to wear masks in supermarkets, gas stations and pharmacies during strict lockdowns.

Ardern says genome testing has confirmed the outbreak is of the delta variant and originated from an outbreak in Sydney, Australia, although its not yet clear how the virus breached New Zealands border quarantine controls.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

 Britain OKs Moderna vaccine for ages 12 and up

 New York City begins proof of vaccination at eateries, gyms, cultural venues

 Sources: U.S. to recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters at 8 months

 New Zealand to enter lockdown after single virus case found

 Among Frances poorest, once-lagging vaccine rates increase

 More U.S. cities to require masks in public

 Hawaii's largest private hospital system runs out of ICU beds

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 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

SYDNEY  Australias most populous state is reporting a record 633 new coronavirus infections as concerns grow about the spread of the delta variant beyond Sydney. The previous high for a 24-hour period in New South Wales was 466 on Saturday.

Officials also said Wednesday that three people died in the period, bringing the death toll to 60 from the outbreak first detected in Sydney in mid-June.

Officials say infections were reported in towns in the states west, north and central region in recent days. Sydney has been in lockdown since June 26 and the entire state has been locked down since Saturday.

The national capital of Canberra is surrounded by New South Wales and it reported 22 new infections from a cluster that originated in Sydney.

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PHOENIX  Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is upping the pressure on public school districts defying a state ban on mask mandates by threatening to cut off some funds.

The governor said Tuesday that schools wont get any cash from a $163 million grant program he controls if they dont drop mask rules within 10 days. Schools also will lose out on the $1,800 per student if they have to close because of coronavirus outbreaks.

At least 16 districts teaching nearly a third of the states 1.1 million public school students now have mask rules. A judge ruled this week that the state ban does not take effect until Sept. 29.

Ducey also announced a $10 million program that will give $7,000 for a student to use for private schooling if their public school requires isolating or quarantining due to virus exposure, orders mask wearing or gives preferential treatment to vaccinated children.

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HOUSTON  At least four school districts in Texas have closed campuses due to coronavirus outbreaks early in the new school year.

The shutdowns are taking place as more districts and communities are requiring students and residents to wear face coverings indoors, defying Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on mask mandates.

The school district in Gorman in North Texas had been set to begin the school year Wednesday but is delaying that by a week. Campus shutdowns also were announced Tuesday by the districts in the East Texas towns of Bloomburg and Waskom.

Those moves came a day after the Iraan-Sheffield district in West Texas closed its schools for two weeks.

Mask wearing was optional in these four school districts. At least 21 other districts, including some of the states biggest, have instituted mask mandates, which are in violation of Abbotts executive order banning such measures.

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  West Virginia University is requiring masks to be worn in classrooms and labs for the next 30 days, saying not enough students and employees have submitted proof of vaccination against the coronavirus.

The university says the rule takes effect Wednesday, which is when classes start on the Morgantown campus. The mask requirement applies to everyone, even those who have been vaccinated.

While the university is not requiring its students and employees to be vaccinated, officials had set a vaccine verification goal of 80% by Sept. 1. Students, faculty and staff on all campuses were required to either provide a vaccine verification or a negative virus test result by Friday.

The school says only about two-thirds of students and staff have submitted the verification paperwork on the Morgantown campus and even less have done so on its Beckley and Keyser campuses,

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JACKSON, Miss.  Mississippi state officials say they more children are being hospitalized with COVID-19 than earlier in the pandemic.

As of Friday, 18 children were hospitalized, and on Sunday five were in an intensive care unit, with four on ventilators.

The state Department of Health said Monday that health officials heard this week about the COVID-19 death of a child between age 11 and 17, raising the total of young people deaths to five since the start of the pandemic.

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CHICAGO  Chicago will require masks in public indoor settings regardless of vaccination status as daily COVID-19 case counts rise.

The mandate takes effect Friday citywide for everyone over age 2. Chicagos top doctor said Tuesday that the city is reporting roughly 400 cases daily, which is a threshold public health officials say signals a higher transmission risk.

Still, public health officials say its much lower than a winter peak when it was over 3,000 cases a day.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady says no further restrictions or closures are currently planned and the goal is to remain open, but careful.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.  A major state employer, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System, said Tuesday it would require workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 12.

The requirement affects 16,000 employees and others working in hospitals and could help boost the states last-in-the-nation ranking for the shots.

Employees of UAB Health already are required to be vaccinated against other health threats including the flu, the system said, and COVID-19 is threatening its ability to provide care.

Nearly 100 doctors, nurses and other workers have contracted COVID-19 at UAB Hospital, a report showed.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is reinstating a mask mandate for all indoor public places, regardless of vaccination status.

Grisham's office also announced Tuesday that more people will be required to get vaccinated, such as workers at hospitals, nursing homes, juvenile justice facilities and residential treatment centers.

All workers at schools in New Mexico must also get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

Officials noted that vaccination rates remain stagnant, but infections are rising.

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ATLANTA  Parents in Georgias second largest school district plan to rally again to try to force school officials to require masks amid a statewide surge in coronavirus cases that has disrupted classroom instruction for thousands of students.

The plans for a rally on Thursday by Cobb County school parents come as coronavirus cases in the school system and other districts around the state continue to rise.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday reiterated his opposition to mask and vaccine mandates and said he has no plans for statewide school restrictions.

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PHOENIX  A western Arizona school district is considering a proposal to ban any discussion between staff and students about vaccines and masks.

The Colorado River Union High Schools governing board is set to meet on the matter Tuesday night.

The measure would allow for disciplinary action to be taken against any district employee who speaks on anything related to vaccine status or encouraging/discouraging vaccines or mask with students.

District officials did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

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HONOLULU  Hawaiis largest private hospital system has run out of ICU beds amid a surge of new coronavirus cases.

Jason Chang, chief operating officer of The Queens Health Systems and president of The Queens Medical Center, says all of the hospital systems beds are completely full.

The hospitals were canceling some elective surgeries and procedures and diverting emergency patients to other hospitals, Chang said.

Hospital workers are tired and frustrated because most of the COVID-19 patients they are caring for are not vaccinated, Chang said.

Hawaii, with a population of nearly 1.5 million people, has averaged 652 new cases a day over the past week and has a 7.5% positivity rate, according to state data. In early July, the state was averaging 50 cases a day.

At least 308 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized statewide.

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LAS VEGAS  Vaccine verification at major venues has become a coronavirus fighting front in Nevada.

Las Vegas biggest trade conference on Tuesday followed the NFLs Las Vegas Raiders announcing theyll require attendees to prove theyre inoculated.

The sponsor of the CES gadget show said attendees in January will have to show theyve been vaccinated to enter venues including the expanded Las Vegas Convention Center.

The announcement came a day after Gov. Steve Sisolak said indoor venues with 4,000 or more attendees can opt out of the states mask requirements if they opt in to a program ensuring that attendees have inoculations.

Sisolak said one dose of a two-dose vaccination will get people in the door, but theyll still have to wear face coverings.

Fully vaccinated people wont have to wear masks.

The Raiders unveiled their first-in-the-NFL policy to require fans to show proof of vaccinations beginning Sept. 13.

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JACKSON, Miss. -- A top Mississippi health official said Tuesday 20,000 students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure in the state  4.5% of the public school population, according to the states latest enrollment figures.

The data comes from reports made by 800 schools to the Mississippi State Department of Health last week, Mississippi State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said during a call with state pediatricians.

The school outbreaks have resulted in many school officials rethinking their policies after beginning the academic year without restrictions, like mask mandates. Around 600 schools have now implemented universal masking for indoor settings, Byers said.

But there are still many settings where many restrictions that could keep kids safer are not in place  or not enforced.

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DES MOINES, Iowa  State Fairs in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin are offering COVID-19 vaccinations as the delta variant spreads across the country.

In Iowa, a vaccination booth nestled among corn dog and funnel cake stands vaccinated 150 people in the first four days of the fair in a state where only half of the population is fully vaccinated. All but three of Iowas 99 counties are experiencing a substantial or high rate of spread.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds policy of personal responsibility allows fairgoers to decide whether to be vaccinated or wear a mask. Public health officials recommend wearing a mask in crowds. The fair is on track to attract an estimated 1 million visitors.

At the Indiana State Fair, 304 vaccines have been administered since July 30. And at the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee, 608 people were vaccinated over 11 days, perhaps enticed by the promise of a free cream puff pastry.

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PHOENIX  Five Arizona school districts have joined the growing list of districts requiring students and staff to wear masks, even though a state law bars such mandates.

Two districts in the Tucson area and three in metro Phoenix issued mask requirements after a Maricopa County judge ruled Monday that the state doesnt take effect until Sept. 29.

A teacher who filed a lawsuit challenging a mask mandate at one Phoenix district argued it took after lawmakers approved it in late June. In all, at least 16 districts in Arizona are requiring students and staff to wear masks while indoors amid fears over the delta variant.

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TIRANA, Albania  Albanias Health Ministry reported 451 new cases and two deaths related to the coronavirus.

That is a significant increase compared to last month when there were less than 10 new cases per day.

Authorities have made August a free month for receiving a vaccine, urging all people 18 and older to get one. Albania uses Sinovac, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca and some Sputnik V vaccines. Albania has given 1.3 million shots to a population of 2.8 million.

Neighboring Kosovo is noting a serious increase in the daily numbers. Authorities reported 1,765 new cases and five deaths on Tuesday, a significant increase compared to July.

About one-third of its 1.8 million population has gotten at least one shot of the Pfizer or Astra Zeneca vaccine.
Alamo Heights ISD will require staff, students and visitors to wear face masks for the next three weeks starting Monday, August 23.

The school board voted unanimously Saturday, August 21 to approve the mandate, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The district previously left mask-wearing optional.

Here's what local school districts are deciding after both rulings:

North East ISD

On Thursday, August 19, North East Independent School District voted to implement a temporary mask mandate during an emergency meeting that went into the late-night hours.

San Antonio ISD

After the local court hearing, San Antonio ISD announced on Facebook it is going to require face masks for students and staff. It also will require all staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Northside ISD

In a board of trustees meeting, Northside Independent School District voted unanimously to issue a temporary mask mandate due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in Bexar County.

All students, staff, and visitors must wear face coverings when they head back to the classroom on Monday, August 23. The mandate will go into effect on the first day of school, and it will apply while indoors.

Harlandale ISD

As a result of Monday's ruling, Harlandale ISD updated its face-covering policy and is requiring it for its campuses, according to a letter sent out to parents.

Southside ISD

The district tells MySA masks are mandatory at Southside ISD until further notice. Southside ISD states it is abiding by the mandatory mask order issued by the Bexar County Health Authority.

South San Antonio ISD

On August 17, South San Antonio ISD announced that face masks are mandatory on all its campuses.

"We understand that this has been frustrating for our parents and our staff, but let's continue to keep our culture of compassionate care and safety at the forefront of everything we do for students and staff," stated Superintendent Dr. Marc Puig. "We have always encouraged mask-wearing and appreciate everyone's patience while the court's decree mandates back and forth."

Boerne ISD

According to the district's website, the wearing of face masks will continue to be optional. Masks will be available on all campuses for any student requesting one.

Medina Valley ISD

In accordance with Gov. Abbott's executive order GA-36, Medina Valley states it is unable to require staff or students to wear masks. It will strongly encourage the wearing of masks, but they are not required, the district tells MySA.

Fort Sam Houston ISD and Lackland ISD

Fort Sam Houston ISD and Lackland ISD officials have said they're doing legal reviews, but in the meantime, they'll continue to require masks in their facilities, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

Comal ISD

The district tells MySA.com wearing the face coverings is up to the discretion of staff members, students and visitors. Disposable masks will be provided at all campuses and on all buses.

MySA reached out to Judson for information on its mask policy.
San Antonio's current percentage of fully vaccinated people doesn't tell the whole story when compared to the total population.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg says in a video posted to social media on Tuesday that 64 percent of the eligible city and county population has been fully vaccinated, but those numbers do not reflect the total population.

Only about half of the city and county's total population are fully vaccinated if children under 12 and immunocompromised people are factored in.

"In short, there is a lot of work to do for us as a community, so let's keep our foot on the gas," Nirenberg says. "Mask up and get vaccinated."

COVID-19 case numbers in San Antonio and Bexar County continue to rise even as the positivity rate drops.

Nirenberg says that the COVID-19 positivity rate dropped to 16.9 percent, down from 21 percent last week.

The city reports 1,700 new cases and nine new deaths as of Tuesday evening. There were 209 new admissions to San Antonio-area hospitals for a total of 1,383 patients. A total of 370 COVID-19 positive patients are still in the intensive care unit and 244 on ventilators, Nirenberg says. Of the patients in area hospitals, 89 percent of them were unvaccinated.

Of the 209 new admissions, 24 of those were pediatric cases.

The usual Tuesday press briefing was delayed due to a budget town hall, but the city of San Antonio posted on social media that the briefing would later be posted to Facebook and Youtube. Nirenberg said technical difficulties prevented that from happening, so he delivered the numbers in a short video posted to Twitter.
Several Texas leaders are wishing Greg Abbott a speedy receiving after the governor tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, August 17.

In a statement, Mark Miner, communications director for the governor, shared Abbott has been testing daily, and Tuesday was his first positive test result. Abbott is fully vaccinated and is currently experiencing no symptoms.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa issued a statement after the Abbott news, writing he sends him the best wishes for a "smooth and speedy recovery."

"COVID is not a partisan issue," Hinojosa states. "This is a stark reminder that no one is immune to this surge, especially as the delta variant continues to spread rapidly among our communities. A year and a half into this pandemic, all Texas families continue to grapple with COVID-19, and my heart goes out to all those impacted by this dangerous virus."

Senator Ted Cruz states in a tweet he and Heidi are praying for Abbott's swift recovery. Texas House Republican Caucus also tweets their thoughts are with Abbott and hope he recovers quickly from COVID-19.

Joaquin Castro, San Antonio Congressman, says he hopes Abbott reverses course and allows local leaders and schools to enforce mask mandates after his positive test. He also writes, "Governor Abbott has the best medical care in Texas and already received a third booster shot. I wish him a swift recovery."

Below are other tweets and reactions from Texas leaders, with most wishing Abbott well:

However, some pointed out Abbott attended a packed event in Collin County on Monday, where there was little social distancing or use of masks.




Photo by Sergio Flores/Getty Images

Texas House Democrats who refuse to show up to the state Capitol in their bid to prevent Republican lawmakers from passing a voting restrictions bill can be arrested and brought to the lower chamber, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The all-Republican court sided with Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan  and ordered a Travis County district judge to revoke his temporary restraining order blocking the civil arrest of Democratic lawmakers whose absences have denied the chamber the number of present members needed to move any legislation.
International

Egyptian intelligence chief visits Israel to discuss Gaza truce

JERUSALEM, AUG 18 (AGENCIES) | Publish Date: 8/18/2021 12:02:10 PM IST

Egypts intelligence chief on Wednesday paid a rare visit to Israel to discuss the cease-fire deal between Israel and the Hamas militant group that followed an 11-day war in May, Israel announced.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts office said Egyptian official Abbas Kamel also invited the Israeli leader to visit Egypt in the coming weeks.

Egypt has played a key mediation role between Israel and Hamas over the years. Israel and Gazas Hamas rulers are bitter enemies that have fought four wars since the Islamic militant group took control of Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian elections.

The most recent war ended in May, but the sides appear to have reached no agreements beyond a halt in fighting.

Hamas demands an easing in an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has crippled the local economy and the resumption of hundreds of millions of dollars of badly needed assistance from Qatar. Israel has demanded the return of the remains of two soldiers killed in a 2014 war as well as two Israeli civilians believed to be held by Hamas.

Hamas in recent weeks allowed supporters to send incendiary balloons into Israel and more recently a rocket was fired into Israel this week, the first time since the war. Israel did not respond, a possible signal that diplomatic efforts are picking up.

Bennetts office gave few details about Wednesdays talks, saying they focused on mutual security and economic issues as well as Egyptian media in the Gaza security situation.

Bennett said Kamel extended an invitation on behalf of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. He gave no further details.
Yves here. Its gratifying to see other commentators wake up to the push underway to further corporatize food production despite growing evidence that smaller scale production can be as or even more productive and more sustainable, particularly in soil quality terms. Jomo Kwame Sundaram has been writing regularly on this issue, focusing on the Gates Foundation angle. This post discusses many of the same issues, but puts the Great Reset, and as a result, the World Economic Forum and its allied NGOs, in the spotlight.

By Ivan Wecke, a political scientist and writer. Originally published at openDemocracy

The Great Reset conspiracy theories dont seem to want to die. The theories were triggered by the World Economic Forums (WEF) summit last year, which had the theme The Great Reset and argued that the COVID crisis was an opportunity to address the burning issues facing the world. According to the BBC, the term Great Reset has received more than eight million interactions on Facebook and has been shared almost two million times on Twitter since the WEF initiative was launched.

The set of conspiracy theories around the Great Reset are nebulous and hard to pin down, but piecing them together gives us something like this: the Great Reset is the global elites plan to instate a communist world order by abolishing private property while using COVID-19 to solve overpopulation and enslaving what remains of humanity with vaccines.

Intrigued by the palaver around last years summit, I decided to find out what the WEFs Great Reset plan was really about. At the heart of conspiracy theories are supposed secret agendas and malicious intent. While these may be absent from the WEFs Great Reset initiative, what I found was something almost as sinister hiding in plain sight. In fact, more sinister because its real and its happening now. And it involves things as fundamental as our food, our data and our vaccines.

The Real Great Reset

The magic words are stakeholder capitalism, a concept that WEF chairman Klaus Schwab has been hammering for decades and which occupies pride of place in the WEFs Great Reset plan from June 2020. The idea is that global capitalism should be transformed so that corporations no longer focus solely on serving shareholders but become custodians of society by creating value for customers, suppliers, employees, communities and other stakeholders. The way the WEF sees stakeholder capitalism being carried out is through a range of multi-stakeholder partnerships bringing together the private sector, governments and civil society across all areas of global governance.

The idea of stakeholder capitalism and multi-stakeholder partnerships might sound warm and fuzzy, until we dig deeper and realise that this actually means giving corporations more power over society, and democratic institutions less.

The plan from which the Great Reset originated was called the Global Redesign Initiative. Drafted by the WEF after the 2008 economic crisis, the initiative contains a 600-page report on transforming global governance. In the WEFs vision, the government voice would be one among many, without always being the final arbiter. Governments would be just one stakeholder in a multi-stakeholder model of global governance. Harris Gleckman, senior fellow at the University of Massachusetts, describes the report as the most comprehensive proposal for re-designing global governance since the formulation of the United Nations during World War II.

Who are these other, non-governmental stakeholders? The WEF, best known for its annual meeting of high-net-worth individuals in Davos, Switzerland, describes itself as an international organization for public-private cooperation. WEF partners include some of the biggest companies in oil (Saudi Aramco, Shell, Chevron, BP), food (Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestle), technology (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple) and pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna).

Instead of corporations serving many stakeholders, in the multi-stakeholder model of global governance, corporations are promoted to being official stakeholders in global decision-making, while governments are relegated to being one of many stakeholders. In practice, corporations become the main stakeholders, while governments take a backseat role, and civil society is mainly window dressing.

The Multi-Stakeholder Ecosystem

Perhaps the most symbolic example of this shift is the controversialstrategic partnership agreement the United Nations (UN) signed with the WEF in 2019. Harris Gleckman describes this as a move to turn the UN into a public-private partnership, creating a special place for corporations inside the UN.

The multi-stakeholder model is already being built. In recent years, anever-expanding ecosystem of multi-stakeholder groups has spread across all sectors of the global governance system. There are now more than 45 global multi-stakeholder groups that set standards and establish guidelines and rules in a range of areas. According to Gleckman, these groups, which lack any democratic accountability, consist of private stakeholders (big corporations) who recruit their friends in government, civil society and universities to join them in solving public problems.

Multi-stakeholderism is the WEFs update of multilateralism, which is the current system through which countries work together to achieve common goals. The multilateral systems core institution is the UN. The multilateral system is often rightly accused of being ineffective, too bureaucratic and skewed towards the most powerful nations. But it is at least theoretically democratic because it brings together democratically elected leaders of countries to make decisions in the global arena. Instead of reforming the multilateral system to deepen democracy, the WEFs vision of multi-stakeholder governance entails further removing democracy by sidelining governments and putting unelected stakeholders  mainly corporations  in their place when it comes to global decision-making.

Put bluntly, multi-stakeholder partnerships are public-private partnerships on the global stage. And they have real-world implications for the way our food systems are organized, how big tech is governed and how our vaccines and medicines are distributed.

The Future of Food

In autumn 2021, the UN is set to host the World Summit on Food Systems(FSS) in Rome. This is necessary, given that 3.9 billion people  more than half of the worlds population  are currently battling hunger and malnutrition, even though there is enough food to feed the world. But this years summit differs significantly from past UN food summits, embracing multi-stakeholder inclusivity, in which the private sector has an important role. A concept note from 2019 showed that the WEF was set to be involved in organising the summit, though it is not now clear what the role of the WEF will be.

Abandoning pesticides is not on the table. How come? asks Sofia Monsalve of FIAN International, a human rights organisation focused on food and nutrition. There is no discussion on land concentration or holding companies accountable for their environmental and labour abuses. This fits into a bigger picture Monsalve sees of large corporations, which dominate the food sector, being reluctant to fix the production system. They just want to come up with new investment opportunities.

FIAN International together with 300 other organizations have expressed their concerns about the multi-stakeholder setup in an open letter to the secretary general of the UN, Antonio Guterres. In a meeting with civil society groups who signed the letter, Amina Mohammed, the UN deputy secretary general, assured them that strong safeguards would prevent a corporate capture of the event, by allowing only platforms or networks and no single corporation to the summit.

But for Monsalve, this only makes it worse. Now corporations can protect their interests and hide behind these platforms because its unclear who is in there. Indeed, a corporate partner list is nowhere to be found on the official website. The FSS organisers were contacted for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.

The signatories to the letter fear that, with corporate involvement in the summit, food will continue to be treated as a commodity and not as a human right. If unchanged, industrial food systems will continue to haveirreversible impacts on our health and the health of our planet.

Big Tech Governing Big Tech

Another landmark in the development of stakeholder capitalism can be found in the Big Tech sector. As a part of his 2020 Roadmap for Digital Cooperation the UN Secretary-General called for the formation of a newstrategic and empowered multi-stakeholder high-level body. Again its not easy to find a list of stakeholders but after some digging a long list of roundtable participants for the roadmap includes Facebook, Google, Microsoft and the WEF.

Although the functions laid out for this new body are quite vague, civil society organizations fear it will come down to Big Tech creating a global body to govern itself. This risks institutionalising these companies resistance against effective regulation both globally and nationally and increasing their power over governments and multilateral organizations. If the body comes to fruition, it could be a decisive victory in the ongoing war GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) is waging with governments over tax evasion, antitrust rules, and their ever-expanding power over society.

More than 170 civil society groups worldwide have signed another open letter to the secretary general of the UN  this time to prevent the digital governance body from forming. The secretary general was approached for comment but had not replied at the time of publication.

COVAX

Then theres COVAX. The COVAX initiative aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world. That, again, sounds wonderful, especially given the staggering inequalities in vaccination levelsbetween rich and developing countries.

But why is the World Health Organization (WHO), which is part of the UN, not calling the shots? Countries together, through multilateral agencies like the WHO, were supposed to take decisions about global health issues, with maybe some technical support by others, says Sulakshana Nandi from NGO Peoples Health Movement, which has recently brought out aPolicy Brief on COVAX.

COVAX was set up as a multi-stakeholder group by two other multi-stakeholder groups, GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance) and CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), in partnership with the WHO. BothGAVI and CEPI have strong ties with the World Economic Forum (which was one of the founders of CEPI) as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and both are also connected to companies like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson throughmanufacturer partnerships (GAVI) or as supporters (CEPI). Even though COVAX is funded predominantly by governments, it is these corporate-centred coalitions that are overseeing its roll-out.

The contrast between the multi-stakeholder approach and a classic multilateral one came to the surface when South Africa and India proposed the so-called TRIPS waiver at the end of last year. They requested a temporary lifting of intellectual property rules on all COVID-19 technologies in order to boost the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines and other essential medical products in mainly developing countries. WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech that he backed the proposal. But GAVI, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation  even Bill Gates himself  and Big Pharma opposed this proposal very strongly, said Nandi. Its more important for them to protect their interests and market mechanisms than to protect universal health or protect people from COVID. The WHO was approached for comment but has not replied.

Again, there is a stark choice between a human rights-led approach carried out by the UN and a profit-led approach carried out by multistakeholder bodies representing the interests of corporations. In the case of COVAX  which is failing to meet its modest aim of vaccinating 20% of the populations of low- and middle-income countries  the former has won out.

Stake Out Stakeholder Capitalism

So even if the WEF (or Bill Gates) is not responsible for the COVID pandemic, even if the vaccines are not laced with microchips to control our thoughts, something fishy really is going on in the realm of global governance. If you value your right to public health, to privacy, to access healthy food or to democratic representation, be wary of the words stakeholder capitalism when they pop up at the next Davos summit.

The WEF was approached for comment on the issues raised in this article, but had not replied at the time of publication.
Multiple supernovas may have implanted our solar system with the seeds of planets Space

US lab stands on threshold of key nuclear fusion goal BBC (DL).

Amazing 1,300-Year-Old Technology Found Hidden in Comox Harbour Comox Valley News. British Columbia.

Behind the Fight to Save the Gulfs Spectacular Coral Reefs Texas Monthly

The Well Fixers Warning The Atlantic

An exclusive interview with auditing whistleblower Mauro Botta Francine McKenna, The Dig

#COVID19

China?

Myanmar

Afghanistan

UK/EU

Labour isnt working: A workplace crash course that a lot of people have had to go through in the last thirteen years  the harsh reminder that HR work for management and are not there to help you, usually followed by a stark demonstration of who Security work for and who theyre there to protect. pic.twitter.com/ezJaUEtoES  Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) August 17, 2021 Agile ceremonies? Macron eyes victory over Covid vaccine pass protesters FT

Mexico devises revolutionary method to reverse semiarid land degradation Monga Bay (GF). GF writes:

No doubt about the desert SW being dry and difficult to farm. This article examines the crops that can be grown without water, fertilizers or pesticides and with little human intervention in the SW USA. I thought of Amfortas when I read it because mesquite grows where he lives and Im pretty sure agave would do OK there. The main area for introducing the two crops would be where the Colorado River water cut backs in AZ are taking place next year and eastward into southern NM and West Texas. It appears that agave and mesquite form a synergistic relationship when inter-cropped and the result is an amazingly healthy animal feed that horses, cows, goats and sheeps and others just cant get enough of. And it only costs $0.02 per kilo (2.2 lbs) to grow and minimally process.

The Caribbean

Biden Administration

Imperial Collapse Watch

How Much is Experience Worth? Twenty Years of US Experiments in the Middle East Valdai Discussion Club [T]he global wealth and influence of the United States was so great that it could simply afford a 20-year campaign with no practical value. With the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the American government has reached the conclusion that this state of affairs has come to an end. The painful experience gained in the Middle East is gradually being absorbed by the American elites, who have proved to be much more careful in the crisis in Syria than before in Libya. And in Libya they are now much more cautious than before in Iraq. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Benjamin Franklin Make no mistake, the US military will continue to thrive after Afghanistan Responsible Statecraft (Re Silc). If thrive is the word we want.

Guillotine Watch

United in Rage Tarance Ray, The Baffler. Ray is one of the Trillbillies.

Class Warfare

William Morris: The Poetics of Indigo Discharge Printing Nonsite.org

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Yves here. The media frenzy over the US exit from Afghanistan is finally shifting from loss of empire hand-wringing (when for anyone paying attention, the decision to leave was a price discovery event, the US had effectively lost some time back and we had been throwing money and lives into a rat hole) to stupefaction and horror that the departure is so shambolic. And theres a lot of Biden-blaming. Some college tuitions must have gone down the drain.

Michael Hudson weighs in and adds an important piece to the equation, in a update-for-NC version of his post (it launched on his site yesterday). Just released Soviet-era information shows the USSR feared that the more intelligent U.S. option would be to have offered economic aid (and no doubt some de facto bribes as part of the mix), which the USSR could not implement on our scale.

And Hudson stresses that heads at the intel state should have rolled over this level of fiasco (the experts wildly misjudging how quickly the Taliban would take ground). Biden instead tried blaming most Afghanis for (gasp!) regarding the Americans as occupiers and wanting us gone.

By Michael Hudson, a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. His latest book is and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year

President Biden put a popular flag-waving wrapping for at Americas forced withdrawal from Afghanistan in his 4 PM speech on Monday. It was as if all this was following Bidens own intentions, not a demonstration of the totally incompetent assurances by the CIA and State Department as recently as last Friday that the Taliban was over a month away from being able to enter Kabul.

Instead of saying that the massive public support for the Taliban replacing the United States showed the incompetent hubris of U.S. intelligence agencies  which itself would have justified Bidens agreement to complete the withdrawal with all haste  he doubled down on his defense of the Deep State and its mythology.

The effect was to show how drastic his own misconceptions are, and how he will continue to defend neocon adventurism. What seemed for an hour or so as a public relations recovery is turning into a denouement of how U.S. fantasy is still trying to threaten Asia and the Near East.

By throwing all his weight behind the propaganda that has guided U.S. policy since George W. Bush decided to invade after 9/11, Biden blew his greatest chance to burst the myths that led to his own bad decisions to trust U.S. military and state officials (and their campaign contributors).

His first pretense was that we invaded Afghanistan to retaliate against its attack on America on 9/11. This is the founding lie of U.S. presence in the Near East. Afghanistan did not attack us. Saudi Arabia did.

Biden tried to confuse the issue by saying that we went into Afghanistan to deal with (assassinate) Osama Bin Laden  and after this victory, we then then decided to stay on and build democracy, a euphemism for creating a U.S. client state. (Any such state is called a democracy, which means simply pro-American in todays diplomatic vocabulary.)

Hardly anyone asks how the U.S. ever got in. Jimmy Carter was suckered by the Polish Russia-hater Brzezinski and created Al Qaeda to act as Americas foreign legion, subsequently expanded to include ISIS and other terrorist armies against countries where U.S. diplomacy seeks regime change. Carters alternative to Soviet Communism was Wahabi fanaticism, solidifying Americas alliance with Saudi Arabia. Carter memorably said that at least these Muslims believed in God, just like Christians. But the Wahabi fundamentalism army was sponsored by Saudi Arabia, which paid for arming Al Qaeda to fight against Sunni Moslems and, early on, the Russian-backed Afghan government.

What is so typical of Americas aggressive Cold War mindset is that it could have much more easily (and at much lower cost) won Afghanistan by honey, by having so much more to offer economically than did Russia. Documents released from Soviet archives show that:

None of the Soviet documents list terrorists going into the USSR as a concern in 1979. The Soviet worry was the incompetence and worse of their Afghan Communist clients, the declining Soviet influence (much less control) in the country, and the possibility of Afghanistan going over to the Americans.

Soviet Politburo documents that first became available in the 1990s show the real Soviet fear was that the head of the Afghan Communist regime, Hafizullah Amin, was about to go over to the Americans. (Egyptian president Anwar Sadat famously flipped in 1972, ejected thousands of Soviet advisers, and became the second largest recipient, after Israel, of U.S. foreign aid.)[1]

This policy predates President Carter, of course. It was endemic in Americas Cold War force-oriented strategy since the 1950s. Over 60 years ago, for instance, I sat in on a meeting with Fidel Castros representatives trying to get support from the Democratic Party and Kennedy for their overthrow of the Batista regime. Imagining that it was the Republicans and the Dulles brothers that were the hardliners, they expected that the incoming Democratic Party diplomacy would find their self-interest in giving economic support to help Cubas economy recover from the corrupt dictatorship. My father warned them that the Democrats would be just as force-oriented.

On my visits to Cuba, it was obvious that the population and even many government officials would have welcomed a deal whereby the loosened their Castroite economic policy in exchange for U.S. aid. The United States has never tried to use this tactic in the Caribbean or Latin America, any more than it has done in Afghanistan. That is the neocon mentality: Do it by force, dont give any other country a choice.

A market-based tradeoff of aid for economic policy acquiescence is not U.S. policy. Offering a carrot still leaves the choice to Americas designated adversary. The only way to make sure that a country will obey is to confront it with brute force. That is the mentality behind U.S. support for Maidan and the neo-Nazi Bandaristas opposing Russia instead of simply trying to help reform Ukraine.

And so it has gone in Afghanistan. After Carter, George W. Bush and Barack Obama funded Al Qaeda (largely with the gold looted from destroying Libya) to fight for U.S. geopolitical aims and oil in Iraq and Syria. The Taliban for its part fought against Al Quaeda. The real U.S. fear therefore is not that they may back Americas Wahabi foreign legion, but that they will make a deal with Russia, China and Syria to serve as a trade link from Iran westward.

Bidens second myth was to blame the victim by claiming that the Afghan army would not fight for their country, despite his assurances by the proxies whom the U.S. installed that they would use U.S. money to build the economy. He also said that the army did not fight, which became obvious over the weekend.

The police force also did not fight. Nobody fought the Taliban to defend their country, because the U.S. occupation regime was not their country. Again and again, Biden repeated that the United States could not save a country that would not defend itself. But the itself was the corrupt regime that was simply pocketing U.S. aid money.

The situation was much like what was expressed in the old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto finding themselves surrounded by Indians. What are we going to do, Tonto, asked the Lone Ranger.

What do you mean, We, white man? Tonto replied.

That was the reply of the Afghan army to U.S. demands that they fight for the corrupt occupation force that they had installed. Their aim is to survive in a new country, while in Doha the Taliban leadership negotiates with China, Russia and even the United States to achieve a modus vivendi.

So all that Bidens message meant to most Americans was that we would not waste any more lives and money fighting wars for an ungrateful population that wanted the U.S. to do all the fighting for it.

President Biden could have come out and washed away the blame by saying: Just before the weekend, I was told by my army generals and national security advisors that it would take months for the Taliban to conquer Afghanistan, and certainly to take control of Kabul, which supposedly would be a bloody fight. He could have announced that he is removing the incompetent leadership engrained for many years, and creating a more reality-based group.

But of course, he could not do that, because the group is the unreality-based neocon Deep State. He was not about to explain how Its obvious that I and Congress have been misinformed, and that the intelligence agencies had no clue about the country that they were reporting on for the last two decades.

He could have acknowledged that the Afghans welcomed the Taliban into Kabul without a fight. The army stood aside, and the police stood aside. There seemed to be a party celebrating the American withdrawal. Restaurants and markets were open, and Kabul seemed to be enjoying normal life  except for the turmoil at the airport.

Suppose that Biden had said the following: Given this acquiescence in support for the Taliban, I was obviously correct in withdrawing the American occupation forces. Contrary to what Congress and the Executive Branch was told, there was no support by the Afghans for the Americans. I now realize that to the Afghan population, the government officials that America installed simply took the money we gave them and put it into their own bank accounts instead of paying the army, police and other parts of civic society.

Instead, President Biden spoke about having made four trips to Afghanistan and how much he knew and trusted the proxies that U.S. agencies had installed. That made him seem gullible. Even Donald Trump said publicly that he didnt trust the briefings that he was given, and wanted to spend money at home, into the hands of his own campaign contributors instead of abroad.

Biden could have picked up on this point by saying, At least theres a silver lining: We wont be spending any more than the $3 trillion that weve already sunk over there. We can now afford to use the money to build up domestic U.S. infrastructure instead.

But instead President Biden doubled down on what his neocon advisors had told him, and what they were repeating on the TV news channels all day: The Afghan army had refused to fight for their country, meaning the U.S.-supported occupation force, as if this was really Afghan self-government.

The media are showing pictures of the Afghan palace and one of the warlords office. I did a double-take, because the plush, wretched-excess furnishings looked just like Obamas $12 million McMansion furnishings in Marthas Vineyard.

Obama officials are being trotted out by the news spinners. On MSNBC, John Brennan warned Andrea Mitchell at noon that the Taliban might now back Al Qaeda in new destabilization and even use Afghanistan to mount new attacks on the United States. The message was almost word for word what Americans were told in 1964: If we dont fight the Vietcong in their country, well have to fight them over here. As if any country has an armed force large enough to conquer any industrial nation in todays world.

The whole cast of Americas humanitarian bombing squad was there, including its harridan arm, the Democratic Partys front organizations created to co-opt feminists to urging that Afghanistan be bombed until it treats women better. One can only imagine how the image of Samantha Power, Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, Susan and Condoleezza Rice, not to mention Indira Gandhi and Golda Maier, will make the Taliban want to create its own generation of ambitious educated women like these.

President Biden might have protected himself from Republican criticism by reminding his TV audience that Donald Trump had urged withdrawal from Afghanistan already last spring and now, in retrospect, that the Deep State was wrong to advise against this but that Donald was right. That is what his order for withdrawal was acknowledging, after all. This might have detoothed at least some Trumpian criticism.

Instead, Mr. Brennan and the generals trotted in front of the TV cameras criticized Biden for not prolonging the occupation until the fall, when cold weather would deter the Taliban from fighting. Brennan stated on Andrea Mitchells newscast that Biden should have taken a ploy out of his The Art of Breaking the Deal by breaking the former presidents promise to withdraw last spring.

Delay, delay, delay. That is always the stance of grabitizers refusing to see the resistance building up, hoping to take what they can get for as long as they can  with the they being the military-industrial complex, the suppliers of mercenary forces and other recipients of the money that Mr. Biden curiously says that we spent in Afghanistan.

The reality is that not much of this $3 trillion actually was spent there. It was spent on Raytheon, Boeing and other military hardware suppliers, on the mercenary forces, and placed in the accounts of the Afghan proxies for the U.S. maneuvering to use Afghanistan to destabilize Central Asia on Russias southern flank and western China.

It looks like most of the world will quickly recognize the Afghan government, leaving the U.S., Israel, Britain, India and perhaps Samoa isolated as a recalcitrant block living like the post-World War I royal families still clinging to their titles of dukes, princes and other vestiges of a world that had passed.

Bidens political mistake was to blame the victim and depict the Taliban victory as a defeat of a cowardly army not willing to fight for its paymasters. He seems to imagine that the army actually had been paid, provided with food, clothing and weapons in recent months simply because U.S. officials gave their local proconsuls and supporters cash for this purpose.

I understand that there is no real accounting of just what the $3 billion U.S. cost was actually spent on, who got it the shrink-wrapped bundles of hundred-dollar bills passed down through Americas occupation bureaucracy. (I bet the serial numbers were not recorded. Imagine if that were done and the U.S. could announce these C-notes demonetized!)

The reality is that not much of the notorious $3 trillion actually was spent in Afghanistan. It was spent on Raytheon, Boeing and other military hardware suppliers, on the mercenary forces, and placed in the accounts of the Afghan proxies for the U.S. maneuvering to use Afghanistan to destabilize Central Asia on Russias southern flank and western China.

The U.S. is now (20 years after the time it should have begun) trying to formulate a Plan B. Its strategists probably hope to achieve in Afghanistan what occurred after the Americans left Saigon: An economic free-for-all that U.S. companies can co-opt by offering business opportunities.

On the other hand, there are reports that Afghanistan may sue the United States for reparations for the illegal occupation and destruction still going on as the country is being bombed in Bidens flurry of B-52 anger. Such a claim, of course, would open the floodgates for similar suits by Iraq and Syria  and the Hague in Holland has shown itself to be a NATO kangaroo court. But I would expect Afghanistans new friends in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to back such a suit in a new international court, if only to block any hopes by U.S. companies of achieving by financial leverage what the State Department, CIA and Pentagon could not achieve militarily.

In any case, Bidens parting shot of nasty bombing of Taliban centers can only convince the new leadership to solidify its negotiations with its nearest regional neighbors with their promise to help save Afghanistan from any American, British or NATO attempt to try and come back in and restore democracy. The world has seen enough of Secretary of State Antony Blinkens rules based order and President Bidens pretended history on whose mythology U.S. policy will continue to be based.

_____________

[1]National Security Archive, January 29, 2019. Declassified Documents Show Moscows Fear of an Afghan Flip, https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/afghanistan-russia-programs/2019-01-29/soviet-invasion-afghanistan-1979-not-trumps-terrorists-nor-zbigs-warm-water-ports, Johnsons Russia List, August 17, 2021, #14.
Shopper Helaina Alati, who was a snake catcher, was ready to take the python which is three-metre long back to closeby bushland.

The Rare Customer

A three-metre-long python left shoppers in a Sydney supermarket shocked by slithering along a shelf that is meant for spices. A Woolworths spokesperson says it was a "slippery and rare customer".

When uploading footage of the large python at the Glenorie supermarket in Sydney's north-west on Facebook, Hilary Leigh wrote, "Only in Australia!"

Another shopper whose name is Helaina Alati was checking for spices that will be used for dinner on Monday night when she moved her head to the right and just 20cm from her face she sighted the diamond python. "It just wanted to say hello," she revealed to Guardian Australia.

Alati said at first, the snake was curled up at the back of the spices. She said dozens of shoppers must have moved past it. The supermarket spokesperson said once the snake was seen, Woolworths staff acted quickly and calmly to enclose the area for the safety of customers.

Also Read: Snakes Can Store Sperm for up to 5 Years Before Getting Pregnant

Reaction of Social Media Users

One of the social media users commented: "Geez! What a shock that would be coming at you! So unexpected."

Another wrote: "OMG I hate snakes would have taken everybody out with me as I ran for the exit."

"Yikes! I would have had a heart attack at that," a third user commented.

Alati said it's lucky she was the one it came out to because most people would have freaked out.

Since she was a former volunteer snake catcher, she was able to get the required equipment from her home not too far from the supermarket to remove the non-venomous snake safely. Alati released the snake into the bushland closeby.

Alati said the python was chill, and not aggressive at all and also the reptile wasn't in a defensive position. She said it slithered straight into the bag. And that she is used to seeing snakes in strange places but she wouldn't expect to see it in a Woolworths.

Diamond Python

The Australian Museum says diamond pythons are usually seen in bushland regions and Sydney's national parks, but they normally go undetected due to their nocturnal and slow-moving nature.

The museum states on its website: "The diamond python is not as widespread in Sydney as it once was and, although it is not considered endangered, it is under pressure from habitat destruction. Pythons are non-venomous but can inflict a painful bite. Teeth can break off and remain embedded in the victim."

Glenorie, a rural suburb of Sydney is on the outskirts of the city.

If you run into a snake don't hesitate to call a professional snake catcher for help.

Related Article: Man Spends 72 Hours Trapped With Deadly Snakes Just to Prove These Reptiles are Friendly

For more news, updates about snakes and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Even as it vows to begin auctions, the Biden administration appeals a federal judge's judgment against its oil leasing embargo, intensifying government monitoring of the industry it blames for causing climate change.

The steps, disclosed in an emailed statement by the Interior Department on Monday, are the start of a year-long review of the federal oil, gas, and coal leasing programs that could result in increased costs and additional restrictions on production in sensitive areas.

Drilling Rights

Any oil and gas leases, overriding royalty interests, mineral interests, farm-ins, farm-outs, option farmins, working interests, back-in working interests, carried interests, reversionary leasehold interests, force pooled interests, or any other contractual, economic, or statutory right in and to oil, gas, and other hydrocarbons are referred to as "Drilling Rights."

In June, the office said it would continue onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing as ordered by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana while appealing the judgment to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. "Interior will continue to use the power and discretion granted by law to conduct leasing in a way that takes into consideration the program's many flaws."

Related Article: Environmental Justice Goes Mainstream with Governmental Support



Court Jurisdiction

The statement comes only days before a court deadline for the administration to explain how it was following the judge's June 15 order to start leasing. Despite growing pressure from Congress and the oil industry, the Interior Department has failed to release public plans for new or rescheduled lease auctions.

According to two individuals familiar with the preparations who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, administration officials were afraid that the process would put top Interior officials in contempt for the protracted lease standstill if they did nothing.

Oil and Gas Leasing Ban on Federal Lands

Environmentalists had urged Biden to permanently ban oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waterways, claiming that a warming planet couldn't afford to burn the fossil fuels contained there.

Interior's statement, however, did nothing to appease oil and gas executives who have accused the government of being slow to reschedule a series of auctions that were postponed earlier this year. For example, advocates for offshore oil development have urged the government to delay a scheduled March auction of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming that extracting crude from U.S. seas emits fewer carbon emissions.

About a quarter of the nation's petroleum is produced on federal lands and waterways. According to a U.S. Geological Survey study, the oil, gas, and coal produced from that area are responsible for roughly 24% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

Making Significant Modifications

Even as the Interior Department announced that leasing would resume, the agency intends to make significant modifications.

Net-Zero Goals

On Jan. 27, President Joe Biden ordered a halt to leasing so that Interior could undertake a "full examination." Now, the EPA is beginning on a larger programmatic study of oil, gas, and coal leasing, which it says is required to determine what adjustments are needed to fulfill the president's goals of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and attaining attaining attaining goals net-zero emissions by 2050.

Also Read: Environmental Justice: How and Why Environmental Activism Became Mainstream



For more news update about Environmental Action, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Tens of thousands of people are being rescued after a deadly earthquake struck Haiti, leaving them homeless and cold brought by heavy rain of Tropical Storm Grace.

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday killed at least 1,419 people, where 6,900 were injured, and an unknown number are still missing. Rescue workers started digging through blocks of cement from fallen buildings to find survivors but were rained on by the storm. Nevertheless, the workers continued on the rescue before the rain turns the debris and soil to mud.

Damages brought by the quake hampered by the tropical depression





According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), tropical depression Grace was upgraded to a tropical storm west of the city of Les Cayes, and moving further westward towards Jamaica on Tuesday, 06:00 GMT.

While struggles of people are still fresh from experiencing the deadly quake, NHC fears that the storm could trigger landslide as Grace dumps up to 25cm (10 inches) of rain over the worst affected area.

Haiti's civil protection agency encouraged "good neighbors whose space has not been affected" to shelter some people who have lost their homes, especially around the city of Les Cayes, south-west of Haiti where people had most likely suffered the greatest.

The worst damages include Hotel in Les Cayes and cathedral in Jeremie. Among others are homes, churches and schools flattened in the quake. Officials feared that some hospitals cannot attend to injured patients.

Also read: Lair of Bones: Archeologists Unearthed Cave in Saudi Arabia Filled With Thousands of Skeletons

Hospitals are under fear of collapse

Haiti has been hit by a series of natural disasters in the past years, including Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and the deadliest one in 2010 that killed 200,000 people and destroyed the country's infrastructure and economy.

When deadly natural disasters like this hit, it is feared that hospitals in the remote part of the country cannot accommodate as much as they need to. While treating survivors are already hard, hospitals under state of collapse make it more difficult to cope with impacts brought by natural disasters.

Among them is the Les Cayes Ofatma hospital that struggled to provide shelter and brought everyone outside, swatting away flies on hospital beds and placed under makeshift tents and trees, screaming in pain.

Elsy, a survivor, had just woken up when the quake hit. Her son suffered serious fracture to his leg, while another woman who has a very bad broken leg and pregnant as well had received no pain relief for two days.

Doctors have struggled to find medicine and treat patients with the lack of needed facilities. People are desperate of help but to no avail. Total lack of mitigation plans had led to unpleasant scenarios of screams for help. The tropical storm had made things worse for the homeless, rescuers, and those injured.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Haitian politician and neurosurgeon serving as the 23rd prime minister of Haiti and acting president of Haiti urged people to "show solidarity" in this hopeless times.

Also read: Rising Sea Levels May Lead to More Volcanic Eruptions, Impacting Volcanic Islands
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that Fairfield County is now considered a high transmission area for COVID-19, one day after the states daily positivity rate reached its highest in four months.

Fairfield County makes the fifth county in the state to be upgraded to the high transmission category, joining New Haven, Hartford, New London and Middlesex counties. The states three remaining counties remain classified by the CDC as having substantial transmission.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  State labor and workforce training officials are bracing for the end of a $300 weekly federal bonus in unemployment benefits that also bolstered income for the self-employed and gig-economy workers in response to the pandemic.

New Mexico officials used an online forum Tuesday to direct people on unemployment rolls toward resources for job postings, career training resources, mock interviews and even free desks and phones at Workforce Connection offices. Supplemental unemployment benefits expire Sept. 4 across New Mexico as related federal programs come to a close.
NEW CANAAN  A controversial library expansion project years in the making that is finally about to break ground could be derailed by a lawsuit filed by the New Canaan Preservation Alliance.

The alliance has filed an appeal in state Superior Court to overturn the towns Planning and Zoning Commissions approval of the library project. While the alliance is focused on saving the 1913 library structure, its appeal could overturn the entire $38.5 million project.

According to the lawsuit, the alliance is seeking the court to enter an order finding the commissions action in issuing the approval to be unlawful and null and void, and directing the commission to deny the applications.

There is no other way to interpret that, said Lisa Oldham, executive director of the New Canaan Library. There was an approval. They are looking to have it overturned.

Neele-Banks Stichnoth, president of the NCPA board, said the alliance contends that the Planning and Zoning Commissions decision is not in line with the towns Plan of Conservation and Development and other zoning rules. She also said the full project and the 1913 building caveat cant be separated as two different things in the appeal.

According to the appeal, the action of the applications was illegal, unlawful, arbitrary, capricious and/or an abuse of the power and authority vested in the commission pursuant to the Connecticut General Statutes.

It referenced the towns POCD, including its theme to preserve historic resources and a chapter that aspires to preserve and enhance community character. The appeal also claims the commissions decision violates a state statute that encourages the protection of historic factors and said the panels decision constitutes spot zoning.

Oldham declined to comment on the specifics of the appeal. But she said the appeal is not going to stop construction from beginning once the library receives the building permits from the town.

There is nothing saying we can't start the project, Oldham said.

Oldham told the Board of Finance last week that she anticipates the project to get underway in early September.

We are eager to deliver a library campus that we know the community at-large is in favor of and that we will soon have plans that honor the condition of, Oldham said. I am hopeful it will satisfy the majority. We really look forward to getting underway.

The return date on the appeal is scheduled for Sept. 28. The town has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

Stichnoth said the alliance is in favor of the library project as long as the 1913 building is either fully preserved or is not disturbed.

We do want the new library to be built, Stichnoth said. But we believe there is a way to maintain the 1913 original library building.

While there have been discussions in recent months to preserve the 1913 building, none of the options have gained the full support of the alliance.

Stichnoth said the alliance will drop the appeal if the library develops a legitimate plan to fully preserve the 1913 building.

Our goal is not to stop the process, but the goal is to get a serious response, Stichnoth said.

The alliance filed the appeal with KKF LLC, which is operated by Art Kean Sr., who owns the Mobil gas station on South Avenue adjacent to the library.

Stichnoth referred to Kean as the future peacemaker of this issue.

Kean declined to comment on Thursday.

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said a meeting was held Wednesday in executive session to discuss the library.

Moynihan declined to discuss specifics of the appeal, but said he felt it was rather hastily prepared.
NEW CANAAN  While mask mandates have been set in place for Connecticut schools for at least the first month of the academic year, according to an executive order by Gov. Ned Lamont, a sect of New Canaan parents recently made their voices heard in opposition to the measure.

Parent Amanda Morgan, whose children do not currently attend the districts schools, voiced her displeasure with the mandate during Mondays Board of Education meeting.

Morgan, who contended she spoke on behalf of others who share my sentiments in our town and county, but are too afraid to speak out of because of fear of judgment, added that the question of wearing masks has become a politically charged argument.

She also classified mask wearing an inhumane practice of virtue signaling.

While her children do not currently go to a school in the district, she said she plans for her preschool-age kids to attend New Canaan schools in the future.

Morgan was just one of a dozen parents who spoke on the topic at the school board meeting Monday, where tempers flared at times and opinions were split evenly  with six speakers in favor of children wearing masks to school and six opposed.

Parents on both sides, however, said it was their responsibility to protect their children.

This woman (Morgan) and other people are misleading other people, said Rita Bettino. We all need to be aware of the gaslighting and misinformation that is online. I feel bad for people who were misled.

Bettino said she felt compelled to speak out after a number of folks esteemed themselves better experts than doctors or scientists, because of the research they have done on Google, she said.

Parent Lauren Wingent said the announcement sent out by Superintendent Bryan Luizzi in early August regarding mask wearing raised some eyebrows.

In that announcement, Luizzi told parents that masks were mandatory at least until Sept. 30, a guidance that fell in line with Lamonts executive order.

Youre a very intelligent man and you probably read that research and data, Wingent told Luizzi. We have to move on and we have to accept living with it just as another risk.

Parent Yolanda Gjuraj agreed, adding it was hard for her daughter to wear a mask throughout the length of a school day.

Meanwhile, Janet Fonss, another district parent, spoke in favor of mask wearing in the schools.

We are a caring community and we watch out for each other and this is what makes New Canaan great, she said. We have to follow the science.

Susan Grill, a parent who said she was scientist who had worked for 16 years on cellular and molecular projects at Brown University, Yale University and MIT, said that she was so impressed with what the school system has done.

Grill said she hopes the mitigation practices keep children who are under 12 safe until a COVID-19 vaccine is available for them.

The pandemic mitagations make sense because the transmissibility of the delta is much higher, than the earlier strain, she said.

Fatou Niang, who is running for a Board of Education seat this year, urged the attendees to stick to the facts and stick to the recommendations.
New Castle, PA (16103)

Today

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 62F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
Amesbury - Linda Somers of Amesbury passed away on Friday, August 27th at The Anna Jaques Hospital after prolonged health issues. Born on October 15th 1947, Linda was the daughter of Clifford and Thelma (Worthen) Titcomb. She was sister to the late Alan Titcomb and Steven Titcomb of Amesbury
Newburyport, MA (01950)

Today

Mostly clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Mostly clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.
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NEW MILFORD  USMC Sgt. Zachary Scoular and Brian Codys Brothers & Sisters Foundation have joined forces with businesses and nonprofits in the community and together they will be hosting a variety of free activities over the course of the weekend.

The weekend of awareness will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28 at the Bank Street Theater with a free screening of Fentanyl Madness, a documentary filmed in Connecticut in 2019. There will be a special Q&A panel afterward hosted by the films producer, Mr. Steve Hamm, New Milfords Community Navigator, Mr. Justin Cullmer, Kateland Kelly, PA-C, and Mrs. Donna DeLuca of the CARES and Confidant Health Group.

Then on Aug. 29, there will be events all day long with activities at both Youngs Field (7 a.m. to noon) and also at the Town Green (11:30 a.m to 7:30 p.m).

Sgt. Scoulars overdose awareness 5K run/walk will kick off a day full of free, family friendly activities. The 5K check in starts at 7 a.m. and will take place at Youngs Field.

The event will also showcase the talents of eight local bands performing various music genres and also an art exhibit, in addition there will be food trucks, festival crafters, a raffle, and a ton of free activities for kids such as magic shows, a bounce house & waterslide, field and carnival games, and an arts and crafts booth.

There will also be costumed characters roaming around throughout the day and the New Milford Police Chief is flying the helicopter in for families to check out.

Most importantly, the event will include a Recovery Advisory Zone where nearly two dozen subject matter experts from local organizations such as MCCA, Apex Community Care, Greenwoods, and New Milford CAN will provide Narcan training and guidance for those seeking assistance with their recovery journey.

The event is the first of this kind in the state of Connecticut, the goal of the event is to allow families whove been impacted by the opioid epidemic in the worst possible way to turn the pain into power, to bring smiles to the children throughout the community, and to celebrate that recovery is indeed possible.

There are still openings for 5K participants, crafters, and sponsors. Find the full schedule at BCsBrothersAndSisters.org, on Facebook at #BrianCodysLaw, or email Info@BrianCodysLaw.org.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  The head of the U.S. Energy Department is scheduled to visit New Mexico as the Biden administration looks to promote its renewable energy initiatives.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will be accompanied by Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich for the two-day visit. They are expected to meet with local leaders and organizations about the states push for more renewable energy and efforts to lower costs as utilities face a mandate over the next two decades for providing emissions-free electricity to customers across the state.
Deeply personal, complex and timely, "In the Same Breath" charts the initial outbreak of novel coronavirus in Wuhan, while paralleling the Chinese reaction to the outbreak with the US. Chinese-born filmmaker Nanfu Wang has created an unsettling window into the early days of the crisis and food for thought about how government, under each system, responded.

Wang (who directed the 2019 Netflix documentary "One Child Nation") was actually in China celebrating the New Year in January 2020, returning to the US, where she currently resides, as reports of the virus' impact emerged.

Working with local journalists and videographers, she has compiled a striking collection of footage -- including some surreptitiously shot inside hospitals -- reflecting the chaotic response and uncertainty, the terrible toll on residents and the government's efforts to spin and obscure what was happening in self-serving, propagandistic ways.

It's a devastating portrait of the Chinese government -- and the happy-talk news pushed out through its media -- reinforcing that there has yet to be a full accounting of the true death toll Covid exacted during that first wave of cases. The government's determination to control the narrative includes police visiting those who dared speak out about local conditions, and the grief experienced by families who lost loved ones.

Fears of a knock on the door are evident in conversations with hospital personnel, some of whom speak through the anonymity of heavy protective gear. Even in those instances it's hard not to wonder how identifiable some might be, given references to what they witnessed and experienced.

Yet while that material makes up the majority of the documentary, Wang doesn't spare officials in the US during the Trump administration. Indeed, the not-so-subtle message of "In the Same Breath" contrasts the authoritarian response in China with misinformation distributed in the US, waving red flags about where America could be heading. As Wang puts it in her narration, under both systems there's danger when "ordinary people become casualties of their leaders' pursuit of power."

The fact that the film is premiering as the US experiences another alarming wave of Covid-related cases only adds to the project's relevance, while revisiting China's lack of transparency in addressing the issues. In perhaps the most jarring flourish, Wang engages in a haunting interlude that speculates about how the initial response could have unfolded differently.

Wang's perspective doesn't spare either nation, which gives a deeper meaning to the title. In some respects, "In the Same Breath" leaves behind as many questions as it answers, but the director's lens and those of her collaborators remain as unflinching as they are sobering.

"In the Same Breath" premieres Aug. 18 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, which, like CNN, is a unit of WarnerMedia.

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A recent study conducted at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, has revealed that the number of naive B cells in the blood could independently predict the magnitude of immune response induced by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines in immunocompromised patients. The study is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

The risk of severe COVID-19 is significantly higher in immunocompromised patients, with a mortality rate of as high as 34%. To reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality, these patients have been prioritized for COVID-19 vaccines. However, a growing pool of evidence has suggested that the magnitude of vaccine-induced immune response is considerably low in immunocompromised patients than in healthy individuals.

Studies have suggested that in patients with measurable levels of peripheral B cells, antibody responses to mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can be induced after treatment with rituximab (a medicine used to treat certain types of autoimmune diseases and cancers). Given this observation, the scientists hypothesized that vaccine-induced antibody responses could be associated with the presence of specific B cell subsets in the blood during vaccination.

Study design

The study was conducted on patients with inborn errors of immunity, hematological cancers, and those receiving B cell-depleting therapies. The blood samples were collected from the participants at two time points: before administering mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines (BNT162b2; BioNTech/Pfizer or mRNA-1273; Moderna) and 21  28 days after full vaccination.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from the blood samples for lymphocyte phenotyping. Two separate serological tests were performed to measure the titers of IgG antibodies specifically targeting the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) or trimeric spike protein.

Important observations

A total of 120 immunocompromised patients and 79 healthy individuals participated in the study. All participants were immunized with two doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine, with only two healthy individuals receiving the BNT162b2 vaccine. The most commonly reported adverse reactions after vaccination were pain at the injection site, headache, fever, and fatigue.

Vaccine-induced immune responses

After vaccination, all healthy individuals became seropositive with high antibody titers. However, significantly lower seroconversion rates and antibody levels were observed in immunocompromised patients. Specifically, only 32% and 22% of patients exhibited detectable levels of antibodies targeting the spike RBD and trimeric spike, respectively.

The antibody response was lowest in patients who received B cell-depleting therapies. In contrast, the response was relatively higher in patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Correlation between B cell levels and antibody response

The highest positive correlation was observed between the number of naive B cells and antibody levels in all patients. Moreover, the interval between last B cell-depleting therapy and vaccination was identified as a strong predictor of antibody response.

Further statistical analysis involving the entire study population indicated that the antibody response to vaccination could be best predicted by the total numbers of B cells, naive B cells, pre-switch memory B cells, and post-switch memory B cells.

Compared to healthy participants, immunocompromised patients exhibited a significantly lower number of these B cell subsets. Further analysis with multiple variables indicated that the number of circulating naive B cells is the only independent predictor of vaccine-induced antibody response. Given this observation, a threshold level of circulating naive B cells was established, which indicated that at least six naive B cells per microliter of blood are required to induce an appropriate antibody response to vaccination.

Study significance

The study highlights the functional significance of circulating naive B cells in inducing humoral immunity in immunocompromised patients who have received mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, the study indicates that an interval of 116 days is required between the last B cell-depleting therapy and vaccination to induce an appropriate antibody response.

Since the production of antigen-specific antibodies primarily depends on the presence of antigen-specific B cells within the naive B cell pool, a depleted level of naive B cell population is expected to reduce the chance of harboring B cells with a high B-cell receptor/antigen avidity, subsequently leading to low antibody levels in the blood.

Thus, immunocompromised patients receiving B cell-depleting therapy should be vaccinated after a minimum interval of 116 days so that the entire naive B cell pool can get sufficient time to repopulate.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

Journal Reference
Scientists from Australia have recently deciphered the structural and molecular basis of T cell-mediated recognition of a dominant epitope on the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The findings reveal that the dominant spike-derived epitope induces polyfunctional CD8+ T cell response in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recovered individuals. The study is currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint server.

During a viral infection, cytotoxic CD8+ T cells play a vital role in recognizing and eliminating the invading virus. Studies have shown that CD8+ T cells are able to recognize and eliminate SARS-CoV-2 variants in COVID-19 patients efficiently.

Mechanistically, CD8+ T cells recognize viral epitopes presented by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules through specific T cell receptors (TCR), leading to the initiation of a cascade of immune reactions that ultimately result in viral clearance. The most prevalent HLA class I molecule in the global population is HLA-A*02:01. A growing pool of evidence has indicated that COVID-19 recovered individuals with HLA-A*02:01 demonstrate a robust CD8+ T cell response to an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 spike-derived epitope namely YLQ.

The study

The scientists have described the x-ray crystallographic structure of a public TCR  YLQ epitope complex. Moreover, they have characterized the CD8+ T cell response to HLA-A*02:01-presented YLQ epitope in COVID-19 recovered individuals. A public TCR is an epitope-specific TCR shared among unrelated individuals.

CD8+ T cell response to YLQ epitope

The scientists determined the immunogenicity of YLQ epitope in three COVID-19 recovered individuals. By expanding CD8+ T cells against the YLQ epitope, they observed a variable YLQ-specific T cell response and cytokine production between participants. Specifically, only two out of three participants exhibited CD8+ T cells that were able to produce all four cytokines (IFN, TNF, CD107a, and MIP1); however, only two cytokine-producing CD8+ T cells were detected in the other participant.

Taken together, these observations indicate that after recovery from COVID-19, individuals are capable inducing polyfunctional CD8+ T cell response to YLQ epitope; however, the level of polyfunctionality may differ between individuals.

Electron density map for the YLQ peptide bound to HLA-A*02:01 without and with the YLQ-SG3 TCR. 219 (A, B) Electron density map of (A) Fo-Fc map at 3 (green) and (B) 2Fo-Fc at 1  (purple) around the YLQ peptide 220 (orange stick) in complex with HLA-A*02 :01 (white cartoon). (C, D) Electron density maps of (C) Fo-Fc map at 3 221 (green) and (D) 2Fo-Fc at 1  (purple) around the YLQ peptide (pink stick) presented by the HLA-A*02:01 (beige 222 cartoon) bound to the YLQ-SG3 TCR.

Presentation of YLQ epitope by HLA-A*02:01

The scientists aligned spike sequences of SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal coronaviruses to determine whether the YLQ epitope is conserved between human coronaviruses. They found that the epitope shares only four residues with seasonal coronaviruses. However, they observed that the epitope is highly conserved between different SARS-CoV-2 variants with less than 0.5% of mutations of its residues.

By analyzing the x-ray crystallographic structure of the HLA-A*02:01  YLQ complex, they revealed that the epitope maintains a stable and rigid conformation in the HLA cleft and that the amino acid residues of the epitope have long side chains that potentially interact with TCRs.

Recognition of YLQ epitope by T cell receptors

From previously available studies, the scientists analyzed TCR sequences of YLQ-specific clonotypes observed in COVID-19 recovered individuals. Their analysis revealed a highly biased TCR repertoire among HLA-A*02:01-positive unrelated individuals. Moreover, they noticed a representation public TCR among unrelated individuals and selected it to further characterize the T cell response to YLQ epitope.

By analyzing the structure of YLQ  public TCR complex, they noticed that the receptor has high binding affinity for the HLA-A*02:01  YLQ complex. During interaction, the public TCR docks diagonally above the center of YLQ epitope. The alpha-chain of the TCR contributes to about 67% of the interaction. Importantly, minimal structural rearrangements occur during the docking of public TCR onto the HLA-A*02:01  YLQ complex.

Study significance

The study describes the structural and molecular basis of the interaction between a public TCR and an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 spike-derived epitope YLQ. In COVID-19 recovered individuals, YLQ-specific T cells exhibit a bias in their TCR repertoire as the alpha-chain of TCR contributes to 67% of the interaction, with the CDR1/2a loops (complementarity determining regions responsible for TCR specificity) contributing to 40% of the total interactions.

As mentioned by the scientists, the YLQ epitope can be used as a potential biomarker of SARS-CoV-2 infection as the epitope is highly immunogenic in most of the COVID-19 recovered individuals and not recognized in healthy individuals. Moreover, the ability to stimulate a robust polyfunctional CD8+ T cell response makes the YLQ epitope a promising target for T cell-based therapies or vaccines against COVID-19.
The European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group (ELRIG) UK today announced the programme details for Drug Discovery 2021, which will take place at the Exhibition Centre ACC in Liverpool, UK, from 1920 October. The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), a US-based organisation dedicated to advancing life sciences discovery, technology and collaboration, will host its popular Innovation AveNEW to showcase emerging innovations and companies. The free-to-attend, in-person event, aims to provide a platform to re-connect, re-invent, and re-imagine drug discovery with experts from industry, academia and global pharmaceutical organisations.

ELRIG UKs Drug Discovery returns as a face-to-face meeting place with a mission to engage quality discussions on key issues and future directions in preclinical drug discovery. The event expects to attract over 1000 delegates, with exhibitions from 100 vendors, and will implement actions to ensure a COVID-safe environment for attendees, such as COVID passports and a coloured lanyard system to show preferred levels of social distancing.

This year will celebrate the continuing success of the scientific community and provide several networking opportunities over the two-day event, to drive collaborations between academic and biopharma industry thought-leaders, as well as early career professionals. The programme includes insightful sessions on new approaches in infection biology diseases, advances in biomarkers and diagnostics, approaches to drugging RNA, innovative screening and strategies to enhance drug discovery, disruptive technologies, Alzheimers disease and other dementias as well as leading research from the British Pharmacological Society.

This years event is also host to SLASs Innovation AveNEW, which is designed to promote start-ups and emerging companies by awarding free-of-charge exhibition space, travel and hotel accommodations and access to a network of potential business partners, life science researchers, and purchasing decision-makers. To further elevate the new product, service, or company, selected companies have the opportunity to record an episode of the SLAS New Matter podcast and receive on-demand access to an SLAS entrepreneurial workshop. The top ranked applicant will receive an additional opportunity to participate in the SLAS Conference & Exhibition in Boston (59 February 2022) or in Dublin (2427 May 2022).

This last year has seen unprecedented scientific progress, and ELRIG UK is committed to ensuring that our events provide highly relevant networking opportunities and content to support this continued success. ELRIG Drug Discovery is widely recognised as Europes largest meeting place on the application of drug discovery, and we are proud to partner with SLAS, an organisation at the industry forefront, to promote the most exciting emerging products, services and companies in Europe. Sanj Kumar, General Manager, ELRIG UK

Vicki Loise, CEO of SLAS, said: The companies selected for our Innovation AveNEW are given the opportunity to raise awareness of their new company, product or service to a global audience. At SLAS, we are very pleased to partner with ELRIG UK, and we are confident that the inclusion of our Innovation AveNEW in this years Drug Discovery programme will complement its mission to provide freely accessibly scientific content, promotion and networking opportunities.
A complete workflow developed by Promega Corporation enables wastewater testing laboratories, including public health organizations, to quickly assess the health of entire communities from a single sample. The Maxwell RSC Enviro Total Nucleic Acid Kit and Wizard Enviro Total Nucleic Acid Kit join a growing portfolio of products that support wastewater surveillance to monitor the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

Wastewater-based epidemiology

Wastewater testing gained widespread popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 shed viral particles in their feces, even before they show symptoms. As a result, the levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater reflect the trends in infection rates in a given community. Collected consistently, this data can predict major outbreaks as much as seven days earlier than clinical tests.

Wastewater gives you a snapshot of the entire community. To think of any other sample type that has that much wealth of informationit is hard to even imagine. Subhanjan Mondal, Senior Research Scientist, Promega Corporation

Direct capture methods

Promega scientists recently published a study in Science of The Total Environment detailing direct capture methods for rapid and high-yield purification of viral nucleic acids from wastewater. These methods overcome the shortcomings of traditional precipitation-based isolation of viral particles, which fail to capture the degraded viruses present in wastewater. The publication demonstrates that direct capture methods produce samples that are compatible with RT-qPCR for monitoring infection levels and next-generation sequencing (NGS) for detecting viral variants.

Promega workflow for wastewater surveillance

The methods published in Science of the Total Environment form the basis of the new Maxwell RSC Enviro Total Nucleic Acid Kit, an automated method for purification of viral nucleic acids, as well as the manual Wizard Enviro Total Nucleic Acid Kit. Both kits are designed to work with the large sample volumes required for wastewater testing and remove inhibitors that can disrupt downstream testing. The protocols can also be altered to process solids extracted from wastewater, in addition to only liquids.

The purification kits can be used with the SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR Kit for Wastewater to form a complete workflow for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater. The workflow moves from sample to results in less than four hours, offering quick answers to inform decisions. This portfolio will continue to expand with additional amplification kits to be launched later.

Video Credit: Promega Corporation
New research aims to shed light on reducing the loss of speech and language in epilepsy patients who require brain surgery to manage the condition.

Dr Lisa Gillinder and Professor Katie McMahon. Image Credit: Mater

Epilepsy affects more than 250,000 Australians with one third requiring surgery to remove the brain tissue causing seizures.

Mater Hospital Centre for Neurosciences neurologist Dr Lisa Gillinder said the research would help reduce the risk of damage during surgery to areas of the brain that are responsible for speech, movement, vision and other functions.

Patients who experience epilepsy in the region of the brain that is responsible for speech and language may have difficulties regaining normal speaking function after surgery. Dr Lisa Gillinder, Neurologist, Mater Hospital Centre for Neurosciences

The research is a joint project by Mater Hospital Advanced Epilepsy Unit, Queensland University of Technology and University of Queensland and will study people who have epilepsy as well as those who do not have the condition to improve understanding about the speech areas of the brain.

Researchers are calling for volunteers aged 25  65 years who are right-handed and speak English as a first language to take part in the trial. Participants with and without epilepsy are required.

The research team is also hopeful the study could lead to improved treatment for people with other conditions that affect the brain including stroke, dementia and brain tumors.

Deputy Director of Herston Imaging Research Facility and QUT Professor Katie McMahon believes patients with epilepsy already had different function in the speech region of the brain, caused by the impact of ongoing seizures.

The research will allow us to test this theory, Professor McMahon said. We are also hoping to identify how (magnetic resonance imaging) MRI scans can be best used to assess language function in people with epilepsy when planning for surgery.

Overall, the goal is to improve treatment for people with epilepsy and gain clearer information about the risks and benefits of surgery.

Participants will be asked to attend two MRI scans at the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital approximately three months apart. Each session will take approximately 60 minutes.
When the Food and Drug Administration announced last week that a third dose of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine may boost the immunity of some people who are immunocompromised, officials repeated their stance that fully vaccinated, healthy people do not need another dose.

With this caveat: "The FDA is actively engaged in a science-based, rigorous process with our federal partners to consider whether an additional dose may be needed in the future," said acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.

But the Biden administration reportedly said this week that most Americans will need a booster. And a White House press conference slated for 11 a.m. Wednesday was expected to address boosters.

Meanwhile, doctors and researchers caution that the public needs to stick to the advice of the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those federal agencies "are doing their very best to ensure maximum protection and safety," said Dr. Cody Meissner, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases who sits on the FDA's vaccine advisory panel. "People have to be very careful about statements that come from Big Pharma. They have a very different goal."

Dr. Sadiya Khan, an epidemiologist and cardiologist at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said that taking any medication has risks and that adding an additional dose of vaccine might cause unnecessary side effects. "What we need is data," she said.

So what do we know about whether healthy, fully vaccinated people should get a booster? Here are answers to seven key questions.

1. What evidence are vaccine makers giving federal regulators to support the idea that an additional shot is needed?

It's unclear how the booster may be authorized by regulators. On Tuesday, FDA spokesperson Abby Capobianco said federal agencies are reviewing laboratory and clinical trial data as well as data from the real world. Some data will come from specific pharmaceutical companies, but the agency's analysis "does not rely on those data exclusively," she said.

The companies, for their part, are racing to produce data. On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted initial but promising results from a phase 1 study of the safety and immune response from a booster dose given at least six months after the second dose. Late-stage trial results that evaluate the effectiveness of a third dose are "expected shortly," Pfizer spokesperson Jerica Pitts confirmed this week.

Moderna President Stephen Hoge said during his company's earnings call this month that a third dose is "likely to be necessary" this fall because of the highly contagious delta variant. Moderna spokesperson Ray Jordan said Tuesday the company is in talks with regulators but hasn't provided an estimated timeline.

Johnson & Johnson, whose vaccine is administered in a single shot, hopes to share results soon from a late-stage clinical trial studying the safety and efficacy of a two-dose regimen in 30,000 adults. The study is looking at "potential incremental benefits" with a second dose, company spokesperson Richard Ferreira wrote in a Tuesday email.

2. Why might healthy people not need a booster yet?

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the National Institutes of Health and FDA, said current federal guidance does not recommend a booster and there's no "science-based" reason to get an additional shot at this time  even after receiving the J&J vaccine.

The current mRNA vaccines work by inducing a certain level of neutralizing, virus-specific antibodies with the first dose. Then the second dose brings on an exponential increase in the measurable level of specific neutralizing antibodies  and, more important, there's evidence that the second dose of mRNA vaccine also gives cellular immunity, Offit said.

"That predicts relatively longer-term protection against severe critical disease," he said. A single dose of the J&J vaccine  which uses a different technology, called an adenovirus vector  has been shown to provide the equivalent response to the second dose of an mRNA vaccine, he said.

3. How do the three vaccines authorized in the U.S. compare?

A recent preprint  a paper that has not been peer-reviewed  from the Mayo Clinic suggests that the Moderna vaccine may be more protective against the delta variant than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. However, that research is based on examining the vaccination history of thousands of people who got covid, rather than a direct comparison of the vaccines, said Dr. Catherine Blish, a specialist in infectious diseases at Stanford Medicine.

"I would be hesitant to alter any practices or change behavior in any way based on that data," she said.

The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are administered differently, which could factor into how much mRNA the body receives to code into protein, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, a specialist in infectious diseases at the University of California-San Francisco. Moderna's dosing is two shots of 100 micrograms delivered four weeks apart, while the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine's two 30-microgram doses are delivered three weeks apart.

At the end of July, Pfizer and BioNTech announced findings that four to six months after a second dose their vaccine's efficacy dropped from a peak of 96% to about 84%. With its own data of fading efficacy, the Israeli government launched a vaccination campaign this month encouraging more than 1 million residents over age 50 to get a third shot.

As for J&J's one-shot vaccine, there's no evidence that recipients are being hospitalized with breakthrough infections at a higher rate than if they had received other vaccines, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a specialist in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

4. Could a booster harm a healthy, fully vaccinated person?

It's unclear. Offit said he believes a booster is safe and may well become important  but "it's just not where we should be in this country right now." The best defense against delta and other variants, he said, is to first vaccinate as many people as possible.

Others, though, said the available research signaled that caution is warranted. During a media briefing reported by Reuters last month, Jay Butler, the CDC's deputy director for infectious diseases, said the agency was "keenly interested in knowing whether or not a third dose may be associated with any higher risk of adverse reactions, particularly some of those more severe  although very rare  side effects."

The CDC did not respond to questions this week about its stance on potential risks. There have been reports of blood clots and allergic reactions after regular dosing. Khan, at Northwestern, said she is also concerned about reports of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart  which is more common after the second shot than the first. She said it's not clear that the benefit of taking a booster would outweigh the risk for young, healthy people.

5. Would a booster limit a vaccinated person's ability to spread the virus?

Dr. William Moss, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, explained that the immune protection conferred by vaccines operates along a spectrum, from severely limiting initial virus replication to preventing widespread virus dissemination and replication within our bodies.

"Booster doses, by increasing antibody levels and enhancing other components of our immune responses, make it more likely virus replication will be rapidly prevented," Moss said. "This then makes it less likely a vaccinated individual will be able to transmit the virus."

Moss also said there are potential benefits to combinations of vaccines like those being administered in San Francisco and some European countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel boosted her adenovirus-vectored AstraZeneca shot with Moderna in June.

Another possible step for pharmaceutical companies is to reformulate their covid vaccines to more closely match newer variants. Pfizer has announced it could do so within 100 days of the discovery of a variant.

Hopefully, the regulatory process could be expedited for such reformulated vaccines, said Moss, who works within Johns Hopkins' International Vaccine Access Center.

6. Would we have to pay for the booster dose, or would it be free, like the previous shots?

It is expected to be free. According to Pfizer and the White House, the federal government purchased an additional 200 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for inoculating children under 12 and for possible boosters.

7. Is there a future in which we take an annual covid shot?

Dr. Vincent Rajkumar, a hematologist at the Mayo Clinic who studies cancers involving the immune system, said a year ago he believed immune responses to covid may be similar to those of the measles, which create "a very long memory that protects us."

Then covid mutated. "India changed everything for me," he said, referring to its massive second wave after delta was discovered. Many of those who were infected had already had covid, he said.

Rajkumar now believes "we might need annual boosters  and it would be nice if such boosters can be combined with the flu vaccine."
The emergence of the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) in the United States has backtracked many plans to return to a pre-COVID era. A surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant has caused a rise in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations after what was previously a steady decline during the summer.

New research led by Benjamin P. Linas of Boston Medical Center at Boston University School of Medicine simulated the impact the Delta variant will have on the United States.

Since July 31, the Delta variant makes up 82% of coronavirus cases in the United States. The study findings suggest the United States is on course to have Delta become the dominant coronavirus variant in every state.

Given low vaccination rates and reducing social distancing behavior in many states  including in Idaho, Washington, Montana, and more  the number of daily deaths is expected to rise in at least 40 states.

Our hope is that the findings of this report serve a warning sign and people revert to wearing masks and maintain social distancing to reduce COVID-19 associated deaths in the U.S, wrote the researchers.

The study Changing Dynamics of COVID-19 in the U.S. with the Emergence of the Delta Variant: Projections of the COVID-19 Simulator is published on the preprint medRxiv* server.

The predicted number of Delta-related cases and death is constantly changing as states take countermeasures to enforce vaccination and social distancing measures. Updated projections occur weekly and are found on the COVID-19 simulator website.

Modeling assumptions

The researchers modeled the trajectory of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths each state will experience until the end of 2021. The model took into account peoples attitudes towards mask-wearing and state vaccination rates. For vaccinated individuals, the model assumed vaccines would reduce the likelihood of getting infected by 80% with one dose and 90% with two doses.

Model-estimated daily COVID-19 deaths in each state grouped by U.S. census division. The combination of high transmissibility of the Delta variant, low vaccination coverage in several regions, and more relaxed attitude towards social distancing is expected to result in a surge in COVID-19 deaths in at least 40 states.

Expected surge in cases and hospitalizations

Modeling results suggest at least 40 states will have an increase in COVID-19 deaths. Some regions, including California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, are expected to surpass 100 per day.

The daily death rate across the United States is expected to be about 1,600. Between August 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021, the research team projects an additional 157,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the United States.

To date, the United States has had over 623,000 COVID-19 deaths.

The research model predicts about 20,700 Delta-related deaths in Texas, 16,000 in California, 12,400 in Florida, 12,000 in North Carolina, and 9,300 in Georgia at the end of 2021.

Past (black) and projected (red) COVID-19 deaths in each state until December 31, 2021.

If social distancing behaviors such as mask-wearing and vaccination rates do not increase, the researchers predict states in Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, as well as Puerto Rico will exceed their current 2021 peak of coronavirus deaths.

In contrast, the Northeast is not expected to have a significant rise in Delta-related deaths. Modeling data shows COVID-19 deaths from the beginning of August to the end of 2021 to be less than 200 in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island.

Because of differences in population-level immunity from previous infection and vaccination, as well as attitudes towards social distancing (e.g., mask use) across states, the Delta variant could disproportionately impact some states by causing a resurgence in cases and hospitalizations, concluded the researchers.

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is one of a handful of Republican governors trying to block school districts from requiring masks in the classroom.

Under DeSantis' direction, the state health department adopted a rule that lets families opt out of locally ordered school mask mandates. The State Board of Education approved another rule that allows parents to secure vouchers for their children to attend a different school if they encounter pushback on their refusal to use masks. The DeSantis administration threatened to penalize school officials financially if they bucked the rules.

Much of DeSantis' argument was based on his belief that parents have a right to determine what's best for their child, as well as his doubts about whether mask mandates are effective at curbing the covid virus in a school setting. (When PolitiFact looked into the latter argument, multiple experts pointed to research showing that mask-wearing is effective at protecting children from covid-19 and preventing covid transmission in schools.)

But DeSantis also cited specific negatives for mask wearers' health.

In an executive order, DeSantis wrote that masking children may lead to negative health and societal ramifications and that forcing children to wear masks could inhibit breathing, lead to the collection of dangerous impurities including bacteria parasites, fungi, and other contaminants, and adversely affect communications in the classroom and student performance.

DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pushaw, told PolitiFact that there are potential downsides to masking children for eight hours per day, from a developmental, emotional, academic, and medical perspective. These potential downsides are largely unexplored.

She cited concerns raised in an op-ed by Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Dr. Cody Meissner, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Children's Hospital, that said that masks can lead to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood and that they can be vectors for pathogens if they become moist or are used for too long. Makary and Meissner also warned of impacts on verbal and nonverbal communication.

Other people aligned with DeSantis' view have put the harm of kids wearing masks in even starker terms.

During a panel discussion convened by DeSantis, clinical psychiatrist Dr. Mark McDonald said, My position is simple: Masking children is child abuse, according to the Miami Herald. (Meissner was also on the panel.)

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) spoke out against a proposed school mask mandate by the Buncombe County Board of Education, saying a mandate is nothing short of psychological child abuse.

And on the July 27 edition of his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson asserted that it's a scientifically established fact that masks pose a far greater threat to children than covid does. So, strictly speaking as a scientific matter, this is lunacy.

What does science say about whether masks can harm the wearer?

Generally, we found that concerns about significant negative effects on breathing aren't well supported. Worries about masks interfering with communication and serving as a barrier to social connection in the classroom may be more reasonable, experts say.

Breathing concerns

The first thing to note is that masks aren't recommended for everyone. The American Lung Association cautions people with lung disease, for instance, to consult their doctor before wearing a mask regularly. In addition, the CDC does not recommend that children under 2 years old wear masks. Masks are also generally not recommended during heavy exercise.

But what about people who do not fall into these categories? Could they be hurt by wearing a mask?

Some of the most common concerns raised involve a lack of oxygen, or a buildup in carbon dioxide. We have previously found such concerns to be oversold, as have other fact-checkers.

The issue has been convincingly debunked, said Babak Javid, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.

We should note that studies specific to children have been rare, so most of the scientific literature has involved research on adults. Two studies on children used N95 masks, which are more sophisticated than the masks most schoolchildren will use, but even these found no significant effect on breathing. Other peer-reviewed studies of adults have produced similar results.

A mask will add some resistance to the breathing process, meaning it may feel like it takes a bit more work to take a breath, but it wont materially change the makeup of air that comes through the mask, said Benjamin Neuman, a biology professor at Texas A&M University and chief virologist of the university's Global Health Research Complex.

A paper published in February looked at 10 previous studies of adults or children that addressed questions of breathing while wearing a mask. The authors expressed disappointment at how few studies looked specifically at the impacts on children, and they urged that more research is needed on that specific question.

However, the paper found little reason for worry.

The eight adult studies, including four prompted by the pandemic and one on surgeons, reported that face masks commonly used during the pandemic did not impair gas exchange during rest or mild exercise, the authors wrote.

A June study that seemed to indicate breathing challenges for masked children was retracted by the journal JAMA Pediatrics 16 days after publication because of methodological shortcomings and other concerns.

Dr. David Hill, an American Lung Association board member, has written that masks absolutely do not cause low oxygen levels.

We wear masks all day long in the hospital, Hill wrote. The masks are designed to be breathed through and there is no evidence that low oxygen levels occur.

Another reason medical experts aren't too worried is that the world has engaged in a massive study  observational, but literally billions of people  on mass mask-wearing, and people are not dropping dead left, right and center, Javid said.

Other possible risks

A few other complaints about masks sometimes surface, such as fear that they could concentrate toxins or harm the immune system. But these aren't well supported either, experts say.

As long as masks are regularly replaced or laundered, there's no reason to worry about toxins,'' said Columbia University virologist Angela Rasmussen. And there's no evidence that masks have any effect on the immune system or immune function, she said.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told PolitiFact that swabbing a student's backpack would probably generate as many (or more) pathogens as swabbing their mask.

And Nicole Gatto, an associate professor of public health at Claremont Graduate University, said pathogens on masks may be evidence that they're being kept out of the mouths and noses of those who wore them, preventing people from potentially getting ill.

While the scientific evidence for specific ills such as low oxygen or high carbon dioxide is weak, experts say it's more plausible that the annoyances of masking could distract from in-class lessons and make it harder to hear other students or the teacher.

In a September 2020 paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the authors wrote that while there are minimal physiological impacts on wearing a mask  there may be consequential psychological impacts of mask wearing on the basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

Such downsides may be especially acute for students who are English-language learners, or those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Masks interfere with lip-reading, which has a major impact on communication, Javid said.

The reality is that there is minimal evidence on how severe these sorts of impacts could be for most children. This is the first time in most of our lifetimes we have faced the prospect of continued isolation and masking, so it is not surprising we have insufficient evidence to guide us, said Amy Price, a senior research scientist at Stanford University.

Still, there is evidence that children are adaptable. In a December 2020 study of children's ability to read the facial expressions of masked people, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that while there may be some challenges for children incurred by others wearing masks, in combination with other contextual cues, masks are unlikely to dramatically impair children's social interactions in their everyday lives.

And child-development experts caution against assuming that any deficits from masks will linger over the long term.

Most children dont like wearing pants or shoes at first, but they adjust, like they do for all the other things we require of them, said A.E. Learmonth, a professor with the cognition, memory and development lab at William Paterson University. In many ways, a mask is just another article of clothing. In the beginning it could be distracting and uncomfortable, but like shoes, they will get used to it.

Meanwhile, polling suggests that parents are open to masks in schools. A KFF survey taken in July and August found that 63% of parents wanted masks required in schools for people who are unvaccinated.

PolitiFacts Gabrielle Settles and Jason Asenso contributed to this article.
South Ural State University (SUSU) scientists have proposed an innovative method for testing the effectiveness of medicines for coronavirus. According to the researchers, it is necessary to focus on the maximum coincidence of the ligand and the receptor. The results of the work have been published in the highly-rated journal "Molecules"(Q1).

Despite the successful treatment regimens developed for coronavirus infection, the search for a cure for the disease continues. Now no drug could block the spread of the virus in the body. Scientists from all over the world are working on solving the problem.

Employees of the Research Laboratory for Computer Modeling of Medicines at South Ural State University are looking for effective substances against coronavirus. They may be contained in drugs at present used in the treatment of other diseases. The project is supported by a BRICS grant, and scientists from India, South Africa, and Brazil are equally participating in it.

The most recent study by the international team examined the complementarity of RNA polymerase in SARS-CoV-2(coronavirus) complexes with ligands.RNA polymerase is an enzyme that reproduces the genetic material of a virus. This is how the virus spreads throughout the body.

It is assumed that drugs for coronavirus block RNA polymerase. Scientists have found that ligands(chemical compounds that possess pharmacological effects) must match the enzyme as much as possible in order for their action to be effective.

The structures should be as close to each other as possible, in our case- to exclude the interaction of the virus RNA polymerase with human DNA.Our colleagues conducting research on the same topic focus on the energy of interaction.However, the relation of th eelectronic structure of the ligand to the electronic structure of RNA-dependent RNA-polymerasei s more important." Vladimir Potemkin, Ph.D., Head, Laboratory for Computer Modeling of Medicines, South Ural State University

Scientists used the Protein Data Bank, a database of three-dimensional structures o proteins and polymeric acids, to obtain the structure of RNA polymerase. The researchers then calculated the electron density of the enzymes and the ligand favipiravir-RTP.

This is the active form of the drug Fivapiravir used to combat viral infections. The following step was to analyze the intersection of the electron clouds of the ligand and the receptor. The programs implemented for computer analysis were created at SUSU.

Rendering to the results of the study, the maximum complementarity was recorded when the ligand coincided with the RNA. The findings can be used to predict the biological activity and examine the mechanism of drug action. Also, in the publication, scientists presented an equation that can be used to test the effectiveness of the effects of other ligands on receptors.

Note that the team's work to discover effective remedies for coronavirus is not finished. In India, effective substances are being synthesized, in vitro tests will be carried out there, and their Brazilian colleagues will perform them in vivo. The mutability of the virus will be assessed by South African scientists. Once the potency of a potential drug has been proven, production can begin.
Serological assays for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies are increasingly available for detecting infection. However, there are critical gaps in understanding the cross-reactivity of assays with sera from patients suffering from non-coronavirus infections. Cross-reactivity poses a particular issue in tropical regions of the world, where several infections dominate the local epidemiology of acute fever syndromes.

The mechanisms that lead to cross-reactivity include infection of the reticuloendothelial system caused by protozoans and antibodies produced against various helminth infections. Infections include Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and malaria. Notably, three of the four countries (Brazil, India, and Mexico) with the largest total number of deaths attributed to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are burdened by high cases of NTDs or Malaria.

A new study available on the pre-print server medRxiv* aims to assess the specificity of the serological assays of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among patients known to have a tissue-borne parasitic infection or those who reside in areas where the virus is endemic.

What did the study involve?

Specimens of sera were collected from patients who were either suffering from or had recently recovered from Malaria, African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, or another filarial disease in July 2019.

Three different SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests were done to determine the specificity of the tests: anti-SARS-CoV-2 N-protein IgG, anti-SARS-CoV-2 N-Protein IgM, and anti-Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) that blocks all classes of immunoglobins.

Subsequently, three other tests were conducted; Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG Assay, Culture-free neutralization antibody detection assay (cPass), and STANDARD Q COVID-19 IgM/IgG Combo Rapid Test.

Categorization for SD RDT band intensity, based on a standard color scale provided by SD Biosensor. A score of 0 indicates no signal; 1 indicates barely visible but present (corresponding to R1-R6 on the standard scale); 2 indicates low intensity (i.e. faint but definitively positive, corresponding to R7-R12 on the standard scale); 3 indicates medium to high intensity (corresponding to R13-R21 on the standard scale). The upper row shows the standard color scale provided by the manufacturer. The lower row shows actual RDTs used in the present study, photographed on the same day under standardized lighting conditions. The illustrative test line is shown in the dashed rectangle.

What did the study find?

The study results showed that the specificity of the assays ranged from 95% to 98% in all observed cases. Although, for both Abbot Architect and SD RDT IgM, it was 95% which fell short of the 97% benchmark recommended by WHO for SAR-CoV-2 serological assays.

The lowest observed specificities were from patients suffering from protozoan infections of the reticuloendothelial system and patients who had recently had malaria. The non-specific cross-reaction among patients in malaria-endemic areas was hypothesized to be intensified by co-infections rather than malaria infections alone. It was also found that repeated infections with Plasmodium species may also lead to greater cross-reactivity. The cPass assay, designed to measure the strength of inhibition of RDB binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2), showed the least variation across specimen origins with the highest specificity across groups.

What did the authors conclude?

The researchers concluded that the specificity of SARS-CoV-2 serological assays decreased among sera from patients with tissue-borne parasitic infections. Significantly, below the threshold required for decisions about individual patient care.

Additionally, the SD RDT IgG assay was found to be similar to the laboratory-based assays and provides a low-resource setting for the detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG when its presence is indicated.

The study's limitations include the available volume of stored pre-pandemic specimens prevented the possibility of performing specific avidity testing or testing for the presence of antibodies to seasonal coronaviruses that could have cross-reacted with the SARS-CoV-2 serological assays.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Over 600,000 emergency calls to 999 during the first wave of the pandemic were for suspected Covid, with ambulances sent in almost 80% of cases and 43% of patients being conveyed to hospital, a major new survey of UK ambulance services has shown.

Some services were much harder hit than others, with almost half of all calls to one service being Covid-related at its peak.

Care received varied widely by geographic area, with ambulances sent to under 60% of Covid callers in one service, but to 100% in another. The number of patients taken to hospitals varied between 32% and 54% across the country.

The findings will help ambulance experts and policymakers plan for further waves and future pandemics, showing patterns of demand, and helping improve the safety and effectiveness of the NHS response.

The research was carried out by a team from Swansea University Medical School. They surveyed all 13 UK ambulance services, receiving responses from 12, asking them for data for the 22 weeks between 1 February, just after the first confirmed UK case of Covid, and 27 June.

Analyzing the data they received, the team found:

604,146 of the calls received were for suspected Covid, which is 13.5% of all calls to 999 over the period

The number of suspected Covid calls to 999 varied widely during the period, with the highest level across the UK occurring in week 7, though all ambulance services recorded lower levels by the end of the period

There was much variation across the country and over time, with areas with high rates of Covid infection and hospitalization showing higher rates of 999 calls

The highest rate of suspected Covid calls observed was 44.5% - recorded by one ambulance service in one week

Ambulances were dispatched to 79% of the calls, with 43% resulting in the patient being taken to hospital

The triage procedures used to assess urgency  both in the 999 call center and at the scene - varied significantly between ambulance services and overtime

As well as shedding light on patterns of demand, the findings can provide insights to help improve the triage process, which is crucial in providing the most appropriate care and making the best use of NHS resources.

Triage is a process of assessing how severe and urgent a case is. Calls made to 999 are triaged twice: once in the call center, to decide on appropriate response and timing, and then a second time at the scene if an ambulance is sent.

Getting triage right is crucial. A wrong decision to not send an ambulance, or to leave a patient at home, can result in avoidable serious or critical illness or death. But taking patients to hospital unnecessarily means extra pressure on the NHS, resources being diverted from more seriously ill people, and unnecessary exposure to the risk of infection.

Professor Helen Snooks of Swansea University Medical School, lead researcher, said:

"Our data shows clearly that COVID-19 brought a high additional workload to the UK's ambulance services at a time of high uncertainty and fear. This applies to the call center-; with new protocols for triage and advice  at the scene and at the hospital, with infection control and personal protective equipment requirements, and a high incidence of ambulances queuing outside A&E departments."

The findings reveal a lot of variation between ambulance services in their response. Variation in the care provided means that people receive a different response depending on where they live. This is a red-flag marker of concern for quality and safety, as recently highlighted in a review of ambulance service provision." Helen Snooks, Study Lead Researcher and Professor, Swansea University Medical School

"The pandemic is not over. So gaining a greater understanding of patterns of demand for the emergency ambulance service, and the safety and effectiveness of the different models of triage and response are crucial in order to inform policy and patient safety," concluded Snooks.

The research was published in the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
(Newser)  Members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma wont contribute billions of dollars to a legal settlement unless they get off the hook for all current and future lawsuits over the companys activities, one of them told a court Tuesday in a rare public appearance. David Sackler, grandson of one of the brothers who nearly 70 years ago bought the company that later became Purdue, testified at a hearing in federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, NY that unless the settlement is approved with those protections included, as they currently are, I believe we would litigate the claims to their final outcomes." "We need a release thats sufficient to get our goals accomplished, Sackler said in response to questions from a lawyer for the US bankruptcy trustee. "If the release fails to do that, we will not support it. From the AP:

Objections to the plan. That's the heart of argument over the settlement plans of the family and the company, based in Stamford, Connecticut. The US Bankruptcy Trustee, nine states, and the District of Columbia are objecting to the company's settlement plan largely because it would grant legal protection to members of the wealthy Sackler family even though none of them are declaring bankruptcy themselves.

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Protests and legislation . The concept has sparked protests, as well as federal legislation known as the SACKLER Act that would bar these deals, known as third-party releases. They are granted by bankruptcy courts in some parts of the US, but not all. The bill has sputtered in Congress.

. The concept has sparked protests, as well as federal legislation known as the SACKLER Act that would bar these deals, known as third-party releases. They are granted by bankruptcy courts in some parts of the US, but not all. The bill has sputtered in Congress. Suits would be frozen forever . Suits against the company and the Sacklers, including from several states, have been paused since Purdue filed for bankruptcy nearly two years ago. If the reorganization is approved as it is, it would freeze those forever. Sackler family members are also seeking protections from future lawsuits over opioids and any actions involving Purdue, even those that had nothing to do with the drugs. The deal would not protect Sackler family members from any criminal charges. None have been announced against family members

. Suits against the company and the Sacklers, including from several states, have been paused since Purdue filed for bankruptcy nearly two years ago. If the reorganization is approved as it is, it would freeze those forever. Sackler family members are also seeking protections from future lawsuits over opioids and any actions involving Purdue, even those that had nothing to do with the drugs. The deal would not protect Sackler family members from any criminal charges. None have been announced against family members Costs for the Sacklers . The Purdue reorganization plan does have costs for Sackler family members. They would be required to give up ownership of the company, with future profits going to abate the opioid crisis. They would also have to contribute a total of $4.5 billion in cash and a charitable fund over time. That money is also slated to go to efforts to battle the crisis, with a share of it going to victims and their families.

. The Purdue reorganization plan does have costs for Sackler family members. They would be required to give up ownership of the company, with future profits going to abate the opioid crisis. They would also have to contribute a total of $4.5 billion in cash and a charitable fund over time. That money is also slated to go to efforts to battle the crisis, with a share of it going to victims and their families. They could still get richer . But a report commissioned by a group of state attorneys general said that because most of the payments come years from now, family members could use investment returns and interest to build even greater wealth while they make the payments. The family's collective wealth is estimated at nearly $11 billion, with much of that built on sales from OxyContin.

. But a report commissioned by a group of state attorneys general said that because most of the payments come years from now, family members could use investment returns and interest to build even greater wealth while they make the payments. The family's collective wealth is estimated at nearly $11 billion, with much of that built on sales from OxyContin. No apology. Sackler, who also testified before a congressional committee late last year, stopped short both then and Tuesday of an apology for the family or company's role in the opioid crisis, which has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the US alone since 2000. Because the company marketed an opioid, Sackler said, "we bear moral responsibility to try to help, and that's what this settlement is designed to do."

(Read more Purdue Pharma stories.)
(Newser)  In the days to come, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will be leading the fight against mask and vaccine mandates from home. The Republican's office confirmed Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be isolating at the Governor's Mansion, CNN reports. The 63-year-old is "fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in good health, and currently experiencing no symptoms," his office said in a statement. "Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott tested negative." On Monday night, the governor tweeted photos of himself addressing a maskless crowd at a Republican event in Collins County, reports the Texas Tribune. Hours before his diagnosis Tuesday, he tweeted photos taken with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan.

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"Everyone that the governor has been in close contact with today has been notified," his office said. It said Abbott is receiving monoclonal antibody treatment. COVID case numbers in Texas have surged to their highest level in months and the state has asked the federal government for five trailers to serve as mobile morgues. Abbott has been criticized for banning schools and local officials from imposing mask mandates, the New York Times reports. On Sunday, the Texas Supreme Court sided with the Abbott administration against big-city school districts that had sought to make masks mandatory. "I hope he recovers quickly," tweeted former HUD secretary Julian Castro. "I also hope he will act more responsibly on behalf of Texas children and families." (Read more Greg Abbott stories.)
(Newser)  The two Florida school districts requiring masks, in defiance of Gov. Ron DeSantis' executive order banning such mandates, could be punished over the issue. State education officials determined Tuesday that Broward and Alachua county school districts are in violation of state law, the Washington Post reports. The Florida Board of Education said school officials should be investigated and possibly disciplined. Penalties, which would be the first ones assessed since DeSantis issued his order, could include the withholding of funding or the removal of school officials. School mask drama continued in other states as well:

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Arizona: Gov. Doug Ducey said Tuesday that the state will use federal COVID relief funds to increase funding for schoolsbut only for school districts that are doing in-person learning and not requiring masks, CNN reports. "These grants acknowledge efforts by schools and educators that are following state laws and keeping their classroom doors open for Arizona's students," he said, in what the network calls a "notable escalation" of his fight against school mask mandates.

Gov. Doug Ducey said Tuesday that the state will use federal COVID relief funds to increase funding for schoolsbut only for school districts that are doing in-person learning and not requiring masks, CNN reports. "These grants acknowledge efforts by schools and educators that are following state laws and keeping their classroom doors open for Arizona's students," he said, in what the network calls a "notable escalation" of his fight against school mask mandates. Texas: One school district defying Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on school mask mandates has discovered a loophole in his executive order. Rather than issuing a mask mandate specifically, Paris ISD added masks to the school's dress code, the Star-Telegram reports. "Nothing in the Governors Executive Order 38 states he has suspended Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code, and therefore the Board has elected to amend its dress code consistent with its statutory authority," the district says in a statement.

One school district defying Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on school mask mandates has discovered a loophole in his executive order. Rather than issuing a mask mandate specifically, Paris ISD added masks to the school's dress code, the Star-Telegram reports. "Nothing in the Governors Executive Order 38 states he has suspended Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code, and therefore the Board has elected to amend its dress code consistent with its statutory authority," the district says in a statement. Public opinion: Nearly seven out of ten Americans support school mask mandates, according to a new poll, but that breaks down by party as 92% of Democrats and 44% of Republicans. Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah have also banned mask mandates in schools.

(Tennessee made a move on masks in school Monday.)
(Newser)  A group of about 20 demonstrators converged on Scotland's Edinburgh Castle on Tuesday night and refused to leave, claiming they'd "seized" the ancient landmark. The protesters cited article 61 of the Magna Carta in claiming they have the right to "take the castle back" because it "belongs to the people." Visitors to the castle were evacuated as the incident was underway, the Guardian reports. The demonstrators said they wanted to "free" the country from corrupt authorities and "government tyranny," the Edinburgh Evening News reports. It's not clear what the status of the incident was as of Wednesday morning. According to the National, the demonstrators are protesting against pandemic lockdowns.

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The Magna Carta, signed by King John in 1215, predates the Act of Union, when England and Scotland came together to form the United Kingdom in 1707. As such, it does not actually apply to Scotland. As for article 61, an article at FullFact explains that it gave 25 specific baronsnot the population at largethe power to seize the monarch's lands if provisions of the document were not abided by. The article, however, was removed from subsequent versions of the Magna Carta and never made its way into English law. (Read more Edinburgh stories.)
(Newser)  Laura Prepon, who once said Scientology was "magic," is no longer practicing the controversial religion. The That '70s Show and Orange Is the New Black star tells People that she stopped years ago, but didn't go public with the decision until now. "I'm no longer practicing Scientology," she sayd. "I've always been very open-minded, even since I was a child. I was raised Catholic and Jewish. I've prayed in churches, meditated in temples. I've studied Chinese meridian theory. I haven't practiced Scientology in close to five years and it's no longer part of my life."

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While it's not clear what's behind the decision, Prepon also said that having kids with her husband, actor Ben Foster, caused her to reflect on "a lot of things in my life that I wasn't looking at before." The Los Angeles Times reports that there have been rumors in the past that Foster was also a Scientologist, but Prepon tells People he never practiced the religion. Variety reports Prepon hasn't talked much publicly about Scientology since 2015. Her first child was born in 2017, and she wed Foster the following year. Leah Remini, Lisa Marie Presley, and Jason Beghe are among the other celebrities who've left Scientology, Us reports. (Read more Scientology stories.)
(Newser)  David Rohde owes Tahir Luddin more than just a debt of gratitude. Twelve years ago, the two men, along with an Afghan driver, were kidnapped by the Taliban. Luddin, a journalist like Rohde, led Rohde to safety during a middle-of-the-night escape after seven months of being held. Luddin moved to the States, became a citizen, and brought his five oldest kids to America. In a lengthy piece for the New Yorker, Rohde details his months-longand essentially futileeffort to help Luddin get his wife and other children out of Afghanistan as the Taliban drew closer. Luddin himself spent two months in Kabul trying to get them visas, finally returning in June having made little progress. Rohde, despite all his contacts, was getting nowhere himself.

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Administration staffers gave him "caring replies but the same message: there was nothing that could be done for Tahir's family in Kabul," he writes, as priority was being given to the Afghans who assisted the US as translatorsand some three months after President Biden had announced the coming withdrawal, only about 700 of 20,000 translators had made it to the US. A contact at the State Department couldn't provide any new information. A frustrated Rohde sees a cruel parallel: "The same discounted value of Afghan lives compared to American ones had been in effect during our confinement. Tahir and [the driver] would have been executed before me, because [as an American] my life was considered more valuable than theirs. Now, a dozen years later, American diplomats were being rescuedbut the Biden Administration, intentionally or not, had created the conditions for a humanitarian catastrophe for Afghans." (Read the full story.)
(Newser)  Federal officials are extending into January a requirement that people on airline flights and public transportation wear face masks, a rule intended to limit the spread of COVID-19. The Transportation Security Administration's current order was scheduled to expire Sept. 13. An agency spokesman said Tuesday that the mandate will be extended until Jan. 18, the AP reports. The TSA briefed airline industry representatives on its plan Tuesday and planned to discuss it with airline unions on Wednesday. The mask rule also applies to employees on planes and public transportation.

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The mask mandate has been controversial and has led to many encounters between passengers who don't want to wear a mask and flight attendants asked to enforce the rule. The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that airlines have reported 3,889 incidents involving unruly passengers this year, and 2,867or 74%involved refusing to wear a mask. The extension of the mandate was not surprising after a recent surge in COVID-19 cases linked to the delta variant of the virus. The seven-day average of new reported cases has topped 140,000, an increase of 64% from two weeks ago and the highest level in more than six months.

Individual airlines declined to comment on the Biden administration's decision, and their trade group, Airlines for America, said only that US carriers will strictly enforce the rule. A broader group, the US Travel Association, said the extension has the travel industrys full support. The largest union of flight attendants said the move will help keep passengers and aviation workers safe. We have a responsibility in aviation to keep everyone safe and do our part to end the pandemic, rather than aid the continuation of it," said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. We all look forward to the day masks are no longer required, but were not there yet."

In recent days, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines have reported that the increase in coronavirus infections has caused a slump in bookings beyond the usual slowdown that occurs near the end of each summer. The mask order, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for responding to the pandemic, was first issued on Jan. 29, days after President Joe Biden took office. Before that, airlines had their own requirements for face coverings but former President Donald Trump's administration had declined to make it a federal rule.

(Read more Transportation Security Administration stories.)
/

Up to 15K Americans Are Still in Afghanistan, and It's a Big Mess

It's not clear what will happen to those outside Kabul
(Newser)  Few people know the feeling of a polar bear tooth pressing onto one's eye. Elijah Kaernerk is unfortunately one of them. He'd been warned that a polar bear was nearby while traveling with his partner and sister-in-law to his cabin near Sanirajak on Foxe Basin in Nunavut, Canada, on Aug. 10. Soon after their arrival, he peered around a corner and spotted the bear munching on a carcass. Unfortunately, it spotted him, too. "It growled, and left the food  then it stood up and started running towards me," Kaernerk, an Inuktitut speaker, tells CBC News. It launched an attack before turning toward Kaernerk's partner. Kaernerk says he managed to stand and head toward the bear, who chased and eventually caught him. "I can hear the cuts going in, and I can feel the teeth punching through," he says. "Then it let me go, then started approaching the others."

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Kaernerk says he was attacked three times in between attacks on his two companions, whom he tried to protect. At one point, he felt a tooth on his eye. "It must've opened its mouth," he says. "It bit me on my neck and I blacked out." Community members fatally shot the bear. The three victimsdescribed as badly injured, per CTV Newswere taken to a local health center, then flown to larger hospitals. This follows two fatal polar bear attacks in the region in the summer of 2018, one of which occurred on Foxe Basin. A 2017 study found 47 polar bear attacks on people across the Arctic from 1960 to 2009, but 15 from 2010 to 2014, when sea ice hit was at its lowest. That's "the greatest number ever recorded in a four-year period," per Yale Environment 360. "With more polar bears driven ashore as the sea ice melts, the chances for encounters increase," per Polar Bears International. (Read more polar bear stories.)
(Newser)  A trial is underway to determine whether an aggressive breast cancer might be treated with help from an inexpensive and widely available drug: aspirin. Researchers at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, England, will test whether aspirin makes difficult-to-treat tumors more responsive to cancer-fighting drugs, as animal studies suggest, per the BBC. Tumors found in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive form that accounts for 10% to 15% of all breast cancers and disproportionately affects Black and younger women, lack estrogen or progesterone receptors, which some other breast cancers have, "meaning certain treatments, such as [monoclonal antibody] Herceptin, will not work," per the BBC. That leaves "few treatment options and a long and debilitating treatment plan," Beth Bramall, a 44-year-old patient, tells the outlet.

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The trial, funded by a research program of the Breast Cancer Now charity, will look at whether aspirin's anti-inflammatory properties increase the effectiveness of avelumab, a type of immunotherapy, "by preventing the cancer from making substances that weaken the immune response," trial leader Dr. Anne Armstrong says, per the Guardian. Patients will receive avelumab with and without aspirin before surgery and chemotherapy. If the trial is successful, further research may look at aspirin's effect on people with incurable secondary triple-negative breast cancer, which occurs when cancer cells escape the breast and spread in the body. Bramall is certainly hoping for a positive outcome. "It's been the hardest 18 months for me and my family" since her diagnosis, she tells the BBC. "And I have over two more years of treatments and scans ahead." (Read more breast cancer stories.)
(Newser)  Michael Glazebrook, accused of killing his neighbor in Monterey County, Calif., in 1981, escaped his 1983 murder trial scot-free when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict and the district attorney chose to forgo a retrial. Forty years later, a new trial will finally come. Glazebrook was arrested for the murder of Sonia Carmen Herok Stone on Saturday after evidence was found to carry his DNA, reports CNN. In late 2020, detectives took another look at the case of Stone, a 30-year-old single mother found dead in the Carmel home she shared with her 4-year-old daughter, who was then at school, on Oct. 15, 1981, per the East Bay Times. They uncovered several pieces of evidence that could be tested with DNA technology that wasn't available in the 1980s, the Monterey County Sheriff's Office said in a Sunday release.

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The samples were sent to a Justice Department DNA lab while detectives obtained a warrant for a DNA sample from Glazebrook, Stone's 25-year-old neighbor at the time of the killing. This month, the match was confirmed, according to the sheriff's office. Glazebrook, who was still living and working in Monterey County, was arrested upon leaving his Seaside home around 8pm Saturday. The detectives who nabbed him wore Levi's in honor of Stone, who'd worked as a merchandiser for Levi Strauss & Company, per CNN. Authorities didn't comment on how Stone was killed. A criminal complaint "charges Glazebrook with one count of first-degree murder, with a special allegation that he personally used a deadly weapon in the commission of the crime," per the Times. Now 65, Glazebrook is held in the county jail with bail set at $1 million. (Read more cold cases stories.)
(Newser)  In facing the COVID conundrum around the world, the "strength of faith" can helpbut most of all, everyone who can should get vaccinated. That's the message of a new PSA featuring six cardinals and archbishops from North, South, and Central America, as well as one especially big name in the Catholic arena: Pope Francis. In the three-minute promo from the Ad Council and a Vatican administrative department, available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, the pope praises the efforts of researchers and scientists in developing the vaccines, and implores those watching to get vaxxed. "Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love," Francis says in the ad. "And helping the majority of people to do so is an act of love." The half-dozen clergy members that co-star with the pope in the ad, hailing from the US, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, promote similar messaging.

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"We want to spread help to all without exception," says Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, the archbishop of Mexico City. Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation within the religious community at large has been a roadblock in getting more people inoculated, reports the New York Times, which adds that pastors, Orthodox Jewish rabbis, and Muslim groups have been publicly endorsing the shots to convince the faithful. Catholics especially have been wary, expressing concern that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a cell line from aborted fetal tissue in its research and production, per USA Today. The Vatican, however, has said it's "morally acceptable" to receive such vaccines, a message underscored by the PSA. "Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable," Pope Francis, who was vaccinated earlier this year, says in the ad. "I pray to God that each one of us can make his or her own small gesture of love." (Read more Pope Francis stories.)
(Newser)  The sound of the helicopter propeller thundered across the horizon as it dipped down toward mustangs dotting the golden brown plain. The horses burst into a gallop at the machine's approach, their high-pitched whinnies rising into the dry air. That helicopter roundup in the mountains of western Utah removed hundreds of free-roaming wild horses, shortly before the Biden administration announced it would sharply increase the number of mustangs removed across the region. It's an emergency step that land managers say is essential to preserving the ecosystem and the horses as a megadrought worsened by climate change grips the region, per the AP. "What we're seeing here in the West gives some insight into a new norm," says Terry Messmer, a professor at Utah State University who studies wild horse management. More on the controversial practice:

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Who's in charge? The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of public land, primarily in the West, is tasked with managing the wild horse population. It's planning to remove some 6,000 horses, mostly from Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, and Colorado, by Octobera 50% increase from last year. Eventually, land managers say they'll need to cut the number of wild horses by two-thirds to keep things in balance.

The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of public land, primarily in the West, is tasked with managing the wild horse population. It's planning to remove some 6,000 horses, mostly from Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, and Colorado, by Octobera 50% increase from last year. Eventually, land managers say they'll need to cut the number of wild horses by two-thirds to keep things in balance. Where the horses are sent: Horses that are captured are held in government corrals and pastures mostly in the West and Midwest before they're made available for public adoption. Some also end up being used by law enforcement entities such as the US Border Patrol, or go to prison inmate programs, where they're tamed for future use.

Horses that are captured are held in government corrals and pastures mostly in the West and Midwest before they're made available for public adoption. Some also end up being used by law enforcement entities such as the US Border Patrol, or go to prison inmate programs, where they're tamed for future use. Is it really about the drought? The removals are adding fuel to long-standing conflicts with activists for the animals, who say the US government is using the drought as an excuse to take out horses in favor of cattle grazing. "It's really unfortunate the Biden administration continues to scapegoat the horses while giving a pass to livestock that have a greater impact on public lands," says Suzanne Roy of the American Wild Horse Campaign.

The removals are adding fuel to long-standing conflicts with activists for the animals, who say the US government is using the drought as an excuse to take out horses in favor of cattle grazing. "It's really unfortunate the Biden administration continues to scapegoat the horses while giving a pass to livestock that have a greater impact on public lands," says Suzanne Roy of the American Wild Horse Campaign. What activists want to do: Leave the horses on the range and instead administer fertility treatments to limit the size of the herd without roundups that can be costly and tough on the animals. Fertility treatments are used, but new doses are required at least annually and can be difficult to administer because they require horses to be tracked down and darted one at a time, per Messmer.

Leave the horses on the range and instead administer fertility treatments to limit the size of the herd without roundups that can be costly and tough on the animals. Fertility treatments are used, but new doses are required at least annually and can be difficult to administer because they require horses to be tracked down and darted one at a time, per Messmer. The cost: Eventually, land managers want to double the number of removals, a step they say is essential across 10 Western states in the coming years. Wild horses are federally protected, so the plan, if approved by Congress, would increase costs to an annual high of about $360 million. Without those changes, horses could die of thirst or starvation, they say.

Much more here on the horses' plight . (Read more mustang stories.)
(Newser)  In the eastern city of Jalalabad, locals went public with their dissent in a rare protest: They took down the Taliban flag that had been raised by the militants upon seizing control of the area. In its place they raised the national flag, a move made a day before Thursday's national Independence Day, which marks the 1919 end of British rule. It wasn't well received. The AP reports video footage shows the Taliban responded Wednesday by breaking up the crowd by firing into the air and using batons on people. Sources tell Reuters three people died as a result, and at least a dozen more were injured.

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Context. From the AP: "The Taliban's every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely. They insist they have changed and won't impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating women's rights, carrying out public executions, and harboring al-Qaeda in the years before the 9/11 attacks. But many Afghans remain deeply skeptical, and the violent response to Wednesday's protest could only fuel their fears."

From the AP: "The Taliban's every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely. They insist they have changed and won't impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating women's rights, carrying out public executions, and harboring al-Qaeda in the years before the 9/11 attacks. But many Afghans remain deeply skeptical, and the violent response to Wednesday's protest could only fuel their fears." From a protestor. CNN has this quote: "I wanted to support the Afghan flag and stop the Taliban from desecrating the Afghan flag. Then the shooting started and the Taliban surrounded me and threatened and beat me."

CNN has this quote: "I wanted to support the Afghan flag and stop the Taliban from desecrating the Afghan flag. Then the shooting started and the Taliban surrounded me and threatened and beat me." Meanwhile. The United Arab Emirates confirmed Wednesday that it has welcomed former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family, who exited Afghanistan on Sunday, on "humanitarian grounds."

(Read more Taliban stories.)
(Newser)  Work on Barack Obama's presidential library finally began this weekbut the project's opponents want the Supreme Court to order an immediate halt. The Protect Our Parks group has filed an emergency request with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, arguing that the project will do irreparable harm to Jackson Park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and located on Chicago's South Side, CBS reports. The group says construction of the Obama Presidential Center will "adversely affect the human environment, the historic landscape, wildlife, and migratory birds." The nonprofit organization says the feds failed to conduct the necessary environmental reviews, reports NBC.

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The group argues that the project dodged federal reviews by breaking it down into smaller projects that did not require extensive environmental reviews. Barrettthe Supreme Court justice assigned to Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsincould rule on the motion herself or refer it to the full court, Fox reports. The group's request to halt construction has already been turned down by a federal judge and the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals. A bulldozer started excavating part of the 19-acre site Monday, and the Obama Foundation says a formal groundbreaking ceremony will take place in the fall, the AP reports. Protect Our Parks says it wants to have work halted before the cutting down of what it estimates will be 800 trees begins on Sept. 1. (Read more Barack Obama stories.)
Shamokin, PA (17872)

Today

Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.
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Co-defendant in Maschal murder case states: 'We were all high'

Heffner

COAL TOWNSHIP  A material witness and co-defendant in the Sean Maschal murder case testified Tuesday that all four people riding in a red 1998 Dodge Durango when the victim was shot in the back of the head four years ago were high on bath salts.

During the first day of a weeklong jury trial for accused murderer Brian George Heffner, 40, of Coal Township, David Matthew Brown, 37, formerly of 1019 Walnut St., Ashland, said he was driving the sport utility vehicle along Route 901 near Locust Gap when the deadly shooting occurred Sept. 12, 2017.

Heffner is charged by Mount Carmel Township Patrolman Michael Pitcavage with an open count of criminal homicide, robbery, aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy, theft, receiving stolen property, possessing a firearm without a license, possessing a firearm while being a convicted felon, aiding consummation of a crime, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse and hindering apprehension.

He is in Columbia County Prison after being denied bail due to the homicide charge.

Brown, who is incarcerated at SCI-Camp Hill in lieu of $500,000 cash bail, said he, Heffner, Robert Louis Villari Jr., 34, of Coal Township, and Maschal, 33, of Mount Carmel, had gotten high on bath salts in the Sagon area earlier in the day and were on their way to Browns residence when he heard a pop, saw the windshield spider, spotted Maschal, a front-seat passenger, with a hole in his head from a gunshot wound, turned around and spotted Heffner, who was sitting directly behind Maschal, with a handgun on his lap.

Brown said he didnt actually see Heffner shoot Maschal, but he told the court neither he nor Villari shot the victim.

After the shooting, Brown described the scene as total chaos that caused the three co-defendants to panic and never call police despite having cell phones.

Brown said Heffner, who was Maschals best friend for 20 years, claimed the shooting was an accident. Brown said he then drove the Durango off the highway onto a mountain area known as sleigh riding hill at Locust Gap before turning onto Red Ash Road, where Heffner opened the front door to allow Maschals body to fall onto the ground.

Brown said he saw Heffner then take Maschals wallet and waved the handgun around before making threats toward Browns family while claiming he wasnt going to jail for life.

The witness said he didnt know why Heffner would shoot Maschal, noting that there was no animosity between the friends.

Im not saying he intentionally shot him, Brown said.

The witness said the handgun used in the shooting was brought to his home on the morning before the murder by Villari, who said he stole it from a car and wanted to go to Lebanon to sell it for drugs. He said Heffner, who also was at Browns residence with Villari, then took the gun and never came back to his home that day.

Brown testified during his two hours on the witness stand that Villari later threw the magazine from the gun into a storm drain near Browns home, while Heffner hid the shell casing in a Tootsie-Roll wrapper in the garbage at Browns home.

The shell casing was later found by police after Brown told them exactly where to look for it during an interview.

A backpack belonging to Maschal also was found in Browns residence, which was described several times as a flop or drug house that numerous people frequented and stayed at times, including Heffner, Maschal and Villari.

On the day after the murder, Brown, who admitted having drug connections in Lebanon and being addicted to heroin and bath salts, said he, Villari and Heffner drove to Lebanon to exchange the alleged murder weapon for 3.5 grams of bath salts.

On the way to Lebanon, Brown said Heffner and Villari cleaned out the Durango at a travel plaza at the Lebanon exit.

Brown said he initially lied to police about not knowing anything about Maschals murder when initially interviewed following his arrest Sept. 14, 2017. Brown said he was high on drugs during the first interview.

During subsequent interviews, Brown said he provided police with details surrounding the murder because he wanted to come clean so Maschals family would know the truth.

Under cross examination from defense attorney, John L. McLaughlin, of Danville, Brown admitted that entering a guilty plea on July 1 to felonies of criminal conspiracy to commit receiving stolen property and hindering apprehension, and a misdemeanor of abuse of a corpse in exchange for the withdrawal of numerous other charges would save him decades of additional incarceration. But the witness said he wanted to tell the truth since 2017.

Brown, who said he tried to drown himself in drugs immediately after the murder, is scheduled to be sentenced on the charges Sept. 27.

Pitcavage outlined the homicide investigation that led to the arrests of Heffner, Brown and Villari.

The officer said he was dispatched at 11:52 a.m. Sept. 13, 2017, to a wooded area near Locust Gap for the discovery of a body that was later identified as Maschal.

He said a hunter from Locust Gap who was out checking his tree stand discovered the body and reported it to police.

He said Maschal was lying on his back with a hole in his head from an apparent gunshot wound.

Pitcavage said Mount Carmel Township Patrolman Brian Carnuccio accompanied him to the crime scene and they were later joined by Northumberland County Chief Deputy Coroner James Gotlob, Mount Carmel Township Chief of Police Brian Hollenbush, a state police forensic service unit from Montoursville and multiple other law enforcement officers.

Pitcavage said through the course of the investigation, police received information that a red 1998 Dodge Durango may have been connected to the murder. He said the vehicle was not registered to Maschal or any of the co-defendants, but belonged to a person connected to a now deceased associate of the co-defendants.

He said the SUV was subsequently located about a week after the murder in a garage in Pear Alley behind the 300 block of South Oak Street in Mount Carmel and processed by state police.

Pitcavage said multiple blood stains were found in the vehicle along with cigarettes belonging to Maschal, a bloody rag, a yellow Shop-Vac, carpet cleaner, a box of bloody clothes, blue ribber gloves and a square piece of blue and white fabric that was found near Maschals body.

Pitcavage, under questioning by Northumberland County Assistant District Attorney Michael Seward, said he interviewed Brown, Villari and multiple other people in the case and obtained search warrants for the Durango, another vehicle, two garages and Browns residence.

Hollenbush testified that Brown contacted him Sept. 21, 2017, from Centre County Correctional Facility to set up an interview at Mount Carmel Township Police Station in which Brown revealed specific details about the day of the murder.

He said Brown, who told police he had a guilty conscience about Maschals murder, drove him and county adult probation officer Andy Charnosky to the Sagon area where Maschal and the three co-defendants got high on balt salts. Hollenbush said they then drove along Route 901 to Locust Gap, where the shooting took place.

The police chief said Brown also showed him and Charnosky where Maschals body was dumped.

Retired Trooper James Wool, who was working with the state police forensics unit out of Montoursville at the time of the murder, testified that he thoroughly processed the Dodge Durango.

Wool said multiple blood stains were discovered including on the carpet. He a bullet was found lodged between the windshield and dashboard.

He said the bullet hit the windshield, causing it to spider, before landing in the drivers side windshield wiper.

Wool said the bullet didnt pass through the front passenger seat where Maschal was sitting.

He said a Bic lighter with blood on it and baggies commonly used to package narcotics also were found inside the vehicle.

Northumberland County Coroner James F. Kelley testified that an autopsy performed by Dr. Rameen S. Starling-Roney at Forensic Pathology Associates in Allentown on Sept. 14, 2017, revealed the cause of Maschals death to be a gunshot wound to the head. He said the manner of death was homicide.

Under cross examination by co-defense counsel Michael P. Dennehy, of Danville, Kelley said a significant amount of bath salts, which is a psychoactive stimulant, was found in Maschals blood system that in some circumstances could have possibly caused his death, but he maintained that the official cause of death was ruled as a gunshot wound to the head.

Kelley said the bullet traveled through the back of Maschals head and exited on the top left side of his head within his hairline.

He said the autopsy revealed that the gun the bullet was fired from was not pressed against the victims head.

In his opening statement, Seward, who entered multiple photographs of the crime scene and Durango into exhibits that he showed the jurors, outlined the case that involved a heavy drug culture among the defendants.

He asked the jury to find Heffner guilty of murder.

McLaughlin countered in his opening statement by claiming the shooting death of Maschal was a tragic accident that didnt involve criminal intent or malice.

He said Maschal and Heffner were best friends and claimed all four men were highly intoxicated on bath salts when the shooting occurred.

Seward is scheduled to call multiple additional witnesses today at the trial before President Judge Charles H. Saylor who may include Villari, who is charged by Pitcavage with felonies of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and criminal conspiracy, and misdemeanors of tampering with or fabricating evidence and obstructing administration of the law.

Villari remains in Northumberland County Jail in lieu of $150,000 cash bail. He has not been scheduled for trial.

The firearms offense involves the handgun allegedly used by Heffner to shoot Maschal.

The other charges against Villari are reportedly related to incidents that occurred after the murder.

Villari was released July 16, 2019, from Northumberland County Jail after securing a home plan. He was serving house arrest and remained under bail supervision at a Coal Township residence before being jailed again when he allegedly removed his electronic ankle monitor.
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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Children with weak immune systems, aged three to 11, can now be administered two doses of the Sinopharm vaccine. Teenagers aged 12 to 17 may also have the same option, or opt for a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Registration for vaccination for both age groups will be announced at a later time.

The approval was announced yesterday by The National Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus. The Vaccination Committees decision to safeguard public health is based on a study that reviewed COVID-19 symptoms in patients suffering from diseases that cause weak immunity, including respiratory illnesses, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, down syndrome, and birth defects and obesity.

The task force stressed the importance of ensuring eligible children receive a vaccine to safeguard public health, adding that the incubation period for the virus in this age group without symptoms extends up to four days, which may increase the spread of the virus. The vaccination registration will be available on the Ministry of Healths website, healthalert. gov.bh, and via the BeAware application by selecting Registration.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Two lawmakers have called for a review of the mechanism to calculate electricity and water bills for citizens during the summer months. MPs Ahmed Al Ansari and Abdullah Ibrahim Al Dosari appealed to His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to intervene and direct those concerned authorities to review the bills and study the reasons that led to their increase.

MP Al Ansari, head of the Parliamentary Services Committee, pointed out that many citizens had complained about the increase in their utility bills last June, July, as well as the current month.

He noted that the last two months, in particular, had witnessed a significant rise in temperature which led to an increase in the consumption of electricity.

The legislator called for calculating the bill for the months of July and August for this year as in the months of 2019, before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

He stressed the need to take into account the Bahraini families, especially those with limited income, in the bills for the summer months during this time of the pandemic.

MP Al Ansari also called for a study on the possibility of setting a tariff for the electric bills during the months of June, July and August. On the other hand, MP Al Dosari said that the high power rates are not fair for citizens, although they are already covered by subsidies, adding that there is a defect in calculating the tariff, and this situation must be fixed.

We have to take into account the Bahraini families and not incur more costs to ensure a decent living for them, especially in these exceptional times and circumstances, said MP Al Dosari.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Liquefied Natural Gas has warned citizens and residents of getting enticed by fraudulent messages sent via e-mail and various social media claiming to have job opportunities or work contracts with the company.

The scammers are asking jobseekers to send their CVs and personal information. In a statement, the company is advising jobseekers to verify the authenticity of messages before responding to the anonymous messages.

The company said: In June 2021, Bahrain LNG learned that a number of phishing letters claiming to be from Bahrain LNG were in circulation.

These emails offer job opportunities or contracts with Bahrain LNG, which are fake and should not be answered. Please do not provide sensitive personal information.

If you are unsure about email messages you are receiving using our company name, please contact us through info@bahrainlng. com or falrahma@bahrainlng. com.

If you receive an email that you suspect is a phishing attempt, or if you are unsure of the legitimacy of an email, please do not respond.

Alternatively, contact us at falrahma@bahrainlng.com. Remember, no one will ask Bahrain LNG for personal information, usernames, passwords, or money from you via email.
DT News: Does the ministry have any plans to benefit from or recycle the excavated rainwater?

Eng. Khalaf: The storm water is usually discharged in the sea and other areas. We had attempted to inject it in the under- ground water in a couple of sites across the Kingdom. But recycling also is only done if strict rules are followed. The Supreme Council for the Environment had some environ- mental reservations in regards to this process as they had some concerns over water pollution suspicions, hence the processes were stopped and further discussions are in progress. But, we utilise it in irrigation purposes.

We have more work and effort to be implemented in the field of rainwater drainage and recycling. Yet, we have managed to considerably reduce the negative effects of this issue on the public by taking the necessary precautionary measures and procedures ahead of the rainy season.

The ministry has offered more tenders to provide tanks and containers to excavate the excessive water from roads and public areas. We have also upgraded the vacuum tankers and provided them with additional pumps to accelerate the process of excavating the water, thats in addition to installing pumps at vital areas and roads to move the water to open areas and ensure that the daily life isnt affected.

DT News: What are the main challenges the ministry is facing in tackling the rainwater flooding issue?

Eng. Khalaf: One of the biggest challenges we face during the rainy seasons is the uncivil behaviour of some people who remove the covers of sewage manholes and allow the rainwa- ter to enter and mix with the sewerage network.

This is a grave matter as such behaviour disrupts and dam- ages the networks. The rainwater, with all its sediments, damages the pumps and other equipment of the sewerage network. This results in the rebound of the sewerage inside homes and other facilities. Such cases were reported recently, as the pumps were damaged and unable to move the sewer- age to the treatment plant. We repeatedly warn the public

of the dangerous effects of such behaviours by raising more awareness on the matter through different platforms.

Its noteworthy that we have also fulfilled all the requests that were received by municipal councils from citizens this year to install rainwater roof coatings to prevent any leakages inside homes, especially those belonging to the limited and medium income citizens.
Five Arizona school districts have joined the growing list of districts that are requiring students and staff to wear masks, even though a state law bars such mandates
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  Tropical Depression Fred blew into the northeastern U.S. on Wednesday, unleashing heavy rains and threatening to cause mudslides and flash floods in upstate New York after closing highways in the lower Appalachians. Dozens of people were rescued from flooded areas in North Carolina after downpours washed out bridges and swamped homes.

Unconfirmed tornados unleashed by the stormy weather already caused damage in places in Georgia and North Carolina on Tuesday as Fred moved north, well inland from the coastal areas that usually bear the brunt of tropical weather. One death was reported in Florida, where authorities said a driver hydroplaned and flipped into a ditch near Panama City.

About 37,000 customers were without power Wednesday in North Carolina and West Virginia, according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us. In North Carolina, where steady downpours swelled waterways and washed rocks and mud onto highways, multiple landslides temporarily closed several lanes on Interstate 40 and closed another highway Tuesday.

Fred's remnants moved into Pennsylvania by midday Wednesday, and although the post-tropical cyclone no longer had much of a swirling center, it was still capable of spawning tornadoes and other dangerous weather. Rich Otto, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said rainfall is forecast to range from 2-4 inches (5-10 centimeters), with some some spots of 6 inches (16 centimeters), across a swathe from Pennsylvania to New England through Friday.

The bigger threat is probably just the chances of flooding and widespread flood watches that are in effect right now, he said.

Schools were closed and people evacuated along three rain-swollen rivers in far eastern Tennessee. "The areas around the Pigeon, French Broad and Nolichucky Rivers have become unsafe, Cocke County Mayor Crystal Ottinger said in an order posted to Facebook late Tuesday. Four shelters opened.

Schools in Lincoln County, West Virginia also canceled classes Wednesday due to high water from heavy rains.

In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday he had declared a state of emergency and approximately 100 people had been rescued during the flooding in the state's mountains. There were at least 70 water rescue efforts in Buncombe County, spokesperson Lillian Govus said, and 911 call records show 2,400 calls within 24 hours, more than twice the typical volume.

Authorities also found at least 10 cars abandoned in flooded roads where people apparently sought safety and had to leave their cars behind, said Taylor Jones, the countys emergency services director. The town of Candler saw significant flooding, with impassible roads and two washed-out bridges preventing dozens of people from leaving their houses. No deaths or injuries were immediately reported.

To the west in the Canton area, a rescue team from the eastern part of the state performed water rescues of 15 adults, two children and several pets in the Canton area, New Hanover County Fire Rescue Chief Rudolph Shackelford said in a statement. Photos posted by the team showed rescue personnel in bright yellow vests staging rafts with outboard motors at the edge of yards that were submerged with muddy water up to the front doors of multiple homes. They also helped evacuate several apartment buildings threatened by floodwaters.

Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said the hours of inundation Tuesday created a major disaster area in his town.

What really caught us by surprise was how quickly the water rose, the tremendous amount, and intensity of it, Smathers said by phone.

Meanwhile, Grace became a hurricane after unleashing torrential rain on earthquake-damaged Haiti. Grace's sustained winds grew to 75 mph (120 kph) Wednesday as it moved away from the Cayman Islands, and was expected to strengthen before hitting Mexico's Yucatan peninsula Thursday morning. A hurricane warning was in effect for the Yucatan from Cancun to Punta Herrero, including Cozumel.

Tropical Storm Henri, meanwhile, moved toward the U.S. coast, and forecasters said it's now expected to become a hurricane by the weekend, on a path that's more likely to affect the northeastern U.S. states. Henri was about 795 miles (1,280 kilometers) south-southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Wednesday. Its top sustained winds were holding steady at 65 mph (100 kph), but the hurricane center warned that life-threatening ocean swells could affect East Coast beaches later this week.

___

Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta, Rebecca Yonker in Kentucky and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Adolfo Martinez Valle, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and Felicia Marie Knaul, University of Miami

(THE CONVERSATION) Cases of COVID-19 are surging around the world, but the course of the pandemic varies widely country to country. To provide you with a global view as we approach a year and a half since the official declaration of the pandemic, Conversation editors from around the world commissioned articles looking at specific countries and where they are now in combating the pandemic.

Here, Adolfo Martinez Valle and Felicia Marie Knaul, public health scholars who have been tracking the pandemic across Latin America, report on the third wave of COVID-19 that is now spreading in Mexico.

You can read the whole series on TheConversation.com.

Rising infections and deaths

New COVID-19 cases in Mexico are approaching the highest levels seen during the second wave in late January 2021. There are now close to 22,000 cases daily, mostly in younger people  who are not yet eligible for vaccines  and other unvaccinated people. Three variants of the virus of international concern are spreading fast: alpha, gamma and delta.

Deaths remain much lower than during the peak of Mexicos last wave. By early August 2021, more than 400 people were dying of COVID-19 in Mexico every day. That is high and rising, but back in January 2021, Mexico had about 1,300 daily deaths.

Still, with 192 deaths per 100,000 people, Mexicos COVID-19 mortality rate is the worlds fourth highest, behind Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, which we believe is due to the Mexican governments response and lack of sufficient precautions by the population. For comparison, the U.S. COVID-19 mortality rate is 188 deaths per 100,000 people.

Increasing but insufficient vaccinations

Vaccination coverage has been increasing since February 2021, which is helping to stem the third wave, but less than 40% of Mexicos 128 million people have received at least one dose. Only 21% were fully inoculated against COVID-19 as of Aug. 7, 2021.

Mexicos relatively low vaccine coverage rates are not mainly due to lack of supply - the problem that has kept the vast majority of people in low- and middle-income countries unvaccinated. Nearly 20 million of Mexicos 91 million available doses remain unused.

Vaccine rollout has lagged because of several failures by the federal government.

One is an overall lack of federal collaboration with state and local government, and with community health organizations. Another is that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador created special COVID-19 brigades called Roadrunner to distribute vaccines rather than relying on Mexicos proven, extensive and existing public health infrastructure.

The targeting of vaccines is an additional problem. Health care workers in the private sector were controversially left out of the official group-by-group vaccination rollout. And a lack of focus on the elderly meant that 24% of people over age 60 are still not fully vaccinated.

Both distribution and availability of vaccines would have to improve significantly to meet the Mexican governments goal of vaccinating at least 70% of the country by June 2022.

Renewed pandemic restrictions

From March 2021 to July 2021, following the downward trend in infections and deaths, Mexican cities and states gradually relaxed virus containment policies such as mask-wearing and travel restrictions. However, when both infections and deaths began to spike in late July, stricter public health measures returned.

For example, in March 2021 the government allowed gatherings of up to 1,000 people, and by July gatherings were restricted to 10 people or fewer.

Mexico uses a four-colored epidemiological system to track the pandemic nationally. It determines which activities are safe to resume. A report issued on Aug. 9, 2021, shows seven of the nations 32 states in red status  meaning only essential activities are allowed. Nine are yellow  a moderate level of restrictions  and 15 are orange, with more stringent limitations on commercial and social activities.

Only the southern state of Chiapas is in green, allowing residents a full return to normal activities.

Lax pandemic response

Based on our analysis of the Mexican government response, wed argue that it has not followed a robust, evidence-based public health approach to its pandemic management.

Lockdowns were late and partial. Testing, contact tracing, quarantines and isolation programs  essential elements in managing outbreaks to avoid resorting to painful and costly national shutdowns  have been minimal. Mexico has a notably low level of testing, even compared with other Latin American countries.

Such measures vary from city to city and state to state due to the absence of a coordinated, timely and rigorous national pandemic response. For example, our research found widely varying stringency of state responses that were based not on testing and the local disease burden but rather on economic and political factors.

Mexico is one of the few countries in the region with no international border-crossing policy. Travelers are allowed to pass in and out without proof of a negative test, vaccination or recent resolved infection.

National leaders have set a less-than-exemplary approach to mask use. Both the president and Mexicos top health official have repeatedly appeared in public gatherings without a face covering.

Some state governments  like those in Guanajuato, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, and Guanajuato  have stepped up in terms of implementing public health measures where federal policy is weak or absent; others have not.

Mexico had been globally recognized in the past two decades for its rigor and innovation with regard to pandemic preparedness, yet much of this system was dismantled when the Lopez Obrador administration took office in 2019.

Learning from Mexicos experience

We draw several policy lessons from Mexico that can help other countries determine what to do  and not do  in this and future pandemic waves.

In crises, governments must generate and disseminate reliable, credible and science-based information to encourage people to adopt appropriate mitigation measures. Studies show confusing or incorrect messages cost lives.

Our research also finds that in a decentralized federal government system like Mexicos  or the United States  state and local governments are a critical part of any pandemic plan, but they need centralized, evidence-based coordination and strategic guidance from the federal government. When the federal government falls short, states make and implement their own policies. That leads to a less-than-ideal national pandemic response.

Testing, contact tracing and vaccination are the cornerstones of an effective response to the pandemic. Containment policies, or so-called nonpharmaceutical interventions like mask-wearing and lockdowns, can be used more sparingly when these systems are in place.

Mexico failed to apply an evidence-based, national strategy based on the above knowledge. So it has been compelled to impose strict and painful restrictions, slowing the countrys return to normalcy and damaging the economy.

A more evidence-based approach would have helped Mexico over the past 18 months, and it still can going forward.

[Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversations science newsletter.]

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/mexico-facing-its-third-covid-19-wave-shows-the-dangers-of-weak-federal-coordination-164995.
Rocker Marilyn Manson approached a videographer at his 2019 concert in New Hampshire and allegedly spit and blew snot on her, according to a police affidavit released Wednesday.

Manson, whose legal name is Brian Hugh Warner, surrendered last month to police in Los Angeles in connection with a 2019 arrest warrant in the case. The allegations were detailed in the affidavit that released along with the criminal complaint in the case.

Manson is charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple assault stemming from an alleged incident on Aug. 19, 2019, at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford. The misdemeanor charges can each result in a jail sentence of less than a year and a $2,000 fine if convicted.

An arraignment hearing on the charges will be scheduled for Sept. 2 at Laconia District Court in New Hampshire.

Mansons attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Susan Fountain, a videographer, was in the venues stage pit area at the time of the alleged assault. Her company, Metronome Media, was contracted by the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion for the concert season.

According to the affidavit, Manson approached Fountain the first time, put his face close to the camera and spit a big lougee at her. She was struck on both hands with saliva.

Manson allegedly returned a second time, covering one side of his nostril and blowing in Fountain's direction. Fountain put down her camera and went to the restroom to wash her hands and arms that had Manson's bodily fluids on them.

Manson also has faced abuse accusations  unrelated to the New Hampshire incident  in recent years. He has denied wrongdoing.

In February, actor Evan Rachel Wood publicly accused Manson, her ex-fiance, of sexual and other physical abuse, alleging she was manipulated into submission during their relationship. Months later, Game of Thrones actor Esme Bianco sued Manson in federal court in Los Angeles, alleging sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

The AP generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but Bianco and Wood have spoken publicly.

In 2018, Los Angeles County prosecutors declined to file charges against Manson over allegations of assault, battery and sexual assault dating to 2011, saying they were limited by statutes of limitations and a lack of corroboration. The accuser in that case was identified only as a social acquaintance of Manson.
Multi-year agreement will provide market-leading value to Ontarians

Aeroplan members to earn points on LCBO purchases and redeem points for LCBO gift cards

Partnership to launch before year-end 2021

MONTREAL, Aug. 18, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - Aeroplan, Canada's leading travel loyalty program, and the LCBO, one of the world's largest buyers and retailers of beverage alcohol, are pleased to announce a new strategic partnership allowing Aeroplan members to earn points when shopping at LCBO stores across Ontario. The new partnership is expected to launch in late 2021.

"We're thrilled to come together with the LCBO to offer our members a new way to earn and redeem Aeroplan points in Ontario," said Mark Nasr, Senior Vice President, Products, Marketing and eCommerce at Air Canada. "When we relaunched Aeroplan last year, we made a commitment to earn our way into consumer's everyday lives. Marquee partnerships like the LCBO and other industry-leading, well-loved brands are central to delivering on that promise."

"Through our new loyalty program with Aeroplan, we will provide rewarding and personalized offerings to our customers that enhance their experience," said George Soleas, President & CEO, LCBO. "It will also provide an important engagement opportunity for our valued suppliers, including Ontario producers, and make it even easier for shoppers to find the perfect choice for every occasion."

LCBO customers will earn one Aeroplan point for every $4 spent at LCBO, plus bonus points for purchasing select LCBO products. Aeroplan points can be redeemed for travel to more than 1,300 destinations across the globe, as well as for hotels, car rentals, and merchandise, including LCBO Gift Cards starting at just 1,000 Aeroplan points for a $10 LCBO gift card. Additional benefits and options will follow. Notable features of Aeroplan include:

Points redeemable for every seat on Air Canada, and for travel on over 40 airline partners  more than any other program in the world.

Aeroplan Family Sharing, making it easy for families to combine points together  for free  to get where they want to go sooner.

Flexible options to pay for all or part of a trip with points, and peace of mind to plan using Aeroplan's Points Predictor Tool.

For more information, please visit: www.aircanada.com/lcbo.

About Air Canada

Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline, and in 2019 was among the top 20 largest airlines in the world. It is Canada's flag carrier and a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax. In 2020, Air Canada was named Global Traveler's Best Airline in North America for the second straight year. In January 2021, Air Canada received APEX's Diamond Status Certification for the Air Canada CleanCare+ biosafety program for managing COVID-19, the only airline in Canada to attain the highest APEX ranking. Air Canada has also committed to a net zero emissions goal from all global operations by 2050. For more information, please visit: aircanada.com/media, follow Air Canada on Twitter and LinkedIn, and join Air Canada on Facebook.

About the LCBO

Established in 1927, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is an Ontario government enterprise responsible for the retail and wholesale of wine, beer, and spirits. It operates more than 675 retail stores across the province, and works with 450 grocery partners, licensees, and more than 400 LCBO Convenience outlets to deliver products to Ontarians. As one of the world's largest buyers and retailers of beverage alcohol, the LCBO offers more than 28,000 products annually from more than 80 countries, making it easy to find the perfect choice to make moments great. All net income from LCBO sales goes to the Government of Ontario in the form of an annual dividend. In fiscal 2019-2020, the LCBO delivered a $2.38 billion dividend to the Ontario Government to support critical services like healthcare, education, and infrastructure. Through its Spirit of Sustainability social impact platform, the LCBO raised over $13.6 million to support the province's social and environmental needs, creating a more sustainable Ontario for employees, customers, and partners. To learn more about the LCBO, visit LCBO.com.

SOURCE Air Canada

For further information: LCBO Press Office, 416-864-6700, [email protected]; Air Canada: [email protected]

Related Links

www.aircanada.com


Sara Hodson, CEO of LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic, has been elected to lead the national trade association, representing more than 6000 fitness facilities across Canada.

EDMONTON, AB, Aug. 18, 2021 /CNW/ - In a bold statement on the importance of exercise for physical and mental health, Fitness Industry Council of Canada (FIC) voted medical exercise expert Sara Hodson, CEO of LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic, as the incoming president at the national AGM.

"It is an honor and privilege to be able to work to improve the lives of Canadians," says Hodson. "We know that exercise is medicine and prevents and manages almost all chronic health conditions  from diabetes to heart disease, obesity, blood pressure, depression and many forms of cancer. We know that exercise is equally effective as antidepressant medication to treat depression, stress and anxiety  something that has afflicted us all in the last 18 months. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it is important work. It is life-saving work."

More than 80 percent of Canadians currently do not receive the recommended 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise weekly. The World Health Organization and the United Nations have both asked governments to prioritize physical activity as part of national health care policies.

Scott Wildeman, the outgoing president, cast his vote for Hodson early on. "I have huge admiration for what Sara has done for the fitness industry, and where she will lead us. Having worked closely with Sara for the last year, her leadership in British Columbia set the tone for how she will serve as a President. Sara has the proven expertise to take our fitness association to new heights."

Hodson is the federal lead in a lobbying campaign to make gym memberships tax deductible in the next election; the motion was not put in the spring budget, and FIC intends on making this a political issue leading into the election recently called for September 20th. As co-chair of the FIC coalition for British Columbia, Hodson has been instrumental in helping to keep fitness facilities open across the province. At one stage in the pandemic, B.C. was the only province in Canada to have open fitness facilities.

Hodson successfully navigated her own business challenges with her fitness concept LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic  supervised exercise clinics for people with health concerns  by helping her franchises pivot from in-person exercise sessions to live-streaming sessions within five days of the pandemic beginning in March 2020. She then boldly and empathetically led her brand through repeated lockdowns, strategic reopening plans, and creative online member engagement events.

Her immediate priority as FIC president is to push all political parties to include gym memberships as a tax-deductible expense in their election platforms. "We have considerable data we will be sharing in the coming weeks. Exercise has to be part of the public health debate, and we know Canadians will be motivated to exercise in a gym again if there is financial support. Canada could become a global leader being the first country in the world to place exercise as part of a national health agenda. We must seize this moment now and create fundamental change."

"People need community more than ever; we need support and accountability," says Hodson. "More than that, we need qualified exercise professionals to lead us out of the dark times of the pandemic. Exercise will be the foundation of our recovery as a nation from the pandemic. The fitness industry is ready to serve Canadians, to help them regain their health and experience all the benefits of an active lifestyle."

SOURCE Fitness Industry Council of Canada

For further information: pivotal research, and to book an interview with Sara Hodson please contact: Erin Phelan, Director of Communications, LIVE WELL Exercise Clinic / FIC BC, [email protected], 416-822-8621, www.ficdn.ca, www.livewellclinic.ca
Citing the Constitution of Afghanistan, Saleh said that "in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President, the First Vice President becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate caretaker President."

After Ashraf Ghani fled the war-torn country, Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh declared himself as the legitimate caretaker President in accordance with the constitution that states that in the absence of the President, the First Vice President becomes the caretaker President.

Citing the Constitution of Afghanistan, Saleh said that in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President, the First Vice President becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate caretaker President.

Clarity: As per d constitution of Afg, in absence, escape, resignation or death of the President the FVP becomes the caretaker President. I am currently inside my country & am the legitimate care taker President. Am reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus, Saleh tweeted.

In his first comments after he left Afghanistan, Ghani, in a Facebook post, said on Sunday that he left the country in order to avoid bloodshed as Kabul fell to the Taliban and terrorists entered the Afghanistan presidential palace.

Saleh also said that arguing with US President Joe Biden is futile. He called on Afghans to join the resistance after the Taliban took control of Kabul.

It is futile to argue with @POTUS on Afghanistan now. Let him digest it. We Afghans must prove that Afghan isnt Vietnam and the Talibs arent even remotely like Vietcong. Unlike US/NATO we hvnt lost spirit and see enormous oprtnities ahead. Useless caveats are finished. JOIN THE RESISTANCE, he wrote in another tweet.

Earlier on Sunday, Saleh said that never, ever and under no circumstances would be bow to the Taliban.

The Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday and took control of the presidential palace. The terrorist group is now everywhere in the capital, walking the streets of Kabul with ease (and with American weapons in hand).
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)  Walt Disney World is tweaking its face mask policy.

Starting Thursday, the theme park resort in Florida will allow visitors to choose whether or not to wear face coverings in outdoor lines, outdoor theaters and outdoor attractions. Masks had been required previously.

Face coverings will remain optional in outdoor common areas. They will still be required for visitors age 2 and up at all indoor locations, such as restaurants, theaters and transportation with the exception of ferry boats.

Disney World closed for two months last year at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and reopened more than a year ago with strict safety guidelines that involved masking, social distancing and crowd limits.

Last spring, Disney World officials started allowing visitors to go without masks in outdoor common areas.

Last month, Disney officials said the company will be requiring all salaried and non-union hourly employees in the U.S. who work on site to be fully vaccinated.
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Union on Wednesday condemned what it called Belaruss aggressive behavior in organizing illegal border crossings with migrants into Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with the aim of destabilizing the 27-nation bloc.

So far this year, more than 4,100 asylum-seekers, most of them from Iraq, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania. Thats 50 times more than during all of 2020. They're being sheltered in temporary camps across the Baltic EU member.

Poland said Wednesday it had deployed nearly 1,000 troops to its border with Belarus to help border guards cope with a surge of migrants  again mostly from Iraq  who were trying to enter the country.

This aggressive behavior  is unacceptable and amounts to a direct attack aimed at destabilizing and pressurizing the EU, said a statement by Slovenia, which holds the blocs rotating presidency until the end of the year, after emergency talks among the bloc's interior ministers.

The European Union will need to further consider its response to these situations in order to increase its effectiveness and to deter any future attempts to instrumentalize illegal migration in this manner," the statement said.

The migrant movements spiked dramatically after the EU slapped sanctions on Belarus officials. The measures were imposed after President Alexander Lukashenko ordered a crackdown on opponents and protesters after claiming victory in a vote last year that the West denounced as rigged. His main election challenger fled to Lithuania.

Slovenia said EU nations are determined to take all necessary measures to effectively protect all the EU external borders, by counteracting Belarus aggression. They also recognize the need to strengthen the entire external border of the European Union to prevent illegal border crossings in the future.

No details about how that might happen were provided.

Many of the migrants were believed to have arrived in Belarus by plane on commercial flights from Iraq. Those flights have stopped for now, perhaps in part due to the EU's threat to impose visa restrictions on Iraqi citizens and officials.

Still, Lithuanias border guard released video footage on Wednesday which it said reveals that migrants are being pushed across the border into EU territory by Belarus riot police. Another video showed several people cross into Lithuania and immediately return to Belarus to be filmed by Belarus officials.

After talks with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte on Wednesday, EU Parliament President David Sassoli accused Lukashenko of exploiting these poor people, men and women.

I have seen these outrageous actions when officials push people across the border. It is both an issue of human rights, and also a question of protecting the border of the EU, Sassoli said. It is an organized activity of the Lukashenko regime.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas accused Lukashenko of launching a hybrid attack against the bloc by channeling migrants to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland in retaliation for the EUs sanctions.

Kallas said this is no refugee crisis, but this is a hybrid attack on the European Union.

Merkel said she would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday. Belarus depends heavily on Russian energy supplies and Moscow has authorized loans to prop up the country's beleaguered economy.

___

Dapkus reported from Vilnius. Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.

___

Follow all of AP's global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Follow all AP stories on developments in Belarus at https://apnews.com/hub/Belarus.
HAMDEN  Citing concerns about privacy and civil liberties, two Hamden Legislative Council members on opposite sides of the political aisle introduced an ordinance that would prohibit local government from using facial recognition systems.

Police Department officials have said the agency presently does not use any such technology but previously engaged in a free trial of facial recognition software.

Passing an ordinance is the right thing to do as the technology becomes more pervasive in terms of its use by government, and thats not just exclusive to law enforcement, said at-large Councilman Brad Macdowall, a Democrat and one of the local legislators behind the ordinance.

Macdowall called such technology a massive invasion of privacy.

He has found himself allied with at-large Councilman Austin Cesare, a Republican who has opposed Macdowall on issues ranging from charter revision to police funding.

Cesare believes the ordinance is an important safeguard for civil liberties, he said in a statement.

Cesare stated that he 100% supports the Police Department, but that the council has a responsibility to set parameters amid the changing nature of technology. He noted that previously he supported the departments purchase of a drone but opposed the use of police body cameras until a policy was developed for their use, to protect privacy rights.

This ordinance would help ensure that we are balancing the needs of law enforcement with the freedom and right to privacy we all have the right to enjoy, he said. We need to ensure that ... citizens are protected from undue and unreasonable searches.

Besides a threat to privacy and civil liberties, the fact that not only is the technology not always accurate but it also disproportionately misidentifies individuals of color is another reason Macdowall opposes its use.

As facial recognition software has become more widespread in recent years, so have reports of law enforcement agencies employing it as a crime-solving tool, raising ethical questions.

The Hamden Police Department made news this spring after BuzzFeed News included it on a list of government entities that had used the technology. The Hamden Quinnipiac News Network subsequently reported that the department had in early 2020 received a free trial of software from a company called Clearview AI.

Deputy Chief Bo Kicak said he believed the trial was provided prior to early 2020, he said. He indicated it was not used on any active cases.

Chief of Police John Sullivan confirmed the department did not purchase the software; he also said the agency does not currently employ any facial recognition technology, nor does it have plans to do so.

As for the chiefs personal opinion on the technology, Id have to look into it more and do a little research to see the pros and the cons of it before I make any decision on it, he said.

For Macdowall, the news of Hamdens software trial created an urgent need for legislation around the issue.

The councilman provided a copy of the draft of the ordinance, which he has asked be included on the September meeting agenda.

If passed, the measure would ban the town and its officials from obtaining, retaining, accessing or using facial recognition technology and information derived from it.

The draft states that facial recognition poses unique and significant civil rights and civil liberties threats, has a history of being far less accurate in identifying the faces of women, young people, and people of color and can chill the exercise of constitutionality protected free speech.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
NEW HAVEN  A 25-year-old city man was shot near Orchard Place Tuesday night, according to police.

Police received a Shotspotter alert for gunfire on Orchard Place, between Orchard Street and Charles Street, around 10:53 p.m., Officer Scott Shumway said in an email.

Responding officers located a 25-year-old New Haven man suffering from a gunshot wound. American Medical Response transported the victim to Yale New Haven Hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Shumway said.

On behalf of the department, Shumway asked any witnesses who have not yet spoken with the police to contact the New Haven Police Department Investigative Services Division at 203-946-6304.

He said callers may remain anonymous or submit tips anonymously by calling 1-866-888-TIPS(8477), or texting NHPD plus your message to 274637 (CRIMES).

william.lambert@hearstmediact.com
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)  President Joe Biden has invited Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to Washington next week to discuss Iran as well as Israel's relationship with the Palestinians, the White House said Wednesday.

The long-expected visit with Israel's new prime minister will take place Aug. 26 amid tensions with the Islamic Republic and Israel's fragile truce with militant Hamas rulers in Gaza following an 11-day war in May.

The meeting will underscore the United States unwavering commitment to Israels security, according to the statement from presidential spokeswoman Jen Psaki. The leaders, she said, will discuss critical issues related to regional and global security, including Iran.

Bennett, meanwhile, described the upcoming meeting as important. His office said Bennett and Biden will discuss a series of diplomatic, economic and security issues, especially the Iranian nuclear program.

The Israeli leader made no mention of the cease-fire efforts with Hamas  even as an Egyptian mediator was in the country  or pledges by the U.S. and Israel to bolster Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The meeting next week will be the first between the American and Israeli leader  and Bennett's first diplomatic trip as prime minister  at a sensitive time for the security of the Middle East. Politically, both men want to show a steady hand at the helm of their respective governments in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war and the collapse of Afghanistan's government on Biden's watch.

Both nations want to put the brakes on Iran's conduct in the region and on its nuclear program. But they diverge on the key question of reinstating the 2015 nuclear accord. Former President Donald Trump pulled America out of that agreement in 2018.

Biden campaigned on restoring the deal, with changes to address Iran's conduct. Bennett and his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, staunchly oppose the accord and have vowed that Israel will act against Iran on its own if need be.

For Bennett, strengthening Israel's relationship with its strong ally, the U.S., is especially important as he leads a coalition government of eight parties from across the political spectrum. Under the coalition deal, Bennett, a founder of the Israeli settlement movement, will step down in 2023. Centrist Yair Lapid, now Israel's foreign minister, will then take the top job.

For Biden, it's a chance to change the subject from the Taliban's blitz across Afghanistan and the collapse of the U.S.-backed government there after 20 years.

While Bennett, who leads a small hard-line party that opposes major concessions to the Palestinians, made no mention of the Palestinians, the White House did  a reflection of human rights concerns for Palestinians among some in Biden's party.

The visit will also be an opportunity for the two leaders to discuss efforts to advance peace, security, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians and the importance of working towards a more peaceful and secure future for the region, the White House said.

There have been no substantive talks between Israel and Abbas' government in over a decade. With relations chilly, and the Palestinians divided between rival governments, the prospects for resuming negotiations appear slim.

But Bennett has indicated he would like to improve ties and bolster the Palestinian economy. This week, Israeli authorities postponed a meeting in which hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements were to be approved. It was unclear if the delay was the result of American pressure.

The 11-day war between Israel and militant Hamas rulers inflicted heavy damage on Gaza. Some 254 Palestinians were killed, including at least 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.
WEST HAVEN  No longer will residents in two areas of the city miss the forest for the trees  although several have been left wondering where all those trees went, anyhow.

Since the start of the season, crews have been removing trees in two areas of the city  Old Grove Park and the residential area beside Painter Park. The work is intended to improve the areas resiliency, remove invasive species and protect power lines, city and utility officials said.

But Lisa Yapp, a resident of the condominiums along the citys shoreline, said the removal of trees along the beach side of the walking path in Old Grove Park has diminished the quality of the area.

It was very beautiful with all those trees. It was sort of a grassy area under the trees, and now its just a weed land, she said.

Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

Yapp, who likes to walk along the shoreline for exercise, said her daily physical activity has diminished as a result.

I used to do 10,000 steps a day. Im lucky to do 3,000 steps now because its hot. That was always a respite, when you got to the shady area, she said. You really welcome, in the summer months, having the shady areas to be in, and now we dont have those. Ive been walking at night, but even then not much.

Mark Paine, the citys parks and recreation director, said trees have fallen in that park over several years following extreme weather events.

None of the trees were native and they were in continually deteriorating condition, he said.

Lisa Yapp / Contributed photo

Since trees began to come down in storms, Paines department  in consultation with the West Haven Land Trust, the public works department and other stakeholders  decided to transform the park.

We are in discussions right now to transform the space into a natural native area, so it will probably involve some tree replacement, but its definitely going to involve mostly native species of plants, bushes and flowers that are basically indigenous to the area, beneficial to that beach environment and provide for the bees and butterflies to pollinate and provide for native species, he said.

Were looking to use it as a sort of natures classroom, he said.

Paine said the timeline for that project likely will include another 48 months. He said the first step is to remove invasive species in a way that doesnt accidentally spread them further. Removing trees from the area has created an environment in which species that had been dwarfed by those trees now receive the sunlight they need following a germination period to grow and spread.

Once the process of removing invasive species is done, he said, the city must plant perennials when they are in season. Paine said he does not believe the city will have the funding or a finalized plan by spring 2022, which will extend the process.

We want to rehab this space in a proactive, fruitful fashion, he said.

West Haven Public Works Director Tom McCarthy said the city intentionally is taking its time in consultation with experts to ensure resiliency in the area.

We dont want to disturb the soil there and make it susceptible to a hurricane. Thats why were talking to experts on how to best manage the vegetation, he said.

Several blocks away on Kelsey and Richmond avenues, tree stumps line the streets. That, McCarthy said, was not the citys doing.

Earlier this month, Avangrid, parent company of The United Illuminating Co., began the process of pruning or removing trees in the area because of the risk they posed to nearby power lines.

We worked with our customers here, the tree owners and tree abutters. We have total transparency, said Kyle Kleza, manager of vegetation management for Avangrid. We have spoken with each customer and have gotten written consent to do the work we are currently doing, whether it be a pruning or a removal.

Kleza said the company has worked with the citys tree warden and has collected consent from anyone whose property is affected by the removal efforts, which maintain a utility protection zone eight feet out horizontally from the outermost electric conductor or wire, from the ground to the sky.

If a customer objects to the pruning or removal we offer pruning modifications, he said. There is only one customer we are aware of who complained.

Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

Despite this, Richmond Avenue resident Joe Jeffery said he believes leaving a previously leafy neighborhood bereft of trees without much warning is not a good idea.

Ive lived here 17 years and never seen the sky, he said, looking to the pale blue sky from his property Tuesday in the early afternoon. You dont talk to neighbors if theres no true cover when youre baking in the sun. This is a friendly, connected neighborhood.

Jeffery said he knows Avangrid has been collecting consent from neighbors, but said it is without much notification. He said property owners are informed that the utility company plans on pruning or removing trees to preserve the utility protection zone without the 15-day notification period.

Kleza said the 15-day notification period does not require consent.

If we have their signed consent to do the work, we dont have to wait 15 days. Were not notifying, were getting consent, he said.

According to Kleza, the total project of tree removal in that area of West Haven spans four miles and is roughly 25 percent complete.

Once the path is clear, Jeffery said he is concerned about what will be left behind. He has worked with neighbors to plant two trees on a streetcorner and said he has three more behind his home that are ready to be planted once a suitable location is found.

Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

Were also looking to the city and United Illuminating to do their part, he said.

Kleza said the utility company will not replace trees.

We have a line item for replanting, but quite frankly that will be going to trees missing on Campbell Avenue, McCarthy said.

Yapp said she has similar concerns in the area of Old Grove Park.

I see nothing being done at all this summer. Whatever theyre doing, theyre keeping it very private so people cant weigh in, she said.

Paine said the citys plans for how it will vegetate the area still are undetermined, and the city will welcome public feedback.

Peter Hvizdak / Hearst Connecticut Media

We have a lot of people with good ideas and they want to get involved, but the way to do that is to engage with a local community agency like the land trust or the beautification committee, he said.

Others say they believe the removal of the old trees in the park has been to the benefit of the area.

It opens it up to the ocean, said resident Fred Morgillo, who was walking his dog along the path. Its summertime. We want the sun.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
Donald Trump didnt have to bomb one nation because he used strong language against our enemies. Obama bombed nine countries, the most since World War II. In doing so, Obama created the biggest refugee stream in human history. His hasty evacuation of Iraq created a vacuum in that region for terrorist organizations including ISIS  and the beheadings began. Following the footsteps of Obama, Bidens hasty evacuation of Afghanistan has allowed the Taliban to take control of that country in a very short time. The Taliban are already putting back in place Sharia law which allows women absolutely no rights. This is a huge win for radical Muslim terrorists who ally with the Taliban. When Donald Trump was president he spoke to the leader of the Taliban and told him if they didnt shape up he was going to bomb Afghanistan, starting with his home and the homes of his relatives. The Taliban backed off. Its called peace through strength. Like the Obama administration, the Biden administration will let our enemies walk all over us until he has to bomb every single one of them. Biden has proven to be a failure at home as well as abroad.

Michael Mezquida
On Sept. 14, Hamden will have a primary for the Democratic mayoral candidate. There will be multiple choices. You will see the current mayors name, some lesser-known candidates, and Lauren Garrett, the DTCs endorsed choice.

Why is this primary important? If you havent been following the town news, Hamdens continuous financial trouble is worsening. We have one of the highest mill rates in Connecticut. We are just a tick away from a state takeover of our towns government. The present mayor has designed Hamdens kick the can down the road budget for the last 15 years. He is the reason we owe a billion dollars in debt. A vote for him will only put Hamden deeper into the hole.
School districts along the shoreline and the lower Connecticut River Valley region are ramping up COVID vaccination efforts as state data shows a wide disparity in the amount of eligible school-aged children who have been vaccinated in these communities.

While Gov. Ned Lamonts executive order mandating masks be worn inside all schools is still in effect through Sept. 30, some education administrators say student vaccination rates may be used as a future indicator whether face coverings will still be required in classrooms.

We know that vaccines are the best front-line of protection that we have in the Guilford Public Schools and in the Guilford community. We have a really high level of complete vaccinations, Guilford Superintendent Paul Freeman said last week, estimating that more than 95 percent of staff members have been vaccinated.

State data shows Guilford has the highest vaccination rate  at nearly 66 percent  among shoreline communities for children between the ages of 12 and 17.

Freeman said the school district recently held two events to help encourage eligible students to get vaccinated.

The more students in our schools, adults in our schools and community members who surround our children who are fully vaccinated, the more protected our schools will be and the lower rate of infections we will have, therefore, the lower rate of impact on instruction, Freeman said.

The rate of fully vaccinated students and adults in the community and the continuation of masking will allow for in-person learning five days a week, according to Freeman. He also said he hopes they can soon move away from masks in schools.

This school year, plexiglass will not be used in classrooms, but may be needed in the high school lunchrooms, Freeman said. Cohorts at the elementary and Baldwin school level will be relaxed, he said. Lunches will be held in the cafeteria and students will go outside for recess. Mitigation factors can be reduced due to the vaccine uptick level and masks, Freeman said.

Other shoreline towns with high vaccinations rates for 12- to 17 year-olds include Lyme at 64.47 percent, Clinton (63.97 percent) and Old Saybrook (62.26 percent).

In Old Saybrook, Superintendent Jan Perruccio sent a letter to families, indicating reopening plans could change closer to the first day of school on Aug. 31.

Old Saybrook will continue having cohorts for those in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The younger students will be grouped by grade level while older students will be assigned to pods for free periods and lunch breaks.

Old Saybrook is fortunate to have small class sizes and intends to maintain them to the degree possible in 2021-22, the plan reads.

While masks are required in schools and on buses, they are not mandated outdoors at recess or during outdoor physical education and are not required for sports, according to Old Saybrooks plan.

But moving farther inland, school districts in Lebanon, Bozrah and Montville all have vaccination rates below 40 percent, the state data shows.

Lebanon has exactly 37 percent of this age range fully vaccinated. The district is encouraging everyone to get vaccinated, according to Superintendent Andrew Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said a vaccination clinic was held on July 29 and another one is scheduled for Thursday.

Despite the low vaccination rates, the district has proposed making masks optional if the state allows it.

We are committed to having our students receive in-person learning and are excited to welcome them back, Gonzalez said.

Child vaccination rates are below 40 percent in the Middletown area as well.

Middletown, which has about 3,400 residents who are between the ages of 12 and 17, reported having a vaccination rate of 42.5 percent as of Aug. 12.

Durhams vaccination rate for children ages 12 to 17 was at almost 45 percent, while Cromwell and Portland each have 50 percent vaccination rates for this age group.

Portland Superintendent Charles D. Britton said the return to school plan has not changed.

We are not planning anything except 100 percent in-person learning every single day, Britton said.

Britton said he sent a message to parents, recommending they get their children vaccinated in time to return to school.

If youre eligible to be vaccinated, please be vaccinated as that is at this point the No. 1 prevention strategy that is available to us, Britton said.

christine.derosa@hearstmediact.com
Niagara Falls, NY (14301)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Niagara Falls, NY (14301)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
The Nigerian Police Force on Tuesday, dismissed reports that the investigation panel on DCP Abba Kyari has submitted its report. Rec...

The Nigerian Police Force on Tuesday, dismissed reports that the investigation panel on DCP Abba Kyari has submitted its report.

Recall that speculations and reports had it that the investigation panel on Abba Kyari had submitted its report to the Inspector General of Police.

Reacting on Tuesday, DCP Frank Mba, Force Public Relations Officer in a statement, dismissed the speculations, including that of online reports.

According to the statement, The Nigeria Police Force wishes to inform the general public that the probe into the alleged indictment of DCP Abba Kyari by the FBI, being conducted by the NPF Special Investigation Panel (SIP), is still ongoing.

The Force PRO told members of the public that, the panel has not submitted its report to the Inspector General of Police, as being wrongly reported in some news outlet and online platforms.

The Force hereby reassures the public that the outcome of investigations by the probe panel would be communicated accordingly upon conclusion of the investigations, The statement further said.
Nigerian actor, Timini Egbuson, has reacted to claims by his ex-girlfriend alleging he is trying to damage her reputation. Lydia Bal...

Nigerian actor, Timini Egbuson, has reacted to claims by his ex-girlfriend alleging he is trying to damage her reputation.

Lydia Balogun, estranged girlfriend of the actor, had accused him of infidelity.

She took to her Instagram account to accuse him of targeting teenage girls for relationships.

According to her, the actor is a predator, a cradle snatcher and a pervert.

She had said, Meeting this man, I had no idea of his sexual past or who he had been involved with, didnt know anyone from his social circle and now I know that is also intentional.

When he told me hed make an exception for me despite how young I was (I was like 19) I actually believed that and thought wow he must really like me.

But reacting, Timini in a statement on his Twitter page said all the women he has dated were older than the legal consenting age.

According to him, his relationship didnt work with his ex due to mistakes from both ends.

Firstly, I would like to make clear beyond any doubt that I do not condone courting or having a relationship with anyone under the age of consent. Rumours are rumours but baseless accusation of sexual abuse or grooming of underage woman is something I dont take lightly given the severity of the issue.

Lydia and I dated two years ago, we were both consenting adults and our families knew and approved of each other. Our relationship didnt work out due to circumstances we were both at fault for which resulted in us parting ways.

Our relationship was a volatile one and mistakes were made on both ends. Nevertheless, I learned from it and have moved on. I honestly would like to put that chapter of my life behind me and I wish her well.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 56F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening with more clouds for overnight. Low 56F. Winds light and variable.
You wont find banh mi fillings like five spice pulled pork, Cajun garlic butter shrimp or chicken katsu just anywhere. But soon the Metairie-based restaurant Banh Mi Boys will also be slinging these signature sandwiches on Magazine Street.

Work on a second location is now underway at 3244 Magazine St., in a corner building that had long been home to a Reginellis Pizzeria. It is slated to open this fall, perhaps by November.

A third Banh Mi Boys is also taking shape across the country, in Portland, Oregon.

Both expansions are franchises, part of a plan that founder Peter Nguyen has been working on since he established Banh Mi Boys and saw its growth potential.

We have a lot of customers who live Uptown but work in Metairie or the other way around, and theyve always encouraged us, said Nguyen. Once we built up the original business, I started seeing how this could grow.

Nguyen started Banh Mi Boys in 2015, taking over the deli attached to the Texaco gas station his family runs at the corner of Airline and Transcontinental Drive.

His parents urged him to stick to traditional po-boys. Instead, Nguyen decided to blend his Vietnamese heritage with his New Orleans upbringing to create Banh Mi Boys, which has since earned a wide following for its next-generation banh mi.

Korean bulgogi beef, Chinese char siu barbecue pork and bang bang shrimp are a few of the specialty banh mi, tucked into crusty rolls with cucumber, carrots, radish, jalapenos and fresh cilantro.

His menu includes traditional banh mi and traditional New Orleans po-boys as well, plus salads, rice plates, spring rolls and exuberant cheese fries topped with oyster Rockefeller sauce or Vietnamese bo ne (a sizzling version of steak and eggs), or bacon, ranch dressing and "flamin' hot craclin' crumbs.

Local businessman Christian Lombardo is the franchisee who will run this second location. Hes a friend and longtime customer of Nguyens. In fact, he said, he and his wife eat at Banh Mi Boys so often they already feel like investors.

We spend an embarrassing amount of time there, he laughed.

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His goal is to bring the same menu, feel and attitude from the original to this new Banh Mi Boys, and for that hell be turning to Nguyens support.

We fell in love with Banh Mi Boys and our goal is to continue that growth with Peter, he said. We wouldnt have done this without Peter involved. We can tap his expertise on the cuisine and the flavors.

The new location will have counter service, like the original, and it will also add a bar.

The Reginellis at the corner of Magazine and Toledano streets had been in business for 17 years before pandemic pressures led the local brand to shutter this location in May 2020.

This stretch of Magazine Street has drawn an increasing diversity of restaurants in recent years. Another local Vietnamese restaurant, Lilly's Cafe, also plans to expand with a second location just up the street at 3329 Magazine St.

Banh Mi Boys

5001 Airline Dr., Metairie, 504-510-5360

3244 Magazine St., projected opening fall 2021

+8 Ian McNulty: A meal-sized staycation, a needed escape at an Uptown Spanish restaurant The redfish was cooked skin-on, but by the time it reached us, that skin was a marvelously caramelized cap of salt-flecked crispiness over the

+7 With spicy soups and meatballs, a different kind of Chinese restaurant opens in Metairie On opening day at her new restaurant, Yan Yu greeted her first customers by switching between English, Cantonese and her own native tongue, Mandarin.

+22 Food Network alum brings Latin fusion home to the River Parishes at new restaurant Santos Natasha St. Pierre Clement catered Drew Brees' 40th birthday. Now she brings her skills to her new restaurant in Luling.
The states top school board was set to discuss Wednesday morning whether it or the governor has final say over whether masks are mandated in public schools, but it never even got that far. The contentious meeting was interrupted so many times by outbursts by attendees that the board voted 8-2 to adjourn the meeting before the item came up on the agenda.

Louisiana State School Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) had planned to consider Attorney General Jeff Landrys opinion that the state school board had authority over masks in schools over the governor.

Many in the audience remained unmasked despite Gov. John Bel Edwards indoor mask mandate and an announcement before the meeting began that masks were required. While the board members were out of the room, staff made the announcement again, adding that anyone not wearing a mask would be removed from the meeting. A woman in the audience yelled, I cant hear you with a mask on! before the livestream feed cut.

While feeds were out, right-wing Baton Rouge pastor Tony Spell, who was placed on house arrest for holding large in-person services during pandemic lockdowns last year, stood up on a chair in front of the room. He attempted to takeover the meeting, telling attendees, They cannot arrest all us, according to USA Today reporter Greg Hilburn.

When school board members returned, they attempted to regain control of the meeting, repeatedly telling the crowd if disruptions continued theyd cut the meeting short, meaning those who came to give public comment wouldnt get to speak. This caused some in the audience to ask others to wear their masks just so the meeting could continue, adding It doesnt mean youre for it.

The final straw was shortly before noon, when board members announced they would be recessing for lunch. Attendees, who had been waiting since 9 a.m. and through the boards private evaluation of State Superintendent Cade Brumley, grew upset and began yelling again. Thats when the board voted to end the meeting.

The derailed meeting was the latest in a string of recent events in the state amid growing politicization of the virus and mitigation measures, including mask and vaccination mandates. Earlier in the week, the states chief public health officer Dr. Joe Kanter was disrupted by hecklers as he updated state lawmakers on the virus. And over the weekend, hundreds gathered on the Mandeville lakefront to protest mask mandates, spreading misinformation that has proven to worsen the current public health crisis.

Meanwhile, Louisiana is in the middle of its worst Covid surge yet due to the Delta variant of the virus seizing on the states low vaccination rates. Health officials have said there are no signs yet that the surge is peaking.

On Tuesday, the state reported 98 new confirmed Covid deaths and 3,012 new confirmed cases, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. An additional 56 Covid patients were hospitalized and 24 more were put on ventilators.

Though there are three safe, effective vaccines free and available to people 12 and older, only 46.8% of the state was at least partially vaccinated as of Tuesday, with 38.8% fully vaccinated as of Tuesday.

New Orleans will require vaccination proof or negative COVID-19 test for indoor activities New Orleans residents and visitors will need to prove theyve been vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested negative within 72 hours for the viru
Some people itching to get their hands on a COVID-19 cure are putting themselves in danger for taking unprescribed doses of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug used to treat diseases such as river blindness or scabies in people and prevent heartworm disease and other infestations in animals.

The drug has been flying off the shelves of farm supply stores and veterinary offices as people, mostly those who refuse to get vaccinated, search for unconventional ways out of the pandemic.

Yet, several federal and international health agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization, have advised against using ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 outside of controlled clinical trials.

Thats because taking large unprescribed doses intended for animals can seriously harm your health.

Lets say it was manufactured for a large horse, but a human takes it, it can create low blood pressure, rapid heart rates, seizures; there are even episodes where you can see layers of your skin fall off. It can damage the liver, and theres vision loss that can be associated, Dr. Shane Speights, site dean at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, told KAIT8.

Data is just not good on ivermectin right now for the treatment of COVID. One of the drug manufacturers even said dont use it, Speights told the outlet. Right now, the only answer to COVID is to be fully vaccinated.

What do studies reveal about ivermectin and COVID-19?

Misconceptions about the drugs coronavirus healing abilities began to spread when a handful of studies found positive trends in patients after taking the drug, particularly one non-peer reviewed paper that said ivermectin can lower COVID-19 death rates by more than 90%.

That study has since been withdrawn from the research website following reports of plagiarism and data manipulation that are now under formal investigation.

Separate research published in June last year found that ivermectin reduced the amount of coronavirus in a laboratory dish by 5,000-fold after two days. Some studies showed the drug helped COVID-19 patients recover faster and reduced inflammation, while others showed no benefits or worsening of disease.

But most of these studies had incomplete information and significant methodological limitations, which make it difficult to exclude common causes of bias, according to the NIH, including small sample sizes, inconsistencies in the reporting of disease severity and conflicting data as patients received multiple medications at once.

The way that [ivermectin] works is it actually paralyses the worm by attacking the nerve and muscle cells, Speights told KAIT8. COVID is [caused by] a virus. COVID doesnt have nerve or muscle cells, so the mechanism in which the drug works wouldnt work for a virus.

A WHO group of experts analyzed 16 randomized controlled trials including a total of 2,407 inpatients and outpatients with COVID-19 and concluded that evidence of the drugs ability to improve disease outcomes is of very low certainty. The group didnt look into whether ivermectin can prevent COVID-19.

We have a hospital with dozens and dozens of patients that have taken ivermectin that is in with COVID pneumonia. I see this every day, Dr. Robin Trotman, an infectious disease specialist in Missouri, told FOX2now. We have things that work. The [monoclonal antibodies] clearly work, if youre in the hospital steroids clearly work. But this one, I wish it worked, but the evidence is pretty clear.

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Incorrectly prescribed ivermectin can cause serious side effects

American comedian, podcast host and UFC commentator Joe Rogan recently claimed the public is turning a cold shoulder to ivermectins potential role in the pandemic during his June 22 episode on The Joe Rogan Experience.

One of his guests, Dr. Pierre Kory, introduced as an intensive care unit and lung specialist, said his dream is that every household has ivermectin in their cupboard. And you take it upon development of first symptom of anything approximating a viral symptom ... even if its not COVID, its safe to take it and its probably effective against that virus.

Ivermectin is not an FDA approved antiviral, however. Its an anti-parasitic that is used to treat diseases caused by some worms in pill form; topical formulas exist to treat head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.

There is some evidence the drug has an affect on the viruses that cause dengue fever, Zika, HIV and yellow fever, but these studies were done in petri dishes in laboratories, the NIH says. No clinical trials to date have tested ivermectin in people infected with these viruses.

Kory went on to say all side effects to the drug are considered minor and transient and that randomized controlled clinical trials  the gold standard for scientific research  are fraught with error, not appropriate for a pandemic and its also a tool thats being used as a disinformation tactic.

But side effects are serious, Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, told WKRN.

Some of the side effects relate to intestinal disturbance, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, but others are a bit more serious; you can lose your sense of balance, which is not very good, Schaffner told the outlet. And on occasion, its actually precipitated seizures and coma. And there have been some people who have died.

Because people are getting their hands on versions of the drug intended for large, heavy animals, health officials say they can be highly toxic. There are also many inactive ingredients in animal products that arent evaluated for use in people, the FDA says, or theyre in much greater quantities than people can handle.

In some cases, we dont know how those inactive ingredients will affect how ivermectin is absorbed in the human body.

Ivermectin can also interact with other medications like blood thinners in harmful ways; its possible to overdose on the drug, too.

For these reasons, health officials have determined there is not enough data to recommend the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.

2021 The Charlotte Observer. Visit at charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
SEXUAL ASSAULT SERVICES: The LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing has been awarded a $1.4 million grant to increase the number of trained and certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) in rural and underserved communities in Louisiana. The grant was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Alison Davis is director of the SANE Program, which will expand from its original 13 parishes to serve 22 million people in 17 southeast Louisiana parishes.

OCHSNER HEALTH NURSING SCHOLARSHIPS: Applications are being accepted for the first class of Ochsner Nurse Scholars. The program will provide 200 scholarships to students across the state. To qualify, applicants must be enrolled or accepted to enroll as a full-time nursing student in a Louisiana accredited bachelor of science in nursing, associate degree in nursing, or licensed practical nursing program for fall 2021 and in good academic standing. To apply, visit www.ochsner.org/ochsnerscholars. For questions, email ochsnerscholars@ochsner.org.
Salaried employees and new hires at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino are required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, parent company MGM Resorts International announced Monday.

This comes as more casinos are requiring masks for staff, and New Orleans mandates proof of vaccine or a negative test to go inside a casino, bar or other indoor business.

Scarlet Pearl Casino in DIberville was the first casino operator in Mississippi to require vaccinations for all salaried employees. They were required to get their first shot by Aug. 14, according to CEO LuAnn Pappas.

Both Scarlet Pearl and Beau Rivage management say they are looking to expand the vaccination requirements for hourly staff members.

+8 Proof of vaccine compliance is spotty as New Orleans' new mandate takes effect at venues Rules are made to be broken, or at least postponed by a week. That seemed to be the credo at some Crescent City establishments on Monday as th

MGM Resorts International operates the Beau Rivage in Biloxi and Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, and the order applies to more that 6,000 workers in eight states, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Salaried employees who are not working exclusively from home will be required to show proof of vaccination by Oct. 15 as a condition of employment. New MGM employees must get the vaccine before starting work, effective Aug. 30.

I know that for some of you this may be an unwelcome development  a consideration that we did not take lightly when making this decision, MGM Resorts International CEO Bill Hornbuckle said in a notice to employees.

However, as one of the largest and most trusted operators and employers in our industry, he said, MGM Resorts is determined to do our part to curb the spread of the virus and help counter alarming trends in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Vaccination is the most effective tool in doing so.

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

Masks already mandated

Beau Rivage required all employees, those vaccinated and unvaccinated, to wear masks starting July 29. Silver Slipper Casino in Hancock County and Palace Casino and Treasure Bay Casino in Biloxi also issued mask orders for employees.

MGM Resorts has about 57,000 employees nationwide. MGM spokesman Brian Ahern told The Nevada Independent that many of the hourly employees are covered under collective bargaining agreements, and discussions about vaccinations need to take place with the labor unions.

Mississippi casinos could get New Orleans players

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell followed a mask mandate with the Aug. 12 order that proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test is required for anyone to go inside a casino, bar or other venues.

The order went into effect Monday, so its too soon to tell if more gamblers will drive to Mississippi, where masks are optional and the state Gaming Commission hasnt ordered the return to masks for casino employees or customers.

In June, 240,000 Louisiana residents visited Mississippi casinos, or 19% of all customers. Mississippi residents account for 31% of the players at Mississippi casinos.

This story originally appeared on SunHerald.com. The Sun Herald, The Times-Picayune and NOLA.com are news partners.
The Louisiana Department of Health reported 3,022 hospitalizations and 70 more confirmed deaths in its noon update Wednesday.

Confirmed cases increased by 4,333. Another 2,273 cases and 17 deaths were listed as "probable" by the Louisiana Department of Health, for a total of 6,606 new cases and 87 new deaths.

The number of hospitalizations increased by 10 from the day before, and the number of patients in need of ventilators increased by 7, for a total of 448 ventilated patients.

All of Louisiana's nine health regions have 20% or fewer ICU beds available. Five have less than 10% of ICU beds open.

The Lafayette area has just 1 ICU bed available. The Lake Charles region has two ICU beds available.

The number of weekly deaths continues to increase, with 314 coronavirus deaths over the last seven days. The week prior, 230 people died, and one month ago the weekly rate was 47.

In Louisiana, around 2,176,967 vaccines have been initiated, about 46.9% of the population, and 1,806,044 have been completed, representing about 38.7% of the population.

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 increases in confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths, based on the Wednesday report:

Jefferson: 385 new cases; 5 new deaths

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

East Baton Rouge: 326 new cases; 11 new deaths

St. Tammany: 279 new cases; 4 new deaths

Lafayette: 261 new cases

Orleans: 240 new cases; 9 new deaths

Ouachita: 225 new cases; 5 new deaths

Can't see chart below? Click here.

Can't see chart below? Click here.

This is a developing story. More details and analysis to come.
The Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office has identified the man fatally shot on the West Bank Saturday evening as Kevin Jones, 20, of Harvey.

An unidentified person dropped Jones off at West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero just after 5 p.m., according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

+3 In Harvey shooting death of 14-year-old boy, 3 juveniles charged as adults with murder Four months after 14-year-old LaQuinn Nicholas was fatally shot in Harvey, a Jefferson Parish grand jury has charged three juveniles with seco

Jones had been shot three times, including once in the back, authorities said. He died of his injuries a short time later.

Investigators determined Jones had been shot in the 2000 block of Mather Drive in Marrero. The Sheriff's Office has not released any information about a suspect or a motive in the killing.

Jones' death was the second homicide investigated by the department on Saturday.

About 9 a.m., deputies were dispatched to the 1100 block of Gaudet Drive in Marrero where Lindsey Williams, 29, had been fatally shot by her former boyfriend, Shawn Chiasson, 26, authorities said. Chiasson was arrested Monday and booked with second-degree murder in the case.

Anyone with information about the death of Kevin Jones is asked to call the Sheriff's Office investigations bureau at 504-364-5300. The public can also call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at 1-877-903-7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn a reward of up to $2,500 for information that leads to an indictment.
Andy Nyman never manages to get lost as he speeds his boat through a maze of passes and channels that splay across the last marshy reaches of the Mississippi River Delta.

The wetland scientist knows his way around the remote Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area not so much because hes been coming here for decades but because he comes frequently enough to keep up with the changes. He points them out everywhere: a ribbon of grass where 35 years ago was a forest of cypress that went on forever; an oil pipeline that was hidden by marsh but now hovers over encroaching water; and at the edge of it all, where a river channel meets the Gulf of Mexico, a Civil War-era lighthouse that not so long ago had a front door partially visible above the waves.

In the 1980s, there was still a path to the door, said Nyman, who teaches wildlife and wetland ecology at Louisiana State University. Now you cant even see the door.

Pass-a-Loutre, Louisiana's oldest wildlife management area, turns 100 this year, but theres little hope itll last another century. Rising seas, sinking soil, hurricanes, a dwindling supply of river sediment and a recent invasion of marsh-devouring insects are among the factors that have pushed Pass-a-Loutre into rapid retreat.

This landscape, its doomed, Nyman said.

Pass-a-Loutre covers a 115,000-acre triangle on the east side of whats known as the bird's foot delta. It stretches from the much smaller Delta National Wildlife Refuge to Southwest Pass, the main route for Mississippi ship traffic.

Brimming with wildlife, Pass-a-Loutre is a hotspot for duck hunters and anglers who have the time and resources to get to the states most remote stretch of public land, some 80 miles south of New Orleans and 12 miles from the nearest road.

We dont really have wilderness in Louisiana, but that areas about as close to untouched as you can get in our state, said Todd Baker, a biologist with the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. And the habitat is like no other place in North America.

Pass-a-Loutre, French for otter pass and pronounced "pass-uh-LOOT" by locals, is a meeting of two watery worlds, where river plants and animals mix with saltwater ones, producing a rich and diverse ecosystem. Overlapping it all is a bird superhighway. Each spring, several million birds from more than 300 migratory species cross the Gulf and make a pit stop in and around Pass-a-Loutre before continuing north along the Mississippi Flyway.

It was the areas bounty of birds - and peoples desire to shoot them - that led the state in 1921 to designate Pass-a-Loutre one of the country's first public hunting grounds.

This was the first time any state attempted to balance and manage property for both wildlife and hunting and fishing, said Baker, who spent several years working for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The conservation movement of the early 20th century spawned many wildlife refuges, but most had a hands off approach to public access. Meanwhile, many of the best hunting grounds were being gated off as playgrounds for the wealthy.

There was a plea from hunters because all the good property was being gobbled up, Baker said. Pass-a-Loutre was to be the first area for the common man to hunt.

But putting these founding ideals into practice was complicated by some Louisiana-style politics.

A taxpayer-funded hunting club, replete with a cupola-topped lodge and cabins, was off-limits to all except Louisianas leading politicians and their guests, wrote Janice Buras in a 1991 history of the club. It took a minor scandal and more than a decade before the hoi polloi were allowed in.

Over the past century, Louisiana established another 49 wildlife management areas across about 1.3 million acres, or about 4% of the states total area. These days, Pass-a-Loutre draws about 20,000 visitors each year, but few amenities remain. The lodge and cabins were ripped apart by storms decades ago.

What remains

Wildlife and Fisheries still maintains a patrol station tucked into a sheltered channel off Dennis Pass.

Nyman steps onto the stations pier and watches water squish up through boards that used to be high and dry.

The waters rising, and this whole place is sinking, he said.

Nyman worked here as a wildlife enforcement officer before committing to academia. He used to sneak up on duck poachers in a pirogue and chauffeur scientists around. He decided the scientists had the better gig and went back to school, earning a Ph.D. in coastal studies from LSU in 1993.

He points to a new boat shed thats well-adapted to Pass-a-Loutre's changes. It sits on pilings about 15 feet above the water. When hurricanes begin to brew, the stations boat is pushed up a ramp and locked inside steel walls.

The old bunkhouse might not fare as well in a storm. Nyman opens its busted and rotten screen door to wander rooms that he and other research scientists occasionally use. The living room is a showcase for what is likely one of the biggest collections of taxidermied waterfowl in the state, and the kitchen is plastered with old maps showing channels and other landmarks that are now open water.

He finds the spot where the lost town of Balize once stood. Originally a fort built by the French about 300 years ago, Balize was supposed to guard the entrance to the Mississippi, but frequent storms, flooding and the ever-shifting course of the river repeatedly forced its French, then Spanish and then American owners to abandon, rebuild and relocate the outpost until it was finally left to a rowdy group of oyster pirates and river pilots. According to a 1921 newspaper account, these wild men and wilder women'' made Balize the wickedest spot in Louisiana, a place where the raw, red sinfulness of the far frontiers'' came into full bloom with all-night orgies that ended with a string of murders at dawn.

By the 1930s, all that remained of Balize was a sunken cemetery. Nyman knew an old-timer who caught a glimpse of the headstones before they disappeared under the waves.

Nearby, the Pass-a-Loutre Lighthouse awaits a similar fate. Built in 1852, the iron-clad, 70-foot-tall structure has survived dozens of storms, looting by Union troops and burning by Confederates. In the 1930s, the lighthouse was surrounded by an island of almost 1,000 acres. By the time Nyman paid his first visit in the mid-1980s, only a narrow strip remained. The sea soon swallowed the base, including the door, and Hurricane Katrina made off with its red-domed top.

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Building land

It isnt easy to determine how much of Pass-a-Loutres constantly shifting landscape has disappeared, but the wider bird's foot delta has lost more than 113,000 acres over the past half century, according to the state coastal authority. In 50 years, only about half of it is expected to remain.

Despite its rapid rate of loss, Pass-a-Loutre is where Louisianans pioneered the idea of harnessing nature to rebuild land. In the 1950s, state wildlife managers noticed that ducks tended to congregate in the vegetation-rich shallows near breaks in river channels. They cut crevasses to attract ducks, and by accident found they were building new marsh. The diverted river water dropped sediment as it passed through the narrow cuts. As the sediment piled up, plants took root and land was born.

In 1986, the state cut the first crevasse engineered specifically to build land.

Thats when crevasses became sexy, Baker said.

Wildlife and Fisheries spent almost $90,000 building three crevasses in Pass-a-Loutre in the late 1980s. More than 350 acres have been created by the projects, averaging out to about $252 per acre.

Crevasses are the most cost-effective restoration tool we have in our toolbox, Baker said. It doesnt take much. You just dig a ditch and allow it to build land naturally.

Nyman slammed a soil sampler into the young land and pulled out a 2-foot-long cylinder of layered sand and mud.

Thats all recent accumulation, he said. "If you were born after 1985, youre older than this dirt.

Crowding the shallows was a mix of pond weed, widgeon grass and delta duck potato - all magnets for ducks and other wildlife.

The crevasses gave rise to the states most ambitious coastal restoration project: the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a $2 billion crevasse on a grand scale. If approved by federal regulators, the diversion will funnel sediment-laden Mississippi River water through a section of levee on Plaquemines Parish's West Bank and spill it into Barataria Bay, potentially rebuilding 18,000 acres of marsh.

Pass-a-Loutre was where that whole idea was developed, Nyman said.

Projects are also underway to revive Pass-a-Loutre's marshes with sediment dug out of the Mississippi. The coastal authority plans to spend $6 million from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster settlement to dredge three passes and use the spoils to build marsh along three channels.

Similar dredging projects have had dramatic results. Nyman showed off an empty field of freshly dredged sand near the Wildlife and Fisheries station.

If you look at this on Google Earth right now, itd show up as open water, he said. Thats what it was two years ago, just water three feet deep.

Hanging on

But the rate of gain vs. loss isnt in Pass-a-Loutres favor. While storms and subsidence are constant challenges, a new one - a rapidly spreading Asian insect - is taking a crippling toll on roseau cane, a tall and sturdy marsh grass that holds together much of the bird's foot delta.

Appearing in Louisiana about five years ago, the tiny insect, known as a scale, has damaged thousands of acres on the delta and elsewhere on the coast. Baker has documented roseau die-off causing some channels to recede by almost 1,000 feet over just 16 months.

Spraying insecticide in such a fragile ecosystem is out of the question, as is burning the cane on a delta loaded with oil pipelines and wells. The best option might be to foster the growth of a scale-resistant roseau. The downside is that it, too, is an aggressive invader that would likely require millions of dollars to control, as is the case in Chesapeake Bay and other parts of the East Coast.

Despite the challenges, Baker is optimistic about the Pass-a-Loutres future.

That old deltas been hanging on for a long time, he said. Well do our best to keep whats there.

Nymans outlook is much dimmer, but that doesnt mean he thinks restoration efforts should cease.

Just because Im probably not going to live 100 years doesnt mean I start eating cheesecake every meal, he said. I want to keep going. I want this place to keep going as long as it can. Its still a benefit to alligators and egrets, and recreation and our economy.

Pass-a-Loutre will stick around for many more years but not a hundred, he predicted. I could be wrong. I hope Im wrong.

+7 Louisiana scientists say a reviled plant could save the coast's insect-ravaged wetlands After a big funding boost from Congress and more than a year of research, Louisiana scientists may have a remedy for the plague decimating a t
Earl Smith, 83, former resident of Moore, OK passed away peacefully at his home in Longmont, CO. Earl was born in Depew, OK to John and Ethel Smith. He retired in 2000 from Rose State University as an accounting Professor. Graveside service will be held at Oakdale Cemetery, Depew, OK on Sept
Williamsport, Pa. -- When told that he would be moving from Vietnam to the United States, Long H. Nguyen embraced the adventure as a second chance at life. More than 13 years later, its obvious the Pennsylvania College of Technology graduate has taken full advantage of that precious opportunity.

Nguyen recently earned his second Penn College degree and received a promotion at his employer of five years  the Andritz Group, an international technology company. The honors graduate is a design engineer at Andritzs global foundry and manufacturing facility for Durametal refiner plates in Muncy.

Why try to follow the path that everyone else follows? Youve got to make your path, Nguyen said.

His path was 8,700 miles away in the United States.

In December 2007, he relocated with 11 family members from Dalat in southern Vietnams Central Highlands to Hughesville in northcentral Pennsylvania. Nguyen and his family moved in with his grandparents, who settled in the borough following the Vietnam War.

When my parents told me that we were moving to the U.S., I was very excited, Nguyen said. That year I got bullied a lot at school, so I kind of gave up on school. I took coming to America as a second opportunity at life. I could reset. If I was in Vietnam right now, I cant see myself anywhere near where I am today.

Nguyen enjoys a thriving career and has his name on two patent applications related to his work at the Andritz facility devoted to the pulp and paper industries. Nguyens main responsibilities encompass reverse engineering and product design. Refiner plates is the singular focus of his multiple pursuits.

Refiner plates are the heart of paper and pulp machines. Typically, wood chips are inserted between two sets of refiner plates; one plate rotates, and the other is stationary. Wood is broken down while passing through the small gap between the plates. The process produces wood fibers, which are often combined to make various types of paper.

Andritzs Muncy plant produces 36,000-plus circles of refiner plates annually.

Penn College has given me the knowledge and skill set needed for my field, which has allowed me to tackle many complex designs and challenges over the past five years of working for Andritz, Nguyen said.

Todays reality appeared to be an unlikely dream when Nguyen arrived in the U.S. at the age of 13. He didnt speak or understand English, which made him apprehensive about venturing outside his home. It took a couple years of working with an English as a second language teacher, using a Vietnamese to English dictionary and repeating the words of his classmates to feel somewhat comfortable with the language.

At first, I didnt know what everybody was talking about. I just listened and tried to do my own thing, except for math because math is numbers. I was very good at that, Nguyen said.

Eventually he became friends with some excellent students who inspired him to excel in multiple disciplines. By his high school graduation, Nguyen won a slew of academic awards for a subject and passion that he discovered by accident.

Hughesville High Schools campus includes the Lycoming Career and Technology Center, the home of technical training programs for secondary students throughout the region. As a Hughesville junior, Nguyen had to walk through Lyco CTC on his way to gym class. One day, an open classroom filled with dual computer monitors gave his mind a workout.

I was like, Oh, my God! What do they do in there? he recalled.

Drafting and design was the answer.

Nguyen registered for that program and spent part of his days throughout his junior and senior years honing those skills at Lyco CTC.

I was able to pick up things so fast. Within one year, I was very proficient with AutoCAD and Inventor (computer-aided drafting and design) software, he said. It just came to me. I was gifted with the mindset for design.

He took that mindset to Penn College, attracted by the colleges applied approach to education.

Im hands-on. I do something once, and I remember it, he said.

Remember he did. Nguyen completed his Penn College studies with a 3.94 GPA. He earned an associate degree in engineering CAD technology in 2016 and went to work full time for Andritz. During the next five years, Nguyen took a couple classes a semester to complete a bachelors degree in engineering design technology, which he obtained in May.

Longs senior capstone project was wonderful and has the potential for commercial success, said Katherine A. Walker, assistant professor of engineering design technology.

He designed a small device that can accelerate the drying process of sweaty sneakers for greater comfort and odor control. Nguyen cant reveal too much about the project because he intends to apply for a patent.

Long the student has always been serious about doing well with his academics, for which I am always impressed, Walker said. Long the person has a joyful heart with sincere appreciation for the opportunities that have presented themselves to him. His optimism and energy are contagious and an encouragement to others.

Those traits were on full display within a few weeks of starting his job at Andritz as an advanced computer-numerical-control machine operator. When the design team went away for a retreat, Nguyen reversed engineered old handmade designs of refiner plates. That impressive effort led to more responsibilities, such as designing low consistency refiner plates  which increase the length of fiber  and creating mold designs.

I learned so much with all the things that all my professors taught me, he said. Penn College taught me not to limit myself with design. If it doesnt work, try a new thing. Think outside the box. Come up with something crazy because something crazy might work.

Let your imagination take you to wherever youre supposed to be.

For Nguyen, that might be the beach.

In his new role as design engineer for Andritz, Nguyen recently went on a business trip to South Carolina. It was the first time since he arrived in America that he traveled outside of Pennsylvania. On the return drive home, his boss swung by the coast so Nguyen could experience the ocean for the first time.

I played in the water for about 20 minutes, he smiled. I was one of the few people on the beach. The waves were coming in. It was beautiful. I was like, Wow. I want to live here someday.

At least he wont have to travel as far to realize another dream.
Lycoming Co., Pa. -- A Cub Cadet LS 28 model log splitter was reported stolen from a property on W. State Route 973 in Watson Twp., according to PSP Montoursville.

The owner, a 39-year-old man from Jersey Shore, alleged that the equipment was taken sometime between Aug. 6 and Aug. 11 from the property.

The log splitter is valued at $1,600.

Police are asking anyone with information to call 570-368-5700.
Williamsport -- Marcella A. DeSanto, 62, of Williamsport passed away unexpectedly on Monday, August 16, 2021 at her home.

Born February 28, 1959 in Williamsport she was the daughter of Richard J. DeSanto of Trout Run and the late Patricia A. (Borrosco) DeSanto who preceded her in death on July 27, 2021.

Marcella was a 1977 graduate of South Williamsport High School. She worked for Hometown Floral for many years and most recently at First National Bank in Williamsport.

Marcella had a green thumb. She enjoyed planting flowers in the landscape surrounding her home and creating beautiful floral arrangements. She loved cooking and baking and was eager to share a batch of homemade meatballs or dish of food with anyone in need. Marcella went above and beyond to show people she cared. She was always willing to lend a hand to help, an ear to listen, or a shoulder to cry on.

Above all else, Marcella cherished her family and friends. As a mother, sister, daughter, aunt, cousin and friend she touched many lives, loved beyond measure and spread her love and happiness with all who knew her.

Surviving is a daughter, Ashley Moore (Kyle Stout) of San Antonio, Texas; sister, Denice Mangold (Robert) of The Colony, Texas; a brother-in-law, Kyle Engle of South Williamsport; nieces and nephews, Melissa Brent (James), Matthew DeSanto (Emily Cipolla) all of South Williamsport, and Jacqueline Mangold (Ben Birch) of Jacksonville, Florida; Gene March of Montoursville who she loved like a brother; a cousin/sister, Gina Wheeland of Liberty; and a multitude of dear friends and family.

In addition to her mother she was preceded in death by a sister, Renee M. Engle and her beloved dog, Kingstin.

A Mass of Christian Burial to honor the life of Marcella will be held 10 a.m. Saturday, August 21 at St. Ann Catholic Church, 1220 Northway Rd., Williamsport. Burial will follow in Wildwood Cemetery. A visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, August 20 at Sanders Mortuary, 821 Diamond St., Williamsport.

The family will provide flowers and suggest memorial contributions be made in Marcellas name to the Lycoming County S.P.C.A., 2805 Reach Road, Williamsport, PA 17701.

Online condolences may be made on Marcellas memorial page at www.SandersMortuary.com.

To plant a tree in memory of Marcella DeSanto as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.




Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee wrote this column as part of a series on the Appalachian Regional Commission , an economic development agency of the federal government and 13 states, including Tennessee and Georgia.
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Pool of Entrepreneurs Compete in Water Desalination Challenge

Aug. 18, 2021

From academics to entrepreneurs, diverse participants are competing in the five-stage Waves to Water Prize, designing marine energy technology that turns salty ocean water into fresh drinking water.

Many small and remote communities enjoy unique combinations of natural resources and cultural perspectives. They also tend to face specific challenges and needs, especially when it comes to accessing critical resources such as potable water.

Presently, many such communities do not hold the same equitable access to the water and energy infrastructure that more affluent regions have. To better assess, understand, and meet their needs, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is working with some of these communities to design and improve technologies capable of addressing some of the water and energy challenges they endure.

An example of this is NRELs Sherry Stout, who has worked to ensure the sustainable recovery of Puerto Ricos electric power grid after hurricanes Irma and Maria. Stout is also currently working to improve and sustain the water treatment infrastructure for small communities in Puerto Rico, like Utuado, Ciales, and Las Mariassafely managing wastewater and providing drinking water in its place. This is just one example of how NREL is working with communities to help transform their water and energy landscape.

To further expand these efforts and address the pressing challenge of water scarcity more specifically, the U.S. Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) and NREL created the $3.3 million Waves to Water Prize. The prize incentivizes a diverse group of innovators to create small, modular, cost-competitive desalination systems powered by ocean waves.

During the five-stage competition, teams design marine energy technologies that use ocean waves to generate clean energy, thereby turning salty ocean water into fresh drinking water. Such inventions could help deliver clean water for global disaster relief and to remote, freshwater-scarce communities, like Nanwalek.

In February 2021, WPTO selected 10 teams as winners of the competitions third stage, ADAPT. Each team shared a portion of the $800,000 cash prize pool and moved on to the penultimate CREATE Stage. Three of those 10 winning teams are bringing one-of-a-kind entrepreneurial skills to the table to ultimately deliver solutions that help accelerate, expand, and evolve what is possible for marine energy by introducing new, flexible, responsive, and easy-to-deploy wave-powered desalination systems.

Three Competing Teams Wet Their Feet in the Wave Energy Arena

One competing team, called Project 816, is made up of engineers and test pilots from Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. This team is diving headfirst into exploring wave energy technologies, designing the Ballast, Buoys, and Borrowing From Archimedes System. (Archimedes, a famous classical mathematician, invented a device that raises water, known as the Archimedes screw, which is still used today.) Their device can be deployed by just two people with common equipment, basic tools, and in a variety of site conditions. Built with commercial, off-the-shelf components, an inflatable, raft-based wave energy converter, which sits on a nearby pier, powers their desalination system.

In the CREATE Stage, Project 816 is focusing on increasing the amount of kinetic energy their wave energy converter can capture. The team is also improving their devices ability to adapt to variable current and tidal conditions. Once these improvements are complete, the team will be ready to deploy a full-scale prototype and test their system in the ocean.

Another team, Sea Potential, brings together entrepreneurs from Sea Potential LLC, a Maine-based organization that focuses on building diversity in marine science, and three partners from Ireland, Pure Marine Gen, Colloide Engineering Systems Ltd, and Marine Systems Inc. The teams inflatable DUO Wave Powered Desalination System captures energy using a hydraulic cylinder (which uses liquid instead of air or electricity to power mechanics). Then, the device pumps seawater through a reverse-osmosis membrane that extracts salt and other impurities to produce drinkable water.

During the CREATE Stage, Sea Potential is improving DUOs design to capture a larger amount of power. The team is also making the devices hydraulic circuit more efficient at producing more drinking water. At the same time, Sea Potential is researching how DUOs design can be adapted for different markets and users.

Engineers from a third team, Surge Seeker & Water Duck, come from California companies IPro Tech LLC and Spectra Watermakers. The team submitted three different device designs in the ADAPT Stage. After moving to the CREATE Stage, they focused their efforts on the Water Duck. To improve and simplify their device, the team is shifting from a hydraulic to an all-electrical power take-off system, which transfers energy from a power source (generator) to an application by pushing water through a membrane. In the CREATE Stage, team Water Duck is also building a land-based rig system that mimics ocean conditions and allows them to test and refine their design from on shore.

Countdown to the Final Competition

Up to seven CREATE Stage winners will receive part of the $500,000 cash prize pool and move to the final stage of the competition, DRINK. Then, they will have 180 days to build and ship their systems to Jennettes Pier in Nags Head, North Carolina.

The Coastal Studies Institute, part of the University of North Carolina system, and Jennettes Pier have partnered with WPTO and NREL to host the prize finalists in North Carolina in April 2022. The pier will serve as the competitors main test site where judges will assess how their final designs perform during a five-day, open-ocean trial.

Competitors are receiving support from prize sponsors, including Janicki Industries, a full-service engineering and manufacturing company who is consulting with teams on how to manufacture their designs. Teams can also work with the International Desalination Association, which is connecting them with the desalination community and provides access to technical training seminars. Engineering for Change is providing additional support through mentor recruitment and training materials.

This spotlight article series features competitors from academia, industry, and practiced participants who have moved on to the next-to-last stage of this years Waves to Water Prize. Learn more about the various Waves to Water ADAPT Stage winners in past articles. You can also follow competition news and progress on Twitter @AMCprizes, and learn more about NRELs water power and water treatment research online.


"We want to thank OSHA for its partnership with CAF to make construction job sites in the Region among the safest in the country," CAF Executive Director Dewey Pearman said. "These funds have been instrumental in supporting the strong commitment of local contractors, labor leaders, and our community for the safest possible work environment."

Northwest Indiana's recordable incidence rate, which tracks workers' injuries, is 294% better than the rest of the country, according to the most recent OSHA data. The Calumet Region's days away from work rate is 307% better than the national average. Northwest Indiana's days away from work rate is 35% lower than the national average.

"The men and women who work in NWI construction can see that support for their hard work goes all the way to the very top," Palmateer said. "They are dedicated professionals, and they deserve the absolute best training and education to keep them safe on the job. That's what this is all about  bringing the best to our builders."

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"We have an opportunity in America right now to buy American and build American like never before," he said. "Over the next five years, in this state of Indiana, we'll see $6.6 billion for highway programs, $400 million for bridge replacement, $680 million for public transportation, $100 million for electric vehicle charging stations, $170 million for the airports, $750 million for water infrastructure, $100 million for affordable high-speed internet, $220 million to protect against wildfires. That's just an estimate of what's coming to this state."

Portage Mayor Sue Lynch hopes to land $80 million in federal funding for a sewer treatment project since the current plant is close to capacity.

"We need the bipartisan infrastructure plan to be able to move forward with that," she said. "Cities like Portage cannot move forward if we can't tap into some of this money. We can't be a strong working America if we don't act on the infrastructure needs of all of our cities throughout this country. It not only points to the need to put our union men and women back to work with good-paying jobs, but it shows that we are not supplying the products we should be making in the United States of America.
McNulty said they are pausing volunteers in the buildings, but parents and guardians may come.

Gary security officers

The FAQ asked if officers in schools were replaced with those from East Chicago. Officers in the schools are from the Gary Police Department, the district said, and come from all over the community.

Its expected that all officers respect students and build positive relationships with them.

There was a question about students not receiving consequences for bad behavior so numbers arent too low for a daily attendance bonus. But daily attendance bonuses do not exist and incidents of students fighting or displaying disruptive or disrespectful behavior are addressed on a case-by-cases basis, the district said.

All staff have or will go through restorative justice training, and there are programs, behavioral specialists and resource officers to help with students needs.

There is a code of conduct in place for students and staff to follow, but the district recognizes that students havent been in the buildings for more than a year, so there will be a readjustment period for them.
CROWN POINT  Prosecutors dropped charges against two Lakes of the Four Seasons security workers, and a defense attorney for the gated community's property owners' association said Tuesday he expects the entity will be offered a pretrial diversion agreement.

The Lake County prosecutor's office charged the association and its two security workers in December with impersonation of a police office, a level 6 felony.

In late July, Lake County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Barbara McConnell filed a motion to dismiss charges against security workers Adam L. Wood, 22, of South Haven, and Michael R. Almada, 24, of Portage.

The motion said the charges were to be dismissed "in the interest of justice."

Defense attorney Steve Mullins told Judge Salvador Vasquez during a hearing Tuesday he anticipates McConnell will approve a pretrial diversion program for his remaining client, the property owners' association itself.

Mullins said he and McConnell were still negotiating the language in the proposed agreement.

In November 2018, Indiana State Police raided the security building at the main entrance to Lakes of the Four Seasons, a subdivision near Winfield.
The defense attorney said evidence about the relationship between Taylor's father and Haywood would be "smoke and mirrors."

Evidence about the relationship would be circumstantial and possibly even invite speculation, Murdaugh said.

"You better not jump from circumstantial to speculation, because the law does not allow it," she told jurors.

Arnold said phone records would show Taylor called Haywood nine times on his way from Indianapolis to her Gary home the day of the homicides.

The deputy prosecutor said Taylor called Haywood one final time after he shot her to death to find her cellphone, which he took and discarded at a gas station. Taylor then called his father four times before going to his father's Hammond home, she said.

When Taylor talked to his father, he told the older man, "It's done," Arnold said.

Video from Haywood's Ring doorbell camera would show Taylor and Gaines leaving with a TV and Gaines returning to wipe off a doorknob, she said. The footage would corroborate Gaines' expected testimony about the sequence of events, she said.

Jurors also would hear from Haywood's daughter, who made a "chilling" 911 call after jumping out a window, Arnold said.
HAMMOND  A Hammond man now faces prison for running a child pornography ring out of his familys apartment.

A U.S. District Court jury found Lorenzo Johnson guilty Monday of conspiracy to produce and distribute photos of naked children online.

Jurors also found Johnson guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon has scheduled a Dec. 17 sentencing for the 33-year-old man, who now stands before the court as a twice convicted felon and sex offender and faces at least a 25-year prison term.

Johnson, who had been living in Hammond the past three years, already had been convicted in Illinois in 2009 for aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a felony that requires him to be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life

The Federal Bureau of Investigations Lake County-based GRIT (Gang Response Investigative Team) first focused on Johnson two years ago after receiving a citizen complaint of someone posting images of naked children online.

GRIT Special Agent Nikkole Robertson alleged  in court papers used to charge Johnson  that investigators traced the child pornography to an internet account at Johnsons apartment building, just south of Hammonds Edison Park.
Moreover, Friedlander said a defense expert was not required to balance an expert witness for the prosecution as prosecutors only called the physicians who treated the baby to explain how shaking led to his death.

As to the sufficiency of the evidence, Friedlander noted that an 11-year-old boy saw Bottom shaking the baby on Feb. 1, 2019, and the child demonstrated on the witness stand precisely how Bottom did it.

In addition, two jailhouse informants testified Bottom told them he was angry at his wife and wanted to kill her, and one said Bottom gave him a note directing Bottom's mother to pay the man $7,000 to kill his wife, according to court records.

Records show it was "highly probable" Bottom wrote the note since the handwriting on the note matched a handwriting sample provided by Bottom.

"The jury heard this evidence, made credibility determinations, weighed that evidence with all the other evidence, and found Bottom guilty," Friedlander said.

"Based on the foregoing, we conclude the trial court acted within its discretion in denying Bottom's request for public funds to hire an expert and the state presented evidence sufficient to support Bottom's convictions."
Police said they were able to trace the email tip back to Roxann Kerner, despite her using a Virtual Private Network in attempting to hide her IP address. Police said they linked four other anonymous email tips to Roxann Kerner and received none further after questioning her attorney about the messages.

King posed a similar challenge to a claim that Roxann Kerner, who testified during her son's murder trial after prosecutors and the judge agreed to grant her immunity if she cooperated, told jurors she was not directly involved with the details of a trailer rental allegedly involved in the offense.

Yet a surveillance video shows her and son, Connor Kerner, discussing the rental at the business and listening to instructions on how to use the winch to load a vehicle on the trailer, police said.

King also pounced on testimony from Porter County Sheriff Sgt. Detective Brian Dziedzinski that he and prosecutors had discussed the possibility of charging Roxann Kerner before her son's trial.

Connor Kerner's co-defendant, John Silva II, 20, of Hamlet, went to trial in June, which resulted in a hung jury. Prosecutors still are considering whether to retry the case.
MERRILLVILLE  The final phase of the Mississippi Street widening project is progressing, but it will be another few months before the road reopens.

A stretch of Mississippi between 93rd and 101st avenues has been closed since April so the road can be reconstructed and widened to four lanes. The goal is to have the road open to traffic in November, Merrillville Engineering Administrator Steve King said.

They started paving asphalt (Monday) morning from the south end at 101st Avenue and heading north, King said.

Before reaching this point, workers excavated the area and stabilized the roadway. King said a new storm system was installed and new curb and gutter were put in place.

He said work also has been finished to widen 101st Avenue at the Mississippi Street intersection.

The final phase of the Mississippi Street widening has a price tag close to $4 million, and it was hundreds of thousands of dollars below the engineers estimate. Federal funding is covering 80% of the work, and Merrillville is responsible for the remainder of the cost. The town will use Mississippi Street tax increment financing district dollars to fund its portion of the project.
PHOENIX (AP)  An 84-year-old man who spent most of his adult life behind bars for robbing banks was sentenced Tuesday to more than 21 years in prison for carrying out an armed heist at an Arizona credit union.

Authorities say Robert Krebs carried out the January 2018 holdup in Tucson about seven months after he was released from prison as he was struggling to adjust to life on the outside. His attorney said Krebs wanted to go back to prison.

Krebs, who was in a wheelchair and had difficulty hearing during his during sentencing, declined to answer a judges question about whether he accepted responsibility for his actions.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Zipps said Krebs doesnt appear to be remorseful and has done damage to society and caused other people to be fearful. This is the same type of conduct that he has been involved with his whole life, Zipps said.

Krebs attorney, Erin Carrillo, said her client committed the Tucson robbery to return to prison because he didnt feel like he fit into society after spending decades in prison. To get out of the freedom business and go back to the penitentiary  thats what he told me, Carrillo said.
After almost 18 months of relying on expensive emergency aid programs to support their economies through the pandemic, governments across Europe are scaling back some of these measures, counting on returning economic growth and the power of vaccines to carry the load from here.

But the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has thrown a new variable into that calculation, prompting concerns about whether this is the time for scheduled rollbacks in financial assistance.

The tension can be seen in France, where the number of new virus cases has increased more than 200 percent from the average two weeks ago, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to try to push the French into getting vaccinated by threatening to make it harder to shop, dine or work if they dont.

At the same time, some pandemic aid in France  including generous state funding that prevented mass layoffs by subsidizing wages, and relief for some businesses struggling to pay their bills  is being reduced.
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

On Sunday, the president of Afghanistan fled the country. The Taliban seized control of the countrys capital, and the American-backed government there collapsed. In Kabul, chaos gripped the city as tens of thousands of people went into hiding or tried to escape. Among them is a 33-year-old woman, an outspoken critic of the Taliban who asked that we refer to her by the initial R for fear of retaliation. In the days leading up to the fall of Kabul, R packed her entire life into six suitcases and started searching for a way out. Since Friday night, shes been sharing her experience and fears with my colleague, Lynsea Garrison, as the Taliban closed in. Its Monday, August 16.

lynsea garrison

Hey, R. I know you are incredibly busy, but I was thinking that maybe you could record some voice memos and send them to me over the next few days. Anything that youre seeing, anything that youre thinking, if your situation changes, if youre able to get out of the country, you can just record anything like that and send it to me. And I hope youre doing OK, as OK as anyone can be in this kind of circumstance.

r

Today, we just  couple of hours ago, we learned that Logar collapsed, which is just 70 kilometer away from Kabul, which is so scary because now they are just very, very close to Kabul. And so theres no way for my family and I to leave. But with the help of some friends, we managed to find a safer place for tonight. So Im moving with my whole family there. And well stay there tonight. And well see what will happen, because some people say that there might be fighting tonight. They might start attacking Kabul tonight or tomorrow. So I have been just moving houses. Im just on the way, taking my suitcases, packing up, moving from one place to the other. And yeah, its just so overwhelming, so exhausting and scary. I dont know what to do. I really dont know whats going to happen.

[music]

lynsea garrison

Good morning. Its late Friday night here and, I think, pretty early your Saturday morning. I just wanted to see if anything ended up happening last night and where you are.

r

Its early morning and, gladly, nothing happened last night. So my sister and I, we moved to this house. And my mom and my brothers will join us today. So right now, we are just trying to find a way that at least all of us can be together. But we dont know. We dont know whats going to happen. We are just very hopeful and trying to be optimistic. And we just received messages that the Taliban are about to attack Kabul within 72 hours. I dont know. They have been confirmed by official sources, but I really dont know what is the plan for the Americans and for the British because they already brought some troops, and they are bringing more troops today to evacuate their stuff and some Afghans. I dont know. I just dont have a good feeling today. I think we just dont have much time, but, I dont know, Im just praying that we will be out soon.

r (new voice memo)

I just walked to the main road. And the roads are busy. People are walking around. And theyre doing their business. It looks like a normal day. But the thing is I think maybe they have no clue that Kabul can fall any minute or any hour or any day. I was told that they might attack Kabul today, so its better if I stay in this area so I dont get stuck somewhere. And also, I was told that the commercial flights might stop tomorrow. I dont know if its true or false. Im waiting for the Canadians to tell me if I am eligible, if they can put me on this list. The Americans say that theres no guarantee, but they might be able to put us on the list and evacuate us, but they may not. So we are also  we are still trying to find ways out for myself and for my family members. Yeah, these are the latest updates that I have.

archived recording 1 The Taliban are advancing relentlessly across Afghanistan as the U.S. carries out the final stages of withdrawing all its troops. With international forces largely gone, the Islamist group is taking more territory from a demoralized Afghan military. archived recording 2 Taliban tweeted out this video of its fighters celebrating on top of an armored Humvee as it drove through the streets, vehicles they captured from U.S. trained and equipped Afghan forces. archived recording 3 Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani spoke publicly today for the first time in days. Hes vowing to keep fighting. archived recording 4  a speech to his nation, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani this morning vowed not to give up over what he called the achievements over the past 20 years. archived recording 5 And as this has been happening, tens of thousands of people continue to flood into Kabul. And many of them have come with nothing, because theyve come from cities that have been centers of fighting.

lynsea garrison

Im just curious, whats the mood like in Kabul right now? Is it quiet? Are people scared? Is it chaotic? Im just curious what the city actually feels like right now.

r

Im driving through the city, and I see fear in peoples faces. And people are rushing everywhere. And I saw hundreds of people lining up behind the banks to withdraw their monies and close their accounts, probably. And yeah. And we just heard about this announcement that President Ghani is going to resign, even though he didnt mention it in his statement, but it seems that he will resign soon. That is what I heard from my sources. Now, everything is just even more complicated because  and even more unpredictable. I dont know. I dont know whats going to happen anytime soon, but its just terrifying and worrying. I dont know. Its been so tragic that I have been just carrying my suitcases from my place to other without even knowing if I would ever get out with them. But Im just carrying them from here to there, hoping that I will find an exit ready.

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

[music]

archived recording 1 Were getting new developments from Afghanistan, where the situation is changing there minute by minute. [GUNFIRE] archived recording 2 Tonight, the Afghan army is trying to hold back the Taliban in the norths biggest city, Mazar-i-Sharif. archived recording 3 On Saturday, the Taliban captured the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif after security forces fled to neighboring Uzbekistan, allowing the insurgents to march in unopposed. archived recording 4 Another Afghan provincial capital just south of Kabul has fallen to the Taliban in an  archived recording 5 Taliban fighters have captured the city of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar Province. It was one of two remaining government strongholds and, really, just a few hours drive away from the capital of Kabul.

r

I dont know if you are aware of this, but  [SOBS]  two major cities just collapsed. And its so devastating to see that my countrys just falling on her knees, and no one is just taking any action, just the whole world just watching this happen. I just cant sleep. Im like, if I sleep, Im going to miss something. So Im just trying to stay awake all night, having my family with me and just checking on my friends and just trying to see what I can do for them, what I can do for my family. And honestly, I feel embarrassed. And I feel ashamed on behalf of the world, on behalf of the countries that claim that they are human rights defenders, womens rights defenders and they are here to establish democracy and freedom of speech, womens rights, and all these bullshits. And now they are just decided to just leave and let us die. To the world, its just a city that collapses. But to me, its not just a city, because I know with every city, there are thousands of souls that collapse. There are thousands of millions of dreams that collapse. There are our history, our culture, our art, our beauty, our life that collapse. And that is why every time I hear that a city collapses, I collapse again and again. And I dont know whats  what is next. They are close to Kabul, and then they are going to take over Kabul. But I just keep telling myself that I have to  I have to  stay alive. I have to be strong because I need to document all these things. I need to record everything. And I need to do something because I dont want this to be forgotten. Its so painful. Its so devastating. Its backbreaking. And I feel so miserable, because I feel so hopeless and powerless because I cannot do anything. I wish I could do magic. I wish I could do something that this country would grow wings to just fly away from all this bloodshed and just save her children. I dont know. Or I should  if I could grow or expand my arms to just hold this country and its people and just protect them. Its so devastating. It is so unfair. But what I know, the history will not forget it. The history will remember every name, every face that was involved in creating this [INAUDIBLE] mess for us.

[music]

archived recording 1 NBC News has confirmed that the president, President Ghani of Afghanistan, has left the country. archived recording 2 Afghan President Ashraf Ghanis departure signals the government has all but handed power to the Taliban. archived recording 3 The question now is what happens next. archived recording 4 We are back now with our rolling coverage of the situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban are saying they have ordered their fighters to enter the capital city of Kabul. archived recording 5 There are images online coming out right now inside Kabul, the presidential palace overrun by the Taliban. Bagram Air Base, where there were more than 5,000 prisoners held  among them not only Taliban insurgents, but also Al-Qaeda fighters. archived recording 6 Theyve released prisoners, thousands of them. archived recording 7 5 to 7,000 of the most hardened Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. archived recording 8 Certainly, a concern to the civilian population in Kabul and across Afghanistan, who will see very quickly the Taliban reinforce their ranks and then ultimately, as the group has made clear, reinforce Sharia law across the country.

r (new voice memo)

Hi, Lynsea. Its been such a long, exhausting, terrifying day. So much happened just in one day. My brain still cannot process this whole thing because earlier this morning, all the roads were fully packed. And just in the matter of half an hour, all the roads were empty. There were gunfire, and then people were just rushing, running on the streets, to find somewhere to hide somewhere. And yeah, its just  I just cant believe  I think its going to take some time for me to believe whats happening now. I just cant believe that they gave up a whole country this easily and just forget about the sacrifices that we made, the things that we worked so hard for. And now its just a matter of just saving your life. I think its the worst day of my life to see what Im seeing. Yeah. And I dont know, I just feel so disappointed. I feel so disgusted. And I feel so enraged, that its like a joke. What is happening is like a joke. And I cant believe. And by now, they are inside the city, I think, because I just heard that two minutes ago, they entered the city. And yeah, we lost so many things. And Im just losing everything. And now, I lost my house. I lost my belongings. I lost my city. I lost my country. I lost my dreams. Today is Monday, 16 August. And we were about to leave to the airport an hour ago, but there were about two helicopters to come and take us. But for some reason, it was canceled. And then we learned that the civilian side of the airport is now under the control of the Taliban. And if you want to go to the military side, you have to pass through civilian side. And there is no guarantee if you can reach there safely. So now we are back to where we were staying last night. We are just waiting to see how things move on and if we will be able to make it to the airport sometime soon. I dont know.

lynsea garrison

So youre basically stuck?

r

Yeah, we are stuck. They are negotiating. The Americans are negotiating with the Taliban. And maybe well be able to go to the airport soon, but lets see.

michael barbaro

On Sunday night, during a ceremony at the presidential palace, Taliban fighters celebrated the rebirth of what theyre calling the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan  the name the Taliban used until their ouster in 2001 at the hands of the United States.

archived recording [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael barbaro

In a statement, the Taliban said it had ordered its men not to harm civilians in Kabul, saying, quote, Our forces are entering Kabul with all caution. But signs of change arrived quickly across the city. Workers raced to paint over advertisements featuring women in accordance with Taliban rules. As of this morning, R is still in Kabul and still trying to get out.

[music]

Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today.

archived recording [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael barbaro
Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love. And helping the majority of people to do so is an act of love, Francis continues. Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable.

By taking part in the vaccination campaign, the pope has joined a group of influencers that has included former presidents, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Elmo from Sesame Street. The plea has become increasingly urgent as the mutating virus cycles through unvaccinated populations, threatening global attempts to return to normalcy.

In centers of faith, efforts to counter vaccine hesitancy have often been fraught. Vaccine acceptance among Hispanic Catholics in the United States rose to 80 percent in June from 56 percent in March, while jumping to 79 percent from 68 percent among white Catholics, according to a June survey of more than 5,000 adults by the Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core nonprofit groups. By comparison, 56 percent of Hispanic Protestants and white evangelical Protestants feel the same, a far smaller percentage than other groups.

Many religious Americans who are hesitant told researchers that faith-based arguments could persuade them to get the shot.

If youre used to your pastor being a cultural critic or a social commentator, then whether hes talking about the election or a social movement or the vaccine, youre more likely to listen to him, said Heidi A. Campbell, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies media and religion. Youre going to give whatever he says more street cred, because it comes with an air of divine authority, which he wouldnt have if he was just a teacher or a news commentator.
The United States has an obligation to welcome these people, too, the Times columnist Michelle Goldberg argues. Arash Azizzada, an Afghan American community organizer and a co-founder of Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, pointed out to her that the United States has spent 20 years encouraging young people and womens rights activists to take the lead, to break barriers, to take part in civil society in Afghanistan, and they are now in danger because of it. Noting that Canada, which is about one-ninth the size of the United States, has pledged to in take more than 20,000 Afghan refugees, Goldberg says 180,000 should be the absolute floor for the United States.

The idea of mass refugee admissions has found supporters across the political spectrum; former President Donald Trump said in a statement that civilians and others who have been good to our country should be allowed to seek refuge.

Some on the right, however, have cast Afghan refugees as a demographic threat. If history is any guide, and its always a guide, we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country in the coming months, probably in your neighborhood, Tucker Carlson said Monday night on his show on Fox News. So first we invade, and then we are invaded.

The Biden administration seems to be taking the opposition seriously. It announced two weeks ago that it would expand refugee eligibility for Afghans who may be at risk due to their U.S. affiliation, but they must first receive a referral from a current or former employer and get themselves and their families into a third country without any U.S. assistance. Its like they want the credit from liberals for ending the Trump cruelty to immigrants and refugees but they also dont want the political backlash that comes from actual refugees arriving in America in any sort of large numbers, one administration official told Politico.

Some believe that the U.S. government owes not just resettlement rights but also reparations to Afghan civilians. Throughout history, the losers of wars have had to pay reparations, though typically to the regimes and not people, the journalist Spencer Ackerman writes. But it is people whom the U.S. owes, not regimes.

It would be a worthwhile project, Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies says, but complicated to carry out: There is no viable government that is not completely invested in corruption of every sort, and theres not ever been the chance for Afghan civil society, particularly on a national level, to develop to the point where it could absorb the kind of large-scale financial contributions that are required from the U.S. for its damage to the country.
Lina Khan, the new chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, is a standout among a new generation of scholars who are pushing to reverse decades of antitrust atrophy. Her breakout moment came with a 2017 article in The Yale Law Journal, arguing that Amazon was engaged in anticompetitive behavior even though its conduct hadnt resulted in higher prices, yet.

Mr. Biden nominated Jonathan Kanter, a lawyer who has represented a series of clients in antitrust cases against Google, to head the Justice Departments antitrust division, which shares authority with the F.T.C. At the White House, Mr. Bidens advisers on antitrust policy include Tim Wu, on leave from his regular gig as a law professor at Columbia, who has long argued for stronger enforcement in these pages.

The new regulators have started jousting with Silicon Valley. But the administration is rightly maintaining a broader focus. The economy is bigger than Big Tech, and harmful concentrations of corporate power are most often found in older and less glamorous industries.

In the Biden administrations first big antitrust action, the Justice Department filed suit in June to block a $30 billion merger of the insurance brokers Aon and Willis Towers Watson. It said the deal would leave American customers with fewer choices, higher prices and lower quality services. It was a striking decision because the European Union, generally tougher on antitrust, had indicated its likely approval. Last month, citing the opposition of the U.S. government, the companies said they would remain competitors.

When Mr. Biden signed an executive order listing specific targets for antitrust action last month, he put the dangers posed by Google, Facebook and other tech giants on a par with the dangers posed by companies in very different sectors. Among other things, the administration wants to allow over-the-counter sales of hearing aids, to provide farmers with model contracts that can help to protect their interests in dealing with agribusiness companies, to help microbreweries get their beer into retail stores and to make it easier to move bank accounts to another bank.

These and dozens of other proposed interventions address well-known violations of the basic principles of open competition. The persistence of these abuses is an indictment of the indifference of previous administrations. It has benefited the wealthy minority that holds shares in corporations at the expense of everyone else.

Mr. Biden seems to grasp the problem. Rather than competing for consumers, they are consuming their competitors, he said when he signed the executive order. Rather than competing for workers, theyre finding ways to gain the upper hand on labor. And too often, the government has actually made it harder for new companies to break in and compete.

Thats the right diagnosis. Now comes the hard part.
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Today, the American miscalculations and misjudgments that led to the stunningly fast collapse of Afghanistan and to the scenes of chaos in Kabul. I spoke with my colleague David Sanger. Its Tuesday, August 17. David, I want to start with the latest developments inside Kabul now that it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban. Can you describe what that scene has been like over the past 24 hours or so?

david sanger

Well, Michael, it was a weekend in which events unfolded I think much faster than anybody at the White House, journalists, even people in Kabul thought they would.

archived recording If youre just joining us, were getting new developments from Afghanistan where the situation is changing there minute by minute.

david sanger

And by Sunday, the Taliban were at the gates of the city.

archived recording American Chinook helicopters have been spotted taking off and landing near the U.S. embassy as the Pentagon speeds troops into Kabul to get our people out.

david sanger

We were seeing helicopters lifting off adjacent to the American embassy, clearly beginning to shuttle people out to the airport.

archived recording Richard said something at the top of his reporting. And I want to make sure that everybody heard it because it is significant. The president, President Ghani of Afghanistan has left the country.

david sanger

By midday, President Ghani had fled the palace, was out of the country. It looked like he had not even told his cabinet or his top aides.

archived recording You are looking at Taliban fighters inside the presidential palace.

david sanger

By Sunday night, there were pictures of the Taliban showing up at the palace.

archived recording A stunning turnaround of events. [INTERPOSING VOICES]

david sanger

And then, on Monday, we saw these heartbreaking scenes from around the Hamid Karzai airport. There were thousands of Afghans trying to get through the gates, over the gates, anything they could do to get their families inside the airport compound in hopes of somehow flying away from the Talibans clutches. There was one moment where American Marines had to go open fire on some armed attackers who were coming in at the airfield. There was another moment, perhaps the most devastating of all, where you saw people clinging to the landing gear of a plane as it was taking off and some of them falling to their death.

[music]

michael barbaro

Well, David, Im struck by just how many American officials, even the Secretary of State, for instance, who are expressing surprise at these developments, in some cases, shock. And I want to talk to why this has all been such a surprise and what misjudgments and miscalculations got us to this point where the Taliban could so quickly seize control of the entire country before the U.S. even finished its military withdrawal. So where should we start?

david sanger

Well, I think the way you start goal is to think about this decision in two different parts. For the first part was Bidens decision to get out. He made a decision in April that he would have all American troops out of the country by September 11. And we could have a separate debate about whether that was a good decision or a bad decision. But youve heard his fundamental argument, which was, if we didnt manage to change the country in 20 years, staying another year or two years or five years was not going to make a material difference. So at that moment, he basically started a clock. Once the clock started, it raised a whole second set of issues, which is, how do you execute on this decision in a smooth way that hands over the power to the Afghan government and doesnt give a huge opening to the Taliban?

michael barbaro

Right.

david sanger

And I think its fair to say, Michael, that there are four major assumptions, some might say miscalculations, that go into the execution of the American withdrawal, and that some would argue contributed to the chaos that weve just seen.

michael barbaro

And David, what is the first of those assumptions slash miscalculations?

david sanger

Well, the first, and the biggest assumption, was that they had the luxury of time. And the intelligence assessments that were on President Bidens desk suggested that they would probably have at least 18 months before Kabul could be seriously threatened by the Taliban and that, over that time, the Afghan security forces would learn how to operate on their own so that they might actually be able to hold on to strategically vital parts of the country, especially the capital, Kabul, and that 20 years of training and equipping the Afghan security forces at a cost of at least $83 billion, and some would say much higher, had created an efficient force that had the capability to go deal with the Taliban and some big advantages.

michael barbaro

What do you mean?

david sanger

The Afghan security forces had all of the hardware that we have been giving them and training them how to use and maintain. They had helicopters. They had aircraft. This was a huge advantage, obviously, in most battle situations. And there were 300,000 Afghan security forces. There were only 75,000 Taliban by the best estimates.

michael barbaro

So a major underpinning of the 18-month time horizon that turned out to be very flawed was this numerical disjunction between the Taliban, 75,000, and the Afghan security forces, 300,000.

david sanger

Yes, on paper, the capabilities of the Afghans was tremendous. At one point, Biden said it was one of the best equipped modern fighting forces in the world some exaggeration, but, on paper, it looked like the Afghan government had all the advantages. And that led to the second big assumption, which was that the Afghan forces had the same drive, the same determination to win that the Taliban did.

michael barbaro

And why did the U.S. get that so wrong? How did we miscalculate the willingness, the eagerness the determination of the Afghan military to defend their country against the Taliban?

david sanger

You know, thats going to be, when the histories of this are written, I think, the biggest and toughest question. Because if you asked almost anybody who had fought alongside the Afghan units, they would tell you that, at best, it was a mixed bag. They were extremely talented, extremely patriotic, extremely hard working Afghan special forces, and that there were moments in time, particularly around 2009, 2010, where those units fought right alongside the United States, learned a lot of lessons, and seemed to be a very effective fighting force. But I think the overwhelming sense that you get from people who spent a lot of time with Afghanistan in some way, as soldiers or contractors or whatever, that they really werent ready for it.

[music]

And so I think the big question is, did Joe Biden, a man who prides himself as the foreign policy president, who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during much of the Afghan war, how did he make a misjudgment that the Afghans were ready? And thats a really pretty big mystery that were all trying to grapple with today.

michael barbaro

Well be right back.

[music]

So David, you had said that there were four assumptions and miscalculations that really help us understand how we got to this point in Afghanistan. What are the other two?

david sanger

Well the third assumption, Michael, was that we had a well-planned system for evacuating the embassy and, equally importantly, those 20,000, 25,000, maybe more Afghans and their families, who had worked for the Americans or worked for N.G.O.s or worked for news organizations, and needed to get out of the country if the Taliban were going to take over.

michael barbaro

Right. That seems like a basic obligation of a country that occupies another country for 20 years.

david sanger

Thats right. And we knew from what the military did that you can get a lot of people out of Afghanistan in a big hurry. Because after all, the military was way ahead of schedule and got most of their combat troops out before the July 4 holiday. But it was a more complicated issue with these two different groups of civilians. The State Department was hesitant to reduce the size of the embassy too quickly because they had a lot of diplomatic missions they needed to deal with the Afghan government. And then, there were those interpreters and the helpers and those people who worked for news organizations, like The Times. And that was difficult as well because the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, had pressed President Biden during his meeting at the White House in June to keep a lot of these people in the country because he didnt want the image that the United States believes that the Afghan government would fall. And the question was, as it became clear that the country was collapsing and the Taliban were taking more territory, could you get these people out of the country on aircraft? And that process the paperwork, meeting all of the statutory requirements for these special immigration status, that was all agonizingly slow.

michael barbaro

Understood. But given the number of lives hanging in the balance, lives of civilians who had risked their lives for the United States and our military in Afghanistan, why didnt the U.S. take steps to expedite this process to cut through all of this agonizingly slow bureaucracy and just make this happen?

david sanger

Its a great question, Michael. And I think its going to be the subject of a lot of investigations in coming months. The administration says that the law is so complex for these kinds of special immigrants that they had to go through a lengthy process. And the U.S. did not have flights set up for them. So it was only a few weeks ago that they got the first 2,000 of them out to some U.S. bases where their application could be evaluated, a process that may take a year or more. And that left thousands more stranded when the curtain came down.

michael barbaro

Well, David, I think theres not going to be a lot of sympathy for the Biden administration when it comes to this group of people because these are the folks who risked their lives to help the United States, the United States military, conduct its mission in Afghanistan. And so the idea that there was a lot of paperwork or they didnt plan for enough flights is going to be very, very hard for people to swallow.

david sanger

Its going to be even harder since we are showing, this weekend and this week, that if you apply a huge amount of organizational effort to it and a lot of flights, you can move a lot of people really quickly. If you could do this in a giant rush, as the Taliban were coming through the outer gates of Kabul, why couldnt you have been moving 500 or 1,000 of these interpreters and their families out starting in April or May?

michael barbaro

So David, what is the fourth and final misjudgment here when it comes to the execution of the U.S. withdrawal? Well, I think the fourth one, Michael, is one that actually broken Joe Bidens favor. It was an assumption that, if the end did come to Kabul, if the Afghan forces did fall apart, there would be an awful and bloody block-by-block civil war being fought in the streets of Kabul. That didnt happen. When the Taliban showed up at the gates of Kabul, they said, were coming in, and were going to take over the reins of the government, and the security forces, but were going to go do it peacefully. And they made it clear that they would not attack embassies or diplomats. They made no such guarantees for Afghans who may have worked for those embassies. But basically, the bloodbath that we had all feared would happen in the last stages of Afghan civil war between the Taliban and the Afghan government didnt materialize. Right. And it feels like one explanation for that is that the Afghan security forces, as we have discussed, lay down their arms. But Im curious why the Taliban has been so seemingly restrained as they enter these cities, especially Kabul.

david sanger

Well, there are a couple of possible answers to this. One possibility is that the Taliban of 2021 are not the same as the Taliban of 2001. Its way too early to come to that conclusion. The second is that the Americans were mounting a big operation to get out, and not just to get Americans out, but to get the rest of the Western governments out. And so, why get in their way when the adversary was leaving? So wait for all those Marines who are supposed to guide the Americans out of the country to depart. And then they would own the city and the government and the reins of power, and they could go do whatever they were going to do.

michael barbaro

So the thinking is that the Taliban may understand that violence against Afghan civilians might just invite the U.S. to stay or slow their withdrawal or get somehow involved in this conflict, so dont bother. But that may, of course, just be a temporary show of restraint rather than a permanent one.

david sanger

Could be. But it also could be that they see an opportunity to avoid being dealt with as a pariah and avoid the kind of crippling economic sanctions that would leave them in a lot of trouble running the country. Its very possible that China and Russia will end up recognizing this new government. And its conceivable that the United States in the future might do the same. When Secretary of State Tony Blinken was asked this question over the weekend, he said they would judge the Taliban by their behavior, by their respect for human rights, and so forth. He did not say that we would not recognize any government that wasnt democratically elected. He said we will judge them by how they rule.

michael barbaro

David, I wonder how much of all of these ultimately incorrect assumptions that the Biden administration made tie back to the original U.S. announcement that our military was leaving Afghanistan and to the assumption that Afghanistans American-backed government and its American-backed military could ever really function without American soldiers on the ground. Was that assumption itself inherently flawed? In other words, is there such a thing as leaving a country like Afghanistan after 20 years cleanly?

david sanger

Michael, I dont think there was ever a chance that, when the U.S. left, it could leave cleanly. And in part, thats because the mission had expanded so dramatically beyond kicking out al-Qaeda and hunting down Osama bin Laden. It became building a democracy. It became protecting girls so that they could go to school. It became building a real economy. It became building a Western-style, American-style military, whether those fit within an Afghan context or not. And if you trace the problem back that far, that expansion happened in the Bush administration. So when your mission gets that big, when it becomes not only about hunting down terrorists, but about changing the nature of the country, the fact of the matter is, theres no way to wind down an operation that big, that quickly, and expect that the Afghan military would just pick up where you left off.

michael barbaro

Right. I think thats the question on a lot of peoples minds, David. Given that chain of decision making you just described that dates back 20 years, how much responsibility does President Biden shoulder here?

david sanger

Well, clearly, he shoulders some for the decisions made since he came in about how you would execute the withdrawal. You can believe that Biden made exactly the right decision to get out, that we wouldnt do any better staying for one year or five, and still believe that he could have executed it far more skillfully.

[music]

Will the world remember that Biden got out of Afghanistan, that he ended this nightmare that had expanded in the mission well beyond what the original intention was? Or will it remember how we got out and whether we left a good number of people who had showed loyalty to the United States, who had helped the United States in this war, whether we have left them behind? And I think thats the enduring question. The answer may be that they remember both. But the fact of the matter is, when we get to that commemoration, that 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in just a few weeks, the Taliban are going to be back in control of Kabul just as they were 20 years ago.

michael barbaro

Well, David, as always, thank you for your time.

david sanger

Thank you.

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joe biden Good afternoon. I want to speak today to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan.

michael barbaro

On Monday afternoon, in a televised address to the nation, President Biden acknowledged that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan had occurred far faster than his administration had expected and that his execution of the U.S. military withdrawal has been flawed.

joe biden I made a commitment to the American people when I ran for president that I would bring Americas military involvement in Afghanistan to an end. While its been hard and messy, and, yes, far from perfect, Ive honored that commitment.

michael barbaro

Biden put much of the blame on the Afghan government, which he said had failed to mount a real defense against the Taliban. That lack of follow-through, Biden said, is precisely why the United States must leave Afghanistan.

joe biden If Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance of the Taliban now, there is no chance that one year, one more year, five more years, or 20 more years, the U.S. military boots on the ground would have made any difference. Heres what I believe to my core. It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistans own armed forces would not.

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michael barbaro

Well be right back.

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At least 132,000 foreign-born Afghan immigrants were living in the United States as of 2019, according to the American Community Survey, along with younger generations who were born in this country. Afghans have migrated to the United States in waves, after the Soviet invasion in 1979, during the first Taliban rule in the 1990s and after the American invasion in 2001.

In the 1980s, resettlement agencies moved many of them to the San Francisco Bay Area because it was cheap, a community program provided cultural resources and the weather reminded Afghans of their home, said Rona Popal, the executive director of the Afghan Coalition, a community assistance organization. Afghans have also congregated in New York, Sacramento, in Southern California and in Virginia.

Even Afghans who have lived in the United States for decades say they felt a pit in their stomach watching the speed of the Taliban takeover.

Weve all left a little piece of ourselves in Afghanistan, said Khaled Hosseini, the author of the 2003 best seller The Kite Runner, who settled in San Jose four decades ago. Although we have established lives in the United States, we have an emotional stake in what happens in Afghanistan.

Over the last few days resettled Afghans have spoken by phone to relatives in Kabul who described harrowing moments and the anxiety of not knowing what comes next. Relatives told them that the Taliban were roving door to door to question people about their connections to Americans. One man described how a former colleague was sleeping in a different home every night to evade interrogation. Relatives have deleted photos and messages from their phones, anticipating that they might be seized.

A woman in California described how she was alarmed when a call to her sister-in-law in Kabul was punctuated by gunfire.
More than five million Americans could be eligible for booster shots of Covid-19 vaccine by late September under a Biden administration plan to combat the Delta variant by giving extra doses eight months after initial vaccinations.

Officials are expected to announce the strategy at a White House briefing on Wednesday. Nursing home residents, health care workers and emergency workers would probably be first in line. Other older people would be next, followed by the rest of the general population.

But the plan depends on several crucial steps taking place in the next few weeks. Most important, the Food and Drug Administration would need to decide that third shots are safe and effective for Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the two vaccines that were rolled out first and have been most used.

Pfizer is farther along in submitting data to the F.D.A. that it says supports the use of boosters. Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are still studying whether a half-dose or a full dose would work better for a third shot, but they expect results soon. Modernas chief executive, Stephane Bancel, has said the firm plans to submit its data to the F.D.A. next month.
I expect that one similarity, she said, will be a failure to grapple with the way U.S. political culture undermines a more robust politics of military restraint, and this hampers powerful political opposition within Congress, which might put a brake on the entry into and persistence of war.

What might have been a sustained, nuanced conversation about limiting the presidents war powers, she added, has been short-circuited by the frenzy to decide who lost Afghanistan.

In our toxic political environment, Professor Dudziak said, Republicans are likely to use this moment to undermine President Biden, and partisanship may foreclose the deeper re-examination of American war politics that is sorely needed now, and was also after the war in Vietnam.

What about the broader cultural implications? Philip Jenkins, a scholar of religious history at Baylor University and the author of Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America, said he saw a similarity between then and now in the confluence of anti-establishment conspiracy-mongering and a sudden political disaster for the American government.

Anti-government conspiracy theories had flourished from the late 1960s and reached amazing heights in the mid-late 1970s with all the assassination theories, he said. What Vietnam did, he added, was to take those ideas and transform them definitively into anti-government and anti-liberal directions.

The collapse of faith in public institutions in the 1970s wasnt just about Vietnam  Watergate, environmental crises and the general skepticism that the boomer generation held for its elders were all contributing factors. But Vietnam towered above them, not only because it touched so many people, but also because it brought into sharp focus the failure of the American government to do the thing it was supposedly best at: winning wars.

Today, of course, we are much more jaded, a fact that Professor Jenkins said might soften the impact of defeat.
This month, after outlasting a superpower, the Taliban walked to control on a road paved with mass surrenders. The question now is how magnanimous they will be in victory, and how eager for international recognition and aid  in other words, how different from the Taliban of a generation ago.

Taliban leaders including Amir Khan Muttaqi, a former information minister, are in talks with one-time adversaries, like the former U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, about the shape of a new government, the Taliban said. Mr. Mujahid offered no hint of what would emerge, saying give us time.

But the involvement of Mr. Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a former chief executive of the government, who are well known to world leaders, could give some legitimacy to any deal. Mr. Mujahid said the Taliban want friendly relations with the world, including the United States.

If the Taliban had wanted a one-sided government, they would have already declared an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan yesterday in the presidential palace, said Maulvi Qalamuddin, a former Taliban minister who reconciled long ago with what is now the former U.S.-backed Afghan government. They would have announced their cabinet. But no, in fact, they were waiting for this.

The mayor of Kabul, Muhammed Daoud Sultanzoy, said in a video message that the Taliban had left him in office  at least for now  and the health minister, Wahid Majroh, also remained in place.
The narrators boyfriend is away. Thats the sum of the plot, conventionally speaking. The narrator, 31 years old, recounts that she met Jonas a week after his mother died, and that they moved in to a Mexico City apartment together one month later. Jonas has now gone to Spain with his sister and father to visit members of his mothers family. Its an open-ended trip, and he keeps postponing his return. Waiting for him, the narrator compares herself to Penelope in the Odyssey.

The novels real action is the narrators stream of thought as she ponders subjects from the very small to the very large (including the subject of the relationship between the very small and the very large; she frequently returns to the idea of scale, between people and ideas and world affairs). In approximate order of size, she is preoccupied with: finding a new notebook to replace the one shes almost filled; parsing the difference between writing in pen and in pencil (Some pens bring out the worst defects of handwriting, and others emphasize the best. A pencil, however, shows the writing for what it is, with no filters, as if lit by natural light.); worrying about when and whether Jonas will return; expressing concern and disgust about the epidemic of femicides in Mexico.

Image Brenda Lozano, the author of Loop. Credit... Ana Hop

Like Cusks Faye, Lozanos narrator is a writer who at one point travels to attend a literary conference. (Originally published in 2014, not long before Cusks Outline appeared, Loop is Lozanos first novel to be translated into English.) And like Cusk herself, who has said in recent years that she is not interested in character because I dont think character exists anymore, the narrator is fed up with conventional storytelling: To hell with Second World War novels, sir; to the Devil with historical fiction, madam; forget all those stories about middle-aged European men. Plots come and go, action is secondary. The voice is what matters. Listen to your voice, however it sounds. Her thoughts are full of allusions to writers, most of them mad scientists of one kind or another, including Joyce, Borges, Clarice Lispector and Fernando Pessoa.

Last year I had an accident I almost didnt come back from, she announces, repeating the fact later but never getting more specific about what happened. Nobody knew if I was going to wake up, she says. When she did, she says, one of the nurses pushing my trolley was singing a Shakira song to the other. This cant be death, I thought.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Biden administration was working to prevent the Taliban from getting the reserves, a Treasury Department official said.

The I.M.F. is funded with contributions by its 190 member nations, and the United States is the largest shareholder. So its opposition to the Taliban obtaining access to the reserve assets, known as Special Drawing Rights, carries significant weight.

The I.M.F., which was established after World War II to help stabilize the global economy, approved a $650 billion allocation of currency reserves earlier this month as part of an effort to help developing countries cope with the coronavirus pandemic. The reserve assets, which can be exchanged for dollars or other currencies, are divided among countries, and Afghanistan was set to receive its share next week.

The swift toppling of Afghanistans government by the Taliban put the I.M.F. in a difficult position. The agency is guided by its member countries, and if a government is not recognized as legitimate then it cannot gain access to existing or new S.D.R.s, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Canada, the European Union and Russia have said publicly that they are not ready to recognize the Taliban as the government in Afghanistan.
Washington State Sets Highest Bar Yet for School Vaccine Mandates Teachers and staff of all schools must get vaccinated by Oct. 18 or face possible dismissal, with few exceptions. School boards in Miami and Tampa defy the states ban on mask mandates in classrooms.

Washington State is requiring all teachers and staff to be vaccinated. Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington visiting Phantom Lake Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash., in March. We are well past the point where testing is enough to keep people safe, Mr. Inslee said on Wednesday. Credit... Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times, via Associated Press All teachers and school personnel in Washington State  including coaches, bus drivers and volunteers  will need to be fully vaccinated as a condition of employment, under a new policy announced by Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday. The requirement applies to staff regardless of the type of school in which they work: public, charter or private. The policy is the strictest vaccine mandate imposed to date by any state for teachers and other staff members in schools, allowing for only a few exceptions. School staff must be vaccinated by Oct. 18 or face possible dismissal. We are well past the point where testing is enough to keep people safe, Mr. Inslee said at a news conference. Weve tried it. It has not been adequate for the task at hand. He stressed that 95 percent of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in Washington were unvaccinated, and reminded the public that children under 12 were not yet eligible for vaccines. When you decide to get a vaccine, youre protecting a kid out there who cant get it, he said. Vaccine mandates have been hotly debated across the country, with a quarter of states, generally those led by Republicans, banning vaccine requirements for public employees like school staff, according to the University of Washingtons Center on Reinventing Public Education. But in recent days, some Democratic officials have moved to require the shots. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has offered teachers in public and private schools the option of either vaccination or regular virus testing. City school systems in Los Angeles and Chicago have gone further, requiring staff vaccination, though there is an exemption process for those with disabling medical conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs. Washingtons policy goes further than Californias. There is no option to choose regular testing instead of vaccination. There are limited exceptions, however, including for legitimate medical reasons and sincerely held religious beliefs. Individuals who refuse to get vaccinated will be subject to dismissal. The state had already announced a mask mandate inside schools. It is experiencing a Covid-19 case surge that is straining its health care system. Washington lagged behind most of the rest of the nation in reopening schools during the last academic year, as teachers unions across the state pushed for longer periods of remote learning, stricter virus safety measures in classrooms and access to vaccines for educators. All districts are planning to return to in-person learning five days a week this fall. Most districts reopen in early September. Vaccine and mask mandates will ensure that schools can remain open, said Chris Reykdal, the state superintendent of public instruction. Extended school closures have affected childrens learning  especially the least advantaged  and put strain on working mothers, he added. When school staff get vaccinated, you are creating the buffer and protection for young people, Mr. Reykdal said. On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Washington Education Association, the states largest teachers union, said she expected local chapters would be able to negotiate some details of the vaccine requirement. The union said in a statement that it encourages everyone who can to get vaccinated immediately and emphasized the continued importance of other safety measures in schools, such as masks, contact tracing, testing and social distancing. Jennifer Matter, president of the Seattle Education Association, which is the teachers union in the states largest school district, said that the union and state have a shared interest in creating a vaccine requirement to keep our community safe. Ms. Matter said that her union planned to negotiate with the district on how the mandate would be implemented. The negotiations could include a process for requesting an exemption or provisions for time off to get a vaccine or recover from side effects, she said. Leaders of the two national teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, have said that they support vaccine mandates for school staff. The governor also announced new mandates for workers in the states colleges and universities, as well as for many child care workers. And he announced that the states indoor mask mandate would be expanded to include vaccinated individuals.

Vaccines protection against virus infection is waning, C.D.C. studies suggest. Antonia Aponte, 74, received the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at the Castle Hill Community Center in New York in February. Credit... James Estrin/The New York Times The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released three studies on Wednesday that federal officials said provided evidence that booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines would be needed in the coming months. But some experts said the new research did not back up the decision to recommend booster shots for all Americans. Taken together, the studies show that although the vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalizations and deaths, the bulwark they provide against infection with the virus has weakened in the past few months. The finding accords with early data from seven states, gathered this week by The New York Times, suggesting a rise in breakthrough infections and a smaller increase in hospitalizations among the vaccinated as the Delta variant spread in July. The decline in effectiveness against infection may result from waning vaccine immunity, a lapse in precautions like wearing masks or the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant, experts said  or a combination of all three. We are concerned that this pattern of decline we are seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said at a White House news briefing on Wednesday. Citing the data, federal health officials outlined a plan for Americans who received the two vaccines to get booster shots eight months after receiving their second doses, starting Sept. 20. People who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may also require additional doses. But that vaccine was not rolled out until March 2021, and a plan to provide boosters will be made after reviewing new data expected over the next few weeks, officials said. Some scientists were skeptical of the administrations new initiative. These data support giving additional doses of vaccine to highly immunocompromised persons and nursing home residents, not to the general public, said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York and a former adviser on the pandemic to the administration. Boosters would only be warranted if the vaccines were failing to prevent hospitalizations with Covid-19, she said. Feeling sick like a dog and laid up in bed, but not in the hospital with severe Covid, is not a good enough reason for a campaign of booster shots, Dr. Gounder said. Well be better protected by vaccinating the unvaccinated here and around the world. Its also unclear whether a third dose would help people who did not produce a robust immune response to the first two doses, said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And the recommendation for boosters may also end up undermining confidence in the vaccines, he warned: A third shot will add to skepticism among people yet to receive one dose that the vaccines help them. Together, the new studies indicate overall that vaccines have an effectiveness of roughly 55 percent against all infections, 80 percent against symptomatic infection, and 90 percent or higher against hospitalization, noted Ellie Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University. Those numbers are actually very good, Dr. Murray said. The only group that these data would suggest boosters for, to me, is the immunocompromised. Dr. Murray said a booster shot would undoubtedly boost immunity in an individual, but the added benefit may be minimal  and obtained just as easily by wearing a mask, or avoiding indoor dining and crowded bars. The administrations emphasis on vaccines has undermined the importance of building other precautions into peoples lives in ways that are comfortable and sustainable, and bolstering capacity for testing, Dr. Murray and other experts said.

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Biden says some Americans will be eligible for booster shots in September. Mauri Lynch received a coronavirus vaccine in Denver in February. Credit... Kevin Mohatt for The New York Times The Biden administration moved on several fronts Wednesday to fight back against the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus, strongly recommending booster shots for most vaccinated Americans and using federal leverage to force nursing homes to vaccinate their staffs. In remarks from the East Room of the White House, President Biden also directed his education secretary to use all of his authority, and legal action if appropriate, to deter states from banning universal masking in classrooms. That move will involve deploying the departments civil rights division and is destined to escalate a fight between Mr. Biden and Republican governors who are blocking local school districts from requiring masks to protect against the virus. The dramatic shifts in strategy reflect the administrations concerns that the Delta variant is erasing its hard-fought progress against the pandemic and thrusting the nation back to where it was early in the year. The threat of the Delta virus remains real, but we are prepared, we have the tools, we can do this, Mr. Biden said in the East Room, adding, This is no time to let our guard down. In the past, Mr. Biden has been reluctant to use the federal governments power to withhold federal funding or intervene in school policies to order protective measures or force more vaccinations. But that changed on Wednesday, when he said his administration would make employee vaccination a condition for nursing homes to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding. Officials said the decision would affect more than 15,000 nursing homes that employ 1.3 million workers. For many Americans, the booster strategy will affect them the most. The government plans to offer third shots to adults who received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines eight months after they received their second dose, starting Sept. 20. About 150 million Americans have been fully immunized with one of those two vaccines. Officials stressed that the Food and Drug Administration still needs to make a final determination that third shots are safe and effective  a ruling expected in the coming weeks. On Wednesday afternoon, the president said his administration had been planning for the possibility of booster shots for months. The extra shots will make you safer for longer, he said. The best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise is for every, every adult to get a booster shot, he said, adding that everyone who is not vaccinated yet should go get their shots quickly. Senior federal officials said that the booster strategy stemmed from new data showing that vaccine efficacy against infection and mild disease wanes over time. They voiced concern that the vaccines protection against serious disease could also decrease in coming months. Heres what you need to know: If you are fully vaccinated, you still have a high degree of protection from the worst outcomes of Covid-19  severe disease, hospitalization and death, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said. We are not recommending that you go out and get a booster today. Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting. Sharon LaFraniere and

The Biden administration will use a federal civil rights office to deter states from banning universal masking in classrooms. The secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, speaking with Mia Arias, 10, during a visit to a New York elementary school on Tuesday. Credit... Brittainy Newman/Associated Press President Biden, escalating his fight with Republican governors who are blocking local school districts from requiring masks to protect against the coronavirus, said Wednesday that his Education Department would use its broad powers  including taking possible legal action  to deter states from barring universal masking in classrooms. Mr. Biden said he had directed Miguel Cardona, his education secretary, to take additional steps to protect our children, including against governors who he said are setting a dangerous tone in issuing executive orders banning mask mandates and threatening to penalize school officials who defy them. Unfortunately, as youve seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures  that is, children wearing masks in school  into political disputes for their own political gain, Mr. Biden said in remarks from the East Room of the White House, adding, We are not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children. The federal intervention comes as school districts face the monumental task of trying to get students back to in-person learning and reverse the devastating setbacks experienced by a range of students. Mr. Bidens move puts the federal government at the center of bitter local debates over how to mitigate against the virus in schools, just as the highly infectious Delta variant is fueling a spike in pediatric cases. In an interview on Wednesday, Dr. Cardona said that like the president, he was appalled that there are adults who are blind to their blindness, that there are people who are putting policies in place that are putting students and staff at risk. At the end of the day, he said, we shouldnt be having this conversation. What were dealing with now is negligence. Dr. Cardona said he would deploy the Education Departments civil rights enforcement arm to investigate states that block universal masking. The move marks a major turning point in the Biden administrations effort to get as many students as possible back to in-person schooling this fall. The nations most vulnerable students, namely students with disabilities, low-income students and students of color, have suffered the deepest setbacks since districts pivoted to remote learning in March 2020, and their disproportionate disengagement has long drawn concern from education leaders and civil rights watchdogs. Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, students are entitled to a free, appropriate public education, known as FAPE, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color and national origin. If state policies and actions rise to potential violations of students civil rights, the department could initiate its own investigations into districts and investigate complaints made by parents and advocates who argue that prohibiting mask mandates could deny students right to education by putting them in harms way in school. A report released by the departments civil rights office this summer provided a snapshot of the suffering students have experienced. It noted that the pandemic challenges were particularly acute for students with disabilities, whose educational success relies on classroom time and hands-on services. Ive heard those parents saying, Miguel, because of these policies, my child cannot access their school, I would be putting them in harms way, Dr. Cardona said. And to me, that goes against a free, appropriate public education. That goes against the fundamental beliefs of educators across the country to protect their students and provide a well-rounded education. The administration will also send letters to six states  Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah  admonishing governors efforts to ban universal masking in schools. Last week, Dr. Cardona sent similar letters to the governors of Texas and Florida, reminding them that districts had both the funding and the discretion to implement safety measures that the C.D.C. recommended for schools. The secretary also made it clear that he supported district leaders who defied the governors orders. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and

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School boards in Miami and Tampa mandate masks in defiance of the state. Teachers speaking with anti-mask protesters outside a Broward County School Board meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last week. Credit... Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel, via Associated Press Floridas state board of education threatened this week to penalize local school board members and superintendents in Broward and Alachua Counties because they were requiring students to wear masks at school. But those threats did not stop Floridas largest school district, Miami-Dade, as well as the school districts in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, and Palm Beach County, from approving similarly strict mask mandates on Wednesday, in further defiance of the state board. Yesterday, I spoke with a mother of a child who died, Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, told the state board of education on Wednesday. Over the week, Ive spoken with employees and their relatives, begging me to do the right thing. He said he would wear proudly as a badge of honor any consequences that may come from his recommendation to require masks, which the school board adopted with a 7-1 vote later on Wednesday. Lubby Navarro, a board member, cast the lone dissenting vote. I am not going to sit here and violate state law, she said. Battles over school mask policies have engulfed Florida as hospitals have filled with Covid-19 patients, many of them young people. In Broward County, local officials warned this week that only five beds remained available in pediatric intensive care units there. This month, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, ordered school districts to allow parents to opt out of mask requirements for their children. He also allowed parents whose children feel bullied by mask mandates to apply for a private-school voucher. The Hillsborough County Public Schools began the school year on Aug. 10 with parents allowed to opt out of its mask requirement. But the district quickly found so much virus in its schools that the board called a special meeting on Wednesday to consider stricter rules. They voted 5-2 to limit mask opt-outs to students with medical exemptions, in spite of a recommendation from Addison G. Davis, the superintendent, that the district keep its existing rules. Right now, I think its really important to mask our children, said Nadia T. Combs, one of the board members. She added that shes not here for the adults. Im not here for politics, she said. Im here to keep kids in school. In the last week, the district has had to quarantine or isolate 10,384 out of its more than 214,000 students  nearly 5 percent  because of virus exposure. The emotional meeting in Tampa on Wednesday featured masked parents  some of them health care workers wearing scrubs  pleading for a stronger mandate, and unmasked parents  some of them wearing Freedom Fighter T-shirts  insisting on keeping the existing rules. My children need to be unmasked, said Kelly Boynton, one of the opponents. Its tyranny. Before the meeting, Jennifer Buschner, who has two children in the district, said that her daughter, who is in second grade and has a rare genetic disorder, had hoped to return to the classroom, but the lack of a mask mandate made it too dangerous. I was appalled, Ms. Buschner said. They took my daughters safety away from her, and made it so that she has to be home. The county school boards in Alachua (based in Gainesville) and Broward (in Fort Lauderdale) each voted to require masks, with allowances for medical exemptions signed by a physician or other health care provider. The districts argued that such a mandate complied with both state health regulations and the governors order. But the state board of education disagreed. On Tuesday, the board directed the state commissioner of education to investigate and punish the two districts by withholding funds, suspending or removing school board members, or withholding their salaries. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 1:42 - 0:00 transcript Biden Announces Virus Measures for Schools and Nursing Homes The Biden administration said that it would take steps to protect educators from reprisals in states whose governors have banned mask requirements and that it would leverage federal funding to force nursing home staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures, that is, children wearing masks in school and the political disputes, for their own political gain. Some are even trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in school. Theyre setting a dangerous tone. For example, last week at a school board meeting in Tennessee, protesters threatened doctors and nurses who are testifying, making the case for masking children in schools. Intimidation and threats were seeing across the country are wrong. Today, Im announcing a new step. If you work in a nursing home and serve people on Medicare or Medicaid, you will also be required to get vaccinated. More than 130,000 residents in nursing homes have had, sadly, over the period of this virus, passed away. At the same time. vaccination rates among nursing home staff significantly trail the rest of the country. Im using the power of the federal government as a pair of health care costs to ensure or reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors. The threat of the Delta virus remains real. But we are prepared, we have the tools, we can do this, so all those of you who are unvaccinated, please get vaccinated for yourself and for your loved ones, for your neighborhood, for your community. And to the rest of America, this is no time to let our guard down. The Biden administration said that it would take steps to protect educators from reprisals in states whose governors have banned mask requirements and that it would leverage federal funding to force nursing home staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. President Biden has condemned states that are blocking mask rules in local schools, saying they are putting politics above public health. His administration has offered to step in and help the districts financially or cover board members salaries if the state imposes those sanctions. On Wednesday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that the administration would use the Department of Educations civil rights enforcement authority to deter states from banning universal mask mandates in classrooms. Hours after the Florida state board of education threatened to penalize the two districts, the Alachua school board unanimously extended its mask mandate for eight more weeks. Thats not defying me  thats defying the state of Floridas laws, Mr. DeSantis told reporters in Broward on Wednesday. That was the Legislature of Florida that said the parents are the ones that have ultimate responsibility for health, education and welfare. Vickie Cartwright, the interim superintendent of the Broward County Public Schools, said that district officials agreed with the governors view that children need to be in brick-and-mortar schools to do their best learning, and that was why the masks were necessary, amid so much virus spread. We want our students back in person, Dr. Cartwright said in an interview on Wednesday. We want to keep them there. Patricia Mazzei and

Earthquake and floods have set back Haitis faltering effort to curb the pandemic. An earthquake victim received treatment on Wednesday at the Ofatma Hospital in Les Cayes, Haiti. With disaster victims crowding the islands hospitals, fewer resources are available for Covid-19 patients, W.H.O. officials warned. Credit... Reginald Louissaint Jr/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images The recent deadly earthquake in southern Haiti and flash flooding from a tropical storm have set back efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic and administer vaccines in the country, World Health Organization officials said on Wednesday. The earthquake aftermath combined with the Covid-19 pandemic presents a very challenging situation for the people of Haiti, Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, a part of the W.H.O., said at a news briefing. The disasters, she said, have added another major burden to an already strained health care system in an impoverished country that has been going through a political crisis since the assassination of its president last month. The powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haitis southern peninsula over the weekend left at least 1,941 people dead and about 9,900 more injured. Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Grace then swept the country on Monday and Tuesday, touching off flash floods and landslides. According to the W.H.O., four health facilities in the country were destroyed in the disasters, and 20 more were damaged. As overwhelmed hospitals turn their attention to disaster victims, fewer resources are available to treat Covid-19, Dr. Etienne said. It has also become more difficult to move medical supplies and personnel around the country. And it is difficult to keep the coronavirus from spreading readily in crowded emergency shelters. With disruptive storms and hurricanes, the potential for an increase in cases is very high, she added. Coronavirus vaccines were slow to trickle into Haiti even before the disasters. The 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine that reached Haiti last month through the Covax vaccine-sharing initiative were the first significant supplies to reach the country. Only 21,000 people had received a dose by Tuesday, with health workers first in line, according to Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, the assistant director of P.A.H.O. We are working with the Ministry of Health to expedite the process, Dr. Barbosa said, adding that access to vaccination was especially important in the earthquake zone where people are living in makeshift shelters. Only about one in five people in Latin America is fully vaccinated so far, and vaccine supplies have been slow to arrive in many countries. In Caribbean and Central American nations, Dr. Barbosa said, vaccine hesitancy is emerging as a major new threat to immunization. At the same time, new case reports have been rising sharply, Dr. Etienne said, with spikes in Jamaica, Cuba, Costa Rica, Dominica and Belize. As hurricane season intensifies over the next few months, officials will remain vigilant, she said, about further strains on health care systems in vulnerable countries that could hamper efforts to reduce Covid-19 transmission.

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Workers laid off from low-wage posts are seeking a career path, not just a new job. During the pandemic, Mark Wray was able to pivot from a job at a movie theater to a position working in tech support. Credit... Alycee Byrd for The New York Times Mark Wray was working at the concession stand of a movie theater when the pandemic lockdowns hit last year. The movie theater shut down, and he lost his job. But instead of looking for another low-wage job, Mr. Wray found a program teaching basic technology and business skills, completed it and landed a job at a fast-growing online mortgage lender. He started in March, working in customer service and tech support. He makes about $55,000 a year, compared with $17,000 at the movie theater. The pandemic, weirdly, was an opportunity, said Mr. Wray, 25, who is a high school graduate and lives in Charlotte, N.C. People returning to the work force after the pandemic are expecting more from their employers, pushing companies to raise pay, give bonuses and improve health care and tuition plans. Paychecks are getting bigger. Wages rose strongly in July, up 4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department. Yet many workers are also seeking something else: a career path, not a dead-end job. For many, the issue is less about bargaining for more money in a tight labor market than about finding a job with a brighter future. People in lower-wage work are saying, Im going to pivot to something better, said Stuart Andreason, director of the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Their demands are already reshaping corporate policies. Major employers of lower-wage hourly workers including Amazon, Chipotle and Walmart have announced improvements to their tuition and training programs. People who have worked in the field of work force development for decades say they see evidence of genuine change. In the past, for example, companies often blamed the education system for failing to produce enough qualified people of color to hire, said Elyse Rosenblum, founder and managing director of Grads of Life, which advises businesses on inclusive hiring practices. But now, companies are increasingly looking internally and taking ownership of this challenge, Ms. Rosenblum said. Thats a completely different posture.

Israel, once the model for beating Covid, faces a new surge in infections. Inside a monitoring room observing Covid wards at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, on Wednesday. Credit... Ammar Awad/Reuters Last spring, Israels remarkably swift vaccination campaign was seen as a global model. Coronavirus infections plummeted, an electronic pass allowed the vaccinated to attend indoor concerts and sporting events, and distancing rules and mask mandates were eventually scrapped. Israel offered the world a hopeful glimpse of the way out of the pandemic. No longer. A fourth wave of infections is rapidly approaching the levels of Israels worst days of the pandemic last winter. The daily rate of confirmed new virus cases has more than doubled in the last two weeks, making Israel a rising hot spot on the international charts. Restrictions on gatherings and commercial and entertainment venues were reinstated this week, and the government is considering a new lockdown. I believe we are at war, Israels coronavirus commissioner, Prof. Salman Zarka, told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday. Scientists are still assessing how Israels pandemic response plunged from shining example to cautionary tale, and the stunning reversal has provided a crucial test for Israels new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who staked a claim for leadership partly on the strength of his manifesto, How to Beat a Pandemic. But some experts fear that Israels high rate of infections among early vaccine recipients may indicate a waning of the vaccines protections over time, a finding that contributed to a U.S. decision Wednesday to begin offering booster shots to Americans widely starting next month.

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Early data hint at a rise in breakthrough infections in the U.S. The I.C.U. at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., last month. Vaccinated people are far less likely to become severely ill or to die from Covid-19. Credit... Isadora Kosofsky for The New York Times Since Americans first began rolling up their sleeves for coronavirus vaccines, health officials have said that those who are immunized are very unlikely to become infected, or to suffer serious illness or death. But preliminary data from seven states hints that the arrival of the Delta variant in July may have altered the calculus. Breakthrough infections in vaccinated people accounted for at least one in five newly diagnosed cases in six of those states and higher percentages of total hospitalizations and deaths than had been previously observed in all of them, according to figures gathered by The New York Times. The absolute numbers remain very low, however, and there is little doubt that the vaccines remain powerfully protective. This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated, as federal health officials have often said. Still, the trend marks a change in how vaccinated Americans might regard their risks. Remember when the early vaccine studies came out, it was like nobody gets hospitalized, nobody dies, said Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. That clearly is not true. The figures lend support to the view, widely held by officials in the Biden administration, that some Americans may benefit from booster shots in the coming months. Federal officials plan to authorize additional shots as early as mid-September, although it is not clear who will receive them. If the chances of a breakthrough infection have gone up considerably, and I think the evidence is clear that they have, and the level of protection against severe illness is no longer as robust as it was, I think the case for boosters goes up pretty quickly, Dr. Wachter said. The seven states  California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Virginia  were examined because they are keeping the most detailed data. It is not certain that the trends in those states hold throughout the United States. In any event, scientists have always expected that as the population of vaccinated people grows, they will be represented more frequently in tallies of the severely ill and dead. We dont want to dilute the message that the vaccine is tremendously successful and protective, more so than we ever hoped initially, said Dr. Scott Dryden-Peterson, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at Brigham & Womens Hospital in Boston. The fact that were seeing breakthrough cases and breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths doesnt diminish that it still saves many peoples lives.

Covid is just one of Afghanistans many health concerns. Evacuees from Kabul being tested for the coronavirus upon their arrival at Tashkent Airport in Uzbekistan on Tuesday. Credit... Marc Tessensohn/Bundeswehr, via Getty Images World Health Organization officials warned on Wednesday that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was impeding efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic and other dire health crises there. Gauging the spread of the coronavirus in Afghanistan has always been difficult because of a lack of testing. The average daily number of reported new cases peaked in late June at more than 2,000 and has since fallen sharply, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. But it is likely that the figures do not reflect the actual spread of the virus. Afghanistans vaccination efforts have struggled since they began in the spring, harassed by corruption, limited public health resources and widespread public skepticism. According to Our World in Data, less than 2 percent of Afghanistans population has been vaccinated. In the midst of a pandemic, were extremely concerned by the large displacement of people and increasing cases of diarrhea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, probable cases of Covid-19 and reproductive health complications, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.s director general, said at a news conference. He said that agency staff members were still in Afghanistan and were committed to delivering health services to the most vulnerable. Many Afghans are vulnerable to diseases like polio, which has been eradicated in most of the world but is still endemic there. Fourteen million Afghans are suffering from hunger, United Nations officials said on Wednesday. Aid groups are struggling to provide humanitarian assistance inside Afghanistan and to the tens of thousands of refugees a week who are fleeing to neighboring countries. Refugee camps, with their crowded and often unsanitary conditions, can become incubators for the virus, though many camps have fared better than experts initially feared they would. U.N. officials said that their agencies in Afghanistan were in contact with the Taliban in an effort to coordinate aid and immunizations. Caroline Van Buren, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the Taliban had so far provided protection for all of the refugee agencys offices in the country. At the same time, though, the Taliban have resumed some of the practices common when they held power 20 years ago. Ms. Van Buren said that officials had received reports of women being prohibited from going to work, and, in some areas, barred from leaving their homes without being accompanied by a close male relative. Daniel E. Slotnik and

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Venues are reopening. What will happen to streamed theater? Jared Mezzocchi, an advocate for digital experimentation, in the Geffen Playhouse production of Someone Elses House. Credit... Geffen Playhouse If you were marshaling evidence that streaming theater can pay off, look no further than the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, which sold 35,000 tickets and grossed over $3 million during the pandemic from magic shows and other performances that could be watched at home. As quickly as you could say Pick a card, any card, thats changed, reports Matt Shakman, the companys artistic director. The ticket desire started to drop precipitously as the country was opening up, he said recently of the digital initiative. But theater is not beating a full retreat to the Before Days. Spirited arguments have erupted over the relationship between theater and screens  down to an ongoing debate about what to call the new hybrid forms, if not theater. Many theaters want to incorporate online strategies into a new way of working. Would we want to just be a streaming theater? asked Martin Miller, executive director of TheaterSquared in Fayetteville, Ark. No. But it did start to feel additive to us when we started having performances in person again this April, because we were still having people streaming the shows. So it was no longer a question about what was lost but what was gained. Hybrid plans are in place at the family-friendly New Victory Theater in New York, which is building up its successful online New Victory Arts Breaks, a series of free interactive artistic activities for kids. In a given year, we see 100,000 people live; in a year where were remote, were going to have served a million people, said Russell Granet, president and chief executive of the theaters parent organization, New 42. The New Victory is planning to make all of the new seasons shows available on demand for $25. Our business model is forever changed in a good way as a result of this past year, Granet added.

New Yorks Excelsior Pass could cost up to $27 million. Patrons wait to show proof of vaccination before entering a performance at City Winery in New York City in May. Credit... Victor J. Blue for The New York Times New Yorks digital vaccine app, the Excelsior Pass, will likely cost far more than originally expected, with projected costs nearing $27 million, according to newly obtained documents shared with The New York Times. The pass is stepping into the spotlight this week as restaurants, museums, gyms and other indoor venues in New York City are asking customers  often for the first time  to show proof of at least one vaccine dose as part of a new city mandate. More than 3.5 million people have already retrieved an Excelsior Pass, which consists of a QR code that can be stored on a smartphone or printed out, the state said. The app verifies applications against city and state vaccination records, and the code is generated the day after someone is considered fully vaccinated, which is 15 days after the final shot. Through a Freedom of Information Request, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, an advocacy group that has expressed concern about the privacy and security implications of vaccine passports, received the latest contract between the state and I.B.M., which is developing the app. In June, the advocacy group provided The Times with the original version of the contract between the state and I.B.M., which estimated the total cost of the project would be $17 million over three years. Even that was far more than the $2.5 million in development costs that Mr. Cuomo and his staff had publicly mentioned when announcing the arrival of the nations first government-sponsored digital app that verifies proof of vaccination. The updated version of the contract, signed by the states Office of Information Technology Services in late June, adds up to another $10 million. New York, the contract states, had already incurred an extra $656,421 in charges for technical support and updates. And a Phase 2 of the project, which was mentioned but not described in detail in the original contract, ended up costing more than double than estimated, rising to $4.7 million from $2.2 million. We always said that Excelsior Pass would be a high-tech distraction from real public health measures, but we had no idea the price would go up this high, said Albert Fox Cahn, the advocacy groups executive director. Even as New Yorkers find themselves on the hook for millions more, the app still isnt able to do a lot of the basics. The governors office defended the contract, noting that it would only spend the full amount if the program continued to be successful. It said that so far the state had only spent $4.7 million, a fraction of the total amount. The state amended the upper limit of the contract so we have the option  only to be undertaken if the pass continues to be a success  to further expand the passs critical role in supporting New York States economic recovery, including the potential to connect with neighboring states whose residents travel in and out of New York routinely as they live, work, and play, said Jason Gough, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The contract lists some of the issues that software engineers were called in to fix, such as incorrect error messages and crashes. Engineers added foreign language capability, access for the visually impaired and, to address a common problem, made it so the phone number entered by a user does not need to match what is listed in the vaccine registries. The fixes are ongoing. Not until June, the contract indicates, did the app make it possible for someone who has periods in their name (like T.J.) to retrieve a pass. Some users are still having trouble finding their passes, sometimes because the registries have outdated information listed, like an old ZIP code. In order to find a persons vaccination record, the app checks his or her name, date of birth, ZIP code and county of vaccination against the vaccine registry, and nearly all information must match. Some 4 percent of users who tried to get passes in the apps opening months were unable to, the state said. Phase 2 of the contract included the development of what the state has called Excelsior Pass Plus, which launched on Aug. 4. The main enhancement of the Plus pass is that it now includes the date, place and type of vaccination in the QR code, instead of just verifying that a person is vaccinated. That information will be shared when the app is scanned, but it allows for a wider range of places to use it as vaccination proof. American Airlines is accepting the pass for travel to some international destinations. Both the original and the Plus pass also allow users to show results of P.C.R. and antigen tests, the state said. About 400,000 Plus passes have been issued to date, the state said. For now, both types of Excelsior passes are only available for people vaccinated in New York, and New York residents vaccinated out of state who ask their health care providers to upload that information to the New York vaccine registries. But the contract lays out a new, previously undisclosed Phase 3, which is projected to cost $6.7 million. By this summer, the contract states, the app was expected to add the ability to track third doses. It was also to begin including data from New Jersey and Vermont, presumably to allow more people vaccinated in those states to get passes. Mr. Gough, the governors spokesman, said that the extension to other states had not happened yet, so that money had not been spent. He also noted that the money so far spent on the program was expected to be reimbursed by the federal government. Correction : Aug. 19, 2021 The headline on an earlier version of this article misstated the potential cost of Excelsior Pass to the state of New York. It could cost as much as $27 million, not at least $27 million.
How many close friends and relatives do you have with whom you feel at ease and can discuss private matters? How many of them do you see at least once a month? Do you participate in any groups? These are among the questions on a survey called the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index, which physicians use to determine whether someone is socially isolated. People are considered isolated if they have fewer than six confidants, no spouse and no group affiliations. Those conditions make them less likely to report that they have someone they can count on to listen if they need to talk, give advice about a problem or show them love and affection.

But you can have plenty of connections, even close connections, and still feel lonely. To assess that subjective state, clinicians may use the three-item U.C.L.A. Loneliness Scale, which asks: How often do you feel you lack companionship? How often do you feel left out? How often do you feel isolated?

Social isolation and loneliness tend to go together. Researchers have become increasingly aware, though, that you can experience one but not the other. That means these states of being may have different causes, different impacts on health and different potential solutions. In February 2020, a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine noted that a third of Americans over 45 feel lonely; a quarter of those over 65 are socially isolated. Each condition increases a persons risk of premature death from any cause  as much as or more than smoking or a lack of physical activity do  as well as the risk of heart disease and stroke. Social isolation increased the risk of dementia 50 percent, and loneliness correlated with higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide. Older adults, along with people in marginalized groups, are at heightened risk of both isolation and loneliness.

And that was the situation before the pandemic forced so many people to remain physically distant from others, which almost certainly exacerbated both isolation and loneliness in unpredictable ways. The reality is that to some extent we are in a data-free zone, Carla Perissinotto, one of the reports authors and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told the Senate Special Committee on Aging in June 2020. We do not know how long we have to be lonely or isolated, or how severe this must be for us to have lasting negative consequences.
And finally: The challenges faced by New Yorks Black homeowners

The Times Stefanos Chen writes:

Kirkland Lynch, a 35-year-old Black renter, has a six-figure job with Google, a law degree from Harvard, sterling credit and a mortgage pre-approval. But after a six-month house hunt in Brooklyn, with six unsuccessful bids, he is close to giving up, disheartened by slights that verge on discrimination.

It doesnt have anything to do with race, he said. Other than the fact it has everything to do with race.

The pandemic has compounded the challenges of an already difficult housing market, particularly for Black home buyers, who face a range of additional obstacles, and it threatens to widen the gap between Black and white homeownership to levels not seen since housing discrimination was made illegal five decades ago.

After declining for much of the past 20 years, the national Black homeownership rate has stayed near 42 percent from 2016 to 2019, the lowest since 1970.

In New York  once a destination for Black families leaving the South, and more recently Caribbean immigrants, including Black Latinos  gentrification, limited affordable inventory, and a subprime mortgage crisis that disproportionately affected people of color, have stunted new home buying and pushed out many longtime owners.

To explore the difficulties that Black New Yorkers face, The Times interviewed more than a dozen Black homeowners across the city, from new buyers to longtime owners, in condos and co-ops, brownstones and grass-hemmed houses. They described the challenges of qualifying to buy a home, fending off predatory lenders, keeping a home amid rising costs, and dealing with aggressive cash-investors making unsolicited offers.
Over in Chelsea, Miznon serves up fantastic vegetables and pita sandwiches just steps away from the High Line. (You also cant go wrong with most anything in Chelsea Market; when Im there during the morning, I also like to stop by Amys Bread for a sourdough twist.)

When I want a treat, I like to stop by Vanessas Dumplings on Eldridge Street in Chinatown. I like bringing my dumplings and sesame pancake sandwiches onto the Brooklyn Bridge  at dusk the bridge is less crowded, and if you bring a date it makes for a sweet picnic with a lovely view.

By Marsha P. Johnson State Park, in Williamsburg, you can find the second Birria-Landia truck on the corner of Metropolitan and Meeker Avenues. (The truck is there from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays, and from 2 p.m. to midnight on weekends.) Serving adobo-marinated beef in tacos, consomme and mulitas, the truck is a perfect place to pick up lunch or dinner before sitting by the water.
Last October, federal prosecutors charged Mr. Kurson with cyberstalking and harassing three people, including the doctor, whom he blamed for the collapse of his marriage. At the time, Mr. Mukasey said that the conduct alleged is hardly worthy of a federal criminal prosecution.

But Mr. Kursons accusers said that his behavior  which included targeting the doctor with negative Yelp reviews, threatening emails and insinuations in calls to her office that she was having an affair, according to the federal complaint  had been diabolical.

A footnote in the federal complaint mentioned that in addition to the behavior for which he was being charged, Mr. Kurson had engaged in a pattern of harassment that included installing software on one individuals computer to monitor that individuals keystrokes and website usage without his/her knowledge or authorization.

In addition to his ties to Mr. Kushner, Mr. Kurson is a former speechwriter for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a personal lawyer for Mr. Trump. He also faced criticism during the 2016 presidential election for advising Mr. Trump on a speech.

Court documents filed in November 2020 indicated that Mr. Kurson was in plea negotiations with federal prosecutors. But in his final hours in office, Mr. Trump rendered those talks moot by pardoning Mr. Kurson, along with a number of the presidents other associates, including his former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon.

The New York Times reported in February that Mr. Vance, a Democrat, had opened separate investigations into the conduct that led to the federal charges against Mr. Kurson and Mr. Bannon, raising the prospect of state charges, from which Mr. Trumps pardon did not protect them. (The investigation into Mr. Bannon is ongoing.)

Mr. Vances office charged Paul J. Manafort, Mr. Trumps former campaign chairman, with mortgage fraud and other felonies in 2019. A New York appeals court later ruled that the charges violated the states double jeopardy law.
A group of small businesses is suing New York City, hoping to stop the citys first-in-the-nation vaccine mandate for restaurants, gyms and other indoor public venues.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Richmond County Supreme Court, has the support of prominent Republican elected officials, including Representative Nicole Malliotakis and Joe Borelli, a City Council member; both represent Staten Island.

The city is requiring patrons and employees of restaurants and certain other businesses to show proof of vaccination. The plaintiffs say the city is unfairly targeting businesses that are struggling during the pandemic, and that there should be exemptions for people with certain medical conditions or religious beliefs.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has argued that the vaccine mandate and other measures are needed to curtail a troubling rise in coronavirus cases, driven in part by the more contagious Delta variant, and to encourage more New Yorkers to get vaccinated. New cases in the city have surged to an average of more than 1,700 a day, from about 250 a day in early July. About 68 percent of adult residents in the city are fully vaccinated.
Opponents of mask mandates for preschool and elementary-school children have expressed concern that wearing masks will impair childrens ability to learn language and socialize  or worse, that (in the words of one anxious parent in Utah) it will rewire their brains. Even parents who support mask mandates often worry about how a school year without smiles and frowns might negatively affect their children.

These concerns are understandable but unwarranted. Although scientists dont have much data yet on how wearing masks during a pandemic affects childrens development, there is plenty of reason to believe that it wont cause any harm. Children in cultures where caregivers and educators wear head coverings that obscure their mouths and noses develop skills just as children in other cultures do. Even congenitally blind children  who cannot see faces at all  still learn to speak, read and get along with other people.

Indeed, there is good reason to believe that wearing a mask at school could actually improve certain social and cognitive skills, helping to strengthen abilities like self-control and attention. This is not to say that masks are preferable to no masks, all things being equal. Masks are inconvenient, uncomfortable and bothersome. But as long as they are needed, we should take advantage of the fact that they offer distinctive opportunities for learning and growth.

Take language learning. Its true that masks cover our mouths and that seeing mouth shape and movement contributes to language development in infants. But learning how to communicate involves a lot more than mouths  a reality that masks accentuate. It turns out that looking at eyes is at least as important as looking at mouths to understand whom you are looking at and what they are trying to convey. Eye-tracking research shows that by age 2, typically developing children spend more than twice as much of their time looking at adult speakers eyes as at their mouths. In fact, children with a stronger capacity to discern peoples thoughts and emotions based on their eyes alone exhibit greater social-emotional intelligence.
After their stunning capture of Kabul, the Taliban have tried to convey a sense of calm. Only days after Afghanistans top officials scrambled onto military flights and desperate Afghans clung to the fuselage of departing planes, the Taliban coolly went on inspection tours of government facilities. In the control room of the state electrical utility, a delegation of the Taliban stood in front of the blinking display panels and promised to keep the lights on.

How exactly the Taliban plan to keep all systems running, in one of the poorest countries of the world that depends on more than $4 billion a year in official aid and where foreign donors have been covering 75 percent of government spending, is an urgent question. The states bankruptcy has tempted some Western donors into thinking that financial pressure  in the form of threats to withhold humanitarian and development funding  could be brought to bear on the new rulers of Afghanistan. Germany already warned it would cut off financial support to the country if the Taliban introduce Shariah law.

But those hopes are misplaced. Even before their blitz into the capital over the weekend, the Taliban had claimed the countrys real economic prize: the trade routes  comprising highways, bridges and footpaths  that serve as strategic choke points for trade across South Asia. With their hands on these highly profitable revenue sources and with neighboring countries, like China and Pakistan, willing to do business, the Taliban are surprisingly insulated from the decisions of international donors. What comes next in the country is uncertain  but its likely to unfold without a meaningful exertion of Western power.

One reason foreign donors inflate their own importance in Afghanistan is that they do not understand the informal economy, and the vast amounts of hidden money in the war zone. Trafficking in opium, hashish, methamphetamines and other narcotics is not the biggest kind of trade that happens off the books: The real money comes from the illegal movement of ordinary goods, like fuel and consumer imports. In size and sum, the informal economy dwarfs international aid.
michael barbaro

From The New York Times, Im Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[music]

Weeks after the assassination of its president, Haiti was struck by a major earthquake. My colleague, Maria Abi-Habib, was there reporting on the first crisis when the second crisis hit. Its Wednesday, August 18. Maria, where were you when this all started last weekend?

maria abi-habib

So on Saturday morning, Im in my hotel room in Port Au Prince, Haiti, FaceTiming with my husband and our two children because Ive been on assignment and out of the house for about a week at this point. And all of a sudden, I feel the entire room just jolt to the left and then jolt to the right. And my husband could see the alarm on my face. And he said, Whats going on? And I said, I think that theres an earthquake. He said, You need to get out right now. So with my phone in my hand and my kids still on video call, I ran out to the parking lot of my hotel. And I discovered all the hotel staff and security guards, the guests that are staying at the hotel in their pajamas, and everybody is looking for some sort of open sky so that they can make sure that building or trees dont fall down on them.

michael barbaro

Right.

maria abi-habib

And I immediately recognized that everybody was just thinking, please, God, let this be over. Let this just be it. And shortly after, my Haitian colleague, Andre Paultre, called me to see if I was OK. And after establishing that Im fine and he and his family are fine, we then start talking about where is the epicenter. And he eventually tracks it down and reveals that the epicenter is in the Southern peninsula, about 85 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the capital. And at that point, we start trying to figure out a way to get there. Can we take the roads? No, because theyre controlled by gangs that are kidnapping people for ransom. Can we take commercial flights? No, because theyve been stopped. And then we kind of figure out that the best way to get there is by hiring a helicopter.

michael barbaro

Huh.

maria abi-habib

And we were able to get there pretty much 24 hours right after the quake struck.

michael barbaro

And what do you find when you get to the Southern peninsula and get out of this helicopter onto the ground?

maria abi-habib

Complete and utter mayhem. You get onto the tarmac. And literally, I walk maybe 50 feet. And just immediately, there are two people with injuries, both on wheelchairs, that are being taken on to the helicopter that I just arrived on, so that they can be shuttled to Port Au Prince for emergency care. And then, as Im just about to exit the gates of the airport for Les Cayes, which is where the earthquake struck next to, a pickup truck pulls up. And theres a woman in a pink dress, lying in the bed of the pickup truck, her left face swollen. And she says that she cant feel her legs. And she had come from an area on the outskirts of Les Cayes. And her entire house collapsed on top of her. And the local hospital had no ability to X-ray her to see if her back was broken or what was wrong with her.

michael barbaro

Wow. And so where do you go from the airport?

maria abi-habib

So Andre and I started asking everybody, where should we go? And everybody says, dont go to Les Cayes. Go to the mountains and the hillsides that overlook Les Cayes, because those are incredibly poor towns and villages. And you have houses that are just completely pancaked and are clinging off the sides. And nobody knows the full scale of the disaster there. And we immediately start driving to the hills and the mountains that surround Les Cayes. So we drive out. And the road is completely cracked. I mean, giant crevice through the middle of it. Entire boulders are in the middle of the road. And then youre just seeing people. I mean, we drove 25 kilometers. Everybodys camping outside of their homes. They brought plastic chairs to sit on the side of the road or their mattresses from their beds if they were able to recover them, or theyre just sleeping out on the grass, because either their houses have been completely destroyed or theyre so badly cracked that they just look like a layer cake thats been flattened. And you cant go in. The structures that unstable because it could collapse with any tiny little vibration. So people are petrified. And everybody is staying outside because, I mean, literally, at this point, I had seen no building that is spared in some way.

michael barbaro

Wow.

maria abi-habib

So we keep driving. And eventually, we get to this town about 25 kilometers or 15 miles outside of Les Cayes. And we enter this church complex with various buildings, including a seminary, secondary school, a guest house for visiting priests, residences for the priests. Its all destroyed. I mean, just veins, marbley veins of just crevices that have been caused by the earthquake. And theres a bulldozer, men with sledgehammers, men with their hands, trying to rescue two women from the residence  or a guest house, I should say  of this church complex. And nobody knows if the women are alive or not. So Andre and I come across this young man named Melchirode Walter. And he doesnt live in the town. But his sister was there, staying at the guesthouse and working. And as soon as the earthquake happened, he realized that he and his family were OK. They started calling her. And there was no answer. So he hitched a ride. And it was just the saddest thing. He said something to me like, I came here, hoping to find my sister. And then I saw this. And he gestures to the scene. He said, And now I have no hope. So Im walking through this compound. And I came across Father Corneille Fortuna. And he told me that he was just about to leave that morning when he felt the shaking. And then, all of a sudden, the entire house collapsed. And he was miraculously spared. I mean, he said it was a miracle. But the problem was, was that the front door was blocked from the outside by cement cylinder blocks. And he was unable to open it. And so he found a corner of the house that hadnt collapsed. And he sought refuge there, screaming, screaming, screaming, asking for help. Finally, he heard his name being screamed by friends of his. And he screamed back and said, Im here, Im here, Im here. And with their bare hands, they just start, brick by brick, trying to find him. And he emerges from the rubble, unscathed. I mean, tiny little wound on his left foot.

michael barbaro

Wow.

maria abi-habib

So Father Fortuna takes us further in. And he shows us the secondary school, which is second floor just completely collapsed into the first. The school was built in the 1940s. And it serves about 870 students, he says. And a third of them are too poor to pay tuition. So they just waive the tuition fee. And he tells me that these kids, they get a hot lunch every afternoon. And for many of them, thats the only proper meal that they really have in the entire day. And I kind of start realizing that, really, the church is the institution. This is where people go and get help. This is the only institution of support that they know. This is where they can educate their kids. This is where they can get maybe some medical aid. And this is where they have a community. And Im asking him, whats going to happen? The church is really damaged. I dont see any buildings that can be used. And he tells me, Haiti is a country where every disaster is possible. And theres no government. And we must do what we can to provide for the population. He says that even if these buildings are not going to be repaired anytime soon, come what may, they are going to restart school in September because without them, without the church, theres nothing for these kids. And theyre going to be lost.

[music]

michael barbaro

Well be right back. So, Maria, of all the damage that youre seeing near the epicenter of this earthquake, it feels like the cruelest is these churches because they represent, really, the social safety network in Haiti.

maria abi-habib

Yeah, it is the safety network in Haiti. And every single church that we came across  and we saw many  devastated. Either totally destroyed or marbled with deep cracks in the wall, totally structurally unsound. You dont want to spend any time underneath the roofs because, really, it could just all come crashing down on your head with any vibration. And a lot of people feel like the Catholic Church, which has been there throughout, is gone. Its just not there. Theres no government. And theyve got nothing. Just a month ago or so, the president of this country was assassinated. In this area of the southern peninsula that I did my reporting in, a giant hurricane swept through in 2016. And they havent even recovered. And this hurricane brought a bunch of saltwater from the ocean into the agricultural fields that everybody in this area relies upon. And soil is just embedded in salt. And crop after crop has just failed.

michael barbaro

Wow.

maria abi-habib

And people are poorer at this moment than theyve ever been because they cant sell their crops. And then to have this earthquake happen? It just seems so unfair.

michael barbaro

And of course, there was another devastating earthquake in 2010.

maria abi-habib

Yes, and that was in Port-au-Prince And the devastation there is still on peoples minds. I mean, I didnt experience it. I wasnt here. But my team, two Haitian journalists, and a Scottish security guard who happened to be here at the time, they all told me they had a really hard time sleeping in the days after Saturdays earthquake. Because all they kept thinking about was the images of bodies stacked on the street in Port-au-Prince after the 2010 earthquake, people fighting in the street with knives over a bottle of water, the desperation, the inability to even walk into a hospital because the hospitals were so crowded. The morgues were just completely filled. And that trauma still lives with them today.

michael barbaro

Hmm. How do the people that you talk to make sense of the tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy nature of the last 15, 20 years in Haiti? How do they talk about it?

maria abi-habib

I mean, people just  its this really resigned way. Before my colleagues and I set off to Les Cayes, people were just looking at the beautiful vista from our hotel and shaking their head and just saying, My God, this country just doesnt deserve this. Go on a helicopter ride from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes as we did, and its just beautiful Caribbean Sea and mountains, and some of the most beautiful scenery Ive ever seen. And everybodys just like, how is this country in such a state? I mean, this is the type of place that should be prospering. Its got everything. Its beautiful. Its got an amazing culture. And yet, its just one of the most devastating places Ive ever been to. And people are just  they just feel like they have no answers anymore. And theyre really fed up of all of the tragedy that just seems to  its just relentless.

michael barbaro

Hmm. Maria, you started to hint at this when you said that churches play such a central role in the lives of the Haitian people and that the government is not seen as the answer. And I imagine the government is even less equipped to handle the situation, given last months assassination. But is the government in any kind of position to offer any help to the kind of people youre meeting?

maria abi-habib

Absolutely not. I mean, one analyst I speak to actually says its not a failed state. Its an aid state. This country has relied on so much aid. And what that has done has basically hollowed out these institutions and not built up capacity for the government to do things like launch a major relief effort and distribute that relief. And my Haitian colleagues, I was asking them, whats the situation, what NGOs are here, whos doing what. We need to tally it for our reporting. And they were just completely shocked. They just said theres just really not a lot of activity. Theres not a lot of aid coming in. At this point, the NGOs just are kind of tapped out. Theres just not enough money in the world right now for Haiti. Theres just not  were not seeing the immense amount of aid that other disasters in Haiti have attracted, including the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake. And we started asking people in Les Cayes and in town and the village that we went to outside of Les Cayes, who have you seen? Whos been here? Government help, NGOs, whos been here? And they all said, youre the only outsiders that weve seen here. I see no one else. Mm. So these people are very much on their own. Yes. And thats exactly what they said to me. I mean, one example, when we went back into Les Cayes, we went up to the General Hospital, because weve been in touch with the doctor there. And that doctor said that for the General Hospital of Les Cayes, it was just him and one other surgeon for the entire hospital. And the hospital was so badly damaged. And they were using the parking lot as a triage center and an outpatient center. So they had this shipping container. And they were doing surgeries there. But by nature of how small and tight that space was and in that container, they couldnt do complex surgeries. And they were turning dozens of patients away and saying we just cant handle you. Your injuries are too serious. And they were asking them to go to another hospital. But that hospital was two hours away. And in the parking lot, you had just so many hospital beds, where people who had just gone through surgery were recovering. And we met this one woman who happened to be traveling through Les Cayes. And her and her husband decided, you know what? Lets just stay the night. Its kind of late. So they decided to spend the night in Les Cayes at a hotel. And then the next morning, as theyre getting ready to venture out again and then continue their journey, the shaking started in their hotel. And as they were running out on the staircase, the entire staircase just overturned. And she had rubble that collapsed on her, but it was her left foot that was completely shattered by this rubble. And the rest of her body was relatively fine. And her husband, in a panic, started waving down passerbys. Help me. Help me. Who can take my wife to the hospital? And this one woman stopped and took husband and wife to the hospital, where they then amputated her left foot.

michael barbaro

Wow.

maria abi-habib

And she was under the shade of a tree in this hospital bed in the parking lot, with chickens running up and down the parking lot. And I noticed that she had this bar of soap that she had balanced on the branch of the tree that was giving her shade. And I asked her. So whats the situation here? And she said, we lost everything in that hotel  our wallets, our cell phones, everything. This woman who stopped and took me to the hospital, she saved my life. I mean, Ive had to buy my own soap. Ive had to buy my own medicine. Ive had to buy my own food after the surgery. The hospitals not giving me any of that. And without her, I would not be able to do any of these things because I lost all my possessions in this earthquake. And then I interviewed the woman. And I said, what made you stop? And she said, Ive just learnt that in this country, we have to rely on ourselves. Theres nothing else. Theres no other support network for us. Its just us. And how could I not help this woman? How could I live with myself if I had just decided to pass her on the road and continue on my way?

[music]

michael barbaro

Maria, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

maria abi-habib

Thank you for having me.

michael barbaro

On Tuesday, tropical storm Grace pummeled Haiti, soaking victims of the earthquake, who are sleeping outside and impeding rescue efforts. So far, the death toll from the quake has reached nearly 2,000 people. And the number of injured has surpassed 9,000. Well be right back. Heres what else you need to know today.

archived recording [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael barbaro

In their first news conference since taking control of Afghanistan, Taliban officials said they planned no reprisals against those who would oppose them and said they would not allow prejudice or violence against women.

archived recording [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

michael barbaro

But those assurances are being met with skepticism. During their march toward Kabul, the Taliban was accused of carrying out multiple revenge killings. And the group brutally repressed women the last time they controlled Afghanistan. And The Times reports that classified intelligence assessments over the summer warned of the possibility that the Taliban could rapidly take over Afghanistan and that the Afghan military could quickly collapse. Despite those warnings, President Biden publicly played down the prospect that the government might collapse and was caught offguard by the Talibans final push into Kabul. Todays episode was produced by Soraya Shockley, Robert Jimison and Daniel Guillemette. It was edited by Larissa Anderson, Rachel Quester and Lisa Chow, and was engineered by Chris Wood. Original music by Dan Powell and Elisheba Ittoop.

[music]
Was there a Hunger Games-style backstage contest for who got to sing Popular and Defying Gravity?

That was my first question when I saw the lineup for the PBS special Wicked in Concert, hosted by the original stars Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, on Aug. 29. My personal pick for the first song is Alex Newell, who turns up alongside Mario Cantone, Gavin Creel, Ariana DeBose, Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Nettles, Amber Riley, Ali Stroker and more. This tribute to Stephen Schwartzs songs should keep fans happy until the show returns to Broadway (Sept. 14) and hits the big screen (eventually, one day, possibly-maybe, who knows).

Quick: What performance so stunned Sheryl Lee Ralph that she described her reaction like so? You ever see the cartoons where the lion roars, and the people are pinned to the wall? It was like that. The answer  Jennifer Hollidays in Dreamgirls  can also be found at PBS, where Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age is now streaming. The documentary covers musicals from 1959 to the early 80s and includes interviews with Carol Burnett, Liza Minnelli and Dick Van Dyke. pbs.org.

Lloyd as Lear

Admit it: You are curious to know whether Christopher Lloyd, still best known for his comedic roles in Taxi and the Back to the Future trilogy, could pull off King Lear. Maybe not curious enough to travel all the way to Lenox, Mass., where the actor recently took on the daunting title role outdoors, but streaming the show from home is an easier way to find out what went down in the Berkshires. Nicole Ricciardis production for Shakespeare & Company earned wildly divergent reviews, which is often a sign that at least something is going on. Through Aug. 28; theatermania.stream.
Ask your provider what theyll bill you for

When patients receive a surprise medical bill related to a coronavirus test, often the charges they face are not for the test itself, but for other services that the patient may not have known about.

Some of these make sense: Many bills for coronavirus tests have fees for the doctor visit that went along with it. Others make less sense, like the bills that include screenings for sexually transmitted diseases. Those extra fees appear to be a bit more common in emergency rooms, or when health providers send their samples to outside laboratories. But they can happen at public testing sites, too: One Connecticut doctor regularly tested patients for dozens of illnesses at a town drive-through. The patients thought they were simply getting coronavirus tests.

To avoid those extra charges, ask your provider what diseases they will screen for. It can be as simple as saying: I understand Im having a coronavirus test. Are there any other services youll bill me for? Having a better understanding of that up front can save you a headache later, and you can make an informed decision about what care is actually needed. If your providers cant tell you what theyll bill for, that may be a signal you want to seek care elsewhere.

Uninsured? Ask your doctor to bill the government, not you.

Uninsured patients have faced coronavirus bills upward of $1,000, according to billing documents reviewed by The New York Times.

That type of billing is legal: Health care providers are not required to provide free coronavirus tests to Americans who lack health insurance. But they do not necessarily have to bill patients directly. The federal government has set up a provider relief fund: Health providers can seek reimbursement for coronavirus testing and treatment provided to those without coverage. Once again, it pays to ask ahead of time how providers handle uninsured patients and whether they submit to the fund. Unfortunately, they are not required to do so  and could continue to pursue the debt.

You should also be aware that 17 states have authorized their state Medicaid plans to cover coronavirus test costs for uninsured Americans. This means your state government can pay the bill instead of you. You can find out if you live in one of these states here.

To challenge a surprise bill, know your rights under federal law

New federal laws regulate how health providers and insurers can bill patients for coronavirus tests. Understanding how they work can help you push back on charges that may not be allowed.
As election season heats up, Ive got answers to all your questions about voting in the recall.

Wheres my ballot?

Monday was the last day for counties to mail out ballots, so yours should be en route if it has not already arrived at your home.

As with last years presidential election, every active registered voter will receive a ballot in the mail. If you want to know exactly where yours is, sign up for the states free ballot-tracking service.

Not sure if youre registered? Check here and register here. Theres still time to receive a ballot.

Whats on the ballot?

Just two questions: Should Newsom be recalled? And which candidate should succeed him?

If you answer one question and not the other, your ballot will still be counted.

Who is running to replace Newsom?

There are 46 candidates for governor on the ballot. A full list of their names is here.

How many votes does Newsom need to stay in office? How many to be ousted?

If a majority of voters answer no to the first question  should Newsom be recalled?  then the governor keeps his job. If a majority vote yes, hes out.
The Dixie fire is one of dozens wildfires raging across the West and one of several large ones burning in and around small communities in Northern California. That includes the Monument fire, northwest of the McFarland and Dixie fires, which has burned more than 119,000 acres and caused fresh evacuations on Tuesday night. It was only 10 percent contained.

Some places that were once safe havens for evacuees are now girding for the arrival of flames and smoke. The city of Susanville, Calif., for instance, has lately been a refuge for people fleeing fires in nearby communities, including the devastated town of Greenville. Now there are growing concerns that the city itself could be in the path of the Dixie fire, the states second-largest on record.

As of Tuesday evening, the Caldor fire, which started over the weekend in the Eldorado National Forest, was moving northeast  away from the capital, The Sacramento Bee reported. But the authorities said that fresh winds were forecast to blow over the fire on Wednesday, some of them from the northeast.

Meteorologists warned that an expected shift in wind direction across Northern California on Tuesday night could exacerbate existing fires and push wildfire smoke into the San Francisco Bay Area by Wednesday morning. The hot, northerly gusts in the forecast  known as Diablo Winds  typically blow down toward the Pacific Ocean from higher elevations in the northeast. They can make wildfires worse or cause them to spread more rapidly.

The Caldor fire has already injured at least two people and destroyed an elementary school and a post office, among other structures. The government in El Dorado County noted on Facebook late Tuesday that one of three designated centers for evacuees was full, and that a hospital down the road was nearing capacity as it handled both coronavirus patients and people suffering from smoke inhalation.

In a separate post, the hospital, the Marshall Medical Center, urged fire evacuees who had tested positive for Covid-19 to avoid coming in for treatment if they were not short of breath and did not need emergency care.
Much of that money has paid for educating Afghan women, training them for jobs and making sure they have better access to maternal, pediatric and other health care. One U.S.-funded program, known as Promote, prepared nearly 24,000 women who were once housebound to join the countrys work force and sharpened the negotiation skills of 5,000 so that they could press for gender equity  including in the peace process with the Taliban that is now defunct.

A U.S. aid program that trained midwives proved so successful that it became a flagship project for the World Bank and secured funding from the European Union.

But while some schools across Afghanistan remain open, others are closing. In some parts of the country, the Taliban have assured women who are doctors and health workers that their clinics will remain open. In other areas, women are unsure if they should even venture outside their homes without their husbands.

I want to go out, I want to drive  I like driving, Fahima Saman said in an interview from Kabul on Tuesday, speaking only on the condition that she not be identified by her full name for fear of a Taliban reprisal. But because of this situation, I cannot  I am afraid.

A high school teacher and mother of two, Fahima, 29, said she and her husband never applied to immigrate to the United States, given that they both had jobs and believed Afghanistans future would be more stable than its past. More recently, as the threat of the Taliban rose, Fahima said she did not approach the U.S. Embassy or international diplomats for help for fear that other Afghans would think she was doing something improper or immoral.

Fahima said she did not believe the Taliban would respect her rights. Its a very bad situation; its very dangerous, she said.

Ms. Amiri, a native of Kabul who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, demanded that the Biden administration back up its words of support for the rights of Afghan women by evacuating at least those who were at high risk.
President Biden, escalating his fight with Republican governors who are blocking local school districts from requiring masks to protect against the coronavirus, said Wednesday that his Education Department would use its broad powers  including taking possible legal action  to deter states from barring universal masking in classrooms.

Mr. Biden said he had directed Miguel Cardona, his education secretary, to take additional steps to protect our children, including against governors who he said are setting a dangerous tone in issuing executive orders banning mask mandates and threatening to penalize school officials who defy them.

Unfortunately, as youve seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures  that is, children wearing masks in school  into political disputes for their own political gain, Mr. Biden said in remarks from the East Room of the White House, adding, We are not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children.

The federal intervention comes as school districts face the monumental task of trying to get students back to in-person learning and reverse the devastating setbacks experienced by a range of students. Mr. Bidens move puts the federal government at the center of bitter local debates over how to mitigate against the virus in schools, just as the highly infectious Delta variant is fueling a spike in pediatric cases.
A new state law in Missouri that prevents local law enforcement from working with federal agents on gun cases is already hampering joint drug and weapons investigations, the Justice Department said in a court document filed Wednesday that was obtained by The New York Times.

The Second Amendment Preservation Act, which was passed by Missouris Republican-controlled legislature in May, is among the most extreme state gun rights bills enacted in recent years, imposing a $50,000 penalty on any local sheriffs office or police department that tries to enforce federal firearms laws instead of abiding by less restrictive state statutes.

The law does not go into effect until Aug. 28, but it has already had a serious chilling effect on cooperation between local and federal authorities, according to testimony from federal agents included in a document filed to support an effort by the City of St. Louis to strike down the law in state court.

The Missouri law, known as HB85, has caused, and will continue to cause, significant harms to law enforcement within the State of Missouri, wrote Brian M. Boynton, the acting head of the Justice Departments civil division, along with the two top federal prosecutors in the state.
While Republicans are running a hotly competitive primary race for Ohios open Senate seat next year, the Democratic side had been owned by a single candidate: Representative Tim Ryan from the Youngstown area.

But that equation changed on Wednesday with the entry into the race of a second viable Democrat, Morgan Harper, who ran a high-profile primary challenge last year for a congressional seat with the backing of national progressive groups.

Ms. Harper, a former adviser at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in an interview she would run a campaign aimed at turning out Black voters, women and young people with a populist message of getting the economy on the side of working people.

The Democratic brand has been badly tarnished in Ohio since President Barack Obama twice carried the state. In contests as recently as this summer, Ms. Harpers left-wing vision of her party has failed to revive it. College-educated suburban voters in Ohio may have swung to Democrats in the Trump era, but Republicans more than made up the difference by winning legions of white working-class voters.
In some rehabilitation facilities and laboratories, lower-body exoskeletons and exosuits already are being used to improve walking ability in stroke patients, the elderly and young people with cerebral palsy or other disabilities. But perhaps the most tantalizing and vexing current science involves exoskeletons for the rest of us, including people who are young and healthy. In this area of research, scientists are developing exoskeletons to reduce the energy costs of running and walking, making those activities less fatiguing, more physiologically efficient and possibly more enjoyable.

So far, early results seem promising. In a series of studies conducted last year at Stanford Universitys Biomechatronics Lab (and funded in part by Nike, Inc.), researchers found that college students could run about 15 percent more efficiently than normal on a treadmill when they wore a customizable, prototype version of a lower-leg exoskeleton. These exoskeletons feature a motor-powered lightweight frame strapped around the runners shins and ankles and a carbon-fiber bar inserted into the soles of their shoes. Together, these elements reduce the amount of force runners leg muscles need to produce to propel them forward. On real-world paths and trails, the devices might allow us to run at least 10 percent faster than on our own, the studys authors estimate.

A slightly tweaked device likewise boosted the speed of young people while walking, according to a separate experiment from the Stanford lab, published in April. In that study, students walked about 40 percent faster, on average, when they wore a powered exoskeleton prototype, while incinerating about 2 percent less energy.

In essence, the exoskeleton technology could be considered analogous to e-bikes, but for striding, not pedaling, said Steven Collins, a professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford and senior author of the new studies. By reducing the effort needed to move, the powered machines theoretically could encourage us to move more, perhaps commute by foot, hang with or pass naturally speedier spouses or friends, and reach locales that might otherwise seem dauntingly hilly or far away.

They might even permit our muscles to power our cellphones, according to one of the more surprising of the new exoskeleton studies. In that experiment, published in May in Science, healthy, young volunteers at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, wore an exoskeleton that included a backpack containing a small generator, which was attached to cables running down to their ankles.
TOIRAC, Haiti  The destruction was everywhere. The help nowhere.

Days after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated part of Haitis southern peninsula, the hillside village of Toirac had yet to be visited by any emergency authorities or aid groups.

At least 20 Toirac villagers who had been attending a funeral when the quake struck on Saturday were killed as the church collapsed, survivors said.

With some help from Boy Scouts, the Toirac villagers dug out their dead loved ones, buried them in mass graves and built makeshift shelters as Tropical Storm Grace pelted the area with heavy rain that caused floods and mudslides. The villagers used salvaged pieces of their collapsed houses.

I dont expect any help, were on our own, said Michel Milord, a 66-year-old farmer in Toirac, who lost his wife and his house in the earthquake. No one trusts this government here.
The meeting was further evidence of the groups determination to gain international acceptance.

It followed a news conference on Tuesday in which the Taliban offered blanket amnesty, vowing no reprisals against former enemies.

We dont want Afghanistan to be a battlefield anymore, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Talibans longtime chief spokesman, said. From today onward, war is over.

While many were skeptical of those assurances, in Kabul the rhythms of daily life started to return  but they were in many ways circumscribed.

There were noticeably fewer women on the streets. Some of those who ventured out did not cover up in the traditional burqa, the full-length shroud that covers the face that was required the last time the Taliban ruled. At homes and businesses, a knock on the door could stir fear.

It remains to be seen whether the pragmatic needs of a nation of 38 million will continue to temper the ideological fanaticism that defined the groups rule from 1996 to 2001. But the country the Taliban now control is vastly changed from two decades ago.

The progress of women  women in critical roles in civil society and millions of girls in school  is the most visible example. But years of Western investment in the country also helped rebuild a nation that was in a state of ruin when the Taliban first emerged.

The protests offered early signs that many Afghans will not simply accept Taliban rule.

The Afghan governments failure to meet peoples basic needs helped fuel support for the Taliban. That allowed them to sweep across the country swiftly  often not by military force, but by negotiation with frustrated local leaders.
The fallout was swift as what semblance of civil government that was left in Kabul collapsed.

Mr. Ghani, 72, defended his decision to leave in a social media post late on Sunday, writing, If I had stayed, countless of my countrymen would be martyred and Kabul would face destruction.

For days, rumors swirled about where he might have sought refuge. Some reports suggested that he had gone to neighboring Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, or perhaps Oman. There was talk that Saudi Arabia had agreed to give him asylum, and rumors that he had been accompanied by as many as 200 aides, ministers and members of Parliament.

There were also reports that he had fled with piles of cash, and questions about whether the United States had played any role in his departure.

The U.A.E.s foreign ministry confirmed in a brief statement that he was in the country.

The U.A.E. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the U.A.E. has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds, the ministry said.
HONG KONG  Four student union leaders at the University of Hong Kong were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of advocating terrorism after they had held a moment of silence for a man who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself.

The arrests, by the new national security police in Hong Kong, represented the latest crackdown on opposing voices as the Chinese territory tries to snuff out any sign of the dissent that flared during the 2019 protest movement.

University students were among the most determined and vocal protesters during the pro-democracy demonstrations in the city in recent years. And Hong Kong officials have used a national security law imposed on the city by Beijing last year to target campuses, which they have branded as dangerous incubators of antigovernment sentiment.

Wednesdays arrests stemmed from a live-streamed meeting on July 7, when the student union held the moment of silence and passed a motion expressing deep sadness over the mans death and appreciation for his sacrifice.
Chaos erupted outside Kabuls international airport on Wednesday as thousands of people tried to make their way there to flee Afghanistan. The sound of heavy gunfire echoed through the streets leading to the facility.

There were conflicting reports about what exactly was happening on the streets outside the airport, which the Taliban now control.

A NATO security official at the airport told Reuters that 17 people had been injured in a stampede at one gate to the airport.

People were still camping out near the airports gates. Whole families sat under rows of pine trees lining the main airport road, while others, carrying sparse belongings, were still trying to gain entrance, to little avail. The Taliban still had their men stationed at the entrances. There were volleys of rifle fire, pushing, pulling and beating with wooden sticks, Kalashnikovs and pieces of cut hoses.
NEW DELHI  An Indian court on Wednesday cleared an influential politician of all charges in connection with the death of his wife, in a case long criticized by the countrys main opposition party as politically motivated.

Shashi Tharoor, a member of Parliament from the opposition Indian National Congress, was charged with cruelty and abetment to suicide in 2018, four years after his wife, Sunanda Pushkar, was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

The charges were dismissed by a court in Delhi, effectively setting Mr. Tharoor free in a case that riveted Indias political and media circles for years and put the details of his private life in the spotlight.

A lawyer for Mr. Tharoor argued that Ms. Pushkars cause of death had still not been clearly established, undermining the abetment to suicide charge.
Biden Says U.S. Forces Will Stay in Kabul to Get All Americans Out In an interview with ABC News, the president said he was open to extending the Aug. 31 deadline for a total withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Biden says U.S. troops may stay longer if needed for evacuations. President Biden discussing Afghanistan at the White House on Monday. Credit... Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times WASHINGTON  President Biden said on Wednesday that the United States was committed to evacuating every American out of Afghanistan, even if that may mean extending the military mission beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for a total withdrawal. If theres American citizens left, were going to stay to get them all out, Mr. Biden said during an interview on ABC News. So Americans should understand that troops might have to be there beyond Aug. 31? asked the interviewer, George Stephanopoulos. No, Mr. Biden replied. Americans should understand that were going to try to get it done before Aug. 31. But he then said, If we dont, well determine at the time whos left. Mr. Biden, as he did earlier in the week, offered a strong defense of his administrations handling of the military withdrawal, which has plunged Afghanistan into chaos. The idea that somehow theres a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing  I dont know how that happens, he said, according to a transcript provided by the network. Mr. Stephanopoulos asked Mr. Biden whether in making the decision to withdraw forces from Americas 20-year war in Afghanistan he had priced in the risk that United States citizens and Afghan allies would struggle to evacuate the country, putting them in danger from Taliban forces who might try to exact revenge. The president initially answered yes, and then added: Now exactly what happened, Ive not priced in. In the days since Kabul fell to the Taliban on Sunday, thousands of Americans and Afghans have surged toward the airport, seeking flights out of the country. Taliban forces outside the airport have been brutally stopping many people at checkpoints. Many others have made it to the airport perimeter only to be turned away. Mr. Biden insisted in the interview that the Taliban had agreed to let U.S. citizens get through to the airport. Look, one of the things we didnt know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out, he said. What they would do. What are they doing now? Theyre cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera. That was not the case, he acknowledged, for the thousands of Afghans who helped U.S. and NATO forces over the years and now have a target on their back. Theyre having  were having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there, the president said. The president insisted that the administration had acted swiftly to evacuate the American Embassy in Kabul without losing any lives. And though the world has looked on in horror, he appeared dismissive of the images of United States military planes taking off with Afghans clinging to their sides. Some plunged to their deaths. That was four days ago, five days ago! Mr. Biden said. Mr. Stephanopoulos asked whether what happened was a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment, deflected to the broader issue of his decision to end the war. Look, it was a simple choice, George, Mr. Biden said. When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government, get in a plane and taking off and going to another country, when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off  that was, you know, Im not, thats what happened.

An American couple filmed their desperate bid to escape Kabul. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 0:21 - 0:00 transcript [crowd yelling] Oh, yes, yes, get us! Get us! Get us! Shes with me. Get us! Okay, you just get this way. We cannot get this way. How? Credit Credit... The New York Times The Afghan American couple visiting Afghanistan for a wedding had finally made it through the Taliban checkpoints outside Kabuls international airport, but the airport itself was still out of reach, a tall barricade of scraggly concertina wire separating them from American troops, their weapons at the ready. A riveting video taken by the husband on Wednesday shows what happened next. The woman, wearing a green head scarf, screams in terror as the American troops point their weapons at her through the barbed wire, plumes of smoke rising above their military formation. She yells over and over again the name of a U.S. military contact she had been given to ease her passage through the barricade and into the airport. I was calling my contact to pick me up and find me in the crowd, the wife said later in an interview. The couple asked that their names not be used until they were safely out of the country. The woman described having to fight her way through a crowd of Afghans who did not have U.S. citizenship, green cards or visas but were desperate to be evacuated. Pushing through the crowd was like killing yourself, she said. The couple were finally allowed into the airport, but the ordeal was not over. Late Wednesday, they were still waiting for American military flights that were evacuating other United States citizens like them; green card holders; and people with special immigrant visas, including Afghans who worked as translators with the military and are now at risk from the Taliban. The line they were in was hundreds of people long, she said. The couple, who live in the Washington area, said they had failed repeatedly to make it to the airport over the past few days. So they decided to seek help from the office of Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who has been vocal on the chaotic nature of the U.S. withdrawal. Mr. Cottons office provided the name of the contact at the airport military barricade, they said. The couple shared the video with The New York Times about 2:30 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday  near midnight in Kabul, just after they had entered the airport. Both are U.S. citizens of Afghan origin and dressed in traditional Afghan attire to ease their journey through Taliban checkpoints. But their clothing created further confusion in the fog of an already chaotic American evacuation effort. Then they were in. I couldnt stop my tears, the wife said.

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Ashraf Ghani says he fled Afghanistan to avoid being lynched. If I had stayed in Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan would have witnessed the president hanged once more, Ashraf Ghani said. Credit... Reuters In his first video address since he fled Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani said he had left the country to avoid a lynching by the Taliban and vowed to return. In a videotaped statement posted on his Facebook page from the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday evening, Mr. Ghani said that, despite an agreement that the Taliban would not enter the city of Kabul, his guards warned him on Sunday afternoon that the insurgents had reached the walls of the presidential palace in central Kabul. Video President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan said in a videotaped statement from the United Arab Emirates that the fall of his government was the result of a peace process that had not reflected the will of the Afghan people. If I had stayed in Afghanistan, he said, the people of Afghanistan would have witnessed the president hanged once more. He was referring to the murder of President Mohammad Najibullah, who was executed and strung up in a public square after the Taliban seized the capital in 1996. Mr. Ghani denied reports from people, among them the Russian envoy in Kabul, Zamir Kabulov, that he had left with crates of cash. He said he had passed through customs on arrival in the United Arab Emirates. I came just with my clothes, and I was not even able to bring my library, he said. Looking tired and thin, Mr. Ghani was serious and firm in his delivery of a speech that he read from written pages. He said he had tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict but had also been coordinating the defense of Kabul right up until his departure. The security forces did not fail us, he said. It was the political elite of the government and the international community who failed. He said that he had every intention of returning to Afghanistan and that he was in touch with the political leaders Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who have been in discussions with the Taliban. Mr. Ghani also noted out that he was not the first Afghan leader forced to flee. The first Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, fled after the American intervention in 2001. Mr. Ghani, a World Bank-trained technocrat who wrote a book titled Fixing Failed States, has come under withering criticism for his performance as Afghanistans leader and the ignominious way in which he left, which sped the governments collapse.

The Taliban are searching for people who worked with U.S. and British forces, a report says. A member of the Taliban outside the airport in Kabul on Monday. Credit... Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times Taliban militants are intensifying a search for people they believe worked with U.S. and NATO forces, including among the crowds of Afghans at Kabuls airport, and have threatened to kill or arrest their family members if they cannot find them, according to a confidential document prepared for the United Nations. The document, from a U.N. threat-assessment adviser, directly contradicted the militant groups public assurances that it would not seek revenge on members and supporters of the toppled government. There were multiple reports that the Taliban had a list of people they wanted to question and punish  and their locations, the document said. Already, the document said, the Taliban had been going door to door and arresting and/or threatening to kill or arrest family members of target individuals unless they surrender themselves to the Taliban. The document, dated Wednesday, was provided to the United Nations by the Norwegian Center for Global Analyses, a group that provides intelligence information to agencies of the global organization. It was shared internally at the United Nations and seen by The New York Times. Members of the Afghan military and the police, as well as people who worked for investigative units of the toppled government, were particularly at risk, the document said. It contained a reproduced letter dated Aug. 16 from the Taliban to an unnamed counterterrorism official in Afghanistan who had worked with U.S. and British officials and then gone into hiding before the insurgents came to the officials apartment. The letter instructed the official to report to the Military and Intelligence Commission of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Kabul. If not, it warned, the officials family members will be treated based on Shariah law. The Taliban have repeatedly issued assurances that they will not use their victory to wreak revenge on people who opposed them. The report adds to the growing doubts about that pledge, and suggests that the Taliban may indeed engage in reprisal killings, as they did when they took over in Afghanistan more than 20 years ago. Traci Carl and

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The Taliban respond with force to an outpouring of public anger. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 0:44 - 0:00 transcript Gunfire in the Streets: Protests Met by Force in Afghanistan The Taliban faced off against protestors in the northeastern city of Jalalabad. Taliban soldiers fired shots into the crowd and beat protesters and journalists. [gunfire] [gunfire] The Taliban faced off against protestors in the northeastern city of Jalalabad. Taliban soldiers fired shots into the crowd and beat protesters and journalists. Credit Credit... Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times The Taliban faced the first street protests on Wednesday against their takeover of Afghanistan, with demonstrations in at least two cities, even as they moved to form a new government. A public display of dissent in the northeastern city of Jalalabad was met by force. Taliban soldiers fired into the crowd and beat protesters and journalists. The Taliban had taken control of the city, a commercial hub east of Kabul near the main border crossing with Pakistan, four days earlier without much of a fight after a deal was negotiated with local leaders. This week, the Taliban have been out in large numbers, patrolling the city in pickup trucks seized from the now defunct police force. Despite the risks, hundreds of protesters marched through the main shopping street, whistling, shouting and bearing large flags of the Afghan Republic. Taliban fighters fired in the air to break up the crowd, but the protesters did not disperse, video aired by local news media outlets showed. When that failed, the fighters resorted to violence. At least two people were killed and a dozen injured, according to Al Jazeera. For the new Taliban government, the jarring images of violence at the protest  as well as images of chaos and people being beaten while trying to approach Kabuls airport in an attempt to flee the country  have undermined their efforts to present themselves as responsible stewards of the government. In Khost, in the southeastern part of the country, there were also demonstrations, with dramatic photos and video showing hundreds of people taking to the streets. The outpouring of public anger came as the Taliban prepared to offer details on the shape of their government, naming ministers and filling key positions. The younger brother of a top Taliban leader met in Kabul on Wednesday with former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the Afghan delegation to the recent peace talks in Qatar. He was accompanied by the speaker of Afghanistans upper house of Parliament. The meeting was further evidence of the groups determination to gain international acceptance. It followed a news conference on Tuesday in which the Taliban offered blanket amnesty, vowing no reprisals against former enemies. We dont want Afghanistan to be a battlefield anymore, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Talibans longtime chief spokesman, said. From today onward, war is over. While many were skeptical of those assurances, in Kabul the rhythms of daily life started to return  but they were in many ways circumscribed. There were noticeably fewer women on the streets. Some of those who ventured out did not cover up in the traditional burqa, the full-length shroud that covers the face that was required the last time the Taliban ruled. At homes and businesses, a knock on the door could stir fear. It remains to be seen whether the pragmatic needs of a nation of 38 million will continue to temper the ideological fanaticism that defined the groups rule from 1996 to 2001. But the country the Taliban now control is vastly changed from two decades ago. The progress of women  women in critical roles in civil society and millions of girls in school  is the most visible example. But years of Western investment in the country also helped rebuild a nation that was in a state of ruin when the Taliban first emerged. The protests offered early signs that many Afghans will not simply accept Taliban rule. The Afghan governments failure to meet peoples basic needs helped fuel support for the Taliban. That allowed them to sweep across the country swiftly  often not by military force, but by negotiation with frustrated local leaders. On Wednesday, at a riverside market in Kabul, Jawed was selling apples. Born the year the Taliban were ousted from power, he was not old enough to remember their brutal reign. His concern this week was getting supplies of fruit from Pakistan. That was now easier, he said. The roads are clear now  they are quiet, said Jawed, who goes by one name. For now, the Taliban meant more order in the traffic, and wholesale prices had dropped. But business was not better. The people are afraid right now  theyre not buying, he said. But at least it is better than yesterday. Things will slowly improve. The mullahs have arrived. The arrival of the Taliban mullahs  a reference to groups religious leaders  also set off widespread fear. Tens of thousands are still trying to escape. People lined up early at the banks, worried that there wouldnt be money to feed their families. And the deployment of soldiers at checkpoints across Kabul made it clear that Taliban have a monopoly on the use of force and would decide how and when to use it. Marc Santora, Jim Huylebroek and

Chaos spreads outside Kabuls airport as the Taliban try to control crowds. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 0:29 - 0:00 transcript Taliban Fire Gunshots Outside Kabul Airport Gunshots rang out as thousands of Afghans crowded outside Kabuls international airport attempting to flee the country. The Taliban controlled the chaotic streets surrounding the airport, while the U.S. military established control inside. [gunfire] [sirens] Gunshots rang out as thousands of Afghans crowded outside Kabuls international airport attempting to flee the country. The Taliban controlled the chaotic streets surrounding the airport, while the U.S. military established control inside. Credit Credit... Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times Chaos erupted outside Kabuls international airport on Wednesday as thousands of people tried to make their way there to flee Afghanistan. The sound of heavy gunfire echoed through the streets leading to the facility. There were conflicting reports about what exactly was happening on the streets outside the airport, which the Taliban now control. A NATO security official at the airport told Reuters that 17 people had been injured in a stampede at one gate to the airport. People were still camping out near the airports gates. Whole families sat under rows of pine trees lining the main airport road, while others, carrying sparse belongings, were still trying to gain entrance, to little avail. The Taliban still had their men stationed at the entrances. There were volleys of rifle fire, pushing, pulling and beating with wooden sticks, Kalashnikovs and pieces of cut hoses. At one gate, Taliban members had positioned themselves on concrete road dividers overlooking the crowd. Their commander, Kalashnikov slung around the shoulder and megaphone in hand, told the people: This gate is closed. Only foreigners and people with documents allowed. Although the U.S. military has established control inside the airport and military flights have resumed, the situation outside on Wednesday was volatile. The Taliban have sought to present a kinder and gentler image of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to the world, but scenes near the airport offered a bloody counterpoint. Taliban members at times beat people with rifle butts and clubs to force back the crowd trying to get in. Images taken on Tuesday by Marcus Yam, a photographer for the Los Angeles Times, were graphic: a man cradling a child with a bloodied forehead. A woman who appeared to be unconscious lying in the road a few feet away, blood streaming down her cheek. Jim Huylebroek and Chaos and Desperation at the Kabul Airport Maps and satellite images of the airport show the chaos as people race to leave Afghanistan.

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An old bastion of anti-Taliban sentiment girds for a new fight. Video Prominent Afghans in the Panjshir Valley, which the Taliban do not control, do not recognize the Taliban as Afghanistans rightful leaders and have begun challenging their authority. Credit Credit... Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times A group of Afghan leaders are trying to rally a force to resist the Taliban from the same strategic valley that two decades ago held out against the militants  and provided U.S. spies and special forces operators a launchpad for the invasion that drove the Taliban from power in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Yet the parallels with that earlier fight in a pocket north of Kabul known as the Panjshir Valley, however intriguing, are limited, and even Afghans sympathetic to the effort expressed deep doubts about its prospects. Unlike 20 years ago, the resistance leaders do not control the territory they would need to open a supply line through Afghanistans northern borders, nor do they appear to have any significant international support. How many men and how well supplied they are are also open questions. Former Afghan officials put the number of fighters holed up in Panjshir at 2,000 to 2,500, and they are said to have little beyond assault weapons. And the leaders, while well-established Afghan political and military figures, lack the charisma and military prowess of the man who led the old Northern Alliance that resisted the Taliban in the 1990s, Ahmad Shah Massoud. He was killed by assassins from Al Qaeda two days before the Sept. 11 attacks and is now a mythic figure among the ethnic Tajiks who populate northern Afghanistan and who made up the bulk of those who first fought Taliban rule. For now, the leaders of the movement insist that their goal is to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban on behalf of the now-defunct Afghan government, said Amrullah Saleh, one of the men organizing the resistance. Mr. Saleh was Afghanistans first vice president until Sunday, when President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul ahead of the Talibans advance into the city, and he is now claiming to be the caretaker president under Afghanistans U.S.-brokered 2004 Constitution. We have lost territory but not legitimacy, Mr. Saleh said in an interview conducted over text message. I, as caretaker president, upholder of the Constitution, dont see the Taliban emirate either as legitimate or national. Mr. Saleh has been joined in Panjshir by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the assassinated resistance leader, and Gen. Yasin Zia, a former Afghan army chief of staff and deputy defense minister. Afghanistan will have peace and stability, said Mohammad Zahir Aghbar, an Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan aligned with the holdouts in the Panjshir Valley, if the Taliban who are in Doha and Pakistan agree to a settlement accepting what the world is asking for. Mr. Saleh said the group believed in a genuine peace process, which doesnt exist at the moment. Should the Taliban be ready for meaningful discussions, we will welcome it, he said. If they insist on military conquest, than they better read Afghan history. The Panjshir Valley features prominently in that history. The deep and narrow gorge at the valleys mouth was tailor-made for obstruction and ambush, and the valley held out not only against the Taliban in the 1990s, but also the Soviets in the 1980s. The first Americans to enter Afghanistan in September 2001, a small C.I.A. team, went to Panjshir to secure the Northern Alliance as allies. Mr. Saleh said he had survived two attacks and one ambush by Taliban fighters as he drove to Panjshir on Sunday. Mr. Saleh, who also previously ran Afghanistans spy service, the National Directorate of Security, was cagey about what size force was in Panjshir, saying that he did not want compromise our military secrets or operational security. But we are on the top of the situation and organizing things, he said, adding that his team was in touch with other Afghan leaders who fought the Taliban 20 years ago, though he would not name them. Still, it was far from clear what outside help might arrive or whether Mr. Salehs claim to continuity of government under the Afghan Constitution would gain traction. At least one place has bought in: the Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan. In the carpeted meeting rooms of the building, off a dusty, taxi-clogged street in Dushanbe, Mr. Ghanis photographs have come down, and Mr. Salehs have gone up. Matthew Rosenberg, Andrew E. Kramer and

Covid is just one of Afghanistans many health concerns. Evacuees from Kabul being tested for the coronavirus upon their arrival at Tashkent Airport in Uzbekistan on Tuesday. Credit... Marc Tessensohn/Bundeswehr, via Getty Images World Health Organization officials warned on Wednesday that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was impeding efforts to address the coronavirus pandemic and other dire health crises there. Gauging the spread of the coronavirus in Afghanistan has always been difficult because of a lack of testing. The average daily number of reported new cases peaked in late June at more than 2,000 and has since fallen sharply, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. But it is likely that the figures do not reflect the actual spread of the virus. Afghanistans vaccination efforts have struggled since they began in the spring, harassed by corruption, limited public health resources and widespread public skepticism. According to Our World in Data, less than 2 percent of Afghanistans population has been vaccinated. In the midst of a pandemic, were extremely concerned by the large displacement of people and increasing cases of diarrhea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, probable cases of Covid-19 and reproductive health complications, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O.s director general, said at a news conference. He said that agency staff members were still in Afghanistan and were committed to delivering health services to the most vulnerable. Many Afghans are vulnerable to diseases like polio, which has been eradicated in most of the world but is still endemic there. Fourteen million Afghans are suffering from hunger, United Nations officials said on Wednesday. Aid groups are struggling to provide humanitarian assistance inside Afghanistan and to the tens of thousands of refugees a week who are fleeing to neighboring countries. Refugee camps, with their crowded and often unsanitary conditions, can become incubators for the virus, though many camps have fared better than experts initially feared they would. U.N. officials said that their agencies in Afghanistan were in contact with the Taliban in an effort to coordinate aid and immunizations. Caroline Van Buren, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said that the Taliban had so far provided protection for all of the refugee agencys offices in the country. At the same time, though, the Taliban have resumed some of the practices common when they held power 20 years ago. Ms. Van Buren said that officials had received reports of women being prohibited from going to work, and, in some areas, barred from leaving their homes without being accompanied by a close male relative. Daniel E. Slotnik and

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Tough talk from European politicians fearful of a migrant wave from Afghanistan. Germans and Afghans arriving in Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday after being evacuated from Kabul. Credit... Armando Babani/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has sent thousands of panicked Afghans scrambling to flee the country, but panic is also being felt in some other quarters: Some European politicians are terrified of another mass movement of Muslim asylum seekers. An influx of migrants, they fear, may fan the embers of the far-right and populist movements that reshaped European politics after a wave of asylum seekers sought refuge from the wars in Syria and Iraq in 2015. In Germany, even before the first group of 19 Afghan refugees landed on Wednesday, the line was making the rounds in Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative camp: 2015 mustnt be repeated. Armin Laschet, who wants to succeed Ms. Merkel as chancellor after next months elections, said it on Monday. A party official used the same words shortly after. And then a government minister repeated them yet again. Support for anti-immigrant parties has been falling, along with the number of migrants. But with important elections looming in Germany and France, the line being drawn by European leaders is early and firm. That means Afghans may be facing a compassion deficit in Europe that may be insurmountable. It is not just Europe. Other countries, especially the United States, faces a similar quandary over accepting Afghan asylum seekers. Almost everywhere, governments have expressed general willingness to accept Afghans who worked alongside American forces or international aid groups. But they are wary of committing to the many thousands more who might seek to leave to avoid life under the Taliban. For now, the number of migrants over land routes has been relatively low. Were talking about thousands, not hundreds of thousands, who need and deserve our help, people who are on lists because they worked with us, said Gerald Knaus, the founding chairman of the European Stability Initiative. Given the overall drop in migration numbers in recent years, he said, it is a straw man argument to raise fears of another wave. Katrin Bennhold and

Intelligence officials did not predict the imminence of the Afghan governments collapse, officials said. A Taliban fighter in Kabul on Wednesday. According to intelligence officials, the warning that the demise of the Afghan government was days away never came. Credit... Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times Intelligence reports presented to President Biden in the final days before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan this past week failed to predict the imminence of the Afghan governments collapse, even after warnings had grown more grim in July, senior intelligence officials acknowledged on Wednesday. The intelligence agencies had been stepping up their warnings about the deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan throughout the summer. Their reports grew more specific in July, noting how the Taliban had taken control of roads leading to Kabul and how the group had learned lessons from their takeover of the country in the 1990s. But senior administration officials acknowledged that as the pace of White House meetings on Afghanistan grew more frenzied in August and in the days leading up to the Taliban takeover this weekend, the intelligence agencies did not say the collapse was inevitable. Over the past year, intelligence agencies shrank their predictions of how quickly the Afghan government would fall, from two years to 18 months to six months to a month, according to current and former officials. But, according to intelligence officials, the warning that its demise was days away never came. As the president indicated, this unfolded more quickly than we anticipated, including in the intelligence community, Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement to The New York Times. Still, senior officials noted, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies had throughout the fighting season in Afghanistan identified the risk of a rapid collapse and issued increasingly pessimistic reports about the Afghan governments survival, particularly as President Ashraf Ghani resisted changing military strategies or creating a more inclusive government.

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Evacuations from Kabul accelerate, but many thousands are still left behind. Video Flights took off from Kabuls international airport as world governments worked to evacuate refugees and their citizens from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Credit Credit... Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times During the frenzied first 48 hours after the collapse of the Afghan government, the desperate scenes at Kabuls international airport early this week drew parallels to the fall of Saigon. Now, even though the airport is under the control of the U.S. military and evacuation flights have been stepped up, tens of thousands of Afghans are still struggling to find a way to escape Taliban rule. And the American experience in Vietnam is being invoked again  as an illustration of how much more the United States could be doing if it had the political will and international support that followed the American exit from Vietnam. After the war in Vietnam, a bipartisan consensus and collective sense of moral responsibility helped provide the framework for Operation New Life, which swiftly evacuated 130,000 vulnerable, mainly Vietnamese, people to a makeshift refugee camp on the island of Guam. From there, they were processed and moved to temporary migration centers across the United States. Over the course of years of sustained efforts, 1.4 million Vietnamese people eventually settled in the country. Now, the United States is trying to provide safety for a far smaller number, and has struggled in that effort. Pentagon officials said that the pace of the current flights had quickened after more American troops arrived to secure the Kabul airport, with military planes and a smaller number of commercial flights operating. There are important parallels between the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the current situation, with implications for addressing current humanitarian needs, said Alexander Betts, a professor of forced migration and international affairs at the University of Oxford. The parallels should be inspiring, he said, and show that with political will and international leadership, large-scale resettlement is possible. But he said there was now unlikely to be the same degree of political support for admitting large numbers of refugees. The politics of refugee assistance is also very different in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, including public concerns relating to security and refugees from predominantly Muslim countries, he said. Marc Santora and

The U.N., citing security concerns, has moved some aid workers out of Afghanistan. Antonio Guterres at the U.N. in August. Credit... United Naitons/EPA, via Shutterstock The United Nations said Wednesday that it was temporarily relocating some of its aid workers from Afghanistan to Kazakhstan to work remotely, but stressed that it intended to maintain a presence in the country. The U.N. is committed to stay and deliver in support of the Afghan people in their hour of need, a spokesman for Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement Wednesday. The organization said a group of staff members was en route to Almaty, Kazakhstans largest city. In light of security and other constraints in Kabul and other parts of the country at the moment, the statement said, it was decided to move part of the U.N. staff out of the country. Personnel will return to Afghanistan as conditions permit. The announcement came as humanitarian groups that also provide badly needed aid to the people of Afghanistan were regrouping. Many indicated that they intended to stay in the country, with the Taliban assuring them that their staff would not be harmed. At this point, we have not received any specific threat for any of our offices, Hassan Noor, Asia regional director for Save the Children, said in a briefing on Wednesday. He said Taliban representatives had met with the charitys staff and told them they would not face consequences for delivering services. The organization, which offers health, education and nutrition support to Afghan children, said that its staff members  almost 1,800 people working across 10 provinces  would remain in Afghanistan to try to deliver services, depending on how the situation unfolded, and that many humanitarian organizations had also opted to stay. But as of Saturday, Save the Children programs, which reached about 1.6 million Afghans in 2020, were temporarily suspended, and Mr. Noor said the group had been working on safeguarding workers, some of whom had already been relocated. We are extremely concerned about our staff, he said, and that is our top priority at the moment. Information about the situation on the ground in Afghanistan remains very murky, said Mr. Noor, but even before last week, some three million people had already been reported displaced. About 14 million people were having trouble meeting daily food requirements because of an enduring drought in Afghanistan, and some two million children depended on nutrition services to survive.

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The Taliban say women will have rights. Early signs are mixed. Girls at a school in Sheberghan, Afghanistan, this year. Credit... Kiana Hayeri for The New York Times The previous Taliban rule in Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, was a bleak period for Afghan women, who were barred from working outside the home or leaving the house without a male guardian. The Taliban eliminated schooling for girls and publicly flogged people who violated the groups morality code. The question now is whether the Talibans interpretation of Islamic law will be as draconian as when the group last held power. Taliban officials are trying to reassure women that things will be different this time. In a news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, a Taliban spokesman said that women would be allowed to work and study. Another Taliban official said that women should participate in government. We assure that there will be no violence against women, the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said. No prejudice against women will be allowed, but the Islamic values are our framework. Pressed for details, he said only that women could participate in society within the bounds of Islamic law. But there are scattered signs that, at least in some areas, the Taliban have begun to reimpose the old order. Women in some provinces have been told not to leave home without a male relative escorting them. In Herat, in western Afghanistan, Taliban gunmen guarded the universitys gates and prevented female students and instructors from entering the campus on Tuesday, witnesses said. Video A boxer. A singer. A journalist. Three young women found success in Kabul, Afghanistan. When the Taliban took the city, their dreams and lives were shattered. In the southern city of Kandahar, womens health care clinics were shut down, a resident said. In some districts, girls schools have been closed since the Taliban seized control of them in November. Women there said they were starting to wear the head-to-toe burqa in the street, partly in fear and partly in anticipation of restrictions ordered by the Taliban. At Kabul University, in the capital, female students were told they were not allowed to leave their dorm rooms unless accompanied by a male guardian. Two students said they were effectively trapped because they had no male relatives in the city. In Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, Aliya Kazimy, a 27-year-old university professor, said that women shopping alone in the citys bazaar had been turned away and told to return with male guardians. I am from the generation that had a lot of opportunities after the fall of the Taliban 20 years ago, she said in a text message. I was able to achieve my goals of studying, and for a year Ive been a university professor, and now my future is dark and uncertain. All these years of working hard and dreaming were for nothing. And the little girls who are just starting out, what future awaits them? Farnaz Fassihi and
In early May, a Taliban commander telephoned Muhammad Jallal, a tribal elder in Baghlan Province in northern Afghanistan, and asked him to deliver a message to Afghan government troops at several bases in his district.

If they do not surrender, we will kill them, Mr. Jallal said he was told.

He and other tribal elders complied. After several rounds of negotiations, two government bases and three outposts surrendered without a fight. More than 100 security forces handed over weapons and equipment and were sent home unharmed.

The Talibans strategy of coercion and persuasion was repeated across the country, unfolding for months as a focal point of the insurgents new offensive this year. The militants cut multiple surrender deals that handed them bases and ultimately entire provincial command centers, culminating in a stunning military blitz this summer that put the militants back in power two decades after they were defeated by the United States and its allies.
BERLIN  Even before the first group of 19 Afghan refugees landed in Germany on Wednesday, the line was making the rounds in Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative party: 2015 mustnt be repeated.

Armin Laschet, who wants to succeed Ms. Merkel as chancellor after next months elections, said it on Monday. A top party official used the same words shortly after. A government minister repeated them again.

The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban has sent thousands of panicked Afghans scrambling to flee the country. But it has also panicked European politicians who are terrified of another mass movement of Muslim asylum seekers. They worry that new migrants will fan the embers of the far-right and populist movements that reshaped politics after a wave of asylum seekers from the wars in Syria and Iraq made their way to Europe in 2015.

Support for anti-immigrant parties has since fallen, along with migrant numbers. But with important elections looming in Germany and France, the line being drawn by European leaders is early and firm. Afghans are facing a compassion deficit in Europe that may be insurmountable.
Im a soldier, said Mr. Wallace, who served as a captain in the British Army, in an emotional radio interview on Monday, in which he seemed near tears at the prospect of some British allies not being able to get out of Kabul, the Afghan capital. Its sad that the West has done what its done.

But there are few signs that Mr. Wallaces boss, Mr. Johnson, shares his commitment to the Afghan project. In recent remarks, he echoed Mr. Bidens sense of futility, saying, Weve known for a long time this was the way things would go. Last summer, he called Afghanistan the chronicle of an event foretold.

Mr. Johnson has avoided any direct criticism of Mr. Biden. A senior official in Downing Street said on Tuesday that the United States remained a vital British ally, however difficult the circumstances in Afghanistan.

The two men spoke by phone on Tuesday  the first contact Mr. Biden has had with a foreign leader since the crisis erupted  and Mr. Johnson stressed the importance of not losing the gains made in Afghanistan over the last twenty years, according to Downing Street.

Mr. Johnson has good reasons to avoid a rift with Mr. Biden. The prime minister has lobbied the president on issues like the coronavirus pandemic and climate change. He needs the United States to play a major role at the United Nations climate change conference, which he is hosting in Glasgow in November.

As with Mr. Biden in the United States, it is not clear there is a political cost for Mr. Johnson in abandoning Afghanistan  unless, of course, it becomes a seedbed for future terrorist attacks in the West.

Britain withdrew its last combat troops in 2014 and has kept only a vestigial security presence there since. As an issue, Afghanistan had faded from the headlines every bit as much in Britain as in the United States.
Students return to campus on the first day of classes with masks being optional.
Doug Donsky

Societys move away from privacy toward conversation and engagement is a unique challenge for private equity. While general partners are accustomed to confidentiality and letting the results do the talking, the landscape is changing. Institutional investors and advisers are insisting on greater transparency, disclosure and limited partner communications for their private holdingsbecause this is what they already receive from their public company investments.

Along with this shift in investor and public sentiment, theres growing recognition today among GPs that their private portfolio companies define their public firm image. Its this mirror on reputation that has caught some off guard when portfolio issues arise. Media scrutiny of portfolio companies has led fund managers to postpone exits, realize lower returns or delay the launch of new funds. As a result, GPs are realizing that the external perception of each individual business can affect the value of their investment and, ultimately, the returns achieved for investors.

With private equity squarely in the public eye, fund sponsors are expanding their traditional PR and IR focus from M&A and fundraising to include a broader range of communications and capital markets activities for their portfolio holdings.

Media, PR and crisis preparedness

For years, private equity sponsors have leveraged media relations to raise awareness of their investment activities, typically to build deal flow or expand investor interest before fundraising. More recently, however, GPs have added PR support for their portfolio companies, with media efforts geared toward increasing customer sales, strengthening recruitment or creating a more sympathetic community profile. Private company CEOs, supported by their owners, also realize they need to more publicly tell their corporate story early in order to attract additional private capital funding, develop strategic partnership opportunities or drive market interest for a potential sale or IPO. Perception audits, executive collaborations with key industry figurestrade reporters, academics, think tanks, etc.case studies and more public visibility are a few of the many strategies being used to build private company awareness and reputation.

This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Aug. '21 Financial PR/IR & Professional Services PR Magazine

(view PDF version)

PR likewise remains a way to inoculate companies against criticism. Businesses that cater to consumers or have a high degree of reputational risk recognize the danger of inaction. Playing defense is no longer viable, as once a storyline takes hold, it can be very difficult to change. The time to educate is always before a crisis, not while its happening. By combining traditional media relations with social and digital strategies, private businesses can effectively mount a defense and broadcast their messages worldwide.

Its inevitable that every company will face some form of criticism at some point. Headline risk is unsettling for GPs, as portfolio issues inevitably raise LP concerns. State pension funds, endowments and private family offices, in particular, are hypersensitive to their public image and the potential of guilt-through-association shaming. Against this backdrop, GPs are adopting best crisis practices into their private portfolio holdings, demanding each company have a well-defined, well-rehearsed playbook to anticipate crises and be prepared to respond quickly and proportionally.

Digital branding, websites and social engagement

Its imperative for every business to have infrastructure in place to succeed in the digital erato tell its story, make the right first impression, manage its customers expectations and defend its corporate reputation through digital, mobile and social experiences. A growing number of GPs are seeking ways for their companies to make a good first impression or expand customer engagement. That typically takes the form of investment in brand road mapping, website development and digital marketing. Other common requests include social media management/amplification, data visualization, presentation design and sales collateral.

Presentation and media training

With investors demanding more information around their private investments, many ask for dialogue with executives of portfolio companies. In response, GPs have begun to arrange quarterly conference calls to update their LPs and annual investor meetings to provide a platform for management to meet investors and discuss their businesses in depth. However, private company CEOs often have far fewer opportunities to present than public peers, while their sophisticated audiencethe financial communityspends every waking moment in PowerPoint meetings, reviewing financial presentations and questioning management teams. This perceived mismatch between presenter and audience is a source of GP anxiety.

In response, CEOs are given presentation training and additional, specialized training tailored to format, helping to raise their profiles with media, podcasts and conferences. In a typical media training, the trainer will include a review of key messages; discuss audience and objectives as well as how to take tough questions and pivot to messages; and then engage in practice interviews for video playback critique.

Early-stage IR and capital markets advisory

Regardless of the expected exit path for a portfolio company, its always helpful to be on the radar in a given industry sector. Financial sponsors, therefore, have encouraged private companies to engage more directly with Wall Street early. Today, there are a growing number of opportunities for private companies to present to investors and analysts, as they look to understand the landscape of current and future investment opportunities or seek to build relationships and a pipeline of future transactions.

Capital markets advisors can help prepare private company management teams for discussions with investors, identifying and matching investment interest to a companys strategy, industry and profile. Working alongside management, advisors bring an extensive network of relationships across numerous pools of capital and help structure transactions to address the current and long-term objectives of the company.

ESG for private companies

Private companies and their sponsors are facing increasing pressure to incorporate ESG from institutional investors and industry groups, particularly the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. In the past, simply being a UN PRI signatory provided adequate reputational protection; however, in 2018, PRI instituted minimum reporting requirements and in 2020, started delisting firms that did not meet them. While some larger PE firms have embedded ESG factors into their process, smaller firms are still playing catch up. In order to remain competitive, companies must draft ESG policies that align with their investment strategy, delegate ESG responsibility and oversight, and implement a formal ESG approach (with KPIs, sector guidance, training and reporting framework).

But most importantly, they must incorporate ESG due diligence into investment due diligence. Ensuring strong ESG disclosures at exit from investee companies can demonstrate resilience and attract valuation premium from ESG-focused investors. The exact steps depend on the firm, but may include screening, ESG due diligence, developing an action plan, reporting and ESG integration within the firm.

***

Doug Donsky is Managing Director of ICR.
Zapwater Communications lands North America PR duties for Ethiopian Airlines. The firm will pitch the airline as the premier carrier when traveling to Africa. The agency will help manage Ethiopians marketing and communications in North America, including media relations, influencer relations, strategic partnerships and events. Ethiopian currently services 62 cities in Africa and more than 127 international passenger and cargo destinations across five continents, including Washington D.C., Chicago, New Jersey, New York and Toronto in North America. Zapwaters engagement with the airline began in July and will be managed primarily out of the agencys Chicago office.

Merlot Marketing scoops up Water, Inc., a distributor and supplier of water filtration and purification products, whole house water treatment systems, decorative plumbing and luxury appliances. The agency will lead regional and national public relations efforts, key branding strategy and graphic design to support new product launches and Water, Incs existing catalogue of products. The first collaboration for the new partnership was the rebrand of the HousePure suite of products, which work together to reduce chemicals and toxins throughout the entire home. We are excited to formally leverage their expertise in strategic branding and in developing meaningful relationships with the national media on our behalf, Said Water, Inc. vice president of sales and marketing Chris Arnold.

Hooray Agency signs on Salamander Hotels and Resorts as it launches The Family Reunion, an event which celebrates diversity within the hospitality industry. Hoorays work on the project will include digital media, collateral materials and signage, and online ticket platforms. Presented by author and Chef Kwame Onwuachi, the event is supported by a partnership between Food & Wine and Salamander founder and CEO Sheila Johnson. The four-day event will take place at the Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, VA. The Family Reunion was designed as an inclusive event that celebrates equity through food, said Salamander CMO Tracey Slivonias. Hooray has helped us bring the idea to life through our website and digital activations, ensuring our guests have a deep understanding and appreciation for what this event truly represents.
Yorktown Solutions has picked up an $80K per month pact to represent the Civil Movement For a Just Ukraine, a non-profit group set up by activists with close ties to the countrys military.

The Movement says its goals are to promote de-oligarchization, good corporate governance and reforms in the judicial and security sectors.

It was founded by Olekssi Sereduiuk, who leads a union representing soldiers and volunteers at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Vitali Chorny, a member of the All-Ukrainian Union of ATO Veterans.

Victor Shvetsov, director of the Movement, commanded the Airmobile 79th Department that fought Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Ukraine.

Washington-based Yorktown handles PR, advocacy and perception management duties for the Movement.

It seeks greater engagement of US officials, NGOs, media outlets and business leaders on issues pertaining to Ukraine.

Yorktowns one-year $960K contract runs through Aug. 17, 2022.
The weather forecast for Ireland for the coming days from Met Eireann is for the weather to continue mostly cloudy through the week with outbreaks of rain and drizzle.

It will be cool at first, but becoming a little warmer over the weekend , with showers or longer spells of rain and a risk of heavy, thundery downpours.

The weather forecast for Ireland for Wednesday from Met Eireann is for the day to start mostly cloudy with patchy light rain and drizzle, primarily over the northern half of the country. During the late afternoon and evening some sunshine will break through, ahead of more general rain which will move into the southwest during the evening. Highest temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees generally, but slightly cooler in the northwest, in light to moderate westerly breezes.

Outbreaks of rain over Munster will extend northeastwards on Wednesday night though some northern areas will hold mostly dry with just a little patchy rain and drizzle. Lowest temperatures of 8 to 11 degrees over the northern half of the country, 10 to 14 degrees further south. Light variable breezes will allow mist and fog patches to form.

The weather forecast for Ireland for Thursday from Met Eireann is for the weather to be largely cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle, but some bright spells will develop in places. Highest temperatures 17 to 20 degrees in mainly light variable breezes.

A mainly dry night to start on Thursday night, with just patchy rain and drizzle, but more persistent rain will move into the southwest towards dawn. Mild with temperatures not falling below 12 to 14 degrees in light breezes.

The weather forecast for Ireland for Friday from Met Eireann is for a wet day with outbreaks of rain extending to all areas by the afternoon, turning heavy at times, especially in the southwest and west, with a risk of thundery downpours. Highest temperatures of 18 to 21 degrees in light to moderate southeasterly winds, turning fresher on exposed coasts.

According to Met Eireann, there will be further spells of rain at times on Saturday, heavy and possibly thundery in places, especially in parts of Munster. Highest temperatures of 17 to 21 degrees in light to moderate southeasterly winds.

Showers or longer spells of rain will continue through the day on Sunday, heavy at times with the risk of isolated thunderstorms. Highest temperatures of 18 to 20 degrees in light northeasterly or variable breezes.

According to Met Eireann it will become more settled into next week with a good deal of dry weather. Temperatures will pick up with highs widely in the low twenties.
Independent TD for Laois Offaly and member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Higher Education, Carol Nolan, has said that the latest data on the costs facing prospective third level students is making it impossible for many of them to even consider attending any of the Dublin based colleges.

Deputy Nolan was speaking after Technological University (TU) Dublin released its annual cost of living guide which includes calculations of rent costs currently being faced by students:

As a member of the Oireachtas Education Committee I am very aware of the scale of the challenges facing students who would like to progress to third level; but having said that it is still disheartening to see the massive costs that students from Offaly and Laois are facing, especially if they want to attend a Dublin based college or university.

"As I understand it from the report published by TU, it is being estimated that students moving to Dublin will incur costs of 1,539 a month. That amounts to a staggering 13,827 for the full academic year.

"I am aware that some of this is inclusive of the 3,000 fees that may be covered by SUSI, but that still leaves many students and indeed their families facing enormous and unsustainable costs, particularly in light of the cap on student earnings.

"I raised this issue with the Steering Group Review on Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) last year, when I strongly urged them to re-evaluate the cap of 4,500 before deductions and eligibility criteria kick in.

"I am awaiting confirmation of positive changes on this issue.

"The fact of the matter is this; many families will not be able to afford the escalating costs, which are largely rent based, and that in turn will generate an educational crisis for thousands of rural-based students in particular.

"Government must work to immediately deliver genuinely affordable third level accommodation.

"As it is, a lot of private digs are simply not available this year as parents who may have had free rooms are now faced with the return of their own adult children who are unable to find anywhere to live, concluded Deputy Nolan.
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Kenya's premier Food & Agriculture exhibition returns to Nairobi. FOODAGRO AFRICA will showcase top products, equipment and machinery presented by exhibitors from over 26 countries. Building on the success of previous events, the FOODAGRO AFRICA just gets bigger and better. Also contributing is the recognition of Kenya as one of the major access point in Africa and the huge volume of imports in the country for its own consumption for 
Employees can interact with one another, communicate, and cooperate using a variety of social media tools including discussion threads, social feeds, and blogs in Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs). The global Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) Market size is projected to reach US$ 17085 million by 2027, from US$ 10572.4 million in 2020, at a CAGR of 8.4% during 2021-2027. https://www.infinitybusinessinsights.com/request_sample.php?id=618893 The Key players of 
BIG RAPIDS  A former Ferris State University staff member and current doctoral student is officially returning to the Big Rapids campus as an employee.

Danyelle Gregory has been named the new Office of Multicultural Student Services director, becoming the third person to lead that Student Affairs division operation.

Dean of Student Life Joy Pulsifer, who made the announcement, said Gregory begins duties at the end of August.

We are very excited to welcome Danyelle back to our division, the Office of Multicultural Student Services, and the Student Life team, Pulsifer said. She has a strong track record of connecting with and assisting students in navigating higher education and is personable, passionate, and student-centered. I am confident Danyelle will continue the strong tradition and foundation of support provided by the Office of Multicultural Student Services and will build upon the rich and critical 35-year history of OMSS.

Gregory brings more than a decade of experience advocating for students of color and other underrepresented groups, including first-generation students and those from low-income backgrounds, most recently as the director of Diversity, Access and Inclusion at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio.

Her Ferris ties include service as an OMSS staff member from 2014 through 2019 as the coordinator of Pre-College Programs. Gregory is currently a graduate student in Ferris Doctorate in Community College Leadership program and is in the last stages of completing that degree.

The OMSS holds a special place in my heart. I look forward to continuing rich traditions that make the office unique, Gregory said. Connecting with and supporting all Ferris students, particularly our underrepresented student populations, is a true passion of mine. I am eager to pay forward all the great mentorship and leadership instilled in me by former colleagues, Dr. Matthew Chaney and Mike Wade. I cannot wait to welcome our new and returning students this fall while re-establishing the true essence of providing them with a home away from home after this unprecedented year we have all experienced.

Pulsifer said a particular students comments impressed selection committee members after attending finalist interviews. The student saluted Gregorys prioritizing intersectionality and university-wide collaboration in helping students accomplish their goals.

Further, student feedback applauded Gregorys passion for the Ferris students, whose lives and college experiences she hopes to affect positively as OMSS director.
BERLIN (AP)  Germany's health minister has criticized the Roman Catholic Church for its refusal to bless same-sex unions but says his religious faith remains strong.

Health Minister Jens Spahn, 40, married his husband, Daniel Funke, also 40, in 2017. Spahn described his relationship with the church as difficult at times, German news agency dpa reported Wednesday.

My belief is deeply anchored inside of me, dpa quoted Spahn as telling Germany's Bunte magazine. He added that as a gay man he was aware of the many mistakes the church has made in its long history.

There are priests who bless guinea pigs and motorcycles, Spahn said. But two people who love each other and are believers wishing for a blessing for their promise to be there for each other all life long are being rejected by the church.

This bothers and annoys me, said the health minister, who has frequently appeared in German media since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. But it does not lead to me turning away from my belief or the church.

In March, the Vaticans orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, released a document which said Catholic clergy cannot bless same-sex unions because God cannot bless sin.

Two months later, the powerful progressive wing of Germanys Catholic Church openly defied the Holy See pronouncement by offering such blessings at services in about 100 different churches all over the country.
(The first trading post in the Midland area was on the banks of the Tittabawassee River and was owned and operated by James, Lewis and George Eastman. Today, the Eastman name proudly boasts a lawyer, a minister and 15 businesses. Their story continues.)

Two years before Ted Eastman was born, his dad, James, bought a farm owned by the Crane family on Badour Road: 300 acres for $5,000. Jamess mom and dad were apoplectic that their son would own two homes. Today, Ted and Marge own the family homestead on 1560 Badour Road.

Over the years, the original home changed. The weather was responsible for a lot of the changes. One year, the entire second story was destroyed by high winds. James remodeled the home, this time leaving the second story off. Later, in 1948, a small tornado tore through the area, tearing the roof off the barn. But it left the cows safe in their stanchions, unharmed.

Ted remembers going to the Crane School and being taught by Beryl Martin, Nina May and Norma Bunting. He attended Merrill High School in the ninth and 10th grades and then attended Midland Senior High in his junior and senior years. Ted graduated in 1956, as part of the last class to graduate from Midland Senior High on Rodd Street. His wife, Marge, also graduated in the class of 1956.

Marge is the daughter of Bud and Dottie Melchi, who lived on Center Street in Sanford. Bud Melchi owned the Hi-Speed Distributorship for Home Delivery. Marge remembers meeting Ted at a camp meeting in St. Louis for the Church of God. She said, I admired Ted. But he wasnt interested in girls. He was interested in cars and motorcycles.

But apparently, Ted was also interested in Marge. On June 14, 1958, two years after high school graduation, they were married in the East Ashman Church of God. This June 14, they celebrated 63 years of married life.

Marges mom and dad are deceased. She has two sisters, Connie and Mary.

Ted attended General Electric Tech Center in Flint, Michigan. His first business was located on the corner of Townsend and Main, where he rented space from Stuart Bergstein of Community Drug Store.

Then, the Sears store in Bay City needed an outboard small engine mechanic in the summer and a television man in the winter. Ted could do both. But before long, he got a different job with Sears in Saginaw and worked there in the service center for the next 21 years. He also was the instructor for Sears Training Center in Chicago.

In 1985, Ted rented space from the McLaughlin Oil Company for the next 10 years and began Teds Lawn Equipment store on Poseyville Road. But in 1986, a 500-year flood hit Midland.

Marge said, There was six and a half feet of water inside. The tractors were floating on the sale floor. Everything was junk.

But things began looking up. Ted and Marge bought the Ashby Grocery Store and began Teds Home & Lawn Equipment. Later, they bought the Comerica Bank property, a home on Fournie, and their home at 1560 Badour Road, where there are three adjacent homes on that property. Today, they own the home that Ted was born in.

The Flood of 2020 is still vividly with them, but things turned out better than during the Flood of 1986.

On May 18, 2020, Ted and Marge got a call in the middle of the night: You should be aware of the water coming down Poseyville Road.

On May 19, firemen from Homer and Midland townships moved all the merchandise out of the Ted's Home & Lawn building, with neighbors and friends helping.

Marge said, So many wonderful friends. We didnt even know some of them. They said, Im here to work. What do you want me to do? We lost our computers, parts, file cabinets, office equipment. Customer repair items were moved before the flood. Two hot water heaters were lost. Levees at the Sanford and Wixom dams broke. Water was everywhere.

Marge added, The church sent food for 10 days. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had so much community help.

A major problem today is that the business cant get stock and inventory. They carry Cub Cadets, but the company cant make new stock because they cant get the material. And they cant get workers.

The secret of Teds Home & Lawn Equipment? Rollin Yeakle summed it up. He said, I was in the shop and I noticed that everyone that came in, Ted stopped what he was doing and said hello to them.

The Eastman men know how to run a business. They also know how to choose the right women to marry. Eli Eastman married France Elizabeth Gotts, who bore 11 children and with unshakable faith and endless resolve planted the seeds of the Floyd Church of God -- and lived to see it come to fruition.

James Eastman followed in his fathers footsteps and married a young woman who taught school, Gladys Whitehead. For 40 years, she taught school in Midland County. While raising a family, she also continued going to college and earned her degree in teaching and then completed a masters degree. With great faith and courage, Gladys Eastman carved out the life she had dreamed of when she was 16 years old.

Ted Eastman married Marjorie Melchi, who for 63 years has been the personification of a poem that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a hundred years ago:

Teacher, tender comrade, wife,

A fellow-farer true through life,

Heart-whole and soul-free

The august father gave to me."

From the time James, Lewis and George operated a trading post on the banks of the Tittabawassee, the Eastman family has contributed to the growth of the small town they chose to live in. James Eastman built a new high school on Grove Street after the Union School burned to the ground in 1908.

The Senior High later became a Junior High and was eventually torn down. Today, a park is there. Herb Eastman had a store where LaPelles Flowers is today. A lawyer, a minister and 15 businesses all carry the Eastman name today. And Eastman Road is a main thoroughfare for Midlanders.

The Eastman name will always be a vital part of Midlands history and has been from the very beginning.
MILWAUKEE  The family of one of the two men fatally shot during a demonstration against police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has filed a federal civil lawsuit against local law enforcement, accusing officers of facilitating Kyle Rittenhouse's attacks.

Anthony Huber was participating in an Aug. 25 protest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake two days earlier. The Black man was left partially paralyzed after he was shot in the back by police during a domestic disturbance call.

Rittenhouse, who is white, was 17 at the time and traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, and joined other armed individuals in Kenosha who answered a call from local militia to protect businesses from protesters. The protests turned chaotic that night.

According to prosecutors, Rittenhouse opened fire on Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, killing them. Gaige Grosskreutz was also shot, but survived his injuries. The three men are white.

Rosenbaum was shot in the parking lot of an auto dealership and as Rittenhouse ran from the scene he stumbled and fell. Huber was shot in the chest as he tried to disarm Rittenhouse by wrestling his rifle away.

After he had killed and maimed multiple individuals, Kyle Rittenhouse walked up to a dozen Kenosha police officers, assault rifle in hand, with crowds yelling that he had just killed innocent people. What did the police do? They spoke to him and let him walk away, said Huber family attorney Anand Swaminathan.

Rittenhouse maintains he fired in self-defense, but prosecutors have charged him with a litany of counts, including reckless homicide, recklessly endangering safety, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and being a minor in possession of a dangerous weapon.

The federal lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth; Daniel Miskinis, the former City of Kenosha police chief; Eric Larsen, the citys acting police chief; and unnamed officers and deputies.

The plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, that the defendants deputized these armed individuals, conspired with them, and ratified their actions by letting them patrol the streets armed with deadly weapons to mete out justice as they saw fit. 

The police are supposed to serve and protect, Anthonys father, John Huber, said in a statement. But thats not what the Kenosha police did. They walked away from their duties and turned over the streets of Kenosha to Kyle Rittenhouse and other armed vigilantes. If they had done their job, my son would still be alive today.

The lawsuit also alleges that the officers decision to treat demonstrators and militia members differently was motivated by racial discrimination and was in retaliation for protests critical of police violence.

The plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit that while police allowed armed militia members who were white to roam the streets illegally with weapons, they strictly enforced a curfew against peaceful protestors, who were a diverse group speaking out against police violence.

That discriminatory and retaliatory conduct violated the U.S. Constitutions guarantees of a right to free speech and peaceful assembly and to equal protection of the law, the lawsuit said.

Anthony Hubers mother, Karen Bloom, said the lawsuit is about justice for her son, and his legacy.

After Anthonys death, there will always be a hole in my heart," Bloom said. "But his memory lives on, and I will never stop telling his story.

Kenosha's police chief or Kenosha County sheriff's officials did not immediately return calls for comment on the lawsuit.

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A Chicago pharmacist was arrested for allegedly selling authentic COVID-19 vaccination cards on eBay.

Tangtang Zhao, 34, allegedly sold 125 vaccination cards from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for $10 each during March and April 2021. Zhao is accused of taking the cards from his employer, an unnamed national pharmacy chain that administered vaccines, and sold them online to 11 different buyers, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

He is charged with 12 counts of theft of government property, according to the release. He faces a maximum of 10 years for each count if convicted.

We take seriously, and will vigorously investigate, any criminal offense that contributes to the distrust around vaccines and vaccination status, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Departments Criminal Division said in the statement.

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A July letter writer lamented that the wealthy, like Jeff Bezos, arent credited for all they do to promote economic growth then complained how Democrats incite class envy, raise taxes and increase spending. However, to have a balanced, healthy economy, we must have both private business investments plus government funded infrastructure financed through fair tax and regulatory policies.

In 2012, when Obama was running against GOP candidate Romney, Republicans based their entire campaign on a makers and takers theme using an Obama quote taken entirely out of context. At an informal event, Obama explained how businesses needed infrastructure that they couldnt build themselves. But Romneys campaign guru isolated the phrase, you didnt build that, creating a false narrative that Obama wasnt giving businesses any respect for their economic contributions. When confronted about this distortion, he said campaigns werent required to be truthful.

He has recently written a book repenting for this duplicity that fueled Trumps rise and the GOPs descent into a cesspool of lies, racist white nationalism, corrupted government, deficit spending on tax cuts for the rich, shameful failures to uphold our Constitution and effectively handle the COVID-19 pandemic and a violent insurrection.

The day the July letter appeared, the Pantagraph also contained an article detailing how Bezos is building an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Davenport, Iowa, near I-80 and the municipal airport. Newsflash, government funding built those using tax revenue from millions of individuals, businesses and corporations who understood investing in infrastructure allows private enterprise to produce a robust economy.

It isnt class envy to require the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. Therefore, Republicans must support IRS funding, so $600 billion of unpaid taxes can be collected yearly, revenue to invest in new infrastructure. If they dont, vote them out.

Linda Doenitz, Bloomington

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Photo: (Photo : Lars Niki/Getty Images for POPSUGAR and Reed Exhibitions )

Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Hunter McGrady has revealed her challenging experiences as a first-time mother who had to breastfeed her baby. The new mom welcomed her son, Hudson Tynan, in June 2021 with her husband Bryan Keys and quickly realized that her notions about nursing her baby were far from reality.

McGrady, 28, opened up about her breastfeeding journey on Instagram as the world observes Breastfeeding Awareness Week. She said that before Hudson arrived, she had a "grand idea" that she would be producing an "amazing supply" of breast milk and provide for her son's nourishment on demand.

Unfortunately, McGrady said that her expectations were crushed after she experienced sore and cracked nipples, alongside frustration and tears as she developed mastitis. When Hudson didn't gain weight, the mother switched to a combination of "breastfeeding, pumped milk, and formula."

Read Also: The Real Reason Coco Austin Still Breastfeeds Daughter, Age 5

McGrady said that this wasn't her plan at all as she was "overwhelmed by the thought of exclusively breastfeeding." Her perception changed when she realized that her goal of solely breastfeeding Hudson was for her own benefit, not her son.

She ended her message to give a shout-out to all mothers, regardless of their choices, to feed their babies.





Enduring 45 Hours of Labor

Last month, the swimsuit model also shared that she's embracing her postpartum body and loose skin after 45 hours of labor. She said that despite leaky breasts, stretch marks, and gummy tummy, she's learning to love her body's present condition.

McGrady introduced her son to her social media followers in late June, who was 7lbs 1oz and 21" at birth. The mother said that his middle name is in honor of her brother, Tynan, who passed away due to a car accident at 23 years old, a month before Hudson's birth. She had a very close relationship with Tynan and often raved about him on social media.

McGrady and her husband dated in 2016 after meeting on Snapchat. Three months into their relationship, Keys met her whole family and got their blessing to move in with him in New York.

The couple was engaged in June 2017 and married two years later. Keys shares custody of his daughter from a previous marriage, whose lives continue to be private from the press despite his relationship with a famous swimsuit model.

Breastfeeding Awareness Week

Meanwhile, Breastfeeding Awareness Week is celebrated every first week of August to normalize and destigmatize a mother's act of feeding babies naturally, whether in private or public.

The World Health Organization recommends that mothers should breastfeed their newborn within one hour after giving birth and then breastfeed exclusively for at least six months. The experts said that problems like latching on and pain are normal during the first two weeks of breastfeeding.

However, for moms who experience soreness in the nipples or breasts, it's always a good idea to consult with their doctor or seek a lactation consultant's help. In most cases, it takes time to learn the proper techniques, coupled with the mother's commitment.

Related Article: Mastitis Complications: Prevention Tips Shared as Lauren Burnham Suffers Infection
Photo: (Photo : YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Matthew Coleman, the California father charged with killing his 10-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son, believed in the conspiracy theories he read, according to a friend who had bizarre conversations with Coleman before he committed the violence against his kids.

Speaking with People, the unnamed friend said that he didn't imagine Coleman would act on the weird stuff he believed as he was a "happy" father who was "excited" about his growing family. The friend added that Coleman enjoyed talking about feeding and diapers, but something changed in early 2021 when he would share the conspiracy theories he found online.

The friend said, however, that Coleman didn't give any indication that he was a danger to anyone, so it didn't make any sense that the 40-year-old father has been charged for the murder of his kids. The turn of events also devastated their circle of friends.

Read Also: 'American Idol' Star Syesha Mercado Loses Custody of Daughter After Son Was' Legally Kidnapped'

Confessing to the Crime

However, Coleman did admit to the FBI that he killed his kids using a spearfishing gun to their chests during their weekend trip to Mexico. He confessed to the authorities that he believed his son and daughter had serpent DNA from their mother and would likely turn to monsters.

The father checked in with his kids at a hotel in Rosarito on a Saturday while hotel cameras saw him and his children leaving the property at dawn on a Monday. However, later that morning, Coleman was seen returning to the hotel by himself before leaving Mexico for good.

A few hours later, Coleman was detained at the border as the FBI immediately got wind of the murders. A farm worker found the children's bodies early Monday near his ranch in Baja, California, and notified the authorities.

Coleman told the FBI about the conspiracy theories at the border checkpoint, saying that the Illuminati and the QAnon enlightened him. He also told them that he has been having visions and signs of his children's serpent DNA.

His wife told the authorities they were supposed to go camping that weekend, but Coleman took off and wasn't returning her messages. However, she stressed that they didn't have any argument, and she never suspected that her children would be in danger with their father. She filed a missing persons report after she traced her husband's iPhone to Mexico.

Who is Matthew Coleman?

Matthew Taylor Coleman established Santa Barbara's Lovewater Surf School. In his college years, he was part of the Point Loma University surf team and completed his master's in Spanish in 2009 at the UC Santa Barbara.

He worked as a high school teacher for a few years before founding the surf school. It was during his time as a teacher where he met his wife, Annie.

Rachel Woodby, a family friend whose kids had surfing lessons with Coleman, said that he was a patient and kind teacher and was great with children.

"This really comes out of the blue. He had no warning signs that he was capable of doing this," Woodby said.

Coleman could be tried for aggravated murder and remained under the custody of the FBI since his arrest on August 9.

Related Article: New Parents in Japan Send Rice Baby Bags for Relatives to Hug This Pandemic
Finnish contractor SRV has signed an agreement with Finavia Corporation to kick-start the renovation of Terminal 2 (T2) at Helsinki Airport.

The renovation work will start immediately and is scheduled to be completed in 2023. The total value of the contract is 27m (US$32m), of which SRVs share is 26m (US$30m).

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Covering approximately 35,000m2 , the project is part of the overall extension of T2 at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. The renovation will completely transform the existing departure hall and arrivals hall, and integrate them with the gate area and centralized baggage claim hall.

The extension will house the new main entrance, which will be opened in 2022, as well as new entrance and departure halls. The project is being implemented by an alliance that includes SRV and Finavia, with a design team consisting of Arkkitehtitoimisto ALA, Arkkitehtitoimisto HKP and Ramboll Finland.

Ossi Inkila, unit director at SRV, said, The whole extension and alteration project at T2 of Helsinki Airport is an extremely interesting construction project for us, as it is a major hub for international air traffic. It has been wonderful to be involved in implementing this cooperative project under an alliance model. The first project milestone was reached in autumn 2020, when a nine-story parking garage for 1,800 cars was completed.

The extension and alteration of Helsinki Airport seek to create a new kind of service area for passengers in front of T2. The extension will be used for check-in, security control, baggage drop and greeting passengers. The extension will also include a travel center combining different forms of transportation. The new building and renovated area cover 75,000m2 in total.

Martti Nurminen, project director at Finavia, added, The T2 extension and alteration project is a major part of Finavias investment program of more than 1bn (US$1.17bn). It seeks to bolster Helsinki Airports competitiveness as a major European hub for connections and to prepare for serving 30 million passengers in the future. Helsinki Airports strengths are smooth and easy travel, friendly staff and innovative services. We want to hold on to these strengths as passenger volumes grow. The construction project strongly supports our customer experience targets.
It's no secret that recent outbreaks of COVID-19 are disrupting plans by Apple and Google supply chains trying to shift production from China to Vietnam as governments tighten border controls to contain outbreaks of new variants of the virus.

Firstly, Apple, will start mass-production of its latest AirPods earphones in China instead of in Vietnam as previously planned. Apple is still hoping to move as much as 20% of new AirPods production to Vietnam later this year.

AirPods -- both entry-level and high-end models -- were among the earliest products that Apple began making in significant amounts in Vietnam, having moved production there around two years ago during the height of U.S.-China trade tensions.

Apple's plan to bring some MacBook and iPad production to Vietnam has also been put on hold due to a lack of engineering resources, an incomplete notebook computer supply chain.

Multiple supply chain managers told Nikkei Asia that it has been harder for their Chinese staff to apply for business trips to Vietnam, with "more documents and queries" needed in China since earlier this year.

Many of the suppliers say they have tried dispatching engineers of other nationalities, though they still face stricter entry requirements on both sides.

To combat the recent surge in infections, key Vietnamese provinces also ordered factories to halt production unless they could provide sleeping or travel arrangements for workers. Samsung Electronics temporarily halted production in Ho Chi Minh City and scaled back its workforce because of the intensified COVID situation. Key Apple suppliers Foxconn, Luxshare and Goertek in May also briefly suspended production in northern Vietnam to comply with stricter COVID control measures.

The good news, according to Annabelle Hsu, an analyst with research company IDC, is that any setback for Vietnam, which has already emerged as a key alternative manufacturing location to China, is likely to be temporary.

Hsu added that "We noticed there are some impacts on production lines and a slowdown in shifting of production capacity due to COVID-19 resurgence and government measures. However, we don't think the Vietnamese government will adopt such strict measures for very long, otherwise it will affect its own economy and its rising manufacturing prowess."

On a final note, Hsu stated that "China still boasts the biggest and most sophisticated electronics supply chain in the world, and the Chinese government will do all it can to prevent a large number of manufacturing jobs from leaving the country. It's a long-term tug-of-war between China and non-China production, and at the end of the day the pace of the production shift will depend on the geopolitical pressure from the bigger economies such as the U.S. or India to accelerate it."

Lastly, the Nikkei report touched on Google's upcoming Pixel 6 smartphones. They will now be built in China even though the company had planned to move production of the handsets to northern Vietnam early last year. "Like the Pixel 5 range last year, the new phones will be assembled in the city of Shenzhen due to limited engineering resources in Vietnam and intermittent travel restrictions."

For more on this story, read the full Nikkei Asia report.
Fidelity Bank Ghana has launched the Fidelity Banking Academy, a new capacity-building programme to provide regular, holistic training and competency upskilling for staff of Fidelity Bank. The initiative, that is being implemented in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana will elevate standards in the Ghanaian banking industry with respect to technical skills, and essential non-technical skills such as management and interpersonal skills.



The Fidelity Banking Academy will create an avenue for staff of Fidelity Bank to acquire top-notch skills. It also aims to provide the necessary creative environment for them to conceptualize locally relevant banking innovations that will meet the unique needs of the banks diverse customer base.



Commenting on the Fidelity Banking Academy, Julian Opuni, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, stated, This Academy seeks to produce consummate world-class bankers whose expertise will help to keep our banking industry at par with the very best in the world. Importantly, it will also serve the purpose of regularly upgrading skills of our staff and offering cost efficient and international standard training to meet the pertinent human resource needs of the local banking industry.



The Director of Human Resources at Fidelity Bank, Owusu Boahen, noted that The current dynamic landscape of the banking industry requires all banking professionals to sharpen their skills to meet evolving customer demands. We at Fidelity Bank remain committed to equipping our employees with the necessary skills and tools to become the best in the industry and we believe that this Academy will help us to achieve that objective.



The Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana, Charles Ofori-Acquah, remarked that, The Associate Charter Banker programme is the Institute's flagship qualification for banking education. However, in collaboration with leading financial institutions like Fidelity Bank, the Institute has also introduced certification programmes for practitioners in specialised areas of the banking industry such as Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, and Treasury Management, amongst others. We are happy to partner with Fidelity Bank to pilot this new model to provide opportunities for reskilling and upskilling of practitioners to improve and sustain excellent service delivery.



The Fidelity Banking Academy will deliver customized programmes/modules for different departments in the bank, including Banking Operations, Risk Management, Corporate Banking, Retail Banking, and more. There will also be an entry level program to boost the employability and skill level of young people desirous of building a career in the financial sector.



Fidelity Banks introduction of the Fidelity Banking Academy forms part of the Banks Together Were More brand promise that views success as a collaborative effort among key stakeholders working together towards a greater good. To this end, Fidelity Bank has demonstrated that by working with the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana to train its employees, it is supporting the industry to further contribute to the economic development of the country.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Chief Executive of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, has urged the youth to take a keen interest in the changes that are happening in industries whiles choosing a career path.



According to her, due to the recent changes that are happening in industries, it is imperative for the youth to properly understand and adapt to these changes in their chosen career.



Perfect your craft and understand the changes that are happening in the industries and professions you are building a career around so that you dont end up becoming inundated, she noted.



Madam Obo-Nai said this when speaking at the International Youth Empowerment Summit (iYES) 2021, to address the challenges some young men and women often face when finding their right career paths.



CEO of Vodafone Ghana further admonished the youth to grab available opportunities while preparing for their preferred profession. She urged the youth to take advantage of every opportunity that comes their way to ensure they do not miss out on any.

The first encouragement I want to give you is that, accept what you find when you start building a career. This is because sometimes you dont even know what you want. For me, I decided not to be choosy; I took all the opportunities that came my way with internships and National Service. I believe that exploring will let you know your weakness and strengths, and then you also get to develop your expertise, she explained.



She added Dont leave gaps in your CVs. When you are done with the job and you are seeking the next one, kindly do a voluntary job and learn something new. Dont sit and wait.



Stressing on the need to build contacts in career building, the Vodafone CEO urged the youths to have beneficial acquaintances as they journey to their desired careers.



Significantly, in building a career dont miss creating good contacts. Make memorable acquaintances because they can help in your chosen career paths.



The 7th edition of the International Youth Empowerment Summit(iYES), organised by Ghanaian-UK based Pastor, Brian Amoateng was held at the UPSA Auditorium to empower and equip the youth on a cross-section of relevant topics from seasoned ministers of God, entrepreneurs, and professionals who have influenced and impacted lives over the years.



The program also hosted the Vice President of Ghana Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, CEO of EIB Network, Nathan Kwabena Anokye Adisi aka Bola Ray, Actress Nana Ama Mcbrown, 2020 VGMA Artiste of the Year, Diana Hamilton and other selected speakers.

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Dean of the School of Performing Arts and Linguistics Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Kofi Agyekum has dissented to the possible closure of public Universities in the days ahead.



There is an ongoing impasse between the government, the National Labour Commission and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) as the teachers have embarked on a strike action over their conditions of service.



The striking Lecturers have refused to return to work despite the National Labour Commission securing an injunction against their industrial action.



While the Labour Commission and UTAG cannot come to terms, one of the parties suffering is the University students.



In three days time, on the 21st day since the commencement of the strike begun, according to law, all public Universities are to be closed if the lecturers remain on strike.



But Prof. Kofi Agyekum, popularly called Opanyin Agyekum, hopes it won't reach such stage as he prays there will be peaceful resolution before the University closure deadline.



"I don't want our Universities closed . . . we must do whatever we can do to ensure schools are not closed," he said.



Watch video below





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Secretary of the University of Ghana branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Prof. Ransford Yaw Gyampo says the government approach in resolving the ongoing strike of the association is appalling.



He said on NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie' that the government's move to use state institutions to force them into the classrooms will not work if negotiations are not made to address their plight.



Dont use state institutions to threaten the poor, it wont work, he told host Kwesi Aboagye.



Prof Gyampo was addressing a contempt case brought against the leadership of UTAG by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to a Labour Court.



The Commission on Friday, August 6 secured an interlocutory injunction from the court to compel UTAG to call off their strike which started on Monday, August 2, 2021.



UTAG has, however, refused to comply with the courts order, indicating that the premise is false.



While the NLC says that UTAG cannot remain on strike while negotiating with the government, UTAG insists that there is currently no active negotiation between them.



Listen to the interview below







Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The Ghana Police Service has deployed its special Anti-Armed Robbery Squad (AARS) to the Eastern and Bono East regions to clamp down on the increasing activities of armed robbers in those regions.



The AARS special force is to boost the capabilities of the two regional commands to ruthlessly fight robbery and other violent crime on highways.



The acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, deployed 227 policemen and senior officers, including 126 personnel, for the Eastern Region, with 101 personnel headed for the Bono East Region.



The team for the Eastern Region is led by the Director-General, Administration, Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Christian Tetteh Yohonu, and assisted by the Director-General of Operations, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Mohammed Fuseini Suraji.



The team for the Bono East Region is led by the Director-General in charge of Information Communications Technology (ICT), Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr Edward Tabiri.



Operation



The acting Director-General of the Public Affairs Directorate of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP),Mr Kwesi Ofori, gave the details in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday after the deployment of the special squad.



He gave an assurance that the police are prepared to rid the country of armed robbers and called for the cooperation of the general public during the exercise in the two regions.



ACP Mr Ofori said: "They are under instruction to deal ruthlessly with criminals in the two regions and their surrounding areas".



He said while in the regions, the special squad would patrol and mount snap checkpoints to maintain high visibility and do more public engagement with communities to support ongoing police activities aimed at reducing crime in the jurisdictions.



The special Anti Armed Robbery Squad, he said, would also launch intelligence-led attacks on criminal elements in both regions and protect traders and economic activity in the area.



The acting Director-General of the Police Public Affairs Directorate appealed to the public not to feel intimidated by the heavy police presence.



"We entreat members of the communities living within these regions to assist the police in ridding their communities of criminals. The police will stop at nothing to keep you safe and secure, he stated.



Background



In recent times, there has been a number of robbery attacks on residents in the two regions while some violent crimes have also been recorded.



On May 7, 2021 some gunmen attacked the head teacher of Bantama SDA Basic School in the Sene West District, Mr Elijah Asante, when he was returning from a workshop for teachers.



On Friday May 21, 2021 a 41-year-old military officer from the Third Battalion of Infantry in Sunyani, Sergeant Job Kwame Odei, was shot and killed by about six suspected robbers who were wielding guns and robbing commuters at gunpoint on the Prang-Kintampo Highway in the Pru East District in the Bono East Region.



On Wednesday July 7, 202, suspected robbers attacked a commercial passenger vehicle and killed an ICT teacher at the Kajiji DA Junior High School, identified as Mr Prah Junior, in the Bono Region. The driver of the vehicle sustained injuries.



On August 2, this year, the police at Abease in the Yeji District in the Bono East Region arrested two suspected robbers, King Solomon Osei and Peter Narifu, for allegedly assaulting their victims and collected their belongings while demanding their mobile money password at gunpoint at Damankwanta in the Pru West District in the Bono East Region.



In the Eastern Region, a man was shot when some suspected highway robbers mounted a road block at Barfuor Nkwanta near the Sorkode Dwaso junction, a spot where the police mostly conduct checks on vehicles, on the Koforidua-Akyem Kukurantumi road in the Eastern Region on Monday May 24, this year.

About 20 vehicles were allegedly robbed by the suspects who made away with a total of GH50,000, according to a victim.



On Monday, August 9, this year, a gang of six suspected armed robbers attacked commuters on the Patase stretch of the Asamankese-Topease highway.

The robbers, who wore reflectors and used a torchlight to stop their victims under the guise of being police officers, also attacked two pastors, an elder and a deacon of the Church of Pentecost.



They also robbed some occupants of a Rhino truck of their phones and a sum of GH12,500.



At the end of July this year, the police retrieved 2,882 rounds of AK-47; 7.63 ammunition, 840 rounds of M-16 ammunition and 23 BB cartridges from suspected armed robbers at a hideout at Ntoaso in the Eastern Region.



On Monday, August 9, this year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during a courtesy call on Nana Kwadwo Nyarko III, the Paramount Chief of Prang Traditional Area, in the Pru West District, as part of a two-day working visit to the Bono East Region gave assurance of the provision of effective security to check armed-robbery and other forms of crime in the region.







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Government has taken delivery of 249,600 doses of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine delivered under the COVAX facility.



The double-schedule vaccines presented by COVAX were donated by the government of the United Kingdom.



That brings to 1,765,050 the total number of vaccines that have come into the country, out of which 1,566,450 were AstraZeneca double-schedule vaccines.



Vaccines



Receiving the vaccines that came in at exactly 6:30am on board a Qatar Airline at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra on Wednesday, August 18, a Deputy Minister of Health, Ms Tina Mensah, said the vaccines had come in at a critical time in the national COVID-19 vaccination programme.



She said the donation was a further demonstration of the partnership between the UK government and the rest of the World, of which Ghana was part.



She expressed gratitude to the UK government, the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and all partners for their continuous support to the country in the management of COVID-19 locally.



This morning, Ghana is receiving 249,600 AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government through the COVAX facility to continue our COVID-19 vaccination. The donation is part of the broader pledge by the UK Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson at the G7 meeting in June this year.



The UK government will share 100 million jabs with the rest of the world, out of which 80 per cent will go through COVAX. The UK has already donated around five million vaccine doses to COVAX and three million of these doses will be sent to countries across Africa, she said.



Ms Mensah said it was particularly heart-warming to note that the UK government had provided continuous support to the countrys health sector.



She said the donation was coming at a time that the government had dedicated a lot of resources through the efforts of the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic, while at the same time addressing the general health needs of the entire population.



UK support



The Charge D affairs of the UK High Commission and Acting High Commissioner, Dr Joseph Whital, said it was his pleasure to hand over vaccines to Ghana on behalf of the UK government through COVAX barely six months after the country became one of the initial African countries to receive vaccines from the COVAX initiative.





He said so far COVAX had distributed over 1.3 billion doses of vaccines globally and he described that as a remarkable achievement that could have only been achieved through coordination, collaboration and cooperation.



I want to recognise the government of Ghanas rapid and coordinated health response to COVID-19. Ghana receiving vaccines today is a reflection of the fact that we know that these vaccines are on the runway today and in next few hours and by tomorrow, the vaccines would be dispatched to various health facilities to be deployed across the country.



I want thank the government of Ghana, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other partners for the unbelievable support they provided to the UK during the pandemic. The collaboration and cooperation has been truly outstanding," he said.













Source: graphiconline.com









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Details are emerging as to how the six former pastors of Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI) allegedly demanded a whopping $12 Million as settlement from the church.



The Ex-Pastors are Bishop Larry Odonkor, Bishop Oko Mensah, Rev. Edward Laryea, Pastor Seth Duncan, Pastor Edem Amankwah and Pastor Faith Makafui Fiakojo.



$12 Million Bombshell



On 3rd August 2021 which was the last adjourned date of the trial, the presiding Judge Justice Frank Aboagye Rockson repeated an earlier suggestion he had made to the parties to settle the matter amicably.



Counsel for LCI, Rodney Heward-Mills dropped the bombshell which left the court in shock. He revealed that some Eminent Clergymen had earlier approached both parties to settle the matter out of court and that during the settlement talks the ex-pastors demanded a whopping sum of US$ 12 Million as settlement from the church and took an entrenched position on their demand. He continued that the Senior Clergymen found the demand so outrageous that they abandoned any hope of settling the matter.



Counsel for the Ex-Pastors, Kofi Bentil initially stood up to deny that his clients made such a demand but later added that even if they did demand the US$ 12 Million it did not matter.



Reliefs Sought By the plaintiffs



The palintiffs are seeking the following reliefs against the church:



a. An order compelling LCI to pay their unpaid SSNIT contributions.



b. An order to compute and pay balance of salary due them.



c.Compensation to cover some investments plaintiffs made in schools and churches of the LCI and for rental of cars while in the service of LCI and for monies they spent on accommodation while in the employment of LCI.



d.General damages for breach of contract and the pain, unfair termination of contract and suffering caused as a result of bad treatment of Plaintiffs during the period of their employment and loss of income by their spouses during transfers.



LCI has vehemently denied all the allegations and mounted their defence to the suit.



Lay System Operated by LCI



According to the LCI, it operates a very extensive lay system. By this system, the church has thousands of volunteers who help the church work while they maintain their secular engagements either as workers or students. The lay system has been in operation since the church was founded in 1988 and has continued till date. Over 86% of LCI pastors are volunteer pastors.



The churchs policy and practice which are well known to the volunteers is that the church owes no financial obligation to volunteers by way of payment of salaries or social security contributions or taxes or any form of emolument.



Missionary Acceptance Form



Volunteer pastors who are going on missions willingly sign a Missionary Consent form with their parent/Guardian who also consent in writing to the decision by the volunteer to do missionary work. A portion of the form reads,  l,.(NAME) freely and willingly volunteer for Missionary work with the Lighthouse Missionary Society . I fully understand that based on my acceptance I am ready and willing to migrate and settle in a different country with or without my family as my choice may be. I also fully comprehend that I must find a job and become financially self sustaining.



LCI-Ghana is Separate and Independent



LCI-Ghana is a legally, financially, administratively and governmentally independent organization from other LCI churches outside the borders of Ghana and only shares a spiritual relationship with the others. LCI churches worldwide share a common vision of propagating the gospel worldwide and training leaders and pastors to take the gospel to the four corners of the world.



This further means that a pastor who leaves the country to a different country is considered not to be in employment of LCI Ghana. By this, that pastor if employed by the church is paid by the LCI of the country he moves to and not LCI Ghana.



Bishop Larry Odonkor



Bishop Larry claims he was employed by LCI-Ghana from 2001 to 2020. LCI-Ghana denies this and says the church employed him from July 2005 to June 2010 and then employed him again from January till April 2020 when he resigned without due notice to the church.



According to LCI-Ghana the church paid his SSNIT contributions in full during this period.



LCI says that Bishop Larry Odonkor was a volunteer pastor from 2001 to 2005 and he signed the missionary acceptance form with the written consent of his mother on 21st August 2001.

From September 2010 to May 2018, Bishop Odonkor was employed by LCI South Africa. Again from June 2018 to December 2019 he was employed by LCI Madagascar. All his salaries and allowances were paid by LCI-South Africa and LCI-Madagascar during this period.



Bishop Emmanuel Oko Mensah



The Church in its defence argued that that it had paid in full, all SSNIT contributions owed Bishop Oko Mensah for his 16 years as an employee of the Church contrary to his claim that the church owed him over 14 years of unpaid SSNIT contributions.



Again, the church argued that it provided free accommodation for the Bishop Mensah throughout the 16 years of employment contrary to his claim that he was most often deprived of the basic logistics, required for their work, such as a car and accommodation to facilitate his work.



LCI further indicated that for most part his employment period LCI without obligation gave Bishop Oko Mensah official cars to use and this includes a Hyundai Elantra with registration number GN8591-12 and that Bishop Oko Mensah refused to return the Hyundai Elantra when he resigned and that this vehicle is the subject matter of a counter claim and criminal action by LCI.



One of the most mind-boggling averments in Bishop Okos statement of claim is in paragraph 21 in which he avers that, his frequent and abrupt transfers led to the loss of employment by his spouse because of the policy of the Defendant church that he was to relocate to his new places of transfer with his spouse, and this was the case because Plaintiffs spouse could not speak the French Language.



LCI responded that the only wife of plaintiff known to LCI is Emmanuella Mensah and she refused to move to either Benin or Burkina Faso with him or join him there. She remained in Ghana and continued in her employment with SSNIT throughout the time the Plaintiff was in Benin and Burkina Faso.



It is therefore a palpable lie for Oko Mensah to say his wife followed him to Burkina Faso and Benin and therefore lost her job; unless Oko Mensah is talking about another wife he had that went with him on the mission.



In that case LCI says it owes him no liability in respect of her since he did not disclose that woman to LCI.



Rev. Edward Laryea



The LCI said contrary to the claim that the Plaintiff worked for the Church and the church failed to pay his SSNIT contributions from 2005 to July 2008, it paid SSNIT contributions from August 2008 when he was employed to March 2017 since between the periods of 2005 to July 2008, he(Mr Laryea) was a volunteer pastor and he signed the missionary acceptance form in July 2005 with the consent of his guardian.



Ps Edem Kofi Amankwah



Pastor Edem Kofi Amankwah was a Volunteer Pastor from October 2007 to 2018 when he resigned. He never became an employee of LCI-Ghana. He also with the written consent of his biological father, Mr Christopher Yaw Amankwah signed the Missionary Consent form on 13th October 2007.



Ps. Seth Duncan



He was a volunteer pastor from 2008 to 2018 till he resigned without due notice in 2018. He was never an employee of LCI. He also with the written consent of his biological father called Joseph Anti Duncan signed the Missionary Consent form on 21st November 2008. While pastoring in Paga and Tamale he was running a school in Paga to earn a living.



Ps Faith Makafui Fiakojo



Pastor Faith Fiakojo, was a Lay (Volunteer) Pastor in Fumbisi in the Upper East Region under LCI Ghana from November 2013 to December 2019 when he resigned without notice. He was not an employee according to the Churchs records.



He also with the written consent of his biological father, Mr Prosper Fiakojo signed the Missionary Consent form on 11th November 2013.



Allegations by Pastors Fiakojo, Duncan and Rev Edward, that they used their own monies to build LCI churches was vehemently denied by the LCI which contended that it built those churches without their direct or indirect financial involvement.



Counterclaims by LCI Against the Plaintiffs



LCI has counterclaimed against the former pastors as follows:



1. Against all 6 Plaintiffs for damages for defamation for publishing 3 Articles against the LCI each titled Darkness In A Lighthouse



Against Bishop Larry Odonkor:















That he stole monies he should have used to pay his own SSNIT contributions and taxes. That LCI upon discovering this after he resigned paid the SSNIT contribution and taxes with penalties thereon. LCI is counterclaiming for the stolen monies and has also reported the matter to the police for investigations. Bishop Larry is to report to the CID headquarters for interrogations on Friday 20th August 2021









LCI further claims that while Bishop Larry was in Madagascar he illegally sold a Toyota Land Cruiser which was an official vehicle belonging to LCI-Madagascar. And that LCI Madagascar has given LCI-Ghana a power of attorney to recover the proceeds of the sale from him.









LCI Madagascar has also reported him to the police in Madagascar and we are reliably informed that Madagacar police is advanced in its investiagtions.





3. Against Bishop Oko Mensah.For recovery of possession of the official vehicle ie Hyundai Elantra he refused to return to LCI-Ghana upon his resignation. LCI says it has reported the matter to the CID for investigations and he was compelled to return the car to the CID headquarters. Bishop Oko was on Monday 16th August 2021 charged with stealing the car and will soon be arraigned before court to be prosecuted.LCI-Burkina Faso claims while he was heading the LCI-Burkina Faso between 2018 and 2019 he misappropriated to himself the sum of $57,403.21. And that LCI  Burkina has given LCI-Ghana a power of attorney to recover sum from him.4. Against Faith Makafui Fiakojo. LCI claims he illegally took over the LCI church building in Fumbisi after he resigned and the church has sued for recovery of possession.5. Against Edem Amankwah. LCI Claims he resigned without making full account of books he took from the church to sell for a commission. He has refused to return either the books or the money. LCI is claiming a sum of GHC 36,820.00 from him.

Source: The Ghanaian Publisher









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New footage has come out on social media showing the Taliban militants wining and dining in the presidential palace formerly occupied by President Ashraf Ghani and his cabinet.



Some of the militants sat ontop the sofa while others could be seen eating as they chatted and laughed in the palace. The Taliban have taken total control of the war torn country as Western nations scramble to fly their citizens and diplomats out of Kabul as fast as possible.



On Sunday, August 15, former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country to neighboring Tajikistan as the Taliban advanced on the capital, Kabul. By Sunday evening the Taliban had already declared the 'Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan' bringing to mind the dark days of pre-2001 when the group ruled the country with iron fist, where women had no rights, had no education and had no voice.



Watch the video of the Taliban militants dining in the presidential palace below...









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The 2024 elections may be three years away but political parties are already lacing their boots with campaign slogans already on the streets.



For the National Democratic Congress it is the return of former President John Dramani Mahama whiles the governing New Patriotic Partys campaign is anchored on the belief of Breaking the 8.



It has become a common song in the mouth of members of NPP who believe strongly that for the first time under the fourth republic, a political party could run the country beyond two four-year terms.



Whiles the issue of its next flagbearer remains thorny with Vice President Mahamudu set to go head-to-head with Trade Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng, there is confidence within the party that irrespective of who gets the nod to represent the party in 2024, power will be retained.



They however face a big test in John Dramani Mahama and the NDC who according to the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin were convinced of breaking the 8 in 2016.



Bagbin says there was conviction that the party had done enough to win the trust of Ghanaians for another four years.



As it emerged, the party lost the election with over a million vote difference and Bagbin is eager to see if the NPP can become the first political party under the fourth republic to win three consecutive elections.



Our colleagues, like us  yes we did it before, are saying today that as for the next election they will win it. Yes, they say they will break it.



In 2016, my party the NDC said the same thing. As for that one for sure they were breaking it. We didn't break it. They are saying now they will. We're hearing them; we shall see whether they can do that, he asserted.



The Speaker of Parliament made the comments when he met a delegation from Ethiopia's Political Parties Joint Council (EPPJC) in Parliament on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.



Bagbin assured further that he will be neutral and firm in his dealings as Speaker of Parliament and not favor the NDC on whose ticket he became Speaker.



I will do everything, when I am performing my functions as the Speaker, to be impartial. It is not when I am performing my functions as a member of my party. That is different. That one I cannot be impartial. I have to perform my party function, he stressed. But as a Speaker, I will do everything to be impartial on the floor of the House. I won't satisfy the NDC and I will not satisfy the NPP. They will both be against me.



I have to satisfy the good people of Ghana and advance the course of democracy. It is national interest that should prevail, he stressed.









Source: ghanaweb.com









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The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin says an opposition leader does not need to fight the one in power to portray his party as a credible alternative government.



According to him some people have the mindset that the noble art of opposition is to fight the ruling government for electoral advantage saying an opposing leader does not oppose for oppositions sake.



Mr. Bagbin made the statement during an interaction with a delegation from Ethiopias Political Parties Joint Council (EPPJC) in Parliament on Wednesday.



The delegation, which was led by Dr. Rahel Bafe, was made up of leaders of political parties and some Members of the Ethiopian Parliament.



Opposition is not about fighting the one in power because as for change nothing can stop it. It is one of the things that nothing can stop. It will happen when it will happen, Mr. Bagbin said.



The Speaker continued that while he was the Minority Leader, a Nigerian parliamentarian questioned him whether he was truly the opposing leader in Ghanas Parliament at the time because of his collaboration with then Majority Leader and the Speaker when they attended the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting in Nigeria.



I was moving with the then Speaker and the Majority Leader. We were always together  sitting, talking and eating together  and one of the Nigerian MPs stopped me and said, they say you are the opposing leader in Ghana and I said yes. Are you sure you are the opposing leader? And I said yes, I am the opposing leader, he narrated, adding And he asked how can you be sleeping on the same bed with them and you said you are an opposing leader? And I said do you want to see me fighting them? That is not opposition.



The Nigerian MP told me it can never happen in Nigeria. Are you from Rawlings party and I said yes. So you people sat there and allowed the opposition party to take power from you? And I said we were not even sitting; we were standing and they took it from us. It can never happen in Nigeria but it eventually happened, he stated.



Power alteration



According to the Speaker, there has been power alteration in Ghana since the promulgation of the 1992 Constitution, indicating that every eight years there is usually a change.



Our colleagues, like us  yes we did it before, are saying today that as for the next election they will win it. Yes, they say they will break it.



In 2016, my party the NDC said the same thing. As for that one for sure they were breaking it. We didnt break it. They are saying now they will. Were hearing them; we shall see whether they can do that, he asserted.



He assured Ghanaians that it would not be for his intervention for power to change hands, noting because as I sit I will do everything, when I am performing my functions as the Speaker, to be impartial.



It is not when I am performing my functions as a member of my party. That is different. That one I cannot be impartial. I have to perform my party function, he, however, indicated.



But as a Speaker, I will do everything to be impartial on the floor of the House. I wont satisfy the NDC and I will not satisfy the NPP. They will both be against me.



I have to satisfy the good people of Ghana and advance the course of democracy. It is national interest that should prevail, he stressed.



He told his guests that Ghana had moved away from the mantra the Minority should have their say and the Majority their way to the Majority and Minority should have their say but the national interest must have its way.



We are not just talking about good governance or multiparty democracy. No! We are moving towards inclusive, participatory democracy, which is more of smart governance; not good governance as defined by the commonwealth conference in Zimbabwe.

















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The National Organizer of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joshua Hamidu Akamba is still in shock that former President John Dramani Mahama did not win the 2020 presidential election.



He claimed the former President was voted for massively but was robbed off victory by the Electoral Management Body to please their paymasters.



If not for the rigging, John Mahama would have been President again, that would have been his second coming, he said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show 'Ghana Montie'.



Joshua Akamba maintained that, President [former] Mahama hasnt lost hope yet  indicating that the former NDC flagbearer might again contest the flagbearership position to lead the party in the next presidential election.



His comment follows Mr. Mahamas recent Thank You Tour across the country.



Listen to the interview





Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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The ruling NPP Ashanti Regional Secretary, Sam Pyne, has called on Ghanaians to fully support the ''Agenda 111'' project by the Akufo-Addo administration.



The government has secured US$100 million start-up fund through the Ghana Investment Infrastructure Fund (GIIF) to commence the construction of specialized district and Regional hospitals across the country.



The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 cut sod for the project which is dubbed ''Agenda 111''.



The Project Implementation Committee chaired by Chief of Staff, Madam Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, had secured sites and land titles for 88 out of the 101 district hospitals and each unit would cost US$17 million covering 15 acres.



All hospitals are expected to be completed within 18 months, starting from the point of commencement.



Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah announced this at the Minister's briefing in Accra on Sunday saying, "it's the largest healthcare infrastructure project ever taken in the history of Ghana since independence."



Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Sam Pyne took a swipe at the opposition National Democratic Congress and its Minority in Parliament for expressing dissenting views over the project.



The Minority has raised questions over the project suggesting it is not feasible for the President and his government to complete it within the specified time.



But to Sam Pyne, nothing will sway the government from completing the project.



He stressed that the $100 million which is a start-up fund for the project doesn't mean the government cannot raise more funds to successfully complete the project.



He was optimistic that the construction of all the district and Regional hospitals under the Agenda 111 will come to fruition and therefore warned the opponents to, "stop the pessimism and those bad spirits. We should remove them from our head knowing what we can do to make it successful is what will help the country''.



He implored Ghanaians to rally behind the President to achieve the Agenda 111 objective.





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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Broadcaster and TV Personality with Atinka TV, Afia Adepa Kwarteng was honored at the just ended Ghana Youth Awards.



Ghana Youth Awards is an initiative by WCAMF & ARENA Events which aims at acknowledging the growth, achievements and leadership skills of exceptional young Ghanaians making significant impact in the societies as well as the nation.



The Awards night took place in Accra on Friday August 12,2021, where other personalities in the media field were also honored for their contributions in their field of work.



The citation for the award read for the host of popular telenovela Chatroom show, Tumhari Pahk, For your enormous contribution and to the media fraternity as a television presenter inspiring many Ghanaian youth to follow their passion and pursue careers in the media.



The Ghana Youth Awards team says Ayekoo. Some of the showbiz personalities and media personalities who were also honoured on the night include Neat FMs Ola Michael, Socrate Sarfo, Nana Adwoa Annan of Atinka Tv,and Gospel musician Rose Agyei .

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The Management of the Royal Senchi Hotel has decided to maintain Mrs. Akosua Amoateng (MBE) as the International Brand Ambassador of the Hotel.



Mrs Amoateng has met and exceeded the expectation of Management by not only marketing the hotel globally but also promoting the culture-rich country of Ghana to the world, leveraging her wealth of network and influence.



She was appointed an Ambassador for the Hotel in 2019, following President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo's "Year of Return" declaration, which saw many people in the diaspora coming home and experiencing our rich Ghanaian culture at Royal Senchi.



Two years on, the quantum of visits to Ghana and the hotel and the potential numbers in the months and years ahead, are traceable to her role, which leaves Management in no uncertain position to renew the relationship with the Media Personality par excellence - a proud daughter of the land.



The peak of the pandemic was a very challenging period to many businesses, especially for us in the tourism/hospitality space.



The period, however, also presented us with the opportunity to essentially appreciate our strengths and capabilities, putting in more work when it became critical to turn things around.



In the face of grim challenges, Mrs. Amoateng made sure the Hotel received a constant flow of guests from various parts of the world.



During her tenure, the hotel got a number of recognitions, including winning the best River Front Resort in Africa early this year.



It has been a wonderful journey with her and we look forward to an even better future together.



The Royal Senchi Resort shall continue to be committed to promoting our time-honored heritage and artistry with a jealously-guarded set of values and devotion to class.



We remain the most preferred getaway destination in West Africa, and we will endeavor to deliver our every service and product with a perfected standard of Ghanaian hospitality.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Ghanaian actress, Beverly Afaglo has announced that the GoFundme Account that was launched to solicit for funds following the unfortunate incident that left her with literally nothing.



Beverly Afaglos house was raze down with fire and all her belongs were burnt to ashes leaving her with the only dress she and her kids were wearing on that day.



In their bid to show support and empathy, some of her colleagues, Nana Ama McBrown and Yvonne Nelson called on members of the public to donate to help Beverly rebuild her burnt house and for the sake of the kids, Ghanaians should come together and help her.



The target of the campaign is to raise $20,000 to support Beverly Afaglo. Hi our names are Yvonne Nelson, and Fianko Bossman also known as Chase Forever,and We are fundraising for our sister Bervely and husband Choir master who have lost all their belongings in a fire that burned down their home, the information on GoFundMe read.



It added that we are pleading with the public and all love ones to be touched in their hearts to donate something or anything that can help them get back on their feet thank you. Yvonne Nelson shared a screenshot of the campaign on her Instagram page to publicize it.



She wrote she lost her home. Pls help @beverly_afaglo Kindly tap link in my Bio to donate. Thanking you in advance. God bless you



However, Ghanaians were not pleased with the gesture some of these celebrities extended and they blasted them for choosing to help someone who had bragged about have enough money to take care of herself several months ago.



Beverly Afaglo who has had to deal with the backlash and criticism on social media has finally given up on the donations as she has officially cancelled the Gofundme project as well as the Mobile Money donations that was supposed to help her get back on her feet and rent a house for her family.



Sighted on her Instagram page, Beverly asked fans to delete any Gofund me post they have made and assured them that God will see her through.



She appreciated Nana Ama Mcbrown, Yvonne Nelson and other celebrities who came through for her and apologized to them for being dragged by Ghanaians into her trouble.



"U all should delete the Gofund me post, please.God is my strength. Thank u to @yvonnenelsongh and @iamamamcbrown for starting the Gofund me and the Momo ", she posted this on her social media pages.













Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com









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Todd Dittman, IndiePets first executive director, addresses attendees during the organizations first official meeting.
Marilyn remembers a September day that had dawned full of light with sapphire blue skies. She was working at her computer, her back to the narrow floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the Statue of Liberty, when the first hijacked plane bore into the North Tower between the 93rd and 99th floors at 8:46 a.m. She heard the boom and initially thought it might be fireworks.

Then she turned around and looked outside. Fire and debris were everywhere. She could feel the heat on her cheeks and worried that the windows might burst. People in her office were screaming, Get out, get out and banging on the elevator doors. She and a co-worker decided to take the stairs, which werent as crowded  cascading like you wouldnt believe, Marilyn recalls -- and made it to what she now thinks was the 63rd floor.

At that point, an announcement was made that the South Tower was safe, and people could either leave, shelter in place or return to their offices. Marilyn and her friend ducked into the offices of Morgan Stanley and quickly found phones to call home. Her husband Paul had taken their son to school and was at their house, watching the news, terrified by what was unfolding.

Im safe. Im okay, Marilyn remembers telling her husband, although in the confusion, she never told him exactly where she was. Don't worry. I'm not sure what we're going to do, but I just wanted to let you know.

And then I said to him, Oh my God.

Thats the moment Marilyn realized what she was seeing. People were either jumping or falling out of the North Tower. Paul told her to get out of the building immediately.

At 9:03 a.m., barely 15 seconds later, Paul watched in horror as the second highjacked plane plowed into the South Tower between floors 77 and 85. He knew the logistics and feared the worst.

I thought she was still in her office on the 95th floor, he said.

Marilyn was in the hallway of the Morgan Stanley offices when the second jet barreled into the South Tower. She remembers a deafening noise as the walls caved in. The building started to vibrate like Jell-O.

Then we saw this fireball coming at us Marilyn says.

She and her friend ducked into a room, which turned out to be a kitchenette with a sink and a watercooler. She took off her sweater, soaked it in water and stuffed it against door jamb to ward off any smoke or fire. They doused themselves with water, too.

When they opened the door, they could see a fireball caught in a backdraft, receding and then heading their way and receding again. The only way to escape was to make a break for it when the fireball was headed away. They did, found the exit and sprinted down the crowded stairs to the lobby.

Marilyn remembers passing firefighters who were heading up the stairs, not down to safety. One asked her whether there were still people on the higher floors. She told him yes. The firefighter pressed on.

They were coming up and they had hoses wrapped around their shoulders, they had ropes, they had all sorts of gear, Marilyn says. And I was just in awe, because here I am trying to flee this tragedy and here they are walking up.

Marilyn also remembers seeing people help each other down the stairs, supporting the elderly and injured.

The sheer bravery of people helping each other in this just horrific tragedy, she says.

Paul, meanwhile, was waiting by the phone at home, his eyes transfixed on the gruesome images on TV. His mother-in-law called to see if he had any news. The school their son, Paul, named after his father, attended in Connecticut called twice, urging his father to come get him.

By the time Paul got to the school, the South Tower had collapsed, killing more than 800 people, some 55 minutes after it had been hit by the plane.

I knew it was Marilyns tower, Paul says. And Paul, our son, asked me that, was that moms tower that was on the ground. And I basically told him a story, I said, no, moms tower is still fine.

By the time we got home, both towers are on the ground, and he wasnt asking me any more questions. And the two of us just sat on the couch, fixated on what was going on on TV.

Once Marilyn and the others got to the lobby, they were directed to a route through the retail area underneath the World Trade Center so they could avoid the bodies on the plaza outside. She emerged at street level at the corner of Broadway and Vesey, then turned and looked at the haunting sight.

We saw both World Trade Centers, Marilyn says. Both holes were at different levels. At 1 World Trade Center, the hole that the plane went through was at a much higher level than at 2 World Trade Center.

Her co-worker left her at that point to head to his home in New Jersey. But she ran into a fellow Fiduciary Trust employee and together they ran to the nearest express subway stop. She didnt have any money because her purse was in her office. Neither of them had their metro cards.

We just jumped the turnstiles, got on the subway and got up to Grand Central, Marilyn recalls.

Thats when they saw a TV at a newsstand and realized the extent of what had happened. Her friend found an ATM and got some money for them both. They got on one of the last trains to leave before Manhattan Island was locked down.

On the train, I was just shell shocked, Marilyn recalls. I was listening to people, hearing what they thought was going on and so forth. And it was just really trying to absorb what I'd been through, what I saw. So, I just stayed very, very quiet on the train. 

I just wanted to get home because I was just so scared and just wanted to be with my family.

Paul and his son were frantic, too. We were basically just there waiting and wondering, and hoping and praying that she would be fine, he says.

Marilyn got off the train in Scarsdale and immediately went to the Central Cab Company stand. She used their service often, and one of the guys came over and said, Mrs. White, you dont look so good. She told him she had been at the World Trade Center.

They just put me in a cab and sent me straight home, Marilyn says. And then dropped me off in front of our house. I walked up the front walk and walked in the front door. And that was the first that they knew that I was okay.

It was a really good feeling to be home.

Marilyn will never forget what it felt like to see her family that day. For the first time since shed heard the explosion at the North Tower and looked outside her window, she felt safe.

To lose that sense of feeling safe and secure, was something that I'd never felt before, Marilyn says. Coming home and feeling that, feeling safe, and having my son and having my husband hold me and hug me, it's  an indescribable feeling.

Family always comes first.  But feeling it that day so acutely  intensified my feeling towards family and how my relationship with my husband, my relationship with my son, our family is first and foremost. It was totally clarified.

The Whites son was acutely affected by the events of 9/11, as well. While Paul was at Boston College, he received a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy in Hamburg, Germany. He served in the ROTC when he was doing graduate work at the University of Chicago and later spent seven years in the Army, deploying twice and rising to the rank of captain. He now works in the State Department.

I'm ever so proud of how he has taken the 9/11 experience and has developed it into a path for him, where he wants to serve his country, Marilyn says. And the first step for him in serving his country was to join the Army  And very proud that he would want to put his life in harm's way the way I saw a fireman put his life in harm's way for me.

Then once he had decided to leave the Army, and he wanted to still build upon serving his country but to do it in a different way. As his little daughter, Evie, says, My daddy works at the State Department. He's going to help people talk to each other and listen to each other.

So, for him to take it to another level is just, just so proud. And I just can't wait to see  his journey, where it's going to take him.


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WAGENER  Plans are in place for an all-day gathering in Wagener to mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with prayer, music and a fair-style environment in a park that is now in its final stages of development.

Fire Fest, a project of the fire departments of Wagener and New Holland, is to take place in Ponder Park, behind the town's fire station, at 299 Park St. N.E. Events are to run from about 7:30 a.m. with prayers offered by a variety of local pastors, and running into a string of afternoon and evening musical performances by entertainers such as Chapel Hart, Cody Webb and Anybody's Guess.

Dennis Jackson, chief of the New Holland volunteer fire department (VFD), said the point is "memorializing the events of 9/11, remembering ... 20 years ago that day ... and honoring the people that lost their lives that day, and then after that, it's about bringing our community back together."

Attractions will include a water slide, bounce houses, car clubs, cornhole competition, pony rides, a petting zoo and a fly-over. Admission is free for the festival and $30 in advance and $40 at the gate for the musical portion of the event (1:30 p.m. to about 11:30 p.m.).

One of the high-profile visitors is Rick Duran, a retired New York Fire Department chief who was in the city on the day of the terrorist attacks. He is to speak at 9 a.m., sharing his memories of the fateful day.

A bagpipes rendition of "Amazing Grace" is also planned along with performances by Madeline Widener, Anthony Holcomb, Maddie Rean and the Robbie Cockrell Band.

The host site itself is a new feature in Wagener, having taken shape over the past year on land partially provided through a variety of donations. It is named in honor of the couple who donated much of the land.

The Fire Fest largely came from conversations Jackson had with David Watson, chief of the Wagener VFD, Jackson said.

"The prayer is going to consist of praying for the victims that were lost of 9/11, our community, and our country as a whole, because we need to be healed; and that's basically how this whole thing came about," he added. "We could tie in memorializing the 9/11 and then also on top of that is having a community event to bring our community back together."

He added, "Unfortunately, in our society today, we've got just a country full of hate. There's a lot of people that hate each other, and I'm not sure why, because I don't hate anybody; and we need to learn how to get together and be together and love again."

The event's major sponsor is Tony Jackson Mobile Home Movers. The business' owner and namesake, a 1985 graduate of Wagener-Salley High School, commented on his support.

"The community gave to me. It's time to give back," he said, noting that his business is now in its 20th year and serves not only Aiken County but also much of the surrounding area including Edgefield, Lexington, Richland, Barnwell, Orangeburg, Hampton and Saluda counties, among others.

Details are at newhollandfire.org and wfd16.com.
MANNING  A family-owned South Carolina cotton gin that's been in business for 76 years and was once honored by state legislators is accused of failing to pay nearly $6.6 million to customers, triggering a criminal investigation and an involuntary bankruptcy case.

The State Law Enforcement Division said on Aug. 18 that it has opened an investigation into Rickenbaker Gin Inc., which has been processing cotton and selling the crop and grains for farmers since 1945. SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby said "no additional information is available while the investigation is ongoing."

The criminal probe coincides with an effort by the S.C. Department of Agriculture to take the Davis Station company to court over the missing money.

"Earlier this year we began receiving reports of South Carolina farmers who had contracted with Rickenbaker to sell their cotton and grain and had not been paid," said Eva Moore, the Agriculture Department's spokeswoman.

She added the department "was unable to determine what happened to the funds."

The agency made the payments from a pair of state funds set up to cover farmers' losses. State agriculture officials on Aug. 11 filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition in Columbia against Rickenbaker seeking to sell the company's assets and recoup the money.

All told, 18 cotton producers and 28 grain producers have filed compensation claims with South Carolina's Grain Producers Guaranty Fund and the Warehouse Receipts Guaranty Fund. The two funds are financed by farmer and warehouse assessments, so no tax dollars were involved, Moore said.

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The allegations are a far cry from Rickenbaker's history as a second-generation cotton gin founded by the late Henry Rickenbaker upon his return to South Carolina after World War II. The S.C. Legislature recognized the company in a 2003 resolution for its "commitment to the cotton industry in Clarendon County."

Burt Rickenbaker  the founder's son and a former president of the Southeastern Cotton Ginners Association  was named Ginner of the Year by that group in 2019.

No one answered the company's phone this week, and a message stated that the office voicemail is full. A Rickenbaker Gin official could not be reached for comment. The company has until Sept. 7 to respond to the bankruptcy petition.

Moore said neither of the guaranty funds were depleted, but the department was not able to cover all of the cotton claims because state law only allows interest from the warehouse receipts fund to be used for payments.

A pair of cotton producers  Ashwood Gin Inc. of Elliott and Wade Atkinson of Mayesville  have joined the department's efforts to liquidate Rickenbaker. Neither Ashwood Gin nor Atkinson could be reached for comment.
A longtime Japanese restaurant will bow out by the end of August while a Pakistani diner plans to open a few miles north in Mount Pleasant.

The hibachi-style dining spot Ichiban at 909 Houston Northcutt Blvd. in the Whole Foods Market-anchored Patriots Plaza Shopping Center off Johnnie Dodds Boulevard will prepare its last meals Aug. 28 after serving the Charleston region for 25 years.

"Ichiban will be closing permanently," according to a post on its website and a sign in the window by owners Song Wu and Larry Zhang. "Our last day will be Saturday, Aug. 28th. We are excited to begin a new chapter of our lives, yet saying goodbye is also bittersweet."

The post goes on to say, "Keeping a small family business open all these years has had its challenges, but we have cherished the opportunity to fill your stomachs, get to know you and make lasting friendships along the way. Thank you for your support and kindness. We will hold onto these fond memories wherever we go in the future."

Ichiban will be open 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays and 5-8 p.m. except on Sunday until its last day.

Farther north off U.S. Highway 17, a new Pakistani restaurant plans to begin serving customers by the end of August in Mount Pleasant Towne Centre.

The same team that is bringing Pakistani food offering Maam Saab to downtown Charleston plans to open a new canteen-style venue called Malika by the end of August at 1333 Theatre Drive. It's taking over the space formerly occupied by Qdoba Mexican Grill, which closed during the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020.

Malika refers to queen in the Urdu language spoken in Pakistan.

"We're almost there," Malika's website states. "We're putting the final touches. ... Looking forward to seeing you soon!"

Hiring is underway, as well, for the 2,200-square-foot restaurant.

"We are now just waiting on inspections and making sure those happen on time," co-owner Raheel Gauba said.

His wife, Maryam Ghaznavi, will serve as chef and co-owner. She promises to curate dishes that deliver on the complex flavors from the streets and canteens of Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and other Pakistani areas.

Customers can expect classic canteen dishes such as curried lentils with basmati rice and a selection of hot and cold drinks, including homemade lemonade.

The restaurant seats up to 60 people inside and about a dozen outside.

Ghaznavi and Gauba also are transforming the former Jestines Kitchen space on Meeting Street into Maam Saab and plan to open it by late fall or early winter, Gauba said.

They had planned to be in operation by late summer, but several delays have held them up.

Beauty spot

A France-based beauty products chain will open one of its first 70 U.S. locations in the Charleston area on Aug. 20 in a new deal with a different department store chain. It also is the first in South Carolina.

Sephora will have a dedicated 2,500-square-foot space in Kohl's at 480 Azalea Square Blvd. in Azalea Square Shopping Center in Summerville. It will carry more than 125 curated beauty brands.

The stores opening in August are the first of 200 that will open this fall, with Sephora at Kohls expanding into at least 850 stores by 2023.

Kohl's operates 16 stores in South Carolina, including three in the Charleston area, in Mount Pleasant, Summerville and West Ashley.

Sephora once had a business partnership with department store chain J.C. Penney. The two companies began to phase out their relationship after J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy reorganization in May 2020 with plans to close many of its stores.

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A slimmed-down J.C. Penney emerged from bankruptcy last fall after its retail operations were bought by mall investors Simon Property Group Inc. of Indianapolis and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. of Toronto.

J.C. Penney operates one store in the Charleston area, in Northwoods Mall.

New threads

A women's apparel shop with more than 100 boutiques in 30 states is coming to downtown Charleston and adding its third location in South Carolina.

Maryville, Tenn.-based Altar'd State plans to move into a 10,689-square-foot, two-story building at 501 King St., according to the commercial real estate firms NAI Charleston and The PrimeSouth Group.

The business, which also offers accessories, home decor and gifts, searched for a location in Charleston for three years before deciding upper King Street is a "hip area" that would be a good fit for its next store, according to NAI Charleston.

Previously a distillery, the space, with large storefront windows, offers a unique vibe with brass details, exposed brick and structural beams.

Other Palmetto State stores are in Columbia and Greenville. The new store will open in the spring or summer of 2022, according to a spokesman.

On the way

A new skincare shop is opening in downtown Charleston.

SkinLab by Mount Pleasant Dermatology plans to open Aug. 24 at 445 King St., next to Las Olas beachwear shop.

It will offer a SkinCeuticals retail location in the front and a medical spa in the back portion, according to Madeline Davis of the firm's Long Point Road office.

Hours of operation will be 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays.

Stepping it up

Sports apparel shop Fleet Feet will host the grand opening of its third Charleston-area store Aug. 20-22 at 2509 N. Main St. in Goose Creek, across from Carnes Crossroads. A ribbon-cutting at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 20 will kick off the celebration. A 3-mile Happy Hour run is set for 6 p.m. the same day. Participants will receive Asics T-shirts while supplies last.

Representatives of several brand partners will be on hand all weekend.

Owners Amy and Chris Minkel opened their first store in 2013 in Mount Pleasant. They expanded to the Summerville area in 2015. General manager Wade Wiley became part of the ownership earlier this year.

Dining in

A downtown Charleston office building in the banking district could soon be retrofitted to include a restaurant space. City planning officials are considering a proposal to renovate the six-story structure at 151 Meeting St. so it will include a ground-floor restaurant space. The building houses a number of office tenants, including First National Bank and South Carolina-based law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.

New additions

A hardware store is one of two new businesses that have set up shop in a North Charleston outdoor shopping center that's geared more toward apparel.

Direct Tools Factory Outlet recently opened in Tanger Outlets in the Centre Pointe development off International Boulevard. The 3,500-square-foot hardware provider offers new, refurbished and slightly used tools from leading brands.

Tanger's other new tenant is Lola Soap. The 1,855-square-foot shop carries artisan bath and body products designed to look like desserts. Products include handmade soaps, bath bombs, deluxe skincare products and sugar scrubs.
COLUMBIA  A fourth businessman will face criminal charges in South Carolinas $9 billion nuclear power fiasco.

A federal grand jury has indicted Jeff Benjamin, a former executive at Westinghouse Electric Co., on 16 felony charges connected to his involvement in the failed V.C. Summer nuclear power plant expansion in Fairfield County. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine.

Our commitment to investigate and prosecute the V.C. Summer nuclear debacle has never wavered, Acting U.S. Attorney for South Carolina Rhett DeHart said in announcing the charges. While the indictment  and the allegations contained within  speak for itself, it is further proof of our commitment to seek justice for South Carolina ratepayers and all others affected by the V.C. Summer project failure.

That V.C. Summer venture was supposed to provide clean energy to millions of South Carolinians for decades to come.

But it suddenly collapsed in July 2017 after years of budget overruns, supply chain problems and slow construction progress. Customers of the two electric utilities that owned the twin-reactor project, South Carolina Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper, were stuck with the tab. They will pay billions of dollars more on their power bills over the coming decades to cover the construction debt.

An ongoing state and federal criminal investigation into the projects failure has directed blame at the leaders of SCE&G, the projects majority owner, and Westinghouse, the lead contractor that designed the AP1000 nuclear reactors and supervised construction.

Prosecutors say Westinghouse knew long before July 2017 that the project was doomed and its December 2020 deadline to have the reactors online was unattainable. But the company, which planned to build similar reactors for power companies all over the world, still supplied SCE&G and Santee Cooper with fraudulent projections that construction productivity would somehow skyrocket and the reactors would be completed on time.

Benjamin was a key player in that fraud, the indictment alleges.

SCE&Gs executives knew that Westinghouses projections were unrealistically optimistic. But they still parroted the projections to state utility regulators, lawmakers, investors and the general public, assuring everyone that all was well in Jenkinsville, prosecutors have said.

Benjamin was a senior vice president for new plants and major projects at Westinghouse for nearly four years.

The Aspen, Colo., resident oversaw the AP1000 line of reactors until he was fired in March 2017, just two weeks before Westinghouse declared bankruptcy  the first public warning sign that South Carolinas nuclear project was in trouble. He now runs his own nuclear consulting company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The Aug. 18 indictment charges Benjamin with conspiracy, wire fraud, securities fraud and causing a publicly traded company to keep false records.

It alleges Benjamin communicated directly with SCE&G and Santee Cooper executives about the progress at the nuclear site throughout 2016 and early 2017. Benjamin lied, telling them the project would be finished on time to qualify for crucial federal tax credits meant to offset its gargantuan costs, according to the indictment.

Benjamin also worked to conceal damaging reports and projections from the utilities' leaders, the indictment states. And he stood by as SCE&G repeated Westinghouse's false projections to state regulators who were monitoring the project, the indictment alleges.

Benjamin helped keep the project alive, and some $600 million flowing from SCE&G and Santee Cooper to Westinghouse, the indictment states.

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"In truth, SCANA and Westinghouse executives ... knew that both units were not on track to meet the December 31, 2020, deadline without unprecedented improvements in pace and productivity," the charging documents state.

In fact, when SCE&G ran its own analysis after Westinghouse's bankruptcy, it learned that the first reactor likely wouldn't be completed until December 2022, while the second wouldn't be finished until March 2024.

Federal prosecutors have already secured guilty pleas from two SCE&G executives and a Westinghouse manager. No Santee Cooper leaders have been indicted.

Former SCE&G CEO Kevin Marsh admitted to defrauding the utilitys more than 700,000 electric customers in South Carolina as he wrongfully kept the project going. He will spend at least 18 months in prison and pay back ratepayers at least $5 million he earned from V.C. Summer.

Ex-SCE&G chief operating officer Steve Byrne pleaded guilty to similar charges. He faces up to $1.25 million in fines and restitution and possible prison time.

Carl Churchman, Westinghouses top official on the ground at V.C. Summer from 2015 to 2017, pleaded guilty in June to lying to an FBI agent who questioned him about the project. Prosecutors said Churchman personally relayed Westinghouses faulty projects to SCE&G and Santee Cooper executives, then tried to cover up his involvement. He faces a $250,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

All three are cooperating as witnesses in the criminal investigation as part of their plea deals.

The federal investigation into V.C. Summer appears to be drawing to a close.

Federal crimes generally have a five-year statute of limitations. And prosecutors have focused mostly on the mishandling of the project in late 2016 and early 2017.

That means federal prosecutors are running out of time to bring charges against any other defendants.

However, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilsons office is conducting a parallel state investigation. His prosecutors are bound by no such statute of limitations.

The project's failure had dire consequences.

Lawmakers spent four years debating whether to sell state-owned Santee Cooper before ultimately deciding to overhaul the utility's governance to require more state oversight.

SCE&G sold itself to Virginia-based Dominion Energy, which promptly renamed the tarnished utility Dominion Energy South Carolina.

State lawmakers had to confront their own failure to oversee South Carolina's electric industry.

And residents of all 46 S.C. counties were left with higher power bills for a pair of reactors that never generated a watt of electricity.
COLUMBIA  Shirley Boatwright sat in front of a colorful carpet, a room full of first graders turned to her, as she opened the book, First Day Jitters, and showed it to the children.

The teacher asked her Forest Heights Elementary pupils what they thought would happen to protagonist Sarah Jane Hartwell.

I think she might be scared, a student said.

She might make new friends, another guessed.

They very well may have been talking about what was in store for themselves as classes resumed across Richland County on Aug. 18 in year two of a global pandemic.

I was virtual last year and coming back into the classroom and seeing all the kids, Im so excited to have them back, Boatwright said. We have so many great things planned for them this year.

Nearly 50,000 students in South Carolinas capital county are back behind their desks  and masks  under states of emergency issued by Columbia city and Richland County officials that will require face coverings as COVID rates continue to rise.

Richland Ones governing board went a step further, voting just days before schools opened to keep in place a March policy requiring that masks be worn inside all buildings. That puts the 22,000-student district at odds with a budget amendment barring compulsory mask-wearing rules at the risk of losing state aid.

For Richland One, it could mean up to $100 million. But Superintendent Craig Witherspoon, in a tour of Forest Heights, said it was the right thing to do.

As of Aug. 17, Richland One has eight active COVID cases among students and staff, with 103 others in quarantine, according to health data posted on its website.

We know that masks are important to help mitigate that spread, Witherspoon said.

Like other schools in the district, Forest Heights has set up a hand sanitizer station just inside its main entrance, while a box of face masks sits atop a desk.

As we worked through the summer into the school year with uptick in cases, the board saw a need to reaffirm that policy, Witherspoon said. Its all about knowing what we can do to keep staff and kids as safe as possible.

Spokeswoman Karen York said visitors are not allowed inside schools until Richland Countys COVID incidence rate drops from high.

It means traditional visits to the S.C. Statehouse, Riverbanks Zoo and other locations remain on hold, although technological upgrades have been made to enhance virtual teaching opportunities, York said.

Schools and our staff have become even more creative in offering kids those opportunities with the limitations that we have, she said.

Witherspoon said cafeterias are being reworked into larger-sized classrooms to accommodate social distancing, with students still having meals in their rooms.

Were glad to have our students back, but we know from our officials if we do those things, we can have a safe year and keep students in school. Thats the goal, he said. All of the tools that we can use in terms of safety helps us to do that.

Outside Forest Heights, a masked-up Myesha Kinsey headed back home to get some paperwork so her son, Zaymere, could begin kindergarten. It was hectic, she acknowledged, but Kinsey said she felt safe leaving her 5-year-old with school officials.

They got it set up where they got the masks and the sanitizer and everything when you walk in, just in case you dont have it, she said. I really dont want him to leave my side, but hes got to.
Charleston, SC (29403)

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Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

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Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
GEORGETOWN  The city of Georgetown announced in a press release Aug. 18 its city hall would be closed to the public through Aug. 20 due to COVID-19 exposure in the building.

The situation will be reassessed over the weekend, according to the press release, to determine if reopening Aug. 23, the following Monday, is appropriate. City hall services will still be available through the drop off window, the release also stated.

With several South Carolina municipalities and universities re-enacting mask mandates as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations soar once again, Georgetown Mayor Brendon Barber said he has begun consulting with Georgetown first responders and medical professionals to determine if another mask mandate is necessary for the city.

"One life is one too many to lose to COVID-19," Barber said, encouraging residents to get vaccinated.

Georgetown County experienced 22 new cases Aug. 16  its worst spike since the beginning of the year.

Less than half of South Carolinians are vaccinated, and Georgetown County, like all other counties in the state, is currently experiencing high rates of transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chase Bank is preparing a storefront on South Main Street in Greenville for one of its two upcoming branches in the Upstate.

The expansion is part of a five-year, nationwide community investment plan for the largest bank in the U.S.

Construction on the roughly 2,800-square-foot branch at 550 S. Main St., Suite 102, began in June and is expected to open later this year. The new location, across from Falls Park in the former WSPA building, is part of an initial 2019 plan to bring at least seven branches and 14 ATMS to the Upstate over three years.

"Being in the heart of downtown Greenville was important to us," the banks Southeast regional media representative told The Post and Courier. "It allows us to serve the residents and visitors in this growing, beautiful part of the city, but its also a convenient location to serve the small businesses in the area."

The South Main location and the bank's eighth Greenville area branch  one more than originally anticipated  located on 1611 Augusta St. will both be open by the end of 2021. Chase locations usually have eight to 10 employees.

The most recent Chase branch to open in the greater Greenville area was on July 7 on Farrs Bridge Road. South Carolina has almost a dozen Chase branch locations, with most of them located in the Upstate.

Quick Hits

Bon Secours St. Francis Health System will expand its Project SEARCH program, which began in 2017, to give eight to 10 students with disabilities from local schools work experience before graduation. The expansion doubles the number of interns the hospital system's program can accept from 10 to 20. Bon Secours will be renovating The Joseph J. Pazdan Project SEARCH Center to make additional space for the new interns. Project SEARCH started at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in 1996.

North Carolina-based real estate company Dominion Realty Partners will continue its expansion into South Carolina as it breaks ground with PGIM Real Estate on its first multifamily development project at 355 Pelham Road in Greenville. Adams Hill Apartments will sit on a 15.7 acre plot and have 320 units. Construction will employ about 500 for a little under 2 years and the first units should be available in spring 2023. Dominion first entered into Greenville when it bought the Ogletree Building in 2018. In the last two years, Dominion developed more than $660,000,000 in projects in North Carolina and Virginia.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized a Clemson research team in the Department of Automotive Engineering for its use of a wood-processing waste product, lignin, in making a new way of creating non-toxic polyurethane foam. The Green Chemistry Challenge awards  which the team, led by professor Srikanth Pilla, won in the academic category  honor green chemical technological inventions. Traditional polyurethane foams include a chemical called isocyanates. The team, who has been working at the Clemson Composite Center in Greenville, invented nonisocyanate polyurethane foam. It takes about three days for the team to complete the foam creation process.

On the move

Personnel announcements from around the Upstate.

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Chief Marketing Officer of Humana, Jennifer Bazante , was appointed to the United Community Bank, Inc. Board of Directors on Aug. 16. As CMO at Humana, Bazante leads 500 associates who work on marketing, branding, acquisitions, engagement and retention. She has held roles previously with Visa, Inc., Visa International and Colgate-Palmolive Company.

, was appointed to the United Community Bank, Inc. Board of Directors on Aug. 16. As CMO at Humana, Bazante leads 500 associates who work on marketing, branding, acquisitions, engagement and retention. She has held roles previously with Visa, Inc., Visa International and Colgate-Palmolive Company. Kelan Akers joined AC Hotel by Marriott Greenville Downtown as assistant beverage director. He will help create cocktails for each of the hotels bars and restaurants, including Juniper and Paloma. Akers was previously a master mixologist for The Press Room, located at 315 South Main St. in Greenville.

joined AC Hotel by Marriott Greenville Downtown as assistant beverage director. He will help create cocktails for each of the hotels bars and restaurants, including Juniper and Paloma. Akers was previously a master mixologist for The Press Room, located at 315 South Main St. in Greenville. Blake Loudermilk brings 15 years of civil engineering experience to his new position as Senior Vice President of Development for LyonJay, a real estate investment and development firm in Greenville. Previously, Loudermilk worked on land development projects and transportation planning and design.

The rundown

Business news to know from around South Carolina.

Straight from the release

Announcements from businesses around the Upstate in their own words.

Hartness, the new urban village founded by the Hartness family and located on Greenville's Eastside, announces the expansion of their Builder Guild. ... Dillard-Jones Builders and Sexton Griffith Custom Home Builders now join Hartness Construction, Hollison Custom Homes, J. Francis Builders, Milestone Custom Homes, and Peery Homes in an expanded Builder Guild at Hartness.

"Corvus Janitorial Systems is pleased to announce the opening of its 21st territorial Master Franchise in the Greenville-Spartanburg ... metro area. Corvus of Greenville-Spartanburg will deliver commercial cleaning services using the nationally recognized Corvus brand and network of local, owner-operated franchises."

7-figure homes

Recent million-dollar residential sales in the Upstate.

Back for more next week. Email your tips, releases and newsy bits to smirah@postandcourier.com.
South Carolina's top epidemiologist said the state will await guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before making booster shots available to everyone who is already fully vaccinated.

On Aug. 18, the CDC announced that anyone who received a second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine at least eight months ago will be eligible for a third dose later this fall. There are no plans to offer a booster to adults who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at this time, Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, said.

Meanwhile, she urged everyone eligible in the state to get vaccinated.

"COVID is killing our loved ones, and it doesnt care how old or young you are," Bell said.

DHEC published new numbers Aug. 18 showing how serious the situation has become: More than 80 percent of all intensive care unit beds in South Carolina are filled; 63 percent of all COVID-19 patients in the ICU have had to be ventilated; and 19 percent of all coronavirus tests administered in the state are positive.

In August alone, Bell said more than 280 cases have been reported among students and school staff across the state, presenting a "troubling start to the school year." Many students aren't eligible for the vaccine yet, she said, and if they gather in large groups and aren't masked, schools present "a breeding ground for infection."

Statewide numbers

New cases reported: 2,487 confirmed, 889 probable.

Total cases in S.C.: 584,199 confirmed, 124,973 probable.

Percent positive: 19 percent.

New deaths reported: 14 confirmed, 12 probable.

Total deaths in S.C.: 8,929 confirmed, 1,211 probable.

Percent of ICU beds filled (with COVID-19 and other patients): 80.71 percent.

S.C. residents vaccinated

In South Carolina, 54.3 percent of people who are eligible for the vaccine have received one shot, and 46 percent of eligible residents are considered fully vaccinated.

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Hardest-hit areas

Richland (234), Greenville (215) and Horry (201) counties saw the highest totals of newly confirmed cases.

What about tri-county?

Charleston County had 161 new cases on Aug. 18, while Berkeley had 142 and Dorchester had 105.

Deaths

DHEC releases county-level data regarding COVID-19 deaths and the ages of those who have died from the virus on Tuesdays. According to the data published on Aug 17, at least 104 people in South Carolina died from the virus Aug. 8-14, and their ages ranged from pediatric (17 and younger) to elderly (65 and older). Horry County recorded 16 COVID deaths that week  the highest number in the state. Health officials have reported that the vast majority of patients who are dying from the coronavirus at this stage of the pandemic are unvaccinated.

Hospitalizations

Of the 1,796 COVID-19 patients hospitalized as of Aug. 18, 438 were in the ICU and 276 were using ventilators.

Student, teacher and faculty cases

DHEC's school dashboard shows, through Aug. 15, there have been 287 probable and confirmed cases among students and employees in the state's public and charter schools during the current school year.

Variants of concern

DHEC sequences a small, random sample of positive COVID-19 cases each week to determine which variants of concern (alpha, beta, gamma and delta) are circulating in the state. According to data published by the agency that is up to date through Aug. 11, 1,626 samples have been identified as variants of concern over the course of the pandemic. More than 380 of those samples have been identified as the delta variant, which health officials say is now the dominant strain in South Carolina.

What do experts say?

Health officials believe that vaccine effectiveness wanes over time and that everyone who has been vaccinated will eventually need a vaccine booster. But those who have not been vaccinated at all stand to benefit most from getting a shot now. The majority of COVID-19 patients who are being hospitalized and who are dying from the virus are unvaccinated.

Those include some children under 12 who aren't yet eligible to receive a vaccine. Medical University of South Carolina spokeswoman Heather Woolwine said on Aug. 18 that eight children are currently hospitalized in Charleston at the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital for COVID-19.
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Rain showers this evening with mostly cloudy conditions overnight. Low 76F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

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Rain showers this evening with mostly cloudy conditions overnight. Low 76F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
ORANGEBURG  Henry Crosby barely flinched as the crack of 21 bullet blanks fired by an Army honor guard rang out.

For decades he'd been waiting for this day after repeatedly wondering what happened to his younger brother, Army Pfc. Louis Crosby, declared missing in action during the Korean War in December 1950, some 70 years ago.

Finally on Aug. 18 and with hundreds of veterans, family and friends in attendance, the no-longer-missing Louis Crosby was laid to rest, lowered into the South Carolina clay at Crestlawn Memorial Gardens cemetery.

It would have been his 89th birthday.

"I thought about it all the time," Henry Crosby, 96, said. "I didn't know if he was a prisoner or if he was dead. I walked around many a day not knowing where he was."

It was a funeral held far too late. Louis Crosby is one of some 7,000 U.S. service members declared "missing in action" from the Korean War.

Crosby's identity was formally accounted for on April 21 after being confirmed by the Pentagon's POW/MIA Accounting Agency. His remains were among 55 boxes purported to contain those of American service members that North Korea gave the U.S. in July 2018 following the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.

He is among the multiple cases of missing U.S. servicemen still being recovered and identified from battle sites all over the globe decades after their conflicts ceased, from Asia to Europe and points elsewhere.

In late 1950, Crosby was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment of the 7th Infantry Division. He was reported missing in action on Dec. 1, 1950, when his unit was attacked by enemy forces near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.

The battle became famous as U.S. and United Nations forces tried to slow the overwhelming advance of Chinese troops in the rugged and snowy mountains of central North Korea, earning the nickname Frozen Chosin.

Following the battle, Crosbys body, and those of many others, could not be recovered. The young private joined the military at 17 and needed his mother's signature so he could enlist.

Crosby's trip home flowed through Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, where remains were moved to the DPAA for identification. His identity was confirmed using anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence and mitochondrial DNA, the Pentagon said.

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Crosbys name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with the others still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

On Aug. 18, hundreds came out to honor Crosby's life. Two biplanes flew over the cemetery from Joint Base Charleston. Leather-clad veterans rode their motorcycles and carried American flags during the procession.

Al Jenkins, an assistant for U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, read a note from the senator to the Crosby family. Retired Army Gen. William Grimsley, secretary of the S.C. Department of Veterans Affairs, read a letter from Gov. Henry McMaster.

Grimsley told the crowd that Crosby is one of several South Carolinians whose remains have been discovered in Korea and brought back home.

"This is the third of three sets of remains from this same rifle company from the same unit in Korea from South Carolina that we have had the honor to reinter," Grimsley said. "This is a tremendous opportunity to bring our soldiers home."

Bill Jackson with Thompson Funeral Home in Orangeburg said he was honored that so many people came out to pay their respects.

"It's an honor to serve Mr. Crosby," Jackson said. "This isn't something we do every day. A lot of Korean War veterans didn't come home."

Since 1982, some 600 remains have been identified from the Korean War, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Thousands of soldiers are still lost to time and circumstance, making Crosby's homecoming a statistical miracle.

Over the years, Henry Crosby had begun to expect the worse. But as he looked at the American flag-draped casket covering his brother's remains, he felt a sense of calm.

"It's wonderful closure for me," he said. "I always said I wanted to live to see him come home."

The commingled remains of at least 76 U.S. service people have been confirmed so far from inside the 55 boxes the North Koreans turned over after the Trump summit, the Pentagon said.

Crosby was in Box 55.
Starting Aug. 18, masks will be required for anyone on the College of Charleston and Trident Technical College campuses.

The schools updated their mask policies Aug. 17 after the S.C. Supreme Court ruled that public colleges and universities may require masks for all students.

The College of Charleston's board of trustees unanimously voted at an emergency meeting Aug. 17 to require face coverings. The decision comes as COVID-19 cases are rapidly rising across the Palmetto State because of the delta variant.

The board directed the college's president, Andrew Hsu, to create a mask policy for the 2021-22 school year.

Hsu wrote an email to the college community after the board decision, saying that the mask mandate took effect immediately and applies to all members of the campus, regardless of vaccination status, while around others indoors.

"The mask requirement does not apply in a students own residence hall room, a faculty or staff members private office (if alone) or while eating/drinking indoors on campus," Hsu wrote.

He said the policy will be reviewed monthly.

"I appreciate our students, faculty, staff members and visitors willingness to comply with this directive so that the College of Charleston may mitigate the possible spread of COVID-19 and keep our campus community safe and healthy," he wrote.

Trident Tech's policy, which goes into effect on Aug. 18, requires everyone on campus to wear mask while indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Masks do not have to be worn outside or while individuals are alone in their offices or work spaces.

The policy will be updated as transmission rates and guidance from health agencies change.

The Supreme Court's ruling is its interpretation of a rule added to the state's budget last session, which made it illegal for public colleges and universities to require unvaccinated students to wear masks on campus. While the court agreed the law prohibits institutions from requiring only unvaccinated students to wear masks, it does not prohibit schools from requiring masks for all students.

The issue first arose when the University of South Carolina planned policy that required masks for all people indoors on campus. The university later reversed that decision at the direction of Attorney General Alan Wilson, who wrote a letter stating that the policy violated the state's law.

Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia lawyer, and his law partner, Chris Kenney, filed a lawsuit against the university and Wilson on behalf of a physics professor at the school whose wife is ill with cancer and is worried about being exposed and bringing the deadly virus home with him.

USC later on Aug. 17 reinstated its mandate effective immediately.

Clemson University also announced a mask requirement effective immediately on Aug. 17. The university is requiring masks in all of its buildings for the next three weeks.

Jessica Holdman and Seanna Adcox contributed to this report from Columbia.
The National Weather Services Charleston office issued a flood advisory as the last remnants of the former tropical depression known as Fred briefly brought heavy rain and thunderstorms to the area.

The flood advisory was in place from just after 5:30 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 18, and warned residents minor flooding was either ongoing or expected in the tri-county region.

No roads were closed due to flooding in Charleston, Mount Pleasant or North Charleston.

The heavy rain and thunderstorms resulted from the former tropical depression called Fred, which continued on its north-northeast journey Aug. 18, passing over parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

The system was forecast to disperse by Aug. 19, but rain and thunderstorms were still likely, according to the weather service prediction centers map.

Fred made landfall the afternoon of Aug. 16 along the western Florida Panhandle, then traveled north over eastern Alabama and western Georgia. The Charleston tri-county area accumulated 1 to 3 inches of rain Aug. 17 as a result, mostly in the morning.

Meanwhile in the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Grace was forecast to become a hurricane later in the day on Aug. 18, according to the National Hurricane Centers 8 a.m. update. Its center was reported about 20 miles southwest of Grand Cayman, moving west at 16 mph with wind speeds of 65 mph.

To become a Category 1 hurricane, a system must reach wind speeds of at least 74 mph.

Mexico issued a hurricane warning for the Yucatan Peninsula and the Cayman Islands issued a hurricane watch, according to the hurricane center.

Tropical Storm Henri, the eighth named storm in the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, was forecast to move on a western trajectory toward the eastern U.S. coastline, according to the hurricane center.

Henris center was reported 160 miles south-southwest of Bermuda, according to the hurricane centers 5 a.m. Aug. 18 update. It was moving west at 8 mph with reported wind speeds of 65 mph.

The storm is forecast to take a turn toward the west-northwest on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, according to the hurricane center. While Henri was predicted to see little change in strength, it could still become a hurricane by the weekend.
Wendy Stiver, a police official hired by the city of Charleston to help address the findings of a racial-bias audit of the department, resigned Aug. 17 after just over 15 months on the job.

She joined the Charleston Police Department in April 2020 as its director of research and procedural justice at the invitation of Police Chief Luther Reynolds. Her annual salary for 2021 was $100,000.

Since then, she has been working to improve systemic racial biases within the department.

The city confirmed her departure late Tuesday. Messages left for Stiver have not been returned. Before coming to Charleston, she served in the Dayton Police Department for 21 years. Her last position in Ohio was commander of the central patrol operations division.

Reynolds said he is happy with all Stiver did for the department. "She has a lot of opportunities," he said. "She probably never intended to be here permanently."

Auditors with Virginia-based research firm CNA examined data from 2014 to 2018 in five areas: traffic stops, use of force, complaint process, community-based policing and human resources. The review, which cost the city $158,556, described problems in leadership development, training and data analysis, and it discovered racial disparities in traffic stops and in use of force.

When force was used by Charleston police, 61 percent of suspects were Black and 37 percent of suspects were White. Of the 20 officers in the Traffic Division during the four years CNA scrutinized, all were men and 18 were White.

The results of the audit were received by civic leaders with some concern but also some optimism. Reynolds has been vocal about the need for reform, and some in the community have been reassured by his apparent commitment.

Im very optimistic as a result that well see some positive change this year, Dot Scott, president of the Charleston NAACP, said after the racial bias report was issued in 2019. I think theres a mindset shift that took place with this audit.

Since May 2020, after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Charleston police response to demonstrations has included officers in riot gear using tear gas and making arrests, sometimes for minor offenses such as disobeying orders, leaving the sidewalk or blocking the street.

As a result, local activists have amplified their calls not only for reform but also for reallocating a portion of police funding to social services and economic-development initiatives in neighborhoods of color.

James Johnson, president of the Racial Justice Network, said he would not be surprised to learn that Stiver was shocked by Charleston's enduring racism. Whatever the reason for her departure, the issues raised in the racial bias audit demand action, he added.

"I expect the department to change completely," Johnson said.

The shift in the city's demographics, which have become whiter as African Americans move away, could have an effect on policing and governing attitudes, he suggested.

"They dont have Blacks in the city anymore who complain a lot," he said. "I just think they dont give a damn. They dont need Blacks to get elected."

Reynolds said the racial bias audit was welcomed by the department and his team has been eager to address the questions it raised. Stiver, he said, helped put critical systems and practices in place, but the process has only just begun.

"We are full speed ahead," he said. "There's not a single area of the audit that we fear. Quite the contrary. ... If we do this right, its an ongoing audit that will never end, in the sense that we will continue to ask the right questions, difficult questions"  and continue to make improvements.

The department is dealing with issues of trust, methodology, community impacts, hiring practices, complaint processes and much more, Reynolds said.

"We've made necessary and appropriate changes since the audits release, but in some other areas we're just scratching the surface," he said.

Before Stiver came, department leaders knew generally that they needed to address a number of issues. She helped set up a framework to facilitate change and provide accountability, Reynolds said.

She spearheaded the Police Data Initiative, a work in progress which already provides the public access to information online. She helped establish a Citizen Police Advisory Committee. She helped create a complaint reporting system and encourage its use. And she opened a channel of communication between the department and the outside world.

Reynolds said he is likely to replace Stiver so the internal work can continue with oversight, and he is considering a second hire, someone who works externally and helps ensure that any changes to police policy or practice serve the interests of the community.

"Not only is this not an ending, were hitting the gas pedal on the audit," he said. "We are going to continue to embrace every aspect of it."
North Augusta, SC (29841)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 74F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 74F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
U.S soldiers stand guard along a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. On Monday, the U.S. military and officials focus was on Kabuls airport, where thousands of Afghans trapped by the sudden Taliban takeover rushed the tarmac and clung to U.S. military planes deployed to fly out staffers of the U.S. Embassy, which shut down Sunday, and others. Shekib Rahmani/AP
In his Aug. 9 news conference, Gov. Henry McMaster once again displayed his lack of knowledge of science and human behavior.

In his comments, the governor said: Mandating masks is not the answer. Personal responsibility is the answer. Common sense is the answer. We have an abundance of both in South Carolina.

Following that logic, we can eliminate any laws regarding drunken driving. No one would drive drunk. After all, everyone will take personal responsibility and use common sense.

Also, we do not need any prohibitions against smoking indoors or in public places. After all, everyone will take personal responsibility and use common sense.

While we are at it, lets eliminate any laws or guidelines requiring vaccines to attend schools or work in health care facilities. After all, everyone will take personal responsibility and use common sense.

We all know that not everyone will act responsibly and use common sense.

One of the basic principles of the management and supervision of people is: People dont do what you expect, they do what you inspect.

Also, no one is suggesting that we shut down schools or businesses, but laws and guidelines are necessary for the protection of everyone in our communities.

The governor and Legislature need to allow local municipalities, school boards and businesses to develop guidelines that will best reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.

FRANK BARNES

Kentwood Circle

Charleston

Expand senior aid

Saturday was Social Securitys 86th birthday.

As a retiree, I know how important it is to our community. It helps seniors, people with disabilities, widows and children who have lost a parent.

To improve the retirement security of older Americans, Congress must expand Social Security by providing an across-the-board increase for all current and future beneciaries.

Expanding benets for everyone will give retirees a livable wage and boost the economy, since retirees spend most of their benets locally.

We also must institute a consumer price index for the elderly to calculate cost-of-living adjustments.

The measure used to calculate cost of living does not accurately measure the items seniors purchase. Seniors over age 65 spend three times more on health care, including prescription drugs, than a young person, yet this is not factored into the formula.

If politicians tried to live on the average Social Security benet for a month, they would understand why we need to expand this program.

DONNA S. DEWITT

President, S.C. Alliance for Retired Americans

Beason Road

Orangeburg

Wake up, woke

Sign up for our opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email

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With a tip of the hat to Will Shakespeare, much of the endless, mindless political turmoil we endure would be ameliorated if the woke movement woke up and realized that its ideology is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

BILL WALKER

President Circle

Summerville

Whos responsible?

Wheres the hue and cry, the moral outrage for the United States failure in Afghanistan?

Millions of women have just lost their futures and likely will be subjugated to slave-like status under Islamic law.

And whos to say how many of the millions of male Afghans will be killed?

Thats the price of our policy.

So whos accountable, whos responsible?

If our military and our intelligence community didnt see this coming, fire the generals.

If our politicians miscalculated, hold them accountable. But by no means let these women and men be forgotten.

JAMIE GOUGH

Camp Road

Charleston

VA care praised

I must sing the praises of the Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System.

I hope those wonderful men and women who served will also write in.

Doctors, nurses and medical staff go out of their way to assist patients.

Also, the new annex location in North Charleston is fabulous.

I feel blessed to be registered with them.

RICKY MARTIN

Dogwood Road

Charleston
Despite the United States' efforts to move thousands fleeing Afghanistan in the midst of the Taliban takeover, Guam should not expect the federal government to bring some of the evacuees to the island, according to Ginger Cruz.

Cruz is a former official in then-Gov. Carl Gutierrez's administration who also spent eight years as deputy inspector general for Iraq Reconstruction. In that role, she led a team that oversaw $62 billion in federal spending in the country.

Cruz is the founder and CEO of Mantid International, a management consulting firm and a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. As a deputy IG, she helped to create and stand up a similar effort for Afghanistan, she told The Guam Daily Post. She is currently on the island as part of the local governments ongoing planning symposium.

Theres two reasons why I think the likelihood is just about zero, Cruz said in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

The primary obstacle, according to her is budgetary.

There is a lot of capacity in Qatar and Kuwait that was built because of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And with everybody demobilizing from Afghanistan, all that capacity  all those buildings that were built  is a lot cheaper, and its easier to access, she said.

At least one U.S. military flight with more than 600 evacuees aboard has flown to Qatar.

Increasing on-base populations, which an evacuation to Guam would do, requires increased spending in life support costs, Cruz explained. These expenses, like food and construction supplies  are simply too expensive locally.

Federal policy hurts Guams viability as well. Cruz recalled her time at Adelup, when illegal Chinese immigrants used boats to come to the island, in order to claim asylum once on shore. The islands status as an American territory complicates past and current immigration matters, she said.

Once you bring the Afghan applicants to Guam, lets say one of them fails the (visa application) process  what do you do? ... One of the things the United States government is very careful about is who it lets into Guam, because this is U.S. soil, and it changes the status of the individuals that are applying for asylum.

I think its incredibly noble for the people of Guam to want to do this, she said. (We) have a warm heart, and would love to welcome them and help them to, sort of, assimilate into a life in the United States. But when it comes down to it for the way government functions  theres policy and theres budget. And on both of those fronts, its really a long shot for Guam.

Guam not being considered by State Dept.

More Afghan refugees may make their way to the United States, however.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed that the federal government is assessing facilities and support for the operation at Fort Bliss, Texas; and Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. The official said the two potential sites are being considered in addition to the existing facility at Fort Lee, the Virginia base that has hosted refugees over the last several weeks.

The Post reached out to the agency to verify whether Guam would be used for the evacuations, after being referred to them by Joint Region Marianas.

In the event that thousands of additional Afghan allies are sent to stateside military locations, Cruz still thinks the chances are unlikely that the island will even be used as a fuel stop along the way.

Guams probably not going to be the easiest way to go. Flight-wise, theyre going to go through Germany. Theres a lot more of a base that way, Cruz said. So if youre looking at the logistical supply lines, when youre talking about the Middle East  (they will) kind of go through Germany and on to the East Coast (of the U.S.), versus going completely around the globe and coming to the West Coast.

Despite support from Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and requests from members of Congress, the military and the Biden administration will be looking for the easiest, and least expensive way to conduct the evacuation, Cruz said, stressing that a major factor in the ongoing American withdrawal from the country is the reported $2 trillion the U.S. has spent in Afghanistan since 2001.
Andrew Philip Manibusan was known by his family to have a history of drug abuse.

The 37-year-old's older sister testified in the District Court of Guam on Wednesday that her brother struggled with using methamphetamine in the past before he relocated to California.

Manibusan, who told the court that he directs tanker trucks for gas stations in the states, requested to be released from prison.

The U.S. Probation Office recommended that Manibusan be released under strict conditions.

His sister told the court she would be responsible for ensuring Manibusan follows the court's orders.

Defense attorney Joseph Razzano argued that his client should be released due to his "significant ties" to the community, adding that he is not a flight risk.

But Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood has not yet made a decision on his request, allowing the prosecution more time to argue on Friday why they believe Manibusan is a flight risk and should remain in custody.

Manibusan, through his attorney, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to distribute 50 or more grams of meth on Wednesday.

Jury selection and trial is scheduled for Oct. 26.

During his arraignment, Tydingco-Gatewood asked Manibusan if was under the influence of any substances.

"Like, the illegal ones?" said Manibusan.

"You better not tell me about the illegal ones. Anything you say can be used against you," said Tydingco-Gatewood said.

Manibusan arrived on island Monday after he was extradited from the Northern District of California.

His extradition was delayed for at least two weeks.

'I tested positive for COVID'

It was also during the hearing that the chief judge asked her staff about the plexiglass dividers that were added to both parties' tables inside the courtroom.

"It's probably because I tested positive for COVID in Hawaii," Manibusan said.

Tydingco-Gatewood then asked the U.S. Marshals to confirm that Manibusan was clear of the virus, as he was inside the courtroom.

"Just so the staff doesn't freak out and the judge doesn't freak out, he has been cleared since before coming to Hawaii today? Can you ask your client if that's a fair statement?" she said.

"He says he's cleared," Razzano said

"Ok. It just shocked me there, Mr. Manibusan," the judge said. "I am feeling that we are safe."

8 pounds of meth

Manibusan's case involves nearly 8 pounds of meth.

A search warrant was issued on May 25 for a package that was sent to a Santa Rita address from Antioch, California, according to Post files.

Investigators found the drugs in the package and tracked it after they replaced it with another substance.

Jose Pablo Ananich, a former officer with the Guam Police Department and Department of Corrections, allegedly picked it up on June 1.

Phone records show Manibusan had been in contact with Ananich, and that Manibusan received 32 money orders worth $1,000 each from Ananich, court documents state.

Ananich was arrested earlier this year in connection with a drug investigation, but no official charges have been filed against him in federal court.
Indifference has become more evident among members of the Guam Legislature about the thousands of people in Guam's workforce who will be out o Read more
A week ago yesterday one Anton Lazzaro disseminated the following press release regarding the investigation he commissioned to confirm the sibling relationship between Ilhan Omar and Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Omar and Elmi were legally married in 2009. Omar married Elmi for fraudulent purposes  Omar was already in a long-term relationship with Ahmed Hirsi, the father of her three children, whom she subsequently married and divorced to clean up the very sloppy record.

Here is the text of Lazzaros August 10 press release:

[MINNEAPOLIS] After a two-year global investigation, Big Tent Republicans PAC has legally collected DNA evidence from Rep. Ilhan Omar and her former husband (full biological brother) Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. These collections were done through trash waste in Washington, DC and the United Kingdom. For too long, Ilhan Omar has refused to provide answers since this [June 17, 2019] Minneapolis Star Tribune [story by Patrick Coolican and Stephen Montemayor] was published showcasing the extremely suspicious legal filings she has made since assuming public office. The results were a 100% match of full siblingship that once and for all proves Rep. Omar has indeed committed multiple felonies including Immigration Fraud, Marriage Fraud, Tax Fraud, and Felony Conspiracy. It is statistically impossible for this data to not be accurate, and we offer $1,000,000 USD to Rep. Omar to prove this evidence is not accurate. Please visit www.IlhanOmarDNA.com to see the undeniable evidence.

Lazzaros press release was issued in the name of Big Tent Republicans PAC. The link at the bottom of the press release includes a link to a brief building on my own work on Power Line as well as that of Preya Samsundar at Alpha News and especially that of David Steinberg at PJ Media and Power Line to set forth the factual background in great detail. With the exception of the alleged confirmation by DNA analysis, all of this should be old news to Power Line readers.

Lazzaros name vaguely rang a bell with me. Two or so years ago he called me on a couple of occasions regarding his desire to commission an investigation to prove what we all knew about Omar. I believe he held himself out as the campaign manager of Lacy Johnson, Omars Republican opponent in the Fifth District election, though Lazzaros precise relationship with the Johnson campaign has since become a disputed question of fact.

I hadnt heard Lazzaros name since those conversations and had forgotten about them until receiving the press release last week. I have never met Lazzaro and called a friend who knew him to ask him whether he could vouch for him. He couldnt and wouldnt.

When I received Lazzaros press release last week, I put in a call seeking to follow up with him. I never heard back. As I asked around about him, I was told that Lazzaro sought to break the story of his investigation on FOX News. I was told that Lazzaro took down the site pending an appearance on FOX News. I sat on the story hoping FOX or some other reputable outlet would vet it.

Thirty-six hours later, however, a week ago tomorrow, Lazzaro was charged with sex trafficking of underaged girls and related federal crimes. The unsealed indictment also charged a 19-year-old University of St. Thomas student leader of the colleges GOP chapter with related crimes.

Lazzaro was a friend and ally of Minnesota GOP chairman Jennifer Carnahan. It turns out that Lazzaro has been a prolific funder of Minnesota Republican candidates.

Lazzaros indictment has opened the proverbial Pandoras box into Carnahans leadership of the state party. She continues to hang onto her position over numerous calls for her to resign. Carnahan apparently doesnt care how far she drags the party down. Carnahan, by the way, is married to Minnesota First District Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who is suffering with an advanced form of kidney cancer.

As for Carnahan, its time for her to go. Actually, its past time. The state party badly needs to put its house in order, if possible. If you want to follow this part of the story, check in on Rebecca Brannons Twitter feed.

Back to Omar, I documented my original drop down the rabbit hole in the 2016 City Journal column The curious case of Ilhan Omar. When I first dipped my toe into the story and sought a comment from Omar in August 2016, she accused me of anti-Muslim bigotry.

Since then I have confirmed the substance of the story many times over with Somali and law enforcement sources as well as other evidence compiled by Preya and David Steinberg. We pored over a treasure trove of new evidence in the voluminous state campaign finance board investigative file that became public in 2019. As I have reported the story on Power Line over the past five years, that City Journal column has stood the test of time.

By the same token, Omars strategy of denial along with the accompanying claims of victimhood and attribution of bigotry have served her well so far. Her strategy too has stood the test of time.

Anyone who looks at the circumstantial evidence making out the sibling relationship between Omar and Elmi will have no reasonable doubt, and I mean none. When the Star Tribune was finally embarrassed into the task in 2019  see New documents revisit questions about Rep. Ilhan Omars marriage history, by Patrick Coolican and Stephen Montemayor  the paper was unable to come up with a single fact supporting Omars denial of what by that point had become painfully obvious.

The Star Tribune found that begging Omar and her family for an interview that might give them another side of the story proved a thankless proposition. Omar essentially accused the Star Tribune reporters of colluding with right-wing outlets to go after Muslim elected officials or hounding family members

Let me put it this way. There is no other side of the story. Or the other side of the story is, Youre a bigot. Any fool can see that.

I do not want to touch Anton Lazzaro with a pole of any length. I accordingly left his investigation on the cutting room floor. The Daily Mail is not so dainty. The Daily Mail reported on it in EXCLUSIVE: Is this the proof that Ilhan Omar married her own brother to bypass US immigration rules? Conservative groups DNA test from congresswomans cigarette butt purports to show 99.99% match to her second husband Ahmed Elmi. The New York Post followed up in Miranda Devines update FBI dodged Ilhan Omar-bro wed probe.

As it plays out, this saga appears to be yet another chapter in Minnesotas downward spiral. We are in a deep, deep hole and sinking.

If Ilhan Omar were ever exposed in some definitive sense, she would still skate. Indeed, it would only add to her heroic aura on the insane left and on its media adjunct. She only did it to save her family! You would have done the same.
With thousands of westerners at the mercy of the Taliban, the world is awaiting events in Afghanistan. Taliban leaders have embarked on a charm offensive with western media; as has been widely noted, they have taken more questions from reporters than Joe Biden. These adjacent headlines from todays London Times sum up the situation well:

The less optimistic of the two stories begins:

Reports of Taliban atrocities have spread across Afghanistan since the insurgents launched their final offensive. Despite pledges to be magnanimous, the Taliban have been accused of beheading prisoners, gouging out eyes and executing hundreds. Fleeing civilians have brought tales of girls forced into marriage or kidnapped as sex slaves. Video on social media shows Islamists pumping machinegun rounds into the bodies of captured Afghan policemen.

Then there are the woman shot for not wearing a burka, and the two men [paraded] through streets with blackened faces and nooses around [their] necks.

I expect we will find out in the weeks and months to come that it is the same old Taliban. Still, that leaves open the fate of the thousands of westerners now trapped in Kabul and, no doubt, other cities. The Taliban may decide that its interest lies in letting them go. After all, the international community might pony up cash in an implicit quid pro quo. But even on that assumption, since no one knows how many Americans or other westerners are trapped, occasional atrocities against them are likely to go unreported. As for the much larger number of Afghans who worked with the U.S. and allied countries and are unable to get out of the country, I am afraid there is little such hope, despite the Talibans current promises of amnesty.

Joe Bidens handling of our withdrawal has been such a clusterf*** that the above now represents the optimistic scenario.
Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time. Winston Churchill

Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. Inscription on the Liberty Bell
Yes, no matter what

Yes, but it depends on variety

No, for medical reasons, uncertainty

No, principle

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The United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has trained journalists across Africa to tell stories on land restoration in the Sahel.

The two-day virtual training, which ran between August 12 and 13, was themed Media as agents of change to accelerate land restoration in the Sahel.

The training was facilitated by a team of technical experts from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the African Union, and the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall.

Speaking at the training, Senior Programme Officer for the Sahel at UNCCD, Birguy Lamizana, explained the important role of the media in raising awareness and advocating for land and the environment.

The Great Green Wall has been borne out of an urgent need for concerted efforts and urgent response to the challenges faced by the region like the impact of desertification, climate change, land and water resources degradation, loss of biodiversity, loss of livelihoods due to poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition and the recent conflicts by armed groups which has led to irregular migration, she said.

However, she noted that these challenges not only affect Africa as climate issues have no barriers, adding that the recent wildfires in Greece, Italy and the sand dust in Europe near the north of Africa Are end-results of climate change.

She called on the media to advocate for land and the environment even in local languages, calling for active participation in the newly launched media network for the Sahel. She urged government to commit budgets to the National Agencies for the Great Green Wall in the 11 Great Green Wall countries, for the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiatives activities to meet the targets of the initiative as set out by the year 2030.

The African Union Coordinator for the Great Green Wall, Elvis Tangem, spoke about the importance of the Great Green Wall in providing peace, jobs, and stability in the Sahel region.

For success to be achieved, he said concerted efforts by all stakeholders such as the media will be required.

According to the UNCCD, land degradation is a crisis affecting communities in the Sahel where people and communities live off the land and depend on its productivity for their everyday survival.

The organisation said about 80 percent of the population of people in Africa still relies on rain-fed agriculture for work but 65 percent of African land is degraded.

Great Green Wall

The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement that was launched in 2007 by leaders from the Sahelian countries. It had an epic ambition to grow an 8,000 km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa, involving at least 11 countries and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The global agency estimates that around 33 billion US dollars of investment from private, national and international sources will be needed to achieve the targets/goals of the Great Green Wall Initiative by 2030.

It also estimates that it will restore 100 million hectares of degraded land, create 10 million jobs, and sequester 250 Million tones of carbon.

In a post COVID era when Sahelian countries are unable to fund their budgets, the Great Green Wall Accelerator announced at the One Planet Summit in January 2021 that it will help meet financial requirements towards the attainment of its goals. The Sahelian countries are Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.
After a 24-hour relief from the rising cases of fatalities from the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria, on Monday, recorded four new deaths and additional 584 newly confirmed cases across 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Nigeria had on Friday recorded 11 fatalities from the pandemic and reported eight on Saturday but reported none on Sunday before returning to the fatality chart on Monday.

The additional 584 cases reported on Monday are also slightly higher in number than 541 figure reported a day earlier.

This is as the country resumed its suspended vaccinations against the pandemic on Monday, even as the government announced the expected arrival of additional 698,880 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Disease distribution

An update shared by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) indicates that the new cases were recorded across four of the countrys six geopolitical zones.

With heavy presence in the South-west and South-south regions, cases were also reported from the North-central and North-west regions.

However, none of the states from the North-east and South-east regions reported cases on Monday.

Breakdown

According to the disease centres update, Lagos and Rivers states reported the highest number of new infections on Monday with the former reporting 201 while the latter reported 149.

The FCT ranks third on the log with 82 cases while Ondo State picked the 4th slot with 73 new cases and Ekiti State recorded 17 to make the fifth position on the new infections chart.

Cross River State reported 13 cases, Oyo State, 11, and Ogun State reported nine, while both Delta and Osun states reported eight cases each.

Also, Bayelsa and Kaduna recorded four cases each in the new update.

Similarly, Kano and Kwara states reported two cases each while Sokoto from the far North-west region reported a single case to take the 15th position on the log.

As of Monday, Nigerias total confirmed cases stand at 183,087 with a total of 167,310 cases already discharged after treatment while the fatality toll rose from 2,219 to 2,223 on Monday.

Measures

The NCDC said it is leaving no stone unturned in Nigerias efforts to see to the end of the pandemic as the world struggles to combat the virus.

A multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 2, continues to coordinate the national response activities, NCDC said on Monday.

The disease centre appeals to Nigerians to be cautious as they engage in their daily activities, noting that the disease is no respecter of anyone.

NCDC enjoined everyone to take the vaccines, noting that it is still the safest way to limit infections

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Vaccination

Meanwhile, the country on Monday commenced the second phase vaccination of its citizens against the virus.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who doubles as the chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, said the second phase would be largely prosecuted with the about 4 million doses of Moderna vaccines donated to Nigeria by the United States of America.

Mr Mustapha, who spoke at the flag-off ceremony held at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi Abuja, on Monday said the additional 177,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines received recently are some of the 29,850,000 doses the Federal Government has purchased through the Africa-Import-Export Bank and the African Union.

For us at the Presidential Steering Committee, this is highly encouraging and motivating, Mr Mustapha said.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, has revealed that in the next couple of weeks, Nigeria would receive 3.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines to complement those already received so far.

This will also ensure that we cover not only those who will be taking their 2nd dose but also for those who will want to take their first dose of this vaccine, he said.
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EU interior ministers are holding talks on migration Wednesday against the backdrop of the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan.

The talks would also be on the blocs concern of the prospect of mass exodus of people fleeing life under the Taliban.

The meeting was convened to address the influx of people at Lithuanias borders, allegedly assisted by non-EU neighbour Belarus.

More than 4,000 people had arrived so far this year, compared to fewer than 100 in the whole of 2020, according to Vilnius.

Fellow member state Latvia makes similar accusations against Minsk.

In the past, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was openly threatened to let people from countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria cross the border into the bloc in retaliation to EU sanctions.

Afghanistan is not officially on the agenda on Wednesday.

But following the Talibans seizure of power, some EU leaders are already strategising how to avoid a repeat of 2015 and 2016, when hundreds of thousands, many from Syria, made the perilous journey to seek protection in the bloc.

Some EU politicians, the UN refugee agency and various rights groups have stressed the need to protect the vulnerable, but countries like France, Germany, Greece and Italy have warned that the EU must pre-empt a fresh wave.

The bloc should provide support to Afghanistans neighbours to keep refugees in the region, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week.

A European Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday that the bloc would work in the coming days on a joint strategy involving legal pathways and managing risks of irregular migration.

Some experts were sceptical that the Afghan crisis would unleash a replay of the scenes witnessed in Europe five years ago.

(NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a steering committee to oversee the process of implementation of the newly signed Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

The steering committee is headed by the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.

The president, who announced this while marking the passage the PIA, which he signed into law on August 16, said Nigeria lost an estimated $50 billion worth of investments in 10 years, created by the uncertainty of non-passage of the PIB, lack of progress and stagnation in the petroleum industry.

According to the president, the committee is tasked with completing the implementation of this Act within 12 months.

He, therefore, directed all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to fully cooperate in ensuring the successful and timely implementation of the PIA.

To consolidate the commitment of this administration to delivering the value proposition of this law, I have approved an implementation framework commencing immediately to ensure the industry envisaged in the new law begins to take shape.

The implementation process to be headed by the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources is hereby tasked with the completion of the implementation of this Act within 12 months.

I am therefore directing all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to fully cooperate in ensuring the successful and timely implementation of this law, he said.

The president maintained that the signing into law had become necessary because Nigeria runs a Petroleum Industry that is governed largely by laws enacted over 50 years ago, such as the principal legislation; the Petroleum Act of 1969 and other obsolete legislations.

He said: We are all aware that past administrations have identified the need to further align the industry for global competitiveness, but there was lack of political will to actualise this needed transformation.

This lack of progress has stagnated the growth of the industry and the prosperity of our economy.

In the past ten years, Nigeria has lost an estimated 50billion dollars worth of investments due to the uncertainty created by the non-passage of the PIB.

This administration believes that the timely passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill will help our country attract investments across the oil and gas value chain.

Mr Buhari noted that his signing of the Petroleum Industry Bill on August 16, to Petroleum Industry Act 2021, marked the beginning of the journey towards a competitive and resilient petroleum industry that would attract investments to support the nations economic recovery and growth plan.

According to the president, the PIA creates a regulatory environment that will ensure efficiency and accountability across the oil and gas value chain and reposition NNPC to a commercially driven National Petroleum Company accountable to the federation.

The Act also provides for a direct benefit framework that will enable sustainable development of Host Communities. I appeal to the host communities to look carefully at the contents of the Bill, which in the implementation, will bring real and lasting benefits to them.

Furthermore, the Act provides for deliberate end to gas flaring which would facilitate the attainment of Nigerias Nationally Determined Contributions of the Paris Agreement through a funding mechanism to support gas flare out project in host communities.

Similarly, it acknowledges global energy transition and made necessary provisions for NNPC to invest in renewable energy.

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The president commended the two chambers of the National Assembly for ensuring the passage of the PIB.

Let me now commend the leadership of the 9th Assembly for their continued pursuit of our national aspiration and demonstration of mutual harmony with the Executive in the pursuit of a patriotic outcome in the passage of the PIB.

I also commend the entire team in the executive that worked tirelessly to ensure the delivery of this strategic legislation for our country, he said.

Mr Buhari also thanked Nigerians and other industry participants for their contributions and support in achieving this historic landmark.

Other members of the implementation committee include: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Group Managing Director, NNPC, Executive Chairman, FIRS, representative of the Ministry of Justice and representative of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

READ ALSO:

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Natural Resources, Olufemi Lijadu, will serve as External Legal Adviser, while the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund, will serve as Head of the Coordinating Secretariat and the Implementation Working Group.

The primary responsibility of the steering committee shall be to guide the effective and timely implementation of the PIA in the course of transition to the petroleum industry envisaged in the reform programme.

It is also to ensure that the new institutions created have the full capability to deliver on their mandate under the new legislation.

The committee has 12 months for the assignment, and periodic updates will be given to the president.

(NAN)
The Nigerian government and a British Virgin Islands-registered company, Process, and Industrial Development (P&ID), are presently locked in a legal tussle over a $10 billion arbitral claim in the United States Court of Appeal.

Documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed how the Nigerian government is seeking the reversal of a district courts denial of Nigerias motion to dismiss a petition for lack of jurisdiction based on Nigerias sovereign immunity from suit in the United States.

The documents also showed that the controversial British firm, P&ID, is requesting the court to affirm the District Courts denial of Nigerias motion to dismiss the petition.

Last year, a court in the United States ruled against Nigerias wish to claim over $10 billion in its dispute with the British Virgin Islands-registered company.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in New York granted the hedge funds motion, overturning a ruling and quashing subpoenas issued by Nigeria.

Back story

The P&ID saga dates back to January 11, 2010, when the company signed a gas supply and processing agreement with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources on behalf of the Nigerian government.

Under the terms of the agreement, P&ID was to build and operate an Accelerated Gas Development project to be located at Adiabo in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State. The Nigerian government was to source natural gas from oil mining leases (OMLs) 123 and 67 operated by Addax Petroleum and supply to P&ID to refine into fuel suitable for power generation in the country.

However, P&ID alleged that after signing the agreement, the Nigerian government reneged on its obligation after negotiations were opened with the Cross River State government for allocation of land for the project.

The company said the failure to construct the pipeline system to supply the gas frustrated the construction of the gas project, thereby depriving it of the potential benefits from over 20 years worth of gas supplies.

It added that attempts to settle out-of-court with the Nigerian government failed.

In August 2012, P&ID served the Nigerian government a Request for Arbitration but Nigeria argued before the tribunal that the failure of P&ID to acquire the site and build Gas Processing Facilities was a fundamental breach and that no gas could be delivered until this has been done.

The tribunal ruled that Nigerias obligations under Article 6B were not conditional upon P&ID having constructed the gas processing facilities.

In the tribunals eventual verdict, the damage suffered by P&ID was the loss of net income the company would have received if the government kept its side of the contract. Two members of the three-man tribunal, Lord Hoffmann and Anthony Evans, held that P&IDs expenditure and income should have been about $6.597 billion if the GSPA was duly performed by the government.

Both officials said the award should be paid together with interest at the rate of 7 per cent from March 20, 2013.

The other member, who is Nigerias former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo, in his minority ruling, said although P&ID was entitled to compensation for the breach, its damages could not have been more than three years from the date of the alleged breach. Apart from being a new company incorporated in 2006, Mr Ojo noted the project could not have started yielding benefits earlier than 2015.

In September 2020, the Nigerian government secured a judgement of a British court to suspend the unfavourable ruling over the scandal. A commercial court in the United Kingdom granted Nigerias appeal for a stay of execution of the award of $8.9 billion (about N3.2 trillion) in favour of P&ID.

Opposing Arguments

In its argument, counsels to P&ID argued that the District Court correctly denied Nigerias motion to dismiss on the grounds that it had waived immunity by implication.

The waiver exception to the FSIA applies because Nigeria acceded to the New York Convention and agreed to an arbitration governed by that treaty, they argued, adding that a foreign states sovereign immunity is not absolute.

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Before 1952, the U.S. State Department used to request immunity in all actions against friendly foreign sovereigns, but that changed when the State Department announced its adoption of the restrictive theory of foreign sovereign immunity by the so-called Tate Letter.

In another breadth, the company argued that Nigeria offers no persuasive reason for the court to depart from its earlier decision.

In sum, the company said Nigeria implicitly waived jurisdictional immunity because it acceded to the New York Convention and then agreed to arbitrate its dispute in a New York Convention country.

The District Court correctly applied the well-reasoned decisions of this Circuit and its order should be affirmed accordingly, the company argued. It added that the Court should also hold that the District Court has jurisdiction under the arbitration exception to the FSIA.

In a counterargument filed on June 11, Nigerian counsels noted that the Court should reverse the district courts denial of Nigerias motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction based on Nigerias sovereign immunity from suit in the United States.

Neither exception pressed by P&ID applies, they argued.

Nigeria did not impliedly waive its sovereign immunity in the United States by agreeing its courts would enforce foreign arbitration awards in Nigeria or by agreeing to arbitrate in England under the laws of Nigeria, they argued.

Moreover, the arbitration award enforcement exception has no application because P&ID does not have a valid award.

The Court should therefore reverse the district court, and direct that this action be dismissed in its entirety for lack of jurisdiction.

PREMIUM TIMES understands that an oral argument has not been scheduled and no date has been fixed for the hearing.
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Seven people were killed in Imo State, Nigerias South-east, on Monday, when some gunmen ambushed a convoy transporting workers to a facility belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.

Six of the victims were working with a services company, Lee Engineering Company, which has a contract with Shell, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Mike Abattam, told PREMIUM TIMES, Wednesday.

A police inspector who provided security for the convoy was among the victims.

They were ambushed, they came out from the bush and started firing at them. They (the victims) were all in the vehicle.

The seven people include a police inspector who was providing security for them, said Mr Abattam, a chief superintendent of police.

The police could not, for now, say who was responsible for the attack, according to the police spokesperson. It is (an) investigation that will prove what exactly happened. For now, we cannot just conclude, Mr Abattam said.

A spokesperson for Shell, Bamidele Odugbesan, said the workers were travelling to the Assa North gas development project site.

Mr Odugbesan said Shell has shut down the site and its other facilities around the area as a precautionary measure.

We are greatly saddened by this development and are providing the contractor-company and the police with needed support, he said.

The pro-Biafra group, IPOB, has been most active in Imo State.

Security agencies and other government institutions like the prisons, courtrooms, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, have been targets of gun attacks in Imo and other states in the South-east.

Two police officers were killed about five days ago during a gun attack on a police facility in Imo, for instance.

The country home of the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, was attacked and part of it set ablaze by gunmen in April.

The Nigerian government has repeatedly accused IPOB, of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the South-east, including the South-south region, but the group has denied the accusation.

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed group, is presently detained in Abuja where he is standing trial for treason.
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The Kogi Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with administrators of the Nigeria Media Merit Award (NMMA), to host the 29th edition of the event in October.

Onogwu Muhammed, chief press secretary to Kogi State Governor, made the disclosure in a statement issued on Tuesday in Lokoja.

Mr Muhammed said the Secretary to the State Government, Folashade Ayoade, signed on behalf of the State Government, while a member of the Board of Trustees of the NMMA, Samuel Akeju, signed on behalf of the administrators of the NMMA.

According to the spokesman, the event with the theme: Engaging with Kogi State for a Better Tomorrow will be held in October and all media houses in Nigeria and Africa are contesting for the merit award.

(NAN)
The Supreme Court has denied a list being circulated online as names of lawyers penned for the award of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) rank for 2021.

Festus Akande, Director of Press and Information at the Supreme Court, described the list as fake in a statement on Wednesday.

The Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC), a body chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), and concerned with giving the highly coveted award to deserving lawyers annually is domiciled at the Supreme Court.

Mr Akande said the 2021 list of SANs-designate in circulation online did not emanate from the LPPC.

The list which surfaced on an online platform, loyalnigerianloyal.com, had 78 names.

We wish to state clearly that the above information is fake, unofficial and untrue.

Its a mere figment of the imagination of the authors who may ostensibly be on a mission to impugn and malign the reputation and integrity of the LPPC with a view to causing confusion and skepticism in the public space, Supreme Courts statement read in part.

It noted that the LPPC traditionally to announces names of successful applicants for the award of SAN rank in reputable national dailies, adding that this years edition would not be an exception.

The LPPC warned that purveyors of fake news would be arrested and given appropriate sanctions to serve as deterrent to others.

The information should be discountenanced by whosoever might have come across it. For the umpteenth time, we wish to let the public know that any information, especially issues regarding the above topic can only emanate from the office of the LPPC Secretary/Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Anything outside this official source should be disregarded.

The perpetrators of such illegal act would be apprehended and given appropriate sanctions to serve as deterrent to others that might be waiting in the queue to do same in the future.

The LPPC Secretariat wishes to appeal to bloggers of various lawyers platforms to henceforth refrain from posting or publishing or aiding in the circulation of unauthorised materials or fake documents said to originate from Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee. The Committee may be forced to refer the conduct of such bloggers who are legal practitioners to the appropriate disciplinary committee of Body of Benchers. A word is enough for the wise.

On this note, we wish to inform and assure our esteemed legal community and the general public that the authentic official list of the successful applicants that emerged from the second filtration exercise by the LPPC will be made public through advertorials in the national dailies in due course, the statement read in part.

SAN rank

The SAN rank is the equivalent of the United Kingdoms Queens Counsel (QC).

Sought by every lawyer called to the Nigerian bar, the SAN rank sets the holders apart from the other lawyers as distinguished and respected legal practitioners.

The rank also gives the holders the privilege of sitting in the front row during court sessions, a portrayal of the inner bar a lawyer is admitted into with the conferment of the SAN rank.

ALSO READ: Supreme Court names acting Chief Registrar

Among other privileges, a SAN is entitled to having his or her case called by a judge ahead of those of other lawyers in the outer bar.

The LPPC confers the rank on deserving lawyers in the academics and advocacy categories annually.

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New recipients are sworn in by the CJN at the ceremony marking the commencement of the new legal year of the Supreme Court which usually holds in September.
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The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, says the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N16.6 billion for the execution of four projects by his ministry across the country.

Mr Sirika stated this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the Council meeting, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to him, the projects to be executed in the contracts include construction of Wachakal Airport in Yobe at N6.3 billion; post construction services for the same airport at the cost of N219.8 million and procurement of eight airport rescue and firefighting vehicles at the cost of N9.5 billion.

He said the balance of N658.8million of the amount was for a contract for the deployment of sniffer dogs to the Lagos and Abuja international airports.

FEC approved four memoranda for ministry of aviation, and one of which is approval for the construction of Wachakal Airport in Yobe State at the contract sum of N6,284,065,056.

And in our drive to develop the sector and ensure connectivity within our region and also improve on our security architecture and also attend to the various needs of civilisation, we found this airport and many others that are coming across the country useful.

The second was a post-Consultancy Services for the construction of the same airport, Wachakal Air strip which is very close to Nguru in Yobe state.

So, first Consultancy Services is given to Kafe Engineering at the sum of N219,782,500 only. This will include seven and a half per cent VAT, said Mr Sirika.

The third memorandum that was taken for approval, he added, was for the supply and maintenance of eight units of airport rescue and firefighting vehicles including spare parts and training.

And this was given to Messers Gulf of Africa International Ltd., the exclusive representatives of the OEM and the OEMs are Emirate firefighting equipment factory, this is in the sum of N9,535,132,500.

This also will include seven and a half per cent and delivery period for this procurement is 12 months.

The last memo has to do with approval for the award of contract for the deployment of sniffer dogs canine in airports in Lagos and Abuja. We will be continuing with this procurement and other airports as well.

So, the total contract sum for this procurement is N658,762,783.36 which includes seven and a half per cent VAT, he said.

The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, also said that the Council approved N2.7 billion for the construction of facilities, including hostel at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), Delta State.

(NAN)
Three anti-corruption groups have applauded the appeals lodged by Milan prosecutors against the acquittal of Shell, Eni and 13 other defendants accused of corruption in the acquisition of Nigerias OPL 245 offshore oilfield.

Human and Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA), Re: Common, and Corner House described the development as a welcome development in their joint statement on Tuesday.

The statement was signed by Lanre Suraj of HEDA, Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House, and Antonio Tricarico of Re: Common.

Prosecutors had charged the defendants with paying $1.1 billion in bribes to Nigerian politicians and receiving kickbacks in the shady acquisition process of the highly lucrative OPL 245.

The oil field was originally awarded under questionable circumstances to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited in 1998.

Shell, Eni and other defendants have consistently denied any wrongdoing in their transactions regarding the oil field in 2011.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in March how an Italian court in Milan acquitted defendants in the corruption case involving $1.3 billion controversial Malabu OPL 245 deal.

In the courts judgement, the judge, Marco Tremolada, acquitted the defendants saying they had no case to answer.

The Milan court suggested that corrupt dealings might have taken place, but noted that the oil companies and other defendants were not involved and that any illegality was a matter for the Nigerian, not Italian courts.

But Milan prosecutors have now reportedly appealed against the verdict. An Italian newspaper quoted a Milan prosecutor as describing the acquittal judgment as thin and illogical.

HEDA, Corner House and Re: Common, also criticised the acquittal judgement which they said distorted and ignored vital evidence on Tuesday.

Our own analysis suggests that the Milan judgment was deeply flawed, Mr Suraj was quoted as saying in the joint statement.

At times, the judges reasoning borders on fantasy. The lazy racism stereotype that suggests that any corruption in the deal was restricted to Nigerians and Nigeria cannot be allowed to let Western defendants off the hook.

On his part, Mr Tricarico of Re: Common said, The OPL 245 case has put the Italian judicial system on trial.

The appeal is the opening salvo in a battle for the soul of the Italian judiciary and Italys standing in the international anti-corruption community.

In his own comment, Mr Hildyard of Corner House said the judges bent over backwards to give the companies the benefit of the doubt, distorting or ignoring vital contradictory evidence.

This bias needs to be investigated, he added.

Backstory

PREMIUM TIMES reported how almost half of the $1.1 billion paid by Shell and Eni in the OPL 245 deal ended in escrow accounts controlled by a Nigerian businessman, Aliyu Abubakar.

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The oil multinationals allegedly paid the money through the Nigerian government to Malabu, the company originally awarded the lucrative oil field.

The money was said to have been transferred to Mr. Mr Aliyu who allegedly shared the money with top officials of Shell and Eni as well as officials of then President Goodluck Jonathan administration, the prosecutors said.

The OPL 245 was transferred to Malabu under shady circumstances in 1998.

Dan Etete, who was controlling Malabu, was then the sitting petroleum minister when the oil field was fraudulently awarded to the firm in 1998.
In his first public speech on the passing of his father, Governor Dapo Abiodun recalled how he told him to prioritise the payment of workers salaries and pensioners entitlements.

While receiving sympathisers at his family home in Iperu-Remo last week, Mr Abiodun described his fathers death as painful and a great loss to him and his family.

When I assumed office, my dad told me to be faithful to the oath of office I took, he said I should respect the civil servants, pay them regularly and ensure that pensioners get their gratuities and all will be well.

He also asked me to treat teachers well, you know that was his constituency, he told me to pay workers on time, before the last day of the month.

But, as it has turned out, the governor has not heeded to his fathers wishes.

Emmanuel Abiodun, 89, died on August 2 after a brief illness, according to a statement by the family.

Judiciary workers strike

On the same day Mr Abiodun was recollecting his late fathers wishes, the judiciary workers in the state were embarking on an indefinite strike over alleged short-payment of their salaries by the state government.

Edun Tajudeen, the JUSUN state chairman, on August 11, said the strike was in compliance with the national secretariats directive.

The chairman noted that the union took the decision to embark on strike after they had held series of meetings with representatives of the state government, which ended in a deadlock.

He further said the union had noticed the shortage in the salaries of judiciary workers in the state since October last year.

Its been a long time that we have been on the issue, and there were series of meetings, that is why we asked all members of the judiciary staff to sit at home until when our request is granted.

This strike we are embarking is indefinite strike, because on February 24 there was an ultimatum given to the government for the payment of full salary before the nationwide strike on autonomy commerced.

And after the strike, the meeting continues with the government which is not yielding any result.

The JUSUN chairman urged the Ogun State government to look into their request and noted that their demands could be easily met because their staff strength is low.

Ex-political appointees plea

In the same vein, former political appointees in the state have appealed to the governor to pay their backlog of severance allowances.

The appointees, in a letter jointly signed by Soyombo Opeyemi, Olusola Balogun and Lanre Adeagbo, all Special Assistants during the immediate past governors administration, pleaded with Mr Abiodun to offset their severance so as to encourage sacrificial service by public officeholders.

No one can ignore the fact that you have not only retained the 2,000 workers employed by the previous administration but went ahead to pay them nine-month salaries, which pleasantly surpassed expectations of the citizens of Ogun State, the former Special Assistants stated in the letter dated August 5.

We, the undersigned, representatives of Special Assistants to the Governor who served Ogun State Government between the years 2015 and 2019, earnestly appeal to Your Excellency to pay our Severance Allowance.

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Co-operative Thrift and Credit Union members beg

On their part, the Ogun State Salary Earners Co-operative Thrift and Credit Union Limited also appealed to Governor Abiodun to pay their 17 months outstanding co-operative deductions to save its members from untimely death.

The union in a statement jointly signed by its president, Bodude Tanimola, and the General Manager, Sunday Ajayi, urged the governor to intervene and stop the unwarranted deaths caused by the non-payment of entitlements to their members.

The union lamented that children of many of its members have dropped out of school over their inability to pay tuition fees and cater for other important school needs, adding that the non-remittance of the co-operative deductions has run into billions of naira.

The union further complained that several letters written to the governor, the Head of Service, and commissioner for Community Development and Cooperative, among others were not attended to.

There is inability of our members to take care of their immediate and extended familys welfare, the statement read.

There is also inability to give out loan to our co-operative members.

We appeal to the Executive Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun to look into 17 months Co-operative deductions outstanding owed our members to reduce the number of death recorded among our members.

MAPOLY staff cry

Also, both teaching and non-teaching staff of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, have been groaning over the non-payment of their June and July salaries.

A lecturer in the institution, who does not want his name in print for fear of being sacked, noted that fear has been responsible for the silence of workers in the institution despite the non-payment of salaries.

He explained that staff received two months salaries in July to offset April and May salaries leaving June and July.

We havent been speaking in public because of fear, not because all is well. We received April and May in June and till now we havent received anything. As we speak we are currently being owed June and July salaries and seven semesters for part-time lecturers.

LG pensioners, government at loggerheads

ers in Ogun State, especially those of the local government, have always been at loggerheads with Gov Abiodun over unpaid gratuities and delay in payment of monthly pensions

On June, 10 pensioners under the umbrella of the Local Government Pensioners Association (LOGPAN) were at Oke-Mosan to protest the alleged refusal of Governor Abiodun to pay their gratuities but were locked out by security agents.

The pensioners embarked on strike after observing three days fasting over their unpaid entitlements.

Sikiru Ayilara, the LOGPAN state chairman, accused the government of favouring the state pensioners over their local government counterparts.

The state pensioners are being treated as sacred cows, receiving their pay as at when due, simply because the father and mother of the state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun are state pensioners, Mr Ayilara said.

The state pensioners are being paid by the 28th of the month, while the local government pensioners and retired primary school teachers are being overlapped and have to wait till almost the next month ending.

Mr Ayilara expressed concern over Mr Abioduns non-challant attitude to their demands, including the non-payment of gratuities, lateness and non-increment in their monthly pensions and discrimination against the state and local government pensioners.

The pensioners urged the governor to vote N1 billion monthly, instead of paying N500million quarterly to settle gratuity arrears; saying this would take up to 34 years to clear the outstanding gratuities.
Despite the rising cases of coronavirus infections and the accompanying fatalities in Nigeria, authorities at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, have announced the resumption of physical activities on its main campus.

According to a statement signed by the institutions registrar, Oladejo Azeez, this was for the purpose of the second-semester examination, which is scheduled to commence on August 26.

This announcement is coming exactly six weeks after the university abruptly shut down its hostels over rising cases of the pandemic among students on the campus.

The university had suddenly reverted to online mode of studies in July, accusing the students of not observing the instituted protocols against the spread of the disease.

But at a time the university is reopening for physical activities, its counterpart in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, just announced its adoption of blended online and physical academic activities on its campuses.

The authorities at the University of Ibadan took the decision after recording the tragic deaths of three prominent professors due to the coronavirus disease.

One of the late dons, a virologist, David Olaleye, was a key figure in the battle against the pandemic in Oyo State.

The late Mr Olaleye was eulogised by both the state governor, Seyi Makinde, and his colleagues, who said he laboured to save humanity through consistent impact-driven researches.

UNILAG schedule

According to the registrar, 100 and 200 level students, who are billed to sit their General Studies (GST) between August 26 and 28, are expected to resume to the hostels on August 26.

These categories of students are, according to the timetable released by the university, expected to vacate the hostels on or before September 11, 2021, while the 500 level Faculty of Law students and all the 300 level students are expected to move to the hostels on August 28 and September 11 respectively.

The timetable also noted that the 400 and other 500 level students from other departments and faculties are scheduled to move into the hostels on September 18 and vacate on September 26.

Measure against pandemic

Meanwhile, the university has said appropriate measures have been taken to guide against the resurgence of the virus on the campus. This is as students are warned to steer clear of the hostels if they are not legal occupants.

Mr Azeez, in the statement, noted that all the extant rules and regulations with the associated penalties guiding hostel residency are still applicable for compliance by all students.

He said all the eligible hostel occupants are also expected to abide by the guidelines for admittance into the hostels.

The statement reads in part; Eligible students are expected to abide strictly by the guidelines for admittance into the Halls of Residence and such students must have been duly registered for the second semester exams, ready to always wear face masks, use hand sanitisers and also stick only to their bed spaces.

They must also present coloured Examination Docket for 2nd semester 2019/2020 examinations; present a bottle of hand sanitizer- minimum of 500ml; present, at least, 10 pieces of face masks; wear face mask into and out of the hostels at all times, and only use their allocated bed spaces.

Available isolation

Towards guiding against untoward eventualities, the university said arrangements have been made with its teaching hospital arm and a nearby general hospital owned by the Lagos State Government for possible isolation of cases.

In order to ensure the safety of staff and students during this period, the University will adhere strictly to all COVID-19 protocols. Special arrangements have been made with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and Gbagada General Hospital for necessary isolation and treatment of any incidence of COVID-19 case during the examinations, the statement added.

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Tomorrow, Thursday, August 19, Premium Times Books in conjunction with the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) will be presenting a new book titled Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices at the Yar Adua Centre, Abuja. Edited by Chido Onumah, a rights activist and the Coordinator of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), this is a 437-page book and collection of 60 essays by 60 young Nigerians to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Nigerias independence.

In this interview, the book editor, Onumah speaks with PREMIUM TIMES Ololade Bamidele on the raison detre for the publication of this collection, while engaging with the disconcerting trajectory that Nigeria finds itself in at this point in its evolution, 61 years after independence.



PT: What inspired you to put this book together?

ONUMAH: The inspiration came from over many years of worrying about the Nigerian tragedy. Nigeria just breaks ones heart. Where do we start? Education, health, corruption, inequality, injustice, mindless violence, abuse of power, just name it. We have managed to perfect the art of dysfunctionality.

PT: This is about your fourth book project, all returning to the subject of Nigeria and the various questions around it; how come it appears that you believe so much in books as potent tools for creating solutions and hence striving towards change from the persistent national malaise? This is more so when you put this within the frame of what many see as the challenges of a reading culture in Nigeria? Can books ever offer a virile platform for social activism/change in Nigeria?

ONUMAH: Well, there is no other way to go about it. Documenting or chronicling our history is fundamental and important for many reasons. My focus is on the younger generation, those we accuse of not being interested in books or reading. There are many things that happen in this country that Nigerians should know but which are only discussed in beer parlours and the comfort of our bedrooms; things that border on our collective survival as a people. Knowledge is power, they say. It is when you know, when you have the requisite information that you know that things are not going the way they shouldor that there are better ways of doing thingsthat you can act.

Books can offer a virile platform for social activism. This week, former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, turned 80. He and his cronies have spent the last few weeks trying to rewrite history and whitewash Babangida and his regime. For those who did not live through the Babangida era, you would think the man was a saint. But it is important that we never forget and for the younger generation to appreciate that learning comes through books and reading. And there are many books out there, including one of mine titled, Nigeria is Negotiable, that provide an insight into how Babangida misruled Nigeria for eight years and set us on the precipitous path we have found ourselves as a nation.

PT: Related to the foregoing is the question of a country with a very difficult publishing and books environment; what was your journey like in getting this project to fruition, and what roles did particular individuals and institutional actors, like development agencies, play in making this book possible?

ONUMAH: It is a shame that many of the books you see in our bookshops are printed abroad. It is a lot cheaper to print outside the country. Then there is the issue of quality. There are some quality presses in Nigeria, but because of the crisis of poor infrastructureelectricity, the bureaucracy and high cost of doing business, etc.you cant get anything done unless you are willing to pay about three or four times what it will cost to print in Dubai, the U.S. or China.

The idea of this book first came up eleven years ago when Nigeria was about to celebrate its 50th independence anniversary. Unfortunately, the idea didnt get much traction then because it was tough getting people to commit to the process and there was the challenge of funds to produce the book. Something like this requires a lot of resourcesprinting the book, doing the research and so on. Thankfully, this time around, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and Ford Foundation responded positively when I discussed the idea with them. It was through their support that we were able to get this done. Of course, I have to pay homage to the 60 contributors to the book. Without their essays there would be no book. Remember this was done last year when the whole world was on lockdown and there were travel restrictions and people had to deal with different health and social issues. I am happy we managed to get this done. I would like to thank our publishers, PT Books, for their tireless efforts in ensuring we finally have a good quality book.

PT: Was there a particular methodology informing the different voices brought together to think Nigeria in this compendium? There also seems to be a preponderance of male voices overall  was this deliberate?

ONUMAH: The aim was to have young and fresh voices. So, we decided on post-civil war Nigerians who are 50 years and younger. Even though many of them are known and contribute regularly to national conversation, we wanted to ensure that their views get national attention in a focused and organised manner. Of course, in selecting contributors, we needed to reflect the countrys diversity. We also had to ensure gender balance. Beyond this, we had to ensure that we got contributors with an understanding of the concept of the project. Unfortunately, because of challenge created by COVID-19, not all of those we initially reached out to were able to make it and a lot of people in that group were female contributors. Sadly, we didnt get the gender balance we wanted. But it was not for lack of trying. Overall, we are happy about the quality of the book. We hope it will be well received by the public.

PT: You had once deployed a metaphorical phrase in which you stated that, We are all Biafrans; could this be your own unique take on what constitutes a Nigerian identity, a continuum of marginalisation and discontent, even if it is not as positive an experience as one would have wished?

ONUMAH: In a way, this may be a corollary to We are all Biafrans. Call it we are all Nigerians. I have always believed that the fundamental issue in Nigeria is the issue of identity. Who is a Nigerian? What does it mean to be a Nigerian? There are millions of Nigerians who have bitter experiences when it comes to answering these questions. There are millions who see themselves as second-class citizens, those who feel they cant enjoy the full potentials of what this country has to offer because of their religion or ethnicity. Thats the challenge. If we can resolve the citizenship crisis, we would have solved half of our problems. We must have a country where citizens believe that their opportunities are only limited by their desires and abilities, rather than where they come from or the language they speak. This is what Remaking Nigeria is all about.

PT: You have reiterated the notion of Nigerias third missionary journey towards a truly democratic nation; what informs this sense of period delineation towards nationhood? Do you think Nigerian nationhood is attainable, despite all the centrifugal forces threatening to render all attempts at a concert apart?

ONUMAH: Nigeria has had many opportunities to fulfil its role as a giant on the African continent. At independence, the world looked at us as the great black hope, the country to redeem the black race. Unfortunately, 60 years after, that hope remains a mirage. Part of the problem is the crisis of nationhood. Six years after independence, there were two bloody coups and a civil war the year after. At the end of the civil war in January 1970, we declared no victor, no vanquished. Fifty-one years after, there are millions of Nigerians for whom the cheque of no victor, no vanquished is nothing but a dud cheque. The country is more divided today than it has ever been, twenty-one years into our latest attempt at democratic rule. At no other time in the history of the country have we had this level of disenchantment about the country. And the feeling spreads across and is yielding grounds to a growing band of armed critiques and agitations for self-determination from different groups.

PT: Many have spoken passionately about the very peculiar sort of federalism operative in Nigeria, which has led to numerous feelings of disenchantment, leading to calls for restructuring and self-determination, whether in terms of having more space within the country-construct or the radical decision for separation; how do you see this?

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ONUMAH: The feeling of disenchantment is inevitable. Of course, the situation has been exacerbated by the dwindling resources and the corruption of our greedy and perverse elite, but it is also a measure of our inability to forge a nation out of what the colonialists handed over to us in 1960. At independence, we needed to build a new Nigeria, to recreate Nigeria in the image of citizens of the country, but that didnt happen. Nigeria is a peculiar country, and its problems are in a way peculiar. We are about the only country in the world where the adherents of the two main religions are at par in terms of numbers. We are the only country in the world with three major groups. In many countries, you have one or two. Nigeria could have been three or four nations at independence. The country got independence as a federation of three regions in 1960. Many years of military rule succeeded in destroying the original structure of the country so much so that the states which ought to be the successor of the regions that were the building blocks of the country have lost their power and independence. The chicks have come home to roost. The destruction of the principle of federalism, the mismanagement of our diversity, injustice and so on can only have one consequence. I hope we can survive the current onslaught.

PT: Linked to its structural manifestation, what do you consider as the other persistent social issues confronting Nigeria at this juncture, and what notion of resolution do you subscribe to, considering the declaration of the remaking of Nigeria in the title of your latest book  that of dialogue, then constitutional reform, leading to a new social contract? Why do you think separatism is an attractive option to many at this point in our evolution as a country?

ONUMAH: There is nothing we are facing today as a country that other countries havent faced or are not facing. It depends on what lessons we want to learn from our tragedies and bitter experiences. Nigeria is not the first or only country to fight a civil war. Rwanda rose like a phoenix from the ashes of a genocide and today it is a poster child of what it means to build a nation. Are we willing to take the first step? Are we willing to ask and answer the hard questions of nationhood? It was the late legal icon, Chief Bola Ige, who posed the questions: Do we want to live together as Nigerians? If the answer is yes, under what conditions? These questions are as important today as they were decades ago. I believe many Nigerians want to live together as Nigerians. The agitations you see across the country is our failure to address the second part of Chief Iges question: Under what conditions? We need to define what it means to be a Nigerian. We must address the elephant in the room, the question of citizenship rights.

PT: Do you think that Nigeria would ultimately be a viable project?

ONUMAH: I think so. My faith rests in the countrys youth population. Say what we want about them, they are the ones who hold the key to the countrys salvation. They must learn and figure out how to fashion the kind of country they want; one that works for the majority of Nigerians. The #EndSARS protests last October showed us what a group of dedicated young people can achieve. It can only get better.
President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Abuja said Nigeria lost an estimated $50billion worth of investments in 10 years, created by the uncertainty of non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), lack of progress and stagnation in the petroleum industry.

In his remarks at a ceremony on passage of the PIA, which preceded the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the president said the stagnation affected growth of the economy, citing lack of political will on the part of past administrations to actualise the needed transformation.

President Buhari said assent of the Petroleum Industry Bill on August 16, 2021, marks the end of decades of uncertainty and under-investment in the petroleum industry.

We are all aware that past Administrations have identified the need to further align the industry for global competitiveness, but there was lack of political will to actualize this needed transformation.

This lack of progress has stagnated the growth of the industry and the prosperity of our economy. In the past ten years, Nigeria has lost an estimated US$50billion worth of investments due to uncertainty created by the non-passage of the PIB.

This administration believes that the timely passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill will help our country attract investments across the oil and gas value chain.

In view of the value our Nation and investors will derive from a stable fiscal framework for the oil and gas industry, our Administration has found it necessary to work with the two Chambers of the National Assembly to ensure the passage of the PIB, he said.

President Buhari noted that the signing of the bill was part of the administrations commitment to building a competitive and resilient petroleum industry that will attract investment, improve our revenue base, create jobs and support our economic diversification agenda.

The president said as a nation that depends on oil resources for the development of other sectors, Nigeria runs a Petroleum Industry that is governed largely by laws enacted over 50 years ago such as the principal legislation; the Petroleum Act of 1969 and other obsolete legislations.

He said the presidential assent of the bill to Petroleum Industry Act 2021 marked the beginning of the journey towards a competitive and resilient petroleum industry that will attract investments to support the nations Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

The Petroleum Industry Act 2021 creates a regulatory environment that would ensure efficiency and accountability across the oil and gas value chain and reposition NNPC to a commercially driven National Petroleum Company that is accountable to the Federation.

The Act also provides for a direct benefit framework that will enable sustainable development of Host Communities. I appeal to the host communities to look carefully at the contents of the Bill which in the implementation will bring real and lasting benefits to them.

Furthermore, the Act provides for deliberate end to gas flaring which would facilitate the attainment of Nigerias Nationally Determined Contributions of the Paris Agreement through a funding mechanism to support gas flare out project in host communities, he added.

President Buhari said the administration believes that the timely passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill will help our country attract investments across the oil and gas value chain.

While directing the immediate implementation of the framework for the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), he urged all relevant stakeholders to comply and reposition for full activation within 12 months.

The president said the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, will head the implementation team, urging all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) to adjust to the transition, designed to reposition the economy.

To consolidate the commitment of this administration to delivering the value proposition of this law, I have approved an implementation framework commencing immediately to ensure the industry envisaged in the new law begins to take shape.

The implementation process to be headed by the Hon Minister of State, Petroleum Resources is hereby tasked with the completion of the implementation of this act within 12 months. I am therefore directing all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to fully cooperate in ensuring the successful and timely implementation of this law, he said.

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President Buhari commended the leadership of the 9th Assembly for their continued pursuit of national aspiration and demonstration of mutual harmony with the executive in the pursuit of patriotic outcome in passage of PIB.

I also commend the entire team in the executive that worked tirelessly to ensure the delivery of this strategic legislation for our country. I thank Nigerians and other industry stakeholders for their contributions and support in achieving this historic landmark, he said.

The ceremony was attended by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, Deputy Speaker Ahmed Wase, and other lawmakers, members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari.

Femi Adesina

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

August 18, 2021
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Bichi, one of Kanos Emirate, will be agog on Friday and Saturday with dignitaries from across the world as President Muhammadu Buharis son, Yusuf, weds Zahra, daughter to the Emir of Bichi, Nasir Ado-Bayero.

Aside from the wedding, Mr Ado-Bayero will be coronated as the new Emir of Bichi, barely a month after his elder brother, the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado-Bayero, was presented with the staff of office.

Shehu Ahmed, the chairperson of the organising committee for the wedding and coronation, told reporters on Wednesday that the president is expected to attend the wedding on Friday.

According to the committee, the wedding Fatiha would hold around 1:30 p.m. at Bichi Central Mosque after the congregational Jumaat prayer on Friday while the emir would be presented with a staff of office by the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Saturday.

President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to grace the wedding Fatiha of his son and the daughter of the Emir of Bichi in Bichi town on Friday, the official said.

Mr Ahmed said a special prayer session would also be conducted at the Central Mosque, Bichi, by 4:30 p.m.

Other lined up activities include the coronations lecture to be held at the Federal College of Education (Technical) Bichi on Thursday while the ceremony for the presentation of the staff of office would be held at the Bichi stadium on Saturday.

Couple

The lucky groom-to-be, Yusuf, is the only male child of Mr Buhari and first son of the presidents second wife, Aisha Buhari.

Aisha is now the only wife of the president.

Yusuf, 27, is a graduate of the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom, while Zahra, 19, is currently studying architecture in a university in the same country.

The couple had released some pre-wedding photos which were shot by Wraith Studio. There are others pre-wedding photos trending online which generated controversies over the brides appearance.

Many critics from the largely conservative Northern region including the head of Kano State Hisbah, (states moral) Harun Ibn-Sina, condemned the brides appearance, arguing that it was not in tandem with her culture and religion.
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By Washington, D.C., August 18, 2021  The Taliban must immediately cease attacking journalists and searching their homes, and allow members of the press to operate freely and without fear of violence or reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Since the Taliban took power in the country earlier this week, militants have searched the homes of at least four journalists and news agency employees, according to journalists and representatives who spoke with CPJ.

Separately, CPJ is investigating news reports today that Taliban militants beat at least two journalists in the city of Jalalabad, in eastern Nangarhar province, while they were covering a protest against the militant groups takeover.

The Taliban needs to stand by its public commitment to allow a free and independent media at a time when Afghanistans people desperately need accurate news and information, said Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator. The Taliban must cease searching the homes of journalists, commit to ending the use of violence against them, and allow them to operate freely and without interference.

Taliban militants have searched the homes of at least three employees of the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, according to a statement from the news organization and corporate spokesperson Christoph Jumpelt, who communicated with CPJ via email.

CPJ was unable to determine the identities of those employees or when the searches took place. Jumpelt told CPJ that the employees were not in their homes at the time of the raids and have gone into hiding, but said he could not provide any further details.

Deutsche Welle is working with the German Foreign Ministry to facilitate the evacuation of its employees and families, according to its statement.

Yesterday, Taliban militants searched the home of a freelance journalist and interpreter who formerly worked with freelance U.S. journalist Wesley Morgan, according to Morgan, who spoke with CPJ via phone, and screenshots of security footage outside the home, which CPJ reviewed.

Morgan said that the journalist had gone into hiding and was not home at the time of the search. CPJ agreed not to publish their name due to safety concerns.

Yesterday, the Taliban held their first official news conference in Kabul, where spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that private media outlets can continue to be free and independent. He added that Islamic values should be taken into account in media coverage, and that journalists should refrain from working against national values.

Mujahid did not respond to CPJs request for comment via messaging app.

Previously, on August 9, suspected Taliban militants kidnapped Nematullah Hemat, a reporter for the privately owned news channel Gharghasht TV, and shot and killed Toofan Omar, a manager of the privately owned radio station Paktia Ghag Radio, as CPJ documented at the time.

Hemats whereabouts remain unknown as of today, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal from the Taliban.

On August 16, CPJ called on the United States to ensure the safety of Afghan journalists as the country falls under the control of the Taliban, including facilitating safe passage out of the country and providing emergency visas.

SOURCE: CPJ
One thing is sure though: You cant deceive all the people all the time. Something must give. As the people rose against the PDP in 2015 and supplanted it with APC, so will they rise against the duo someday.

The tension arising from the governing All Progressives Congress (APC)s multifaceted crises got to its peak last week when the Secretary of the Extraordinary Caretaker and Convention Planning Committee, James Akpanudoedehe had to call in security personnel to protect personnel and property at the partys national secretariat.

That same week, the embattled opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was dogged by internal strife over the leadership of the party, a trait that has become synonymous with the PDP since inception in 1998.

The parallel events have thrown up debates about the workability, sustainability and viability of Nigerias leading political parties. Conversely, if the political parties, whose main shared goal is to produce leadership at all levels, are not working well, can democracy, nay the country, work well for the purpose of its existence? Such is the scepticism that characterises Nigeria today, that it takes stoicism and strong will not to lose hope in our form of democracy and the country in general.

The house of commotion that has become the lot of our leading political parties is nothing other than the struggle for power or relevance, conflict of interest and survival, and not for the sake of instituting good governance or finding solutions to the countrys myriad of challenges.

The APC came in a blaze of glory; it was perceived as a credible alternative to the badly-behaved PDP in its 16-year rule, but the APC, in over six years, has not fared any better. If not, how has a party allowed a sitting governor to serve as a caretaker chairman for upward of 18 months by the end of this year, having taken over on June 25, 2020? Mai Mala Buni, the governor of Yobe State assumed office as a Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC after the dissolution of the National Working Committee (NWC) by its National Executive Committee, in a bid then to save the party from internal implosion.

We should recall the controversial era of erstwhile chairman, Adams Oshiomhole and the court decision that booted him out of office. Governor Buni was sworn in by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, after President Buhari advised all litigants to withdraw their cases from court. At that time the APC used the Police to bar the then acting NWC led by Arc Waziri Bulamas entry into the partys National Secretariat. Bunis six-month tenure has been renewed two times, even as tempers are rising over his motive for overstaying. The party glossed over its constitutional provision, under section 4, article 17, which states that, no officer in any organ of the party shall hold executive positionin government concurrently. As illegal as it was in contravening Article 29 of the APC Constitution, which is against any member being sworn in other than as an appropriate principal officer of the party, AGF Malami still went ahead and swore-in Buni at the Presidential Villa.

The APC and PDP are acting as if Nigerians have no alternatives, but you cant blame them. Before INEC axed 67 political parties, they were at best appendages of the ruling party, playing the ignoble role of lining up behind the leading party, at the eleventh hour of election time, and getting rewarded in return.

Recently, the Yobe State governor-cum-super chairman started a reregistration/revalidation exercise reminiscent of the PDP days, when braggadocio and intimidation of perceived weak members held sway. He (Buni) got away with it. Against the backdrop of the legal interpretation and minority judgment in the Akerodolu victory, which questioned the eligibility of Governor Buni to hold both elective and party positions, chieftains and stakeholders of the party became more agitated and feared the worst could happen to the party, like in the Zamfara case in 2019, when the party lost a legal battle, despite winning the governorship election. One of the Supreme Court justices, in a minority decision, maintained that, Buni violated the constitution, when as a sitting governor, still acted as chairman of the APC by submitting Akeredolus name to INEC for purposes of the governorship poll.

Then came the issue of ward congresses across the country, which have left the party more divided. So far, the party has received petitions from at least 14 states. Lagos and Osun States had messier congresses, even as Governor Oyetola and his former godfather/benefactor, Rauf Aregbesola, are at each others throat over the control of the party, while in Lagos, a group dissociated itself from the ward congress, which it claims disenfranchised them in the name of consensus. As pot-shots are thrown at the party leadership from left, right and centre, it did not come as a surprise last week that the party had to call in DSS and the Police to secure its premises and staff.

Caretaker Secretary Apkanudoedehe, in an interview with newsmen, said the Police were at their premises to strengthen the leadership of Governor Buni, the caretaker chairman of the APC. What do I mean by that? When you have a security report that we are privy to, it is incumbent on our part to strengthen it so that we can protect you and the property of the APC. APC cannot be embarrassed because it has the national government. So, we must take measures to forestall any happening. We cannot under-estimate security reports. You cannot play down on it. You have a security report, you cant take laws into your hands. You dont expect us to call thugs to defend the secretariat of the party, he said.

As embarrassing as this statement is for the party, it is actually a reflection of the sorry state of the party today: Buni needs to be protected from his own party men and women; the Police and DSS had to be called in to strengthen the Chairmans leadership in a democratic setting and party members had to be intimidated and harassed by its leadership for asking hard and legitimate questions? How unfortunate!

APC is such a good student of history that it has not just imbibed and learnt PDPs ropes and tricks; it has surpassed the PDP in less than half of the PDPs rule.

If a new party comes into being today, these same characters in APC and PDP will rush to populate it, once the party is accepted by the voting populace. This happened in 2015, 2019 and it likely would in the current build-up to 2023, in favour of the ruling party, the same way PDP had enjoyed such support in the past.

For the PDP, trying to survive the last straw holding it together, despite giving the party chairman, Uche Secondus soft landing, after days of hot air and grandstanding, the party is still in trouble. Secondus has been in power for over six years and does not have an impressive record, yet it took the party chieftains so long to wake up from slumber, and ask him to step down, barely four months to the end of his tenure. Did they have to wait to lose at least three sitting governors, many ex-governors, ministers and two speakers and more before taking the action they took last week? And you call that a political party?

The APC and PDP are acting as if Nigerians have no alternatives, but you cant blame them. Before INEC axed 67 political parties, they were at best appendages of the ruling party, playing the ignoble role of lining up behind the leading party, at the eleventh hour of election time, and getting rewarded in return. As such, when people talk of a third force to replace the APC and PDP, youd wonder whether the members will be from Jupiter, and not Nigeria.

If a new party comes into being today, these same characters in APC and PDP will rush to populate it, once the party is accepted by the voting populace. This happened in 2015, 2019 and it likely would in the current build-up to 2023, in favour of the ruling party, the same way PDP had enjoyed such support in the past.

Professor Attahiru Jega said this much the other day, when he called on Nigerians to embrace the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), the party of the poor, and reject the two leading parties, to which Sule Lamido (a potential member of the PRP) had since punctured. Therefore, where is the hope that Nigeria will emerge from PDP and APCs stranglehold and still be democratic. A revolution? I dont think so; Nigerians are too comfortable to go into the trenches for any ideals they believe in.

One thing is sure though: You cant deceive all the people all the time. Something must give. As the people rose against the PDP in 2015 and supplanted it with APC, so will they rise against the duo someday.

zainabokino@gmail.com

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For me, Professor Sachs could be of much help to the 1.4 billion people of Africa, probably as opposed to their bad leaders, if he directs a detailed study that builds on the thoughts of Walter Rodney, Arikana etc., to unravel the mechanisms of the continued ripping-off and exploitation of Africans by private interests actively supported by their respective national governments and the Bretton Woods institutions etc.

The United Nations held a pre-Summit on Food Systems from July 26 to 28, as a primer for its first Global Food Summit coming up in September. At this meeting, Jeffrey Sachs, American and popular Economist, as well as UN Special Envoy on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), made an important intervention. Many Africans were excited that Sachs called for the African Union, representing 1.4 billion people, to have a seat at a G-20 that transforms into G-21. The media focus has been on the tokenism of an AU seat, instead of many cogent issues that Sachs eloquently repeated.

I use repeated because this thought system dates from a long line of agitators for the independence of Africa and scholars such as Dr Walter Rodney in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, and more recently, Dr Arikana Chihombori-Quao in many speeches and YouTube videos beyond her Africa 101: The Wake Up Call. Arikana was fired as African Union Ambassador to the United States by the African Union. Many an African, like myself, saw the termination of Arikanas appointment as punitive. She dared to point out that colonialists never left Africa and showed how they continue to rip-off and exploit Africa.

Lucky for Arikana to have only lost her job. Walter Rodney lost his life. He was assassinated in 1980 at age 38. I am not aware that the riddle of who killed Rodney has been ever solved. However, this illustrious Guyanese lives on through his works as an unsung great African hero. The Nobel Prize will always elude the likes of Rodney. If his type had been recognised, it would have raised questions on the orthodoxy that Africas problems solely rests on African shoulders.

It is extremely helpful and hope-raising to have an American Economist from the U.S. articulating and showing the import of external dynamics on the continuing underdevelopment of Africa. He asked the pre-summit meeting to go into the history of why the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains in turmoil and poverty. Though Arikana articulated this theme of the West causing turmoil in Africa in order to extract resources, Jeffrey Sachs rightly noted the extractions of King Leopold of Belgium and his claim to ownership of the Congo, through to the CIAs assassination of Patrice Lumumba and installation of Mobutu Seseseko as head of state. Further to this, Arikana has detailed the several assassinations of other visionary leaders of Africa, as well as the overthrow of others by colonialists operating under a different mode of imperialism referred to as neo-colonialism.

Jeffrey Sachs correctly pointed to Glencores extraction of cobalt from the DRC without responsibility or accountability to the sovereignty claims of the government of the DRC, but paying taxes at Glencores home country for the insurance of continuing protection, despite the progressive destabilisation of peace in the DRC  after all, weapons are not made in the DRC.

Arikana had called attention to the exploitation of Africans through loans from the world arena  especially the West, including from the Bretton Woods institutions. Of course, the U.S. led some European powers, at the end of the Second World War, to design a United Nations at the political level and the Bretton Woods institutions at the economic level, not to have tea parties but to rebuild and control the world for their interests, with the architect being the primus inter pares (first among equals). The equals at the time were limited to the United Kingdom and France. Token veto rights were granted to Kuomingtang China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), now Russia. Of course, in terms of tokenism, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and apartheid South Africa had token presences at the foundation of the UN. They were only needed to boost the pretence of having a multilateral entity that is united.

The claims of Europeans to ownership of Africa were ratified by the act of the U.S. going ahead with the formation of the UN, without insisting on self-determination and the need for all territories to be free and at the table from the beginning. Why should the U.S., the primus inter pares, insist on a place at the table for Africans? It knew that the Europeans would have accused it of interference and probably called attention to the unsalutary situation of race relations in America, which had benefitted and built America on the back of black people over centuries.

We should abhor tokenisms. Generally, they play on peoples intelligence. They also give false impressions, which in this case is the pretence that the interests of 1.4 billion Africans are being brought on to the table. As such, my apologies to Jeffrey Sachs for differing to his call for a stronger UN and at the same time wanting a seat for the African Union at the proposed G-21.

For me, what is important are the billions of African people, not mere political representation by the AU Envoy at a G-21. Does having the AU envoy at the G-21 meeting go beyond the protocol of just having an African sited for the sake of formality? Would it not be a reference point for legitimising tokenism for Africans?

Just as it was in the beginning, so it remains that neither the UN Secretary-General nor the Presidents of the Bretton Woods institutions dare to intervene and call for a stop to the continuing structured rip-off and exploitation of Africans. African leaders are not exonerated either. Most of them rip-off their continent and stash away proceeds of their loot in the West, with the cover of the major powers of that sphere. In effect, there is a commonality of interests between bad African leaders and external powers, who are all ripping-off Africa.

I am not excusing most African leaders from their failures in moving Africa forward, in spite of the active efforts to assassinate any of them who showed promise in developing Africa. If some Asian leaders could be focused and wiggle through structured underdevelopment, there must be enough of eternal excuses for the failure of African leaders to ensure improved lives for their people. Bad African leaders should have recognised the thorny paths to development and avoided them by creating alternative routes.

I doff my hat to Jeffrey Sachs, even if he is more accommodative of Africas bad leadership. After all, African leaders cherish Westerners more. Nonetheless, I appreciate Sachs for his intervention in calling for vaccine equity, as opposed to vaccine hoarding, with respect to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Sachs noted that the U.S. alone was able to raise $7 trillion in loans  at zero interest  to fight the scourge, when Africans could not raise a penny, cent or yuan. Hence, it was possible for the West to implement lockdowns with some little human face, as opposed to what happened in Africa.

As usual, African leaders found it easier to go begging for vaccine donations through the COVAX arrangement. I must be thankful to Western taxpayers for getting two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through this modality, even if European interests now say that the AstraZeneca vaccines produced in India will not have equal rights with those made in Europe and probably America.

Of course, Africans are naive if they think that the few doses of vaccines being received are gotten out of love. Declaring the Indian version of AstraZeneca as not measuring up for ease of passage in Europe shows the long-term preferred interest in financial flows on vaccine purchases. This material interest is separate from the fear of COVID-19 mutants that are of concern to mankind in general. The relative abandonment of Africa on the Ebola virus speaks volumes, since this virus was not as virulent outside the continent.

We should abhor tokenisms. Generally, they play on peoples intelligence. They also give false impressions, which in this case is the pretence that the interests of 1.4 billion Africans are being brought on to the table. As such, my apologies to Jeffrey Sachs for differing to his call for a stronger UN and at the same time wanting a seat for the African Union at the proposed G-21.

By the way, does our world really need a G-21 when so many UN agencies are doing their best but are deliberately underfunded, as Jeffrey Sachs rightly noted? Should the League of Arab States (LAS); the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the Organization of American States (OAS) etc., not be entitled to their respective seats at a G-24? More importantly, will Sachs suggestion not further undermine the United Nations?

At the end of the Cold-War in 1990/1991, the weak countries called for a new world order in which the United Nations would be a stronger coordinator of our world for good. Boutros Boutros-Ghali got carried away and thought the call was for real. He learnt the hard way as the carpet was pulled under his feet and he became the only UN Secretary-General, so far, not elected for a second term. He over-relied on the French to save him by continuing to veto Kofi Annan, in the hope that the decision would go to the General Assembly, which would gang up against America and give him a second term. The French bargained and lifted their veto on Kofi Annan and history was made by having a black man at helms of the UN. Kofi Annan also thought he could be daring in his second term and say it truthfully as he saw it. He was almost fired. In summation, only weak countries yearn for strong multilateralism.

From antecedents, what use is an African Unions envoy having a seat at a G-21 to join Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union? For me, not much.

Being at the table should not be because Africa has a population of 1.4 billion. Sitting at the G-21 should be based on the summation of the material net worth of the African Union in making worthwhile contributions. Slighting Nigeria, the G-20 has the token presence of South Africa in its fold. What food has the South African representation at meetings put on the table in Africa? What use would a ceremonial presence at the table be, without decision-making powers? Will the AU presence stop Western companies from continuing with the underdevelopment of Africa? Will it remove the European resistance to having Africans manufacture vaccines through their sharing of knowledge? If anything, the token presence would legitimise an erroneous perception that Jeffrey Sachs is inadvertently selling: That a multilateral G-21 would turn around and start to serve the developmental interests of Africans.

Power exists to bolster interests. Under Western competitive ideology, as opposed to the Yoruba Omoluabi (character plus integrity imbued with a we sharing spirit) or Zulu Ubuntu (I am because you are spirit), it would be naive to expect that granting a seat to the African Union would see to the protection of African interests. It is a joke to call for higher taxation for the 2,700 billionaires of our world to allow an African child have access to safe drinking water or reduce maternal mortality rate in Africa, not to talk of ensuring that Africans enjoy utmost freedom, which I had put as an ideal situation of enjoying the summation of all the SDGs, that Jeffrey Sachs advises the UN on.

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I have no problem if the three billionaires wanting to create luxurious tastes and control space travels go to live in space and leave their billions behind with instructions to use their resources for realising the SDGs, as Sachs suggested in his intervention. But we know that the dominant ideology on earth does not support such orientation. Their respective billions would be invested for more material acquisitions, irrespective of whether they need it or not.

By the way, does our world really need a G-21 when so many UN agencies are doing their best but are deliberately underfunded, as Jeffrey Sachs rightly noted? Should the League of Arab States (LAS); the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); the Organization of American States (OAS) etc., not be entitled to their respective seats at a G-24? More importantly, will Sachs suggestion not further undermine the United Nations? I am sure he and I are agreed on the need for a stronger UN, even if I know that such will never happen.

For me, Professor Sachs could be of much help to the 1.4 billion people of Africa, probably as opposed to their bad leaders, if he directs a detailed study that builds on the thoughts of Walter Rodney, Arikana etc., to unravel the mechanisms of the continued ripping-off and exploitation of Africans by private interests actively supported by their respective national governments and the Bretton Woods institutions etc. Such knowledge can help towards the implementation of policies that bolsters the SDGs by a new set of purposefully recruited African leaders.

Babafemi A. Badejo (Ph.D) is Professor of Political Science/International Relations at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Email: ffembee@yahoo.com; +2348055331448
I am still trying to make sense of the news. Mantu dead? Im still trying to wake up from the shock. This death is a serious crack on the walls of never-give-up brand of politics. Mantu moulded great minds in leadership. He affected several lives by lifting the fallen. We will surely miss him. We will miss his politics  the old school politics of persuasion.

We have been in this season of bad news for too long. When are we getting out of it? When will death give up on us? Who can stop death from claiming our best  in business, politics, leadership, the military, sports; in everything? Where did we go wrong?

No death is good news. Every life has its value. God created everyone for certain divine plans and purposes. Why should death keep us in constant tears? You never know who is next on the line until the phone rings at an ungodly hour, or the news media screams: Breaking news!

From daybreak to midnight on Monday, August 16, nothing pointed to the fact this would happen. No one saw it coming  except the Almighty Himself. Then suddenly, something snapped. An era ended. A life passed on. The nation weeps. Tears roll down several cheeks. A wife is widowed. Children become fatherless. We are left speechless.

When the phone rang in the midnight of Tuesday, I was still awake  though far from the Atlantic Coast. I knew it was early morning in Nigeria. Somehow, I had an instant feeling of some news coming in. But what manner of news it was, I could not predict. The number was familiar.

As I picked the call and heard the tone of the voice at the other end, I wasnt impressed. Bad news has its peculiar tone. This one was no exception. Before the words spilled out, its contents were obvious. Death, the mysterious intruder, has struck again.

Have you heard?

Heard what? I was obviously impatient; curious, within a split second.

Ibrahim Mantu is dead.

What did you say? I heard him quite well. He did not stammer. There was no network problem. But I just didnt want to hear what he said.

I said Ibrahim Mantu is dead. He passed on just about two hours ago.

I became dumbstruck. It didnt sound like a joke. Death has never been an ingredient for pleasantries. The news hit me with all the complements of unbelief. Ibrahim Nasiru Mantu, dead? Just like that? What? How? Why? I couldnt make sense of what he said.

Till now, I cant recall what I said next. My thought was on alarm. I cant even tell how the phone left my hand. Time passed. The tea got cold. I lost appetite for everything except tears.

My thought travelled  not in kilometres  but in years; across seasons. I was quickly reminded by my sub-consciousness of the first time I met Mantu physically  just about 23 years ago. He had a soft, almost inaudible voice. His eyes were sharp  just like his intellect. His pace of understanding knotty issues was quite unimaginable.

How did I know him? His nephew was my friend. He had secured admission to study abroad; but had no cash backing. He approached me. I helped out. After all, what are friends for! The young man went and told his uncle (Mantu) about me and what I did. From that moment, Mantu insisted on meeting me in person. He called, we spoke on the phone. He sounded excited.

In 1998, I finally met him in Lagos. It was a beautiful encounter. He radiated an unhidden friendly mien. We ate and drank, as though we had met before. I was a banker. He was a politician. He asked about my future career aspiration. I told him I was tired of banking. I needed something in the public sector. He promised to keep his eyes and ears open as democratic governance was around the corner.

A year later  just after the 1999 elections  Mantu was then a senator. He called me to set up a meeting. He told me about a top opening in what is now the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). I told him I was interested. He took my CV to Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who seemed obviously impressed by my profile. But he had other ideas.

The VP told me about plans to establish the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). He said as someone from the Niger Delta region, I was fully qualified to occupy a higher position at the Commission.

That was how the journey to my appointment as Executive Director, Finance and Administration, at the NDDC, commenced. Mantu volunteered and personally took me around to introduce to many senators for a buy-in and acquiescence prior to my Senate confirmation and approval for appointment.

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Beyond that little assistance I gave his nephew, I dont know what he saw in me that ignited his interest in my person. But Mantus love for me was instant. He unhesitatingly adopted me as a god-given son. He later told me that he saw in me what he would love his children to be. I was flattered; but I loved it.

At every opportunity, I honoured him as a father. He respected and treated me as a beloved son. Any time NDDC needed a covering fire from the National Assembly, I rushed to him. When we needed attention from the Villa, considering his close relationship with President Obasanjo, we knew who to talk to.

In friendship, he was reliable. Wait a minute! Did I just say was? What does that mean? He is no more! What a loss! What becomes of his wonderful, motherly wife? What about his cherished children!

In politics, Mantu was quintessential. Yes, thats the word. He was an embodiment of political activism. He lived politics. He spoke politics. He understood politics. He loved politics. That was Mantu! He had his weaknesses because he was human. But his strong points dwarfed all of that. The expression: Im sorry was always close to his lips.

I am still trying to make sense of the news. Mantu dead? Im still trying to wake up from the shock. This death is a serious crack on the walls of never-give-up brand of politics. Mantu moulded great minds in leadership. He affected several lives by lifting the fallen. We will surely miss him. We will miss his politics  the old school politics of persuasion.

To his beloved wife, be strong. I know the shock. Its a familiar feeling. It doesnt go fast. The hand of the Lord comforts you. To the children, take delight in who your father was. Walk in his footsteps. Be strengthened in the Lord.

Timi Alaibe, a businessman and politician, is a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Corporation.
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As Africa continues to grapple with different economic and political challenges, the need for accountable leadership cannot be overlooked. Arguably, poor leadership is responsible for the snail pace development in the continent.

However, a critical demographic that will play a key role in leading African right is the youths. With most African leaders in their advanced age, usually between 55-75 years, Africans are turning to their young and vibrant population for building trust and accountability, economic transformation and social development. The continents young population is estimated to be at 70 per cent with a possibility that one out of three young people in the world will be living in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050. The figures, therefore, underscore the need for the continent to equip its young ones with the right leadership skills.

One institution that is preparing the young generation for their future roles is Chrisland Schools, a renowned educational institution in Nigeria, known for its excellence in educational values. It has been in existence for over four decades and was rated as the best private school in Lagos by the Ministry of Education in 2017 and in 2021, Chrisland was adjudged the Most Outstanding Private Secondary School at the National Education Summit and Award.

Beyond education, Chrisland is known for its leadership and training sessions for students and staff members, a programme which it kicked off over 10 years ago.

The leadership programmes cut across different levels and usually takes place after the term examinations. For instance, there is the Sea School Experience, also known as Citizenship and Leadership Training. The training serves as a preparation ground for the students as they progress to senior school. The skills taught can also be applied in the real world. Over 200 Year 9 students can access the leadership programme which is usually held in various venues such as La Campaigne Tropicana, Whispering Palms, Winifred Awosika Leadership Training Centre, Sea School, Apapa.

Apart from the Sea School Experience, there is African Leadership Academy Model African Union, ALAMAU, usually held in South Africa for Year 10 and 11; and for Year 11 and 12 students, there is Nigerian International Secondary Schools Model United Nations, NISSMUN Conference in America and Abuja.

To date, over a thousand students have been beneficiaries of the conference across all levels.

We take the leadership training programme very seriously with all our students. The idea is usually to equip them generally with the expectations of the next level, said Dotun Sotunde, Executive Assistant to the Managing Director/Head, Academic Support Unit.

Like the students, the staff and management also undergo similar training tailored to meet their requirements. It is specifically for those who have performed exceptionally within and outside the school in areas higher than their level. It is a sort of compensation and incentive for the staff. A notable one is Leaders in Education, which was held in the United Kingdom at the University of Hall in 2013. Other trainings include Council Of British International School (COBIS), NICE Conference and Principals Conference held in the UK, US and South Africa.

In addition, there is a quarterly training workshop where those who participated in the training are allowed to impart the knowledge garnered to others. Recently, the school announced that it is collaborating with the Leadership Training Centre in Apapa, to have a training session at the Winifred Awosika Training Centre on the school grounds at Idimu.

The significance of these training sessions on participants cannot be overemphasized and speaks volume of the schools commitment to using education to prepare future leaders.

It is no news that Africa has an alarming rate of out-of-school children due to poverty, religious or traditional beliefs. Through these leadership programmes, Chrisland is changing that narrative and leading the way for youths to be part of policy decision-making in the country. It is preparing them to reach positions of influence and build strong institutions that will rival any in the West. According to the African Leadership Institute report, about 700,000 young Africans have already been exposed to some form of selective leadership initiative, such as the one Chrisland is offering.

This way, Africa can prepare its youths to beam the light on Africa as a progressive continent.
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Leading talent recruitment agency, Jobberman recently trained and certified over 5600+ youths in Kano in its free soft skills training course during a three-day visit. The Jobberman soft skills training is under the Young Africa Works Initiative, by the Mastercard Foundation.

To fulfill its set mandate of training 5 million young Nigerians in job-ready skills within the next five years, the organisation is pushing forward with training in the north and beyond, with the team embarking on such visits to hold trainings, focus group discussions, and meetings with key stakeholders.

Speaking on the visit to Kano, CEO, Jobberman Nigeria, Ms Rolake Rosiji, said that the initiative has armed many youths in Kano with skills and knowledge that transcend beyond the classroom but make for better graduates and open room for more job opportunities.

The Northern part of the country has had several challenges regarding access to quality education. As a result, not many northerners have taken advantage of opportunities on the global stage. The soft skills training initiative by Jobberman and the Mastercard Foundation is the first step to bridging the gap and placing northern youths at the forefront of the marketplace., she stated.

She also added that the initiative continues to increase the employability of Nigerian youths, consequently reducing the number of people who live below the poverty line.

To further expand the Jobbermans reach, the leading recruitment company has partnered with other organisations and governmental bodies, including the Ministry of Women Affairs, Kano; Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Sustainable Development Goals, Kano; and Policy Strategy Implementation and Evaluation Directorate, Kano amongst others. Such partnerships are critical to the campaigns success, and the organisation seeks to partner with more governmental bodies and public/private companies to achieve its goal.

Soft Skills Participant, Favour Christiana Ogbuagu, who attended one of the meetings, testified on how the Jobberman Soft Skills training had impacted her life. When I started the course, I was not sure what to expect but upon completion, I learnt not only soft skills but life skills that have helped me improve and made me more confident in speaking to employers Favour Christiana Ogbuagu shared.

Jobbermans efforts to impact young people in the north is just getting started. With focus states being Lagos, Kaduna and Kano, the company has also ensured that no one misses out on acquiring job-ready skills, which is why the training is accessible online for FREE via multiple platforms like Coursera, Telegram, Zoom etc. Simply visit www.jobberman.com/softskills for registration and more details.

About Jobberman

Founded in 2009, Jobberman is an online platform that provides training and placement for job seekers and the best selection of candidates for companies hiring. It is the single largest job placement website in sub-Saharan Africa. It has the vision to become the leading source of talent in every market it operates in by simplifying job searching and talent acquisition, matching the right set of skills with employers needs. For more information about the online placement platform, visit www.jobberman.com
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A showdown between the Ondo State Government and the Association of Tippers and Quarry Owners of Nigeria is unfolding, following the latters unilateral increase of the price of sharp sand by over 100 per cent.

For failing to revert to the old price, the state government has suspended the activities of the association until the members return to the old price.

But the association had cited the high cost of motor spare parts and fuel as reasons for the new increase.

It increased the price of a big tipper-load of sharp sand from N30,000 to N60,000, while the smaller ones, which was sold for N20,000, is now N30,000.

However, by the restriction of the state government, the tipper association would not be able to lift sand or sell until the issues are resolved.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties and Strategy, Doyin Odebowale, said on Tuesday that the state government would not allow any association to extort the people of the state.

He directed sharp sand dealers to revert to the old price or be ready to leave the state.

Government will no longer condone the sharp practices and would not hesitate to arrest any erring members, said Mr Adebowale.

Governor Akeredolu will not allow the sharp sand dealers to extort money from members of the public and make things difficult for the people.

He noted that the government has the responsibility to ensure that any form of hardship on the people is discouraged actively.

To be specific, we are hereby asking those who say or claim to be members of Tipper unions or whatever association to leave our Quarries, to leave our State immediately, he said.

Last week, the National Association of Block Moulders of Nigeria(NABMON), Ondo State chapter, went on strike to resist the increase in the price of sharp sand.

The moulders said the new price would mean that some of them would have to close shop or might be forced to increase the price of blocks.

The president of the association, Odekunle Daramola, explained that the strike was necessary to register their grievance over the increase.

The load of sand which is being sold for about N30,000 has been increased to N60,000. And if the situation is not properly addressed by the concerned union, especially the moulders, it will affect the entire state and people who are currently building houses across the state, he had said.
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The Police in Osun says it has received a report on seven members of a family found dead in their rooms on Tuesday in Apomu, Isokan Local Government Area of Osun.

The commands spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, said that eight persons were found in the rooms in the house but only one was breathing.

Ms Opalola said poison of carbon monoxide (generator fume) is suspected to be the cause, but the result of an autopsy would confirm the cause of death.

She said a generator was found in the house and a report that the generator was used by the family the previous day gave suspicion to carbon monoxide poisoning but investigation is ongoing to know the real cause.

Autopsy will be carried out on the remains of the victims to ascertain the real cause of their death.

One person, a 14-year old girl, was found still alive (though unconscious) and she has been taken to the hospital where she is recuperating.

The remains of the other dead members of the family had also been taken to Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Teaching Hospital, in Ile-Ife, where autopsy will be carried out on them to ascertain the cause of their death.

The seven dead persons were discovered by neighbours who believed they died in their sleep.

Their bodies were reportedly taken to a private hospital in the community by sympathisers, but were rejected, before they were taken to OAU Teaching Hospital morgue.

(NAN)
These hot temperatures will likely stick around for a while. Do you still enjoy the outdoors when it gets this hot, or do you prefer to stay indoors in the air conditioning?

You voted:
The Preqin Alternative Assets report provides insights into the deals made by private capital fund managers and/or institutional investors, performance of alternative asset funds, capital flows, with a focus on the Asia Pacific's rapidly expanding alternative investment market. Preqin now monitors more than 20k investor profiles, 120k funds, and 44k GPs globally and presents the most comprehensive review of the industry. The ranking, performed by the leading research firm Preqin, is their first research report focused on the Asia Pacific region and describes the nuances of the region's alternative investment market.

On the milestone, Pranav Pai, Managing Partner, 3one4 Capital, said, "India's startup ecosystem is now firmly established amongst the top three globally. Alongside these tailwinds, 3one4's exponential growth has been driven by partnering with generational companies to transform market segments across the country. Our bottom-up thesis-driven selection routines have resulted in consistent top decile performance. Being recognized by a global capital markets report is a testimony to our deep-involvement model that serves as a force-multiplier to India's extraordinary entrepreneurs. We are grateful for the long-term relationships with our investors that continue to propel our growth forward."

Siddarth Pai, Managing Partner, 3one4 Capital, had this to say: "Through 2020, India's startups have established their resilience and value creation potential to the best investors globally. This paradigm shift has demanded the acceleration of disruptive business models and a rebalancing of the early-stage investment lens in India. 3one4 Capital is purpose-built to be deeply involved across the lifecycle of the next innovation engines from India. Our post-investment engagements are designed to help founders optimize for sustainable growth on the path towards defensible long-term value creation. We look forward to scaling up our intentional early-stage work with the close of Fund III in 2021."



"The last two years have seen a tremendous shift in the dynamics of the startup ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific region with the Indian ecosystem leading the way. While this has supported our accelerated growth, we are also incredibly grateful to the founders in the ecosystem who have placed their trust in us and allowed us the privilege to be part of their journey. It is a momentous event to be recognised by a global leader like Preqin as we continue to support founding teams that partner with us and double down on furthering the growth of the Indian ecosystem," added Anurag Ramdasan, Principal, 3one4 Capital.

3one4 Capital, currently oversees a corpus of INR 1800 Cr (+USD 240 Mn) and a portfolio of over 70 investments across the early stage. Its portfolio companies include Licious, Open, DarwinBox, Jupiter, Betterplace, Koo, Dozee, Breathe Well-Being, among others. The latest fund is focused on ticket sizes in the range of USD 500K to USD 4 million for entries, with a strong preference to be the first institutional check to partner with founders. The firm, founded by Pranav Pai & Siddarth Pai, has continuously attracted top-tier global and Indian investors as Limited Partners (LPs). These investors include university endowments, foundations, sovereign DFIs, family offices, funds-of funds, as well as corporate and financial institutional investors such as banks and industrial conglomerates. 3one4 has launched five funds over half a decade and is amongst the fastest-growing VC firms in India. These consecutive fund closures are a testimony to the team's consistent track record and performance in the Indian early-stage ecosystem.

Link to the report:

https://www.preqin.com/insights/research/reports/preqin-markets-in-focus-alternative-assets-in-asia-pacific-2021

About 3one4 Capital

3one4 Capital

Transformative Capital to #RaiseTheBar

3one4 Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Bangalore, India. The firm works in select market categories and in the intersection of adjacencies that are large, growing, and ready for unique products and services. The themes pursued are SaaS and Enterprise Automation, Direct-to-Consumer products and services, Digital Media, FinTech, and Deep Technology, with a focus on areas such as machine-driven actionable intelligence services for the enterprise, ambient intelligence technologies, edtech, logistics and distribution, consumer products and services, and health.

3one4's investments are biased towards companies exploiting technology to create, grow, or dominate large markets in India. The fund also invests a portion of its capital in US-focused companies that have feedforward effects into the themes being pursued in India.

Through a deep involvement strategy, the fund works with founding teams and subject-matter experts to prioritize and strategize for product-market fit, and then optimize for defensibility and growth in revenue and impact. With a focus on margins and on delivering uncompromised end-user experiences, the fund aims to reduce risk, detect new growth opportunities, and return rewarding outcomes to all the stakeholders involved.

With the close of its third early-stage fund and its fifth fund overall, the firm now manages a combined corpus of INR 1800 Cr (+USD 240 Mn) and a portfolio of over 70 investments across the early stage.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1596971/3one4_Capital_Logo.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1596972/3one4_Capital_funds_ranked.jpg

SOURCE 3one4 Capital
TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

Financial Highlights for Q2/2021

NOI in the quarter amounted to some NIS 407 million , up 75% from Q2/2020, which was affected by the lockdown in that quarter. Some of the increase was partially offset by Bezeq's relocation from the triangular tower in Azrieli Tel Aviv to Hamanor building in Holon, vacating over 24,000 sqm in the triangular tower (agreements have been signed for the entire vacated area, which will be occupied over the coming months, with a significant contribution to the NOI).

in the quarter amounted to some , up 75% from Q2/2020, which was affected by the lockdown in that quarter. Some of the increase was partially offset by Bezeq's relocation from the triangular tower in Azrieli Tel Aviv to Hamanor building in Holon, vacating over 24,000 sqm in the triangular tower (agreements have been signed for the entire vacated area, which will be occupied over the coming months, with a significant contribution to the NOI). Same Property NOI is up 66% year-over-year.

is up 66% year-over-year. FFO excluding senior housing amounted to some NIS 308 million in Q2, up about 77% year-over-year. The total FFO in the quarter amounted to some NIS 371 million , an increase of approx. 86% year-over-year .

amounted to some in Q2, up about 77% year-over-year. . Net profit attributed to the shareholders totaled approx. NIS 382 million in Q2, compared with a loss of approx. NIS 66 million in Q2/2020. During the quarter, the Group invested approx. NIS 187 million in investment properties, acquisition, development, construction of new properties and upgrade and betterment of preexisting properties. Investments from the beginning of 2021 amount to some NIS 490 million .

Eyal Henkin, CEO of Azrieli Group (TASE: AZRG), said: "This quarter's results serve as tangible evidence of the Group's excellent performance in all its business sectors. During the quarter we reported on significant agreements in the offices sector, which further reflect the solid demand for high-quality offices in the heart of the business districts. Retail activity is continuing the positive trend we have seen since the reopening of shopping centers in Israel, with a growth in store revenues relative to Q2/2019. In the senior housing sector, we are placing significant emphasis on resident health, and are preparing to launch the marketing of Stage B of the House in Lehavim, alongside the pending completion of full marketing of Stage A. We have recently announced a significant transaction strengthening our global foothold in the data centers industry. We are making a major investment following an in-depth examination process, and are acquiring a top-quality platform with significant growth potential."

Occupancy Rates and Store Revenues

The average occupancy rate (excluding properties under lease-up) was 98% in the mall segment, 98% in the Israel office segment, and 99% in senior housing.

(excluding properties under lease-up) was 98% in the mall segment, 98% in the office segment, and 99% in senior housing. Store revenues  In February- June 2021 , store revenues in the malls increased by 5.2% relative to the same period in 2019 (excluding tenants that did not resume full operations due to the restrictions).

Business Developments

Agreement signed for the acquisition of Norwegian Data Center Company Green Mountain, AS  in July, Azrieli Group announced the expansion of its data centers business to Europe , with the signing of a significant agreement for the acquisition of a private company leading this industry in Norway . In the transaction, the Group will acquire 100% of the share capital of Green Mountain according to an enterprise value (EV) of some NIS 2.8 billion (including some NIS 500 million in company debt). Green Mountain is a Norwegian company operating in the data center industry, using energy from renewable sources only. The company holds several properties, which are leased to third parties and serve the company in its data center business. Green Mountain currently operates three data centers in Norway . In addition, the company has future construction and development potential at these and other sites, of some 520 MW. The company's customers include several of the largest companies in the world. The company's customers are bound therewith in agreements for an average period of approx. 7.5 years.

 in July, Azrieli Group announced the expansion of its data centers business to , with the signing of a significant agreement for the acquisition of a private company leading this industry in . In the transaction, the Group will acquire 100% of the share capital of Green Mountain according to an enterprise value (EV) of some (including some in company debt). Green Mountain is a Norwegian company operating in the data center industry, using energy from renewable sources only. The company holds several properties, which are leased to third parties and serve the company in its data center business. Green Mountain currently operates three data centers in . In addition, the company has future construction and development potential at these and other sites, of some 520 MW. The company's customers include several of the largest companies in the world. The company's customers are bound therewith in agreements for an average period of approx. 7.5 years. Bond issue  in July, the company successfully completed the issue of two new bond series, with demand exceeding NIS 4 billion . The company raised some NIS 3.655 billion in the two series, with an average interest rate of 1.28% and an average duration of 11.5 years. In this financing round, the company issued two new bond series, G and H, linked to the CPI, with an average duration of around 9.93 and 13.22 years, respectively. The interest rate in Series G was closed at 0.9%, and the company raised therein around NIS 1.904 billion . The interest rate in Series H was closed at 1.69% and the company raised therein around NIS 1.75 billion .

 in July, the company successfully completed the issue of two new bond series, with demand exceeding . The company raised some in the two series, with an average interest rate of 1.28% and an average duration of 11.5 years. In this financing round, the company issued two new bond series, G and H, linked to the CPI, with an average duration of around 9.93 and 13.22 years, respectively. The interest rate in Series G was closed at 0.9%, and the company raised therein around . The interest rate in Series H was closed at 1.69% and the company raised therein around . In May 2021 Azrieli Group and SolarEdge announced the signing of an agreement under which Azrieli Group will build SolarEdge's new campus on land being purchased by Azrieli at the North Glilot quarter, which will house a stand-alone building of some 38 thousand sqm and 950 parking spaces. The lease agreement with SolarEdge is for 15 years, with options for extension up to a total period of 24 years and 11 months. The agreement is expected to produce annual NOI of around NIS 62 million . The total cost of construction of the campus (including the part of the land attributed to the campus) is expected to total around NIS 860 million . On the remaining land, the Group is planning to develop additional areas for retail and commerce at a similar scope, which are expected to also yield a similar NOI.

announced the signing of an agreement under which Azrieli Group will build SolarEdge's new campus on land being purchased by Azrieli at the North Glilot quarter, which will house a stand-alone building of some 38 thousand sqm and 950 parking spaces. The lease agreement with SolarEdge is for 15 years, with options for extension up to a total period of 24 years and 11 months. The agreement is expected to produce annual NOI of around . The total cost of construction of the campus (including the part of the land attributed to the campus) is expected to total around . On the remaining land, the Group is planning to develop additional areas for retail and commerce at a similar scope, which are expected to also yield a similar NOI. In April 2021 Azrieli Group and fintech company Rapyd announced the signing of a significant lease agreement for an area of around 13,500 sqm in the Triangular Tower at the Azrieli Center, and another 14,000 sqm in the Spiral Tower, scheduled for occupancy in 2026. The two towers are adjacent to one another, and are both part of the Azrieli Tel Aviv Center. The size of the transaction is estimated at approx. NIS 100 million in the Triangular Tower and another NIS 150 million in the Spiral Tower, over the first five years of the agreement in each tower.

Balance Sheet as of June 30, 2021

The Group has cash, deposits and short-term investments amounting to approx. NIS 1.9 billion and together with Bank Leumi stock, cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities  NIS 2.9 billion . These figures do not include the proceeds from the bond issue completed after the balance sheet date in July 2021 .

amounting to approx. and together with Bank Leumi stock, cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities  . These figures do not include the proceeds from the bond issue completed after the balance sheet date in . Net debt totals approx. NIS 9.5 billion .

totals approx. . The value of investment properties and investment properties under construction totals approx. NIS 29.9 billion .

totals approx. . The equity to assets ratio is approx. 52% and the net debt to assets ratio is approx. 27%.

is approx. 52% and the is approx. 27%. Unencumbered assets total approx. NIS 25 billion .

Conference call

The Company will hold its Interim conference call, hosted by the Group's senior management, today (Wednesday, August 18th, 2021) at 17:00 Israel local time (16:00 CET; 15:00 United Kingdom time and 10:00AM Eastern Time). The call will include a review of the Company's Q2 2021 performance as well as a discussion of the Company's strategy and expectations for the future. A Question & Answer session will follow the discussion.

To participate, please dial:

03-9180664 from Israel

1-888-407-2553 from the U.S.

0-800-917-9141 from the U.K.

0-800-024-9936 from the Netherlands

1-888-604-5839 from Canada

or +972-3-9180664 internationally

For further details :

Moran Goder, Head of Capital Markets and Business Development Analyst,

Azrieli Group

[email protected]

SOURCE Azrieli Group
Benson Hill has developed CropOS, a technology platform that combines data analytics and artificial intelligence with food science and plant biology to leverage the vast, untapped natural genetic diversity within plants to optimize nutrition, flavor profiles and yield. The proprietary technology can enable the design of novel seeds that Benson Hill then intends to use to create food and ingredient options with quality characteristics such as greater nutrition density and better taste. The Company also seeks innovative solutions with fewer food processing steps and reduced reliance on food additives, all while conserving resources.

The platform uses predictive analytics to simulate millions of genetic outcomes for plants while referencing an ever-expanding data library. The technology aims to shave years off the traditional crop breeding process in order to shorten the time to market and decreases development costs for new food and ingredient products.

"It is an honor to be recognized by AgTech Breakthrough for two consecutive years, which signifies support for our vision to create food and ingredients that are better from the beginning: for people, farmers and the planet," said Matt Crisp, Chief Executive Officer of Benson Hill. "I am incredibly proud of the Benson Hill team, who together are building the modern and resilient food system of the future  one that responds to climate change and meets consumer demand for high-quality, more nutritious, and sustainably made food ingredients."

Benson Hill's products and integrated model have been designed to contribute to food system sustainability, establishing top-to-bottom best practices for the entire food industry.

Evolving beyond the traditional commodity model that functions at a single level and relies on multiple tiers of data to inform products, the Company's integrated system is being built to allow for direct contact at each level of the supply chain, unlocking environmental and social benefits on the farm and at all stages of production.

The Company is currently working on a pipeline of soy and pea products with the potential to significantly reduce off-flavors, increase protein content and ultimately displace the need for expensive, energy- and water-intensive processing steps typically required to produce protein ingredients used in plant-based meat alternatives.

"Once again, Benson Hill has demonstrated its immense progress and ongoing potential to address challenges throughout the supply chain, from plant to plate by leveraging data, AI technology and insights to help farmers and the food system improve productivity and reduce environmental impacts," said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of AgTech Breakthrough Awards. "Benson Hill's approach is tailored to meet consumer demand and link the interests of both growers and consumers, which has been a historical divide in the food system. We want to offer our heartiest congratulations to Benson Hill on winning the 'Overall FoodTech Company of the Year' award for 2021."

The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry's most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more. This year's program attracted more than 1,500 nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.

About Benson Hill

Benson Hill moves food forward with the CropOS platform, a cutting-edge food innovation engine that combines data science and machine learning with biology and genetics. Benson Hill empowers innovators to unlock nature's genetic diversity from plant to plate, with the purpose of creating healthier, great-tasting food and ingredient options that are both widely accessible and sustainable. More information can be found at bensonhill.com or on Twitter at @bensonhillinc.

On May 10, 2021, Benson Hill announced a definitive business combination agreement with Star Peak Corp II (NYSE: STPC) ("Star Peak"). Upon the closing of the business combination, Benson Hill will become publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol "BHIL". Additional information about the transaction can be viewed at: https://bensonhill.com/investors/ or https://stpc.starpeakcorp.com/.

About AgTech Breakthrough Awards

Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in agricultural technologies, services, companies and products. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of AgTech companies and solutions in categories including farm management, indoor farming, automation, IoT and robotics, food quality, analytics and more. For more information visit AgTechBreakthrough.com.

Additional Information

This communication is being made in respect of a proposed merger (the "Merger") and related transactions (the "proposed transactions") involving Star Peak and Benson Hill. The proposed transactions will be submitted to stockholders of Star Peak for their consideration and approval at a special meeting of stockholders. In addition, Benson Hill will solicit written consents from its stockholders for approval of the proposed transactions. In connection with the proposed transactions, Star Peak has filed a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (the "Registration Statement") with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which includes a proxy statement to be distributed to Star Peak stockholders in connection with Star Peak's solicitation for proxies for the vote by Star Peak's stockholders in connection with the proposed transactions and other matters as described in such Registration Statements and a prospectus relating to the offer of the securities to be issued to Benson Hill's stockholders in connection with the completion of the Merger. After the Registration Statement has been declared effective, Star Peak will mail a definitive proxy statement / prospectus and other relevant documents to its stockholders as of the record date established for voting on the proposed transactions. Investors, Star Peak's stockholders and other interested parties are advised to read, when available, the preliminary proxy statement, and any amendments thereto, and the definitive proxy statement in connection with Star Peak's solicitation of proxies for its special meeting of stockholders to be held to approve the proposed transaction because the proxy statement / prospectus will contain important information about the proposed transaction and the parties to the proposed transaction. Stockholders will also be able to obtain copies of the proxy statement / prospectus, without charge, once available, at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to: Star Peak Corp II, 1603 Orrington Avenue, 13th Floor, Evanston, Illinois 60201.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy 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 Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Participants in the Solicitation

Star Peak and Benson Hill and their respective directors, executive officers, other members of management, and employees, under SEC rules, may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies of Star Peak's stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. Information regarding the persons who may, under SEC rules, be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction, including a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in the Registration Statement that has been filed with the SEC by Star Peak, which includes the proxy statement / prospectus for the proposed transaction. Information regarding the directors and executive officers of Star Peak is contained in Star Peak's filings with the SEC, and such information is also in the Registration Statement that has been filed with the SEC by Star Peak, which includes the proxy statement / prospectus for the proposed transaction.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this communication may be considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Star Peak's or Benson Hill's future financial or operating performance. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding estimates and forecasts of other financial and performance metrics and projections of market opportunity. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "should," "expect," "intend," "will," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "predict," or the negatives of these terms or variations of them or similar terminology. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Star Peak and its management, and Benson Hill and its management, as the case may be, are inherently uncertain factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to: 1) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the definitive merger agreement with respect to the business combination; 2) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Star Peak, the combined company or others following the announcement of the business combination and any definitive agreements with respect thereto; 3) the inability to complete the business combination due to the failure to obtain approval of the stockholders of Star Peak, to obtain financing to complete the business combination or to satisfy other conditions to closing; 4) changes to the proposed structure of the business combination that may be required or appropriate as a result of applicable laws or regulations or as a condition to obtaining regulatory approval of the business combination; 5) the ability to meet the New York Stock Exchange's listing standards following the consummation of the business combination; 6) the risk that the business combination disrupts current plans and operations of Benson Hill as a result of the announcement and consummation of the business combination; 7) the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the business combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition, the ability of the combined company to grow and manage growth profitably, maintain relationships with customers and suppliers and retain its management and key employees; 8) costs related to the business combination; 9) changes in applicable laws or regulations; 10) the possibility that Benson Hill or the combined company may be adversely affected by other economic, business and/or competitive factors; 11) Benson Hill's estimates of its financial performance; 12) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on business and financial conditions; and 13) other risks and uncertainties set forth in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in Star Peak's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2021, in the Registration Statement containing the proxy statement / prospectus relating to the proposed business combination, and other documents filed or to be filed with the SEC by Star Peak. Nothing in this communication should be regarded as a representation by any person that the forward-looking statements set forth herein will be achieved or that any of the contemplated results of such forward looking statements will be achieved. There may be additional risks that Star Peak and Benson Hill presently do not know or that Star Peak and Benson Hill currently believe are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Neither Star Peak nor Benson Hill undertakes any duty to update these forward-looking statements, except as otherwise required by law.

SOURCE Benson Hill

Related Links

bensonhill.com


CANTON, Mass., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company, a national provider of insurance solutions for individuals and at the workplace, today recognizes its 130th anniversary. Boston Mutual has served working Americans since its founding in 1891, initially serving just the community in Massachusetts and eventually expanding to serve policyholders from coast to coast.

National life insurance provider Boston Mutual Life Insurance Co. honors more than a century of providing peace of mind Tweet this Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company has served working Americans since its founding in 1891, initially across Massachusetts and eventually expanding to offer life insurance solutions to policyholders and producers from coast to coast.

Throughout industry shifts, changing times and even two global pandemics, the company has evolved and transformed while continually remaining focused on the mission and values established at its founding. Throughout 130 years, the company has only had seven presidents, reflecting Boston Mutual's stability, consistency, and financial strength.

"Reflecting on our deep-rooted history, it's an honor to recognize this milestone anniversary and the legacy of the Boston Mutual family that have helped lead us to where we are today," said Paul A. Quaranto, Jr., Chairman, CEO and President at Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company. "We continue to provide peace of mind in a time of need, and our innovation and evolution is a true testament to the dedication of our producers and employees to be there for our policyholders and communities. We have weathered many storms, but through it all, we have remained true to our core mission of delivering on our promises  and for that, I am proud."

Over the past 130 years, Boston Mutual has provided peace of mind for Americans and their families and achieved several noteworthy milestones. A few pieces of its history include:

August 18, 1891  Boston Mutual Life Association is established. The company's first president, John H. Wheeler , opens its first office at 17 Milk Street, Boston , on the site of Benjamin Franklin's birthplace.

 Boston Mutual Life Association is established. The company's first president, , opens its first office at 17 Milk Street, , on the site of birthplace. 1899  The Board of Directors votes to change the company's name from "Boston Mutual Association" to "Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company."

 The Board of Directors votes to change the company's name from "Boston Mutual Association" to "Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company." 1974  Boston Mutual moves into a larger office space on Royall Street in Canton, Massachusetts . The company's headquarters resides in the same location today.

In addition to over a century of experience and expertise, this year Boston Mutual is celebrating the third anniversary of its Making An Impact program, which in 2020 alone contributed to 120 different charitable organizations, with 20 donations strictly dedicated to supporting coronavirus relief efforts. As a result of the program's efforts, Boston Mutual was recently recognized by the Boston Business Journal as one of the region's top corporate charitable contributors for the third year in a row.

To learn more about Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company, please visit http://www.bostonmutual.com.

About Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company

Founded as a progressive life insurance company in 1891, Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company is a national carrier that provides insurance solutions designed for working Americans and their families, as well as enrollment and billing options at the workplace. With its home office based in Canton, Massachusetts, as a mutual company, Boston Mutual Life is dedicated to acting in the best interests of its policyholders, producers, employees, and its communities. For more information, please visit www.bostonmutual.com or contact your Boston Mutual Life representative. Follow the company on Facebook (/BostonMutualLifeIns) or LinkedIn (/company/boston-mutual-life-insurance).

Media Contact:

Meredith D'Agostino, Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company

[email protected]

(800) 669-2668 x276

SOURCE Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company

Related Links

www.bostonmutual.com


FOLSOM, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine today revealed that Samuel Hale is No. 1233 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

"I am humbled by this honor," says Samuel Hale CEO Michael DiManno. "It's a reflection of our team's incredible work, growing our company from a concept to an enterprise with sales exceeding $30 million per month."

DiManno explained that this recognition affirms that California business owners desperately need and deserve help with their workers' compensation insurance programs, so they can realize their entrepreneurial dreams. "I love California, and what it has provided for me and my family, but it's a challenging environment for business owners. That's why we built an unconventional solution. I can't thank our customers enough for having the faith to trust us and make the leap to a new and better way of managing employment risks. Samuel Hale is my tribute to the Golden State," he adds.

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this year's list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020's unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 20.

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

About Samuel Hale

SAMUEL HALE, LLC helps protect California businesses from the unpredictable and high employment cost due to fraud and litigation in workers' compensation claims. Created in 2016, the company is dedicated to eliminating fraud and unnecessary litigation in workers' compensation claims and reducing clients' workers' compensation insurance premiums. Visit https://www.samuelhale.com/ for more information.

Contact:

Ralph Kai

[email protected]

(855) 726-4253



More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this year's Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/.

SOURCE Samuel Hale
ATLANTA, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Chemical Insights Research Institute, Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL), and Georgia State University's School of Public Health (GSU) announced the launch of a research initiative on understanding human exposure and the potential health effects of vaping and e-cigarettes. Researchers will characterize airborne particulate aerosols and volatile organic chemicals released during e-cigarette and vape use and determine human exposure levels and potential toxicity for users and bystanders.

"With a focus on public health and safety benefits, our research findings will provide data on specific particles and chemicals and their exposure levels so that human health impacts may be further understood," said Dr. Marilyn Black, vice president and senior technical advisor with Chemical Insights Research Institute.

The use of vapes or e-cigarettes among adolescents and young adults has increased in the United States over the last decade, with an estimated 3.6 million U.S. youths using e-cigarettes in 2020. One contributing factor is the perception that vaping and e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products. However, a series of studies have proven pulmonary toxicity in e-cigarettes and a link to negative impacts on adolescents' respiratory health. Currently, vaping and e-cigarettes lags in product safety testing for numerous proprietary liquids and aerosol delivery methods available in the expanding marketplace.

Recognizing this gap in research knowledge, UL assembled a team of highly skilled researchers and technical facilities to collect more data and draw more insights. Combining UL's specialized human exposure chambers with the expertise of GSU public health researchers will allow the team to conduct real-time exposure studies; characterize the physiochemical aerosols and measure biological activity and genotoxicity of the vaping and e-cigarettes aerosols. Initial research findings will be available in Fall 2021.

"This study will provide scientifically sound data to inform policy makers, healthcare providers, manufacturers, and consumers of potential health risks and approaches for product usage and warnings to educate consumers of potential respiratory hazards," said Dr. Roby Greenwald, co-principal investigator, GSU. "We're looking at multiple liquids and aerosol delivery methods that are readily available to better understand toxicity and their impact on human health."

The UL initiative builds upon the organization's past research projects on emerging technologies' impact on health, including the toxicity of 3D printing emissions, furniture flammability and global air pollution. UL's research paves the way for improved practices, alternative product designs, new legislation, regulatory changes, and educational programs to enable safer products and healthier environments.

To learn more about Chemical Insights Research Institute's mission, please visit www.chemicalinsights.org

About Chemical Insights

As an Institute of Underwriters Laboratories, we deliver the scientific insight policymakers, healthcare providers, business leaders and consumers depend on to make informed environmental health decisions. Combining the best minds, rigorous scientific research and a commitment for thorough and accurate results, Chemical Insights is improving the health of people and the planet.

Our work lets people around the world know what chemicals are in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the products we interact with every day. Our research and initiatives gives them the knowledge of exactly what those chemicals are, how they may affect human health, and how to manage their impact.

Our leadership role is to provide science or knowledge to implement improved practices, alternative product design, and changes that enable safer products and healthier environments.

To learn more, please visit chemicalinsights.org/.

About Underwriters Laboratories

Underwriters Laboratories is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the UL public safety mission through the discovery and application of scientific knowledge. We conduct rigorous independent research and analyze safety data, convene experts worldwide to address risks, share knowledge through safety education and public outreach initiatives, and develop standards to guide safe commercialization of evolving technologies. We foster communities of safety, from grassroots initiatives for neighborhoods to summits of world leaders. Our organization employs collaborative and scientific approaches with partners and stakeholders to drive innovation and progress toward improving safety, security, and sustainability, ultimately enhancing societal well-being. To learn more, visit UL.org.

About Georgia State University School of Public Health

Georgia State University's School of Public Health provides the high-quality and relevant teaching, research and service needed to advance public health practice in a changing world. By investigating the contemporary problems that challenge diverse urban communities, the school is preparing the next generation of public health professionals to make a difference through leadership, scholarship and practice locally and globally. Learn more at publichealth.gsu.edu.

SOURCE Chemical Insights Research Institute

Related Links

http://www.chemicalinsights.org


NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. and BOSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Clearwater Living and Berkshire Realty Ventures, an investment vehicle co-managed by an affiliate of Berkshire Residential Investments and Broadview Real Estate Partners, announced that they are partnering for a second time on a capital fund aimed at developing and strategically acquiring senior living assets. The partnership's initial equity commitment is expected to generate over $1 billion in gross asset value.

Berkshire and Clearwater partnered together in 2016 when Berkshire made an entity-level investment to provide support for organizational growth and general partner equity to capitalize Clearwater's development projects and acquisitions. Backed by investors including Harrison Street Partners, Goldman Sachs and Virtus, the initial venture has completed five communities with another currently under construction.

"Our longstanding commitment to putting our clients at the center of all we do aligns with Berkshire and Broadview's investor-centric philosophies and approach to their businesses," said Tony Ferrero, CEO of Clearwater Living. "Our firms draw on decades of investment and operational experience that are critical to achieving successful outcomes in an ever-changing real estate landscape."

With a deep pipeline of available opportunities, the expanded platform will seek additional joint venture partnerships with institutional investors focusing on ground-up development and acquisition of senior living assets including age restricted, independent living, assisted living and memory support.

"Investors want exposure to the opportunities available in the senior living sector but are often challenged to access leading managers that invest with discipline and skill," said Christopher Hilbert, chief investment officer of Clearwater Living. "The partnership more than doubled its initial investment which will enhance our ability to provide institutional partners additional opportunities managed by industry leaders."

About Clearwater Living

Clearwater Living is committed to providing the most superior customer service and living experiences that celebrate individual relevance, from our residents and their families to our family of associates. Clearwater is growing through strategic acquisitions, development and operational management of senior living communities throughout the western United States. Every Clearwater Living community includes cutting-edge technologies and care practices that improve the daily lives of residents. To learn more about Clearwater Living, visit ClearwaterLiving.com.

About Berkshire Residential Investments

Berkshire Residential Investments is a vertically integrated residential real estate investment and property management company with over 50 years of experience. Berkshire's team of industry leaders has gained a reputation for being able to identify opportunities and effectively manage through various economic environments, establishing a long-term track record of solid performance based on thoughtful, leading edge investment strategies, and hands-on development and operational experience. Berkshire, a registered investment advisor, is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco. As of March 31, 2021, Berkshire had approximately $12.1 billion in real estate assets under management. For more information on Berkshire, please visit www.berkshireresi.com.

About Broadview Real Estate Partners

Broadview is a real estate investment company focused on deploying capital through and in partnership with developers and operating companies. The Broadview team is based in Stamford, CT and its executives have been involved in over $10 billion of real estate investments across numerous sectors, markets, and transactions structures including a history of investing in and growing real estate businesses. Broadview targets investments in all asset classes across the real estate sector within the United States. For more information on Broadview, please visit www.broadviewrep.com.

Contact:

Jennifer Franklin

Spotlight Marketing Communications

949.427.1385

[email protected]

SOURCE Clearwater Living
MIAMI, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Victim's Rights Attorney Jason Turchin has handled crime victim claims throughout the US on behalf of victims of sexual assault, molestation, shootings, DUI crashes and murder. While the focus of victims is often on the criminal case, Jason Turchin, Esq. represents victims in civil claims for crime victims and is sharing some of his experience to provide additional guidance and support for victims.

Difference Between Criminal Case and Civil Case

In the criminal case, the State usually brings charges against an alleged criminal. The victim may be looked at as just a witness to a crime committed against the State. In a civil claim, the victim may bring the claim against all who contributed or could have prevented the crime. Compensation is Different

In a criminal case, the Court may be limited in what they can award for restitution. It is often limited to actual out of pocket expenses. In a civil claim, the victim may be able to get compensated for pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses, out of pocket expenses and more. Was the Crime Foreseeable or Preventable

If the crime occurred in a high crime neighborhood or property and the property owner failed to have reasonable or adequate security, the property owner or manager may be responsible to compensate the victim. Insurance Claim for Crime Victim

Many commercial property insurance policies provide insurance coverage to help compensate a victim of a crime if the property owner was negligent and failed to have adequate security for a crime which was reasonably foreseeable. Many Crime Victim Claims can be Handled on a Contingency Fee Basis

An attorney with experience representing crime victims will generally accept the case on a contingency fee, which means they waive all fees and costs if there is no recovery.

Jason Turchin, Esq. has represented victims of child molestation against the church, rape cases against banks, shooting death cases against apartment complexes, and numerous other civil claims for crime victims throughout Florida. (https://www.victimaid.com/crime-victims-rights.html)

Contact:

Jason Turchin

(800) 337-7755

[email protected]

SOURCE Law Offices of Jason Turchin

Related Links

http://victimaid.com


STOCKHOLM, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Detectify, the SaaS security company powered by ethical hackers, today announced its partnership with Hackers for Change. The collaboration will equip non-profit organizations with the tools required to strengthen security and decrease the likelihood of cyber-attacks, supporting the mission of Hackers for Change to provide charities and nonprofits with industry-quality cybersecurity services at no cost. By combining each organizations' experience and hacking knowledge, the partnership aims to better serve customers and positively impact the security and ethical hacking communities.

Today's threat landscape and Hackers for Change's mission

Charities and non-profit organizations are becoming increasingly susceptible to cyber-attacks as cybercriminals seek to access and exploit their massive datasets. According to one report, 26 percent of charities experienced a cyber-attack or breach last year. As philanthropies collect more data, there is a growing need for nonprofits to stay ahead of cyber criminals and protect confidential information. However, many nonprofits lack the financial resources required to properly secure their networks.

This is where Hackers for Change comes in. The Toronto-based volunteer-operated organization provides other charities and nonprofits with industry-quality cybersecurity services for free. In doing so, Hackers for Change also trains Canada's next generation of cybersecurity professionals, making the digital community more resilient. For individuals seeking employment in the security industry, a lack of formal work experience can be a significant barrier to entry. By volunteering with Hackers for Change, volunteers not only gain invaluable hands-on work experience to jumpstart their careers, but also make a positive social impact on the community.

Partnering for a stronger community

"By teaming up with Hackers for Change, we're helping nonprofits improve their security posture while simultaneously sharing knowledge between us that will benefit customers, hacker volunteers linked to Hackers for Change, and the security industry overall," said Rickard Carlsson, co-founder and CEO at Detectify. "Collaboration is essential within the security space, and by marrying our strengths, we can't wait to see what strides we can make together."

Detectify's web application scanner, Deep Scan, lets non-profit organizations stay on top of critical patching; a vital component to improving security posture. Deep Scan allows organizations to automatically scan custom-built apps, find critical security vulnerabilities, and strengthen web application security with automated security findings sourced from leading ethical hackers that make up the Detectify Crowdsource community. In addition to empowering nonprofits to find, fix, and prevent critical security vulnerabilities, Deep Scan also helps determine which vulnerabilities to prioritize and provides remediation guidance.

"We're thrilled to be partnering with Detectify to give non-profit organizations the ability to better protect their data with best-in-class solutions powered by ethical hacker research," said Manny Mand, CEO at Hackers for Change. "When nonprofits have the tools they need to secure their web assets, they can focus more energy on their most important objective  making a positive impact on the communities they serve. We're excited to tap into Detectify's hacking expertise and learn from each other".

"The detailed, easy-to-read monthly vulnerability reports produced by the Detectify scanner have played an important part in protecting our web application," says Sundar Manku, CTO at HeroHub, a nonprofit supported by Hackers for Change.

To further unite the nonprofit, security, and ethical hacker communities, Detectify and Hackers for Change are also partnering on select events. At this year's Black Hat USA, as part of its 'Hacker Heroes' campaign, Detectify polled attendees both virtually and in person regarding their favorite hackers. In exchange for each vote, Detectify donated five dollars to Hackers for Change, for a total donation amount of over two-thousand dollars.

Supporting Resources

About Detectify

At Detectify, we believe that world-class cybersecurity knowledge should be accessible to everyone. Detectify automates the latest security findings from leading ethical hackers and brings it into the hands of security defenders and web application teams. Powered by a network of handpicked ethical hackers, Detectify's security solutions check your application beyond the OWASP Top 10 and helps you stay on top of threats in the cloud.

Visit us at detectify.com to learn more.

For more information, please contact:

Fredrika Isaksson, PR Manager

[email protected]

+46 (0) 76  774 96 66or [email protected]

Tanaya Lukaszewski

Offleash for Detectify

[email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

SOURCE Detectify
BALI, Indonesia, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ekta , a new NFT and DeFi blockchain mainnet which merges the on-chain world with the physical-world, is pleased to reveal its collaboration with UnixGaming the largest play-to-earn Axie Infinity Guild community on Discord, boasting over 75,000 new members this month alone.

Ekta x Unix

Axie Infinity , an Ethereum NFT-based online video game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, is rapidly becoming one of the most significant blockchain-gaming titles in the world. As a blockchain-enabled gaming universe where anyone can earn tokens through skilled gameplay and contributions to the ecosystem, Axie has attracted thousands of players from developing countries in the pursuit of a new income stream during the COVID pandemic.

Many of these new players have never used blockchain technology before, which is why Ekta and UnixGaming  one of the most populous guilds for Axie Infinity  have teamed up to offer blockchain scholarships to Axie Infinity players, so that they can play-to-earn and receive blockchain education at the same time.

Berwin Tanco, Co-founder and CEO at Ekta, says:

"What we're really hoping to achieve through this collaboration with UnixGaming is the creation of a new class of entrepreneurs from developing economies. New value models, such as play-to-earn, are teaching the youth in economically disadvantaged areas new methods of wealth creationwhich we hope will inspire them to build new projects that can be incubated and encouraged through the Ekta ecosystem. We look forward to supporting UnixGaming's future endeavours."

With sales of Axie Infinity's NFT collections exceeding some US$42 million since June 2021, Ekta also hopes to learn valuable insights into the NFT marketplace that it can leverage for its own NFT offerings.

Mirko Basil, Cofounder at UnixGaming, says:

"We are thrilled to work alongside Ekta, who share our vision of utilizing blockchain to give everyone a chance at a better life. This relationship is a natural fit, and our Axie Infinity Guild is just the start for UnixGaming's missions. With Ekta's continued support, we can now look to fulfill our vision of bringing opportunities to people from developing countries through gaming and blockchain education, while also creating a profit sharing structure for our investors and token holders alike. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Ekta!"

Ekta will soon launch its token sale, making $EKTA available for purchase on the 20th of August, 2021 at 15:00 UTC. You can whitelist now to participate .

For more information, read the Ekta whitepaper here or follow them here:

To learn more about UnixGaming, join their social media channels:

About Ekta: Founded in 2021, Ekta is a blockchain that builds infrastructure for connecting blockchain with the physical world. It focuses on integrating traditional industries and businesses as well as physical assets so that the utility and value of blockchain can be universally accepted through true utility in daily life. Ekta is in Bali, Indonesia. Its blockchain solutions include decentralized exchange (DEX), decentralized finance (DeFi), NFT marketplaces, and tokenization of real world assets. To learn more, please visit www.ektaworld.io.

Media contact:

Jason Zheng

[email protected]

1 (415) 988-5278

SOURCE Ekta
Drinking alcohol impairs both physical and mental abilities, and it also decreases inhibitions. Reduced inhibitions from drinking and being intoxicated may affect a young person's ability to take the precautions needed to reduce the risk of contracting the coronavirus or spreading it to others, such as maintaining appropriate physical distance and wearing a mask. Encourage students to limit how much alcohol they or friends are consuming and remind underage students not to drink any alcohol. Students should also know the steps needed to protect themselves and others from COVID-19 if schools have resumed in-person or hybrid classes or while participating in activities outside of school. This includes following the everyday practices recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus , as well as following all guidelines and procedures that have been established by individual colleges and universities.

Rates and Consequences of College Drinking

According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 52.5 percent of full-time college students ages 18 to 22 drank alcohol in the past month, and 33.0 percent engaged in binge drinking in the past month. NSDUH defines binge drinking as 5 or more drinks on an occasion for men and 4 or more drinks on an occasion for women.* In addition, 8.2 percent engaged in heavy alcohol use (defined by NSDUH as binge drinking on 5 or more days in the past month). These binge drinking and heavy alcohol use rates are both higher than for those not attending college.1

The consequences of harmful and underage drinking by college students are more significant, more destructive, and more costly than many parents realize. And these consequences affect students whether they drink or not.

* NIAAA defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 percentor 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliteror higher. For a typical adult, this pattern corresponds to consuming 5 or more drinks (male), or 4 or more drinks (female), in about 2 hours.

The most recent statistics from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) indicate that drinking by college students ages 18 to 24 contributes to an estimated 1,519 student deaths each year.2 In addition, there are an estimated 696,000 assaults by students who had been drinking and 97,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape each year.3

Early Weeks Are Critical

Although some students come to college already having some experience with alcohol, certain aspects of college life, such as unstructured time, the widespread availability of alcohol, inconsistent enforcement of underage drinking laws, and limited interactions with parents and other adults, can intensify the problem.

The first 6 weeks of freshman year are a vulnerable time for harmful and underage college drinking and for alcohol-related consequences because of student expectations and social pressures at the start of the academic year. The coronavirus pandemic will create additional stress and uncertainty this fall, so support for students will be critical.

Parents Can Help

An often-overlooked protective factor involves the continuing influence of parents during the college years. Research shows that students who abstain from drinking often do so because their parents discussed alcohol use and its adverse consequences with them. During these crucial early weeks, parents can do a number of things to stay involved.

Parents can help by:

 Talking with students about the dangers of harmful and underage college drinkingsuch as the possible legal and school penalties for underage drinking, and the risks of alcohol overdose, unintentional injuries, violence, unsafe sexual behavior, academic failure, and other adverse consequences.

 Reaching out periodically and keeping the lines of communication open while staying alert for possible alcohol-related problems.

 Reminding students to feel free to reach out to them to share information about their daily activities and to ask for help if needed.

 Learning about the school's alcohol prevention and emergency intervention efforts as well as the school's policies and procedures in place this fall for the coronavirus pandemic. (See "Resources Are Available" below.)

 Making sure students know the signs of alcohol overdose or an alcohol-related problem, and how to help.

Resources Are Available

For parents who want to discuss the consequences of drinking with their college students, a variety of helpful resources are available from NIAAA at https://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov .

These resources include a parents' guide that offers research-based information plus helpful advice on choosing the right college, staying involved during freshman year, and getting assistance if faced with an alcohol-related crisis. The website also provides links to alcohol policies at colleges across the country, an interactive diagram of how alcohol affects the human body, and an interactive alcohol cost calculator.

Additionally, NIAAA's CollegeAIM the College Alcohol Intervention Matrix, available at https://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/CollegeAIM is a booklet and website that helps schools and parents address harmful and underage student drinking by identifying effective alcohol interventions.

For more information, please visit: https://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/

1 SAMHSA, Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Table 6.21BTypes of Illicit Drug, Tobacco Product, and Alcohol Use in Past Month among Persons Aged 18 to 22, by College Enrollment Status and Gender: Percentages, 2018 and 2019. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt29394/NSDUHDetailedTabs2019/NSDUHDetTabsSect6pe2019.htm#tab6-21b.

Accessed December 8, 2020.

2 Methodology for arriving at estimates described in Hingson, R.W.; Zha, W.; and Weitzman, E.R. Magnitude of and trends in alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 1824, 19982005. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (Suppl. 16):1220, 2009. PMID: 19538908.

3 Methodology for arriving at estimates described in Hingson, R.; Heeren, T.; Winter, M.; et al. Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 1824: Changes from 1998 to 2001. Annual Review of Public Health 26:259279, 2005. PMID: 15760289.

SOURCE National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Related Links

https://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/


"Our goal with Valle Verde was to bridge the gap between Colombian lime farmers and international markets by establishing a state-of-the-art facility with the best packing equipment, cold storage facilities, and industry standard certifications," said Dax Cooke, Founder and CEO of Farmfolio. "With exceptional farmland, high-quality trees, and growing international demand, we knew there was potential for a vertically integrated year-round supplier in Colombia. We funded the project in less than a year, and despite unprecedented pandemic-related construction challenges, we opened with just a short delay in September 2020. Between then and July 2021, we've already exported over 100 containers representing almost 2,300,000 kilograms of Tahiti limes to the United States and Europe. This distribution is a reflection of the dedication of our team and the foresight of our investor community."

Investors will receive a distribution of $58 per unit owned, equating to a 5.7 percent return based on Valle Verde's first half 2021 performance to date.

Looking ahead, Farmfolio's second semester growth forecast estimates a 212 percent increase in Tahiti lime exports compared to the same period in the prior year, driven by strong demand in the retail and food service sectors. Farmfolio expects to pay a similar distribution to Valle Verde investors in early 2022, which would lead to an annualized 11.4 percent return.

With the success of Valle Verde, Farmfolio has launched LOTs (Land Ownership Titles), a new real estate development initiative to increase the supply of limes. Under this initiative, Farmfolio acquires and subdivides large, already producing lime farms and then offers smaller plots to real estate investors looking to add farmland to their portfolios. "LOTs provide real estate buyers exposure to highly profitable farmland with economies of scale, without the price tag of a large farm. LOTs start at just $32,000 and they come with an established offtake contract with Valle Verde to purchase the fruit at a fixed price," said Peter Badger, Chief Strategy Officer of Farmfolio.

Farmfolio is looking to develop an additional 1,000 hectares to maximize the Valle Verde packing facility before its expansion project slated for 2022.

About Farmfolio

Founded in 2015, Farmfolio is on a mission to make farmland ownership easy for everyone. As one of the largest exporters from Colombia, we use an advanced data-driven approach to identify land with the highest quality trees, and then we give accredited and non-accredited individuals the unprecedented opportunity to own one of the world's most rewarding asset classes. Our on-the-ground expert team manages everything including planting, harvesting, land and tree maintenance, and selling to our vertically integrated network of packhouses. Finally, we distribute in-demand products like limes, lemons, avocados, coconuts, and teak around the world as our farmland owners sit back and enjoy the returns.

To learn more, please visit www.farmfolio.net .

CONTACT: Andrew Campion, [email protected]

SOURCE Farmfolio
A native of the region, Shelton is a graduate of Walters State Community College where he studied Agri-Business and King University where he completed a bachelor's degree in Business Administration.

Shelton was motivated to join First Bank & Trust Company by his desire to better serve his home region, saying, "I wanted to be a part of a bank that cared about people, and I wanted to support the ag industry. Working at First Bank & Trust is a dream come true, and I look forward to working with customers to achieve their dreams."

President & CEO, Mark Nelson said, "Agriculture lending is at the very foundation of our organization. We want to continue to grow our services to farmers throughout our footprint. Expanding our ag team in Morristown is going to benefit agriculture customers in all parts of East Tennessee."

Shelton is based in the Morristown branch at 910 W. First North Street. He can be reached at [email protected] or 423-616-0486.

About First Bank & Trust Company

First Bank and Trust Company, one of the top community banks in the United States, is a diversified financial services firm with office locations throughout southwest Virginia and the New River and Shenandoah Valleys of the state. First Bank and Trust Company also operates locations throughout northeast Tennessee. Financial solutions are addressed by offering free checking products for personal and business accounts, savings, money market and time deposit accounts. Lending solutions are managed by mortgage, agricultural and commercial lending divisions. Comprehensive wealth management solutions are available through trust and brokerage service representatives.

For more information, visit www.firstbank.com.

Media Contact:

Kaitlyn Widner

Vice President  Marketing

276-285-0293

[email protected]

SOURCE First Bank & Trust Company

Related Links

https://www.FirstBank.com


ENCINITAS, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Flock Freight, a technology company that is reinventing freight shipping with shared truckload service, today announced that it has joined The Climate Pledge , a commitment co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism. Signatories of the Climate Pledge commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the goal set out in the United Nations' Paris Agreement.

"As a sustainability-focused B Corporation, Flock Freight believes climate change demands urgent and universal action. We know our planet's well-being tomorrow hinges on the decisions we make today," said Oren Zaslansky, CEO and founder of Flock Freight. "With future generations in mind, we're working to eliminate freight waste and inefficiency. We're proud to add our names to the Climate Pledge and hope others follow suit."

Flock Freight is joining more than 100 companies that have pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. Companies and organizations that sign The Climate Pledge agree to three principal areas of action:

Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis;

Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, material reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies;

Neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.

Flock Freight is disrupting the $2T freight industry by fundamentally changing the way freight moves. Flock Freight's guaranteed shared truckload service, FlockDirect, is the industry's only carbon-neutral shipping mode offered at no extra cost to shippers. It eliminates the environmental impact of emissions, shipping terminals and transloading while optimizing transit routes and times.

In August 2020, Flock Freight reinforced its commitment to sustainable freight shipping and announced its B Corporation certification. Flock Freight reduces greenhouse gas emissions with carbon-neutral FlockDirect, which pools less-than-truckload and partial truckload shipments that are going in the same direction onto one truck. Because shared truckload freight only loads and unloads once, shipments incur significantly less damage, eliminating the environmental harm of remanufacturing and reshipping duplicate goods. To create a net-zero shipping experience, Flock Freight supplements the emission reduction of FlockDirect with carbon offsets.

In 2019, Flock Freight's solution saved the equivalent of over 4,335 metric tons of CO2. In 2020, Flock Freight reduced carbon emissions from the trucking industry by 5,000 metric tons through shared truckload shipping. And in 2021, Flock Freight is aiming to remove 20,000 metric tons of CO2e from the trucking industry through FlockDirect.

About The Climate Pledge

In 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge, a commitment to reach the Paris Agreement 10 years early and be net-zero carbon by 2040. Now, more than 100 organizations have signed The Climate Pledge, sending an important signal that there will be rapid growth in demand for products and services that help reduce carbon emissions. For more information, visit www.theclimatepledge.com .



About Flock Freight

Flock Freight is a certified B Corporation that's been reinventing freight shipping since 2015. Flock Freight leverages its advanced, first-to-market algorithms that pool shipments and fill trucks at scale to create a new standard of service for shippers and increase revenue for carriers. Flock Freight's shared truckload solution eliminates the need for terminals and is the only carbon-neutral shipping option with all emissions accounted for through carbon offsets supporting freight-related efficiency projects.

Flock Freight is headquartered in Encinitas, CA with an additional office in Chicago, IL.

SOURCE Flock Freight

Related Links

https://www.flockfreight.com/


"French Tech Atlanta and FACC are delighted to join the Curiosity Lab and the overall Peachtree Corners smart city ecosystem. This will enable French startups to collaborate with many innovators and prove out their technology in a unique and live environment, with real city-owned connected infrastructure that cannot be replicated in a laboratory. Overall, La French Tech Atlanta will be another pillar to support existing and blossoming Francophile startups, promote French Tech across the Southeast by broadening cross-Atlantic relationships and help future French startups to grow their business in the United States in the heart of Silicon Orchard."  President of French Tech Atlanta, Board Member of the French-American Chamber of Commerce and French Trade Advisor (CCE  Conseillers du Commerce Exterieur), Sebastien Lafon

This La French Tech accreditation reflects a larger collaboration between French Foreign Trade Advisors (CCE), the Service for Science and Technology of the French Embassy, the Consulate General of France in Atlanta, Attache for Cultural Services and FACC-Atlanta to reinforce the region as the premier North American destination for French companies to do business. From FinTech, Biotech, AgroTech, film and gaming to other areas of deep technology and more, startups and mature companies alike from various industries have been building momentum in a region of Metro Atlanta being called "Silicon Orchard."

"It's with great excitement that we welcome the French-American Chamber of Commerce, La French Tech Atlanta and all other business ecosystem partners as new members of our community in the City of Peachtree Corners and at Curiosity Lab. It's no longer a secret that our region is a hot spot attracting immense investment and resources from some of the world's brightest technology developers and enterprises. We look forward to working with French businesses to help graduate their solutions into the real world and leverage the benefits of operating here  from the most flexible, pro-business city government, our safe and beautiful residential communities to our connected smart city infrastructure that reflects the future of collaboration between government and business."  Peachtree Corners City Manager, Brian Johnson

Where Innovation Grows: Launch Event at Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners  Sept. 9, 2021

The French-American Chamber of Commerce-Atlanta will celebrate its new home in Peachtree Corners with a launch event:

Date/Time: Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021

5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern

Eastern Register for the event: FACC-Atlanta Ribbon Cutting Event Registration Page

Keynote speaker: Stephan Donze , founder and CEO of French software company, AODocs  which recently moved its headquarters to the Metro Atlanta region.

, founder and CEO of French software company,  which recently moved its headquarters to the Metro Atlanta region. Prominent brands and Peachtree Corners ecosystem partners including T-Mobile, Bosch, French cloud pioneer, OVHcloud, Beep (autonomous-as-a-service provider) and more.

Vibrant technology demonstrations reflecting the power of city-owned connected infrastructure , including cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology. From autonomous vehicles/machines/drones/services, robotics to sustainable technologies such as solar roadways developed by French company, Wattway.

, including cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology. From autonomous vehicles/machines/drones/services, robotics to sustainable technologies such as solar roadways developed by French company, Wattway. The event adds to a growing number of functions that have taken place in recent months  featuring stakeholders from the tech ecosystem in Georgia and with a focus of highlighting the region. Last year, the FACC hosted seven events during " France - Atlanta ."

and with a focus of highlighting the region. Last year, the FACC hosted seven events during " - ." Connect with the French technology community in Metro Atlanta:

La French Tech Atlanta LinkedIn



French American Chamber of Commerce-Atlanta LinkedIn

For more information or to schedule a briefing with city leaders or officials from the French-American Chamber of Commerce/La French Tech Atlanta, contact [email protected] or [email protected] .

About the City of Peachtree Corners, Georgia

As the heart of what is being called #SiliconOrchard in the metro-Atlanta region, Peachtree Corners is a vibrant municipality that's home to more than 45,000 residents and an innovation hub that houses some of the world's most disruptive technology companies. As the United States' premier smart city powered by real-world connected infrastructure and 5G, Peachtree Corners serves as the model for how government and private industry can better collaborate to create a better future for society and business. From the world's first deployment of teleoperated e-scooters to fully autonomous shuttles being utilized by actual residents, and from a solar roadway to the largest electric vehicle charging hub in the region, Peachtree Corners is where the most future-forward Internet of Things (IoT) and sustainable technologies come to life for the benefit of its people, and the world.

For more information, visit http://www.peachtreecornersga.gov .

About Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners

Curiosity Lab is a 5G-enabled autonomous vehicle and smart city living laboratory located in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The centerpiece of the lab is a three-mile test and demo track which provides a real-world environment to explore emerging technologies. Additional infrastructure includes a network operations center, smart poles, DSRC units, dedicated fiber and a 25,000 square foot tech incubator. Additional information can be found at www.curiositylabptc.com

About La French Tech Atlanta

La French Tech Atlanta is a French American tech ecosystem based in the Metro Atlanta area gathering entrepreneurs, top executives, investors, engineers, experts, mentors and public leaders. Our mission is to promote French Tech in the Southeast and to support French startup expansion in the United States. La French Tech is hosted by the FACC-Atlanta.

About French-American Chamber of Commerce  Atlanta

The French-American Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta (FACC-Atlanta) is a non-profit, non-governmental and member-driven organization founded in 1985. We are funded solely through membership dues, event revenue and trade services.

We are part of a network of 18 French-American Chambers in the United States representing more than 5,000 companies nationwide in all major industries, and a proud member of CCI France International , an international network of 124 French Chambers of Commerce in 95 countries, representing more than 37,000 members worldwide.

As a non-profit organization, our mission is to promote, support and enhance business opportunities among the French-American business community throughout France and the Southeast of the United States. Through our events and programs , we create opportunities for our members to network, connect, collaborate and learn from one another. We are the main professional forum and business resource for French companies and their leaders doing business in and with the Southeast of the United States and for U.S. companies in the Southeast of the United States doing business in and with France.

We also provide a range of trade services to our local members and to French businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to develop their business in the Southeast of the United States.

SOURCE Peachtree Corners

Related Links

http://www.peachtreecornersga.gov


SELBYVILLE, Del., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest report, "Fundus Camera Market by Product (Mydriatic Fundus Cameras, Non-Mydriatic Fundus Cameras, Hybrid Fundus Cameras), End-use (Hospitals, Ophthalmology Clinics), Regional Outlook, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast 2027", by Global Market Insights Inc., the market valuation of fundus cameras will cross $735 million by 2027.

Major fundus camera market players include Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Canon U.S.A, TOPCON CORPORATION, Revenio Group Oyj, Kowa American Corporation, NIDEK CO., LTD., OPTOMED LTD and Remidio.

A favorable reimbursement scenario in North America is anticipated to propel the market growth. The Center for Medicaid and Medicare (CMS) in the U.S. is focusing on making health insurance easily accessible. In 2019, Medicare and Medicaid spending grew to 6.7% and 2.9%, respectively. In addition, as per the Center for American Progress (CAP), in 2019, around USD 1.3 trillion was spent for healthcare reimbursement in the U.S. In 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced the launch of new policies for the expansion of reimbursement for telemedicine-based diabetic retinopathy diagnosis. These reforms assisted the patients in receiving retinal screening using fundus cameras at a remote site along with interpretation from qualified eye care professionals.

Request a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/4326

The non-mydriatic fundus camera market dominated more than 58% of revenue share in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 431 million by 2027. This revenue share is pertaining to numerous advantages offered by non-mydriatic fundus cameras in retinal imaging. Rising preference towards painless and early detection of retinal disorders is the major factor driving the segment growth. The advantages of non-mydriatic fundus cameras will further increase its adoption, thus accelerating the segment expansion. Recent advancements in non-mydriatic fundus cameras such as quick focus mechanism to reduce the examination time, live-action systems to simplify real-time analytics, and compact design to enhance mobility will promote the preference for these devices.

The ophthalmology clinics segment accounted for 57% of the fundus camera market share in 2020. High patient preference for ophthalmologists and the presence of well-established ophthalmic clinics in developed and developing regions are expected to fuel the segment progression over the forecast period. Moreover, an increasing number of eye care clinics to provide a correct diagnosis for patients will augment the industry growth. The developing countries in the African & South Asian regions feature high populations along with a lack of ophthalmologists and access to affordable ophthalmology services. In order to cater to the affected population in these countries, the commercialization of affordable smartphone-based fundus cameras such as Welch Allyn iExaminer, Portable Eye Examination Kit (PEEK) and Filmic Pro is set to increase.

The Brazil fundus camera market is slated to witness 3.7% growth rate by 2027 owing to the high burden of eye disorders and the emergence of mobile eye care units in the country. According to the Scielo Brazil 2017 publication, the study to assess the eye disease burden reported the prevalence of cataracts (6.63%), pterygium (14.05%), glaucoma (1.85%), and diabetic retinopathy (1.59%). As per the Nature Scientific Reports 2018 statistics, the prevalence of dry eye disease increased in Brazil and reached 12.8% across the five major geopolitical regions in the country. A high number of people suffering from eye disorders will promote the demand for fundus cameras for timely diagnosis of eye diseases. The advent of mobile health units providing retinal screening along with other eye care services is poised to spur the market expansion.

Request a customization of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/roc/4326

Some of the major players operating in the fundus camera market are Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Canon U.S.A, TOPCON CORPORATION, Revenio Group Oyj, Kowa American Corporation, NIDEK CO., LTD., OPTOMED LTD and Remidio among others. These companies implement several strategic initiatives such as mergers & acquisitions, research collaborations, forward integration, distribution agreements to expand their geographical presence and foster revenue generation.

Table of Contents (ToC) of the report:

Chapter 3 Fundus Camera Market Insights

3.1 Industry segmentation

3.2 Industry landscape, 2016 - 2027 (USD Million)

3.3 Industry impact factors

3.3.1 Growth drivers

3.3.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges

3.4 Growth potential analysis

3.4.1 By product

3.4.2 By end-use

3.5 COVID-19 impact analysis

3.6 Regulatory landscape

3.7 Technology landscape

3.8 Porter's analysis

3.9 Competitive landscape, 2020

3.10 PESTEL analysis

Browse the Complete Table of Contents (ToC) @ https://www.gminsights.com/toc/detail/fundus-cameras-market

About Global Market Insights Inc.

Global Market Insights Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider, offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision-making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy, and biotechnology.

Contact Us:

Arun Hegde

Corporate Sales, USA

Global Market Insights Inc.

Phone: 1-302-846-7766

Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

fundus-camera-market-growth.png

Fundus Camera Market Growth Predicted at 3.2% Through 2027: GMI

Major fundus camera market players include Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Canon U.S.A, TOPCON CORPORATION, Revenio Group Oyj, Kowa American Corporation, NIDEK CO., LTD., OPTOMED LTD and Remidio.

SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc.
"Mo'Bettahs, which was acquired by Savory Fund in 2017, announced the addition of restaurant industry veteran Rob Ertmann as president, rounding out a leadership team guided by cofounders and brothers Kalani and Kimo Mack, who built the brand around their experience growing up in Hawaii.

"Rob Ertmann joins us at such a crucial time in our business as we continue to grow into new markets," Kalani Mack said. "His experience and multi-unit growth pedigree are the perfect fit to help Mo'Bettahs spread our authentic brand of Aloha to those customers looking for that true island taste."

Ertmann's hire comes as Mo'Bettahs prepares for massive expansion. The brand plans to open 26 new locations by the end of 2022, doubling the size of the enterprise, including its first stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas City this year. Mo'Bettahs currently has 22 locations in Utah and Idaho.

Mo'Bettahs was acquired by Savory Fund in 2017, a management group that infuses exciting startup brands with capital and pairs them with its team of 65 industry veterans, who have experience in everything from real estate, development and construction, store operations, technology, recruiting, training and finance.

"After reviewing and meeting with several dozen impressive leaders within the food and beverage industry, Rob Ertmann really stood out because of his genuine personality, his humility, and his willingness to be a servant leader," said Andrew K. Smith, managing partner of Savory Fund. "To talk about how, in his first 100 days in a position, he would be in the trenches with the team learning the business, and that nothing was beneath him, was a match for each of us when picking the right person to lead this incredible brand. It is how everyone at Savory operates as well; in the trenches with each brand, every day."

Ertmann has more than 25 years of experience in the restaurant and retail industries. He most recently served as chief operating officer at Philz Coffee, a fast-growing specialty coffee company based in San Francisco, where he and his team improved store-level EBITDA by 10% and grew average unit volumes by $200,000. He also held leadership roles at Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, where he was responsible for more than 200 company-owned locations and revenue in excess of $170 million, and Peet's Coffee, where he oversaw 250 company-owned locations and revenue in excess of $269 million.

"We were so impressed with his background of multi-unit growth," Smith added. "He's worked for some impressive firms, and we're excited to see him implement a lot of his multi-unit experience as we grow Mo'Bettahs into multiple new geographies and new states in the coming years."

"I am thrilled to join this incredible brand, shaped by Kimo and Kalani to serve incredible food inspired by their growing up in Hawaii," Ertmann said. "It is an exciting time to be a part of this journey as we grow the number of communities that get to share this delicious island food, both in Utah and into new markets that have yet to experience Mo'Bettahs. I have no doubt that customers in these new communities will love and appreciate the opportunity to enjoy our Aloha spirit as we provide them with an authentic Hawaiian experience and delicious food without having to step on a boat or an airplane to get it."

Mo'Bettah's first opened in Bountiful, Utah, in 2008, and has spent the last 13 years serving loyal customers the adventurous flavors of the Hawaiian Islands that the Mack brothers grew up eating. The menu offers an array of boldly flavored proteins  Teriyaki Chicken or Steak, Kalua Pig, Pulehu Chicken, Katsu Chicken, and Shrimp Tempura  served with white rice and macaroni salad, along with a range of delicious sauces.

"I am very excited to share our unique brand of Hawaiian-style food, developed in our own kitchen and backyard in Kane'ohe, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu," Kalani Mack said. "These are the recipes that we and our children grew up on. We can't wait to share that with the folks in Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma."

"Opening in new markets is really exciting for us. For two inexperienced island boys to come as far as we have has been a dream come true," Kimo Mack added. "To think we will make it all the way to the Midwest and have a partner like Savory Fund help us get to over 50 units and beyond is crazy. That's a long way from Oahu."

About Mo'Bettahs

Mo'Bettahs was founded in Bountiful, Utah, nearly a decade ago by Kimo and Kalani Mack. The goal was to transport guests to an authentic Hawaiian island experience, like they had where they grew up in Oahu, Hawaii. After partnering with Savory Restaurant Fund, they have since grown the Hawaiian plate lunch restaurant to over 20 locations in Utah and Idaho, with expansion to more markets in the coming months and years to expand the brand and spread the aloha even further. The brand serves up the plate lunch with an authentic Hawaiian experience, with items like Teriyaki Chicken and Steak, Katsu Chicken, homemade mac salad and fresh steamed rice, to name a few. For more information, visit www.mobettahs.com .

About Savory Fund

Savory, a Mercato Partners Fund, is focused on delivering outsized returns through strategic investments in the food and beverage industry. Savory partners with high-potential, profitable, emerging restaurant brands, to deliver financial capital, industry expertise, revenue opportunities, profitability enhancements, and new location development. The Savory team contributes directly to all aspects of growth and replication by using a proven playbook and methodology. Founder involvement in the expansion of a brand is a central theme of the Savory approach as founders carry the tribal knowledge around the uniqueness that has energized early success and is essential to future growth. For more information, visit SavoryFund.com .

Media Contact: John Rockwell, [email protected]

SOURCE Savory Restaurant Fund
NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation's (NYSE: MDP) Health released the second annual edition of its Sleep Awards honoring the 43 top products for your best rest, spanning categories that include emerging tech, such as sleep trackers, audio devices, and snoring aids, plus comfort classics like mattresses, sheets, pillows, and more. In addition, Health editors and a panel of experts provide sought-after answers to questions about napping, snoring, sleep supplements, and more. The honorees are featured in the September 2021 issue on newsstands now, and the full list can be viewed online at Health.com.

"At Health, we believe good sleep equals good health. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, more than half of Americans reported an increase in sleep problems since the start of the pandemic. Our Sleep Awards help people catch up on some much-needed rest, with all the best recommendations for a better sleep," said Editor in Chief Amy Conway.

Health editors and a panel of experts sifted through hundreds of innovations to select this year's top sleep products tailored to a variety of sleep styles and comfort requirements. Health's Sleep Awards honor the latest and greatest technologies on the market that connect with your body's sleep patterns, rhythm, and habits.

The September issue of Health is available on newsstands now and the full list can be read below and online at Health.com.

Health's Sleep Awards

Mattresses:

Cooling: Tempur-LUXEbreeze

Stomach Sleepers: Beautyrest Hybrid 12.5"

Back Sleepers: Saatva Classic Mattress

Pressure Relief: Avocado Green Mattress With Adjustable Bed Frame Base

Side Sleepers: Bedgear M3

Combo Sleepers: The Purple Mattress

Audio Devices:

Bose Sleepbuds II

Watotgafer Sleep Headphones/Mask

Snooz White Noise Sound Machine

Mattress Toppers:

Cooling: Ooler Sleep System

Cooling: Molecule AirTec Topper

Pressure Relief: Bamboo Talalay Latex Topper

Pressure Relief: Serta Calming 3" Gel Memory Foam Mattress Topper

Sheets:

Cozy Earth Sheet Set

Sleep Number True Temp Sheets

Brooklinen Luxe Sateen Core Sheet Set

L.L. Bean Ultrasoft Comfort Flannel Sheet Set

Sleep Trackers:

Oura

Sleep Cycle

Withings Sleep Tracking Mat and Steel HR Hybrid Smartwatch

Biostrap Recover Set

Tempur-Ergo Smart Base powered by Sleeptracker-AI

Pillows:

Side Sleepers: Planet Pillow

Side Sleepers: Layla Sleep Kapok Pillow

Back Sleepers: Beautyrest Black Ice Memory Foam

Back Sleepers: Brooklinen Mid-Plush Down Pillow

Stomach Sleepers: Pluto Pillow

Stomach Sleepers: Healthy Sleep Therma-Tech Copper Pillow

Hypoallergenic: Everpillow

Body Pillow: Zoma Body Pillow

Snoring Aids:

Mute

SinuSonic

SnoreLab

Blankets & Comforters:

Coyuchi Tahoe Climate Beneficial Wool Blanket

Sheex Original Performance Down Alternative Comforter

ChiliBlanket

Bedgear Dri-Tec Medium Warmth Climacore Blanket

Baloo Weighted Blanket

Emerging Tech:

Wesper Sleep Kit

Somnox Sleep Robot

Google Nest Hub With Sleep Sensing

Somnofy Sleep Assistant

Sleep Care Online Home Apnea Test

The panel of experts that were chosen to create this year's list included: Michael J. Breus, PhD, clinical psychologist, diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine, and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine; Elise Chahine, editor-in-chief of SleepFoundation.org; Vivek Cherian, MD, doctor of internal medicine at the University of Maryland; Param Dedhia, MD, director of executive health and integrative medicine at Moveo Health and former director of sleep medicine for Canyon Ranch; Marci Hardy, MD, health educator and sleep expert; Angela Holliday-Bell, MD, certified sleep specialist and pediatrician in Arlington, Virginia; Mollie McGlocklin, creator of the company Sleep Is a Skill; W. Chris Winter, MD, neurologist and sleep expert based in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Health Advisory Board member; and Jade Wu, PhD, board-certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist and researcher at the Duke University School of Medicine.

ABOUT HEALTH

Health is the trusted source for all things relating to wellness. Offering solid, science-backed advice on physical and mental health, exercise, skin care and beauty, nutrition, and much more, Health empowers its wide, multi-generational audience of more than 18 million across platforms. Additional information can be found at Health.com.

SOURCE Meredith Corporation

Related Links

https://www.meredith.com


IDAHO FALLS, Idaho, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- International Isotopes Inc. (OTCQB: INIS) (the "Company" or "INIS") announces its financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2021.

Revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2021, was $2,759,896 compared to $2,159,559 for the same period in 2020, an overall increase of approximately 28%. The increase in revenue for the three-month period was largely the result of increased sales of radiochemical products, cobalt products, and nuclear medicine standards. The revenue increase in all of our principal business segments drove operating income to a positive $14,722 in the second quarter 2021 from a loss of $96,101 in the corresponding quarter last year

The following provides a brief summary of our current business segment performance for the three-month period.

Revenue from the radiochemical products segment, which includes contact manufacturing, increased approximately 10% for the three-month period ended June 30, 2021, compared to the same period in 2020. This increase was primarily the result of broader market acceptance of our new sodium iodide I-131 drug product which was approved by the FDA in February 2020 and launched in March 2020. Our sodium iodide drug is used to treat thyroid cancer and diseases of the thyroid and we are currently the only domestic supplier of this important treatment.

Revenue from the sale of cobalt products for the three months ended June 30, 2021, increased approximately 157% compared to the same period in 2020. Our cobalt sealed source manufacturing is largely dependent on our ability to procure cobalt material from the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Test Reactor. While there had been delays in DOE's cobalt production, we were able to begin accessing this material in the second quarter and fabricating sealed cobalt sources.

Revenue from nuclear medicine products, operating as RadQual LLC, for the three months ended June 30, 2021, increased approximately 14% compared to the same period in 2020. The increase in sales for the period was largely the result of increasing sales, and the launch of several new products within this business segment. RadQual is the premier global developer of quality control products for the nuclear medicine industry, focused principally on SPECT and PET imaging. Our acquisition of the 75% of RadQual which we did not previously own occurred right after the end of the second quarter, thus the benefits of the acquisition will not start to appear until the third quarter is reported.

Steve Laflin, President and CEO of the Company, said, "We are pleased to see the continued revenue growth in our three major business segments. Our radiochemical product sales are expected to remain strong for the remainder of the year. Our nuclear medicine products sales have continued to rebound from the negative impacts COVID-19 had on the industry and this business segment in 2020, and we have successfully introduced several new products in this business segment. We have been able to acquire some high activity cobalt from the DOE, and during the second quarter realized some of the first sales of this material in many years. We expect we will be able to acquire additional cobalt material and realize significant cobalt sales for the remainder of the year. Considering our expected performance of these three business segments, I continue to believe we will see stronger financial performance for the remainder of the year."





International Isotopes Inc.



Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30,



2021 2020 2021 2020 Sales of Product

$2,759,896 $2,159,559 $4,752,408 $4,495,345 Gross Profit

$1,587,928 $1,255,650 $2,749,086 $2,622,911 Total Operating Expenses

$1,573,206 $1,351,751 $3,184,892 $2,928,322 Operating Income (Loss)

$14,722 ($96,101) ($435,806) ($305,411) Total Other Income (Expense)

($179,054) $364,299 ($234,190) $195,572 Net Income (Loss)

($181,387) $229,328 ($782,539) ($193,166) Net Income (Loss) Per Common Share $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 basic and diluted









Weighted Av. Shares Outstanding - Basic 460,798,173 423,751,657 457,123,946 422,211,840 Weighted Av. Shares Outstanding - Diluted 460,798,173 432,629,537 457,123,946 422,211,840

About International Isotopes Inc.

International Isotopes Inc. manufactures a wide range of calibration and reference standards for nuclear medicine, generic sodium iodide I-131 drug product for hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer, Cobalt-60 sealed source products, and provides contract manufacturing of various drug products for clients.

International Isotopes Inc. Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements in this press release are "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, including, but not limited to, statements with respect to future performance of the Company's business segments and the impact that COVID-19 will, or will not have on our business performance and revenue growth. Information contained in such forward-looking statements is based on current expectations and is subject to change. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements of the Company expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Other factors, which could materially affect such forward-looking statements, can be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020. Investors, potential investors, and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made herein are only made as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

David Drewitz

Creative Options Communications

Investor and Public Relations

[email protected]

www.creativeoptionsmarketing.com

Phone: 972-814-5723

SOURCE International Isotopes Inc.

Related Links

http://www.intisoid.com


AKC Pet Disaster Relief is a nationwide program sponsored by AKC Reunite, that is dedicated to keeping pets and their owners safe in response to natural disasters. AKC Reunite partners with AKC  dog clubs and pet lovers to donate lifesaving trailers to emergency management teams across the country. These trailers are stocked with equipment to help create a safe, temporary home-base for at least 65 pets before, during and after a disaster is declared. The trailer's crates and generator can be set up as co-location shelters, where people can evacuate with their pets, as well as emergency animal shelters for displaced animals. Other contents include microchips and scanners, cleaning supplies, feeding bowls, leashes and administrative supplies.

To date, 95 AKC Pet Disaster Relief trailers have been donated to emergency management teams throughout the U.S. On Monday, August 16th, the Arizona Humane Society deployed its trailer to assist with animal sheltering efforts in the wake of the deadly flooding in Gila Bend, AZ. This marked the 50th deployment of these critical trailers throughout the country.

"The recent storms, flooding and wildfires across the country have been devastating for community members and their pets," said Tom Sharp, CEO of AKC Reunite. "The AKC Pet Disaster Relief program helps ensure there is safe sanctuary for a pet found perched on a rooftop, swimming through floodwaters, or even worse due to a natural disaster. We are proud that these trailers have been deployed 50 times to assist with animal sheltering efforts throughout the country."

Learn more about how to get involved in AKC Pet Disaster Relief at www.akcreunite.org/relief.

AKC Reunite

The way home for lost pets.

AKC Reunite, an affiliate of the American Kennel Club, is the largest non-profit pet microchip identification and recovery service provider in the United States. Since 1995 AKC Reunite has helped pet owners reunite with their lost animals via identification and 24/7 pet recovery specialists, enrolling over 8 million companion animals and recovering more than 500,000 lost pets. AKC Reunite microchips are a popular choice of pet professionals throughout the country for permanent pet identification.

The AKC Reunite Canine Support and Relief Fund has donated more than $9 million since 2001 for disaster preparedness and relief causes that impact our nation's pets, like the AKC Pet Disaster Relief trailer donation program. AKC Reunite also provides free recovery service enrollment for all active service, military, and law enforcement K-9 dogs. For more information visit www.akcreunite.org or follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/akcreunite).

SOURCE AKC Reunite
Prohibiting police from engaging in pursuits contributes to violent crime.

Prohibiting police from a "stop and frisk" of a suspect believed to be armed contributes to violent crime.

Letting accused violent criminals out of jail without bail while they wait for trial increases violent crime.

District Attorneys refusing to prosecute accused criminals contributes to rising violent crime.

Politicians should do a "ride along" with local patrol officers before suggesting changes in policing.

Politicians should meet with crime victims before suggesting changes in policing.

Politicians who want to defund the police should not be able to use tax money to hire private security to protect themselves.

"The rise in violent crime wasn't just predictable, it was predicted," said National Police Association spokesperson, Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (Ret). "Letting more criminals on the streets while handcuffing police had only one possible outcome. Now the American people are paying the price."

The survey of 1,182 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on August 12, 2021 by the National Police Association and Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.

Full results of the survey, including demographic data, will be published later today by Rasmussen Reports.

About The National Police Association

The National Police Association (NPA) is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization, EIN 82-0647764, founded to educate supporters of law enforcement in how to help police departments accomplish their goals. The NPA works to bring national and local attention to the anti-police efforts challenging effective law enforcement, building public support for needed actions through public service announcements, legal filings, articles authored for the NPA by law enforcement experts and the NPA Report. For additional information, please visit www.nationalpolice.org.

SOURCE National Police Association

Related Links

https://nationalpolice.org


In 2020, 36% of New American Funding's home purchase loans were to minority borrowers compared to 25.5% for all institutions, based on the 2020 HDMA data.

The company also understands that there's more work to be done. That's why New American Funding is committed to lending $25 billion in new mortgages to Hispanic borrowers by 2024 and $20 billion to Black borrowers over seven years.

Today, New American Funding is the #1 lender to Hispanic borrowers, with a higher percentage of its loans going to Hispanic borrowers than any other lender in the top-25 largest mortgage companies in the US based on the 2020 HDMA data.

The effort to increase lending to underserved communities is led by Co-Founder and President Patty Arvielo, a first-generation Hispanic-American. Aiming to enhance the quality of the lending experience among Hispanic consumers and enrich the Hispanic community through homeownership, Arvielo established the Latino Focus initiative in 2013.

Arvielo created Latino Focus after identifying the unique challenges facing the Hispanic community when buying a home, including language barriers and financial literacy. The company invests in mortgage professionals equipped to work with Hispanic borrowers, including a focused effort on hiring bilingual employees. As a result, 23% of the company's workforce is Hispanic. Overall, 45% of the company's employees are minorities.

The company works hard to cultivate a 21st century workforce that is accepting to all. That culture has earned the company numerous diversity awards from various outlets, including being honored by Profiles in Diversity Journal for Innovations in Diversity and as a Diversity Leader.

The company's efforts deliver results. In 2020, New American Funding's percentage of purchase lending to Hispanics borrowers was 51% more than the industry's percentage based on the 2020 HDMA data.

In 2016, the company formed the New American Dream initiative to help the Black community realize the dream of homeownership. The purpose of New American Dream is to provide racial equity and build consumer confidence through home buying education, accessibility to credit, and mortgage industry career opportunity awareness to Black communities. With the New American Dream efforts, the company's percentage of purchase lending to Black borrowers in 2020 was 85% more than the industry's percentage based on the 2020 HDMA data.

In 2021, both the Latino Focus and New American Dream teams were honored by Profiles in Diversity Journal as Diversity Team Award winners. The award recognizes the "talented and dedicated team members who work together to support and advance diversity, inclusion, and equity within their respective organizations."

These initiatives include involvement and guidance from senior leaders at New American Funding like Frank Fuentes, National Vice President, Multicultural Community Lending; Charles Lowery, Director of Legislative Policy and External Affairs; Anthony Holt, Branch Manager & Chair, New American Dream; Michael Moseby, Sales Manager & Co-Chair, New American Dream; Rick Humphery, Talent Acquisition & Vice President, Community Lending; John Drumgoole Jr., Vice President of Community Lending; and Kellie Hester, Senior Talent Acquisitions Manager, who help oversee cultural outreach and education efforts in underserved communities.

The company also partners with Freddie Mac to host monthly virtual homeownership events to educate on and encourage Black homeownership as a means of creating wealth. These educational events and workshops provide insight to real estate and lending professionals across the country.

Additionally, the company was honored by the Mortgage Bankers Association with its Diversity and Inclusion Residential Leadership Award for Market Outreach Strategies for Latino Focus and New American Dream. The National Association of Minority Mortgage Bankers of America (NAMMBA) awarded New American Funding recognition for Best Workplaces for Women and Minorities. Latino Focus was also previously honored with a Silver Stevie Award for Multicultural Communications or PR Campaign of the Year.

The company was also twice named a Best Workplace for Diversity by FORTUNE and Great Place to Work. Company leaders Dwayne Graham and Anthony Holt were also both named to the inaugural Black Leaders Worth Watching list by Profiles in Diversity Journal.

By working closely with minority borrowers, New American Funding is empowering underserved communities to build wealth and create generational opportunities.

About New American Funding

New American Funding is an independent mortgage lender with a servicing portfolio of over 206,000 loans for approximately $53.8 billion, 179 nationwide locations, and about 4,700 employees. The company offers several niche loan products and has made Inc. 5000's list of Fastest-Growing Companies in America seven times. It offers state-of-the-art career training and provides its branch Loan Officers with innovative technologies to streamline the mortgage process.

SOURCE New American Funding

Related Links

www.newamericanfunding.com


"Missouri is the global leader in agtech, and we are thrilled to welcome Ostara to the Missouri family."

"We're excited to welcome another agtech company to Missouri, where agriculture remains our number one economic driver," Governor Mike Parson said. "Ostara's investment in St. Louis will create more career opportunities for Missourians, build on its mission to help farmers improve crop yields across North America, and protect water and soil quality around the globe."

Canadian-founded Ostara develops technologies that recover phosphorous and nitrogen from water treatment streams and produces eco-friendly fertilizer products. After a site selection search, executives selected St. Louis due to its thriving agtech industry, its world class educational institutions and its Midwestern location.

"St. Louis was a natural choice for Ostara to construct its newest and largest manufacturing facility that will produce our environmentally friendly Crystal Green fertilizer," says Dan Parmar, Chief Executive Officer at Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies. "As we gear up production over the next year, we're partnering with the St. Louis community and Missouri businesses to continue our mission to produce a sustainable phosphorus soil health solution that will enhance crop yields while protecting water sources across the globe."

Ostara plans to work with colleges and universities, businesses, and banks to grow roots and establish a presence in the region, creating the connections needed to build additional local plants in the future.

"St. Louis is open for business," said St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones. "St. Louis welcomes Ostara as the latest addition to our growing agtech and innovation communities and the good-paying jobs the company will bring to our region."

"Ostara's products and vision dovetail with St. Louis' strengths," said Steve Johnson, Chief Business Attraction Officer, Greater St. Louis, Inc., and President, AllianceSTL. "Agriculture, plant sciences and manufacturing have long served as foundational elements of our regional economy. Our agtech assets will provide a unique level of support for Ostara, and the company, in turn, will contribute to its growth  and the growth of our region  while increasing quality jobs in Downtown St. Louis."

"Missouri is the global leader in agtech, and we are thrilled to welcome Ostara to the Missouri family," Subash Alias, CEO of Missouri Partnership, said. "Their innovation is a strategic addition to our robust agtech ecosystem, and we are delighted they will be creating 40 new jobs that will positively impact Missouri families."

About Missouri Partnership

Missouri Partnership is a public-private economic development organization focused on attracting new jobs and investment to the state and promoting Missouri's business strengths. Since 2007, Missouri Partnership has worked with partners statewide to attract companies that have created 28,000+ new jobs, $1.4 billion+ in new annual payroll, and $3.6 billion+ in new capital investment. Some recent successful projects that led to major investment in Missouri include Accenture Federal Services LLC, Amazon, Casey's, Chewy, Inc., Square, Swift Prepared Foods, USDA, and Veterans United.

Media Contact:

Janelle Higgins

[email protected]

SOURCE Missouri Partnership

Related Links

www.missouripartnership.com


"Thanks to God's grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from COVID-19," Pope Francis says in the PSA. "Getting the vaccines that are authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love. I pray to God that each one of us can make his or her own small gesture of love, no matter how small, love is always grand."

Recent data shows that the United States has more progress to make with COVID-19 vaccinations in the country. Currently 72% of the American adult population and 67% of Hispanic adults have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with at least one dose. Worldwide, COVID-19 cases are on the rise, especially across North, Central and South America in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Peru where rates of individuals fully vaccinated range from only 5.5% (Honduras) to 30% (El Salvador). Though access to vaccines continues to be a challenge, confidence in the vaccines also presents a hurdle.

To reach this global audience and instill confidence in the vaccines as part of their broader "It's Up To You" campaign, the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative are proud to partner on this PSA with His Holiness Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, Archbishop Jose Horacio Gomez Velasco (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes (Mexico City, Mexico), Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga (Tegucigalpa, Honduras), Cardinal Claudio Hummes (Sao Paolo, Brasil), Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez (San Salvador, El Salvador) and Archbishop Hector Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte (Trujillo, Peru).

"The role of trusted messengers to educate and inspire their networks is undeniable  and has been a core element of our COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative since the beginning," said Lisa Sherman, President and CEO of the Ad Council. "To the world's billion-plus Catholics, the Pope is one of the most trusted messengers and holds unparalleled influence. We are extremely grateful to him and the Cardinals and Archbishops for lending their voices and platforms to help people across the globe feel more confident in the vaccines."

This project is one of the "It's Up To You" campaign's tentpole collaborations with trusted messengers, delivering fact-based and life-saving information to populations hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccines, helping them to make informed decisions for themselves and their families. Other influencers and trusted messengers that have been involved include: former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and former First Ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Rosalynn Carter; musicians Foreigner, Eric Church, Ashley McBryde and Darius Rucker; actors Wanda Sykes, John Leguizamo, Luis Guzman and Loni Love; athletes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jaren Jackson, Jr., Chester Pitts, Sean Johnson, Preston Wilson, Drew McIntyre and RockyNoHands; faith leaders Bishop TD Jakes, Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, Rev. Dr. Walter Kim, Fr. Manuel Dorantes, and Rev. Gabriel Salguero; medical experts Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Tom Frieden, Dr. Kizzmekia S. Corbett, PhD, and Dr. Cameron Webb; and more. To date the effort has engaged over 1,124 influencers to develop 1,638 pieces of content, with a cumulative reach of 50 million.

Given the campaign's commitment to working with a broad range of trusted messengers, incorporating faith-based and community leaders has been a critical component given their influence and trust in their communities. A National Faith Steering Committee was formed at the onset of the COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative to inform elements of the overall strategy, serve as trusted voices in their communities, help develop resources for other faith leaders nationwide and participate in virtual events. Fr. Manuel Dorantes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who serves on the Faith Steering Committee, helped identify and implement this opportunity with Pope Francis to extend the Ad Council's work on a global scale.

"Faith-based leaders and institutions play such a significant role in reminding us of our common humanity," said John Bridgeland, Co-Founder and CEO of the COVID Collaborative. "With these powerful words from Pope Francis and the Cardinals and Archbishops from across the globe, their message will inspire millions to take action to 'love thy neighbor' during this pandemic."

Developed with production companies LANDIA and Big Star, the content is part of the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative's COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative, "It's Up To You." The overarching creative platform was developed by Pereira O'Dell, with additional campaign assets created by JOY Collective, Alma, iHeartMedia, Group SJR, Values Partnerships and other partners to ensure the American public has the latest and most accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccines. To date, the campaign has received $178M in media support and related publicity across all channels, with at least 75% of Americans eligible for the vaccine having seen "It's Up To You" ads and driving over 8 million sessions to GetVaccineAnswers.org. Of those who visit GetVaccineAnswers.org with concerns, nearly 60% left feeling more confident about getting vaccinated.

In addition to the new PSA, the Ad Council, in partnership with the Eva Longoria Foundation, The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), Unidos US, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Hispanic Federation, and the Justice for Migrant Women, will be hosting a virtual event with various faith leaders to amplify this effort and drive further education on COVID-19 vaccines. Faith leaders include Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect for the Vatican's Dicastery for Integral Human Development, Dr. Walter Kim, President, National Association of Evangelicals, Rev. Dr. Gabriel & Rev. Jeanette Salguero, National Latino Evangelical Coalition, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Executive Director, Religious Action Center for Reformed Judaism, and Eboo Patel, Founder & President, Interfaith Youth Corps. The event will also feature top medical experts and local community leaders to help address the latest questions around COVID-19 and vaccines.

As the exclusive media partners for the event, Noticias Telemundo and NBC News NOW will stream the virtual event across their digital platforms on YouTube and Facebook on Wednesday, August 25th, 5pm EST. Noticias Telemundo and NBC Nightly News Saturday anchor Jose Diaz-Balart will host the event, hoy Dia anchor Nicole Suarez will moderate a medical expert panel, renowned actress/activist Eva Longoria will present the historic PSA message delivered by Pope Francis and the Cardinals and Archbishops from North, Central and South America. Maria Cardona, Founder of DSG's Latinovations and CNN/CNN Espanol Commentator will moderate a Community Leaders Panel, and Values Partnerships Founder and CEO Joshua Dubois will moderate a Faith Leaders panel. Throughout the week of the virtual event, there will be pop-up COVID-19 vaccination sites in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Oregon, where there are currently low vaccination rates within the Hispanic community.

Major media partners, including Facebook, Google/YouTube, Telemundo, Universo, Upward Christian Dating from Match Group and WarnerMedia, among others have committed to providing significant donated media time and space to run and amplify the new PSA assets. Per the Ad Council's model, the creative will be distributed in the United States where it will run in donated media. The PSA will also be distributed globally to international media, with a focus on Spanish-speaking countries.

Leading contributors to date include Amazon, Bank of America, Cisco, CVS Health, Facebook, General Motors, Google/YouTube, The Humana Foundation, NBCUniversal/Comcast, Reckitt, Salesforce, Verizon, Walgreens and Walmart. Significant contributions have also been provided by Adobe, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, BNY Mellon, Business Roundtable, Caterpillar Foundation, Citi, Ford Motor Company, Honeywell, JPMorgan Chase, Kaiser Permanente, Mastercard, the New York Life Foundation, Stanley Black & Decker, Synchrony, Target, Unilever, Wells Fargo and ViacomCBS.

For more information and answers to top questions about the COVID-19 vaccines, visit GetVaccineAnswers.org and DeTiDepende.org.

The Ad Council

The Ad Council has a long history of creating life-saving public service communications in times of national crisis, starting in the organization's earliest days during World War II to September 11th and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. Its deep relationships with media outlets, the creative community, issue experts and government leaders make the organization uniquely poised to quickly distribute life-saving information to millions of Americans.

The Ad Council is where creativity and causes converge. The non-profit organization brings together the most creative minds in advertising, media, technology and marketing to address many of the nation's most important causes. The Ad Council has created many of the most iconic campaigns in advertising history. Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk. Smokey Bear. Love Has No Labels.

The Ad Council is a nonpartisan, nondenominational organization, engaging a diverse range of communities, including the faith community, to impact society for good. The organization's innovative social good campaigns raise awareness, inspire action and save lives. To learn more, visit AdCouncil.org, follow the Ad Council's communities on Facebook and Twitter and view the creative on YouTube.

COVID Collaborative

COVID Collaborative, a project of UNITE, is a national assembly of experts, leaders and institutions in health, education and the economy and associations representing the diversity of the country to turn the tide on the pandemic by supporting federal, state and local COVID-19 response efforts.

The COVID Collaborative is co-chaired by former Governor and U.S. Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) and former Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) and led by CEO John Bridgeland and President Gary Edson. COVID Collaborative includes expertise from across Republican and Democratic administrations at the federal, state and local levels, including former FDA commissioners, CDC directors, and U.S. surgeon generals; former U.S. secretaries of Education, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services; leading public health experts and institutions that span the country; the Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the NAACP, UnidosUS and the National Congress of American Indians; the Skoll Foundation, The Allstate Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation; and associations representing those on the front lines, from the American Public Health Association and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools. Tim Shriver is Chairman of UNITE.

To learn more, visit www.CovidCollaborative.us, and follow the COVID Collaborative on Twitter and LinkedIn.

SOURCE The Ad Council

Related Links

http://www.adcouncil.org


SEATTLE, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2021, a new mandate called for all hospitals to provide easily accessible pricing for all of their services online. While this does not explicitly affect plastic surgeons or independent surgical practices, price transparency is undoubtedly where the future of plastic surgery marketing is headed. With many surgeons hesitant to publicize their prices, Price Simulator has created a tool that creates a symbiotic relationship between plastic surgeons and leads.

"I can tell you that thus far (13 days) we have secured 150 original leads who we have been able to contact. This is truly astounding and has exceeded my most enthusiastic expectation. In the first week, we directly scheduled more than $40,000 in cases secured through the Price Simulator." - Dr. Erik Nuveen of Cosmetic Surgery Affiliates in Oklahoma City.

Plastic surgery offices across the United States received hundreds of calls, chats, and emails every day. Over half of these communications are price inquiries. This wastes staff time and can leave both the staff and potential patients frustrated. Price Simulator cuts out these calls by allowing patients to get a preliminary price quote in exchange for their contact information. Watch the difference Price Simulator can make . You can also try a free demo of Price Simulator.

Obtaining a finalized price often requires a consultation, Price Simulator does not change this. The price that a user receives from Price Simulator is controlled by the plastic surgery office and can dictate the starting or average cost for the procedure. Data shows that this makes them more likely to schedule a consultation. In fact, patients who submit a quote through Price Simulator are four times more likely to book an appointment. With a small facelift, Price Simulator is an even more effective tool for plastic and cosmetic surgeons.

About Price Simulator: Price Simulator is a web application built especially for the plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery, and medical spa industries. Designed to increase engagement, boost SEO, and increase leads, Price Simulator is a powerful lead magnet that helps plastic and cosmetic surgeons grow their practices. Created by realdrseattle, a marketing company dedicated to transparency, Price Simulator offers simulated prices in exchange for real leads.

Contact: Tyler Birch

Phone: 206-973-7865

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE realdrseattle

Related Links

https://realdrseattle.com


DALLAS, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RealFoundations, the world's foremost provider of management consulting and managed services for the real estate industry, today announced the completion of a 15-month technology project enabling FirstKey Homes to further enhance its operational excellence as a leader in the burgeoning single-family rental (SFR) market. The Yardi Enterprise Transformation Initiative, or YETI, focused on streamlining FirstKey's instance of Yardi Voyager, a leading software solution for real estate investment and property management.

FirstKey Homes is a leading provider of single-family rental homes in markets across the West, Midwest, and Southeast that provide its family of residents with safe, affordable, and well-maintained homes which include the space they need and the amenities they desire.

The company initially retained RealFoundations to perform a diagnostic assessment on its Yardi Voyager platform to identify challenges with utilization, strengthen management of portfolio assets and performance reporting, and also support future growth. The assessment highlighted opportunities to leverage Voyager's robust, native functionality more effectively to replace many time-consuming and error-prone manual tasks.

The transformation initiative delivered more than 70 improvements identified during the diagnostic, spanning corporate and property accounting, job cost, fixed assets, operations, marketing, leasing, maintenance and reporting. The work focused on optimizing business processes, redesigning the existing chart of accounts and onboarding Yardi Fixed Assets. Another important outcome was the delivery of an accelerated training program to ensure enterprise-wide adoption of the enhanced solution and industry leading practices.

FirstKey Homes now benefits from:

An optimized platform that enhances performance and response time.

A redesigned chart of accounts structure with flexibility for future portfolio growth.

Elimination of manual calculations in managing equipment and other assets with the implementation of Yardi Fixed Assets.

Access to segmented accounting to allow for deeper reporting and analysis.

Leaner workflows and business processes across major enterprise functions and roles.

Utilization of Yardi Voyager functionality to leverage standardized reports while minimizing dependency on custom reporting, significantly reducing administrative effort.

A new library of quick reference guides and training collateral to accelerate employee adoption of Yardi Voyager.

"We partnered with RealFoundations because of their deep experience in the single-family rental home space and record of success. The project yielded all the benefits identified by the diagnostic and came in on time and budget despite the challenges created by working in a remote environment," said Jack Brennan, Chief Financial Officer, FirstKey Homes. "The completion of this project provides a solid foundation to further scale our business and achieve our growth plans now and into the future."

Notably, the project was almost entirely executed over distance through RealFoundations' Modern Digital Workplace (MDW), powered by Microsoft, which allows the firm and its clients to collaborate in real time from anywhere via any device with an Internet connection.

"Whether your real estate company is implementing Yardi solutions or another ERP for the first time or you want to improve the performance and/or utilization of an existing system, RealFoundations can help," said Brian Daugherty, Senior Managing Consultant. "Working over distance, our consultants worldwide have deftly led dozens of these technology transformation projects. FirstKey's embrace of the MDW was a major factor in the project's success."

For more information about RealFoundations, visit our website at www.realfoundations.net or contact John Seaton, Global Head of Sales | (469) 235 9252| [email protected].

About FirstKey Homes

FirstKey Homes, LLC is a privately-owned, single-family rental home property management company with corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. FirstKey Homes manages homes through local operations in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Memphis, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Tampa/Ft. Myers. With a mission to give our family of residents a place to call home, FirstKey Homes provides homes that are affordable, free from major maintenance and repair costs, and located in a variety of neighborhoods. To learn more, visit firstkeyhomes.com.

About Yardi

Yardi develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of real estate companies. Established in 1984, Yardi is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and serves clients worldwide. For more information on how Yardi is Energized for Tomorrow, visit yardi.com.

About RealFoundations

RealFoundations is the world's foremost professional services firm focused solely on the real estate industry. Through our delivery of Management Consulting and Managed Services, we help companies that develop, own, operate, service or invest in real estate make better, more profitable decisions. We are proud partners to over 450 real estate companies around the globe, providing accelerated solutions that solve some of real estate's most complex challenges. We Make Real Estate Run Better. realfoundations.net

SOURCE RealFoundations
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratford School , an independent private school with locations throughout California, is pleased to announce the opening of four new campuses this month, including Stratford School Almaden preschool, Stratford School Milpitas Corning elementary school, Pleasanton middle school, and Stratford Online Academy. Families are invited to schedule a personalized tour to learn more about in-person and online enrollment options and explore the advanced educational programming for the 2021-2022 school year.

Stratford School

Stratford's three new campuses will feature beautifully renovated classrooms, outdoor playgrounds and ample room to grow, while the Stratford Online Academy will continue to foster collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity in a virtual setting, yet fully aligned with the in-person learning experience.

Since its inception in 1999, Stratford School has grown from four preschool classrooms and a small, dedicated team of educators to 26 campuses throughout California. Whether in-person or online, Stratford School's commitment to providing a challenging, enriched curriculum that encourages and motivates students through high expectations, delivers the exceptional academic excellence that parents have come to expect, and continues to pave the way for Stratford's growth each year.

"From the opening of our first school, I envisioned Stratford School to offer a distinctive learning environment and curriculum that would shape the minds and hearts of young children throughout California. More than twenty years later, I couldn't be more proud to see this dream in action as we continue to grow," said Sherry Adams, co-founder of Stratford School. "We are thrilled to welcome families to Stratford's new campuses and offerings this year, where our high-quality education and skilled educators foster connections, nurture growth, and prepare students for their academic journey and beyond. To this day, our motto, Summa Spes, Summa Res (Highest Hopes, Highest Things) exemplifies our sustained spirit of providing an uplifting education."

For more information about Stratford School's new campuses, please visit the following pages: Stratford School Almaden ; Stratford School Milpitas Corning ; Stratford School Pleasanton and Stratford Online Academy . For more information about Stratford School overall, please visit https://www.stratfordschools.com/ .

About Stratford School

Established in 1999, Stratford School is a leading independent private school, founded with a vision of creating a unique, multi-dimensional, educational foundation for children. Stratford School offers an accelerated yet balanced curriculum from preschool through eighth grade, with an emphasis on the areas of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) and incorporates music, physical education, foreign language, and social skills development. Stratford School's goal is to prepare and mentor students for admission to competitive high schools and colleges. All students are provided the necessary tools to excel and are encouraged to participate actively in leadership, community service, and extracurricular activities. Visit www.stratfordschools.com for more information. Stratford School is part of Spring Education Group, a multi-brand network of premier schools, providing superior private school education from infant care through high school.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kristina Avena | Konnect Agency

[email protected]

646.453.7167

SOURCE Stratford School

Related Links

https://www.stratfordschools.com/


HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Capture Coating, the easy to apply coating that transforms everyday air filters into virus fighting front-line tools in the battle against COVID-19 is expanding its availability and distribution into Canada, the UK, and Ireland through new distribution routes.

Curran Biotech's Capture Coating With Curran Biotech's Capture Coating, ordinary air filters become powerful tools in the fight against COVID-19

Professor Shay Curran, Curran Biotech founder and Trinity College, Dublin Ireland alum, welcomes Brad Silvaggio from ViruSolve, western Canada's leader in environmental infection control, Jay Lyall from the Decon Group Unlimited (Burlington, Ontario), Roy Barroso from CNET Building Maintenance Services (Ontario), Paul Howlett of Sudelac Limited of Scotland, and Ireland's John Sweeney from RDI Systems to a growing global distribution network.

"Capture Coating filters viral aerosols in the air and allows people to gather safely indoors working with our new expanded global partners accelerates our efforts to get this powerful tool to everyone," says Curran. "If you are concerned about the safety of air indoors, just ask your building supervisor or facilities manager for Capture Coating by name." The coating is easy to apply and rejects liquid-based contaminants like COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2, influenzaseven rhinoviruses.

Curran Biotech treated filters operate normally with regard to dust and other dry particulates but reject aqueous/liquid-phase contaminants. Because the coronavirus in its most infectious state is surrounded by an aqueous liquid-phase environment, Capture Coating physically stops the virus at the surface of the air filter.

"Serious problems require serious solutions," says Brad Silvaggio of Canada's ViruSolve, "Capture Coating makes ordinary air filters better: "it stops the virus, but air flow is unaffected. We are honored and excited to have the opportunity to launch Curran Biotech Capture Coating in Canada. With what seems to be a never-ending pandemic and health advisories due to forest fires being but a few concerns, it is good to know we have help in the fight to keep our indoor air quality safe. We especially look forward to offering protection in getting our kids back to school by enhancing existing HVAC filtration at a fraction of the cost compared to upgrading filters and in some cases entire HVAC systems."

"We are making a difference every day in the fight against COVID-19 and other viruses with Capture Coating" in all sectors  including energy, transport, manufacturing, hospitality, and education. "Sudelac is delighted to be rolling out Capture Coating throughout the United Kingdom to apply to HVAC filters and we are extremely confident that its use can have a significant impact on reducing airborne transmissions of the virus indoors"  Paul Howlett, Managing Director, Sudelac Limited.

John Sweeney of RDI Systems, the distributor for Ireland & EU, believes that Capture Coating from Curran Biotech will greatly enhance the performance of filters and will be an essential safeguard for personnel returning to the office/work environment. RDI leverages Capture Coating as part of a multi-tiered approach to ensure clean, safe environments. "It is ideal, says Sweeney, "for any facility including healthcare, industrial, and leisure/hospitality."

"Please reach out to our expanded network of distributors to get Capture Coating today, implores Curran. "Delta is only the first of a number of Covid variants that will hit us all". In the USA, please reach out to Prohealth2020, M.A.N.S Distributors, Inc., CC Distributors or contact Curran Biotech to find Capture Coating near you.

About Curran Biotech

Curran Biotech is a materials manufacturing company that provides nanocoatings to biochemical, chemical, energy, and construction industries including water-repellent and virus-stopping coatings for fabrics/filters. The newest product, Capture Coating, is designed and formulated for all types of fabrics/filter media using patented nanotechnology that imparts superhydrophobicity, non-toxicity, and breathability.

Media & Sales Contact

Dr. Shay Curran

www.curranbiotech.com

[email protected]

+1-832-671-6647

ViruSolve; Brad@virusolve.ca

Sudelac Limited; [email protected]

RDI Systems; [email protected]

Decon Group Unlimited; [email protected]

CNET Building Maintenance Services; [email protected]

Prohealth2020; [email protected]

M.A.N.S Distributors, Inc.; [email protected]

CC Distributors; [email protected]

SOURCE Curran Biotech

Related Links

https://www.curranbiotech.com/premium-fabric-coating


MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

Second quarter comparable sales grew 8.9 percent, on top of record growth of 24.3 percent last year.

Comparable sales growth was driven entirely by traffic.



Store comparable sales increased 8.7 percent, on top of 10.9 percent growth last year.



Digital comparable sales grew 10 percent, following growth of 195 percent last year.



Digital sales continue to be led by same-day services (Order Pickup, Drive Up and Shipt), which grew nearly 55 percent this year, on top of more than 270 percent last year.



More than 95 percent of Target's second quarter sales were fulfilled by its stores.

All five core merchandise categories delivered positive comparable sales, on top of last year's historic sales performance.

Second quarter GAAP EPS of $3.65 was 8.9 percent higher than last year, and Adjusted EPS 1 of $3.64 was 7.9 percent higher than last year. Second quarter GAAP and Adjusted EPS have doubled since Q2 2019.

Target's Board of Directors has approved a new, $15 billion share repurchase program.

For additional media materials, please visit:

https://corporate.target.com/article/2021/08/q2-2021-earnings

Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) today announced its second quarter 2021 financial results, which reflected increases in both sales and profitability on top of record growth a year ago. The Company reported second quarter GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $3.65, up 8.9 percent from $3.35 in 2020. Second quarter Adjusted EPS of $3.64 grew 7.9 percent compared with $3.38 in 2020. The attached tables provide a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures. All earnings per share figures refer to diluted EPS.

1 Adjusted EPS, a non-GAAP financial measure, excludes the impact of certain discretely managed items. See the tables of this release for additional information about the items that have been excluded from Adjusted EPS.

Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target Corporation, said, "In the second quarter, our business generated continued growth on top of record increases a year ago, reinforcing Target's leadership position in retail. We've spent years building and investing in the durable model we have today, which is supported by a differentiated strategy and the best team in retail.

Even after unprecedented growth over the last two years, we see much more opportunity ahead of us, and we're leaning into opportunities to invest in the long-term growth and resiliency of our business. Our team and operating model can seamlessly adapt to changes in the environment, and we're well-positioned to deliver outstanding performance in the back half of the year."

Fiscal 2021 Guidance

For the second half of 2021, the Company expects high single digit growth in comparable sales, near the high end of the previous guidance range.

The Company now expects its full year operating income margin rate will be 8 percent or higher.

Operating Results

Comparable sales grew 8.9 percent in the second quarter, reflecting comparable store sales growth of 8.7 percent and comparable digital sales growth of 10 percent. Total revenue of $25.2 billion grew 9.5 percent compared with last year, driven by total sales growth of 9.4 percent and a 20.0 percent increase in other revenue. Operating income was $2.5 billion in second quarter 2021, up 7.2 percent from $2.3 billion in 2020.

Second quarter operating income margin rate was 9.8 percent in 2021 compared with 10.0 percent in 2020. Second quarter gross margin rate was 30.4 percent, compared with 30.9 percent in 2020. This year's gross margin rate reflected pressure from higher merchandise and freight costs and the comparison over last year's change in the sales return reserve estimate. These pressures were partially offset by the benefit of low markdowns, favorable category mix, and a shift in fulfillment mix into lower-cost same-day fulfillment options. Second quarter SG&A expense rate was 19.3 percent in 2021, compared with 19.4 percent in 2020, reflecting the benefit of leverage from strong sales growth, partially offset by expense rate increases to normalized levels in various expense categories, such as marketing.

Interest Expense and Taxes

The Company's second quarter 2021 net interest expense was $104 million, compared with $122 million last year. The decrease was primarily due to lower average debt balances.

Second quarter 2021 effective income tax rate was 23.4 percent, compared with 22.8 percent last year. The rate increase was driven by significantly higher earnings, which diluted the benefit of fixed and discrete tax items.

Capital Deployment and Return on Invested Capital

The Company paid dividends of $336 million in the second quarter, compared with $330 million last year, reflecting a 3.0 percent increase in the dividend per share, partially offset by a decline in average share count.

The Company repurchased $1.5 billion worth of its shares in second quarter 2021, retiring 6.6 million shares of common stock at an average price of $233.81. As of the end of the second quarter, the Company had approximately $1.8 billion of remaining capacity under the repurchase program approved by Target's Board of Directors in September 2019.

In addition, the Company announced today that Target's Board of Directors has authorized a new, $15 billion share repurchase program. Repurchases under this program will begin upon completion of the 2019 program.

"For decades, Target's capital deployment priorities have remained the same: First, we fully invest in our business, in projects that meet our strategic and financial criteria. Then, we return capital to our shareholders through a thoughtful balance of dividends and share repurchases, within the limits of our middle-A debt ratings," said Michael Fiddelke, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Target Corporation. "Our continued strong operating performance and ability to generate cash have supported meaningful investments in our team and our business, along with the return of capital through both dividends and share repurchases. This new authorization reflects our confidence in the sustained, strong performance of our business, which will enable continued share repurchases in keeping with our long-standing capital deployment goals."

For the trailing twelve months through second quarter 2021, after-tax return on invested capital (ROIC) was 31.7 percent, compared with 17.2 percent for the trailing twelve months through second quarter 2020. The increase in ROIC was driven primarily by increased profitability. The tables in this release provide additional information about the Company's ROIC calculation.

Webcast Details

Target will webcast its second quarter earnings conference call at 7:00 a.m. CT today. Investors and the media are invited to listen to the meeting at Investors.Target.com (click on link under "Upcoming Events"). A replay of the webcast will be provided when available. The replay number is 1-800-925-2388.

Miscellaneous

Statements in this release regarding second half and full year comparable sales growth and operating margin rates are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company's actions to differ materially. The most important risks and uncertainties are described in Item 1A of the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2021. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

About Target

Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) serves guests at more than 1,900 stores and at Target.com, with the purpose of helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. Since 1946, Target has given 5% of its profit to communities, which today equals millions of dollars a week. Additional company information can be found by visiting its corporate website and press center and by following @TargetNews.

For more on the Target Foundation, click here.

TARGET CORPORATION

Consolidated Statements of Operations



Three Months Ended





Six Months Ended



(millions, except per share data) (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

Change

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

Change Sales

$ 24,826



$ 22,696



9.4 %

$ 48,705



$ 42,067



15.8 % Other revenue

334



279



20.0



652



523



24.8

Total revenue

25,160



22,975



9.5



49,357



42,590



15.9

Cost of sales

17,280



15,673



10.3



33,996



30,183



12.6

Selling, general and administrative expenses

4,849



4,460



8.8



9,358



8,520



9.8

Depreciation and amortization (exclusive of depreciation included in cost of sales)

564



542



4.0



1,162



1,119



3.9

Operating income

2,467



2,300



7.2



4,841



2,768



74.9

Net interest expense

104



122



(15.5)



212



239



(11.7)

Net other (income) / expense

(7)



(11)



(31.3)



(350)



11



NM(a)

Earnings before income taxes

2,370



2,189



8.3



4,979



2,518



97.7

Provision for income taxes

553



499



11.3



1,065



544



95.9

Net earnings

$ 1,817



$ 1,690



7.4 %

$ 3,914



$ 1,974



98.2 % Basic earnings per share

$ 3.68



$ 3.38



9.0 %

$ 7.89



$ 3.94



100.1 % Diluted earnings per share

$ 3.65



$ 3.35



8.9 %

$ 7.82



$ 3.91



100.1 % Weighted average common shares outstanding























Basic

493.1



500.1



(1.4) %

495.8



500.6



(0.9) % Diluted

497.5



504.4



(1.4) %

500.4



505.1



(0.9) % Antidilutive shares























Dividends declared per share

$ 0.90



$ 0.68



32.4 %

$ 1.58



$ 1.34



17.9 %

(a) Not meaningful.

TARGET CORPORATION

Consolidated Statements of Financial Position (millions, except footnotes) (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

January 30, 2021

August 1, 2020 Assets











Cash and cash equivalents

$ 7,368



$ 8,511



$ 7,284

Inventory

11,259



10,653



8,876

Other current assets

1,604



1,592



1,463

Total current assets

20,231



20,756



17,623

Property and equipment











Land

6,148



6,141



6,027

Buildings and improvements

32,133



31,557



30,946

Fixtures and equipment

5,892



5,914



5,665

Computer hardware and software

2,260



2,765



2,631

Construction-in-progress

944



780



811

Accumulated depreciation

(20,133)



(20,278)



(19,341)

Property and equipment, net

27,244



26,879



26,739

Operating lease assets

2,503



2,227



2,233

Other noncurrent assets

1,407



1,386



1,405

Total assets

$ 51,385



$ 51,248



$ 48,000

Liabilities and shareholders' investment











Accounts payable

$ 12,632



$ 12,859



$ 10,726

Accrued and other current liabilities

5,600



6,122



5,057

Current portion of long-term debt and other borrowings

1,190



1,144



109

Total current liabilities

19,422



20,125



15,892

Long-term debt and other borrowings

11,589



11,536



14,188

Noncurrent operating lease liabilities

2,462



2,218



2,241

Deferred income taxes

1,146



990



1,121

Other noncurrent liabilities

1,906



1,939



1,980

Total noncurrent liabilities

17,103



16,683



19,530

Shareholders' investment











Common stock

41



42



42

Additional paid-in capital

6,332



6,329



6,248

Retained earnings

9,200



8,825



7,121

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(713)



(756)



(833)

Total shareholders' investment

14,860



14,440



12,578

Total liabilities and shareholders' investment

$ 51,385



$ 51,248



$ 48,000



Common Stock Authorized 6,000,000,000 shares, $0.0833 par value; 489,651,196, 500,877,129 and 500,252,831 shares issued and outstanding as of July 31, 2021, January 30, 2021, and August 1, 2020, respectively.

Preferred Stock Authorized 5,000,000 shares, $0.01 par value; no shares were issued or outstanding during any period presented.

TARGET CORPORATION

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows



Six Months Ended (millions) (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020 Operating activities







Net earnings

$ 3,914



$ 1,974

Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to cash provided by operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization

1,300



1,245

Share-based compensation expense

138



104

Deferred income taxes

143



(12)

Gain on Dermstore sale

(335)





Noncash losses / (gains) and other, net

7



86

Changes in operating accounts:







Inventory

(606)



116

Other assets

3



(14)

Accounts payable

(311)



795

Accrued and other liabilities

(831)



822

Cash provided by operating activities

3,422



5,116

Investing activities







Expenditures for property and equipment

(1,338)



(1,414)

Proceeds from disposal of property and equipment

15



10

Proceeds from Dermstore sale

356





Other investments

(5)



2

Cash required for investing activities

(972)



(1,402)

Financing activities







Additions to long-term debt





2,480

Reductions of long-term debt

(72)



(126)

Dividends paid

(676)



(662)

Repurchase of stock

(2,850)



(706)

Stock option exercises

5



7

Cash (required for) / provided by financing activities

(3,593)



993

Net (decrease) / increase in cash and cash equivalents

(1,143)



4,707

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

8,511



2,577

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$ 7,368



$ 7,284



TARGET CORPORATION

Operating Results Rate Analysis

Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020 Gross margin rate

30.4 %

30.9 %

30.2 %

28.3 % SG&A expense rate

19.3



19.4



19.0



20.0

Depreciation and amortization (exclusive of depreciation included in cost of sales) expense rate

2.2



2.4



2.4



2.6

Operating income margin rate

9.8



10.0



9.8



6.5

Note: Gross margin rate is calculated as gross margin (sales less cost of sales) divided by sales. All other rates are calculated by dividing the applicable amount by total revenue. Other revenue includes $172 million and $343 million of profit-sharing income under our credit card program agreement for the three and six months ended July 31, 2021, respectively, and $158 million and $324 million for the three and six months ended August 1, 2020, respectively.

Comparable Sales

Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020 Comparable sales change

8.9 %

24.3 %

15.3 %

17.7 % Drivers of change in comparable sales















Number of transactions

12.7



4.6



14.8



1.6

Average transaction amount

(3.4)



18.8



0.5



15.8



Comparable Sales by Channel

Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020 Stores originated comparable sales change

8.7 %

10.9 %

13.0 %

6.0 % Digitally originated comparable sales change

9.9



195.4



27.3



168.9



Sales by Channel

Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020 Stores originated

83.0 %

82.8 %

82.3 %

83.7 % Digitally originated

17.0



17.2



17.7



16.3

Total

100 %

100 %

100 %

100 %

Sales by Fulfillment Channel

Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020 Stores

96.6 %

96.0 %

96.4 %

96.3 % Other

3.4



4.0



3.6



3.7

Total

100 %

100 %

100 %

100 % Note: Sales fulfilled by stores include in-store purchases and digitally originated sales fulfilled by shipping merchandise from stores to guests, Order Pickup, Drive Up, and Shipt.

RedCard Penetration

Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020 Target Debit Card

11.6 %

11.8 %

11.9 %

12.2 % Target Credit Cards

8.7



8.7



8.6



9.2

Total RedCard Penetration

20.3 %

20.5 %

20.4 %

21.4 % Note: Amounts may not foot due to rounding.



Number of Stores and Retail Square Feet

Number of Stores

Retail Square Feet (a) (unaudited)

July 31,

2021

January 30,

2021

August 1,

2020

July 31,

2021

January 30,

2021

August 1,

2020 170,000 or more sq. ft.

273



273



272



48,798



48,798



48,613

50,000 to 169,999 sq. ft.

1,510



1,509



1,505



189,624



189,508



189,224

49,999 or less sq. ft.

126



115



94



3,709



3,342



2,745

Total

1,909



1,897



1,871



242,131



241,648



240,582



(a) In thousands, reflects total square feet less office, distribution center, and vacant space.

TARGET CORPORATION

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To provide additional transparency, we have disclosed non-GAAP adjusted diluted earnings per share (Adjusted EPS). This metric excludes certain items presented below. We believe this information is useful in providing period-to-period comparisons of the results of our operations. This measure is not in accordance with, or an alternative to, generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP). The most comparable GAAP measure is diluted earnings per share. Adjusted EPS should not be considered in isolation or as a substitution for analysis of our results as reported in accordance with GAAP. Other companies may calculate Adjusted EPS differently, limiting the usefulness of the measure for comparisons with other companies.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Adjusted EPS

Three Months Ended





July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020



(millions, except per share data) (unaudited)

Pretax

Net of Tax

Per Share

Pretax

Net of Tax

Per Share

Change GAAP diluted earnings per share









$ 3.65











$ 3.35



8.9 % Adjustments



























Gain on investment (a)

$ 



$ 



$ 



$ (9)



$ (6)



$ (0.01)





Other (b)

(5)



(4)



(0.01)



25



18



0.04





Adjusted diluted earnings per share









$ 3.64











$ 3.38



7.9 %



Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Adjusted EPS

Six Months Ended





July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020



(millions, except per share data) (unaudited)

Pretax

Net of Tax

Per Share

Pretax

Net of Tax

Per Share

Change GAAP diluted earnings per share









$ 7.82











$ 3.91



100.1 % Adjustments



























Gain on Dermstore sale

$ (335)



$ (269)



$ (0.54)



$ 



$ 



$ 





Loss on investment (a)













12



9



0.02





Other (b)

36



27



0.05



25



18



0.04





Adjusted diluted earnings per share









$ 7.34











$ 3.96



85.1 %

Note: Amounts may not foot due to rounding. (a) Represented a (gain) / loss on our investment in Casper Sleep Inc., which was not core to our operations. We sold this investment during the fourth quarter of 2020. (b) Includes civil unrest-related losses, net of associated insurance recoveries, and headquarters office space impairments, none of which were individually significant.

Earnings before interest expense and income taxes (EBIT) and earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are non-GAAP financial measures. We believe these measures provide meaningful information about our operational efficiency compared with our competitors by excluding the impact of differences in tax jurisdictions and structures, debt levels, and, for EBITDA, capital investment. These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, GAAP. The most comparable GAAP measure is net earnings. EBIT and EBITDA should not be considered in isolation or as a substitution for analysis of our results as reported in accordance with GAAP. Other companies may calculate EBIT and EBITDA differently, limiting the usefulness of the measures for comparisons with other companies.

EBIT and EBITDA

Three Months Ended





Six Months Ended



(dollars in millions) (unaudited)

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

Change

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

Change Net earnings

$ 1,817



$ 1,690



7.4 %

$ 3,914



$ 1,974



98.2 % + Provision for income taxes

553



499



11.3



1,065



544



95.9

+ Net interest expense

104



122



(15.5)



212



239



(11.7)

EBIT

$ 2,474



$ 2,311



7.1 %

$ 5,191



$ 2,757



88.2 % + Total depreciation and amortization (a)

633



604



4.9



1,300



1,245



4.5

EBITDA

$ 3,107



$ 2,915



6.6 %

$ 6,491



$ 4,002



62.2 %

(a) Represents total depreciation and amortization, including amounts classified within Depreciation and Amortization and within Cost of Sales.

We have also disclosed after-tax ROIC, which is a ratio based on GAAP information, with the exception of the add-back of operating lease interest to operating income. We believe this metric is useful in assessing the effectiveness of our capital allocation over time. Other companies may calculate ROIC differently, limiting the usefulness of the measure for comparisons with other companies.



After-Tax Return on Invested Capital







(dollars in millions) (unaudited)















Trailing Twelve Months







Numerator

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020







Operating income

$ 8,611



$ 4,968









+ Net other income / (expense)

346



(28)









EBIT

8,957



4,940









+ Operating lease interest (a)

84



87









- Income taxes (b)

1,918



1,076









Net operating profit after taxes

$ 7,123



$ 3,951











Denominator

July 31, 2021

August 1, 2020

August 3, 2019 Current portion of long-term debt and other borrowings

$ 1,190



$ 109



$ 1,153

+ Noncurrent portion of long-term debt

11,589



14,188



10,365

+ Shareholders' investment

14,860



12,578



11,836

+ Operating lease liabilities (c)

2,695



2,448



2,285

- Cash and cash equivalents

7,368



7,284



1,656

Invested capital

$ 22,966



$ 22,039



$ 23,983

Average invested capital (d)

$ 22,502



$ 23,011







After-tax return on invested capital

31.7 %

17.2 %









(a) Represents the add-back to operating income driven by the hypothetical interest expense we would incur if the property under our operating leases were owned or accounted for as finance leases. Calculated using the discount rate for each lease and recorded as a component of rent expense within SG&A. Operating lease interest is added back to Operating Income in the ROIC calculation to control for differences in capital structure between us and our competitors. (b) Calculated using the effective tax rates, which were 21.2 percent and 21.4 percent for the trailing twelve months ended July 31, 2021, and August 1, 2020, respectively. For the twelve months ended July 31, 2021, and August 1, 2020, includes tax effect of $1.9 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively, related to EBIT, and $18 million and $19 million, respectively, related to operating lease interest. (c) Total short-term and long-term operating lease liabilities included within Accrued and Other Current Liabilities and Noncurrent Operating Lease Liabilities, respectively. (d) Average based on the invested capital at the end of the current period and the invested capital at the end of the comparable prior period.

SOURCE Target Corporation

Related Links

www.target.com


WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Future of STEM Scholars Initiative (FOSSI) is thrilled to welcome the inaugural class of FOSSI scholarship recipients, chosen from more than 1,700 applicants. The 2021 FOSSI scholars represent 28 states across the nation and plan to major in 17 unique STEM majors at 26 at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Launched in 2020 by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), The Chemours Company and the HBCU Week Foundation, FOSSI is a national chemical industry-wide program which provides scholarships to students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at HBCUs. FOSSI also connects these students to leadership development, mentoring and internship opportunities at more than 40 sponsoring companies.

"The 151 students chosen for this year's Future of STEM scholars represent some of the brightest and most ambitious students from across the country, and we are thrilled to recognize and reward their achievements." stated Chemours Chairman of the Board and FOSSI Founding Chairman, Mark Vergnano.

"Today's world faces enormous challenges, from tackling climate change to enhancing our nation's infrastructure and ensuring the safety of our country against cyberattacks. The skills, talent and diverse backgrounds of our scholars will help unlock the innovative solutions to make the world a better place for us all," Vergnano continued.

The scholarship recipients were invited to participate in a virtual welcome celebration on July 30, featuring remarks from the FOSSI Founding Partners, opportunities for scholars to network with each other and the FOSSI sponsors, and a keynote presentation from Dr. Christine Grant, Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Associate Dean of Faculty Advancement in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University. Grant is also the founder of STEM Resilience, which provides resources to individuals pursuing STEM careers, and president-elect of AIChE.

In accepting a FOSSI scholarship, Nia Richardson, a future Environmental Science major at Howard University, stated, "This scholarship will make a huge difference in my education. With such a huge investment in my career and a group of people to help guide me along the way, doing well in school is a given."

Having exceeded the program's ambitious initial goal to fund 150 scholarships in 2021, FOSSI aims to support 1000 students in future years. Applications for 2022 FOSSI scholarships will open October 1.

To learn more about FOSSI, visit FutureofSTEMscholars.org.

# # #

About the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative

The Future of STEM Scholars Initiative was founded in 2020 by the American Chemistry Council, The Chemours Company, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the HBCU Week Foundation. FOSSI is a national chemical industry-wide program which provides scholarships to students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), helping to eliminate financial barriers for historically under-represented groups. Sponsored by chemical manufacturers and related industry stakeholders, FOSSI provides scholarship recipients $10,000 per year for four years and connects these students to leadership development, mentoring and internship opportunities at participating companies. To date, FOSSI has raised more than $11 million and sponsored 151 scholarships. Learn more at FutureofSTEMscholars.org.

SOURCE American Chemistry Council

Related Links

https://www.americanchemistry.com/


UScellular launches flexible solutions to help businesses with remote workforces be more productive and secure. Tweet this

"There has been a huge change in the world that creates a major opportunity for businesses," said Kimberly Green-Kerr, senior vice president of enterprise sales and operations at UScellular. "Employee expectations have changed after working from home became a more normal work solution. They now expect to have the flexibility and ability to work remotely. They are increasingly choosing companies that offer remote work options and the tools to do it successfully."

The UScellular Remote Workforce Solution consists of three flexible components:

Remote Workforce Internet

Flexible packages range from a reliable, mobile option for small businesses to custom, highly secure solutions for enterprise-sized businesses with 5G and 4G access complete with enhanced security, content filtering and cloud management.

Collaboration Tools

Microsoft Teams gives you everything you need in one resource: video conferences, calls, chat and integration with familiar Office apps.

Unlimited Phone Plans

Unlimited plans with 5G and 4G LTE, including unlimited hotspot.

The Remote Workforce Solution is ideal for small, medium and enterprise-sized companies with higher risk exposure for remote employees who may have unsecured connections.

To help organizations deploy Microsoft Teams and realize the full potential of their Teams investment, UScellular is joining forces with OneNeck IT Solutions, an experienced Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), to offer a complete Remote Workforce Collaboration solution that brings together chat, meetings and calling, all in one place. Additionally, OneNeck offers Teams Foundation services that help clients fully utilize Teams in their environment with design and implementation services based on best practices and hands-on consulting that drives adoption so users can collaborate anytime, anyplace and on any device.

For more information on the UScellular Remote Workforce Solution, visit https://business.uscellular.com/solutions/remote-workforce/

About UScellular Business

UScellular is the fourth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States, providing national network coverage and industry-leading innovations designed to elevate the customer experience. The Chicago-based carrier is building a stronger network with the latest 5G technology and plays a critical role in helping businesses of all sizes navigate the wireless ecosystem, delivering advanced technology, increased network security and reliability. To learn more about UScellular's business solutions, visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com/business.

About OneNeck IT Solutions

OneNeck IT Solutions LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc., employs nearly 450 people throughout the U.S. The company offers multi-cloud solutions, combined with managed services, professional IT services, hardware and local connectivity via top-tier data centers in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon and Wisconsin. OneNeck's team of technology professionals deliver secure, modern platforms and applications for organizations embracing data-driven transformation and secure end-to-end solutions. Visit oneneck.com.

For more information, contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE UScellular
HENDERSON, Nev., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 2600Hz, a leading provider of unified business communications and the world-renowned KAZOO platform, is excited to announce it will be a Gold Sponsor of Cavell's Cloud Comms Summit US 2021 event. The summit will be held in Phoenix, AZ on September 21st and 22nd and will feature educational main stage keynotes, breakout sessions, and panel discussions, as well as multiple opportunities for attendees to network.

On September 21st, 2600Hz Vice President of Global Sales Demetrio Rico will take the main stage to present "The Rebirth of CPaaS"a keynote on how CPaaS is reemerging at the fore of the cloud communications market and how service providers can leverage the power of UCaaS/CCaaS + CPaaS to position themselves where the market is heading.

"We are thrilled to be part of this industry-leading event as a Gold Sponsor and look forward to connecting with Service Providers across the U.S.," said 2600Hz COO and Co-Founder, Patrick Sullivan. "Cavell's events are always exceptional, and we are excited to support this important summit, while also sharing key insights with attendees that will enable them to strategically create growth opportunities."

"We are pleased to welcome 2600Hz as Gold Sponsors of the Cloud Comms Summit US 2021," said Matthew Townend, Executive Director at Cavell. "2600Hz have been long-time supporters of this event and we are very excited to bring them and the industry back together in-person after 18 months of massive change. It has never been more important than now to meet and discuss challenges and opportunities in our space. This event will enable the industry to explore and redefine their strategy at a crucial time in cloud communications."

About 2600Hz: 2600Hz's cloud communications platform KAZOO modernizes how businesses provide communications services to their customers. With thoughtfully engineered tools built by leaders in the telecom industry, KAZOO offers feature-rich UCaaS, CPaaS, and CCaaS solutions. For developers building their own telephony apps, 2600Hz offers 300+ APIs and provides access to the building blocks of the platform. For more information, visit http://www.2600Hz.com. 2600Hz is a privately owned company with a distributed team worldwide.

2600Hz Contact:

Alisa Bartash

Head of Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE 2600hz, Inc.

Related Links

www.2600hz.com


EIGHTY FOUR, Pa., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 84 Lumber, the nation's largest privately held building materials supplier, is launching a recruitment effort to fill immediate openings in Denton, TX. The company will host a Hiring Event on August 25th from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Denton Convention Center (3100 Town Center Trail, Denton, TX 76201).

At the event, job seekers will learn more about the company culture and get the opportunity to be interviewed for open positions in the area that include manager trainees (MT), warehouse and forklift associates, window service technicians, entry-level sales coordinators/data entry clerks, and non-CDL truck drivers and load builders. Qualified job seekers may receive an offer of employment during the event.

"84 Lumber is seeking to fill 15 open positions at our Denton retail store to add to our team of more than 60 employees in the area," said Jorge Espinoza, divisional vice president at 84 Lumber. "We're growing along with the growth in the construction industry  here in Denton and across the nation. We're looking for people seeking a fresh start."

Espinoza went on to detail the openings in the region:

Manager trainees (MTs) hired by 84 Lumber enter an intensive, one-on-one, on-the-job training program that teaches them about the company's business and puts them on a path to become a future leader within the enterprise. Starting compensation for manager trainees is $42,000 per year.

Warehouse and forklift associates need no prior experience and perform essential functions behind the scenes  from the management of supply shipments to the operation of forklifts and other equipment. These associates can expect a starting pay of up to $18 per hour.

Window service technicians are responsible for servicing windows sold to builders, including the installation of windows and screens, stocking inventory, and window and door inspections. Starting compensation for these technicians is $13 per hour.

Entry-level coordinators/data entry clerks are responsible for helping salespeople with customer service activities, including creating estimates, sourcing products to fulfill orders, taking vendor phone calls, invoicing of materials, and serving as the accounts receivable person. Compensation is based on experience.

Non-CDL truck drivers and load builders load trucks and deliver materials to customer job sites. These associates are also responsible for building loads for deliveries; maintaining a safe, clean, and well-organized lumber yard; and loading and unloading lumber and building supplies. Hourly pay for drivers and load builders is between $13 and $14 per hour.

Espinoza added that 84 Lumber expects it might find the right fit from all types of candidates  an individual with no construction experience, military veterans ready to embark on their next career challenge, or people with some previous work experience who seek to redirect their career.

"We are a family-owned company, which means we are committed to helping our employees build and cultivate a career with us. In fact, 95% of our store managers started in our manager trainee program," Espinoza said. "As we see it, 84 Lumber recruits individuals with a can-do attitude, a willingness to work hard, and a desire to learn. Once we find these people and they join the company, we teach and train them and find ways for them to grow with us."

Candidates interested in participating in the Hiring Event are asked to pre-register. To sign up, go to 84 Lumber's Hiring Page and complete the form. Once you are registered, you will receive an email from 84 Lumber with the link to apply for the desired position. To save time, candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for positions online before they attend the event.

NOTE: 84 Lumber continues to follow CDC safety guidelines with regard to COVID-19. We ask that those attendees who are not yet fully vaccinated wear a mask and maintain social distancing.

To learn more about 84 Lumber, follow the company on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

ABOUT 84 LUMBER

Founded in 1956 and headquartered in Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, 84 Lumber Company is the nation's largest privately held supplier of building materials, manufactured components and industry-leading services for single- and multi-family residences and commercial buildings. The company operates nearly 250 stores, component manufacturing plants, custom door shops, custom millwork shops and engineered wood product centers in more than 30 states. 84 Lumber also offers turnkey installation services for a variety of products, including framing, insulation, siding, windows, roofing, decking and drywall. A certified national women's business enterprise owned by Maggie Hardy Knox, 84 Lumber was named by Forbes as one of America's Largest Private Companies in 2018 and one of America's Best Large Employers in 2019. For more information, visit 84lumber.com or join us at Facebook.com/84lumber and linkedin.com/company/84-lumber .

Contact: Jeff Donaldson, BLD Marketing

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (412) 347-8039

Photos: https://www.bldpressroom.com/84lumber/denton-hiring-event

SOURCE 84 Lumber
LONG ISLAND, N.Y., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alleviating poverty has been a central goal of China's public policy for decades. In CHASING THE CHINESE DREAM: Four Decades Of Following China's War On Poverty (published by Springer and NewChannel Education), William N. Brown, PhD, a business professor at Xiamen University, chronicles the historical, cultural and philosophical contexts that have made anti-poverty the core of Chinese society.

Drawing upon dozens of interviews with rural and urban Chinese from diverse backgrounds, as well as local and national business and political leaders, Brown offers candid insights into the challenges that have forced China to continually evolve its programs to resolve even the most intractable cases of poverty.

The book explores the historic, cultural and philosophical roots of old China's meritocratic government and how its ancient Chinese ethics have led to modern Chinese socialism's stance that poverty amidst plenty is immoral. It explains the challenges faced at each stage as China's anti-poverty measures evolved over seventy years to emphasize enablement over aid and to foster bottom-up initiative and entrepreneurialism, culminating in Xi Jinping's precision poverty alleviation.

Through stories from the interviewees, and the author's personal experience having lived in China for thirty years, the book addresses why national economic development alone cannot reduce poverty: poverty alleviation programs must be people-centered, with measurable and accountable practices that reach even to household level, which China has done with its "First Secretary" program. Brown explores the potential for adopting China's practices in other nations, including replicating China's successes in developing countries.

Brown addresses prevalent misperceptions about China's growing global presence and why other developing nations must address historic, systemic causes of poverty and inequity before they can undertake sustainable poverty alleviation measures of their own. The nation has undertaken engineering feats  projects such as the South to North Water Transfer, West to East Electric Power Project, the "Five Vertical, Seven Horizontal" Highways Project and the Three Gorges Dam as well as the world's most extensive hi-speed railway networks.

By providing a first-hand account through a Westerner's eyes of China's development into one of the world's two economic superpowers, CHASING THE CHINESE DREAM will provide leaders in business and government with insights into this much misunderstood nation.

For more information please visit https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811606533

SOURCE NewChannel Education
Emily Halpern has been promoted from Account Coordinator to Account Manager on Level Agency's B2B-2 Team. In this new role, Halpern will continue to build client relationships while also working to grow a team of Account Coordinators focused on skillfully managing every phase of the long B2B sales and marketing cycle.

"Emily is one of our rockstars when it comes to skillfully managing multiple client priorities and relationships while also carving out time to assist newer members of the team in advancing their skills," says Van Gorder. "We're confident that she'll meet the challenges of this new role head-on, and with a smile."

Abby Young will now serve as Media Manager for Level Agency's Ecommerce Team, working alongside newly minted Ecommerce Team Lead to guide client media strategy and train new members of the growing team.

"The Ecommerce Team is one of our fastest growing teams," explains Patterson. "In her time here at Level, Abby has proven herself to be resilient and tenacious  two qualities which will serve her well in the fast-paced Ecommerce world. We're excited to see her continued growth."

Dillan Nardulli has been promoted to the role Media Manager II and will bring significant media management experience to Level Agency's B2B teams. Nardulli will also be charged with helping to onboard and train Level's growing roster of Media Analysts, ensuring the Level lean marketing mindset and agency best practices are successfully passed along to the next generation of team members.

"Dillan is the perfect example of a team member who embodies our core values, specifically ownership and data-driven decisions," explains Van Gorder. "His attention to detail and respect for our client's business goals have been huge drivers in our company's success."

Ian Herzing will step into the role of Resource Manager, a new position within Level Agency. Herzing brings advanced project management knowledge and experience to the company and is an indispensable resource for agency clients and team members, alike. Herzing's focus will be on attracting and retaining top talent to facilitate agency growth. He will also continue the development of proprietary data models which will allow the agency to better forecast staffing needs and proactively onboard new employees or advance current team members to best meet the needs of clients.

"As we have continued to grow the agency and expand our team to include talent across North America, Ian's ability to operationalize best practices and ensure continuity of company culture has been incredibly valuable," explains Patterson. "We're lucky to have him on the team."

Dale Riether will step into the role of Creative Manager for one of Level Agency's B2B teams. He will also serve as the Nurturing and Automation subject matter expert within Level's Creative Center of Excellence. In this dual capacity, Riether will serve as a cross agency resource to ensure that all teams producing innovative creative deliverables for their clients.

"Any member of our team who has had a chance to work alongside Dale comes away energized and enthusiastic about the work they've created together," remarks Van Gorder. "I have no doubt that Dale, with his unique ability to push creative boundaries while also realizing the nuanced needs of each client, will shine in this new role."

About Level Agency:

Level Agency (www.level.agency) is a leading full-service digital marketing agency headquartered in Pittsburgh with employees and clients across the country. Recently ranked #190 on the Inc. 500's Fastest-Growing Private U.S. Companies and one of Pittsburgh's Best Place to Work, Level Agency delivers powerful and comprehensive online solutions including multi-channel digital marketing, search engine optimization, lead generation, website development, ROI reporting, and much more. To learn more about Level Agency, check out the weekly podcast series "Test. Learn. Grow." wherever you get your podcasts.

Contact: Patrick Patterson, Managing Partner & President

Phone: 412.956.0423

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Level Agency

Related Links

level.agency


RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AgEye Technologies, provider of AI-powered cameras, sensors and predictive analytics for indoor farming, today announced it has been selected as winner of the "Overall Sensor Solution of the Year" award in the 2021 AgTech Breakthrough Awards conducted by AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global AgTech market today. AgEye was previously the recipient of the 2020 'Indoor Farming Company of the Year' award by AgTech Breakthrough.

AgTech Breakthrough Award for AgEye

AgEye is an automation platform for vertical farms and greenhouses that monitors every plant 24/7, 365 days a year. It uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence to turn visual inputs into growth development insights and autonomous actions, improving harvest predictability and profitability.

AgEye's patented 'Plant Scientist in a Box' technology uses computer vision and machine learning to determine if a plant is reaching its development milestones as expected, as well as provides real-time detection of potential problems like plant stress, pathogens or pest issues before they are visible to the naked eye.

The Company's core technology is an artificial intelligence engine called 'Digital Cultivation,' which transforms commercial indoor grow operations into a highly efficient and controlled manufacturing process by leveraging an interconnected network of IoT sensors that have onboard intelligence via integrated NVIDIA GPUs. This industry-first enables each and every sensor to run its own complex AI models directly at the edge - eliminating information bottlenecks and ensuring quality control throughout the entire crop cycle.

"Today's indoor farming industry faces two major problems: First, experienced workers are both expensive and difficult to find, and second, critical farm data is siloed, with core systems having little-to-no interoperability with each other," said Nick Genty, CEO, AgEye Technologies. "Our platform eliminates these challenges by pulling in data from virtually every system to create unprecedented real-time visibility, which we combined with intelligent & contextually aware inferences - that result in remote management, optimum resource utilization, and autonomous, yet timely, actions. It's exciting to be recognized for the second year in a row by AgTech Breakthrough - an honor that serves as motivation in our commitment to advancing the capabilities of intelligent IoT systems for controlled environment agriculture."

The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry's most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more. This year's program attracted more than 1,500 nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.

"For years, farmers have relied on clipboards and best guesses to run large commercial operations. Even newer available IoT solutions just alert the grower of potential issues. AgEye is the equivalent of having an experienced plant scientist monitor every one of your plants 24-hours a day. The platform's self-initiated autonomous, timely actions ensure consistent harvests and minimal losses," said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of AgTech Breakthrough Awards. "AgEye is truly intelligence farming. We're so pleased to award them once again this year - this time for the 'Overall Sensor Solution of the Year' award."

About AgEye Technologies, Inc.

AgEye helps indoor farms and greenhouses achieve superior crop outputs through our patented automation platform and artificial intelligence engine. We use computer vision, deep learning neural networks and IoT-connected devices to turn visual inputs into real-time growth development insights and autonomous actions. Our technology empowers farmers to consistently deliver better crops with improved food quality, while also reducing dependency on labor. Founded in 2018, AgEye has offices in Raleigh, North Carolina (USA) and Bangalore, Karnataka (India). For more information, visit www.AgEyeTech.com.

About AgTech Breakthrough

Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in agricultural technologies, services, companies and products. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of AgTech companies and solutions in categories including farm management, indoor farming, automation, IoT and robotics, food quality, analytics and more. For more information visit AgTechBreakthrough.com.

Media Contact

Nick Genty, CEO, AgEye Technologies, Inc.

[email protected]

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AgEye Overall Sensor Solution of the Year 2021

AgTech Breakthrough Award for AgEye

SOURCE AgEye Technologies
A $5 million primary investment in Fearless Fund , a venture capital fund created by women of color for women of color. Ally and Fearless Fund executives will be working closely on a series of programs that support Black entrepreneurship and wealth growth.

primary investment in , a venture capital fund created by women of color for women of color. Ally and Fearless Fund executives will be working closely on a series of programs that support Black entrepreneurship and wealth growth. A $25 million investment in SoLa Impact's recently launched $300 million Black Impact Fund which invests exclusively in Black and Brown communities in major urban markets. SoLa Impact is the 7th fastest-growing minority-led private company and has been recognized as one of the leading urban real-estate platforms in the country.

"Black-owned businesses are the backbone of many communities throughout the country," said Diane Morais, president, Consumer and Commercial Banking at Ally Bank. "To succeed, they need capital and, when it comes to accessing that capital, we know representation matters. Our investments in Fearless Fund and the Black Impact Fund will help develop the next generation of successful Black entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders who will be writing the checks and creating the opportunities. These are important steps to building a healthier and more inclusive economy."

Recognized throughout August, National Black Business Month is devoted to supporting and celebrating Black-owned businesses across the country. Together with Fearless Fund and SoLa Impact, Ally honors that mission not only this month, but all year long by providing the funding and mentorship Black businesses need to succeed.

Ally Becomes a Primary Investor in Fearless Fund

Established in 2019, Fearless Fund invests in women of color-led businesses seeking pre-seed, seed level, or series A financing. Its mission is to bridge the gap in venture capital funding for women of color founders building scalable, growth aggressive companies.

"The statistics around how overlooked women of color founders are across all industries is staggering and our partners at Ally, especially and importantly those at the C-suite and senior management level, understand the urgency in actively providing these women with the resources needed to reach sustainable success and drive the culture towards a more diverse future," says Arian Simone, General Partner and Co-Founder of Fearless Fund. "We are incredibly grateful towards Ally for investing in our mission to provide support and backing to women of color entrepreneurs."

Ally's relationship with the Fearless Fund goes beyond its investment to include a series of cross-collaboration activities. Last April, Simone served as a judge in an Ally-sponsored VC pitch competition that marked the opening of the University Growth Fund's Atlanta office. UGF, the largest student-run equity fund in the country, expanded its operations to Atlantahome to 26,000 college and university students of colorto provide more Black and Brown students access to careers in venture capital.

In addition, Simone appeared as a featured speaker at Ally Invest's digital conference in June, discussing money tips and how individuals can become better investors by investing in themselves. Later this month, Fearless Fund will host Fearless Venture Capital Week as part of Black Business Month with Ally sponsoring a day-long focus on women entrepreneurs in VC on Friday, Aug. 27.

The Black Impact Fund & Ally

SoLa Impact's Black Impact Fund is a family of real estate-related funds with a double bottom line strategy focused on investing in Black and Brown communities in major urban markets. Black Impact Fund's unique structure aligns an Opportunity Zone fund, a non-Opportunity Zone fund, and the nonprofit Black Impact Community Fund designed to ensure community members participate in their communities' success.

"This investment from Ally is a significant step forward in enacting practical solutions that affect change and deliver sustainable social impact for Black and Brown communities," said Martin Muoto, CEO of SoLa Impact and Managing Partner of the Black Impact Fund. "Ally's investment demonstrates their deep understanding of how creating opportunities for access to affordable housing and access to capital within diverse communities fosters a stronger economic landscape for us all. We believe Ally's commitment demonstrates true leadership in diversity and inclusion among financial institutions."

About Ally Financial Inc.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a digital financial services company committed to its promise to "Do It Right" for its consumer, commercial and corporate customers. Ally is composed of an industry-leading independent auto finance and insurance operation, an award-winning digital direct bank (Ally Bank, Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender, which offers mortgage lending, point-of-sale personal lending, and a variety of deposit and other banking products), a corporate finance business for equity sponsors and middle-market companies, and securities brokerage and investment advisory services. A relentless ally for all things money, Ally helps people save well and earn well, so they can spend for what matters. For more information, please visit www.ally.com and follow @allyfinancial.

For more information and disclosures about Ally, visit https://www.ally.com/#disclosures

Contact:

Brenda Rios

[email protected]

1Baboolall, David, et al. "Building Supportive Ecosystems FOR Black-Owned US Businesses." McKinsey & Company, McKinsey & Company, 23 June 2021, www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/building-supportive-ecosystems-for-black-owned-us-businesses.

2Howard, Tiffany Ph.D. "The State of the Black in America: Evaluating the Relationship Between Immigration and Minority Business Ownership." Congressional Black Caucus, April 2019, https://www.cbcfinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CPAR-Report-Black-Entrepreneurship-in-America.pdf

SOURCE Ally Financial

Related Links

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Acquisition of the MedEd management software company advances Altus' vision of helping academic programs identify, select, and nurture all students to become exceptional professionals.

TORONTO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Altus Assessments is pleased to announce the acquisition of One45 and its MedEd software platform which, combined with Altus' research-backed admissions assessments, provides medical schools with the operational tools and end-to-end data analytics they need to run great programs and train better doctors. With Altus' footprint across health professions and higher education, now even more academic programs will gain meaningful insights on their students to support them across their entire journey, from recruitment, through admissions and training, until graduation.

"This is a major step forward for us in building a world served by exceptional professionals," says Rich Emrich, CEO of Altus Assessments. "The combination of these powerful tools will help programs address the learner's entire journey and empower students in their professional development as they pursue their dreams."

"We're proud of what we've built at One45 and the ways in which we've been helping MedEd programs continuously improve their training and student support," adds Brian Clare, CEO of One45. "Joining Altus gives us a meaningful opportunity to be there for programs and learners right from Day 1."

Medical schools usually pull information manually from up to 30 different sources , making it difficult to assess applicants reliably, monitor student performance, and improve their own programs and learner supports. Currently, the average acceptance rate for U.S. medical schools is less than 7 percent , while drop-out rates range anywhere from 7 percent to 35 percent depending on the length and type of program as well as students' personal challenges. Issues of professionalism also make up the vast majority of disciplinary actions imposed by medical boards in the US.

As a unified company, Altus will help medical programs overcome these challenges by providing reliable and validated methods for identifying, selecting, and nurturing exceptional learners, including:

research-backed admissions and formative in-program assessments;

near real-time data on student performance that enable earlier and impactful interventions;

medical education program management, including academic and clinical placement scheduling, curriculum mapping, and student assessment; and,

a robust data warehouse and insights platform where contextualized longitudinal data can drive curriculum improvement and facilitate data gathering to make accreditation easier.

For learners, Altus will offer a fair and standardized opportunity to stand out during the admissions process through its suite of assessments. As they enter training, Altus will continue supporting learners' professional development with formative assessments and insights that help them understand what areas to improve as they pursue their dream.

Updata Partners and CIBC Innovation Banking provided financing for the transaction, while CIBC Mid-Market Investment Banking acted as exclusive financial advisor to One45.

About Altus Assessments:

Altus empowers higher education institutions to look beyond book smarts, and to identify and nurture exceptional professionals by using unique data to generate meaningful insights that influence key academic decisions. We do this through Altus Suite, made up of Casper, Snapshot, and Duet  assessments that provide a clearer, more holistic view of applicants, as well as formative assessments that support the development of in-program learners into exceptional professionals. Our assessments are used by over 400 academic partners in the US, Canada, Australia (and growing!) with 200,000+ applicants taking our assessments each year, including 90% of Canadian and US medical school applicants. We also host the Admissions Summit, an annual 3-day conference, and power the Alo Grant, an annual $100,000 research fund. Learn more at altusassessments.com.

About One45:

One45 has grown from an evaluation-only system to a MedEd management platform that powers the unique operations, data collection, and reporting needs of over 100 medical schools worldwide. Its analytics offering provides medical schools with deep insights into program, cohort, and individual student performance. At its core is a data warehouse engine that allows medical schools to seamlessly integrate and centralize MedEd data sets in near real-time. One45 helps medical schools streamline day-to-day operational details and provides easy access to the data required to optimize programs and student performance.

SOURCE Altus Assessments Inc.

Related Links

www.altusassessments.com


CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IFS, the global cloud enterprise applications company, today announced that American Residential Services (ARS/Rescue Rooter), the nation's largest provider of 24/7 residential heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and plumbing services, will implement IFS software to improve its workforce scheduling, customer experience and profitability. The IFS solution, deployed in the cloud, will play a key role in optimizing workforce productivity, ensuring both technicians and parts are delivered in the right time and place quickly and efficiently, through advanced capacity planning, scheduling, and deployment features.

The new solution will improve personnel scalability, customer service and satisfaction, and first-time fix rates-all of which were difficult to achieve through previous legacy systems. ARS/Rescue Rooter is working towards a cloud-based operating model which, once the solution is fully implemented, will support 5,800 users in 70 branches across 24 states.

ARS/Rescue Rooter delivers its services to homes and light commercial businesses and has previously relied on manual technician and work order scheduling methods integrated together using a combination of knowledge, reporting and Microsoft Power BI tools rather than housed in a single solution. Now, powerful automated algorithms within IFS's solution will enable it to optimize crucial moments of service for its customers. Work orders will be automatically routed to ensure technicians get to jobs quickly so back-office support staff, who receive 90% of requests via calls, can focus on emergency service accommodations and other exception-based work.

Cindy Jaudon, Regional President for the Americas at IFS, commented: "Our message to ARS/Rescue Rooter was that optimization is embedded within IFS software. IFS is constantly evaluating the schedule with one eye fixed on innovation. This solution truly decreases the need for dispatcher intervention, with reduced travel times and no-shows." She added: "For delivering those crucial moments of service to its customers, IFS will be an essential organizational tool and we can't wait to see ARS/Rescue Rooter reap the benefits."

"ARS/Rescue Rooter is a growing company providing 24/7 essential service support for our customers and getting it right the first time is paramount to our success. We selected IFS because they engaged with us from the beginning to really understand our current challenges, but also our long-term business objectives. With their laser focus on service, paired with their proven expertise in the field service management space, IFS was able to provide the completeness of solution and the scalability to deliver. The ability to automate the scheduling and dispatch of our in-house technicians will save us time, meaning we can focus on continuing to deliver exceptional customer experiences," explained Kevin Worley, Chief Information Officer at ARS/Rescue Rooter. "With the help of IFS's cloud solution, we can optimize the scheduling process, improving efficiency while reducing additional truck rolls and operating expenses. We are very excited about the partnership with IFS."

CONTACT:

Solomiya Kavyuk, IFS Marketing Communications Specialist, North America. Phone: 1 (262) 717 6696, s[email protected]

Jennifer Q. Hughes, Director, Communications, ARS/Rescue Rooter. Phone: 1 901-271-9878, [email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Public/855/3395724/96b9640079b113fc_org.jpg ars logo https://mb.cision.com/Public/855/3395724/81839899b5e73369_org.png ARS Van

SOURCE IFS
ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Last week, the American Waterways Operators' ("AWO") Tankering & Barge Operations Subcommittee presented AWO affiliate member Arcosa Marine Products, Inc. ("Arcosa Marine") with the subcommittee's second annual safety award. Arcosa received this award for the design and construction of its new ARC-TB-30K (30K Clean Tank Barge), the goal of which is to enhance personnel safety and environmental protection through physical barge improvements and a new technology platform.

The award was presented during AWO's Summer Safety Committees' meeting in Chicago by the Subcommittee's chairman, Team Services, LLC, CEO Jim Fletcher, to Arcosa Marine's Executive Vice President Neal Langdon.

Antonio Carrillo, President and CEO of Arcosa, Inc. said, "In our effort to further advance the integration of innovation and safety into the products we manufacture, I challenged our Marine group to build a tank barge with improved safety and remote monitoring features to better serve our customers. I am proud of this safety award from AWO, which demonstrates that our team met the challenge and is a driving force for innovation in the tank barge industry."

Kerry Cole, Group President at Arcosa, who has direct oversight of Arcosa Marine, stated, "I want to thank the AWO Tankering and Barge Subcommittee for choosing Arcosa Marine for the 2nd Annual Safety Award. We place safety and environmental sustainability at the top of our list in all that we do and plan to continue building on our successful efforts leading innovation for industry. Our entire team of professionals, from those involved at inception of this barge to the craftsmen who built it, all did a great job and should be commended."

AWO President & CEO Jennifer Carpenter stated: "Arcosa Marine is highly deserving of this award and has exemplified leadership, innovation, and commitment to safety with its new ARC-TB-30K construction and technology. The Tankering & Barge Operations Subcommittee continues to do great work to raise awareness and improve safety for maritime personnel and AWO is proud of the advances both the Subcommittee and our members like Arcosa are making in this area."

Other nominees included Canal Terminal Company, nominated for soliciting feedback from tankering personnel following each transfer occurrence in order to identify opportunities for improvement at their respective docks; Energy Transfer Marine Group, nominated for efforts to proactively improve mooring arrangements, access/egress concerns and other safety issues; Genesis Marine, nominated for enhancing fall overboard prevention by developing practicable and functional solutions; and Kirby Inland Marine, nominated for enhancing fall overboard prevention by developing practicable and functional fall overboard prevention solutions.

The first annual Subcommittee on Tankering & Barge Operations safety award was presented last year to AWO affiliate member CITGO Petroleum Corporation's Lake Charles, LA. Marine Department and facility.

About American Waterways Operators:

The American Waterways Operators is the national trade association representing the tugboat, towboat and barge industry, which operates on the rivers, the Great Lakes, and along the coasts and in the harbors of the United States. Barge transportation serves the nation as the safest, most environmentally friendly and most economical mode of freight transportation. www.americanwaterways.com

About Arcosa Marine Products, Inc.:

Arcosa Marine Products, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of barges used to transport cargo on U.S. inland waterways. Arcosa Marine Products manufactures dry cargo barges, including flat-deck and hopper barges, that are used to transport a variety of products including grain, coal, and aggregates. Arcosa Marine Products also manufactures tank barges that carry petroleum, fertilizer, ethanol, chemicals, and other liquid cargoes. It is the largest U.S. manufacturer of fiberglass hopper barge covers used primarily on grain barges. Under the brand name NABRICO and WINTECH, Arcosa Marine Products provides a full line of deck hardware to the marine industry, including hatches, castings, and winches for towboats and dock facilities. www.arcosamarine.com

SOURCE American Waterways Operators

Related Links

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GUILDFORD, United Kingdom, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IDBS, a leading R&D technology and solutions provider and Tableau, the world's leading analytics platform, announced a strategic partnership to integrate Tableau into the IDBS suite of products. The collaboration will be based on embedding Tableau's visual and analytics capabilities into the IDBS product offerings.

This partnership will leverage the Tableau analytics platform to fully utilize the power of the scientific data and information managed by IDBS products. It will empower our customers with an integrated, interactive, and visual experience that facilitates the adoption of the rapidly expanding landscape of novel and advanced analytics applications that IDBS is providing. Together, both companies will be embarking on a drive to further the awareness and best use cases of the collaboration to a wide range of customers. With this partnership, IDBS customers, regardless of their expertise, will now be able to do advanced visual analytics and derive insights facilitated by the intuitive interface of Tableau that hides the technologies and algorithmic complexities by providing visuals that anyone can use. This is a major step into data democratization and self-service analytics.

"Tableau is committed to not only helping people see and understand data, but also making data available everywhere our customers need it, in the context of where they are," said Pete Chizlett RVP, Tableau Embedded Analytics and OEM at Tableau. "By partnering with IDBS and having Tableau embedded in its products, we're providing researchers the tools they need, within their workflow, to accelerate the development of new, transformative therapies."

Alberto Pascual, Director, Data science and Analytics at IDBS, added, "With the power of Tableau supporting our data science engine, we will be able to bring a new wave of data intelligence to our customers. Tableau is a clear leader in Visual Analytics that provides the perfect complement to IDBS digital solutions. Together we will create a unique combined Scientific Analytics platform that will primarily benefit our user community. We believe this association will have a wide-ranging impact, accelerating the digital transformation in our industry.

Learn more at https://www.idbs.com/2021/08/tableau-partnership/

About IDBS

IDBS helps research and development (R&D) teams around the world make discoveries that have the potential to transform the lives of populations worldwide. Our diverse customer list includes 22 of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies, and other R&D-driven organizations in biotechnology, agricultural sciences, chemicals, consumer goods, energy, food and beverage, and healthcare serving over 50,000 researchers in 25 countries. IDBS helps provide the foundation for a portfolio of life sciences informatics and knowledge management solutions that accelerate the speed of discovering, developing, and producing new drugs and therapies. To learn more, please visit

www.idbs.com .

For further enquiries reach out to [email protected]

SOURCE IDBS

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SAN MATEO, Calif. and LONDON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Freshworks Inc. , a leading software company empowering businesses to delight their customers and employees, today unveiled survey findings that reveal the complexity and contradiction of consumer expectations. With just 14% of customers expecting to be wowed by brands today, the survey findings underscore a major opportunity for companies to exceed expectations in delighting their customers. A majority (77%) of consumers are willing to exchange information for a more personalized, faster and values-driven experience.

"Customers rule the world, and many of them have shown empathy by adjusting expectations for companies over the trials and tribulations of the pandemic," said Stacey Epstein, Chief Marketing Officer at Freshworks. "We are seeing now that many will exchange information about everything from personal values to salary information for personalized service that improves their experience. The takeaway for companies is that they can no longer separate their product from the customer experience; instead, it is a business imperative for companies to make it easy to delight their customers through thoughtful, easy and speedy interactions that reflect customer values."

Low customer expectations for delight offer a big business opportunity

Across the world, consumers revealed surprisingly low expectations for the quality of their customer experiences with companies--confirming that many legacy systems used for customer engagement are broken and ripe for a fresh approach.

Companies have set a low bar. Just 14% of consumers expect to be wowed by a company, and only 14% expect personalization.

Just 14% of consumers expect to be wowed by a company, and only 14% expect personalization. Don't believe the hype. Fifty-six percent of consumers said a brand's customer service often does not match the image they portray.

Consumers expect brands to understand their personal values

With social justice and sustainability discussions dominating global news, people increasingly are identifying with brands based on causes they care about. Sixty-three percent of consumers expect brands to consider their personal values when communicating and will exchange personal information for a better experience.

Get real. Eighty percent of global consumers want more honesty from brands and two-thirds (67%) seek more empathy.

Eighty percent of global consumers want more honesty from brands and two-thirds (67%) seek more empathy. Exchange for experience. While 23% consumers won't share personal information to improve their customer service interactions, the rest are willing to share a range of data in exchange for a better experience, including relationship information (25%), browsing/purchasing data (24%), values they care about (21%), and salary (10%).

Complicated consumers require various communication options

Consumer attitudes toward engaging with companies are complicated and seemingly paradoxical at times. While most seek the human touch, many consumers would rather work with automated technologies. Companies must offer a range of communications channels to meet differing and ever-changing consumer preferences.

Consumers don't always add up. While 71% consumers would rather speak with a person than use self-service technologies, 39% would rather go the self-service route than have to speak to a company using any other channel.

While 71% consumers would rather speak with a person than use self-service technologies, 39% would rather go the self-service route than have to speak to a company using any other channel. Call me maybe. One in four (26%) don't enjoy communicating with companies at all, while nearly half (49%) want to hear more from them.

One in four (26%) don't enjoy communicating with companies at all, while nearly half (49%) want to hear more from them. The demise of email has been greatly exaggerated. Email ranked highest for making a complaint (31%), tracking an order (28%), providing feedback (24%) and product information/support (22%).

Download the report titled, "Deconstructing Delight: Understanding the Complexity of Consumer Expectations."

Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service said, "For businesses looking to develop deeper, more personal connections with their customers, they should take consumer values into consideration in their approach to communication. Our own research supports these findings from Freshworks, with many customers now paying much closer attention to brands' ethics and approach to sustainability. The proportion of customers willing to pay more for better service is increasing, and there is a strong link between a better customer experience, greater customer loyalty and long-term business performance."

Methodology

Opinium, on behalf of Freshworks, surveyed 11,502 global adults aged 18+, from Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Statistics were collected from 1st-7th June 2021.

About Freshworks

Freshworks makes it fast and easy for businesses to delight their customers and employees. We do this by taking a fresh approach to building and delivering software that is affordable, quick to implement, and designed for the end user. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks has a dedicated team operating from 13 global locations to serve 50,000+ customers including Bridgestone, Chargebee, DeliveryHero, ITV, Klarna, Multichoice, OfficeMax, TaylorMade and Vice Media. For more information visit www.freshworks.com.

 2021 Freshworks Inc. All rights reserved. Freshworks and the associated logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Freshworks Inc. All other company, brand and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Freshworks
NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of: (a) purchasers of the securities of ATI Physical Therapy, Inc. f/k/a Fortress Value Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: ATIP) between April 1, 2021 and July 23, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"); and/or (b) investors who held Fortress Value Acquisition Corp. II ("FVAC") Class A common stock as of May 24, 2021 and were eligible to vote at FVAC's June 15, 2021 special meeting. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 15, 2021.

SO WHAT: If you purchased ATI securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the ATI class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2132.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 15, 2021. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) ATI was experiencing attrition among its physical therapists; (2) ATI faced increasing competition for clinicians in the labor market; (3) as a result of the foregoing, ATI faced difficulties retaining therapists and incurred increased labor costs; (4) as a result of the labor shortage, ATI would open fewer new clinics; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

To join the ATI class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2132.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

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DUBAI, UAE, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviv Clinics is excited to offer a treatment plan to help ease Fibromyalgia patients' pain. Recent studies have proved that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) treatment is successful for those suffering from Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS). FMS is a long-term condition causing extreme pain throughout the entire body. There is no known cause for FMS or explanation of why people struggle with this syndrome. It has been documented that there may be a link between emotional stress, brain injury, or viral disease in those suffering with FMS.

Aviv's unique medical goal is to first heal the damaged brain tissue which causes the pain felt by FMS patients throughout their entire bodies. There is currently no exact treatment for those suffering with Fibromyalgia . Aviv offers hope to FMS patients with a treatment that shows promising results.

As part of Aviv Clinics advanced treatment program, all regimens are personalized to best fit the patient and their particular needs. The Aviv Clinics team first diagnoses the severity of the damaged brain tissue using state of the art testing. The Aviv medical team then designs a suitable individualized treatment plan by using both physical and neurological tests. Their highly trained staff advises each patient on the HBOT treatment plan created for them.

Clinical studies found that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) greatly improves the symptoms of Fibromyalgia including pain, sleeplessness and cognitive dysfunction. There are substantial benefits both at the cellular level, the mind, and the body when using HBOT treatment for FMS pain management. Aviv's Medical Program focuses on the benefits of HBOT for improved brain function which directly translates to improving patients' overall health and their ultimate goal of a happier life.

For more information, please contact us:

Within UAE: 800-2848 (AVIV)

Outside UAE: +971 (0)4 437 1000

[email protected]

SOURCE Aviv Clinics

Related Links

https://aviv-clinics.ae


BOSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Lexia Learning, a Cambium Learning Group company, shared findings from a survey of 1,000 parents and teachers on perspectives for the upcoming school year. In it, they found that the pandemic-created learning gap poses a major concern, yet parents and teachers differ on when and whether the learning gap can be closed.

The survey found that the majority of parents and teachers anticipate that overcoming learning loss caused by the pandemic will be the biggest hurdle in the 2021-2022 school year (48% and 58%, respectively). The majority of parents and teachers (79%) also believe that children are about half a school year or more behind in learning.

When it comes to academic recovery efforts, 77% of parents are confident that their child's school will be able to close the learning gap  however, only 56% of teachers are confident they will be able to do so, and 31% are unsure. Parents in lower income brackets express much lower confidence levels in schools' abilities to close the learning gap versus parents in higher income brackets. Parents and teachers disagree on how long it will take to close the learning gap, with most parents (34%) believing it will take 3-6 months and most teachers (28%) believing it will take 6-9 months.

The survey also explored how teachers are planning to use technology after a year of accelerated digital transformation in schools. It found that 72% of teachers anticipate using technology either the same amount or more in the upcoming year compared to pre-pandemic use. However, less than a third of teachers believe they "definitely" have the technology necessary to accelerate learning in the 2021-2022 school year.

"At Lexia, we had heard from educators that they were concerned for students' preparedness for grade-level content, with many expressing uncertainty that they would be able to find enough time to balance remediation with grade-level instruction," said Nick Gaehde, President, Lexia Learning. "This upcoming school year will require patience, ongoing instruction and assessment and improved technology to help students overcome the impact of the past 1.5 years of interrupted learning."

Other survey findings include:

91% of respondents living in an urban area believe that a learning gap has occurred, compared to 81% of those living in a rural area. Rural parents are also more likely to believe that their child did not experience any learning gap (17%), compared to parents in other communities.

According to teachers, students who have the least amount of learning loss can be attributed to parents who were able to dedicate time to children's learning during the pandemic (72%).

Elementary school teachers are predominantly optimistic about learning recovery (55%); however middle school teachers rank worry and skepticism (40% each) before optimism (38%). Middle school teachers are also the most likely teacher group to cite overcoming stress and fatigue (59%) as one of the biggest hurdles they anticipate in the 2021-2022 school year.

When it comes to resources for closing the learning gap, 54% of teachers say traditional resources such as tutoring or study groups would help them feel better equipped, followed by online resources that offer personalized learning opportunities and real-time learning performance data and assessment tools (48% and 47% respectively).

In addition to overcoming learning loss, half of surveyed teachers cite overcoming stress and fatigue, followed by integrating back into the classroom (49%) and determining where students should be performing academically (47%) as their biggest hurdles this school year.

Methodology

Lexia Learning surveyed 500 parents of children aged 3-18 and 500 U.S. teachers who teach preschool, elementary school, middle school or high school in July 2021. The survey was fielded using the Qualtrics Insight Platform, and the panel was sourced from Lucid.

About Lexia Learning

Lexia Learning, a Cambium Learning Group company, is the structured literacy expert. For over 35 years, the company has focused solely on literacy, and today, provides a full spectrum of solutions for both students and teachers. With robust offerings for differentiated instruction, personalized learning, assessment, and professional learning, Lexia helps more learners read, write, and speak with confidence. For more information, visit http://www.lexialearning.com/ .

About Cambium Learning Group

Cambium Learning Group is the education essentials company, providing award-winning education technology and services for K-12 markets. With an intentionally curated portfolio of respected global brands, Cambium serves as a leader in the education space, helping millions of educators and students feel more universally valued every day. In everything it does, the company focuses on the elements that are most essential to the success of education, delivering simpler, more certain solutions that make a meaningful difference right now. To learn more, visit http://www.cambiumlearning.com/ or follow Cambium on Facebook , LinkedIn , Twitter , and Medium . The Cambium family of companies includes: Cambium Assessment, Lexia Learning, Learning A-Z, Voyager Sopris Learning, ExploreLearning, Time4Learning, and Kurzweil Education.

Media Contact: Kristin Monroe

Allison+Partners

[email protected]

SOURCE Lexia Learning
We are on the cusp of a future where financial products are seamless and integrated into the services people use daily. Tweet this

As part of the launch, Squire announced its partnership with Bond. Bond's platform enables any organization to elegantly and invisibly deliver personalized financial services to their customers and communities, including digital deposit accounts, virtual and physical debit and credit cards, and money movement.

Squire selected Bond to create its fintech solutions because of Bond's highly compliant and scalable architecture, deep bench of domain experts, and white-glove approach to building the product. By partnering with Bond, Squire was able to introduce the new card in a few months, compared with 18-24 months had they built it directly with a bank themselves.

"The Squire Card transforms our ability to serve our community of barbers," said Songe LaRon, CEO and Co-founder of Squire. "We can lower their costs, cut their fees, and save them time  plus give them rewards and drive loyalty for using our card."

Future plans for Squire's app involve customer relationship software, credit cards, loans, and insurance. Through Bond, Squire can launch its credit card and loan products, as well as any future financial products Squire decides to offer customers.

"Fintech is the next natural step for Squire," says Dave Salvant, President and Co-founder of Squire. "We already have deep insights into our customers and know they need more and better financial services, services that are tailored to them and their specific needs."

"We are on the cusp of a future where financial products are seamless and integrated into the services people use every day," added Roy Ng, CEO and Co-founder of Bond. A new report from Plaid and Accenture revealed that nearly half (47%) of 1,000 non-financial company leaders surveyed are investing in and planning to launch embedded finance offerings in the near future. Ng further added, "This future will benefit the consumer immensely, especially for those not well addressed by the current financial system. We will be able to reach corners of the population that were not well served by traditional financial services."

About Squire Technologies

Founded in 2015, Squire Technologies provides a robust, fully integrated software system for Barbershops and men's salons. This software has the capability to serve independent professionals, stand-alone locations, and multi-location franchises, with tools such as Point of Sale, Scheduling, Payroll, CRM, and a host of other features. Squire has offices in New York City and Buffalo, NY, and maintains operations in 35 major cities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Squire is a Y Combinator-backed company and is a 43North award recipient. For more information, visit http://www.getsquire.com .

About Bond

Bond is a financial technology company that enables organizations from any industry to create personalized financial experiences for their customers and communities. Using Bond's software and API platform, developers can embed next-generation financial products into amazing customer experiences. Bond's modern, enterprise-grade developer platform orchestrates the critical infrastructure companies need to build, launch and scale these personalized financial products. Bond was founded in 2019 by industry veterans from Twilio, SoFi, SAP, Goldman Sachs, and Blackrock, with deep roots in enterprise software, technology, and financial services. The company has raised $42M in funding to date from institutional investors including Canaan, Coatue, Goldman Sachs, and Mastercard, and maintains key offices in San Francisco (HQ), New York City, and Salt Lake City. Visit http://www.bond.tech to learn more.

Media Contacts

Brian Chevalier-Jordan, Bond: [email protected]

Jill Reed, Sift Communications: [email protected]

SOURCE Bond Financial Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

bond.tech


SINGAPORE, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Binance , the world's leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, has today announced the appointment of Greg Monahan, former US Treasury Criminal Investigator, who joins the organization as Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer (GMLRO).

Mr. Monahan has nearly 30 years of credited government service, a majority of which as a US Treasury Criminal Investigator, responsible for tax, money laundering and other related financial crime investigations. He has led complex international investigations that have resulted in the takedown of some of the most prolific cybercriminals, nation-state actors and terrorist organizations.

"Binance has a strong culture of putting their users first, from providing market-leading products to supporting high-profile investigations that help make the crypto industry a safer place," said Mr. Monahan. "My efforts will be focused on expanding Binance's international anti-money laundering (AML) and investigation programs, as well as strengthening the organization's relations with regulatory and law enforcement bodies worldwide."

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said: "We have always held Binance to the highest standard to safeguard our users' interests, and to that end we are always expanding our capabilities to make Binance and the wider industry a safe place for all participants."

"As a former US Federal Law Enforcement Investigator, Greg Monahan brings a wealth of AML and investigations experience to Binance. We're thrilled to welcome him to our team as GMLRO and we look forward to his contributions."

Karen Leong, who has held the GMLRO position since 2018, remains at Binance as Director of Compliance and continues to promote compliance efforts within the organization.

Binance has grown its international compliance team and advisory board by 500% since 2020. Notable appointments include Jonathan Farnell as Director of Compliance, former FATF executives Rick McDonell and Josee Nadeau as compliance and regulatory advisors and former US Senator Max Baucus as policy and government relations advisor.

About Binance

Binance is the world's leading blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchange by volume. Trusted by millions worldwide, the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users, and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings, including: trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralization and infrastructure solutions, and more. For more information, visit: https://www.binance.com .

SOURCE Binance

Related Links

https://www.binance.com


COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioInnovation Institute ("BII"), an international commercial foundation with a non-profit objective incubating and accelerating world-class life science research, today announces the launch of a new annual innovation award in partnership with one of the world's top academic journals, Science.

The "BII & Science Prize for Innovation" seeks to recognize bold researchers who are asking fundamental questions at the intersection of the life sciences and entrepreneurship. The prize will be awarded to scientists who can show that they have reached across field boundaries with an enthusiasm that combines outstanding basic science with an eye toward application in the marketplace.

Jens Nielsen, Chief Executive Officer at BII, commented: "In today's society, entrepreneurial scientists hold the key to unlocking new life-changing solutions. I am very proud of initiating this new prize for innovation in collaboration with Science magazine, one of the world's leading scientific journals. The new BII & Science Prize for Innovation recognizes, encourages, and celebrates the work of entrepreneurial scientists by providing support in the early stages of their careers. Through the prize, we aim to bring more ideas to life and research to market for the benefit of people and society."

Bill Moran, Publisher, Science family of journals, added: "It is important for our partners to share the same values and align with our mission to encourage more scientists to translate their research. The BioInnovation Institute Foundation (BII) is an organization that is passionate about nurturing early career researchers and providing them with the tools and knowledge to move their discoveries to the next stage. BII provides expert guidance that allows scientists to become innovators in research. This is the reason why we are proud of our prize collaboration with BII."

The award is presented for outstanding research performed by the applicant as described in a 1,000-word essay. Award winners will receive a cash prize (USD 25,000 for the winner; USD 10,000 for the two runners-up) at a grand award show celebration in Copenhagen, Denmark, and their essay submissions will be published in Science. Winners will also be invited into BII's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The selected Grand Prize winner and runner(s)-up will have an opportunity to be paired with the business development team for evaluation of their eligibility for any of the BII programs. If eligible, they will receive assistance for submission of a proposal to BII. All processes, rules, and policies related to such programs and all obligations related to selection and granting thereof are the sole responsibility of BII.

The deadline for submissions is 1 November 2021. More details, including eligibility and application procedures, can be found at www.bii.dk/scienceprize.

Successful applicants will have made significant advances in producing results that were protected as intellectual property and licensed to a commercial entityfor example, proprietary drugs and biologics, diagnostics, therapeutic interventions, health care information technology, or new solutions for biobased production of fuels, chemicals, and foods. Submissions are welcome from those who take risks to address relevant and exciting questions with creative approaches, even if the outcome may be considered a negative result. Announcement of the Award Winners will take place in April 2022.

Read more on www.bii.dk/scienceprize

About the BioInnovation Institute Foundation

The BioInnovation Institute foundation (BII) is an international commercial foundation with a nonprofit objective supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. BII operates an incubator to accelerate world-class life science innovation that drives the development of new solutions by early life science start-ups for the benefit of people and society.

BII, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, offers start-ups and early-stage projects within health tech, therapeutics, and bioindustrials state-of-the-art labs, vibrant office facilities, business development, start-up business incubation, access to high-level mentoring and international networks, plus unique funding opportunities of up to 1.3 million euro per start-up and 2.4 million euro per project.

Since the inauguration of BII in November 2018, BII has awarded 35 million euros to 68 high-growth start-up companies. Read more on www.bioinnovationinstitute.com

About Science / AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science)

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journals, Science, Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, Science Advances, Science Immunology, and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 254 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science, founded by Thomas Edison, has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of more than 400,000.

The non-profit AAASwww.aaas.orgis open to all and fulfils its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. Science's daily online news is always free to the public, as are editorials, any paper with broad public health significance, and all research articles 12 months after publication. Science further participates in various efforts to provide free access for scientists in the world's poorest countries.

SOURCE BII
DETROIT, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network will pay for administration of the third "booster" dose of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine being recommended by the Biden Administration and CDC for vaccinated Americans, pending FDA authorization for the broader population. This decision includes Blue Cross and Blue Care Network fully-insured commercial plan members. Medicare is covering vaccine costs for BCBSM and BCN Medicare members. Blue Cross will encourage self-funded customers who administer their own benefits to also provide booster vaccinations at no cost to their employees.

"It is critical that we continue to have a shared effort to defeat the virus," said Daniel J. Loepp, BCBSM president and CEO. "Blue Cross wants to play our part and ensure that our members have ready access to the additional dose of the vaccine when their turn comes to receive it."

"Stopping the spread of the COVID-19 variants is imperative," said James D. Grant, M.D., BCBSM senior vice president and chief medical officer. "We cannot emphasize this strongly enough  all of our vaccinated members need to talk with their physician about when to schedule their booster. Even more important, those who still have not gotten the vaccine need to consider getting it as soon as possible. The vaccine is saving lives."

Employer groups subject to the Affordable Care Act are required to cover administration of vaccine doses. BCBSM will work with employers to guide them through applicable requirements.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit mutual insurance company, is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. BCBSM provides health benefits to more than 4.7 million members residing in Michigan in addition to employees of Michigan-headquartered companies residing outside the state. The company has been committed to delivering affordable health care products through a broad variety of plans for businesses, individuals and seniors for more than 80 years. Beyond health care coverage, BCBSM supports impactful community initiatives and provides leadership in improving health care. For more information, visit bcbsm.com and MiBluesPerspectives.com.

SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine revealed that Botkeeper is on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses.

"Botkeeper is honored and excited to have made the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies list again this year" said Enrico Palmerino, CEO at Botkeeper. "Our team has been dedicated to the development and advancement of our machine learning technology solution that will save accounting firms time through implementing automation to transform their firms."

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this year's list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020's unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000 .

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million.

About Botkeeper

Botkeeper is a leading automated bookkeeping solution that provides accounting firms and their clients a powerful combination of skilled accountants, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The various packages provide full-suite bookkeeping & pre-accounting solutions, a consolidated platform consisting of tools to optimize firm processes, and the highest quality support, all designed to meet our clients' unique needs at any stage of growth. Accounting firms running on Botkeeper are able to grow their book of business, diversify their service offering, increase capacity, and reduce stress during tax timeall while improving their overhead costs. The powerful and easy-to-use solution has helped firms across the United States to maximize their potential, better serve their clients, and do more of what they love. Learn more about Botkeeper here !

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com .

Contact:

Della Copp

[email protected]

179 South St., Fl 2

Boston, MA

Ph: 800-388-3323 x7108

SOURCE Botkeeper

Related Links

botkeeper.com


As Missouri celebrates its 200 th year of becoming a state, Rolla-headquartered Brewer Science marks its 40 years of innovation. With Missouri pivoting towards the future, his speech will highlight global achievements in Missouri  especially as it relates to building out a resilient, domestic supply chain for continued microelectronics advancement. This year, Brewer Science joined the Missouri Tech Alliance and founded the American Materials Technology Partnership  two initiatives that will help further cement America's leading role in technological advancements.

"I am honored to deliver the keynote address and continue to push for strengthened technological achievements in the great state of Missouri," said Dan Brewer. "As we continue to grow microelectronics innovation in Missouri, we are thrilled to play a role in helping the United States maintain its leadership position as the technology pioneer of the world."

About Brewer Science

Brewer Science is a global leader in developing and manufacturing next-generation materials and processes that foster the technology needed for tomorrow. Since 1981, the organization expanded its technology portfolio within advanced lithography, advanced packaging, smart devices and printed electronics to enable cutting-edge microdevices and unique monitoring systems for industrial, environmental, and air applications. Brewer Science's relationship-focused approach provides outcomes that facilitate and deliver critical information. With headquarters in Rolla, Missouri, Brewer Science supports customers throughout the world. Learn more about Brewer Science at www.brewerscience.com.

SOURCE Brewer Science
CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Collaborative Robot Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis, Component, Payload (Up to 5 Kg, 5-10 Kg, and Above 10 Kg), Application (Handling, Processing), Industry (Automotive, Furniture & Equipment), and Region - Global Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Collaborative Robot Market is projected to grow from USD 1.2 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 10.5 billion by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 43.4% from 2021 to 2027. Owing to COVID-19, the collaborative robot market had to face headwinds for 20192020.

Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=194541294

The high return on investment (ROI) for collaborative robots as compared to traditional industrial robotic system has paved way for their growth in recent years. In addition to this, the benefits derived from adoption of cobots for businesses of all sizes is the key factors driving the collaborative robot market. Many SMEs and large manufacturers that have deployed collaborative robots are benefiting in terms of general competitiveness, increased production, and enhanced quality of their products.

"Cobots with payload capacity up to 5 kg expected to hold the largest share of the market during the forecast period"

Cobots with payload capacity up to 5 kg are expected to hold the largest share of the collaborative robot market during the forecast period. First-time users prefer low payload capacity cobots, which are cheaper and take up less space than robots with higher payload capacity. These cobots are often already fitted with grippers, reducing the hassle of integration and programming for the end user. Another benefit of these cobots is that they are easily re-deployable and take up minimal space when compared to higher payload cobots. Since most of the up to 5 kg payload capacity cobots are very lightweight, they are inherently safe and do not require force sensors, thereby reducing the hardware costs.

"Handling application to dominate collaborative robot market in 2021"

Handling application is expected to hold the largest share of the collaborative robot market in 2021. The handling application includes various sub-types such as material handling, machine tending as well as bin-picking which are currently booming. Handling tasks such as pick and place or palletizing are among the mundane and repetitive in nature for the human workers. Machine tending requires workers to stand for long hours beside a CNC or injection molding machine. Collaborative robots are able to automate a machine tending process during off hours without any supervision, boosting productivity. Besides, handling application has industry-wide usage in varied industries ranging from the automotive, electronics to furniture & equipment because of which is expected to register a fairly large amount of the market share in 2021.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Collaborative Robot Market"

197  Tables

61  Figures

328  Pages

Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=194541294

"Automotive industry to maintain the largest share of collaborative robot market during the forecast period"

The automotive industry is one of the largest users of collaborative robots. In automotive manufacturing, collaborative robots are used for a variety of applications such as handling, welding, assembling and disassembling, welding, dispensing extensively. Amongst these applications, welding has been one of the first and most popular applications of collaborative robots in the automotive industry. Spray painting automation is another popular application in assembly lines, mainly to protect workers from toxic fumes. Cobots provide consistency in paint application and minimize wastages. Machine tending and material removal are a few of the other applications where cobots are used. As majority of the processes involved in automotive manufacturing and assembly are automated, the automotive industry has to employ collaborative robots on a large scale, which makes it the largest demand generator for the adoption of collaborative robots.

"Collaborative robot market in APAC estimated to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period"

The collaborative robot market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. With context to the collaborative robot market, the rising costs of labor in the APAC region have caused the SME industries, in particular, to incline towards industrial adoption by integrating collaborative robots in their manufacturing processes to make the operations more efficient and cost-effective. China is at the forefront in the adoption of collaborative robots owing to the increasing demand of automation given the fact that there is a significant growth in its geriatric population in recent years. Besides, China has a significantly strong presence of automotive and electronic industries. These industries are a major demand generator for the adoption of collaborative robots. China is also aiming to become self-sufficient in the manufacture of collaborative robots. Other APAC countries such as Taiwan and Thailand are also not far behind in terms of adopting automation through the integration of cobots to seek a cost advantage, in the wake of rising labour costs. The automotive and electronics industries from the APAC region are the major demand generators for the adoption of collaborative robots.

Key players in the collaborative robot market include Universal Robots (Denmark), FANUC (Japan), ABB (Switzerland), Techman Robot (Taiwan), KUKA (Germany), Doosan Robotics (South Korea), Denso (Japan), YASKAWA (Japan), Precise Automation (US), Rethink Robotics (US), MABI Robotic (Switzerland), FrankaEmika (Germany), Comau (Italy), F&P Robotics (Switzerland), Staubli (Switzerland), Bosch Rexroth (Germany), Productive Robotics (US). Apart from these, Wyzo (Switzerland), Neura Robotics (Germany), Elephant Robotics (China), ELITE ROBOT (China), Kassow Robots (Denmark), MIP Robotics (France) are among a few emerging companies in the collaborative robot market.

Related Reports:

Industrial Robotics Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Type (Articulated, Collaborative Robots), Component, Payload, Application (Handling, Processing), Industry (Automotive, Food & Beverages), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026

Robot End Effector Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis, by Type (Electric Grippers, Vacuum Cups, Tool Changers), Robot Type, Application (Handling, Assembly, Processing), Industry (Food & Beverage, E-Commerce), and Region - Global Forecast to 2026

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Aashish Mehra

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/collaborative-robot-market.asp

Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com

Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/collaborative-robot.asp

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
DENVER, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- From coast to coast, and hundreds of cities in between, College Nannies + Sitters is putting out the call for more caregivers. College Nannies is already the largest employer of nannies and sitters in the United States, and the company is hiring to meet increasing demand.

"As parents return to the office full-time or on hybrid schedules, their need for care solutions is growing, and we want to help," says Joe Loch, Brand President of College Nannies + Sitters. "We are looking for passionate people to join our care team so we can provide families with much-needed support."

College Nannies is hosting a series of national virtual career fairs with the next one happening on August 25th. Anyone who loves working with children is encouraged to upload their resume and meet with their local office at collegenanniesandsitters.easyvirtualfair.com .

"Whether someone brings experience as a camp counselor, neighborhood babysitter, education major or a lifetime of experience as a caregiver, joining our team rounds out their work experience and lets their skills shine  all while making a difference for children and families," says Laura Davis, Franchise Owner for College Nannies + Sitters.

All of College Nannies' locations across 30 states have immediate full-time and part-time positions available. Caregivers are employees of College Nannies and receive a consistent paycheck, supportive management team and professional development opportunities. Families are fully vetted for a safe work environment.

The virtual career fairs will be held on August 25th and September 29th from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time. Advance registration is recommended but not required.

For more information or to arrange interviews about the virtual career fairs, please contact Allison Ortiz at [email protected] or 612.924.3788.

About College Nannies + Sitters:

With over 180 territories in 30 states, College Nannies + Sitters is the nation's most respected, complete and professional resource helping busy families raise smart, confident, well-adjusted kids. Since 2001, local professional teams across the country have helped thousands of busy parents carve out time for themselves with a sitter or have help on hand with a part-time or full-time nanny. College Nannies is a wholly owned subsidiary in the Bright Horizons Family of Childcare Solutions and is ranked as one of the top 100 on Glassdoor's Best Places to Work 2020 . For more information, visit: Collegenanniesandsitters.com .

Media Contact: Allison Ortiz

612.924.3788

[email protected]

Collegenanniesandsitters.com

SOURCE College Nannies + Sitters
BATON ROUGE, La., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Coffee, the nation's No. 1 family-owned retail coffee brand, kicks off the 2021-22 school year with its Community Cash for Schools program, now in its 33rd year, with the opportunity to turn Community Coffee purchases into funds for local schools.

Parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends can participate in the program by simply clipping proofs of purchase from Community products and turning them in to their local school. Each proof of purchase is worth 10 cents, which adds up fast  the program has donated nearly $8 million so far.

"The Community Cash for Schools program was developed 33 years ago with the purpose of helping children and communities thrive," said David Belanger, Community Coffee president and CEO. "What makes the program particularly exciting is that participating schools choose how to spend their funds on the items they need most."

With Community Cash for Schools funding, schools have purchased everything from computers to textbooks to playground equipment  even a natural bird sanctuary for a science class.

The Community Cash for Schools program is open to all state-licensed schools from pre-K through 12th grade. Schools that are not registered to participate can enroll here to start earning cash .

Community coffee products are available at select grocers, mass and other retailers nationwide, as well as online at www.communitycoffee.com.

About Community Coffee

Community Coffee Company, an importer, roaster and distributor of high-quality premium coffees, is the largest family-owned and -operated retail coffee brand in America. Founded in 1919 by "Cap" Saurage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and run by four generations of the Saurage family, the company works directly with farmers around the world to hand-select exceptional coffee beans that create its whole bean, ground, single-serve and ready-to-drink products. Community Coffee is sold in retail stores and online and served in restaurants, hotels and various businesses across the country. Known as the Coffee with Heart, Community Coffee gives back to those who help communities thrive through programs such as Cash for Schools and Military Match, and by partnering with nonprofit organizations to promote sustainability for coffee farmers and their families. For more information, visit CommunityCoffee.com or find the brand on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Media Contact:

Ashley Bain

[email protected]

817-329-3257

SOURCE Community Coffee Company

Related Links

http://www.communitycoffee.com


DALLAS, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine today revealed that Compass Datacenters is No. 1,193 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

"We have an incredible team at Compass Datacenters that is building the digital infrastructure that serves as the foundation for the global economy," said Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters. "The culture we've nurtured here is very special. It has attracted the smartest, most creative team in the data center industry, and it allows them to be ambitious in finding holistically-sustainable, more efficient, better ways to build the facilities that power all of the applications that companies and consumers depend on each day. I'm lucky to work with this team every day, and this second consecutive appearance in the Inc. 5000 is a recognition of the amazing work of everyone here at Compass."

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this year's list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020's unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 20.

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this year's Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/.

About Compass Datacenters

Compass makes lives better by providing the world's technology leaders a secure place to plug in wherever they grow. We provide custom, move-in ready data centers from edge deployments to core facilities serving hyperscale, cloud and enterprise customers. Since our inception, we have embraced sustainability with the efficient use of land, green energy, water free cooling and building materials. Our campus approach empowers customers with easily-scalable capacity, high levels of control and ultimate flexibility with the long-term perspective and financial strength of private investors, RedBird Capital Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the Azrieli Group. For more information, visit www.compassdatacenters.com.

SOURCE Compass Datacenters

Related Links

http://www.compassdatacenters.com


JERSEY CITY, N.J., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Verified Market Research recently published a report, "Critical Infrastructure Protection Market" By Component (Security Technologies and Services), By Solution (Physical Safety and Security, Cybersecurity), By Vertical (Financial Institutions, Defence, Energy and Power), and By Geography. According to Verified Market Research, the Global Critical Infrastructure Protection Market size was valued at USD 151.47 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 249.60 Billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 7.40% from 2021 to 2028.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=2659

Browse in-depth TOC on "Critical Infrastructure Protection Market"

202 - Pages

126  Tables

37  Figures

Global Critical Infrastructure Protection Market Overview

Disruptions in the electricity system, manufacturing, information technology, and transportation have a significant influence on a country's economic stability, national security, safety, and health. Several governments have enacted federal laws and regulations to develop cybersecurity requirements for critical infrastructure protection. President Donald Trump directed the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to discover weaknesses in the country's critical infrastructure on November 16, 2018. The CISA recently launched 55 important functions to control physical damages, disrupted operations, and intellectual property violations. To build secure infrastructure systems, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has collaborated with business sector partners. The US government also maintains tight ties with private sector corporations, as private enterprises own and run 85 percent of essential infrastructure.

Public Safety Canada, a cybersecurity group, has worked with key stakeholders to improve the security and resilience of important assets such as food supply, energy and utilities, public safety systems, and information and communications technology (ICT).The Australian Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 maintains a register of critical infrastructure assets to manage risks associated with Australia's critical infrastructure in collaboration with the government, regulators, and critical infrastructure operators.

Governments around the world have established regulations and associations, such as the US DHS, the Department of Defence Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process (DIACAP), the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), and the European Commission's Critical Infrastructure Warning Information Network (CIWIN).Public Safety Canada's National Strategy and Action Plan to maintain and enforce reliability requirements and national security across the country's critical infrastructure. These organisations contribute to the increased security and resilience of physical and cyber infrastructure. Government across regions also provide incentives to corporations, such as cybersecurity insurance, subsidies, and tax breaks, to encourage them to engage in critical infrastructure protection. As a result, some governments are implementing regulatory compliances to protect data from cyberattacks, increasing the adoption of CIP solutions.

Key Developments in Critical Infrastructure Protection Market

In May 2021 , BAE Systems will provide receiver modules that will allow the military to use a jam-resistant GPS signal known as M-code or military code. The modules would be employed in the construction of military-grade GPS receivers for precision-guided bombs and portable devices.

The major players in the market are BAE Systems (UK), Lockheed Martin (US), General Dynamics (US), Northrop Grumman (US), Honeywell (US), Airbus (France), Raytheon (US), Thales (France), Hexagon AB (Sweden), Johnson Controls (US).

Verified Market Research has segmented the Global Critical Infrastructure Protection Market On the basis of Component, Solution, Vertical, and Geography.

Critical Infrastructure Protection Market, By Component

Security technology



Services

Critical Infrastructure Protection Market, By Solution

Physical Safety and Security



Physical Identity and Access Control Systems





Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems





Video Surveillance Systems





Screening and Scanning





Others



Cybersecurity



Encryption





Network Access Controls and Firewalls





Physical safety and security will have the largest market size by solution over the forecast period, Threat Intelligence





Other Cybersecurity Solutions

Critical Infrastructure Protection Market, By Vertical

Financial Institutions



Defence



Commercial Sector



Transport and Logistics



Energy and Power



Telecom



Chemical and Manufacturing



Other Verticals

Critical Infrastructure Protection Market by Geography

North America



U.S





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





France





U.K





Rest of Europe



Asia Pacific



China





Japan





India





Rest of Asia Pacific



ROW



Middle East & Africa

&



Latin America

Browse Related Reports:

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Security And Vulnerability Management Market By Vertical (Retail, IT and Telecom, Government and Defense, BFSI, and Others), By Component (Solution and Service), By Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027

Database Security Market By Component(Software, Services), By Business Function(Marketing, Sales, Finance, Operations), By Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027

Security Monitoring System Market By System (NVR Monitoring System, DVR Monitoring System), By Application (Residential Use, Commercial Use, Industrial Use), By Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027

Top 9 private security companies in the world: Future of security

Visualize Critical Infrastructure Protection Market using Verified Market Intelligence:-:

Verified Market Intelligence is our BI Enabled Platform for narrative storytelling of this market. VMI offers in-depth forecasted trends and accurate Insights on over 20,000+ emerging & niche markets, helping you make critical revenue impacting decisions for a brilliant future.

VMI provides a holistic overview and global competitive landscape with respect to Region, Country, and Segment, and Key players of your market. Present your Market Report & findings with an inbuilt presentation feature saving over 70% of your time and resources for Investor, Sales & Marketing, R&D, and Product Development pitches. VMI enables data delivery In Excel and Interactive PDF formats with over 15+ Key Market Indicators for your market.

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Our 250 Analysts and SME's offer a high level of expertise in data collection and governance use industrial techniques to collect and analyze data on more than 15,000 high impact and niche markets. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, expertise and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research.

We study 14+ categories from Semiconductor & Electronics, Chemicals, Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Automotive & Transportation, Information & Communication Technology, Software & Services, Information Security, Mining, Minerals & Metals, Building & construction, Agriculture industry and Medical Devices from over 100 countries.

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SOURCE Verified Market Research
LAKE FOREST, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Crummack Huseby Property Management, Inc., one of the largest Accredited Association Management Companies based in Southern California, today announced the appointment of Jamie Gould as its Vice President of Community Management, and Christine Hulka as its Director of Large Scale Management. These two promotions expand the executive leadership team and its commitment to grow its business service efforts across community management.

"Jamie and Christine have been integral to our success. I've been consistently impressed with their commitment to excellence. In her new role, Jamie will continue to deliver world-class customer service, ensuring consistency of our products and services for our clients. Christine will provide ready-made solutions to our communities, leveraging her experience and expertise on upcoming rejuvenation and refurbishment projects," said CEO Margo Crummack.

JAMIE GOULD, VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

Jamie joined Crummack Huseby Property Management, Inc. in 2015 as a Senior Community Association Manager. She quickly rose the ranks and was promoted to Director of New Project Development, where she cultivated client relationships in new developments and established communities throughout Southern California. Jamie will maintain Crummack Huseby's brand standards and deliver consistency in service offerings. In addition, Jamie will be responsible for employee and culture growth.

Jamie's primary role as Vice President of Community Management will be to mentor, lead, and create internal support for the Community Management team.

CHRISTINE HULKA, DIRECTOR OF LARGE SCALE MANAGEMENT

Christine Hulka is appointed Director of Large Scale Management. Christine joined Crummack Huseby in 2015 as a portfolio manager, and her impact on the company has led to numerous promotions within the Community Management division of the company. Christine was instrumental in realizing a large scale refurbishing project at Northpark Maintenance Association, located in Irvine, in her previous position as General Manager. Christine will now be responsible for managing large scale communities and their refurbishment to increase value for residents and communities.

Christine's primary role as Director of Large Scale Management will be to oversee the General Management team and create internal support for the Community Management team.

About Crummack Huseby Property Management Inc.,

Founded in 1999, Crummack Huseby Property Management Inc. manages many diverse HOA's and master-planned communities in Southern California. They have added value to communities by working with HOAs, homebuilders, and land developers through their collaborative and customized approach. Crummack Huseby's personalized philosophy to community management has allowed them to successfully discover and develop one-of-a-kind programs for new and existing communities. In addition, they offer professional business planning, governance, community management, financial only management, planning, and forecasting services for community associations. Founders Sandy Huseby and Margo Crummack both have more than 20 years of experience in Common Interest Development (CDI) management. For more information, go to www.ch-pm.com, email [email protected], or call toll-free at 888-399-9430.

SOURCE Crummack Huseby Property Management, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.ch-pm.com


As the ongoing COVID-19 crisis will prevent winners from receiving their awards on stage during a traditional gala IBA banquet, winners will be celebrated instead during a virtual ceremony on Wednesday, 8 December.

More than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories.

Curtis Randall brings world-class strategic talent, proven passion and dedication to his role as Executive Creative Director. He has extensive knowledge in international advertising, video gaming and television production and has worked with brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, GSK, Pfizer, Best Buy, Electronic Arts and Sega. His multi-disciplinary international experience includes film, editing, production, live action directing, CG element creation, storyboard design, modeling, animation, and rendering, as well as recruitment of creative talent and managing teams of creatives.

Thrilled by his success, Mr. Randall stated: "This award reiterates my motto to live your life big. No matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible for those who dare to dream, don't ever give up."

Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 260 executives worldwide who participated in the judging process from June through early August.

The judging panel was chaired by Michelle S. Stephens, Chief Strategy Officer, Caribbean Strategy Inc., West Indies. It also consisted of prominent C-level executives from around the world including Jane Bryant, Director of Spire Communications, USA, Kirsten Ly, Executive Director, Advisor Growth Marketing Hightower Advisors, USA, and Lucinda Dobinson, CEO, Creative Covenant, UK

Commenting on Curtis's work, the judges stated:

"Curtis' team is lucky to have such a creative and inspiring leader. I wish good luck on future growth to himself and ASCIRA.

"Curtis seems a good professional with excellent business sense and analytical knowledge."

"What we've seen in this year's IBA nominations is that organizations around the world, in every sector, have continued to innovate and succeed, despite the setbacks, obstacles and tragedies of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher. "All of this year's Stevie Award winners are to be applauded for their persistence and their resilience. We look forward to celebrating their achievements with them during our 8 December virtual awards ceremony."

Details about The International Business Awards and the lists of Stevie Award winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

About ASCIRA

ASCIRA is a subscription-based company that offers personal development through a variety of online digital products. It targets to create a social lifestyle community of beyond a billion people around the world and provide them the best diversified knowledge available. Learn more about ASCIRA at www.asciraglobal.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 Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 nominations 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 www.StevieAwards.com

Contact:

Zenifer Khaleel

+ 971 55 8820875

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1595115/ASCIRA_STEVIE_AWARD.jpg

SOURCE ASCIRA
For many families, college is one of the largest investments they will ever make. As a result, it's a smart move for anyone paying tuition to understand their school's refund policy and to consider protecting their investment with tuition insurance.

"The thousands of dollars students and families are paying for college tuition, housing and academic fees are often at risk," said John Fees, parent of a college student and the co-founder of GradGuard, one of the largest providers of student insurance programs in the country with partnerships at more than 400 colleges and universities. "The idea of losing money can create even more financial stress for students and their parents. GradGuard enables students and families to make the decision on whether to withdraw is based on the well-being of their student and not just the money at risk."

The coronavirus pandemic and its surging Delta variant has brought important attention to the risk of investing in college and particularly, how schools manage refunds.

While neither schools or tuition insurance provide refunds for a change in the form of instruction (such as the move to online classes), families may be surprised that they will likely lose thousands of dollars if their student's semester is disrupted by a health event and forced to withdraw.

In fact, only 6% of schools surveyed in 2019 provided 100% refunds for tuition and virtually none provide refunds for academic fees or housing. Many universities may refund a portion of tuition through the first few weeks of school, but most schools will not provide a refund after the fifth week of classes. Academic fees, deposits and housing are usually not eligible for a refund.

The risk can often surprise college parents. Less than a quarter of parents surveyed in a 2019 College Parents of America report indicated that their student's college refund policy was disclosed to them during the enrollment process.

Families are also often unaware that their college student may be vulnerable to the stress of college life. The National College Health Assessment produced by the American College Health Association demonstrates the frequency of incidents such as illnesses, accidents, and injuries that can require a student to complete a medical withdrawal. This data also reveals a growth in chronic illnesses and rapid growth in serious mental health incidents during the past five years.

"If a student has a controlled pre-existing condition like serious anxiety or mental health conditions, and they are medically cleared to attend school, GradGuard's tuition insurance can cover them," said Fees. "If they must withdraw under the recommendation of a licensed professional in their state, tuition insurance can reimburse the out-of-pocket costs associated with their housing, tuition, and student fees. GradGuard's tuition insurance can help reduce the stress students face in these situations and help everyone focus on the well-being of the student."

It's important for families to note that even prior to COVID-19, student health conditions, force thousands of students to withdraw from classes each year, without the ability to recover the thousands of dollars paid for classes, fees and housing.

The Top Three Reasons GradGuard's Tuition Insurance Is A Smart Decision:

If the school does not provide a 100% refund  Ask your school about their refund policy.

 Ask your school about their refund policy. If the student has more than $1,000 of academic expenses  Even if the school provides a 100% refund for tuition, most do not refund academic fees or student housing costs.

 Even if the school provides a 100% refund for tuition, most do not refund academic fees or student housing costs. If the student or family is taking out a student loan - Student and parent loans must be repaid even if a student must take a medical withdrawal. Tuition insurance can be used to repay the balance of these loans.

"GradGuard's tuition insurance provides affordable coverage up to 100% of the cost of college including student housing, tuition and academic charges," said Fees. "In addition, each plan also includes Student Life Assistance that helps families through the logistics that may accompany an unexpected student withdrawal."

Despite the stress and changes caused by Coronavirus to higher education, the good news is that college families can protect both their student and their investment by purchasing GradGuard's tuition insurance, with rates as low as $106 for $10,000 of tuition insurance coverage at participating schools. Coverage must be purchased prior to the first day of school.

"Students and their families can take confidence in schools that provide GradGuard's insurance programs to help protect their investment in college are prepared to overcome the unexpected events that may otherwise disrupt their semester." said Fees.

About GradGuard: GradGuard is a technology-enabled pioneer in developing innovative protections designed to reduce the financial risks of college life. Since 2009, GradGuard is trusted by more than 400 colleges and universities and since its founding has protected nearly one million students and families. Visit GradGuard.com to use its college insurance search tool to find the insurance programs that are right for your college student or recommended by their college or university.

Contact:

Natalie Tarangioli

480-485-6138

[email protected]

Terms, conditions, and exclusions (including for pre-existing conditions) apply. Plans only available to U.S. residents and may not be available in all jurisdictions. Recommended and provided by GradGuard, a service of Next Generation Insurance Group, LLC (NGI), the licensed agent for all insurance programs. Insurance plans include insurance benefits and assistance services. Pricing may vary by state. Insurance benefits are underwritten by Jefferson Insurance Company (NY, Administrative Office 9950 Mayland Drive, Richmond, VA 23233) rated "A+" (Superior) by A.M. Best Co. Non-insurance benefits/services are provided by AGA Service Company. Claims are administered by Allianz Global Assistance (AGA). AGA and Allianz Tuition Insurance are marks of AGA Service Company or its affiliates. AGA Service Company and NGI are affiliates of Jefferson Insurance Company. Except as expressly provided for under the plan, consumer is responsible for charges incurred from outside vendors. Contact AGA Service Company at 888-427-5045 or 9950 Mayland Dr., Richmond, VA 23233 or [email protected].

SOURCE GradGuard

Related Links

http://gradguard.com/


The combined residential cable, telco and satellite broadband subscribers topped 109.2 million at the end of the second quarter, up 4.3% annually with nearly 4.5 million net adds year over year, according to Kagan's full industry estimates.

Consumer appetites pushed wireline broadband residential penetrations to more than 83%. Including satellite broadband services, residential penetration reached 84.5%

Additional takeaways from Kagan's Q2 2021 report:

Cable subscriber growth in the first half was down from the outsized gains of the pandemic-boosted demand for connectivity. But with 1.9 million residential and commercial net adds year-to-date, cable accounted for 96% of broadband customer gains across the U.S. cable, telco and satellite segments in the first six months of 2021.

The surging enthusiasm for FTTH upgrades is boosting telco wireline broadband net adds, albeit at relative magnitudes. While the segment's residential net adds in the second quarter pale in comparison to cable's growth, it represents a dramatic improvement over the second quarter track record since 2016.

Combined, the established satellite broadband providers lost 24,000 U.S. subscribers while Starlink begins to establish early momentum.

S&P Global Market Intelligence's Kagan research team provides in-depth coverage and deep analyses of the global technology, media and telecommunications sectors (TMT). This TMT research offering complements S&P Global Market Intelligence's broad universe of research sector coverage including energy, enterprise technology, financial institutions groups, leveraged loans, and metals & mining.

S&P Global Market Intelligence's opinions, quotes, and credit-related and other analyses are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendation to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or to make any investment decisions, and do not address the suitability of any security.

About S&P Global Market Intelligence

At S&P Global Market Intelligence, we understand the importance of accurate, deep and insightful information. We integrate financial and industry data, research and news into tools that help track performance, generate alpha, identify investment ideas, perform valuations and assess credit risk. Investment professionals, government agencies, corporations and universities around the world use this essential intelligence to make business and financial decisions with conviction.

S&P Global Market Intelligence is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), the world's foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks and analytics in the global capital and commodity markets, offering ESG solutions, deep data and insights on critical business factors. S&P Global has been providing essential intelligence that unlocks opportunity, fosters growth and accelerates progress for more than 160 years. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence.

Media Contact

Amanda Oey

S&P Global | Market Intelligence

Tel: 212-438-1904

[email protected]

SOURCE S&P Global Market Intelligence
SINGAPORE, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Gaming is a booming business with new, state of the art and technical games being released every day. It is so popular that it hit the crypto markets within a few years, and many crypto tokens are now allowing their holders a chance to play games and earn tokens. Owing to that, a new project, " DOGEGAME '' took advantage of this opportunity and developed a ticket that will entertain its holders. The developers designed challenges, levels, and a unique theme park, which is also called "the DOGEGAME PARK."

The developers are also in talks to launch the DOGEGAME BOX and DOGEGAME SHOOT. These are like a lucky draw where players can try their luck to win money, tokens, and valuable gaming. The team will also choose winners who will receive the door prize. This was launched with the reason to give gamers more chances to take something back with them. Their shooting game is a sci-fi game based in a virtual world. The team hopes it will attract masses from around the globe.

The company had always aimed to make their customer's and traders' investments enjoyable, entertaining, fun-filled, and profitable, giving everyone a chance to win big sitting at home. The team announced that they would bring accurate NFT technology and functionality to the gaming community. The company is looking forward to combining this with the latest DeFi yield generation, lotteries, game keys, and personalized gaming centers. DOGEGAME also requests gamers to appreciate their move as the company will try to test all possibilities in their upcoming plans.

But the team made an unusual move by choosing BSC over ETH. They said that Binance Smart Chain is a hard fork of the Go Ethereum protocol and has similarities with the Ethereum blockchain. But, on the other hand, BSC developers made many changes and updates in significant areas. The team is expecting that their choice will allow them cheaper and faster transactions. The BEP-20 token extends the already famous ERC-20 and clearly defines the framework and rules on the BSC. These tokens can also create securities and stable coins and be backed by BTC, Link, and more.

The company charges 1% as transaction fees, and 1% of the transaction will be distributed to all holders. There will be a total supply of 100,000,000,000 tokens, out of which 70% is reserved for the marketplace. Furthermore, 10% is for development, 15% for marketing and advertising, and 5% for the team.

1st presale of DOGEGAME was a success! And now they will start the 2nd and 3rd presale. The 2nd presale will start on the 21st of August with a 4x cheaper price than the launching price and 3rd presale will start on 29th of August with 2x cheaper price than the launching price!

Make sure you don't miss this golden opportunity to invest in this hidden gem project!

Media Contact Details:

Company: DOGEGAME

Website: https://dogegame.tech/

Email Address: [email protected]

Social Media Details:

Medium: https://medium.com/@dogegame.official

Telegram Channel: https://t.me/dogegamechannel

Telegram Group: https://t.me/dogegamegroup

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dogegameofficial/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dogegame_

All investment strategies and investments involve the risk of loss. Consider doing your own research before making financial decisions related to any Crypto Company

SOURCE DOGEGAME
"We are delighted with this prestigious honor," said Akram J. Atallah, CEO, Donuts Inc. "At Donuts Inc., we strive to be good at everything we do and are devoted to creating success in the entire ecosystem of employees, customers and suppliers. And with the ongoing expansion of the internet and the need for more descriptive, meaningful domain name options, we are more relevant than ever."

"Businesses of all sizes and types are embracing new descriptive domain names recognizing the power in promoting their brands online with optimum SEO impact," Atallah continued. "We provide options they have never had before with the world's largest portfolio of new memorable domain names ranging from dxc.technology, to amazon.care, to ikea.today, to switchboard.live. We expect that Donuts' Inc. 5000 achievement will demonstrate the worldwide success of descriptive domains and accelerate their adoption and use."

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this year's list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020's unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000 . The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 20.

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this year's Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000 .

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com .

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/ .

About Donuts Inc.

Donuts Inc. simplifies and connects the online world with domain names and related technologies that allow people to build, market and own their digital identities. Donuts owns the world's largest portfolio of top-level domains, branded TrueName Domains, and operates hundreds of others for registry partners on its innovative registry services platform. Together, Donuts operates nearly 25 million domains under management. Beyond its domain name registry and innovative registry services platform, Donuts enables customers to discover, register, support, and use high-quality domain names with its registrar, Name.com . Donuts is a global company with approximately 300 employees. It is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington with international offices across four continents. For more information, please visit www.donuts.domains .

Contact:

Sacha Arts

Bella Vista Communications

(408) 458.6316

[email protected]

SOURCE Donuts Inc.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Electromedical Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: EMED) (the "Company"), a pioneer in the development and production of bioelectronic devices designed to relieve chronic, intractable and acute pains by using frequencies and electro-modulation, is pleased to announce that it recorded strong results for the second quarter of 2021, ending June 30, as compared to the same period in 2020.

Quarter ended June 2021 Highlights:

Revenue increased to $202,954 , up from $136,755 , a roughly 48% increase over 2Q 2020.

, up from , a roughly 48% increase over 2Q 2020. Selling, General, and Administrative expenses declined by approximately $259,000 , to $677,781 , down 28% from the $936,669 recorded in 2Q 2020.

, to , down 28% from the recorded in 2Q 2020. Net loss from operations was ($524,658) versus ($817,909) in 2Q 2020.

versus in 2Q 2020. Total net loss improved to ($774,532) , or ($0.02) per share, from ($840,255) , or ($0.04) , for 2Q 2020.

Matthew Wolfson, Founder and CEO of EMED, noted, "We are pleased with our strong operating results for the second quarter of 2021. Implementation of our new sales and marketing initiatives, are starting to pay off as indicated by the significant increases in both unit sales and revenue. We will continue to emphasize these initiatives going forward, which could provide an enhanced foundation for our outreach efforts, potentially resulting in repeat orders from our partners and distributors."

"Separately, as year-end approaches, our team plans to update shareholders regarding our progress with the development of the WellnessProPlus POD which is a critical pending milestone for EMED."

Six Months ended June 30, 2021 Highlights

Revenue increased to $369,394 up from $351,625 , a roughly 5% increase over the six months ended June 30, 2020 .

up from , a roughly 5% increase over the six months ended . Selling, General, and Administrative expenses increased by approximately $842,435 , to $2,367,254 , down 90% from the $1,524,819 recorded during the six months ended June 30, 2020 .

, to , down 90% from the recorded during the six months ended . Net loss from operations was ($524,658) versus ($817,909) during the six months ended June 30, 2020 .

versus during the six months ended . Total net loss decreased to ($3,334,916) , or ($0.10) per share, from ($1,291,496) , or ($0.07) , for the six months ended June 30, 2020 .

About Electromedical Technologies

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Electromedical Technologies, Inc. is a commercial stage, FDA cleared, bioelectronic medical device manufacturing company initially focused on the treatment of various chronic, acute, intractable, and post-operative pain conditions. Through University collaboration agreements, the Company is working to develop a comprehensive research program in defining the effects of electro-modulation on the human body. By studying the impacts of electrical fields in cell signaling and effects on virus assembly and immune responses, the Company's goal is to reduce pain and improve overall human wellbeing. The Company's current FDA cleared product indications are for chronic acute post traumatic and post-operative, intractable pain relief. For more information, please visit www.electromedtech.com. Nonhuman preliminary studies that we are planning to start in the near future and their applications are not related to our current product in any way and currently not cleared in the US.

Safe Harbor Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, we can give no assurance or guarantee that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of words like "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties, including but not limited to: adverse economic conditions, competition, adverse federal, state and local government regulation, international governmental regulation, inadequate capital, inability to carry out research, development and commercialization plans, loss or retirement of key executives and other specific risks. To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made.

Corporate Contact:

Electromedical Technologies, Inc.

Hanover International

Tel: 1.888.880.7888

email: [email protected]

https://electromedtech.com

SOURCE Electromedical Technologies, Inc.
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Corresponding Reports:

Scanning Electron Microscope Market by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Optical Microscopes Market by Product, Application, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Top 3 Electron Microscope Market Players

Advantest Corp.

The company operates in key business segments including Semiconductor and Component Test System, Mechatronics System, Services, Support and Others. The company offers MPT3000 range of electron microscopes with extreme thermal stress testing.

Carl Zeiss AG

The company offers Gemini electron optics along with a large, flexible chamber that covers all imaging and analytical needs.

DELONG INSTRUMENTS AS

The company provides electron microscopes with high contrast and small form factor.

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Electron Microscope Market 2021-2025: Segmentation

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Technology

SEM



TEM



DBEM

End-user

Industries



Institutions



Others

Application

Semiconductors



Life Sciences



Material Sciences



Nanotechnology

Geography

APAC



North America



Europe



MEA



South America



The electron microscope market is driven by growth in the rising adoption of nanotechnology across sectors, a rising need for root-cause failure analysis, and a rise in demand for DBEMs. The miniaturization of electronic devices is one of the major trends anticipated to lead the market to grow. Vendors are increasingly focusing on reducing the size of semiconductor wafers while integrating unique features. In terms of geography, 59% of the market's growth will originate from APAC with China, Japan, and South Korea being the key revenue-contributing economies in the region.

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Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Trends

Vendor Landscape

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Competitive scenario

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.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio

Related Links

http://www.technavio.com/


GHENT, Belgium, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ExeVir, which is developing single domain antibody therapies providing broad protection against viral infections, today announces that the first subjects have been dosed in a Phase I clinical study of XVR011, its llama-derived antibody for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.

The randomized, double-blinded, single-center, placebo-controlled Phase I clinical study will evaluate the safety profile and pharmacokinetics of XVR011 administered as an IV infusion in healthy subjects. The study will sequentially test three ascending doses of intravenously administered XVR011 in a maximum of three groups of 10 healthy adult subjects.

Dominique Tersago, Chief Medical Officer of ExeVir Bio, said: "This is a major milestone for ExeVir. Following the creation of ExeVir a year ago, we are very pleased that our lead compound XVR011 is now in clinical development. Importantly, XVR011 was recently demonstrated to neutralise the Delta variant, as well as all current COVID-19 variants of concern. We are excited by the prospect of bringing a single-dose treatment for patients with COVID-19 to the clinic, first as an IV infusion, which will be rapidly followed by a formulation for subcutaneous injection. We are making significant progress as we work to avert evolution and spread of existing and new coronaviral disease with next generation treatments. We would like to thank our investors, our team at ExeVir, VIB and our many collaborators for their exceptional work and steadfast support."

ExeVir recently announced that novel data generated in the laboratory of Professor Johan Neyts at the Rega institute (KU Leuven, Belgium) show that XVR011 demonstrated strong in vitro neutralization potency against the Variants of Concern Delta (B.1.617.2) and Gamma (P.1). Additionally, results from Professors Xavier Saelens and Nico Callewaert based on epitope sequencing indicate that the potency is not expected to be impacted by any currently circulating variant of concern or variant of interest. This is of particular relevance for the further clinical development and broad applicability.

The XVR011 molecule was developed by VIB-Ghent University (Belgium) scientists led by Professors Xavier Saelens and Nico Callewaert. The Belgian-based global biopharmaceutical company UCB helped design and optimize the therapeutic properties of XVR011 and manufactured the antibody at large scale for the clinical trial. The development work is presently undergoing peer review and was recently pre-printed in BioRxiv, demonstrating highly potent and broad neutralizing activity and infection protection in both hamster and mouse models against SARS-CoV-2.

About XVR011 (VHH72-Fc)



ExeVir's lead asset XVR011 is a single domain-based anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody (VHH-Fc) optimized for stability, safety, broad neutralizing capability and excellent manufacturability. It demonstrates best-in-class potential offering breadth and potency against a range of Coronaviruses and is significantly differentiated from other antibody treatments.

The single domain antibody (VHH) anti-coronavirus platform was developed by VIB- Ghent University scientists, Professor Xavier Saelens and Professor Nico Callewaert .

and Professor . The llama-derived single-domain antibodies are smaller than human antibodies and can attach to parts of a virus that are difficult to access for the human immune system.

XVR011 inactivates SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins and sterically blocks spike binding to ACE2, preventing virus from entering a human cell, stopping viral replication; this is expected to support the patient's own immune response in a critical time window during which many patients' immune system reacts too slowly or inadequately.

Epitope of XVR011 is much less susceptible to human antibody immune pressure that can lead to "viral escape", resulting in retained potency against such escape variants  No impact of any variants of concern on potency as of today.

XVR011: Targets unique epitope in conserved region, leading to broad spectrum of binding to spike RBDs across numerous sarbecoviruses.

About ExeVir Bio



ExeVir Bio is a clinical stage company harnessing its VHH technology platform to generate robust antiviral therapies providing broad protection against viral infections, including coronaviruses. It is a spin out from VIB, the world class Belgium-based life sciences research institute. ExeVir's platform is based on the work of and collaboration with Professor Dr. Xavier Saelens and Professor Dr. Nico Callewaert from VIB. ExeVir Bio is led by a team of experts that combines international biotech and pharma experience with a successful track record of developing and bringing products to market. It has raised over 42M from blue chip investors led by Fund+, VIB, UCB Ventures, SFPI-FPIM, V-Bio Ventures, SRIW, Noshaq, Vives IUF, SambrInvest and several Belgian Family Offices. ExeVir has also been awarded funding from the Flanders Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO). www.exevir.com.

About UCB



UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 8000 people operating in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of  5.3 billion in 2020. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news



For more information contact:



ExeVir Bio

Fiona du Monceau, COO

Email: [email protected]



Optimum Strategic Communications



Mary Clark, Stella Lempidaki, Zoe Bolt

Tel: +44 (0) 20 950 9144

Email:[email protected]

SOURCE ExeVir Bio
DENVER, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd. (FPSB) and its global network are pleased to host the fifth annual World Financial Planning Day (WFPD) on Wednesday, 6 October as part of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) World Investor Week. Representing more than 192,000 CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals across 27 countries and territories worldwide, the FPSB Network has planned a variety of programs and events to raise awareness of the value of financial planning, of having a financial plan and of working with a competent and ethical financial planner.

2021 WFPD logo

"Now, more than ever, the public needs to understand their financial situation and options, and how having a financial plan and working with a financial planner who puts clients' interests first, like a CFP professional, can help individuals and families live their today and plan their tomorrow," said CEO of FPSB, Noel Maye. "FPSB is pleased to be working again with IOSCO to promote financial wellbeing for all and to help the public position investment decisions within the context of their overall financial and life goals."

For the fifth year, FPSB has partnered with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to host WFPD during World Investor Week, a global campaign designed to raise awareness about the importance of financial literacy and investor education. By partnering with IOSCO on this initiative, the FPSB Network demonstrates to global stakeholders the importance of financial planning and the role the financial planning profession plays in supporting better financial outcomes for citizens all over the world.

"We are pleased once again to partner with FPSB to deliver the message about the importance of financial planning, which is now even more relevant because of the pandemic and will remain so during the years to come," says chairperson of IOSCO's Committee on Retail Investors, Pasquale Munafo. "We are working together to make sure that financial wellbeing and financial literacy become core elements of the present and the future of millions of retail investors and financial consumers around the globe."

The FPSB Network plans a variety of programs and campaigns leading up to and on World Financial Planning Day, including:

Live global panel event connecting financial planning professionals around the world

FPSB will host an international panel event on the "Future of Client Needs and Advice Delivery" on 6 October. Panelists will address how the financial planning profession, regulators and consumer groups will need to prepare for and adapt to evolving client needs and expectations with regard to advice delivery. FPSB will unveil the findings of global research conducted for this event, which will be open to all FPSB and IOSCO stakeholders. More details, including the complete lineup of panelists and topics will be available at worldfpday.org when registration opens in September.

Events in Territories Around the World

The FPSB Network will host a variety of local and national events to raise awareness about the value of financial planning, of having a financial plan and of working with a competent and ethical financial planner. Further information about WFPD and FPSB Network programs will be available on worldfpday.org and by joining the #WFPD2021 conversation on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Educational Materials and Advice for Consumers

To raise awareness on the value of financial planning, worldfpday.org will feature articles and resources from the FPSB Network to educate individuals on financial planning topics including tips to deal with financial stress, short- and long-term financial planning during a crisis, steps to improve financial wellbeing and more.

Finding a CFP Professional

Consumers around the world have access to more than 192,000 CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals who are committed to working in their clients' interests. Individuals seeking a competent and ethical financial planner to help them plan for their future can connect with an FPSB Network organization to find a CFP professional in their area.

FPSB stakeholders from around the globe can visit worldfpday.org and worldinvestorweek.org and join the #WFPD2021 and #WIW2021 conversations on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to learn more about this year's activities and how to participate.

About FPSB Ltd.

FPSB manages, develops and operates certification, education and related programs to benefit the global community by establishing, upholding and promoting worldwide professional standards in financial planning. FPSB demonstrates its commitment to excellence with the marks of professional distinction  CFP, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and CFP Logo Mark  which it owns outside the United States. FPSB and the FPSB global network administer CFP and other certification programs in the following 27 territories: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Columbia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, People's Republic of China, Peru, Republic of Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. At the end of 2020, there were 192,762 CFP professionals worldwide. For more, visit fpsb.org.

CFP Certification Global excellence in financial planning

SOURCE Financial Planning Standards Board

Related Links

www.fpsb.org


JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Redwire, a leader in mission critical space solutions and high reliability components for the next generation space economy, has been awarded a subcontract from Firefly Aerospace to provide avionics and critical navigation systems for their Blue Ghost lunar lander. Firefly Aerospace was awarded a contract to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023 for NASA's Artemis program. The award is part of the agency's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which NASA is securing the service of commercial partners to quickly land science and technology payloads on the lunar surface.

"Redwire is proud to be a key partner on this lunar mission that will demonstrate new commercially-developed capabilities to explore the Moon's surface," said Al Tadros, Chief Growth Officer and Executive Vice President of Space Infrastructure for Redwire. "Our next-generation technology delivers critical capabilities for today's most advanced lunar missions and exploration objectives."

"We are proud to select Redwire as a key partner," said Shea Ferring, Senior Vice President, Spacecraft for Firefly. "Their expertise in interplanetary missions was an important factor in choosing them."

Through the contract with Firefly, Redwire is to provide the core avionics for the Blue Ghost lander as well as 10 cameras for the lander and the Optical Navigation System that Blue Ghost will use for descent and landing on the lunar surface. The camera system developed for Blue Ghost provides situational awareness and payload support including ultra high-definition video captured throughout the mission. The optical navigation system includes terrain relative navigation and hazard avoidance computation within Redwire's Vision Navigation Processor.

"Redwire is proud to support Firefly in making this mission possible," said Adam Biskner, Executive Vice President of Engineering Solutions for Redwire. "Redwire's expertise in avionics, cameras and visual navigation systems will help enable the success of the Blue Ghost lander's mission to advance understanding of the Moon's scientific and economic potential."

The Blue Ghost lander will touch down in Mare Crisium, after running some of the onboard experiments and technology demonstrations during transit and orbit. The lander will then operate on the lunar surface for 14 days (one lunar day), collecting data on the lunar surface to prepare for a future human presence on the Moon. The lander is slated to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2023.

Building on decades of flight heritage, Redwire provides high performance space camera and navigation systems for human and robotic spacecraft requiring machine vision, optical navigation, science, remote sensing, photogrammetry, inspection, video monitoring, and mission documentation for commercial, civil space and defense applications. Redwire cameras were recently selected for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) 1A delivery to Reiner Gamma as a part of the Applied Physics Lab's Lunar Vertex science instrument suite.

About Redwire

Redwire is a leader in mission critical space solutions and high reliability components for the next generation space economy, with valuable IP for solar power generation and in-space 3D printing and manufacturing. With decades of flight heritage combined with the agile and innovative culture of a commercial space platform, Redwire is uniquely positioned to assist its customers in solving the complex challenges of future space missions. For more information, please visit www.redwirespace.com.

About Firefly Aerospace

Firefly is developing a family of launch and in-space vehicles and services that provide industry-leading affordability, convenience, and reliability. Firefly's launch vehicles utilize common technologies, manufacturing infrastructure and launch capabilities, providing LEO launch solutions for up to ten metric tons of payload at the lowest cost per kg in the small-launch class. Combined with Firefly's in-space vehicles, such as the Space Utility Vehicle and Blue Ghost Lunar Lander, Firefly provides the space industry with a single source for missions from LEO to the surface of the Moon or beyond. Firefly is headquartered in Cedar Park, TX.

For more information please see: www.firefly.com

Media Contacts:



For Redwire:

Austin Jordan

[email protected]

321-536-8632



For Firefly Aerospace:

Kim Jennett

[email protected]

Forward Looking Statements

This document includes "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "forecast," "intend," "seek," "target," "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," "outlook," and "project" and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. Such forward looking statements with respect to revenues, earnings, performance, strategies, prospects and other aspects of the businesses of Genesis Park Acquisition Corp., Redwire or the combined company after completion of the Business Combination are based on current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties.

A number of factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those indicated by such forward looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: (1) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the merger agreement governing the proposed business combination; (2) the inability to complete the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement due to the failure to obtain approval of the shareholders of Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. or other conditions to closing in the merger agreement; (3) the ability to meet NYSE's listing standards following the consummation of the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement; (4) the risk that the proposed transaction disrupts current plans and operations of Redwire as a result of the announcement and consummation of the transactions described herein; (5) the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the proposed business combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition, the ability of the combined company to grow and manage growth profitably, maintain relationships with customers and suppliers and retain its management and key employees; (6) costs related to the proposed business combination; (7) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (8) the possibility that Redwire may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and (9) other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in other documents filed or to be filed with the SEC by Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. and Redwire undertake no commitment to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Additional Information

In connection with the proposed business combination between Redwire and Genesis Park Acquisition Corp., Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. filed with the SEC a definitive proxy statement / prospectus on August 11, 2021 and is mailing the definitive proxy statement / prospectus and other relevant documentation to Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. shareholders. This document does not contain all the information that should be considered concerning the proposed business combination. It is not intended to form the basis of any investment decision or any other decision in respect to the proposed business combination. Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. shareholders and other interested persons are advised to read the definitive proxy statement / prospectus in connection with Genesis Park Acquisition Corp.'s solicitation of proxies for the special meeting to be held to approve the transactions contemplated by the proposed business combination because these materials will contain important information about Redwire, Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. and the proposed business combination. The definitive proxy statement / prospectus is being mailed to Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. shareholders as of August 2, 2021, the record date established for voting on the proposed business combination.

Shareholders are also able to obtain a copy of the definitive proxy statement / prospectus, without charge, at the SEC's website at http://sec.gov or by directing a written request to Genesis Park Acquisition Corp., 2000 Edwards Street, Suite B, Houston, Texas 77007.

This document shall not constitute a solicitation of a proxy, consent or authorization with respect to any securities or in respect of the proposed business combination.

Participants in the Solicitation

Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. and its directors and officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies of Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. shareholders in connection with the proposed business combination.

Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. shareholders and other interested persons may obtain, without charge, more detailed information regarding the directors and officers of Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. in Genesis Park Acquisition Corp.'s prospectus relating to its initial public offering filed with the SEC on November 24, 2020. Redwire and its directors and executive officers may also be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from the shareholders of Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. in connection with the Business Combination.

Information regarding the persons who may, under SEC rules, be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. shareholders in connection with the proposed business combination is set forth in the definitive proxy statement / prospectus for the transaction. Additional information regarding the interests of participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction is included in the definitive proxy statement / prospectus Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. filed with the SEC.

SOURCE Redwire
NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Private Label Manufacturers Association announced that its annual Private Label Trade Show, taking place in-person November 14-16 in Chicago, will feature expanded participation by foodservice suppliers across all food, nonfood and beverage categories.

Overall, more than 2,000 exhibitors and over 5,000 visitors are expected at the show, which has always been an important stop for manufacturers and buyers for foodservice. Among buyers from all major retail chains, you might spy representatives from some the nation's largest restaurant suppliers on the trade show floors as well. Most, including the likes of Sysco, US Foods, Aramark, Maclean and others, have highly developed brand programs. These range from value labels in basic food items, nonfood and takeout packaging to proprietary labels that might include proprietary coffee blends, farm raised meat and produce, craft cheese and artisan bakery items, sustainably sourced seafood, authentic Italian, Latin and Asian specialty items and more.

As the pandemic recedes, all signs are pointing to greater growth and success for private label in foodservice, according to PLMA Vice President Anthony Aloia.

"Consumers have become more accustomed to finding freshly made, restaurant-style meals in supermarkets  whether prepared by in-store bakery, deli and meat departments, or brought in from a ghost kitchen or commissary  which are sold at extremely reasonable prices under the retailer's own brands," Aloia said.

The spike in demand for sanitary pre-packaging of ready-to-eat prepared foods for exhausted home cooks, along with more convenient snacks and meals to-go, made grocery stores more competitive with restaurant take-out than ever before. Meanwhile, a surge of in-app and online ordering for curbside pick-up and delivery platforms further blurred the boundaries between retail grocery, convenience and restaurant channels.

Retailers have stepped up their game with the deployment of new mobile purchasing, shop- from-home and last-mile delivery options. Simultaneously, many best-in-class retail chains expanded their convenience-oriented offerings for prepared, kitchen and table-ready meals packaged for pickup or delivery, in addition to items packaged for grab-and-go in stores.

The grocery channel has adopted a number of consumer-driven restaurant food trends. For example, there's been increased emphasis on farm fresh and locally sourced ingredients. With maintaining healthier lifestyles now top-of-mind for many consumers, natural, organic and minimally processed foods continue to be popular for fresh departments and foodservice, even as more plant-based, vegetarian and vegan options are taking their place alongside.

And across all these trends, there has been rising interest in restaurant-quality menus featuring international cuisines, as well as regional and ethnic specialties that offer shoppers an opportunity to relive or replace the restaurant experience in homes.

About PLMA: The Private Label Manufacturers Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1979 to promote store brands. It is the only trade group of its kind, representing 4,500 member companies in more than 75 countries. In addition to annual, industry-defining trade shows in Chicago and Amsterdam, PLMA offers its members conferences, executive education, professional development, market research, category and channel sales data, consumer surveys and publications. Follow PLMA on Twitter and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Private Label Manufacturers Association

Related Links

http://www.plma.com


AM Best and DBRS Morningstar affirm Foresters financial strength ratings

TORONTO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Foresters Financial (Foresters), the fraternal life insurer redefining the life insurance industry, today announced that independent rating agency A.M. Best Company(1) has affirmed The Independent Order of Foresters (IOF) Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of "A" (Excellent) with a stable outlook(2). A.M. Best Company also affirmed an issuer credit rating (ICR) of "a+" for the entity. In addition, DBRS Morningstar(3) confirmed its "A" FSR and Issuer rating and an A (low) Subordinated Debt rating for IOF with a stable trend. Foresters Financial is the trade name for The Independent Order of Foresters.

"The strong independent ratings from AM Best and DBRS Morningstar are testament to Foresters financial strength, stability and the ability of Foresters to fulfill its ongoing insurance obligations to its members," said Alvin Sharma, Global Chief Financial Officer, Foresters Financial. "We are proud to have maintained an Excellent rating from AM Best for 21 consecutive years. As the oldest non-denominational fraternal benefit society, Foresters is redefining the life insurance model built on that foundation of financial strength and stability."

Foresters maintains total assets of $14 billion (USD) as of December 31, 2020(4) and surplus of $1.5 billion(5), while in-force certificates and contracts have grown to more than 2.5 million in Canada and the U.S. Foresters solvency ratios are well above local requirements in all jurisdictions in which it operates.

For more information about A.M. Best Company's ratings, visit ambest.com.

For more information about DBRS Morningstar's ratings, visit dbrsmorningstar.com.

Life Insurance with a Larger Purpose

Foresters goal is to develop innovative member benefits, products, and service offerings that promote a lifetime of well-being, and align with Foresters fraternal purpose to enrich the lives of families and their communities. That's life insurance with a larger purpose.

Bringing a better, new normal to everyday North American families, Foresters offers a suite of unique member benefits and is redefining the conventional life insurance model. Member benefits(6) include opportunities for scholarships, orphan benefits, community volunteer grants, Wills and other legal documents, Lifelong Learning, MemberDeals, and more.

About Foresters Financial

Foresters Financial is redefining the life insurance and individual savings industry across the U.S., Canada and UK by enriching the lives, communities, and overall well-being of its members. Agents and members alike appreciate the turnkey-decisioned product offerings and end-to-end digitized processes that make it easy to get life insurance without traditional medical exams. State-of-the-art mobile tools help agents deliver tailored plans to prospective and current members. Dedicated to its members' well-being, Foresters offers a suite of member benefits, redefining the conventional life insurance model and bringing improved financial security and overall wellness to everyday North American families. Foresters recently merged with Canada Protection Plan to become a leading life insurance distributor in Canada. Foresters Financial is the trade name for The Independent Order of Foresters, the oldest non-denominational fraternal benefit society. For 21 straight years, The Independent Order of Foresters has received an "A" (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best.

For information purposes only.

Foresters Financial, Foresters, and Helping Is Who We Are are trade names and/or trademarks of The Independent Order of Foresters (a fraternal benefit society, 789 Don Mills Rd, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9) and its subsidiaries.

Canada Protection Plan is a trademark of Canada Protection Plan Inc.

The A.M. Best ratings assigned on July 29, 2021 reflect overall strength and claims-paying ability of The Independent Order of Foresters (IOF). An "A" (Excellent) rating is assigned to companies that have a strong ability to meet their ongoing obligations to policyholders and have, on balance, excellent balance sheet strength, operating performance and business profile when compared to the standards established by A.M. Best Company. A.M. Best assigns ratings from A++ to F, A++ and A+ being superior ratings and A and A- being excellent ratings. In assigning the ratings for IOF, A.M. Best stated that the rating outlook is "stable", which means it is unlikely to change in the near future. See ambest.com for our latest ratings. Financial strength refers to the overall financial health of The Independent Order of Foresters. It does not refer to nor represent the performance of any particular investment or insurance product. All investing involves risk, including the risk that you can lose money. DBRS Morningstar Confirms Ratings on The Independent Order of Foresters at 'A,' Stable Trends, August 6, 2021 Consolidated Financial Statements of The Independent Order of Foresters Year ended December 31, 2020 This surplus represents excess funds above the amount required as legal reserves for insurance and annuity certificates in force and provides additional assurances to our members for our long-term financial strength. Description of member benefits that you may receive assumes you are a Foresters member. Foresters Financial member benefits are non-contractual, subject to benefit specific eligibility requirements, definitions and limitations and may be changed or cancelled without notice or are no longer available.

SOURCE The Independent Order of Foresters

Related Links

https://www.foresters.com/en-ca


"With this exciting new distinction, parents can feel confident that FriXion writing instruments encourage exploration, innovation, and the development of 21st century skills, important for students of all ages," said Ariann Langsam, Vice President of Marketing for Pilot Pen. "FriXion erasable pens are an incredibly valuable tool for much more than just writing. We're proud to be able to encourage and empower students by putting the power of STEM right in their hands."

STEM education is an area of increasing focus among parents and educators, as competency in these areas are strong indicators of future career success. STEM education not only encourages analytical and critical thinking skills and provides the building blocks for innovation and creative problem-solving, but studies also show that kids who are exposed to STEM concepts from a young age are more likely to show interest in pursuing STEM careers. This is important as STEM-related jobs are projected to grow at a much higher rate than non-STEM jobs in the coming years.1

The free downloadable lesson plans are designed to empower educators and students to conduct STEM experiments and demonstrations on everything from thermo-sensitivity to covalent bonds in the classroom or at home. Each lesson utilizes FriXion's unique, thermo-sensitive erasable ink properties to demonstrate scientific principles in a way that is engaging, exciting and accessible for each age group. Lessons are tailored for K-12 students with accompanying video demonstrations led by celebrated science educator and TikTok sensation, Phil Cook (@ChemTeacherPhil), that help walk students through the experiments.

"The simplest way to get kids interested in a future career in STEM is to expose them to concepts early on, keep demonstrations interesting and engaging for their age group, and actively participate in STEM-related activities," said Andrew B. Raupp, Executive Director of STEM.org Educational Research. "FriXion products, and the correlating curriculum, are exemplary of the criteria we aim to highlight through STEM Authentication. FriXion truly helps to make STEM education accessible to all kinds of learners and provides a low-cost entry point for exposure and exploration of everyday, interdisciplinary math and science concepts."

As part of Pilot Pen's commitment to STEM education, the purchase of FriXion products funds the new Science FriXion STEM Student Grants, which recognize exceptional scholars in middle and high school who are going above and beyond both inside and outside of their classroom through their passion for STEM. The grants will provide a total of $50,000 to help students fund their future studies, and to help their schools continue to provide high-quality STEM education in their communities.

FriXion erasable products are available in a variety of styles and options, including capped and retractable gel pens, fine and bold point marker pens, as well as neon and pastel highlighters, with premium erasable products ideal for students of all grade levels as well as adults.

To access the free downloadable curriculum, or to learn more about the Science FriXion Student Grant, visit FriXionSTEM.com. Also, follow Pilot Pen on social media for more information at Facebook.com/PilotPen or @PilotPenUSA and #ScienceFriXion on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

ABOUT PILOT CORPORATION OF AMERICA

Pilot Pen offers superlative writing instruments renowned for quality, performance, cutting-edge technology and consumer satisfaction. Widely acknowledged as an innovator, Pilot was first to introduce Americans to fine-point writing, and currently maintains the top share position in the gel, rolling ball and erasable pen categories. Pilot's line of acclaimed products includes the G2 Gel Ink, Precise V5/V7 Rolling Ball and FriXion Erasable pen lines, as well as Acroball Advanced Ink Ball Point pens and the ergonomic Dr. Grip family of products. Pilot Pen manufactures and distributes from its state-of-the-art facility in Jacksonville, Florida; its parent company is the oldest and largest manufacturer of writing instruments in Japan. For more: www.pilotpen.us.

ABOUT STEM.ORG

Founded in 2001, STEM.org Educational Research (SER) is the longest continually-operating, privately-held STEM education research and credentialing organization in America. Through an extensive collaborative effort, SER has worked closely with pedagogical researchers, an international coalition of educators, administrators, NGO's and schools to establish a trusted set of STEM benchmarks. The resources and proven best-practices of this initiative have led to the world's original and most recognized, blockchain-secured algorithmic STEM credentialing framework: STEM.org Accredited for Programs, STEM.org Certified for People, and STEM.org Authenticated for Products.

1 https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/stem-employment.htm

For More Media Information:

Kerry Anne Watson

Bright red agency  850.668.6824

[email protected]

SOURCE Pilot Pen

Related Links

https://pilotpen.us/


FUKUOKA, Japan, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Genpact Japan K.K. (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), the Japanese subsidiary of Genpact (NYSE: G), a global professional services firm focused on delivering digital transformation, today announced that it will open a new delivery center in Fukuoka as the company continues to expand in Japan.

Genpact will help a global leader in the high-tech industry transform its customer service operations at the site, expect to expand to provide innovative digital and analytics capabilities for optimizing operations and creating compelling experiences to clients in targeted industries including high-tech, manufacturing, services, consumer goods, and finance. The center will leverage Genpact's deep technology and process expertise from transforming and managing operations for hundreds of global companies via its network of delivery centers around the world, including four existing sites in Japan.

"Our new delivery center in Fukuoka will take advantage of the strong talent base in the city and provide additional flexible sourcing options and high-quality services for our clients," said Junichi Tanaka, Japan chief executive officer, Genpact. "We're excited to continue our growth in the Kyushu region for both Genpact and our clients and look forward to being an active partner in the business community."

The Fukuoka site will operate as a hybrid environment with 120 employees working from home and the office in Hakata-ku in Fukuoka city, using learnings from similar operations as Genpact and its clients have adapted to new ways of working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Fukuoka is a vibrant prefecture in western Japan with one of the largest populations and economies in the region, an ideal business environment, and a large talent pool," said Hiroto Hirase, director, investment promotion division, department of commerce and industry, Fukuoka Prefectural Government. "We continue to attract global companies such as Genpact, who are actively promoting the development of digital technologies that expand opportunities for both people and companies."

About Genpact

Genpact (NYSE: G) is a global professional services firm that makes business transformation real. Led by our purpose -- the relentless pursuit of a world that works better for people -- we drive digital-led innovation and digitally enabled intelligent operations for our clients. Guided by our experience reinventing and running thousands of processes for hundreds of clients, many of them Global Fortune 500 companies, we drive real-world transformation at scale. We think with design, dream in digital, and solve problems with data and analytics. Combining our expertise in end-to-end operations and our AI-based platform, Genpact Cora, we focus on the details  all 90,000+ of us. From New York to New Delhi, and more than 30 countries in between, we connect every dot, reimagine every process, and reinvent the ways companies work. We know that reimagining each step from start to finish creates better business outcomes. Whatever it is, we'll be there with you  accelerating digital transformation to create bold, lasting results  because transformation happens here. Get to know us at Genpact.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Satoko Hashiba

Genpact Media Relations - Japan

[email protected]

+81-80-4944-3907 Ashton Consulting [email protected]

SOURCE Genpact

Related Links

http://www.genpact.com


FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 6; Released: April 2021 Executive Pool: 892 Companies: 42 - Players covered include CA Technologies; CJIS Solutions, LLC; CybrSecurity Corporation (GoldKey); Dell EMC; Fujitsu Ltd.; Gemalto NV; HID Global Corporation; Micro Focus - NetIQ; NEC Corporation; NetMotion Software, Inc; OT-Morpho; Pistolstar, Inc.; SecureAuth Corporation; SecurEnvoy Ltd.; ValidSoft UK Limited and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Authentication Method (Smart Cards, Biometrics, Mobile Smart Credentials, User-based Public Key Infrastructure, Other Authentication Methods); End-Use Industry (BFSI, Healthcare, IT & Telecom, Other End-Use Industries) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.

Complimentary Project Preview - This is an ongoing global program. Preview our research program before you make a purchase decision. We are offering a complimentary access to qualified executives driving strategy, business development, sales & marketing, and product management roles at featured companies. Previews provide deep insider access to business trends; competitive brands; domain expert profiles; and market data templates and much more. You may also build your own bespoke report using our MarketGlass Platform which offers thousands of data bytes without an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry

ABSTRACT-



Global Advanced Authentication Market to Reach $22.3 Billion by 2026

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Advanced Authentication estimated at US$10.7 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$22.3 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 12.8% over the analysis period. Smart Cards, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 12.1% CAGR and reach US$8.9 Billion by the end of the analysis period. After a thorough analysis of the business implications of the pandemic and its induced economic crisis, growth in the Biometrics segment is readjusted to a revised 14.6% CAGR for the next 7-year period.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $3.3 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $3.5 Billion by 2026

The Advanced Authentication market in the U.S. is estimated at US$3.3 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$3.5 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 12.3% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 11.1% and 10.9% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 9.3% CAGR.

Mobile Smart Credentials Segment to Reach $2.3 Billion by 2026

In the global Mobile Smart Credentials segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 13.6% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$742.7 Million in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$1.8 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$515.6 Million by the year 2026. More

MarketGlass Platform

Our MarketGlass Platform is a free full-stack knowledge center that is custom configurable to today`s busy business executive`s intelligence needs! This influencer driven interactive research platform is at the core of our primary research engagements and draws from unique perspectives of participating executives worldwide. Features include - enterprise-wide peer-to-peer collaborations; research program previews relevant to your company; 3.4 million domain expert profiles; competitive company profiles; interactive research modules; bespoke report generation; monitor market trends; competitive brands; create & publish blogs & podcasts using our primary and secondary content; track domain events worldwide; and much more. Client companies will have complete insider access to the project data stacks. Currently in use by 67,000+ domain experts worldwide.

Our platform is free for qualified executives and is accessible from our website www.StrategyR.com or via our just released mobile application on iOS or Android

About Global Industry Analysts, Inc. & StrategyR

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (www.strategyr.com) is a renowned market research publisher the world`s only influencer driven market research company. Proudly serving more than 42,000 clients from 36 countries, GIA is recognized for accurate forecasting of markets and industries for over 33 years.

CONTACTS:

Zak Ali

Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

Email: [email protected]

LINKS

Join Our Expert Panel

https://www.strategyr.com/Panelist.asp

Connect With Us on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-industry-analysts-inc./

Follow Us on Twitter

https://twitter.com/marketbytes

Journalists & Media

[email protected]

SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.strategyr.com


Shares Outstanding: 277,578,617

Trading Symbols: TSX: GGD

OTCQX: GLGDF

HALIFAX, NS, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF) ("GoGold", "the Company") is pleased to release the results of 7 new drill holes from the Casados deposit in the Los Ricos North project. Drill hole LRGCS-21-053 intersected 3,435 g/t silver equivalent ("AgEq") over 1.0m within 41.6m of 312 g/t AgEq. See Table 1 for breakdown of silver and gold values.

"We're pleased with these exceptional grades contained within wider zones of strong grades at Casados. As we work towards our initial resource at Los Ricos North expected this fall, we're beginning to work on finalizing our models for certain areas of the project. At this point we've cut off drilling at Casados on the principal Casados structure and La Trini and that data is being forwarded to our third party," said Brad Langille, President and CEO. "We continue with our sampling and mapping program at Los Ricos North to generate drill targets for future resource work in the Casados area."

Table 1: Drill Hole Intersections

Hole ID Area From To Length1 Au Ag AuEq2 AgEq2



(m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) LRGCS-21-050 Casados 227.5 246.5 19.0 0.54 131.5 2.29 171.7

including 241.7 245.0 3.3 2.47 612.3 10.63 797.3

including 243.7 245.0 1.3 5.16 1,319.5 22.75 1,706.5 LRGCS-21-052 Casados 255.5 262.5 7.1 0.14 50.3 0.81 60.7 LRGCS-21-053 Casados 97.5 107.0 9.5 0.50 233.2 3.61 270.6

including 98.3 100.4 2.1 1.90 888.9 13.75 1,031.4

and 186.9 228.5 41.6 1.25 218.5 4.16 312.1

including 199.4 208.2 8.8 4.71 698.1 14.02 1,051.5

including 199.4 200.4 1.0 18.32 2,061.2 45.80 3,435.2

including 206.4 207.4 1.0 7.99 1,599.7 29.32 2,199.0 LRGCS-21-059 Casados 64.5 67.2 2.7 0.33 117.9 1.90 142.4 LRGCS-21-060 Casados 26.2 45.3 19.2 0.53 185.4 3.00 224.9

including 36.9 45.3 8.5 1.14 384.1 6.27 469.9

including 41.2 45.3 4.2 1.75 594.5 9.68 725.9

including 43.8 45.3 1.6 3.63 1,150.9 18.97 1,422.8 LRGCS-21-061 Casados 83.5 84.9 1.5 0.45 148.0 2.42 181.5 LRGCS-21-062 Casados 60.0 68.2 8.2 0.26 82.1 1.36 101.7

including 64.6 66.4 1.9 0.88 272.1 4.51 338.3

1. Not true width 2. AqEq converted using a silver to gold ratio of 75:1 at recoveries of 100%.

The Casados Veins strike nearly E-W, dips 45o to the north and is hosted in andesitic tuffs and is exposed on surface for about 400 metres along strike. In the 7 metres of old stope that is above the water level at the Casados mine, the vein shows as a zone of quartz stringers about a meter wide, but at other places it is more than 2 metres wide. A zone of silicification up to 50 metres wide envelopes the vein and this resistant outcrop forms a steep ridge along the strike of the vein, particularly on the north or hanging wall side.

Casados North

GoGold's geological mapping program has located a series of historical workings along NNW trending veins that splay off the main Casados Vein along a horsetail structure (see Figure 4 for a plan view map and Figure 5 for a sampling map).

A series of low sulphidation epithermal quartz veins have been mapped over an area of 800m x 400m extending on a NNW trend from the area of the Casados mine. The veins are exposed in a dozen historical shallow workings and chip sampling has returned high silver and gold values. Drill hole LRGCS-21-038 (see press release dated May 26, 2021), targeted to test below the Casados mine workings, intersected one of these new veins close to surface as shown on the sampling map.

Table 2: Drill Hole Locations

Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Length LRGCS-21-050 583351 2337900 728 180 -60 348 LRGCS-21-052 583552 2337854 706 180 -70 315 LRGCS-21-053 583612 2337828 739 180 -50 319 LRGCS-21-059 583609 2337824 739 180 -75 352 LRGCS-21-060 583665 2337759 714 0 -90 421 LRGCS-21-061 583403 2337885 709 0 -90 404 LRGCS-21-062 583612 2337829 737 0 -90 521

Figure 1: Plan View  La Trini to El Favor Area of Los Ricos North

Figure 2: Long Section  Casados Deposit

Figure 3: Long Section  Grade Thickness (GT) Equivalent  Casados Deposit

Figure 4: Drilling  Casados Deposit

Figure 5  Casados North Sampling Map

VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation

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 GoGold Company Profile on VRIFY at: https://vrify.com

The VRIFY Slide Deck and 3D Presentation for GoGold can be viewed at: https://vrify.com/explore/decks/9404 and on the Company's website at: www.gogoldresources.com.

Los Ricos District Exploration Projects

The Company's two exploration projects at its Los Ricos property are in Jalisco state, Mexico. The Los Ricos South Project began in March 2019 and an initial resource was announced on July 29, 2020 which indicated a Measured & Indicated Mineral Resource of 63.7 million ounces AgEq grading 199 g/t AgEq contained in 10.0 million tonnes, and an Inferred Resource of 19.9 million ounces AgEq grading 190 g/t AgEq contained in 3.3 million tonnes. An initial PEA on the project was announced on January 20, 2021 indicating an NPV 5% of US$295M.

The Los Ricos North Project was launched in March 2020 and includes drilling at the El Favor, La Trini, Casados and El Orito targets. During 2020, GoGold's exploration team identified over 100 targets on the Los Ricos North properties, demonstrating the significant exploration potential. The Company plans to drill 10 of these targets as part of its 2021 drilling program which is planned to exceed 100,000 metres of drilling and will be one of the largest in Mexico.

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 SGS Laboratory in Durango, Mexico. SGS crushes the samples and prepares 200-300 gram pulp samples with ninety percent passing Tyler 150 mesh (106m). The pulps are assayed for gold using a 50-gram charge by fire assay (Code GE_FAA515) and over limits greater than 10 grams per tonne are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code GO_FAU333). Silver and multi-element analysis is completed using total digestion (Code 1F2 Total Digestion ICP) and Fire Assay Code GE_AAS42E). Over limits greater than 100 grams per tonne silver are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code GO_FAG333).

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 GoGold's QA/QC protocols.

Mr. David Duncan, P. Geo. is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information of this release.

About GoGold Resources

GoGold Resources (TSX: GGD) is a Canadian-based silver and gold producer focused on operating, developing, exploring and acquiring high quality projects in Mexico. The Company operates the Parral Tailings mine in the state of Chihuahua and has the Los Ricos South and Los Ricos North exploration projects in the state of Jalisco. Headquartered in Halifax, NS, GoGold is building a portfolio of low cost, high margin projects. For more information visit gogoldresources.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT:

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy of any of GoGold's securities in the United States.

This news release may contain "forward-looking information" as defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Los Ricos South and North projects, and future plans and objectives of GoGold, including the intention to undertake further exploration at Los Ricos North, and the prospect of further discoveries there, constitute forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking information is based on a number of factors and assumptions which have been used to develop such information but which may prove to be incorrect, including, but not limited to, assumptions in connection with the continuance of GoGold and its subsidiaries as a going concern, general economic and market conditions, mineral prices, the accuracy of mineral resource estimates, and the performance of the Parral project. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from GoGold's expectations include exploration and development risks associated with GoGold's projects, the failure to establish estimated mineral resources or mineral reserves, volatility of commodity prices, variations of recovery rates, and global economic conditions. For additional information with respect to risk factors applicable to GoGold, reference should be made to GoGold's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with securities regulators, including, but not limited to, GoGold's Annual Information Form. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date of this release.

SOURCE GoGold Resources Inc.

Related Links

https://www.gogoldresources.com/


WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Immunitas Therapeutics ("Immunitas"), a single cell genomics-based therapeutics company, today announced the completion of a $58 million Series B financing led by Agent Capital with participation from Medical Excellence Capital (MEC), 120 Capital, Solasta Ventures, Mirae Asset, Ono Venture Investment, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, NS Investment, BrightEdge (American Cancer Society), and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program (LLS TAP). Existing investors Alexandria Venture Investments, Evotec, Leaps by Bayer, M Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund (NVF), and founding investor Longwood Fund also joined the round. As part of the financing, Geeta Vemuri, PhD, MBA, Managing Partner and Founder of Agent Capital, and Brian Halak, PhD, on behalf of MEC will join the Immunitas Board of Directors.

"Immunitas has made tremendous strides in the past year. This Series B financing is a key inflection point for the company and will enable us to drive IMT-009 rapidly into the clinic, while continuing to build and validate our pipeline of novel oncology programs," said Jeffrey Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer of Immunitas Therapeutics. "Our single cell technology platform allows our team to incorporate insights from human biology throughout the discovery and development process, enabling us to rapidly move towards serving patients in need."

The Series B funding will be used to advance Immunitas' lead program, IMT-009, a CD161 inhibitor, into the clinic to treat both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Both blockade and knockout of CD161 in preclinical systems have shown enhanced tumor-killing, increases in critical cytokines, and increased survival. The company expects to file its first Investigational New Drug application (IND) in 1H 2022 for IMT-009. This financing builds on the $39 million Series A financing secured in 2019. Immunitas Therapeutics was founded by Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, K. Dane Wittrup, PhD, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Mario Suva, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and Aviv Regev, PhD, MIT.

"Immunitas is focused on creating impactful therapies that modulate oncology targets, driven by a cross-functional platform that combines single cell analysis computation and molecular and cellular biology to rapidly identify and validate new targets," said Geeta Vemuri of Agent Capital. "This approach is well suited to provide powerful translational insights into biomarker and indication selection with long-term potential beyond IO."

In addition, Amanda Wagner, MBA, has been appointed Chief Business Officer in recognition of her significant contributions to the company's business and corporate development. Ms. Wagner was one of the earliest employees of Immunitas, joining the company in October 2019 as Vice President of Strategy. Ms. Wagner has more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery, drug development, and medical technology, and has led teams to identify, research, and develop novel immune-modulating therapies. At Immunitas, Ms. Wagner has led the structuring and negotiation of multiple strategic collaborations and driven the progression of the lead program and pipeline. Prior to joining Immunitas, she was Vice President of Corporate Development at Q32 Bio, where she contributed to the company's $46 million Series A. Previously, Ms. Wagner was at Concert Pharmaceuticals, where she managed a $250 million asset sale, directly contributed to the Initial Public Offering, and identified and led the development of a preclinical therapeutic for autoimmune disease, now in Phase 3. Prior to Concert, Ms. Wagner was an early member of the team at UpToDate, Inc. Ms. Wagner also sits on the Board of Directors of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

About Immunitas Therapeutics

Immunitas is a single cell genomics-based therapeutics company focused on immunology that is advancing multiple programs to the clinic. Immunitas' programs are derived from their platform, a cross-functional, highly integrated, single cell genomics approach that enables rapid target identification and validation in parallel with antibody discovery and engineering. IMT-009, a first-in-class NK and T cell modulator targeting CD161, is being developed for the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Immunitas is also advancing IMT-073, a dual-target NK and T cell modulator. The company was founded by Longwood Fund with leading scientists from Dana-Farber, MGH, the Broad, and MIT. Since being founded in 2019, Immunitas has raised a total of $97 million in venture funding from a strong syndicate of investors including Longwood Fund, Alexandria, Evotec, Leaps by Bayer, M Ventures, and Novartis Venture Fund (NVF). To learn more, visit www.immunitastx.com

About Agent Capital

Agent Capital is an international life sciences investment firm that supports disruptive healthcare companies focusing on novel, differentiated therapeutics and treatments that address unmet patient needs. Agent Capital aligns with scientists, entrepreneurs, and other investors to develop the next generation of healthcare innovations, leverages their industry expertise and successful track record to source premier deals, accelerate value, and drive successful exits. Their first fund invested in 15 portfolio companies, majority of them have executed collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies and successfully raised additional capital in the private or public markets. Agent Capital has offices in Boston, Massachusetts.

SOURCE Immunitas Therapeutics, Inc.
HOBOKEN, N.J., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EducationDynamics, a market-leading inquiry generation, marketing, enrollment management and retention services provider in the adult and online student segment of higher education, has announced its upcoming conference - InsightsEDU. The conference will be held in Denver, CO, February 25-27, 2022. Previously known as the Conference on Adult Learner Enrollment Management (CALEM Conference), InsightsEDU will offer higher ed leaders the opportunity to come together and discuss the latest trends and insights on attracting and engaging today's career-focused non-traditional students. Three conference tracks will cover topics on enrollment management, marketing, and leadership. In addition to the live conference in Denver, participants can elect to attend virtually.

EducationDynamics CEO Bruce Douglas noted, "We are thrilled to have education leaders from across the country joining us at InsightsEDU. Our team is dedicated to delivering the best possible conference experience for college and university professionals seeking to navigate the current enrollment management landscape. InsightsEDU is an incredible opportunity to learn more about the preferences of today's students and hear the latest trends in guiding them toward their academic goals."

Interested higher ed professionals can learn more at EducationDynamics.com.

About EducationDynamics

EducationDynamics is the industry leader in helping colleges and universities find new adult students and achieve their enrollment goals. As the trusted partner to more than 500 higher educational institutions, EducationDynamics has earned a reputation for providing the resources and expertise required to meet a wide range of industry challenges, delivering inquiry generation and agency of record marketing (e.g. paid digital, organic search, awareness), enrollment management, retention, and technology solutions to colleges and universities across the country. For more information, please visit: educationdynamics.com

Please Direct Inquiries to:

Eric McGee

Director of Marketing & Communications

Phone: 561-912-1858

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE EducationDynamics

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PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To aid in the clinical development of new vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) effective against emerging and highly infectious coronavirus variants, Integral Molecular has produced the most extensive catalog of SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped reporter virus particles (RVPs), currently over 65 variants, which enables neutralizing antibodies or serum to be assessed in accordance with recent FDA guidances.

Integral Molecular has developed SARS-CoV-2 RVPs for all variants of concern and interest, including Delta, Delta Plus, Lambda, and Gamma, as classified by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO). The company's scientific team constantly monitors a range of sources to identify new SARS-CoV-2 variants, alert customers, and rapidly make RVPs available to researchers.

The FDA recognizes that current COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutic MAbs may provide reduced protection against emerging variants and has issued guidance for developers testing the efficacy of vaccines and MAbs against such variants. The recognition that a neutralizing antibody response is an important correlate of protection for COVID-19 vaccines further highlights the importance of studying serum neutralization using live virus or the safer alternative, RVPs.

Integral Molecular's RVPs are "pseudoviruses" that lack the viral components required to cause disease and so can be safely handled under standard laboratory conditions. This greatly facilitates the testing of hundreds or thousands of samples from clinical trials, where RVPs are used to assess neutralizing antibodies against the virus.

"Virology is at the core of our company," said Benjamin Doranz, CEO of Integral Molecular. "Throughout the last 20 years we have been developing technologies using viral components and have produced large-scale batches of quality-controlled RVPs as a critical reagent to support clinical trials. In the midst of this pandemic, we are proud to support the fight against COVID-19."

Partners interested in using SARS-CoV-2 RVPs for vaccine or antibody development should contact Integral Molecular.

About Integral Molecular

Integral Molecular (integralmolecular.com) is the industry leader in developing and applying innovative technologies that advance the discovery of therapeutics against difficult protein targets. With 20 years of experience focused on membrane proteins and antibodies, Integral Molecular's technologies have been integrated into the drug discovery pipelines of over 400 biotech and pharmaceutical companies to help discover new therapies for cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and viral threats such as SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, Zika, and dengue viruses.

Press Contact:

Integral Molecular, Inc.

Soma Banik, PhD, Director of Communications

215-966-6061

[email protected]

www.integralmolecular.com



SOURCE Integral Molecular Inc.

Related Links

integralmolecular.com


DENVER, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortis announced Jeremy Sorensen as the Commercial Market President of its Utah Market. As market president, Mr. Sorensen will lead the strategy and management of the bank's Commercial Banking team in Utah in partnership with Josh Peters, Chief Lending Officer for Fortis.

"I am very pleased to welcome Jeremy to Fortis as the leader of our Utah market," said Fortis Chief Executive Officer, Chris Luce. "His depth of banking and leadership experience and passion for the local community will be an instrumental asset to our team in this growing market."

Mr. Sorensen joins Fortis with 12+ years of banking experience, having served in key management, lending, and credit roles with two national banks, most recently as the Business Banking Sales Manager at U.S. Bank in Salt Lake City, UT. He has built trusted relationships with business owners in the Utah market and is skilled in the areas of strategic planning, key account management, financial analysis and business development.

"I am thrilled to be joining Fortis during this key period of growth in commercial and specialty lending in Utah. The team has created a unique brand in the market and I look forward to continuing to strengthen this through flexibility, awareness and alignment with the goals of our clients," stated Mr. Sorensen.

About Fortis

Fortis is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and is a state-chartered bank with offices in the Denver and Salt Lake City metropolitan areas. The bank provides business and personal clients with a full suite of loan, treasury management and deposit products, with an emphasis on Commercial and Specialty clients. To learn more about Fortis, visit www.fortisprivatebank.com.

Contact

Laura Hildreth, Head of Human Resources at Fortis

[email protected]

SOURCE Fortis

Related Links

http://www.fortisprivatebank.com


DENVER, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KillerPolitics is currently in beta testing. KillerPolitics is the world's first live social media video debating platform that will hit the market on Aug. 30, 2021. The app will be available for iOS, Android, and web. KillerPolitics was founded by Erik M. Underwood in 2020.

An active debate taking place on the KillerPolitics platform

The current state of social media's unchecked bullying, personal attacks, and unnecessary back-and-forth has created an undesirable atmosphere. "I believe KillerPolitics will be a force to change social media behaviors through our unique technology and innovation. People are hungry for a platform where they can finally settle their debates in a format that challenges the status quo and where every voice can be heard," said Erik Underwood, CEO and founder of KillerPolitics.

KillerPolitics is offering a designated platform for users to engage in civil debates from all points of view in a regulated format made possible by its technology. KillerPolitics' specialized AI algorithm aids in its mission to allow people a space for conversation over confrontation.

Through its innovations, the platform makes KillerPolitics the world's first live social media video debating application. The technology is so unique that there is currently a patent pending.

Some of KillerPolitics' features include:

Live head-to-head video debating

Live audience participation

Impartial virtual coin-toss feature

AI monitoring with microphone control

Audience voting feature to declare a winner

Encrypted direct messaging, instant or scheduled debate options

Public and private debate options

Debate statistics

Options to boost profiles or debates

Original newscast [ coming soon ]

] Weekly current events talk show [coming soon]

Based on KillerPolitics' preliminary reviews by its beta testers, the company anticipates KillerPolitics will be on the same stage as Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

KillerPolitics' mission is for social media users to "Keep it off Facebook and Twitter. Settle it on KillerPolitics!"

For media inquiries, contact us at [email protected] or (720)287-2707 or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to learn more.

Visit https://www.killerpolitics.com to learn more about KillerPolitics Inc.

Company Address:

10200 E Girard Ave, steA211, Denver, CO 80231

Related Images

killerpolitics-the-worlds-first.jpg

KillerPolitics - The World's First Live Video Debating Platform

An active debate taking place on the KillerPolitics platform

SOURCE KillerPolitics
New Algorithm Can Predict Heart Failure Hospitalizations Tweet this

Patients with acute HF continues to suffer from poor prognosis and high re-hospitalization rates. This results in poor patient outcomes as well as a significant burden on healthcare systems. In the United States, nearly 1 in 4 heart failure patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge and approximately half are readmitted within 6 months2. Early prevention of decompensation may increase therapy options for patients and decrease re-hospitalization rates.

"A heart failure alert would benefit both patients and clinicians. Detecting worsening heart failure early and proactively stratifying patients at risk may help improve quality of care and avoid re-hospitalizations. This also may alleviate overloaded clinics and help efficiently allocate resources," said Dr. Antonio D'Onofrio, Principal Investigator of the SELENE HF study and Head of Electrophysiology and Cardiac Pacing Unit, Monaldi Hospital, Naples, Italy.

The algorithm automatically analyzes relevant patient parameters and remote monitoring trends. The resulting predictions may free up clinicians' time and, importantly, get them crucial information about their patients' conditions faster.

"Selene HF builds on the results and experience from the IN-TIME study and underscores BIOTRONIK's commitment to improving scientific knowledge and driving innovation in the field of heart failure," said Dr. Klaus Contzen, Vice-President Clinical Affairs, CRM, BIOTRONIK. "It has the potential to assist the development of an easy-to-use solution that can identify patients at higher risk of worsening heart failure hospitalizations so clinicians can proactively intervene".

Key points from the study:

A HF predictor which combines seven remote monitoring temporal trends and baseline risk stratification was developed and validated.

The study enrolled 918 patients across multiple centers with a median follow-up of 22.5 months.

Two thirds of first post-implant HF hospitalizations were predicted early with a median prediction time of 42 days.

There were only 0.7 false alerts per patient, per year.

References:

D'Onofrio A, Solimene F, Calo L, Calvi V, Viscusi M, Melissano D, et al. Combining Home Monitoring temporal trends from implanted defibrillators and baseline patient risk profile to predict heart failure hospitalizations: results from the SELENE HF study. Europace 2021; https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euab170. Khan MS, Sreenivasan J, Lateef N, Abougergi MS, Greene SJ, Ahmad T, et al. Trends in 30- and 90-day readmission rates for heart failure. Circ Heart Fail. 2021;14(4):e008335. Zile MR, Bennett TD, St John Sutton M, Cho YK, Adamson PB, Aaron MF, et al. Transition from chronic compensated to acute decompensated heart failure: pathophysiological insights obtained from continuous monitoring of intracardiac pressures. Circulation. 2008;118:143341.

About BIOTRONIK:

BIOTRONIK is a leading medical device company that has been developing trusted and innovative cardiovascular and endovascular solutions for more than 50 years. Driven by a purpose to perfectly match technology with the human body, BIOTRONIK innovations deliver care that saves and improves the lives of millions diagnosed with heart and blood vessel diseases every year. BIOTRONIK is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and is represented in over 100 countries.

Follow us on:

SOURCE BIOTRONIK

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Heading the launch of Insight HR Consulting LLC in California is Vilma Brager, Managing Principal, with 20 years of experience in human resources, operations, leadership development, and training. Vilma is a certified HR professional through the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI). For the past several years, Vilma has served as a strategic HR partner to dozens of organizations, assisting with HR compliance, training, and leadership development. She also partnered with internal HR leaders and business owners in developing employee handbooks and risk management tools designed to prevent workplace issues, avoid lawsuits, and create an environment of effective human capital. "It is a privilege to partner with Vilma as she offers a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of human resources, as well as proven leadership that will help us achieve our mission to become the go-to HR partner to companies seeking outside HR, training, and payroll support."

Of the reason for partnering with LEAPROS to form Insight HR Consulting, Vilma stated, "I was drawn to Insight HR's unique approach to innovating industry-shaping solutions for organizations seeking turnkey solutions designed for growth and scale. I am absolutely thrilled to have this unique opportunity to be a part of a very special and talented team. I will certainly enjoy the many opportunities that lie ahead for me, working closely with our team and our phenomenal clients."

About Insight HR Consulting LLC:

Insight HR Consulting specializes in providing HR solutions for businesses of all sizes and industries. Insight HR Consulting's suite of service offerings including Human Resources Outsourcing, HR Consulting, Compensation Consulting Services, Organizational Development Services, Benefits Administration, Payroll Administration, PEO Services, Workplace Harassment Investigations, Leadership Development, and Management and Staff Training including Sexual Harassment Prevention and Awareness Training. To learn more about Insight HR Consulting and their HR services, visit www.insighthrconsulting.com or call 800-784-0362

SOURCE LEAPROS Workforce Solutions; Insight HR Consulting

Related Links

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FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert Barnett, owner and operator of Elk River Trading Company, was selected to the Board of Directors for the National Pawnbrokers Association (NPA). Election results were announced at the national convention held at the Omni Hotel in Fort Worth on July 10 of this year.

Barnett is a second-generation pawnbroker with over 30 years of experience specializing in firearms, jewelry, and pre-owned luxury handbags. He's been recognized as the 2008 SHOT Business Magazine Retailer of the Year, Ruger's first retailer of the year, ATK/Vista  Ammunition Retailer of the Year, Taurus Retailer of the Year, Multi-Time Hornady Ammunition Retailer of the Year, and Smith & Wesson Million Dollar Club member. Barnett is the past president of the Alabama Pawnbrokers Association and is currently serving as the Vice President of the Tennessee Pawnbrokers Association.

Fran Bishop, NPA Government Relations Liaison and former NPA President, said, "Rob retains such a wealth of information and is always willing to share. He will be a huge asset to the NPA Board of Directors."

The National Pawnbrokers Association (NPA) is the only national trade association representing independent pawnbrokers. "I have been an active member of the NPA for many years and it is an honor to be able to serve and represent my fellow pawnbrokers as a member of the board," says Barnett.

Joey Holley, President of the Alabama Pawnbrokers Association expresses, "Rob is a wealth of knowledge to me personally and the Alabama Pawnbrokers Association. He has always been eager to step up and do whatever it takes to better the pawn industry. I am excited to see his knowledge and experience at work to take the NPA to the next level."

About Elk River Trading Company

Elk River Trading Company is a locally owned and operated pawn business in Fayetteville, Tennessee. More information is available at www.elkrivertrading.com or by following @elkrivertradingcompany on Facebook or Instagram.

About The Pawnbroker Network

The Pawnbroker Network serves the pawn industry through connections, campaigns, and content. They facilitate the industry's first professional business network and host the first and only media blog at www.pawnbrokernetwork.com.

Media Contact

Erika Brooks

The Pawnbroker Network

[email protected]

817-522-2556

SOURCE Pawnbroker Network

Related Links

www.pawnbrokernetwork.com


TOLEDO, Ohio, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Marco's Pizza, one of the nation's fastest-growing pizza brands, appoints Keith Sizemore to VP of Development from his previous operations position as VP of New Territory Development. Building from within, Marco's looks to a future of continued impressive franchise development led by Sizemore, who along with his wife Rocio own three Marco's locations with a fourth in development. Having more than two decades of franchise industry experience coupled with business ownership, Sizemore brings a unique and innovative perspective to the leadership team. In this role, Sizemore sets an aggressive development goal to double Marco's footprint over the next five years.

Sizemore was introduced to franchising at an early age, joining the Great American Cookie Company at age 17 under the reign of IFA Hall of Famer, Lawrence "Doc" Cohen. After a decade, Sizemore made the move to McDonald's where he honed his franchising skills for another 13 years in various roles supporting franchisees, corporate stores, training, marketing and development. In 2016, he joined the Marco's team as Director of Operations before progressing to VP of New Territory Development and becoming a multi-unit franchise owner with his wife before entering his new role with development.

"It's an honor to be promoted to this position and focus on the development of the brand. Being a franchisee, I've witnessed our development processes first-hand so I am able to see the gaps and create efficiencies that will help us grow faster with a focus on providing an excellent experience for our franchisees," said Sizemore. "Our goal is to become the fourth largest pizza brand in the country and I have full confidence we'll get there. We have an incredible leadership team and I'm looking forward to playing a role in growing the Marco's brand to new heights."

Marco's is a well-established and rapidly expanding brand with many primary territories available for development. Marco's provides a full development support system, including technology and tools to help identify the right territories for expansion plus expertise in financing, real estate, construction management and field operations, to assist franchisees and multi-unit operators.

Nationally, Marco's has signed more than 100 franchise agreements year-to-date, with over 200 stores in various stages of development, on track to grow its 1000-plus unit footprint by more than 10% this year. Marco's is experiencing record-breaking sales and continues to innovate and pilot new programs to sustain its performance. As a result, eager and sophisticated entrepreneurs and multi-unit operators are flocking to the franchise opportunity.

"Keith has the right vision needed for this role and I anticipate his guidance and leadership will bring us continued growth and development success for years to come," said SVP, Chief Experience Officer, Steve Seyferth, who oversees development.

With the right team in place, Marco's has been able to maintain rapid growth and actualize development goals while expanding with franchisees who embrace its People-First approach to business. The development team has found new, cost-saving opportunities to keep the initial up-front investment affordable including smaller footprints, pickup windows, tools that accelerate the new store opening process and more, creating operational efficiencies that improve the overall guest experience and grow sales.

Opening a new store every three and a half days on average, the Top 50% of its franchised stores generated $1,059,574 AUV for 2020*. For more information on Marco's Pizza franchise opportunities, visit www.marcosfranchising.com or call 866-731-8209.

ABOUT MARCO'S PIZZA

Marco's Pizza is America's Most Loved and Most Trusted Pizza Brand, according to the 2019 Harris Poll EquiTrend Study. Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Marco's Pizza is one of the fastest-growing pizza companies in the United States. Marco's was founded in 1978 by Italian-born Pasquale ("Pat") Giammarco and thrives by making authentic Italian quality pizza with fresh ingredients. The company has grown from its roots as a beloved Ohio brand to operate over 1,000 stores in 34 states with locations in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Most recently, Marco's Pizza was ranked No. 2 in the Pizza category on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2020 "Franchise 500" ranking, and No. 6 in the Largest Pizza Chain category on Restaurant Business' 2020 "Top 500 Chains" ranking. Other recent accolades include ranking No. 4 in Forbes 2019 "Best Franchises to Buy" Small/Medium Investment and ranking five consecutive years on Nation's Restaurant News' prestigious "Top 200" ranking.

*Based on the Average Unit Volume of the top 50% of our Franchised Stores for fiscal year 2020. Based on fiscal year 2020, 142 of 369 Franchised Stores in the category (38%) met or exceeded this average. This information appears in Item 19 of our 2021 FDD  please refer to our FDD for complete information on financial performance. Results may differ. There is no assurance that any franchisee will perform as well.

SOURCE Marco's Pizza

Related Links

http://www.marcosfranchising.com


Leading Breast Pump Brand Expands Access to New Breast Milk Saver Following Market Success with Moms in China

MCHENRY, Ill., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Medela today announced that a new breast milk saver solution will be available to support lactating parents around the world. The Silicone Breast Milk Collector offers protection for each precious drop of milk. First introduced in China last fall, the product has elevated Medela's place in China's market, becoming the #1 brand in the category.1 With consumers consistently giving it high reviews, Medela is excited to introduce this new Collector to support breastfeeding families across North America.

Medela Silicone Breast Milk Collector

"As a mom myself, I know that every drop counts," explains Annette Bruls, CEO of Medela. "Research indicates that breast milk leakage can continue through the first year for some breastfeeding mothers.2 We want to provide a solution that helps lactating parents capture every precious drop of milk. When we introduced the Silicone Collector in China last year, moms shared how they love the secure suction base and double leak-proof features. It's exciting to bring this mom-tested favorite to others around the world to support them through their breastfeeding journey."

The Silicone Breast Milk Collector is a companion to breastfeeding, collecting breast milk that naturally flows from one breast while nursing from the other.3 Featuring a double leak-proof stopper and lid, suction base and clip-on lanyard, the Collector is designed as a breast milk saver, protecting every precious drop from being lost to ensure baby receives it all. The one-piece silicone design is dishwasher safe and made from 100% food-grade silicone, holding up to 100 mL / 3.4 oz. of breast milk. In the USA, the Silicone Breast Milk Collector includes is now available online at Amazon, Target and buybuy BABY, and will be available in store at Target, Walmart and buybuy BABY beginning in September. For Canadian shoppers, the Collector is available online at Amazon, Babies 'R Us, buybuy BABY, Walmart, Indigo, and The Bay and will be available in store at Babies 'R Us and buybuy BABY later this month.

Medela is focused on expanding the support available to new parents, introducing new digital resources and breastfeeding products throughout the year. Medela announced Medela Baby, its new category expansion, featuring a full range of pacifiers for infants through 18 months and beyond. Medela also unveiled Purelan, Medela's most advanced formulation of medical-grade lanolin, offering protection for breastfeeding moms. Medela Family, the new mobile app for breastfeeding parents, is now available for free on iOS and Android devices.

About Medela

Through advancing research, observing natural behavior and listening to our customers, Medela turns science into care while nurturing health for generations. Medela supports millions of moms, babies, patients and healthcare professionals in more than 100 countries all over the world. As the healthcare choice for more than 6 million hospitals and homes across the globe, Medela provides leading research-based breast milk feeding and baby products, healthcare solutions for hospitals, and clinical education. Medela is dedicated to building better health outcomes, simplifying and improving life, and developing breakthroughs that help moms, babies and patients live their life to the fullest. For more information, visit www.medela.com.

1 ECdataway Database 2020 Jan - 2021 March.

2 https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/122/Supplement_2/S69

3 The Silicone Breast Milk Collector is not a breast pump and does not replace the need for an efficient manual or electric breast pump.

Medela wordmark and logo are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Purelan is a trademark of Medela.

SOURCE Medela LLC

Related Links

http://www.medela.com


MIAMI, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Beauty Map, an app created by South Florida-based beauty influencer, Marsha Daily, has officially launched today. Beauty Map is looking to be a one-stop shop for any beauty services that you are looking for. From oral care, to med spas, to plastic surgeons  all within your area.

"I'm someone who doesn't shy away from talking about different procedures I've had done," says creator, Marsha Daily. "On top of that, I've lived in many different places, so it became important to me to see who was the best to work with in my local market."

Creator, Marsha Daily

From finding make up artists to eyebrow threaders, Beauty Map is looking to be a centralized hub for anyone looking to properly locate the best in the industry, locally. Beauty Map is looking to stop the average person from spending countless hours and days online researching different experts and centers to have your procedures done.

Beauty Map will have the recommended doctors available along with photos, scores, and real reviews to make sure you have the best experience possible. Once you get a procedure done, the participating location will then give you a QR code to scan. Once scanned, you will be directed to the app to leave a verified business review to spread continued awareness for others.

Daily, is a beauty influencer who has been active on social media for the past five years. Her company, ShampooMeKids (which launched one year ago) sells mats, brushes, and wraps to help kids with getting their hair washed. The company has gained a large following and a whopping revenue from both viral videos and internet campaigns.

Beauty Services offered by Beauty Map include:

Oral Care

Dental Exam, Teeth Cleaning, Teeth Whitening, Braces, Dental Implants, Laser Gum Treatment, Gum Bleaching, Laser Periodontal Therapy, Wisdom Tooth Removals, Veneers and More.

Med Spas

Facials, Fillers, Botox, Laser Hair Removal, Chemical Peel, VI Peel, Vitamin B12 Shots, Glutathione Shots, Vampire Facial/PRP Skin Treatment, Diamond Facial, Oxygen Facial, Tattoo Removal, Cellulite Reduction, Cellfina, Velashape, Cellulaze, Zimmer Wave, Acne Treatment, Micorodermodrasion, POD Threading, Under Eye Treatment, Ingrown Hair Treatment, Dermaplaning, Spectra Peel/Hollywood Laser Peel, Keloid Removal, Halo Laser, Wood Therapy, Vajacial and More.

Nail Salons

Full Set Acrylic, Acrylic Overlay, Dipping Powder, Manicure, Pedicure, Gel Polish, Nail Design, Waxing and More.

Plastic Surgery

Breast Augmentation, Lipo, BBL, 360 Lipo, Rhinoplasty, Tummy Tuck, Bio Gel Removal and More.

Hair Salons

Blow Outs, Hair Coloring, Natural Hair treatment, Extension Sewing, Braids, Micro Links, Hair Cuts and More.

Brow Boutiques - Lash Extensions

Mink Lashes, Eyebrow Threading, Eyebrow Tinting, Waxing, Microblading and More.

Eye Care  Ophthalmologist

Eye Exam, Lasik Eye Surgery, Crosslinking Eye Surgery, PRK Eye Surgery, Glasses, Oculoplastic Surgery, Refractive Surgery and More.

Users can download the app in iOS or Android app stores now.

For any media inquiries including needing additional information, pictures, or interviews, please contact me (Lamont) at [email protected] or via phone at 305.219.2242.

SOURCE Beauty Map App
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MobileCoin, a safe and easy digital payments ecosystem, today announced the closing of its $66 million Series B to further develop MobileCoin technology, with participation from Alameda Research, Berggruen Holdings, BlockTower Capital, Coinbase Ventures, General Catalyst, Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures, and Vy Capital. MobileCoin is a fast, safe, and easy-to-use payment technology that gives everyone the ability to transact digitally from nearly anywhere in the world.

The round will be used to further develop MobileCoin's products, including MOBot, the first cryptocurrency chatbot payment system, the company's Merchant Services buildout, and the rollout of its initial stablecoin, whose value will stay constant with the US dollar. In addition, MobileCoin will continue to support its Signal deployment, as well as make it easier for additional mobile messaging and communications applications to add cryptocurrency payments between their users, as well as support further autonomous systems.

Representing a mix of venture firms, cryptocurrency technology companies, notable entrepreneurs, investors, and artists, additional participants in the round include Suzy Ryoo, Troy Carter & J. Erving, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Brent Faiyaz, Jayne Andrew & Ty Baisden, Tunde Balogun, Aglae Ventures, DreamCrew, Matt Mullenweg, Jesse Robbins, James Lindenbaum, Gaingels, and 10X Capital.

MobileCoin differentiates itself in a crowded payments landscape with its unique value proposition:

Mission-driven: MobileCoin is a mission-founded company, focused on democratizing privacy for all. MobileCoin aims to build the future of digital payments in an accessible and sustainable way.

MobileCoin is a mission-founded company, focused on democratizing privacy for all. MobileCoin aims to build the future of digital payments in an accessible and sustainable way. Easy-to-use: MobileCoin transactions are one of the fastest in the world, completing in just seconds, giving senders and receivers peace of mind and minimizing risk. The technology was built for mobility and convenience, with payments occurring right on your phone.

MobileCoin transactions are one of the fastest in the world, completing in just seconds, giving senders and receivers peace of mind and minimizing risk. The technology was built for mobility and convenience, with payments occurring right on your phone. Private and secure: The company puts privacy first, with an opaque ledger and cryptographically protected transactions. The network uses forward secrecy to keep data from being compromised, ensuring that private information remains private. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, MobileCoin was built to ensure that digital wallets can be easily recovered - and not lost forever. Even if merchants or users lose their phone, they can recover their account balance and transaction history by simply loading their account onto a new phone.

The company puts privacy first, with an opaque ledger and cryptographically protected transactions. The network uses forward secrecy to keep data from being compromised, ensuring that private information remains private. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, MobileCoin was built to ensure that digital wallets can be easily recovered - and not lost forever. Even if merchants or users lose their phone, they can recover their account balance and transaction history by simply loading their account onto a new phone. Environmentally-friendly: As the most environmentally friendly payment technology today, MobileCoin uses a network consensus model (Federated Byzantine Agreement) that requires near-zero energy to run.

As the most environmentally friendly payment technology today, MobileCoin uses a network consensus model (Federated Byzantine Agreement) that requires near-zero energy to run. Supporter of the arts: MobileCoin embodies a culture surrounding the cultivation of the arts. Given that privacy is integral to the act of creation, art and culture arise when given a safe space to flourish. This shared passion among the MobileCoin team is exemplified in MobileCoin Radio and the MobileCoin Art Residency .

MobileCoin is available today on exchanges like FTX, Bitfinex, BigOne, and HotBit for non-US persons.

About MobileCoin

Mission-driven, MobileCoin is democratizing the digital payment system by enabling lightning-fast, sustainable and easy global transactions. Guided by the belief that privacy is a right, MobileCoin leverages encrypted blockchain, an opaque ledger, and cryptographically protected transactions. Development of the MobileCoin ecosystem is spearheaded by the MobileCoin Foundation . The company is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, please visit mobilecoin.com .

SOURCE MobileCoin
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station Tuesday, Aug. 24, for a spacewalk to install a support bracket in preparation for future installation of the orbiting laboratory's third new solar array.

NASA will discuss the upcoming spacewalk during a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Aug. 23. Live coverage of the news conference and spacewalk will air on NASA Television, the agency's website, and the NASA app.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and astronaut Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will install a support bracket, called a modification kit, on the inward port side of the station's backbone truss structure in a position known as P4, which is closest to the station's pressurized living space. The kit prepares the site for future installation and deployment of the third of six new International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (iROSA) to upgrade one of the station's eight power channels known as 4A, which provides partial power to the U.S. Laboratory, the Harmony module, and the Columbus module. The modification kit will be attached to the mast canister at the base of the original solar arrays.

The crew will also replace a device that measures the electrical charging potential of the arrays and associated surfaces in its vicinity, called a floating point measurement unit, on a separate truss.

Reporters who wish to participate in the news conference at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston by telephone must call the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 to RSVP no later than 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 20. Reporters will not be invited to attend briefings on site at NASA centers due to safety restrictions related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Anyone following the briefing on social media may ask questions using #AskNASA.

News conference participants are:

Dana Weigel , deputy manager, International Space Station Program.

, deputy manager, International Space Station Program. Adi Boulos , NASA spacewalk flight director.

, NASA spacewalk flight director. Sandy Moore , NASA spacewalk officer.

Live coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 7 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 24, with the crew members scheduled to exit the station's Quest airlock around 8:30 a.m. The spacewalk will last approximately 6 hours and 50 minutes.

Hoshide will serve as extravehicular crew member one (EV1), with red stripes on his spacesuit, while Vande Hei will be extravehicular crew member two (EV2), with an unmarked suit. This will be the fourth spacewalk for Hoshide, the fifth spacewalk for Vande Hei, and the station's 242nd in support of assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

The spacewalk follows three other recent ones to install the first pair of new iROSA arrays. On June 16, Kimbrough and Pesquet moved the first to a mounting bracket on the 2B power channel on the port 6 truss, where it was secured in its folded configuration. On June 20, the duo returned to the 2B power channel to complete installation and deployment. The astronauts completed installation and deployment of the second of the six new arrays in a spacewalk June 25.

The station's original solar arrays are functioning well, but have begun to show signs of degradation, which was expected, as they were designed for a 15-year service life. The first pair of original solar arrays were deployed in December 2000 and have been powering the station for more than 20 years, exceeding expectations. They are now augmented with the first pair of iROSAs positioned in front of them. When all six of the new arrays are in place, the station's total available power will increase from 160 kilowatts to a maximum of 215. The same roll-out solar array design will be used to power elements of Gateway, a new lunar-orbiting outpost in development by NASA's commercial and international partners.

In November 2020, the International Space Station surpassed its 20-year milestone of continuous human presence, providing opportunities for unique research and technological demonstrations that help prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars and also improve life on Earth. Over that time, 244 people from 19 countries have visited the orbiting laboratory that has hosted nearly 3,000 research investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.

Learn more about the International Space Station, its research, and its crew, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The CDC recently added seven countries to their highest travel risk level for Covid-19. According to travel insurance comparison site Squaremouth.com , four of these countries - Israel, France, Iceland and Aruba - are among the most popular destinations for US tourists.

With the addition of these countries, Squaremouth reports 44% of trips being booked are now to countries listed as a Level 4 risk, the highest risk of contracting Covid-19.

As more European countries reopen their borders to US tourists, the demand to visit them increases, along with the risk. In September, 40% of Squaremouth travelers are heading to Europe, with a large percentage visiting high risk countries, including Greece, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Squaremouth explains how CDC travel advisories impact travel insurance coverage.

Click here for a graph of Squaremouth's top 25 international destinations , including which are currently listed as a Level 4 risk.

CDC Advisory Usually Does Not Trigger Cancellation Benefits

Most travel insurance policies do not provide cancellation coverage for Department of State travel alerts, including these CDC advisories.

Only 4 of the 94 policies currently available on Squaremouth.com include cancellation benefits for government-issued travel advisories. However, in order to have coverage, the policy must be purchased prior to the date the advisory is issued. This means it is too late to purchase a policy for any country with a current Level 4 travel advisory.

CDC Advisory Does Not Void Coverage

Travel insurance policies typically provide coverage worldwide, and most insurance companies are still providing cancellation and medical benefits for contracting Covid-19 . This means, even if there is a travel advisory at the insured's destination, benefits are still available.

CDC Advisory-Related Cancellation Requires Cancel For Any Reason Coverage

Squaremouth recommends travelers concerned about government-issued advisories consider a Cancel For Any Reason policy, as this provides the best chance at getting some money back.

"Most issues our travelers have experienced throughout the pandemic weren't directly caused by contracting Covid-19, but other related circumstances," says Squaremouth spokesperson, Megan Moncrief. "These new advisories may make travelers concerned about their health and safety at their destination. Likewise, they could cause a domino effect of border closures or other travel requirements. For these reasons, Cancel For Any Reason is the best option."

Methodology:

Squaremouth.com hosts the largest number of travel insurance providers and policies that offer coverage related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Squaremouth Analytics studied data from thousands of policies purchased between May 1, 2021 and August 16, 2021 to identify changes and trends in travel insurance, revealing where customers are traveling and which countries are under a Level 4 CDC Alert.

Countries that were under a Level 4 CDC Alert prior to August 9, 2021 are labeled as Existing CDC Level 4 Risk. Countries where a Level 4 CDC Alert was issued on or after August 9, 2021 are labeled as New CDC Level 4 Risk.

Notes to editors

Available Topic Expert: Megan Moncrief, Chief Marketing Officer, is available for comment and interview. [email protected] (727) 378-0938

Squaremouth maintains a list of country insurance requirements here: https://www.squaremouth.com/destinations

Other Relevant Research:

ABOUT SQUAREMOUTH

Squaremouth.com, and their multi-award winning customer service team, has helped over 2 million travelers save time and money to find the best travel insurance policy for their trip.

Leveraging decades of travel expertise, and industry-leading technology, Squaremouth.com hosts the most intuitive travel insurance quoting and comparison engine on the market today.

Coupled with verified customer reviews and the largest portfolio of products, Squaremouth allows travelers to instantly purchase a travel insurance policy from every major provider in the US.

SOURCE Squaremouth

Related Links

http://www.squaremouth.com


The first-of-its-kind database is the result of an in-depth survey of women in architecture, real estate and design-related fields that Landmarks Illinois publicly launched in 2020  a year that marked the 100 th anniversary of the passage of the 19 th Amendment, upholding a U.S. citizen's right to vote regardless of sex. The database calls attention to the women who helped to create places that today are cherished by communities and property owners across Illinois, yet many remain unprotected without local landmark status or lack National Register designation that would provide opportunities for important financial preservation incentives.

"This new database recognizes those who laid the path for women today and who continue to impact the built environment of Illinois and Chicago," said Lisa DiChiera, Landmarks Illinois Director of Advocacy, who spearheaded the project. "We hope students and professionals in architecture, planning and public history will be inspired to study these women, their careers and built works."

The new database can be found on the Landmarks Illinois website at www.landmarks.org/womenwhobuiltillinois/.

Women in the database

Among the more than 100 people in the Women Who Built Illinois database are:

Georgia Louise Harris Brown , the second African American woman to become a licensed architect and engineer in the United States and who did structural calculations for many projects and important firms, including Mies van der Rohe's Promontory Apartments in Chicago .

, the second African American woman to become a licensed architect and engineer in and who did structural calculations for many projects and important firms, including Promontory Apartments in . Marion Mahony Griffin , an important member of Frank Lloyd Wright's office for more than a decade and a prominent Prairie School architect who designed the Robert Mueller and Adolph Mueller houses in Decatur .

, an important member of office for more than a decade and a prominent Prairie School architect who designed the Robert Mueller and houses in . Gertrude Lempp Kerbis , an architect who opened her own firm, Lempp Kerbis, in 1967 following experience studying with architect Mies van der Rohe and working at many high profile architecture firms in Chicago , including C.F. Murphy Associates and Skidmore Owings & Merrill. Kerbis designed the 1962 O'Hare Airport Rotunda, which Landmarks Illinois included on its 2017 Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois due to its uncertain future amid O'Hare terminal expansion.

, an architect who opened her own firm, Lempp Kerbis, in 1967 following experience studying with architect and working at many high profile architecture firms in , including C.F. Murphy Associates and & Merrill. Kerbis designed the 1962 O'Hare Airport Rotunda, which Landmarks Illinois included on its 2017 Most Endangered Historic Places in due to its uncertain future amid O'Hare terminal expansion. Greta Lederer , a suburban home builder who in the 1950s developed the neighborhoods of Strawberry Hill, Westwood Acres and Skokie Ridge in Glencoe and additional homes in Highland Park and Northbrook . A 1957 Chicago Daily Tribune article attributed to her $10 million worth of home development on the North Shore.

Retired architect Margaret Zirkel Young, who is also included in the Women Who Built Illinois database, said she hopes the project will inspire and motivate more women to enter the architecture profession. Zirkel Young was project architect at Ezra Gordon-Jack M. Levin & Associates for the firm's 1970s design commissions of Chicago's Newberry Plaza, River Plaza and the East Bank Club, to name a few.

"I never questioned being in a room with all men and no women," said Zirkel Young of her career. "I knew from the time of my first drafting class at Senn High School I wanted to be an architect. A favorite Goethe quote I would return to throughout my career was, 'Boldness has genius.'"

Call for action & crowdsourced information

Landmarks Illinois encourages local historic preservation commissions and municipal planning departments to evaluate and prioritize places identified in the Women Who Built Illinois survey for local landmark and/or National Register designations. Landmarks Illinois also welcomes additional research on women in the survey for whom more information is needed. Please send information on existing women in the database and/or of additional women in these fields who were active in Illinois prior to 1979 to [email protected].

Database researchers & partners

Research for and development of the database was led by DiChiera of Landmarks Illinois and Erica Ruggiero, Principal at McGuire Igleski & Associates, Inc., and Landmarks Illinois intern Cray Kennedy. Additional research and peer review was provided by Julia Bachrach, a Chicago-based architectural historian, planner and preservationist, and student volunteer Jared Saef, who also contributed research and photography.

The database is made possible thanks to generous financial support from: Women in Restoration & Engineering (WiRE), AIA Illinois, the Kohler Fund for the Midwest of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Kim Kerbis, in honor of architect Gertrude Lempp Kerbis.

"I am so impressed by this pursuit to research and document the women who are so important to the history of our state and our built world," said Kim Kerbis, project donor and daughter of late architect Gertrude Lempp Kerbis. "Some of these inspiring women are known, many are unknown, but all are underappreciated, under recognized and undervalued. The work Landmarks Illinois and its team of researchers and historians are doing is fascinating and long overdue."

About Landmarks Illinois

We are People Saving Places for People. Landmarks Illinois, now celebrating its 50th Anniversary, is a membership-based nonprofit organization serving the people of Illinois. We inspire and empower stakeholders to save places that matter to them by providing free guidance, practical and financial resources and access to strategic partnerships. For more information, visit www.Landmarks.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kaitlyn McAvoy

Communications Manager, Landmarks Illinois

312-922-1742

[email protected]

SOURCE Landmarks Illinois

Related Links

http://www.landmarks.org


"We know our Guests, and they love to travel and experience new things, but the more than year-long quarantine prevented many of them from that adventure," said Sara Bittorf, TGI Fridays Chief Experience Officer. "TGI Fridays has restaurants around the world, and while Fridays fans can't physically visit all of them, we are excited to bring the ultimate global Fridays experience to our U.S. restaurants."

A recent Fridays survey found that 64 percent of Americans' travel plans got canceled in 2020 and 47 percent agree that they missed trying new food/restaurants when traveling abroad.

The survey also found that 64 percent of people agree the hardest part of the quarantine was not being able to go to restaurants to socialize and 59 percent plan to go to happy hour/bars more than they did before the pandemic.

A culinary adventure awaits with new Global Bar Crawl menu:

Potato Skin Passport  This classic appetizer will now offer three new flavors, including Apple Butter BBQ topped with Chicken and Cheese, Buffalo Chicken with Blue Cheese crumbles, and Cheese Pizza Skins with marinara.

Around the World of Dumplings  A global exploration of dumplings with options like Korean Wasabi and Szechwan, and Cajun-fried served with Cucumber Wasabi Ranch, BBQ Ranch, and Szechwan dipping sauces.

Wing Around the World  Choose from boneless or traditional wings with worldly wing flavors, including Classic Buffalo, Tropical BBQ, Spicy Hot Mustard, and Garlic Parmesan.

Amazing Blazing Pound of Cheese Fries  Loaded with poblano queso, mixed cheese, bacon, pickled jalapenos, green onions, and a side of BBQ Ranch.

Ultimate Around the World Long Island Iced Tea  ABSOLUT Vodka, Hendrick's Gin, Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Altos Tequila, Cointreau, and Coke .

Ultimate Double Berry Mojito  Bacardi Rum, strawberry, raspberry, fresh mint, Sprite  .

. Ultimate Fridays Margarita  1800 Silver Tequila and triple sec.

Fridays is leading the flavor adventure with the Global Bar Crawl sweepstakes. July 27, 2021, to September 6, 2021, Guests can enter by either visiting a participating Fridays location, joining Fridays Rewards, ordering delivery directly through Fridays.com, or downloading the Fridays mobile app. The sweepstakes will have various prizes, including a year's worth of free Fridays gift cards, Amazon gift cards, daily prize packs, and a grand prize all-expense-paid trip for two to the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico.*

The Global Bar Crawl menu is available at participating Fridays locations and online with the improved direct ordering at Fridays.com. Guests can enjoy a completely contactless experience through curbside pickup with mobile technology that will alert the restaurant upon arrival. Guests can also order ahead, apply gift cards as payments, and customize their entire experience via the site.

To follow the Global Bar Crawl adventure, visit and participate in Fridays' Instagram global takeover using the #FridaysGlobalBarCrawl. For more information about the Global Bar Crawl sweepstakes, new menu offerings, or to find restaurant locations, visit Fridays.com.

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Fridays Sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the Contiguous US who are 21 or older at time of entry. Sweepstakes begins on July 27, 2021, at 12:00 a.m. ET and ends on September 6, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. ET. For entry, prize details and official rules visit www.fridaysaroundtheworld.com. Sponsored by TGI Fridays Inc., 19111 North Dallas Parkway, Suite 165, Dallas, Texas 75287. Void where prohibited. Images and brandmark are used with permission and are property of Hard Rock International (USA) Inc. Grand prize trip must be redeemed by September 1, 2022. Menu offerings available while supplies last at participating locations only. Void where prohibited by law.

About TGI Fridays

In 1965, TGI Fridays opened its first location in New York City. More than 50 years later, Fridays comprises more than 719 restaurants in 54 countries offering high-quality, authentic American food and legendary drinks backed by genuine service. Bringing people together to socialize and celebrate the spirit of "Friday" is core to our promise that "In Here, It's Always Friday." Visit www.Fridays.com for more information and download our mobile app. Join Fridays Rewards and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Methodology

The TGI Fridays survey was conducted online by Dynata on July 8 and 9, 2021, among 1,000 American adults aged 18 and older. Respondents to the survey were selected from those who volunteered to participate in online surveys. One thousand complete surveys were collected using the sample framework based on U.S. Census data for age, ethnicity, gender, region, and income.

SOURCE TGI Fridays

Related Links

https://www.tgifridays.com/


TRENTON, N.J., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Affordable Energy for New Jersey (AENJ), the state's leading energy policy coalition, has published a long-awaited report detailing the anticipated costs for the implementation of the state's Energy Master Plan (EMP), and the price is shocking.

Trenton's Dirty Little Secret, No One Can Afford The Energy Master Plan

EMP cost breakdown

This detailed analysis of the proposal estimates the EMP will cost a staggering $525 Billion to implement more than ten times New Jersey's annual budget. This same proposal was categorically rejected by NJ residents with a 2-1 margin when public opinion research was conducted on this very topic.

"For more than a year the state has deflected, ignored, and outright covered up what NJ residents will be taxed when it comes to energy policy implementation  and that is just unacceptable," explained Ron Morano, Executive Director for AENJ. "After conducting our detailed study, it is no wonder why Board of Public Utilities continue to shirk their responsibilities, they do not want resident to know how crushing this proposal will be everyone."

The study, which was conducted by well-known energy economist Dr. Jonathan Lesser, explains that implementing the EMP will cost every New Jersey resident thousands of dollars, while having no impact on world climate. "The state of New Jersey will essentially require every New Jersey resident to be saddled with an additional $52,000 mortgage to pay for the Energy Master Plan," explained Dr. Lesser. "With the average property tax bill in NJ hovering above $9,100 per household, it is difficult to fathom that the state wants to saddle residents with an additional $50K bill per person  over $200,000 for a family of four  to implement a plan that will have zero impact on world climate, but which will result in less reliable energy supplies and energy rationing."

Affordable Energy for New Jersey conducted a state-wide survey of 1,362 NJ residents, which asked them for their opinions on various aspects of state energy policy. The results of that survey show that 54% would be unwilling to pay any more in taxes and or higher energy bills to fund the Energy Master Plan and 64% oppose its implementation when informed of a cost estimate ($52,500 per resident).

Key Energy Survey Findings

About Affordable Energy for New Jersey:

The Affordable Energy New Jersey Coalition (AENJ) is a dedicated group of business, labor, industry, civic and community organizations in New Jersey who have come together to ensure that families and businesses maintain access to clean and affordable energy.

About Dr. Jonathan Lesser:

Dr. Jonathan Lesser is the President of Continental Economics, Inc. with over 35 years of experience in energy policy issues and cost-benefit analysis, and an Adjunct Fellow with the Manhattan Institute. He is the co-author of three textbooks, numerous academic and trade press articles, and was previously one of the "Deans" for an education program with the Energy Bar Association. Dr. Lesser has testified before Congress on energy policy issues and has testified numerous times before state utility commissions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and international energy regulators.

SOURCE Affordable Energy for New Jersey Coalition
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the financial technology company, One, announced its Series B funding of $40 million. The round is led by Progressive Investment Company, Inc., with participation from Obvious Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Core Innovation Capital and others. This funding will fuel customer growth, scaling of the internal team, and expansion of One's product offerings to further their mission of reinventing everyday finance for the middle class.

Traditional banking exists on a system of fractured accounts and billions of dollars in hidden fees that leave customers living paycheck to paycheck despite steady incomes. Americans typically need 5-7 accounts to manage their money. One is built on a proprietary technology core delivering saving, spending, sharing, budgeting, and borrowing in a single account.

"Stretched middle-income households and working families deal with financial stress on a daily basis and are largely unsupported by current offerings,"said One CEO Brian Hamilton. "Every day we are marching towards changing this landscape to better serve customers and challenge the antiquated practices and uncompetitive pricing of traditional banking products. One offers features that can make a lasting financial impact for hard working people."

Since making its product generally available in September of 2020, One has rapidly enhanced its core product offering, launching award-winning overdraft protection, an Auto-Save feature that rewards automatic savings contributions at 3.00% APY, cash flow-based Credit Lines that enables borrowing as low as 12% APR, and a Credit Builder product to help build financial health for those that need it most. One has reinvented how people share financial goals and responsibilities with individually configurable Pockets that can be easily shared with others and accessed via virtual and physical cards. One currently has an Apple app store rating of 4.8 and recently received a 4.5 star rating on NerdWallet where it's ranked as one of the "best banks of 2021." Beloved by customers, One has helped its users automatically save over $2 million collectively since its launch, a number that grows daily.

"We are thrilled to join One on their mission and help the expansion of a world-class team of fintech and banking innovators focused on designing a suite of unique tools that will transform how people manage their money," said Andrew Quigg, Progressive's Chief Strategy Officer. Progressive understands consumers' needs are constantly changing and One provides convenient ways to keep finances in one place."

This recent round follows One's Series A funding in March of 2020 led by Foundation Capital, Core Innovation Capital, and Obvious Ventures.

"The team at One has moved lightning fast to innovate on behalf of those who need access to simpler, more impactful financial solutions," said Foundation Capital General Partner Charles Moldow. "With no fees, no minimums, and an integrated, well-designed product, One customers are making real progress towards financial well-being and are sharing financial responsibilities in ways that map to modern families and relationships."

About One:

One , a financial technology company, launched in 2019 and is based in San Francisco and Sacramento. With $40 million in venture capital backing from Progressive, Obvious Ventures, Foundation Capital, and Core Innovation Capital and others, One's mission is to help improve the financial lives of hard-working families and individuals by seamlessly combining saving, spending, sharing, and borrowing into one account. As a result, every One customer has access to high-yield savings, affordable credit that grows with them, and tools to help automate their money management.

Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. One is a financial technology company, not a bank.



Contact: Kirsten Erickson

(949) 521-3544

[email protected]



SOURCE One

Related Links

https://www.onefinance.com


PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbital Insight , the leader in geospatial analytics, today released its Supply Chain Intelligence solution that combines artificial intelligence, multi-source data and location analytics to uncover hidden risks, monitor upstream or downstream activities and reveal movement patterns across facilities all over the world at scale. With a simple query in the company's flagship GO platform, organizations can now better detect connections between specific areas over time, including supply chains, global migration patterns, commutes, tourism activity and anything else that involves the movement of goods or people.

"Enterprises and government agencies make big decisions without a clear picture of what's happening in both their own operations as well as external networks of business and societal connections," said Kevin O'Brien, Orbital Insight's CEO. "Our new Supply Chain Intelligence solution is a shining example of how to quickly make sense of connection points and provide critical visibility while respecting people's privacy. Predicting change sooner helps our customers make smarter investments, avoid costly surprises and find new opportunities."

Global Fortune 500 companies like Unilever have already been using an early version of Supply Chain Intelligence to uncover previously unknown points in their supply chain, analyze their sourcing footprint in raw materials like palm oil or soy and help ensure that they are sourcing from sustainable suppliers. This level of visibility into the indirect supply chainespecially first-mileis hard to achieve, but with Orbital Insight's new Traceability feature, companies get industry supply chain transparency that can improve their sustainability, social and corporate governance efforts. Supply Chain Intelligence also adds new dimensions to existing GO capabilities, such as monitoring manufacturing down time or disruptions in operations and assessing foot traffic in urban settings as employees start to return to office buildings.

Supply Chain Intelligence will also benefit government agencies. For example, Orbital Insight's public sector team recently used the new GO Traceability feature to analyze Russian military activity in southeastern Ukraine, corroborating where troop movements originated. Working with open source intelligence company AllSource Analysis , Orbital Insight detected evidence of offensive training exercises in Crimea. Government agencies can share this type of unclassified information and analysis with U.S. allies or use it to validate the accuracy of other sources.

"Visibility into military asset movement, near peer geopolitical activity, global migration patterns, climate change and other global trends has an immediate benefit to our economy and our national security," said Craig Brower, Orbital Insight's Vice President & General Manager, Public Sector. "Tracking troop movements is a clear example, as demonstrated through our analysis of Russian buildup along the Ukraine border. Traceability reveals a clear picture of where the Russian troops originated and their dwell time at the border."

Like all of Orbital Insight's products, the Supply Chain Intelligence solution was developed within an ethics framework that shapes the company's work and values privacy. Supply Chain Intelligence is now available in Orbital Insight's GO platform for all customers.

To learn more about Orbital Insight and its products and services, visit www.orbitalinsight.com.

About Orbital Insight

Orbital Insight is the geospatial software and analytics company that helps organizations understand what's happening on and to the Earth. Customers including Unilever, Airbus, RBC Capital Markets, The World Bank, and the U.S. Department of Defense use Orbital Insight's self-service analytics platform to make smarter business decisions, build sustainable supply chains, and improve national security. For more information, visit orbitalinsight.com.

Media Contact:

Mission North for Orbital Insight

[email protected]

SOURCE Orbital Insight

Related Links

orbitalinsight.com


The Japanese government targets for renewable energy to generate 36-38% of the country's power production in fiscal 2030, a major upgrade from its previous plan of 22-24%. This will require a boost of offshore wind power from the current 20MW to 10GW by fiscal 2030 and to 30-45GW by fiscal 2040. Japan is surrounded by deep coastal waters, which limit the potential range for setting up offshore wind farms. PowerX was founded with a vision to change how the world consumes and transfers renewable energy by providing a unique solution that can lift the restriction on power generation location, which will allow a greater flexibility for offshore wind farm locations, especially for an island country like Japan. By driving innovation in the way the world storages and transports energy, PowerX aims to enable an unprecedented energy transmission between any two ports on the planet, and thus accelerates the adoption of renewable energy.

Currently, Paolo Cerruti, Co-founder and COO of Northvolt, Caesar Sengupta, ex-VP and General Manager at Google, and Mark Tercek, former CEO at The Nature Conservancy and Former Partner at Goldman Sachs, are the non-executive directors of PowerX.

PowerX's Vision: Accelerate the adoption of renewable energy with "Power Transfer Vessels"

PowerX will design and build an automated Power Transfer Vessel with a massive battery payload that is integrated with the ship's controls to transport offshore wind power to shore. An undersea power cable typically requires expensive construction that comes with substantial environmental impacts. Comparatively, the Power Transfer Vessel stands out as it is resilient to natural disasters, requires less time and cost for development, leaves minimal impact on the environment, and therefore is able to expand the potential of offshore wind power significantly.

Most of the world's energy is transported by ships, in the form of fuel such as oil, gas, and coal. 84.9% of Japan's power is generated by burning carbon-based fuels imported by ships (*1). As the world shifts away from fossil fuels, the energy ship of the future will carry electricity from clean and renewable sources, replacing the fuel-carrying carbon ships of today.

(*1) Source: Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (2019)

Project ARK: Power Transfer Vessels

The very first model of the Power ARK series, "Power ARK 100" is a 100TEU trimaran specially designed for transferring renewable energy in Japan's coastal waters. Upon its completion in 2025, Power ARK 100 will carry 100 grid batteries, hence 200MWh of power (equivalent to the total electricity consumption by 22,000 Japanese households in a day (*2)). The vessel can travel up to 300km when running only on electricity and will be able to unlock long-distance, intercontinental clean power transmission when it is powered by both electricity and sustainable biodiesel fuels.

(*2) Daily power consumption per household in Japan = 10kWh

Name Power ARK 100 Size LOA: 100.5 m / Width: 21.9 m / Draft: 5 m DWT 2,200t Range 100-300km (When running purely on electricity Speed Cruise: 7 knots, Max: 14 knots Power Capacity 222MWh Navigation and Sensors Sonar, Lidar, AIS, Radar, Weather sensors, Autonomous navigation software and sensing equipment Navigation GNSS-GPS, INS, FOG/ARHS, PPU, Collision avoidance systems

Project MAX: In-house Battery Manufacturing

To realize its vision, PowerX will also be building a giga-scale battery assembly facility in Japan to mass-produce batteries for the Power Transfer Vessel. With an acceleration toward decarbonization across the globe, the demand for large energy storage is soaring. Off-the-shelf battery cells will be packaged based on the use case, which includes EV fast-charging, grid, and marine batteries. The factory's annual production capacity will achieve 1GWh by 2024, and will eventually reach 5GWh by 2028. Productions lines will be automated to mass-produce at a low cost.

Recruitment

PowerX is now looking to hire battery factory managers, ESS product engineers, project managers and more. Learn more about open positions at http://power-x.jp/

About PowerX

PowerX was founded with a vision to change how the world consumes and transfers renewable energy. To realize that vision, the company will develop a "power transfer ship" to carry electricity from offshore wind farms to shore, and even across the globe. It will also be building a large-scale battery assembly facility in Japan and other technical resources required to realize the vision. The company aspires to drive innovation with the power of technology and to accelerate the global adoption of renewable energy.

Leadership / Governance

Masahiro Ito / Co-Founder, Representative Director, CEO

Masa is a lifelong entrepreneur. In 2000, he founded Yappa, a software company that pioneered the development of digital visualization technologies. In 2014, Yappa was sold to ZOZO, Japan's leading fashion e-commerce firm. Yappa was renamed as ZOZO Technologies and Masa served as its CEO until 2017, when he became a board member of ZOZO. In 2019, Masa was appointed COO of ZOZO, which is now well-known for his many innovative inventions, including 3D body measuring devices such as ZOZOSUIT, ZOZOMAT, ZOZOSUIT 2, and ZOZOGLASS.

Tadahisa Hardy Kagimoto, MD. / Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board

Dr. Tadahisa "Hardy" Kagimoto, MD, is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Healios, a biotech company leading the development of stem cell derived regenerative therapies. Prior to that, he founded and ran as President and CEO of Aqumen Biopharmaceuticals. Graduated from Kyushu University School of Medicine, Dr. Kagimoto holds patents in the US, Europe, Japan, and China. He is a board director of Athersys, an American biotech firm, and Mobile Hospital International, a NPO that supports hospital ships for natural disaster recoveries.

Paolo Cerruti / External Director

Paolo is Co-Founder and COO of Northvolt, the first European homegrown Giga-scale battery maker. Northvolt is building 60 GWh of battery cells capacity in Sweden and has to date raised more than 6.5 Bn USD in funding. Prior to Northvolt, Paolo worked as VP of Purchasing and Industrial Strategy for Tesla and was instrumental in the early scale-up of the company and its operations. Paolo started his industrial career at Renault-Nissan where he got the opportunity to live and work in France, Japan, and India.

Caesar Sengupta / External Director

Caesar spent 15 years at Google where he was the GM of Payments and VP leading the Next Billion Users initiative. He led Google Pay and Google Finance and managed all payment systems. He founded the NBU initiative and was responsible for Google's product strategy for high user growth countries. Caesar had also helped start and led Chrome OS. Before joining Google, he held engineering and research positions at Encentuate and Hewlett Packard Labs. He holds 15 patents in Operating Systems design and Expert Finding Systems.

Mark Tercek / External Director

Mark advises business leaders, investors, and NGOs on ambitious environmental strategies. Mark is the former CEO of The Nature Conservancy (2008-2019). Prior to that, he was a managing director and partner at Goldman Sachs for 24 years and was a member of the faculty at New York University Stern School of Business. Mark has been profiled in The New Yorker, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal and more. Mark is also a member of the Williams College Board of Trustees and the Council on Foreign Relations.

SOURCE PowerX, Inc.
LONDON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Praesidian Capital Europe ("Praesidian"), a leading private capital investor, announced today it has successfully exited its investment in Laboratory Dr. Schumacher MVZ GmbH, a regional medical laboratory business based in Bremerhaven, Germany. Praesidian invested in the business in 2015 and the laboratory has experienced significant growth to become a leading regional operator in north-western Germany.

According to Serkan Dede, Investment Director of Praesidian, who executed the original transaction in 2015: "We are pleased with our investment in the medical laboratory, having worked very closely with the business over the years. The investment highlights our strong credentials in the healthcare industry and our success in investing in European SME's."

Jason Drattell, Praesidian Founder and Managing Partner, said, "This is a great exit for Praesidian, and we are delighted by the value this investment has created for our investors."

Praesidian continues to actively invest capital into lower middle market businesses in the UK, Germany and Northern Europe, with a strong pipeline of new investment opportunities.

About Laboratory Dr. Schumacher MVZ GmbH

Established in 1972 and managed by its principal owner, the business is a leading local medical laboratory diagnostics business in the state of Bremen providing full diagnostic services covering all aspects of medical laboratory testing.

About Praesidian Capital Europe

Praesidian Capital Europe is an innovative private investment firm, focused on investing in lower middle market businesses in the United Kingdom, Germany, and selectively Northern Europe. Established in 2013 and based in London, the firm invests in private small and mid-sized companies, often in connection with management buyouts, carve-outs, recapitalizations or refinancings. For more information, visit europe.praesidian.com.

To discuss prospective investment opportunities please contact:

Serkan Dede, Investment Director [email protected], +44 (0)20 3367 1488

Media Contact:

Linda Dignelli

[email protected]

212-520-2619

SOURCE Praesidian Capital Europe

Related Links

https://europe.praesidian.com


"I am absolutely thrilled to be joining RANDOLPH as VP of Product," said Fleming. "It is a privilege to join a family-owned and independently operated company that has 48-years of rich history and iconic handcrafted Made in USA product. Our goal over the near term will be to share our brand legacy with global consumers that appreciate quality and beauty, while extending thoughtful iterations of our heritage product to loyal consumers. There could be no better time to join RANDOLPH and it is exciting to be a part of what is next."

Fleming joins RANDOLPH from New Balance, where her most recent work on the brand's coveted Made in USA footwear has garnered widespread global attention. Sunni's work with New Balance spans 20 years with a focus on Strategy, Operations, Brand Extension and Product Management. Whether approaching product through a heritage lens, like the "990 Version Series" or leading with creative partners like Teddy Santis, she has an innate ability to connect people to a brand's story, making her an amazing fit to lead product for RANDOLPH.

"Randolph is positioned for exponential growth, and the addition of Sunni's creative talents and wealth of product story telling experience to the organization is very exciting," commented Peter Waszkiewicz, President and CEO, Randolph Engineering, Inc. "We are fortunate to benefit from Sunni's great experience in product as well as her many years as a leader of mid-sized companies. I'm confident that within a few months, our customers will begin to see the positive and substantial results of her contributions."

ABOUT RANDOLPH ENGINEERING, INC.

Family owned and operated since 1973. RANDOLPH's mission is to provide the best sunglass ownership experience in the world, through uncompromised quality, exceptional customer service and impeccable engineering. Each frame is made by hand at RANDOLPH's Massachusetts facility in 200 steps and over 6 weeks to create their signature style and comfort. A labor of love. For over 40 years, RANDOLPH has also provided the US Military with military-spec Aviators, a contract they still hold today. Made by the extraordinary for the extraordinary. A second brand RE RANGER, a leading eyewear brand in the clay shooting industry, is also owned by the organization.

Press Contact: Amy Bean

[email protected] | 1-800-541-1405

SOURCE Randolph Engineering, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.randolphusa.com/


HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Requis is proud to announce its acquisition of oil and gas surplus market giant Pipebroker.com.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Derric Lerma, Pipebroker.com is a leader in aftermarket tubular products used in the energy and infrastructure sectors worldwide.

The acquisition will expand Requis' reach into these markets via Pipebroker.com's impressive customer portfolio and Lerma's business network.

Derric Lerma has moved hundreds of millions of dollars of pipe during his 20+ year career. An engineer with respected credentials in Texas throughout the USA, Lerma will become responsible for surplus market business development in the Americas.

Pipebroker.com's enterprise customers will gain the ability to digitalize and centralize their current business operations via the Requis platform.

Requis CEO Richard Martin said, "We are very excited to bring Derric Lerma and his clients into the Requis ecosystem. This is the first of several upcoming acquisitions we have planned as the currently fragmented market consolidates, so stay tuned."

Lerma foresees a thriving surplus market as the energy industry continues its recovery from COVID-19 and other challenges. He commented, "The global surplus pipe market is at an all-time high, approximately $2.4T per year and growing."

"Infrastructure is developing worldwide at an increasing rate. Requis is well positioned to onboard Pipe Broker so we can get the right assets to the right people globally," he said.

Nick Abueita, Requis' Director of Marketplace, said, "Derric has some excellent strengths that I'm looking forward to integrating into our team. The Marketplace team have been exceeding our revenue goals and with Derric on board I think we'll be able to knock it out of the park next fiscal year."

About Requis

Requis is a next generation supply chain and technology company that is driving the digital transformation of global enterprise supply chains.

A true supply chain and commerce platform, Requis empowers enterprises to buy, manage, and sell assets using intuitive, modern, and simplified supply chain workflows and interfaces.

The Requis platform's four pillarsProcurement, Marketplace, Directory, and Asset Managementall work together seamlessly. Enterprises can finally manage all aspects of their supply chain through one platform.

Supply chains have operated in the background for decades, running on disconnected systems and spreadsheets, and there has been a lack of emphasis on modernizing the most important part of any enterprise. But as of 2020 the Decade of Supply Chain has arrived, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the need to digitalize supply chains around the world and across all industries.

Through the development of its supply chain platform and publishing thought leadership content via blog, podcasts, and a variety of other media channels, Requis hopes to catalyze the transformation of the supply chain into its next evolutionary state, the "value network".

For Further Information

Please contact CMO Richard Donaldson ([email protected]) or Jennifer Priest ([email protected]).

SOURCE Requis LLC

Related Links

https://requis.com


DALLAS, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA), Greater Texas Foundation (GTF) and Economic Mobility Systems (EMS) at the Commit Partnership today announced the launch of a pioneering, collaborative program to produce stronger and more equitable college and workforce outcomes for rural Texas students.

Funded by a three-year $3.1 million grant from Greater Texas Foundation, the Rural College Promise program will involve three community colleges  Grayson College, Tyler Junior College and North Central Texas College  and the rural counties they serve across north and east Texas. Supporting partners also include the National College Promise Campaign and Phi Theta Kappa.

In addition to supporting local students and communities, the colleges will partner with RCCA and EMS to develop a repeatable, affordable and scalable model for rural communities across Texas as a roadmap for rural America.

"Rural community colleges are the neighborhood schools of higher education, serving the nearly 90 million Americans who live in our rural communities." said Emily Klement, Vice President, RCCA. "Many students in rural communities are economically disadvantaged, and a small percentage of them pursue higher education. Our goal for the Rural College Promise program is to help more of our high school-graduating seniors enroll and complete a higher education degree, which is a critical requirement to securing more highly skilled living wage jobs that will be a catalyst for rural economic development."

In addition to developing a structure for more affordable college pathways, the grant will cover access to leading edge technologies and solutions designed by Economic Mobility Systems (EMS) on equity platforms like Salesforce and GreenLight Credentials. EMS Solutions will enable local high schools to case manage each student to ensure they are completing the steps for entry to college programs aligned to living wage jobs. Through the new College Enrollment Fast Pass on GreenLight, students will be able to own and send their verified high school records to colleges and employers and submit self-uploaded enrollment documents. Leveraging the new College and Career Solutions dashboards on Salesforce, high school and college advisors will have greater visibility to support the student transition from high school to college and eventually through living wage employment.

"Texas needs more intentional regional talent strategies to remain competitive in a fast-changing world," said Sue McMillin, President and CEO, Greater Texas Foundation. "Yet, too many young people in rural communities lack the opportunity and tools to get ahead, educationally, and economically. This grant is an investment to accelerate proven strategies and bring game changing technologies to rural communities."

The technologies and tools covered by the grant have been successfully utilized by the Texas Talent Regions, including the Dallas County Promise, Alamo Promise, Tarrant To and Through (T3), and the TJC Promise. The experience of these existing programs will help inform the new Rural College Promise program, tailored to the unique needs of rural communities.

About Greater Texas Foundation: Greater Texas Foundation supports initiatives that increase rates of postsecondary enrollment and completion for all Texas students, with a particular focus on students who may encounter barriers to postsecondary success. GTF is a private foundation headquartered in Bryan, Texas. Since inception, GTF has approved more than $104 million in grants to support Texas students. www.greatertexasfoundation.org

About Rural Community College Alliance: The Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA) helps its member institutions serve the 89.3 million people who reside in rural America. We seek to promote a more economically, culturally, and civically vibrant rural America through advocacy, convening, leveraging resources, and serving as a clearinghouse for innovative practice, policy, and research. https://ruralccalliance.org/

About Economic Mobility Systems: Makes socioeconomic mobility possible by helping regional ecosystems work together with proven school to work strategies and cutting-edge equity platforms that place the student at the center of the regional talent equation. EMS helps regional partners organize and use real time data across the school to work continuum to create a best-in-class continuous improvement model for regional talent. www.economicmobilitysystems.org

About Tyler Junior College: TJC is a great first choice for anyone seeking to acquire the skills needed to enter the workforce or for those who want to gain the training and knowledge to transfer to a four-year university. Offering more than 115 degree and certificate programs, TJC enrolls approximately 12,000 students each semester. Since 1926, TJC has embodied the true sense of the term "community college," as reflected in its core values of unity, caring, integrity, empowering and excellence. www.tjc.edu

About North Central Texas College: Officially established May 20, 1924 and originally named Gainesville Junior College, North Central Texas College is the oldest continuously operating two-year college in Texas and a true pioneer of public community college in the state. With six campuses located throughout North Texas, NCTC offers its 10,000+ students a variety of degree types in diverse areas of instruction. Participating campuses include Bowie, Gainesville and Graham. www.nctc.edu

About Grayson College: Grayson College serves over 4,000 students each term through six pathways and 60+ degrees and certificate programs in university transfer and technical programs. The College's mission is student success. The two campuses in Denison and Van Alstyne have undergone a multi-year, multi-million-dollar renovation and expansion. grayson.edu

Media Contact

Nimisha Savani

1 940-241-0083

[email protected]

SOURCE Economic Mobility Systems
EAGAN, Minn., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Scantron, a global leader in assessment, analytics, and data capture for the Education, Certification, and Workforce markets today announced the launch of Scantron Snapshot, an innovative, cloud-based, K-12 classroom testing solution designed to pinpoint unfinished learning, empower students to be invested in their progress, and give teachers on-the-spot information regarding student understanding of lesson concepts.

Following a year of educational disruption brought on by the pandemic, many educators are facing the challenge of efficiently assessing student academic progress and supporting differentiation. The need for real-time assessment is now more important than ever before. With Snapshot, teachers have a powerful tool to easily and instantly assess student progress and help students grow on their educational journeys. It can be used to deliver end-of-chapter tests, pop quizzes, or even quick-question check-ins on difficult concepts. The true value of the solution lies in giving teachers simple, easily deployable options for immediate intervention opportunities letting them decide how and when to test. Students then receive timely feedback on their progress, rather than wait for end of unit, interim or semester testsgiving them more insight on which concepts need attention and confidence during the learning process.

"Scantron Snapshot provides a new opportunity for K-12 educators to measure current learning comprehension while enabling accelerated student growth through real-time knowledge and understanding checks," said Jay Whitchurch, President, Scantron. "We have spent decades laying the groundwork and investing in technology to deliver the most reliable assessment solutions built to meet educator needs. This easy-to-use, teacher-driven classroom assessment is a game changer and one that will enable teachers to create individual plans and next steps relevant to each student based on immediate results."

Scantron Snapshot provides a quick, flexible, and easy-to-use K-12 evaluation solution that can be created with customized or state standard-aligned items to show progress in crucial areas of learning. It syncs with district Student Information Systems making it simple and fast to deploy. Classroom tests, quizzes, and concept checks can be created as needed and delivered online, by paper, or both. Teachers can build these using item banks containing more than 300,000 items, collaborate with teachers in their departments or schools to develop common assessments, and easily digitize existing paper forms using a simple upload process saving time and energy. The solution offers a modern interface, enabling the use of screen readers for students with visual impairments and supports multiple languages via Google Translate.

"We're excited to launch this new, digital offering for classroom educators," said Mary Michael Pontzer, VP Portfolio Management for Scantron. "Educators have trusted our scanning solutions and online interim assessments for decadesnow, with Scantron Snapshot, we offer a truly innovative solution that can raise the bar for equitable student engagement and personalization. This solution is timely as we head back to school, empowering educators to efficiently identify and address learning progress right in their classroom."

Scantron Snapshot qualifies for ESSER federal funding. To learn more about Scantron Snapshot, visit https://www.scantron.com/scantron-snapshot.

ABOUT SCANTRON

Scantron provides solutions that help organizations around the globe turn data into insights. These include assessment development and psychometric services from a deeply experienced and tenured team, state-of-the-art, proprietary assessment technology platforms, a full suite of survey services, as well as dynamic reporting and analytics tools that enable clients to make timely, accurate decisions for any industry. It is part of a global, diversified company that develops and delivers millions of digital education assessments and certification tests, prints & delivers hundreds of millions of high-precision, scannable answer sheets, and supports leading educational institutions, certifying bodies, small-to-large businesses, and government agencies. Scantron is headquartered in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, with other locations in the Research Triangle of North Carolina; Omaha, Nebraska, and Columbia, Pennsylvania. For more information visit www.scantron.com.

SOURCE Scantron

Related Links

http://www.scantron.com


- Revenue of KRW 303.7 billion ($269.1 million) is record for second quarter, up 11 percent year-over-year

- 1H'21 Revenue at KRW 655.5 billion ($580.8 million), 58 percent achievement based on total sales in FY2020

- Favorable market conditions expected in second half amid an increasing demand for COVID-19 tests due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Seegene Inc. (KQ 096530), a leading biotechnology company specializing in molecular diagnostics, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021.

Seegene reported KRW 303.7 billion ($269.1 million) in total sales, an 11% increase from the same period of the previous year. Operating profit slightly declined year-over-year to KRW 144.2 billion ($127.8 million) as the company has adopted various strategies for its long-term growthincluding investments in R&D an recruiting talented personnel who majored in molecular diagnostics. Indeed, Seegene executed KRW 33.2 billion ($29.4 million) in R&D expenses in the 1H'21 alone, exceeding the previous year's total R&D expenses of KRW 26.2 billion ($23.2 million). Also, the number of employees tallied at 1008 as of June 2021, a 42% increase from the end of 2020.

However, the company posted solid revenue growth in the first half of 2021 at KRW 655.5 billion ($580.8 million), representing a whopping 84% growth from first half of 2020 and 58% achievement of the annual revenue of 2020. Although the company's sales in the second quarter rose year-over-year, it showed a 14% decline compared to the previous quarter. Seegene's official explained that the slight decline in revenue is largely due to the company's price policy that has been employed strategically to secure global market share. Also, as European nations have recently ramped up their drives on vaccination, it may have contributed to moderate slide in revenue.

Meanwhile, the company's outlook for the second half of the year looks relatively promising. Demand for COVID-19 test kits is on the rise thanks to the company's pricing policy and due to the emergence of highly transmissible COVID-19 variants such as the Delta variant. Besides, sales of non-COVID diagnostic reagents and other instruments are continuously increasing thereby the company's financial results will likely show a favorable performance in 2H21.

"Although the pandemic is still somewhat unpredictable, it is extremely crucial to conduct surveillance screenings as the virus continues to mutate. Our multiplex reagents are capable of detecting major COVID-19 variants in a single test while they are price competitive as well," said Myungkun Kim, Seegene's Senior Managing Director of IR and PR Department. "Also, as we are expanding our market in unexplored regions such as Asian and Latin American countries, we will be able to generate more valuable results in the global arena", he added.

KRW/USD= 1,128.55 (6/30/21) CER

SOURCE Seegene Inc.
GEORGETOWN, Texas, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Smile Doctors , the largest ortho-focused dental support organization (OSO) in the U.S., today announced the affiliation with nine practice groups in seven states during the second quarter of 2021. The addition of a practice in Maryland represents the organization's first move into the Old Line State, bringing the total number of states served to 23 and total locations to 258.

Since January of this year, Smile Doctors has affiliated with a total of 36 locations and is ahead of its 2020 pace. The organization is also on track to surpass its 2020 total of 18 affiliated practices, which expanded the Smile Doctors' footprint with 48 new locations and added five new states to its national presence.

"The past 18-months have been challenging for many businesses, but we continue to grow due to the amazing network of doctors, technological advancements and efforts to pave the way for the future of orthodontic care," said J. Hedrick, CEO of Smile Doctors. "During this time, practices saw the benefit of joining Smile Doctors, through an immediate partnership with our support services and shared resources."

Private practices that become part of the Smile Doctors family benefit from economies-of-scale, gaining access to operational and financial tools that make their practices more efficient and improving the bottom line.

"I became an orthodontist because I wanted to help my patients achieve their best smiles while operating a business that improves our local community and offers our team members employment in a fun, rewarding atmosphere with opportunities for advancement," said C. Edwin Wentz, D.M.D., M.S. from Wentz Orthodontics, which joined the Smile Doctors network in May 2021. "By joining Smile Doctors, with their support and additional leadership, it is our hope we can provide our services at another level."

About Smile Doctors, LLC

Smile Doctors, LLC, is the largest ortho-focused dental support organization (OSO) in the U.S. The company has the fastest-growing network of award-winning orthodontists. With convenient locations in more than 23 states, Smile Doctors has a rich history of developing and growing affiliated practices by providing tools and technology that allow their orthodontists to focus entirely on patient care. Smile Doctors orthodontists are proud members of the American Association of Orthodontics and American Dental Association, an Invisalign Elite Provider, and host for the Lecture Center for Orthodontic Excellence. Smile Doctors' mission is to create confident smiles that inspire the best in their patients, each other, and the communities they serve. For more information, please visit: www.smiledoctorspartners.com.

SOURCE Smile Doctors, LLC

Related Links

http://www.smiledoctorspartners.com


Splitit helps merchants embrace new "phygital behaviors" of post-COVID consumers with Installments. In-store. Instantly. Tweet this

Splitit offers merchants an online and in-store solution for flexible payments with the launch of Splitit InStore -- a version of the core Splitit product specifically designed for sales associates to initiate in retail, over the phone or through email. Splitit InStore empowers sales associates to offer an installment option in seconds with no application or sign-up required by the shopper.

Splitit InStore brings the best of the ecommerce world to the retail world. This flexibility to pay over time helps alleviate the perceived risk of large expenditures and helps consumers afford the products they want. Splitit InStore is ideally suited for assisted sales in categories with larger value purchases, such as home furnishings, jewelry, luxury retail and sporting goods.

"The response around Splitit InStore has been incredible," said Rob Gaige, Splitit's VP of Marketing, North America. "We were able to showcase Splitit InStore at two previous shows, and it is clear this fills a massive gap in the category. Consumers want a buy now, pay later solution that works as seamlessly in-store as it does online. That means not having to create a new account or decide ahead of time what they would buy. If they see something they want, they want to be empowered to buy it now and pay over time."

Splitit InStore can be used on any internet-enabled device like computers, tablets and smartphones and can be offered right at the moment of purchase with no application or sign-up required by the shopper. And because Splitit uses the consumer's available credit on a credit card, approval rates are nearly 90%. No red tape and low rejection rates mean more closed sales and less time checking out. Installment plans can last from six to 24 months, and Splitit never charges the consumer fees or interest.

In addition to the launch of Splitit InStore, recent milestones include the debut of Splitit Plus in April, a payment gateway built exclusively for installment payments and several key partnerships, most notably the recent partnership with tabby the largest BNPL provider in the Middle East. tabby will integrate a white-label version of Splitit into its platform, allowing tabby's merchants to offer installments on credit cards.

To learn more about how Splitit can instantly add installments to your online and physical stores, visit: www.SplitIt.com .

About Splitit

Splitit is a global payment solution provider that enables shoppers to use the credit they've earned by breaking up purchases into monthly interest-free installments using their existing credit card. Splitit enables merchants to improve conversion rates and increase average order value by giving customers an easy and fast way to pay for purchases over time without requiring additional approvals. Splitit serves many of Internet Retailer's top 500 merchants and is accepted by more than 2,800 e-commerce merchants in over 30 countries and shoppers in over 100 countries. Headquartered in New York, Splitit has an R&D center in Israel and offices in London and Australia. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under ticker code SPT.

CONTACT:

Brian Blank

[email protected]

SOURCE Splitit USA, Inc.

Related Links

www.splitit.com


For the first time since the report's inception in 2017, St Kitts and Nevis' CBI Programme has topped the rankings after scoring full marks in five pillars reflecting investor priorities, including Mandatory Travel or Residence, Citizenship Timeline, Ease of Processing, Due Diligence, and Family. St Kitts and Nevis maintained a top score in the Mandatory Travel or Residence pillar as it does not require applicants to fulfil travel or residence requirements before or after applying to become citizens of the nation. It also received the highest score of all CBI jurisdictions for Citizenship Timeline as it is the only country with a guaranteed fast-track process.

The report highlighted: "St Kitts and Nevis once again leads the Citizenship Timeline pillar by virtue of its Accelerated Application Process, which offers citizenship to qualifying applicants within a maximum of 60 days and, under certain circumstances, as little as 45 days. For applicants who do not want to pay a premium, St Kitts and Nevis' standard route has an average processing time of three months."

The nation was also awarded perfect scores in the Ease of Processing and Due Diligence pillars. St Kitts and Nevis has achieved maximum points for its due diligence procedures for five consecutive years. Lastly, St Kitts and Nevis obtained full marks in the Family pillar, introduced in last year's edition. The increase came after the nation widened its definition of 'dependant' to include siblings aged 30 and under who are unmarried, childless, and financially dependent on the main applicant.

Prime Minister Timothy Harris commended the achievement, "As pioneers of the citizenship by investment programme, St Kitts and Nevis has long since been an industry leader within the CBI realm, we're extremely pleased that this is being reflected in a report of such stature."

"St Kitts and Nevis' CBI Programme is one of the oldest options on the market and has stood the test of time, evolving to meet the changing needs of investors  particularly over the last year," said Les Khan, CEO of the CBI Unit. "The report's ranking of the programme is a reaffirmation of why investors continue to choose our nation."

The 2021 CBI Index also noted that St Kitts and Nevis is the Caribbean CBI country with the most extensive visa-free and visa-on-arrival offering. Those who become citizens gain increased travel freedom to nearly 160 destinations across the globe, a number that continues to expand due to the efforts of Foreign Minister Mark Brantley.

Investors can also take advantage of a limited-time offer announced last year and extended to 31 December 2021 due to vast popularity. Under the offer, families of up to four can obtain citizenship by contributing US$150,000 to the Programme's Sustainable Growth Fund, instead of the US$195,000 contribution that previously applied to a typical family of four.

[email protected] , www.ciu.gov.kn

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1597315/CS_Global_St_Kitts.jpg

SOURCE The Government of St Kitts and Nevis
BEIJING, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021.

Second Quarter 2021 Financial and Operational Snapshots

Net revenues were RMB629.5 million ( US$97.5 million ), representing a 22.8% increase year-over-year.

( ), representing a 22.8% increase year-over-year. Gross billings (non-GAAP) were RMB430.2 million ( US$66.6 million ), representing a 19.1% decrease year-over-year.

( ), representing a 19.1% decrease year-over-year. Gross profit was RMB532.2 million ( US$82.4 million ), representing a 28.9% increase year-over-year.

( ), representing a 28.9% increase year-over-year. Net income was RMB22.1 million ( US$3.4 million ), compared with net loss of RMB126.1 million in the second quarter of 2020.

( ), compared with net loss of in the second quarter of 2020. Net income/loss margin, defined as net income/loss as a percentage of net revenues, increased to 3.5% from -24.6% in the second quarter of 2020.

New student enrollments were 86,602, representing a 4.8% increase year-over-year.

As of June 30, 2021 , the Company's deferred revenue balance was RMB2,690.2 million ( US$416.7 million ).

[1] New student enrollments for a given period refers to the total number of orders placed by students that newly enroll in at least one course during that period (including those students that enroll and then terminate their enrollment with us, excluding orders of our low-price courses). In June 2020, we introduced low-price courses, including "mini courses" and "RMB1 courses," to strengthen our competitiveness and improve customer experience. We offer such low-price courses mainly in the formats of recorded videos or short live streaming.

"We are pleased with our second quarter performance. Our net revenue grew 22.8% year-over-year to RMB629.5 million. New enrollments remained relatively stable at 86,602, representing a 4.8% year-over-year increase. Our net gross billings were RMB430.2 million, a 19.1% decrease on a year-over-year basis, following a strategic adjustment to optimize our product mix while seeking growth and balancing costs and profitability," said Mr. Tongbo Liu, Chief Executive Officer of Sunlands. "We have achieved a record net profit of RMB22.1 million, driven by our continuous cost reduction and business adjustment efforts, a testament to the effectiveness of our strategies."

"Our professional skills and master's degree programs sustained their momentum with registered new enrollments growing 168.7% and 13.1% year-over-year, respectively. With robust new enrollments propelled by the increasingly competitive employment market and our diversified course offerings, net gross billings for professional skills and master's degree programs soared 196.2% and 23.7% year-over-year, respectively."

"Going forward, we will continue to proactively produce more diversified and high-quality courses, catering to our students' needs as they make their way to establishing successful careers. With Sunlands' strong foothold in the adult education business, we are confident we can continue to offer premium courses in STE programs and solidify our market share in the master's degree and professional skills programs space. With that, we will be better positioned to deliver stronger results in future," concluded Mr. Liu.

"We are excited to report solid second-quarter results, with profit coming in at RMB22.1 million compared with net loss of RMB126.1 million for the same period last year, and with our master's degree and professional skills programs consistently performing well," said Ms. Selena Lu Lv, Chief Financial Officer of Sunlands. "During the quarter, we took multiple measures to reasonably lower costs and improve operating efficiency, with G&A and selling expenses dropping 8.0% and 7.9% year-over-year, respectively. We also continued our efforts to expand course categories as we strive to deliver better learning experiences to our users. Looking ahead, we will persist in cost-efficient marketing and operation optimization. With our existing advantage in the business of occupational education for adults, better cultivated courses and highly efficient management, we believe we are on track to grow further and incrementally enhance profitability."

Financial Results for the second quarter of 2021

Net Revenues

In the second quarter of 2021, net revenues increased by 22.8% to RMB629.5 million (US$97.5 million) from RMB512.5 million in the second quarter of 2020. The increase was mainly driven by the year-over-year growth in gross billings since the second half of year 2020 through the first quarter of 2021.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues decreased by 2.3% to RMB97.3 million (US$15.1 million) in the second quarter of 2021 from RMB99.6 million in the second quarter of 2020. The decrease was primarily due to reduced insurance-related costs incurred for our integrated online education service package purchased by students.

Gross Profit

Gross profit increased by 28.9% to RMB532.2 million (US$82.4 million) in the second quarter of 2021 from RMB412.9 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Operating Expenses

In the second quarter of 2021, operating expenses were RMB519.6 million (US$80.5 million), representing an 7.2% decrease from RMB560.0 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Sales and marketing expenses decreased by 7.9% to RMB449.1 million (US$69.6 million) in the second quarter of 2021 from RMB487.9 million in the second quarter of 2020. The decrease was mainly due to: (i) lower spending on branding and marketing activities; and (ii) declined compensation expenses related to our sales and marketing personnel.

General and administrative expenses decreased by 8.0% to RMB51.6 million (US$8.0 million) in the second quarter of 2021 from RMB56.1 million in the second quarter of 2020. The decrease was mainly due to a decrease in compensation expenses.

Product development expenses increased by 17.6% to RMB18.8 million (US$2.9 million) in the second quarter of 2021 from RMB16.0 million in the second quarter of 2020. The increase was primarily because the social security expense exemption offered by the relevant authorities during the COVID-19 outbreak came to an end in 2021.

Other Income

Other income was RMB8.2 million (US$1.3 million) in the second quarter of 2021, compared RMB17.5 million in the second quarter of 2020. The decrease was primarily because value-added tax exemption offered by the relevant authorities as part of the national COVID-19 relief effort came to an end in April 2021.

Net Income

Net income for the second quarter of 2021 was RMB22.1 million (US$3.4 million), compared with net loss of RMB126.1 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Basic and Diluted Net Income Per Share

Basic and diluted net income per share was RMB3.39 (US$0.52) in the second quarter of 2021.

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Short-term Investments

As of June 30, 2021, the Company had RMB835.4 million (US$129.4 million) of cash and cash equivalents and RMB49.9 million (US$7.7 million) of short-term investments, compared with RMB760.7 million of cash and cash equivalents and RMB517.8 million of short-term investments as of December 31, 2020.

Deferred Revenue

As of June 30, 2021, the Company had a deferred revenue balance of RMB2,690.2 million (US$416.7 million), compared with RMB3,024.4 million as of December 31, 2020.

Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures were incurred primarily in connection with information technology ("IT") infrastructure equipment and leasehold improvements necessary to support the Company's operations. Capital expenditures were RMB7.8 million (US$1.2 million) in the second quarter of 2021, compared with RMB1.0 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Financial Results for the First Six Months of 2021

Net Revenues

In the first six months of 2021, net revenues increased by 22.8% to RMB1,323.8 million (US$205.0 million) from RMB1,077.6 million in the first six months of 2020.

Cost of Revenues

Cost of revenues increased by 3.7% to RMB203.7 million (US$31.6 million) in the first six months of 2021 from RMB196.5 million in the first six months of 2020.

Gross Profit

Gross profit increased by 27.1% to RMB1,120.1 million (US$173.5 million) from RMB881.1 million in the first six months of 2020.

Operating Expenses

In the first six months of 2021, operating expenses were RMB1,186.2 million (US$183.7 million), representing a 5.2% increase from RMB1,127.7 million in the first six months of 2020.

Sales and marketing expenses increased by 11.6% to RMB1,055.6 million (US$163.5 million) in the first six months of 2021 from RMB945.7 million in the first six months of 2020.

General and administrative expenses decreased by35.0% to RMB93.9 million (US$14.6 million) in the first six months of 2021 from RMB144.6 million in the first six months of 2020.

Product development expenses decreased by 1.9% to RMB36.7 million (US$5.7 million) in the first six months of 2021 from RMB37.4 million in the first six months of 2020.

Other Income

Other income for the first six months of 2021 was RMB29.4 million (US$4.6 million), compared with RMB46.5 million in the first six months of 2020. The decrease was primarily because value-added tax exemption offered by the relevant authorities as part of the national COVID-19 relief effort came to an end in April 2021.

Net Loss

Net loss for the first six months of 2021 was RMB31.2 million (US$4.8 million), compared with RMB191.7 million in the first six months of 2020.

Basic and Diluted Net Loss Per Share

Basic and diluted net loss per share was RMB4.48 (US$0.69) in the first six months of 2021, compared with RMB28.28 in the first six months of 2020.

Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures were incurred primarily in connection with IT infrastructure equipment and leasehold improvements necessary to support the Company's operations. Capital expenditures were RMB9.5 million (US$1.5 million) in the first six months of 2021, compared with RMB8.0 million in the first six months of 2020.

Outlook

For the third quarter of 2021, Sunlands currently expects net revenues to be between RMB570 million to RMB590 million, which would represent an increase of 5.2% to 8.9% year-over-year.

The above outlook is based on the current market conditions and reflects the Company's current and preliminary estimates of market and operating conditions and customer demand, which are all subject to substantial uncertainty.

Exchange Rate

The Company's business is primarily conducted in China and all revenues are denominated in Renminbi ("RMB"). This announcement contains currency conversions of RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("US$") solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to US$ are made at a rate of RMB6.4566 to US$1.00, the effective noon buying rate for June 30, 2021 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. No representation is made that the RMB amounts could have been, or could be, converted, realized or settled into US$ at that rate on June 30, 2021, or at any other rate.

Conference Call and Webcast

Sunlands' management team will host a conference call at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time, (8:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong time) on August 18, 2021, following the quarterly results announcement.

The dial-in details for the live conference call are:

International: +1-412-902-4272 US toll free: +1-888-346-8982 Mainland China toll free: 400-120-1203 Hong Kong toll free: 800-905-945 Hong Kong: +852-3018-4992

Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin. When prompted, ask to be connected to the call for "Sunlands Technology Group." Participants will be required to state their name and company upon entering the call.

A live webcast and archive of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of Sunlands' website at http://www.sunlands.investorroom.com/.

A replay of the conference call will be available 1 hour after the end of the conference call until August 25, 2021, by dialing the following telephone numbers:

International: +1-412-317-0088 US toll free: +1-877-344-7529 Replay access code: 10159459

About Sunlands

Sunlands Technology Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), formerly known as Sunlands Online Education Group, is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We use gross billings, EBITDA, non-GAAP Operating cost and expense, non-GAAP loss from operations and Non-GAAP net loss per share, each a non-GAAP financial measure, in evaluating our operating results and for financial and operational decision-making purposes.

We define gross billings for a specific period as the total amount of cash received for the sale of course packages, net of the total amount of refunds paid in such period. Our management uses gross billings as a performance measurement because we generally bill our students for the entire course tuition at the time of sale of our course packages and recognize revenue proportionally over a period. EBITDA is defined as net loss excluding depreciation and amortization, interest expense, interest income, and income tax expenses. We believe that gross billings and EBITDA provide valuable insight into the sales of our course packages and the performance of our business.

These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, their most directly comparable financial measure prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of the historical non-GAAP financial measures to their respective most directly comparable GAAP measure has been provided in the tables included below. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of the historical non-GAAP financial measures to their respective most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. As gross billings, EBITDA, operating cost and expenses excluding share-based compensation expenses, general and administrative expenses excluding share-based compensation expenses, sales and marketing expenses excluding share-based compensation expenses, product development expenses excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP net loss exclude share-based compensation expenses, and basic and diluted net loss per share excluding share-based compensation expenses have material limitations as an analytical metric and may not be calculated in the same manner by all companies, it may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures used by other companies. In light of the foregoing limitations, you should not consider gross billings and EBITDA as a substitute for, or superior to, their respective most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. We encourage investors and others to review our financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Sunlands may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Sunlands' beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: Sunlands' goals and strategies; its expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its brand and services; its ability to retain and increase student enrollments; its ability to offer new courses and educational content; its ability to improve teaching quality and students' learning results; its ability to improve sales and marketing efficiency and effectiveness; its ability to engage, train and retain new faculty members; its future business development, results of operations and financial condition; its ability to maintain and improve technology infrastructure necessary to operate its business; competition in the online education industry in China; relevant government policies and regulations relating to Sunlands' corporate structure, business and industry; and general economic and business condition in China Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Sunlands' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and Sunlands does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For investor and media enquiries, please contact:

Sunlands Technology Group

Investor Relations

Email: [email protected]

The Piacente Group, Inc.

Brandi Piacente

Tel: +1-212-481-2050

Email: [email protected]

Yang Song

Tel: +86-10-6508-0677

Email: [email protected]

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Amounts in thousands, except for share and per share data, or otherwise noted)





As of December 31,

As of June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB

US$ ASSETS











Current assets











Cash and cash equivalents

760,710

835,424

129,391 Short-term investments

517,815

49,916

7,731 Prepaid expenses and other current assets

117,637

137,173

21,245 Deferred costs, current

158,092

116,292

18,011 Total current assets

1,554,254

1,138,805

176,378 Non-current assets











Property and equipment, net

511,092

879,722

136,252 Intangible assets, net

1,211

3,359

520 Land use right, net

13,564

13,428

2,080 Right-of-use assets

488,877

470,377

72,852 Deferred costs, non-current

170,160

135,113

20,926 Long-term investments

64,093

64,444

9,981 Deferred tax assets

13,015

8,824

1,367 Other non-current assets

444,628

46,133

7,145 Total non-current assets

1,706,640

1,621,400

251,123 TOTAL ASSETS

3,260,894

2,760,205

427,501













LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' DEFICIT

























LIABILITIES











Current liabilities











Accrued expenses and other current liabilities (including accrued expenses











and other current liabilities of the consolidated VIEs without recourse to











Sunlands Technology Group of RMB175,900 and RMB163,925 as of











December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

607,789

509,562

78,922 Deferred revenue, current (including deferred revenue, current of the consolidated VIEs











without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of RMB435,254 and











RMB339,434 as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

1,463,165

1,433,451

222,013 Lease liabilities, current portion (including lease liabilities, current portion of the











consolidated VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of RMB15,833 and











RMB12,966 as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

30,702

30,509

4,725 Payables to acquire buildings (including payables to acquire buildings of the











consolidated VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of nil and nil











as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

61,540

61,540

9,531 Long-term debt, current portion (including long-term debt, current portion of the











consolidated VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of nil and nil











as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

32,500

32,500

5,034 Total current liabilities

2,195,696

2,067,562

320,225

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS-continued (Amounts in thousands, except for share and per share data, or otherwise noted)





As of December 31,

As of June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB

US$ Non-current liabilities











Deferred revenue, non-current (including deferred revenue, non-current











of the consolidated VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of











RMB468,577 and RMB336,229 as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021,











respectively)

1,561,278

1,256,770

194,649 Lease liabilities, non-current portion (including lease liabilities, non-current portion











of the consolidated VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of











RMB340,763 and RMB336,074 as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021,











respectively)

532,538

520,442

80,606 Deferred tax liabilities (including deferred tax liabilities of the consolidated











VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of RMB3,203 and RMB2,372











as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

15,220

10,881

1,685 Other non-current liabilities (including other non-current liabilities of the consolidated











VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of RMB135 and RMB963











as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

7,664

10,035

1,554 Long-term debt, non-current portion(including long-term debt, non-current portion of the











consolidated VIEs without recourse to Sunlands Technology Group of nil and nil











as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

160,625

144,375

22,361 Total non-current liabilities

2,277,325

1,942,503

300,855 TOTAL LIABILITIES

4,473,021

4,010,065

621,080

SHAREHOLDERS' DEFICIT











Class A ordinary shares (par value of US$0.00005, 796,062,195 shares











authorized; 1,978,621 and 2,085,939 shares issued as of December 31, 2020











and June 30, 2021, respectively; 1,792,560 and 1,899,878 shares











outstanding as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

1

1

- Class B ordinary shares (par value of US$0.00005, 826,389 shares











authorized; 826,389 and 826,389 shares issued and outstanding











as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

-

-

- Class C ordinary shares (par value of US$0.00005, 203,111,416 shares











authorized; 4,110,248 and 4,002,930 shares issued and outstanding











as of December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively)

1

1

- Treasury stock

-

-



Additional paid-in capital

2,367,168

2,367,372

366,659 Accumulated deficit

(3,675,129)

(3,705,250)

(573,870) Accumulated other comprehensive income

96,490

89,754

13,901 Total Sunlands Technology Group shareholders' deficit

(1,211,469)

(1,248,122)

(193,310) Noncontrolling interest

(658)

(1,738)

(269) TOTAL SHAREHOLDERS' DEFICIT

(1,212,127)

(1,249,860)

(193,579) TOTAL LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' DEFICIT

3,260,894

2,760,205

427,501

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Amounts in thousands, except for share and per share data, or otherwise noted)

















For the Three Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB

US$ Net revenues

512,482

629,508

97,498 Cost of revenues

(99,591)

(97,286)

(15,068) Gross profit

412,891

532,222

82,430













Operating expenses











Sales and marketing expenses

(487,882)

(449,131)

(69,562) Product development expenses

(15,970)

(18,773)

(2,908) General and administrative expenses

(56,136)

(51,649)

(7,999) Total operating expenses

(559,988)

(519,553)

(80,469) (Loss)/income from operations

(147,097)

12,669

1,961 Interest income

6,317

4,152

643 Interest expense

(2,941)

(2,430)

(376) Other income, net

17,521

8,165

1,265 (Loss)/income before income tax expenses

(126,200)

22,556

3,493 Income tax expenses

224

(201)

(31) Loss from equity method investments

(173)

(277)

(43) Net (loss)/income

(126,149)

22,078

3,419













Less: Net income/(loss) attributable to noncontrolling interest

45

(730)

(113)













Net (loss)/income attributable to Sunlands Technology Group

(126,194)

22,808

3,532 Net (loss)/income per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of











Sunlands Technology Group:











Basic and diluted

(18.70)

3.39

0.52 Weighted average shares used in calculating net loss











per ordinary share:











Basic and diluted

6,749,309

6,729,197

6,729,197

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (Amounts in thousands)

















For the Three Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB

US$ Net (loss)/income

(126,149)

22,078

3,419 Other comprehensive loss, net of tax effect of nil:











Change in cumulative foreign currency translation adjustments

(2,513)

(9,158)

(1,418) Total comprehensive (loss)/income

(128,662)

12,920

2,001 Less: comprehensive income/(loss) attributable to noncontrolling











interest

45

(730)

(113) Comprehensive (loss)/income attributable to Sunlands Technology











Group

(128,707)

13,650

2,114

SUNLANDS TECHNOLOGY GROUP RECONCILIATION OF GAAP AND NON-GAAP RESULTS (Amounts in thousands)





For the Three Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB Net revenues

512,482

629,508 Less: other revenues

(4,194)

(16,289) Add: tax and surcharges

34,554

40,705 Add: ending deferred revenue

3,066,569

2,690,221 Add: ending refund liability

202,651

220,745 Less: beginning deferred revenue

(3,105,517)

(2,902,451) Less: beginning refund liability

(175,006)

(232,207) Gross billings (non-GAAP)

531,539

430,232





























Net (loss)/income

(126,149)

22,078 Add: income tax expenses

(224)

201 depreciation and amortization

11,325

10,225 interest expense

2,941

2,430 Less: interest income

(6,317)

(4,152) EBITDA (non-GAAP)

(118,424)

30,782

SUNLANDS TECHNOLOGY GROUP RECONCILIATION OF GAAP AND NON-GAAP RESULTS (Amounts in thousands)





For the Three Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB Cost of revenues

99,591

97,286 Less: Share-based compensation expenses in cost of revenues

15

(57) Non-GAAP cost of revenues

99,606

97,229









Sales and marketing expenses

487,882

449,131 Less: Share-based compensation expenses in sales and marketing expenses

(106)

(96) Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses

487,776

449,035









General and administrative expenses

56,136

51,649 Less: Share-based compensation expenses in general and administrative expenses

(399)

(162) Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses

55,737

51,487









Operating costs and expense

659,579

616,839 Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(490)

(315) Non-GAAP operating costs and expense

659,089

616,524









Loss/(income) from operations

147,097

(12,669) Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(490)

(315) Non-GAAP loss/(income) from operations

146,607

(12,984)









Net loss/(income) attributable to Sunlands Technology Group

126,194

(22,808) Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(490)

(315) Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sunlands Technology Group

125,704

(23,123)









Net loss/(income) per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of







Sunlands Technology Group:







Basic and diluted

18.70

(3.39) Non-GAAP net loss/(income) per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of







Sunlands Technology Group:







Basic and diluted

18.62

(3.44)









Weighted average shares used in calculating net loss/(profit)







per ordinary share:







Basic and diluted

6,749,309

6,729,197 Weighted average shares used in calculating Non-GAAP net loss







per ordinary share:







Basic and diluted

6,749,309

6,729,197

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Amounts in thousands, except for share and per share data, or otherwise noted)

















For the Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB

US$ Net revenues

1,077,581

1,323,806

205,031 Cost of revenues

(196,503)

(203,708)

(31,550) Gross profit

881,078

1,120,098

173,481













Operating expenses











Sales and marketing expenses

(945,737)

(1,055,560)

(163,485) Product development expenses

(37,365)

(36,689)

(5,682) General and administrative expenses

(144,638)

(93,947)

(14,551) Total operating expenses

(1,127,740)

(1,186,196)

(183,718) Loss from operations

(246,662)

(66,098)

(10,237) Interest income

13,137

10,013

1,551 Interest expense

(6,128)

(4,987)

(773) Other income, net

46,549

29,448

4,561 Loss before income tax expenses

(193,104)

(31,624)

(4,898) Income tax expenses

1,718

147

23 Loss from equity method investments

(326)

276

43 Net loss

(191,712)

(31,201)

(4,832)













Less: Net loss attributable to noncontrolling interest

(7)

(1,080)

(167)













Net loss attributable to Sunlands Technology Group

(191,705)

(30,121)

(4,665) Net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of











Sunlands Technology Group:











Basic and diluted

(28.28)

(4.48)

(0.69) Weighted average shares used in calculating net loss











per ordinary share:











Basic and diluted

6,779,346

6,729,197

6,729,197

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (Amounts in thousands)

















For the Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB

US$ Net loss

(191,712)

(31,201)

(4,832) Other comprehensive income/(loss), net of tax effect of nil:











Change in cumulative foreign currency translation adjustments

16,850

(6,736)

(1,043) Total comprehensive loss

(174,862)

(37,937)

(5,875) Less: comprehensive loss attributable to noncontrolling











interest

(7)

(1,080)

(167) Comprehensive loss attributable to Sunlands Technology











Group

(174,855)

(36,857)

(5,708)

SUNLANDS TECHNOLOGY GROUP RECONCILIATION OF GAAP AND NON-GAAP RESULTS (Amounts in thousands)





For the Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB Net revenues

1,077,581

1,323,806 Less: other revenues

(10,988)

(31,711) Add: tax and surcharges

69,757

78,199 Add: ending deferred revenue

3,066,569

2,690,221 Add: ending refund liability

202,651

220,745 Less: beginning deferred revenue

(3,228,770)

(3,024,443) Less: beginning refund liability

(128,478)

(232,859) Gross billings (non-GAAP)

1,048,322

1,023,958





























Net loss

(191,712)

(31,201) Add: income tax expenses

(1,718)

(147) depreciation and amortization

20,483

18,704 interest expense

6,128

4,987 Less: interest income

(13,137)

(10,013) EBITDA (non-GAAP)

(179,956)

(17,670)

SUNLANDS TECHNOLOGY GROUP RECONCILIATION OF GAAP AND NON-GAAP RESULTS (Amounts in thousands)





For the Six Months Ended June 30,



2020

2021



RMB

RMB Cost of revenues

196,503

203,708 Less: Share-based compensation expenses in cost of revenues

(16)

(6) Non-GAAP cost of revenues

196,487

203,702









Sales and marketing expenses

945,737

1,055,560 Less: Share-based compensation expenses in sales and marketing expenses

(258)

59 Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses

945,479

1,055,619









General and administrative expenses

144,638

93,947 Less: Share-based compensation expenses in general and administrative expenses

(787)

(257) Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses

143,851

93,690









Operating costs and expense

1,324,243

1,389,904 Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(1,061)

(204) Non-GAAP operating costs and expense

1,323,182

1,389,700









Loss from operations

246,662

66,098 Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(1,061)

(204) Non-GAAP loss from operations

245,601

65,894









Net loss attributable to Sunlands Technology Group

191,705

30,121 Less: Share-based compensation expenses

(1,061)

(204) Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sunlands Technology Group

190,644

29,917









Net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of







Sunlands Technology Group:







Basic and diluted

28.28

4.48 Non-GAAP net loss per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of







Sunlands Technology Group:







Basic and diluted

28.12

4.45









Weighted average shares used in calculating net loss







per ordinary share:







Basic and diluted

6,779,346

6,729,197 Weighted average shares used in calculating Non-GAAP net loss







per ordinary share:







Basic and diluted

6,779,346

6,729,197

SOURCE Sunlands Technology Group

Related Links

www.sunlands.com


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HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A Texas death row inmate alleges state prison officials would violate federal law and Christian traditions by refusing to allow his pastor to be present and directly minister to him when he dies by lethal injection next month, the inmate's lawyer Seth Kretzer said today.

John Henry Ramirez, who is awaiting execution for a 2004 murder in Nueces County, filed suit in Houston federal court to force the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to allow ordained Baptist pastor Dana Moore to "lay hands" on Ramirez as he dies in the prison execution chamber.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000  and a prison policy break from 560 Texas executions from 1982 to 2019 that allowed the execution chamber presence of pre-screened, TDCJ-approved religious advisers.

Ramirez, who was convicted in 2008, is scheduled to executed on Sept. 8 at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas. Two other execution dates for Ramirez were canceled in 2017 and 2020.

Kretzer said, "Important questions remain at the intersection of th law and Christian principles. Many Baptist ministers see the laying on of hands as a vitally important affirmation by God's people of their calling. It makes no sense legally that prison officials allow secular contact with death row inmates  by vetted guards and doctors, for example  but refuse to allow controlled religious contact. A prison doctor will touch Mr. Ramirez to determine when his pulse stops, but the state cannot explain why a minister cannot touch the body at the same time and in the same way."

Since 2019, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down TDCJ's protocol for execution attendance after a dispute with a Buddhist prisoner, state prison officials have repeatedly revised the execution attendance protocol for religious advisers. In April 2021, Ramirez was notified that Moore, the pastor of Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, would not be allowed to be present at the execution. Grievances filed by Ramirez were denied by the TDCJ.

"The State of Texas loses these spiritual advisor cases over and over," Kretzer said. "It's time to end the state's war on people of faith at the time of their demise. Our judgment of Mr. Ramirez is over. Let's move on and let him make his peace with his God with his pastor's help."

Moore, who was approved by prison officials to attend the execution, has counseled and visited Ramirez in prison for about five years.

Kretzer said, "TDCJ's current policy with regard to the presence of spiritual advisors in the execution chamber burdens Mr. Ramirez's free exercise of his Christian faith at his exact time of death, when most Christians believe they will either ascend to heaven or descend to hell  in other words, when religious instruction and practice is most needed. This is the most important at the moment of his death."

The Ramirez lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment that TDCJ's amended policy violates Ramirez's First Amendment rights under the Free Exercise Clause, a declaratory judgment that TDCJ's amended policy violates Mr. Ramirez's rights under RLUIPA, and a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting state prison officials from executing Ramirez until they can do so in a way that does not violate his rights.

The case is, "John Henry Ramirez vs. Bryan Collier, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Huntsville, Texas, et al.," Case No. 4:21-cv-2609 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.

CONTACT: Erin Powers, Powers MediaWorks LLC, for the Law Offices of Seth Kretzer, 281.703.6000, [email protected].

SOURCE Law Offices of Seth Kretzer
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired RenovaCare, Inc. ("RenovaCare" or the "Company") (OTC: RCAR ) securities between August 14, 2017 and May 28, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). RenovaCare investors have until September 14, 2021 to file a lead plaintiff motion.

If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.

On May 28, 2021, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a litigation release stating that RenovaCare was being charged with alleged securities fraud. According to the SEC's complaint, between July 2017 and January 2018, the Company's controlling shareholder and Chairman, Harmel Rayat ("Rayat"), "arranged, and caused RenovaCare to pay for, a promotional campaign designed to increase the company's stock price." Specifically, "Rayat was closely involved in directing the promotion and editing promotional materials, and arranged to funnel payments to the publisher through consultants to conceal RenovaCare's involvement in the campaign." When OTC Markets Group, Inc. requested that RenovaCare explain its relationship to the promotion, the complaint alleges that "Rayat and RenovaCare then drafted and issued a press release and a Form 8-K that contained material misrepresentations and omissions denying Rayat's and the company's involvement in the promotion."

On this news, the Company's stock price fell $0.66, or 24.8%, over three consecutive trading sessions to close at $2.00 per share on June 2, 2021.

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that, at the direction of Rayat, RenovaCare engaged in a promotional campaign to issue misleading statements to artificially inflate the Company's stock price; (2) that, when the OTC Markets inquired, RenovaCare and Rayat issued a materially false and misleading press release claiming that no director, officer, or controlling shareholder had any involvement in the purported third party's promotional materials; (3) that, as a result of the foregoing, the Company's disclosure controls and procedures were defective; and (4) as a result, Defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked reasonable basis at all relevant times.

Follow us for updates on Twitter: twitter.com/FRC_LAW.

If you purchased RenovaCare securities during the Class Period, you may move the Court no later than September 14, 2021 to ask the Court to appoint you as lead plaintiff. To be a member of the Class you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the Class. If you purchased RenovaCare securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Frank R. Cruz, of The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, 1999 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-914-5007, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.frankcruzlaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

Contacts

The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, Los Angeles

Frank R. Cruz, 310-914-5007

[email protected]

www.frankcruzlaw.com

SOURCE The Law Offices of Frank R. Cruz, Los Angeles

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SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, along with co-host the TODO Group , an open group of organizations who collaborate on practices, tools and other ways to run successful and effective open source programs and projects, today announced the conference agenda for OSPOCon Europe 2021 . The event takes place October 6 in London, England. The schedule can be viewed here .

Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) face many obstacles, such as ensuring high-quality and frequent releases, engaging with developer communities, and contributing back to other projects effectively. OSPOCon events will empower the collaboration of those working to create a center of competency for open source in their organizations through sharing experiences, best practices and tooling.

OSPOCon Europe session highlights include:

What TODO in the EU: Updates from the TODO Group European Chapter - Leslie Hawthorn , Red Hat & Alexios Zavras , Intel





- , & , Innersource: The Key to Your OSPO's Success - John Mark Walker , Fannie Mae





- , Exploring OSPOs and Open Methods in Humanitarian Response - Heather Leson , Solferino Academy, & International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies & Peter Masters , Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)





- , & & , Good Governance Practices for Healthy Open Source Projects - Dawn Foster , VMware

In addition to OSPOCon Europe, OSPOCon North America is being held September 27-29 in Seattle, Washington alongside Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference 2021 . To view the schedule, click here . These events are being produced in a hybrid format, with both in-person and virtual participation available. To learn more, click here .

Registration

Registration is offered at the early price of 140 GBP through August 24. Members of The Linux Foundation and the TODO Group receive a 20 percent discount - members can contact [email protected] to request a member discount code.

Health and Safety

In-person attendees will be required to be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus and wear a mask while onsite at the event. Additionally, all attendees will need to comply with all on-site health measures, in accordance with The Linux Foundation Code of Conduct . To learn more, visit the Health & Safety webpage and read our blog post .

Academic Registration Scholarships & Travel Funding

Support for Academic Scholarships and Travel Funding is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and is intended to enable participation in OSPOCon by faculty, staff, students, and/or administrators actively engaged with or interested in learning more about Open Source Program Offices in Academic/Research institutions. To learn more and apply, click here .

Diversity & Need-Based Scholarships and Travel Funding

Applications for diversity and need-based scholarships are currently being accepted here . The Linux Foundation's Travel Fund is also accepting applications, with the goal of enabling open source developers and community members to attend events that they would otherwise be unable to attend due to a lack of funding. We place an emphasis on funding applicants who are from historically underrepresented or untapped groups and/or those of lower socioeconomic status. To learn more and apply, click here .

Sponsor

For information on becoming an event sponsor, click here or email us for more information and to speak to our team. The sponsorship deadline is September 9.

Press

Members of the press who would like to request a press pass to attend should contact Kristin O'Connell .

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 2,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit linuxfoundation.org .

The Linux Foundation Events are where the world's leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn and network in order to advance innovations that support the world's largest shared technologies.

Visit our website and follow us on Twitter , Linkedin , and Facebook for all the latest event updates and announcements.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage . Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact

Kristin O'Connell

The Linux Foundation

[email protected]

SOURCE The Linux Foundation

Related Links

www.linuxfoundation.org


The Event was designed to explore the future of insurance and how data and AI-driven business models create innovation across the insurance industry. It attracted more than 300 participants from China, including over 200 executives from insurance companies, who are business leaders in strategy/innovation, actuary & pricing, marketing, information technology, digital transformation, underwriting, claims & anti-fraud, customer services, risk management, data center, AI, e-commerce, etc. A number of prestigious insurance companies in China, such as China Life Insurance Company, Ping An Life Insurance Company of China, Ltd., and China Pacific Insurance Company, participated and received awards in the Event. For more information about the Event, please visit its official website at http://www.szwgroup.com/insurance-analytics-and-ai-innovation-china/ .

Mr. Zhe Wang, Chairman of the board of the directors and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, commented, "We are honored to have received the award and proud of all the work our team has done over the years. This award recognizes our excellent customer services. As we continue to innovate and grow, we look forward to further improving customer satisfactions and expanding our market coverage to create long term value to our shareholders."

About TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd

TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd, headquartered in Beijing, China, is an insurance broker operating in China. It distributes a wide range of insurance products, which are categorized into two major groups: (1) property and casualty insurance, such as automobile insurance, commercial property insurance, liability insurance; and (2) life insurance, such as individual and group life insurances. Additionally, the Company also provides risk management services to institutional customers. For more information, visit the company's website at http://ir.tianrx.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements other than statements of historical fact in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review risk factors that may affect its future results in the Company's registration statement and in its other filings with the SEC.

For investor and media enquiries, please contact:

TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd

Investor Relations Department

Email: [email protected]

Ascent Investor Relations LLC

Tina Xiao

Phone: +1 917-609-0333

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd

Related Links

http://ir.tianrx.com/


DENVER, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Training Employment Solutions, Inc., a developer of innovative workforce solutions for individuals facing barriers to employment and employers looking to hire diverse talent, has joined CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech, a national program to expand and diversify the information technology (IT) workforce across America.

The announcement was made today by Training Employment Solutions and CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce.

CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech and partners such as Training Employment Solutions are working together to increase the number of IT workers across America; expand tech career opportunities for women, individuals with disabilities, people of color and other populations; and help employers meet their current and long-term needs for IT professionals. The program is led by CompTIA and Maher & Maher, a recognized leader in building innovative and successful apprenticeship initiatives, with the support of the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL).

"Training Employment Solutions is excited to provide this great opportunity for our clients facing barriers to employment, with the invaluable assistance of Maher & Maher, CompTIA and the Department of Labor," said Dennis Orr, CEO and co-founder of the company.

"Each of our potential employees have been assessed with the Birkman Method Assessment, the world's most accurate non-clinical assessment, and each client is determined to have an aptitude for success in the information technology industry," Orr continued. "Our clients have faced barriers to employability. This IT apprenticeship program will give them the opportunity for a full and productive life, while helping employers shorten the skills gap and hire professionally trained and certified employees."

In the 12 months between June 2020 and May 2021 Colorado employers listed open positions for 8,353 IT support specialists, 5,481 network administrators and engineers, 5,554 cybersecurity analysts and engineers and 5,592 IT project managers.[1] Each of these high demand job categories are part of the apprenticeship program.

"We are excited to be part of a solution to help individuals and corporations, through this apprenticeship and training model, that will enable companies to gain access to a diverse pool of candidates and create a strong pipeline of future employees to meet their hiring needs now and for the future," said Zachariah Jacobsen, president and co-founder, Training Employment Solutions.

Instruction and training delivered through the apprenticeship program is based on National Guideline Standards created by CompTIA and approved by the USDOL. These standards detail the competencies in technical and employability skills that apprentices need to join the IT workforce as tech project coordinators, tech support specialists, network support specialists and cybersecurity support technicians.

Colorado employers interested in joining the CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech program and individuals who would like to become apprentices can find more information at https://www.comptia.org/content/lp/apprenticeships-for-tech.

About Training Employment Solutions

Training Employment Solutions, Inc. is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, advisement and consulting firm, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with operations and partners across the United States of America. Through our innovative and integrated training and employment solutions, we help training companies, organizations and individuals succeed in their mission. https://trainingemploymentsolutions.com/

About CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech

CompTIA Apprenticeships for Tech is a national initiative to increase the number of skilled technology workers and expand tech career opportunities for diverse populations, including women, individuals with disabilities and people of color. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, led by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the IT industry and workforce, and Maher & Maher, a recognized leader in building innovative and successful apprenticeship initiatives and is built according to the Registered Apprenticeship Program model. For more information visit https://www.comptia.org/content/lp/apprenticeships-for-tech.

Media Contact

Steven Ostrowski

CompTIA

[email protected]

+1 630-678-8468

[1] CompTIA analysis of data from Burning Glass Labor Insights.

SOURCE CompTIA

Related Links

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Solving major pain point for millions of businesses, insurtech TrustLayer earns validation from top venture funds. Tweet this

Research shows that 75 percent of U.S. businesses are underinsured. In addition to risk, the current process is costly for insurers and the companies requesting verification: 200,000 proof of coverage requests are made daily in the U.S., causing significant resource strain and administrative cost. TrustLayer uses robotic process automation (RPA) and AI to automate this process securely, so companies can automatically verify the insurance and licenses of their vendors, suppliers, borrowers, and tenants.

Following several successful pilots in 2020, leading insurance brokers both invested in the company and elected to become sales channel partners, reselling the service to their own customers. BrokerTech Ventures, a group made up of 13 of the most innovative insurance agencies in the U.S. and 11 top-tier insurance companies, made TrustLayer their first investment in a company that completed their accelerator program. TrustLayer is the only solution with this level of industry support.

"It's clear that verification of insurance and business credentials is a pain point for millions of businesses, which is why we have seen such enthusiastic support for TrustLayer's secure, automated solution," said John Fohr, co-founder and CEO of TrustLayer. "We are especially proud to have such significant backing from a top-tier SaaS fund like Craft Ventures as well as some of the top insurance brokers in the country, a tremendous industry validation for our technology. We look forward to continuing this momentum with the support of our investors." The Series A financing comes after an impressive year for TrustLayer that included considerable growth in industries such as construction, property management, sports, and hospitality. The company is actively hiring top talent across its sales, marketing, and engineering teams to support the high demand for its solution. The new capital will also fuel the development of its live digital proof of coverage solution, and integrations with many insurance carrier systems of record, building upon pilots with major carriers such as Liberty Mutual, and Nationwide. TrustLayer's real-time digital certificate will unlock even more value, enabling brokers to more easily sell the right policy to vendors with inadequate coverage and helping insurance carriers more accurately assess potential risks.

"Insurance helps mitigate risk. For businesses, insurance plays a critical role in the durability of its operations. The problem is no one is exactly sure who's covered and by how much -- we're still swapping poorly scanned PDFs and faxes to prove outdated coverage," said Brian Murray, Partner and COO at Craft Ventures. "TrustLayer fixes this. Their technology automates the collection and verification of insurance, helping companies and their partners accurately assess risk and avoid business interruption."

Over the past year, TrustLayer has announced significant partnerships with associations and broker partners, including a recent partnership with Graham Company , one of the country's largest insurance brokers and employee benefits consultants, and with Procore .

About TrustLayer

TrustLayer is an AI-powered collaborative risk management platform working to digitize the highly manual, error-prone, and paper-based process of insurance verification. With TrustLayer, companies can securely automate the verification of insurance, licenses, and compliance documents of their business partners (i.e., vendors, subcontractors, suppliers, borrowers, tenants, ridesharing, and franchisees) in an easy-to-use digital dashboard. TrustLayer is working with dozens of the largest brokers and carriers in the U.S. to build out a fully digital proof of insurance solution so companies will be able to validate in real-time that their business partners have the correct coverage. Founded by John Fohr and Vincenzo Acinapura, the company is backed by leading investors, including Craft Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Box Group, Propel Ventures, Sure Ventures and PruVen Capital, and has also received investments from more than 20 of the top 100 insurance brokers. To learn more, visit trustlayer.io , or follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and LinkedIn .

Contact: Caitlin Krutsick

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 610.428.8948

SOURCE TrustLayer

Related Links

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HOUSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson is stepping down as director of the University of Houston Law Center's Criminal Justice Institute. Guerra Thompson has been succeeded by Associate Professor of Law and Political Science Zachary D. Kaufman and Associate Professor David Kwok, who serve as co-directors.

"I thank Professor Guerra Thompson for her leadership and 18 years of service as director of the Institute," said Dean Leonard M. Baynes. "Her hard work and efforts elevated the Institute to its high level of prominence today.

"Under Professor Kwok and Professor Kaufman's leadership and building on Professor Guerra Thompson's accomplishments, I am confident that the UH Law Center Criminal Justice Institute will reach additional levels of prominence and gravitas."

Guerra Thompson, the Newell H. Blakely Professor of Law, teaches Criminal Evidence, Criminal Law, Evidence, and Hot Topics in Criminal Law and Procedure. Her research on crime labs culminated in a 2015 book, "Cops in Lab Coats: Curbing Wrongful Convictions through Independent Forensic Laboratories." The book was referenced in September 2016 by the President's Council on Advisors on Science and Technology, an advisory council established by then-President Barack Obama. In 2017, she testified at a Congressional hearing on the future of forensic science.

Guerra Thompson also served as a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Houston Forensic Science Center from 2012 to 2019. The Houston Forensic Science Center, established by the city of Houston in 2014 to replace the Houston Police Department Crime Lab, instituted a vast blind proficiency testing program, earning the lab worldwide recognition for its quality assurance program. The lab is also unique in having been removed from the control of a police department. Under new direction, the lab implemented more efficient processes that have eliminated backlogs in DNA work on sexual assault kits.

Since 2019, Guerra Thompson has been an elected council member for the International Association of Evidence Science. In October 2020, she was the recipient of the Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Education in the Community Award, and Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed Sept. 15, 2020, as Sandra Guerra Thompson Day. Guerra Thompson is also the deputy monitor for the federal consent decree in the O'Donnell v. Harris County settlement, which has transformed Harris County's misdemeanor bail system. She is also the monitor for the Lomas v. Harris County consent decree regarding the integrity of the criminal charging process.

"For so long, the Criminal Justice Institute has brought national attention to the UH Law Center through outstanding criminal law conferences, symposia, and clinics," Guerra Thompson said. "Now Professors Kaufman and Kwok, two nationally-recognized scholars, will bring fresh perspectives from their specializations in international criminal law and white-collar crime, respectively. I couldn't be happier to leave the CJI in their capable hands as we begin the next chapter of the Institute's history."

Kaufman joined the Law Center's faculty in 2019. He writes and teaches in the areas of criminal law, international law, and international justice and atrocities. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as both co-chair of the American Society of International Law's Human Rights Interest Group and secretary (and future chair) of the Association of American Law Schools' International Human Rights Section. In addition, he serves on Genocide Watch's Advisory Board and is a member of both the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the International Network of Genocide Scholars.

Kaufman's extensive experience in domestic and international criminal justice includes working on criminal law issues while serving as a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow, specializing in criminal law issues while clerking for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, serving in the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, working for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on international criminal justice issues, serving at three international criminal tribunals (including as the first American to serve at the International Criminal Court), and working pro bono on a death penalty case while practicing at a law firm.

Kwok, who holds the George Butler Research Professorship, teaches and writes in the areas of white collar crime, whistleblowers, public policy, and law and the social sciences. He joined the Law Center faculty in 2013.

"I am honored to be the new co-director of the Criminal Justice Institute," Kaufman said. "It is a testament to Professor Guerra Thompson's expertise and effectiveness that it takes two people to follow in her big, bold footsteps. I very much look forward to partnering with Professor Kwok to build on Professor Guerra Thompson's visionary work as we further enhance the practice of criminal law at the local, national, and international levels."

"It is a privilege to take on this new role with the Criminal Justice Institute," added Kwok. "Under Professor Guerra Thompson's leadership, CJI has helped deploy academic expertise throughout Houston and beyond. I hope to continue this legacy of compassion, fairness, and excellence in pursuing these ideals of criminal justice."

UHLC media contacts: Carrie Anna Criado, UH Law Center Assistant Dean of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-2184, [email protected] ; Elena Hawthorne, Assistant Director of Communications and Marketing, 713-743-1125, [email protected] ; and John Brannen, Media Relations Rep, 713-743-3055, [email protected] .

About the University of Houston Law Center

The University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) is a dynamic, top tier law school located in the nation's 4th largest city. UHLC's Health Law, Intellectual Property Law rank in the U.S. News Top 10. It awards Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees, through its academic branch, the College of Law. The Law Center is more than just a law school. It is a powerful hub of intellectual activity with more than 11 centers and institutes which fuel its educational mission and national reputation. UHLC is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter for excellence in undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city and one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the country, UH is a federally designated Hispanic- and Asian-American-Serving institution with enrollment of more than 47,000 students.

SOURCE University of Houston Law Center

Related Links

http://www.law.uh.edu


IRVING, Texas, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Unitek Global Services, Inc. (Unitek), a leading provider of telecommunications and broadband infrastructure and fulfillment services, announced today that it has named Charlie Smith, who currently serves as President of SDT, a Unitek division, as President and Chief Executive Officer. Additionally, Austin Shanfelter, formerly the CEO and President of MasTec and currently an advisor to Unitek, has been appointed as Executive Chairman of Unitek.

Mr. Smith has held leadership positions in the telecommunications infrastructure services industry for over 35 years and has extensive knowledge of all aspects of telecommunications engineering and construction. He is a founding investor of SDT and has served as CEO since 1999, a position he continued to hold after SDT became a division of Unitek in 2018. Mr. Smith has led the Company's evolution into a leading telecom engineering and construction company focused on the southeastern and south-central regions of the United States.

Mr. Shanfelter formerly served as CEO and President of MasTec, a Fortune 500 infrastructure engineering and construction company, and has worked in the telecommunications, power and specialty construction industry since 1981. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Orion Group Holdings, a marine engineering and construction firm, and has served on its Board of Directors since 2007.

Andrew Crouch, Unitek's current president and CEO, will remain an advisor to Charlie and the board to support a smooth leadership transition.

John Kline, member of Unitek's Board of Directors said: "We would like to thank Andrew for his contributions to Unitek over the last two years. Andrew's leadership combined with the efforts of Unitek's dedicated team members have positioned the company to continue delivering best-in-class service to its customers across the telecommunications industry and accelerate its strong growth trajectory. We are excited about Unitek's future with Charlie and Austin at the helm and look forward to supporting the company as it continues to provide solutions to improve the nation's communications infrastructure, including in rural areas where these enhancements are most needed."

For more information about Unitek, please visit unitekglobalservices.com.

About Unitek Global Services

UniTek Global Services founded in 2004 has developed a family of engineering & construction and fulfillment companies specializing in the telecommunications and broadband infrastructure industry.

Unitek is headquartered in Irving, TX and has offices in Louisville, KY, Brookhaven, MS, Greensboro, NC, Huntingdon Valley, PA, and Toronto, CA and operations in over 80 locations across North America.

Contact:

Prosek Partners

Lindsay Jablonski

[email protected]

SOURCE Unitek Global Services, Inc.
PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- They say entrepreneurs should design a product they would use. The Dyrt co-founders Sarah Smith and Kevin Long are going all in on this philosophy by managing their 40-person company from a camper van at campgrounds across the US for at least the rest of 2021.

The Dyrt founders Kevin Long and Sarah Smith working remotely from their camper van.

The husband-and-wife team launched The Dyrt's camping app in 2017 in response to a lack of available detailed information about campgrounds. They're now using the Apple and Google Play App Stores' No. 1-ranked camping app to navigate a cross-country vanlife adventure while logging on and working long, hard startup hours online every day.

"For over a year, our remote-work policy has been that as long as you have a strong enough data signal to do a video call, you can work from anywhere," says Long. "We've regularly had employees logging on from mountainsides and lakes. It has worked out so well for our employees that Sarah and I realized we could do it too."

The newest feature of The Dyrt PRO is a cell coverage map rating the signal for each carrier at thousands of campgrounds across the country. Kevin and Sarah are relying heavily on this feature along with The Dyrt PRO's road-trip planner .

"This is truly an immersive QA exercise," says Smith. "We're learning so much about our product. I would challenge any entrepreneur to put themselves in a situation where they are counting on their technology the way their most avid user would."

"Kevin and Sarah really walk the walk," says Greg Ennis from Peninsula Ventures. "Remote work is the new norm and The Dyrt's app allows for one to do this from unique locations across the country. Kevin's and Sarah's commitment to the product and user experience is one of the reasons The Dyrt is the No. 1 camping app and why they're confident in depending on their own technology to manage their company remotely."

Smith and Long left their home in Portland in late July and stopped at Jenny Lake, Wyoming, which was recently ranked the top campground in the US by The Dyrt camping community. Their travels will take them through dozens of states including Colorado, Virginia and Smith's home state of Minnesota.

"The more successful The Dyrt has gotten, the less Sarah and I have been able to go camping," says Long, who used to camp every weekend with Smith. "This is a chance to really immerse ourselves in the camping community again. With our PRO app and existing technology, we can live first-hand what our users experience  without missing a day of work."

About The Dyrt

The Dyrt's mission is to expand the camping community and help more people enjoy the outdoors. With over 2.5 million user-generated campgrounds, reviews and tips, The Dyrt is the largest source of camping information. The Dyrt helps campers find their ideal destinations by collecting reviews, photos and videos from fellow campers through the app. The Dyrt PRO enables campers to plan road trips, find free camping areas on public lands, use the app offline and more. www.thedyrt.com

Media contact:

Jason Simms

[email protected]

860-526-1555

SOURCE The Dyrt

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PORTLAND, Ore., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Vehicle Occupancy Detection System Market By Installation Type (Fixed Installation and Mobile Installation), Technology (Infrared, Ultrasonic, and Hybrid), and Application (Passenger Vehicles and Commercial Vehicles): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030" According to the report, the global vehicle occupancy detection industry was estimated at $42.5 million in 2020, and is anticipated to hit $225.5 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 19.1% from 2021 to 2030.

Download Sample Report (Get Full Insights in PDF - 315 Pages) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/12906

Drivers, Restraints, and Opportunities

Rise in government regulations, increase in expansion of OEMs and automotive component suppliers, and surge in demand for occupancy detection to reduce fatalities drive the growth of the global vehicle occupancy detection market. On the other hand, high cost associated with comprehensive occupancy sensing system and low penetration of advanced driver-assistant systems in emerging regions impede the growth to some extent. Nevertheless, increase in construction in HOV lanes in toll plazas is projected to pave the way for lucrative opportunities in the future.

COVID-19 Scenario:

The outbreak of covid-19 has massively impacted the automotive sector due to factors such as suspended manufacturing units, disrupted supply chain management, and declined consumer demand, which in turn impacted the vehicle occupancy detection market.

Nevertheless, the global situation is getting back on track at a slow & steady pace, and the market is expected to recoup soon.

The fixed Installation Segment to Dominate by 2030

By installation type, the fixed installation segment contributed to nearly three-fourths of the total vehicle occupancy detection market share in 2020 and is expected to lead the trail by the end of 2030. This is owing to rise in HOV lanes in toll plaza. However, the mobile installation segment is expected cite the fastest CAGR of 20.30% from 2021 to 2030. This is due to growth in government regulations across the world.

Interested to Procure the Data? Inquire Here @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/12906

The Infrared Segment to Maintain the Dominant Share

Based on technology, the infrared segment accounted for more than two-fifths of the global vehicle occupancy detection al market revenue in 2020 and is projected to retain its dominance by 2030. Rise in demand for enhanced infrared sensors across military and defense industries owing to various federal laws drives the growth of the segment. On the other hand, the ultrasound segment would also manifest the fastest CAGR of 20.30% throughout the forecast period. Ultrasonic sensors sense movement in a space to transmit high frequency sound waves which propels the growth the segment.

North America Garnered the Major Share in 2020

Based on region, the market across North America, held the major share in 2020, garnering nearly two-fifths of the global vehicle occupancy detection market. This is owing to the presence of major players in this region. On the other hand, the market across Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 22.0% from 2021 to 2030. Rising awareness about passenger safety paired with various government regulations fuels the market growth in this province.

Enquire for Customization with Detailed Analysis of COVID-19 Impact in Report @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/12906?reqfor=covid

Key Market Players

Siemens

TransCore

Vehicle Occupancy Detection Corp.

Xerox Corporation

Conduent Inc.

Fortran Traffic System Ltd.

Indra Sistemas

Invision AI

NEC Corporation of America

S.A, Invision

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Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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BOONE, N.C., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wellovate LLC, a national leader in the clinical use of virtual reality (VR), today announced the launch of a groundbreaking initiative using its Waya Health platform to enhance the care provided to U.S. military veterans.

"We are extremely proud that we have the opportunity to collaborate with Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE) and the VHA Extended Reality (VHA XR) Network to help prove the value of virtual reality in health care across its diverse facilities," said Wellovate President Joe Morgan, MD. "We believe that our cutting-edge technology will bring better and safer care to veterans while helping the VHA reduce the costs of providing that care."

"The goal of this pilot is to determine the utility of VR in falls risk assessments, neurological risk assessment, palliative care, procedural use, acute and/or chronic pain management, and anxiety," Dr. Anne Lord Bailey, co-lead of the VHA XR Network and VHA Emerging Tech Clinical Specialist with VHA IE's Diffusion of Excellence. "A key to innovation is collaboration, and we are grateful for industry collaborators like Waya Health that are eager to ensure veterans are given the opportunity to be the earliest adopters of tools that have the potential to transform the way we think about care delivery."

Veterans and clinical staff in 12 VHA medical centers across the country will use wearable headsets loaded with Waya Health software developed to address the six critical medical use cases Dr. Bailey listed.

Through a previous, three-year evaluation of veterans using Waya Health's virtual reality tools in both inpatient and long-term care settings at the Western North Carolina VA Health Care System (WNCVAHCS), in Asheville, N.C., the following was discovered:

84% reported reduction in discomfort;

89% reported reduction in stress;

96% reported enjoying their experience; and

97% said they would recommend it to their peers.

"The opportunities are limitless for virtual reality to assess, monitor, and help manage numerous diseases; reduce the use of risky medications like opioids and sedatives; and really improve the quality of life for thousands of veterans," Dr. Morgan said.

"This collaboration will be a validation pipeline to develop, test, and deploy virtual reality solutions not only for our veterans but also for patients, physicians, and clinical staff outside the VHA. We are very impressed with the VHA's commitment to innovation and are honored to be a part of it."

Caitlin Rawlins, innovation specialist, co-lead for the VHA XR Network, and site lead for WNCVAHCS's VR program said, "WNCVAHCS was very forward-thinking in offering the Waya Health platform to veterans in 2018. The Asheville pilot demonstrated how virtual reality aids veterans with pain, anxiety, behavioral concerns, boredom, and challenges with relaxation."

"The veterans who participated in that pilot advocated strongly for VHA to expand the use of virtual reality in their healthcare. We value highly their perspective and are very excited about what this new, broader collaboration may reveal."

About Waya Health:

Founded by board-certified physicians in Boone, North Carolina, in 2016, Waya Health provides patient-centered and outcome-focused solutions to overcome today's biggest healthcare challenges. Waya Health's innovative virtual and augmented reality tools can improve patient care, lower costs, and increase revenue across multiple clinical settings.

About the Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem:

VHA IE is the catalyst for enabling the discovery and spread of mission-drive health care innovation to advance care delivery and service that exceeds expectations, restores hope, and builds trust within the veteran community. As part of the VHA Office of Discovery, Education and Affiliate Networks (DEAN), VHA IE leverages the collective power of innovation champions across VA, academia, non-profit organizations, and industry to operationalize innovation in the nation's largest integration healthcare system.

SOURCE Waya Health
"Our team is honored and humbled to receive this recognition, especially in light of the challenges of 2020. Last year's growth increased our ability to give back to the community in a more meaningful way, which is really why we do this work," said Ms. Diedre Windsor, President and CEO of Windsor Group and retired career Army Officer. "At Windsor we pride ourselves on bringing in the very best people resources and business solutions to every engagement with the goal of ensuring our clients' success. This award is attributed to the dedication and commitment of Team Windsor which consistently delivers excellence."

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this year's list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020's unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 20.

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

About Windsor Group LLC

Windsor Group LLC is a Maryland based, woman, minority and service-disabled veteran owned small business providing professional services and business solutions to both federal government and commercial entities. Windsor supports its clients in the areas of Staff Augmentation, Project and Program Management, IT Support, and Training and Development. Windsor Group is an 8(a) Business Development program participant and GSA Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) contract holder.

CONTACT:

Diedre L. Windsor

(240) 600-0149

[email protected]

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this year's Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/.

SOURCE Windsor Group LLC
AUGSBURG, Germany, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The European technology leader for robotic exoskeletons, German Bionic, today introduces another intelligent function for the Cray X power suit. The new SMART SAFETY COMPANION early warning system for ergonomics now lets companies individually and intelligently monitor and optimize the safety of lifting operations in manual handling environments. The cloud-based software harnesses AI and machine learning to identify employee health risks, define safety precautions, and thereby improve work processes. It gives workplace health and safety a sustainable boost, while ensuring optimal business processes and maximum effectiveness.

"The focus of German Bionic's product development efforts is always on the well-being of people," says Norma Steller, Head of IoT at German Bionic. "Our latest innovation, the SMART SAFETY COMPANION, revolutionizes workplace ergonomics and helps combat fatigue-induced errors and prevent subsequent worker injuries or other disabling conditions."

With its holistic approach, the German Bionic SMART SAFETY COMPANION applies real-time ergonomic expertise where it is needed most: on the shop floor where manual handling tasks are performed. Comprehensive reporting functions provide immediate overviews of the effectiveness of the workplace health and safety measures being implemented. This unlocks new potentials, both in terms of employee and business performance  and sees sustainable business and ESG management starting directly at the employees.

Ergonomic protection and less fatigue

The cloud-based SMART SAFETY COMPANION is available for any connected Cray X via an over-the-air (OTA) update. It acts as an intelligent, real-time ergonomic early warning system that prevents incorrect posture and lifting techniques during individual manual handling tasks, and warns against signs of excessive strain, preventing fatigue-related errors and injuries.

Using real-time data, a so-called digital twin of the lifting worker is generated to alert on unfavorable loads, dangerous repetitions, risky movements, and poor postures, to name a few examples. Moreover, the software intelligently detects and warns of symptoms of fatigue to avoid critical overloads, advises on correct posture and lifting practices in real time, and provides intelligent break recommendations. Quick and easy stretching exercises are also suggested as preventative measures to keep workers healthy and productive.

Sustainable business performance through more effective, healthier employees

German Bionic's system solution consists of the German-Bionic IO cloud robotics platform and the intelligent Cray-X power suit. "By adopting our system solution, companies can make a clear statement about the value they place on their employees," says Armin G. Schmidt, CEO of German Bionic. "It supports employees to be their best  at the workplace and in their personal lives. Given an aging workforce and increasingly competitive labor market, this boosts both companies' ESG scores and their attractiveness as employers."

Further information & image material: https://www.germanbionic.com/en/news/

Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com)

About German Bionic

German Bionic is backed by renowned international technology investors such as Samsung Catalyst Fund, Storm Ventures and MIG, which is also invested in Covid-19 vaccine developer BioNTech. The company and its products are regularly featured in top-tier publications and are the recipients of numerous awards including the German Entrepreneur Award, the Land of Ideas Award, the Automatica Award as well as a nomination for Hannover Messe's coveted Hermes Award.

The German Bionic Cray X is the world's first connected exoskeleton. Linked to the Smart Factory, it self-learns to reinforce lifting movements and prevent incorrect posture, thus becoming an intelligent link between humans and machines. In doing so, it delivers data that underscores its ability to protect the health of workers, measurably reduce the risk of accidents, and thereby make quantifiable improvements to work processes.

www.germanbionic.com/en

Press contact:

Eric Eitel

Head of Communications

+49 (0) 175 338 04 53

[email protected]

Follow us on

Twitter www.twitter.com/germanbionic

LinkedIn https://de.linkedin.com/company/germanbionic

SOURCE German Bionic Systems
ROANOKE, Va., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition (RAYSAC) is bringing a big message to legislators and community leaders about over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medication abuse. On Friday, August 20 from 9:00 am  11:00 am national and international speaker and former Idaho Officer Jermaine "Tall Cop" Galloway will deliver his "Tall Cop Says Stop" message to lawmakers, community leaders, and others. Galloway, who is 6'9", uses his height as a message point and conversation starter to fight drug and substance abuse and underage drinking and to educate parents, leaders, and law enforcement to recognize problems in their communities. "For each person to help prevent youth substance abuse, you MUST know what is going on in your community. You can't stop what you don't know," said Galloway.

Galloway and Tim Lucas, owner and operator of DownHome Pharmacy in Botetourt County, and current Chapter President in Roanoke for the Virginia Pharmacist Association will help community leaders and lawmakers understand new OTC remedies and prescription medications that kids, teens, and even adults are using and in many cases, abusing. "The opioid crisis keeps growing and growing, and here in the Roanoke Valley, just in Roanoke city alone, 40 to 60 people are seen by an ambulance every month because of an opioid overdose, so the need is great," said Adam Neal, Director, Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition. "People aren't just getting these things on the street, they're getting access to medicines that doctors are prescribing for things like getting wisdom teeth removed and broken bones, and the next thing you know you're addicted. It escalates and happens really fast."

RAYSAC will also provide a report on a recent environmental scan showing the challenges and issues facing stores and pharmacies in our community with regard to youth medication abuse and control. "There are so many things that youth have access to at eye level and in plain view at stores in the Roanoke Valley and there's the normalization of CBD, hemp, and the access to other remedies. It's not just happening in a far off place. We want people to know it's happening right here in our community."

Virtual Legislative Roundtable When: Friday, August 20

9:00am  11:00 am

Where: https://brbh.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpc-yqqTssHdE7flMUq9qjA151g6pP1wfG

Additional reference to a 2020 Study in the Pharmaceutical Journal. https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/research/misuse-of-prescription-and-over-the-counter-drugs-to-obtain-illicit-highs-how-pharmacists-can-prevent-abuse

The Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition (RAYSAC) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization based in the Roanoke Valley and funded by the the State Opioid Response grant. RAYSAC's goals include educating adults, youth, and families on the dangers of prescription opioid and over-the-counter medication abuse and misuse. We have been in operation for over 33 years, and serve the greater Roanoke Valley, including Roanoke, Craig and Botetourt counties and the Cities of Salem and Roanoke.

SOURCE Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition
SINGAPORE, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- XDC Network , a highly interoperable, hybrid blockchain platform that supports global trade and finance, is honoured to have been selected as the first blockchain company to join the global Trade Finance Distribution (TFD) Initiative , a consortium of trade originators, credit insurers, and institutional funders on a mission to boost automation and transparency in trade asset and risk distribution.

XDC Network was selected to join the TFD Initiative by fintech veteran Andre Casterman , whose impressive track record includes over 20 years at SWIFT, leading various technology innovations in inter-bank payments, corporate payments, corporate treasury, and trade finance. Casterman is responsible for spearheading the TFD Initiative.

In welcoming the XDC Network, Casterman, who is also Chair of the Fintech Committee at International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA), said: "TFD Initiative provides the most comprehensive set of trade distribution capabilities. We welcome XinFin's XDC Network to TFD Initiative as this enables us to bridge the US$19 trillion trade finance asset class with any type of funder through tokenisation and digital assets."

To establish trade as an investment class, TFD Initiative is working to define new technology-based market practices and transaction data specifications, with the goal of increasing the accessibility and transparency of trade flows. This will create a more robust trade finance ecosystem where banks can reach new types of funders, like institutional investors and family offices.

The TFD Initiative, whose members include major global financial institutions and leading service providers such as ABN AMRO, Santander Asset Management, ING Bank, SMBC, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Texel Group, NN Investment Partners and more, recognises the vital role blockchain will play in shaping the future of the trade finance sector, which has already been successfully implemented in other areas of finance.

A first-of-its-kind, public-private hybrid blockchain platform, XDC Network brings energy-efficient smart contract and digital asset technology to the trade investment class.

Chris Southworth, Secretary General, ICC United Kingdom who is an observer on TFD Initiative said: "Trade finance is a compelling asset class for institutional investors. Making trade finance more accessible for non-bank investors is of paramount importance if we are going to drive the economic recovery from Covid and fill the USD 3-5 trillion SME trade finance gap. Innovative technology driven solutions like the TFD Initiative are a critical part of the solution to providing more liquidity into the market."

Leveraging the power of cryptographic tokens, the XDC Network allows for the digitisation, tokenisation, and swift settlement of trade transactions, reducing reliance on complex foreign exchange infrastructures. Some of the key advantages include lower transaction fees (near zero), less energy consumption, efficient confirmation time, double validation, and randomisation for security guarantees.

"Utility networks, like the XDC Network, will help lay the tracks for a new digital economy and develop standards for tokenized trade finance distribution, giving organizations increased exposure to emerging markets. XDC brings new sources of liquidity, via our smart contract technology to global trade finance. Joining TFD Initiative enables us to work closely with a series of bank and non-bank originators and contribute to closing the SME financing gap," says Atul Khekade, co-founder of XDC Network.

"Emerging technologies such as distributed ledgers are being promoted as a way to create smart contracts: computer programs which run automatically, in whole or in part, without the need for human intervention," says Sarah Green, Law Commissioner for England and Wales. "Smart contracts are expected to increase efficiency and certainty in business and reduce the need for contracting parties to have to trust each other; the trust resides instead in the code. To ensure that the jurisdiction of England and Wales remains a competitive choice for business, there is a compelling case for reviewing the current legal framework in England and Wales to ensure that it facilitates the use of smart contracts."

An initial set of SME-focused supply chain finance platforms powered by XDC on the back of the TFD Initiative will be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information, please contact:

Leo Park

Cryptoland PR for XDC Network

[email protected]

About XinFin's XDC Network

The XDC Networkcreated by XinFinis a global, open-source, delegated proof of stake consensus network (XDPoS), which enables hybrid relay bridges, instant block finality and interoperability with ISO 20022 financial messaging standards. The network's hybrid architecture is designed to support institutional use in trade finance and tokenization and is equipped to reduce the existing finance gap in global infrastructure. With interoperable smart contracts, 2,000 transactions per-second, and Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility, the XDC Network provides a scalable infrastructure for enterprises and independent community contributors.

For more information about XinFin and the XDC Network, please visit www.xinfin.org .

About Trade Finance Distribution Initiative

Trade Finance Distribution Initiative (TFD Initiative) is an industry-backed drive to create the blueprint for global trade finance distribution. TFD Initiative has established the largest business community of trade originators, funding platforms, credit insurers, institutional funders and their service providers committed to increase the level of automation and transparency in trade asset and risk distribution on the basis of technology-based market practices. TFD Initiative seeks to develop standardised best practices for the wider distribution of trade finance assets. This includes common data standards and definitions to address operational inefficiencies, transparency issues, and risks. TFD Initiative relies on the insights of its members, which includes banks, institutional investors and trade associations. It is powered by Tradeteq, the global trade finance distribution platform.

For more information, please visit www.tradefinancedistribution.com .

SOURCE XinFin XDC Network
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Zell Founders Fund, in collaboration with the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, announced today that it has contributed $100,000 to a recent funding round for Just Enough Wines, a premium quality canned wine company founded by University of Michigan alumna Kaitlyn Lo (MBA '21) with her friend, Jessica Hershfield.

"People are gravitating toward canned beverages that are more portable, convenient, and sustainable," said Kaitlyn Lo, co-founder and COO of Just Enough Wines. "Our goal is to be the nation's No. 1 selling premium canned wine. The Zell Founders Fund's $100,000 investment in Just Enough Wines is helping us at a critical point in time as we approach our company's one-year anniversary from when we first started selling our wines and begin to expand into new geographical markets."

The Zell Lurie Institute's rich and diverse entrepreneurial programming helped Lo build and think about her new venture while she was an MBA student at Michigan Ross.

"From hands-on courses such as the Financing Research Commercialization class to the sessions offered through Dare to Dream, there were plenty of resources available to help me with different facets of the business," said Lo, who received a Dare to Dream grant and was named a Zell Entrepreneur. "The Zell Lurie Institute also provided access to the law clinic, a design team, and a network of other entrepreneurs."

Daniela Sanchez (JD/MBA '22) and Simona Zhu (BBA '22), who led the Founders Fund due diligence team, said they were impressed by the brand and partnerships that Lo and Hershfield had built since launching their company in January 2020 with limited funding from friends and family.

"This was not just a vision  they had a product on the market and strong strategic partnerships in the wine industry," said Sanchez. "Additionally, the founders leveraged their strengths but also recognized their gaps, which is essential for growth."

The two student investors took responsibility for the entire due diligence process, beginning in April with initial research and founder calls. They pitched the company to other Founders Fund members and made their decision to invest in mid-May.

"There's been a lot of movement in the alcoholic beverage landscape, so it was interesting to see what the other players are doing and to understand how Just Enough Wines fits into the ecosystem," said Zhu. "It's clear that the founders have been very thoughtful in their go-to-market approach, and we are excited to see their new developments in implementation and customer acquisition for Just Enough Wines."

"We really enjoyed working with Daniela and Simona," said Lo. "It was evident they were very knowledgeable and had done their research into our market and competitors."

"The mission of the Zell Founders Fund is to back recent University of Michigan graduates who are starting businesses right out of school and need help to get going," said Michael Godwin (MBA '10), faculty director of the Fund. "Our goals are different, so the return on investment is a secondary consideration.

"Kaitlyn and Jess had been working on the company together for a little over a year and a half and had made quite a bit of progress," Godwin said. "They already have product sales in the market and a pretty strong team, including co-investors from the wine industry and partners on the distribution side. It was easy to pull the trigger on this investment."

Just Enough Wines worked with experienced winemakers and vineyard operators in California to craft and produce its Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Brut Bubbles in 2020, followed by a Rose in May of 2021. It currently sells its premium canned wine in more than 100 retail locations across the state and offers direct-to-consumer shipping in California, Oregon, and Florida.

The environmentally friendly company focuses on sustainable measures for sourcing its wines as well as labeling and packaging its final products. Future expansion plans call for new product launches in several states, including Michigan where wines will be shipped directly to consumers' homes.

Launching a startup during the Covid-19 pandemic was a significant challenge, but Just Enough Wines has regained its momentum and now has a fully booked calendar of wine events and tastings.

Funds from this investment will enable Just Enough Wines to expand its production, gain greater awareness with marketing, and retain a talented team.

"We've grown fast, but it has been a fun journey," said Lo.

The Zell Founders Fund is a $10 million seed fund made possible by a 2015 gift from business magnate Sam Zell. Created to support extraordinary entrepreneurs who are either graduating or have recently graduated from the University of Michigan, the Fund is led by Ross School of Business students who represent the top talent from the Zell Lurie Institute's four other established student-led funds.

For more information on the Zell Founders Fund, please visit: http://zli.umich.edu/programs-funds/zell-founders-fund



About University of Michigan: Ross School of Business

The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan is a vibrant and distinctive learning community grounded in the principle that business can be an extraordinary vehicle for positive change. Through thought and action, members of the Michigan Ross community drive change and innovation that improves business and society. Housed within Ross, the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies is a leading center for entrepreneurial thought leadership and engagement.

About the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies

The Zell Lurie Institute brings together an impactful combination of deep-seated knowledge, enriching experiences and strategic opportunities from the front lines of entrepreneurship and alternative investment. Students' learning experiences are further enhanced through internships, entrepreneurial clubs, business competitions, and campus-wide events that foster valuable networking and engage the business community. The Institute's five student-led investment funds, with over $10M under management, immerse students in the entrepreneurial business sourcing, assessment and investment process while pursuing their graduate or undergraduate degree at the Ross School of Business. For more information, visit the Institute's website at www.zli.umich.edu.

SOURCE Zell Lurie Institute University of Michigan

Related Links

http://www.zli.umich.edu


COLUMBIA, S.C., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine today revealed that ZVerse, Inc. is No. 67 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies and the fastest growing in South Carolina. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. The Inc. 5000's in-depth and audited review of company growth and financials puts ZVerse in the top 100 with three-year growth at over 5,500 percent.

"It is an honor to be ranked the 67th fastest growing company in the country by Inc. Magazine, and we are especially proud to represent South Carolina as the fastest-growing company in the State," said ZVerse Founder and CEO John Carrington. "We are humbled to be mentioned with such an innovative group, and we are grateful that we could leverage our digital manufacturing technology to solve critical supply chain challenges. Thank you to all the members of the ZVerse family for supporting us on this incredible journey."

"The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people."

Since 2013, ZVerse has built a reputation for leading-edge product development solutions through On-Demand Design services, formerly known as CADaaS (Computer-Aided Design as a Service). Beginning in March 2020, in response to the demand for PPE due to COVID-19, ZVerse leveraged its DME (Digital Manufacturing Enablement) capabilities to design and produce a highly successful line of American-made face shield products. Winner of a 2020 Fast Company Innovation Award for its design, ZVerse has provided millions of ZShields to frontline healthcare workers, educators, and the community at large, making the company one of the most prominent face shield providers in the US. Inspired by the experience ZVerse is continuing to develop new tools to accelerate digital manufacturing.

CONTACT: Davis Latham, [email protected]

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this year's Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

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The objective is to develop a large-scale, long-life, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible natural rutile operation.

A drone image at the Nsaru area showing the typical flat and open landscape of central Malawi.

( , ) has received further high-grade rutile results from phase 2 drilling at Nsaru rutile deposit within Malawis rutile province that have confirmed and expanded the discovery.

Nsaru is adjacent to and within the same geological domain as the Kasiya deposit where the company recently reported a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 644 million tonnes at 1.01% rutile.

Sovereigns step-out drilling has increased the Nsaru rutile-mineralised footprint to 40 square kilometres and has returned strong results such as:

11 metres at 1.29% rutile, including, 5 metres at 1.55%;

10 metres at 1.51%, including, 3 metres at 1.99%;

10 metres at 1.51%, including 4 metres at 2.14%; and

8 metres at 1.25%, including 5 metres at 1.43%.

One of largest natural rutile provinces

Sovereign managing director Dr Julian Stephens said: The high-grade Nsaru rutile deposit builds on and continues to validate our view that we have discovered one of the worlds largest and most strategic natural rutile provinces.

In parallel with the companys primary Scoping Study objectives at Kasiya, the team is rapidly progressing resource drilling at Nsaru in preparation for a JORC resource estimate toward the end of the year.

This is an important step toward the companys objective of becoming a future supplier of premium grade natural rutile to the global titanium markets.

High-grade results

Sovereign has drilled a total of 98 exploration holes to depths of up to 14 metres, with 94 holes showing high-grade rutile.

Promisingly, very high grades are shown consistently in the top 3 to 5 metres from the surface.

Other strong results are:

7 metres at 1.18% rutile, including, 4 metres at 1.55%;

11 metres at 1.17%, including, 4 metres at 1.53%;

10 metres at 1.14%, including, 5 metres at 1.37%;

10 metres at 1.08%, including, 4 metres at 1.46%;

10 metres at 1.14%, including, 7 metres at 1.38%;

12 metres at 1.16%, including, 4 metres at 1.51%;

10 metres at 1.15%, including, 5 metres at 1.36%;

9 metres at 1.32%, including, 5 metres at 1.59%;

10 metres at 1.17%, including, 2 metres at 1.41%; and

6 metres at 1.13%, including, 2 metres at 2.14%.

Resource growth potential

Sovereigns Nsaru deposit now shows consistent high-grade rutile mineralisation from the surface with lateral widths of up to 9 kilometres across and a current strike length of about 11.5 kilometres.

The high-grade rutile envelope remains open to the north toward Kasiya and to the south.

Notably, the area of drilled mineralisation to date at Nsaru has grown from 25 square kilometres to 40 square kilometres  a 37% increase.

Combined with Kasiyas footprint of 89 square kilometres, this gives Sovereigns a total mineralised area of 129 square kilometres

Presently, only 49 square kilometres (or 38%) of this area is in the current Kasiya resource estimate, offering resource growth potential.

Forward plan

Sovereigns next major technical milestone is the Kasiya scoping study with completion targeted for late 2021.

The objective is to develop a large-scale, long-life, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible natural rutile operation.

In addition to the study and supporting activities, the company has the following programs underway:

A 2,000-metre core drilling program ongoing at Kasiya targeting a MRE upgrade to the indicated JORC category to feed into the study;

Continued extensional and infill drilling at Nsaru and the broader surrounding area to identify extensions, discover new regional mineralised zones;

Further metallurgical test-work has now commenced on a bulk representative sample from Kasiya; and

Investigation and further test-work for a potential coarse-flake graphite by-product from Kasiya.

- Ephrems Joseph
Tim Livesey, chief executive of ( , ) ( ) joins Proactive London once again this week for more positive results from a drilling programme to test near-surface gold mineralisation at the Fare prospect, part of the Senala joint venture project in Senegal.

Partial results from a 42-hole Phase 1 reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme delivered intersections of up to 11.00 metres grading 1.22 grammes a tonne (g/t) gold at Fare North and 35.00 metres grading 3.61 g/t gold at Fare Far South.

It is still awaiting results from four RC holes drilled on the southern fence line over the Fare Far South anomaly.
Washington, Aug 18 : Despite stampede and shooting incidents inside the Kabul airport that have killed at least 10 Afghans over the past days, the US Army Major General Hank Taylor has insisted that the US army retain the security of the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) that enables the safe, orderly evacuation of Americans and Afghans.

Gen Taylor said this on Tuesday, reported Xinhua.

Meanwhile, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US was in contact with the Taliban and was told that they are prepared to provide a safe passage of civilians to the airport.

Earlier in the day, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that US commanders on the ground had held discussions with the Taliban outside the airport, without providing further details.

President Joe Biden, facing mounting criticisms from the public and lawmakers over the chaotic evacuation, said Monday that he stands by his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani left the country on Sunday, while the Taliban forces entered the capital of Kabul and took control of the presidential palace.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Chennai, Aug 18 : The Tamil Nadu government would take a 'final' decision to reopen schools for classes nine to 12 by August 20.

The state School Education Minister, Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had held a meeting with the Chief Educational Officers and other officials regarding the reopening of schools.

The minister's office in a statement said that a final decision on the reopening of higher classes would be taken by Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, and by Friday the government would announce whether the classes would open from September 1 or not.

The Chief Minister has also asked the state Health Minister to take feedback from all the district collectors and the district medical officers before a final decision is announced.

"The state health department has its own views regarding the reopening of schools and we are providing proper data regarding the pandemic. Based on our inputs, as well as the feedback from the district collectors and district health officers, the Chief Minister would take a decision on the reopening of schools for students of higher classes," state Health Minister Ma Subramanian told IANS.

Health department sources told IANS that the department has provided all the inputs regarding the pandemic, including the possibility of the spread, if schools are reopened and other micro-level details regarding the disease and its spread.

Amidst the mounting pressure from several corners, the schools in the state are expected to reopen from September 1.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will prioritize the visa process for Afghan Hindus and Sikhs under the newly introduced "e-Emergency X-Misc Visa" and will be processed quickly so that they can visit India at the earliest, sources said here on Wednesday.

Though, the new category of visa has been opened for all Afghan nationals, the government's move came after reports that over 200 Sikhs have been taking shelter in Gurudwara in Kabul while Hindus are confined to their homes after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan on August 15 this year.

The issue was also discussed in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

"The government's priority is to safely evacuate the remaining Indians left there and to also ensure the security of Hindus and Sikhs there as well," the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) reiterated on Tuesday.

The External Affair Minister Dr S. Jaishankar has also said that an 'Afghanistan cell' has been created in the Ministry for the constant monitoring of the situation there and the Indian authorities have been in constant touch with the Hindu and Sikh community leaders in Kabul.

Amid the deteriorating condition in Afghanistan after the Taliban taking full control of the war torn country, the MHA on Tuesday introduced a new category of electronic visa to fast-track visa applications for entry into India. Under this category, an emergency visa will be given for six months first to the Afghani nationals and that will only be granted after security clearance.

Amid the Taliban taking full control of Afghanistan and deteriorating condition, many Afghan nationals have been fleeing from the war torn country and many want to come to India. The Indian Embassy at Kabul has been shifted here in MEA and all the embassy personnel including Indian Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon have returned to India by an IAF aircraft which brought back 120 Indian officials, including the last batch of the Indian embassy staff, ITBP personnel from the Kabul airport on Tuesday.
August 18 : Gauahar Khan and Zaid Darbar got married last year and since then their fans have been demanding them to come together on screen. Finally, the wait is over as the couple will be seen together for the very first time for a music video titled 'Wapis' . The song will be released on 21 August.

Sharing a teaser of the song, Gauahar wrote,"#Wapis releasing on 21st Aug @alibrothersofficial this is a song that is gonna make people fall in love ! @realmusic.production @eypcreations thank you for having us in such a special video. #robbysingh has directed it with so much love. #Gaza for the first time on screen. #Cantwait #punjabi love.@zaid_darbar you are brilliant in this video. Can't wait for people to watch how good you are.

The song Wapis has been crooned by Ali Brothers and the video has been directed by Robby Singh. Gauahar and Zaid whom people lovingly call as #GaZa will be seen together for the first time in the video. The teaser of the song shows the story of two lovers who fall apart.

Zaid and Gauahar both met during lockdown and got married last year on December 25 in a nikah ceremony. The couple have been off lately making various reels together. We are sure this music video will be a treat for their fans.

Meanwhile,on the workfront Gauahar was recently seen in the film '14 Phere' which premiered on ZEE5.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Jawaharlal Nehru University in its Academic Council meeting on Tuesday passed the setting up of a medical school and a 500-bed super speciality hospital on the university campus.

This school will offer PhD, MDPhD, MD, MS, DM, MCh and MBBS degree programmes with an emphasis on modern medicine integrated with traditional medicine and knowledge systems.

"The hospital and the medical college in the JNU University campus will be operational by the year 2024, if all the concerned approvals to the medical college and hospital get nod on time. The hospital will function under the School of Medical Sciences, JNU", said the statement.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar said that a great need was felt in JNU for this type of medical school. Therefore, it has been decided to open a medical school based on modern technology and health services. Under this, the introduction of various courses in medical and health sciences is being considered.

According to the proposal tabled in the Academic Council meeting, the medical college and hospital to be set up in JNU will offer super-specialty treatment including cardiology, organ transplantation, neurology and pulmonology.

The proposal for the medical college and hospital has been prepared under the new National Education Policy and the JNU Act 1966. Along with JNU Administration, the committee that made this proposal includes experts from hospitals like AIIMS and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences.

There is a proposal to set up a medical college and hospital on the available 25 acres of land in the south-western part of the university campus.

The proposal states that admission to MBBS and MD courses will be done through NEET by the National Testing Agency.
Washington, Aug 18 : Even as schools are set to reopen for the new school year in the US, children represent 18 per cent of the Covid-19 infections in the country, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

While since the beginning of the pandemic children account for 14.4 per cent of the infections, in the last week more than 1,21,000 children tested positive for Covid-19 in the US.

That is a 29 per cent increase over the figure of nearly 94,000 from the previous week, signaling a worrying trend as the fall semester approaches, the Daily Mail reported.

However, the infections are rarely fatal with just 0.01 per cent, or 379, resulting in death, an increase of eight from the week before.

The experts at AAP have been pushing the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve Covid-19 vaccines for young children.

"I write to urge the FDA to continue working aggressively towards authorising safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines for children under age 12 as soon as possible," Dr Lee Savio Beers, president of the AAP, wrote in an open letter to the FDA on August 5.

"Pediatricians and the families they care for have been anxiously awaiting a vaccine that can be used in children 11 years of age and younger, and especially so now given the rise of the hyper infectious Delta variant," she added.

Covid infections are rising in the US, even requiring hospitalisation, amid soaring infections from the Delta variant of Covid-19 amid lagging vaccination rates.

At least 81 children in the US died of Covid between March and July, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many doctors warn that the situation is likely to get worse.

Kids are also beginning to make up an increased portion of cases in many states, the AAP reported.

In Vermont, kids make up 23 per cent of total cases, the most of any state.

In Alaska, 21 per cent of cases are children, while Florida (nine per cent) is the only state where children make up less than 10 per cent of total cases. Covid infections in children have also been seen in Arkansas, Missouri, Houston, and Louisiana.

Currently, only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has emergency use authorisation for children aged 12 and older.

Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are conducting clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccines in children under 12.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chennai, Aug 18 : The 2017 murder and robbery in Kodanad Tea Estate belonging to late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and the alleged interference in the investigation triggered the AIADMK to walk out of the Assembly on Wednesday.

The AIADMK members also held a protest and were evicted. Later the AIADMK announced their decision to boycott the House for two days.

On his part Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said there is no political interference or vendetta in the Kodanad Tea Estate murder case.

Stalin said the culprits will be punished in the murder case and the investigation will be properly done.

The AIADMK members raised the issue of the government reinvestigating the case and inquiring an accused who had deposed before the Ooty Sessions Court stating he had nothing to depose.

While Speaker M. Appavu refused the AIADMK members to speak, the latter accused the DMK government of foisting false cases on the opposition and walked out of the House.

They also staged a protest near the Assembly hall.

Making a statement Stalin said, the government is acting as per the court orders and as per the promise made earlier to bring out the truth in the Kodanad murder case.

According to the Leader of the Opposition and AIADMK Joint Coordinator K. Palaniswami, when the case was expected to be heard on Aug 27 and has reached its end, the DMK government is trying to include him and other party officials in the case.

Palaniswami alleged the government is trying to forcibly get a statement from the prime accused Sayan to include him in the case.

Jayalalithaa and her close aide V.K. Sasikala used to stay at the Kodanad estate while on vacation.

On April 24, 2017, there was a break-in the Kodanad estate nearly four months after Jayalalithaa's death.

The security guard Om Bahadur was found murdered in the estate and another guard was injured in the attack by a ten member gang, the police had then said.
New Delhi, Aug 18: Kashmir's politicians, both separatists as well as mainstream, have maintained near-total silence over Taliban's capture of Afghanistan after a prolonged strife of 20 long years. However, the visibility of a wave of jubilation among the separatists, militants and their shrinking supporters is not completely concealed.

As news of the fall of Kabul flashed in the media on Sunday, 15 August, Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, formerly a professor of Law at the University of Kashmir and the Central University of Kashmir gave vent to his euphoria. "And say truth has come and falsehood has vanished away", he tweeted a Koranic verse with its English translation. "Falsehood is indeed bound to vanish", Showkat commented, without linking his expression explicitly to Kabul's capture by Taliban.

Showkat embellished his tweet with Iqbal's famous verse: "Yaqeen-e-mahkam amal-e-peham mohabat-e-fatih-e-aalam. Jihad-e-zindagani mein yeh hain mardon ki shamsheeren." "Can't imagine the feeling of Kashmiris", commented one Shoaib. Another follower appreciated: "Aap kii baat sach nikli"-acknowledging that the retired university teacher's prophecy had come true. Almost all of Prof. Showkat's eight books have been released and appreciated by Kashmir's tallest separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Two days back, when the news of the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's escape to Tajikistan was circulating in the social media, Showkat cryptically tweeted a Kashmiri folk stanza, linking Kashmir to Kabul and Kandahar. "Ashraf Ghani in supersonic retreat", he observed, with praise on the Taliban co-founder Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar and a tangent on the third Ghani-senior separatist leader and former chairman of now defunct and disintegrated Hurriyat Conference, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat. Bhat, an erudite, moderate separatist, perceived to be Geelani's bete noire, has been living in oblivion since long.

But why are the separatists, militants and their supporters in Kashmir silent, even in social media, over Taliban's conquest in Kabul if they are perceptibly happy? "Anything they perceive to be India's defeat or embarrassment and Pakistan's gain makes them obviously exultant. For many of them, it stirs their adrenaline. Had it happened in 2018 or before, there would have been nightlong firecrackers and celebrations on the streets in downtown Srinagar", reasons a senior political analyst. He recollects the jubilation triggered by release of five top militants in exchange for Rubaiya Sayeed in December 1989.

"But by the time Taliban sprouted and their friendly Jaish-e-Mohammad (previously known as Harkatul Mujahideen) forced India to release three top notch militants with the hijacking of IC-814 (in December 1999), much of the euphoria had died down in the valley. Pakistan had lost the war in Kargil and the security forces, with the help of (counterinsurgent) Ikhwanis, had almost wiped out the militancy", said the analyst, a former professor of Political Science at the University of Kashmir.

The situation created by dismissal of Mehbooba Mufti's soft-separatist government in June 2018, death of 40 CRPF personnel in a major terror strike in February 2019 and abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A, coupled with the State's split into two Union Territories in August 2019, are believed to have muted not only the valley's vociferous separatist camp but also its support structure in the mainstream politics.

Kashmir has gone through a sea change in the last over three years as the Centre has tightened its grip with detention and house-arrest of hundreds of the separatist activists who would be usually on the forefront of all the street turbulences-2008, 2009, 2010 and 2016. Killing of civilians in protest demonstrations, clashes with Police and security forces, funeral processions of the slain militants, stone pelting and pellet injuries have fallen to the lowest point of the last 31 years.

Even in the year 2020, the valley's separatist sections sounded ecstatic over the killing of the Indian soldiers in a clash with the Chinese army on the LAC in Ladakh. The sentiment looked phenomenal when former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said in an interview that the Chinese would help the Kashmiris retrieve Article 370. Around the same season, many among the separatists began seeing Mohammad Bin Qasim, the conqueror of Sindh, in Ertugrul, the protagonist of a Turkish period serial promoted by Pakistan Television. But it all fizzled out soon when a large number of the Kashmiris began participating in the Government's 'Naya Kashmir' initiative.

The UT administration's recent decisions include surveillance of the government employees' political and social media activities, dismissal of the officials involved in 'anti-national' activities and denial of government jobs, trade licences and passports on the basis of 'negative reporting' by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

"Those days are gone when a separatist leader publicly invited Taliban to so-called Jihad in Kashmir; when the Kashmir University students chanted an anthem 'Teri jaan meri jaan, Taliban Taliban'. Yes I agree there was a different situation until the last day of the PDP-BJP government. Had this Taliban takeover happened in that era, the separatists would have brought thousands on the streets", said an assistant professor of journalism at a government college.

"But it's an altogether different Taliban today. Unlike Mullah Omar's Taliban, these people are not carrying out massacres; they seem to be concerned merely on headscarves, not burqas, for women. It is too early to judge but there are sufficient indications that this Taliban wants a stable rule in Afghanistan and it is sensitive to world recognition and diplomacy. For years they have been supported by Pakistan but it is highly unlikely that these people would be misused for guerrilla warfare in Kashmir or Xinjiang. Unlike the pan-Islamist ISIS and AlQaeda, this Taliban looks restricted to the geo-political entity of Afghanistan. But days to come will make the picture clear", said the professor who has visited Afghanistan.

The situation in Afghanistan has impacted the situation in Kashmir in the past. The Russian's defeat and exit in 1989 gave a sense of victory to the Islamists in Kashmir and within a year thousands of the Kashmiris joined militancy. Thirty-two years later, it is arguably a completely different setting in Kashmir.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Aug 18: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud (TTP) has congratulated Taliban chief Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada on Taliban's victory. Mehsud also reinstated his bayat (allegiance) to the Taliban Chief, in a statement extending full support to the Islamic Emirates.

"I, on behalf of Mujahidin of TTP, would like to congratulate Ameer-ul-Momineen Hibatullah Akhundzada on this blessed victory. Congratulations to Mullah Yaqub & Mullah Baradar," says, the TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud, "This victory is the victory of the entire Muslim Ummah and the future of the entire Islamic Ummah depends on it." The TTP chief said that he has good ties with them. He further vowed to continue the struggle against Pakistan.

He thanked the Taliban chief for the release of more than 1000 TTP commanders who were kept in the most secured Bagram prison in Kabul. Some of them were high ranking commanders of the TTP. Mehsud's former deputy Maulvi Faqir Mohammad was released on Sunday from Bagram prison l by the Taliban. Afghan journalists shared his picture as he was being escorted in a car. Fakir was arrested by Afghan security forces in 2013 and Pakistan was seeking his handover.

Recently Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief NoorWaliMehsud in his first exclusive interview said he has a good relationship with Afghan Taliban and its gains will help them as well.Mehsud also vowed to continue their attack against the Pakistan security forces and CPEC projects.

TTP Chief Noor Wali Mehsud, an UN designated terrorist with a bounty of $2 million on his head, claims that over 6000 of his fighters have been fighting along with the Taliban.

Last week, he announced that many splinter groups have joined the TTP including the dreaded Ustad Aslam's group. Aslam's group was the ninth jihadist group to join the TTP since July 2020.

Among the other formations are three TTP splinters, two al-Qaeda affiliates, a faction of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), and two jihadist groups from South Waziristan. He has reiterated his group will continue its "war against PakisAtan's security forces" and its goal is to "take control of the border regions and make them independent." In his first TV interview Mehsud had said Taliban Chief Akhundzada, deputy chiefs Mullah Yakub and Mullah Baradar are his brothers and his group will be benefitted by their victory.

"Our relations with the Afghan Taliban are based on brotherhood, sympathy, and Islamic principles," Mehsud clarified that he is not using Afghan soil for attacking Pakistani army, "We don't need Afghanistan's soil to protect ourselves from Pakistan Army's attacks. We are still fighting with the Pakistan Army from our own soil. We are hoping to take control of tribal region and make it an independent area." Pakistani leadership, while cheering the Taliban victories across the disputed Durand line, equally worried about their own Pakistan Taliban who is now out of control.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, Aug 18 : The 3,542 workers of Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd will get an interim relief pending wage settlement as per the orders of the retired Madras High Court Judge P. Jyothimani, the arbitrator.

The total outgo for the company as interim relief will be Rs 70.84 crore.

As per the order, each of the 3,542 workers of Renault Nissan Automotive will be paid an interim relief of Rs 10,000/month for the period between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020 and Rs 5,000/month between April 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021.

The company was ordered to pay the wage arrears in three equated monthly instalments to the workers starting October this year.

The workers had demanded an interim relief of Rs 20,000/month while the company had offered a lump sum of Rs 100,000 to each of the 3,542 workers, which amounted to Rs 35.42 crore.

The earlier wage agreement between the workers represented by Renault Nissan India Thozhilalar Sangam (RNITS) and the company management ended on March 31, 2019.

This is the first time an industrial dispute in a multinational company has gone for arbitration under the Section 10A of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 in this part of the country, a union official had told IANS.

Renault Nissan Automotive India is the car production joint venture between French company Renault and Japan's Nissan Motor Company.

The arbitrator will decide on the 53 demands raised both by RNITS (38 demands) and Renault Nissan Automotive management (15 demands).
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 18 : In a first of its kind, Wednesday dawned in Kottayam with posters against one of the most popular Congress leaders -- Oommen Chandy, giving a clear indication that things do not augur well for him, at his home turf-Kottayam.

The posters asked questions against Chandy and described him as one who is going to finish off the party by supporting a few Congress leaders to take over as the new district party presidents, whose credentials are not that good.

Chandy who turns 78 in October, ever since he led the party to one of its worst poll reversals in 2016, has virtually kept him off the front line and was basically ensuring that the faction which he heads -- the erstwhile Antony faction is intact.

But for five years (2016-21) he was seen only in the background and just ahead of the April 6 assembly polls, he was given a post to coordinate the election campaign besides selection of candidates.

But when votes were counted on May 2, incumbent Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, despite facing numerous scams created history by becoming the first Left government to retain office.

And this came as a severe blow to Chandy and with his health also taking a back seat and is no longer the man on the move always, literally running when he walked and always travelling the length and breadth of the state, he is today a shadow of what all know about him.

A media critic on condition of anonymity said if not for his failing health, Chandy would have been bouncing back and in the Congress party, all what matters is who is your godfather.

"Chandy in his long career has moulded numerous present day legislators and not to mention hundreds of other top level party leaders. The problem in politics is the moment a leader loses grip on the things, there will be an exodus towards a new power centre, whosoever is the new 'leader' and that's what's presently happening in Chandy's case," said the critic.

Incidentally Chandy has been winning non-stop from his home constituency Puthupally since 1970 and in his over five decades of facing the elections, it was perhaps the first time, this time, he had to fret and fume and literally at times during counting of votes he was left gasping, but finally emerged the winner with a margin of just 9,044 votes, the second least margin of victory in his 12 assembly elections.

In his first outing in 1970 he won with 7,288 votes, which is his lowest winning margin and his highest margin came in 2011 with 33,255 votes and was sworn in as the Chief Minister.

Another reason according to those in the know of things, for the present posters against Chandy is because there is a feeling that he is trying to set the stage for his son Chandy Oommen, who is being groomed to replace him, as and when he decides to leave electoral politics and given his health, it's now becoming clear that Chandy is in his winter of his distinguished political career.
Kabul, Aug 18 : The US has said that Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul is secure and now open to all civilian air traffic.

A statement by Centcom reads that the US is now taking control of the airport to ensure the reinforcement of the US military and evacuation of its nationals and their Afghan colleagues.

Commander of CENTCOM General Frank McKenzie, who is a senior US commander in the region has met with senior members of the Taliban in Doha and cautioned them against meddling in the evacuation and reinforcement process, Afghan media reported.

Earlier, US President Joe Biden had also warned the Taliban to be facing swift and forceful response in case they attack any US military personnel or nationals in Kabul.

Officials in Kabul are yet to comment on the issue.

Mackenzie has acknowledged that the protection of US civilians is currently their highest priority and added that the embassy in Kabul will have their full support to evacuate the citizens, partners, vulnerable Afghans, and applicants of SIV.

As per the information of the White House, over 3,200 people have been evacuated from Kabul among them 1,100 Afghans.

Hamid Karzai Airport has been one of the chaotic places in Kabul where thousands of people have gathered to flee Kabul most of them without visas and passports.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Aug 18: The dramatic takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban within days of United States troops moving out has caught many unawares. This includes art lovers and international organisations connected with preservation of heritage. They watch and wait eagerly to see how Taliban treats archaeology, artefacts and art.

There is a widespread concern as to what will happen to the treasure trove of ancient heritage objects, artefacts and museums that house them, which till present have been reported to be safe.

Uncertainty looms large as heritage projects in the country run by the British Council have been suspended. In fact, their office is now closed.

An article in theartnewspaper.com quoting the British Council's spokesperson stated that the organisation is presently concerned about the safety of its colleagues -- former and present. She said: "For safety and security reasons, we are unable to comment further about the future status of our programmes and partnerships in Afghanistan at this time." The Council is running three 10-month projects in Afghanistan at the moment including a project by the Foundation for Culture & Civil Society which is restoring 30 paintings in the Afghan National Collection.

Other organisations too are watching the situation in the region. The International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH) observed that it is "too early to provide a comment" while Turquoise Mountain declined to say anything.

Turquoise Mountain had helped to transform Murad Khani in Kabul's Old City. Here training has been imparted to more than 1,350 locals in traditional craft methods which will help in restoring the city.

These global initiatives have made Afghanistan's architectural and archaeological inventory grow and become better, according to Iconem's Director of Development Bastien Varoutsikos. Iconem is an innovative start-up that specialises in the digitisation of endangered heritage sites.

Varoutsikos added: "We're all waiting to see what the general position is going to be. Cultural heritage sites, practices, all will need support but at what cost? It's an equation we'll all have to solve before deciding what comes next." Those working in the field of culture and art haven't forgotten Taliban's earlier rule when heritage was systematically destroyed. The classic example is the blowing up of Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 in central Afghanistan.

On this point Varoutsikos observed: "From a political standpoint, it's unclear if the Taliban will engage in destruction of high value heritage landmarks considering the new narrative they're attempting to build." Meanwhile, UNESCO has appealed to all sections to ensure that ancient relics are not looted or destroyed.

In what can be described as tragic, during the last rule under Taliban for 20 years, Afghanistan lost nearly half its cultural heritage. Following the Sharia which does not allow portrayal of icons, human beings and deities, the group demolished many priceless objects and statues.

The National Museum of Afghanistan in a statement on August 15 has said Taliban's takeover has already set in motion looting. The Museum stated: "Unfortunately, today Kabul city has witnessed unprecedented chaos; using the opportunity looters and smugglers in different parts of Kabul have looted private and public properties. However, the museum staff, artefacts, and goods are safe yet, but continuation of this chaotic situation causes a huge concern about the safety of museum's artefacts and goods." Seized of the situation, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has said that the National Museum "issued a statement informing of the very real possibility of facing looters, so we are trying to bring attention to the ICOM Red List on Afghan Antiquities at Risk of illicit traffic and the artefacts it describes. Between 2007 and 2009 it helped British custom officers identify and send back to the National Museum 1,500 objects." Concerned at growing uncertainty and insecurity, Afghanistan's National Museum has urged all stakeholders, including security forces, the international community, the Taliban, and others to ensure artefacts are kept safe. It has exhorted them "to not let opportunists use this situation as cause for deterioration and the smuggling of objects and goods out of this institution." According to Varoutsikos: "There have been some discussions over the past few weeks to move collections to other countries but it's unclear if any of this has happened. There is currently a vacuum at the institutional level which makes it difficult to plan for anything or even know exactly what is going on." Even while Taliban in February has said that it will "robustly protect, monitor and preserve" Afghanistan's relics, due to their past record, few believe them.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi, Aug 18 : In a statement issued by the dapper Congress Lok Sabha member from the Thiruvananthapuram seat, after he was discharged in Sunanda Pushkar death case, he said justice has been done, at last, will allow all of us in the family to mourn Sunanda in peace.

"I would like to express my humble thanks to Judge Geetanjali Goel for her orders today, discharging me from the charges levied by the Delhi Police, which I have consistently described as preposterous. This brings a significant conclusion to the long nightmare which had enveloped me after the tragic passing of my late wife Sunanda. I have weathered dozens of unfounded accusations and media vilification patiently, sustained by my faith in the Indian judiciary, which today stands vindicated. In our justice system, the process is all too often the punishment. Nonethless, the fact that justice has been done, at last, will allow all of us in the family to mourn Sunanda in peace,".

In a big relief Tharoor, a Delhi court on Wednesday discharged him in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.

Incidentally for Tharoor this is a huge victory in every aspect as few months after she died, he had to face the electorate in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and this case became a bogey for him, but he scraped through but saw his margin dropping from over 99,000 votes to around 15,000 votes, but in the 2019 polls, he triumphed with a similar margin what he got in 2009.

Earlier in the day Special judge Geetanjali Goel said, "the accused is discharged". The order was pronounced in presence of Tharoor, senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing on behalf of Tharoor, and additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava.

The order in the matter has been deferred several times earlier. On July 27, the prosecution had submitted that it wanted to bring on record and rely upon a recent judgment on the aspect of a "prima facie" case at the time of framing of charges. Goel had directed for the judgment to be placed on record and its copy to be supplied to Tharoor's counsel. However, the court clarified, "I will not be entertaining any more applications".

Pushkar was found dead on the evening of January 17, 2014. Initially, Delhi police investigated the same as a murder, with an FIR registered under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), it charged Tharoor under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 498A (cruelty by husband).

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Mumbai, Aug 18 : The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest to businessman Raj Kundra till August 25 in a porn film racket case registered in 2020 by the Mumbai Police here.

When the matter came up for hearing, his lawyer Prashant Patil argued that the other co-accused in the case are already out on bail and the offences against Kundra attract a punishment of less than seven years, and hence deserved protection from arrest.

Opposing the plea, Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde said that the role of accused (Kundra) was different from the other co-accused and sought more time for instructions on the merits of the case.

While granting time, Justice S.K. Shinde allowed an interim order preventing Kundra's arrest till August 25, when the next hearing is scheduled.

Earlier, Kundra had sought anticipatory bail in the FIR lodged by the Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Cell in connection with the alleged porn racket case, claiming he was falsely implicated.

He further contended that there is no evidence to link him against the HotShot App and was being made a 'scapegoat'.

However, late on July 19, Kundra was nabbed in a similar complaint registered by the Crime Branch in 2021 for which he was sent to custody.

Last week, after a lower court rejected his anticipatory bail plea, he moved the Bombay HC which has granted him interim relief against arrest for a week.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Mysuru : , Aug 18 (IANS) Mysuru university in Karnataka has assured students from Afghanistan studying here that it will act as their caretaker until things settle down in their country.

G. Hemanth Kumar, the Vice-Chancellor of Mysuru university, on Wednesday told IANS that he took this decision as he was moved by the plight of Afghanistan students, who have come to India for studies but are stuck here.

"The images on television are horrible. We can't control what is happening there in Afghanistan. We will protect Afghan students studying here. Until then they can stay in the university campus and the varsity will be their caretaker," the Vice-Chancellor said.

He told Afghan students that they can share their difficulties. They can stay back until their visa has expired and for those students whose visa will expire soon, he would speak to the authorities for an extension, he added.

The varsity examinations will begin in September so the varsity Vice-Chancellor has asked the Afghan students to focus on the exams.

V-C Hemanth Kumar met students from Afghanistan on Tuesday and assured them of all necessary help. The student community has thanked the university and the Karnataka government for their humane gesture.

"I am always in touch with foreign students. I have been the Director of the International Centre. They come here leaving behind their parents for studies and we must respect that," he said.

As many as 92 students from Afghanistan study at the Mysuru university, of which 15 Afghan students are pursuing Ph.D and M.Sc programmes in agriculture at Dharwad Agricultural University.
Hyderabad, Aug 18 : Actors Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi's much awaited romantic film 'Love Story' will have a theatrical release on September 10.

The film has been ready for release but was on hold due to the pandemic and lockdown. It was earlier scheduled to release in April this year.

Chaitanya took to Instagram to make the announcement on Wednesday. Uploading a still from the film, he captioned it: "This Vinayaka Chaitvi is extra special. #Lovestory releasing in theatres near you on Sep 10." Sai Pallavi, too shared the news on her Instagram stories.

Image Source: IANS News

Earlier, there were multiple speculations around the film going for an OTT release. However, the official announcement has put that to rest.

Directed by Sekhar Kammula, the film also stars Devayani, Rao Ramesh, Posani Krishna Murali, Rajeev Kanakala and Easwari Rao in pivotal roles.

-- Syndicated from IANS
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to entertain Maharashtra government's plea seeking to set aside two paragraphs in connection with transfer and posting of police officers, reinstatement of an officer from CBI's FIR against NCP leader and former home minister Anil Deshmukh.

A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah said it cannot dilute the direction of a constitutional court, which ordered a CBI probe, by drawing a line for the agency on which aspect the investigation should be done. The top court refused to interfere with the July 22 order of the Bombay High Court and dismissed the petition.

The top court emphasized that CBI has to investigate all aspects of the allegations and it cannot be limited. It further added that this will be like denuding the powers of a constitutional court.

Advocate Rahul Chitnis, representing the Maharashtra government, submitted that the state has withdrawn consent for the CBI probe and the high court direction for a probe was limited to allegations of collection of money from bars and restaurants.

The top court noted that the purpose of directions passed by a constitutional court will be defeated if consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act comes into play.

Justice Shah further questioned, "which government will give consent to investigation where their home minister is involved?" The high court on July 22, had said the CBI can inquire into the transfer and postings of police personnel and the reinstatement of Waze in the Mumbai police force.
Kakinada, Aug 18 : The Andhra Pradesh police in east Godavari district carried out a series of raids to check illegal arrack production, leading to the arrest of 32 people.

Acting on east Godavari district Superintendent of Police (SP) M. Ravindranath Babu's orders, police teams carried out raids in north Kakinada, south Kakinada, Peddapuram, Pithapuram, Prattipadu, Tuni and Rampachodavaram.

Police raided illegal makeshift arrack production facilities at Tallarevu, Mummidivaram, Ramachandrapuram, Alamuru, Kothapeta, Rayavaram, Chintoor and other places, booking as many as 50 cases.

During the raids, police seized 495 litre of arrack, destroyed 26,150 litre jaggery wash and 76 litre of non-duty paid liquor (NDPL) and duty paid liquor (DPL), and six vehicles.

"Three accused persons have been arrested and sent to jail," said a police official on Tuesday.

Illegal arrack production continues unabated across the southern state's 13 districts despite several efforts by police and excise officials to stop it.
Seoul, Aug 18 : South Korea's Hyundai Motor said on Wednesday that it will reduce production at its US plant this week due to a chip shortage.

Hyundai Motor will cut vehicle production at the Alabama plant from Tuesday to Friday (US time) over a lack of semiconductor parts, a company spokesman said over the phone.

The Alabama plant halted operations for one week last month due to the same problem, reports Yonhap news agency.

From January to July, Hyundai's vehicle sales rose 22 percent to 2.34 million units from 1.92 million in the year-ago period.

Hyundai aims to sell 4.16 million vehicles globally this year, 11 percent higher than the 3.74 million units it sold last year.

Meanwhile, South Korea's exports of automobiles edged down 2.9 percent in July from a year earlier as the global supply shortages of automotive chips hindered production, data showed on Wednesday.

Outbound shipments of automobiles reached 181,046 units in July, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In terms of value, exports advanced 12.3 percent to $4.1 billion.

The ministry attributed the decrease to a low base effect, as overseas shipments of cars gathered ground in July 2020 after the demand sharply fell earlier in the year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exports of SUVs dipped due to the lack of new models, with the supply shortages of automotive chips also disrupting their production.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday reviewed the government's strategy to evacuate Indian citizens in the next few days and ensure safety to the Hindu and Sikh communities in Afghanistan, in a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting.

This is the second meeting of CCS within 24 hours amid the fast changing situation in Afghanistan.

Modi chaired the first CCS meeting on Tuesday evening and directed the officials for speedy evacuation of Indians who are still in the war torn country, in the next few days and also to provide all possible help to "Afghan brothers and sisters who are looking towards India for assistance." Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar attended the meeting.

Though the details of the meeting were not shared, it was learnt that the Prime Minister reviewed the strategies formulated by the government on Tuesday to deal with the situation in Afghanistan.

He has already directed the officials to ensure the safety of Hindus and Sikhs and also asked officials to remain in touch with their leaders in Kabul.

The government also intends to give them some kind of refugee status to these Hindus and Sikhs once they come to India and later they will be given citizenship under the newly formulated Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 in due course, the sources who were privy to these developments said.

They also said that the government has also decided that the visa application under the new emergency visa category of those Hindus and Sikhs will be processed on priority.

The highest decision making body of the government has also deliberated on the issues related to the Indian assets and the several projects being executed by the Indian companies and public sector enterprises in Afghanistan.

The Indian government is also keeping an eye on the political development of the country in terms of foreign policy after the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan and amid the deteriorating conditions; many Afghan nationals have been fleeing from the country and many of them want to come to India.

Apart from these Cabinet Members, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary to the PM P.K. Mishra, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba were also present in the meeting on Wednesday.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Aug 18 : Chief justice N.V. Ramana on Wednesday said he is "extremely upset" with media reports on the Supreme Court Collegium meeting in connection with the appointment of judges in the top court.

CJI Ramana, while speaking at the ceremonial function to bid farewell to Justice Navin Sinha, who is retiring on Wednesday, said "Today's reflections in some sections of the media, pending the process, even before formalising the resolution is counterproductive. This is very unfortunate, and I am extremely upset about it".

He added that the process of appointment of judges is sacrosanct and has dignity attached to it and the media must understand and recognise the sanctity of this process. "As an Institution we hold the freedom of media and the rights of individuals in high esteem..", said chief justice.

He further added, "I want to take the liberty to express my concern about certain speculations and reports in the media. You are all aware we need to appoint judges to this court. The process is ongoing. Meetings will be held and decisions will be taken".

He also appreciated maturity and responsibility displayed by majority of the senior journalists and media houses by not speculating on such a serious matter. "Such professional journalists and ethical media are the real strength of the Supreme Court in particular and democracy in general. You are part of our system. I expect all the stakeholders to uphold the integrity and dignity of this institution", said the chief justice.

The Chief Justice of India was referring to media reports which said the top court collegium, is learnt to have recommended nine names for appointment as judges in the Supreme Court.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 18 : Kerala Tourism's Global Pookkalam (floral carpet) contest to be held virtually has got a good response from the country and abroad, said State Tourism Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyaz.

The government is hosting the virtual competition, titled 'Viswa Manavikathayude Loka Ona Pookkalam', in the backdrop of Covid-19 that has forced Malayalis to remain indoors and celebrate the harvest festival.

Riyaz said the international Pookalam contest gives a common platform to both Malayali diaspora who are unable to visit the state during Onam and Keralites who miss their opportunity for social get-togethers this year owing to Covid-19 conditions.

"The theme of the event sends across the Onam message of unity and fraternity. Usually, expatriate Malayalis celebrate this festival along with fellow members of their associations. This time, the Pookalam contest facilitates them to celebrate Onam with all Malayalis across the globe," said Riyaz who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The Minister has asked all Keralites wherever they are to participate free of cost by registering at https://www.keralatourism.org/contest/pookkalam2021, where the Pookkalam image can be uploaded till August 23 midnight.

The jury under the Department of Tourism will evaluate the Pookkalams and select 100 from among them. They will be uploaded onto the website of the department.

The contestants will be awarded first, second and third prizes in two categories: individual and organization/association. There will be ten consolation prizes. Also, all participants will be given a special Onam gift.

All contestants can download from the website their certificate of participation.

Kerala Tourism is also readying a comprehensive video programme featuring folk arts by the state's performers who are in financial difficulties owing to the pandemic. The 15-minute clips will be beamed online through audio-visual and social media.

The three main days of the harvest festival of Onam starts on Friday and due to the pandemic, like in the last year, this time also all public celebrations are forbidden.
Chaman : , Aug 18 (IANS) Thousands of Afghans have entered Pakistan through the Spin Boldak/Chaman border crossing in Afghanistan's southeast after the Taliban's takeover of the country earlier this week, including patients seeking medical attention and freed Taliban prisoners.

On Tuesday, the border remained open for all Afghans carrying valid identity documents or proof of being a registered Afghan refugee resident in Pakistan, Afghan travellers and authorities told Al Jazeera.

Thousands crowded through a newly installed passage for Afghan travellers into Pakistan at Chaman, with people directed through a wire-link fence topped with barbed wire from the International Border to a transportation hub located less than a kilometre away.

Many travelled with elderly relatives or others needing immediate medical attention, complaining of a lack of health facilities on the Afghan side of the border.

Many of those gathered at the border told Al Jazeera that they were there to receive relatives who had been released from Afghan prisons by the Taliban.

White Afghan Taliban flags fluttered in the breeze, as relatives garlanded the returning fighters.

"Now the Islamic Emirate is in government and there is no war any longer," said Sanaullah, an Afghan Taliban fighter who returned to Pakistan on Tuesday. "The government of the Taliban is a lot better in Afghanistan." Sanaullah, who hails from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, about 90km southeast of Chaman, said he was captured in 2013 by Afghan security forces and imprisoned at the infamous Bagram prison, the same year US forces handed it over to the Afghan government, the report said.

Afghan Taliban fighters seized the prison and its attached airbase in July, days after US forces withdrew from the facility which had been the epicentre of the US and NATO military presence in Afghanistan.

"The Taliban came and freed us from prison, there were close to around 7,000 prisoners, and we were freed in about two hours by the Afghan Taliban," Sanaullah said.
Chennai, Aug 18 : The Chennai police are on high alert after a city-based drug peddling gang hacked a local AIADMK functionary to death, alleging that he was tipping off the police to bust their narcotics business.

The deceased identified as 32-year-old Silambarasan, was the AIADMK Unit Secretary at MGR Nagar in Sholavaram, Chennai, and was allegedly attacked by a machete-wielding gang of four persons while he was standing outside his residence late on Monday evening.

Two of the four-member gang -- Tamilselvan (22) and Ranjithkumar -- lived in the same locality as the AIADMK worker. The accused duo surrendered and deposed before the police that they had hacked the AIADMK worker to death as he was regularly tipping off police about their narcotics business.

After the murder of Silambarasan, the Anti-Narcotic Cell of the Chennai police swung into action and have launched a crackdown against middlemen, who were engaged in the sale of 'ganja' and other narcotic substances. Police are using the database available with it about history-sheeters involved in the drug trade in the city and adjoining areas of Kancheepuram and Chengalpetu.

The police have interrogated several people involved in the sale of drugs and who have a previous history of sale of narcotic substances.

A senior official of the Chennai police Anti-Narcotic Cell told IANS, "There was a lull in the sale of narcotic substances during the lockdown as people were not stepping out of their houses. Once lockdown was lifted, the narcotic traders have also spread their wings. We are on regular alert and have arrested drug traders and agents but after this murder, the police have conducted raids at several places in the city and interrogated many people." Police said they have launched a crackdown on the primary source of the drugs. Mostly the peddlers procure it from Andhra Pradesh and sell it in small packets within the city limits.

With all medical colleges in Tamil Nadu already open and schools for higher secondary students set to open from September 1, the home department wants a crackdown on all drug peddlers. The murder of Silambarasan has led to an immediate crackdown by the police on the peddlers and agents.
Cape Town, Aug 18 : The Parliament of South Africa has said that it has been informed by President Cyril Ramaphosa about extending the mission of troops who are authorised to fight against last month's unrest.

The South African government deployed 25,000 army members since July 12 in cooperation with the police after the unrest, which was triggered by former South African president Jacob Zuma's imprisonment, leading to loss of lives, road blockades and damage to properties and vehicles, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Ramaphosa in his correspondence told the parliament that 10,000 of the deployed members of the South African National Defence Force will continue to cooperate with the South African Police Service in the prevention and combating of crime and preservation of law and order within the country, at least until Sept. 13, the parliament said in a statement issued here.

The extension is expected to cost nearly 255 million rands (about 17.1 million U.S. dollars), in addition to over 615 million rands planned for the initial deployment.

Zuma was serving a 15-month sentence in prison since July before he was hospitalized outside the prison for medical observation and undergone a surgical procedure.
Chennai, Aug 18 : Fugitive godman Nithyananda, who has been eluding Indian authorities after facing several charges of rape and other complaints from his former disciples and devotees, has created a major controversy by declaring on social media that he has assumed charge as the 293rd pontiff of Madurai Aadheenam.

The incumbent pontiff, Arunagirinatha Gnanasambantha Desika Paramacharya Swamigal, passed away at a private hospital in Madurai on August 13 due to respiratory illness. He had been the pontiff of Madurai Aadheenam for four decades.

After his mortal remains were laid to rest on August 14, Harihara Desika Gnanasambantha Paramacharaya, who was named as the junior pontiff by Arunagirinatha Swamigal in 2019, was announced as his successor. Mutt authorities told IANS that he would be coronated soon.

However to the surprise of devotees and followers of the Madurai Aadheenam as well as common people, Nithyananda announced on social media on Tuesday that he has assumed charge as the 293rd pontiff of Madurai Aadhenam.

"All the spiritual, dharmic, traditional rituals as per the cosmic laws of Kailasa and official succession formalities as the 293rd pontiff of Madurai Aadheenam is completed," he said in his post.

The fugitive godman had, in a similar message on August 9 when Arunagirinatha Swamigal was hospitalised, said that he was the successor of the 292nd pontiff as he wished Arunagirinatha Swamigal a speedy recovery.

Nithyananda was formally announced as the junior pontiff by Arunagirinatha Swamigal on April 27, 2012, removed from the post on December 19, 2012. Arunagirinatha Swamigal later appointed and removed two junior pontiffs and was entangled in a legal battle.

Nithyananda in the social media post also said that he was blessing his devotees virtually on a daily basis.
Toronto, Aug 18 : Vaccine nationalism may strongly impact global trajectories of Covid-19 case numbers and increase the potential emergence of novel variants, warn researchers.

A team of researchers from the US and Canada projected forward the incidence of Covid-19 cases under a range of vaccine dosing regimes, vaccination rates, and assumptions related to immune responses.

They did so in two model regions: One with high access to vaccines (HAR) and a low-access region (LAR). The models also allowed for the regions to be coupled either through case importation, or the evolution of a novel variant in one of the regions. The study is published in the journal Science.

"Certain countries such as Peru and South Africa that have had severe Covid-19 outbreaks have received few vaccines, while many doses have gone to countries experiencing comparatively milder pandemic impacts, either in terms of mortality or economic dislocation," said Caroline Wagner, Assistant professor of bioengineering at McGill University.

Overall, the study found that increased vaccine-sharing resulted in reduced case numbers in LARs.

"Because it appears that vaccines are highly effective at reducing the clinical severity of infections, the public health implications of these reductions are very significant," said Michael Mina, Assistant Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

On the other hand, the models predicted that sustained elevated case numbers in LARs with limited vaccine availability will result in a high potential for viral evolution, underlying the importance of rapid, equitable global vaccine distribution.

As the pandemic progresses, viral evolution may play an increasingly large role in sustaining transmission, the researchers said.

Further, they noted that there are additional considerations for vaccine equity beyond epidemiological and evolutionary ones.

"Ethics also argues against countries stockpiling vaccines or allocating doses for boosters. This study strongly supports that ethical position showing that stockpiling will undermine global health," said Ezekiel Emanuel, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chennai, Aug 18 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday told the Assembly that his government will urge the Centre to sanction funds for metro rail project for Coimbatore.

Responding to BJP member Vanathi Srinivasan who had said that it was painful to hear the state government will implement the metro rail scheme in Coimbatore in consultation with the Centre, he noted that all metro rail projects can be implemented only with financial assistance of the Central government.

He said the state government has received information that the Centre has sanctioned the second phase of the Chennai Metro Rail project.

Stalin said the government has also announced metro rail for Madurai and will urge the centre for the project in Coimbatore as well.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) on Wednesday launched the 'first-ever' initiative to develop green cover in the Himalayan terrain of Leh-Ladakh by planting bamboo saplings.

The KVIC and the Forest Department of Leh-Ladakh with support from ITBP, planted 1000 bamboo saplings at Chuchot village in Leh over 2.50 lakh square feet of barren forest land that has remained unutilized so far, the commission said in a statement.

The initiative was launched by KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena in the presence of local Councillors, Gram Sarpanch and ITBP officials.

Bamboo saplings have been planted under Project BOLD (Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought) of KVIC, which is aligned with the Prime Minister's call for preventing desertification, protecting land and environment and ensuring food security.

Project BOLD is a part of "Khadi Bamboo Festival" designed to celebrate "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav".

The bamboo patch in Leh will create a sustainable model of development by supporting local rural and bamboo-based industries, added the statement.

It noted that the bamboo waste can be used in making charcoal and fuel briquettes that will ensure fuel availability during the harsh winters in Leh.

Also, bamboo emits 30 per cent more oxygen than other plants, which is an added advantage in high altitude regions which are always short of oxygen, KVIC asserted.

KVIC chairman Saxena said the experiment of bamboo plantation in Leh was a challenging task given the difficult geographical conditions in the region.

"KVIC has chosen the monsoon season for bamboo plantation in Leh so that the plants get ample time to develop a root system and become hard enough to survive the snowfall and freezing wind in the coming months," Saxena said, adding that if even 50 to 60 per cent of the bamboos survived, KVIC would carry out bamboo plantation on a large scale in the Leh-Ladakh region next year.
Patna, Aug 18 : Three unidentified men threw acid on a girl in Bihar's Nalanda district on Wednesday.

The incident occurred in the market place near circuit house under Laheri police station. The victim is a native of Patna and had gone to Nalanada to meet her relatives.

According to the police, the girl went alone to the market. The attackers were already present there and as soon as she reached near the circuit house, one of the attackers threw a bottle of acid on her. After committing the crime, the attackers fled from the spot on a bike.

"The victim has received severe burn injuries. She was rescued by passersby. They took her to a nearby Sadar hospital where her condition is very critical. The victim has received around 70 per cent burn injuries," said R.K. Sharma, investigating officer from Laheri police station.

"We have identified the attackers. They are absconding now. We will soon arrest them," he said.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : Taking note of violence and conflict in several parts of the north eastern states, the Congress on Wednesday accused the Narendra Modi government of pushing the north east into chaos and break down of constitutional machinery.

The Congress also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of remaining oblivious to the current situation in the north eastern states.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Uncertainty, conflict, violent clashes and unchecked lawlessness have marred large parts of India's North East." He said that the situation is beyond alarming. "Multiple states of north east are being pushed into an unprecedented cycle of lawlessness with complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery," he said.

Targeting the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, Surjewala said, "Shockingly and sadly, Modi government and Home Minister remain oblivious to the goings on." The Congress leader said that this is a completely indifferent, criminally aloof 'hands-off-approach' of the BJP government and also emanates from its illegal and often divisive usurpation of power in many north eastern states and a blind lust to latch on to illegitimately formed governments, irrespective of the consequences for the country.

"This abdication of Constitutional duties and failure to intervene to restore even a semblance of order and rule of law goes against national interests and territorial integrity of the country," he said, adding that this is total failure of responsibility to maintain 'internal security' on the part of the Home Minister.

"If government will be privy to such violent clashes between police of two states, turn a blind eye to run through of militants in the capital of a state, remain incognizant of day light attack on convoy of the Governor, sound deliberately uninformed about a 'Peace Accord' signed by it, which now claims 'shared sovereignty' outside the four corners of India's Constitution and stay ignorant about occupation of our territory by a foreign power, it is greatest dis-service to India's ethos as a Nation by those responsible for protecting India's territorial integrity," Surjewala said.

Firing salvos at the Prime Minister and the Home Minister over the recent incidents of police firing on the border of Assam and Mizoram, the Congress leader said, "What are the Prime Minister and Home Minister doing? Why does a war like situation remain between two neighbouring states of the Indian Union? Why has central government abdicated its responsibility?" He said that the breakdown of law and order in another North-Eastern state, Meghalaya is deeply distressing.

"Gun toting militants in jeep waiving black flags have been running amok through the capital, Shillong. Residence of the Chief Minister was attacked with petrol bombs. Ninety hours curfew had to be imposed with internet shut down. Home Minister of the State has resigned," he said.

On August 17, the carcade of Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik was again pelted with stones. Incidentally, the NPP Government of Meghalaya is also part of NEDA-NDA.

He also said that in Nagaland, the entire 'Peace Process' and the 'Naga Peace Accord' and the so-called framework agreement' dated August 03, 2015 remain in the realm of speculation and hearsay.

"NSCN(I-M) refuses to accept the Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi as the Centre's interlocutor. What is even more worrying is the fact that NSCN(I-M) claims that Modi government has signed the agreement with them for "shared sovereignty" outside the four corners of Constitution of India. They have even released a copy of this agreement," he said.

He said that the Prime Minister continues to remain mum on the issue and the peace process as also the conclusion of the August 3, 2015 Agreement remains in limbo.

"All this is happening as on August 14, NSCN(I-M) General Secretary, T. Muivah claimed that Nagas 'will never merge with India'," Surjewala claimed.

Slamming the government, he said that the entire nation was already shocked with pictures and news dated January 18, 2021 of China constructing a 4.5 km long village on the banks of the Tsari Chu village in the Upper Subansiri district of Arunanchal Pradesh.
Chandigarh, Aug 18 : The Haryana government announced on Wednesday that it has banned the use of the word 'Gorakh Dhanda', generally used to describe unethical practices.

According to an official statement, a decision in this regard was taken by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar after a delegation of the Gorakhnath community met him and urged him to ban the use of the word as it 'hurts' the sentiments of Sant Gorakhnath's followers.

The Chief Minister said that as Guru Gorakhnath was a saint and using this word in any official language, speech or in any context hurts the sentiments of his followers, therefore its usage in whatsoever context has been completely banned.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, was apprised of the MoU signed in March 2021 by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with Bangladesh's Disaster Management and Relief Ministry on cooperation in the field of disaster management, resilience, and mitigation.

The MoU seeks to put in place a system, wherein both India and Bangladesh will benefit from the disaster management mechanisms of each other, and will help in strengthening the areas of preparedness, response, and capacity-building in this field, an official statement said.

This agreement will extend mutual support on the request of either parties at the time of large-scale disaster, natural or human induced occurring in the field of relief, response, reconstruction and recovery in their respective territories.

It will ensure exchange of relevant information, remote sensing data, scientific data and sharing experience and the best practices of disaster response, recovery, mitigation, capacity-building for ensuring resilience and also facilitate cooperation in the field of advanced information technology, early warning systems, remote sensing and navigation services in terms of disaster preparedness, response and mitigation on real time data sharing, the statement said.

This MoU will also pave the way for support training of officials in the field of disaster management, conduct of joint disaster management exercises, exchange of publications and materials like textbooks, and joint research activities, it added.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : Delhi University (DU) teachers on Wednesday refused to take any classes in 63 colleges in the national capital affiliated to it. No teacher from these colleges turned up for teaching whether in online or offline mode. They have taken this step against the non-payment of salaries in 12 colleges which are 100 per cent funded by the Delhi government.

Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) Treasurer Abha Dev Habib said the Delhi government has released only small grants for its 12 fully funded colleges. The teachers led by DUTA staged a sit-in protest online on Wednesday, demanding adequate grants to the 12 DU colleges funded by the Delhi government as well as payment of salaries to all teachers.

According to DUTA, classes were not held in 63 DU colleges on Wednesday. Due to non-release of grants, the guest, adhoc and contractual employees are in deep financial crisis. The teachers have not received their salaries since the last three months.

DUTA President Rajib Ray said the teachers in DU are once again in a tussle with the Delhi government. There is a delay in giving grants to 12 colleges which are 100 per cent funded by the Delhi government and the grants released are insufficient. Due to this there is a delay in the release of salaries to the varsity employees.

Ray said despite the grand announcements made by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over releasing an amount of Rs 28 crore as grant-in-aid for these 12 DU colleges, the fact remains that due to inadequate grants there has been a delay in disbursement of salaries and other arrears.

DUTA sat on a two-day strike on Tuesday and Wednesday so no online classes were held. Abha Dev Habib said while on the one hand thousands of employees of the 12 fully funded colleges are battling the Covid-19 pandemic, on the other they have not even received their salaries for months altogether.

These employees have to pay house rent, EMI, home loan instalments, car loan instalments, children's fee etc. Without receiving their salaries, they are struggling under a huge financial burden, she added.
Hyderabad, Aug 18 : Covid-19's second wave has come to an end in Telangana and this is the time to reopen educational institutions in the state, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

Director, Public Health and Family Welfare, Dr. G. Srinivasa Rao told reporters that Covid pandemic is under control in all the districts.

He said that this is the time to reopen schools, colleges and universities in the state. Only vaccinated teachers and staff will be allowed, he added.

Rao said they would ensure that Covid-19 tests are conducted regularly.

He said Covid R-factor in the state is 0.7 per cent, and there are more number of people in hospitals with post-Covid complications.

Pointing out that 1.65 crore doses of Covid vaccines have been administered in the state, he said 56 per cent of the people received the first dose at least while 34 per cent have received both the doses.

Rao also revealed that 90 per cent of the beneficiaries in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area have received at least the first dose.

He said the Health Department was taking all steps to check the spread of seasonal diseases. Anti-larva measures were being taken to in coordination with some other departments.

Some districts were recording large number of malaria cases. Dengue cases were reported in Hyderabad, Khammam, Rangareddy, Bhadradri Kothagudem, and other districts. A total of 1,200 dengue cases were reported from across the state.

Hyderabad has reported the maximum number of cases (447), followed by 128 in Khammam, 114 in Rangareddy, 89 in Medchal Malkajgiri, 69 in Adilabad, 49 in Kothagudem, 39 in Nizamabad, and 30 in Nirmal.

He said malaria and dengue fever cases were reported from 13 districts and the department was closely monitoring the situation.

The officials said 20 Telangana diagnostic centres were conducting 1,500 tests a day for dengue.

He appealed to people not to treat all fever cases as Covid-19 cases. He suggested that people having fever immediately undergo the diagnostic tests. He said in case of symptoms like fever, diarrhoea and dizziness, people should approach the hospitals. He also urged them to avoid self-medication.

For the treatment of dengue, 24 platelet extraction machines were kept ready. Fever clinics have been set up in major hospitals.

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Patna, Aug 18 : The central leadership of the BJP undertook a major reshuffle in the organisation on Wednesday and gave the charge of general secretary of the Bihar BJP to Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya.

Dalsaniya is said to be one of the trusted aides of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had served around two decades in Gujarat as general secretary of the party. Following the development, Nagendra Ji, who was the general secretary of the BJP Bihar unit was given the charge of regional general secretary of Bihar and Jharkhand.

Dalsaniya generally avoids coming into the limelight. He is an oldest RSS member of the party and considered a good policy maker. He was general secretary of Gujarat in 2001 when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state.

"I have been working in BJP since 1997 and it has been possible with the blessings of senior leaders of the party. Now, I will stay adjoining the Ganga river in Bihar," Dalsaniya said in a tweet.

Sources said that BJP desperately wants to strengthen the organizational infrastructure of the party in Bihar. The party leadership knows that the challenges in Bihar are more than in Gujarat. Its leaders believe that there is a strong cadre in Gujarat and a similar cadre is required in Bihar for the next parliamentary and assembly elections.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh's plea seeking quashing of the FIR registered by the CBI to probe corruption allegations levelled against him by the former Mumbai police chief.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, representing Deshmukh, argued that the CBI required the sanction of the state government under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act to register the FIR. He said that the Bombay High Court order had only directed the CBI to do a preliminary enquiry (PE) into the matter, and then the investigating agency was required to "act in accordance with law" based on its result.

"In accordance with law" meant the CBI had to seek the sanction of the state government before registering the FIR, he added.

A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah queried Desai if there was an inquiry launched under Section 17 (A) against the Home Minister, then it defeats the purpose, as the state would never grant sanction to prosecute the minister.

The top court was hearing the former minister's petition challenging the July 22 Bombay High Court judgment, which dismissed Deshmukh's petition seeking to quash the CBI FIR.

The bench queried whether requirement of Section 17A sanction will come, if the investigation has been directed by the court. Justice Chandrachud cited precedents stating that the sanction of the state under Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act is not needed for CBI investigation, when the court has ordered registration of the FIR.

He noted: "Why investigation is ordered in the first place? Because the state can't be trusted." Justice Shah said the high court ordered a PE by the CBI to ensure the rights of the accused are protected to the maximum extent.

Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi contested Desai's arguments. He submitted that Section 17A was not applicable in a situation of a court-ordered investigation.

The top court heard arguments in the matter for close to two hours. Concluding the hearing, the bench told Desai it is not keen on entertaining the petition.
London, Aug 18 : Animals known as carriers of coronaviruses were sold at local wet markets for years, finds a new study supporting the theory that the Covid-19 is the result of virus jumping from animals to humans.

Researchers from the Chinese government's Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation, the University of Oxford in the UK and the University of British Columbia in Canada collected data from several markets in Wuhan and photographs from the Huanan seafood market, the Daily Mail reported.

The study that remained unpublished for more than a year has now been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The researchers reported 47,381 transactions of 38 species, from Wuhan's markets. This included 31 protected species sold between May 2017 and November 2019.

The species include civets, dogs, minks, raccoons and more -- infected with different types of coronaviruses.

The team found that the animals were kept in poor conditions prior to sale and pangolins were also found absent.

"We note that no pangolins (or bats) were traded, supporting reformed opinion that pangolins were not likely the spillover host at the source of the current coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic," said the team including Zhao-Min Zhou, from Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China.

"While we caution against the misattribution of Covid-19's origins, the wild animals on sale in Wuhan suffered poor welfare and hygiene conditions and we detail a range of other zoonotic infections they can potentially vector," the researchers said.

Further, the team cautioned not to be "complacent, because the original source of Covid-19 does not seem to have been established. This is doubly important because false attribution can lead to extreme and irresponsible animal persecution".

As a precautionary response to Covid-19, China temporarily banned all wildlife trade in January 2020 until the Covid-19 pandemic concludes. It also permanently banned eating and trading terrestrial wild (non-livestock) animals for food in February last year.

"These interventions, intended to protect human health, redress previous trading and enforcement inconsistencies, and will have collateral benefits for global biodiversity conservation and animal welfare," the researchers said.

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Kolkata, Aug 18 : Many people from Darjeeling and the Terai region in West Bengal are stranded in war-torn Afghanistan and the state government is writing to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to bring them back at the earliest, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday.

"So far we have been able to trace more than 200 people who are stranded in different parts of Afghanistan. Some are stranded in Kabul and some are in the other parts of the country. The Chief Secretary is writing a letter to the MEA requesting it to bring back the citizens as quickly as possible," Banerjee said during a press conference here.

"Most of them are from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Terai region. We are trying to find out whether there are more people," she added.

However, sources in the state Home Department didn't rule out the possibility of the presence of more people in trouble-torn Afghanistan, which was taken over by the Taliban on Sunday.

"We have been able to gather this information within a short span of time. We have asked the district administrations to find out if there are more people in Afghanistan from the state," a senior official of the state Home Department said.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, Banerjee had asked the Home Department to find out if there are Bengalis stranded in Afghanistan and accordingly the department passed on the information to all the districts immediately.

"We have asked the district magistrates to inform the top echelons of the administration directly if anyone comes and informs them that their relatives are stuck there, including their names, addresses, whereabouts in Afghanistan, phone numbers and other details. The information will be communicated to Delhi directly," the official said.

"At the moment, New Delhi is increasingly working to repatriate all the Indians safely from Afghanistan. So if anyone from the state is stuck there, it will be reported directly to Delhi. At the same time, the local administration has been asked to keep an eye on the needs of the Afghans in Bengal," the official said.

Officers of the Kolkata Police are also working to find out if any resident from the city or their relatives are stuck in Afghanistan.

There are also a large number of 'Kabuliwalas' in Kolkata who came to the city for business from Afghanistan.

"These people don't know in what condition their families are. We are also trying to get in touch with them and are trying to establish contact with their families," a senior Kolkata Police officer said.
Bhubaneswar, Aug 18 : In a tragic incident, a 13-year-old student in Odisha's Rayagada district died after slipping from a hilltop he had climbed in search of mobile network to attend online classes.

The deceased has been identified as Andriya Jagaranga from Pandraguda village under Padmapur block in the tribal-dominated Rayagada district.

Andriya, a student of a missionary school in Cuttack, was regularly attending online classes at home during the Covid-induced lockdown period, locals said.

As his mobile phone had no signal on Tuesday, he had climbed atop a hill near his village in search of network so that he could attend online classes.

Unfortunately, it had rained heavily, forcing Andriya to lose his balance. Subsequently, he slipped and fell down, receiving serious injuries, the locals said.

The boy was rushed to the Padmapur Community Health Centre (CHC), where he succumbed to his injuries.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it has identified counterfeit versions of India's primary Covid vaccine, Covishield, BBC reported.

The doses were seized by authorities in India and Africa between July and August, a WHO statement said.

It also said the vaccine's maker, the Serum Institute of India, confirmed that the doses were fake.

The WHO warned that fake vaccines "pose a serious risk to global public health".

It called for their removal from circulation.

Covishield is the Indian-made version of AstraZeneca's jab and is the most widely used vaccine in India with more than 486 million doses administered so far.

Serum had supplied millions of Covishield vaccines to countries in Asia, Africa and South America - as part of deals that were inked with various governments and the global Covax scheme for poorer countries.

India, which is the second worst-affected country in the world, aims to vaccinate all its people by the end of this year.

About 13 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated since the beginning of the drive in January.
Dubai, Aug 18 : The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in UAE has confirmed that the Arab nation has welcomed Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds.

"The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds," the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

There were reports that Ghani had fled the country to Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, while others indicated that he was in Oman, trying to escape to US, after the Taliban took over Afghanistan on Sunday.

Russia's diplomatic mission in Kabul had alleged that Ghani had fled the country with vehicles full of cash.

The embassy had said that Ghani had fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in, the RIA news agency had reported.

Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, was quoted as saying by RIA: "Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac." Ischenko confirmed his comments to a global news wire, citing "witnesses" as the source of his information, Al Jazeera reported.

Afghanistan Defence Minister Bismillah Mohammadi had in a tweet lamented in an apparent reference to Ghani and his associates that they "tied our hands behind our backs and sold the homeland, damn the rich man and his gang".

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Jaipur, Aug 18 : Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday strongly rejected the allegations by the BJP about the increasing crime rate in Rajasthan and said that tolerance is must in a democratic set up which the central government lacks.

Gehlot was addressing the virtual inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony of 15 new police stations.

He said that this government has been pressurising the ED, CBI, IT and the judiciary.

"Pegasus issue has cropped up now; however, we have been saying it for the last five years that phones are tapped and hence people are afraid. Tapping anyone's phone is a crime in a democracy and this reality of the central government shall soon come to fore," he added.

Speaking on allegations of a higher crime rate in Rajasthan made by the opposition BJP, he said, "There is no weight in such allegations. The NCRB has written in its report since the very beginning that crime is the result of the circumstances prevailing in the society. The policies existing in different states also make a difference in this. There is a difference between an increase in crime and an increase in crime registration. NCRB clearly wrote that some people make the mistake of considering both as one." He added that under BJP rule, 30 per cent of the rape cases were registered by the order of the courts.
Kabul, Aug 18 : The Taliban's promises of "safe passage" to the Kabul airport for Afghans trying to flee the country have been undermined by reports of women and children being beaten and whipped as they try to pass through checkpoints set up by the militants, The Guardian reported.

The US says the Taliban has committed to "safe passage" for people who want to reach the airport. But reports from the Afghan capital say that there have been incidents of violence at the checkpoints on Airport Road, including photographs of a woman and a child with head injuries after reportedly being beaten and whipped for trying to cross a checkpoint.

Sources in Kabul told The Guardian that the Taliban are checking the documents and forcibly turning some people around at the checkpoints, refusing to let them reach the airport.

The US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, said that while significant numbers of people have been able to reach the airfield, now under the US military control, "there have been instances where we have received reports of people beng turned away or pushed back or even beaten... We are taking that up in a channel with the Taliban to try to resolve the issues. And we are concerned about whether that will continue to unfold in the coming days." Sullivan said that keeping open routes to the airport is an "hour-by-hour issue... It's something we are clear-eyed about and very focused on holding the Taliban accountable to follow through on its commitment".

White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that if the Taliban fail to provide safe passage to the airport for civilians, "the consequences are the full weight and force of the United States military. We've made that clear. But right now... We're not trusting, we're not taking their word for it".
New Delhi, Aug 18 : The swift dismissal of Lieutenant General (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa as Chief of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at Chinas behest puts the issue of corruption and lack of transparency in the Belt and Road projects in Pakistan in the spotlight once again.

The removal of a retired army general also reinforced China's bid to control and micro-manage the infrastructural projects by installing its acolyte, Khalid Mansoor, a civilian energy expert, to push the stalled projects forward.

China was unhappy with the pace of the execution of the CPEC projects and had hoped Bajwa, who belonged to the 'deep state' of Pakistan would be able to expedite the projects. However, it was disappointed with the incomplete projects, lapses in security of Chinese personnel working in Pakistan, particularly the latest incident that took place in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on 14 July, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals. Moreover, many Chinese nationals working for CPEC projects across Pakistan have been attacked recently.

China has now decided to take control of things directly in the country, making Pakistan seem like a mere puppet in its hands.

Mansoor, the new Chief of the CPEC Authority, has more than 32 years of experience in the energy and petrochemical sectors in leading roles for mega-size projects' development, execution, management and operations, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan with China's Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of China's ambitious multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Lt Gen Bajwa had been Chairman of the CPEC authority since November 2019 and had developed a good working relationship with China. Still, Beijing wanted someone in the job who was more familiar with Chinese companies and working culture. "Khalid Mansoor, who has worked with many Chinese companies including directly leading CPEC projects, fits the bill as China's favourite man for the job," an official said, Nikkei Asia reported.

The Pakistani media linked the change of CPEC Chief with Beijing's displeasure at the slow progress of BRI projects in the country. Since Bajwa assumed office as CPEC Authority Chairman, there had been no meetings of the Joint Coordination Committee, the apex body jointly chaired by Pakistan and China to make decisions about CPEC projects. With the new CPEC Head in office, the 10th JCC is expected to be convened soon.

Analysts believe this move is another example of China getting the upper hand in the CPEC and dictating terms to Pakistan. The whole CPEC venture has come under closer scrutiny from China following last month's incident when nine Chinese engineers were killed in a bomb attack on a convoy transporting Chinese personnel to the Dasu Hydropower project in Pakistan's Kohistan district.

Moreover, the security situation in Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan and China, is fast deteriorating in the wake of the Taliban taking over control of the country even before complete US military withdrawal. The change of Pakistan's top CPEC man is possibly meant to restore the confidence of the Chinese side on the infrastructural projects.

However, Pakistan's business community is not happy with the replacement of Bajwa with Mansoor. Certain groups within the corporates are opposed to Mansoor's appointment. These groups hail Bajwa for doing a great job with CPEC who had developed a strong grip on the matter and removing him from the job is not in the interests of BRI projects in the country. They termed the decision to appoint Mansoor as being made without taking any long-term political or economic considerations into account.
United Nations, Aug 18 : UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid tributes on Wednesday to peacekeepers who laid down their lives in the service of the global organisation.

Guterres said that "174 Indian peacekeepers, the highest number of all the countries" have been killed in action.

"We are forever grateful for their service, their remarkable work and ultimate sacrifice; they'll never be forgotten," he said at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Peacekeepers Memorial at the United Nations Headquarters.

Jaishankar said: "Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the most effective tools available to the UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace, united by a commitment to maintain or restore peace and security of women and men." "Their sacrifices on behalf of the international community are one of the most concrete expressions of the UN Charter determination to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war," he said.

Jaishankar laid a wreath at memorial ahead of a high-level meeting of the Security Council on peacekeeping that he was to preside over.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)
New Delhi, Aug 18 : With special focus on Northeast and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave approval to the renewed mission on oil palm.

The National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) as a new Centrally-sponsored scheme will have a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore. Of this, Rs 8,844 crore is the government of India's share and Rs 2,196 crore is state share, including viability gap funding, a government release said.

The proposed scheme will subsume the current National Food Security Mission-Oil Palm programme.

Addressing mediapersons after the cabinet meet, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, "Currently, there is heavy dependence on imports for edible oils and therefore, it is important to make efforts for increasing the domestic production of the same." To a question as to why the government wants to destroy the biodiversity at both Northeastern states and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Tomar said that increasing area and productivity of oil palm play an important part in being self-dependent in oil.

"No new land will be brought under oil palm cultivation. It will be done on land that is already under cultivation," Tomar said, allaying fears about biodiversity loss.

To another question as to why the government is promoting oil palm over indigenous varieties of oil seeds such as sarso, til, sunflower and groundnut, Tomar said, "One hectare of oil palm plantation yield is many times more than any of these oil seeds on the same area, and that too much faster. Hence to meet the gap in demand and supply, it is imperative to turn to oil palm." Under this scheme, it is proposed to cover an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare for oil palm till 2025-26 and thereby reaching the target of 10 lakh hectare ultimately.

The production of crude palm oil (CPO) is expected to go up to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and up to 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30, a ministry release said.

Since 1991-92, many efforts have been made by the government of India to increase the production of oilseeds and oil palm.

The oilseeds production in the country has increased from 275 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to 365.65 lakh tons in 2020-21.
Kathmandu, Aug 18 : In a rare political development, Nepals first and fourth largest parties in the Parliament split on Wednesday following the promulgation of an Ordinance by President Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

The Nepal government had on Tuesday recommended President Bhandari to amend the existing Political Party Act to relax the formation of new parties.

Hours after Bhandari promulgated the Ordinance, Nepal's largest party in Parliament, Nepal Communist Party (UML), has split. The chairman of UML is outgoing Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli.

The fourth largest party in the House, Janata Samajbadi Party, which has 32 lawmakers in the Lower House, has also split.

Senior UML leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal announced his split from the mother party and registered a new party -- Nepal Communist Party UML-Socialist -- on Wednesday with the Election Commision.

Oli and Nepal have been arch-rivals in the party for a long time and there was deep discord, dispute and division inside the party between them for the past two years.

Out of the 123 lawmakers, Nepal secured the support of 30 and formed a new party, which is also the part of the eongoing ruling alliance led by President of Nepali Congress, Sher Bahadur Deuba.

After registering the new party with the Election Commission, Rajendra Pandey, a senior leader of the Nepal faction, said that after Oli failed to admit his mistake for dissolving the House twice and for failing to maintain the party unity, they finally decided to split the party.

The Oli camp called it a " black day in Nepal's Communist movement".

The amendment Ordinance stipulates that 20 per cent or more members of a parliamentary party and the central committee of a political party can split from their mother party.

Before the amendment, provisions of the Political Party Act required dissidents to have the support of 40 per cent of members in the parliamentary party and the central committee to split from their mother party, The CPN-UML, which at one point boasted of two-thirds majority, has now split into two.

The Sher Bahadur Deuba led-government had recommended the promulgation of the Ordinance to President Bhandari on Tuesday, in a bid to facilitate the registration of Nepal's party.

Similarly, the fourth largest party in the House, Janata Samajbadi Party, has also split formally.

A section of the party led by its Chairman Mahantha Thakur registered a new party with the Election Commission on Wednesday following the promulgation of the Ordinance.

The Thakur faction has a long standing dispute with another Chairman, Upendra Yadav. Thakaur has formed a new party named Janta Samajbadi Party Nepal (Democratic).

The Deuba government had introduced the Ordinance to secure majority for the government. Now, Nepal's new party will join the Deuba government. It is not sure whether Thakur's new party will join the new government, but it will continue to support the government, its leader Rajendra Mahato said.

The other chairman of the Janata Samajbadi Party, Upendra Yadav, is all set to join Deuba's government.

Another key alliance partner, Nepal Communist Party (Maoist Center) is already in the government. Its chairman is Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.
Mumbai, Aug 18 : In a major catch, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested Niranjan Shah, an ex-aide of late scamster 'Big Bull' Harshad Mehta, in a case involving an international drug syndicate, from Delhi, officials said on Wednesday.

A Maharashtra ATS team, after painstaking efforts of around six months and chasing him across six states, finally zeroed in on Shah in Delhi late on Tuesday and nabbed him.

Shah, 65, a former partner of Mehta who created havoc in stock markets in the early 1990s, was produced before a designated court and sent to ATS custody till August 25.

An erstwhile player in the stock market, Shah was wanted after his name cropped during investigations into a narcotics case cracked by the ATS Juhu police station on March 17, 2021.

The ATS Juhu had arrested Sohel Yusuf Memon and recovered 5.65 kg mephedrone, valued around Rs 2.53 crore, and it emerged that Shah had supplied the contraband, but had disappeared afterwards.

Additional DGP, ATS, Vineet Kumar Agarwal, DIG Shivdeep Lande, and SP Sohail Sharma had formed a special team of ATS Juhu comprising Police Inspector Dnyaneshwar with APIs Sachin Patil, Dashrath Vitkar, Sagar Kunjir, and others to track down Shah.

However, Shah had already sneaked out of Mumbai and was moving around in disguises across the country with his trail found in Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and finally Delhi, said the officials.

"He was also constantly changing his looks. It had become a great challenge to trace and arrest him," said an ATS official.

After nearly six months with the ATS team moving around half a dozen states, they finally tracked him to Munirka village in Delhi, where he was living as an ordinary, poor man, in a single room hired in somebody else' name and nabbed him.

The ATS said that besides the Juhu ATS, Shah is wanted by several agencies like Anti-Narcotics Cell and Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai, the Narcotics Control Bureau and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, New Delhi, and several police stations in both the cities.

He had been earlier arrested by the DRI, New Delhi in 2011, by NCB Mumbai in 2014, but was released on bail, and investigators said his links were found with peddlers engaged in smuggling large quantities of drugs both into and outside the country.
Islamabad, Aug 18 : The developments in Afghanistan continue to receive favourable comments from various religious leaders and Islamic organisations in Pakistan in support of the Taliban.

The daily Ummat (an Urdu daily) reported that "Afghan Taliban's victory is undoubtedly a victory of the entire Muslim Ummah which is overwhelmed by the success of Taliban over infidels". Interestingly the paper goes on to mention that "Muslims from Kashmir to Gaza are celebrating Taliban's victory by distributing sweets and greeting each other to express their happiness". The daily further mentions "There is no doubt that defeating superpowers and their forty allies besides compelling them to kneel down and beg for negotiations was not possible without the support of Almighty and his angels. Taliban have made it clear that they do not want to hurt anyone and are urging everyone to stay calm and continue with their daily routine".

The Ummat goes on to mention that "The Taliban will have to gradually introduce Sharia Law in Afghanistan and a government based on true Islamic teachings of Fair practices and Justice".

Meanwhile, JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in his greetings to the Afghan Taliban on their victory in Afghanistan, has assured every kind of cooperation. He said that the "Afghan people and Muslim Ummah in particular deserve big kudos for the way Taliban have got their country freed from global forces with Almighty's help and after putting in colossal sacrifices in the process".

He further mentioned that "We view Taliban's new system in Afghanistan with high esteem".

Former provincial Minister and Senior Vice President of the ruling Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) Mir Abdul Karim Nausherwani welcomed the establishment of the Taliban government in Afghanistan and said that "Victory of Taliban is the victory of Islam. At last, truth won the war which was started 200 years ago by the tyrant king of Afghanistan Abdul Rahman and now ended with the fall of Ashraf Ghani, who was an agent and friend of Modi".

He added that "The Taliban brushed aside the conspiracies of both Modi and Ashraf Ghani. We hope that the Taliban will run the country according to Islamic rules and maintain good relations with Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Arab Emirates and China".
Shillong, Aug 18 : After initiating a grassroots-level movement with Climate Change Chapaul -- which involved roping in traditional leaders of Meghalaya to spread the awareness of climate change -- Meghalaya is starting to use another social innovation to drive a change in people's behaviour and attitude towards climate change.

A brainchild of Meghalaya Forests and Environment Minister James K. Sangma, interaction with leaders from eight faith-based and religious organisations aims to promote climate change messages in their followers and help build a bottom-up movement to fortify the fight against climate change in the state.

Quashing the age-old myth that religion and science don't get along, Meghalaya believes that religions can play an influential role in climate change negotiations and help build a strong public consensus in spurring the global mass climate action movement.

The meeting was attended by Swami Hitakamananda, Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission Shillong; Pastor T.T. Diengdoh of Khasi Jaintia Presbyterian Synod Sepngi (KJPSS); Father Richard Majaw, In-charge of the Education Commission and Vicar General, Archdiocese of Shillong; Kamaljeet Singh, General Secretary of the Shri Guru Singh Sabha Meghalaya; Jb Noor Nongrum, Assistant General Secretary of The Shillong Muslim Union; Pastor Elizer Sangma of Shillong Baptist Church; Rothel Khongsit, President, Seng Khasi Khatarshnong (Khasi Traditional Faith Leader); and Pema Dhondup, Tibetan Settlement Officer, Meghalaya.

Several innovative ideas were discussed from curating an eco-ministry programme by religious institutions in collaboration with state governments to adoption of eco-efficiencies to spread the message of conservation and sustainable lifestyles.

It is an established fact that faith-based organisations have been playing a key role in accelerating climate dialogues across the world ever since the Vatican and particularly, Pope Francis, kicked off a religious movement towards ecology and environment science and dedicated much of his papacy dedicated to teaching about care for the planet and raising the priority of climate change on the world agenda.

It was Pope Francis who cemented the church's commitment to ecological sustainability with his landmark papal document 'Laudato Si' published in May 2015.

In his document "On care for our common home", Pope Francis called for a "bold cultural revolution" on multiple levels: Spiritual, theological, scientific and practical.

Meghalaya's population consists of 70 per cent Christians and followers of indigenous Khasi faiths followed by Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and Tibetans. Faith can therefore play an influential role in dictating social and behavioural conventions of the masses.

On the occasion, James K. Sangma said, "In taking the faith-based approach, I want the scientific and rational thought to borrow hope and optimism that religions around the world offer and wants to erase the usual disdain of science towards religions. Faith groups have a history of speaking out on behalf of the oppressed and powerless; the environment is no different." The minister further stated that in Meghalaya, the understanding of environment protection is rooted in the Khasi, Garo and Jaintia communities which is based on traditional values and wisdom passed on through the ages.

The living testament of this are the sacred groves and traditional reserve forests in which till now, such valued practices is what the community leadership holds on to.

Besides, the living root bridges are another story that is very telling of the people's respect for nature. These root bridges take hundreds of years to form, therefore, the original builder knows that he would not see the full formation of the bridge but he does it anyway because he knows it is about community-living and for the future of his people. Such green concepts are intertwined with the values that come along with traditional faith or faiths that have arrived in the hills.

Sangma said he was inspired by the burgeoning global religious movement against climate change.

Forty Roman Catholic groups in countries including Australia, South Africa and the US have said that they are shunning investments in fossil fuels and switching to greener energy.

Some 1,200 institutions across the world have already committed to divest from fossil-fuel companies, totalling $14.5 trillion. One-third of these are faith-based organisations.

In 2020, faith leaders from Scotland jointly played a role in pushing for the government's adoption of a new climate change bill and their global counterparts delivered a series of recommendations to the G-20.

Back home, organisations like EcoSikh helps cities in India adopt environmentally friendly pilgrimages. The Bhumi Project, a Hindu organisation, develops long-term sustainable plans for environmental care and trains young people to become climate leaders.

Green Muslims connect volunteers to local climate action initiatives. A similar eco ministry programme in Kerala that has embedded ecology and climate change in its constitution is working on spreading awareness about climate change, sustainability, regenerative agricultural practices and urging people to not destroy wildlife or forests. It has won the UNESCO prize for sustainability.

An interesting study by UNEP also pointed out that faith-based organisations control 8 per cent of the Earth's habitable land, 5 per cent of commercial forests and 10 per cent of financial institutions and therefore, people of faith can be great allies in stalling the impending reality of climate change for the state.
Jammu, Aug 18 : Three persons belonging to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were apprehended by the Indian Army on Wednesday on the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K's Poonch district, officials said.

Defence sources said that the three persons were apprehended on the Indian side in Chakan Da Bagh area of Poonche.

"The trio is being handed over to the police," a source said, but did not confirm whether the three were carrying any arms or not.
Kabul, Aug 18 : Several people have been shot dead in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan by the Taliban during rallies supporting the Afghan national flag, as per reports.

Members of the Taliban opened fire on people rallying in support of the Afghan national flag in the eastern Nangarhar province, Sputnik reported. At least two people were killed and 12 others were injured after the Taliban opened fire on the protesters.

Al Jazeera reported that at least two people were killed and 12 were injured in the Jalalabad clashes. The report said that clashes erupted after hundreds of Afghan people took to the streets to show support for the national flag.

There is a big campaign underway in Afghanistan seeking retention of the Afghan national flag.

Earlier, a number of youngsters had gathered in Kunar province of Afghanistan demanding the Taliban to let the Afghan government flag fly over the country.

Afghan media reported that there is a vast campaign on social media demanding the Afghanistan Islamic Emirate to maintain the Afghan flag while others suggest a joint flag of both.

Meanwhile, a number of women gathered in Kabul demanding a share in the upcoming government. The women asked the power holders not to forget them in the upcoming regime.

The women though did not name the Taliban directly; this is apparently a rare move in Afghanistan where the Taliban have grappled control of nearly the entire country, reports said.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : India on Wednesday extended full support to the UK for the annual climate change summit to be held at Glasgow in November this year, but reiterated its position that COP26 should ensure a balanced outcome with equal treatment to agenda items such as adaptation, finance and technology transfer.

Ahead of the annual climate summit COP26 or the Conference of Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Glasgow in November, its President-designate Alok Sharma from the UK was on a short India trip.

On the last day of his visit, Sharma met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav apart from speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) National Council Session. He also launched the GreenCellM, an e-bus.

Yadav and Sharma discussed issues relating to climate change, COP26, India-UK 2030 Roadmap, and other related matters.

"India believes that climate actions must be nationally determined and it strongly advocates that the differentiation and operationalisation of flexibility provided in the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement for developing countries should be at the core of decision-making," emphasised Yadav, reiterating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's focus on climate justice while fighting climate change.

Yadav also informed the UK delegation about the remarkable feat India has achieved in decoupling growth from emission intensity, demonstrating ambitious actions in renewable energy, energy efficiency and rise of green cover, an official said, adding, "He also conveyed India's position that COP26 should ensure a balanced outcome with equal treatment to agenda items such as adaptation, finance and technology transfer." Sharma and his team were informed about the global initiatives spearheaded by India under Modi's leadership for tackling climate change such as Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), Coalition on Coalition Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and International Solar Alliance (ISA), a government release said.

Reminding that India is among a few G20 countries on track towards UNFCCC and Paris Agreement goals and has taken decisive actions to tackle climate change, Sitharaman mentioned that India is taking concrete steps at appreciable speed to meet its commitments on the target of 450GW of renewable energy by 2030.

"Of these, 100 GW has already been achieved," she said.

The Finance Minister also highlighted the extensive work done on the Hydrogen Energy Mission.

Sitharaman expressed hope that the commitment made by the developed countries to provide $100 billion per year to developing countries would be achieved, and sounded optimistic about a positive outcome on the new collective goals on finance in COP26.

A release from the British High Commission quoted Sharma as saying: "I leave India hopeful. I've had a set of very constructive discussions with ministers here and I am incredibly encouraged by the visionary speech Prime Minister Modi made on Independence Day, in particular the reference to renewables and green hydrogen." Claiming that countries need to be more ambitious in emission reduction targets and in accelerating the transition from coal to clean energy, Sharma said, "I've requested that the Indian government considers whether as part of any revised NDC, that overachievement is taken into account as well as a really ambitious plan for pushing forward on all of this." "When the UK took on the COP26 Presidency, less than 30 per cent of the global economy was covered by a net zero target -- we're now at 70 per cent," he said.

COP26 is a crucial meeting in view of the Paris Agreement that India has signed along with scores of other nations.

The Paris Agreement is a global effort to cut emissions to restrict the temperature rise to 2-degree Celsius and if possible, to keep it at 1.5-degree Celsius, as compared to the pre-industrial era.

A recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has already warned of dire consequences in terms of increasing heat waves, erratic precipitation and sea level rise among other extremities for India and other nations.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Hyderabad, Aug 18 : The Supreme Court-appointed inquiry Commission probing the encounter killing of the four accused in the case of gang-rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad, has directed the Telangana government to present its evidence before it on August 21.

The government has been asked to present its evidence at the Commission's premises in Telangana High Court, where the three-member Commission, headed by former apex court judge V.S. Sirpurkar, will hold the hearing virtually through video conferencing.

The Commission said that it will examine 18 witnesses on August 26, 27 and 28 using the same procedure.

The panel, which early this month received another six month extension, decided to commence hearings in a hybrid form wherein, some witnesses will be examined in the physical presence, and some in virtual presence of the Commission.

All the witnesses, commission's advocates, state government's advocates and advocates for the persons served with the notices under Section 8B of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 and all other persons and advocates permitted to participate in the hearings have to appear before the Commission physically at the Commission's premises.

The Commission Secretary, in a statement, said that while the hearings are open to public, in view of social distancing norms and restrictions imposed to prevent spread of Covid-19, limited number of pass holders will be allowed into the viewing area at a time.

The Secretary stated that the Commission has completed the collection of records and it was moving on to evidence recording phase.

A total of 1,333 affidavits from general public, and 103 affidavits from police officials, government officials, witnesses, and doctors were received. Voluminous record of the investigation by the SIT, CDRs, medical reports, forensic and ballistic reports and other reports were collected.

The Commission held 16 virtual hearings and passed orders in 24 applications filed by the police officials involved in the incident.

Considering the gravity of the issue under inquiry and the sensitive nature of the evidence of the Commission is of the opinion that witnesses have to be examined in its physical presence. However, Covid-19 pandemic has made it difficult to conduct physical hearings at Hyderabad, it said.

The panel was set up on December 12, 2019 to inquire into the circumstances leading to the encounter and was to submit a report in six months.

The term of the inquiry panel has been extended thrice.

The four accused were shot dead on at Chatanpally on National Highway-44 near Hyderabad, the same highway where the charred body of a 27-year-old Disha (as the victim is referred to by the investigators) was found.

According to police, Disha was kidnapped and sexually assaulted near Outer Ring Road (ORR) on the outskirts of Hyderabad on the night of November 27, 2019. After the sexual assault, the accused murdered her, took the body to Chatanpally and set it afire.
Hyderabad, Aug 18 : The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to upload all Government Orders (GOs) issued by it on the official website.

The court said the government should upload the GOs within 24 hours after they were issued.

A division bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Viajaysen Reddy gave the direction while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging 'Dalit Bandhu' scheme launched by the state government this week.

When the petitioner's counsel brought to the notice of the bench that the GO about the scheme's guidelines was not uploaded on the website, the judges wanted to know what was preventing the government from uploading the GOs.

It wanted the government to upload GOs within 24 hours on the official website so that people can go through them.

On several occasions in the past, the high court had pulled up the government for not uploading all GOs on the website.

The court on Wednesday disposed off the PIL filed by Watch Voice of People. The petitioner told the court that funds were released for Dalit Bandhu without framing the guidelines for the implementation of the scheme.

Advocate General B.S. Prasad informed the court that guidelines were already framed which make it clear that all Dalit families will be eligible under the scheme. At this point, the petitioner's counsel submitted to the bench that the relevant GO has not been uploaded.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on August 16 launched Dalit Bandhu in Huzurabad constituency, where the by-election is due. The scheme will be implemented on pilot basis in Huzurabad. The move has come under criticism from opposition parties and some NGOs who alleged that the government launched the scheme from Huzurabad for political mileage.

Under Dalit Bandhu scheme, every beneficiary family will be given Rs 10 lakh grant to start any business.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : Afghanistan's Ambassador to Tajikistan, Mohammad Zahir Agbar, has claimed that President Ashraf Ghani had "taken $169 million with him" when he fled Afghanistan.

He said that Ghani should be arrested and the wealth of the Afghan nation be restored, Ozodi reported.

Speaking at a news conference in Dushanbe on Wednesday, Agbar called Ghani's escape a "betrayal of the state and the nation" and claimed that he had "taken $169 million with him".

Agbar announced that Amrullah Saleh, Ashraf Ghani's first deputy, was legally the President of Afghanistan now.

"Ashraf Ghani handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban. We had more than 350,000 equipped troops, experienced military personnel, and they did not fight the Taliban. And we saw this in part in the northern regions of Afghanistan that border Tajikistan. There are more than 20 districts there. And they went over to the Taliban without mounting any resistance," Agbar said in an interview with Eurasianet.

"I think Ghani had a prior agreement with the Taliban. He already had a plan for betrayal in his head. He abandoned his supporters and betrayed the people of Afghanistan," he added.

"I don't think that any government is going to put up with militants from their country being in Afghanistan and operating under the Taliban's protection. Afghanistan should not be a country that poses a threat to the neighbouring countries," he said.

"What is more, if the Taliban offer haven to terrorist groups from neighbouring countries, what kind of border security can we talk about? There are many foreign terrorists among the Taliban at this time," Agbar claimed.

Amrullah Saleh himself had announced that in accordance with the Constitution, in the absence of the President, his escape or death, he would be the acting or sponsor of the presidency of Afghanistan.

Ghani had left Afghanistan on August 15 before the Taliban entered Kabul.

The Taliban, which controls much of Afghanistan and plans to form a government, has not yet responded to claims by Amrullah Saleh and his supporters.

Media outlets, citing diplomats at the Russian Embassy in Kabul, reported that Ashraf Ghani had taken hundreds of millions of dollars with him. Ghani and his family have not yet commented on the matter.

(Sanjeev Sharma can be reached at Sanjeev.s@ians.in)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Solan, Aug 18 : Authorities of the Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday extended support to students from Afghanistan, who are pursuing their studies at the university.

Currently, eight students from Afghanistan are enrolled in PhD, MSc and MBA programmes of the university. These students have been provided fellowships by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).

University Registrar Prashant Sirkek and Student Welfare Officer J.K. Dubey interacted with the students.

The Registrar spoke to the students and assured them of all necessary help to make their stay at the university comfortable. As the academic session was delayed last year due to Covid, the university has already forwarded the requests of some of the students for extension of visas and has also assured them of expediting the process for the award of their degrees. He also inquired about the well-being of their families.

Dubey said the university has ensured that these students were administered the second dose of vaccine in advance, in anticipation that these students might need to travel to their country.

He informed that the head of the department had also interacted with the students and motivated them.

The students informed that they were in constant touch with their families who were safe back in Afghanistan. Many of the students expressed a desire to pursue their doctorate degrees in India if fellowships were made available. They expressed hope that the situation will normalise in their country.

The university has been a popular destination among Afghan students looking to pursue quality education in horticulture, forestry, and allied disciplines.
United Nations, Aug 18 : India's priority in Afghanistan is safely getting back home its citizens in the country that has been over-run by the Taliban and it is discussing the matter with UN and US officials, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said here on Wednesday.

"Our focus is on ensuring the security in Afghanistan and the safe return of Indian nationals who are there," he told reporters.

"That is really what has been very much the focus of my own engagements here, talking to the UN Secretary General (Antonio Guterres), to other colleagues who are here, as well as with the US Secretary of State (Antony Blinken) a few days ago," he said.

India has been running an airlift of its citizens from Afghanistan and Jaishankar discussed it with Blinken, whose country is controlling the Kabul airport.

He said that these were "early days" of the new situation in Afghanistan and "at the moment, we are like everybody else very carefully following developments in Afghanistan".

As regards future relations with Afghanistan, he emphasised the historic people-to-people ties.

Asked by a reporter if India, which has made a "considerable investment" in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, would continue that relationship, Jaishankar said: "While you use the word investment, for us it reflected what was historical relationship with the Afghan people. I think that relationship with the Afghan people obviously continues and that will guide our approach to Afghanistan in the coming days." Responding to a reporter's question if India was in touch with the Taliban, he said: "At this point of time, we are, we are looking at what is the situation, evolving situation, in Kabul. Obviously the Taliban, and its representatives have come to Kabul so I think we need to take it on from there." He did not react to a reporter's question whether India was concerned that Pakistan-based terrorists could exploit the situation in Afghanistan and the regional concerns over terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan.

Earlier, Jaishankar presided over a meeting of the Security Council on peacekeeping and technology.

The Council adopted for the first time a resolution calling for accountability for crimes against peacekeepers. It was jointly sponsored by all the 15 members of the Council and about 80 countries.

The Council also adopted a presidential statement dealing with utilising technology to assist peacekeepers.

During the Council debate on peacekeeping and technology, India "offered a four-point framework, anchored in utilising modern technology for securing peacekeepersa" and "highlighted the need to deploy proven technologies, information and intelligence systems, adapt to improvements, and to promote training and capability building".

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Aug 18 : Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, on Wednesday expressed his anguish over disruptions in the Parliament and state Legislatures and called upon people's representatives to act as 'role models' in raising the standards in public life.

Speaking after presenting the 'Sir M Visvesvarya Memorial Award' to MS Ramaiah Group of Institutions' Chairman M.R. Jayaram in Bengaluru, Naidu, who's also the Chiarman of Rajya Sabha, said that he was saddened by the 'new low' witnessed in the Parliament recently as also in some state legislatures, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Specifically referring to the recent unruly events in the Parliament during the Monsoon Session, Naidu said that he was saddened by the bad behaviour of some House members.

Disapproving the disruptive behaviour of some members, he said that Assemblies and the Parliament are meant to debate, discuss and decide, and not disrupt, and the people's verdict must be respected in a democracy even while expressing dissent.

"You can't force anybody physically," he said.

Paying rich tributes to Sir M. Visvesvaraya, who was an Indian civil engineer, statesman and the 19th Diwan of Mysore, serving from 1912 to 1919, the Vice President urged the younger generation to come forward with new innovations and out-of-the-box ideas to accelerate the progress of the country.

Describing Sir Visvesvaraya as the 'legendary builder-engineer of modern India', he recalled his contribution in designing iconic projects such as the Krishna Sagar Dam in Mysore and the flood protection system in Hyderabad.

Recalling his vision as the Diwan of Mysore in founding many landmark institutions such as the iron and steel plant at Bhadravati, the Mysore Soap Factory and Mysore Chamber of Commerce, Naidu said Visvesvaraya spearheaded the movement for industrialisation in India, even before Independence.

Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai, Lok Sabha MP P.C. Mohan and other dignitaries were present at the event.
New Delhi, Aug 18 : Union Petroleum and Natural Gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday that the government is sensitive towards the prices of petroleum products and it is taking all possible steps to address the issue.

Puri also blamed the previous Congress government's decisions for the current increase in prices of petroleum products.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP's Delhi unit office on the third day of 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra', Puri said, "We are sensitive towards it (prices of petroleum products) and are taking all the possible steps including blending of ethanol which the government will increase to 20 per cent. We are taking many steps to check the prices. Prices can stabilise only when all the stakeholders take the necessary steps." Puri also blamed the previous Congress government for deregulating the prices of petrol and diesel in 2010 and for floating oil bonds.

"In 2010, the Congress government deregulated the prices of petrol and diesel which meant there would be a local impact of international prices," Puri said.

He further stated that the Congress government had floated oil bonds and passed them to the current government and this year the Union government has paid Rs 20,000 crore as interest on these bonds.

"The Congress government before 2014 issued oil bonds of Rs 1.34 lakh crore to control prices of petrol and passed on their problem to us. They emptied the 'tijori' (exchequer). We had to pay Rs 20,000 crore as interest this year for the oil bonds," the minister said.

Talking about taxes on petroleum products, Puri said, "The Union government imposes excise of Rs 32 while the states impose VAT on percentage which increases with rise in prices. The Union government uses this excise money to fund schemes like PM Garib Kalyan Yojna under which 80 crore people received free foodgrains, PM Awas Yojna, Ujjwala scheme and other welfare schemes." He also mentioned that prices in the international market have increased from $19 per barrel in April 2020 to $75 per barrel on the day he took over as the Petroleum Minister last month.

Referring to the Tamil Nadu government's recent decision to reduce auto fuel prices, Puri said, "The state governments can lower the prices of petrol and diesel, as one state has done so recently. Others can also do the same."

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Aug 18 : With less than 100 days to go for the UN climate change conference, India on Wednesday approved a plan to phase out hydrofluorocarbons so as help prevent depletion of the ozone layer.

Ozone layer around the earth is most important for protecting humans from the ultra-violet rays of the sun. In view of the changing climatic conditions, with the temperatures rising everywhere, there is an increase in demand for cooling. This results in a vicious circle where emission of high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants will add to the increasing global warming.

Phasing out of hydrofluorocarbons therefore becomes imperative, for which the government said that the industry producing and consuming hydrofluorocarbons will be phasing them out, as per the agreed schedule and transition to non-HFC and low global warming potential technologies.

"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved Ratification of Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer for phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons. There will be a national strategy for phase down of hydrofluorocarbons after required consultation with all the industry stakeholders by 2023," a government release said.

The Kigali Amendment is called so as the decision to phase out hydrofluorocarbons was adopted by the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on October, 2016 at its 28th Meeting held at Kigali, Rwanda.

The 'Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer' is an international environmental treaty for protection of the ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of man-made chemicals referred to as 'ozone depleting substances' (ODS).

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol has, for the first time, recognised linkages between maintaining and/or improving energy efficiency of RAC equipment with refrigerant transition under the Protocol. India already has a 'Cooling Action Plan' wherein, as part of demand side management of cooling energy use, Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and star rating scheme for room air conditioners are in place in the country and MEPS for room air conditioners are being systematically ratcheted up.

A May 2021 report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had stated that the Montreal Protocol has proved to be effective for the protection of the ozone layer, and at the same time, has made a substantial contribution to avoiding emissions of powerful greenhouse gases, complementing the global efforts of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"The Parties to the Montreal Protocol have an opportunity through the Kigali Amendment to further contribute to significant mitigation of climate impacts by improving energy efficiency of refrigeration and air conditioning and heat pump (RACHP) equipment during the phase-down of high GWP refrigerants," it had said.

As per the release, the amendments to the existing legislation framework, the 'Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Rules' to allow appropriate control of the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons to ensure compliance with the Kigali Amendment will be done by mid-2024.
Tokyo, Aug 18 : The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach is set to return to Tokyo to attend the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games after having spent over a month during the Olympic Games.

Japan's Kyodo news agency has quoted sources as saying that Bach could arrive on August 23 (Monday) which is the day before the opening ceremony at the National Stadium.

Bach had fuelled controversy on his visit during the Olympic Games after went to an upscale Tokyo shopping district despite coronavirus emergency being imposed in Tokyo.

The 67-year-old was spotted strolling around in Ginza district along with his bodyguards despite public order by the government to avoid non-essential outings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
American Cheese Society Logo Im looking forward to helping the vibrant cheese community move forward towards new possibilities equipped with timely education, professional certifications, and a strong voice.

Following the success of its virtual 38th Annual Conference, the American Cheese Society (ACS) announces Tara Holmes as the new executive director who will guide the leading industry organization toward its 39th conference in Portland in 2022. Holmes will serve alongside board members led by president Lynn Giacomini Stray of Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, and vice-president Mike Koch of FireFly Farms. Jamie Png becomes the ACS Cheese Industry Professional.

The virtual 38th ACS Annual Conference, which was held July 28-30, 2021, enabled an international audience of cheese professionals from the US to Europe and New Zealand, to hear from renowned speakers and engage in timely education and networking sessions that would not have been possible without a virtual platform. In his opening address, ACS past president, Jeremy Stephenson, noted the extraordinary challenges and triumphs experienced by the cheese industry during the pandemic, echoed by others including Kurt Dammeier from Beechers Handmade Cheese, Adeline Druart from Vermont Creamery, Jessica Fernandez from Lactography and Mexican Mongers, and Ari Weinzweig from Zingerman's.

For the first time, access to the ACS educational sessions and Exhibit Hall remains available to registrants until the end of October. This offers unprecedented opportunities for cheese professionals to attend every scheduled program, including popular sessions like Virtual Tastings and Instruction: Why Theyre Here to Stay. 2300 sessions have already been viewed, and post-conference registration is still available.

Holmes, who will transition from team leader for ACS at Civica Management, notes, Before taking over as executive director, Ive had the pleasure of working with the ACS board, staff, committees, and members in the run up to the last Annual Conference. Im proud of what the team has been able to accomplish in a short amount of time, and while I know there is a lot of work to be done, Im looking forward to helping this vibrant community move forward towards new possibilities equipped with timely education, professional certifications, and a strong voice, she notes.

The ACS voice will be amplified by its recent acquisition of Victory Cheese, an initiative launched by cheesemakers, mongers, chefs, and cheese enthusiasts to help support and sustain specialty and artisan cheesemakers in the United States during and after the pandemic. Co-founder, Greg ONeill notes, ACS is the perfect home for Victory Cheese because it will serve as the associations business to consumer (B2C) voice supporting artisan and specialty cheese. Strengthening the vital B2C connection for the long term is good for the entire industry.

Focusing on the future, the ACS team will be organizing the American Cheese Society Judging and Competition (J&C), the largest event of its kind for American-made cheeses. The 2022 J&C will open for entries in October 2021, with 1500 expected to be entered in 120 categories. Cheeses will be received May 17-18, 2022, with competition judging from May 19-20, 2022, at the TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. Winners will be announced at the 39th ACS Annual Conference, Blazing the Trail for Cheese, in Portland, Oregon, July 20-23, 2022.

The success of the virtual conference this year is testament to the resilience of our cheese industry professionals, notes Lynn Giacomini Stray, board president. None of this would be possible without the commitment of our conference sponsors, and wed particularly like to thank our Partners with Purpose  Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, DPI Specialty Foods, Gourmet Foods International, Murrays Cheese, Whole Foods Market, and the American Cheese Education Foundation  and Platinum Sponsors, Dairy Connection, and Real California Milk.

Post-conference registration for access to educational sessions is still available. For more information visit https://www.cheesesociety.org/2021-conference/.

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About American Cheese Society

ACS is the leading organization supporting the understanding, appreciation, and promotion of artisan, farmstead, and specialty cheeses produced in the Americas. At 2,300 members strong, ACS provides advocacy, education, business development, and networking opportunities for cheesemakers, retailers, enthusiasts, and extended industry. ACS strives to continually raise the quality and availability of cheese in the Americas. Since its founding in 1983, ACS proudly hosts the foremost annual educational conference and world-renowned cheese judging and competition in North America. ACS is a 501(c)6 nonprofit association headquartered in Denver, Colo. To learn more about ACS, please visit http://www.cheesesociety.org or contact 720-328-2788.
Anthologys ability to enable digital transformation for institutions globally is greatly enhanced by our Microsoft partnership and their business applications - Anthology Chairman and CEO Jim Milton

Anthology, a leading provider of proven higher education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, has achieved the prestigious Microsoft Business Applications 2021/2022 Inner Circle award. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank Anthology in the top echelon of the Microsofts Business Applications global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help institutions and organizations achieve increased success.

Anthologys ability to enable digital transformation for institutions globally is greatly enhanced by our Microsoft partnership and their business applications, said Anthology Chairman and CEO Jim Milton. We are proud to be selected for the Microsoft Business Applications 2021/2022 Inner Circle award and recognized for our modern approach to providing a fully connected data experience where customers can use best-of-breed and full suite solutions to make more informed decisions that drive efficiencies and improve student success.

2021/2022 Inner Circle members are invited to the Inner Circle Summit in March 2022 as well as virtual meetings between July 2021 and June 2022, where they will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners.

This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Business Applications coincided with Microsoft Inspire, the annual premier partner event, which took place July 14-15, 2021. Microsoft Inspire provides the Microsoft partner community with the opportunity to learn about the companys road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills.

In a year of deep business transformation for every company and every industry on the planet, it is extremely rewarding to be able to recognize Microsoft Business Applications partners from every corner of the world that accelerated our joint customers digital transformation and drove unsurpassed customer success, said Cecilia Flombaum, Microsoft Business Applications Ecosystem Lead. Our Inner Circle members are chosen based on their business performance as well as capabilities as an organization, whether thats creating IP, developing solutions, or having an industry leading focus on digital transformation. Microsoft is honored to recognize Anthology for their achievements this past year, their dedication to our customers, and their innovation around the Microsoft Cloud.

Anthology is dedicated to supplying higher education solutions that help institutions achieve an advantage through enterprise-wide, cloud technology and the reduction of data silos. The Anthology portfolio spans the entire learner and alumni experiencefrom applying to matriculation; from learning in the classroom to engaging in activities; to alumni and advancementhelping drive efficiencies and improve student success. By collaborating with the teams at Microsoft, Anthology maintains a strong expertise of the Microsoft platform to provide innovative solutions, strong services and unparalleled value to their customers.

About Anthology

Anthology exists to help higher education advance and thrive using modern cloud technology and services that keep the learner at the forefront. Drawing on a fully connected data experience, Anthology solutions create operational efficiencies, provide intelligence for staff and administrators, and empower institutional leaders to support and guide students on a path to success.

The full suite covers admission and enrollment management; student success and retention; institutional and learning effectiveness; alumni and advancement; and enterprise applications and infrastructure, offering solutions to the challenges facing campuses today. Working with more than 2,100 colleges and institutions in over 30 countries, Anthology is constantly discovering new ways to revolutionize higher education. Learn more about our mission at http://www.anthology.com.
Anita Verma-Lallian of Arizona Land Consulting We all know that the real estate market right now is very hot, so having someone on your side who has that inside edge is critical to making lucrative deals happen in this environment.

Arizona Land Consulting closed on four separate properties in a matter of two weeks in the West Valley, totaling $17 million.

Anita Verma-Lallian, founder of Arizona Land Consulting, has been able to utilize her long-term relationships and deep-rooted knowledge in all things land to assist her clients in finding sites and buyers in record-breaking time.

The first property acquired is located off Highway 85 and MC 85 in Buckeye, across the street from the future KOREplex center. The 22-acre property was purchased by a 1031 exchange buyer for $2,395,800. A second property located on Yuma Road and Sundance Parkway was purchased for another $2,482,920. Considered one of the last retail sites remaining in the area, Verma-Lallian already has a buyer interested in two acres for a much higher price.

Another 23-acre property located off I-10 and Yuma Road was acquired for $6.7 million. The buyer has plans for a mixed use development, including a strip center, car dealerships, hotel, flex office and multi-family development. The final property is located off Durango Street and Miller Road. Verma-Lallian initially helped her client purchase the 21-acres for $2.5 million in March 2021, and assisted her client in selling it for $5.6 million just two weeks ago.

I take a lot of pride in the value I bring to every single one of my clients, said Verma-Lallian. I have relationships and knowledge that others dont always have access to, and I am able to connect people to the right deals utilizing my network and my experience. We all know that the real estate market right now is very hot, so having someone on your side who has that inside edge is critical to making lucrative deals happen in this environment.

Since its founding in June 2020, Arizona Land Consulting has closed on $70M in land transactions, establishing itself as both a leader in land brokerage but also in extracting immediate value out of every deal by connecting buyers with end-users, or immediately generating offers on land deals for double or triple the sale price within a day or two of the initial closing.

For more information about Arizona Land Consulting, please visit https://arizonalandconsulting.com/.

ABOUT ARIZONA LAND CONSULTING

Arizona Land Consulting is a Phoenix-based land investment and consulting company that specializes in commercial real estate, founded by Anita Verma-Lallian. You can view more information at https://arizonalandconsulting.com/.


BevSource named one of Americas Fastest-Growing Private Companies by Inc. Magazines Inc. 5000 List Our growth reflects the relentless passion and creativity of our client," said Janet Johanson, CEO and Founder of BevSource.

Inc. Magazine revealed that BevSource, a leading provider of beverage development, testing, and production services for new and established beverage brands, is No. 2250 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

BevSource succeeded in helping beverage creators navigate the opportunities and challenges presented by the shifting markets and operational constraints brought on by COVID-19. In 2020, BevSource created scalable formulations and optimized the manufacturing operations of beverage brands ranging from functional energy drinks and ready-to-drink non-alcoholic cocktails to nationally distributed craft beers and hard seltzers.

Our growth reflects the relentless passion and creativity of our client," said Janet Johanson, CEO and Founder of BevSource. As a dedicated team of beverage industry navigators, we are honored to help launch and grow ideas that are setting the stage for the future of beverages.

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this years list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020s unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis weve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.

About BevSource

BevSource brings beverage ideas to life for new and established beverage brands. Since 2002, BevSource has provided beverage development, sourcing, and production solutions to help beverage creators navigate the complexities of the beverage industry. Realizing creators needed a place to validate their ideas, BevSource created The Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility for small-scale pilot production and quality assurance testing. In 2021, BevSource will manage more than 8.5 million cases of beverage production and procure more than $68 million in packaging and raw materials for leading beverage innovators. For more information, visit http://www.bevsource.com.

CONTACT: Rachel Farr, rfarr@bevsource.com

More About Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this years Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/
Noogata, a global leader in no-code artificial intelligence (AI) data analytics for enterprises, has been selected by luggage and accessories firm, the Bugatti Group, to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their e-commerce business and marketing strategies globally. This will significantly grow their e-commerce business, with a strategic objective of moving 50% of their sales online. For Noogata it represents further growth, and adds the Bugatti Group to its existing client roster that includes PepsiCo, Colgate Palmolive and mDesign.

Started 80 years ago and based in Canada, the Bugatti Groups sales have previously been dominated by a traditional in-person retail model. However, the accelerating shift to e-commerce represents an opportunity to expand the accessibility of their leading brands including the popular Celine Dion Collection, The Rolling Stones and BLACKPINK, as well as Bugattis own-brand items.

We have extremely ambitious plans to use e-commerce to drive sales growth globally. To achieve this, we needed a partner who can provide real insight at a granular level around e-commerce data in order to help us to identify opportunities and adapt quickly to any changes in market conditions. Noogatas platform will ensure we optimize the effectiveness of our online marketing and business strategies, facilitating more targeted sales and higher volumes, comments Andrew Hattem, CEO at the Bugatti Group.

The Bugatti Group will use Noogatas comprehensive set of advanced analytics modules (AI blocks), available via its ecommerce library, to target and enhance business workflows and business intelligence processes. Bugattis data team will be able to evaluate the landscape, track and analyze emerging trends, assess product position and provide analysis on exposure and growth potential while also helping to optimize pricing and develop impactful advertising strategies.

A shift to e-commerce sales using Amazon Marketplace has already brought benefits in terms of expansion into the US market and sales growth. A sophisticated data analysis and content strategy ensures the high volume of data available can be parsed into actionable tactics, by collecting, enriching and modeling data insights, predictions and recommendations.

We are excited to help the Bugatti Group as they expand their e-commerce offering. The sheer volume of data can be overwhelming, so our platform is designed to combat this by offering clarity and insight that facilitates quick reactions that drive marketing decisions and, ultimately, sales. Our ecommerce library contains a vast selection of analytics blocks that will empower the Bugatti Group and support their ambitious plans, said Assaf Egozi, CEO and co-founder, Noogata.

This deal represents further growth for Noogata as it continues to expand both its offering and its client base. In March, it announced it had secured $12 million in seed funding led by Team8 with participation from Skylake Capital. The investment proceeds are powering product development and the firms expansion.

About Noogata

Noogata is the leader in no-code artificial intelligence (AI) designed from the ground-up for the enterprise data analyst. The company provides a modular, expandable platform that is ready for immediate use, thanks to pre-built, domain-focused blocks that speak the language of business and target unique, mission-critical use cases. Noogata delivers the benefits of best-in-class AI for maximum business impact without the complexity and costs of having to develop it or maintain the AI solutions. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, privately held Noogata is backed by Team8 and Skylake Capital. To learn more, visit https://www.noogata.com/.

About the Bugatti Group

Recognized for the past 80 years for its expertise, the Bugatti Group is a north American company located in Montreal, Canada. It creates, designs, manufacturers, imports and sells high quality luggage, briefcases, handbags, and accessories worldwide. It is present on three continents and in six countries with a wide range of well-known brands including Bugatti, Swiss Mobility, Mouflon, Celine Dion Collection, BLACKPINK and The Rolling Stones Collection.
Our mission this year is to introduce 200,000 more students to the interdisciplinary skills that STEM develops, including future-ready skills, SEL, and more. As always, we recommend the challenge for grades four and above.

Starting August 1, CoderZ will once again bring a real-world industry perspective to computer science classrooms through the Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge. In this free, three-hour virtual learning experience, students develop basic computer science skills while discovering the ways that goods are delivered at Amazon. This years #StepintoSTEM challenge provides teachers access to resources that make instruction simple for them, regardless of their computer science background.

The Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge transports students to a virtual Amazon warehouse where they practice coding, computational thinking, and computer science. Students collaborate with their friends through hands-on, gamified, and mission-based activities, which involve coding an Amazon Hercules robot. In addition, they meet students interning at Amazon as well as real engineers who are using STEM and computer science skills every day. Participants who share the activity on social media will be sent a teacher goodie bag.

Last year, 120,000 students received access to the program. The feedback from teachers was exemplary, so we want to see that number grow during these essential back-to-school months, said CEO of CoderZ, Ido Yerushalmi. Our mission this year is to introduce 200,000 more students to the interdisciplinary skills that STEM develops, including future-ready skills, SEL, and more. As always, we recommend the challenge for grades four and above.

Yerushalmi continued, The challenge makes a great bonus unit for any STEM/computer science class or curriculum because it vividly connects computer science learning to the real world. Students can take part in free, complementary activities such as virtual field trips to Amazon warehouses to see STEM in action and talks with real engineers who use STEM skills every day. All of that will make it easier for students to envision a STEM career for themselves.

When we teach coding, we provide students a skillset that helps them see how they can get to that big goal. Cyber Robotic Challenge powered by CoderZ provides the most real-world, interesting, and creative prompts that require students to use their individual level of computational thinking and problem-solving strategies to unpack and answer, explains Amy Thorpe, who recently used the challenge with her middle school math students.

The Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge can be broken into four, 45-minute or three, 60-minute lessons for any class (Introduction to Computer Science, AP Computer Science Principles, science, math, etc.) and is aligned to CSTA K-12 Computer Science Standards. Teachers can review standards alignment in the provided teacher manual after creating their CoderZ account.

As an extension to the challenge, Amazon Future Engineer is providing 1,000 Title 1 teachers with free access to CoderZs virtual robotics learning modules for the 2021-22 school year. Our goal is to help those teachers bring computer science to over 100,000 students, said Yerushalmi.

After completing the Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge, Title 1 teachers can move students onto one of CoderZs more advanced coding modules. The coding journey can continue via CoderZ's comprehensive offerings such as CoderZ Adventure for elementary students, Cyber Robotics 101 and Cyber Robotics 102 for middle school students, and the Python Gym course for students in grades seven through 12.

Interested teachers can apply here and will have access to CoderZs curriculum for free. Teachers may request the use of different courses for different classes if they teach varied grade or ability levels.

For more information about the Amazon Cyber Robotics Back-to-School Challenge, go to https://gocoderz.com/amazon-cyber-robotics-challenge.

About CoderZ

CoderZ believes STEM and Computer Science education are essential for the future and should be universally available to all kids. So, we built a gamified online platform that makes it easy for anyone to learn (and teach), using robots to bring the subject matter to life! Grounded in math, physics, and engineering, CoderZ trains students grades four and up in computational thinking and technical ability. But more than that, it supports them in developing a growth mindset with critical life skills such as creative problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. For a free trial visit: GoCoderz.com

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Corporate Governance: Challenges in the Digitalized Era, by Saleh Hussain Government-owned enterprises have a lead role to play in paving the way for the whole country to implement best practices in corporate governance.

Following on the heels of last months release of Corporate Governance: Challenges in the Digitalized Era, author and thought leader Saleh Hussain has released an updated edition of Corporate Governance: In State Owned Enterprises. Previously available in Arabic, the new edition is updated for readers of English, and includes new insight from Hussains recent research related to corporate governance in the digitalized era.

While high-profile business failures have been well-publicized, the author suggests that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) receive comparably very little attention. Governments promulgate the corporate governance guidelines that businesses are required to follow. Ironically, however, SOEs are not held accountable to applying the guidance they delegate within their own operations. Rather than lament the state of affairs, Hussain remains mission-focused. He believes SOEs have an opportunityif not an outright responsibilityto set the example.

Government-owned enterprises have a lead role to play in paving the way for the whole country to implement best practices in corporate governance, said Hussain. Good governance is good for all, and governments gain by setting a good example for all types of companies to follow, he said.

A principle that runs throughout all of Hussains work in the field is that corporate governance does not occur in a vacuum. It starts with the individual.

Governance starts with people, and is implemented by people, says Hussain. He explained that adherence to a companys stated practices is not for executives only, but for employees at all level of the organization.

The author asserts that individuals with good personal governance remain best positioned to implement good corporate governance.

We need to focus on helping people embrace good personal governance, which leads to good governance within the enterprise they work for, said Hussain.

The reverse also holds trueindividuals lacking in ethics and personal responsibility will bring those deficits to their implementation of governance. Lest the topic strike the reader as academic, Hussain explains the risk of ignoring the topic, or merely paying it lip service.

If good governance is not practiced by all companies, the result will be the failure of the commercial system. The greatest loss will be to the people who lose their jobs.

Once again, SOEs remain positioned to lead the way. As SOEs achieve their own business objectives, their value and positive example, will strengthen the economy and the social fabric of their host nation.

Corporate Governance: In State Owned Enterprises by Saleh Hussain is published in eBook and paperback format by eBookIt.com. The Kindle ebook is available at Amazon.com and the paperback is available at BN.com. The paperback should also be available soon on Amazon.

About Saleh Hussain

Saleh Hussain is a Bahrain National with a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Brunel University (UK). Saleh is a consultant who brings more than forty years of professional experience to the topic of corporate governance, including perspectives developed as a senior executive in a range of banks and financial institutions. An internationally respected author, Saleh has written or co-authored many publications on issues affecting leadership, Governance, and management in the Gulf. Consequently, he is very much in demand as a trainer and conference speaker in Bahrain and abroad.

About eBookIt.com

Since 2010, eBookIt.com (based in Sudbury, Massachusetts) has helped thousands of authors and publishers get their books converted to ebook format, and distributed to all the major ebook retailers, including Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Apple iBookstore, Kobo, Scribd, Ingram Digital, and Google eBookstore.
e-Bit Consulting named to 2021 Inc 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies "We are honored to be named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list in 2021. During our eight years in business, we have built e.biT Consultings success on truly getting to know our clients needs and delivering top talent that meets their requirements, said Biro. For companies requiring candidates wit

Inc., the magazine for growing companies, has named Chicago-based e.biT Consulting to its prestigious Inc. 5000 2021 list, which ranks the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. Launched in 2013, e.biT Consulting is a boutique-style IT staffing company specializing in contract, contract-to-hire, and direct placement opportunities.

The list, which will be published at http://www.inc.com/inc5000 on Tuesday August 17th and in Inc.s September 2021 issue, represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economys most dynamic segment  its independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

Born out of a desire to redefine the staffing industry, e.biT Consulting has taken charge of its specialty: placing candidates with rare and difficult-to-find skill sets. Under CEO and Founder Erica Biros leadership, the firm has grown to be one of the nations top IT recruiting and staffing firms. Its success is the result of emphasizing the human element: forging personal connections, and conducting business in a fair and methodical manner.

"We are honored to be named to the prestigious Inc. 5000 list in 2021. During our eight years in business, we have built e.biT Consultings success on truly getting to know our clients needs and delivering top talent that meets their requirements, said Biro. For companies requiring candidates with highly unique skill sets, we have the ability to seek out and find ideal potential employees."

e.biT Consulting has risen to achieve placement on the Inc. 5000 list through its understanding of its clients technology, business, environment and company culture, in order to best identify the right fit between its candidates and its clients staffing needs. Having strong ties to Chicago and South Florida, the team at e-biT Consulting comprehends the competitive landscape of multiple markets and is able to work with consultants nationwide.

Making the Inc. 5000 list is an honor, and to make it during such a difficult year is a testament to the dedication of our team, said e.biT Consulting Director of Recruiting Blake Angove. Id also like to thank our candidates and clients who put their faith in us to help guide their career choices and hiring strategies during a year full of challenges.

Incorporating these strategies and more, e.biT Consulting is poised to experience continued growth across the U.S., placing candidates in technical roles within businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 organizations.

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this years list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020s unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Methodology

The 2021 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2017 and 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent  not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies  as of December 31, 2020. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 5000 are featured in Inc.s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About e.biT Consulting LLC

e.biT Consulting LLC is a WBENC certified staffing and recruiting firm headquartered in downtown Chicago, Illinois. In 2021, it made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies in America. The firm specializes in IT recruiting and staffing solutions across the nation for small start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations. Its focus is on building and maintaining strong personal relationships with its clients and candidates, to bridge the talent gap and achieve their respective goals. e.biT Consulting helps businesses connect with top talent across the IT spectrum by providing quality, hard-to-find candidates with a quick turnaround time. For more information, visit http://www.e-bitconsulting.com, call 312.505.1224 or email ebiro@e-bitconsulting.com

About the Inc. 5000

The Inc. 5000 is a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. Started in 1982, this prestigious list has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com/inc5000.
Too many small hospitals don't have access to a neurologist, and I am proud to lead Eagles neurology program

Eagle Telemedicine announced today that Dr. Leslie Reynolds has accepted the role of Medical Director of Neurology.

With Dr. Reynolds in this position, the company can work more closely with hospitals using neurology services via telemedicine. In this role, Dr. Reynolds will:



Advise and consult with hospital medical directors and administrators on the use of telemedicine in neurology services.

Develop guidelines and processes for Eagles neurology physicians to ensure consistent and highest quality patient care.

Perform clinical oversight of hospitals using Eagles TeleNeurology programs.

Train new TeleNeurology physicians.

With four years of service as a TeleNeurologist with Eagle, Dr. Reynolds has proven her expertise as a physician in providing exceptional patient care, said Dr. Talbot Mac McCormick, Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Telemedicine. This role as Medical Director will allow her to develop and deploy clinical strategies to better serve Eagle clients, their patients, and communities.

Eagles TeleNeurology program has grown very quickly in just a few years, and Dr. Reynolds has proven her expertise in training new physicians and guiding the programs development, says Jason Povio, President and Chief Operating Officer for Eagle Telemedicine. We look forward to her contributions as we position our TeleNeurology service for future growth.

During Dr. Reynolds tenure at Eagle Telemedicine, Dr. Reynolds has fine-tuned the credentialing process to ensure specific physicians are in the position where they can best utilize their expertise. She has also developed pre-Go-Live sessions that prepare hospitals and physicians for integration with Eagles Neurology services.

Eagles Neurology service currently provides hospital inpatient and outpatient consults for stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, seizures, headaches, and cognitive/dementia patients.

Too many small hospitals don't have access to a neurologist, and I am proud to lead Eagles neurology program bringing our services to them, so patients can get the treatment they need, said Dr. Reynolds.

With this service, patients can receive very timely treatment, which is especially critical with stroke patients, Dr. Reynolds added. Were providing tertiary-level care, just as they would receive in a large city hospital, delivered in their community hospital.

Eagles TeleNeurologists also provide outpatient consults, so patients can access a virtual physician from their local hospital. Otherwise, these patients would have to drive one to two hours to see a neurologist, she said. This improves their quality of life significantly and provides them with expert neurological care.

Dr. Reynolds is a graduate of Duke Universitys Medical School, and during a medical school rotation discovered her affinity for neurology. She completed an internship at the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio, then a Neurology residency and fellowship at Stony Brook Medicine/University Hospital Program.

During her career, Dr. Reynold has held many leadership positions, including the development of numerous neurology/stroke programs. She served as medical director of a rehabilitation program; initiated and served as medical director for a neurology hospitalist program; and initiated and brought to certification multiple stroke programs.

Dr. Reynolds was a neurology specialist in a North Carolina private practice for 15 years, then joined a neurohospitalist program in Greensboro, NC (Cone Health) for 10 years. Excited about the growing field of telemedicine, Dr. Reynold joined Eagle four years ago. As a specialist, Ive really enjoyed the work because it allows me to stay sharp in all aspects of neurology -- reading EEGs, seeing acute inpatients and outpatients.

The opportunity to join Eagle seemed like a perfect fit, she said, to bring Neurology to smaller communities that desperately need specialty care.

In their everyday work with hospital partners, TeleNeurologists, like Dr. Reynolds, are integrated into the patient care workflow at each facility. These remote telehealth medical specialists adapt to the unique needs of each hospital, and become part of the on-site medical staff, documenting, charting and ordering like local physicians.

As Medical Director of neurology, Dr. Reynolds will act as a conduit between the facility and the TeleHospitalists to guarantee seamless patient care in a virtual environment.

For more information about Eagle Telemedicine, visit our website at http://www.eagletelemedicine.com or follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/eagle-telemedicine
First Centennial Mortgage Ranked a 2021 Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Company Receiving this award during one of the most challenging years in the industry shows how dedicated our team is to helping families achieve homeownership.

For the fifth consecutive year, First Centennial Mortgage has been named one of Americas fastest-growing private companies in the country by Inc. Magazine, moving up over 1,500 spots from last year.

We are very proud and honored to have made this list for the fifth year in a row, said Steven McCormick, President of First Centennial Mortgage. Receiving this award during one of the most challenging years in the industry shows how dedicated our team is to helping families achieve homeownership.

Since making the Inc. 5000 list last year, First Centennial Mortgage has expanded its national presence into Maine, Tennessee and South Carolina, and it is poised to continue growing into 2022. McCormick added, Even with the recent challenges around the pandemic, our team has maintained high service levels to ensure every customer receives the same quality service weve always delivered. Our doors are always open.

The 2021 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth. The list represents the most successful companies within independent small businesses. The First Centennial Mortgage listing and complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About First Centennial Mortgage

First Centennial Mortgage is a residential mortgage lender headquartered in Illinois, founded by brothers Steven and David McCormick. Family-owned, the company strives to deliver an extraordinary experience to the communities it serves through an extensive portfolio of mortgage products and services.

The company has been named one of the Top 100 Mortgage Companies by Mortgage Executive Magazine, one of the Top Mortgage Lenders by Scotsman Guide, and one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.

For more information, visit goFCM.com.
Newline Ranks No.1,963 with Three-Year Revenue Growth of 226%

Inc. magazine today revealed that Newline Interactive is No. 1,963 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

We are very proud of how we have faced and overcome the challenges this year presented. Ranking in the Inc. 5000 List once more shows how dedicated of a team we have, said Chris Bradford, President of Newline Interactive.

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this years list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020s unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 17.

The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis weve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.

Newline Interactive manufactures and sells innovative technology that allows teams and classrooms to better collaborate. In the last three years, theyve continued to grow their business with new product releases and enhancements. Because of the unique business model, they can respond to customer demands and market changes quickly.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this years Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/.

About Newline

Headquartered in Allen, Texas, Newline Interactive is a leading supplier of interactive touch screens and innovative software that increases productivity and enables collaboration. Newline Interactive develops products that help organizations in a wide range of vertical markets including financial services, education, healthcare, law enforcement, manufacturing, municipalities, and legal services.
Health Affairs Health Equity Project has selected its advisory board. Its members are:



Donald Warne, MD, MPH | University of North Dakota

Spero M. Manson, PhD | Colorado School of Public Health

Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD | Morehouse School of Medicine

Jose F. Figueroa, MD, MPH | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH | American Medical Association

Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, PhD, MPA-URP | Brandeis University

Paula Braveman, MD, MPH | University of California San Francisco

Michelle Ko, MD, PhD | University of California Davis

Ernest Moy, MD, MPH | Veterans Health Administration

Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD, MS | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

We are honored to have such a distinguished group help guide our efforts to address racism and promote equity at Health Affairs and in scholarly publishing more broadly,  said Health Affairs Editor-In-Chief Alan Weil.

The purpose of the Project is to address racism and promote equity in scholarly publishing. Health Affairs will accomplish this with programming to value and increase the quality and quantity of studies authored by members of racial and ethnic groups previously underrepresented in our journal.

These ideas were detailed by Alan Weil in a Health Affairs Blog published January 26. To implement the program, Vabren Watts, PhD, was appointed as Health Affairs equity project director. Watts published a companion blog the same day as Weils.

Health Affairs health equity project is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Colorado Health Foundation. Updates to the project and to Health Affairs health equity content can be found on its health equity webpage.

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ABOUT HEALTH AFFAIRS:

Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.

Visit Health Affairs COVID-19 resource center for peer-reviewed articles published within two weeks of submission, as well as Health Affairs Blogs COVID-19 content.

Health Affairs podcasts go beyond the journals pages to bring you insightful discussions on the latest news and research affecting health policy. On our flagship podcast, A Health Podyssey, Editor-In-Chief Alan Weil interviews the leading researchers and influencers shaping the fields big ideas. Join Health Affairs editors on Health Affairs This Week as they discuss the weeks most pressing health policy news. All in 15 minutes or less.

Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.
Inc. magazine today revealed that Fisch Solutions is No. 4,458 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

Our goal at Fisch since day one was to build a unique IT company that set trends and most importantly create products and services that help our clients, particularly in public safety, says President and Founder Jason Fisch.

Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but this years list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020s unprecedented challenges. Among the 5,000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 20.

The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled, says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis weve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.

More about Fisch Solutions

Fisch Solutions was started by Jason Fisch at the young age of 15 as a tech company that serves clients of all industries for all their tech needs in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut region. Most notably the company niched into public safety and partnered on the technology that links 911 centers with first responders. Additionally the company works with one of the largest tech companies in the country to deploy and develop solutions for that organization. From its work, Fisch has earned being a Goldman Sach's 10,000 Small Business and is now on the INC5000 list. Now in business for over 20 years and with a staff over 20 people, the company has grown substantially.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000

Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this years Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/.
Recognizing that consumers want flexible services wherever they are in their home lending journey, a number of lenders are enhancing their applications  enabling consumers to not only make an informed choice but immediately understand the cost implications, said Beth Robertson, managing director.

Keynova Group, the leading competitive intelligence source for digital financial services, today announced the results of its 2021 Mortgage-Home Equity Scorecard, a consumer experience benchmark evaluating the top 12 mortgage and home equity lenders in the U.S. market. Bank of America and PNC tied for first place in this annual Scorecard, which assesses the digital channels of bank and non-bank lenders used by consumers to evaluate and apply for a mortgage, refinancing, or home equity financing. Both banks lead the market in their evolution of digital home loan offerings in response to the current housing market boom and risk-associated home equity lending pivots.

The 2021 Mortgage-Home Equity Scorecard reveals key industry trends, including a shift among lenders to deliver an all-in-one home lending experience. This encompasses property search through closing with expanded support for home search; enhanced educational content; integrated rate, point, and closing cost details; and expanded e-signature options for application submission and loan closing. Additionally, several lenders are augmenting the digital tools and information surrounding home equity offerings in the face of home equity lending suspensions by three major banks.

Recognizing that consumers want to be met with flexible services wherever they are in their mortgage or home equity lending journey, a number of lenders are enhancing their applications  enabling consumers to not only make an informed choice but immediately understand the cost implications of a particular loan option, said Beth Robertson, managing director, Keynova Group. Were also seeing expansion in lenders responding to consumer demand for home loan closings using e-sign options, driving more rapid and flexible closing processes during and beyond the pandemic.

Key Findings:

Holistic Approach to Lending Accelerates and Simplifies Complex Loan Process

Many lenders are now taking a more holistic approach to the home lending journey, helping consumers better navigate this complex process. Chase, Citi, PNC, and Rocket Mortgage are supporting a more end-to-end home shopping experience, adding tools and services that help consumers establish a budget, view properties, and access real estate professionals. Nine of the 12 lenders reviewed in the Scorecard have added new educational content, calculators, and enhanced digital rate quoting, providing more comprehensive information to home loan shoppers.

Digital Home Equity Offerings Improve Amidst Home Equity Lending Suspensions

Given ongoing and more recent suspensions of home equity lending by several providers, the lenders that have continued offering home equity options are experiencing high demand resulting in enhanced digital applications, content and processes. Citizens, PNC and U.S. Bank have added new elements to improve the digital application for home equity. Citizens and U.S. Bank have joined Bank of America in supporting e-signature for home equity closings, and customers of U.S. Bank and Citizens can view complete home equity closing documents online. PNC is among banks that presents home equity along with alternatives such as cash-out refinancing, personal loans or credit cards to help prospects select the option best suited to their needs.

Keynova Groups annual Mortgage-Home Equity Scorecard, syndicated since 2005, reviews the digital capabilities and user experience at 12 of the top bank and non-bank lenders in the U.S. market. Evaluating more than 300 detailed and weighted factors affecting digital mortgage and home equity loan originations, this benchmark assesses online and mobile options for consumers to prequalify, obtain preapproval, or to apply for a mortgage or home equity loan or line of credit; to obtain information about loan options, rates, and relevant closing costs; to access tools such as third-party databases or loan application status options; and to use support options including virtual or in-person assistance.

For more information about the Keynova Group 2021 Mortgage-Home Equity Scorecard, please visit https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#credit-cards-and-lending.

About Keynova Group

Keynova Group is the leading competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending, and insurance. Formerly known as Keynote, Keynova Groups Scorecards have served as the go-to source for prominent financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights since 1999. Keynovas proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.
LAUNCH has been part of our success story for years, as they are one of the top employers who hire our graduates and put them to work at Airlines, manufacturers, and MROs, said Joel English, Executive Vice President.

LAUNCH Technical Workforce Solutions, LLC announced today they have formed a strategic partnership with Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM). The partnership establishes the guidelines for the two to collaborate on several initiatives, with the goal of better preparing graduates for careers within the aviation industry.

Through their nationwide network of campuses, Aviation Institute of Maintenance has become well-known for providing high quality, hands-on training to students through their aviation maintenance programs for over four decades. AIM operates 14 campuses around the United States, where over 4,000 students are studying to become certified aircraft techniciansover 20% of all aircraft maintenance students in America. LAUNCH has been part of our success story for years, as they are one of the top employers who hire our graduates and put them to work at Airlines, manufacturers, and MROs, said Joel English, Executive Vice President. By strategically coordinating our efforts, we will be able to create new programs to serve the aerospace industry, send graduates to work, and keep airlines flying. With the high demand for skilled technicians found in many industries, AIM has added programs in manufacturing, welding, energy and other industries to its program offerings.

The partnership furthers LAUNCHs efforts towards finding innovative solutions for alleviating the severe aircraft technician shortage the industry is facing. Together, LAUNCH and AIM will develop programs to provide on the job training options for new graduates, supplemental courses for those wishing to further their skills and specific curricula for military service members who are transitioning into civilian employment.

LAUNCH President of Services & Chief Strategic Officer, Michael Lorenzini, commented, Our partnership with AIM is really an exciting initiative for LAUNCH, our clients and employees. This alliance allows for new and innovative approaches to solve many of the challenges facing our industry. Our collective commitment in investing and developing the future is representative of our transformational and entrepreneurial drive as an industry leader.

About LAUNCH

LAUNCH is the premier source for technical workforce solutions and is transforming how aviation, industrial manufacturing, distribution and ground transportation companies achieve business success. More than just providing labor solutions, LAUNCH discovers and responds to the unique needs of each of our clients and contractors. As the worlds largest workforce solution for the aviation industry, no other company can match LAUNCHs customer-driven and technologically advanced systems, our steadfast professionalism, and our deep commitment to both our clients and our contractors. We lead. We partner. We care.

We are LAUNCH, supporting teams and clients in 400+ locations worldwide.

To learn more about LAUNCH, visit http://www.launchtws.com.

About Aviation Institute of Maintenance

Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) is a network of aviation maintenance schools with campuses coast-to-coast in the United States and headquarters in Virginia Beach, Va. AIM students are trained to meet the increasing global demand of commercial, cargo, corporate and private aviation employers. AIM graduates are eligible to take the Federal Aviation Administration exams necessary to obtain their mechanics certificate with ratings in both Airframe and Powerplant. AIMs campuses are in the following major metro areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, San Francisco Bay, Orlando, and Norfolk. Learn more at http://www.AviationMaintenance.edu or like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AIM.edu.

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MarketBeat is a financial media company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. MarketBeats mission is to empower individual investors to make better trading decisions by providing real-time financial in MarketBeat continues to perform well as more self-directed investors enter the market looking for trusted resources to evaluate stocks and other investments.

Inc. Magazine has ranked MarketBeat No. 1504 on its 40th annual Inc. 5000 list, an elite ranking of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States. This honor marks the sixth consecutive year that MarketBeat has been included on the Inc. 5000 list. The list is a celebration of the lifeblood of the American economy  Americas independent entrepreneurs.

Inc. 5000 rankings are based on three-year revenue growth, measuring the percentage of growth between 2017 and 2020. Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, MarketBeat had three-year revenue growth of 314%, making it the fifth fastest-growing company in South Dakota in 2021.

MarketBeat surpassed its 2020 top-line revenue of $14 million in Q2 of this year and the company is on track to exceed its 2021 revenue goal of $20 million, said Marketbeat Founder and CEO Matt Paulson.

MarketBeat continues to perform well as more self-directed investors enter the market looking for trusted resources to evaluate stocks and other investments, Paulson said. We are aggressively reinvesting in our companys original reporting, research tools, and communication platforms to best serve the needs of the modern individual investor.

Along with the increased market volatility created by the pandemic, the need for timely and objective stock information has also increased. To continue to meet that need, MarketBeat has added seven new positions since the onset of COVID-19.

Growing our team will allow us to develop new best-in-class research tools based on proprietary data sets that you cant find anywhere else, Paulson said. It will also allow us to offer unparalleled customer service to our 15,000 paid subscribers and 2.4 million email subscribers.

This year MarketBeat joins SAB Biotherapeutics, Roodle, and seven other South Dakota companies that collectively earned $283.8 million in total revenue with median growth of 239% and accounted for 330 jobs added to the states economy.

The 2021 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2017 to 2020. Companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017 to qualify. They also must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2019. The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at inc.com.

About MarketBeat

MarketBeat is a financial media company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. MarketBeats mission is to empower individual investors to make better trading decisions by providing real-time financial information and objective market research. More than 2.4 million investors receive MarketBeats flagship newsletter, MarketBeat Daily Ratings. MarketBeat also publishes a network of financial news websites, including insidertrades.com and pricetargets.com, which garner more than 20 million pageviews each month, a suite of web-based investment research software called MarketBeat All Access, and a mobile stock research app on iOS and Android. For more information, visit marketbeat.com.

About Inc.

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, Inc. is the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies, with the aim to deliver real solutions for todays innovative company builders. Inc. took home the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in both 2014 and 2012. The total monthly audience reach for the brand has been growing significantly, from 2,000,000 in 2010 to more than 20,000,000 today. For more information, visit inc.com.
Kim Guadagno is named Executive Director of Mercy Center. As the new Executive Director of Mercy Center, I will work diligently to build on the great work of the Sisters of Mercy, and Sister Carol specifically, in order to bring a voice to our neighbors in need, said Kim Guadagno.

Mercy Centers next chapter is about to begin. The nonprofit organization, founded by the Sisters of Mercy, has announced that Kim Guadagno will serve as its new Executive Director effective August 18, 2021. Guadagno succeeds Sister Carol Ann Henry who retired this summer from her role as Executive Director after 39 years of service to Asbury Park.

Our search for a new Executive Director allowed us to consider a number of excellent candidates from many walks of life and, after careful consideration, we are so pleased to welcome Kim Guadagno into this critical role, said Mary Beth Radke, Chair of Mercy Centers Board of Trustees. Guadagno is passionate about our vision and will help to ensure that Mercy Center continues to grow and serve the greater Asbury Park community for many more years to come.

As the new Executive Director of Mercy Center, I will work diligently to build on the great work of the Sisters of Mercy, and Sister Carol specifically, in order to bring a voice to our neighbors in need, said Guadagno. In all my endeavors, I promise to support Mercy Centers mission to empower, enrich and educate people facing socio-economic challenges to realize their full potential, with a special emphasis on women and children.

To accomplish its mission, Mercy Center offers the following programs:



Emergency Services  distributes food, clothing and utilities assistance to help sustain families facing financial difficulties;

The Family Resource Center (FRC)  a one-stop-shop for resources, referrals, advocacy, counseling and behavior modification services available to families so they can maintain healthier lives and relationships;

Sisters Academy of New Jersey (SANJ)  a middle school for girls from economically challenged families providing an education of excellence, life skills and the necessary tools so they become confident, self-sufficient and successful in competitive high schools.

By addressing the needs of the entire family and providing a quality education to women at a very young age, Mercy Center truly attacks the very root of systemic poverty in our community, said Guadagno. Moving forward, as the State still suffers from the pandemic, I will strive to ensure that those hardest hit in Asbury Park and surrounding areas are not forgotten and that they get the resources they need to build back stronger than ever before.

Guadagno continues to say, Mercy Center is unique in that it holistically addresses the circumstances and needs of the individual through its various wrap-around services and program offerings. Additionally, through its strategic community collaborations, it can also offer access to other partner agencies that address the issues that contribute to family issues/hardships. These are just a few of the many reasons why I am so incredibly excited to move forward as Executive Director and grow the wonderful vision that was started by Sister Carol Ann Henry 39 years ago.

Guadagno has been a Monmouth County resident for over 30 years. In that time, she has raised her family in Monmouth County, been a town commissioner, the first female Monmouth County Sheriff, the states first Lieutenant Governor and New Jerseys 33rd Secretary of State. Most recently, Guadagno served as the President and CEO of Fulfill, formerly the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, and is a current partner at Connell Foley, LLP. Her background touches every aspect of Mercy Centers mission, from raising and supporting a family and working with non-profits, to involvement with local schools and supporting women entrepreneurs and the faith-based and business communities.

About Mercy Center

Mercy Center, founded by the Sisters of Mercy, provides programs and services that empower, enrich and educate people facing socio-economic challenges to realize their full potential, with a special emphasis on women and children. To learn more or to support Mercy Center, visit http://www.mercycenternj.org. Be sure to follow Mercy Center on Facebook @MercyCenterAP and Instagram @MercyCenterNJ.
Meridian Clinical Research opens new site in Charleston, SC. Our partnership will bring more research opportunities to Charleston and give area residents new ways to contribute to the advancement of life-changing therapies. Nicole Osborn, Founder and CEO of Meridian

Meridian Clinical Research, a leading multi-specialty investigative research network, has opened a new site in Charleston, SC. Meridian is partnering with Neighbors Pediatrics, an organization providing quality medical care to children of all ages. The research site is located at 1871 Savage Rd., Charleston, SC 29407.

Todd R. Vasko, MD, Philip J. McGaha, MD, and John Jay A. Traynham, MD, will serve as principal investigators to conduct clinical trials related to pediatrics, including vaccine studies. Each is board certified in pediatrics and have been practicing medicine for over 20 years. All three physicians have received a 5-Star Award for outstanding patient satisfaction. The awards were based on patient feedback gathered by a national independent research firm.

Nicole Osborn, Founder and CEO of Meridian, said the companys expansion into the Lowcountry is a result of progress the company has achieved in nearby Savannah. The physicians at Neighbors Pediatric are highly regarded in the community, and their level of experience and connection with patients are vital for overseeing pediatric clinical trials, said Osborn. Our partnership will bring more research opportunities to Charleston and give area residents new ways to contribute to the advancement of life-changing therapies.

We have always focused on improving the health of Charlestons children, said Dr. McGaha. We look forward to expanding our practices capabilities through clinical research, and to support the development of new medicines and treatments that could improve the lives of children everywhere.

The site will be Meridians first in South Carolina, and follows the companys recent opening of a family practice site in Portsmouth, VA, and its acquisition of Sterling Research Group in Cincinnati, OH. Meridian was founded in Omaha in 1999, and has enrolled more than 80,000 participants into clinical trials across 29 sites.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Meridian has enrolled more than 8,000 people into COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, including research programs for vaccines that have been granted Emergency Use Authorization. The company continues to conduct clinical trials  including pediatric vaccine studies  to address COVID-19 and other viruses and diseases that disproportionately affect children and infants, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and pneumococcal disease.

If youre interested in joining a clinical trial at Meridian, visit mcrmed.com/find-study. For more information about careers at Meridian and current openings in Charleston, visit mcrmed.com/careers.

ABOUT MERIDIAN CLINICAL RESEARCH

Meridian Clinical Research partners with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to research new drugs, medical devices, and diagnostics that could improve human health and wellbeing. Founded in 1999, Meridian is a multi-specialty site network headquartered at its dedicated research center in Omaha, NE, and conducts Phase 1-4 studies at investigative sites nationwide. Meridian supports research across numerous therapeutic areas and excels in high-volume vaccine trials. For more information, visit mcrmed.com.
If youre a manufacturer, you cannot afford long lead times. Its as simple as that, says Hiten Shah, founder and president of MES. Manufacturers, especially those with critical applications, need a strong solution and quicker lead times to beat the competition.

We need to shorten lead times without sacrificing quality. We cant get high-quality parts domestically, so production is at a virtual standstill. Extended or even average leads times just arent good enough to keep us ahead of our competitors.

Nobody likes waiting. Yet, for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, waiting for parts has, unfortunately and far too often, become business as usual. At best, waiting for parts can be frustrating. At worst, waiting for parts is catastrophically costly.

Now, the wait is over.

MES, Inc. today announced the acquisition of U.S.-based CNC machining manufacturer Versatech, LLC, expanding the companys Last Mile manufacturing and Last Mile Machining solutions to provide OEM, Tier 1, and Tier 2 customers with even faster lead times.

If youre a manufacturer, you cannot afford long lead times. Its as simple as that, says Hiten Shah, founder and president of MES. Manufacturers, especially those with critical applications, need a strong solution and quicker lead times to beat the competition. So, we developed a strategy to drastically reduce so-called industry-standard lead times by adding more in-house machining capabilities, which aligns perfectly with what Versatech was already doing in their CNC machine shop with a top-notch team of operators and engineers.

The acquisition of Versatech expands MES already robust CNC machining capabilities by 30 machines, including vertical and horizon milling machines, lathes, and single-, dual-, and multi-head machines. The acquisition also enhances MES ability to deliver smooth, timely, seamless low- and high-volume parts production and transfer tooling, while keeping with MES high quality standards by employing the risk mitigation methodology known as PPAP (Production Part Approval Process).

The Versatech machine shop will consolidate under Metrics Works name, and continue production from its Effingham, Illinois location with its full complement of employees. MES is planning to convert Effingham factory as a smart factory with latest technology in equipment, quick tooling, flexible cells, preventative maintenance, Yield monitoring software and machine displays.

About MES

MES is a pioneering global manufacturer and supply chain management leader dedicated to finding the best manufacturing sources for its OEM, Tier 1, and Tier 2 customers. Through its expansive network of overseas, ISO-certified suppliers, MES provides best-in-class manufacturing, finishing, assembly, JIT delivery, and warehouse services to customers in the transportation, e-mobility, construction, agriculture, electrical, and power industries. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, MES also has offices in India (Mumbai), China (Ningbo and Shenzhen), Poland, and Mexico.

Metrics Works is a collection of factories close to its customers in US and Mexico. It offers Just-In-Time manufacturing and shipping to its OEM and Tier 1 customers using latest equipment and strong technical teams.
Cincinnati Recipient Award Badge Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review and evaluate insurance brokers, is pleased to announce the Cincinnati-based recipients of its inaugural Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for 2021. Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Award Program evaluates brokers based on industry experience, company size, online ratings and reviews and recognizes esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers and peers.

Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier, said Brian Freeman of Mployer Advisor. We are proud to honor this distinct group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience and positive employer feedback on service and quality. For too long, the industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships to select insurance advisors. With Mployer Advisor, we now celebrate this distinguished group of consultants who work tirelessly to keep costs low and support employers during one of the most impactful decisions they have to make as a company.

The Cincinnati, OH market is one of the most competitive job markets in the U.S Midwest, employing over 1.4 million people with a slightly lower unemployment rate than the rest of the country. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for Cincinnati employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The Cincinnati-based recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards are as follows:



AssuredPartners

Houchens Insurance Group

Cornerstone Broker Insurance Services Agency

Lang Financial Group

Gallagher Insurance, Risk Management & Consulting

Legacy Innovative Benefits Solutions, LLC.

Hauser Insurance

Se7en Strategies

HORAN

The above winners are a brief snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 30, 2021. To determine award winners, Mployer Advisor analyzed each brokerage based on historical data, business experience across employer size, industry and products, as well as relevant online ratings and reviews from employers across several platforms.

To view a full list of consultants in the Cincinnati area, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Since Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Jacob Westfall (Public Relations Consultant)

Jacob.Westfall@mployeradvisor.com
Indianapolis Recipients Award Badge With Mployer Advisor, we now celebrate this distinguished group of consultants who work tirelessly to keep costs low and support employers during one of the most impactful decisions they have to make as a company.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review and evaluate insurance brokers, is pleased to announce the Indianapolis-based recipients of its inaugural Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards for 2021. Mployer Advisors Top Employee Benefits Consultant Award Program evaluates brokers based on industry experience, company size, online ratings and reviews and recognizes esteemed brokers that demonstrate market-leading competencies and a proven track record of success among employers, insurance providers and peers.

Who an employer chooses as their insurance broker has significantly more impact on the cost and quality of their benefit plan than who they chose as their insurance carrier, said Brian Freeman, CEO of Mployer Advisor. We are proud to honor this distinct group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience and positive employer feedback on service and quality. For too long, the industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships to select insurance advisors. With Mployer Advisor, we now celebrate this distinguished group of consultants who work tirelessly to keep costs low and support employers during one of the most impactful decisions they have to make as a company.

The Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN market is one of the most competitive job markets in the U.S. Midwest, employing 1.5 million people with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for Indianapolis employers. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The Indianapolis-based recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards are as follows:



AssuredPartners

Hylant Group, Inc.

Gallagher Insurance, Risk Management & Consulting

McGriff Insurance Services

Gregory & Appel Insurance

Shepherd Insurance

The above winners are a brief snapshot of Mployer Advisors matrices and proprietary M Score on June 30, 2021. To determine award winners, Mployer Advisor analyzed each brokerage based on historical data, business experience across employer size, industry and products, as well as relevant online ratings and reviews from employers across several platforms.

To view a full list of Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson consultants, visit MployerAdvisor.com.

About Mployer Advisor:

Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate and select insurance advisors. The intuitive platform connects employers and employees to great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for a companys specific needs. Most brokerages have a profile on Mployer Advisor, which provides independent ratings of insurance advisors to support employers. Insurance brokers cannot pay to influence their Mployer Advisor rating. Only highly rated brokerages are allowed to advertise on the platform. To learn more about Mployer Advisor, visit https://mployeradvisor.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: Rankings are dynamic, and this report may not reflect the rankings currently listed on Mployer Advisors website. Since Mployer Advisors research is ongoing, interested companies that want to join next years list are encouraged to claim their free profile on Mployer Advisor.

Media Contact:

Jacob Westfall (Public Relations Consultant)

Jacob.Westfall@mployeradvisor.com
VADM Buck has most recently served as commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, leading naval missions in South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

The United States Navy Memorial is proud to welcome Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Admiral Sean Buck to be the next guest of the SITREP speaker series. VADM Buck will join a long line of prestigious guests, including CNO Michael Gilday, MCPON Russ Smith, and previous Secretary of the Navy Ken Braithwaite. The SITREP Speaker series has provided a platform for flag officers of Navy command to give their personal opinions on the current status of Navy operations and the future of sea service operations. The video series has also given the American public an opportunity to have their personal questions answered by these officers.

Vice Admiral Sean Buck has served in a variety of positions before becoming the 63rd Superintendent of the Naval Academy. A flag officer awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and more, VADM Buck has had a storied and distinguished career. VADM Buck has most recently served as commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, leading naval missions in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. A career Naval Flight Officer flying the P-3C Orion, Admiral Buck has also served as commander of Patrol and Reconnaissance Force with U.S. 5th and 7th Fleets, Fleet Air Forward, Patrol and Reconnaissance Group; chief of staff, Strategy, Plans and Policy (J5), the Joint Staff; and the Director, 21st Century Sailor Office, where he led the Navy's programs on sexual assault prevention and response, suicide prevention, alcohol abuse, and other destructive behaviors.

The U.S. Navy Memorial continues to offer digital offerings for all to enjoy free of charge, both in-person and online. In a continued effort to inform the Navy community during COVID, the Memorial has been further developing programs that can be witnessed from the safety of ones own home. In addition to the digital programs, the Memorial will soon be unveiling new programs, the 2021 Lone Sailor Awards Program honoring Drew Carey and Senate Chaplain Barry Black, a renovated plaque wall in honor of late philanthropist Jack London, and offering movies and concerts at Navy Memorial Plaza for all to see. To learn more about these amazing programs, go to NavyMemorial.org.

The US Navy Memorial is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to Honor, Recognize and Celebrate the men and women of the Sea Services, past, present and future, and to Inform the public about their service. For more information about the Memorial and its mission, please visit our website at http://www.navymemorial.org.
Ms. Shavette L. Turner, VP Childrens Vision Services at Prevent Blindness Georgia (PBGA), named recipient of 7th Annual Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award from the NCCVEH. Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness, added, The work that Shavette Turner has done, and continues to do, to provide children with the bright and healthy future they deserve through access to quality eyecare, is truly inspiring."

The National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) has announced the recipient of the seventh annual Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award as Ms. Shavette L. Turner, Vice President, Childrens Vision Services at Prevent Blindness Georgia (PBGA), in recognition of her leadership and expansion of the Childrens Vision Services of Prevent Blindness Georgia program. The award will be formally presented at the NCCVEH Annual Meeting, to be held virtually, on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021.

The highest honor that the NCCVEH bestows, the Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award recognizes significant efforts by an individual or group of individuals to improve public health approaches for childrens vision and eye health at the state or national level. The award was established in 2014 by the Advisory Committee of the National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness to commemorate Bonnie Strickland and her groundbreaking work to establish a comprehensive system for childrens vision in the U.S. She served as Director of the Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, before her retirement in 2014.

Ms. Turner has been named as the 2021 Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award recipient for her unique approach to helping disadvantaged and underserved youth across Georgia access vision and eye care, with emphasis in Hall County where there is a significantly large Latinx population who experience barriers to eye care. She observed the significantly high rate of children who did not pass a certified vision screening (23 percent) in Hall County, compared with the state average of 8  10 percent. She also observed that many children were not receiving the follow-up care they needed when she returned for screening the next year and some childrens vision had deteriorated.

Shavette Turner began to advocate for us to put even more efforts to complete the circle of care of childrento not be content to vision screen and refer, but to work even harder to help provide access to follow-up eye exams for the children who do not pass vision screenings and to provide eyeglasses for those who needed them, said Jill Thornton, President and CEO of PBGA.

Turner employed a variety of methods to break through the many barriers to eyecare  coordinating the assistance of more than 200 volunteers. She leveraged resources from Prevent Blindness, as well as the local eye care community, Univision, United Healthcare and National Vision, Inc. to provide services for a vulnerable group of immigrant children who were not receiving needed eye care services.

Turner and her team of volunteers provided vision screenings to every elementary school child in the county school system  9,005 children in 20 elementary schools from kindergarten through 5th grades. For the 1,665 who did not pass the vision screening, all were invited for free comprehensive eye exams and were eligible to receive free prescription eyeglasses, if needed. Eye examinations were provided during Saturday clinics thanks to the donation of time and talent from pediatric ophthalmologists and optometrists and Spanish-language translators. Additionally, Turner secured in-kind donations of equipment, eye drops, and fabrication of prescription eyeglasses. As a result, 93 children were identified as having Amblyopia and almost 300 students are starting the school year in brand new glasses thanks to Turners efforts.

The children of Hall County hold a special place in my heart. I know that every school day, these children face language barriers and sit for special placement testing as a result. Not being vision ready to learn was something I knew we could do something about, said Turner. Our vision provider partners came through for us in a major way, and were grateful.

Past recipients of the Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award include Logan Newman, founder of the East High School Vision Care Program; Anne L. Coleman, MD, MPH, UCLA Stein Eye Institute; the Vision in Preschoolers (VIP) Study Group; Richard Bunner, retired from the Ohio Department of Health; Sean P. Donahue, MD, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Vanderbilt University; the Illinois Eye Institute (IEI) at Princeton Vision Clinic; and the Pediatric Physicians Organization at Childrens (PPOC).

Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness, added, The work that Shavette Turner has done, and continues to do, to provide children with the bright and healthy future they deserve through access to quality eyecare, is truly inspiring. We look forward to working with her and her team to learn her best practices so we can expand those to childrens vision programs across the country.

For more information on the 2021 Bonnie Strickland Champion for Childrens Vision Award, Prevent Blindness or the NCCVEH, please visit nationalcenter.preventblindness.org or contact Donna Fishman at (800) 331-2020 or dfishman@preventblindness.org.

About the National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening and training, community and patient service programs and research. In 2009, Prevent Blindness established the National Center for Childrens Vision and Eye Health, with funding and leadership support from the HRSA- Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Serving as a major resource for the establishment of a public health infrastructure, the National Center advances and promotes childrens vision and eye care, providing leadership and training to public entities throughout the United States. The National Center is advised by a committee of national experts and leaders from the fields of ophthalmology, optometry, pediatrics, nursing, family advocates and public health to guide the work and recommendations of the Center. For more information, or to make a contribution to the sight-saving fund, call (800) 331-2020. Or, visit us on the Web at http://nationalcenter.preventblindness.org or http://www.facebook.com/preventblindness.

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Scan Dimension SOL PRO Following the success of our entry-level SOL 3D scanner, we saw an opportunity to grow our scanner line with a professional-grade solution that delivers results like no other in its class.

SOL PRO, a professional-grade 3D scanner from Scan Dimension, is one of the most accurate desktop scanners in its class for quality assurance, product inspection, prototyping, and 3D printing tasks. The SOL PRO 3D scanner enters the market at a fraction of the cost of comparable solutions and exceeds standards for high-quality 3D scans.

The easy-to-use SOL PRO automates the entire 3D scanning process of calibration, scanning, and meshing, delivering an impressively high accuracy of up to 0.05 mm. SOL PRO utilizes a combination of laser triangulation and white-light technology to achieve effortless, high-quality results.

View 3D texture, X-ray, and wireframe-rendered scans directly in the included software, or export the files for use with third-party 3D software. Integration with Sketchfab, an online resource to publish and source 3D models, makes it easy to share 3D files with collaborators.

Following the success of our entry-level SOL 3D scanner, we saw an opportunity to grow our scanner line with a professional-grade solution that delivers results like no other in its class, comments Jacob Bendix, VP of Sales and marketing, Global Scanning.

Array of 3D applications

SOL PRO is an ideal 3D scanner for engineers and QA professionals, who can use 3D scanned objects to ensure exact copies of an original. SOL PRO 3D scanned objects can also be used for 3D printing or product inspection to ensure that manufactured parts comply with industry tolerance standards. For reverse engineering, users can scan replacement or discontinued parts when original drawings are unavailable.

Ready to scan in 3D

SOL PRO scans objects up to 170 mm in height  170 mm in diameter (6.76.7 in), with a minimum object size of 2020 mm (0.80.8 in) and maximum weight of 2 kg (4.4 lbs). SOL PRO scans objects in as little as eight minutes in Turbo scanning mode.

SOL PRO 3D retails for $1,899.

For more information on where to buy or how to become a Scan Dimension distributor, please contact us at contact@scandimension.com.

About Scan Dimension

Scan Dimension is a trusted source for 3D scanning technology. SOL is the companys flagship product and the markets most user-friendly 3D scanner. Scan Dimension is a division of Global Scanning A/S, a Denmark-based market leader with more than 30 years of experience in imaging technologies that boasts such top brands as Contex and Colortrac.
In 2021, Pure Oasis co-owners, Kobie Evans and Kevin Hart, are taking a major step forward in the name of their business and the black community they represent. Bostons first recreational cannabis dispensary has officially secured a Host Community Agreement (HCA) that will allow them to open a cultivation facility.

The HCA lays out all of the necessary terms for Pure Oasis to move forward with its plans to operate a comprehensive cultivation facility as they work to expand their venture and produce quality products independently.

The HCA validates goals that Evans and Hart first entertained when they received provisional approval to open Pure Oasis in 2018. That provisional approval was sought under the terms of the states social equity program. Their efforts are paying off three years later.

What Approval Means for Pure Oasis

Securing the HCA for a cultivation facility forwards the mission of Pure Oasis to be a community leader and innovator. The company is already recognized as a force for good within an underserved community. Its retail efforts provide quality products and jobs in an area where many people might otherwise go without.

Now, Pure Oasis will also officially be the first black-owned social equity company across Massachusetts, and in the nation, to operate a cannabis retail, cultivation, and manufacturing facility.

This accomplishment is being met with praise from the minority-owned business community nationwide.

Navigating a Difficult Cannabis Market for Minority-Owned Companies

Becoming a vertically integrated cannabis company hasnt come easily to the owners of Pure Oasis. The social equity program the company was launched under is designed to help minority-owned companies to gain traction in the marketplace. Unfortunately, reality often varies drastically from design.

In large cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, the program has been faced with numerous challenges. Impossible overhead requirements frequently become stumbling blocks for minority-owned businesses. The red tape involved in funding can push business development plans out by years at a time. In many states, licenses cant be assigned based on race within the social equity program due to the threat of lawsuits.

Still, Evans and Hart have persevered through the many obstacles placed in their path. A vision of economic equality and potential drove them through the painstaking process of securing the necessary HCA.

Their efforts are being rewarded in abundance this year. The progress that these two entrepreneurs have made represents significant growth for Pure Oasis. It also paves a path forward for other minority-owned companies that are working towards big goals in the greater Boston area and beyond.

About Pure Oasis

Pure Oasis is a local, black owned, socially conscious cannabis company in Boston that is committed to addressing the needs of underserved communities through activism.

Contact

info@mypureoasis.com

https://www.mypureoasis.com
Ken Rosenfeld, California Mental Health Attorney Im extremely pleased that the plea agreement terms have finally been met, said Rosenfeld. My client was facing life in prison; now he is going to essentially going to an outpatient non-locked facility.

A California man sentenced to time in a locked custodial facility and twice denied modification to that sentence despite the terms of his plea agreement has finally had his motion for sentence modification granted. Following Californias Sixth District Court of Appeals command in February to vacate its previous order denying Jacob Kirkendalls motion to be released into a step-down mental health facility and reconsider the motion, the Superior Court of Monterey County on August 10th agreed to the order allowing Kirkendalls sentence modification.

According to appellate court documents (case #H048206), the Monterey County Superior Court twice rejected Kirkendalls motion for sentence modification; twice, following the intervention of Kirkendalls lawyer, California mental health attorney Ken Rosenfeld, the appellate court issued writs of mandate requiring the trial court to revisit Kirkendalls request.

Im extremely pleased that the plea agreement terms have finally been met, said Rosenfeld. My client was facing life in prison; now he is essentially going to an outpatient non-locked facility.

Kirkendall was originally charged with attempted murder of a peace officer and assault with a deadly weapon, potentially leading to a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole. In February 2019, a plea agreement negotiated by Rosenfeld instead sent Kirkendall to the Alpine Special Treatment Center, a secure mental health facility in San Diego. The terms of Kirkendalls plea agreement specified that after at least a year in Alpine Kirkendall could, upon the recommendation of Alpine medical experts, be moved to a step-down facility. After a year and two months in Alpine, Kirkendall made his first request to be moved, a motion supported by a statement from the Alpine clinical director that Kirkendall had met several treatment goals and was recommended for continued treatment on an outpatient basis. In May of 2020 the superior court denied the motion, asserting that insufficient time had been served.

The court of appeals concurred with Rosenfeld and issued an alternative writ of mandate requiring the superior court to revisit the motion. When, after an October 2020 hearing, the Monterey County Superior Court refused Kirkendalls request a second time, the sixth appellate court, determining the decision again to be based on insufficient time served, remanded the case, issuing a peremptory writ of mandate and demanding the court revisit the request with a focus on the advice of Alpines medical experts and keeping in mind Kirkendalls Eighth Amendment rights regarding his lung condition. The August 10th agreement with the appellate courts order to release Kirkendall into a step-down facility overturns the previous ruling of Judge Pamela L. Butler.

About The Rosenfeld Law Firm

With offices in Sacramento and San Jose, The Rosenfeld Law Firm provides aggressive defense of a wide range of high-profile criminal defense cases. California criminal defense attorney Ken Rosenfeld defends such cases as first-degree murder and sex offense cases, and also provides DUI defense. In addition to mental health criminal defense, The Rosenfeld Law Firm also practices federal criminal defense and juvenile defense, as well as appellate law and prison law. As a skilled criminal law commentator, Rosenfeld makes regular appearances on KTXL TV and FOX40's Ask An Attorney. Rosenfeld was named 2020 Litigator of the Year by the American Institute of Trial Lawyers. For more information, please contact Ken Rosenfeld directly at (916) 447-2070, or visit http://www.therosenfeldlawfirm.com.

Press release writing by WebSiteText and Proofreading Services by The Proofreaders.


SIUE Library and Information Services' (L-R) Tammie Busch, MLS, Simone Williams, MLIS, Lora Del Rio, MSLIS, Elizabeth Kamper, MLIS, and Shelly McDavid, MLS. "Our project is a call to action in response to the serious lack of diverse representation in library and information science professions."

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville continues to excel in library and information science, gaining national funding for its innovative, collaborative programming. SIUEs Diverse Librarianship Career Training and Education Program has received $249,999 in funding as part of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) $22.7 million investment in U.S. library initiatives.

In collaboration with East St. Louis Senior High School, the Diverse Librarianship Career Training and Education Program is a two-year project that will develop a career training program that introduces 10 high school seniors to careers in librarianship. The first cohort of high school seniors is scheduled to begin this fall.

The project is led by Library and Information Services (LIS) staff, including principal investigator (PI) Tammie Busch, MLS, assistant professor and catalog and metadata librarian, and co-PIs: Lora Del Rio, MSLIS, associate professor, research and teaching coordinator, and humanities librarian; Elizabeth Kamper, MLIS, assistant professor and information literacy librarian; Shelly McDavid, MLS, assistant professor, access and library spaces coordinator, and STEM librarian; and Simone Williams, MLIS, assistant professor and diversity and engagement librarian.

An additional key staff member is Denice Adkins, PhD, MLS, professor at the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri, and co-editor of Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. Adkins will serve as project evaluator.

The project team, joined by staff at partner institutions including the East St. Louis Learning Resource Center, Edwardsville Public Library, St. Louis Public Library, Missouri Historical Society, and State Historical Society of Missouri, will recruit, mentor, educate and train students from diverse and underrepresented communities. This project will disseminate a toolkit for libraries and cultural institutions to support the recruitment, training and retention of diverse librarians.

I am grateful to be leading a team of brilliant, innovative librarians, shared Busch. The success of our proposal is due to our collaborative approach. We will recruit high school seniors through the East St. Louis School District 189 Career Technical Education (CTE) program, which is part of a national initiative to provide skills-based, hands-on training to high school students. These students will attend school for part of their day, then leave to go work on-site at libraries and cultural institutions.

I participated in Collinsville High Schools CTE program. While I didnt work in a library, the people I worked with mentored me and encouraged me to go to college. I hope our program will have a meaningful impact on the students we recruit, train and mentor.

While serving as a mentor, Busch will guide project goals and initiatives to develop a sustainable toolkit for promoting librarianship to underrepresented students.

Del Rio will use her expertise to assist with cohort recruiting, communications and marketing of the project, serve as a mentor to cohort students, and develop and disseminate the toolkit.

Kamper will use her expertise in adult education and librarianship to mentor students and build curriculum components for this project while utilizing her experience as an ALA student-to-staff participant to support the projects culminating experiences and conference attendance.

McDavid will be responsible for communication with the project evaluator, coordinating data collection and analysis, as well as serve as a mentor to cohort students and develop and disseminate a toolkit.

In addition to serving as a mentor, Williams will be responsible for communicating with community partners, creating and disseminating curriculum, and providing oversight of diversity, equity and inclusion goals.

Our project is a call to action in response to the serious lack of diverse representation in library and information science professions, explained Busch. IMLS identified this in its forum report, Positioning Library and Information Science Graduate Programs for 21st Century Practice. We are excited to be partnering with regional institutions and especially the East St. Louis School District 189 CTE Program. Our goal is to have a broad, lasting impact on diversity in the library profession.

The award process was competitive, as IMLS noted receiving 127 preliminary proposals before inviting 71 to submit full proposals. The Diverse Librarianship Career Training and Education Program is among 39 projects, totaling $10,465,420, awarded in The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program.

These grants and awards are examples of the many ways in which libraries and library workers collaborate across sectors, disciplines, and communities to foster a more inclusive and informed society, said Cyndee Landrum, deputy director of the IMLS Office of Library Services.

A full list of IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grants awarded in July 2021 is available here.

The SIUE Library and Information Services (LIS) consistently strives for new and inventive ways to deliver information to students, faculty and the community. LIS is home to Lovejoy Library, the heart of the University. The library provides SIUE faculty and students the information required for their academic pursuits that result in improving our communities. LIS faculty and staff nurture SIUE students scholarship with resources that support the collaboration and innovative thinking needed to succeed in the global marketplace.
Syncron + Mize Have Merged to Deliver the First Connected Service Experience Protecting end customer brand experience is of pivotal relevance for every manufacturer. Together we can help create higher margin businesses, and recurring revenue from subscription and outcome-based business models," said Dr. Friedrich Neumeyer, CEO, Syncron.

Syncron and Mize, Inc. today announced that Mize, Inc., a leader and innovator of Field Service Management (FSM) and Warranty Management (WCM) solutions, has merged with Syncron, a leader in Service Parts and Contracts Management including Inventory, Pricing, and IoT-based preventive repair monitoring solutions.

Both Syncron and Mize are well-recognized leaders within their respective cloud solution markets. The combined company will use the Syncron brand and establish a fast-growing innovator with a customer base of more than 200 of the most known and respected brands in the automotive, construction & agriculture equipment, industrial engineering, high-tech, med-tech, and consumer durables industries. With more than 700 employees by the end of 2021, based in 12 office locations in eight countries worldwide, the company will continue to invest significantly in innovation and expansion of its global coverage.

The Syncron Connected Service Experience (CSX) platform and Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) solutions enable the manufacturers to retain more customers, deliver services more cost-effectively, and generate higher-margin revenues from the install base.

"Product-related services have become the lifeline of manufacturers EBITDA and net margins. Protecting end customer brand experience is of pivotal relevance for every manufacturer. Together we can help create higher margin businesses, and recurring revenue from subscription and outcome-based business models," said Dr. Friedrich Neumeyer, CEO, Syncron.

As a part of this arrangement, Ashok Kartham, Founder and CEO of Mize, will join the Syncron executive management team as the companys Chief Product Officer overseeing all product and development for Syncron.

"Manufacturers today use disparate systems to manage their service and parts business leading to silos of data, disconnected processes, and lower profitability. The combination of Syncron and Mize for the first time brings the leading service and parts management platforms together to maximize value to the customers, said Kartham. With a unique ability to have one common real-time view on service parts, field service workforce, service histories, parts data, and pricing, we can provide a new level of value creation for our customers unmatched in the industry."

The deal is significant in that Mize and Syncron together can develop and deliver the first comprehensive, single platform portfolio of SaaS solutions to market that specifically addresses the complexities and profound opportunities possible in the aftermarket and services business. Syncron's capabilities in AI and ML will play a pivotal role to connect IoT-based failure prediction even better with planned service events based on optimal part availability. Manufacturers looking to enhance this vital part of their business will be able to address service profitability, optimize working capital, and enable business growth while also best approaching and developing innovative services for the world's new service economy.

"We have recognized Mize* and Syncron** both as a leader in several areas," said Aly Pinder, Lead Analyst of IDC. "We expect both companies to be able to further strengthen a joint position by creating customer innovations around fully integrated service lifecycle management processes proving value beyond individual products which I have been emphasizing for years."

Manufacturing is going through acceleration of digitization and business model disruption, said Leo Apotheker, Chairman of the Board, Syncron. Service experiences as a sustainable differentiator is at the top of every C-level agenda. Coupling the talent, expertise, and products of Syncron and Mize will empower the changes manufacturers need to compete effectively throughout this transition and best position themselves competitively.

Please visit syncron.com to learn more on how you can transform your service business to enhance service experience and drive higher profitability in a connected world.

For media inquiries, contact: Syncron Media, Syncron, +1 (404) 545-0561, media@syncron.com. For information on our joint solutions, please contact us at info@syncron.com.

Sources:

*IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Manufacturing Warranty and Service Contract Management Applications 20192020 Vendor Assessment (Doc # US44408619, December 2019)

**IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Manufacturing Service Parts Management Applications 2020 Vendor Assessment (Doc # US44801020, January 2020)

About Mize

Mize is a Service Lifecycle Management company that provides a SaaS solution for durable goods manufacturers and their value chain. The company provides a Connected Service Experience among OEMs and their end customers, dealer channels, service provider network, and suppliers, connecting and managing all service lifecycle interactions, extending across Warranty, Service Plans, Support, Service Delivery, Parts, and Returns. Mize solutions lead to reduced service delivery costs, optimized service experience, and maximized customer lifetime value. For additional information, visit m-ize.com.

About Syncron

Syncron empowers the world's leading manufacturers to maximize product uptime and deliver exceptional aftermarket service experiences while driving significant revenue and profit improvements. From industry-leading investments in research and development to providing the fastest time-to-value, Syncron's award-winning service parts inventory, price and uptime management solutions are designed to continually exceed customer expectations. Top brands from around the world trust Syncron, the largest privately-owned global provider of cloud-based aftermarket service solutions, to transform their service operations into competitive differentiators. For more information, visit syncron.com.
For many industries we see the Employee Retention Tax Credit program as the single biggest opportunity for employers to get the federal support they need in 2021."

In an effort to combat the ongoing economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis, the government is boosting its efforts to support businesses with more robust incentive programs - including expanding the value of the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) program. Today, Clarus, the leader in world-class technology that enables every business to unlock the full value of tax incentives for innovation and growth, is announcing it has already helped SMBs claim $50MM in ERTC support and is revealing advice to help more companies leverage the program this year.

A recent Clarus survey of 500 business decision makers shows nearly half (44 percent) of businesses haven't participated in any incentive programs beyond PPP because they dont know if their company qualifies. The ERTC, under the CARES Act, is a fully refundable payroll tax credit that allows eligible businesses to deduct up to 70 percent of up to $10,000 in qualified wages paid per employee per quarter for tax year 2021.

For many industries we see the Employee Retention Tax Credit program as the single biggest opportunity for employers to get the federal support they need in 2021, and while it has not been widely recognized to-date as such - we believe in many cases it is more significant than PPP was in 2020, said Brent Johnson, co-founder of Clarus. Clarus is focused on helping every small and midsize business take advantage of ERTC and it starts by driving awareness for it so that more companies can easily tap into it. Clarus ensures companies know they are eligible, while also streamlining the process so business owners can focus on growth and not paperwork.

Nearly four in 10 businesses say they manage incentive programs on their own. Almost all businesses (88 percent) say they would be more willing to use a solution to manage incentive programs if it was backed by accountants. As the leaders in cloud-based software created by tax and technology experts to streamline the process of claiming tax credits, Clarus is helping businesses better understand ERTC so they can continue rebounding and growing in the post-pandemic world.

What changed? The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 extended and enhanced both the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the ERTC program. Companies that received PPP loans may now also claim the ERTC. Congress also removed a restriction on dual support, so now employers can claim the PPP loan and an Employee Retention Tax Credit - including a look-back opportunity for businesses which meet the eligibility requirements of the ERTC in 2020.

Who is eligible? Companies qualify for the ERTC if they (1) had a decline in quarterly revenue, or (2) were fully or partially shut down due to governmental orders, or (3) began a new trade or business and previously had less than $1 million in average annual revenue.

What is it worth? For 2020, the ERTC is worth up to $5,000 per employee per year. In 2021, its now worth up to $7,000 per employee per quarter.

What Industries are impacted? Any industry which was negatively impacted by COVID-19 crisis. Especially significant are health-care, hospitality, restaurants and food-service, retailers, staffing, assisted living and even many not-for-profit organizations.

The required coordination with PPP loan forgiveness made it unclear whether we qualified for the ERTC, for what period of time we qualified, and whether claiming it would negatively impact our PPP loan forgiveness, said Travis Timmons, owner of Ohio-based physical therapy and wellness center Fitness Matters. Clarus not only identified our eligibility due to impact from COVID-19, but after talking with their experts, we discovered we were eligible for the ERTC and we were able to take advantage. Clarus has been invaluable in helping us claim our tax credits during this difficult time.

Clarus monitors more than 60 state and federal tax incentive programs and has helped companies secure more than $175MM in incentive dollars. To learn more and determine if your business is eligible for ERTC, visit http://www.clarusrd.com/ertc.

About Clarus

Clarus is the leader in world-class technology that enables every business to unlock the full value of tax incentives for innovation and growth. Founded by tax and technology experts, Clarus builds cloud-based software to deliver access, compliance, and clarity for federal and state programs. With Clarus, companies of all sizes can realize and optimize the power of government programs to materially impact their business. For more information, visit claruscredits.com.


Tranquilo Dental's home in San Fernando You invest so much into building your business  I couldnt run the risk of being at the mercy of a landlord. Five years down the road, if a landlord doubles your rent, you can't just get up and move, you might lose your patients. Owning the real estate gives you freedom and stability.

Dr. Nicole Mahanian of Tranquilo Dental worked for a variety of dental practices for several years. She loved her work, but something big was still missing  autonomy. Dr. Mahanian dreamed of having her own practice so she could always be sure of the highest standards of treatment and customer care. Owning the building was just as important to Dr. Mahanian as owning her own practice.

You invest so much into building your business  I couldnt run the risk of being at the mercy of a landlord," she explains. "Five years down the road, if a landlord doubles your rent, you can't just get up and move, you might lose your patients. Owning the real estate gives you freedom and stability.

With help from TMC Financing, Dr. Mahanian was able to buy a building to build her own practice  and only had to put 15 percent down.

TMC Financings SBA 504 Loan Program Put Independence in Reach for Tranquilo Dental

Dr. Mahanian realized that most conventional loans required large down payments and that was not feasible for her. With the SBA 504 Program, businesses can finance commercial real estate purchases or new construction with only 10 percent down payment. Businesses less than two years old, such as Tranquilo Dental, require 15 percent down.

TMC Financing's Southern California loan expert, Jennifer Davis, guided Dr. Mahanian through the SBA 504 process, making the process easy with her trademark responsiveness.

Jennifer was amazing, Dr. Mahanian states. She's so on top of it, she was always so responsive  I couldn't have asked for a better person on my team. She really makes you feel like you're the only person she's working with.

With Davis and the TMC Financing team helping every step along the way, it was obvious that the SBA 504 loan was the best option for Tranquilo Dental.

Davis recognized that Tranquilo Dental was a perfect fit for SBA 504 financing. Many dental and medical professionals dont realize that the SBA can help them as they establish their new practice, explains Davis. When qualifying them for financing to purchase a building, they take into account their industry experience. It was a pleasure to help Nicole get from her vision to reality.

About TMC Financing

TMC Financing is the no. 1 provider of SBA 504 commercial real estate loans in the Western Region of the U.S., helping small businesses expand throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona.

Founded in 1981, TMC Financing has funded projects worth more than $10 billion across California, Nevada, and Arizona. About 6,000 businesses have benefited from this financing, resulting in the creation of an estimated 60,000 jobs.
FiteBac Antimicrobial Cavity Cleanser FiteBac Technology can now treat humanity's number one disease: dental caries. - Kirk Kimmerling, DDS

The Marietta, GA-based biotech company, FiteBac, announced it will present its new antimicrobial technology at the International Dental Show, IDS 2021, from September 22-25 in Cologne, Germany. Global dental manufacturers will be able to license the technology as an antimicrobial additive, which is already present in multiple FDA-cleared dental devices, for a superior approach to dentistry with antimicrobial protection.

In 2020, FiteBac became the first company to release an FDA-cleared Antimicrobial Cavity Cleanser, containing the antimicrobial K21. Research, in addition to allowable FDA claims, shows FiteBac Antimicrobial Cavity Cleanser not only helps to remove debris in carious lesion preparations but also helps to reduce the presence of dentally relevant organisms within prepared tooth structure. It penetrates exposed dentin tubules, allowing restorative adhesives to tightly bind to the prepared dentin surface.

FiteBacs novel technology is the marriage of antimicrobial technology and material science, enabling manufacturers of modern materials to provide sustained, non-leaching antimicrobial protection across an expansive range of products.

The technology is present in multiple cleared dental products/devices, passing all rigorous FDA review processes, with built-in authority from academic research. This validates FiteBacs patented molecular technology and its performance as an additive for medical products/devices to provide durable antimicrobial traits.

Ive been practicing dentistry for almost 40 years and there has never been anything like what we have, said founder and president, Dr. Kirk Kimmerling. We have proven our technology and it is present in multiple materials and devices cleared by the FDA. By licensing our antimicrobial additives, we can help manufacturers upgrade existing products and create a healthier world in the process. FiteBac Technology can now treat humanitys number one disease: dental caries.

FiteBac now offers dental manufacturers the ability to create superior antimicrobial and biofilm-resistant products: dental composites, dentures, crowns, bonding agents/adhesives, sealants, cements, endodontic sealers, resin systems, 3D printed materials, implants, flexible silicone mouth guards, night guards, retainers, and mouth rinses.

During IDS 2021, FiteBac will be present to meet with global manufacturers and researchers to discuss partnerships to further the application of their revolutionary technology.

About:

FiteBac, based in Marietta, GA, is a private company dedicated to the research, development, and commercialization of innovative healthcare products incorporating FiteBac technology, a superior approach to antimicrobial protection. To learn more, please visit FiteBac.com.
We are ready now to talk with anyone who is interested in hosting an event with us, and look forward to welcoming guests before the end of the year.

Union Mills Public House, Fredericks newest, one-of-a-kind dining and event experience, is pleased to announce it is now accepting bookings for events in early 2022.

Located in the historic Union Mills Knitting Factory, this full-service restaurant and event venue will have a rustic, elegant, industrial vibe with sweeping views of Carroll Creek. Union Mills Public House will be one of Downtown Frederick's largest indoor venues for weddings and private events, with seating for parties of more than 250 guests. Construction on the space has begun, with the goal of being open by January of 2022.

Union Mills Public House is being brought to life by veteran restaurateurs Niko Negas and Mary Custer, who are also the owners and operators of the Roasthouse Pub at 5700 Urbana Pike in Frederick.

Dating back to the 1800s, the building is the former home of the Union Manufacturing Company, where up to 400 men, women and children worked making hosiery and similar products around the clock. During World War I, the plants production entirely supported the war effort, including a contract from the U.S. government to produce 400,000 pairs of light woolen stockings for the Army. Negas and Custer say that the possibilities of the 19th century former factory were immediately apparent. It was important to us to maintain the personality of the original factory, Negas explained.

In addition to a wide variety of craft beers and local brews on tap, Union Mills Public House is proud to be the exclusive home of Cutch Cidery, in partnership with another Frederick businessman, Bob McCutcheon. Eventually, says Negas, Cutch Cidery will be brewed, fermented and racked from fresh, local apples onsite at Union Mills.

Ive known Bob for years, says Negas. Not long ago, we started talking about the growing interest in hard ciders and how well they pair with food. It wasnt long before the idea for Cutch Cider was born. Mary and I are extremely happy that exclusive flavors of Cutch Cider will be on our menu at Union Mills Public House when we open. We look forward to introducing folks to the various ways they can pair Cutch with some of their favorite menu items.

Resurrecting the old building will take place in stages, but Negas is making great progress. The first phase will be focused on developing the event and wedding venue, with the restaurant, kitchen and other amenities to follow shortly thereafter.

In addition to weddings and events, Union Mills is also available to local businesses and organizations looking for temporary space to host their event or function, including yoga classes, photography and videography services, artist events, and more.

We are really thrilled to be joining the exciting array of businesses along Carroll Creek and to get even more involved with Downtown Frederick, says Negas. Pulling all the components together during COVID has been a challenge, but everything is coming together beyond our expectations. We are ready now to talk with anyone who is interested in hosting an event with us, and look forward to welcoming guests before the end of the year.

About Union Mills Public House

Union Mills Public House offers an exclusive dining experience with an inviting atmosphere, breathtaking views of historic Downtown Frederick, and an eclectic menu with gluten-free options. Brick-oven pizza and house-made gelato will be on the menu, along with a revolving variety of gastropub-style food made with fresh, local ingredients and served with farm-to-table flair. Union Mills Public House is currently booking events including weddings, fundraisers, corporate meetings, and more. To learn more about Union Mills Public House or to book an event, visit the new website UnionMillsPublicHouse.com.
"Our agencies share a passion for working with innovative clients, a conviction for doing right by our team members, and a belief that B2B marketing and communications can be bigger, better and smarter. I look forward to all that we can accomplish together, said Mike Santoro, CEO, Walker Sands.

Walker Sands, a full-service, award-winning marketing agency for B2B technology companies, has acquired March Communications. March is an integrated PR agency for innovative technology companies headquartered in Boston. Combined, the two agencies create the fifth-largest technology-focused firm in the United States, based on ODwyers 2021 rankings.

Since its inception in 2001, Walker Sands has helped to accelerate the growth of B2B brands through marketing, while experiencing incredible growth of its own. A nine-time Inc. 5000 honoree, PRovoke #1 Best Midsize Agency to Work For and one of Crains Chicago Business Best Places to Work, Walker Sands has built a full-service team of 145 employees with capabilities across public relations, demand generation, branding, creative, marketing strategy and web. From the fastest-growing startups to the Fortune 100, B2B technology companies look to Walker Sands for programs that drive business impact.

March Communications, founded by Martin Jones and Cheryl Gale, partners with innovative technology companies to bring their stories to life. The firms insights-first approach to PR has contributed to a reputation as a top Boston PR agency. Today, March supports clients worldwide with 25 team members in Boston and Atlanta  two top-ranking metros for talent and technology.

I am thrilled to welcome the March team to Walker Sands, said Mike Santoro, CEO, Walker Sands. I have so much respect for Martin and Cheryl, who have built an exceptional agency with tremendously talented people. Our agencies share a passion for working with innovative clients, a conviction for doing right by our team members, and a belief that B2B marketing and communications can be bigger, better and smarter. I look forward to all that we can accomplish together.

Growth and innovation have long been part of the March Communications story, said Martin Jones, CEO, March Communications. They are also intrinsic to the Walker Sands story. Now, they are part of our shared story. I am so excited to join forces with Walker Sands and look forward to bringing new capabilities to our clients and new opportunities to our team.

Going forward, March will be known as March, a Walker Sands company. Martin Jones will report to Mike Santoro.

Combined, the firm has 170 full-time employees and five offices in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

About Walker Sands

Walker Sands is a full-service B2B marketing agency with core capabilities in public relations, demand generation, branding, creative, marketing strategy and web. The firms integrated approach to marketing drives awareness, credibility and conversions for 100+ clients around the world. A nine-time Inc. 5000 honoree, Walker Sands is one of the fastest-growing B2B marketing agencies in the world, with offices in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle. Learn more at https://www.walkersands.com and for career opportunities visit https://www.walkersands.com/about/careers/.

About March Communications

March, a Walker Sands company, is an integrated PR agency that partners with innovative tech companies to bring their stories to life. Our insights-first approach fuels smart PR programs that motivate key audiences, spark conversations and drive business value. With offices in Boston and Atlanta and clients worldwide, March is one of the fastest-growing PR agencies in Boston. More information about our award-winning PR, content creation and digital service offerings can be found here: https://www.marchcomms.com/ and for career opportunities: https://www.marchcomms.com/culture-careers/
No one wants to discover their car has been broken into. However, comprehensive insurance will reimburse the costs to pay for any damage suffered by the vehicle and the costs to replace stolen vehicle parts, said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company.

Carinsuranceplan.org has launched a new blog post that presents what type of car insurance coverage protects drives who had their cars broken into.

For more info and free car insurance quotes online, visit https://carinsuranceplan.org/how-car-insurance-can-help-drivers-who-have-had-their-cars-broken-into/

Unfortunately, vehicle break-ins are quite common. Countless people have got their belongings stolen or their cars damaged during the break-in. The auto insurance policy will cover the damage done to the vehicle during the break-in, only if it includes comprehensive coverage. Most states require only liability coverage that will cover the costs of any damage or injury done by the policyholder to other cars, property, or people if involved in a collision or another accident. On the other hand, comprehensive insurance can pay the repair costs for any vehicle damage, including shattered windows, tampered ignition, broken locks, and cosmetic damage. Also, it can pay for the replacement of stolen vehicle parts and it can even pay a fair market value of a replacement car if the policyholders vehicle is stolen.

Despite the benefits of comprehensive coverage, this insurance policy doesnt cover personal possessions that were stolen or damaged during the vehicle break-in. However, the homeowners or renters insurance policy would cover the replacement costs of these items. In order to protect their cars and belongings from a vehicle break-in, drivers should consider the following:



Dont leave valuable items in the car. One of the best methods to prevent car theft is to not leave valuable goods in the car. Even if the items are hidden under the seat, in the glove box, or in the trunk, during a break in these items can be easily stolen by a thief.

Park the car in well-lit parking spots. Finding a parking spot in a crowded city can be a challenge. Many drivers are tempted to park their cars on the first available parking spot. However, its safer for drivers to wait until they find a well-lit parking place. When a car is parked in a well-lit area, its less likely to be stolen. In many cases, thieves try their luck with cars that are hidden in the shadows.

Lock the doors and close the windows of the vehicle. Some drivers may leave their vehicle for only a few moments and forget to properly secure it. Despite how quick they can finish their task and get back to the vehicle, someone can quickly grab whats lying on the passenger seat or in the glove box. When leaving the vehicle, drivers should be sure that all of the windows are closed and the doors are locked.

Get a security system. Buying a good security system for the vehicle can help deter thieves from attempting a break-in or stop them in their tracks with blaring alarms. Advanced security systems with GPS tracking can make it easy for police to locate the vehicle if its stolen.

Drivers who got their cars stolen should first contact the police and file a police report. Then, they should document the damage done to the vehicle by taking photos and create a list of stolen items. The insurance company should also be contacted as soon as possible in order to report the break-in and file a claim. Lastly, if a purse, wallet, or documents holding sensitive information were stolen, the driver should contact the bank and credit card companies to put a hold on their cards

For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://carinsuranceplan.org/

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.
Chancellor Frank Dooley, who presided over commencement ceremonies for more than 1,500 Purdue University Global graduates on Aug. 14, has been selected as a recipient of the EDGE Commendation for Innovation in Undergraduate Education.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  As Purdue Universitys former senior vice provost for teaching and learning, Frank Dooley helped redesign the classroom learning environment for greater student success. He led the creation of IMPACT (Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation), a research-based course transformation and faculty development program that transforms traditional lecture courses into student-centered active-learning environments. He also led the effort for Think Summer, a program creating more opportunities for students to enroll in summer offerings to help them potentially graduate on time or early  and save money.

It is that kind of innovative thinking that led Purdue President Mitch Daniels to appoint Dooley as chancellor for Purdue University Global in March 2020. And it has led to a major award for Dooley and Purdues undergraduate education.

Dooley has been selected as a recipient of the EDGE Commendation for Innovation in Undergraduate Education, along with Martha Maria Chavez Brummel, president and CEO of Catch the Next Ascender Program for Student and Institutional Advancement in Texas Community Colleges, and the University of Kentuckys Leveraging Economic Affordability for Developing Student Success Program. The John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education will confer the awards during a virtual national convening on Oct. 22.

I am deeply humbled and thrilled to accept this honor on behalf of a great many people, Dooley said. This is well beyond me. The classroom experience has seen needed and significant change in recent years, even before, but exacerbated by the pandemic. Im grateful that weve been able to expand some of the benefits of these changes through Purdue Global, which is opening many new doors for online learners and making a difference in so many lives.

Under Dooleys leadership, Purdue Global has become a nimble, timely, highly relevant institution helping nontraditional students learn about and respond to todays critical issues. The online university is reaching out to a population of students, primarily adult learners, who otherwise might never have completed their college degrees.

Over the last year, Purdue Global has launched a free contact-tracing course to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, added four new micro-credentials (Law Enforcements Role in Society and Social Change; Leading Law Enforcement Reform; Diversity; and Social Problems, Prevention and Crisis Intervention), and been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (sponsored by The Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency).

Starting in 2011, IMPACT  Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation  has transitioned numerous classrooms at Purdue from traditional lecture style to a more hands-on, immersive setting. This could include small-group discussion, projects and various ways to engage students. More than 700 unique Purdue courses have been transformed, with more than 400 faculty participating, and all Purdue colleges represented.

In the Think Summer program, Purdue has increased its summer course offerings to more than 800, including many online. The program has allowed students to save substantially on college costs. As students seek out more scheduling options, Think Summer provides flexibility through such programs as Early Start for incoming first-year students, and Summer Finish for students wishing to complete their degree during the summer session.

During Dooleys tenure as senior vice provost, the Purdue West Lafayette four-year graduation rate climbed 15 percentage points from 46% to 61%. His ideas and initiatives that were created, implemented, and institutionalized are recognized as primary contributors to this dramatic improvement in student success.

The Edge Awards are in recognition of Russ Edgerton, former president of the American Association for Higher Education and senior program officer for the PEW Charitable Trusts, for his vision, big-picture thinking and contributions to improving undergraduate education. These awards celebrate a distinguished contribution to improving undergraduate student success. The honor is given annually.

About Purdue University Global

Purdue University Global delivers personalized online education tailored to the unique needs of adults who have work or life experience beyond the classroom, enabling them to develop essential academic and professional skills with the support and flexibility they need to achieve their career goals. It offers personalized paths for students to earn an associate, bachelors, masters or doctoral degree, based on their work experience, desired pace, military service, previous college credits and other considerations  no matter where they are in their life journey. Purdue Global is a nonprofit, public university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It is affiliated with Purdue Universitys flagship institution, a highly ranked public research university located in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue University also operates regional campuses in Fort Wayne and Northwest Indiana, as well as serving science, engineering and technology students at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. For more information, visit purdueglobal.edu.

Media Contact, Purdue Global: Tom Schott, 765-427-1721 tschott@purdue.edu

Media Contact, Gardner Institute: Katie Locke, 828.210.2408, locke@jngi.org

Source: Frank Dooley
Effective immediately, users of Samsung TV Plus  which launched in the country earlier this year and boasts a catalogue of 100% free ad-supported content spanning and - will have access to hundreds of hours of documentaries, independent features and movies. Docustream presents a collection of documentary features and TV programming exploring the mysteries and beauty of the planet. Filmstreams current catalogue includes independent world cinema gems and classic movies from iconic directors such as Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Fellini and many others. Filmstream plans to expand its line-up with Hollywood blockbusters and popular hits in the future. The deal marks Docustreams debut with Samsung TV Plus in the Netherlands while Filmstream is currently available to watch on select Samsung devices in India, UK and Australia. More launches are expected soon.It brings us great pleasure to expand our partnership with Samsung TV Plus to another key Western European market for SPI with the launch of our new documentary AVOD channel Docustream and the well-received Filmstream, commented SPI International Western Europe & Africa MD Georgina Twiss. Now, Samsung TV Plus viewers in the Netherlands can enjoy some of the best documentary features and world cinema gems acquired from top producers and distributors with specially curated Docustream and Filmstream programming slates.
Introduction

For almost 30 years, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has deployed various strategies to increase its economic and political influence in Central Asia. In 1994, then-Premier Li Peng suggested a plan to develop economic connectivity and revive the old Silk Road (Xinhua, December 25, 2013). This paved the way for a China-Kazakhstan oil pipeline which became operational in 2005 and was followed in 2009 by a China-Central Asia gas pipeline reaching Turkmenistan. With these pipelines, China has gradually undermined Central Asias energy export reliance on Russia (a legacy of the Soviet Union). In addition, China-Europe cargo rail lines via Kazakhstan offer Central Asian economies the quickest access to sea-based trade through Chinese territories and have played a significant role in growing trade linkages between China and the region. State-owned Chinese companies have repaired and modernized a number of decaying Soviet infrastructure projects throughout Central Asia and helped to transfer some industrial capacity crucial to individual economies, such as aluminum processing and renewable energy. China is likely to deploy the same investment-driven playbook used in Central Asia under the pretext of post-war reconstruction in the Talibans re-established Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after advances in Kabul on the eve of August 15 (AP, August 15).

While efforts to integrate the economies of Central Asia with China have boosted development, quick and easy Chinese investments have also furthered elite-level corruption across the region.[1] This has benefited China, allowing it to leverage economic ties to attain its key political goal in the regionmaintaining the territorial integrity of Xinjiang. Beginning in the early 2000s, Central Asian states wary of the independence movement across the border suppressed ethnic Uyghur associations in their territories. To date, no Central Asian state officials have dared to voice concern for the treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, a neighboring region with a strong history of shared culture. Both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have been reluctant to accept ethnic Kazakh and Kyrgyz refugees from across the border, and local news have reported about secret agreements between Chinese border guards and their Central Asian counterparts to detain and repatriate any people that cross illegally (Azattyk, January 13, 2015; Azattyk, August 12, 2016).

Taliban and Beijing: An Honest Beginning?

In the midst of the American troop withdrawal, the Taliban in Afghanistan have recaptured almost all of the country, entering the capital and expressing clear gestures to establish itself as a legitimate ruling party. Despite the possibility of small-scale resistance from the Afghan Army and potential in-fighting within the Taliban, a Taliban-led regime is likely to last, especially with the support of China in post-war reconstruction. Understanding this reality, China has recently stepped up its efforts to ensure that the Taliban understands its will to secure and control Xinjiang, offering promises of economic investment and international recognition in return for regional stability.

On July 28, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the Talibans key founders, led a delegation to Beijing. The agenda of Baradars meeting with Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi was clear. China has asked the Taliban to cut ties completely with the East Turkestan Movement, which China considers to be a terrorist organization seeking independence in Xinjiang from Beijing (PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, July 28).[2] A large number of foreign fighters with a variety of affiliations are present in Afghanistan, and the Talibans ability to oversee and control these groups is in doubt (UN Security Council, May 20). Nonetheless, the Taliban delegation provided reassurance that Afghanistan will not harbor the group, as it hopes to develop friendly relations with China and secure a role for Chinese investments in post-war reconstruction.

It is too soon to tell whether the Taliban can uphold their end of the bargain. At the same time, not working with the East Turkestan Movement may be the first among many requests demonstrating Beijings concerns for the future of Afghanistan. On July 13, during a trip to Tajikistan, which shares a 1,300 kilometer (807 miles) porous border with Afghanistan, Wang urged the Taliban to be a responsible actor and give fair recognition and treatment to the Afghan government (PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, July 14). Wang also added that China wishes for an inclusive regime to be established in Afghanistan, with a robust, productive Islamic policy.

Besides the worry that Taliban support for the East Turkestan Movement could challenge the stability of Xinjiang, China is concerned about what kind of Islamic regime will emerge under the Talibans leadership in Afghanistan. Including the Afghan government in the future of Afghan politics will serve to support a more modest and predictable Islamic policy, which is desirable for China as it worries that the success of the Taliban in Afghanistan could encourage the spread of like-minded groups throughout Central Asia, with the potential to influence extremism in Xinjiang.

Central Asian leaders, already concerned about the increase of extremism domestically, are also anxious as to how their populations will react to the Talibans success in Afghanistan. With dozens of international terrorist organizations active in Afghanistan, outreach to Central Asia has been on the rise. In Kyrgyzstan, in July alone, a terrorist attack was planned by a Kyrgyz citizen who was a member of an undisclosed international terrorist organization and had trained in Afghanistan; two more cases of foreign fighter recruiters were also recently brought to light: one person was found to have known ties to ISIS, and the Hizb ut-Tahrir movement recruited a Kyrgyz women to carry out its propaganda work in the country (24 KG, July 28; 24 KG, July 27; 24 KG, July 22; 24 KG, July 16).

For the time being, Central Asian states are working to make sure that there is no conflict overspill into the region. There is a need to stabilize and assure the international community that Central Asia is safe enough for large investments, a topic that is particularly concerning to the oil- and gas-rich economies of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. On July 22, Tajikistan held its largest ever military exercise preparing for the growing insecurity from Afghanistan (Reuters, July 22). On August 10, the Russian military led a week-long exercise with the Tajik and Uzbek armies in its Kharb-Maidon base at the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan (Moscow Times, August 10).

Economic Incentives for Peace

Beijing has failed to deliver tangible security plans to support its Central Asian neighbors on the western periphery in the event of an escalation of instability in Afghanistan. Instead, since the United States first announced plans to withdraw from Afghanistan in the early 2010s, Chinas primary strategy towards Afghanistan has been to induce economic incentives for peace.

In 2015, China began granting a tax-free regime for all Afghan products entering China (PRC Ministry of Commerce, accessed August 10). As a result, Afghan exports to China increased steadily from $12 million in 2015 to $52 million in 2020 (PRC General Administration of Customs, accessed August 10). A cargo flight inaugurated a China-Afghanistan air corridor in late 2018, shipping Afghan pine nuts (Xinhua, November 7, 2018). A rail route between China and Afghanistan via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was launched in summer 2019 (Belt and Road Portal, December 11, 2019). These logistics initiatives are important steps to establishing a transport corridor for trade, which will be crucial for gradually incorporating Afghanistan into the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Besides allowing bilateral trade, it also boosts local added-value businesses and aids economic growth in countries between China and Europe, boosting a land-based Eurasian economy that hopes to rival the current sea-based global economic dynamic. In the first quarter of 2019 alone, Afghanistan exported over $15 million worth of pine nuts to China; this success prompted the Afghan government to invest in a processing plant for pine nuts in Kabul (Xinhua, April 15, 2019). Apart from expanding trade, Chinese companies have obtained a number of infrastructure contracts in Afghanistan such as repairing the Bamyan-Samangan highway and a solar energy project in Daykundi (Belt and Road Portal January 9, 2017). That being said, while relatively small-scale Chinese trade and infrastructure projects exist,[3] China has suspended its oil and gas project in northern Afghanistan, and almost no progress has been made toward developing the Mes Aynak mine project that was signed in 2007, largely due to concerns arising from the lack of a security guarantee from the Taliban as well as supply chain and energy concerns (MEI, January 21, 2020).

Getting local political elites hooked on the rent-seeking opportunities that come with working with Chinese companies has been the primary strategy for China to attain its political goals in Central Asia over the past 30 years. If the Taliban can provide security protection for Chinese investments, Beijing is likely to roll out the same toolkit of informal political and economic incentives, but the key question of whether or not Taliban leaders will be swayed by financial incentives remains. In a rare phone interview with international media, the Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the South China Morning Post that China is a friendly country that we welcome for reconstruction and developing Afghanistan [sic] if they have investments of course we ensure their safety, their safety is very important for us(South China Morning Post July 9).

Conclusion

Moving forward, China will have to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate political party as a first step to recognizing a Taliban-led Afghanistan. Despite dozens of reported secret meetings between China and Taliban in recent years, China remains deeply insecure about a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Leading Afghanistan analysts in China are pessimistic about the future of regional security after the Taliban establishes itself as a legitimate ruling party. For example, Dr Wang Shida (), Deputy Director of the South Asia Institute at the China Institute of Modern International Relations, wrote in an opinion article for Dazhong Daily () that the Talibans return to power will turn Afghanistan into a more conservative and isolated country (Dazhong Daily July 6). More explicitly, Dr Qian Feng (), Director of the Research Department of National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the fact is, there are still supporters of the East Turkestan Movement within the Taliban (Global Times July 13). Furthermore, even if the Taliban were to rule Afghanistan as a legitimate political party, it might not be able to guarantee security; various factions within the Taliban controlling different districts would likely still compete to share profits with a foreign investorsuch as Chinaonce it finally enters the market in Afghanistan.

The Taliban will not be an easy partner for China. Significant uncertainty remains regarding the kind of Islamic ideologies that the Taliban leadership will pursue, as well as how this will affect the groups foreign policyparticularly toward its Central Asian neighborsif it were to gain control of the Afghan state. In the long term, Afghanistan is in a geographically ideal position to benefit from Chinas BRI, sitting between Central Asia and South Asia, and potentially providing a conduit for the landlocked former to the South Asian oceans. It is expected that Chinese companies will be interested in Afghanistans reconstruction and connectivity plans. But absent substantial political reformspossibly as an outcome of the peace talksAfghanistans fragile governance also risks leaving a large vulnerability open for Chinese actors to exploit. Across Central Asia, the failure to implement meaningful political and economic reforms following the Soviet era has resulted in a systemic lack of transparency and other safeguards against corruption, leading to a sustained culture in which political elites view their positions as a source of income and thus open the door to Chinese influence. With China determined to attain a security guarantee over Xinjiang issues, future Afghan political elites will be similarly vulnerable to succumbing to Chinas open pockets.

Niva Yau is a resident researcher at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek and a Fellow at the Eurasia Program of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. Her work focuses on Chinas foreign policy, trade and security in its western neighborhood, including Central Asia and Afghanistan. She has conducted a number of commissioned research pieces and briefed officials on China affairs in Central Asia, concerning security engagement, private security companies, Belt and Road Initiative, governance export, influence campaigns, renewable investments in Central Asia, and more.

This article appeared originally at The Jamestown Foundation's China Brief.

Notes

[1] For more information on corruption in Central Asia, see: Forthcoming report, https://www.iri.org/cfai; Gul Berna Ozcan, Chinese Business in Central Asia: How Crony Capitalism is Eroding Justice, FPRI, March 30, 2021, https://www.fpri.org/article/2021/03/chinese-business-in-central-asia-how-crony-capitalism-is-eroding-justice/.

[2] The U.S. State Department removed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from its list of terrorist organizations last year, with one State Department official explaining the change saying for more than a decade, there has been no credible evidence that ETIM continues to exist (RFA, November 5, 2020). For more on how the Chinese state references ETIM to justify its counter-terrorism program, see: China Brief, February 26.

[3] For reference, the China Global Investment Tracker records 3 significant deals (valued at more than $100 million) totaling $3.48 billion worth of investment between China and Afghanistan since 2007 (AEI, accessed August 10).
President Joe Biden claimed in his speech to the nation on Monday that he was bound by the Trump administration's agreement with the Taliban to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan. However, there are multiple flaws with this argument.
For months, President Joe Biden has opened the borders to Hispanic illegals, but he has turned a deaf ear to our Afghan allies desperate to get to America.

Some 20,000 pro-American Afghanis and their families are in danger of being killed by the Taliban because Biden refused to speed up the bureaucratic, 14-step visa application process and medical exam required for them to evacuate to the U.S. It's death by red tape.

Meanwhile, Biden is allowing more than 200,000 mostly Hispanic migrants to walk across the southern border into the U.S. every month. Nothing is demanded of them. No documents, no letters of reference, no medical exam, none of the requirements faced by Afghanis who aided the U.S. and are now targeted.

The Taliban are going door to door, threatening to behead or stone them.

These Afghanis were assured they'd be protected. Instead, the Biden administration has shown far less concern for them than for the migrants who are breaking our laws to enter illegally and have done nothing for America. A double standard.

For months, veterans groups and others have begged the White House to expedite evacuating the Afghanis before the Taliban takeover. Biden dithered. Matt Zeller, a former CIA agent and co-founder of No One Left Behind, said Monday night: "We sent them plan after plan on how to evacuate these people. Nobody listened to us. They didn't plan for the evacuation of our Afghan wartime allies."

The 14-step process to get a Special Immigration Visa can take anywhere from six months to four years. It starts with getting a letter from the human resources department of a U.S. government agency or American contractor confirming two years or more of past employment.

Imagine doing that when you're moving your family from one hiding place to the next to elude the Taliban. A Virginia contractor that built airstrips in Afghanistan gets about 70 requests for letters a day now. One former employee begged the company to hurry. "They are searching for me ... if they find me, they will cut my head."

Recently, as the Taliban took control of vast swaths of Afghanistan, Biden was secretly negotiating with countries such as Kosovo, Qatar and Albania to hold SIV applicants until their paperwork and vetting are completed. This is similar to former President Donald Trump's Remain in Mexico policy, which Biden cancelled.

But countries were reluctant. State Department officials said there are "concerns that you might expect: 'who are these people, how do you know these people ... who's going to care and feed these people?'" Legitimate questions.

Meanwhile, the window to evacuate disappeared. "It's ridiculous for us to go door to door asking other countries to do what we have the capacity to do ourselves," complained the head of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

Capacity, yes. The total number of SIV applicants is about 20,000 and, with spouses and children, adds up to approximately 80,000 Afghanis. That's fewer than half the number of migrants Biden is allowing to cross the southern border every single month.

Many weeks ago, the Biden administration should have dispatched hundreds of aircrafts to regional airports across Afghanistan to evacuate these Afghanis. But Biden dawdled. Fewer than 2,000 have been evacuated to the U.S.

It's unlikely anyone still trapped in the regional provinces can travel through Taliban-controlled territory to make it to the airport in Kabul.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby speculated on Sunday evening that future air lifts might carry both Americans and Afghani SIV applicants, who could be housed at American military bases. Biden made a similar promise to the nation on Monday afternoon. But these assurances assume Afghanis can make it to the airport alive.

What happened to them will "resonate for years," predicts Republican Rep. Michael Waltz, who served multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan. "Who's going to trust us enough to risk not just their lives, but their entire family's lives to stand with the United States, whether it's protests in Cuba, whether it's Taiwan?"

Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton agrees, calling it a "disaster" that "onerous visa requirements" can "condemn an ally to torture and death."

U.S. Air Force veteran Sam Lerman, who was working on Sunday to find a way out for an Afghani contractor who had worked at Afghanistan's Bagram air base for a decade, summed it up: "This is murder by incompetence."

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Under the Biden administration, the United States is on the path toward becoming a welfare state fully entrenched in waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. President Biden plans to expand welfare to almost half of the countrys working adults through the deceptively named American Families Plan. If passed, it will allow the federal government to meddle in Americans everyday lives from birth to death. Meanwhile, every year, entitlement programs are spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars improperlyeither through inaccuracies, incompetence, or fraud.

Government is already too big with too much waste. Current entitlement programs are rife with abuse. Their size and lack of guardrails to protect taxpayer dollars open the door for bad actors to take advantage of the system. But rather than acknowledging and addressing these issues, the Biden administration wants to dramatically expand the welfare state, which will undoubtedly result in even more waste, fraud, and abuse.

Since 2003, when agencies were required to report these payments, the Government Accountability Office estimates $1.9 trillion in improper payments have been made. But that might just be the tip of the iceberg because the GAO maintains it is unable to determine the full extent to which improper payments occur.

In fiscal year 2020, more than 21% of Medicaids federal program spending was the result of improper spending, which means one-fifth of taxpayer dollars, intended to help roughly 77 million low-income and medically needy individuals, has been lost without helping those Americans. Medicare was similarly disastrous, with $43 billion in improper paymentsmoney that should have helped provide health care for the 63 million elderly and disabled currently receiving Medicare benefits.

Outside of Medicare and Medicaid, three other significant sources of improper payments are for the earned income tax credit, unemployment insurance, and supplemental security income. Almost a quarter of the payments made for the earned income tax credit in FY2020 were improperthis amounted to $16 billion. Of the benefits paid by the Department of Labor for the unemployment insurance program, 10% were improper payments, which accounted for $8 billion. The Social Security Administration similarly spent almost 10% of the Supplemental Security Income funds on improper payments during FY2020amounting to $5.3 billion.

The federal government wasted tens of billions in improper payments last fiscal year aloneand that does not include any improper payments related to COVID-19 relief programs. We already know substantial fraud occurred within pandemic unemployment benefit programs. Its simply a matter of time before we know how severe the damage was in improper payments.

Congress is responsible for government oversight, and it is urgent we address these abuses now. The American people pay for these entitlement programs, believing the money will be there if they are ever in need of it, but with so many improper payments wasting away taxpayer dollars, that belief may be misguided.

Toward that end, Ive called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide a breakdown of all state specific Medicaid improper payments from 2015 to 2020. This will provide a better picture of the types and amounts of improper payments. These details will help us eliminate incentives for fraud and reduce waste.

No matter what the data says, however, one thing is crystal clear: We cant fix the social safety net by making it bigger and expanding the governments reach. Thats like taking a leaky bucket and adding more water to it thinking the hole will fix itself. Its unrealistic and irresponsible. Sadly, thats President Bidens plan.

He is planning to expand existing entitlement programs and create new ones. He is doing so knowing the federal government is incapable of tracking the waste in existing programs, opening the door for more abuse. Why? Because he and the Democrats are anxious to reshape America. To make Americans dependent on the government rather than encourage self-reliance and promote the American dream.

But if the president continues down this path, America will deteriorate into a socialist welfare state, constantly on the edge of fiscal collapse and where the American dream will no longer be a reality. Republicans stand ready to stop the rise of the socialist state, and while we wage that battle, we must simultaneously fix the massive flaws in our existing welfare system. If we fail or the administration stops us, American families will pay the price.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/15/2021



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[ Spoiler Warning: This report spoilers if Tiffany and Ronald are still together now or if the split for good after their big fight on : Happily Ever After?.]

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So are Ronald and Tiffany still together now or did the couple break up?

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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

couple Tiffany Franco and Ronald Smith 's marriage appears to be over, according to the finale of : Happily Ever After?'s sixth season, so did Tiffany and Ronald really break up and get divorced, or did they reconcile and stay together? What do spoilers reveal about their relationship now?Tiffany was a 27-year-old from Frederick, MD, and Ronald was a 29-year-old from South Africa when they starred on : The Other Way's first season in 2019.Tiffany got engaged to Ronald despite his faults and mistakes -- including Ronald having a criminal record as well as a serious gambling addiction that led to a six-month rehab stint in South Africa.Once Ronald changed his ways and sought therapy, Tiffany moved her eight-year-old son Daniel to South Africa on a Tourist Visa so they could be a family, but she wasn't convinced it was going to be a permanent move.Tiffany and Ronald tied the knot during her trip, but due to financial constraints and Tiffany deciding South Africa was not a safe place for her kids to grow up, she decided to return to the U.S. and give birth to the couple's daughter there.Tiffany thought the best way to be with Ronald would be to file for a spousal visa so he could move to the U.S.Tiffany then gave birth to a daughter Carley in Summer 2019, and she found being a single parent very difficult.Given Ronald had already been denied a K-1 via due to his criminal record, he allegedly told Tiffany to not waste her money trying for a spousal visa.Tiffany, however, went ahead and applied for a spousal CR-1 visa, even though she didn't feel emotionally or financially supported by her husband.Tiffany said Ronald never offered to send money for clothes or diapers, and so she met with an attorney, Christopher Role."I have moments when I wonder if this marriage is right for me," Tiffany confessed. "Ronald doesn't know this, but I think I want a divorce."Tiffany lamented she was feeling miserable every day and had reached "a breaking point" and feared there was "no other choice but to get divorced" because things might only get worse once Ronald arrived to the U.S.But Ronald insisted he was making "small strides" and "ends meet" by doing odd jobs such as painting rooms for people. He said he was doing the best he could.After Tiffany settled into an apartment of her own, she received an email she had been waiting on "for years" informing her that Ronald's visa application to come to the United States had been approved and they'd be able to move on to the interview phase of the process.Ronald gushed over videochat about being "overwhelmed" -- happy and scared at the same time -- but Tiffany fell just under the income requirement to be able to completely take care of Ronald financially upon his entrance into America.Tiffany's father Carlos therefore agreed to be Ronald's co-sponsor since Ronald had never been convicted or a criminal charge.An immigration lawyer told Tiffany and Ronald that Ronald had to nail his spousal-visa interview and basically deliver perfect answers because he'd only get one shot at this, but Ronald didn't seem nervous because, in his mind, Tiffany and the kids moving to South Africa was the backup plan."I'm terrified because I know I'm not going there. So for me, if he fails that interview, that's it and there's no backup plan. He still thinks he has a safety net, and he doesn't," Tiffany revealed.Ronald then asked Tiffany to visit him in South Africa with the kids for the Christmas holiday and stay for three months.Tiffany planned to use her trip to South Africa as a test run to figure out whether she really wanted to be with Ronald forever and have him move to the United States permanently.Tiffany wanted to see that Ronald was saving money, working, prioritizing his family, and being responsible in South Africa.But Ronald had a different plan. He envisioned filing an extension on Tiffany's Tourist Visa after three months so that they could stay in South Africa an additional three months."The fact of the matter is, if Tiffany doesn't want to move to South Africa, I will force her to. I'm not going to be away from my kids again that long," Ronald admitted.Tiffany was very impressed when she and the kids walked into Ronald's apartment and saw that he had turned the garage into a bedroom just for Daniel, but he had no groceries in the house.During Tiffany's first day in South Africa, Ronald ended up being $50 short on their $250 grocery bill. Tiffany seemed frustrated and upset to have to step in and save the day once again.Tiffany was exhausted from her travels and also hoped Ronald would step up and help her out more with the kids. She thought it was "annoying and upsetting" how Ronald wasn't offering to assist her.Tiffany threatened Ronald by saying if he didn't make her stay easy and enjoyable, she'd be taking the kids back to America for the Christmas holiday.In order to make his kids feel at home after his fight with Tiffany, Ronald took his family to a Christmas warehouse to purchase home decor and a Christmas tree. Tiffany accused her husband of essentially bribing Daniel to stay in South Africa.Ronald ended up spending almost $700 in the Christmas store and put it on a credit card, and Tiffany said Ronald's spending habits were not good and he continued to make "stupid decisions."Ronald then got angry when Tiffany vented out her frustrations to his mother, Ria, and he said he felt judged.The pair proceeded to sleep in separate beds, with Tiffany admitting she felt "stuck" in South Africa because they just kept fighting with only a few good moments in between.Tiffany also said cooking, cleaning and changing diapers wasn't solely her responsibility just because she's the woman in the relationship.Tiffany wasn't going to allow Ronald to feel "above" her and take on traditional gender roles, and she was beginning to wonder if Ronald could ever truly make her happy.Later on, Ronald drove Tiffany to a used-car lot, where Ronald explained he wanted to start his own business of being a handyman. But in order to do that, Ronald told Tiffany that he needed to buy a pickup truck.Ronald intended to do this business whether he continued living in South Africa or moved to the United States. Ronald said his goal was to put food on the table every single night for his family.Tiffany said it was "irresponsible" for Ronald to start a business when he only had three months left in South Africa. She also didn't approve of Ronald getting a used-car loan and getting himself into debt when he wasn't even working as a handyman yet or making money.Tiffany didn't want Ronald to make more "empty promises," and she said her husband needed to meet her expectations or "be a divorced man -- and that's it."Knowing Tiffany had consulted with a divorce lawyer in the U.S., the couple decided to have a counseling session with Ronald's uncle, who is apparently an honest and straightforward man.Tiffany said Ronald not paying attention to the small things was "destroying" their marriage.Tiffany argued she was a blessing to come into Ronald's life and so she deserved more from her husband, but Ronald pointed out how a woman shouldn't tell a man what should be.Ronald's uncle explained that Ronald wasn't being the man he needed to be in his relationship, but Ronald admitted he didn't like talking about his feelings in fear of exposing his weaknesses.Tiffany seemed annoyed with Ronald's constant desire to be the man in their marriage and wear the pants, and Ronald left the session feeling like he wasn't able to voice his own opinions and that Tiffany had made him look like "an assh-le."Ronald accused Tiffany of just wanting a vacation away from her kids, and Tiffany felt criticized and insulted. She demanded an apology from Ronald and even refused to get in the car with him to go home. She called Ronald "rude."Ronald told Tiffany that her family was always around helping her with the kids when she claimed to have been doing everything alone and by herself. Ronald called his wife "a hypocrite," and she in turn called him "a child."On the sixth-season finale of : Happily Ever After?, Ronald said Tiffany couldn't accept her faults and always blamed him for everything."What is she Queen? It's a two-way [street], man," Ronald complained.Tiffany said with a laugh how Ronald couldn't accept a woman who stands on her own two feet, and Ronald saw Tiffany giggling from a distance and then yelled at her for not taking things seriously.Tiffany wasn't okay with how Ronald spoke to her, and she lamented, "At this point, it makes me feel like there's nothing else we can do for us, like, I don't know where else we can go productively from here."Tiffany called Ronald "a f-cking psycho" but said his anger didn't scare her. Tiffany said Ronald's outbursts didn't indicate he's a manly-man. Instead, she said people who react immediately with anger aren't very smart and lack emotional intelligence."To me, it's directly linked to stupidity," Tiffany complained to a producer, adding, "All he does is disappoint me and do dumb sh-t like this. But I married him, so I guess that's on me. Whatever."Once the pair reunited in Ronald's home, she called him an "idiot," and he asked her what she was even doing in his place.Tiffany told Ronald that he had acted like "an assh-le," and Ronald seemed desperate for his wife to take some responsibility in the argument. Ronald decided he was going to sleep alone, and then Tiffany smiled and called Ronald "a f-cking loser."Ronald said he was trying to keep his marriage together and also keep himself composed even though he was going through a lot, and he began questioning whether it was all worth it because he could only take so much.Ronald realized in that moment he had a lot of emotions bottled up and was much more upset with Tiffany that he had initially thought. Ronald said, however, he was going to fight for his children to stay in South Africa, even if it meant Tiffany flying back to the United States alone."I know it's not right to keep the kids away from their mother, but unfortunately, the mother has forced me [into this situation]," Ronald said. "Now it's my turn."Ronald's mother was watching the kids while Ronald and Tiffany fought, and Tiffany woke up the next morning expecting a genuine apology from her husband, whom she claimed was very wrong.The couple argued again in the morning, with Tiffany saying Ronald had mistreated her and she wasn't going to act like "a little b-tch" and let him walk all over her. Tiffany threatened to walk away from him and their relationship, and Ronald said Tiffany acted like she's royalty."You can literally go back to America," Ronald said, before accusing Tiffany of being "controlling" and telling her to get the "f-ck out" of his house.Tiffany thought the amount of tension she had with Ronald was just "crazy," and he also admitted to having enough.Tiffany said she felt very unwelcome and was ready to pick up her kids, leave, and get "out of this situation.""I have it pretty good back home. I have zero need to accept his behavior. Our marriage is over," Tiffany noted.Tiffany and Ronald are still legally married and have a good relationship, but it's not entirely clear whether they're amicable for the sake of their children or are romantically involved.During a makeup tutorial posted to her Instagram account in late July, Tiffany said she doesn't want to take another trip to South Africa because they are "so long and exhausting" -- but not because she doesn't want to see Ronald again.Tiffany also played a game or "True" or "False" with her Instagram followers, and someone asked, "Do you and Ronald talk on a daily basis?"Tiffany replied, "True."When asked if she's "still married" to her husband, Tiffany responded again with "true."Tiffany opted to "skip" a question about whether she's still in love with Ronald; however, she confirmed she is happy and regrets getting so emotional and crying so much on the show.She also revealed that after she and Ronald stopped filming : Happily Ever After?, Ronald "started changing more diapers.""But that's because... I was like, 'You're going to do it! This is not only my job! There are no such roles as man and woman. I'm not going to sit at home and cook and clean while you bring home the bread... and I won't expect you to be the only one working and supporting us,'" Tiffany said, adding that they both share cooking, cleaning and working responsibilities.A few weeks earlier, Tiffany also posted a video of Carley celebrating her second birthday and one Instagram user commented, "Too bad her father doesn't get to See her for birthdays christmas. Any important days. What a shame."Tiffany replied, "Lol he was on video call I include him every thing. And the visa takes forever it's not my fault he's not here."But Tiffany and Ronald had an explosive argument and broke up in early July.The spouses appeared to be headed for divorce at the time after Ronald lashed out at Tiffany for allegedly lying about his spousal visa and Tiffany in turn accused her husband of emotional abuse.It appears the couple got into a fight right around Carley's July 3 birthday based on cryptic social-media activity -- including Tiffany cropping Ronald out of a family photo in one of her uploads -- and then everything came to a head on July 6.Tiffany began a stream of posts on Instagram Stories on Tuesday by writing, "You think things are messy? They are about to get a whole lot messier."Tiffany, a mom of two, went on to share alleged emails and Instagram DMs from Ronald in which the South Africa native insisted he's "done" with his marriage to Tiffany and threatened to expose her on social media.Ronald allegedly told Tiffany that he could find someone "better" who will treat him "right" and "won't lie.""F-ck you for that... I'm gonna block you again... I already threw everything out of the house... [I] hope you find pleasure in what you did. I'm literally nauseous thinking about you now lol... I'm free now, thank you [for] lying... I won't respect you for sh-t again," he allegedly wrote to his wife."If I see my kids ever again [that's] up to you. Are you going to visit me with them? F-ck no, stay away from my place. You're just like your mom now! Single, have kids, no dads, and likes to lie but demands respect. Get real, Tiffany. Watch social media, [going to] hit you hard!"Tiffany wrote on the alleged screenshot that she "won't stay quiet anymore."Ronald allegedly continued, "I do not want to know nothing about you. I don't want to hear about you; all I want is my kids. I'm done with you, you can move on. I move on. Let's do that. You can say I'm cheating [but] you are the one lying about the visa."Ronald seemingly suggested Tiffany had yet to follow through with the visa paperwork to move him from South Africa to the United States.Ronald allegedly continued in his messages to Tiffany, "You are worthless, you are not worth being loved. You are useless as a woman, as a wife."Tiffany called Ronald's messages "more abuse" and wrote on Instagram Stories, "Emotional abuse leaves scars that you'll never see. I've gone through enough for a whole life together and I've had to stay quiet."Tiffany also posted an alleged email from Ronald that read in part, "You wouldn't have felt lonely... if you did the visa or if you move to South Africa, but no, you decided you wanted to lie to me about the visa and same time you refused to move to South Africa just so that I can be with my family."He allegedly wrote, "You took me for a big, big ride. You made me change my life. You made me put things on hold... I got rid of people for you and I regret it so much. I regret everything I did for you... The only thing that I'm happy about from you [is] my kids, nothing else. I'm sorry, it is what it is.""I'm glad you moved on," he allegedly added. "I'm happy for you. I hope you get someone... that can love you again because from my eyes, sorry, I literally can't wait for sunrise only [to[ get this divorce thing done. But until then, you are free. I promise you, you are free."Ronald allegedly complained that he'd probably lose his children from this situation and hopes Tiffany is "delighted" about that."In my eyes, you are nothing... You never, never, never, never have the opportunity to be in my arms again... It's here where we draw the line," Ronald allegedly lashed out.Ronald appeared to threaten Tiffany by saying he'd "exploit" her "like never before" and show her "lies and manipulation" and the way she allegedly played him.For Ronald's part, he fired away at Tiffany by sharing a post on his own Instagram Stories, asking his followers for a "lawyer in the [United States]" so he could receive "advice and costing on [a] few things," according to In Touch Weekly.Ronald also reportedly said on Instagram Live of Tiffany, "She basically told me everything is submitted, everything is done, I'm going to be with my family soon.""I found out she lied. I lost my sh-t and you know what? She says I treated her bad," he claimed."Let me just calm down for a second because I'm so upset thinking she played me for a fool and she literally made me believe I'm going to be with my family soon. She's complaining she's alone and she's doing everything by herself, but she lied about the visa. Literally, she lied."Tiffany went on to write to her followers on Instagram Stories that she doesn't regret any decisions in her past because she acted with an open heart."Not everyone has the same heart. Some people choose to take advantage of those they see as [weak]. I cannot see where everything stands at the moment, but what I will say is, if anyone speaks to you this way, it is a reflection of who they are, not who you are," Tiffany explained."Don't ever be silent. You can survive it and get out of it. Love should NOT HURT. I am not perfect and I have made mistakes, but I will never again allow anyone to make me feel this way again."Prior to the big fight, the couple's relationship seemed to be thriving in June 2021.Tiffany wished Ronald a Happy Father's Day on social media in a super sweet post."For almost 5 years now you've been Papa bear, through the ups and downs A constant reminder of why are you are the love of my life is the amazing love you have for our kids," Tiffany captioned a slideshow of family."You embraced Daniel in a way that I can't actually explain... I love you have for him makes me so proud. The kids adore you. I adore you. Today is entirely your day, to celebrate the amazing dad you are and how even more amazing you are becoming every day."Tiffany continued, "I love seeing the man who once was the center of attention and the party animal turn into the guy who lets everyone go have their parties so you can walk off to the side and play toys with the kids. I am grateful, I am blessed, I am proud. You are truly a blessing to us.""From the bottom of all of our hearts we love you with all of us and we wish you the best Father's Day! Sidenote..." she concluded.And Ronald commented on the post, "Thank you my love. Love it its beautiful thank you thank you thank you love you sooo much youre my everything and you and the kids complete my life."At the time, Tiffany also confirmed she had gone under the knife for weight loss surgery and said Ronald had been supporting her emotionally, according to In Touch.And in a May 24 Instagram Live session, Tiffany conducted a makeup tutorial and dropped a sly quick comment about how she had just traveled to see Ronald again in South Africa."It's from when I was on the airplane coming here from South Africa. My skin got super dry and it just got really messed up," Tiffany said, before flashing a big know-it-all smile.Tiffany also said during the video, "I wish Ronald was on here so he could help me [answer questions] while I'm doing my makeup, but he is busy!"And on May 18, Tiffany and Ronald went Instagram Live together, with Tiffany posting their conversation on her account's page.Tiffany captioned their session, "Definitely getting a divorce. Definitely getting a divorce," but she added a crying-laughing emoticon to her post to suggest she's joking.Tiffany jokingly asked Ronald when he'd be signing the divorce papers, and Ronald explained with a big smile that he didn't have a pen.Tiffany was all giggles as she and Ronald sang love songs to each other and teased one another.And on April 4, 2021, Tiffany confirmed she still loved Ronald.Ronald posted a beautiful tribute to Tiffany's son Daniel, whom Ronald also considers and calls his son.In addition to complimenting the young boy on his maturity, cleverness and being well-mannered, Ronald wrote, "I just really hope that the connection we have I hope it never dies as you get older now I'm proud to have you as my son but also I'm a bit sad not being able to be there to celebrate it with you."Ronald added of Tiffany, "Tell your mom @tiffanyfrancosmith its your yes day and make the best of it... you know what i mean my boy! love your dad."Tiffany actually commented on Ronald's post, "Aw love you. I'm showing him."However, Tiffany and Ronald have broken up and gotten back together before.Ronald and Tiffany announced they were "separating" in January 2020 and seemed to be headed for a divorce.Tiffany accused Ronald of "adultery" and manipulation and claimed he had suffered multiple relapses of the gambling addiction he had once sought treatment for before in a rehab facility.On January 28, 2020, Tiffany told her Instagram followers in regards to her marriage "some things are just irreparable," and Ronald claimed on social media at the time he'd be "filing for divorce in South Africa" after a year-and-a-half of marriage."Tiff only tried to do good, not really control me but more protect me from wrong [people], places and temptations, and the more I think about it now, it makes sense..." Ronald wrote on Instagram during."She was more the victim and I'll admit here I was a dick to her at times, worrying about me, me, me and not looking after her feelings or needs."But rumors of a reconciliation began to swirl on March 5, 2020 when Ronald posted adorable snapshots of Tiffany and himself seemingly in South Africa together.In March 11, 2020 Ronald uploaded a selfie of the couple as well as a photo in which they were embracing in front of a fountain during a date night at Monte in Gauteng, South Africa.Ronald then flat out confirmed the next day his marriage to Tiffany was back on and thriving in the comments section of his Instagram post."Hope the rumors are true and y'all found your way back to one another!!" one person wrote."Yes," Ronald replied.When an Instagram user asked Ronald to "please work it out" with Tiffany, Ronald responded with, "We are good."One person mentioned, "I thought they got divorced," and Ronald wrote back, "Guess not," with a smiley face.And finally, one fan wrote, "Happy you're back together," to which Ronald replied, "Yes."Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/16/2021



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MIKE AND NATALIE

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JOVI AND YARA

KALANI AND ASUELU

BRANDON AND JULIA

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TIFFANY AND RONALD

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ELIZABETH AND ANDREI

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ANGELA AND MICHAEL

Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

: Happily Ever After? -- The Couples Tell All featured Mike Youngquist threatening to file for divorce from Natalie Mordovtseva Angela Deem unleashing her fury on Michael Ilesanmi and his aunt, Ronald Smith apologizing to Tiffany Franco before accusing her of flirting with a cameraman, and Brandon Gibbs admitting his marriage to Julia Trubkina may be in jeopardy during Part 1 of the Tell-All event on TLC.Part 1 of the two-night, Tell-All event of : Happily Ever After?'s sixth season starred Mike and Natalie, Angela and Michael, Ronald and Tiffany, Brandon and Julia, Jovi Dufren and Yara Zaya Kalani Faagata and Asuelu Pulaa , and Elizabeth Potthast and Andrei Castravet All of the cast members gathered in-studio with the Tell-All host Shaun Robinson except for Michael and Ronald, who participated via videochat from Nigeria and South Africa, respectively.The past season of : Happily Ever After? featured painful realities and unexpected obstacles as the couples navigated cultural differences and family drama and attempted to survive explosive fights and confrontations.Below is an update on each : Happily Ever After? Season 6 couple based on Part 1 of the Tell-All.Mike said he hadn't seen Natalie in months and he anticipated their reunion might be "a sh-tshow."Natalie confessed a part of her missed Mike but she didn't know how he was feeling or what he was thinking. She simply said she didn't want to fight with him again.Natalie told the cast that she had tried to call Mike but he wouldn't answer her phone calls.Mike arrived to the Tell All late and admitted he wasn't happy with where he and Natalie were at.Mike and Natalie sat in individual chairs about six feet apart from each other on the stage, and Mike announced how he didn't think he and Natalie were in a relationship at the time "at all, except maybe on paper."And Natalie confirmed, "We're not together. I moved. I'm not in Washington anymore. I am in Florida."Julia muttered under her breath how Natalie should have returned to her home country, Ukraine, if she and Mike were no longer together.Mike acknowledged he didn't know whom Natalie had been living with.When asked what caused the breakdown of her relationship, Natalie said she felt like Mike didn't care about her. She said he works hard as a boss of a company and drives two hours to work and then two hours back to Sequim at the end of the day."When he's home, he just doesn't have time or the desire to discuss anything. He's just tired and wants to rest," Natalie said.She added, "I was really happy with him, but now, he has huge responsibilities. And he told me, 'Natalie, I'm choosing work.'""I didn't say that," Mike argued. "I never said that."Natalie said she chose work as a result too, and Mike explained that he had been working hard to support his wife but then coronavirus hit and he lost all of his employees, most of whom have children and needed to quit.Mike insisted he doesn't enjoy working long hours but he does what he has to do, but Natalie pointed out how she had begged Mike to move to Seattle -- which is closer to his job -- and he wouldn't even budge.Angela pointed out how Natalie seemed to be living like she's divorced already based on her social-media activity, which isn't necessarily right or wrong.Mike said Natalie had packed up her bags and asked him for a break, and Natalie explained that while she loved Mike and was happy with him for a while, her life in the United States with him turned out to be "a total disaster."Natalie explained how she couldn't do anything and "went crazy" at his house in the middle of the woods. Natalie claimed she was "miserable" and gained 20 pounds and had to go on antidepressants."I was feeling unworthy and terrible, and [I was] not wanting to live," Natalie confessed. "I don't want to stay on antidepressants."Mike said he hadn't dated anyone after his split from Natalie, and Natalie claimed the same."Who's the guy you were with in New Orleans?" Jovi asked. "Wasn't Mike!... [And] he didn't look gay to me."Jovi said he and Yara met Natalie in New Orleans for dinner and she was "with a friend." Jovi said the pair didn't look romantic but he wouldn't travel with a woman if their relationship was just platonic."Does anyone know a good lawyer?" Mike asked aloud to the group."I got one in South Africa for you," Ronald quipped.Natalie insisted it was "not a romantic relationship" and she had asked this person to accompany her on a trip to see Yara because she didn't know how things were going to go. Natalie said she met this man and many other people from a "Russian community.""You just find random guys in New Orleans to have dinner with because you don't want to be a third wheel?" Mike asked with skepticism.Yara admitted that when she had asked Natalie about the relationship and whether she was together with this man, Natalie provided her "no clear answer." Yara said Natalie answers questions in a funny way and never really gets to the point.Ronald said it seemed like Natalie had just gotten caught, and Elizabeth said if Mike had behaved that way, Natalie would probably be "in fumes."Natalie insisted Mike is allowed to have friends that are women just like she's allowed to have friends that are men.Tiffany said it looked bad, but Natalie yelled out how she was sleeping alone and not dating anyone. Julia called Natalie two-faced and then questioned the blonde on how she's feeding herself and paying for things, including an apartment in Florida."She has my bank card," Mike announced. "Still, to this day."Mike then told Natalie that he was going to deactivate her card by the end of the evening."Mike, if I were you, I would've filed for divorce a long time ago," Jovi said."I plan on filing," Mike confirmed.Natalie began pouting, and then Mike told the group, "We're not together."When Shaun asked Mike flat out, "You are planning to file for divorce?" Mike replied, "Yeah. She lives on the other side of the United States and has no desire or interest to come back to Washington. I cannot just quit my job and change my whole life.""I'm not going to scream and say, 'I will not give you a divorce,' I cannot, because I want you to be happy," Natalie replied. "If you think you can find a better woman than me and be happy, I will only pray for you, honestly."Natalie said this was the first time she was hearing about a divorce and had nothing to say about it.During a commercial break, Mike was asked if there was a chance of reconciliation, and he said, "Who knows, maybe down the road. Maybe she needs to go get everything out of her system and go live her dreams and stuff. There's nothing wrong with that; I applaud her for it. But I'm not going to wait around forever."Natalie cried about how she's a good person and just got tired of fighting. Natalie said if Mike wanted to file for divorce then that's okay but there's no way she'd be able to stay in the U.S. in that case.While backstage, Julia told Mike that he's such a nice guy and needs to find a woman who will love him and want to be with him for who he is.Mike's mother Trish then appeared on the Tell-All in person and said she was so mad when Mike and Natalie got married that she "couldn't stand it." She said Natalie was "detrimental to everything."When Trish joined the cast onstage, she said it was "perfect" to hear that Mike is going to file for divorce and she's encouraging him to do so. Trish called Natalie a liar and said everything was about Natalie in the relationship."Why would you come here if you knew he lived out in the middle of nowhere? You can't tell him that you love him. And now you run off," Trish said."God bless you," Natalie replied.Trish insisted she had never called Natalie "a hooker" and it was just "another one of her lies," adding, "She doesn't care about Michael. She never did. She just wanted to get to America."Mike said Natalie's love for him was real in the beginning but then they had some major arguments, and Natalie snapped, "That's because I found naked boobs on his phone two hours after he proposed [marriage] to me, Trish."Natalie said Mike had given her his phone to look at pictures they had taken and then she went into his deleted file only to find photos of a "very naked" woman from "one week before he arrived [in Ukraine]" for one of his trips.Mike revealed the photo belonged to his ex-girlfriend, who was trying to get back with him, and he said "no" and deleted the photo.Trish said she didn't want Mike to salvage his relationship, and Yara criticized Trish for being "too much involved" in her son's affairs. Trish, however, argued that Yara isn't out running around like Natalie had been.Trish accused Natalie of using Mike and never loving him, but Natalie insisted she was very much in love with Mike at one point."If I wasn't in love with him, I would never cry over some b-tch who sends him naked picture," Natalie shouted.Angela yelled out how she was tired of Natalie playing the victim and Natalie should just go back to Ukraine if she doesn't like Mike anymore."If you don't love him, get the f-ck out of here!" Angela said.And Julia suggested Natalie was making couples look bad who file for the K-1 visa. Julia accused Natalie of using Mike to move to the United States so she can continue living here on her own."You choose to stay here [now]. You used Mike for a Green Card!" Julia claimed."Okay," Natalie responded. "What can I say? If it looks like."Natalie then approached Trish backstage once cameras stopped rolling, and Trish scolded Natalie for being an "evil" scammer. Trish said everything had to be Natalie's way or else she was out."You used him! You lie, you lie, you lie!" Trish yelled at Natalie."You're not even strong enough or big enough to tell your mom that you're not with him no more. You're the one making all the mistakes. You even said bad things about Beau, how Beau stole your jewelry."Natalie swore that Beau had stolen her jewelry, which made Trish counter, "Beau didn't steal your jewelry; you pawned them! You can't manipulate everybody all the time to get what you want."Trish said she hoped Mike would find a good girl who wants to live on the ranch, love her son and have a couple of babies.Natalie then FaceTimed with her mother backstage and broke down into tears about how her relationship had ended. Natalie said she felt horrible to deliver this news but she hadn't been living with Mike for a few months and Mike planned to file for divorce."He was so mean to me," Natalie cried to her mother."I thought maybe he would change, but he doesn't want to change at all. I am just very disappointed. I was very much in love with Michael. We had such big dreams... I really wanted a family... We destroyed our love."Natalie worried about being alone and told her mother that she planned to hire a lawyer."Mom, we are done. Please forgive me," Natalie concluded.Jovi said he and Yara weren't getting along well, and Yara explained how Jovi is a great father but sometimes wants his old life back of partying and no responsibilities other than his job.Yara said she's a mom and a tired 27 year old who just wants to relax on the couch and watch a movie.Kalani shared how she and Asuelu were still having issues and just taking things one day at a time, and Asuelu complained, "Kalani doesn't want to move to Samoa because she doesn't care about where I'm from and my culture."Kalani expected Asuelu to side with his mother Lesina and sister Tammy if they ended up making an appearance on the Tell All."We are good. We are on the right track, but everything is not perfect. I think marriage is just hard for everybody," Kalani told Shaun.Brandon admitted he and Julia were "constantly" fighting about something, whether the problem is about his parents or Brandon's desire to be social and have friends. He called Julia's issues with him "insane."Julia said she and Brandon don't live far away enough from his parents because they're only 30 minutes away."I miss being on the phone, and I kind of want to go back [to that], if I'm being honest," Brandon noted.Julia planned to remain quiet at the Tell All since she had gotten involved with a lot of drama at the last reunion show for 's eighth season. However, she boasted about how she's honest with people and says things to their faces instead of behind their backs.Julia said she only liked to return to Brandon's family's farm to visit her dog Simba, whom she apparently loves an incredible amount.Julia gushed about how it's "amazing" to live away from Brandon's parents, but Brandon apparently didn't see much of a difference.When asked how their sex life improved after moving out of Brandon's parents' home, Brandon beamed and replied, "That's been awesome!... Anywhere in the apartment, we want to do it."Shaun asked Julia if she still wants a baby, and Julia said there's nothing wrong with talking about her future with Brandon. Julia said she doesn't want a child "right now and this second" but she's thinking about the future, three or five years from now.Brandon said Julia hadn't talked to him about kids yet and so it's weird when she mentions having a baby in front of his friends.Julia joked that if she wanted a baby right now, she would make it happen and maybe even punch little holes into the tips of Brandon's condoms."I not use condoms. We not use condoms," Julia announced.Brandon admitted Julia was a little hard to live with and she's very jealous in that she wants him all to herself. Brandon said Julia doesn't approve of him having female friends.Julia said she's jealous because she doesn't have any friends in the United States, but Brandon argued that multiple people have tried to befriend Julia."Brandon, do you think that Julia's jealousy can affect your relationship to the point that it's in jeopardy?" Shaun asked."Maybe," Brandon replied. "If she tries to do this with my closest friends and wants to push them out of my life -- like she has with some friends -- maybe."Julia admitted her jealousy wasn't going to change and never will, and Andrei told Julia that she needs to be more confident.Julia revealed how all of her past boyfriends had cheated on her, but Yara suggested that Julia didn't have much to be jealous of because it's not like Brandon is a Hollywood superstar hunk.Brandon's parents Betty and Ron then participated via videochat from the farm, and Betty said they missed her son and daughter-in-law very much. They also missed having people to help out with the farm chores.Betty wished Julia and Brandon would move closer to the farm, and she said some properties that are close by, in walking distance -- aka next door, apparently -- were for sale at the time."No, no, no," Julia repeated.Betty said she and Ron would help the pair with the down payment just to have them closer."No, no," Julia said, adding that she and Brandon were not going to take money from them for anything.Andrei and Elizabeth pointed out how Betty and Ron could help Brandon and Julia with their kids if they lived so close to one another -- and then suddenly, Brandon's parents started cracking up with laughter.Betty said she wasn't sure how long she could keep up the farm with Ron, who had been having health issues and was trying different medications. Ron, however, said he was optimistic about having a full and complete recovery.Brandon then started to cry and admitted it was difficult to talk about. He didn't want to get into Ron's health issues since Ron clearly didn't offer up any information himself."Julia, if Brandon insisted on moving back to the farm or at least in this house next door, what would that mean for your relationship?" Shaun asked."No, I mean, this is not going to happen. I don't want to [talk] about it or give this attention... because it's not [happening]," Julia responded, adding that she doesn't want to take care of a bunch of animals.Ron said family is the most important thing in the world and they should pull and stick together.Ronald expressed how he and Tiffany were not in a very good place. He said things had been "a bit rough" for his relationship and he was ready to "set the record straight" and make a few things known.Tiffany said once she returned home to the United States after her Christmas trip to South Africa, it hit her "twice as hard" that she was taking care of two kids and handling her family's finances all by herself."I put my foot down [with Ronald] and said, 'If you can't be a man about it and support your kids, then you don't actually deserve to be a dad, and so I'm going to do my own thing,'" Tiffany recalled.Tiffany called her situation "complicated" and told her co-stars that she wasn't going to let Ronald control the narrative at the Tell All.Viewers last saw Tiffany packing up her belongings to leave Ronald's house in South Africa.When asked what happened, Tiffany said she had given up in that moment and determined that she wasn't going to fight for the relationship anymore. Tiffany said once Ronald realized she was seriously going to leave, he talked to her and explained why he was acting the way he was acting."I did not treat her right," Ronald conceded, adding that he only realizes this after the fact and it's a bad habit of his that he needs to break. "I apologized for my behavior."Tiffany said she stayed in South Africa for four months with her two kids and arrived back in the United States in March.Tiffany told Shaun that Ronald was still trying to figure out how to make her happy.Ronald compared his relationship with Tiffany to Michael and Angela's marriage in that Tiffany is "the boss," just like Angela. Ronald said he's always the one who is wrong and at fault but Tiffany cannot take the role of a man and "that's literally what she does."Tiffany said she was always supportive of Ronald and has been raising their kids on her own and so she'd definitely fulfilled her role as the "woman" in the relationship."She is the reason I'm not in the U.S. yet," Ronald declared. "Did you do the tax papers, Tiffany?""I didn't submit it because I'm here," Tiffany replied.Yara advised Tiffany to relax a little bit more and actually allow Ronald to do stuff for her. Yara said she could feel Tiffany's independent energy and how she needed to let Ronald in.Ronald complimented Tiffany on being strong but pointed out how they "clash."When Tiffany told Shaun that she wants Ronald in America, Ronald countered, "Bullsh-t.""Ronald, I really suggest -- watch yourself," Tiffany responded. "I told you I'm not worried [about] moving to the U.S. I can stay in f-cking South Africa.""Then that's your choice... If you want to stay away from your kids, then go ahead!" Tiffany griped.Ronald said every time Tiffany leaves South Africa, she brings a piece of him back with her. Tiffany rolled her eyes at the comment, which upset Ronald even more.Tiffany appeared to be choking back tears, and she said she wasn't sure if the fighting would stop once she and Ronald can actually live together in the United States.Ronald admitted he had treated Tiffany poorly in South Africa, and Tiffany complained about how Ronald had spoken to her during their big argument."When I came walking in and she was laughing, first of all, she's sitting with a bottle of Bacardi with her that she took out of the car because she's going to stay by the hotel with the f-cking cameraman," Ronald alleged.Ronald accused Tiffany of being "way too friendly" with this cameraman while filming the series. Ronald said it was "a fact" Tiffany had been giving this man too much attention."I will make sh-t known!" Ronald shouted, adding that Tiffany gushed about how this cameraman was the greatest and best guy ever.Tiffany shrugged off Ronald's remark and said he was just "jealous" and it's not her problem.Tiffany's mother Maggie and mother-in-law Ria then participated in the Tell All via videochat. Ria said if either Tiffany or Ronald decided to file for divorce, she'd be devastated because it would feel like she's losing a child."She's already a part of me. She's my child as well," Ria said, which made Tiffany cry. "I love you... and I will always treat you with respect. I would hate to see you leave. Really, I wish I was there just to give you a hug."Tiffany admitted she was "so annoyed" because Ronald cherishes and loves her half the time and then there's a side of him that accuses her of flirting with a cameraman and treats her poorly.Tiffany said if a man loves his wife, he doesn't act like that.Maggie blamed "hard-headed" Ronald for being at fault for most of the couple's fighting, saying she doesn't like or appreciate what Tiffany has to go through in her marriage, "like her suffering.""If you didn't have kids, would you be divorced by now?" Shaun asked."I think, yeah," Tiffany replied.Tiffany confirmed, however, that she still loves Ronald and that's why they're still together."We love each other and we're trying. I've got faults... I'm not saying I'm an angel. I'm sorry, love," Ronald told his wife.Shaun told the couple that she hoped they could work things out, and Ronald responded, "We definitely will."Tiffany later revealed she planned to go under the knife in two days to have the sleeve weight-loss surgery Angela had. Ronald apparently wasn't supportive in the beginning but she determined surgery is the right step for her."Why not put in the work? That's my mindset. You'll appreciate the results much more," Ronald said.Tiffany acknowledged it's not going to be easy but she's ready to do the work that needs to be done after the surgery.Andrei said he and Elizabeth had endured some ups and downs in their marriage due to family drama and Andrei's new involvement in the family business.Elizabeth complained how Andrei allegedly has the tendency to shut down and not listen to anyone around him, including his own wife.Andrei said Elizabeth's entire family was in need of therapy for different reasons."[Andrei] said he's going to work on [his anger issues] but he hasn't. Actions speak louder than words. He's said this so many times, but ultimately you need to act on it," Elizabeth told her husband.Michael insisted he didn't want to lose his wife and he truly cared about her health and well-being.Angela was apparently so late that the : Happily Ever After? cast chose to start filming the Tell All without her.Angela had lost 20 more pounds in the last month or so and was so excited to show the cast her new look now that she had achieved her "goal weight."Angela arrived in a red low-cut jumpsuit showing off some major cleavage. Her blonde hair was high in a ponytail with flowing extensions, and Angela was rocking multiple gold necklaces, high heels and an incredibly confident attitude."Oh my!" gushed Michael, who participated in the Tell All via videochat from Nigeria. "I can't wait to feel it."Angela revealed she had lost 106 pounds since undergoing weight-loss surgery, and Michael said he couldn't wait to see his wife and she looked "sweet and sexy" but he just wanted her to be healed and healthy.Angela, however, announced that she had no support from Michael at all throughout her transformation. Angela accused Michael of making fun of her small breasts after the breast reduction and so she apparently had implants put in -- the one surgery Michael allegedly agreed to.Later on, Angela said Michael never checked on her and was "a total assh-le" after her surgery. Angela said Michael disappeared on her and she's not a fool, but Michael said he can't be in contact constantly, like when he goes to church or visits his family.Michael admitted he didn't like the surgery at first and was a little selfish, and Angela said Michael was more worried about her losing her boobs than he had been about her health.Angela explained how she wants to be around longer for Michael and her grandchildren, and she also said she wants to look sexy for her younger husband. However, Michael pointed out how it's a status symbol to be overweight in Nigeria and being skinny is criticized where he's from.Angela called it "very painful" when Michael poked fun at her small breasts post-surgery, and she broke down and cried, saying, "I really thought I was going to die."Michael told Angela that she shouldn't worry and everything is okay because he's with her now and he's sorry, but Angela lamented about how long it took for Michael to come around and be supportive.Tiffany said it was "bullsh-t" how Michael had neglected his wife during such a serious time.Angela's daughter Skyla then joined the Tell-All, and everyone watched back a clip of Angela flirting with her surgeon, Dr. Obeng, which made Michael feel very jealous.When Shaun asked Angela if she had only seen Dr. Obeng at the office, Angela hesitated for a minute and then revealed she had attended the surgeon's birthday party in California."I thought I told you," Angela told Michael. "I went to show my appreciation.""So you were never alone with Dr. Obeng?" Shaun questioned.Angela covered her face with her hands and Michael demanded an answer. A producer apparently told Shaun that Dr. Obeng had driven Angela home from the party, and Angela noted how she had forgotten all about that moment."Are you kidding me?" Michael said. "[If I did this], you would curse me out and say all these things! Why didn't you tell me this before?"Angela told Michael to shut up and explained how the party was at a bar and she and Skyla attended. Angela recalled feeling nauseated and wanting to go back to the hotel, and so Dr. Obeng allegedly offered to drive her home since Angela appeared pretty sick.Michael said the story doesn't matter because Angela never told him about it. Michael said Angela demands "every God damn detail" of every outing he ever has and Angela left this entire story out of conversation."Dr. Obeng is a very caring man," Angela said."Go marry him then," Michael snapped. "Rubbish... I was sick, Michael! He seen I was pale as a frickin' ghost."Angela called Michael an "assho-le," and then Michael's aunt Lydia joined the conversation via videochat from Nigeria.Lydia called Angela's new transformation "pretty okay" but said she's annoyed because Michael accepted Angela for the way she looked before and Michael's wife should be more concerned about having his baby."If he accepts me for how I am -- big, fat, skinny, tall -- then he accepts me for not being able to have babies," Angela explained.Lydia said she has no problem with Angela not wanting to carry a child but she and Michael should go through a surrogate mother as a result, and Angela told Lydia to mind her business.Michael scolded Angela for speaking to his aunt disrespectfully, and then Angela yelled at Michael, "Shut your f-cking mouth!"Michael begged Angela to let Lydia talk and stop cutting her off, and then Angela totally lost her cool. Angela said Lydia always cut her down behind her back, and then Lydia pointed her finger at Angela, which upset Angela even more."I gave you more respect than you deserve," Angela shouted.The women began yelling at each other and Angela called Lydia "so nosy," before Lydia said it's not good for an American woman to marry a Nigerian man and not want a child. Lydia said Michael is like a son to her."Your aunt wants us to get a divorce," Angela told Michael.Michael assured his wife that she was jumping to conclusions, and then Angela got on her feet and started yelling at Michael even louder. Angela and Lydia started screaming at each other through videochat, with Angela saying Lydia had no right to talk to her like that.Lydia accused Angela of wanting to look sexy and beautiful for other men, and Angela screamed at Michael to "shut the f-ck up" and star supporting her."You better respect me! Who the f-ck do you think you're talking to?!" Angela yelled at Lydia. "That is my husband. That is my f-cking husband and there's nothing you can do about it!... Mind your own business and you will not tell my husband what to do!"In a moment of pure rage, Angela flashed Lydia her boobs and the entire cast behind her appeared shocked."You want to listen to her? I'll show every f-cking body in here my [boobs]!" Angela threatened.Angela did, in fact, proceed to flash her boobs to the group and the cameramen."You won't see these God damn tits again!" Angela concluded.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage!
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/16/2021



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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.

alum Holly Allen has apparently slammed her ex-boyfriend and former houseguest Jackson Michie , claiming he has an ego and there were red flags she ignored when they began dating.Holly, 33, posted a TikTok video on Saturday with the caption "Hallelujah" and a praying-hands emoji.In the video, Holly essentially had a conversation with another version of herself.Holly explained, "My ex and I broke up because of religious differences," to which her alternate self replied, "Really?"Holly then responded, "Yeah, he thought he was God. And I didn't."While Holly didn't name Jackson directly in her video, she made it pretty clear that the 26-year-old Season 21 winner was her target in the comments.Many people asked Holly if she was referring to Jackson, whom she announced her split from in June 2020."Good for you girl but didn't you see all those red flags in the house???" one of Holly's fans asked."Yeah," Holly replied, "but they're harder to see with Bb goggles."Another TikTok user asked Holly, "Girl how did you not see this in the house!?""I did see but girl you cling on to ANY source of comfort in there," Holly wrote back. "It's soooooo drastically different than real life."A third person accused Holly of settling in the house with Jackson, and the Wyoming native clarified in reply, "We had ZERO options!!!!""And [houseguest Tommy Bracco ] wouldn't let any of us date him," she joked.When another fan commented on how Michie's age explains a lot, Holly countered, that she was "not like that at 26."But Holly, who finished as the runner-up on 's 21st season, said during a July 2020 appearance on "The Publyssity Podcast" that her age difference from Jackson played a big role in their breakup because they're at different places in their lives and have different goals for the future, according to Soap Dirt.Holly also reportedly shared at the time how she and Jackson spent too much time together after leaving the house.In addition, Holly reportedly claimed she wanted to keep their breakup private but Jackson wanted to announce the news and make it a public affair, which rubbed Holly the wrong way.However, fellow alum Kathryn Dunn put Holly on blast during a previous live stream for being jealous and not trusting Jackson, Soap Dirt reported last summer.Kat allegedly said Holly had accused her of sleeping with Michie when she visited their apartment in February 2020.Kat claimed a fight broke out that resulted in police getting called and coming to Holly and Jackson's place in Los Angeles. Kat, however, managed to leave by the time authorities arrived.When Holly announced her split from Jackson in June 2020, she hinted on Instagram that "sometimes fundamental character traits simply don't line up" and "priorities don't match.""This past year has been the hardest to date and has taught me about sense of self, security in who I am, and what I want for my future. I know I cannot compromise my own integrity," she continued at the time."I know that I'm proud of myself, my accomplishments, and my roots. I know the spirit and the inspiration that I look for in people I surround myself with. I know what I deserve. And I'm excited for this new chapter and where it will lead me."But Holly admitted she was "hurting" at the time and so she wanted people to "spare the criticism."And Jackson shared on his Instagram of Holly in June 2020, "Life has continued to work in ways neither of expected, and sadly life will be taking us in different directions. This isn't because of bad actions or words, rather, two people who deeply love each other recognizing that a relationship may not be for the best."Jackson went on to say, "I said it on the show and I will say it always, I love her and she will forever hold a special place in my heart. This post is something that neither of us wanted to share, but given the circumstances of our relationship and how things started it only seems appropriate to offer an answer once and for all.""Understand that we are both going through significant life changes and monumental events in our individual lives separate from this," he added.Rumors sparked there was trouble in paradise when Jackson noticeably spent his 25th birthday with his buddy Brett Robinson at Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas on June 13, 2020 instead of with Holly.And Holly did not even wish Jackson a happy birthday on social media, according to Us Weekly.Jackson, originally from Tennessee, and Holly, a wine safari guide, had a showmance on 's 21st season, but due to frequent fighting, the pair was on and off.Holly and Jackson, who had agreed to stay friends no matter what, made it to the Final 2 on and then Jackson went on to win the $500,000 grand prize in September 2019.After the finale ended, the couple continued to date with low expectations of having a future together, but they fell more in love and ended up meeting each other's friends and loved ones over the holidays in late 2019.Holly and Jackson subsequently moved into an apartment together in Los Angeles, CA, in January 2020.Given Holly and Jackson lived together in the house for an entire summer, the couple reasoned at the time, "It just seems natural to live together now," because they were basically "attached at the hip" anyway."We are best friends, communicate well and have so much fun together. Both of our leases were coming to an end and... we both just thought it made sense," the couple told Us.But Jackson and Holly claimed they weren't in any rush to get engaged or tie the knot."One thing at a time! Right now, we are loving where we are in life and enjoying this journey. We think our relationship will go the distance because we are genuinely best friends," the couple said."And a friendship came first before we fell in love. Early on, we realized how important we are to each other and made a vow to always be part of each other's lives -- whether it was in a romantic or platonic capacity. Now everything else just comes naturally."Holly was previously linked to Luke Pell from JoJo Fletcher 's season of The Bachelorette. The pair reportedly dated on and off from 2017 to 2018.is currently airing its 23rd season on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights on CBS.
Future Islands are back with new music.

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The synthpop band released the single "Peach" on Wednesday.

"Peach" reflects on the ups and downs of life while retaining an optimistic message.

"But I'm not giving up / Not today, not today," frontman Samuel T. Herring sings.

"Peach" is Future Islands' first new single since the album As Long as You Are, released in October. The album features the singles "For Sure," "Thrill," "Moonlight" and "Plastic Beach."

Future Islands will kick off its Calling Out in Space tour Sept. 1 in Los Angeles. The band will tour the United States into October before heading to Europe and the United Kingdom in February 2022.

Future Islands consists of Herring, Gerrit Welmers, William Cashion and Michael Lowry. The band was formed in 2006.
Paris Hilton discussed plans for her upcoming wedding while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

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Hilton will be marrying her fiance Carter Reum, 40, a venture capitalist. The couple got engaged in February on Hilton's 40th birthday as the pair was celebrating on a private island.

Fallon, on Tuesday, asked Hilton if she will be utilizing her DJ skills during the wedding.

"I'll definitely get a DJ because it's too much. We'll have a band as well. It's going to be like a three-day affair," Hilton said.

"Lots of dresses. Probably 10. I love outfit changes," she continued before stating that Reum will not be taking part in outfit changes.

Hilton will also be filming her wedding for a documentary series that is coming to Peacock.

"I just feel like for my documentary This is Paris, it ended in a way in which, it was amazing but I just feel like I want my fans to see that I found my Prince Charming and my happy fairy-tale ending," she said.

Hilton also starred in a comedic sketch with Fallon where she used her signature catchphrase "That's Hot" repeatedly while talking with the late night host. Hilton was asked about the weather and how to pronounce Kevin Hart's last name in a British accent.

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Hilton recently launched her new cooking series on Netflix titled Cooking with Paris.
RuPaul's Drag Race UK is showcasing the new drag queens who will be competing on Season 3 of the reality series.

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The new season will feature 12 contestants who range in age from 19 to 35.

Victoria Scone, 29, who is described as a cabaret, disco diva; Veronica Green, 35, who is returning after competing on Season 2; Vanity Milan, 29, who says she can dance like no one else; Scarlett Harlett, 26, who embraces her cockney heritage; River Medway, 22, who says her drag is camp, feel good and shallow; and Krystal Versace, 19, who says she is a perfectionist; make up the roster.

Also competing are Kitty Scott-Claus, 29, who says she is the life and soul of the party; Ella Vaday, 32, who is an experienced performer from the West End; Elektra Fence, 29, who has an obsession with leopard print; Charity Kase, 24, who has performed all over the globe; Choriza May, 30, who is a Spanish queen living in Newcastle; and Anubis, 19, who pays homage to her Egyptian heritage.

RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 3 is coming to BBC Three and the BBC iPlayer in September. A premiere date will be announced at a later time.

Lawrence Chaney won RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 2 in March.
TRAVERSE CITY  Health departments in the northern Michigan region have COVID-19 booster shots available for immunocompromised people, though they may be required to confirm their eligibility.

As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that moderately to severely immunocompromised people get a booster.

The latest on COVID-19 Continuing coverage of COVID-19 and its impact. If you have a question about the novel coronavirus pandemic and haven't been able to find an a

We are asking people to talk to their doctor, said Lisa Peacock, health officer for the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department and the Health Department of Northwest Michigan.

Peacock said those who are eligible should bring a note or a prescription for the booster with them to a vaccine clinic. People will not be notified by the health department to let them know if they are eligible for that third shot, she said.

Its a discussion between them and their doctor to determine if their health status warrants that, Peacock said. We are asking that they bring a note or a prescription from their doctor if theyre able to. Certainly if there are barriers to that we will talk to them about it.

Conditions warranting a booster are treatment for cancer, organ or stem cell transplants, advanced or untreated HIV infections, or high doses of corticosteroids, according to the CDC.

The booster is available for those who were given the Moderna or Pfizer mRNA vaccine; it is not available for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a different type of vaccine.

Those who are eligible for a booster can make an appointment or go to a walk-in clinic, just the same as anyone who wants a first dose of the vaccine, Peacock said.

Dr. Jennifer Morse, medical director for District Health Department No.10, said people are not required to bring a note or prescription if they have one of the conditions named by the CDC. For conditions outside of that they will need to speak to their doctor and get an order, Morse said.

For now the CDC is not recommending boosters for anyone else, though that may change.

The addition of a booster for some comes amid a continued surge of cases largely attributed to the highly-contagious delta variant, with nearly all hospitalizations and deaths occurring in unvaccinated people.

The region served by Munson Healthcare has a 6.5 percent one-week positivity rate; that rate was below 2 percent for several weeks before the current surge, Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer for Munson Healthcare, said during Munsons bi-weekly virtual press conference Tuesday.

On Tuesday there were 18 COVID-19 patients in the Munson system, with eight of them at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. Last week there were more than 30 patients hospitalized.

Cases among children are on the rise across the country and as children head back to class, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services all recommend universal masking in schools.

Traverse City Area Public Schools is recommending  not requiring  that people mask up in school buildings, despite the advice of nearly 160 area doctors asking that masking be required.

We know from the last school year that having kids in school is the best place for them, but we are also learning that the safe way to get them in school and to stay in school is to be masked, Nefcy said, especially since children under 12 are not protected by the vaccine.

Dr. Christopher Ledtke, an infectious disease specialist with Munson, said the delta variant is much stronger than the non-mutated COVID virus. The virus hijacks the bodys hardware and creates its own genetic material to create more viruses very quickly, he said.

A lot of mutations are created, most of which are not viable, Ledtke said, but variants are occasionally created that are stronger and more highly transmissible than the original.

That will continue to occur as viral transmission goes unchecked, Ledtke said. Right now were talking about the delta, but we will very likely have further variants to talk about down the road, unfortunately.

The alpha variant, which is responsible for the April surge, was about 50 percent more contagious than the original strain. The delta variant is about 50 percent more contagious than the alpha variant and now makes up about 95 percent of the new cases seen in Michigan and likely locally, Ledtke said.

Several areas of the country are being hit hard by the latest surge, but the overwhelming number of cases in Florida has Ledtke worried.

The vaccination rate in Florida is actually very similar to that in Michigan, which to me is concerning, Ledtke said. It makes me think that we are fairly vulnerable up here.

Rare breakthrough cases are being seen in vaccinated people, Ledtke said. Cases are typically mild and it would be extremely rare, but not impossible, for those cases to lead to hospitalization or death, he said.

Between Jan. 15 and July 21 there were 8,700 breakthrough cases in Michigan, or about .189 percent, according to state data.

A study from July looked at an outbreak of delta cases in Massachusetts of vaccinated people who developed COVID versus unvaccinated, Ledtke said. The study showed while the vaccinated people had very mild cases, they were shedding just as much virus and were just as contagious as the unvaccinated.

The study prompted the CDC to change its policy in late July to recommend masking indoors, whether vaccinated or not. Prior to that the CDC said fully vaccinated people did not need to wear a mask.

I think that caught a lot of people off guard and it may have led to some discrediting of the CDC, but in reality whats happening is they are making new decisions based on new information, Ledtke said, which is typical in the scientific community and in medicine.

Its just not typically this fast and its not this highly scrutinized, he said. That doesnt mean that the vaccination isnt working.
Traverse City, MI (49684)

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 53F. Winds light and variable..

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Porterville, CA (93257)

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 62F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

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Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 62F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
The Athens-Clarke County commission unanimously approved an incentive plan to motivate more residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine in a special called session Tuesday evening. The commission also passed a measure to extend eviction prevention aid and agreed to request recovery aid from the state for infrastructure improvements and local business loans.

Vaccine incentives

After a question and answer session between the commissioners and Georgia Department of Public Health Northeast District Administrator Emily Eisenman, the commission voted in favor of providing gift cards as an incentive for receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. The program allocates $200,000 to the Clarke County Health Department to give new vaccine recipients $100 gift cards per shot. Recipients must live, work or go to school in Athens-Clarke County.

The Health Department will be responsible for deciding which vaccine locations will provide the incentive with the intention of increasing the county vaccination rate and reducing disparities. It has not yet stated which locations host the program.

Funding for the vaccine incentive program comes from the federal American Rescue Plan, which President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11 to fund vaccination efforts and provide economic relief to those impacted by the pandemic.

The program hopes to address the communitys slightly lower than average vaccination rate. According to the DPH, 40% of county residents are fully vaccinated compared to 42% of Georgia residents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also rates the countys level of transmission as high, with 226 cases per 100,000 residents in the last week.

Recent county measures to address increasing infection rates include mandating masks in indoor public spaces and requiring COVID-19 vaccines for all county employees, both approved Aug. 3.

In addition to the countys plan, the University of Georgia also announced a lottery system vaccine incentive in effect through Sept. 3. All faculty, staff and students that receive a vaccine from the University Health Center or the Tate Mobile Clinic are eligible for the lottery and will receive a T-shirt and $20 gift card. Drawings will take place every Friday starting Aug. 13.

Although a rollout date for the countys incentive program has not been announced, Eisenman is optimistic that DPH has the capacity to move quickly.

We have done, just in the last few months, over 75 events in Clarke County, Eisenman said. Weve got the team, weve got the infrastructure ready to roll. ... We know we are able to do it immediately because we are very large and have a lot of staff.

Community aid

The commission also approved more financial aid for local nonprofits that provide homeless services, food insecurity prevention and housing assistance. Following an Aug. 3 CDC order to halt evictions in the county through Oct. 3, the commission voted to extend housing aid contracts through the end of the year.

The new measure sets aside $300,000 with the purpose of preventing evictions and providing rental assistance to those in need. Eligible households generally include those that earn 30% or less of the median income in Athens-Clarke County. According to 2019 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Athens median household income is $38,311.

With the CDC moratorium on evictions currently set to expire in October, all commissioners expressed urgency in the vote. Mayor Kelly Girtz stated that timeliness is the desire, particularly when finding a nonprofit partner to coordinate with the magistrate courts, landlords and tenants after Oct. 3.

The commission also approved a series of applications for the county to receive grant money from Georgia State Fiscal Recovery Funds. The majority of the money requested is focused on infrastructure. The applications request approximately $30 million towards improving water and sewer structures, and an additional $7.7 million for stormwater structures.

The Economic Development Department will also submit an application for just over $1 million. This money would provide low-interest loans to small businesses and go towards reviewing the districting of Coggin Industrial Park to better fit economic needs. All three applications will go to the Georgia Jobs and Infrastructure Committees for approval.
Athens, GA (30605)

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A steady rain early...then remaining cloudy with a few showers. Low 71F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

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A steady rain early...then remaining cloudy with a few showers. Low 71F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Greenville, NC (27833)

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Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

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Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. Low 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

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Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 59F. Winds light and variable..

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Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 59F. Winds light and variable.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

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Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 59F. Winds light and variable..

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Mostly clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 59F. Winds light and variable.
Beckley, WV (25801)

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Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

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Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
POLLOCK PINES, Calif. (AP)  Record-setting blazes raging across Northern California are wiping out forests central to plans to reduce carbon emissions and testing projects designed to protect communities, the states top fire official said Wednesday, hours before a fast-moving new blaze erupted.

Fires that are exceedingly resistant to control in drought-sapped vegetation are on pace to exceed the amount of land burned last year  the most in modern history  and having broader effects, said Thom Porter, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Hours after Porter spoke, a grass fire spurred by winds up to 30 mph (48 kilometers per hour) swiftly burned dozens of homes, forced the evacuation of schools and threatened the city of Clearlake about 80 miles north of San Francisco.

Rows of homes were destroyed on at least two blocks and television footage showed crews dousing burning homes with water. Children were rushed out of an elementary school as a field across the street burned.

Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin issued a warning of immediate threat to life and property."

This isnt the fire to mess around with, he told KGO-TV.

Fires burning mostly in the northern part of the state threatened thousands of homes and led to extended evacuation orders and warnings, as well as power outages to prevent utility equipment from sparking fires amid strong winds.

The largest current fire in the West, known as the Dixie Fire, is the first to have burned from east to west across the spine of California, where the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains meet, the state's fire chief said.

It was also one of several massive fires that have destroyed areas of the timber belt that serve as a centerpiece of the state's climate reduction plan because trees can store carbon dioxide.

We are seeing generational destruction of forests because of what these fires are doing, Porter said. This is going to take a long time to come back from.

Although the Dixie Fire is only a third contained and remains a threat, dozens of fire engines and crews were transferred Wednesday to fight the Caldor Fire, which exploded in size southwest of Lake Tahoe and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a community of about 1,200. It covered 84 square miles (217 square kilometers).

Dozens of homes burned, according to officials, but tallies were incomplete. Those who viewed the aftermath saw few homes standing. Lone chimneys rose from the ashes, little more than rows of chairs remained of a church and the burned out husks of cars littered the landscape.

Chris Sheean said the dream home he bought six weeks ago near the elementary school went up in smoke. He felt lucky he and his wife, cats and dog got out safely hours before the flames arrived.

Its devastation. You know, theres really no way to explain the feeling, the loss, Sheean said. Maybe next to losing a child, a baby, maybe.  Everything that we owned, everything that weve built is gone.

All 7,000 residents in nearby Pollock Pines were ordered to evacuate Tuesday. A large fire menaced the town in 2014.

Time lapse video from a U.S. Forest Service webcam captured the fire's extreme behavior as it grew beneath a massive gray cloud. A ceiling of dark smoke spread out from the main plume that began to glow and was then illuminated by flames shooting hundreds of feet in the sky.

John Battles, a professor of forest ecology at the University of California, Berkeley, said the fires are behaving in ways not seen in the past as flames churn through trees and brush desiccated by a megadrought in the West and exacerbated by climate change.

These are reburning areas that have burned what we thought were big fires 10 years ago, Battles said. Theyre reburning that landscape.

The wildfires, in large part, have been fueled by high temperatures, strong winds and dry weather. Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

Battles said the fires have created a vicious cycle. Burning increases carbon emissions while also destroying trees and other ground cover that can absorb the greenhouse gas. Dead trees will continue to release carbon they once stored.

The fire is burning along the U.S. Route 50 corridor, one of two highways between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. The highway through the canyon along the South Fork of the American River has been the focus of a decades-long effort to protect homes by preventing the spread of fires through a combination of fuel breaks, prescribed burns and logging.

All of that is being tested as we speak, Porter said. When fire is jumping outside of its perimeter, sometimes miles ... those fuel projects wont stop a fire. Sometimes theyre just used to slow it enough to get people out of the way.

In the Sierra-Cascades region about 100 miles (161 kilometers) to the north, the month-old Dixie Fire expanded by thousands of acres to 993 square miles (2,572 square kilometers)  two weeks after the blaze gutted the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville. About 16,000 homes and buildings were threatened by the Dixie Fire, the second-largest in state history.

It's a pretty good size monster," Mark Brunton, a firefighting operations section chief, said in a briefing. "It's going to be a work in progress  eating the elephant one bite at a time kind of thing.

The Caldor and Dixie fires are among a dozen large wildfires in the northern half of California.

More than 40,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers had no power, though the utility began restoring electricity to customers as forecasts for low humidity and gusts were expected to improve Thursday.

Most of the fires this year have hit the northern part of the state, largely sparing Southern California, which experienced rare drizzle and light rain Wednesday. Fire conditions in the region are expected to get worse in the fall.

___

Associated Press writers John Antczak in Los Angeles and Olga R. Rodriguez and Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report.
ATLANTA (AP)  Georgias State Election Board inched forward Wednesday in a process set in motion by Republican lawmakers using a controversial provision of the states sweeping new election law that could ultimately lead to a takeover of elections in the states most populous county.

Fulton County, a Democratic bastion that includes most of the city of Atlanta, has long been a target of Republicans who complain of sloppiness and say they want to ensure state laws are being followed. Former President Donald Trump fixated on Fulton after the November general election, claiming without evidence that fraud in the county contributed to his narrow loss in the state.

Democrats and voting rights activists have said the takeover provision in the new law invites political interference in local elections and could suppress turnout.

Well have to wait and see how it plays out, but it does feed the Democrats concerns that Republicans are going to interfere with the actions of the board which is in charge of elections in the county which gave Democrats their biggest total margin of votes, University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said.

The state board was required to appoint the panel to investigate Fulton Countys handling of elections after receiving requests last month from Republican lawmakers who represent the county. The members of the bipartisan review panel are: Stephen Day, a Democratic appointee to the Gwinnett County election board; Ricky Kittle, a Republican appointee to the Catoosa County election board; and Ryan Germany, general counsel for the secretary of states office.

Fulton County accounts for about 11% of the states electorate, and President Joe Biden won nearly 73% of the countys votes in November. The county is about 45.5% white, 44.5% Black and about 7.6% people of Asian descent, according to U.S. Census data.

Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts has said from the start that the new election law would be used to target Fulton County.

This is the result of a cynical ploy to undermine faith in our elections process and democracy itself  it is shameful partisan politics at its very worst, Pitts said Wednesday after the panel was appointed.

Georgias AME Bishop Reginald Jackson noted the high turnout by Black voters last year, which was instrumental in delivering Bidens win in the state and the victory of two Democrats in a U.S. Senate runoff election in January.

Today, it is clear that the Georgia Republican Party is scared. Since they no longer can win elections based on ideas, policy, leaderships or morals, their only pathetic course of action is to try to take legitimate votes away, he said in an emailed statement.

The GOP House members who requested the review panel said in a letter to the State Election Board that the performance review was necessary to assure voter confidence in our elections.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, a former secretary of state, applauded the panels appointment.

Fulton County has a long history of mismanagement, incompetence, and a lack of transparency when it comes to running elections - including during 2020. I fully support this review, he tweeted.

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has vigorously defended the integrity of the 2020 election in the state, but has long criticized election operations in Fulton County. He didnt participate in Wednesdays vote on the panel because the states new election law removed him as chair of the State Election Board and made him a non-voting member.

Its true that the county has a long history of election problems, including long lines, inefficiency in reporting election results and other problems, Bullock said, adding that some of those issues were especially acute during last years primary. After that troubled primary, the State Election Board entered into a consent order with the county that included appointing an independent monitor.

That monitor, Carter Jones, who has previous experience working on elections in other parts of the world, spent nearly 270 hours observing the countys election processes from October through January, and said he observed sloppy practices and poor management but saw no evidence of any dishonesty, fraud or intentional malfeasance.

Before voting to approve the review panel, Sara Tindall Ghazal, the lone Democrat on the state board, said she expects the board will be under tremendous political pressure on both sides to come to preordained conclusions.

The narrative driving this pressure has been influenced by disinformation surrounding the November 2020 election, but the fact remains that Fulton County voters have reported numerous problems for far longer than November 2020, particularly surrounding registration and absentee ballots, Ghazal said. She urged the county to view this as an opportunity to have fresh eyes on their systems and procedures and identify areas of improvement.

Matt Mashburn, a Republican member of the state board, said it would be nice if the report the panel produces not only identifies problems but also reflects solutions that have already been identified.

I encourage Fulton to keep trying to improve and not just throw up their hands and say its all in the hands of the board now, he said.

Bullock, the political science professor, said the bipartisan nature of the panel will help legitimize its conclusions.

The Democrats at least will be able to interject their concerns, he said. They certainly could be outvoted 2-1, but at least they could have some influence.

The new law allows lawmakers who represent a given county to request a review of local election officials. The review board must issue a report after a thorough investigation.

The state board could eventually suspend the county board if it finds evidence county officials violated state election law or rules three times since 2018 and have not fixed violations. It could also remove the county board if it finds that during at least two elections over two years the board has shown nonfeasance, malfeasance, or gross negligence.

The State Election Board, currently with a 3-1 Republican majority, would appoint a temporary administrator to run Fulton County elections if it removes the county board.
HARTFORD  A 42-year-old Hartford man was sentenced to 60 months of prison for trafficking heroin and fentanyl, according to federal officials.

Alex Sabo-Santiago, also known as Boricua, was ordered to serve four years of supervised release after his sentence, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

The Drug Enforcement Administration's Hartford Task Force learned in June 2019 that Sabo-Santiago was expecting a delivery of a kilogram of heroin, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

On June 6, Sabo-Santiago was arrested after he picked up what he thought was a kilogram of heroin, the U.S. Attorney said.

When officials later raided his home, they found nearly one kilogram of fentanyl, items used to process and package narcotics to sell, and a 9mm firearm, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

Sabo-Santiago pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl in December, the U.S. Attorneys office said.

Sabo-Santiago was released on a $100,000 bond. He is required to report to prison Sept. 21, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.

In 2020, there were 1,150 overdoses involving fentanyl and 205 overdoses involving heroin statewide, according to data from the Connecticut State Department of Public Health.

Those struggling with substance abuse issues can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration national hotline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for a free and confidential treatment referral or information.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Robert Durst said he deeply regretted telling his life story to filmmakers in hopes of restoring his reputation.

If a Los Angeles prosecutor keeps exposing lies Durst told over the years, the New York real estate heir on trial for murder may wish he hadn't taken a chance to appeal directly to jurors in his bid for acquittal.

Durst testified under cross-examination Tuesday that he lied under oath in the past and would do it again to prevent incriminating himself. But he said he hadn't lied  at least up to that point  during his five days of ongoing testimony in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Under questioning from Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who relished the prospect of grilling Durst and prepared a 200-page outline for questioning, the multimillionaire acknowledged there are some acts he would never come clean about.

If youve said youve taken an oath to tell the truth but youve also just told us that you would lie if you needed to, can you tell me how that would not destroy your credibility? Lewin asked.

Because what Im saying is mostly the truth, Durst said. There are certain things I would lie about, certain very important things.

Durst said he would never admit killing Susan Berman  even if he had done so.

'Did you kill Susan Berman?' is strictly a hypothetical, Durst said. I did not kill Susan Berman. But if I had, I would lie about it.

Durst, 78, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the point-blank shooting of Berman, his longtime confidante, in her Los Angeles home. Durst said he found a lifeless Berman lying on a bedroom floor when he showed up for a planned visit just before Christmas in 2000.

Playing clips of interviews Durst gave filmmakers, an interrogation conducted after Durst's arrest in New Orleans in 2015, and clips from his testimony, Lewin got Durst to admit several lies he told over the years.

Prosecutors say Durst silenced Berman as she prepared to speak with New York authorities about the disappearance of his wife, Kathie, in 1982 and how she provided a false alibi for him. They also say he murdered a neighbor who discovered his true identity when he was hiding from authorities in Galveston, Texas, in 2001.

Robert Durst has never been charged with a crime in his wifes disappearance and has denied killing her.

He was acquitted of murder in Morris Blacks death after he testified he fatally shot the man during a struggle for a gun. He was convicted of destroying evidence for chopping up the mans body and tossing it out to sea.

If he had killed his wife and murdered Morris Black, Durst said he wouldn't admit those crimes.

Testifying at trial is incredibly risky for a defendant, and most lawyers won't put their clients on the stand. Durst's testimony Tuesday showed that a history of lies and inconsistent stories had made him vulnerable.

You dont just make up lies for the sake of lying, Lewin said. You lie in particular when there is a reason for you to lie. And, generally speaking in this context, when it relates to incriminating evidence, correct?

Durst agreed.

In questions from his own lawyer, Durst said he had not confessed to any killings when he was captured speaking to himself on a live microphone after filming a documentary about his life and the deaths of people close to him.

In the climactic scene of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, he could be heard in a bathroom muttering: "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.

Durst, who had just been caught on video in a lie about a note directing police to Bermans cadaver, explained that the mic hadn't captured his full thought.

What I did not say out loud or, perhaps I said very softly, is: Theyll all think I killed them all, of course,' he testified.

Many viewers interpreted the remarks, which were edited together by the filmmakers for a dramatic conclusion to the six-part HBO series, as an admission.

Authorities arrested Durst the night before the finale aired in March 2015 because they expected him to flee after the gotcha moment and the unexpected dialogue that followed.

Durst testified he had been planning to kill himself with a gun when FBI agents apprehended him in the lobby of a New Orleans hotel, where he was registered under an alias.

When pressed by Lewin about the note, Durst said he had to lie because otherwise it was clear he was present when Berman died.

Well, its worse than that," Lewin said. You previously said on multiple occasions that quote, 'Thats a note only the killer could have written.'

Durst said it was a line fed to him by the film's producer that he repeated again in an interrogation in 2015 by Lewin.

Seriously? Lewin said in a comment stricken from the record after an objection from the defense.

Durst reached out to filmmaker Andrew Jarecki in the hopes of burnishing his reputation after becoming a pariah following the Texas case.

Despite being the scion of a New York developer, he was rejected by condominium associations in New York, Houston and California, he said. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art wanted him to make a donation anonymously.

Jarecki had made All Good Things," a feature film based on Durst's life starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst.

Durst hoped he'd be treated sympathetically.

Despite advice from his lawyers and everybody not to give a series of interviews for the film project, Durst ignored them all.

He said he was high on methamphetamine and repeatedly lied during the interviews. He had assured Jarecki he was being honest because things would go very, very wrong if he wasn't truthful.

When Lewin suggested that his lies to the filmmakers and at trial were coming back to haunt him, Durst said only that everything he did with Jarecki was a mistake.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)  Malaysia's king said Wednesday that the new prime minister he picks must swiftly seek a confidence vote in Parliament after a deadline for all lawmakers to submit the names of their preferred candidates to the palace passed.

Based on the lawmakers' choices, King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said he will pick a candidate he believes has majority support, but this must then be tested in Parliament. He is to meet with eight other Malay state rulers on Friday to discuss the decision.

The monarch has ruled out a new general election because many parts of the country are COVID-19 red zones and health facilities are inadequate. Muhyiddin Yassin, who resigned as prime minister on Monday after losing the backing of a majority in Parliament, has been appointed caretaker leader until a successor is selected.

Sultan Abdullah, who met with political party leaders on Tuesday, said he urged lawmakers to unite and halt the bickering that has disrupted the country's administration for months amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak.

The new leader must work in hand with those who lost and all parties should be prepared to work as a team, the king said in a statement. In other words, the winner does not win it all while the losers do not lose it all.

Muhyiddin departed after less than 18 months in office amid infighting in his alliance and mounting public anger over what was widely perceived as his governments poor handling of the pandemic. Malaysia has one of the worlds highest infection rates and deaths per capita, despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.

Malaysia reported a record 22,242 new cases on Wednesday, bringing its total to 1.46 million. Deaths have surged to more than 13,000.

The kings role is largely ceremonial in Malaysia, but he appoints the person he believes has majority support in Parliament as prime minister.

The race appeared to have been whittled down to two main candidates: former Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Muhyiddin appointed Ismail as his deputy in July in a bid to ease tensions with the United Malays National Organization, the biggest party in his alliance. Ismail then led a faction in UMNO that defied a party order to pull support for the government. In the end, 15 UMNO lawmakers withdrew, causing the government which had a razor-thin majority to collapse.

Ismail, 61, appeared to be the frontrunner for the job after UMNOs 38 lawmakers reportedly agreed to set aside differences at a meeting late Tuesday and back him as their candidate. Muhyiddins party and several others in his alliance have also voiced their support.

UMNO secretary-general Ahmad Maslan tweeted that only one name will be sent as Prime Minister nominee, that of Ismail. Another lawmaker, Azalina Othman, told local media that Ismail is believed to be able to muster the backing of at least 111 lawmakers, the number needed for a simple majority.

It appears tough for Anwar, 74, to reach 111 votes. His three-party alliance has 88 lawmakers and if all smaller opposition parties back him, he would still only have 105 votes.

Anwar was due to succeed then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad before their reformist alliance collapsed in February 2020, sparked by the withdrawal of Muhyiddin's party. Muhyiddin then formed a new government with corruption-tainted UMNO, which was ousted in 2018 elections, and several other parties.

If Ismail wins, it will essentially restore the rule of Muhyiddin's alliance. Some analysts said Ismail would be a poor choice because he is associated with the failings of Muhyiddin's government.

He carries the baggage of a failed government. What Malaysians want is a clean break from unpopular policies of the past government. There is more a hint of continuity than a sharp departure if the premiership were to pass on to Ismail," said Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, a political science professor at Malaysias University of Science.

It will also set the stage for increased politicking in UMNO as Ismail, who is now a vice president, may later mount a challenge against the party president, he said.
BRIDGEPORT  Councilman Alfredo Castillo, already under investigation for allegedly threatening the citys acting public facilities director, is now the subject of a harassment complaint filed with police Friday by his opponent in next months primary.

That way he will never do it again to nobody, Carmen Nieves said of her decision to go to the authorities after Castillo allegedly made a derogatory comment about her figure last Thursday in the Margaret E. Morton Government Center on Broad Street.

Nieves is a temporary seasonal staffer for the health department, helping encourage residents to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

In both her police report and during a subsequent interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, Nieves said she was in the government center for a work-related meeting when, during a break, Castillo happened to be in the hallway and allegedly shouted a comment about her backside.

Nieves also told police the incident was witnessed by a colleague.

He shouldnt be talking to me like that, Nieves told Hearst Connecticut Media. He thinks he can do things like that. ... I felt uncomfortable when he said it.

Nieves said she first approached the labor relations office about Castillos behavior, and was advised to speak with City Council President Aidee Nieves, who is not related to her.

She did contact me, Aidee Nieves confirmed. I told her ... I have no purview over what council members do outside of their council responsibilities and if she had a complaint she had to file it with the proper authorities.

Castillo when reached by phone hung up after being asked about Nieves complaint.

Mayor Joe Ganims office did not return a request for comment about whether labor relations would have the authority to probe the matter and if council members are defined as municipal employees. Castillo and his 19 colleagues do not earn salaries and instead receive stipends to reimburse expenses.

Carmen Nieves recently collected enough signatures to force a Sept. 14 primary against Castillo for his seat representing the 136th District. Castillo was first elected to represent that center-of-the-city neighborhood, dubbed the Hollow, in 2013.

Asked if her complaint was at all politically motivated, Nieves insisted, it was because of how Castillo made her feel and embarrassed her.

I couldnt sleep, she recalled. What made him feel he could talk to me like that?

Castillo has similarly refused to comment on the police complaint filed against him Aug. 4  the day before the alleged incident with Nieves  by Acting Public Facilities Director Craig Nadrizny. Nadrizny alleged that Castillo asked him to meet outside of the city-owned, privately-managed Wonderland of Ice rinks

According to Nadriznys statement to police, Castillo wanted to know when the city was going to repair the buildings exterior doors and, after the public facilities chief said per the lease that was not the tenants responsibility, the councilman yelled at him.

Nadrizny told police Castillo subsequently stood in front of him as he tried to climb back into his vehicle to leave, pumping his chest and threatening Nadrizny.

Aidee Nieves had called Nadriznys claims disturbing and, following Carmen Nieves accusations, added this week, As elected officials we should always measure our words, whether in official duty or not.

Theres never a time you turn it on and off when youre elected, Aidee Nieves continued. We are supposed to be model citizens because we are leaders in our community.
Salisbury is leading the way in the Litchfield County towns for children ages 12 to 15 who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19  with more than 70 percent vaccinated, state data shows.

According to the most recent data provided on CT.gov, in Salisbury, with a population of 147 children aged 12-15, 105, or 71 percent, have been fully vaccinated.

The rest of Salisburys age groups have even higher rates of vaccination  some, such as 16 to 44 and 65 and over  have more than 95 percent vaccinated against COVID-19, the data shows.

Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand said hes very happy with the results for the youth in town, and also said hes pleased with the 83 percent overall vaccination rate for residents.

Im grateful to the residents for doing this, Rand said.

Of its 1,513 children ages 12 to 15, New Milford has about 42 percent of its children fully vaccinated, the data show. Of the 4,276 residents age 65 and up, data show 100 percent are vaccinated, while those ages 45 to 64 are 73 percent vaccinated. Ages 25 to 44 are 63 percent vaccinated, while ages 18-24 are 62 percent vaccinated.

Additionally, the town of Washington has about 60 percent of children age 12-15 fully vaccinated, according to the data. And like Salisbury, the other age groups in Washington also have high numbers of fully vaccinated people  about 77 percent of residents aged 16-44, about 68 percent of residents aged 45-64, and 100 percent for those ages 65 and over.

In Bridgewater, 39 children ages 12-15 have been fully vaccinated, or about 56 percent, the data shows.

Bridgewater First Selectman Curtis Read said the numbers for young people in town are encouraging and added he hopes everyone  of all eligible ages  who isnt already vaccinated against COVID-19 will do so.

I brought up to the Western Connecticut Council of Governments in a COVID call on Friday with a lot of the CEOS or first selectmen and mayors in the Western Connecticut Coalition, and my point was not only do we need to encourage mask wearing with the delta variant, but we need to not forget there are a lot of people that are not vaccinated yet and that is causing the spread, Read said.

Read added that all towns in the state really need to make every effort to get everybody vaccinated, and children are the next rung.

Towns in the county with lower rates of vaccination against COVID-19 for children ages 12 to 15 include Torrington, where out of the 1,584 kids in that age group, 593 are fully vaccinated.

Additionally, Winsted, with a population of 493 youths 12 to 15 years old, has 117 fully vaccinated, or about 24 percent. In New Hartford, 107 youths ages 12 to 15 are fully vaccinated, or 27. 3 percent, state data shows.

We would love to see 70 percent

Robert Rubbo, director of health at Torrington Area Health District, said its becoming easier for children to get vaccinated.

There are several pediatric offices that are doing it now, and pharmacies, said Rubbo, adding, though, that children under 18 are only eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine.

He said overall, hes pleased with the state vaccination rates for the school-aged population.

As of last Thursday, 97,800 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, or 55 percent; the fully vaccinated  which are those who have received their second dose at least two weeks ago  total about 78,000, and make up about 44 percent of that population.

While Rubbo said this news overall is positive, he added, though, from a public health perspective, we would love to see 70 percent  because that gets us to that magical herd immunity number.

As long as those who have received their first dose receive their second dose, which most will, at least the state will be roughly at the 60 percent vaccination rate in the state of Connecticut between 12 and 15 by the time school opens, which is much, much better than where we stood last year, Rubbo said. Given the amount of time the vaccine has been eligible for 12 to 15 year olds, I think were doing pretty well in the state of Connecticut, especially compared to the rest of the country.

Conversely, in Torrington, state data shows in the 65 and older category, 91.67 percent of residents, or 5,670 people, are fully vaccinated, state data shows. In Winchester, 1,803 residents 65 and older are fully vaccinated, or 90.24 percent, state data shows.

Megan Bennett, superintendent of regional school district 12  which includes the towns of Bridgewater, Washington and Roxbury  said that they are finding vaccination clinics are pretty readily available.

Gone are the days when the vaccine was in short supply, Bennett said. Now its just a matter of people booking their appointments and finding ways to get their students vaccinated in time for school.

Parents who want more information on COVID-19 vaccinations can find it at cdc.gov, immunize.org and the Connecticut state portal, ct.gov.

sfox@milfordmirror.com
Gov. Ned Lamont is preparing to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on all state workers, a move the University of Connecticut took on Tuesday with a letter to faculty and staff.

Numerous sources familiar with the governors plans said he is drafting an order, which he could issue as soon as Thursday, requiring the states roughly 50,000 workers to show they have been vaccinated or submit to regular testing for the coronavirus.

Its not clear when the mandate will take effect. The governors office has not made any public comment about the order. The UConn order requires employees at the university system and UConn Health to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15.

Lamont previously negotiated a vaccine mandate for about 8,000 state employees in health care and the prisons. Separately, he ordered that all nursing home staff have at least a first vaccination dose by Sept. 7. The nursing homes, which are private, agreed to the order.

All of those workers can claim a medical exemption as authorized by a health professional; or a sincerely held religious objection under federal civil rights law.

Unlike the state employee mandate thats in force and being extended to the entire state work force, nursing home workers cannot agree to regular testing to avoid a vaccination.

Its unclear what penalty a worker would face for not getting vaccinated and refusing to get tested, but its possible that person could face a period of being unpaid, in effect, a suspension.

On Wednesday, the state reported 593 positive COVID-19 cases out of 19,824 tests for a daily rate of 2.99 percent  a drop from 4.25 percent the day before. The 7-day average positive test level rose slightly from 3.4 to 3.5 percent. The state also reported an additional 27 hospitalizations overnight for a total of 348.

Multiple state union representatives either had no comment or did not respond to a request for comment on whether they would agree to the terms of the mandate  as the unions generally did in the mandates Lamont negotiated previously for the limited group of workers.

The State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition, which negotiates for about 46,000 state employees in more than 30 bargaining units, referred to a previous statement that it would carefully consider any proposal that is designed to enhance the safety of both state workers and the public they serve while ensuring a fair and effective system.

Lamonts state vaccination rule is likely to face pushback from at least some Republicans. Rep. Tom ODea, R-New Canaan, said Wednesday that hes uncomfortable with such mandates.

The 55-year-old got his shot as soon as he was eligible and encourages others to do the same but said ultimately its a personal decision. If there are weak spots within state agencies or offices, then maybe they need to wear masks, he said.

The governors pandemic-related executive authority is set to expire Sept. 30, raising questions about how the mandate would be enforced if his emergency powers end and policy decisions move back to the General Assembly. Democratic leadership in both the House and Senate have said they are open to extending Lamonts powers given the spread of more virulent Delta variant, but few, if any, Republicans are likely to support another extension.

Lamont has not yet said whether he believes another extension is necessary. He has indicated it will depend on the trajectory of the latest surge, which some experts say is likely to subside in September. For now, the governor and state and local public health officials are pushing hard to persuade vaccine holdouts to get the shots, which are plentiful and available.

Under UConns mandate, announced this week by the universitys interim president, Andrew Agwunobi, staff must show evidence of full vaccination by Oct. 15. The university had already mandated that students be vaccinated.

Agwunobi said medical and religious exemptions, or limited deferrals, can be requested under UConns mandate. Employees who are granted exemptions or deferrals, however, must undergo weekly testing for COVID-19, he said in a letter to staff on Tuesday. The full policy can be read online.

With the announcement, which comes as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations continue to rise in Connecticut, UConn joins a growing number of colleges and universities in the state and across the country in requiring a vaccination.

Lamonts nursing home order covers all employees, volunteers and outside contractors in long-term care facilities who have physical access to residents and patients. They must get their first dose by Sept. 7, with an appointment scheduled for a second dose.

SEIU District 1199, which represents 5,500 nursing home workers, is asking for a 30-day extension to comply with that requirement, and Lamont said Tuesday he will work with the union on that.

Some data is available on vaccination rates for nursing home staff, showing uptake rates in line with the general public, slightly higher than 70 percent as of last week. But the state has no way of knowing how many state employees overall are vaccinated  providers are not allowed to inform employers that someone has been vaccinated  and agencies have generally not solicited that information from workers.

Hearst staff writer Tara ONeill contributed to this report.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
Jab We Met actor Kareena Kapoor Khan is currently spending quality time with her family in the Maldives. With her kids, Taimur and Jeh, the 40-year-old actor celebrated her husband Saif Ali Khan's 51st birthday in a private villa including a beach facing the pool. Recently, the actor treated her fans with a rare selfie without makeup. Take a look!

Kareena Kapoor Khan bare-faced selfie

Being an avid social media user, fans enjoy several pictures from the actor on her Instagram handle. After sharing a glimpse of their private getaway to the Maldives for Saif Ali Khan's birthday, Kareena shared a bare-faced and sunkissed selfie on her Instagram story. In the picture, the actor appeared to be glowing with her hair being swept away on her face by the winds. She captioned the picture writing, ''Gone with the wind' with a couple of emojis.

Earlier, the actor wished her husband by uploading two pictures from their Maldives vacation on her Instagram. The couple was seen posing lovingly while their kids, Taimur and Jeh, sat beside them. This would not be the first time that the fans got a glimpse of Kareena's natural beauty as she had earlier posted several bare-faced selfies on her Instagram, embracing her natural glow.

More on Kareena Kapoor Khan

Touted as one of the most sought-after actors in Bollywood, Kareena recently turned into an author after launching her book titled Pregnancy Bible. The book offered a detailed and intriguing look into both of Kareena's pregnancies. On several occasions, the actor expressed her excitement about the book as in one post she wrote, 'Nervous. Excited. Mess.  The last time I felt such a rush of random emotions was when my 2nd baby was born! And now my 3rd one is here!! ** Cant wait to share my experiences of motherhood with you all'.

On the work front, the actor is set to be seen in Advait Chandan's forthcoming Magnum opus Laal Singh Chaddha opposite Aamir Khan. The movie is set to be released on Christmas, December 25, this year. Kareena is set to play the role of Chaddha's wife in the movie.

IMAGE- KAREENA KAPOOR KHAN'S INSTAGRAM
Wes Anderson's upcoming untitled project has made some popular additions to its cast. According to reports, several award-winning actors have joined Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks, Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Tilda Swinton. While we are eager for more details about the upcoming project, here's who else has joined the cast.

According to a report by Deadline, Marvel's Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson has joined the cast of Wes Anderson's next film. The Lucy actress joins an already existing cast consisting of big names like Tom Hanks and Margot Robbie. Filming for the project is currently underway in Spain. Plot details for the upcoming project are being kept under wraps. However, the film will be a usual Wes Anderson production where he will write and direct. Information for Scarlett Johansson's character in the film has also not yet been revealed.

Another report by the outlet also claimed that Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, and Liev Schreiber have joined the ever-growing cast of Wes Andersons upcoming project. According to reports, it has been hinted that the cast for this project will be larger than any other Anderson production. This marks the first time that Hope Davis is working with Anderson.

The Newsroom actress recently starred alongside Bryan Cranston in the Showtime series Your Honor. While this isnt the first time Johansson has worked with Wes Anderson, it will be her first in front of the camera. In Anderson's animated picture, Isle of Dogs, she previously voiced a character as did former Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston.

Johansson recently starred in her Marvel solo, Black Widow, which inspired a lawsuit against Disney that alleges that her contract was breached when the Marvel movie was released on Disney+ day-and-date. Cranston on the other hand, is wrapping up shooting Jerry and Marge Go Large.

Both Jeffrey Wright and Liev Schreiber will be seen in Andersons The French Dispatch, with the latter also having worked with the director in Isle of Dogs. Reports claim that Anderson wants to wrap up shooting for the untitled project by the end of September, in time for the opening of his upcoming film, The French Dispatch. The French Dispatch is slated to release on October 22, 2021.

Image Credit: AP
A terrible incident came to light when a man proved that one could go to any extend for their lover. A boyfriend disguised himself as his girlfriend to take her examinations since she was afraid she wont pass. Though this Senegalese guy initially succeeded in pulling off the action for almost three days, yet the 22-year-old was eventually apprehended and turned over to the authorities. According to Ladbible, a Gaston Berger University student, Khadim Mboup went out of his way to dress up as a woman, with complete make-up to disguise, along with wearing a headscarf, a bra, and even earrings. According to photos shared on social media, to mislead the invigilators, he wore a red dress with black designs, a scarf with the same colours, and a black shawl that his girlfriend used to wear.

The ultimate plan of Mboup is to assist his beloved with her examination has oddly worked for few days. He could sneak in for three days on behalf of his girlfriend Gangue Dioum, who was scheduled to take her high school graduation examinations. While, on the fourth day, however, everything went wrong. It all started when an invigilator detected something unusual regarding his look.

According to the iHarare, after being detained, Mboup told the police that his 19-year-old girlfriend is waiting for him to return from the examination to a lodge. The boyfriend said that he decided to do this out of love for his girlfriend. He even said he did this because his partner was having "severe problems" with English. The report says, the couple was accused of cheating, forgery, and examination fraud. As per local Pulse News, if the pair is found guilty, they might be prohibited from taking further national exams for five years and lose their certificate. The duo might potentially face a five-year prison sentence.

COVID Scenario in Senegal

Previously, Senegal has had the largest increase in cases of coronavirus infections since the outbreak commenced. According to cemetery authorities, there has been an uptick in burials, and hospitals feel the strain.

The growth came into notice after the nation has acquired almost 300,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses and over 330,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses in the last week of the month of July, and thus ramping up its immunisation program.

Image Credit: Twitter
A photographer from Guatemala has been praised for capturing a once-in-a-lifetime snap of the Moon looking like Saturn. While taking to Instagram, Francisco Sojuel shared the stunning picture and informed that he captured the image at dawn on Christmas Eve two years ago. In the picture, one can see the Moon shining brightly in the night sky, with a thin dusting of cloud cutting across it.

In the caption, Sojuel explained that the illusion is actually caused by something called a cirrostratus cloud, which is made up of ice crystals. He also added that the image was clicked after a six-hour hike up the Guatemalan volcano Acatenango, two days before a solar eclipse. The night the moon dressed like Saturn, Sojuel wrote in the caption.

He added, From afar you may wonder, 'Is that an asteroid ring around the moon?' Well, the disguise of this waning moon is actually a thin cirrostratus cloud. The way the cloud interacts with the moon creates a unique display of beauty that steals protagonism from the surrounding stars. Below the moon? The dimly lit silhouette of volcano Pacaya and the Guatemalan highlands can be appreciated.

Netizens call it 'crazy beautiful'

Since being shared, the image has received dozens of comments, with people praising Sojuels skill. With over 28,000 likes and hundreds of comments, the picture has left netizens mesmerised. While one user wrote, I love this photo, another said, Fantastic. This is insane work, wrote third. Beautiful shot, said fourth. Absolutely phenomenal, you are so blessed to be able to witness such beauty, added another.

(Image: Unsplash)
Approximately seven days ago, a large prostitution nexus that panned across the world was busted by Thane Police's Crime Branch Unit - 1. The unit had arrested four people, most of which were based out of Surat. The nexus was being run by Bangladeshis, who had illegally immigrated to Surat and several other places in Gujarat. One of the members of their gang was meeting a customer at Kalwa, to get a fake passport made, when the police officials laid a trap and nabbed him.

Thane Police busts prostitution racket

The Modus operandi of this gang is such that they arrive illegally from Bangladesh, and get a fake birth certificate made them made at Kolkata. Following this, they stay for a few months at some place at Gujarat, and on the basis of the residential proof there, they make their fake passport, PAN Card and Aadhaar. There are such colonies in various places of Gujarat, where lakhs of such Bangladeshis are staying, said Krishna Kokani, senior police inspector, Thane Crime Branch Unit-1.

The team then arrested four people, who have now been sent to judicial custody, namely Farooq Safi Molla, Shriti Raju Molla, Mohammed Imol Moin and Mohammed Saiful Allahuddin Molla, while eight others were handed over by them to Surat police. An FIR has been registered against them at Kalwa police station, and they have been charged with sections 420 (cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468, 471, 34 along with several other rules for entry of people into India.

According to the Thane Police, this prostitution racket spans across Kolkata, Gujarat and Maharashtra, with several of these accused taking flights to international destinations from Mumbai and Bangalore. The gang gets underage girls from Bangladesh, these would be between the age group of 12-18 on the pretext of getting them jobs and better education in India and make fake passports for them of India origin. Following which they are sent for prostitution to counties such as Maldives, Mauritius, Singapore and Thailand, said Kokani.

Kokani further added that a nexus such as this can be a threat to national security as well considering that fake Indian documents are made in various parts of the country. The onus also lies on Gujarat police because this flesh trade is taking place in their area, they need to take cognisance of it, said an official, privy to the investigation.

(Image: Republicworld.com)
With Indian embassy officials, the evacuation process conducted by India from Kabul also included three sniffer dogs, who were a part of the security at the Indian embassy in Afghanistan. The sniffer dogs Maya, Ruby & Bobby were deployed there along with ITBP personnel and they all returned on Tuesday. The evacuation process was conducted through the Indian Air Force's (IAF) C-17 aircraft that landed in Jamnagar yesterday at 11:20 am with nearly 150 Indian nationals.

The aircraft carried several Indian Embassy officials as well as a few of those who were working in Afghanistan. The Indian Embassy staff and their families had safely left Kabul amid concerns over their safety following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan continued. On Monday, MEA official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had stated, "We are in constant touch with the representatives of Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities. We will facilitate repatriation to India of those who wish to leave Afghanistan. There are also a number of Afghans who have been our partners in the promotion of our mutual developmental, educational and people-to-people endeavours. We will stand by them."

EAM Jaishankar on the evacuation process

Terming the process as 'difficult and complicated,' External Affairs Minister (EAM) Jaishankar on Tuesday assured that the Indian government is making its best efforts to vacate its nationals from war-torn Afghanistan. The EAM also EAM thanked the officials for the smooth evacuation and movement of the Indian ambassador and the embassy staff from Kabul to India. The ministry also warned that it has been issuing periodic travel and security advisories for all Indian nationals in Afghanistan, given the deteriorating security situation there.

India's ramped up evacuation process

On Monday also the Indian Government had deployed an Indian Air Force (IAF) flight for evacuation. A C-17 Globemaster, this IAF flight was the first of the many flights the government has planned to send to the South Asian country over the next few days. Nearly 130 Indian embassy staff and their families were evacuated as an immediate priority by the flight.

Meanwhile, PM Modi on Tuesday instructed all officials concerned to undertake necessary measures to ensure the safe evacuation of Indian nationals from Afghanistan in the coming days. A meeting was chaired by the Prime Minister where Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval among others were present to discuss the Afghanistan issue. The Ministers, who had been keeping a close track on the situation unfolding in the war-torn country, in the meeting, as per sources, are deciding on the stand India will be taking if and when the Taliban government comes up.

(With ANI inputs) (Image: ANI)
In view of the recent development of the Taliban take over Afghanistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday, August 18, met Estonia counterpart Eva Maria Liimets to discuss the future of the country. They further discussed working together on maritime and cybersecurity and other global issues.

Pleasure to meet FM @eliimets of Estonia. As UNSC members, discussed our working together on maritime and cyber security and other global issues. Exchanged views on the developments in Afghanistan. Look forward to her presence at the Council meeting tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/JkFh9UJCYC  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) August 17, 2021

"Pleasure to meet FM @eliimets of Estonia. As UNSC members, discussed our working together on maritime and cybersecurity and other global issues. Exchanged views on the developments in Afghanistan. Look forward to her presence at the Council meeting tomorrow," Jaishankar tweeted.

While Eva Maria Liimets wrote on Twitter, "Had an important meeting with @DrSJaishankar. Talked about the uncertain situation in Afghanistan and India's first UNSC Presidency. Good cooperation between Estonia & India, this year celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations".

Had an important meeting with @DrSJaishankar. Talked about the uncertain situation in Afghanistan and `s first #UNSC Presidency. Good cooperation between &, this year celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations. pic.twitter.com/5PuwKzzkST  Eva-Maria Liimets (@eliimets) August 17, 2021

Jaishankar to Chair UNSC high-level meetings

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will preside over two high-level meetings at United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 18-19 August. The EAM will take part in the debate on 'Protecting the Protectors: Technology and Peacekeeping' and will also attend a high-level briefing on 'Threats to International Peace and Security caused by Terrorist Acts'. India had earlier cleared that the subjects of peacekeeping and anti-terrorism moves will be major priorities during its UNSC tenures.

On August 19, Jaishankar will also preside over a briefing session on the six-monthly report of the UN Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIL (Da'esh) under the agenda -- "Threats to International Peace and Security caused by Terrorist Acts. During this visit, the EAM will also hold bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers of other Member States on the sidelines of the UNSC high-level events.

Kabul under Taliban

On August 15, President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. He later wrote in a post, The Taliban have won with the judgment of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honor, property, and self-preservation of their countrymen, they are now facing a new historical test. Either they will preserve the name and honor of Afghanistan or they will give priority to other places and networks".

There is uncertainty about the future of leadership in the country. But there are talks on the Taliban's top leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar likely to become the next President of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan'. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is the co-founder and political chief of the terrorist group headed by Haibatullah Akhundzada.

(With ANI input)

(Image credit: TWITTER)
Chandigarh, Aug 18 (PTI) Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij on Wednesday said effective implementation of the coronavirus lockdown and setting up of the necessary health infrastructure helped his government combat the COVID-19 crisis.

The minister said this while addressing a webinar organised in collaboration with the Thailand government on Haryanas experience in handling the pandemic.

During the webinar, Vij said his government will extend full cooperation to Thailand in combating the crisis.

Vij said the Haryana government took concrete and immediate measures to contain the spread of coronavirus, according to an official statement.

The minister said timely measures like effective implementation of the lockdown, setting up of molecular testing laboratories and Covid care centres besides surveys to gauge the penetration of the disease helped in combating the disease.

An effective implementation of the vaccination drive is a major factor which helped in combating the virus, he said.

Till date, approximately 14 million doses have been given free of cost, he said.

Moreover, Vij assured that 100 per cent cooperation will be extended to the Thailand government in future.

The official statement said the webinar started with the address of former deputy prime minister of Thailand, Suwit Khunkitti, who expressed hope that the dialogue with experts of the Haryana government will definitely be beneficial.

He said it is important to understand the steps that led to sharp and speedy decline of the disease in the state, as per the statement.

Thailands Deputy Minister of Public Health Dr Satit Pitutacha said coronavirus is evolving and is unpredictable in nature and their government is keen on understanding the steps taken to combat the crisis. PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
The PM Modi led Union Cabinet has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Bangladesh on Wednesday. The approved MoU will look at matters like Disaster Management, Resilience and Mitigation. This memorandum was signed when PM Modi visited Bangladesh in March this year.

What does the MoU envision?

The MoU reflects the fact that India and Bangladesh would extend mutual support to each other at the time of large scale disasters in the field of relief, response, reconstruction and recovery. It will also extend cooperation in the field of advanced Information Technology, early warning systems, remote sensing and navigation services.

The countries will also share expertise for disaster preparedness, response and mitigation. The MoU would also involve real-time data sharing. The neighbouring nations will also support the training of officials in the field of Disaster management and conduct disaster management exercises together. Both the countries will share standards, latest technologies and tools for creating Disaster resilient communities.

Salient features of the MuO

Extend mutual support on the request of either party at the time of large scale disaster (Natural or human-induced) occurring within their respective territories, in the field of relief, response, reconstruction and recovery.

Exchange relevant information, remote sensing data and other scientific data and share experience/best practices of disaster response, recovery, mitigation, capacity building for ensuring resilience, etc.

Extend cooperation in the field of advanced information technology, early warning systems, remote sensing & navigation services and expertise for disaster preparedness, response and mitigation and more towards real-time data sharing.

Support training of officials in the field of Disaster management.

Conduct Joint Disaster Management Exercises bilaterally between both the countries.

Share standards, latest technologies and tools for creating Disaster Resilient Communities.

Exchange publications and materials as textbooks, guidelines in the field of Disaster Management and may conduct joint research activities in the field of Disaster Management, Risk Reduction and Recovery.

PM Modi's visit to Bangladesh

Indias relationship with Bangladesh got a major boost when PM Modi marked a two-day visit to the country from 26 and 27 March. PM Modi visited Bangladesh on the invitation of his counter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to participate in the gala celebration of two events which were the golden jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Notably, the visit was also his first foreign trip after the COVID-19 pandemic that coincided with the 50th year of the establishment of a diplomatic relationship between India and Bangladesh. The visit has been a celebration of a common bond because the primary focus of the visit was the golden jubilee of Bangladeshs liberation, which India actively supported and is considered a common heritage.

Image Credits - AP/PTI
India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday chaired the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Technology and Peacekeeping in the presence of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other participating nations. Under Indian Presidency, the Security Council unanimously adopted for the first time a resolution ensuring accountability for crimes committed against UN peacekeepers. Notably, it is the first such UN Security Council Resolution that calls for prevention, investigation, and prosecution to bring the perpetrators to justice.

"We are pleased to inform that the Council has adopted a Resolution on Accountability of Crimes against UN Peacekeepers as well as Presidential Statement on Technology for Peacekeeping, the first such UN Security Council document on this topic," said S Jaishankar after the resolution was passed.

During the open debate at the UNSC, Jaishankar underlined the role of technology in the safety of UN peacekeepers and highlighted the role that they play in maintaining peace and tranquillity.

The 15-member powerful UN body is currently under India's Presidency for the month of August. India is one of the largest troop-contributing countries to UN peacekeeping missions and has contributed more than 2,50,000 troops in 49 missions over the years.

S Jaishankar at UNSC open debate on terrorism and peacekeeping

Addressing the UN body, Jaishankar said that the UN peacekeeping missions continue to operate in a variety of challenging settings that involve terrorists, armed groups and non-state actors as he stressed on the need to strengthen the capabilities to secure the peacekeepers.

Since deploying for the first time in 1948, UN peacekeeping missions continue to operate in a variety of challenging settings. This could involve armed groups, non-state actors, and terrorists, he said.

Because the nature of peacekeeping missions and their attendant threats have become more complex, it is vital that our capabilities to secure the peacekeepers keep pace.

We owe it to them to ensure that our protective efforts meet the highest standards, Jaishankar said.

S Jaishankar's four-point framework for UN peacekeepers

Jaishankar also proposed a four-point framework that would lay out architecture for securing UN peacekeepers to meet contemporary threats.

 1st: Focus on technologies that are operationally proven, cost-effective, mobile, widely available, reliable, field-serviceable and environment friendly

These must also prioritise mobility, both in the sense of agile manoeuvrability of mission assets and in the sense of the use of mobile digital/IT platforms, said Jaishankar adding that technologies should be environment-friendly through the use of renewables and fuel efficiency, and use of environmentally-friendly construction materials.

2nd: Establish sound information and intelligence foundation for ensuring early warning and mobilising a coherent and early response.

A reliable, high-fidelity means to collect, use, process, and share information and data will create advantages from the start for peacekeeping missions. Precise positioning and overhead visualisation of mission environments are critically important to provide intelligence and enhance the safety and security of mission personnel, the External Affairs Minister stated.

3rd: Ensure regular technological improvements that are readily available in the gears, weapons, and tools of peacekeepers

This also includes strengthening of communication within missions and enhancing overall capacity to take informed decisions at the tactical and operational level, he added.

4th: Attention and investment for consistent training and capacity building of peacekeepers in the realm of technology

India supporting UN in the roll-out of UNITE Aware Platform: S Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar also announced that India is supporting the UN in the rollout of UNITE Aware Platform across 'select peacekeeping missions'.

"It gives me great pleasure to announce that India is supporting the UN in the rollout of UNITE Aware Platform across select peacekeeping missions. It's based on the expectation that a peacekeeping operation can be visualised, coordinated and monitored on real-time basis," said S Jaishankar.

"21st-century peacekeeping must be anchored in a strong ecosystem of technology and innovation that can facilitate UN peacekeeping operations in implementing their mandates in complex environments, " S Jaishankar further added.

Notably, the UNSC Peacekeeping open debate started with an introductory video on UNITE AWARE platform. India partnered with the UN and contributed USD 1.64 million in the roll-out of the UNITE Aware Platform. India is collaborating with the UN for the rollout of UNITE Aware platform in four peacekeeping missions in Somalia, South Sudan, Mali, and Cyprus.

UNITE Aware is a situational awareness software program that utilises modern surveillance technology and provides real-time threat assessment to improve the overall security situation of UN Peacekeepers.

What does UNITE Aware do?

Ensure peacekeeping operations can be visualised, coordinated, and monitored on a real-time basis.

Record data on critical incidents and events, follow daily operational activities

Access live video and satellite imagery

Early warning in a volatile environment

(Image Credits: AP/ANI/@UNAMANews/Twitter)
In a key development, the United Nations Human Rights Council has decided to hold a special session to discuss the ongoing situation in Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 24. The UN human rights commission observed that the situation in Kabul after the Taliban's siege has worsened the condition of the people and the country. The meeting will be held to address "serious human rights concerns and the situation in Afghanistan," reported the news agency ANI.

A couple of days ago United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held meetings on the recent developments in Afghanistan. The meeting was chaired by Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, under the Presidency of India. The high-level meeting was called to discuss the rapidly worsening situation in the war-torn country after the Taliban breached Kabul.

As per the reports, the UN Human Rights Council special session over Afghanistan's plight will be convened with the involvement of 60 Observer States, including France, India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and France. Notably, this will be the 31st session, and it needs the support of one-third of the 47 members of the Council. To successfully convene this session, the Council needs support from more than 16 countries. So far, 29 countries have supported the request to start the special season, including Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Czechia, Denmark, France, Gabon, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Libya, Mauritania, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Uzbeki, and the United Kingdom.

United Nations Human Rights Council special session

The high-level Human Rights Commission meeting will take place in a hybrid format in Room XX of the Palais des Nations. The session will be live telecasted in six American languages and will begin at 10 am on Tuesday, August 24. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the interventions will be carried online, and media people are asked to cover the session on the webcast. Meanwhile, before holding this meeting, the Council is likely to convene a general meeting including all the organizations on Monday, August 23, where all the details regarding the special session will be announced. Notably, the special session is being held on the official request submitted by Pakistan, the Coordinator of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, and Afghanistan, which is currently being supported by over 88 countries.

Image Credit: AP

(With ANI Inputs)
Genghis Khan was one of the prominent rulers and a warrior that conquered regions stretching between the Pacific Ocean and the Caspian Sea, including Mongolia, northern China, the Sea of Japan to as far west as parts of Europe and Central Asia. He died on this day in 1227. His death, however, unfolded a mystery about the site of his burial as he had chosen to be buried in secrecy.

According to the historic accounts, the Mongolian army had carried the body of its emperor Ghengis Khan away from the steppes of Mongolia. To keep the route a secret, forces attacked anyone who witnessed the emperors remains carried on the way to put to its final resting.

Reports suggest that the soldiers had travelled far away on nearly 1,000 horses to the former emperors unmarked grave and had destroyed any evidence or trace that led to the location of the tomb where Genghis was buried. The Mongolian emperors death has since been shrouded in mystery. Scientists, historians, and archaeologists have long worked on the 800-year-old puzzle to hunt for Khans gravesite. A National Geographics Valley of the Khans Project deployed satellite imagery and later claimed that the tomb of Genghis Khan may be located internationally.

[Fragments of China's highly admired Jingdezhen white porcelain bowl with dragon patterns unearthed from the foundation of a mausoleum of 13th-century Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan are shown in this Aug. 2004 photo released by the Japan-Mongolia Joint Research Team. Credit: AP]

Dr Albert Yu-Min Lin, Research Scientist at University of California San Diego and a National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer dug evidence using techniques in the field of archaeology to ascertain where Ghengis army in the early 13th century may have travelled to bury the legendary emperor who passed away in 1227. The gravesite was undocumented, so historians for centuries have also relied on the rumours. The Mongolian-American archaeological team believes that the his tomb could be somewhere that the vanguard of the army at the time was travelling, that is Eastern Europe through the Caucasus and patrolling along the lower Volga River.

[Genghis Khan statue. Credit: Twitter/@joybhattacharj]

Head of the International Mongolian Studies Association in Ulan Bator, Shaibering Bira told RFL that despite some speculations about the tomb, much research was needed before conclusive statements can be made. The funeral cortege was moving northward. It is alleged that every living being in its path was killed, he says. At least 50 soldiers were killed by other 50 who were again killed by another group. Theres a graveyard of the 100 soldiers which points to that legend."

Graveyard of 100 soldiers might solve legend

Genghis army was advancing to invade Europe when the news of his death emerged. While the Mongol generals returned to Mongolia to choose a new leader, the intelligence reports had suggested that Khan was buried before their arrival with the inadequate funeral ceremony as the site was supposed to remain a secret. But the graveyard of these 100 soldiers might point that the legend may have secrets some 300 kilometres northeast of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator. That is the site close to Khan's life, the site of his birth in 1158 and the place where, in 1206, he was transformed by Mongol tribal leaders. This is where the soldiers are buried.

"One of the problems is the lack of any kind of written source material, contemporary source material. The best contemporary source we have is The Secret History of the Mongols and when it comes to the part where Chingiz Khan dies it simply says he dies, Professor John Woods of Chicago University told RFL.

Professor John Woods of Chicago University adds, that the scientists have relied on written sources that come from China or Iran or much later on in Mongolia, namely the 17th century. In 2004, archaeologists unearthed the site of the 13th-century Mongolian warriors palace and speculated that the long-sought grave of the ruthless emperor might be nearby. The excavations found a palace at 150 miles east of the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, the same site where soldiers were buried. But the Japanese and Mongolian research team stated that the gravesite is still one of archaeology's enduring mysteries.

Image: @KATATHEGREAT/Twitter
The UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on August 17 said that Iran has accelerated the enrichment of weapons-grade Uranium. In a report to member states, the IAEA said that Iran was enriching uranium to 60% purity using a second cascade of centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear facility. The Vienna-based agency also informed that Iran produced 200 grams of metal-enriched uranium up to 20%.

Back in May, IAEA had said that Iran was using only one cascade to enrich uranium to 60% purity. It is worth noting that 90% purity of uranium is considered weapons-grade, although other technical steps are needed to create a deliverable nuclear bomb. Iran had also previously announced that it planned to start enriching uranium to 60% purity from 20% in response to an attack on the Natanz nuclear site that it blamed on Israel.

Now, Irans move is the latest of many in breaching the restrictions imposed by the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The agreement was to cap the purity up to which Tehran can refine uranium, and the number was set at 3.67%.

Following the IAEA report, Iran reiterated that its nuclear programme is peaceful and said that it informed the Vienna-based agency about its enrichment activities. It even added that its deviation from the 2015 deal would be reversed if the US returned to the accord and lifted sanctions.

"If the other parties return to their obligations under the nuclear accord and Washington fully and verifiably lifts its unilateral and illegal sanctions ... all of Iran's mitigation and countermeasures will be reversible," Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted as saying by state media.

Raisi refuses to bow down to West

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Iran has no credible need to produce uranium metal, which has direct relevance to nuclear weapons development. US President Joe Biden has also said that he wants to return to the deal. However, indirect talks in Vienna brokered by the Europeans to get both Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the accord, have stalled.

The European Union, on the other hand, said that new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was ready to resume talks, and meetings could take place in Vienna in September.

Raisi has vowed to pull all stops to resume the JCPOA deal but clarified that he wont bow down to the western powers. In 2015, the P5+1 nations signed the JCPOA deal with Iran, which allowed Tehran to scale back its nuclear or uranium enrichment program in exchange for promises of economic relief.

However, three years later, as US and Iran's relations hit rock bottom, the Trump administration pulled out of the pact and imposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The embargo not only blocked Irans oil exports but also restricted the supply of essentials during the COVID pandemic.

(Image: AP)
After ex-Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the war-torn nation, officials at the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan's Dushanbe on Wednesday, replaced Ghani's photo with Amrullah Saleh - who has declared himself as the 'caretaker' President. Ghani who stepped down as the President as the Taliban surrounded Kabul on Sunday, has now settled in United Arab Emirates (UAE), as per Kabul News. Moreover, the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan has urged Interpol to arrest Ashraf Ghani, Hamdullah Mohib, and Fazl Mahmood Fazly over alleged stealing of public funds. Taliban is now in talks with ex-Presidents Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah for a 'peaceful power transition' as US hastily withdraws its troops in 20 years.

Ghani replaced by Saleh in Afghan Embassy at Tajikastan

Ghani flees Afghanistan

Earlier in the day, a series of tweets by Kabul News revealed Ghani has settled in Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, after fleeing Kabul four days ago. Earlier sources had reported that the former President could have gone to neighbouring Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, but there was no official confirmation of his whereabouts since the Taliban takeover on August 15. Ghani had defended his flight saying that he had no other choice and 'would contribute a development plan for the countrys future'.

After surrendering Kabul to the Taliban, Ashraf Ghani along with his aides fled Afghanistan on August 15 along with four cars and a helicopter loaded with cash. On Monday, Russian embassy spokesman Nikita Ishchenko said, "the collapse of the regime ... is most eloquently characterized by how Ghani escaped from Afghanistan: four cars were filled with money, they tried to shove another part of the money into a helicopter, but not everything fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac". Ghan

Meanwhile, his vice-president - Amrullah Saleh came forward to stake his claim as the 'legitimate caretaker President' of Afghanistan. Taking to Twitter, Amrullah Saleh stated that in case of absence, escape, resignation, or death of the serving President, the Vice President becomes the caretaker President. "I am currently inside my country and am the legitimate caretaker President," Saleh wrote. Saleh, who has vowed to never bow down to Taliban, is reportedly in the Panjshir province, allegedly cobbling up a resistance against the Taliban. The Taliban took over Kabul on Sunday after major cities like Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Lashkar Gah fell without resistance as US troops retreat after 20 years from war-torn Afghanistan.
As Taliban fighters captured Kabul on Sunday, August 17, following the collapse of President Ashraf Ghanis government, hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals fleed the country and took shelter in other neighbouring countries in order to save their lives. The visuals from the Kabul airport had shown a sea of people pushing and fighting to get inside the cabin from the only ladder connected to the front door.

One such image of a couple, who were evacuated to Germany, was shared by a Twitter user named Der Gepardkommandant, who wrote, "An image is worth a 1000 words! This beautiful young couple express their exhausted, but happy faces. They made it out, thanks to the hard work of the German #Luftwaffe and #Fallschirmjager. Welcome to us and enjoy your freedom![sic]."

An image is worth a 1000 words!

This beautiful young couple express their exhausted, but happy faces. They made it out, thanks to the hard work of the German #Luftwaffe and #Fallschirmjager. Welcome to us and enjoy your freedom!#Afghanishtan #evacuation #Kabul #Bundeswehr pic.twitter.com/XoXi3rBIP2  Der Gepardkommandant (@gepardtatze) August 17, 2021

Speaking shortly after landing in Germany, the couple said they were part of a lucky few evacuated by NATO armies. They were reportedly on the first of many flights organised by Germany to rescue Afghans who are at risk from Taliban insurgents.

Evacuees felt a sigh of relief upon landing in Germany

As per the report, on Wednesday, August 18, around 130 people were evacuated by German military planes from Kabul airport. The German airline Lufthansa also put on special flights to fly evacuees from Tashkent, adding that it would add more such flights in the next few days. More than 260 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan by the German army so far. The German government was heavily criticised by the Opposition after the first evacuation mission left Kabul with just seven people on board on Monday.

Flights were also scheduled to leave from Qatar's capital Doha as well as other neighbouring countries to carry out the evacuation process in the war-torn country.

Australia begins evacuations

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison informed on Wednesday that the first evacuation flight had left Kabul. The plane carrying 26 people landed at an Australian base in the United Arab Emirates. Passengers included Australian nationals, Afghans with Australian visas, he said, adding that the flights will continue to operate in order to rescue people from Afghanistan. As per the report over 2,000 diplomats and civilians have been evacuated since the Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital on Sunday.

Image Credits: @Bw_Einsatz/Twitter
Afghanistans Defence Minister Bismillah Mohammadi urged Interpol on August 18 to arrest the former President of the country, Ashraf Ghani for selling out the motherland as the latter chose to flee the country amid the Taliban crisis. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Mohammadi said that the government official who chose to "sell out the motherland" should be punished and arrested, while adding the hashtag #InterpolArrestGhani. Earlier, the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan also requested Interpol to detain Ghani over embezzlement charges.

This came after the Taliban on August 15 completed their takeover of Afghanistan by entering Kabul. However, at the same time, Ghani submitted his resignation and fled abroad, escorted by cars filled with cash, as the Russian embassy told Sputnik on Monday. As Ghani drew global criticism for leaving the war-ravaged nation and pushing Afghan nationals to the brink of uncertainty, the Afghan embassy in Tajikistans Dushanbe replaced his image with former Vice president of the country Amrullah Saleh. Saleh declared himself as the caretaker President.

#LIVE | Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan removes Ashraf Ghani's picture, replaced with Amrullah Saleh.



Watch updates here - https://t.co/L6XhAE4tXg pic.twitter.com/mKNti0dpjB  Republic (@republic) August 18, 2021

Afghan Central Bank's Head Questions Ghani-led Govt

Head of Afghanistans Central bank Ajmal Ahmady has left Kabul and questioned the loyalty of Afghan Security Forces. In a Twitter thread on Monday, relaying the first-hand account of the turn of events in the war-torn country, Ahmady blamed the now-former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and even his inexperienced advisors for the countrys rapid and chaotic fall to the Taliban. He also detailed how he worked at the bank until terrorists were at the gates of the city. The acting governor also said that the US dollar supplies were dwindling while describing how he escaped the capital on a military flight.

"Seems difficult to believe, but there remains a suspicion as to why (Afghan National Security Forces) left posts so quickly," Ahmady said while referring to some of the claims made by some of the pro-government military leaders stating that the armys capitulation in northern Afghanistan was the outcome of a conspiracy. He said, There is something left unexplained.

Meanwhile, even though the Taliban has pledged a peaceful transfer of power, now the ex-Vice President of the country Amrullah Saleh made it clear that he will never bow to Taliban. Reports have stated that it appeared that Saleh has retreated to the last remaining holdout which is the Panjshir Valley in the northeast of Kabul. I won't disappoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with the Taliban. NEVER," he wrote in English on Twitter on Sunday, before going underground.

IMAGE: Twitter/ANI/PTI
Afghanistan's deposed President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday shared a video addressing his nation and the world, the first since the Taliban gained control of Kabul. The longstanding war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Afghanistan's capital Kabul and entered the city and took over the presidential palace, but it turned out that Ashraf Ghani had fled some time before that, even though his other senior government officials, namely FVP Amrullah Saleh and Chairperson for National Reconciliation Dr Abdullah Abdullah are still in Afghanistan.

Addressing various developments including reports of fleeing from Afghanistan with four cars and a helicopter brimming with money, Ashraf Ghani issued a fervent denial and stated that he only left with his 'Salwar Kameez' and 'Waistcoat' and without even his prized books.

"I had to leave Afghanistan without my books, who were my main assets. Some confidential docs unfortunately left at prez palace, they are in the hands of others, I left with nothing but Salwar Kameez and waistcoat, did not take anything with me. Those saying I went with money with me is completely baseless," said Ashraf Ghani in his address.

'Kabul should not be turned into Syria': Ashraf Ghani

Ghani, in a video address in Pashto, reiterated why he left Kabul at a time when the Taliban's atrocities were at its peak. As per Ghani, he had left security in the hands of the country's forces, and that the Taliban had been searching for him.

"On Sunday I was following a routine schedule. I was working on law and order. My security officials warned me to keep away from the circumstances. My security forces took everything into their hand. Had I stayed In Kabul I would have witnessed bloodshed. Kabul should not turn into Yemen or Syria," said Ghani.

Ashraf Ghani on government formation process in Afghanistan

Key political leaders such as Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah met Anas Haqqani on Wednesday. Former Afghanistan President Karzai has formed a Coordination Council along with High Council for National Reconciliation of Afghanistan chairman Abdullah Abdullah and former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to ensure a peaceful transfer of power. However, talks between the two sides were stuck owing to certain "unacceptable conditions" imposed by the Taliban.

On the ongoing talks over the new government process in Afghanistan, Ghani said, "I support the current negotiations happening under Dr. Abdullah, I thank the security forces. There was a failure on our parts."

Notably, former Vice President Amrullah Saleh on Tuesday has come forward to claim that he is the 'legitimate caretaker President' of Afghanistan. Taking to Twitter, Amrullah Saleh cited protocols mentioned in the Constitution of Afghanistan, as per which in case of absence, escape, resignation, or death of the serving President, the Former Vice President becomes the caretaker President. Saleh has issued a clarion call for a resistance against the Taliban.

The demand for Ashraf Ghani's arrest

Ghani's video message came on the same day that Afghanistans Defence Minister Bismillah Mohammadi urged Interpol on August 18 to arrest the former President of the country for selling out the motherland as the latter chose to flee the country amid the Taliban crisis.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Mohammadi said that the government official who chose to "sell out the motherland" should be punished and arrested, while adding the hashtag #InterpolArrestGhani. Earlier, the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan also requested Interpol to detain Ghani over embezzlement charges.

(Image Credits: AP/Unsplash)
The leaders of South Korea and Kazakhstan agreed to deepen and expand their strategic partnerships in various sectors, including, public health, space exploration and climate. President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev, who arrived in the national capital of South Korea on Monday, attended the "Korea-Kazakhstan Business Round Table" held on Tuesday, August 17. South Korean Moon Jae-in noted that his counterpart has become the first foreign leader to visit the country since the outbreak of COVID-19. Both the leaders adopted a 24-point joint statement following an hour-long summit.

South Korea, Kazakhstan to work on advancement of 5G technology

According to the statement released after the Business Round Table, both the countries agreed to strengthen cooperation for harmonious synergies. The countries also agreed to share technology to revolutionise 5G wireless communication networks. The two countries also signed 23 MOU (memorandum of understanding) agreements, including building private economic cooperation channels for Korea-Kazakhstan, strengthening cooperation in the automotive industry, cooperation in plants such as alloy factories, joint response to overcome COVID-19 pandemic and cooperation in the future industries such as nickel and cobalt.

It is very important that our meeting is taking place in the year of the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstans Independence and the 76th anniversary of Koreas Independence, said Moon Jae-in. "It is Kazakhstan that has been Koreas first trade and investment partner in Central Asia. For 30 years since the corporation of strategic associations, our countries have promoted friendly relations and collaboration. Even during COVID-19, we continued to manage close connections through communication at all levels," added the South Korean President.

"Promised made during April 2019 Summit achieved"

Moon noted that the two countries have achieved results of economic cooperation in various fields such as science, technology, healthcare, and transportation, which was agreed at the Summit in April 2019. Twenty-two government officials and businesspeople from Kazakhstan, including President Toqayev, Vice Minister of national economy Zhaksylykov, Chairman of Kazakh Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk Kazyna and CEO of Baiterek, participated in the meeting. On the Korean side, as many as 22 government officials and businesspeople, including Minister Moon Seung-Wook and Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) Koo Ja-Yeol attended the business round table.

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image Credit: ANI)
It was an unusual situation for beachgoers in Spain on Saturday, August 14, when they were heard the sound of a Civil Guard vessel pursuing a small craft just a few meters from the shoreline. According to a report by The Guardian, a couple of alleged drug smugglers deboarded at a beach in the southern province of Granada after their boat ran stranded. The report further stated that the maritime cops started the search operation on Saturday night when they found the watercraft off the Melicena coastline. As the police started following the dubious boat, it headed directly in the direction of the overcrowded coastline. A video clip of the incident, which was recorded by people present at the beach, was later posted on social media by the official account of the National Court, thanking people for helping to nab both the smugglers.

Watch the video here:

Gracias a la colaboracion ciudadana el Servicio Maritimo y Seguridad Ciudadana de la @guardiacivil de #Granada consiguen detener a los narcotraficantes de una narcolancha.



Gracias a todos, porque sin vosotros, no seria posible.#ServirYProteger #EquiparacionYa pic.twitter.com/gtCWHXGzaJ  Jucil Nacional (@jucilnacional) August 14, 2021

Smugglers nabbed with 800 kg of cannabis

In the 1.58-minute clip, the watercraft, which is seen approaching the beach, creates panic as it almost crushed a person who was bathing nearby. The clip further shows two men carrying bags in their hands trying to flee the area as cops sirens blare in the background. However, they failed in their attempt to flee as beachgoers quickly surrounded one of the two men and pinned him down. The second one was also apprehended close by. The police later informed that both smugglers were taken to prison cells in Salobrena, almost 40 kilometres from where they were detained. The police also seized around 800 kg of cannabis worth 1.5 million.

Netizens applaud beachgoers for their prompt response

It is worth mentioning that the video has triggered several reactions among netizens with many applauding the beachgoers for their prompt response which led to smugglers' arrest. Notably, this year the biggest marijuana haul in Spain so far took place in La Mojonera last month, in which 5.6 tons of it was ready to be shipped to the United Kingdom. The drug gang had its operation centre in the Costa del Sol, which is considered a regular base for this kind of operation.

Image Credits: @jucilnational/Twitter
As the Taliban takes complete control of Afghanistan, the US State Department on Wednesday released a joint statement signed by about two dozen nations, expressing concern for the rights of Afghan women and girls. While urging the Taliban to "guarantee their protection", the US State Department called on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee their protection.

Taliban takes over Afghanistan: US State Dept issues joint statement

Sources in the US State Department have informed that this joint statement has been co-signed by Albania, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, European Union, Honduras, Guatemala, North Macedonia, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Senegal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Remarking that Afghanistan women and girls deserve to live in safety, security and dignity, the statement said that any form of discrimination and abuse towards them should be prevented. Asserting that the US along with other nations in the international community stands ready to assist the Afghan women and girls with humanitarian aid and support, the statement asked the Taliban to ensure that voices of women and girls can be heard.

The joint statement issued by the US State Department read, "We will monitor closely how any future government ensures rights and freedoms that have become an integral part of the life of women and girls in Afghanistan during the last twenty years."

Taliban: 'Will give rights to women but as per Sharia law'

This joint statement by the US State Department and other nations comes after the Taliban spokesperson on Tuesday had made pacifying comments to help tame fear among the residents and as a part of a border campaign to present a more moderate face to the world.

The Taliban had declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to return to work, in a bid to assure the wary population, which was fretting over their fate under the Talibani regime. A general amnesty has been declared for allso you should start your routine life with full confidence, a statement issued by the Taliban said.

Speaking on womens rights under Taliban rule, the terror outfits spokesperson said, The rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected in accordance with the Islamic Sharia law.

Taliban's repression of women resumes

As the Taliban had started to re-capture the country of Afghanistan, the insurgents had already started resuming regressive practices against women. According to a report by the Associated Press, after the Taliban's takeover, the women are not being allowed to go out to the markets without a male escort, reveal their ankles, or to step out of their homes to work. For those who saw Taliban rule before 2001, these diktats serve as a stark reminder of the time when women were not allowed to study and work. The Taliban in the past has also carried out public executions, chopped off the hands of thieves and stoned women accused of adultery.

Taliban take over Afghanistan

As US troops retreat after 20 years from war-ravaged Afghanistan, the Taliban launched an offensive taking over cities like Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah, gradually encircling the government in Kabul. Kandahar and Herat fell on Thursday, forcing government officials and their entourage to flee to the airport to escape the city by air, Mazar-e-Sharif fell on Friday, while Jalalabad and Lashkar Gah on Saturday, strengthening the Taliban's stronghold.

The long-standing war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Afghanistan's capital Kabul, entered the city and took over the presidential palace, forcing President Ashraf Ghani to join fellow citizens and foreigners to leave the country.

(Image: AP)
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on August 17 defended Joe Bidens decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan and said that the President does not believe that the country should be "fighting and dying" in a war for the purpose of sustaining American military boots near Tajikistan or Pakistan or Iran. Back in April, Biden had announced that all US troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11, thus bringing to end the countrys longest war. The United States has already pulled back the majority of its forces and is looking to complete the drawdown by August 31.

On Tuesday, Sullivan said, I would say that the President does not believe that the United States should be fighting and dying in a war for the purpose of sustaining American military boots near Tajikistan or Pakistan or Iran.

He added, We would not agree that it is right to ask American soldiers to risk their lives for the purpose of maintaining a presence near Tajikistan.

While responding to a question, Sullivan also agreed that some of the US weapons have landed in the hands of the Taliban and the Afghan National Security Forces have basically dismantled them. He said that the US does not have a complete picture of where every article of defence materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban. Further, Sullivan added, And obviously, we don't have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport.

US in talks with allies on global response

The US NSA said that the Afghan Security Forces appear to have, essentially, no longer operate as a coherent entity. He added that they essentially have given way to Taliban physical security control over the major population centres. Sullivan also indicated that the US is in talks with other friends and allies on a global response to the actions against the Taliban.

"Standing here today, I am not going to go into the full panoply of things that we can do, but there are obviously issues related to sanctions, to marshalling international condemnation and isolation, and other steps as well," he said.

"But the reason I don't want to go into great detail on it is, I want to be able to have our team communicate directly to the Taliban both what the costs and disincentives are for certain types of action and what our expectations are. That is a conversation that we will intend to have, and I think many other countries, including like-minded allies and partners, will be having that as well," Sullivan added.

Moreover, the US official said that the Biden administration is engaging diplomatically, at the same time, with allies and regional countries and with the United Nations to address the situation in Afghanistan. He said that the US is in contact with the Taliban to ensure the safe passage of people to the airport. We are monitoring for any potential terrorist threats, as I just mentioned, including from ISIS-K. We intend to continue these operations over the coming days before completing our drawdown," he said.

(With inputs from PTI)




As the Taliban takes total control of Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke to Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau on Tuesday about the situation in the Islamic country. Giving out further details of the conversation, the US State Department informed that efforts to bring American and Canadian citizens to safety and assist vulnerable Afghans were discussed.

I spoke with Canadian Foreign Minister @marcgarneau last night about our ongoing efforts in Afghanistan. The safety and security of our citizens and vulnerable Afghans remain our top priorities.  Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) August 18, 2021

Afghanistan Crisis: US State Dept & 18 other nations issue joint statement

On Wednesday, August 18 the US State Department released a joint statement signed by about two dozen nations, expressing concern for the rights of Afghan women and girls. While urging the Taliban to "guarantee their protection", the US State Department called on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee their protection.

Sources in the US State Department have informed that this joint statement has been co-signed by Albania, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, European Union, Honduras, Guatemala, North Macedonia, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Senegal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Remarking that Afghanistan women and girls deserve to live in safety, security and dignity, the statement said that any form of discrimination and abuse towards them should be prevented. Asserting that the US, along with other nations in the international community, stands ready to assist the Afghan women and girls with humanitarian aid and support. The statement asked the Taliban to ensure that voices of women and girls can be heard.

The joint statement issued by the US State Department read, "We will monitor closely how any future government ensures rights and freedoms that have become an integral part of the life of women and girls in Afghanistan during the last twenty years."

Taliban take over Afghanistan

As US troops retreated after 20 years from war-ravaged Afghanistan, the Taliban launched an offensive taking over cities like Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah, gradually encircling the government in Kabul. Kandahar and Herat fell on Thursday, forcing government officials and their entourage to flee to the airport to escape the city by air, Mazar-e-Sharif fell on Friday, August 14 while Jalalabad and Lashkar Gah on Saturday, August 15, thereby strengthening the Taliban's stronghold.

The long-standing war in Afghanistan reached a watershed moment on Sunday when the Taliban insurgents closed in on Afghanistan's capital Kabul, entered the city and took over the presidential palace, forcing President Ashraf Ghani to join fellow citizens and foreigners to leave the country.

(Image: AP)
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The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan has prompted mixed reactions on and offline in China, with some deploring attempts by online commentators to play down the Taliban's attitude to women, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried to present the victorious armed movement as a potential ally for Beijing.



An anonymous post -- since deleted -- on the Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo described "very good feelings" about the Taliban, "although I know, I know ... that tens of millions of women and girls will now be deprived of the right to education."



Comments hit out at the post, with one user remarking sarcastically "I know they're inhumane, but I still support them," and another saying the poster was "full of infinite wishful thinking about the Taliban."



User @Aoki_momo said the post was likely the result of the government's recent cancelation of out-of-school tutoring. "It's done so much damage, not allowing catch-up classes during the summer vacation," the user said, while @Nuitinacheve4 advised "Just turn on the TV and watch the news."



@Actually, my name is Nicky just remarked: "What kind of bullshit is this? Nonsense."



Comments supporting the Taliban have become widespread on China's tightly controlled internet, garnering a new nickname, "Jingta," or "Taliban in spirit," with a vocal backlash against them also visible.



Maoist strategy credited

Other comments suggested similarities between the CCP victory in mainland China in 1949 and the current Taliban victory.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with a Taliban delegation in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin on , 2021, where the head of the Taliban's political commission Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar told Wang that Taliban "will never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China."



Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Aug. 16 that China is maintaining contact and communication with the Taliban and playing "a constructive role" in a political settlement for Afghanistan.



She said the Taliban had also welcomed potential Chinese participation in Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.



The official CCP newspaper, the People's Daily, published an opinion piece on Aug. 17 suggesting that the Taliban had won by means of military tactics espoused by late supreme Chinese leader Mao Zedong, who recommended "surrounding the cities from the countryside."



"Aren't you going to mention their religious fundamentalism?" one commenter wrote underneath the People's Daily article. "How about the stonings, and the fact that women have to cover up apart from their eyes?"



"How about a feature showing us if women are no better than sex slaves under Taliban rule?"



'Talibanization of people's thinking'

Another comment referenced the Taliban's blowing up of the giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan in .



"A lot of my friends are comparing the Taliban's taking of Kabul to the victorious end to the Chinese revolution in 1949," an anonymous Chinese internet user told RFA. "There is a kind of Talibanization of people's thinking in China right now, which is new," the internet user said.



An online commentator surnamed Tian said there is a huge amount of variation in Chinese public opinion regarding recent events in Afghanistan.



"I might see it as the lesser of two evils, even if the Afghan people didn't really want this, but had it thrust upon them," Tian said. "That doesn't mean I support the Taliban's actions; they are definitely against universal values."



An independent scholar surnamed Kong said he doesn't believe the Taliban's promises of freedom for women and forgiveness for all.



"We can't yet tell whether these remarks from the Taliban ... are just rhetoric or represent a genuine change of course," Kong said. "But we can say that a political movement that wins control of a country by force is inevitably going to use force to maintain that power."



"Political power comes from the barrel of a gun," Kong said, quoting Mao Zedong. "So they will have to use guns to defend that power."



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
The students are being held under the national security law on suspicion of 'advocating terrorism.'

Lin Chengheng, a former member of the Student Union of the University of Hong Kong, is shown being arrested by national security police, Aug. 18, 2021.

Police on Wednesday arrested four former University of Hong Kong student union leaders for publicly mourning a man who carried out a suicide attack on a police officer.

The students were arrested under a national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on suspicion of "advocating terrorism," national security police senior superintendent Steve Li told reporters.

The students, aged 18-20, were among those who spoke at a student union council meeting that passed a motion mourning the death of Leung Kin-fai, who stabbed himself to death outside the Sogo department store on July 1, 2021 after stabbing a police officer.

Li said the students had "glorified and beautified" terrorism, and the fact that the council later withdrew the motion thanking Leung for his "sacrifice" and apologized over the incident would likely be taken into account.

"[Their actions] were completely incompatible with our moral standards," he said. "When they were done speaking, they lost no time in distributing the motion after it was passed ... to the public."

Article 27 of the national security law states that anyone "who advocates terrorism or incites the commission of a terrorist activity shall be guilty of an offense."

Former student union president Kwok Wing-ho and council chief Cheung King-sang were among those arrested.

Li said police will also be talking to others who described Leung as a "martyr."

Secretary for security Chris Tang said advocating terrorism was a serious crime, as it could encourage others to take part in "terrorist" attacks.

Failure to protect

Former student union president Cheung Yiu-fai hit out at the university for its failure to protect and mediate on behalf of the students.

"It doesn't look as if any university in Hong Kong can really be considered a globally important university any more," Cheung told RFA.

"The scholars and the management, the people with the authority to make such decisions, are totally unqualified to call themselves international scholars."

"They expose the students in their charge to totalitarian rule, and even act as executioners to allow them to be exploited, oppressed, and to lose their freedom," he said.

Another former student union president Kwok Wing-kin said the arrests were designed to frighten everyone else into silence.

"Really, this is a form of pressure intended to create an atmosphere in which everyone keeps quiet," Kwok told RFA. "There is basically no room left for civil society nowadays, and that includes student unions."

The University of Hong Kong declined to comment when contacted by RFA on Wednesday, saying only that the case is currently under investigation, and that commenting would be inappropriate.

Students who attended the July 7 meeting have been barred from university premises, services, and facilities.

Officials have warned that anyone visibly mourning or sympathizing with Leung's death could be breaking the national security law, and are treating the incident as a terrorist attack.

The ban on former union members came after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam called for action against the union, after which national security police raided the union office on July 16.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
An interpreter proposed by the Chinese Embassy is expected to arrive next month, lawyer says.

Two Uyghur men facing charges in a bombing that killed 20 people and injured more than 100 at a Hindu shrine in Bangkok are waiting for a courtroom interpreter from China to arrive next month before their trial can resume, two people involved in the case told BenarNews.

Adem Karadag (alias Bilal Mohammed), then 31, and Yusufu Mieraili, then 28, were arrested within two weeks after the three kg. of explosives stuffed into a pipe ripped through the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok on Aug. 17, 2015.

Since then, however, the legal proceedings against them have been delayed or set back multiple times. Their trial in a criminal court has yet to begin in earnest although they have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The court most recently informed us that the interpreter proposed by the Chinese Embassy would likely arrive in September, Chuchart Kanpai, the lawyer representing Karadag, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, this week. The defendants disagreed, but the court said they have to follow the arrangement.

The duo were originally tried in a military court instead of a criminal court in 2016  a move seen as political by many during the second year of a power grab by General Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who had ousted elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a military coup in May 2014.

Chuchart said the court proceedings had been delayed or disrupted over the years because of a lack of qualified interpreters.

The case was sent to the Bangkok South criminal court in November 2019, after junta leader Prayuth became an elected prime minister after the March 2019 general election which, critics claimed, was engineered to keep him in power.

Chalida also said that the World Uyghur Congress would try to send a lawyer or a translator to Bangkok to assist the duo.

Some other Uyghurs who live in Thailand feared helping them out due to privacy reasons, she said.

According to the lawyer and an NGO worker assisting Uyghurs in Thailand, Karadag could not speak Chinese and would prefer a Uyghur-speaking translator. At the same time, Mieraili can communicate in English but not fluently.

The two defendants, who identified themselves as Uyghurs from Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China pleaded not guilty in 2016 in front of the judges in the military court and the civilian court last year. They last appeared in court in January 2020.

On Tuesday, a senior official from the World Uyghur Congress, said it was prepared to send an interpreter to Bangkok to assist in the case.

We dont know the procedure to send the translator. We learned that Thai authorities have asked the Chinese embassy in Bangkok for assistance, Mehmet Tohti, a co-founder of the organization who is based in Ontario, Canada, told BenarNews by phone.

If Thailand authorities are ready to accept, the Congress is ready to send the translator. We have experienced translators and we can assist, Tohti said.

For the two Uyghur defendants to go without a proper trial for six years tells us something, Tohti said.

The proceedings would likely be a political trial, as he put it, because certain governments in Southeast Asia were under heavy pressure from China.

Tourists and locals pray during the first anniversary of the Erawan Shrine bombing, in central Bangkok, Aug. 17, 2016. Credit: Reuters The bombing at the shrine was the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Thai history.

The shrine, whose centerpiece is a four-faced golden statue of the Hindu god Brahma, is venerated by Hindus as well as Buddhists, and is popular with foreign tourists. People from Buddhist-majority Thailand believe that the statue will bring them prosperity and good fortune, if they pray to it.

Thai authorities have said the bombing was not transnational terrorism, insisting that the violent attack was the work of smugglers, aggrieved that Thai authorities were hampering their human trafficking operations.

But most experts refute that theory, saying it was most likely retribution for the Thai government forcibly repatriating more than 100 asylum-seeking Uyghurs to China in July 2015.

The move drew criticism and protests from activists who say the Turkic-speaking Muslim minority suffers harsh repression in China, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on their culture and language.

Chalida Tajaroensuk, the director of Peoples Empowerment Foundation, a Thai NGO, expressed concern that the defendants had to rely on an interpreter from China.

To have a Chinese-picked translator is not fair. He or she may not be impartial because China is not an ally of the duo, Tajaroensuk told BenarNews. He or she may translate in favor of China.

The Bangkok South criminal court did not immediately respond to BenarNewss request for comments on the arrangement.

The charges

Karadag and Mieraili have been charged with criminal offenses, ranging from premeditated killing to possession of explosives. Both could face a death sentence if convicted.

Chalida said that while the issue about the translator was bad luck and unavoidable, she expressed concern about the length of the trial.

They are still presumed innocent but have been kept in a special cell because of the serious nature of the case for way too long, she said. Even NGOs cannot visit except for the lawyer. Its unjust.

Chuchart, the attorney, said the two defendants were keeping up their morale.

I visited them a couple of times during the Ramadan [in April], said Chuchart, adding that they have started to speak some Thai.

Meanwhile, a senior police investigator who had handled the case early on admitted that the issue was a lack of interpreters.

They wanted someone who they can trust, but that was hard. So the trial was postponed many times, Col. Somkiat Ploytubtim, who is no longer assigned to the case, told BenarNews recently.

There have been four interpreters in the past.

One interpreter, an Uzbek, was later jailed for alleged possession of drugs in Bangkok. He claimed he had been framed for helping the two Uyghur men, and had been beaten by police. Three others did not work out because they did not have good command of Uyghur to be accurate for trial.

Ploytubtim said three people were arrested in the case.

Wanna Suansan, then 30, who married a Turkish man, was another suspect because she had rented out an apartment to the Uyghurs during that time.

She is facing a separate trial after returning home to Thailand in November 2017 and faces five criminal charges, including first-degree murder and possessing war weapons. She is out on bail.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
Iranian officials are carefully weighing their options after the surprisingly swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan amid fears of instability, a refugee influx, and extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS) gaining a permanent foothold in its eastern neighbor.



Tehran, which has cultivated loose ties with the Taliban in recent years and hosted the group's representatives, has not publicly reached out to the militants since they seized much of Afghanistan within a week and triumphantly took control of Kabul on August 15.



In brief comments issued after the fall of the Afghan capital, new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and outgoing Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif did not directly mention the Taliban.



"The military defeat and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan should offer an opportunity to restore life, security, and lasting peace in that country," Raisi, whose inauguration ceremony was attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, was quoted as having said to Zarif on August 16.

Hours earlier, Zarif tweeted that "violence & war -- like occupation -- never solve problems." He added that Iran welcomes an announcement by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the formation of a "coordination council by Afghan leaders."



He concluded the August 15 tweet saying that Iranians hope "it can lead to dialogue and a peaceful transition in Afghanistan. Iran stands ready to continue its peacemaking efforts."



Analysts say Iran is mulling how best to secure its interests in its western neighbor as Tehran has been playing a balancing act by providing public support to the Afghan government while also developing ties with the Taliban.



Iran has previously described the militant Islamist group as "part of today's reality of Afghanistan" and said it must be "part of the future solution" in the war-torn country.

Afghanistan In Turmoil: Full Coverage On Gandhara Read RFE/RL's Gandhara website for complete coverage of the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. Gandhara is the go-to source for English-language reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi and its network of journalists, and by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, which offers extensive coverage of Pakistan's remote tribal regions.

"The Iranian leadership has put a brave face on. It has celebrated the U.S. withdrawal as a victory for the Afghan people, which by implication offers an endorsement for the Taliban," Shahram Akbarzadeh, a professor of Middle East and Central Asian politics at Australia's Deakin University, told RFE/RL.

Akbarzadeh added that Tehran is hoping for "professional if not cordial ties" with Afghanistan's future government amid worries that the Taliban would be anti-Shi'a, persecute the Hazara minority, and adopt anti-Iran policies.



"This would be extremely concerning for Iran. From the geostrategic point of view, this would facilitate Saudi influence in Afghanistan. An anti-Shi'a and anti-Iran government in Afghanistan could present serious security challenges for Iran and make Afghan territory a haven for anti-Iran terror groups," he said.



A Tehran-based observer who requested anonymity said Iran is finding a balance between "its anti-American stance and preserving its national interests, including security" on its borders.

'Most Negative Consequences'



Iran's former charge d'affaires in Afghanistan, Abdolmohammad Taheri, was quoted by the official government news agency IRNA as saying on August 18 that his country has the "authority" as well as the experience with various groups in Afghanistan to pressure the Taliban to prevent more suffering for the Afghan people while also keeping Iran safe.



Taheri described the withdrawal of U.S forces from Afghanistan as a "betrayal" that paved the way for the Taliban's lightning advances. He added that Tehran would face the "most negative consequences" of the upheaval, including an influx of refugees that he said could include members of IS and the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.



Iran, which shares a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan, already hosts more than 3 million Afghans, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Taheri said Iran cannot tolerate an enemy such as the United States in its vicinity while also warning that the Taliban and the Islamic republic do not share an "affinity" for one another.



The two sworn enemies have forged ties in recent years despite the 1998 killing of seven Iranian diplomats and a journalist in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif after it was overrun by Taliban militants.



There are also reports that Iran has sent arms to the Taliban during its long war against government forces, an accusation that Tehran denies.



Iran's Foreign Ministry called on the Taliban to ensure the safety of Iranian staff at the consulate in Herat after the group seized the western Afghan city on August 13.



Tehran said on August 17 that the staff of three of out of its five missions in Afghanistan are working from Kabul while adding that the number of staff has been drastically reduced.



But Iran said on August 17 that it is one of four countries still operating at their embassies in Kabul (Russia, China, and Pakistan are the others).



Inside Iran, many have been watching the Taliban takeover with great concern. Some of the Afghans living in Iran have staged protests in Tehran, Isfahan, and Qom in which some chanted "Death to the Taliban."

The Taliban's rule from 1996 to 2001 was marked by horrific atrocities and serious human rights violations, including the deprivation of women's most basic rights.



Amid the concerns, Sunni religious leader Molavi Abdol Hamid created controversy by praising "the Taliban's impressive" seizure of Afghanistan, claiming that the group's views have changed in the past 20 years.



"They have gained experience and their views have changed and if there are shortcomings they can be amended," Abdol Hamid, the Friday Prayers leader of the southeastern city of Zahedan in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province, said on August 17.



Other clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani, have warned in past weeks that the Taliban should not be trusted.



"It would be a grave, irreparable error to trust" the Taliban, which has "a history of evilness and murder," said Golpayegani in July.



Meanwhile, Ayatollah Asadollah Bayat Zanjani warned earlier this month against those attempting to whitewash the policies of the Taliban, which he described as "violent, radical, and terrorist."
The events that the governments of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have been increasingly dreading in recent weeks have begun to happen.



The Afghan government has fallen to the Taliban and despite the Central Asian governments having had years to contemplate and plan for such an occurrence, the initial shock waves from south of the border seem to have particularly caught Tajikistan and Uzbekistan off guard.



Tajikistan has been preparing since early June to accept refugees in the event the situation in northern Afghanistan deteriorated -- and it was not long thereafter that refugees crossed the border.



But most of those crossing from Afghanistan into Tajikistan in late June were soldiers or paramilitaries, nearly 150 of them, out of food and ammunition, with no other recourse than to flee Afghanistan.

By July 6, hundreds more had come -- some 2,300 according to the Afghan government -- all of whom were reportedly put on planes bound for Kabul.



Uzbekistan faced a similar situation in late June on a smaller scale as dozens of Afghan soldiers and paramilitaries tried to cross the border but were sent back.



And in early July, about 1,000 Afghan civilians crossed the border into eastern Tajikistan.



But starting on August 14, when the biggest city in northern Afghanistan, Mazar-e Sharif, fell to the Taliban, the exodus of people from Afghanistan was literally a "flight" -- by plane and helicopter -- which seems to have surprised Tajik and Uzbek authorities.



Getting The Story Straight



How many aircraft crossed into Central Asia is unclear and there are significantly different figures being reported.



One report said that, on August 14-15, at least 22 military planes and 24 helicopters crossed from Afghanistan into Uzbekistan and that "they were forced to land at the international airport at [the Uzbek border city of] Termez."

Afghanistan In Turmoil: Full Coverage On Gandhara Read RFE/RL's Gandhara website for complete coverage of the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. Gandhara is the go-to source for English-language reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi and its network of journalists, and by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, which offers extensive coverage of Pakistan's remote tribal regions.

There were reportedly 585 Afghan soldiers aboard those aircraft.



Another 158 civilians and soldiers crossed the Amu Darya River that marks the Afghan-Uzbek border, on August 15.

The Uzbek prosecutor-general posted a statement on August 17 that said between August 14 and 15, 46 Afghan planes and helicopters (22 planes and 24 helicopters) "illegally" crossed the border and were forced to land at Termez.



That statement was later removed, the Prosecutor-General's Office said, due to factual errors.



The office made no attempt to explain how -- with so many civilian and military officials having been to the region recently -- there were factual errors in the original post.



Janes, an open-source company specializing in military and security intelligence, reported on August 18 that satellite images showed "21 small, fixed-wing aircraft" and "about 26 helicopters" of the Afghan Air Force were at the Termez airport as of August 16.

Other conflicting reports concerned one Afghan military plane that originally was said to have crashed on August 15 in Uzbekistan's Surhandarya Province, which borders Afghanistan.



Gazeta.uz reported two Afghan servicemen were taken to the local hospital, presumably after bailing out of the plane.



Later it was reported that the plane was shot down by Uzbekistan's air defenses when it illegally flew across the border from Afghanistan.



To add to the confusion, there were reports on August 16 that three Afghan military planes had entered Uzbek air space on August 15 and requested permission to land at Uzbekistan's Khanabad military base.



But Uzbek air-traffic controllers directed the Afghan planes to land at Termez and sent two Uzbek Mig-29s to escort them.



One of the Afghan planes reportedly collided with an Uzbek plane and crashed in the Sherabad district of Surhandarya Province. The pilots of both planes are said to have ejected.



On August 14, Uzbek authorities allowed 84 Afghan soldiers to cross into Uzbekistan for medical treatment and temporary shelter, though there was a report that "hundreds" of Afghans had crowded onto the Dustlik (Friendship) Bridge that connects the two countries.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said at that time that negotiations were under way to return the Afghans.



The Prosecutor-General's Office said it will charge them with illegally crossing into Uzbekistan. For many of these soldiers, an Uzbek prison cell is probably preferable to what would await them in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.



Afghanistan's Tolo TV reported that on August 15-16 there were 45 flights from Afghanistan to Tajikistan and the Uzbek city of Termez.



RFE/RL's Tajik Service, known locally as Ozodi, reported on August 16 that sources in the State Committee for Emergency Situations said three planes and two helicopters from Afghanistan landed in Tajikistan's southern town of Bokhtar carrying 143 Afghan soldiers.



According to the independent Tajik news website Asia-Plus, the Tajik Foreign Ministry said "We received an SOS signal, after which, in accordance with the country's international obligations, a decision was made to allow the Afghan military [aircraft] to land at the airport in Bokhtar."



The Foreign Ministry said there were only two planes and that both "flew back" to Afghanistan after dropping off their passengers.

The Afghan soldiers were reportedly being housed at the dormitory of a local university.



Asia-Plus also reported a source at the Afghan Embassy in Tajikistan claiming that 18 Afghan planes -- two passenger and 16 military -- had flown to Tajikistan.



Conversely, there is little information about the situation along Turkmenistan's border with Afghanistan.



Turkmen state media outlets, as expected, have not reported on any of the monumental events that have recently taken place in Afghanistan.



But RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk, reported that Turkmen authorities are preventing any Afghans -- military or civilian, including ethnic Turkmen -- from crossing the border into Turkmenistan.



Notable Afghans Officially Not In Central Asia



When Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled his country on August 15 there were reports he was headed to Tajikistan.



Tajik officials denied Ghani landed in Tajikistan even though it was reported that Ghani flew toward Tajikistan when he departed Kabul.



And there is at least one version that Ghani had a deal to fly to Tajikistan but, at the last moment and "for unclear reasons," Tajikistan refused to accept him.



Officials in the United Arab Emirates stated on August 18 that Ghani and his family were in Dubai, though it is not known when he arrived there.

On August 14, former Afghan Vice President and notorious warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum -- who had been put in charge of Afghan government forces in northern Afghanistan just days earlier -- and former Balkh Province Governor Ata Muhammad Nur reportedly fled Mazar-e Sharif with many troops and vehicles and tried to cross into Uzbekistan.



There were reports Dostum and Nur were still in Uzbekistan but, according to RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, known locally as Ozodlik, Uzbekistan's Foreign Ministry denied that Dostum, Nur, or Ghani were in Uzbekistan.



What's Next?



Tajikistan has not indicated it will send any of the Afghans currently on its territory back to Afghanistan.



But Uzbek authorities are trying not to upset their ties with the Taliban, which is why they are seemingly rejecting refugees.



The Uzbek Foreign Ministry released a statement on August 17 saying it was in close contact with the Taliban and that "any attempts to violate the state border will be strictly suppressed."



Turkmen officials, as mentioned, do not make any public comments about the situation in Afghanistan beyond previous calls for stability in the neighboring country, and Ashgabat almost never says anything about the situation along Turkmenistan's border with Afghanistan.



Turkmen officials have met with Taliban representatives at least three times in 2021, but despite whatever reassurances the two sides gave each other, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov seems unsure about his country's security.

Besides pouring troops and military equipment -- much of the hardware bought in the last six years -- into areas along the Afghan border, Berdymukhammedov has also accepted an invitation to be a guest in Tajikistan in mid-September for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which Berdymukhammedov has attended twice before -- in 2007 and 2016.



He is also going to a meeting in Dushanbe of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, which Berdymukhammedov has never attended before.



If what happened in the first few days after the Afghan government fell to the Taliban is the worst the Central Asian states have to deal with in the future, they will probably consider themselves fortunate.



But it is a reminder that Central Asia and Afghanistan are closely connected, and whatever happens in Afghanistan is difficult to keep from spilling into Central Asia.
MINSK -- Belarusian police have detained several employees of BelaPAN, a private news agency, as a crackdown on media and civil society in Belarus intensifies following last year's disputed presidential election that handed victory to authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.



Belapans websites, belapan.by and belapan.com, also cant be reached from both Belarus and abroad after police in Minsk on August 18 searched the homes of staff and the news agencys office.



Later in the day, BelaPANs director and chief editor Iryna Leushyna, accountant Katsyaryna Boyeva, and former director Dzmitry Navazhylau were detained and placed in prison.



All three are suspected of violating laws against organizing or participating in "actions that grossly violate public order," in an apparent reference to providing news coverage of protests and opposition activities.



Another BelaPAN journalist, deputy editor-in-chief Alyaksandr Zaytsau, was interrogated but released after a search of his home, his wife said on Facebook.



Zaytsau told the Naviny.by news website that police confiscated his cell phone, a PC hard disc, a tablet computer, his journalist documents, and several business cards.



Another journalist from the agency, Iryna Turchyna, said police also searched her home and questioned her.



In January, police searched BelaPAN's headquarters and took away equipment. documents, computer hard discs, and servers, while BelaPAN's former deputy director, Andrey Alyaksandrou, was arrested and charged in January with high treason and organizing mass disorder, a charge referring to months-long mass demonstrations demanding Lukashenka's resignation and a new presidential election.



Last month, several BelaPAN journalists fled the country following another wave of searches by police of homes of independent journalists.



Lukashenka, 66 and in power since 1994, has tightened his grip on the country in recent months in a violent crackdown on dissent that has raised the ire of many Western nations.



According to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, 33 media employees are currently behind bars.



The West has not recognized the results of the August 2020 election and does not consider Lukashenka to be the country's legitimate leader. Many countries have imposed several rounds of sanctions against his regime in response to his suppression of dissent in the country.
The European Union has condemned what it called "aggressive behavior" by Belarus, accusing the country of conducting "a direct attack" by pushing asylum seekers across Belaruss border with the bloc.



EU interior ministers said Belarus is seeking to "instrumentalize human beings for political purposes" after an emergency meeting on August 18 to discuss alarm over illegal border crossings into Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.



"This aggressive behavior...is unacceptable and amounts to a direct attack aimed at destabilizing and pressurizing the EU," they said in a statement after the meeting.



"The European Union will need to further consider its response to these situations in order to increase its effectiveness and to deter any future attempts to instrumentalize illegal migration in this manner," the statement added.



So far this year, more than 4,100 asylum-seekers, most of them from Iraq, have illegally crossed from Belarus into Lithuania alone, but Latvia and Poland also have seen increases in migrants crossing the border from Belarus.



Poland said it had deployed nearly 1,000 troops to its border with Belarus to help border guards cope with a surge of migrants, and Lithuania sent a diplomatic note to Minsk expressing a strong protest against a violation of the Lithuanian border by Belarusian officers.



The migrant movements spiked dramatically after the EU slapped sanctions on Belarus officials in response to authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordering a crackdown on opponents and protesters after claiming victory in a vote last year that the West denounced as rigged.



Lukashenka has said that Belarus will no longer stop the flow of migrants into the EU due to the sanctions imposed by the West.



Many of the migrants were believed to have arrived in Belarus on commercial flights from Iraq. Those flights have stopped for now.



Lithuanian authorities have accused Minsk of bringing Iraqi migrants to Belarus, transporting them to the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, and pushing them into the EU member-state.



Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, who sent the diplomatic note to Minsk, on August 18 called an incident that took place earlier this week , which was recorded, "a provocation."



"We have informed Belarus that the incident has been recorded, and it is our deep concern because we consider it another provocation, a further escalation of an already tense situation," Landsbergis said.



Landsbergis said Lithuania, a member of NATO and the European Union, had also informed officials of the two organizations about the incident.



In the video recording, a group of migrants can be seen coming through high grass followed by a line of Belarusian officers in riot gear moving toward the border. The Belarusian officers then move several meters closer, crossing the border.

Also on August 18, authorities of Latvia, which is also an EU and NATO member, said its border guards prevented 46 illegal migrants from attempting to cross the border from Belarus in the past 24 hours.



The Latvian border guard service also said that another six people had been detained since August 17 after illegally crossing the Belarusian-Latvian border.

With reporting by BNS, Reuters, AP, LETA, Delfi, TASS, and Interfax
Welcome back to the China In Eurasia briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter tracking China's resurgent influence from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.



I'm RFE/RL correspondent Reid Standish and here's what I'm following right now.

Beijing, Moscow, And An Eye On Afghanistan

In the latest display of their deepening ties, Beijing and Moscow held military exercises this week in western China, with a focus on security in Central Asia and Afghanistan.

Finding Perspective: As I reported here , the drills come amid big changes taking place in the security environment across Eurasia that are increasingly on the radar of both China and Russia.

Afghanistan In Turmoil: Full Coverage On Gandhara Read RFE/RL's Gandhara website for complete coverage of the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. Gandhara is the go-to source for English-language reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Azadi and its network of journalists, and by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, which offers extensive coverage of Pakistan's remote tribal regions.

More than 10,000 troops from the Chinese and Russian militaries participated in the Zapad/Interaction 2021 exercises in a training that marked the fourth consecutive exercises between Beijing and Moscow and the first joint drills held in China.

China and Russia have been growing closer over the years, but especially since 2014, when Russia found itself hit by Western sanctions. The exercises are part of this larger trend and they highlighted growing interoperability between both countries' militaries.

The focus on Central Asia and how the situation in Afghanistan could destabilize the wider region also points to another area of mutual concern for both countries.

While the Chinese and Russian analysts I spoke with were quick to note that neither Beijing or Moscow is intent on forging a formal military alliance, the way both countries respond to security challenges in the region will define how their relationship matures in the coming years.

Why It Matters: The Taliban's dramatic sweep to power this week is just the beginning of what's to come.

Refugee flows into Central Asia and beyond are likely to be a major issue moving forward and Uzbekistan has shown how it will defend its borders, detaining fleeing Afghan soldiers and shooting down an Afghan Air Force plane it says illegally entered its air space.

Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan has already met with the Taliban since they took Kabul, and China had stepped up its engagement with the militants as they advanced across the country.

What comes next is still very uncertain, but Afghanistan will continue to be a major test for both China and Russia.

Read more

 My colleague Frud Bezhan has a good article breaking down what happened this week in Afghanistan and where things might be headed next for the Taliban and the country. Read it here .

 For a deeper look at Moscow's calculus toward the Taliban's takeover, RFE/RL's Mike Eckel has a sharp piece breaking things down.

 To follow the latest in Afghanistan, check out RFE/RL's Gandhara website , which is full of reporting on the ground.

Expert Corner: Is China After Afghan Resources?

Readers asked, "Does China have its sights on Afghan resources now that the Taliban is in charge?"

To find out more, I asked Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute.

"Chinese companies have long looked at untapped mineral resources in Afghanistan as opportunities...[but] they will have also observed that the two previous large extractive investment projects in Afghanistan have encountered substantial difficulties. It is difficult for me to see how this situation becomes easier now that we have a Taliban-led government in charge."

"So far, much of the actual investment and projects that have taken place in Afghanistan have been company- or individual entrepreneur-led. I have seen little evidence of the Chinese government pushing its companies into projects in the country."

"Undoubtedly, Chinese companies will see that their government seemingly has some understanding with the Taliban and will be willing to explore opportunities, but they will think very carefully before jumping in."

Do you have a question about China's growing footprint in Eurasia? Send it to me at StandishR@rferl.org or reply directly to this e-mail and I'll get it answered by leading experts and policymakers.

Three More Stories From Eurasia

1. China's Uyghur Dragnet Goes Global

China has used its massive economic clout in Pakistan to gain Islamabad's cooperation in its transnational campaign targeting Uyghurs, according to a new report from the Oxus Society for Central Asian affairs and the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

What's Important: Pakistan was the first country to actively collaborate with Beijing in monitoring and extraditing Uyghurs to China and cooperation has only deepened as the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has been built up.

The key assertion of the report is that this is part of a deliberate Chinese strategy centered upon "offering extravagant development projects while deepening security ties," which has been effective in influencing the Pakistani government to help target the country's Uyghur community.

This model for cooperation built with Islamabad is also a template that Beijing is looking to export elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East. You can read more about it here in my article where I spoke with the report's authors.

In another sign of this regional trend, AP reported about the existence of a Chinese secret detention facility operating in Dubai, where a Chinese woman says she was held for eight days along with at least two Uyghurs.

2. The Baltics Vs. Beijing

A diplomatic spat between Lithuania and China over Taiwan has pushed Europe's relations with Beijing back into the spotlight as the European Union struggles to define its increasingly shaky relationship with Beijing. Read the full article here .

What Happened: Things kicked off on August 10, when China recalled its ambassador to the Baltic country in response to Lithuania's decision to set up a diplomatic office in Taiwan. This was followed by China demanding that Vilnius recall its ambassador from Beijing.

Things have since escalated further as Beijing has banned freight trains from China going to Lithuania.

Beijing's anger centers around Lithuania's move to open a representative office in Taipei under the name Taiwan. (Most representative offices use Taipei, the capital, in the official name.)

China's tough response is meant as a warning shot to other countries in Europe looking to follow suit and comes amid changing sentiment toward Beijing across the EU.

The Bigger Picture: This isn't an isolated incident.

Vilnius and Beijing had a previous spat in the spring, when Lithuania left the "17+1," a Beijing-led format for engaging with Central and Eastern European countries, and the Baltic country has been vocal in its criticism of China over Hong Kong and its treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

The episode comes as many countries in the EU are readjusting their China policies and the spat with Lithuania could have broader ripple effects, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.

While Lithuania is unlikely to steer the EU, it could be a harbinger of what's down the line for Beijing. One looming event that could start a shift is Germany's September elections, which could set the stage for a far more pragmatic approach to China across Europe.

3. China Road and Bridge Corporation In the Spotlight

The National Council for the Fight against High-Level Corruption in Montenegro announced that the current Montenegrin government must criminally prosecute those responsible from the previous government for the devastation of the Tara River, RFE/RL's Balkan Service reported .

Digging Deeper: Calovic Markovic, who heads the council, which functions as an independent oversight body, also said that the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), which is building a section of the almost $1 billion Bar-Boljare highway, should not be allowed to leave Montenegro until it compensates for the environmental damage caused to the river.

Markovic also called to publicize all sections of the contract signed with CRBC by the previous government, an election promise by the current government that is unfulfilled.

The highway, which is financed by a loan taken out by the previous government from the Export-Import Bank of China, has been a source of controversy in Montenegro and internationally.

The project has also long been a target for anti-corruption activists in the Balkan country and the push from the council is a sign that the Chinese-funded highway will continue to be a thorny issue in Montenegrin politics.

Across The Supercontinent

No Man's Land: An ethnic Kazakh man from Xinjiang is detained in Ukraine after trying to cross the border into Slovakia, RFE/RL's Ukrainian and Kazakh services reported .

The man had previously held temporary asylum in Ukraine and was sent back by Slovak authorities after he attempted to enter the country. He is currently in a detention facility in Ukraine and has reapplied for asylum.

Chinese Apps On The Rise: Didi, the Chinese ride-sharing app, is growing its footprint across Russia and undercutting its competitors, my colleague Elina Yagudina of RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reported .

Islamabad Investigates: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies were behind the July 14 bus blast that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, and that the Pakistani Taliban carried out the attack. Indian officials have said the claim is "baseless."

Practice Run: China and Tajikistan kicked off military exercises outside the capital, Dushanbe, on August 17, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported .

One Thing To Watch

Chinese hacking and digital surveillance are on the rise across Eurasia.

A U.S. firm accused the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei of requiring it to set up a safe city system that gives Huawei access to sensitive national security information, including data on citizens and government officials in Pakistan.

That accusation comes after another report by the cybersecurity firm FireEye that said that Chinese hackers broke into computers across Israel's government and tech companies in 2019 and 2020 and planted code in Persian to disguise themselves as an Iranian group.

Another recent report from the Group-IB security consulting group said that they believed a 2019 cyberattack against Russian federal authorities was also likely carried out by Chinese hackers.

That's all from me for now. Don't forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you might have.

Until next time,

Reid Standish

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your in-box on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz authorities have launched a probe into abduction of a Kyrgyz-Turkish educator who was illegally taken to Turkey, where he faces a lengthy prison term on terrorism charges which he and his supporters vehemently deny.

The Prosecutor-General's Office said on August 17 that an investigation was launched into "negligence" and the "violation of border-crossing regulations" by border guards who were on duty when Orhan Inandi was illegally taken out of the country after he was kidnapped in late May.

The disappearance of Inandi, the head of the Sapat educational network in Kyrgyzstan, sparked numerous demonstrations in Bishkek, with protesters demanding the government locate him.

In July, Turkish officials said agents from Turkish intelligence abducted Inandi and brought him to Turkey, describing Inandi as "a top Central Asian leader" of the movement led by U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a friend-turned-foe of Erdogan whom Ankara blames for a deadly 2016 coup attempt.

Turkey has cracked down hard on alleged members of the Gulen movement, which it considers a terrorist organization, arresting tens of thousands of people and purging the civil service and military. It has also pursued the Gulen movement abroad.

Kyrgyz officials have denied claims they colluded with Turkish intelligence to abduct Inandi. However, some Kyrgyz lawmakers have accused the Central Asian state's security officials and the government of complicity or incompetence in the case of Inandi.

Inandi's lawyer, Halil Ibrahim Yilmaz, told RFE/RL in July that his client said three men speaking fluent Kyrgyz, possibly officers of the Kyrgyz police, security service, or another Kyrgyz state entity, kidnapped him.

Yilmaz told RFE/RL that his client has rejected accusations of being a member of a terrorist group.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement at the time that Turkish and Kyrgyz authorities "abducted and extrajudicially transferred" Inandi to Turkey.

Erbol Sultanbaev, a spokesman for Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, denied the authorities were involved in the abduction, calling the charges completely absurd."

In a statement, the president's office said it had issued a formal complaint to the Turkish ambassador about the issue. It added that there had been three prior attempts to kidnap the educator, and all had been thwarted.

Inandi, 53, had lived in Kyrgyzstan since 1995 and holds dual Turkish-Kyrgyz citizenship.

Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (UKMK) chief Kamchybek Tashiev has said that since Inandi kept his Turkish citizenship after he obtained Kyrgyz citizenship, Turkish authorities have a right to prosecute him.
Usmonkhon Alimov, Uzbekistan's top Islamic cleric, has died of complications caused by COVID-19 in a Moscow hospital.

Physicians at an intensive-care unit of Clinical Hospital No. 52 in the Russian capital told RFE/RL on August 17 that the chairman of the Spiritual Directorate of Uzbekistan's Muslims died in the facility on August 15 at the age of 71.

According to the doctors, Alimov died of heart complications caused by COVID-19.

Alimov, who was Uzbekistan's grand mufti, was buried in his native Samarkand region in Uzbekistan's southeast on August 16.

RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev and Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov visited Alimov's home to express condolences to his relatives the same day, local media reported.

The chairman of Russia's Council of Muftis, Ravil Gainutdinov, Mufti of Moscow Ildar Alyautdinov, and the leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramazan Kadyrov, were among those who officially expressed their condolences to Alimov's relatives.

In recent months, Alimov was involved in promoting incumbent President Mirziyoev by intensively meeting with Muslims at mosques and prayers across the country ahead of the presidential election scheduled for October 24.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published on June 8, 2017 by the Ohio History Connection. Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites.

At first glance, it seems a little bit unusual to talk about art and war in the same blog post. Normally we talk about these two concepts as complete opposites- after all doesn't the saying go "make art not war?"

However, if we examine the experiences of just a few Ohioans during World War II, we can see that wartime political artworks exagerrated and entrenched dangerous stereotypes about Japanese Americans.

Unfortunately, this Anti-Japanese sentiment lead to the uprooting of many Japanese American families who were forced into internment camps.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, racist charactertizations of Japanese soldiers and citizens flooded the daily lives of most Americans through propaganda and popular media.

Drawing on decades of Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States, World War II propaganda focused on characterizing all individuals of Japanese descent as a dangerous, non-human enemy. Creators of popular propaganda images often drew Japanese characters as animals (often as rats) or with heavily exagerrated eyes and bright yellow skin.

Examples of these stereotypes can be seen in the government-sponsored World War II posters below.

It is easy to see how ingrained and commonplace Anti-Japanese stereotypes became for many Americans by examining the works of amateur artist Ralph Williams.

In February of 1941, 23-year-old Ralph Williams (that's him in the article below) lived in Newark, with his mother, stepfather, and many siblings and step-siblings.

Williams clearly had a talent for the visual arts, and he hoped to one day work as a professional artist. However, Ralph decided to put off his career goals for a little while to register for military service.

Ralph Williams was assigned to serve in the 18th Coast Artillery at Fort Stevens, Oregon, during World War II. The Coast Artillery was essentially responsible for defending the United States and its citizens against any possible enemy fire.

Like most soldiers,Williams sent letters home to his family and friends. However, most soldiers weren't also aspiring artists. Using ink and water colors, Williams crafted detailed pieces of cartoon art on the envelopes that carried his letters home to Newark.

It is very likely that Ralph Williams did not think carefully about the way he drew Japanese soldiers. This was simply how he had seen Japanese soldiers depicted again and again in American publications and posters.

Unfortunately, Williams wasn't the only one viewing this racist war propaganda. Wide spread Japanese characterizations encouraged Americans to view all men, women, and children of Japanese descent as inherently dangerous- not just those men in uniform.

In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 as a means to protect "against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material." As a result, thousands of individuals of Japanese descent living on the West Coast of the United States were forced to leave their homes and live in government-monitored internment camps. Because Executive Order 9066 allowed for actions to protect against espionage, it was possible to claim that all Japanese Americans could be working as spies and needed to be monitored.

The order does not mention Japanese Americans specifically- in fact the United States was also at war with Germany and Italy. But German and Italian Americans were largely left alone during World War II. Before the war began, most Americans displayed a clear Anti-Japanese sentiment. These same prejudices were not widely held against German or Italian Americans. This difference in ongoing racial strife meant that most Americans willingly understood the difference between an individual German and a Nazi, but could not seperate any Japanese individual from the dangerous racist characterization popular in wartime propaganda.

For example, the World War II poster below shows a Nazi hand with no added characterization- it is clearly human. What is threatening about the unpictured Nazi attached to this hand is his ideology and values- he has no problem driving a dagger through the Bible. By attacking Nazi values, rather than inherent German traits, these posters allowed Americans to continue to seperate the enemy from the German Americans living in their neighborhoods.

Most Japanese Ohioans were safe from the threat of internment camps. Generally only those Japanese Americans with an address West of the Mississippi River were forced to leave their homes. However Mae and Kingo Takasugi of Alliance, Ohio, were moved to Tulare Internment Camp in California in 1943.

The couple had only recently moved to Alliance in 1940 due to Kingo's new engineering job. However, California was still listed as their primary residency, so the Takasugis ended up on a list of Japanese Americans who needed to be moved.

Before Mae and Kingo left Ohio, their friend, Charles Buxton, took a photograph of Mae with her parasol. Mae left this parasol as a gift for Charles and his wife Elsie. The two couples maintained a friendship throughout the war and for the rest of their lives. After leaving the internment camp, Mae and Kingo settled back in Southern California.

Unfortunately, stories like Mae's and Kingo's were very common during World War II. By examining their story next to the art of Ralph Williams and the popular propaganda that flooded American's lives, we can see the power of art and media. Wartime propaganda- an artwork of its own kind- encouraged Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States and forever altered the lives of the Takasugis. It looks like art and war have some things in common after all.
Bellville, Richland County agree to split costs on new tornado siren:

https://www.richlandsource.com/news/bellville-richland-county-agree-to-split-costs-on-new-tornado-siren/article_84df5130-ff7d-11eb-b812-638637bcc392.html?block_id=1098581



Loudonville's Century House was rumored to be a stop on the Underground Railroad:

https://www.richlandsource.com/area_history/loudonvilles-century-house-was-rumored-to-be-a-stop-on-the-underground-railroad/article_94bd0f71-c9b6-561f-94b2-7a329f81c17e.html



North central Ohio residents tell us no masks by 2-1 ratio:

https://www.richlandsource.com/open_source/north-central-ohio-residents-tell-us-no-masks-by-2-1-ratio/article_d0a2878e-ff8e-11eb-a3af-0fbabaaf4e90.html?block_id=1098581



2021 Shawshank Hustle in Mansfield:

https://www.richlandsource.com/life_and_culture/gallery-2021-shawshank-hustle-in-mansfield/collection_a05a6bb0-fd08-11eb-a64d-6f0f35e11e60.html



'Help Wanted' signs in Knox, Ashland counties reflect workforce changes as economy recovers:

https://www.knoxpages.com/solutions/part-1-help-wanted-signs-in-knox-ashland-counties-reflect-workforce-changes-as-economy-recovers/article_edbf3ad0-de71-11eb-9b24-5f508a493404.html



Martha Elizabeth Phillips:

https://www.richlandsource.com/obituaries/martha-marge-elizabeth-phillips/article_75d449e6-ff6b-11eb-ab22-8be58ae3683c.html





This is Source Daily. Join us Monday through Friday to stay up to date with what's happening in North Central Ohio. Well be sharing a closer look at one of our top stories, along with other news, local history, memorials, answers to your questions, and more.

Today - Bellville Mayor Teri Brenkus said she hopes to have a new, $24,650 solar-powered tornado siren installed on the southern end of the village by the end of 2021.

And Richland County commissioners have agreed to split the costs of the siren with the village. That means each entity will pay $12,325.19.

Originally, commissioners and village officials hoped Jefferson Township trustees would agree to divide the cost with them as well. However, trustees unanimously decided they wouldnt be willing to take on that cost.

Why? Jefferson Township Trustees chair Mark Gatton told Richland Source that the need for tornado sirens is not as prevalent given today's technology.

Gatton explained that there are different apps people can get on their phone to tell them what's going on weather-wise, good or bad. For that reason they didn't feel that the expenditure was worth it.

Bellville Mayor Teri Brenkus met with Richland commissioners back in June and the decision was made to go forward with estimates for the work.

At that time commissioner Tony Vero said that any extra layer of safety we can provide to the residents is a good thing.

And earlier this week Brenkus and village administrator Larry Weirich presented commissioners with a proposal from VASU Communications Inc. for a high-powered directional rotating siren that can be heard over a one-mile radius.

This solar-powered siren has a constantly charging battery backup.

And as for the location, the mayor said a final location for the siren's tower had not yet been selected, but it would be set high enough to be effective.

At the moment, Richland County has 42 outdoor warning sirens in locations throughout the county. Each is owned, operated and maintained by the jurisdiction in which it is located. Belville's new siren would be part of that system.

The purpose of outdoor warning sirens is to notify people who are outside to seek shelter. It would be able to reach residents particularly in the Greenbriar Condos, Hamilton Hills and Urban Meadows neighborhoods in Bellville.

You can learn more about this story at richlandpress.com

Before we continue, wed like to thank our sponsors at Richland Public Health When we stopped wearing masks to prevent covid 19 that was a big change. What hasnt changed is that the virus is still with us and coronavirus variants are easily spread among unvaccinated people. Richland Public Health urges you to find a no cost local covid 19 vaccination provider at richland health dot org.

Do your part so we can all enjoy Richland County TOGETHER.

Now, some local history One of the oldest houses in the Loudonville area is the "Century House," located on State Route 3. Its believed to have been built around 1840.

And it was a rumored one-time stop on the Underground Railroad while owned by Dr. Ephraim Fuller. Fullers family continued to own it until the mid-1900s.

Next, were answering a question from our readers and listeners like you

Todays question is one weve answered before, but this time we have more insight Yes - its the mask debate...

As you may already know, those who responded to our survey expressed that masks would not be welcomed back to north central Ohio. Overwhelmingly. In fact about 67% said they would not be wearing a mask, while only 33% said they would.

So whats the reasoning behind these responses? Of the 1,373 people who responded, 764 offered an answer to why they would or wouldn't be wearing a mask again. Many noted they wouldn't because they were vaccinated, others are putting their faith in their own immune system. But ultimately, the majority of the survey respondents said they just dont believe face masks are an effective tool in mitigating the spread.

On the other side, some residents will continue to mask for reasons like protecting vulnerable family members, and not wanting to contribute to the creation of more virus variants.

Is there something youve always wondered about Richland County that youd like us to investigate? Check out richlandsource.com and click Talk to Us. Here, you can ask us anything and well go out and find the answers.

The more than 1,100 runners and walkers in Saturdays Shawshank Hustle 7k in Mansfield... many in full movie-themed regalia. The 7th running of the event began on the grounds of the former Ohio State Reformatory and wound through downtown before finishing back at the fabled state prison where the Shawshank Redemption was filmed. Jeremy Riehm from Mansfield and Emma McCarron were the top male and female finishers..

Check out our photos and more at richlandsource.com.

Over the course of the pandemic, manufacturers have faced a series of challenges but one of the most pressing is an unprecedented shortage of workforce.

Knox Pages Report for America reporter Emma Davis recently turned a four-part series on this very topic. In response to their search for talent, a coalition of Knox County manufacturers and the Knox County Workforce Development Alliance program are launching a pilot certification program called Knox ASPECT. Its designed to prepare people for careers in manufacturing.

And any candidate who successfully completes the six classes will have a guaranteed job interview with participating Knox County based manufacturers, all of whom are looking to hire.

Stephanie Burson, Strategic Initiatives Manager for Ver-Mac Industries told us that the past 18 months have been exceptionally challenging. The local manufacturing workforce shortage is something that theyve struggled with for years. So theyre excited to participate in this program.

The pilot program will meet at the Knox County Ohio Means Jobs Center on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in October.

For more on this story, head over to Knoxpages.com.

Finally, wed like to take a moment to remember Martha Elizabeth Phillips of Mansfield. She was born in Carter County, Kentucky - one of twelve children.

Marge loved going to church and was a faithful member of New Beginnings Free Will Baptist Church. She loved gardening, canning, sewing and especially making beautiful quilts which she gifted to many people.

She is survived by three children, her ten grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. Shes also survived by her brother and numerous nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends on Sunday at the Ontario Home of Wappner Funeral Directors.

Thankyou for taking a moment with us to remember and celebrate Marthas life.

Thanks for listening, join us again tomorrow!

Also, make sure to head over to richlandsource.com and click be a member button to help support independent local journalism that informs and inspires.

Every contribution goes to helping us make Richland County a better place and to help keep our journalism free.

Also, if you like this podcast and want to hear more, make sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts!
Editor's note: This article is sponsored to you by Little Buckeye Children's Museum.

Little Buckeye Childrens Museum is asking for the communitys vote in order to receive a $25,000 grant from State Farm Neighborhood Assist that will help better serve the children of Richland County.

This is a rare opportunity where you can feel successful and feel like you have improved your community, said Fred Boll, executive director of Little Buckeye.

If chosen for the grant, the money will go toward Little Buckeyes Buckeye Bag Program, first introduced in 2020. After winning the Spirit of Community award from the Ohio Travel Association, Little Buckeye distributed over 200 Buckeye bags to children during the peak of COVID-19. Now, Boll wants to expand his reach to as many children in Richland County as possible.

The first set of Buckeye bags were very successful, and we're hoping to reproduce that success again, Boll said.

Winning the grant would allow Little Buckeye to upgrade the bags with more supplies and provide for more than 2,500 in-need children. The bags include a variety of activities and an instruction book on the imaginative things you can do with supplies such as jump rope or a frisbee.

The bags would be distributed to second and eighth-graders to ensure that they are fully inclusive. It will also give the museum favorable odds to making sure every family in the county will get one, Boll said.

Boll plans to seek help from corporate sponsors if he receives the grant to expand his reach in Richland County.

The more corporate sponsors we get, the more we can expand it, Boll said. We can impact five grades worth of students if we get enough corporate sponsorship to assist with the grant.

Starting Aug. 18 at midnight and lasting until Aug. 28, voting online will take place. U.S. residents who are 18 and older with a valid email address can vote every day up to 10 times a day for Little Buckeye by visiting littlebuckeye.org and clicking the Vote Here button on the landing page. Voters can also go directly to Little Buckeyes State Farm page and vote.

Boll implores his community to take advantage of this opportunity to continue making improvements to the community for the next generation.

Everybody always wants to make a difference and can feel frustrated when they're not able to make a difference, Boll said. This is an opportunity where everybody can have a direct impact on our community and make a positive change  through the simple act of going online and voting for Little Buckeye Children's Museum.

Visit littlebuckeye.org and click vote here.
WASHINGTON D.C.  U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined 45 Senate colleagues, of both parties, in urging the Biden administration to take swift, robust action to protect and support Afghan women leaders facing unparalleled danger following the Talibans violent sweep across Afghanistan and seizure of Kabul.

In a bipartisan letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the senators called on the Administration to create a humanitarian parole category specifically for women leaders, activists, human rights defenders, parliamentarians, journalists, and members of the Female Tactical Platoon of the Afghan Special Security Forces, and to streamline the paperwork process to facilitate referrals to allow for fast, humane, and efficient relocation to the United States.

We and our staff are receiving regular reports regarding the targeting, threatening, kidnapping, torturing, and assassinations of women for their work defending and promoting democracy, equality, higher education, and human rights. While we welcomed the expansion of the eligibility requirements for Special Immigrant Visas and the creation of the Priority 2 category in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, we must also protect those women who might fall through the cracks of the U.S. Governments response, the senators wrote.

Concerns have been raised over reports of rampant war crimes  including public beatings and flogging of women, sexual violence, and forced marriage  in areas captured by the Taliban.

We greatly appreciate your efforts to help save the lives of Afghans who have advanced U.S. and Afghan joint interests over the last generation, standing for peace, democracy, and equality. We are all in agreement that we owe them our unqualified support.

In addition to expressing their support for the Administrations efforts to evacuate those who are applying for humanitarian parole and those applying for Priority 1 or 2 pathways, including by allocating seats for them on SIV evacuation flights, the senators urged the Administration to increase processing capacity within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and to immediately appoint an interagency refugee coordinator.

The letter is below:

Dear Secretary Blinken and Secretary Mayorkas:

As the situation in Afghanistan rapidly deteriorates and the Taliban has taken control of Kabul, we appreciate the urgent measures you and the Department of Defense are taking to protect Afghan women leaders and others most at risk for retaliation by the Taliban.

We strongly urge you to create a humanitarian parole category specifically for women leaders, activists, human rights defenders, judges, parliamentarians, journalists, and members of the Female Tactical Platoon of the Afghan Special Security Forces and to streamline the paperwork process to facilitate referrals to allow for fast, humane, and efficient relocation to the United States.

We also urge you to increase processing capacity within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and to immediately appoint an interagency refugee coordinator. We support your efforts to evacuate those who are applying for humanitarian parole and those applying for Priority 1 or 2 pathways, including by allocating seats for them on SIV evacuation flights.

Finally, the United States should do everything possible to enable charter flights to safely land at and depart the airport even after U.S. Embassy personnel have been evacuated, and that clear instructions for safely accessing their aircraft are provided to those who are trying to depart and to organizations that have referred people and their dependents.

We are gravely concerned about the safety of women leaders, activists, judges, parliamentarians, and human rights defenders. The shocking violence and alleged atrocities occurring have caused mass displacement which, during a global pandemic and severe drought, has created a major humanitarian crisis. In areas captured by the Taliban, there are reports of war crimes including summary executions, public beatings and flogging of women, sexual violence and forced marriage, as well as clampdowns on media and other forms of communication.

We and our staff are receiving regular reports regarding the targeting, threatening, kidnapping, torturing, and assassinations of women for their work defending and promoting democracy, equality, higher education, and human rights. While we welcomed the expansion of the eligibility requirements for Special Immigrant Visas and the creation of the Priority 2 category in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, we must also protect those women who might fall through the cracks of the U.S. Governments response.

Particularly for women who are currently targetseven hunted by Taliban fighters who are going house-to-house with their namesthe path to protection and safety under the Priority 2 designation is not accessible. While we understand there is little processing capacity at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, for these women to access a third country for processing is almost or completely impossible with all borders crossings now closed or controlled by the Taliban.

We greatly appreciate your efforts to help save the lives of Afghans who have advanced U.S. and Afghan joint interests over the last generation, standing for peace, democracy, and equality. We are all in agreement that we owe them our unqualified support.

Sincerely,

Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).
Richmond, KY (40475)

Today

Rain likely. Potential for flooding rains. Low around 65F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Potential for flooding rains. Low around 65F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  On normal days, the garage is where people park while visiting Mississippi's only children's hospital, a building next door decorated with a logo of a rainbow and sun. Now air-conditioned tents with beds, monitors and oxygen fill the garage's bottom floor.

By Wednesday, coronavirus patients will begin being treated in Mississippi's second field hospital opened within days on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus. It comes as the surging delta variant of COVID-19 has overwhelmed hospitals in a state with one of the nation's lowest vaccination rates.

The first emergency field hospital opened last week with federal government backing after hospitalizations began spiking in Mississippi; this one is being spearheaded by a Christian relief charity Samaritan's Purse. The North Carolina-based relief organization arrived Sunday with more than 50 more medical professionals to erect tents with 32 more beds.

University of Mississippi Medical Center spokesperson Marc Rolph was somber about unfolding events.

Its unbelievable that were doing this again within what? 6 days? Heartbreaking, he said of two field hospitals that have gone up.

Mississippi's State Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, knows many of those infected will be young.

Unlike earlier surges, this wave is predominately impacting younger, unvaccinated people just as classes are resuming, Dobbs said. More children are hospitalized than ever, and one between the ages of 11 and 17 died just last week.

Instead of seeing women bury their parents, were seeing women bury their children, he said on a visit Tuesday afternoon. "Its a sad and heartbreaking thing.

More than 392,300 people have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic in Mississippi, a state of about 3 million people. At least 7,880 have died since.

Dobbs likens the newest Mississippi surge to a tsunami and it has overwhelmed the state's hospital system. On July 27, some 726 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus. By Aug. 16 that figure stood at 1,623.

Patients were waiting in hallways and emergency rooms, with no beds and no staff to immediately tend to them.

Dobbs said the virus situation in Mississippi is the worst its ever been, but even the latest field hospital will have a big impact, saying it would bring care for those who might not get care of otherwise."

State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Tuesday that about 20,000 Mississippi students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure  4.5% of the public school population, according to the latest enrollment figures.

The state called on the federal government for help, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of three dozen physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists last week to set up the first emergency field hospital. That site, in another parking lot at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, is serving 20 patients.

Samaritan's Purse is known for its medical missions across the world, including in Liberia, West Africa, where it was on the frontlines of the Ebola outbreak. It is currently also in Haiti helping out after a deadly 7.2 magnitude earthquake there.

Since the pandemic's start, the charity has set up five other emergency hospitals in areas of the world hardest hit by the virus, including in Italy, New York City and Los Angeles County.

Edward Graham, assistant to the vice president of programs and government relations at Samaritan's Purse, said his physicians are using their training fighting Ebola and other emergencies to tackle the virus in Mississippi.

These hospitals were designed for overseas use; we never thought well be doing this, he said. "But our neighbors here in Mississippi have called and asked for, and weve responded."

The inflatable tents  negative pressure, to keep the virus inside  are anchored by cinderblock in case of storms or high winds.

Five beds thus far have been set up to treat intensive care patients with ventilators.

Outside the tents, orange fencing marks the entrance to the hot zone, where only staff clothed in full PPE  two pairs of gloves, protective gowns, goggles, hair nets, rubber boots, face coverings  can go. Before staff leave to enter the clean zone, they must wash with bleach water.

Briefing journalists on Tuesday, the medical center's head, LouAnn Woodward, renewed pleases for people to get vaccinated, noting the health care workforce is exhausted and traumatized. Only 34% of the state's population is fully vaccinated.

Woodward said that while Samaritan's Purse is responding to a natural disaster in Haiti, the situation in Mississippi is a disaster of our own making."

We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat, we have failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves," she said.

___

Leah Willingham is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
TOOELE, Utah (AP)  The sound of the helicopter propeller thundered across the horizon as it dipped down toward mustangs dotting the golden brown plain. The horses burst into a gallop at the machine's approach, their high-pitched whinnies rising into the dry air.

That helicopter roundup in the mountains of western Utah removed hundreds of free-roaming wild horses, shortly before the Biden administration announced it would sharply increase the number of mustangs removed across the region. It's an emergency step land managers say is essential to preserving the ecosystem and the horses as a megadrought worsened by climate change grips the region.

What were seeing here in the West gives some insight into a new norm, Terry Messmer, a professor at Utah State University who studies wild horse management.

The removals are adding fuel to longstanding conflicts with activists for the animals whose beauty and power make them an enduring emblem of the American West. They say the U.S. government is using the drought as an excuse to take out horses in favor of cattle grazing.

Horses that are captured are held in government corrals and pastures mostly in the West and Midwest before they are made available for public adoption. Some also end up being used by law enforcement entities such as the U.S. Border Patrol, or go to prison inmate programs where they are tamed for future use.

Advocates tried unsuccessfully to stop the roundup of Utah's Onaqui herd, one thats captured the imagination of Hollywood celebrities and Girl Scout troops alike. Horses in the picturesque and accessible herd are so well known that many have names, like the patriarch Old Man. He was left behind in the July roundup, but about 300 other horses were taken to be adopted or kept in captivity for the rest of their lives.

Its really unfortunate the Biden administration continues to scapegoat the horses while giving a pass to livestock that have a greater impact on public lands, said Suzanne Roy, executive director of the American Wild Horse Campaign.

The Bureau of Land Management oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of public land, primarily in the West, and is tasked with managing the wild horse population. It's planning to remove some 6,000 horses, mostly from Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming and Colorado, by October  a 50% increase from last year. Eventually land managers say they need to cut the number of wild horses by two-thirds to keep things in balance.

In many places where wild horses and burros roam, virtually no vegetation was produced in the spring and early summer growing seasons, said Jason Lutterman, spokesman for the National Wild Horse and Burro Program in Reno, Nevada. The Biden administration has announced reforms aimed at ensuring that captured horses put up for adoption do not eventually end up in slaughterhouses, but advocates worry problems could persist as long as the government offers a $1,000 adoption incentive.

Wild-horse advocates acknowledge that lack of forage and water can be an issue in some areas, but they argue removals from the herds like the Onaqui are unnecessary.

The BLM has a drought trump card, and they use it sometimes when they want to take additional horses off the range, Greg Hendricks, director of field operations.

Advocates want to leave the horses on the range and instead administer fertility treatments to limit the size of the herd without roundups that can be costly and tough on the animals. One horse died during the Onaqui roundup. Fertility treatments are used, but require new doses at least annually and can be difficult to administer because they require horses to be tracked down and darted one at a time, Messmer said.

Cattle ranchers, meanwhile, say they've made voluntary changes to reduce grazing on federal lands. By hauling water to drought-stricken areas for their livestock, they've even helped the horses who drink it too, said Hunter Ihrman, a spokesman for the National Cattlemens Beef Association.

The number of sheep and cattle that graze on leased public land is far larger than the number of wild horses, Messmer said. A key difference, though, is that livestock are part of the U.S. economy.

Americans like their McDonalds burgers. They like their Big Macs. They like all of those things, and all of those things have beef as part of it, he said.

Eventually, land managers want to double the number of removals, a step they say is essential across 10 Western states in the coming years. Wild horses are federally protected, so the plan, if approved by Congress, would increase costs to an annual high of about $360 million.

Without those changes, horses could die of thirst or starvation, they say. Dozens of horses were found dead near a dried-up watering hole in northern Arizona in 2018.

The wild horses now on the plains are largely descended from those brought by Europeans hundreds of years ago. Herds can double in size every four to five years, and when populations grow too high they destroy topsoil, disturb water supplies and eat grass essential to native species like the increasingly rare sage grouse, Messmer said.

In recent weeks, federal land managers have conducted the largest helicopter roundup in Colorado in years, near the border with Utah. Meanwhile, volunteers trying to protect another herd nearby are working with the agency to get water to the horses using tanks, wells and water trucks, said Kathy DeGonia, president of Piceance Mustangs.

The rugged range of the Piceance-East Douglas herd is dotted with oil and gas production, so packed dirt roads make it easier to make water deliveries during the drought. Deliveries could run into November.

DeGonia's group also collaborates with federal officials on programs like sterilization and horse auctions.

In a perfect world wed let all of these mustangs stay out there until they die," she said. "But theres just not enough food and water to maintain all the horses on the range.

___

Follow APs complete drought coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/droughts.
Ezanullah, one of thousands of young Taliban fighters from the countryside who rode into Afghanistan's capital over the weekend, had never seen anything like it.

The paved streets of Kabul were lined with towering apartment blocks, glass office buildings and shopping malls. The plush furniture inside the Interior Ministry was like something I thought of in a dream, said the 22-year-old fighter from the country's mountainous east.

He said he plans to ask his commander if he can stay. I dont want to leave, he said.

The encounter highlights how much Kabul and other Afghan cities have changed in the 20 years since the Taliban, who mainly hail from rugged rural areas, last ruled the country. An entire generation of Afghans has come of age under a modernizing, Western-backed government flush with development aid.

Many fear those gains will be reversed now that the Taliban are back in power and the last U.S. troops are on their way out.

Thousands have flocked to the airport trying to flee, most of them men unaccompanied by families. Younger Afghans have no memory of Taliban rule but fear its return will mean the loss of freedoms. The militants imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law from 1996 until 2001, when a U.S.-led invasion drove them from power.

The Taliban, who largely hail from Afghanistan's conservative countryside, have signaled moderation in recent days  offering amnesty to those who fought them, inviting women to return to work and pledging to restore normal life after decades of war. But many Afghans, particularly women, remain deeply skeptical of the group's intentions.

Ezanullah was surprised when two women said hello to him on the street.

They said we were afraid of you and thought you were horrible," he said. But I told them you are like my sisters, and we will let you go to school and continue your education and give you security.

Just look after your hijab, he added, referring to the Islamic headscarf that covers the hair but not the face.

Whether or not the Taliban have truly changed, the country they now rule is light years ahead of the one they captured in 1996 after four years of civil war following the Soviet withdrawal and the 1992 collapse of a pro-communist government.

Then the city was in ruins, ravaged by warlords who would later ally with the U.S. Most Afghans traveled Kabul's rutted roads by bicycle or in beat-up yellow taxis. There was only one computer in the entire country, and it belonged to Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's reclusive leader, who did not know how to turn it on.

Under Taliban rule, television and music were forbidden. Women were barred from attending school or working outside the home, and had to wear the all-encompassing burqa whenever they appeared in public.

Today the country is home to four mobile companies and several satellite TV stations with female anchors, one of whom interviewed a Taliban official on Monday. The Taliban fighters themselves carry smartphones and could be seen taking selfies as they marveled at the capital they had rolled into virtually unopposed after 20 years of war.

Videos circulating online appear to show bearded Taliban fighters laughing and horsing around on amusement park rides and in an indoor gym.

Some things have gotten worse since the Taliban were last in power.

The city has been in the grip of a crime wave for years, one many fear will get even worse after prisons and government armories were emptied during the Taliban's advance. One of the few successes of their harsh Islamic rule was the virtual elimination of crime  suspected thieves had their hands chopped off; other criminals were executed in public.

The Taliban have pledged to restore law and order, but that could take time and might lead them to resort to brutal measures. The city's population has quintupled to 5 million over the last two decades. The Taliban, who have had no major presence in Kabul since 2001, have been going door-to-door registering names and collecting weapons in recent days.

In the meantime, many Afghans fear looters posing as the Taliban more than the militants themselves, said Saad Mohseni, owner of the popular Tolo TV network, who elected to stay in the capital after the Taliban takeover.

These pretend Taliban could be very dangerous, because they are just hoodlums, he said.

___

Gannon reported from Guelph, Canada. Associated Press reporter Mukhtar Amiri in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Michigan's top doctor said Wednesday she told Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state health director that reinstituting a mask requirement in K-12 schools would likely lessen the spread of COVID-19, but she added there are other factors at play.

Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical executive and chief deputy health director, reiterated that she is concerned about the coronavirus' potential impact on schools as the delta variant takes hold. The state Department of Health and Human Services last week strongly recommended universal masking in schools regardless of vaccination status but stopped short of requiring it.

We do understand that there currently is a law that would allow us to be able to implement that mandate, but at this time the governor and the director have not made that determination, she told reporters. When pressed, she said she had recommended that if a mask mandate were in place and it were followed, it would likely reduce the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

On Tuesday, superintendents expressed frustration over having to decide about masks, a publicly contentious issue for them and school board members before the new academic year begins. Just three county health departments  Genesee, Kalamazoo and Allegan  have mandated them, specifically for K-6 students, teachers and staff.

Republican lawmakers last week warned the health department in Kent, the state's fourth-largest county and home to Grand Rapids, that requiring masks could cost it state funding.

The Democratic governor and her administration mandated masks last school year. But the requirement and indoor capacity restrictions were lifted in June after a third surge dissipated, and she has said she does not anticipate reinstating the face covering mandate.

Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy said school districts and local health departments should work together to put in place universal mask policies to keep students safe and ensure that in-person learning can continue this year.

Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Education, countered that the decisions should be made by health experts.

Should a health department choose to issue a directive based on available data, our school districts will respond appropriately. However, anything short of a clear directive from health officials is neither helpful or appropriate at a time when we should all be focused on what is best for our students," he said.

Asked what would be lost if there were a mask mandate, Khaldun said: I cannot speak to that. I do know that my lane is to provide public health guidance, but I also recognize that there are many other things that have to be considered when it comes to implementing a mandate.

Michigan has high transmission of COVID-19, like almost all states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  which recommends that people in areas with substantial or high transmission be masked in indoor public spaces. The state's case, positivity and death rates continued to rise over the past week but remain lower than in much of the U.S, according to data released Wednesday.

Dr. Sarah Lyon-Callo, director of the state Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health, said models estimate a continued increase in hospitalizations and deaths over the next four to six weeks, maybe longer. The unvaccinated account for at least 95% of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths, she said.

Dr. Dennis Cunningham of the Henry Ford Health System in southeastern Michigan said some so-called breakthrough cases have occurred among people who were vaccinated, but the impact so far has been very mild.

People are not coming to the emergency department. ... Theyre not dying. The message is the same: This will keep you out of serious health problems, Cunningham said of the vaccine.

Most of the states hit hard by the more contagious delta variant, including Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas and Nevada, are about a month ahead of Michigan in terms of when their case rates started to rise, Lyon-Callo said.

She noted that COVID-19 hospitalizations among children nationwide reached a record high in recent days and said almost half had no reported underlying conditions. Children under 12 are not eligible to be vaccinated. About 29% of Michigan kids ages 12 to 15 and 38% of teens ages 16-19 are fully vaccinated.

Although most children tend to have mild infections compared to adults, being sick with COVID-19 can take individuals out of the classroom, Lyon-Callo said. And if there is spread within the classroom, it can result in others missing school time as well.

___

Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed.

___

Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday backed a peaceful resolution for the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia that has displaced tens of thousands and left millions hungry. He also said Turkey was willing to mediate between Ethiopia and Sudan to resolve a separate border dispute.

Erdogan spoke during a joint news conference with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The visit comes amid a broadening of the conflict in Tigray, which began in November after a political fallout between Abiy and the leaders of the Tigray region who had dominated Ethiopias government for nearly three decades.
Local

State poised for windfall of federal money for broadband

The infrastructure bill that passed the U.S. Senate earlier this month contains $65 billion for broadband  a sum lawmakers say is enough to provide universal access to the service that has become essential for telehealth, education, and business. That amount is earmarked to both build the physical infrastructure in areas where its lacking and to make sure that Internet services are affordable for all.

In New Hampshire, where state funding for broadband hasnt been on the table, there are high hopes that federal money will help residents who have been struggling to get connected  a burden thats become especially acute during the pandemic. And the state has passed a few laws this past session to prepare for the anticipated flurry of federal funding.

Much of the state has been left out for a long time, according to Carole Monroe, who serves on the Dublin Broadband Committee. While thats been changing because of initiatives in the past few years to bring more service to parts of the state, such as southwestern New Hampshire, Monroe said the work shouldnt end until theres universal coverage.

Parents have described how, without a stable connection, its been difficult even for the brightest students to keep up with school. Clean energy experts have highlighted how access to broadband limits which voices can participate in planning new infrastructure investments.

We cant do anything if we cant communicate effectively with each other, said Jeanette Pablo, at a recent Irving Institute symposium on clean energy.

But experts working on the ground in New Hampshire say other considerations beyond funding need to be taken into account to ensure that these efforts have the intended impact when it comes to equal access to broadband.

Margaret Burns, the executive director of the N.H. Municipal Association, said that for funding to make a difference in small cities and towns, technical assistance and resources are also needed.

Towns arent just looking for support to implement shovel-ready projects, but also the technical support and resources so a project can reach that stage, she said during a roundtable hosted by Sen. Maggie Hassan this month.

Nik Coates, the town administrator of Bristol, agreed that getting a broadband project shovel ready involves an incredible amount of technical knowledge, and many small towns dont have the capacity for that kind of planning.

Capacity is absolutely the issue, he said. Communities want (broadband), they just dont know how to get it yet.

In Bristol, Coates has led the charge on securing a combination of public and private funding to build out broadband  but the town retains ownership and control over the infrastructure. Now, he said hes going to work with each community in the county to build capacity.

Were going to show them how to do it for themselves, and were going to bring the dollars to the table to help them do it for themselves as well, he said.

Right now, theyre looking to do that through the American Rescue Plan Act, which can go toward infrastructure costs, including broadband. The infrastructure bill would be another way of funding these regional efforts.

Many of the initiatives to increase access to broadband have been carried out by volunteers, who dont necessarily have any expertise in what goes into building infrastructure.

Its also taken a huge volunteer effort for any size town in our region to do, said Henry Herndon, a GIS specialist and senior planner at the Monadnock Broadband Group, part of the Southwest Regional Planning Commission. I think in some ways thats eroded some other local needs, you know, participating in other volunteer obligations that run New Hampshire, but also potentially eroding some of the financial support that theyd rather use for something else: the firetruck, EMS, water and sewer, he said.

While many in the state have touted public-private partnerships as a way of making progress toward universal access, Herndon said it doesnt always work out, such as when providers arent interested in participating. Thats what happened with the FCCs Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.

Essentially our challenge is getting to a high level of service for everyone in a community, Herndon said. That problem is acute in Cheshire County, which would rank almost dead last if compared to the coverage in any state, according to Herndon.

New Hampshire: doing OK overall, at 14th or so. But our region in particular: 52, if you count D.C., he said.

The $65 billion in the infrastructure bill is meant to ensure that every American can access reliable high-speed Internet, and it includes programs to make Internet affordable. The funding will be divided among several programs. Approximately $42.5 billion is headed to state broadband deployment grants, and of that, New Hampshire will receive at least $100 million to help the state build infrastructure where its needed.

About $14 billion will go toward a permanent Affordable Connectivity Program, providing a $30-per-month credit toward Internet bills for low-income households. Residents who qualify for WIC or free school lunch and households that earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level would be eligible for the benefit.

The infrastructure bill also includes language to allow for public-private partnerships through a kind of bonding, based on a model New Hampshire has been using since 2018. Through this model, towns essentially pitch in toward the cost of a project to attract private providers. Those who later subscribe for the service then pay a monthly fee that goes toward paying off the bond.

One problem with that model is that while towns help defray the cost of the initial investment, they dont have control over the services that are offered. The provider can raise its prices as it sees fit  especially of concern to people who live in an area where the provider essentially has a monopoly on the local market  and theres often no requirement about upgrading the service in the future.

For instance, Herndon said that most providers in the area currently have copper-based infrastructure that could range from 10 to 50 years old.

Its not going to get us where we want to be as far as quality, Herndon said.

Both Herndon and Burns said equity will be an important determiner of success.

We dont want to see things like a higher price tag on service or a patchwork of improvement happening, Herndon said.

For Coates, its clear that achieving this goal would be better served by getting money to municipalities, not just providers.

Ive heard some stories about funding being provided to the providers directly, and the interests of the municipality werent best served, he said.

The more funding can be put in the hands of public entities like municipalities and counties in the state, the better.
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Keene, NH (03431)

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Mostly clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 57F. Winds light and variable..

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Mostly clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.
Keene, NH (03431)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable..

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Good morning, Bay Area. Its Wednesday, Aug. 18, and about 500 editions later, this is my last day writing Bay Briefing. Thanks for reading, sharing and sending your thoughts and tips. Youre in good hands going forward. Heres what you need to know to start your day.

While most of the city has been focused on the pandemic kicking back to life, an increasingly emotional battle is raging over the future of policing, with Chesa Boudin at its polarizing core as opponents of the district attorney attempt to mount a recall challenge.

The stakes are huge. Megan Cassidy reviews S.F. crime data and interviews Boudin, his supporters and detractors to report on how we got here.

 A step-by-step guide to Californias 2021 recall election, ballot and the voting process.

The CZU people are not OK

Nina Riggio/The Chronicle

When Sharon Smith surveys the fire-stripped hills rolling from her community perched above Highway 1 into the coast, she realizes how lucky she is to be alive.

She recalls the night a year ago that she fled the encroaching CZU Lightning Complex fire, speeding from her home down a winding dirt road as the sky turned orange-red and flames licked the trees. In 50 years living in the woods, Smith and her husband, Steve, had fought many fires  but none like last year.

Mallory Moench speaks to residents of the communities destroyed by the megafire in the Santa Cruz Mountains to see how theyre rebuilding, physically and emotionally, a year later.

 Live updates on the latest news on California wildfires.

 Caldor Fire in El Dorado County seriously injures 2, causes massive damage to Grizzly Flats.

 Red flag warning includes parts of Bay Area as fire danger escalates in Northern California.

 Wildfire smoke prompts Bay Area air quality advisory. Here's how bad it could get.

Around the Bay

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

 Hobby of the year : Pickleball has been on the rise in the U.S  and the Bay Area.

 Recommendation expected: COVID booster shots  here's the latest info for the Bay Area. Click here for live pandemic news updates.

 What the census tells us about the Bay Area: Five ways of looking at how San Franciscos population changed over the last decade.

 In memoriam: Steve Zumbi Gaines, revered Zion I rapper, dead at 49.

 More permanent than pandemic program: San Francisco plans to buy four properties to house the homeless across the city, alongside supportive services.

 Above average: Millions of skiers visited California resorts last year, despite the pandemic.

 Conflict of interest investigation: State officials open second ethics investigation into ex-Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli.

 Accepting proposals this fall: S.F.'s historic ex-Cliff House building will get a new restaurant in 2022.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Chronicle Food

Glo Wan / Special to The Chronicle

When critic Soleil Ho set out to determine her list of the best burritos in the region, the rest of the food team couldnt stand by and let her have all the fun. The result: Burrito City, our in-depth, super serious guide to S.F.'s favorite food:

 The mysterious tale of Oakland's absurdly long burrito.

 Reporter Janelle Bitker embarked on a quest to find out which of the most common burrito meats is actually the right choice. (If you disagree, by all means, vote in our poll).

 An interview with the writer of the famed burrito bracket.

 Where notable S.F. folks buy their favorite burritos.

 Our guide to incredible, inedible burrito gifts.

 And another super burritos worth of stories here.

Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown, Anna Buchmann and Kellie Hwang and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact the writers at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com, anna.buchmann@sfchronicle.com and kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com.
In a city reeling from violence against Asian American elders, the attack this summer on Anh Peng Taylor, 94, was especially brutal. Out on a daily walk in Lower Nob Hill, she was approached by a stranger who stabbed her in the stomach and through the wrist. Camera footage helped police quickly arrest a man who had both a long criminal record and a GPS ankle bracelet .

The uproar that ensued after the mid-June knifing was directed not at Daniel Cauich, the 35-year-old man in custody, but at District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Why was Cauich on the streets, Boudins critics roared on social media. Why was he not punished more severely for his past crimes?

Because San Francisco DA screwed up! one Twitter user wrote as anger coalesced around Boudin.

It didnt matter that the truth, a review of Cauichs court records shows, was more nuanced. While most of the city has been focused on the seemingly defeated COVID pandemic kicking back to life, an increasingly emotional and bitter debate has raged over the future of policing, with Boudin as its polarizing core.

The fight pits those who laud Boudin for delivering on his promises against critics who see the citys most powerful law enforcement officer as intolerably lenient  particularly toward those responsible for rampant theft, drug abuse and street crimes, like Taylors stabbing, that are routinely video-recorded and spread virally.

Like the pandemic, the furor shows no sign of abating. One attempt to recall Boudin fell short this month when organizers failed to collect enough signatures, but the other attempt lives on with a deadline for signatures in October. If voters ultimately oust Boudin, Mayor London Breed, whose politics are more moderate, will choose a replacement.

An extensive review of the citys criminal data by The Chronicle and wide-ranging interviews with Boudin and his supporters and detractors found a multipronged crime debate playing out during a once-in-a-lifetime societal event and two sides bitterly divided, unable to agree on much of anything.

Nick Otto/Special to The Chronicle

What is clear is that a recall election would test San Franciscos attitude toward policing. While city voters have elected mostly progressive district attorneys for decades, Boudin, a former public defender, was elected in November 2019 as part of a wave of prosecutors in cities such as St. Louis and Philadelphia who more explicitly pledged to unwind tough-on-crime policies they said had filled prisons  disproportionately with people of color  but failed to make cities safer.

In his 19 months as district attorney, Boudin became the first prosecutor in the nation to bar his staff from asking for cash bail, saying it discriminates against the poor. He has sharply limited the use of sentencing enhancements for alleged gang members and the controversial three strikes law for repeat offenders.

Hes prosecuting five police officers for charges of excessive force and created a program that he says has diverted more than 100 parents and caregivers out of criminal court. His bail policy, along with multiagency efforts during the pandemic, have served to thin the citys jails, with the average daily population falling by nearly 40% since 2019.

We recognize that we collectively are safer when parents are at home taking care of their kids than when theyre in jail and the kids are in foster care, Boudin said.

But Boudins critics say his priorities are those of a public defender, not a prosecutor. Though he campaigned on reform, hes been savaged by those who see his actions as San Francisco progressivism gone too far, and blame him for tragedies such as the New Years Eve deaths of two pedestrians struck by an alleged drunken driver who had avoided charges after earlier arrests.

A video promoting the continuing recall campaign features Mary Jung, a former city Democratic Party chair and real estate lobbyist, delivering a dire message about San Francisco: We have infants being killed, we have our senior citizens being attacked and killed, she says amid a montage of crime headlines. We hear these stories on a weekly basis. This has to stop.

In recent interviews, Boudin made the point that traditional, tough-on-crime prosecutors are rarely blamed in this way in the aftermath of crimes. His backers see appeals to fear as not only misguided but a stalking horse for a hard right turn back to the past  a return to sort of tough-on-crime, Reagan-era policies that had really devastating impacts on a lot of communities, said Julie Edwards, a spokesperson for Boudins anti-recall effort.

Boudin said he sees the recall effort as being about a national fight thats based on brand and identity, far more than on substance. Though San Francisco remains a bastion of progressive innovation, he said, Its also the focus of reactionary Republican forces nationwide. And they are determined to hold San Francisco out as a failure.

In the stabbing of Anh Taylor this summer, court records reveal a complex backstory. While the arrested man, Cauich, had once been charged with murder, the allegation was dismissed by a judge for lack of evidence in 2019, before Boudin took office. The next year, Boudins prosecutors filed four cases against Cauich, who was ultimately convicted of burglary and jailed for 178 days.

After his latest arrest, in May, the District Attorneys Office alleged first-degree burglary and asked that Cauich be held until trial. A judge, though, said he should be released, provided he wore an ankle monitor and got drug treatment.

The debate over crime has drawn starker lines, and has found fertile ground on Twitter. Last month, a startup founder with a devoted online following, Michelle Tandler, tweeted that her friends husbands were scared for their wives because of out-of-control San Francisco crime. A top Boudin aide, Kate Chatfield, shot back that the crime surge crowd shares the same ideology as The Birth of a Nation, the 1915 film notorious for its racist depiction of Black Americans.

Provocative rhetoric aside, the data available to voters paints a less clear-cut picture of San Francisco crime. The numbers also suggest Boudins office may have become a bit more strict in its treatment of the accused, a trend Boudin attributed to the easing of pandemic guidelines.

The frequency and severity of charging decisions for alleged crimes has been a flash point in San Francisco for decades, involving both the quality of the police investigation and the approach of prosecutors.

According to figures obtained by The Chronicle through public records requests, Boudins office filed charges in about 46% of the cases brought by city police and other agencies during his first year in office. Prosecutors under Alameda Countys more moderate district attorney, Nancy OMalley, filed charges in 54% of cases in 2020.

This year, in contrast, Boudins prosecutors had filed charges in 56% of cases as of mid-June  a rate slightly higher than predecessor George Gascons in his last three years in San Francisco  while OMalleys had filed charges in 45% of cases by late April, the most recent data available.

Sacramento County prosecutors under District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, a vocal critic of Boudin, charged about 66% of cases in 2020 and 59% by the end of July this year, records show.

In San Francisco, charging decisions vary widely depending on the type of crime. In 2020, prosecutors filed charges in residential burglary, homicide and drug cases more than 70% of the time, while the figures for felony assault and domestic violence were 29% and 23%, respectively. Boudins filing rate rose significantly from 2020 to 2021 in some crime categories  59% to 79% in auto burglaries, 61% to 82% in commercial burglaries and 50% to 75% in sexual assaults.

Lea Suzuki/Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

In the first three months of 2021, San Francisco police made 131 arrests for felony domestic violence, while Boudins office declined to file charges in 113 of them. Boudin said domestic violence cases are among the most difficult to prove and that prosecutors making charging decisions have decades of experience.

In every single case where police bring us sufficient admissible evidence, my office vigorously prosecutes, he said.

Often, Boudin said, prosecutors will send cases back to police for more investigation. Thats our way of saying to the police, We want to prosecute this case but we need some additional piece of evidence to do it successfully  maybe DNA, maybe additional video footage, he said. And we have a system in place to regularly check in with the Police Department about all those cases.

But Tony Montoya, president of the city police officers union and another vocal critic of Boudin, said the District Attorneys Office practice of sending cases back for more legwork is dishonest and is often done without providing a reason  an assertion Boudin denied.

Its the ultimate buck-passing, Montoya said. It lets criminals go free, demoralizes the investigators, disrespects victims and dissuades witness participation.

The criticism of Boudins effect on city crime statistics, meanwhile, has often been more heated than the stats themselves would seem to warrant.

In Boudins first year in office, overall reports of crime in San Francisco fell 23% compared with 2019, driven largely by a pandemic drop-off in opportunistic thefts such as auto break-ins. Reported robberies dropped 23%, assaults 14% and rape 45%. This year, overall crime reports are essentially flat  down an additional 1% through early August.

Boudin is quick to make clear that he doesnt take credit for falling crime: I wish I was so powerful that I could implement a new policy and overnight crime rates will drop, he said at a recent public appearance. But thats not how crime rates work anywhere in the world.

The numbers in other crime categories are more mixed. With the city largely emptied of commuting workers and tourists last year, many smash-and-grab thieves turned to burglarizing homes and businesses and boosting cars. Reports of those crimes rose by 52% and 37%, respectively, in 2020.

And if smaller thefts like shoplifting are down, some say, that is no great victory in a city that, as recently as 2017, recorded the highest per-capita rate of property crimes among the 20 most populous U.S. cities, according to the FBI.

Its important to note that what people are experiencing and feeling today counts, said Joel Engardio, executive director of the community safety group Stop Crime SF. Referring to people who say crime was much worse a few decades ago, Engardio said, That may be true, but people are feeling something today and that cant be discounted.

More difficult to quantify is the contention by Boudins critics that crime is actually up because victims or authorities are underreporting it.

If Orwell were writing Animal Farm today, crime is falling would be one of the commandments written on the barn door, tweeted David Sacks, who donated $75,000 to one of the recall campaigns and is one of a number of technology investors aiding the effort.

Criminologists say its difficult even under normal circumstances to measure the impact of a district attorneys policies on broader crime trends. Magnus Lofstrom, the criminal justice policy director at the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank, said recent swings of crime could be influenced by several factors, including pandemic lockdowns, economic troubles and the historic tension surrounding policing after the murder of George Floyd.

Were nowhere near even the beginning of being able to measure the impact of my policies, Boudin said. Thats the reality.

The focus on Boudins responsibility for individual tragedies was highlighted in the waning hours of 2020, when, according to police, an armed and intoxicated Troy McAlister, 45, barreled a stolen car into pedestrians Hanako Abe and Elizabeth Platt in the South of Market area, killing both.

McAlister had been arrested several times in the months leading up to the wreck, but his state parole was never revoked and the District Attorneys Office did not file any new charges.

Boudin told The Chronicle his office referred the cases to the parole system, believing it was better equipped to hold McAlister accountable. But he also pledged to strengthen communication between his office and other law enforcement agencies, and has since granted prosecutors the authority to revoke parole on their own, without a green light from parole agents.

We all lay awake at night wondering what we could have done differently, Boudin said last week of the tragedy. So yeah, we learn lessons and we change policies.

The immediate reaction to many high-profile crimes in San Francisco has included an examination of how the alleged culprit was treated after past transgressions. It happened in April, for instance, when a 7-month-old infant died while in the care of a man who had been arrested twice earlier in the year on suspicion of domestic violence but not charged.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Nick Otto/Special to The Chronicle

Boudin has frequently sought to get out in front of this phenomenon, discussing the offices past decisions and the complexities of the criminal justice system. In the case of the infant, his office said the alleged victim in the domestic violence cases had refused to cooperate, making it difficult to move forward.

About a month after McAlisters arrest, near Lake Merced, police said a drunken driver caused a crash that killed a 26-year-old jogger, Sheria Musyoka, a recent Dartmouth graduate who left behind a wife and a 3-year-old son.

It was quickly revealed that the suspect, 31-year-old Jerry Lyons, had been in trouble before. In April 2020, he had been released from prison to community supervision after a 2018 grand theft conviction. In the months before the wreck, police arrested him several times for mostly minor offenses in San Mateo and San Francisco counties. He served stints in jail and was freed for a variety of reasons, including COVID-related distancing guidelines.

After the CHP arrested Lyons on Dec. 3, 2020, on suspicion of drunken driving, Boudins office initially held off on charging him, officials said, to wait for toxicology reports. After the results came back Jan. 22, San Francisco prosecutors told the CHP they would proceed with charges of drunken driving and driving without a license.

CHP officials said they issued Lyons a notice that he would be cited, which required him to report to an agency office. If he did not do so within 14 days, CHP officials said, they would have issued a warrant. The crash came 13 days after Jan. 22. Andrea Shorter, a spokesperson for the recall campaign, said such cases were not outliers but inevitable because of Boudins leniency toward repeat offenders.

Chris Miller, a friend and mentor to Musyoka, said both she and Musyokas widow agree his death was avoidable, and blame Boudins policies. Miller has volunteered to help collect signatures for the recall campaign. It is the job of the D.A., it is the job of law enforcement, to protect the community, period, Miller said. It is not his job to be a social justice warrior.

When asked about release decisions, Boudin said neither the law nor good policy allow for indefinite detention of everyone arrested.

Looking back, knowing the fatal outcomes, we wish we had found a way to prevent (the suspects) from harming anyone, he said. Unfortunately, we dont have a crystal ball and we must make decisions based on the information we have at the time.

Lara Bazelon, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law who chairs the district attorneys Innocence Commission, said the scrutiny Boudin is receiving reflects a standard thats being applied only to the most progressive prosecutors. She noted that when violence has risen in Alameda and Santa Clara counties, few people have blamed decisions by the district attorneys there.

The stories that dont get told are the majority of cases, where people who arent locked up forever, go on to live productive, law-abiding lives, Bazelon said. In the same way that the media doesnt cover every safe takeoff and landing, but covers every plane crash.

Last year, Joe Bell, who spent decades in prison after a murder conviction, was freed with the aid of the District Attorneys Office. The office has embraced an amended state law that allows prosecutors to petition for a reduced sentence if they believe the original penalty was unduly severe or that the defendant has shown significant progress in rehabilitation.

In Bells case, the jury had agreed that his co-defendant was more culpable for the killing, which occurred during a burglary, and prosecutors said he had a sterling record in prison and served as a mentor to others.

The San Francisco District Attorneys Office has so far helped secure the resentencing of 51 people under this law, more than any other county, said Hillary Blout, the founder and executive director of resentencing nonprofit For the People.

Its been a long battle, Bell, 52, who works with another nonprofit group helping people successfully complete probation, told The Chronicle. I felt that Chesas office was being fair. Im extremely grateful.

Boudin is one of dozens of officials in California fighting recall, a historic show of force by angry voters. The most high-profile effort, against Gov. Gavin Newsom, is also partly driven by a perceived crime wave. Boudins critics and supporters understand the stakes of the recall, which could bend the arc of the police-reform movement in San Francisco and around the country.

Boudin, who is in regular contact with progressive prosecutors such as Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Kim Fox in Chicago and Kimberly Gardner in St. Louis, sees a broader playbook in the effort to oust him.

But while the first recall effort was spearheaded by former Republican mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg, the second attempt is led by moderate Democrats including Jung and Shorter, a local womens and LGBTQ activist.

Jungs campaign has raised more than $715,000 in donations, with more than half from a political action committee, Neighbors for a Better San Francisco. Five of its eight major donors in 2021 are registered Republicans, including William Duhamel and Dede Wilsey, who co-hosted a fundraiser for Donald Trump in 2019. Democrat and Levi Strauss board member Miriam Haas is also named as a major contributor.

Among those who have publicly supported the recall are retired judge and former state Sen. Quentin Kopp, the San Francisco Republican Party and Thomas Wolf, a prominent recovering addict who has helped the city confront its drug crisis and believes authorities need to more strongly intervene.

San Francisco is one of the most liberal, Democratic cities in the nation, Shorter said. It is an inconvenient truth for this district attorney that you have a multipartisanship that has unified for his recall.

Boudins supporters include several progressive elected officials, including former state Sen. Mark Leno and seven of the 11 San Francisco supervisors. This month, Boudin received a letter of support from the Rev. Jesse Jackson. City Police Commission President Malia Cohen, who supported Boudins opponent in the 2019 race, Suzy Loftus, said in general she believes recalls are appropriate only when there is evidence of criminal acts or serious malfeasance in office.

Absent a clear showing of this by the proponents, I believe the decision should be left to voters in the next election as to whether or not the D.A. has done a good job, Cohen said.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, told The Chronicle he has not endorsed Boudins recall and doesnt intend to. Mayor London Breed has not publicly weighed in, while Police Chief Bill Scott, who faces broad demand for reform even as many officers reject Boudin, has been clear that its a question solely for voters, a spokesperson said. Both Breed and Scott have recently denied suggestions that San Francisco is overrun with crime.

As of last Sunday, the second recall campaign had reported collecting 54,000 signatures ahead of an Oct. 25 deadline  a figure that, if validated, would surpass the 51,325 signatures required. Organizers are hoping to hit 70,000 to provide a reliable cushion.

If the effort is successful, voters will in early 2022 be asked a simple yes or no question on whether Boudin should be removed. Whatever the result, the election will be over. The debate almost certainly will not.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
San Francisco police are investigating a deadly rash of shootings that have claimed the lives of four men in five days  crimes that police as of now believe are unrelated to one another.

The deaths are the latest amid a surge of gun violence that has San Francisco and other cities over the last year, with lawmakers across the country struggling to determine a cause of the increased bloodshed.

Police have made arrests in the second of the four shootings, and have not publicly identified any suspects the others.

San Franciscos latest spate began at about 11:40 p.m. Friday, when officers responded to a Tenderloin shooting on the 300 block of Turk Street. There, a 51-year-old man as was pronounced dead at the scene, and a 23-year-old man was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Investigators have not made any arrests, but are pursuing two suspects who fled the scene in a dark SUV just after the shooting.

Then at about 2:10 p.m. Sunday, police responded to another shooting near the intersection of Utah and Alameda streets, where a 35-year-old man pronounced deceased at the scene. The following day police arrested two men identified as 20-year-old Marlon Cartagena-Aviles of San Francisco and 24-year-old Daniel Andrade-Flores for their alleged roles in the crime.

Cartagena-Aviles was booked at San Francisco County Jail on one count of murder, while Andrade-Flores was booked at San Francisco County Jail on one count of conspiracy.

Just after 8 a.m. on Monday, police responded to the 2400 block of San Bruno Avenue, where they found a 33-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound. The man was transported to the hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. Police said the suspect fled the scene prior to their arrival.

Then at 12:57 a.m. Tuesday, police were called to a local hospital on a report of a walk-in shooting victim. The 48-year-old man had been privately taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he later died. Police said the man had been attacked by three unknown suspects on the 800 block of Larkin Street, and that the suspects fled on foot.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In contrast to falling rates of other violent crimes, San Franciscos gun violence is up by 95% this year over last, with 129 gun victims reported by mid-July compared to 66 over the same time frame in 2020, according to police data.

Other cities across the country have reported similar rises in gun violence: The nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive reported 56 deaths per day by gunfire this year, compared to an average of 41 deaths per day over the last seven years.

Police ask that with information on these or other crimes call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with SFPD. Tipsters may remain anonymous.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
A motorist died after a Caltrain traveling northbound struck their vehicle in Burlingame on Tuesday afternoon, transit officials said.

Northbound train #263 struck the vehicle at the Broadway grade crossing at about 4:35 p.m., said Dan Lieberman, a spokesperson for the San Mateo County Transit District, which oversees Caltrain, SamTrans, and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority. The grade crossing refers to where Broadway crosses Caltrain tracks in Burlingame, Lieberman said.

The driver died from injuries sustained in the crash, Caltrain officials said.

The incident marks Caltrains seventh fatality so far this year.

Roughly 145 passengers were aboard the train at the time of the crash, but no additional injuries were reported as of Tuesday evening.

Main Track 1, which is northbound, was holding traffic. Trains were single-tracking through the immediate area at restricted speeds on Main Track 2, which is southbound.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter:

@ByLHernandez
GRIZZLY FLATS, El Dorado County  Joseph Lopez soaked the yard surrounding his home with sprinklers for three days before the flames arrived. But like nearly everything else in this small mountain town, only smoldering ashes remained after the Caldor Fire swept through.

Lopez was one of the few residents who managed to return to Grizzly Flats on Wednesday, albeit briefly due to road closures, to see the carnage left behind. He said it appeared as if a hurricane fire had ripped through.

My house is just dust, only thing left is my chimney, the 48-year-old contractor said as he stood with neighbors near a roadblock 10 miles west of town. It was so hot that nothing would stop it. My whole block is gone, every house.

Winds died down momentarily Wednesday, allowing firefighters to take the offensive in their battle to corral the explosive Caldor Fire. But from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening, the fire more than doubled in size from 30,000 acres to about 63,000 acres and it remained out of control with no containment.

The blaze exhibited unprecedented fire behavior due to extremely dry fuels and winds that rapidly changed directions. It reached within a couple of hundred yards from Highway 50 near the 7,000-person community of Pollock Pines.

The blaze started on Saturday around 7 p.m. 4 miles south of Grizzly Flats and 2 miles east of Omo Ranch. More than 5,000 residents were evacuated from El Dorado towns in the fires path, and some parts of Amador County fell under an evacuation warning on the fires southern edge.

The Caldor is among several large fires burning across Northern California, reflecting what has become a new era of wildfire behavior and pushing resources to the brink, state officials said.

An estimated 10,000 people were under evacuation orders across the state, with 10,000 firefighters on the lines, Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Office of Emergency Services, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The challenge for California, a state already seeing the impact of climate change, is significant, he said, and with record drought and dry conditions its a very, very dangerous and severe situation.

Fires move faster, are more complex and more dangerous than anything weve seen in the past, he said. The human impact of these fires is significant.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

As the Caldor Fire pushed across the mountains, the small community of Grizzly Flats  with a population of about 1,000  was nearly leveled, with the school and post office gone and only a handful of homes left standing. The main road was dotted with fallen power lines and charred tree trunks. Columns of stone chimneys and twisted metal hunks of washing machines and propane tanks were all that was left to identify where homes had stood days before.

Over three days and nights, Carol Hill had spent most of her time in the parking lot of an evacuation shelter, trying to sleep in the cab of her familys truck with her husband and two dogs, not knowing whether her Grizzly Flats home had survived.

On Wednesday, she learned it had not. All that was left was rubble and a decorative rock with Welcome etched on it and two cuddling turtles on top.

We kind of figured it, she said by phone after learning of the loss. Its just everything is in flames.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

She hadnt packed clothes and doesnt know where they will go next. Her first step in what will be a very long process, she said, is to call her insurance company.

I didnt think this was going to happen, she said.

She also mourned the big trees and historic feel of the small town, including the pioneer cemetery, where headstones dating back to the mid-1800s were charred black from the blaze.

In the center of town, where the Grizzly Flats Community Church had stood, nothing remained of its steeple, cross or arched glass windows  only rows of metal chair frames settled in ash remained.

Dale Alexander, 59, who used to snow-plow the churchs parking lot in winter, drove by Wednesday afternoon to check on the building for its pastor.

This was a nice church, he said, absorbing the extent of the damage.

Alexander, who works at Leoni Meadows Camp, a Christian camp about 7 miles south of Grizzly Flats, said he evacuated around 1 a.m. Sunday, as a wall of flames approached. He returned later Wednesday and found his cabin had been destroyed, but much of the camp was still standing.

I was surprised anything was left, Alexander said as he raised his hands, caked black in ash. Its just a miracle. Ill rebuild (my cabin) and go back to work.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Tuesday for El Dorado County, one of 11 counties under the status, to assist in pushing resources to the firefighting effort.

This year is already worse than last years incredibly difficult and destructive fire season, said Cal Fire Chief Thom Porter.

Were ahead of acres burned at this point, he said. Were seeing generational destruction of forests.

While the Dixie Fire, the second largest in state history, continued to burn in Butte, Tehama, Plumas and Lassen counties, officials said they pulled resources off that fire to bolster efforts on the Caldor Fire on Wednesday.

Porter said fire prevention efforts in recent years have been focused in the area of the Caldor Fire, a high-risk zone, with fuel reduction and breaks carried out, but all that was being tested as we speak.

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

That work is going to make a difference, he said, but added that they need to do more of it in the future.

The area is dotted with cabins, which serve as permanent and vacation homes, some rebuilt after the King Fire destroyed 97,000 acres in 2014, torching nearly 100 residences and injuring 12.

The fire suppression efforts since 2014 couldnt save Trisha Cumbras family cabin in Grizzly Flats.

It was my parents dream, they worked so hard to get it, said the health care worker, who lives in Sacramento, in a phone interview. She described how her parents bought the small A-frame when she was a teenager and spent the next two decades remodeling and expanding it to host their entire family for the holidays.

They finally got it exactly how they wanted it and it burned down, she said. Its hard not to just sit in despair and think about all the memories.

Cumbra said she was trying to ease her mind Wednesday by delivering supplies  sleeping bags, face masks, bottled water and pet food  to evacuees who dont have a second home.

In this time, love has just got to win, she said.

This years fire season has been complicated not only by drought, but also by limited resources, with typical support from other states or countries hindered by fires elsewhere or by pandemic protocols, Porter said.

The Caldor Fire prompted mandatory evacuations in much of El Dorado County, including the area northeast of Highway 88 to Loon Lake above South Lake Tahoe, including the towns of Pollock Pines and Kyburz. Nearly 6,000 structures were threatened, officials said.

Thick, black smoke from the blaze was pushed northeast, nearly covering the sun in South Lake Tahoe and east into Nevada, where daytime looked like a deep red twilight late Tuesday. By Wednesday, some smoke had cleared, but air quality remained poor.

Efforts to attack the blaze soon after it started were complicated by tough terrain and too much smoke to launch an air attack, officials said.

Given severe and unpredictable fire behavior, officials said the current focus was on evacuation efforts.

Two people were injured in the Grizzly Flats area Tuesday and airlifted to local hospitals.

Jill Tucker and Dustin Gardiner are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com, Dustin.Gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker, @dustingardiner
Glo Wan / Special to The Chronicle

Theres something inherently delightful about the burrito. It is, of course, a perfect food: Inside a flour tortilla, the best burritos contain the fibonacci sequence of meals  a golden ratio of fluffy rice, tender beans, smoky protein and punchy, acidic salsa. Better yet, you can carry the whole thing in one hand.

But you dont need me to tell you the virtues of this Mexican delight thats turned decidedly Mexican-San Franciscan. Its arguably the Bay Areas favorite food and, as the birthplace of the Mission-style burrito, its most famous, too. Thats why when critic Soleil Ho set out to determine her list of the best burritos in the region, the rest of the food team couldnt stand by and let her have all the fun. As it turns out, though the burrito has inspired national brackets, historical deep dives, sonnets and even songs, there is more to explore about this food of gods.
You might laugh. You might cry. Or you might want to give a standing ovation to Tacos Sinaloas 15-inch super burrito.

This is not your average super burrito, the extra fat one with rice, sour cream and guacamole thats ubiquitous across the Bay Area. This baby is a beast of a creation thats the length of a human forearm, made from two tortillas wrapped snugly around 2 pounds of meat, fluffy rice, beans and all the fixings. Its frequently documented next to soda bottles and measuring tape to demonstrate its monstrous scale, or lovingly cradled in the arms of a hungry customer like a newborn baby.

Look at all the photos you want. Nothing, though, will prepare you for the act of eating one.

As extraordinarily massive as it is, this style of super burrito is not only served at Tacos Sinaloa. Its a style found in Oakland, a hyper-regional specialty thats a different species entirely than the burritos with the same name just a few miles away or across the bridge in San Francisco. Though the supers show up on menus throughout the city, theyre particularly concentrated at the taco trucks and taquerias along International Boulevard in Fruitvale. Theyre as popular with regulars and families who eat them over the course of several days as inebriated customers searching for late-night fortification. They can be as long as 15 or 16 inches and weigh over 2 pounds, though the exact length and width varies depending on who's crafting the super burrito.

But despite their culinary omnipresence, ask around, and no one is quite sure where the Oakland supersize burrito came from  or exactly how it became so popular in such a small area.

Its very much an East Oakland thing, said Ozi Magana, an Oakland artist whos been rating burritos on Instagram since 2018. Im not sure why that is. Its always been one of those things you learn. Ill tell people if you order a super, its not a fat burrito. Its a double burrito.

As with any food origin mystery, theres an element of legend to the supersize burrito. The Tacos Sinaloa truck, which has been in Oakland since 1999, claims they were the first in Oakland to serve the hulky creation.

As the story goes, years ago, soon after owner Guadalupe Bueno opened the truck at the corner of International Boulevard and 22nd Avenue, a customer asked for a larger burrito with extra meat. A perfectionist, Bueno realized that loading up a single tortilla with more ingredients wouldnt make for a quality eating experience. So he and his staff started filling, tucking and rolling two tortillas instead of one until they perfected the art of the oversize burrito. The two-tortilla approach is still how Tacos Sinaloa, and most spots that serve this style of super, does it today. (New cooks start their training by mastering the regular burrito and graduate to the super burrito.)

My father is big on customer service so I can see this happening, said Buenos daughter, Marlem. What the customer wants, he gets.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

Eventually, the super became so popular that it took up permanent residence on the trucks menu. Marlem said her father liked the idea of a large burrito that becomes affordable if shared among a group of friends or a family. Once $14, Tacos Sinaloa now charges $19 for the super burrito. Just ask, and the truck will supersize any of its burritos, from the lengua to the breakfast burrito.

Yet Oakland local Edgar Galindo, owner of Aguachiles El Tamarindo on International Boulevard, suspects another source of the super burrito: Casa Jimenez restaurant on International Boulevard and its taco truck, which was known for serving a 2-pound burrito. The menu at the truck, parked at the corner of High Street and International Boulevard until it closed several years ago, tempted burrito eaters to super size it Casa Jimenez style for $9.75.

The story Galindo heard, from an employee of his who used to work for Casa Jimenez, was that Casa Jimenez had been trying to bring in more of an English-speaking crowd when the burrito surfaced. It was really good marketing in my opinion, as they were known for that 2-pound burrito, he said.

Galindo himself has been making super burritos since he was a teenager in the 1990s, working at his parents Oakland taco truck Mi Grullense. But Mi Grullense, which opened in 1985, wasnt the first: Galindos father said he got the idea from his cousin, who served the super at taco trucks he ran in San Jose until food trucks were banned there. Mi Grullense took up the mantle, serving a burrito that was always extra long, made from two tortillas and always double wrapped in foil. Galindo and his friends liked to peek through the truck window to watch the dazed faces of customers who didnt realize what they had ordered.

Those memories stuck. Galindo thought of the Casa Jimenez 2 pounder when he opened his own truck down the street in 2017. He put his own iteration on the menu: El Kilo burrito, which the menu says weighs over 2 pounds and costs $18. (On a recent afternoon, a carnitas El Kilo measured about 12 inches long and clocked in at just over 2 pounds, according to my kitchen scale; a kilo is 2.2 pounds.)

I wanted to have the kilo burrito just to have something to catch peoples attention, something that says we have a huge burrito, Galindo said.

Another contender that claims ownership over the super burrito: Tacos Mi Rancho, a truck at Lake Merritt thats been around more than a decade. The menu comes emblazoned with the declaration, the one and only 15-inch burrito ($17). John Birdsall, the former restaurant critic at the East Bay Express, remembers being bowled over by the too-muchness of the first super burrito he ate  or, at least part of it  at Tacos Mi Rancho.

I felt kind of embarrassed lugging the bag from the pickup window, got a quarter of the way in and had to put it aside, Birdsall said.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

Birdsall, who has written for The Chronicle in the past, has his own theory about the Oakland supers origin: Its a firing shot in the long-standing beef between Oakland and San Francisco.

SF, the Mission, was burrito territory, and Oakland was taco territory, Birdsall wrote in an email. At lowrider shows guys from Oakland and SF would taunt each other about eating either tacos or burritos. I suspect, and this is only a hunch, that the Oakland super burrito is part of some Oakland burn of SF: that Oakland can do a burrito better  on a grander scale  than the Mission can. That the super burrito is the ultimate Oakland throwdown.

Jonathan Kauffman, Birdsalls predecessor at the East Bay Express (and former Chronicle food writer), wondered whether the trend of massive Mexico City-style tortas and huaraches, which he started noticing at Mission restaurants in the mid-2000s, somehow spilled over into supersizing burritos.

In Southern California, late Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold famously reviewed one taquerias porno burrito for LA Weekly in 2006, a foil-wrapped construction the size and girth of your forearm, which drapes over a paper plate like a giant, oozing sea cucumber or, perhaps more to the point, like an appendage of John Holmes.

So, maybe theres a Los Angeles-Oakland connection? Javiar Cabral, editor of L.A. Taco, an online food publication, said Oaklands super burritos reminded him of a 5-pound burrito at El Tepeyac in Boyle Heights. But aside from that, no other humongous burrito culture has existed here in L.A. that I know of, Cabral said.

Tina Ramos, whose family ran La Borinquena Mexi-catessen in Oakland for over 70 years, was unsure about the super burritos origins. So she called up one of their former cooks, a native of Jalisco whos lived in Oakland for three decades, and heard a surprising anecdote. The cook recalled holiday festivals in Mexico where everyone would gather in the town square around a huge table laden with tortilla after tortilla, topped with fillings and rolled into a communal creation as long as 13 feet. It wasnt called a burrito, but it existed in the same form, decades ago and many miles away.

In Oakland, those in the know have plenty of options to try the super burrito. Theres a Reddit thread devoted to this search, full of tips for the hungry and the brave: Tacos Mi Rancho, El Taco Zamorano, Taqueria El Cruzero. You cant swing a dead cat without finding a ginormous delicious burrito around here, one poster quipped.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Despite the ubiquity, though, even the most avid Bay Area burrito fans dont always know about these giant concoctions. The first super burrito that Oakland artist Magana, whos from San Francisco but has lived in Oakland for five years, tried was an accidental order. And at Tacos Sinaloas newer location in Berkeley, less than 10 miles away, customers are often baffled by the enormous burrito when it arrives, each end draping off the plate, Bueno said. Shes considering adding a size clarification to the menu to avoid confusion. Galindo named his El Kilo for this exact reason.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

When I called Antonio Pelayo, owner of Tacos Mi Rancho, he was very concerned that I would miss the distinction between his 15-inch burrito and smaller supers with extra fillings. El super burrito es este; el burrito regular es eso, he said. (The super burrito is this; the regular burrito is that.)

In the Oakland History Facebook group, where I recently asked about the burritos origins, many people were confused about which super I was talking about. Some members mused that the famously fat super burritos served at shuttered Hayward institution La Imperial, known as the home of the super burrito since the 1970s, may have been a precursor to the longer Oakland style.

Today, though, the super burrito appears to have migrated to few cities outside of Oakland and Berkeley (thanks to Tacos Sinaloas offshoots). At least one San Francisco taqueria, El Burrito Express, serves the two-tortilla El Macho, and Mountain Views La Costena makes an extra-long burrito. In Fremont, the Fiesta Mexicana truck and Mr. Taco taqueria also make their own versions. Mr. Taco makes a 14-inch ginormous burrito and an off-menu, 20-inch double ginormous burrito that feeds four to six people. When Mr. Taco opened seven years ago, the owners decided to carry on the tradition from the taqueria located there before: Iguanas, home of the burritozilla. Iguanas is a mini South Bay chain infamous for a 5-pound, 18-inch burrito that even Adam Richman of the show Man v. Food fame failed to conquer.

Mr. Tacos double ginormous burrito is made from an astonishing four tortillas and takes a trained hand to construct, said manager David Rios.

But this style of stunt burrito feels different from the ones in Oakland. Though the 15-inchers in Oakland are absurdly large, they dont compromise on flavor and execution. (The best super Magana ever had was at the now-closed La Casita in East Oakland, full of chewy but crispy chicharrones and fresh ingredients. He ate half and kept the rest to savor the next day.) And most of them dont have the aura of gimmicky food, the way that Iguanas does.

Thats not to say people dont try to conquer these bulky beasts on their own. Magana, whos participated in local burrito eating competitions, counts among his accomplishments finishing a super burrito in one sitting. He and a friend were starving after working for almost 48 hours straight. They decided to go all in. Lets get supers; f it, they said, and each ordered their own at Tacos La Perla in West Oakland. Magana got carne asada and his friend pollo asado. After they finished, Magana went home and passed out.

It was intense, he said.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

For the most part, eating an entire super burrito is not for the faint of heart. Galindo has watched people try and fail time and time again at his truck. Ive seen a lot of stories on Instagram. Theyll do a before when theyre all excited and then about halfway, they give up, he said. They cant do it.

Part of the experience anyway is sharing it, something that Oakland rapper AllBlack, born DAndre Sams, remembers fondly. He spent his childhood walking the two blocks from his house to Tacos Sinaloa to split a super burrito with friends and family. Hes fiercely loyal to this trucks super, rapping about it in two songs (Yall know me, I walked down here for some carne asada / Sour cream mixed with cheese and a large horchata in 304 and Im rollin off these beans, super burrito, you know whats down in Ego.) The carne asada super burrito is the only thing he orders when he goes to the truck, and he still always shares it.

AllBlack has become the super burritos personal hype man. Whenever he eats at Tacos Sinaloa, he posts a picture to social media  an extension of Oakland pride for the artist who raps frequently about where he came from. The responses are often incredulous. That aint real! people often say.

But if you know, you know, he said. If youre from Oakland, you know.

Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany
KORTRIJK, Belgium (AP)  A Belgian-British teenager took to the skies Wednesday in her quest to become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo.

With her parents looking on, 19-year-old Zara Rutherford took off from an airstrip in Kortrijk, western Belgium in gusty, overcast conditions. Rutherford is aiming to break the record set by American aviator Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 when she set the world benchmark in 2017.

By narrowing the gap from 12 years to just one, she hopes to show other young women and girls that the skys the limit when it comes to making their own mark on the history of aviation. Rutherford aims to fly her fast and light Shark sport aircraft over five continents and 52 countries in an aerial trek thats likely to take 2-3 months.

I am very nervous, I think. I am also in a bit of disbelief. I think my next step is to check the weather again," she told The Associated Press before takeoff. "Normally, I am reaching Scotland tonight. I am not sure that will work. But I will try my best, while staying safe, of course,

Rutherford hails from a family of pilots. Shes been traveling in small planes since the age of 6, began jumping out of them  with a parachute  at 11 and then started flying herself at 14. Shes logged about 130 hours of solo flights.

She said she wants to inspire girls and young women to get into aviation and encourage them to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics; also known as STEM.

This is her dream. Its what she wants to do," Rutherford's father, Sam, said. "I am very, very proud that she wants to try and attract more young women and girls into STEM and aviation. Because 5% of pilots in the world are women. Thats really not a statistic in which we should be proud.

Rutherford's plane was specially fitted out for the journey. Its normally a two-seater, but an extra fuel tank now takes up one of them. That will also help erase any doubts about whether shes flying alone.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The Shark is too small for long-distance flying over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For the crossing over the Atlantic, Rutherford plans to fly up through Europe and over Greenland. Shell head down through the United States, then back up to Alaska to cross the Pacific. From there, shell head across Asia back to Europe.

Mental fatigue and loneliness on such long-distance flights can be a big challenge.

These are things I am keeping in mind. I will also be on the phone with my parents often and just friends and family, Rutherford said. Sadly, I cannot watch movies. But I have music lined up, I have podcasts lined up. So hopefully, that should keep me busy whilst I am up in the air for five, six hours at a time.

The mens record for a solo round the world flight is held by 18-year-old Travis Ludlow of Britain.
A mother and daughter from Santa Clara died in a car accident on Friday in Oregon, police said.

Emma Nutter, 18, and her mother, Rebecca Haselmann, 50, were on their way to Boise State, where Nutter was beginning college, the university said on Twitter.

"Boise State is saddened by the tragic loss of first year student Emma Nutter, and her mother Rebecca Haselmann, who died in a vehicle collision while traveling to Boise for school," the post said. "We are grateful to the first responders in Malheur County, Oregon, who responded to the accident."

On Friday at approximately 11:45 a.m., emergency personnel responded to a collision on Highway 95 near milepost 60 in Oregon, Oregon State Police said in a release.

After an investigation, police determined that a semi-truck with a cargo-loaded trailer traveling southbound crossed into the northbound lane and collided with Haselmann's Honda Odyssey. Haselmann was driving, police said.

Both Nutter and Haselmann sustained fatal injuries and were pronounced dead.

The driver of the semi-truck was taken to an Idaho hospital with injuries, police said.

Nutter was described as an "outgoing and vibrant friend, sister, cousin, niece, and overall amazing person," in a GoFundMe created for her father and sisters.

Haselmann was a "teacher, friend, mother, aunt, and wife" who "treated every student and friend as if they were her own child."
A Northern California family was found dead after a 12-hour search conducted by local sheriffs.

John Gerrish, Ellen Chung and their one-year-old daughter Miju  as well as their family dog  were found dead at the Devil's Gulch area in the south fork of the Merced River in the Sierra National Forest, per the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office.

The family's cause of death remains unclear, as the sheriff's office reports that "current scene information does not indicate a clear picture" of what took place.

The California Department of Justice and sheriff's office workers are investigating their deaths. Their death is being handled as a hazmat and coroner investigation.

The couple was first reported missing late Monday night by a family friend, and their last correspondence was a photo of a baby backpack sent early Sunday morning, according to KMPH in Fresno.

Their vehicle, a Ford truck, was found near the Sierra National Forest gate leading to Hites Cove, the sheriff's office said.

Mariposa County Deputy Kristie Mitchell told the Fresno Bee that their bodies were found in a drastically remote area, far away enough that officials had to "hike out to establish satellite phone connection."

Per KMPH in Fresno, the family was originally from San Francisco before moving to Mariposa, a small town close to Yosemite National Park.

This is never the outcome we want or the news we want to deliver, my heart breaks for their family," said Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese in a statement. Our Sheriffs Chaplains and staff are working with their family and will continue to support them during this heartbreaking time.
This article was first published on NerdWallet.com.

If you decide to extend your next trip by a couple of days  or even a couple of hours  and that trip involves a rental car, be careful. Rental cars are in short supply, and because of that, rental car prices have skyrocketed. In some cases, even a limo is cheaper.

And in the case of NerdWallet editor Sheri Gordon, riding in on a golden chariot might have been cheaper. Thats because she made a small change to her rental car reservation for a 10-day trip to Hawaii. When she checked her reservation  which she initially booked at $570  the price had ballooned to over $2,300.

A small reservation change could mean a big price difference

Most rental car companies allow you to reserve in advance, and most dont require upfront payment. Typically, your rate is locked in when you book.

That is, unless you change your reservation.

Most rental car companies guarantee the rate quoted when you reserve your car, but a tiny piece of fine print on most contracts stipulates that the rate can change if you make a change to your reservation. Changes that can affect your rate include extending or shortening your trip, changing the rental location, or even something as simple as adding a child seat.

Heres an example of fine print from Hertzs policy (though most major rental companies have similar terms):

Any change to a booking made online or through the call center will be recalculated based on the availability and prices at the time the change is made. This may be greater or lesser than the price originally booked.

This summer, those recalculations are often shaping up to be big, as was the case for Gordon, who rented a car from Hertz for her trip in Maui around the Fourth of July. When she reserved it in early April, she was set to pay about $570 to rent a car for 10 days.

A couple of weeks later, her airline informed her that her flight would be pushed back a few hours. Not wanting to sacrifice precious Hawaii time sitting in an airport terminal when she could be lounging by the water, she extended her rental car reservation.

Upon making that change, her rental car cost increased to nearly $640, about $70 extra. She said there was no pop-up or notification that the price would go up, aside from an email she received after the fact.

But it didnt stop there. A few weeks before her trip, she checked her Hertz account again, and the price had skyrocketed up to $2,309.85. She says she has no idea how it went from $640 to nearly four times that.

We reached out to Hertz to find out what happened. A Hertz spokesperson confirmed they were looking into this, but would honor the $640 rate. Hertz did not respond to further NerdWallet requests.

How to ensure your rental car rate doesnt go up

Most rental car companies wont change your quoted rate for reservations made directly through them, as long as you dont change anything.

When a customer books a reservation directly through us, the rates and all applicable fees are listed on the confirmation, says Lisa Martini, a spokesperson for Enterprise Holdings, which is the parent company of Enterprise, National and Alamo. The only instance when the rate would change is if the customer changes something.

An Avis Budget group spokesperson also confirmed a similar policy: Once you book a reservation with Avis or Budget, the rate is locked in, regardless of whether you choose to prepay or pay later at the counter, as long as the parameters of the reservation do not change  for example, the dates of the reservation or the car class.

Some rental car companies will present the new rate quote before confirming your reservation change, so if you need to make a change, look carefully at whether the price has changed. But others might not  as was the case with Gordons rental.

Other tips to skip car rental sticker shock

There are other steps you can take when booking to guarantee your rate wont go up at the counter.

Avoid booking through third parties

Many policies will guarantee reservations booked directly with the rental car company. But they dont provide that same guarantee for rental cars booked through online travel agencies or other third-party travel providers.

Book a few more hours than you need

It likely wont cost you much more at reservation time to return your rental car at 11 a.m. versus 9 a.m. You can always return the car early, but returning it late will likely incur extra charges.

Whether your airline delays your flight or you opt to make a spontaneous detour on a road trip, it wont hurt too badly to book for a longer period than you anticipate needing the car versus extending your rental last minute out of necessity  only to get dinged with a huge fee.

Look to rental car alternatives

While many traditional rentals are sold out, that doesnt mean you cant still get your hands on the wheel of a car. New rental car alternatives have popped up in recent years including peer-to-peer rentals, in which everyday people post their cars for rent online.

Consider a rideshare or taxi

If you only need a car intermittently, you might skip the car rental completely, instead hailing a taxi, shuttle or rideshare to get you from the airport to your hotel, or between tourist destinations. In hindsight, Gordon says she wishes she had opted for that route.

I wound up hardly using my rental car because the nearby beach was so enticing, she says. We really needed the car only for the drive from Kahului Airport to where we were staying in Napili Bay and then back for our return. I know rideshares are expensive, but not $640 expensive.

Double (and triple) check your reservation

As long as youre not making changes, you should be checking in on your reservation to make sure something hasnt gone awry like it did for Gordon when the price jumped to over $2,300. If she hadnt been rechecking her reservation, she may not have uncovered the issue until arriving at the rental car center in Maui, which makes resolving the pricing issue more difficult  and is certainly not the way you want to start a vacation.

The bottom line

In recent months, travel has picked up at rates faster than even some travel experts anticipated. And as the already short supply of rental cars struggles to keep up with ever-increasing demand, some car rental companies are looking for ways to charge you even more. After all, they have customers willing to pay for it.

If youve already reserved a rental car and have locked in your rate, dont change your reservation without confirming that the new rate isnt more than youre willing to pay. At booking, do everything you can to ensure you wont need to make changes. Select the GPS and booster seat add-ons if you need them, and confirm you have the car as long as youll possibly need it.

Next, dont wait until you arrive at the airport to check your reservation. You dont want to discover a mysterious multi-thousand-dollar charge that you have to deal with on the spot.

Finally, if your flight gets delayed and the cost to extend your car reservation is more than you bargained for, it might make more sense to just return the car at your regularly scheduled time and kill a few extra hours in the airport. After all, thats what the lounge is for.

Sally French writes for NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.

The article Why a Car Rental Change Was Almost a $1,700 Mistake originally appeared on NerdWallet.
- Cal Fire: See incident reports from Cal Fire's website.

- Maps: View maps from the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Forest Service's InciWeb.

- Road closures: Get updates from Caltrans District 2's Twitter feed.

- Evacuations: Find the latest information from Cal Fire.

- Dixie Fire information line: (530) 255-4023.

The small Northern California town of Mineral was evacuated late Tuesday as the still-raging Dixie Fire began to threaten the area.

More for you News This is what you need in your wildfire preparedness kit,...

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Tehama County Sheriff's Office issued a mandatory evacuation order for the community of just over 100 people, located one mile from the Lassen Volcanic National Park headquarters. The Dixie Fire has already burned 635,728 acres across Plumas, Butte, Lassen and Tehama counties. It is 33% contained, up slightly from 31% on Tuesday.

Communities along the I-5 corridor are sandwiched between two huge wildfires, the Dixie Fire to the east and the McFarland Fire to the west. The McFarland Fire has burned through 97,407 acres but is now 51% contained.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Because the Dixie Fire is so massive, Cal Fire splits its incident report into the east and west portions of the blaze. On the west zone, Cal Fire said "spotting, single and group tree torching all contributed to fire growth. Challenges to the control lines occurred in many divisions, as fuel conditions allowed for steady growth."

On the east zone, crews saw "high fire activity" in the Peter's Creek area and "very active fire conditions" near Thompson Peak, the highest peak in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. As of Wednesday morning, Cal Fire said the fire hasn't crossed Fruit Growers Boulevard.

Illustration: SFGATE/ Getty Images

At a Wednesday morning fire briefing, officials said the fire has held steady outside of Susanville, and they're expecting winds today to push the fire back onto itself away from the town. Crews are anticipating winds will move the fire down the Highway 395 corridor, however, and are preparing to defend that area today.

A red flag warning for gusty winds remains in effect, although conditions have been more favorable over the last day. For the first time in weeks, crews on the ground awoke to clear skies Wednesday as a cold front moved in. Air teams will be performing drops today.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The second-largest wildfire in California history, the Dixie Fire has scorched 890 square miles in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades since it ignited on July 13. Ongoing damage surveys have counted more than 1,100 buildings destroyed, including 625 homes, and more than 14,000 structures remained threatened.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Investigations are continuing, but PG&E has notified utility regulators that the Dixie and Fly fires may have been caused by trees falling into its power lines. The Dixie Fire began near the town of Paradise, which was devastated by a 2018 wildfire ignited by PG&E equipment during strong winds. Eighty-five people died.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
UPDATE Wednesday 9:07 p.m. The Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe expanded to 62,586 acres and was zero percent contained, according to a Cal Fire updated issued Wednesday evening.

---

Tearing across the bone-dry landscape of the El Dorado National Forest at unfathomable speeds, California's Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe exploded in size from 6,500 acres Tuesday morning to 53,772 acres Wednesday morning with no containment, triggering a flurry of evacuations, torching parts of a small town and injuring at least two people, officials said.

More for you News This is what you need in your wildfire preparedness kit,...

Ethan Swope/AP

Fire officials said an unknown number of structures were destroyed, but Sacramento Bee reporters on the ground in Grizzly Flats (population 1,200) found an elementary school, a church, a post office and other buildings in ruins. Two civilians were seriously injured in the blaze, Cal Fire said in a statement Tuesday evening. Both were taken from the Grizzly Flats area by air ambulance to a hospital.

Ethan Swope/AP

Officials ordered residents in Pollock Pines to evacuate late Tuesday, and crews fought flames overnight to protect the town of about 7,000 people near Highway 50. The community of Kyburz was also given evacuation orders.

Yuba News reported at 1 p.m. Wednesday the Grass Valley Air Attack Base was closing because of near zero visibility.

Ethan Swope/Associated Press

The California Highway Patrol warned Highway 50, a main artery between South Lake Tahoe and Sacramento, may close overnight, but it appeared to be open Wednesday afternoon.

Roadways in the region were clogged with traffic Tuesday and Wednesday as residents fled. CapRadio journalist Scott Rodd shared a video Tuesday of traffic backed up along Sly Park Road.

Caltrans District 3 posted updates on Twitter on Wednesday, relaying information about road closures and showing low visibility on roadways.

The El Dorado National Forest issued an emergency order Tuesday night closing the national forest because of extreme fire behavior. The forestwide closure will be in effect through Sept. 30, 2021

The Caldor Fire broke out Saturday about 40 miles southwest of Lake Tahoe, as the crow flies. The blaze exploded from 2,261 acres Monday night to 6,500 acres Tuesday morning, burning through heavy timber in a steep river canyon, Cal Fire said.

The first flames were spotted at 7 p.m. Saturday just south of Pollock Pines in El Dorado County, 4 miles south of the small town of Grizzly Flats and 2 miles east of the unincorporated community of Omo Ranch.

Illustration: SFGATE/ Getty Images

The fire has been extremely active amid hot, gusty weather and with vegetation parched and dry from drought conditions. The U.S. West has been warmer and drier in the past 30 years because of climate change, which is resulting in more destructive wildfires, according to scientists.

"Firefighters say the Caldor Fire fire has grown so quickly theyve had a hard time even keeping their maps updated with the perimeter," KTVU reported.

Courtesy Guy Tucker / @wine.alchemy

The Caldor Fire emitted massive smoke plumes that rose more than 20,000 feet into the air.

The wildfire camera positioned on Leek Spring Hill, about 40 miles southwest of South Lake Tahoe, showed the blaze looking more like an erupting volcano than the type of wildfires that Californians have become accustomed to.

Ethan Swope/AP

"It's very scary," said Neil Lareau, a professor of atmospheric sciences in the department of physics at the University of Nevada at Reno who studies wildfire-generated weather. "We have the worst mix of things you could put together for fires, which is a combination of dry vegetation, strong, shifting winds and an atmosphere conducive to these deep smoke plumes."

Nearly 250 personnel are assigned to the blaze. The cause of the fire is unknown.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)  Two men were arrested at the Nashville International Airport for refusing to wear face masks aboard their flights, police said.

Artur Grigoryan didnt wear a mask on an American Airlines flight and was arrested early Tuesday morning, WKRN-TV reported. The flight was delayed and Grigoryan was removed from the plane.

Officers had received a call Monday night about the 33-year-old refusing to wear a mask on a Spirit Airlines flight and calling the crew vulgar names. He wont be allowed to fly with the airline in the future.

Grigoryan was also caught stealing from an airport coffee shop while waiting to board the American Airlines flight, police said. The shop owner decided not to prosecute him for theft.

Airport police arrested James Swafford, 24, later Tuesday morning in a separate incident. He refused to wear a mask on a Southwest Airlines flight to Washington, D.C., according to a warrant.

Investigators said he caused a disturbance by becoming aggressive toward officers and using profanity in front of other passengers. The pilot turned the plane around and Swafford was removed.

Both men were charged with disorderly conduct and had bail set at $1,000. It wasnt immediately clear if they had attorneys who could comment.

More than 2,800 mask-related unruly passenger incidents aboard flights have been reported this year as of Aug. 16, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
BOSTON (AP)  Four people were injured early Wednesday morning when a car involved in a crash in Boston plunged about 40 feet (12 meters) and landed on its roof on railroad tracks, authorities said.

The Boston Fire Department's technical rescue team responded to the scene in the city's South End at about 4:40 a.m., according to a tweet from the department.
A lot has changed in the travel world since the pre-pandemic days of 2019. Should you bring your vaccine card? Do you need additional travel insurance?

Here are some key travel planning and packing tips to navigate the new normal ahead of your next  and maybe first  COVID-19-era trip.

1. TAKE PROOF OF YOUR VACCINATION STATUS

International travelers will almost certainly need proof of vaccination as more countries require it and/or a negative COVID-19 test result to enter or avoid quarantine restrictions.

But even domestic travelers may need proof depending on where theyre heading. California requires attendees of indoor events with 5,000 or more people to prove theyve been vaccinated or show a negative test result. In New York City , youll need proof of vaccination for indoor dining, gyms, concerts and performances, with enforcement beginning on Sept. 13.

Restaurants, bars and other establishments nationwide also require vaccination proof to enter. To avoid such limitations, pack your vaccine card.

If youre hesitant to risk losing your physical copy, some apps, like Clear's Health Pass or New York states Excelsior Pass , store digital versions of your card and may work at some establishments. At the very least, save a photo of your vaccination card on your phone.

2. CONSIDER PURCHASING TRAVEL INSURANCE

Even if youve never purchased travel insurance in the past, 2021 might be your year.

Some travel credit cards include travel insurance as a benefit, which can come to your rescue in case of an unexpected illness , delayed or canceled flights or weather -related events. This coverage could be especially useful if a COVID-19 test comes back positive and you can no longer travel.

Be aware that disinclination to travel because of COVID-19 isnt usually a covered reason. Thats when Cancel for Any Reason coverage  often offered as an upgrade on some travel insurance plans  comes in handy. When you purchase CFAR coverage, youll typically get 50%-75% of the nonrefundable trip purchases back, no matter the reason you cancel.

3. DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR PASSPORT EARLY

Some countries require that passports be valid at least six months beyond the dates of your trip. And considering that passport processing times are slower than usual, you may want to renew your passport now.

Heres just how bad the backlog is: As of August 2021, the U.S. Department of State says you should expect to receive your new passport as late as 18 weeks after your application is received (it used to be about six weeks , pre-pandemic). While you can pay $60 for expedited service, it could still take up to 12 weeks to get your new passport.

4. APPLY FOR TSA PRECHECK

Airport security lines are notoriously long in summer, but the Transportation Security Administration is bracing for especially busy travel through Labor Day.

For those passengers returning to travel for the first time since 2019, be aware that some processes at the checkpoint have changed and some, like removing your shoes, remain in place, Darby LaJoye , the TSAs executive assistant administrator for security operations, said in a prepared statement . Travelers should plan to arrive early at the airport to complete the airport screening process.

But you wont have to remove your shoes or arrive as early if you have TSA PreCheck, which is a security clearance program that lets you pass through airport security in a separate, expedited line.

While the application fee is $85 , many travel credit cards reimburse it if you pay with the card. International travelers may consider applying for Global Entry, which will expedite you through security upon returning to the U.S. It also comes with TSA PreCheck, for a $100 fee thats similarly reimbursable with the right card.

5. PACK MULTIPLE MASKS

You know you have to pack a mask to get on the airplane, but you might need one throughout your trip, as some regions and businesses still have mask requirements. Consider packing extra. You might prefer an N95 mask on the plane, but if youre planning a hard workout or heading someplace humid, pack some disposable masks you can toss when your face gets sweaty.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Your packing list will likely include items you want readily available in your carry-on bag, like a mask, hand sanitizer and water bottle. But there are other items you cant just purchase at the convenience store the day before your flight  youll need to prepare for these in advance.

An up-to-date passport is imperative for international travel. Domestic and international travelers alike might consider joining expedited security programs, getting travel insurance and taking proof of vaccination to ensure smooth sailing for the trip.

_______________________________________

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Sally French is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: sfrench@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @SAFmedia.

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UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The United Kingdom called Tuesday for an immediate and sustained pause in clashes and unrest in Myanmar to allow vaccinations as an intense COVID-19 surge is ravaging the country.

Britains deputy U.N. ambassador, James Kariuki, told reporters after closed Security Council discussions that the call for a humanitarian pause and a strong international response was joined by Foreign Minister Dato Erywan of Brunei, the new special envoy for Myanmar from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations who joined the meeting virtually.

Kariuki said U.N. special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener and U.N. deputy humanitarian chief Ramesh Rajasingham told the council that the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is worsening daily.

Prior to the coup, Myanmar had a strong vaccination record and was developing a COVID-19 plan, he said. Now, Myanmars health system is barely functioning, unacceptable attacks on hospitals, doctors and nurses continue, and only 3% of the population are vaccinated.

Myanmar has been struggling with one of the worst COVID-19 surges in Southeast Asia, and the military leadership that ousted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyis democratically elected government Feb. 1 has been accused of diverting critical medical supplies to itself and its supporters.

Last week, Schraner Burgener said that more than 333,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Myanmar, including 3,611 new cases Aug. 9.

At Tuesdays council meeting, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Rajasingham outlined what is basically a collapsing health care system, resurging wave of the virus, increased hostilities and violence, (and) significant displacement.

Schraner Burgener called on U.N. member states Tuesday to support pandemic and other humanitarian efforts in Myanmar and she also called on the parties to allow a vaccination campaign to go forward through all available avenues in the country, Dujarric said.

Kariuki said that the UK is calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian pause to allow vaccines to get to all in need, and for medical and humanitarian staff to work without fear or attack.

He said that at the council meeting we had a lot of calls for a humanitarian pause, but members did not take any action.

Kariuki said U.N. officials will work with Security Council members, other U.N. members and international partners such as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization to ensure the people of Myanmar get access to vaccines in an equitable way  regardless of politics, ethnicity or religion.

Vaccines must be tools of protection, not politics, he said, stressing that the political situation is having an impact on the humanitarian crisis.

Myanmar for five decades languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Suu Kyis rise to leadership in 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country. The Feb. 1 takeover followed an overwhelming victory by Suu Kyis National League for Democracy party in November elections that the military contested as fraudulent.

The military takeover was met with widespread protests that have resulted in a lethal crackdown by security forces, which routinely fire live ammunition into crowds. Armed resistance to the military is growing in both urban and rural areas.

Myanmars Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reported Tuesday that 999 people have been killed since Feb. 1. It said 7,320 have been arrested, of whom 5,712 are still detained, including Suu Kyi and ousted President Win Myint.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP)  The school board in Vermont's largest city has several weeks to narrow down a list of 16 possible sites for the new Burlington High School after chemical contamination was found in the existing school.

The PCB contamination prompted school officials to close the existing school last year. Initially, students were educated from home. In March, the school moved into an empty Macys department store, which is now known as the Downtown Burlington High School.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Yogananda Pittman, the Capitol Police official who led intelligence operations for the agency when thousands of Donald Trump loyalists descended on the building last January, is back in charge of intelligence as officials prepare for whats expected to be a massive rally at the Capitol to support those who took part in the insurrection.

Pittman  elevated to acting chief after then-Chief Steven Sund was forced to resign in the aftermath of the deadly insurrection  was passed over last month for the role of permanent chief. The Capitol Police Board, which oversees the force, instead picked J. Thomas Manger, the former chief of the police departments in Fairfax County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland.

Pittman's tenure as assistant chief was marred by a vote of no-confidence from rank-and-file officers on the force and questions about intelligence and leadership failures  specifically, why the agency wasnt prepared to fend off a mob of insurrectionists, even though officials had compiled intelligence showing white supremacists and other extremists were likely to assemble in Washington on Jan. 6 and that violent disruptions were possible.

Supporters of the current president see Jan. 6, 2021, as the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election, said a Jan. 3 Capitol Police intelligence assessment. This sense of desperation and disappointment may lead to more of an incentive to become violent.

Unlike past events, when pro-Trump supporters clashed violently with counterdemonstrators, Congress itself is the target on the 6th, the assessment added.

The deadly riot at the Capitol quickly overwhelmed the police force and has resulted in hundreds of federal criminal prosecutions and internal reviews about why law enforcement agencies weren't better prepared.

Now, months later, Pittman has been put back in charge as assistant chief of the agencys intelligence operations and will be supervising officers who protect top congressional leaders.

Police officials in Washington are increasingly concerned about a rally planned for Sept. 18 on federal land next to the Capitol that organizers have said is meant to demand justice for the hundreds of people already charged in connection with Januarys insurrection.

Organizers of the event, known as Justice for J6, have said it will be peaceful but law enforcement officials fear such a gathering with thousands of people could devolve quickly into violence.

That Pittman remains in a position overseeing intelligence is notable given the internal leadership upheaval that followed the riot  Sund, the House and Senate sergeants at arms and the only other assistant police chief all resigned after January's attack. On the other hand, removing her from the job could also represent a concession by the department that there was an intelligence failure on its part.

Capitol Police officials say Pittman was given the additional responsibility of being the acting police chief on a temporary basis and never left her old job, though an organization chart obtained by The Associated Press shows that the position of assistant chief overseeing intelligence was held by a different official, Sean Gallagher. He is now temporarily in charge of the department's uniformed officers.

In that temporary position, Chief Pittman led the Department through numerous reviews. She also directed and led improvements to pivot the USCP towards an intelligence based protective agency, the agency said of Pittman's time as police chief.

As the temporary public face of the department, Pittman conceded to Congress at a February hearing that multiple levels of failures allowed rioters to storm the building. But she disputed the notion that law enforcement had failed to take the threat seriously, noting how Capitol Police several days before the riot had distributed an internal document warning that extremists were poised for violence.

The police department had compiled numerous intelligence documents suggesting the crowd could turn violent and even target Congress.

The Associated Press has obtained full versions of four separate Capitol Police intelligence assessments in December and January that warned crowds could number in the tens of thousands and include members of extremist groups like the Proud Boys.

A Jan. 3 memo, for instance, warned of a significantly dangerous situation for law enforcement and the general public alike.

But none of the assessments envisioned the deadly violence that actually happened when huge crowds of Trump loyalists overran the building as Congress was gathered to certify the results of the presidential election. Police officials have repeatedly said they had no intelligence to suggest that would happen.

Arguably the most detailed Capitol Police document was a Dec. 21 intelligence assessment that showed how people had been researching and discussing the tunnels under the Capitol  typically used by members of Congress and staff  on public websites. A Jan. 5 FBI memo from its Norfolk field office contained a similarly ominous warning.

Pittman told congressional officials that she had distributed that Dec. 21 assessment to her command staff, including the chief, the other assistant chief and deputy chiefs, but one recently retired deputy chief, Jeffrey Pickett, told AP that he had not received the document and was unaware of other senior officials who had.

In a statement, Capitol Police officials said the department had enhanced its security posture because of the intelligence indicating increased interest in the tunnels." A law enforcement official told the AP that Pittman had emailed Sund and the other assistant chief, Chad Thomas, about the tunnel information. The department did not say whether Pittman sent the actual intelligence assessment to other chiefs, as she testified.

What the intelligence didnt reveal was the large-scale demonstration would become a large-scale attack on the Capitol Building as there was no specific, credible intelligence about such an attack, the department said in a statement.
DENVER (AP)  Denver police say a man was shot and killed and another was wounded during a string of crimes that also included a carjacking and a robbery.

Police say the suspects are considered armed and dangerous and offered a reward of up to $2,000 Wednesday for information leading to their arrests. Investigators are looking for three vehicles that were involved in the crimes late Tuesday.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  A Des Moines man accused of setting his fathers house on fire while the elderly man was still inside it was arrested Wednesday, police said.

Shane Lorenz, 48, is now charged with attempted murder and first-degree arson in the case, police said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  who has been criticized for opposing mask mandates and vaccine passports  is now touting a COVID-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor's company has invested millions of dollars.

DeSantis has been flying around the state promoting a monoclonal antibody treatment sold by Regeneron, which was used on then-President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19. The governor first began talking about it as a treatment last year.

Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc., according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis  $5.75 million in 2018 and $5 million last April.

It's not unusual for hedge funds to have a wide range of investments. And BlackRock, which has primarily donated to Democratic candidates, though has also donated substantially to Republicans, has a large holding in the company - more so than Citadel.

DeSantis ramped up the call for Floridians to seek out monoclonal antibody treatments in August as coronavirus cases spiked. He's held news conferences at treatment sites and a Tampa hospital touting the effectiveness of the drug if people receive treatment soon after testing positive.

Early treatment with these monoclonal antibodies  Regeneron and others  have proven to radically reduce the chances that somebody ends up being hospitalized, DeSantis said Monday at a treatment site in Orlando. Reducing hospital admissions has got to be a top priority.

Experts agree that keeping people out of the hospital is a top priority, but say vaccines  not treatments for people after they get sick  are the best way to do that. The Regeneron drugs, when given within 10 days of initial symptoms, have been shown to cut rates of hospitalization and death by roughly 70%. The vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. have been proven in large, real-world studies to be 95% effective against hospitalization.

We definitely need treatments like monoclonal antibodies that can prevent mild disease from progressing to severe disease. Ultimately, its still best to prevent someone from contracting COVID-19 in the first place, said Dr. Leana Wen, public health professor at George Washington University and former Baltimore Health Commissioner. Monoclonal antibodies are not prevention.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and is receiving Regeneron treatments. Like DeSantis, he has been opposed to mask mandates in public schools. He was vaccinated in December.

DeSantis has threatened to punish school districts that require masks. He's also opposed to vaccine passports and has had an ongoing legal battle with Norwegian Cruise Lines, which wants to require passengers to show proof of vaccination.

Citadel's investment in Regeneron is a tiny fraction of its overall $39 billion in investments, but if the stock price were to go up, Citadel would benefit. DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw points out that Citadel has far greater investments in Moderna and Pfizer, which manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

But the relationship has generated a buzz on social media, as Democrats question the relationship.

Claiming that there is somehow 'corruption' by promoting the baseless political narrative that Governor DeSantis supports Regeneron over COVID vaccines (completely false, but that is another topic) is not even logically consistent when you examine the SEC filing, Pushaw said in an email. Citadel holds far more shares of Pfizer and Moderna than Regeneron.

And while DeSantis has had a very public war of words with Democratic President Joe Biden about requiring masks in schools and other virus precautions, they both encourage monoclonal antibody treatments. A Regeneron treatment costs more than $1,000, while a vaccine costs about $25.

Vaccines prevent serious illness from COVID-19. But if someone who is unvaccinated gets COVID, or a vaccinated person gets a breakthrough infection, those in risk categories with comorbidities should consider getting early treatment with Regeneron. It is safe, effective, and free of charge to all patients in Florida. This should not be a political issue - its about saving lives," Pushaw said.

The federal government is paying for the monoclonal antibody treatments and patients aren't being charged for the antibody cocktail. Florida has set up treatment sites in Jacksonville, Orlando and Brevard County. The state plans to add more sites.

Griffin, a billionaire, has donated tens of millions of dollars to other conservative candidates and political committees across the country. He was raised in Florida and is building an oceanfront mansion near Trump's Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago resort.

Citadel declined to comment.

___

Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale and Paul Harloff in New York contributed to this report.
DALLAS (AP)  Pleas for help from Afghans have been filling up Caroline Clarins phone for days as she works from her rural Minnesota home and tries to provide hope to those who ping heart-wrenching messages of desperation from a world away.

Since 2017, Clarin, who ran a U.S. Department of Agriculture program in Afghanistan, and her wife, Sheril Raymond, have helped get five Afghans and their families from her program into the U.S. Now they are trying to help more than a half dozen other Afghans and their families leave Afghanistan.

Ive been getting messages about hopelessness, and waiting to be killed by the Taliban, and I said its not over til its over," Raymond said. "And as best as I can from sitting in my comfy chair in Minnesota where Im safe, I am trying to say please do not give up hope, think of your children, and hold on."

Across the U.S., Americans are scrambling to help Afghans fleeing their country after the Taliban's speedy takeover. Driven by compassion, those pitching in include everyone from volunteers at refugee resettlement agencies to people like Clarin and Raymond, who are helping on their own.

Russell Smith, CEO of Refugee Services of Texas, said people are calling agencies like his and offering to help as it scrambles to prepare for the arrivals. Normally, he would get at least a week's notice that families are arriving in the cities where they'll be resettled, but that's accelerated.

It is a little faster than we kind of were ready for, I think, probably than anybody was ready for really, Smith said of the arrivals.

Since late July, more than 2,000 Afghans have been flown to Fort Lee Army base in Virginia and thousands more are still expected. The Afghans who worked for the U.S. government and their families can qualify for special immigrant visas. Tens of thousands of others who also qualified have been left behind because of a backlog of visa applications.

From Fort Lee, the goal is to move them as quickly as possible to the communities where they will start their new life, said Jennifer Sime, a senior vice president at the International Rescue Committee.

Refugees receive temporary food and housing assistance, typically for their first 90 days, from nonprofit organizations operating with a combination of government grants and private donations. They can also get some long-term services such as language classes and citizenship classes, but they are expected to become self-sufficient.

They have to be very resilient. Its not easy, said Stephen Carattini, the CEO of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, which for more than 15 years has been annually settling hundreds of Afghan refugees in Northern Virginia. The basics, being employed, paying their rent, that has to happen very, very quickly.

The Afghans who worked for Clarin's program in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2011 are eligible for the special immigrant visa as well since their salaries came from the U.S. military.

The program hired Afghans with college degrees in agriculture and other related fields to become trainers who would help provincial governments and farmers improve their productivity and relieve poverty.

But many of their visa applications had not moved forward for years until Clarin fired off emails to senators pointing out the cases. She diligently tracks cases and solicits letters of recommendation.

Clarin also used her retirement funds to pay for the trip so Ihsanullah Patan, a horticulturist, and his family could get out of Afghanistan. They arrived in Minnesota in May.

Its the best investment Ive ever made, Clarin said, tearing up as she stood next to Patan, who has a wife and four children, ages 4 to 11.

Patan, who had applied in 2016 for the visa, is grateful for the couple he calls family and says without them, it would have been impossible" to get out.

Thank God that we are here now, Patan said, adding that his friends were being killed because they had worked for the U.S.

Krish OMara Vignarajah of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which provided Patan's apartment after the couple contacted them, said Clarin and Raymond embody the best of the American spirit and the higher call to love our neighbors."

We couldnt be more grateful for the outpouring of support from volunteers, advocates, and donors from all walks of life, OMara Vignarajah said.

People can help in many ways, from greeting Afghans at airports and help the families navigate their new life, resettlement agencies say.

Megan Carlton, who works at Refugee Services of Texas, also volunteers her time to set up homes for refugees in the Dallas area. She just finished filling an apartment for a family from Afghanistan who moved in Tuesday.

Over the years, shes created her own network of people who donate items to furnish the homes, filling them with necessities like pots and pans in addition to extra items like paintings and vases to make it feel like home.

None of us can control whats going on over there, but we can control this, she said. We can create this home.

___

Watson contributed to this report from San Diego. Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Washington, Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin, Jim Salter in St. Louis and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM (AP)  Egypt's intelligence chief on Wednesday paid a rare visit to Israel to discuss the cease-fire deal between Israel and the Hamas militant group that followed an 11-day war in May, Israel announced.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said Egyptian official Abbas Kamel also invited the Israeli leader to visit Egypt in the coming weeks.

Egypt has played a key mediation role between Israel and Hamas over the years. Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers are bitter enemies that have fought four wars since the Islamic militant group took control of Gaza in 2007, a year after winning Palestinian elections.

The most recent war ended in May, but the sides appear to have reached no agreements beyond a halt in fighting.

Hamas demands an easing in an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has crippled the local economy and the resumption of hundreds of millions of dollars of badly needed assistance from Qatar. Israel has demanded the return of the remains of two soldiers killed in a 2014 war as well as two Israeli civilians believed to be held by Hamas.

Hamas in recent weeks allowed supporters to send incendiary balloons into Israel and more recently a rocket was fired into Israel this week, the first time since the war. Israel did not respond, a possible signal that diplomatic efforts are picking up.

Bennett, who often accused his predecessor, Benjamin Netanytahu, of being too soft on Hamas, came under criticism Wednesday for the show of restraint. But at a news conference, he defended his decision, saying he would not allow Israel's enemies to determine its actions.

We will react in the time, place and conditions that suit us, he said.

Bennett's office gave few details about Wednesday's talks with Kamel, saying they focused on mutual security and economic issues as well as Egyptian media in the Gaza security situation.

Bennett said Kamel extended an invitation on behalf of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. He gave no further details.

Later Wednesday, Kamel visited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank. Israel and the U.S. have said they would like to bolster Abbas in his rivalry with Hamas.

The Islamic militant group has controlled Gaza since ousting Abbas' forces in 2007, a year after it defeated his Fatah party in Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Abbas' office said that he and Kamel reviewed the latest developments in the Palestinian territories, and ways to strengthen bilateral relations and achieve stability and peace in the region.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP)  A Florida police officer has died 55 days after being shot in the head while on patrol. Prosecutors will now seek the death penalty against the alleged shooter.

The Daytona Beach Police Department said in a tweet that Officer Jason Raynor died on Tuesday. He had been in a hospital since being shot June 23 by a man he was trying to question in the parking lot of an apartment building, according to a charging affidavit.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)  Ford Motor Co. has donated another 1 million masks to Kentucky to help ensure schoolchildren have access to face coverings, first lady Britainy Beshear announced.

The automaker's donation comes as the delta variant increases COVID-19 infections among youngsters. A mask mandate is in effect in Kentucky's K-12 schools.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  A federal judge has approved a lawsuit settlement compensating five supporters of Black Lives Matter whom the Iowa State Patrol arrested and banned from the grounds of the state Capitol following a scuffle during a protest last summer.

A state board on Aug. 2 approved a recommendation by state lawyers to pay Jalesha Johnson, Louise Bequeaith, Haley Jo Dikkers, Brad Penna and Brandi Ramus $5,000 each and their attorney $45,000.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger issued an order in December that prevented enforcement of the ban, concluding it likely violated the protesters rights. On Tuesday, she entered an order accepting the settlement agreement, calling it fair, reasonable, and adequate under the circumstances of this lawsuit and is approved.

The five were arrested July 1, 2020, when a scuffle broke out with police officers at the Capitol. After the arrests, the Iowa State Patrol, which provides security at the Capitol, told the five protesters that legislative leaders ordered them banned from the grounds and would charge them with trespassing if they returned.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a lawsuit, saying the ban blocks the individuals fundamental constitutional rights of free speech, assembly, right to petition their government, their fundamental freedom of movement and due process.

In addition to the payments, the state agreed to withdraw all verbal and written bans to the protesters. The Iowa Department of Public Safety agreed to train its officers assigned to the Capitol more on areas relating to the First Amendment.

Of the five people arrested, four had charges of interference with official acts or disorderly conduct dismissed. Penna pleaded guilty to simple misdemeanor interference with official acts and was ordered to pay a $250 fine.

We are grateful to our clients for challenging the constitutionality of these bans. They are protecting their fellow protesters and everyone else who wasnt a plaintiff in this case by getting the bans of all protesters withdrawn. The state also agreed to not to issue the same type of ban in the future," said Rita Bettis Austen, ACLU of Iowa legal director,

Assistant State Attorney General Anne Updegraff told appeal board members at the Aug. 2 meeting that the attorney generals office believes the settlement is fair for the state.

Twelve other protesters arrested last year were also banned from protests at the Capitol  some were banned for six months and others for a year. They did not join the lawsuit, but their bans are lifted due to Ebingers recent order.
PHILADELPHIA (AP)  A statue of Christopher Columbus can remain in south Philadelphia, a judge ruled, reversing the city's decision to remove it after the explorer became a focus of protesters amid nationwide demonstrations against racial injustice after the police killing of George Floyd.

Last year's decision to remove the now-boarded-up statue from Marconi Plaza was unsupported by law and based on insufficient evidence, Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick said.

It is baffling to this court as to how the city of Philadelphia wants to remove the statue without any legal basis. The citys entire argument and case is devoid of any legal foundation, Patrick wrote.

The ruling Tuesday overturns a decision in September by a city licensing board that upheld a July 2020 decision by the city historical commission to remove the 144-year-old statue. The judge wrote that the city failed to provide an adequate opportunity for public input about its future.

A city representative expressed disappointment and officials were exploring all options including a possible appeal."

Attorney George Bochetto, who represents the Friends of Marconi Plaza, said the plaintiffs were ecstatic. He said he would immediately seek an order to remove a wooden box constructed by city crews around the statue following clashes between protesters and residents.

In Philadelphia, a city with a deep Italian heritage, supporters say they consider Columbus an emblem of that heritage. Mayor Jim Kenney said Columbus was venerated for centuries as an explorer but had a much more infamous history, enslaving Indigenous people and imposing punishments such as severing limbs or even death.

After the June 2020 unrest, Kenney characterized removing the statue as a matter of public safety. Patrick, however, wrote that the city had failed to provide evidence that the statue's removal was necessary to protect the public, calling the confrontations isolated civil unrest."

In western Pennsylvania, a Columbus statue in a Pittsburgh park was also covered up last fall and its removal ordered, but a community group there also filed suit. A western Pennsylvania judge declared an impasse in June and sent the dispute to mediation.

Statues of Columbus were earlier removed in nearby Camden, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware. In Richmond, Virginia, a statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down, set on fire and thrown into a lake. In Columbia, South Carolina, the first U.S. city named for Columbus, a statue of the explorer was removed after it was vandalized several times, and a vandalized statue in Boston also was removed from its pedestal.

Floyd died May 25, 2020, after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes even as he pleaded for air and stopped moving.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  A man who suffered a compound fracture to his leg when he was hit by a tear gas canister during racial injustice protests last summer has received a $200,000 settlement from the Kansas City police department.

The man did not sue the department and did not want his name publicized, The Kansas City Star reported Wednesday.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit Tuesday demanding that a judge remove the GOP-appointed chairman of the Department of Natural Resources policy board from his position, a move designed to give Gov. Tony Evers control of a key entity that decides state environmental policy.

Former Gov. Scott Walker appointed Wausau dentist Fred Prehn to the board in 2015. His term ended May 1. Evers appointed Sandra Naas to replace him, which would give Evers appointees a 4-3 majority on the panel.

But Prehn has refused to step down, arguing that he can continue to serve until the state Senate confirms Naas. Republicans control the Senate and have yet to so much as hold a hearing on Naas' confirmation.

A host of environmental and conservation groups, including the Sierra Club, Midwest Environmental Advocates and the River Alliance of Wisconsin asked Kaul last month to take legal action to force Prehn out. They fear his presence on the board prolongs conservatives' control of the DNR, leading to more decisions that favor businesses and farms rather than the environment and wildlife.

Kaul did just that, filing a complaint in Dane County Circuit Court late Tuesday afternoon. He argues in the filing that the governor can remove any gubernatorial appointee at any time regardless of whether the position requires Senate confirmation. The lawsuit seeks a court order forcing Prehn off the board or at least a declaration that Evers can remove Prehn at his pleasure.

Prehn's unlawful claim to the Board member office has usurped and intruded upon the Board member office, effectively preventing Naas from taking a position as a Board member, contrary to Governor Evers' lawful appointment, the lawsuit said.

Prehn didn't immediately return a voice message left at the answering service for his dental office early Tuesday evening. DNR spokeswoman Sarah Hoye didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

DNR Secretary Preston Cole, an Evers appointee, became irate with Prehn during the board's meeting last week, accusing him of denying Naas a vote on setting the quota for this fall's wolf hunt and accusing him of sitting in someone else's chair. Prehn told him that he was out of order.

The board set the quota at 300 wolves, 180 animals more than DNR biologists recommended to protect the population. Hunters killed 218 wolves during a February hunt, blowing past their quota of 119 animals. The state's Chippewa tribes are entitled to half of every wolf quota but refuse to hunt the animal, likely resulting in a working quota for state-licensed hunters of 150 wolves, but conservationists contend that's still too many animals.

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Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Law enforcement agencies across Nebraska have issued a warning to residents of an increased risk following a spate of drug overdoses in the state.

The Omaha and Lincoln police departments, along with the Nebraska State Patrol and federal Drug Enforcement Administration issued a joint news release Tuesday saying there have been 21 overdoses  eight resulting in death  in Lincoln and Omaha over a six-day span starting Aug. 10.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP)  A Louisiana man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a womans fatal shooting and will spend 30 years in prison.

Courtland Owens was initially charged with second-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon in the April 2017 killing of Brandi Ayers, The Advocate reported. The 30-year-old entered his plea Monday, and his prison sentence was imposed under the terms of a plea agreement.
CHICAGO (AP)  A man faces attempted murder charges after he allegedly put a car in reverse and struck two Chicago police officers during a traffic stop, dragging and injuring one of the officers with the vehicle.

Jermaine Little, 35, of Chicago was arrested Tuesday after being identified as the man who reversed a car, struck two officers and nearly struck a third during a traffic stop last Friday, police said.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (AP)  St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones on Wednesday ordered city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing.

Jones said in a statement that nearly 6,000 civil service employees will be expected to get the vaccine by Oct. 15 or they will be required to submit to weekly testing. She said there will be no exceptions.

St. Louis is joining the ranks of major public and private sector employers across the country who are requiring vaccination to protect public health, Jones said. By encouraging vaccinations, we help keep our hospitals running, protect our children, and save lives.

The mayor cited a growing number of cases, particularly among those 19 and younger, which she said comprise nearly a quarter of newly reported COVID-19 cases. She said children younger than 10 make up about 12% of all new cases, which is greater than at any point in the pandemic.

Also Wednesday, attorneys arguing over a mask mandate in St. Louis County were given another day to reach a compromise after they told a judge they were deadlocked during a previous 24 hours of negotiations.

Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo gave lawyers for St. Louis County and the Missouri attorney generals office until 11 a.m. Thursday to reach an agreement or she will make a ruling, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

St. Louis County health officials issued a mask mandate on July 26 for indoor public places and on public transportation for everyone 5 and older. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued to stop the county mandate.

To address a substitute teacher shortage, Missouri education officials on Tuesday permanently reduced requirements needed to become one. The State Board of Education approved a change that will allow people to become substitutes by completing 20 hours of state approved online training. Previously, substitutes had to complete 60 college credit hours.

The board in August 2020 had approved an emergency order allowing the changed rules in response to a persistent shortage of substitutes made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tuesday's vote makes the change permanent, The Jefferson City News-Tribune reported.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  More South Carolina colleges and universities are requiring students and educators to mask up to limit the spread of COVID-19 after the state Supreme Court ruled the schools can legally do so.

Coastal Carolina University will require face coverings in all campus buildings except for private offices and assigned living areas, the school announced Wednesday on Twitter.

Clemson University, the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina instituted similar mask rules following the high court's Tuesday ruling. South Carolina State University officials announced their mask mandate Wednesday as well.

University of South Carolina officials initially issued a mask mandate in July, but quickly rescinded it after state Attorney General Alan Wilson opined that the mandate was likely not consistent with the intent of the Legislature.

Wilson had cited a budget proviso passed by the General Assembly that states public institutions of higher learning cant use appropriated funds to require that its students have received the COVID-19 vaccination in order to be present at the institutions facilities without being required to wear a facemask.

But the measure does not prevent public universities and colleges from establishing a universal requirement for face coverings for all students and staff regardless of vaccination status, state Supreme Court justices decided unanimously.

Clemson officials said Tuesday that masks would be mandatory in statewide buildings except while eating or in private spaces" for a period of three weeks.

This three-week period coincides with the greatest risk predicted by our public health teams modeling of the disease, the university said in a statement. Masks were shown in our models to a have significant impact on curbing the spread of the virus and correspondingly enhances our ability to stay in person.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP)  A motorcyclist fleeing from northwest Indiana police died after he apparently lost control of his bike at a roundabout and crashed, police said.

A Tippecanoe County Sheriff's deputy began the pursuit about 9 p.m. Tuesday after he spotted the motorcyclist riding a wheelie and clocked him going 85 mph (136.8 kilometers per hour), police said.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Nebraska officials are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak at a state correctional facility as virus cases surge statewide.

After 33 inmates tested positive for COVID-19 at the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in Lincoln, officials paused all visits and volunteer activities there and asked county jails to delay sending new inmates if they can. All adult men who enter the state prison system go through the facility.

Officials said all inmates who test positive for the virus are being housed away from other inmates to limit the spread of COVID-19, according to the Omaha World-Herald. The state Department of Correctional Services has also started providing bars of soap, which inmates had to purchase before the pandemic, and masks to inmates who request them. Officials say they have also stepped up efforts to disinfect spaces where people live and congregate in prisons.

Department Director Scott Frakes said the increase in cases in the prison system  which lists 36 active cases  follows an increase in the community.

It is not a surprise that we have an uptick in cases now, especially at DEC which serves as the intake facility for all male inmates who are new admits or returning to us from the community," Frakes said.

The state said Wednesday that 2,676 new virus cases and 17 deaths were reported in the past week, up from 2,575 cases and no deaths the week before. The current case numbers are more than 10 times higher than the 253 cases per week the state reported in late June.

The number of people hospitalized with the virus grew by 60 over the past week to reach 277. The number of hospitalizations has grown significantly since June 30, when 28 people were hospitalized and the state lifted its last virus restrictions.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska rose over the past two weeks from 372 new cases per day on Aug. 2 to 451.29 new cases per day on Monday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which has long been concerned about overcrowding in the state prison system, said the fact that the intake facilitys average daily population of 418 over the previous year represents 209% of the facilitys operational capacity likely contributed to the virus outbreak there.

It was already a bad situation, said ACLU of Nebraska spokesperson Sam Petto. I dont see a circumstance in which you could argue that managing a pandemic is helped by the severe understaffing and overcrowding.

The state, which currently houses 5,424 inmates, has reported 1,026 virus cases and eight inmate deaths  including two last week  since the pandemic began.

Officials said the state has vaccinated 3,137 inmates and 1,284 staff members, but it doesnt have a current count of how many have been vaccinated. Some people may have received their shots in the community and nearly 1,200 inmates have been discharged since vaccinations started.

Across Nebraska, roughly 51.2% of the states residents have been fully vaccinated against the virus.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  A 13-year-old New Mexico boy accused of shooting and killing a classmate will remain in custody pending trial.

A Childrens Court judge agreed with prosecutors during a virtual hearing Tuesday and ordered the boy to remain at the Bernalillo County Youth Services Center.

The boy is charged with an open count of murder and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon on school premises. The Associated Press does not generally identify juvenile crime suspects.

The shooting happened during the lunch hour Friday at Washington Middle School in front of numerous students, who had returned for the fall semester just two days earlier. Police have said the victim  13-year-old Bennie Hargrove  was trying to protect another boy who was being bullied.

The suspects court-appointed attorney, Dennica Torres, raised issues of the boys competency during his initial appearance, saying the teen needs counseling and treatment for mental health issues.

Judge Catherine Begaye ruled that the boy poses a danger to others and noted the allegations against him.

Students returned to school Tuesday to find a bolstered police presence and crisis counselors.

Court records, police reports and witnesses detail the history of the suspect's family with Albuquerque Public Schools and the criminal history of the boy's father, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

In November 2015, an elementary school teacher said she was in a classroom with a parent and her daughter when, without warning, the suspect's mother came into the room and attacked the mother.

In 2018, a fight between parents that started with words and a fist escalated to poles, bats and gunfire in the student pickup lane outside Highland High School. The suspects father had shot and wounded another parent, but police never filed any charges after finding that both men had defense claims.

In 2013, the suspect's father was arrested on drug trafficking charges after police found a methamphetamine pipe and several bags of the drug on him. The man told police he was selling meth to get extra money for his daughters 15th birthday, according to a police report. The case was later dismissed.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Local prosecutors have reached a $2 million settlement with a New Orleans man who spent 23 years in prison before being cleared on charges including rape and manslaughter.

I welcome this measure of justice after so many years, Robert Jones, now 48 and community outreach director for Orleans Public Defenders, said in a statement released through his attorneys.

Jones will get the money over six years, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said Tuesday in a news release.

After years of intense litigation, and with trial approaching, the settlement will avert the expense of a three- to four-week trial and the risk that a jury might award Jones more money, the statement said.

Jones, who always had said he was innocent of crime wave in 1992, when he was 19, was convicted in 1996 of rape and robbery. After the conviction, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing of British tourist Julie Stott.

A state appeal court vacated the convictions in 2014 because prosecutors under former District Attorney Harry Connick, who retired in 2003, never gave defense lawyers some favorable evidence. Williams said he and Jones attorneys worked out policies to ensure that defense lawyers get such evidence.

Jones was released on parole from Louisianas maximum-security prison in 2015. Two years later, on Jones' 44th birthday, Judge Jerome Winsberg vacated his guilty plea and formally accepted the decision by prosecutors not to retry the rape and robbery charges.

Former District Attorney Leon Cannizzaros office dropped charges against Jones. At the time, a spokesman said prosecutors didnt consider him exonerated but felt it impractical to retry a case more than two decades old.

Williams said in a news release that he intends to keep working toward the day when the District Attorneys Office will not be burdened with vacated convictions and wrongful-conviction lawsuits from previous administrations.

On Monday, a man sentenced to life without parole for stealing a wallet was freed after prosecutors agreed to dismiss a habitual offender sentencing enhancement brought against him under Cannizzaro.

Williams office also recently agreed, without disclosing terms, to resolve remaining claims in a lawsuit involving practices that included using fake subpoenas to threaten uncooperative witnesses with jail time, The Times-Picayune / New Orleans Advocate reported.

In June, a judge overturned a Black mans murder conviction after prosecutors agreed with defense attorneys that it was unlikely that earlier prosecutors struck a dozen possible Black jurors by chance.

Another murder conviction was overturned in May after Williams said earlier prosecutors had failed to turn over favorable evidence.

Cannizzaro, who did not run for reelection last year, now works for state Attorney General Jeff Landry. He had no comment on Williams' decision and statement, a spokesman for Landry's office said in an email.

Connick, who retired in 2003, has long defended his 30-year tenure as district attorney against allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in various cases. Now in his 90s, he has consistently declined to comment on specific cases.
BURGAW, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina man was given a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in connection with a 2018 crash that killed two passengers in his car, according to a district attorney's office.

The Pender County District Attorneys office said David Emmanuel Claytor Jr. of Hampstead pleaded guilty to felony death by motor vehicle, WECT reported. In addition, Claytor was given two suspended sentences of 45 to 66 months and three years of probation after his release, the district attorney's office said.
REDMOND, Ore. (AP)  An off-duty Redmond Police officer was arrested Monday after allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol and crashing her vehicle on Cline Falls Road north of Bend, according to the Deschutes County Sheriffs Office.

Hannah Copeland, 44, of Powell Butte, was driving a 1977 Jeep Wrangler at 6:06 p.m. when she attempted to make a U-turn near the 65000 block of Cline Falls Road, Sgt. Jayson Janes said in a press release. As Copeland made the turn, she crashed into another vehicle, Janes said.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to delay its ruling that Volkswagen is subject to Ohio anti-tampering laws that carry the potential of hundreds of billions of dollars in damages. The court allowed the delay while Volkswagen appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

At issue is the 2015 scandal in which the automaker was found to have rigged its vehicles to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests. The company ultimately paid more than $33 billion in fines and settlements.
YARDLEY, Pa. (AP)  Authorities say a suburban Philadelphia borough police chief was shot while assisting parole officers on a visit to a condominium unit, but he was reported in good condition.

Lower Makefield Police Chief Ken Coluzzi told reporters Wednesday that Chief Joseph Kelly III of the Yardley police department was hit by a shotgun blast that injured a hand and ear shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Yardley Commons complex.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Poland has deployed hundreds of troops and is laying barbed wire along its border with Belarus to stop the arrival of migrants seeking to enter the country, officials said Wednesday.

Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said more than 900 Polish troops were involved in the border operation. It's believed that most of the migrants trying to cross over from Belarus are originally from Iraq, with some from Afghanistan and Syria as well.

Poland, like the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, accuse the authoritarian government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending migrants across their borders, which also form part of the European Unions eastern border.

A deputy interior minister in Poland, Maciej Wasik, tweeted images of rolls of barbed wire laid along the border. The Defense Ministry said that barbed wire now runs for nearly 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the 418-kilometer (260-mile) Poland-Belarus border and that enough to cover another 50 kilometers most vulnerable to illegal border crossings would be installed soon.

The Defense Ministry said Wednesday that 2,100 people tried to illegally cross the border so far this month. Of those people, border guards prevented 1,342 from entering Poland and 758 were detained and imprisoned in closed centers.

The governments priority is the safety of Polish citizens, the ministry said in a statement. The government, which is led by the right-wing Law and Justice party, has been opposed to illegal and uncontrolled migration from the outset and believes the migrants trying to get in from Belarus maybe pose a threat to our citizens.

Two lawmakers from the opposition party Civic Platform party brought blankets, sleeping bags and food to a group of some 50 people trapped in a no-mans land between Poland and Belarus on Wednesday. They called on the Polish government to ensure the group was given humane treatment.

Poland and the Baltic nations accuse Lukashenko of using the migrants as instruments in a hybrid war. They believe his government has acted in retaliation to EU sanctions imposed on Belarus following Lukashenko's reelection last year in a vote which the West saw as rigged, as well as for harsh repressions of Belarusian protesters.

European Union ministers were holding a meeting on Wednesday to address the matter. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on the eve of the meeting that this is hybrid aggression that uses human beings.

The government in Warsaw is also working on legislation that would address the migrant influx, though it could take weeks to pass any new law.

The draft legislation says that Poland would not have to consider applications for refugee status of those who enter the country illegally or arrive from a country where the government does not consider them to be in danger, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

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Follow AP's coverage of migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
OLATHE, Kan. (AP)  The sheriff and a local school board in Kansas' most populous county have set COVID-19 policies conflicting with county rules on testing and masks.

Johnson County in the Kansas City area is requiring unvaccinated employees to undergo weekly testing starting next week, but the sheriff's department is exempt. Sheriff Calvin Hayden is not requiring his nearly 600 employees to abide by the requirement.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)  Rhode Island's education council has voted to reject any district's back-to-school plans that dont include mask mandates, essentially requiring face coverings for all K-12 students this fall, despite being told by a state Education Department lawyer that it did not have the authority to do so.

After the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education made its unanimous decision during a meeting Tuesday night, Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green said she will follow the directive, WPRI-TV reported.

Theyre my bosses; yes, I have to follow the councils direction, she said. Basically, what was said tonight is we will take our chances with any lawsuits that may happen.

The decision comes as the delta variant is being blamed on another wave of coronavirus cases across the state.

Department of Education lawyer Anthony Cottone told the council before the vote that it does not have the authority to mandate masks in school districts statewide. Only the legislature by statute or the governor through executive order can do so, he said.

Democratic Gov. Dan McKee has recommended masks for schoolchildren but has resisted issuing a mask mandate, saying the issue should be left up to school districts. Many districts have already issued mask requirements.

A Department of Education spokesperson said of the school districts that have filed fall safety plans with the department, 80% have a universal masking policy.

The administration continues to believe that the best way to get all districts to mask up and enforce those policies is to work directly with them to address concerns and support them in preparing the safest environment possible for our kids, McKee spokesperson Matt Sheaff told the station after the council's vote.

State Rep. Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, called the council's decision an outrage in a tweet after the vote.

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VACCINE INCENTIVES-NONPROFITS

Another 38 nonprofits across Rhode Island have benefitted from the state's vaccine incentive program, Gov. Dan McKee said Wednesday.

The RI Gives Vax Challenge, launched early last month, awards $10,000 grants to nonprofits that have been on the front lines of the pandemic response for every 5,000 people in the state who get a first dose of a vaccine.

More than 25,000 people in the state have received at least one dose since the program started and more than 81% of adult Rhode Islanders are now at least partially vaccinated, the governor said in a statement.

Right now we know that every shot counts, especially when it comes to protecting ourselves against the delta variant and getting students safely back in the classroom, McKee said.

The 38 nonprofits to benefit from the final two rounds of grants include the Boys & Girls Club of East Providence. During the pandemic, the club distributed food to children and their families, and provided free virtual and in-person tutoring.

COVID-19 had a profound impact on the youth and families that we serve. In the early days of the crisis, our members were displaced from school, faced food insecurity due to parental job loss and struggled with the mental health issues resulting from isolation, Executive Director Erin Gilliatt said.

The $750,000 program was funded by $500,000 from the state and $250,000 from the Rhode Island Foundation.
STORRS, Conn. (AP)  The University of Connecticut is requiring that all its employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive an exemption that would require them to submit to weekly testing.

The policy, announced in a letter to faculty and staff Tuesday, is similar to one already instituted for residential students attending the fall semester at UConn.

Dr. Andrew Agwunobi, the school's interim president, said the policy applies to employees at all UConn campuses as well as UConn Health in Farmington and was created in collaboration with the unions that represent faculty and staff.

Employees must show evidence of vaccination by Oct. 15 or request and receive an exemption or deferral, he said.

The school has about 9,800 full- and part-time employees, about 5,100 at the Storrs and its regional campuses in Hartford, Stamford, Avery Point and Waterbury and about 4,700 at UConn Health.

As you are aware, at the University of Connecticut and UConn Health, our primary goal during this pandemic is to keep all employees, students, and patients safe, Aguwnobi said in his letter. This is particularly important given the rise of the Delta variant and the upcoming start of in-person classes.

Students are scheduled to begin moving into dorms at UConn on Aug. 27, with classes beginning on Aug. 30.

The school announced Wednesday that 96% of students planning to live on campus in Storrs and 92% of residential students in Stamford are at least partially vaccinated.

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MASK MANDATES

An organization representing chief elected officials from southeastern Connecticut is asking Gov. Ned Lamont to issue a statewide mandate requiring that masks be worn indoors.

The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments sent a letter Wednesday to Lamont following a teleconference called to discuss the rising number of COVID-19 infections in the state.

Leaders from 20 of the organization's 22 towns participated in the call, along with representatives from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, liaisons from the U.S. Navy's submarine base and the Coast Guard Academy and representatives from the region's three health districts.

We thoroughly discussed the positive impact on health that an indoor mask wearing mandate would have, but we also note the difficulty that individual towns would have in enforcing a mandate at the municipal level, Ledyard Mayor Fred Allyn III wrote on behalf of the group. Because the transmission of COVID-19 does not stop at municipal borders or regional boundaries, we also worry that imposition of a mask mandate on a own-by-town basis would not be as impactful as a statewide mandate.

Lamont has been opposed to a statewide mandate, saying he prefers those decisions be made by municipalities and individual businesses.

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TRANSMISSIONS RISING

Fairfield County has become the fifth county in Connecticut added to the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of high COVID-19 transmission areas.

New Haven, Hartford, New London, and Middlesex Counties also are listed as high transmission.

Tolland, Windham and Litchfield counties remain classified by the CDC as being areas of substantial transmission, the Department of Public Health said Wednesday.

The CDC recommends that residents in both categories where masks while indoors.

State health officials reported another 593 positive COVID-19 tests on Wednesday and said 348 people are now hospitalized with COVID-19 in Connecticut, an increase of 27 since Tuesday.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Connecticut has risen from 435.71 on Aug. 2 to 665.71 on Aug. 16, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is offering help in resettling refugees fleeing Afghanistan after the Taliban suddenly swept to power following the U.S. withdrawal.

Cox, a Republican, sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Tuesday saying the state is eager to help Afghans, especially those who helped U.S. troops, diplomats or journalists.
By Tony Hicks

Bay City News Service

The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday a settlement with Pittsburg-based USS-UPI, fining the steel company $4 million for a series of hazardous waste violations going back to 2017.

County health investigators found more than a dozen violations at the company's Loveridge Road facility involving the maintenance, storage and disposal of hazardous materials.

The company was cited for failure to maintain and operate the facility to minimize the possibility of fire explosions or unplanned release of hazardous waste, not having adequate safety plans in place, and not adequately training employees in safety procedures.

Some of the materials being improperly stored included oil, plating solutions, and acidic and caustic solutions.

"It is of vital importance to hold our companies responsible for the unlawful maintenance, storage and disposal of hazardous materials and waste," District Attorney Diana Becton said in a statement. "USS-UPI was cooperative throughout our investigation and this settlement was only reached after verification that USS-UPI had corrected the violations and created and implemented an environmental compliance framework."

Of the settlement, $1.75 million will be civil penalties, $1 million goes to environmental compliance, $250,000 for supplemental projects promoting training for California environmental agencies and funding to support the "Health Career Pathways Programs."

USS-UPI must also abide by an injunction and be subject to a suspended penalty of $1 million to ensure future compliance. It must also reimburse the county for investigation costs.

Copyright  2021 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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.
Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Tuesday that his office will open an independent review of the fatal 2009 shooting of Oscar Grant III by a BART police officer.

The inquiry will be focused on former BART police Officer Anthony Pirone's conduct during the shooting and comes seven months after the Alameda County District Attorney's Office declined to bring charges against Pirone, over allegations that he ultimately incited the shooting.

While former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting Grant, 22, on New Year's Day after responding to a report of a fight on a BART train, Pirone was not charged for his involvement.

A 2009 report on the case by former Oakland City Attorney Jayne Williams and then-attorney Kimberly Colwell, of the law firm Meyers Nave, found that Pirone, who knelt on Grant's back and pinned him to the ground, "started a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting of Grant."

Santa Clara County Supervisors unanimously approved a measure Tuesday to close the Reid-Hillview Airport, two weeks after the release of a study that found elevated lead levels in children from the neighborhoods near the airport in East San Jose.

The soonest the airport could close is January and will require the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration, according to a news release issued early Wednesday morning by the office of Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who represents the area.

The airport serves small, private planes -- which produce far more lead pollution than larger commercial aircraft -- and is much closer to homes than most airports. The vote comes after a decades-long effort by nearby residents to close the airport.

Santa Clara County Sheriff's Deputies arrested a Valley Transportation Authority trainee employee Tuesday after witnesses said the man threatened gun violence against the transit agency for the second time in two weeks.

The arrest comes 12 weeks after a VTA employee shot to death nine co-workers at the transit agency's Guadalupe rail yard on West Younger Avenue and then killed himself.

Frank Rene Lopez, 55, was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats to a fellow trainee after failing a quiz Monday, according to a news release issued Wednesday afternoon from the sheriff's office.

The witness told a supervisor that Lopez made the comment, "If I don't pass, I'm going to come back in here and take care of business and shoot up the place."

The driver of a vehicle died when a Caltrain struck the vehicle on the tracks in Burlingame Tuesday afternoon, Caltrain officials said.

Northbound train No. 263 hit the vehicle at about 4:35 p.m. at the Broadway grade crossing.

None of the 145 passengers on board the train have reported any injuries, according to Caltrain.

PG&E started shutting off power to portions of the Bay Area Tuesday night due to severe weather conditions that increase the risk for a catastrophic wildfire.

Five Bay Area counties were affected including Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano, and Sonoma, according to PG&E.

Power in the latter four counties was expected to be shut off starting at about 6 p.m. while power to less than two dozen customers in Alameda County was expected to go off at about 10 p.m.

In all, about 51,000 customers in portions of 18 counties in the state were expected to lose power so PG&E equipment doesn't spark a wildfire should it fail, PG&E officials said.

In the Bay Area, a little more than 10,000 customers were expected to be without power until at least Wednesday afternoon when PG&E was planning to begin restoring power.

Two Santa Clara residents died in a collision with a tractor-trailer Friday on an Oregon highway, Oregon State Police said.

Rebecca Haselmann, 50, and 18-year-old Emma Nutter died in a collision Friday morning on state Highway 95 in Malheur County.

Troopers and emergency personnel responded at 11:45 a.m. to the collision between Haselmann's Honda Odyssey and a truck pulling a loaded cargo trailer, according to police.

A preliminary investigation showed that the truck was traveling south near milepost 60 and crossed into the northbound lane before hitting the Honda, police said.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith, who has once again faced criticism over alleged jail mismanagement and abuses of power, methodically refuted allegations during a news conference Tuesday while confirming that she will not resign despite recent calls for her to do so.

The recent allegations were made in a memo by county Supervisors Joe Simitian and Otto Lee who called for an investigation of the Sheriff's Office following millions of dollars in payouts to settle litigation due to injuries to men in county custody.

In their memo, the supervisors accused Smith of mismanaging $450 million in county funds allocated to jail reform -- calling reforms sluggish and speculating that she was not transparent in her practices as well as abusing her power.

On Tuesday, supervisors unanimously voted to refer a wide range of issues to authorities including the U.S. Department of Justice, California Attorney General's Office, Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury and the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

Twenty-two workers at a restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown will receive a $1.6 million settlement after the California Labor Commissioner's Office reached an agreement with the restaurant's owners over wage theft allegations, labor commissioner officials said on Tuesday.

The settlement stems from a 2019 investigation by the Labor Commissioner's Office into potential violations at Z and Y Restaurant, located at 655 Jackson St.

The 22 workers -- which included servers and kitchen staff -- alleged that the restaurant paid servers hourly and kitchen staff a fixed salary, both of which were below minimum wage and didn't include overtime. Additionally, the workers alleged the restaurant owners illegally withheld tips left for servers and failed to pay split shift premiums for servers scheduled to work lunch and dinner shifts back-to-back.

Although the Labor Commissioner's Office issued citations of more than $1.4 million in 2020, the restaurant's owners appealed the citations. Since then, however, a settlement has been reached.

Under the settlement, workers will receive settlement payments averaging about $73,000, based on the number of hours worked during the audit period and the tips that were taken by the restaurant's owners.

The National Weather Service forecast for the San Francisco Bay Area calls for hazy, smoky skies Wednesday. High temperatures are expected in the 60s along the coast, from the 70s to 80s around the bay, and from the mid 80s to mid 90s the inland valleys. Overnight lows will be in the 50s.

Dry, gusty offshore winds will continue into Wednesday, resulting in critical fire weather conditions across the interior North Bay Mountains and portions of the East Bay Hills. Smoky and hazy conditions will also return to the Bay Area with the arrival of northerly winds through midweek. Cooler, more seasonable conditions should arrive later this week.

Copyright  2021 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

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.
Get more information on air quality in your area from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Air Now and PurpleAir.

The bad news is offshore winds pushed wildfire smoke into the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday night, and more smoke is expected Wednesday as the wind pattern continues through the afternoon.

More for you News What to do to keep wildfire smoke out of your house

The good news is the sooty air has mostly remained high in the atmosphere, and air quality across the region ranged from good to moderate Wednesday morning at 6 a.m.

"The air quality should be pretty decent, but people will notice some smoke up in the sky and haziness," said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "As far as blanketed low-lying smoke, were not anticipating that with this event."

On Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m., the PurpleAir website showed some of the worst air quality in the far East Bay.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has an air quality advisory in effect Wednesday, not the more severe spare the air alert.

"Smoke impacts are forecast to be more widespread than last week," the district said. "Air quality is expected to be in the mid- to high-moderate range and not exceed the federal health standard."

While this was the forecast Wednesday morning, it could change across the day as smoke is tricky to predict. The slightest shift in wind can push a mass of sooty air from one place to another rapidly.

Most of the smoke is aloft in the atmosphere, and sensors at the Oakland and San Francisco airports detected smoke at 8,000 feet, Gass said.

The most significant smoke impacts with this event are expected in the North Bay, where sensors at the Santa Rosa airport detected smoke closer to the surface at 5,000 feet.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

These sensors are designed to monitor cloud cover. Gass explained that because there were no clouds in these areas Wednesday morning, they are detecting smoke.

Coastal areas such as San Francisco are forecast to see less severe smoke impacts Wednesday with a marine layer offering protection and a light ocean breeze pushing the acrid air inland.

Instagram / @sanfranciscoist

Similar conditions are expected in the Bay Area on Thursday and Friday morning, with the North Bay continuing to see the worst smoke. Late Friday, the ocean breeze is forecast to strengthen and clear smoke out of the region. "Smoke should be pushed further inland over the weekend," Gass said.

Illustration: SFGATE/ Getty Images

Multiple large wildfires are burning across Northern California, and weather service forecaster Brooke Bingaman said most of the smoke flooding the Bay Area is likely coming from blazes in the state's northwest corner, including the McFarland Fire, Monument Fire and River Complex.

"Even some of the smoke from the Dixie Fire is drifting south, and its drifting into the East Bay," Bingaman said. "Its hard to pinpoint exactly where the smoke is because theres a lot of smoke."
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Service members in the U.S. Armed Forces will be required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus by mid-September under a plan recently announced by the Pentagon.

"To defend this nation, we need a healthy and ready force," said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in an Aug. 9 memo. "I strongly encourage all [Department of Defense] military and civilian personnelas well as contractor personnelto get vaccinated now and for military service members to not wait for the mandate."

We've rounded up articles and resources from SHRM Online and other trusted media outlets on the news.



Allowing Time for FDA Full Approval

Austin's plan allows time for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fully approve a COVID-19 vaccine. All of the FDA authorized vaccines are currently approved under emergency use authorization, but Pfizer's vaccine may be fully licensed by early September. The Pentagon will need a waiver from President Joe Biden to mandate vaccines prior to their full approval.

Austin said he has worked closely with military leaders, medical professionals and the White House COVID-19 Task Force. "I want you to know that I will seek the president's approval to make the vaccines mandatory no later than mid-September or immediately upon the [FDA] licensure, whichever comes first."

(Associated Press)

Biden Supports Plan

Biden said he strongly supports Austin's plan. "Secretary Austin and I share an unshakable commitment to making sure our troops have every tool they need to do their jobs as safely as possible," Biden said in a statement. "I am proud that our military women and men will continue to help lead the charge in the fight against this pandemic, as they so often do, by setting the example of keeping their fellow Americans safe."

(The White House)

Mandate Applies to National Guard

The Pentagon's plan will apply to reservists in the National Guard, with some exceptions. "All National Guard service members, other than those in state active duty, will be subject to any mandatory vaccination directive to the same extent as active component personnel," said National Guard Bureau spokesman Wayne Hall.

(Military.com)

Military Is Monitoring Infection Rates

Nearly 1.4 million service members are on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, which includes the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard. Just over a million are fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Defense. Austin said military leaders will be monitoring infection rates, which are surging due to the COVID-19 delta variant. "I will not hesitate to act sooner or recommend a different course to the president if I feel the need to do so," he said.

(CNBC)

Consequences for Refusing to Comply

Military officials said they don't have information regarding the number of service members who have refused to get other required vaccines, such as anthrax, chicken pox and flu shots, but refusing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccination mandate may be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Army guidance notes that if a soldier "fails to comply with a lawful order to receive a mandatory vaccine, and does not have an approved exemption, a commander may take appropriate disciplinary action."

(U.S. News & World Report)

Government, Large Companies Roll Out Stricter Vaccination Policies

In response to the spike in cases, the federal government and some state and local governments are requiring certain public employees, as well as those who work in health care and other high-risk settings, to show vaccination proof or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing, wear masks, and keep physically distant from other workers and visitors. Many large companies recently announced similar policies or said they plan to require employees to get inoculated.

(SHRM Online)

Employers React to Workers Who Refuse Vaccination

As mandatory COVID-19 vaccines become more widespread, many employers are asking what they can do if workers refuse. Some employers are firing workers who won't take the vaccine, and others are requiring unvaccinated employees to submit to weekly testing and take other safety precautions.

(SHRM Online)


Actor Rohit Saraf has begun shooting for Season 2 of 'Mismatched'.

The actor shared pictures with his co-stars from the sets on the first day of shoot on his Instagram page with the caption: "Ready for the feels, the drama, the romance. All over again. Season 2, Day 1 Mismatched."

Rohit also shared behind the scenes pictures with his co-actor Prajakta Koli and others.
Prominent hospitals in Gurugram have claimed that a huge dip in admission of foreign nationals have been witnessed due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, while the latest political tussle in Afghanistan will also have a huge impact on medical tourism in Gurugram.

Gurugram, Aug 18 (IANS) The ongoing political unrest in Afghanistan and the Covid-19 pandemic have had a huge economical impact on Gurugram's medical tourism.

Hospital managements are claiming that due to the current unrest in Afghanistan, they are not getting any new Afgan patient and even the few who were admitted to their facilities were discharged a week ago.

"Before the pandemic, around 40 to 50 patients from Afghanistan used to get admitted to our hospital with diverse health issues. However, during the current pandemic, this number has significantly come down to about 10-15. But ever since the political turmoil began in Afghanistan, we have not received any new patient from the country," Amit Bhura, Facility Director, Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, Gurugram, told IANS.

Sources in the hospitals said that in India, foreign nationals get quality medical facilities at a cheaper rate as compared to the US and other developed nations, for which several patients, including from Afghanistan, visit the country regularly.

"Currently, we don't have any patient from Afghanistan. We do get many patients from Afghanistan but owing to Covid, the numbers dipped from 33 per cent last year to 16 per cent till the beginning of August," Sameer Kulkarni, Regional Director, Paras Hospitals, Gurugram, told IANS.

Medical tourists from Bangladesh, Iraq, Afghanistan, Maldives and African nations visit Gurugram's hospitals for better healthcare facilities.

For the Afghans, India is a cheap healthcare destination where hospitals offer quality treatment at reasonable rates.

The present Covid-19 pandemic has already impacted medical tourists' footfalls and now the political instability in the war-torn Afghanistan is hurting medical tourism further.

"Over the last decade, Indian hospitals have witnessed a significant inflow of patients from Afghanistan and adjoining countries, who sought medical treatment and care available in India. Fortis has treated Afghan patients for different ailments, and some have even undergone organ transplants. But since the past year, medical tourism in India has come to a complete halt due to the pandemic and restrictions on commercial flight movements," said Anil Vinayak, Group COO, Fortis Healthcare Ltd.

"However, from June 2021 onwards, we were seeing initial signs of recovery and patients from middle eastern countries and Afghanistan had gradually started to come to our hospitals," he said.

"There is already a dip in the footfall of patients arriving from overseas. At present, the hospital doesn't have any patient from Afghanistan. Also, it is early to say that the ongoing political unrest would affect the footfall of patients coming from Afghanistan," said the spokesperson of a city-based private hospital.

"Once the situation stabilises, we are hopeful that patients will be able to travel for medical assistance to India," he added.

Apart from this, Afgan nationals who were staying in Gurugram as PG and in guest houses located in Sector 38 or its adjoining areas have also left for Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, which houses a significant Afghan population.

"Afghan nationals who used to live in Gurugram to look after the patients have left for Lajpat Nagar in the national capital as several Afgan nationals live there. They were in tension and were worried about their relatives in Afghanistan," a PG operator told IANS, requesting anonymity.

--IANS

str/arm
In the new pecking order, the tiny Emirate of Qatar, which has in the last decade punched far beyond its weight has stolen the limelight as the Taliban rivuleted into Kabul and the Americans hastily rushed to Kabul airport to mark an unceremonious exit. The images of a superpower in retreat that followed marked a pivotal moment in the world's perception, including of its allies of Washington's fragility as the impregnable fortress of international security.

Countries which have been a tiny blip on the map have emerged as prime influencers in the new Great game that is being played in the heart of Eurasia.

Qatar was seriously in the Afghan game for long, and visibly so, after it hosted the Taliban international office in Doha in 2013. The Qatari capital then on became the hub of a simmering Afghan transition that culminated on Sunday in Kabul. Due to the extensive networks of influence that it has assiduously accumulated over the years, buttressed by its enormous wealth, gas-rich Qatar has emerged as the power-broker-in-chief in Kabul. Its self-confidence is visible in Qatar's statement when its foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman: "There is international concern about the fast pace of developments and Qatar is doing its utmost to bring a peaceful transition, especially after the vacuum that happened."

Afghanistan's next door neighbour Iran has quickly adapted to the changed geopolitical circumstance, and is ready to play a major role under the new geopolitical circumstance. Already, the Iranians known for their long tradition of seasoned statecraft have waved the olive branch at the Taliban-a group they hated but kept engaged even during the group's years in the wilderness.

Iran has offered its services as diplomatic peacemaker to usher a smooth transition in Kabul marshalled by the Taliban. "The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its efforts to (help realize) reconciliation in Afghanistan," Iran's top diplomat Javad Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

Behind their velvety demeanour, the Iranians have sufficient reserves of firepower just in case the wily Taliban do not play ball. The Fatimyoun brigade comprising battle-hardened Afghan refugees, trained on the lines of the Lebanese Hezbollah, which has tasted combat in the Badlands of SyRaq (Syria and Iraq)is at the command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and can be unleashed if required. The Afghan warlord Ismail Khan, the "lion of Herat" was pictured in Mashhad, Iran's spiritual oasis, after the Taliban overran the Afghan border city last weekend. Though aging, Khan is now Iran's strategic asset who might come in handy, should the internal situation in Kabul take yet another tumultuous turn in the cloak- and- dagger politics of turbulent Afghanistan.

Turkey is also in overdrive to dig-in inside Kabul and "Sultan" Erdogan, infused with Ottoman pride is looking for help from Pakistan. Islamabad is too deeply invested in the Taliban, but yet could expect a blowback should the Taliban mutate into a Pashtun nationalist force, with eyes on Pashtun territory beyond the Durand line.

India, China and Russia have no choice but to remain riveted to Afghanistan for reasons of security, geo-economics and more. India will not accept a Pakistan dominated Afghanistan, which can jeopardise not only New Delhi's security but pose an existential threat to the Union in its present form. China needs to stay in Afghanistan to extend and safeguard an extended China Pakistan Economic Corridor and prevent the use of Afghan soil to inflame a Uyghur insurgency in the Xinjiang region, the heart of Beijing's ultra-ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Russia cannot afford the spread of terrorism, radiating from Afghanistan into Central Asia, its backyard. For that matter, neither can it afford China intrusion into the hallowed steppes of Central Asia from the Afghan bridgehead. Welcome to post-US Eurasia, where fear, promise and chaos collide.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative
As news of the fall of Kabul flashed in the media on Sunday, 15 August, Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, formerly a professor of Law at the University of Kashmir and the Central University of Kashmir gave vent to his euphoria. "And say truth has come and falsehood has vanished away", he tweeted a Koranic verse with its English translation. "Falsehood is indeed bound to vanish", Showkat commented, without linking his expression explicitly to Kabul's capture by Taliban.

Showkat embellished his tweet with Iqbal's famous verse: "Yaqeen-e-mahkam amal-e-peham mohabat-e-fatih-e-aalam. Jihad-e-zindagani mein yeh hain mardon ki shamsheeren."

"Can't imagine the feeling of Kashmiris", commented one Shoaib. Another follower appreciated: "Aap kii baat sach nikli"-acknowledging that the retired university teacher's prophecy had come true. Almost all of Prof. Showkat's eight books have been released and appreciated by Kashmir's tallest separatist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Two days back, when the news of the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's escape to Tajikistan was circulating in the social media, Showkat cryptically tweeted a Kashmiri folk stanza, linking Kashmir to Kabul and Kandahar. "Ashraf Ghani in supersonic retreat", he observed, with praise on the Taliban co-founder Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar and a tangent on the third Ghani-senior separatist leader and former chairman of now defunct and disintegrated Hurriyat Conference, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat. Bhat, an erudite, moderate separatist, perceived to be Geelani's bete noire, has been living in oblivion since long.

But why are the separatists, militants and their supporters in Kashmir silent, even in social media, over Taliban's conquest in Kabul if they are perceptibly happy?

"Anything they perceive to be India's defeat or embarrassment and Pakistan's gain makes them obviously exultant. For many of them, it stirs their adrenaline. Had it happened in 2018 or before, there would have been nightlong firecrackers and celebrations on the streets in downtown Srinagar", reasons a senior political analyst. He recollects the jubilation triggered by release of five top militants in exchange for Rubaiya Sayeed in December 1989.

"But by the time Taliban sprouted and their friendly Jaish-e-Mohammad (previously known as Harkatul Mujahideen) forced India to release three top notch militants with the hijacking of IC-814 (in December 1999), much of the euphoria had died down in the valley. Pakistan had lost the war in Kargil and the security forces, with the help of (counterinsurgent) Ikhwanis, had almost wiped out the militancy", said the analyst, a former professor of Political Science at the University of Kashmir.

The situation created by dismissal of Mehbooba Mufti's soft-separatist government in June 2018, death of 40 CRPF personnel in a major terror strike in February 2019 and abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A, coupled with the State's split into two Union Territories in August 2019, are believed to have muted not only the valley's vociferous separatist camp but also its support structure in the mainstream politics.

Kashmir has gone through a sea change in the last over three years as the Centre has tightened its grip with detention and house-arrest of hundreds of the separatist activists who would be usually on the forefront of all the street turbulences-2008, 2009, 2010 and 2016. Killing of civilians in protest demonstrations, clashes with Police and security forces, funeral processions of the slain militants, stone pelting and pellet injuries have fallen to the lowest point of the last 31 years.

Even in the year 2020, the valley's separatist sections sounded ecstatic over the killing of the Indian soldiers in a clash with the Chinese army on the LAC in Ladakh. The sentiment looked phenomenal when former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said in an interview that the Chinese would help the Kashmiris retrieve Article 370. Around the same season, many among the separatists began seeing Mohammad Bin Qasim, the conqueror of Sindh, in Ertugrul, the protagonist of a Turkish period serial promoted by Pakistan Television. But it all fizzled out soon when a large number of the Kashmiris began participating in the Government's 'Naya Kashmir' initiative.

The UT administration's recent decisions include surveillance of the government employees' political and social media activities, dismissal of the officials involved in 'anti-national' activities and denial of government jobs, trade licences and passports on the basis of 'negative reporting' by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

"Those days are gone when a separatist leader publicly invited Taliban to so-called Jihad in Kashmir; when the Kashmir University students chanted an anthem 'Teri jaan meri jaan, Taliban Taliban'. Yes I agree there was a different situation until the last day of the PDP-BJP government. Had this Taliban takeover happened in that era, the separatists would have brought thousands on the streets", said an assistant professor of journalism at a government college.

"But it's an altogether different Taliban today. Unlike Mullah Omar's Taliban, these people are not carrying out massacres; they seem to be concerned merely on headscarves, not burqas, for women. It is too early to judge but there are sufficient indications that this Taliban wants a stable rule in Afghanistan and it is sensitive to world recognition and diplomacy. For years they have been supported by Pakistan but it is highly unlikely that these people would be misused for guerrilla warfare in Kashmir or Xinjiang. Unlike the pan-Islamist ISIS and AlQaeda, this Taliban looks restricted to the geo-political entity of Afghanistan. But days to come will make the picture clear", said the professor who has visited Afghanistan.

The situation in Afghanistan has impacted the situation in Kashmir in the past. The Russian's defeat and exit in 1989 gave a sense of victory to the Islamists in Kashmir and within a year thousands of the Kashmiris joined militancy. Thirty-two years later, it is arguably a completely different setting in Kashmir.



(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

--indianarrative
The Supreme Court passed an interim order to allow women candidates to appear for National Defence Academy (NDA) exams. Further it condemned the Indian Army for not permitting women to take part in NDA entrance exams. The apex court called the Army's policy decision" gender discrimination. Now, the NDA exam is scheduled for September 5. The court further states that the admission would be subject to the final orders of the court.

Kush Kalra had filed a petition seeking permission for women to appear for the NDA entrance exam. The petition raised the issue of violation of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 19 of the Constitution of India by denying the opportunity to eligible women candidates to join NDA.

"Eligible and willing female candidates are not allowed to take the said examination (of NDA and Naval Academy) on the sole ground of their sexand this act of discrimination is a dishonour committed by the respondents to the Constitutional values of equality (Article 14); Article 16 (equal opportunities in matters of public employment); Article 19 (freedom to practice a profession), and non-discrimination (Article 15) in the Constitution of India".

The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Chinmoy Pradip Sharma, along with Advocates Mohit Paul, Sunaina Phul and Irfan Hasieb.

During the hearing, the Centre said, Women are being granted equal opportunity in the armed forces in the avenues that have been opened up for employment of women. There is no violation of any fundamental right merely on account of the mode of entries available to men and women to join the armed forces."

Additionall, Kalras petition, SC is also considering a petition filed by Kailas Udhavrao More seeking admission of girls into the century-old Rashtriya Indian Military College at Dehradun from this academic year. This college is run solely for boys by the ministry of defence.
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Biotech giant CSL has conceded it is unlikely to partner with Pfizer or Moderna to produce their products in Australia or develop a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in the near term, despite ambitious plans for an mRNA production facility in Victoria.

CSL chief executive Paul Perreault said while it is ready to invest in mRNA technologies there was little chance of it forging partnerships with the US companies responsible for blockbuster COVID vaccines.

The CSL facility in Melbourne is manufacturing Oxford-AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccine. Credit:Getty

Pfizer has publicly stated that they are not going to be partnering with any country around the globe, and Moderna has also publicly stated that they are going to do things themselves, he said.

Although clearly I have had discussions through my channels over the course of the last 18 months, I dont think that is going to be a possibility, for us to partner with them, unless things change  but I cant force that on them.
BHP Groups go-ahead to spend $7 billion on a giant Canadian potash mine is shining a spotlight on a commodity vital to feeding the world.

Prices of the nutrient essential to producing food for growing populations soared after a crop rally helped farmers boost fertiliser purchases. Unlike oil or most metals and grains, potash trade is focused on annual contracts or in the spot market, rather than on a futures exchange - and supplies are mostly controlled by just a handful of producers.

BHPs potash will be spread on the paddocks of the world. Credit:Rhett Wyman

The fertiliser is part of mining giant BHPs shift toward commodities of the future as it exits fossil fuels, though production wont start for another six years. For now, much of the focus will be on how US sanctions on Belaruss state-owned producer affect supply.

Heres why potash is important and whats driving the market:
Melbourne: Shopping for necessary goods and services; caregiving or compassionate reasons (including visiting a partner); authorised work or permitted education; exercise, and to get a COVID-19 vaccination. NZ: For groceries, necessary healthcare, exercise in the local area, to go to work if you are working in an alert level 4 service and cannot work from home; and to get a COVID-19 test. Vaccinations were suspended for 48 hours to ensure they could still take place in a safe environment. Curfew NSW: No curfew is in place. Melbourne: A stay-at-home curfew is in place from 9pm to 5am, meaning people can only leave home in that period for authorised work; health and medical purposes; care and support of a child or someone with special needs; or in an emergency or to escape harm. People can leave home before 9pm to see their partner or nominated visitor, but once curfew begins they must spend the night.

NZ: No curfew is in place. Shopping NSW: Only one person, per household each day within your local government area or within five kilometres, unless the food, goods or services are not reasonably available locally. You can cross into another local government area if it is within five kilometres from home and not a local government area of concern. Non-essential retail is closed, hospitality is open for takeaway services only. Sydney LGAs of concern: One person, per household each day within five kilometres. If the goods or services you need are not reasonably available within five kilometres of your home, you can obtain the goods and services from the closest place in Greater Sydney where they are available. Non-essential retail is closed, hospitality is open for takeaway services only. Melbourne: Only one person, per household each day within five kilometres from home. If the nearest essential goods and services are more than five kilometres away, you may travel to the nearest provider. Non-essential retail is closed, hospitality is open for takeaway services only.

NZ: If possible, try to send one person, per household. Supermarkets, dairies, pharmacies and food banks are open. Dairies, food banks will operate with a strict one-in, one-out policy. Liquor stores are closed unless they are within a licensing trust area. Wine and beer will still be sold at supermarkets. Restaurants and cafes are closed, including for takeaway and food delivery services. Exercise NSW: Exercise and recreation is allowed within your local government area, or if crossing into another LGA, within five kilometres from home, including sitting for relaxation, or to eat, drink or read outdoors. Limited to your household, one other person you do not live with (such as a personal trainer) or your nominated singles bubble visitor. Gyms are closed. You must carry proof of address. Sydney LGAs of concern: Recreation outdoors banned. Exercise with one other person you do not live with and/or household members within five kilometres from home. You may supervise a child aged 12 or under while playing outdoors. Melbourne: Within five kilometres from home and limited to two hours outdoors per day, not allowed during curfew. You can exercise with one other person, plus dependants, as long as you both do not travel more than five kilometres from home. Outdoor playgrounds, basketball hoops, skate parks, outdoor exercise equipment, gyms and recreational facilities including tennis clubs and golf clubs are closed.

NZ: Walk, run or ride a bike (not a share-bike or hire scooter) in your local area, on your own or with your household bubble. Keep a two-metre distance and do not do activities that may require search and rescue services such as swimming, surfing, boating or tramping. No driving to another suburb. Indoor venues and sporting facilities including gyms are closed. Visitors and single bubbles NSW: People who live alone can nominate one visitor they can socialise with at home. They cannot be a nominated person for anyone else. From August 21, the nominated person for those living in LGAs of concern must be registered. If living in Sydney, the person must live in Greater Sydney and not in one of the LGAs of concern. If living in regional NSW, the person must live in the same LGA. People can visit their intimate partners. Sydney LGAs of concern: People who live alone can nominate one visitor who lives within five kilometres they can socialise with at home. The nominated person must be registered from August 21, and they cannot be a nominated person for anyone else. People can visit their intimate partners. One person can visit a household to provide care at a time. Melbourne: People who live alone can nominate one other person who they can socialise with at each others homes. Visits to intimate partners are allowed and people can attend other households for caregiving.

NZ: You must stay within their immediate household bubble but may have a shared bubble where there are shared care and custody arrangements. People who live alone can join a bubble with one other person. Face masks NSW: Mandatory in all indoor locations, except within the home. Sydney LGAs of concern: Mandatory inside and outside, except within the home. Melbourne: Mandatory inside and outside, except within the home and while completing rigorous exercise.

NZ: Mandatory for everyone aged 12 and older when visiting essential services like supermarkets and using public transport. Schools NSW: Learning is online. Students at primary and secondary schools across the state must stay home unless they need to be at school, for example, if their parent or carer is an essential worker. Melbourne: Learning is online. Students may only receive on-site school supervision if both parents are authorised workers who cant work from home. NZ: All schools are closed and students must learn from home.

Essential workers NSW: People can leave home for work if it cannot be reasonably done at home. Sydney LGAs of concern: People can leave home for work if it cannot be reasonably done at home and your workplace is in the same local government area. People may leave their LGA for work if they are listed as an authorised worker. Construction workers may leave the LGA to work in Greater Sydney if they have had two doses of a vaccine, one dose at least three weeks ago, or had one dose in the past three weeks and have been tested for COVID-19 within the preceding three days. Melbourne: Authorised workers with a permit may leave home for work if it cannot be completed at home. NZ: Only essential workers may leave home to work.
Eight weeks into Sydneys lockdown and with no end in sight, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant reiterated that parents should not send their children to childcare unless they absolutely have to. This time, however, she clarified that just working from home, that wouldnt be, in my mind, a reason to do it.

Surely, these difficult and dangerous times call on us all to do what we can to help. But what Chant is asking parents to do is, for many, simply not possible. It is not possible to maintain satisfactory job performance while simultaneously caring for infant children. Particularly if there is more than one infant child.

Deeply concerned: Dr Kerry Chant at Wednesdays briefing. Credit:James Brickwood

We are talking about children who cannot toilet, dress, feed, or entertain themselves. Children with little concept of safety or danger. There is no possibility of using a quiet 20 minutes to give a presentation, or write a complex report, or have a difficult or delicate phone conversation  every parent of an infant knows that quiet is not good. If your two-year-old is quiet for 20 minutes you dont get work done, you find a fire extinguisher.

It may be possible for some dual-income families to work from home with their small children for a little while, but the government is foreshadowing at least another couple of months of lockdown. The only solution for many families in that case will be for one parent to take leave from their paid employment to look after the children. And, given the extended period of lockdown that seems almost certain, much of that leave will need to be unpaid, meaning those families will have to lose income and some may have to lose their jobs altogether.
Ron Wessel, Mount St Thomas Please, please tell me Im wrong, but the distressing scenes of Afghanis trying to board the plane all appeared to be men trying to save themselves. Whatever happened to women and children first? After all, they are the ones who will suffer most under the brutality of the Taliban. Pam Linnett, Twin Waters (Qld) This morning I received a message from a friend in Afghanistan, a professor at a university. His university has been shut down and is being used as a Taliban headquarters. The Taliban are hunting down anyone they deem to have taught Western values. He and his students are in hiding terrified for their lives. The Talibans press conference was an exercise in propaganda. Best we know them as they are, not as they pretend to be. Michelle McDonald, Lilyfield

Breast screening pause puts women at increased risk The Australian governments Cancer Australia website estimates the number of deaths from cancer in 2020 at about 48,000. But with the exclusive focus on COVID-19, you would think nothing else was killing people: not cancer, or anything. Perhaps that is why Gladys Berejiklian can make the unconscionable decision to temporarily close breast screening services (Clinic closures playing

with womens lives, August 18.) We now have evidence that women are presenting with more advanced cancers. This type of consequence was predicted last year when service closures happened and when the government simply made people too scared to go for checkups. One imagines that anyone who has had any experience of cancer  their own or a loved ones  would rather take their chances with COVID-19 than with cancer. Berejiklian must reverse this genuinely deadly decision. Peter Thompson, Grenfell Again it is obvious  breast cancer is mainly a woman problem, not men. So, it doesnt matter if the clinics testing for breast cancer are shut. After all, it is only women being disadvantaged. Marjie Williamson, Blaxland

Women having a breast screen should be no more at risk from COVID-19 than someone visiting their physio. Peter Miniutti, Ashbury Its disturbing to families in lockdown to find that all of a sudden, NSW Health can run more than five health hotels for 1000 people to safely isolate, but they have been saying for months that NSW cannot increase its hotel quarantine cap for 40,000 Aussies wanting to return home. Clearly, it was only Health Minister Brad Hazzards politicking that had set the quarantine cap. Now his incompetence is illustrated not only by this quarantine lie but by his closing of breast screening while washing his hands. He says, it is not up to ministers  to tell health staff how to manage competing risks. I thought that the minister, who holds the levers on resources for scanning units, would absolutely manage such extreme situations. Hazzard has lost any right to draw a ministers pay while he just dodges and weaves, and NSW suffers. Barry Laing, Castle Cove The Australian governments Cancer Australia website estimates the number of deaths from cancer in 2020 at about 48,000. But with the exclusive focus on COVID-19, you would think nothing else was killing people: not cancer, or anything. Perhaps that is why Gladys Berejiklian can make the unconscionable decision to temporarily close breast screening services (Clinic closures playing

with womens lives, August 18.) We now have evidence that women are presenting with more advanced cancers. This type of consequence was predicted last year when service closures happened and when the government simply made people too scared to go for checkups. One imagines that anyone who has had any experience of cancer  their own or a loved ones  would rather take their chances with COVID-19 than with cancer. Berejiklian must reverse this genuinely deadly decision.

Peter Thompson, Grenfell Again it is obvious  breast cancer is mainly a woman problem, not men. So, it doesnt matter if the clinics testing for breast cancer are shut. After all, it is only women being disadvantaged. Marjie Williamson, Blaxland Women having a breast screen should be no more at risk from COVID-19 than someone visiting their physio. Peter Miniutti, Ashbury

Its disturbing to families in lockdown to find that all of a sudden, NSW Health can run more than five health hotels for 1000 people to safely isolate, but they have been saying for months that NSW cannot increase its hotel quarantine cap for 40,000 Aussies wanting to return home. Clearly, it was only Health Minister Brad Hazzards politicking that had set the quarantine cap. Now his incompetence is illustrated not only by this quarantine lie but by his closing of breast screening while washing his hands. He says, it is not up to ministers  to tell health staff how to manage competing risks. I thought that the minister, who holds the levers on resources for scanning units, would absolutely manage such extreme situations. Hazzard has lost any right to draw a ministers pay while he just dodges and weaves, and NSW suffers. Barry Laing, Castle Cove I rang to book in for my breast screening today and was told due to COVID all screenings cancelled for the time being. I can visit my doctor to have an ultrasound with no problem wearing a mask. Breast screening is an important health service for women and it should not be stopped. If we show we have had COVID jab and staff also have had it, screening should be allowed. I hate to think how many women this may affect. Pam Callaghan, Avalon Teachers fight the war every day

Good luck with recruiting new teachers using the military mode (Schools want defence force

style recruitment campaign, August 18). Many teachers already see their beloved profession akin to a military obstacle course. After scaling the wall of marking, which often consumes weekends and holidays, they fall into the slough of despond before crawling on their bellies through the term, jumping through the required hoops of professional development, data collection, parent teacher evenings and myriad other incidental tasks before arriving at years end, wondering if the war of attrition is really worth it. Diane Dennis, Epping The education system is broken and needs massive reform. A teacher recruitment drive will make no difference to the underlying problems, most of which are institutional and systemic. Schools have become petty fiefdoms in which a petty oligarchy conspires to make every teachers life as miserable as possible. Critique from within the ranks is viewed as insubordination. For every identified problem within the system, whether it is excessive levels of management or miserable student behaviour, the departments solution is always to provide more training to enable the teacher to put up with the stressor rather than removing the source of the bloody stress! The departments focus needs to be on providing a physically and psychologically safe workplace, which will require real and substantial regulation. Sadly, many teachers have become co-dependents with the department, obsessed with managerial and bureaucratic imperatives, and have lost sight of the core purpose of education. Tim Hartnett, Annandale Sydney has been in lockdown since June 26, half of Victorias 112-day record. I know the rivalry between the premiers has been on display during this pandemic, but Gladys, I dont wish to be part of any record-breaking attempt. We need to know how Victoria survived, as the end to our lockdown is not in sight.

Brian McDonald, Willoughby Eyes on the target The Nationals and Liberals can do a deal on how much taxpayer money goes to farmers to let the PM say something about Australias 2050 target in Glasgow, but Ill vote for a party that has a 50 per cent reduction target by 2030. What happens in the next 10 years is critical for the planet. Australia needs to encourage other nations to help in this crisis, and even if we fall a bit short we will still have made a positive difference. Brewis Atkinson, Tyabb (Vic) Loss of liberty

Chris Uhlmann has once again pointedly highlighted the disturbing loss of liberty within Australia (Morrisons lost control of our future, August 18). Once everyone living in Australia has had a fair and reasonable opportunity to be vaccinated, we must open up the country. This would be better than relying on predetermined vaccination targets, especially when there are no alternative plans if the optimistic targets are not achieved. Matthew Boylan, Leichhardt Chris Uhlmann is right; we cannot continue on this yo-yoing, economy-wrecking, life-violating course. Getting as many vaccinated as fast as possible is crucial because we are going to have to learn to live with COVID  a phrase seen by some as almost criminal. It ought not, though, have to mean abandoning the old, the Indigenous and the health-compromised. Masks, hand sanitising and maintaining social distance all work to contain the pandemic. When state lockdown was declared there was not one known case of COVID in Bathurst. Today, however, the eerie absence of people and echoingly empty streets when doing essential shopping brings to mind Neville Shutes apocalyptic On The Beach. That the Prime Minister is a virtual prisoner in his own country and that we have descended into internecine verbal warfare is beyond ludicrous. Ron Sinclair, Bathurst Chris Uhlmanns claims that Sweden is a COVID success story need more scrutiny. Sweden has a population of about 10.5 million, with communities of 10,000 to 100,000 residents. Stockholm has a population of less than 2.5 million. It comprises mainly four homogenous ethnic groups. It is unlike Australia and not densely packed like India or Indonesia, which are still suffering enormous losses in the pandemic. The population of south-west Sydney alone is over 1 million and more than half of homes there use English as their second language.

Sweden introduced lockdown laws in January (which it previously didnt have) and is still imposing lockdown restrictions as its hospitals are severely stressed. Nearly 14,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Sweden. Scott Morrison lost control of (his) and our futures because he was, at a fundamental level, incapable of grasping the significance of what was happening. Perhaps in that way we were similar to Sweden. In Australia the death toll is less than 1000. I am very glad to wake up in Australia each morning, even in NSW. Dorin Suciu, Eleebana Fire warning Given the terrible fire situation throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere at the moment, one wonders what plans are being made for this coming summer in Australia? Paul Parramore, Sawtell

Keep your distance On my morning walk a couple came towards me on the path. I pulled up my mask and ducked off the path into the shrubbery as they strode two abreast, taking up the path. As they passed me I said, you really should keep your distance. The woman shouted back at me Were married! As a friend said, I should have retorted but not to me! Sue Martin, Clareville Growing gap The PM announced in December last year that our Indigenous people would be a high priority for vaccine cover. Now we learn the appalling truth that their rate of vaccination is as low as 4 per cent. Another failure by this government in the race to close the gap between Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians.

Michael Blissenden, Dural Help at hand Your correspondent cant pretend to be happy (Letters, August 18). But, please, avail yourself of the online and phone support available from Beyond Blue, Lifeline and others to help you deal with lockdown and learn to make the most of what you have. Sally James, Russell Lea Trimming hair costs

For your correspondent (Letters, August 18), I suggest online purchase of hair-cutting scissors and comb. Last week I ordered some and, in small secure envelopes, each in its own, deliveries into my letterbox of these items this week now means that my husband is now short back and sides to his satisfaction. Well worthwhile, minimal expenditure! Less than a haircut cost. Surprise. Alison Stewart, Waitara You get a close family member to do the cutting. My daughter cut mine (we care for her children when shes at work), and if I keep my cap on throughout the day, no one will notice. Rodney Crute, Hunters Hill In a nutshell

Tim Schroder (Letters, August 18) suggests paying politicians more would attract smarter people to be politicians. Perhaps he should bear in mind the old saying pay peanuts and you get monkeys, pay more peanuts and you get fat monkeys. John Chappell, Port Macquarie Lesson unlearned I was so relieved to read that another consultancy report, this time into how best to market the recruitment of teachers into schools, has been commissioned. Just imagine how much worse our schools would be if the education department consulted teachers, parents and students instead of PWC? John Bailey, Canterbury
Police have urged people considering attending anti-lockdown protests in Sydney this weekend to express their views online or to media outlets instead of posing a risk to public health.

More than 1000 police officers would be on hand to enforce public health orders if people gathered in central Sydney, NSW Police Minister David Elliott said on Wednesday afternoon.

NSW Police Minister David Elliott says police enforcing public health orders are a necessary infringement of our liberties. Credit:Wolter Peeters

Police will be deployed to disrupt peoples travel to potential protest locations and to fine, arrest and charge those who gather.

In these public health orders is not a restriction of speech  its a restriction of movement, Mr Elliott said.
About 14 per cent of NSWs public intensive care beds are occupied by patients with COVID-19 as private hospitals are told to reduce elective surgery intakes to free up staff and resources.

NSW Health Deputy Secretary Paul Minns on Wednesday wrote to private hospitals asking 40 critical operators, including Royal North Shore Private, St Vincents Private and Westmead Private to stop non-urgent elective surgery and others not to increase their daily volume of elective surgery.

St Vincents Private is among 40 hospitals which has been told not to perform non-urgent elective surgery during the Sydney COVID-19 breakout. Credit:James Brickwood

Private hospital staff will help support the large-scale vaccination effort currently under way and support workforce demands in the NSW public health system, NSW Health said in a statement.

The decision affects category two, three and four elective surgeries, such as shoulder and knee replacements or cataract extractions. Urgent elective surgery and emergency surgery will continue.
The mayor of Townsville in north Queensland has been found not guilty of careless driving after she was involved in a crash in her Holden Commodore last year in which a motorbike rider died.

A magistrate dismissed a charge of driving without due care and attention against councillor Jenny Hill after a hearing in the Townsville Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The aftermath of the crash involving Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill. Credit:7 News Townsville / Facebook

The crash occurred in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale on January 30, 2020, but police only gave the 61-year-old mayor, whose full name is Jennifer Lorraine Hill, a notice to appear in court in October.

Emergency services were called to the scene about 7.45am after the collision involving Cr Hills Holden Commodore and a Suzuki motorcycle at the intersection of Nathan and Alfred streets.
Scott Morrison now cannot travel through the country he governs. The Prime Minister is a prisoner in Canberra and his political fortunes in the run up to the next election will rise and fall on the whims of premiers and chief ministers.

He could return to Sydney but that would mean being trapped in a lockdown that shows no sign of ending. With the ACT deemed a hotspot by every other jurisdiction, he cannot travel interstate without running the gauntlet of a rats nest of restrictions. These are likely to persist until Christmas, but could last well into next year.

The Prime Minister is a prisoner in his own capital. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen.

Even his movements within a territory constitutionally contrived to exist solely for the purpose of housing federal Parliament are being limited by the orders of that jurisdictions Chief Health Officer. This last indignity is the final act in Australias Theatre of the Absurd. The ACT government has no power to decide whether federal Parliament can sit but, if it has its way, will stop next weeks sitting.

But Morrison accedes to every excess because he is convinced that he cannot win a head-to-head battle with a state leader. He is probably right. So conditioned by fear are Australians to accepting the notion that COVID-19 is equivalent to the plague, the majority have learned to love Big Brother and hate dissenters.
Did you know there was once a bird with a fearsomely serrated long beak and a six-metre wingspan that cruised local skies?

Among Museums Victorias vast fossil collection is a piece of a pelagornis leg bone that was found on a beach at Beaumaris, in Melbournes south-east, in 2004.

An artists impression of a pelagornis - a giant prehistoric bird with a six-metre wing span and serrated beak. Credit:Peter Trusler/Museum Victoria

Which begs the question: what size of hot chip would be required to satisfy its appetite?

However, the specimen has been dated to about 5 million years ago, long before Earth was blessed with hot chips and before there were Melburnians to throw them.
Regional hospitality operators say they are turning away large numbers of people who appear to be Melburnians breaching health orders restricting them to the city.

Police in Bendigo will meet with hospitality industry representatives next week to discuss the problem, which has prompted fears in regional communities of coronavirus infections spreading from Melbourne.

Bendigo Tourism Board chairman Finn Vedelsby lost 20 per cent of bookings at his venue one night when he told patrons theyd need to show ID. Credit:Joe Armao

Regional Victoria was released from lockdown last week but the state government has resisted putting up a so-called ring of steel  a hard border manned by police to prevent people leaving the city  like the one deployed around Melbourne last year.

Restaurants and cafes must check the identification of all patrons to ensure they are legitimate residents of regional Victoria and not subject to lockdown restrictions.
That formula helped Labor lose two elections in a row, firstly against Malcolm Turnbull then against Scott Morrison. Morrison became the hunter, Shorten the hunted.

Albanese wont be fighting a class war, he wont be polarising voters by disparaging the top end of town  words which have not passed Labor lips since around May 19, 2019  even though his roots stretch back to the bottom end, and he wont be carrying $400 billion worth of new taxes in his saddlebags.

Put it this way. Come the campaign, he wont be Bill Shorten.

In some ways, the easy, obvious task for Anthony Albanese has been to say what he would not do if he wins the election. He wont take away peoples tax cuts. He wont touch franking credits . He wont reform negative gearing.

It saved Morrison who was then trading on his daggy dad persona with no agenda to speak of. He made Shorten and Labor unacceptable and unelectable. Albanese wants to flip that to make Morrison the hunted, and to render his government unelectable by making it look incompetent and corrupt.

Albaneses decision to ditch Shortens tax agenda, hailed as courageous by centrist Laborites who also urge him to mirror the government on climate change (Albanese promises there will be a significant distinction), has infuriated Labors true believers  although this fury can be overrated, not because they have nowhere else to go but because thats the way it has always been.

Anthony Albanese wants to render Morrisons government unelectable by making it look incompetent and corrupt. Credit:Illustration by Dionne Gain

Former ALP president and Senator Stephen Loosley, a party member for more than 50 years, says true believers have often been at odds with Labor leaders stretching back to Curtin and Chifley. They were unhappy with Gough Whitlam in office then loved him when he became a martyr. They were unhappy with Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and now revere them as role models for how to govern and win.

It would be extremely unwise if he let it go to his head, but unlike so many other opposition leaders, Albanese has kept himself and Labor in the race. The leadership disquiet has settled and even his loudest critic, Joel Fitzgibbon, who insists his objective was to change the leader, not change leaders, has calmed down.
At least 3000 Afghan refugees will be able to move to Australia in the next 10 months and the federal government is working on plans to bring in more, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison has not followed other countries in outlining a more ambitious long-term humanitarian commitment.

A dangerous rescue mission to evacuate almost 600 stranded Australians and Afghans in Kabul has begun with a Royal Australian Air Force transport aircraft flying in and out of the Afghan capital on Wednesday morning, in what the Prime Minister said was the first of what will be many flights in the coming days.

The first Australian Defence Force evacuation flight departed Kabul with 26 people on board.

Mr Morrison announced Australia would accept an initial humanitarian intake of 3000 Afghans over the next year  which would come out of Australias existing 13,750 person annual program  but said, we do believe well be able to do more than that.

Britain and Canada have both promised a humanitarian intake of 20,000 people over several years from Afghanistan, but Mr Morrison said, there are no clear plans about that for Australia to do the same number.
A rescue mission to evacuate almost 600 stranded Australians and Afghans in Kabul has begun with a Royal Australian Air Force transport aircraft flying in and out of the Afghan capital on Wednesday morning.

Flight tracking websites showed a RAAF C1-30 Hercules aircraft heading from Australias forward operating base in the United Arab Emirates towards Afghanistan just past midnight last night Australian time.

A flight tracking website shows a RAAF Hercules aircraft heading from Australias forward operating base in the United Arab Emirates towards Afghanistan.

After landing at Kabul airport, it picked up 26 individuals - including Australian citizens, Afghan nationals and one foreign official - and then arrived back at Australias military base in the UAE at 10.45am. The aircraft also dropped off officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Home Affairs and Defence in Kabul to begin processing people on the ground for future flights.

Confirming the operation had begun, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this was the first of what will be many flights.
Health authorities are working on a plan to vaccinate Australias children  potentially at school  as the Delta variant infects dozens of kids in Victoria and NSW and has even hit a three-year-old in Canberra.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the plan was well under way but Labor and the Greens say the country needs it now to prevent Australia from falling behind in the rollout as the number of children and teenagers diagnosed with the coronavirus continues to rise.

On Wednesday Victorias Health Minster Martin Foley confirmed the state had 56 cases of COVID-19 in children under the age of 9, and 55 are aged between 10 and 19. The number of infections in children under 9 continues to rise in NSW.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group is still considering widening the use of Pfizer to all 12 to 15-year-olds. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

While the ACT did not release figures for COVID-19 infections in children, cases have been confirmed in children as young as three. The median age of the 67 active cases in the nations capital is 19.5.
Some of the most populated parts of Sydney and Melbourne could fall short of key vaccination targets despite rapid rollout of inoculations, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of people in at-risk communities exposed to COVID-19.

Health experts say its crucial to know which areas are falling behind so concerted efforts can be made to increase rates, but also to know where future outbreaks could occur.

People queuing for vaccines in Brighton-Le-Sands, in Sydneys south, on Wednesday. Credit:James Brickwood

The federal government has set a target for the nation and all states and territories to fully vaccinate 70 per cent of the eligible population before Australia can move into the transition phase of the planned four-phase recovery from the pandemic. The country can move to the third consolidation phase with fewer restrictions once those vaccination rates reach 80 per cent.

The target is a jurisdiction-wide average and does not take into account possible differences within a state or territory.
Loading Confronted by a more infectious strain and less compliance than last year, Premier Daniel Andrews tightened Melbournes lockdown on Monday. In line with the national strategy, he is pushing to eliminate community transmission in order to reopen Victoria and avoid replicating what could be months of lockdown in NSW. Professor Maximilian de Courten, a public health expert with Victoria Universitys Mitchell Institute, warned it could be a futile task, particularly in light of the forecasts around NSWs cases. Its a numbers game and absolutely the more cases in NSW, the higher risk to other states like Victoria, he said. Some modelling suggests even if we get down to zero and open up, the virus will break through in four to six weeks, causing a lockdown. That may be even faster with cases so high. Its this yo-yo lockdown situation that nobody wanted. Almost 500 of Wednesdays 633 cases in NSW were in western Sydney while Kempsey, five hours north of Sydney, became the latest in a growing list of affected regional towns.

Rules around Victorias border with NSW are tighter than at any point since the start of the pandemic: Victorian residents can only return home with a rare exemption, non-essential travel within towns in the border bubble has been banned and industries such as freight must adhere to regulations such as drivers getting tested every three days. Nonetheless, since removalists from Sydney sparked Victorias fifth lockdown last month, two women were able to board a flight from Sydney last week before being intercepted at Melbourne Airport. They were moved into hotel quarantine where they later tested positive. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed on Wednesday that her countrys growing cluster was linked to Sydney, though did not go into detail. Professor de Courten said 100 per cent leak-proof borders were not possible.

If we cant always keep this virus inside quarantine hotels with trained staff, its impossible to think we can prevent it jumping over the border. Under Australias reopening targets at 70 and 80 per cent vaccination, case numbers across the country must be at or close to zero  illustrating the nationwide headache caused by NSWs ballooning cases. Amid suggestions from some federal government MPs that NSW will never reach zero community transmission, Burnet Institute infectious diseases expert Suman Majumdar said: COVID-zero wont be forever but its whats required now. Until we get very high levels of vaccination, lockdown is still going to be a key feature of our response. Why? Because lockdowns are needed to protect our health system, let alone control the virus.

That phase [of life after lockdown] isnt going to be as quick as everyone hopes it to be until NSW gets a degree of control, and thats why the pertinent thing to do right now is to return to COVID-zero. Health Minister Martin Foley addresses the media on Wednesday. Credit:Eddie Jim Western Australia could move NSW to an unprecedented extreme risk border category if the rolling average daily case numbers reach 500 for at least five days. Premier Mark McGowan said travel would be reduced to a handful of arrivals a day if that occurs, allowing only those people we cant essentially block under the constitution. That is federal bureaucrats on federal business, defence officials and Commonwealth parliamentarians, but there would be strong restrictions on how those people could move about the community, he said.

Among the cases with an unknown source in Victoria are a St Kilda sex worker who recently spent time in a boarding house. Mr Weimar said on Wednesday that two people who had tested positive in the St Kilda area are homeless. He said he believed the sex worker who tested positive, as well as one of her acquaintances, was detected because of an emergency department presentation. Health Minister Martin Foley stressed there was no evidence of transmission having occurred because of the sex workers occupation. Leaders in the sector say the states homeless hotel program is operating during lockdowns but with significantly fewer sites than in last years second lockdown.

Youth Projects chief executive Ben Vasiliou said there were concerns among sector leaders that Melbournes homeless community was at significant risk and that if more positive cases were returned on Thursday, increased support to quarantine them would be required. The Victorian government has launched an advertising campaign pushing for the public to get tested faster. This is moving very, very quickly, he said. Everyone in St Kilda and surrounding suburbs - including all Port Phillip residents, whether they have symptoms or not - have been asked to get tested, with 15 unlinked cases in the south-eastern suburbs in recent days. Almost 40,000 test results were received by Wednesday following a run of days around the 30,000 mark. The state launched a new campaign encouraging Victorians to get tested as soon as they experienced symptoms, with authorities aiming for figures above 40,000 every day.

Loading Victoria will receive 175,000 extra Pfizer vaccine doses out of the 1 million sourced from Poland starting this weekend. Mr Foley said they would probably be given to essential workers and areas particularly affected by outbreaks. Victorian Transport Association chief executive Peter Anderson, who represents the states 165,000 professional freight workers, said drivers had not yet been prioritised for vaccine access despite 15,000 truckloads crossing the Victoria-NSW border every day. We are advocating for drivers to get vaccinated as soon as possible but some are not eligible for the recommended vaccine and for many its hard to physically get in front of a doctor when you are either driving or managing fatigue full-time, Mr Anderson said. The government on Wednesday announced more support for live performances cancelled due to restrictions. Eligible event presenters will receive up to $12,000, while contracted suppliers will get up to $4000.
Parents taking their children to the park during lockdown had been an absolute essential lifesaver for many families, she said. Professor Danchin called on the government to develop a plan that kept playgrounds open and where parks were regulated so groups of adults were not congregating, symptomatic children were banned, face masks were worn and food and drinks were prohibited. Infectious disease paediatrician Robert Booy has also questioned the logic behind closing playgrounds, noting the risk of outdoor transmission was very low. If you put children under curfew, and youre spending all of your time in cramped conditions with poor ventilation, wheres the transmission going to happen? he asked. Seventy-five per cent of transmission occurs right now in peoples homes. However, Health Minister Martin Foley doubled down on the ban on Wednesday and said it was justified given the Delta variant was increasingly finding its way into unvaccinated groups  including children.

Some of those cases have been transmitted in outdoor settings  We have to work on the basis of the public health advice and the evidence, he said. Young people account for 111 of Victorias 246 active COVID-19 cases. Fifty-six are under the age of nine and 55 are between the ages of 10 and 19. Three playgrounds are currently exposure sites, and on Tuesday a skate park in Jacana, in Melbournes north, was listed as a tier-2 exposure site. In the face of a backlash from parents, the government has used the rise in infections among children to justify its restrictions. On Tuesday, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said his team was investigating a potential case of playground transmission and a more definitive incident of transmission between students who walked home together. Loading

However, the government is yet to provide further details of the cases or answer questions from The Age about where and when the suspected transmissions occurred. On Wednesday evening two playgrounds, both in Broadmeadows, were added to the states list of COVID exposure sites. Tony Bartone, a former president of the Australian Medical Association, said if the government had definitive evidence of outdoor transmission risk between children, closing playgrounds may be necessary. But he warned the mental health consequences of the pandemic would be long-lasting, and doctors were already seeing a sharp rise in young people struggling due to the cycle of lockdowns and the uncertainty of the pandemic more broadly. At his clinic, he had seen several young patients showing signs of being under stress or needing additional support.

Theyre all showing the need to be referred off to other health professionals or other specialists that I cant access for love or money because theyre completely booked out, Dr Bartone said. Credit:Matt Golding Melbourne paediatrician and child psychiatrist Alberto Veloso, is also treating a growing number of children, as young as five, who are struggling with anxiety and depression. The issues that families are dealing with now are impacting on the childrens development and their emotional development, and we may not see the full impact until some time down the track, Dr Veloso said. He said while infection protocols were important, they must be balanced with support for families who were struggling. Loading

For some parents, taking their children to the park may be their only outlet, and not being able to do this is obviously going to cause more stress for them as a family. The ban has also led to tensions between the government and Victorias powerful police union, whose boss Wayne Gatt hit out at the fact his already stretched members had been tasked with monitoring playgrounds and a curfew that no one has welcomed. However, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said it would be highly unlikely that our members would issue a fine at a playground, particularly against children, and would instead simply warn people to comply with the rules. Professor Danchin said policing playgrounds was very, very challenging. She said incentive-driven public health campaigns, encouraging people to work together to do the right thing to keep parks open for children, could drive more behavioural change amid growing pandemic fatigue than punitive punishment.

Transmission of the Delta variant of coronavirus among children is a significant concern, with hospitalisations higher than for other variants. However, there is no robust evidence it is causing a greater severity of disease, or higher rates of intensive care or deaths in children. Data from Canada released two weeks ago suggests a 2.75 times increased risk of children aged under nine being admitted to hospital with Delta compared with previous variants. Support is available from Lifeline on 131 114. Parents with children struggling to cope can call Parentline, a statewide telephone counselling and support service on 13 22 89.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the new Afghan Islamic Emirate was committed to the rights of women within the framework of sharia. The temperate rhetoric suggests the Taliban are open to compromise. But the actions of some of their members over the past six months in the provinces reveal parts of the organisation remain committed to extremist principles. In June in Takhar province, female midwives were banned from meeting with male doctors. In July, al-Jazeera reported that gunmen escorted female tellers from banks in conquered districts of Kandahar and Herat and told them they would be replaced by their male relatives. Only 20 per cent of girls in Afghanistan make it to the final years of high school. Credit:Getty Elsewhere, the prospect of reprisals means many women are staying home, unsure of the new regulations. Until the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, women were banned from attending secondary school. Under the new regime, girls schools remain open but female students at university in Kabul report being sent home. Twenty per cent of girls make it to the final years of schooling, but their attendance is threatened by religious and political upheaval.

The real litmus test for girls education will be whether girls will also be allowed to attend high school and university and, if so, under what conditions, said Martine van Bijlert, an analyst for the Afghan Analysts Network. Much depends on how the new Taliban government will interpret sharia, rules of personal conduct derived from the Koran. In particular, those involving the Arabic word qawwamun, which can be interpreted as empowering men to be maintainers or protectors of women. There are also Koran verses which can be read as restricting women from showing their faces outside their homes or travelling without a guardian. Loading Sharia is a set of principles rather than a strictly defined code. It is up to the government and courts of an Islamic country to interpret how it can be applied. Egypt, Indonesia and Iran are among more than a dozen countries that have variations of sharia across their legal system. Gailani said she had lost her faith in the promises of Afghan and foreign leaders long ago.

Im mature enough to believe talk when I see it happening, she told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald from Doha. As you say in English: walk the talk. The truth is that [the Taliban] have taken the country. They can do whatever they like. We have lost our leverage. But my hope is that they will put their steps forward. The 66-year-old said the Taliban faced a different Afghanistan from the one they last ruled two decades ago. Never in the history of Afghanistan have we had so many well-educated well-informed, capable women, she said. It has to be accepted that this is an asset for this country, not a problem that they have to deal with. Gailani said she was still optimistic that she could negotiate with the Taliban and that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is expected to be named the new Afghan president, was a considerate leader. He is extremely polite, and I never felt for one second, in his presence, that I was ever sensitive about my gender, she said. But no one can drag a country alone.

The Taliban have spent two decades in the wilderness learning, adapting and finessing their messaging. The guerrilla military outfit now communicate via WhatsApp and Twitter, operate a slick website, hold press conferences and said on Tuesday that they would continue to welcome international scrutiny. But this comes with a caveat borrowed from the Chinese Communist Partys style of media management. They can critique our work, so that we can improve, said Mujahid. [But] Islamic values should be taken into account. The media should not work against national unity. When it comes to ethnic differences, religious differences and hostilities, they should not be actually promoted by the media, they should work on the country for the unity of the nation. The same guarantees have been given to other minorities, former government employees or political activists now fearing for their lives or attempting to scramble onto the last flights out of Kabul.

In your homes, nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors, nobody is going to interrogate you, said Mujahid. Jesuit priest Jerome Sequeira said from Kabul that he and his colleagues were in hiding after attempting to leave the country on Tuesday. They have the list of all organisations and profiles too. In some places, they have started door-to-door enquiries about the personnel of the organisation, he said. While dragging my luggage in the midst of the chaotic crowd, the only thought that struck me was this: Did we, the international community, invest so much and establish so much in the last 20 years, to hand it over to the Taliban in a matter of days?

Gailani said the reality was that Afghanistans economy would collapse without foreign aid. Unfortunately, Afghanistan cannot live one day without foreign aid. We will need it until a potentially rich Afghanistan will stand on its own, she said. Which means we have to secure a few universal rights from this future government. The Taliban have pledged to wean the country off the opium trade that has brought it millions of dollars in revenue, but its war-torn infrastructure will require major foreign investment for years to come. To pull in the money, the Taliban will need to show the world that they are a genuine political force, not just a militia filled with religious zealots who found their way to the presidential palace. with Marta Pascual Juanola
Video recorded at the scene shows the Taliban firing into the air and breaking up the crowd by attacking people with batons. Babrak Amirzada, a reporter for a local news agency, said he and a TV cameraman from another agency were beaten by Taliban fighters as they tried to cover the unrest. Two witnesses and a former police official told Reuters fighters killed at least three people and injured more than a dozen. The fallout of the Afghan government collapse continued to roil the US.

In a briefing at the Pentagon, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that even the US intelligence agencies most pessimistic assessments had not predicted such a rapid collapse by the Afghan army. Milley said that some US intelligence assessments canvassed a Taliban takeover in the weeks, months or even years following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army or this government in 11 days, Milley said, an apparent reference to the time between the Talibans capture of its first provincial capital and its seizure of Kabul. Did not anticipate the speed of the Afghan government collapse: Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley, right, speaks at a press briefing with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. Credit:AP The Taliban on Thursday urged crowds of Afghans waiting outside Kabul airport in the hope of fleeing the country to go home, saying they did not want to hurt anyone.

One NGO told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that Afghans they were trying to evacuate were being blocked at checkpoints. Twelve people have been killed in and around the airport since Sunday, a NATO and a Taliban official said. The deaths were caused either by gun shots or by stampedes, the Taliban official said. The Taliban have repeatedly stressed that Afghans should stay in the country but has said foreigners and diplomats would be granted a safe departure. A senior Taliban official said the checkpoints were set up solely to prevent people from rushing the tarmac following chaotic scenes on Monday, when several people fell to their death as they tried to stow away on a US military aircraft. However, German defence officials said that the Taliban were only letting through members of the international community. Taliban fighters patrol in Kabul on Wednesday. Credit:AP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the Commons that at the moment the Taliban were allowing evacuations to go ahead. The most important thing is that we get this done in as expeditious a fashion as we can, and that is what we are doing, he said. Britain plans to evacuate 1000 people per day and accept 20,000 refugees. So far, 306 Britons and 2052 Afghans have managed to escape safely. The Pentagon said it was talking to the Taliban about guaranteeing access. On Tuesday evening, the Royal Australian Air Force published photographs of what it said were the first evacuees from Kabul. On board the C-130J Hercules were all available and willing Australian citizens and visa holders at the airport.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the first evacuation flight carried 26 people. The Taliban had promised that private media could continue to operate in Afghanistan, with the caveat that news organisations must not offend national interests and comply with Islamic law. It said women journalists would need to wait and see whether they would be permitted to continue in their jobs. The United States, European Union and 19 other countries, including Australia, issued a joint statement calling on the Taliban to guarantee the protection of women and girls. We are deeply worried about Afghan women and girls, their rights to education, work and freedom of movement, the 20 governments and the EU said.

We call on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to guarantee their protection. We will monitor closely how any future government ensures rights and freedoms that have become an integral part of the life of women and girls in Afghanistan during the last 20 years. A man holds the Afghan flag during a protest in Jalalabad on Wednesday. Credit:AP Meanwhile, a senior member of the Taliban, Anas Haqqani, was pictured in Kabul meeting former president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and a peace envoy in the former government. Karzai was president until 2014 and was succeeded by Ghani. Haqqani heads the violent Taliban offshoot Haqqani Network.

Loading A spokesman for Karzai said the initial meeting was likely to lead to negotiations with the Talibans co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Baradar, the Talibans top political leader, is tipped to be Afghanistans next ruler. He was given a heros welcome on the tarmac as he disembarked a flight from Qatar in Kandahar on Tuesday evening. It was the first time he had set foot on home soil for a decade and was believed to be travelling to Kabul on Wednesday. The Taliban has promised to run an inclusive government but one that is subject to Islamic law.
DECOLONIZATION AND THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

INTRODUCTION

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Let me begin by thanking the Virgin Islands Studies Institute at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC), along with the Alliance of Talk Show Hosts, for the very kind invitation to participate in the Frederick Pickering Memorial lecture series.

I am very pleased to tag team today with international expert on governance and decolonization, Dr. Carlyle Corbin, who is a longtime friend and colleague. His presentation was thorough as usual.

Our lecture on decolonization picks up where part one of this series left off, which featured our very own internationally respected constitutional expert, Justice Gerard Ferrara QC, who made an excellent presentation on the recent constitutional history of the Territory.

Let me say at the outset that I am presenting in my personal capacity as a Virgin Islander who cares very deeply about the future of these Virgin Islands. My remarks today represent my own views and are not the official position of the Government. I also will not address the ongoing Commission of Inquiry as I believe it would be inappropriate for me to do so.

Ladies and gentleman, over the past seven months we have heard quite a bit about the next steps in the constitutional advancement of the Virgin Islands. Many good ideas have been shared about what additional provisions can be made to the existing constitution; what tweaks can be made to the Westminster model of Government to reduce friction in the political system; and how we can find a better constitutional balance between the Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom (UK). We have also heard the very serious concerns about Global Britain and what this very loose concept means for the Virgin Islands and other Overseas Territories (OTs).

All of these things are important and require our attention. However, I do not want us to get distracted from the one critical issue that must ultimately be addressed.

REFERENDUM ON POLITICAL STATUS

The single most important decision for the people of these Virgin Islands, is what year, at the very latest, a referendum on the future political status of the Territory will be held.

Let me repeat that. The single most important decision for the people of these Virgin Islands, is what year, at the very latest, a referendum will be held to decide the future political status of the Territory.

As Dr. Corbin has already mentioned, the full decolonization of the Virgin Islands requires us to go beyond our current political status as a Territory. We cannot remain an OT indefinitely. Our current status is a grey area in the international system in which we are not an integral part of UK, but still constitutionally linked to the UK. This leaves us in an awkward position of having a high degree of self-government, but a limited international legal personality in which to engage the outside world.

And let us not delude ourselves. There are colonial underpinnings to our constitutional relationship with the UK. The public registers issue is just one example of that. This is not to say that we have not made progress on decolonization, but that the process is incomplete. We should not continue to legitimize the status quo.

If we as a people are serious about the full decolonization of the Virgin Islands, we must debate and agree the latest year by which we will collectively make a decision on our political future.

I am not saying that we should have a referendum exclusively on independence, because that is not the only option sanctioned by the UN. There are also integration and free association options, which have been mentioned many times in recent months. The Virgin Islands Youth Parliament did a masterful job in debating the question of self-determination in which these options were considered.

However, ladies and gentleman, the immediate priority is not which option we choose. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. Rather, the question is: When will we choose?

This is where I believe we need to place much more emphasis at this stage in our growth and development as a Territory.

If we do not set a timeframe for a referendum, then there is no deadline to work toward. Without a deadline, there is no impetus to prepare for a referendum or to make the necessary adjustments for the potential outcome.

We cannot afford to avoid this issue any longer. The uncertainty is hindering our ability to prepare for our longer-term future.

GLOBAL BRITAIN

It is very apparent now, that if we do not make it clear that we intend to make a decision about our political status, the Virgin Islands will continue to be subject to whatever vision and plans the UK has for us.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons has already presented their own vision of Global Britain and the Overseas Territories, which in many ways disregards our uniqueness as a people and calls for measures that would undermine our economy.

CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW

We as a people must not allow ourselves to get stuck in a never-ending debate about our political future. Now is the time to cement the timing for this critical decision that must eventually be made.

The forthcoming Constitutional Review is our opportunity. By embedding the latest year for a referendum in our constitution, we escape the trap of putting off the decision for another time. A constitutionally based timeframe would bind our Government and the UK to preparing for such a referendum.

And the UK should agree, by the way. The British people were given a referendum vote on Brexit. The people of Scotland were given a vote on independence. A referendum is nothing out of the ordinary.

UN DECOLONISATION PROCESS

Let me just make one additional clarification here. A decision on our political future is not simply about whether we like the UK or not. The full decolonisation of the Virgin Islands is about completing the process that was previously sanctioned by the UN, including the UK as one of the most important members of the institution.

According to the UN, the Virgin Islands has not been fully decolonized. This is not simply my view or Dr. Corbins view. This is the UNs view. This is based on the UNs litmus test of self-government in these islands. And we are not alone.

There are 17 Overseas Territories under the remit of the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation (Committee of 24/C-24) that are in a similar position. Thus, the UN has called for the eradication of colonialism by the end of this decade.

Ladies and gentleman, the world has already agreed that colonialism in all forms must be a thing of the past. We must now determine when we will bring to an end the last vestiges of colonialism in the Virgin Islands.

Let us not forget that our forebearers initiated the decolonisation process. The Great March of 1949 was a turning point when the people of the Virgin Islands came together collectively for the first time to stand up for their dignity as human beings and to demand the right to have a say in their political and economic future.

It is important that we do not become complacent with the status quo and continue to forge ahead on the path of self-determination.

REFERENDUM DATE

Ladies and gentleman, in selecting the latest year by which to hold a referendum, we should consider a few things:

First, the UN has called for the complete eradication of colonialism by 2030. This decade is the window of time that has international legitimacy. The vast majority of countries in the world voted for the this at the UN General Assembly in 2020. The international community stands with us on choosing our political future.

Second, there are local public consultations under way on the preparation of a National Sustainable Development Plan (NSDP) with the support of UN ECLAC. The overarching goal of the plan is to strengthen the economic, social, political and environmental viability of our society over the course of this decade. The measure of success will be the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. If we are successful in this endeavor, we will be well positioned to continue our sustainable development, regardless of what future political status the people of the Virgin Islands choose.

The final consideration is one of a moral nature. I personally believe that we have a moral obligation to agree a timeframe for a referendum that would at least give the baby boomer generation an opportunity to participate. I am talking about the people born as early as 1945. Essentially my mother and fathers generation and those who came of age in the period after the Second World War. They have seen a lot of change in these Virgin Islands and I believe they deserve a vote on our political future.

Based on these factors, ladies and gentleman, I believe that we must call for a referendum on the political status of the Territory to be held no later than 2030.

Such a provision should be embedded in our constitution to make it extremely difficult for anyone to reverse or derail it. It is the one thing at this stage that will make a substantive difference in our political advancement.

In addition, we should of course negotiate for as much autonomy as we can get in the upcoming Constitutional Review, supported by strong provisions to police ourselves. We should be under no illusions that the extent of any real change depends on how far the UK is willing to go.

CONCLUSION



Ladies and gentleman, these are very uncertain times and achieving the constitutional and political advancements we desire, will not be easy. The process requires political maturity, social cohesion and unity of purpose. It also requires a great deal of education and awareness by the public. Let us work together in this regard as we go forward.

As I close, I would like to take this opportunity as the final speaker in this lecture series, and this round of constitutional dialogues, to commend and thank the organizers for all their hard work in organizing these events:

 Mrs. Bernadine Louis and your team at HLSCC;

 Mrs. Shaina Smith-Archer, host of the Vigilate Dialogues;

 Mrs. Angelle Cameron, Co-Host of My BVI;

 Mr. Claude Skelton-Cline, Host of Honestly Speaking; and

 Mr. Edu Enka, Host of Umoja.

Thank you. You have done a great service to the community.

I do hope another series of lectures will be organized in due course. The previous presenters also deserve much credit for their contributions to the dialogue.



I thank you for your attention.

REMARKS BY BENITO WHEATLEY
PHILIPSBURG:---Former USP Minister of VSA Pamela Gordon Carty presented a copy of her book, 2021 Financial Economic Social & Spatial Recovery Plan Part 1 to the Leader of the United St. Maarten Party (USP) at a ceremony held at her office in St. Peters on Saturday, August 14th, 2021.

In attendance were USP Faction Leader MP Buncamper, President of the party Agnes Brooks Mardenborough, Union Leaders Claire Elshot and Raymond Jessurun, Veteran Politician and Political Advisor to many Julian Rollocks, outspoken Political Commentator Edwin James, and other invited guests.

The former Minister was the driving force behind the Pamela Policy passed in the National Gazette on February 5th, 2020. This resulted in her being summoned to Parliament at the time to justify her decision to write a policy that put St. Maarten people in a more favorable position in the labor market. Though the sitting parliament at that time seemed confused, some even against the policy, Mrs. Gordon Carty put country above self, stood her ground, and was applauded by the people of St. Maarten for recognizing their plight. Their sentiments at the time were that finally someone heard and reacted positively to their concern, the USP stated.

In March 2021, The National Employment Service Center (NESC) announced its intention to implement modified work procedures in collaboration with Section Employment Permits, based on the Pamela Policy with the goal of leveling the playing field and creating a more balanced and transparent system than had been in existence in the past. The Pamela policy formalized prerequisites and a series of checks and balances to safeguard against the labor permits abuse of the past. Employers must now legally comply with their obligations to fill vacancies with qualified St. Maarten candidates before exploring candidates originating from outside of St. Maarten.

The St. Maarten people must be given a fair and equal opportunity in their own country and elected officials have a sworn duty to act and not only pay lip service to the issues being faced by St. Maarten and her people, stated Mrs. Gordon Carty.

My motivation to write this series of books stems from the fact that I know we are a truly resilient people, capable of holding our own in any forum and under any circumstances; our history speaks for itself. As leaders, we need to acknowledge that strength and use it as motivation to represent our people to the best of our abilities. Challenging times call for innovative thinking, constructive criticism and collaborations.

She continued: That is the only formula that will see us through this pandemic. Government doesnt necessarily need money and we should never allow our backs to be pushed up against a wall. We should be turning to our population to assist in steering government towards the solutions that fit their mold as opposed to the other way around; there should be a bottom-up approach. In part 1 of my book, I begin to explore some of the possible solutions to some of the challenges we are being faced with today. I invite the general public to take the journey with me into the endless possibilities that exist so that as a people we come out of this pandemic standing on our feet and not on our knees.

She said an Invitation was extended to Governor Eugene Holiday and Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs to present them with a copy of her book at their earliest convenience so that the viable and cost-effective solutions explored in part 1 of the book can be explored for possible execution. She noted that she was pleasantly received by Prime Minister of Curacao Gilmar Pisas and the Minister of Health of Curacao I am looking forward to the opportunity to do the same in St. Maarten,  voiced Mrs. Gordon Carty.

I will be making a number of appearances on local radio talk shows to promote and cover different aspects of the book; namely SOS Radio Station with Fernando Clarke on Monday, August 16th, 2021. My 88.3 The Review on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021, and others soon to follow. My intention is to also present a copy of 2021 Financial Economic Social & Spatial Plan Part 1 to Governor Eugene Holiday and Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs at their earliest convenience so that the viable and cost-effective solutions explored in part 1 of my book can be explored for possible execution, voiced Mrs. Gorden Carty.

Mrs. Pamela Gordon Carty MBA, MSC has again taken the initiative, put pen to paper, and produced Part 1 of a 4 part series of books aimed at providing solutions to the governments of St. Maarten, Curacao, and Aruba during these trying financial times.

It is my duty as a leader to put country above self by continuing to contribute to a better St. Maarten whether through holding public office or inspiring those that hold the position. It is for this reason, I have chosen to present a copy of my book to Mr. Frans Richardson and United St. Maarten Party as a thank you to him and the USP family for introducing me to the political arena which inspired me to see the positive sides of politics, executing policies and ultimately working on behalf of the people of St. Maarten, Mrs. Gordon Carty concluded.

A copy of her book  2021 Financial Economic Social & Spatial RECOVERY PLAN Part 1 is currently available at her office in St. Peters or you can contact Tel: (721) 526-4737/ 524-6988. Mrs. Pamela Gordon Carty will also be hosting a Self  Sustainment Workshop on September 3rd and 4th at the Belair Community Center, also available on Zoom.. Experts from Curacao and St. Maarten will be a part of this workshop. Entrance fee is $20 and space is limited. More information pertaining to this workshop will be provided in subsequent correspondence. For registration and inquiries you can contact Tel. 721-526-4737 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- Prime Minister Hon. Silveria Jacobs said on Sunday that she was saddened when she heard about what had taken place on Saturday, August 14 in the Republic of Haiti, and the Sint Maarten Haitian community members are in her thoughts and prayers.



Jacobs calls on the Sint Maarten community, citizens, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations to band together to see how the nation can assist Haiti with emergency assistance and supplies.



On Saturday, the Republic of Haiti was rocked by a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the southwestern part of the country where the epicenter was detected.



Events are still unfolding in Haiti where hundreds are injured and died due to the massive damage caused. It was 11-years ago in 2010 when Haiti was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that left more than 200,000 dead and thousands more displaced.



My deepest condolences go out to all those who have lost family and friends in Haiti. Another tragedy has unfolded, and I call on the Sint Maarten nation to pray for the people of Haiti during this difficult period. We also pray for a full and speedy recovery, Prime Minister Hon. Silveria Jacobs said on Sunday.
~ New agreement reached on Monday. ~

PHILIPSBURG: ---- Minister of Health and Labor Omar Ottley has extended the agreement with the Aspen Medical International (AMI) team on Monday. The government of St. Maarten has reached an agreement where the team consisting of 25 staff members will remain on St. Maarten to continue managing the COVID-19 pavilion at the St. Maarten Medical Center, Ottley said.

In an invited comment Minister Ottley said that an agreement was in place for the team to begin decreasing its staff in the month of September 2021, which was to take place every two weeks, he said seeing the current situation on St. Maarten and the drastic increase in coronavirus cases it has been decided to have the 25-member team remain until October 1st then another re-assessment will take place.

Ottley said when the AMI arrived on St. Maarten in April 2020, there were 40 members consisting of nurses and doctors who provided care at the COVID-19 pavilion at SMMC.

In the meantime, the Minister of Health continues to urge members of the public to take the COVID-19 vaccination since it is the only way to fight the coronavirus.
PHILIPSBURG:--- A group of well-experienced Disaster Relief Rotarians have once again come together to organize relief supplies, medical assistance, shelter, and other necessary commodities for people in Southern Haiti to survive and rebuild after the August 14th earthquake. Haiti is part of Rotary District 7020 which includes 10 countries and 16 islands in the Northern Caribbean.

The committee met on Saturday afternoon to lay some groundwork focusing on immediate relief, and to inform those that want to donate how they can do so. It is our responsibility to let Rotarians in our District 7020 and anyone that wants to donate the easiest and most secure way to do so, said PDG Haresh Ramchandani, Committee Chair. He continued, we are working with the Disaster Network of Assistance Rotary Action Group (DNARAG) to collect funds and then ensure that immediate aid is received by those with the greatest need.

Cash is always the easiest way to get aid to those who need it now. We also have a list of needs, of which many can be sourced locally. This will not only help with relief but also will support the local economy. To donate by credit card via PayPal, click here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=ESJ9N2C ASADV2. Donations from the USA are tax-deductible.

Dr. Claude Surena stated that Haiti is in the first phase of medical recovery and a great number of people need medical help. He is trying to get human resources and medical equipment to the south side of Haiti. The evaluation is just beginning and is ongoing; Dr. Surena will be updating the Response Team daily with the current situation on the ground and needed supplies.

The first list of immediate needs from Dr. Surena includes:

 Eau / Drinking water

 Tentes et baches / Tents and tarps

 Nourriture / Food

 Kits dhygiene / Hygiene kits

 Entran sanitaire /Medical Materials

 Medecin / Doctor

 Couvertures de laine / Wool blankets

 Jerrycan / Large, portable water container

 Kits de nourriture / Food kits

 Frais de fonctionnement pour le COUD / Operation fees for the Departmental Emergency Operation Centre (COUD)

 Volontaires, secouristes / Volunteers, first responders

 Kit covid 19 / Covid-19 kit

 Seau / Bucket

 Kits de nourriture / Food kits

Now, with 724 known dead and over 2800 injured, the Rotary District 7020 Earthquake Response Committee has done an initial assessment of the damage and secured logistics to provide aid. This was done by Dr. Surena and his team.

The Rotary team has already reached out to partners within and outside of Haiti to coordinate and increase the effectiveness of the response. Organizations members have already reached out include ShelterBox US Disaster Aid, CDEMA, US State Department, Rotary Caribbean Disaster Response Team, and others. Outreach to other aid organizations is ongoing.

PDG Philip Lusting, of DNARAG, is very concerned that, because of COVID-19, the availability of medical teams coming into Haiti will be severely impacted. It wont be like after the 2010 earthquake when hundreds of NGOs came in to assist. It will be up to our resources on the ground to pick up the slack and those of us outside Haiti to provide support to them.
~ Chamber declines to give opinion on Ballast Nedam ~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Independent Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel on Monday said the Integrity Chamber has verified that his initial impression of the entity was exactly on point: a completely useless construction that does not serve the best interest of St. Maarten, only those that forced it upon the country. The double standards are evident, the MP said.

The MPs comment came after he received the response from the Chamber to his request for the Chambers opinion on Ballast Nedam being awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the airport.

He specifically requested an opinion considering Ballast Nedams criminal history of bribing governments and other officials and since it is becoming the norm for the government of St. Maarten to engage companies for million-dollar contracts on St. Maarten without considering their history. This cannot be what we mean by good corporate governance and it should not become acceptable, the MP said.

The Chamber responded to the MP on August 13 stating in part: With regard to your request, the Integrity Chamber regrets to inform you that rendering an opinion does not fall within the scope of its assigned tasks. However, the Integrity Chamber can be asked to provide an advice or proposal in accordance with Article 16, third paragraph, of the National Ordinance Integrity Chamber. This request can be made by the Prime Minister, the responsible Minister, or Parliament (as a body, not individual members).

MP Emmanuel has taken issue with the fact that he as a Member of Parliament, the highest body in the country, even above the Council of Ministers, cannot request of entities established by Parliament (though forced and blackmailed to do so) for a simple opinion or advice.

Upon getting the reply from the Chamber, the MP sought clarification if "Parliament" it meant that it will accept a request to the Chamber from the President of Parliament on behalf of all 15 members of Parliament or will a request to the Chamber from the President of Parliament on behalf of a Member of Parliament suffice. The Chamber responded that the former is required.

But the Integrity Chamber would prefer to hide behind the law, sit back and condone clear breaches of integrity. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but my initial feelings about this entity were correct. It is useless. This is an entity that carries a general cost of over Naf 1 million on the countrys budget. What do our people get for that? An entity that accepts clear integrity violations and hides and says well we were not asked, so we wont do anything, the MP said.

The MP noted that citizens of St. Maarten when being appointed as Ministers or management of boards and government companies must go through rigorous screening of their present status and activities as well as their past. He said these persons are eliminated from consideration and denied the opportunity to serve their country based on the most minor details from their past, sometimes going back decades.

As a result, along with baseless allegations by the Dutch, St. Maarten became a punching bag on integrity matters, forced to establish an entity after the country was devastated by hurricane Irma. Today, that same entity knows that Ballast Nedam has a criminal history, knows that Windward Roads has a criminal history, but refuses to give a simple opinion, solicited or unsolicited, on how government engaging with these two companies flies in the face of the tenets of integrity and proper, integer governing, he said.

He reminded the public that the Chamber thus far only saw it fit to render advice on governments gift-giving policy and a code of conduct for civil servants. But for something as major as who is involved in the airport reconstruction, they have no voice. This flies in the face of the very arguments the Dutch government used to impose the Chamber on St. Maarten. Dutch MPs dragged St. Maarten through the mud for turning a blind eye to integrity issues and corruption. They stated that St. Maarten needed an entity to tackle these issues when they are obvious ad apparent, the MP said.

Nobody, not even my critics, can deny what is factual about a company such as Ballast Nedam. A company filled with integrity violations and a criminal settlement was awarded the contract to reconstruct the airport. According to the Dutch, this is obvious and apparent. But here we have their entity doing the same thing they accused multiple governments of St. Maarten of doing, turning a blind eye to corruption, he stressed.

Emmanuel said the fact that Ballast Nedam secured the airport contract at a time when the Dutch government and the Schiphol Group, supported by the local government places significant focus on good corporate governance is very noteworthy and in contradiction to the World Banks anti-corruption guidelines and sanctions framework.

These guidelines were outlined in the tender documents for the airport project as a letter of acceptance by all bidding companies. In part, the guidelines focus on fraud and corruption which the World Bank breaks down as corrupt, fraudulent, collusive, coercive, and obstructive practices. Breach of these guidelines could include a public declaration of ineligibility to be awarded or otherwise benefit from a bank-financed project.

The MP concluded that he will be looking at amending the National Ordinance Integrity Chamber.

Click here for the letter sent to Integrity Chamber.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The General Audit Chamber presented its audit report entitled Compliance Audit: Financial Statements of St. Maarten 2018 to Parliament today. The General Audit Chamber is required by law to examine whether Government was legally compliant and effective in its spending of St. Maarten's public funds.

The 2018 Financial Statements should have been prepared by September 1st, 2019. The 2018 Financial Statements were presented in October 2020. The Audit Chamber reported within the legal 6 weeks, after receiving SOABs report on July 16th, 2021.

The fiscal year 2018 ended with a deficit of ANG 121.2 million according to the Financial Statements, however, the original budget had estimated a higher deficit of ANG 197.1 million. Higher-income contributed to the lower deficit.

An adverse auditors opinion is appropriate for the 2018 Financial Statements. Both the 2018 National Budget and the 2018 Financial Statements do not provide the information required by the NAO, which limits insight. Moreover, the 2018 Financial Statements contain substantive reliability errors totaling ANG 145.0 million.

There is insufficient compliance with the budget cycle. The National Ordinance for the adoption of the Financial Statements should be presented to Parliament within one month after the report of the Audit Chamber. Without the establishment of this Ordinance, the budget cycle remains incomplete.

The report is published in both English and Dutch and is available on the website of the General Audit Chamber (www.arsxm.org).

Click here for financial statements
PHILIPSBURG:--- The members of the Sint Maarten Lions Club and teachers welcomed many smiling students of the Leonald Conner School in Cay Bay back to their classrooms on Monday morning August 16, 2021; their first day of the new school year. The returning students and those attending for the first time were visibly excited about the new school year and all its possibilities.

Lion President Linette Gibs who was present for the Fresh and Cool Back to School Event said she was honored to have experienced a wonderful week of Back-to-School activities. Last Monday, the members of the Sint Maarten Lions Club turned out to the Cole Bay Seventh Day Adventist School to cheer the students on their first day back to school.

Later in the week, in observance of International Youth Day, childrens face-masks and pencil cases were presented to the students of the All Children Education Foundation (A.C.E.) School in Cole Bay and the Prins Willem Alexander (PWA) School in Belvedere.
PHILIPSBURG(DCOMM):--- Prime Minister Hon. Silveria Jacobs would like to congratulate the new Secretary-General (SG) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) organization Dr. Carla Barnett who was installed on Monday in a ceremony, becoming the eighth SG of CARICOM and its predecessor the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA), and the first woman to head the regional institution of Caribbean integration.



I would like to congratulate Dr. Carla Barnett as she takes on the leadership of this regional organization, on behalf of the people and Government of Sint Maarten.



The Caribbean integration process is an ongoing transformation with various challenges. All the islands in the Caribbean region are experiencing the same situation and we look forward to future collaborations as associate member states in the Caribbean Basin.



Dr. Barnett is well skilled and versed in regional matters to move the region closer together during her tenure, Prime Minister Hon. Silveria Jacobs said on Tuesday.



Sint Maarten along with Curacao and Aruba have applied for CARICOM Associate Membership which would allow the islands to have access to the majority of meetings and open the door to regional organizations. CARICOM has been looking at the membership process in the context of CARICOMs expansion plans.



Barnett, an economist by profession, was appointed as Deputy-Secretary General of CARICOM and was the first woman to serve in that position for the period 1997  2002.



Barnett was also the first woman appointed as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, and as Financial Secretary, in Belize, and worked at the Caribbean Development Bank as Country Economist and Vice President of Operations.



Barnett takes over from Ambassador Irwin LaRocque who served from 2011-2021.



CARICOM is a grouping of 20 countries: 15 Member States and five Associate Members. It is home to approximately sixteen million citizens, 60% of whom are under the age of 30, and from the main ethnic groups of Indigenous Peoples, Africans, Indians, Europeans, Chinese, Portuguese and Javanese.



The Community is multi-lingual; with English as the major language complemented by French and Dutch and variations of these, as well as African and Asian expressions.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The saying goes Good deeds, rewards good deeds and former Minister Chris Wevers recent good deeds towards children have drawn the attention of several like-minded people who have stepped up to assist and add to his efforts.

This time, it was visitors from Texas who were on the island and heard about Wevers efforts to supply less fortunate children with school bags and school supplies. Neddra King and Mia Smith are on vacation and wanted to contribute to a good cause. Just so happens, they ran into the right person.

Wever explained to them that he knew of a local afternoon school that was in need of a hand sanitizing unit so that the students in their care can easily sanitize their hands when they arrive daily at the school. On Monday Wever met with King and Smith who donated the funds to purchase the sanitizing unit.

On Tuesday Wever in turn delivered the unit to the Creative Learning Afternoon School and its Director Nalai Agard, who thanked the visiting friends and Wever for their generous contribution to the children.

It not only does the soul good to assist others in need, but it is our responsibility as citizens in this small community to do so when we can. It is amazing when you do good in the benefit of others, how many doors open giving you the opportunity to do even more. I would like to thank Neddra and Mia for having big hearts and wanting to help the children of St. Maarten and for choosing the destination to vacation in the first place, Wever said.

In the past few weeks has, directly and indirectly, assisted almost 100 children less fortunate children on St. Maarten.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The public is reminded of the session scheduled by the Constitutional Court for a hearing regarding the case brought before the Court by the Ombudsman pertaining to the cuts to the employment benefits of all (semi) public sector workers. The three national ordinances that have been submitted for review to the Court are (the) Temporary National Ordinance Covid-19 cuts, Temporary National Ordinance to amend the terms of employment of political authorities, and Temporary National Ordinance on the standardization of top incomes and adjustment of employment conditions at (semi-) public sector entities.

The Ombudsman of Sint Maarten as the Guardian of the Constitution has the authority to challenge newly ratified laws, which the Ombudsman considers to be in contravention with the Constitution. The Ombudsman will argue that the national ordinances in question are incompatible with articles 15 (undisturbed enjoyment of property) and 16 (equality principle) of the Constitution.

Sint Maarten is the first and only country within the Dutch Kingdom with a Constitutional Court. Consequently, understanding the task of the Ombudsman as guardian of the Constitution and subsequently, protector of the rights of the citizens is a process of great importance to everybody, not only on Sint Maarten but the entire Dutch Kingdom. The reason why the Ombudsman calls on the government to make it possible for the Court session to be broadcast live on Friday, August 20, 2021, just like it was with the case regarding the Integrity Chamber in 2016. The President of the Constitutional Court established that this will be allowed if requested on time.

The general public is invited to follow the session that starts at 9:30 AM to learn more about the Constitutional Court and the grievances brought forward by the Ombudsman for review. The court proceedings will be conducted in English.
~ There is no forced vaccination on St. Maarten, COVID -19 protocols will be strictly enforced. ~

PHILIPSBURG:--- There have been 8 deaths in nine days says Minister of Health and Labor Omar Ottley. The Minister made the announcement at the Council of Minister's press briefing on Wednesday. Let that sink in, I am not here to tell you the amount of active COVID-19 cases presently, but I need you to know that there have been 8 deaths in 9 days on St. Maarten, all of which are COVID-19 related.

Ottley said that vaccines on St. Maarten are not being forced on anyone when asked about the documents from the International Tribunal presented to the Government of St. Maarten, Parliament of St. Maarten, St. Maarten Medical Center, and the Chief of Police.

Ottley further explained that there were 18 patients admitted to the St. Maarten Medical Center last week, today there are 15 patients still at SMMC, however, of those patients, 2 were partially vaccinated another fully vaccinated.

Ottley said while there is a mandate on the vaccination, stricter controls will take place as he recently met with the Inspectorate of Health and made clear that more controls must take place to ensure that all businesses fully comply with the protocols in place. There is a policy that will soon be enforced.  I also held a tripartite meeting which will push the unvaccinated to test regularly."

Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs also shared the same sentiments as the Minister of Health and Labor. Jacobs said the recent deaths were deeply felt since the people of St. Maarten know how to deal with the coronavirus. She said St. Maarten cannot live in a perpetual state of lockdowns. The people of St. Maarten have learned to live with the virus, but this virus is so bright that it's mutating. There are people that are speaking about rights and freedoms however, I believe the right to live should be the highest right of all rights.

St. Maarten currently has 42 deaths since the coronavirus hits St. Maarten in March 2020. The Government of St. Maarten stands behind the COVID-19 vaccination but has not mandated the vaccination on anyone. I am hoping that the people will consider their lives and that of their loved ones including the livelihood of the people of this country since the government cannot afford to put a halt on the economy."

 We are in dire straits as a country we have been surviving through loans made available by the Dutch Government. St. Maarten has accrued up to NAF220M in loans as a result of COVID-19. It is the loans that have sustained this country, and while we may not have liked all the conditions placed on the loans, we would not have survived without them. People would have gone hungry, and more businesses would have closed their doors and as a matter of fact, more people would have died.

Jacobs went on to say that St. Maarten had its fair share of wars while seeking the loans from the Dutch government but the loans were granted when the country needed it most. She said assistance was given by the Ministry of Health of Netherlands including from the AMI. St. Maarten is not where it was prior to COVID-19. The SSRP will soon end because St. Maarten unless another agreement is reached after assessment. This will come to an end in September 2021. St. Maarten received the 6th tranche on Monday last week totaling NAF48M. The Prime Minister cautioned that no one should think because the 6th tranche has been received those things are good, this money is to get us through from July to September. The 2021 budget has been approved, hopefully, that would allow negotiations to take place.
Longtime Enterprise Firefighter Christopher Davis is interviewed for the position of EFD Chief by Enterprise Mayor William Cooper, the Enterprise City Council and City Administrator Jonathan Tullos at a special work session Aug. 12. Behind Davis is EFD Capt. Bryan Turner.
Jared McNett covers local government for the Globe Gazette. You can reach him at Jared.McNett@globegazette.com or by phone at 641-421-0527. Follow Jared on Twitter at @TwoHeadedBoy98.
News

spotlight

GALLERY: Local collector proves dolls aren't just for little girls

Pat Stoeckel, founder of the Lady Slipper Doll Club in Faribault, shows club treasurer Carolyn Christopherson her pin cushion doll, one of many in her collection. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

Pat Stoeckel got her first doll as a little girl from a family friend, and never completely stopped collecting from that day forward.

That first doll belonged to a family friends wife, who had died, says Stoeckel, who lives in Faribault. The 95-year-old found the doll on a bed while helping her family clean out the widowed mans house as he prepared to move to Arizona to retire. The man asked Stoeckel if she collected dolls, and she said no. But that would change, as Stoeckel accepted the doll as a gift to share with her two sisters.

I asked my mom, What will I do with it? Stoeckel recalled. She said, Well fix it up and put it in one of the cabinets. We found a place to buy a wig, and my mom helped me dress it. It was kind of fun, so I looked for more.

Now living at Cardinal Ridge Townhomes, Stoeckel continues to preserve antique dolls she has bought, repaired, dressed and admired throughout the years. She even founded the Lady Slipper Doll Club in Faribault, attended multiple doll conventions and sold dolls at an annual show in Mankato.

Pat Stoeckel had told her daughter Christa that she wanted to find paper dolls to color like the ones she had as a little girl. Not long after, Christa found this antique dolls coloring book that resembles what her mom had years ago. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

Pat Stoeckels dresser in her apartment is full of dolls, but shes downsized quite a bit since moving to Cardinal Ridge. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

As she nears 96, Stoeckel said she isnt able to put forth the same effort with doll collecting as she would like. But she still plans to attend the 48th annual Lady Slipper Doll Club show and sale Aug. 29 along with other club members.

In her apartment, Stoeckel still has the first doll she bought herself, a baby doll that cost $2. She started her collection by purchasing second-hand dolls at garage sales but eventually began buying more expensive dolls and dressed them with clothes she made herself. After running out of space for her dolls, Stoeckel started her own doll business, located in the same building as her husband Fritzs clock repair shop in Faribault.

Pat Stoeckels late husband Fritz was in the clock business, and their son Gary also took a strong interest in clock repairs. These days, Stoeckel has clocks from around the world around her apartment, like this one from Germany that dates back to 1885 to 1900. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

Many of the small dolls Pat Stoeckel owns, like the one shes holding, are commonly referred to as dollhouse dolls. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

In addition to collecting dolls and making doll clothes, Pat Stoeckel has made a series of miniature stores she keeps around her apartment. That includes a fabric shop, pictured, a toy shop, and a clock shop among others. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

Stoeckel easily remembers 1966 as the year she attended her first United Federation of Doll Clubs convention with other local doll collectors she had met. She and the other women took a train to Chicago, where the convention was held, but a railroad prevented them from getting back the way they expected. Luckily, one of the women in the group talked to a conductor willing to take them to Red Wing. Stoeckel came home with a doll she bought for $100 and joked, I didnt know if I dare go home to tell my husband.

Attending national doll conventions became a tradition for Stoeckel. One of the biggest parts of these conventions was the live auction, which included rare and expensive dolls from all over the world. Smaller dolls have become more popular, she said, because attendees already own lots of big dolls and only have room for little ones.

Pat Stoeckel of Faribault has quite the doll collection of antique dolls in her apartment. The one shes holding she bought for $40 at a doll convention in Mankato, but today it would be worth around $1,000. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

Many of Pat Stoeckels remaining dolls are small, like these she keeps in a dome in her bedroom. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

In 1972, Stoeckel helped founde the Lady Slipper Doll Club. Originally called the Lady Slipper Dollettes, the name eventually changed to be more inclusive to male members. Stoeckel laid the foundation for the clubs first annual doll show and sale in Mankato and helped the club become chartered by the UFDC. Over the years, she said the club has included 12 to 15 members.

We generally had a program so we could learn more about the dolls, Stoeckel said. I had quite a bit of knowledge because I went to conventions, and at the conventions they had professionals who came in to talk about German companies who made antique dolls, and they had workshops if you wanted to learn to dress or string a doll.

Doll collector Pat Stoeckel explains that this doll in her collection is a parian, characterized by white porcelain. Stoeckel made the costume for this doll. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

Pat Stoeckel holds a dollhouse doll whose clothing she made herself.

Pat Stoeckel said boy dolls were rare because little girls didnt want them as much as girl dolls. This one wears a costume Stoeckels friend made specifically for the doll. (Misty Schwab/southernminn.com)

To this day, Stoeckel can explain the flaws of some of the porcelain dolls she finds. People years ago made dolls from bisque,or porcelain, as a hobby by pouring the bisque into a mold. Because children didnt care if the dolls were perfect, she said these doll makers werent worried about flaws.

In addition to dressing and repairing dolls, Stoeckel has done appraisals at the annual doll show and donated the money to local charities like the Salvation Army and the HOPE Center. The club also made donations to Bethel Lutheran Church, which hosted the clubs meetings for many years until the COVID-19 pandemic. The only portion of the money the Lady Slipper Doll Club used for its own members went toward the clubs annual Christmas dinner.

Lady Slipper Doll Club Treasurer Carolyn Christopherson has known Stoeckel for many years, since she began attending meetings with her aunt. Not sure at first how to find the right dolls to collect, Stoeckel told Christopherson she needed to find one that would talk to her. Christopherson found that in Kewpie dolls, and today she owns over 150 of them.

These ladies got me started, and I just love anything Kewpie, Christopherson said. Theyre a combination of a cherub and a cupid. Cupid gets you into trouble, but Kewpies get you out of trouble.

Chrisopherson said the Lady Slippers Doll Club hasnt had in-person meetings since before COVID-19, but hopes the group will reunite in near future. With the doll show and sale changing locations this year, after 2020s cancellation, she also hopes for a strong crowd.

Stoeckel agreed: I hope it will be successful.
News

spotlight

PROFILES: Key's youth, leaders find strength in reaching out

Alec La Voi, 20, visits with Northfield Union of Youth Director Emily fulton-Foley outside of The Key. La Voi serves on the board and has led as a co-president, saying The Key is a very important place to me, and I think most youth around here would say the same because it kind of becomes a second home pretty easily. (Photo by Kara Hildreth) Executive Director Emily Fulton-Foley chats with Bella Lien, 14, in the backyard. The Northfield Union of Youth is a teen gathering place to get support and learn life skills as they are each coming of age. (Photo by Kara Hildreth) Staff at Northfield Union of Youth (The Key) pivoted daily during the pandemic to serve diverse needs of teenagers. Staff shown are, from left, Marie Fischer, Ben Heath, Executive Director Emily Fulton-Foley, Ryan Prichard, and Jaiden Bilotta. Member Molly Andrews is not pictured. (Photo by Kara Hildreth) The Key facility in downtown Northfield is now fully open and teenagers and adults must wear masks indoors, although youth can gather freely in the outdoor backyard and chill. (Photo by Kara Hildreth) During the state shutdown, staff worked alongside youth to aid them in figuring out unemployment benefits and some youth used this time to work full-time since school learning was online and they needed the income. (Photo by Kara Hildreth) Staff and many new volunteers delivered food and meals to youth, help to get out information, and made sure to connect with the highest needs young people. (Photo by Kara Hildreth)

Staying connected to youth and fulfilling the teenagers physical and emotional needs has become even more vital during the pandemic.

Especially when they needed to close the doors of youth center known often referred to as The Key.

Executive Director Emily Fulton-Foley recalls, We had no idea the magnitude of what we were going to be encountering with all of our country, our nation and our world.

The nonprofit Northfield Union of Youth staff and volunteers truly needed to unify to help youth discover their own inner fortitude, personal resilience, and ultimately strength. Members were discovering how to best navigate challenging life circumstances with school learning online, family life or the isolation and sometimes anxiety or depression from being apart from close friends, schoolmates and sports and fun activities.

March 13, 2020, the center doors were closed by the state emergency order, although staff was available around the clock for young people.

This was the first time in 27 years The Key has ever closed its doors, and then we did deep cleaning before spring break and we talked with how to serve kids with food, housing and we together put a plan in place, Fulton-Foley said.

We found ways to be safe and deliver meals and get information out to kids about food coming in and out, and connect with our highest-needs young people, she added.

A mother with two young boys, Fulton-Foley, 36, gave birth to another son last January and was on maternity leave when the pandemic became reality. She came back to work before she planned to meet with the youth board to put together an action plan for how The Key and its members would navigate the pandemic.

The Key youth center remained closed in March and April 2020 until youth were allowed to return and socialize outdoors, so the young men and women gathered in the Sixth Street centers backyard painted with bright, vivid colors that give off a graffiti art gallery vibe.

Some donors donated funds to purchase a large, heavy duty tent and some weather-safe furniture so youth could be warm and comfortable at outdoor gatherings. By August, youth could return indoors if they were fully masked.

We were fortunate to get grants that were COVID related, and we have a wonderful philanthropic community that did support us, Fulton-Foley said, feeling grateful to work in Northfield.

Keeping going

The need for such a youth center was even more apparent than normal during the state of emergency, she said. The need has always been there, but it was just showing itself in bigger ways now, and some of those pieces were when volunteers could not be coming in anymore and we were no longer allowed to have community meals, Fulton-Foley said.

The Northfield Rotary Club couldnt come by to make meal and a church congregation couldnt visit or volunteer.

Our volunteers began helping in different ways like making masks and they began buying supplies at Sams Club because teenagers never stop eating, Fulton-Foley said, smiling. Food is such a huge connection piece with kids because we can sit around and kind of talk and those pieces continue to exist now.

The Key is now fully open to serve up to 25 teenagers who wear masks indoors. The center is expecting new air purifiers to help reduce the risk of illness. Grants asking for funds from the youth bank that allowed the purchase were written by the youth members.

The young people could then learn how to distribute the grant funds and they were able to buy a new Keurig machine to make warm drinks outside and buy heaters for outside, Fulton-Foley said.

Staff and volunteers kept busy and delivered 200 to 400 pounds of food to youth living in all kinds of living situations with and away from family.

We had some meals already prepped and some prepared and some shelf stable food and we were fortunate to partner with the Just Food Co-Op and the Community Action Center food shelf, and we had lots of donors that we are grateful for, Fulton-Foley said.

The staff worked with youth to find out what was happening with unemployment since many were out of work, she said.

Some youth shifted their work schedules and worked full-time since their high school or college classes were taught online, and they discovered more flexibility with their schedules. Many needed the extra income and decided to work full-time since they found online classes could be more flexible. They discovered the value of learning how to be adaptive in life and this is valuable, Fulton-Foley said.

There was a lot of learning in this time, she said.

Staff could not give rides to the youth or go into their homes, even to help move furniture due to the public health safety rules and concerns.

We wanted to make sure we would not be the epicenter of an outbreak, of COVID-19, she said.

But Key staffers stayed in connection with youth on cell phones to check in and see how home life was progressing.

I think within my role, listening to the needs of young people is much more than hearing what their needs are, but it is listening to how they want you to react, Fulton-Foley explained.

We know how the kids want us to react, and that is part of where we get creative as adults and what works for us and works for them, she said.

The restrictions around the pandemic and protecting public health allowed her to grow in her own flexibility. Fulton-Foley said even though she believes strongly in the work-life balance, the pandemic meant many times she and the staff needed to work more than the normal eight hours.

When asked about resiliency and lessons learned, Fulton-Foley said it was all about growth in relationships and teaching youth about relationship building. Personally, she got a crash course in juggling a budget, figuring out what she could reallocate to ensure kids basics and necessities were being met. Checking on youth members mood and mental health was also a priority.

We had to triage the needs of youth and see what makes the most sense, she said.

Fulton-Foley voices how she is proud of the young people who took on leadership roles both at the center and in their own lives. Each young man and woman grew emotionally by leaps and bounds, she said.

Bragging about all of her staff who were able to rally and work as a team during the challenging last year, Fulton-Foley is a glass half-full person, adding We teach youth how to fill their own glasses and how to support one another.

Youth learned about resiliency, their own abilities and shortcomings, their potential and willingness to speak up when they needed something.

They all have their own brave resilient stories, and when I look at resiliency, she said.  I think one of the smartest and bravest things anyone can do is ask for help.

Editor's Note This is the fourth in a series of profiles featuring area residents and workers who have shown resilience, particularly in the last year and a half.
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spotlight

Historic apiary awarded funds to restore buildings, educate community

Phase I funding from Minnesotas Legacy fund allowed the Hofmann Apiaries to start restoration work on the honey house, pictured above, which will be finished with the help of Phase II funding. That funding was approved July 1. Pictured: Jan Hofmann, left, and Larry Hofmann, right, in front of the honey house. (Julian Hast/southernminn.com) Larry Hofmann hopes Phase II funding from Minnesotas Legacy fund will allow him to build an interpretive center on the inside of the wax shed, shown above, at the Hofmann Apiaries. (Julian Hast/southernminn.com) There is still some beekeeping done in the bee yard at the historic Hofmann Apiaries, which were, a century ago, the biggest honey producers in the state. (Julian Hast/southernminn.com) The Hofmann Apiaries extraction room, shown in a 1924 photo. (Courtesy of Hofmann Apiaries)

Located on a gravel road north of Janesville, Hofmann Apiaries ran for almost 85 years, starting around 1903. During the 1920s, it was Minnesotas top honey producer.

In January 2016, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places  the second apiary in the country ever to receive the prestigious designation. More than five years later, the Hofmann family, with help from the Waseca County Historical Society, has finally secured the final round of funding needed to complete restoration of its historic buildings. They plan to convert the site into an interpretive center, out of which they can educate visitors on bees and honey production.

The process took so long, with so many ups and downs, and hope and dashed hope, that when we got it, there was no huge elation, said Hofmann Apiaries owner, Larry Hofmann. Were extremely thankful, dont misunderstand  Its a lot of money, and its sinking in.

In 2019, Minnesotas Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund approved the first phase of grant money, totaling $163,700, to restore the honey house and wax shed at Hofmann Apiaries. Phase II funding will now provide an additional $225,000 to finish the job. This latter round of funding was signed by Gov. Tim Walz during Minnesotas special session at the end of June.

While applying for Legacy funds, Joan Mooney, director for the Waseca County Historical Society, tried to keep her expectations low as the Art & Cultural Heritage Fund receives far more applications than it has the money to approve.

Youre never supposed to expect to get grants, Mooney said, adding that Hofmann Apiaries would not have been able to get this far without the Legacy fund. Theyve really opened up opportunities we wouldnt have had.

The path to getting those grants, though, was anything but streamlined.

Back in the early 2010s, Mooney said, she and Hofmann knew the apiary qualified for the National Register. In order to apply and then actually have it be approved, though, Mooney said they needed to gather bundles of information.

With that recognition began the years-long journey to get the apiary placed on the National Register, which involved applying for numerous small grants of less than $10,000 to hire professional researchers and historians to help along the way.

Only once it was placed on the National Register in 2016 were Mooney and Hofmann able to apply for the two-part larger grant they needed to restore the buildings.

We got lucky because the Hofmann Apiaries were so well-documented, Mooney said. The reason we wanted to get it on the National Register was because of its story.

How it began

That story began with Hofmanns great-grandfather Valentine Hofmanns journey from Moravia to Janesville in 1871, where he built a hog barn. He had four sons, one of whom, Emil, noticed honey bees around a bush near his house. It was 1903.

So he fashioned something quickly, got (the bees) to go into it, and that started him off on what became his lifelong work, Hofmann said.

A few years later, after hed removed the pigs and converted the barn into a honey house, the real work of beekeeping began. At its peak, Hofmann Apiaries had 1,000 colonies, which Hofmann said is a drop in the bucket nowadays, but was a big deal in the early 20th century.

Once it was placed on the National Register, though, enormous amounts of additional documentation were still needed to receive the greater sums of restoration funding. Mooney spent years advocating for the historic apiaries, only to have the grant requests initially struck down. She even testified before the Legacys finance committee before Phase II funding was approved, an experience she said was terrifying.

Joan (Mooney) went through bloody hell with the hoops that she had to jump through, Hofmann said, describing the lengthy and arduous application process. These things take time.

While much restoration work has been done on the honey house and wax shed at the apiaries with Phase I funding  new roofs, restored windows  Phase II funding will allow the Hofmann Apiaries to begin its conversion into an interpretive center. This includes redoing the exterior and interior of the honey house, which Hofmann said is in a terrible state of disarray, as well as renovation on the interior of the wax shed, where vents will be added so that it can operate as a room for workshops and seminars.

We cant just haul a bunch of people into the old building and sit around in folding chairs, Hofmann said.

While there are still many questions about what exactly the grant money can be used for  the expectation is often that its usage is meticulously documented and reported  Hofmann said that the general idea from years prior has been carried through.

Its a first things first sort of thing, he said.

Pollinators peril

In thinking about the importance of restoring and preserving the historic apiaries, Mooney and Hofmann both emphasized the value of its well-documented history, as well as the need to educate the public on the condition of honey bees.

Bees and pollinators are in trouble, Hofmann said. Its a very difficult environment for them to live and work as they used to, and we all know that roughly two-thirds of the produce we eat relies on pollination.

Hofmann said that he hopes their attempts to educate the community on this issue help, even in some small way.

And admittedly itd be small, he said. But one extra little bit cant hurt.

The established relationship that the Hofmanns have with surrounding farms will help in that process. Those farmers, Mooney said, care about the state of the honey bee population, since they know their crops depend on them.

Its a good opportunity to showcase that relationship, Mooney said. Thats what Im excited about  having that harmonious conversation that isnt politicized, but just real.

BEEKEEPING Hofmann Apiaries, through the years 1871: Valentine Hofmann immigrates from Moravia 1903: son Emil Hofmann creates first hive for wild honey bees, soon starts growing regional cash crop alsike clover 1907: Emil Hofmann converts hog barn into honey house 1923: Expansion and addition of honey house 1934: Emil Hofmann dies of pneumonia after Great Depression ruins business, apiary foreclosed on; son Charles takes on task of paying off debts and running farm 1942: Charles Hofmann helps form the American Beekeeping Federation as the apiary flourished 1985: Charles Hofmann retires and sells the business 2016: Hofmann Apiaries added to National Register of Historic Places 2019: Phase I funding ($163,700) granted to Hofmann Aparies. 2021: Phase II funding ($225,000) granted to Hofmann Apiaries. National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota: mnhs.org/nrhp Hofmann Apiaries: hofmannapiaries.org
Bir-Lahlou (Liberated Territories) August 18, 2021 (SPS) - President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, congratulated H.E Mr. Hakainde Hechilema, on the occasion of his election as President of the Republic of Zambia.

The President of the Republic expressed his sincere congratulations and best wishes to his Zambian counterpart, on the occasion of his election as president of the Republic of Zambia.

President Gali expressed willingness of the Sahrawi Republic to strengthen the brotherhood, friendship and cooperation relations between the two countries for the benefit of the two peoples. SPS

125/090/TRA
STAMFORD  A man was fatally stabbed early Wednesday morning in Glenbrook, police said.

The identity of 42-year-old man, who died from wounds resulting from the stabbing, had not been released by police as of Wednesday evening, as officers were still in the process of notifying his next of kin.

Lt. Tom Scanlon said the stabbing, which has been ruled a homicide, was reported to police by a third party around 1:10 a.m.

Investigators have since identified two crime scenes, one on Culloden Road and the other on Hamilton Avenue, according to Scanlon.

Scanlon said they believe the stabbing occurred on Culloden Road, thought he did not specify where on the street.

Police had portions of Hamilton Avenue near Culloden Road, where a white car sat with its doors open, taped off early Wednesday morning as they investigated the scene.

It was in that area, police said, where a car carrying the injured man pulled up to a group of people and asked for help.

Two police were also seen parked further down the block in front of a home located at 150 Culloden Road on Wednesday. Police have not commented on the propertys connection to the investigation.

More information will be released as the investigation progresses, Scanlon said.

This is the fifth homicide of the year, according to Capt. Richard Conklin, commander of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

The last homicide in the city was the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Lwidji Brun at his Ursula Place home on May 18. Police have since made three arrests in that case.

Police have made arrests in all but one of this years homicides  the untimely death of a 56-year-old woman at the Stamford Manor apartment complex at 26 Main St. on April 20, which was only recently ruled a homicide.
SYDNEY (AP)  With our long journey to reach Australia behind us, and 14 days isolated in a hotel ahead of us, the police officer on our bus tried to inject some humor: If youre looking to save some money on the hotel, he joked, this is your last chance to hook up and share a room."

As a photographer for The Associated Press, I had spent the past 20 days in Japan covering the Olympics. In a bid to limit transmission of COVID-19, officials imposed tough rules on visiting media and athletes that kept us in an Olympic bubble for our first 14 days in Tokyo. During that time, we were only allowed to move between the main media center, Olympic venues and our hotel; our meals were mostly from convenience stores. On Aug. 9, I returned to Australia, where I faced another 14 days in a hotel bubble.

Australia shut its borders to the world shortly after the pandemic erupted in 2020. Most Australians who want to travel abroad  be it for work, or to move, or to visit a dying family member in another country  must apply for permission from the government to leave Australia. Those lucky enough to be granted permission to travel must then spend two weeks quarantining in a hotel when they return, at their own expense  approximately US$2,400. The system has stranded tens of thousands of Australians abroad, as there are a limited number of quarantine hotel rooms available, and thus a limited number of Australians are allowed to return home each week.

Many have wondered what these quarantine hotels are like  and how those of us cloistered inside pass the time during those 14 days.

After landing in Sydney, we were welcomed by friendly local health officials who ushered us through customs and baggage collection and then onto the bus, where the jovial police officer ran through what to expect over the next two weeks. We were checked into the hotel one at a time, and then finally  three hours after landing  I walked into my room.

I was lucky enough to be placed in a one-bedroom apartment with every luxury included  a washing machine, two TVs and a kitchen. A friend dropped off gym equipment for me, and I rented an exercise bike to try and meet some fitness goals.

The provided meals are the biggest challenge. After two weeks of convenience store food in Japan, the grim, plastic-wrapped meals that arrive three times a day arent a whole lot better. The meals vary daily, but there is no choice.

My savior has been my wife, who every few days has delivered some great food and wine (we are allowed one bottle per day  more than enough for me!). Her deliveries have made my time here bearable.

My Olympics colleagues who are in other quarantine hotels across Australia are all experiencing slightly different conditions. None appear to be as lucky as me with the room, though some have better food options  even a choice!

As a photographer, I have passed much of my time documenting the world outside my window. Though Sydney is normally a bustling and vibrant city, a COVID-19 outbreak has forced residents into lockdown for the past two months. Life in the streets below is now quiet.

I perk up when I spot hints of normality: garbage trucks, parking inspectors, food delivery staff, a few office workers. I see the sun for around one hour a day as it passes between tall office towers.

The hotel staff have been wonderful. I enjoy my daily mental health calls from the in-house nurses. Less enjoyable are the three up your nose coronavirus tests we do on days 3, 7 and 12. Once I have completed my time here, I will have had nearly 30 such tests in the past six weeks.

As I pass the halfway mark, I have sets my sights on seeing my wife in person and not just from a balcony. I'm also looking forward to a hot, home-cooked meal and stretching my legs during a walk in the sunshine.

And I am really looking forward to a day when the toughest part of coming home to Australia is the long plane ride to get here.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A high-ranking Catholic cardinal who has COVID-19 is alive but in serious condition and has been sedated, according to officials at a Wisconsin shrine that he founded.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of Pope Francis' loudest critics and a vaccine skeptic, tweeted Aug. 10 that he had caught the coronavirus. His staff tweeted Saturday that he was hospitalized and on a ventilator. His condition and whereabouts since then have been unclear. His staff has provided no official updates. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops referred questions to officials at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which Burke founded in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

On Tuesday, the shrine issued a statement saying Burke is in serious but stable condition at an undisclosed location. He has been sedated and is still using a ventilator to breathe. He has received sacraments from priests nearby and several relics have been placed in his room. The statement did not elaborate.

The statement said no one should try to call Burke's family, shrine staff or Burke's residence in Rome to discuss his condition, saying such communications can become a burden. The statement said the shrine alone will release updates and then only if Burke's status changes significantly.

In humility, we understand that it is not necessary for us to know every detail of the Cardinal's treatment, the statement said. Though his family realizes that the Cardinal belongs to the Church, they also ask that we respect his privacy. The period of hospitalization, and for now isolation because of the COVID virus, may be prolonged as His Eminence's body fights the infection and recovers strength. For the time being, the sedation assists his own peace and rest.

Burke, 73, holds a doctorate in canon law. He served as bishop in the Diocese of La Crosse before becoming archbishop in St. Louis. He left St. Louis in 2008 to oversee the Vatican's supreme court, becoming the first American to hold that position.

He has built a reputation as an outspoken conservative. He drew attention in 2004 when he said he wouldn't give Holy Communion to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry because Kerry supports abortion rights. In 2009 he chastised the University of Notre Dame over plans to give then-President Barack Obama an honorary degree because Obama, too, supports abortion rights.

Francis moved Burke out of the Vatican court in 2014 after Burke said the church was like a ship with no rudder.

He has been on the attack against Francis since then. He joined three other conservative cardinals in formally asking Francis in 2016 to explain why he decided to let remarried Catholics receive Holy Communion.

He also has joined a chorus of conservative and traditionalist criticism of Francis' crackdown on the celebration of the old Latin Mass, calling the decision severe and saying he shared the sorrow of Catholics who felt Francis had unfairly attacked them.

Burke also has warned people that governments were using fear of the pandemic to manipulate people. He spoke out against mandatory vaccinations in May 2020, saying some in society want to implant microchips in people. He has said the best weapon for fighting the virus is Jesus Christ.

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Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1
DARIEN  The town continues to grow, in both its population and diversity of its residents, according to U.S. Census data released last week.

Darien stands at 21,499 residents, an increase of 4 percent from a decade ago, when the population was 20,732. In 2000, the towns population was 19,607.

Darien continues to be a highly desirable town to live in and raise a family, First Selectman Jayme Stevenson said.

Stevenson said more than 220 new housing units have been built since the last census, which has provided expanded housing choice. She added that older homes continue to be renovated by new families moving to the community.

We have been purposeful in our planning for new housing choices ... rental apartments, senior housing, housing for the developmentally disabled and condominiums, Stevenson said. As we know that offering these choices at a variety of price points helps increase diversity within our community.

Overall, the states population increased by 31,847, with most of that coming from Fairfield County, which jumped by 40,590 people over the past decade. Hartford and New Haven counties saw increases, while the remaining five counties saw decreases overall.

The 2020 data shows Dariens population is primarily white, at 18,316 residents, but that number has dropped in the past decade, when the total was 19,508.

The community has grown more diverse as well over the past 10 years, the data states. Black residents stand at 163, up from 104 in 2010 and 89 in 2000; Asians are up to 1,205 from 744 in 2010 and 474 in 2000; and Hispanics are up to 1,234 from 743 in 2010 and 429 in 2000.

The exodus from New York City was an unexpected but positive outcome of the COVID pandemic given the impact to Darien from the 2008 financial crisis, Stevenson said.

Significant commercial redevelopment projects  highlighted by the Corbin district work in downtown  now underway are exciting and enticing for folks looking to relocate to a more suburban community with great schools, well-managed government and desirable public facilities, she added.

I believe we have laid the groundwork for our community to continue to be a sought-after place to live and work for well into the future, Stevenson said.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
As Gov. Ned Lamont said on a football field in New Britain Tuesday, the effort to vaccinate high-schoolers is still a work in progress.

How bad is it? If pre-teens and teens ages 12 to 17 were getting vaccinated at the same rate as adults in Connecticut, an additional 68,000 kids would have been inoculated against COVID-19 as of Aug. 12.

To that point, nearly 72 percent of all Connecticut residents eligible for the vaccine  ages 12 and up  had rolled up their sleeves for the shots. But only 49 percent in that youngest eligible age group were fully vaccinated as of a few days ago.

Heres a look at how each town is faring based on data from the state Department of Health. Use the searchable database to find out how your town stacks up. As Hearst CTInsider reported in an analysis story, theres a wide variation and richer towns not only have more kids vaccinated, they are closer in percentage to the population as a whole.

Thompson, Canterbury and Hartford hold down the low end at 25 percent. Nine towns stand above 75 percent for youths  including Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien, Westport and Wilton.

Kids became eligible for the vaccine later than adults, starting with 16- and 17- year-olds in April, then 12to 15 in May. Only the two-dose Pfizer shot is available to them.

The higher rate of vaccinations among adults than youths is an indication that thousands of parents have chosen to take the COVID-19 shots for themselves but have not gotten their children inoculated.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  CANBERRA, Australia  Australia had evacuated the first 26 people, including Australian and Afghan citizens, from Kabul since the Taliban overran the Afghan capital, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday.

An Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft landed at an Australian military base in the United Arab Emirates with the 26 who included a foreign official working for an international agency, Morrison said. The remainder were Australians and Afghans.

This was the first of what will be many flights, subject to clearance and weather and we do note that over the back end of this week, there is some not too favorable weather forecast, Morrison said.

Two Hercules and two larger C-17A Globemaster transport aircraft will make further evacuation flights.

Australia plans to evacuate 130 Australians and their families plus an undisclosed number Afghans who have worked for Australian soldiers and diplomats in roles such as interpreters.

Australias goal is to evacuate 600 people, according to media reports. Morrison did not provide a number. Our goal is as many as we can, as safely and as quickly as we can, he said.

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MORE ON THE CRISIS IN AFGHANISTAN:

 Taliban announce amnesty, urge women to join government

 Taliban encounter Afghan cities remade in their absence

 US agencies scrub websites to protect Afghans left behind

 Taliban take over Afghanistan: What we know and whats next

 Biden: Afghan chaos gut-wrenching but stands by withdrawal

 Billions spent on Afghan army ultimately benefited Taliban

 Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden has spoken with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about the situation in Afghanistan, marking his first call with another world leader since the Taliban took control of the country Sunday.

The White House said that during Mondays conversation Biden and Johnson commended the bravery and professionalism of their military and civilian personnel who are working to evacuate their countries citizens and allies from the country.

The White House says the leaders agreed on the need for close coordination with allies about the future of aid and support to Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in charge.

Johnson holds the presidency of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, and the White House says he will convene a virtual meeting of the group next week to discuss the path forward in Afghanistan.

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WASHINGTON  The U.S. Air Force says its Office of Special Investigations is reviewing an incident at the Kabul airport Monday in which multiple people were killed when hundreds of Afghan civilians desperate to leave the country swarmed a C-17 cargo plane as it was attempting to take off.

The Air Force did not say how many people died. It said human remains were found in the planes wheel well after it landed at al-Udeid Air Base in the Gulf state of Qatar.

Videos of the incident, including images of people falling from the aircraft as it took off, were widely viewed on social media. The images captured the initial chaos of a U.S.-directed evacuation that followed the Talibans takeover of the country.

The Air Force said the C-17 Globemaster III had landed at Kabul airport to deliver equipment for the evacuation effort. Before the crew could offload the cargo, the aircraft was surrounded by hundreds of Afghan civilians who had breeched the security perimeter. Because the security situation was getting worse, the crew decided to take off.

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ROME  Italys prime minister is vowing that Italy will remain committed to promoting and protecting fundamental rights in Afghanistan, especially of women, following the Taliban takeover and the evacuation of Western diplomats and military forces.

Italy, which holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 industrialized countries this year, is the natural forum to launch a process of collaboration among countries including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, in addition to Europe, Premier Mario Draghi said.

In an interview with state-run RAI television, Draghi paid tribute to the 54 Italian soldiers killed and some 700 injured during Italys 20-year participation in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan and said Italy was looking to the future, not to the past.

He said: The future for Italy is made up by the defense of fundamental rights, the defense of the rights of women and the protection of all those who exposed themselves in these years to defend these rights in Afghanistan. This must be undertaken in all possible contexts.

He said the priority for Europe was to continue welcoming those Afghans who collaborated with the West and their families, those who worked for womens rights in Afghanistan, and to ensure security to prevent terrorist infiltration.

Noting that a G20 ministerial meeting is planned later this month dedicated to women, as well as the leaders summit at the end of October, Draghi said: This year of our presidency of the G20, we are fully committed to building the appropriate seat for this collaboration.

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BRUSSELS  The European Union is suspending payments of development assistance to Afghanistan now that it has fallen to the Taliban but is weighing whether to boost humanitarian aid to the conflict-ravaged country.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says there can be no payments of development assistance until we clarify the situation with Taliban leaders.

Speaking after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers Tuesday, Borrell said the Taliban must respect U.N. Security Council resolutions and human rights to earn access to the funds.

Borrell says that humanitarian help will continue, and maybe we will have an increase, given the number of displaced Afghans, the ongoing drought, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 27-nation bloc has pledged about 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in development assistance for Afghanistan for the period 2021-2024.

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PARIS  A flight carrying 41 people evacuated from Kabul, including French and other nationalities, landed at a Paris airport on Tuesday evening.

France evacuated several dozen people in a military plane after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. The were first brought to a military air base in Abu Dhabi, and several of the passengers were then sent back to France.

French authorities did not provide details over the nationalities of people on the flight to Paris.

Defense minister Florence Parly said there are still a few dozen of Afghan people whom we consider need to be evacuated as soon as possible and we are working on it, in addition to bringing back French citizens.

The Interior ministry said in a statement the situation in Kabul remains complex. All the states services and the French Embassy on the ground remain fully mobilized to ensure new flights as soon as possible.

President Emmanuel Macron promised Monday that France would not abandon Afghans who worked for the country, from translators to kitchen staff as well as artists, activists and others under threat with the collapse of the Afghan government.

France withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in 2014 and has already evacuated more than 1,000 Afghans who supported French forces.

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ISLAMABAD  Pakistans information minister said on Tuesday that said his country will make a decision about the recognition of a Taliban government in Afghanistan only after consultations with regional and international powers.

Fawad Chaudhry said at a news conference that Pakistan does not want to take any unilateral decision about this matter. He said Pakistan was pleased that so far there hasnt been much violence and bloodshed in Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover.

Chaudhry made his comments two days after the Taliban swept into the Afghan capital of Kabul following a blitz that lasted just over a week.

Pakistan was among three nations which recognized the Taliban government when it came into power in the 1990s.

The Taliban were ousted by the U.S-led invasion following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They had at the time sheltered al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, the leader of the network.

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SOFIA, Bulgaria  Bulgarian leaders have signed a joint statement saying Afghans should be allowed to leave the country if they wish, the Balkan nations foreign ministry announced on Tuesday.

The statement followed an emergency meeting of a national security council called by Bulgarian President Rumen Radev to discuss measures to address the increased migratory pressure on the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

It noted that all temporary accommodation centers in Bulgaria are already overcrowded with migrants from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Bulgaria saw hundreds of thousands of migrants pass through its territory and continue to western Europe during the height of the migrant crisis. Since then, Bulgaria erected a razor-wire fence along most of its 269-kilometer (167-mile) border with Turkey. There is no fence on the border with Greece, but army units have been deployed occasionally to help police patrol the frontier.

Bulgarian public opinion has been largely opposed to the arrival of migrants and asylum seekers during previous migrant waves.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands  The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says he is closely monitoring events in Afghanistan and is most concerned by recent reports of escalating violence in the country.

Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement on Tuesday that he echoes views expressed by the U.N. Security Council over incidents he says may amount to violations of international humanitarian law.

He says they include allegations of extrajudicial executions in the form of revenge killings of detainees and individuals who surrendered, persecution of women and girls, crimes against children and other crimes affecting the civilian population at large.

The Hague-based court has already opened an investigation into crimes in Afghanistan dating back to May 2003.

Khan says he calls on all parties in the country to fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including by ensuring the protection of civilians. I remain available and willing to engage with all parties to this end.

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GENEVA  Dozens of demonstrators have staged a rally outside the U.N.s Geneva compound to call for respect for women, freedom of expression, and other human rights in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized power from the countrys government.

The demonstrators on Tuesday called for continued schooling for women and girls  which was banned during the Talibans previous rule in the late 1990s  and held up banners such as We want peace and Help Afghanistan out.

Several demonstrators draped themselves in red, green and black Afghan flags, which has been replaced by a white Taliban flag on some official buildings in Afghanistan after the insurgents drove out President Ashraf Ghanis government. Many women, and some girls, took part in the rally.

Two women held up a sign that read: The world should not allow Afghanistan to become a prison and a deathtrap for women.

The protest took place at the foot of the landmark three-legged chair outside the U.N. Geneva compound, a site that regularly hosts demonstrations about a vast array of grievances and human rights concerns

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MOSCOW  The Russian ambassador to Afghanistan said he had a constructive and positive meeting with Taliban representatives in Kabul to discuss security for the Russian diplomatic mission.

Tuesdays meeting was announced the day before by the Kremlin envoy on Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, who also said the Taliban has already started guarding the outside perimeter of the Russian embassy.

Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov told Russian state TV Tuesday that the meeting was dedicated exclusively to the security of the embassy and involved senior Taliban representatives in the city who were accepting the surrender of the remnants of the self-disbanded Afghan national security forces.

The meeting was positive and constructive, Zhirnov said. The Taliban representatives said the Taliban has the friendliest ... approach to Russia. They confirmed guarantees of security for the embassy.

Russia designated the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003, but has since hosted several rounds of talks in Afghanistan, most recently in March, that involved the group.

Moscow, which fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with the Soviet troops withdrawal in 1989, has made a diplomatic comeback as a mediator, reaching out to feuding Afghan factions as it has jockeyed with the U.S. for influence in the country.

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MOSCOW  Uzbekistan on Tuesday denied media reports claiming that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sought refuge in Uzbekistan as the Taliban swept into Kabul over the weekend.

Ghani left the Afghan capital on Sunday and his whereabouts have since remained unknown, with ex-Soviet nations of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan denying taking him in.

The Uzbek Foreign Ministrys news agency Dunyo said on Tuesday that media reports about the alleged presence of Ghani, as well as former Afghan warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum and Ata Mohammad Noor and others, in Uzbekistan were, according to official information, not true.

In Stockholm, meanwhile, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Tuesday that it is unclear how the Taliban intend to govern the country. Unfortunately, the prospects for the peace talks are very uncertain.

We will not abandon the Afghan people, he wrote on Instagram. But Sweden will need to shift parts of its aid to Afghanistan after the Taliban take power. We will not in any way provide any assistance to the Taliban.

Since 2013, Afghanistan has been the largest recipient of Swedish aid.

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WASHINGTON  The Defense Department says U.S. military commanders at the Kabul airport are in touch with Taliban leaders as they coordinate the evacuation effort of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that necessary interactions with Taliban leaders will continue as the U.S. evacuates people. He said there have been no new hostile encounters with Taliban fighters at the airport.

Asked whether U.S. commanders had an agreement with the Taliban for safe passage to the airport of Afghan allies and others awaiting evacuation, Kirby said There are interactions at the airport, by our commanders, with the Taliban leaders outside the airport.

Officials hope the pace of evacuations will pick up so that as many as 9,000 people could be taken out of the country each day.

After their sweep into Kabul on Sunday and the takeover of the country, Taliban fighters are guarding Kabul airports entry points and gates.

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LONDON  A Taliban spokesman has said that Afghan women will have the right to work and be educated at the university level.

Suhail Shaheen also told Britains Sky News in an interview on Tuesday that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other world leaders have a moral obligation to help rebuild a new Afghanistan.

The U.K. prime minister, all leaders of the world, they should respect the aspiration of the people of Afghanistan and support its economic development, Shaheen said in a video interview from Doha, Qatar.

He added: This is their obligation because they were behind the destruction of Afghanistan during the 20 years. It is their moral obligation to also help to reconstruct Afghanistan and to help the people to start a new life, and a new chapter.

Shaheen said the Taliban intend to uphold the Doha peace deal and are committed to womens rights to education and work. He said girls can get education from primary to higher education. That means university. This is our policy and we are really working on this in all those areas falling to us in Afghanistan.

He added that the group has already announced a general amnesty to all those who worked in the collapsed government, with foreigners or in foreign embassies. Their property will be saved, their honor and their lives are safe. They should not be worried about it.

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PRISTINA, Kosovo  Kosovos prime minister on Tuesday said the country would temporarily house Afghans threatened by the Taliban during the peacekeeping military mission there.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that since mid-July, two teams from Kosovo and the United States were coordinating efforts to shelter a number of Afghans under threat.

President Vjosa Osmani said Monday that a month earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had asked for a temporary shelter of Afghan local staff working with the U.S. forces.

Kurti said in an interview with The Associated Press that by sheltering some of the refugees from Afghanistan we are doing a small help in return to an immense contribution that the United States did for our country and our people during the war and after it.

Kurti did not give numbers of the place where they will be housed due to security concerns. Kosovo Albanians left in a mass exodus in 1999, amid a brutal war between separatist ethnic Kosovo Albanian rebels and Serb forces. The war ended after a 78-day U.S.-led NATO air campaign drove Serb troops out and a peacekeeping force moved in.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, which is recognized by most of the West but not by Serbia and its allies, Russia and China.

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KABUL, Afghanistan  The Afghan vice president is claiming that after President Ashraf Ghani fled in the face of the Taliban sweep into Kabul over the weekend and with his whereabouts unknown, the vice president is the countrys legitimate caretaker president.

Amrullah Saleh made the comment on Twitter on Tuesday. He cited the Afghan constitution was empowering him to declare this. He wrote that he was reaching out to all leaders to secure their support & consensus.

As of now, Afghan leaders, including former President Hamid Karzai and peace council chief Abdullah Abdullah, have been negotiating with the Taliban since the fall of Kabul.

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BERLIN  Ahead of the EU foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters in Berlin that the ministers would talk about how to support each other in getting EU citizens and local Afghan staffers out of the country.

Mass said they would also discuss how to deal with the Taliban in the future and how to keep the region stable in the face of possible refugee flows escaping Afghanistan. He added that we will watch the developments very closely and those who are now executing power in Afghanistan will be judged by their action.

The German foreign minister added that we will especially focus our view on the stability of the region. The neighboring countries will certainly be confronted with further refugee movements.

Maas added that, we have already told the United Nations that we are ready to help with the humanitarian care of these people in neighboring countries  however, eventually we will need to have a common European approach for that.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark  Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said that at the request of the United States, Denmark will help others out of Afghanistan using military planes.

We are now in a situation where we are able to lift out our own and help allies, Bramsen said. In advance, we had decided to have military planes in the area so we (now) can help our allies.

The Danish move became crucial when civilian aircraft no longer took off from the Kabul International Airport while the military side kept on operating.

On Sunday, we were one of the first (nations) to move to a military action, she said.

Denmark was able to help Norway to get its diplomats out of Afghanistan on Monday, along with those from the Danish Embassy.

It was unclear if all Danish nationals have been evacuated. Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said that he can guarantee that we do everything humanly possible to help with the evacuation. It is really important to us, and added but some things are out of our hands.

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BERLIN  German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says that in addition to the 125 evacuees that were flown out of Kabul on Tuesday, another 100 people were waiting for the next German military transport plane to ferry them out of the country.

Maas said two more planes were expected to land later in the day. He added that German military personnel on the ground had secured a safe gate to the airport that people who are on the German governments list for evacuation could use to to get in.

Following their sweep into Kabul on Sunday and taking over the country, Taliban fighters are now also guarding entry points and gates at the airport in the Afghan capital.

Meanwhile, Hungarys foreign ministry confirmed that more than 26 Hungarian citizens are in Afghanistan waiting to be evacuated.

News site Hvg.hu reported Tuesday that the 26 Hungarians had previously provided private security services to the Dutch embassy in Kabul but were now stranded in the city.

In a statement to news site Index.hu, Hungarys foreign ministry confirmed the report, saying Hungary had already agreed with one of our military allies to bring out the 26-strong Hungarian team, and was constantly monitoring the process.

The ministry also stated that additional Hungarian citizens in Afghanistan had sought assistance, but would not divulge their numbers or details of their whereabouts for security reasons. On Monday, the foreign ministry had told commercial television station ATV that it was unaware of any Hungarian citizens in Afghanistan.

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LONDON  A British officer in charge of Britains evacuation of between 6,000 to 7,000 people from Afghanistan says Taliban commanders around the airport in Kabul have not sought to disrupt the effort.

Royal Navy Vice Admiral Ben Key says pragmatic, tactical, low level discussions have had to take place with the Taliban as they control entry points into the airport.

While conceding that its only been a day and a half since the evacuation commenced, Key told BBC Radio that the Taliban have so far appeared acquiescent and understanding of what were trying to achieve.

British officials are calling in people to go to the vicinity of the airport as and when a flight becomes available for them. There, they have to be allowed through into the airport grounds by the Taliban. Once inside, British officials undertake the necessary security checks before taking them to the airfield where they await their flight back to the U.K.

Britain is seeking to evacuate 4,000 U.K. nationals and Afghan allies who have helped over the past 20 years.

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BRUSSELS  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is blaming a failure of Afghan leadership for the swift collapse of the countrys armed forces but says the alliance must also uncover flaws in its military training effort.

Stoltenberg says the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up and that this failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today.

His remarks came after he chaired a meeting Tuesday of NATO envoys to discuss the security implications of the Talibans sweeping victory in Afghanistan.

NATO has been leading international security efforts in Afghanistan since 2003 but wound-up combat operations in 2014 to focus on training the national security forces.

Referring to way the Afghan armed forces withered in the face of the Taliban offensive, Stoltenberg said that it was a surprise, the speed of the collapse and how quickly that happened.

He says there are lessons that need to be learned at NATO.

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MOSCOW  Russias top diplomat on Tuesday said that Moscow was in no rush to recognize the new Taliban government in Afghanistan and called for an inclusive dialogue of all political forces in the country.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was just like all other countries and in no rush to recognize the Taliban government. At the same time, Lavrov noted encouraging signals from the Taliban, who are declaring their desire to have a government with the participation of other political forces.

His remarks came as the Taliban in Kabul declared an amnesty across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government. Lavrov also said Moscow supports the beginning of an inclusive national dialogue with the involvement of all political and confessional forces in Afghanistan.

Russia designated the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003, but has since hosted several rounds of talks in Afghanistan, most recently in March, that involved the group.

Moscow, which fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with the Soviet troops withdrawal in 1989, has made a diplomatic comeback as a mediator, reaching out to feuding Afghan factions as it has jockeyed with the U.S. for influence in the country.

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SKOPJE, North Macedonia  North Macedonia will provide temporary shelter to 186 Afghan refugees before their transfer to the United States or other countries.

The government in Skopje said late Monday the decision concerns Afghans involved in democratic changes in their country or who worked for international organizations and agencies. It didnt say when they were expected to arrive.

Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said the first group of six refugees, mostly women and children are relatives of the U.N. office staff in Kabul. The rest include family members or staff from charities, human rights and civic organizations, as well as journalists. The government did not say when they are to arrive.

The Afghans will be put up in motels, resorts and hotels, at the expense of international organizations, as well as the U.S.

North Macedonias authorities said on Tuesday that most of the countrys 75 nationals have been evacuated with U.S. military planes from Kabul to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Out of another 14 still in Kabul, 11 will be evacuated later on Tuesday, Osmani said. The remaining three have stated that they will stay in Afghanistan for the time being.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  A top Taliban official has met with a Qatari official before reportedly leaving the country for Afghanistan.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar met with Qatars Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday.

A statement said the two reviewed the latest security and political developments in Afghanistan, stressing the need for the protection of civilians, intensifying necessary efforts to achieve national reconciliation, working for a comprehensive political settlement and a peaceful transfer of power.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates  A senior female broadcaster in Afghanistan said she remains in hiding at a relatives house, too frightened to return home or to work following reports the Taliban had a list of journalists and had knocked on some of their doors after sweeping into Kabul over the weekend.

The 29-year-old woman, who is in Kabul, says her father told her to remain in hiding until the security situation becomes clearer. She spoke to The Associated Press by phone on Tuesday and declined to give her name for fear of retaliation.

The situation for women in Afghanistan is unclear, she said. I do not believe the Taliban, she said.

She said that Afghan women have made great gains over the years, but she doesn't think the Taliban would accepts these strides. She said a friend of hers who is a presenter on Afghanistans national broadcaster, Mili TV, called her crying after she was told Tuesday by the station to stay home and not return to work until further notice.

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PRAGUE  The second Czech military transport plane has taken off from Kabul and is heading for Prague.

Czech Defense Minister Lubomir Metnar says Czech ambassador to Kabul, Jiri Baloun, and the Afghans who worked with the Czech military during NATO missions together with their families are among those on board.

Metnar thanked the soldiers for doing their utmost to get onboard as many people as possible.

Czech Foreign Ministry Eva Davidova says there are 87 people on board, including two nationals from other European Union countries, and an unspecified member of crew.

During the flight to Kabul, the plane had to land in Baku, Azerbaijan on Monday, and was only able to continue to the Afghan capital on Tuesday as evacuation flights were interrupted after people desperate to flee the country flooded the tarmac in the Afghan capital.

The first evacuation flight on Monday airlifted to Prague 46 Czech and Afghan nationals.

Another European Union member, Slovakia, has not yet received the green light for its military transport plane to land in Kabul due to the chaos at the airport, Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok said Tuesday.

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CHAMAN, Pakistan  Hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghans nationals crossed into Pakistan from the key border crossing of Chaman in southwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, witnesses and officials said.

However, they said that among these people were two suspected militants recently freed from the Pul-e-Charkhi and Bagram prisons by the Afghan Taliban. It was unclear on what charges the two had been held by the Afghanistan government.

No government official was immediately available for comment, but authorities have said they are allowing in all Pakistanis and Afghans who were stranded in Afghanistan.

One such suspected militant, Abdul Qadoos, told The Associated Press that he spent six years at Pul-e-Charkhi Prison until the Taliban let them go after capturing the facility. He refused to share any other details and only said that he was freed by the Taliban.

A second man, Hafiz Abdul Hadi, spent 10 years at Bagram Prison before his release by the Taliban, according to his close relative, Ameen Ullah, who was at the crossing to welcome him. The relatives of the men held up Taliban when they welcomed them into Pakistan.

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TIRANA, Albania  Albania is waiting on Tuesday to temporarily shelter the first Afghans who worked with Western peacekeeping military forces in Afghanistan and are now threatened by the Taliban.

Government sources, who spoke anonymously under regulations, said that about 300 Afghans are expected to arrive later tonight or early morning Wednesday with a military plane. They will be sheltered at the students campus in the capital, Tirana, and some hotels in the nearby western port city of Durres.

U.S. Ambassador to Tirana Yuri Kim met with Albanian Foreign Minister Olta Xhacka saying the situation changes rapidly and no details were known yet about the schedule and the numbers.

Weve been deeply moved by the gesture of the Albanian people, the decision to give temporary refuge to those who are in greatest need, she told reporters.

Kim said that (Afghan) people will be coming here temporarily with the idea that they will move on to the US for final settlement ... this is a matter of processing (the visa requirements).

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Sunday said they had responded positively to the U.S. governments request to Albania to serve as a transit place for a certain number of Afghan political emigrants who have the United States as their final destination.

___

WASHINGTON  A top U.S. defense official says plans are being made to temporarily house thousands of Afghans at three U.S. military installations.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that up to 22,000 Afghans and their families could be housed at the installations. Kirby did not identify more specific locations.

Thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. as interpreters and in other roles have been desperate to leave Afghanistan since before the government fell to the Taliban over the weekend, in the shadow of an Aug. 31 deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

Kirby told ABCs Good Morning America that the U.S. Defense and State departments are working together to evacuate as many Americans and Afghans as quickly as possible.

Kirby says several thousand U.S. service members now arriving in Afghanistan will there for the next couple of weeks to help with the evacuation.

___

BERLIN  German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin that she would speak to the head of the UNs refugee agency later on Tuesday regarding the situation of people in Afghanistan who may want to leave the country because of the instable situation.

Merkel said on Tuesday that she wants to talk with Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, about secure possibilities for refugees in the neighborhood of Afghanistan.

Merkel said it is a weakness of our EU that we didnt create a common asylum policy. The German chancellor has said before that the focus of helping possible Afghan refugees should be on supporting neighboring countries like Pakistan to take in Afghan migrants.

___

PARIS  France has evacuated several dozen people from Kabul in a military plane after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.

The flight early Tuesday brought the evacuees to a military air base in Abu Dhabi, and several of the passengers were then sent back to France.

The French military did not say whether there were Afghan or other citizens among the several dozen people brought on the overnight flight. France withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in 2014 and has already evacuated more than 1,000 Afghans who supported French forces.

Images released by the military showed French troops checking their weapons and guarding the plane in the Kabul airport while others checked the documents of those boarding the flight.

President Emmanuel Macron promised Monday that France would not abandon Afghans who worked for the country, from translators to kitchen staff as well as artists, activists and others potentially under threat with the collapse of the Afghan government.

___

BERLIN  Germany has suspended its development aid to Afghanistan after the Taliban's takeover of the country.

German Development Minister Gerd Mueller told daily newspaper Rheinische Post on Tuesday that the state-run development aid has currently been suspended.

Mueller added that all German and international employees of the German developmental agency GIZ had left the country and Germany was now trying to get local Afghan staff evacuated as well.

German news agency dpa reported that until now Afghanistan had been the country that received the most German developmental aid in world.

The agency reported that the German government had planned to give an estimated 250 million euros ($294 million) in developmental aid in 2021, but that money had not been paid out.

Other financial aid, not directly linked to the development aid, would have included support for police training or humanitarian aid. It was not immediately clear how much of that aid had already been given to Afghanistan. Dpa reported that altogether all German financial aid for Afghanistan would have added up to 430 million euros in 2021.

___

GENEVA  The United Nations is urging the Taliban to keep its promises, including its pledges to grant an amnesty to former government workers in Afghanistan, show inclusiveness for women and allow girls to remain in school.

The Taliban have made a number of statements that on the surface are reassuring, U.N. human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters Tuesday in Geneva. But their actions speak deeper than words, and its very early now  its very fluid.

He said the Talibans promises "need to be honored.

Understandably, given their past history, these declarations have been greeted with some skepticism, Colville added. Nevertheless, the promises have been made, and whether or not they are honored or broken will be closely scrutinized.

Colville alluded to comments a day earlier from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about chilling reports of human rights abuses and restrictions on rights  especially those of women and girls  in areas captured by the Taliban in recent weeks.

He also called on U.N. member states to use their influence with the Taliban to protect civilian lives.

___

GUELPH, Canada  Talks to expand a future Afghan government beyond only Taliban members are continuing in Kabul.

Officials close to the discussions on Tuesday are hoping for some good news within a day or two. They spoke on condition of anonymity because until now no one wanted details of negotiations released to the media.

Senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi has already held several rounds of talks with Kabuls political leadership, including Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the countrys negotiating council and former president Hamid Karzai.

At least one round of the talks went through the night. Discussion appeared to focus on how a Taliban-dominated government would respond to rights gained over the last 20 years.

The announcements of general amnesty and urging women to return to work appeared to indicate progress may have been made.

Muttaqi, a former higher education minister when the Taliban last ruled, began making contacts with Afghan political leaders even before President Ashraf Ghani secretly slipped away from the Presidential Palace on the weekend. Ghani's departure left a devastating vacuum that Taliban who were surrounding the city strode in to fill.

Muttaqi had reached out to U.S-allied warlords prior to Kabuls collapse seemingly starting the process of greater inclusivity in their government.

The talks underway are aimed at bringing other non-Taliban leaders into the government, which Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen earlier said would be an inclusive Afghan government.

Shaheen earlier told The AP a government will be announced after negotiations were completed.

-Kathy Gannon in Guelph, Canada
MISSION, Kan. (AP)  Many overwhelmed hospitals, with no beds to offer, are putting critically ill COVID-19 patients on planes, helicopters and ambulances and sending them hundreds of miles to far-flung states for treatment.

The surge in the delta variant of the virus, combined with low vaccination rates, has pushed hospitals to the brink in many states and resulted in a desperate scramble to find beds for patients.

The issue is that large hospitals in urban areas already were running short of space and staff with non-COVID procedures like cancer biopsies and hip replacements when the summer surge started. That means they have very few free beds to offer to patients from small rural hospitals without ICUs or from medical centers in virus hotspots.

Just imagine not having the support of your family near, to have that kind of anxiety if you have someone grow acutely ill, said Steve Edwards, CEO of CoxHealth, whose hospital in Springfield, Missouri, is treating patients from as far away as Alabama.

Hospitals across the U.S. had more than 75,000 coronavirus patients as of last week, a dramatic increase from a few weeks ago but still well below the winter surge records. However, Florida, Arkansas, Oregon, Hawaii, Louisiana and Mississippi all have set pandemic records for COVID hospitalizations in recent weeks.

Unlike the winter surge, hospitals this summer were already strained because emergency room volumes are back to pre-pandemic levels and patients are catching up on care they put off.

We are seeing COVID patients and we are seeing car accidents and we are seeing kids come in with normal seasonal viral infections. And we are seeing normal life come into the emergency department along with the extra surge of COVID patients so it is causing that crisis, said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

In Arizona, a special COVID-19 hotline is getting desperate calls from hospitals in Wyoming, Arkansas, Texas and California who are in search of bed space.

Often, there are no takers.

We just cant get them out, lamented Dennis Shelby, CEO of the 15-bed Wilson Medical Center in Neodesha, Kansas. Officials at the small hospital recently called 40 other facilities in multiple states seeking a bed for a COVID-19 patient, before finally finding one more than a day later about 220 miles (354.06 kilometers) away. Six of its seven patients have COVID-19, a pandemic high.

In Kansas, sick COVID-19 patients at small rural hospitals are waiting an average of nearly 10 hours to be flown somewhere else, according to Motient, a company contracting with the state to help manage transfers.

Dr. Richard Watson, founder of Motient, said Kansas patients are being sent as far away as Wisconsin Illinois, Colorado and Texas. Often, though, the rural hospitals just muddle through.

That is just the worst day that you can have in the emergency room as a provider to be taking care of a patient that you are totally helpless to give them what you know they need, he said.

He said the delayed transfers can have dire consequences for patients, especially those who urgently need to see specialists, often available only in bigger hospitals, for issues such as strokes or heart attacks.

Imagine being with your grandma in the ER who is having a heart attack in western Kansas and you are saying, Why cant we find a bed for her?' We are watching this happen right in front of us. This is America. Why dont we have hospital bed for her.' Well here we are."

In Washington state, the 25-bed Prosser Memorial Hospital doesnt have an intensive care unit, so it often sends critically ill patients elsewhere in the state. Hospital spokeswoman Shannon Hitchcock said Washington state hospitals are full, so Prosser patients are being sent as far away as eastern Idaho  600 miles (965.61 kilometers) away.

Luke Smith, director of the Arizona Surge Line, which coordinates COVID-19 patient transfers for Arizona patients and offers advice to out-of-state hospitals, said people arriving at emergency rooms are more acutely ill than we have seen historically.

Finding a hospital to take them is made more difficult by staffing shortages, after pandemic-fatigued doctors and nurses walked away.

Most of them are saying it isnt that they dont have an open bed, it is that they dont have nursing staff to care for them, said Robin Allaman, chief nursing officer at the 25-bed Kearny County Hospital in tiny Lakin, Kansas. Officials there called hospitals in Nebraska, Oklahoma and New Mexico before one in Colorado Springs, Colorado, 200 miles (321.87 kilometers) away, agreed to take a recent patient.

Allaman has no idea how many calls they made. I think we quit counting, she said.

High vaccination rates among the 65-plus age group group that filled beds early in the pandemic were supposed to protect hospitals from becoming overwhelmed again. But Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins, said there hasnt been the kind of reduction in hospitalizations that officials had hoped for because the delta variant seems to be more severe, particularly in younger age groups, whose vaccination rates are lower.

University of Iowa Healthcare in Iowa City has been getting calls from out-of-state hospitals seeking transfers, said Dr. Theresa Brennan, the hospitals chief medical officer. They turn down most of them because we have beds full of our Iowans.

Des Moines emergency medicine specialist Dr. Clint Hawthorne, like many doctors in Iowa, is concerned the situation could get worse after the Iowa State Fair, which is expected to draw 1 million people.

How are we going to be able to handle that? Hawthorne said. Theres not a good answer to that.

____

David Pitt contributed to this report from Des Moines, Iowa. Salter reported from OFallon, Missouri.
Milton, PA (17847)

Today

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
As many as 13,961 vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson were administered in the last 24 hours, of which 9,808 represent the first dose, and 4,153 the second dose, according to a briefing released on Wednesday by Romania's National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Committee (CNCAV).

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign on December 27, 2020, there have been 9,627,879 doses administered to 5,152,195 people, of whom 5,022,962 received the full scheme.

There have been 9 adverse reactions, seven of the general type and two of the local type, recorded in the last 24 hours.

Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign there have been 16,934 adverse reactions for COVID-19 vaccines, 1,808 local type and 15,126 general type., Agerpres informs.
AUR (Alliance for the Unity of Romanians) is requesting president Iohannis, CSAT (Supreme Council for Country's Defence) and the Government not to expose the Romanian people to the wave of Afghani refugees, who could generate real threats to national security and would affect the country's already low budget.

"At this moment, our priority is the Romanian people. We are requesting the president, CSAT and the Government not to make any promises to the external partners which would expose the Romanian citizens to some social pressures and terrorist threats. As long as we live from loans, as a country, CSAT and the Government have no mandate to take responsibility in Romania's name, to make any commitment which would submit financial efforts to a national budget, which is already insufficient for the internal needs," George Simion MP, co-chairman of AUR, declared in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

Senator Claudiu Tarziu, co-chairman of AUR, says in the same press release that Romania does not need to settle "the errors or failures of others", Agerpres informs.

"You cannot ask Romania to resolve a crisis of such magnitude, when the Citu Government and president Iohannis are already incapable of dealing with the multiple internal crisis - medical, demographic, social, economic, political, educational", senator Claudiu Tarziu said.
The National Political Bureau of the National Liberal Party (PNL) on Wednesday voted unanimously to support the Anghel Saligny National Investment Plan, Prime Minister Florin Citu announced on Wednesday, emphasising that the programme is not for mayors, but for Romanians.

"I asked my colleagues for a vote in support of the Anghel Saligny National Investment Plan. There was a unanimous vote, as PNL supports this development programme. It is not a programme for mayors, it is a programme for Romanians, because if we follow that rhetoric, we could say that the budget of a ministry, of transport, is the budget of the minister and it is in his pen. But it is not like that. It is a budget of the Romanians for the development of Romania, and PNL is endorsing this Anghel Saligny development programme," Citu said at the end of a PNL leadership meeting, Agerpres informs.
"The Joint Standing Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on Relations with UNESCO has asked Prime Minister Florin Citu, in his capacity as prime minister and minister of finance, as well as Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu to provide at the forthcoming budget revision for 2021 a minimum of 23 million lei needed for urgent interventions for the salvaging of Romanian monuments inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List," Weber said in a press statement released on Wednesday.

According to lawmaker, information provided to the committee by county councils in areas where there are UNESCO heritage sites (Alba, Brasov, Hunedoara, Harghita, Maramures, Mures, Sibiu, Suceava and Valcea) shows that they face "serious underfunding" and that the efforts made at the local level, including by attracting European funds, are" insufficient "for a good management of the monuments."We consider that the state of the national heritage in general and of the one that has already received world recognition for its exceptional value must be of concern to all decision makers in Romania. This heritage must be seen both as an element of identity and as something that generates local development and global visibility. A summary calculation shows that the 2021 national budget revision would require 23,427,000 lei for the counties where there are UNESCO heritage sites, distributed directly or under the National Restoration Program carried out by the Ministry of Culture."The committee also requested that, starting next year, a fixed percentage of the National Restoration Programme be allocated to UNESCO monuments in Romania, so that interventions become predictable, Agerpres informs.
Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Wednesday that the evacuation of Romanian nationals from Kabul, Afghanistan, is underway, adding that, according to intel he has, the Romanian Air Force aircraft will take over other nationals from Afghanistan as well.

"The situation is ongoing, I spoke with General Ciuca, who attended the National Political Bureau (BPN) meeting, it is in progress; we will very soon have information about when the Romanian nationals return home. (...) I have used all the opportunities since the very beginning; I discussed with NATO, there was also a NATO aircraft that took over citizens, we had our aircraft there, all the opportunities that we had were used to bring the Romanians home as soon as possible," Citu said on Wednesday after a meeting of the PNL BPN (National Liberal Party's National Political Bureau).

The prime minister also said that, according to intel he has, the Romanian Air Force aircraft will take over other citizens from Afghanistan as well, Agerpres informs.
PNL President Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday that he would not make a proposal for the position of finance minister, adding that he would express his opinion on the candidate proposed by PM Florin Citu for this position at the meeting of the party's National Political Bureau.

Asked at the Palace of the Parliament if he would make a proposal for the position of Minister of Finance, Orban said: "I will not come up with a proposal. Basically, I will ensure the leadership of the meeting, because the presidency of the Executive Bureau, the National Political Bureau, the National Council is the prerogative of the president and I do not want to prevent the holding of a meeting that could be statutory."

He stated that Dan Vilceanu, who was nominated by the Prime Minister for the office of minister of finance did not ask for his support and did not have the opportunity to have any discussion with him.

"Obviously I have a point of view on this proposal. I will express my position on the proposal made by the Prime Minister at the National Political Bureau," he said
President Klaus Iohannis signed, on Wednesday, the decree to appoint Dan Vilceanu as Finance Minister.

According to a release of the Presidential Administration, upon publication of this decree in the Official Journal, the effects of Decree no. 825/2021 appointing a Government member as an interim minister published in the Official Journal on July 8 cease.

The oath-taking ceremony will take place on Wednesday, at 17:30, at the Cotroceni Palace, Agerpres informs.
Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church addressed a message on the occasion of the Romanian Migrants Sunday that will be celebrated on August 22, exhorting the Romanians who live away from the country to stay in constant contact with their loved ones at home and to cherish the family - consisting of a man, a woman and children.

"With lots of fatherly love, we exhort the Romanians living away from the country to stay in constant contact with their loved ones at home. We also advise Orthodox believers in the country and abroad to cherish the family made of man, woman and children, because the family blessed by God represents the most precious intimate space where conjugal love, but also parental, filial and fraternal love find their expression. We encourage everyone to educate the young generation in the spirit of the love of God, the Church and the nation, and to cultivate in children and youth the essential Christian virtues: faith, hope and love of God and of fellow humans," says the Head of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The Patriarch also urges Romanian migrants to properly honor those who have passed to eternal life, because their prayerful remembrance is an act of living Orthodox faith and a testimony of love for fellow human beings, Agerpres informs.

His Holiness Daniel reminds that, given the large number of Romanians living outside country borders (which is currently estimated at almost ten million, with six million Romanians living in the historical or traditional communities in the countries neighboring Romania and four million Romanians living in diaspora church communities), the Romanian Patriarchate supports the efforts of Orthodox Romanians temporarily or permanently settled abroad, in order to preserve their religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural identity.

"The pastoral care and special appreciation shown by the Romanian Patriarchate towards the Romanian Orthodox communities outside the country have materialized in recent years through the establishment of numerous new parishes and dioceses to meet the multiple spiritual needs of Orthodox believers in Bessarabia (Republic of Moldova), Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Central and Northern Europe, Western and Southern Europe, the two Americas, Australia and New Zealand, as well as through the establishment of representations (Jerusalem and Brussels) and Romanian Orthodox communities (Mount Athos, Syria and Lebanon, Cyprus, Turkey, South Africa, Japan, Croatia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates/Dubai)," the Patriarch shows.

He goes on to thank the servants of the Romanian Orthodox holy altars outside Romania "for their activity and fidelity".

"At the same time, we urge them to intensify their pastoral and missionary work, for the preservation and cultivation of the Orthodox Christian faith, of the Romanian spiritual and cultural values. We pray to the Most Merciful God to bless all Romanians, in the country and abroad, and give them health and help, peace and joy for many and happy years!," Patriarch Daniel said in the message.

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed 2021 as Homage year of pastoral care for Romanians outside country borders and Commemorative Year of those asleep in the Lord; the two themes, homage-rendering and commemorative, highlight two of the essential coordinates in the pastoral and missionary activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The first edition of the Tower International Arts Festival - TIAF will take place at the Blacksmiths' Tower of Sighisoara's Medieval Citadel, a 1631 building featuring warfare elements of the time such as overhanging vaults, murder holes and firing slits.

This is the first large-scale event organized at the Blacksmiths' Tower, after the building was leased out by the municipality a year ago, TIAF organizer Claudiu Adam told AGERPRES.

"After taking the Blacksmiths' Tower in lease, we tried to restore its life and organized several smaller events. Tower International Arts Festival is the first major event; it takes place between August 20 - 21 and invites participants to the Museum Square of the Sighisoara Medieval Citadel for a series of special concerts. Jazz, blues, theater, good mood and beautiful people will meet for two days in a unique location. Friday will end with a special moment - 'The Retro Barn' at The Dallas Barn in Sighisoara's Venchi neighborhood, where the organizers are preparing an event with retro music, a light show and a themed setting on the lake shore," said Claudiu Adam, Agerpres informs.

The TIAF bill includes an acoustic concert by Bourbon Jazz Unit Group, The RETRO Barn concert - Venchi venue, an acoustic concert by vocalist and guitarist Andrei Petru, an acoustic concert by Ana Maria Galea Acoustic (vocals) and Daniel Csikos (piano) and a special live moment with DJ Stefan Biniak.

Also, the T.a.C.T Theater will perform in the the Museum Square Chekhov's comedy 'The Proposal' with Gianina Iconaru, Stefan Abrudan and Eugen Padureanu.
Dunagan, BJC HealthCares chief clinical officer and an infectious disease expert at Washington University, also expressed concern about availability of equipment used to care for patients with severe COVID-19, called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machines. The health systems have had to send at least one patient out of the region to receive ECMO treatment.

ECMO machines are used for patients whose lungs are so damaged they cannot provide enough oxygen to their blood. The machines oxygenate a patients blood until their lungs heal.

Ordinarily, the St. Louis region is an area to which other hospitals send their patients who need this therapy, Dunagan said. This is really pushing us to the limit, and is something thats going to impair our ability to take care of other patients.

Booster doses

The task force reported 543 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the regions hospitals  84% of them unvaccinated.

Dunagan said most of the vaccinated individuals who are sick with the virus are elderly or have an illness that compromises their immune system, which may have weakened their bodys reaction to the vaccine.
Her federal trial recently was pushed back to June 2022.

In their lawsuit, the eight-member medical board says Derges refusal to comply with their subpoenas has stymied them in their primary role of protecting the citizens of Missouri.

The five-page lawsuit notes that the board opened its investigation soon after news of the federal investigation broke earlier this year.

Included in the list of subpoenas are records of patients treated by seven other medical providers who worked at Derges Ozark Valley Medical Clinic in Nixa.

These records are necessary to determine whether several physicians actions subject their license to discipline in their care of patients, the lawsuit said. This conclusion will help inform the boards investigation and eventual decisions regarding the outcome of its investigation.

Derges is not a licensed doctor. Rather, she is called an assistant physician because she did not complete a training period, known as a residency, after completing medical school at Caribbean Medical University in Curacao. Under that designation, she must work under the supervision of a licensed physician.

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CLAYTON  The lawyers fighting over the legality of St. Louis Countys controversial mask mandate said Wednesday they are deadlocked after extensive negotiations over the past 24 hours.

Circuit Judge Ellen Nellie Ribaudo, who is charged with deciding whether the mandate should stand, gave lawyers for St. Louis County and the Missouri Attorney Generals Office one more day to reach an agreement that would effectively negate the need for her to make a ruling in the case.

Weve got political parties that are doing certain things based upon political decisions, but in the middle of that are all of the citizens of this county, of this state, Ribaudo told lawyers during a virtual hearing Wednesday. And people are getting sick, theyre being hospitalized at record numbers. Theyre dying.

Compromising on the mask mandate would benefit the public, Ribaudo said, because weve got people who dont believe that this is even real, and they dont think that they need to take concern over other peoples health, or that wearing a mask somehow impinges on their personal freedom. Because we keep letting the politics dictate the decision making.
Even those who made it inside the airport faced problems, however. Sam Lerman, an Afghan who formerly worked with the U.S. military, said American troops turned him away even after the State Department told him to come for a flight  saying he needed a green card.

People are going to die, Lerman warned.

The Taliban have promised to maintain security, but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government. Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militants.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates acknowledged that Ghani and his family were in the Gulf country in a terse, one-sentence statement.

The UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds, it said.

Ghani, in theory, remains the president of Afghanistan though many in the country blame him for the collapse of the country's security forces. The U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi did not respond to questions about Ghani's presence.

Ghani also faced allegations from Russian diplomats of carrying out millions of dollars when he fled.
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According to Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon their Iranian sponsors believe now is the time for an all-out joint attack on Israel. The religious dictatorship in Iran is now dominated by the extremists, or radicals. Most of the extremist attitudes come from the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) who suffered greatly from the return of economic sanctions in 2017. Because of these sanctions Quds force, which handles foreign wars and terrorism, saw its budget cut by half since 2017, forcing major reductions in Quds activities in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The IRGC was created in the 1980s to protect the new religious dictatorship and suppress, with violence if necessary, local opposition to the new religious overlords. The IRGC has become increasingly assertive in backing radical solutions to problems and that has created a growing number of nationalist clerics, including some eligible to be one of the twelve senior Shia clerics who run the Guardian Council. The senior clerics have become divided into mutually antagonistic factions. The moderates are those who want to put Irans interests first and concentrate on the economy and reducing the poverty that is visibly turning more Iranians against their government, Islam and all the foreign wars the radicals have dragged Iran into. These realists are also nationalists and often called moderates by foreigners. The IRGC believes force is the key to Iranian power and all Iranians must support that. Most Iranians do not support the IRGC and for over a decade have become increasingly open about that opposition. The IRGC has killed over a thousand of these protestors over the last few years. As a result of this the Guardian Council has blocked nearly all nationalist candidates from running in the latest national elections. This meant the new parliament and senior leaders were dominated by IRGC and Quds Force veterans, including several recognized as terrorists or guilty of war crimes.

A more aggressive new government in Iran has led to more Iranian violence and threats against neighbors. Arab states, including Iraq, are seeking help from Israel and the United States to improve air defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles and UAVs used as cruise missiles. The Americans point out that the most successful weapons against the Iranian missiles and UAVs have been developed by Israel, which now has diplomatic relations with the UAE, and other Arab states are considering doing the same because Israel is the most technically advanced country in the region and a primary target for Iranian aggression. Israel has also been the most successful at fighting back against Iran. This is popular in Arab countries, as is the seeming Iranian inability to retaliate against Israel.

Now Iran is openly calling for its foreign minions in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria to unite in a joint massive attack on Israel. Iranian hardliners believe their allies are getting weaker and that Israel will never be this vulnerable to attack. Some of the hardliners also understand that the religious dictatorship is in danger of being overthrown. The IRGC faction needs a win. The decision to pull the trigger has not been made yet because even in the IRGC and Quds Force there is disagreement about just how effective and reliable Iranian allies are. Many of those foreign supporters believe Iran will order an attack and then not participate themselves. This is a common and often used Iranian tactic.

Closer to home Israel has an even more complicated situation in Syria, where Russia and Turkey are supposed to be Iranian allies but are less frequently acting the part. Russia sent forces to Syria in 2015 to help preserve its old Cold War era ally the Assads. This was done for the benefit of Russia, not Syria or Iran. Russia was the second foreign power to come to the aid of the Assads. Iran had been helping keep their old Shia ally, the Assads, in power since 2013. Iran had more ambitious goals in Syria; to increase its ability to attack Israel. A year after the Russians showed up, the Turks sent in troops, but largely depended on Syrian mercenaries.

The Russians hoped to rebuild the Syria military. That proved impossible and the only alternative was hiring local or foreign mercenaries, which the Iranians, Turks, Americans and Syrians all relied on. By 2015 the pre-2011 Syrian military was gone for good and improving the equipment and air support for the Syrian forces merely made it easier for the Assad troops to play defense, which is all they really wanted to do after several years of civil war. Eventually Russia began hiring some Syrian mercenaries as well, if only to help eliminate the last remnant of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) in eastern Syria. Russia was content to let the Israelis keep the Iranian forces busy and taking heavy damage trying to destroy Israel. While the continuing war in Syria has eliminated the decades-long military threat from Syria, it has brought more armed and dangerous Iranians to Israeli border. This Iranian threat has existed on the Lebanese border since the 1980s. The Assads wouldnt allow their Iranian allies to operate on the Syrian border but would accept new ballistic missiles from Iran, and developed chemical weapons with Iranian help so that these short-range ballistic missiles could carry chemical warheads. All the Assad missiles and chemical weapons disappeared after 2011 and now Iran is trying to replace them with Iranian-controlled missiles trucked in from Iran via Iraq, That has not worked out because of hundreds of Israeli air strikes against these missile shipments. This is something everyone, including the Assads, unofficially approves of. Iran realizes this but continues to pretend this general hostility to their presence in Syria does not exist.

This odd alliance is to be expected because for centuries Turkey, Iran and Russia were all antagonists, not allies, and their seeming alliance in Syria is all a mirage. All three of these allies are scheming against each other. Russia notes that Turkey is selling weapons to Ukraine, where Russian forces are still at war with Ukraine. Turkey is also trying to repair its damaged relationship with NATO, and that means reneging on weapons purchases from Russia and other forms of anti-Russian behavior. Russia is sticking it to Iran by backing Israel and the efforts of Arab states to replace Iran as the protector of the Assad government. The Turks play defense, adding layers of protection to their border to prevent any of the remaining Islamic terrorists and civilians near the border from getting into Turkey. Iran doesnt care and is content to let the Turks deal with the Islamic terrorists while Iranian resources concentrate on Israel.

Northern Tunnels

Since 2018 Israel has been investigating Hezbollah tunnel building efforts. This first became news when Israel used their new tunnel detection tech, developed to deal with tunnels in Gaza, in the north after border patrols came across evidence of tunnel construction. This was often in the form of cave ins or work on exits. In early 2019 Israel announced that it would destroy those tunnels if they reached the Israeli border. By then Israel had found a sixth tunnel. This one was about 60 meters (180 feet) deep, about 800 meters long and extended less than ten meters (30 feet) into Israel. Israel had earlier revealed that it had developed technology to detect tunnel construction activity farther away but has not revealed how far. Now it has been revealed that the Hezbollah tunnel network is more extensive than earlier believed. Some of these military tunnels have been built in Hezbollah controlled sections of Beirut, the largest city in Lebanon as well as further inland, to the Beqaa Valley, long a Shia and Hezbollah stronghold. Some of these tunnels are large enough to allow SUVs and pickup trucks to use and some of these provide underground roads that extend for over ten kilometers. This enables truck mounted rocket launchers that exit near the Israeli border. That enables Hezbollah to fire some rockets, then return to the tunnel and drive to another launch site many kilometers away. Estimates that Hezbollah has hundreds of kilometers of tunnels providing access to underground facilities (supply, command and medical).

Growing anti-Hezbollah attitudes in Lebanon make it easier for Israel to obtain information about the tunnels. Aerial and satellite surveillance made it possible to gain a greater understanding of the entire tunnel system and how it is used. Israel keeps telling Lebanon that is Hezbollah attacks Israel again, like they did in 2006, Israeli attacks on Hezbollah would damage a lot of non-Hezbollah property and kill or injure a lot of Lebanese who do not belong to Hezbollah because Hezbollah has built a lot of its military facilities, especially tunnels, in residential areas. This was an effort to use their civilians as involuntary human shields against airstrikes. That does not work and most Lebanese are angry at Hezbollah, not Israel, for this situation.

Israel admits that their military operations inside Lebanon have been continuous during August and unpublicized. Hezbollah will only talk about Israel aggression without revealing any details. There have been daily airstrikes and use of artillery as well as more intense intelligence gathering operations, including some Israeli forces operating inside Lebanon.

August 17, 2021: In the north (Golan Heights) Israeli missiles hit several Iranian bases near a village where Hezbollah personnel wearing Syrian army uniforms were trying to conceal their nationality and efforts to prepare attacks on Israel. Until 2017 Israel regularly and discreetly provided medical care for badly hurt Syrians who showed up (usually at night) on the Israeli border. From 2011 to 2017 about 3,000 Syrians were treated, most of them in between 2015 and 2017. Israeli border guards regularly allowed badly wounded Syrians in and sent them to Israeli hospitals for medical care. Until mid-2015 Israel would transport badly wounded Syrians to Israeli hospitals outside the Golan Heights. After 2015 treatment was provided at the border, using a temporary hospital set up there. By 2015 over a thousand Syrians had received such treatment. By 2017 Iranian mercenaries and some Iranian operatives gained control of the border and fighting in the area died down. There were few civilian casualties and helped revive the medical care in the border area to discourage fraternizing with Israel. The Iranians are seen as another bunch of foreign invaders endangering the local Syrians.

August 16, 2021: In the south (Gaza) Hamas fired a large rocket into Israel, which was intercepted by Iron Dome because the missile was apparently headed for a populated area. Until now Gaza Islamic terrorists had observed the ceasefire and this was the first rocket attack since the end of the 11-day war in May.

In Gaza, Iran-backed Hamas has told Egypt, the mediator of ceasefire talks with Israel, that peace with Israel is no longer possible and another offensive will soon begin. Hamas is trying to get some sympathy and outside access from Egypt. That has not worked since Iran is at war with Egypt because it is an ally of Saudi Arabia. Hamas had demanded free access to the outside world and that means the ability to bring in dual-use materials that can be used for military purposes.

In the West Bank (Jenin) Israeli security forces encountered gunfire as they sought to carry out a pre-dawn raid to arrest some Islamic terrorists. For of the Palestinian shooters were killed and one wounded. There were no Israeli casualties.

Later in the day soldiers encountered and arrested an armed Palestinian wearing a convincing Israel army uniform.

August 14, 2021: In the north an Israeli UAV crashed on the Syrian side of the border because of equipment failure. This happens regularly as the number of UAV operations along the Syrian border have increased. Israel doesnt lose any tech secrets because of these crashes because there have been several already meaning Iran and Russia dont offer as much money for the wreckage.

Elsewhere in the north (Lebanon) there was another warehouse explosion, this one near the Syrian border. There were 28 deaths and nearly a hundred injured. The warehouse stored large quantities of gasoline, kerosine and diesel fuel that was repackaged so that it could be smuggled across the border into Syria, where there is a growing shortage of such fuels. At first it was thought that the warehouse owner and smugglers were working for Hezbollah but that was apparently not the case. Some other influential faction in northern Lebanon was protecting, and profiting from this operation. There have been smaller explosions in similar situations recently, indicating growing smuggling operations along the border. Lebanon is suffering from a severe economic recession and growing public hostility towards Hezbollah and Iran.

August 12, 2021: In the south, across the border in Egypt (northern Sinai) security forces attacked an Islamic terrorist base, killing 13 terrorists while losing nine soldiers. Large quantities of ammo, weapons and other equipment were seized. This clash was part of a larger operation that included several raids and violent encounters. Egypt has reduced the presence of Islamic terrorists in Sinai, where groups like ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and al Qaeda are most active. They have done this with the help of Israel and the United States and want to expand that cooperation.

August 11, 2021: In the south, a Hamas quadcopter was monitored as it approached the Israeli border and brought down, apparently electronically, as soon as it crossed the border.

In the north, a Hezbollah UAV was detected and shot down as it crossed the border.

In Ethiopia, satellite photos revealed several Iranian Mohajer-6 UAVs at an airbase, along with a truck mounted control ground station. The Mohajer-6 entered service in 2017 and appears to be a copy of the original Israeli Heron UAV, which entered service in the 1990s and was one of the Israeli UAVs that led to the larger American Predator. The Heron has undergone several major upgrades since the 1990s but the Mohajer-6 appears to be the same weight, size, shape and performance as the 1990s Heron. One difference is that the Iranian UAV was equipped to carry two laser guided missiles. Ethiopia usually buys its UAVs from Israel, but few Israeli UAVs are equipped to carry weapons while the Iranian models carries up to four small guided missiles or bombs. Israeli UAVs specialize in reconnaissance and surveillance, passing on target information to ground and air forces. That works inside Israel but some UAV customers requested armed models. Ethiopia apparently needed some armed UAVs fast and the Iranians had some Mohajer-6s available. This was attractive because the Mohajer-6 had seen a lot of combat use in Iran and Syria since 2018 and was cheaper than the alternatives.

Ethiopia is currently dealing with another rebellion, this time in the north, adjacent to Eritrea. Ethiopia had been buying smaller Israeli surveillance UAVs for decades but no one could supply larger armed UAVs on short notice. Iran saw an opportunity and took it. The Iranians point out that the Mohajer-6 could also be used against al Shabaab Islamic terrorists active on Ethiopias Somali border.

August 10, 2021: In Syrian port of Latakia an Iranian tanker docked there experienced an onboard explosion that led to a fire and some casualties. The tanker was smuggling oil to Syria. Israel has interfered with these tankers in the past.

In southern Israel, American jet fighters completed several days of joint training with their Israeli counterparts. This included air-superiority and ground attack operations. This is the first time American and Israeli warplanes had done this sort of thing inside Israel.

August 7, 2021: In the south (Gaza) Israel carried out air strikes against Hamas targets in retaliation for a large-scale Hamas use of incendiary balloons the day before that caused four brush fires in Israel. This was the first Hamas use of the fire balloons since July 25th. Hamas is supposed to be observing a ceasefire negotiated with the help of Egypt.

In eastern Syria (Deir Ezzor province), numerous Israeli air strikes against Iranian bases outside Mayadeen city have led Iran to bring in air-defense radars and mobile SAM (Surface-to Air Missile) units to the area. This is an effort to discourage Israel from continuing their airstrikes. The Iranians have also installed a radar for detecting low flying UAVs. Syrian and Russian air defense systems have been unable to stop the Israeli attacks and now the Iranians are seeking to show the Syrians and Russians what effective air defense is. The Israeli response has been more airstrikes. Iran is trying to turn this area, just west of the Euphrates River, as a major logistics and training center for its Syrian operations against Israel. So far that effort has provided more targets for Israel to attack and those airstrikes are increasing.

August 6, 2021: In the north Hezbollah took credit for firing nineteen rockets into Israel from Lebanon over the last two days. All were either intercepted by Iron Dome or fell in unoccupied areas. There were no casualties or property damage in Israel. Israel launched retaliatory attacks against Hezbollah targets immediately on the 4th, carrying out three separate waves of attacks within a few hours. There were more airstrikes and use of artillery today and yesterday. Hezbollah was apparently encouraged to make the attacks by Iran, where a new hardline president was in power and threatening attacks on all enemies of Iran.

Some Lebanese villagers near the Israeli border discovered that Hezbollah had brought in a truck mounted rocket launcher to their village and were about to launch rockets against Israel. The Druze villagers attacked the Hezbollah men trying to set up and launch rockets. The villagers know that Israeli forces can determine where a rocket came from and promptly use artillery or an airstrike to destroy the launch site. For that reason, Hezbollah often uses truck mounted launchers or installs rocket storage bunkers and above-ground launching into one of the many Hezbollah owned buildings near the border. Druze are particularly hostile to Hezbollah, whose official position is that Druze are heretics. Thats an attitude towards Hezbollah that most Lebanese, especially the non-Shia (Christians, Sunni Moslems and several other religious minorities) share. Shia are less than a quarter of the population and not all of them support Hezbollah. In this case Hezbollah accused the Druze villagers of being supporters of Israel and enemies of all Lebanese. That press release backfired as Hezbollah was reminded that most Lebanese hate them and situations like this make that hatred more visible.

July 29, 2021: Near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, off the Oman coast an Israeli owned tanker was hit by an airstrike which killed two crew members, one British and other Romanian. This was believed to be Iran trying to retaliate for more than ten Israeli attacks on Iranian ships since 2019. In the current attack two or more armed UAVs were aimed at the crew quarters indicating the UAVs were under remote control and deliberately seeking to cause casualties. Examining fragments of the UAVs that hit the tanker revealed that they were Iranian. Israel, Britain and the United States openly demanded that Iran admit its guilt and cease such illegal behavior. Iran denied responsibility but as more and more nations viewed the evidence, Iran found it had few nations that believed their denial of responsibility. The U.S. led calls for Iran to be punished for this blatant attack on Persian Gulf shipping. Iran has long attacked foreign merchant ships operating near their coast, sometimes openly, to persuade foreign countries to comply with Iranian demands. Apparently, the age of compliance is coming to an end and such Iranian attacks will be treated as acts of war and responded to as such. Despite this, Iranian leaders continue to believe their intimidation tactics are still working.

July 25, 2021: In southern Iraq (the Shia shrine city Najaf) two Iran-backed militias reported that their ammo depots had been attacked by missiles fired by unidentified UAVs. The missiles set off numerous secondary explosions caused by stored munitions. Finding enough missile fragments to identify who made the missile has been difficult. American, Israeli and Chinese armed UAVs are all used in the region. China supplies Iraqi forces with UAVs armed with Chinese versions of the American Hellfire missile. Israel doesnt use armed UAVs that much or that far from Israel. The Americans denied responsibility.

July 22, 2021: In eastern Syria (Homs province) Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes against Iranian military targets again, as it had done yesterday. A Russian source claimed that four of the Israeli air-to-ground missiles, launched from Lebanese air space, did not reach their targets. If true this meant that Russia had, for the first time, used the S-400 air defense system to spot and track Israeli missiles and intercept them. Syria had long been asking for Russia to use its more advanced air defense systems to counter the hundreds of Israeli air strikes. The Russians refused to confirm the media report and Israel ignored it. Both intercepted air strikes destroyed their intended targets and it is unclear what the purpose of the false report that Russia would neither confirm or deny. If true it would have meant Israel finally had their long-sought opportunity to scrutinize the S-400 in action and upgrade their countermeasures. Israel has been using standoff weapons, fired from Lebanese, Israeli or Jordanian airspace, to avoid exposing its manned aircraft to the S-400 if the Russians should finally decide to actually use them. Tracking missiles is a start because Israel has a wide variety of air launched missiles, some better equipped to deal with the S-400 than others. This unusual rumor appeared to be a Russian effort to improve the reputation of their new systems without actually using them against the Israelis.
(U.S. Air Force)

DAYTON, Ohio (Tribune News Service)  Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has shifted its health protection condition status to Bravo-Plus.

The base returned to health protection condition Bravo from Alpha on Aug. 4, but base leaders did not reinstate a public health emergency. Bravo represented heightened awareness of the continuing COVID pandemic.

Base leaders carefully monitor the state's and surrounding counties' COVID numbers.

"The spread of the delta variant has dramatically accelerated since we last held a public briefing 10 days ago. We are at the highest number of new cases since February. Today we're reporting 3,235 cases," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday in a press briefing streamed live at the Ohio Channel.

Condition Alpha governed the base for about two months.

No public health emergency has been declared, the base is saying on its web site Wednesday.

Col. Patrick Miller, commander of the 88th Air Base Wing and installation commander at the base, is scheduled to discuss the situation at a Facebook town hall meeting at 4:30 p.m. today, at https://www.facebook.com/WPAFB.

(c)2021 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)

Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Buy Photo People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on June 3, 2021, protested the killing of king cobras during the U.S.-Thai military exercise Cobra Gold. The protest took place outside the embassy of Thailand in Washington, D.C. (Caitlin Doornbos/Stars and Stripes)

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals declared victory this week after the practice of drinking the blood of cobras was axed from the multinational Cobra Gold military exercise in Thailand.

Killing the snakes to demonstrate a jungle survival technique was scuttled at the exercise earlier this month, PETA announced Monday, citing unnamed Thai military sources. The nonprofit, based in Norfolk, Va., spent years lobbying against a practice it called frat boy-style barbarity.

Images of beheaded snakes, their blood dripping onto the tongues of eager young Marines, were publicized by the Defense Department itself.

We are proud that after PETAs intensive campaigning, Thai and U.S. armed forces made the ethical and safe decision to not kill any animals during this years Cobra Gold exercises, apparently for the first time in the events history, PETA vice president of international laboratory methods Shalin Gala wrote in an email Wednesday to Stars and Stripes. This move means that this year troops were no longer made to eat live animals or drink the blood of beheaded snakes, which is a win-win, sparing animals and protecting public health.

The III Marine Expeditionary Force, which is based in Okinawa, Japan, and usually participates in Cobra Gold, did not respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

PETA began campaigning in 2020 against the military killing cobras at Cobra Gold after the images came to their attention, Gala said. The group discovered that troops and instructors also killed chickens with their bare hands, skinned and ate live geckos and ate live scorpions and tarantulas.

Gala said the group was concerned about the poor treatment of animals, but also about the health of the service members.

The practice poses a serious zoonotic disease threat, a group of 19 military veterans and PETA supporters wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on July 22.

The World Health Organization has warned that an estimated 70 percent of emerging and re-emerging pathogens  such as those that have caused the current COVID-19 pandemic, along with Ebola, Zika, SARS, MERS, smallpox, tuberculosis, and others  originated in animals, the letter said. Its irresponsible to jeopardize our service members health and safety during these bloodlust exercises.

PETA complained in writing to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Navy Inspector General Vice Admiral John Fuller and Thai officials.

PETA supporters protested at the Thai embassy and Austins Virginia home; they drafted petitions, wrote op-eds and solicited media coverage, Gala said. He said more than 119,000 supporters responded to PETA online action alerts.

These actions likely influenced the Cobra Gold organizers to reconsider the ritualistic bloodlust killing of animals this year, he said. This is an important victory for ensuring that troops can learn survival techniques without having to mutilate and kill animals.

Better jungle survival methods can be taught that do not include the killing of animals, he said.

Gala wrote that PETA would monitor future exercises to ensure the practice is not resurrected.

Cobra Gold typically takes place in the winter months and is one of the largest multinational exercises in the Indo-Pacific region. In addition to U.S. soldiers and Marines, thousands of troops from over 24 nations also take part.

Last year, approximately 5,500 U.S. service personnel participated in activities ranging from amphibious assaults to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok said at the time.

This years 40th iteration was pushed back to July and August, and some activities were canceled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Bangkok Post reported July 2. It said only 600 U.S. troops took part.
Buy Photo Student walks to class on the first day of school in August 2020 at Vogelweh Elementary School, Germany. Face masks will be required indoors for students and teachers at Defense Department schools when the new school year starts, including for those who are already vaccinated against the coronavirus, school and military officials said. (Brian Ferguson/Stars and Stripes)

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany  Face masks will be required indoors when the new year for Defense Department schools begins Monday, including for students and teachers who are already vaccinated against the coronavirus, school and military officials said.

Masks also will be mandatory on school buses, where seating charts will be used to assist with contact tracing, school administrators said.

In the interest of keeping everyone safe, all folks in buildings will be masked, including teachers, said Jason Ter Horst, DODEA community superintendent of Baumholder, Sembach and Wiesbaden schools, at a U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz online town hall meeting Tuesday.

Face masks also were required indoors at all DODEA schools last year.

The rules are based on DOD and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, school officials said.

The CDC earlier this month updated its masking guidance for K-12 schools due to the spread of the highly contagious delta variant. It recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors.

Jasmine Vina, left, and Haley Black, wearing face masks at Edgren Middle/High School on Misawa Air Base, Japan in November 2020. Masks will be required indoors at Defense Department schools this fall, including for students and teachers who are already vaccinated against the coronavirus, school and military officials said. (DODEA)

Students will be given frequent outdoor mask breaks and can take their masks off when eating and drinking while spaced a safe distance apart, Ter Horst said.

We understand that no one wants to wear masks all day, he said. Kids want to do whatever it takes to be in school. We couldnt do this without them.

The issue of whether face coverings should be optional or mandatory in U.S. public school districts has sharply divided many parents and policymakers  divisions that arose on the garrisons Facebook page, which livestreamed the meeting.

I appreciate you all using the science and data to support our kids and families, a viewer wrote.

But one parent asked, What if we dont want our kids to be masked all day at school?

You can always home school, a commenter suggested in response.

Ter Horst called some changes for this year bright spots, including more lenient physical distancing rules in the classroom  3 feet instead of 6 feet. Also, volunteers will be allowed in classrooms on a limited basis.

Parents are being asked to check students temperatures and basic health daily, Ter Horst said. A child with a fever or other symptoms should stay at home. The absence will be excused.

Vaccinations for employees are still voluntary, DODEA officials said in an email to Stars and Stripes. The agency is waiting on federal guidance on testing requirements for employees who are not vaccinated, they said.

At DODEA schools in Kaiserslautern, Ramstein and Wiesbaden, 90% plus of our teachers are fully vaccinated, Ter Horst said.

Most schools are expected to open their doors to students next week despite a recent rise in coronavirus cases in the Kaiserslautern area and across Germany, Ter Horst said.

The only exception among schools in Europe is in Sigonella, Italy, where damage to the installations power substation has temporarily left the school complex without power, said Stephen Smith, DODEA-Europe spokesman.

Stars and Stripes reporter Karin Zeitvogel contributed to this report.
Buy Photo Residents of Kawasaki, Japan, uniformly wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus on the city streets Aug. 17, 2021. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

TOKYO  The coronavirus pandemic appeared far from relaxing its grip Wednesday on Japans capital city, one of the worlds largest metro areas, where the one-day count of newly infected people exceeded 5,000 for the fourth time this month.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 5,386 people had tested positive Wednesday, the second-highest one-day total of the pandemic, according to public broadcaster NHK and metro government data. Six people died of complications of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, according to NHK, citing metro sources.

The seven-day moving average, 4696.6, is the highest its been during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, U.S. military commands in Japan and South Korea reported 38 people newly infected with the virus. Four bases in Japan accounted for 24 cases.

U.S. Army Japan said 13 people have tested positive for COVID-19 between Aug. 11 and Wednesday, according to an Army news release. Five fell ill with symptoms of the disease, three were in restricted movement as new arrivals to Japan and five had been quarantined as close contacts, the Army said.

The Marine Corps reported eight new COVID-19 cases within its community on Okinawa, according to a Facebook post Wednesday by Marine Corps Installations Pacific.

Sasebo Naval Base, on Kyushu Island, identified two newly infected individuals on Tuesday, according to a Facebook post by the base on Wednesday. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, south of Hiroshima, said one person there tested positive, according to a news release Wednesday.

In Tokyo, many infections occurred in younger age groups: 1,661 cases among people in their 20s, 1,137 among people in their 30s and 892 among people in their 40s, according to NHK.

Japan reported another 19,860 infected people, just shy the record Aug. 13 of 20,400, and 47 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center on Wednesday. Nearly 38% of Japans population are fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suge, at a news conference Tuesday, promised to secure more hospital beds and hotel rooms, among other measures, for people who need treatment and space in which to recover.

The national government has called on department stores and shopping malls to limit the number of shoppers, and asked people to limit their trips to crowded areas. Suga also called businesses to promote teleworking and limit those going to work by 70%.

We are in a critical state, he said.

Tokyo and the three prefectures surrounding the city, along with Osaka and Okinawa are under a state of emergency until mid-September. Another seven prefectures, including Kyoto, are set to join that list on Friday.

Okinawa reached another one-day high Wednesday with 761 new cases, exceeding the prior peak on Saturday, 752.

South Korea update

In South Korea, the U.S. command on Tuesday reported 14 of its people tested positive for the virus between Aug. 10 and Monday.

Two service members at Osan Air Base, and one each at Camp Humphreys, Daegu Garrison and on temporary duty in South Korea fell ill with COVID-19 symptoms between Friday and Monday, according to a U.S. Forces Korea news release.

A family member at Osan also fell ill; four at Daegu and one at Humphreys were discovered during contact tracing, according to USFK. One family member at Osan tested positive Aug. 13.

Two South Korean employees, one at Daegu and one at Humphreys, tested positive on Aug. 12, USFK said.

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributed to this report.

Joseph Ditzler Hana Kusumoto
Buy Photo A Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter on display at the Kawaguchiko Zero Fighter Museum, Kawaguchiko, Japan, on Aug. 13, 2021. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)

KAWAGUCHIKO, Japan  The Mitsubishi A6M fighter, commonly known as the Zero, could outmaneuver every airplane it encountered when the Japanese swept across the Pacific at the start of World War II.

The Allies eventually built planes that were almost as agile, with more firepower and superior armor. But the Zero, in the war's last stages put to use for kamikaze attacks, has retained its mystique as one of the ultimate dogfighters.

During August, some of the few surviving examples of the legendary aircraft are on display at the Kawaguchiko Zero Fighter Museum in Yamanashi prefecture, about an hours drive from western Tokyo. Admission is 1500 yen, or a little less than $15 USD.

The Japanese built almost 11,000 Zeros during the war but only a handful are still airworthy today, according to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The museum, open daily during August from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is part of a facility that was built in 1981 by former race-car driver Nobuo Harada.

Initially, its collection featured only antique cars, but it grew to include a warehouse full of restored Japanese military planes recovered from Pacific battlefields.

The aircraft collection includes three Zeros. A fourth, restored by museum staff, is displayed at the Yushukan Museum at the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo.

Near the aircraft a video shows Japanese troops dragging Zeros off a runway into a field next to Naval Air Station Atsugi in preparation for the arrival of U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1945. The base, in Kanagawa prefecture, is now a joint base shared by the U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Along with a the Zeros, the Kawaguchiko museum includes the tail section of Mitsubishi G4M Betty bomber flown by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.

Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, died when the Betty he was travelling in was shot down over Papua New Guinea by a U.S. Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter on April 18, 1943.

The Kawaguchiko museum also displays a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa/Oscar fighter flown by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service.

Outside, the museum also has on display several F-86F Sabre fighters that were flown by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force from the 1950s. Sabres saw more than their share of combat with the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.
Buy Photo Troops of U.N. Command render salutes during a ceremony on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone on Aug. 18, 2021, marking 45 years since the killing of two U.S. officers at the site. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes)

CAMP BONIFAS, South Korea  Service members from the U.S. and South Korea on Wednesday afternoon paid tribute to two American soldiers who were axed to death by North Korean troops 45 years ago.

On Aug. 18, 1976, Capt. Arthur Bonifas, a Joint Security Force company commander, and 1st Lt. Mark Barrett, a platoon leader, were slain while trimming a tree at the Joint Security Area of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

The U.S. soldiers, part of the United Nations Command, were dispatched to trim a poplar tree that obstructed a watch towers view of a checkpoint near a bridge. Dubbed the Bridge of No Return, it was frequented by troops of U.N. Command and soldiers of North Koreas Korean Peoples Army, who, at the time, taunted and provoked each other, according to the commands security battalion.

Bonifas and Barrett, part of a 10-man U.N. Command security team, were sent with workers to trim the tree after the North Korean side was informed of their intent. Nonetheless, a North Korean officer on site told the U.N. troops to cease their operation. The officer summoned roughly 30 additional troops, who attacked Bonifas team without warning.

The killings shocked President Gerald Ford, who ordered the tree felled three days later in Operation Paul Bunyan. Combat troops and engineers cut down the tree in roughly 45 minutes without incident as American forces throughout the peninsula stood by on alert.

In a ceremony Wednesday, troops of U.N. Command placed flowers and wreaths at the site where the tree once stood. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Rick Luce, the Security Battalion-Joint Security Area commander, described the memorial as an important part of our history.

Being here at this battalion and at that location is historically relevant, Luce said to Stars and Stripes. Its an honor to be up here. Its an honor to walk on the same ground as those UNC soldiers.

Luce, whose younger brother was killed in combat in Afghanistan, also reflected on losing a family member in a war zone.

I acknowledge what its like to lose a family member, Luce said. Were very proud of the Bonifas and Barrett family. Its a time of remembrance. We dont want to forget.

Capt. Lee Chang Rok of the South Korean army took part in Wednesdays event and said the memorial was one of many sacred traditions in the Joint Security Area.

I have to work hard so that the efforts of my seniors and comrades are not in vain, Rok said, referring to Bonifas and Barrett.

Bonifas legacy continues through his family. His daughter, who was 6 years old when he died, reached the rank of captain in the Armys nursing program.

Bonifas grandson, Spc. Andrew Arthur Bonifas, joined the Army in 2019 and serves as petroleum supply specialist with the 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, out of Fort Riley, Kansas.

I wanted to join the military to follow my grandfathers and my moms footsteps, Andrew Bonifas said to Stars and Stripes in a phone interview Wednesday.

Andrew, who is currently stationed in Camp Humphreys, South Korea, visited Camp Bonifas during the July 4th weekend.

Its just really surreal, he said.
Buy Photo Bavaria's Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, left, speaks with Brig. Gen. Joseph Hilbert, commander of the 7th Army Training Command, right, during the 50th anniversary ceremony for the Pegnitz helicopter crash on Aug. 18, 2021, near Pegnitz, Germany. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes)

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany  A small Bavarian city paid tribute Wednesday to the victims of a fiery helicopter crash in which more than three dozen American soldiers died 50 years ago.

Attendees at the ceremony in Pegnitz, which is home to about 15,000 people, included victims relatives, military personnel and government officials.

Among them was John Hutson, who in 1971 was a 17-year-old private and a mortarman. He was one of the soldiers sent to take the place of those who had died in the helicopter crash.

When we dedicated the memorial two years later, I was the narrator for the ceremony and got to read all the names, Hutson said. So it was special knowing they were going to have this ceremony today.

Buy Photo Attendees gather around the Pegnitz memorial site, Aug. 18, 2021, during the 50th anniversary ceremony for the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of 37 U.S. soldiers near Pegnitz, Germany. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo U.S. and German soldiers carry wreaths Aug. 18, 2021, from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to the memorial site for soldiers killed in a Chinook crash 50 years ago, near Pegnitz, Germany. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes) Buy Photo Family members gathered in Pegnitz, Germany, pay tribute to the victims who died in a 1971 helicopter crash near the Bavarian town. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes)

The crash took place close to the autobahn from Munich to Berlin. Its about 10 miles from the Grafenwoehr Training Area, which is the largest U.S. Army training area in Europe.

Stars and Stripes reported at the time that the crash was due to a crack in the rotor blade caused by a corroded pit about the size of a finger. The crack caused the CH-47 Chinook helicopter to plunge to the ground.

Buy Photo The Stars and Stripes Aug. 19, 1971 front page with the news of a Chinook helicopter crash that killed 37 soldiers in Bavaria the day before. Family members and others recently gathered near Pegnitz, Germany, to pay tribute to the victims on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy. (Stars and Stripes)

The victims burned to death, according to the Bavarian police who were at the scene. One of the first Germans there saw four badly charred bodies still fastened to their seats.

One of the victims, Pfc. Arthur Kearney, was a mortarman with 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 56th Field Artillery Brigade. Several relatives of the New York native were on hand Wednesday in Pegnitz to honor him and remember his service.

Peter Kearney, one of Arthurs siblings, wore his brothers uniform at the ceremony.

He was two years older than me in the Army, and when the accident happened, I was in the Navy stationed in Antarctica, Peter Kearney said. I couldnt come home for the funeral because there are no flights for six months in the dark. I came home about a month after it was all over.

Buy Photo Family members of Pfc. Arthur Kearney, a mortarman who died with 36 other soldiers in a helicopter crash 50 years ago, pose for a photo on Aug. 18, 2021, near Pegnitz, Germany. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars and Stripes)

Peter was with some buddies drinking beer when his commanding officer told him that the chaplain wanted to speak with him. When the chaplain informed him of the news, Peter asked which one of his three brothers had been killed.

For him, the memorial ceremony in Pegnitz served as a substitute for the funeral he couldnt attend.

Another of Kearneys siblings, Laurene Gagliano, said she was moved by the homage that the people of Pegnitz paid to her brother and his comrades.

She said that when Arthur joined the service, it was during the time of the draft lottery.

Arthur joined the Army because he knew he was going to get drafted, so he said he was not going to wait and volunteered and went, Gagliano said. My parents are very proud (of his service), because my father was a World War II vet.

In June, the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade presented a CH-47 Chinook rotor blade to the people of Pegnitz. The blade will eventually become part of a memorial at the crash site.

Immanuel Johnson
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby holds a news briefing at the Pentagon on Aug. 17, 2021. (Julian Kemper/DOD photo)

Eighteen American C-17 cargo jets removed some 2,000 people since Tuesday from Kabuls international airport, the last ground in Afghanistan controlled by U.S. and allied forces, the Pentagons top spokesman said Wednesday.

The outgoing jets evacuated 325 American citizens and hundreds of Afghans and NATO ally personnel, said John Kirby, the Pentagons chief spokesman. At the same time, some 700 U.S. troops and their gear arrived in Kabul on 18 C-17s and one smaller C-130 cargo plane. The latest increase of troops brings the total U.S. military presence at Hamid Karzai International Airport to about 4,500 service members, he said.

Kirby also said he expected a similar number of flights in and out from the Kabul airport during the next 24-hour period, but he declined to estimate how many people could be evacuated during that time. Kirby previously said the Pentagon was working to ramp up to moving some 5,000 to 9,000 evacuees from the airport per day on more than two dozen incoming and outgoing flights.

We expect the same kind of air activity in terms  of the number of [flights], but I cant tell you exactly the numbers of people that we will have coming and going, Kirby told reporters in a news briefing from the Pentagon. The goal is to get as many people out as quickly as we can.

He said in addition to the U.S. military flights, some NATO partner flights and commercial flights had also come and gone from the Kabul airport in recent hours.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Wednesday morning with President Joe Biden at the White House to discuss operations at the Kabul airport and the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban now controls virtually the entire country. Those two top Pentagon officials were expected to brief reporters Wednesday afternoon, in their first public appearances since the Talibans lightning offensive thrust them into control of Afghanistan for the first time since the U.S. ousted them in 2001, just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Kirby said operations at the Kabul airport had remained smooth since they restarted Monday after U.S. troops cleared the airfield of thousands of desperate Afghans who had flocked to the airport to flee the Taliban, who captured Kabul on Sunday. He said American troops had at times fired warning shots to control crowds outside the airports perimeter, but he said he was not aware of any injuries or threats to Americans safety.

The Defense Department was aware of news reports out of Kabul  including from CNN and The Washington Post  that Taliban fighters had blocked or harassed individuals attempting to reach the Kabul airport, Kirby said. The Taliban had agreed to ensure safe passage through Kabul for Americans and Afghans attempting to leave the country via the airport, he said.

This is one of the reasons why communication with the Taliban is so important, Kirby said. To make sure that that doesnt happen, and that those who we are trying to evacuate, especially [special immigrant] visa applicants and Afghans at risk who we're working very hard with to make sure that they can get through safely so that they can be properly processed and make that passage.

But Kirby would not say whether the Pentagon was considering making a physical effort to ensure safety to those outside of the Kabul airport grounds or whether it might expand the security perimeter around the airport. Kirby said he would not talk about any potential future plans.

Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, visited the Kabul airport Tuesday. He said he had delivered a stark warning to Taliban senior leaders during face-to-face meetings in Doha on Sunday not to interfere with U.S.-led evacuation operations or face overwhelming force.

Kirby said a few hundred additional American troops, mostly Marines, were expected to arrive Wednesday at the Kabul airport. The force at the airport is expected to reach about 6,000 American troops at some point, but Kirby did not say when that entire force would be in place.

As of Wednesday, the mission was expected to end Aug. 31, he said, even as lawmakers and others have publicly called for the United States to stay longer to evacuate more people.

The mandate by the president is to complete this mission by the 31st of August, Kirby said. I wont speculate about any possible different decisions going forward. That would be a decision that would have to be made by the commander in chief.
This story has been corrected

Barbara Lee speaks in 2001. (Screen capture from video.)

In 2019, Rep. Barbara Lee was campaigning for Kamala Harris in South Carolina when she was approached by a big, burly man and his child. He didnt want to talk about Harris. He wanted to talk about something Lee did in 2001: She was the only member of Congress to vote against authorizing unlimited military force in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

I wasnt sure what was going on as the man walked up to her, the California Democrat recalled Tuesday. He explained that he was initially furious about her vote but, over the years, had a change of heart. What you did, I hated you, he told her with tears in his eyes. But I understand now exactly what that was all about. I came here because I want to personally apologize and I want my son to see me apologize to you for that.

For 20 years, Lee was like the mythical Cassandra: Gifted with the ability to predict the future, cursed that no one would believe her. Then came the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the trillions of dollars and thousands of lives sacrificed, and now the stunning collapse of Kabul.

I almost wish, in many ways, that I had been wrong, she said. Because whats taking place today is terrifying.

Suddenly, Lee is the voice everyone wants to hear. Every cable pundit wants her opinion. Her office is inundated with media requests, even as she is scrambling to protect and evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghans fleeing the Taliban. Once reviled, her solitary vote against the Afghan invasion is now being reframed as an important, prescient moment in American history.

There is no sense of vindication. What shes feeling right this moment is worry and sadness and anxiety. More than anything, theres a sense of urgency.

Ive got to do more, she sighed. More to protect women and children, more for the Afghans who helped American soldiers and journalists. As chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations - which funds diplomatic missions and humanitarian assistance - Lee is desperately trying to bring some order to chaos and make sure there are enough assets in the region to get everyone out safely. That means cutting through some of the bureaucracy to expedite special immigrant visas and pressure the Defense and State departments to move more quickly.

That urgency to do something, anything, is a sharp contrast to 2001, when Lee was surrounded by Americans reeling from the 9/11 attacks. Just three days later, the House voted 420-1 on the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which gave the president power to use all necessary and appropriate force against anyone involved in any way with the terrorist act.

Lee never considered herself a pacifist  her father was a retired lieutenant colonel who fought in World War II and Korea. She was reeling, too, but she was also acutely aware that this was the worst possible moment to make a momentous decision. Her concern was not the need to respond, but that this authorization gave the executive branch a blank check in perpetuity for what she calls Forever Wars.

My major was psychology and psychiatric social work; Im a clinical social worker by profession, she explained Tuesday. We learn in Psychology 101: You dont make hard decisions when youre emotional, when youre feeling fear, anger, pain, anxiety.

In her historic speech on the House floor, Lee  in just her third year in Congress  pleaded with her colleagues: Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, Lets step back for a moment. Lets just pause, just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.

Some of us turned out to be Lee alone, and things did, in fact, spiral out of control. Two decades later, she is even more convinced that postponing the vote even a short time would have yielded a better result: How can we be rational as leaders when were when were grieving for the country, when were grieving for people who were killed, when were afraid for what might happen next?

Her father was the first person to call her after her speech. You do not send our troops in harms way with no exit strategy, he said approvingly. Others were not so kind: Lee was publicly condemned as a coward and a traitor and received numerous death threats.

That vote shadowed her everywhere. Over the years, people who once vilified her would take her aside and share their concerns about the toll of endless wars.

There was this note: I was one of those who wrote you a very nasty letter, it said, as Lee recalled it. I condemned you, called you a traitor, the whole bit. Then, wrote the woman, she had two kids and her perspective changed: I just want to tell you were right and I apologize for what I said to you. The woman also wrote that she didnt have a lot of money, but enclosed a check for $15.

Throughout it all, voters in Oakland kept sending Lee to Washington. The liberal Democrat has worked tirelessly to repeal the Iraq resolution and the 2001 authorization, partnering with veterans groups to build political support. Any president can respond to an imminent threat with military force, she said, but Congress cannot give up its role in declaring war. Its not easy, but again, I always say, as a Black woman in America, we have to be persistent.

She supports President Joe Bidens decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan but was stunned by the rapid collapse of the country. I think were caught  I wont say caught off guard  but surprised we didnt calculate how ready the Taliban were, she said. Our soldiers did everything we asked of them, she added. There will inevitably be hearings, the emotional deep dives into the what and how and why.

But for now, Lee hopes there are lessons to be learned. That America should not be in the business of nation-building. That the three aspects of foreign policy  defense, diplomacy and development  need to be reconsidered and rebalanced. As chair of the appropriations subcommittee, she oversees a budget of about $62 billion for diplomacy and development. The defense budget? $714 billion in 2020.

People need to understand that why some of us are so adamant about reducing the defense budget, she explained. Even a 10% cut, which Lee supports, would pour tens of billions into more nonmilitary foreign policy initiatives.

And last, but certainly not least: That opposition is at the heart of our democracy, especially when you really believe the Constitution is violated or there are moral and ethical issues at stake. And there are so many, said Lee, when it comes to war and peace.

One lesson that I hope people have learned, she said, is that central to our democracy is the right to dissent and that right has to be protected.

Correction This story has been corrected to reflect that the appropriations budget for diplomacy and development that Rep. Barbara Lee oversees is about $62 billion.
Buy Photo People board a plane at the airport in Kabul as they prepare to evacuate Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021. As the U.S. military seeks to evacuate some 5,000 people a day from Kabul, the challenge of getting out of Afghanistan is getting into the airfield thats secured by both U.S. and Taliban forces. (J.P Lawrence/Stars and Stripes)

As the U.S. seeks to evacuate some 5,000 people a day from Kabul, the challenge of getting out of Afghanistan is getting into the airfield, which is secured separate areas by both U.S. and Taliban forces.

U.S. government-provided flights are departing, and American citizens and permanent residents should consider traveling to Hamid Karzai International Airport, the State Department said in an alert Wednesday afternoon.

But the message carried a warning that the U.S. government cannot ensure safe passage to the airport.

The military side of the facility is being secured by thousands of Americans. Outside, Taliban militants had set up checkpoints and were demanding travel documents before letting anyone in, said a former airport worker who was waiting to be called back to his job and declined to be named for safety reasons.

The militants fired occasional warning shots to disperse crowds of people who sought to push through the gate into the airport each time it opened even an inch, The Associated Press reported.

But in meetings with the groups senior leadership in Qatar over the weekend, U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Frank McKenzie cautioned that any attack on the evacuation effort would be met with overwhelming force, he said in a statement Tuesday after touring the airfield.

Since those meetings, U.S. commanders have had discussions with Taliban commanders on the ground outside the airport, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.

I would just let the results speak for themselves, Kirby said. There are interactions multiple times a day and  theres been no hostile interactions from the Taliban to our operations at the airport.

Afghans swarmed the tarmac earlier in the week, and two were killed by American troops after showing hostile intent, officials said. Others desperate to escape fell from a C-17 military plane theyd clung to when it took off.

Many in the country fear brutal Taliban reprisals, though the militants have sought to assure Afghans that they will not face retribution for supporting the U.S. or the deposed government.

But some Kabul residents said groups of armed men have been going door to door asking about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the ousted Kabul administration, the AP reported, though it was unclear whether the gunmen were Taliban or criminals.

The Afghan Independent Journalists Association also voiced concerns about press freedoms Wednesday, saying in a statement that three journalists had been beaten by the Taliban, including one who was trying to talk to a militant about the situation outside Kabuls airport.

Many of the desperate Afghans who gathered outside the airport beginning Sunday had returned to their homes Tuesday, but the roads were still jammed, said Mohammad Nasim, 26, a Kabul resident who was in the crowd and spoke to Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday.

Some were still getting onto the airport grounds by climbing over the walls, said Nasim, who said he had no documents, passport or electronic ID card, but heard three days ago that some Afghans were evacuated without any paperwork.

"I just want to get on a plane and don't care where they take me, he said. It should just be outside of Afghanistan.

Stars and Stripes reporter Zubair Babakarkhail contributed to this report.
A Taliban fighter patrols in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/AP)

In just seven days, any lingering dreams of a free Afghanistan died.

As last week dawned, many clung to hope that the Taliban could be held back, though key trade routes had been seized, border crossings overtaken and swaths of remote areas clutched. But then, in just a week, militants won city after city, toppled the government and grabbed the grand prize of Kabul.

On its streets, ads with women in Western clothes were covered in white paint, while men in jeans and T-shirts rushed to change into traditional tunics. At the U.S. embassy, staff raced to destroy documents as helicopters shuttled away diplomats.

Fingers once splashed with purple ink  residue of voting, a badge of democracy  now clenched tickets seeking exit, and frantically punched ATMs to withdraw life savings.

All in seven days.

"The only thing people are thinking about is how to survive here or how to escape," said Aisha Khurram, a 22-year-old headed to class Sunday at Kabul University before being turned back, unsure whether she would ever be able to return, or if females will once again be barred from school. "The only thing we have is our God."

Even for a country scarred by generations of warfare, it was an astonishing week.

MONDAY

The week dawns with news that insurgents claimed the northern cities of Aybak and Sar-e Pul.

In some districts, pro-government forces surrender without a fight. In others, where firefights sprout, desperate residents areforced from their homes, trudging hundreds of kilometers on foot in exodus.

"We walked with slippers, didn't have the chance to wear our shoes," says Bibi Ruqia, who left northern Takhar province for Kabul after a bomb hit her house. "We had to escape."

The fall of Aybak and Sar-e Pul pleases the Taliban fighters; afterward, they are seen on video relishing their victory outside one of the government buildings they now controlled.

But Americans and the Afghan troops they spent years training had reasons to take heart: The cities were just the fourth and fifth provincial capitals to crumble. Twenty-nine more remained.

TUESDAY

In the sparkling Qatari capital of Doha, American envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrives with a warning to the Taliban: Any gains made by force would be met with international condemnation and assure their status as global pariahs.

The effectiveness of the diplomacy is diminished, though, by Taliban forces' push into the western city of Farah. They are seen in front of the provincial governor's office.

As the United States' self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw its troops nears, the Taliban steadily gains ground while hundreds of thousands are displaced. Kabul's parks swell with the newly homeless, while the United Nations releases tallies of civilian deaths and injuries they know would only grow.

"The real figures," says U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, "will be much higher."

WEDNESDAY

Three more provincial capitals fall in Badakhshan, Baghlan and Farah, giving the Taliban control over two-thirds of the country. With those regions lost, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rushes to Balkh province, already surrounded by Taliban-controlled land, to secure help from warlords linked to allegations of atrocities and corruption. But he is desperate to push back the insurgents.

At the White House, President Joe Biden signs off on a plan to mount a full-scale evacuation of Afghans seeking to flee their country after a new intelligence analysis makes clear the country's government and military are unwilling or unable to mount any significant resistance. Afghan special forces, left to pick up much of the burden of defending multiple fronts, are stretched increasingly thin.

As the Taliban's drive widens, they emerge in more and parts of the country carrying M-16 rifles and driving Humvees and Ford pickup trucks, equipment paid for by American taxpayers.

THURSDAY

Any hope that the Taliban's successes might be limited to Afghanistan's more remote reaches vanish, as the country's second- and third-largest cities are captured.

With Kandahar and Herat, a dozen provincial capitals are now in the group's grasp. And with security rapidly deteriorating, the U.S. reverses course, announcing 3,000 troops will be sent to help evacuate the embassy.

Zahra, a 26-year-old resident of Herat, is on her way to dinner with her mother and three sisters when she sees people running and heard gunshots blast. "The Taliban are here!" people scream.

She spent most of her life in an Afghanistan where girls got an education and women dared to dream of careers and she had spent the past five years working with nonprofit organizations to press for gender equality. Now, her last name is shrouded to avoid making her a target, and she hunkers down indoors with her family.

"How can it be possible for me as a woman who has worked so hard and tried to learn and advance, to now have to hide myself and stay at home?" she asks.

Taliban fighters finally break through at Herat after two weeks of attacks. As they move in, witnesses tell of Taliban members once detained in the city's prison are spotted moving freely in its streets.

FRIDAY

As the Taliban push ever further into the country they once again seek to rule, reports of revenge killings trickle out: A comedian. A government media chief. Others.

Signs of a new day in Afghanistan proliferate.

In Herat, two alleged looters are paraded through the streets with black makeup smeared on their faces, reminders of the unsparing version of Islamic law the Taliban has imposed. In Kandahar, militants commandeer a radio station that had beamed Pashto and Indian songs into residents' homes, music banned by the Taliban. The tunes stop, abruptly. And the station is renamed Voice of Sharia.

Militants complete their sweep of the country's south, taking four more provincial capitals. Among them is Helmand province, where American, British and other allied NATO forces fought some of their bloodiest battles. Hundreds of Western troops died there during the war. Now, many of their families ask why.

SATURDAY

Ghani delivers a televised speech in which he vows not to give up achievements of the 20 years since the Taliban were toppled. But the group pushes forward, notching more victories.

Along the Pakistani border, the provinces of Paktika and Kunar fall. In the north, Faryab province is taken. And in the country's center, Daykundi is captured. Biggest of all, Mazar-e-Sharif  the country's fourth-largest city, a heavily defended swath that government forces had pledged to defend  is now under Taliban control.

The unfolding disaster prompts a statement from President Joe Biden, standing firm in his decision to finish the withdrawal of U.S. forces that began under Donald Trump.

"I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan  two Republicans, two Democrats," he said. "I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth."

In Kabul, long lines form outside the international airport. Afghans seeking to flee push carts loaded with carpets, televisions and mementos as they waited hours to enter the terminal.

On normal days, Afghans in business suits and traditional dress mingle beside tattooed military contractors in wraparound sunglasses and aid workers from across the globe. Now, the panicked masses fill the airport, scrambling to leave.

Farid Ahmad Younusi abandoned his Kandahar contracting firm for a chance to escape. Everything he built, he says, now appeared to be lost, and militants were searching for him.

"Taliban have everything that I worked for over the past 20 years," he says.

In sight of the airport, the mountains ringing the capital rise in the distance as the walls seem to close in. As Saturday wears on, news arrives of new Taliban wins.

Just south of the capital, Logar province falls. To the north, insurgents take Mihterlam, reportedly without a fight. Members of the Taliban are reported in the Char Asyab district, just 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Kabul.

The city's fate seems all but sealed.

SUNDAY

The Taliban seize Jalalabad, the last major city besides the capital, and a string of victories follows. The capitals of Maidan Wardak, Khost, Kapisa and Parwan provinces, as well as the country's last government-held border post falls to militants, and Afghan forces at Bagram Air Base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, surrender.

Insurgents had no air force and just days earlier had no major city. They were far outnumbered by Afghan troops, who were trained by the American military, the most well-funded and strongest on the planet. And yet, the impossible is now true: The capital of Kabul and its 5 million residents is theirs.

Helicopters whirr. Smoke rises. The American flag is lowered at the embassy.

Ghani, who hours earlier urged his people not to give up, has now fled himself, his abandoned palace occupied by heavily armed fighters, his name cursed by his own countrymen.

"They tied our hands from behind and sold the country," says Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

In the U.S., Biden's CIA director cuts short a foreign trip to return to Washington. Others in the administration reject comparisons to the fall of Saigon even as many find the resemblance impossible to ignore. With preparations underway to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that drove the U.S. to war, the top American general warns of a rise in terrorist threats to come.

Whiplash over the sheer speed of Afghanistan's fall jars those in seats of power.

"You want to believe that trillions of dollars and 20 years of investment adds up to something," says Sen. Chris Murphy, a Biden ally and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Night falls with Taliban fighters deployed across the capital. Abandoned police posts are claimed. And on nearly empty streets, men carry the black-and-white flag of the Taliban.

Their victory is complete.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Matthew Lee and Nomaan Merchant in Washington and Rahim Faiez in Istanbul contributed to this report.
Buy Photo People board a plane chartered by the U.S. government at the airport in Kabul as they prepare to evacuate Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021. (J.P Lawrence/Stars and Stripes)

WASHINGTON  An advocacy group that provides legal services to displaced people around the world filed multiple petitions for protection to the State Department on Wednesday to demand the United States evacuate all Afghans seeking special immigrant visas to safety regardless of the status of their applications.

The International Refugee Assistance Project filed one of the legal claims on behalf of all applicants in the Special Immigrant Visa Program and multiple others on behalf of specific individuals. The group said it marks the first time the State Department has been petitioned to carry out its legal duty under the Afghan Allies Protection Act.

The law requires the U.S. to protect all SIV applicants when they are in imminent danger, according to Becca Heller, the groups executive director.

State Department officials said the U.S. has already evacuated 2,000 Afghans who worked with Americans as translators and interpreters during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. However, President Joe Bidens administration has said up to 22,000 additional special visa applicants are expected to be evacuated.

But the International Refugee Assistance Project estimates the number of individuals with pending applications is more likely to be 100,000, which includes all the primary applicants for SIVs and their families. The group said the Biden administration does not intend to evacuate all of these individuals under Operation Allies Refuge, the Defense Department-led operation to airlift at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan.

"Tens of thousands of SIV applicants were left out of the first phase of Operation Allies Refuge  including a significant number of IRAP clients  because they had not yet received their visas or reached medical exams, which is the final stage of visa processing. For several reasons, we ask that the evacuation be expanded to include the SIV applicants who remain in Afghanistan," according to the petition for all applicants.

Members of the group said the State Department has justified evacuating a smaller number of applicants by only accepting people who have completed the first stage of the application process, which is often the most arduous and dysfunctional.

[The administration] is blaming our own allies for their failure to have a functioning application process. And then using that as an excuse to argue that they shouldn't have to evacuate them. It's morally reprehensible, Heller said during a teleconference with reporters to discuss the petitions.

The petitions come as the Taliban has taken control of Afghanistan and the Defense Department is attempting to boost evacuations from Kabuls international airport to between 5,000 and 9,000 people from Afghanistan each day.

The unwillingness of the U.S. government to protect our allies, after they sacrifice their safety and, in many cases, their lives is a historically unprecedented failure that only a sustained attempt to hold the Kabul airport and meaningfully evacuate people can even begin to remedy. The timing could not be more urgent, Heller said.

The State Department has told U.S. citizens as well as Afghans who are attempting to flee the country that they cannot guarantee safe travel to the airport.

Communications, even to U.S. citizens from State Department, as recently as a few hours ago, said in all caps The United States government cannot assist you with safety or cannot guarantee your safety on the journey to Kabul, said Michael Breen, president and CEO of Human Rights First, an international human rights organization.

Breen said SIV applicants and other refugees within sight of the airport have been beaten severely by Taliban fighters and killings at individual homes are already taking place throughout the country.

Heller said the group's client told her that at least five translators have been killed by the Taliban in the last two days.

An Afghan womens rights advocate and International Refugee Assistance Project client Fatima, a pseudonym in place of her real name for fear of speaking out, said on a pre-recorded message provided by IRAP during the teleconference that she applied for a special immigrant visa in 2018 and is still waiting for a response.

Fatima said she worked on U.S.-funded projects for several years. In that time, she said she received many threats and warnings to stop serving the United States. Yet, she saw the projects through to the end because of my commitment and loyalty to U.S. government, she said.

Now, she and her family are hiding from the Taliban.

We all are worried and afraid. I cant face them as a lone woman in this situation. Im thinking how much more I can hide from them, myself and my family. They can find us out any moment, any day, and kill us all, she said on the recording.

International Refugee Assistance Project has sued the U.S. government twice over the extreme delays in administering special immigrant visa applications and the group is now arguing the government has not done enough to fix the broken system.

SIV applicants who are stuck in Afghanistan are there because their access to safety has been needlessly delayed for years, Heller said.

Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-American novelist and humanitarian worker who spoke during the teleconference, said his family and friends who are in Afghanistan are terrified.

Some of the people that Ive spoken to, friends in Kabul, aligned themselves with American initiatives knowing that will turn them into targets to the Taliban and other insurgent groups. But they did it anyway, because they believed in a better future for their country, because they believed in the promise of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.  America has a moral obligation to evacuate those people as quickly as possible and bring them to safety, Hosseini said.
David Harris, 51, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and FBI special agent tasked with investigating crimes against children, now faces sex crime charges of his own. Harris was arrested last month in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. (Ascension Parish Sherriffs Office)

BATON ROUGE, La. (Tribune News Service)  A jailed FBI agent and Army Reserve colonel appeared in a video-conferenced court hearing Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to sex crimes involving children.

David Harris, 51, was arrested in June. A short time later, a judge ordered him held without bond in Ascension Parish jail, saying he posed "a threat to the public at large."

Harris' most recent assignment for the FBI focused on investigating crimes against children, including child pornography. He lived in Prairieville and worked out of the FBI's New Orleans field office.

His Tuesday arraignment marked Harris' second court appearance since his arrest. He wore an orange jumpsuit, and was one of several inmates who waited in line to communicate with the court though Zoom.

Harris faces one count each of aggravated crimes against nature and indecent behavior with a juvenile in Ascension Parish. A grand jury heard the case last month and issued an indictment, which mentions two victims under age 17 and alleged offenses that occurred in 2016.

After Harris stated his plea, the judge set his next court date for Oct. 19.

Once the Ascension case is resolved, Harris will face additional charges in East Baton Rouge and Orleans parishes, as well as in Tyler, Texas. Officials also referenced an ongoing investigation in Florida.

Though his Louisiana arrest warrants have been filed under seal, a Texas report released earlier this month revealed new details about the allegations against him.

Harris repeatedly exposed himself to teen girls and documented his predatory behavior on his government cell phone, according to the warrant.

During a 2019 text message exchange about possible sexual partners, Harris said: "I mean they have to be in their teens. I'm not a weirdo. ... Unless I move to Kentucky where 16 is the age of consent," according to Texas investigators.

In addition to his position with the FBI, Harris worked as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, a position he earned after decades of military service starting with his 1992 graduation from West Point.

(c)2021 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.

Visit The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La. at www.theadvocate.com

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Buy Photo Displaced Afghans camp out at a Kabul park on Friday, Aug. 13, 2021, before the Taliban swept into the city. The Talibans sweep through Afghanistan has spurred many veterans and others to seek ways to ease the humanitarian suffering in the country. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is inspiring drives by veterans and others to ease suffering and aid Afghans who supported the U.S. war effort.

Organizations in the U.S. are preparing for an influx of refugees, while groups that are continuing aid work in Afghanistan have seen increased bloodshed and other extreme hardships caused by the crisis.

Here are some ways to help.

Helping Afghan refugees

As he watched the unfolding crisis from St. Louis, Afghanistan veteran and law student Peter Lucier wanted to do something.

But not knowing what to do, he sought advice from people he knows on Twitter.

Ten years after getting out, Im still a Marine, he said. So if you tell me what to do, Ill do it.

Because news in such crises can be bewildering, Christopher Boian, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said people who want to help refugees should first seek deeper information about the challenges they face, such as with integration and resettlement.

With the help of his followers, Lucier chose to back the groups Keeping Our Promise, which helps resettle Afghans who supported the U.S. government, and Hearts and Homes for Refugees, which provides sponsors and other programs to aid with refugee integration.

Lucier then turned to the current and former military members dubbed MilTwitter," hoping to put a veteran face on crowdfunding campaigns to support the groups. They've raised some $40,000 in a matter of days.

The first pledges last week addressed an immediate need, he said, allowing Keeping Our Promise to begin preparing for an Afghan family being whisked to the U.S.

Another group, Lutheran Social Services National Capital Area, is mobilizing to support the Afghans arriving at Fort Lee, Va., one of three places where the Pentagon said it will house up to 22,000 special immigrant visa applicants and refugees for processing.

New York-based HIAS is urging people to volunteer and donate to support resettlement efforts, and it has partnered with Airbnb, where people can offer to host refugee families and others in need of a place to stay.

Catholic Charities and Jewish Family Service are among four organizations in San Diego that told CBS8 theyre receiving three to five Afghan refugee families a week and expect that number to increase as the crisis deepens.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement also provides a list of contacts for refugee resettlement programs in all 50 states. Boian also recommended visiting the UN refugee agencys U.S. website and Refugee Council USA.

Helping groups still at work in Afghanistan

Despite the violence and uncertainty, many humanitarian aid groups and nonprofits say they are continuing their work in Afghanistan.

Doctors Without Borders said increased violence has put some of its facilities on the front lines of the conflict, but its staff is working to keep health care facilities open and ensure treatment not only of victims of war, but of pregnant mothers and others in need of care.

The nonprofit Emergency Surgical Center in Kabul was over capacity as it treated 115 patients Monday, including some injured at the airport, which was overrun with fleeing Afghans, said Alberto Zanin, the facilitys medical coordinator, in a statement.

There is a lot of chaos outside our hospital, he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which operates over a dozen medical centers, has committed to continuing its work in the country, where it said it has treated over 4,000 patients wounded by weapons since Aug. 1.

The International Rescue Committee, which has been operating in the country since the 1980s and says its projects are 99% staffed by Afghans, warns that 2021 could be the deadliest year in the conflict in over a decade and is asking for $10 million to support its humanitarian efforts.

PARSA, a nonprofit that runs a Scouts program for Afghan boys and girls, is cautiously resuming work after its compound was initially overrun by the Taliban, but no one was hurt, the charity's executive director Marnie Gustavson said in an email Wednesday.

PARSA staff is moving forward with grace, compassion and courage to keep PARSA open and operational, she said. We will be focusing on providing humanitarian assistance now for the foreseeable future using our network of Afghan Scouts all over the country.
Federal prosecutors sentenced Lamont Godfrey, 43, on charges for mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release from the Justice Department. (Steve Roberts Jr., The Virginia Gazette/TNS)

NORFOLK, Va. (Tribune News Service)  A Virginia Beach man was sentenced to 45 months in prison after he abused his role as a maritime academy administrator, selling fraudulent U.S. Coast Guard merchant mariner credentials.

Federal prosecutors sentenced Lamont Godfrey, 43, on charges for mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release from the Justice Department. He was prosecuted in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Godfrey was the chief administrator at Norfolks Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy, a private training center that offers Coast Guard-approved courses for merchant marines, when he conspired with three other men to produce fake course certificates.

Eugene Johnson, 46, of Manteca, California; Shunmanique Willis, 44, of Richmond, Texas; and Alonzo Williams, 46, of Pineville, Louisiana, also took part in the scheme.

Mariners must attend deck and engineering classes to receive a certificate and obtain work positions on merchant ships. Godfrey and the men bypassed the Coast Guards requirements in exchange for payment by producing at least 1,000 authentic looking course certificates for over 252 mariners, according to court documents.

By selling counterfeit merchant mariner certificates in exchange for cash payments, (Godfrey) and others permitted untrained and unqualified mariners to perform jobs onboard merchant vessels they were not entitled to hold, Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in the release.

Johnson, Willis and Williams recruited mariners, who would pay up to thousands of dollars for what looked like approved credentials and instructions on how to upload them into the Coast Guard systems. For Godfreys job as chief administrator with the academy, he was responsible for monitoring usage of the academys certifying stamp and official seals, which he also used for the fraudulent certificates.

By engaging in the scheme and purchasing counterfeit and fraudulent MMA course certificates, the mariners were able to save both money and time by paying the discounted rate and not actually having to attend the course, court documents said.

The men sent certificates to mariners across the country through mail carriers. They netted over $394,000 in profits from July 2016 to December 2019  Godfrey received $249,000 directly.

All have been sentenced to prison for their role in the conspiracy. Williams was sentenced to 27 months on June 24. Willis received 18 months on June 28, and Johnson with 29 months on Aug. 3.

John Mauger, Rear Admiral and Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy for the U.S. Coast Guard, said in the release Godfreys sentencing reflects the Coast Guard and Department of Justices commitment to ensure the United States Marine Transportation System remains one of the safest in the world.

We are confident this ruling sends a strong message that the U.S. government will not tolerate these types of acts and will vigorously take action against such misconduct, Mauger said.

2021 The Virginian-Pilot

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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Changes to the SunCommercial's back end processing means the e-edition is getting a facelift. The biggest change is the e-edition, by default, is now presented in Text view.
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TAHLEQUAH [mdash] Glen R. Haddock, born March 14, 1938 in Bakersfield, California to Johnny Aaron and Beulah Bea (Fredrick) Haddock passed away in his home August 24, 2021, at the age of 83 years 5 months and 10 days with his family holding his hands. Glen was the youngest of his twin sister
Editor's take: In ramping up the hype for its upcoming Pixel 6 flagship, Google quietly released the Pixel 5a with subtle improvements over last year's model. It's unfortunate to see the phone getting a limited release in the US and Japan only, thanks in part to the ongoing chip shortage. The 5a's affordable price tag and attractive hardware/software package would have given global rivals some needed competition in the midrange Android space.

Reviews of the Google Pixel 5a started surfacing recently. Although it looks barely distinguishable from the 4a 5G in its newer 'Mostly Black' color, Google has made several under the hood upgrades while bringing the price down.

Chief among them is a much bigger battery at 4,680mAh, which would have paired nicely with a faster 90Hz display, but sadly Google didn't improve upon the predecessor's 1080p OLED screen beyond a slight size increase. It also keeps the older phone's SD 765G chip, 6GB/128GB storage configuration, and other useful connectivity features like NFC and 3.5mm jack.

Like its current Pixel 5 flagship, Google went for a metal body construction for the 5a, albeit a lower IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. The latter is still a worthy addition, absent in the 4a/4a 5G, allowing the Pixel camera experience to shine on more occasions.

In fact, PCMag's Steven Winkelman found the 5a's camera performance to be on par or even better than the iPhone 12 and Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Pixel 5a (left) produces better low-light images than the iPhone 12 (right)

Image credit: Steve Winkelman

Despite an under-the-radar launch, Google's Pixel 5a marks a few important milestones for the company. It's expected to be the last Google phone to feature a Qualcomm chip and include a bundled charger as the upcoming Tensor-powered Pixel 6 will ditch the power brick.

The 5a is also the first Pixel phone to drop Google's Photos unlimited perk, now counting towards users' free 15GB account storage as it began doing for non-Pixel users from June 1. As notified by the company last year, owners of future Pixel devices won't get any special treatment and will have to pay up for Google One subscription if they want to unlock more storage.
In brief: Google has a three-month trial of Stadia Pro for YouTube Premium subscribers in selected countries in what looks to be a way to garner more players for its cloud gaming platform. If you haven't yet tried Stadia and have a YouTube Premium subscription, this is an excellent chance to try it out.

Google Stadia has been out for over a year and a half, receiving mixed reviews at launch. Google claims the service is "alive and well", though evidence suggests that things might not be as good as Google says. The service is starting to be supported by some TV models with Android TV, a welcome addition by all means, but not enough to make subscriptions sell like hotcakes.

However, to show its cloud gaming platform to more individuals, Google is offering a three-month Stadia Pro subscription to YouTube Premium subscribers, depending on where you live. This offer is only available in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK and for paid and trial YouTube Premium subscribers. However, you can't redeem it if you have an active Stadia Pro subscription or previously had one.

Canceling your Stadia Pro subscription strips you from any game you've acquired and any additional content you've claimed for those games with your Stadia Pro subscription. However, if you resubscribe to the service, Google will restore your library, including all DLCs you've bought.

At the moment, a YouTube Premium monthly subscription goes for $11.99. The Stadia Pro monthly subscription costs $9.99, valuing Google's offer at close to $30. Google's special offer is available until January 31st, 2022, but you'll be able to redeem it up to February 14th, 2022, at 9:00 AM PST or while supply lasts.
Why it matters: Samsung is doing away with obnoxious ads baked into some of the default apps that ship on its Galaxy smartphones. The full extent of the changes aren't yet known, but it does seem to be a step in the right direction that'll help clean up the company's mobile UI.

Yonhap News was first to report on the matter, which has since been confirmed by Samsung. According to the publication, Samsung smartphone boss TM Roh made the announcement during a recent internal town hall meeting. Roh replaced DJ Koh as Samsung's mobile chief in early 2020.

In a statement issued to The Verge, a Samsung rep confirmed they have decided to cease advertisement on select proprietary apps including Samsung Pay, Samsung Weather and Samsung Theme. The changes are being coded now and will be ready to deploy later this year.

Our priority is to deliver innovative mobile experiences for our consumers based on their needs and wants, the rep said. We value feedback from our users and continue our commitment to provide them with the best possible experience from our Galaxy products and services.

Samsung has come under fire recently for its inclusion of ads in its default apps. In The Verges review of the Galaxy S21 Ultra, the publication blasted Samsung for utilizing the kind of ad[s]  normally at the bottom of a crappy, overloaded website.

Interestingly enough, the three apps that Samsung mentioned by name dont represent the full list of stock apps that utilize the offending ads. As 9to5Google highlights, Samsung Health is another prominent example.

Its unclear if Samsung is removing ads from all of its stock apps or only the three it specifically called out. We also don't have a specific date as to when the changes will start rolling out to end users.
NASA's Curiosity Rover has celebrated its ninth anniversary on the Red Planet, marking its almost a decade stay on the neighbor's surfaces to study and provide Intel to Earth. The celebration is extended to its audience, the people, by sharing a panoramic photo of the Martian surface.

And while it seems like a computer renders, it is indeed the beauty of Mars.

NASA Curiosity Rover sends Panoramic Photo of Mars

Happy 9th year in Mars, Curiosity rover, and it was indeed a great run for you, spanning almost a decade in existence and venturing the neighboring planet alone. The anniversary of NASA's Curiosity is a celebration like no other, as it went on a hike on a mountain on Mars, which is called the "Rafael Navarro Mountain."

The terrain is breathtaking, and is literally out of this world, as it shows the brown rock surface and reddish glare of Mars' atmosphere filled with iron elements. The location is special, particularly because it shows a mix of enriched clay minerals, along with salty minerals that were dubbed as "sulfates."

What makes it more interesting is that the surface shows signs or pieces of evidence that Mars once had water in it and that these were carried from one place to another thanks to the water.

Mars was once a water-rich or "wet" planet which can implicate that it was once a habitable environment, and has been changed by a massive event.

Read Also: Jeff Bezos-Owned Blue Origin Sues NASA Over Moon Lander Contract Awarded to SpaceX

Curiosity Rover Explores the Rafael Navarro Mountain

The image by Curiosity was sent over last August 17, and it was via the orbiting spacecraft that received the photo from the rover. It explored the Rafael Navarro mountain, and it was a mission from July 3, which had stitched over 129 images into the said panoramic photo.

The mission of Curiosity is to learn as much as it can from the Red Planet, and that is what it exactly did, for the past nine years since its first arrival in 2012.

Soon, humans would be Martian residents, as NASA aims to simulate life on the Red Planet, with 3D models here on Earth.

NASA Mars

Curiosity's nine-year stint on Mars has shown that it has done a lot for NASA and the discovery of Mars for humans. The rover has already dug 32 holes on the Red Planet which is a way for it to collect rock samples and study its components to identify the surface and Mars' actual present elements.

The rover arrived in 2012 at the Gale Crater, and it explored the region, particularly "Mount Sharp" which has an eight-kilometer climb on its hillside.

Related Article: NASA is Recruiting Applicants for a Year-Long Analog Mission to Simulate Life on Mars Starting This Fall 2022 | Find Out More

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Moderna has an mRNA HIV Vaccine that is now ready for its Phase I experimental tests, and it is one of the very first pharmaceutical companies which released protection against the virus. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is one of the most notorious infections in the world, with no known cure or protection against it.

Pfizer and BioNTech, and Moderna were the only two companies that went with the experimental vaccine base of mRNA for their COVID-19 shots. And they are considered to be the most protective shots among all vaccine makers' take on the immunization campaign.

Moderna's mRNA HIV Vaccine for Phase 1 Trials

Moderna has announced that it is now seeking participants to undergo their Phase I trials of the mRNA-based HIV shots, and they would need healthy participants to join this program.

The pharmaceutical company aims to seek out 56 healthy participants in the study, which would receive the first version of the inoculation against HIV.

HIV is known to be the virus that leads to AIDS or the "Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome" which causes several life-threatening conditions and diseases. This is the worst-case scenario of HIV and is known to be fatal to those that develop it.

What Moderna aims for, is to completely take away the chance of HIV to develop and infect different cells in the body, by giving it the chance to fight and protect against it. The Phase I trials would look at the first version of these shots for further studies, tweaks, responses, and what is needed to be done after its inoculation.

Read Also: Opioid Overdose to Soon have Treatment, Researchers Identify Neurons Involve; Soon to Avoid Fatal Results

Moderna's Study on HIV

Moderna published its studies on the Clinical Trials platform, which detailed it would use the mRNA-1644 vaccine for its Phase I experimental trials.

Currently, Moderna has two vaccines prepared for HIV and these are mRNA-1644 and mRNA-1574; where the former is the one to be used for the experimental trials.

These vaccines are still under constant studying and research, with the administrators looking at every possible outcome and effects it would have, when people starts receiving it.

This would also determine its inoculation on specific age groups and other parameters.

How to Join Testing Procedure, Study?

The pharma company has not yet revealed how it would select participants or its application process, but note that it would choose healthy individuals, with no previous history of getting infected with HIV.

There would be different possible outcomes for the testing procedure, with its primary focus being among healthy people's immune response to the drug. It would also look for the progress of a body's B-cell, which is the one that develops antibodies to fight against viruses.

Related Article: mRNAs Are The Future of Vaccines After Pfizer, Moderna's Success Against COVID-HIV, Cancers Next-in-Line

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Written by Isaiah Richard

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Audius has successfully secured its partnership with TikTok to stream music via the platform and be used for videos, being a massive win for the company. The decentralized music service has also grown its token to as much as $1 billion in market cap, giving it a massive high for this week.

The decentralized music streaming service is one of the pioneers of this kind of music distribution, having indie and upcoming artists get featured in the app. The company has based itself on tokens or cryptocurrency, which is what most startups are going now, being popular with NFT games and the like.

Audius and TikTok

Rolling Stone has received a statement from Audius executives that it has already secured its partnership with TikTok, the popular short video sharing application, for its music sources.

Audius is the first service to have a partnership with TikTok, and it is something which is a massive thing for users and the business as it did not partner with the likes of Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music.

The startup coin's music streaming would be labeled as "TikTok Sounds" in the platform and would be called that way when users search for it when editing their videos. TikTok would have a hand with gathering music and having its licenses granted to them for use in the short video platform, as users edit their content.

Here, Audius will provide new music to be used, and it would feature its artists which have already joined the platform, and promote indie and startup names in the industry.

Thanks to this partnership, the decentralized streaming company has skyrocketed to as much as a $1 billion surge in its market cap.

Read Also: Mining Crypto is Expensive and Hard (But Not With GoMining)

Who is Audius?

Audius has been introduced in 2018, and it has been a startup that bordered on the use of tokens and cryptocurrency which became the service's strengths and main feature. It gathers music for distribution or streaming, which makes it similar to the likes of Spotify and Apple Music.

Is Decentralized Music Streaming the Future?

The platform has been a stellar service, and it has promoted a lot of upcoming artists, as well as popular ones on their platform. Moreover, users can take advantage of their tokens to trade and invest in, while the service grows.

Decentralized Music Streaming services like Audius may be the future, and so are cryptocurrency and NFT games which all border on the blockchain feature to sell their services.

The main focus is the service or game, but the secondary would be its market value or crypto tokens which are readily available to trade and sell.

Related Article: Top 10 Cryptocurrency Performance | $DOT Bullish by 108.7% Over Last 30 Days

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Written by Isaiah Richard

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Apple appealed its Corellium copyright lawsuit verdict after the judge of the case dismissed the claims of the Cupertino giant last December 2020.

It is worth noting that the recent legal move by Apple is on top of the recent confidential settlement between the two parties.

However, the terms about the said agreement between the iPhone maker and the security firm, Corellium, have yet to be unveiled as both firms kept mum about the private negotiations that the Washington Post reported.

Apple vs. Corellium: Copyright Lawsuit

As per Reuters, Apple appealed its copyright lawsuit against Corellium, the company that seeks to help security researchers further study programs that the iPhone maker is releasing to its users--one of which is the new child abuse scanning feature.

In hindsight, the federal court decision last year was not in favor of Apple's claims against the security startup, saying that Corellium violated the copyright law after creating virtual copies of iPhones.

The judge of the case further concluded that Corellium's move to produce virtual iPhones follows the fair use terms.

For those who may not know yet, the security company allows virtually anyone to access a digitized version of the Apple smartphone via a PC to further examine the software, uncovering flaws and loopholes.

On the other hand, the Cupertino giant suggested that such a move also gives hackers an advantage to infiltrate its system.

To be precise, Apple claimed that Corellium has violated the Digital Millennium Copyright after the latter allegedly copied iOS and its apps on iPhone and iPad.

Apple Appeals Corellium Copyright Lawsuit

On Tuesday, Aug. 17, Apple appealed the copyright lawsuit decision last year, on top of the recent settlement that Apple and Corellium reportedly made in private last August 10.

Apple and Corellium specifically settled the federal copyright lawsuit that should have gone on trial last August 16. Nevertheless, it is to note that the security firm continues to sell the virtual iPhones even after the settlement.

Some security experts said that the move of Apple to appeal the court decision comes off as surprising as the two parties have already forged an agreement.

Related Article: Apple Fall Event to Have Numerous Events like 2020, Insider Reveals 'M1X' MacBook Pros in November

Apple Appeal and CSAM

Coincidentally, on the same day that Apple appealed the court verdict, Corellium announced its "Open Security Initiative," which initially focuses on the child sexual abuse materials or CSAM system of Apple, according to MacRumors.

The Corellium initiative will reward independent public research concerning mobile phones.

The first order of business invites security researchers to provide "any security and privacy claims" on the CSAM tool of Apple, with a prize of up to $5,000.

That said, there is a possibility that the newest initiative of Corellium correlates with the latest legal move of the Cupertino giant.

Read Also: Apple September Fall 2021 Event: Is There One Coming? Rumors of iPhone, MacBook Pro, and MORE

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Image from Pexels) Advanced Analytical Techniques Found Over 7,700 Chemical Formulas in 400 Beers from 40 Countries | NMR Spectroscopy Used

German scientists used advanced analytical techniques in order to find over 7,700 chemical formulas in 400 different beers coming from 40 different countries around the world. The NMR spectroscopy was used to conduct this research.

German Scientists Findings on Beer

People have been brewing beer for millenia, and the science behind the basic chemistry of fermentation is well understood.

However, according to ArsTechnica, scientists can now use advanced analytical techniques in order to continue learning other chemical compounds that contribute to the different kinds of beer's flavor and aroma.

The more recent analysis comes from a team of German scientists who were able to analyze over 400 commercial beers stretching from 40 countries.

The scientists were able to identify at least 7,700 different types of chemical formulas, as well as 10s of thousands of unique molecules. This was according to a recent paper that was published in the journal Frontiers in Chemistry.

NMR Spectroscopy to Study Beer Acid Levels

The new approach was able to analyze a sample in just 10 minutes.

Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin of the Technical University of Munich as well as the Helmholtz Center in Munich, who co-authored the paper, noted that thanks to these improvements in analytical chemistry, they have been able to reveal the complexity in what was described as "unprecedented detail."

In order to help brewers have a better understanding on how sour beers develop their very distinctive complex flavors, the University of Redlands in California chemists have been tracking a number of different chemical compounds that contribute to flavor profiles.

The NMR spectroscopy was used to study the levels of acetic acid, succinic acid, and lactic acid, which are all produced as the yeast ferments, which contribute to the whole distinctive flavor profile of sour beer.

Read Also: Heineken Beer Outdoor Transporter is a Robot Cooler That Would Follow or Come to Users Bringing a Cold Batch

Findings on 400 Beer Samples

For the analysis, Schmitt-Kopplin et al. subjected a whopping 400 samples of beer that were purchased from local grocery stores and brewed from the wide stretch of the world namely US, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and even East Asia to two different complementary mass spectrometry techniques.

They reportedly used the initial method to determine the beers' chemical diversity as well as to predict chemical formulas for the whole metaboline ions seen in those beers.

The scientists used a second technique in order to find out the exact molecular structure in 100 subsamples of beers.

They were also quite able to reconstruct a full metabolic network of the whole complex reactions that were taking place during that particular brewing process. The results led the team to identify over 7,700 chemical formulas, all with as much as 25 different molecular structures.

Any beer would actually have tens of thousands of different molecules contributing to its own distinctive aroma, flavor, and other desirable qualities.

A new study also explained the truth behind drinking beer before wine.

There have been numerous interesting studies on beer, like how it can sharpen one's memory.

Related Article: Ancient Pottery Reveals Ingredients Of 5,000-Year-Old Chinese Beer Recipe

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
"Fortnite" leaks are saying that Will Smith's "Bad Boys" character and Morty from "Rick and Morty" are getting their own skins as they come to the battle royale.

The popular battle royale by Epic Games has been constantly dropping collaborations with pop culture icons. And it never ceases to surprise its players as it continues to do so if the latest datamined leak is to be believed.

The latest leak comes after "Fortnite'' released the fresh 17.40 patch, and dataminers dug deeper to unravel what is coming next to the popular battle royale.

Fortnite Leak: Will Smith Bad Boys

As per DotEsports, veteran movie star, Will Smith, is getting his own "Fortnite" skin based on his character in the Bad Boys franchise that goes by the name Mike Lowery.

The Will Smith Bad Boys "Fortnite" skin is a direct replica of Mike Lowery, from every detail of his appearance and other likenesses.

NintendoLife further noted that the leaks also suggest that Will Smith will be joining other sought-after personalities, like Ariana Grande.

Meanwhile, Chris Hemsworth is also reportedly getting a "Fortnite" skin for his role in the action-filled movie on Netflix, "Extraction."

'Fortnite' Leak: Morty Skin

It is worth noting that Rick and Morty's fans have been thrilled when the debut of the "Fortnite" season 7 included a playable version of the drunk scientist of the famed series.

However, fans of the grandson of Rick did not get a similar playable character for Morty.

Instead, they settled on a hammer-headed version of the latter, which goes by the form of a pickaxe, according to PCGamer.

Worry no more as the latest dataminer leaks revealed that Morty is also coming to the battle royale to join Rick. Yes, he will now be a playable character, sporting a mecha exosuit, which allows him to go on with the hitbox requirements.

The mecha-suit is paired with a backpack and a pickaxe that resembles a space snake.

On top of the Morty skin, another "Rick and Morty" cosmetic is rumored to be coming to the battle royale, a Swifty emote.

Read Also: Fortnite's 'Among Us Mode' Made Community Manager Sad for Not Choosing to Collaborate, Copying Game

J Balvin 'Fortnite' Skin

Furthermore, dataminers also saw another addition to the Icon Series aside from Will Smith's role in "Bad Boys."

The Colombian musician J Balvin is rumored to be getting his own skin on "Fortnite" as well.

Related Article: 'Fortnite' Will Move to Unreal Engine 5 | Superman & 'Suicide Squad' Skins Rumored To Drop Soon

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Image from Unsplash Website) Twitter New Feature Could Let Users Report 'Misleading Tweets' | Crackdown on Fake Info Approach

Twitter's new feature could finally allow its users to report misleading tweets. The popular social media is now cracking down on fake info.

The social media platform, however, is reportedly not yet responding to these flagged tweets.

Twitter, like a number of other social media platforms, is mostly facing changes, especially when it comes to the flow of misinformation within its networks.

The platform is now implementing new changes to help remedy this.

Twitter New Feature Crackdown on Fake News

According to TechRadar, Twitter's previous attempts to take down fake news through different features just like Birdwatch, which is still a work in progress.

As a particular continuation of that, Twitter is now allowing for small groups in the United States, South Korea, and Australia to help report tweets on the social media platform that currently still contain misinformation.

A new clickable option will finally appear for a number of select users whenever they want to report a somewhat problematic tweet.

It can also be accessed through the typical three gray dots that users will see on the right side of the tweet.

Meanwhile, the social media platform has reverted some old features making the experience easier for Twitter users.

Twitter to Assess if This is an 'Effective Approach'

After users click on the three gray dots, people who are reportedly part of the whole test group will be able to see an option to report that specific tweet as misleading.

Twitter also did not reveal exactly just how many users will be able to have access to this particular feature.

The limited test, however, might not actually lead to any direct action on the tweets that are flagged by users. Twitter also noted that it is assessing whether this is actually an "effective approach."

Twitter to Identify Certain Trends

Twitter noted in a tweet that they might not actually take action and also cannot respond to each report while still in the experiment.

Users' input, however, will help Twitter identify certain trends in order for them to improve the speed and scale of the platform's broader misinformation work.

Quite interestingly, Twitter is also giving an option for users to identify under which classification the chosen tweet is misleading. Users will be able to flag the tweets under "Health," "Politics," or "Something Else."

As part of its action against misinformation, Twitter has even suspended the account of a US Congresswoman for vaccine misinformation.

Read Also: Tinder Could Start Asking Users for Government ID Verification to Promote User Safety

Twitter Misinformation Crackdown

Twitter has not been the only social media offering this feature. Facebook also allows its users to report false information regarding politics, health, or social issues.

Nevertheless, the microblogging site is also apparently concerned regarding the fact that this new "flagging for misinfo" feature can be misused by other vested interests all wanting a curtain option contrary to the others.

Twitter is now testing out the feature's efficacy and is also holding back its response to certain tweets that are flagged. The social media platform has also put some other tools in place in an attempt to be able to help users discern what specific information on its platform is considered inaccurate.

Related Article: Chrome Android Incognito Mode Adds Extra Layer of Security | PIN, Face Unlock, or Fingerprint Access

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Image from Unsplash Website) US Military Biometric Devices Could be in the Hands of the Taliban | Risk to Identify Afghan Nationals Who Worked for the US Gov

US military biometric devices have reportedly been seized by the Taliban. These devices could help them identify Afghan nationals that worked for the US government.

HIIDE in the Hands of the Taliban

The devices are called HIIDE or Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment, according to a source's statement to The Intercept.

The information that is stored on the devices could even include iris scans, biometric information, fingerprints, and more, according to the news outlet's report.

According to the report, the devices were taken as the Taliban took over Kabul, the country's capital.

"We processed thousands of locals a day, had to ID, sweep for suicide vests, weapons, intel gathering, etc.," a US military contractor told the news outlet.

"[HIIDE] was used as a biometric ID tool to help ID locals working for the coalition."

These devices can reportedly be used in order to access a broad centralized database. Biometrics are reportedly key to the whole facial-recognition technology and are commonly used for everyday tasks.

Fingerprint Recognition and Biometric Technologies

These everyday tasks include unlocking phones and even tagging friends on social media, according to the story by CNet.

However, this can also be used by the law enforcement as well as the military in order to identify suspects or even other individuals.

ScienceDirect defines biometric technologies as generally referring to the use of technology in order to identify a person based on certain aspects of their biology. Fingerprint recognition is known as one of the very first and original biometric technologies that might have also been grouped loosely under digital forensics.

Surveillance Cameras on Algorithms

With the increasing number of video surveillance cameras coming up in large cities, the use of data that is captured by cameras has been a subject of a number of different privacy and human rights storms.

The technology is pretty straightforward.

CCTVs in public places, streets, and office buildings record images 24/7. These sophisticated algorithms would then carry out a sort of matching exercise along with an existing database of images that are potential "targets."

Biometric monitoring has been a touchy topic with companies like Amazon, who is using it to monitor drivers.

Enhanced Surveillance and Future Action

A certain match will then trigger enhanced surveillance and even possible future and further action.

In order for the system to be effective, the whole matching database should be wider and more comprehensive.

Biometric sensors have become a more widely used tool when it comes to security.

It is also not that surprising to note that in order to put such a critical database together, security agencies never consult or seek permission in order to keep people's records in their own data centers.

Back in August 2012, the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, and Ray Kelly unveiled a brand new police surveillance infrastructure that was developed directly by Microsoft.

Read Also: McDonald's AI Drive Thru Bot Breaks Biometric Privacy Law, Lawsuit Alleges

Police Surveillance Infrastructure

The police surveillance infrastructure was reportedly named the Domain Awareness System which reportedly links other existing police databases with other live video feeds from a number of different sources. ThalesGroup provides a definition of biometric identification.

According to their page, the main aim is to be able to capture an item of biometric data from a certain person. It can either be a photo of their face, a recording of their voice, or even an image of their fingerprint itself.

The data is then compared directly to the biometric data that exists on the database.

Related Article: Biometric Surveillance in Public Deemed Too Harmful to EU Citizens, EU to Ban Technology

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Fluence Analytics, the manufacturer of industrial and laboratory monitoring solutions with continuous data streams, has recently concluded its $7.5M venture funding round - gaining support from venture groups of Yokogawa Electric and Mitsubishi Chemical.

The current venture funding round also included Energy Innovation Captial, JSR Corporation, and Diamond Edge Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation. Additionally, Yokogawa Electric has jumped on board for a new business collaboration agreement with Fluence Analytics.

First founded in 2012, the company has garnered support from venture capitalists and multinational corporations thanks to being the only provider of a commercially available smart manufacturing system. As the industry leader in Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization Reactions (ACOMP), solutions offered by Fluence Analytics provide companies with continuous insights into the polymer production process. It allows companies that manufacture them, such as those in the adhesive, rubber, plastic, and paint industries, to work in a safer, more sustainable manner.

ALSO READ: Talview, Leading Provider of HR Solutions, Secures $15M in Series B Funding Round

Backed by Industry Giants for Accelerated Growth

Under the new agreement, both companies will be working together "to expand and accelerate the deployment of ACOMP systems to customers worldwide." The Japanese multinational company, focused on the electrical engineering and software development industries, will serve as Fluence Analytics' exclusive distributor of ACOMP systems in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa (MENA) regions. They will also offer field engineering, sales, and system integration with their customers.

Also, the additional financial resources Fluence Analytics secured from the latest funding round will be used to accelerate the development and production of its next-generation, industrial-grade ACOMP solution. The new generation of products will increase the ability to reduce cycle times and eliminate further production of non-compliant products. Additional enhancements will include industrializations in hazardous applications, expanding its measurements, more analysis algorithms, and enhancing the data mining correlation framework. Fluence Analytics also announced its plans to scale production efforts, put additional investments in sales and marketing, and increase its personnel.

"Our team is very excited to add Yokogawa Electric as a strategic partner and investor. Yokogawa's global leadership in measurement and process control technologies will be a major asset, enabling us to scale up operations, augment field engineering efforts, and expand our installed base throughout the world," said Fluence Analytics CEO Alex Reed. He adds that they're looking forward to working with Yokogawa to develop their next-generation solutions to uphold sustainability in polymer manufacturing.

"We have been supporting the petrochemical industry through the provision of measurement and control solutions," said Yokogawa Electric VP and Head of Yokogawa Products Headquarters Kenji Hasegawa. He adds that by working together with Fluence Analytics, they will be able to offer more value in the polymerization process industry. He expressed optimism in Yokogawa, offering the ACOMP solutions that increase productivity and supporting health, safety, and the environment. Lastly, Hasegawa notes that the cost savings from implementing these systems are equivalent to $1.5 million annually based on the average reactor size.

About Fluence Analytics

Fluence Analytics, headquartered in Louisiana in the United States, provides industrial and laboratory monitoring solutions to produce continuous data streams. Through its powerful and proprietary analytical tools ACOMP and ARGEN, the company enables real-time optimization that helps propel polymer and biopharmaceutical manufacturers.

Formerly known as Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies, the company was first founded in 2013 to bring the technologies developed from PolyRMC at Tulane University to the market.

RELATED ARTICLE: Software Company LogicGate Raises $113M in Recent Series C Funding Round

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 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA has been studying the Milky Way Galaxy for a very long time now since it is the galactic body where the solar system is located. The international agency's efforts are trying to find how the enormous heavenly body formed.

Now, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered an unusual thing about the Milky Way. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration claimed that the galaxy seems to have a broken arm or a strange break in one of its spiral arms.

If you haven't seen what the Milky Way Galaxy looks like, it is a circular galactic body with tentacles in spiral form. The space company used its Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared or heat-seeking lenses to identify the broken spiral arm.

NASA's astronomers were able to take advantage of the giant observatory before it completely stopped operating back in 2020. Aside from Spitzer, NASA also collaborated with the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, which specifically measures stellar motions and distances.

NASA Says Milky Way's Broken Arm Could Be a Big Help

According to Space.Com's latest report, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration claimed that the discovery of the giant heavenly body's broken arm could provide essential information that would explain how the Milky Way Galaxy came to be.

Also Read: Happy 9 Years NASA Curiosity Rover-Spacecraft Celebrates Anniversary with Panoramic Photo of the Red Planet

NASA's new space study specifically focuses on the nearby region of the galaxy's Sagittarius arms. This is a major deal since the said arm contains the so-called "Pillars of Creation" stars that form the Eagle Nebula or Messier 16.

Thanks to the data provided by Spitzer Space Telescope and Gaia mission, astronomers discovered that the broken arm is full of young stars. They added that the acquired details showed that these stars have the same direction and velocity.

Aside from the latest Milky Way Galaxy study, NASA recruits applicants for its year-long Mars simulation mission. On the other hand, NASA's 3D printing simulation could also arrive.

Other Details of Milky Way's Broken Arm

News Week reported that the newly discovered Milky Way Galaxy's broken arm is unusual since the protruding stars. This is not common since the Sagittarius Arm has a pitch angle of around 12 degrees.

"This structure is a small piece of the Milky Way, but it could tell us something significant about the Galaxy as a whole," said Robert Benjamin, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

For news updates about NASA and its upcoming space discoveries, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: NASA Shows Support for Astronaut After Russian Claims of Emotional Breakdown, Spacecraft Damage

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Walmart is temporarily closing its Denham Springs location to give the building a deep-clean as COVID-19 runs rampant in Livingston Parish and the Baton Rouge area.

The Walmart store at 904 South Range Avenue in Denham Springs will close at 2 p.m. Wednesday and will stay closed to customers until 6 a.m. on Friday, according to a company spokesperson. In the meantime, a third-party cleaning crew will enter the store to "thoroughly clean and sanitize the building," the spokesperson said.

"As you know, several areas across the country have begun seeing a renewed increase in positive COVID-19 cases, and we want to assist health officials working against the pandemic," Walmart Corporate Communications Manager Tyler Thomason said in a press release Wednesday.

Deliveries delayed: Mail interrupted as some carriers fight COVID, others take break It took days for Doris Hall's mail to arrive at her Denham Springs home last week  a seemingly minor inconvenience that ended up straining he

This week, Louisiana has reported over 16,000 new cases of COVID-19, as the virus's highly-contagious delta variant spreads rapidly in unvaccinated pockets of the population. Livingston Parish, where 29% of residents have received a full vaccine series, reported 150 new cases Wednesday as deaths from the virus mount across the Baton Rouge metropolitan area.

The Walmart location is just the latest Livingston Parish organization affected by the delta variant of the coronavirus. Some parish government services shut down in July as ten employees of one government office tested positive for the delta variant, and Denham Springs residents have seen delays in mail deliveries due to U.S. Postal Service employees in the area becoming sick.

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Thomason, the Walmart spokesperson, did not immediately return an email asking whether infections among staff had played a role in closure of the Denham Springs store.

+2 COVID deaths near record highs in Baton Rouge area as delta variant runs rampant The Baton Rouge region is nearing single-day records for fatalities from COVID-19 this week as a wave of death sweeps across Louisiana, caused

Walmart is closing other locations in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans regions to sanitize them due to the virus, too. A store in Gretna will shutter this week for cleaning under the same time frame as the Denham Springs location, Thomason said.

Stores in Covington, Elmwood and Zachary closed in past weeks to be sanitized from the virus.
A rowdy meeting of Louisiana's top school board ended abruptly Wednesday morning when opponents of face masks for public schools refused repeated pleas to put on masks and follow other rules.

UPDATE: After maskless protesters derail meeting on masks in schools, mandate will remain in Louisiana

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 8-2 to adjourn, which means a debate face mask opponents hoped for on who has the final say on any school safety mandates did not take place.

Moments before BESE President Sandy Holloway implored the crowd to let the board conduct its business in an orderly fashion.

Ronnie Morris, a BESE member who lives in Baton Rouge, did the same and warned the group that the planned public hearing on the merits of face masks for students would be derailed unless order was restored.

'It's your call," Morris said.

Holly Boffy, a board member who lives in Lafayette, made the motion to adjourn.

The only "no" votes were cast by Jim Garvey, the longest serving BESE member who lives in Metairie and Michael Melerine, the newest member and a Shreveport resident.

Both earlier indicated that they wanted to have a discussion on whether Gov. John Bel Edwards' order that students wear face masks was the final word or if BESE should have the final say, as Attorney General Jeff Landry said in an opinion issued earlier this month.

The gathering, unlike any at BESE in the past two decades, took place amid skyrocketing cases of the delta variant in Louisiana, which is a national leader in the unenviable category.

Medical experts have said that, without a mask mandate, schools could become the site of major outbreaks of the coronavirus, especially since children younger than 12 cannot take the vaccine.

Earlier in the morning a BESE staff member announced that, because of the governor's order, the large number of spectators without face masks would be removed if they did not comply with the order.

That sparked angry chants of "No More Masks" from the crowd while BESE was in another room in executive session to evaluate state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley.

The outburst was led by the Rev. Tony Spell, who has been embroiled in controversy off and on for months because of his repeated defiance of anti-coronavirus rules.

'They can't arrest all of us," Spell said at one point

"The only lawbreakers are those demanding that we put a face mask on," he said.

Despite the warning there was no wholesale removal of those without masks from the crowded hearing room, which has a capacity of 274.

A State Police official said one spectator was removed for disorderly conduct.

Check back with The Advocate for more details.

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After the board returned Ronnie Morris, a BESE member who lives in Baton Rouge, announced the meeting would be adjourned if the panel cannot go through its agenda in an orderly fashion.

"It's your call," Morris said amid periodic shouts from the crowed objecting to the mask and other rules.

No action was taken to remove the maskless.

A likely debate on who has the final say over mandatory face masks for public school students sparked a heavy turnout Wednesday at the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Attorney General Jeff Landry on Aug. 6 issued an opinion that says BESE, not Gov. John Bel Edwards, has the last word on whether Louisiana's roughly 700,000 students are required to wear face coverings.

Edwards disputed Landry's opinion and said he clearly has the authority to mandate masks during a public health emergency.

Jeff Landry says state school board, not governor, has final say on face masks in schools Escalating a political feud, state Attorney General Jeff Landry issued an opinion Friday that said Louisiana's top school board has the final 

BESE added Landry's opinion to its agenda, which raises the possibility the board may try to enact a policy that says the state's 69 school districts are the decision makers on face masks.

Dozens of citizens have packed the state auditorium where BESE is meeting, many not wearing masks.

The room holds 274 people.

+2 Face masks expected to spark passionate debate at Louisiana's state school board meeting Louisiana's top school board will soon decide whether to defy Gov. John Bel Edwards and let school districts decide if public school students 

A BESE staff member announced that face masks are required, and noted that officials have opened an overflow room for spectators to follow the proceedings.

However, there were virtually no takers when face masks were offered, and no action to remove the maskless from the meeting room.

A total of 64 GOP House members sent a letter to BESE members earlier this week that said BESE has the authority to set safety rules during the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawmakers noted that in June the board said it stances was to allow local school districts to make the call.

"On behalf of parents across our districts, we stand united for BESE control and respect for parental rights in these matters," according to the letter.

+2 Louisiana schools will determine their own COVID restrictions, state says Unlike last year, Louisiana public school leaders are deferring to local school officials on face masks and other safety measures amid the ris

After BESE's initial stance Edwards issued his face mask mandate amid skyrocketing rates of the delta variant, which has made Louisiana a national leader for new cases.

Earlier this week the Louisiana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a letter that backed the governor's mask rules.

The letter noted that lots of students are not old enough to get the vaccine, state vaccination rates remain low and there is concern that variants could cause more severe diseases.

Check back with The Advocate for more details.
The Chinese yuan has been making inroads in the world of cross-border payments in recent years, but a pair of data points due this week will reveal whether the countrys sudden industry crackdowns have dented international trust in the currency.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, also known as Swift, and Chinas foreign-exchange regulator will both announce figures this week that together paint a picture of the yuans role in international trade and investment. Previous data through June showed a steady increase in its use but that was before a regulatory crackdown escalated in July.

Chinas regulatory crackdown has put international trust in the yuan at risk. . Credit:Getty

The authorities scaled up their anti-monopoly attacks against the nations largest technology companies, banned profits in the after-school tutoring industry, and launched a critique of online gaming. The unexpected onslaught pummeled stocks and bonds, and fuelled concern global investors will trim back yuan assets in their portfolios and step back from adopting the use of yuan in international trade.

The outflows last month could have dented renminbi usage, said Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist at ANZ, using the official name for the yuan. At the same time, the renminbis share in global payments should still reach a new high before year-end as index inclusion brings new inflows and China adopts more renminbi usage in trade, he said.
Almost 10,000 people including academics, actors and lawyers are urging Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help Afghan nationals, saying Australia has a moral obligation as the humanitarian crisis in Kabul continues.

In an open letter published on Wednesday, signatories called on the federal government to increase Australias humanitarian intake by at least 20,000 people, prioritising vulnerable and persecuted Afghans, and expedite the resettlement of interpreters, guides and other personnel involved in Australias mission in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of people gather near a US Air Force transport plane at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday. Credit:AP

The 9415 signatories include Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus, activist Susan Carland, lawyer and advocate Mariam Veiszadeh, actor Bryan Brown and a Victorian Multicultural Commissioner, Judy Tang.

The letter, which has been collecting signatures for 24 hours, is also calling on the Prime Minister to grant permanent protection to more than 5100 Afghan refugees who are in Australia on temporary visas and to lift the ban on resettlement of refugees to Australia.
Western Sydney Aboriginal leaders and federal MPs are calling for more mass vaccination hubs to help protect vulnerable people from COVID-19, after New South Wales recorded its worst day of the outbreak so far.

The number of new COVID-19 cases rose to 633 across the state on Wednesday and nearly 500 of those were in Western Sydney, a region with a large and growing Aboriginal population.

People queue at the Sydney Olympic Park vaccination hub. Credit:Dean Sewell

Recent data compiled by the Herald and The Age showed only 8.6 per cent of Indigenous people in NSW had been fully vaccinated as of August 15 despite them being a priority group for the rollout.

The chief executive of the Liverpool-based Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC), Bundjalung woman Melissa Williams, said she held concerns for her community.
A man will stand trial after pleading not guilty to charges he murdered a woman and her brother almost 32 years ago in the home they shared in Melbournes south-eastern suburbs.

Glen William Nash appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the deaths of Doris McCartney and Ronald Swann, who were found dead in their Moorabbin home on October 22, 1989.

Ronald Swann and Doris McCartney were found dead in their Moorabbin home.

Ms McCartney, 69, and Mr Swann, 71, lived together in a Keith Street house. There were no signs of forced entry and nothing was reported missing.

Mr Nash was arrested in Rowville in April and then charged, about a week after cold-case detectives announced a $1 million reward for information over the siblings deaths.
For good reason, much of Australias focus is on reaching the 70 and 80 per cent vaccination targets set by national cabinet based on advice from the Doherty Institute. All going well, and vaccine hesitancy not causing a major problem, most states should reach these targets by the end of the year. With enough people inoculated, the expected end to strict lockdowns would be welcomed.

But that will not be the end of the pandemic. Due to the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant, COVID-19 will continue to spread through the community, threatening the lives of the unvaccinated. And even when virtually everyone has either been vaccinated or infected, it is expected that COVID-19 will continue to be endemic, meaning it is likely to continue spreading, just with far fewer dire health implications.

mRNA vaccines could be produced in Melbourne within 18 months under a new proposal. Credit:Getty Images

But there are still many unknowns when it comes to COVID-19. That is why, long term, the efforts under way to develop domestic capacity to produce large quantities of mRNA vaccine are such an important step in ensuring Australia is prepared for what may happen down the track.

To bring mRNA technology and manufacturing capacity to Australia, the federal government, led by Industry Minister Christian Porter, is in talks with vaccine producers Pfizer and Moderna to license their technology to an Australian partner, similar to the deal AstraZeneca struck with biotech company CSL.
As a Herald health reporter, I am often asked if Im vaccinated. The fact that I wasnt was starting to get embarrassing. It was not for want of trying: GPs had long waiting lists and were prioritising existing patients, or they were not taking bookings for those aged under 40 (Im 27). And the NSW Health booking system rewarded me for my Medicare details by locking itself into staff appointments at St George (this has since been fixed). I have completed the vaccine eligibility checker so many times that the colour teal-blue could see me rush a matador.

Before the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation changed its advice for those in Greater Sydney, I wasnt considering AstraZeneca, more for reasons based on speculative logistics than risk to my health (the vaccine is very safe and effective and, to read about that, Id recommend this piece by my colleague, Liam Mannix): Pfizers three-week dose interval meant Id receive full protection quicker than with AstraZeneca (although its 12-week interval has now been reduced to four-to-eight weeks).

Health reporter Mary Ward was vaccinated at her local pharmacy. Credit:Louise Kennerley

I briefly thought holding out could be worth it: surely after the change in advice, states with closed borders, no cases and  sometimes  no international airport might send some of their Pfizer doses to Sydney, so younger people could receive their designated preferred vaccine? But that didnt happen and, rightly, this weeks additional Pfizer has gone to authorised workers and young people in the western suburbs.

So when my local Priceline started offering AstraZeneca last week, I booked in. I didnt feel the need to discuss AstraZeneca with a GP  Ive been doing a lot of that  and I want to have Christmas with my grandparents in Fairfield this year. Also, if only the fully vaxxed are getting haircuts in October, my split ends cannot wait.
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Delphine Luneau is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience. She was the editor of Suburban Life Media when its flagship was named best weekly in Illinois, and she has worked at papers in South Carolina, Indiana, Idaho and New York.
The Portland Public School District (PSD), Oregon's largest public school district, has announced that all staff, including teachers, will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations before the start of the new school year in September.

PSD officials said the vaccinations are necessary to slow the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant. In a release, the district said all PSD employees must show proof of vaccination by Aug. 31, unless they have an approved exemption.

The Chronicle has reached out today to school districts in Columbia County, including the St. Helens School District, to find out if local districts will also require all staff and teachers to be vaccinated.

As of 10:15 this morning, we have received the following statement from Clatskanie School District Superintendent Cathy Hurowitz.

"At this time we have no plans of requiring staff to be vaccinated to return to work this school year," she said. "We offer vaccinations for anyone in the community at our on campus health center and Hi-School Pharmacy is offering vaccinations."

Hurowitz said the district is encouraging all staff to be vaccinated and is reluctant to mandate vaccinations.

"Our next Board Meeting is September 13 and safety protocols are on the agenda, that includes vaccines and mask discussions if needed," Hurowitz said.

Rainier School District Superintendent Joseph Hattrick also responded to The Chief's inquiry.

"Like Clatskanie, Rainier staff are encouraged to be vaccinated and resources are available to them as well as community members if they would like the vaccination," Hattrick said. "It will be an ongoing discussion with our board and staff."

Follow this developing story here and in the Friday print editions of The Chronicle.
In this Dec. 12, 2019, file photo workers process chickens at the Lincoln Premium Poultry plant, Costco Wholesales dedicated poultry supplier, in Fremont, Neb. Rural America continued to lose population in the latest U.S. Census numbers, highlighting an already severe worker shortage in those areas and prompting calls from farm and ranching groups for immigration reform to help alleviate the problem. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
President Joe Biden walks from the podium after speaking about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, in Washington.
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WORCESTER - A graveside service for Robert F. Milavec, 82, who died Nov. 22, 2019, and his son, Jeffrey R. Milavec, 56, who died April 29, 2021, will be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Elk Creek Cemetery, the corner of Badeau Hill Road and County Highway 34, Schenevus, with the Re
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News

Booster vaccine clinic set for Saturday

SPINDALEThe first COVID-19 vaccine booster clinic is scheduled Saturday.

Foothills Health District will be administering booster COVID-19 vaccines for those who have already had the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, and who have compromised immune systems or are age 65 and older. Booster vaccines were authorized last week by federal authorities.

The booster vaccine clinic will be from 9 a.m.-12 noon at The Foundation at Isothermal Community College in Spindale. Participants must bring vaccination cards as proof that they have already been appropriately vaccinated with their first two shots.

This is for fully vaccinated people who have had either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, who are immunocompromised, or are at least age 65, said Foothills Health Director Karen Powell. That includes cancer patients, transplant patients, but also conditions like asthma or diabetes. Anyone who has an immune system that is compromised by a health condition.

Powell said there will be plenty of vaccine doses on hand.

We dont expect to run out. We encourage anyone who is eligible to come out and get the booster vaccine, she said.

Unlike most others, this clinic is not drive-through. Participants will have to walk inside the Foundation building.

Powell and her team are already finalizing plans to return to rest homes and nursing facilities, which are expected to begin in the next couple of weeks.

Health officials remain concerned that not enough people in Rutherford County have been vaccinated for COVID-19, which has already killed 225 Rutherford County citizens, and infected more than 8,000 people.

Vaccines can prevent people from having to go to the hospital, and help prevent death, Powell said. I continue to encourage people to get the vaccine.

As schools continue to open, Powell remains concerned for local students. Elementary school children are too young to receive a vaccine, and all public school teachers have not been vaccinated.

The Rutherford County Board of Education chose to make mask-wearing optional in the Rutherford County Schools.

I urge parents to have their school children wear masks to protect them from the coronavirus, Powell said.

She is somewhat encouraged that vaccinations over the past several weeks have increased in Rutherford County, though the total percentage remains among the lowest in North Carolina.

There is too much misinformation out there, Powell continued. Vaccines are the best tool we have to beat COVID.

She continues to believe that a cooperative effort is needed to fight the pandemic.

We have to come back as a community, and work together, Powell said. COVID is not over. We have got to care about each other, and do the things necessary to make our community healthier.

The booster vaccine is free, as are the initial vaccines.
8-Year-Olds Lemonade Stand for Sturgis Bikers Raises Over $30,000 for Childrens Hospital

An 8-year-old boy with a golden heart and a wish to help hydrate hundreds of bikers passing through the Black Hills in western South Dakota during the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally set up a lemonade stand that became immensely popular and raised over $30,000 for a childrens hospital.

Its just been crazy, motorcycle-loving Wyatt Dennis from Piedmont, South Dakota, told The Epoch Times.

His mother, Robin, 40, couldnt agree more: Weve been overwhelmed with the generosity of people in this, we never expected a small little kids lemonade stand to turn into what it has.

Wyatts idea to begin a free lemonade stand emerged when he and his mom saw bikes passing by from the deck of the house they were about to own.

Wyatt, who is now going to be in the third grade, didnt forget about it, and when the family bought the house the following year, he told his parents that he was ready to put out his lemonade stand.

As it was his initiative, his parents made it clear that he would have to help with mixing, pouring the lemonade in glasses, and serving it, and they would just be there to support him. Last year, they served about 20 gallons of lemonade to the entire rally.

We decided to do it for free because we wanted to teach him that when you work hard, you can get whatever your goal is, Robin said. And in this case, it was a Lego.

According to Fox News, Wyatt not only made enough money to buy what he wanted but also donated about $200 to St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital.

Wyatt told The Epoch Times that he chose that specific hospital because he wants to help some kids out. I want to help a charity with kids.

With the success of last year, Wyatt and his parents decided to set up a lemonade stand for the bikers this year too, expecting the same crowd. On the first day, Wyatt sold 20 gallons of lemonade within an hour and estimates making about $700 that day.

On the same day, a biker named Tracy who stayed at the campground next to the stand stopped for a lemonade. In the next few days, she stopped over again.

Impressed by him, she took to one of the rallys websites to post about his cute lemonade stand. From there it just rippled, and Robins husband began to get text messages from people about Wyatts lemonade stand.

We had no idea what [was] happening. We kind of had a freakout moment because we definitely did not have enough lemonade, Robin said.

Over the next few days, thousands of people visited. Robin said within five minutes of setting up the table, about 40 people would come over.

Its just fun to see your kid interacting with people, Robin said. Seeing people who dont really know each other come together at the stand, talk, and get to know each other was really heartwarming, she said.

Its just really neat to see the biker community come together and see how generous they are, Robin said.

Wyatt, who waved at all the bikers passing by, also has a book with the records of all those who visited his lemonade stand, which includes bikers from different states in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and England.

On one of the days, Gov. Kristi Noem also stopped by the lemonade stand.

This year, Wyatts donations from the lemonade stand were divided into three categories: 50 percent to college, 35 percent to St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital, and 15 percent to a dirt bike.

According to a Facebook post, Wyatt donated $31,394 to the hospital.

Robin said she and her husband are very proud of Wyatt, who she describes as an outgoing and personable kid who doesnt hesitate to talk to people, shake someones hand, or show gratitude to a veteran for his service.

With the lemonade stand, Robin said she and her husband werent trying to do anything extraordinary or outstanding but just teach their son about saving, spending, and giving.

Thats kind of how we structure our life and what weve been taught, Robin said. I hope that he carries that with him for the rest of his life.

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Afghan Central Banks $10 Billion Stash Not All Within Reach of Taliban

LONDON/WASHINGTONThe insurgent Taliban took over Afghanistan with astonishing speed, but it appears unlikely that it will prove equally as fast in gaining control of most of the Afghan central banks roughly $10 billion in assets.

The countrys central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), is thought to hold foreign currency, gold, and other treasures in its vaults, though the exact contents are unclear, according to an Afghan official.

Reuters was unable to reach Afghan central bank officials. The banks governor, Ajmal Ahmady, said in a Twitter thread he left deputies in charge of the bank on Sunday, later flying out of Kabul airport after President Ashraf Ghani and other key officials had already fled. Ahmady did not respond to Reuterss emails and messages seeking comment.

The Taliban said in a statement on Saturday that the treasury, public facilities, and government offices were the property of the nation and should be strictly guarded.

Here is what we know about the central banks assets and reserves:

The most recent financial statement posted online shows DAB holds total assets of about $10 billion, including $1.3 billion-worth of gold reserves and $362 million in foreign currency cash reserves, according to currency conversion rates on June 21, the date of the report.

Many Assets Held Abroad

However, a big chunk of it wont be held in the country.

Central banks, especially in developing nations, often park their assets overseas with institution such as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) or the Bank of England.

According to DABs consolidated statement, the FRBNY held gold bars worth 101,770,256,000 afghanisat the time $1.32 billionon behalf of the Afghan central bank in its vaults by end-2020.

The DABs June statement also states that the bank owned investments worth $6.1 billion. While the latest report did not provide details of those investments, a breakdown in the year-end report showed that the majority of those investments were in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds and bills.

Investments were made through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), an arm of the World Bank, or through the FRBNY and held in New York. Among its smaller items are shares in an investment pool by the Bank for International Settlement, which is based in Switzerland, as well as the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade and Development Bank in Turkey.

Asked about the holdings, an FRBNY official said the bank does not acknowledge or discuss individual account holders as a matter of policy, but is generally in contact with U.S. government agencies to monitor events that may impact control of a foreign central bank.

An official in the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden told Reuters, Any central bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban.

DABs foreign currency cash holdings worth around $362 million consist almost entirely of U.S. dollars and were held at the banks head offices and branches as well as the presidential palace, which is now in the hands of the Taliban.

The year-end statement also details that just under $160 million worth of gold bars and silver coins were held at the banks vault at the presidential palace.

The Afghan central banks vaults are also home to a hoard of 2,000-year-old gold jewelry, ornaments, and coins known as the Bactrian Treasure, according to UNESCO. The around 21,000 ancient artifacts were presumed lost until 2003, when they were found in a secret vault in the central banks basement, having survived the previous era of Taliban rule undiscovered.

Afghan lawmakers in January floated the idea of sending the treasures abroad for safe keeping, warning they were vulnerable to theft, according to local broadcaster Tolo News.

Looking at the central banks international reserves, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated those at $9.5 billion in 2021 in its latest review published in June.

This translates into an import cover of more than 15 months, well above the three months seen as a safe minimum. The IMF said it considered the level of reserves broadly adequate to risks facing Afghanistan.

Access to SDRs in Doubt

A key question will be the handling of Afghanistans share of a pending $650 billion allocation of Special Drawing Rights currency reserves to the Funds 190 member countries on Aug. 23.

The distribution of the SDRs, the Funds unit of exchange based on dollars, euros, yen, sterling, and yuan, aims to shore up the reserves of developing countries strained by the COVID-19 pandemic. As an IMF member, Afghanistan is eligible for an allocation of about $455 million, based on its 0.07 percent quota shareholding in the Fund.

Terrorists gaining access to those assets would be hard to digest in capitals around the globe, but not all countries have access to the SDRs they are allocated. In 2019, the IMF suspended Venezuelas access to its SDRs after more than 50 member countries representing a majority of the Funds shareholding refused to recognize Nicolas Maduros government as Venezuelas legitimate ruler following disputed 2018 elections.

The fund has not responded to a request for comment on the pending SDR allocation to Afghanistan.

By Karin Strohecker, Simon Lewis, and David Lawder
Arkansas AG Rutledge Argues That Critical Race Theory Violates Civil Rights Act

In response to a state legislators question, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) ideologies in schools does violate U.S. laws.

Teaching Critical Race Theory and similar discriminatory ideologies violates Title VI, the Equal Protection Clause, and Article II of the Arkansas Constitution, said Attorney General Rutledge in a press release. The classroom isnt a place to promote extremist political ideologies and preach discrimination. When schools allow the classification of children based on race, they violate both state and federal law.

CRT is a quasi-Marxist ideology that interprets society through the lens of racial strugglebelieving inherent racism is built into the foundations of Western societies. The ideology seeks to fundamentally transform societies in order to end a claimed racial oppression. An effort to incorporate the theory in U.S. schools has been pushed by progressive politicians, activists, and major teachers unions, drawing backlash from parents and conservatives. CRT labels all American institutions as systemically racist and calls for the dismantling of those institutions.

In a written opinion (pdf), Rutledge said, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations protect students who are enrolled in institutions receiving federal fundingincluding Arkansas public schools and universitiesfrom discrimination based on race.

She went on to say, Additionally, discrimination that violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment committed by an institution that accepts federal funds also constitutes a violation of Title VI. 

A screenshot from Google Maps shows the Arkansas Capitol building in Little Rock. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

Arkansas State Rep. Mark Lowery sent a letter to Rutledge in June to ask her to assess if the teaching of CRT breaks any laws. Lowery has sponsored House Bill 1231 (pdf), which would prohibit using the New York Times 1619 Project in Arkansas schools, and House Bill 1218 (pdf), which would ban certain curriculum based on race, gender, or social class to be used.

Published by the New York Times Nikole Hannah-Jones, the 1619 Project is known for reframing the United States history as an inherently racist nation founded on slavery. It consists of a collection of essays that argue, among many other controversial claims, that the real reason for the American Revolution was to preserve slavery, and that slavery was the primary driver of American capitalism during the 19th century.

CRT has been promoted under other names, such as equity, anti-racist, or culturally responsive initiatives. Speakers like Ibram X. Kendi (American author, professor, anti-racist activist) get paid to diagnose an organization as systemically racist, prescribe CRT-based initiatives as the remedy to root out white supremacy, and then consultants help institutions implement it.

Kendi, in a September 2020 interview with The Atlantic, said if CRT and the teaching of what really happened in history cause people to hate the United States, then so be it.

We need to rid the country of those racist policies structures and systems and replace them with more anti-racist policies and structures and systems. In other words, it is not enough to just be aware, we must then take action so that we can transform this country, Kendi told The Atlantic.

However, Rutledge concluded that teaching about the history of the United States including all the facts about slavery was completely lawful if it adheres to our founding documents and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s vision that we are all equal under God and the law.

But it is important to note that the unlawfulness of such practices does not preclude teaching the history of racial injustice or our Nations longstanding and continuing efforts to realize what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized as the dream expressed in our founding creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, she wrote.

GQ Pan contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden salutes as he disembarks from Marine One at Fort McNair in Washington after flying from Camp David, on Aug. 17, 2021. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)

Biden Cuts Vacation Short, Flies Back to Washington

President Joe Biden flew to Washington on Tuesday evening, cutting his vacation short as thousands of Americans remain in Taliban-held Afghanistan.

Marine One touched down at 9:05 p.m. at Fort McNair. Biden and a trio of assistants disembarked and walked across the grass to waiting vehicles.

They arrived at the White House about 15 minutes later.

Biden did not take questions at either location.

Biden was on vacation at Camp David, a presidential retreat situated in Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland.

Biden flew to Maryland from Delaware on Friday, a day after he left Washington. He spent the weekend in Camp David, but flew to Washington on Monday to deliver remarks concerning the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan from the White House. He took no questions after his speech and returned back to the retreat.

Thousands of Americans are believed to remain in Afghanistan, stoking safety concerns because the Taliban, which recently seized the country, is a terrorist group with a violent history.

The United States holds the Hamid Karzai International Airport but Taliban terrorists are stationed around the exterior. Afghans desperate to flee the country have been crowding the runway, at times slowing the evacuation flights.

Marine One, with U.S. President Joe Biden looking out the window, lands at Fort McNair in Washington after flying from Camp David, on Aug. 17, 2021. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

People wait outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 17, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters)

U.S. military flights on Tuesday evacuated about 1,100 U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and their families on 13 flights, a White House official said.

In total, the U.S. military has evacuated more than 3,200 Americans, as well as nearly 2,000 Afghans who are receiving Special Immigrant Visas and being housed temporarily on U.S. bases in the United States.

U.S. officials expect the pace of evacuations to continue to increase. The Pentagon says up to 9,000 people could be evacuated each day soon if all goes well.

Biden does not have a speech scheduled to address Afghanistan again. Instead, he is slated to receive a briefing from members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team in the afternoon before delivering remarks at 4:30 p.m. on the COVID-19 response and the vaccination program, according to the White House schedule.

Biden is slated to speak to ABC host George Stephanopoulos, once an aide to former Democrat President Bill Clinton, in the morning.

He will, of course, Im certain, be speaking to the situation on the ground in Afghanistan in the interview, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

White House officials are expected to announce recommendations for many Americans to get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots on Wednesday, as more and more data show the effectiveness of vaccines are waning amid the spread of the Delta variant.

Drug regulators and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week authorized and advised boosters for certain people with compromised immune systems.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Bystander Sees 3 Young Men Help Elderly Woman Struggling to Carry Groceries to CarRewards Them

A good deed was noticed in a Kroger parking lot in Cincinnati, Ohio, Aug. 2 when an elderly woman was struggling getting her groceries to the car.

Local daycare owner Victoria Curtis, 36, saw three young men in the store parking lot spring into action to help the lady, who looked as though she might collapse.

As I got out of the car with my 9-year-old daughter Mackenzie, [I] notice three young men are running from each direction, helping the elderly woman who was struggling to push her cart. Victoria told The Epoch Times. It seemed as if her legs were giving out on her.

Kroger on Winton Road in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Screenshot/Google Maps)

She watched the boys help her to the car and put her groceries inside, and snapped a photo of the exchange, which she later posted on Facebook.

I seen the most amazing act of kindness today at Krogers on Winton rd in Cincinnati, she captioned. Whoever these young mens parents are, you raise them well.

After witnessing this, her heart was full of joy and happiness. She walked over to them and told them how proud of them she was.

Victoria Curtis, 36, snapped this photo of three young men helping the elderly woman struggling with groceries to her car. (Courtesy of Victoria Curtis)

You dont see this every day, especially with everything going on in our community, she told the newspaper. So many teens have lost their lives to gun violence.

Afterward, hoping to give them the recognition they deserved, and not let the good deed go unrewarded, she sought out the manager of Kroger to help her get in touch with the boys and reward them.

They located the young men, and she found out their names were: Josiah, Kingston, and Demetrius, and arranged to meet up with them at Kroger a few days laterto present a token of her appreciation.

Victoria shared an update on Facebook: I had the pleasure of rewarding them with pizza, gift cards and gifts, she wrote. Lets give them the attention they deserve.

She had no idea her post would go viral, but said shes happy it did, so that the world will see we still have some great young well-mannered young men who are still around.

Kroger store manager Jordan (2nd-R) and Victoria (R) meet Josiah, Kingston, and Demetrius. (Courtesy of Victoria Curtis)

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In this image from a U.S. Forest Service wildfire monitoring camera, plumes of smoke rise from the Caldor Fire in El Dorado County, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2021. (U.S. Forest Service/ALERTWildfire Network via AP)

California Utility Cutting Power to 51,000 Customers Amid Dangerous Wildfire Conditions

The nations largest utility announced on Tuesday evening that it has begun shutting off power to some 51,000 customers as a large wildfire, fueled by winds, raged through a small Northern California forest town.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in a press release said it made the decision to prevent winds from knocking down or fouling power lines and sparking new blazes, citing dry offshore winds, extreme to exceptional drought conditions and extremely dry vegetation.

Power will be shut off in small portions of 18 northern California counties, including the Sierra Nevada foothills, the North Coast, the North Valley and the North Bay mountains, the company said.

With these high winds and extremely dry climate conditions, we are focused on customer and community safety. Its never an easy decision to turn off the power for safety, but it is the right thing to do to keep everyone safe, PG&E Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Marlene Santos said in a statement.

The release notes that the company expects all clears will occur around Wednesday afternoon.

We understand how disruptive and inconvenient it is to lose power. The sole focus of a PSPS [Public Safety Power Shutoff] is to keep our customers safe. As soon as this extreme weather passes, our crews will be inspecting our equipment and the vegetation around it, making repairs and restoring power as soon as its safe to do so, Santos added.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency for El Dorado County because of the Caldor fire, which tripled in size between Monday and Tuesday afternoon to nearly 50 square miles (129 square kilometers).

About 2,500 people are under evacuation orders and warnings because of the fire, which almost tripled in size overnight, fire spokesman Chris Vestal said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (center) talks with Cal Fire officials at Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Boulder Creek, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

A scorched property is seen from String Canyon Road after the Caldor fire burned through Grizzly Flats, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Authorities said on Tuesday that two people sustained serious injuries because of the blaze. At least one was a severe burn injury and required an air ambulance.

To the north, the Dixie Firethe largest of some 100 active wildfires in more than a dozen Western stateswas advancing toward Susanville, population about 18,000.

The Dixie Fire burns in the hills near Milford, California, on Aug. 17, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The Dixie Fire, which has destroyed at least 600 homes, is the largest of the major wildfires burning in western U.S. states that have seen historic drought and weeks of high temperatures and dry weather that have left trees, brush and grasslands as flammable as tinder.

The fire has scorched more than 940 square miles (2,434 square kilometers) in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades since it ignited on July 13 and eventually merged with a smaller blaze. Its less than a third contained.

Investigations are continuing into the cause of the blaze.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chinese J-15 fighter jets are launching from the deck of the Liaoning aircraft carrier during military drills in the Yellow Sea, off China's east coast on Dec. 23, 2016. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

China Holds Assault Drills Near Southern Taiwan

China carried out assault drills near Taiwan on Aug. 17, with fighter jets, anti-submarine aircraft, and combat ships exercising to the southwest and southeast of the island, in what the countrys armed forces said was a response to external interference.

In an Aug. 17 statement, the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) Eastern Theater Command said the drills were using actual troops and that recent U.S.Taiwan provocations  severely violated the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan, which is claimed by the Chinese regime despite the island having been ruled as a separate entity for decades, has complained of repeated Chinese military drills in its vicinity in the past two years. The PLA drills have been widely viewed as part of a pressure campaign to force the island to accept Chinas rule over it.

The assault drills are different from those carried out as a matter of routine by the PLA. The Aug. 17 drills were held near Taiwans southwestern and southeastern waters, in both the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea, as well as the Bashi Channel that connects the two seas, according to the PLAs statement.

Its special and rare that the PLA performs a military exercise in both seas. In the military sense, the PLA wants to show that it can cut the U.S. Navys transportation line via the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea [from the Philippine Sea], Su Tzu-yun, director of the Defense Strategy and Resources Division of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 17. [The drills are] indeed a threat to Taiwan.

In this file photo, a Chinese H-6K bomber patrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. (Liu Rui/Xinhua via AP)

Assault Drills

The PLA suddenly announced the drills but didnt release details regarding them. Taiwan closely monitored the drills and released related information.

Taiwans Defense Ministry said on its official website that 11 PLA aircraft entered the Taiwanese air defense zone on Aug. 17, including six J-16 fighters, two H-6K bombers, one Y-8Q anti-submarine aircraft, one Y-8G long-distance jammer, and one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft.

The ministry said in a statement that it had fully grasped and assessed the situation in the sea and air and is prepared for various responses.

An F-35 jet arrives at its new operational base at Hill Air Force Base, in northern Utah on Sept. 2, 2015. (Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

Provocations

The U.S. Congress enacted the Taiwan Relations Act on April 10, 1979, to support Taiwan in deference to Beijing.

The provocations that the PLA claimed in its statement on Aug. 17 could include a meeting that was held last week, in which officers from the U.S. and Taiwanese coast guards discussed improving cooperation and communication.

On Aug. 4, the U.S. State Department approved a sale of $750 million worth of military equipment to Taiwan, which includes 40 self-propelled howitzers, 20 field artillery ammunition support vehicles, and other equipment, which angered Beijing.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Defendant Alex Ewing enters the court for his murder trial, in an Arapahoe County Court in Centennial, Colo., on July 27, 2021. (Philip B. Poston/Pool/Sentinel Colorado via AP)

Ex-Nevada Inmate Gets Life for 1984 Colorado Hammer Killings

CENTENNIAL, Colo.A former Nevada prison inmate was sentenced Tuesday to three consecutive life sentences in the long-unsolved 1984 hammer killings of three Colorado family members, including a 7-year-old girl, inside their suburban Denver home.

Sixty-one-year-old Alex Ewing was convicted Aug. 6 of first-degree murder after a two-day trial in which prosecutors contended Ewing used a hammer and a knife to kill Bruce Bennett, 27, his wife, Debra, 26, and daughter Melissa in the Bennetts home. Melissa Bennett also was raped, prosecutors said.

Another daughter, 3-year-old Vanessa, was beaten in the head with a hammer as were her parents and sister but survived the attack.

Ewing is also charged with the hammer killing of Patricia Louise Smith, 50, in her home in suburban Lakewood about a week before the Aurora killings. Smith also was sexually assaulted. Ewings trial in that case is set for October.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Darren Vahle told Ewing on Tuesday that the crimes Ewing was convicted of were the worst he had seen in a quarter-century of practicing law, The Aurora Sentinel reported.

Over a 12-day span, you inflicted an unspeakable orgy of violence, Vahle said.

Ewing was identified as a suspect in 2018 through DNA evidence while imprisoned in Nevada, where he was convicted of attacking a couple in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson in 1984 with an ax handle in their bedroom. The results of a DNA sample taken from Ewing were linked with DNA developed years later from evidence taken from the scenes of the Colorado killings.

Ewing didnt speak during the sentencing hearing.

Several Bennett family members read statements during Tuesdays hearing, including Vanessa Bennett Schulz, now 41.

Im sure my parents and sister were great people, but its unfortunate I dont remember anything about them, Bennett Schulz said. I didnt just lose my parents and sister, I lost my trust in people.

Bruce Bennetts mother, Connie Bennett, 87, asked the judge for the maximum sentence. She had testified that she discovered her sons bloody body inside the home after her son and his wife did not show up for work.

Some people may call him an animal, she said of Ewing. But I wont because I think animals have a purpose in this world.
Facebook Continues Ban on Taliban Content; Twitter Permits Spokesmen Accounts

Facebook says it will maintain its ban of pro-Taliban content under U.S. law and that it has been blocking WhatsApp accounts linked to the terrorist group, after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15.

The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law, and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies, a Facebook spokesperson told several media outlets.

Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, employs a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context, helping to identify and alert us to emerging issues on the platform, according to the spokesperson.

Our teams are closely monitoring this situation as it evolves. Facebook does not make decisions about the recognized government in any particular country, but instead respects the authority of the international community in making these determinations. Regardless of who holds power, we will take the appropriate action against accounts and content that breaks our rules, the spokesperson added.

The announcement comes as social media companies face scrutiny about how they would handle the terrorist group that has quickly gained control of Afghanistan.

The icons of Facebook and WhatsApp are pictured on an iPhone in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on Nov. 15, 2018. (Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

The Washington Post reported on Aug. 15 that Taliban members were contacting Kabul residents using WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging app.

Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesman accused Facebook of censorship at an Aug. 17 press briefing.

Googles YouTube said on Aug. 15 that it has a long-held policy of not allowing accounts believed to be operated by the Taliban on its site.

However, social media platform Twitter is facing backlash after users highlighted that Zabihullah Mujahid, an official Taliban spokesman, regularly posts updates about the groups activities on his Twitter account, while former President Donald Trumps account remains permanently suspended following the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol building.

Mujahid has more than 315,000 followers on the platform, while another spokesman for the terrorist group, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, has more than 64,000 followers.

Twitter, in a statement to Mediaite, didnt say whether it would remove the accounts of the spokesmen from the platform, but said it would continue to proactively enforce its rules prohibiting the glorification of violence, platform manipulation, and spam.

Twitters top priority is keeping people safe, and we remain vigilant, the statement reads.

A Republican member of Congress questioned Twitters decision to allow spokesmen for the Taliban to remain on the platform, but continue to enforce its ban on Trump.

Why on Gods green Earth does the Taliban spokesman have an active Twitter account but not the former President of the United States? Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) wrote on Twitter on Aug. 15. Whose side is the AMERICA BASED Big-Tech companies on?

Criticism over the matter also came from outside of the United States.

Freedom and democracy are not doing well when #Twitter continues to ban #Trumps account but relays the #Taliban spokespersons without any second thoughts, Jerome Riviere, a member of the European Parliament representing Frances right-wing National Rally party, wrote on Twitter.

Twitter officials didnt immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Family: Man in Deputys Shooting Had Irrational Thoughts

KALAMAZOO, Mich.The family of a man identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of a sheriffs deputy in southwestern Michigan said Tuesday he had been tormented by invasive and irrational thoughts.

Gary Goidosik and Kim Goidosik referred to themselves in a statement through the Goidosik Morse Disability Law Group as the family of the shooter in the weekend death of Kalamazoo County sheriffs deputy Ryan Proxmire.

State police on Monday identified Kyle Goidosik, 35, of Vicksburg, as the man who shot Proxmire Saturday during a car chase that started in Galesburg, about 130 miles west of Detroit.

On behalf of our family, we want to express our deep sorrow over the death of Officer Ryan Proxmire and extend our condolences to his family and friends, the statement read. We also grieve the loss of Kyle, who for years was tormented by invasive and irrational thoughts. This was another senseless and terrible tragedy that the American people have witnessed by one suffering from delusional and irrational thoughts.

Authorities have said a man pointed a gun at deputies at a gas station Saturday night then drove away. Proxmire gave chase and was shot.

The man then lost control of his vehicle and drove into a field where he was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the other deputies.

Proxmire died at a hospital Sunday.

Court records show Kyle Goidosik previously was charged with methamphetamine possession, carrying concealed weapons, and assault, according to WZZM-TV.

He was scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15.
A photo, taken with a drone, shows the devastation caused by the flooding of the Ahr River in the Eifel village of Schuld, western Germany on July 15, 2021. (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)

Germany Approves $35 Billion in Federal Funds for Flood-Hit Areas

The German government has backed 30 billion euros ($35.16 billion) in federal funding on Wednesday to help rebuild the damage in western and southern Germany following heavy rainfall and flooding in mid-July.

Chancellor Angela Merkel announced at a press briefing that the money will be released by the federal state in a sign of national solidarity, and the nations 16 federal states have reached an agreement on the relief fund for the regions affected by the storm.

Of the 30 billion euros, 28 billion ($32.82 billion) will be split between the federal government and the states, a government official said. The remaining money will be provided by Berlin for infrastructure projects.

The federal states of RhinelandPalatinate and North RhineWestphalia, in particular, suffered heavy damage last month, when rainfall and floods took many by surprise despite extreme weather warnings.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Rhineland-Palatinate State Premier Malu Dreyer speak to people as they stand on a bridge during their visit in the flood-ravaged areas, in Schuld near Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Rhineland-Palatinate state, Germany on July 18, 2021. (Christof Stache/Pool via Reuters)

A regional train sits in the flood waters at the local station after it was flooded by the high waters of the Kyll river in Kordel, Germany, on July 15, 2021. (Sebastian Schmitt/dpa via AP)

More than 180 people died in what was reported as Germanys worst natural disaster in half a century.

It is terrifying, Merkel told residents of the small town of Adenau in the state of RhinelandPalatinate last month. The German language can barely describe the devastation thats taken place.

The floods damaged more than 150 schools and 200 nurseries in the state of North RhineWestphalia alone, where recovery costs are expected to exceed 13 billion euros ($15 billion), said Armin Laschet, the states prime minister.

The country in Western Europe aims for parliament in Berlin to vote the package through in September.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
A 'Help Wanted' sign is posted beside COVID-19 safety guidelines in front of a restaurant in Los Angeles on May 28, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Hiring Crunch Drags Down Small Business Revenues

Even as large corporations such as Target are posting forecast-beating earnings and reporting little difficulty attracting talent, smaller businesses say theyre struggling to hire workers, hurting their bottom line.

A new survey by Salesforce (pdf) shows that 53.3 percent of small and medium-sized businesses said staffing issues have been a drag on revenues. For those businesses that said hiring woes were pressuring profits, 56.6 percent reported a hit to revenues of at least 11 percent.

Echoing this sentiment were small-business owners surveyed for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) July jobs report, which found that 49 percent of owners reported job openings that couldnt be filleda 48-year record high. At the same time, small-business owners plans to fill open positions remain at record high levels, and many are boosting wages to attract workers.

Finding qualified workers remains a key problem for small-business owners, with 93 percent of those who are trying to hire staff reporting few or no qualified applicants, according to the report, while the top overall concern among small-business owners was labor quality.

Small business owners struggled to find qualified workers for their open positions, which has impaired business activity in the busy summer months, NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement. Owners are raising compensation to the highest levels in 48 years to attract needed employees.

A separate NFIB survey indicated that most small businesses said earnings trends over the past three months dropped by eight points to a net negative 13 percent. Among those reporting lower profits, 32 percent cited weaker sales, 31 percent indicated rising materials costs, and 10 percent blamed labor costs.

Large companies, by contrast, have been reporting forecast-beating earnings growth. Of the 91 percent of S&P 500-listed companies that have reported revenue numbers for the second quarter, 87 percent reported revenues above the mean estimate, according to FactSet.

The second quarter will mark the highest percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting revenues above estimates for a quarter since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2008, John Butters, vice president and senior earnings analyst at FactSet, said in a statement.

Target, which is listed on the S&P 500, reported on Aug. 18 that second-quarter sales rose in every merchandise category, helping the company top earnings estimates.

Asked by Bloomberg whether Target was having a hard time finding workers to fill job vacancies, which have surged to a record high in the United States, the companys chief financial officer replied in the negative.

What we see as a company maybe wont be what you hear everywhere else, Target CFO Michael Fiddelke told Bloomberg in an Aug. 18 interview.

Our ability to attract team and our ability to retain team  those numbers look strong for us right now, said Fiddelke, who credited Targets hiring power to a long-term investment strategy that puts a high priority on staff.

Thats not a strategy that you can pivot to on a dimeit has to be part of your ethos as a company, he said, adding that this really benefits us in the current environment.

Job openings in the United States surged to a record high of 10.1 million in June, while hiring lagged behind that figure by more than 3 million, painting a picture of an economic recovery held back by hiring woes.

This is by far the record amount of job openings the economy has ever had. This historically elevated level makes clear that we have a severe worker shortage that threatens what should be a prolonged economic boom, Curtis Dubay, senior economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a note.

Layoffs, meanwhile, remained at a record low for the second month in a row on the last business day in June, according to the Labor Departments most recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report.
Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane, some climbing on the plane, as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Verified UGC via AP)

Human Remains Found in US Military Planes Wheel After Leaving Kabul: Air Force

The U.S. Air Force is investigating the lead-up to an incident earlier this week involving an American military aircraft that departed a Kabul airport with civilians hanging onto its landing gear who fell to their deaths.

A statement from the Air Force confirmed that human remains were discovered on the C-17 military plane, and it confirmed that the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is reviewing all information and details about the incident.

OSIs review will be thorough to ensure we obtain the facts regarding this tragic incident, said a statement from the Air Force, which was obtained by The Epoch Times. Our hearts go out to the families of the deceased.

Video footage and images of the incident showed a mob of people surrounding the plane as it was taxiing on the runway at Hamid Karzai International Airport after the Taliban took over Kabul. Some people appeared to cling onto the planes wheel, and other footage showed several individuals falling hundreds of feet to their deaths.

The footage of people falling to their deaths, which went viral on social media, has come to symbolize the haphazard and hasty U.S. retreat from Afghanistan as well as the rapid advances made by the Taliban. Several top White House officials, including President Joe Biden, admitted that the Talibans victory in such a short period of time caught them off-guard.

Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Verified UGC via AP)

Hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Verified UGC via AP)

The Air Forces statement acknowledged that the plane was surrounded by civilians who breached the airports security.

Faced with a rapidly deteriorating security situation around the aircraft, the C-17 crew decided to depart the airfield as quickly as possible, the Air Force said, adding that human remains were later found.

In addition to videos seen online and in press reports, human remains were discovered in the wheel well of the C-17 after it landed at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, the Air Force statement said. The aircraft is currently impounded to provide time to collect the remains and inspect the aircraft before it is returned to flying status.

Investigators will look into individuals who died after falling from the planes wheel. The Air Force did not confirm the number of people who died.

During the airport chaos, as throngs of people were scrambling to leave the South Asian country after the Talibans rapid advances, U.S. troops were forced to fire on several armed assailants, confirmed Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Monday.

Alongside our joint force, interagency, and international partners, the U.S. Air Force remains laser-focused on maintaining security at [Kabul airport] to prevent a situation like this from happening again as we safely process Afghan civilians seeking to depart the country, the Air Force said.
Indian Border Security Force soldiers patrol along the border fence at an outpost along the India-Pakistan border in Suchit-Garh, 36 kilometers southwest of Jammu, India, on Jan. 11, 2013. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)

In a Next-Generation Battle, Infiltrating Drones Add New Dimension to IndiaPakistan Conflict

NEW DELHIIncreasing numbers of drone sightings on the disputed IndiaPakistan border have created fresh security warnings for India, threatening the ceasefire between the two countries that has been in place since late February.

Experts said the militarization of drone technology is a part of new asymmetric means of warfare that is increasingly being used by nonstate actors around the world to attack civilian and military installations.

Drones, or unmanned aerial systems (UAS), are very cheap to manufacture or acquire compared to other air-to-surface military technology. They can overwhelm expensive defense systems and threaten a nations security.

Seven drones were sighted on the disputed border inside India since the beginning of this month, while a Pakistani quadcopter was spotted inside Indian territory in the Arnia sector, 379 miles from the nations capital, New Delhi. It was shot down by Indias Border Security Forces, according to Indian reports.

More than 300 drones were sighted along the disputed border between India and Pakistan between August 2019 and June 28, 2021, according to Abhishek Darbey, a research associate with the New Delhi-based Center for China Analysis and Strategy, who said armed drones are developed like fighter jets and can cause similar casualties during a war.

The threat of drones as a means of covert warfare isnt limited to the IndiaPakistan border. On July 29, an Iranian-made drone dropped military-grade explosives on an oil tanker in international waters in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman that killed two people.

The United States and G-7 blamed Iran for the attack, and the incident led to a battle of words between Iranian and Israeli diplomats who blamed each other for threatening maritime security.

The first violent incident of a drone-related attack by a nonstate actor was perpetrated by ISIS, which detonated a drone loaded with explosives in a densely populated urban battlefield in Mosul, Iraq, in late 2016.

Since then, the use of drones by nonstate actors has been recorded in Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine and in battlefields in Africa, according to a report by Karen Allen published in the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

The Indian establishment woke to the terror of a drone attack when two drones were used to drop explosives on the Indian air force base in Jammu on June 27, leaving two personnel injured, said Darbey.

Two days later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting to discuss security threats including those posed by the drones. Just five days later, another drone was sighted in the vicinity of the same air force base.

No terrorist organization took responsibility for the June 27 attack, but the Indian security agencies believe the attack couldnt have happened without the involvement of the Pakistan army that sits just 11 miles away at the border.

The simple fact of the matter is that there are no non-state actors in Pakistan. This is an alibi that is used to distance the Pakistani state from its terrorist auxiliaries. Therefore, the attack was most likely the handiwork of one of these proxies of the Pakistan military establishment, most likely the Lashkar-e-Taiba, said Sushant Sareen, a senior fellow at the Observers Reserve Foundation, in an analysis published on June 30.

Pakistans Foreign Office, however, denied the allegation and called it an unsubstantiated propaganda and smear campaign according to the Pakistani news source the Dawn.

The intrusion by drones has threatened the IndiaPakistan cease-fire, according to Abhinav Pandya, a geostrategic analyst and the CEO of the Usanas Foundation, an India-based think tank

However, India is playing it down for several reasons. The cease-fire has come after a long time, and India, pressurized from China on its Ladakh border, wants this cease-fire to be a successful arrangement, he said.

An Indian army drone flies near the site of a gunbattle between Indian government forces and suspected militants in Padgampora village of Pulwama, south of Srinagar, on March 9, 2017.

(Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images)

Dropping Narcotics and Ammunition

Vicky Nanjappa, an Indian reporter who has covered major terrorist attacks in India, told The Epoch Times that drone sightings arent new in India, as they have been used to drop narcotics and ammunition inside the Indian territory from across the border for many years.

However, the recent incidents have dealt a serious warning to the Indian administration.

The incident at Jammu is a clear indicator that these drones pose a security risk. The manner in which the drones dropped off ammunition and narcotics at the Punjab border in 2019 is also a sign of how risky these drones are, Nanjappa said.

China-made drones with 10 kilograms of payload capacity made 10 sorties in eight days to drop AK-47 rifles, ammunition, and narcotics from Pakistan into the Punjab region of India in September 2019, according to India Today.

The narcotics were meant to be sold on Indian soil, and the proceeds were meant to be used to fund terror in Kashmir. The ammunition too was meant to be transported to the [Kashmir] Valley. While India has managed to intercept the drones, the worry is that they keep coming into Indian territory, Nanjappa said.

One reason why the drones have become so frequent on the India-Pakistan de facto border is because of Indias counter-infiltration grid that includes fencing on the border, Pandya says.

India has put state-of-the-art sensors (I am not mentioning the technology for security reasons) which are difficult to escape. Earlier, Pakistan used to send weapons, drugs, and cash with the terrorists it infiltrated in Kashmir but now that has become extremely difficult due to the reasons stated above, he said.

Drones today come with technology as advanced as that of a stealth fighter jet and are available in all sizes ranging from small toys to fighter jets, Pandya said. They are increasingly becoming dangerous because with enhanced payload they can even infiltrate teams across the border, and in many covert ways, they can be used even in civilian zones.

Simple drones that are used for aerial photography can also be used to drop an explosive or sabotage a national security asset, he said.

The fence erected within the Indian territory near the India-Pakistan International Border along with floodlights at Chak Changa village at Hiranagar, Jammu State, India, in October 2012. (Venus Upadhayaya/The Epoch Times)

Chinas Sale of Drones

Darbey said China is a supplier of drones to 11 customers including Pakistan, and drone transgressions are a new form of asymmetric warfare. Their purpose is to collect intelligence and cause disturbances.

With the Chinese investments in POK [Pakistan Occupied Kashmir] at its CPEC [China Pakistan Economic Corridor Project] project, China along with Pakistan is building military pressure at the India-Pakistan border and also at the India-Sino border, he said, adding that older reports note Chinas willingness to export missile-carrying drones to Pakistan.

Early this year, Chinese media reported that China sold 50 Pterosaur 2 drones to Pakistan. Darbey said its takeoff weight is 4.2 tons and its mission can last for 20 hours. Pterosaur can also launch air-to-surface missile attacks against India without crossing the border. Two years ago, China had sold 48.

China is currently the country with the most complete types of drone ammunition in the world, Darbey said. India has more UAVs than Pakistan but it needs more, as it shares long borders not only with Pakistan but also China, he said.

An Indian Border Security Force soldier looks at the Pakistan side of the border through a binocular at Ranbir Singh Pura, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Jammu, India, on Sept. 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

Revisiting Policy

Experts say India is buying high-capability drones and anti-drone systems but it also has to revisit its drone policy. It needs an enhanced capability to neutralize those infiltrating from across its borders.

It threatens to be New Delhis next biggest headache. Mere interception is not enough, and these drones need to be shot down, Nanjappa said, adding that the Indian government now wants to train its police in all states to deal with the menace of infiltrating drones.

The Bureau of Police Research and Development is currently in talks with the police chiefs of all states so that training can be imparted to counter new terror threats that have been emerging. I feel this should be done more seriously and the forces must be sensitized more and more to this emerging threat, he said.

Pandya said the need for increased police capacity is needed because all drones that recently infiltrated Indian borders vanished except for one that was downed by the Jammu and Kashmir police.
In Nigerias Jos City, Reprisal Attacks Threaten to Become Sectarian War

Nigerian authorities are scrambling to avert a full-fledged sectarian war in Plateau state after mob violence left at least 31 people dead on Aug. 14 and 15.

On the morning of Aug. 14, five minibuses were attacked by a Christian mob and the more than 60 Muslim worshippers aboard were bludgeoned, killing 22, on the outskirts of Jos, the state capital. Mob violence in an apparent reprisal killed at least nine more people, believed to be Christians, on Aug. 15.

Emotions on both sides of the religious divide have been strained for weeks in the aftermath of massacres of Christian residents in rural areas near Jos, with no apparent intervention by the military, from July 31 to Aug. 2. The attackers were armed Muslim militia fighters who burned villages and killed any residents who couldnt flee.

Gov. Simon Lalong on Aug. 17 summoned religious and ethnic leaders in Plateau for talks over the tensions that have persisted since the night of Aug. 14, and forced a mass evacuation of students from campuses on the evening of Aug. 17.

The attack on Aug. 14 was the second attack by Christians on Muslims this month. On Aug. 7, 200 Christian militiamen attacked a Muslim town, marking a new development in the continuing sectarian strife in Nigeria, with Christians, who have endured years of attacks from Muslim radicals, going on the offensive.

The slayings in Jos recalled bloody street fights in September 2001 that claimed the lives of 1,000 people in the city.

Road Barricaded

In the incident on Aug. 14, the Muslim victims, all of them Fulani by ethnicity, were moving in the same direction as a funeral procession heading west to the town of Miango, where the Irigwe tribe had scheduled a solemn mass burial for six among 68 victims in Bassa County from mass killings at the beginning of the month.

The five minibuses were slowly moving in a convoy through a low-income neighborhood called Rukuba Road, returning to southwest Ondo State from a religious festival in northeast Bauchi State, according to police. In heavy traffic, the convoy of buses with the Muslims was more than a mile ahead of the marchers, according to eyewitnesses.

Trouble began when the Muslim group bogged down in gridlock during the funeral procession, and a crowd attacked them, said Suleiman Hassan, a broadcast journalist, who interviewed survivors.

The crowd got suspicious and barricaded the road, Hassan told The Epoch Times by phone. They ordered them to step out of the vans and started questioning them. Some [mourners] started beating them, and when some of them [victims] started running out of fear, the crowd started to attack with anything they could find.

Most of the victims died from blunt-trauma injuries from stones and clubs, and some showed knife cuts, Hassan said. On the other hand, more than 10 of them were saved by Christian residents, said Hassan, who is Muslim.

Most of them ran into the houses of Christian residents in the neighborhood and were shielded. One of the Christian residents who smuggled some of the survivors in his [motorized] tricycle was attacked by the mob and the tricycle was shattered but he still escaped with them. They were all accompanied out to safety yesterday [Aug. 15], he said.

A banner carried in a funeral procession by Irigwe Christians in Jos, Nigeria, on Aug. 14, 2021. (Lawrence Zongo/The Epoch Times)

Special police units from the federal headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja were deployed on Aug. 15 to investigate the crime and prevent further killings, according to Nigerian Inspector General of Police Usman Alkali. That didnt stop mob attacks, possibly in reprisal, for the next 24 hours in Muslim-dominated suburbs in the city, leading to the death of nine, according to an eyewitness.

A bus with 14 passengers aboard was attacked Aug. 15 near a university campus north of the city, leading to the death of a polytechnic student, Fwangmun Stephen Yakut. He was traveling to the state of Bauchi for a school graduation service along with two siblings; his sister, Shantel Stephen, was severely injured. She said the mob stopped the bus to find out whether the passengers were Christians, then barricaded the road they were on before battering them with stones and clubs.

At least nine Christians, most of them students at the University of Jos, were slain on Aug. 15.

A journalist who narrowly escaped a mob attack on Aug. 15, Nanyah Daman, said he counted nine bodies, mostly students, with bludgeon and knife injuries.

At Yan Trailer area [Northeast Jos], I saw one corpse.

Around ECWA Good News Church, in the Terminal area of the city [North Central Jos], three University students were attacked with woods and knives. At the entrance of Village Hostel [University of Jos, North-North Jos], a final-year medical student was stabbed while Doris Bitrus and one other student were mobbed and shot close to the Bauchi Road Main Campus of the University of Jos.

One Fwangmun was killed along the road to Bauchi and there was one COCIN Church member that was killed and buried in a shallow grave around the Bauchi Road area, Daman said.

The figures could be a lot higher, with about 30 students missing as we speak, Daman told The Epoch Times.

Officials imposed a 24-hour curfew to allow security agencies maintain law and order and deal with those bent on causing chaos, according to a statement from Makut Macham, the press director to Gov. Lalong.

Journalist Suleiman Hassan interviewed survivors of the attack on vans carrying Muslims in Jos, Nigeria, on Aug. 15, 2021. (Courtesy Suleiman Hassan)

Dueling Accusations

The leader of the Fulani Muslims in Plateau state, Nura Mohammed, accused the mourning Christian tribe from Bassa of making a premeditated revenge attack.

We know who our attackers are, Mohammed told The Epoch Times by phone. It is the Irigwe people. Every time their people are killed, they start attacking Fulani even without proof that Fulani are responsible.

President Muhammadu Buhari lent the weight of his office to blaming the Christian tribe as well. He said the attack was a well-conceived and prearranged assault on a known target, Buhari said in a statement through his spokesperson, Garba Shehu.

To be clear, this is not an agriculturalist-on-pastoralist confrontationbut rather a direct, brazen, and wickedly motivated attack on members of a community exercising their rights to travel freely and to follow the faith of their choosing, Buhari said.

Leaders of the Irigwe Christians have denied the allegations. The attack happened in a heterogeneous community with no direct links to the tribe, according to Davidson Mallison, the spokesperson of the Irigwe Development Association (IDA).

Rukuba Road, where the incident took place, is a cosmopolitan area made of people from different ethnic groups. We were more concerned with burying our dead and while marching to the graveside, we heard the road was blocked and turned back to take an alternative road. How did they arrive at that conclusion that it was our people when investigations had not been completed? Mallison said by phone.

A coalition of local minority tribesthe Plateau Initiative for Development and Advancement of the Natives (PIDAN)also condemned the government-backed allegations as insensitive, and intended to incite hatred, said the groups president, professor Aboi Madaki.

Several Jos observers complained that elected officials barely acknowledged that 68 unarmed Irigwe tribe members were slain in the first week of August. Madaki, in a statement, accused officials of running a two-tiered government.

We are equally shocked with the swift reactions of the security agencies and the quick response from the presidency on the incident at Rukuba Road, said Madaki. We condemn government selective treatment of killings on the Plateau and ask for equity and justice in the handling of the security challenges in the state.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking during the debate on the situation in Afghanistan in the House of Commons, as MPs returned to Parliament from their summer break for an emergency sitting, in London on Aug. 18, 2021. (PA/Parliament TV)

Johnson: UK Was Prepared for Afghan Collapse but Surprised by Speed

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has denied that his government failed to predict or prepare for the crisis in Afghanistan.

Talking to a packed Parliamentrecalled for a debate on AfghanistanJohnson defended the longer-term withdrawal of troops, saying that the hard reality was that there was no will among allies to continue operations without the Americans.

The prime minister was frequently interrupted (in accordance with parliamentary procedure) by MPs from both benches in the emotionally-heated session of Parliamentthe first full in-person sitting since the start of the pandemic.

In one interruption, Tory MP Mark Harper said that there had been a catastrophic failure of our intelligence or our assessment of the intelligence because of the speed that this has caught us unawares.

In response Johnson said: I think it would be fair to say that the events in Afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse has been faster than even the Taliban themselves predicted. What is not true is to say the UK government was unprepared or did not foresee this.

It was certainly part of our planningthe very difficult logistical operation for the withdrawal of UK nationals has been under preparation for many months.

Johnson said that the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan had rested on American military power, troops, and money.

I really think that it is an illusion to believe that there is appetite amongst any of our partners for a continued military presence or over a military solution imposed by NATO in Afghanistan, he said. That idea ended with the combat mission in 2014.

I do not believe that today deploying tens of thousands of British troops to fight the Taliban is an option that, no matter how sincerely people may advocate itand I appreciate their sinceritybut I do not believe that that is an option that would commend itself either to the British people or to this house.

We must deal with the position as it is now, accepting what we have achieved and what we have not achieved.

Johnson reiterated his position that it would be a mistake for any country to recognise the Taliban government prematurely or bilaterally.

The Taliban has signalled a less hardline position than in the past, with promises of giving amnesty to those who supported its enemies, and of respecting womens rights within Islamic law. Many international observers and Afghans dismiss this as a tactical ploy.

British nationals board an RAF aircraft at Kabul airport during the evacuation that followed the takeover of the city by Taliban in the city on Aug. 15, 2021. (LPhot Ben Shread/MoD/PA)

Johnson said that the new regime needed to be judged by its actions.

We will judge this regime on the choices it makes and by its actions rather than its wordson its attitude to terror, to crime and narcotics, as well as humanitarian access, and the rights of girls to receive an education.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said there had been a failure of preparation by the government for which Johnson bore a heavy responsibility.

He said the prime minister was in a position to give a lead on the international stage but had failed to do so.

The desperate situation requires leadership and for the prime minister to snap out of his complacency, he said.

The special all-day parliamentary session also offered the first glimpse into the politics of face-coverings in the chamber.

It was the first time the UK Parliament, recalled from the summer recess for the debate, has met since the lifting of social distancing laws and mask mandates.

On the government benches, only a smattering of MPs wore face-coverings amid a sea of bare faces. On the opposition Labour benches, the reverse.

PA contributed to this report.
A Fox News channel sign is seen at the News Corporation building in the Manhattan borough of New York City, N.Y., United States, on June 15, 2018. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Judge Questions Fox News Bid to Shake $2.7 Billion Smartmatic Election Suit

A New York state judge on Tuesday signaled skepticism toward Fox Corps bid to dismiss Smartmatics $2.7 billion lawsuit that accused Fox News hosts and guests of making defamatory claims about the voting technology firm during the networks coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

During an oral argument held virtually, Judge David Cohen made comments sympathetic toward Smartmatic, which in February sued Fox and two of Donald Trumps former lawyers, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, after the attorneys accused it of rigging votes against the former president. Smartmatic is a London-headquartered company with a U.S. unit based in Florida.

Cohen did not say when he would rule on Foxs motion to dismiss the case.

The judge questioned whether there was any basis whatsoever for claims Powell and Giuliani made about Smartmatic during appearances on Fox News, like that the company was banned in Texas.

Cohen also asked whether former Fox News host Lou Dobbs ever attempted to ascertain proof of this claim.

Paul Clement, a lawyer representing Fox Corp, responded that those allegations were made during an interview Dobbs conducted with Giuliani, and that Fox News had a right under the U.S. Constitutions protection for press freedom to report on newsworthy claims made by Trumps lawyers.

The corporate logo of Smartmatic is seen at its offices in Caracas, Venezuela, on Aug. 2, 2017. (Christian Veron/Reuters)

Cohen asked whether that should have made Fox News reconsider the accuracy of its reporting. Clement said that Fox was merely reporting on newsworthy claims made by Trumps legal teams, not endorsing the theories.

Smartmatics technology was used in only one jurisdiction in the Nov. 3 election: Los Angeles County, where Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

Fox News, Giuliani, and Powell were separately sued in March for defamation by another voting software company, Dominion Voting Systems. Last week, a judge denied a bid by Powell and Giuliani to dismiss the claims against them in that case. A judge has not yet ruled on a request by Fox to dismiss Dominions claims against the network.
Little Girls Birthday Was Ruined by Domestic DisputeSo Police Officers Throw Her Impromptu Party

What started as a little girls birthday ruined by a domestic dispute turned into a memorable bash with three unlikely guests.

Ogden police officer Katelyn Abrego was filling out a report when she and her partner Jared Nielsen got a call of a disturbance on the north side of town.

They responded and arrived at the residence to find two adult sisters in a heated conflict. After separating them, during the subsequent investigation, the officers learned the familys young girl was celebrating her eighth birthday. The daughter confirmed it, and the dispute had put a real damper on that.

That didnt exactly sit well with us that she wasnt having a traditional birthday party, Officer Abrego told The Epoch Times. Her mom explained she wasnt able to provide her a cake or anything that day, the day of her birthday, and then on top of it, this dispute happened.

The officers decided to help her celebrate her eighth birthday, and called up a colleague, Officer Joseph Wilson, and asked if he would drop by the store to pick up a few things.

He stopped off at a Walmart and picked up a cake for her, Officer Abrego said.

On Officer Wilsons arrival, Abrego snapped a few photos as they lit candles and presented the cake to the little girl and her family outside their home.

We began singing Happy Birthday to the girl. She was very happy, she was ecstatic, Abrego said, adding that the family was very grateful.

After making the most of an unfortunate situation, and helping resolve the dispute, the Ogden Police Department posted Abregos photos on their Facebook page and shared a message, captioning:

During their investigation, they found out that it was the birthday of an 8-year-old girl  Joseph Wilson who dropped everything, went to the store, purchased a cake, and a gift for the child and presented them to her. The Officers then proceeded to hold an impromptu birthday party for the girl. Our officers love our community and we love our officers!

The post went viral, garnering 5,700 likes with hundreds of positive comments like, That was so kind. Child will never forget the Officers making her birthday special!!

The three officers attracted viral attention for their actions that day. Yet many good deeds performed in the regular day-in-day-out go unseenand unrecognized, the police department told The Epoch Times. Such instances are not the exception.

Its not highly unusual  whether it was a birthday, maybe it was something that happened on Christmas that ruined a familys Christmas, theres a myriad of various things, they said. Law enforcement today is a little bit more open with those things because of social media, and so theres a lot of those things that just dont get reported.

Officers are doing a lot of these things regularly, and its just that either the story just doesnt get carried, or the message doesnt get out there.

Especially with Ogden Police Department, this isnt an extremely rare anomaly.

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Epoch Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
OTTAWAThe military officer who led Canadas COVID19 vaccine distribution campaign has been charged with one count of sexual assault.

Maj.Gen. Dany Fortin presented himself to police in Gatineau, Que., on Wednesday morning after a warrant for his arrest was issued Monday.

He later told reporters that he does not know the details of the allegation against him, despite repeated requests from his legal team.

For the past three months, my family and I have been living this nightmare of not knowing the nature of the allegation, not knowing the status of the investigation, not knowing whether or not Id be charged, Fortin said.

My legal team has repeatedly  repeatedly  contacted prosecutors to seek any information with no success. So Ive been forced to read much about me in media, with no ability to defend my name.

Fortins lawyers have said the only information provided to them is that the charge relates to an alleged incident from 1988.

The senior military officer, who has previously served in Afghanistan and Iraq, described the past three months as the most challenging period of his 36 years in uniform.

This fight against an invisible foe has been the hardest of my career, he said. I look forward to continuing to serve Canadians, to serve my country, as soon as this legal issue is resolved.

Fortin was abruptly removed from his post at the Public Health Agency of Canada on May 14 after leading the distribution of COVID19 vaccines across the country.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service later referred an allegation of sexual misconduct against him to the Quebec prosecution service to determine whether charges should be laid.

Fortin has asked the Federal Court to review his removal, alleging in a sworn affidavit political interference by the Liberal government. He is asking for reinstatement to his position at PHAC, or a similar post.

The military officer said Wednesday he is paying his own legal costs for the criminal and Federal Court actions.

The government has declined to comment.

One of Fortins lawyers has raised questions about the timing of the decision to charge her client, which comes days after Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau launched an election.

The Liberals have been criticized for months for not doing more to address sexual misconduct in the Canadian military.

Fortins lawyers have argued in Federal Court that the decision to remove their client was unreasonable, lacked procedural fairness and involved improper political interference in the military chain of command by the prime minister, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and clerk of the Privy Council.

The government is required to respond to those allegations on Sept. 17, three days before voters head to the polls.

The timing of the charge raises questions, Natalia Rodriguez told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.

Well be looking at answering those questions and making sure this is not politically motivated and that it is above board. As Maj.Gen. Fortins lawyers, we have a duty to ensure that theres been no improper political interference in this case.

With files from Maan Alhmidi in Gatineau, Que

By Lee Berthiaume
Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel talks to members of the local community and the media in Plymouth, England, on Aug. 14, 2021. (Niklas Halle'n/AFP via Getty Images)

UK May Expand New Resettlement Program for Afghans: Home Secretary

Home Secretary Priti Patel has defended the number cap on a new Afghan resettle scheme, saying the government will need to lay the groundwork first.

Patel also suggested that the cap is not absolute.

The Afghan citizens resettlement scheme, which was announced on Wednesday, is expected to resettle 5,000 Afghan nationals in the UK in the first year, with a total number of up to 20,000, the government said.

However, critics said that the government isnt moving quickly enough to help those who wish to flee Afghanistan, which has fallen under Taliban control.

Responding to the accusation, Patel told Sky News that its logistically impossible to take in too many Afghans in one go.

We have to ensure we have the support structures throughout the United Kingdom. We will be working with local councils throughout the country, the devolved governments as well, she said.

We are working quickly on this. We cannot accommodate 20,000 people all in one go.

Patel added that the government is expanding categories of people that the scheme would cover and may end up bringing in up to 10,000 people during the first year.

Downing Street has also suggested that more Afghans may benefit from the scheme.

I think thats a recognition that more may come forward via that route now, Prime Minister Boris Johnsons official spokesman said.

Obviously this is not a time-limited or capped offer, as the prime minister has said we owe a debt to those Afghan nationals that have helped Britain over the last 20 years and we intend to honour them, he added.

Patel told Sky News that resettling Afghan refugees is an enormous effort that Britain cant do on its own.

In an opinion article published in The Telegraph on Tuesday, Patel said the UK is also doing all it can to encourage other countries to help. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) agency welcomed the UKs announcement of the scheme.

We look forward to hearing further details, and will work with the government to resettle people in need, Laura Padoan, spokesperson for the UNHCR, said in a statement.

But she added that the UK should also accommodate Afghan asylum seekers outside of the scheme, including those who enter the UK illegally.

The UK also needs to preserve the right to asylum for Afghans and others arriving spontaneously in the UK, a right under threat from the Nationality and Borders Bill returning to Parliament next month, she said.

Afghans or other refugees should not be criminalised because of the way they arrive. It would be contradictory to recognise that Afghans are facing danger and are in need of protection but then punish them should they make their way to the UK, she added.

The UK, like all other countries, has a legal and moral responsibility to allow people to seek safety on its shores.

The governments planned overhaul of the asylum system intends to introduce tougher sentences for those who knowingly arrive in the UK without permission and for people smugglers.

It means, for the first time, how someone enters the UKlegally or illegallywill affect the progress of their asylum claim and their status in the UK, if their bid is successful.

PA contributed to this report.
People sit near the French embassy in Kabul on Aug. 18, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

North Macedonia to Accept 450 Afghan Refugees

BELGRADENorth Macedonia will by the end of the week temporarily take in 450 Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover of their country and seeking visas to enter the United States, the Skopje government said on Tuesday.

North Macedonia is the third country in the Western Balkans, along with Albania and Kosovo, to have approved a request by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to admit Afghan refugees.

The refugees to arrive in North Macedonia will be employees and families of Afghan employees in humanitarian and peacekeeping missions, activists from rights organizations, journalists, translators, students and scholarship holders, North Macedonias government said in a statement.

Most of the 450 (Afghan) citizens are expected to arrive by the end of the week, depending on conditions at Kabul airport.

It said Skopje will also accept Afghans who have been supporting NATO troops for the past 20 years, including North Macedonias military, which contributed soldiers to U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2002-2008.

On Sunday Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said the two countries would temporarily house a number of Afghan refugees whose final destination is the United States.

While in North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo, Afghan refugees are to be vetted by U.S. authorities and will stay until documentation for U.S. immigration visas is arranged.

North Macedonia and Albania are members of NATO.

By Aleksandar Vasovic
Floral tributes left in Biddick Drive, Keysham, where five people were killed by gunman Jake Davison, in Plymouth, UK, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Ben Birchall/PA)

Plymouth Gunman Received Mental Health Support During Lockdown

Gunman Jake Davison received mental health support during the coronavirus lockdown, it has emerged.

The 22-year-old, who shot dead five people during one of the UKs worst mass shootings, had been in contact with a telephone helpline service in Plymouth run by the Livewell Southwest organisation.

The apprentice crane driver shot and killed his 51-year-old mother Maxine Davison at a house in Biddick Drive in the Keyham area of the city on Aug. 12.

He then went outside into the street and shot dead 3-year-old Sophie Martyn and her father Lee Martyn, 43, in an attack witnessed by horrified onlookers.

In the 12-minute attack, he killed Stephen Washington, 59, in a nearby park, before shooting Kate Shepherd, 66, on Henderson Place.

Davison then turned the gun on himself before armed officers reached him.

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Shaun Sawyer, visiting the tributes where five people were killed by gunman Jake Davison, in Plymouth, UK, on Aug. 14, 2021. (Ben Birchall/PA)

Reports have suggested Davisons mother had been struggling to get help for her son, having become concerned about his mental health.

The independent Plymouth health care group Livewell Southwest said Davison had received support over the past 18 months.

An NHS spokeswoman said: When mental health services were approached for help it was given.

The First Response Service continued throughout lockdown and was strengthened to help people who were struggling.

It raises more questions as to why Devon and Cornwall Police gave Davison his shotgun back after confiscating it.

His shotgun and certificate had been returned just weeks before the killing spree.

They had been seized in December last year following an assault allegation the previous September and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has already launched an investigation.

The government has also announced firearms applicants will be subject to social media checks.

All police forces in England and Wales are being asked to review their current firearm application processes, as well as assess whether they need to revisit any existing licences.

Meanwhile, the bravery of two teenage boys was praised on Monday as it emerged they had saved the lives of bystanders who were frozen with fear during Davisons rampage.

Relatives of one of the boys said they had gone to help Davisons final victim and had shouted warnings at other people to keep away.

Local community leader Kevin Sproston said the boys actions had saved lives.

Your actions and bravery have been a constant source of inspiration to myself and others and I thank you so much, he added.

By Rod Minchin
Privacy Group Challenges USPS Surveillance Operation

A prominent internet privacy group is suing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), alleging that its social media surveillance program violates federal law.

According to a lawsuit filed last week in Washington by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the USPS has been operating its Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) without conducting a privacy impact assessmenta review of what information is collected, why its being collected, how the information is used, and how the data is stored.

EPIC seeks to have a federal judge suspend iCOP until the USPS at least conducts and publishes such a review, as required by the E-Government Act.

The existence of iCOP was first reported in April by Yahoo News, which had obtained an internal USPS memo about monitoring right-wing anti-lockdown protestors.

Parlor users have commented about their intent to use the rallies to engage in violence. Image 3 on the right is a screenshot from Parlor indicating two users discussing the event as an opportunity to engage in a fight and to do serious damage, the March 16 USPS memo reads, circulated ahead of the World Wide RallyFor Freedom, Peace, & Human Rights event scheduled for March 20.

No intelligence is available to suggest the legitimacy of these threats.

The Yahoo News report prompted questions from some lawmakers about why the postal service is conducting intelligence operations. A group of 32 Republican lawmakers wrote Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on April 22, seeking a briefing on iCOP.

It is unclear why the USPS, of all government agencies and the only one devoted to the delivery of Americans mail, is taking on the role of intelligence collection, the letter reads. The type of general review of social media alleged in the reporting does not indicate that the posts reviewed by iCOP are related to the protection and security of USPS, its postal routes, its employees, or the mail generally.

Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale reportedly briefed lawmakers later in a closed-door session in April, following which Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) published an op-ed denouncing the surveillance operations. Mace said Barksdale was unprepared to answer our questions to the point of incompetence.

Barksdale couldnt tell us when the program started, how much taxpayers were paying to run it, or even what legal authority the post office had to spy on the publics social media activities, Mace said. He denied iCOP was a program, but said it had an executive overseeing it. He said the post office coordinated with other agencies, but couldnt list a single one.

Whats worse, he denied iCOP was used to monitor social media activities, but in the very same breath, said his analysts use iCOP to do exactly this.

Following its initial April report, Yahoo News revealed more details about iCOP in May. According to Yahoo, the USPS also used internet surveillance tools to monitor social media to track potential violence at protests following the death of George Floyd.

After the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by Trump supporters, the analysts turned their attention to right-wing accounts, Yahoo News reported in May.

Around that time, EPIC also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in May, seeking records about iCOP, including its privacy impact assessment.

In EPICs lawsuit, the group said that the postal service failed to locate its privacy impact assessment in response to the FOIA requestsuggesting that one doesnt exist.

Defendants have unlawfully initiated [iCOP]  and used facial recognition and social media monitoring tools to initiate or significantly modify collections of personal information under the iCOP without first conducting and publishing the full and complete Privacy Impact Assessment(s) required by  the E-Government Act, EPIC stated in its Aug. 12 filing.

In a separate statement about the lawsuit, EPIC expressed skepticism at the notion that the USPS should be conducting broad intelligence operations such as iCOP.

The iCOPs surveillance of protests and tracking of inflammatory content goes far beyond the programs mandate to investigate fraud and other crimes perpetuated through the mail or USPSs website, EPIC said in the statement.

Representatives for the USPS didnt respond to a request for comment by press time. The postal service has previously defended iCOP as a legal open-source intelligence operation designed to protect its employees.

This review of publicly available open-source information, including news reports and social media, is one piece of a comprehensive security and threat analysis, and the information obtained is the same information anyone can access as a private citizen, a U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesperson told Yahoo News in May.

News report and social media listening activity helps protect the 644,000 men and women who work for the postal service by ensuring they are able to avoid potentially volatile situations while working to process and deliver the nations mail every day.

The nonprofit Judicial Watch is pursuing similar litigation against the USPS for not responding to the groups FOIA request about iCOP. In that case, the USPS has until Sept. 1 to respond to the groups lawsuit. No dates have been scheduled in the EPIC case.
The UK House of Commons in session in London on Aug. 18, 2021. (Parliament TV)

Restriction-Free Commons Debate Reveals New UK Political Divide: Masks

A full-capacity House of Commons met without the yoke of pandemic restrictions for the first time in 18 months, revealing a stark new UK political divide: masks.

To see which MPs would be wearing masks (still recommended by government guidelines for crowded indoor spaces) political pundits had been expecting to wait until the return of Parliament in early September.

That moment was brought forward when the government called an extraordinary session of the House of Commons for Aug. 18, to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan.

The pattern in the full-capacity chamber was clear.

On the Conservative government benches only a small proportion of MPs wore masks. The prime minister and most of his Cabinet did not wear masks.

On the opposition benches, meanwhile, the Labour leader and his shadow cabinet all wore face coverings, as did most Labour MPs, except to speak.

The only government ministers to wear masks were Cabinet secretary Michael Gove and security minister Damian Hinds.

Conservative government ministers face Labour leader Kier Starmer in the UK House of Commons in London on Aug. 18, 2021. (Parliament TV)

Former Prime Minister Theresa May, and former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt were in the small minority who wore face coverings on the government back benches.

Mask-wearing for indoor spaces has not been required by law since July, replaced instead by government guidance. That guidance states, We expect and recommend that members of the public continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed spaces where you come into contact with people you dont normally meet.

Labour MPs, most wearing masks, sit behind their leader Kier Starmer during a debate in the House of Commons in London on Aug. 18, 2021. (Parliament TV)

Some MPs criticised the government for hypocrisy or for setting a bad example. Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle wrote on Twitter: Not a single member of the Government front bench wearing a mask from PM & Health Secretary on down. Almost no other Tory either.

Asked why a number of MPs were not wearing masks in the House of Commons, the prime ministers official spokesman said it was a matter for the parliamentary authorities.

The spokesman said the advice still remains that face coverings should be worn in indoor crowded spaces. But he added, The arrangements for the House are a matter for the parliamentary authorities; as you know masks are not a mandatory requirement.

The heated debate on Afghanistan, despite having no vote, left the chamber with standing-room only. Thats the normal state of affairs before a vote or important debate, but has not been seen since the start of the pandemic.

For the last 16 months, only a small proportion of MPs have been allowed to attend debates and votes in person in the chambers due to social distancing regulations. The majority of MPs have joined votes and debates remotely. That approach has now been revoked.

Meanwhile, in the House of Lords, where the average age is 20 years older, lawmakers are still able to join debates remotely, which many did today during a parallel session on the Afghanistan crisis.

PA contributed to this report.
New York real estate scion Robert Durst, 78, answers questions from defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, left, while testifying in his murder trial at the Inglewood Courthouse in Inglewood, Calif., on Aug. 9, 2021. (Gary Coronado/Pool/Los Angeles Times via AP)

Robert Durst Testifies He Would Lie to Get out of Trouble

LOS ANGELESA prosecutor attempted to ensnare Robert Durst in a web of deceit Tuesday after he admitted at his murder trial that he lied under oath in the past and would lie to get out of trouble.

The New York real estate heir said he hadnt lied during five days of testimony, but a series of inconsistencies during cross-examination in Los Angeles County Superior Court threw his credibility into question and exposed the risk of putting a defendant on the witness stand.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin, who relished the prospect of grilling Durst and prepared a 200-page outline for questioning, got him to acknowledge there are some acts he would never be honest about.

Lewin asked how jurors were supposed to believe Durst.

If youve said youve taken an oath to tell the truth but youve also just told us that you would lie if you needed to, Lewin asked, can you tell me how that would not destroy your credibility?

Because what Im saying is mostly the truth, Durst said. There are certain things I would lie about, certain very important things.

Durst said he would never admit killing Susan Bermaneven if he had done so.

Did you kill Susan Berman? is strictly a hypothetical, Durst said. I did not kill Susan Berman. But if I had, I would lie about it.

Durst, 78, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the point-blank shooting of Berman, his longtime confidante, in her Los Angeles home. Durst said he found a lifeless Berman lying on a bedroom floor when he showed up for a planned visit just before Christmas 2000.

Durst said he had prepared for Lewins interrogation but was anxious.

I feel relieved that Im close to getting this over, and Im nervous, of course, Durst told Lewin. What I want today is to be acquitted.

Playing clips of interviews Durst gave filmmakers, an interrogation conducted after Dursts arrest in New Orleans in 2015, and clips from his testimony, Lewin got Durst to admit several lies he told over the years.

Prosecutors say Durst silenced Berman as she prepared to speak with New York authorities about the disappearance of his wife, Kathie, in 1982 and how she provided a false alibi for him.

Durst acknowledged he wouldnt admit killing Kathie Durst if he had. And he wouldnt admit murdering his neighbor Morris Black in Galveston, Texas, in 2001 if he had done so.

He has never been charged with a crime in his wifes disappearance and has denied killing her. Her body has never been found, but she has been declared dead.

Durst was acquitted of murder in Blacks death after he testified he fatally shot the man during a struggle for a gun. He was convicted of destroying evidence for chopping up the mans body and tossing it out to sea.

Testifying at trial is incredibly risky for a defendant, and most lawyers wont put their clients on the stand. Dursts testimony Tuesday showed he was particularly vulnerable because of a trail of lies.

You dont just make up lies for the sake of lying, Lewin said. You lie in particular when there is a reason for you to lie. And, generally speaking in this context, when it relates to incriminating evidence, correct?

Durst agreed.

In questions from his own lawyer Monday, Durst admitted for the first time publicly that he sent a note directing police to Bermans cadaver. He said he had always denied doing so because it made him look culpable.

Durst testified earlier Tuesday that he had not confessed to any killings when he was captured speaking to himself on a live microphone after filming a documentary about his life and the deaths of people close to him.

In the climactic scene of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, he could be heard in a bathroom muttering: What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.

Durst, who had just been caught on video in a lie about the cadaver note, explained that he either didnt say everything he was thinking or didnt speak loudly enough for the mic to catch it.

What I did not say out loud or, perhaps I said very softly, is: Theyll all think I killed them all, of course,  he testified.

Many viewers have interpreted the two sentences, which were edited together by the filmmakers for a dramatic conclusion to the six-part HBO series, as an admission.

Authorities arrested Durst the night before the finale aired in March 2015 because they expected him to flee after the gotcha moment and the unexpected dialogue that followed.

Durst testified that he had been planning to kill himself with a gun when FBI agents apprehended him in the lobby of a New Orleans hotel, where he was registered under an alias.

He told filmmakers that only the killer could have written the cadaver note. His comments off camera came after he was confronted during his final interview for The Jinx with a note he had once sent Berman with nearly identical handwriting and Beverly Hills misspelled Beverley.

I wrote this one, but I did not write the cadaver one, Durst insisted in the film. But moments later, he couldnt tell the two apart. After an awkward moment blinking and burping, he put his head in his hands. He denied being the killer.

When he stepped off cameraunwittingly still wired for soundhe said: There it is. Youre caught.

Durst testified that he reached out to the filmmakers to restore his reputation after becoming a pariah following the Texas case.

Despite being a multimillionaire, he was rejected by condominium associations in New York, Houston and California, he said. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art wanted him to make a donation anonymously.

Despite advice from his lawyers and everybody not to give a series of interviews for the film project, Durst ignored them all.

That was very, very, very big mistake, Durst testified.

By Brian Melley
A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken on Jan. 6, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Rubio Demands Biden Ban TikTok Over Chinese Communist Party Connection

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday called for the banning of Chinese video sharing platform TikTok after China acquired a stake and board seat in a subsidiary of the platforms parent company.

Rubio issued a statement demanding President Joe Biden block the app from U.S. mobile devices, citing the Chinese governments recent acquisition of a 1 percent stake and one of three board seats in Beijing ByteDance Technology, a subsidiary of TikTok parent company ByteDance. The subsidiary owns licenses to operate video-sharing platform Douyin and news service Toutiao within China.

The Biden Administration can no longer pretend that TikTok is not beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, Rubio said. President Biden must take immediate action to remove ByteDance and TikTok from the equation.

The Trump administration attempted to ban TikTok in August 2020, claiming China was using the app to illegally harvest user data, but the ban was never enforced due to several court orders. Biden repealed the ban in June 2021, instead directing the Commerce Department to evaluate the platform and determine whether it posed a national security or economic risk.

The app has attracted controversy over the past few years due to repeated privacy violations, paying a $5.7 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in February 2019 for illegally collecting data on children. The platform also settled a $92 million class-action lawsuit in February 2021 over allegations it harvested and shared personal information without users consent.

The app updated its privacy policy in June 2021 to allow itself to collect users voiceprints, faceprints and other biometric data. The app has roughly 100 million monthly users in the U.S., mostly under the age of 30.

Even before today, it was clear that TikTok represented a serious threat to personal privacy and U.S. national security, Rubio said. Beijings aggressiveness makes clear that the regime sees TikTok as an extension of the party-state, and the U.S. needs to treat it that way.

Rubio proposed legislation in October 2020 imposing additional regulations on foreign apps, such as TikTok and Chinese messaging app WeChat, and removing their Section 230 liability protections.

We must also establish a framework of standards that must be met before a high-risk, foreign-based app is allowed to operate on American telecommunications networks and devices, he said.

By Ailan Evans

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Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid (L) gestures as he speaks during the first press conference in Kabul on Aug. 17, 2021 following the Taliban stunning takeover of Afghanistan. (Hoshang Hashimi /AFP via Getty Images)

Talibans First Press Conference: Lets Form an Inclusive Government

The Taliban terrorist group held its first press conference after taking over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, saying its working to form an inclusive government and aiming to maintain peaceful relations with other countries.

Without a doubt, we are at a historical juncture where the political system fits in, and we wantlets form an inclusive government, Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said at the press conference in Kabuls media center on Tuesday.

At the moment, there are discussions that an inclusive government should be formed and all parties and Afghans should participate in it, said Mujahid, noting a new government would be announced soon.

An inclusive government is one of the requirements the United States and the international community have demanded to officially recognize a future Afghan government, the U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price asserted on Monday.

The fact is that a future Afghan government that upholds the basic rights of its people, that doesnt harbor terrorists, and that protects the basic rights of its people, including the basic fundamental rights of half of its population, its women and girls, that is a government that we would be able to work with, Price said during the briefing.

Price also stressed a statement issued by the U.N. Security Council on Monday, which called for a new government that is united, inclusive and representativeincluding with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women.

Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021. (Rahmat Gul/AP Photo)

Without official recognition, the future Afghan government may lose economic support from the international community in hundreds of millions of dollars a year, or even worse, face sanctions like Iran and North Korea have been struggling with.

For example, international donors under the framework of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pledged some $12 billion civilian grants over 202124 at the Geneva conference in November 2020.

In 2019, U.S. agencies spent a total of $4.9 billion on Afghanistan, with most of it funding the countrys security forces. Roughly $800 million a year has gone toward civilian aid in recent years.

Germany announced Tuesday it would suspend its planned $300 million in development aid to Afghanistan this year, the Hill reported.

Promises Made, US Watching

At the Kabul press conference, Mujahid said that the war had finished. We do not want Afghanistan to be a battlefield any longer. The war ended here after today, he said.

We will pardon all those who became masters against jihad, and this special pardon is because we do not want war again, and to let war be repeated and the elements of the war remain.

So the Islamic Emirate has no enmity with anyone. The enmity with parties to the conflict is over, and we do not want to live in enmity.

An Afghan family at a makeshift camp in Kabul on Aug. 12, 2021. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

The Taliban declared a general amnesty earlier on Tuesday.

We are assuring the safety of all those who have worked with the United States and allied forces, whether as interpreters or any other field that they worked with them, the spokesman added.

He also said families trying to flee the country at the airport should return home, and nothing would happen to them.

Private media could continue to be free and independent in Afghanistan, and that the Taliban were committed to the media within their cultural framework, the spokesman said.

He reassured womens rights at the press conference.

Women will be afforded all their rights, whether it is in work or other activities, because women are a key part of society. And we are guaranteeing all their rights, within the limits of Islam.

He also assured that no groups would be allowed to use Afghanistans territory to launch attacks against any nation.

In Mondays press briefing, Price said the State Department would watch the Talibans actions closely.

We will be watching actions. Thats what will be important to us.

Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh said on Twitter Tuesday he was the legitimate caretaker president after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. He is still in Afghanistan.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Texas Rep. Jessica Gonzalez speaks during a news conference in Austin, Texas, on May 31, 2021. (Acacia Coronado/AP Photo)

Texas Democrat Confirms She Went to Portugal After Fleeing State

A Texas Democrat has confirmed she went to Portugal while colleagues were either trying to pass election reform bills or in Washington publicly opposing that effort.

Most Texas House Democrats fled the state last month to deny Republicans in the states lower chamber quorum. They did so to try to stop election reform bills from being passed.

Virtually all of the Democrats went to Washington, including state Rep. Jessica Gonzalez. But she later traveled to Portugal, she confirmed for the first time on Tuesday.

Gonzalez said she went overseas to get married.

We all say family comes first. That value should apply to all families, including mine. I made the decision not to share where I was so that my wife and I could get married in privacy, Gonzalez told the Dallas Morning News. I wanted us to have this special day, surrounded by a few of our friends and loved ones.

Her wife, Angela Hale, is a registered lobbyist for Equality Texas, an organization that advocates for the LGBT.

Reports of Gonzalez and another Texas House Democrat, state Rep. Julie Johnson, going to Portugal emerged earlier this month, but neither lawmaker would confirm or deny the trip.

No one has shown proof, Gonzalez said at the time.

The offices of Gonzalez and Johnson did not pick up the phone on Wednesday or immediately return voicemails.

State Rep. Victoria Neave, another Democrat, also left Washington in early August to get married. Its not clear where she went.

Texas House Democrats are still largely refusing to appear at the state Capitol in Austin, preventing Republicans from passing election reform bills.

The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the lawmakers can be arrested, clarifying an ongoing situation that has yet to be resolved.

The Texas Constitution empowers the House to compel the attendance of absent members and authorizes the House to do so in such manner and under such penalties as [the] House may provide, the states highest court said. Neither the passage of time nor the passions of a hotly contested legislative dispute can change what it means.
Texas State Democrats (L-R) Democratic Chair Rep. Chris Turner (TX-101), Rep. Rafael Anchia (TX-103), Rep. Senfronia Thompson (TX-141), and Rep. Rhetta Bowers (TX-113) at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2021. More than 60 Texas House Democrats left the state to Washington, DC, to block a voting restrictions bill by denying a Republican quorum. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Texas Supreme Court Rules Democrats Absent From State Capitol Can Be Arrested

The Texas Supreme Court ruled on Aug. 17 that the states House Democrats can be arrested if they refuse to return to the state Capitol to conduct legislative business.

The opinion (pdf) orders district courts to rescind their temporary restraining orders handed to state Democrats who have broken quorum since last month. In July, 52 state House Democrats absented themselves from legislative business in order to block Republican-led election reforms.

House members can be compelled by leaders to be present to conduct legislative business under the state Constitution, and those who refuse can be arrested and brought to the chamber, the ruling stipulates.

The question now before this Court is not whether it is a good idea for the Texas House of Representatives to arrest absent members to compel a quorum. Nor is the question whether the proposed voting legislation giving rise to this dispute is desirable. Those are political questions far outside the scope of the judicial function, Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote in the opinion.

The legal question before this Court concerns only whether the Texas Constitution gives the House of Representatives the authority to physically compel the attendance of absent members. We conclude that it does, and we therefore direct the district court to withdraw the TRO [temporary restraining order].

The ruling comes after Travis County State District Judge Brad Urrutia, a Democrat, last week issued an order to block the dozens of Texas Democrats who fled the state from being arrested or detained for 14 days.

Previously, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened that Democrats who broke quorum to prevent the start of the special legislative session would be arrested.

The Aug. 17 opinion said the states constitution was incorrectly interpreted by the district court.

The Texas Constitution empowers the House to compel the attendance of absent members and authorizes the House to do so in such manner and under such penalties as [the] House may provide, it said. Neither the passage of time nor the passions of a hotly contested legislative dispute can change what it means.

While Republicans control both legislative chambers in Texas, as well as the governors mansion, two-thirds of lawmakers must be present to constitute a quorum. Republicans only hold 82 seats in the 150-seat lower chamber.

Democrats have argued that the GOP-backed voting overhaul bill would place unfair restrictions on minority groups when they cast their ballots, while Republicans have said the measure is needed to safeguard future elections and would restore the publics confidence in them.

Abbotts office didnt immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

As predicted, the law is on our side. House Democrats were elected to do a joband it is time for them to come home and do just that, regardless if the outcome doesnt lean in their favor. Childish antics will not be tolerated, the Texas Attorney Generals office wrote on Twitter shortly after the ruling.
The Assault on Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

Theres a lot happening in the world today that is worrying for anyone who still holds the concepts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness near and dear. Liberty vs. Vaccine Mandates in Europe; Public School Exodus; Race-Based School Discipline deals with two of the biggest issues facing the United States today, namely the current threat of vaccine mandates and passports hanging over the populace and the many ways in which the public school system is failing students nationwide. This episode of The Nation Speaks offers the kind of in-depth reporting you arent going to find in the mainstream media (not even right-leaning networks) and is a must-see for anyone who wants a deeper dive into these issues than the three to five-minute interview limits of most televised news programs. It should also give the viewer reason to pause and consider what it really means to be a country where the people are free, equal, and united.

The first topic host Cindy Drukier addresses are the vaccine mandates and passport requirements currently spreading like wildfire across Europe, and its a fascinating, if frightening, look into what is happening to our allies across the pond. She speaks with Captain Alexandre Juving-Brunet, a French freedom activist; Sam Brokken, a Belgian former public health professor who lost his job for speaking his mind; and Alan Miller, founder of the UKs #OpenForAll campaign. These three men break down the continuing authoritarian response to COVID-19 in their respective countries, how the public is reacting, and the common dangers all Westerners face in terms of censorship, polarization, ostracization, and trampling of privacy rights surrounding an individuals vaccination status.

Juving-Brunet is the first interviewee, describing the marches for liberty and freedom happening across France in response to President Emmanuel Macrons divisive speech in mid-July that made a clear separation between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Juving-Brunet says the presidents declaration was nothing short of segregation that enraged the populace, which increasingly considers the government to be illegitimate and incapable of defending citizens constitutional rights. Thousands of citizens of all ages and political stripes took to the streets days after the speech to protest Macrons attempts to use a persons vaccination status as a wedge issue to separate the French into two camps.

Macron clearly underestimated his peoples commitment to their national mottoliberte, egalite, fraternitethinking these concepts had gone out of vogue. It must have come as quite a shock to find that the citizens who elected him with the express understanding that he would keep their best interests at heart still care about liberty, equality, and fraternity. Juving-Brunet describes a volatile situation throughout France and sounds more than a little angry himself at his governments attempts to divide and suppress its citizens while stripping away their freedoms. As well he should be.

Next up is Alan Miller discussing what has been happening in the UK, which should definitely serve as the canary in the coal mine for anyone who hasnt paid attention to the latest developments in Australia. It only took a month for the UK government to go from vaccine passports being voluntary at certain locations and businesses to making them mandatory wherever large groups of people gather, such as nightclubs, restaurants, bars, and other events. Millers organization, Open For All, has a list of the venues, totaling over 1,000, that will now require vaccine passports for entrance. While there are many in the United States who think nothing of businesses beginning to demand proof of vaccination before a patron may enter, claiming that it will only be some sort of temporary measure until weve reached herd immunity, Miller states that 85 percent of the UKs population already has been vaccinated, yet the government is still taking these extraordinary measures.

The UK had a slogan of fifteen million jabs to freedom, which has turned out about as well as fifteen days to slow the spread. There is also now a huge push to vaccinate children in the United Kingdom, despite hesitation among much of the population about the necessity of vaccinating children, who are at very low risk of catching and spreading COVID-19, and the potential dangers of doing so. Unlike the United States, where depending on your political persuasion youre likely to think theres nothing wrong with demanding someone provide their personal health information to the doorman to get into a club, polling data from The Sun showed that 93 percent of respondents were against the idea of vaccine passports. Basic math indicates that the majority of people who responded to this poll are vaccinated themselves. It seems the UK doesnt like the idea of having to show their papers to get into a restaurant, and recognizes this as the blatant invasion of privacy that it is.

The final interview in this segment is with Sam Brokken of Belgium, who dared to speak out about the COVID-19 vaccine and lost his job for it. He laments the very different reaction to the idea of mandated vaccinations and vaccine passports in his country, where the populace seems to be rolling over and taking it without much fuss. Belgium has a smaller population than both France and the United Kingdom, making it much easier for the government to gain compliance. Belgium is likewise facing mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports, but very few people are speaking out against it.

According to Brokken, this is pretty much par for the course in his country, where most people are willing to go along to get along without any pushback. Only about 10 percent of the population are speaking out against these mandates, and recently the government has begun to marginalize and vilify these dissenting voices. He says this is understandably frightening to anyone with a differing opinion, and as someone who was fired for going against the grain, he should know. When there are protests in Belgium against the idea of providing proof of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19, just a few hundred people show up. Its a marked contrast to what is happening in the United Kingdom and France.

Having outlined the ways their home countries are reacting to passports and vaccine mandates, all three men talk about the growing censorship of free speech when it comes to these subjects. Brokken was fired for daring to suggest that getting the vaccine would not necessarily mean someone couldnt transmit the virus. He was publicly ridiculed and shamed, pronounced an anti-vaxxer, and relieved of his position despite having ultimately been proven correct. Miller discusses a culture of censorship much like the United States is experiencing, where any deviation from the government narrative can get you banned, shunned, and even fired, regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum. This includes virologists and epidemiologists who have gone against the correct point of view, and big tech companies are being urged to be even more vigorous in their censorship of dissent. Juving-Brunet echoes the concerns of both Brokken and Miller, stating that all levels of governments and the courts have done nothing to protect the basic rights of French citizens concerning the issue of COVID-19. He has received thousands of messages from people across Europe in response to the French protests signaling their solidarity with the calls for liberty and freedom and their worries about the direction their own countries are taking. Juving-Brunet is adamant that France will never give up its freedom as the protests continue nationwide, which Brokken says is reflected in the French-speaking region of Belgium. Miller closes the segment with a well-deserved dressing-down of places like New York that are pushing the idea of vaccine passports as a requirement to enter businesses or even parks.

Liberty vs. Vaccine Mandates in Europe; Public School Exodus; Race-Based School Discipline | The Nation Speaks [Trailer]

Watch the full episode here.

A quick Q&A on whether China should be allowed to host the Olympics breaks up the first segment and the second. Its a man-on-the-street type interview asking ordinary people what they think about this topic given Chinas historic and current human rights abuses. Its nice to see the overwhelming majority of respondents dont want to see the oppressive regime host the 2022 Olympics, though there is one gentleman that feels the United States has no leg to stand on given its own history of human rights abuses. He looks like the sort who has a degree in Womens Studies, and its amusing to watch someone answer with patented left-wing talking points unironically. At least its just one guy.

The next main interview is with Tony Kinnett, a curriculum developer from Indianapolis who started the Chalkboard Review, a website that compiles articles from across the education spectrum to enlighten parents about whats going on in K-12 education. Kinnett has been conducting a study in Indiana on the growth in private and parochial school enrollment as parents pull their children out of public schools at an ever-increasing rate. Many of these schools are seeing unprecedented enrollment and its happening so quickly theyve needed to send letters to parents letting them know they cant accept any more students.

Kinnett suspects this is happening for several reasons. There is, of course, the fact that COVID-19 lockdowns and school closings forced many students to attend class virtually, allowing parents to see for the first time what their children are being taught. Enrollment numbers in private and parochial schools have slowly been climbing over the last five to seven years, but things like critical race theory and gender identity are not what parents expect schools to be focusing on and have led to the mass exodus of the episodes title.

Kinnett also believes theres a growing need among families to return to a more traditional moral framework that has been increasingly abandoned in the last few decades. Parochial schools offer the opportunity for students to build character in addition to learning how to read, write, and do arithmetic, and they dont focus on asking 7-year-olds which pronouns they prefer. Instead, they focus on teaching what pronouns are. His beliefs arent simply a matter of what his gut instincts tell him, either. He routinely speaks with parents on the reasons theyve pulled their children from public schools, and they havent been shy about sharing with him exactly why they no longer trust the public school system with their children.

Wrapping up the interview, Drukier asks Kinnett about a host of other tangential issues, such as parents coordinating to replace school boards; which institutions are also conducting the same kind of research Kinnett is to give a broader view of whats happening overall with public education; whether its only conservative parents who are putting their children in private and parochial schools; and if teachers are leaving as well. Overall, Kinnett provides a much more hopeful vision for the future of K-12 education than is often seen.

Those hopes are somewhat dashed by the final guest on the show, who discusses the Biden administrations reinstatement of an Obama-era mandate setting racial quotas for student discipline. The time for public commentary on this policy has already closed with most parents likely unaware not only that they had a chance to comment, but that the policy even exists. Donna Jackson with Project 21 Black Leadership Initiative likens these quotas to Defund the Police for the classrooms before going on to lay out exactly why this initiative is not only ridiculous but will lead to teachers losing control of their classrooms. Shes a compelling speaker, to say the least.

Jackson forcefully and systematically dismantles the argument for doling out punishment based on skin color rather than behavior, starting with the study upon which the policy is based is fundamentally flawed. It looked only at the race of the children being punished in schools and not any other factors, such as gangs, fights, gun violence, and drugs in the community. She skewers the idea that deciding discipline policies based on race will in any way make education more equitable or enhance learning when it will actually turn classrooms into circuses that will actually diminish the ability of other studentswell-behaved studentsto learn. Jackson backs up every assertion she makes in opposition of the policy with facts and statistics, such as the breakdown of the black two-parent family. This results in schools often being the one area where students of color actually get any kind of structure. She then points out that this is a result of many other well-meaning liberal policies just like the racial quotas, and that keeping minorities in poverty is a very lucrative business. She also makes a direct link between this discipline policy and critical race theory, explaining how it will hurt literally every student in schools where the policy is implemented. Her analysis and arguments are fantastic and the episode should be shared far and wide for her commentary alone.

The hour closes with another man-on-the-street Q&A about the new law making its way through Congress that will require women to register for the draft. The views here are far more divergent than those on China hosting the Olympics, with a roughly equal split of people who think women should register for the draft versus those who think they shouldnt. The reasons respondents give for their answer also vary quite a lot, and its interesting to see so many different opinions.

Overall this episode offers excellent insights into some of the hot button topics of the day in a way that is calm and rational. There is no shouting or name-calling to be found, making the information easy to absorb and easier to share. If you havent watched this episode yet, you should do so sooner rather than later, especially if youre someone with children in school or you live in a state that will soon start asking, Papers, please.

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UK to Resettle up to 20,000 Afghans Under New Scheme

The UK is planning to give sanctuary to about 5,000 at-risk Afghan citizens by next year and up to 20,000 long-term, the government has announced.

Western countries are currently scrambling to evacuate their citizens and their Afghan allies from Afghanistan, and preparing for an incoming refugee crisis as the future of the country is unclear with the Taliban in control.

The terrorist groups promises of establishing an inclusive government and freedom for women under Shariah law have been met with deep skepticism amid numerous reports of killing and threatening of dissidents, and demanding of forced marriages of women and girls.

The UK on Wednesday announced a new Afghan citizens resettlement scheme to resettle at-risk Afghans in the UK.

Those who are most at risk of human rights abuses and dehumanising treatment by the Taliban, including women, girls, and religious and other minorities, will be prioritised, the government said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK owe[s] a debt of gratitude to Afghans who worked with the UK over the last 20 years and hes proud that Britain can help those who are in urgent need of our help.

Around 5,000 Afghan nationals are expected to be resettled into the UK in the first year under the new scheme, which will be kept under review for future years.

The government said the total number will be up to 20,000.

The Syrian vulnerable persons resettlement scheme, which the new Afghan scheme is modelled after, has resettled 20,000 Syrian refugees over a seven-year period from 2014 to 2021, the government said.

The new scheme is separate from and in addition to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which was announced in December last year and launched on April 1. The ARAP is designed to relocate the UKs current and former Afghan employees, such as embassy support staff, those in political or counter-terrorism roles, or cultural advisers and their families.

The government added that the UK has also provided thousands of Afghans asylum in the UK and many Afghan nationals have come to work and study under the points-based immigration system.

The government promised that the new scheme wont compromise Britains national security as applicants will have to pass the same strict security checks as those resettled through other schemes.

Johnson added the government will also focus its effort in stabilising Afghanistan.

The best solution for everyone is an Afghanistan that works for all Afghans, he said.

That means the international community coming together to set firm, political conditions for the countrys future governance. And it means focusing our efforts on increasing the resilience of the wider region to prevent a humanitarian emergency.

Home Secretary Priti Patel spoke to her counterparts from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the upcoming refugee crisis.
People arrive to attend the Huawei keynote address at a trade fair opening day in Berlin on Sept. 3, 2020. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

US Software Firm Accuses Huawei of Installing Back Door to Spy on Pakistan

A U.S. software company is accusing Chinese tech giant Huawei of pressuring it to build a data back door into a government security project in Pakistan, according to a recent legal filing submitted at the Central District Court in California.

California-based Business Efficiency Solutions (BES), in a lawsuit filed on Aug. 11, also accused Huawei of stealing its trade secrets while the software company worked as Huaweis contractor for a safe-city project in Lahore, the capital of Pakistans Punjab Province.

BES said in its lawsuit that Huawei used one of BESs software systems to establish a backdoor from China into Pakistan that allowed Huawei to collect and view data important to Pakistans national security and other private, personal data on Pakistani citizens.

The current legal dispute was born out of a partnership between the companies that started in 2016. That year, Huawei and Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA), a provincial government body, entered an agreement for the Chinese company to implement a high-tech surveillance system, including more than 8,000 cameras, in Lahore, according to Pakistani media.

At that time, Shehbaz Sharif, former chief minister of Punjab, said that the safe-city project would turn Lahore into a crime-free city.

The system would be available to the Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control, and Communication Center (PPIC3) of Lahore.

Huawei has heavily promoted its surveillance technology worldwide, sometimes under its Safe City or Smart City solutions promising to make cities more secure. In 2019, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, urging him to update U.S. travel advisories to warn Americans about traveling to countries with Huaweis surveillance apparatus.

These technologies could expose their personal data to foreign governments, including potentially China, the senators wrote.

In Pakistan, at least nine cities have signed up for Huaweis Safe City systems since 2015. However, some cities, including Islamabad, have reported increased crime rates after adopting the systems.

The agreement between PSCA and Huawei was signed after a bidding process. According to the complaint, Huawei topped competitors, including Nokia and Motorola, with a bid of $150 million.

The logo of Chinese telecom giant Huawei is pictured during the Web Summit in Lisbon on Nov. 6, 2019. (Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)

Additionally, BES stated in the filings that it was courted aggressively by Huawei to be the latters contractor because the Chinese firm lacked the capacity to undertake such a technically advanced project on its own.

BES said it created eight different software systems for the safe-city project, including a system to monitor buildings and another to monitor social media, the complaint said. Another system, formally called the data exchange system (DES), could collect data from different Pakistani government agencies, including customs, taxation, immigration, and registration.

In 2016, Huawei threatened to terminate all agreements with BES if the U.S. software company didnt comply with its demand to have all eight systems tested in China.

As of the filing of this complaint, Huawei-China has yet to return BESs LLDs for the eight systems, or allow BES to uninstall any software, including the DES system, from Huaweis facility in China, the complaint said, referring to BESs proprietary low-level designs (LLDs) for systems.

Low-level design is a general term used to describe the component-level design process, often involving designers and developers. By contrast, high-level design means the overall design architecture.

A year later, in 2017, Huawei allegedly demanded that BES install DES in Huaweis laboratory in Chinathis time not merely for testing purposes but with full access to data at the Lahore Safe City project.

We want to insure [sic] that PPIC3 has no objection in [the] transfer of this technology outside of PPIC3 for security reasons, BES CEO and founder Javed Nawaz responded in an email, which is attached to the lawsuit, to Huawei officials. Please get an approval from PPIC3, in writing, prior to us performing this function.

According to the complaint, Huawei initially said there was no need to get such approval, while threaten[ing] to withhold payments owed to BES. Later, Huawei said it had received approval from the Pakistani government, BES alleged.

In light of Huaweis affirmative representations that they had the approval of the Pakistani government, the duplicate DES system was installed in China, the complaint stated.

BES argued that PPIC3s network could be compromised by Huawei.

On information and belief, Huawei-China uses the proprietary DES system as a backdoor from China into Lahore to gain access, manipulate, and extract sensitive data important to Pakistans national security, according to the complaint.

BES also alleged that Huawei has used and will continue to use the stolen trade secrets for other similar Safe City projects in at least seven other Pakistani cities, as well as those in other countries including Qatar, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. software company is seeking damages and permanent injunctive relief against Huawei.

To bolster its claims, BES cited two U.S. court casesboth indictments against Huawei for trade secrets theft in 2019 and 2020in its complaint.

Huawei, PSCA, BES, and BESs attorneys didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. According to The Wall Street Journal, BES currently isnt operating or generating revenue.
Nuvance Health, which runs Danbury, Norwalk, New Milford and Sharon hospitals, announced Wednesday it will temporarily pause visitation for most patients to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The hold on visitation, which takes effect Thursday, applies to inpatient hospital units, emergency departments, ambulatory services and medical practices run by the organization, Nuvance said through a news release.

The nonprofit organization also runs hospitals in New York along with other medical practices.

The move comes as cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 have surged, driven by the delta variant now rampant across the United States.

This is a very important way to limit the risk of possible exposure to COVID-19 to you, your loved ones and the community, said Stephen Meth, chief experience officer for Nuvance Health, in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Nuvance said Wednesday two dozen patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 across the organizations four Connecticut hospitals. Twelve were reported at Danbury Hospital, eight at Norwalk Hospital, and four at Sharon Hospital.

The visitation pause does not apply to all patients. Those under the age of 21, patients in neonatal intensive care units and maternity departments will still be allowed visitors.

The pause also does not apply to end-of-life patients and those with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Statewide, 321 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to state figures.

All eight of the states counties meet the threshold where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people should begin wearing masks indoors again regardless of vaccination, based on community spread of the virus. All but Litchfield, Tolland and Windham counties are considered areas with high community transmission, according to the CDC.

New Milford and Sharon hospitals both are in Litchfield County, while Norwalk and Danbury hospitals are in Fairfield County  considered an area of high transmission by the CDC.

As of last week, 39 towns are considered red zones for spread of the virus, according to the states color-coded map, which is based on the number of cases per 100,000 over the past two weeks. None of Nuvances hospitals sit in red zone cities, with Norwalk painted in orange, meaning there were between 10 and 14 cases per capita over the prior two weeks. Danbury is at yellow, the second-lowest tier, while Sharon is marked in gray, the lowest tier.

Dana Marnane, director of public relations and communications for Yale New Haven Health, said Wednesday that the system is discussing whether changes need to be made to visitation policies.

The surge of cases has prompted a flurry of local mask mandates, after Gov. Ned Lamont allowed municipal leaders to issue local mask mandates through executive order earlier this month.

In Danbury, Mayor Joe Cavo said Tuesday he was pleased that five surrounding towns agreed to implement local mask mandates alongside the Hat City, saying he believed doing so would work better as a regional approach.

Hopefully this is not going to be a long-term thing, he said during a phone interview.
Norwalk Police / Contributed

NORWALK  As police prepare for students to return to school, officers will conduct zero tolerance motor vehicle enforcement throughout the city through the next two weeks.

The enforcement begins Monday. Police said multiple officers will fan out across the city for speed enforcement as they prepare for the start of the school year.
Aug 18 2021 8:03 am

A 19-year-old yeshiva bachur, identified as Shmuel Silverberg ZL, was tragically shot and killed by unknown assailants outside the dorm building of Yeshiva Toras Chaim in Denver at approximately 11:30 pm Tuesday night.

Police and askanim say there had been other shootings in the area a short time prior, and at this time the incident is not believed to have been a targeted attack on the Yeshiva.

Shmuel ZL grew up in Cleveland, and has family, including grandparents, in Lakewood. Shmuel ZL also learned at a Yeshiva in Lakewood before heading to Denver, TLS has learned.

Askanim from Lakewood and Brooklyn are currently working to ensure kavod hameis and working with Denver authorities to have the body released for kevurah.

UPDATE: The Levaya will tentatively take place at 11:00 PM tonight at the 7th Street Chapel, 613 Ramsey Avenue, Lakewood.

Baruch Dayan Haemes.

Click here to view Levaya via Zoom.

Passcode: 706464
Sevierville, TN (37876)

Today

Periods of rain. Rain becoming heavy at times overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Rain becoming heavy at times overnight. Potential for flooding rains. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
Elizabethtown, KY (42701)

Today

Light rain transitioning to a few showers by morning. Low 66F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Light rain transitioning to a few showers by morning. Low 66F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
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Bank of Thailand urges government to borrow another B1 trillion

BANGKOK: The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is urging the government to borrow an additional B1 trillion to address the severe economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to boost the countrys long-term growth prospects.

COVID-19economics

By National News Bureau of Thailand

Wednesday 18 August 2021, 05:49PM

Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput. Photo: NNT

BoT Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput said he considers such state borrowing to be reasonable as the economic impacts of the pandemic are expected to be harder and last longer than the BoTs earlier assessments and fiscal policy should play a key role in ameliorating lockdown pain and supporting the economy, reported state news agency NNT.

He said the BoT sees it as reasonable to borrow an additional B1tn, as lower household incomes and higher unemployment, caused by the outbreak, are the areas which need fiscal support. Such a move would increase the countrys public debt ratio to 70% of GDP by 2024.

Mr Sethaput also said the government should use additional borrowing to boost economic multipliers, such as the existing co-payment and loan guarantee schemes and other subsidy measures, to provide relief from the hardships of the pandemic.
Hospital boss probed over Pfizer shot favouritism

BANGKOK: Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Public Health Office yesterday (Aug 17) set up a committee to launch a probe into allegations that the director of Chaloem Phra Kiat Hospital had administered Pfizer vaccines to his wife and an associate despite them not being frontline medical workers.

CoronavirusCOVID-19Vaccine

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 18 August 2021, 11:30AM

Dr Wicharn Khidhen, deputy chief of Nakhon Ratchasima public health office and head of a probe panel investigating vaccine use at Chalerm Phra Kiat Hospital, wraps up the probe yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Prasit Tangprasert

It was reported that the provincial public health office sent 144 doses of Pfizer vaccine to the hospital for 138 recipients. The remaining vaccines were reserved for pregnant women, health workers and those who havent received a third shot of AstraZeneca vaccine.

However, three of the 138 recipients were from a private clinic and are not frontliners. Furthermore, it appeared that two of the three doses were allegedly administered to hospital director Champ Suttisrisins wife and the husband of the chief of a pharmaceutical and consumer health protection group at the hospital.

After such information was disseminated online, it prompted questions about Mr Champs alleged actions.

Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Public Health Office chief Dr Narinrat Pitchayakamin said yesterday the Pfizer vaccines were supposed to be administered to medical workers who deal with COVID-19 patients.

I have now set up a committee to investigate the allegations after receiving a complaint from people involved, Dr Narinrat said.

The probe will take around a week to determine what occurred, he said.

In Bangkok, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri stressed that the government has no policy to give the Pfizer vaccine to any VIP groups; they are for frontline medical workers. If guilt is found, then punishment will follow, he added.

Meanwhile, Phichit Hospital director Dr Surachai Kaewhiran insisted his hospital is not linked to a supposed Thai traditional medicine doctor who claimed he was given a third vaccine jab and was now ready to provide a massage service.

The masseur, 29, wrote his personal details on his Twitter account which included the size of what he called a weapon. The details were suggestive of a sexual service.

Dr Surachai said there are no Thai traditional medicine doctors on a list of 47 recipients for the third jab.

The hospital was preparing to lodge a complaint with police against the man while the Thai traditional medicine group are also seeking police to investigate the alleged masseurs claims relating to possible sexual services.

A doctor from a hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat has decided to hand in her resignation after she was alleged to have had ineligible family members receive Pfizer vaccine shots at the hospital.

Despite her resignation, a probe will still be held.
Lockdown lifted in Phuket Town

PHUKET: The lockdown in the heart of Phuket Town has been lifted, but the municipality fresh market on Ranong Rd that sparked the lockdown will remain closed for at least a few more days, Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong announced this morning (Aug 18).

COVID-19Coronavirushealth

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 18 August 2021, 10:18AM

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

Hundreds more people living in the area or working at the market were tested yesterday (Aug 17). Photo: Phuket City Municipality

According to the order issued by Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew last week, the lockdown, bound by the perimeter of Ranong Rd, Soi Phuthorn and Bangkok Rd, was due to expire at midnight last night (11:59pm, Aug 17).

Yesterday, health officers went to conduct a second test of people living in the lockdown area. A total of 860 Thai people were tested, of whom five tested positive; 500 migrant workers were tested, of whom 13 tested positive, V/Gov Pichet said.

Officers and staff from the PPHO [Phuket Public Health Office] and the Phuket City Municipality Medical Department tested in total 1,360 people and found 18 positive cases, or about 1.25%, which is considered a low number, he said.

So, the Phuket Provincial Government has lifted the lockdown of the area, but the market will reopen a couple days later because vendors need to prepare. The market also needs to be cleaned, he said.

I want to thank every officer for together helping to test our people, V/Gov Pichet said.

However, under other orders issued so far, the Downtown Market in front of Phuket City Municipality Fresh Market 1 will remain closed through Sunday (Aug 22) and the Phuket City Municipality Fresh Market 2 (near Robinson department store) will remain closed through Friday (Aug 20).
Sandbox 7+7 tourists will be tested twice before leaving the island, assures Phuket TAT chief

PHUKET: Phuket Sandbox tourists wanting to spend only their first seven nights on the island before travelling to other Sandbox areas, in Phang Nga, Krabi or Samui, under the Sandbox 7+7 scheme will be tested twice before being allowed to leave the island, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket director Nanthasiri Ronnasiri has assured

tourismCOVID-19economicstransport

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 18 August 2021, 05:24PM

The Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command has announced that it is ready to support the Sandbox 7=7 sealed routes to islands off Phuket. Image: RTN

Ms Nanthasiri explained during the daily COVID situation briefing this morning (Aug 17) that the Sandbox 7+7 tourists will be tested on arrival in Phuket, and again on Day 6/7 of their stay, before being allowed to travel to any of the 7+7 pilot areas, which she named as Khao Lak, Koh Yao Noi and Koh Yao Yai in Phang Nga Province; Phi Phi Island, Railay Bay or Koh Ngai in Krabi Province; or Koh Samui in Surat Thani Province.

Our office is currently in the process of discussing the details with relevant agencies to prepare information, documents such as tourist monitoring, and transfer form documents for tourists who wish to leave Phuket and need to use them during their journey to the pilot areas under the Sandbox 7+7 project, she said.

The Sandbox 7+7 scheme became available on Monday (Aug 16), after the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) in Bangkok granted its approval of the Phuket Sandbox 7+7 Extension, which aims to provide fully vaccinated international travellers with more options to visit multiple Thai destinations without the need to quarantine.

The Phuket Sandbox 7+7 Extension programme signifies the progress of Thailands plan to gradually reopen to fully vaccinated international travellers within the set time frame. The launch of the Phuket Sandbox from 1 July, Samui Plus from 15 July, and Phuket Sandbox 7+7 Extension from 16 August will lead the way to the reopening of more pilot destinations, which are currently preparing appropriate measures to ensure the health and safety of both the tourists and local people, TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said in announcing the expansion.

The existing entry measures in place for the Phuket Sandbox programme remain unchanged for the 7+7 extension, said a release by the TAT.

But, travellers planning to spend another 7 nights outside of Phuket must obtain a Transfer Form issued by their hotel in Phuket indicating that they have stayed in Phuket for 7 nights, which they will need to show together with the negative results of their two COVID-19 tests (conducted on Day 0 and Day 6-7 in Phuket), it added.

However, not included in the TAT release but reported by the state news agency NNT yesterday is that participants must apply for a Certificate of Entry (COE) for each route before departing for Thailand. The Foreign Ministry will open the system for registration within this week.

Travelling from Phuket to the selected areas in Krabi, Phang Nga, or Surat Thai is available only via approved routes and modes of transport, the TAT noted in its release.

Travelling from Phuket to the selected areas in Krabi, Phang Nga, or Surat Thai is available only via approved routes and modes of transport, the TAT noted.

Surat Thani (Samui Plus  Ko Samui, Ko Pha-ngan, or Ko Tao) can be reached via Bangkok Airways direct domestic flight on the Phuket-Ko Samui route, the release noted.

Phi Phi Island, Koh Ngai and Railay can be reached by SHA Plus-certified boat and ferry services from approved piers, it added.

Khao Lak in Phang Nga can be reached by SHA Plus-certified car transfer services from Phuket direct to the SHA Plus-certified hotels, the release continued.

Koh Yao Noi and Ko Yao Yai  less than 10km east of Pa Khlok, on Phukets east coast, but technically within Phang Nga Province  can be reached via SHA Plus-certified boat and ferry services from approved piers, the TAT added.

Once travellers have completed the 7-night extension in Krabi, Phang Nga and Surat Thani (Samui Plus), and are tested negative in their third COVID-19 test (conducted on Day 12-13), they will receive a Release Form from their hotel and will be able to continue their journey to other destinations in Thailand, the TAT said.

However, the TAT also noted, If the stay in Krabi, Phang Nga or Surat Thani (Samui+) is less than 7 nights, travellers must proceed directly to Phuket International Airport on the day of departure. At the port of entry back into Phuket, they will need to show a plane ticket or other proof of their international travel from Phuket.
City_news

breaking featured

It's on! Trudeau calls federal election for Sept. 20

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes the Sept. 20 election announcement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the 44th federal election for Sept. 20, following nearly two years of his minority government, after meeting with Governor General Mary Simon Sunday morning.

Trudeau told the media that the Governor-General accepted his request to dissolve Parliament and confirmed the Sept. 20 election date.

The decisions your government makes right now will define the future your kids and grandkids grow up in, he said. So in this pivotal, consequential moment, who wouldnt want a say, who wouldnt want their chance to help decide where our country goes from here?

Trudeau added that Canadians need to choose how we finish the fight against COVID-19 and how we build back better, from getting the job done on vaccines and having peoples backs all the way to and through the end of this crisis.

The Prime Minister touted his decision to require vaccinations for members of the federal public service and those travelling on planes and between provinces on trains by early this fall.

Not every political party agrees. Well, Canadians should be able to weigh in on that, and on so much more. We believe a governments most important responsibility is to keep Canadians safe and thriving, and thats what well continue to do.

Trudeau began his talk by also announcing that, in light of the Taliban advances in Kabul, Afghanistan, as of this morning, Canadian diplomatic personnel are on their way back to Canada.

As Trudeau spoke, Conservative Party leader Erin OToole tweeted, I am ready to get our economy surging in the right direction for all Canadians. Vote Conservative.

Later, OToole posted on Facebook that in the past year and a half, families have lost loved ones before their time, hard working Canadians have lost their jobs, and have seen the cost-of-living skyrocket.

Were finally at a point, thanks to the efforts of all Canadians who have stayed at home, got tested, and got vaccinated, where we can see our loved ones, our friends, and our families again. We shouldnt be risking that for political games, or political gain. A leader who cared about the best interests of Canadians would be straining every sinew to secure the recovery right now. Instead, Justin Trudeau has called an election.

OToole added that the coming election is Justin Trudeaus choice, and I hope that his decision doesnt cost Canadians too dearly. But lets be clear. This election is not about the next week, the month, or the next year. Its about the next four years. Its about who will deliver the economic recovery Canada needs. Its about who will take action to protect Canadians, from spiralling living costs, from rising taxes, from poorer services.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh tweeted, You and your family should be the priority. Instead, Mr. Trudeau has called an election because hes focused on keeping his own job and his rich insider friends happy.
SPRINGFIELD  Willie Moore was a black man who endured segregation and saw the school where he taught integrated after a long fight for racial equality.

He loved teaching history but there was one topic he avoided: the Civil Rights movement.

It was just too controversial to talk about. The students came from families that had different opinions on it. So, I just avoided teaching about it, he told me on a hot Mississippi day as his brahma cows grazed nearby and we sat on his rickety porch shooting the breeze.

In 2018, Id stopped at Moores farm to interview him for a book Im writing.

But we spent most of the time sitting and talking about Southern history. He recalled when 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi, for whistling at a white woman. In the 1970s, the small town where he lived had one Black police officer  who was only allowed to arrest other Black people.

He discussed the marches and the strife of the 1960s, a time when black and white people used separate restrooms, drinking fountains and schools.

In our hour-long chat, he told me more about race and Mississippi than he likely ever shared with his students. Even today, Confederate flags fly in front of plantation homes just down the road from where Moore resided.

On social media, this week, I received a survey question from U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, asking whether I thought critical race theory should be taught in schools.

Supporters of teaching critical race theory contend race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

Conservative critics counter that the foundation of the theory is that the U.S. is fundamentally racist and that it leads students to feel guilty for past actions by white people.

Here is what I do know: Our schools have done a lousy job of teaching about race, discrimination and their role in history. And we need to do better.

I first remember learning about the Civil Rights movement in 1971, when I was in the first grade. A local radio personality, Jimmy Carr, came and spoke about Martin Luther King Jr. on the leaders birthday. Carrs daughter, Jamie, was our only black classmate in Caroline Broadheads class at Bateman Elementary School in Galesburg.

Mrs. Broadhead was an exceptional teacher. She recognized a need and found a local person to speak to it. King had been killed less than three years before and his death was a fresh scar on the nations conscience.

In the third grade, our teacher taught about Kings I Have a Dream speech and how segregation had once been a problem in the South. It was taught straight from the book. Never was it mentioned that racism was a problem in our own community.

The beaches at the city park, Lake Story, had been segregated until just a few years before. Whites used the beach on the northside and blacks the one on the southside.

Some Galesburg restaurants turned black diners away. Real estate agents often wouldnt show people of color homes north of Main Street. And the local newspapers society page wouldnt write about events south of Main Street.

The ornate Orpheum Theater had black people sit in the balcony, apart from white folks.

But our teacher taught us that segregation was a Southern problem. Was she ignorant of segregation in our hometown? Or perhaps she thought it was a lesson too close to home. One thing was for certain, shed never receive a medal for courage in the classroom.

In a world of right and wrong, she chose a third route: compliance.

My first exposure to the concept of lynching was when our teacher told the Emmett Till story in our ninth grade civics class. The inflection of his voice and the smug manner in which he told of how Emmett was killed struck me as odd. In his rendition, the bad guys werent those who kidnapped and killed the 14-year-old child. It was Emmett himself.

For years, allegations of racism clung to our teacher, Ken Phlamm, like a cheap polyester suit on a hot day. The school district was either unwilling or unable to fire him despite calls for doing just that from the Galesburg Human Relations Commission and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

I used to think my hometown was unique in the way it avoided discussing its racism until I worked as a reporter in Galveston, Texas, in the 1980s. The faded letters of Colored could still be seen above some public doorways. But whenever I would ask older white people what the fight for integration was like, they would shrug and say it was No big deal and point to some distant community where things were really bad.

When Id posed the same question to black folks, the answer was always the same: It was awful.

Critics of the critical race theory often point to the 1619 Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning endeavor by the New York Times Magazine looking at the legacy of 400 years of slavery on what is now the U.S.

Some conclusions in the project I agreed with. Others I didnt. But thats OK. When you read something, it should provoke thought, not adherence.

Our youngsters deserve to be taught the facts and should be allowed to reach conclusions on their own.

Scott Reeder is a veteran journalist. He works as a reporter in the Springfield area. Email scottreeder1965@gmail.com.
EDWARDSVILLE  Two Godfrey residents, including a man with a prior conviction for murder in Missouri, face multiple drug and weapons charges.

Joseph D. Arena, 48; and Stacey L. Thomas, 46, both of the same address in the 1200 block of Preis Lane, Godfrey, were each charged Aug. 17 with unlawful possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, armed violence, unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, and unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, all Class 2 felonies.

The cases were presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department.

According to court documents, on Aug. 16 the pair were found to be in possession of between 5-15 grams of methamphetamine with intent to deliver; and possessed a stolen Smith & Wesson 9 mm. Shield handgun. The armed violence charge stems from the possession of weapons during the drug charge.

It was noted that Arena has a prior conviction for second degree murder out of St. Louis and Thomas a conviction for first degree robbery out of St. Charles, Missouri.

Bail was set at $100,000 each.

Other drug-related charges filed Aug. 17 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 James C. Williams Sr., 50, listed as homeless out of Maryville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Maryville Police Department. According to court documents, on Feb. 9 Williams was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $40,000.

 Elwood Lewis III, 27, of Belleville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. According to court documents, on Aug. 17 Lewis was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Troy L. Frye, 46, of Amarillo, Texas, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Illinois State Police. According to court documents, on April 4 Frye was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Melissa K. Pierce, 46, of the 200 block of Pennsylvania, South Roxana, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Maryville Police Department. According to court documents, on April 17 Pierce was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Stacy A. Lindley, 37, of the 600 block of Marsh Avenue, Alton, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Maryville Police Department. According to court documents, on April 17 Lindley was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Jason M. Hood, 40, of the 400 block of Aurora Street, Collinsville, was charged Aug. 13 with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. According to court documents, on April 13 Hood was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $20,000. On Aug. 13 he was also charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The charges were presented by the Collinsville Police Department, and Hood was listed as living in Collinsville at the time of the incident on April 13.

 Steven E. Slavens, 26, of the 500 block of Art Street, Collinsville, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substanceand aggravated unlawful use of weapons, both Class 4 felonies. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on Oct. 17 Slavens was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of hydrocodone; and a loaded and accessible Ruger 9 mm handgun, without a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card or concealed carry permit. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Joseph A Cook, 39, of the 3100 block of W. Chain of Rocks Drive, Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony; and unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on Feb. 24 Cook was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine and less than 15 grams of fentanyl. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Amber D. Conklin, 33, of the 1800 block of Sixth Street, Madison, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on Aug. 16 Conklin was found to be in possession of less than 200 grams of Alprazolam. Bail was set at $20,000.

 James A Lee, 41, of the 2900 block of Buxton Avenue, Granite City, was charged Jan. 16 with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. According to court documents, on Jan. 16 Lee was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of fentanyl. Bail was set at $25,000.
London, KY (40741)

Today

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 66F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

A steady rain this evening. Showers continuing overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 66F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
The owner of fast-growing sourdough pizza chain Franco Manca and The Real Greek is looking to open new restaurants in the UK and abroad as sales rebound and it eyes more sites to snap up on the cheap.

London-listed Fulham Shore, which is run by ex-Pizza Express boss David Page, said they had set up a new team 'to explore and progress the international development of both businesses'.

The group, which has 55 Franco Manca pizzerias and 19 The Real Greek restaurants, is also continuing its expansion at home, expecting to treble its UK presence to over 230 restaurants before the end of the decade.

More restaurants: Fulham said they had identified over 125 new locations for Franco Manca

It said it plans open 10 new restaurants in this financial year ending in March, and has identified more than 150 additional sites for potential new restaurants - some 125 for Franco Manca and 30 for The Real Greek.

After leaving Pizza Express, Page went on to co-found restaurant group Clapham House, whose chains included Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Bombay Bicycle Club.

Fulham said that given the board's experience in 'successful expansion outside the UK at PizzaExpress and Gourmet Burger Kitchen', it has set up an 'experienced team to capitalise on the opportunity to establish our brands overseas'.

The expansion plans come as the restaurant group has seen sales rebound strongly over the summer since its restaurants could fully reopen and social restrictions were loosened.

Total revenues for the eight weeks from 21 June to 15 August averaged over 1.5million per week, which represents an increase of 8 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, before Covid struck, the company said.

But the group noted a 'stark' difference in performance at its city centre restaurants and those in regional locations and coastal towns.

Like-for-like sales at its 17 restaurants in London's West End and other city centre locations tumbled 41 per cent in the period as many office workers continue to work from home.

But a rise in staycations has boosted sales at its restaurants on coastal towns like Brighton, with like-for-like sales in these locations outside city centre some 30 per cent ahead of pre-Covid levels.

Fulham has 19 The Real Greek restaurants in the UK, but plans to open more

'Some of our regional and suburban restaurants are currently breaking trading records on a weekly basis,' Fulham said. 'The sites in coastal towns and university cities are especially busy.'

Despite people being allowed to go dine out again, takeaway and home delivery sales have continued to exceed 2019 levels, with the company saying this meant they had 'gained permanent new customers' through both these channels.

'Having navigated the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Group is well-positioned to capitalise on emerging opportunities,' Page said.

'We are confident that this current financial year will be the start of another exciting period of growth for The Fulham Shore.'

London-listed Fulham Shore is run by ex-Pizza Express boss David Page

The high sales follow a tough year for the group, which today also posted in full-year financial results.

These show revenues tumbled 41 per cent to 40.3million in the year to March 28 following the impact of enforced closures for large parts of the year.

Operating losses also widened to 4.8million for the year, compared with a 1.8million profit from the previous year.

Like many other hospitality businesses, Fulham complained about a shortage of staff.

It said that a combination of Brexit, new immigration controls and many workers having left as a result of Covid has made recruitment of staff 'harder'.

'To mitigate these issues the Group has invested in its human resources team and has implemented new innovative incentive schemes designed to retain key individuals,' it added.

Shares in Fulham rose 3 per cent to 16.50p in afternoon trading on Tuesday.
Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.

P.L. writes: I have reached an impasse with Nectar, Sainsbury's and Action Fraud over the loss of Nectar points worth more than 500.

I found that points worth 525 were missing from my account, having been spent at three Sainsbury's branches over three days while my wife and I were out of the country.

My local Sainsbury's tried to help, and said the purchases were not typical of our shopping.

But letters to Sainsbury's bosses go unanswered and Nectar has offered no explanation, apology or refund.

Shopping spree: Points were spent at a Sainsbury's store in Pimlico, London, when Nectar card owner was abroad

Tony Hetherington replies: Over the past several months, I have received dozens of complaints from Sainsbury's customers who say their Nectar points have been stolen.

After publishing some of these and warning that Sainsbury's  which owns the Nectar card scheme  was far from helpful, I had not intended to investigate any more.

However, if someone were mugged in the street and robbed of more than 500 I would expect the theft to be taken seriously, so I decided to look closely into what happened to you.

When you made a complaint about the theft, Sainsbury's rejected it, saying there were no suspicious circumstances.

So, since you say you were abroad when your Nectar points were spent, I asked the supermarket what it would take to make it regard the spending as suspicious.

You were also told that the goods bought with your 525 were not out of keeping with your normal shopping.

However, helpful staff at your local Sainsbury's at Balham, in South-West London, flatly contradicted this, so I asked Sainsbury's to say exactly what was bought.

I also asked where your Nectar points were spent. You were told that all the spending was at the Balham store, yet further enquiries show that this was not true and your points were also cashed at two Sainsbury's branches in central London, at Rochester Row and Pimlico.

On top of all this, the real shock came when I realised you had been robbed not once, but twice.

Since you were abroad when your 525 was stolen, and your Nectar cards were with you, this indicated there was a fake Nectar card in existence showing your account details.

You might have expected Sainsbury's to realise this, replace your cards, and flag up the fake card at its tills. Instead, someone clearly holding a party used your recently earned Nectar points to purchase 20 steaks and a large quantity of beer.

Again, I asked Sainsbury's whether this was your typical shopping.

Sainsbury's has now reconsidered and has told me the purchases made with your points do not match your usual shopping.

It admits your claim was turned down because nobody took into account that you were out of the country and not going from branch to branch using up your Nectar points.

However, it dug itself deeper into difficulty by telling me you had failed to report the second theft. In fact, you were able to produce email after email between you and Sainsbury's proving the exact opposite.

Sainsbury's has now cancelled your existing cards and opened a new account for you, with a complete refund of all your stolen points. Ungraciously though, it describes this as 'a gesture of goodwill', rather than treating a theft victim fairly.

I did ask Sainsbury's to say whether a fake card was used by the thief, and how long in-store CCTV recordings were kept.

Since the company claims to have its own Nectar fraud team, I also asked how many people it had prosecuted for stealing points, as the only such record I can find is of the prosecution of a Sainsbury's employee.

Sainsbury's told me it deletes recordings after 31 days, but it refused to say whether your thief used a fake Nectar card, or to reveal how many prosecutions it had brought, if any.

Lack of connection: Vodafone refused to talk to Mrs L.W. as the contract was with her late husband

Vodafone will only talk with my late husband

Mrs L.W. writes: My husband took out a 24-month contract with Vodafone for our grandson. This ended in November last year, but Vodafone collected two further payments of 46.

I complained and was first told it would continue collecting payments unless told to stop. Vodafone then refused to say more as the contract was with my husband. I explained that he had died in 2019, and that I would continue the payments.

But my grandson's phone suddenly stopped working and Vodafone told me his phone number does not exist.

Tony Hetherington replies: You have told me you kept being assured by Vodafone that someone would sort this out but no one did. At one point, Vodafone collected an unexpected 24 from your bank account, but told you that you owed 1.49, which you also paid.

I asked officials at Vodafone's head office to look into what had happened, and two days later you were offered a refund of charges plus a further 50 as a goodwill gesture. Vodafone told me it was normal to continue an expired contract unless the customer instructed otherwise.

It added: 'Unfortunately, we were not aware that the account holder, Mr W, had passed away.'

WE'RE WATCHING YOU The Financial Conduct Authority has warned customers of mini-bonds firm Northern Provident Investments that they may be contacted by fraudsters following the firm's decision ten days ago to put itself into liquidation. 'Rescue deals' that involve handing over more money may well be scams. The Belfast business was fully authorised by the watchdog and used its status to allow investors to put their savings into high-risk bonds. NPI also vetted and approved advertising issued by other companies that marketed these risky IOUs, including Blackmore Bond, which collapsed last year, owing 46million. I warned in April this year that the unlicensed investment firm Your Options Ltd was using NPI's authorised status to give false reassurance to customers tempted by the 7per cent yield on its Choices Bond. The Halifax company claimed NPI had 'all of the relevant protections and permissions', but failed to spell out that these did not include cover under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
The average house price across the UK rose by an eye-watering 31,000 in the year to June which was the fastest annual increase since 2004, official figures revealed today.

As the home buying frenzy hit fever pitch towards the end of the main stamp duty holiday, the average property in June sold for a record 266,000 - a 13.2 per cent increase year-on-year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

There was a significant 4.5 per cent jump in prices between May and June, which the ONS attributed to the tapering down of the tax break.

House prices shot up in June as buyers rushed to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday

Buyers were rushing to get in under the wire for the stamp duty holiday, under which they could save up to 15,000 before 30 June. They can still save a maximum of 2,500 until the end of September.

ONS head of prices Mike Hardie said: 'In June, UK house prices saw their highest annual growth since 2004.

'This figure, however, was boosted by large monthly growth, with a rush to complete purchases before changes to the stamp duty holiday came into effect at the end of June.

'The average price of UK houses now stands at a record 266,000, which is 31,000 higher than this time last year.'

The increase in house prices in the past year has seen the value of a property become even more out of kilter with people's incomes.

On the market: This two-bed flat in the Dowanhill area of Glasgow is listed on Rightmove with an asking price of 199,000. The sandstone terrace overlooks a communal garden.

In Saddleworth near Oldham, this six-bed, four-bath home is being marketed for 1.15m

A three-bed, semi-detached home in Sparcells near Swindon is listed for 270,000

Anna Clare Harper, CEO of property consultancy SPI Capital, said that while the stamp duty holiday had had the same effect as a 'summer sale,' it was not necessarily a positive in the long run.

'The trouble is that while the outcome boosts economic confidence, it is at odds with the policy agenda on affordable home ownership.

'Average house prices of 265,668 seem extortionate compared with median household income of 29,000,' she said.

Jim Boyd, chief executive of the Equity Release Council, also pointed out that the house price gains in the last year alone have been 'more than the average person's private pension wealth.'

This five-bed home in a converted 17th century moat house is located in Great Hallingbury near Bishop's Stortford. It is listed on Rightmove for 700,000

In Scarborough, buyers can snap up this two-bed bungalow for 275,000

While the ONS statistics offer the most comprehensive analysis of house prices, they also run on a significant lag compared to other indexes.

More recent figures from other sources suggest that house growth has now begun to slow, impacted by the end of the stamp duty holiday.

According to the latest Nationwide index, house prices fell by 0.5 per cent in July on a monthly basis, against a 0.7 per cent rise in June.

The dip marked the first time prices had dropped since March and signified the biggest decline in prices since June 2020.

Nationwide said that on an annual basis, average property prices jumped 10.5 per cent, against a 13.4 per cent rise in the year to June, which marked the highest jump for 13 years.

However, experts are predicting a 'flattening out' of house prices in the coming months, rather than a dramatic drop.

Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'Record low mortgage rates continue to support healthy demand, while a shortage of properties for sale will keep prices up.

'Instead of facing a precipitous plunge from these new highs, we're more likely to see price rises flatten out, and sales slow as the stamp duty holiday finally ends in September.'

Growth in North West 'frankly astonishing'

In June, the ONS figures suggested that the average house prices increased over the year in England to 284,000 (13.3 per cent), in Wales to 195,000 (16.7 per cent), in Scotland to 174,000 (12.0 per cent) and in Northern Ireland to 153,000 (9.0 per cent).

London continued to be the region with the lowest annual growth (6.3 per cent) for the seventh consecutive month.

However, prices there were still the highest in the UK, at a record high of 510,000.

The North West was the region with the highest annual house price growth, with average prices increasing by 18.6 per cent in the year to June 2021. This was up from 14.2 per cent in May 2021.

Runaway growth: House prices have increased by 18.6 per cent in the North West

Lucy Pendleton, property expert at independent estate agents James Pendleton, described this growth as 'frankly astonishing'.

'Prices went berserk as the stamp duty taper closed in.

'This is the last time this year, or even in our lifetimes, that you'll see growth spurts like this in response to government support,' she said.

She also raised a question mark over whether buyers actually saved money using the stamp duty holiday, as the tax reduction was likely cancelled out by the astronomical price rises.

'Scenes like this are only possible in those areas starting from a lower base, and there's a big question mark over how many of these buyers really made a saving.

'Amid fierce competition, there's a good chance that many of them became so committed to a particular move that the financials were thrown out with the bath water.'
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George Brian McGee, a finance executive in Florida, was driving home in a Tesla Model S operating on Autopilot, a system that can steer, brake and accelerate a car on its own, when he dropped his phone during a call and bent down to look for it.

Neither he nor Autopilot noticed that the road was ending and the Model S drove past a stop sign and a flashing red light. The car smashed into a parked Chevrolet Tahoe, killing a 22-year-old college student, Naibel Benavides.

One of a growing number of fatal accidents involving Tesla cars operating on Autopilot, McGees case is unusual because he survived and told investigators what had happened: He got distracted and put his trust in a system that did not see and brake for a parked car in front of it. Tesla drivers using Autopilot in other fatal accidents have often been killed, leaving investigators to piece together the details from data stored and videos recorded by the cars.

I was driving and dropped my phone, McGee told an officer who responded to the accident, according to a recording from a police body camera. I looked down, and I ran the stop sign and hit the guys car.

McGees statements to investigators, the accident report and court filings paint a tragic picture of overreliance on technology. They also strongly suggest that Autopilot failed at a basic function  automatic emergency braking  that engineers developed years ago. Many newer cars, including models much more affordable and less sophisticated than Teslas, can slow or stop themselves when an accident seems likely.

On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had opened a formal investigation into Autopilot. The agency said it was aware of 11 accidents since 2018 involving Teslas that crashed into police, fire and other emergency vehicles with flashing lights parked on roads and highways. In one of them, a Tesla plowed into a fire truck in December 2019 in Indiana, killing a passenger in the car and seriously injuring the driver.

Distracted driving can be deadly in any car. But safety experts say Autopilot may encourage distraction by lulling people into thinking that their cars are more capable than they are. And the system does not include safeguards to make sure drivers are paying attention to the road and can retake control if something goes wrong.

McGee, who declined to comment through his lawyer, told investigators that he was on the phone with American Airlines making reservations to fly out for a funeral. He called the airline at 9:05 p.m. on April 25, 2019. The call lasted a little more than five minutes and ended two seconds after his Model S crashed into the Tahoe, according to a Florida Highway Patrol investigation. Florida law makes it illegal to text while driving, but the state does not prohibit drivers from talking on a hand-held cellphone except in school or work zones.

FLORIDA HIGHWAY PATROL/NYT

McGee, who was close to his home in Key Largo after driving roughly 100 miles from his office in Boca Raton, called 911 and then spoke to police officers who responded to the accident. In both sets of recorded conversations, he sounds shaken but speaks clearly. He said he had looked up, seen that he was about to hit the Tahoe and tried to stop the car.

When I popped up and I looked and saw a black truck  it happened so fast, he told the officers, at one point referring to Autopilot as stupid cruise control.

Tesla, the worlds most valuable automaker, and CEO Elon Musk describe Autopilot as a way to make driving easier and safer.

Despite its name, Autopilot does not make Teslas autonomous. The auto industry classifies it, and similar systems offered by General Motors and other companies, as Level 2 self-driving. Cars that can operate autonomously at all times would be Level 5, a distinction that no vehicle on sale today is close to achieving.

Teslas critics contend that Autopilot has several weaknesses, including the ability for drivers like McGee to use it on local roads. With the help of GPS and software, GM, Ford Motor Co. and other automakers restrict their systems to divided highways where there are no stop signs, traffic lights or pedestrians.

Tesla owners manuals warn customers not to use Autopilot on city streets. Failure to follow these instructions could cause damage, serious injury or death, the manual for 2019 models says.

The technology exists to limit where Autopilot can operate, but Tesla allows drivers to use it on roads it shouldnt operate on, said Jason K. Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington nonprofit group. They made a corporate decision to do that, and its resulted in preventable tragedies. That should be enraging.

Musk and Teslas associate general counsel, Ryan McCarthy, did not respond to emails seeking comment.

NEIMA BENAVIDES/NYT

Regulators are looking into other potential Autopilot flaws. The system, which includes cameras, radar and software, sometimes fails to recognize other vehicles and stationary objects. In July, a Tesla ran into an SUV parked at the site of an earlier accident on a highway near San Diego. The driver had Autopilot on, fell asleep and, later, failed a sobriety test, police said. This year, a California couple sued Tesla in connection with a 2019 crash that killed their 15-year-old son.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating more than two dozen crashes that occurred when Autopilot was in use. The agency said it was aware of at least 10 deaths in those accidents.

A Commute Ends in Tragedy

McGee, 44, is a managing partner at a small private equity firm, New Water Capital. He bought his Model S, a performance model, in 2019.

On the night of the accident, he left Boca Raton and headed south over major highways. South of Miami, he got on U.S. Route 1, took a narrow toll bridge from the mainland to Key Largo and continued on Card Sound Road, a two-lane road that ends at County Road 905. McGee had Autopilot on, and the speed was set at 44 mph, according to data that the police retrieved from the car.

About the same time, Benavides was on a date with Dillon Angulo. He was driving his mothers black Tahoe, and pulled off to the wide shoulder of County Road 905 near Card Sound Road. Angulo stopped some 44 feet from edge of the intersection, parked on a gravel strip and stepped out. Benavides got out of the passenger seat and walked around to the drivers side, according to the investigation.

Data from the Tesla shows the Model S accelerated from 44 to 60 mph a few seconds before crashing into the Tahoe. It is unclear if Autopilot or McGee raised the speed. Vehicle data and skid marks indicated McGee jammed on the brakes less than a second before impact. He told the police that he could not tell how close he was to the intersection when he started looking for his phone.

Benavides estate has sued Tesla in the circuit court for Miami-Dade County, claiming the companys cars are defective and unsafe. Todd Poses, a Miami lawyer representing the estate, said McGee was expected to give a deposition in that case. A separate lawsuit that the estate filed against McGee was settled, Poses said, but he would not disclose the terms.

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In court, Tesla has filed a brief response denying the estates claims without elaborating. In similar cases, the company has said any blame rests solely with the drivers of its cars.

As in other crashes involving Autopilot, the system appeared not to have done much to make sure McGee was paying attention to the road.

Tesla recently activated an in-car camera in certain newer models to monitor drivers, but it cannot see in the dark. Tesla owners have posted videos on YouTube showing that the camera sometimes fails to notice when drivers look away from the road and that it can be fooled if they cover the lens. When the camera notices a Tesla driver looking away from the road, it sounds a warning chime but does not turn Autopilot off.

GM and Ford systems use infrared cameras to monitor drivers eyes. If drivers look away for more than two or three seconds, warnings remind them to look straight ahead. If drivers fail to comply, the GM and Ford systems will shut off and tell drivers to take control of the car.

MONROE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT/NYT

Musk has said monitoring drivers while cars operate on systems like Autopilot may not be needed because machines are much safer than people. Having a human intervene will decrease safety, he said in an April 2019 interview with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher.

A Life Cut Short

Benavides emigrated from Cuba in 2016 and lived with her mother in Miami. She worked at a Walgreens pharmacy and a clothing store while attending community college. An older sister, Neima, 34, who is executor of the estate, said Naibel had been working to improve her English in hopes of getting a college degree.

She was always laughing and making people laugh, Neima Benavides said. Her favorite thing was to go to the beach. She would go almost every day and hang out with friends or just sit by herself and read.

Neima Benavides said she hoped the lawsuit would prod Tesla into making Autopilot safer. Maybe something can change so other people dont have to go through this.

Benavides had just started dating Angulo when they went fishing on Key Largo. That afternoon, she sent her sister a text message indicating she was having a good time. At 9 p.m., Benavides called her mother from Angulos phone to say she was on the way home. She had lost her phone that day.

On the 911 call, McGee reported that a man was on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from the mouth. Several times McGee said, Oh, my God, and shouted Help! When an emergency operator asked if the man was the only injured person, McGee replied, Yes, hes the only passenger.

Angulo was airlifted to a hospital. He later told investigators that he had no recollection of the accident or why they had stopped at the intersection.

An emergency medical technician spotted a womans sandal under the Tahoe and called on others to start searching the area for another victim. Please tell me no, McGee can be heard saying in the police video. Please tell me no.

Benavides body was found about 25 yards away.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
A couple developments on the 2022 New York elections front:

 A recent Times Union story about who might run for governor in 2022 included many possible entrants for the Democratic nomination. One name not included: Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

Former state Sen. Terry Gipson, a Democrat who served in the Senate with Latimer, wrote in to say that Latimer should definitely be considered.

"I served with George during my time in the state Senate and saw first-hand how he was universally respected by his colleagues in both the Assembly and Senate, as well as multiple county party leaders throughout the State," Gipson wrote. "George has more government experience than most the people on your list. His network of allies across the state is far more extensive that most the people on your list. And Im pretty sure that hes the only person on your list that has won multiple competitive races against the Republican money machine. This includes his back-to-back 2016 Senate reelection and the 2017 county executive race (where he beat former Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Rob Astorino by a large margin)."

Gipson, who has been encouraging Latimer to run for governor, noted Westchester County under Latimer passed several progressive measures before state government eventually acted on them, including "ban the box" legislation, earned sick leave, and a conversion therapy ban.

"In my opinion, George is as likely to run and win as anyone else on your list," Gipson said. "I am sure that he will have the support of many other former legislative colleges around the state. For now, he has told me he is focused on re-election as county executive."

So what does Latimer himself have to say? In a statement, Latimer's campaign said that, George is flattered that others have reached out to him given Westchesters successes on so many fronts but for now any future considerations are premature. Right now, George is focused on continuing to lead Westchester through this pandemic, and this years re-election contest. The county, under his direction, will work closely and cooperatively with the state during this gubernatorial transition."

 Speaking of Westchester, a Republican attorney in White Plains has created a campaign committee to raise money for a possible state attorney general run, according to state Board of Elections records.

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The attorney, John Sarcone, said in June that he was considering a run for attorney general. The campaign committee was created on Monday.

Already in the GOP race for attorney general is Michael Henry, a New York City commercial litigation attorney.

Democrats would be strongly favored to retain the seat. Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, may run for reelection, although she would also be a top candidate to run for governor in a field that will include incoming Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is taking over for the resigning Andrew Cuomo on August 24.

Correction: Michael Henry is a Republican running for state attorney general. His name was misstated in a version of this article published online August 18, 2021.
DENVER (AP)  The FBI said Wednesday its agents are joining a criminal investigation into an alleged security breach of a rural Colorado county's voting equipment.

The agents are working with Mesa County prosecutors to determine if there was a criminal violation, FBI spokeswoman Courtney Bernal said in a statement.

The federal probe comes after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold alerted federal cyber security officials within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security of the suspected May breach.

No elections have occurred since, and the federal officials confirmed the alleged breach posed no significant risks at this point, Griswold said earlier this week.

The allegations involve images of election management software used by Mesa County election's equipment that were obtained by conspiracy theorists.

Griswold's office said it believes one of the images was taken on May 23 from a secure room where the equipment was stored and accessed by Peters, another county elections worker and a non-employee.

Griswolds office identified the non-employee but refused to say anything more about who he is or why he was there. The Associated Press isnt naming him until more information becomes available. He has not been charged with a crime.

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters condemned Griswolds inquiry into the alleged security breach at an event last week in South Dakota hosted by My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, who has become well-known for his unwavering support of former President Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 election because of widespread fraud. A range of election officials across the country, including Trumps former attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed that widespread fraud did not occur.

Peters said Griswold's investigation is an attempt at a takeover of Mesa Countys elections in one of Colorados last Republican strongholds. Peters also alleged the investigation is an attempt by Griswold and Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis to control the way you vote," she told the South Dakota audience.

The dispute is the latest illustration of how the November 2020 election that is a distant memory for many remains front and center for some far-right Trump supporters. A Republican-led audit of Arizona ballots has been going on for months despite any evidence to support the review.

Accelerating the dispute on Wednesday, Griswold's office blasted the My Pillow chief executive as the chief misinformation spreader in a fundraising email and asked Colorado residents to donate to Griswold's reelection campaign to take action to show we stand with the truth, not with conspiracy theories created and spread by sore losers.

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The federal inquiry adds yet another layer to the political brawl between Griswold, a Democrat and Peters, a Republican. The feud came to a head last week when Griswold accused Peters of assisting in the security breach by directing staff to turn off video surveillance of its voting equipment before a May 25 software update and allowing a non-employee into the elections office at that time.

Griswold appointed Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner to supervise the countys upcoming elections and a three-person advisory committee to assist Reiner. Griswold also ordered Mesa County to replace its voting equipment due to the posting of the countys voting equipment passwords on a far-right blog.

Colorados voting system has been praised by officials, including former Trump-appointed Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, as one of the nation's safest.

The states election procedures were developed under both Republican and Democrat-appointed secretary of states.

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Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
DECATUR, Ga. (AP)  Georgia's surging coronavirus caseload is prompting new local restrictions amid ongoing opposition to mask and vaccine mandates by the governor.

The city of Decatur next to Atlanta began requiring masks inside grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses in the city on Tuesday. Decatur's ordinance does allow businesses to opt out of the requirement, but only if they post a sign at each public entrance saying they do not adhere to it.

City Commissioner Tony Powers said businesses had an incentive to comply voluntarily.

I don't want to penalize someone by saying, 'Oh, we're singling you out because you're different, he said at a meeting on Monday. But if I'm that business, I'd say, 'God, I don't really want to be singled out. I don't want to be that business.' Because people will shop where they feel safe.

The city of Athens is under a similar, voluntary mask policy for businesses. Savannah has instituted a mask requirement at city buildings, hospitals, schools and a few other places, but not businesses. Atlanta requires masks indoors and doesn't allow businesses to opt out.

In Atlanta, organizers of Dragon Con, the sci-fi, fantasy and gaming convention that draws tens of thousands of visitors to the city over Labor Day weekend every year, announced Tuesday that they will require this year's attendees to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of arrival.

Also in the Atlanta area, scores of protesters gathered in the city of Marietta on Wednesday to oppose Wellstar Health Systems vaccine requirement for employees, WSB-TV reported. Wellstar is among a number of hospital systems in the state that have mandated vaccines for staff, as have some private colleges and universities and other private employers.

Elsewhere in the state, the top judge in Georgia's Macon Judicial Circuit suspended some jury trials because of the COVID-19 surge.

Chief Judge Howard Simms has put trials in Bibb County on hold through August and will reevaluate the suspension in September, local prosecutors said Tuesday. The judicial circuit also includes Peach County, and jury trials will continue there.

The district attorney's office for the Macon circuit said it will be prepared to move forward with trials once they are deemed safe. In the meantime, it will work with defense attorneys to resolve cases involving nonviolent offenders to present them to judges for approval.

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Bibb County, like other places in Georgia, is in the midst of a surge in infections fueled by the delta variant of the virus among people who are not vaccinated. Only 42% of Georgias population is fully vaccinated, well below the national average.

Hospitals have had to put off elective surgeries and turn patients away amid a crush of COVID-19 cases not seen since a winter surge. More than 4,700 COVID patients were hospitalized statewide Wednesday, and almost 90% of intensive care beds were in use.

Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday reiterated his opposition to mask and vaccine mandates and said he had no plans to force businesses to close. He announced additional state funding for hospital staff and encouraged unvaccinated residents to talk to their doctors or others they trust about vaccines.

Georgians know the risk of this virus, and they know we have the tools at our disposal to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death," he said at a news conference.
PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday upped the pressure on the growing number of public school districts defying a state ban on mask mandates as they try to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The Republican created a $163 million school grant program using federal virus relief funds he controls, but schools that have mask mandates or have to close because of COVID-19 outbreaks won't be eligible for the additional $1,800 per student.

Safety recommendations are welcomed and encouraged  mandates that place more stress on students and families arent, Ducey said in a statement. These grants acknowledge efforts by schools and educators that are following state laws and keeping their classroom doors open for Arizonas students.

School districts with current mask mandates will have 10 days to rescind them or lose out on the money, Ducey spokesman C.J. Karamargin said. That's despite the fact that a law banning schools from enacting those rules does not go into effect for more than a month.

Ducey also created a $10 million grant program that largely mirrors the state's private school voucher program by awarding parents $7,000 for each student if their public school required isolating or quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure, or if it mandated masks or gave preferential treatment to vaccinated children.

Our COVID-19 Educational Recovery Benefit will empower parents to exercise their choice when it comes to their childs education and COVID-19 mitigation strategies, he said.

Arizona is one of eight states that have laws or executive orders banning mask requirements in public schools, with some landing in the courts. Education advocates have filed a lawsuit over Arizona's ban and several other state laws that restrict the power of local governments and school districts to impose COVID-19 requirements.

At least one other state, Florida, is giving private school vouchers to parents who say a public school districts mask-wearing requirements amount to harassment of their children.

Arizona's GOP-led Legislature this year rejected an expansion of the voucher program that now gives about 10,000 students public cash to attend private schools. Students who do not have special needs get 90% of the state funding, about $7,000 each, that would have gone to their local public school to pay for private school tuition or other costs.

The governor's moves come as an increasing number of school districts defy the provision in the newly enacted state budget that bans mask mandates and instead follow recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding face coverings. Ducey and Republicans who control the Legislature crafted the state's restrictions.

Democratic House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding said Ducey was creating his own Hunger Games" for Arizona schools with his actions.

Its a sickening irony that hes doing this by dangling millions of federally provided funds for COVID-19 relief and forcing school districts to choose between the health and safety of kids and educators, or millions in additional funding that Republicans have withheld for years," Bolding said in a statement. With the delta variant running rampant and COVID-19 cases among children on the rise, its disgusting to put a bounty on spreading this illness to kids and punishing schools that try to operate safely.

And Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in a tweet called Ducey's action the most absurdly dangerous and anti-science step (he) has taken.

Until kids under 12 have access to the vaccine, what are parents supposed to do? she asked. Just hope their kids dont get sick and end up in the ICU?

Arizona has seen coronavirus cases surge in the last six weeks, and numerous school districts have had large outbreaks. State health officials on Tuesday reported 2,661 cases and three deaths from the virus.

In all, the Arizona Department of Health Services has reported more than 970,523 cases and 18,467 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began. Fifty-four percent of the 7.1 million Arizona people living in the state have been vaccinated.

Five districts, two in metro Tucson and three in the Phoenix area, opted to require students and staff to wear masks after a judge ruled Monday that the budget law does not go into effect until Sept, 29. A teacher who filed a lawsuit challenging a mask mandate at a Phoenix district argued it took effect after lawmakers approved it in late June.

In all, at least 16 districts in Arizona are requiring students and staff to wear masks while indoors amid fears over the delta variant.

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The districts collectively account for 198,000 students and nearly 300 schools, most in Tucson and metro Phoenix. Arizona has about 1.1 million public school students.

The school board in Bullhead City in the state's northwest voted unanimously Tuesday night to instruct teachers and other school employees not to discuss their own or the children's COVID-19 vaccine status with students. Board members said such health questions belong exclusively to the students' families.

Ducey's $163 million grant program that uses American Rescue Plan funds excludes any district or charter schools that do not follow all state laws as of Aug. 27 and that don't remain open for in-person instruction for the whole school year.

The Phoenix Union High School District, which has 22 schools and about 28,000 students, was the first to defy the mask mandate ban on July 30 and was the defendant in the lawsuit. Asked for comment, a district spokesman pointed to a tweet from Superintendent Chad Gestson saying many state-level decisions are undermining efforts to safely provide in-person instruction.

Today, I am worried about our children. All 1.1 million, Gestson wrote. But as for those in our care in PXU, we will continue to prioritize their health, safety and wellness.

Karamargin said the governor's moves were not about penalizing schools that defy his will or their students, who will lose out on funding he is withholding.

"This is about sending a clear message to those schools that are not violating the law about how important it is to follow the law," Karamargin said.

Meanwhile, a western Arizona school district is considering an unorthodox proposal to ban any discussion between staff and students about vaccines and masks. The Colorado River Union High School's governing board was set to meet on the matter Tuesday night in Bullhead City. The measure would allow for disciplinary action to be taken against any district employee who speaks on anything related to vaccine status or encouraging/discouraging vaccines or mask with students.

District officials did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment. According to the district dashboard, there are 18 active COVID-19 cases across the district.

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Associated Press writers Jacques Billeaud, Terry Tang and Anita Snow contributed to this report.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Progressive Morgan Harper jumped into the race for an open U.S. Senate seat in Ohio on Wednesday, promising to turn next year's primary against U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan into another test of the left wing's strength within the Democratic party.

Harper, 38, a Stanford-educated attorney who began life in foster care, drew national attention last year for the Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-style sense of urgency she brought to a Democratic congressional race in central Ohio. Then a political newcomer, she presented veteran U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty with her stiffest competition in years, winning almost a third of the vote in Ohios young, diverse 3rd Congressional District.

A former senior policy adviser at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Harper backs the Green New Deal, reparations for African-Americans, universal child care and tuition-free public college.

She said existential threats to our democracy from the right are motivating her to run, as well as the fact that our old playbook as Democrats isn't working in Ohio.

We need to have a new fresh voice that is going to be able to mobilize the key constituencies that we need to turn out and vote  Black voters, young people, women  to flip this seat, she said in an interview. Our democracy, our climate, our communities cannot afford to lose."

She seeks the seat held by Republican Rob Portman, who cited the difficulty governing amid divisive national politics in announcing his retirement Jan. 25.

As a reminder of those divisions, participants in the crowded GOP primary to succeed Portman almost universally lambasted Senate passage last week of the $1 trillion infrastructure plan put forward by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, despite Portman's key role in its bipartisan success.

Ryan, a 10-term congressman from the blue-collar Mahoning Valley who launched his Senate bid in April, praised Portman's work on the measure, even as the House's vocal progressive coalition placed conditions on their support.

Harper drew a contrast between herself and Ryan, saying she is a Washington outsider and has consistently favored a woman's right to an abortion. Ryan, a Catholic, reversed his earlier opposition to abortion rights in 2015, citing his experience as a parent and stories shared by female constituents.

Harper's announcement for Senate comes as progressives are regrouping following a stinging loss in the Cleveland-area 11th Congressional District.

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Centrist Democrat Shontel Brown, a member of Cuyahoga County Council, defeated progressive Nina Turner in the Democratic primary with help from the Democratic party establishment, dashing the left's hopes of growing their influence in Washington.

Harper characterizes herself as a proud Democrat, perhaps drawing a contrast with Turner, whose campaign was hurt by her outspoken attacks on fellow Democrats, including Biden.

I respect and endorsed Nina Turner, but I also say that this race is very different in a number of ways, she said. One thing that we need to look at is there is a track record of progressives winning statewide in Ohio. Sherrod Brown shows that that is possible. We need to be bold and stick to our values.

The state's senior senator, the Democratic Brown is routinely ranked among the Senate's most liberal members. Brown defeated two-term incumbent Mike DeWine, now Ohio's Republican governor, to win the Senate seat in 2006. He's won reelection two subsequent times, as Republicans continue to control all other non-judicial offices statewide and majorities on the Ohio Supreme Court and in both chambers of the state Legislature.

Harper said she's continued to work on grassroots activities since losing the congressional primary, including efforts to get masks and vaccines to disadvantaged communities and organizing transportation to the polls for those who needed it.
COLONIE  Are long lines at the Albany International Airport's security checkpoint about to become a thing of the past?

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer was at the airport Wednesday to tout nearly $29 million in federal funds for airport improvements that are part of the $1 trillion infrastructure plan awaiting passage in the House of Representatives.

Schumer said the money will pay for an expansion of the terminal and improvements that should speed the process of getting into the terminal. At peak travel hours, passengers often line up out of the terminal and onto a footbridge that links the airport to one of its parking garages.

The funding is more than small peanuts because it will kick-start the airports expansion, Schumer said.

The money will make the security process easier and go toward improving the TSA checkpoint.

The region's burgeoning computer chip manufacturing industry requires a suitable airport, the senator said. GlobalFoundries just announced plans to build a second fabrication plant in Malta.

The work at the airport was part of a package of local improvements Schumer outlined Wednesday.

He said the Capital District Transportation Authority will get $113 million in funding over the next five years, plus more money to transform its fleet into "clean buses."

Schumer said the region will also get $175 million to create an electric charging network.

The massive infrastructure package is a key part of President Joseph Biden's agenda. The money would be spent across the country and used to finance highway and road improvements, expansion of broadband internet, sewer and water projects, and other public works efforts. The measure was championed in the Senate by Schumer, the Democratic majority leader. It drew overwhelming support from Democrats as well as 19 Senate Republicans who backed the measure.

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The House, which like the Senate is controlled by Democrats, has yet to take action on the measure.

The measure proposes nearly $550 billion in new spending over five years in addition to current federal authorizations for public works that will reach virtually every corner of the country  a potentially historic expenditure Biden has put on par with the building of the transcontinental railroad and interstate highway system.

Theres money to rebuild roads and bridges, and also to shore up coastlines against climate change, protect public utility systems from cyberattacks and modernize the electric grid. Public transit gets a boost, as do airports and freight rail. Most lead water pipes in America could also be replaced.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines' effectiveness is slipping.

The plan, as outlined by the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top health authorities, calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The doses could begin the week of Sept. 20.

Our plan is to protect the American people, to stay ahead of this virus, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said as the agency cited a raft of studies suggesting that the vaccines are losing ground while the highly contagious variant spreads.

People who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also probably need extra shots, health officials said. But they said they are waiting for more data.

Officials said that before any booster program starts up, the Food and Drug Administration and a CDC advisory panel would need to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an extra dose.

We have a responsibility to give the maximum amount of protection, President Joe Biden said at the White House. He added that extra doses are also the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.

The announcement came the same day the Biden administration said it would require nursing homes to mandate vaccinations for staffers in order to continue receiving federal funds. Hundreds of thousands of nursing home workers remain unvaccinated, despite the heightened risk of fatal infections among elderly residents.

Officials said it is very clear that the vaccines protection against infections wanes over time, and they noted the worsening picture in Israel, which has seen a rise in severe cases, many of them in people already inoculated.

They said the U.S. needs to get out ahead of the problem before it takes a more lethal turn here and starts leading to increasing hospitalizations and deaths among the vaccinated.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's foremost expert on COVID-19, said one of the key lessons of the coronavirus is that its better to stay ahead of it than chasing after it.

The first boosters would go to people in high-priority groups that received the initial U.S. vaccinations: nursing home residents, health workers and those with underlying health conditions. Health officials are likely to recommend that the booster be the same brand of vaccine that people received initially.

Dr. Mark Mulligan of NYUs Langone Health center welcomed the announcement, saying: Part of leadership is being able to see around the corner and make hard decisions without having all the data. It seems to me thats what theyre doing here."

Top scientists at the World Health Organization bitterly objected to the U.S. plan, noting that poor countries are not getting enough vaccine for their initial rounds of shots.

Were planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while were leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket," said Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHOs emergencies chief.

The organization's top scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, said the evidence does not show boosters are needed for everyone, and she warned that leaving billions of people in the developing world unvaccinated could foster the emergence of new variants and result in even more dire situations."

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy rejected the notion that the U.S. must choose between America and the world," saying: We clearly see our responsibility to both."

White House officials noted that the U.S. has donated 115 million doses to 80 countries, more than all other nations combined. They said the U.S. has plenty of vaccine to dispense boosters to its own population.

Israel is already offering booster shots to people over 50. And European regulators are looking into the idea.

Last week, U.S. health officials recommended a third shot for some people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients. Offering boosters to all Americans would be a major expansion of what is already the biggest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Nearly 200 million Americans have received at least one shot.

Some experts have expressed concern that calling for boosters would undermine the public health message  and reinforce opposition to the vaccine  by raising more doubts in the minds of people already skeptical about the shots effectiveness.

As for why the vaccines appear to be less effective over time at stopping infections, there are indications that the bodys immune response to the shots fades, as it does with other inoculations. But also, the vaccines simply may not protect against the delta variant as well as they do against the original virus. Scientists are still trying to answer the question.

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Officials said the eight-month timeframe was a judgment call about when vaccine protection against severe illness might fall, based on the direction of the current data. "Theres nothing magical about this number, the surgeon general said.

Nearly 20 months into the outbreak, the scourge has killed 620,000 Americans. Just weeks after the president declared the countrys independence from COVID-19 on July Fourth, emergency rooms in parts of the South and West are overloaded again, and cases are averaging nearly 140,000 per day, quadrupling in just a month.

In making its announcement, the CDC released a number of studies conducted during the delta surge that suggest that the vaccines remain highly effective at keeping Americans out of the hospital but that their ability to prevent infection is dropping markedly.

One of the studies looked at reported COVID-19 infections in residents of nearly 15,000 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. It found that the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against infection fell from about 74% in March, April and early May to 53% in June and July.

The study examined all COVID-19 infections, with or without symptoms. The researchers said more work is needed to determine if there was a higher incidence of infections that resulted in severe illness.

Another study was a look at 21 hospitals. It found that the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing COVID-19-associated hospitalizations was 86% at two to 12 weeks after the second dose, and 84% at 13 to 24 weeks after. The difference was not considered significant.

A third study, conducted in New York state, found that protection against hospitalizations stayed steady at about 95% over the nearly three months examined. But vaccine effectiveness against new laboratory-confirmed infections declined from about 92% in early May to about 80% in late July.

Also, the CDC released Mayo Clinic patient data from Minnesota that showed that in July, when the delta variant was prevalent, Moderna's vaccine was 76% effective against infection and Pfizer's 42%.

Some scientists had been looking for signs that hospitalizations or deaths are increasing, as a necessary indicator that boosters might be needed.

To some leading scientists, the new studies would not be sufficient, in and of themselves, to make the case for a booster, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases expert at Vanderbilt University and liaison to an expert advisory panel that helps the CDC form its vaccination recommendations.

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Stobbe reported from New York. Associated Press writers Carla K. Johnson in Washington state and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.

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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.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Arie Perliger, University of Massachusetts Lowell

(THE CONVERSATION) The speed and efficiency with which Taliban forces were able to complete the occupation of most of Afghanistan, as well as the quick collapse of the Afghan government, has led to criticism of President Joe Bidens decision to end U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and of the withdrawals logistics.

But the criticisms, while valid, may be beside the point. I have studied conflicts like those in Afghanistan for more than 20 years. My experience has taught me that there are more fundamental problems with the United States strategy in the 20-year war, of which the current chaos is only the latest manifestation. They stem from an approach in which military seizures of territory are intended to fight international extremist movements and ideologies, in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Nation-building is not a military strategy

U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, was initially justified by a need to dismantle immediate and serious national security threats: al-Qaida and fears of weapons of mass destruction.

However, those short-term goals were quickly replaced by a longer-term goal of preventing future threats from those countries, such as new extremist groups. That led the U.S., with other nations, to occupy both nations and attempt to provide stability and security so that the people of those countries could set up their own governments.

It may be attractive to think that promoting democracy in occupied foreign countries is a morally justified and effective path for restoring security and stability. But political reform is more successful when it originates from the local societies and political cultures. In Tunisia, for example, local political movements were able to transform their government, a success due in part to a lack of foreign involvement.

In Afghanistan, international groups like the U.N., alongside nonprofits and independent aid agencies, spent millions of dollars and untold hours of work trying to build democracy, write a constitution, create a bill of rights and otherwise create a new political society.

But this external approach, based on military occupation, was doomed to fail, according to official assessments published in 2009 by the Center for Complex Operations at the U.S. militarys National Defense University. That assessment said nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a debacle and recommended the military resume its historic focus on preparing for war.

Military organizations are not equipped or trained to engage effectively in civilian-centered missions such as fostering national identity, forming political institutions or instilling democratic practices of accountability. Promoting stability is different from promoting democracy, and stability can in fact be present even under very undemocratic governments.

The history of military interventions in places such as the West Bank and Gaza, Lebanon, Somalia and Iraq shows that when local leaders are dependent on foreign military forces to maintain power, its hard to build popular legitimacy, govern effectively and build a shared national identity.

The misuse of military power in counterterrorism

Boots-on-the-ground military forces arent good at nation-building or democracy-fostering. Nor are they good at information warfare  fighting effectively in the battlefield of ideas.

Terrorism, at its essence, is a form of symbolic but deadly violence used to communicate a political message. The conflict is not just over who controls which pieces of land, but rather whose narrative is most influential.

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In Afghanistan, decades of Western military superiority failed to uproot the Talibans ideological narrative regarding the corrupted nature of Afghan leaders and their allies and their betrayal of Islamic traditions and practices. Nor could that superiority strengthen a unified national identity that might at least partially erode tribal attachments, which were exploited so successfully by the Taliban.

And even when their forces were driven off targeted territory, both the Islamic State group and al-Qaida developed new bases and strongholdsfar from the fighting. They did this not exclusively by military force, but also through the power of their ideas and by providing an alluring alternative ideological narrative.

The correct conclusions from Afghanistan

After 20 years, the U.S. presence in Afghanistan has failed to establish any coherent and sustainable political structure with popular legitimacy. Based on that experience, and the experiences in other countries in other circumstances, there is no reason to think that a continued troop presence would change that.

Locally based political movements that seek democracy and civil liberties  in Afghanistan or elsewhere  can benefit from U.S. support, but not from military force. Forcing societies to embrace democratic practices can lead to political instability, conflict and a decline in citizens safety.

In my view, the clear conclusion from all the evidence is that military intervention should be focused on military objectives, and should not diverge into political or social engineering.

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/why-did-a-military-superpower-fail-in-afghanistan-166238.
This piece expresses the views of the author, separate from those of the Times Union.

The following editorial appeared in the New York Daily News:

Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who fancies herself a stickler for rights of personal conscience, let stand Indiana Universitys mandate requiring students be vaccinated against COVID, a sign that those straining to make principled objections to school- or employer-based immunization requirements have no legal legs to stand on. Leaders across the country must now follow the playbook of Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and leading CEOs: Demand that eligible students and workers, especially those in public-facing jobs, get the jab.

By leaving the lower ruling in place, Barrett seconded the unanimous decision of a federal appeals court in Chicago. Reagan-appointed Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote: Each university may decide what is necessary to keep other students safe in a congregate setting. Health exams and vaccinations against other diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, varicella, meningitis, influenza and more) are common requirements of higher education. Vaccination protects not only the vaccinated persons but also those who come in contact with them, and at a university close contact is inevitable. He pointed to the Supreme Courts 1905 decision upholding a Massachusetts law requiring all residents get vaccinated against smallpox or pay a fine. (Indiana, by contrast, allows for medical, religious or conscience-based objections, opening loopholes that are probably too large.)

Vaccine mandates are elementary, a basic part of the social contract, as one might explain to a kindergartener asking why mom and dad must present immunization papers to the school. But large swaths of America have somehow convinced themselves otherwise as theyve been swept away by the deadly COVID culture wars.

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So kudos to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for gearing up to impose a vaccine requirement on military personnel. To Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for doing the same for his agencys 25,000-plus employees. And to the National Education Association, the nations largest teachers union, for following American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingartens lead and backing mandates for its members.

We have a way out of COVID. Youll only feel a tiny pinch.
Farmington, WV (26555)

Today

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
ClinChoice, a leading global, midsize and rapidly growing contract research organization focused on the deliver of superior quality efficient and effective research services across the development continuum in Pharmaceutics, Vaccines, Medical Devices, Consumer Products, Cosmetics and Nutraceuticals. (PRNewsfoto/ClinChoice)
Then-gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf meets with members the Service Employees International Union after he receives their endorsement Friday, June 6, 2014, in Philadelphia.
Volunteer divers are trying to help a 19-year-old from New Hampshire find a prosthetic leg that he lost while tubing on Big Indian Pond
Condemned California killer dies of natural causes at 74

A California inmate who was convicted of killing two people in 1983 has died of natural causes while awaiting execution
[August 18, 2021] For A Bright Future Foundation Awards Global Scholarship to Marcus Lo, of California and Irasema Mendoza of Texas

MIAMI, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Marcus Lo, 20, of California, and Irasema Mendoza, 18, of Texas, have been awarded the Global Scholarship by Louis Hernandez Jr.'s Foundation For A Bright Future ("For A Bright Future", "FABF"). The award is given to outstanding young people to aid in their pursuit of higher education in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEAM) and sustainability. Louis Hernandez Jr's Foundation For A Bright is a unique 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, founded by Louis Hernandez Jr., a very successful entrepreneur and investor who grew up with the hardships of being a member of an underprivileged and underrepresented group, Hernandez understands firsthand the needs of the communities FABF Foundation supports. "For A Bright Future Foundation strives to provide equal opportunity for all aspiring young people to pursue a higher education and become productive contributors to our global community. Marcus and Irasema have very compelling stories, and we are pleased that they are focused on getting an education that will help them make a difference in their community." Said Louis Hernandez Jr., Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Foundation. Marcus Lo is attending the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a progressive master's degree in Computer Science. Lo is heavily involved in the USC Chinese American Student Association where he is the Assistant Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator. He started in 2020 a non-profit organization called Krik Krak Computer Project to provide digital literacy for elementary school students in Haiti. To dat, the organization has partnered with over 12 non-profit organizations and foundations to further their cause.



"I am so thankful to receive the Global Scholarship as it will endorse me in my entrepreneurial adventures and opportunities to come," said Marcus Lo. Irasema Mendoza is a first-generation college student and is currently attending South Texas College. Mendoza's first internship with an organization called Career Readiness and Empowerment of Women (CREW) opened her eyes to the realities of the world and inspired her to someday empower underprivileged women like her to grow in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. She dreams of someday creating a startup internship for her community that will help girls  especially those coming from ethnic and racial minorities  pursue opportunities in STEAM.

"I would like to thank For A Bright Future Foundation for allowing me to continue my education, and for granting me the opportunity to excel and become tomorrow's leader. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity and will continue to thrive, so that in the future I can provide the amazing resources they have granted me to students of color in my community," said Irasema Mendoza. "For A Bright Future Foundation targets issues that make it harder for underprivileged and underrepresented groups to have an equal chance to create a better life. It is inspiring to see so many young people who are eager to contribute to their communities and build a bright future for themselves and their loved ones. Education provides opportunities and I am confident that Irasema and Marcus will achieve many successes," said Susie Hernandez, Parent Board Representative and Scholarship Coordinator. This year the foundation received a record number of applications to review. We would like to thank Susie Hernandez, FABF Board Member and Chair of the Scholarship Committee and our volunteers for serving on the scholarship selection committee. Scholarship selection team includes: Patrick Macdonald-King , Scholarship Committee Member.

, Scholarship Committee Member. Deborah Hernandez , Scholarship Committee Member.

, Scholarship Committee Member. Monica Davis-Swallow ., Scholarship Committee Member. We also would like to thank the operational team led by Gina Rogoto, Marketing and Development Manager, for their incredible efforts to source candidates across the country and facilitate the process. Contact:

Gina Rogoto, Marketing and Development Manager

Louis Hernandez Jr.'s Foundation For A Bright Future

Email: gmr@forabrightfuturefoundation.org About Louis Hernandez Jr.'s Foundation For A Bright Future Louis Hernandez Jr's Foundation For A Bright is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting the needs of underrepresented and underprivileged children through education, healthcare, the arts, and youth leadership development. Our initiatives provide equal opportunity for all children to have the tools and opportunities to fulfill their life goals and become constructive members of our global community. For more information: https://www.forabrightfuturefoundation.org/ or follow @FABrightFuture on Twitter and Instagram. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/for-a-bright-future-foundation-awards-global-scholarship-to-marcus-lo-of-california-and-irasema-mendoza-of-texas-301357788.html SOURCE Louis Hernandez Jr.'s Foundation For A Bright Future

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[August 18, 2021] ALYI Forecasts EV Taxi Revenue Beginning This Year

Dallas, TX, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alternet Systems, Inc. (OTC Pink: ALYI) (ALYI) today announced that it expects revenue from its Electric Vehicle (EV) Taxi Business to start before the end of 2021. CEO Dr. Randell Torno recently returned to Dallas following waypoint meetings in Nairobi managing the companys ongoing EV Taxi Pilot Program. Africa has millions of motorcycles deployed as taxis or boda-bodas, and ALYI, as one part of its overall EV Ecosystem Business Strategy, is engaged in a project to replace combustion engine motorcycles with electric motorcycles. In conjunction with the EV Taxi Pilot, ALYI has an order for 2,000 electric motorcycles. Dr. Torno reported in a recent follow up to his meetings in Nairobi, I believe our pilot program is being well received by all boda-boda key parties in regard to all essential boda-boda pacing points. I am optimistic that our first electric motorcycle deployment target following the pilot can be 20,000 electric motorcycles far surpassing the 2,000 trial order we built the pilot around. I believe the number can rapidly grow from 20,000. ALYI management today indicated that it anticipates the pilot transitioning seamlessly into the fulfillment of the first electric motorcycle orders and the corresponding initiation of revenue from the fulfillment of the first orders starting this year. The company expects to refine its revenue forecast for revenue from the EV Taxi Business to a specific dollar amount within the next thirty days. ALYI has seeded an overall EV Ecosystem Business Strategy with the development of its own EV motorcycle business discussed above. Instead of introducing a single EV product, ALYIs business focus is on the introduction of an EV Ecosystem that addresses the entire EV adoption environment from the perpetual design of best in class vehicles to the perpetual design of the myriad of mechanical and digital systems that go into a best in class vehicle; from the charging and maintenance infrastructure that goes into supporting consumer and commercial vehicles, to the EV value proposition itself that drives consumers and businesses to transition from combustion engines to electric powered vehicles. Ultimately, ALYI does not intend to go it alone on the overall development and rollout of its EV Ecosystem. ALYI is building a core element into its Ecosystem that attracts, if not compels the participation of all would be brand name EV industry leaders in an annual EV symposium and conference. The EV symposium nd conference will be anchored by an EV race event in Kenya that comes with a substantial brand name.



The EV race market was valued in 2019 at over $80 billion dollars and is anticipated to grow to over $200 billion by 2025 . ALYIs EV Ecosystem is founded on building participation in an EV race event as a central component in advancing EV technology and EV branding.

ALYI has been developing a partnership with a major EV racing brand for more than two years now. Over a year ago, ALYI entered into a formal partnership agreement that includes that EV racing brand. The first milestone objectives contemplated under the agreement have been achieved and the next steps are imminent. ALYI expects the next steps to include naming the EV racing brand at which time, ALYI management anticipates ALYIs overall visibility within the global EV market to be substantially elevated. The objective of the EV symposium and conference anchored by an EV race is to advance EV technology by building EV solutions for the African market  a power constrained, rugged environment with one of the lowest per capita transportation deployments in the world. EV solutions for the African market will be applicable the world around. EV solutions designed and built in Africa also contribute to building an autonomous African economy. ALYI has designed its EV Ecosystem solution to include democratized participation. ALYI has partnered with RevoltTOKEN to finance ALYIs growth by offering participation in the EV Ecosystem through the sale of Revolt Tokens. To learn more about RevoltTOKEN and how to participate in ALYIs electric vehicle ecosystem through the purchase of Revolt Tokens, visit https://rvlttoken.com/ . ALYI plans to make a major announcement later this month regarding the EV race that management expects will garner substantial attention to ALYIs overall EV Ecosystem strategy. For more information and to stay up to date on ALYI's overall latest developments, please visit www.alternetsystemsinc.com .



Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that any of the companies mentioned herein will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the companies' contracts, the companies' liquidity position, the companies' ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur.



For more information, please visit: http://www.alternetsystemsinc.com

Alternet Systems, Inc. Contact:

Randell Torno

info@lithiumip.com

+1-800-713-0297



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[August 18, 2021] Amanda Sedliak Promoted to CSRisks President

ATLANTA, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Capitol Special Risks, a division of Specialty Program Group, LLC, announces that Amanda Sedliak will succeed Dorothea Westin as President of the specialty lines insurance brokerage firm. "Amanda Sedliak came to our company as an employee, then she had the good sense to become my protege, and finally I had the good sense to make her my sales partner. It is with tremendous pride and support that we announce her rise to President of Capitol Special Risks, a division of Specialty Program Group," said Ms. Westin of her successor. "This past year has been fraught with challenges and changes, one of the most important lessons from these changes is that prior business models are no longer relevant," explains Ms. Westin. "Adaptation and innovation are what will bring a company into the future. So, as our company innovates and adapts, we entrust our leadership to Amanda." Ms. Sedliak joined CSRisks as an Account Manager in 1998, working her way up the ranks through Director of Marketing, Vice President, and Senior Vice President to Director of Brokerage, a position she held from 2017 to the present. Prior to working with CSRisks, Ms. Sedliak worked for American International Group first as an Underwriting Assistant and then as an Underwriting Technician. In addition to earning a Bachelorof Science from Georgia Southern University, Ms. Sedliak holds her Certified Insurance Service Representative and Certified Insurance Counselor designations. She is also a Licensed Property & Casualty Agent. Ms. Sedliak is a member of the Professional Insurance Agents Association of Georgia, the Professional Liability Underwriter Society (PLUS), 1752 Club and National Association of Insurance Women.



Ms. Westin clarified that she is pleased to continue with CSRisks in a different role, saying: "There are those who will think because the baton has been passed that I will be leaving Capitol Special Risks, but that is not the case. We simply have come full circle and I will be honored to support Amanda and the company by lending my talents to both." Chris Treanor, President & CEO of Specialty Program Group, CSRisks' parent company, states that, "I am thrilled that Amanda will be CSRisks' next president. She is a talented broker and leader, and I am confident she will take the business to the next level and continue the track record of success created by Dorothea and Lynn Levinson."

About Capitol Special Risks

Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, CSRisks is a specialty lines insurance brokerage firm founded in 1991. Strong relationships with quality Professional Liability & Management Liability insurers and access to a diverse group of specialty markets willing to consider both traditional and unique exposures benefits insurance agents who are looking for quality coverage for their insureds. For more information, please visit www.csrisks.com. About Specialty Program Group

Headquartered in Summit, NJ, Specialty Program Group is a fully licensed holding company established to acquire and scale best-in-class insurance underwriting facilities and specialty brokerage businesses throughout North America. SPG has 12 portfolio companies and is over one billion in premium. For more information, please visit www.specialtyprogramgroup.com. CONTACT:

Media: Chris Lamitola

Phone: 908-790-6749

christopher.lamitola@specialtyprogramgroup.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amanda-sedliak-promoted-to-csrisks-president-301357413.html SOURCE Specialty Program Group

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[August 18, 2021] Beavercreek to be Ohio's Next MetroNet Gigabit City

MetroNet today announced plans to build a fiber optic network in Beavercreek, Ohio, bringing symmetrical Gigabit speed internet to the area. Evansville, IN.-based, MetroNet is the largest independently owned, 100 percent fiber optic platform in North America. MetroNet will invest up to $15 million to fully fund a network that will bring fiber-to-the-home broadband services directly to residents and businesses across the city and surrounding areas. The City of Beavercreek project represents MetroNet's 11th city build in Ohio. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005226/en/ "The City of Beavercreek is excited to welcome MetroNet to the community," said Pete Landrum, City Manager. "MetroNet's presence in Beavercreek will bring more competition to the area and offer residents and business owners additional options when choosing an internet, TV and phone provider." MetroNet builds and manages state-of-the-art fiber optic networks connected directly to homes and businesses in more than 100 communities across 12 states. The fast-growing company is known for reliable and symmetrical high-speed internet connections, friendly service and fair pricing with no long-term contracts. MetroNet anticipates that the nearly two-year construction plan will begin this fall. "MetroNet is proud to add Beavercreek to our growing list of Gigabit Cities across Ohio and the United States. We appreciate the opportunity to serve even more Ohio residents and business owners," said John Cinelli, MetroNet CEO. "We are grateful that Mayor Bob Stone and the business friendly community saw the value of provider choices and understand the impact of high speed broadband on the economic growth of their community. As the nation's largest and fastest growing, independently owned fiber optic company, we understand the importance of providing our Gigabit Cities with symmetrical and reliable high-speed broadband services." Other Ohio communities MetroNet services include Englewood, Huber Heights, Tipp City, Toledo, Covington, Troy, Union, Vandalia, West Milton and Clayton. Residents and businesses that are interested in MtroNet services may visit MetroNetInc.com to indicate interest and receive updates on construction throughout their community. MetroNet plans to have a storefront location in Beavercreek to serve as the command center for customer service and sales.



In new MetroNet markets, residents receive communication by mail about construction activity in their neighborhood 30 days prior to starting and the company provides additional messaging, such as yard signs, to let residents know when the temporary construction process is beginning in their neighborhood. MetroNet crews are marked by ID tags and branded vehicles. Additionally, MetroNet plans to hire local market management positions, sales and customer service professionals, and service technicians to support the Beavercreek area. For those interested in joining the MetroNet team, visit metronetinc.com/careers to search available positions and submit applications.

About MetroNet: MetroNet is the nation's largest independently owned, 100 percent Fiber Optic Company headquartered in Evansville, Indiana. The customer-focused company provides cutting-edge fiber optic communication services, including high-speed Fiber Internet, full-featured Fiber Phone (News - Alert) , and Fiber IPTV with a wide variety of programming. MetroNet started in 2005 with one fiber optic network in Greencastle, Indiana, and has since grown to serving and constructing networks in more than 100 communities across Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, and Wisconsin. MetroNet is committed to bringing state-of-the-art telecommunication services to communities - services that are comparable or superior to those offered in large metropolitan areas. MetroNet has been named in the top 50 small and medium companies on Glassdoor and has been honored with a Glassdoor Employees' Choice Award recognizing MetroNet among the Best Places to Work in 2020. MetroNet has been recognized by PC Mag as one of the Top 10 Fastest ISPs in North Central United States in 2020 and Top 10 ISPs with Best Gaming Quality Index in 2021. Broadband Now has recognized MetroNet as the Top 3 Fastest Internet Providers and Fastest Fiber Providers in the Nation in 2020, and #1 Fastest Mid-Sized Internet Provider in two states in 2020. In 2020, MetroNet was awarded the Vectren Energy Safe Digging Partner Award from Vectren. For more information, visit www.MetroNetinc.com. About the City of Beavercreek: The City of Beavercreek is a fast-growing community located in the Miami Valley. The city encompasses 27.7 square miles with an estimated population of 47,741 people, and has become a sustained benchmark for successful economic growth within the Dayton region. While the Beavercreek area was first settled in the early 1800s, the city itself was incorporated in 1980. Beavercreek is home to The Mall at Fairfield Commons, The Greene Town Center, numerous research and manufacturing firms, along with many businesses and wonderful residential neighborhoods. Visit beavercreekohio.gov for more information. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005226/en/

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[August 18, 2021] BlueVoyant Hires Two High-Powered Industry Executives to Accelerate Hypergrowth

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BlueVoyant , a cybersecurity company, today announced two high-impact appointments to its executive team, who will lead the company's drive for aggressive growth. Paul 'PK' Kleinschnitz, most recently Chief Sales Officer at Coalfire, and Jason Thompson, previously CMO and COO at threat intelligence firm, IntSights, join the company as Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, respectively. PK brings an outstanding twenty-year track record of leading sales, channels, marketing, and business development functions, to accelerate organizations from tens of millions in revenue to hundreds of millions. He will spearhead all commercial operations at BlueVoyant. Jason's fifteen-year history of building rapid-growth companies by developing and managing high-performing teams at scale will be invaluable as he takes charge of marketing and sales development at BlueVoyant, working closely with PK to deliver rapid growth. "We have seen triple-digit growth every year since we founded the company in 2017," said Jim Rosenthal, CEO at BlueVoyant. "By bringing PK and Jason on board we are adding proven revenue leaders to the team that have the skills and capabilities to drive the business higher and faster than ever before. I am very excited about our growth, and we are seeing stronger market tailwinds pushing us forward." More About Paul Kleinschnitz Before joining BlueVoyant, PK served as the Chief Sales Officer at Coalfire and drove the company to massive growth numbers. Coalfire was acquired in April 2021 by a leading private equity firm. Before joining Coalfire, PK was the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cyber Security Solutions at First Data and has held key sales leadership positions at RSA Security and EMC Corporation. PK holds a Bachelor of Science from Oklahoma Christian University. "I see the potential for BlueVoyant to become the leading player in the supply chain cyber risk management, managed detection and response, and cloud-based managed security services spaces," said PK. "The rapidly evolving threat landscape is placing exponential pressure on CISOs and security teams to manage risk across their business and within their third-party partner ecosystem. rom nation-state-sponsored threat actors to criminal syndicates distributed across the globe, we are seeing a spike in cyber activity. At the same time, digital transformation is pushing everything to the cloud and third-party providers, meaning there is no longer a perimeter in the traditional sense. Now, companies have to evolve their security practices to meet these new challenges and BlueVoyant is leading that charge."



More About Jason Thompson Jason will be reporting directly into PK and comes to BlueVoyant from IntSights, a leading threat intelligence company that was acquired in July 2021 by Rapid7. There he was COO and CMO for the company and was responsible for accelerating growth in the red-hot external threat intelligence space. Before that, Jason held CMO and marketing leadership roles for several hypergrowth companies including SecurityScorecard, NS1, SSH Communications Security, and Q1 Labs. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Colorado State University and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

"The reason I joined BlueVoyant is that the combination of the people, process, and technology blows everyone else out of the water," said Jason. "With a market that is seeing massive demand due to the increase in cyberattacks, like ransomware, impacting businesses of every type and size, BlueVoyant is poised for tremendous growth. With security teams having, on average, eighty-plus cybersecurity tools in their stack, they don't need yet another tool or partial solution, they need complete capabilities that solve a security problem and that is exactly what BlueVoyant does." For more information about BlueVoyant's products and services please visit BlueVoyant.com or one of our solutions pages: Splunk Security Services

Third-Party Cyber Risk Management

Microsoft Security

Managed Security

Digital Risk Protection

Professional Services About BlueVoyant At BlueVoyant, we recognize that effective cybersecurity requires active prevention and defense across both your organization and supply chain. Our proprietary data, analytics, and technology, coupled with deep expertise, works as a force multiplier to secure your full ecosystem. Accuracy. Actionability. Timeliness. Scalability. Founded in 2017 by former Fortune 500 and former government cyber officials, BlueVoyant is headquartered in New York City and has offices in Maryland, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, Manila, Toronto, London, Latin America, and Budapest. Visit www.bluevoyant.com . BlueVoyant Press Contacts:

Danielle Ostrovsky (Americas)

Hi-Touch PR

T: 001 410-302-9459

E: ostrovsky@hi-touchpr.com Jim Pople (EMEA)

C8 Consulting

T: +44 7955 030191

E: jim@c8consulting.co.uk View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bluevoyant-hires-two-high-powered-industry-executives-to-accelerate-hypergrowth-301357894.html SOURCE BlueVoyant

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[August 18, 2021] CANOPY Management Wins Prestigious Stevie Award for Business Services Startup of the Year

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CANOPY Management , the full-service Amazon agency that helps brands scale their business and gain market share, announced today that the American Business Association has awarded CANOPY a 2021 Stevie Award for Business Services Startup of the Year. The award program, which attracts thousands of applicants every year, considers revenue, growth and customer satisfaction among its criteria.

We love to help our partners launch and operate dynamic, successful businesses on Amazon, said Brian Burt, CEO of CANOPY Management. The Stevies are a comprehensive, prestigious program, and we appreciate this recognition of our teams continuous strategic efforts to raise our partners revenue. CANOPY Management helps third-party sellers on Amazon optimize their product listings and digital advertising in order to increase revenue and efficiency. In the last year, CANOPY partners saw on average an 84% profit growth year-over-year and a 38% average increase in conversions on their Amazon traffic. u>Forbes, Bloomberg , AdExchanger , and DigitalCommerce360 , among other publications, have looked to CANOPY CEO Brian Burt for Amazon expertise.



The pandemic cemented Amazons position as the worlds largest ecommerce retailer and a leader in digital advertising, and brands that have yet to optimize for Amazon are missing out on massive revenue streams, Burt said. This Stevie Award demonstrates the rewards that sellers and advertisers can expect on Amazon if they work with an agency as knowledgeable and committed as CANOPY. CANOPY Management offers full-service Amazon listing optimization for partners, along with PPC, campaign management and strategic planning. With the launch of Amazon DSP, CANOPY partners can reach consumers anywhere on the internet with campaigns that drive traffic to Amazon itself or owned-and-operated ecommerce websites. CANOPYs PPC Ad Specialists are all seasoned Amazon sellers who are trained to spot opportunities and potential issues that the algorithms miss using an industry-leading optimization process developed by globally-recognized leaders in Amazon PPC advertising.

About CANOPY Management

A full-service Amazon marketing agency, CANOPY Management is the driving force behind many of the most successful brands on Amazon. CEO and Co-Founder Brian Burt is leading the companys growth and expansion into new markets. CANOPY was recognized as a Great Place to Work in March 2021, and recently received a Stevie for Startup of the Year. Visit us at https://canopymanagement.com . PRESS CONTACT

Bill Brazell

bill@broadsheetcomms.com

917-445-7316



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[August 18, 2021] Dodds Wealth Management Group Chooses Commonwealth for Its Return to Independence

Commonwealth Financial Network, a national firm dedicated to providing advisor-focused business solutions, announces the addition of Dodds Wealth Management Group to its network of independent financial advisors. Formerly with Raymond James, financial advisors Charles D. Dodds Jr., CFP, CLU, ChFC, CIMA (News - Alert), and Adrian F. Dodds, CFP, along with Tarah R. McKenzie, the firm's financial planning and operations analyst, bring more than 50 years of experience in financial planning, with approximately $122 million in total client assets. With the firm's return to the independent channel, Dodds Wealth Management Group will remain true to its mission of providing personalized planning needs to a diverse group of individuals, families, and business owners. The firm will continue to offer a comprehensive array of planning solutions to its clients, from retirement to risk management, charitable gifting, and beyond. To support their independent business, Charles Dodds and Adrian Dodds looked for a firm partner where service came first, one that would allow them to continue to build the strong relationships they have with their clients. To learn more about the El Paso, Texas, firm, visit https://www.doddswmg.com. "The relationships that we have with our clients are realy family like. We're private and locally owned. When we're building a financial plan, we get to know our clients' family, their children, and their grandchildren. We socialize with a lot of our clients, we see everybody around, we're well known in the community," said Charles Dodds. "Partnering with Commonwealth will allow us to help the clients we want to help, the way we want to help them."



Dodds Wealth Management Group will take advantage of Commonwealth's flexibility and advisor-centric business solutions that prioritize the needs of advisors as independent business owners. "The exciting thing about going independent is that we can structure our business specifically for our clients. Instead of being told how our dollars will be put to work, we can now customize our practice to meet the specific needs of our clients," said Adrian Dodds. "We're thrilled to welcome Dodds Wealth Management Group to independence," said Andrew Daniels, Commonwealth's managing principal, business development. "We're honored they chose Commonwealth as their firm partner, especially because of our shared commitment to providing meaningful, high-touch service."

Daniels added, "Trust is the cornerstone to a good relationship, and we're honored to have earned theirs. We look forward to supporting them as business owners and valued partners as they explore niche clients, grow their marketing reach, and enjoy the freedom of serving their clients as they see fit." About Commonwealth Financial Network Commonwealth Financial Network, Member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser, provides a suite of business solutions that empowers more than 2,000 independent financial advisors nationwide. J.D. Power ranks Commonwealth "#1 in Independent Advisor Satisfaction Among Financial Investment Firms, Eight Times in a Row." Privately held since 1979, the firm has headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, and San Diego, California. Learn more about Commonwealth by visiting www.commonwealth.com. Commonwealth received the highest score in the independent advisor segment of the J.D. Power 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Financial Advisor Satisfaction Studies of customers' satisfaction among financial advisors. Visit jdpower.com/awards. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005468/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Futurex Announces Futurex Virtual Summit 2021; Four Thursdays in September

BULVERDE, Texas, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Futurex, a leader in hardened, enterprise-class data security solutions, today announced the Futurex Virtual Summit 2021, to be held four Thursdays in September: September 9, September 16, September 23, and September 30, 2021. The Futurex Virtual Summit 2021 is a cryptographic-packed event  brought to you from deep in the Heart of Texas  with industry discussions, guest speakers, and technology announcements. Sessions will be held in English and in Spanish. Free registration: https://futurex-summit.com/. The Futurex Virtual Summit 2021 features a full lineup of sessions, with the brightest minds in enterprise cryptography. Attendees can schedule one-on-one crypto strategy sessions in advance with Futurex executives and solutionsarchitects. The full presentation schedule is here.



Many technical sessions can be submitted for CPE/CEU credit for (ISC) or CompTIA certifications. Topics include: A special CryptoHub technology announcement: Evolving Your Enterprise Cryptographic Services

The Art of Designing Next-Generation HSM Ecosystems

Maturing an Enterprise's Key Management Infrastructure

Blazing New Trails in Data Privacy with Google Client-Side Encryption and Encryption Key Management

PCI Compliance Meets Cloud Payment HSMs: What You Should Know

Introduction to Remote Key Loading for Verifone

A Post-Quantum Future: Enterprise Code Signing

An Insider's Guide to Moving Payment Applications to the Cloud

The Future of Contactless Payments: CPoC

Securing Cars, Rockets, and Slot Machines: IoT Key Management Best Practices "It's a very exciting time for mission-critical data security," said Ryan Smith, vice president, global business development at Futurex. "At the Summit, we'll unveil new concepts in enterprise cryptography and share insights to help organizations reinforce and redefine their cybersecurity strategies. Welcome to Texas, y'all  home to longhorns, cowboys, Latin culture, technology, and Futurex innovation. Join us (virtually) in September!"

For more information and to register, visit https://futurex-summit.com/. Summit information will be regularly updated on social media via #FuturexSummit2021. About Futurex For more than 40 years, Futurex has been a trusted provider of hardened, enterprise-class data security solutions. More than 15,000 organizations worldwide, including financial services providers and corporate enterprises, have used Futurex's innovative hardware security modules, key management servers, and enterprise-class cloud solutions to address their mission-critical systems, data security, and cryptographic needs. This includes the secure encryption, storage, transmission, and certification of sensitive data. For more information, please visit futurex.com. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/futurex-announces-futurex-virtual-summit-2021-four-thursdays-in-september-301357856.html SOURCE Futurex

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[August 18, 2021] HilltopSecurities Strengthens Footprint, Adds Key Professionals to Public Finance Division

Hilltop Securities Inc. (HilltopSecurities) recently welcomed a pair of key financial services leaders to its Public Finance division in Florida and Minnesota. John Pellicci will serve as senior managing director, head of municipal high yield underwriting and sales, while Yaffa Rattner will serve as senior managing director, head of municipal credit in the firm's Public Finance division. The two bring a combined 67 years of financial services experience to HilltopSecurities' team of financial professionals and will report to Todd Bleakney, senior managing director, co-head of Debt Capital Markets. "John and Yaffa will be wonderful additions to our Public Finance division," said Bleakney. "They are both seasoned professionals and will only enhance our ability to serve our clients. I look forward to working with them." "With the addition of Yaffa and John, we continue to strengthen our capital markets effort across our platform," said Mike Bartollota, Executive Managing Director, Co-Head of Public Finance/Debt Capital Markets at HilltopSecurities. "We are delighted to have such talented and experienced professionals join our team." About John Pellicci

Pellicci brings 35 years of financial services experience to his role with HilltopSecurities. He joins the firm's St. Paul office from Piper Sandler, where he served as managing director for the entirety of his career.



"HilltopSecurities continues to add depth to its high-yield municipal platform, and I am excited to join the team," Pellicci said. "My experience, talents, and abilities are a great fit. I look forward to contributing to the firm." Pellicci received a bachelor's degree in economics from St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

About Yaffa Rattner

Rattner joins HilltopSecurities' Boca Raton office bringing nearly three decades of experience in the high yield sector including senior living, charter schools, and special districts. Prior to joining Hilltop, Rattner spent 13 years as managing director, head of municipal credit at Piper Sandler and 12 years at Moody's Investor Service. In addition, she spent several years as a banker focusing on fiscally challenged credits and head of surveillance for a former AAA bond insurer. "It's an honor to join HilltopSecurities," Rattner said. "I'm excited to be a part of its public finance platform and work with the Hilltop team to create uniquely tailored, well executed capital solutions for its issuer and investor clients." Rattner received a bachelor's degree from Barnard College of Columbia University and a master's degree with a concentration in Public Finance from Columbia University. About Hilltop Securities Inc.

Hilltop Securities Inc. delivers forthright advice and tailored solutions for municipal issuers, institutions, broker-dealers, and individuals. The full-service municipal investment bank and registered investment adviser is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with offices across the United States. Areas of focus include public finance; municipal and taxable fixed income underwriting, sales, and trading; retail brokerage services; securities clearing; structured finance; and securities lending. A wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH), HilltopSecurities' affiliates include Momentum (News - Alert) Independent Network Inc., PlainsCapital Bank, and PrimeLending. Learn more at www.HilltopSecurities.com. Member: NYSE/FINRA/SIPC. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005149/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Inc. Magazine Recognizes eVisit as One of America's Fastest Growing Companies

PHOENIX, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- eVisit, the leading virtual care platform for national healthcare providers, was recognized today as one of America's fastest growing companies in 2021, ranking no. 2,300 on the prestigious Inc. 5000 List. This list is a selection of the most dynamic privately held firms in the U.S. and rankings reflect revenue growth rates across the past three-year period, 2017-2020. Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft and Patagonia, among other prominent companies and household brand names, have gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. On the 2021 Inc. 5000 List, eVisit ranks no. 304 among software firms, no. 49 among the firms from Arizona, no. 47 for those based in the Phoenix metro area and no. 5 for software firms based in the Grand Canyon State. "The eVisit team is honored to be named to this impressive lineup," said Bret Larsen, Co-Founder and CEO, eVisit. "eVisit is on a mission to simplify healthcare delivery to everyone, everywhere. Across the past few years, we have been seeing the demand for virtual care skyrocketing as health systems are racing to improve their patient care offerings with our distinct end-to-end, enterprise-grade user-friendly platform. This national recognition is a direct reflection of the hard work of our team members and our team's dedication to our customer's success  delivering virtual care operational excellence and continued innovation with our eVisit platform and Virtual Care Maturity Model." The pandemic ignited Virtual Care as providers rushed to put in place capabilities to safely and efficiently deliver patient care. As the healthcare industry rapidly evolves to continue to incorporate remote patient care with a drive toward hybrid care models, eVisit enjoys strong growth and customer success. eVisit's unique consultative approach enables health systems to leverage the power of Virtual Care to improve clinical workflows, reduce costs, drive revenue and enhance population health. A key element of eVisit's strategy is its proprietary Virtual Care Maturity Model, a benchmarking system and operational excellence program that helps healthcare organizations (HCOs) expand their Virtual Care programs enterprise-wide. "Within the last year, we've seen large-scale HCO customers deploy Virtual Care across practice groups such as primary care, urgent care and mental health, quickly expand to more specialties and see a three-fold return on their investment," said Larsen. Companies listed in the Inc. 5000 have demonstrated outstanding performance and proved to be especially resilient given 2020's unprecedented challenges. Among the 5000, the average median three-year growth rate soared to 543 percent, and median revenue reached $11.1 million. Together, those companies added more than 610,000 jobs over the past three years. "The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we've lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people." To learn more about eVisit's vision and solution offering or to join the firm's mission-driven organization, visit the links below: What will healthcare look like in the year 2050? Watch this presentation from eVisit's Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer and on-staff futurist, Miles Romney .

from eVisit's Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer and on-staff futurist, . Request a Consult of the eVisit virtual care platform and get connected with a Virtual c=Care Consultant.

of the eVisit virtual care platform and get connected with a Virtual c=Care Consultant. Join the team of healthtech innovators in sales, marketing, product development, engineering and more.



www.inc.com/inc5000 . Click to Tweet .@eVisit is among fastest growing American companies with first-time appearance on Inc. 5000 List. Learn More: https://blog.evisit.com/virtual-care-blog/evisit-first-time-on-inc-5000-list

About eVisit

eVisit simplifies healthcare delivery with its market-leading virtual care platform. With eVisit, healthcare organizations can deliver faster, more accessible virtual care using their own network of providers, regardless of specialty. eVisit works seamlessly across enterprise service lines and departments to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and boost revenue. Based in Mesa, Ariz., eVisit helps healthcare organizations, including the largest systems in the U.S., innovate and succeed in today's changing healthcare market. Its unique operational excellence program, the eVisit Virtual Care Maturity Model, includes a benchmarking system and educational workshops across six foundational areas to help ensure customer success. eVisit is the only Leader in the Forrester Wave: Virtual Care Platforms in Digital Health, Q1 2021, and is a Representative Vendor in the Gartner 2020 Market Guide for Virtual Care. Get your complimentary copy of the Forrester Report here and the Gartner Report here . For more information, visit evisit.com . Inc. 5000 Methodology

Companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2017 to 2020. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2017. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2020. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2017 is $100,000; the minimum for 2020 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There was one tie on this year's Inc. 5000. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000 . About Inc. Media

The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including web sites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Vision Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com . For more information on the Inc. 5000 Vision Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/ . Media: inquiries@evisit.com or Mardi Larson, 612.384.4383. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inc-magazine-recognizes-evisit-as-one-of-americas-fastest-growing-companies-301357994.html SOURCE eVisit

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[August 18, 2021] The Justice for Greenwood Foundation Requests Formal Investigation of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by the US Department of Justice

The Justice for Greenwood Foundation, the three living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP (SRZ), local Black elected officials and community activists, and a team of civil and human rights lawyers, including Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, Nicole Austin-Hillery of Human Rights Watch, Damon T. Hewett of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Angela Rye, have sent a letter to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ"), requesting a formal investigation into the Massacre. The Justice for Greenwood Foundation ("J4G") is a 501(c)(3) organization that seeks truth, justice, and reparations for the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. J4G has broad support among the Tulsa Race Massacre Descendants community and has several partnerships with national civil rights organizations, such as Color of Change, Equal Justice Institute, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The letter is the J4G's latest action to help provide healing and justice to the survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Pursuant to the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, together with its 2016 Reauthorization, the letter asks that the DOJ conduct a meaningful and objective investigation into the Massacre that will provide overdue transparency into the City of Tulsa's handling of the Massacre's aftermath and answer the questions that have long gone unresolved, as the City has long failed to adequately conduct an investigation and prosecute those responsible. "In this letter, we are calling on the Department of Justice to bring theindependence of the federal government to Tulsa to help heal the century-old wounds left by the Massacre," said Damario Solomon-Simmons, Founder and Executive Director of J4G.



In late 2020, over 30 coffins were found in unmarked graves, which included the skeletal remains of a Black man with multiple gunshot wounds to his head and shoulder, where witnesses reported seeing mass graves following the Massacre. Despite the strong objection from Massacre survivors, descendants, and community-led Tulsa Mass Graves Oversight Committee, the City of Tulsa abruptly reburied the bodies without delivering an investigative report into the deaths or allowing for the remains to receive a proper community-led burial ceremony. To ensure the deaths of the Massacre victims whose remains are found are properly and thoroughly investigated, J4G is calling on the Department of Justice to act as a neutral, third-party investigator and to take over the search and investigation, as well as provide answers and findings that the Massacre survivors, descendants of the Massacre, and the rest of the public, can trust. On May 31, 1921, one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history completely decimated Tulsa's thriving, all-Black community of Greenwood. A large white mob, including members of the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Department, and the Oklahoma National Guard, as well as other city and county leaders, overwhelmed the approximately 40-square-block community, killing hundreds of Black residents, injuring thousands more, burning down over one thousand homes and businesses and stealing residents' personal property.

In May 2021, Human Rights Watch published a follow up to their groundbreaking May 2020 report on the Case for Reparations in Tulsa, reporting on the failure of the City of Tulsa and the Centennial Commission to support the survivors' demands for justice. Read the full letter here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005588/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Kleiner Perkins, Tiger Global Lead Series B Investment in Rapid Robotics

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rapid Robotics , creator of the first ready-to-work robotic machine operator, today announced $36.7M in Series B funding led by Kleiner Perkins and Tiger Global, with existing investors NEA, Greycroft, Bee Partners and 468 Capital also participating. The latest round is Rapids third in less than a year, bringing its total funding to $54.2M. Since emerging from stealth in late 2020, Rapid Robotics has quickly established itself as a must-take meeting for American manufacturers, as they grapple with a crippling labor shortage that COVID-19 turned into a full-blown crisis. According to a recent study from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, by the end of 2020 the manufacturing industry had regained only 63% of jobs lost during the pandemic, even with job openings at near-record levels. Given the foundational role the manufacturing sector plays in our nations economy, it is deeply concerning that at a time when jobs are in such high demand nationwide, the number of vacant entry-level manufacturing positions continues to grow, Paul Wellener, Deloitte vice chairman and U.S. industrial products and construction leader, said in a statement accompanying the study. Most of these open positions are for machine operators, the employees who work the machines that mold, stamp and assemble components for every product we buy. Without operators, these simple plastic and glass parts cannot be made. Without those components, entire factories sit idle. We hear a lot about the semiconductor shortage, but thats just the tip of the iceberg. Contract manufacturers cant produce gaskets, vials, labelsyou name it. Ive seen cases where the inability to produce a single piece ofU-shaped black plastic brought an entire auto line to a halt, said Jordan Kretchmer, CEO of Rapid Robotics.



Rapids solution is the Rapid Machine Operator (RMO), the worlds first cobot specially designed and priced for machine operation. Previous robotics solutions were too expensive for machine-tending tasks. Between hardware, software, integration and maintenance, they wound up costing more than they saved. The Rapid Robotics RMO, by contrast, arrives trained and ready to perform the most common machine-tending tasks. Rapids RMO comes with all necessary components, including grippers and computer vision, can be put to work in hours (typical robotics solutions take weeks or even months) and can be easily transferred between tasks as needed, no retraining necessary. With Rapids OpEx-friendly subscription model, factories can hire an RMO for less than $2,100 per month, a small fraction of the cost of conventional robotics, bringing automation within reach of manufacturers of all sizes.

"Until now, only the largest facilities could benefit from robotic automation, said Griffin Schroeder, Partner, Tiger Global. But most manufacturing in America is done in smaller factories, which have been deeply challenged by the machine operator shortage. For them, the Rapid Machine Operator provides the additional support they need to thrive. Manufacturers appreciate how the Rapid Machine Operator delivers positive ROI from day-one, but the value for regional producers goes far beyond that, said Rapid Robotics Midwest GM Aaron Halonen, an auto-industry veteran with decades of experience in design, engineering and quality control. Factories around here are in a tough spot, Halonen said. Without a way to work their machines, they cant bid on jobs. No bidding means no business. No business means no revenue, obviously. But it also means no hiring or upskilling in other positions. It has a ripple effect on the entire economy. I had one factory manager grab me on my way out. He said, You know, we were going to manufacture these parts in Mexico, but with the RMO I think we dont have to, he added. Its not just the auto industry either. Manufacturers across America are racing to put Rapids RMOs in place. Next-generation healthcare infrastructure company Truepill has hired RMOs at its Hayward, California facility to fill and label prescription vials. At Truepill, we work behind the scenes to help companies build and power more advanced, efficient and automation-driven pharmacies, fulfilling up to 100,000 prescriptions per day and creating customized, white-labeled experiences delivered directly to consumers doors," said Matthew Alley, Head of Fulfillment and Supply Chain at Truepill. Rapid is helping us further scale these fulfillment capabilities by providing RMOs that are easy to set up and integrate seamlessly with our staff." With the RMO, Rapid Robotics has come up with the right product at the right time, said Wen Hsieh, General Partner at Kleiner Perkins. Rapid Robotics pinpointed an urgent problem in a multi-billion-dollar industry and solved it in a matter of months. Theyve found the perfect balance of innovation, affordability and ease of implementation and use. Since we launched the RMO Ive been meeting several manufacturers a week, and its clear to me that in every part of the country, this industry is ready for a comeback, Kretchmer said. With the RMO, our customers are ramping up, winning deals and hiring staff. Together, were bringing back American manufacturing one machine at a time. About Rapid Robotics Rapid Robotics is the creator of the first affordable robotic machine operator (RMO) designed for simple machine tasks. Available for just $25K a year and requiring absolutely no programming, systems integration, specialized hardware or robotics skills, the Rapid Machine Operator enables manufacturers to easily deploy a pre-trained cobot in hours, moving it between tasks as needed and seeing ROI in months. Rapid Robotics founding team combines robotics and manufacturing expertise with a SaaS business model to deliver affordable solutions to real-world industry problems. Investors include Tiger Global, Kleiner Perkins, NEA, Greycroft, Bee Partners and 468 Capital. Rapid Robotics is based in San Francisco, California. Media contact

Chris Ulbrich

rapidrobotics@firebrand.marketing

415 848 9175



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[August 18, 2021] Mydecine Innovations Group signs five-year Master Collaboration Research Agreement with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

DENVER, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mydecine Innovations Group (NEO: MYCO) (OTC: MYCOF) announces it has signed a five-year research agreement with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, with research to be led by Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Matthew W. Johnson, Ph. D. The Johns Hopkins Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit has extensive experience conducting clinical research related to therapeutic use of psychedelics.

Mydecine CEO Josh Bartch said, We are excited to expand on the current work we are conducting with Dr. Matt Johnson and his team at JHU in regards to smoking cessation to include numerous other projects over the next five years. The researchers at JHU have proven their incredible depth of knowledge in the field. The long-term potential of this research agreement is captivating for us here at Mydecine, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Mydecine, Rob Roscow, stated. It demonstrates our commitment to advancing psychedelic medicine by exploring multiple molecules and medicines for a variety of indications. This agreement allows Johns Hopkins University and Mydecine to further collaborate to advance research, on novel psychedelic therapies to treat mental health and addiction disorders. Despite the recent attention to opiate and dependance on other illicit substances, we sometimes forget about the incredible burden that nicotine dependence has on our societies, said Dr. Rakesh Jetly, Chief Medical Officer, Mydecine. According to the CDC, cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, killing more than 480,000 Americans each year. Despite all the public education and dire warnings, cigarette smoking remains one of the most difficult addiction to treat and contributes to more deaths than all the other substances combined, making research like this vital. About Mydecine Innovations Group

Mydecine Innovations Group (NEO:MYCO) (OTC:MYCOF) (FSE:0NFA) is an emerging biotech and life sciences company dedicated to developing and commercializing innovative solutions for treating mental health problems and enhancing vitality. The companys world-renowned medcal and scientific advisory board is building out a robust R&D pipeline of nature-sourced psychedelic-assisted therapeutics, novel compounds, therapy protocols, and unique delivery systems. Mydecine has exclusive access to a full cGMP certified pharmaceutical manufacturing facility with the ability to import/export, cultivate, extract/isolate, and analyze active mushroom compounds with full government approval through Health Canada. Mydecine also operates out of a state-of-the-art mycology lab in Denver, CO to focus on genetic research for scaling commercial cultivation of rare (non-psychedelic) medicinal mushrooms.



Learn more at: https://www.mydecine.com/ and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For more information, please contact:

Media Contact

Courtney Ryan

LS2group

cryan@ls2group.com

515-770-4823 Investor Contacts

Charles Lee, Investor Relations

corp@mydecineinc.com

1-720-277-9879 Allison Soss / Erika Kay

KCSA Strategic Communications

myco@kcsa.com

1-212-896-1267 On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Joshua Bartch, Chief Executive Officer contact@mydecineinc.com For further information about Mydecine Innovations Group, Inc., please visit the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or visit the Companys website at www.mydecine.com . This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws regarding the Company and its business, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect managements current expectations and assumptions. Often but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as expect, intends, anticipated, believes or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements reflect managements current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, without limitation, risks regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability and continuity of financing, the ability of the Company to adequately protect and enforce its intellectual property, the Companys ability to bring its products to commercial production, continued growth of the global adaptive pathway medicine, natural health products and digital health industries, and the risks presented by the highly regulated and competitive market concerning the development, production, sale and use of the Companys products. 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. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation.





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[August 18, 2021] Near Accelerates Momentum in the Travel and Tourism Industry with Record-Breaking Customer Additions and Revenue Growth

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Near , the leading privacy-led source of intelligence on people and places, today announced it has achieved significant growth across revenue, customer adoption, and strategic partnerships in the travel industry. As a result, the company generated 142 percent growth in year-over-year revenue in 2020. Near also saw over 40x increase in its customer base since 2018underscoring worldwide demand for its data intelligence solutions. "Tourism has been one of the fastest growing industries in the last few years, but its historical growth was brought to a halt amid the pandemic," said Anil Mathews, CEO, Near. "Because this event is unique in our history, with changes happening on a daily / weekly basis, many of the world's top travel and tourism organizations are turning to Near's curated people and places data to build back better from the crisis, and to better understand the ever-changing global tourism landscape." Near already works with some of the leading travel organizations and tourism destinations, including NYC & Company, Visit California, Hawaii Tourism Authority, Ireland's National Tourism Development Authority, Austrade and more. With privacy-protected intelligence on more than 1.6 billion people, Near provides customers with insights into travel-related behaviorsfrom length of stay to places and attractions visited, tourist demographics and more. "Our mebers rely on us as a marketing organization to tell the NYC story, provide support for their business and serve as an extension of their sales teams," said Jon Tesser, VP, Research & Insights, NYC & Company. "They also turn to us for an understanding of trends in the industry. With Near's support, we can provide our membership organizations with all of that information plus vital statistics and data around trends and marketing performance. We've been conducting market research studies for more than 30 years and our partnership with Near has allowed us to take our services to the next level."



"Austrade has been using Near for over a year and their data have proven invaluable to our organization," said Rod Battye, Manager, National Surveys at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). "The platform's segmentation capabilities and granular insights are unmatched, and help us understand travel behavior, particularly on visitors from the USwhich in turn helps us with competitive positioning, spend and event management." "Near's data has been helpful in analyzing the utilization of our resources by residents and visitors across the islands, and has also helped us gain additional insights for 'hotspot' areas of concern," said Jennifer Chun, Director of Tourism Research for the State of Hawaii. "The company's client services team has also been valuable as they have a deep understanding of Hawaii's values and priorities for managing tourism."

ABOUT NEAR Near, the global leader in privacy-led data intelligence, curates the world's largest source of intelligence on people, places, and products. Near processes data from over 1.6 billion monthly users in 44 countries to empower marketers and operational data leaders to confidently reach, understand, and market to highly targeted audiences and optimize their business results. With offices in Singapore, Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Bangalore, Tokyo and Sydney, Near serves major brands in retail, real estate, travel, tourism, marketing, and other industries. For more information, please visit https://near.co/ View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/near-accelerates-momentum-in-the-travel-and-tourism-industry-with-record-breaking-customer-additions-and-revenue-growth-301357883.html SOURCE Near

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[August 18, 2021] Ontario Adventurer Scores Canada's (Second Best) Summer Assignment!

Hipcamp selects LGBTQ+ influencer and outdoorswoman Shannon Youngs for epic cross-Ontario adventure. TORONTO, Aug. 18, 2021 /CNW/ - Hipcamp - the world's largest provider of outdoor stays - today announced LGBTQ+ influencer and outdoorswoman Shannon Youngs as the face of Assignment: Ontario. Beginning Aug. 24, Youngs will embark on a 7-day, cross-Ontario tour of the province's strangest and most striking private campsites. Along the way she'll speak to local and national media about her road trip adventure, and she'll document her unique stays with original writing, photography, and social posts. "I want to tell adventure stories from the perspective of a solo woman visiting Hipcamp's incredible Ontario locations"



How she scored Canada's (second best) summer assignment After entering Hipcamp's national 'Best Summer Job' contest , Youngs, born in Temagami, Ontario, placed second in the national competition. As an extension of the contest, Hipcamp created a special second prize specifically for Youngs. "During the interview process we fell in love with Shannon's adventurous spirit, sense of humor, and her unique perspective on camping," said Tegh Singh Bedi, Hipcamp's Canadian general manager. "We knew we had to find a way to work together, so we created this special assignment for Shannon based on her expertise in the outdoors, her passion for storytelling, and her work advocating for inclusive camping."



Peterborough resident and Kawartha Lakes park warden, will produce blogs, photos, and other content that will be posted to: https://www.hipcamp.com/journal/ "I really want to tell adventure stories from the perspective of a solo woman visiting Hipcamp's incredible locations across our province," said Youngs. "I want to encourage all Canadians - but especially women and minority groups - to get outside and take that first step toward adventure. I hope that by sharing my humour and my experience as a woman travelling alone, people will see that anyone can do this camping thing!"

Where is she actually going?



Youngs' unique journey - which begins Aug. 24, and concludes Aug. 31st. - will take her to as many camping and glamping destinations across Ontario as possible, and will include stops at a Hobbit House , an Alpaca Farm , and an overnight Tipi stay . About Youngs Ontario-born Shannon Youngs is a 32-year-old writer, outdoorswoman, and barista. She is the author of SLY Writings , an emerging LGBTQ+ and travel-focused blog. Youngs currently lives with her partner of 3 years in beautiful BC. You can view her travel photography at www.instagram.com/sly.film/ About Hipcamp Hipcamp's COVID-19 safety protocols Founded in 2013, Hipcamp is the world's largest provider of outdoor stays. It gives a growing community of good-natured people the opportunity to list, discover, and book unique outdoor experiences. By connecting people with the land and each other, Hipcamp works to support those who care about nature. The fully remote company has offices in Australia, the United States, and Canada, and to date has helped people spend more than 3 million nights under the stars. When listing on Hipcamp, farmers, ranchers, vintners, and other landowners generate new revenue streams to conserve their land and keep it wild. Images of Youngs: https://bit.ly/3snZM8y Social Media Links: @Hipcamp @HipcampCanada SOURCE Hipcamp

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[August 18, 2021] Percepto Lauded by Frost & Sullivan for Leading the Autonomous Drone-in-a-Box Market

Percepto's highly valuable, remote autonomous solutions portfolio, including their market-leading Sparrow drone-in-a-box, empowers their customers to embrace the benefits of automation across their operations. SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the global autonomous drone-in-a-box (DIB) solutions market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Percepto Ltd. with the 2021 Global Company of the Year Award for dominating and advancing the market with its industry-best, remote autonomous drone-in-a-box for industrial sites. "Percepto boasts the highest number of DIB deployments, most mature product line, and the most extensive customer base in the market, firmly underlining its leadership position. The company was among the first to be included in the 'gold standard' FAA's Type Certification approval process. Its autonomous technology has played a critical role in gaining waivers for beyond visual line of sight flight for clients in various countries, including the US, Italy, Portugal, and Israel," noted Elizabeth Whynott, Best Practices Research Analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "As Percepto works collaboratively with clients to gather information about their production performance, requirements, and daily challenges, it can better understand and anticipate the industry's needs and ultimately entrench itself in the market." Percepto's DIB Sparrow is the most deployed solution on the market, primarily serving critical infrastructure sites, including power plants, mines, oil and gas refineries, and ports and terminals. Housed in its all-weather charging base, Sparrow is the most ruggedized DIB available and handles various payloads, including 4K day and thermal cameras to perform any task required by clients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the level of Sparrow's automation appealed to a broader client base who urgently required remote monitoring and protection due to hiher numbers of crucial staff being absent on-site, including auto and CPG manufacturers.



Sparrow is managed by Percepto's Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring (AIM) platform. Percepto AIM sets a new end-to-end monitoring standard for critical infrastructure and assets, paving the way for the remote operations center of the future. The platform's unique open architecture enables the operation of third-party robots alongside their autonomous Sparrow DIB, providing visual data management and analysis from both aerial and on-the-ground sources to report trends, anomalies, and risk alerts. The platform also seamlessly delivers reports enabling industrial facilities to assess risk, minimize downtime, drive efficiency and reduce operational costs without human intervention. Any staff member can request data, and Percepto AIM will deploy the most suitable robot independently without human accompaniment to retrieve and stream the required data. "Percepto continuously demonstrates its spirit of innovation by swiftly adding new capabilities to meet the exact needs of clients. The company provides clients with quick and easy access to relevant site data and insights that are delivered in an easy-to-understand format to the right personnel in management, operations, safety, and maintenance and security units," said Whynott. "By reducing human error and increasing safety, Percepto's advanced technology enables their clients to drive efficiency, reduce costs and safeguard staff.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents a Company of the Year award to the organization demonstrating excellence in growth strategy and implementation in its field. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies and the resulting leadership in customer value and market penetration. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in various regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry. About Frost & Sullivan For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion. Contact us: Start the discussion . Contact: Lindsey Whitaker

P: +1 (210) 477-8457

E: lindsey.whitaker@frost.com About Percepto Percepto is at the forefront of redefining how industrial sites and critical infrastructure are holistically inspected and monitored, harnessing remote robotics to autonomously collect, aggregate, and analyze visual data. Leveraging its experience with Percepto Sparrow, the most deployed drone-in-a-box solution on the market, the company introduced Percepto AIM (Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring), the first end-to-end autonomous inspection and monitoring platform. Percepto AIM empowers the remote operation center of the future to assess risk, minimize downtime, drive efficiency, increase safety and reduce operational costs. Founded in 2014, Percepto's solutions are trusted by Fortune 500 customers in more than 10 countries including ENEL, Florida Power and Light and Verizon. The company is the recipient of the Frost & Sullivan Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award. For more information, visit www.percepto.co . Media Contact:

Diane Mckaye

diane.mckaye@si14global.com

+44 7771 926726 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/percepto-lauded-by-frost--sullivan-for-leading-the-autonomous-drone-in-a-box-market-301357573.html SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

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[August 18, 2021] SimpliSafe and Ohio Mutual Insurance Group Partner to Provide Proactive Protection for Homeowners

BOSTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SimpliSafe , maker of award-winning home security systems, and Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, a leading regional property and casualty insurer, today announced a partnership that will make preventative smart home protection against major insurance perils available to homeowners in Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut. The partnership marks SimpliSafe's first risk mitigation initiative with a leading regional mutual insurer and signals the increased emphasis being placed on home protection and prevention. For a limited time beginning today, Ohio Mutual customers in the four participating states who bind a new policy will be eligible to receive a custom 6-piece home security system from SimpliSafe and two months of SimpliSafe's most comprehensive professional security monitoring, all provided complimentary with their homeowners' policy. The system will include key components such as the SimpliCam HD camera, a smoke detector, water sensor and entry sensor, which defends doors and windows. Through the partnership, SimpliSafe and Ohio Mutual hope to help reduce home damage from theft, fire and water, while also offering potential savings for homeowners on their insurance coverage. "Ohio Mutual is a cmpany that is relentlessly focused on earning the loyalty of our policyholders and the local agents who serve them," said Chad Combs, Vice President of Personal Lines Underwriting at Ohio Mutual. "This partnership with SimpliSafe not only provides our customers something of unique value that enhances our mutual engagement, but it helps our agent partners stand out in a highly competitive marketplace. We are thrilled to partner with SimpliSafe, a proven leader in the insurtech space, to bring this unique offering to our agents and policyholders."



Matt Wolf, Head of Partnerships at SimpliSafe, continued, "We are excited to expand our efforts within the insurance industry and partner with Ohio Mutual to bring our smart home insurance program to a top regional mutual insurer. We are laser focused on making home the safest place on earth, and our products and services coupled with partners like Ohio Mutual help make that a reality." To learn more about the partnership, please contact your local Ohio Mutual Insurance independent agent .

About SimpliSafe

SimpliSafe fundamentally changed the alarm industry, pioneering a new way to make home the safest place on earth for everyone. Founded in 2006, SimpliSafe now protects millions of people and is committed to its founding goal: to make every home secure. SimpliSafe has been coined the number one home security pick by several highly esteemed publications and was recently awarded in multiple categories for "Best Home Security Systems of 2021" by U.S. News & World Report. SimpliCam, SimpliSafe, and the SimpliSafe logo are the registered trademarks of SimpliSafe, Inc. in the US and other countries. About Ohio Mutual Insurance Group

Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, founded in 1901 and based in Bucyrus, OH, partners with more than 400 independent agencies to distribute quality property and casualty insurance products throughout Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Ohio Mutual has maintained a rating of "A / Stable" from A.M. Best Co. for 29 consecutive years, and has been named to the "Ward's 50" eight times since 2009. Additional company information is available at www.omig.com . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/simplisafe-and-ohio-mutual-insurance-group-partner-to-provide-proactive-protection-for-homeowners-301354930.html SOURCE SimpliSafe

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[August 18, 2021] Sputnik ATX, Austin-Based Venture Capital Fund and Accelerator, Announces Its Summer 2021 Cohort

Sputnik ATX, an Austin, Texas based venture capital fund and accelerator that backs early-stage founders solving big problems, today announced the selection of its Summer 2021 cohort. Out of over 750 companies that started the application process, five companies were chosen for their potential to solve significant problems in their respective industries. The cohort consists of two companies previously based in Texas, two relocating from out of state and another relocating from outside of the U.S., a testament to Sputnik's mission to elevate home-grown innovation and grow the Texas startup ecosystem. The five companies that rose to the top of this application round each have a tie-in to an area of life highlighted by the pandemic, whether that be remote work, at-home cooking, medical care or mental health. As is true for all Sputnik ATX cohorts, each company will receive three months of training and $100,000 in seed funding. "What sets our program apart is the amount and caliber of mentoring our companies receive," said Dr. Oksana Malysheva, CEO & Managing Partner of Sputnik ATX. "Sputnik ATX invests in the future; putting financial resources to work, training and advising founders who are skating to where the puck will be and helping them reach their full potential. Our newest cohort will change the food we eat, modernize how we find a place to live, expand a new type of lodging, help returning citizens maintain access to critical health care, and provide everyone the opportunity to be their best emotional and physical self." The Summer 2021 cohort companies are: ? Fila Manila, Founder Jake Deleon - Filipinos represent the second largest Asian American community yet have little to no representation in grocery stores. Fila Manila is building the premier Filipino American food brand inspired by Filipino cuisine and its proud community. Founded by a first-generation Filipino American immigrant & CPG Food industry veteran, the company's inaugural products are a range of clean-label sauces inspired by iconic Filipino flavors that are available for purchase both online and at top-tier retailers. ? ImagineX, Co-founders Mario Varon and Diego Rodriguez - Millions of dollars are wasted each yar by real estate developers guessing what future buyers will want inside. ImagineX allows developers to share an ultra-realistic digital twin of their designs, complete with furnishings. Clients can walk through these properties with a VR headset or on the web and see customized details like finishes and wall colors to their liking before physical builds are finished, increasing conversion by 30% and saving developers on average $70K per project.



? Lodgeur, Co-founders Brooke Bornick and Sebastien Long - Apartment owners want to maximize rental income. Business travelers, healthcare workers, digital nomads and others who book extended stays want affordable and attractive lodging that feels like home. Lodgeur creates a win-win for both parties with its turnkey flexible living service. Renters book convenient furnished accommodation on flexible terms. In a pilot project in a Greystar community, building owners earned 146% of market rent on Lodgeur units and boosted their property value. ? Patient Sortal, Founder Kenny Eck - The vast majority of people exiting prison have ongoing healthcare issues that need to be addressed upon release, but archaic processes in the transfer of their healthcare data are costing returning citizens their health and billions of taxpayer dollars. Medical care without interruption is required by law yet it's being neglected. Patient Sortal digitizes records and introduces returning citizens to qualified medical providers without interruption while saving Medicaid $4,000 on average per patient.

? Shmoody, Co-founders Mike McSweeney and Nate Thomas - Shmoody is the Swiss Army knife of mental health. The mobile app and community help people with depression, anxiety, and addiction with fun and engaging mood boosting tools, community support, and personal development challenges. Shmoody offers the perfect mental snack to improve your mood in the short term and elevate mental wellbeing in the long-term. "When we select our cohorts, we look for companies that will generate massive value and have teams with the skills and attributes to climb the mountains to success," said Joe Merrill, General Partner and Co-Founder of Sputnik ATX. "This group of founders does that and we can't be more excited to have them join our elite group of alumni, many of whom are already well on their way to not only changing industries, but have created hundreds of jobs for the Texas economy." This announcement marks Sputnik's eighth cohort since its launch in 2017. A complete list of Sputnik's portfolio of investments to date can be found here. About Sputnik ATX Sputnik ATX is a venture capital fund and accelerator in Austin, Texas that combines capital with training and mentorship focused on high growth and product-market fit. Their goal is to help startups reach double digit week over week growth, essential for early stage companies to survive and thrive. Sputnik ATX is named after its founding city (Austin, Texas) and the first thing humankind put into space. The Sputnik launch touched off a new era of global innovation and competition that led to most of today's technologies. The Russian word 'Sputnik' translates to 'partner,' which describes the core of the fund: to partner with and mentor startups that will change the world. The accelerator and fund were founded by Dr. Oksana Malysheva and Joe Merrill. After investing over $1bn in companies around the world, the entrepreneurial atmosphere of Austin inspired Malysheva and Merrill to consolidate their focus in Texas, finding companies in their backyard or who are willing to move to "the best place on earth." Sputnik ATX launched on Oct. 4, 2017, the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik-1 satellite launch. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005247/en/

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[August 18, 2021] VelocityEHS Demonstrates Market Leadership for Process Safety Management Solutions in New Green Quadrant Report from Independent Analyst Firm

CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VelocityEHS, the global leader in cloud-based environmental, health, safety (EHS) and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) software, announced today it has been named a Leader by the independent analyst firm Verdantix in its inaugural Green Quadrant: Process Safety Management Software 2021 report. The analysis reviewed 13 vendors and scored VelocityEHS among the top three for its well-rounded process safety management (PSM) solutions that support the needs of companies across all industries, risk levels and regions.

At VelocityEHS, we understand that the value of process safety comes down to the simplicity of the solutions aimed at managing it, said John Damgaard, CEO of VelocityEHS. VelocityEHS is once again a proven leader not just because our system is the most innovative or advanced, but because of our ability to produce simple solutions that reduce, not add to, the complexity of process safety management. Our true strength is delivering software frontline workers will actually use, embedded with processes rooted in deep expertise, which is critical to PSM and an area where most of our competitors fall short. Visit the Verdantix website to view the full report. Key analysis takeaways include: Increased Worker Engagement

VelocityEHS received strong scores in risk modelling, process hazard analysis (PHA), risk visualization and employee engagement. Designed to engage frontline workers, VelocityEHS Risk Management software offers functionality around reinforcing operator engagement through communication of risk and assurance guidelines and principles at every step of the process. After recording threats and impacts, users can determine and visualize appropriate preventive and mitigative controls. A standardized verification process then allows users to assess methodologies and overall risk. Strong Chemical Management & Regulatory Compliance Support

A strong PSM program, especially i a process-intensive high-risk industry, can be significantly bolstered by comprehensive and reliable chemical management. With the second-highest scores among the vendors benchmarked, VelocityEHS demonstrates strong functionality and deep expertise in chemical management. Its comprehensive Chemical Management solution maintains an extensive safety data sheet (SDS) database, includes mobile access through the SDS/Chemical Management app, and supports regulatory compliance against a variety of global regulations to help those with significant chemical compliance and product stewardship requirements.



Comprehensive Critical Event Management Capabilities

Critical event management (CEM) solutions have seen a dramatic rise in adoption, brought about by COVID-19 and growing recognition of the gaps in business resiliency. An often-overlooked aspect of PSM is the ability to respond to and communicate quickly about a critical event associated with process hazards. While many digital CEM solutions are still in the early development stage, VelocityEHS received the highest score among all benchmarked vendors for its emergency response scenario, workflow and management capabilities. The Verdantix analysis occurred before VelocityEHS acquired OneLook Systems, a leading Control of Work solutions provider, which further strengthens its PSM solutions with the addition of Permit-to-Work, Contractor Management and Lockout/Tagout capabilities to the VelocityEHS Accelerate Platform. Designed to drive peak performance in the areas of health, safety, risk, environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) & operational excellence, the Accelerate platform combines best-in-class capabilities with unparalleled expertise to deliver solutions that drives expert processes that enable every team member to produce outstanding results.

VelocityEHS is one of the very few vendors that leads in both PSM and EHS, and has strengths in risk management. They further strengthened their competitive advantage with the recent acquisition OneLook Systems, the worlds most used Permit-to-Work and Contractor Safety Management software. Those seeking a comprehensive, easy to use PSM software solution should shortlist VelocityEHS, said Bill Pennington, Research Director at Verdantix. To learn more about the Verdantix Green Quadrant: Process Safety Management Software 2021 report, visit www.Verdantix.com. For more information about VelocityEHS and its complete award-winning software solutions, visit www.EHS.com . About VelocityEHS

Trusted by more than 20,000 customers worldwide, VelocityEHS is the global leader in true SaaS enterprise EHS technology. Through the VelocityEHS Accelerate Platform, the company helps global enterprises drive operational excellence by delivering best-in-class capabilities for health, safety, environmental compliance, training, operational risk and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). The VelocityEHS team includes unparalleled industry expertise, with more certified experts in health, safety, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, sustainability, the environment, AI, and machine learning than any EHS software provider. Recognized by the EHS industrys top independent analysts as a Leader in the Verdantix 2021 Green Quadrant AnalysisVelocityEHS is committed to industry thought leadership and to accelerating the pace of innovation through its software solutions and vision. VelocityEHS is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with locations in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Tampa, Florida; Oakville, Ontario; London, England; Perth, Western Australia; and Cork, Ireland. For more information, visit www.EHS.com. Media Contact

Betsy Utley-Marin

312.881.2307

butleymarin@ehs.com



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[August 18, 2021] Workrise Makes Significant Investment in Northern Ireland to Continue Growing Tech Operations

AUSTIN, Texas and BELFAST, Northern Ireland, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Workrise, the leading workforce management platform for the skilled trades, announces new initiatives in Northern Ireland that will create 153 jobs locally and support the company's continued growth. Workrise is establishing a technology engineering center in Belfast. The jobs will be added over the next four years with an initial focus on establishing the engineering team. Xuan Yong, Workrise co-founder and CEO, said, "We are pleased with this meaningful expansion into Northern Ireland and the opportunity to tap into the impressive talent pool there." Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said, "It is a pleasure to welcome this leading technology company from Austin, Texas to Northern Ireland, which will make an important contribution to our economy. We all want post-COVID Northern Ireland to be stronger and better than before. We want our people to develop the sklls of the future and our businesses to be resilient, innovative, sustainable, and competitive."



Invest Northern Ireland has offered Workrise 994,500 of support towards the creation of the new technology jobs. Invest NI CEO Kevin Holland commented, "Invest Northern Ireland collaborates with partners across Northern Ireland to continue developing the talent that businesses like Workrise look for. New investors with novel technology ideas and solutions offer excellent potential for knowledge transfer, career progression and sector development  enhancing Northern Ireland's world-class reputation in this field."

Yong added, "We selected Northern Ireland as the location for this new centre based on the high-quality software engineers with industry skills, along with a strong pipeline of graduates from your excellent universities." Founded in Austin, Texas, Workrise provides a full-service workforce solution, matching skilled labor contractors to companies that require staff for time bound projects. About Workrise

Workrise is the leading workforce management solution for the skilled trades. We make it easier for skilled laborers to find work and for companies to find in-demand, trained workers. Workrise operates across the solar, wind, construction, defense, and oil and gas industries. Through people and technology, we provide the staffing, training, and professional services to empower the people who get hard work done. For more information visit workrise.com. Media Contact

Mitch Goulding

press@workrise.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/workrise-makes-significant-investment-in-northern-ireland-to-continue-growing-tech-operations-301358184.html SOURCE Workrise

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[August 18, 2021] ZOOSHICASH Is Here For Those Who Missed the $ZOOSHI Hype

Cape Coral, Florida, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With the everyday ruckus on the BSC network investors are beginning to grow weary of the incessant Honeypots and scam tokens that is plaguing the best decentralized network at the moment.

With the lack of Regulation which is a good and bad thing as well, the De-fi space has been somewhat of a Wild West scenario where some dodgy smart contract developers create contracts only to heist investor funds.$ZOOSHICASH cash is here to restore the hope of the BSC community. The team behind $ZOOSHICASH know first hand what it feels like to be ripped off financially because they themselves have also been rugged of their assets and as a result, the team has made a commitment to make zooshicash

Unruggable and impenetrable like a rock. With the liquidity locked, yourre always rest assure that your funds are safe (SAFU). Zooshicash is created by the community - for the community, on the BSC network popularly know for it's low gas fees and it's triving community hence given everyone an equal opportunity to 100x their investments. ZOOSHICASH aims to be the biggest Sushi reflection token on the binance smart chain Creating an infinite source of passive Income using the power of blockchain. ZooshiCash token was Inspired by it's father (Zooshi) but quickly became an overlord with the help of his community while becoming better at rewarding holder's, faster block time and les taxes.



More money, more rewards, The ZOOSHICASH overlord is here to lead us to triumph. But first you got to have a taste of our delicious $SUSHI. Prepare to have your mind blown with our upcoming games and rare NFT ! ZooshiCash Token algorithm included the auto staking and a passive earning with SUSHI for every Investor.

Techrate audit is already secured for the assurance on its investors and more audits are to to come via Dessert finance & Certik. The Community is growing because ZooshiCash is not just a meme or shitcoin but a real DeFi reflection token in the world of blockchain. THE TEAM The Zooshicash team consists of experienced developers, marketers, and community managers in the cryptocurrency space. We're positioned to make zooshicash the fastest rising token on the Binance smartchain (BSC) network. USE CASE The rate of rug pull and scams in the crypto space got pumped up to 80%! The reason why ZooshiCash was booted up is to instill confidence back into the Crypto Community whilst making passive Income. Rewards paid out daily in $SUSHI (SushiSwap)

Play to earn game likes spin-the-wheel and jackpots (coming soon)

Dashboard to view rewards(coming soon)

NFT marketplace where transactions will be carried out in our native currency. TOKENOMICS $ZOOSHICASH employs 3 simple functions: Rewards + LP

acquisition + Marketing and buyback. In each trade, the transaction is charged a

15% fee, which is split in 3 ways. 7% $SUSHI rewards 3% liquidity 5% marketing/manual buyback Security and Exchange Community To build trust again for the Investors is the main goal hereby assembling a community of good players working altogether to build a new DeFi token in the crypto world. Built by the free builders of people hexagonian who are not slaved by the pyramid power of old. It is a must! The Community Leadership aims to protect its community by helping each others while shielding the rear ranks. Intense marketing is ongoing to create the much needed hype for the token and building our community and more will be launch after a successful launch. What is the launch time?



August 21th, 2021 @ 11PM UTC



Website: https://zooshicash.com

Telegram group: t.me/zooshicash Media Contact - Dave Ruiz

Dave@cryptokidfinance.com Source Link



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[August 17, 2021] Exostar Launches Exostar India Private Ltd Subsidiary, Creating the Exostar India Development Center

Company's Third Development Center Serves to Support the U.S.-Based Research and Development and Product Functions BANGALORE, India, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Exostar, the leader in trusted, secure business collaboration in the aerospace and defense, life sciences, and healthcare industries, today announced the official formation of Exostar India Private Ltd. The new subsidiary allows the company to launch the Exostar India Development Center, joining existing development centers in the U.S. and the UK. The Exostar India Development Center, based in Bangalore, gives Exostar greater flexibility and agilit as it continues to enhance and expand The Exostar Platform and serve its rapidly growing global community. Staff at the India Development Center will provide development, maintenance, testing, and support functions for the company's research and development and product initiatives, exclusive of production operations.



"Employees of Exostar India will play a vital role in helping the company innovate and achieve its aggressive objectives to build a broader and deeper presence in highly-regulated industries," said Vinaydath Shivaprasad, Managing Director, Exostar India. "We look forward to furthering the strategic intellectual property and architecture design efforts led by our U.S. colleagues." Exostar India has immediate job openings for individuals wishing to work for a market leader in a fast-paced, Microsoft Azure-based cloud engineering environment. Opportunities include user interface and product development, quality assurance, and DevSecOps. Interested parties should email exostar.india@exostar.com for more information.

About Exostar The Exostar Platform supports exclusive communities within highly-regulated industries where organizations securely collaborate, share information, and operate compliantly. Within these communities, we build trust. More than 150,000 enterprises and agencies in 175 countries trust Exostar to strengthen security, reduce expenditures, raise productivity, and help them achieve their digital transformation initiatives. Nearly half of the Defense Industrial Base, including 98 of the top 100, transact business over The Exostar Platform. Ten of the top twenty global biopharmaceutical companies rely on The Exostar Platform to help them speed new medicines and therapies to market. Exostar is a Gartner Cool Vendor. For more information, please visit www.exostar.com, and follow Exostar on LinkedIn and Twitter. Media Contact:

Alan Gilbert

Exostar

+1 703-793-7735 (o)

+1 703-624-4675 (m)

Alan.Gilbert@exostar.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1395046/Exostar_Logo_Updated_Logo.jpg

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[August 18, 2021] Oleg Burlakov, Leading Russian Entrepreneur, Self-Made Billionaire & Eco-Sailing Pioneer Dies At 72

Oleg Burlakov Obituary: Oleg Leonidovich Burlakov, a prominent Russian entrepreneur and leader in the industrial goods sector passed away on 21st June 2021 in Moscow aged 72 after a short battle with Covid-19. Born in 1949 in St. Petersburg, Oleg was a Russian patriot, who in addition to business roles in the aerospace, chemicals and energy industries, is best known as the owner and visionary behind the Black Pearl, a trailblazing eco-sailing yacht which he commissioned in 2010. Oleg is survived by his wife Lyudmila Burlakova and by his two daughters Veronica and Elena. The Burlakovs were married for 48 years, during which time the couple together built a considerable fortune. Oleg had a series of very successful investments in Russia in the 80s and 90s across various sectors. During his early career, Oleg was a member of the USSR air force who took immense pride in his military duties. In October 1988 he founded Integral, a co-operative active in the development of patents and scientific research for innovative chemical products that extended engine and battery life. His wife Lyudmila was among the list of members of the co-operative at its inception and helped to co-found the business alongside her husband. After initial successes with Integral, Oleg incorporated Sovinterfrance,a natural resources and mining company.



From 1992, Oleg invested in the oil industry and in the production of cement, by first taking control of one of the most important Russian national companies, Novoroscement, then subsequently the oil exploration company Burneftegaz. The takeovers commenced through Oleg's Sovinterfrance. Through the sale of his cement business Novoroscement in 2007 for almost 1.5bn dollars and his gas business Burneftegaz in 2014 for around 1bn dollars, Oleg became a billionaire. Beyond his enterprises in Russia, Oleg's passion for sailing and the engineering and technology underpinning modern yachting has helped to cement his legacy. He was the visionary owner of the world's second largest sailing yacht, the renowned 106.7-metre Oceanco eco-sailing yacht Black Pearl. The most defining feature of which is its three DynaRig carbon masts supporting a sail area of 2,900 square meters. By harnessing sail power, solar and a hybrid propulsion system that Oleg helped to bring to life, the Black Pearl is able to cross the Atlantic burning just 20 litres of fuel. Oleg is celebrated for his role in shaping the design and specifications of the Black Pearl and paving the way for yachts with sustainability and reduced carbon footprints in mind. The Black Pearl remains an enduring inspiration to the next generation of sailing yachts and is a testament to Oleg's forward-looking engineering expertise.

Oleg and Lyudmila met when they were young students and had not yet made their fortune: Oleg reading aerospace engineering and Lyudmila pursuing a degree in aeronautical engineering. The couple's ambition and business acumen enabled them to achieve success and build the family fortune. They resided in Ukraine until 1993 before deciding to move together to the United States and then to Canada in 1995, where Oleg was laid to rest by his family on 16 July 2021 in the North York district. The Burlakov family, Oleg's wife, daughters and six grandchildren, welcome Mr. Burlakov's friends and associates to join them in commemorating him and invite them to make contact should they wish to celebrate his life. The Press Office of the Burlakov family and Lyudmila Burlakova View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210817005810/en/

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[August 18, 2021] BioInnovation Institute and Science Launch New Annual Innovation Award

The winner will be announced in Science, receive USD 25,000 and invited into BII's entrepreneurial ecosystem COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BioInnovation Institute ("BII"), an international commercial foundation with a non-profit objective incubating and accelerating world-class life science research, today announces the launch of a new annual innovation award in partnership with one of the world's top academic journals, Science. The "BII & Science Prize for Innovation" seeks to recognize bold researchers who are asking fundamental questions at the intersection of the life sciences and entrepreneurship. The prize will be awarded to scientists who can show that they have reached across field boundaries with an enthusiasm that combines outstanding basic science with an eye toward application in the marketplace. Jens Nielsen, Chief Executive Officer at BII, commented: "In today's society, entrepreneurial scientists hold the key to unlocking new life-changing solutions. I am very proud of initiating this new prize for innovation in collaboration with Science magazine, one of the world's leading scientific journals. The new BII & Science Prize for Innovation recognizes, encourages, and celebrates the work of entrepreneurial scientists by providing support in the early stages of their careers. Through the prize, we aim to bring more ideas to life and research to market for the benefit of people and society." Bill Moran, Publisher, Science family of journals, added: "It is important for our partners to share the same values and align with our mission to encourage more scientists to translate their research. The BioInnovation Institute Foundation (BII) is an organization that is passionate about nurturing early career researchers and providing them with the tools and knowledge to move their discoveries to the next stage. BII provides expert guidance that allows scientists to become innovators in research. This is the reason why we are proud of our prize collaboration with BII." The award is presented for outstanding research performed by the applicant as described in a 1,000-word essay. Award winner will receive a cash prize (USD 25,000 for the winner; USD 10,000 for the two runners-up) at a grand award show celebration in Copenhagen, Denmark, and their essay submissions will be published in Science. Winners will also be invited into BII's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The selected Grand Prize winner and runner(s)-up will have an opportunity to be paired with the business development team for evaluation of their eligibility for any of the BII programs. If eligible, they will receive assistance for submission of a proposal to BII. All processes, rules, and policies related to such programs and all obligations related to selection and granting thereof are the sole responsibility of BII.



The deadline for submissions is 1 November 2021. More details, including eligibility and application procedures, can be found at www.bii.dk/scienceprize. Successful applicants will have made significant advances in producing results that were protected as intellectual property and licensed to a commercial entityfor example, proprietary drugs and biologics, diagnostics, therapeutic interventions, health care information technology, or new solutions for biobased production of fuels, chemicals, and foods. Submissions are welcome from those who take risks to address relevant and exciting questions with creative approaches, even if the outcome may be considered a negative result. Announcement of the Award Winners will take place in April 2022.

Read more on www.bii.dk/scienceprize About the BioInnovation Institute Foundation The BioInnovation Institute foundation (BII) is an international commercial foundation with a nonprofit objective supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. BII operates an incubator to accelerate world-class life science innovation that drives the development of new solutions by early life science start-ups for the benefit of people and society. BII, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, offers start-ups and early-stage projects within health tech, therapeutics, and bioindustrials state-of-the-art labs, vibrant office facilities, business development, start-up business incubation, access to high-level mentoring and international networks, plus unique funding opportunities of up to 1.3 million euro per start-up and 2.4 million euro per project. Since the inauguration of BII in November 2018, BII has awarded 35 million euros to 68 high-growth start-up companies. Read more on www.bioinnovationinstitute.com About Science / AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journals, Science, Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, Science Advances, Science Immunology, and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 254 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science, founded by Thomas Edison, has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of more than 400,000. The non-profit AAASwww.aaas.orgis open to all and fulfils its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more. Science's daily online news is always free to the public, as are editorials, any paper with broad public health significance, and all research articles 12 months after publication. Science further participates in various efforts to provide free access for scientists in the world's poorest countries.

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[August 18, 2021] Probiotics for Corals Boost Resilience, Help Prevent Mortality

A new study shows probiotics to be helpful protagonists in boosting coral health and preventing mortality in the face of environmental stressors, such as warming oceans and changing climate conditions. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005016/en/ KAUST Marine Scientist Dr. Raquel Peixoto administers probiotics, or Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMC), to Pocillopora verrucosa coral in controlled aquarium environments. (Photo: KAUST) Published in Science Advances, the study details research conducted by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in collaboration with the Red Sea Research Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). It is the first of its kind to show that Beneficial Microorganisms for Corals (BMC) can protect bleached corals from death, by stimulating immune processes that help them rebuild their microbiome environment and offset "post-heat stress disorder" symptoms driven by thermal stress.



The scientists created a probiotic using microbes derived from the coral itself, selecting strains with traits deemed likeliest to boost resilience. They isolated, plated and studied hundreds of bacteria strains for their potential to serve as BMCs. They inoculated two groups of corals in controlled environments-those with probiotics and those with a placebo, exposing both to the same degree of thermal stress. Probiotics increased the stability and survivorship in the algae-coral host relationship by more than 40%. Dr. Raquel Peixoto, lead author and KAUST marine scientist, said, "Whereas all corals initially bleached and showed signs of stress, those with BMCs survived and returned to their original state, with results similar to corals that had not been exposed at all. Corals without BMCs sustained damage or died. The holistic formula equipped the corals with hearty traits for buffering and surviving heat trauma."

Contributing author Dr. Chris Voolstra, reef genomicist and big data specialist, said, "The study is remarkable for demonstrating 'genetic reprogramming,' meaning, microbes prompt the coral to make beneficial changes at the genetic level rather than superimpose their functions onto the host. This is a key understanding about the mechanisms underlying coral probiotics that was not known before." The study received funding from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation's Out of the Blue Box Reef Innovation Challenge, for new ideas to protect coral reefs, and was supported by the Tiffany & Co Foundation. Great Barrier Reef Foundation Managing Director Anna Marsden said, "Pioneering science such as this provides hope for the future of the Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs globally, which are coming under increasing pressure from climate change." Read the full article here. * Source (News - Alert) : AETOSWire View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005016/en/

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[August 18, 2021]

mPLUS CORP., and Siemens Sign MOU for Cooperation in Battery Industry

mPLUS has global rank leading technologies in battery manufacturing process machines, drawing attention from Siemens.

mPLUS and Siemens are expecting a higher level quality of products and services through their integrated expertise and know-how.

CHEONGJU, South Korea, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- mPLUS CORP., the secondary battery manufacturing process machine suppliers, announced they had signed an MoU with Digital Industries (DI) at Siemens Korea (Siemens Ltd. Seoul  SLS) for collaboration in the battery industry on August 10.

Mr. Rainer Brehm, CEO of Siemens DI FA (Digital industries Factory automation), visited mPLUS head office last month to have collaboration discussion with Mr. Jongsung Kim







The MoU was signed by Jongsung Kim, the CEO of mPLUS, and Thomas Schmid, Head of Digital Industries of Siemens Korea.

The signed MOU states that joint collaborations are to grow together with integrating core competences of both companies, such as mPLUS's world-class proven technologies in building battery manufacturing process machines and Siemens's state of the art technologies for future automation like digital twin and industry 4.0, in which Siemens plays a key role.

From these collaborations, mPLUS expects to expand its market presence globally and Siemens to maintain its concrete position in the battery industry as the best factory automation solution partner

A representative from mPLUS said, "This MOU shows that the global leading company had recognized mPLUS's global technological competences.", "It has significant meaning to create synergy through a technological and strategic partnership which are covered by specialized expertise in each field of both companies." And added, "In particular, it will be an advanced collaborations for complete automation of equipment and production plants, not simple hardware cooperation. Through this, we will be able to provide high-level product development and service to global customers."
[August 18, 2021] Thailand's Government Savings Bank Pursues Its Smart Branch Mission with a Huawei SD-WAN Solution

SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the advent of an intelligent society, more governments and enterprise customers choose Huawei's CloudCampus Solution, and in doing so, become intelligent IP pioneers in the digital transformation of industries. Background Established in 1913, Thailand's Government Savings Bank (GSB), formerly known as the Savings Office, was initially created as a safe for Thai people to save money in a proper way. For over a century now, GSB has been fully committed to providing reliable, high-quality, and safe financial services for its 25 million customers. And in today's digital world, this storied social bank is now offering Thai people innovative products that promote saving and financial sustainability across generations. Realizing the need for digital transformation amid the ever-changing demands of its clients over the past decade, GSB has worked closely with partners to develop new services for both staff and customers, in order to guarantee frictionless operations across systems. Indeed, aiming to become "more than just a bank" for all Thai, GSB is determined to help drive the digital economy, contributing to a better society for the generations to come. Challenges With a long-term mission of digital banking, GSB focused on enabling smart, efficient, and safe operations at over 1,000 branches. But many of the solutions and products in the bank's legacy Information Technology (IT) system were no longer available on the market (having been discontinued), making updates problematic and maintenance expensive. Indeed, this aging system has been holding back GSB's data transfer to the cloud, therefore jeopardizing future network expansion. The bank has been looking for the right network infrastructure to ensure smooth opeations and an identical level of services across the bank's sizable network of branches, big and small. New infrastructure was needed to improve GSB's efficiency across all banking services, reduce Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs, and enhance the user experience for both online banking and traditional in-branch interactions.



Huawei Solutions: SD-WAN Huawei understood GSB's particular requirements and proposed its Software-Defined Networking in a Wide Area Network ( SD-WAN) Solution for a strong cloud-based network to accommodate new demands and any future business expansion. The integrated solution is an ideal choice for large financial institutions, thanks to its capability to interconnect headquarters, remote branches, and multiple clouds. The synchronized system ensures service continuity, efficiency, and stability at all branches, without compromising data security. The Huawei SD-WAN Solution's key features include:

Intelligent ultra-broadband and on-demand interconnection that enables reliable and scalable interconnection between branches, headquarters, and clouds.

that enables reliable and scalable interconnection between branches, headquarters, and clouds. Zero-touch configuration that provides simple and reliable service roll-out and maintenance without the need for on-site staff.

that provides simple and reliable service roll-out and maintenance without the need for on-site staff. Smart O&M with unified management, allowing cloud-based management of Local Area Networks (LANs) and WANs, simplifying system deployment and reducing O&M costs.

with unified management, allowing cloud-based management of Local Area Networks (LANs) and WANs, simplifying system deployment and reducing O&M costs. Excellent full-service experience that supports emerging technologies such as 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and the cloud, driving branches toward digital transformation, while paving the way for flexible yet secure business and network expansion. Benefits The powerful Huawei network solution has built an intelligent platform for GSB, helping the bank to realize its smart branch mission. The Huawei SD-WAN Solution has accelerated service rollout, reduced O&M costs, and ensured smooth service operations. These benefits are enjoyed by both GSB staff and customers, across all branches and online. This future-proof solution is also ready to accommodate any new demands that arise, with support for fifth-generation networks ensuring sustainable business growth for GSB. "GSB has 1,060 branches nationwide. The amount of data we need to transmit to our branch offices is increasing every day," said Boonson Jenchaimahakoon, GSB's First Senior Executive Vice President (EVP) for the IT Group. "To eliminate distance as an obstacle, we need interconnection technology that allows all branch staff to work as if they are sitting at head office. The Huawei SD-WAN Solution enables GSB to connect branch offices by seamlessly and quickly transmitting data back and forth between bank branches throughout the country. No matter where the branch is, everything is connected by a full communication network." Click here to explore more industrial digital transformation stories from the Intelligent IP Pioneers webpage. SOURCE Huawei

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[August 18, 2021] Clearview AI Announces Formation of Advisory Board

Clearview AI, the leading facial recognition and data company that provides powerful and reliable photo identification technology to law enforcement agencies, today announced the formation of the company's Advisory Board. Its members include leading figures from the fields of law enforcement, government, the legal profession, financial services and national security. Hoan Ton-That, Co-Founder and CEO of Clearview AI said, "As Clearview AI continues to grow, the Advisory Board will help guide the ongoing development of our groundbreaking technology, and ensure that it is used by government and law enforcement according to the highest professional standards to keep communities safe." Clearview's Advisory Board members are: Raymond Kelly - The former New York City Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly is one of the world's best-known and most highly esteemed leaders in law enforcement. Mr. Kelly was appointed Police Commissioner in 2002 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg (News - Alert) , serving through 2013, making Kelly the longest serving Police Commissioner in city history, and the first to hold the post for a second separate tenure, serving as Police Commissioner under Mayor David Dinkins from 1992 to 1994. Richard Clarke - Dick Clarke served under Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush for an unprecedented ten years as a senior National Security Council official, as the nation's Counter-Terrorism Czar and as its first Cyber Czar. Mr. Clarke developed the country's first National Strategy to Defend Cyberspace. He was the national crisis manager on September 11th, 2001. Rudy Washington - Serving as New York City's Deputy Mayor for Community Development and Business Services from 1996 to 2001, Rudy Washington oversaw a wide range of critical agencies including the Department ofBusiness Services, Consumer Affairs, Employment, Parks & Recreation and the New York City Housing Authority. He led the initial search and rescue operations following the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City.



Floyd Abrams (of Counsel) - Long regarded as the nation's preeminent attorney on the issue of free speech, Floyd Abrams' legal defense of the media is unparalleled both in its breadth and variety. He was co-counsel for The New York Times in the landmark Pentagon Papers case and has represented ABC, CBS, NBC, Business Week, Time, The Nation, Reader's Digest, the Providence Journal, Random House, Alfred A. Knopf and many other media in trials, appeals and amicus efforts. Lee Wolosky (of Counsel) - Ambassador Lee Wolosky has served under three U.S. Presidents in significant national security and counter-terrorism positions, including as Director of Transnational Threats on the National Security Council at the White House. He is Co-Chair of Jenner & Block's National Security Practice and its Financial Services Litigation Practice and was previously a Partner at Boies Flexner and Schiller LLP.

Sarah Schott - A senior executive with broad leadership experience in financial services and healthcare companies, Sarah Schott has served as Chief Compliance Officer of Northwestern Mutual and General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of a publicly-traded investment bank. She has also held senior leadership roles in corporate strategy and operations. She is currently General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Gravie, a leading-edge health benefits company. Thomas Feddo - Thomas Feddo served as the first Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Treasury for Investment Security, where, from 2018 to 2021, he led the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and oversaw its national security reviews of cross-border transactions totaling more than $400 billion. He previously served as Assistant Director for Enforcement at the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the Navy and Majority Oversight Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee. Owen West - Owen West served as Assistant Defense Secretary for Special Operations (2017-2019) under Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps, he twice rejoined the military to participate in critical national security operations, once in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom and again in 2006 as an advisor to an Iraqi infantry battalion. Owen West has a 20-year career as a senior energy risk taker/adventurer at Goldman Sachs where he was Partner in Charge of Global Natural Gas & U.S. Power. Mr. West is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Clearview AI: Clearview provides law enforcement agencies with investigative tools through the use of its revolutionary facial recognition search engine. Its platform of 3+ billion facial images, the largest known database of its kind, is sourced from public-only web sources, including news media, mugshot websites, public social media, and many other open sources. Law enforcement agencies that use Clearview AI receive high-quality leads with fewer resources expended. These leads, when supported by other evidence, help law officials accurately and rapidly identify suspects, protect victims, and keep communities safe. TIME Magazine recently named Clearview AI one of the world's "100 Most Influential Companies." View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005288/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Maxar Appoints Colleen Campbell as Chief Marketing Officer

Maxar Technologies (NYSE:MAXR) (TSX:MAXR), a trusted partner and innovator in Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure, today announced it has appointed Colleen Campbell as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Campbell most recently served as Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Alion Science and Technology, a leading defense contractor specializing in AI, C5ISR, electronic warfare, cyber and military training solutions. She led marketing, media relations, advertising, communications, sponsorships and events for Alion's three business groups. Prior to that, Campbell was Director of Digital Strategy and Integrated Communications at Northrop Grumman (News - Alert) Corporation, where she was responsible for global brand management, advertising, digital marketing and communications. At the Glover Park Group, she served as lead interactive strategist and the head of digital research, creating comprehensive online communications strategies and campaign measurement programs for global NGOs, Fortune 100 corporations and national trade associations. And as Vice President of Digital Strategy for Ogilvy (News - Alert) Public Relations, she oversaw strategic planning and execution for federal accounts. Campbell has a bachelor's degree in Political Communications from George Washington University and a master's degree in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University. In her new role as Maxar CMO, Campbell will oversee the company's global marketing and communications strategy, including executive communications, internal communications, media relations, marketing initiatives, digital strategy and corporate reputation management. Her focus will be on business growth, customer retention, new market development, employee engagement and talent acquisition. "We are excited for Colleen to join our Executive Leadership Team at such a transformative time for the company," said Dan Jablonsky, Maxar CEO. "She brings a wealth of experience across the full spectrum of marketing domains that will be instrumental as we continue to execute our growth strategy and unlock value within customer applications from national security and intelligence to commercial mapping and navigation." "Maxar has an incredible legacy of leadership and innovation in Earth intelligence and space technology," said Campbell. "It's an honor to lead the marketing and communications organization, and I look forward to heping to chart a course for the company's next phase of growth."



About Maxar Maxar is a trusted partner and innovator in Earth Intelligence and Space Infrastructure. We deliver disruptive value to government and commercial customers to help them monitor, understand and navigate our changing planet; deliver global broadband communications; and explore and advance the use of space. Our unique approach combines decades of deep mission understanding and a proven commercial and defense foundation to deploy solutions and deliver insights with unrivaled speed, scale and cost effectiveness. Maxar's 4,400 team members in over 20 global locations are inspired to harness the potential of space to help our customers create a better world. Maxar trades on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange as MAXR. For more information, visit www.maxar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements and other information included in this release constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") under applicable securities laws. Statements including words such as "may", "will", "could", "should", "would", "plan", "potential", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate" or "expect" and other words, terms and phrases of similar meaning are often intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, expectations, projections, goals, forecasts, assumptions, risks and uncertainties, as well as other statements referring to or including forward-looking information included in this presentation. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in this presentation. As a result, although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. The risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to, the risk factors and other disclosures about the Company and its business included in the Company's continuous disclosure materials filed from time to time with U.S. securities and Canadian regulatory authorities, which are available online under the Company's EDGAR profile at www.sec.gov, under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com or on the Company's website at www.maxar.com. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. All such forward-looking statements are based upon data available as of the date of this presentation or other specified date and speak only as of such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this presentation as a result of new information or future events, except as may be required under applicable securities legislation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005028/en/

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[August 18, 2021] HistoIndex's Stain-free AI-based Digital Pathology Incorporated as Secondary and Exploratory Efficacy Endpoints in Sagimet's NASH FASCINATE-2 Phase 2b Clinical Trial

SINGAPORE, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- HistoIndex, a global leading artificial intelligence (AI) digital pathology provider, has announced an agreement with clinical-stage biotechnology company Sagimet Biosciences. HistoIndex's integrated suite of stain-free imaging with AI-based fully quantitative and zonal analysis of fibrosis will play a role in Sagimet's Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) Phase 2b multi-center, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial (FASCINATE-2) as both secondary and exploratory efficacy endpoints. Sagimet's wholly-owned TVB-2640, an oral fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitor, recently demonstrated statistically significant improvements across steatosis, inflammation/lipotoxicity, fibrosis and metabolic biomarkers important in NASH in the company's FASCINATE-1 Phase 2 clinical trial of NASH patients in the United States[1] and China[2]. These encouraging data supported TVB-2640 in receiving a Fast Track designation[3] by the FDA. Assessment of Secondary and Exploratory Efficacy Endpoints The integrated I stain-free platform, which comprises the Genesis200 Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) imaging system and image analysis algorithms, will assess approximately 330 paired patient biopsies for secondary efficacy endpoints. These include determining the effect of TVB-2640 compared to matching placebo on the change from Baseline to Week 52 in the fully quantitative measurement of collagen/fibrous area and the corresponding qFibrosis value. In addition, the platform will also be used as an exploratory efficacy endpoint to evaluate the concurrence of fibrosis with steatosis by fully quantifying the zonal fibrosis change from Baseline to Week 52.



Says Dr. Eduardo Bruno Martins, M.D., D.Phil., Sagimet's Chief Medical Officer, "As NASH is a complex disease, having stain-free histological imaging coupled with artificial intelligence will aid in the granular characterization and quantification of our histological results in an objective and consistent manner. We are hopeful the results will lead to a greater understanding of the efficacy of TVB-2640 in NASH." Says Dr. Gideon Ho, CEO of HistoIndex, "We have seen promising data from our past and current applications in NASH Phase 2/3 clinical trials that elucidated the magnitude of the therapeutic efficacy. We are more motivated than ever to incorporate our stain-free AI-based technology in FASCINATE-2 as both secondary and exploratory efficacy endpoints so as to enable biopharma companies like Sagimet to bring an approved drug expeditiously to NASH patients worldwide."

NASH, the most aggressive form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is a major worldwide public health concern especially in the U.S. [4], India[5] and China[6]. In the U.S., prevalent NAFLD cases are expected to reach 100 million by 2030, while prevalent NASH cases will increase by 63% from 16 million (2015) to 27 million cases by 2030[7]. There are currently no FDA-approved treatment options to treat this significant unmet medical need. Without effective treatment, NASH  a leading cause of liver transplantation in many countries  can progress to end-stage liver disease such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Due to the high prevalence and increased health risks, NASH represents significant economic and healthcare burdens. About HistoIndex Founded in Singapore, HistoIndex is a leading MedTech/Healthcare company that specializes in its proprietary integrated stain-free AI digital pathology platform. Enabled by Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) and Two-Photon Excitation (TPE) along with automated imaging analysis algorithms, the integrated platform accurately quantifies histological features and fine measurements that are critical for the evaluation of therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials. The stain-free AI platform is currently involved in multiple FDA clinical trials for Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH). In addition, it has benefitted more than 150 research and academic institutes, CROs and biopharma companies around the world in drug discovery and development efforts for fibrotic diseases and cancers. SOURCE HistoIndex

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[August 18, 2021] Annual Workers' Compensation Benchmarking Study Releases 2020 Report Examining Organizational Resiliency, COVID-19 Impact on Claims Operations

CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With unpredictable disruption predicted at greater frequency in the future, the workers' compensation industry is no exception to finding itself in a highly uncertain business environment, despite our risk models and mitigation efforts. Past performance will no longer predict future success in workers' compensation. Organizational resiliency will play a vital role. Now, with the release of its eighth Workers' Compensation Benchmarking Study Report, this national research program continues to break new ground by investigating organizational resiliency in two (2) key ways. The 2020 study is the first time claims leaders had the opportunity to respond directly to the perspectives of more than 1,200 frontline claims professionals who participated in the 2019 survey. By identifying how claims leaders are responding to the needs and views of frontline staff, we gain better insight into organizational resiliency in our industry. Not only is acting on employee feedback from employee surveys directly related to organizational resiliency, according to business management research, but also how claims leaders are recruiting, retaining, and responding to the shortfall of next generation talent remains one of the greatest crises facing the workers' compensation industry today. The second attribute of resiliency examined by the 2020 survey of claims leaders is what high performing claims organizations are doing that lower performers are not  including their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outperforming peers during, and after, turbulent times is a central characteristic of the resilient organization as proven by widespread research. "In this new era of uncertainty and disruption, resiliency is no longer an imperative for the successful recoveries of injured workers, it's an imperative for the success of workers' compensation organizations themselves," says Rachel Fikes, chief experience officer and program study director at Rising Medical Solutions. "The 2020 Study Report is a timely investigation of what claims payers are doing to future-proof their organizations." From the study's newlines of inquiry, 2020 survey responses quantify an expanded set of differentiators distinguishing higher performing organizations from their peers. They include:



Advancing an advocacy-based, employee-centric claims model as a core operational strategy

Connecting core competencies with performance measures

Addressing the biggest obstacles to achieving desired claim outcomes

Offering career paths with growth opportunities for claims professionals

Incentivizing frontline claims professionals with bonuses/profit sharing

Addressing training needs identified by frontline claims professionals

Reducing compliance and administrative burden on frontline staff

Using analytics to improve claims resource efficiency

Integrating claims and medical management resources

Connecting return-to-work/patient functional outcomes to provider quality As in prior years, the 2020 Report will be available to all industry stakeholders without cost or obligation as a contribution to the workers' compensation industry. It may be requested here. About the Workers' Compensation Benchmarking Study

The Workers' Compensation Benchmarking Study is a national research program examining the complex forces impacting claims management in workers' compensation today. The study's mission is to advance claims management in the industry by providing both quantitative and qualitative data. Through survey research with claims leaders and practitioners nationwide, the program generates actionable intelligence for claims organizations to evaluate priorities, challenges, and strategies amongst their peers. Conceived and directed by Rising Medical Solutions, the ongoing program is a collaboration of industry executives representing diverse organizational perspectives, including the Study's Principal Researcher and Advisory Council:

Denise Algire , Director of Risk Initiatives & National Medical Director, Albertsons Companies

, Director of Risk Initiatives & National Medical Director, Albertsons Companies Raymond Jacobsen , Senior Managing Director, AON

, Senior Managing Director, AON Rich Cangiolosi , VP, Western Region, CCMSI

, VP, Western Region, CCMSI Dr. Tyrone Spears , Chief, Workers' Compensation Division, City of Los Angeles

, Chief, Workers' Compensation Division, Scott Emery , Senior Director, Claims, Markel

, Senior Director, Claims, Markel Michele Fairclough , Medical Services Director, Montana State Fund

, Medical Services Director, Montana State Fund Molly Flanagan , AVP, Workers' Compensation Claims, Nationwide Insurance

, AVP, Workers' Compensation Claims, Nationwide Insurance Alan Bender , Director, Workers' Compensation & Casualty Insurance, Publix Super Markets

, Director, Workers' Compensation & Casualty Insurance, Publix Super Markets Jonathan Gerdes , EVP, Smart Casualty Claims

, EVP, Smart Casualty Claims Helen Weber , AVP, Head of Medical Strategy, The Hanover Insurance Group

, AVP, Head of Medical Strategy, The Hanover Insurance Group Dr. Adam Seidner , MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer, The Hartford

, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer, The Thomas Wiese , VP, Claims, The MEMIC Group

, VP, Claims, The MEMIC Group Dr. Marcos Iglesias , MD, VP, Chief Medical Director, Travelers

, MD, VP, Chief Medical Director, Travelers Linda Butler , Director, Claims Management, Walt Disney World Resort

, Director, Claims Management, Walt Disney World Resort Victoria Kennedy , Assistant Director, Insurance Services, Washington State Department of Labor & Industries

, Assistant Director, Insurance Services, Department of Labor & Industries Brian Trick , Director of Claims Services, Wegmans Food Markets, Inc.

, Director of Claims Services, Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. Kyle Cato , Associate Risk Manager, Workers' Compensation & General Liability Claims, Williams - Sonoma , Inc.

, Associate Risk Manager, Workers' Compensation & General Liability Claims, - , Inc. Thomas Stark , VP of Underwriting, Zenith Insurance Company About Rising Medical Solutions

Rising Medical Solutions (www.risingms.com) is a national medical-financial solutions firm that provides medical cost containment and medical care management services to the workers' compensation, auto, liability, and group health markets. CONTACT: Rachel Fikes, rachel.fikes@risingms.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/annual-workers-compensation-benchmarking-study-releases-2020-report-examining-organizational-resiliency-covid-19-impact-on-claims-operations-301357335.html SOURCE Rising Medical Solutions LLC

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[August 18, 2021] With Its Focus on Integrated Health Care, Lowering Recidivism and Data Analytics, Armor Health is Awarded its First Contract in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Armor Health (ArmorHealthcare.com) has been selected to be the new Integrated Medical, Behavioral Health, Dental, Pharmacy and Electronic Medical Records System Service provider for patients in the correctional facilities overseen by the Franklin County, Ohio Sheriff's Department. The Armor team is excited to partner with Sheriff Dallas Baldwin , his leadership team, and the Franklin County community



The company was awarded the three year contract with two one year renewal options after a competitive RFP process. Armor Health is a leading national correctional health care provider, and will begin its service for correctional patients and the greater Franklin County community on October 18, 2021. "The Armor team is excited to partner with Sheriff Dallas Baldwin, his leadership team, and the Franklin County community. Our talented and passionate clinical professionals and staff are eager to begin operations and enthusiastic about the opportunity to provide quality care to the traditionally underserved patients in custody" said Otto Campo, Chief Executive Officer at Armor Health.

Armor 's service will start in the Franklin County Correctional Center I and Center II. When the new Franklin County Correctional Center on Fisher Road opens, Armor will support the Sheriff's Department transition into the brand new, state of the art Fisher Road facility. About the new facility, Campo says "we applaud local leaders for making the investment into the Fisher Road facility and look forward to supporting the effort to meet the Department's mission of fostering an environment of respect and dignity toward those in custody." He adds, "Armor shares in this goal as we believe patients in these facilities should experience the same quality health care received by those of us outside the walls of prisons, jails, and correctional centers." Armor has provided quality patient care for correctional facilities across the United States since 2004. This new partnership with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office represents Armor's opening contract serving patients in the State of Ohio. "We believe this new partnership will be the model of correctional healthcare as Franklin County leaders have envisioned in creating the Fisher Road facility. The County, Sheriff's Department and Armor are all committed to utilizing a data driven approach to achieve the very best patient outcomes while also reducing recidivism. " He adds, "our company's position is that data-driven, integrated healthcare, which includes behavioral health, contributes to a reduction in recidivism, improving health outcomes and changing the lives of our patients as well as the entire Franklin County community. " About Armor Health

Armor Health is a leading provider of correctional healthcare services providing quality care to state and local correctional facilities across the country for more than 17 years. Every day, Armor provides evidence-based medical and behavioral health services utilizing our proprietary insights analytics, our expert clinicians and professionals and a laser focus on best-in-class interventions to deliver the right care, at the right time, in the right place to every patient we serve. News Media Inquiries: J.P. Hervis

561.995.6560

JP@BrandstoryCommunications.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/with-its-focus-on-integrated-health-care-lowering-recidivism-and-data-analytics-armor-health-is-awarded-its-first-contract-in-ohio-301357523.html SOURCE Armor Health

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[August 18, 2021] NOZE, World's First Consumer Device That Monitors for Coronavirus Risk Is Here

Stratuscent, a Canadian AI startup which has developed the world's leading technology to digitize the sense of smell leveraging its exclusive license to NASA patents, announced today the global launch of a new smart device; NOZE - the world's first AI-powered air quality monitor designed to be a first line of defense against the airborne transmission of the Coronavirus. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005271/en/ NOZE (Photo: Business Wire) Launching at a time when restrictions are being lifted around the world and people are becoming increasingly concerned over the quality of air in shared indoor spaces, NOZE's technology is the first in the world to have capabilities to track the airborne markers (VOCs) released by infected persons for both the Coronavirus and Influenza, in addition to a wide range of other toxins commonly found in indoor air. "A big takeaway from the COVID-19 pandemic is that people rightfully want to know more about the indoor spaces they enter," said Karim Aly, chief executive officer at Stratuscent. "The same way that we have a fundamental expectation to drink clean water and eat clean food, our new normal is one where we will also have an expectation to breathe clean air regardless of where we are. Recognizing how our technology could help bring that transparency, we dedicated ourselves to building a product that could go in every home, classroom, office and most other indoor spaces." NOZE helps people understand the characteristics of the air they breathe, keeping them better informed and enabling them to take action to safeguard their health and well-being. Powered by artificial intelligence, NOZE tracks the indicators of airborne Coronavirus and Influenza, monitors indoor mold risk and keeps tabs on nie other air contaminants to deliver important context about the quality of indoor air. NOZE's AI algorithms quantify virus risk on a 10-point scale as a first line of defense within indoor spaces - ranging from the risk of virus transmission (spread) to the probability of virus presence.



Recent evidence has demonstrated that airborne transmission from breathing in aerosolized droplets, which enter the air as an infected person exhales, talks, sneezes, or coughs, is the primary route of Coronavirus transmission. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and the Public Health Agency of Canada among others around the world have all recognized that the Coronavirus is airborne and have updated their information to include guidelines around airborne spread. According to the EPA, people spend 90 per cent of their time indoors, where COVID-19 transmission is believed to be 20 times higher than outdoors. COVID-19 virus particles are also able to travel over 10 meters and stay infectious in the air for hours in indoor environments. This brings air quality squarely into the spotlight and makes NOZE a vital tool to monitor the shared air we breathe in indoor spaces to keep families, employees, clients and visitors safe from airborne infection.

About NOZE Tracks airborne bio markers (VOCs) that are emitted by the body and breath in response to Coronavirus and Influenza infections.

Tracks spores and airborne markers (VOCs) to assess the risks of mold growth and mold presence.

Monitors Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Ammonia, Formaldehyde, Ethanol, Tobacco Odor, Butanal, Particulate Matter, Temperature and Humidity.

Powered by artificial intelligence, it continually gets smarter as it learns more from its environment.

As a connected device, it is future-proof, being able to detect new smells and VOCs as updates are pushed to it from the cloud. The technology that powers NOZE has also been made available to original equipment manufacturers globally, with a number now working towards introducing it into a variety of smart products. Air quality is just one of many applications for Stratuscent's technology and the company is also working on introducing solutions for medical diagnostics, security & defense as well as food quality. NOZE is available for pre-order starting August 18, with units expected to ship globally starting October 2021. To learn more about NOZE or to pre-order one today, visit getnoze.com. For visual assets, see here. About Stratuscent: Founded and based in Montreal, Stratuscent is the global leader in digital scent detection with a mission to bring the sense of smell to devices everywhere. Incorporated in 2016, Stratuscent's journey began with securing exclusive worldwide license to NASA patents for technology that was deployed to the International Space Station. Stratuscent investors include Investissement Quebec, Mistral Ventures, Fonds Innov-Export, Desjardins Capital, Tandem Launch and the Anges Quebec Capital Fund. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005271/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Best-Designed Flagship Killer realme GT Master Edition Series Launch Globally, Together with realme's First Laptop realme Book with 2K Display

SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate 100 million smartphones sold around the world, the fastest growing smartphone brand realme today announced it is expanding into the affordable high-end segment with the release of two new stunning smartphones to its GT series: the realme GT Master Edition and the realme GT Explorer Master Edition. Moreover, realme revealed that it was expanding into the laptop category for the first time with realme Book, a slim, 2K-display laptop forged in the brand's distinctive design. This marks an important step forward, as realme continues to power forward in building up its 1+5+T AIoT ecosystem with a richer suite of products than ever before. "Since realme was established, we have never strayed from our mission to bring leap-forward products for global youth," said Sky Li, CEO and founder of realme. "We're thrilled to announce that we are bringing more AIoT products to the 100 million realme fans around the world, to empower the young generation with features and experiences that inspire and delight." realme GT Master Edition Series: The best-designed flagship of 2021 Fusing design elegance with technical prowess, the realme GT Master Edition Series seeks to elevate the youth's capacity to explore and create, empowering them with a high-end handset that is as affordable as it is exceptional. Inspired by the importance of travel to young people's lives, realme tapped the renowned industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa to design the GT Master Edition Series. He crafted the products with a unique design influence in mind  suitcases. In addition to its unique shape, the back of the phone is engraved to reflect a suitcase's undulating grille, being the first concave vegan-leather design in smartphone history. Inheriting the flagship performance of the realme GT Series, the GT Explorer Master Edition is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor with up to 12GB of RAM, while the GT Master Edition uses the Snapdragon 778G 5G processor with up to 8GB of RAM. GT Master Edition Series support Vapor Chamber Cooling System, inherited from the flagship killer realme GT. This enables both phones to easily handle powerful gaming experiences. Besides its formidable performance, the realme GT Master Edition Series also features a 32MP Sony selfie camera; meanwhile, the GT Explorer Master Edition features a 50MP Sony IMX766 main camera with OIS while the GT Master Edition comes with a a 64MP main camera. Notonly do images remain crisp and vivid from day to night, portrait to landscape, but users can enjoy the first-ever street photography mode, bring users with fixed focus and street photography filters, which are only seen on pro street photography DSLR cameras.



Visuals come alive on a stunning 120Hz Samsung AMOLED screen, with a refresh rate of 120Hz on both of the two phones. GT Explorer Master Edition uses a 56-degree curved display, with 10240-level brightness adjustment and HDR10+ support, it also supports Dolby Atmos Dual Speakers and Tactile Engine. The price of realme GT Master Edition starts from 399 USD. The 6GB + 128GB prices on 399 USD , and 8GB + 256GB prices on 449 USD.

The price of realme GT Explorer Master Edition starts from 499 USD. The 8GB + 128GB prices on 499 USD , and 12GB + 256GB prices on 549 USD. realme GT Master Edition will be available on AliExpress from 23rd, August, with the promotion 6GB + 128GB prices from 299 USD , and 8GB + 256GB prices from 339 USD. realme Book: The first-ever realme laptop, bringing 2K display and leap-forward performance in a rare price range As realme's first laptop, realme Book is encased in a super-slim 14.9mm metal body, available in blue and grey color schemes. It features a 14-inch 2K full vision display, with 400 nits peak brightness, 3:2 screen ratio compared to the traditional 16:9 screens can show more information in Microsoft Office software. realme Book is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core processor, dual-fan Storm Cooling System, that ensures that even commanding games run flawlessly. It provides up to 16GB Dual-channel LPDDR4x RAM, Up to 512GB PCIe SSD Storage. 65W Super-Fast Charge technology provides up to 11 hours of battery life. As for connection, one thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports(i5 version only), one 3.5mm earphones port, one Type-A port, one Type C port, realme Book also supports new Wi-Fi 6 technology. realme Book features 2 HARMAN speakers, which support DTS HD stereo sound effect, Dual Mic Noise Cancellation, perfect for online working and studying. realme's "PC Connect" feature also enables users to synch their phones with their laptop and experience the former's rich applications with ease, making work and study even more convenient. Windows 10 Pre-installed. The realme book uses a three-level backlit keyboard with a 1.3mm key travel, with 2 in 1 Fingerprint Power Button. For more information about the new products, please refer to www.realme.com With many AIoT products available already, the realme Book is a significant step forward in expanding its 1+5+T AIoT portfolio. Staying true to its slogan "dare to leap", realme is diving into the future with more leap-forward products, and builds up a broader, richer ecosystem of interconnected devices to make everyday life even more vibrant for the young generation. The price of realme Book starts from 749 USD. The i3 8GB + 256GB prices on 749 USD , i3 8GB + 512GB prices on 799 USD, The i5 8GB + 512GB prices on 969 USD , i5 16GB + 512GB prices on 999 USD. During the event, realme also announces that its first tablet is coming soon, stay tuned realme Fan Festival 2021 - How Dare You Be You At the same time, realme also launched its 3rd anniversary party - realme Fan Festival 2021, themed 'How Dare You Be You'. The campaign is a celebration of the restless spirit of those who dare to live their own truths despite the judgements and obstacles they may face. With this powerful statement, realme empowers fans to turn negative external noise into positive empowerment. realme will also offer 100M dollars for a global promotion to thank all 100 million users worldwide for their support over the past three years. The price, promotion and availability may vary between markets; for detailed information, please refer to the local website. About realme: realme is a global emerging consumer technology company disrupting the smartphone and AIoT market by making cutting-edge technologies more accessible. It provides a range of smartphones and lifestyle technology devices with premium specs, quality, and trend-setting designs to young consumers at affordable prices. Established by Sky Li in 2018 and driven by its "Dare to Leap" spirit, realme is the world's 7th largest smartphone company. As of Q2 2021, realme has entered 61 markets worldwide, including China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, Russia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, with a global user base of over 100 million. For more information, please visit www.realme.com . For more information, please contact

realme PR Team

realmepr@realme.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/best-designed-flagship-killer-realme-gt-master-edition-series-launch-globally-together-with-realmes-first-laptop-realme-book-with-2k-display-301357868.html SOURCE realme

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[August 18, 2021] The Baxter International Foundation and UNICEF USA Announce Partnership to Improve Water Security in Colombia

The Baxter International Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Baxter International Inc. (NYSE:BAX), and UNICEF USA today announced a partnership to improve access to safe water in La Guajira, Colombia, one of the country's most water-challenged regions. A $1.5 million grant from the Foundation is fueling the three-year initiative aimed at ensuring thousands of children, adolescents, families and communities benefit from basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services through a multifaceted strategy that focuses on rehabilitation, education and collaboration. "Millions of people around the world lack access to safe and clean water-one of life's most critical natural resources-which can be devastating for both individuals and their communities," said Jose (Joe) E. Almeida, chairman and chief executive officer of Baxter. "In support of Baxter's mission to save and sustain lives, we are proud to expand our investment in water initiatives through a partnership with UNICEF that will support the health of communities in need." Safe water is crucial for good health, nutrition and well-being, proper sanitation and hygiene, and disease prevention. In fact, diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation are among the world's leading causes of death in children under five years old. Unfortunately, the latest data show that two billion people worldwide1 lack access to safe water at home, 818 million children lack soap and water at school2 and one-quarter of all health care facilities lack basic water services.3 In Colombia, according to Joint Monitoring Programme (UNICEF/WHO), 40 percent of rural areas have access to safely managed water4 and an estimated 20 percent of the rural population in La Guajira has access to improved water sources, according to the latest report from the Colombian government. "Access to clean water and a safe environment is the right of every child and family," said Michael J. Nyenhuis, President and CEO, UNICEF USA. "We need investment and innovation to help children thrive and UNICEF is grateful for the Baxter International Foundation's support in helping to improve the lives of children and vulnerable communities in Colombia." The Baxter International Foundation and UNICEF project will help provide access to safe drinking water through reabilitating water systems, installing solar panels, monitoring water quality, and distributing water filters and hygiene kits to families. The project will also help improve basic sanitation conditions to eliminate open defecation by developing strategies to improve key hygiene practices, including handwashing with soap and safe household water storage, and will support ongoing national and local government work to improve WASH in this region.



With decades of experience implementing WASH programs in more than 100 countries, and operations in Colombia for more than 70 years, UNICEF is uniquely positioned to develop and implement this collaborative initiative. Baxter and the Baxter International Foundation also share a strong history of investing in projects that support access to safe water and enhance sanitation in water-stressed areas where the company has facilities. In addition, Baxter Colombia is celebrating its 65-year anniversary in 2021 and is proud of the company's longstanding citizenship in the region. With this initiative, UNICEF, Baxter and the Baxter International Foundation seek to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. About the Baxter International Foundation

Every day, Baxter and the Baxter International Foundation strive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of people who depend on our products, and in the communities where our employees live and work. The Foundation helps advance Baxter's mission to save and sustain lives by partnering with organizations around the world to increase access to healthcare for the underserved, develop the next generation of innovators who will lead the way in advancing healthcare and to create a positive, long-lasting impact in communities globally. For more information, please visit our Corporate Responsibility page. Baxter is a registered trademark of Baxter International Inc. About UNICEF The United Nation Children's Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to pursue a more equitable world for every child. UNICEF has helped save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization, by providing health care and immunizations, safe water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more. UNICEF USA advances the global mission of UNICEF by rallying the American public to support the world's most vulnerable children. Together, we are working toward a world that upholds the rights of all children and helps every child thrive. For more information visit unicefusa.org UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, product or service. UNICEF's work is funded entirely through the voluntary support of millions of people around the world and our partners in government, civil society and the private sector. 1 Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020: five years into the SDGs. Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO

2 Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in schools: special focus on COVID-19. New York: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO), 2020.

3 Global progress report on water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities: fundamentals first. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

4 https://washdata.org/data/downloads#COL View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005078/en/

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[August 18, 2021] The Commons Project Foundation Introduces SMART Health Cards Within Samsung Pay

The Commons Project Foundation today announced the availability of SMART Health Cards displaying Covid-19 vaccination status within Samsung (News - Alert) Pay. This new feature allows U.S. consumers to download a verifiable digital version of their Covid-19 vaccine record received from leading pharmacies, providers, or health systems and securely store it in Samsung Pay via the CommonHealth app on supported Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The feature will roll out over the next two weeks to all addressable devices.* To add and digitally display a Covid-19 vaccination record, Samsung Pay users in the U.S. can download the CommonHealth app by visiting the Google (News - Alert) Play Store from their Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Once the user's health information is verified through secure authentication measures, users can download their Covid-19 vaccination record in the CommonHealth app and add it to Samsung Pay for convenient access and use, such as when Covid-19 vaccination verification may be required for travel and entry to venues. Once downloaded, the Covid-19 vaccine credential can also be securely shared as a QR code with any trusted party such as a school, workplace, while traveling, or with a healthcare provider. "Samsung Pay simplifies transactions for millions of mobile device users. As more and more consumers use their Samsung devices as a digital wallet it is a natural extension to make Covid-19 vaccination records more easily accessible," said Rob White, Sr. Director of Product for Samsung Pay, Samsung Electronics America. "We are proud to partner with The Commons Project Foundation on this important initiative and to help make life easier." "CommonHealth's collaboration with Samsung marks another important milestone as the availability and acceptance of SMART Health Cards as the standard for digital vaccination records continues to expand," said JP Pollak, cofounder and chief architect of The Commons Project. "As a leading mobile device manufacturer and digital wallet, Samsung offers a secure and easily accessible place for consumers to store this vital health information. The Commons Project is committed to the continued expansion of our network of partners, empowering users with their own health data to use in enhanced and secure ways." Samsung Pay is a mobile payment and digital wallet service that lets Samsung Galaxy users store digital versions of payment cards that can be used to make contactless payments in-person, in-app or online using supported Samsung Galaxy Smartphones. How to Add Your Covid-19 Vaccination SMART Health Cards to Samsung Pay: Adding your personal Covid-19 vaccine credential to Samsung Pay is quick and easy. Step One: Download the CommonHealth app from the Google Play Store and follow instructions to access your Covid-19 vaccine credential. StepTwo: Once you have access to your Covid-19 vaccine credential within the CommonHealth app, click the "Add to Samsung Pay" link.



Step Three: Open Samsung Pay and click "Covid-19 Vaccine Pass" from the homepage. *For a complete list of all compatible phones for this feature, please visit this link: Samsung Pay

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom: https://news.samsung.com About The Commons Project Foundation A non-profit public trust established with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Commons Project Foundation builds and operates digital platforms and services for the common good. Our mission-driven structure is designed to attract world-class talent to build and sustain digital public services in a way that serves people's interests above all. Beginning with health information, we are focused on empowering people to access and control their personal data and put it to use for their own benefit. Learn more about The Commons Project Foundation

Learn more about our initiatives CommonPass | CommonHealth | Vaccine Credential Initiative

Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) via @commons_prjct | @mycommonpass | @mycommonhealth

Follow us on LinkedIn (News - Alert) via The Commons Project Foundation

Media assets, including images, video and past press releases, please see here.

For non-media information, please contact info@thecommonsproject.org View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005436/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Long Beach Educational Nonprofit Selects Ryan Nuckolls-Rosa as Executive Director

LONG BEACH, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arts education nonprofit Dramatic Results has selected Ryan Nuckolls-Rosa, the current Operations Director, as its next Executive Director. Nuckolls-Rosa will succeed Christi Wilkins, who moved on in May after 29 years at the organization. Nuckolls-Rosa first joined Dramatic Resultsa Long Beach-based nonprofit that engages students, underserved schools, and communities through STEAMin 2018 and helped to secure a multi-year grant funded by the US Department of Education for the ABC Project. The project connects community agencies to provide equitable access to historically excluded youth, implements diverse efforts to engage families, and mentors students across career pathways. In 2019, she took over the agency's operations, directed and advanced the organization's internal systems for management and human resources, which improved team morale, communication, and effectiveness. "Ryan is a positive and energetic leader. Her operational excellence combined with her practical approach to problem-solving, passion for the arts, and leveraging the community to help students have earned her the esteem of Dramatic Results' Board, staff, and donors," said Board President Sydney Hamilton. "The Board is excited to work with Ryan as our new Executive Director and is confident that Dramatic Results will be well-positioned under her guidance to thrive n the years to come."



Prior to joining Dramatic Results, Ryan lived abroad in Shanghai, China, where she managed art exhibitions and educational programs at the Shanghai Himalayas Museum, served as Head of Production for curatorial projects at the nonprofit ArtHub, and spent several years teaching English. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Emory University. "I appreciate the Board's confidence in me and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to lead such a great organization. Dramatic Results will continue to provide the excellent educational services and programs our students and communities deserve, which is more important today than ever before," Nuckolls-Rosa said. "I look forward to taking us to a new level as we begin to evolve our programming and development practices in 2021."

As Executive Director, Nuckolls-Rosa will work closely with staff and the Dramatic Results Board to ensure the organization will continue to adapt to serve students in a new COVID-19 learning environment. One of her first acts as Director will be to oversee the transformation of the agency's fundraising and development efforts in order to diversify sources of revenue to create long-lasting organizational sustainability. She will also oversee the continued expansion of new programs, including the recent launch of the agency's first Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion Committee. ABOUT DRAMATIC RESULTS

Dramatic Results is a nonprofit that designs and delivers educational programming using art, design, and culture as entryways into STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). By providing in-class and out-of-school opportunities in historically underrepresented communities, innovative programs prepare learners to be empathetic, resilient, and critical thinkers using methodologies like Design Thinking and Social-Emotional Learning to fuel collaboration and creativity. Since 1992, Dramatic Results programs have had measurable impacts on 500 classroom teachers and over 35,000 students' social, emotional, and academic performance. Visit www.dramaticresults.org to learn more. Media Contact:

Talia Sandoval

562-595-4600

316835@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/long-beach-educational-nonprofit-selects-ryan-nuckolls-rosa-as-executive-director-301357260.html SOURCE Dramatic Results

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[August 18, 2021] Ascendum Solutions Named a Finalist in the Cincinnati Business Courier's 2021 Best Places to Work for Second Year

CINCINNATI, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascendum Solutions, a global digital innovation firm, was named a finalist of the Cincinnati Business Courier's 2021 Best Places to Work (BPTW) for the second year in a row. In 2020, Ascendum Solutions was a grand winner of the Business Courier's Best Places to Work for businesses with 200 or more employees. Employees at each of the businesses were surveyed, and their responses were ranked by an independent third party, Quantum Workplace. Companies were then scored in areas such as senior leadership, team effectiveness, work recognition and benefits. The finalist companies are those that rated highest in one of five size categories. "I am elated that Ascendum is once again recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in the Greater Cincinnati area, and I am fortunate to lead such a diverse, intelligent, and thoughtful group of individuals," said Ascendum President and CEO Kris Nair. "We strive every day to foster an inclusive culture that keeps people engaged, nurtures innovation, rewards accomplishments, and promotes a sense of community. We believe that true happiness comes from personal growth and helping others." In August 2021, Fast Company Named Ascendum Solutions a Top Workplace for Innovators. Between 2020 and 2021, Ascendum was awarded a series of honors for applications they created for their clients, including Gold and Silver Stevie Awards, Hermes Gold Creative Award, Gold Globee Award, Webby Award, and Fast Company Innovation by Design Award. Over he past year, Ascendum launched a series of new digital products including Botsai, SafeReturn, SafeRaters, Scanily, Magpie, and OhioHelps.com. These products were ideated and developed by Ascendum's Freedom to Innovate Program, that provides funding for internal development teams to create products that provide a service to the community, solve business challenges, or promotes collaborative fun.



Some of the recent programs the firm has implemented to nurture a more engaging work environment include: Ascendum's Freedom to Innovate Program

Ascendum Ambassador Program

Ascendum Culture Club

Innovation hackathons

Ascendum Charitable Action Committee

Monthly lunch and learn sessions

Upskills training programs Prior to the pandemic, Ascendum offered daily fresh fruit, monthly coffee/smoothie bars, monthly catered lunches, quarterly happy hours, charitable fundraisers, and participation in community events. Each year the firm hosts a paid family picnic, several holiday parties, and company-wide pot-luck lunches.

Ascendum is rapidly growing and looking for more innovative people to join our family! Become part of our close knit team developing technology solutions in an environment where you can excel and thrive. View current career opportunities and apply online through the Ascendum careers page at: https://ascendum.com/careers. About Ascendum Solutions

Ascendum is an award-winning global technology firm dedicated to delivering pioneering ideas and solutions that incrementally enrich our clients' business operations and customer experiences. Our clients come to us for new ideas and boundary-pushing solutions. From custom software development, design-led engineering, and intuitive interfaces, to sourcing top talent, Ascendum's creative global team of tech strategists, designers, developers, and data engineers act as a collaborative catalyst to drive positive change, continually improving and evolving our clients' digital transformation strategies. Named a 2021 Fast Company Best Workplaces for Innovators, Ascendum is MBE certified and a portfolio company of Vora Ventures with worldwide offices in the U.S., India, London, and Australia. For more information, visit www.Ascendum.com. Contact: Paulie Anthony, Head of Marketing

Email: 316834@email4pr.com

Phone: 614.397.7490 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ascendum-solutions-named-a-finalist-in-the-cincinnati-business-couriers-2021-best-places-to-work-for-second-year-301357355.html SOURCE Ascendum Solutions

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[August 18, 2021] Caravanserai Project Receives Nearly $1M Grant From Wells Fargo Open for Business Fund for Strengthening Infrastructure In The Inland Empire of California

PALM SPRINGS, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A partnership between Caravanserai Project, the Inland Empire Community Collaborative (IECC) and the Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF) was awarded a grant of nearly $1M from Wells Fargo through its Open for Business Fund. The grant advances the partners' on-going strategic efforts to strengthen the infrastructure and outcomes of mission-driven organizations in the Inland Empire of California through capacity building and technical assistance programs. During the past 18-months, the organizations have supported hundreds of mission-driven entrepreneurs and organizations, from serving disenfranchised populations to advancing social justice causes and promoting vaccine equity to arts, culture and education agencies in the Inland Empire, the thirteenth most populous metropolitan area in the nation. The grant enables the partners to level-up existing services and launch new initiatives to better serve the current needs of the nonprofits and communities they assist. This includes prioritizing the advancement of minority and BIPOC-led organizations as part of an ongoing commitment to embed diversity, equity and inclusion throughout philanthropic initiatives. In response to the growing needs that intensified during the pandemic, Caravanserai Project, IECC, and IECF have expanded their efforts to turbo charge local charitable organizations through a range of programs such as webinars and digital strategy workshops, grant bulletins, and Breakthrough Masterclasses as well as a social impact pre-accelerator and a Capacity Building Academy. By the end of 2021, a Professional Certificate in Nonprofit Career Readiness and Advancement (awarded by UCR University Extension) and a regional database for donors' use will be launched to offer additional resources and tools to mission-driven organizations in the Inland Empire. By investing in the Inland Empire nonprofit organizational infrastructure, Wells Fargo recognizes the vital role these providers play in delivering essential services, and as drivers of the economy. Treating nonprofits as businesses is a timely approach and comes at a pivotal moment when reimagining new pathways towards irreversible system change based on equity and inclusion is crucial. "At Wells Fargo, we are committed to assisting organizations like Caravanserai Project, the lnland Empire Community Collaborative and the Inland Empire Comunity Foundation that strengthen our local community by providing so many resources to our local business community members," said Flor Tolley, Wells Fargo Social Impact & Sustainability Vice President.



Inland Empire Community Foundation President & CEO Michelle Decker said, "The Inland Empire receives one of the lowest shares of philanthropic resources in California and our participation will help donors find nonprofits that meet their passion. The Wells Fargo funding comes at the right time for the region." Inland Empire Community Collaborative President Susan Gomez said, "IECC is honored to have been recognized by Wells Fargo to expand programs that will provide targeted support to established and emerging nonprofit and for-profit leaders of color throughout the region. This investment helps change the narrative and strengthen organizations that provide key services to many communities of color."

Caravanserai Project CEO Mihai Patru said, "This grant from Wells Fargo is a great incentive for the mission-driven sector in the Inland Empire, and an invitation to other stakeholders to invest in the region. Supporting our partnership with IECC and IECF speaks volumes about the value and importance of coming together as organizations and joining our efforts to further advance our visions." About Caravanserai Project

Caravanserai Project is a hybrid social impact venture striving to identify, mobilize and energize mission-driven leaders to build sustainable and future-ready ventures, for profits and nonprofits alike, that will generate irreversible system change. We are actively engaged in supporting mission-driven efforts in the Inland Empire region as well at national and international level. For more information, please visit www.caravanseraiproject.org About Inland Empire Community Foundation

Founded in 1941, the Inland Empire Community Foundation is the oldest and largest community foundation serving the Inland region operating in the largest geographic territory of any community foundation in the nation  more than 27,000 square miles, covering Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. We come to the table with in-depth understanding of the IE and our nonprofit sector, extensive experience with our donors that can make a meaningful difference  now and in the future. About Inland Empire Community Collaborative

Inland Empire Community Collaborative (IECC) supports nonprofits to advocate in making the Inland Empire region more equitable, diverse, and just, through capacity building workshops, technical assistance trainings, conferences, collaboration, and nonprofit. IECC has been committed for over 10 years to build organizational capacity using a collective impact model currently bringing together over 87 diverse nonprofits. Media Contact:

(240) 838 6570

316573@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/caravanserai-project-receives-nearly-1m-grant-from-wells-fargo-open-for-business-fund-for-strengthening-infrastructure-in-the-inland-empire-of-california-301357658.html SOURCE Caravanserai Project

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[August 18, 2021] Swift Tactical Systems Expands the Capabilities of its Swift021 VTOL UAS Product for Long-Range and High-Altitude Performance with Silvus Radios at the SLVUAS Test Site in Colorado

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Swift Tactical Systems, a subsidiary of Swift Engineering, is a leading provider of turn-key, American-made, unmanned systems and services. Swift Tactical Systems recently completed over two dozen flights at Leach Field, 1V8, Alamosa County, CO, to collect data on the high-altitude density performance of the Swift021 VTOL UAS to validate real-world capabilities. Swift021 VTOL Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) high-density altitude capabilities: Demonstrated operations during 40-mile endurance flight at +10,000 ft density altitude

Over two dozen flights

Testing of low-level ELOS and video transmission with the Silvus radios

radios Watch Video "To meet the needs of our customers, we are required to fly in many high-density altitude areas, such as high-elevation, hot and humid regions, and mountainous terrains. These positive performance tests have proven the Swift021 VTOL UAS will take-off, transition, perform with precision, and land accurately at +10,000 ft density altitude. This is a huge step in expanding the flight envelope of the Swift021," said Alex Echeverria , Vice President of Swift Tactical Systems. "As temperatures go up, performance will decrease. As altitude goes up, performance will decrease. As humidity in the air increases, performance will decrease. With any of these, performance will be bad, but if you have all of them at the same time, performance will be even worse. "Silvus StreamCaster radios give us the ability to confidently and reliably stream video and data back to the ground station time and time again, even in challenging conditions and austere environments. So it's nice not to hae to worry about that," added Echeverria .



As Swift Tactical Systems continues to improve upon the capabilities of the Swift021 UAS, they are able to support longer range and higher altitudes missions. These extended capabilities are being put to use as Swift Tactical Systems continues to support The Bahamas Ministry of National Security in extending their UAS program designed to provide better support for their police, defense force, and customs operations throughout the island chain. "Leveraging Swift's 35-year pedigree of advanced vehicles and systems, Swift Tactical Systems offers a complete UAS suite with unmatched flexibility, quality, and safety. In addition, Swift Tactical Systems' diverse portfolio of services and products focused on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to enhance situational awareness. Thus allowing our customers to make better-informed decisions during time-critical missions," Says Rick Heise, President & CEO of Swift Tactical Systems.

About Swift021 VTOL UAS

The Swift021 is the world's most advanced transitional VTOL UAS. Utilizing patented X-blade Technology, the Swift021 never needs additional launch and recovery systems and can vertically take-off and land in any 50'x50' space. Get the take-off and landing capabilities of a multi-rotor with the flight efficiency of a fixed-wing aircraft. The Swift021 is fully electric, provides a flight endurance of up to 2 hours and an operational range of +40 miles. Designed and built in the USA, the Swift021 meets conventional military standards for ruggedness and reliability. In addition, the Swift021 is a fully modular unmanned system that allows for interchangeable batteries, parts, and payloads for greater flexibility, performance, and safety. About Swift Tactical Systems

Swift Tactical Systems provides unmatched capabilities utilizing disruptive unmanned systems technologies and operational expertise for military and government applications. Headquartered in San Clemente, California, the company delivers fully integrated unmanned systems solutions for collecting, processing, and providing real-time intelligence and data, enabling governments and organizations to make informed decisions. Swift Tactical Systems is a subsidiary of Swift Engineering, Inc. Also headquartered in San Clemente, Swift Engineering is an innovation company with a 35-year history of design, engineering, and build heritage in intelligent systems and advanced vehicles, including autonomous systems, helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, ground vehicles, robotics, and advanced composites. About Silvus Technologies

Privately held and headquartered in Los Angeles, Silvus Technologies develops advanced MIMO technologies that are reshaping broadband wireless connectivity for mission-critical applications. Backed by an unmatched team of Ph.D. scientists and design engineers, its technologies provide enhanced wireless data throughput, interference mitigation, improved range, mobility, and robustness to address the growing needs of its government and commercial customers. About The Colorado SLV UAS Test Site

UAS Colorado, a non-profit industry association, and Alamosa County, Colorado maintain an 8000 square-mile high altitude UAS Test Site, with unmatched terrain and climate diversity. Terrain elevations ranging from 7,500 ft to over 14,000 ft and terrain diversity from wetlands to desserts and from easy wide (50 x 80 Nm) open flat agricultural lands to extremely rough challenging mountainous terrain. UAS and payloads prove their worth here for many applications in research, public safety, and many other applications. Media Inquiries:

William Schneider

316804@email4pr.com

+1 (714) 866-8404 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/swift-tactical-systems-expands-the-capabilities-of-its-swift021-vtol-uas-product-for-long-range-and-high-altitude-performance-with-silvus-radios-at-the-slvuas-test-site-in-colorado-301357394.html SOURCE Swift Tactical Systems

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[August 18, 2021] Ehired.EDU Reinvents, Renovates and Dominates

TURNERSVILLE, N.J., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EHired, a nationally accredited and established vendor of educational services focused on employment support and digital career service applications, is thrilled to announce the launch of its new website, https://ehired.edu. Awarded national accreditation as endorsed by the United States Department of Education (USDOE) through the Middle States Association  Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS) in December 2020, EHired continues to experience significant growth across the country within the technical vocational education sector as well as in the community workforce development space. The intention and goal of the website renovation was to update the overall presentation to reflect the ongoing growth and varying clientele the SaaS platform has grown to serve and accommodate. The site features more definitive information for prospective clients to peruse in order best evaluate the software against their needs. This expansion showcases features built and developed for clients in the secondary education, post-secondary education, community workforce agency, and government program areas of student and job seeker support. Visitors to the site will see real time usage stats and the reulting impact, ultimately bridging the gap between job seekers and employers.



CEO/Founder of EHired, Frank Whelan shares, "the EHired team is dedicated to the core of our mission, which ultimately results in job seekers obtaining gainful employment. I am confident our new website will connect all the necessary pieces to make the mission happen for all stakeholders." EHired invites visitors to explore the sleek new website, narrating to audiences of career centers, students, and employers while exhibiting EHired's impact across the country in various pin map visuals. Finally, meet the EHired team as well as esteemed Advisory Board members in addition to indulging in the history of the accredited platform and its journey leading to today's success (https://ehired.edu/team).

Located in the United States, EHired is the only SaaS vendor of educational services specifically developed for employment support and digital career service applications as well as recognized and Accredited by a United States Department of Education (USDOE) accrediting agency Middle States Association Commission on Elementary and Secondary Education (MSA-CESS). EHired currently provides student to employment transition and career support software services nationwide, to over 200 educational institution campuses (https://ehired.edu/postsecondary) as well as public, private and government organizations. To learn about E-Hired, contact Shari Rossino, National Director of Business Development at Shari@EHired.com or at 856-562-1131. Contact:

Shari Rossino

Ehired.edu

856-562-1131

316843@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ehirededu-reinvents-renovates-and-dominates-301357678.html SOURCE Ehired.edu

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[August 18, 2021] Dayforce Wallet Named a 2021 Aite-Novarica Group Digital Wallet Innovation Leader

TORONTO and MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ceridian (NYSE: CDAY; TSX: CDAY), a global leader in human capital management (HCM) technology, today announced that Aite-Novarica Group, a global advisory firm providing mission-critical insights on technology, regulations, strategy, and operations to the financial services industry, has named Dayforce Wallet as a winner at the 2021 Digital Wallet Impact Innovation Awards. The awards program recognizes and honors innovations in the financial services space that leverage technology to disrupt the status quo.

Dayforce Wallet puts employees in control over their financial well-being by giving them access to their earned net pay whenever they need it, at no cost to them or the employer. Today, more than 600 customers have signed up to offer Dayforce Wallet to employees across Canada and United States. Employees want their health and financial wellness woven into their day-to-day work life and employee experience, and innovations like Dayforce Wallet directly address this need, said Seth Ross, General Manager, Dayforce Wallet and Consumer Services, Ceridian. In todays competitive talent market, organizations that prioritize financial wellness for their employees will better attract and retain the best people  making it a win-win solution for both employees and the business. Recruiting and retaining talent in the e-commerce space has become incredily challenging. With Dayforce Wallet, we are delivering a unique offering to our employees that differentiates us from competitors, said Lizbeth Ortiz, Assistant Director of People Operations, Good Eggs. Were delighted to have a partner in Ceridian that is pushing the envelope on whats possible in the workplace of the future.



Todays employee population comes with different expectations and wants a consumer-grade user experience in the workplace. Payroll is one of the most antiquated aspects of the payment space, and on-demand is becoming the new way to pay people, said Thad Peterson, Senior Analyst, Aite-Novarica Group. Dayforce Wallet gives consumers the opportunity to access their wages when and where they need it instead of waiting for an arbitrary payday. All winners were selected by a global panel of independent experts on digital payments and wallets.

To learn more, visit: DayforceWallet.com. About Ceridian

Ceridian. Makes Work Life Better.

Ceridian is a global human capital management software company. Dayforce, our flagship cloud HCM platform, provides human resources, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management functionality. Our platform is used to optimize management of the entire employee lifecycle, including attracting, engaging, paying, deploying, and developing people. Ceridian has solutions for organizations of all sizes. Visit Ceridian.com or follow us @Ceridian. Media Contact:

Fahd Pasha

647.417.2136

Fahd.Pasha@Ceridian.com



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[August 18, 2021] HCA Healthcare to Sell PatientKeeper to Venture Firm General Catalyst's Commure and Enter Into a New Strategic Collaboration

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HCA Healthcare , one of the nations leading healthcare providers, and General Catalyst , a global venture capital firm, today announced the sale of HCA Healthcares PatientKeeper to General Catalysts portfolio company Commure along with an investment in Commure and the formation of a new strategic collaboration to accelerate digital transformation.

PatientKeeper is a leading provider of intuitive software and mobile applications that help physicians and care teams access and work with patient information. Commure is building a universal platform and common architecture for open collaboration and people-first care. The combination of Commures platform and PatientKeepers solutions is a significant move toward the ultimate goal of healthcare transformation: improving the overall quality of care, creating an exceptional user experience for clinicians, and promoting better outcomes for patients. HCA Healthcare will continue to deploy PatientKeeper technology at its more than 180 hospitals across the country. For more than a decade, physicians at HCA Healthcare-affiliated hospitals have been using PatientKeeper to access a single view of their patients information across a variety of hospital systems, to streamline workflow, and to help improve patient care. As part of Commure, PatientKeeper will migrate to Commures cloud infrastructure, making it easier to develop and deploy modern software to serve clinicians, without compromising patient privacy and data security excellence. HCA Healthcare will license the Commure platform and will work with Commure and General Catalyst to develop new solutions for care providers with the same provider focus that has made PatientKeeper successful. We believe the combination of PatientKeepers physician-friendly clinical software and Commures modern cloud infrastructure and resources will help promote the development of state-of-the-art solutions more quickly than either could accomplish independently, said Sam Hazen, CEO of HCA Healthcre. Innovation and collaboration are key to our continual efforts to improve outcomes for our patients and the health of our communities. We look forward to working with General Catalyst in pursuit of this vision.



This is a new chapter of radical collaboration between venture capital and the healthcare industry, says Hemant Taneja, Managing Partner of General Catalyst and Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Commure. Commure benefits by having access to HCA Healthcares insights and real-world use cases from their more than 2000 care sites. And HCA Healthcare, now a shareholder in Commure, can tap the best innovations and ideas in the venture capital ecosystem. Its a win for all stakeholders. Were so excited to welcome the PatientKeeper team to the Commure family, and to work with HCA Healthcare on its digital transformation, along with the 50+ additional healthcare systems that also rely on PatientKeeper solutions, said Commure CEO Brent Dover. They have made incredible progress in bringing an empathetic mindset to the software they develop for their care teams. By combining that with Commures cloud-based approach, we can create an industry leading software platform that will power the next generation of health assurance products and companies.

In addition to the Commure/PatientKeeper partnership, General Catalyst and HCA Healthcare will collaborate on new ways to connect HCA Healthcare to other Silicon Valley innovations and technologies, and to enable HCA Healthcare to work together with GC and its ecosystem on co-development ideas and opportunities. About HCA Healthcare

Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nations leading providers of healthcare services comprising 187 hospitals and approximately 2,000 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44 percent. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its more than 32 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives. Please click here to connect with HCA Healthcare on social media. About General Catalyst

General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures  for our entrepreneurs, our investors, our people, and society. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, and Boston, the firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. For more: www.generalcatalyst.com . About Commure

Commure is building a universal platform and common architecture for open collaboration and people-first care. Partnering with large health systems and digital-first providers, Commure is weaving the fabric of tomorrows health ecosystem in service of connected care and collective wellbeing. Commure was founded in 2017 by General Catalyst Managing Partner Hemant Taneja, and is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit www.commure.com. About PatientKeeper, Inc.

PatientKeeper develops and delivers EHR optimization software. Our solutions streamline clinical and revenue cycle workflows for providers, care teams, billers and coders to improve patient care and operational performance. With PatientKeeper as the system of engagement complementing the EHR system-of-record, providers can easily access and act on all their patient information from smartphones, tablets and PCs. PatientKeeper has more than 75,000 active users today. For more information about PatientKeeper, visit www.patientkeeper.com or call (781) 373-6100. Contact

Jennifer Zimmerman

info@generalcatalyst.com



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[August 18, 2021] HTC-Backed VR Metaverse Highstreet Raises $5M in Its Latest Funding Round

VANCOUVER, BC, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Highstreet, the world's first commerce-centered metaverse with a decentralized finance marketplace for limited-edition products, has raised $5 million in funding. The funding round was led by crypto and traditional venture capital firms, including Mechanism Capital, NGC Ventures, Palm Drive Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Jump Trading, GBV, Panony and Shima Capital. Community builders and influencers such as Encrypt Club, Mr. Block and Miss Bitcoin participated as well. The funds will expand Highstreet's engineering team, especially on the Unity side, to weave all features into a sustainable commerce-based metaverse enabling the future of retail on the blockchain. Mobile and browser companion apps will be released in the market sooner, allowing users to access the metaverse anywhere. Highstreet World consists of explorable islands, with residential areas and various phygital products (digital assets pegged to real-world products) sold as nonfungible tokens. A key feature is Highstreet Market at the center of Highstreet City, which is a marketplace for redeemable limited-edition products, with every item having a physical equivalent. Highstreet Market's StreetSmart bonding curves ensure liquidity for the buyer at all times by using a smart contract vault. By tokenizing each individual product into ERC-20 tokens, Highstreet Market eliminates logistical overhead for alternative asset traders, ensuring that the real product comes directly from the merchant every time and only true collector have to handle it. With the help of companies such as HTC, Highstreet allows users and their friends to buy actual products through digital means, as well as shop and earn together.



"Highstreet is excited to have a diverse group of investors. Many believed e-commerce was the dusk of extravagant brand activations and storefronts. However, the excitement of shopping lives on in the metaverse. In a virtual world, brand expression is limitless. The ultimate retail experience will debut soon on Highstreet," said Travis Wu, CEO of Highstreet. Andrew Kang, managing partner at Mechanism Capital, said, "Retail consumers have shown increasing attention with digitally native goods, but most brands haven't been able to tap into this interest. Highstreet offers the potential for retail brands to generate interest among its customers innovatively through NFTs."

"We are fascinated by Highstreet's plan to combine NFTs with offline products. With brands entering into the space and looking for partnerships with NFTs, Highstreet has an edge to become a leader with the team's track record in virtual reality," said Tony Gu, founding partner of NGC Ventures. Seamon Chan, co-founder and managing partner at Palm Drive Capital, said, "We're excited to invest in Highstreet. We find it full of possibilities for digital investing through NFTs. Highstreet seizes the opportunity to stake its claim in the market of limited-edition goods, stabilizing the liquidity and value of collectibles. We believe there will be a growing demand for Highstreet's solution." "Highstreet is building the first metaverse that combines virtual reality and crypto, allowing brands to interact with users in an innovative way. We are excited to join this experiment with Highstreet," said Matt Cheng, founder of Cherubic Ventures. "The fact that NFTs and the metaverse are the keys to the Fourth Industrial Revolution is now being taken for granted. There are many projects that combine the metaverse and NFTs but none have been as serious as Highstreet. NFTs and the metaverse are elements complementing each other and we believe that Highstreet, which fuses both, will set a new standard," said Mai Fujimoto, also known as Miss Bitcoin. Alyssa Tsai, founder and CEO of Panony, said, "Highstreet aims to disrupt the metaverse, decentralized commerce and NFT markets. The team has years of experience, world-class resources and fast execution. We look forward to Highstreet's success." Highstreet has two subsidiaries, Sundance-backed LumiereVR Studio and Retinad Analytics, which were acquired in 2018 and use eye-tracking technology to transmit gaze data straight to brands as consumer insights. LumiereVR's computer vision team used mixed-reality experiences that turned underutilized real estate into immersive brand activations while Retinad Realite Virtuelle added built-in eye-tracking consumer insights. For more information, please visit its official website. About Highstreet Founded in 2015 by Travis Wu and Jenny Guo, Highstreet is a commerce-centric metaverse accessible on browsers and native PC VR. With veterans from VR, DeFi, fine art and hype markets, the mission of Highstreet is to bridge the gap between reality and the digital world and to redefine how financial products should be consumed and sold on the market. Players are able to form parties to explore a vast new world on the Highstreet interface, own and expand their virtual reality estates, and buy tokenized products from their favorite brands. To stay up to date, follow: Website: https://www.highstreet.market Medium: https://medium.com/highstreet-market Twitter: https://twitter.com/highstreetworld Telegram: https://t.me/highstreetworld Discord: https://discord.com/invite/439FhsrMu2 Media contact for brands: merchants@highstreet.market General inquiries: info@highstreet.market Related Images htc-backed-vr-metaverse-highstreet.jpg

HTC-backed VR metaverse Highstreet raises $5M in its latest funding round

VR Marketplace Highstreet Raises $5M in Latest Funding Round, Plans to Expand Unity Mobile Team View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/htc-backed-vr-metaverse-highstreet-raises-5m-in-its-latest-funding-round-301357921.html SOURCE Highstreet

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[August 18, 2021] New Area 1 Security Research Analyzes 31 Million Phish, Finding $354 Million in Potential Direct Losses

SAN MATEO, Calif., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Area 1 Security, the first and only preemptive cloud email security provider, published the results of "It Started Out With A Phish," a new study analyzing over 31 million threats across multiple organizations and industries, with new findings and warnings issued by technical experts that every organization should be aware of. On average, BEC requests sought $1.5 millionwith the median being $260K A key aspect to preventing attacks is having a deep understanding of cyber actor patterns and continuously monitoring and deconstructing campaigns to anticipate future ones. Phishing can be a profitable business model, and most breaches begin with a phishing email. What appears to be an innocent email from a trusted vendor or internal department can lead to firm-wide shutdowns, loss of crucial data, and millions in financial costs. As detailed in the report, threats ranging from Ransomware, Credential Harvesters to difficult-to-discover but costly Business Email Compromise (BEC) targeted inboxes, could have resulted in over $354 million in direct losses had they been successful. Unfortunately, organizations that failed to take the proper protective measures to safeguard their organizations became all too familiar with the unfortunate and costly lessons hese innocuous-looking phish presented, as supply chains and critical infrastructure came under attack within the US.



Key findings include: Nearly 9 percent of attacks used identity deception tactics such as spoofing, domain impersonation and display name impersonation. Other top tactics included credential harvesters (9.33 percent), compromised links (8.96 percent) and attachments (3.31 percent);

such as spoofing, domain impersonation and display name impersonation. Other top tactics included credential harvesters (9.33 percent), compromised links (8.96 percent) and attachments (3.31 percent); Just 10 brands accounted for over 56% of all spoof- and impersonation-based phishing attacks, with the World Health Organization (WHO), Google and Microsoft positioned as the top three most impersonated;

attacks, with the World Health Organization (WHO), Google and Microsoft positioned as the top three most impersonated; In some cases, these spoofed emails hid BEC attacks, which represented the most significant financial damage despite low volume (1.3% of threats). On average, BEC requests sought $1.5 million with the median being $260K ;

with the median being ; Despite organizations' attempts to negate risks through end-user training, more than 92% of user-reported phish were entirely benign spam or bulk mail, flooding IT teams with thousands of false alarms. While employees meant well with their reports, the real dangers often slipped undetected past outdated defense systems and looked legitimate enough to put even the most heightened guards at ease. For example, more than half a million threats were missed by email authentication (DMARC, SPF, DKIM) and legacy defense systems, which could have caused millions in disruptions and financial loss without interception.

"Cyber campaigns continue to be a tool for waging war against corporations, theft of intellectual property, and massive financial and data loss," said Patrick Sweeney, CEO at Area 1 Security. "Our research found that security awareness training is only beneficial from an educational perspective but not effective in stopping threats. Around 92% of user-reported phish are not malicious and actually benign, spam, or bulk mail, which often delays IT teams from discovering and stopping actual threats. The only solution is a preemptive, cloud-based, email security solution that prevents the phish from even hitting the inboxes." Area 1 Security's recommendations for effectively defending against cloud email threats include: Locking down identity : Secure accounts and identities by adding additional protection like multi-factor authentication (MFA). Never reuse passwords and always change default passwords.

: Secure accounts and identities by adding additional protection like multi-factor authentication (MFA). Never reuse passwords and always change default passwords. Establish protocols and procedures against financial fraud : Establish and train on procedures to prevent financial loss in the case of BEC and financial fraud, such as requiring multiple approvers or "out-of-band" vendor verifications for transferring funds to new accounts. Also, train them on what to do in case they fall for the phish.

: Establish and train on procedures to prevent financial loss in the case of BEC and financial fraud, such as requiring multiple approvers or "out-of-band" vendor verifications for transferring funds to new accounts. Also, train them on what to do in case they fall for the phish. Take a zero-trust approach with email: It's imperative to verify all communication that happens within email. Remove implicit trust by assessing the validity of messages beyond the sender to reduce risk from compromised partners. Choose a security system that can detect compromises and apply controls around compromised communications to extend zero-trust to email. To learn more, download the "It Started Out With A Phish" report here. About Area 1 Security

Area 1 Security is the only company that preemptively stops Business Email Compromise, malware, ransomware and targeted phishing attacks. By focusing on the earliest stages of an attack, Area 1 stops phish  the root cause of 95 percent of breaches  24 days (on average) before they launch. Area 1 also offers the cybersecurity industry's first and only performance-based pricing model, Pay-per-Phish. Area 1 is trusted by Fortune 500 enterprises across financial services, healthcare, critical infrastructure and other industries, to preempt targeted phishing attacks, improve their cybersecurity posture, and change outcomes. Area 1 is cloud-native, a Certified Microsoft Partner, and Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year for Security. To learn more, visit www.area1security.com, follow us on LinkedIn, or subscribe to the Phish of the Week newsletter for the latest industry news and insights on how to deal with phishing and email-borne threats. Media Contact:

Christina D. Warner

pr@area1security.com Marissa Tatro

marissa@cottagehousepr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-area-1-security-research-analyzes-31-million-phish-finding-354-million-in-potential-direct-losses-301357743.html SOURCE Area 1 Security

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[August 18, 2021] Coursera for Business Launches Leadership Academy to Deliver World-Class Management Training at Scale

Coursera, Inc. (NYSE: COUR) today announced the launch of its new Leadership Academy to help companies develop the next generation of leaders and high-performance teams amid a rapidly changing workplace, remote work, and back-to-office transitions. Offered as part of the company's enterprise platform Coursera for Business, the academy will feature content from the world's top universities and companies - taught by many leading instructors. Coursera's growing portfolio of Academies includes the Data and Analytics Academy, Cloud and IT Academy, Software Engineering Academy, Marketing Academy, Finance Academy, and now Leadership Academy. The academies are powered by recent innovations such as SkillSets, which help employees develop specific skills for specific roles. The Leadership Academy features 42 SkillSets, including Emotional Intelligence, Interpersonal Skills, Change Management, and Organizational Development. "The disruption and uncertainty caused by digital transformation, and the widespread adoption of hybrid work, have created new challenges for organizations. These challenges require leaders to keep pace as change accelerates," said Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer at Coursera. "We're excited to launch the Leadership Academy that provides teams across the organization with job-based skills development paths, and equips them with the growth mindset and human skills required to thrive in a digital economy." The Leadership Academy prepares employees for a range of different leadership roles by learning to: Lead Yourself - enable employees to develop leadership behaviors by obtaining a foundational understanding of management, change, and human skills.

- enable employees to develop leadership behaviors by obtaining a foundational understanding of management, change, and human skills. Lead Teams - develop team leadership capabilities by strengthening change, recognition, people development, and collaboration skills.

- develop team leadership capabilities by strengthening change, recognition, people development, and collaboration skills. Lead Organizations - build organizational leadership capabilities that empower leaders o grow people and profits.

- build organizational leadership capabilities that empower leaders o grow people and profits. Lead Transformation - develop workforce capabilities that empower all employees to adapt, innovate, and transform the business.



High Performance Collaboration - Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation by Professor Leigh Thompson from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern

Leigh Thompson from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern Communications Strategies for a Virtual Age by Ivan Wanis Ruiz from the University of Toronto

How to Manage a Remote Team by Darren Murph and Jessica Reeder from GitLab Inc.

High Stakes Leadership: Leading in Times of Crisis by Professor Mike Barger from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Enterprise cloud data management company Informatica is among the first to embrace the Leadership Academy.

"The notion that great leaders are born, not made, is misleading. An important part of leadership development is the realization that there are component skills that can be learned and mastered," said Matt Dearmon, Director of Leadership and Professional Development at Informatica. "As the world keeps changing, we need to support leaders at every level of our organizations with the types of targeted, reliable skills that form the basis of the Leadership Academy. We're excited to leverage this Academy to help deliver skills-focused leadership training that is both scalable and personalized to the needs of the learner. We can meet them where they are and help take them where they want to be." Starting today, the Leadership Academy will become broadly available to all Coursera for Business customers. Coursera for Business provides more than 2,000 companies worldwide with role-based skills development, including hands-on learning, measurement, benchmarking, and analytics. To learn more about Coursera Academies, visit: www.coursera.org/business/leadership-academy. About Coursera Coursera was launched in 2012 by two Stanford Computer Science professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. It is now one of the largest online learning platforms in the world, with 87 million registered learners as of June 30, 2021. Coursera partners with over 200 leading university and industry partners to offer a broad catalog of content and credentials, including Guided Projects, courses, Specializations, certificates, and bachelor's and master's degrees. More than 6,000 institutions around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees, citizens, and students in many high-demand fields, including data science, technology, and business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005195/en/

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[August 18, 2021] EQUITY ALERT: ROSEN, A TOP RANKED LAW FIRM, Encourages SelectQuote, Inc. Investors with Losses to Secure Counsel Before Important Deadline - SLQT

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the securities of SelectQuote, Inc. (NYSE: SLQT) between February 8, 2021 and May 11, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 15, 2021. SO WHAT: If you purchased SelectQuote securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the SelectQuote class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2145.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 15, 2021. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securites class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.



DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) SelectQuote's 2019 cohort was underperforming; (2) a result, the Company's financial results would be adversely impacted; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the SelectQuote class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2145.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn (News - Alert) : https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter (News - Alert) : https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook (News - Alert) : https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005517/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Zinnov Awards 2021 celebrates the Titans in Tech - trailblazing individuals and organizations at the forefront of technology and innovation

- Zinnov hosts its annual Awards for the 12th consecutive year, celebrating exceptional individuals and organizations who have made a positive impact on the technology ecosystem - The 2021 edition of the Awards honors distinguished leaders and teams across the technology ecosystem - Global Centers of Excellence (GCoEs), Indian MNCs, and Start-ups BANGALORE, India, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zinnov, a leading global management consulting firm, hosted the 12th edition of its marquee awards today and announced the winners across 8 categories. Owing to the pandemic, the event was hosted virtually for the second year, and had individual winners and representatives from winning organizations acknowledging the Awards digitally. The 2021 edition of Zinnov Awards recognized the titans of tech, the champions of change, the visionaries, and the trailblazers in the Indian technology ecosystem. These winners are both individuals and companies who have had their mettle tested both during COVID and beyond. The goal is to celebrate the courage, perseverance, and resilience of not only the well-established players, but also the smaller and upcoming names in the industry. The virtual gathering included 1000+ leaders, technology practitioners, thought leaders, and the families of the winners who came out to celebrate the technology fraternity and the ecosystem in full strength. Zinnov Awards continues to be the acknowledged gold standard in recognizing the outstanding achievements and pivotal contributions of GCoEs, Indian MNCs, and Start-ups. This year saw an overwhelming response with 375+ nominations from 150+ companies across 8 award categories. 46 seasoned industry leaders served as jurors and selected 27 individuals and companies in total, to be recipients of the prestigious awards. Award Categories and Winners Category 1: Unlocking Centre Value: This category is a company-wide award that recognizes those companies that have rapidly evolved from being a pure-play cost center to a value-creation center. Winners: ER&D

Samsung R&D Institute India



Pegasystems

Enterprise IT

HSBC Software Development India Private Limited Category 2: Great Place to Innovate: This category is a company-wide award to recognize GCoEs that are focused on value creation from the India center and have made concerted efforts across five key areas of innovation - Organization Charter, Culture, Internal Programs & Processes, External Linkages, and Innovation Metrics. GCoEs are assessed on the nature and type of transformation, the drivers, the key milestones, and metrics achieved and the key outcomes - across ER&D, IT, BSFI, and GBS teams. Winners: Emerging

AB InBev - GCC Services India Private Limited



Honeywell Technology Solutions (HTS) Categry 3: Impact Award - Sustainability and COVID Response: This category is a company-wide award for organizations that have gone above and beyond to deliver on the mandates of Environmental, Social, and Governance sustainability. This was focused on organizations that have shown significant efforts and impact in responding to the COVID crisis. Factors assessed include implementation of initiatives, measurement of metrics and KPIs, and team structure and processes to deliver on sustainability agendas for the organization.



Winners: HSBC Software Development India Private Limited

PepsiCo Hyderabad Category 4: Inclusion & Diversity: A company-wide award, this recognizes organizations that have established programs and are the gold standards for Inclusion and Diversity in India, across four major drivers of Inclusion, namely, People, People Processes, Operational Enablement, and Ecosystem Engagements.

Winners: Women

Micron Technology Operations India LLP

Women & Beyond

Intel India Private Limited



Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India Category 5: Excellence in Remote Talent Management: This category is a company-wide award for organizations that have successfully managed to keep their remote workforce engaged, productive, and connected during the pandemic. It gauges the efficacy of the strategies implemented and the programs in place that measure the effectiveness of talent management and performance of employees and processes, as well as compensation and incentive programs. NetApp India Private Limited

AB InBev - GCC Services India Private Limited Category 6: Aatmanirbhar Award: This category is a company-wide award category that recognizes organizations that have created large-scale impact by conceptualizing, designing, developing, and manufacturing products from India. The award focuses on the drivers, key metrics, and milestones achieved, and the key outcomes derived through such technology innovations for both Software as well as for Hardware products. Winners: Continental Technical Centre India

Siemens Healthineers, India

Jury Special Mention

Fidelity Information Services India Private Limited Category 7: Next Generation Women Leaders: An individual contributor award, this felicitates women leaders in technology GCoEs who have created large-scale impact through their business, leadership, and/or technology expertise. This year, two sub-categories were created to recognize women leaders in Business/Technology and Corporate Functions. Winners: Business & Technology Leader

Vinita Gera - Dell Technologies

- Dell Technologies

Sirisha Arza - Continental Technical Centre India

- Continental Technical Centre India

Srikripa Srinivasan - Dell Technologies

- Dell Technologies Corporate Function Leader

Dr. Urmi Chatterjee - Honeywell Technology Solutions (HTS)

- Honeywell Technology Solutions (HTS)

Protima Achaya - NetApp India Private Limited Category 8: Technical Role Model: This is an individual contributor award that recognizes those individuals who have been technology stalwarts and star contributors to the internal and external technology ecosystems. This year, two sub-categories were created to recognize technologists who have created a significant impact in Artificial Intelligence & Big Data Analytics (AI & BDA) and Intelligent Automation (IA). Winners: Established (Senior Level)

Venkateswaran Perumal - Stryker Global Technology Center

- Stryker Global Technology Center

Prasoon Kumar Sinha - Dell Technologies Established (Mid-Level)

Vaibhav Kumar Somani - Collins Aerospace

- Collins Aerospace

Gowtham Chakkarapani - Continental Technical Centre India Emerging (AI & BDA Senior Level)

Nitendra Rajput - Mastercard Emerging (AI & BDA Mid-Level)

Dr. Satya Kumar Vankayala - Samsung R&D Institute India Emerging (Intelligent Automation Mid-Level)

Vinod Elangovan - AB InBev GCC Services India Private Limited About Zinnov Founded in 2002, Zinnov is a leading global management and strategy consulting firm, with presence in Santa Clara, Houston, Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Paris. Over the past 18 years, Zinnov has successfully consulted with over 250+ Fortune 500 enterprises and technology companies to develop actionable insights that help them create value - across dimensions of both revenue and optimization. With core expertise in Product Engineering, Digital Transformation, Innovation, and Outsourcing Advisory, Zinnov assists clients by: Enabling global companies to develop and optimize a global engineering footprint through center setups, and technology and functional accelerators to achieve higher R&D efficiencies, innovation, and productivity.

Advising global PE firms in asset shortlisting and target evaluation, commercial due diligence, and value creation.

Growing revenue for companies' products and services in newer markets through account intelligence, market entry, and market expansion advisory.

Structuring and implementing Digital Transformation levers enabled by technologies like AI/ML, Cloud, IOT, and RPA.

Helping global companies outline and drive their open innovation programs, design, and operate accelerator programs, and enable collaboration with start-ups across specific use cases and predefined outcomes. With their team of experienced consultants, subject matter experts, and research professionals, Zinnov serves clients from across multiple industry verticals including Enterprise Software, BFSI, Healthcare, Automotive, Retail, and Telecom in the US, Europe, Japan, and India. For more information, visit http://zinnov.com. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/694742/Zinnov_Logo.jpg

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[August 18, 2021] Sedulous Consulting Services and Infinity Support Services Merge to support Government Contractors and Commercial Firms in the Cybersecurity and IT Space

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's acquisition of Infinity Support Services by Sedulous Consulting Services brings together three minority veterans of the cybersecurity, IT and logistics space, with over 90 years of collective experience in the US military and private sector. The merger comes as Congress approves an historic and bipartisan $550 Billion infrastructure bill, and in June the Senate directed $250 Billion for basic and advanced technology research. Senate Passage of Infrastructure Bill Accelerates Merger Activity in Cybersecurity and Government Consulting Market "Now was the best time to merges these two great minority owned companies to inspire innovative, secure, sustainable technology in the interest of global,social and economic evolution," says Omar Dennis, the founder, president and CEO of Sedulous Consulting Services. "We're at the sweet spot of innovation and growth within the public sector, as more governments and companies seek out our help, especially in cybersecurity."



The new Congressional appropriations include $1 billion in state and local cybersecurity grants and $550 million for securing the electricity grid, with several provisions for funding cybersecurity research, sector risk management, and establishing the Office of the National Cyber Director. "This is a watershed moment for cybersecurity," Dennis added. "These investments by Congress come at a vital time, given that the glaring holes of so many vulnerable, critical infrastructure systems of government agencies that are being targeted by cybercriminals." The merger brings together three veterans of the United States Marine Corps with vast experience in the government and commercial sectors. Infinity Support Services was started by Lindo Bradley in 2011 after a distinguished30-year career as a Marine Corps civilian, responsible for procurement authorization and program management worldwide, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Bradley will now retire his firm, merging it into Sedulous Consulting Services, formed in 2016 by two Marine Corps veterans, Omar Dennis and James Villa, who both joined the Marine Corps after high school and served domestically and overseas in various mission-critical capacities, alongside Bradley.

"This is a merger of equals," says Bradley. "I'm leaving my company in the capable hands of two gentlemen I've worked with forever and trust will take it to an entirely different level." Dennis responds, optimistically: "Yes, to a $100 million company..Lindo leaves us in the position to greatly expand our capabilities in the government contracting space, and truly help our clients bolster their cybersecurity capabilities and properly protect their systems from the highly sophisticated and rapidly evolving threat landscape." FOR PRESS ENQUIRIES:

John Arundel @ Perdicus PR

(703) 963-4191

john@perdicuspr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sedulous-consulting-services-and-infinity-support-services-merge-to-support-government-contractors-and-commercial-firms-in-the-cybersecurity-and-it-space-301358111.html SOURCE Sedulous Consulting Services

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[August 18, 2021] Harris Williams Advises Myers Emergency Power Systems on its Sale to Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C.

Harris Williams, a global investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, announces it advised Myers Emergency Power Systems (Myers EPS), a portfolio company of Graham Partners, on its sale to Kohlberg & Company, L.L.C. (Kohlberg). Myers EPS is a leading provider of mission-critical, legally mandated emergency power and smart controls technologies. The transaction was led by Eric Logue, Giles Tucker and Chris Toussaint of the Harris Williams Industrials Group and Michael Tuohey of the firm's Richmond office. "Myers EPS is a market leader providing differentiated technologies to highly attractive end markets. The management team has done a fantastic job driving product innovations that are shaping the future of their market," said Eric Logue, a managing director at Harris Williams. "We are thrilled to have found Myers EPS a great partner in Kohlberg to continue executing on management's vision." "It has been a privilege representing both Graham Partners and Myers EPS' management team on this transaction, and we are excited to have delivered an extraordinary outcome for the company and its shareholders," said Giles Tucker, a managing director at Harris Williams. "There continues to be significant interest in highly engineered, mission-critical industrial technology companies, and yers EPS represents another marquee transaction for Harris Williams in the industrial technology sector."



Myers EPS is a leading provider of highly engineered emergency backup power technologies serving a wide variety of growing and resilient industry segments, including data centers, warehouse and distribution centers, healthcare, education, and others. The company is a technology leader focused on developing innovative offerings that meet and surpass ever-changing industry demands and requirements, including smart IoT and sustainable offerings, delivering unparalleled ROI for customers. Headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Myers EPS employs over 160 employees across their Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and San Leandro, California facilities. Graham Partners is a private investment firm focused on investing in technology-driven companies that are spurring innovation in advanced manufacturing, resulting in product substitutions, raw materials conversions and disruptions to traditional end markets. Graham Partners targets companies with EBITDA between $5 million and $50 million and will invest in smaller companies to the extent they complement one or more of its other holdings. Since the firm's founding in 1988 by Steven Graham, Graham Partners has closed over 130 acquisitions, joint ventures, financings and divestitures. The committed capital raised since inception through the Graham Partners funds, together with Graham-led co-investments, totals approximately $3.4 billion, which differs from regulatory assets under management. Investors include university endowments, charitable foundations, financial institutions and private investors. Based in suburban Philadelphia, the firm has access to extensive operating resources and industrial expertise and is a member of The Graham Group, an alliance of independent operating businesses, investment firms and philanthropic entities, which all share in the common legacy of entrepreneur Donald Graham.

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 over $10 billion of committed equity capital. Over its 34-year history, Kohlberg has completed 85 platform investments and over 200 add-on acquisitions, with an aggregate transaction value of nearly $30 billion. Harris Williams, an investment bank specializing in M&A advisory services, advocates for sellers and buyers of companies worldwide through critical milestones and provides thoughtful advice during the lives of their businesses. By collaborating as one firm across Industry Groups and geographies, the firm helps its clients achieve outcomes that support their objectives and strategically create value. Harris Williams is committed to execution excellence and to building enduring, valued relationships that are based on mutual trust. Harris Williams is a subsidiary of the PNC (News - Alert) Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). The Harris Williams Industrials Group has experience across a variety of sectors, including advanced manufacturing; building products; chemicals and specialty materials; industrial technology; and packaging. For more information on the firm's Industrials Group and other recent transactions, visit the Industrials Group's section of the Harris Williams website. Harris Williams LLC is a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Harris Williams & Co. Ltd is a private limited company incorporated under English law with its registered office at 8th Floor, 20 Farringdon Street, London EC4A 4AB, UK, registered with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales (registration number 07078852). Harris Williams & Co. Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Harris Williams & Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH is registered in the commercial register of the local court of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under HRB 107540. The registered address is Bockenheimer Landstrasse 33-35, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany (email address: hwgermany@harriswilliams.com). Geschaftsfuhrer/Directors: Jeffery H. Perkins, Paul Poggi. (VAT No. DE321666994). Harris Williams is a trade name under which Harris Williams LLC, Harris Williams & Co. Ltd and Harris Williams & Co. Corporate Finance Advisors GmbH conduct business. For media inquiries, please contact Julia Moore at media@harriswilliams.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005548/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Uno Pizzeria & Grill Launches on Paytronix's All-in-One Customer Engagement Platform

NEWTON, Mass., Aug. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paytronix Systems, Inc., the most advanced digital guest experience platform, today announced its partnership with Uno Pizzeria & Grill. The beloved Chicago-based brand has implemented the full Paytronix guest engagement platform, including Order & Delivery, Loyalty, and Data Insights. The partnership coincides with the rollout of a new Unos concept that captures the nostalgic look and feel of the original Pizzeria Uno, which was founded in Chicago in 1943.

With the all-in-one Paytronix platform, Uno Pizzeria & Grill delivers seamless guest experiences from order to payment, whether they happen on-premises, online, or through the Paytronix-built branded mobile app. The underlying layer of artificial intelligence powering these solutions provides the Unos team with new insights that can be used to surprise and delight guests time and time again. Paytronix has enabled us to combine ordering and loyalty in one place, and adding the Data Insights program is one of the smartest things weve done, said Eric Frederick, CEO of Uno Pizzeria & Grill. When it comes to technology, its important not only to look at how it functions, but also to have the AI tools that help our team gain a deeper understanding of the data in a way that makes us even more successful. /p>



The technological facelift has been especially notable at the newest Unos concept, a fast-casual restaurant that launched earlier this year in Highland, Indiana. It focuses on counter service, takeout, and delivery.

Just one month after introducing the Uno Extras loyalty program, the brand was already exceeding industry benchmarks, with nearly 1,000 guests signing up each day. More than 35% of those signups werent previously in the companys internal database, indicating that the novel tech stack has opened a new customer acquisition channel for the well-established brand. Guests who are members of the Uno Extras loyalty program earn five points for every $1 spent and get a $10 reward after accumulating 800 points. They also earn rewards at signup and each year on their birthday. This is a major change from what we had, said Regina Jerome, Senior Vice President of IT for Unos. In the past, we just offered transactional coupons through email, but now we are developing relationships with our guests. Were also gaining the intelligence behind our guests preferences, so we can target them with the right offer at the right time with the goal of staying top of mind for them whenever they have a pizza occasion. Paytronix Systems, Inc.

Based in Newton, Massachusetts, Paytronix is a provider of SaaS customer experience management (CXM) solutions for restaurants and convenience stores. Through its innovative software design and integrations with more than 30 widely used point-of-sale systems, Paytronix empowers more than 500 brands across 30,000 locations, giving them the flexibility to deliver unique, revenue-enhancing guest experiences. Through one-to-one engagement with more than 285 million guests via Order & Delivery, Loyalty, CRM, and Stored Value, Paytronix generates Big Data consumer insights that motivate increased visits and spend. For more information, visit www.paytronix.com . A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c20df4db-8800-4bd5-aa54-ed81423a35a6

Media Contact: Chuck Tanowitz Paytronix Systems, Inc. ctanowitz@paytronix.com 617-871-2319

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[August 18, 2021] Linux Foundation's InterUSS Adopted by Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation to Meet European U-Space Requirements for Unmanned Aircraft

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- InterUSS, a Linux Foundation open source project that enables trusted, secure and scalable interoperability to advance safe, equitable and efficient drone operations, today announced the launch of the network remote identification service (NET-RID). The new feature meets the European U-Space Regulation established by the European Union Safety Council, which will be enforced beginning January 2023. Switzerland is the first country to fully implement the network remote identification service, which can be used by any drone operator and was developed in collaboration among the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation, Swiss U-Space Implementation (SUSI) membersand Wing (represented on the InterUSS board) to support information sharing about drone operations in the Swiss airspace. "The development of Unmanned Aircraft Systems is well underway and exciting applications are emerging in geographies all over the world," said Reinaldo Negron, Head of UTM at Wing and InterUSS Board Member. "Traditionally, aviation has been served by proprietary technologies. InterUSS is an operational example of bringing open source technologies based on internationally recognised standards to aviation and working on its development together. We are encouraged to see this advance led by industry in consultation with FOCA." "The InterUSS open source project allows us to work fast and meets all our requirements for interoperability," said Benoit Curdy, Digital Transformation Architect, Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation. "Switzerland is proud to actively contribute to increased safety and interoperability for drone operations in an open and collaborative way. We look forward to partnering with other governments and industries as they join this effort to safely advance the UAS industry." The Swiss NET-RID service leverages InterUSS for its standards-based interoperability capabilities, connecting those who need or want information about a drone flying in a certai area, like a law enforcement agent or curious neighbor, with people who have data relevant to that area, like a U-space service provider. The ability for service providers to securely and safely share information with one another enables broader participation from a wide range of service providers. Wing and other SUSI Members host the InterUSS instance to support information sharing between 7 software applications. Interested parties in the country can use any of these approved applications to participate in the NET-RID roll-out.



InterUSS is hosted at the Linux Foundation and provides a forum for collaboration and development of standards-compliant, open source implementations that facilitate communication in the U-Space/UTM environment. It supports a range of UTM / U-Space services by facilitating communications between USSs and implements the Discovery and Synchronization Service (DSS) defined in the ASTM Remote ID standard. It enables a USS to discover other USSs from which it needs to obtain information about flights and constraints in the airspace, and it provides mechanisms that require a USS to prove that it is aware of those flights and constraints. The InterUSS Platform accomplishes these functions without requiring any personally identifiable information and enables the USSs to share data only when necessary. The InterUSS platform was developed by industry in consultation with regulators and standards bodies around the world. It also provides a framework for interoperability in NASA's UTM Technology Capability level demonstrations and the FAA's UTM pilot program. To get involved in the project, please visit: https://interuss.org/

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation's projects are critical to the world's infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js and more. The Linux Foundation's methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org. The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage . Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Media Contact

Jennifer Cloer

jennifer@storychangesculture.com

503-867-2304 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/linux-foundations-interuss-adopted-by-swiss-federal-office-of-civil-aviation-to-meet-european-u-space-requirements-for-unmanned-aircraft-301357803.html SOURCE The Linux Foundation

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[August 18, 2021] Riverside.fm launches iPhone app, automated editing tools, video transcription, high-quality screen share recording, and more

SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Riverside.fm , the remote video and podcast creation platform that records each participants' audio and 4K visuals on their device so that a bad internet connection won't affect recording quality, has upgraded its offering and officially launched Riverside 2.0! Riverside 2.0 will enable you to take your remote video creation to the next level, and includes the following new capabilities: Convert your videos and podcasts into text in seconds with automatic transcriptions! Instead of having to type out everything that was said, let Riverside.fm's automatic transcription do it for you, so you can search your recording for the memorable quotes, instantly. Invite your guests to record from anywhere with our iPhone app! Guests can now join the studio anytime and anywhere in just a few clicks with Riverside.fm's iPhone app ! Download your guest's HD recording, even if they have questionable wifi. Riverside.fm's app is the first iOS app that can record and upload the audio and video tracks simultaneously, ensuring that the recordings are transferred almost as soon as the session is finished. Cut down hours on editing time with the Magic Editor Riverside.fm's Magic Editor automates the editing process by merging separate tracks together into a full HD split-screen video, rmoving unwanted noise and distractions, and normalizes all guests' gain, all in just a couple of clicks.



With the Magic Editor you can also customize the layout and video cropping to better suit your needs. You can add a logo, and upload a custom background, or choose one of our expert-designed backgrounds so you can have professional-looking content in no time! Automatically highlight active speakers in full screen with AI Speaker View! Riverside.fm scans the audio tracks of a video to determine who is speaking, and then anticipates the picture switch between contributors 1 second before they're about to speak, so you have seamless transitions between participants.

AI Speaker View also cuts out any unintended interferences, like coughs or sneezes, and doesn't switch the video to the interruption, preventing choppy camera back and forth, and saving you a ton of editing time. Riverside is the first in the world to automate this process. Record your screen-share in up to 1080p You can now record your screen-share in real-time in up to 1080p resolution! You'll be able to download your screen-share as a separate MP4 or constant frame rate MP4 file, as well as the internet recording as a reference track, so you can edit all the separate local tracks together. The screen-share recordings can be edited in the Magic Editor, of course! An important step towards the company's vision

With its latest features, Riverside continues to strive to create the ultimate content creation platform . In addition to its latest advancements and Riverside.fm's unique ability to record lossless audio and 4K video tracks independent of internet connection speeds, users can: Download separate audio and video tracks perfectly in sync with no software installation required

Add pre-recorded audio and video clips to your recording or live stream using Riverside's integrated Media Board , saving time in post-production

, saving time in post-production Achieve lightning-fast uploads that start upon recording and continue in the background throughout the session At the end of the recording session, both the video and audio files are automatically downloaded without contributors having to manually send files from their end. "Riverside's local recording engines can cope with poor Internet connections and enables interviewers, from their own homes, to look and sound as if they're using a million-dollar studio. We've given the platform a user-friendly interface with all the capabilities to make the recording, producing and publishing of podcasts as no platform has ever done before," Nadav Keyson, Riverside.fm's CEO and co-founder said in a statement. About Riverside.fm

Riverside.fm is the first video creation platform that enables local recording of audio and 4K video tracks independent of internet connection. The company already helps many of the world's largest media brands and celebrities, like Disney, BBC, Bloomberg, Spotify, Marvel, Hillary Clinton, Fox Sports, and Verizon Media, to record studio-quality interviews from anywhere, with no loss in recording quality. Riverside.fm has raised $12 million to date from investors including Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, How I Built This host Guy Raz, and Silicon Valley investor Oren Zeev, among others. For media inquiries and questions, contact:

Adi Pick

adi@riverside.fm Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1595388/Riverside_platform.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1595387/Riverside_logo.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riversidefm-launches-iphone-app-automated-editing-tools-video-transcription-high-quality-screen-share-recording-and-more-301358053.html SOURCE Riverside.fm

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[August 18, 2021] SnappConner PR Appoints Mark Fredrickson to President; Continues Expansion with New Clients, Boise, Idaho, Presence

After guiding its client base and team through the business seasons of the COVID pandemic, SnappConner PR (News - Alert) (SnappConner.com) has achieved high growth in the latter quarters of 2020 and is continuing its expansion in 2021. Within that growth, the company has appointed Mark Fredrickson, APR, to the role of President, heading up the agency's operations from its South Jordan, Utah, headquarters. Fredrickson has been a member of SnappConner PR for six years, since joining the company as Vice President in February 2015 and becoming Chief Operating Officer in March 2017. Fredrickson is a veteran PR practitioner with advanced experience in marketing and ecommerce. He helps companies increase revenue, enhance their brands and improve customer acquisition and retention through strategic marketing and PR plans. Prior to SnappConner PR, he led successful campaigns for Naartjie Kids as well as TechMediaNetwork (Purch), NextPage and WiLife in the technology space. Fredrickson is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America. He earned his bachelor's degree in Public Relations from Brigham Young University. Cheryl Conner, SnappConner PR's founder, will continue to serve as Chairman and CEO, working with agency clients, business development, and heading up the company's expandig presence in the Boise, Idaho, region.



"I have had the privilege of working with Mark Fredrickson for more than a decade, beginning with our joint roles in the Communications and Marketing functions of the Utah Technology Council (UTC) and continuing through the prior six years of focused activity together at the helm of SnappConner PR. Mark is a consummate professional and PR expert. His expanded leadership will be a strong asset to the company's continued growth and quality of execution in 2021 and beyond," Conner said. "We've built a tremendous team to help clients shine in this unique communications landscape," said Fredrickson. "I'm excited to continue to work with Cheryl and lead SnappConner PR in delivering massive value to our clients."

The newest SnappConner PR agency clients include the following organizations: Avetta

Avii

Exit IQ

Exponential AI

Gabb Wireless

guardDog.ai

Mystery Escape Room

Nightingale College

TAB Bank

Teoma Global

Vasayo

Visible Supply Chain Management

Xenter Agency founder Cheryl Snapp Conner is author of the Forbes ebook Beyond Words: Communicate Like a Champ in the Digital Age, available upon request from SnappConner PR. The agency's free eBook, The Definitive Guide to Thought Leadership, is available as a download from www.snappconner.com. About SnappConner PR ? SnappConner PR is reinventing traditional PR through programs that influence the complete realm of business communications as a core business strategy for today's organizations. We provide clients throughout the United States with programs that converge and align communications media including traditional PR, thought leadership, social media and content management for optimal business results. For more information about SnappConner PR, please visit www.snappconner.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005056/en/

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[August 18, 2021] STEAM PARK at Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum Debuts in August

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine discovering the inner workings of a 17th century time switch clock or gazing at a 16-foot-tall ball maze within a beautiful arched window in Ann Arbor's original firehouse. This two-story gallery with the inner workings of engineering concepts and more awaits exploration this August at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum's debut of STEAM PARK. STEAM PARK is a gallery consisting of 23 individual exhibits created in collaboration with Toyota engineers in Ann Arbor. The exhibits are designed for hands-on engagement that reveal through clear plexiglass the mechanical marvels normally hidden from sight. Exhibits explore simple machines, structures, aerodynamics, mechanical movement and more. "STEAM PARK provides multiple moments of discovery for visitors of all ages, revealing the awe and wonder of science, technology, engineering and math through arts-inspired hands-on experiences," said Mel Drumm, president and CEO of the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. "Through an immersive and interactive experience, we hope to spark interest and inspire youth to explore the engineered world." STEAM PARK was made possible by grants from the Toyota USA Foundation and Toyota Motor North America totaling $1.5 million. For nearly two decades, Toyota's Research & Development located in Michigan has collaborated on several initiatives with Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, which serves close to 400,000 visitors annually across the state. This long-standing collaboration underscores Toyota's commitment to the communities it serves while inspiring the next generation towards STEAM. "As Toyota transitions to a mobility company, we think that the STEAM Park really aligns with our fundamentals," said Jeff Makarewicz, group vice president and Toyota USA Foundation director. "Through new connected, automated and electrification technologies, we are trying to solve some of the world's most critical problems, but we can't do it aloe. We need to inspire the next generation of innovators and problem solvers, and that is what STEAM Park does."



In addition to opening STEAM PARK, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is working to refresh the popular preschool gallery. Toyota's funding will support its renovation, which will be called STEAM PLAY, and the creation of new preschool exhibits. STEAM PARK exhibits include:

Time Switch Cuckoo Clock: A unique art piece, this exhibit invites exploration and interaction with a range of mechanical and electric technologies that span over 500 years from the first mechanical clocks of the late Middle Ages to the current electronic technologies we depend upon today.

A unique art piece, this exhibit invites exploration and interaction with a range of mechanical and electric technologies that span over 500 years from the first mechanical clocks of the late Middle Ages to the current electronic technologies we depend upon today. Roulette Curves: The world's first-of-its-kind digital logarithmic spiral drawing tool machine. Visitors create beautiful repeating patterns by picking from an array of colored line widths.

The world's first-of-its-kind digital logarithmic spiral drawing tool machine. Visitors create beautiful repeating patterns by picking from an array of colored line widths. Propeller Chair: Visitors work to hoist themselves in a chair up to the ceiling and slowly propel down to experience the slow decent with gravity. STEAM PARK is included with regular admission to the museum. Admission is $16 per person, free for members and $3 each (for up to 6 people) for those holding EBT cards. Special discount membership packages will be available on opening weekend, and for a special discounted weekend in September. Normal Museum hours are Tuesday through Thursday, and Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. To learn more about the development of the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum STEAM Park, click here: Toyota Sparks Interest in STEAM With a Hands-on Experience. About the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum

Offering more than 250 interactive exhibits, the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum attracts nearly 300,000 visitors annually creating moments of discovery that inspire curiosity, exploration and respect for STEM and the natural world. In addition to exhibits and engaging programming, the Museum and our Leslie Science & Nature Center offers award-winning distance learning, nature, and outreach programming for schools and libraries statewide and around the world. The Museum is the founder of the Unity in Learning Initiative, the regional gateway to hands-on discovery, exploration of the natural world, and experiences that take flight. Visit www.aahom.org or call 734.995.5439 for information. About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands plus our 1,800 dealerships. Toyota has created a tremendous value chain and directly employs more than 47,000 in North America. The company has contributed world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama that begins production in 2021. The Toyota USA Foundation is a charitable endowment created to support education programs serving kindergarten through 12th-grade students and their teachers in the United States, with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Media Contacts

TOYOTA

Praveena Ramaswami

Praveena.ramaswami@toyota.com Ann Arbor Hands On Museum

Sara Brintnall

sbrintnall@aahom.org View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/steam-park-at-ann-arbor-hands-on-museum-debuts-in-august-301358139.html SOURCE Toyota Motor North America

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[August 18, 2021] Metrospaces Acquires $3.85 Million Houston Office Building

Metrospaces, Inc. (OTC: MSPC), a PropTech company powered by Shokworks, has acquired a 50.6% equity stake in a 60,295 square-foot Houston, Texas, office building as a component in the company's plans to revolutionize tokenized real estate opportunities through its new blockchain-fueled platform. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005568/en/ Metrospaces, Inc. (OTC: MSPC), a PropTech company powered by Shokworks, has acquired a 50.6% equity stake in a 60,295 square-foot Houston, Texas, office building as a component in the company's plans to revolutionize tokenized real estate opportunities through its new blockchain-fueled platform. Located in a brgeoning area of Houston adjacent to Spring at 3303 FM 1960, the Brazos Atrium building is a Class-B space with a current occupancy rate of approximately 99%, made up predominantly of small businesses and nonprofits. (Photo: Business Wire)



Located in a burgeoning area of Houston adjacent to Spring at 3303 FM 1960, the Brazos Atrium building is a Class-B space with a current occupancy rate of approximately 99%, made up predominantly of small businesses and nonprofits. The building was acquired at a 12% capitalization rate and represents significant potential upside due to the possibility to adjust rentroll to market-level rates. Additionally, the acquisition will turn Metrospaces EBITDA-positive.

"The Brazos Atrium project is an exciting potential case-study for the tokenization platform we've designed for Metrospaces," explained Shokworks CEO Alejandro Laplana. The tokenization platform is expected to launch later this year. Metrospaces CEO Oscar Brito and Laplana see exceptional growth opportunities through the tokenization platform. "We believe once our platform is fully launched, we can not only provide exceptional liquidity opportunities for third-party clients, but we will also be able to utilize the platform as principals, bringing additional liquidity to the Metrospaces balance sheet as we continue to acquire and improve commercial assets," said Brito. The acquisition is a part of Metrospaces' strategic plan to secure assets with high liquidity positions in high growth markets such as Texas and Florida. "There will clearly be some very exciting opportunities for arbitrage between the private real estate market and the market driven by tokenization," Brito said. "We want to be right in the middle of that industry. We believe that this, added to tokenizing third-party assets as a service, will revolutionize real estate capital markets." In addition to the tokenization case-study, Metrospaces plans to utilize this and other hard assets to explore further PropTech initiatives, including state of the art IoT improvements including building management tools, security system and blockchain integration. The building is positioned to take advantage of solar tax credits and create value from electricity generation. Financing for the project was secured by Tina Poindexter, SVP of Veritex Community Bank. "We were impressed with the hard work and execution of the underwriting and business development team at Veritex Community Bank, in particular with Tina Poindexter," explained Brito. "It is our hope to partner with the Veritex team on many future projects." Safe Harbor Statement: Statements in this news release may be "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that express our intentions, beliefs, expectations, strategies, predictions or any other statements relating to our future activities or other future events or conditions. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our 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. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and are likely to, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release and Metrospaces Inc. undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this news release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005568/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Tiger Pistol Named to Inc. 5000 List for Second Straight Year

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. Magazine recently revealed that Tiger Pistol , the only collaborative social advertising platform that delivers local activation at global scale, is ranked No. 3614 on its Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. "We are honored to once again be recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies in the country, and in the top 300 companies in the advertising and marketing space," said Paul Elliott, CEO, Tiger Pistol. "I am incredibly proud of our team's accomplishments. During a time when the economy as a whole only grew 15 percent, Tiger Pistol's commitment to innovation and clients continues to fuel strong growth and ongoing client loyalty. We partner with our clients in 22 global markets and we will launch more than 500,000 campaigns globally this year." Donny Dye, Tiger Pistol's Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, attributes the company's success to its ongoing focus on strengthening our product offerings and expanding into new industry verticals and emerging markets. "Too many times, marketers are told that collaborating with their channel partners is too complex or even impossible. This could not be further from the truth. Not only is this collaboration the core of the Tiger Pistol platform, but we believe it is vital for engaging today's consumers who are now purchasing via curbside pickup, in-store, delivery, and directly from the brand," said Dye. "Tiger Pistol has a singular focus of empowering brands to connect with their local partners while allowing consumers to purchase any way they want. There is simply no replacement for this level of collaboration, and the results speak for themselves." Not only have the companies on the 2021 Inc. 5000 been competitive within their markets, but the list also proved especially resilient and flexible given 2020's unprecedented challenges. Complete results, including Tiger Pistol's company profile, can be found at https://www.inc.com/profile/tiger-pistol . About Tiger Pistol Tiger Pistol, the most award-winning social advertising platform of 2020, makes high performance collaborative advertising simple and scalable for brands and their channel partners, removing the barriers to customer acquisition and sales growth. Tiger Pistol's Collaborative Advertising Platform utilizes advanced technology and automation to unite brands with their channel partners (retailers, dealers, agents) to acquire and engage new customers within their local communities. As a long-standing Facebook Marketing Partner, Tiger Pistol is the largest third-party publisher of collaborative social ads in the world, supporting clients in 22 global markets with more than 500,000 campaigns published annually. Learn more by visiting TigerPistol.com , or following on Twitter , Facebook , or LinkedIn . About Inc. 5000 The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multi-platform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference, visit http://conference.inc.com/ .







CONTACT: Christina Morello

Director, Marketing and Communications

christina.morello@tigerpistol.com

(330) 354-0899

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tiger-pistol-named-to-inc-5000-list-for-second-straight-year-301358104.html SOURCE Tiger Pistol

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[August 18, 2021] Chia Creates Cultivation Grant Program to Fund High-Potential Projects

Chia Network, Inc., a new energy-efficient decentralized blockchain founded by Bram Cohen, today announced the launch of its Chia Cultivation Grant Program to support developers who want to create and apply tools that grow the broader Chia ecosystem. Through the program, interested developers and teams are encouraged to submit applications detailing their proposed project and the anticipated funding needed to bring it to life. The most striking applications are then advanced to a review committee of Chia executives who are committed to providing financial support to visionary projects ranging from wallets and blockchain tools to applications on the Chialisp chain development environment. "Chia's mission centers around crowd-sourced and open-sourced contributions to strengthen our network and expand the technology's capabilities," said J. Eckert, Vice President of Ecosystem Operations at Chia. "We can't do it alone, and that's why we're proud to launch a program that embodies the creativity, community and collaboration that are crucial for the future of our ecosystem." The first recipient of the Cultivation Grant is Emergent Coin, a company focused on creating decentralized apps to help build the broader Chia ecosystem. With the aid of funds from the Chia Cultivation Grant, the Emergent team has launched a free, open-source cryptocurrency Wallet available today on nucle.io as a webapp, and on iOS, Android (News - Alert) , and as a browser-extension coming soon. "Today's milestone is significant for Emergent, and Chia was instrumental in getting us here," said Dustin Wrd, an Advisor at Emergent Coin. "Our new decentralized Chia wallet is designed to be accessible and user-friendly, welcoming a range of users who are looking for a simple yet sophisticated experience."



"We're confident that Emergent and all future grant recipients are at the forefront of adoption, expansion and innovation in cryptocurrency and blockchain, and that's exactly why this program exists," added Eckert. "We're just getting started, and the innovative potential is limitless." For more information about the Chia Cultivation Grant Program, how to apply and other frequently asked questions, please visit www.chia.net/grants or email cultivation@chia.net. To learn more about Chia Network, go to www.chia.net.

About Chia Network Chia Network Inc. is a state-of-the-art open-source decentralized blockchain, digital currency and smart transaction platform. Founded by Bram Cohen (News - Alert) , inventor of BitTorrent, the Company believes that "digital money" should be easier to use than cash, harder to lose and nearly impossible to steal. Using the first new secure Nakamoto consensus algorithm invented since Bitcoin, Chia operates an eco-friendly, secure and user-friendly system for cross border payments, issuing and exchanging financial assets, lending, escrow payments, institutional custody and distributed identity. Chia's blockchain is based on "Proof of Space and Time" which has a significantly reduced carbon footprint compared to "Proof of Work," used by all other crypto networks. Built on Chialisp, the company's smart coin language, Chia's blockchain allows its users to build and execute secure "smart coin" transactions. The Company is funded by leading venture capitalists including Richmond Global Ventures, Slow Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Naval Ravikant, True Ventures, Cygni Capital, Galaxy Digital, Greylock, MetaStable, Stillmark, DCM (News - Alert) , and others. Chia's advisors include Dr. Dan Boneh, Research Partner at a16z and Applied Cryptography Professor at Stanford University; David Frazee, Managing Partner at Richmond Global Ventures; Katie Haun, General Partner at a16z; Dr. Krzysztof Pietrzak, Cryptography Professor of IST Austria. For more information, visit chia.net and connect with us on Twitter (News - Alert) (@chia_project), Facebook, GitHub, Reddit, and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005575/en/

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[August 18, 2021] EQUITY ALERT: ROSEN, A TOP RANKED LAW FIRM, Encourages Annovis Bio, Inc. Investors with Losses to Secure Counsel Before Important Deadline - ANVS

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Annovis Bio, Inc. (NYSE American: ANVS) between May 21, 2021 and July 28, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 18, 2021. SO WHAT: If you purchased Annovis Bio securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Annovis Bio class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2148.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 18, 2021. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rsen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.



DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Annovis's ANVS401 (Posiphen), an orally administrated drug which purportedly inhibited the synthesis of neurotoxic proteins that are the main cause of neurodegeneration, did not show statistically significant results across two patient populations as to factors such as orientation, judgement, and problem solving; and (2) as a result, defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the Annovis Bio class action, go to http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-2148.html or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn (News - Alert) : https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter (News - Alert) : https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook (News - Alert) : https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005633/en/

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[August 18, 2021] UScellular Launches Flexible Solutions for Remote Workforces

CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- UScellular is introducing a new Remote Workforce Solution to help businesses be more flexible, productive and secure. This solution delivers fast, reliable internet connections using the company's mobile network, unlimited phone plans and Microsoft Teams, one of the leading collaboration products on the market. UScellular launches flexible solutions to help businesses with remote workforces be more productive and secure. Since early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic drove many employees out of the office to work from remote locations. While some companies enabled their team members to stay productive, many others faced unreliable internet and few ways to collaborate - leaving them frustrated and unable to do their best work. "There has been a huge change in the world that creates a major opportunity for businesses," said Kimberly Green-Kerr, senior vice president of enterprise sales and operations at UScellular. "Employee expectations have changed after working from home became a more normal work solution. They now expect to have the flexibility and ability to work remotely. They are increasingly choosing companies that offer remote work options and the tools to do it successfully." The UScellular Remote Workforce Solution consists of three flexible components: Remote Workforce Internet

Flexible packages range from a reliable, mobile option for small businesses to custom, highly secure solutions for enterprise-sized businesses with 5G and 4G access complete with enhanced securiy, content filtering and cloud management.



Collaboration Tools

Microsoft Teams gives you everything you need in one resource: video conferences, calls, chat and integration with familiar Office apps. Unlimited Phone Plans

Unlimited plans with 5G and 4G LTE, including unlimited hotspot.

The Remote Workforce Solution is ideal for small, medium and enterprise-sized companies with higher risk exposure for remote employees who may have unsecured connections. To help organizations deploy Microsoft Teams and realize the full potential of their Teams investment, UScellular is joining forces with OneNeck IT Solutions, an experienced Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), to offer a complete Remote Workforce Collaboration solution that brings together chat, meetings and calling, all in one place. Additionally, OneNeck offers Teams Foundation services that help clients fully utilize Teams in their environment with design and implementation services based on best practices and hands-on consulting that drives adoption so users can collaborate anytime, anyplace and on any device. For more information on the UScellular Remote Workforce Solution, visit https://business.uscellular.com/solutions/remote-workforce/ About UScellular Business

UScellular is the fourth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States, providing national network coverage and industry-leading innovations designed to elevate the customer experience. The Chicago-based carrier is building a stronger network with the latest 5G technology and plays a critical role in helping businesses of all sizes navigate the wireless ecosystem, delivering advanced technology, increased network security and reliability. To learn more about UScellular's business solutions, visit one of its retail stores or uscellular.com/business. About OneNeck IT Solutions

OneNeck IT Solutions LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems,?Inc.,?employs nearly 450 people throughout the U.S. The company offers multi-cloud solutions, combined with managed services, professional IT services, hardware and local connectivity via top-tier data centers in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon and Wisconsin. OneNeck's team of technology professionals deliver secure, modern platforms and applications for organizations embracing data-driven transformation and secure end-to-end solutions. Visit oneneck.com.? For more information, contact:

uscdlmediarelations@uscellular.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/uscellular-launches-flexible-solutions-for-remote-workforces-301358215.html SOURCE UScellular

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[August 18, 2021] NASA Seeks Student Tech Ideas for Suborbital Launch

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lee esta historia en espanol aqui. NASA is calling on all sixth through 12th-grade educators and students to submit experiments for possible suborbital flights as a way of gaining firsthand experience with the design and testing process used by NASA researchers. The NASA TechRise Student Challenge invites students to design, build, and launch experiments on suborbital rockets and high-altitude balloons. The challenge aims to inspire a deeper understanding of Earth's atmosphere, space exploration, coding, electronics, and the value of test data. "Central to NASA's mission is inspiring and educating the workforce of the future. The research areas students can explore through TechRise are endless, from technology to better understand our planet to innovative systems for deep space exploration, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "We hope to see entries from students across the country, showcasing the diverse talent and ideas of the next generation." Guided by an educator, student teams affiliated with U.S. public, private, and charter schools can develop and submit creative experiment ideas. The entry period is open until Nov. 3, 2021. Each winning team will receive $1,500 to build their experiment and an assined spot to test it on a NASA-sponsored suborbital flight operated by Blue Origin, UP Aerospace, or Raven Aerostar.



Flying experiments on suborbital rockets and high-altitude balloons takes technologies from ground-based laboratories into relevant testing environments. The flights replicate microgravity, solar exposure, radiation, extreme temperatures, vacuum, and intense vibrations. Understanding how payloads respond to these conditions allows researchers to validate their designs and adjust or make improvements as needed. To enter the competition, teams should submit their experiment ideas online using the TechRise proposal framework. NASA plans to announce the competition winners in January 2022. The selected student teams will build their experiments and watch them take flight in early 2023.

Take a virtual field trip NASA and Future Engineers, the challenge administrator, will host a TechRise virtual field trip Friday, Sept. 24, to share more information about the challenge and inspire research questions and experiment ideas. Educators and students can tune in to hear from NASA experts and special guest Dr. Raven Baxter, also known as Dr. Raven the Science Maven, and explore on-demand educational content at their own pace. Interested participants can register online. In addition, various resources on the challenge website aim to help students choose a vehicle and plan experiments on topics ranging from climate to remote sensing to microgravity research. "It's an honor to be part of the virtual field trip, and I can't wait to work directly with students who will build and test designs that will explore microgravity," said Baxter. "Our goal is to inspire them, and I'm sure their ideas will inspire us." Volunteer to judge NASA is also seeking volunteers to help judge the entries. U.S. residents with expertise in engineering, space, and/or atmospheric research who are interested in reviewing NASA TechRise submissions can apply to be a judge here . For challenge details, visit: https://www.futureengineers.org/nasatechrise NASA's Flight Opportunities program, based at the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, manages the challenge. The program is part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-seeks-student-tech-ideas-for-suborbital-launch-301358217.html SOURCE NASA

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[August 18, 2021] Universal Robots Takes Cobot Welding to the Next Level at FABTECH 2021

FABTECH 2017 was a milestone year as the first welding systems based on Universal Robots (UR) threw sparks at the show and officially entered the market. Flash forward to 2021, and UR cobot-powered systems are mainstream at FABTECH with numerous OEMs and UR+ partners actively selling MIG, TIG and plasma welding and cutting solutions, making it one of the fastest growing market for UR cobots. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005667/en/ Welding and plasma cutting are now one of Universal Robots' fastest growing markets as metal fabricators start to deploy cobot-powered solutions at a rapid speed. Nowhere is this trend more visible than at FABTECH 2021 where 20+ booths will showcase new cobot-powered fabricating applications. One example is Hirebotics' new user-friendly Cobot Welder, performing collaborative arc welding (Photo: Business Wire) "For 40 years, robotic arc welding evolved incrementally," says Joe Campbell, Senior Manager of Applications Development and Strategic Marketing at Universal Robots. "Collaborative arc welding is the first disruptive technology to hit the robotic arc welding market since the introduction of DC servo powered robots," he adds, attributing the rapid market traction to several key drivers including significant shortage of welders, increase in high mix/low volume production, and the fact that cobot welders are easy to deploy, quickly producing parts with improved quality and consistency. Visitors to FABTECH in Chicago, September 13-16, will find the flagship blue cobots in more than 20 booths throughout the show and are encouraged to start their cobot discovery at Universal Robots own FABTECH booth B-17012. Operate a Smartphone? Program a Cobot Welder "We show attendees how easy it is to program a Universal Robot for fabricating applications - and we'll hand out show maps featuring our partners exhibiting welding, cutting, grinding, press brake and machine loading solutions and components that exemplify this," says Campbell, who is also hosting several innovative solutions in UR's own booth, including Hirebotics' new Cobot Welder, a complete, user-friendly cobot welding system that enables painless automated MIG welding deployments. Using the ingeniously simple Cobot Welder cellphone application that runs on Hirebotics' cloud-based Beacon software platform, FABTECH attendees will experience hands-on how easy it is to teach new parts and welds.



Cobots Take on Heavy-Duty Tasks Heavy-duty welds are now possible to perform with cobots as Vectis Automation becomes the first UR partner in North America to develop a water-cooled cobot-based welding system in a new version of its Cobot Welding Tool. Showcased at FABTECH, the Cobot Welding Tool now comes with MultiPass Software Feature and ArcPilot Through-The-Arc Seam Tracking. The solution is now not only compatible with Miller welding equipment but can be integrated with Lincoln and Fronius welding equipment too.

Vectis Automation also pioneers the use of a UR cobot for hardfacing, the metalworking process where harder or tougher material is applied to a base metal. At Vectis' own FABTECH booth B17054, the company will debut new UR cobot powered plasma cutting as well, featuring Vectis' Cobot Cutting Tool with Hypertherm PowerMax able to perform complex cuts on 3D shapes and large structures for a fraction of the cost of a tube laser. Application Kit Automates CNC Milling with Cobots The UR booths also hosts new solutions for automated machine tending, featuring the new VersaBuilt CNC Mill Application Kit for manufacturers seeking a plug-and-play approach to CNC milling automation. Versabuilt's UR+ Application Kit comes with all components pre-assembled and designed to successfully get the CNC mill and the UR10e cobot working together, automating the loading and unloading of parts into the mill. The VersaBuilt Kit requires no programming experience with easy-to-use automation software that allows the machinist to simply enter part dimensions and CNC milling program numbers to get the application up and running. Flexible Machine Loading for Unstructured Parts, More Payload with Longer Reach FABTECH attendees looking for flexible, intelligent machine loading solutions for unstructured parts in bins, will be intrigued by Universal Robots' ActiNav; a new system showcased at the UR booth combining intelligent vision and real-time autonomous motion control with Universal Robots' e-Series cobots. Before ActiNav, solutions for unstructured picking and placing of parts into machines were solely focused on the vision aspect, often requiring complex programming to bridge the gap from "pick" to "place" - especially if the "place" is not just dropping into a box but accurately inserting parts into fixtures for further processing. ActiNav changes all that, combining real-time autonomous motion control, UR cobots, vision and sensor systems in one seamless Application Kit that solves the bin picking challenge in machine tending applications. At FABTECH, ActiNav will pick metal parts randomly jumbled in bins and correctly insert them into a machine. Powering ActiNav is the new enhanced version of UR's best-selling UR10e cobot now featuring 25% more payload capacity with the ability to lift 12.5kg (27.55lbs), providing customers with exciting new deployment capabilities. Download Universal Robots FABTECH 2021 press kit: Here About Universal Robots Universal Robots is the market leader in collaborative robots. Since introducing the world's first commercially viable cobot in 2008, UR has developed a product portfolio including the UR3e, UR5e, UR10e, and UR16e, reflecting a range of reaches and payloads. Each model is supported by a host of Plug & Produce end effectors, software, and accessories in the UR+ certification program, allowing for flexible redeployment of one robot into several diverse applications. Universal Robots has installed over 50,000 cobots worldwide, automating every manufacturing industry. Headquartered in Odense, Denmark, UR operates out of 21 regional offices in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. www.universal-robots.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005667/en/

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[August 18, 2021] RealFoundations Optimizes FirstKey Homes' Yardi Platform to Support Company's Future Growth in the Single-Family Rental Market

DALLAS, Aug. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RealFoundations, the world's foremost provider of management consulting and managed services for the real estate industry, today announced the completion of a 15-month technology project enabling FirstKey Homes to further enhance its operational excellence as a leader in the burgeoning single-family rental (SFR) market. The Yardi Enterprise Transformation Initiative, or YETI, focused on streamlining FirstKey's instance of Yardi Voyager, a leading software solution for real estate investment and property management. FirstKey Homes is a leading provider of single-family rental homes in markets across the West, Midwest, and Southeast that provide its family of residents with safe, affordable, and well-maintained homes which include the space they need and the amenities they desire. The company initially retained RealFoundations to perform a diagnostic assessment on its Yardi Voyager platform to identify challenges with utilization, strengthen management of portfolio assets and performance reporting, and also support future growth. The assessment highlighted opportunities to leverage Voyager's robust, native functionality more effectively to replace many time-consuming and error-prone manual tasks. The transformation initiative delivered more than 70 improvements identified during the diagnostic, spanning corporate and property accounting, job cost, fixed assets, operations, marketing, leasing, maintenance and reporting. The work focused on optimizing business processes, redesigning the existing chart of accounts and onboarding Yardi Fixed Assets. Another important outcome was the delivery of an accelerated training program to ensure enterprise-wide adoption of the enhanced solution and industry leading practices. FistKey Homes now benefits from:



An optimized platform that enhances performance and response time.

A redesigned chart of accounts structure with flexibility for future portfolio growth.

Elimination of manual calculations in managing equipment and other assets with the implementation of Yardi Fixed Assets.

Access to segmented accounting to allow for deeper reporting and analysis.

Leaner workflows and business processes across major enterprise functions and roles.

Utilization of Yardi Voyager functionality to leverage standardized reports while minimizing dependency on custom reporting, significantly reducing administrative effort.

A new library of quick reference guides and training collateral to accelerate employee adoption of Yardi Voyager. "We partnered with RealFoundations because of their deep experience in the single-family rental home space and record of success. The project yielded all the benefits identified by the diagnostic and came in on time and budget despite the challenges created by working in a remote environment," said Jack Brennan, Chief Financial Officer, FirstKey Homes. "The completion of this project provides a solid foundation to further scale our business and achieve our growth plans now and into the future." Notably, the project was almost entirely executed over distance through RealFoundations' Modern Digital Workplace (MDW), powered by Microsoft, which allows the firm and its clients to collaborate in real time from anywhere via any device with an Internet connection.

"Whether your real estate company is implementing Yardi solutions or another ERP for the first time or you want to improve the performance and/or utilization of an existing system, RealFoundations can help," said Brian Daugherty, Senior Managing Consultant. "Working over distance, our consultants worldwide have deftly led dozens of these technology transformation projects. FirstKey's embrace of the MDW was a major factor in the project's success." For more information about RealFoundations, visit our website at www.realfoundations.net or contact John Seaton, Global Head of Sales | (469) 235 9252| john.seaton@realfoundations.net. About FirstKey Homes FirstKey Homes, LLC is a privately-owned, single-family rental home property management company with corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. FirstKey Homes manages homes through local operations in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Memphis, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, St. Louis, and Tampa/Ft. Myers. With a mission to give our family of residents a place to call home, FirstKey Homes provides homes that are affordable, free from major maintenance and repair costs, and located in a variety of neighborhoods. To learn more, visit firstkeyhomes.com. About Yardi Yardi develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of real estate companies. Established in 1984, Yardi is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and serves clients worldwide. For more information on how Yardi is Energized for Tomorrow, visit yardi.com. About RealFoundations RealFoundations is the world's foremost professional services firm focused solely on the real estate industry. Through our delivery of Management Consulting and Managed Services, we help companies that develop, own, operate, service or invest in real estate make better, more profitable decisions. We are proud partners to over 450 real estate companies around the globe, providing accelerated solutions that solve some of real estate's most complex challenges. We Make Real Estate Run Better. realfoundations.net View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/realfoundations-optimizes-firstkey-homes-yardi-platform-to-support-companys-future-growth-in-the-single-family-rental-market-301358263.html SOURCE RealFoundations

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[August 18, 2021] U.S. Navy Names Navy Federal "Credit Union of the Year," 15th Year in a Row

Navy Federal Credit Union has once again earned "Credit Union of the Year" from the United States Navy, specifically recognizing its branch located at Naval Station Everett, Washington. This marks the credit union's 15th year receiving the Department of the Navy's Distinguished Credit Union Service Award. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005712/en/ Navy Federal Credit Union's Naval Station Everett Branch Awarded Best in 2020 (Photo: Business Wire) "We're a small but mighty team at the NS Everett branch," said branch manager Maria May Crawford. "It's been incredible to see how the team has worked together to keep our members safe, serve them with care, look out for each other and show up every day to support our mission." Captain Michael F. Davis, Commanding Officer of NS Everett, nominated the branch for the award. Davis' nomination package highlighted the branch's ability to remain ready to serve, despite the challenges of the pandemic. He shared, "Navy Federal did not shy away from great member service during COVID" and "their exceptional service, community involvement, and financial leadership illustrate their commitment to serving both military and civilian members." Some service highlights from Navy Federal's NS Everett branch include: Providing financial education to Sailors and ther families on the importance of saving and future planning, building credit, money management and more.

Guiding members through the credit union's digital tools to help protect them against credit card fraud, identity theft, wire fraud and phishing scams.

Giving back to the community through outreach projects such as creating care packages for quarantined Sailors, delivering donuts to frontline medical staff, and gathering "welcome home" kits for servicemembers returning from deployments.

Remaining aware and compliant with all COVID-19 restrictions.



"There is a reason that Navy Federal Credit Union has been recognized as a Distinguished Credit Union of the Year for the last 15 years and it is their incredible level of service to their members," said Tony Hernandez, President and CEO of DCUC. "Throughout our conference, we had several speakers mention their own memberships with Navy Federal and the difference it has made to them. I applaud the exceptional service Navy Federal's NS Everett Branch has provided for their military community and the work they have done to improve their financial well-being."

About Navy Federal Credit Union: Established in 1933 with only seven members, Navy Federal now has the distinct honor of serving over 10 million members globally and is the world's largest credit union. As a member-owned and not-for-profit organization, Navy Federal always puts the financial needs of its members first. Membership is open to all branches of the armed forces and their families. Dedicated to its mission of service, Navy Federal employs a workforce of over 19,000 and has a global network of 346 branches. For more information about Navy Federal Credit Union, visit navyfederal.org. Federally insured by NCUA. Equal Opportunity Employer. About Defense Credit Union Council: The Defense Credit Union Council is a trade association representing the interests of federal and state-chartered credit unions serving our military around the globe. By maintaining a close and constant liaison with the Pentagon, the Council supports its member credit unions and the Department of Defense (DOD) in coordinating policy, procedures, and legislation impacting morale and welfare, financial readiness, and the delivery of quality financial products and services to DOD personnel and their families. Organized in 1963, the Council's membership is comprised of 180 credit unions with over 30 million members. If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Charlotte Randall at alert@dcuc.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005712/en/

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[August 18, 2021] Zelis Announces Amanda Eisel, Strategic Management and Investment Veteran, as New Chief Executive Officer

Zelis, the leading payments company in healthcare, announced today that Amanda Eisel has joined the company as its new Chief Executive Officer. A 20-year strategic management and investment industry veteran, Eisel has focused her career at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Eisel will succeed current CEO R. Andrew Eckert, who is stepping down for personal reasons. Eckert has strengthened Zelis' foundation significantly by enhancing Zelis' management processes and operational systems and bringing on talented leaders. He has helped set the stage for continued tremendous growth. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005564/en/ Amanda Eisel, CEO, Zelis. (Photo: Business Wire) Eisel has been deeply involved with many of the leading growth companies in healthcare and technology, including Waystar, Rocket Software, Applied Systems, and Viewpoint. In her most recent rle as an Operating Partner at Bain Capital, Eisel has played a leadership role in Zelis' growth, operational, and talent strategies. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Eisel was a consultant at McKinsey & Company (News - Alert) , where she spent nearly a decade advising consumer companies.



"We are very grateful for Andy's leadership and all he has done to meaningfully advance Zelis' market leadership position. Amanda's extensive experience across healthcare and technology companies, combined with her deep knowledge of Zelis and our key stakeholders, make her the ideal leader to take Zelis forward," said Dave Ament, Managing Partner of Parthenon Capital. "After working very closely with the Company during the last two years, we are excited Amanda is now officially joining the Zelis family as its new Chief Executive Officer," said Devin O'Reilly, Managing Director, Bain Capital Private Equity. "Amanda is a growth-oriented leader who is exceptionally well-positioned to accelerate Zelis' plans for growth and innovation."

"I'm thrilled to be joining Zelis. As a payments company at the intersection of payers, providers, and healthcare consumers, Zelis is uniquely positioned to simplify the very complex end-to-end payments experience," said Eisel. "I am looking forward to partnering with our clients and the Zelis team to transform the healthcare payments ecosystem through technology and innovation." About Zelis As the leading payments company in healthcare, we price, pay and explain healthcare for payers, providers, and healthcare consumers. Zelis was founded on the belief that there is a better way to determine the cost of a healthcare claim, manage payment-related data, and make the payment because more affordable and transparent care is good for all of us. We partner with more than 700 payers, including the top-5 national health plans, Blues plans, regional health plans, TPAs and self-insured employers, 1.5 million providers and millions of members, enabling the healthcare industry to pay for care, with care. For more information, visit www.zelis.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210818005564/en/

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NASHVILLE  A new school year is traditionally a hectic time for educators, parents and students. To assist consumers, the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) is sharing education tips from our divisions to remind Tennesseans to stay focused on their homes fire safety, insurance coverage and financial planning all year long.

The start of a new school year is a good opportunity to take an assessment of your homes fire safety as well as your insurance coverage and financial planning, said TDCI Commissioner Carter Lawrence. By following these tips, consumers can gain greater peace of mind during the school year and beyond. Consumers who have questions should remember they can contact our divisions via our website, email or by phone and our team will assist them.

Home Fire Safety

Working smoke alarms. Most fire fatalities occur at night while victims are sleeping. Working smoke alarms can alert a homes sleeping residents and increase the chances of survival by giving residents more time to escape a house fire. The Tennessee State Fire Marshals Offices (SFMO) Get Alarmed, Tennessee! program provides working smoke alarms to participating fire departments and outreach partners. To date, 314 lives have been documented as saved by smoke alarms installed through this program. Need working smoke alarms? Contact your local fire department and ask if they participate in Get Alarmed, Tennessee!

Most fire fatalities occur at night while victims are sleeping. Working smoke alarms can alert a homes sleeping residents and increase the chances of survival by giving residents more time to escape a house fire. The (SFMO) Get Alarmed, Tennessee! program provides working smoke alarms to participating fire departments and outreach partners. To date, have been documented as saved by smoke alarms installed through this program. Need working smoke alarms? Contact your local fire department and ask if they participate in Get Alarmed, Tennessee! Create and practice a fire escape plan. During a fire, just a few seconds can be the difference between life and death. The SFMO urges residents to create a home fire escape plan that has a designated meeting place outside a home and practice the plan at least twice a year with everyone who lives in the home. To aid consumers, the SFMO has created a home fire safety tip sheet with escape grid and instructions.

During a fire, just a few seconds can be the difference between life and death. The SFMO urges residents to create a home fire escape plan that has a designated meeting place outside a home and practice the plan at least with everyone who lives in the home. To aid consumers, the SFMO has created a home fire safety tip sheet with escape grid and instructions. Close the door. A closed door can hinder flames and smoke from spreading to other rooms and can help deprive a fire of the oxygen it needs to grow, limiting the structural damage a fire can cause and, most importantly, saving lives. In fact, closing doors to quarantine a fire is a common technique used by firefighters that homeowners should always remember. Closing a bedroom door can stop the spread of fire in a home allowing time to find alternate escape routes or shelter in place until help arrives. To learn more fire safety tips, visit tn.gov/fire today.

Insurance

Review your coverage. A lot can happen in a years time. Thats why its important for consumers to conduct an annual assessment of your familys insurance coverage to assess if you have enough coverage or not. Review your policy with your licensed Tennessee insurance agent to ensure your coverage adequately meets your needs.

A lot can happen in a years time. Thats why its important for consumers to conduct an annual assessment of your familys insurance coverage to assess if you have enough coverage or not. Review your policy with your licensed Tennessee insurance agent to ensure your coverage adequately meets your needs. Make a home inventory. Creating an annual home inventory should be an important part of every homeowners to-do list when it comes to emergency preparedness. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners  new Home Inventory App makes it easy for consumers to make a safe, secure record of their homes contents in the event they ever need to file an insurance claim after an emergency.

Creating an annual home inventory should be an important part of every homeowners to-do list when it comes to emergency preparedness. The  new Home Inventory App makes it easy for consumers to make a safe, secure record of their homes contents in the event they ever need to file an insurance claim after an emergency. Teen drivers. When adding a teenage driver to your insurance policy, consider revising your coverage and deductibles. Review your current deductibles to determine whether you can afford to absorb a larger portion of your loss in the event of an accident. Raising the deductible and allowing the teen to drive your oldest vehicle can help lower your costs.

When adding a teenage driver to your insurance policy, consider revising your coverage and deductibles. Review your current deductibles to determine whether you can afford to absorb a larger portion of your loss in the event of an accident. Raising the deductible and allowing the teen to drive your oldest vehicle can help lower your costs. File a complaint. Tennessee insurance consumers who were unfairly denied a claim or who have questions about their policies should contact TDCIs Consumer Insurance Services team at (615) 741-2218 or 800-342-4029 or visit. tn.gov/commerce.

Securities

Make a plan. Regardless of your age or life situation, creating a sound financial investment/savings plan is among the most important decisions that Tennesseans can make when it comes to their future. Get started by estimating your income and expenses. Then set short-term and long-term financial goals. Finally, determine what you have to save in order to reach those goals.

Regardless of your age or life situation, creating a sound financial investment/savings plan is among the most important decisions that Tennesseans can make when it comes to their future. Get started by estimating your income and expenses. Then set short-term and long-term financial goals. Finally, determine what you have to save in order to reach those goals. Do your research. Make sure you know who youre dealing with when investing. Research all aspects of the company, and ensure your broker is properly licensed by checking BrokerCheck a free tool to research the background and experience of financial brokers, advisers and firms.

Make sure you know who youre dealing with when investing. Research all aspects of the company, and ensure your broker is properly licensed by checking BrokerCheck a free tool to research the background and experience of financial brokers, advisers and firms. Be watchful. Monitor your bank accounts, investments and financial plan closely. As life changes, so do your financial needs and plans. Doing a quarterly or bi-annual check of your financial portfolio is a great way to ensure your profile is up-to-date and is keeping pace with your needs.

Monitor your bank accounts, investments and financial plan closely. As life changes, so do your financial needs and plans. Doing a quarterly or bi-annual check of your financial portfolio is a great way to ensure your profile is up-to-date and is keeping pace with your needs. Questions about an investment? An informed and skeptical investor is the best tool to prevent fraud. If you have questions, contact TDCIs Securities Division by phone at 615-741-2947 or 800-863-9117 (Toll Free) or by email securities.1@tn.gov today.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Joseph W. Albright Appointed to Serve on the Tennessee Human Rights Board of Commissioners

NASHVILLE- August 18, 2021- Joseph W. Albright of Milan, TN was appointed to serve on the Tennessee Human Rights Board of Commissioners in August 2021. Commissioner Albright will represent the west Tennessee grand division through the end of his term on June 30, 2027. This seat was previously held by Chris Crider of Milan, TN whose term expired June 30, 2021.

Tennessee Human Rights Commission Board Chair Robin Derryberry said, My fellow board members and I are excited to have Commissioner Albright join the Commission and we look forward to his service.

Commissioner Albright resides in Milan, Tennessee and serves as the chief operating officer for the Jackson Public School District in Jackson, Mississippi, the largest urban school district in the state of Mississippi. Before joining Jackson Public Schools, Commissioner Albright was the Vice President of the North American facilities operations for Sodexo in Tennessee. Before Sodexo, he was a logistics and material expert in the rank of colonel with the ordnance branch of the U.S. Army which, safeguarded vital weapons, munitions, and supplies for the armed forces for 28 years. In 2004, Mr. Albright retired from active service and became a civilian director for situational awareness with The Deputy Undersecretary of the Army in business transformation.

Commissioner Albright attended the University of Dayton and later completed his graduate degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. He then obtained another graduate degree in industrial engineering from the University of Tennessee.

Albright has numerous awards and accolades and an extensive Army background, he enjoys reading, traveling, and working on antique tractors.

The Commission's role is to enforce the states anti-discrimination laws which prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation based on race, creed, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age (40 and over in employment), familial status (housing only) and retaliation in employment, housing and public accommodations and coordinate compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is the mission of the Commission to safeguard individuals from discrimination through education and enforcement.

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Contact: Veronica McGraw

THRC Communications Director | thrc.communications@tn.gov
NASHVILLE --- Sgt. Brad Bagwell has been named the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Wildlife Officer of the Year for the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA). He is assigned to Cheatham County but works throughout the 12 counties in TWRA District 21 in Middle Tennessee.

Bagwells award was announced by Darren Rider, TWRA Boating and Law Enforcement Division colonel. He will be recognized at a meeting for SEAFWA Chiefs Council in October, which this year will be held in Roanoke, Va.

Bagwell was selected for the honor from among other TWRA law enforcement officers to become the state recipient. Also honored as TWRA region and district selections were Zach Wofford, Region I and Brandon Gavrock, District 11; Josh Hunt, District 22; Doug Lamb, Region III and Matthew Hammonds, District 32; Rick Roberts, Region IV and Caleb Marshall, District 42. These officers were selected for their efforts in teamwork, public outreach, innovation, attitude, leadership, achievements, and accomplishments.

Its always a difficult situation when one officer is selected out of a group of officers that have all gone above and beyond the duty of ensuring Tennessee hunters, anglers and boaters are provided safe and enjoyable recreational opportunities, said Rider. These officers are to be commended for their professionalism and efforts they displayed this year. All these officers had a fantastic year, but Brad really excelled in all aspects of his job. His achievements and accomplishments were outstanding.

Among his activities during the year, Bagwell hosted a youth fishing event where there were more than 100 participants. He also assisted with youth turkey and deer hunts in his area.

Brads efforts in excellence and innovation were also great, said Rider. Brad worked closely with the Nashville city officials to create a safety zone on the Cumberland River during the July 4th fireworks display in which this event has grown into one of the biggest in the country.

Bagwell took control of a drowning incident on Percy Priest Lake where he provided CPR and controlled the scene until medical helped arrived. He also assisted in a unique event involving a plane crash on Percy Priest Lake that resulted in the loss of all seven passengers. He assisted all the agencies involved in recovery efforts from the wreckage.

His law enforcement efforts resulted in issuing 108 citations and warnings for boating and wildlife violations, five BUI arrests and six assisting BUI arrests. He checked 1,128 individuals for compliance and made over 600 positive public contacts with school groups, sportsmans groups, and civic groups. Bagwell also assisted with special investigations and participated on search warrants on three large cases.

SEAFWA is an organization whose members are the state agencies with primary responsibility for management and protection of the fish and wildlife resources in 15 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

---TWRA---




You fight the fights that need fighting!

 Martin Sheen as Chief-of-Staff to President Shepherd (Michael Douglas) in The American President

Perhaps no truer political words were ever spoken. Too bad that the war hawks and political hacks cant comprehend that simple truism as it applies to ending U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

America faces serious issues, and needs serious people to solve them. But what happens in Afghanistan is not, nor should be, one of those problems.

Withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, as President Biden is boldly doing, is, without question, the smartest foreign policy move he could make. After two decades of wasted blood and treasure  amounting to the longest war in U.S. history, where over 6,000 Americans perished (including contractors) at a cost of $2 trillion  the only rational action was full withdrawal. Anything else would have met Einsteins definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.

So salutes to our former commander-in-chief  President Trump  for initiating the full withdrawal, and the current one for seeing it through. Now, when the president says, Mission accomplished, itll actually be true.

Like most things, the withdrawal has not gone as planned. Heres a look at the entirety of the situation, both policy and political.

1) The hypocrisy of many on the right is repugnant. When we talk about everything being politicized, this is a prime example.

Heres a group that for years, even decades, advocated removing all troops from Afghanistan. They cheered when Donald Trump called for it as far back as 2013, and again early in his administration, and, finally, when he put words into action in 2020. But now, because its Joe Biden doing so, its suddenly bad policy. Give us a break.

The hard truth is that these people are mad that their guy lost. Period. So because Mr. Trump punted an election he shouldve won (and stop with the election was stolen), the guy who did win can never be commended -even when he does something with which they agree. Thats politics at its worst.

In a race to lose as much political capital as possible, some Republicans keep choosing the worst positions. Taking the cake is Florida Sen. (and presidential wannabe) Rick Scott, who exhibited sheer stupidity by floating the idea that President Biden should be removed via the 25th Amendment because of the situation in Kabul. Someone needs to tell these guys that pandering to the extreme ten percent of the GOP base is a surefire way to lose a general election.

Fact is, President Trump repeatedly backed down from his goal of full withdrawal. Instead, he allowed himself to be trumped by his advisers, and kept troops in-country. When he finally found the intestinal fortitude in late 2020 to issue the evacuation order, he set the withdrawal date as May 1, 2021. As a refresher, thats almost four months ago. So if you think the evacuation is bad now, just imagine how exponentially worse it would have been in April.

2) Unsurprisingly, the critics are conflating two completely separate issues  the strategic withdrawal and the tactical evacuation. So lets make this really simple. Giving only a yes or no response, what is your answer to the following: Do you support the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan? If the answer is yes, then, by definition, you must commend President Biden for a job well done. After all, he could have done the opposite by tripling down and sending thousands more military personnel to Afghanistan, continuing the open-ended, no-objective war. But he didnt. Therefore, the Republicans whove been clamoring for a withdrawal should give credit where its due: To both presidents Trump and Biden. But you simply cannot, with any credibility, applaud one and not the other.

3) When President Trump hammered out his withdrawal deal, he negotiated exclusively with the Taliban, leaving the Afghani government out in the cold. Fine. If his team thought that was best  and based on the fact that cowardly Afghani President Ashraf Ghani literally fled the country, perhaps they were quite right  then so be it.

Admittedly, while this might sound crazy and naive, it doesnt mean its wrong: Give the Taliban a chance to honor its agreement. Lets be very honest here. There are only three things which the United States cares about, from a self-interest perspective: A) do not harm any Americans in the evacuation process, B) do not export terror, nor allow terror groups such as al-Qaeda to operate inside Afghanistan, and C) do not mess with the United States or Israel. If they violate any of those conditions, it should be game-on, with non-stop carpet bombing to such an extent that the Taliban will plead for a ceasefire. Whatever else they do is their business, no matter how abhorrent. Human rights violations occur on a daily basis in the majority of countries. American can certainly offer moral leadership, but it cannot play policeman to the world. It is the sole responsibility of the Afghan people  not Americans  to decide whether to accept the Taliban, or resist them.

4) Comparisons to Saigon and hyperbole that the evacuation debacle will irreparably damage Americas reputation, and stain the Biden legacy, are being blown way  way  out of proportion.

First, in two weeks this will be out of the headlines and largely forgotten by an American public that cares infinitely more about sipping lattes, watching Netflix and recklessly partying during a pandemic, than it does about a faraway land that most cant come close to locating on a map. (Offering the hint that its in Asia wouldnt help much, as a startling number couldnt find that, either.)

Second, it was not unreasonable to think that the modern, highly-trained, and heavily-equipped Afghan army  a staggering 300,000 soldiers strong  that had been groomed for 20 years would make a stand and fight for Afghanistans freedom. A battle, by the way, against just 75,000 Taliban fighters whose ranks and leadership have been decimated over the years by coordinated strikes.

But they didnt. Instead, they cut and ran, laying down their weapons before the first shot. A large part of our withdrawal contingency plans was counting on the Afghan army to provide security and maintain order  which is hard to do when theyre fleeing with their tail between their legs.

Likewise, it wasnt expected that Afghani government leaders would simply fold up and jet off to safe havens in other nations. But thats precisely what they did.

All of which proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that exiting Afghanistan was the right thing to do. If the 20 years of training soldiers and civilian politicians to stand on their own feet falls apart in days, what makes anyone think that another decade or two, or ten, would change anything? It wouldnt.

Bottom line: If Afghans wont battle for themselves and their freedom, why should a single American do so, and die? And why should American taxpayers continue footing a bill they cant afford for people who lack the gumption to fight?

5) As commander-in-chief, President Biden is ultimately responsible for some of the chaos and boneheaded decisions that were made. No, he shouldnt resign, as Trump suggested, nor should he be removed. But he must kick derriere and take names. In other words, heads need to roll over Americas part in the logistical failure.

Airports should have been secured (mainly by the Afghan army), but instead tarmacs and runways were literally covered with thousands of people. And were damn lucky none threw Molotov cocktails or bombs into the engines of our taxiing Air Force planes. No military equipment should have been left behind (though it isnt our fault that the Afghan army freely gave up their American-supplied weapons). And the evacuation should have begun in earnest much earlier, with fewer press releases and a more aggressive logistical pull out.

Those are hard lessons, from which much can be learned. But above all, its imperative to remember that the evacuation is temporary, but the withdrawal is permanent. Thats what matters.

To the troops returning from a no-win quagmire, we can finally say welcome home.

Chris Freind is an independent columnist and commentator whose column appears every Wednesday. He can be reached at CF@FFZMedia.com Follow him on Twitter @chrisfreind.
Johnstown, PA (15901)

Today

Rain likely. Potential for flooding rains. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch..

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Rain likely. Potential for flooding rains. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch.
CLINTON - Vernon Lee Kispert, 84, of Clinton passed away August 30, 2021. He was born on April 27, 1937, to Bernice and Elwood Kispert. Vernon is survived by his loving wife Ginny and daughter Shawna Kispert; stepchildren: Wayne (Nancy) McClara of Blanford, Bob (Judy) McClara of Mena, AR, Ma
You might also need a negative Covid test for your Madrid to Morocco flight. Recent vaccinated passangers were asked for their Covid test as Spain is a B listed country. Even though a completely airside transit should not need this test the passengers reported they needed to show a test to board their flight.

So maybe you need a test and maybe you do not. Could be good to have it as a backup.

You also have to do the Moroccan health form and have proof of your hotel reservation. You can do the health form online before you travel

Edited: 18 August 2021, 17:51
Mapping out a two week family road trip west over Christmas. Departing central Arkansas the 20 or 21st with plans to spend Christmas Eve in Beverly Hills. Id like to do a few nights in LA and then travel south to San Diego for a couple of nights before heading home.

I expect our first stop will be Amarillo, but we could stop there for dinner/see Cadillac ranch and power through a few more hours if that would put us in a better position for day two. We feel like were going to be entirely too close to NOT stop at the Grand Canyon, though, feel like a very short stop would be enough for us on this trip- since it isnt the destination. We considered trying to make it there by the end of day two so that we could wake up and see it and then hit the road. This would set us up to spend the 23rd in Joshua Tree/Palm Springs so that we can show our kids (7, 3, 1.5) the Cazabon Dinosaurs on our way into the LA. After a few nights in the LA area, I plan to spend a day driving down to San Diego and a few nights at Hotel Del. A whale watching tour is on our must do list.

I-40 is obviously the best route, but Id love opinions on which stops along the way are better for going west/heading east. Getting to California, well have to push ourselves in order to be settled for Christmas Eve, but after that, everything is flexible. We make a yearly trip to Seaside - about 650 miles and its doable for us, but I plan to break up long travel as much as possible with no driving/short driving days in the middle of our trip. (24th- Palm Springs to Beverly Hills, 25 & 26 no travel, 27 LA to San Diego 28-29 no travel) My husband will return to work on January 3. He would like to arrive home by the 1st, but Im not sure its doable.

Im also looking for recommendations for stops to see Christmas light displays and sights (I.E. the tumbleweed tree in Chandler, Mission Inns Festival of Lights). We want it to be festive and fun!
Hi,

We're planning our (self drive) trip to Iceland at the end of May 2022.

Our daughter will be 1 year old when we travel to Iceland.

We would like to enjoy Iceland to the fullest, but don't want to have a rushed holiday (planned too much / having to drive too far each day).

We have 5 or 6 nights in Iceland, so we wondered if we could visit the south coast (Reykjavik -> golden circle -> Jokulsarlon/Diamond Beach -> Reykjavik) or better stay a couple of days at Snaefellsnes Island (Reykjavik -> golden circle -> Snaefellsnes Island -> Reykjavik)?

I'm afraid it could be rushed if we want to explore the south coast in +- 6 days, but on the other hand I don't know if Snaefellsnes Island has enough to offer for 2/3 days?

Any tips or advice?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Best regards,

Winne
Hi everyone. So we are due to go to the Maldives at the end of August, this is the third time this trip has been rearranged. Cancelling is not a problem a few days before departure so we're going to hold out until the next travel review. My question is if the Maldives moves from red to amber is it ok flying there whilst it being red even though we will be returning when it's amber.

As the UAE is currently on amber flights are still going to Male. I don't know if there's a certain amount of time that has to pass between a country going amber from red to avoid hotel quarantine. I've searched online but can't seem to find an answer. I'm not hopeful but I expected Maldives to become amber before the UAE so anything can happen really. I'm getting abit desperate as I'm pregnant and in a few months travel will be a no go for me and this was a trip that we were supposed to take in March 2020.

It's the 'If you have been in a country or territory on the red list in the last 10 days' which is throwing me, if we fly there when it's red and depart from there when it's amber is that still classed as being in a red list country? Our stay will be for 7 nights.
Good for: Bar Scene

Dining options: Breakfast, After-hours, Reservations

Description: After 3 years of planning (including 2 trips to Dublin!), OReillys opened on St Patricks Day 2009. We look forward to welcoming you to a truly authentic Irish bar experience. Our superb menu (including the Irish breakfast menu from 8am, or 9am on a Sunday!) is served all day and night, with traditional favourites and local specialties. We also have vegetarian, vegan and gluten free choices; check the menu section on our website for details. To accompany your meal, you can select from the wine list or choose from the extensive selection of draught and bottle beers. OReillys brings our standards of quality, value and service to Gibraltars premier marina front location. Situated on Leisure Island, part of the Ocean Village marina complex, the traditional Victorian Irish bar has been designed and built by Irelands leading design teams.
Good for: Business meetings, Special Occasion Dining, Bar Scene, Romantic, Groups

Dining options: Dinner, After-hours, Reservations

Neighbourhood: Central Area/City Area

Description: CUT at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is the third location for master chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck's critically acclaimed steakhouse concept. Providing the finest range in beef selections, grilled over hard wood and charcoal, CUT is home to the true steak connoisseur. Choices from around the globe include USDA Prime, Australian Angus, and Wagyu selections from United States, Australia and Japan, and currently offering the uniquely marbled Snow Beef from Uenae Lake Farms, Hokkaido Japan. Our sophisticated menu is complemented by a range of produce and ingredients sourced directly from the Santa Monica's Farmer's Market in Southern California giving guests in Singapore an unparalleled experience of fine food, all while served in a hip, contemporary atmosphere. CUT also features a bar & lounge providing a menu spanning over 50 original, handcrafted cocktails and our "Rough CUTs" lounge menu of delectable bar snacks: open daily from 5:30 P.M. Onward.
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Tucson, AZ (85741)

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Thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

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Thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%.
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There have been fully-vaccinated persons who have become severely ill and some who have actu
Over the past day, August 17, 11 ceasefire violations by the armed formations of the Russian Federation were recorded in the Joint Forces Operation area in eastern Ukraine.

The enemy fired small arms near Prychepylivka (50km north-west of Luhansk); 120mm mortars  outside Vodiane near Donetsk; 120mm mortars, automatic easel and under-barrel grenade launchers, as well as heavy machine guns and small arms  in the area of Pisky (11km north-west of Donetsk); easel antitank and automatic grenade launchers  near Novoluhanske (53km north-east of Donetsk); 120mm and 82mm mortars, easel antitank and hand-held antitank grenade launchers, as well as heavy machine guns  outside Zolote-4 (59km west of Luhansk)," the press center of the JFO Headquarters reports.

In addition, an enemy Orlan-10-class UAV flew over the line of contact in Luhansk region.

One member of the Joint Forces was wounded in the enemy shelling. He was taken to a hospital. His health condition is satisfactory.

Ukrainian soldiers opened fire in response to the enemy shelling.

The Ukrainian side of the Joint Control and Coordination Center (JCCC) informed the OSCE SMM about all violations by the Russian-occupation troops, using the established coordination mechanism.

As of 07:00 on August 18, no ceasefire violations were recorded.

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Ukraine and Turkey are effectively building a strategic partnership in the military-industrial complex. Revenues from Turkish contracts amounted to at least 15% of Ukrspecexport's profit last year, which brought more than $30 million.

Thats according to Vadym Nozdria, Ukrspecexport CEO, who gave an exclusive comment to Ukrinform.

"If we look at the 2020 statistics, our foreign exchange earnings from foreign economic contracts with Turkish customers take up at least 15%. Of the $230 million, more than $30 million is our activity one way or another concerning Turkey. This is a powerful indicator and, most importantly, in this market, we feel serious prospects for development, as the intensity of our negotiations with Turkish customers is growing. We hope that at this exhibition (IDEF 2021  ed.), we will be able to consolidate the agreements reached at the level of contracts signed," said Vadym Nozdria.

Read also: Ukrainian delegation begins visit to IDEF 2021 arms exhibition in Turkey

According to him, Ukrainian-Turkish cooperation in the field of military-industrial complex is of a strategic nature, steadily strengthening each year. The process often sees Russias attempts to hinder it, although they have little effect.

"We can really feel this opposition: from certain manifestations of information hybrid warfare to measures to compromise Ukrainian companies that provide services to supply products to the Turkish market. This could have had some effect, but Ukraine and Turkey are confidently developing strategic relations, actively cooperating and, on principle, not paying attention to such manifestations. That is why we confidently repair Turkish helicopters, supply air defense systems, and have prospects for strengthening cooperation in the naval sphere, said the Ukrspecexport CEO.

the Ukrainian defense products, new projects of modern armaments, in particular those that Ukraine presents at the IDEF 2021 exhibition in Istanbul, are of interest to foreigners, including Turkish partners, the official notes.

"The Turkish market is one of the strategically important ones for Ukrainian producers. The exhibition features more than 25 enterprises  manufacturers from Ukraine, 15 of which are united by the Ukroboronprom exposition, organized by SE Ukrspecexport. The exhibition is taking place despite a pandemic, albeit with serious epidemiological limitations. It is attended by 79 official government delegations. This is a powerful platform where new weapons and military hardware are showcased. Our products are attracting and diverse, they arouse the attention and interest to cooperation among foreign partners," said Vadym Nozdria.

As you reported earlier, Ukraine takes part in IDEF 2021. The Ukrainian delegation is headed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleh Urusky. Yesterday he visited the Ukrainian stand, which is the joint exposition of the Ukroboronprom State Concern, organized by SE Ukrspecexport, met with the Deputy Prime Minister and the head of the State Agency for Defense Industry of Turkey Ismail Demir, as well as CEOs of leading Turkish defense companies.

The International Defense Industry Exhibition IDEF 2021 is held in Istanbul under the auspices of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Turkey with the organizational support of the Ministry of Defense, the Turkish Armed Forces, and the TUYAP exhibition managing company.

im
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has met with Marc Rochet, CEO of Aerogestion, a French consultancy, to discuss the optimal models of creating a national air carrier of Ukraine.

Thats according to the presidents press service, Ukrinform reports.

The president spoke of a number of large infrastructure projects currently being implemented in Ukraine, including road construction and overhaul, as well as modernization of regional airports.

Volodymyr Zelensky noted that the Ukrainian market of air transportation services does not meet all the strategic needs of the state, which prompted the decision to create a national air carrier.

Read also: Court puts a lien on 13 Russian planes over operating passenger flights to occupied Crimea

Its founding should offer passengers affordable and convenient flights between Ukrainian regions, promote decentralization of international air transportation, and provide an impetus for the development of the country's overall tourism potential.

The president of Ukraine noted that this large-scale project already has the support of international partners. In particular, the French government initiated a grant to provide a consultant for the effort.

"Were launching this work. This year we seek to get a competitive state-owned air carrier," Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Aerogestion CEO, noting that Ukraine is willing to consider ideas for the projects implementation.

Marc Rochet, for his part, noted that the Ukrainian air carriers market has been fragmented, besides being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, he added, there are opportunities to create a national airline.

"I really believe that air transport is perhaps the most relevant for Ukraine, for people, especially in times of crisis, it is necessary to be able to travel and have a normal life," said Marc Rochet.

The report says the meeting was also attended by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iuliia Svyrydenko, and Aerogestion expert Pierre Denizet.

Memo

Aerogestion, founded in 1999 by Marc Rochet and Dominic Gretz, specializes in the development and restructuring of air carriers. Over time, the company expanded its activity to cover profit management. At the moment, Aerogestions team includes nearly 15 consultants with an average of 20 years of experience in air transportation, advising on business management, commercial strategies, profit management, and business restructuring and transformation.

im
The construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is set to be completed on August 23, according to DW.

"Natural gas from Russia will be pumped to Germany, the Netherlands and as far away as northern Italy," the report says.

At the same time, DW does not provide any official details about the completion of the construction of the Russian gas pipeline.

As Ukrinform reported, on July 21, the U.S. and German governments issued a joint declaration outlining their position on the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The U.S. committed to refrain from hindering the pipes completion, while Germany undertook to impose sanctions on Russia in case Moscow goes for another act of aggression against Ukraine, as well as vowed support for Ukraine in energy transformation.

Ukraine opposes the construction of Nord Stream 2, since it will connect Russia and Europe bypassing Ukrainian territory. The launch of the gas pipeline threatens the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, and also carries risks for the security of our state.

ish
The Ministry of Energy has developed and submitted for public discussion a bill on the reform of the coal industry, which is aimed at enhancing social protection of Ukrainian miners.

Thats according to the Ministrys press service, Ukrinform reports.

The document defines a set of socio-economic measures toward resolving the issues of arrears and financial recovery of state-owned coal mines, in particular with the involvement of private investment to increase coal production.

Also, the bill proposes that a mechanism be introduced that would allow coal mining companies to repay arrears using funds from a single social contribution tax and mandatory payments to the Pension Fund.

"First of all, legislation is aimed at social protection of employees of coal mining companies. It will ensure correct calculation of employment records and fair accrual of pensions for miners," said Deputy Minister Oleksiy Kurakov.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the State Treasury allocated UAH 653 million (almost US$24.5 million) for coal mining companies to ensure salary payment to miners.

im
As the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, 80 people, including eight Ukrainians, were evacuated from Kabul by Ukrainian plane.

Thats according to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrinform reported referring to his Twitter page.

Due to the rising violence in Afghanistan, Ukraine is stepping up efforts to return its citizens home safely.

He added that Ukraine will always come to the aid of its citizens, no matter what happens in the world.

The President later clarified that a Ukrainian plan had evacuated from Afghanistan almost 80 people, including eight Ukrainians and citizens of other countries, who had requested urgent evacuation.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reportedly fled the country and flew to Tajikistan after the Taliban entered Kabul with no resistance from government forces.

Earlier, Acting Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi said the president had delegated authority to resolve the country's crisis to other political leaders.

After Tajikistan, Ghana intends to fly to a third country, which is yet to be revealed.

A peaceful transfer of power is set to take place in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, after the fall of Kabul, the Taliban said it had gained control of the whole country.

The United States and a number of EU member states began evacuating their embassies staff from Kabul as the Taliban forces were approaching the city.

im
Deputy Head of the Ukrainian President's Office Roman Mashovets and British Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons have discussed a number of issues related to the deepening of bilateral cooperation in the security and defense sectors, the presidential press service has reported.

"During the meeting, special attention was paid to promising projects to improve the capabilities of the Ukrainian Navy and assist in building a national system of sustainability," the report said.

Mashovets emphasized the importance of expanding bilateral cooperation to strengthen the defense capabilities of the Ukrainian state, as well as the provision of practical assistance from the United Kingdom

According to the President's Office, Mashovets informed Simmons in detail about the situation in eastern Ukraine.

For her part, Simmons reaffirmed Britain's unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. The ambassador emphasized the importance of investing in promising projects as soon as possible to make assistance from Britain as effective as possible.

Both parties agreed to maintain an active dialogue on these issues and to promote the further development of the Ukrainian-British partnership.

op
The European Union considers the sentencing of four Crimean Tatars by a military court of the Russian Federation to be illegal and unacceptable.

EUs Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano wrote about this on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

"The EU considers sentencing of 4 Crimean Tatars by a Russian Military Court illegal and unacceptable. We call on Russia to ensure full compliance with international human rights standards and other obligations under international law in the illegally annexed Crimea," the report reads.

As Ukrinform reported, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly protested against the illegal decision of the Southern Military District Court of the Russian Federation of August 16 to convict four Ukrainian citizens Ruslan Nagaev, Lenur Khalilov, Ruslan Mesutov, and Eldar Kantimirov in the case of the Hizb ut-Tahrir Alushta group.

On June 10, 2019, the men were detained after raids on their houses and have stayed in prison ever since. All of them were charged with belonging to an Islamic political party, which has been banned in Russia since 2003. The organization operates without restrictions at the level of national legislation in the territory of Ukraine and most countries of the world.

Ruslan Nagaev was engaged in business activities in Alushta, Lenur Khalilov was the leader and founder of the Muslim community Alushta, and Ruslan Mesutov worked in it as a security guard. Eldar Kantemirov graduated from the Kyiv Islamic University.

According to the case files, the defendants did not have weapons, explosives, ammunition, did not plan to commit a terrorist act, and did not call on others to commit terrorist acts.

On July 18, 2019, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on Russia to release all Ukrainian political prisoners, including defendants in this criminal case.

On September 23, 2020, the Human Rights Center Memorial recognized Kantemirov, Mesutov, Nagaev, and Khalilov as political prisoners and demanded their immediate release.

ish
Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov discussed decentralization reform in Ukraine with U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Ukraine Kristina Kvien.

Ukrinform reports this with a reference to the Government portal.

"The U.S. Government is actively supporting decentralization reform, in particular, through USAID programs such as DOBRE and HOVERLA, as well as through Peace Corps Community Development Project. I hope that our fruitful cooperation in the field of communities and regional development will continue," Chernyshov said.

He also added that due to the decentralization reform, Ukrainian local budgets have grown four times since 2014.

In turn, Kristina Kvien stressed that the Ministry of Communities and Territories Development had made progress in the decentralization reform. She also wished Ukraine further success on this path.

In addition, the parties discussed the results of the President's program "Great Construction", urban development reform, new approaches in modern regional policy and opportunities for economic growth of communities through the development of infrastructure for industrial parks.

iy
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, say the deaths of 47 people who were onboard a boat heading to the Canary Islands from North Africas Atlantic coast highlight the urgent need for more support to prevent further tragedies at sea.

The boat left on 3 August carrying 54 people, including three children. After two days at sea, engine failure left passengers stranded without food or water for nearly a fortnight. When located by the Mauritanian coast guard on 16 August, only seven people were alive on board.

Survivors were taken to Mauritanias northern city of Nouadhibou for medical treatment. Four people in critical condition were transferred to hospital. UNHCR is working to provide assistance and to determine whether any survivors have international protection needs.

The latest tragedy comes just 10 days after another 40 people lost their lives along the same route. It adds to the spiraling number of deaths, as more vessels depart for the Canary Islands. As of January this year, more than 350 people have died, while over 8,000 refugees and migrants have reached Spain using this sea route.

Meanwhile, since October 2020, more than 1,200 people have been rescued off the Mauritanian coast and received medical assistance as part of a first aid programme set up by IOM.

IOM and UNHCR are appealing for more support, to be able to continue their lifesaving interventions, including through screening, medical and psychosocial aid.

Our top priority is to provide safe and viable alternatives to the dangerous journeys undertaken by refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean, as per the objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees, said Maria Stavropoulou, UNHCRs Representative in Mauritania. UNHCR is working to increase the identification of those with international protection needs travelling along these routes and provide assistance in the countries that host them.

IOMs Chief of Mission in Mauritania, Boubacar Seybou, said the organization was concerned that many rescued at sea end up in administrative detention.

In accordance with the recommendations included in the Global Compact for Migration, alternatives must also be available to survivors, who have already suffered heavy medical and psychosocial trauma, Seybou said. We are working closely with authorities to accelerate the implementation of new assistance and protection measures, and to strengthen the fight against traffickers and smuggler networks.

IOM and UNHCR are urging the international community to support efforts to identify and assist those with international protection and other specific needs, to create safe and legal pathways, establish alternatives to detention, and strengthen search and rescue capacity off the coast of Mauritania.

For more information, please contact:

UNHCR:

In Nouakchott, Josephine Lebas-Joly, [email protected] , +222 28 88 21 05

, +222 28 88 21 05 In Geneva, Aikaterini Kitidi, [email protected] , +41 795808334

IOM:
Two UNHCR staff members speak with asylum-seekers in a border town in northern Mexico.  UNHCR/Jeoffrey Guillemard

Grandmother Magdalena* recalls the despair she felt when she fled Venezuela at age 60.

Escaping insecurity, political turmoil and widespread shortages, she sought refuge in Mexico with her daughter Mariana and two school-age granddaughters in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She had very high blood pressure and severe digestive problems. Additionally, she had not seen a doctor in a year and was anxious. Marianas daughters, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, were out of school and struggling.

We arrived from Venezuela traumatized. First because of the insecurity, then because there was no food, no medicine  you were afraid to fall ill, she says.

Fortunately, help was at hand. The family received assistance after lodging an asylum claim with COMAR, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance, and temporary economic support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, while they found their feet in Tijuana.

I like my house, I like where I live, I like what I do, I like my new future.

With access to healthcare, Magdalena got the medical attention she needed and now has her conditions under control. She was also vaccinated against COVID-19.

Marianas eldest daughter, meanwhile, got medication to manage her autism, and both girls have enrolled in mainstream schools in Tijuana, a booming border city in the far northwestern corner of Mexico, where they are supported by their teacher.

Weve found peace here, weve found stability, including emotional stability, and quality of life, says Magdalena, who practiced law and taught in a university in Venezuela. This came just at the moment that we needed it.

See also: Southern winter spells trouble for Venezuelan refugees and migrants

A year-and-a-half after their arrival, they live in a house in a gated community with 24-hour security, within sight of the soaring, rusted US border fence, and have reconnected with family living and working on the other side, in California.

Mariana, 36, says their new-found security is helping her daughters, aged nine and eight, to resume their lives. I like the fact that my two girls, despite all their circumstances, say to me, Mum, I like my house, I like where I live, I like what I do, I like my new future.

As they settle in, Magdalena and Mariana  who is also a lawyer  plan to seek permanent residency in Mexico, get their degrees recognized and start to give back to the country that has given them shelter and a new life.

We dont just have rights, we have obligations  we have to contribute, says Mariana. We want to grow, and we want the country to grow too, with our experience and knowledge.

Magdalena imagines a future teaching law in one of several universities in this city of two million residents. I have a lot of hopes for the future  I feel very optimistic, she says. I feel reborn.

So far this year, more than 61,000 people escaping violence and persecution from several countries have registered with COMAR  close to 20,000 more than the number of people who registered throughout all of 2020. Most are women and children, a large proportion of them, unaccompanied.

Refugee women can be extremely vulnerable when they are forced to flee to another country. Nevertheless, at every step they show their strength and resilience, said Dagmara Mejia, the head of UNHCRs field office in Tijuana. We aim to make sure they are safe, they are informed about their rights and we give them the support they need to start over. Then they do the rest for themselves.

The help UNHCR and its partners provide ranges from legal assistance, to providing shelter, medical support, psychological care and counselling. The agency also provides limited and temporary financial aid as they get settled, as well as grants that allow them to continue their education.

Dont give up. Keep fighting for what you left your country for.

On the other side of Tijuana, Gisella, 41, is another refugee mother who is moving on with her life after a shaky start.

Five years after fleeing Venezuela, she has refugee status and is studying for a masters degree in law with the help of a scholarship from UNHCR. She expects to graduate in six months and hopes to practice law in Mexico  preferably in the area of refugee protection.

The support I received has been really fundamental to be able to carry on developing  to fulfill myself professionally, Gisella says, in the living room of the small house where she lives with her 10-year-old son.

As she looks to the future, she has a message of hope for other newly arrived refugees.

Dont give up. Keep fighting for what you want, and for what you left your country for, she says, a note of steel creeping into her voice.

You can do it. This country has a lot of opportunities. Keep fighting to achieve what you want, to succeed, to overcome . Its possible.

*Refugees names changed for protection reasons.
How to help

The Oregon Youth Center is looking for monetary and food donations, as well as volunteers.

To donate money, making checks payable to the Oregon Youth Center.

They can be mailed to P.O. Box 124 Oregon, WI 53575, and are tax deductible. People can also send money to the Centers PayPal, whose username is treasurer@oregonyouthcenter.org.

Another funding initiative is a pledge program titled In Our Corner, where people can fill out a form to either make a one-time donation of any dollar amount to the center, or commit to a yearly amount of up to $5,000.

The nonprofit also hosts a snack drive, where people can drop off food donations between the hours of noon and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 110 N. Oak St.

To learn more about how to volunteer, call (608) 886-9093.
Gov. Kate Brown continues to give public health updates as coronavirus cases rise throughout the state, as shown in this June 2021 file photo. On Aug. 13, 2021, Brown sent up to 1,500 National Guard troops to hospitals around the state to support healthcare workers as the COVID-19 virus surges amid the rapid spread of the delta variant.
Benton County getting new sheriff as Hatcher's recall now official
Milledgeville, GA (31061)

Today

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to cloudy skies after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms during the evening will give way to cloudy skies after midnight. Low 73F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.
The magnitude of loss and suffering being that the people of Haiti are experiencing this week is difficult to comprehend.

The loss of life in Saint-Louis du Sud as the result of a devastating earthquake and the tropical storm that has hampered rescue efforts breaks my heart.

As a longtime Florida resident, I have come to know Haiti and its people as resilient  but even the strongest of us need support. Today I ask University of Nebraska at Omaha students, faculty, staff, and friends of UNO to reach out to those who may be impacted by these tragic events and look for ways to support.

Explore our Connect. Take Care. Get Help. resource reminder page if you or someone you know needs help.

Sincerely,

Joanne Li, Ph.D., CFA

UNO Chancellor
Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2021 ) :The Republican governor of Texas, who has been a forceful opponent of mask mandates, has tested positive for Covid-19, his office said Tuesday, one day after attending an indoor public event.

Greg Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, "has been testing daily, and today was the first positive test result," said a statement from his spokesman Mark Miner.

"The Governor will isolate in the Governor's Mansion and continue to test daily," the statement said, adding that Abbott is receiving an antibody cocktail treatment.

Abbott is "in good health, and currently experiencing no symptoms," the statement said.

"Everyone that the Governor has been in close contact with today has been notified. Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott tested negative." Abbott has been one of the most outspoken US governors against anti-Covid mask mandates.

Texas has banned local governments in the southern US state and any entities that receive public funds from imposing vaccination requirements.

He has received pushback, with several Texas school districts imposing their own mask mandates against state law.

"Governor Abbott has put his own Republican Primary politics before the public health since day one," former Democratic presidential candidate and former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro tweeted, along with a video from Abbott's campaign of an indoor Republican Party event Monday night with dozens of unmasked attendees.

"I hope he recovers quickly. I also hope he will act more responsibly on behalf of Texas children and families.""This virus is spreading like wildfire across Texas, including among children. I hope the governor now reconsiders his ban on mask requirements in schools," Castro said in a separate tweet.
(@FahadShabbir)

San Francisco, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2021 ) :Facebook said Tuesday it was blocking WhatsApp accounts linked to the Taliban after the Islamic group seized control of Afghanistan and sought to use the messaging service to help it govern.

"The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under US law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies," a Facebook spokesperson told AFP.

The Facebook move shut down a WhatsApp hotline the Taliban had set up to receive complaints about violence and looting, according to the Financial Times.

A WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email to AFP that the company is required to follow US sanctions.

"This includes banning accounts that appear to represent themselves as official accounts of the Taliban. We're seeking more information from relevant US authorities given the evolving situation in Afghanistan," the company said.

"This means we remove accounts maintained by or on behalf of the Taliban and prohibit praise, support, and representation of them." The news comes with social media platforms facing pressure to block accounts used by the Taliban since the offensive which led to the takeover of the war-ravaged country.

Facebook said it was using "a dedicated team of Afghanistan experts, who are native Dari and Pashto speakers and have knowledge of local context," to help guide policy.

"Our teams are closely monitoring this situation as it evolves. Facebook does not make decisions about the recognized governmentin any particular country but instead respects the authority of the international community in making these determinations," Facebook said.

A Taliban spokesman meanwhile criticized Facebook for blocking "freedom of speech" in the country as a result of the crackdown by the US firm.

At a news conference streamed online, the Taliban official responded to a question about freedom of expression by saying, "The question should be asked to those people who are claiming to be promoters of freedom of speech who do not allow publication of all information.. the Facebook company, this question should be asked to them."
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and exchanged views on the evolving situation in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2021 ) :Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and exchanged views on the evolving situation in Afghanistan.

During the telephonic conversation, Foreign Minister Qureshi underlined that a peaceful and stable Afghanistan was of critical importance for Pakistan and the region.

In this perspective, Pakistan had assiduously supported the Afghan peace process, a Foreign Office statement said.

Pakistan and China, as part of Troika Plus, had made valuable contribution to these efforts.

FM Qureshi said in the given situation, it was extremely important to ensure safety and security as well as protection of rights of the Afghan people.

He stressed that an inclusive political settlement was essential, for which all Afghans should work together.

Qureshi said it was equally important for the international community to remain engaged in support of the Afghan people.

He emphasized that the international community must also has sustained economic engagement with Afghanistan.

He apprised Foreign Minister Wang Yi of Pakistan's efforts to facilitate evacuation of personnel and staff of diplomatic missions, international organizations, media and others from Afghanistan.

FM Qureshi said Pakistan and China were 'iron brothers' and strategic partners.

The two countries had the tradition of maintaining close coordination and communication on issues of common interest and significance, he added.

Foreign Minister Qureshi and State Councilor Wang Yi agreed to remain in close contact to promote the shared objectives.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Aug, 2021 ) :Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication, Dr Shahbaz Gill Wednesday said that all stakeholders including politicians, journalists, teachers and parents should cooperate with the government for ending violence against women in the society.

Talking to a private news channel, he strongly condemned the mass assault on a famous TikToker Ayesha at Greater Iqbal Park, Lahore.

"It was a very tragic incident. It was a collective responsibility of all to play active role for eliminating these kinds of violence related incidents," he said.

Gill expressed his hope that police, through video clips, would identify those who involved in the assault.

He said that the responsible would be brought to justice very soon so as the women of Pakistan could not feel.

"It is a responsibility of all to ensure safety and equal rights in the society," he said.

He assured that the government would never spare a single person involved in the assault.
Facebook and TikTok said they would not lift bans on content promoting Taliban (terrorist organization, banned in Russia) after the movement took control of Afghanistan, the CNBC reported citing the statement by social media giants

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) Facebook and TikTok said they would not lift bans on content promoting Taliban (terrorist organization, banned in Russia) after the movement took control of Afghanistan, the CNBC reported citing the statement by social media giants.

"The Taliban is sanctioned as a terrorist organization under U.S. law and we have banned them from our services under our Dangerous Organization policies," Facebook stated as quoted by CNBC.

The Taliban has been banned from Facebook for several years, with all accounts maintained on behalf of the Taliban removed. A special team of Afghan nationals are working with Facebook to facilitate the identification of accounts glorifying the Islamist movement, the Facebook representative added.

TikTok also said it had designated the Taliban as a terrorist organization and would continue removing the content promoting the movement.

On Sunday, the Taliban completed their takeover of Afghanistan by entering Kabul. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled abroad to prevent what he described as bloodshed that would occur if militants had to fight for the city. The takeover resulted in many people currently trying to escape the country for fear of reprisals from the militants.
Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi called on Interpol on Wednesday to arrest President Ashraf Ghani, who abdicated and fled from Afghanistan, for "selling out the motherland."

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi called on Interpol on Wednesday to arrest President Ashraf Ghani, who abdicated and fled from Afghanistan, for "selling out the motherland."

"Those trading and selling out their motherland should be punished and arrested," Mohammadi wrote on Twitter, adding hashtag #InterpolArrestGhani.

On Wednesday, the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan also requested Interpol to detain Ghani on embezzlement charges.

On Sunday, the Taliban completed their takeover of Afghanistan by entering Kabul. Ghani resigned and fled abroad, escorted by cars filled with cash, the Russian embassy told Sputnik on Monday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau about the countries' efforts to evacuate people out of Afghanistan, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau about the countries' efforts to evacuate people out of Afghanistan, State Department Spokesperson Ned price said on Wednesday.

"Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau last night about the situation in Afghanistan, including our efforts to bring American and Canadian citizens to safety and to assist vulnerable Afghans," Price said.

Blinken also expressed his "profound appreciation" to the Canadian government for helping to resettle 20,000 Afghans, as well as for their ongoing coordination with other international efforts to address the situation in Afghanistan.

A joint statement issued by 20 independent countries and the European Union, including the US and Canada, on Wednesday expressed deep concern for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. It called on the Taliban to guarantee their protection across the country.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recommends commercial operators not to conduct flights in the airspace of Kabul and Afghanistan in general until further notice

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) recommends commercial operators not to conduct flights in the airspace of Kabul and Afghanistan in general until further notice.

EASA recommends commercial operators not to conduct any flights in Afghanistan's airspace (Kabul Flight Information Region) until further notice, the agency said in a statement, provided to Sputnik.

The recommendation follows an extraordinary risk assessment group session and is based on all the available information on regional security, the EASA added.
(@FahadShabbir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) Lithuania will increase its border security in response to 12 Belarusian border guards who allegedly crossed the border illegally into the country, Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said on Wednesday.

The Baltic country claims that earlier in the day, 12 Belarusian border guards equipped with riot control gear forced 35 irregular migrants into the country's territory while entering it themselves. Lithuania says it has a video proving the illegal actions.

"We cannot tolerate this bold provocation of 12 Belarusian officials crossing the border of the Republic of Lithuania today. We have immediately responded to the provocation and have made a decision to further increase the border protection capacity," Bilotaite said in a statement.

The interior ministry noted that it was not the first such incident at the Lithuania-Belarus border in recent days.

Later in the day, the coutnry's foreign ministry presented a note of protest to Minsk over the incident.

"We have informed Belarus that the incident was noted, and it is a source of great concern as we consider it another provocation, a raise in temperature in an already tense situation. We urge [Minsk] to refrain from incidents that may be considered to be provocations, let alone real provocation," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said, as quoted by Baltic news outlet Delfi.

Lithuania has been seeing a rise in the influx of migrants attempting to cross the border into the European Union. A state of emergency was declared on July 2 due to the uncontrolled migrant influx, which Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he could not contain due to Western sanctions. Meanwhile, Lithuania is accusing Belarus of using migration as a tool to get back at the European Union for its decision to impose political and economic sanctions on Minsk.
Pope Francis launches a powerful appeal for people to get vaccinated with approved Covid-19 vaccines, calling it an act of love.

By Devin Watkins

The Pope has joined his voice to those of Bishops across North and South America to urge people to get jabbed against Covid-19.

In a video message produced in conjunction with the Ad Council, Pope Francis praised the work of researchers and scientists in producing safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines.

Thanks to Gods grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from Covid-19, he said in the video released on Wednesday.

He added that vaccines bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another.

Vaccination is an act of love

Pope Francis went on to say that getting a Covid jab that is authorized by the respective authorities is an act of love.

Helping other do the same, he said, is also an act of love. Love for oneself, love for our families and friends, and love for all peoples. Love is also social and political.

The Pope noted that social and political love is built up through small, individual gestures capable of transforming and improving societies.

Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable, he said.

Pope Francis then prayed to God that each one of us can make his or her own small gesture of love.

No matter how small, love is always grand, he said. Small gestures for a better future.

Listen to our report

Strength of faith

The Pope was joined in the video by several Cardinals and Archbishops from across the Americas.

Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archbishop of Los Angeles, lamented the suffering and death the pandemic has wrought across the globe.

He prayed that God might grant us the grace to face it with the strength of faith, ensuring that vaccines are available for all, so that we can all get immunized.

Mexican Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes linked Covid-19 jabs to a better future for all.

From North to South America, we support vaccinations for all, said the Cardinal.

Safe, effective vaccines

Honduran Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said the world has much to learn from the coronavirus.

But one thing is certain: the authorized vaccines are effective, and are here to save lives, he said. They are the key to a path of personal and universal healing.

Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes praised the heroic efforts of health professionals in developing safe and effective jabs.

He also repeated the Popes affirmation that getting vaccinated is an act of love.

Salvadorian Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez said vaccination helps protect the most vulnerable.

Our choice to get vaccinated affects others, he said, adding that it is a moral responsibility.

Unity across the Americas

Peruvian Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos rounded out the testimonies contained in the video with an appeal to unity.

We are unitedNorth, Central, and South America and the Caribbeanto promote and support vaccination for all, he said, encouraging everyone to act responsibly, as members of the great human family, seeking and protecting our integral health and universal vaccination.
America's NATO allies are scrambling to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan amid the U.S. military withdrawal from the country and the collapse of the Afghan government. Many European officials have voiced fears that the Taliban takeover will increase the risk of terrorism and renew an influx of refugees into Europe.

Britain and other NATO allies began evacuating their citizens from Afghanistan on Sunday, along with hundreds of Afghan citizens who worked alongside them. France, Germany, Spain and Italy are also operating evacuation flights after U.S. troops reasserted control of the airport Monday, following chaotic scenes over the weekend.

Several European states are to outline soon their emergency asylum programs for interpreters and other Afghan nationals who worked alongside NATO troops and civilians over the past two decades. They are now seen as particularly at risk of Taliban reprisals.

Several allies joined the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. NATO took control of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in 2003 and led the training program for Afghan forces after 2014. In addition to the 2,448 U.S. military service personnel killed in Afghanistan, other NATO member states have lost hundreds of troops in two decades of conflict.

In a press conference Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg blamed the country's political leadership for the capitulation to the Taliban.

"What we have seen in the last few weeks was a military and political collapse at a speed which had not been anticipated. Part of the Afghan security forces fought bravely, but they were unable to secure the country because ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solution that Afghans desperately wanted. This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today," Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The failure to build a democratic state in Afghanistan could have wider implications for NATO, said Natasha Lindstaedt, a U.S. foreign policy analyst at Britain's University of Essex.

"I think NATO might return to more limited aims, of just trying to maintain stability and deter rather than to engage in these grand interventions," she told VOA.

Britain's Defense Secretary Ben Wallace blamed the collapse of the Afghan government on the 2020 deal struck with the Taliban by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

"It was done directly to the Taliban. It didn't involve the Afghan government  so (it) fatally potentially undermined the government of that day. We, as international partners, found it uncomfortable because we had deployed through a U.S. framework. We hadn't deployed in a unilateral manner. So, when they pulled that framework, we had to leave," Wallace told the BBC.

However, many European officials have also criticized the manner of the U.S. withdrawal.

"It was very abrupt, and it wasn't coordinated, and there wasn't much consultation at all from Biden and his administration with its NATO allies," Lindstaedt said. "(NATO allies) couldn't really stay there because they were dependent upon the U.S. military power providing that type of support."

Meanwhile, European leaders are also wary of the longer-term consequences of the Taliban takeover. French President Emmanuel Macron gave a televised address Monday evening.

"An historic turning point is underway in Afghanistan, far from our borders, but with major consequences for the entire international community, for Europe and for France," Macron said.

"Afghanistan's destabilization risks causing irregular migration to Europe. France, as I've said, has and will continue to do its duty for those who are most threatened.  Europe cannot be the only ones to take on consequences of the current situation," he added.

Macron also warned of the increased terror threat.

"Terrorist groups are present in Afghanistan and seek to profit from the destabilization. The United Nations' Security Council will have to come up with a common and united answer," the French president said.

That threat extends beyond the region and has implications for the global fight against terrorism, said analyst Raffaello Pantucci of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

"I think there's going to be an undoubted sense of wind of victory blowing through the sails of jihadists around the world as they say, 'Look, victory is attainable. This isn't a hopeless struggle. Keep to the fight, stick to your beliefs, and 20 years later, you can end up winning this war.' And I think that narrative will carry them forward for some time into the future," Pantucci told Agence France-Presse.

"I think it remains to be seen the degree to which Afghanistan will become a base once again for international terrorist groups to launch attacks outside. I think certainly al-Qaida will be rejuvenated by this and will strengthen itself," he added.

Several thousand Afghan asylum-seekers remain stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos, having fled to Europe in recent years. Several hundred staged a protest Monday against the Taliban takeover. Among them was Elena, who did not wish to give her full name, fearing reprisals for family members in Afghanistan.

"What will happen now in Afghanistan for (the) young generation? For children? For women's rights? Everything is destroyed by the Taliban," she told Reuters.

Those questions remain unanswered, as Western nations rush to leave Afghanistan, and the Taliban retakes the reins of power.

Some material from this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.


NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that Afghanistans leadership was responsible for the rapid collapse of the Afghan military but noted the alliance should learns lessons on how it conducts military training.

This failure of Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today, Stoltenberg said after a NATO meeting to discuss the security effects of the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan.

The speed with which Afghan troops weakened during the Talibans offensive was a surprise, said Stoltenberg, who also admitted there are lessons that need to be learned at NATO.

In its reaction to the Talibans victory, Russia, which declared the Taliban a terrorist group in 2003, said it would not immediately recognize the new government.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was in no rush to recognize the Taliban government and called for an inclusive national dialogue with the involvement of all political  forces in Afghanistan.

For its part, Turkey is negotiating with the Taliban and all other parties in Afghanistan and has favorable views of Taliban messages that were conveyed since taking control, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday.

We are keeping up dialogue with all sides, including the Taliban, Cavusoglu said at a news conference in Jordan. We view positively the messages that the Taliban has given so far, whether to foreigners, to diplomatic individuals or its own people. We hope to see these in action as well.

China encouraged the Taliban Tuesday to pursue "moderate and steady" religious policies and to establish an "open and inclusive" political structure involving all parties in the country.

At a televised news conference, China's foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, also criticized the U.S. for its role in the South Asian country.

"In Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, we have seen that wherever the U.S. military went, turmoil, division, and destruction of homes and deaths have been left behind," she said.

At the White House on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said televised scenes of Afghan civilians trapped in the embattled country were gut-wrenching and acknowledged the Taliban had seized control of the country much more quickly than his administration had expected.

Some information for this report came from Associated Press and Reuters.


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Khairullah Khairkhwa, who served as Taliban interior minister in 1997-98, was arrested by the Pakistani military and subsequently handed over to the CIA. In 2002 he was imprisoned at the naval base that the US illegally occupies in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

For 12 years, he was subjected to the tortures devised by Professor Martin Seligman on the model of the experiments carried out by Doctor Albert D. Biderman after the Korean War. Such treatments were not meted out for the purpose of obtain information, but to condition the subject by instilling in his mind certain patterns of behavior1.

In 2014, Khairullah Khairkhwa was released along with three other detainees - on order of President Barack Obama - in exchange for the release of Private Bowe Bergdahl, which was hailed by then Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a gesture a peace.

However, it quickly transpired that Bergdahl had been captured by the Taliban after deserting his post in the US Army. He was therefore tried by general court martial and sentenced to be dishonorably discharged.

In early 2021, Khairullah Khairkhwa joined the Taliban delegation at the US-China-Russia peace negotiations in Moscow. There he made a sensational declaration explaining that he would continue in the Jihad until victory.

On 15 August 2021, after the Afghan president fled, he was among the group of Talibans that seized the presidency of the Islamic Republic in Kabul.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System announced Wednesday that employees and people working in its hospitals and clinics must be vaccinated against COVID-19.

More from the UAB news release:

Patients in our hospital and clinical settings are vulnerable, very sick and at higher risk for complications, said UAB Health System Vice President of Clinical Support Services Sarah Nafziger, MD.

Unvaccinated health care workers put these patients at greater risk, given that their jobs require close interaction with them and others who are immunocompromised. UAB Medicine's Medical Executive Committee has determined the appropriate standard of care requires vaccination  it is the best way to provide a safe environment to care for its patients, as they are uniquely susceptible to Covid-19.

Employees covered by this policy must receive the full complement of vaccine shots  for example, two Pfizer or Moderna shots  by Nov. 12.

Nafziger says COVID-19 has threatened UAB Health Systems ability to provide the services necessary for the care of the people of Alabama.

Extensive data show vaccines are safe and effective, and we have a responsibility as a health care entity to provide a safe environment to protect our patients, employees and community and serve as a leader in the fight against COVID-19, Nafziger said.

If more people dont get vaccinated, and hospitalizations continue to increase, we will not be able to care for patients who need us; weve already decreased important services.

Leading medical organizations, including the American Hospital Association, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, have recommended required COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers. Both government and professional organizations emphasize that by being vaccinated, health care workers improve patient safety by decreasing the risk of exposure to COVID-19, which is threatening our ability to provide the services necessary to care for and protect the people of Alabama.

Health care employees at UAB Health System have long been required to be vaccinated against other infectious diseases such as the flu, and COVID-19 vaccinations will be managed in a similar manner.

In instances when someone may not be able to get vaccinated due to a disability, medical condition or sincerely held religious belief, the employee can request an exemption. However, those individuals may be subject to additional safety requirements.

The decision to require the COVID-19 vaccine as the appropriate standard of care  as many other medical providers across the country are doing  was made in part because of the high transmissibility of the Delta variant and the resulting surge in unvaccinated inpatient cases.

Around 90 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated, and we are seeing more and more unvaccinated people having severe illness and dying from this Delta variant  even younger people without pre-existing conditions, Nafziger said.

The Delta variant is serious, and aggressive measures like vaccine requirements are absolutely critical in stopping further spread. We know the risks of getting COVID far outweigh the minor, short-term risks of getting a vaccine, and the Delta variant is making this call to action more imperative than ever before.
A highly awarded and decorated Alabama Army National Guard soldier has died while serving on the Southwest border.

Sgt. Kellice Armstrong, 49, of Montgomery died Saturday while in an active-duty status, according to the Alabama Army National Guard.

A cause of death has not been released. The death is under investigation, according to the Guard.

Armstrong was in the Alabama Army National Guard's 2025th Transportation Company, 711th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 122nd Troop Command.

The Guard said he joined the Alabama Army National Guard in November 2006, serving as a 92A, Army Automated Logistical Specialist and a 75D, Personnel Records Specialist.

Armstrongs military schools included Commanders Safety Course, Army Basic Instructor, Warrior Leader, and Automated Logistics Specialist Phases 1 and 2.

His awards and decorations included the Army Achievement Medal (3), Army Good Conduct Medal (2), Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with M Device, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, and the Overseas Service Ribbon (2).
The Limestone County Sheriff's Office says Joel Dwight Gooch, a work-release inmate who escaped on Tuesday, is back in custody.

Gooch was captured Tuesday night by the Florence Police Department and is now in the hospital after starting and being injured in a high-speed chase.

About 8:57 p.m., Florence Police Department patrol officers saw the black Kawasaki motorcycle Gooch is accused of stealing from his work assignment in the area.

Officers began a pursuit and said speeds exceeded 100 mph on Florence Boulevard.

The chase ended when the motorcycle left the road and hit a stone wall. Gooch was ejected.

He received multiple injuries and was transported by air ambulance to Huntsville Hospital, Florence police said.

On Tuesday, Acting Limestone County Sheriff Mike West said 35-year-old Gooch showed up to work at Vulcan Plastics on Durham Drive in Athens but then left about 8:30 a.m. on a black Kawasaki motorcycle belonging to another employee.

The sheriff's office said Gooch is serving a sentence for child support.

Florence police said additional charges are expected.
A Priceville High School student is under investigation after making an alleged threat to bring a weapon to school.

According to Morgan County Schools Spokesman Jeremy Childers, it happened on a school bus Tuesday afternoon.

The School Resource Officer was made aware of the threat and the Morgan County Sheriff's Office says they are investigating. Priceville Police are assisting in the investigation.

So far there have been no arrests and the Sheriff's Office says there is no threat to the public. All is normal at Priceville High School today.

A Morgan County Sheriff's Office spokesman says the school and law enforcement were quickly notified and took action.
More than 2,000 U.S. soldiers have given their lives over the past 20 years to fight the war on terror in Afghanistan.

But now that troops are leaving, one Alabama father who lost his son is worried history might repeat itself.

"To see us just walk out of Afghanistan and just turn it over to the Taliban is just something I can't understand," says Johnny Spann from Winfield, Alabama.

Spann is still trying to understand the reason behind troops leaving Afghanistan.

"All the things that happened in these last 20 years, it seems like it's just being forgotten," says Spann.

He feels like the United States is not only betraying the many men and women who lost their lives, but the Afghan citizens as well.

"It's a slap in the face, a stab in the back for us to say, 'well that's good guys, we lost so many people and now we're going to pull out'," says Spann.

Of the many lives lost, his son, Mike, was the first American killed while in Afghanistan.

"Mike knew the consequences that could happen, I think he knew he could lose his life. And he knew it the whole time. And I think all the other guys knew that, you don't go into a war without somebody getting killed," says Spann.

He's worried our country is now even more vulnerable than when his son left for Afghanistan 20 years ago.

Spann says, "America is more vulnerable, I feel like it's only a matter of time before they're going to start attacking us again."

He adds that the United States is not only putting our citizens in danger, but the Afghan citizens we promised to protect.

"Are we just going to let those folks, (say) well bye, I'm sorry, we tried. That's not America, we don't do that kind of stuff," says Spann.

Spann says he'll always be a proud American, just like his son and all of the people who lost their lives fighting in Afghanistan. However, right now, he's "ashamed of the leadership in our country."
The California woman arrested in Huntsville for her role in the Capitol riot pleaded not guilty.

Court documents show Stephanie Baez entered the plea Monday. She seen on video entering and leaving the Capitol Building the day of the riot.

Videos posted online show her saying "time to storm the Capitol!"

Baez is facing two charges, knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds.
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It's about health and wellness: Meal ideas as students get ready to go back to school
Decatur, IL (62521)

Today

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain early...then remaining cloudy with showers overnight. Low 64F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
Pontiff urges people to get vaccinated against covid-19.

Pope Francis has added his voice to a media campaign urging people to get vaccinated against covid-19, describing it as an "act of love."

The pope said that vaccines bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another.

The video appeal, recorded in Spanish, was produced by the Vatican and the Ad Council as part of a campaign to tackle vaccine scepticism.

The appeal features several cardinals and archbishops from North, Central and South America as well as the Argentine-born pope, with Brazil's Cardinal Claudio Hummes praising the heroic efforts of medical professionals in developing safe and effective vaccines.

"Being vaccinated with vaccines authorised by the competent authorities is an act of love" - said the pope - "And contributing to ensure the majority of people are vaccinated is an act of love.

The pontiff added: Vaccination is a simple but profound way of promoting the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable.

The pope's participation in the appeal comes 10 days after Italian media reported that the pontiff had his own 'Green Pass' digital covid cert which is required, among other things, to enter the Vatican Museums.

In January the pope said it was an "ethical duty" to get vaccinated, describing opposition to the covid vaccine as a "suicidal denial that I cannot explain."
Draghi hails 54 Italian soldiers killed in Afghanistan as 'heroes' amid political debate over refugees.

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi said on Tuesday that the city will makes its facilities available for Afghan "refugees, women, students, children and whoever is about to be repatriated" from Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

The mayor said she has written to foreign minister Luigi Di Maio to underline that her administration is ready to "support any efforts aimed at immediately establishing humanitarian corridors".

Describing the capital as "an open, welcoming city", Raggi wrote on Facebook: "Together with Italian and European institutions, and private associations, Rome can give support to those who are suffering."

"We cannot remain indifferent to all this" - said the mayor - "We have to do something, we have to act fast."

Milan

Raggi's counterpart in Milan, Beppe Sala, said his administration is "preparing at local level" to welcome refugees, pending instructions from the government.

In a Facebook post the Milan mayor said the city is coordinating with social services and making contact with the "NGOs operating in Milan which, in some cases, have direct experience in Afghanistan."

Florence

The mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, also described his city as "open" and "ready to do its part," writing on Twitter: "We will welcome the women and refugees who manage to escape from Kabul and the violence of the Taliban."

Speaking on Italian television last night, prime minister Mario Draghi said that Italy is working with its European partners and fellow G20 member states to coordinate "complex" plans "to address two objectives: hospitality and security".

Draghi said that most of Italy's embassy staff in Kabul were airlifted to Rome on Monday but the work to repatriate diplomats, soldiers and Afghan collaborators continues.

He said that Italy still has military teams and some diplomats on the ground in Kabul where they are helping with the "evacuation efforts of other fellow citizens and Afghan collaborators and their families, when conditions allow."

"I want to thank all these people for the courage and dedication with which they carry out their task," said the premier.

Heroes

Draghi also paid tribute to the 54 soldiers that Italy has lost in Afghanistan over the course of the last 20 years, together with around 700 wounded.

"I want to say to their families that their sacrifice was not in vain, they defended the values for which they were sent, fundamental freedoms and women's rights, they carried out operations to prevent terrorism, they did good."

Draghi concluded by saying: "For me and for all Italians, they are heroes."

Political debate

The issue of welcoming Afghan refugees has sparked a political debate, with the leader of the centre-left Partito Democratico party Enrico Letta saying: "Italy can and must give a lot."

Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing Lega party, said that the "the flight from Afghanistan risks being a disaster" and "Italy cannot afford to welcome tens of thousands of people."

Salvini said that Italy is obliged to welcome its Afghan collaborators, limiting this number to "a few dozen", but said the country "cannot take on a new wave of arrivals."

Photo Reuters
Hong Kongs government-mandated centers are hotels  not specifically designed for medical isolation with the right ventilation and drainage systems, manned by staff who are tested but not necessarily vaccinated. Many are located in the middle of the dense city, connected to other buildings. In some cases, the quarantined have to get permission to open windows and, when they do, cant have them at more than a 45 degree angle. They have to consent to keeping windows closed overnight. Safety and liability issues aside, thats not quite in line with the WHOs guidance for adequately ventilated rooms with large quantities of fresh and clean air. The small, confined spaces arent child-friendly settings, either.
Downstate will need help too, especially the jobs engine of New York City. Although the governors role in the citys economy is limited, Hochul can directly support the recovery in one crucial respect: getting the subways working again. New Yorkers who have been working remotely need to know that they can return to their jobs without being stuck on a sweltering platform for an indefinite period. The state-controlled agency that runs the subways, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has lacked steady leadership for years. Several talented executives have quit in frustration with Albany. Hochul needs to ensure the agency is well-led and strongly supported, with the immediate goal of returning subway service to pre-pandemic schedules.
King Amanullah Khan, who ruled for a decade starting in 1919, pushed for Western-style reforms intended to modernize the country. Inspired by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, he introduced a new constitution that sought to guarantee rights for women as well as men. Child marriage was banned, polygamy discouraged, and the jurisdiction of religious leaders narrowed. Women were no longer required to wear the veil. Queen Soraya, who opened the first girls school in Kabul, became a champion of womens rights. The fast pace of change was lauded abroad but rattled conservatives in the largely tribal society, provoking revolt. The king was eventually forced to abdicate in 1929. His successor, Mohammed Nadir Shah, repealed the most progressive policies, but the backlash was short-lived. Zahir Shah, who ruled from 1933 to 1973 and was the last king of Afghanistan, reintroduced many of Amanullahs initiatives, albeit more cautiously. In 1964, women helped draft a new constitution, which gave them the right to vote and allowed them to seek elected office. They got jobs, ran businesses and entered politics. Tensions with traditionalists never went away, but women protested any attacks on their rights.
For the most part, Covid vaccines seem to be holding up well in achieving their key goals -- preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death -- even if they arent quite as effective at blocking milder cases of symptomatic infection with delta. In the U.S., for example, as of Aug. 2, only about 7,500 patients with Covid vaccine breakthrough infections had been hospitalized or died, a tiny fraction of the total hospitalizations and deaths, according to the CDC. Theres no scientific consensus that additional shots are currently needed for most people. Drug companies with a financial interest in selling more doses have been some of the loudest voices talking up the need for boosters. Until there is better data, critics of the rush to employ boosters say that existing doses would be better used for people in poorer countries with limited access to vaccines. It would be unconscionable to offer people already fully vaccinated another dose before protecting people who havent been vaccinated at all, the global nonprofit Doctors Without Borders said in a July 22 statement. Epidemiologists warn that allowing the coronavirus to continue to run rampant in some parts of the world increases the odds that more dangerous variants will arise. Those new variants may make their way across the globe and prolong the pandemic.
The government is set to announce a settlement scheme modeled on the 2015 policy to help 20,000 Syrians resettle in Britain over five years. But there are concerns thats too long a timeframe. The Syrian refugee program also required the assessment capacities of the United Nations, and its not clear how it would work this time round. Theres a danger, as Britains former national security adviser Mark Sedwill has warned, that Afghans would be stuck between the Taliban or an eternity in refugee camps. The goal over the next year is reportedly to resettle a modest 5,000 refugees.
Another major influence on vaccine effectiveness is the amount of community transmission of the virus. That can be affected by changes in behavior, such as engaging in riskier activities. If a vaccinated person is in a community where lots of people are not wearing masks and are breathing out the coronavirus in crowded indoor settings  offering more chances for the virus to spread  effectiveness against infection can be lower than it is for a person who lives where people are more cautious and the virus is rarer.
In April, the D.C. Department of Human Services said the number of chronically homeless people  those who have experienced homelessness for at least one year while also struggling with a mental or physical disability, among other conditions  rose from 1,337 last year to 1,618 this year, an increase of 21 percent, The increase came even as the total number of homeless people declined from 6,380 in 2019 to 5,111 in 2020.
On Wednesday, Hogan said an indoor mask mandate is not on the table. We think being at 80 percent vaccinated is a good step, and if we get the rest of the people vaccinated we wont have to revert back to some of the things from a year ago when we didnt have vaccines, he said.
Annapolis and Anne Arundel County sued the 26 major oil and gas companies in state court in February and April respectively, accusing the companies of decades of deception about their impact on climate change that taxpayers are now having to pay for in the form of expensive flood-mitigation projects. They joined jurisdictions including Baltimore and D.C. in going after the fossil-fuel industry in similar lawsuits; Baltimores case now rests before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit over a procedural issue, in what could serve as a test of the success of others like Annapoliss.
Over the course of the pandemic, Gayles advocated for stringent measures to curtail the spread of covid-19, pushed for health equity in vaccine distribution and led a rollout that has resulted in one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. He earned accolades for his positions  including being featured this year on CBSs 60 Minutes  but also criticism from some who felt he was too cautious, especially when it came to his advice on schools.
Many of her subjects were drawn from photographs, a medium that carried intense meaning for Ms. Liu. During the early days of the Cultural Revolution, Maos brutal bid in the 1960s and 1970s to purify the Chinese Communist Party, Ms. Liu burned many of her familys photos to eliminate traces of her father, who had served in the Nationalist Army, and other relatives who, as scholars, were regarded by the government as insufficiently working class.
I found myself sitting in my chair, shaking like a leaf, with tears rolling down my cheeks at the sight and the memories, he told Vietnam Magazine in 2017. I thought, you can run from it, and it will catch you and eat you  or you can face it. I picked up the phone the next morning and called General Moore at his home in Colorado. Are you ready to start work on this book? He said, I sure am. 
Gilbert, according to court papers, sent a check for $2,000 from his prison account as a down payment to the person he thought would kill the witness. That purported hit man turned out to be an undercover officer on an FBI task force, who had been tipped off to the plot by one of Gilberts fellow inmates. In the memo section of the check, Gilbert wrote that the money was for an investment firm.
The State Department said all U.S. diplomats who are leaving have been evacuated. Overnight, a message went out from the U.S. Embassy, currently operating at the airport, to a list of Americans and others in Kabul approved for departure telling them how and when to make their way to the airport. The department has sent veteran diplomat John Bass to Kabul to oversee the logistics of that part of the operation.
Bidens defiant address to the nation on Monday, when he stood squarely behind his decision to pull out U.S. troops, also renewed one of the most hotly contested debates of the post-9/11 era: Would a withdrawal from Afghanistan convey weakness, provoke aggression and shatter Americas ability to lead on the international stage, or would it reflect a sound realignment of the national interest, put the country on better footing to deal with the new challenges of the 21st century, and clarify to allies and adversaries what the United States is and is not willing to expend resources on?
In a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday night, Abbott said that he has been vaccinated against the coronavirus and that may be one reason why Im really not feeling any symptoms right now; I have no fever, no aches and pains, no other types of symptoms.
Im not going to shy away from defund the police. Listen to the message of what were saying. Im going to keep pushing you until you deal with the fact that we are dying. I dont care if you dont like the words. How much more should you not like the fact that Black folks in this community are dying at the rates that were dying at the hands of police? she said while giving a reporter a tour of her district. No one is dealing with it. So, because they left that piece for me, this is still there, I have to attack it as hard and as fast as I can.
The feeling is one of sadness and anger and despair and helplessness, said Scanes, who now runs a nonprofit called Forsaken Fighters to advocate for the evacuation of Afghan interpreters. Mateship is something we take very seriously here in Australia, something that is tightly woven into our national psyche. We should have been the leaders, showing our coalition partners exactly how we treat our mates.
But Lukyanov said Russias military was better equipped to deal with potential threats than it was in the 1990s when the Taliban last ruled. He said Russia now keeps contact with all parties in Afghanistan, in contrast with the 90s when it focused only on the Northern Alliance, which was fighting the Taliban.
Marilyn Sue Lents, 84, of Washington, passed away at 10:58 a.m. Monday, Aug. 30, 2021 at Ketcham Memorial Center. She was born Sept. 1, 1936, in Washington, Indiana, to the late Icel and Mary Kirk. Marilyn married Carol "Chick" Lents on Aug. 4, 1995, and he survives. She enjoyed tending to h
Trusted local news has never been more important, but providing the information you need, information that can change sometimes minute-by-minute, requires a partnership with you, our readers. Please consider making a contribution today to support this vital resource that you and countless others depend on.
If youre anything like me, youre getting mighty tired of lockdowns. I miss being able to get out of the house whenever I choose, I miss going to restaurants and  my favourite vice  going to movies. That bad, huh? Youre right, I dont have much to complain about. I dont envy those having to school their kids while working at home  although I do miss seeing my grandkids in the flesh.

If you think I need reminding of how easy Im doing it compared with a lot of others, youre probably right. But I suspect thats true of many of us, even those of us doing it just a tiny bit tougher than me.

Those who have to homeschool are doing it tough during the pandemic. Credit: iStockphoto

Apart from those with kids to mind, the first hardship dividing line is between those of us easily able to work from home and those not. This probably means those still on their usual pay and those reliant on some kind of government support.

Even those unable to work from home but fortunate to work in an essential industry probably pay the price of running a much higher risk of getting the virus. And that without anyone doing enough to help them get jabbed.
Doctors who visited a Melbourne aged care home amid the countrys deadliest coronavirus outbreak say they feared those left behind when staff were removed would starve to death as the virus tore through the facility, killing 45.

Aspects of the treatment of aged care residents and details of a year-long investigation were laid bare for the first time in the Coroners Court on Wednesday as the court prepares to hold a month-long inquest into the deaths.

A St Basils resident is taken to hospital on July 31 last year. Credit:Justin McManus

The names of 50 St Basils Homes for the Aged residents who died during the outbreak in July and August last year  45 from COVID-19  were read out during the hearing.

As devastating as these numbers are, they dont tell the whole story, Peter Rozen, counsel assisting the coroner, said. Evidence collected by the court ... suggests certain features of the home, its management and the way the outbreak was addressed by external agencies that combined for the tragic outcome that materialised.
ACT Senator Katy Gallagher has criticised the federal governments handling of the vaccine rollout after revealing she and her family are isolating following her teenage daughter testing positive for COVID-19.

The Labor finance spokeswoman, who also chairs the parliamentary committee examining the handling of the pandemic, said in a statement late on Tuesday night that 14-year-old Evie was at home and feeling unwell following a positive coronavirus diagnosis on Tuesday morning.

ACT Senator Katy Gallagher and her family are in isolation after their daughter was confirmed to have COVID-19 on Tuesday morning. Credit:@SenKatyG

All other household members have returned negative tests, but Senator Gallagher, who is fully vaccinated, is concerned her 16-year-old son, who is unvaccinated, will catch the virus.

Its a real juggle, were trying to keep him away and care for her, and make it work for a pretty reasonable stretch of time but its really difficult and, to some extent, Im not sure if well be able to protect him, which is heartbreaking while were trying to care for her, she said in an emotional interview with the ABC on Wednesday morning.
Singapore: For Rebecca Meckelburg and her family the sense of relief was overwhelming.

Hours after Australia launched its rescue mission from Taliban-controlled Kabul, the Australian academic, her husband Harimurti and their 11-year-old son Kayon were among 186 passengers and 13 crew to board another noteworthy, albeit less dramatic, flight: this one from Bali.

Passengers arrive at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali. Credit:Amilia Rosa

Organised by the Australian government, the Qantas service on Wednesday was the first commercial repatriation flight for Australians who had found it difficult to return home from virus-hit Indonesia. On the way over, it transported medical equipment donated by the government. It was collected by Bali Deputy Governor Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, known as Cok Ace.

Weve just been on tenterhooks with all the [pre-departure COVID-19] tests and we also had the additional stress of going from Java to Bali because they changed the rules on kids flying the day before, said Meckelburg, who was based in Salatiga in Central Java but needed to return to Australia for treatment for tuberculosis.
For many there is a real, deeply personal, sense of loss  loss of young soldiers, loss of potential to get a return on our commitment, loss of our aspirations and dreams of what we could have achieved in the beautiful, yet war-torn country. The enemy we fought have now overrun the very bases where we lived  our enemy moving freely within what was once our homes. It burns acidic right in the pit of my gut.

With the recent gut-wrenching reports and images from Afghanistan of the Taliban appearing to wipe clean the work done over the last two decades, there has been a collective national exhale with the word: why?

First, the Australian military has matured from our time in Afghanistan. Overlaid with our experiences from East Timor, Iraq and smaller recent deployments, we are now a much more capable organisation than we would have been had we not participated. Without the experiences of working with the large coalition forces, we would still be reliving ancient training methodologies, working with outdated equipment, and blinkered with small-scale mindsets.

Second, Australia has benefitted from the talent we grew and tested. It is no coincidence that several top public service roles have recently been filled by former military commanders whose formative strategy and leadership experience was gained during the ADFs time in the Middle East  experience difficult to gain in any other profession. For example, it is not surprising that General John Frewen, a man who headed Australias contribution to the Middle East over 2017, is now the governments choice to manage the complex and troublesome national COVID vaccination rollout. And while these are the high-profile roles, we have generated a generation of professionals who are now feeding back into Australias public and business sectors with their unique skills and experience.

Third, on the global stage we have shown ourselves as a reliable and effective coalition partner, and a trusted and compassionate friend. For our larger allies, we are seen as a steadfast and formidable military, one worth having on their side. This will continue to have broader security, intelligence sharing and diplomatic benefits, well into the future.

Finally, for the people of Afghanistan, we have allowed a possible future of peace and stability. We have allowed a generation to grow up who have never known the suppression of women, who have had a taste of democracy, and who have been through schooling based not solely on religious doctrine. I hope the seed we have sown will help the people of Afghanistan nurture and grow a more progressive and tolerant future.
Incoming Indiana University Southeast students get first look at new dorms
A drive-thru COVID-19 testing site off of Interstate 35 in Austin on Aug. 5. New cases and hospitalizations are approaching records set during the winter surge and intensive care unit beds are rapidly filling across Texas.
BRIDGEPORT  Each year students and their families in need of backpacks and school supplies can get free materials at the Park Citys Backpack to School event.

In 2021, they can get a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine, too.

Local firefighters outside the Jettie S. Tisdale School on Tuesday handed out backpacks to Bridgeport students, who will head back to school in less than two weeks.

A health department mobile unit was also on-site to register eligible students and parents, and administer doses of the vaccine.

The annual event is split into several dates and locations this year, from Tuesday through Saturday at Jettie S. Tisdale, Blackham School, Barnum School, Roosevelt School and Cesar A. Batalla School.

The backpacks are filled with notebooks, folders, rulers, highlighters, erasers, crayons, and colored pens and pencils, sponsored by the city and its partners.

Each student can take one backpack while supplies last. The city expects to distribute roughly 3,000 packs over the next week.

Rowena White, the director of communications in Bridgeport, said her team heard from a few parents who said the backpacks meant a lot this year because times are tough, she said.

White was joined on Tuesday by Mayor Joe Ganim, and city council members Ernie Newton and Aidee Nieves.

Representatives from the Bridgeport Health Department, alongside Southwest Community Health Center and Optimus Health Care, were also present to facilitate childrens back-to-school physicals, and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

White said she asked families why they were willing to get the vaccine today, months after they became eligible.

A lot of them said it was the convenience, she said.

The vaccine will be available at each location of the backpack drive this week.

Backpack to School is supported by several city agencies and local radio stations. Students must be present to pick up their bags, and interested families should bring proof of Bridgeport residency.

Dates and locations include:

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Blackham School;

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Barnum School;

Friday, Aug. 20, 2021, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Roosevelt School;

Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Cesar A. Batalla School.
Raven McCrady is a Western Kentucky mom.

Her daughter was home-schooled in the past, but now she's enrolled in Daviess County Public Schools.

"Unfortunately, because she is a healthy child, she does not qualify for any virtual academy at our local level," McCrady said.

Last December, Kentucky introduced Healthy at School guidelines, which called on red zone counties to offer virtual learning options.

Those requirements were rescinded in June. This year, individual school systems have a say in whether students can learn online.

Some districts have given the green light, but DCPS, like many others, is not among them and McCrady has tried tirelessly to change that.

"It's an issue that millions of families are currently experiencing right now. It's all over our Commonwealth," McCrady said. "I have reached out to our local school, our superintendent and our board. Our superintendent was very very kind and responded to my many emails. He thanked me for my suggestion."

44News reached out to DCPS superintendent Matt Robbins to find out why the district will not extend a virtual learning option beyond a medical reason. In an email response he said:

The Daviess County Public Schools district established a Medical Virtual Academy (MVA) option last spring to enroll students for the 2021-2022 school year. For a student to be enrolled in the MVA, the parent/guardian had to provide medical documentation demonstrating the need.

The enrollment period for MVA ran for approximately a one-month period of time with multiple notices sent to parents advertising its existence and enrollment period. The advance enrollment period was necessary to properly staff both the MVA and the in-person provision.

As we have become aware of other students who have an immunocompromised health condition, we have enrolled those additional students in the MVA. However, few requests for the MVA have been received over the summer and during the back-to-school period.

We have denied a small number of requests due to their not meeting the conditions of the MVA. It is important to note that our parents demonstrated their strong support of in-person school by way of requests in the Spring of 2021 for the 2021-2022 school year.

DCPS continues to strongly recommend and support in-person teaching and learning because of the high quality of instruction delivered in this format, which also allows us to provide additional support services for all of our kids at school.

DCPS will immediately and appropriately comply with any federal, state or local requirements or regulations pertaining to COVID-19.

After getting denied at the local level, McCrady knew she had to ramp up her efforts, so she started a petition. If learning virtually was going to be an option again, she figured her best bet was to send the request directly to the governor.

"I hope that Governor Beshear does acknowledge it, I know he's seen it," she laughed. "I've sent it to his office numerous times."

As of Tuesday, there were more than 6,200 signatures. It's a growing number McCrady hopes will make an impact, because as she and thousands of other feel, while in-person learning may be best for one, it is not necessarily best for all.

"To have this many voices come together in unison demanding a virtual option for our kids was so encouraging," McCrady said. "I think giving options so that a family is able to make those choices based on their own unique needs, is one of the solutions that can be easily implemented."
NWS Weather Alert NOTE: This information is provided by the National Weather Service. Forecast may differ from local information provided by our own 69News Meteorologists

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH NOW IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING... The Flash Flood Watch is now in effect for * Portions of New Jersey...and Pennsylvania...including the following areas...in New Jersey...Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, and Warren. In Pennsylvania...Berks, Carbon, Delaware, Eastern Chester, Eastern Montgomery, Lehigh, Lower Bucks, Monroe, Northampton, Philadelphia, Upper Bucks, Western Chester, and Western Montgomery. * From Wednesday morning through Thursday morning. * The remnants of Hurricane Ida will pass through the region Wednesday through early Thursday morning. Periods of heavy rain and scattered thunderstorms associated with this low will result in widespread 4 to 6 inches of rain, with locally higher amounts likely exceeding 6 inches by Thursday morning. Combined with wet antecedent conditions, this will lead to numerous instances of flash flooding, some of which may be significant. * Flooding of creeks, streams, urban areas, and poor drainage areas is likely in the areas of heaviest rain. Water is likely to cover the roads, especially in low-lying areas. Moderate to major flooding is possible along some main stem rivers, and roads and structures near these rivers may be flooded. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued. &&
It's hard to imagine a time when sitting through this most engaging of biographical musicals wouldn't be a complete pleasure, apart perhaps from the overly earnest film version. This compact new West End remounting of Des McAnuff's dynamic, clean-cut staging cements the show's reputation as one of the most immaculately crafted and flat-out enjoyable jukebox tuners.

The tale of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' journey from a quartet of down-home Italian American lads singing doo-wop close harmonies under a streetlight in 1950s New Jersey, to global superstars by way of a path littered with failed relationships, failings out, incarcerations, addiction and even shady Mob dealings, might be considered far fetched if it weren't actually true. Marshall Brickman and Rick Ellice's book ups the ante further by not presenting it as a linear story but by broadly splitting it into four sections, each named for a different season, the changes beamed up in Pop Art cartoons on the screens of Klara Zieglerova's industrial looking set. Thus an already spicy story gains further interest by being told from a quartet of different viewpoints. If not exactly hard-hitting, it certainly doesn't shy away from the less wholesome aspects of the band's rise to fame.

The songs will be the main attraction for most people though and they still absolutely rock and roll, a tasty, beaty, ear-wormy selection of bangers and belters from the golden age of American popular music. If it's sometimes frustrating that we only get snatches of well known, beloved tunes rather than all the verses and choruses, there are a heck of a lot to get though in the space of a two and a half hour show. They're used inventively too, not just presented front and centre: for example, the spine-tingling way the distinctive piano part of the Four Season's first breakout hit "Sherry" runs through and under the dialogue in the preceding scenes as underscoring ensures that when we get the full number it pops far more excitingly than if it was just launched into cold.

In a sensational theatrical debut, Ben Joyce unerringly replicates Frankie Valli's trademark falsetto and brings a loveable warmth and also an understated darkness. He even manages to age convincingly, and, more than others who have previously played the role, conveys the sense of a once-in-a-generation raw talent tethered to a bundle of unrestrained, slightly wayward energy.

Melanie Bright, Helen Ternet, Koko Basigara

 Mark Senior

Adam Bailey is very likeable as Bob Gaudio, making sensible anything but boring in the songwriting talent of the group. Benjamin Yates invests bad boy Tommy DeVito with an intriguing simmering rage and a wired comic energy, and Karl James Wilson creates something funny and distinctive out of Nick Massi's unhistrionic bluntness. The concluding speeches for each band member filling us in on what has happened since are mini masterpieces of character development and ingeniously subtle emotional manipulation, and they are superbly performed here.

Ben Irish is bracingly amusing as Bob Crewe, the camp and canny manager who gives the band their first big break, while Mark Isherwood excels as a dangerous Mafia boss brought to lachrymose messiness by Frankie's singing. The tough-talking New Jersey accent can be a tricky one for British actors to master but the present company manage it pretty well for the most part. In an undeniably, and perhaps inevitably, male oriented show, Helen Ternent, Koko Basigara and Melanie Bright are all terrific and provide invaluable contributions as the women who impacted indelibly on Valli's life. Ternent in particular makes a haunting impression as his doomed daughter, but they are all so versatile that it's easy to overlook that there's only three of them.

Sergio Trujillo's choreography is taut and stylish, and Howard Binkley's exceptional lighting bathes everything in a bright, tough sheen. Great music doesn't age, it matures, and the same goes for this vivid, satisfyingly hard edged musical, staged with true all-American flair and polish. It's so lovely to have it back, and what a glorious way to open a beautifully refurbished venue. Not hard to see why this ran over 11 years on Broadway then immediately transferred to a smaller Off-Broadway house, "Oh What A Night" indeed.
Malaysias king says the new prime minister he picks must swiftly test his leadership in Parliament as the deadline for lawmakers to submit the names of their preferred candidates passed
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Thundershowers overnight following a period of rain early. Potential for flooding rains. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%..

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Cloudy with periods of rain. Potential for flooding rains. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

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MONTREAL - Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec says it earned a return of 5.6 per cent in the first half of the year.

The logo of Quebec's Caisse de Depot pension fund is seen on February 25, 2021 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

MONTREAL - Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec says it earned a return of 5.6 per cent in the first half of the year.

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The Quebec fund manager says the result for the six months ended June 30 beat its benchmark index's 4.4 per cent return.

Net assets rose to reach $390 billion at the end of the period.

CDPQ CEO Charles Emond says the investment manager continued to position its portfolios to navigate a new environment, especially in real estate and equity markets.

He says it also increased its exposure to promising sectors such as logistics and technology.

Over five years, CDPQ says it has earned an annualized return of 8.5 per cent, compared with 8.3 per cent for its benchmark index.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
Its been a particularly high time at Delta 9 Cannabis.

The Manitoba-based weed producer has seen a nearly 30 per cent increase to net revenue in the past three months alone, going from $13 million this time last year to $16.75 million in earnings during the second quarter of 2021.

And while just in April, the company had plans to open an 11th store in Winnipeg, not only does Delta 9 now have a 12th pot shop in the country, but it plans on having up to 20 storefronts across Canada by the end of the calendar year.

Those gains are a rarity in the cannabis sector, which many industry watchers say has evidently staggered since federal legalization in 2018, mostly because of regulatory hurdles and stiff competition with the black market.

In fact, theres currently 1.1 billion grams of surplus weed sitting in warehouses, according to recent estimates. That excess cannot be sold because customers continue to rely on bootleg operations which offer a lot more variety with cheaper prices, poll after poll shows.

In an interview with the Free Press Tuesday, chief executive officer John Arbuthnot explained how his enterprise has managed to beat many odds in the still-developing business sector.

"Theres no denying it. Its a very uncertain industry," Arbuthnot said. "The key thing for us is to be incredibly smart about where we know gains can be made."

As one of the original 13 companies to be licensed by Health Canada, Delta 9 did have an early advantage.

But unlike most of those companies and the ones that came after, Arbuthnot was a quick proponent of the vertical integration strategy. Its an arrangement that allowed the business to control the supply chain for itself, by itself  thereby controlling its suppliers, distributors and retail locations altogether to reduce cost and improve efficiency.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Joints are pre-rolled at the Delta 9 Cannabis facility in Winnipeg.

On top of that, Delta 9 has also made significant strides within its online infrastructure  understanding the market not just for sales direct to consumers, but also direct to businesses (otherwise called B2B).

"Theres a big problem with oversaturation now, because theres too many players in the field," Arbuthnot said. "So, to expand within this segment, you have to keep expanding down to the retail chain."

Its why new stores for Delta 9 keep popping up  and many more are expected to come. Right now, there are seven Delta 9 shops in Winnipeg; and one each in Brandon, Thompson, Grande Prairie, Calgary, and Lloydminster.

"Theres a lot of articles that pop up now about the struggle with getting investors for producers in our industry," Arbuthnot said. "And yes, there is some truth to it; but most of it is the classic case of buy the rumour, sell the news."

Citing the several consecutive reports for Delta 9 that showed positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), he said his company continues to add value to the Manitoba economy and the Canadian industry at large.

"The sky hasnt fallen, even when many of our peers are now seen to be leaving the sector," Arbuthnot said.

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Still, he admitted, there are many hurdles with expanding to other markets in North America  specifically in the U.S., where state-to-state laws regulating cannabis sales differ starkly.

"A lot of people had hoped things would be different with President Joe Bidens administration. Wed seen frenzy around this during their elections, but certainly, that isnt something at the top of their agenda," Arbuthnot said.

"But right now, its a waiting game of when and not if with U.S. legalization. And in the meantime, we will keep doing our B2B operations there, which is legal. At the same, well keep learning from this market with the mistakes and wins by having Canada ahead of them."

temur.durrani@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @temurdur
POLLOCK PINES, Calif. (AP)  Record-setting blazes raging across Northern California are wiping out forests central to plans to reduce carbon emissions and testing projects designed to protect communities, the states top fire official said Wednesday, hours before a fast-moving new blaze erupted.

A man douses flames as the Dixie Fire burns south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region has spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

POLLOCK PINES, Calif. (AP)  Record-setting blazes raging across Northern California are wiping out forests central to plans to reduce carbon emissions and testing projects designed to protect communities, the states top fire official said Wednesday, hours before a fast-moving new blaze erupted.

Fires that are exceedingly resistant to control in drought-sapped vegetation are on pace to exceed the amount of land burned last year  the most in modern history  and having broader effects, said Thom Porter, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Hours after Porter spoke, a grass fire spurred by winds up to 30 mph (48 kilometers per hour) swiftly burned dozens of homes, forced the evacuation of schools and threatened the city of Clearlake about 80 miles north of San Francisco.

Rows of homes were destroyed on at least two blocks and television footage showed crews dousing burning homes with water. Children were rushed out of an elementary school as a field across the street burned.

Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin issued a warning of immediate threat to life and property."

A scorched vehicle, destroyed by the Caldor Fire, sits along Evergreen Drive in Grizzly Flats, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

This isnt the fire to mess around with, he told KGO-TV.

Fires burning mostly in the northern part of the state threatened thousands of homes and led to extended evacuation orders and warnings, as well as power outages to prevent utility equipment from sparking fires amid strong winds.

The largest current fire in the West, known as the Dixie Fire, is the first to have burned from east to west across the spine of California, where the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains meet, the state's fire chief said.

A chimney is left standing after a property was destroyed by the Caldor Fire in Grizzly Flats, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

It was also one of several massive fires that have destroyed areas of the timber belt that serve as a centerpiece of the state's climate reduction plan because trees can store carbon dioxide.

We are seeing generational destruction of forests because of what these fires are doing, Porter said. This is going to take a long time to come back from.

Although the Dixie Fire is only a third contained and remains a threat, dozens of fire engines and crews were transferred Wednesday to fight the Caldor Fire, which exploded in size southwest of Lake Tahoe and ravaged Grizzly Flats, a community of about 1,200. It covered 84 square miles (217 square kilometers).

In this long exposure photo embers light up hillsides as the Dixie Fire burns near Milford in Lassen County, Calif., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Dozens of homes burned, according to officials, but tallies were incomplete. Those who viewed the aftermath saw few homes standing. Lone chimneys rose from the ashes, little more than rows of chairs remained of a church and the burned out husks of cars littered the landscape.

Chris Sheean said the dream home he bought six weeks ago near the elementary school went up in smoke. He felt lucky he and his wife, cats and dog got out safely hours before the flames arrived.

Its devastation. You know, theres really no way to explain the feeling, the loss, Sheean said. Maybe next to losing a child, a baby, maybe.  Everything that we owned, everything that weve built is gone.

In this long exposure photograph, the Caldor Fire burns through trees on Mormom Emigrant Trail east of Sly Park, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

All 7,000 residents in nearby Pollock Pines were ordered to evacuate Tuesday. A large fire menaced the town in 2014.

Time lapse video from a U.S. Forest Service webcam captured the fire's extreme behavior as it grew beneath a massive gray cloud. A ceiling of dark smoke spread out from the main plume that began to glow and was then illuminated by flames shooting hundreds of feet in the sky.

John Battles, a professor of forest ecology at the University of California, Berkeley, said the fires are behaving in ways not seen in the past as flames churn through trees and brush desiccated by a megadrought in the West and exacerbated by climate change.

Firefighters drive along Highway 395 south of Janesville in Lassen County, Calif., as the Dixie Fire jumps the roadway on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. Critical fire weather throughout the region threatens to spread multiple wildfires burning in Northern California. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

These are reburning areas that have burned what we thought were big fires 10 years ago, Battles said. Theyre reburning that landscape.

The wildfires, in large part, have been fueled by high temperatures, strong winds and dry weather. Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.

Battles said the fires have created a vicious cycle. Burning increases carbon emissions while also destroying trees and other ground cover that can absorb the greenhouse gas. Dead trees will continue to release carbon they once stored.

Scorched property destroyed by the Caldor Fire is seen in Grizzly Flats, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

The fire is burning along the U.S. Route 50 corridor, one of two highways between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. The highway through the canyon along the South Fork of the American River has been the focus of a decades-long effort to protect homes by preventing the spread of fires through a combination of fuel breaks, prescribed burns and logging.

All of that is being tested as we speak, Porter said. When fire is jumping outside of its perimeter, sometimes miles ... those fuel projects wont stop a fire. Sometimes theyre just used to slow it enough to get people out of the way.

In the Sierra-Cascades region about 100 miles (161 kilometers) to the north, the month-old Dixie Fire expanded by thousands of acres to 993 square miles (2,572 square kilometers)  two weeks after the blaze gutted the Gold Rush-era town of Greenville. About 16,000 homes and buildings were threatened by the Dixie Fire, the second-largest in state history.

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Chard paper burned by the Caldor Fire rests in the remains of the Grizzly Flats Community Church, Grizzly Flats, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

It's a pretty good size monster," Mark Brunton, a firefighting operations section chief, said in a briefing. "It's going to be a work in progress  eating the elephant one bite at a time kind of thing.

The Caldor and Dixie fires are among a dozen large wildfires in the northern half of California.

More than 40,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers had no power, though the utility began restoring electricity to customers as forecasts for low humidity and gusts were expected to improve Thursday.

Most of the fires this year have hit the northern part of the state, largely sparing Southern California, which experienced rare drizzle and light rain Wednesday. Fire conditions in the region are expected to get worse in the fall.

___

Associated Press writers John Antczak in Los Angeles and Olga R. Rodriguez and Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report.
The former president and board chair of the company that makes OxyContin told a court Wednesday that he, his family and the company did not cause the opioid crisis in the United States.

Fake pill bottles with messages about Purdue Pharma are displayed during a protest outside the courthouse where the bankruptcy of the company is taking place in White Plains, N.Y., Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. Purdue Pharma's quest to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin is entering its final phase with the grudging acceptance of most of those with claims against the company. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The former president and board chair of the company that makes OxyContin told a court Wednesday that he, his family and the company did not cause the opioid crisis in the United States.

Richard Sackler, a member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, was asked under oath during a federal bankruptcy hearing whether he, his kin or the company bear responsibility. For each, Sackler answered simply: No.

In statements and court papers, Sackler family members have consistently denied wrongdoing in the opioid crisis, even as the company they own has twice pleaded guilty to federal crimes over their opioid practices.

But its rare for family members to be asked about it point-blank in open court. The hearing in federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, was held via videoconference.

Richard Sackler has not appeared in public forums in recent years outside video of a deposition he gave in a lawsuit in 2015. His denial of responsibility for the opioid crisis comes a day after his son testified that the family wouldnt accept a settlement without guarantees of immunity from further legal action.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain said Wednesday that he expected testimony to be completed Thursday and final arguments to begin Monday, and that a decision is likely later next week.

Jayde Newton helps to set up cardboard gravestones with the names of victims of opioid abuse outside the courthouse where the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy is taking place in White Plains, N.Y., Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. Purdue Pharma's quest to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin is entering its final phase with the grudging acceptance of most of those with claims against the company. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

During Wednesdays hearing, Richard Sackler said he had laryngitis, and his voice was sometimes soft.

In response to more than three hours of questions, mostly from Maryland Assistant Attorney General Brian Edmunds, his most common answer was, I dont recall.

Sackler, whose father was one of three brothers who nearly 70 years ago bought the company that later became Purdue Pharma, didnt recall emails he wrote a decade or more ago; whether Purdues board approved certain sales strategies; whether a company owned by Sackler family members sold opioids in Argentina; or whether he paid any of his own money as part of a settlement with Oklahoma to which the Sackler family contributed $75 million.

Often, he answered questions with more questions, asking for precision.

When Edmunds asked him if he knew how many people in the U.S. had died from using opioids, Sackler asked him to specify over which time period.

Edmunds did: 2005 to 2017.

I dont know, Sackler said. He said that he had looked at some data on deaths in the past, though.

A man looks at cardboard gravestones with the names of victims of opioid abuse outside the courthouse where the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy is taking place in White Plains, N.Y., Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. Purdue Pharma's quest to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin is entering its final phase with the grudging acceptance of most of those with claims against the company. A confirmation hearing is to open in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Thursday for a deal that removes control of the company from members of the wealthy Sackler family and requires them to contribute $4.5 billion to opioid abatement While most states and others with claims have signed on, there's still deep anger that Sackler family members would receive protection from lawsuits under the deal. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

(The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tallied more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. to opioid overdose, including both prescription drugs and illicit ones such as heroin and illegally produced fentanyl, since 2000.)

At another point, Edmunds asked whether he ever had conversations with sales managers.

Can you define what you mean by sales managers? Sackler asked.

Edmunds did. Then Sackler said he didnt recall any such conversations.

Edmunds asked about a disagreement over company sales targets at one point. Sackler corrected him.

You used the word dispute, he said. It wasnt a dispute. It was a difference of opinion.

The previous words of Richard Sackler, now 76, are at the heart of lawsuits accusing the Stamford, Connecticut-based company of a major role in sparking a nationwide opioid epidemic.

In the 1996 event to launch sales of OxyContin, he told the companys sales force that there would be a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.

Five years later, as it was apparent that the powerful prescription pain drug was being misused in some cases, he said in an email that Purdue would have to hammer on the abusers in every way possible, describing them as the culprits and the problem.

For those reasons, the activists crusading against companies involved in selling opioids often see Sackler  who was president of the company from 1999 to 2003, chair of its board from 2004 through 2007, and a board member from 1990 until 2018  as a prime villain.

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Members of the wealthy family have long avoided the spotlight in the business world and welcomed it in philanthropy. But in recent years, museums, including the Louvre in Paris and universities, such as Tufts in Massachusetts, that theyve supported have cut ties over the opioid crisis.

Richard Sacklers testimony came a day after his son, David Sackler, testified.

The younger Sackler, who also served on Purdues board, reiterated something that has long been the familys position: They will agree to their part of the plan to restructure Purdue only if family members receive protection from lawsuits over opioids and other Purdue action.

If those provisions do not stay in the deal, David Sackler said, the family would instead face lawsuits. I believe we would litigate the claims to their final outcome, he said.

On Wednesday, Richard Sackler said the family would not agree if states that oppose the deal were not bound by it and allowed to move ahead with lawsuits against the company and family members.

Under the proposed settlement, members of the Sackler family would give up ownership of Purdue and contribute $4.5 billion over time in cash and control of charitable funds. Most of the money, along with Purdues future profits, would be used to abate the opioid crisis. Some would go to individual victims and their families.
TORONTO - Facebook Inc. has unveiled its plans for the federal election to limit disinformation and targeted attacks that continue to be a problem on social media.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau boards his campaign plane in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug 17, 2021, en route to Vancouver, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

TORONTO - Facebook Inc. has unveiled its plans for the federal election to limit disinformation and targeted attacks that continue to be a problem on social media.

The tech giant said Wednesday that it has learned from past elections, including Canada's 2019 federal vote, and it has implemented new measures to secure the online accounts of candidates and is providing new training specifically to make its platforms safer for female candidates.

The company will also continue efforts to remove posts that violate community standards, including content that misleads people on how to vote.

"We will put all our efforts and energy into the next five weeks or so, to make sure we do all that we can to protect the platform from abuse and from bad actors," said Kevin Chan, Facebook's head of public policy in Canada.

The company has faced significant criticism in recent years for how the platform has allowed misinformation to spread online, including in recent U.S. presidential elections.

A report released in March by advocacy group Avaaz found that the company could have prevented billions of views of misinformation had it acted differently during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, while the group has also been critical of how the company has allowed misinformation around COVID-19 to spread.

I would say historically their track record is not great, and we have seen this south of the border," said Ramona Pringle, associate professor at Ryerson University's RTA School of Media.

Social media platforms are still ripe for misleading people because news from established sources are mixed in with less reliable sources, she said.

Because everything is slurried together in this one space, it makes people more inclined to believe the misinformation, or misleading information, because it appears side-by-side with more legit information as well.

Facebook, however, says it has been active in removing misinformation posts that violate its standards, noting in a separate report out Wednesday that since the start of the outbreak it has removed more than 20 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram globally that violated its policies, and attached warnings to more than 190 million posts that may be false or misleading.

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Our job is to really to maximize voice, to allow as many people as possible, as wide a berth as possible, to express themselves in the way they want to, but its not without limits," said Chan.

Misinformation has also not been as prevalent an issue in Canadian elections than in the United States. A 2020 report from the Digital Democracy Project found that while disinformation was shared during the 2019 election, it "generally did not appear co-ordinated and had limited impact."

Facebook users will also see fewer posts related to politics in general this election after the company instituted a policy in February to reduce the prominence of posts related to civic issues. The company said it implemented the policy based on requests from users.

Users can also choose to limit the number of ads in their news feed, and Facebook says it is providing more transparency and vetting over political ads.

The company says it is working with Agence FrancePresse and Radio-Canada as fact checkers for posts in Canada, and has 35,000 people working on safety and security to help ensure the integrity of elections globally.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
TORONTO - As more Canadian companies implement vaccine policies for staff and clients, an employment lawyer says provisions that still allow unvaccinated people to participate are at the core of their legality.

Porter Airlines says it will require employees to be fully vaccinated or present a negative COVID-19 test administered within 72 hours of the start of their shift. An Porter airlines flight makes its final approach as it lands at the airport Tuesday July 2, 2019 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

TORONTO - As more Canadian companies implement vaccine policies for staff and clients, an employment lawyer says provisions that still allow unvaccinated people to participate are at the core of their legality.

Porter Airlines and Sun Life Financial Inc. recently joined a growing list of Canadian businesses that will require their employees to be vaccinated, but there are caveats.

Porter Airlines says unvaccinated employees can still work provided they get tested 72 hours prior to a shift, and said it'll provide free rapid testing in certain jurisdictions.

"At the core of it, it's to ensure the health and safety of our team members and as well passengers," said Michael Deluce, president and CEO of Porter, which has not been operating for more than a year due to the pandemic.

"With our relaunch on Sept. 8 ... we wanted to have the safest possible environment from the get-go."

Sun Life said only employees that choose to return to the office during an ongoing back-to-work trial will have to be vaccinated. The insurance company recently announced it would allow most of the company's 12,000 employees to work from home as a long term policy.

As companies operating under federal regulations, Porter and Sun Life would have fallen under the government's developing plans to require federal workers to be vaccinated.

However, the companies said they have been planning to implement a vaccination policy for on-site workers for some time.

"Fundamentally health is part of who we are, its part of our purpose," said Sun Life President Jacques Goulet

"We want to make sure as we gradually make our offices available for work, that its a safe environment, and the full vaccination for us was an important step."

But employment lawyer Hermie Abraham said a vaccination policy such as Sun Life's is only legally tangible because of the fact that workers are still able to be unvaccinated and working from home.

The same is true for the policies of entertainment company Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Porter, which have provisions for unvaccinated employees to work with regular testing.

"The employer can set the rule  there's nothing in law that says you can't set a rule  but for that rule to be able to be legally dispensable for existing employees, you want to make sure you're giving them options to comply," said Abraham.

Since there are other protective measures against COVID-19 such as social distancing, masking and testing, she said there are ample ways for employers to allow unvaccinated people to work safely.

However, she said companies won't be on the hook for costs that employees incur from being unvaccinated, such as if they are required to pay for COVID-19 testing in the future.

She compared it to a company moving its headquarters from one location to another, which could cost an employee more money for commuting.

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"That's not necessarily the employer's problem," said Abraham.

Abraham said even though employees might incur a financial cost for testing, they were offered the ability to avoid it by getting vaccine. That means an employer can reasonably decide not to cover the costs associated with being unvaccinated, she said.

As companies wait for more details around federal government requirements, Sun Life said it's also waiting before it decides whether its own vaccination requirement for on-site workers will continue past the current back-to-work trial, when offices are operating at 25 per cent capacity.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," said Goulet.

"We may find there's new information popping up, we may find in a few months the government will declare officially that the pandemic is over; there's so many variables."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)  In his position of authority, the former head of the Khmer Rouge shared joint culpability for the regime's atrocities in Cambodia in the 1970s, prosecutors said Wednesday, rejecting defense arguments that he should not be held responsible.

In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Khieu Samphan, former Khmer Rouge head of state, sits in a courtroom during a hearing at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. Khieu Samphan, the last living leader from the inner circle of Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime, is to appear in court Monday as he seeks to overturn his conviction on genocide charges before a long-running international tribunal. (Nhet Sok Heng/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia via AP)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)  In his position of authority, the former head of the Khmer Rouge shared joint culpability for the regime's atrocities in Cambodia in the 1970s, prosecutors said Wednesday, rejecting defense arguments that he should not be held responsible.

Khieu Samphan, 90, is appealing his 2018 conviction for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is the last surviving member of the inner circle of Pol Pot's radical communist regime that ruled Cambodia with an iron fist from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.

His defense team has argued there were procedural errors in the original Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia trial and challenged the evidence against him.

In the third day of arguments Wednesday, defense attorney Anta Guisse questioned the use of the principle of joint criminal enterprise in his conviction, under which individuals can be held responsible for the actions of a group to which they belong.

Guisse told the international tribunal the reasoning was hazardous, arguing that it replaces belonging to a political project with a criminal objective and intent to commit a crime.

The court, she said had to establish that he intended to commit a crime and that he associated with other persons in order to achieve this objective and, furthermore, that he broadly contributed to the crime.

Short of that, she said, one cannot say that there was proof, that there was intent, to commit the crimes.

Khieu Samphan sat behind Guisse as she spoke, wearing earphones to hear the proceedings and a mask as part of the COVID-19 precautions.

Prosecutor William Smith rejected her argument, telling the ECCCs Supreme Court chamber that precedent from trials of war crimes from the former Yugoslavia had established that it's not required to show a defendant had knowledge of specific incidents.

Indeed, it would be artificial, impractical and defeat the purpose of having (joint criminal) liability in the first place to require the precise intent or precise knowledge of each and every crime committed in the course of a large-scale ongoing joint criminal enterprise," Smith argued. "As long as the appellant intended, or was aware of the general types of crimes being committed pursuant to the common purpose, that is all that is required.

After being ousted from power in 1979, the Khmer Rouge waged guerrilla warfare for another two decades before disintegrating. Pol Pot died in the jungle in 1998, and on Dec. 24 of that year, Khieu Samphan surrendered along with Nuon Chea, the movements chief ideologue.

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Nuon Chea was considered Pol Pots right-hand man, while Khieu Samphan as head of state presented a moderate veneer as the public face for the highly secretive group.

Nuon Chea was convicted alongside Khieu Samphan in 2018 and died the following year.

The defendant is scheduled to address the tribunal on Thursday, the last day of the four-day hearing on his appeal. A verdict is not expected until next year.

Even if the conviction is overturned, Khieu Samphan is already serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2014 of crimes against humanity connected with forced transfers and disappearances of masses of people. That conviction was upheld on appeal in 2016.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Taliban militants attacked protesters Wednesday in Afghanistan who dared to take down their banner and replace it with the country's flag, killing at least one person and fueling fears about how the insurgents would govern this fractious nation.

Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The Taliban declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Taliban militants attacked protesters Wednesday in Afghanistan who dared to take down their banner and replace it with the country's flag, killing at least one person and fueling fears about how the insurgents would govern this fractious nation.

While the Taliban have insisted they will respect human rights, unlike during their previously draconian rule, the attack in Jalalabad came as many Afghans were hiding at home or trying to flee the country, fearful of abuses by the loosely controlled militant organization. Many people have expressed dread that the two-decade Western experiment to remake Afghanistan will not survive the resurgent Taliban, who took control of the country in a blitz that took just days.

Taliban leaders talked Wednesday with senior Afghan officials about a future government. In a potential complication to any effort to stabilize the country, the head of the country's central bank warned that American sanctions over the Taliban's designation as a terrorist organization threatened Afghanistan's economy, which already is dangerously low on hard foreign currency.

One figure who was not at the talks in Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled as the Taliban closed in on the capital. The United Arab Emirates acknowledged Wednesday that the Gulf nation had taken him and his family in on humanitarian grounds.

In an early sign of protest to the Taliban's rule, dozens gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad and a nearby market town to raise the tricolor national flag, a day before Afghanistans Independence Day, which commemorates the 1919 treaty that ended British rule. They lowered the Taliban flag  a white banner with an Islamic inscription  that the militants have raised in the areas they captured.

Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The Taliban declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Video footage later showed the Taliban firing into the air and attacking people with batons to disperse the crowd. Babrak Amirzada, a reporter for a local news agency, said the Taliban beat him and a TV cameraman from another agency.

A local health official said the violence killed at least one person and wounded six. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists. The Taliban did not acknowledge the protest or the violence.

It was a rare resistance to their rule. In the days since the Taliban seized Kabul on Sunday, the militants only faced one other protest by a few women in the capital.

Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The Taliban declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

There has been no armed opposition to the Taliban. But videos from the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, a stronghold of the Northern Alliance militias that allied with the U.S. during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, appear to show potential opposition figures gathering there. That area is in the only province that has not fallen to the Taliban.

Those figures include members of the deposed government  Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who asserted on Twitter that he is the countrys rightful president, and Defense Minister Gen. Bismillah Mohammadi  as well as Ahmad Massoud, the son of the slain Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In an opinion piece published by The Washington Post, Massoud asked for weapons and aid to fight the Taliban.

Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The Taliban declared an "amnesty" across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government Tuesday, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my fathers footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban, he wrote. "The Taliban is not a problem for the Afghan people alone. Under Taliban control, Afghanistan will without doubt become ground zero of radical Islamist terrorism; plots against democracies will be hatched here once again."

The Taliban, meanwhile, pressed ahead with their efforts to form an inclusive, Islamic government. They have been holding talks with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government. Mohammad Yusof Saha, a spokesman for Karzai, said preliminary meetings with Taliban officials would lead to eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader who just returned to the country from Qatar.

Karzai and Abdullah met Wednesday with Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in a powerful Taliban faction called the Haqqani Network. That network, once allied to the U.S. during the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, was blamed for a series of devastating suicide attacks amid the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The Haqqani Network, like the Taliban at large, faces U.S. sanctions.

In this handout photograph released by the Taliban, senior Haqqani group leader Anas Haqqani, right, speaks to Abdullah Abdullah, head of Afghanistan's National Reconciliation Council and former government negotiator with the Taliban, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The meeting comes after the Taliban's lightning offensive saw the militants seize the capital, Kabul. (Taliban via AP)

On Wednesday, hundreds of people remained outside Kabul's airport, already the scene of deadly chaos involving crowds trying to flee the country. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch, dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

One Afghan who formerly worked with the U.S. military said he was turned away by American troops even after the State Department told him to come for a flight, according to Sam Lerman, an Air Force veteran who is helping former colleagues leave the country. The Afghan was told he needed a green card, Lerman said.

People are going to die as a result of that confusion, Lerman said.

Demonstrators hold Afghanistan flags, during a protest in Parliament Square, London, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Britains government says it plans to take in 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, especially women and children, in response to the Taliban's seizure of power. Officials provided details about the resettlement program on Wednesday as lawmakers held a heated emergency debate on developments in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The Taliban have promised to maintain security, but residents say groups of armed men have been going door to door inquiring about Afghans who worked with the Americans or the deposed government. Its unclear if the gunmen are Taliban or criminals posing as militants.

In theory, Ghani remains the president of Afghanistan, though many in the country blame him for the collapse of Afghan security forces.

Speaking late Wednesday in a video posted to Facebook, Ghani defended abandoning Kabul as the Taliban advanced, describing it as the only way to prevent bloodshed. He denied rumors that he left with millions of dollars.

Demonstrators raise their fists during a protest to raise awareness regarding the situation in Afghanistan outside EU headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The European Union has no immediate plans to recognize the Taliban after their sweeping victory in Afghanistan but will talk with the militants to ensure that European nationals and Afghans who have worked with the EU can leave safely, the bloc's top diplomat said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

I was forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing, Ghani said. He also said he supported the talks Abdullah and Karzai are conducting with the Taliban.

In a sign of the monetary difficulties any future Afghan government will face, the head of Afghanistans central bank said the country's supply of physical U.S. dollars is close to zero." Afghanistan has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some $7 billion held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

The next shipment never arrived, he wrote. Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.

A U.S. official confirmed that the Treasury Department has frozen the Afghan governments accounts in the United States and halted direct assistance payments to the government. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly.

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Ahmady said the lack of U.S. dollars will likely lead to a depreciation of the local currency, the afghani, hurting the country's poor.

The Taliban won militarily  but now have to govern, he wrote. It is not easy.

___

This story has been updated to correct that Sam Lerman is an Air Force veteran helping Afghans leave the country, not an Afghan trying to leave the country, and that an Afghan he was helping was turned away before he made it inside the airport.

___

Faiez reported from Istanbul, Gannon from Guelph, Canada, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem, Rahim Faiez in Istanbul, Sylvia Hui in London and Ellen Knickmeyer and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
Bonify, a Manitoba cannabis producer that ran afoul of regulators is now calling it quits.

Bonify, a Manitoba cannabis producer that ran afoul of regulators is now calling it quits.

Back in 2019, the company was stripped of its status by Health Canada after obtaining 200 kilograms of illicit cannabis and selling it into the legal market, just months following the countrys legalization of pot. It then managed to get its licence reinstated but was unable to sell its crop for months.

In an emailed note on Aug. 12, the companys chief executive officer Pierre Morris told shareholders that they begun winding down operations a few days prior. He said the closure will conclude in the coming weeks.

Morris wrote that while the company has had access to almost $1 million in gross sales since its licence was reinstated, it wasnt enough to keep it in business.

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The note was first reported by news website StratCann, then obtained by MJBizDaily.

Bonify "stabilized internal processes, increased production and significantly cut its operational costs," Morris wrote in the note. "Unfortunately, these changes were not sufficient to achieve profitability or positive cash flows and Bonify continued to suffer operational losses through 2019, 2020 and 2021."

The Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manitoba and Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation suspended the sale of all products produced by Bonify in early 2019. It had since allowed the sale of those products to resume.

Morris declined to comment by press time.

temur.durrani@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @temurdur
WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines' effectiveness is slipping.

FILE - In this July 22, 2021, file photo, health care worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. U.S. health officials Wednesday, Aug. 18, recommended all Americans get COVID-19 booster shots to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and evidence that the vaccines' effectiveness is falling. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

WASHINGTON (AP)  U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines' effectiveness is slipping.

The plan, as outlined by the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top health authorities, calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The doses could begin the week of Sept. 20.

Our plan is to protect the American people, to stay ahead of this virus, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said as the agency cited a raft of studies suggesting that the vaccines are losing ground while the highly contagious variant spreads.

People who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also probably need extra shots, health officials said. But they said they are waiting for more data.

Officials said that before any booster program starts up, the Food and Drug Administration and a CDC advisory panel would need to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an extra dose.

We have a responsibility to give the maximum amount of protection, President Joe Biden said at the White House. He added that extra doses are also the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that could arise.

The announcement came the same day the Biden administration said it would require nursing homes to mandate vaccinations for staffers in order to continue receiving federal funds. Hundreds of thousands of nursing home workers remain unvaccinated, despite the heightened risk of fatal infections among elderly residents.

Officials said it is very clear that the vaccines protection against infections wanes over time, and they noted the worsening picture in Israel, which has seen a rise in severe cases, many of them in people already inoculated.

They said the U.S. needs to get out ahead of the problem before it takes a more lethal turn here and starts leading to increasing hospitalizations and deaths among the vaccinated.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's foremost expert on COVID-19, said one of the key lessons of the coronavirus is that its better to stay ahead of it than chasing after it.

FILE - In this June 11, 2021, file photo, a healthcare worker administrates a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to a student during a vaccination clinic hosted by Jewel Osco in Wheeling, Ill. U.S. health officials Wednesday, Aug. 18, recommended all Americans get COVID-19 booster shots to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and evidence that the vaccines' effectiveness is falling. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

The first boosters would go to people in high-priority groups that received the initial U.S. vaccinations: nursing home residents, health workers and those with underlying health conditions. Health officials are likely to recommend that the booster be the same brand of vaccine that people received initially.

Dr. Mark Mulligan of NYUs Langone Health center welcomed the announcement, saying: Part of leadership is being able to see around the corner and make hard decisions without having all the data. It seems to me thats what theyre doing here."

Top scientists at the World Health Organization bitterly objected to the U.S. plan, noting that poor countries are not getting enough vaccine for their initial rounds of shots.

Were planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while were leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket," said Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHOs emergencies chief.

The organization's top scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, said the evidence does not show boosters are needed for everyone, and she warned that leaving billions of people in the developing world unvaccinated could foster the emergence of new variants and result in even more dire situations."

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy rejected the notion that the U.S. must choose between America and the world," saying: We clearly see our responsibility to both."

White House officials noted that the U.S. has donated 115 million doses to 80 countries, more than all other nations combined. They said the U.S. has plenty of vaccine to dispense boosters to its own population.

Israel is already offering booster shots to people over 50. And European regulators are looking into the idea.

Last week, U.S. health officials recommended a third shot for some people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients. Offering boosters to all Americans would be a major expansion of what is already the biggest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Nearly 200 million Americans have received at least one shot.

Some experts have expressed concern that calling for boosters would undermine the public health message  and reinforce opposition to the vaccine  by raising more doubts in the minds of people already skeptical about the shots effectiveness.

As for why the vaccines appear to be less effective over time at stopping infections, there are indications that the bodys immune response to the shots fades, as it does with other inoculations. But also, the vaccines simply may not protect against the delta variant as well as they do against the original virus. Scientists are still trying to answer the question.

Officials said the eight-month timeframe was a judgment call about when vaccine protection against severe illness might fall, based on the direction of the current data. "Theres nothing magical about this number, the surgeon general said.

Nearly 20 months into the outbreak, the scourge has killed 620,000 Americans. Just weeks after the president declared the countrys independence from COVID-19 on July Fourth, emergency rooms in parts of the South and West are overloaded again, and cases are averaging nearly 140,000 per day, quadrupling in just a month.

In making its announcement, the CDC released a number of studies conducted during the delta surge that suggest that the vaccines remain highly effective at keeping Americans out of the hospital but that their ability to prevent infection is dropping markedly.

One of the studies looked at reported COVID-19 infections in residents of nearly 15,000 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. It found that the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against infection fell from about 74% in March, April and early May to 53% in June and July.

The study examined all COVID-19 infections, with or without symptoms. The researchers said more work is needed to determine if there was a higher incidence of infections that resulted in severe illness.

Another study was a look at 21 hospitals. It found that the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing COVID-19-associated hospitalizations was 86% at two to 12 weeks after the second dose, and 84% at 13 to 24 weeks after. The difference was not considered significant.

A third study, conducted in New York state, found that protection against hospitalizations stayed steady at about 95% over the nearly three months examined. But vaccine effectiveness against new laboratory-confirmed infections declined from about 92% in early May to about 80% in late July.

Also, the CDC released Mayo Clinic patient data from Minnesota that showed that in July, when the delta variant was prevalent, Moderna's vaccine was 76% effective against infection and Pfizer's 42%.

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Some scientists had been looking for signs that hospitalizations or deaths are increasing, as a necessary indicator that boosters might be needed.

To some leading scientists, the new studies would not be sufficient, in and of themselves, to make the case for a booster, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases expert at Vanderbilt University and liaison to an expert advisory panel that helps the CDC form its vaccination recommendations.

___

Stobbe reported from New York. Associated Press writers Carla K. Johnson in Washington state and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.

___

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.
EDMONTON - A judge has issued an arrest warrant for a man who failed to appear in court Wednesday on charges related to an attack on two Muslim women in an Edmonton parking lot.

Edmonton Law Courts are shown in Edmonton on July 8, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

EDMONTON - A judge has issued an arrest warrant for a man who failed to appear in court Wednesday on charges related to an attack on two Muslim women in an Edmonton parking lot.

Richard Bradley Stevens was charged with two counts of assault and one of mischief after a Somali mother and daughter wearing hijabs were chased and accosted in 2020.

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The women told police they were sitting in a car in the Southgate Mall parking lot in December when a man came up to the passenger side and began yelling at them.

They said the man shattered a car window, then knocked one of them to the ground and started assaulting her.

The second woman tried to help but was also shoved to the ground.

The women said the man was swearing at them and telling them to go back to their country before witnesses intervened and stopped the assault.

The warrant is unendorsed, which means Stevens will be kept in custody after his arrest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
QUEBEC - Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole called on Quebecers to give him and his party a chance, conceding that in the past it hasn't been clear enough on where it stands on abortion.

QUEBEC - Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole called on Quebecers to give him and his party a chance, conceding that in the past it hasn't been clear enough on where it stands on abortion.

O'Toole delivered his speech in French while campaigning in Quebec City Wednesday, an area where his party hopes to increase its seat count on the Sept. 20 election.

Conservative Leader Erin OToole speaks to supporters at a rally in Richmond Hill, Ont., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. Canadians will vote in a federal election Sept. 20th. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

The Conservative leader appealed to voters by saying he knows some in the province have been reluctant to support the party in past elections because it hasn't always been clear about its position on certain social issues.

He reinforced he believes in climate change and has a plan to address it  something party critics said was lacking in the 2019 federal campaign  and also singled out abortion.

"I am pro-choice," he said in French. "And I have always been pro-choice."

O'Toole said a Conservative government would respect a woman's right to choose, which the outdoor crowd of candidates and supporters cheered.

The issue of abortion dogged former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer during the 2019 campaign as he was pushed to clarify his views about the procedure during the French-language debate.

Scheer was a social conservative who eventually said while he's personally opposed to abortion he wouldn't reopen the debate and his government wouldn't support attempts to do so in Parliament.

Even before the last election started, Scheer found himself having to explain his stance after his Quebec lieutenant, Alain Rayes, told local candidates that backbench MPs would not be allowed to bring forward any bills or motions on the issue, which created confusion because it broke with party policy.

Abortion remains a challenging issue O'Toole has to deal with, given the number of social conservatives within the party base.

The most recent example came in June when a majority of the Conservative caucus backed a private member's bill that came from Saskatchewan Conservative candidate Cathay Wagantall, which tried to ban doctors from performing an abortion based on the sex of a fetus.

O'Toole voted against the bill, which was defeated 248-82.

With all but one vote cast in its favour coming from the Conservative benches, Liberals attacked him for allowing one of his members to bring forward an attempt that would restrict a woman's reproductive rights.

O'Toole spent Wednesday making a play for Quebec, pledging a new "contract" with the province and rolling out a set of promises he would fulfil in his first 100 days in office, if elected.

Those included working with the province to apply a local French-language bill to federally regulated businesses, giving it more power over immigration and "respecting the right of Quebec to pass its own laws to protect its language and culture.

Before the election was called, the Tories held 10 of the 78 seats in Quebec, two fewer than before the last federal election was called in 2019. Conservatives haven't managed to secure more than 12 seats in the province in years.

O'Toole is hoping to change that, by also promising funding for an tunnel under the St. Lawrence River that would connect Quebec City and Levis, Que., and benefit commuters.

It's expected that some 50,000 cars would use the link daily.

To court Quebec voters away from federal parties, namely the Bloc Quebecois that surged in the 2019 vote to hold 32 seats, O'Toole also vowed to boost health transfer money "without conditions" and protect the French language while giving more power over its culture and immigration.

"It was us talking about the decline of French in Montreal, it wasn't the Bloc Quebecois," O'Toole said during an earlier campaign stop Wednesday.

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He also revealed earlier in the day that candidates who are unvaccinated are expected to test themselves daily for COVID-19 using rapid kits.

Unlike the Liberals and NDP, the Conservatives do not require those running under its banner to be double vaccinated to head to the doorstep.

Recently, Ontario Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government drew a hard line that every single caucus member  and candidates for next year's Ontario election  be vaccinated or risk losing their spot in caucus, given that their work requires daily interaction with the public.

O'Toole has faced questions about his stance on mandatory vaccinations ever since the start of the campaign and, on Tuesday, issued a directive to candidates that those who are unvaccinated are expected to test daily.

The party, however, hasn't said how this is being monitored.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
OTTAWA - The senior military officer who oversaw Canadas vaccine rollout campaign is poised to be charged with one count of sexual assault, though one of his lawyers is raising questions about the timing of that decision in relation to the federal election.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, Vice-President of Logistics and Operations at the Public Health Agency of Canada, speaks during a technical briefing on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. Fortin expects to be charged with one count of sexual assault Wednesday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA - The senior military officer who oversaw Canadas vaccine rollout campaign is poised to be charged with one count of sexual assault, though one of his lawyers is raising questions about the timing of that decision in relation to the federal election.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin is scheduled to present himself to police in Gatineau, Que., this morning after being told a warrant had been issued for his arrest in relation to an alleged incident dating back to early 1988, lawyer Natalia Rodriguez told The Canadian Press.

Fortin, who previously served in Afghanistan and commanded NATO troops in Iraq before leading Canadas COVID-19 vaccine distribution effort, is expected to address reporters after he appears before police.

The military officer was removed from the vaccine rollout on May 14, five days before the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service referred a sexual misconduct investigation to the Quebec prosecution service to determine whether criminal charges should be laid.

Fortin, through his lawyers, has denied any wrongdoing and says his reputation has been badly damaged by the allegation. He is now fighting in Federal Court for reinstatement to his previous position at the Public Health Agency of Canada, or an equivalent post.

The military officer and his legal team were surprised by the decision to lay charges, said Rodriguez, who is representing Fortin in his Federal Court application and is not a member of his criminal team.

She added Fortins legal counsel have so far been provided little information about the allegation against their client, so he doesnt know what this is about at all.

Rodriguez went on to question the timing of the charge against Fortin, which comes days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau launched an election.

The Liberals have been criticized for months for not doing more to address sexual misconduct in the Canadian military.

Fortin's lawyers have argued in Federal Court that the decision to remove their client was unreasonable, lacked procedural fairness and involved improper political interference in the military chain of command by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and clerk of the Privy Council.

The government is required to respond to those allegations on Sept. 17, three days before voters head to the polls.

The timing of the charge raises questions, Rodriguez said. Well be looking at answering those questions and making sure this is not politically motivated and that it is above board. As Maj.-Gen. Fortins lawyers, we have a duty to ensure that theres been no improper political interference in this case.

Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande declined to comment on Tuesday night, saying in an email: As the matter is moving through the legal process, it would be inappropriate for us to provide any further comment.

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Officials for Trudeau and Sajjan could not be immediately reached for comment.

Fortin isnt the only senior military officer with whom the government is fighting.

Admiral Art McDonald last week said he was planning to return to work as chief of the defence staff after a five-month investigation into his conduct resulted in no charges. But the Liberal government ordered McDonald to stay on administrative leave until they could decide what to do with him.

The government subsequently promoted acting defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2021.

_With files from Bob Webber
OTTAWA - The military officer who led Canada's COVID-19 vaccine distribution campaign has been charged with one count of sexual assault.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin leaves the Gatineau Police Station after being processed, in Gatineau, Que., on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA - The military officer who led Canada's COVID-19 vaccine distribution campaign has been charged with one count of sexual assault.

Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin presented himself to police in Gatineau, Que., Wednesday after a warrant for his arrest was issued Monday.

He later told reporters that he does not know the details of the allegation against him, despite repeated requests from his legal team.

"For the past three months, my family and I have been living this nightmare of not knowing the nature of the allegation, not knowing the status of the investigation, not knowing whether or not I'd be charged," Fortin said.

"My legal team has repeatedly  repeatedly  contacted prosecutors to seek any information with no success. So I've been forced to read much about me in media, with no ability to defend my name."

Fortin's lawyers have said the only information provided to them is that the charge relates to an alleged incident from 1988.

The senior military officer, who has previously served in Afghanistan and Iraq, described the past three months as the most challenging period of his 36 years in uniform.

"This fight against an invisible foe has been the hardest of my career," he said. "I look forward to continuing to serve Canadians, to serve my country, as soon as this legal issue is resolved."

Fortin was abruptly removed from his post at the Public Health Agency of Canada on May 14 after leading the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service later referred an allegation of sexual misconduct against him to the Quebec prosecution service to determine whether charges should be laid.

Fortin has asked the Federal Court to review his removal, alleging in a sworn affidavit political interference by the Liberal government. He is asking for reinstatement to his position at PHAC, or a similar post.

Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande said Wednesday that Fortin was given to a temporary position on Aug. 12.

"Maj.-Gen. Fortin was assigned temporarily to a supernumerary position as senior adviser to commander of Canadian Joint Operations Command in Ottawa," Lamirande said in an email.

"A determination on next steps will be made in due course. We will not provide further details at this time due to privacy considerations and that the matter is currently before the courts."

Fortin said he is paying his own legal costs for the criminal and Federal Court actions. His next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 20, the same day that voters go to the polls.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau declined to comment on Fortins case during a campaign stop in Vancouver on Wednesday.

"But I will repeat how incredibly important it is that everyone who serves in the Canadian Armed Forces has an environment that is safe and supportive," the prime minister said.

"We need to make sure that anyone who comes forward with allegations or with concerns is receiving the proper support, the proper resources. But at the same time that we work to transform the culture of our Canadian Armed Forces."

One of Fortin's lawyers has raised questions about the timing of the decision to charge her client, which comes days after Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau launched an election.

The Liberals have been criticized for months for not doing more to address sexual misconduct in the Canadian military.

Fortins lawyers have argued in Federal Court that the decision to remove their client was unreasonable, lacked procedural fairness and involved improper political interference in the military chain of command by Trudeau, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and clerk of the Privy Council.

The government is required to respond to those allegations on Sept. 17, three days before election day.

"The timing of the charge raises questions," Fortin's lawyer, Natalia Rodriguez, told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.

"Well be looking at answering those questions and making sure this is not politically motivated and that it is above board. As Maj.-Gen. Fortins lawyers, we have a duty to ensure that theres been no improper political interference in this case."

In response, Sajjan's spokesman Daniel Minden on Wednesday said: "In Canada, decisions to lay criminal charges are made by independent prosecutors. We have no further comment as this matter is before the courts."

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole also declined to comment on the charge against Fortin because the issue is before the courts, but used the opportunity to once again criticize the Liberals' handling of sexual misconduct allegations in the military.

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Fortin is the second senior military officer to be charged with a criminal offence in recent weeks after the CFNIS charged former defence chief Jonathan Vance with one count of obstruction of justice last month.

That followed an investigation into allegations Vance engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour before and after he became chief of the defence staff in July 2015. He has denied any wrongdoing and not been charged in connection with those allegations.

The Liberal government is also in a standoff with Vances successor as defence chief, Admiral Art McDonald, who last week declared his intention to return to his position after a military police investigation into his conduct resulted in no charges.

The government responded by ordering McDonald to remain on administrative leave and promoting acting defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre in a sign that it plans to keep the latter as commander of Canadas military.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.

 with files from Maan Alhmidi in Gatineau, Que.
NEW GLASGOW, N.S. - During his first news conference as premier-designate a day after his party's election win, Nova Scotia Tory Leader Tim Houston said Wednesday his first order of business is keeping citizens safe from COVID-19.

Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston unveils his party's complete and fully costed election platform in Halifax on Thursday, July 22, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

NEW GLASGOW, N.S. - During his first news conference as premier-designate a day after his party's election win, Nova Scotia Tory Leader Tim Houston said Wednesday his first order of business is keeping citizens safe from COVID-19.

The Progressive Conservatives surged to victory over the governing Liberals, winning a majority with 31 ridings in the province's newly expanded 55-seat legislature.

Houston told reporters gathered in New Glasgow, N.S., that he will invite other parties to participate in meetings with public health officials, as he considers policies aimed at avoiding a fourth wave of the novel coronavirus.

"This is not something I think should be politicized," he said. "I think it should be everyone pointed in the same direction and that direction is keeping Nova Scotians safe."

The 51-year-old leader said he intends to meet chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang later in the day to talk about issues such as how to reduce transmission when students return to school. "There are Nova Scotians all across the province that are really, really anxious to go back to school. We want to make sure that they understand the plan."

Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston waves to supporters after winning a majority government in the provincial election at the Pictou County Wellness Centre in New Glasgow, N.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Other key concerns, he said, include increasing the number of Nova Scotia residents vaccinated against COVID-19 and monitoring the fourth wave of the novel coronavirus in other parts of the country.

"We're going to listen to Public Health, we're going to work with Dr. Strang and his team, we're going to get all of the information to make some common sense decisions," he said. "The public safety of Nova Scotians is my primary concern."

And as the newly minted premier-designate spoke to reporters, about 100 protesters gathered 150 kilometres away in Halifax, trying to prevent the removal of temporary shelters for the homeless. The City of Halifax started to remove the small, wooden shelters last month, and police suddenly arrived on bicycles early Wednesday to provide security as heavy machinery moved in.

NDP Leader Gary Burrill arrived at the scene, located in a riding his party won in Tuesdays election, and led a chant of Homes not cops, homes not cops.

Nobody has expressed a desire for this police action," Burrill said. "We know we have a desperate housing crisis in Nova Scotia and if the governments response is to send in a heavily armed police presence to evict people from tents and shelter where theyve sought shelter, its a pretty darn poor response.

As soon as the premier-designate has heard this disgrace is taking place, he should immediately be here himself to see it doesnt proceed.

Houston said he understands Nova Scotians are feeling the strain of housing shortages but he will not change his plan to lift rent control measures when the pandemic ends. "Housing is in crisis," he said. "We know the housing crisis is very real. It didn't develop overnight. It's been developing over eight years. We didn't have tent cities eight years ago.

"I understand the significance of the issue and we're going to work with people to make sure they can access housing."

Lisa Lachance, the newly elected NDP member of the legislature for Halifax-Citadel-Sable Island, said the problem of homelessness has been growing in her riding for the past decade.

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Things have changed in this community and there are people one rent increase away from also needing shelter  theres been no investment in housing, no rent control when it was needed, no support organizations to respond appropriately is what were seeing, she said.

Meanwhile, there were signs of a steady flow of new infections of COVID-19, with nine new cases being reported in the province, bringing the total active cases of COVID-19 to 25.

Houston repeated his campaign promise that his party will improve the health system, including by increasing the number of doctors and shortening surgery wait times. The premier-designate said he'll begin implementing his health-care-focused platform by consulting with workers in the network.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
BURNABY, B.C. - NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is pitching a 20 per cent foreign homebuyers' tax in a bid to capture votes in Metro Vancouver ridings where the cost of housing has skyrocketed beyond the reach of many middle-income families.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh waves as he boards his campaign bus in Coquitlam, B.C.,, on Tuesday, August 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

BURNABY, B.C. - NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is pitching a 20 per cent foreign homebuyers' tax in a bid to capture votes in Metro Vancouver ridings where the cost of housing has skyrocketed beyond the reach of many middle-income families.

Speaking in front of a multi-million dollar home in Burnaby, B.C., on Wednesday, Singh said the tax would apply to the sale of homes to individuals who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

The promise mirrors one he made in the 2019 election and comes after the Liberal government proposed a one-per-cent annual tax on the value of homes owned by non-residents in its spring budget.

British Columbia already has a 20 per cent tax on the purchase of homes by foreigners in several parts of the province. Though it had a short-term cooling effect when first introduced at 15 per cent on Metro Vancouver homes in 2016, prices have continued to climb.

Singh also promised an NDP government would build 500,000 affordable homes in 10 years and would target money laundering and organized crime in the housing sector by making it harder to hide behind nameless companies and giving regulators more teeth.

The NDP leader placed the blame for housing prices squarely on Justin Trudeau, who also campaigned in B.C. on Wednesday. Singh accused the Liberal leader of allowing rents to rise and housing prices to balloon by more than 20 per cent in less than a year in Vancouver.

"Over the past six years, things have just gotten so much worse. People cannot find a home that's in their budget," said Singh, who was joined by a young couple who have struggled to find housing.

"One of the big reasons why this is happening is because Justin Trudeau has let this happen."

He framed the election as a choice between the Liberals allowing "rich investors" to be the priority and New Democrats who are going to take "big money" out of housing, so people aren't competing with corporations.

Both the NDP and Liberals lost ground in Metro Vancouver in the 2019 election to the Conservatives. The Tories snatched the New Democrat-held riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam, while also taking key ridings from Liberals including South Surrey-White Rock, Cloverdale-Langley City, and Steveston-Richmond East.

The Liberal government kicked off a 10-year, multibillion-dollar national housing strategy in 2018-19. The parliamentary budget officer recently found program delays at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, expired community housing deals with the provinces and a shift toward more expensive affordable homes have limited the impact of the strategy.

Advocates have said the strategy needs to be rebuilt as it doesn't do enough to help provinces outside of Ontario.

Jill Atkey, the CEO of the B.C. Non-Profit Housing Association, said in an earlier interview that the application process for funding was "off-putting" to many in the non-profit housing sector, with more than 200 questions on the application and a long wait time for approval.

Singh said addressing the housing issue was "a matter of will" that other parties did not have the desire to tackle.

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But he did not directly answer questions about how the New Democrats would change existing programs to ensure housing targets that the Liberal government has failed to reach would be met under his leadership.

Singh, the incumbent candidate in Burnaby South, sidestepped questions about the location he chose for Wednesday's announcement. He stood in front of a house valued at about $2 million, with a sign behind him that read, "Trudeau's housing crisis."

Asked why he was pitching a one-time tax on the purchase of foreign homes rather than an annual tax on the value of homes, as the Liberals have proposed, Singh said the goal wasn't to create a revenue stream but rather to discourage foreign investors from buying Canadian housing.

"The fundamental difference is our approach is we want to get big money out of housing," Singh said. "Those forces are powerful and they're making it so Canadians who are looking to buy a home are having to compete with people who are using the housing market like a stock market."

He said the one-time tax would do more to deter profiteering than an annual tax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 18, 2021.
OTTAWA - The Trudeau government is dropping its quest to have a court prohibit the disclosure of documents related to the firing of two scientists at Canada's highest-security laboratory.

Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota admonishes President of the Public Health Agency of Canada Iain Stewart in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 21, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - The Trudeau government is dropping its quest to have a court prohibit the disclosure of documents related to the firing of two scientists at Canada's highest-security laboratory.

It served the Federal Court with a notice of discontinuance late Tuesday afternoon.

In so doing, it's avoiding a legal showdown over the long-standing principle that the House of Commons is supreme and has unfettered power to demand the production of any documents it sees fit, no matter how sensitive and regardless of privacy or national security laws.

Opposition parties joined forces earlier this year to pass a Commons order demanding that the Public Health Agency of Canada turn over all unredacted documents related to the firing of scientists Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng.

The pair were escorted out of Winnipegs National Microbiology Laboratory in July 2019 and subsequently fired last January.

The government applied to the Federal Court of Canada in June to prevent release of the documents, which it maintained would be injurious to international relations or to national defence or national security.

However, the Commons order to produce the documents, along with all other business before the chamber, was terminated when Parliament was dissolved Sunday for a federal election.

Consequently, Justice Department spokesperson Melissa Gruber said Tuesday that "no purpose would be served" by continuing the court case.

Pursuing the case would have put Liberal MP Anthony Rota in an awkward position as he campaigns for re-election in the northern Ontario riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming.

As Speaker of the House of Commons, he was the named respondent in the court case. He had pledged to fight the Liberal government's court application.

Indeed, in a recent submission to the court, Rota asked it to dismiss the case, arguing that the courts have no jurisdiction to review the exercise of parliamentary privilege to send for the persons, papers and records deemed necessary.

This constitutionally entrenched power is fundamental to our system of parliamentary democracy, and to Parliaments critical role in acting as the grand inquest of the nation and in holding the executive branch of government to account, Rota said in a notice of motion.

The executive and the judicial branches do not have the jurisdiction to question, overrule, modify, control or review the exercise of this privilege by the House, he added.

Gruber said the Speakers motion to strike the case is now "unnecessary."

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole had requested the court's permission to intervene in the proceedings.

Abandoning the case is "another attempt by Justin Trudeau to cover up the truth about the Winnipeg lab documents," said Mathew Clancy, a spokesman for the Conservative election campaign.

The decision to drop the case brings an inconclusive end to the months-long power struggle between opposition parties and Public Health Agency of Canada head Iain Stewart.

Opposition MPs repeatedly asserted the right of the Commons and its committees to order the production of any documents they please, while Stewart steadfastly argued that he was prevented by law from releasing material that could violate privacy or national security laws.

The battle culminated in June with Stewart being hauled before the bar of the Commons to be reprimanded by Rota over his repeated refusal to provide the unredacted documents to MPs on the Canada-China relations committee. He was the first non-MP to be subjected to such a procedure in more than a century.

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Stewart had been ordered to turn over the documents to the parliamentary law clerk at that time, but he did not. Instead, he wrote to the attorney general, David Lametti, informing him that he was being ordered to divulge potentially injurious information contrary to the Canada Evidence Act.

In accordance with the act, Lametti subsequently said the decision to apply to the court to prevent disclosure of the documents was made by justice officials.

The Commons order for documents also included documents related to the transfer, overseen by Qiu, of deadly Ebola and Henipah viruses to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019.

Stewart had said the virus transfer had nothing to do with the subsequent firings. He'd also said there was no connection to COVID-19, a coronavirus that first appeared in China's Wuhan province and which some believe may have been released accidentally by the virology institute, triggering a global pandemic.

Nevertheless, opposition parties continued to suspect a link and remained determined to see the unredacted documents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2021.
HALIFAX - The latest news on the results of Nova Scotia's election (all times eastern):

HALIFAX - The latest news on the results of Nova Scotia's election (all times eastern):

12 a.m.

The Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives have won a majority government in the provincial election.

The Tories won 31 of the province's 55 seats, with two ridings left to call.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston has promised to devote hundreds of millions of dollars to health care in the first year of the party's mandate.

Houston says these investments will increase the number of family doctors, bolster the mental health system and create more nursing home beds.

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10:30 p.m.

Nova Scotia premier-designate Tim Houston says the Tories' electoral triumph shows the province is ready for change.

The Progressive Conservative leader celebrated the upset win with a cheering crowd in New Glasgow, N.S.

Houston reaffirmed his campaign commitment to spend heavily on health care.

He beamed as he recounted how the Tories defied pollsters' early projections of a third Liberal majority government.

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10 p.m.

Iain Rankin says he'll continue to lead Nova Scotia's Liberals after the party's decisive electoral defeat.

Rankin told supporters gathered in Halifax he "wouldn't change anything" about his party's campaign.

The Liberals were expected to sail to a third majority government given their successful pandemic response and their place in the polls.

But the Tories led by Tim Houston came from behind to take the legislature after campaigning on a promise to invest massively in health care.

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9:15 p.m.

Nova Scotia NDP Leader Gary Burrill has won his riding of Halifax Chebucto.

Burrill was first elected to the Nova Scotia legislature in 2009 and served until 2013.

He became NDP leader in 2016 before being re-elected to the legislature in 2017.

About two hours after polls closed, NDP members were elected or leading in 10 ridings.

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8:45 p.m.

Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston has won the riding of Pictou East.

Houston is projected to become premier after leading his party to a surprise victory.

Liberal Leader Iain Rankin has won his riding of Timberlea-Prospect.

Rankin called the election on July 17, less than five months into his tenure at the party's helm after replacing Stephen McNeil.

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8:30 p.m.

A number of prominent Nova Scotia Liberals have lost their seats in legislature as the Tories build their ranks in an unexpected victory.

Transportation Minister Lloyd Hines has lost his seat in Guysborough-Tracadie.

Speaker Kevin Murphy is also out in Eastern Shore.

Justice Minister Randy Delorey was defeated in Antigonish.

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8:10 p.m.

The Tories have pulled off an upset win in Nova Scotia's election after trailing for months in the polls.

The Canadian Press projects the Progressive Conservatives will form the next provincial government.

It's unclear whether they'll have a majority in the legislature.

Tory Leader Tim Houston led his party to victory with a left-leaning, big-spending platform focused on health care.

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7:50 p.m.

The Tories have taken an early lead in Nova Scotia's election.

Less than one hour after most polls closed, the Progressive Conservatives were elected in seven ridings and were leading in at least 20 others.

The Tories need 28 seats to secure a majority in the province's newly expanded 55-seat legislature.

At dissolution, the Liberals held 24 of 51 seats, followed by the Progressive Conservatives with 17.

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7:30 p.m.

Six polling stations across Nova Scotia that were delayed this morning are now closed and the vote count is underway.

Elections Nova Scotia extended voting by a half-hour at polling stations in Halifax, Bedford, Nappan and Antigonish.

All other polling stations closed on time at 7 p.m.

Almost 177,000 people cast advanced ballots or mail-in votes, which is about 58,000 more than in the 2017 provincial election.

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7 p.m.

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Most polls have closed across Nova Scotia as the province awaits the results of a midsummer election held during the COVID-19 health crisis.

Voting will continue for another half-hour at six polling stations where voting was delayed this morning.

The Liberals are hoping the vote will hand them a third majority government after campaigning on their record in office and their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 28 seats are needed to secure a majority in the province's newly expanded 55-seat legislature.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version erroneously reported that Speaker Kevin Murphy lost in Eastern Passage. In fact, he lost in Eastern Shore.
The federal Conservatives deputy leader, Candice Bergen, says shes focused on getting re-elected, but won't rule out jumping ship to run for Manitoba premier.

The federal Conservatives deputy leader, Candice Bergen, says shes focused on getting re-elected, but won't rule out jumping ship to run for Manitoba premier.

That's worried Conservative MPs from Alberta and Saskatchewan, who say Bergen has helped quell dissent over policies Tory Leader Erin OToole has designed to drum up support in Quebec and Ontario.

"Theres been a lot of speculation about Candice running for provincial leadership," one MP from outside Manitoba told the Free Press.

"I know shes been kicking tires a lot."

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/SEAN KILPATRICK Conservative member of Parliament Candice Bergen has until Aug. 30 to submit her papers to be a candidate in the upcoming federal election.

Bergen has until Aug. 30 to submit her papers to be a federal candidate, and her office insists that is the plan.

Still, some MPs fear Bergen will get re-elected on Sept. 20, then resign her seat to run for the provincial leadership  an idea Bergen herself would not rule out.

"Ms. Bergen generally does not respond to hypothetical scenarios," Bergens office wrote Tuesday.

The provincial Progressive Conservatives have not yet set a date for a leadership race. Premier Brian Pallister announced Aug. 10 he would step down.

Theres been a lot of speculation about Candice running for provincial leadership... I know shes been kicking tires a lot.  MP from outside Manitoba

Bergen has represented the federal Portage-Lisgar riding since 2008, and quickly became a rising star in the party for her advocacy against the long-gun registry.

The federal Conservative Party was formed in 2003 in an attempt to heal divisions between urban progressives and rural, right-wing voters who were part of the former Reform and Alliance parties.

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/ADRIAN WYLD Bergen has represented the federal Portage-Lisgar riding since 2008.

The Conservatives still struggle to hit that balance, particularly as parties focus on a growing number of swing ridings in the suburbs around Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

"There are clear cleavages within the Conservative Party; there's no doubt about that," said Duane Bratt, a Calgary political scientist at Mount Royal University.

"A lot of it is geographic, as well as ideological, and O'Toole has had a tough time holding those groups together."

Numerous media outlets have reported that OToole has faced pushback from within his caucus, particularly from MPs and senators representing Alberta and Saskatchewan, over plans to embrace net-zero emissions, and a convoluted proposal to give Canadians carbon credits to help them pay for more efficient goods.

As OTooles second in command, Bergen has played a backroom role in giving OToole the pulse of his Prairie base and brokering calm with his MPs by explaining his rationale.

Shes definitely a bridge-builder; shes gotten MPs together in smaller groups to hear folks out. She does that really, really well.  Federal staffer

"Shes definitely a bridge-builder; shes gotten MPs together in smaller groups to hear folks out. She does that really, really well," said one federal staffer.

Bergen mulled a run for federal Tory leadership in 2020, but ultimately didnt enter the race, later saying her French wasnt good enough.

She raised eyebrows last November, when she decried the lack of data guiding COVID-19 restrictions, decrying "provinces like Manitoba making decisions in a panic, which have drastic consequences and negative impacts on the lives of Manitobans."

At the time, Bergen called for Manitoba to release "publicly available and comprehensive data on COVID-19 to judge the appropriateness" of lockdowns, such as the impact on not just infection rates but also delayed surgeries, family separation and mental health.

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/SEAN KILPATRICK As the second in command to Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole, Deputy Leader Candice Bergen has played a backroom role brokering calm with his MPs by explaining his rationale.

MPs pondered whether Bergen was laying the groundwork to replace Pallister, though she insisted her critiques related to the federal handling of the pandemic.

Bergen was top of mind when Pallister resigned last week, particularly among Alberta and Saskatchewan MPs.

Initially, there was concern Bergen would remove herself as candidate for Portage-Lisgar and wait for the provincial Tories to start their leadership race.

Bezan mum on PC run Manitobas longest serving MP says hes focused on getting re-elected, but has not ruled out running to lead the provincial PCs. Conservative MP James Bezan has represented Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman since 2004. Some have speculated that he might run to lead the PC party, though he's not among the names that politicos most commonly bring up when discussing the leadership race. click to read more Manitobas longest serving MP says hes focused on getting re-elected, but has not ruled out running to lead the provincial PCs. Conservative MP James Bezan has represented Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman since 2004. Some have speculated that he might run to lead the PC party, though he's not among the names that politicos most commonly bring up when discussing the leadership race. Right now we are focused on winning the next federal election, Bezans assistant said Tuesday. His team would not comment on the idea of Bezan resigning after next months election to enter a provincial PC race. James is grateful to everyone who's reached out to express their support, the assistant said.  Dylan Robertson Close

Many said that would be a huge blow to a party already feeling demoralized about the current election campaign.

That concern has abated since the federal race got underway Sunday. Bergen has been the federal Tories candidate for Portage-Lisgar since January. "That is her focus at this time and what she is committed to doing," her staff wrote Tuesday.

Yet some MPs still wonder if Bergen will resign her seat after the election to run for the PC leadership.

Closer to home, Bergen has not told Manitoba MPs about any imminent run, nor has she asked about soliciting donations.

Those Manitoba MPs and their staff feel Bergen might have a chance at PC leadership, but many felt she'd struggle to grow the party's support in battleground Winnipeg ridings.

Bergen was among the half of Conservative MPs who voted against legislation to ban anti-gay conversion therapy, arguing the bills wording wasnt tight enough to prevent it being used to intrude on religious freedom. She refused in January to explain a photo that emerged of her wearing a Make America Great Again hat.

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Bratt said that if the Conservatives get a lacklustre result in the current election campaign, some senior Tories may head for the exits.

He noted that before being elected Alberta premier, Jason Kenney was a prominent federal minister when the Harper government lost office in 2015. Kenney announced nine months later hed resign as MP to enter provincial politics, prompting a byelection.

"If I'm Candice Bergen maybe I'm making the same choices that Kenney did," Bratt said.

"The prospects are not good for the federal Conservatives, (so) maybe she'll try her hand at provincial politics."

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
I agree with those who say this is an era of matriarchs.

Opinion

I agree with those who say this is an era of matriarchs.

The appointment of Inuk leader Mary Simon as Canadas 30th Governor General is a vital step toward recognizing the significance of Indigenous peoples in Canadas past, present and now future. A northerner with decades of experience and a woman grounded in culture, she represents a true shift in Canada, and beyond.

We are all celebrating. Earlier this month, the first ever woman, and LGBTTQ+, became Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer. And now Roseanne Archibald is the first-ever woman to be Assembly of First Nations national chief.

These paradigm shifts give me hope, especially after a Canada Day unlike any other. There were fewer fireworks and less flag-waving. Orange shirts certainly outnumbered red ones. The nation took pause to reflect on the disturbing discovery of more than 1,000 unmarked graves, many related to children who have revealed themselves long after their deaths at residential schools.

Indigenous people and allies took to the streets and social media and pressed for real change; municipalities announced their willingness to find new, more inclusive names for schools, streets and parks. Canadians are at last recognizing the horror of their countrys deep-rooted colonial past and have begun looking for and demanding remedies. Now is the time for change.

One place where significant and meaningful change is immediately possible is in the Canadian Senate. Its time to Indigenize the Senate.

Canadas Senate may be this countrys ultimate colonial institution. A remnant of the undemocratic legislative councils that governed the colonies before Confederation, the Senate was created to represent the provinces, but more importantly as a check on elected government. Like the House of Lords in Britain, the Canadian Senate was created to safeguard the interests of propertied elites.

But the Senates best days may still lie ahead: Parliament is a ready vessel for the constitutional change Canada urgently needs. Deep-rooted structural changes are required for real reconciliation and true changes  changes concerning how Canada is governed and power is shared.

In 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wisely recognized the Senate could neither be elected nor abolished. Instead, and to the surprise of his party, the prime minister disbanded the Liberal caucus in the Senate. In its place, he vowed to appoint only independent senators recommended by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments. The effect has been positive and already he has appointed 55 senators  a majority of its members  in this way.

Further Senate reform should be Trudeaus next step. He can reform the Senate to be not only independent, but also Indigenous.

Trudeau has the opportunity to fill as many as 12 vacant Senate seats before next months federal election. He should ask the advisory board to recommend only exceptional Indigenous candidates who are well-regarded by recognized Indigenous communities. This would be an immediate step toward an Indigenized Senate that makes modern sense.

Transforming Canadas upper house to truly reflect and include a majority Indigenous representation, for current and future senators, would be a significant gesture toward reconciliation. It would have natural legitimacy as a custodial body safeguarding the land and all peoples. In using his discretion to establish this new convention, he would set Canada on a new and more equitable constitutional path.

This could be among the prime ministers most consequential legacies.

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Of course, Indigenous perspectives vary, and not all will welcome a dedicated parliamentary chamber. An Indigenized Senate would grapple with adequately representing the diversity of Indigenous perspectives, nations and interests while preserving Canadas constitutional commitment to bilingualism and the representation of the provinces.

Though its ability to scrutinize and improve legislation would remain considerable, the Senate always has and would continue to defer to the House of Commons. At the same time, an Indigenous upper house would place Indigenous perspectives at the heart of Parliament and at the centre of our national conversation, exercising its responsibilities on behalf of all residents of this land  not only Indigenous ones.

With todays 105 senators serving until age 75, the transition to an Indigenized Senate would happen over several decades. This would allow the Senates newest members to learn its traditions while also providing time for new practices to evolve.

In an interview before retiring from the Senate, Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner and former judge Murray Sinclair referred to his vision of the Senate as a "council of Elders,  as a thoughtful, conscientious body providing oversight of the government." An Indigenized Senate takes Sinclairs vision at face value and to heart.

Ultimately, reconciliation will mean ceding and sharing power. The prime minister, acting of his own initiative, could and should demonstrate his commitment to Indigenous people with this act of political imagination.

Kluane Adamek has served as the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Yukon regional chief since January 2018. She is a proud northerner and citizen of Kluane First Nation, belongs to the Daklaweidi (Killerwhale) clan and comes from a diverse background with Tlingit, Southern Tutchone, German and Irish origins.
The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, the 9/11 and Global War on Terrorism Remembrance Task Force, and the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum will mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with an event open to the public on the Minnesota State Capitol grounds on Sept. 11.

The 9/11 Day of Remembrance will feature participation in the national Tolling of the Bells, a reading of names of those killed on 9/11/01 and in-action during the Global War on Terrorism, along with a commemorative ceremony at 9 a.m. to include aircraft flyovers, guest speakers, musical performances, and military honors.

Speakers will include Gov. Tim Walz, retired Army Gen. Joseph Votel, Minnesota Department of Veteran Affairs Commissioner Larry Herke, Gold Star Mother Jill Stephenson and Mariah Jacobson, daughter of Flight 93 hero Tom Burnett.

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Other elements of the day will include a documentary screening of Resolute: MN Stories of 9/11 & the War and museum display, Veteran support and discussions groups, live music, connection opportunities, childrens activities and more.

This event is free and open to the public. Check the MDVA events page for the detailed event schedule. To learn more visit www.minnesotaveteran.org/911.
Little Raiders Childcare Center Assistant Director Morgan Braund arranges books in a classroom. The center is set to open soon. Staff hope to support children, families and the Arcadia community.
Fort McCoy housed 14,000 Cuban refugees who were relocated after the 1980 Mariel boat lift. Roughly 2,500 civilians and 450 military personnel work at the installation, located on 60,000 acres between Sparta and Tomah.

Monroe County Sheriffs Office captain Chris Weaver said Monday his office hasnt been notified by the federal government about any refugee placement.

We havent been contacted by Fort McCoy or the Department of Defense, Weaver said. We havent met with anybody.

The office of Congressman Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, didnt confirm whether refugees are coming to Fort McCoy, but Kind said in a statement that the installation was ready to handle an influx, if necessary.

As we wait for further details regarding this ongoing situation, I have full confidence in our outstanding service members at Fort McCoy and stand ready to work with local, state and federal leaders to assist however possible, Kind said.

He said the U.S. has an obligation to Afghans who risked their lives to support the American military effort.

We cannot abandon them now  every effort must be made to ensure their safety, Kind said.

Reach Christopher Jardine on Twitter @ChrisJJardine or contact him at 608-432-6591.
It found that the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against COVID-19 infection dropped, from about 74% in March, April and early May to 53% in June and July.

The researchers said it was not clear how much of the decline is attributable to the delta variant and how much might be due to a more general weakening of immunity that could have been occurred against any strain.

The study look at all COVID-19 infections, with or without symptoms. The researchers said more work is needed to determine if there was a higher incidence of infections that resulted in severe illness.

Another one of the studies looked at hospitalizations at 21 hospitals. It found that vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19-associated hospitalization in inoculated people was 86% at two to 12 weeks after second dose, and 85% at 13 to 24 weeks after.

The third study found that protection against hospitalizations stayed steady at about 95% over the nearly three months studied. But vaccine effectiveness against new laboratory-confirmed infections for all adults in New York state declined from about 92% in early May to about 80% in late July.
Olikara said he would model his campaign after winning ones run in Wisconsin by President Joe Biden in 2020 and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2018. Both of them did well with crucial independent voters in the swing state.

Im really proud that we have a pretty wide coalition of people coming together as a motley crew of people," Olikara said.

Barbara Lawton, who served eight years as former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyles lieutenant governor, endorsed OIikara on Tuesday.

Olikara, who credits Doyle with sparking his interest in getting involved with politics and studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, launched his campaign with an event in Milwaukee. Olikara is the son of Indian immigrants and grew up in Brookfield. If elected, he would become the first person of Indian descent to represent Wisconsin in Congress.
Angolas constitution is under review but a great deal has been left undone

The Angolan political elite lost an extraordinary opportunity to improve significantly the countrys constitution.

Angolas parliament recently approved a bill to review the countrys constitution 11 years after its promulgation.

President Joao Lourenco used his constitutional prerogative to initiate a review process by sending a proposal for revision to parliament in early March. His justification was that the supreme law of the land needed to be adapted to the current challenges facing the country.

These included the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to clarify some issues in the Constitution and the need to prevent some of the excesses from the presidency of Jose Eduardo dos Santos, his predecessor.

The revision introduces notable changes to the constitution. These include the clarification of the institutional relationship between parliament and the executive branch when it comes to political oversight. The 2010 Constitution was not clear on this.

Other key change is the institutionalisation of the independence of the Angolan Central Bank. The amendments would turn the bank into an administratively independent entity with regulatory powers separated from the president and the administration. It also includes involving parliament in the process of appointing the governor.

Under the current constitution, the president appoints (and can dismiss) the governor. The Central Bank is also administratively part of government and receives orders from the president in discharging its responsibilities.

Another change involves extending voting rights to Angolans abroad.

The changes also seek to resolve an ongoing bone of contention  how local government officials are selected. At present, the party that wins the general elections gets to appoint all the senior executive officials at national and sub-national levels (provincial, municipal and commune/district).

There have been efforts to change this in recent years. But the process has been delayed mainly by conflicting views between the governing Peoples Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and opposition parties. The MPLA views the process  referred to locally as gradualism  in geographical terms. It envisages that local elections should start in selected municipalities and spread gradually to all municipalities. Opposition parties oppose this because it means that the ruling party will continue to appoint officials at all levels of governance for many years to come.

They argue that local elections should be implemented in all the 164 municipalities simultaneously. But that the transfer of responsibilities from the central government to local entities would take place as they get ready to take them up.

By and large, I think the changes being proposed are good. But I am of the view that the Angolan political elite lost an extraordinary opportunity to improve significantly the countrys constitution. The Constitutional Revision Bill fails to address crucial and divisive political issues effectively.

The most contentious of these is the extensive powers of the president, the method for his election as well as the fact that it leaves intact the way that local government is formed.

The extensive powers of the president

Contemporary constitutionalism emphasises the doctrine of the separation of powers. This means that the three arms of the state (executive, legislative, and judicial) are kept separate, while having certain powers to check and balance the powers of the other branches so that no arm of the state dominates.

Angolas current political arrangement  as prescribed by the constitution  doesnt match up to this. A raft of these flaws arent addressed in the amendments.

The Angolan constitution ascribes a wide range of executive powers to the president. It gives the position preeminence over the legislative and judicial arms of the state.

For instance, as the head of state, the president is considered to be the custodian of all executive power. Technically, there is no government but the president, who holds all executive powers. Ministers serve at his pleasure, assisting him in fulfilling his executive duties.

He can pass laws by decree, which means that he can bypass parliament in making them.

Additionally, the constitutional revision bill reaffirms a 2013 ruling by the Constitutional Court, which effectively prevents parliament from summoning ministers or other members of the administration without the presidents consent.

This results in a system with minimal or meaningless executive accountability to parliament.

The president has the prerogative to appoint the presiding and the deputy presiding judges of all the highest courts. He also appoints (and can dismiss) the Attorney General, the deputy Attorney General, the prosecutors of the Supreme Military Court, and members of the highest body of the judiciary.

Despite these extensive powers, Angolans dont elect the president directly. This function is ultimately limited to the vagaries of party politics.

This is just one major flaw in Angolas electoral system which, as currently constructed, undermines voters ability to elect political representatives effectively.

Firstly, it fuses executive and legislative elections, preventing voters from splitting their votes for the presidency and parliament. Secondly, it shields the top executive officer  the president  from the direct judgement of the voters.

Lastly, it bars independent candidates from standing for political office unless they are included in a party list that has been cleared to run in the elections.

Efforts to fix at least one element of whats wrong  the ability for Angolans to vote for their representatives at all levels of government  have run into the ground. Opposition parties, which hold roughly 38% (70 out of 220) seats in parliament, want to see elections held in all 164 municipalities simultaneously. They also want power and responsibilities to be progressively delegated from the central government. This would include taxation, policing and infrastructure spending.

The government, however, believes that not every municipality is ready to take up these and other responsibilities.

The repeal under the bill on this issue doesnt solve the imbroglio.

A shrewd political manoeuvre

The president has rejected previous calls for constitutional revision from opposition parties and civil society. His announcement of a review, in early March, caught the country by surprise.

From this perspective, the presidents decision can be seen as a shrewd political manoeuvre by getting changes within timelines that best suit him.

The first factor here is that the ruling MPLA currently has the necessary majority to approve any constitutional review alone. But that might not be the case after the general elections scheduled for 2022 when most expect the ruling party to lose its qualified majority, thereby losing its ability to approve the constitution alone.

The second factor is that Angolans will have to wait for at least five years  a condition set out under the constitution  until any further reviews of the constitution can be initiated.

This means even further delays in Angolans being able to craft a constitution capable of uniting them around a common project of society.

Albano Agostinho Troco, NRF/British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow under the SA-UK Bilateral Chair in Political Theory, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
South Africas basic income versus jobs debate: a false dilemma

Basic income must be embedded within a broader strategy of economic reform, aimed at increasing the social wage and improving working conditions.

Once considered a utopian ideal, a basic income guarantee has become a distinct political possibility, as the South African government scrambles to respond to growing hunger, and anger in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spurred by recent unprecedented riots, the state reinstated the social relief of distress grant, after it was terminated at the end of April, until March 2022. Furthermore, it expanded the R350 (US$23) monthly payment to caregivers, who were previously excluded.

The C-19 coalition, made up of community groups, trade unions, NGOs and social movements, has called on government to transform the grant into a monthly basic income guarantee of at least R1268 (US$85). This is equivalent to the upper-bound poverty line. There are calls for a guarantee rather than a grant and to reframe the transfer as a right based on citizenship, rather than a government gift to the deserving few.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently affirmed governments commitment to considering a basic income grant, stating that:

This will validate our people and show them that we are giving serious consideration to their lives.

But, not all within the government agree.

New finance minister Enoch Godongwana has warned against fostering dependency among youth in particular. He has emphasized the importance of investing in skills instead.

What we need to do is invest in skilling these kids, and obviously, they will have some cash which will be a stipend or per diem. And in addition lets get them better development of skills.

However, skills training alone cannot address the problem of structural unemployment. South Africas unemployment crisis reflects decades of sluggish growth, declining investment in productive sectors, growing capital intensity in key industries and the casualisation of standard employment relations.

Ultimately, the basic income versus jobs debate is a false dilemma. After all, redistribution and production are two sides of the same coin. A publicly funded basic income would not only provide much needed relief amid high levels of poverty and inequality, but has the potential to increase demand for consumer goods and services, thereby boosting economic activity and increasing investment. This dynamic of basic income is well accepted by American billionaire backers.

However, basic income is not a magic bullet in itself. It must be embedded within a broader strategy of economic transformation, buttressed by progressive social forces.

Structural unemployment

The finance ministers concern with giving something for something has been a recurring theme in debates on welfare globally. Historically, decision-makers have been drawn to schemes which oblige the poor to work because theyre considered effective in imposing order, funnelling the dispossessed into ultra-low-wage labour and dissuading further claims on the state.

Interestingly, study after study shows that South Africas unemployed  43.2% of the working age population, according to the expanded definition  would also prefer not to depend on the state and aspire to a proper job. The problem is that proper jobs, with standard employment protections, are increasingly scarce.

Indeed, between 1995 and 2021, youth unemployment rose from 28% to 63%. But even those lucky enough to find a job, cannot necessarily meet their basic needs. Prior to the introduction of the national minimum wage in 2018, 54% of full time workers earned below the line of working poverty.

While some try to cobble together a livelihood from informal activities, these are largely survivalist and insufficient to make ends meet.

In the last quarter, discouraged job seekers increased by 6.9%. One reason is the exorbitant cost of looking for work, including: accessing information, submitting applications, travel costs and skills training. These place an additional burden on households already struggling to survive. A basic income guarantee could partially address this problem.

The case for a basic income grant

South Africa has one of the most expansive social grants systems in Africa. It reaches more than 18.5 million people or almost a third of its population.

While grants have significantly reduced the incidence and severity of poverty, they exclude the unemployed, placing a burden on existing recipients, and effectively eroding the value of the transfer.

Proponents of a basic income guarantee argue that it would fill the cracks in South Africas social security system. Furthermore, it could support activities outside of the labour market such as care work, and establish a reservation wage below which workers could refuse to work, strengthening their bargaining power.

In addition, proponents argue that because the basic income guarantee would apply to all, it could foster social cohesion while avoiding the costly targeting processes inherent in means-tested-schemes. Meanwhile, its unconditional nature would prevent the state from coercing recipients into ultra-low wage work, as has been the case with South Africas public works programme.

Of course, like the national minimum wage, the impact of a basic income guarantee would hinge on the value of the benefit and how it is structured.

Rethinking redistribution, reclaiming production

Recent projections by the Institute for Economic Justice, a progressive policy think tank, suggest that a monthly basic income guarantee of R840 (US$58) - which corresponds to the lower bound poverty line - could be easily funded through tax revenue, using a phased approach.

With increased revenue from VAT recoupment due to increased consumption, and the introduction of a wealth tax, a basic income grant would be affordable for the entire adult population.

Nevertheless, critics are right to point out that production matters. On the one hand, production generates the revenue required for redistribution as well as goods and services. On the other, redistributive schemes contribute to capital accumulation through increased demand for goods and services, thereby shaping the organisation of production.

Ultimately, what is produced, how it is produced and for whom are critical questions. One of the pitfalls of the global debate on basic income is that it has tended to ignore struggles around the organisation of production at precisely the moment when it is most urgent to contest the casualisation of labour.

As history has shown, if redistributive reforms such as basic income are not paired with labour, social and consumer protections, their impact can be easily undermined.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the basic income versus jobs debate represents a false dilemma. Redistributive reforms have the potential to increase demand for goods and services and wealth accumulation. This, in turn, can drive investment and generate jobs, while creating the basis for further redistribution.

But, progressive proposals for basic income must conceive of it as part of, rather than a replacement for, a broader set of reforms aimed at decommodifying life under capitalism and improving the conditions of work.

Ruth Castel-Branco, Research Manager, University of the Witwatersrand. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Former Witsie wins 2021 Dirac Medal

Physicist Professor Saul Teukolsky receives the prize for theoretical work essential to the detection of gravitational waves.

Wits alumnus and the Robinson Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Professor Saul Teukolsky (BSc 1969, BSc Hons 1970), has been awarded the 2021 Dirac Medal and Prize by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) for his contributions in predicting the properties of gravitational waves that emerge from the collisions of black holes.

Professor Teukolsky receives the prize jointly with Alessandra Buonanno of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany; Thibault Damour of the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies in France; and Frans Pretorius of Princeton University in New Jersey.

An announcement issued by the ICTP on 9 August 2021 said the four physicists received the medal for establishing the predicted properties of gravitational waves in the curvature of space-time produced when stars or black holes spiral together and merge. Their work was essential for the detection of gravitational waves from these energetic astronomical events by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).

"The theoretical work of this year's Dirac Medallists was essential for interpreting the observations from LIGO, which is an unusually subtle experiment," said ICTP director Atish Dabholkar. "Together they provide an impressive check of the accuracy of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. It is a marvellous tribute to the remarkable power of our theoretical understanding of nature, which seemed too outlandish for observational verification until very recently."

The Dirac Medal, which was first awarded in 1985, is given in honour of the Nobel laureate Paul Dirac, who made fundamental contributions to quantum physics. It is awarded annually on Dirac's birthday, 8 August, to scientists who have made significant contributions to theoretical physics. An international committee of distinguished scientists selects winners from a list of nominated candidates. The Dirac Medal is not awarded to Nobel Laureates, Fields Medallists, or Wolf Foundation Prize winners, although many Dirac medallists have proceeded to win these prestigious prizes.

"I'm very honored to receive this award," Teukolsky told the communications team at Caltech."But quite frankly, this project would have been impossible without the great graduate students and postdocs who have contributed so much."

Professor Teukolsky matriculated from Selborne College in East London and did his undergraduate and postgraduate bachelor of science degrees in mathematics and physics at Wits. He is also a professor at Cornell University and in the early 2000s created a group for simulating the collisions of black holes using Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and he has led it ever since. He is a co-author of the widely used textbooks Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing and Black Holes, White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars: The Physics of Compact Objects. His list of honours also includes membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. In 2021, he received the American Physical Societys Einstein Prize.
ROME, N.Y.  The Rome Fire Department swore in its first female firefighter Monday during a ceremony at City Hall.

Jaimie Stasio will start her training at the Fire Academy this month, along with Kyle Liddy, the second recruit in the 2021 class. Stasio and Liddy were hired to replace two recently retired firefighters.

The two joined seven recruits from 2020, who didnt have a public ceremony last year, on the Griffo Green to take their oath.

It's been a long time coming. Its a historic day for our fire department. Theyve been preparing for it for a long time, said Rome Mayor Jacqueline Izzo. Jaimies an excellent candidate, shes going to be a great firefighter. And I hope this opens the door for more women.

The seven 2020 recruits who were also recognized Monday include:
NEW YORK (AP) - Gov. Andrew Cuomo has granted clemency to 10 people in his last days in office.

Cuomo has issued pardons and clemencies on several occasions in recent years, with many of the pardons going to immigrants facing deportation, where a pardon could be beneficial to their attempts to be allowed to remain in the country.

Cuomos last day in office will be Aug. 23. He is stepping down after the release of a report that found he had sexually harassed at least 11 women.

Cuomo has denied touching anyone inappropriately and said some of his comments had been misunderstood. But he said fighting to stay in office would hurt the state.

(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)
The International Monetary Fund, under pressure from the Biden administration, said Wednesday it will no longer release $450 million in funds that were scheduled to be sent to Afghanistan next week.

The move comes after the Treasury Department and congressional Republicans voiced concern about releasing the funds given the toppling of the US-backed government in Kabul by the Taliban.

In a statement, the IMF said Afghanistan cannot access the funds, known as Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, due to the "lack of clarity within the international community regarding recognition of a government in Afghanistan."

The controversy surrounds a previously scheduled allocation of the IMF's own currency, known as Special Drawing Rights. SDRs can be exchanged for US dollars, euros, yen, Chinese yuan and sterling. The value of an SDR is set each day, based on a basket of currencies.

Earlier on Wednesday, a Treasury Department official told CNN that Treasury is taking steps to prevent the Taliban from accessing the IMF funds.

More than a dozen GOP lawmakers wrote a letter Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressing alarm over how the IMF was scheduled to send "nearly half a billion dollars in unconditional liquidity to a regime with a history of supporting terrorist actions against the United States and her allies."

Typically, when there is a dispute over who is in power in a nation set to receive SDRs, the IMF polls its members on how to proceed. In 2019, the IMF cut off Venezuela from $400 million in cash held at the funds after a majority of its members refused to recognize Nicolas Maduro's government.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua)  President Xi Jinping Tuesday stressed efforts to promote common prosperity in the pursuit of high-quality development and coordinate work on forestalling major financial risks.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the tenth meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs. He is also head of the committee.

Common prosperity is an essential requirement of socialism and a key feature of Chinese-style modernization, Xi said, calling for adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and promoting common prosperity while pursuing high-quality development.

Noting that finance is the core of the modern economy, the president stressed that efforts to fend off major financial risks should be coordinated in line with market principles and the rule of law.

Other Chinese leaders including Li Keqiang, Wang Yang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng attended the meeting.

The meeting heard reports from relevant departments on advancing common prosperity as well as forestalling major financial risks and stabilizing financial development.

As China marches towards its second centenary goal, the focus of promoting people's well-being should be put on boosting common prosperity to strengthen the foundation for the Party's long-term governance, said the meeting.

Rather than being egalitarian or having only a few people prosperous, common prosperity refers to affluence shared by everyone, both in material and cultural terms, and shall be advanced step by step, it said.

The meeting encouraged creating conditions that are more inclusive and fair for people to get better education and improve their development capabilities, as well as shaping a development environment that provides chances for more people to become wealthy.

The meeting called for establishing a scientific public policy system and a reasonable distribution system that benefits everyone with a focus on primary and inclusive projects that facilitate people's well-being and guarantee their basic needs.

Achieving common prosperity will be a long-term, arduous and complicated task that should be promoted in a gradual and progressive manner, it said, adding local authorities will be encouraged to explore effective ways that suit local conditions.

The meeting underlined efforts to properly deal with the relationship between efficiency and fairness, make basic institutional arrangements on income distribution, expand the size of the middle-income group, increase the earnings for the low-income groups, adjust excessive incomes and prohibit illicit income to promote social fairness and justice.

Hailing the importance of advancing balanced, coordinated and inclusive development, the meeting stressed that China should improve the socialist market economy, strengthen balanced development among regions and promote coordinated development across industries.

Basic public services should be made more equally accessible by increasing inclusive human resources investment and improving the systems of elderly care, medical security and housing supply, the meeting noted.

The meeting called for protecting property rights, intellectual property rights and money-making through legal means and facilitating the well-regulated and healthy development of different types of capital.

It also underscored common prosperity in terms of meeting people's spiritual and cultural needs. Meanwhile, the country should promote common prosperity among farmers and in rural areas, consolidate and expand achievements in poverty elimination, as well as advance rural vitalization on all fronts.

Efforts should be made to strike a balance between ensuring stable growth and preventing risks, consolidate the momentum of economic recovery, ensure high-quality economic development to defuse systemic financial risks, and prevent secondary financial risks while addressing risks in other areas, said the meeting.

The meeting stressed making financial supervision more digital and intelligent, taking integrated steps to punish financial corruption and prevent and control financial risks, and accelerating reforms in key areas.

(Source: Xinhua)
[Xinhua]

Rural libraries have become places for villagers who are interested in reading to enrich their cultural lives. Some libraries are located next to their farmland, some are built under the roof of residential buildings, and some are established exclusively for children and teenagers. What do the rural libraries look like? Let's take a look.

[Xinhua]

[Xinhua]

When three boats linked by ropes dock at a port in Sanya, a tourist city in southern China's island province of Hainan, what jumps into sight is a library full of books. As the first public library on Xidao Island in Sanya, the library provides a place for locals to read, hold activities and for kids to study. The decorations inside the library, including the postcard wall, the decorative pictures, and the desks and chairs, were built using fishing nets, wooden parts and nails belonging to the boats.

[Photo courtesy of the CPC Pengzhou municipal committee]

[Photo courtesy of the CPC Pengzhou municipal committee]

A three-storey library located in the middle of a vast pear orchard in Xiyu Village, Pengzhou, southwest China's Sichuan Province has become a place for locals to read books and enjoy their leisure time. It is a 500-square-meter building with glass walls and a wooden ceiling. On the first floor of the library is an exhibition room which displays local folk customs and cultural heritage; the second floor is the reading room, which also provides coffee and drinks; the third floor is a multifunctional room for people to entertain themselves.

[CCTV News]

[CCTV News]

Before it was renovated, the library located in Shangqiang Village, Huzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province covered only 20 square meters. As it was old and shabby, kids were reluctant to come. After renovations were completed, the library was expanded to cover 120 square meters. Home to 4,000 books related to culture, agriculture and healthcare, the library has become a favorite place for villagers of different ages.

(Source: People's Daily Online)
Students do exercises in the playground at the Primary School Affiliated to the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, on June 1, 2020. [For China Daily/Zhu Xingxin]

Beijing education authorities announced on Tuesday that no more after-school training institutions will be approved for teaching primary and middle school students whose parents are pushing them to improve their performance in a particular subject.

Existing programs can continue as long as they meet standards, but all of them will be reviewed, they said.

The new rule was made to prevent young students from being overloaded with academic work. Li Yi, spokesman for the Beijing Education Commission, said at a news conference that Beijing will continue to take steps to ease the burden heaped on children in the form of additional homework required by private teachers outside of regular school.

"The training institutions should not take up holidays, weekends or vacation time in winter or summer to teach," he said. "Nor should they go public for financing."

He added that the public schools themselves will increase their services to meet demand from students, such as providing after-class services to help with homework or other activities.

Beijing's Haidian District, where most training institutions are located, announced that it will hold job fairs to help employees of education institutions find new jobs as needed.

Previously, the commission had asked schools to offer day care services for students in grades one to five during summer vacation to ease the burden of parents.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)
LOUISVILLE, KY - AUGUST 17: A student is administered a test by a Wild Health nurse during a COVID-19 testing day at Brandeis Elementary School on August 17, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky. Wild Health, a medical services provider, offered rapid COVID-19 testing to children at the school in response to rising numbers of positive tests in students and faculty. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear issued an executive order mandating face coverings worn in all public schools in Kentucky. In Kentucky, Lee County School District has been forced to close for three days due to a high number of COVID-19 infections. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Tennessee investigators determine dog muzzle sent to former state vaccine manager was ordered with her own credit card
Trade union ballot opens on proposed 3% pay rise for NHS staff in Wales

A trade union is balloting its NHS Wales members on whether to accept or reject a pay rise that Welsh Government will be implementing next spring.

Last month Health Minister Eluned Morgan announced that the Welsh government had agreed to give all NHS staff a three per cent pay rise.

This was in line with the recommendations from the NHS Pay Review Body and the Pay Review Body for Doctors and Dentists.apply to staff employed in accordance with Agenda for Change terms and conditions, which include nurses, cleaners, porters and paid health support workers.

It also applies to consultants, trainee doctors, specialist contract doctors and liaison specialists (SAS) before 2021, salaried GPs and dentists.

The pay rise will take effect retrospectively from April 2021.

However the announcement was met with disappointment from Unite the Union  which is now recommending that Unite members vote to reject the three per cent.

The union is also be asking members if they are prepared to take part in industrial action over the issues of pay.

Unite lead officer for NHS membership, Richard Munn stated: Our members in the NHS have worked tirelessly during Covid and will be dealing with the aftermath for years to come.

They have risked so much and it is time that the rate for the job they do is increased to properly reflect the most important contribution which NHS workers have made.

Since 2010 the Conservative Governments programme of austerity has meant that NHS staff have seen their pay erode in real terms. Some of our members are reporting accounts of real financial hardship.

Week after week the country applauded the NHS workers for their heroic effort. It is now time to that NHS workers are recognised financially.

Unite is calling upon Welsh Government to increase the pay rise and to start to readjust the salaries in the NHS to reflect the crucial role that NHS workers play in Wales.
Wrexhams Deadpool raises thousands for childrens hospices after walking the length of Britain

A Wrexham man has raised thousands of pounds for a local hospice after walking from John OGroats to Lands End dressed as Deadpool.

Paul Edwards, from Penycae, completed on average 25 miles a day dressed as the Marvel character Deadpool  in honour of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenneys takeover of Wrexham AFC  in aid of Hope House Hospice.

He had prepared for the solo and unsupported 971-mile hike with a gruelling 24-week training schedule. And his last epic trek in 2019 from Scotland to Wales, took him to the three peaks of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowden, before arriving home in Penycae.

Mr Edwards, who has been fundraising for various different charities for over 20 years, set a target of raising 10,000 from his walk for Hope House, but he has exceeded this figure, raising an amazing 14,000 so far.

Welsh Conservative Member of Parliament for Clwyd South, Simon Baynes MP, recently met with Paul at the Cross Foxes in Penycae as he celebrated the completion of his sponsored walk.

Paul said: I have had some incredible experiences on this challenge, but throughout the journey, the one thing that will forever stay in my memory is the kindness, generosity and support of the British people.

From the Northernmost tip of the country to the southernmost, I had such a fantastic response from people I met.

Whether it was to ask me into their homes for a cup of coffee, stopping their cars to offer me a bottle of water and something to eat, stopping to chat about what I was doing or just beeping the horns and waving as they drove by, the people of Britain are amazing and this is reflected in the wonderful amount of money raised so far.

Mr Baynes added: Having completed many events and challenges for various charities in the past, this was the biggest by far for Paul, who pushed himself to the limit to achieve a fantastic result for Hope House Hospice.

I would like to join everyone else who has praised Paul for his selfless charity work  which he also self-funds so that every penny raised goes to the hospice.

He is a local hero in Penycae and I know that his family, friends and neighbours will all be tremendously proud of what he has achieved.

Many congratulations, Paul.

Donations can still be made to Pauls Just Giving page on: www.justgiving/fundraising/paul-edwards1000mileshike.
We spoke to her less than an hour ago. She admitted that the muzzle was paid for on an Amazon account using an American Express card that belongs to her. But she vehemently denies buying the muzzle and sending it to herself.
Nine Fijian opposition politicians, including two former prime ministers, were recently arrested for voicing concerns about a contentious land bill, as the government of Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama moves to further intimidate political critics.

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama [Credit: UNclimatechange, Flickr]

Six members of parliament and three other high-profile politicians were taken into custody by police on July 2627 following comments they had made regarding the bill before it was debated in parliament. According to police, the arrests were part of a proactive approach to thwart possible civil instability.

The nine were Viliame Gavoka, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Liberal party (SODELPA); opposition whip Lynda Tabuya; MPs Adi Litia Qionibaravi and Ro Filipe Tuisawau; Biman Prasad, leader of the National Federation party; NFP president, Pio Tikoduadua; former prime ministers Sitiveni Rabuka and Mahendra Chaudhry; and Unity Fiji leader, Savenaca Narube.

The MPs were held for almost 48 hours without charge, then released after questioning. Acting Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu posted a statement on the Police Forces Facebook page baldly denying any intimidation, and declaring that not everyone who is brought in for questioning will be charged. So far, no charges have been confirmed.

The crackdown, carried out under the authoritarian regimes Public Order Act, came in the midst of an escalating health and social crisis arising from the deadly COVID-19 outbreak. There have been 38,742 cases during the surge that started in April and 345 deaths. Fiji has an average daily test positivity rate of 32 percent, the highest in the world.

Bainimarama opposes a full national lockdown, insisting that such a move would cripple the economy and impact jobs. Alongside its pro-business strategy, the government is pursuing a mandatory vaccination campaign. Workers have been told they must be fully vaccinated by November or face losing their jobs. Only those who are vaccinated can obtain the paltry government income support.

The countrys health system is close to collapse. Half of those who have died from COVID-19 did so at home, due largely to overcrowded medical facilities. The Fiji Red Cross Societys Neomai Kafoa said this week that blood stocks are so low they had 85 volunteers on phones urging friends and family to donate blood. The need for blood is dire, if I can say, right across the country, she warned.

The working class is bearing the brunt of the worsening crisis. The tourism industry has collapsed resulting in the loss of 100,000 jobs. Half the countrys 880,000 population are experiencing extreme financial hardship. Even before the pandemic, the minimum wage was just $FJ2.32 ($US1.12) per hour. With many families struggling to get enough food, charities and NGOs have been distributing thousands of food packs.

People who criticise government handling of the crisis, including some of the arrested MPs, have been lambasted by the administration. The NFPs Prasad, who has been detained four times by police, said the government was using the arrests as a distraction in dealing with the COVID situation, as people are dying, not able to put food on the table or get medical care.

The legislation, Bill No.17 (2021), which passed through parliament last week, amends the iTaukei Land Trust Act 1940 that governs the administration of native land. The Bill removes the requirement of obtaining the consent of the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB), which was set up to protect indigenous landowners rights, for any mortgage, charge, pledge or caveat on a lease under the act, or for any such lease to be dealt with by a court.

This would mean that if the TLTB granted a native land lease to someone, the lessee could use that land for different purposes without having to seek the boards permission. The government maintains the changes are purely administrative and designed to improve business efficiency by eliminating delays in getting consent for mortgages.

According to the opponents, however, the bill introduces a significant reduction in the power of the TLTB, an erosion of the guardianship role of TLTB and significantly reduces the power of landowners to have their rights and interests protected by the board once their land has been leased.

Bainimarama told parliament the opposition were super-spreaders of lies, seeking to mislead and incite indigenous people. Over 30,000 signed an on-line petition against the bill, raising the prospect of protests. Police erected several security checkpoints around the country and warned they would come down hard on any person or group that tries to cause instability and civil unrest.

The dispute is part of ongoing deep-seated conflicts within the Fijian ruling elite. Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, has oriented to sections of the Fijian capitalist class and pro-business members of the chiefly elite. His military junta has adopted various measures aimed at eliminating barriers to investment and private profit.

The ethnic Fijian nationalist wing, however, which seeks to maintain political and economic privileges for the traditional chiefs, is bitterly opposed to aspects of Bainimaramas rule, particularly over issues of land ownership. Approximately 87 percent of land in Fiji is customary land, owned collectively within the tribe or family through kinship ties. It is often controlled by a narrow elite represented by the powerful Great Council of Chiefs, who jealously guard privileges from the land ownership system.

Steven Ratuva, a University of Canterbury sociologist, told Radio NZ a critical question is whether the bill was intended to benefit the landowners or to serve the interests of foreign investors and other local entrepreneurs who have been part of the governments lobbying and patronage system. In Vanuatu, he said, the removal of regulatory process of sub-leasing and mortgaging by lessees saw 90 percent of land on the main island of Efate alienated, through extensive sub-leasing and selling by foreign investors with little income for the landowners.

The Bainimarama government, which continues to rest firmly on the military, has a history of viciously suppressing political and social opposition. Arrests of opposition MPs are a common occurrence. The sedition provisions in the Crimes Act and the Public Order Act have been used to target journalists, activists and government critics. Assemblies, protests and strikes are routinely banned.

Anti-democratic measures are being intensified under the cover of the pandemic. In March, Bainimarama withdrew a Police Bill, which would have vastly increased the search and seizure powers of the police. The backdown followed an outpouring of criticism. Civil liberties groups, NGOs, opposition parties, sections of the media and the Fiji Law Society all condemned the bill, describing it as another step towards the transformation of Fiji into a police state.

Regional governments meanwhile, including the Pacific Islands Forum which met last week, have been silent on the recent arrests. New Zealands Labour-led government only registered concern, through an anodyne Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement. Head of the Fiji Womens Crisis Centre Shamima Ali told Radio NZ: I have never seen such a docile international community as I have seen this time around.

The silence is not surprising. Under pressure from Washington, leaders in Canberra and Wellington have made it a priority to restore relations following Bainimaramas 2006 coup, in order to fend off Chinas growing influence. They endorsed Fijis 2014 bogus election, won by Bainimaramas FijiFirst Party, declaring the country had restored democracy.

This has paved the way for the restoration of full diplomatic, economic and, above all, military relations. Doing business with the Fijian government now means maintaining a hypocritical silence over the regimes ongoing abuses.
It is well understood that human activities in the conduct of commerce and the prosecution of wars have been the primary causal factors for zoonotic spillovers that have led to large outbreaks of deadly contagions. Pandemics are entwined with world history, and the COVID pandemic is no different in this regard.

The evolution of the virus that has produced the Delta variant in the span of only 18 months since the declaration of the pandemic, in the final analysis, is a byproduct of the ruling elites utter incompetence and malign neglect in responding to the threat.

The viruss evolutionary adaptations have been greatly aided by policies that have placed profits above the well-being of the population by allowing schools and businesses to remain open, giving the virus free rein to circulate across the globe.

(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam, head of the New England Complex Systems Institute, who has been modeling pandemics in the context of a complex global network for close to two decades, has warned that the ease of global travel, where every region of the world is connected in a matter of hours to every other place, could allow the propagation of deadlier diseases which quickly grow to pandemic proportions.

In a report from 2016, titled Transition to Extinction, he writes, When we introduce long-range transportation into the model, the success of more aggressive strains changes. They can use the long-range transportation to find new hosts and escape local extinctions ... the more transportation routes introduced into the model, the more highly aggressive pathogens are able to survive and spread.

Clearly, in the present chapter of the pandemic, the United States has emerged again as the pandemics epicenter primarily due to lack of comprehensive global strategies that could eradicate the virus. After the spring surge through India, which killed a reported 400,000 people, a figure believed to be an underestimate by a factor of ten, the Delta variant quickly spread across the globe becoming the dominant strain by mid-summer. That means in only three months time the world was facing a new pandemic of the Delta strain. In the span of that time, the US had essentially returned to business as usual, leading to the present catastrophe.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the Delta strain accounted for more than 97 percent of all cases in the US. On August 13, there were more than 720,000 new cases of COVID-19 reported worldwide. Of these, more than 155,000 were in the United States, nearly five times the number of cases reported in India, which ranked second.

And with the sudden rapid rise in COVID cases, the US death toll is once again inching upwards, with 769 deaths registered for the same date. The seven-day moving average for reported deaths has doubled since last month, standing at over 650 per day, or more than 4,500 per week.

These deaths are preventable, and the country has every means in its capacity to ensure not one more person dies from COVID. The blood of these victims is on the hands of the White House occupant despite concerted efforts by both Republican and Democratic politicians to sow discord and animus in the population based on issues of vaccine and mask mandates.

The real issue is not mask mandates, a totally inadequate measure given the threat of Delta, but the refusal of the Biden administration, the CDC, and state and local governments of both parties to immediately enforce a wide-scale lockdown.

Under these conditions, the bipartisan call by the ruling elites to open schools for in-class instruction is sheer insanity, which places in danger the health and well-being of 75 million plus children and adolescents of whom the vast majority remain unvaccinated.

In a month, the country has seen a dramatic rise in the number of children becoming infected. Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that nearly 94,000 children had been infected. On Saturday, August 14, 2021, just over 1,900 children were reported admitted to hospitals with COVID, the highest ever recorded. The current COVID-19 disease ravaging the youngest in the population has been described aptly as the pandemic of the innocent considering continued attempts to minimize the impact of the more severe Delta variant.

As Professor Amber Schmidtke, a renowned science communicator who teaches at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas, noted, Not only are these kids sick, but every age group has met or exceeded previous maximums for ER visits for COVID-19 illness. Its not correct to say that kids dont get sick from COVID-19. That is disinformation. Call it when you see it. [Emphasis added]

If that were not enough, further concerns are emerging by frontline health care workers who are reporting a surge in children diagnosed with a both COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Dr. Pia Pannaraj, an infectious diseases specialist at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, told NPR this concerning phenomenon is putting 'babies up until about a year and a half or two years of life at risk.

Attempts have been made throughout the pandemic by the ruling class to suggest that schools are islands where the virus does not spread, or that they are separate entities that play no role in community spread. In a recent conversation, Dr. Bar-Yam affirms that the relationship between infections in schools and high transmissions in households has been strongly established. It is impossible to separate the issue of infections at schools from infection in homes and, more broadly, in the community. Schools must be closed to stop Deltas continued spread.

As of Friday, the World Health Organization reported that there have been 205,338,159 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4,333,094 deaths globally. This ghastly figure is an undercount by at least a factor of three as analysis of excess deaths suggest the human catastrophe is far higher than reports would indicate.

Unchecked, the SARS-CoV-2 has been allowed to disseminate into every community, leading to more virulent and deadly variants. Unfortunately, the Delta variant will not be the last.

What is most striking about the Delta strain has been its ability to evade immunity and transmit so much faster than its predecessors. It also replicates with tremendous efficiency, creating copies of itself at a rate thousands of times higher than when the wild version first emerged less than two years ago.

Within each infected person, the virus invades living cells and makes billions of copies of itself by transforming cells into virus-making factories. Each of these replicated copies has the potential for mutation within each personvaccinated or notthat continues the spread and further mutation of the evolving virus.

What policy makers and governmental officials are ignoring, as they pursue reopening schools and forcing parents back into the workplace, is that the limited measures that had proven only partly effective against the spread of the coronavirus previously may be completely futile given the more virulent biological properties of the Delta variant.

Dr. Deepti Gurdasani recently warned that this is not a virus we can learn to live with: Over time weve had many new variants arise in different parts of the world and they have shown a level of escape from previous immunity, which means that if youre immune against a previous variant of the virus, it doesnt necessarily mean that youre immune against a new strain. What that means is that even if you have a level of immunity against previous variants, you may not be able to reach the herd immunity threshold because this virus is constantly evolving.

Even breakthrough infections are becoming more commonplace with Delta among those fully immunized. This is partly a product of the biology of the virus, but more the result of the natural waning of the immunity generated by the vaccines, after the passage of time.

Most of those infected after vaccination will be spared a severe course of infection. Yet a growing number of the victims of such post-vaccination infections are finding their way into hospital beds, intensive care units, and even the grave. More worrisome is that people with breakthrough infections can transmit the virus as effectively as those who become infected without having ever received the vaccines.

Many scientists and doctors are even beginning to refer to the Delta strain as an entirely different virus. The delta variant is almost like a whole new COVID virus, as it behaves very differently from the previous COVID strains, reported Dr. Mike Hansen, a pulmonologist and critical care physician, on his educational public website, explaining that the variants multiple spike protein mutations allow it to enter the bodys cells with greater ease and evade the bodys immune system.

In a manner of speaking, Delta is a Frankenstein virus that has been allowed to emerge by the inaction of capitalist governments around the world. And it is currently filling hospitals, in the worst conditions witnessed since last winter, and taking an unprecedentedly heavy toll on children. Just this weekend Dallas, Texas, reported that all ICU beds for children were fully occupied.

Despite these dangers, the ruling elite have continuously employed every conceivable measure to prevent any effective comprehensive public health strategy that would place eradication of the virus on their agenda. And subordinated to the diktats of the financial markets, public health efforts have given the coronavirus ample room to develop and spread, in direct contradiction to scientific principles.

In short, the Delta variant is the product of capitalism's complete disregard for human life. With less than one-fifth of the worlds population vaccinated and a significant portion immunologically naive to the virus (with no prior infections), it is safe to assume we are still at the early stages of the pandemic whose final outcome, as a social and political event, not just a medical one, remains to be decided.

Global eradication using all resources and capacity must be the primary objective of the worlds people. All other issues must be subordinated to the full support of the populations, including financial, job, and food security as well as isolation and medical facilities to treat and care for the population until the coronavirus has been eliminated from every region of the planet.
Dana workers: Join a rank-and-file committee today, and carry forward the struggle against the company and the UAW at your plant!

Workers at the Dana, Inc. auto parts manufacturing plant in Warren, Michigan told the World Socialist Web Site that their contract is expiring today, August 18, but that the United Auto Workers has told them nothing about the status of negotiations between the company and the union. According to workers at the plant, the UAW says a strike may be imminent but has provided no further information about plans for how to fight the company.

Roughly 600 people work at the parts plant, located a stones throw from the major production plants on Mound Avenue in the Detroit suburbs, including Stellantiss Warren Truck and Sterling Heights plants. Dana is a Fortune 500 company, and its CEO, James Kamsickas, made $10.5 million in 2020. It occupies a critical role in the global auto industry supply chain.

WSWS campaigners build support for Volvo strike at Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit on June 7, 2021 (WSWS Photo)

While the company prepares to wring every cent out of the workers it exploits, it continues to hand over massive amounts of money in dividend payments to wealthy shareholders. On September 3, Dana will pay out a dividend worth $14.3 millionthe 10th dividend since 2018.

One worker, Jim, told the WSWS that the UAW has not told us anything at all. We are totally in the dark. All we have to go by is gossip and rumor. All of the union reps are out of state meeting with the company about the new contract. We dont know what theyre negotiating over, we dont know what the demands are. We want to fight, but how can we win a strike if we dont even know what were striking over?

None of the unions social media accounts has made any statement on the contract negotiations. Local 155 employs four officials, each with an income of over $100,000 paid for by workers dues. Its really despicable that theyre making this much, Jim said.

Workers assert there is plenty worth fighting over, including health issues, wages, benefits, ruthless attendance policies, outstanding grievances, COVID safety measures and much more. When the WSWS visited the facility in June, workers on break called the plant a slave ship and complained that the work was dangerous, difficult and hot.

Jim said temperatures in the plant rose to 109 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer, with no break. Workers regularly work up to 70 hours a week amid dangerous fumes that give a rotten egg smell that could have lasting consequences for their health. It depends on the shift, but many workers work 65, 70 hours a week. I have worked every day for almost three weeks, 10 hours a day. Some people work longer.

These are the conditions against which workers fought to build the unions of the late 19th and early 20th century. The UAW, which enforces such sweatshop conditions today, is not a union but an enforcer of company diktats. Published NLRB rulings show the union repeatedly fails to respond to workers grievances.

Jim said the work is very demanding. Its very hot, very dirty. When coolant runs through the machines, it produces anaerobic bacterial buildups. These chips build up as we work. One time a UAW steward said we should wear devices to monitor the air quality, because anything over 20 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide would be an OSHA violation. But then the UAW never did anything. They have neglected the maintenance of the machines for so long. Some of the machines are from the 1960s. They expect us to clean them, but theres no safety training or even awareness of what youre potentially being exposed to.

He expressed the widely held view that the UAW and the company have been working for weeks to undermine any potential struggle by workers. This summer they held two large hiring events, trying to bring on new hires in case of a strike.

The company also reportedly gave a $2 per hour raise to new hires recently in order to divide older, more experienced workers against their younger counterparts. Workers are livid that it was the company, not the union, which made the request for a wage increase for these workers.

Jim said there are rumors that all the parts we manufactured recently are in storage in case of a strike, which would mean that the UAW has been helping the company prepare for a strike for weeks. He said, This is not like the labor movements of the past. The union is just another layer of bureaucracy. And thats not even mentioning the corruption within the union itself.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Dana has made money hand over fist while workers have risked their lives. Its share value was $11.56 in September 2020 but has now doubled to $23.42. Meanwhile, workers suffered as safety protocols were abandoned.

Jim said, They totally violate their protocol they claimed they were going to follow. They said if someone on your line gets COVID, they would inform everyone on the line and shut that line down for two weeks. But there were multiple instances I saw where someone had symptoms at work, and they told everyone else to keep working until they got their results. And then even if the results came out positive, they didnt even shut the line down. A few times they shut it down if the line wasnt in great demand.

The company put up a board noting that there had been over 100 confirmed COVID cases as well as one loss. Workers were deeply insulted by this callous act, which showed that the company merely viewed the death of a coworker as a loss to their bottom line.

Workers at Dana are discussing how to prepare for a real struggle against the company. This requires taking the struggle into their own hands, determining democratically what their demands will be and rejecting the UAWs efforts to use the threat of a long strike as a bargaining tool to help the company. Workers know that a strike is serious business. Jim said, We want to fight, but the UAW said if we strike, well be out for 90 days. They only paid the Virginia Volvo workers $275 a week.

He said he is confident workers can unite if they build a rank-and-file committee, which shares information, sets demands, unites workers across age, shop, wage and race divisions, and directs the conduct of any strike not in the interests of the company or the UAW bureaucrats but in the interests of the workers, achieving massive wage gains, an end to the points-based attendance system, for adequate air conditioning and all other demands.

Jim said, When the WSWS visited our plant this summer and talked about setting up a rank-and-file committee like the workers in Virginia did, I said yes, we need to do the same here at Dana. We have a very diverse workforce, black, white, Trump voters, non-Trump voters, but when you start talking about conditions at the plant, we all sound like socialists.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Parties are assisting workers everywhere in the building of an interconnected network of rank-and-file committees to organize a united counter-offensive against inequality, exploitation and the homicidal response of the ruling class to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Suddenly last Thursday, in the midst of a deepening political crisis, Prime Minister Scott Morrisons government tabled four anti-democratic electoral bills in a blatant attempt to shore up the increasingly discredited parliamentary establishment.

In particular, the bills seek to strip party registration from all parties not currently represented in parliament, by requiring them to provide lists of 1,500 memberstriple the existing requirementwithin three months of the laws passing.

Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison (AP/Kiyoshi Ota)

If the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Party Registration Integrity) Bill 2021 became law, registered parties, including the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), would have little time to submit such lists.

With parliament still due to sit for numbers of weeks until early December, this could happen before the next federal election, which Morrison can call anytime before late May, 2022.

The SEP unequivocally condemns these bills and calls for a powerful campaign throughout the working class against them.

Without party registration, federal election candidates for the SEP and 35 other currently registered parties would be prevented from identifying their political affiliations on ballot papers.

That represents a direct attack on the basic democratic rights of all political parties. It also violates the rights of voters to know the political identities and programs of candidates.

More broadly, this is an assault on the rights of working class people to organise politically and contest elections to challenge the corporate and political establishment.

Unveiled with no public discussion, and virtually no coverage in the corporate media, these bills represent an unvarnished bid to block expression of the mounting popular disaffection with the traditional ruling parties. This alienation has been rising for decades, but has been intensified by the worsening COVID-19 disaster in Australia and globally.

The failure of federal and state governments, both Coalition and Labor, to protect the population from the catastrophe now accelerated by the Delta variant has precipitated a collapse in support for them. On every frontfrom refusing to implement lockdown restrictions quickly enough, to the inadequate and shambolic vaccination and quarantine operations and growing resort to police-military measuresgovernments have subordinated public health, lives and livelihoods to the profit-crazed reopening drive of the capitalist ruling class.

A glimpse of the rising political storm was provided by survey results published on the front page of the Australian Financial Review yesterday, showing that faith in the ability of government to handle the COVID-19 outbreak has deteriorated sharply.

Approval of the Morrison governments response to the pandemic had fallen off a cliff, according to JWS director John Scales, whose company conducted the nationwide True Issues survey. The approval rating had plunged to 38 percent, from 66 percent in July 2020, when governments and the media were endlessly claiming that the Australian authorities had handled the pandemic better than the rest of the world.

The governments overall approval rating has not yet plunged to the 28 percent low it reached after the 201920 bushfire crisis, which exposed the governments indifference to the disastrous impact of the infernos and the underlying climate change, but is headed in that direction.

Nevertheless, no benefit has flowed to the opposition Labor Party, which has provided the Liberal-National Coalition government with constructive support throughout the pandemic. Average approval for the state governments, including the Labor administrations, has fallen from 64 percent in February to 53 percent.

On the electoral laws, as on virtually every other issue, a bipartisan front has emerged between the Coalition and Labor that could see the legislation quickly pushed through both houses of parliament. Labor has previously backed such measures and has refused to criticise the bills. In fact, Labor was consulted before the bills were introduced.

The government falsely claims that the trebling of the membership requirement was recommended by a parliamentary committee report on the 2019 election. That report was silent on the issue. But a 2016 election report by the same committee had recommended, with Labors support, an increase in the membership requirement from 500 to 1,000.

That 2016 recommendation was also to apply to existing parliamentary parties, so it was not adopted! These parties, which are largely shells consisting of parliamentarians, staffers and aspiring MPs, could well have difficulty meeting the membership requirement.

In 2006, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated party membership to be as low as 1 percent of the countrys adult population. Trust in the major political parties was at an all-time low even before the bushfire and COVID crises, with a 2018 survey showing only 16 percent of respondents trusted them.

So instead, the opposite of the 2016 recommendation is now proposed: an increase to 1,500 for parties not represented in parliament, but with the existing parliamentary parties continuing to be exempted from any membership rule.

It was left to a junior government figure, the assistant minister for electoral matters, Ben Morton, to introduce the bills in parliament. In his brief speech, he declared that political parties not currently represented in parliament would have three months to demonstrate they have a genuine base of community support.

But that is meant to be the function of electionsto gauge the level of voters support. The setting of an arbitrary and discriminatory membership barrier to participation makes a mockery of elections themselves.

The government and Labor also insist that such rules are necessary to reduce confusion in the size and form of ballot papers. Yet the proliferation of new parties in recent years is a product of the growing distrust in the entire parliamentary set-up, which has implemented the dictates of the financial elite, presiding over escalating levels of social inequality and deteriorating working conditions and social services.

The Greens and some other smaller parliamentary parties have criticised the governments nakedly anti-democratic plan, but support the status quo. The Greens weakly dissented to the 2016 report, saying the already anti-democratic 500-member rule was adequate.

In reality, the 500-member rule is reactionary itself. It was introduced as part of a package of measures by the Hawke Labor government in the 1980s to try to overcome the fracturing of support for the main parties and make it more difficult for working class peoplewithout access to large funds and staffto form new parties and contest elections.

The SEP has always opposed these laws, which also compel the SEP and other parties to hand over to the electoral authorities the details of their members. That opens up their members to surveillance and harassment, and violates the principle of secret ballots, which are meant to provide voters with privacy regarding their political affiliations.

As the SEP stated in 2002: [T]he laws provide for state funding of political parties, both to prop up the flagging finances of the old parties and to give the authorities broad powers to pry into the affairs of new parties.

Since the 1980s, successive governments have also made it increasingly difficult for working people to stand for parliament, by setting substantial election candidates deposits, which have increased in recent years to $2,000 for both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

For a party to nominate candidates for all House and Senate seats in a double dissolution election would cost $454,000. This favours existing parliamentary parties with corporate-funded apparatuses. The most recent political donations statistics show that the Coalition reported a combined $59 million in donations in 201920, and Labor more than $50 million. The majority came from corporate entities, including mining companies and banks, which often donated to both parties.

Several other anti-democratic measures are contained in the latest four bills, notably to bar parties from using names already employed by other parties, to increase jail terms for interference with political liberty (which could now be constituted by obscene or discriminatory abuse or harassment) and to shorten the period for pre-poll voting to a maximum of 12 days.

The party name provisions could be applied against parties posturing as alternatives to the Coalition, such as the recently-registered New Liberals, but would establish a wider rule that could, for example, bar parties from having socialist in their name, if that word had been previously claimed by another formation.

These bills escalate a series of attacks on fundamental democratic rights over the past two decades. This includes the 20172018 nationalist witch hunt, backed by the political and media establishment and the High Court, to expel members of parliament who held or were possibly entitled to dual citizenship. As a result, because of Australias large-scale immigration since World War II, millions of peopleperhaps half the populationare effectively disqualified from even standing for election.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced last Friday the deployment of up to 1,500 National Guard troops to assist hospital staff as the states emergency rooms fill with patients suffering from COVID-19. At least 20 hospitals will be receiving National Guard assistance, even as the states plans to reopen schools for fully in-person instruction, five days a week, in early September remain unchanged.

The first 500 Guard troops will be deployed this Friday, working in primarily nonclinical roles such as materials handlers, equipment distributors and COVID-19 testing assistants. The stress on Oregon hospitals right now is truly unprecedented. Our resources are stretched woefully thin at the same time we are seeing a frightening rise in COVID cases, said Joe Sluka, president of St. Charles Health System, to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 96 percent of all pandemic-related infection samples tested in the state, according to the Oregon Health Authority, up from 15 percent six weeks ago. The seven-day average of daily new cases surpassed the previous record of 1,534 on December 5, 2020 on August 12, when 1,536 daily cases were confirmed, a number which now stands at 1,820 cases.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown, left back to camera, talks with a National Guard member and registered nurse in Salem, Oregon on January 13, 2021. (Abigail Dollins/Statesman-Journal via AP)

Hospitalizations also continue to rise, with a record 752 hospitalized, 130 more than the peak during last Novembers surge and before vaccines were available. An unprecedented 185 patients were in intensive care units as of Friday.

Nearly every safety measure to contain the pandemic, however, was dispensed with June 30, when Governor Brown held a Reopening Oregon celebration at Providence Park. At the time, the governor proclaimed, We celebrate brighter days ahead. And today, we celebrate that Oregon is 100 percent open for business.

Under the conditions of the current surge, Brown is determined to not walk back any of the states reopening drive. The most that has been implemented is a statewide indoor mask mandate in the face of skyrocketing cases. All businesses remain open without restriction, and no restrictions are in place on indoor and outdoor gatherings, even after a warning of impending crisis from the Oregon Health Authority issued on July 27.

Brown has, however, been forced to note the scale of the crisis in Oregon. When our hospitals are full with COVID-19 patients, there may not be room for someone needing care after a car crash, a heart attack, or other emergency situation. She continued, I know this is not the summer many of us envisioned, with over 2.5 million Oregonians vaccinated against COVID-19. The harsh and frustrating reality is that the Delta variant has changed everything. Delta is highly contagious, and we must take action now.

But the governor proposes no serious actions. Instead, she has tried to place the blame for the spread of the virus in Oregon on local and county officials. A recent article by The Oregonian noted that Brown had placed all authority for responding to the pandemic in the hands of local officials even as cases continued to rise precipitously throughout July. On August 6, Brown explained to top officials representing all of Oregons counties that the pandemic was now out of control. She then asked, What are you going to do about it?

It is under these conditions that schools statewide are scheduled to return to fully in-person learning, five days a week, in early September. Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, informed NBCs Meet the Press that we need to rethink the CDC guidance for children under 12 since the data we have used to come up with recommendations for opening our schools is really from pre-Alpha. This [Delta variant] is a different virus in the sense its much more infectious.

Osterholm went on to warn that there are 90 million Americans who remain unvaccinated, and 48 million children under 12 who are not eligible for a vaccine. This provides the virus with ideal conditions to spread and further mutate. The CDC school guidelines were totally inadequate when they were first put forward, and these politically motivated guidelines were formulated before the Delta variant was first identified in October 2020 in India.

The Brown administrations current school reopening drive has been ongoing since March 5, when she issued an executive order herding children back into schools for in-person learning. Washingtons Democratic Governor Jay Inslee had issued a similar edict the previous day. In both states, and nationally, the concern has not been about saving lives but ensuring that, as Kate Brown said, they are open for business.

Indeed, the governors response to the extraordinary rise in cases, hospitalizations and deaths is in line with the political program of the Biden administration, the Democratic Party as a whole, and the corporate interests they serve. Any loss of life is preferable to the ruling elite rather than the temporary lockdown of nonessential production. Corporations with a large base in Oregon such as Nike, Daimler Trucks North America, and Precision Castparts Corp. must be allowed to extract profits from the working class unimpeded.

Brown and the corporations are also aided by the teachers unions, including the Oregon Education Association, which has not offered any resistance to the return to in-person instruction. A search on the organizations website for the term coronavirus provides only two resources, both from last year, and its national affiliate, the National Education Association, offers only various ways to ensure  safety as schools and campuses reopen. There is no suggestion that the best way to remain safe is for schools to remain closed to suppress the spread of the disease.

The response of the Democratic Party and the unions makes clear that educators cannot appeal to the very same institutions that are responsible for the catastrophe in the first place. The teachers unions and school boards are tied to the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, a party that is entirely beholden to Wall Street and US imperialism. Educators must realize their own strength through the formation of rank-and-file safety committees, democratically controlled by workers themselves. No other social force is willing or able to put forward the necessary measures to contain and eradicate the pandemic.

Teachers and workers must advocate for the shutdown of all nonessential production and the implementation of comprehensive distance learning in schools, with full compensation provided to all workers and small businesses. The money for this necessary program will come from a direct assault on the obscene profits accumulated by the billionaires. The trillions handed to Wall Street must be directed to the working-class families who desperately need it.

Contact the WSWS to connect with a rank-and-file committee in your district. The WSWS will assist any teacher in forming a rank-and-file committee if one does not already exist.
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On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland, New Zealands largest city, and the Coromandel region, will be placed in lockdown for seven days, and the rest of the country for three days, after a 58-year-old Auckland man tested positive for the highly-infectious Delta variant of COVID-19. Six more people, all linked to the man, have since tested positive. The lockdowns could be extended depending on the scale of the outbreak.

The positive cases include a nurse at Auckland Hospital, who is fully vaccinated, and a teacher from Avondale College. Most of the infections are among people in their 20s, who are not yet eligible for vaccinations. The original source of the cluster has not been identified, but genomic testing shows it is linked to the outbreak in the Australian state of New South Wales.

A COVID-19 testing centre in Wellington, May 2020. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

More cases are likely to be found. The 58-year-old man was reportedly infectious since August 12. Health authorities are identifying locations of interest visited by the cases in Auckland and the Coromandel. The list so far includes dozens of shops, bars, cafes and nightclubs, a church and the SkyCity casino.

Schools and universities, many manufacturing businesses, cafes and restaurants have been closed, along with almost all retail outlets except supermarkets and petrol stations. Masks are mandatory on public transport and in shops.

This is the second time the entire country has been placed in a lockdown at level 4, the strictest level. The government was forced to impose a lockdown in late March 2020. Tens of thousands of workers, led by healthcare staff and teachers, had demanded a lockdown in 2020, independently of the teachers and nurses unions which opposed the measure until the day Ardern announced it.

New Zealand has so far not experienced the same level of deaths as other countries. It has recorded 26 fatalities and just under 3,000 cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began. The population is extremely vulnerable, however, as only around 17 percent are fully vaccinated. Small outbreaks triggered lockdowns in Auckland in August 2020 and February 2021.

In announcing the new lockdown, Ardern alluded to the disaster that is unfolding in Australia. Weve seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act Weve seen what happened in Sydney, we dont want that experience here, she said.

For weeks, the New South Wales state government refused to impose a statewide lockdown in response to the recent Sydney outbreak, allowing the virus to spread completely out-of-control. So far, 60 people have died in the outbreak. NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has declared that the government will no longer aim to completely eliminate the virus before reopening the economya position that guarantees continued deaths and hospitalisations.

Even under New Zealands level 4 lockdown, significant sections of workers remain at risk. Meat processing workers have not been given priority for vaccination, despite being classified as essential workers. They will continue to work in an environment that has been proven internationally to be a major source of COVID-19 infections.

During the first 2020 lockdown, the Meat Workers Union refused to take strike action to protect workers and ignored a petition by workers demanding the shutdown of the industry.

Internationally, governments have responded to the pandemic by placing the interests of big business ahead of the health and lives of the working class. They have been assisted by the trade unions, which act as adjuncts to the corporations and the state.

The Ardern government has been glorified in the international media for its approach to the virus, but it shares the same basic pro-business priorities. The initial restrictions were lifted earlier than the governments own medical advisors had recommended, with Ardern declaring that public health considerations had to be traded against the huge economic impact of the lockdown. This decision, combined with a sharp drop in community testing, produced another outbreak in Auckland in August 2020.

Tens of billions of dollars have been given to businesses, in the form of bailouts, tax breaks and subsidies, and the Reserve Bank has printed billions more for quantitative easing to prop up the banks.

Meanwhile, the government is imposing austerity across essential services. The healthcare system is dangerously under-staffed and underfunded; hospitals throughout the country are already overwhelmed with patients affected by seasonal diseases and respiratory illnesses exacerbated by poor housing conditions.

College of General Practitioners medical director Dr Bryan Betty told Radio NZ on August 11: We couldnt afford a situation in New Zealand to have [Delta] out of control in the community because it would risk collapsing or compromising our health system.

Alarmingly, College of Intensive Care Medicine chair Dr Andrew Stapleton said New Zealands intensive care capacity per capita was similar to Indiaswhere hospitals have been completely unable to cope and millions of people have died of COVID-19. On a normal day only about 25 of the countrys 220 ICU beds are free. He called for greater staffing, and a doubling of capacity.

More than 30,000 nurses and healthcare workers and 1,500 midwives were due to strike this Thursday, for the second time this year, over low pay and the staffing crisis. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) and the midwives union MERAS promptly seized on the lockdown announcement to cancel the strike. Many health workers commented angrily on Facebook, with some saying the stoppage ought to have been postponed instead of cancelled outright.

New Zealand has experienced a number of near misses that could have resulted in a major outbreak.

Radio NZ reported that as of August 11, 32 percent of port workers had not received even one dose of the vaccine, and just 58 percent were fully vaccinateddespite border workers supposedly being prioritised. The Port of Tauranga had a COVID-19 scare earlier this month after 11 crew members on the visiting container ship Rio de Plata tested positive. About 94 port workers who had been in contact with the ship had to be tested; only nine had been vaccinated.

Experts have also raised concerns about breaches at the countrys managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities. These are repurposed hotels, where people returning from overseas are required to spend two weeks. A recent investigation found that Delta transmission had occurred inside the Jet Park Hotel isolation facility in Auckland, when hotel room doors were opened simultaneously for just a few seconds.

The government only belatedly ended quarantine-free travel with Australia in June, after a man who visited Wellington from Sydney later tested positive. New Zealand businesses have continually agitated for the relaxation of border quarantine rules.

Despite the clear risks posed by Delta, on August 12 Ardern announced that the government intends to allow some returning travellers to self-isolate at home rather than in MIQ, if they are fully vaccinated. A trial of the scheme will begin in October.

Next year, the government plans to remove restrictions on travel from low-risk and medium-risk countries. Ardern did not say which countries she considered low-risk, claiming it could change. The announcement was praised by tourism and business lobby groups.

The reality is that the coronavirus pandemic is surging throughout the world and killing more people than ever before. The latest outbreak in New Zealand demonstrates, yet again, that no single country can be considered safe. The pandemic requires an internationally coordinated and properly resourced healthcare response.

Such a science-based public health response, however, is incompatible with capitalism, in which policies are dictated by the profit interests of the super-rich. Governments are recklessly ploughing ahead with reopening schools and businesses, placing millions more lives in mortal danger.
In the wake of the collapse of the US puppet government in Afghanistan over the weekend, the media and political establishment have been consumed by the question: How they were so disastrously caught off guard by the extremely rapid collapse of the regime in Kabul?

The answer to this question has a great deal to do with the role of the media itself. One of the traditional functions of the bourgeois press is not only to inform the public, but to inform the ruling class. The American media, however, has been completely transformed into a state propaganda machine. In the process, the ruling class has created an instrument not only of deception, but of self-deception. The deluders became the deluded.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, right, with U.S. Army Major Gen. William Taylor, Joint Staff Operations, during a media briefing at the Pentagon on August 17, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A major lesson that the ruling class drew from the Vietnam War was the necessity to control the narrative, which meant to control the media. Media reporting of the horrific reality of the war was a significant factor in turning public opinion, and not a few prominent journalists, including CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite following the 1968 Tet Offensive, spoke out openly against it.

The ruling class concluded that if it could limit the reporting of bad newswhich meant limiting the reporting of the truthit could shape the outcome of its imperialist operations. The Gulf War in 1991 against Iraq marked a significant stage in this process, with the media dutifully parroting the propaganda of the first Bush administration. One of the only journalists who reported on the devastation wrought by American bombs, CNN correspondent Peter Arnett, was denounced by the White House as a tool of Saddam Hussein. In 1999, Arnett was forced out of the network after a manufactured scandal over his reporting on Operation Tailwind.

The transformation of the media into a mouthpiece of the military was made explicit in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, as the administration of George W. Bush prepared for war in Afghanistan. Dan Rather, the lead anchor for CBS News, summed up the cowardly prostration of the media before the state when he declared on September 17, George Bush is the president. He makes the decisions. And as an American wherever he wants me to line up, tell me where and hell make the call.

In late October 2001, three weeks after the war began, CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson sent a memo to the networks international correspondents ordering them to balance any reports of civilian casualties from US warplanes with statements about how the Taliban have harbored the terrorists responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks. He told the Washington Post at the time that it seems perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan.

CNNs head of standards and practices prescribed that all its anchors include specific language in their reports justifying the war, such as, The Pentagon has repeatedly stressed that it is trying to minimize civilian casualties in Afghanistan, even as the Taliban regime continues to harbor terrorists who are connected to the September 11 attacks that claimed thousands of innocent lives in the US.

This set the standards and practices for the entire media during the 20-year-long occupation. It covered up the horrific atrocities associated with the wars initial stages, including the torture and massacre of thousands of prisoners by US-backed warlords near Mazar-i-Sharif in November 2001. The continuous devastation wrought by US bombs and drone strikes, the inestimable corruption and criminality of the various US proxies brought in to lead the democratic government, went largely unreported for the past two decades.

What began with Afghanistan was escalated with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The military and media collaborated directly in the institutionalization of embedded reporters, beginning with some 700 journalists who were stationed with military units. Explaining the purpose of the program, US Marine Corps Lt. Col. Rick Long said at the time, Our job is to win the war. Part of that is information warfare. So we are going to attempt to dominate the information environment.

Prior to the invasion of Iraq, the media participated in selling the war by recapitulating government lies about weapons of mass destruction. During the invasion, it dutifully presented military propaganda depicting joyous liberated Iraqis. After the invasion and during the occupation, it aided in the government persecution of those who sought to expose what was really taking place, including Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. Throughout the entire process, it worked to exclude widespread anti-war sentiment from the framework of the official debate.

The same people who cheered the war in Afghanistan for the past 20 yearsWolf Blitzer, Martha Raddatz, Andrea Mitchell, Brian Williams (who said of Trumps airstrikes in Syria in 2017 that he was awed by the beauty of our weapons), and countless othersare now providing the commentary on the debacle it has produced.

None of these well-paid journalists think to question the underlying premises that led them to get everything so disastrously wrong in the first place. That the US launched the war to defeat terrorism, to promote democracy, and to protect women and girls, is accepted as given. In the endless coverage on the cable and network stations, and in the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post and other major newspapers, one will not find a single voice who opposed the war or has anything critical to say about the political and social interests behind it. The expert commentators are inevitably drawn from the well-stocked supply of ex-generals and ex-intelligence agents who have embedded themselves in the media.

This applies as well, or perhaps especially, to the liberal media. MSNBCs Rachel Maddow, who at one point was presented as a left journalist, produced a comment on Monday full of indignation that the military, the Afghan military we spent all these years building, did not want to fight. We spent all this money, she complained, and they really just did hand over the keys when the time came.

More than 10 years ago, in July 2010, Maddow spent several days in Afghanistan to report on the US military occupation, glorifying the nation-building operations of the US generals to whom she spoke. At one point, Maddow praised the US prison center in Bagram, used as a holding center for prisoners tortured in CIA black sites or about to be transported to Guantanamo Bay. The best chance of holding off the Taliban, Maddow declared, is law and order, and part of law and order is locking people up.

Such is the American mediaa system of delusion and self-delusion, in which the propagandists come to believe their own propaganda and are astonished when reality comes crashing down upon them.

To complete the absurdity of the whole enterprise, the media has, particularly over the past five years, participated in the effort to brand all truthful reporting as fake news. Outlets outside of the authoritative sourcesthe gatekeepers of public opinionhave been targeted for censorship by Google, Facebook and other platforms, supposedly for spreading misinformation. This has applied above all to the World Socialist Web Site, which has an unparalleled record of coverage on the two-decade long occupation of Afghanistan.

The medias long and ignominious trail of lies and propaganda applies not only to the war in Afghanistan, but also, and perhaps more significantly, to the country waging it. For all the talk about the failure to establish democracy in Afghanistan, no one in the establishment media can speak honestly about the state of democracy in the United States, which has, over the past year, teetered on the brink of dictatorship, or the social relations underlying it.

The catastrophe inflicted on Afghanistan is an outward expression of the criminality of American capitalism. The past 20 years of military occupation have been 20 years of political, social and cultural decay of the American ruling class and all its institutions, including the media itself. And if the media is caught off guard by the collapse in Kabul, it will be even more shocked by the eruption of social explosions within the United States.
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Sri Lanka will hold an online public meeting on the Surging pandemic, growing class struggle and the need for a socialist program. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 26 via Zoom and will be livestreamed through the partys Facebook page.

Amid the new global surge of COVID-19 infections dominated by the highly transmissible Delta variant, the number of cases worldwide has officially exceeded 200 million with 4.3 million deaths. Even according to the incomplete government data, Sri Lanka has been recording more than 3,000 infections and over 150 deaths daily. A study by Johns Hopkins University has shown that Sri Lanka now has the fourth highest COVID-19 death rate per capita in the world. Health workers have rapidly become infected and hospital capacities exceeded.

Joint teachers protest outside Colombo Secretariat on July 23 (Photo: WSWS Media)

Even in this dire situation, President Gotabhaya Rajapakses government has arrogantly refused to order a national lockdown, despite warnings from medical experts. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Expert Group recently warned that the government must immediately impose strict travel restrictions to stop a devastating death toll. According to the experts, such steps would avert about 18,000 deaths by January 2022.

Like its counterparts around the world, the Rajapakse government is relentlessly committed to keeping the economy fully open, putting profits above the lives of the people. As a result, factories, offices and public transportation have become breeding grounds for the virus. Nervous about a social explosion due to the unfolding health and social crisis, opposition parties like the Samagi Jana Balavegaya and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna have called on people to self-isolate.

As public opposition mounts to the governments failure to fight the pandemic, workers in a number of sectors have launched strikes and protests, which are part of a resurgence of the class struggle internationally. Among them, almost 250,000 teachers have entered the second month of an online teaching strike over wage demands.

The government has responded by intensifying its preparations for dictatorial forms of rule to crush rising popular opposition and impose the burden of this crisis onto workers and the rural poor. The SEPs meeting will discuss the socialist program needed for working people to fight the devastation caused by the pandemic and take their struggles forward. We urge workers, youth and all other WSWS readers to participate in this meeting and to join the SEP to take up this fight.

Date and time: Thursday, August 26, 7 p.m.

Languages: Sinhala and Tamil

Please register to attend the meeting by clicking the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUocu6rrDkjE9Z6ICySMPval66o1QJxat4N
Just days after the fall of Kabul, the danger of an even more disastrous conflict between the US and China over Taiwan has erupted into the media.

In the fractious debate over the Afghan debacle, US Republican Senator John Cornyn in a tweet yesterday argued that the retention of a relatively small US force of 2,500 troops could have prevented the ignominious collapse of the Kabul regime. By way of comparison, he highlighted far larger American troop numbers in Germany, Japan, South Korea and 30,000 in Taiwan.

An F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet is seen on the deck of the U.S. Navy USS Ronald Reagan in the South China Sea, 2018 (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The tweet prompted an immediate response in the Chinese state-run Global Times warning that, if true, China would never accept it. It is believed that China will immediately put the Anti-Secession Law into use, destroy and expel US troops in Taiwan by military means, and at the same time realize reunification by force, it stated.

The US stationing troops in the Taiwan island severely violates the agreements signed when China and the US established their diplomatic ties as well as all political documents between the two countries. It also critically runs counter to international law and even US domestic law. It is equivalent to a military invasion and occupation of the Taiwan Province of China. It is an act of declaring war on the Peoples Republic of China.

It is unlikely that the US has secretly deployed 30,000 troops on Taiwan, and Cornyn deleted his comments without further explanation. However, Cornyns tweet underscores the extraordinary tensions between Washington and Beijing that have been ramped up under the Obama, Trump and now Biden administrations, and the explosive character of Taiwan as a trigger for war.

Biden following Trump has called into question the One China policy that treats Beijing as the legitimate government of all China including Taiwan and has been the bedrock of US-China relations for more than 40 years. While not explicitly adopting the policy, the US nevertheless de facto recognised One China when it established diplomatic relations with Beijing in 1979 and broke off all formal ties with Taipei.

US relations with Taiwan remained at a limited, informal level for decades. While Washington supplied arms to Taipei under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act and opposed any attempt by China to forcibly reunify Taiwan, it ended its military alliance with Taipei and removed US troops from the island.

Under Trump, however, Washington resumed high level contact with Taipei and in the final days of the administration ended all restrictions on meetings between US and Taiwanese military and civilian officials. Biden signalled that he would do the same when, for the first time, the de facto Taiwanese ambassador in Washington was invited to attend his inauguration.

In the context of US naval provocations in the South China and East China Seas, an accelerating US economic warfare and military build-up against China, Beijing has angrily reacted to US threats to overturn the status quo on Taiwan. It has repeatedly warned that any declaration of formal independence by Taipei would result in forcible reunification of the island with China. The island is important to China both strategically as it lies just 150 kilometres across the Taiwan Strait, and economically, including as the worlds top manufacturer of semi-conductor chips.

The reaction in China to Cornyns tweet makes clear that any stationing of US military forces on Taiwan or forging of closer military ties with Taipei would in effect be an act of war. Yet that is exactly what is under discussion in US strategic and foreign policy circles in Washington as Cornyn who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is well aware. He is an outspoken advocate of boosting US ties with Taiwan and has introduced legislation to establish a partnership between the US National Guard and Taiwans military.

This is part of the debate underway in Washington over replacing the current policy of strategic ambiguity with strategic clarityin other words, making a firm commitment to back Taiwan militarily against China in the event of conflict. Such as shift would only encourage the current administration in Taipei to take the provocative step of declaring formal independence.

At the same time, the US Navy under both the Trump and Biden administration has stepped up the number of warships passing through the narrow Taiwan Strait between the island and the Chinese mainland and the sale of arms to Taipei. Moreover, Japans Nikkei news service published excerpts from the Pentagons Pacific Deterrence Initiative that called for the stationing of offensive ballistic missiles, previously banned by the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, on Taiwan as well as in Japan and the Philippines.

The withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan was always part of the broader US strategic shift enunciated by the Pentagon away from the war on terror to great power conflictwith China being the central target. However, the rapidity of the collapse of the puppet US regime in Kabul has brought forth panicked calls in Washington for the US to shore up its prestige internationally by aggressively backing its allies and confronting its rivals.

In an opinion piece in Mondays Washington Post , the right-wing pundit Henry Olsen declared that Biden must not follow the policies of the Carter administration in the wake of the US defeat in Vietnam, which he argued, weakened its position internationally. He called for Biden to show our adversaries and our allies that he intends to maintain and restore US global leadership with deeds as well as words. He bluntly targeted China as our most dangerous global foe, saying that combating its pernicious rise must be Bidens primary global task.

Significantly, Olsen then focussed on Taiwan: Following the weekends catastrophe, Biden should make clear that the United States considers Taiwans autonomy from China to be of the utmost importance. That statement should be followed by selling advanced weaponry to the Taipei government and by negotiating troop deployments in neighbouring countries that are closer to Taiwan than our bases in Japan, which are more than a thousand miles away. He must also maintain U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods and push harder to decouple the United States economy from its dangerous dependence on business controlled by the Communist Party.

Even a cursory examination of the map of East Asia makes clear that other than Japan, and possibly the Philippines, there is nowhere to place US troops closer to Taiwanother than Taiwan itself.

The response of the Global Times to Cornyns tweet demonstrates that Beijing is following the discussion in Washington closely and is making plans to defend what it regards as its core interests. The editorial demanded an immediate explanation from the US government on the tweet and stressed that Taiwan is a red-line that cannot be crossed.

Yesterday, Chinese warships and fighter jets carried out military drills in areas to the south of Taiwan in response to what Beijing described as external interference and provocations.

In March, the outgoing head of the US Indo-Pacific Command Philip Davidson, called for a doubling of the commands military budget and warned of a war with China over Taiwan in the next six years. Far from being an exaggeration, that warning takes on a chilling new meaning as US imperialism recklessly inflames the regions most dangerous flashpoint.
The United States pullout from Afghanistan has met with an outburst of jingoistic outrage from prominent military figures and Conservative ministers, with the opposition Labour Party joining in chorus.

The continued value of Britains relationship with the US was openly questioned, while others assumed a Churchillian pose, issuing splenetic calls for independent military intervention or possible alliances with European powers to counter dependency on Washington.

The Times featured an article by Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, a former Territorial Army officer and now chairman of the parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs. He wrote that the UK was facing its biggest overseas disaster since the Suez crisis of 1956 when the UK failed to regain control of the canal in Egypt because of US opposition. This set the stage for the end of the British Empire. He warned that Britain was now impotent in the face of the US withdrawal policy, and that cuts to the armed forces must end if this situation were to be reversed.

Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence and another former officer in the British army, told the media that London was so horrified at Washingtons decision to withdraw completely from Afghanistan that it had tried to get support from other NATO allies to continue some sort of stabilisation force without the US. Asked if he was worried that the Talibans resurgence in Afghanistan could lead to terror attacks in the UK in the future, he replied, Of course I am worried, it is why I said I felt this was not the right time or decision to make because, of course, al-Qaida will probably come back, but, When the United States as the framework nation took that decision, the way we were all configured, the way we had gone in, meant that we had to leave as well.

Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons Defence Committee, wrote in the Mail on Sunday that the UK was making a shabby withdrawal and, together with allies, should retain an assistance force of 5,000 troops to give ground, air and intelligence support to the Afghan army in their fight against the Taliban or risk giving up a strategically crucial space to an expansionist China.

Gavin Barwell, the former chief of staff to ex-Prime Minister Theresa May, said it was time to wake up and smell the coffee and understand that Democrats and Republicans no longer believe the US should be the worlds policeman The lesson for Europeans is clear. Whoever is president, the US is unlikely to offer the same support that it used to in parts of the world where its vital interests are not involved. Europeans are going to have to develop the capability to intervene without US support. Thats not going to be cheap. And the [European Union] and Britain are going to have to work out how to cooperate on this because we face the same threats.

Former leading military figures were also vocal in blaming the US for pushing the UK into a military debacle. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, speaking on Saturday before the Taliban had taken control of Kabul, said that he shared the anger of many veterans who had served in Afghanistan over the way the country was being abandoned. Gen Sir Richard Barrons, who was head of UK Joint Forces Command, told the BBC, The withdrawal now is a strategic mistake. I dont believe its in our own interest. It sent a really unfortunate message to allies in Asia, Africa and the Middle East that we don't have the stomach to see these things through

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer spoke the same language, blaming the Biden administration for the Talibans swift takeover of the country. He wanted to see our government stepping up and leading this, and calling for an urgent meeting of NATO and an urgent UN security council meeting. He added, We have obligations to Afghanistan, we made promises to Afghanistan and we cannot walk away and undermine the legacy of the last 20 years.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC, One of the fallouts from the decision to withdraw and to withdraw very quickly by the US and then by the United Kingdom, is that it sent a message to the Taliban, that they could roam across Afghanistan, with relative freedom with very limited consequences.

This explosion of militarist rhetoric left Prime Minister Boris Johnson to pose as the voice of reason ahead of todays recalled session of Parliament on Afghanistan. The critique is perfectly reasonable that we didnt see this coming, he told BBC Radio 4. But unless someones going to explain how many extra UK troops we should put in, in the absence of the US commitment, I think the right thing for us to focus on is the evacuation effort, and how we now use every lever that weve got at our disposal with all due realism, to try and moderate the influence and the impact of the regime that comes next. He urged instead a diplomatic offensive to ensure that that no country should recognize the Taliban, as Afghanistans neighbours China, Russia, Pakistan and Turkey all appear set to do.

Boris Johnson announcing the new measures in Parliament on Monday (credit: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor)

The vicious infighting within and between the major parties is a measure of the crisis facing British imperialism. The failure of the US-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan is an unmitigated disaster for the political, corporate and financial elite, which has relied on its special relationship with the US to assert its own imperialist interests in the world arena. It was to strengthen this reactionary alliance and support the predatory interests of its own corporations that Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair joined the US-led war on terror, deploying 55,000 combat troops to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014.

This criminal war has cost the lives of 457 British army personnel, stationed in the southern Helmand province where there were frequent armed clashes. More than 2,600 soldiers and airmen were wounded, while a further 5,000 suffer from psychological trauma.

As well as combatants, British troops are estimated to have killed at least 500 civilians and contributed directly to the ravaging of the country. According to Frank Ledwidges 2013 book Investment in Blood, the war in Afghanistan had cost Britain at least 37 billionnearly double the official figure.

In the face of the threat of an outburst of anger among working people at the bitter end of a deeply unpopular war, it is left once again to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour left to try and smooth things over.

The former chair of the Stop the War Coalition issued his first and only anodyne tweet yesterday, which accepted the narrative that the two decades of war had aimed to achieve security for the Afghan people or prevent the spread of terrorism, but had failed.

He added, The War on Terror and its architects reckless use of force to deal with complex political issued has had profound, uncountable, and unacceptable human costs, while tactfully failing to mention that one of those architects, and of the subsequent illegal war against Iraq, was his predecessor as leader of the Labour Party, Blair.

When he joins Blairs followers in the parliamentary debate today, Corbyns message will consist of appealing for the UK to play its part in a robust diplomatic effort that engages regional powers to ensure stabilitya position indistinguishable from that which will be advanced by Johnson.
Morgantown, WV (26505)

Today

Periods of rain. Rain may be heavy late. Potential for flooding rains. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Rain may be heavy late. Potential for flooding rains. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected.
Charleston, WV (25311)

Today

Rain likely. Potential for flooding rains. Low 67F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Potential for flooding rains. Low 67F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch.
A firefighter battles with fire during a massive wildfire which engulfed a Mediterranean resort region on Turkey's southern coast near the town of Manavgat, on July 29, 2021.

A firefighter battles with fire during a massive wildfire which engulfed a Mediterranean resort region on Turkey's southern coast near the town of Manavgat on July 29, 2021. Credit - Ilyas AkenginAFP/Getty Images

Turkish tour guide Erkan Sehirli likes to take his American and European visitors to the gulf of Gokova region on his countrys southwestern coastline. Together they hike trails that pass through ancient ruins, overlooking picturesque bays where cruise ships drop their guests for lunch. Sold as the place where green meets blue, Gokova is an upscale, boutique destination and one of the regions most beloved natural attractions.

Or it was, until wildfires tore through the area in late July amid one of the worst heat waves to hit the southern Mediterranean in decades. You cant be there any more. Its all grey. Its like walking on the moon, Sehirli told me over the phone from the nearby town of Bodrum last week. One day youre in heaven, and the next day everything is gone.

This summer, the climate crisis has made itself increasingly visible through a torrent of extreme weather events across the world, and the places we go to get away from it all have not been spared. The Mediterranean fires have destroyed landscapes and forced dramatic evacuations from beach resorts in Turkey, Greece and Italy. Germanys historic floods have washed out mountain trails in Bavaria. A historic drought in the western U.S. has forced inns in Mendocino to rely on portable toilets, and vacation operators in Arizona to cancel houseboat bookings for dried up Lake Powell. These events are a kick in the teeth for local tourism industries that are just beginning to recover from COVID-19.

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Theyre also a sign of the sectors extreme vulnerability to climate change. The growing number of natural disasters each yearwhich have already quadrupled between 1970 and 2016are threatening the natural and cultural heritage that tourism destinations rely on to lure in visitors. Warming global temperatures are lengthening the period of summer that is unpleasantly hot in beach resort regions, and shortening ski seasons in mountain retreats. Rising sea levels are eroding beaches in coastal communities. Increasing water scarcity in warmer regions is sowing potential for conflict between locals and the resource-intensive tourism industry. And some travelers are beginning to confront the looming question of whether or not to keep flying when the technology to decarbonize aviation is decades away from being used at scale.

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A reckoning for the tourism industry could come soon. In July, G7 leaders threw their weight behind a burgeoning movement in the finance world for mandatory climate risk disclosure, which would force companies and their financiers to tell investors how their business is exposed to climate change. The tourism industry is not at all prepared for the level of risk that process might expose, says Daniel Scott, a professor of Geography and Environmental Management at Canadas University of Waterloo, who has spent two decades researching the interaction between climate change and tourism. Theyve got to do a lot in the next little whileprobably the next three to five yearsto understand both what the changing physical climate means for them, but also the transition to net zero

Climate change wont necessarily kill tourism. The industry has proved adept at adjusting its seasons and offerings to suit new weather patterns. Canadas Whistler ski resort, for example, has been so successful expanding its snow-free activities that it now makes more money in the green season, Scott says. In Turkey, Sehirli still has plenty to show visitors outside of Gokova, like the ancient city of Ephesus. And, if the unpleasant heat of late summer stretches further into September, he says he expects Europeans and Americans will just start coming more in winter.

But climate instability will disrupt the industry in painful ways. And unfortunately, everything points to the biggest losers being those with the fewest resources. Because it opens up flows of foreign exchange and encourages investment in local infrastructure, tourism is often touted as a route to prosperity and stability for struggling countries. According to the U.N., it is a principal export for 83% of developing countries and the biggest export in a third of them. Development experts often call the industry the largest voluntary transfer of wealth from rich to poor, with the sums moved dwarfing aid budgets.

Where the tourism industry relies on coasts and other areas of natural beauty, it may be particularly vulnerable to climate impacts, like sea level rise, glacier melt or extreme weather. Low-lying island nations in the South Pacific are losing their beaches to sea level rise and their coral reefs to ocean warming. In the Himalayas, snow and glacier melt is making the mountains more hazardous and destroying the ecosystems natural beauty. In the Caribbean, where tourism makes up 20-30% of GDP in many countries, research by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has found that the unusually strong 2017 Atlantic hurricane season cost the region 826,100 visitors, who would have generated $741 million. The storms triggered hikes in insurance premiums of up to 40%, increasing a key cost for the areas hotels.

There will be some winners in this dynamic. For example, destinations with cooler climates, like Scandinvavia, could welcome more visitors as they warm. And across the globe, larger companies with deeper pockets might be able to weather increased costs of doing business, and spread their risk across different destinations. But more than 80% of the tourism industry is made up of small and medium-sized businesses, per the WTTC. They may struggle to survive if they lose physical assets to extreme weather or if the risks of a more volatile climate drive up the cost of doing business.

There are solutions to stem the damage, like coastal adaptation to protect communities and landscapes that draw tourists. Better forest management can reduce the spread of wildfires. Government financial support can help small businesses bounce back when disaster strikes.

But for those of us lucky enough to travel abroad, the ethics of vacationing are getting ever more complicated. Should I fly on a fossil-fueled plane to a Caribbean island so my tourist dollars can help rebuild part of the local area that was recently destroyed by a hurricane? Should I patronize a coastal restaurant and enjoy carbon-intensive surf and turf as their beach is washed into the ocean? Should I just stay home and send my money abroad? Probably, yes. But will I?
Watching the news about Afghanistan has become heart-breaking for ex-refugee and now-U.S. citizen Shabnam, who could only give her first name for the security of her family in Afghanistan.

She told ABC News that her siblings and extended family, like many Afghan citizens, are planning their escape out of the country. She said she's losing her voice spending days on the phone with her family back home.

People are just hopeless and helpless, Shabnam, who left Afghanistan in 2011 after a Taliban attack forced her to flee the country, said.

The once-ousted militant group has taken over control over the Afghan capital and other major cities after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country. Many citizens fear what could come of their country and their livelihood in the Middle Eastern nation.

Now, many in the U.S. said they are left scrambling for ways to help their families back home.

PHOTO: Afghan people sit along the tarmac as they wait to leave the Kabul airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 16, 2021. (AFP via Getty Images)

These two days back-to-back, I received calls from home and everybody thinks that I have a superpower that I can help them and bring them, but I don't. I can't do anything for them, Shabnam said.

Women in the country fear that the Taliban will revert to oppressive tactics they used when they ruled in the 1990s, Shabnam said, like keeping women in the home, out of work and out of schools.

It was a nightmare for me, Shabnam said of the 90s in Afghanistan. The Taliban has claimed it will guarantee womens rights under a new regime, but Shabnam and many others do not believe it. They claim they are changing, but I know they are not. They are just waiting for the U.S. troops to get out of the country.

MORE: Afghanistan updates: Taliban hold press conference from Kabul

Many also fear that the Taliban will retaliate against people with connections to America, who have worked with the U.S. or Afghan government, or who have criticized the Taliban, according to Krish Vignarajah, the president and CEO of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in Maryland.

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Deena, who will also only be named for the security of her family back in Afghanistan, said she feels helpless. She is a first-generation American whose parents fled Afghanistan after the Soviet Union invaded in 1979, and she said she yearns for ways to help her family trapped in Kabul looking for a way out.

PHOTO: People try to get into Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 16, 2021. (Stringer/Reuters)

In the videos of Afghan citizens racing to get on airplanes and escape the growing Taliban presence in Kabul, she pictures her own family.

People have lived through the Taliban regime before and people would rather hang on to airplanes and fall to their deaths than stay, Deena said. Everyone's scared. They don't know what to expect. They haven't been going to work. Everything has been shut down. They have children and theyre worried.

Deena is one of 150,000 people with Afghan heritage in America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In the last 20 years, backed by Western forces, she and her family say they have seen the Afghan government progress and modernize.

MORE: Biden retreats to Camp David leaving unanswered questions on Afghanistan

They were pursuing their dreams, they're becoming doctors and lawyers and artists, Deena said. Everything is just going to be taken away from them, all of their hard work and their efforts.

They fear the Taliban takeover will turn back the clock on this -- sparking violence, restrictions and oppression.

PHOTO: U.S. soldiers stand guard as people wait in the hopes of evacuating at the Kabul airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 16, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

My uncle, the last time I spoke to him, was like, We're leaving the house. We're not going to be staying here. We don't have power right now. Were safe, pray for us, Deena said. They don't want history to repeat itself and unfortunately, everyone's given up on them.

Vignarajah said her organization has been flooded with incoming messages pleading for help.

Many have been left with the tough decision between staying in their homes or venturing out into the Taliban-controlled streets on the way to the airport. Some face death threats, she said, and retribution from militant groups.

MORE: Human remains found in wheel well of C-17 military plane that departed from Kabul

The process for refugee resettlement can be lengthy, Vignarajah said, taking up to months or years to get through the bureaucratic red tape.

PHOTO: People wait outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 17, 2021. (via Reuters)

We're deeply concerned, knowing for those left behind, they face death threats and retribution from the Taliban, Vignarajah said.

To help, many Afghan Americans and refugees with family back home say raising awareness, call legislators and representatives and volunteer for organizations that help refugees.

Our hands are tied, Deena said. Being someone in the United States who's in this position and seeing what's happening over there and hearing the voices of my family members and how scared they are and how devastated they are -- It's a really difficult position to be in.

Afghan Americans and refugees fear consequences of Taliban takeover originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Just days after the Taliban took over Afghanistan's government and Kabul's international airport turned chaotic, the U.S. is working to evacuate as many as 2,000 people a day.

The Taliban, which on Tuesday promised a more inclusive government by involving women, cracked down on a protest  rarely seen in Afghanistan. In Jalalabad, reports say as many as five people are dead.

As of Wednesday morning, about 4,000 Marines and soldiers, along with a small number of airmen, have been sent into reinforce about 1,000 troops still in Afghanistan. Deployed troops include the 82nd Airborne combat brigade (Fort Bragg, N.C.); 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Camp Lejeune, N.C.) and 621st Contingency Response Wing (Joint Base McGuire-Dix, Lakehurst, N.J.).

Meanwhile, Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are among the officials that congressional committees will call for testimony in upcoming hearings on how the American withdrawal from Afghanistan went sideways, with the Taliban routing Afghan security forces and the US leaving its embassy  along with a "fair amount" of military equipment.

The latest on Afghanistan: Biden stands firm on withdrawal; Taliban face more protests

In this photo provided by the Spanish Defense Ministry and taken in Kabul, Afghanistan, people board a Spanish air force A400 plane as part of an evacuation plan at Kabul airport in Afghanistan, on Aug. 18, 2021.

Here are the latest developments:

Third of UN foreign staff leaving Afghanistan

UNITED NATIONS  The United Nations says its sending about a third of its 300 international staff in Afghanistan to Kazakhstan to work remotely on a temporary basis in light of the volatile situation in the country.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced on Wednesday that about 100 U.N. personnel were traveling from Kabul to Almaty, Kazakhstans largest city, to work in a temporary satellite office.

He said the majority of the U.N.s humanitarian staff remain in Afghanistan, providing vital assistance to millions most in need.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council on Monday following the Taliban takeover of the country that the U.N. is committed to staying in Afghanistan and helping millions of people, but he also said the 193-member world organization will adapt to the security situation.

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This is a temporary measure intended to enable the U.N. to keep delivering assistance to the people of Afghanistan with the minimum of disruption while at the same time reducing risk to U.N. personnel, Dujarric said. Personnel will return to Afghanistan as conditions permit.

In addition to the international staff, the U.N. and its agencies have about 3,000 Afghan employees.

Dujarric said a significant amount of work is being undertaken, as we speak, specifically to safeguard national staff.

-- Associated Press

Biden says troops could remain in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 deadline

U.S. troops will stay in Afghanistan beyond the end of the month, if necessary, to ensure all Americans are evacuated, President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

Were going to stay until we get them all out, Biden told ABC News George Stephanopoulos.

Biden announced last month that the U.S. would withdraw all troops by Aug. 31, a quicker pace than the Sept. 11 deadline he set earlier in the year.

But the Talibans rapid takeover of the country threw the exit plan into chaos.

There are still between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans in Afghanistan as well as tens of thousands of Afghan allies that the United States is helping to evacuate.

The commitment holds to get everyone out that in fact we can get out and everyone who should come out, Biden said. And I think well get there.

--Maureen Groppe

Biden: No way to withdraw from Afghanistan without 'chaos ensuing'

During an interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos, President Joe Biden made clear hed long believed any U.S. exit from Afghanistan would result in chaos, a situation hed been prepared for.

"So you don't think this could have been handled -- this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?" Stephanopoulos asked Biden during the interview.

"No, I don't think it could have been handled in a way that, we're gonna go back in hindsight and look -- but the idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens. I don't know how that happened," Biden responded.

The president conceded the exact trajectory of events had not been anticipated.

"Now exactly what happened, I've not priced in," Biden said. "But I knew that they're going to have an enormous  Look, one of the things we didn't know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out. What they would do. What are they doing now? They're cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera, but they're having -- we're having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there."

About 10,000 Americans and 50,000 Afghans eligible for special immigrant visas are still in Afghanistan as the Taliban take charge of the country. Gen. Mark Milley, the nations top military officer, said the US is evacuating about 500 people per hour out of Kabul International Airport.

The chaotic evacuation comes after the Taliban took control of the capital city after the Afghan government collapsed, leaving the fundamentalist group as the de facto rulers of the country far ahead of timeline outlined by U.S. intelligence estimates.

 Matthew Brown

Milley: Nobody predicted Afghan army collapse in 11 days

Intelligence pointed to the possibilities of an outright Taliban takeover, a potential civil war or a negotiated settlement as the U.S. drew down its remaining forces in Afghanistan, but it didnt predict how quickly the situation would degrade in the country, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

There was nothing I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army or this government in 11 days, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said during a Wednesday press conference with reporters.

Milley said intelligence indicated it could take weeks, months or years for such a collapse after the U.S. military departed from a country where it has been at war for two decades. Instead, it took a little more than a week for the Taliban to seize control of the Afghanistan government.

Now, the remaining U.S. military personnel in the country are focused on evacuating the remaining U.S. citizens, American allies and eligible Afghans who aided the U.S., Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. So far, about 5,000 people have been evacuated.

Austin and Milley said key to that mission is defending the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul where evacuees have been directed to report. But that requires evacuees to travel through Taliban checkpoints and show paperwork to prove their eligibility to leave.

U.S. officials have reinforced to the Taliban that individuals with proper credentials should be allowed through checkpoints, Austin said.

The State Department is working with the Taliban to facilitate safe passage of eligible evacuees to the airport, but Austin said the military doesnt have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people.

Its obvious were not close to where we want to be in terms of getting the numbers through, he said. Were going to get everyone we can possibly evacuate evacuated and Ill do that as long as we possibly can until the clock runs out or until we run out of capability.

At one of the three gates to the airfield, Milley said more than 120 people are being processed each hour. At another, it is more than 300 per hour, he said, but those numbers could increase as more potential evacuees are reached with instructions on how to leave.

The officials dismissed questions about whether the military should have attempted to hold the larger Bagram Airfield to speed up the evacuation, saying there were not enough personnel on the ground to hold the airport and the U.S. embassy.

There will be plenty of time to do (after-action reports). But right now, our mission is to secure that airfield, defend that airfield and evacuate all those who have been faithful to us. There will be plenty of post-mortems on that topic, but right now is not that time, Milley said.

 Rick Rouan

US agencies are trying to save Afghan citizens by scrubbing them from sites

Multiple federal agencies that operated in Afghanistan and worked with Afghan citizens have been hastily purging their websites, removing articles and photos that could endanger the Afghan civilians who interacted with them and now fear retribution from the Taliban.

The online scrubbing campaign appeared to begin late last week when it became clear that the Afghan security forces had completely collapsed and the Taliban would take over the country far faster than even the most alarmist official predictions. The concern is that the Taliban or its supporters would search the websites and identify Afghans who had worked with the Americans or merely benefited from their services.

State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the department was advising personnel to search for and remove social media and website content featuring civilians because the safety of Afghan contacts is of utmost importance to the government.

State Department policy is to only remove content in exceptional situations like this one. In doing so, department personnel are following records retention requirements, Price said.

 Associated Press

This U.S. Marine Corps photo released on Aug. 18, 2021, shows US Army soldiers assigned to the 10th Mountain Division providing security at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 16, 2021. Soldiers and Marines are assisting the State Department with a drawdown of designated personnel in Afghanistan.

Veteran calls to crisis line spike amid Afghanistan chaos, Taliban takeover

Hundreds of veterans have sought help from the Veterans Affairs crisis line in recent days, part of a marked uptick as the U.S. military evacuates people from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.

The VA logged 531 more calls from Friday through Monday than the same period last year, VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes told USA TODAY. He did not say what the overall volume of calls was.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a message to veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors that he realizes images from Kabul and elsewhere have been painful to see, especially for the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have served there since that fateful day in September 2001.

Veterans who need help can reach the Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1. They can also reach someone by text at 838255 or online chat at veteranscrisisline.net.

Veterans and their family members interviewed by USA TODAY have described a spectrum of emotions: depression, emptiness, confusion and a longing to understand the meaning of their service and the United States longest war.

Its entirely natural to feel a range of emotions about the latest developments in Afghanistan  and if you are feeling depressed, angry, heartbroken, or anything else, we at VA are here for you, McDonough said.

He said veterans can also visit a Vet center for counseling or other needs.

We are standing by and ready to help, McDonough said. Thank you for stepping up to serve in the time when our country needed it most. We are all forever in your debt.

 Donovan Slack

What Afghanistan vets are saying: Veterans wanted out of Afghanistan, but sudden collapse brings mental health to light

Ex-President Ashraf Ghani in UAE amid calls for his arrest

Afghan officials are calling on international police to arrest former President Ashraf Ghani, accusing him of fleeing the war-torn country with $169 million in U.S. cash.

Mohammad Zahir Aghbar, Afghanistan's ambassador to Tajikistan, told a news conference that Ghani had taken the money before fleeing Kabul as the Taliban took over the city over the weekend.

Ghani is now in the United Arab Emirates.

In a statement, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said it "can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds."

Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani, center, gives a speech during a press conference after the announcement of the preliminary elections results in Kabul on Dec. 22, 2019.

The former president said on Facebook that he left Afghanistan to promote peace: "In order to avoid a flood of blood, I thought it was best to get out."

Back in Afghanistan, Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi used his Twitter account to call on Interpol to arrest Ghani. He and other Afghans have used the hashtag #ArrestGhani.

David Jackson

U.S. flies 2,000 people out of Kabul in past day

The U.S. military has evacuated about 2,000 people from Kabul in the last 24 hours, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Wednesday. The evacuees include 325 U.S citizens, with the remainder Afghans and NATO personnel.

There are 4,500 U.S. troops at the airport, and a few hundred more will be flown in Wednesday. Kirby described the airport as open and secure for military and limited commercial flights.

The Pentagon anticipates evacuating about 2,000 people per day, he said.

U.S. troops fired warning shots near the entrance to the airport as crowd-control measures, Kirby said. There were no reported casualties or injuries.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were at the White House on Wednesday morning, updating administration officials on the evacuation, Kirby said. Austin and Milley are expected to meet with reporters later Wednesday to describe the operation.

 Tom Vanden Brook

More: White House says a 'fair amount' of US military equipment provided to Afghans is now in Taliban hands

Reports: At least 3 people die in Jalalabad protest

Days after taking over the Afghan government, the Taliban cracked down on a protest in Jalalabad, where a crowd was trying to put up the national flag.

Witnesses told Reuters that at least three people died when Taliban militants fired at a crowd in the eastern Afghanistan city. Over a dozen people were also injured, according to a police official and two witnesses.

Afghanistan has marked its 1919 independence from British rule on Aug. 19, and people were trying to raise the Afghan flag to commemorate that, according to reports.

The Taliban fired into the air and used batons to scatter a crowd of people, video footage showed, according to the Associated Press.

More: Veterans wanted out of Afghanistan, but sudden collapse brings mental health to light

US, other nations implore Taliban to guarantee rights of women, girls

The United States joined with more than 20 other countries on Wednesday in calling on the Taliban to guarantee the rights of Afghan women and girls to work, go to school and to move about freely.

In a group statement released by the State Department, the nations said they will monitor closely how women will be treated by any future government.

Any form of discrimination and abuse should be prevented, the statement said. We in the international community stand ready to assist (women) with humanitarian aid and support, to ensure that their voices can be heard.

Related: Taliban promise to uphold rights for women and US allies, but White House is skeptical

Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 18, 2021.

On Tuesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the tools available to pressure the Taliban include sanctions, international condemnation and isolation. Sullivan said he didnt want to get too specific, as his team wants to communicate directly to the Taliban the costs and disincentives.

That is a conversation that we will intend to have, and I think many other countries, including like-minded allies and partners, will be having that as well, he said.

Before the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, women virtually had no rights under the fundamentalist Taliban's oppressive rule. Most were forced to quit their jobs and stay at home, denied access to education and health care, enduring high rates of illiteracy and maternal mortality.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said at a Tuesday news conference the militant group is "committed to the rights of women under the system of sharia (Islamic) law," but he emphasized they would work and study "within our frameworks."

The European Union signed the joint statement of support for Afghan women as did a number of other countries, including Australia, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

 Maureen Groppe

Capitol Hill hearings will focus on Afghanistan withdrawal

Congress is quickly launching investigations into how the Taliban so easily took over the government in Afghanistan.

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to testify on the situation.

The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly changing, and it is imperative that the administration provide the American people and Congress transparency about its Afghanistan strategy," Meeks, D-N.Y., said in a statement issued Tuesday. He wants Blinken and Austin to "tell Congress what the administrations plan is to safely evacuate American citizens, SIVs, and other vulnerable Afghans from the country, and to understand our broader counter terrorism strategy in South Asia following the collapse of the Ghani government.

Taliban fighters stand along a road in Kabul on Aug. 18, 2021 following the Taliban stunning takeover of Afghanistan.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made a similar call on Tuesday, saying the panel will conduct a hearing on "U.S. policy towards Afghanistan, including the Trump administrations flawed negotiations with Taliban, and the Biden administrations flawed execution of the U.S. withdrawal."

After being told the Afghan security forces were "up to the task" and ready to fight the Taliban, Menendez said, "To see this army dissolve so quickly after billions of dollars in U.S. support is astounding."

Did intelligence fail? How did Afghanistan end this way? The finger-pointing begins.

Breaking down the speed of Talibans takeover in Afghanistan

The speed in which Taliban forces moved across Afghanistan surprised U.S. officials. President Joe Biden announced April 14 that all American troops would be withdrawn by Sept. 11. The drawdown began May 1. But this graphical look at the Taliban takeover shows just how quickly the Afghanistan government lost control.

That takeover led to tumult at the airport in Kabul as thousands tried to feel the country. Disturbingly vivid images from the airport showed dozens of desperate Afghans clinging to a U.S. Air Force C-17 jet as it took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport. At least seven people died in the chaos, USA TODAY reported. U.S. soldiers killed two armed people after being fired upon.

More: Here's how to help people fleeing Afghanistan and the families still in the country

Karzai, Abdullah meet with Taliban leader whom US has labeled a terrorist

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's former president has met with a senior leader of a powerful Taliban faction who was once jailed and whose group has been listed by the U.S. as a terrorist network.

Former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government, met with Anas Haqqani as part of preliminary meetings that a spokesman for Karzai said would facilitate eventual negotiations with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban political leader.

The U.S. branded the Haqqani network a terrorist group in 2012, and its involvement in a future government could trigger international sanctions.

The Taliban have pledged to form an inclusive, Islamic government, although skeptics point to its past record of intolerance for those not adhering to its extreme interpretations of Islam.

 Associated Press

Dig deeper with subscriber-only journalism:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Afghanistan live updates: Biden says troops could stay past Aug. 31
Alaska Airlines is ready to help travelers plan their fall getaways  and is offering a sitewide 30% off sale to help them get off the ground.

The sale, which is good on economy flights throughout the carrier's 120 destination network (including Costa Rica, Hawaii, and Mexico), runs through 11:59 p.m. PT on Wednesday night, Alaska Airlines shared with Travel + Leisure. Those looking to treat themselves to an upgrade can snag a first-class ticket for 10% off the fare.

To book, travelers should use the discount code "FUTURE" and must travel between Aug. 30 and Nov. 17.

"Whether it is reconnecting with family, discovering new places to just get away from it all or rescheduling personal events  we are seeing people travel for a multitude of reasons," Natalie Bowman, the managing director of marketing and advertising at Alaska Airlines, told T+L. "Sales like this provide a more affordable option for fall travel needs  be it a trip to visit your kid on their new college campus, a family fall getaway or a warm-weather escape once cooler weather sets in."

Alaska Airlines Airbus A320-214 takes off from Los Angeles international Airport on January 13, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images

Fly from Los Angeles to Seattle for only $53, or head from the city to Maui for only $84. Los Angeles residents looking to fly north can head up to San Francisco for the extremely low price of $32.

Chicago residents can plan a vacation to the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and The Museum of Flight (which houses the barn Boeing first started making planes in) with flights to Seattle starting at $67. And New Yorkers can head to the city for only $88.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have halted travel around the country, but that didn't stop Alaska Airlines from adding 50 new routes since March 2020, the carrier told T+L. The airline has also started bringing back some pre-pandemic services like hot and fresh food options on its long-haul flights, including in the main cabin for flights over 1,100 miles.

Alison Fox is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure. When she's not in New York City, she likes to spend her time at the beach or exploring new destinations and hopes to visit every country in the world. Follow her adventures on Instagram.
At least one person has been found dead as French firefighters battled to contain the blaze in the hills behind the coastal resort of Saint-Tropez, the regional government said on Wednesday (August 18).

A government official for the Var region, where the fire broke out on Monday (August 16), said the blaze had still not been contained.

Around 20 other people were suffering from inhaling smoke from the fire, whose flames could be seen across much of the Var area.
J Balvin

Courtesy of Miller Lite J Balvin

Music by Reggaeton artist J Balvin may get a crowd hyped, but when it's time to relax, he's a whole other vibe.

Born Jose Alvaro Osorio Balvin, the star from Medellin, Colombia has not only shared his talent with the world but is now sharing his style and off-stage persona with the help of a partnership with iconic beer brand Miller Lite  complete with a special-edition can.

"It's a cultural impact," Balvin told Travel + Leisure of the partnership. "People that don't know about me are going to get to know about me and then those who already know me; they're going to be drinking and collecting [them]."

"We added my ID on Miller Lite," he said.

Turning the brand's longtime slogan, "Miller Time," into his own "En Jose Time" the "Mi Gente" hitmaker is hoping to show off his aesthetic  the cans are neon decked out with graffiti-type graphics  along the "human" side of him.

Taking the collaboration a step further, fans of both Miller Lite and Balvin can get in on "En Jose Time" by winning a signed can and other swag in the partnership's sweepstakes running until the end of the year.

Getting to know Balvin a bit better, he told T+L that his ideal day off consists of getting in a good workout, driving his scooter around in search of the perfect cup of coffee in New York City  where he's lived for four years now  and spending time with friends.

And although he loves New York, he said nothing compares to the feeling of being home in Medellin.

"That's my city," the Grammy-winner said. "It's a beautiful city, it's called 'Eternal Spring,' because the weather's always nice, [and] the people are amazing."

J Balvin

Courtesy of Miller Lite

Recommending any travelers heading to Colombia of course stop in Medellin, along with Cartegena, and Santa Marta, Balvin shared a pro-tip for New Yorkers looking for a taste of his South American home: head to a grocery store in the Astoria, Queens.

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"In every store, you can pick anything and it's going to be amazing," he said.

Back to performing as COVID-19 restrictions at various venues have eased, Balvin's schedule is picking up with festivals slated around the U.S. in Florida, California, and a show in Mexico.

"I can't wait," he said. "I'm a fan of crowds, I want to see them, I want to feel their vibe [and] energy."

While traveling across the globe for shows may not be in the near future, the artist told T+L that even though he only spends a small amount of time in the cities he performs in, he makes sure to walk around and "to know the vibe."

"I love design and I love architecture so [in] Asia and Italy I learned a lot about that from architecture to art  a little bit everything," he added. "But everywhere I go I just want to give the best of my love."

Christine Burroni is Travel + Leisure's Digital News Editor. Find her keeping up with just about everything on Twitter or see what she's up to in NYC or on her latest trip on Instagram.
hunter woodhall

James Marsh/bpi/Shutterstock Hunter Woodhall

" ' Man, I could be really good at this,' " Hunter Woodhall recounts thinking early on in his track career as just a teen athlete with a vision.

Now, as the 22-year-old begins his second Paralympic Games with eyes on a third and fourth medal, the sprinter's dreams are absolutely a reality.

Woodhall was born with a condition called fibular hemimelia  a birth defect where part or all of the fibula bone is missing  and a fused ankle. He says that doctors were uncertain he would ever walk, and due to the condition's rarity there "wasn't really a clear path or clear direction."

"It took actually a while to figure out that amputation might be a good solution," Woodhall recounts in an interview for this week's issue of PEOPLE, noting that reaching the decision to remove both of his lower legs was "difficult" for his parents, Steve and Barb Woodhall.

They ultimately moved forward  with help and guidance from family and their church  when Woodhall was 11 months old, following corrective surgery attempts that would have, at best, left him requiring a wheelchair or only walking with assistance.

The athlete  who received his first prosthetics at just 15 months old  says, "Obviously, it turned out right." He knows that "everything happens for a reason," and, "I think that the reason was, everything that I do now requires me to be able to move as a normally abled person."

RELATED: Hunter Woodhall Sends Love to Girlfriend Tara Davis After Her Olympics Debut: 'Absolutely Mind-Blowing'

That "everything happens for a reason" mentality has applied to numerous aspects of Woodhall's life, especially as he faced a difficult transition from homeschooling to a private school in fifth grade. It was the first time he was truly exposed to other children, after spending much of his youth in his family's "tight-knit" homeschool community in Utah.

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"I came in as the new kid, and then I came in as the new kid without legs," Woodhall recounts, noting, sadly, "kids can be mean." For two years, he dealt with being "made fun of every day" until he switched schools.

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The same thing happened when he tried to follow his brothers into sports, with Woodhall trying pretty much everything. He often rode the bench or was "in the back, and there was never really a good reason for it."

The runner tells PEOPLE he mostly kept the bullying to himself until he was older, feeling both embarrassed and a fear of burdening his family with regrets over the decision to amputate his legs: "I just held it in, and dealt with it on my own."

RELATED: Meet Some of the Paralympians to Follow at This Summer's Games in Tokyo

"I think all the things that happen to us in life shape us for who we're going to be, especially the hard times," says Woodhall now, with clarity gained over the years. And, the experience, "100 percent" molded him as an athlete, and pushed him to excel when he discovered his aptitude for track in seventh grade.

Woodhall  who runs with prosthetic blades  recounts now that it "was the first time that I found a sport that I was the one in control. No one could put me on the bench, no one could tell me what to do. And the success that I found was based solely on how much work that I put into it."

For more about Team USA's Paralympians, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE.

Of the sport, he effuses, "There's no one to hide behind, there are no excuses, there's nothing. It's just you against the clock. And I just really fell in love with the roundness of that, and being able to see a direct correlation between the things that I was doing and the progression that I was seeing."

Eventually, Woodhall  after winning a bronze and a silver medal at the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016  signed with the University of Arkansas, becoming the first double amputee to receive a Division 1 scholarship in track and field. "It's just been straight grind ever since," Woodhall says.

Track and field events begin next Friday in Japan, and Woodhall will compete in the 400m run and 100m dash.

RELATED VIDEO: Gold Medalist Maggie Steffens on the "Badass" Women Who've Inspired Her Olympic Journey

When he's not on the track, Woodhall is spending time with his longtime girlfriend, Tara Davis, who placed sixth in the long jump at the Olympics earlier this month. Though the couple's time in Tokyo didn't overlap, they're grateful for the shared experience.

"This will be his second Paralympics, but for me, it was my dream. It was my Olympic dream. That's my dream," Davis, 22, tells PEOPLE. "And to experience at a time and be a couple that are Olympians is just insane."

RELATED: Hunter Woodhall on Overcoming Bullying to Find Success as a Paralympian: I 'Fell in Love' with Track

Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis

Hunter Woodhall/Instagram Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis

"It means everything. I think literally representing the United States especially in an Olympic or Paralympic Games is the pinnacle of our sport. It does not get any better than that," Woodhall echoes.

"I have so much pride competing for this country. And I think it gives us an ability to show who we are, show what we represent, which I hope in turn would reflect what we see this country to be," he adds.

To learn more about Team USA, visit TeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics starting Aug. 24 on NBC.
Another couple hundred homes are being evacuated this afternoon as the Schneider Springs Fire continues to grow, an emergency management official said.

So far, the lightning-caused blaze has scorched 28,356 acres about 18 miles northwest of Naches.
Greensboro, NC (27407)

Today

Mostly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 72F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 72F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
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The agencys data and epidemiology teams have been in contact with the CDC since last month to try to determine what has changed since the dashboard was retired and why some of Nebraskas data is not represented in the same way as the state provides it, Dack said. The data the agency is providing to the CDC is largely the same as the data that used to be available to the public on the states dashboard.

Were still reporting the same data, Dack said. Our teams are monitoring it. Its still available to both us and the CDC. If theyre not showing it, they (CDC) would be the best folks to answer that question.

CDC officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The downside, Dack said, is that the situation creates a perception that the state is hiding data. It is not what is happening, she said. The intent is not to hide information, the intent is to balance our sharing of information with the public with the legal limitations of protecting Nebraskans privacy.

The pandemic emergency had suspended some restrictions in state law on the release of communicable disease data, state officials have said, allowing the state to release more information than would otherwise be allowed. The state now posts data updates on a weekly basis.
"I think our framework will be broadly supported. But it's up to Sen. (Lou Ann) Linehan (who chairs the Legislature's Revenue Committee) and Gov. (Pete) Ricketts to take it and put it into legislation," Smith said.

Ricketts, a conservative Republican, helped found Blueprint Nebraska as a way to boost the state's economy and modernize its tax system. But he also has opposed "tax shifts" such as the one proposed in the Blueprint plan  reducing income taxes while increasing sales taxes by expanding the number of things taxed.

Linehan, who chairs the committee that drafts tax policy for the state, has said that she's expecting ambitious proposals to modernize the state's tax system will be considered in the 2022 legislative session.

Blueprint's past proposals have been opposed by progressive groups who say they primarily benefit the rich, by cutting income taxes, and hurt the poor, by imposing new taxes on services such as auto repairs, plumbing services and haircuts.

But Smith pushed back on the criticism, saying the Blueprint plan would eliminate individual income taxes for those earning less than $50,000 a year ($100,000 for a married couple).
In effect, the U.S. Supreme Courts Roe decision singlehandedly amended the U.S. Constitution to protect abortion. In doing so, the Court usurped the authority given to Congress and the states in Article V of the Constitution to decide on amendments to our countrys most important governing document. Because this decision circumvented the amendment process and usurped states rights, it has lacked legitimacy since it was decided.

Fast forward to the present: The State of Mississippi has taken legal action to challenge Roe v. Wade by asking the Supreme Court to review the authority of states to regulate abortion. In May, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, which is known as Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. The question at hand in the Dobbs case is whether Mississippi law can prohibit abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. Both chambers of Mississippis legislature passed the bill with overwhelming majorities. After Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed it into law, an abortion clinicJackson Womens Health Organizationsought to have the law overturned. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the Dobbs case during its 2021-2022 term, which means it will likely be decided sometime next year.
New Delhi: Digital payments company PhonePe has received fund infusion of USD 66.5 million (around Rs 492 crore) in its Singapore-based entity which includes investment from Chinese firm Tencent. According to a regulatory filing in Singapore, investment firm Tencent has infused USD 50 million in the company and Tiger Global USD 16.5 million.

In this financing round, PhonePe is raising USD 700 million in primary capital at a post-money valuation of USD 5.5 billion from existing Flipkart investors led by Walmart. The announcement was made by Flipkart in December 2020. PhonePe is a subsidiary of Flipkart.

PhonePe, which has full fledged operations in India only, plans to use the fund to support business transaction in Singapore which includes acquiring stake in companies registered there.

A source aware of the development at PhonePe said the fund raised from Tencent will not be brought to India because of restrictions imposed under Press Note 3 which calls for scrutiny of investment made by entities based in countries sharing land border with India.

The company is in talks to acquire stake in Indus OS which operates in India but is incorporated in Singapore.

The source said the company will approach authorities concerned whenever required in compliance with norms in India.

The source said the shares were allocated to Tencent before the issuance of Press Note 3 in April 2020 but the investment has come now.

Flipkart continues to be the largest stakeholder in the company with 87.30 per cent stake followed by parent firm Walmart. Tencent has less than 2 per cent stake. Also Read: Krafton launches Battlegrounds Mobile India for iOS after scoring 50 mn Android installs

Another source aware of the foreign investment proposals said there is no submission from PhonePe for clearance of Tencent investments in the company. Also Read: Afghanistan crisis leads to a hike in prices of almond, walnut, other dry fruits, check old and new rates
New Delhi: Onam is a harvest festival that is celebrated by Kerelas Malyalee people. Onam starts on the 22nd Nakshatra Thiruvonam, in the month of Chingam and lasts for 10 days. The festival marks the return of King Mahabali to Kerala each year during this time.

Numerous fun activities like Vallam Kali (boat races), Pulikali (tiger dances), Pookkalam (flower Rangoli), Onathappan (worship), Pookalam take place during these 10 days.

The flower rangoli made during the festival is called Onam Pookalam and is generally circular. Onam Pookalam is also known as 'Athapoo' as it begins on Attam, the first day of Onam, and continues till Thiruonam, the last day.

Below are the flowers that are used for making Onam Pookalam.

Tulasi: Tulasi is not a flower but its leaves are used in making Pookalam and cannot be avoided.

Thumba or Ceylon Slitwort: These tiny white flowers are used on the first day of Attam while making Pookalam.

Chethi: also known as flame of woods are red colour flowers that add brightness and visual appeal of Pookalam.

Chemparathy: or hibiscus is also a red colour flower that is used in making Pookalam.

Shankupushpam: also known as butterfly pea is a popular flower with a blue and yellow centre, easily found in the state of Kerala.

Jamanthi or marigold: These flowers are available in yellow, red, white and orange colours and add vibrancy to Pookalam.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi named Nirmala Sitharaman, previously the country`s defence minister, as Indias finance minister in 2019 thus making her India's female finance minister after 48 years.

Sitharaman is the first female finance minister after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who held the portfolio briefly for a year between July 1969 and June 1970. (Also read --Nirmala Sitharaman, India's first female Finance Minister after Indira Gandhi)

Nirmala Sitharaman was born in Tamil Nadu's Tiruchirapalli on August 18, 1959. On her birthday, heres looking at 5 major decision taken under her position as the Finance Minister of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished the Union finance minister on her 62nd birthday, to which the FM thanked him for his "blessings and guidance".

Thank you very much, Hon.@PMOIndia. Your blessings and guidance give me strength and motivation to serve the nation. https://t.co/V5Xz4AFiDl  Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) August 18, 2021

Bank Amalgamation

Nirmala Sitharaman took the major step for amalgamation of Public Sector Banks which was approved by the Union Cabinet in 2020. The cabinet approved the mega consolidation of ten Public Sector Banks into four, including the amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India into Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India and Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank. The amalgamation that came into effect from April 1, 2020 resulted in the creation of seven large PSBs with scale and national reach with each amalgamated entity having a business of over Rupees Eight lakh crore.

Aatma Nirbhar Bharat

FM Sitharaman announced Aatma Nirbhar Bharat -- in line with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Special economic and comprehensive package to fight COVID-19 pandemic in India. In May 2020 Aatma Nirbhar Bharat package worth Rs 20 lakh crore was announced. This was later given further boost by the announcement of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat 3.0 Stimulus worth Rs 2.65 Lakh Crore. In November 2020, FM Sitharaman announced 12 key measures, as part of Government of Indias stimulus to the economy, under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat 3.0. The net total stimulus announced by the Government and Reserve Bank of India till November 2020, to help the nation tide over the COVID-19 pandemic, works out to Rs 29.87 lakh crore, which is 15% of national GDP. Out of this, stimulus worth 9% of GDP has been provided by the government.

Relief in personal income-tax and simplification of taxation in Budget 2020:

In order to provide relief and simplify the taxation regime, it is proposed to provide an option to individual and Hindu undivided family to be taxed at following lower rates if they do not avail specified exemption/deductions:

Total Income (Rs) Rate (%) Upto 2,50,000 Nil From 2,50,001 to 5,00,000 5 From 5,00,001 to 7,50,000 10 From 7,50,001 to 10,00,000 15 From 10,00,001 to 12,50,000 20 From 12,50,001 to 15,00,000 25 Above 15,00,000 30

Sitharaman unveils new Covid recovery package, expands credit relief

In June 2021, FM Sitharaman announced Rs 1.5 lakh crore of additional credit for small and medium businesses, more funds for the healthcare sector, loans to tourism agencies and guides, and waiver of visa fee for foreign tourists as part of a package to support the pandemic-hit economy. Together with previously announced Rs 93,869 crore spending on providing free foodgrains to the poor till November and additional Rs 14,775 crore fertiliser subsidy, the stimulus package - mostly made up of government guarantee to banks and microfinance institutions for loans they extend to Covid-hit sectors - totalled up to Rs 6.29 lakh crore.

Reforms in eight key sectors

In 2020, FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced reforms in eight key sectors --Coal Sector, Defence Sector, Mineral Sector, Civil Aviation Sector, Power Sector, Social Infrastructure: Boosting Private Sector Investment Through Revamped Viability Gap Funding Scheme (Rs 8,100 Crore), Space Sector: Boosting Private Participation In Space Activities and Atomic Energy Related Reforms. The key highlights of the reforms were -- Commercial Mining introduced in Coal Sector; Diversified Opportunities in Coal Sector; Liberalised Regime in Coal Sector; Enhancing Private Investments and Policy Reforms in Mineral Sector; Enhancing Self Reliance in Defence Production; Policy Reforms in Defence Production; Efficient Airspace Management for Civil Aviation; More World-Class Airports through PPP; India to become a global hub for Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO); Tariff Policy Reform in Power Sector; Privatization of Distribution in UTs; Boosting private sector investment through revamped Viability Gap Funding Scheme in Social Sector; Boosting private participation in space activities; and Reforms in Atomic Energy Sector

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New Delhi: Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif and Vicky Kaushals engagement rumour flooded the internet recently, sending fans into a tizzy. However, turns out it was only a rumour with no truth to back it.

After the Roka ceremony rumour hit social media, Katrinas spokesperson denied the news while talking to Zoom TV.

According to Hindustan Times report, Kats spokesperson said, There has been no Roka ceremony. She is leaving for Tiger 3 shoot soon.

The duo was recently spotted at a special screening of the upcoming film Shershaah, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani in lead roles.

A few days back, Harshvardhan Kapoor confirmed Katrina and Vickys relationship status during a Zoom show titled By Invite Only. On that show, the actor accepted that Vicky and Katrina are dating each other and since then their fans cant keep calm.

Although, the couple has not accepted their relationship officially but the buzz regarding their bond has been strong ever since they have made first public appearance together as a couple.

On the work front, Vicky will be seen next in Aditya Dhar's The Immortal Ashwatthama among others.

While on the other hand, Katrina will be seen in Rohit Shettys upcoming film Sooryavanshi, Phone Bhoot and 'Jee Lee Zara' with Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhatt.
New Delhi: The Afghan crisis at present has caught global attention after the Taliban insurgents seized Kabul on Sunday. The mass displacement of people desperately leaving their country and feeling scared for lives has cut a heartbreaking image worldwide.

Top leaders, celebrities including netizens thronged social media and have reacted strongly, supporting Afghan nationals. Amid this turmoil and tension, an old rare video of Bollywood actress-politician Hema Malini, late actor Feroz Khan landing in Afghanistan for their film Dharmatma back in 1974 has surfaced online.

Take a look:

It dates back to the time when things were peaceful in Kabul. Dharmatma was the first Hindi film to be shot in Afghanistan. The film starred Hema Malini, Feroz Khan, Rekha, Danny Denzongpa, and Helen.

It was produced and directed by Feroz Khan.

Earlier, Amitabh Bachchan's 2013 Facebook post on shooting Khuda Gawah in Afghanistan surfaced online with netizens reacting to it.

The Taliban took over Kabul after an unprecedented collapse of the US-backed Ashraf Ghani government, prompting the embattled president to flee the country, reportedly.
New Delhi: Amid fear of Taliban rule in Afghanistan and people seeking an exit, France evacuated 21 Indian nationals on its first evacuation flight from capital Kabul, Emmanuel Lenain, ambassador of France to India informed on Wednesday (August 18).

Lenain said the flight, which took off on Tuesday, rescued Indians including the elite Gurkhas who were ensuring security of the French Embassy. "The first French evacuation flight from Kabul yesterday included 21 Indian nationals: the elite Gurkhas who were ensuring security of the French Embassy," the French envoy to India tweeted.

He added, "As discussed in a call between Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian and External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar, France coordinates actively with India on Afghanistan, especially at UNSC.

As discussed in call between Min @JY_LeDrian & Min @DrSJaishankar, France coordinates actively with India on #Afghanistan, especially at #UNSC.  Emmanuel Lenain (@FranceinIndia) August 18, 2021

Earlier, at least 45 Indians, including the embassy staff, were evacuated in an Indian Air Force aircraft. As per ANI report, a C-17 evacuation flight reached New Delhi with personnel and equipment on Monday (August 16). After Kabul fell to the Taliban and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled, thousands of people have been making desperate attempts to leave the country.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) directed to extend all possible help to evacuate Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. Modi said, "India must not only protect our citizens, but we must also provide refuge to those Sikh and Hindu minorities who want to come to India, and we must also provide all possible help to our Afghan brothers and sisters who are looking towards India for assistance."

Meanwhile, as per a Bloomberg report, the United States of America has frozen nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped shipments of cash in order to keep the Taliban from accessing the money.

Citing an official, Bloomberg said that any central bank assets that the Afghan government has in the US will not be provided to the Taliban, which stays on the Treasury Department`s sanctions designation list.

(With agency inputs)

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Chennai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has asked the Central Government to consider and pass a law that would grant greater autonomy to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A bench comprising Justices N.Kirubakaran and Pugalendhi said that the agency CBI must not be under the administrative control of the central government. The court also called for improving modern facilities of the agency to bring it on par with FBI of the US.

The bench mentioned that the CBI should be on par with bodies such as the Election Commission and Comptroller Auditor General (CAG).

The court was hearing a plea by a group from Ramanathapuram that sought a CBI probe into an alleged Rs 300 crore financial fraud.

In its order, the court pointed out the public demand of CBI investigation in cases involving heinous, sensitive crimes, in the absence of proper investigation by local police.

It noted that while the people trusted the CBI and its credibility, the premier probing agency dragged its feet citing resource and manpower shortages which prevented them from conducting investigations.

Referring to the many serious cases investigated by CBI that led to acquittal, the court said that it reflected badly upon the investigation of the agency.

It added that CBIs dependence on officers from police, CISF and CRPF in investigating white-collar crimes highlighted that the officers coming on deputation may not have the experience in probing such cases. A slew of measures and modernisations to augment the CBI were also shared.

The court order mentioned the need for CBI officers have a wide spectrum of knowledge and expertise in various fields. Numerous high-profile cases such as Bhopal Gas Tragedy, 2G Scam, Coal Scam, Hawala Scandal, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide etc. were stated to showcase the different domains of crime.

Among the directions issued to the Government of India were to enact a separate Act giving statutory status with more powers and jurisdiction to CBI, to make the agency more independent like Election Commission and CAG, to provide a separate budgetary allocation for the CBI and that the Director of CBI should be given powers as that of Secretary to the government.

The bench noted that CFSL (Central Forensic Science Laboratory) shall have more modern facilities that are on par with the FBI in the US and the Scotland Yard of the UK.

The Court order also urged the CBI to file a policy for permanent recruitment of cyber forensic experts, financial audit experts and also send a detailed proposal seeking an increase in divisions and strength of officers in CBI.

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Madurai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should be an autonomous body like the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Madurai bench of Madras High Court has said.

While hearing a plea seeking a CBI probe into an alleged financial fraud of Rs 300 crore in Ramanathapuram district, Justices N Kirubakaran and Justice P Pugalendhi on Tuesday said, "CBI should function independently like Election Commission. The funds required for the CBI should be allocated in the budget within a year."

The High Court said that the Central Government should consider enacting the necessary legislation for the CBI to function as an autonomous body. "CBI Director should be empowered to report directly to the Minister and the Prime Minister with exclusive powers like the Cabinet Secretary and should act alone without being under the administration of the Central Government," the judgment further read.

"The CBI should be provided with the modern facilities and technologies, like Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US and Scotland Yard of the UK," the judges said.

The Court further said the basic infrastructure, constructions, residential facilities and technical facilities required by the CBI should be completed within six weeks.

"The policy decision on the recruitment of persons with expertise in cyber and forensics and financial audit should be made within six weeks. Action should be taken to fill the vacancies," the court added.

The Madurai bench of the High Court also said that the cases pending till December 31, 2020, should be completed expeditiously. A report in this regard should be filed within six weeks or the CBI Director should be present, the Court ordered.

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Vikram Sampath is the author of three acclaimed books--Splendours of Royal Mysore: The Untold Story of the Wodeyars, My Name Is Gauhar Jaan: The Life and Times of a Musician and Voice of the Veena, S. Balachander: A Biography. His book Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883-1924 was a bestseller. He has now come up with Savarkar: A Contested Legacy (1924-1966).

Here are excerpts from the book:

After the initiation of inter-dining in 1930, Savarkar used numerous occasionsbe they family ceremonies or religious festivalsto propagate and popularize the concept. At times he would even put this as a precondition for his participation in events or staging of his plays. In March 1936, when the renowned Marathi theatre artist Bal Gandharva, a great admirer of Savarkar, insisted that he attend a play, Savarkar agreed to come if an inter- dining was organized after the staging. Bal Gandharva readily agreed and the playwas followed by sahabhojan. That same year, during Ganeshotsav on 2627 August, inter-dining was organized, in which Prabodhankar, the father of Shiv Sena founder Bal Saheb Thackeray, too participated.

among all his reform movements, the inter-dining seemed to face the maximum resistance from society. It was difficult to hire halls for conducting the dinners or even get a cook. Conservative Hindus began treating those who participated in Savarkars inter-dining programmes as outcastes. They refused to marry into the households of such people and boycotted them socially. Even if a person who participated in inter-dining was of their own caste, he/she was refuse entry into houses or disallowed from drawing water from the others wells. Priests refused to officiate in marriages or sacred thread ceremonies of inter-dining participants.

In course of time, the Patit Pavan Mandir became the venue for several conferences that brought together people of all castes. In end-February 1931, the Depressed Classes Mission led by V.R. Shinde held its sixth annual session at the temple and requested Savarkar to preside. The members concurred that if the successful social experiments conducted by Savarkar in Ratnagiri could be replicated across India, untouchability and caste barriers would be a thing of the past. The Ratnagiri District Somavanshiya Mahar Conference too was held in the temple on 26 April 1931. Hundreds of Mahars from all over Bombay Presidency participated and Savarkar presided over the conference. His work and speeches on these occasions brought in praise from Ambedkar in his newsletter Janata dated 11 May 1931. Savarkar lent his support to Ambedkars famous Nasik Satyagraha that began on 2 March 1930 to gain entry for the untouchables into the Kala Ram temple. Savarkar issued a statement that had he not been under the restrictions imposed on him by the government to not leave Ratnagiri or participate in political activities, he would have been among the first to participate and court arrest in the Nasik Satyagraha.

As a man of action and not mere preaching, Savarkar constantly urged his followers to demonstrate their resolve tangibly. In continuation of the lecture series (Vyakhyanamala) that Justice Ranade had begun in Poona, similar series were routinely organized in various parts of Maharashtra and covered sociocultural and political themes. At one such lecture series in Ratnagiri in May 1932, Savarkar said at the valedictory that Vyakhyanamalas were necessary in the times of Ranade and Chiplunkar, but what was the need of the hour was Kriyamalasor action, not mere talk. The awakening needed to be transformed into actions in order to see tangible results.

On his decade-long struggle with his associates to usher in social reforms in the town, Savarkar writes:

In Ratnagiri, almost every Hindu had taken part in inter-caste dining or had taken food with those who did. In other words, inter-caste dining is no longer considered an objectionable deed. Within a period of ten years (1924 to 1934), we removed not only the shackles of untouchability but also of inter-caste dining. This social revolution is indeed praiseworthy. However, we must remember that it was like saying It is better to make progress at the speed of a tortoise than no progress at all! Look at what other people have achieved in the last ten years. Russia progressed at the speed of an aeroplane, and we congratulate ourselves that we can walk without the support of a baby-walker. Still when we were almost dead, at least we have now started to walk, that is progress. We need to make this progress thousand fold.

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New Delhi: A day after the cross-firing incident that escalated tension on the disputed inter-state border, police personnel of both Assam and Mizoram visited the area on Wednesday (August 18). Superintendents of police of both Assams Hailakandi and Mizorams Kolasib district informed that they did not find anything suspicious left at that area when they searched in the daylight.

While Mizoram alleged that personnel of the Assam police fired on its civilians injuring one, the neighbouring state claimed that the men in uniform only returned the fire after miscreants from the other side of the border sprayed bullets on them.

Mizoram's Kolasib district Deputy Commissioner H Lalthlangliana told PTI that Tuesday's incident occurred at around 2 am at the disputed Aitlang area bordering Assam's Hailakandi district when three residents of Vairengte town went there to collect meat from a friend, a resident of Bilaipur in Assam, who invited them to come. One person was injured in the firing by Assam Police personnel who were guarding the inter-state border, he claimed. Hailakandi Superintendent of Police Gaurav Upadhyay said that an exchange of firing took place but declined to share details. "No casualty has been reported on both sides," he said.

A senior district official, however, told PTI that miscreants from the Mizoram side showered bullets in darkness from the top of Darasing Hills when workers were constructing a road leading to the border from Bilaipur under the MGNREGA scheme. "In reply to the firing from the Mizoram side, Assam Police personnel also fired several rounds," the official said.

Upadhyay said that he along with the Deputy Commissioner of Hailakandi, Rohan Jha, rushed to the spot immediately after the firing at around 2 am.

State police forces, however, have continued to guard the border. Representatives of Assam and Mizoram held talks in Aizawl on August 5 and agreed to resolve the inter-state border dispute amicably.

"Representatives of Governments of Assam and Mizoram agree to take all necessary measures to promote, preserve and maintain peace and harmony amongst people living in Assam and Mizoram, particularly in border areas," a joint statement issued after the meeting had said.

The Assam government also revoked an advisory issued earlier against travel to Mizoram on the same day. Assam's Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi share a 164-km border with Mizoram''s three districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit.

Mizoram was a district of Assam before it was carved out as a separate union territory in 1971 after years of insurgency. The border issue cropped up after that as perceptions over where the boundary should be, differed.
NOIDA: A Nigerian national was arrested in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday after he was found living in India illegally since 2013, officials said.

The 34-year-old Valentine Ahosota was staying in a rented flat in a high-rise society in Sector Mu of Greater Noida, under the Dadri police station limits, the officials said.

"He was arrested on Wednesday for staying in India illegally. When checked, his passport was found to have expired on December 9, 2017 while his visa for stay in India had ended on May 10, 2013," a police spokesperson said.

An FIR has been lodged at the Dadri police station under provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and further legal proceedings were being carried out, the spokesperson said.

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Srinagar: People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti's mother appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday (August 18) in a money laundering case.

The mother of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, Gulshan Nazir, was questioned at the ED office at Rajbagh three and half hours in a money laundering case.

Gulshan Nazir along with her daughter Mehbooba Mufti arrived at the ED office in Rajbagh, Srinagar this morning.

Mehbooba alleged that the government of India is using agencies for their own purpose.

Mehbooba Mufti said, It's become a ritual, you saw it yourself that journalists were beaten yesterday. Anyone who speaks the truth is being harassed and punished for it. Agencies like ED, NIA were meant to do serious work but unfortunately, these agencies are being used against politicians, activists, media persons, students. Whoever speaks the truth or speaks against BJP. I refused to meet delimitation commons and I was sent a notice the next day, I took a peaceful protest on August 5 and a summon was sent to me. Our countries' institutions are Talibanised like media also.

The ED had issued a summon to her, asking her to appear before the ED's Srinagar office on August 18. This was the third summon by ED to her. She didnt attend the first two times.

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Jaipur: A single-judge bench of Rajasthan High Court recently termed a live-in relationship between a man and a married woman "illicit". The bench denied police protection to the woman on August 12, as she submitted before the court that she was a victim of domestic violence after which she left her husband's house.

The plea was filed by a 30-year-old married woman and a 27-year-old man from the Jhunjhunu district before the single-judge bench of Justice Satish Kumar Sharma.

During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners submitted that both the petitioners are adults and are consensually in a live-in relationship.

The petition said the woman is married but has been living separately because of physical abuse by her husband.

"It is clear from examining all the documents of both sides that petitioner number 1 is already married. She has not got a divorce but despite that, she is staying with petitioner number 2 in a live-in relationship. In such a scenario, the live-in relationship between the two comes under the category of an illicit relationship," says the court order.

While passing the order, Justice Sharma also cited a recent order of the Allahabad High Court, wherein it had rejected the request for police protection in a similar case.

Earlier this month, the Allahabad High Court dismissed protection plea of a married woman staying in a live-in relationship with her partner. The court observed that live-in-relationship cannot be at the cost of social fabric of this country.

A division bench of Justices Dr Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Subhash Chandra observed, Directing the police to grant protection to them may indirectly give our assent to such illicit relations. The bench also called the woman's live-in relationship with her partner illicit.

Notably, the married woman had filed petition seeking direction for her security as she was living with a live-in partner.

(With Agency Inputs)

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New Delhi: A sedition case has been filed against Samajwadi Party's Sambhal MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq who allegedly compared Taliban to India's freedom fighters. The FIR was filed the MP under section 124A (sedition), 153A, 295 of IPC.

"A case was registered late last night against Shafiqur Rahman Barq and two others for provocative comments about the Taliban. The complainant said the Taliban was compared to Indian freedom fighters and their victory was celebrated," Charkhesh Mishra, the Superintendent of Police in Chambhal district, said in a video statement released today.

The Sambhal SP told ANI, "It was complained that MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq compared Taliban to India's freedom fighters. Such statements qualify as sedition. So FIR registered against him u/s 124A (sedition), 153A, 295 IPC. Two others said similar things in an FB video, they've also been booked."

"The Taliban is a terrorist organisation as per the Indian government and this (the alleged remarks) can be counted as sedition. We have filed a FIR (first information report)," he added.

Earlier on Monday, the Samajwadi Party's Shafiqur Barq told reporters that the Taliban "want Afghanistan to be free" and "want to run their own country". He was further quoted as saying, "When India was under British rule, our country fought for freedom. Now Taliban wants to free their country and run it."

"Taliban is a force that did not allow even strong countries like Russia and America to settle in their country," the Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal added.

Shafiqur Rahman Barq, however, denied giving such statement. He told ANI, "I didn't make any such statement (comparing Taliban with Indian freedom fighters). My statement has been misinterpreted. I'm a citizen of India, not of Afghanistan, so I've no business with what is happening there. I support my govt's policies."

The alleged statement was met with fierce criticism from Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who compared it to Pakistan PM Imran Khan's comment after the fall of Kabul.

Notably, the Taliban took over Afghanistan on Sunday and walked into Kabul with no opposition.

(With Agency Inputs)

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New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday wholeheartedly thanked the Delhi court after it discharged him in a case related to his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death in a luxury hotel.

"Most grateful, your honour. It's been seven-and-half years of absolute torture. I really appreciate it," Tharoor said in his first reaction to the Delhi court verdict in the case.

The Kerala Congress MP said that the court order was a big relief for him. Tharoor also issued a statement on his Twitter handle after he was acquitted of all charges in the case.

"...Significant conclusion to long nightmare which had enveloped me after tragic passing of Sunanda...Fact that justice has been done will allow all of us in the family to mourn Sunanda in peace," Shashi Tharoor said in the statement after being discharged by Delhi court in the Sunanda Pushkar death case.

During the hearing in the case, his lawyers had told the court that a Special Investigation Team had completely exonerated the politician and that he should be discharged as there was no evidence to establish any of the charges against him.

During the arguments, while police had sought framing of various charges, including 306 (abetment of suicide), senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Tharoor, had told the court that the investigation conducted by the SIT completely exonerated the politician of all the charges levelled against him.

Special Judge Geetanjali Goel then passed the order in a virtual hearing.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a luxury hotel in the city on the night of January 17, 2014. The couple was staying in the hotel as the official bungalow of Tharoor was being renovated at that time.

Tharoor was charged under sections 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 306 of the Indian Penal Code by the Delhi Police, but was not arrested in the case.

Tharoor was granted anticipatory bail in the matter by a Sessions Court on July 5, 2018.

Following that order, a magisterial court converted the anticipatory bail into regular bail after he appeared before it on July 7 in pursuance to the summons issued by the Metropolitan Magistrate in the matter.

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NEW DELHI: In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed women to take the National Defence Academy (NDA) exam scheduled for September 5th this year.

While passing its order, the apex court said that admissions will be subject to the final orders of the court.

The Supreme Court also came down heavily on the Indian Army for not allowing women to take part in NDA exams, Sainik Schools and other military institutions.

The top court said that while the Indian Navy and Air Force have already made provisions, the Indian Army still lags behind and chided its regressive mindset.

Supreme Court orders allowing women to take the National Defence Academy (NDA) exam scheduled for September 5th. The Apex Court says that admissions will be subject to the final orders of the court pic.twitter.com/8YVgaxz5O8  ANI (@ANI) August 18, 2021

On the Indian Army's submission that it's a policy decision, the top court says that this policy decision is based on "gender discrimination".

Don't do tokenism. Why do you need the judiciary to pass orders every time, the Supreme Court said while slamming the Indian Army for not giving opportunities to women.

You're compelling the judiciary to keep on granting orders. It's better that you (Army) structure it than inviting court orders. We are permitting the girls who have approached the court to sit for the NDA examination because we will be considering the larger issue, the top court said.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (August 18) dismissed a plea of former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh challenging a Bombay High Court order refusing to quash the CBI FIR against him in a corruption case.

Dismissing Deshmukh's appeal against July 22 order of the Bombay High Court, an apex court bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah said, "no case for interference with the high court verdict is made out", adding that there is "no error in the judgement" of the high court.

Earlier on July 22, the Bombay High Court had refused to quash an FIR registered against Deshmukh by the CBI, saying the Central agency's probe was ongoing and any interference by the court at this stage was uncalled for.

The top court reportedly emphasized that CBI has to investigate all aspects of the allegations and it cannot be limited, and added that this will be like denuding the powers of a constitutional court.

Advocate Rahul Chitnis, representing the Maharashtra government, submitted that the state has withdrawn consent for the CBI probe and the high court direction for a probe was limited to allegations of collection of money from bars and restaurants.

The top court noted that the purpose of directions passed by a constitutional court will be defeated if consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act comes into play.

The apex court also said that an impression is being created that the state is trying to protect the former home minister by not allowing the probe on the aspect of transfer and posting of police officers and reinstatement of additional police inspector Sachin Waze.

Deshmukh submits plea for exemption to appear before ED

Earlier in the day, Anil Deshmukh`s lawyer Inderpal Singh submitted an application for exemption to appear before Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.

In a media interaction in Mumbai, Deshmukh`s lawyer said, "We asked ED to wait until our case is heard at SC. We have told ED, in our letter, that we will appear before them after the Supreme Court order comes. Supreme Court has given us the liberty to exercise other remedies under CRPC as per the order so we will soon approach the appropriate court."

He futher said, "When our petition is still pending in Supreme Court why ED is serving summons to us. We are cooperating with the agency."

Notably, Deshmukh is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case of alleged extortion from orchestra bars in the state. ED had issued summons to the NCP leader and his son Hrishikesh Deshmukh seeking their appearance.

Deshmukh had skipped the previous summons by the agency to present himself. The ED has alleged that Rs 4.7 crore collected from orchestra bars by dismissed cop Sachin Waze, allegedly on Deshmukh`s instructions, was transferred to the former minister`s Nagpur- based educational trust by his son, who routed it via two hawala operators and showed it as a donation.

(With Agency Inputs)

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Chennai: In line with the Tamil Nadu governments tentative proposal to resume in-person classes for students of grades 9th-12th from September 1, a detailed list of Standards Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been shared. Health department authorities have been instructed to coordinate with all schools (Govt, Govt-aided and private) to ensure that reopening happens in accordance with the guidelines.

As per the SOPs, there must be at least 6 feet of distance between students who are seated in a room, or one student one bench is recommended, with the same 6 feet norm. It is even suggested that if the weather is pleasant, classes can be conducted in outdoor spaces. Staggering of entry and exit times and provision of lanes have been suggested to ensure safe passage at gates.

In terms of occupancy, it has been recommended that staggered/reduced timings be followed in the timetables for different classes. 50% attendance, odd-even formula for classes, running schools in shifts have also been mentioned. In cases of small classrooms, it has been suggested that classes be held in larger areas such as libraries, labs, etc.

Schools have been urged not to undertake events where COVID-19 protocols cannot be adhered to, functions or celebrations must be avoided. However, the school assembly can be permitted in open areas. Thorough cleaning, disinfection of classrooms, furniture, equipment, labs, canteens etc have been recommended, besides ensuring availability of non-contact thermometers, sanitizer, hand-wash facility etc.

Students and teachers belonging to containment zones have been asked to not attend in-person classes until the said zone is denotified. Employees at high-risk (aged, pregnant, with other medical complications) have also been asked to take extra precautions.

States have been taking extra precautions in resuming high-schooling, owing to looming fears of the third wave of COVID-19. It is also pertinent to note that vaccination has not been made available and authorized for those aged below 18. Claiming that the health experts had advised so, the Tamil Nadu government has stated in its latest Unlock Guidelines that it plans to resume physical classes for students of classes 9 to 12, from September 1 (tentative proposal). The Government also emphasized that online learning has caused a huge disparity and divide as many students couldnt attend online classes.

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New Delhi: With the fall of Kabul on August 15 to the hands of Taliban, India's biggest focus was to bring back its diplomatic officials and several stranded nationals including journalists and ITBP officials. Indian air force's two C17s were used to bring back them, the first of which arrived on Monday, and the second one on Tuesday. The message from the top was clear, that "security of our diplomatic staff and official is paramount"

While the first C17 had around 40-45 Indians, the second one had more than 100 Indians including the Indian's envoy to Afghanistan Rudrendra Tandon. The complex process which was constantly being monitored by officials including External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval had two key segments, the movement from the Indian embassy in Kabul to the airport and then from the airport to India.

Of the two movements, movements from Embassy to Airport was the risky one, and in that India used its contacts, including locals who maneuvered the convey through the 45-minute long distance.

The biggest worry were the 15 check posts. While most of these check posts were manned by the Taliban, some of them were infiltrated with rouge elements. Elements who could have been inimical to Indian personnel being brought back.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

In a city with no governance, the biggest risk was the uncertainty of what to come and who to deal with. Sources said, "India in a short time was able to bring out everyone and contrast this with any other countries. We had an all of the Govt approaches. We coordinated with the US govt in the evacuation".

Other than the US govt, India had its C17 parked in Tajikistan for a brief period since Kabul airport didn't have space to park the planes due to increased load. The C17s were time to time flown in from the Ayni airbase of Tajikistan as and when the operation began. Notably, the Kabul airport is now under the control of the Americans.

With the evacuation process, while all of the Indian diplomatic staff has been brought back from Afghanistan, but the Indian embassy in Kabul continues to function with help of locals. India also continues to provide consular service, with India announcing an emergency e visa system for the Afghans who want to come to India.

India had already started evacuating its officials from its consulates from Kandahar and Mazar-E-Sharif when the Taliban was making its rapid advances. India had certain 'red lines' which if crossed put in motion the process of evacuation, like in the case of Mazar-e-sharif, the fall of Phenergan. But India was still among the last to leave the northern city.

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New Delhi: As the Taliban wrested power in Afghanistan, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday (August 18) assured that the Uttarakhand government is making all efforts to ensure the safe return of people stranded in the Afghan nation.

People from Uttarakhand stranded in Afghanistan will soon return to their homes safely," PTI quoted Dhami as saying.

The BJP CM added that his government is in touch with the Centre to rescue trapped people from the state. We are in constant touch with the Centre. It is taking all steps to ensure that each Indian stranded in Afghanistan comes back home safely," the Uttarakhand CM stated. Many people who went from the state to Afghanistan to earn livelihood are feared to be stranded there.

Earlier on Tuesday, Dhami spoke to the Ministry of External Affairs urging it to take all necessary steps in the safe return of people, an official statement read.

The situation is tense in the country after the Taliban captured the capital city Kabul on Sunday (August 15). As per two senior Taliban commanders, they took charge of the presidential palace in Kabul, Reuters reported.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

Thousands of Afghan people, mainly men, were seen at the Kabul airport trying to board a plane to get out of the country. Hundreds of people had gathered near US planes at the airport hoping to be rescued. In a last desperate attempt, some even climbed on the aircraft as it moved down the runway.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (August 18) held a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and said, "India must not only protect our citizens, but we must also provide refuge to those Sikh and Hindu minorities who want to come to India, and we must also provide all possible help to our Afghan brothers and sisters who are looking towards India for assistance."

(With PTI inputs)

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NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana on Wednesday expressed his displeasure over speculative media reports about the SC collegium meeting regarding the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court.

The CJI termed the reports as "very unfortunate." Ramana said the process of judges' appointment is "sacrosanct and has dignity attached to it".

"Media must understand and recognise its sanctity," the CJI added. Remarks from the CJI came as multiple media reported that the Collegium led by Chief Justice of India has reportedly recommended names of nine judges, including three women, for elevation to the top court.

CJI Ramana made these remarks while speaking in the ceremonial function to bid farewell to Justice Navin Sinha who is retiring.

"On this occasion, I want to take the liberty to express my concern about certain speculations and reports in the media. You are all aware we need to appoint judges to this court. The process is ongoing. Meetings will be held and decisions will be taken. The process of appointment of judges is sacrosanct and has certain dignity attached to it. My media friends must understand and recognise the sanctity of this process," he said.

The CJI said that as an institution, the apex court holds the freedom of media and the rights of individuals in high esteem, and today's reflections in some sections of the media, pending the process, even before formalising the resolution is counter-productive.

"There were instances of deserving career progression of bright talents getting marred because of such irresponsible reporting and speculation. This is very unfortunate and I am extremely upset about it," he said.

The CJI also lauded the tremendous amount of maturity and responsibility displayed by the majority of senior journalists and media houses in showing restraint and not speculating on such a serious matter.

"Such professional journalists and ethical media are the real strength of the Supreme Court in particular and democracy in general. You are part of our system. I expect all the stakeholders to uphold the integrity and dignity of this institution," he said.

The head of the judiciary was referring to media reports which said the Collegium, headed by the CJI, is understood to have recommended nine names for appointment as judges in the top court.

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New Delhi: Indian Army has invited applications for the recruitment of male engineering graduates for its 134th Technical Graduate Course (TGC) which will commence from January 2022. It is a golden opportunity for Engineering graduates seeking to make a career in the Indian Army and serve the country.

Candidates should possess an Engineering degree in various disciplines including Information Technology, Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Electronics & Telecommunication etc.

Candidates, who have yet to pass their degree examination, will be eligible only if they are studying in the final year of the degree examination.

The training will be conducted at Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun for permanent commission in the Indian Army.

The online application started on August 17 and the last date to register is September 15, 2021.

Indian Army TGC Recruitment  Age Limit:

Minimum age: 20 Years, Maximum age: 27 Years. Candidates born not earlier than January 2, 1995, and not later than January 1, 2002, will be eligible to apply.

Selected candidates will be granted Short Service Commission on probation in the rank of Lt from the date of commencement of the course or the date of reporting at IMA, whichever is later. On successful completion of training, cadets will be granted permanent commission in the Army in the rank of Lieutenant.

Indian Army TGC Recruitment  Stipend and Salary

The duration of training is 49 weeks. A stipend of Rs 56,100 per month will be given to the trainees.

On completion of training, the cadets will be appointed as Lieutenant on Level 10 pay scale which ranges from Rs 56,100 to Rs 1,77,500. Other allowances will also be applicable.

Indian Army TGC Recruitment - How to apply:

Step 1: Visit the official website of Indian Army on joinindianarmy.nic.in.

Step 2: Click on Officer Entry Apply/Login and then click Registration (Registration is not required, if already registered on joinindianarmy.nic.in.

Step 3: Fill the online registration form after reading the instructions carefully.

Step 4: After getting registered, click on Apply Online under Dashboard. A page Officers Selection Eligibility will open.

Step 5: Click Apply shown against Technical Graduate Course. A page Application Form will open.

Step 6: Fill in the required information and submit the application.

Also Read: IDBI Recruitment 2021: Last day to apply for 920 Executive posts, heres how to apply

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New Delhi: The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has invited applications for recruitment of Medical Specialists (General Medicine, Pediatrics) and Assistant Officer (Finance). The Indian government-owned electric utility company has informed that the interested candidates can apply through NTPC's official website at https://www.ntpccareers.net.

The registration has begun and interested candidates can apply till September 2, 2021.

NTPC Recruitment 2021 for Medical Specialists (General Medicine)

Qualification: MBBS with MD/DNB in General Medicine

Age Limit: 37

Job profile: Fresh MD/DNB qualified doctor

Experience requirement: Fresh MD/DNB qualified doctor

Pay Scale: Rs 60,000  Rs 1,80,000

NTPC Recruitment 2021 for Medical Specialists (Pediatrics)

Qualification: MBBS with MD/DNB in General Medicine

Age Limit: 37

Job profile: Minimum 1 year experience/ practice after MD/DNB.

Experience requirement: Minimum 1 year experience/ practice after MD/MS/DNB.

Pay Scale: Rs 80,000  Rs 2,00,000

NTPC Recruitment 2021 for Assistant Officer

Qualification: Qualified CA or ICWA.

Age Limit: 30

Job profile: 1 year post qualification experience in the relevant area (excluding training period, if any).

Experience requirement: Post qualification experience in the area of Accounts/ Finance/ Internal Audit preferably in a large organization/ organization of repute.

Pay Scale: Rs 30,000  Rs 1,20,000

Click here to check the official notification

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New Delhi: Shares of HDFC Bank on Wednesday rose nearly two per cent in early trade as investors cheered the Reserve Bank's decision to allow the lender to issue new credit cards.

With the lifting of the eight-month-long ban on HDFC Bank with respect to selling new credit cards, its shares climbed 1.61 per cent to Rs 1,539.10 apiece after opening at Rs 1,550.

The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs 1,564.75 apiece on the BSE. The market capitalisation stood at Rs 8,51,282.53 crore.

On the NSE too, similar trends were witnessed as the shares gained 1.60 per cent to Rs 1,538.95 and reached an intra-day high of Rs 1,565.35. The scrip opened at Rs 1,556.70 apiece.

In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, HDFC Bank said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), through its letter dated August 17, has relaxed the restriction placed on sourcing of new credit cards.

The central bank had issued orders in December and February to HDFC Bank on certain incidents of outages in the internet banking /mobile banking/ payment utilities of the bank over the past two years.

HDFC Bank also said the restrictions on all new launches of the digital business generating activities planned under Digital 2.0 will continue till further review by the RBI.

"We will continue to engage with RBI and ensure compliance on all parameters," it added.

The 30-share benchmark Sensex was trading higher at 56,064.67.

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Noida: A 19-year-old BA student who was reported to have gone missing by her parents has been found living with her consent at her girlfriend's house in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh, police officials said on Wednesday.

The student lived in the Swar area of the district and her parents had informed the local police in July that she has gone missing after which a case was lodged and investigation taken up, the officials said.

"After days of search, she was recently found living at the house of her friend, who is an MA student, in the Shahbad area of the district. She was brought to the police station where she told officials that she had left home to stay with her girlfriend out of her own choice," Police Circle Officer (Swar) Dharam Singh Marchal told PTI.

ALSO READ | Noida youth gets 20-year jail term for raping teenager, slapped with Rs 20,000 fine

"Subsequently, families of both the students were called for a meeting by the police after which the younger girl decided that she wanted to stay with her friend. Several members of both the families including the girls were present during the meeting," the officer said.

According to officials, the family of the younger student had initially told the police that she is under 18 years of age.

However, Marchal said the girl pursuing BA is aged 19 while the one in MA is two or three years elder to her and both belong to financially "not so good" families.

"Both the girls are adults, aged over 18 years. It is their decision on whom to live with and we cannot interfere," the Circle Officer said.

Same-sex relationships and live-in relationships are considered taboo by many despite courts of law recognising such couples as legitimate.

The Supreme Court had in May 2018 held that an adult couple had the right to live together even without marriage and had legalised gay sex in a landmark ruling in September the same year.

ALSO READ | Noida woman found dead under mysterious circumstances in Nainital hotel
New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday (August 18) decided to reopen schools for Classes 6 to 8 from August 23 and for Standard 1 to 5 from September 1, in view of the improving COVID-19 situation. With the new guidelines, schools in Noida and Ghaziabad can now resume physical classes for these standards.

"The order has been issued to open schools for students of classes 6-8 from September 23 and for classes 1-5 from September 1," a senior official was quoted as saying by PTI.

Earlier, the UP government had allowed physical classes for standard 9 to 12 with adherence to strict COVID-19 protocol from August 16.

This decision comes after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier directed officials to consider the resumption of offline teaching activity for Classes 6 to 8 from August 23 after Rakshabandhan.

Several states including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh have resumed physical classes as the COVID-19 situation improves. Tamil Nadu, which plans to reopen schools for Classes 9-12 from September 1, released COVID-19 SOPs for schools on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, as per official data on Tuesday, 27 people tested positive for coronavirus while one succumbed to the disease in Uttar Pradesh, taking the caseload to 17,089,91 and the death toll to 22,786. No new coronavirus case was registered in 54 of total 75 districts of UP in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said, adding the recovery rate stands at 98.6 per cent.

Last week, the state government relaxed the weekend lockdown and allowed shops and other establishments to reopen on Saturdays. Now, the weekend lockdown is only applicable on Sundays.

(With PTI inputs)

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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest to businessman Raj Kundra in connection with a porn films racket case registered by the city police in 2020.

A single bench of Justice S K Shinde directed the police to respond on August 25 to the pre-arrest bail plea filed by Kundra.

"Interim protection granted till then," Justice Shinde said.

Raj Kundra, the husband of actor Shilpa Shetty, is currently in jail after being arrested in July in another case related to the production and distribution of pornographic clips on some mobile apps. He filed the anticipatory bail plea in the HC last week in connection with the 2020 case after a sessions court rejected his application seeking pre-arrest bail.

In his plea, Kundra claimed that another accused in the case was granted bail and hence, he too should be given bail on parity.

Opposing the plea in the HC on Wednesday, Additional Public Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde submitted that Kundra's role in the case was different from the other accused in the case.

She sought time to take more instructions on the application.

Granting her time, Justice Shinde directed for an interim order protecting Kundra from arrest till the next hearing date -August 25.

The FIR against Kundra was registered in October 2020 by the Mumbai police's cybercrime cell for alleged broadcasting of nude erotic content on an OTT platform.

Kundra in his plea submitted that he was falsely implicated in the case.

He claimed there was not a single iota of evidence with the prosecution to connect the 'Hotshot' app with the offences alleged, as none of the actresses arraigned as accused in the case had raised any grievance.
New Delhi: Shilpa Shetty Kundra was recently spotted on the sets of Super Dancer 4 on Wednesday. This is for the first time she has been seen ever since her husband and businessman Raj Kundra has been taken into police custody in pornography case.

However, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest to Raj in connection with a porn films racket case registered by the city police in 2020.

The video of her walking in silence with a straight face was shared by the celebrity paparazzo Viral Bhayani on his Instagram handle.

Shilpa wore a saree for the show and even smiled for once looking at the camera. Although, none of the paparazzi asked any question from her but her nervousness was quite visible from her face.

For the unversed, Raj Kundra has been arrested on July 19 night on charges of creating pornographic content and publishing the same through mobile applications.

Earlier in the day, YouTuber Puneet Kaur has opened up against arrested businessman Raj Kundra saying he had approached her via social media direct messaging for his mobile app, through which pornography content produced by him was reportedly published.

On July 20 evening, Poonam Pandey, who confessed before the Mumbai Police team that she was brought into the adult film industry by him has also reacted on the arrest of the Kundra.

Times of India quoted Poonam Pandey as saying that at this moment her heart goes out to Shilpa Shetty and her kids.

Recently, after his arrest, an undated interview of Sagarika has come to the fore. The actress-model has levelled a series of allegations against Raj, claiming that she was offered a role in a web series produced by him in August 2020.
New Delhi: Most of us had applied for our Aadhaar card years ago, because of which the photo on the card is now really old. In some cases, the photos arent even recognisable with the Aadhaarcard holders. But thanks to the Aadhaar issuing body, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), one can easily change the photos in their Aadhaar card by following a few simple steps.

At present, an Aadhaar card is required for availing several services offered under several state-backed programmes. The document is also required for filing income tax, as the government has made it mandatory to link your Aadhaar Card with your PAN card. Moreover, the 12-digit identification number can be used in offices, hotels and other areas where identification proof is required for entry.

UIDAI allows Aadhaar cardholders to change details like addresses online. However, for most of the other changes, you need to Aadhaar Enrolment Centre/ Aadhaar Sewa Kendra.

You can also change the photo on your Aadhaar card by visiting a nearby Aadhaar Enrolment Centre/ Aadhaar Sewa Kendra. However, you have to first download the Aadhaar Enrolment Form from UIDAIs website to update your photo. Also Read: PhonePe gets $50 mn from Chinas Tencent, plans to use funds out of India: Report

Steps to change photo in Aadhaar Card

Step 1. You first need to download the Aadhaar Enrolment Form from UIDAIs official website.

Step 2. After entering the details on the form, you need to submit it to the Aadhaar Enrolment executive.

Step 3. The executive will confirm your details with biometric details.

Step 4. Your new photo will be taken by the executive then and there at the Aadhaar Enrolment Centre/ Aadhaar Sewa Kendra.

Step 5. Now, you need to pay a fee of Rs 25 + GST to avail the photo change service.

Step 6. The executive will share an acknowledgement slip with the update request number (URN).

Step 7. You can use the URN to check the Aadhaar update status online on the UIDAIs official website.

After the successful update of your photo on your Aadhaar Card, you can download a new copy online or order a physical PVC card from UIDAIs portal. Also Read: Google launches Pixel Buds A-Series in India, check price, features and more

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New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government of India has launched a new Central Sector Scheme titled "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs)" with a clear strategy and committed resources to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs in the country with budgetary provision of Rs 6865 crore.

In 2020, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its approval for 10,000 FPOs to be formed in five years period from 2019-20 to 2023-24 to ensure economies of scale for farmers. Support to each FPO be continued for 5 years from its year of inception.

Benefits of PM KISAN FPO Yojna

Small and marginal farmers do not have economic strength to apply production technology, services and marketing including value addition. Through formation of FPOs, farmers will have better collective strength for better access to quality input, technology, credit and better marketing access through economies of scale for better realization of income.

Under this Central Sector Scheme with funding from Government of India, formation & Promotion of FPOs are to be done through theImplementing Agencies (IAs). Presently 09 Implementing Agencies (IAs) have been finalized for formation and promotion of FPOs viz. Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC), National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED), North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC), Tamil Nadu-Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (TN-SFAC), Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium Haryana (SFACH), Watershed Development Department (WDD)- Karnataka & Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains (FDRVC)- Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).

Financial assistance upto Rs 18.00 lakh per FPO

FPOs will be provided financial assistance upto Rs 18.00 lakh per FPO for a period of 03 years. In addition to this, provision has been made for matching equity grant upto Rs. 2,000 per farmer member of FPO with a limit of Rs. 15.00 lakh per FPO and a credit guarantee facility upto Rs. 2 crore of project loan per FPO from eligible lending institution to ensure institutional credit accessibility to FPOs.

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New Delhi: T-Mobile US Inc said on Wednesday an investigation into a data breach revealed that personal data, including social security numbers and drivers license information, of more than 40 million former and prospective customers was stolen. The stolen files also included data from 7.8 million existing T-Mobile wireless customers.

Dates of birth, first and last names were also stolen, the telecom services provider said, adding there was no indication of their financial details being compromised.

The company, which had 104.8 million customers as of June, acknowledged the data breach on Sunday after U.S.-based digital media outlet Vice first reported that a seller had posted on an underground forum offering for sale some private data, including social security numbers from a breach at T-Mobile servers.

Vice said the seller claimed that 100 million people had their data compromised in the breach. The seller was offering data on 30 million people for 6 bitcoin, or around $270,000.

Reports later suggested that the asking price had slumped and the entire data was being sold for just $200.

Reuters has not been able to check the veracity of the forum`s post.

T-Mobile`s data breach is the latest high-profile cyberattacks as digital thieves take advantage of security weakened by work-from-home policies due the COVID-19 pandemic. Also Read: Adani Group shares fall by up to 55% in just 3 months, heres why the wheel of fortune reversed

Earlier this month, cryptocurrency platform Poly Network lost $610 million in a hack and later offered the hacker or hackers a $500,000 "bug bounty". Also Read: Maintain a branch-wise list of vacant lockers: Heres all about RBIs revised instructions for banks on locker management
LUCKNOW: In view of the fast-approaching assembly elections in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, the Bhartiya Janata Party has made big plans to woo minority Muslim voters in a big way.

According to the party sources, the BJP is going to make a conscious effort to win over a section of minority votes in every assembly constituency  a task considered difficult for the saffron party.

As per the plan, the party will send out 44,000 members who will meet and talk to Muslim families and make them aware of the welfare work being done for them by PM Narendra Modi and the Yogi Adityanath government in UP.

The party has planned to target 5,000 votes in each assembly constituency. The BJP Minority Morcha, which has been entrusted with the job, will be training its members to seek minority votes for the party in the upcoming assembly polls.

The saffron party will also identify 50 strong workers in each assembly constituency. They will be given training and asked to target 100 votes from surrounding lanes.

Revealing more details, Jamal Siddiqui, president of BJP Minority Morcha, said, "We analysed previous polls. Almost 20 per cent of assembly seats have been lost with a margin of 5,000 votes. Even in Bengal, we lost a considerable number of seats with lesser margins."

Siddiqui said that the Morcha has identified 50 seats in Uttar Pradesh that have more than 60 per cent Muslim population and plans to secure tickets for his community.

To boost the morale of Muslim workers of BJP, the party has a slogan that says, "Jo chunav ladega wahi aage badhega" (Those who contest will march forward).

Siddiqui said, "It is the responsibility of our community to back us in our efforts. We aspire for greater representation from the party but to ensure that our candidates win is our community`s responsibility."

In the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP did not give a single ticket to any Muslim candidate in Uttar Pradesh. However, Siddiqui said that things are likely to change in this election.

"We do not get tickets because we do not have candidates who can win elections. We should fight from the Muslim seats. We can be instrumental in connecting with the community," he explained.

He further said, "Muslims have 25 per cent share in BJP as one of its founding members was Sikander Bakht. Our community does not know these facts. If we are enemies of BJP, why is it that BJP is working for us as well?" he asked.

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New Delhi: What can go amiss at a childrens birthday party? Well, if there are wild animals around, then anything. In a spine-chilling video, a reptile trainer was attacked by a gator, known as Darth Gator, in a pool. A man who was present at the party jumped on the animals back to save the handler.

The man, identified as Donnie Wiseman, was attending a 5-year-olds birthday party at Scales and Tales in US Utah when the horrifying incident occurred, KUTV reported. The 8-foot alligator gripped its handlers hand in its jaw when she went there to feed it. Seeing the handler struggle to free her hand from the gators death grip, Wiseman ran in through the open door and jumped on the animals back.

As per KUTV, Wisemans wife recorded the entire incident on her phone. Wiseman said he was scared while trying to free the trainer from the alligators grip but she was calm, which helped him. The gator finally released her and a spectator named Todd Christopher pulled her out of the water.

Watch the chilling video here:

She then instructed Wiseman on how to jump out of the gators back safely. "She was so professional and trained and knew what to do in a situation like that, Im glad she was there, Wiseman told KUTV.

Releasing a statement later, the handler said, "I got lucky to land in a hospital that employs what has to be the best orthopedic surgeon in Utah. He was able to improvise and come up with a solution that should result in full use of my hand."
MOSCOW: Afghanistan's ambassador to Tajikistan Mohammad Zahir Agbar has accused Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of stealing USD 169 million from state funds and has called on international police to arrest him.

Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday, just as the Taliban approached Kabul, and his whereabouts remained unknown until Wednesday, when the United Arab Emirates said it has accepted him and his family on account of 'humanitarian considerations.' Ambassador Mohammad Zahir Aghbar told a news conference on Wednesday that Ghani 'stole USD 169 million from the state coffers' and called his flight "a betrayal of the state and the nation."

The ambassador did not elaborate or explain his claim further. Aghbar also promised to file a request to the Interpol to arrest Ghani.

Shahriyor Nazriev, director of the Interpol's National Central Bureau in Tajikistan, told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti that they haven't received such a request yet.

Agbar announced that Amrullah Saleh, Ashraf Ghani`s first deputy, was legally the President of Afghanistan now.

"Ashraf Ghani handed Afghanistan over to the Taliban. We had more than 350,000 equipped troops, experienced military personnel, and they did not fight the Taliban. And we saw this in part in the northern regions of Afghanistan that border Tajikistan. There are more than 20 districts there. And they went over to the Taliban without mounting any resistance," Agbar said in an interview with Eurasianet.

"I think Ghani had a prior agreement with the Taliban. He already had a plan for betrayal in his head. He abandoned his supporters and betrayed the people of Afghanistan," he added.

"I don`t think that any government is going to put up with militants from their country being in Afghanistan and operating under the Taliban`s protection. Afghanistan should not be a country that poses a threat to the neighbouring countries," he said.

"What is more, if the Taliban offer haven to terrorist groups from neighbouring countries, what kind of border security can we talk about? There are many foreign terrorists among the Taliban at this time," Agbar claimed.

Amrullah Saleh himself had announced that in accordance with the Constitution, in the absence of the President, his escape or death, he would be the acting or sponsor of the presidency of Afghanistan.

Ghani had left Afghanistan on August 15 before the Taliban entered Kabul. The Taliban, which controls much of Afghanistan and plans to form a government, has not yet responded to claims by Amrullah Saleh and his supporters. Media outlets, citing diplomats at the Russian Embassy in Kabul, reported that Ashraf Ghani had taken hundreds of millions of dollars with him. Ghani and his family have not yet commented on the matter.

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New Delhi: Amid the brutal takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban insurgents, several videos emerged on social media of people from the country holding placards and demanding equal rights on the streets of Kabul. A few women, seen wearing hijabs, were seen holding up signs and shouting slogans even as Taliban fighters were standing nearby. In another clip, shared by an Al Jazeera correspondent, more women were seen marching through the streets, chanting slogans. The armed men seem to be pointing and speaking to the women, but dont appear to be getting in the way of their protest.

On Tuesday, a report in Guardian claimed that Taliban's promises of 'safe passage' to the Kabul airport for Afghans trying to flee the country have been undermined by reports of women and children being beaten and whipped as they try to pass through checkpoints set up by the militants.

The US says the Taliban has committed to 'safe passage' for people who want to reach the airport. But reports from the Afghan capital say that there have been incidents of violence at the checkpoints on Airport Road, including photographs of a woman and a child with head injuries after reportedly being beaten and whipped for trying to cross a checkpoint. The Taliban violently broke up a protest in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person as they quashed a rare public show of dissent. The militant group meanwhile met with former officials from the toppled Western-backed government.

As officials work to shape a future government, the United Arab Emirates acknowledged that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the Taliban advance, and his family were in that country. The Taliban's every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely.

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Washington: US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have agreed to hold a virtual meeting of G-7 countries next week on the fast-unfolding developments in Afghanistan.

Biden and Johnson spoke over phone regarding the developments in Afghanistan, the White House said on Tuesday, adding that the two leaders commended the bravery and professionalism of their military and civilian personnel, who are working together in Kabul on the evacuation of their citizens and Afghan nationals who assisted in the war effort.

"They also discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward, including ways the global community can provide further humanitarian assistance and support for refugees and other vulnerable Afghans," the White House said in a readout of the phone call.

"They agreed to hold a virtual G7 leaders' meeting next week to discuss a common strategy and approach (to the Afghan situation)," it said.

G7 is an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued with his global outreach on the issue of Afghanistan.

"Just today he spoke with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, thanking them for assistance in facilitating the transit of US citizens and Embassy Kabul personnel through Doha and Kuwait City," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference.

"He has also continued to be in close and regular contact with the President and the broader national security and foreign policy team," Price said.

Taliban insurgents seized Kabul on Sunday after a sudden and unprecedented collapse of the US-backed Ashraf Ghani government, prompting the embattled president to flee the country.

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New Delhi: Ending speculations on the whereabouts of Ashraf Ghani, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed on Wednesday (August 18, 2021) that the Afghanistan President is in their country. "The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds," the official statement read.

The development comes a day after the UAE had affirmed that it is closely following recent developments in 'brotherly Afghanistan' and stressed the need to urgently achieve stability and security in the country.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation expressed its hope that Afghan parties will exert all efforts to achieve security, stability and development in Afghanistan to meet the hopes and aspirations of its brotherly people," the statement had read.

Ghani had fled Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgents approached Kabul on Sunday. Taking to Facebook, the 72-year-old said that he left the country in order to 'avoid bloodshed and clashes' with the Taliban that would endanger millions of Kabul residents.

He said that he was faced with a 'hard choice' between the 'armed Taliban' or 'leaving the dear country that he has dedicated his life to protecting the past 20 years'.

ALSO READ | Who is Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban leader likely to rule Afghanistan?

Ghani, who served as the president since 2014, also said that from now on, the Taliban will be responsible for the 'honour, wealth and preservation' of Afghanistan's people. He added that the terrorist group had won a 'trial of sword and guns', but could not win the hearts of the Afghan people.

Earlier, the Russian embassy in Kabul had claimed that Ghani fled the country with four cars and a helicopter full of cash and had to leave some money behind as it would not all fit in.

"Four cars were full of money, they tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter, but not all of it fit. And some of the money was left lying on the tarmac," Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, was quoted as saying by a news agency.

ALSO READ | Why Afghanistan is facing wrath of Taliban; a brief history of dreaded extremist group
New Delhi: Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar returned to Afghanistan after 20 years. He reached Kandahar from a military plane of Qatar Air Force. From here he will go to Kabul. He is one of the top contenders for the post of Afghanistans President.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (August 18) discussed what the return of Mullah Baradar would mean for Afghanistan. Will it pave the way for a new era of Islamic terror in the region?

Kandahar is considered a stronghold of the Taliban. This is where the top commanders and leaders of the Taliban operate from. It can be said that the Parliament of Taliban terrorists assembles in Kandahar. Now, Baradar has reached there.

He traveled from Qatar to Kandahar in a C-17 aircraft which is a highly advanced aircraft that is used by the air forces of powerful countries such as America, Canada, Britain, Australia and India. A C-17 aircraft without weapons can cost up to Rs 2750 crore. Such an expensive aircraft! And Qatar put it on service of a Taliban leader.

When Mullah Baradar signed a peace deal with the US last year, Qatar had taken responsibility for all the arrangements in Doha. When Mullah was released from Pakistan prison in 2018 after 8 years, it was Qatar that gave him a place in the country. At that time, Mullah was made the head of the Taliban political party in Qatar.

Mullah Baradar was arrested by the US because they felt that he could be a big threat to them and could carry out major terrorist activities. He was kept in jail for 8 years in Pakistan on the pressure of the US. Ironically, it was the US that ensured he was released and then the peace agreement was signed between them in Doha last year. This clearly reflects America's double standards.

Mullah Baradar is one of the four men who formed the Taliban in 1994. That is why his candidacy for president is the strongest. On his arrival at Kandahar Airport, Taliban commanders gave him a rousing welcome.

The last time Afghanistan was under Taliban rule, that government was headed by Mullah Omar, who had great faith in Mullah Baradar. Baradar later married Mullah Omar's daughter and became deputy foreign minister in the Taliban government.

Mullah Baradar fought many battles against the NATO forces, led many major terrorist operations in the name of Jihad, helped maintain Taliban;s ties with countries like Qatar and Pakistan. He has always been involved in the political affairs of the Taliban.

Today when he has returned, it is clear that he is going to come to power.

However, at this time, the leaders around the world should think about whether they would welcome on the international stage a person who tried to justify terrorism in the name of Jihad and Islamic fundamentalism. What is the guarantee that he will not repeat what the Taliban did when in power previously once he becomes the President of Afghanistan?

A day after the Taliban held a press conference where they claimed their rule will be different this time, their members killed three people today in Jalalabad, 150 km from Kabul.

It so happened that some Afghans in Jalalabad, angered by the installation of Taliban flags, took out a rally to remove the flag and hoist the national flag of Afghanistan. This protest did not sit well with the Taliban who started firing indiscriminately at the crowd.

With such incidents happening, how can the Taliban be trusted?

If the world accepts these Talibani leaders today, then in a way, terrorism will get legal recognition all over the world. Afghanistan will become the biggest center of terrorism where there will be no one to stop the terrorists. The leaders of the world will have to shake hands with the terrorists, whom until recently United Nations and countries like America had been blacklisting. Have to take pictures with them. Who knows soon these terrorists might be addressing the world from the platform of the United Nations! And this will be no less than a joke.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

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LES CAYES: Survivors of the earthquake that killed at least 1,941 people in Haiti clamored for food, shelter and medical care on Tuesday as search and rescue efforts resumed after a tropical storm lashed the Caribbean nation with rain, causing dangerous flooding.

Quake damage to several major hospitals hampered humanitarian efforts, and doctors in makeshift tents outside battled to save the lives of the many injured, including young children and the elderly. But they could not help them all.

"There weren`t enough doctors and now she`s dead," said Lanette Nuel, sitting listlessly next to her daughter`s body outside the main hospital of Les Cayes, one of the towns worst hit by both the tremor and the storm`s heavy rains and winds.

The 26-year-old deceased woman, herself a mother of two, had been crushed by debris during the magnitude 7.2 quake. Now she lay under a white sheet on the floor.

"We came in yesterday afternoon, she died this morning. I can`t do anything," her mother said.

Saturday`s quake knocked down tens of thousands of buildings in the poorest country in the Americas, which is still recovering from a temblor 11 years ago that killed over 200,000 people. Aside from the dead, the latest quake also injured at least 9,915, with many people still missing or under the rubble, the civil protection service said on Tuesday afternoon.

Relief efforts were already complicated due to political turmoil and difficult road access from the capital to the south due to gang control of key points. Flash flooding and landslides in the wake of Tropical Storm Grace, which by Tuesday afternoon had continued on past Jamaica, exacerbated the situation.

"Countless Haitian families who have lost everything due to the earthquake are now living literally with their feet in the water due to the flooding," said Bruno Maes, the United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF) representative in the country.

"Right now, about half a million Haitian children have limited or no access to shelter, safe water, healthcare and nutrition."

The United Nations said it had allocated $8 million in emergency funds to provide relief for affected people.

Latin America countries including Venezuela, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Colombia and the neighboring Dominican Republic sent food, medicine and supplies. The United States also dispatched supplies and search and rescue teams.

Although criminal gangs have been blocking access roads for months, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs said "successful negotiations" had made it possible for a convoy to reach Les Cayes.

The hospital in Les Cayes, about 150 km (90 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, was even more overwhelmed on Tuesday than before as patients who had been camping outside moved indoors to escape the tropical storm.

Director Peterson Gede said medics were doing the best they could. "We couldn`t handle all the patients," he said. "And we have been receiving supplies, but it`s not enough."

At a tent city in Les Cayes containing many children and babies, over a hundred people scrambled to repair makeshift coverings made of wooden poles and tarps that were destroyed by Grace overnight. Some took cover under plastic sheets.

Mathieu Jameson, deputy head of the committee formed by the tent city residents, said hundreds of people there were in urgent need of food, shelter and medical care.

"We don`t have a doctor. We don`t have food. Every morning more people are arriving. We have no bathroom, no place to sleep. We need food, we need more umbrellas," said Jameson, adding the tent city was still waiting for government aid.

SMELL OF DECAY

Haiti`s latest natural disaster comes just over a month after the country was plunged into political turmoil by the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday it was too early to gauge the impact of the quake on Haiti`s political process and that the United States, the country`s main donor, had no current plans to deploy its military there.

Rescue workers have been digging alongside residents through the rubble in a bid to reach survivors. On Tuesday morning 16 people were recovered alive alongside nine dead, Haitian civil protection authorities said.

But hopes were fading, and a smell of dust and decomposing bodies permeated the air.

"We came from all over to help: from the north, from Port-au Prince, from everywhere," said Maria Fleurant, a firefighter from northern Haiti.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was sworn in less then a month ago after Moise`s assassination, vowed to disburse humanitarian aid better than in the wake of the 2010 quake.

Though billions of dollars in aid poured into Haiti after that quake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, many Haitians say they saw scant benefits from the uncoordinated efforts: government bodies remained weak, amid persistent shortages of food and basic goods.

"The earthquake is a great misfortune that happens to us in the middle of the hurricane season," Henry told reporters. He said the government would not repeat "the same things" done in 2010.
Kathmandu: Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government on Wednesday (August 18) passed an ordinance that allows a split in a political party with the support of just 20 percent central committee members or parliamentary party members. This was after President Bidya Devi Bhandari signed the ordinance by amending the Political Party Act.

The Cabinets move came a day after the Parliament was prorogued. Bhandari ended the monsoon session of the parliament, on Monday, upon the request of the ruling government.

Earlier, the Political Parties Act had provision that any group can register a new party if it can show it has support of 40 percent members of the Central Committee and the Parliamentary Party. If both the Central Committee and the parliamentary parties could not get 40 percent members, the office-bearers or MPs who separated from any party could lose their posts.

Now, with the ordinance signed, any group can form a party with the support 20 percent members.

The ordinance is aimed to benefit the Madhav Kumar Nepal-Jhalanath Khanal faction of CPN-UML, whose support is deciding factor for the survival of Deuba led government.

It has been over a month, since the government was formed and the Prime Minister is yet to form a cabinet. One of the major reason behind the delay of the formation of the cabinet is that Deuba was trying to bring Nepal faction into the government.

Since, the Nepal faction of UML currently lacks 40 per cent support in both the parliamentary party and the central committee, the government is said to have brought the ordinance to facilitate the UMLs split.

Now, Nepal faction can split the party without losing parliamentary seats and form a new party of their own. The faction will later extend their support to the government.

The main opposition CPN-UML has now officially split, with Nepal faction deciding to register a new political party and is likely to name it CPN-UML Socialist.

The move has not only been opposed by the opposition KP Sharma Oil led CPN-UML but also by Nepali Congress leader Shekhar Koirala. In a tweet the leader said, The ordinance might have been brought with the aim to run the government with a comfortable majority, but the idea of running the government through an ordinance cannot be supported. This is not the culture of the Nepali Congress.

Meanwhile, Oli has removed its 14 leaders including Madhav Kumar Nepal from the party. The passing of the ordinance has also benefited Mahanta Thakur faction of Janata Samjbadi Party (JSP).

Following the Election Commission (EC) announcement of granting official recognition to Upendra Yadav led faction of JSP, Thakur decided to register a new politic party called Janata Samajbadi Party (Democratic).

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After months of intraparty rift, Nepal's opposition party CPN-UML has formally split as an opposition faction led by Madhav Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal registered a new party named CPN-UML Samajbadi. The new party under Madhav Nepal's chairmanship has 95 central committee members out of which 58 are from CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) led by former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

"We will now have 31 members in the House of Representatives and National Assembly. Out of our 95 central committee members, 58 are from CPN-UML," Rajendra Pandey, one of the members of the newly formed party told reporters.

Earlier on Wednesday, the disgruntled Khanal-Nepal faction leaders Birodh Khatiwada and Jeevan Ram Shrestha had reached the Parliament Secretariat urging it not to take action against them as prescribed by the party Chairman KP Oli. However, the party has yet to finalise the election symbol.

Earlier, the party had proposed a "book" as its election symbol.

On Tuesday, UML had written to the Parliament Secretariat to take action against 14 lawmakers including senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, Ram Kumari Jhankri, Birodh Khatiwada and Jeevan Ram Shrestha. Two lawmakers from Madhav Nepal's party, Khatiwada and Shrestha, had reached the Parliament Secretariat demanding to stop the action against their faction.

The party split comes after President Bidya Devi Bhandari issued an ordinance that allows the political party to split if they want to. Earlier, the Council of Ministers had recommended to President Bhandari to issue the ordinance after proroguing the parliament session on Monday.According to a press statement issued by the President's Office on Wednesday, the ordinance has been issued as per Article 114 (1) on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers.

With the issuance of the ordinance, a political party can be split if 20 per cent of members of either the Central Committee or Parliamentary Party are in favor of a split.

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Peshawar: The Sikh community in Pakistan's Peshawar has said that it would bring the statue of the first Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, installed at Lahore Fort, to the city if the authorities in Punjab province cannot protect it after it was vandalised by a religious activist.

A nine-foot tall cold bronze statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was on Tuesday vandalised by an activist of the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). In a viral video, the accused, who has since been arrested, can be seen chanting slogans, breaking the arm of the statue, dismantling Singh's bust from the horse and throwing it on the ground before being pulled by another man.

Gorpal Singh, the leader of the Sikh community in Peshawar, on Tuesday, said they would bring the statue to the city if the Punjab government cannot protect it from miscreants. Singh said that a delegation of Sikhs would go to Lahore, which is the capital of Punjab, to bring the statue to Peshawar. The Punjab government should avoid displaying the statue of Ranjit Singh time and again if it could not protect it, he said.

Seventh generation descendent of Sher-e-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh, also known as the Lion of Punjab, wrote a letter to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to conduct a probe into the vandalism of the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh erected at Lahore Fort. "We witnessed done of the most unfortunate incident happened at the Lahore Fort that one the person entered the arena and easily damages the bust of my great grandfather Maharaja Ranjit Singh amid high-security personnel," writes Sandeep Singh to Imran Khan while adding that Lahore Fort was a heritage property of the state and it's the duty of the state to keep it safe from such perpetrators but the repeated vandalizing of the bust proves that there was a connivance between the state and the perpetrators if it was not then such acts of vandalism would not have happened time and again.

Sandeep Singh Sukherchakia claims to be the direct descendent of Maharaja Ranjit Singh from his 7th generation through his 2nd son Rattan Singh from his second wife Mai Datar Kaur.

Talking to Zee News on Wednesday, he said, "Politics and sentiments are two separate things so if this incident was politically motivated then it can be corrected with the state administration in action but if the incident is sentimentally motivated then it's very serious and can be labeled as a hate crime and your's is a democratic country, you need to make such laws that educate such people about the correct history so that such sad incidents do not happen in the future. I am also of the opinion that if you cannot protect the heritage then it's better than the bust is removed from the Lahore Fort as then there would be no meaning to reinstall it if it cannot be protected by your administration".

Notably, the 9 feet tall statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh which was installed at Lahore Fort on June 27, 2019, was vandalized allegedly by an activist of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) identified as Rizwan who was later arrested by Lahore police and sent behind bars.

This was the third incident of vandalism of the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ever since it was installed at Lahore Fort. The vandalism of the statue has evoked sharp criticism from various sections of society. He has urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to take up the issue on priority and carry out a thorough probe of the incident to reveal whether there is any deep-rooted machination and ensure that justice was delivered by punishing the perpetrators of the crime which will also set precedent to prove to be a deterrent for such elements in the future. Sandeep Singh has also raised a question mark on the education system of Pakistan.

He said, "With a very heavy heart I would also like to point out that your education system does not teach the correcthistory with respect to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, as a result, the people of Pakistan get negative notions about his character despite Maharaja being the most secular Maharaja of his time. I request you to kindly look into this matter so that hatred is not spread among the people worldwide related to this region Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has also censured the vandalism of the statue.

In a statement, he said, "Vandalism of the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji has to be strongly condemned. This act, which attempts to erase the shared history of the sub-continent shows how extremist ideologies feel emboldened in our volatile neighbourhood".

Sikh's single largest representative body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Bibi Jagir Kaur has also strongly condemned. Demolishing the statue of a world-renowned Sikh ruler and expressing hatred was an act against humanitarian concerns. I appeal to the government of Pakistan to take stern action against those responsible for desecrating the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh so that no such heinous act is committed again", said Kaur.

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Kabul: The Taliban have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who had fought against them during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s, according to photos circulating on social media on Wednesday.

The statue depicted Abdul Ali Mazari, a militia leader killed by the Taliban in 1996, when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords. Mazari was a champion of Afghanistan's ethnic Hazara minority, Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Taliban's earlier rule.

The statue stood in the central Bamyan province, where the Taliban infamously blew up two massive 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha carved into a mountain in 2001, shortly before the US-led invasion that drove them from power. The Taliban claimed the Buddhas violated Islam's prohibition on idolatry.

So Taliban have blown up slain #Hazara leader Abdul Ali Mazaris statue in Bamiyan. Last time they executed him, blew up the giant statues of Buddha and all historical and archeological sites. Too much of general amnesty. pic.twitter.com/iC4hUZFqnG  Saleem Javed (@mSaleemJaved) August 17, 2021

The Taliban returned to power last weekend after capturing much of the country in a matter of days, less than three weeks before the U.S. Plans to complete its troop withdrawal.

The Taliban have promised a new era of peace and security, saying they will forgive those who fought against them and grant women full rights under Islamic law, without elaborating. But many Afghans are deeply skeptical of the group, especially those who remember its previous rule, when it imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

At that time, women were largely confined to their homes, television and music were banned, and suspected criminals were flogged, maimed or executed in public.

The group also hosted Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the years before the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. The US-led invasion drove them from power and scattered al-Qaida, but the Taliban then launched a potent insurgency against the US and the Western-backed government.

The Taliban now say they will prevent Afghanistan from again being used as a base for attacks, something that was enshrined in a 2020 peace deal with the Trump administration that paved the way for the American withdrawal.

Thousands of Afghans have tried to flee the country in recent days as the US and its allies have struggled to manage a chaotic withdrawal from the country. The Taliban took over the civilian side of the Kabul international airport on Tuesday and have used force to try to control the crowds.

Hundreds of people were outside the airport early Wednesday. The Taliban demanded to see documents before allowing the rare passenger inside. Many of the people outside did not appear to have passports, and each time the gate opened even an inch, dozens tried to push through. The Taliban fired occasional warning shots to disperse them.

The US Embassy has meanwhile relocated to the military side of the airport, where it is coordinating the airlift of diplomats, foreigners and Afghans who worked with the Americans and now fear reprisal. The British government said it will welcome up to 5,000 Afghan refugees this year, and a total of 20,000 Afghans will be offered a way to settle in the UK in the coming years.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have worked with us to make Afghanistan a better place over the last 20 years," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said late Tuesday.

The head of Afghanistan's Central Bank meanwhile said the country's supply of physical US Dollars is close to zero." Afghanistan has some $9 billion in reserves, Ajmal Ahmady tweeted, but most is held outside the country, with some USD 7 billion held in US Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.

Ahmady said the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive.

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KABUL: A senior Taliban leader, Anas Haqqani, met former Afghan President Hamid Karzai for talks amid efforts by the Taliban to set up a new government in the war-ravaged Islamic state.

A Taliban official confirmed that Anas Haqqani, a Taliban commander and senior leader of the Haqqani Network militant group, has met Karzai for talks on government formation.

Karzai was accompanied by the old government`s main peace envoy, Abdullah Abdullah, in the meeting, said the Taliban official, who declined to be identified. He gave no more details.

The Haqqani Network is an important faction of the Taliban, which captured the capital, Kabul, on Sunday. The network, based on the border with Pakistan, was accused over recent years of some of the most deadly militant attacks in Afghanistan.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

Meanwhile, China on Wednesday said it will decide on extending diplomatic recognition to the Taliban in Afghanistan only after the formation of the government in the country, which it hoped would be "open, inclusive and broadly representative".

China's position on the Afghan issue is consistent and clear," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here answering a question when will China accord diplomatic recognition to the Taliban insurgents, which has taken control of Afghanistan.

If we have to recognise a government, the first thing is that we will need to wait until the government is formed," he said. We hope there will be an open, inclusive and broadly representative regime in Afghanistan. Only after that, we will come to the question of diplomatic recognition," he said.

He also reiterated China's stand that besides forming an open and inclusive government in consultations with other factions, the Taliban must also keep its word not to permit any terrorist forces, especially the Uygur militant group from Xinjiang province- the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

About Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid's press conference in Kabul where he announced general amnesty to all those who worked for the Afghan government and respect the rights of women "within the framework of Islamic law", Zhao said the restoration of peace is the most imperative task for the militant group.

We have noted the statement from the Afghan Taliban. We hope it will work with other factions at home through dialogue and consultation and establish an inclusive and open political framework and adopt moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policy and ensure that personnel and institutions of other countries in Afghanistan will be safe," Zhao said.

The ETIM, which is stated to be an affiliate of al-Qaeda, is a militant group from China's volatile Xinjiang province. It is fighting for the independence of the province, which is home to over 10-million Uygur Muslims.

The UNSC al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee has listed ETIM as a terrorist organisation in 2002. The former Trump administration had removed the group from the US' list of terrorist organisations in 2020 amid allegations of human rights violations against Uygur Muslims by China in Xinjiang, including interning thousands of them in mass detention centres, which Beijing terms as education camps.

The US has termed China's security crackdown in Xinjiang as genocide against Uygur Muslims. China is also insisting on the Taliban to ensure that the ETIM does not function from Afghanistan's soil targeting Xinjiang as a precondition for the recognition of its government in Kabul.

The Taliban delegation, headed by the head of its Political Commission Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, which visited China last month during its talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had promised not to permit the ETIM to function from Afghanistan.

According to a recent UN report, hundreds of militants belonging to the ETIM are converging in Afghanistan amidst the military advances made by the Taliban. About the Taliban's promise to respect women's rights, Zhao said the situation in Afghanistan has experienced major changes.

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New Delhi: United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday (August 18, 2021) said that the Taliban will be judged on their actions and not their words. While speaking at the Parliament on the Afghanistan crisis, Johnson said that the UK must face the reality of a 'change of regime' in the war-torn country. His comments come three days after the Taliban insurgents seized Kabul after a lightning offensive.

"We will judge this regime based on the choices it makes  and by its actions rather than by its words. On its attitude to terrorism, to crime and narcotics, as well as humanitarian access and the rights of girls to receive an education," the UK PM said.

Johnson said that it 'would be fair to say' that the events in Afghanistan have unfolded and the collapse has been faster than even the Taliban themselves predicted.

He also informed the House that his government has so far secured the safe return of 306 UK nationals and 2,052 Afghan nationals as part of their resettlement programme.

The Prime Minister gave an update to the @HouseOfCommons on the situation in Afghanistan. The UK is focused on helping those to whom we have direct obligations and leading the international effort to avert a humanitarian crisis.  https://t.co/mmMPKuitnP pic.twitter.com/E6qxsiZCjF  UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) August 18, 2021

"We will not be sending people back to Afghanistan and nor by the way will we be allowing people to come from Afghanistan to this country in an indiscriminate way. We want to be generous but we must make sure we look after our own security," said Johnson.

The UK PM stated that over the coming weeks, they will redouble their efforts to protect the British homeland and all their citizens and interests from any threats that may emanate from a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Taliban said that they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.

"We don't want any internal or external enemies," the Taliban's main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said. He added that women would be allowed to work and study and 'will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam'.

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council has said that it will hold a special session in Geneva next week to address 'serious human rights concerns' after the Taliban takeover.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will hold a special session on August 24 to discuss the developing situation in Afghanistan where the Taliban have overthrown the government.

In a tweet, the human rights body said that the session has been called to address Serious Human Rights Concerns and Situation in Afghanistan.

#SS31 | Human Rights Council to Hold a Special Session on 24 August to Address the Serious Human Rights Concerns and Situation in #Afghanistan https://t.co/6RoQwfnRqD pic.twitter.com/XEcQPH4zdM  UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) August 18, 2021

The session is being convened with the support of 60 observer states so far, including India, France, Japan, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

Pointing out that 80 per cent of those fleeing from Afghanistan are women and children, the UNHRC has said that the rights of all Afghans must be defended.

In another tweet, the UN Human Rights said, "We call on the int'l community to extend all possible support to those who may be at imminent risk, and we call on the Taliban to demonstrate that fears for safety of so many are addressed."

#Afghanistan: We call on the int'l community to extend all possible support to those who may be at imminent risk, and we call on the Taliban to demonstrate that fears for safety of so many are addressed. The rights of all Afghans must be defended. https://t.co/wRPHGbKTur pic.twitter.com/08PQxGEnF6  UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) August 17, 2021

Harrowing visuals have emerged from the Kabul airport where the locals were seen trying to board aircraft in an attempt to flee the country. People have been lining up at the airport since the Taliban captured Kabul.

Many countries have expressed concern over the plight of people, especially the women, under the Taliban rule.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

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Kabul: As the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan after 20 years by throwing out Ashraf Ghani-led government, the political process in the war-torn country has started. As things are shaping up, names of various Taliban leaders are making rounds for leading the group in this new era. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is said to be the top contender for the President's post.

With a tremendous victory of the Taliban in the country, Abdul Ghani Baradar has emerged as the undisputed leader of the insurgent group.

Who is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar?

Born in Uruzgan province in 1968, Baradar is also the co-founder of the insurgent group. He is the second senior-most leader in the Taliban hierarchy after Haibatullah Akhundzada. He was freed from a Pakistani jail at the request of the US less than three years ago. Baradar is also the political chief and Talibans most notable public face today.

He is believed to have reached Kabul from Doha on Sunday evening. In a televised statement on the fall of Kabul, he said the Talibans real test was only just beginning and that they had to serve the nation.

Baradar had fought in the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Army in the 1980s. After the exit of Russians in 1992, a civil war erupted between rival warlords.

During that time, Baradar set up a madrassa in Kandahar with his former commander and reputed brother-in-law, Mohammad Omar. Together, the two mullahs founded the Taliban, a movement spearheaded by young Islamic scholars dedicated to the religious purification of the country and the creation of an emirate.

Due to growing hatred among the Afghans towards the warlords and tactical back support from Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, the Taliban swept to power in 1996 after a series of stunning conquests of provincial capitals.

Baradar who was next only to Mullah Omar was credited for his effective strategy, was widely hailed as a key architect of those Taliban victories.

Baradar played a succession of military and administrative roles in the five-year Taliban regime in Afghanistan as deputy minister of defence when the militia was overthrown by the US and its Afghan allies back then.

Fall of the Afghan government

Afghanistan's government had collapsed on Sunday after Ghani left the country and the Taliban entered the country, taking control of the Afghan capital of Kabul and the presidential palace.

"The Taliban have won with the judgement of their swords and guns, and are now responsible for the honour, property and self-preservation of their countrymen," Ghani said in a statement on Facebook, his first since fleeing. Baradar on Sunday said that the terror group's victory that saw all cities of the country fall to them in just 10 days was unexpectedly swift and had no match in the world.

In a video message, he said the real test would begin now with meeting the expectations of the people and serving them by resolving their problems.

Read more about Taliban here: Taliban's History

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New Delhi: Amid reports that the Taliban is forcing women to wear burqas in Afghanistan, a spokesperson of the militant group on Tuesday (August 17, 2021) said that they are expected to wear a hijab but not a burqa. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen also said that women in Afghanistan will have the right to work and get an education up to the university level.

In an interview with Sky News, Shaheen said, "Women will be expected to wear the hijab but not the burka."

He said that these are not their rules but are Islamic rules and said that it is 'for the security' of women.

On being asked if the Taliban promises to respect the freedom of women, Shaheen said, "Of course... we are committed to women's rights, to education, to work and to freedom of speech, in the light of our Islamic rules."

Earlier on August 15, the Taliban insurgents tightened their grip on Afghanistan after capturing Kabul. This also led Afghan President Abdul Ghani to flee the country in order to avoid 'bloodshed'.

This is to be noted that the Taliban had ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 and in those five years, had imposed Sharia Islamic law. They had introduced punishments like publically executing convicted murderers and adulterers and carrying out amputations of those found guilty of theft. Men were required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering hijab.

However, following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the US troops had launched a military campaign and had toppled the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the Taliban will be judged on their actions and not their words. While speaking at the Parliament on the Afghanistan crisis, Johnson said that the UK must face the reality of a 'change of regime' in the war-torn country.